By the time the four arrived at the camp, Tom and Jim were supporting Valerie. The excitement had buoyed her up, but now that the suspense was past, Val was utterly worn out.
Chapter IX
ON THE TRAIL
“Did you kill him, I hope?” Janet asked with keen excitement.
Valerie was in her tent asleep while Gale, after a substantial supper, told the others of what had happened to them. She had come to the part in their escape when she stopped and fired at the bandit when Janet voiced her opinion.
Gale shivered. “I hope I didn’t,” she declared. “I wouldn’t care to be a murderess.”
“I think there is not much danger of that,” Tom reassured her. “Those fellows are pretty hard to kill.”
“We were all nearly frantic,” Virginia said, a fond arm about Gale’s shoulders. “First we saw the rock fall and then when you didn’t come back--we didn’t know what to think or do!”
“That’s something else,” Gale said, “that rock didn’t fall of its own accord. It was pushed.”
“Are you sure?” Carol demanded.
“I saw the man,” Gale said positively. “Something, I don’t know what, made me look up just as we were walking under it.”