FELLED BY A MYSTERIOUS BLOW
When Grace awakened late in the night the feeling of oppression with
which she had gone to sleep still lay heavy upon her. The faint soughing
of a breeze in the tree tops, the light thuds of falling pine cones,
were the only sounds to be heard outside of the breathing of her
companions who were sleeping soundly.
Suddenly her ears caught a distant roar, and a few drops of rain
pattered on the tent.
"It is going to storm," murmured Grace. "I hope no dead limbs fall from
the trees on our camp." Pulling the blankets over her head to shut out
the sounds she tried to go to sleep, but sleep would not come, so Grace
uncovered her head and lay listening.
The wind seemed to die down for a while, but it soon sprang up with
renewed strength, and was sweeping violently over the tops of the pines,
which were creaking and groaning under the strain. A distant crash told
of some forest giant that had gone down under the blast; then the rain
fell, a deluge of it, which finally beat through the little tents and
trickled down over the sleeping Overland girls.
"Are you all right in there?" called Tom from the outside.
"Yes, but we are getting wet. Is it going to last long?" asked Grace.
"Not being able to get a view of the sky, I can't say positively. It
seems like only a shower to me."
"Wait a moment. I'll join you."
Grace hurriedly dressed and, throwing on her rubber coat, stepped out.
"I don't just like the way some of these trees are acting," said Tom.
"Perhaps you haven't noticed how the ground is heaving."
"Yes I have, but I did not know that it meant anything alarming."
"It shows that the wind is throwing a great strain on the trees and that
there is too much play in the roots for the good of the trees--and
ourselves," he added. "I hope our supplies do not fall down under the
whipping they are getting."
The provisions had been slung in sacks from a rope strung between two
trees, about ten feet above the ground, to keep them out of reach of
Henry and other prowling animals.
"How long have you been up?" asked Grace.
"Half an hour or so. I went up to the ridge to the rear of the camp,
thinking that I had heard something unusual going on up there, but
hurried back when the rain started. What I heard must have been the
trees creaking."
They listened to the storm for several minutes, Tom Gray trying to
interpret the sounds.
"Awaken the girls!" he directed, acting upon a sudden resolution. "Get
them out as quickly as possible." Tom had heard a sound coming from the
ridge that stirred him into quick action. "Tell them to fetch the
blankets and our rifles. We mustn't lose any of those things."
"Will you call Hippy and Joe?"
"Yes, yes. Hurry!"
"Turn out!" shouted Tom at the opening of Hippy's tent. "Be lively.
Blankets and weapons with you."
"Wha--at, in this storm?" wailed Hippy.
"Better get wet than get killed," retorted Tom, springing over to Joe
Shafto's tent. Joe answered his hail with a sharp demand to know what he
wanted.
"Pile out as quickly as possible. We are likely to have trouble. And
call your bear off."
Henry was sniffing at Tom's heels and growling ominously, but he obeyed
the incisive command of his master and retired to his position in front
of her tent.
The girls, he found, were already out of their tents, blankets over
their heads, all shivering in the chill rain, all too cold to speak
except Emma Dean.
"I--I to-o-old you something was go-going to happen," she stammered.
"The v-v-v-voice of nature to-o-old me so."
"N-n-n-nature is an old fogy," jeered Hippy mockingly. "Nothing has
happened and I don't know why we have been dragged out into this rotten
storm."
"Follow me and watch your step," directed Tom tersely. He led the way to
the river and along its bank to the tethering ground. "Lead your ponies
to a safer place, further up the stream," he ordered.
This hurried departure from their camp was a good deal of a mystery to
the Overland Riders. They did not understand why, nor did Tom Gray tell
them.
"Hippy, help me tie the horses," he said, after having gone several rods
further up stream. "One at a time with the ponies, folks, then go make
yourselves as comfortable as possible under the bluff of the bank. The
bushes there will offer you more protection from the wind and rain than
the trees would."
Shortly thereafter Tom and Hippy joined their shivering companions, and
the party, with blankets stretched over their heads, huddled miserably
as they sat on the wet ground under the blanket roof, Hindenburg on
Hippy's lap, and Henry outside in the rain licking the water from his
dripping coat of fur.
"How are you, J. Elfreda?" teased Grace.
"Saturated and satiated," answered Miss Briggs briefly.
"I wonder what the voices of nature are saying at the present moment?"
mused Hippy. "If they feel anything like I do, their remarks are more
forceful than elegant."
"Even if you were to hear them you would be mo wiser," observed Emma.
"Only persons with unusual minds can read the messages that nature
conveys."
Someone under the blanket roof giggled, and Hippy articulated "Ahem!"
"As I was about to say--What's that?" he exclaimed sharply.
A boom, that reminded all who heard it of the explosion of a
high-powered shell at a distance, smote the ears of the Overland Riders.
Then a succession of resounding reports and terrific crashings shook the
earth.
"Stay where you are!" shouted Tom Gray as, with single accord, the girls
sprang to their feet and started to run. They halted at sound of Tom's
voice.
Something from the air struck the ground with a thud, and Hippy Wingate
toppled over against Elfreda Briggs and sank down, uttering a faint
moan.
"Hippy's hurt! Something hit him. Quick, Tom! Show a light!" cried Miss
Briggs.
Tom Gray flashed a ribbon of light from his pocket lamp and sprang to
his companion.
"Hippy! Hippy!" he begged.
Nora uttered an anguished wail, and in an instant her arms were about
Lieutenant Wingate's neck.
"Let go and give him air," commanded Tom.
Hippy lay as he had fallen, half on his side, one arm doubled under his
head. A red welt across his forehead showed where the blow that felled
him had fallen.
The reverberating crashes that had shaken the earth were dying out and
now seemed much further away than at first.