CHAPTER XIX
BOWLING IN NATURE'S ALLEY
Contrary to expectations the Overland Riders slept soundly all throughthe night, but the moment they crawled from under their blankets in themorning, they began to shiver.
"Come on! Take a run with me," urged Tom.
"Please go away and let me die," moaned Emma.
"We must have exercise to start our blood circulating," reminded Hippy.
"I don't want exercise. I want something to warm me up on the inside,"protested Stacy.
Grace and Elfreda, holding hands, were already dancing about ingrotesque fashion, taking long draughts of air into their lungs, thecolor rising to their faces as the circulation of their blood respondedto their lively movements.
"Never mind, folks," comforted Hippy. "If you will all take a livelysprint, then a snow-wash, I will give you something that will please youand fix you up in great shape."
"I shall be past all human help long before that," answered Emma.
"Why don't you transmigrate yourself to a warmer clime for an hour orso?" suggested Stacy.
Tom Gray nodded to Hippy, whereupon Lieutenant Wingate took from hispack a tiny alcohol stove, which he filled from a small bottle andlighted. Over the stove he placed a coffee pot full of white snow dugfrom underneath the crust where it was not tainted with what Stacy hadbeen pleased to characterize as a "turpentine taste." As the snow meltedin the coffee pot, more snow was added until there was sufficient fortheir use. The Overlanders, quickly discovering that something unusualwas going on, ran to the coffee-maker.
"Wha--at's this?" demanded Elfreda.
"An alcohol stove--a hot cup of coffee for each in a few moments,"chuckled Lieutenant Wingate.
"Hippy Wingate, did you have that last night?" demanded Emma.
"Yes."
"And you let us suffer with cold and eat a coffeeless supper?" rebukedNora Wingate.
"You lived through it. Why kick, now that you are about to have a warmdrink?"
"We ought to throw you off the mountain," declared Grace.
"Don't do it till he gets the coffee ready," urged Stacy.
"The reason that I did not use the alcohol kit last night was that I hadonly enough alcohol to burn the stove for one meal," explained Hippy. "Iknew that you would be in more urgent need of coffee in the morning thanyou were last night."
"I withdraw my suggestion that we throw you over," laughed Grace.
"Are you ready?" called Lieutenant Wingate. "The coffee is."
"Are we ready? Just watch us," cried Emma Dean.
Each had an individual cup, and Hippy passed lumps of sugar to them fromhis own kit. They had no milk, but there was no complaint, for theOverlanders were glad enough to get the coffee black. This, with somebiscuit and cold venison, comprised the meal, but they declaredunanimously that they had never had a more appetizing breakfast.
"I have decided," announced Stacy finally, "not to be a party to theplan to throw Uncle Hip overboard--at least not to-day. Good-morning,Sun! Welcome to our happy home," he added, bowing to the rising sun.
Tom called attention to two birds circling over them, which he said werejays looking for crumbs, whereupon the girls broke up pieces of hardtack and sprinkled them over the ground a few yards from the camp. Thejays swooped down on the crumbs, chattering and scolding. Grace thensuggested that, having reached the "top of the world," they resume theirjourney and explore the lower ridges, taking the whole day for theirreturn to camp. The first quarter of a mile down was a slide rather thana walk, but the Overlanders made merry over their frequent mishaps,finally reaching a long granite slope on the south side of the mountainwhere there was little snow. There, the sun's rays blazed down all daylong, and there many sparkling streams had their origin.
About them the ground was strewn with boulders from the size of a man'shead up to great spheres of flint-like stone, many as round andglistening as though they had been turned and polished by man.
"Oh, look at the beautiful lake!" cried Nora enthusiastically, pointingto a body of water in the valley far below them. "What is it?"
"It doesn't appear on my map. I don't know what it is," answered Tom.
"Perhaps it is the Aerial Lake that we have been warned against,"suggested Grace.
"I was thinking of that myself," nodded Tom. "There are trees growing inthe lake, but what are those glistening objects farther out?"
"Rocks," replied Grace, after focusing her binoculars on the shiningmarks.
"I wonder if I can hit one of them," said Stacy, picking up a roundstone which he sent rolling down the smooth granite slope. The stoneshot over a broad, shelving rock, leaped far out into the air, then,after what seemed an interminable time, splashed into the lake. TheOverlanders saw a tiny spurt of water as the stone struck the surface ofthe lake.
"Folks, I've got an idea. Greatest thing you ever heard of, too," criedHippy.
"Throw it over the cliff," suggested Emma. "The very best possible useto which you can put your ideas."
"That is exactly what I am going to do, my dear Emma. Just watch mysmoke."
The Overland Riders were puzzled to know what Hippy had in mind. First,he cut several tough lodge poles, then selecting a boulder half as highas himself, Hippy easily pried it from its resting place with a pole andstarted it down the slope. The boulder soon began to roll, gainingmomentum with the seconds, striking fire as now and then it came intocontact with sharp projections of rock.
The boulder finally hit the shelving slabs of granite at the edge of thecliff with a mighty crash and leaped out into the air. The party watchedits projectile-like flight with fascinated gaze.
