AN ADVENTURE
"HAVE you decided, Grandmother," asked Blue Bonnet, "whether or not we
can go to Jonah this morning?"
"I think you may as well go," said Mrs. Clyde. "If they have no
suitable material at Jonah, we shall have to send away for it, and the
sooner we know the better. And, besides, we need several things for
the house."
Blue Bonnet smiled gratefully. Grandmother was so sweetly
reasonable--most of the time. To her surprise Sarah was the only one
of the girls who greeted the proposal with any enthusiasm. The others
looked listless and heavy-eyed.
"I feel tired all over," said Debby.
"I can't move my arms without groaning," complained Amanda.
"I'm as stiff as a poker," added Kitty mournfully.
Sarah looked wise. "It's the swimming," she declared.
"Trying to swim," Blue Bonnet corrected her. "I'm not tired or stiff."
"If trying to swim has made us feel this way, why doesn't Sarah make
her little moan?" demanded Kitty.
Sarah looked still wiser. "I was so stiff before that I think swimming
just limbered me up," she explained delightedly. Sarah could not help
feeling a little very human satisfaction at the consciousness that she
had borne her sufferings with far greater courage than the others now
displayed.
"I couldn't ride a mile," groaned Kitty.
"Nor I!" declared both Debby and Amanda.
"Then, Señorita Blake, do we go by our lones?" asked Blue Bonnet.
"I'd love to," Sarah assented readily, beating down a nagging fear of
Comanche's eyes.
"Then let's hurry and dress. We must start while it's cool."
"I think you will have to drive, dear," said her grandmother, looking
up from the shopping list she was making. "Lisa says we must have
laundry soap, and I don't see how you can bring a big box unless you
take the buckboard."
Blue Bonnet's face fell. "Lisa's always wanting soap," she grumbled.
"I should love to drive," Sarah suggested wistfully.
Blue Bonnet hesitated; after all a hostess should consider a guest's
preference, and Sarah was certainly a "good sort." "Very well," she
assented, smothering a sigh.
"Have you all decided what color you want your bathing-suits?" asked
the Señora.
"Let's have them all alike," suggested Sarah.
"Red!" exclaimed Blue Bonnet.
"No, thank you," returned Kitty. "Pray consider the feelings of my
hair! I'm willing to have any color so long as--"
"--so long as it's green!" Blue Bonnet finished for her, recollecting
former debates of this sort.
"Green is lovely for swimming, anyway," Kitty contended. "It's so
mermaidy, you know."
"And so becoming to red--er--auburn hair," put in Blue Bonnet. "Having
blue eyes myself, I'm not partial to green."
"Oh, if you're going to insist on harmony of colors I think we had
better stick to black and blue--I'm one big bruise." Kitty illustrated
her remark with a groan.
"Yes, I've seen blue trimmed with black and it was very pretty," said
Sarah, quite missing Kitty's point.
"Here, Grandmother, please make a list. Now, everybody, decide. Red
for me. Debby, what shall yours be?"
"Red with white braid, please," replied Debby after a moment's
thought.
"Blue with white ditto," was Amanda's choice.
"Green," came from Kitty.
"Black and blue,"--this from the consistent Sarah.
"I think you will have to change the name of your club from the 'We
are Sevens' to 'The Rainbow Quintet,'" said the Señora, laughing as
she wrote down the variegated list.
After all it was a delightful drive to Jonah. The two fleet horses
drew the light buckboard over the smooth road with a motion that Sarah
found far preferable to the cat-like leaps of Comanche; and Blue
Bonnet was so proud of being trusted to drive a team that she was
quite reconciled to the arrangement.
"Denham would have fainted if I had even suggested driving
Grandmother's carriage horses," she told Sarah, with a scornful sniff
for those fat Woodford beasts.
"You drive beautifully," was Sarah's comforting rejoinder.
To their great satisfaction they found just what they wanted in Jonah.
