ADIOS
Their fears were confirmed. About ten o’clock the next morning Gale and
Valerie managed to leave their beds for breakfast. But when they
appeared in the dining room they discovered that they were the first and
only ones to make their appearance. Mrs. Wilson despatched Valerie to
bestir Phyllis and Madge and Gale departed to rouse Carol and Janet.
She knocked loudly on their door but all remained blissfully quiet. She
peeped around the corner of the door and beheld her two friends curled
like kittens, enjoying their nap.
“Hey!” she yelled. “Last call for breakfast.”
“Huh?” Carol cocked one sleepy eye in her direction while Janet remained
in dreamland.
“I said,” Gale repeated painstakingly, “it is the last call for
breakfast.”
“I don’t want any,” Carol said, turning over and burying her head in the
covers.
“Come on, get up,” Gale urged, shaking her friend, “we want to get an
early start.”
“Let’s go home tomorrow,” Carol begged. “I wanta sleep.”
“We have to leave today,” Gale insisted. “There can be no more putting
it off. Come on, turn out, or I’ll pour cold water on you!” she
threatened.
At that declaration Carol managed to sit up, but she was half asleep as
she tried to struggle out of her pajamas.
“Lazy bones, get out of there,” Gale demanded of Janet.
The latter squinted frowningly at Gale. “Must you bother me?” she
demanded. “Go away!”
“Not until you get up and dress,” Gale said calmly. “We’ve got to get
started.”
“I want my breakfast,” Janet said.
“Well, you won’t get a bite unless you get up this minute!” Gale
declared vigorously.
“In that case,” Janet yawned, “I reckon I’ll do without it. Good night.”
Gale went to the door. “Virginia,” she called, “bring me a bucket of
cold water. The colder the better!”
“What’s that for?” Janet demanded.
“To pour on you,” Gale said calmly.
“I’m up!” Janet declared, tossing back the covers and jumping out of
bed.
She was up, but it took her and Carol at least another half an hour to
complete their dressing. When finally they appeared for breakfast, it
was lunch time. After lunch there was frantic last minute scrambling to
collect baggage.
The old car in which they had arrived at the K Bar O was brought to the
front of the ranch house and there the girls viewed it with frowns.
“That tire is certainly flat,” Carol declared. “It looks like a deflated
pancake.”
“Jim and I’ll have it fixed in no time,” Tom offered.
“Brothers are good for something,” Janet murmured satisfactorily to
Virginia.
“Where’s Phyllis?” Gale asked.
“I don’t know,” Janet said. “Isn’t she in the house with Val?”
Gale went into the living room and called but neither Phyllis nor
Valerie answered.
“Perhaps she is down at the corral kissing her horse goodbye,” suggested
Carol brightly.
“Go see,” Janet said.
“Go yourself,” Carol murmured lazily.
“I have it,” Janet said. “We’ll both go. Maybe Loo Wong has an extra
piece of cake,” she whispered in Carol’s ear.
“The way those two departed I’ll bet they were thinking of food,” Madge
commented.
“Phyllis isn’t down at the corral and neither is Val,” Janet informed
them when, after a lengthy absence, she and Carol returned.
“Were you eating anything?” Madge demanded suspiciously.
“Of course not,” Carol said with dignity. “Didn’t we just have lunch?”
“Then wipe that chocolate icing off your tie,” Madge said laughingly.
“Look. Here they come. What in the world is Phyllis carrying?” Carol
demanded wonderingly.
“A cactus,” Janet giggled. “What are you going to do with that?” she
asked.
“Take it home with me,” Phyllis grinned, “for a souvenir. You can sit on
it in the car,” she invited.
“Thoughtful of you,” Janet grimaced.
“There’s your tire all fixed,” Tom said, dusting himself off as he
straightened up from his work.
“Gee, I’m glad it went flat here and not ten miles away,” Phyllis
sighed. “Just think, we might have had to fix it.”
“I hope the old thing holds together until we reach Phoenix,” Janet
said, looking the car over. “I wouldn’t want to walk.”
“Why that car is good for years yet,” Carol declared, a twinkle in her
eye.
“Sure, if it just sits in the garage,” agreed Phyllis.
“It’s getting rusty already,” Janet said.
“Well, there is one consolation,” Carol murmured, “the horn can never
rust away.”
“Why not?” Janet wanted to know.
