“I believe so. I fear so. Oh, don’t ask me any more!” breathed the girl, anxiously, as Jane Ann and the cowboy rode up to say good-bye.
“I hope nothing bad will come of this, Ruth,” said the ranch girl. “But Uncle Bill will be dreadfully mad.”
“Not with me, I hope,” rejoined Ruth, shaking her head.
“And all the girls will be crazy to come out here and help you nurse him.”
“They certainly will be crazy if they want to,” muttered Tom.
“They would better not come near here until the man gets better—if he ever does get better,” added Ruth, in a low tone.
“I expect they’ll all want to come,” repeated Jane Ann.
“Don’t you let them, Jane Ann!” admonished Ruth. “Above all, don’t you let Mary Cox come over here—unless I send for her,” and she went into the shack again and closed the door.
CHAPTER XXIII—BASHFUL IKE TAKES THE BIT IN HIS TEETH
There was great commotion at Silver Ranch when Jib Pottoway (on a fresh horse he had picked up at the riverside cow camp) rode madly to the ranch-house with the news of what was afoot so far away across Rolling River. From Old Bill down, the friends of Ruth were horror-stricken that she should so recklessly (or, so it seemed) expose herself to the contagion of the fever.