Part 15 (1/2)

For a few moments after the guide's ultimatum they plodded patiently along. No one noticed that the sky was cloudy until a shower of cold raindrops smote them in the face. Tommy and Margery cried out in alarm.

”Climb!” shouted the guide. ”You've got to keep going. It isn't going to rain much. Just that one little cloud overhead.”

But the cloud, though small, held a deluge of water which was poured directly down into the faces and over the heads of the Meadow-Brook Girls, drenching them. Furthermore, the water made the rocks so slippery that it became difficult for one to take a safe hold with either hands or feet. Progress became more slow, the ascent more difficult.

Ja.n.u.s proved himself a master in the art of climbing. The girls met with only one really dangerous situation during that afternoon's climb.

That was when they came to a place where there were steep slabs of granite with no hand-holds. Over them the girls were obliged to pa.s.s with scarcely a foothold, what there were of these being almost too far apart for them to reach. The life line here came into use for the first time. The guide crawled over the rocks, taking one end of the line with him; then the girls, one by one, crept after him, clinging to the line, every step being made with extreme caution, for a slip would have meant a drop of about thirty feet and a landing on sharp, jagged rocks. It would not have been a long fall, but the landing was another matter.

Then, at the end, there was another difficulty. Here they had to work their way around a corner. Only one could move at a time, the others holding on tightly until she had reached a place where she, in turn, could brace herself while the next one moved up; and so on until all had pa.s.sed the bulging rock that had seemed to bar their pa.s.sage absolutely.

”Fine!” approved the guide. ”You did it like veteran climbers.”

”Where ith the camp?” wailed Tommy. ”I can't go another thtep. I'm finithed.”

”Rest a few moments,” directed the guide.

”The shower is ended,” announced Miss Elting.

”Let it rain some more,” declared Jane McCarthy st.u.r.dily. ”We can't get any wetter and the rain will help to cool us off. It doesn't seem to be far to the camping place.”

”It isn't far in a straight line. We have to take a zig-zag course, you see,” said the guide.

Ja.n.u.s waved his hand as a signal for them to start. Once more they took up the weary climb, crawling from rock to rock, slowly getting higher and higher, but at no time in danger of a long fall. The experience of a really perilous climb lay ahead of them for another day.

Twilight was just settling over the upper reaches of the mountain when they halted for the final climb to their night's camping place. In the ravines darkness already had fallen.

”You will all wait here while I crawl around and get to the shelf. I think some of you may have to be hauled up,” decided the guide. The girls gazed up a sharply sloping slab of granite, fully twenty feet long. It followed a diagonal course, the top of it being some rods from the shelf where they were to make camp. But, reaching the top, they would be able to crawl along until they made the shelf, the only level spot between themselves and the very top of Mount Chocorua.

Ja.n.u.s disappeared from view to the left, appearing twenty minutes later at the top of the long, smooth slab. He held a coil of rope in his hands.

”Look out below,” he called, sending the coil shooting down the slab of granite. ”By taking hold of the rope, and bracing the body at the proper angle, you mountain climbers ought to be able to walk right up.

Who is coming first?”

”Let Mith Elting go, tho we can laugh at her,” suggested Tommy teasingly. ”Thhe won't care if we laugh.”

”Do!” giggled Margery.

”I shall be delighted if doing so will furnish you any amus.e.m.e.nt,”

answered the guardian calmly; ”that is, provided you send Margery next, then Grace, and so on.”

Harriet promised to see that the order was followed out as suggested.

Miss Elting glanced up the sloping rock, took the line firmly in her hand, then waved a good-bye to the girls. She stepped cautiously to the rock, braced first one foot then the other, and leaned back until her weight was directed in the right way. She then began walking up the rock, hand over hand, with an ease that amazed the Meadow-Brook Girls. Ja.n.u.s reached over and took firm hold of the guardian's arm for the last step to insure her safety.

”I haven't heard any one laugh down there, girls,” called the guardian, presenting a smiling face to them. ”You next, Margery. I hope you can climb up as easily.”

”Why, I didn't think it would be so easy. Of course I can do it.

Tommy, you watch me carefully so you'll know how to walk up. It will be your turn next.”

”Yeth,” observed Tommy, winking solemnly as she caught Crazy Jane's laughing eyes fixed upon her.