“I guess that would be a good way,” decided Mr. Savage, brightening up. “I kin charge fer my time, too. I’ll have him ask a dollar an’ a half. That won’t be so bad,” and he rubbed his hands in satisfaction over the idea.
It was getting dusk when Dan started away on the back of the mare Bess. He had been obliged to do all his chores before starting, for Mr. Savage never thought of such a thing as omitting any of the farm work for the sake of his sick sister.
“Now don’t ride th’ mare t’ death,” cautioned Mr. Savage as Dan rode out of the barn. “Ye’ve got all night, an’ th’ trip’ll de ye good.”
Dan had his doubts about this, but he said nothing.
“I wonder if Mrs. Randall is very sick?” the boy said to himself as he was going along the highway toward Pokeville in the dusk. “If I had a sister who was ill I wouldn’t wait until night to send her medicine. Pokeville is so far away from any stores and doctors she might die before help could reach her. I wonder what time I’ll get there? I don’t know the roads very well, and, from what the hired men said, they don’t either. Seems to me Mr. Savage could have driven over this afternoon by daylight. But I suppose he did not want to waste the time.”
Thus pondering, Dan rode on. It was quite lonesome, for in the country, people do not travel after dark unless they have to, and there was no occasion for many to be out this evening.
Dan met a few farmers whom he knew, and spoke to them, but, after a while, it got so dark he could not distinguish faces, even had he passed any one, which did not happen once he got well outside of Hayden.
The mare plodded on, Dan stopping now and then to look at sign boards to make sure he was on the right road. About ten o’clock he came to a place where four highways met. He got off the mare’s back and lighted matches to read what the signs might have on them. In the uncertain light he thought he read, “Pokeville three miles,” with a finger pointing to the east.
“Well, that’s not so bad,” he murmured. “I can do three miles in half an hour, and I may get back home in time to sleep.”
He mounted the mare again, and started off at a smart trot. He soon began to look for some signs of a village, but after he had ridden nearly an hour, and all there was to be seen was the dark road, he began to have his doubts.