Chapter IX: Scaling the High Cliffs

"Sit down, darlin's," commanded Jane, after the eager girls had reached their campfire. "Sit down and make yourselves comfortable."

"For goodness' sake, tell us!" exclaimed Margery. "Can't you see we are all just perishing with curiosity?"

"Yeth. I'm motht thuffocated from holding my breath," declared Tommy. "But Buthter ith thuffocated hecauthe she ith tho fat. Don't you think it ith awful to be tho fat, Mr. Januth?" She gazed, in apparent unblinking innocence, at the solemn-faced guide, who answered with twinkling eyes.

"I dunno, Miss. I never was fat. Never had time to eat enough to make me fat."

"That ith too bad," answered Tommy sympathetically.

"Come, come, Jane, don't keep us in suspense. What did you find, or didn't you find anything at all?" urged Miss Elting.

"Don't worry. I made a find, but you never could guess, if you lived a thousand years, what I found. I couldn't have guessed it either. Nor could Harriet, as sharp as she is. Now, listen, darlin's. I found--I found--oh, if you knew how funny you all look! I found an old pair of specs--spectacles. I fooled you that time, didn't I?" she chuckled, hugging herself delightedly. "You thought it was something wonderful."

"Oh, fudge!" said Margery disgustedly. "I might have known you weren't in earnest."

"I call that real mean of you, Jane," pouted Hazel Holland.

Miss Elting laughed tolerantly, nodding at Harriet as though to say, "I told you so." But Harriet's gaze was fixed on Crazy Jane's face. Harriet knew very well that there was something more to be said; that Jane really had made an important discovery, and that, after having teased her companions to her satisfaction, she would tell them the rest of the story.

"Spectacles were made to assist people in seeing. Suppose you let us see, Jane," suggested Harriet.

"Now, now, Bright Eyes, don't be hasty," chided Jane. "Do you really wish to see?"

Harriet yawned as though completely indifferent.

"I am not so curious over your discovery that I cannot wait until morning to hear about it. I'm sleepy and I am going to bed, provided I can find one," she replied, rising and stretching herself indolently. "Good night, Jane."

"Wait!" Jane knew that Harriet meant exactly what she said. She knew that it was time to stop trifling and to explain. "If you must see them, here they are." She drew the "specs" from a pocket in her skirt, holding them at arm's-length suspended from a string that the wearer had fastened to them to keep the glasses over his eyes.

Harriet and Miss Elting uttered an "Oh!"

"I thought you would say something when you saw them," chuckled Jane. Her face was flushed; her eyes sparkled triumphantly.

"Huh! Goggles!" grunted Janus.

"You have guessed it the first time," cried Jane.

"Green goggles! Do you see that, girls?" cried Harriet excitedly.

"They are, indeed," breathed the guardian.

"Well, I swum! Where'd you find them?" questioned the guide, interested, but failing to catch the real significance of Jane McCarthy's discovery.

"Oh-h-h-h!" chorused the Meadow-Brook Girls.

"And I believe they are the very same," declared Harriet, nodding thoughtfully over the goggles, which she had taken from Jane's hand. "You certainly have made a find. I think we are beginning to understand, Miss Elting."

"Yes. Mr. Grubb does not, though."

"Some one dropped them; I understand that well enough. But the spectacles themselves don't tell us who the fellow is by a long shot. I know you ladies have discovered something about the 'specs' and I'd like pretty well to hear what it is."

"You are wrong in one way, Mr. Grubb. These goggles do tell us who dropped them, if our surmises are correct."

"You don't say?"

"Yes. Do you recall the little experience we had on the station platform at Compton on the evening of our arrival?"

"You mean about the fellow who tried to make you believe he was I?"

"Yes. But perhaps you have forgotten our telling you that the man wore goggles?"

"Well, I swum!" Janus stroked his whiskers nervously.

"Yeth. Tho did Harriet. And thhe got wet," observed Tommy flippantly.

"Later on that same evening," continued Miss Elting, "we saw the man again on the porch at the post-office. You remember how you and Harriet hurried down the steps after him. As he stood with his back to the window she had discovered that the goggles were green. These may or may not be the identical goggles, but I believe they are."

"I haven't the least doubt of it," interjected Harriet. "These have a white cord on them, as you can see. So did those worn by the man that night."

"I saw the fellow you mean," interposed Jim. "I wondered who he was. I was at the station to see if your party had come in. This fellow was keeping out of sight a good deal, but I plainly saw the specs on him. Then I didn't see him any more. He must have hit the trail up the mountain."

"Well, I swum!" repeated Janus.

"I think you ought to compel the authorities to do something when you get back to Compton," said the guardian. "I believe this man of the goggles is determined to wreak vengeance on us, and for some reason that we know nothing about."

"I have it!" cried Harriet excitedly. "Now I know who that man who called on you reminded me of. Collins was the man of the green goggles. Oh, why didn't I think of it before?"

