Miss Landbury turned on her side and closed her eyes. She was taken care of, she should worry over Mr. Gooding!
"I don't want to stay in there by myself," said Gooding again. "Isn't there room out here?"
"Do you see any?"
"Well, I'll move in the room with you," volunteered David.
Miss Landbury sat up abruptly.
"We won't stay here without you, David," said Carol.
"I tell you what," said Gooding brightly, "we'll get my mattress and put it in the room for me, and we'll move David's mattress on Carol's bed for David, and then we'll move the girls' mattress in on the floor for them."
No one offered objections to this arrangement. "Hurry up, then, and get your mattress," begged Carol. "I am so sleepy."
"I can't carry them alone through those long dark halls," Gooding insisted. Miss Landbury would not accompany him without a third party, Carol flatly refused to leave dear sick David alone in that porch, and at last in despair David donned his bath robe and the four of them crossed the wide parlor, traversed the dark hall to Gooding's room and returned with mattress, pillows and blankets. After a great deal of panting and pulling, the little party was settled for sleep.
It must have been an hour later when they were startled into sitting posture, their hearts in their throats, by piercing screams which rang out over the mesa, one after another in quick succession.