The Meadow Brook Girls Across Country Part 2

"What! Away up there?" demanded Margery. "How do we get up?"

"We shall have to climb the ladder," answered Miss Elting.

Margery groaned.

"I'm glad it's dark. If it were daylight I know I should fall," declared Hazel. "Let me go first. I don't want to stand here and think about what is before me. If I stop to think I'll never have the courage to climb."

"Don't look down," cautioned the guardian. "There. That's fine."

Hazel was going up rapidly. Margery, with many a groan, next essayed the climb. Harriet was directly behind her. Margery had not gone far before the wisdom of Harriet's action became apparent. A wail from Margery brought a chorus of "ohs!" from her companions.

"I can't go another step," gasped Margery. "I'm going to fall. Catch me somebody."

"Margery, keep on climbing. I'm right below you here. Go on," urged Harriet.

"Oh, I-I can't. I'm dizzy."

"Buthter ith theathick," observed Tommy from the barn floor. Harriet began lightly, tapping Buster with a switch that she had brought with her.

"Oh! Ouch! Stop it! I tell you stop it!" howled Margery.

"Climb!"

Margery _did_ climb. She went up the ladder faster than she ever had climbed before, wailing and threatening every foot of the way. Tommy was delightedly dancing about on the barn floor during all this time, uttering a perfect volley of unintelligible lisps and jeering cries.

Margery reached the top of the ladder and flung herself panting on the hay.

"Be careful not to come too near the edge," warned Harriet, hurriedly clambering down. Buster made no reply. She was too much out of breath to say a word. "Now, let's see what _you_ can do, Tommy. See if you can do any better," chuckled Harriet.

"You jutht thee me climb. I'll thhow you. I gueth I know how to climb.

Buthter ith too fat to climb a ladder. Don't you hit me. I'll kick you if you do," was her parting admonition as she began running up the ladder. Rather to the amazement of her companions, Grace made the climb to the haymow without the least difficulty. Only once did her foot slip from a rung of the ladder. Grace recovered it with no more than a smothered little exclamation.

"You next, Miss Elting," nodded Harriet.

"I will wait until you get up. I wish to look after the packs first.

What would we do were we to lose them? We shouldn't have a thing to eat for breakfast, and goodness knows when we will reach a store to purchase food."

It was not long afterwards that the party of young women were fussing about in the hay, making their beds for the night. This consisted in leveling off the hay and spreading their blankets. Some little time was occupied in working out the uneven spots, but after a time they lay down with piled-up hay for pillows, and rolled themselves in their blankets.

The girls went to sleep almost at once. Miss Elting, however, remained awake until her charges had finally settled down, as she supposed, for the night. She was just about to doze off when she was awakened by a scream and a commotion at one end of the mow. The guardian sprang up in alarm.

"For mercy's sake! What is it?" she cried.

"Oh, thave me!" wailed Tommy.

Miss Elting and Harriet groped their way to Grace.

"I got a bug in my ear. Yeth I did. It bit me. I won't thtay here another minute. I'll--"

"I'll go out doors and sleep," declared Margery in disgust. "The idea of being kept awake all night by that crazy girl."

"Margery!" rebuked the guardian. "Now, Tommy, you must lie down and go to sleep. This will not do at all."

"I will drag my blanket over and keep her company, Miss Elting," offered Harriet. "Perhaps she did get bitten. I felt some sort of insect crawling over my face a moment ago. There now, Tommy, you just snuggle down and forget all about it."

"I don't like bugth," complained Tommy, somewhat mollified. A few moments later she was sound asleep. Harriet, after making sure that Grace was slumbering, once more permitted herself to doze off. She had been asleep but a few moments when a wild scream of terror awakened them all. Harriet felt the blanket jerked violently from her and heard a floundering and thres.h.i.+ng on all sides that filled her with alarm.

Stretching out her hand she found that Tommy was no longer beside her.

Tommy's voice rose in a loud wail of terror.

"Oh, Tommy!" cried Harriet.

