Norton, Andre - Novel 32 by Ten Mile Treasure (v1.0) Page B

trespassing."
    "Old G.T. started up his station wagon so fast," Toliver added, "we thought he'd never make the turn out and hit smack into a wall. He just scraped by."
    "His face was as red as the cliff. He didn't come back all the time we were
here," Libby ended.
    "That doesn't mean he'll give up wanting the water rights," Toliver warned. "Perhaps he'll be after your father to sell out
to him."
    "Dad won't," Neal said confidently. "Hey, the rain's stopped." He stood up. "We can't do any more here until we get something to open the strongbox. No use just
sitting around. I
vote we go home, come back tomorrow with some tools."
    Christie was putting leftovers back in the basket. She glanced longingly at Lady Maude's box. Shouldn't they take that with them? Now that Toliver had broken through the sealing and they had opened it, perhaps one of those rats might get in, drag off Lady Maude to the big nest. However, when she suggested taking it along, Toliver shook his
head.
    "The lid's too tight down. Opening
it up made the things inside expand. Nothing's going to get in there. We might as well
leave it for now.
With the rain just over, walking may be kind of hard, water holes and such, and
we wouldn't want to
drop it into one of those."
    Christie had to agree against her will. Shan had gone to the entrance to the
cave and was now shaking his forepaws
vigorously, one after the other, uttering
loudly his dislike of a dripping-wet outer world.
    "Here." Libby emptied what remained in her tote back into the Kimballs ' basket. She lifted Shan and dropped him into the bag. "You'd better carry him this
way. As Toliver said, the walking may be hard and you can manage him better."
    Toliver was right. The flood of
rain had left pools
along the floor of the small side canyon. The girls splashed ahead, leaving Neal and Toli ver to reseal the cave. At last they
had to sit down on
still-wet rocks and take off their san dals, roll up their jeans as far as they could, and also see that Parky and Perks were simi larly prepared to wade on.
    Christie
went slowly and carefully. The drifts of
sand were soft enough under her feet, but she cried out once when she stepped on a rough piece of gravel.
    Libby said quickly ,/ "Look
out for cactus bits, Perks, Parky —keep away from
those. Give me your
hand, Perks. Parky , you go with Christie. We'd better leave the
basket here and the
boys can carry it. Now—go slow and watch out!"
    Twice Libby stopped them all until she could pick up and throw away a spiky
piece. Christie was very glad when they were able to squeeze between the entrance rocks and
see the meadow ahead.
    In spite of rolling up their jeans, those were wet as far as their knees. And it
was hard to get their sandals over wet feet to which the sand now stuck like a queer sort
of socks. Parky refused
to try wearing foot covering until Libby held
up a cactus spike right before his eyes.
    After the desert the meadow was very green and
rain-washed. Susie, Old Timer, and two Navajo horses were grazing as if the fall of water had
not bothered them at all, though patches of wet showed on their hides. Christie suddenly remembered what Father
had said about
washouts on the road when sudden rains came and hoped Mother would not have trouble driving.
    "What about the car?" she asked Libby. "Mother and your mother. If they were coming back
from town—"
    "Washouts? No, I don't think so. This really wasn't a bad storm.
You don't need to worry, Christie. It smells clean now, doesn't it?"
    Christie, surprised at Libby's question, threw back her
head and sniffed. There was a fresh ness in the air, and she thought she could smell flowers. Shan wriggled and kicked
in the bag. His head
appeared at the open top and Christie was just in time to prevent his jump ing out.
    They swished on through the tall grass and passed the Wildhorse van, making for the sta tion house. When they arrived there they discovered that the men were no
longer working. Rather
they had