Meg of Mystery Mountain Part 8

Dan smiled down at the eager questioner. "Why, of course, he must, if he practices what I suppose he preaches; the brotherhood of man."

"Well, I certainly don't want to claim people like the ones we have met in Redfords as any kin of mine," Jane snapped as they all crossed to the stage that awaited them. Again the four white horses drooped their heads and the driver slouched on his high seat, as though at every opportunity they took short naps. But the horses came to life when the driver snapped his long whip and with much jolting they forded the stream.

"Oh, my; I'm 'cited as anything!" Julie squealed. "Wish something, Gerald, 'cause this is the first time we've ever been up our very own mountain road."

"There's just one thing to wish for," the small boy said with the seriousness which now and then made him seem older than his years, "and that's that Dan will get well. What do you wish, Jane?"

"Why, the same thing, of course," the girl replied languidly.

Gerald continued his questioning. "What do you wish, Dan?"

The boy thought for a moment and then he exclaimed, "I have a wonderful thing to wish. Wouldn't it be great if we could find the lost gold vein on our very own ten acres? Then Dad could pay the rest that he owes and be free from all worry?"

"Me, too," Julie cried jubilantly. "Now, we've all wished and here we go up the mountain."

The road was narrow. In some places it was barely wide enough for the stage to pa.s.s, and, as Jane looked back and down, she shuddered many times.

At last, when nothing happened and the old stage did stick to the road, Jane consented to look around at the majestic scenery, about which the others were exclaiming. Beyond the gorge-like valley in which was Redfords, one mountain range towered above another, while many peaks were crowned with snow, dazzling in the light of the sun that was now high above them.

The air was becoming warmer, but it was so wonderfully clear that even things in the far distance stood out with remarkable detail.

At a curve, Gerald pointed to the road where it circled above them.

"Gee-whiliker! Look-it!" he cried excitedly. "How that boy can ride." The others, turning, saw a pony which seemed to be running at breakneck speed, but as the stage appeared around the bend, the small horse was halted so suddenly that it reared. When it settled back on all fours, the watchers saw that, instead of a boy, the rider was a girl, slender of build, wiry, alert. She drew to one side close to the mountain, to permit the stage to pa.s.s. She wore a divided skirt of the coa.r.s.est material, a scarlet blouse but no hat. Her glossy black wind-blown hair fluttered loosely about her slim shoulders. Her dusky eyes looked curiously out at them from between long curling lashes. Dan thought he had never before seen such wonderful eyes, but it only took a moment for the stage to pa.s.s.

They all turned to look down the road. The pony was again leaping ahead as sure-footed, evidently, as a mountain goat, the girl leaning low in the saddle. Jane's lips were curled scornfully. "Well, if that is their mountain beauty, I think they have queer taste! She looked to me very much like an Indian, didn't she to you, Dan?"

The boy replied frankly: "I should say she might be Spanish or French, but I do indeed think she is wonderfully beautiful. I never saw such eyes. They seem to have slumbering soul-fires just waiting to be kindled.

I should like to hear her talk."

Jane shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I certainly should not. I have heard enough of this mountain dialect, if that's what you call it, to last me the rest of my life. I simply will not make the acquaintance of that--Oh, it doesn't matter what she is--" she hurried on to add when she saw that Dan was about to speak. "I don't want to know her, and do please remember that, all of you!"

"Gee, sis," Gerald blurted out, "you don't like the West much, do you? I s'pose you wish you had stayed at home or gone to that hifalutin watering place."

Jane bit her lips to keep from retorting angrily. Julie was still watching the small horse that now and then reappeared as the zigzagging mountain road far below them came in sight.

"That girl's going to school, I guess. Though I should think it would be vacation time, now it's summer," she remarked.

"I rather believe that winter is vacation time for mountain schools. It's mighty cold here for a good many months and the roads are probably so deep in snow that they are not pa.s.sable."

Dan had just said this when Gerald, who had been kneeling on the seat, watching intently ahead, whirled toward them with a cry of joy. "There's our log cabin on that ledge up there! I bet you 'tis! Gee-whiliker, we're stopping. Hurray! It's ours."

CHAPTER XII.

THE ABBOTT CABIN

It was quite evident that the picturesque log cabin which nestled against the side of the mountain on a wide, overhanging ledge was indeed their own. The road curved about twenty feet below it, and crude steps had been hewn out of the rocks. The small boy tumbled out of the stage almost before it came to a standstill.

