There followed a crunching grinding crash.

"Thave me! Oh, thave me!" screamed Tommy.

With a ripping sound the canopy top was stripped clear of the vehicle and left dangling from the low hanging limbs of the trees under which the buck-board wagon had been dragged.

"Hold fast! Don't try to jump!" commanded Miss Elting without the least trace of excitement in her voice. Hazel placed a firm hand on the arm of the terror-stricken Tommy.

The right forward wheel of the wagon collided with a tree. The wheel was shattered, and the end of the axle broken off short. At the same instant the horse sprang sharply to the left evidently in an effort to get back into the log road, facing almost in the opposite direction.

Jasper being on the downhill side when the wheel collapsed, plunged head first from the seat, landing heavily on the ground. His head coming into contact with the base of the tree, Jasper sank over on his side, unconscious.

Harriet had not lost her head for a second. As the driver fell she snatched at the reins. She caught one of them, the other falling to the ground on the wrecked side of the wagon.

The thills of the wagon broke off short with reports like the explosions of a pistol. Then the horse bolted. Harriet grasping the one rein with both hands shot over the dashboard of the wagon as though she had been projected from a cannon. Hazel and Tommy were also pitched from the vehicle, Miss Elting and Margery clinging to the seats as the wagon toppled over on its side.

"Let go!" shouted Miss Elting. "You'll be killed!"

But Harriet clung to the single rein, the frantic animal dragging her away at a frightful rate of speed.

CHAPTER V

THEIR TROUBLES MULTIPLY

Harriet Burrell's position was, indeed, a perilous one. She was too plucky to release her grip on the rein, no matter what the cost to herself, and her gown. Clinging desperately to the rein she was jerked violently across the log road, the horse dragging her after him as he bolted in among the trees on the opposite side.

Harriet still hoped that she might be able to check the animal and bring it to a standstill. She did not pause to think what a foolhardy thing she was doing. All of a sudden the animal swung about in a half circle. He literally cracked the whip with Harriet Burrell. The rein slapped the side of a big tree. Harriet was lifted from her feet and hurled with great force into the middle of a heap of brush. The dead branches snapped under her weight and she landed at the bottom of the heap, then lay still.

Miss Elting upon finding that the other three girls were more scared than hurt, had run after the fleeing horse that was dragging Harriet away. She cried out in her alarm as she saw the girl land in the brush heap. But by the time Miss Elting had reached the spot, Harriet's pale, scratched face appeared above the top of the brush.

"Oh, my dear, my dear! Are you hurt?"

"Oh, I am all right, thank you," answered Harriet with a brave smile.

"Was--was any one injured?"

Before answering Miss Elting had plunged into the brush waist deep to lend a hand to Harriet. The gowns of both women were considerably damaged before Harriet had been assisted from her uncomfortable predicament.

"You poor girl!" exclaimed Miss Elting.

"I am somewhat the worse for wear," smiled Harriet ruefully.

"Thave me, thave me!"

At sound of the familiar voice and the familiar words they turned to see Tommy running toward them.

"Jathper hath a fit," cried Tommy.

Miss Elting and Harriet ran back to the scene of the accident as fast as they could go. Harriet was limping a little. They found Jasper sitting at the base of the tree, holding his head and groaning. Hazel and Margery stood pale-faced gazing down at him.

"What seems to be the matter with him?" questioned Miss Elting.

"It ain't me. It's the hoss," groaned Jasper. "That three-year old cost me jest a hundred and fifty dollars two weeks ago."

"You will get him back," soothed Harriet

"Yes, but he's spiled. D' ye think Mis' Livingston'll ever trust me to take out another passel of girls behind that critter? And the rig! It's smashed. It's busted."

"I shouldn't worry until I had to," advised Miss Elting. "Just now we have other things to concern us."

"Which way did my hoss go?"

Harriet did not know. Her head had been in such a whirl at the time she had parted company with the animal, that she had lost all sense of direction. Miss Elting said the animal had started back toward Jamesburg.

"Then I must git back to the burg and find him," declared Jasper.

"He ithn't going to leave uth here in the woodth, ith he?" wailed Grace.

"Don't worry," replied the guardian. "Jasper, how far are we from town?"

"Nigh onto fifteen mile."

"Then we should be about five miles from the camp?"

He nodded.

"What do you propose to do with us in the meantime?" demanded Miss Elting.

"You kin wait here till I git another hoss and come back."

"No, thank you. We do not care to sit down here until you return, which will not be until some time to-morrow morning, even if you hurry."

"I got to git that hoss or another hoss," persisted Jasper.

"You will do nothing of the kind. You will remain right here with us,"

declared Miss Elting firmly. "You shall not go to Jamesburg for a horse until you have seen us safely in camp. Is there any chance of any one else driving past here?"

He shook his head.

"Why can't we walk it?" asked Harriet.

"I had been thinking of making that suggestion. Do you feel equal to it, Harriet?"

"Oh, yes. And the woods are so nice and cool and fragrant. I should prefer walking to riding behind that horse again."

"So should I," agreed Miss Elting with emphasis.