The Meadow-Brook Girls in the Hills Part 8

Margery burst forth into a loud wail. Tommy and Hazel stood in blank, rigid silence. They could not believe that Harriet was gone. Miss Elting sank down on a pack, while Jane stood gazing moodily off over the sluggish river.

Ja.n.u.s came in a few moments behind the guardian and Jane, his arms hanging limply at his sides, his chin lowered almost to his chest.

"I'm afraid it isn't any use to look further," he said. The little party scarcely heard the guide. Jim had gone on up the bank. They could hear him whistling and chirping to the missing horses to call them to him. Then they caught the sound of a whinny and a moment later another. The animals had heard and recognized their master. Jim captured and haltered them with the ropes that he had brought from the carry-all for the purpose. He then led the animals off to one side, where he secured them to trees. The driver then walked slowly along the bank to join the others of the party.

Suddenly Jane McCarthy cried out sharply, "Who's that?"

A series of little splashes had been heard out in the river; then, out of the gloom, grew the dim outlines of a moving figure.

"Who is it?" cried Miss Elting, scarcely daring to trust her voice.

"It is I. What is all the excitement about?" called a familiar voice.

"Harriet!"

A chorus of screams greeted Miss Elting's cry. Four girls and their guardian, regardless of the wetting they were receiving, rushed helter-skelter into the river, throwing themselves upon the staggering Harriet. They s.n.a.t.c.hed her up, carrying her ash.o.r.e despite her struggles and protests. They laid her down on the packs, each trying to do something for their companion whom they had believed to be lost.

"For goodness' sake! what is the matter?" demanded Harriet, sitting up.

"Lie still, dear," urged Miss Elting. "You will be all right in a few moments."

"All right? There is nothing the matter with me, except that I'm wet and cold." Harriet got up and shook herself, gazing anxiously at her companions. "What is it, girls? Tell me!"

"Oh, Harriet, don't you know?" breathed Hazel.

"No, I don't. You are all here, aren't you?" she demanded, with a quick glance about her.

"Yes, now we are," nodded the guardian. "Don't you understand? We thought you had gone down with the bridge."

"Well, I did go down, but not with the bridge. What of it?"

"We thought you were dead," continued Miss Elting, her voice shaking.

Harriet looked from one to the other of her friends. "Why, you poor dears, no wonder you looked so woe-begone. Now that it is all over, I don't blame you for thinking so."

"Well, I swum!" muttered Ja.n.u.s, combing out his whiskers with the spread fingers of his right hand.

"So did I," laughed Harriet. "That's why I'm here."

"Tell us how you escaped. Can't you see, we are hardly able to believe that it is really you?" was Miss Elting's excited reply.

"It's myself, and no other, as Jane would say. After you had left me I ran back to the wagon to get the blanket and cus.h.i.+ons we had left there. I knew the fire was near me, but I thought I had time enough to get away from it. Suddenly I felt the bridge giving way. I was close to the opening into which the horses fell when things began to happen, and I made a long, desperate dive into the river, hoping to get out from under the bridge before it fell on me. I remember seeing a great shower of sparks falling around me as I shot through the air. I wondered if it were the bridge that was falling with me. Then I struck the water. I swam under the water with the current as fast as I could, then when I thought I had gone far enough, to make it safe to rise, I did so. I don't recall what happened after that. I must have been hit by something, or else b.u.mped into a timber when I rose to the surface.

It is a wonder I wasn't drowned. When I came to my senses I was slowly drifting down stream, clinging to a piece of charred plank. I know it was charred because I could smell it. You know how wet, burnt wood smells? This piece of plank smelled that way."

"Nithe, appetizing odor," nodded Tommy. "Yeth? Go on."

"I did not know where I was, but I knew I was drifting downstream. I kicked until I had headed the plank at right angles to the sh.o.r.e, and remained on the plank until my feet touched bottom; then I got up and began plodding along upstream, knowing that, sooner or later, I should find some of you folks. I heard someone call. Was it you, Jane?"

"It was myself and no other," replied Jane

"I thought it was you. I was out of breath, so I didn't try to make you hear me."

"Well, I swum!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Grubb under his breath. "I never expected to see her again."

"What of the horses?"

"Got 'em," answered the driver tersely, "Carry-all gone to the everlasting bow-wows. What now?"

"If the ladies want to go on, we will load the stuff onto the horses and tote them that way to the place I had already picked out for a camp."

"How far is it?" questioned Miss Elting.

"Oh, a mile farther on, I should say."

"I fear it would not be wise to go on just now. I think it would be better for us to make temporary camp somewhere hereabouts. We are completely exhausted. Harriet must have a change of clothing and we all need something warm to drink and eat. Do you know of a good place to make camp for a little while?"

"Back about a quarter of a mile is a grove. There's a creek running through it. That will be a good camping place."

"Please have the driver a.s.sist you in getting the equipment there.

Don't lose any time. Harriet, are you cold?"

Harriet shook her head. "I'm going to help carry the stuff to our camp. Then I shall be sure of keeping warm. Come on, girls. Where are the bedding packs?"

"Down there by the tree, Miss," replied Jim.

Harriet ran to the tree. "I don't find them," she called a moment later.

Jim harried to her. He was mystified to discover that the packs were not where he had left them.

"You didn't throw them in the river, did you, Jim?" questioned Harriet.

He declared vehemently that he had not; that he had placed them well back from the water, and that they could not possibly have rolled into the river. Jim announced that he was going down the sh.o.r.e to look for them, just the same. This he did, starting away at a trot.

Wonderingly, and somewhat disturbed, for the bedding and the clothing packs contained articles that could not be done without, the girls inst.i.tuted a search of their own, but found nothing. The loss of the packs meant their return to town to purchase more supplies. No one wished to do that, in the first place; and, in the second place, they needed warm, dry bedding and dry clothing for use that night.

While Jim was in search of the missing equipment the girls went to work and collected the scattered contents of some of the packs. Suddenly there came a long-drawn shout from down sh.o.r.e.

"I've got 'em!"

"I thought so," nodded Miss Elting.

Jim came back lugging a pack soon thereafter. The water was running from the pack, under whose weight the driver was staggering.

"Found them in the river," he explained. "Had drifted into a cove. So heavy I couldn't carry more than one at a time. The other packs are open and the stuff spread all over the cove. I gathered it up as well as I could. You'll have to give me a rope to tie the things up, or else bring them back in wads."

"In the river?" cried the girls in chorus.

"Well, I swum!" muttered Ja.n.u.s, pausing from his labors long enough to consult his whiskers. "Things are moving kind of fast."

"Oh, this is nothing, nothing at all," laughed Crazy Jane. "You will think things are moving after you have been out with the Meadow-Brook Girls for a time. Things always do move when we are around. Look out that they don't move so fast as to sweep you with them. My! but this is a heavy pack."