CHAPTER XI
THE BARKING DOG
Disappointment, and not a little worriment, held the four girls silentfor a moment. Then Betty, feeling that it was her place to assume theleadership, said:
"Are you sure, little boy? A man told us, at the last dividing of theroads, to take the left, as that led to Rockford."
"Well, he didn't know what he was talking about," asserted the littlechap, with the supreme confidence of youth. "To get to Rockford you'vegot to go back."
"All that distance?" cried Grace. "We'll never make it in time."
"Isn't there a shorter way--some cross-road we can take?" inquired Betty.
"Who's got the candy?" inquired the little chap, evidently thinking thathe had already earned some reward.
"Here!" said Grace, hopelessly, holding out an almost emptied box. "Butplease--_please_ don't tell us we're lost."
"Oh, you ain't exactly lost!" exclaimed the urchin, with a grin. "I livejust down the road a piece, and it's only a mile to Bakersville. That's agood town. They got a movin' picture show there. I went onct!"
"Did you indeed?" said Betty. "But we can't go there. Isn't there someway of getting to Rockford without going all the way back to the fork?Why, it's miles and miles!"
"I wish I had that man here who directed us wrongly!" exclaimed Mollie,with a flash of her dark eyes. "I--I'd make him get a carriage and driveus to your aunt's house, Betty."
"That would not be revenge enough," declared Grace. "He ought to be madeto buy us each a box of the best chocolates."
"Nothing like making the punishment fit the crime," murmured Betty.
"Say, are you play-actors?" demanded the boy, who had stood inopened-mouth wonder during this dialogue. The girls broke into peals ofmerry laughter that, in a measure, served to relieve the tension ontheir nerves.
"Now do please tell us how to get to Rockford?" begged Mollie when theyhad quieted down. "We must be there to-night."
"Well, you kin git there by goin' on a mile further and taking themain road that goes through Sayreville," said the boy, his mouthfull of candy.
"Would that be nearer than going back to where we made the mistake?"Betty asked.
"Yep, a lot nearer. Come on; I'll show you as far as I'm goin'," and theboy started off as though the task--or shall I say, pleasure?--of leadingfour pretty girls was an every-day occurrence.
"We never can get there before dark," declared Mollie.
"Oh, yes, we will," said Betty, hopefully. "We can walk fasterthan this."
"If you do I'll simply give up," wailed Grace. "These shoes!" and sheleaned against a tree.
And to the eternal credit of the other girls be it said that they did notremark: "I told you so!"
Silently and unconcernedly, the snub-nosed boy led them on. Finallyhe came to his own home, and rather ungallantly, did not offer togo farther.
"You jest keep on for about half a mile," he said, "an' you'll come to across-road."
"I hope it isn't too cross," murmured Grace, with a grave face.
"Huh?"
The boy looked at her wonderingly.
"I mean not cross enough to bite," she went on.
"You turn to the left," the boy continued, "and keep straight on till youget to Watson's Corners. Then you turn to the right, keep on past an oldstone church, turn to the right and that's a straight road to Rockford."He looked curiously at Grace, as though in doubt as to her sanity. "Across road!" he murmured.
"Gracious, we'll never remember all that!" exclaimed Amy.
"I have it down!" said practical Betty, as she wrote rapidly in her notebook. "I'm sure we can find it. Come on, girls!"
"Have another candy," invited Grace, hospitably extending the now nearlydepleted box.
"Sure--thanks!" exclaimed the boy, but he backed quickly away from her.Her joke had fallen on a suspicious mind, evidently.
The girls trudged on, rather silent now, for somehow the edge of theirenjoyment seemed to have been taken off. But still they were notdiscouraged. They were true outdoor girls, and they knew, even if worsecame to worst, and darkness found them far from their destination, andBetty's aunt's house, that no real harm could come to them.
Successfully they found the various points of identification mentionedby the freckled boy, and at last they located a sign-post that read:
FIVE MILES TO ROCKFORD
"Five miles!" exclaimed Grace, with a tragic air. "We can never do it!"
"We must!" declared Betty, firmly. "Of course we can do it. Why, evenwith going out of our way as we did, we won't have covered more thaneighteen miles to-day. And we set twenty as an average."
"But this is the first day," said Mollie.
"We can--we _must_ get to Rockford to-night," insisted Betty.
Rather hopelessly they tramped on. The sun seemed to sink with surprisingrapidity after getting to a certain point in the western sky.
"It's dropping faster and faster all the while!" cried Amy, as theywatched it from a crest of the road.
"Never mind--June evenings are the longest of the year," consoled Betty.
They hurried on. The sun sank to its nightly rest amid a bed of golden,green, purple, pink and olive clouds, and there followed a glorious mazeof colors that reached high up toward zenith.
"Girls, we simply must stop and admire this--if it's only for aminute!" exclaimed Grace. "Isn't that wonderful!" and she pointed aslender hand, beautified by exquisitely kept nails, toward the gorgeoussky picture.
"Every minute counts!" remarked practical Betty. Yet she knew better thanto worry her friends.
The glow faded, and again the girls advanced. From the fields came thelowing of the cows, as they waited impatiently for the bars of thepastures to be let down. A herd of sheep was driven along the road,raising a cloud of dust. From farm houses came the barking of dogs andthe not unmusical notes of conch or tin horns, summoning the "men folks"to the evening meal.
"Girls, we're never going to make it in time!" exclaimed Grace as the skydarkened. "We must see if we can't stop at one of these houses overnight," and she pointed to a little hamlet they were approaching.
"Grace!" exclaimed Betty. "Aunt Sallie would be worried to death if wedidn't come, after she expected us."
"Then we must send her word. I can't go another step."
They all paused irresolutely. They were in front of a big white house--atypical country home. Betty glanced toward it.
"It's too bad," she said. "I know just how you feel, and yet can we go upto one of these places, perfect strangers, and ask them to keep us overnight? It doesn't seem reasonable."
"Anything is reasonable when you have to," declared Mollie. "I'll ask,"she volunteered, starting toward the house. "The worst they can say is'no,' and maybe we can hire a team to drive to Rockford, if they can'tkeep us. I can drive!"
"Well, we'll ask, anyhow," agreed Betty, rather hopelessly. She hardlyknew what to do next.
As they advanced toward the House the savage barking of a dog was heard,and as they reached the front gate the beast came rushing down the walk,while behind him lumbered a farmer, shouting:
"Here! Come back! Down, Nero! Don't mind him, ladies!" he added. "Hewon't hurt you!"
But the aspect, and the savage growls and barks, of the creature seemedto indicate differently, and the girls shrank back. Betty, reaching inher bag, drew out the nearly emptied olive bottle for a weapon.
"Don't hit him! Don't hit him!" cried the farmer. "That will only makehim worse! Come back here, Nero!"
"Run, girls! Run!" begged Amy. "He'll tear us to pieces!" and sheturned and fled.