PLACING THE BLAME
Such screams as rose from over the ledge none of that party ever had
heard. Harriet, it will be remembered, had hold of the little girl's
hands, or rather one hand, when Tommy's belt broke. The jolt was so
great that it seemed to the two girls as if their arms would be pulled
from their sockets.
Tommy thought, too, that she was being hurled to her death when she
felt herself falling. But Harriet, with unusual presence of mind, had
clutched the little girl's hand with a desperate grip.
"Give me the other hand," she panted.
"I--I can't," sobbed Tommy, who immediately began to wriggle in an
attempt to reach the shelf.
"Then keep quiet. Don't stir." Instead of keeping quiet, the girl,
now fairly beside herself with fear, began a series of lunges for the
ridge above her. The result was what Harriet had feared. She felt
herself slipping forward toward the edge. In those few seconds Harriet
Burrell came nearer to realizing what fear was than ever before. To
let go would be to save herself at the cost of Tommy's life. Harriet
not only held on; but reached over her free hand which she clasped over
that of her companion. Now she slipped more than ever. Her companions
did not seem to realize what had occurred. It had all come about so
quickly that they did not quite comprehend.
"Grab me!" cried Harriet. "I've got her! Why don't you do something?
I'm slipping over. Quick! For mercy's sake, move!"
Jane McCarthy, who, with Janus, was still clinging to the rope, now
dropped it and sprang forward. Jane went down on her knees, grasping
Harriet by the ankles.
"Hold me! Are you all asleep?" shouted Jane.
Janus awakened suddenly. But Miss Elting was a little ahead of him.
The guardian sprang behind Jane and slipped both arms around the
latter's waist.
"Help Harriet!" she cried.
Janus ran forward with a rope, making a noose in it as he ran. The
guide went down on his knees beside Harriet Burrell.
"Can you swing her a little without dropping her?" he shouted.
"Yes, but she'll be dreadfully frightened."
"We can't help that. Swing her," commanded Janus.
Harriet did so, bringing from Tommy Thompson a series of terrified
screams. If any one else heard he must have believed that some one was
being killed. But her shouts and screams did no harm. The guide took
quick advantage of the opportunity offered by Harriet to slip the loop
in the rope over one of Tommy's feet, then draw it taut.
"I'm caught. Mercy, I'm caught!" screamed Tommy.
"Hang on to her! Don't let go! Stop that yelling until I tell you
what to do!" commanded the guide. "We're going to pull you up the best
way we can git you up. If you don't like it, don't fight; just yell.
Hold her as she is, Miss Harriet, while I give her foot a yank."
He really did jerk on the rope, but more for the purpose of tightening
the loop than for any other reason. Of course, the proceeding was
followed by an ear-piercing scream. Janus promptly began to pull up on
the line. Tommy's foot came up with it, leaving the other foot and one
arm dangling in the air nearly two hundred feet from the bottom of the
cliff.
"Pull when we get her level. No; the rest of you folks keep back, or
we'll all be over, first thing we know. There! Over she comes!" With
a final effort they had landed Tommy on the shelf. She was sobbing
pitifully. Her ordeal had been sufficient to upset the strongest
nerved person.
"You poor darling," cried Miss Elting, gathering the terror-stricken
Tommy in her arms and staggering to the rear of the shelf, where she
placed the terrified girl on a blanket.
Harriet sat back where she was. She was breathing heavily from her
exertions, and further than this she admitted to herself that she was a
little faint. But not for worlds would she have her companions know
this.
"Better get back," advised the guide. "One is enough."
"Don't trouble about me. I will as soon as I get my breath. That was
a hard position in which to do any lifting."
"I reckon. I take off my hat to you, Miss Burrell. This outfit isn't
in such great need of a pilot. You could get along without me and
never miss me for a minute except when it comes to toting a pack, and
even then I guess you could do without me, especially if that young
lady threw a dish or so overboard after every meal," he added jocularly.
"Is there any wood?"
"Yes. There you are again. I never think of anything. I get lost
wondering what's going to happen next. You sit down. I'll attend to
the fire. It is cold. You are shivering, aren't you"?
"I--I believe I am." Harriet got up and walked over to her companions.
She walked rather unsteadily, but they were too much upset themselves
to observe it. Tommy lay on a blanket with face buried in her arms,
sobbing, every fourth sob being a hysterical moan. Harriet sat down
beside the unhappy little girl, slipping an arm about her waist.
"It's all over now, honey. Don't cry."
"I'm thick! Pleathe give me thome--thome water."
"Water," called Harriet. "Is there any? If not, let Mr. Janus get
it, if he will."
"If she can wait a few moments we'll all have some hot coffee,"
answered the guide. But Tommy could not wait. She insisted on having
a drink of water, so the guide brought it to her. This seemed to take
the girl's mind from her recent fright, and lying on her back Tommy
Thompson gradually became quiet and surveyed the guide's coffee-making
through half-closed eyes.
"Do you think you can go to sleep?" asked Miss Elting, stooping over
the recumbent Tommy.
"Not until I get thome coffee," answered Tommy, gazing up soulfully
into the anxious face of the guardian.
Margery laughed almost hysterically. It was the first laugh that had
been heard in camp for some time, so it was welcome, helping to relieve
the tension as it did. Tommy turned her eyes on her stout friend in a
droll way which set Margery to giggling afresh.
