cried Jack. ‘Polly, why is a porpoise like a water-lily?’
But before he could say ‘Guess,’ Phil, Geoff, and the girls had drawn themselves into a line, and, with a whispered ‘One, two, three,’ to secure a good start, replied in concert, ‘We-give-it-up!’
‘What a deafening shout!’ cried Aunt Truth, coming out of the cabin. ‘What’s the matter, pray?’
‘Nothing, aunty,’ laughed Polly. ‘But we have formed a society for suppressing Jack’s conundrums, and this is our first public meeting. How do you like the watchword?’
Aunt Truth smiled. ‘It was very audible,’ she said. ‘Yours is evidently not a secret society.’
‘I wish I could find out who originated this plan,’ quoth Jack, murderously. ‘But I suppose it’s one of you girls, and I can’t revenge myself. Oh, when will this barrier between the sexes be removed!’
‘I trust not in your lifetime,’ shuddered Polly, ‘or we might as well begin to “stand round our dying beds” at once.’
CHAPTER II
THE JOURNEY
‘Away, away, from men and towns,
To the wild wood and the downs,
To the silent wilderness.’
Whatever the distance was in reality, the steamer had consumed more time than usual, and it was quite two o’clock, instead of half-past twelve, as they had expected, before they were landed on the old and almost forgotten pier, and saw the smoke of the Orizaba as she steamed away.
After counting over their bags and packages to see if anything had been forgotten, they looked about them.
There was a dirty little settlement, a mile or two to the south, consisting of a collection of tumble-down adobe houses which looked like a blotch on the brown hillside; a few cattle were browsing near by, and the locality seemed to be well supplied with lizards, which darted over the dusty ground in all directions. But the startling point of the landscape was that it showed no sign of human life, and Pancho’s orders had been to have Señor Don Manuel Felipe Hilario Noriega and his wood-cart on hand promptly at half-past twelve.
‘Can Pancho have forgotten?’
‘Can he have lost his way and never arrived here at all?’
‘Can Señor Don Manuel Felipe Hilario Noriega have grown tired of waiting and gone off?’
‘Has Señor Don Manuel Felipe Hilario Noriega been drinking too much aguardiente and so forgotten to come?’
‘Has Pancho been murdered by highway robbers, and served up into stew for their evening meal?’
‘With Hop Yet for dessert! Oh, horrible!’ These were some of the questions and exclamations that greeted the ears of the lizards, and caused them to fly over the ground in a more excited fashion than ever.
‘One thing is certain. If Pancho has been stupid enough to lose his way coming fifty miles down the coast, I’ll discharge him,’ said Dr. Winship, with decision.
‘When you find him,’ added Aunt Truth, prudently.
‘Of course. But really, mamma, this looks discouraging; I am afraid we can’t get into camp this evening. Shall we go up to the nearest ranch house for the night, and see what can be done to-morrow?’
‘Never!’ exclaimed the young people, with one deafening shout.
‘Never,’ echoed Philip separately. ‘I have vowed that a bed shall not know me for three months, and I’ll keep my vow.’
‘What do you say to this, Uncle Doc?’ said Geoffrey. ‘Suppose you go up to the storehouse and office,—it’s about a mile,—and see if the goods are there all right, and whether the men saw Pancho on his way up to the cañon. Meanwhile, Phil and I will ride over here somewhere to get a team, or look up Señor Don Manuel Felipe Hilario Noriega. Jack can stay with Aunt Truth and the girls, to watch developments.’
‘But, papa, can’t we pitch the camp to-night, somehow?’ asked Bell, piteously.
‘I don’t see how. We are behindhand already; and if we get started within an hour we can’t reach the ground I selected before dark and we can’t choose any nearer one, because if Pancho is anywhere in creation he is on the identical spot I sent him to.’
‘But, Dr. Paul, I’ll tell you what we could do,’ suggested Jack. ‘If we get any kind of a start, we can’t fail to reach camp by seven or eight o’clock at latest. Now it’s bright moonlight, and if we find Pancho, he’ll have the baggage unloaded, and Hop Yet will have a fire lighted. What’s to prevent our swinging the hammocks for the ladies? And we’ll just roll up in our blankets by the fire, for to-night. Then we’ll get to housekeeping in the morning.’
This plan received a most enthusiastic reception.
‘Very well,’ replied the Doctor. ‘If you are all agreed, I suppose we may as well begin roughing it now as at any time.’
You may have noticed sometimes, after having fortified yourself against a terrible misfortune which seemed in store for you, that it didn’t come, after all. Well, it was so in this case; for just as Dr. Winship and the boys started out over the hillside at a brisk pace, an immense cloud of dust, some distance up the road, attracted their attention, and they came to a sudden standstill.
The girls held their breath in anxious expectation, and at length gave an irrepressible shout of joy and relief when there issued from the dense grey cloud the familiar four-horse team, with Daisy, Tule Molly, Villikins, and Dinah, looking as fresh as if they had not been driven a mile, tough little mustangs that they were.
A long conversation in Spanish ensued, which, being translated by Dr. Winship, furnished all necessary information concerning the delay.
S. D. M. F. H. N. stated that Pancho was neither faithless nor stupid, but was waiting for them on the camping-ground, and that as the goods were already packed in his wood-cart he would follow them immediately. So the whole party started without more delay; Dr. and Mrs. Winship, Master Paul, Jack Howard, and the three girls riding in the wagon, while Geoffrey and Philip galloped ahead on horseback.
It was a long, dusty, tiresome ride; and Dicky, who had been as good all day as any saint ever carved in marble and set in a niche, grew rather warm, cross, and hungry, although he had been consuming ginger-snaps and apricots since early morning. After asking plaintively for the fiftieth time how long it would be before dinner, he finally succumbed to his weariness, and dropping his yellow head, that was like a cowslip ball, in his mother’s lap, he fell asleep.
But the young people, whose eyes were not blinded by hunger and sleep, found more than enough to interest them on this dusty California road, winding as it did through grand old growths of trees, acres and acres of waving grain, and endless