Alpaca was to be had in almost every shade, and wide white braid that
made an excellent trimming. And to Blue Bonnet's delight she found a
bright red sash that would add the finishing touch of elegance to her
suit. Their shopping done and the buckboard well-heaped with their
varied purchases, the two girls drove back as far as Kooch's ranch,
where, according to an immemorial custom, they lunched and rested
until the cool of the afternoon. On the return trip they met with an
adventure.
The road ran for a short distance beside the little river with the big
name--San Franciscito--which had so amused Alec. It was there that
Sarah did something unprecedented. For several miles she had been
envying Blue Bonnet her easy manner of handling the reins and the
light touch that sent the mustangs right or left as she willed. It was
a beautiful accomplishment.
"Blue Bonnet," she asked suddenly, "may I drive for a little while?"
Blue Bonnet looked up in speechless surprise; Sarah was certainly
"coming on." "Surely you may," she said cordially, straightway handing
over the reins. "Hold them firmly--these colts are apt to run under a
loose rein."
Sarah felt a curious sense of power as she grasped the leather in her
unpracticed hands. Conscientious to a degree, she did as she was bid
and held the mustangs firmly. In her anxiety to do the thing properly,
she overdid it, and the next moment the horses were tossing their
heads angrily and backing with all their might. The bank of the stream
just here was very high and steep, though just beyond was a ford where
the road branched. The light buckboard offered no resistance to the
spirited mustangs, and, in a second, before Blue Bonnet could grasp
the reins, one hind wheel had slipped an inch or two over the ledge.
For a second or two the girls were in grave danger. Blue Bonnet felt a
swift overpowering fear; the half-broken colts were as apt to plunge
backward as to advance if they felt the whip, and that meant a plunge
down the steep bank. She looked about her helplessly. Sarah, with a
faint shriek, shut her eyes and prepared for the catastrophe.
At that moment a horseman came suddenly up the bank at the ford,
emerging as if from out the earth. At a glance he took in the
situation, was off his horse, caught the near colt by the bit and
brought both frightened animals to a standstill with the wheel a safe
margin from the bank. Then without waiting to hear the faintly
murmured thanks of the terrified girls, their rescuer turned at once
to his own horse, which had seized the moment to make a break for
freedom. The boy--for he was hardly more--had thrown the lines over
the animal's head and now, with another of his incredibly swift
movements, he caught them and in a second more had jerked the horse
about. Then in a flash he was once more in the saddle. Blue Bonnet had
just managed to catch her breath,--when it was taken away again. For
before the boy had put his right foot in the stirrup, he was out of
the saddle once more, lying all of a heap in the grass, while his
horse with a wicked kick-up of his heels, vanished around a turn in
the road.
Not daring to trust the reins out of her hands a second time, Blue
Bonnet almost pushed Sarah from her seat. Fearfully the girl
approached and bent over the fallen hero; to her relief she saw that
his eyes were open. He blinked queerly for a moment, then gave a gaspy
little laugh.
"I'm all right. Don't worry. It's knocked the breath out of me--that's
all," he managed to say at last; and then, after another pause, he
scrambled up to a sitting posture.
"I'm so sorry," said Sarah, finding her voice. "I hope you're not
seriously hurt."
"I'm--quite whole!" he assured her, and stopped with a wince of pain.
"It's my wrist, I reckon--broken or sprained." He examined the injured
member closely and after a vain attempt to lift it said briefly:
"Broken. Isn't that the limit?"
"Oh, dear," exclaimed Sarah, all sympathy. "What shall we do?" She
approached Blue Bonnet with a very serious face. "We shall have to get
a doctor to set his arm right away," she said in a low tone. "You know
the bones go crooked if they're not set soon."
"If he can get up into the buckboard we can take him to the doctor,
that'll be quicker," replied Blue Bonnet.
Sarah went back to the boy. He still sat, rather dazed and white,
looking disgustedly at his injured arm. "Say," she began
hesitatingly; she wished she knew his name--"say" was so plebeian;
"--are you too badly hurt to get into the buckboard?"
