HIPPY AS A ROUGHRIDER
Reaching her camp, Grace quickly acquainted the girls with conditions at
the Thompson cabin. She then turned to Hippy and told him that he must
ride to Holcomb Court House and fetch a doctor.
"All right. I'll get an early start in the morning and--"
"No! To-night! Now, Hippy. To-morrow may be too late," urged Grace.
"Of course, if it is so bad as that. Why don't you have Emma Dean
'con-centrate'?"
"This is not a matter to make light of, Hippy Wingate," rebuked Nora.
"Of course you will go."
"Laundry, get my pony, and be lively about it," ordered Lieutenant
Wingate.
While this was being done, and Hippy was looking to his rifle and
revolver, Grace was explaining to him how to reach Holcomb over the
broad wagon trail that they had followed during the last day of their
journey. Nora, in the meantime, was packing her husband's kit with
sufficient food, that had been picked up from the scattered remnants, to
see him through the trip. Twenty minutes later they had started Hippy on
his way.
"If I don't come back, remember that I had a price on my head," he
called back to his companions.
"Pack up!" directed Grace. "We must move up near the Thompson cabin. It
won't do for you girls to remain here alone."
"Where shall we camp?" asked Anne, a worried look on her face. "We have
no tents fit for use."
"I don't know just yet, but they have a barn. Perhaps you might sleep
there. I must stay with Elfreda, at least until the doctor comes."
All the girls began to prepare for moving, and finally their possessions
were strapped in packs, some of which they placed on the backs of
ponies, for they were one mule short, and moved up to Thompson's.
Bidding her companions wait outside, Grace went in and consulted with
the mountaineer's wife.
"Yes, you folks will have to sleep in the barn," Grace informed them.
"I never thought I should have to sleep with the pigs and the cows,"
declared Nora. "Bad luck to the man that spoiled our fun."
There was an old haymow overhead in the barn, and there the girls
decided to make their bed for the night.
"If there are mice up here I shall die of fright, I know," groaned Emma.
"'Con-centrate' on the mice," advised Anne teasingly. "Once they bump
against that 'imponderable quantity,' the mice will trouble you no
more."
"Why can't we go into the cabin and lie down on the floor? It can't be
worse than the barn," urged Nora.
Grace firmly refused to permit it. Not knowing what the two children
were suffering from, she knew that it would be inadvisable for her
companions even to enter the cabin.
The girls found their way to the hayloft, after many bumps and falls
accompanied by smothered cries and loud protests from Emma, and after he
had tethered the horses and the mule just outside the barn, Washington
Washington was put to bed on the barn floor. Grace then returned to the
cabin.
The children were still delirious and Elfreda said that their
temperature seemed to be rising. She decided to give them a sponge bath.
This occupied some time, but it had the effect of reducing their
temperatures somewhat.
Julie watched every movement of the Overland nurses, following them
with eyes in which wonder was not unmixed with admiration, but Mrs.
Thompson seemed helpless to do or think, and sat regarding them with
expressionless eyes, now and then heaving a troubled sigh.
Along towards morning the children ceased their babbling and sank into
an uneasy sleep. The mother, soon after, dozed off in her chair.
"Julie, get some water and soap and help us clean this place. It's a
fright," declared Miss Briggs.
This Julie did, so far as getting the water was concerned, but she took
so little interest in scrubbing the floor that Grace and Elfreda were
obliged to take that task into their own hands. They were down on their
knees scrubbing away, when Mrs. Thompson awakened.
"What you-all doin'?" she demanded blinkingly.
"Cleaning house," replied Elfreda briefly.
"'Tain't no use. It'll git dirty ag'in. Ah reckon Jed won't like it,
neither."
"We don't care whether Jed likes it or not," retorted Grace. "Leave him
to us, Mrs. Thompson."
Early in the morning Grace and Elfreda went out to the barn to see how
it had fared with their friends. They were a "frowzy lot," as Miss
Briggs characterized their appearance. Their heads were full of hay,
their eyes were red, and their faces showed much loss of sleep.
"You folks go down to the brook and wash, and by the time you return we
shall have breakfast cooked for you," offered Elfreda.
The breakfast they cooked on Mrs. Thompson's stove, but in the
Overlanders' utensils. Nor would they permit any of the girls to come
into the house for the food. Handing the breakfast out to the eagerly
waiting hands of their companions, Grace and Miss Briggs soon followed
and joined the girls at breakfast in the open.
It was not a particularly enjoyable meal. Not once during the breakfast
had one mentioned Hippy Wingate and his mission, and it was not until
they had finished and sat back that Nora broached the subject.
"When should Hippy be back?" she asked.
"If he found the doctor at once he should have been here two or three
hours ago," replied Grace.
"Don't get excited, Nora," begged Elfreda, as Nora's face paled ever so
little. "A number of things may have occurred to detain him. Hippy is
not one to be beaten when he starts out with a definite purpose in
view."
"Especially when I am con-centrating on him," spoke up Emma.
This brought a laugh and put all the girls in instant good humor. They
were interrupted by Julie who came out rubbing her eyes, after a few
hours' sleep on a blanket on the floor of the cabin.
