Peggy laughed, but a little uncertainly, although she was really less concerned than the other two girls, not having been aware of her own danger.
“After all, Bettina dear, I am the one to be grateful to Vera—not you.”
She held out her hand. There was always something a trifle boyish about Peggy, she was so direct.
“It would have been pretty horrid to have started the summer with an accident, and Tante would have been absurdly worried. Billy told me what a lot of courage you had. I should have been sorry if you had suffered because of me. It was stupid of me to have been so careless. Enough people have warned us to look out for dangers here, but the country is so alluring one forgets that evil things love the sun as well as the good.
But Vera had come forward and was picking up the scattered luncheon which she had thrown down in her haste.
“Please don’t say anything more,” she remarked a little impatiently. “What I did was the simplest thing in the world. You must remember I have lived outdoors and worked in the fields since I was a little girl. In Russia we used to take the babies out to the fields in baskets, and some one had to watch by them. Promise me not to speak of this again.” Vera flushed. “Billy is mistaken in thinking I am brave; only there are some things I am not afraid of. I am a coward about others.”
There was no doubting her sincerity and, while Peggy was hesitating what to say next, Mr. Simpson came along the path leading one of the burros, the others meekly following their leader.
A few moments later the girls mounted and started on again. The afternoon’s ride was to be more difficult. They were planning to follow an old trail which led along the side of the river and now and then came close to the cliffs and deep ravines which fringed the river bed on the northern side.
They rode as they had in the morning, with the guide ahead and Bettina in the rear. But if the girls had any desire to exchange confidences at present, it was out of the question. One might be familiar with horseback riding and fairly valiant in spirit and yet, according to the old phrase, find one’s heart in one’s mouth every few minutes.
In places the trail was scarcely a yard wide, with a sheer wall of rock on one side and a sharp precipice on the other. Yet the burros moved on as serenely as if they had been following a main traveled road.