Part 19 (1/2)
Bet held Joy's head under her arm, and using her arm as a dipper she poured water freely over the girl's head.
Kit and s.h.i.+rley came to the rescue at Joy's screams, but s.h.i.+rley held them off.
”She had it coming to her, girls. It will do her good.”
Between Bet's bursts of laughter she managed to say, ”Promise you won't talk about boys and love for a week at least, then I'll let you go.”
”Don't be as unreasonable as all that,” protested s.h.i.+rley. ”She might live through twenty-four hours of it, but not much longer.”
”Then promise that you won't mention a boy's name for two days!” and for good measure another handful of water splashed into Joy's laughing face.
”I promise! I promise! Please let me go!” choked Joy who had opened her mouth just in time to get it full of water.
”All right! Here you go!” And Bet gave a quick shove, landing the dripping girl on her feet, then she stood back admiringly. ”There is one fine thing about you, Joy Evans. You're a good sport. I couldn't be as good natured as that.” Bet threw an arm about the smaller girl affectionately.
”Yes, I am good natured. I let you abuse me just turrible! I'm so kind and lovable and......”
”Give her another bath!” cried Kit, making a bound to catch Joy. But quick as a flash the girl had sprung to a rocky ledge and was scrambling up the cliff-side like a mountain goat.
The girls shrieked with laughter and the echoes resounded back and forth across the canyon like the voices of a thousand imps. This set them deliberately to letting their voices out in strange calls and weird whisperings in order to hear the echoes coming back to them.
”Isn't it wonderful!” exclaimed Bet. ”There are so many more things to entertain one here than in the cities. And after this, Lynnwood will seem dull.”
”I could never call Lynnwood dull,” said the sensible s.h.i.+rley. ”We always managed to have plenty of adventure there, thanks to Bet who can find a thrilling mystery anywhere.”
”Say, girls, I wish you'd get that silly idea you have of me out of your heads. From now on I'm a business woman, a mine-owner, and all other adventures are out. I'm going to be known as Sensible Bet.”
”Listen to her! She thinks it will be an adventure to work a copper claim. My idea of an adventure is altogether different. I can't see any thrill in five girls getting out in the hills, miles away from nowhere, and without the boys......”
Bet made a dash toward Joy, who had just stepped down to the creek from her place of refuge.
”Put her in the creek!” Bet shouted. ”This time she goes in all over!”
”Oh please!” begged Joy, taking refuge once more on the steep trail.
”Truly I forgot! I won't say it again.”
”All right, come on down, and we'll let you off this once, but next time, in you go, head and all!”
Kit had drawn away at some distance from the girls and was looking anxiously at the sky. ”Looks to me as if a storm was coming up. We'd better get home at once.”
On mountain weather forecasts, Kit was authority so the girls quickly seized their horses' bridles, tightened the cinches as Kit directed, then hastily mounted and started toward home.
”It's beginning to look worse and worse! Don't waste a minute. We must reach the pa.s.s down there before it catches us. Otherwise we'll be in a jam.”
The horses sensed the excitement and the tenseness that goes before a storm and raced through the creek-bed without any urging. Even the old horse, Dolly, needed neither spur nor whip. Snorting and blowing in good earnest, she held her own with the more spirited animals as they picked their way around boulders and pools of water.
At the first drop of rain, Kit drew in her pony. ”We can't make it, girls! We'll never make it in time,” she cried in a panic of fear.
”Of course we can make it. There it is right ahead of us,” Enid encouraged them. ”We can get through the pa.s.s.”