Page:J Allan Dunn--The Girl of Ghost Mountain.djvu/103

Rh Circle S, leaving Sheridan and his foreman to complete the gate and the ingenious arrangement for lifting the bar. It was a formidable affair when at last they tested it and stood off and surveyed it.

"Some job," said Jackson, gathering up the tools left behind by Stoney, and wrapping them in his slicker. He nodded in confirmation of Sheridan's statement.

"I'll feel a lot less anxious about the girls from now on. We'll wash up a bit, Red, and then we'll tell them of the latest addition to their premises." This they did at the waterfall and went through the tunnel, up the gorge, hardly less grim by daylight, on to the meadow and the lake. Sheridan carried a package of candy and magazines, sent for to Metzal. It represented the bet of ten dollars between him and Jackson. Red had volunteered to call the wager off, allowing that Mary Burrows's whistling offset the fiddling of Thora, and they had compromised on the mutual gift.

"All gels are strong for candy," opined Red. "I don't imagine Thora Neilsen will go very heavy on them magazines, but she may. I've bin driven to readin' myself, times when I didn't have nothin' else to do."

They found the two girls digging in their garden. They both came around the house at Sheridan's "Halloo!" Thora enormous and impressive in jean overalls, the girl charming in riding breeches, both frankly unaware of the lack of skirts, frankly glad to see their visitors. Mary Burrows was slender and as finely set up as a deer, Sheridan fancied,