Then came the splash into the lake. The Overlanders did not hear thesplash but they saw the water spurt up into the air like a miniaturegeyser, and fall in a silver shower over a wide area.
"Hurrah!" shouted Stacy, tossing his hat into the air.
Tom Gray was excited, and so were his companions. Stacy Brown wasalready prying at a boulder with a pole, while Hippy had run to anotherone and was digging an opening into which to insert his lever, using aflat stone for a fulcrum. Many of the boulders lay resting on the slopeand thus were easily thrown out of balance.
"Wait!" cried Elfreda. "We will have a game of bowling."
"Yes, and the highest one that was ever played," exclaimed Grace.
"And I'll be Rip Van Winkle. Show me a soft place to lie down andsleep," cried Stacy.
"Where are the ninepins?" demanded Emma. "One cannot bowl without havingsomething to bowl at."
"Use the trees down yonder in the lake," suggested Hippy. "The one whomakes the first score will be free of camp duties for the nexttwenty-four hours."
"I won't play," declared Chunky. "I know you want to work some sharpgame on me."
"And the one who makes no score at all must do the work for all thosewho do make scores," added Elfreda laughingly.
The fat boy sat down stubbornly.
"Go on with your game," he said.
"What's the matter? Don't you want to play, Honey?" asked Nora.
"No. I'm going to be the umpire," answered Stacy.
"As you please," laughed Hippy. "You will have to do the chores anyway.Folks, I am going to try to hit the third tree to the left of that groupof rocks near the middle of the lake. Now watch me."
Hippy started a rock, which he had selected with great care. It boomedover the ledge, observed in breathless silence by the spectators, thenhurtled far out over the lake, finally smashing into the blue waters,throwing spray high in the air.
"A miss!" shouted the Overlanders.
"He missed it by half a mile," jeered the umpire. "Why don't you changeyour sights? You are shooting over the mark."
"It's a Hit!"]
Tom took the next try. He balanced his rock, after having pried itloose, and made it ready for the fall, and sent it crashing along on itsway. As nearly as the eye could measure, Tom's boulder fell some twentyrods
to the right of the tree aimed at. Tom then made ready a boulderfor Grace. She failed to hit the lake, and derisive howls greeted hereffort. Elfreda and Nora did a little better than that. Both hit thelake, but nowhere near the mark they had aimed at.
Stacy got up slowly and yawned.
"You folks make me tired. You ought to go to night school and learn howto roll stones. Why, even our little transmigrating Emma could beat yousharps at throwing stones. Emma, will you roll if I fix a boulder foryou?" questioned Stacy.
"Yes, if you promise not to play tricks on me."
Stacy winked at Emma and nodded sideways to the others, as indicatingthat the trick was to be played on them, then snatching up his pole heran to a boulder that he had some time since selected for his own.
After prying the rock into proper position, squinting and sighting andsurveying the rock from all sides, he nodded to Emma and offered thepole to her.
"Take it easy. If you can't move the rock I'll lend you a hand,"whispered Stacy.
"Ladies and gentlemen, you are now about to witness one of Emma Dean'smost notable transmigration feats. Keep your eyes on the performer andyou will see that she has nothing up her sleeve--nor under her hat,"announced Hippy Wingate.
"Tip it over!" commanded Stacy, throwing his weight on the pole withEmma. "Watch the two twin-trees down there, but look sharply or youwon't see them when they disappear from the face of the earth," hewarned, strolling back towards his companions.
Emma's boulder, not being quite round, moved very slowly at first, andonce it threatened to stop altogether and go no further, but finally,gaining new impetus, it started savagely on its way to the ledge, whereit did a clumsy hop into the air, then dived for the lake.
"It is going to hit the lake!" cried Grace.
"What did you think we were trying to hit?" demanded Stacy. "If it is ahit--if little Emma makes a killing, I did it. If she misses, she didit."
"It's a hit!" yelled Lieutenant Wingate.
"You don't say?" wondered Stacy, turning quickly, the most amazed memberof the Overland party.
Cheers greeted the achievement as two trees standing side by side in thelake disappeared as if by magic. Stacy threw out his chest and paradedback and forth with folded arms, an expression of dignified superiorityon his face.
"I don't have to work for a whole week," observed Stacy.
"Oh, yes you do," answered Elfreda. "You know you weren't in thegame--you are only the umpire. Further, Emma won the roll, and will havea vacation until to-morrow afternoon."
"There goes my Hippy's roll!" cried Nora, and for the moment attentionwas centered on Lieutenant Wingate's rolling boulder. It made a cleanhit, knocking down a tree close to the water.
"The racket must be terrific down there," said Grace. "Hippy, you surelyraised a disturbance with that last shot."
Tom tried once more and sent a boulder into the lake. The Overlandersplainly heard the impact, and could see a shower of broken rock beingdistributed over the surface of the lake.
Suddenly a new sound smote the ears of the Overland Riders, a familiarsound that they had heard many times in France and on their journeys intheir own land.
"What's that?" demanded Stacy.
"That?" answered Hippy. "Why, that is a butterfly lullaby. You surelyought to know that sound by this time."
"_Woo, woo, woo!_" was the sound that smote their ears again.
"Down, all of you! We're under fire!" shouted Tom Gray.