The Adventure Girls at K Bar O

The Adventure Girls at K Bar O

Clair Blank

5.0
Comment(s)
10
View
21
Chapters

The Adventure Girls at K Bar O by Clair Blank

The Adventure Girls at K Bar O Chapter 1 ARRIVAL

The thing that went under the name of automobile wheezed into the ranchyard and rattled to a halt. With creaks and groans in every joint the car discharged its six very dusty, very weary occupants.

At the same time, the screen door of the ranch house banged shut and a flying figure descended on the new arrivals.

"Oh, Gale, but I'm glad to see you," the girl from the ranch house declared hugging the foremost one of the visitors.

Gale Howard returned the hug with equal warmth. The two were cousins, and Gale and her friends, The Adventure Girls, had traveled West to spend the summer on the K Bar O Ranch, owned by Gale's uncle.

"But don't tell me you traveled all the way West in that!" Virginia Wilson murmured aghast, when the introductions and first greetings were over.

"We wouldn't have lived to tell the tale," declared Carol Carter. "I never knew a car that had so many bumps in it."

"We came West to Phoenix on the train," Gale explained. "It was there we bought the car and drove up here."

"You wouldn't think we bought it second hand, would you?" Janet Gordon murmured.

"No," Phyllis Elton agreed with a twinkle in her eyes. "It looks as though we made it ourselves."

The last two of the new arrivals, Madge Reynolds and Valerie Wallace, who had been busy unstrapping luggage and tumbling bags onto the ground, turned now to the ranch girl.

"What shall we do with our stuff?" Madge asked.

"I suppose you will want to change from your traveling suits," Virginia suggested, "so just bring along what you want now. Leave the rest here. Tom can bring it in later."

Tom was her elder brother and as the girls walked toward the ranch house he crossed the yard from the corral. Behind him came Gale's uncle. Virginia called her mother and more greetings and introductions followed.

"But how did you manage to leave home without a chaperon?" Virginia asked from her position on the bed in the room shared by Gale and Valerie.

"It was all we could do to get away without one," a laughing voice in the adjoining room declared, and Janet appeared on the threshold.

"Finally our parents decided that Gale and Valerie, being the only sane and level-headed ones among us, could be trusted to see that we behaved properly," Carol added, hanging over Janet's shoulder.

"That shows how much they really know Gale and Valerie," added Janet mischievously. "If they had any sense at all, they would have appointed me guardian angel of the troupe."

"Then we would never have gotten this far," Valerie declared, struggling to pull on a brown riding boot.

"Yes, Virginia," Gale laughed, "when we did let Janet drive for a little while, she ran us into a ditch, went the wrong way on a one way street in a little town below here, talked back to a policeman and nearly landed us all in jail."

"Yes, we had to let Gale drive thereafter for self preservation," Carol murmured.

"That is all the gratitude I get," Janet mourned in an injured tone. "I do my best to make our trip a success and you don't appreciate me."

"What? Aren't you dressed yet?" Phyllis demanded as she and Madge entered the other girls' room. "Slow pokes!" she teased.

"Yes, do hurry," Janet pleaded. "I want to get outside and see the horse I'm to ride."

"I'll wager you don't even know what side of a horse to get on," declared Carol as the latter two disappeared into their own room.

"Well--ah--um--we won't go into that," Janet evaded.

Virginia laughed and the other girls smiled sympathetically.

"Don't mind anything they say," Madge advised Virginia. "They don't mean a word of it."

"I gathered that much," Virginia said, rising as Janet and Carol returned, this time fully dressed and eager to get outside.

The Adventure Girls were dressed alike in brown breeches, leather boots, and khaki shirts with brown silk ties to match. Some of them wore crushable felt hats while the others carried them. They had been delighted with the prospect of spending a summer in the open air on the ranch, looking forward to unknown adventures with keen anticipation. The six had dubbed themselves the Adventure Girls when on school hikes and outings they had usually managed to stir up some kind of excitement. It was their desire to spend their summer becoming better acquainted with the country out here, rather than spend their months free from school in loafing about home. They wanted to get out in the air, see new wonders, and enjoy new adventures.

When, in response to a letter from Virginia, Gale had suggested to the other five girls that they come West and spend the summer in Arizona it had seemed delightful and intriguing, but not probable. Gradually the girls had won round parental objections and collected the things they would need. Now they were here, with a full summer of freedom before them.

The K Bar O Ranch was one of the biggest in the state. This the girls did not fully realize until later, when they began to ride around the countryside. Henry Wilson, Virginia's father, dealt in cattle and his herds were large and of the finest stock. There were horses too, and it was these that the girls were most interested in.

Virginia led the way to the corral. Tom was there, talking to a cowboy and when he saw the girls, brought up three saddled mounts, the cowboy following with a string of four more. The western ponies were sturdy little animals, sure-footed and fast.

The girls claimed their mounts and Gale and Valerie, already experienced riders, mounted their horses immediately.

Janet looked her horse over with speculative eyes. "Well, horse," she said, "I think we are about to become better acquainted and I hope you are as nice as you look."

"They're all tame," Tom assured the girls, assisting Carol into her saddle.

"Hey," Carol called to Janet. "You'll never get on that way!"

Virginia had her horse and by the time Tom had helped Janet into the saddle, the girls were moving forward. Virginia rode ahead with Gale, the two setting their ponies at an easy trot over the trail.

"We won't go far," Virginia said, "it will be suppertime shortly and I know you wouldn't want to miss it. The lunch you had wasn't very substantial."

