CHAPTER XV
MONTRESOR"S CLAIM is JUSTIFIED
Polly turned to place the nuggets in the pannier and almost collided with Noddy.
"h.e.l.lo, darling! What do you want--eh?" said she, patting the burro"s head.
Noddy continued to gaze wistfully at her mistress and Polly said: "Anne, did you feed the burros and horses?"
"Yes, just as you told me to."
"And make the beds?"
"Yes, everything."
Then Noddy ambled over to a pan of dirty snow water, in which the explorers had washed their blackened faces. She would have to drink it, if her mistress couldn"t understand what she needed!
"Oh, you Noddy! Is _that_ what you want?" laughed Polly, taking the pan and running out to the ledge to fill it with clean snow. This she brought back and melted to provide drink for the burro.
"Did your thoughtless foster-mother forget a drink for her little Noddy!" crooned Polly, placing the pan for the thirsty burro. "After all that hard climbing and "first-aid," too!"
The other girls laughed at the wise little burro and her doting mistress, but Polly turned and said: "It"s lucky Noddy reminded me! We must water the horses well to-night if we want them in good shape for to-morrow."
So Eleanor and Polly gave drink to the thirsty animals while Anne took what was supposed to be a chocolate cake from the bottom of the pannier. It had been so shaken up during transit that the paper felt sticky.
While they all watched her open the bundle, Noddy went back to her finger-stall to sleep. Several wrappings of paper were unwound and finally Anne took forth the surprise Sary had mentioned in the morning.
"Why! It"s a lemon custard pie! Of all things!" cried Barbara.
"In the tin dish just as it came from the oven!" added Eleanor, laughing.
"Not quite like it was when it came from the oven, for such a shaken up mess of meringue and custard we never had at _our_ table!" laughed Polly, seeing the condition of the pie from the shaking and falling it had had when Choko went over the cliff.
"Any one want a slab?" asked Anne, laughing also.
"No, thanks! Maybe, if I was famished, I"d eat the crust, but it doesn"t appeal to me now!" said Polly.
"Well, I say, keep it until to-morrow! We may be glad to eat it in the morning if we are very hungry! It won"t hurt to save it, anyway!" said sensible Eleanor.
So Anne sat the pie-plate down where she was, intending to put it on the ledge when she got up from supper.
"Reckon I"ll put some more pine on the fires!" said Polly, seeing the flames were dying down.
She had raked up and replenished one fire, and was attending to the other when a blood-curdling cry came from the edge of the cliff, causing Polly to jump back and clutch at Anne"s arm.
"Mercy! How that frightened me!" said Polly, trying to laugh her fears away.
The other girls were trembling too, and Anne said, "It was a wolf, wasn"t it?"
"No, it was the cry of a panther! They wait and wait in quiet for a long time to get a chance at their prey, then if something interferes, they make that awful cry!"
"Oh, Polly! Can he get in, do you think?" wailed Barbara.
"I reckon not! But weren"t we lucky to have all that pine for the fires! It"s the best thing to keep him away!" said Polly, creeping out again to see if both fires were doing their duty.
Another howl reached the girls, and Eleanor said in a shaky voice, "He won"t jump over the fires, will he, Polly?"
"No, smoke and sparks frighten wild beasts from the vicinity. They know from instinct that forest fires kill and they are wary of them. But they haven"t the sense to know that a man-made fire is built on purpose to keep them away!"
"It must be awful late, Polly! If you think everything is safe, suppose we go to bed," Anne suggested after a long interval unbroken by any howls.
"All right! Let Bob and Nolla take the last two beds, while you and I take these in front. I"ll use this one where I can watch the ledge going up to the slope. If I see anything suspicious, I"ll shoot!" said Polly, examining the rifle and standing it by the side of the green-bough bed.
"For comfort"s sake, girls, unb.u.t.ton your clothes and remove your shoes. They can be dried by the fires to-night so they will feel better in the morning," advised Anne.
The pine fires were burning beautifully, and Anne, completely tired out, was soon asleep. Barbara and Eleanor had succ.u.mbed to weariness the moment they rolled over on the beds. But Polly, tired and fatigued, too, knew that some one must keep the fires going all night, so she merely reclined on the pine-bough bed and started up at every sound or crackle of the fires. She piled pine upon them all night through until the first faint gleams of dawn, and then there was no more wood on hand to use.
She worried over the fact that the pine had given out and just as she turned from the fires, having deposited the last small kindlings she had found lying about, she heard the yelping of the mountain-lion and the deep growl of a grizzly bear.
She ran and caught up the rifle, planning to shoot up at the cliff in a venture to frighten them away. She aimed, pulled the trigger, and the rifle-shot rang out making the echoes roar and roll through the chasm as if an army was shooting.
The three girls who had been sleeping, jumped out of the spruce beds and screamed with fright. Barbara ran madly over the ground, back and forth, not certain where to hide. Eleanor stood shivering and Anne rushed over to ask Polly what had happened. Polly explained in a whisper, and Eleanor, as in a trance, watched her sister running about with something that seemed to cleave to her foot closer than a porous-plaster. Finally, Eleanor came to her senses and ran over to keep Barbara from rolling under the burros for hiding.
"For the love of Mike! What"s all over your foot?" cried Eleanor, dragging Barbara out from the "finger-stall" to exhibit her foot to the other girls.
At sound of the unexpected shot, Barbara had jumped up frantically and darted hither and thither, taking little heed of where she ran. Now, as her companions gazed at that foot exposed by Eleanor, they all laughed hysterically while Anne shouted:
"Oh, our _custard pie!"_
And sure enough. Lemon meringue clung tenaciously to as much of a nicely-formed foot and lower limb as it possibly could. In spite of the fears over wild animals, the adventurers had to laugh at the sight.
"_How_ will I ever get it off?" wailed Barbara, when she realized how sticky the custard was.
"Rather ask: "How shall we dispense with our breakfast?"" retorted Anne.
But another mad howl from without now made the horses cry and quiver with dread, while the girls blanched in fear. Polly had not told them that the wood was used up, and now Anne ran to carry an extra armful of pine to replenish the fires. When she discovered the truth of the situation, she slowly turned and exchanged a meaning look with Polly.
But Polly now bent suddenly forward and intently eyed something she saw on the verge of the ledge above. She kept her eyes focused there, and carefully felt for and caught up her rifle. She silently lifted it, took aim, and fired!
A gleam of red and a spurt of blue came from the mouth of the gun even as the sharp report cracked the echoes in the gully. Instantly following the shot, a wild howling as of fifty beasts fighting, made Polly shoot again. Snarls and yelps followed, until Polly heard the clamor grow fainter until all was quiet once more.
"Well, girls! As long as we are fully awake, suppose we forage for breakfast and make an early start!" said Anne.
"Can we get away, do you think, Polly?" asked Eleanor.