“I call this pretty nice,” remarked Richard, glancing at the circle of anxious faces leaning over him. “It’s worth being shot to have so many ministering angels about one; and a Seraph with a flaming sword at the foot of my couch to guard me,” he added, glancing again at Phoebe, now holding a lamp high with a perfectly steady arm, so that the others could see to work.
Having washed and bound the wound, they propped his head on two pillows and drew their chairs about the couch. Never was a young man so coddled before.
“You haven’t explained to us yet, Mr. Hook, how you happened to drop down from the skies,” said Miss Campbell.
“I dropped up and not down, on the contrary, Miss Campbell. The van isn’t so very far away. The girls wanted to put up for the night at the foot of the mountain, but I was stubborn for once and we worked old Dobbin until his limbs refused to go any farther. After they had got settled for the night, I thought I’d take a stroll. I supposed you would all have gone to bed but I had a feeling I’d like to see Sunrise Camp by starlight. I wouldn’t have found it, however, if I had not heard the calls for help on the bugle. There wasn’t a light to be seen from the road.”
Elinor felt a secret pride at this statement. It was she, then, who had brought the rescuer! Billie felt sure it was her own strong wish that had drawn Richard to them in their great need, while Phoebe, filled with the conviction of her faith, believed he had been sent in answer to her fervent prayers.
If Richard had been consulted about this and had spoken the truth from his heart, could he have explained the irresistible impulse that had urged him to climb the steep road up the mountain on that dark night?
At this juncture, Ben and Percy, more dead than alive from running, almost fell into the room.
“Great Caesar’s ghost,” Percy ejaculated in a weak voice, “but we have had a fright about you, and here you are giving an evening reception!”
“Nothing has happened, then?” Ben managed to gasp.
“That little arch fiend led us into a jungle and lost us,” went on Percy. “We heard the bugle calls for help. Gee! But we have had a run.”