The fire was crackling by this time. Harriet dragged Tommy's blanket
up closer to it, that she might get some of its warmth. Janus, looking
unusually solemn, was boiling water for the coffee.
"She had a pretty narrow escape," he nodded, observing Harriet's eyes
upon him.
"Indeed she did," agreed Harriet, with a slight shudder.
"No more sleep for me this night," cried Crazy Jane. "It's my opinion
that that wild Indian chief put a hoodoo on this rock, as well as on
the lake below. I shouldn't be surprised at most anything happening
here."
"Yes. Suppose the wall should fall in?" suggested Margery, gazing
apprehensively up the side of the granite wall, on which the light from
the fire was reflected in arrow-like shafts.
"Will you stop that?" demanded Jane. "Haven't we had trouble enough
for one night without your suggesting anything else?"
"You started the subject yourself," reminded Harriet.
"Who would like a bite to eat with her coffee?" interrupted the
guardian. "Tommy, would you like to have a biscuit?"
"Oh, no, thank you."
"I would," declared Margery.
"Yeth. Buthter ith never thatithfied. Thhe is always hungry," taunted
Tommy.
"And you've got over your scare," added Jane significantly.
The guardian set out some biscuits and lumps of sugar on a piece of
paper. The condensed milk was not brought. Everyone with the
exception of Harriet and Tommy was possessed of keen appetites after
their trying experiences. Janus, too, ate three biscuits and drank
three cups of strong coffee.
"Better have some," he urged, glancing at Harriet, who had refused the
coffee.
"I guess Harriet is ill, too," suggested Margery.
"I wish to sleep to-night. I shouldn't sleep a wink were I to drink
that black stuff, nor will you."
"You watch us and see," chuckled Margery.
"Tommy, how did you come to get over the edge?" questioned the
guardian, now that the little girl had begun to feel better.
"You certainly cannot blame our enemy for this accident," declared Jane.
"I wonder if he did push Tommy over?" Margery's eyes were large as she
voiced the question.
"Nonsense!" retorted Harriet Burrell.
"Yes. That's what I say," agreed Miss Elting.
"I suppose she will lay it to me," chuckled the guide.
"Yeth, I ought to," nodded Tommy. "But we agreed not to fight any
more, didn't we?"
"We did," he replied very gravely, "and we are not going to, are we?"
Tommy shook her head.
"Not before to-morrow, I gueth. I'm too tired to fight. Did I
furnithh you with exthitement enough for one night?"
"Will you listen to her?" laughed Crazy Jane. "Little Tommy Thompson
fell off the mountain to furnish us with excitement. Of course we are
satisfied. We forgive you for all your tricks, and we don't care how
much excitement you furnish if you will only keep your feet on
something solid. We came within a little of all going over with you in
our fright."
"Ithn't that nithe?" glowed Tommy. She was recovering her spirits. "I
thhould have had company."
"That is a very ill-timed remark, Tommy," answered Miss Elting in a
severe tone. "I am surprised at your flippancy. I really believe you
enjoyed our fright."
"Yeth. Didn't you hear me laugh when I wath down there?"
"I wouldn't say such things if I had made as much trouble as Tommy
has," declared Margery.
"Of courthe you wouldn't," agreed Tommy. "You haven't a thenthe of
humor."
"Some people have no sense at all," flung back Buster.
"We have forgotten something," interrupted Harriet. "Tommy's blanket
is down there somewhere. We ought to have it before going on in the
morning. You may keep mine for to-night, if you wish. You are going
to sit up the rest of the night, are you not, Mr. Grubb?"
"Yes. I'll take no more chances with this party on Sokoki Leap. I'll
keep the fire going the rest of the night, too. Fix your blankets so
your feet will be toward the fire. The Indians would say, 'Indian keep
him head cool, feet warm.'"
"We have done better than that this evening," answered Jane laughingly.
"We managed to keep our head and feet warm at the same time."
"I should say we have," mused Harriet. "But what about the blanket?
We do not wish to lose it."
"I'll go down and get it in the morning," said Janus. "You needn't
wait breakfast for me; I'll have something to eat before leaving. But
do be careful. I don't want to have the little one falling down the
rocks and landing on my head when I get there. Better turn in as soon
as possible, young ladies. We have a mighty hard trail ahead of us in
the morning, and some more slippery granite to climb. Another thing,
you'd better put another belt on Miss Thompson. You'll find some
leather and a buckle in my kit. There's sewing material there also."
"How far shall we have to climb?" asked Hazel.
"'Bout a thousand feet, as a bird flies," Janus answered, with a
careless gesture.
"Ob, thave me!" wailed Tommy desperately. "I can't thtand any more."
"Why, Tommy, we've hardly begun yet," Harriet retorted smilingly.
"Maybe _you_ haven't, but thome of uth have about finithed," asserted
the little, lisping girl.
"For once, Tommy and I agree," groaned Margery.
Not long after the girls turned in for the second time that night.
Daybreak would soon send its gray light into their camp on Sokoki Leap.
But the day ahead of them was not fated to be, in all respects, a time
of calm. Tommy Thompson and even her better-poised companions were to
have further opportunities for distinguishing themselves.