"And this Arizona air certainly gives one an appetite," Gale declared. "What's that?"

They had come to the crest of a hill and in the green valley below could be seen a slowly moving herd of the K Bar O cattle. But it was not to the cows that Gale called her friend's attention. Off to the left had sounded a series of sharp explosions, as a fusillade of rifle shots.

Virginia had grown a little pale under her tan, and the hand that gripped her horse's reins was clenched tightly, but she summoned a smile for Gale's benefit.

"Just some of the boys having target practice, I reckon," she said easily.

But Gale was not to be deceived. Target practice would not cause Virginia to appear suddenly so nervous. However, Gale did not press the subject at the time. She knew if there was something wrong at the K Bar O she would know it before long.

Continue Reading

Other books by Clair Blank

More

You'll also like

Sexy Behind The Mask

Sexy Behind The Mask

Ellie Wynters
4.7

She hides behind ugly suits and fake names. He's done trusting women. When they meet in a masked sex club, neither realizes they've been fighting each other across boardroom tables for eighteen months. At Taylor Industries, she's Joy Smith-the frumpy CFO who drowns her curves in shapeless polyester and wearing a wig. At home, she's the forgotten wife of a cheating lawyer who hasn't touched her in so long she's starting to wonder if she's broken. When she finds hot pink lace panties stuffed in her couch cushions...definitely not hers, it's not heartbreak she feels. It's freedom. Grayson Taylor doesn't do relationships anymore. Not after walking in on his actress fiancée with another woman. Now he channels everything into hostile takeovers and board meetings, especially the ones where his overcautious CFO fights him on every goddamn acquisition. Joy Smith is brilliant, infuriating, and funny when he pushes all her buttons. But Honey is tired of being invisible. Tired of never having felt real pleasure. So, when her best friend gives her the details of The Velvet Room-Manhattan's most exclusive masked club-she promises herself just one night. One night to find out if her husband's right, if she really is frigid, or if she's just never been touched by the right hands. She doesn't expect the masked stranger who claims her the second she walks in. Doesn't expect the chemistry that ignites between them, the way he makes her body sing, or the orgasms that leave her shaking. Doesn't expect him to hand her an email address with one command: "Only me. No one else touches you."

Broken Ring, Billionaire Secrets: Watch Me Shine

Broken Ring, Billionaire Secrets: Watch Me Shine

Cornelia
4.5

I sat on the edge of the examination table, the crinkle of the sanitary paper sounding like thunder in the sterile room. The doctor didn't even look at me as he confirmed the news: the pregnancy was over. My husband, Keyon, didn't answer my call. He just sent an automated text: "In a meeting." When I returned to our cold mansion, I found his iPad glowing with a message from his "muse," Katina. He was throwing her a secret gala tonight-on our third wedding anniversary. He told her he couldn't wait to escape the "boring" and "draining" atmosphere I created at home. Keyon didn't stumble in until 3 AM, smelling of Katina's perfume with a smear of red on his collar. When I handed him the divorce papers, he laughed in my face. He called me a "glorified housekeeper" with no skills and no future, promising I'd be back in three days begging for a subway ticket. He even bet his friends ten thousand dollars that I wouldn't survive a week without his name. He had his assistant cancel my credit cards and block my gate access before I even reached the end of the driveway. He wanted me to starve. He wanted me to crawl. He sat in his office, mocking the "desperate" woman who pawned her three-million-dollar wedding ring for scrap metal just to pay for a meal. I stood on the rainy curb, watching the man I had protected for three years treat my life like trash. He didn't know about the ultrasound I just threw in the bin. He didn't know that while he was calling me "dull," I was the one secretly writing the code that kept his billion-dollar empire from collapsing. As I slid into a cheap Uber, I opened a hidden, encrypted app on my phone. The screen refreshed to a dashboard for an account Keyon didn't know existed. The balance was ten figures long-the accumulated wealth of "Solaris," the world's most elusive tech genius. Keyon thinks he just evicted a parasite, but he's about to find out he just declared war on the only person who can hit "delete" on his entire life.

My Reborn Husband Didn't Choose Me? I Flash Married a Firefighter!

My Reborn Husband Didn't Choose Me? I Flash Married a Firefighter!

Sibeal Sallese
5.0

For seven years, I drank the bitter tonic my fiancé, Alpha Adrian, gave me, believing it would cure my "wolfless" defect. I was wrong. It was poison. He wasn't trying to heal me; he was keeping me weak so he could replace me with my foster sister, Ariel. When the fire consumed the Alpha's Wing, I was trapped under a burning beam, my legs crushed. Adrian kicked down the door. I reached out to him, screaming for help. But he didn't look at me. He looked at Ariel, who was lying on the floor in a silk nightgown. He scooped her up, cradling her like she was the only thing that mattered. I begged him not to leave me. Instead of helping, he used his Alpha Command on me, his voice booming with supernatural weight. "Stay put! I'll be back for you!" It was a lie. He used his power to freeze me in the inferno and left me to burn alive. I survived, only to watch him publicly reject me for her the next day, with my own father's blessing. They called me a "genetic dead end." They thought I would crawl away and die in shame. I didn't. I limped up the mountain to the Neutral Lands to find the one man everyone fears-the exiled Alpha, Garth Morgan. "I have the Gamma Bloodline Scroll," I told the massive figure emerging from the shadows. "I don't want your gratitude," Garth growled, his eyes like storm clouds. "I'm not here for gratitude," I replied, staring him down. "I'm here to make a deal with the devil."

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book