CHAPTER XX

“I’M SHOT!” CRIES EMMA

“Home!” cried Nora and Emma in chorus. “No, no, no!”

“Why go home?” wondered Miss Briggs. “I thought we had just started on our adventures.”

“Don’t oppose,” whispered Grace.

“So that’s the game, is it?” chuckled Hippy, who had been regarding Tom narrowly, and saw by the expression of Captain Gray’s face that he had a definite motive in making the announcement that they were about to head towards home.

“All right, Grace. He did not say that we are going home,” answered Miss Briggs in reply to Grace. “I might have known. To leave here now, with Stacy missing, and our affairs in the air, as it were, would be unthinkable. I am afraid my brain is becoming addled.”

“You should demonstrate,” reminded Emma, and Elfreda nodded her approval of the sentiment.

Preparations for the departure had already been begun by Captain Gray, and now Hippy turned in to assist him. Tom soon left to get his horse, which had been tethered not far from camp. He had refused to answer questions as to how he found the camp, nor did Grace ask, but the others did.

When all was in readiness for leaving, packs lashed, horses saddled, Tom, taking the diary and the gold, went to the rock and hid the stuff as the message from Stacy had directed them to do.

“Mount!” ordered Tom upon his return from planting the book and the gold, and he doused the fire, making certain that every last spark was extinguished. He then swung into his saddle and led the way, heading south, followed silently by the others of the party. They wondered how, in the darkness, he could find his way, but Tom was taking the stars as his guides. He was too experienced a forester not to be able to go in any direction in a forest, day or night, and go almost unerringly.

The Overlanders were sleepy and not any too happy. They were worrying about Stacy, too. There was little conversation because it was necessary to give all attention to their riding. Riding in a forest at night is a trying experience, and sometimes a painful one when one considers the bumps, the collisions of legs against trees, and the slaps in the face from low-hanging bushes. All this the Overland party experienced, so their progress was slow.

They had proceeded about an hour when a distant rifle report was heard. It seemed to come from the rear. Tom called a halt to listen. A rattling fire sprang up, and continued for several minutes; then died out after a few further scattering shots.

“Can you locate it, Tom?” called Hippy.

“I should say that the firing is somewhere near the camp we left,” replied Tom.

“Oh, how strange,” cried Emma. “Why are they fighting there, and who is it that is fighting?”

“Quite possibly it is the bandits fighting over J. Elfreda’s gold,” suggested Grace as the party, at a command from Tom Gray, moved forward again. Some time later the leader called back that they were about to come upon a small watercourse and that they would follow it.

“We shall probably find plenty of overhanging bushes, so protect your faces,” he directed.

They wondered how he knew that they were near a stream. Tom said he could smell it.

“Wonderful scent,” growled Hippy. “Perhaps you can tell us whether or not the water is wet.”

“It may be for you if you don’t watch your step,” answered Captain Gray laughingly.

They entered the stream a few moments after that, and the going proved to be even worse than Grace’s husband had predicted. Bushes hung over the stream and met, forming a bower so low that the riders had to lean well forward to protect their faces from being continuously whipped. Not alone that, but the horses were constantly slipping on moss-covered stones, threatening at every moment to unhorse their riders.

Emma wailed her protests ere they had proceeded far, but Tom said they must take their medicine and be good sports.

“I don’t want to be a sport,” complained Emma. “I want to sleep.”

“Demonstrate over it,” advised Lieutenant Wingate.

It was just before daylight when Tom headed out of the stream through a narrow defile in the rocks, finally coming to a halt on a level piece of ground of about three acres, surrounded on all sides by mountain forests.

The Overlanders could not see their surroundings clearly, but got a general idea of them, and immediately begged their leader to let them dismount for a rest and for a bite to eat.

“All right! Go to it,” cried Tom Gray, setting them the example by dismounting and removing the saddle from his horse.

As the day began to dawn, the girls gazed interestedly at the terraced forest, at the green carpet of mountain meadowland that lay at their feet through which flowed a sparkling stream of water, then up at the dawning day. It was then that Grace made a discovery.

“Why, Tom, we have been traveling north, not south!” she exclaimed.

“Too true, Loyalheart,” answered Captain Gray with a jolly note in his voice.

“Then we are not on our way home?” cried Nora.

“No. We are going on into the Cascades, in the foothills of which we now are. We are going to find Stacy, and then—perhaps we shall find something else. First, folks, we shall have to meet and reckon with the bandits of the range. They are determined that we shall not make a move that they do not check.”

“Do—do you think they are watching us now, Tom?” begged Emma with concern.

“Possibly, but I rather think they are fully occupied at present. I will let you into a secret. The purpose of leaving Elfreda’s gold and the old prospector’s diary was to trap the bandits and attack them.”

“Who will attack them?” Elfreda asked.

“Certain officers of the law who were lying in wait about the camp even before you left there. It was a battle on our campground that you heard—a battle between the officers and the bandits of the range. We will now get breakfast and have forty winks of sleep, provided we are not interrupted.”

Sleep was welcome, even more so than breakfast. The meal was quickly disposed of and the Overlanders lay down with their clothes on, Tom advising them to be ready to move at an instant’s notice.

They had not been asleep long ere the crash of a rifle brought all members of the party to their feet.

“Lie down and stay down!” commanded Captain Gray, setting the example by throwing himself to the ground. Tom knew what the others did not—that a rifle bullet had sped low over the spot occupied by the Overlanders.

Then came a heavy scattering fire from two sides of the mountain meadow, and now they could plainly hear the bullets singing overhead.

Frightened, Emma Dean sprang up to run to the cover of the trees and as she ran they saw her throw up her hands.

“I’m hit! Oh, I’m shot!” she cried, and pitched forward in the deep meadow grass.