CHAPTER V
Mother and daughter lay for hours talking about the wonderful change that had come over their lives, like shadows changing into gold on the mountains. It was a fairy tale, full of romance. A prince had come, in a golden coach, to carry Cinderella away.
"What a blessing, Annie, that I came and ordered brandy. That's what saved him! As for ammonia, it's the first time I ever heard of it for snake-bite. When I was a girl it was used as smelling-salts. If old McKeel had put it to Mr. Wilber's nose, it might have done him good."
"He drank an awful lot of brandy, mother."
"Yes; in cases of snake-bite they can take bucketsful and not be drunk."
"But he was drunk, mother!"
"No, only his legs, and no wonder, after being bitten by a tiger-snake. However, it's a good thing for you he got over it."
"I don't see that, mother. If he hadn't got over it, I would have got the money, land, and houses all the same."
"And marry a low fellow like Alec! Fancy him riding in a carriage beside you!"
"I would rather marry Alec, an' sit beside him in a kitchen, than marry Lanky, an' drive in a carriage."
"Well, I am astonished at you! Where is your thankfulness to your Maker for pitchforking you into a silk gown and carriage?"
Annie began to cry. Misery was creeping in. Happiness was melting away like sugar in a teacup.
She fell asleep, and forgot her troubles. Mrs. Coonie kept awake all night, turning over in her mind Annie's fortune on one side, and her love to Alec on the other. Her thoughts were bright, or dark, at intervals, like the revolving lantern on a lighthouse.
The sun rose like a red-hot cannon-ball, hitting the bull's-eye in the window pane, and splintering fragments of light over Mrs. Coonie's face.
"This is no time to lie in bed," she said to herself; "I'll get up, for I've much to say and do. I must go home and tell him" (meaning her husband). "I'll be bound he's snoring in bed, and knowing no more about all this than a sucking baby."
Suiting action to words, she jumped out of bed and dressed herself.
Annie awoke from a troubled dream. Tears stuck in her eyelashes like dewdrops in the grass. She wiped them away, and looked up with a woebegone face.
"Annie," said her mother, "I am going home to tell your father. We'll come over by ten o'clock with the buggy. Dress yourself in your best frock. We'll all go to Benalla, and if Mr. Wilber wants to marry you off-hand, he can, this very day. The sooner the better. He won't want to see you work as a servant another minute, I'm sure."
Annie looked through the window. In a moment she was out of bed, and had thrown her clothes on, anyhow; then she ran into the kitchen, opened the door, and stared out. A horse, with a saddle on, was cropping the short, yellow grass. The bridle was muddy, and trailing on the ground.
"Mother," she said, "that's Alec's horse. He must have been thrown off, perhaps killed."
A man was chopping wood about a hundred yards away. Running up to him, she said, "Where is Alec?"
"'Spose he stayed at the mine all night. Never saw him after he went away to fetch Max Hicsh."
"But there's his horse saddled an' bridled!" said Annie.
"That's nothing," said the man. "Like's not he hitched up the horse at the mine, and it broke away. Do you think Alec would walk home on a dark night? 'Not if I knows it,' says he."
"I know Alec better than that," said Annie. "He must have been thrown off. Is there a horse in?"
"Yes, Brownie and Whalebone."
Annie ran to the stable, shot the wooden bolt, and went in. She put Mrs. McKeel's saddle on Brownie, slipped a headstall and bridle on, then led him out. Jumping on his back, she galloped away, across the creek, and along the track she knew Alec must have taken when he went on his last night's ride. In half an hour she drew up at Max Hicsh's door.
"Coo-ee!"
"Vat is dis?" said Max, putting his head out of a window, a long pipe in his mouth, his blue eyes staring in wonder.
"Where is Alec?" said Annie, her face flushing red.
"Vare is Lanky Tim, I say! He had a fine hand of trumps last night, and von de game. Has he revoke? I mean de vill."
"Is Alec here? Answer me that!"
"No, he is not."
"Where did he go when he was here last night?"
"He said he would go home by de short cut."
She turned her horse's head without another word, and rode up the hill, taking a bee-line for the homestead. After riding for five minutes she heard some one "coo-ee." Her heart beat wildly! She knew the voice! A short search resulted in finding Alec lying in a clump of ferns.
"Oh, Annie, how I have been longing for you! I knew you would come."
"What is the matter with you, Alec? Are you hurt?"
"I was thrown last night, and my ankle's broke."
She jumped off Brownie and was down among the ferns in a moment.
"My poor Alec! Oh, how sorry I am! I'll help you on the horse, an' Max will set the bone."
She raised him up and managed to put him on Brownie; then led the horse down hill to the mine.
Max set the bone and put the leg in splints, then drove the patient to the homestead, Annie following on Brownie. Alec was lifted out by David and Max. He was placed in a spare room at the back of the house.