03.5 Visitors for the Chalet School Read Online Free PDF Page B

reflected in its unruffled surface, appeared a deep and luminous jade green. As they hurried along the lake-path, Jo glanced at her two companions: both, she was pleased to see, were looking smart and alert in their navy-blue Guide uniform.
    Margia had been at the Chalet School since a few weeks after its opening, and she and Joey had always been good friends, although there was more than a year’s difference between their ages. Elisaveta had arrived only the previous term. To all outward appearances a perfectly ordinary schoolgirl, she was in fact the only child of the Crown Prince of Belsornia. The school had at first been unaware of this; they had always accepted Elisaveta completely as one of themselves, while the Princess reveled in everyday school life. Like most of the Chalet girls she was an enthusiastic Guide, and she felt honoured at being chosen to go on this expedition with Joey, whom she admired greatly.
    “I say, is my hat on straight?” Joey slowed down abruptly, almost tripping up Elisaveta who was following immediately behind her. “Awfully sorry, Veta! Hope I didn’t hurt you. I’d just remembered I never looked in the mirror to check.”
    Margia surveyed her appraisingly. “Looks all right to me. Anyway, the badge is bang in the middle, above your nose, it that’s what you mean.”
    The three paused to recover their breath and to look back for a moment, past the school, at the glorious view of the Tiern valley stretching away into the far distance, the mountains gathered protectingly around it like guardian giants.
    “What a lovely place it is!” murmured Elisaveta. “I’m sure there is no other school anywhere so beautiful.”

    Joey had been gazing at the mountains with a faraway expression in her dark eyes; now she came suddenly down to earth, saying in judicial tones: “Well, there must be some wonderful places in Switzerland, and they have simply heaps of schools there, you know.” Then, seeing Elisaveta look rather surprised, she added:
    “But, of course, there is something very special about the Tiernsee, we all feel that.”
    “I thought you said we were in a hurry, Jo,” put in Margia. “Can you tell us as we go what the plans are for this afternoon?”
    They turned and resumed their brisk walk. Briesau was soon left behind; on one side of the path lay the gleaming lake, on the other the steep, darkly wooded slope of the Bärenkopf.
    “Miss Maynard says we’re to look for the beginning of the trail two hundred paces from the gate of that little chalet at Hubertus,” explained Joey. (Miss Maynard had joined the Chalet School staff early in the first term; she had now succeeded the former Miss Bettany as captain of the Guide company.) “It won’t be a very long trail, not this first part, I mean.”
    “But knowing Maynie,” Margia broke in, “it won’t be easy to follow!”
    “Too right, it won’t! Anyway, at the end we’ve got to search around and find our instructions for the rest of the hike. There’ll be a map with them. Now here’s the chalet, so let’s start counting.”
    There was some argument about where exactly two hundred paces finished. All three started looking in different places for the first clue. Jo had longer legs than the others, and she decided that Miss Maynard’s paces would probably be at least as long as her own. So she began to search further along the path. A moment or two later she exclaimed triumphantly, “Yes, here it is, this is the first sign!”
    Some grass at the side of the road had been tied in a way that indicated they should continue along the lake-side.
    “There is not really much choice anyway, is there?” Elisaveta said. “I mean, we either have to go along this path, or else turn back to Briesau again.”
    “Don’t be too sure!” Jo, knowing the district better, was more cautious. “Actually, there are dozens of small paths leading from this one up into the woods; there’s even one that takes you right over to the