The girls seemed to think the plan a good one, so the hamper and extra seat were soon hidden inside the Cave.
[CHAPTER TWELVE—AN UNPLEASANT SURPRISE]
When dinner was cleared away, Mrs. Vernon and the scouts gathered young spruce tips from the trees growing so profusely near the Cave. These were woven into a soft springy mattress on the floor of the buckboard, by placing a row of tips where the head would be. The next row of tips was so placed that the stems ran under the soft resisting tops of the former row. So on, row after row was woven, until the floor of the vehicle was covered.
Mr. Gilroy was then helped up and partly carried over to the spruce-bed. He had been preparing for this ordeal, and managed to get up on the buckboard, but then he sank back in a half-faint. The scouts were at hand, however, with water and a paper fan.
The return trip took more than two hours, and when the trail was followed that led direct to the camp Hepsy jogged along without urging and without balking.
Joan and Julie sat on either side of their patient, with their feet dangling from the rear. Mrs. Vernon drove Hepsy very carefully, and the animal seemed to sense that she must step circumspectly. Not a bowlder or rut did she cause the vehicle to encounter.
“For which we are duly grateful to tricky old Hepsy,” declared Julie, as they neared the camp.
The scouts entertained Mr. Gilroy on this ride down the mountainside, so that he smiled and almost forgot he was a patient. In fact, the scouts forgot he was a stranger, so pleasant was this middle-aged man of forty-five, with his fine face and gray hair.
On the last hundred yards to the Camp, Hepsy pricked up her ears.
“She smells oats for supper, and a good bed,” laughed Joan.