II

ROBBERY

“I’m going into town, ride along?” Virginia asked, coming into the ranch house living room the next morning.

“I will,” Gale said immediately.

“And me,” agreed Valerie.

“Did you say ride?” groaned Janet. “On a horse?”

“Of course,” Virginia laughed.

Janet made a wry face and with the greatest care eased herself into a chair piled with cushions.

“Not this morning, my dear Virginia. I don’t believe the horse likes me.”

Carol laughed from her position before the fireplace. “For once in my life I agree with Janet. You won’t get me on a horse today.”

“I shall stay right here, too,” Madge murmured. “Somehow I appreciate comfort this morning.”

“I’ll go with you,” Phyllis said, “if you will go nice and slowly.”

Accordingly the four mounted and rode away, leaving the other three comfortably fixed with books and magazines. It was almost an hour’s ride into the little town of Coxton at the pace the girls went, but they enjoyed it. They found a lot of things to talk about and besides they were in no great hurry.

“I’m going to get me a rope,” Gale proposed as the girls left their horses and mounted the sidewalk. “If I’m going to be a westerner, I’m going to learn to rope.”

“And I want a pair of gloves,” Valerie added.

“I have to see a man at the bank on business for Father,” Virginia said, “do you want to come along? Or do you want to do your shopping and meet me here in a few minutes?”

“We’ll meet you here,” said Gale. “We won’t get lost,” she added with a smile, taking in the few stores and buildings on the single street the town afforded.

“No danger,” laughed Virginia. “See you here then.”

With a cheery wave of the hand she was off across the street. The girls sauntered along, regarding the stores and one of two lounging cowboys with interest.

“I wish we’d seen an Indian,” murmured Phyllis. “Just to prove that we are in the West.”

Valerie laughed. “I doubt if you would know one if you did. They don’t wear war paint any more, you know.”

“Of course I’d know one,” Phyllis said indignantly. “I--look, there is a general store. Perhaps you can get your rope in there, Gale.”

The girls mounted the single wooden step to the store and stepped into the queerest conglomeration of articles they had ever seen. It developed that Gale got her rope, Valerie got her gloves; in fact, they could get anything they wanted. Even postcards, of which they took a goodly supply.

There were few people on the street when they left the store. An automobile drew up before the bank and two men stepped out, a third remained at the wheel.

“Guess Virginia hasn’t come out of the bank yet,” Phyllis said, looking the length of the street and not seeing the western girl.

The three of them strolled to the bank and waited outside. Suddenly from inside the bank came the sound of shots and a scream. Two men appeared in the doorway with drawn revolvers. One man faced the crowd on the street, the other the people in the bank. The people on the street had become tense, fearful.

Valerie grasped one end of Gale’s rope and sprang across the pavement. Gale, realizing immediately her friend’s intention, grasped her end of the rope more securely. The bandits, running from the bank to their waiting car, tripped headlong over the rope. The first man’s gun flew one way and the black bag in which was the money from the bank flew the other.

Phyllis reached over, picked up the gun, and leveled it calmly at the bandits. Valerie secured the black bag. It had been alarmingly easy and so quickly done that the spectators did not at first realize that a robbery had been committed and foiled almost on the same instant. Then there arose a buzz of excited talk while two men stepped from the group of spectators and took charge of the thieves. Unnoticed, the car that had been meant for the bandits’ means of escape, sprang away from the curb and was gone in a cloud of dust.

In the bank all was disorder and excitement. One of the shots that had been fired was lodged in the teller who had attempted to resist the thieves. His condition was not serious, however, and he was able to add his incoherent story to the other tales told by the people who had been present.

Virginia, when she joined the girls to go home, was flushed and excited.

“You certainly acted quickly,” she declared admiringly. “The town owes you a vote of thanks. They would have gotten away sure if you hadn’t tripped them.”

“Catching bandits is just one of the things we do,” laughed Phyllis. “You ought to really see us in action.”

“I had use for my rope before I thought I would,” Gale said smilingly. “I haven’t even learned how to use it yet--when we catch two bandits.”

Back at the ranch the three of the Adventure Girls would have said nothing about their part in the robbery, but Virginia promptly declared them heroines and told with harrowing details every bit of the robbery, including the shooting of the bank teller.

The girls who had remained at home were utterly chagrined to think that they had missed any excitement whatever and promptly began to think of means to have some more.

Chapter III

GALE’S ADVENTURE

The Arizona night was cool, the sky studded with stars. In the living room the girls from the East were toying with the radio and dancing. Gale and Valerie stepped out onto the porch into the cool darkness. Walking a short distance from the house they were enveloped in silence, interrupted only now and then by the noise from the radio. They sauntered to where a giant pine tree spread its sheltering branches overhead.

Valerie coughed as she leaned against the sturdy trunk and a sympathetic gleam entered Gale’s eyes. The girls all knew that Valerie’s health was not of the best, and it was hoped that this month they were to spend here in Arizona would do her good. She liked fun and excitement as well as any of them, but she could not stand too much. She needed to build up a stranger constitution and her friends were sure the western air would help as no medicine could.

“Nice, isn’t it?” Valerie asked dreamily.

“So quiet!” Gale agreed. “It would be a relief to hear a noise.”

In the distance a coyote howled mournfully and the girls shivered. Arm in arm they strolled toward the corral.

“I wish Virginia’s parents would let us take that camping trip,” Valerie said. “It would be fun.”

At supper Janet and Carol had proposed a camping trip which the others received with enthusiasm. The idea was to take their horses and camping equipment and go camping up in the mountains, or down across the desert to Mexico. The girls, Virginia included, and Tom were decidedly in favor of it, but Mr. Wilson had demurred. It was dangerous, he said, for a party of young people to go camping about the hills just now. Too many bandits and disturbances along the Mexican border. However, the girls had refused to drop the subject.

“Are you sure it wouldn’t be too much for you?” Gale asked anxiously. “You can’t do too much, you know.”

“We could take our time,” Valerie answered. “I think it would be good for me, sleeping in the open air and all.”

The girls had been walking along the corral