CHAPTER III
_THE WASH-OUT_
"This time tomorrow we'll be at Benito!" exclaimed Kit. "I do wonderif mother will be there to meet me. I'm homesick for a sight of her."
The heat was intense as they sped through the desert. Smallsand-storms swirled across the flat land, and filled their train. Theywere dirty and tired. They would all be glad when the little desertstation of Benito would be reached and they could transfer to theautomobiles that would carry them to the hills and the ranch.
Summer storms raged ahead of them, big black clouds that threatened.The girls watched from the windows the deluge of rain in the distance.
"That's what we call a cloud-burst," said Kit with a pleased smile."It's good to get home again!"
"Do you mean," asked Joy, "that you are glad to see that terriblestorm? You _must_ be homesick if _that_ pleases you."
"I love it!" Kit answered.
Suddenly the train jerked to a stop, and all heads came to the windowto see the cause of the delay. The train had been flagged. "Dangerahead!"
"What's the matter?" Bet called to the conductor, who had descended andwas walking toward the engine. "A wash-out! That cloud-burst you sawtore away a bit of the track. We'll be stalled here for hours, verylikely."
The heat seemed worse than ever now. As long as the train was going,there was some breeze, but at a stand-still, the sun blazed down on theroof of the car and made it almost unbearable.
Soon it became apparent that the delay might be longer than theyanticipated.
"There's a good hotel at the next station," said the conductor. "Ifyou will ride in the work train ahead, you can go in there in a fewminutes."
"Oh, do let us!" cried Bet who was always ready for somethingdifferent. "We've never ridden in a work train in our lives."
With Sam's help they carried Mrs. Breckenridge across the broken tracksand into the work train. The girls laughed with pleasure as theysettled themselves in the box car.
Bet suddenly had a new idea. "Judge Breckenridge, the engineer says Ican go in the engine with him, if you will let me. Please say yes,"Bet's face was rosy with excitement. "This might be the only chanceI'll ever have to ride in the engine, and I'd hate to miss it."
The Judge hesitated but finally gave in. And when Bet joined herfriends at the hotel in Willowmere she said:
"It doesn't seem quite fair that we are starting out with so manyadventures. It will make the summer seem so uneventful."
"That's just what I was thinking," added Kit anxiously. "I'm so afraidyou'll be disappointed. There aren't many adventures in the mountains.It is just one day after another. Nothing new, nothing to do, no placeto go, and absolutely nothing ever happens, nothing thrilling, I mean."
"That's what we've decided that we want this year. We'll learn to ridehorseback well and we'll learn to use the rope, that is if we ever can,which I doubt," laughed Bet. "And we can read and lazy around. I callthat an ideal summer."
After lunch at the hotel, the girls started out to explore thesettlement. "I love those adobe houses of the Mexicans," said Enid."Let's go over and get acquainted with some of the women."
But the women were shy. Most of them disappeared into the huts as theysaw the girls approaching. Only the children remained and stopped intheir play to stare at the newcomers.
"Aren't they pretty when they're little! Look at those dreamy blackeyes!" whispered Enid to Bet, who was trying to coax one small girl tocome and get a piece of candy.
Suddenly there was a scream and from the house at the end of the streeta small boy dashed out of the door, his clothes a mass of flame.
"It's Pedro Alvarez!" cried a Mexican woman nearby. But she made noattempt to do anything. And the other women were screaming but seemedhelpless to rescue the child.
Bet did not wait to ask for a quilt or rug, there was no time for that.She quickly slipped out of her dress, and catching the little fellowwrapped him tight in the gown, smothering out the flames.
One look at the burns and she cried, "Oh the poor boy! Get the doctorquickly, Kit."
While Bet held the child, Enid tore the half burned clothes from hisbody.
"Bring oil!" Bet shouted, but the women seemed dazed and did notunderstand. Bet looked about her desperately. "Run to the hotel,Enid, and get oil, lots of it. Will that doctor never come!"
Kit at that moment came running back with the word that the doctor wasaway and would not be back until noon.
The child's mother stood helplessly by, wringing her hands in despair.She watched as Enid returned and poured the oil upon the burns.
"I wonder what they would have done if we had not been here," whisperedShirley as the screams quieted down in the settlement. "They don't actas if they knew anything about such things."
Bet held the little fellow in her arms until his cries ceased, thengetting clean sheets and pillows from the hotel they fixed up a bed forhim.