"No, indeed," he replied cheerfully. "Be--with you--in a minute. But
sorry--to trouble you."
"It's no trouble," said Sarah. "We're terribly sorry about your arm."
"Nothing much,--only a bother," he maintained stoutly, setting his
teeth as he said it and scrambling to his feet. Then he swayed and
would have fallen if Sarah had not caught him. He clung to her for a
moment, fighting the dizziness with all the pride of his seventeen
years, then giving in sheepishly, let her lead him to the buckboard.
Once there he leaned weakly against the wheel, while the two girls,
anxious and frightened, yet too considerate of his feelings to show
their concern, watched him in speechless sympathy. At last he
straightened up and gave a short, embarrassed laugh.
"Reckon I've got a funny-bone in my head," he said impatiently. Then
steadying himself with his right hand he climbed slowly into the back
seat of the buckboard.
"We'd better go to Jonah at once, don't you think--for the doctor?"
Blue Bonnet asked him.
"Is it far?" he asked. Blue Bonnet looked her surprise and he added:
"I don't know these parts. I'm camping up at the Big Spring and was
just riding down this way looking for a place they call Kooch's."
"Why, we've just come from there," exclaimed Blue Bonnet.
"Then it is near?" he asked. "I'd begun to think I must have taken the
wrong road."
"Just a mile or two back," explained Blue Bonnet.
"Then if you will kindly take me there, I'll not trouble you any
further," the youth said eagerly.
"But you must have your arm set right away," protested Sarah.
"Well, if the man I was looking for is at Kooch's, maybe he can set
it," he replied, adding, "He's a 'medic' from Chicago--a friend of a
cousin of mine. Left college on account of lung trouble, and I heard
he was camping on Kooch's ground somewhere."
"Maybe it was his tent we saw back there a ways," said Sarah. "That's
quite near."
Blue Bonnet turned the horses and driving very slowly, so as not to
hurt the boy's injured arm, went back over the road they had just
traversed. It was not long before they came in sight of the tent she
and Sarah had noticed; a rather high fence prevented her approaching
it very closely, and she stopped just opposite the camp.
"I reckon you'll have to go and see if the man's there, Sarah," said
Blue Bonnet.
Sarah looked fearfully at the high fence. "I just know I can't get
over."
Blue Bonnet gave her a withering glance. "You--Woodfordite!" was the
worst epithet she dared trust herself to before a stranger. "Then
you'll have to hold the horses. There's no river to spill into
here--and you don't have to pull them over backwards."
"There's no need, really," the young fellow interrupted. "I can bring
Abbott if he's here." He raised his right hand, put the tips of two
fingers to his lips and blew. The shrillest, most penetrating whistle
the girls had ever heard pierced the air, causing the colts to lunge
forward in a way that might have precipitated another catastrophe, had
not Blue Bonnet's little steel wrist brought them up sharply.
At the summons a tall lanky figure appeared from within the tent and
stood peering under his hand at the occupants of the buckboard. The
youth whistled again, this time only with his lips,--a bird-like call.
"That's his frat whistle. Ought to bring him."
And bring him it did. The lanky figure deserted the tent and with an
eager stride crossed the meadow and came up to the fence. After one
scrutinizing glance at the girls his eye fell on the boy and he
grinned broadly.
"Hullo, Knight!--is it really you? Glad to see you, old chap!"
"Hello, Doc. How am I going to get over this hospitable fence of
yours?" returned the boy, with an abruptness born of an aching wrist.
"My nag threw me and I've broken my left arm. Know anybody that can
set it?" He winked impudently at the fledgling doctor.
The latter beamed with professional delight. "Just my line, dear boy.
I wish it had been your leg, now,--I do those beautifully!"
"Or my neck--I don't doubt it. But this is quite enough, thank you,"
retorted the boy. He was white with pain and yet could joke!--it was
the sort of pluck Blue Bonnet admired.
"If your cousin will drive down to the gate,--" the young man
suggested.
