et picked up a boulder on her way to the Slide, and, reaching
there, sent it spinning with the wrist movement peculiar to bowlers.
The boulder skipped some rods out into the pond far below them before
it sank under the water and disappeared, leaving a white trail in its
wake.

"I can do that," declared Tommy Thompson.

Janus unwound himself from his blanket and stood with his hands in
pockets, observing the jolly party.

"Don't lean over too far forward when you throw," warned Harriet.

"You jutht watch me. I'm going to make thith one thkip clear acroth
the pond. Here it goeth. Oh, what a lovely Thlide!"

In her excitement, Tommy leaped to the end of the slippery course,
jumping up and down. In her left hand she held another round stone
ready to send it after the previous throw before the latter should have
reached the pond. Margery was standing at hand ready to send hers down.

"Look out!" warned Harriet, who saw the danger of Grace's position.
"Get back instantly!" Both she and Jane started on a run, fearing the
result of Tommy's imprudence. But they were too late.

Tommy Thompson's feet slipped from under her. With a scream she
plunged head first to the Slide, starting down it on her stomach.

"Catch her!" screamed Jane.

Margery made a frantic effort to do so. Then her feet, too, went out
from under her, but in making a desperate attempt to recover her
balance, Margery turned completely around, landing on her back on the
slippery Slide.

"Hold your breath," screamed Harriet, starting to run again, for she
had halted instinctively as she saw the two girls lose their footing.
Jane followed. Janus stood fairly paralyzed with amazement. It had
all come about with such suddenness that he had had no time in which to
collect his thoughts. When he did, he uttered a yell.

"Come back!" he roared.

But the two girls were past coming back for the time being. The third
girl, Harriet Burrell, was running toward the upper end of the Slide,
having made a short detour to enable her to get exactly in line with
it. Now she raised herself on her tiptoes, at the same time bending
over and taking a low, shooting leap, dived headfirst to the Slide,
down which she shot at a dizzy rate of speed.

"Oh, she'll be killed!" Crazy Jane halted at the top, gazed down the
long, slippery rock, then plumped herself down on the Slide in a
sitting posture. She was on her way before she found time to change
her mind. Wh