the small open space between them and what had once
been the mouth of the cave.

The girls followed her example, the horses making no protest, save to
whinny anxiously and crowd a little closer together.

"Where are you, Betty?" cried Grace plaintively, stubbing her toe on a
stone and emitting an injured "ouch."

"I'm over here," responded Betty reassuringly. "Stretch out your hand
and I'll grab it."

"Oh, for a match, my kingdom for a match!" said Mollie, brushing her
hand across her eyes as though to relieve them of the weight of that
terrific darkness. "Why aren't we men so we could carry 'em in our
pockets--the matches I mean, not the men," she added with a chuckle that
ended in a sob.

"Well, here we are," said Grace, when they had found each other in the
inky blackness. "Now you've got us, Betty, what are you going to do with
us?"

"I don't know--yet," responded Betty honestly. "I guess we've got to
talk it over and decide what it is best to do."

Amy groaned.

"Meanwhile we smother," she said.

"Nonsense," retorted Betty briskly. "There's enough air in this place to
keep us alive for twenty-four hours at least."

"Twenty-four hours," protested Amy, the panic she had felt at the first
threatening to overwhelm her again. "But, Betty, there isn't a chance in
the world that anybody will come along here in the next twenty-four
hours."

"That's right, too," agreed Mollie, a prickly sensation of pure fright
tickling the roots of her hair. "Dan Higgins said this trail was
practically never used because of the danger from the mountain. This is
a pretty pickle, this is!"

"And even if anybody should come along," Grace pointed out gloomily,
"they couldn't be expected to guess that there are four girls and four
horses buried in this hole in the wall."

"And I don't believe we could ever in the world make ourselves heard
through that mass of rocks and dirt," added Mollie. "Looks as though we
had just about come to the end of our rope, I should say."

Amy began to cry again softly, and Betty, who had been listening with
increasing irritation to this conversation, burst forth indignantly:

"Of all the silly things I ever heard!" she denounced them hotly, "I
think you girls are the worst. You seem to forget that you are Outdoor
Girls and that we have been in a good many tight places that were almost
as bad as this. Why, we can't expect to have good times and adventures
without once in a while getting the wors