"You can use your voice, so don't worry," jeered Margery, who had forgotten her own misfortune sufficiently to laugh heartily at Tommy's predicament—in fact, they were all laughing. It was not often that anyone got the better of Tommy, and now that she had come to grief, the entire party, not excepting Miss Elting, could not resist teasing her a little.
"Thave me!" Tommy's screams had now become despairing wails.
"Just make believe you're watching a bird fly through the air," was Jane's sarcastic advice. "Lean back and take it easy."
"We will save you, Tommy. Pull her up, Mr. Grubb," urged Harriet, her sympathy overcoming her laughter.
"What, that way?" inquired Janus doubtfully.
"Yes, certainly."
Janus grinned, then began hauling in on the rope with both hands. He did it rapidly. Tommy began to move up the slope, her feet still entangled with the rope. Janus pulled stolidly, paying no attention to the torrent of expostulations that Tommy shrieked at him. Her companions were shouting, cheering and offering aggravating suggestions to the little girl, Margery Brown's voice being heard above the rest. It was the happiest moment she had known since the Meadow-Brook Girls had started out to spend their vacations in the open. Janus was grinning almost from ear to ear. Tommy lay on her back, gazing scowlingly up into the grinning face of the guide. Suddenly her expression changed. A look of cunning appeared in her eyes. Then Tommy Thompson turned the tables on her tantalizers in a way that set the party in a greater uproar. Janus Grubb, too, learned a lesson that he did not soon forget.