Then he glanced at the crushed head of the rattlesnake, and felt relieved. “That thing never struck after the stone hit it!” he declared, with confidence. “You are safe, my dear.”
“But she’s a mighty brave girl,” cried one of the railroad men. “I was watching her at the door of that old shack, and wondered what she was doing.”
Professor Krenner had helped the trembling Nan to rise and beat the dust off her skirt. The little girl’s sobs soon ceased when she found she was not hurt.
“Here comes the rest of the train, Bill!” exclaimed one of the men.
“All back to the cars!” ordered Bill. “All aboard—them that’s goin’!”
Nan stooped and kissed the tear-stained face of the child. “I don’t know who you are, honey,” she crooned, “but I shall remember all the term at Lakeview that down here at this junction is a little girl I know.”
“No! no!” suddenly screamed the child, throwing her arms about Nan’s neck. “I want you! I want you! I want my mom to see you!”
Nan had to break away and run for the train, leaving the child screaming after her. Professor Krenner was already at the car step to help her aboard. The two parts of the train had come gently together, and had been coupled. To Nan’s amazement, as she approached the cars, she beheld her chum, Bess Harley, and the arrogant Linda Riggs, sitting comfortably together in a window of the chair-car, talking “sixteen to the dozen,” as Nan mentally expressed it. So busy was Bess, indeed, that she did not see Nan running for the train.
When the train had started, however, Bess came slowly back into the day coach.
“Let’s go into the other car, Nan,” she said. “Why! how rumpled you look! Did you eat all that lunch?”