Nan Sherwood at Rose Ranch | Page 9

Rhoda, rather scornfully. She did not see anything funny
in all this.
"It will be a pretty deep well you will plop into," threatened Amelia.
"Ready, slaves?"
"Your slaves are slavishly ready," called Laura from the platform. "Let
the sawney climb the ship's taffrail and be plunged into the sea."
"We ought to tie her hands behind her," said one girl, as they marched
down the room.
"No," said Nan.
"That is right," said Amelia. "We must give her a chance to swim when
she strikes the water."
"Oh, fiddlesticks!" murmured Rhoda.
But Nan saw Laura run and fill a big dipper with water from the spigot

and give it to one of the other girls, who climbed quickly to the
platform. Then Laura came to seize the victim's other arm. She and Nan
marched Rhoda, willy-nilly, down the room and up the steps to the
platform.
Rhoda stumbled on each step and held her head down. Nan, therefore,
judged that Rhoda could see a little from under the bandage. But she
did not call Laura's attention to this fact.
"Mount her quickly, slaves!" called Amelia from below. "Force her to
walk the plank instantly!"
There had been a stepladder set up against the first horizontal bar set,
right at the end of the plank. Nan saw that the mattresses were all in
place and that a fall from the plank would only be about three feet.
Such a fall was not likely to be serious, and to girls used to athletic drill
it seemed a mere nothing. And yet--
"Come on!" commanded Laura, half lifting Rhoda up the stepladder.
"Careful, Laura!" whispered Nan. "If she should fall--"
"Then she will escape drowning," said the red-haired girl, coolly and
aloud.
"Fudge!" muttered the victim, who seemed in a very much disgusted
mood.
"Beseemeth the candidate is not sufficiently impressed by her
situation," hissed Laura.
She and Nan had scrambled up the steps with the blindfolded Rhoda.
There was a cross-plank which gave the three uncertain footing.
"Oh, look out!" gasped Nan, wavering herself upon the edge of the
plank.
"Hey! We don't want to have to raise the 'man overboard' cry just yet,"
grumbled Laura. "Easy there, Nancy!"

Nan whispered in Rhoda's ear: "Walk straight ahead. It isn't hard. I'll be
ready to catch you."
"Out on the plank, sawney!" commanded Amelia from below.
Laura pushed Rhoda ahead. The candidate for initiation, even if she
could see a little from under the bandage, had at best a very uncertain
idea of where she was, or where she was going. Besides, with one's
eyes practically blinded, it is very difficult indeed to walk a chalk line,
even on the floor. And this plank that was far from steady was only
about a foot in width.
"Oh!" ejaculated Rhoda, one foot before the other and her arms waving
for a balance. The parasol did not help much.
"Oh! oh! oh!" was the prolonged wail from the crowd below.
"You--think--you're--so--smart!" Again the Western girl teetered back
and forth. Laura gave her another slight push. Rhoda took one more
step, and let the parasol fall.
"Good!" encouraged Nan.
"Treason!" croaked Laura, observing Nan's encouragement of the
candidate.
"Have a care, sawney," declared Amelia Boggs sternly. "A false step
and you are lost! The ravening sea is below you. Feel the spray dashing
in your face!"
Quick as a flash the girl with the dipper filled her palm with water and
threw it upward. It spattered into Rhoda's face and she jerked back her
head.
The motion destroyed the balance she had gained. She uttered a stifled
ejaculation and wavered again. Laura stretched out a hand and
wickedly nudged the victim.
"Oh, don't!" yelled Nan, and she leaped down upon the mattresses.

Rhoda completely lost her equilibrium. She uttered another scream and
stepped out into space.
"Man overboard!" shouted Laura.
And as Rhoda fell the girl with the dipper flung its contents over the
flying figure of the new girl.
CHAPTER V
RHODA IS UNPOPULAR
The blindfolded Rhoda came down so awkwardly that Nan feared she
would be hurt. The girl from Tillbury screamed a warning--which was
useless.
But in that exciting moment Nan noted something that afterward gave
her a sidelight upon Rhoda Hammond's character. As the Western girl
felt herself going she snatched off the blindfolding towel.
Self-possession! Rhoda owned that attribute, largely developed. She
was cool, if angry.
When she landed on the padded platform, she fell on her knees, and the
fall must have jarred her. But she was up in a flash, and the girl with
the dipper, Minnie Wolff, found herself in the muscular grasp of
Rhoda's arms.
"There, now, I've had enough of this foolishness!" snapped the Western
girl, limping toward the platform steps. "I've wrenched my knee, and I
should