“That’s all the thanks we get for helping!” Beverly said furiously. “We’ve lost out on the Hermit Ridge competition too—worse luck.”
“I guess there’s more to this first aid business than just wrapping up broken bones!” Betty added. “One has to learn how to handle half-crazy patients.”
“I can’t understand why that man was so eager to get us away,” Judy remarked thoughtfully. “Normally, anyone in similar plight would welcome help. Why wouldn’t he want us to send a doctor or a wrecker?”
“Just out of his head, I guess,” Beverly shrugged.
“On the contrary,” Judy insisted, “he seemed quite cool about the entire procedure. You know, I wonder what sort of cargo those men were carrying?”
“It must have been valuable,” Kathleen replied. “Otherwise, why would he carry a revolver for protection?”
Keyed up by the encounter with the two men, but decidedly discouraged over the outcome of their efforts, the girls hiked as fast as they could down the mountain road. Despite the order that they were not to send help, they planned to do so.
“Doesn’t a car ever come on this road?” Beverly complained after they had hiked ten minutes without meeting or being passed by an automobile or a truck.
“I see a car coming now!” Kathleen suddenly cried. “From the direction of the village.”
“Say, we’re in luck!” exclaimed Judy, abruptly halting. “It’s a state highway patrol car!”