Five minutes later the grizzly rug was back on the floor of Leslie’s room and the lad who had masqueraded in it to frighten a few girls, the over-zealous Mateo, lay on his own little bed with Doctor Jones probing for the bullet which had entered his shoulder.
Fortunately, it had not lodged there but passed straight through leaving a clean flesh wound which would promptly heal, the doctor said, but that would keep unhappy Mateo in bed for a few days. He had feigned sickness when there was none, dreading to act the part he had just so unfortunately done. But the young master’s will had been too strong and the suggestion had been Mateo’s own.
“The punishment, for once, has fallen upon the guilty person. You’ll have time to reflect, Mateo, that frightening timid people is scarcely a manly pastime. I trust there’ll be no more skylarking till Mr. Ford is home. You will be kept upon a rigid diet till I order otherwise, and good night.”
So said the doctor, leaving his patient to his own thoughts and assuring himself that all the young folks had retired to their rooms again. He had administered no further reproofs—nor needed to do so. It was an exceedingly crest-fallen trio of lads who disappeared from view, when once the extent of Mateo’s injury was learned, and a very quiet one.
But the excited girls were not so quiet. They had to talk it over, simply had to!
“I thought it was queer all the boys were in their day clothes,” said Helena, with her arm about Molly, who was still shaking with fright, now and then, despite the fact that the affair was all over.
“I noticed, too, but I thought they’d just dressed awful quick. But suppose it had been a real one—would it have eaten us up?” she begged to know.
To which Alfy replied from her own room:
“No, Molly Breckenridge, don’t be a goose. We’d have eaten him up, course. We’d have had bear steak for breakfast—Some say it’s good. Don’t s’pose with all them men around they’d have let it live very long? No, indeedy. But Matty did it real cute, after all, didn’t he? Must ha’ been terrible hot, trampin’ around under all that skin. Well, we ought to go to sleep, but seems if I’d never catch another wink. I wonder what became of Wunny! Last I saw him he was lyin’ flat on the ground—thinkin’ he was et up, I guess. Dolly—My heart! Dolly Doodles is asleep a’ready. Did you ever see such a sleepy head, Nell?”
There was no answer from the room across the hall, so Alfy curled down among her pillows and composed herself to sleep. But her mind wasn’t at rest. She kept seeing, in her fancy, the prostrate figure of Wun Sing, and hoped some of the men from the Barracks had looked after him. She felt as if she must get up again and go to see for herself. But—out of doors at night didn’t seem quite the same, even to this sensible girl, as it had done before the bear scare. Besides—something really was the matter with her eyes. They felt as if they were full of sand—she’d just shut them a minute to—