sible Shirley. "We
always managed to have plenty of adventure there, thanks to Bet who can
find a thrilling mystery anywhere."

"Say, girls, I wish you'd get that silly idea you have of me out of
your heads. From now on I'm a business woman, a mine-owner, and all
other adventures are out. I'm going to be known as Sensible Bet."

"Listen to her! She thinks it will be an adventure to work a copper
claim. My idea of an adventure is altogether different. I can't see
any thrill in five girls getting out in the hills, miles away from
nowhere, and without the boys......"

Bet made a dash toward Joy, who had just stepped down to the creek from
her place of refuge.

"Put her in the creek!" Bet shouted. "This time she goes in all over!"

"Oh please!" begged Joy, taking refuge once more on the steep trail.
"Truly I forgot! I won't say it again."

"All right, come on down, and we'll let you off this once, but next
time, in you go, head and all!"

Kit had drawn away at some distance from the girls and was looking
anxiously at the sky. "Looks to me as if a storm was coming up. We'd
better get home at once."

On mountain weather forecasts, Kit was authority so the girls quickly
seized their horses' bridles, tightened the cinches as Kit directed,
then hastily mounted and started toward home.

"It's beginning to look worse and worse! Don't waste a minute. We
must reach the pass down there before it catches us. Otherwise we'll
be in a jam."

The horses sensed the excitement and the tenseness that goes before a
storm and raced through the creek-bed without any urging. Even the old
horse, Dolly, needed neither spur nor whip. Snorting and blowing in
good earnest, she held her own with the more spirited animals as they
picked their way around boulders and pools of water.

At the first drop of rain, Kit drew in her pony. "We can't make it,
girls! We'll never make it in time," she cried in a panic of fear.

"Of course we can make it. There it is right ahead of us," Enid
encouraged them. "We can get through the pass."

"No, we can't!" declared Kit anxiously.

"Then we'd better stay right here where it's dry," said Bet.

"We can't do that either," screamed Kit. "In ten minutes this will be
a raging torrent instead of a little trickle of water. You don't
understand."

It was not often that Kit lost her presence of mind, but the
responsibility of looking after the girls quite unnerved her.

"Then what sha