Part 23 (1/2)

”We rest here,” announced Ja.n.u.s, after they had been climbing for an hour without once stopping during that time. It was not a particularly desirable place in which to rest, being located on a steep slope, but the spot was surrounded by bushes, so that, when all came together and sat down, they could see nothing of the rugged mountain scenery about them.

”Better get out some biscuit or something to munch on, for we shan't find a place where we can cook a meal until we get nearly to the top.

We'll have to rest hanging on by our eyelids after this,” declared Ja.n.u.s.

”No more mountain climbing for me,” declared Margery.

”This is nothing,” chuckled the guide. ”Wait until you climb Mt.

Was.h.i.+ngton.”

”Wait until I do!” nodded Margery with emphasis.

”That is to be our next,” Miss Elting informed them. ”By the time we have finished that I think we shall be seasoned mountain climbers.”

”Yeth. And we'll have the habit so badly that we'll be climbing telephone poleth every day when we get home,” averred Tommy. ”I withh my father could thee me now. He wouldn't thay hith little girl wath lathy, would he?”

Ja.n.u.s got up and walked out where he could look about him. He stood stroking his whiskers reflectively, glancing critically at the rocks above; then along a narrow, barely indicated trail around the side of the mountain. He turned on his heel and returned to where his party lay stretched out on the rocks. There were rents in their clothing, their boots were scratched and cut from contact with sharp points of rocks, and the faces of the Meadow-Brook Girls were red and perspiring.

”I reckon we'll go around another way,” decided Ja.n.u.s. ”It's too steep here. You'll ruin your clothes. No need of it at all. You will get just as much fun out of the roundabout way as by climbing straight up.”

At first the girls protested that they did not wish to take the easier way, but when he a.s.sured them it was just as hazardous, they were satisfied.

”This new way we will see some scenery that is scenery, and you'll have a chance to look at it, which you wouldn't have in the straight-up climb. You see, you'd be too busy hanging on. I wanted to show you the 'Slide' anyway,” he added.

”What ith the 'Thlide'?” questioned Tommy.

”You will see when you get to it; one of the curiosities of Chocorua, and a lively one. They say the Indians used it when in a hurry to get down the mountain or to escape from their enemies. But, mind you, I don't expect any of you young ladies to follow the example of the Indians. Now, shall we move along?”

Interested in this new proposal, the girls sprang up, eagerly announcing their readiness to push on. Ja.n.u.s led the way to the right, instead of following the perpendicular trail. The former trail led them around a jutting point of rock, then over boulders, irregular slabs and crags, obliging them to pick their way with caution and cling to the life line.

They were now following a sort of spiral; for, though the party seemed to be encircling the mountain, they were rising gradually toward the blue dome of the summit. Here and there a mountain bird, dislodged from its perch, would hurl itself out into s.p.a.ce, giving the girls a start, and threatening, for the moment, their equilibrium. But they did much better than the guide had hoped for. Greatly to his relief, he was not obliged to go to the rescue of a Meadow-Brook Girl that day.

About noon, however, Margery Brown got a blister on her right heel, and Hazel turned one of her ankles. This put an end to the mountain climbing for the time being, but not to the hanging-on. The girls perched themselves behind rocks for support while the guardian was dressing the sprain and the blister. Ja.n.u.s went on to look over the trail and pick out the easy places. While they were waiting for Miss Elting to attend to Margery and Hazel, the guide returned with an armful of dry sticks.

”We aren't going to starve even if we can't move on,” he cried cheerily. ”I promised you that you shouldn't have a warm meal until we reached the summit this evening. I'm going to give you a surprise, though. Now, what will you have?”

”I think I'll have a thirloin thteak,” answered Tommy.

”A cup of coffee will help me, I am sure,” declared Harriet.

”I would eat the frying-pan handle if I couldn't get anything better,”

added Jane. ”Mountain climbing is something like work, eh?”

Ja.n.u.s bolstered up his dry wood in a crotch formed by a jutting rock, and built a fire where one would scarcely have believed it were possible to do so. He got water from a little spring just above them, and by the time Miss Elting had disposed of her patients for the moment the water for coffee was boiling. But there was no setting of a table.

To have put a dish down on that slope would have meant to lose it, and they had too few dishes to be able to afford to lose even one.

The coffee was drunk without milk, though lumps of sugar were produced from each girl's blouse pocket and dropped into her cup with much laughter. They made the best of their circ.u.mstances; but when, about the middle of the afternoon, Miss Elting informed the guide that she did not think Hazel's ankle would permit of her going any further that day, there was a flurry in the mountainside camp.