GREAT HOPES
"But where are we to do all this?" asked Grace skeptically. "Is somebody
giving away steeds for the asking? Wake me up, somebody, when Betty gets
through dreaming."
"Keep still, you old wet blanket," cried Mollie. "Can't you see Betty is
really in earnest?"
"Never mind them," said Amy, leaning a little breathlessly toward Betty.
"Let them fight it out between themselves. What is the great news,
Betty?"
"It _is_ great news," said Betty radiantly. "Listen, my children. Mother
has received a legacy from a great uncle that she had almost forgotten
she had."
"Money?" queried Grace, interested.
"No, that's the best part of it," said Betty. "Oh, girls, it's a ranch,
a great big beautiful ranch in the really, truly west!"
"Honest-to-goodness, wild and woolly?" queried Mollie, beaming.
"Better than that," answered Betty with the same lilt to her voice that
the girls had heard over the telephone. "I shouldn't wonder if we should
find the real old-fashioned, movie kind of cowboys there--sombreros, fur
leggings, bandannas, and all."
"But where," interrupted Mollie, who had been waiting with more or less
patience for Betty to come to the point, "do we come in, in all this? I
fail to see----"
"Oh hush," cried Betty, her eyes dancing. "You interrupt entirely too
much. Where do we come in, she wants to know," she paused to bestow a
beaming glance on Grace and Amy. "That's the biggest joke of all. Where
do we come in? Why, honey dear, we're the whole show!"
"The whole show," they murmured, beginning to see the light.
"You bet," said the brown-haired, rosy-checked one slangily. "Now
listen. I think I've about argued mother and dad around to the point
where they'll agree to let us have the use of this wild and woolly
rancho for a real outdoor adventure. How does that idea strike you?"
"Listen to the child," cried Mollie pityingly. "Such a question!"
"It would be heavenly!" raved Grace. "Think of riding around all day in
fur leggings and a sombrero. Wide hats are always becoming to me," she
added musingly.
The girls laughed and Betty threw a pillow at her, missing her by a
hair's breadth.
"You needn't worry about your hat," laughed Betty. "Reckon there won't
be anybody around there to admire you but Indians and broncho busters."
"Oh, aren't the boys coming?" Grace asked, her disappointment in her
voice.
"They haven't been asked, silly," Mollie interrupted impatiently. "Tell
me, Betty," she cried, turning to the Little Captain. "Is it really
certain that we'll have this chance?"
"No, it isn't," admitted Betty, her bright face sobering. "That's why I
don't want you to get too excited about it. You see," her voice lowered
confidentially, "dad might decide to sell it."
"Sell it!" they cried in dismay, and Grace added, with a decision that
made the girls laugh:
"Oh, he mustn't do that until the fall, anyway."
"All right, Gracie," said Betty, with a chuckle. "I'll give dad his
orders."
"But why does he want to sell it, Betty?" Amy questioned.
"We-el," said the Little Captain slowly. "You see mother has already
received an offer of fifteen thousand dollars for it. There's a ranchman
out there, I think his name is John Josephs, or some such name, who
seems to want to get hold of our ranch. So his lawyers have offered
mother fifteen thousand for it."
"That's a pretty good lot of money," said Amy thoughtfully.
"Yes, it is," agreed Betty. "And dad seems to think that the best thing
mother could do would be to take the money and get rid of the ranch. He
says it will be a sort of white elephant on our hands, since there isn't
very much chance of our going out there to live," she ended, with a
chuckle.
"Well," said Grace, with an injured air, "I don't see why you called us
all over here just to disappoint us. If your father is going to sell the
place, then we certainly sha'n't be able to make ourselves beautiful
with bandannas and picturesque hats----"
"Ah, but you did not let me finish," hissed Betty, melodramatically. "We
have one ally--my mother."
"Your mother!" cried Mollie, eagerly. "Then she doesn't want to sell the
ranch?"
"Right, the first time," cried Betty hilariously. "I think mother has a
sneaking notion that she might look pretty good in a cowboy make-up
herself. You see," she added, with a twinkle, "mother has never had a
chance to own a real honest-to-goodness ranch before."
"Oh, isn't she sweet!" cried Mollie fervently, adding, as one to whom
inspiration had come: "I tell you what, Betty, we'll take her with us!"
"How sweet of you," drawled Grace. "Especially since the ranch belongs
to her!"
The other girls chuckled and Mollie looked rather sheepish.