"Girls, girls! What _is_ the matter?" exclaimed Miss Elting.

"A mouthe, a mouthe!" shrieked Tommy.

"This isn't a hay barn, it's a lunatic asylum," scoffed Margery. "Oh, mercy! Help, help!" she shrieked. The mouse had found Margery too. In the darkness of the haymow the Meadow-Brook Girls were now floundering about in great alarm. Out of the disorder Miss Elting quickly brought order. She spoke sharply to Tommy, insisted that Margery should return to her blanket and commanded the girls to make no further disturbance.

"The idea that Meadow-Brook Girls should be so timid," she rebuked.

"Harriet, I am glad to know that you are not."

"I-I think I should have screamed too if a mouse had-how do you know it was a mouse, Tommy?"

"It ran right over my fathe. I gueth I know what it wath. I gueth I will thleep thanding up. May I, Miss Elting?"

"If you prefer to do so. I am going back to bed. I must insist on the others doing the same, or at least keeping quiet. We shall be in no shape to go on with our journey in the morning at this rate."

Tommy decided that she, too, would lie down and soon their regular breathing told the guardian that most, if not all, of the Meadow-Brook Girls were sound asleep. Harriet, however, now that she had been awakened, found it difficult to go to sleep again. She lay staring up into the darkness for some time.

A sound down on the barn floor put her instantly on the alert. At first she thought some farm animal had wandered into the barn; then the distinct sound of human footsteps, reached her ears.

Harriet Burrell listened intently, as yet unafraid. She crawled cautiously to the edge of the mow and peered over. A human form was faintly outlined down there. The figure was groping along the edge of the mow and muttering. The listener was unable to make out the words. At last the intruder uttered a sharp little exclamation of satisfaction, then began to climb the ladder on the opposite side of the barn floor.

"It's a woman!" gasped Harriet. "Who can it be, and what does she want here?" With straining ears and closed eyes the Meadow-Brook girl listened. She heard the woman reach the top of the ladder and step off into the hay. A few moments later Harriet heard her mumbling at the far side of the mow, over near the opposite end of the hay barn. "How strange!" muttered the girl.

A low, distant rumble of thunder attracted her attention in another direction. A moment later a faint flash of lightning dispelled the gloom a little.

"The storm is coming. I hope the girls won't wake up." The darkness now seemed to be more intense than before. Harriet was unable to distinguish one object from another. She crawled back toward her bed and was about to wrap herself in her blanket again when a second time she heard footsteps on the barn floor. This time she scrambled back to the edge more hastily than before. At first she thought the woman had climbed down and was going away from the mow. The girl leaned far over. She could see no one this time, but she plainly heard some one climbing up the opposite ladder again. Harriet wondered if it were tramps; then she recalled that the first visitor, being a woman, would be unlikely to be a tramp.

"It must be some one seeking shelter from the coming storm," Harriet finally decided, now wondering if it would not be advisable to wake up Miss Elting. Upon second thought the girl decided not to do so. Instead, she leaned farther out over the edge of the mow and peered down anxiously.

A flash of lightning, more brilliant than the first, lighted up the barn from end to end. By the light of the flash Harriet Burrell saw that which set her nerves to tingling and caused her to utter a suppressed gasp.

Below her on the barn floor stood a man. He was swarthy; his coal black hair hung down in long, glistening locks. His eyes, large and very black were gazing right up into the girl's face. She shrank back trembling.

"Oh!" gasped the Meadow-Brook girl. "Oh! He saw me. Oh, what shall I do!"

The man began climbing the ladder on her side of the barn. Harriet could hear him plainly. She began crawling back into the mow on her hands and knees. Her first inclination, on reaching her blanket, was to burrow under the hay so as to be out of sight. But it occurred to her that her companions would still be in plain sight were another flash of lightning to illumine the mow. Harriet promptly decided to lie still and await developments. She knew that Miss Elting carried a revolver, and that the guardian was proficient in its use. This thought gave Harriet comfort.

Besides, what was there to fear?