CHAPTER XII
PERIL--AND A TAFFY PULL
It seemed to Ruth Fielding, as the toboggan dashed down the chutetoward that strange object in their course, as though her lips wereglued together. She could not speak--she could not utter a sound.
And yet this inaction--this dumbness--lasted but a very few seconds.The thing upon the slide lay more than half way down the hill--aquarter of a mile ahead when her stinging eyes first saw it.
Toward it the sled rushed, gathering speed every moment, and theobject on the track grew in her eyes apace. When her lips parted shescreamed so that Isadore heard her words distinctly:
"Stop, Izzy! There's something ahead! Look!"
Of course it was foolish to beg of the boy to stop. Nothing couldhalt them once they had started upon the icy incline. But her crywarned Isadore of the peril ahead.
He echoed her cry, and was as panic-stricken as the girl herself. Atfirst, the thing looked like somebody lying across the slide. Had oneof their friends fallen off either of the other toboggans, and beentoo hurt to rise? Then, the next instant, both Isadore and Ruth knewthat the thing was too small for that.
It was really a jacket that Bob Steele had tied about his neck bythe arms. On the way down the sleeves had become untied and thejacket had spread itself out upon the slide to its full breadth.
It didn't seem as though such a thing could do the coming tobogganany harm; but Ruth and Isadore Phelps knew well that if it went uponthe outspread coat there would be a spill. It would act like a braketo the sled, and that frail vehicle on which the three young folkrode would stop so abruptly that they would be flung off upon the icycourse.
Ruth at least understood this peril only too well; but she made nofurther outcry. Jennie Stone's eyes were still tight shut.
One moment the outspread jacket lay far before them, across thepath. The next instant--or so it seemed--they were right upon it.
"Hang on!" yelled Isadore, and shot his boot-heel into the icysurface of the slide.
The toboggan swerved. Jennie uttered a cry. The sled went up theleft hand dyke like a bolting horse climbing a roadside wall or aside hill.
In Ruth's ears rang the shouts of their friends, who were cominghastily up the hillside. They could do nothing to help the endangeredcrew, nor could the latter help themselves.
Up the toboggan shot into the air. It leaped the shoulder of thedyke and--crew and all--darted out into space.
That was certainly an awful moment for Ruth Fielding and her twocompanions. Jennie's intermittent squeal turned into a sudden shriek--as keen and nerve-racking as the whistle of a locomotive. IsadorePhelps "blew up" with a muffled roar as he turned half a somersaultin the air and landed headfirst in a huge snowdrift.
That is how the girls landed, too. At least, if they didn't diveheadfirst into the drift, they were pretty well swallowed up in it.And it was providential that they all did find such a soft cushionwhen they landed.
Their individual shrieks were broken off suddenly by the smotheringsnow. Their friends, on the other side of the slide, came plungingacross the course, and Bob Steele, slipping on the smooth surface,kicked up both feet high in the air, landed with a crash on the smallof his back, and finished the slide to the very bottom of the chutein that most undignified position.
Bob's accident turned the whole affair into a most ludicrous scene.Tom Cameron laughed so hard that he scarcely had the strength to helpthe girls out of the snowdrift. As for Isadore, he had to scrambleout by himself--and the soft snow had got down his neck, and he hadlost his hat, his ears were full of snow, and altogether he was inwhat Madge Steele called "a state of mind."
"Huh!" Izzy growled, "you all can laugh. Wait! I'll get square withyou girls, now, you better believe that."
And he actually started off for the camp in a most abused state. Theothers could not help their laughter--the more so that what seemedfor a few seconds to promise disaster had turned out to be nothingbut a most amusing catastrophe.
This ended the coasting for this particular evening, however. JennieStone was pried out of the snowdrift last of all, and they all wentto the bottom of the hill where Bob Steele sat with his back againsta tree trunk, waiting, as he said, for the "world to stop turningaround so fast." His swift descent had made him dizzy.
