HIPPY AS A ROUGHRIDER
Reaching her camp, Grace quickly acquainted the girls with conditions at the Thompson cabin. She then turned to Hippy and told him that he must ride to Holcomb Court House and fetch a doctor.
"All right. I'll get an early start in the morning and—"
"No! To-night! Now, Hippy. To-morrow may be too late," urged Grace.
"Of course, if it is so bad as that. Why don't you have Emma Dean 'con-centrate'?"
"This is not a matter to make light of, Hippy Wingate," rebuked Nora. "Of course you will go."
"Laundry, get my pony, and be lively about it," ordered Lieutenant Wingate.
While this was being done, and Hippy was looking to his rifle and revolver, Grace was explaining to him how to reach Holcomb over the broad wagon trail that they had followed during the last day of their journey. Nora, in the meantime, was packing her husband's kit with sufficient food, that had been picked up from the scattered remnants, to see him through the trip. Twenty minutes later they had started Hippy on his way.
"If I don't come back, remember that I had a price on my head," he called back to his companions.
"Pack up!" directed Grace. "We must move up near the Thompson cabin. It won't do for you girls to remain here alone."
"Where shall we camp?" asked Anne, a worried look on her face. "We have no tents fit for use."
"I don't know just yet, but they have a barn. Perhaps you might sleep there. I must stay with Elfreda, at least until the doctor comes."
All the girls began to prepare for moving, and finally their possessions were strapped in packs, some of which they placed on the backs of ponies, for they were one mule short, and moved up to Thompson's.
Bidding her companions wait outside, Grace went in and consulted with the mountaineer's wife.
"Yes, you folks will have to sleep in the barn," Grace informed them.
"I never thought I should have to sleep with the pigs and the cows," declared Nora. "Bad luck to the man that spoiled our fun."
There was an old haymow overhead in the barn, and there the girls decided to make their bed for the night.
"If there are mice up here I shall die of fright, I know," groaned Emma.
"'Con-centrate' on the mice," advised Anne teasingly. "Once they bump against that 'imponderable quantity,' the mice will trouble you no more."
"Why can't we go into the cabin and lie down on the floor? It can't be worse than the barn," urged Nora.
Grace firmly refused to permit it. Not knowing what the two children were suffering from, she knew that it would be inadvisable for her companions even to enter the cabin.
The girls found their way to the hayloft, after many bumps and falls accompanied by smothered cries and loud protests from Emma, and after he had tethered the horses and the mule just outside the barn, Washington Washington was put to bed on the barn floor. Grace then returned to the cabin.
The children were still delirious and Elfreda said that their temperature seemed to be rising. She decided to give them a sponge bath. This occupied some time, but it had the effect of reducing their temperatures somewhat.
Julie watched every movement of the Overland nurses, following them with eyes in which wonder was not unmixed with admiration, but Mrs. Thompson seemed helpless to do or think, and sat regarding them with expressionless eyes, now and then heaving a troubled sigh.
Along towards morning the children ceased their babbling and sank into an uneasy sleep. The mother, soon after, dozed off in her chair.
"Julie, get some water and soap and help us clean this place. It's a fright," declared Miss Briggs.
This Julie did, so far as getting the water was concerned, but she took so little interest in scrubbing the floor that Grace and Elfreda were obliged to take that task into their own hands. They were down on their knees scrubbing away, when Mrs. Thompson awakened.
"What you-all doin'?" she demanded blinkingly.
"Cleaning house," replied Elfreda briefly.
"'Tain't no use. It'll git dirty ag'in. Ah reckon Jed won't like it, neither."
"We don't care whether Jed likes it or not," retorted Grace. "Leave him to us, Mrs. Thompson."
Early in the morning Grace and Elfreda went out to the barn to see how it had fared with their friends. They were a "frowzy lot," as Miss Briggs characterized their appearance. Their heads were full of hay, their eyes were red, and their faces showed much loss of sleep.
"You folks go down to the brook and wash, and by the time you return we shall have breakfast cooked for you," offered Elfreda.
The breakfast they cooked on Mrs. Thompson's stove, but in the Overlanders' utensils. Nor would they permit any of the girls to come into the house for the food. Handing the breakfast out to the eagerly waiting hands of their companions, Grace and Miss Briggs soon followed and joined the girls at breakfast in the open.
It was not a particularly enjoyable meal. Not once during the breakfast had one mentioned Hippy Wingate and his mission, and it was not until they had finished and sat back that Nora broached the subject.
"When should Hippy be back?" she asked.
"If he found the doctor at once he should have been here two or three hours ago," replied Grace.
"Don't get excited, Nora," begged Elfreda, as Nora's face paled ever so little. "A number of things may have occurred to detain him. Hippy is not one to be beaten when he starts out with a definite purpose in view."
"Especially when I am con-centrating on him," spoke up Emma.
This brought a laugh and put all the girls in instant good humor. They were interrupted by Julie who came out rubbing her eyes, after a few hours' sleep on a blanket on the floor of the cabin.
