Chapter X: A Slippery Climb

For a few moments after the guide's ultimatum they plodded patiently along. No one noticed that the sky was cloudy until a shower of cold raindrops smote them in the face. Tommy and Margery cried out in alarm.

"Climb!" shouted the guide. "You've got to keep going. It isn't going to rain much. Just that one little cloud overhead."

But the cloud, though small, held a deluge of water which was poured directly down into the faces and over the heads of the Meadow-Brook Girls, drenching them. Furthermore, the water made the rocks so slippery that it became difficult for one to take a safe hold with either hands or feet. Progress became more slow, the ascent more difficult.

Janus proved himself a master in the art of climbing. The girls met with only one really dangerous situation during that afternoon's climb. That was when they came to a place where there were steep slabs of granite with no hand-holds. Over them the girls were obliged to pass with scarcely a foothold, what there were of these being almost too far apart for them to reach. The life line here came into use for the first time. The guide crawled over the rocks, taking one end of the line with him; then the girls, one by one, crept after him, clinging to the line, every step being made with extreme caution, for a slip would have meant a drop of about thirty feet and a landing on sharp, jagged rocks. It would not have been a long fall, but the landing was another matter.

Then, at the end, there was another difficulty. Here they had to work their way around a corner. Only one could move at a time, the others holding on tightly until she had reached a place where she, in turn, could brace herself while the next one moved up; and so on until all had passed the bulging rock that had seemed to bar their passage absolutely.

"Fine!" approved the guide. "You did it like veteran climbers."

"Where ith the camp?" wailed Tommy. "I can't go another thtep. I'm finithed."

"Rest a few moments," directed the guide.

"The shower is ended," announced Miss Elting.

"Let it rain some more," declared Jane McCarthy sturdily. "We can't get any wetter and the rain will help to cool us off. It doesn't seem to be far to the camping place."

"It isn't far in a straight line. We have to take a zig-zag course, you see," said the guide.

Janus waved his hand as a signal for them to start. Once more they took up the weary climb, crawling from rock to rock, slowly getting higher and higher, but at no time in danger of a long fall. The experience of a really perilous climb lay ahead of them for another day.

Twilight was just settling over the upper reaches of the mountain when they halted for the final climb to their night's camping place. In the ravines darkness already had fallen.

"You will all wait here while I crawl around and get to the shelf. I think some of you may have to be hauled up," decided the guide. The girls gazed up a sharply sloping slab of granite, fully twenty feet long. It followed a diagonal course, the top of it being some rods from the shelf where they were to make camp. But, reaching the top, they would be able to crawl along until they made the shelf, the only level spot between themselves and the very top of Mount Chocorua.

Janus disappeared from view to the left, appearing twenty minutes later at the top of the long, smooth slab. He held a coil of rope in his hands.

"Look out below," he called, sending the coil shooting down the slab of granite. "By taking hold of the rope, and bracing the body at the proper angle, you mountain climbers ought to be able to walk right up. Who is coming first?"

"Let Mith Elting go, tho we can laugh at her," suggested Tommy teasingly. "Thhe won't care if we laugh."

"Do!" giggled Margery.

"I shall be delighted if doing so will furnish you any amusement," answered the guardian calmly; "that is, provided you send Margery next, then Grace, and so on."

Harriet promised to see that the order was followed out as suggested. Miss Elting glanced up the sloping rock, took the line firmly in her hand, then waved a good-bye to the girls. She stepped cautiously to the rock, braced first one foot then the other, and leaned back until her weight was directed in the right way. She then began walking up the rock, hand over hand, with an ease that amazed the Meadow-Brook Girls. Janus reached over and took firm hold of the guardian's arm for the last step to insure her safety.

"I haven't heard any one laugh down there, girls," called the guardian, presenting a smiling face to them. "You next, Margery. I hope you can climb up as easily."

"Why, I didn't think it would be so easy. Of course I can do it. Tommy, you watch me carefully so you'll know how to walk up. It will be your turn next."

"Yeth," observed Tommy, winking solemnly as she caught Crazy Jane's laughing eyes fixed upon her.

Margery took hold of the rope, meanwhile gazing up the slippery slope. Her courage failed her for the moment; then, as the memory of the guardian's easy ascent came to her, she nodded confidently and began the upward climb.

"Lean well back," called Harriet.

"Hold fatht, girlth," cried Tommy. "If Buthter fallth there will be an earthquake. I thouldn't be thurprithed if the whole mountain fell in."

"Keep still, you make me nervous," rebuked Margery irritably. "Isn't it hard enough to climb this skating rink without being bothered by you?"

In her irritation Margery forgot to lean back. She began to lean forward to assist herself, believing perhaps she could make more rapid headway in the latter position, at the same time finding fault with the girls for making fun of her.