“Because it’ll break up in honks!” Carol answered.
Carol had been sitting on the porch step with Janet, but suddenly she
found herself catapulted into the dust.
“That’s for that terrible joke,” Janet said firmly. “Another one like
that and we will make you ride on the rear bumper.”
“We better get going,” Madge put in. “It is getting late.”
The girls had had such a good time and they had grown fond of Virginia.
It was hard to say goodbye.
“I wish you were coming East with us,” Gale said sadly.
“Couldn’t you?” Phyllis asked eagerly.
Virginia shook her head. “No can do. But maybe I can visit you some
time. I hope you can come out here again, too.”
“You will let us know how Bobby gets along in school?” Val asked. “We’ll
want to know.”
“Of course,” Virginia assured them. “I want you all to write to me, too.
Don’t forget.”
After their goodbyes were over the girls piled into the car, Gale at the
wheel. Ineffectively she pressed her foot on the starter. There was a
whirr but the engine refused to break into the longed-for roar. The
girls exchanged exasperated glances.
“I suppose we’ll have to get out and push,” Carol groaned.
“Nothing doing!” Janet balked at the suggestion. “What’s the matter with
the old thing anyway, Gale?”
Gale replied with a shrug of her shoulders and climbed out. She opened
the engine hood and looked at the complicated array of gadgets. She knew
a little, not much, about an automobile engine.
“Everything looks all right,” Tom declared. “I’ll get under and see
what’s what.”
“How’s it?” Phyllis asked, leaning over the door.
“A couple bolts loose,” Tom yelled back.
Several minutes later Tom reappeared, streaked with grease but
triumphant.
“Try it now,” he suggested.
But the car refused to obey the summons to action.
“Lizzie certainly isn’t a lady!” Janet declared impatiently. “Maybe she
wants to be coaxed.”
“I’ve got it!” Gale said suddenly with a snap of her fingers.
“Goodness, hold onto it whatever it is,” Phyllis begged.
Gale grinned sheepishly. “We should have thought of it, sooner. I’ll
wager we haven’t any gas.”
Tom looked at the tank and laughed. “Dry as the desert,” he declared.
“But there is a five-gallon can in the bunkhouse. I’ll get it.”
The gas tank was filled and the engine responded readily now to Gale’s
pressure on the starter. They said their goodbyes again.
“Goodbye, goodbye, parting is such sweet sorrow,” Janet said
sorrowfully, clinging to Virginia’s hand.
“Now I know it is time to go,” Carol said. “When Janet quotes
Shakespeare things will begin to happen.”
The car rattled and wheezed as it began to move.
“Hey, hold everything,” Phyllis called to Gale. “Here comes Loo Wong.”
Once more their departure was halted. Loo Wong had packed a lunch and he
proceeded to present it to Janet with a low bow and a wide grin.
“Loo Wong wish many happiness. Bid all tloubles goodbye fo’lever.”
“Same to you, Loo Wong, and many of ’em,” Janet declared. “Girls, what
would we have done without Loo Wong?”
“We couldn’t do without him,” Carol declared. “He makes the best
pancakes I’ve ever eaten.”
“Don’t forget how to make fudge, Loo Wong,” Valerie called.
The Chinaman bobbed up and down, hands hidden in wide sleeves and his
face wreathed in smiles.
“This time it is really goodbye,” Gale called. “Don’t forget to write,
Virginia!”
The car wheezed and rattled out of the ranch yard onto the dusty road.
Handkerchiefs fluttered until the car was swallowed up in a cloud of
dust and the ranch house was hidden from view. They had a long trip
ahead of them and they settled down comfortably for their last glimpse
of Arizona scenery.
“Ah, now let’s eat,” proposed Janet. “Ouch!” Unwittingly she had leaned
against the cactus plant Phyllis had stored in with the baggage.
“Get along, Liza,” Gale said, patting the steering wheel encouragingly
as the engine coughed. “Don’t let us down now,” she pleaded.
So, with the girls hoping that the old car would hold together until
they reached Phoenix where they would take the train to the East, let us
leave the Adventure Girls. Those who have enjoyed the six girls’
adventures may join them again in “The Adventure Girls in the Air,” when
they have some exciting times with airplanes and find themselves in new
and surprising situations.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Adventure Girls at K Bar O, by Clair Blank