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Bolter's black mare." "Mr. Bolter's mare?" repeated Ida. "Now, tell me!" urged the excited Betty. "Didn't you come to Cliffdale to look for your aunt?" "Yes. That I did. But she isn't up here at all." By this time Uncle Dick and the others were gathered about the door of the hut. Jaroth, with a glance now and then at his horses, had even stepped inside.
Betty turned to see a gentleman in riding boots and a short coat with a dog-whip in his gloved hand, whom she believed at once to be Mr. Bolter. Nor was she mistaken. "She's a beauty, isn't she, my dear?" the horseman said kindly. "But I do not like that cough. I've made up my mind, Slattery. She goes to-morrow to Cliffdale, and of course you go with her. Pack your bag to-night.
Bolter has sent that beautiful black horse that he bought in England." "Oh, indeed? I heard of that mare. To Cliffdale? I believe there is a stockfarm there. It is some distance from my friend Canary's camp, however." "Do you suppose that girl got there?" whispered Bobby to Betty. "Even if she did, how disappointed she must be," Betty rejoined. "I am awfully sorry for Ida Bellethorne."
She is quite wonderful," said Betty; and while they gave Ida Bellethorne the attention she needed Betty told the doctor all about Hunchie and her ride through the forest. When Dr. Pevy heard about the broken wires in the road, he went to the house and telephoned to the Cliffdale power house to tell them where the break was. The linemen were already searching for it.
But across this ravine into which the road plunged, and slantingly, were strung much heavier wires feed cables from the Cliffdale power station over the hill. "Why, look at those icicles!" exclaimed Betty, with big eyes and watching the hanging wires ahead. "If they fell they would kill a person, I do believe!"
"Bill Kedders' hut," he said to Mr. Gordon. "'Tain't likely he's there this time o' year. Usually he and his wife go to Cliffdale to spend the winter with their married daughter." "Just the same," cried Bob suddenly, "there's smoke coming out of that chimney. Don't you see it, Uncle Dick?" "The boy's right!" ejaculated Jaroth, with sudden anxiety.
"There will be a pung come up from the station with grub enough before night. Furnished by the company. That is what I have come to see the conductor about." "I tell you what," said Betty's uncle, who was nothing if not quick in thinking. "My party were bound for Cliffdale." "That's not very far away. But I doubt if the train gets there this week." "Bad outlook for us.
"You're another!" cried Betty gaily. "Now come on! Maybe those boys will eat up all the dinner, and I am so hungry!" One of the men arrived from Cliffdale during dinner with the mail and the information that another cold rain was falling and freezing to everything it touched. "The whole country about here will be one glare of ice in the morning," said Mr. Canary.
Ida brought a good-sized suitcase out of the hut with her. She had evidently tried to walk from Cliffdale to the stockfarm, carrying that weight. The girls were buzzing over the appearance of the stranger and the boys stared. "Oh, Betty!" whispered Bobby Littell, "is she Ida Bellethorne?" "One of them," rejoined Betty promptly. "Then do you suppose she has your locket?" ventured Bobby.
"Oh, do you suppose," cried Libbie, big-eyed, "that we may be snowbound at Mountain Camp so that we cannot get back until spring?" "Not a chance," replied Uncle Dick, laughing heartily. "But it does look as though we may have to lay by for a night, or perhaps a night and a day, before we can get on to Cliffdale, which is our station." "In a hotel!" cried Betty. "Won't that be fun?"
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