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THE RANCH GIRLS SERIES
The Ranch Girls and Their Great Adventure
BOOKS BY MARGARET VANDERCOOK
THE RANCH GIRLS SERIES
THE RANCH GIRLS AT RAINBOW LODGE
THE RANCH GIRLS' POT OF GOLD
THE RANCH GIRLS AT BOARDING SCHOOL
THE RANCH GIRLS IN EUROPE
THE RANCH GIRLS AT HOME AGAIN
THE RANCH GIRLS AND THEIR GREAT ADVENTURE
THE RED CROSS GIRLS SERIES
THE RED CROSS GIRLS IN THE BRITISH TRENCHES
THE RED CROSS GIRLS ON THE FRENCH FIRING LINE
THE RED CROSS GIRLS IN BELGIUM
THE RED CROSS GIRLS WITH THE RUSSIAN ARMY
THE RED CROSS GIRLS WITH THE ITALIAN ARMY
THE RED CROSS GIRLS UNDER THE STARS AND STRIPES
STORIES ABOUT CAMP FIRE GIRLS
THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT SUNRISE HILL
THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AMID THE SNOWS
THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE OUTSIDE WORLD
THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ACROSS THE SEA
THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS' CAREERS
THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN AFTER YEARS
THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE DESERT
THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT THE END OF THE TRAIL
[Illustration: YOU MUST ABIDE BY MY DECISION]
THE RANCH GIRLS SERIES
The Ranch Girls and Their Great Adventure
--BY--
MARGARET VANDERCOOK
ILLUSTRATED BY
WILSON V. CHAMBERS
THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY
PHILADELPHIA
Copyright, 1917, by
THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. KENT HOUSE 9
II. FRIEDA'S RIFT 22
III. THE VOICE 34
IV. A LATE ARRIVAL 49
V. AN APPARITION 63
VI. THE CLOUD 81
VII. SO AS BY FIRE 92
VIII. SEVERAL MONTHS LATER 101
IX. CHURCH AND STATE 116
X. THE LETTER 127
XI. A SURPRISE 138
XII. NO QUARTER 148
XIII. THE BREAK 159
XIV. PROFESSOR AND PROFESSORESS 171
XV. THE OLD RANCH 187
XVI. VIVE 201
XVII. FAREWELL 212
XVIII. "UNDER TWO FLAGS" 225
ILLUSTRATIONS
YOU MUST ABIDE BY MY DECISION _Frontispiece_
PAGE
IN A FEW MOMENTS SHE WAS IN A PANIC 74
HIS OWN MEN CARRIED HIM BACK TO A FIELD HOSPITAL 128
I ASSURE YOU I HAVE OFFICIAL PERMISSION 180
The Ranch Girls and Their Great Adventure
CHAPTER I
KENT HOUSE
THE deep-rutted English lane was bordered with high box hedges. On one
side was a sloping park with trees a century old and on the other side a
wide field filled with meadow grass and scarlet poppies. It was in July.
"In all the world there is nothing so peaceful as this English country,
is there? It is like another world when one first gets away from the
turmoil of New York."
The girl who said this was undoubtedly an American, both in her manner
and appearance, although her dark hair and eyes and her deep-toned olive
skin were almost Spanish in coloring.
Her companion--in spite of the fact that her costume was a typical
English walking one, a mixed brown tweed skirt, Norfolk jacket and high
boots,--was equally an American. She smiled before replying.
"I don't know that I agree with you, Olive. Of course that is what
people from home always say. Jim Colter declares he is half asleep the
entire time he is in England. But that is because Americans,
particularly my beloved westerners, don't understand England and the
English. Things are not always peaceful just because they are quiet. We
think so because we are noisy. Frank says there was never more unrest."
But at this Lady Kent, who a number of years ago was Jacqueline Ralston
and one of the four Ranch girls at Rainbow Lodge, slipped her arm
through her friend's, Olive Van Mater's.
"But, Olive dear, for goodness sake don't let us talk politics the day
after your arrival. It is so English. Sometimes I feel scarcely fitted
to play the part of an English 'Lady,' now that Frank has come into the
title of 'Lord' and is a member of Parliament. I often long for a ride
with Jim over my own prairies to search for lost cattle." Lady Kent
laughed.
"Once a Ranch girl, always a Ranch girl, so far as I'm concerned, Olive;
and yet I'm farther away from the old place than any of you. But, tell
me, what made you decide to come abroad so suddenly without even
writing? I have had letters from everybody at home except that lazy
Frieda, and yet not one with a suggestion of your trip in it. Tell me
about every member of my family--Ruth and Jim and their babies and Jean
and Ralph and Frieda and her Professor. Funny, I never can think of
Frieda really being married. You see, although it has been nearly four
years, I have never seen her since we went over for the great event."
