LANDSLIDE
“But I can’t understand how he got out!” Gale said again with a puzzled
frown. “I purposely pulled the ladder up behind me to keep him in
there.”
“There must be another way out that’s all,” Tom said.
“He’s gone and now we shall never know who the ghost was,” said Janet.
Tom and Jim exchanged a fleeting glance that only Gale seemed to see.
“Well, Gale gives a good imitation of a spook,” was Carol’s declaration.
“Imagine, throwing rocks at the floor to scare us all out of our well
earned sleep.”
“I was only demonstrating how it was done for my own satisfaction,” Gale
laughed.
The nine of them were jogging along on their horses. They had had their
breakfast while they discussed the disappearance of the ghost. For the
man whom Gale had thought imprisoned in the lower tunnel had gone when
Jim and Tom let themselves down on the rope ladder. They had not
explored the tunnel to its full length so they were not sure, but they
surmised that there must be another exit some place along the passage
and it was this that the mysterious stranger had used. They had all
endeavored to go back to sleep, but their rest was fitful and broken.
They had eaten an early breakfast and now, two hours later, found them
picking their way through cactus and undergrowth to the distant hills.
“Git along little dogie, git along, git along,” Janet sang lustily.
“I wish I had brought some cotton,” Carol commented darkly, “for my
ears,” she added at Janet’s curious glance. “Then I wouldn’t have to
listen to you sing.”
“Oh, you don’t appreciate a good voice when you hear it,” was Janet’s
retort.
“A good voice, I do,” Carol declared, and moved her pony so that Gale
was between her and Janet. “But who ever told you----”
“What? Not another musical person?” Madge demanded as Tom blew
vigorously on his harmonica.
“If riding affects them like that,” Virginia laughed, “it is time we
called a halt. What do you say, Jim?”
“For ten minutes,” Jim nodded.
They fell from their mounts, grateful for the respite. Tom promptly
stretched out on the ground, his hat over his face to shut out the sun.
Jim led the horses to a little stream of water as the girls stamped the
stiffness out of their cramped legs.
“Where’s Jim?” Virginia wanted to know at the end of the allotted ten
minutes for Jim was not in sight. The horses were standing ready for
their riders, but they could not proceed without the guide.
Virginia went over and poked her brother into wakefulness.
“What’s the matter?” he asked drowsily.
“Jim hasn’t come back yet,” Virginia informed him, “and if we don’t get
started, we won’t make our next campsite before dark.”
Tom stretched lazily. “Well, stay here an’ I’ll find him.”
Gale and Virginia mounted their horses and the others did likewise.
“You know, I’m either going to wear the horse out or he is going to wear
me out,” Janet declared with a grimace as she lowered herself into the
saddle. “I’m afraid it is the latter.”
They waited for fully fifteen minutes before either Tom or Jim came into
sight. The horses had caught the impatience of their riders and were
fidgeting to be off.
“We thought you had deserted us for sure!” Virginia declared. “Where
were you?”
To Gale it seemed that the two men had the air of conspirators. There
was a gleam in their eyes that had not been there before. The minute
they came within earshot of the girls they stopped talking and came on
silently.
“Virginia,” Tom said immediately, “we want you to lead the girls to Bear
Rock and have lunch. Wait there for us.”
“But where are you going?” Virginia demanded.
“Jim has found a trail that looks strange so we are going to follow it,”
Tom explained. “But we’ll catch up to you at Bear Rock. You camp there
until we come, understand?”
“No,” Virginia said firmly. “I don’t understand. What is so strange
about this trail? Why can’t we all ride that way?”
“We couldn’t follow the trail with all of you along,” Tom declared. “It
would be obliterated in no time.”
“But, Tom, if we get lost up here we could never find each other again,”
Virginia continued.
“But Miss Virginia, you’ve been to Bear Rock lots of times,” Jim put in.
“Yore Dad would want us to follow this trail, too. It shore looks mighty
strange. You won’t get lost.”
“You don’t know what you might be getting into,” Virginia said. “I think
you should let that trail alone and mind your own business.”
Tom shook his head, tightening his saddle strap.
“We’re goin’ so you might as well save your breath. See you at Bear
Rock,” he added as he and Jim swung their horses about and were off in a
cloud of dust.
The girls stared after them in surprise, then Virginia, with a shrug of
her shoulders, turned her horse and led the way at an abrupt angle from
the road taken by Jim and Tom. Gale undertook to bring up the rear with
the pack horses. As the girls jogged forward, Phyllis rode directly
behind Virginia with Janet and Carol following. Valerie had dropped
behind with Gale.
“Do you suppose that mysterious trail was left by the bank bandits?”
Valerie murmured in a low tone to her friend.
“I shouldn’t be surprised,” Gale answered. “You know, Val, that is what
they are really looking for. I believe that is why Jim has a definite
camping place in mind for each day and doesn’t let us loiter much along
the way. He and Tom must think the rustlers and robbers are connected.”
Valerie nodded. “Do you think the bandit might have been the man you saw
at the mine last night?”