"Maw wants to know what she'll give Sue and Liz fer breakfast?" she asked.
"Breakfast?" exclaimed Elfreda. "Not a mouthful until the doctor gets here and advises what is to be done. They may have all the water they wish, but nothing of solid food. You won't forget, will you?"
Julie shook her head.
"This is the first opportunity I have had to speak with you quietly since last night, Julie," said Grace. "You made a remark as we were about to leave the dance, indicating that you knew something had occurred at our camp. Julie, you knew what had been done there, didn't you?"
The mountain girl nodded.
"How did you know?"
"Er feller an' girl comin' t' the dance seen it," she answered with some hesitation.
"And you know who did it?"
"Uh-huh," nodded the girl.
"Who was it?"
"Ah shan't tell you-all!" exclaimed Julie, a challenge snapping in her black eyes.
"That is all right, my dear, if you do not wish to speak. How is your friend, Lum Bangs, to-day?"
"He ain't no friend of mine. Ah don't know nothin' 'bout how he is, an' Ah don't care." Julie blazed as she said it.
The Overland girls smiled. Grace's question, they thought, had been answered.
"Thar comes somebody," cried Julie, distracting the attention of all from the subject.
A man on horseback was seen pounding up the trail at a fast pace.
"It's the doc!" announced the mountain girl.
"Hippy! Where's Hippy?" gasped Nora.
"Keep steady," urged Grace, as they got up and walked out to meet the doctor in front of the cabin.
"Are you the doctor?" asked Elfreda as he rode up and swung a hand to them.
"Yes."
"Where did you leave Lieutenant Wingate?" asked Grace.
"About ten miles down the trail. I got here as quickly as possible. To be brief, we were attacked from ambush. The lieutenant's horse was shot from under him. We both began shooting, but he yelled to me, 'Go on, Doc. They need you at Thompson's. I'll get out of it somehow.'
"Well, I saw that he was right, so I rode for keeps till I got out of range of the bullets. Lively neighborhood up here, eh? I'll see the patients, if you please."
Elfreda conducted the doctor into the cabin, Grace remaining to comfort Nora and to consider what was best to be done in the circumstances. Nora was urging her to start out in search of Hippy, but Grace pointed out that they were as likely to miss as to find him, and that the best course appeared to be to wait until later in the day, then, should Lieutenant Wingate not return, a searching party must be organized to go out for him. Grace then entered the cottage and the girls led Nora out to the shady side of the barn where they consoled her as best they could.
"I will sit right down here and con-centrate," promised Emma. "You will see that it will fetch him back. If it doesn't never, never again will I con-centrate on Hippy. The trouble is that he resists the instant he feels the magnetic current, which makes con-centrating very difficult and takes so much of the imponderable quality out of one—"
"Emma! Emma!" cried Anne. "For mercy sake come up and get a breath of air. You will drown if you stay down another second."
In the meantime Grace and Elfreda were leaning over the bed watching the doctor's diagnosis. Elfreda told him what had been done for the two children, naming the few home remedies that she had been able to find and administer to them.
"Good, Miss Lizzie might have been dead by this time if you had not done what you did. Susie is not in quite such bad shape."
"What is the matter with them?" questioned Grace.
"Scarlet fever—both of them," was the terse answer. "Have your party all been exposed?"
Elfreda informed him that, not knowing what the children's trouble was, they had thought best not to permit the Overland Riders to enter the cabin.
Grace questioned the doctor further on the attack that had been made on himself and Hippy, and asked him to indicate, as nearly as possible, the spot where the attack was made.
The doctor was giving them the details when the door of the cabin was roughly thrown open and a man stepped in.
"It's Paw! Hello, Paw. The Doc is here."
Jed Thompson carried a rifle under his arm, and his face was as black as a thunder cloud.
"Here's a squall," murmured Miss Briggs, just loud enough for Grace to hear.
"What you-all doin' here?" he demanded, eyeing the two Overland Riders sternly.
It was plain that Thompson's anger was rapidly getting the best of him.
"You-all! Git out o' mah house afore Ah throws ye out!" he roared.
"Be quiet, Paw," urged Julie weakly, Mrs. Thompson being too frightened to utter a word.
"When we have finished with our work, Mr. Thompson, we will leave. Not one second sooner," retorted Elfreda Briggs coolly, as she stepped forward and faced the irate mountaineer.
"Then Ah'll throw ye out! The pack of ye git out afore Ah fergits mahself and shoots ye out."
Jed started for Miss Briggs, his anger now beyond all control.
"Stop where you are, Jed Thompson!" commanded Elfreda Briggs.
The mountaineer halted abruptly. He was facing J. Elfreda's revolver, which was leveled at him, held in a steady hand.
"Let your rifle drop to the floor," she directed sweetly. "Drop it! My hand is a little nervous to-day and this revolver might go off."
The rifle clattered to the floor, but Elfreda Briggs still held her position, her eyes narrowly watching the angry mountaineer.