Jack ceased talking for a moment, for she was still "Jack" to her own
family and the friends who knew her intimately. Olive never had talked
so much as the other Ranch girls, but now it occurred to Jack that she
was asking a great many questions, without allowing an opportunity for
them to be answered.
Olive turned, apparently to glance through the opening in the hedge at
the splendid mass of colour in the field.
"Suppose we sit down a while, Jack," she suggested. "Remember, I haven't
had the English habit of walking for a long time. You told me Frank's
train would not get in from London for another hour."
In spite of the fact that her tone was as casual as she knew how to make
it, her companion understood at once.
"You have come to tell me bad news, haven't you? and I never dreamed of
it until this instant. You have been brave, Olive."
In spite of her nervousness over having so suddenly guessed the reason
for her friend's unexpected visit, Jack quietly looked about for a
comfortable resting place, remembering that Olive had just had a long
trip and was never so strong as the other Ranch girls.
A few yards farther on a gate led into Kent Park.
Lady Kent opened this and a moment or two later the two friends were
seated under one of the great oak trees for which the Kent estate was
famous--the estate now presided over by Jacqueline Ralston and the Frank
Kent, whom we once knew as a guest at a neighboring ranch to the
Ralstons' in Wyoming, but who were now Lord and Lady Kent of the county
of Kent, England.
"Don't be frightened, Jack; my news isn't so bad as you may think. At
least I don't know just how bad it is," and Olive smiled and then
frowned the next moment. "The truth of the matter is that Frieda Ralston
Russell has left her Professor. I was out in Wyoming having a peaceful
visit at Rainbow Ranch when I received a mysterious telegram from Frieda
telling me to come to her at once in New York city--not in Chicago,
where she was supposed to be safe with her Professor husband. Of course
I went at once to her. In New York I found a yellow-haired and not so
miserable Frieda, who calmly told me she had decided that marriage was a
failure. I could not find out her special reasons for thinking so, but
perhaps she will tell you more herself, Jack. She is coming to you on
the next steamer, only she preferred my first breaking the news to you
and Frank."
Jack whistled, after a boyish fashion of her youth, which was not
becoming to her present age and position.
"And you came, Olive dear, all the way across the ocean by yourself,
just because my spoiled small sister wished to save herself the trouble
of a confession? You are an angel, Olive. And I am afraid it is Frieda's
selfishness--her remaining such a completely spoiled young person--that
may be the answer to her present behavior. But I thought her husband
spoiled her more even than her own family had in the past. Besides, I
can't imagine the Professor doing anything wicked, can you, Olive? Oh
dear, Frank and I always opposed Frieda's marriage. Professor Russell
did seem too old and serious for her."
Just as she had always done whenever it was possible as a girl, Lady
Kent at this moment took off her hat and flung it on the ground beside
her. It was of brown cloth with a small green and brown feather to match
her walking outfit; nevertheless she looked far handsomer without it.
Jack was no longer a girl. A good many years had passed since her
marriage to Frank Kent, which was to occur soon after the close of the
last Ranch girls' book, known as "The Ranch Girls At Home Again." Also
in the final chapter, when the family had lately moved into their new
home, built on the ranch not far from the old Rainbow Lodge, where the
Ranch girls had first lived, their cousin Jean Bruce's engagement had
been announced to Ralph Merritt, an old friend and the Rainbow Mine
engineer. Then, as a great surprise to her family, Frieda Ralston, the
youngest of the Ranch girls, at that time only eighteen, had insisted
upon her own engagement to Professor Charles Henry Russell, a Professor
of dead languages at the University of Chicago and more than ten years
her senior.
"Oh, well, what is an old maid worth in a family if she is not to be
made useful?" Olive answered. "But, of course, Jack, you understand I
don't require a great deal of persuasion to come to you, and besides I
was afraid if I did not come ahead, Frieda would not come at all. You
are the only person who has any influence over her. If she goes back to
the ranch, Ruth and Jean will only make such a fuss over her that she
will become more and more convinced she has been badly treated. Jim, you
know, never has approved of any of his Ranch girls being married,
although he misses none of us as he does you."
Jack rose. "I hope you are rested, Olive, as we must walk on if we are
to arrive in time to meet Frank. Oh, dear, what a business marriage is!
I suppose we could not expect all the Ranch girls to be successfully
married, although it is odd for it to be Frieda who is in trouble. As
for you, Olive, don't congratulate yourself too soon on being an old
maid; you'll probably yield some day. I do wonder what has happened to
little Frieda? Perhaps things are worse than we imagine."
Olive shook her head.
She was recalling an extremely pretty Frieda sitting up in bed at
midnight at the hour of her arrival in New York city, with a blue silk
dressing gown over her nightgown and a box of chocolates open on the
table beside her, which she must have been eating before going to bed.
