Blue Robin, the Girl Pioneer — Part 126

But the Sport was too excited to mind bumps or laughter as she jumped up and peered above her head. “The rope has broken!” she exclaimed irritably. “Oh, if I could only get hold of that broken end up there,” her eyes leaped quickly around the barn, “I could ring the bell again. Oh, there’s a ladder!” With an alert spring she had grabbed it and then began to drag it under the tower.

The girls by this time had recovered from their unwonted merriment, and, feeling somewhat ashamed of leaving the Sport to work unaided, rushed to her assistance. They soon had the ladder resting against a broad beam that ran across the barn directly under the tower where the broken piece of rope still swung.

Up the ladder climbed Edith, high to the top, but alas, she was just a few inches short of touching the swaying rope, which she now perceived was fastened to a chain that hung from the bell.

“Oh, what will you do?” cried Helen, as the two girls stretched their necks almost off their shoulders to see if there was not some way out of the difficulty.

“I know what I will do,” exclaimed the Sport suddenly. “I will climb up on the beam, walk a few steps, and then I can reach it.”

“You will fall!” exclaimed Nathalie in nervous fear.

“Oh, no, she won’t,” called out Helen hastily. “You don’t know Edith; that’s an easy feat for her, for she’s a regular acrobat. But, Edith, be careful!” she finished, with sudden anxiety, as she saw the girl climb up on the beam and then lift herself upright.

Nathalie, with her breath held, watched Edith for a moment, and then as she saw her reach out to catch the dangling rope, she closed her eyes, thrilled in every nerve with silent terror for fear she would miss her footing.

But she didn’t, for when Nathalie opened her eyes just for a hurried peep, she saw Edith with the rope in her hand. The next instant she had bent to her task and a loud “Clang! Clang!” rang sharply out.

“One, two, three!” a moment’s pause, then, “One, two, three!” Twice this was repeated as the girls stood waiting below with their eyes fixed on the ringer’s every movement; Helen, fearful that she would become reckless and reach too far, while Nathalie obeyed an impulse she could not define and just watched in nervous tension.