Harriet struggled to get out of her blanket, in which she had wound herself tightly. The tent was in darkness. She decided that the campfire had gone out. For a moment she had to think hard to recall where she was. Before she had untangled herself, the others of the party were struggling to free themselves from their blankets.
"What is it?" cried Margery in terror.
"Stay where you are! I don't know. Something is wrong out there," answered Harriet, hurriedly pulling on her skirt. "Dress yourselves. We don't know what—oh, look out!"
Something struck the tent a terrific blow, followed by a series of snorts and squeals. The tent began to waver.
"It's falling!" cried Miss Elting warningly.
"Get to the other side," shouted Harriet Burrell, herself leaping to the right-hand side of the tent in a single bound. Her companions fell, rather than sprang, aside. They were none too soon as it was, for the tent swayed, then lurched to the right, collapsing over the heads of the Meadow-Brook Girls amid the continued snorts of horses near at hand, accompanied by the sound of beating hoofs and the shouts of the two men at the other side of the camp.
CHAPTER VIII
CRAZY JANE'S "FIND"
Tommy, having been unable to free herself from her blanket, had rolled over and over until she reached the opposite side of the tent. Margery Brown, not having got out of the way, had been hit on the head by a tent-pole, which knocked her down and so dazed her for the moment that she lay whimpering where she had fallen.