The Mystery of the Missing Heiress

up!”
    Turning to Dan, she begged, “Give me the lantern, please. Hold tight to me now, both of you. I’ll go closer... look over that edge... find where Janie is....“

Trixie’s Courage • 13

    THE LANTERN sent its stream of light hunting around in the darkness below Trixie, down a sheer drop to the river’s edge.
    Here and there, dark clumps of scrub pine showed up, dark blobs against the rugged cliffside. But nothing else.
    “Janie!” Trixie called over the edge of the precipice. “Janie, where are you?”
    Faintly the answer came back. “Here, Trixie. Down... here.”
    Frantically Trixie swung the light into an arc, seeking, searching.
    “Here!” Janie repeated weakly.
    The light picked out a patch of Janie’s blue dress, caught in a smudge of shrubbery.
    “I’ve found her!” Trixie called back triumphantly. “Are you hint, Janie?” She tried to keep the fear from her voice. “Can you move?”
    “I don’t... think... I’m hurt... much. Don’t... worry, Trixie.”
    Trixie had to strain her ears to hear Janie’s words. Isn’t it like Janie to tell me not to worry? Trixie thought.
    “We’re coming!” Trixie shouted, with confidence she was far from feeling. “The boys and Honey are with me. Hold on!”
    Slowly Trixie inched her way back from the edge, told the boys what she had seen, and asked helplessly, “How can we ever get her back up here?”
    “Don’t panic!” Jim answered. “We’ll take care of it some way. The minute you crawled back, Dan took off for the woods. He knows where Mr. Maypenny keeps ropes and axes stored to use for felling trees. That’s a break. He said it isn’t far from here and he’d be back in a few minutes.”
    “Good! Where is everybody? Do they know that we’ve found Janie?”
    “I thought Mart and Honey should go home and tell Dad,” Brian said. “Maybe they’ll call the sheriff.”
    “Of course, Brian,” Trixie said. “But, in the meantime, are we going to let Janie lie down there? She’s been there for hours and hours. She said she doesn’t think she’s hurt badly. You know Janie, though. I hate to think of her lying down there one more minute.”
    “I know,” Brian said. “But if she has broken bones, we can’t even move her until help comes. What else can we do but wait?”
    At that moment Dan returned with lengths of stout rope.
    “If you don’t know, I do,” Trixie said firmly. “We can tie those ropes under my arms, and I can go over the edge as easy as anything. Then I can at least see how badly Janie’s hurt and if we can move her.”
    “You can go?” Brian was scornful. “I think not, Trixie.”
    “Why can’t I go? I’m the one who knows just where Janie is. I’m the one who weighs the least. I’m the one who can go right up to the edge without breaking it off. I showed you that. I’m the one—”
    “You’re the one who’s going to stay right up here where you belong,” Jim said. “I’ll go. Give me the ropes, Dan.”
    He fastened the rope ends securely under his arms.
    “Now, loop the other ends around those pine trees. Brian, you can make a running knot.”
    “I know how to make a slipknot, all right, but I’ll tell you this, Jim: You’ll never even get to the edge of that bluff. You’re too heavy. We’ll either have to wait till help comes or try to reach Janie from below someway.”
    “Climb up that sheer cliff?” Dan asked. “Are you crazy?”
    Trixie, burning with frustration, cried out, “Nobody seems to remember that I went right to the edge and it held! Is there any good reason why I can’t be the one to go down to Janie? Is there, Dan?”
    “It’s too dangerous. Don’t say any more about it.”
    “It’s not as dangerous for me as it would be for any one of you— Oh, look at Jim! He’s on his way! Watch out!” she screamed. “Pull him back! Dan— Brian!”
    In his haste, Jim had thrown his weight forward too fast. The earth loosened under him and began to fall away. Froglike, he drew his legs back to firmer ground. “If you hadn’t been so determined to do it yourself, Trixie...” he sputtered.
    “Oh, Jim, you can be so stubborn. Why can’t you see that I’m the one to go down there? Maybe some of that dirt and stone fell on Janie. How can we possibly leave her there alone till Mart and Honey go all the way back home—and it’ll take them longer because it’s dark—then come all the way back here with help? I moved right up to the edge once and the ground held.