ROMANCE JUSTIFIED.
“Go to it!” said the exasperated man in the tree. “Get in your laugh
while the laughing’s good. If your confounded dog had succeeded in
chewing some chunks out of me, I suppose you’d simply have collapsed
with merriment.”
“Oh, dear!” gasped Miss Wiggin, trying to suppress her mirth. “If
you only realized how ridiculous it is! Old Shep couldn’t hurt a
sick kitten.”
“Huh!” grunted the stranger skeptically. “Perhaps not, but he
certainly showed a strong desire to plant a few teeth in any part of
my person that he could reach.”
Miss Wiggin continued to laugh. “It would have to be a _few_ teeth,
as he’s lost almost all that he ever had, and he’s so old that he’s
half deaf and getting blind. That’s why he didn’t warn me that you
were coming. If you hadn’t shown that you were scared, he’d never
have made an offer to touch you.”
“How was I to know that?” demanded the man on the limb, flushing.
“On such short notice I couldn’t tell whether he was a senile and
harmless old dog or a young and savage one bent on making a meal off
my person.”
“You’re an awful coward, aren’t you?” asked the girl, rising to her
feet and regarding him with open contempt.
She was slender, willowy, and graceful. He considered that she was
the prettiest girl he had ever seen, and he wondered how, even with
the sunbonnet hiding her face, he had made the blunder of mistaking
her for a middle-aged woman. He felt his heart thumping queerly. He
also felt his face burning beneath her unmasked disdain.
“Let me explain,” he pleaded hastily.
“It isn’t necessary,” she cut him short. “I don’t suppose there are
any Reginalds to be found outside the pages of fiction.”
“The Daphnes,” he returned, “are myths.”
She tossed her head. “Besides being a ’fraid cat,” she retorted,
“you’re just about the most impolite person I ever met. What were
you doing prowling around in this field, anyhow?”
“Being in haste to secure a conveyance to Albion for two gentlemen
whose motor has broken down back yonder on the road, I was making a
short cut to town and avoiding the most of the hill. The gentlemen
must catch the three-forty train at Albion. It is now,” he stated,
balancing himself on the limb and taking out his watch, “seven
minutes past two.”
“And twenty-three miles to Albion. Your gentlemen will have to
hurry.”
“They may make it if I can get an automobile in town.”
Again she laughed. “Automobiles aren’t popular in Greenbush. Peter
Beedy is the only citizen who owns one. He’s been arrested and fined
four times for exceeding the speed limit of eight miles an hour. The
last time that happened he was so mad he swore he’d never start the
machine again, and he had it towed to his barn and stored away.”
“Thanks for the information. Me for Peter Beedy.” He glanced
downward. Sitting on his haunches and gazing upward with a wistful
eye, Shep was licking his old chops. “If you will be good enough to
call your dog away and keep a firm, restraining hand upon him, I’ll
hit the high spots between here and Mr. Beedy’s domicile.”
“As long as you’re so completely lacking in sand,” said she, “I’ll
collar Shep and hold him until you get a fair start. But let me warn
you that if you succeed in getting Beedy’s auto you’ll certainly be
pinched and fined if you’re caught driving faster than eight miles
an hour anywhere within the town limits.”
“It’s always necessary,” was his retort, “first to catch your hare.
If Beedy’s bubble has any speed at all, somebody will be handed a
laugh. When you give the word, I’ll come down.”
Now it chanced that neither of them had noticed the approach of
Libby’s bull, confined in that same pasture. The bull was ugly, and
resentful of intrusion on its domain. And just as the girl placed
one hand on the dog’s collar the bull charged, with a snort and a
bellow. The man on the limb shouted a warning. The girl screamed and
dodged behind the tree. The dog, seeing the charging beast by
accident, bounded lamely to meet him. And the bull, with one sweep
of his horns, tossed the dog fifteen feet into the air.
The man in the tree was paralyzed with horror. The disastrous
attempt of the dog to protect his mistress seemed to check the
charging bull for barely a fraction of a second. With glaring eyes,
the beast came on, dashing straight at the terrified girl.
“The fence!” shouted the man. “Run!”
