The situation in the big automobile was quite as serious as Tom and Bob
believed, and there was very good reason for the girls to express their
fright in a chorus of screams. But Ruth Fielding, and her chum, Helen,
on the front seat, controlled themselves better than the other Eastern
girls; Jane Ann Hicks never said a word, but her uncle looked quite as
startled as his guests.
"I am sartainly graveled!" muttered the ranchman, staring all around for
some means of saving the party from disaster. "Hi gollies! if I only had
a leetle old rope now----"
But he had no lariat, and roping a mad steer from an automobile would
certainly have been a new experience for Bill Hicks. He had brought the
party of young folk out to Montana just to give his niece pleasure, and
having got Ruth Fielding and her friends here, he did not want to spoil
their visit by any bad accident. These young folk had been what Bill
Hicks called "mighty clever" to his Jane Ann when she had been castaway
in the East, and he had promised their friends to look out for them all
and send them home in time for school in the Fall with the proper
complement of legs and arms, and otherwise whole as to their physical
being.
Ruth Fielding, after the death of her parents when she was quite a young
girl, had left Darrowtown and all her old friends and home associations,
to live with her mother's uncle, at the Red Mill, on the Lumano River,
near Cheslow in York State. Her coming to Uncle Jabez Potter's, and her
early adventures about the mill, were related in the first volume of
this series, entitled "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill; Or, Jasper
Parloe's Secret."
Ruth had found Uncle Jabez very hard to get along with, for he was a
miser and his kinder nature had been crusted over by years of hoarding
and selfishness; but through a happy turn of circumstances Ruth was
enabled to get at the heart of her crotchety old uncle, and when Ruth's
dearest friend, Helen Cameron, planned to go to boarding school, Uncle
Jabez was won over to the scheme of sending the girl with her. The fun
and work of that first term at school is related in the second volume of
the series, entitled "Ruth Fielding at Briarwood Hall; Or, Solving the
Campus Mystery."
For the mid-winter vacation Ruth accompanied Helen and other school
friends to Mr. Cameron's hunting camp, up toward the Canadian line. In
"Ruth Fielding at Snow Camp; Or, Lost in the Backwoods," the girls and
some of their boy friends experience many adventures and endure some
hardship and peril while lost in the snow-shrouded forest.
One of Ruth's chums, Jennie Stone, otherwise known as "Heavy," invited
her to Lighthouse Point, with a party of young people, for part of the
summer vacation; and although Uncle Jabez was in much trouble over his
investment in the Tintacker Mine, which appeared to be a swindle, the
old miller had allowed Ruth to accompany her friends to the seashore
because he had already promised her the outing. In "Ruth Fielding at
Lighthouse Point; Or, Nita, the Girl Castaway," is narrated all the fun
and delightful experiences the girl of the Red Mill and her friends had
at the seaside; including the saving of a girl from the wreck of a
lumber schooner, a miss who afterward proved to be Jane Ann Hicks, the
niece of a very wealthy Montana ranch owner. The girl had run away from
the ranch and from her guardian and calls herself Nita, "because the
girl in the paper-covered novel was called Nita."
That was just the sort of a romantic, foolish girl Jane Ann Hicks was;
but she learned a few things and was glad to see her old uncle, rough as
he was, when he came hunting for her. And Mr. Bill Hicks had learned a
few things, too. He had never seen people spend money before he came
East, and he had not understood Jane Ann's longing for the delicate and
beautiful things in life. He saw, too, that a girl could not be properly
brought up on a cattle ranch, with nothing but cow punchers and Indians
and Mexican women about, and Mr. Hicks had determined to give his niece
"a right-down good time," as he expressed it.
It was to give Jane Ann pleasure, and because of the kindness of Ruth
and her friends to his niece, that Mr. Bill Hicks had arranged this trip
West for the entire party, on a visit to Silver Ranch. But the old
gentleman did not want their introduction to the ranch to be a tragedy.
And with the herd of half-wild cattle ahead, and Old Trouble-Maker
thundering along the trail behind the motor car, it did look as though
the introduction of the visitors to the ranch was bound to be a
strenuous one.
"Do go ahead, Helen!" cried Madge Steele, Bob's elder sister, from the
back seat of the tonneau. "Why, that beast may climb right in here!"
Helen started the car again; but at that her brother and Ruth cried out
in chorus:
"Don't run us into the herd, Helen!"
"What under the sun shall I _do_?" cried Miss Cameron. "I can't please
you all, that's sure."
"Oh, see that beast!" shrieked The Fox, who was likewise on the back
seat. "I want to get out!"
"Then the brute will catch you, sure," said Bob Steele.
"Sit still!" commanded Mr. Hicks. "And stop the car, Miss! Better to be
bunted by Old Trouble-Maker than set that whole bunch off on a
stampede."
"Mercy me!" cried Mary Cox. "I should think it would be better to
frighten those cows in front than to be horned to death by this big
beast from the rear."
"Sit still," said Jane Ann, grimly. "We won't likely be hurt by either."
Old Trouble-Maker did look awfully savage. Bellowing with rage, he
thundered along after the car. Helen had again brought the automobile to
a stop, this time at Bill Hicks' command. The next moment the girls
screamed in chorus, for the car jarred all over.
Crash went a rear lamp. About half a yard of paint and varnish was
scraped off, and the car itself was actually driven forward, despite the
brake being set, by the sheer weight of the steer.
"If we could git the old cart turned around and headed the other way!"
groaned the ranchman.
"I believe I can turn it, Mr. Hicks," cried Helen, excitedly.
But just then the steer, that had fallen back a few yards, charged
again. "Bang!" It sounded like the exploding of a small cannon. Old
Trouble-Maker had punctured a rear tire, and the car slumped down on
that side. Helen couldn't start it now, for the trail was too rough to
travel with a flattened tire.
The black and white steer, with another furious bellow, wheeled around
the back of the car and then came full tilt for the side. Heavy screamed
at the top of her voice:
"Oh, take me home! I never did want to go to a dairy farm. _I just
abominate cows!_"
But the crowd could not laugh. Huddled together in the tonneau, it
looked as though Old Trouble-Maker would certainly muss them up a whole
lot! Jane Ann and her uncle hopped out on the other side and called the
others to follow. At that moment, with a whoop and a drumming of hoofs,
a calico cow pony came racing along the trail toward the stalled car. On
the back of this flying pony was a lanky, dust-covered cowboy, swinging
a lariat in approved fashion.
"Hold steady, boss!" yelled this apparition, and then let the coils of
the rope whistle through the air. The hair line uncoiled like a writhing
serpent and dropped over the wide-spread horns of Old Trouble-Maker.
Then the calico pony came to an abrupt halt, sliding along the ground
with all four feet braced.
"Zip!" the noose tightened and the steer brought up with a suddenness
that threatened to dislocate his neck. Down the beast fell, roaring a
different tune. Old Trouble-Maker almost turned a somersault, while Jane
Ann, dancing in delight, caught off her very modern and high-priced hat
and swung it in the air.
"Hurrah for Bashful Ike!" she shouted. "He's the best little old boy
with the rope that ever worked for the Silver outfit. Hurrah!"