Later on, when the doctor arrived and examined the boy, he declared hecould not have given any better treatment than the girls had done.
"I'm so glad we were right here on the spot," said Bet. "We weretrying to get acquainted with the children when it happened."
After the accident, it was an easy matter. The children followed themabout the settlement and the women offered them all that their smallstores contained. They insisted that the girls must eat tamales,enchilades, tortillas and all the other Mexican dishes that theycooked, with corn meal and peppers.
And when the train left late that night, the whole settlement turnedout to bid them good-bye.
"What a miserable time we would have had," exclaimed Joy as she wavedher hand back toward the station, "if it hadn't been for thoseMexicans."
Much to the disgust of Sam, a package had been sent aboard by thegrateful mother of Pedro Alvarez. It contained more of the Mexicancooking that the girls had praised.
But only Joy really cared for it. "Of course it burns, but can't youget that wonderful flavor?" she exclaimed as Shirley and Bet turned uptheir noses at the food.
"You like anything that can be eaten!" said Bet with a laugh.
Shirley had brought away many picturesque bits of western life from thelittle settlement. "If they just come out as lovely as they were inthe finder, I'll have some beauties to send back to Colonel Baxter."
The girls were too excited to drop to sleep quickly that night. Earlythe next day they would reach Benito.
"Dad says that Tommy Sharpe will be there to meet us," said Enid. "Iwonder if he has grown?" Enid had found this boy on Campers' Trail.He was half starved and ill. And when her parents had found her, Enidinsisted that the child who had helped her, should be looked after.Judge Breckenridge, on the advice of the doctor, had sent the boy tohis ranch in Arizona, hoping that he would grow strong.
"Oh, I almost forgot about Tommy," said Bet. "Won't we be glad to seehim!"
"I do wish Dad and Mum would come to meet me. I don't suppose theywill, but I don't see how I can wait until I get to the hills."
"I think they'll come," said Enid.
At the first peep of dawn Kit was awake. She dressed quickly and wentto the window in the drawing room to watch the sun rise on the desert.
Out of the violet-grey mist, streaks of rose shot out like longfingers, reaching far up into the sky. Kit stood it as long as shecould alone, then ran and wakened the girls.
"Do come, girls, you don't know what you're missing."
Slipping into robes, they quickly joined Kit at the window.
"Isn't this gorgeous!" Kit's breath came almost in gasps, so excitedwas she at the spectacle. "Now you never saw anything as gorgeous asthat in the way of a sunset over the Hudson. Own up, Bet, you know youhaven't!"
"No, Kit, this is magnificent. Do you have this every day?"
"Almost," she answered.
The mountains caught the glow and turned to purple and rose, and deepshadows of blue, and sometimes a bare mountain side shone out like go
ld.
Shirley had pointed her camera toward it, then put it away, saying, "Itwon't look like anything in black and white."
"I am going to try and make a sketch of it," said Bet as she flew backto her room for her note book and colors. "But if I painted it thatway, no one would believe it. It's too vivid, too spectacular!" shesighed.
Kit often tried to sketch when Bet was at it, but this morning she wastoo excited to settle down. She walked about the car like a restlessanimal.
She was glad when Sam announced an early breakfast. Not that she washungry, but it put in time and that was good. The hour to wait untilthey reached Benito was one of the longest she had ever known.
"The next station is ours!" called the Judge. "Everybody ready!"
But Kit was already standing at the door, her suitcase beside her.
Kit had tears in her eyes. It wasn't often that she gave way, but whenthe train pulled into the station, the tears were running down hercheeks.
The Judge's car came to a stop at last at the siding of the station.Benito was a typical desert settlement, the very last link withcivilization. For beyond the three squat adobe shacks, lay the sandy,cactus-dotted land that stretched far out in every direction to therising foothills that skirted the rugged peaks.
"Oh, girls!" cried Bet. "Isn't this wonderful?"
"Yes, just like the movies. I've seen it dozens of times, and I almostexpect to see the villain and the handsome cowboy ride up this veryminute!" laughed Joy.
"Kit, come here!" called Bet.
But Kit was missing from the group. Her arms were thrown about atanned, alert little woman. What she was saying the girls could nothear, but they could guess.
Finally she broke loose and with a wave of her arm she cried: "Come on,girls, it's Mum!"
The Merriweather Girls in Quest of Treasure Page 3
