The Meadow-Brook Girls in the Hills Part 16

"Hath Buthter broken her nothe?" questioned Tommy.

"I think not," replied Miss Elting. "Come, get started, Tommy. Mr.

Grubb will a.s.sist you. I shall have to look after Margery's bruised face."

"I don't need any athithtanthe. I gueth I know how to get up there by mythelf. Bethideth, I don't want to thkin my nothe."

"Wait!" commanded Jane threateningly.

"No, I'm going. Look out! I'm coming. Get Buthter out of the way, pleathe."

"She doesn't know whether she is going or coming," was Margery's withering comment.

"Oh, thith ith eathy," declared Tommy. "All you have to do ith to take hold of the rope with both handth, lean back ath if you were looking at a bird flying over your head and--Thave me! oh, thave me!"

Had not Tommy quickly raised her head she might have sustained a fractured skull. Her feet left the rock and beat a positive tattoo in the air. A moment more and she had managed to entangle them in the rope and, powerless to help herself, shrieked and struggled frantically.

"Thave me, thave me! I can't move!" she screamed.

"You can use your voice, so don't worry," jeered Margery, who had forgotten her own misfortune sufficiently to laugh heartily at Tommy's predicament--in fact, they were all laughing. It was not often that anyone got the better of Tommy, and now that she had come to grief, the entire party, not excepting Miss Elting, could not resist teasing her a little.

"Thave me!" Tommy's screams had now become despairing wails.

"Just make believe you're watching a bird fly through the air," was Jane's sarcastic advice. "Lean back and take it easy."

"We will save you, Tommy. Pull her up, Mr. Grubb," urged Harriet, her sympathy overcoming her laughter.

"What, that way?" inquired Ja.n.u.s doubtfully.

"Yes, certainly."

Ja.n.u.s grinned, then began hauling in on the rope with both hands. He did it rapidly. Tommy began to move up the slope, her feet still entangled with the rope. Ja.n.u.s pulled stolidly, paying no attention to the torrent of expostulations that Tommy shrieked at him. Her companions were shouting, cheering and offering aggravating suggestions to the little girl, Margery Brown's voice being heard above the rest.

It was the happiest moment she had known since the Meadow-Brook Girls had started out to spend their vacations in the open. Ja.n.u.s was grinning almost from ear to ear. Tommy lay on her back, gazing scowlingly up into the grinning face of the guide. Suddenly her expression changed. A look of cunning appeared in her eyes. Then Tommy Thompson turned the tables on her tantalizers in a way that set the party in a greater uproar. Ja.n.u.s Grubb, too, learned a lesson that he did not soon forget.

CHAPTER XI

THE TRAGEDY OF CHOCORUA

"Pull harder!" screamed Tommy. "I'm getting a ruthh of blood to my head. Pull fatht, Mr. Januth."

This sally was greeted with another shout from the girls. Tommy, having turned her head to one side to glance up the slope, had discovered something. That something was a little nub or projection that protruded from the rock directly in her path. Unless they changed her course she would be sc.r.a.ped over the projection, which the girl well knew would cause her some pain as well as tear her skirt. But it was not of this latter that she was thinking when she called to the guide to hurry. The little, lisping girl had evolved a plan; but, that they might not suspect her of any trickery, she screamed the louder.

In her quick survey of the situation above her she also discovered that the upper end of the rope was tied to a rock, so that the rope could not get away.

"Fathter, fathter!" urged Tommy.

"The little one is planning mischief," declared Jane, gazing narrowly up the slope.

"Yes, I know. Get to one side," replied Harriet laughingly.

"What is it, honey?" whispered Jane.

"Wait! You'll see some fun in a moment. You may trust Tommy to get even every time. There he comes!"

Ja.n.u.s, under Tommy's urging, had leaned well forward. He was grinning even more broadly than before, pulling on the line with all his might, the perspiration dripping from his forehead. All at once Tommy swung in the foot that was free and thrust it straight up the slope. The little projection caught her foot. Tommy stiffened one leg and stopped short with a jolt which shook her slender body. But she didn't care.

"Thave me!" howled the little, lisping girl.

Ja.n.u.s, caught off his balance, did exactly what Harriet Burrell had foreseen he would do. The guide was jerked from his feet, and, throwing out both hands before him to protect himself, went shooting down the incline headfirst.

"Grab the rope!" he shouted, as he pitched over.

In the meantime something was happening to Grace Thompson. No one having grabbed the line, she, too, shot backward head first.

Harriet, fearing that the girl's head would be crushed when she reached the bottom of the slope, sprang forward, and, bracing herself, stooped over with her hands close to the ground. It all happened in a few seconds. Jane had barely time to collect her thoughts when Tommy was caught in Harriet's net. Harriet had caught her by the shoulders and stopped the force of the slide, but in doing so she herself toppled over backward.

Jane uttered a war whoop. Her joyous shout died a sudden death when the oncoming Ja.n.u.s collided with her, bowling Crazy Jane over. She quickly rolled out of the way while the guide continued on over the edge, tumbling down a second incline to the surface of a flat rock about eight feet below.

Tommy got up, gazing about her in mild amazement.

"Did thomebody fall down, Harriet?" she asked.

"No, somebody fell up," jeered Jane.

"Look after Mr. Grubb," cried the guardian; "I fear he is hurt."

Ja.n.u.s pulled himself slowly to a sitting position, and took an inventory to make sure that he was all there and still fastened together. For the moment he was not quite clear as to what really had occurred. When he saw the blue eyes of Tommy Thompson peering over at him, he remembered.

"Oh, that ith too bad, Mr. Januth," she said with a voice full of sympathy. "You thouldn't have let go. I might have broken my prethiouth neck."

"Let go?" roared the guide. "Consarn it, I didn't let go! The rope pulled me over."

"Ithn't that too bad? Did you hurt yourself?"

"No."

Jane was sitting on the rocks, rocking her body back and forth, laughing, trying to keep her voice within reasonable limits.

"Are you all right, Tommy?" called Miss Elting anxiously.

"No, I'm all pulled to pietheth. Tho ith Januth, I'm afraid."

"Oh, girls, what am I going to do with you? Please hurry. It is getting dark, and we must reach the shelf," implored Miss Elting.

The guide scrambled to his feet and began clambering up to Miss Elting and Margery. This time Tommy was directed to sit down, as had Margery.

She did so, chuckling to herself, and was quickly hauled to the top.