E-text prepared by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Emmy, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)
Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
file which includes the original illustrations.
See 19318-h.htm or 19318-h.zip:
(https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/3/1/19318/19318-h/19318-h.htm)
or
(https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/3/1/19318/19318-h.zip)
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN THE SADDLE
or The Girl Miner of Gold Run
by
LAURA LEE HOPE
Author of "The Outdoor Girls of Deepdale," "The Outdoor Girls at Wild
Rose Lodge," "The Moving Picture Girls," "The Bobbsey Twins," "Bunny
Brown and His Sister Sue," "Six Little Bunkers at Grandma Bell's," Etc.
Illustrated
New York
Grosset & Dunlap
Publishers
Made in the United States of America
* * * * *
BOOKS FOR GIRLS
BY LAURA LEE HOPE
* * * * *
12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
* * * * *
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALE
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT RAINBOW LAKE
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A MOTOR CAR
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A WINTER CAMP
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN FLORIDA
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT OCEAN VIEW
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON PINE ISLAND
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN ARMY SERVICE
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT THE HOSTESS HOUSE
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT WILD ROSE LODGE
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN THE SADDLE
* * * * *
THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS SERIES
THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT OAK FARM
THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS SNOWBOUND
THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS UNDER THE PALMS
THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT ROCKY RANCH
THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT SEA
THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS IN WAR PLAYS
* * * * *
THE BOBBSEY TWINS SERIES
(Fifteen Titles)
* * * * *
THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES
(Twelve Titles)
* * * * *
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS SERIES
(Eight Titles)
* * * * *
Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York
Copyright, 1922, by Grosset & Dunlap
* * * * *
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN THE SADDLE
[Illustration: A LANDSLIDE--AND THEY WERE DIRECTLY IN ITS PATH!
_The Outdoor Girls in the Saddle._ _Frontispiece_--(_Page_ 96)]
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I A SUMMER IN THE SADDLE 1
II GREAT HOPES 9
III ENTER PETER LEVINE 22
IV AN IMITATION HOLD-UP 33
V THE HANDSOME COWBOY 43
VI AT THE RANCH 52
VII A SUDDEN STORM 62
VIII ALONG THE TRAIL 72
IX DANGER AHEAD 81
X THE LANDSLIDE 88
XI IN THE CAVE 97
XII IN THE DARKNESS 106
XIII THE LURE OF GOLD 112
XIV A DISCOVERY 120
XV ALLEN ARRIVES 129
XVI A TIP 137
XVII THE NET TIGHTENS 145
XVIII IN THE SHADOWS 154
XIX THE NEW MINE 165
XX THE VIOLINIST AGAIN 173
XXI A STARTLING TALE 180
XXII THE PLAN 188
XXIII GREAT DAYS 198
XXIV THE END OF PETER LEVINE 202
XXV INNOCENT 210
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN THE SADDLE
CHAPTER I
A SUMMER IN THE SADDLE
"Hello, hello! Oh, what is the matter with central!"
The dark-haired, pink-cheeked girl at the telephone jiggled the receiver
impatiently while a straight line of impatience marred her pretty mouth.
"Oh dear, oh dear!"
"At last! Is that you, Mollie Billette? I've been trying to get you for
the last half hour. What's that? You've been home all morning twiddling
your thumbs and wondering what to do with yourself? Of course! I knew it
was central's fault all the time! Now listen! Goodness, what are you
having over at your house? A jazz dance or something? I can hardly hear
you speak for the noise."
"No, it isn't a dance," came back Mollie's voice wearily from the other
end of the wire. "It's just the twins. They want to talk to you. Hold
the wire a minute while I shut them in the other room."
Followed a silence during which Betty Nelson could distinctly hear the
wails of Mollie's little brother and sister as they were ushered
forcibly into an adjoining room. Then Mollie's voice again at the phone.
"Hello," she said. "Still there, Betty? Guess I can hear you a little
better now. Mother's out, and I've been taking care of the twins. Just
rescued the cat from being dumped head down in the flour barrel."
"Sounds natural," laughed the dark-haired, pink-cheeked one, as she
visualized Mollie's little brother and sister, Dodo and Paul. They were
twins, and always in trouble.
"Anything special you called up about?" asked Mollie's voice from the
other end of the wire. "Want to go for a ride or something?"
"Not the kind of ride you mean," said the brown-eyed, pink-cheeked one,
with a knowing little smile on her lips.
At the lilt in her voice Mollie, at her end of the wire, sat up and
stared inquiringly into the black mouth of the telephone.
"Betty," she said hopefully, "you are hiding something from me. You
have something up your sleeve."
"You're right and wrong," giggled Betty. "I'm hiding something from you,
but I can't get it up my sleeve, it's too big!"
"Hurry up!" commanded Mollie in terrific accents. "Are you going to tell
me what's on your mind, Betty Nelson?"
"When will you be around?" countered Betty.
"In five minutes."
"Good!"
"Betty, wait! Is it good news?"
"The best ever," and Betty rang off.
She twinkled at the telephone for a minute, then called another number.
"That you, Gracie?"
The fair-haired, tall, and very graceful girl at the other end of the
wire acknowledged that it was.