"Oh, Julie, look-it, will you! We've got a real stairway leading right up to our front door. I'll beat you to the cabin."

Julie, equally excited, scurried up after her brother and reached the top almost as soon as he did. Then they turned and shouted joyfully to the two below them: "Jane! Dan! Look at us! We're top of the world."

"Oh, boy!" Gerald capered about, unable to stand still. "I'm glad I came.

I bet you, Julie, we'll have a million adventures, maybe more." But Dan was calling and so they scampered back down the rocky flight of stairs.

The older lad laughed at their enthusiasm. "I know just how you feel," he told them. "If I weren't afraid of shocking your sedate sister here, I believe I would--well--I don't know just what I would do."

"Stand on your head," Gerald prompted. "Do it, Dan. I'll dare you."

But the older boy was needed just then to tell the surly driver where the trunks were to be put. "Let me help you, Mr. Wallace." Dan made an attempt to take one end of a trunk, but the husky man, with the unchangeable countenance, merely grunted his dissent, and swinging a trunk up on his broad shoulders, he began the ascent of the steep stone stairs quite as though it were not a herculean task.

Dan followed. "Just leave them on the porch until we get our bearings,"

he directed. "We can move them in after we have unpacked." Then, from the loose change that he had in his pocket, he paid the man. A few moments later the stage rumbled on its way up the road, which circled the mountain and then descended to a hamlet in the valley on the other side.

As soon as the four young Abbotts were alone, Dan, slipping an arm about Jane, exclaimed: "Think of it, sister! Isn't it almost beyond comprehension that we have such magnificence right in our front door-yard." He took a long breath. The pine trees, though not large, were spicily fragrant. Then, whirling toward her, he caught both of her hands, and there were actually tears in his eyes as he said, "Jane, I'm going to live! I know that I am!"

Selfish as the girl was, she could not but respond to her brother's enthusiasm. The younger children had raced away on a tour of discovery.

Their excited voices were heard exclaiming about something they had discovered beyond the cabin. Clear and high Gerry's voice rang out: "Dan, Jane, come quick! We've found Roaring Creek, and it isn't making a terrible lot of noise at all."

But the older boy had noted the extreme weariness on his sister's face.

He well knew that she had sacrificed herself to come to a country which did not appeal to her; where she had to meet people whom she considered far beneath her, and she had done it all to help him get well. Instantly the boy decided that he would make Jane's comfort his first care, that her stay with him might be as pleasant as possible, and so he called back: "After a time, Gerald. Come on; I'm going to unlock the door. Don't you want to see what's on the inside of our cabin?"

"Oh, boy, don't I, though!" Gerry, closely followed by Julie, raced back to the wide front porch, which was made of logs. Dan took from his satchel a very large key and holding it up, he called merrily, "The key to health and happiness."

"You left out something," Gerry prompted. "It's health, wealth and happiness. Maybe we'll find that lost mine, who knows?"

Dan merely laughed at that. "Now," he said, as he put the key in the lock, "what do you suppose we'll find on the other side of this door?"

What they saw delighted the hearts of three of the young people. A large log cabin room with a long window on either side of the door. At the back was a crude fireplace made of rocks. There was no window on that side of the room, as a wall of the mountain came so close to the cabin that there would have been no view.

The rafters were logs with the bark still on, and the furniture had been made of saplings. There were leather cushions in the chairs, but the thing that made Gerald caper about, mad with joy, was a bearskin on one of the walls.

"Oh, look-it, will you, Dan? What kind of a bear is it? Do you think it is a grizzly, and do you s'pose it's that one Dad said came right down here to our ledge? Do you, Dan?"

The older boy looked at the rather small bearskin and shook his head.

"No, it isn't a grizzly," he said. "I think it is the skin of a black bear. But here is another on the floor in front of the fireplace. That's Dad's bear, I remember now. This old fellow was the grizzly who was unfortunate enough to come down here to try to help himself to Dad's supplies."

Jane had dropped wearily into a big chair that really was comfortable with its leather-covered cushions, and Dan, noting how tired she was, exclaimed:

"Jane, I'll unlock the packing trunk and get out some of the bedding, and if you wish, you may lie down for a while. Dad said there were two good beds here and several cots."

Gerald and Julie had darted through a door at one side and, reappearing, they beckoned to their big brother.

"We've found one of 'em," the younger lad announced. "It's in a dandee room! I bet you Jane will choose it for hers."