CHAPTER III
EDINA TO THE RESCUE
At Billie Bradley’s desperate cry, Laura flung herself at the edge ofthe cliff.
“I’m coming, Billie!” she shouted. “I’ll get to you some way, if Ibreak my own neck.”
Vi caught her and dragged her back.
“Wait!” she cried. “Someone is down there near the lake!”
Laura looked where Vi pointed and saw a small figure at the foot ofthe cliff. It looked terribly far off, standing there on the massedrocks bordering the lake. Moreover, judging from the clothes shewore, the stranger was only a girl like themselves. Laura and Vi feltthat it would take a man’s strength to rescue Billie from her fearfulpredicament.
The girl made a megaphone of her hands and shouted up to Billie.
“Hold fast a minute! I’ll get up to you!”
Laura and Vi watched, fascinated, as the girl began to ascend the steepface of the cliff hand over hand like a monkey. She made amazinglyswift progress; but each moment the onlooking girls expected, feared,that she would lose her grip, go hurtling over backward to a horriblefate on the sharp-pointed, massed rocks at the foot of the cliff.
Meanwhile, Billie Bradley was striving to keep up heart and courage asshe pressed her body close against the rock of the cliff face, clingingto the stout vine with nerveless fingers, striving to find a footholdfor her dangling feet.
Each time she moved, a wave of fear swept over her as the stout linencloth of her frock threatened to give way. She dared not even try tohelp herself, for fear that one support would fail her!
Then the dress began to give beneath her weight, as she hung there,dangling over eternity. She heard the sibilant hiss of splitting clothand braced herself for whatever fate might be in store for her.
It was then that she became aware that someone was approaching frombelow. At first she thought that it was either Laura or Vi and wonderedhow it was possible for them to have made their way around to the footof the cliff in such a short time.
However, in another moment or two, the girl came within her range ofvision and she saw that the newcomer was neither Laura nor Vi, but aperson who was a stranger to her.
Another rip of tearing cloth sent a shudder through Billie. Thestranger made amazingly swift progress up that dangerous ascent, butBillie knew she must come very quickly if she was going to be in time.Another few moments, and the rescuer would have arrived--too late!
Another ripping and tearing sound, and Billie’s weight sagged. Sheclung desperately, with numbing fingers, to that clump of stout vine.She knew by the feel of it in her hand that it was breaking loose. Inanother minute or two the roots would be dislodged.
“Oh, hurry!” she called to the strange, gallant girl, who continued hersteady upward progress. “I’ve only a few moments left----”
“Hold fast! Never give up the ship! I’ll git up to that there shelf ifit takes a leg!”
The stranger was gasping from her exertions but her voice was round andhearty, full of a vitality that Billie found tremendously reassuring.
The strange girl rapidly closed the distance between herself andBillie. She climbed to a narrow ledge of rock that had been invisibleto Billie from where she hung and, across the space of three or fourfeet, the eyes of the two girls met and clung.
Then Billie turned her eyes away. What could the strange girl do, nowthat she was so near? She was in almost as precarious a position asBillie herself, and certainly she had nothing at hand with which tohelp except her own unaided hands and strength.
Suddenly Billie gasped and groped frantically at the cliff face. Theclump of vine had come loose in her hands, the sound of rending clothtold her that the stout threads of her dress had parted at last! Withwild panic at her heart, she felt herself falling!
Something slapped the cliff face close to her clawing hand. A voicesaid sharply:
“Grab that! Quick!”
Instinctively, Billie grabbed, clung.
The authoritative voice cried again:
“Now then! Help yourself if you can. This ledge makes purty goodfootin’, though slippery. Hang on now. I’ll pull you up!”
Billie clung to the leather belt flung her by the strange girl. Inthe interstices of the rock she managed to gain a toehold, and by aprodigious effort and with the help of the strange girl she managed todraw herself up to the ledge. There she clung, while an overpoweringdizziness assailed her. She swayed weakly, feeling faint and dizzy,half expecting to plunge over the narrow ledge, but past caring verymuch whether she did or not.
A sharp, angry voice broke through her failing consciousness.
“Not going to faint on me, are you? After me taking all the trouble tosave your life? Say! You make me good and tired!”
No shock of icy water could have reacted upon Billie Bradley withbetter effect. She made a desperate effort to collect her failingsenses. She opened her eyes and stared vaguely at the hard young facethrust so close to her own. She was dimly aware that an equally hard,strong young arm had been thrust behind her shoulders, pressing herclose to the face of the cliff.
“Well, are you a quitter or ain’t you?” the rude voice demanded. “Ican’t get you down there all by myself. Chances are, if you faint,we’ll both go crashing down onto them pointed rocks. And they won’tmake a soft bed, I promise you! Well, how about it? Are you going tofaint--or ain’t you?”
By a supreme effort Billie regained control of her slipping senses. Shestared coldly at the round, hard face of the young stranger.
“I’m not a quitter,” she said. “And I assure you, I have no intentionof fainting.” After a moment she added, as though as an afterthought:“Thank you for saving my life!”
The strange girl grinned.
“Don’t mention it! Only I ain’t saved it yet. Reckon both of us havegot to look sharp if we want to get out of this jam alive. It ain’t noeasy going down this hill, let me tell you! Now then! Ready?”
Bitterly ashamed of her recent weakness, Billie assented. She wouldhave died rather than admit, even to herself, that her head was stillwhirling and that she was forced to clench her teeth to keep them fromchattering.
That descent to the jagged rocks at the base of the cliff was one longnightmare. If it had not been for the help and encouragement of thestrange girl, interspersed with occasional merciless taunts from thesame source, Billie knew she could never have made it.
As it was, she slipped and half fell, half slid the last fifteen ortwenty feet, finally landing amid a shower of pebbles and dirt in acrevasse between two jagged rocks.
“Mercy!” she gasped.
“It is a mercy that you landed betwixt instead of on ’em.”
Billie looked up from her undignified position to find the strange girlgrinning down at her. She frowned and tried to rise, but found herselfwedged in so tightly that she could scarcely move.
“Like a sardine in a packed can,” remarked the strange girl unkindly.
Billie wanted to feel offended, but she could not. The comparison wastoo apt. She met the quizzical, smiling glance of the strange girl andsuddenly laughed.
“You are a very frank person. But I do feel rather like a sardine. Ifyou will give me a hand, I think I can manage, if I try hard enough, toget out of this ridiculous place.”
The pulling and tugging that ensued was a painful process for Billie.She discovered that there was scarcely a portion of her body thatfailed to boast either bruise or scratch.
“I’m pretty well disabled,” she admitted. “No tennis and no rowing forme for a few days to come at least.”
“’Twouldn’t be best to try, I guess,” remarked the girl.
Ruefully, Billie bent to examine her torn skirt. As she straightenedup, a sharp exclamation escaped her.
“Hold on there! Where are you going?”
Billie Bradley and the School Mystery; Or, The Girl From Oklahoma Page 3