First Betty and then Ida had to investigate. The latter looked very mournful.
"The horse can never travel to-day," she groaned. "You saw how he slipped about in the soft snow the other day when they had him out. He is not shod properly."
"If you only had Ida Bellethorne here!" cried Betty.
"But she is a long way off, and in the wrong direction. Why, none of us could walk on this ice!"
"How about skating?" cried Bobby eagerly.
"Mr. Canary says it is all downhill--or mostly to the railroad station,"
Betty said. "I would be afraid to skate downhill."
They dressed quickly and hastened to find Uncle d.i.c.k. He had long been up and had evidently canva.s.sed the situation thoroughly. His face was very grave when he met his niece and her friends.
"This is a bad lookout for our trip," he said. "I don"t really see how any of you will get to school on Monday, let alone Ida"s reaching New York to-morrow morning."
"Oh, Uncle d.i.c.k, don"t say that!" cried Betty. "Is it positive that we cannot ride or walk?"
"Walk twenty miles downhill on ice?" he exclaimed, "Does it seem reasonable? We can neither ride nor walk; and surely we cannot swim or fly!"
"We could fly if we had an aeroplane. Oh, dear!" sighed Bobby. "Why didn"t we think of that? And now the telephone wires are down."
But Betty was thoughtful. She only pinched Ida"s arm and begged her to keep up her courage--perhaps something would turn up. She disappeared then and was absent from the house, cold as the morning was, until breakfast time.
The whole party had gathered then, excited and voluble. It was not only regarding Ida"s need that they chattered so eagerly. In spite of the fun they were having at Mountain Camp, the thought that Shadyside and Salsette might begin cla.s.ses before they could get there was, after all, rather shocking.
"Measles is one thing," said Bob. "But being out of bounds when cla.s.ses really begin is another. The other fellows will learn some tricks that we don"t know."
"And somebody else may be put in our room, Betty!" wailed Bobby, as her chum now appeared.
Betty was very rosy and full of something that was bound to spill over at once. As soon as she had bidden Mr. and Mrs. Canary good morning she cried to all:
"What do you think!"
"Just as little as possible," declared Tommy Tucker. "Thinking tires me dreadfully."
"Behave, Tommy!" said Louise admonishingly.
"There"s a big two-horse pung here. I found it in the barn. Like Mr.
Jaroth"s. It has a deep box like his. And a tongue. It"s like a double-runner sled, Bob--you know. The front runners are independent of the rear."
"I know what it is, Betty," said Bob, while the others stared at her.
"I"ve seen that pung."
"Your observations are correct, Miss Betty," said Mr. Canary, smiling at the girl. "I own such a pung. But I do not own two horses to draw it. And I am sorry to say that the horse I have got cannot stand on this ice."
"Gee!" exclaimed Teddy, "if we got old Bobsky started down that hill he"d never stop till he got to the bottom. How far do you say it is to the station, Mr. Canary?"
"It is quite twenty miles down grade. Of course there are several places where the road is level--or was level before the snow fell. But once started there would not be many places where you would have to get out and push," and the gentleman laughed.
Betty"s mind was fixed upon her argument. Her face still glowed and she scarcely tasted her breakfast.
"I believe we can do it," she murmured.
"What under the sun do you mean, Betty?" asked Louise.
"I hope it is something nice we can do," said Libbie dreamily. "I looked out the window and it is all like fairyland--isn"t it, Timothy?"
"Uh-huh!" said Timothy Derby, his mouth rather full at the moment. "It is the most beautiful sight I ever saw. Will you please pa.s.s me another m.u.f.fin?"
But Bob gave Betty his undivided attention. He asked:
"What do you believe we can do, Betty?"
"Make use of Mr. Canary"s pung."
"Cricky! What will draw it? Where is the span of n.o.ble steeds to be found?
Old Bobsky would break his neck."
"One horse. One wonderful horse, Bob!" cried Betty clapping her hands suddenly. "I am sure I"m right. Uncle d.i.c.k!"
"What do you mean, Betty?" cried Bobby, shaking her. "What horse?"
"Gravitation," announced Betty, her eyes shining. "That"s his name."
"Great goodness!" gasped Bob. "I see a light. But Betty, how"d we steer it?"
"The front runners are attached to the tongue. Tie ropes to the tongue and steer it that way," Betty said, so eagerly that her words tumbled over each other. "Can"t we do it, Uncle d.i.c.k? We"ll all pile into the pung, with a lot of straw to keep us warm, and just slide down the hills to the railroad station. What say?"
For a while there was a good deal said by all present. Mr. and Mrs. Canary at first scouted the reasonableness of the idea. But Mr. Gordon, being an engineer and, as Bob said, "up to all such problems," considered Betty"s suggestion carefully.
In the first place the need was serious. Especially for the much troubled Ida. If she could not reach the dock on New York"s water-front by eleven o"clock the next morning, her aunt would doubtless sail on the _San Salvador_, and then there was no knowing when the English girl would be able to find her only living relative.
The party had ridden over the mountain road in coming to Mountain Camp, and Uncle d.i.c.k remembered the course pretty well. Although it was a continual grade, as one might say, it was an easy grade. And there were few turns in the road.
Drifted with snow as it was, and that snow crusted, the idea of coasting all the way to the railroad station did not seem so wild a thought. The road was fenced for most of the way on both sides. And over those fences the drifts rose smoothly, making almost a trough of the road.
"When you come to think of it, Jack," Uncle d.i.c.k said to Mr. Canary, "it is not very different from our toboggan chute yonder. Only it is longer."
"A good bit longer," said Mr. Canary, shaking his head.
However, it was plain that the idea interested Uncle d.i.c.k. He hastened out to look at the pung. Bob followed him, and they were gone half an hour or more. When they returned Bob was grinning broadly.
"Get ready for the time of your lives, girls," he whispered to Betty and Bobby. "The thing is going to work. You wait and see!"
Uncle d.i.c.k called them all into the living room and told them to pack at once and prepare for a cold ride. There was plenty of time, for the train they had to catch did not reach the station until noon.
"If our trip is successful--and it will be, I feel sure--it will not take an hour to reach the station. But we shall give ourselves plenty of time.
Now off with you! I guess Mrs. Canary will be glad to see the last of us."