Time was too precious for many words of explanation, and it was the work of only a minute or two to place Viola in the buggy, and for Jasper to get in beside her. Susanna rode Bob.
Jasper Very's plan was to take the wounded maiden to Mart Spink's house, and then to hurry for medical help, if she were living.
Driving as rapidly as was consistent with the seriousness of the case, they at last reached the home of Susanna. The daughter rushed into the house and told her mother the tragic story in brief. The woman was greatly shocked, and at once went to the buggy and told Jasper Very that Viola could be put into a bedroom adjoining the one in which her husband lay. Mart Spink was much better now. Such is the way of chills and fever.
Jasper, seeing faint signs of life in Viola, left her to the tender ministries of Mrs. Spink and Susanna, while he rode with all haste for a doctor who lived several miles away.
The women undressed the patient, and put her into the bed. They bathed her wound, and bandaged it as best they could. Fortunately it had not bled excessively.
In due time the physician, who was also a surgeon, came. He probed for the ball, and succeeded in extracting it. He gave those restoratives and remedies which the state of medicine in those days and in that region warranted. He ordered that the patient be kept perfectly quiet, and that no persons but her mother (who became her nurse) and Mrs. Spink should enter the room.
For days and weeks the life of the lovely girl hung in an even balance. Great was the interest which this calamity aroused in the whole country around. The news of the shooting spread with great rapidity. By night all the searchers had heard of it, and as the kidnaped maiden was found and restored to friends, their work in that particular was done, and most of them returned to their homes.
As the golden autumn days came Viola gained a little strength and was able to be moved to "Mount Pisgah." Here Jasper and her intimate friends were permitted to see her for short periods. Her face was as white as the pillow upon which she lay. Her blue eyes had lost their bright, but not their kind and loving, look. Her golden hair was still beautiful, and it seemed an aureole around her head.
One bright day she felt able to hold a longer conversation than before with her betrothed. Very sat by the bedside, holding the thin white hand. The slender finger could scarce retain the beautiful engagement ring her lover had given her.
"Jasper, dear," she said, "how happy I am that I received the cruel ball instead of you. All the suffering I have gladly borne for your sake. Yes, and if it were my lot to be an invalid while life lasts, I would willingly bear the burden, knowing that by the cross I suffer my beloved is able in the full strength of his manhood to preach the gospel and minister to the wants of human souls. So there are compensations in all the ills of life."