It was true Frieda had cried a good deal when making her confession, and
had insisted that she never intended to speak to her husband again. Why,
Olive could not find out. She gathered that Frieda thought her husband
unsympathetic and that their temperaments were too unlike for them ever,
ever to understand each other. But the details of her love tragedy
Frieda had declared she could tell only to her sister Jack.
Now, as Olive studied her companion's face, she believed that Frieda had
decided wisely. When they were the four Ranch girls, Jack, Jean, Olive
and Frieda, they had always relied upon Jacqueline Ralston's judgment.
Now, as a woman, she seemed even finer than she had been as a girl.
Well, fortunately Jack's marriage seemed to have turned out ideally
happy, although there were reasons why it might not. Jack had never been
fond of society or a conventional life, had hated the indoors and the
management of even so small and casual an establishment as they had at
Rainbow Lodge before the coming of Ruth as governess to take the
responsibility out of Jack's hands. Now Jack was not only mistress of a
great home, but must play "Lady Bountiful" to an entire village, as well
as to the people on the Kent estate, and she was really the most
democratic person in the world.
They were entering the adjoining village of Granchester now and Lady
Kent had actually forgotten to put on her hat. Yet all the people they
met along the little narrow streets bowed to her, as if she were not
unpopular. Several times Jack stopped to inquire about sick babies and
old ladies in the most approved fashion. However, Olive remembered that
she had been great friends with all the cowboys on her own ranch and the
adjoining ones in the old days, and was interested in their families,
when they chanced to have them, which was not often. Nevertheless this
new life of her friend's did seem extraordinarily different from her old
life.
Only once since Jack's marriage had Olive visited her and then only for
a few weeks, when her mother-in-law was alive and Frank's sisters had
not yet married. Therefore she had never really seen Frank and Jack
alone.
As they came to the little railroad station, covered with roses and
surrounded by flower beds, Jack hastily put on her hat.
"Gracious! why didn't you tell me to do that before, Olive?" she asked
"I must have looked ridiculous. Frank would have been discouraged if he
had seen me. After all, you see, Olive, Frank is an Englishman and fond
of the proprieties. At least I don't think he minds so much himself, but
he does not enjoy having the country people talk about me, especially
now that we have come into the title."
"But they don't criticize you, do they?" Olive demanded with a good deal
of feeling.
However, Lady Kent only laughed, "Not more than I deserve." And then
forgetting what she had just said, she took off her hat for the second
time to wave it boyishly at the approaching train.
The next moment Frank Kent jumped out on the platform. He had changed
much more than his wife. Olive saw that he took his new position and his
responsibilities seriously, for he had only come into the title two
years before. He looked far more like what one feels to be the typical
Englishman, as he had an air of distinction and of firmness. Indeed,
Olive thought he had almost a hardness in the lower part of his face
which had not been there as a younger man. But he greeted her with the
same old cordiality and friendliness.
"You and I seem often to meet Frank at railroad stations, Olive," Jack
remarked. "Remember when he last came to Wyoming before we were married
and we went together to meet him?"
Frank appeared so uncertain that Jack laughed.
"Husbands haven't very good memories for the sentimental past."
The next instant Frank protested.
"Of course I remember and how badly you treated me, Jack, so that Olive
had to come to my rescue." And then: "Did you drive over? Where is the
trap?"
Lady Kent shook her head. "No; Olive and I wanted a walk and it is much
better for you. If you don't look out we shall both be growing as
portly as a dowager duke and duchess."
Jack was a few steps ahead so that both her friend and husband looked at
her admiringly, Olive appreciating, however, that Frank would have
preferred his own wish to be carried out in this matter.
But it had always been a pleasure to see Jacqueline Ralston out-of-doors
and it was no less so now. Although she now had two babies she had
managed to keep as slender and erect as a girl--a most unusual
characteristic in a woman.
Jack was walking on ahead so freely and so unconscious of her own speed
that the others had to hurry to catch up with her.
When they finally joined one another, Frank slipped his arm through his
wife's.
"Oh, I have a piece of news for you, dear. I forgot to tell you. I had a
cable from Frieda's husband telling me that he expected to sail for
England in about ten days. He did not give his reason, nor mention
Frieda's coming with him."
"No," Lady Kent answered apparently in a state of abstraction, "I don't
suppose he did." But at the moment she made no mention of the
information Olive had brought her concerning Frieda.
As they reached Kent House and were entering the broad hall, Jack said
to her husband under her breath, so that Olive who was a little in
advance of them, did not hear:
"There is something else you have on your mind, isn't there, Frank--some
news you have not yet told me?"
Frank Kent nodded.
"Yes, Jack, something so serious that I dare not speak of it even to
you. Perhaps it will all blow over though, and I may be able to discuss
the subject with you in a few days."