JACK IS HAPPY.
"CHILLUNS, it's time for bed," Cousin Ruth announced softly. "Frieda has
been asleep in my arms for the last ten minutes. Perhaps I can tumble
her in bed without waking her, she is so frightened at the storm."
Jean glanced up at the clock over the living-room mantle. "Do let's wait
a little while longer?" she begged. "I am just at the most thrilling
part of my book and I am bound to finish it before I go to bed. Jack,
you stay here with me, if Cousin Ruth is going with Frieda. I don't like
to sit up alone. This storm is a terror! Listen how the wind howls down
the chimney. I hope our stock won't be frozen to death to-night."
Ruth led Frieda gently out of the sitting-room while Jack got up and
wandered to the window. But the frost covered the glass. She scratched a
little space away with a hairpin, but there was nothing to see outside
save the snow.
Jack walked restlessly up and down the room for a minute. It was just
nine o'clock and she did not feel like going to bed. She could not read
as Jean was doing. These terrible western storms, that came once or
twice every winter, always filled her with foreboding. Jack was too good
a rancher not to understand that they caused great suffering and loss
among the cattle. The rude corrals, which the ranchmen built for their
stock, could not save them on a night like this.
Jack dropped down on her knees before their book shelves and began to
look over the collection of volumes that had once belonged to her
father. The books were the same ones that Jean had found in her uncle's
trunk and brought to the living-room to impress their new governess on
the day of her arrival at Rainbow Lodge. Shep got up from his warm place
by the fire and trotted over to lie down by Jack, seeming to know that
she was worried and wishing to offer her his subtle sympathy.
Jack turned over the pages of half a dozen books, shaking them, so that
every leaf fluttered apart.
Jean glanced over at her cousin. Jack was quieter and older than ever
to-night. "What are you doing, Jack, want me to help you?" Jean asked
lovingly.
"No, Jean, I am not doing anything special," Jack replied quietly. "I am
just killing time."
But Jean knew that her cousin was searching once more for the lost title
deed to Rainbow Ranch and she had gone to the window to gaze out on the
snow with the thought of Olive on her mind. Even light-hearted Jean
sighed. It was only a few days before Christmas.
Jack was getting up off the floor, when a sound startled her. She jumped
quickly to her feet. Old Shep gave a long howl.
"What is the matter with you, Jacqueline Ralston?" Jean demanded
pettishly, partly because she had just been so sorry for Jack. "You
almost scared me out of my wits."
Jack was pointing toward the window. "I heard a noise outside in the
snow," she exclaimed excitedly.
"You did no such thing, Jack, it's only the wind howling. It has been
making a racket for the last four hours. I don't see why you are so
surprised all of a sudden. I heard nothing unusual," Jean protested.
"But it wasn't the wind I heard, Jean. This noise was quite different.
Shep heard it too, see how queerly he is acting," Jack argued.
Old Shep had gone to the front door of the ranch house and was stretched
against it with his fore paws resting on the door.
"Well, if you didn't hear the wind, it is some animal that has seen the
lights in the Lodge and stolen near here for protection. Do sit down,
Jack, you make me dreadfully nervous, staring like that. You know you
haven't heard the sound a second time. Let's go to bed."
Jean slipped her arm about Jack's waist, but Jack pushed her gently off.
"I am going out in the snow to find out what that cry meant, Jean," Jack
announced decisively. "Suppose it was an animal, I can't allow anything
to die just outside our home to-night."
Jean clung to her cousin's skirts. "You shan't go out that door, Jack,"
Jean avowed. "You will be blown off your feet by the wind. You will be
frozen. If a wild animal has come out of the woods for shelter, you'll
be torn to pieces." Jean pictured every horrible fate that she could
imagine overtaking Jacqueline. But Jack was quickly buttoning up her
overcoat and tying a thick woolen scarf about her head.
"I won't stay out but a minute, Jean dear," she returned. "Shep will go
with me. He will keep me from getting hurt."
"I'll call Cousin Ruth, Jack, you are the most obstinate person in the
world!" Jean exclaimed passionately, but Jack had wrenched open the big
front door of the ranch house, and plunged out into the night. A gust of
snow swept into the wide hall. Straining with all her might, Jack closed
the door back of her, so that Jean should not feel the fury of the
storm. With Shep by her side, Jack faced the white wilderness of snow.
Jean ran down the hall toward Ruth's room, but Ruth had already heard
the noise and joined her. For an instant the two women awaited Jack's
return. They believed that she would come into the house as soon as she
saw what lay ahead of her.
Jack seized the lantern, that swung always above the door of their
Lodge. The light was out, but by crouching down and turning her back to
the wind, Jack managed to relight it. She knew the light would soon
blow out again, but for a minute it would serve a purpose.
Jack climbed off the porch. Shep ploughed in front of her. Jack swung
her lantern once, twice it flashed, then the wind blew it out.
But in that space of time she saw something dark in a mound of snow not
far from the house. Jack felt her way toward it, guided by an
overwhelming instinct. Shep shook all over, not with the cold, but with
the foreknowledge of what was ahead of them.
When Jack reached Olive, Shep had already covered the still body with
his own warm one. Jack pushed Shep away. She had to feel under the
drifting snow before she knew the object she touched was a human being,
but it was not until her hand touched the delicate frozen face, that she
realized that Olive was found at last.
Jack's cry for help brought Ruth, Jean, and from the kitchen, Aunt Ellen
and Zack. There was such agony in Jack's tones, that they all believed
some horrible thing had happened to her.
The women got Olive inside the house, not one of them having an idea
that she was alive, but no one dared to tell Jack so. They stripped off
the girl's clothes and found the little sandal-wood box hidden inside
her dress.
If Jack had not already learned to love Ruth Drew, she would have begun
to care for her to-night. For Ruth knew exactly what to do for Olive.
She would not let the girls and Aunt Ellen carry Olive too near the
fire. She sent Uncle Zack off to find Jim Colter. Ruth and Jack rubbed
Olive's stiff body with snow, until their hands felt almost as numb as
hers and forced hot tea between her clenched teeth. By and by Aunt Ellen
and Jean were allowed to bring warm blankets and hot irons.
At last the blue, stark look left Olive's face. It was Jack who
discovered a tiny bit of color in her lips. Jack flung herself on her
knees and hardly knowing what she was doing, breathed all the warm,
vibrant breath of her own vigorous body into Olive's almost frozen
lungs.
After another hour, Olive stirred and moved one hand. She half opened
her black eyes. "I am all right, Jack," she whispered. "I have got home
at last."