"But Mr. Collins wore a beard; the other man did not," objected Miss Elting.

"I can't help it. They were one and the same. Does that help you any, Mr. Grubb?"

The guide shook his head.

"Tell them all about it when you get back, Jim. The sheriff'll run the fellow down. I shouldn't be surprised if the sheriff came out here. You tell him where we are going. You better get started now. No need to wait till morning. You young ladies turn in. I shall keep watch during the rest of the night. I take no more chances. It is time for something to be done, rather than to wait till it's too late."

"I agree with you," answered the guardian, emphasizing her conclusion with an emphatic nod. "Now, girls, go to bed, as Mr. Grubb suggests. I shall be with you in a few moments We must get as early a start as possible."

"Yes, the trouble begins in the morning," agreed Janus. "But I reckon the young ladies are good for it. They are pretty well seasoned, but they will find themselves thoroughly fagged before to-morrow night."

It was not long afterward that the girls were sound asleep, not to be awakened until an hour after daylight. When they emerged from their torn tent they were greeted by the welcome odors of breakfast, which the guide now had ready to serve. After breakfast began the hard climb up the mountain, but the Meadow-Brook Girls approached it joyously. It was worth while because they were accomplishing something. Packs were made ready immediately after breakfast. Fairly staggering under their burdens, the party set out up a very fair pack trail, a short cut to the Shelter, part way up the side of Mount Chocorua.

The Shelter was reached about the middle of the forenoon. The girls dropped their burdens and threw themselves down, breathing hard, with flushed faces and bright eyes. Even Margery seemed to be taking a real interest in life, though she had complained a little of the bump on her head, which was even more tender than it had been the previous night after she had been hit by the tent pole.

"No time to waste. You young ladies get the luncheon ready while I am fixing the packs," called the guide. "We must reach the Sokoki Leap before night, or we shan't have a good place to sleep. I am going to leave a good part of the equipment here. We will pick it up on our way down to-morrow afternoon."

The girls dragged themselves to their feet and began preparing the light luncheon that they had decided upon. It would not be wise to eat a heavy meal now, with the work of the afternoon before them. In the meantime Mr. Grubb assorted their belongings into neat packs. They were bacon, rice and flour, coffee and a little corn meal, together with seasonings and butter, with a small bag of sugar and a can of condensed milk. One tin plate apiece and "one to grow on," a spoon, a knife and a fork for each member of the party, one frying-pan, a coffee pot and a tin cup apiece, made up the bulk of their equipment. In addition to this a belt-hatchet was worn by each member of the party, the guide carrying long, slender but strong ropes that would be needed if difficult climbs were attempted. Janus ceased his labors long enough to drink a cup of coffee and eat some biscuit. He told the girls to leave out enough bacon for the entire party for two meals, figuring for three thin slices apiece to the meal. Margery demurred at being limited to three thin slices of bacon. She declared she should perish of hunger.

After luncheon the girls repaired to the hut to make ready for their climb.

"Now, girls," began Miss Elting, "before starting I wish to caution you that you must obey the guide. He understands mountain-climbing. I have done a little climbing but not enough to qualify as an expert. And, remember, no pranks while we are climbing; a single slip might result seriously for all of us. Which way do we go, Mr. Grubb?"

"Around back of the Shelter. There is an easy trail leading up to the top, but that isn't the way you want to go. You want to climb. You shall. Have you your belts on?" He glanced over the girls critically. "All right," he added, "follow me."

Janus led the way around a rear corner of the Shelter, after having labeled and stowed their packs in the hut. He said they would be perfectly safe there, that no one would disturb them. But the girls were rather amazed when, instead of beginning to climb up, the guide started down a sharp incline, calling to his charges to follow.

"Thith ithn't up," cried Tommy.

"We have to go through this gully first of all, then we begin going up," he explained.

The couloir proved to be something of a hard proposition right at the beginning. Jagged rocks, sudden narrow miniature gullies, bushes with sharp thorns, slippery, treacherous shale, made the descent a trying one. Once Margery lost her footing on one of these shale shelfs. She fell flat on her back and slid screaming a full twenty yards, shooting out on a grassy slope little the worse for her slide, except that she had been badly frightened.

Tommy was delighted.

"Wouldn't Buthter make a fine toboggan?" she laughed.

Reaching the bottom of the gully, a long, narrow crevasse in the mountain, they began the real ascent. Up and up they went, now and then lying against a rock, to which they clung, out of breath from their exertions, their faces flushed and warm. Far above them Janus pointed out a little projection of rock that seemed no larger than a human hand.

"That," said the guide, "is where we camp to-night,"

"Thave me!" wailed Tommy.

"Keep going. We _must_ reach the Sokoki Leap before dark," urged Janus. And far up there on the mountainside the Meadow-Brook Girls fixed their gaze on the bit of rock that was to be their sleeping place, and where they were to spend a night more full of interest than they dreamed.