Jasper being on the downhill side when the wheel collapsed, plunged head first from the seat, landing heavily on the ground.  His head coming into contact with the base of the tree, Jasper sank over on his side, unconscious.

Harriet had not lost her head for a second.  As the driver fell she snatched at the reins.  She caught one of them, the other falling to the ground on the wrecked side of the wagon.

The thills of the wagon broke off short with reports like the explosions of a pistol.  Then the horse bolted.  Harriet grasping the one rein with both hands shot over the dashboard of the wagon as though she had been projected from a cannon.  Hazel and Tommy were also pitched from the vehicle, Miss Elting and Margery clinging to the seats as the wagon toppled over on its side.

“Let go!” shouted Miss Elting.  “You’ll be killed!”

But Harriet clung to the single rein, the frantic animal dragging her away at a frightful rate of speed.

CHAPTER V

THEIR TROUBLES MULTIPLY

Harriet Burrell’s position was, indeed, a perilous one.  She was too plucky to release her grip on the rein, no matter what the cost to herself, and her gown.  Clinging desperately to the rein she was jerked violently across the log road, the horse dragging her after him as he bolted in among the trees on the opposite side.

Harriet still hoped that she might be able to check the animal and bring it to a standstill.  She did not pause to think what a foolhardy thing she was doing.  All of a sudden the animal swung about in a half circle.  He literally cracked the whip with Harriet Burrell.  The rein slapped the side of a big tree.  Harriet was lifted from her feet and hurled with great force into the middle of a heap of brush.  The dead branches snapped under her weight and she landed at the bottom of the heap, then lay still.

Miss Elting upon finding that the other three girls were more scared than hurt, had run after the fleeing horse that was dragging Harriet away.  She cried out in her alarm as she saw the girl land in the brush heap.  But by the time Miss Elting had reached the spot, Harriet’s pale, scratched face appeared above the top of the brush.

“Oh, my dear, my dear!  Are you hurt?”

“Oh, I am all right, thank you,” answered Harriet with a brave smile.  “Was—­was any one injured?”

Before answering Miss Elting had plunged into the brush waist deep to lend a hand to Harriet.  The gowns of both women were considerably damaged before Harriet had been assisted from her uncomfortable predicament.

“You poor girl!” exclaimed Miss Elting.

“I am somewhat the worse for wear,” smiled Harriet ruefully.

“Thave me, thave me!”

At sound of the familiar voice and the familiar words they turned to see Tommy running toward them.

“Jathper hath a fit,” cried Tommy.