Even as he uttered the words he realized what would happen if she
attempted to obey. The infuriated beast would overtake her, toss her
with its horns even as the old dog had been tossed, gore her,
trample the life out of her delicate body. For the briefest fraction
of time, he was sickened by the thought. Then he dropped from the
tree directly in the path of the mad creature. As he dropped, he
snatched the cap from his head. The instant his toes touched the
turf, he sprang to one side. The bull missed him by a foot, and he
struck the animal across the eyes with his cap.
It seemed like a feeble thing to do, but he had time for nothing
else, and he hoped desperately to turn the attention of the beast
from the girl; hoped somehow, by diverting the creature’s fury to
himself, to give her an opportunity to flee to safety beyond the
fence.
The girl had circled round the tree, keeping it between herself and
the bull. As the man struck the animal, the latter swerved and
turned with amazing speed, surprised, perhaps, by the appearance of
a second human being on the scene. The stranger waved his arms and
shouted challengingly. The animal accepted the challenge promptly
and charged at him.
“Oh!” gasped Miss Wiggin. “He’ll be—killed!”
But, almost with the agility of a capeador, the young man again
leaped aside at precisely the right moment to foil the beast. Again
he struck with his cap, but this time it was impaled on one of the
bull’s horns and torn from his hand.
Without glancing round at the girl, he cried sharply, commandingly:
“Run for the fence! I’ll keep him busy till you are safe.”
Bessie Wiggin ran, just as she was ordered to do, although she did
not realize what she was doing until she had almost reached the
fence. Too terrified to look back, she actually sailed over the
barrier almost as a frightened deer might have done, scarcely
touching the top rail, falling safe on the far side amid some
bowlders and bushes, where for a moment she lay panting and
helpless.
She was aroused by Shep. The faithful old dog had not been killed.
Limping and whining, he had followed her in her flight and dragged
himself through the fence. Still whining plaintively, he was licking
her face.
With a sobbing cry, she seized the fence and pulled herself to her
feet. Still baiting the bull, the young man was dodging round and
round the tree, the enraged beast making every effort to reach him.
He had kept his word; he had held the attention of the animal while
she escaped; the handsome stranger she had called a coward had taken
this dreadful risk for her.
Realizing the danger he was in, she called to him wildly: “Oh, look
out—look out! Jump—quick! Run! Do something!”
He certainly was doing something; in fact, he was an extremely busy
person just then. Again and again he appeared to avoid the rushes of
the bull barely by a hair’s breadth. Each time this happened the
girl’s heart seemed ready to burst with terror. It could not last
long. The snorting, bellowing beast would get him at last. A slight
miscalculation, the slightest slip, and it would all be over.
Bessie Wiggin grasped a stake of the fence, and tried desperately to
tear it loose, intending to return to the assistance of the stranger
with this weapon. She was the coward, after all! She had run away
and left him to be killed!
Then she saw him “put over” a bit of strategy on the bull. The
animal had paused for a moment, and turned slowly upon him, pawing
the ground. Instead of placing the tree between himself and danger,
the man planted his back against it, his eyes never leaving the
beast for an instant.
Waving his hands in gestures of disdain, he taunted the creature.
“Come on, old lumberheels! Wake up and show a little pep! Throw into
high gear and give us some speed. Don’t quit now; the fun’s just
begun. Wake up! Come on!”
The bull leaped forward like a hurricane. And just as the pale and
horrified girl expected to see the man impaled to the tree, he
slipped deftly behind it. The head of the bull crashed against the
oak, and the animal staggered as if struck by a butcher’s maul.
The stranger laughed. “That ought to give you a slight headache,” he
said.
“Run!” cried the girl. “This way—quick! Now’s the time!”
Dazed, the bull was backing off slowly, shaking his head. Evidently
the man agreed with Bessie that the moment was propitious, for he
turned and raced toward the fence. But the animal had not been
injured nearly as much as one might have supposed, and, seeing his
mocking foe in flight, he plunged in pursuit.
The stranger was fleet-footed, but the bull was a trifle fleeter.
Just as the runner gathered himself to take the fence with one clean
leap, the beast overtook him. Through the air sailed the man,
propelled by the head and horns of the bull, as well as by the
spring of his own legs. Over the fence in a great curve he came,
crashing head downward amid the rocks and bushes.
When the young man opened his eyes again, he discovered that his
head was resting in the lap of Miss Bessie Wiggin, who, sobbing
hysterically, was wiping his forehead with a bloodstained
handkerchief.
He looked up at her and smiled. “Daphne!” he whispered.
“Reginald!” she cried.