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Page 65
"What! Ride all night?" demanded Emma. "I'll die! I surely will."
"And probably all day to-morrow," nodded the guide. "I will start
the Chinaman on his way the moment the sky becomes overcast, and
we will follow an hour or so later. You folks will have that much
longer to sleep. Good-night, folks." Hi got up abruptly and walked
away to give his orders to Ping Wing.
"This is where we link arms with trouble," observed Miss Briggs,
with a shake of the head.
"Stick by me. I have a rope and I know how to throw it, J. Elfreda
dear," replied Grace Harlowe laughingly.
CHAPTER XIX
THE WARNING
"Turn out!" It was Hi Lang's voice that summoned the girls from
their tents, and a far from welcome summons it was, for they were
sleeping soundly.
"Lieutenant, the ponies are saddled and ready," said the guide,
halting at Hippy's tent. "Please give the Riders the tent
equipment to carry and assist them to lash the stuff on.
Everything else has gone forward."
"All right, old ma-an. Can't give me five minutes for a cat-nap,
can you?" begged Hippy.
"Turn out!" Hippy yawned and got up. The night was now pitch dark,
and Lieutenant Wingate fell over tent stakes and ropes and
whatever else was handy for him to catch his toes on, as he
staggered about aimlessly.
Bethinking himself of the guide's orders, Hippy suddenly began
pulling up the stakes from the girls' tent and let it down on
their heads. Emma Dean cried out, which brought a stern command
for silence from Mr. Lang. Following that, there was not a sound
in the camp during the next fifteen minutes.
"Packs lashed to ponies behind saddles," announced Hippy. "Party
ready to move."
"Mount and follow me. No loud talking, please; light no matches.
You understand why I am so strict?" said the guide in an
apologetic tone.
"We understand fully, Mr. Lang," replied Grace in a low voice.
"Start!" he commanded.
The start was made at a jog-trot, which, after a few minutes, was
changed to a gallop. This pace was continued for some time, but
finally the guide slowed down and began peering into the darkness,
looking for Ping and his burros. Elfreda marveled at the almost
uncanny instinct of their guide, and how Ping could lay a course
that could be followed in the dark was a mystery to her. She asked
Hi Lang how it was done.
"See that red star over on the horizon, Miss Briggs? Ping is
instructed to keep that star between the ears of his burro and not
to wobble. By keeping the same star between the ears of my bronco
I am bound to overhaul Ping, provided he has held to his course. I
am, however, allowing for some deviation and keeping a close
lookout."
It was not more than ten minutes after that when Mr. Lang
discovered the Chinaman and his burden bearers plodding along less
than a hundred yards to the right of the course that the Overland
Riders were following. Ping, though he had heard the party coming
up, held to his course until directed to fall in behind them.
"A mariner following a compass course could do no better than
that," declared Grace Harlowe.
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