Betty Gordon at Mountain Camp | Page 8

on ordinary occasions. But the frost the night
before had been a hard one and the air was still tingling with it. In the
shady places the pools remained skimmed over. A gallop over the
fields and through the woodland paths put both the horses and riders in
a glow of excitement.
Perhaps Betty was a little careless--at least too confident. Her gray got
the lead and sped away across some rough ground which bordered a
ravine. Bob shouted again for her to be careful, and Betty turned and
waved her hand reassuringly to him.
It was just then that Jim slipped on the edge of the bank. Both of his
front feet slid on an icy patch and he almost came to his knees. Betty
saved herself from going over his head by a skillful lunge backward,
pulling sharply on the reins.
But the horse did not so easily regain his foot-hold. The edge of the
bank crumbled. Betty did not utter a sound, but the girls behind her
screamed in unison.
"Stop! Wait! She'll be killed!"
Betty knew that Bob was coming at a thundering pace on his brown
mount; but the gray horse was on its haunches, sliding down the slope
of the ravine, snorting as it went. Betty could not stop her horse, but
she clung manfully to the reins and sat back in her saddle as though
glued to it.

Just what would happen when they reached the bottom of the slope was
a very serious question.
CHAPTER IV
A SECOND IDA BELLETHORNE
The ravine was forty feet deep, and although the path, down which the
gray horse slid with Betty Gordon on his back, was of sand and gravel
only, there were some boulders and thick brush at the bottom that
threatened disaster to both victims of the accident.
Swiftly and more swiftly the frightened horse slid, and the girl had no
idea what she should do when they came, bumpy-ti-bump to the
bottom.
She heard Bob shouting something to her, but she did not immediately
comprehend what he said. Something, she thought it was, about her
stirrups. But this was no time or place to look to see if her stirrup
leathers were the proper length or if her feet were firmly fixed in the
irons, which both Bob and Uncle Dick had warned her about when first
she had begun to ride.
Although she dared not look back, Betty knew that Bob had galloped to
the very edge of the ravine and had now flung himself from his saddle.
She heard his boots slam into the sliding gravel of the hill. He shouted
again--that cheery hail that somehow helped Betty to hold on to her fast
vanishing courage.
"Kick your feet out of the stirrups, Betty!"
What he meant finally seeped into Betty's clouded brain. She realized
that Bob Henderson, her chum, the boy she had learned to have such
confidence in, was coming down that bank in mighty strides, prepared
to save her if it was possible.
The gray horse was struggling and snorting; he was likely to tumble
sideways at any moment. If he did, and Betty was caught under him----

But she was not caught in any such crushing pressure. It was Bob's arm
around her waist that squeezed her. She had kicked her feet loose of the
stirrups, and now Bob, throwing himself backward, tore her out of the
saddle. He fell upon his back, and Betty, struggling and laughing and
almost crying, fell on top of him.
"All right, Betty! All right!" gasped Bob. "No need to squeal now."
"Who's squealing?" she demanded. "Let me up, do! Are you hurt,
Bob?"
"Only the wind knocked out of me. Woof! You all right?"
"Oh, my dear!" shrieked Bobby at the top of the bank. "Are you killed,
Betty?"
"Only half killed," gasped Betty. "Don't worry. Spread the news.
Elizabeth Gordon, Miss Sharpe's prize Latin scholar, will yet return to
Shadyside to make glad the heart of----"
"She's all right," broke in Tommy Tucker, having dismounted and
looking over the brink of the bank. "She's trying to be funny. Her neck
isn't broken."
"I declare, Tommy!" cried Louise Littell admonishingly, "you sound as
though you rather thought her poor little neck ought to be dislocated."
"Cheese!" gasped Teddy, Tommy's twin. "You got that word out of a
book, Louise--you know you did."
"So I did; out of the dictionary. There are a lot more of them there, if
you want to know," and Louise laughed.
"Oh!" at this point rose a yearning cry. "Oh!" I just think he is too dear
for anything!"
"Cracky! What's broke loose now?" demanded Tommy Tucker, jerking
back his head to stare all around at the group on the brink of the high
bank.

"Who is too