Gale frowned. “I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about that. It might
have been, but I can’t be sure because I didn’t get a close enough look
at him. He might have been using the cabin as a hiding place.”
“That’s why he tried to scare us away,” added Valerie. “I believe that’s
it!”
“What are you two chattering about?” Janet wanted to know.
“About having broiled rattlesnake for supper,” Valerie retorted. “I’ve
heard it is very good with mustard.”
It was but a short ride to Bear Rock, so named because a huge boulder so
resembled the head of a ferocious grizzly. Once there, the girls
dismounted and gathered wood for a fire. They would eat a cold luncheon,
but insisted on at least having hot coffee to drink. The horses were
tethered and the girls gathered about the fire. Seated on stones, for
the ground was still damp from the heavy rains of the day before, the
girls waited for the two men to join them. They drank their coffee and
had long finished their lunch before the clatter of hoofs reached them
and Jim and Tom rode up.
“We’ll have a new campsite tonight,” Tom said at once. “Jim and I want
to do a little more sleuthing so we might as well go along and camp when
it gets dark, no matter where we are.”
“That’s better than leaving us behind at any rate,” Carol declared. “I’m
rather anxious to get a look at this trail.”
“Just a lot of hoof marks,” Tom answered blandly.
That was all it proved to be and the girls were disappointed. They
didn’t know what they had expected to find, but certainly more than
this. Unexperienced in trail reading they didn’t realize what a wide,
easy-to-read trail had been left. If they had, they might have been
suspicious. Even so, Tom and Jim, western bred and experienced in
trailing both men and animals, should have been suspicious. But they
weren’t.
In the northern region of Arizona are plateaus broken by high mountains.
Between the foothills of a high range was a winding trail and it was
this that the Adventure Girls and their friends followed, winding in and
out through forests thick with pine trees and cottonwoods, jack rabbits
darting across the trail, making the horses prance and rear, and the
girls getting so weary they could hardly stay in their saddles.
At last Jim called a halt beside a small stream. The sun was sinking
swiftly. Darkness was creeping into the east. When they had pitched
their tents and supper was started, the girls took time out to admire
the scenery of their surroundings. They were camped on the base of a
rugged plateau broken in two by a narrow pass through which they
proposed to ride on the morrow. Overhanging the pass was a huge boulder,
balanced precariously on the edge of the jutting cliff.
“Just one push is all that needs to block up that whole pass,” Tom
declared.
“Let’s hope nobody pushes it tomorrow when we are going through there,”
commented Janet cheerfully.
“Let’s see what is on the other side of the mountain,” proposed Gale to
Valerie.
“All right,” she agreed readily, getting up from her knees where she had
been putting another piece of wood on the fire.
“Or are you too tired?” Gale asked suddenly, remembering that Val
couldn’t keep going as incessantly as the rest of them.
“Of course I’m not too tired for that short walk,” Val said stoutly.
“Come along.”
“When supper is ready give us a halloo,” directed Gale as the two
started out.
“You’re taking awful chances,” Carol declared mischievously, “we might
eat all the supper without you.”
“You had better not!” Gale warned laughingly.
The two walked leisurely, enjoying the glorious hues of the sunset. In
the west the sky was a maze of colors as the last rays of the sun
flashed on the banked clouds. The gurgling of the little stream by which
they walked was the only sound other than that of their footsteps that
they heard. Yet Gale had the uncanny feeling that eyes were watching
them. Once she turned to look back at the others in camp. They were all
busy with something or other. No one was watching her and Val. Yet that
peculiar feeling persisted.
Directly beneath the overhanging boulder they paused to look up at it.
It hung menacingly over them. They took a few steps forward when
something made Gale look up again. Certainly her eyes had not played a
trick on her! The rock had actually wavered. It was falling!
“Run, Val, run,” she shouted, at the same time grasping her friend’s arm
and pulling her along.
“What in the world----” Valerie began.
“The rock--it’s falling!” Gale panted.
Thereafter she did not need to urge Val to exert speed to get away from
the spot toward which the rock was rushing. The two of them flung
themselves forward while certain destruction hurtled down almost on
them. The boulder crashed into the earth with such force that it half
buried itself. On top of it poured earth that had been loosened in its
descent.
“What if we had been under it?” gasped Val when the girls, at a safe
distance, viewed the wreckage behind them.
“We would look like pancakes now,” Gale said humorously. “With that
landslide, can you tell me how we are going to get out of here for our
supper?”
Valerie looked around. What they had thought was a trail leading through
the mountains was just a trail that led to the basin here, a valley on
all sides of which rose steep hills. Their only means of entrance and
exit had been through the pass, and now that was effectively stopped.
“I wish we would have waited for supper,” Gale said, attempting to keep
lighthearted.
“You can join us,” said a suave voice behind the girls.
They whirled and were grasped in rough hands.
“Well, two are better ’n none, eh, boss?” a rumbling voice laughed.
“Maybe we couldn’t get ’em all, but these two will do us.”
Both Gale and Valerie struggled, but what was the use? They were soon
subdued, not too gently, and led away, their hands tied behind their
backs, to a cabin, hidden entirely from the trail in a clump of trees.