The boy looked a trifle embarrassed. "This isn't my cousin," he
replied. "These gir--er--young ladies picked me up after my spill
and--"
"I'm Elizabeth Ashe," Blue Bonnet supplied, coloring slightly.
"Of the Blue Bonnet ranch?" asked the medico, and at her affirmative
nod he added, "I've met Mr. Ashe."
"This is Doctor Abbott," said the boy, striving to make the
introduction easily, though one could see that such social amenities
were not a matter of habit with him.
"I can't claim that title yet," the "doctor" protested. "My friends
bestowed it when I was a freshman. I hope to earn it yet. Now,
Knight,--about that arm. If Miss Ashe will drive on--there's a gate a
hundred yards down the road. It isn't big enough to drive through, but
I'll meet you there. I've some bandages in my tent. Be with you in a
minute."
He appeared at the little gate bearing a most professional looking
leather case and various packages that emitted queer odors. His
enjoyment of the operation in store was plain.
"Hadn't I better go over to the tent with you?" asked the patient. To
have an arm set with two strange girls looking on was evidently not to
his taste.
"Too far for you to walk if you feel as shaky as you look," said
Doctor Abbott, his keen eyes taking in young Knight's pale face and
twitching lips. "And I may need assistance." He sprang lightly into
the seat beside the patient and made a rapid examination. The girls
resolutely kept their eyes away, but they could hear the boy's quick
breathing. He made no other sound.
"A sprain, my boy," was the verdict which the girls heard with vast
relief.
"Only a sprain?" asked Knight in an injured tone. "Then what makes it
hurt so like the mischief?"
"A sprain hurts worse than a fracture, sometimes, but it is less
serious and will heal quicker," said the doctor. "I've just the right
thing here and will fix you up in no time."
The next five minutes were bad ones for the sufferer; Sarah and Blue
Bonnet knew it, though they still stared off over the meadow and tried
to chat unconcernedly, while the hurried breathing of the boy
continued.
"There you are!" The girls turned to see the young man viewing his
work and the neat bandage with approval, while Knight, with his lips
still trembling, looked up at him with forced cheerfulness. "You'll
have to keep it still for a few days,--wish we had some sort of a
sling." Abbott knit his brow.
Knight touched the bandanna about his neck. "How about this?"
Abbott tried it but found it too short. Blue Bonnet had one of her
sudden inspirations. Diving down underneath the seat she fished up one
of the many packages. Under the interested eyes of the others she
opened it and then held up something bright and silky.
"Your red sash!" gasped Sarah.
"Will it do?" Blue Bonnet asked the doctor anxiously.
"Just the thing!" he exclaimed; and in a minute had slung his
patient's arm in the scarlet folds of the sash.
"I say," Knight protested, "I hate like everything to take this from
you, Miss Ashe."
Blue Bonnet gave him a bright smile. "I'm very glad to have it prove
so useful. Sarah called me frivolous when I bought it."
The boy looked uncomfortable but was forced to submit, vowing inwardly
that he would buy her the "fanciest article in the sash line" that
Chicago could boast, to make up for the loss of her finery.
"Now, my friend," said the young surgeon, as he gathered up his
instrument case in a professional manner, "I must see that wrist in
the morning. Where are you staying?"
The youth colored; it was evident that he had expected an invitation
to stay with his friend. Blue Bonnet spoke up at once: "You must come
with us to the ranch. Uncle would never forgive me if I let you stay
anywhere else."
"Sorry I can't ask you to stay with me," Abbott said, observing the
boy's confusion. "But I've only a cot built for one, you know. You'll
be a heap more comfortable at the Blue Bonnet ranch than in my
quarters. I'll ride over in the morning and take a look at you."
With the matter thus taken out of his hands, Knight had to submit.
"It's mighty good of you," he said to Blue Bonnet.
"Not at all," she returned heartily. "I'd have to do a great deal to
get even!"
"That wasn't anything," he protested. Then, turning to the doctor, he
remarked with a return of his usual humor: "So long, Doc--hope you
haven't injured me for life. Bring over your bill in the morning!"