“Can I count on that?” Janet asked when the other girls joined them.
“We are on our way home, girls,” sighed Carol, “and all our adventuring is over for another summer. Dear me, winter and school are dull times, don’t you think?”
“Yes!”
“No!” came simultaneously from Janet and Phyllis.
Carol had not spoken the whole truth. They were on their last long ride of the summer, but their adventures were not over, and this they were shortly to discover for themselves.
Chapter XVI
ALARM
The moonlight turned the ground to silver dust and gave the girls the appearance of ghostly white riders as, single file, they started on their journey back to the K Bar O ranch house. They were feeling a trifle sad and regretful that it was almost time to leave these wide open spaces they had grown to love, when all thought of the approaching parting was jogged out of them.
Janet, who had been riding behind Gale, turned her horse from the line to come up beside Phyllis. At the same moment something, presumably a squirrel or jack rabbit, darted across from the side of the trail in front of her horse. She had been riding with loose reins, her horse’s head drooping forward, and now, when her horse reared in sudden fright, she was almost unseated. The horse stood for a moment balanced on his hind legs, pawing the air wildly with his forehoofs, then came down to earth and raced away, Janet trying frantically to retrieve her reins.
Jim had joined them again for the return to the ranch house, and now the minute he saw Janet’s horse was a runaway, urged his own mount after the girl’s. Tom was a close second, with Gale right behind him. The others strung out behind the first three, all bent on catching the runaway or saving Janet from an accident.
The wild dash of her horse, taking her utterly by surprise, had knocked all thought from Janet’s head and now she could do nothing but cling grimly to her seat. Darn the horse! she thought exasperatedly. He was supposed to be tame and used to the wild life of the plains and hills, yet a little jack rabbit could scare him out of his wits! She flung a hasty glance over her shoulder and saw her friends bearing down on her. But as if her own horse decided he didn’t want to be caught, he put on a sudden spurt and widened the distance.