"Lean back!" came the warning shout from above and below. But the warning was not heeded in time. Margery Brown's feet slipped. She threw out her hands, though not soon enough to prevent striking her nose against the hard rock with such force that it seemed to the girls that it must have been driven into her face.

"Lean back, Buthter!" shouted Tommy, this time in all seriousness.

Instead of leaning back, Buster slipped back, landing at the foot of the incline a sobbing, screaming heap. Harriet and Jane sprang forward, gathering up the unfortunate girl in their arms. Margery's face was covered with blood. The blood was still streaming from her injured nose.

"Oh, get some water," cried Hazel.

"There is none to be had here," answered Harriet. "Does your nose hurt you much, Margery?"

"Oh, ye--ye--yes," sobbed the girl. "My nose is broken. Oh, what shall I do? What shall I do?"

"Wait!" Harriet tied the end of the rope to the back of Buster's belt. "We will let them pull you up. I think Mr. Grubb will know where to find water up there."

"I don't want to go up," protested Margery.

Jane was now mopping the blood from Margery's swollen face.

"Ithn't it too bad that Buthter ith tho awkward," said Tommy in a sympathetic tone. "I don't think thhe will ever reach the top of the mountain."

"Take her away! Take her away!" screamed Margery.

"Yes. Be off with you," ordered Jane. "You have about as much sympathy as these rocks."

"Is Margery seriously hurt?" called the guardian.

"Yeth. Thhe thkinned her nothe," Tommy informed her. "I gueth thhe will be all right, after thhe hath grown thome new thkin."

"Pull up, please," called Harriet. "Margery, lean forward this time and keep your hands at your sides. That is the way. Mr. Grubb will have you up there in no time. Tommy, I am ashamed of you for making fun of Margery when you knew she was suffering."

"I wathn't. I'm thorry that Buthter thuffered. I know what it ith to thuffer. Lotth of painful thingth have happened to me."

"Indeed they have, and we've all heard about them, too," said Jane sarcastically.

"See how nicely Margery is going up. That is the way we shall send you up, Jane dear," said Harriet, with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

"You will not!" retorted Crazy Jane indignantly. "I'll stay down first, and you know I will. But you're only joking and you know it."

"Hath Buthter broken her nothe?" questioned Tommy.

"I think not," replied Miss Elting. "Come, get started, Tommy. Mr. Grubb will assist you. I shall have to look after Margery's bruised face."

"I don't need any athithtanthe. I gueth I know how to get up there by mythelf. Bethideth, I don't want to thkin my nothe."

"Wait!" commanded Jane threateningly.

"No, I'm going. Look out! I'm coming. Get Buthter out of the way, pleathe."

"She doesn't know whether she is going or coming," was Margery's withering comment.

"Oh, thith ith eathy," declared Tommy. "All you have to do ith to take hold of the rope with both handth, lean back ath if you were looking at a bird flying over your head and--Thave me! oh, thave me!"

Had not Tommy quickly raised her head she might have sustained a fractured skull. Her feet left the rock and beat a positive tattoo in the air. A moment more and she had managed to entangle them in the rope and, powerless to help herself, shrieked and struggled frantically.

"Thave me, thave me! I can't move!" she screamed.

"You can use your voice, so don't worry," jeered Margery, who had forgotten her own misfortune sufficiently to laugh heartily at Tommy's predicament--in fact, they were all laughing. It was not often that anyone got the better of Tommy, and now that she had come to grief, the entire party, not excepting Miss Elting, could not resist teasing her a little.

"Thave me!" Tommy's screams had now become despairing wails.

"Just make believe you're watching a bird fly through the air," was Jane's sarcastic advice. "Lean back and take it easy."

"We will save you, Tommy. Pull her up, Mr. Grubb," urged Harriet, her sympathy overcoming her laughter.

"What, that way?" inquired Janus doubtfully.

"Yes, certainly."

Janus grinned, then began hauling in on the rope with both hands. He did it rapidly. Tommy began to move up the slope, her feet still entangled with the rope. Janus pulled stolidly, paying no attention to the torrent of expostulations that Tommy shrieked at him. Her companions were shouting, cheering and offering aggravating suggestions to the little girl, Margery Brown's voice being heard above the rest. It was the happiest moment she had known since the Meadow-Brook Girls had started out to spend their vacations in the open. Janus was grinning almost from ear to ear. Tommy lay on her back, gazing scowlingly up into the grinning face of the guide. Suddenly her expression changed. A look of cunning appeared in her eyes. Then Tommy Thompson turned the tables on her tantalizers in a way that set the party in a greater uproar. Janus Grubb, too, learned a lesson that he did not soon forget.