They all ran back to Snow Camp, catching up with Isadore before hegot there with his grouch, and Tom and Bob fell upon the grouch anddumped it into another snowbank--boy and all--and managed in thescuffle to bring Busy Izzy into a better state of mind.
"Just the same," he declared, "I'll get square with those girls forlaughing at me--you see if I don't!"
"A lot of good that'll do you," returned Tom Cameron. "And whyshouldn't they laugh? Do you suppose that the sight of you on yourhead in a snowbank with your legs waving in the wind was something tomake them _weep_? Huh!"
But when they got inside the big hall, where the two fires burned,Izzy forgot his grouch. There was a basket of popcorn and several"poppers" and the crowd of young folk were soon shelling corn andpopping it, turning the fluffy, snow-white kernels into big bowls,over which thick cream was poured, and, as Jennie declared, "they atetill they couldn't eat another crumb!"
"Isn't it just grand?" cried Belle Tingley, when the girls hadretired to the big room in which Ruth Fielding had slept alone thenight before. "I never did know you could have so much fun in thewoods in the dead of winter. Helen! your father is just the dearestman to bring us up here! We'll none of us forget this vacation."
But in the morning there were new things to go and learn. Theresources of Snow Camp seemed unending. As soon as breakfast was overthere was Long Jerry ready with snowshoes for all. Tom and Helen, aswell as Bob Steele, were somewhat familiar with these implements. AndRuth had had one unforgettable experience with them.
But at first there were a good many tumbles, and none of the partywent far from the big lodge on this occasion. They came into the mid-daydinner pretty well tired, but oh, how hungry!
"I declare, eating never seemed so good before," Bob Steelemurmured. "I really wish I could eat more; but room I have not!"
Heavy went to sleep before the fire directly after the meal, but wasawakened when the girls all trooped out to the kitchen to makemolasses taffy. The boys had gone with Long Jerry to try to shootsquirrels; but they came back without having any luck before thegirls were fairly in possession of Janey's kitchen.
"Let us help--aw, do!" cried Tom, smelling the molasses boiling onthe range and leading the way into the kitchen.
"You can't cook anything good to eat when there are boys within amile, and they not know it," sighed Jennie Stone.
"Or be able to keep them out of it," declared Madge Steele. "Isuppose we shall have to let them hang around, Helen."
"I tell you!" cried Helen, who never would go back upon her twin,and who liked to have him around, "we'll make some nut candy. There'snuts--half a bushel of them. The boys must crack and pick the nutsand we'll make some walnut taffy--it will be lots nicer than plaintaffy."
"Oh, well, that _does_ put another face upon the matter,"laughed Lluella Fairfax.
"But they must all three whistle while they're picking out thenuts," cried Heavy. "I know them! The nut meats will never go intothe taffy pan if they don't whistle."
Tom and his chums agreed to this and in a few minutes they were allthree sitting gravely on the big settee by the fire, a flatiron ineach boy's lap, each with a hammer and the basket of nuts in reach,and all dolefully whistling--with as much discord as possible. Thewhistling did certainly try the girls' nerves; but the boys were notto be trusted under any other conditions.
Busy Izzy, however--that arch schemer--had not forgiven the girlsfor laughing at his overset on the toboggan slide the night before.And as he sat whistling "Good Night, Ladies" in a dreadful minor, heevolved such a plan for reprisal in his fertile mind that his eyesbegan to snap and he could hardly whistle for the grin that wreathedhis lips.
"Keep at it, Mr. Isadore Phelps!" cri
ed Ruth, first to detect Izzy'sdefection. "We're watching you."
"Come! aren't we going to have a chance to eat a single kernel?"Izzy growled.
"Not one," said Helen, stoutly. "After you have the nuts cracked andpicked out, we'll spread the kernels in the dripping pans, the taffywill then be ready, we'll pour it over, and then set the candy out tocool in the snow. After that we'll give you some--if you're good."
"Huh!" grunted Isadore. "I guess I know a trick worth two of that.We'll get our share, fellows," and he winked at Tom and Bob.