Part 4 (1/2)
”Thanks, Bet,” laughed Joy, blowing her a kiss from the ends of her fingers. ”I'll pick my own. Kit is trying to discourage me, but I'll find a handsome cowboy. You just wait and see!”
CHAPTER III
_THE WASH-OUT_
”This time tomorrow we'll be at Benito!” exclaimed Kit. ”I do wonder if mother will be there to meet me. I'm homesick for a sight of her.”
The heat was intense as they sped through the desert. Small sand-storms swirled across the flat land, and filled their train. They were dirty and tired. They would all be glad when the little desert station of Benito would be reached and they could transfer to the automobiles that would carry them to the hills and the ranch.
Summer storms raged ahead of them, big black clouds that threatened.
The girls watched from the windows the deluge of rain in the distance.
”That's what we call a cloud-burst,” said Kit with a pleased smile.
”It's good to get home again!”
”Do you mean,” asked Joy, ”that you are glad to see that terrible storm? You _must_ be homesick if _that_ pleases you.”
”I love it!” Kit answered.
Suddenly the train jerked to a stop, and all heads came to the window to see the cause of the delay. The train had been flagged. ”Danger ahead!”
”What's the matter?” Bet called to the conductor, who had descended and was walking toward the engine. ”A wash-out! That cloud-burst you saw tore away a bit of the track. We'll be stalled here for hours, very likely.”
The heat seemed worse than ever now. As long as the train was going, there was some breeze, but at a stand-still, the sun blazed down on the roof of the car and made it almost unbearable.
Soon it became apparent that the delay might be longer than they antic.i.p.ated.
”There's a good hotel at the next station,” said the conductor. ”If you will ride in the work train ahead, you can go in there in a few minutes.”
”Oh, do let us!” cried Bet who was always ready for something different. ”We've never ridden in a work train in our lives.”
With Sam's help they carried Mrs. Breckenridge across the broken tracks and into the work train. The girls laughed with pleasure as they settled themselves in the box car.
Bet suddenly had a new idea. ”Judge Breckenridge, the engineer says I can go in the engine with him, if you will let me. Please say yes,”
Bet's face was rosy with excitement. ”This might be the only chance I'll ever have to ride in the engine, and I'd hate to miss it.”
The Judge hesitated but finally gave in. And when Bet joined her friends at the hotel in Willowmere she said:
”It doesn't seem quite fair that we are starting out with so many adventures. It will make the summer seem so uneventful.”
”That's just what I was thinking,” added Kit anxiously. ”I'm so afraid you'll be disappointed. There aren't many adventures in the mountains.
It is just one day after another. Nothing new, nothing to do, no place to go, and absolutely nothing ever happens, nothing thrilling, I mean.”
”That's what we've decided that we want this year. We'll learn to ride horseback well and we'll learn to use the rope, that is if we ever can, which I doubt,” laughed Bet. ”And we can read and lazy around. I call that an ideal summer.”
After lunch at the hotel, the girls started out to explore the settlement. ”I love those adobe houses of the Mexicans,” said Enid.
”Let's go over and get acquainted with some of the women.”