"Maw wants to know what she'll give Sue and Liz fer breakfast?" she
asked.
"Breakfast?" exclaimed Elfreda. "Not a mouthful until the doctor gets
here and advises what is to be done. They may have all the water they
wish, but nothing of solid food. You won't forget, will you?"
Julie shook her head.
"This is the first opportunity I have had to speak with you quietly
since last night, Julie," said Grace. "You made a remark as we were
about to leave the dance, indicating that you knew something had
occurred at our camp. Julie, you knew what had been done there, didn't
you?"
The mountain girl nodded.
"How did you know?"
"Er feller an' girl comin' t' the dance seen it," she answered with some
hesitation.
"And you know who did it?"
"Uh-huh," nodded the girl.
"Who was it?"
"Ah shan't tell you-all!" exclaimed Julie, a challenge snapping in her
black eyes.
"That is all right, my dear, if you do not wish to speak. How is your
friend, Lum Bangs, to-day?"
"He ain't no friend of mine. Ah don't know nothin' 'bout how he is, an'
Ah don't care." Julie blazed as she said it.
The Overland girls smiled. Grace's question, they thought, had been
answered.
"Thar comes somebody," cried Julie, distracting the attention of all
from the subject.
A man on horseback was seen pounding up the trail at a fast pace.
"It's the doc!" announced the mountain girl.
"Hippy! Where's Hippy?" gasped Nora.
"Keep steady," urged Grace, as they got up and walked out to meet the
doctor in front of the cabin.
"Are you the doctor?" asked Elfreda as he rode up and swung a hand to
them.
"Yes."
"Where did you leave Lieutenant Wingate?" asked Grace.
"About ten miles down the trail. I got here as quickly as possible. To
be brief, we were attacked from ambush. The lieutenant's horse was shot
from under him. We both began shooting, but he yelled to me, 'Go on,
Doc. They need you at Thompson's. I'll get out of it somehow.'
"Well, I saw that he was right, so I rode for keeps till I got out of
range of the bullets. Lively neighborhood up here, eh? I'll see the
patients, if you please."
Elfreda conducted the doctor into the cabin, Grace remaining to comfort
Nora and to consider what was best to be done in the circumstances. Nora
was urging her to start out in search of Hippy, but Grace pointed out
that they were as likely to miss as to find him, and that the best
course appeared to be to wait until later in the day, then, should
Lieutenant Wingate not return, a searching party must be organized to go
out for him. Grace then entered the cottage and the girls led Nora out
to the shady side of the barn where they consoled her as best they
could.
"I will sit right down here and con-centrate," promised Emma. "You will
see that it will fetch him back. If it doesn't never, never again will I
con-centrate on Hippy. The trouble is that he resists the instant he
feels the magnetic current, which makes con-centrating very difficult
and takes so much of the imponderable quality out of one--"
"Emma! Emma!" cried Anne. "For mercy sake come up and get a breath of
air. You will drown if you stay down another second."
Nora laughed heartily.
In the meantime Grace and Elfreda were leaning over the bed watching the
doctor's diagnosis. Elfreda told him what had been done for the two
children, naming the few home remedies that she had been able to find
and administer to them.
"Good, Miss Lizzie might have been dead by this time if you had not done
what you did. Susie is not in quite such bad shape."
"What is the matter with them?" questioned Grace.
"Scarlet fever--both of them," was the terse answer. "Have your party
all been exposed?"
Elfreda informed him that, not knowing what the children's trouble was,
they had thought best not to permit the Overland Riders to enter the
cabin.
Grace questioned the doctor further on the attack that had been made on
himself and Hippy, and asked him to indicate, as nearly as possible, the
spot where the attack was made.
The doctor was giving them the details when the door of the cabin was
roughly thrown open and a man stepped in.
"It's Paw! Hello, Paw. The Doc is here."
Jed Thompson carried a rifle under his arm, and his face was as black as
a thunder cloud.
"Here's a squall," murmured Miss Briggs, just loud enough for Grace to
hear.
"What you-all doin' here?" he demanded, eyeing the two Overland Riders
sternly.
It was plain that Thompson's anger was rapidly getting the best of him.
"You-all! Git out o' mah house afore Ah throws ye out!" he roared.
"Be quiet, Paw," urged Julie weakly, Mrs. Thompson being too frightened
to utter a word.
"When we have finished with our work, Mr. Thompson, we will leave. Not
one second sooner," retorted Elfreda Briggs coolly, as she stepped
forward and faced the irate mountaineer.
"Then Ah'll throw ye out! The pack of ye git out afore Ah fergits
mahself and shoots ye out."
Jed started for Miss Briggs, his anger now beyond all control.
"Stop where you are, Jed Thompson!" commanded Elfreda Briggs.
The mountaineer halted abruptly. He was facing J. Elfreda's revolver,
which was leveled at him, held in a steady hand.
"Let your rifle drop to the floor," she directed sweetly. "Drop it! My
hand is a little nervous to-day and this revolver might go off."
The rifle clattered to the floor, but Elfreda Briggs still held her
position, her eyes narrowly watching the angry mountaineer.