Part 13 (1/2)

”It's sheep!” cried the Little Captain. ”Dozens and dozens of them! Come and look!”

Chapter XIII

The Enemy Routed

Mrs. Irving pushed forward beside Betty, and the girls stared unbelievingly over her shoulder. Then they saw that she was right.

While they had been picking berries in the woods a flock of sheep had wandered down to the road from the other direction and had completely surrounded their two cars.

The big-eyed, innocent looking animals were circling around and around the machines as if examining them with a sort of ovine interest and curiosity.

But to the girls the sheep had a rather terrifying aspect. There were so many of them and they had so completely taken possession of their automobiles! How in the world were they ever to get back their property?

”Goodness!” Grace whispered plaintively in Betty's ear, ”I expect they will try to climb into the cars next. What ever are we going to do?”

”Sh,” cautioned Amy fearfully, as some of the flock, attracted by the noise in the bushes, turned their heads in the direction of it. ”Suppose they should come in here?”

”Well, they are not lions, you goose,” said Mollie, coming out of the trance into which surprise had thrown her. ”They are only sheep, and they couldn't hurt you if they tried.”

”Not unless they stampeded,” said Betty quietly. ”In that case I wouldn't care to be in the way.”

”But we can't stay here all night,” Mollie protested impatiently.

”Held up by a lot of silly old sheep,” added Grace, still more uncomfortably conscious of a growing appet.i.te.

”It must be almost two o'clock,” added Amy with a sigh.

”Yes, if things keep on this way it will be night before we reach the lodge,” said Mollie, adding with decision, ”I vote that we get some sticks and stones and scat 'em out of the way.”

”I think I have a better suggestion than that,” put in Mrs. Irving, speaking for the first time. ”I think we had better wait for a short time before we do anything. The sheep will probably get tired in a little while and wander off of their own accord.”

”Oh, all right,” said Mollie, with rather bad grace as she seated herself on a convenient rock. ”But all the time we are waiting for them to be tired, we will be getting tired ourselves and, goodness, Mrs. Irving, I'm being starved to death.”

At the desperation in her tones the girls had to laugh, though they were as reluctant to sit with folded hands and wait as she was. Still, Mrs.

Irving was their chaperon and probably knew best.

So with admirable resignation they disposed themselves beside Mollie on the big rock and settled down to watch for developments.

But after waiting for an everlasting five minutes they decided that there were to be no developments. The foolish sheep continued to circle lazily about the cars, nibbling now and then upon the gra.s.s by the roadside but showing not the slightest intention in the world of moving from there for some time to come.

”Oh, what shall we do?” moaned Grace, moving restlessly on her uncomfortable seat. ”My foot is going to sleep and I'm trying to sit on a pointed stone or something.”

”And it looks as though those crazy sheep were going to stay there all night,” added Betty, herself growing restive at the apparent futility of waiting for something to happen. ”Can't we do something, Mrs. Irving?”

”Wait just a few minutes more,” begged the lady, who was afraid of the sheep, but was reluctant to confess her fear to her young charges. ”Look, there seems to be a movement among them now,” she added hopefully, as one sheep pressed against another and sent it scampering a few feet along the road. ”We won't have to wait much longer, I am sure.”

And so, both to break their chaperon's authority, the girls fidgeted and fumed, getting more impatient and hungrier with every leaden minute that dragged itself by until almost three-quarters of an hour had pa.s.sed.