ing spot."

"Pick your way carefully, bearers," urged Miss Elting.

"Wait! Let me get ahead of you," begged Tommy, scrambling forward. "I
don't like the lookth of that thing." Miss Elting and Jane followed
behind the litter, with which Harriet and Janus made good progress,
though Hazel had to do some clever balancing in order to keep the
affair right side up.

For nearly half an hour the two bearers bore their burden without
halting. It proved easier work than Harriet had expected, and perhaps
that fact gave her too great assurance. The way was growing steeper
and narrower, with sharp fragments of rock on the trail, and below
them, alongside, the tops of dwarfed mountain trees.

All at once Harriet stubbed her toe, plunging forward and tilting the
litter so that it turned turtle, like a cranky hammock. With a little
scream of alarm Hazel Holland pitched out headfirst and took a
graceful, curving dive into the top of a tree just below them. The
others saw her feet disappear in the foliage, heard a muffled cry for
assistance, then silence.

CHAPTER XV

LEAVING THE TRAIL IN A HURRY

Janus was pulled from his feet. He pitched sideways, saving himself by
grasping a projection with one hand; then, in his struggles to get up,
both feet became entangled in the rope litter, and there he lay kicking
and shouting to the girls to go after the unfortunate Hazel.

Jane McCarthy already had got into action. Without an instant's
hesitation she clambered down the rocks and made her way to the base of
the mountain tree.

"She isn't here," shouted Crazy Jane. "What do you suppose has
happened to her?"

"Wait! I'll be right with you," answered Harriet.

"She must be in the tree still," cried Miss Elting. "I hope she isn't
hurt."

"If she were not we should hear her." Harriet was down the rocks,
reaching the bottom not more than a minute behind Jane McCarthy who was
just climbing the tree. It was not possible to see far up into the
tree on account of the dense foliage. Harriet waited at the foot while
her companion climbed it rapidly.

"I've got her," Jane called down. "She has fainted. What shall I do?"

"Get her down," urged Miss Elting.

"I can't. She is fast."

"Wait! I will be with you at once," called Harriet. "Will some one
bring a rope, please?" Tommy, Margery and the guardian were scrambling
down the rocks. Janus, having extricated himself from the litter, had
picked it up and was o