“Oh! We’re here at last!” Gincy tumbled out hastily. “Whar do you git in?”
“Down the chimney, of course,” laughed Urilla. “Look for the ladder under the bungalow.”
“You might watch and see how I do it,” said Miss Howard, producing a key and going around to the rear of the building. Presently she pushed up sections of the side—one by one—and lastly threw back the wide front doors.
Gincy stood for a moment enraptured. Below for miles was a fair, level country dotted with towns—another world of which she knew nothing. The sun was dipping westward toward a bluish-purple horizon.
By five o’clock everything was in order. “Not a lazy bone among you,” Miss Howard assured them. “Now scatter and have a good time.”
They needed no second bidding. Lalla led off at a break-neck speed. “We’ll start in at the cave and come back by Fat Man’s Misery; it’ll land us right in front of the bungalow.”
Urilla groaned. “Sh-h-h,” warned Kizzie, “we’re going to initiate Gincy; none of us are fat enough to get stuck, so you needn’t worry.”
“I’m not worrying,” answered Urilla reproachfully. “I’m tired after all my work this morning, but I’m not going to back out.”
The path to the cave led through a grove of young oaks. There were tall ferns and rhododendrons, and mountain laurel. Lalla paused at an immense fallen tree which seemed to block the way; its great roots hung over the yawning space below. Nimbly she sprang upon the giant trunk and disappeared on the other side, calling for the rest to follow.
When the three had done so, they caught a vanishing glimpse of Lalla descending hand over hand on the strong branch of a mammoth grapevine. Thirty feet below she landed upon the level surface of a mossy boulder. Gincy followed Kizzie, and Urilla came last. Before them was the large opening of the cave—a favourite haunt of the students, who from time to time occupied the college bungalow. At its rear, a long, wide crack in the solid rock led in a zigzag direction for twenty rods or more. The path was extremely narrow, and sloping at a sharp incline. Kizzie dodged ahead and Gincy was close behind. Each moment the former grew more reckless; she gathered her skirts around her and slid down a swift descent, the others following.