Part 14 (1/2)
He grinned.
”_Acting_ manager--for Kurt Walters.”
”Mayn't I do a stunt, too?” she asked eagerly.
”Sure thing, you may. We'll be glad to have a novelty in the way of a lady performer. What'll it be?”
”I'll see you in the morning and tell you what I can do.”
Mrs. Kingdon smiled understandingly when she heard of the game of c.r.a.ps.
”Just a few days up here have done wonders for you,” she observed, looking at her young charge approvingly.
”Yes; I feel physically fit--like a real soldier.”
CHAPTER VI
With a little sigh of relief and pleasure, Pen laid aside some garments, on which she had been steadily and surrept.i.tiously working, and sought Jo.
”Come down under cover of one of the hills,” she urged, ”and I will show you what my part in the day's work will be. Special exhibition. Admittance free, but no other spectators allowed.”
Half an hour later Jo was gazing at her as one gazes at some marvelous performer, but his awe and admiration were expressed in a simple but effective phrase:
”Oh, baby, but you can put it over them all!”
That afternoon when the Kingdon household came down to occupy the row of raised seats erected in the ”field,” Pen was missing. Her absence was a mystery until the following typed programs for the day were handed out:
OUTLAW HORSE SHOW TOP HILL PARK
JO GARY, Champion Rider of Top Hill, will ride TURN TURTLE and PINCH HITTER.
SLEEPY SANDY will ride BATTLEs.h.i.+P GRAY and BABY DOLL.
JAKEY FOURR will ride PICKLED PETE and PIKER.
GENE DOSSEY will ride HIAWATHA and WHIZZ.
MISS PENNY ANTE (Miss Penelope Lamont) Will ride _anything brought into the ring_!
GREAT EXHIBITION OF ROUGH RIDING by the most notorious riders of the West. Only the most unmanageable animals will be ridden.
Kingdon's eye-gla.s.ses came off with a sense of shock.
”This will never do, Margaret!” he exclaimed. ”Those crazy boys have no sense. They'll bring out some of those wild horses, and that meek-looking, little daredevil friend of Kurt's will call any bluff. She mustn't be allowed to ride.”