"Please suggest something interesting, Betty," she added plaintively, as
she took a chocolate from the ever-present candy box and nibbled on it
discontentedly. "I woke up with the most awful attack of the blues this
morning."
"What, with a whole summer full of blessed idleness before you?" mocked
Betty.
"Too much idleness," grumbled Grace. "That's the trouble."
"Enter," said Betty drolly, "Doctor Elizabeth Nelson."
Grace digested this remark for a moment, staring at the telephone in
much the same manner as Mollie had done a few minutes before. Then she
swallowed the last of her chocolate in such haste that it almost choked
her.
"Betty," she said, "I have heard you use that tone before. Is there
really something in the wind?"
"Come and see," said Betty and a click at the other end of the wire told
Grace that the conversation was over.
"Oh bother!" she cried, her pretty forehead drawn into a frown. "Now I
suppose I've got to get dressed and go over there before I can find out
what she meant."
In the hall she nearly ran into her mother, who was dressed to go out.
Mrs. Ford was a handsome woman, prominent in the social circles of
Deepdale. She was kindly and sympathetic, and all who knew her loved
her.
So now, as she regarded her mother, a loving smile erased the frown from
Grace's forehead.
"I declare, Mother, you look younger than I do," she said fondly.
"Whither away so early?"
"The art club, this morning," replied Mrs. Ford, her eyes approving the
fair prettiness of her daughter. "Are you going out? I thought you were
deep in that new book."
"I was," said Grace, with a sigh for what might have been. "But Betty
called up and said she wanted me to come over. There's something in the
wind, that's sure, but she wouldn't give me even the teeniest little
hint of what it was. I wasn't going at first, but I----"
"Thought better of it," finished Mrs. Ford, with a smile. "Better go,"
she added, as she opened the door. "My experience with Betty Nelson is
that she usually has something interesting to say. Good-by, dear. If any
one should 'phone while you are here, will you tell them that I shan't
be back till late afternoon?"
Grace promised that she would and moved slowly up the stairs.
Meanwhile Amy Blackford, the last of the trio to whom the dark-haired,
pink-cheeked little person who was Betty Nelson had telephoned, had
stopped merely to remove the apron from in front of her pink-checked
gingham dress and was now flying along the two short blocks that
separated her house from the Nelsons'.
As for poor Mollie Billette, she was nearly distracted. Torn with
curiosity, as that young person very often was, to know the facts that
had prompted Betty's early call, she yet could not satisfy that
curiosity. When she had told Betty that she would be around in five
minutes she had fully meant to make that promise good. But--she had
forgotten the twins!
Upon entering the room where she had locked them while she talked to
Betty, she found a sight that fairly took her breath away.
Unfortunately, some one had left an open bottle of ink on the table. One
of the twins, deciding to play "savages," had pounced upon the ink
bottle as a means of making the play more realistic!
"Oh, Dodo! Oh, Paul! How could you be so naughty?" moaned Mollie,
sinking to the floor, while the tears of exasperation rolled down her
face.
"Paul did it," accused Dodo, waving a pudgy, ink-stained little fist in
the direction of her brother. "He said, 'let's use this ink and play
we're savagers----'"
It was upon this scene that Mollie's little French-American mother, Mrs.
Billette, came a moment later.
"Oh! Oh!" she cried, raising her hands in the French gesture all French
people know so well. "What is this? Mollie, have you gone quite mad?"
Whereupon Mollie shook the tears of woe from her eyes and explained to
her mother just what had happened.
"And I was in such a hurry to get to Betty's," she finished dismally. "I
just know she has something exciting to tell us. And now I don't suppose
I will get there for hours."
"Oh yes, you will," said Mrs. Billette, with the delicious, almost
imperceptible, accent she had. "The ink has not yet dried, and luckily
there is not much about the room. Run along, dear. I fully realize," she
added, with the smile that made Mollie adore her, "that this, with you,
is a very important occasion."
"And you are the most precious mother in the world!" cried Mollie,
flinging young arms about her mother and giving her a joyful hug. "I
might have known you would understand." And before the words were fairly
out of her mouth she was flying up the stairs.
When she reached Betty's house at last, out of breath but happy, she
found that Grace and Amy were there before her. She found them all,
including Betty, up in Betty's room, a pretty place done in ivory and
blue, awaiting her coming as patiently as they could.
"Betty wouldn't tell us a thing until you came," was the greeting Grace
flung at her.
"So don't be surprised if you aren't very popular around here," laughed
Betty, sitting very straight in her wicker chair, feet stretched out and
crossed in front of her, hands tightly clasped in her lap. Her face was
a pretty picture of animation.
"Who cares for popularity?" cried Mollie, as she flung her sport hat on
the bed and turned to face Betty. "Betty Nelson, bring out that
surprise."
"Who said it was a surprise?" asked Betty tantalizingly, but the next
minute her face sobered and she regarded the girls gravely.
"Girls," she said, "I think I see a chance for the most glorious outing
we have had yet. How would you like----" she paused and regarded the
expectant girls thoughtfully. "How would you like a summer _in the
saddle_?"
"In the saddle?" repeated Grace wonderingly, but Mollie broke in with a
quick:
"Betty, do you mean on horseback?"
"Real horses?" breathed Amy Blackford.
"Yes," said Betty, nodding. "That's just exactly what I mean."