"Oh, well," she admitted, "I guess it would be a case of her taking us
along."
"And I don't envy her the job," said gentle Amy unexpectedly, while the
girls gazed their reproach.
"Betty," said Mollie, "there is one very important thing that I would
like to know."
"Well, I'm the original little information bureau," Betty assured her.
"What will you have?"
"Does your dad really want to sell the ranch? Or is your mother likely
to win out?"
"Oh, mother always gets her way," said Betty confidently, adding:
"Besides, the ranch was left to mother, you know, and not to dad. So
really she has the say about it."
"Yes, but she might change her mind," said Grace pessimistically.
"Fifteen thousand dollars is a lot of money, you know. She might decide
to sell the ranch, after all."
"Well," said Betty, with an air of importance that the girls were quick
to notice, "there is another reason why mother will probably hold on to
the property, for a little while at least."
"Yes?" they queried eagerly.
"You see," Betty continued thoughtfully, "mother has an idea that this
John Josephs is a little too anxious to buy the ranch. It's right up in
the gold region, you know----"
"Gold!" shrieked Mollie. "You never said a word about gold, Betty
Nelson! Do you mean there may be gold----"
"Now she _is_ getting interesting," admitted Grace, shaken out of her
usual calm.
"How romantic," murmured Amy, breathing fast.
"Yes," said Betty ruefully. "That's what dad says mother is--romantic!
He says there isn't a chance in a thousand that there is real gold
anywhere near that ranch----"
"Stop, woman, stop!" cried Mollie, with her most tragic scowl. "Wouldst
put an end to all our dreams in one fell swoop----"
"Probably that is all we shall do--just dream," said Betty, insisting
upon being practical. "It's an idea of mother's, that's all. But she is
really determined to see the ranch, at least, before she makes up her
mind whether to sell or not. In fact," she hesitated, colored a little,
then went on bravely, "dad has decided to send Allen out there to look
up the title. There is some trouble about that, I think----"
"Oh, now we know why she is so anxious to be a little cow girl," teased
Grace, while the others regarded Betty's pretty color gleefully.
"Oh, Betty, Betty!" cried Mollie, shaking her head dolefully, "you are
altogether hopeless!"
For Allen Washburn, of whom Betty had spoken in connection with the
ranch, was a very promising young lawyer. Also this promising young
lawyer was very fond of Betty Nelson. And while the girls are shaking
their heads over this fact a little time will be taken to describe the
Outdoor Girls to those readers who have not already met them and to
review briefly the many and varied adventures they had had up to this
time.
Betty Nelson, dark-haired, dark-eyed, and rosy-cheeked, was the natural
leader of the four Outdoor Girls, a fact which had led to her being
dubbed "Little Captain" by the adoring girls. Betty's father, Charles
Nelson, had made a good deal of money in his manufacture of carpets,
and Betty's mother was a very sweet lady whom the name of Rose fitted
exactly.
Next came Mollie Billette, dark-haired and with snapping black eyes, who
was almost as French in her manner as her very French mother.
Readers of the present volume must already feel very well acquainted
with Grace Ford. Grace was the Gibson type, tall and slender and
fair-haired and very pretty, with a decided liking for looking in
mirrors.
Last of the quartette came Amy Blackford. Amy was the ward of John and
Sarah Stonington, and for a long time she had thought her own name was
Stonington. The mystery of her past had been cleared up, however, and
Amy had come into her own. Shy, gentle, sweet, she was beloved and
protected by the more hardy and active Betty and Mollie. And Amy, as shy
girls sometimes will, had begun to think very much of Grace Ford's
attractive brother, Will--which is a reminder that it is time to
introduce "the boys."
Allen Washburn and his open fondness for Betty have already been spoken
of. Allen was tall, nearly six feet. Sunburned and handsome of face and
quick of action, Allen attracted every one wherever he went. And, truly,
Betty was no exception to this rule! Allen had been one of the first to
volunteer his services to the good old army of the U. S. A., and while
he had gone over only a buck private, he had come back a lieutenant.
There was Will Ford, Grace's brother, whom Grace and Amy both adored.
Will had been in the secret service when our country entered the war,
and because of this he had been the victim of considerable
misunderstanding. Afterward he had joined the army with the other boys.
This was after some skillful secret service work that won the praise of
the government, as well as the fervent admiration of the boys and girls.
The other two boys were Frank Haley and Roy Anderson who had come into
the little group because of their friendship for Will and Allen. They
were fine, clean-cut, likable boys, who had come through the war with
colors flying.
The young folks had lived all their lives in Deepdale, a thriving little
city with a population of about fifteen thousand people and situated in
the heart of New York State. Deepdale was situated on the Argono River,
a beautiful and romantic stream where pleasure craft of all sorts
disported themselves. A branch line of the railroad connected with the
main line directly to what the four Outdoor Girls believed to be the
most wonderful of all cities, New York.
The name of "Outdoor Girls" had come to the quartette from the fact
that they invariably spent their summer vacations, and winter holidays
also, in some sort of outdoor sport. They could ride, swim, play tennis,
drive, and, in fact, do everything that is expected of the athletic
young girl of to-day.
They would never forget that first tramping tour when they had tramped
for miles over the country, meeting with a great many unusual adventures
on the way, as related in the first volume of this series, entitled,
"The Outdoor Girls of Deepdale." Nor those other times at Rainbow Lake,
in Florida, at Ocean View, and later at Pine Island, where they had come
across that marvelous, mysterious gypsy cave.
Then had come the war with the boys on the other side, and the girls
doing their "bit" at a Hostess House. And a little later what black
distress overwhelmed them, when Will Ford was reported wounded and
Allen's name was among the missing! This all happened while they were at
Bluff Point taking a much-needed vacation from their work at the Hostess
House.
In the volume directly preceding this, entitled "The Outdoor Girls at
Wild Rose Lodge," the girls had had same very exciting experiences. An
old man, Professor Dempsey, by name, who had retired to a little log
cabin in the woods to recover his health, had chanced to do the girls a
very great favor. Of course the girls were grateful to him and were very
much interested when he told them of his two sons who were in the war.
Later, when the girls read of the death of his two sons in the paper,
they went to the old man's lonely cabin in the woods, but found
themselves too late. According to a friendly neighbor, the old man had
become temporarily insane at the terrible news, had wrecked his cabin in
an insane frenzy, and disappeared.
Later, at Wild Rose Lodge, the girls were frightened several times by a
strange apparition lurking in the woods around the lodge and Moonlight
Falls, a beautiful fall of water not far from the cottage where the
girls were staying. Later the boys came home from France and helped the
girls solve the mystery.
And now here was Betty proposing another outing that promised to be more
fun than any the Outdoor Girls had had yet. No wonder that in the clamor
of their excited questions and answers no one heard the telephone
ringing noisily in the hall.
Finally the Nelsons' maid came trudging up the stairs to answer it
herself.
"If I can hear myself think," she grumbled, as she took the receiver
from the hook. "With all them girls a-gabberin' an' a-talkin' at the
top o' their lungs. Hello--I can't hear you--you'll have to talk
louder--you don't know the noise they is in this house. Miss
Betty?--jus' a minute----"
"A gen'leman to speak to you, Miss Betty," she announced a moment later,
looking in on the hilarious girls. "An' le's hope you can hear him
better'n I could, that's all," she grumbled, as Betty pushed by her in
the doorway and gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder.
"Oh, they'll keep quiet now, all right," she said, with a laughing
glance over her shoulder at her chums. "They'll want to hear what I have
to say."
At which taunt the girls started such a dreadful clamor that she really
had all she could do to hear Allen at the other end of the wire. Oh,
yes, it was Allen!
"Sech a noise," grumbled the maid, as she trudged down the steps again.
"I never did see sech wild uns!"
"Hello, hello, Allen," called Betty into the telephone. "The girls are
here and--what's that? At Walnut Street? All right, that will be fine. I
can't talk now. Tell you why later. Yes, we'll be there. Don't be silly.
Good-by!"
Her face was flushed when she confronted the girls again.
"The boys have a half holiday--it's Saturday, you know," she told them,
while they regarded her mischievously. "And they want us to pick them up
in the car, get some lunch somewhere, and make a day of it. I told him
we would."
"By 'him' I suppose you mean Allen," said Mollie, to which Betty ducked
her a bow and the other girls giggled. "I like their nerve wanting us to
pick them up. Why doesn't Frank come for us in his big car?"
"Allen figured it would take too long for them to come home and get it."
"My, they must be in a hurry to see us," said Grace, with a simper that
sent the girls off into gales of laughter.
"Well," said Betty finally, "are you coming, or are you not?"
For answer Mollie jumped up, pressed a hat upon Grace's indignant head,
handed Amy her coat, and crushed her own sport hat down on her dark
hair.
"Be this our answer," she said dramatically.