“All right—I guess,” said Dorothy unsteadily. “I seem a little—dizzy.”
Tavia tried to laugh and made a rather dismal failure of it.
“I should think you might,” she said. “After a fall like that!”
“What happened?” asked Dorothy, sitting up, her hand feeling instinctively for the painful cut in her head. “I fainted, didn’t I?”
“You surely did, Doro, my love!” responded Tavia, once more herself now that Dorothy was out of danger. “You fainted good and plenty, and I don’t mind telling you you gave me the scare of my life.”
“Sorry—but I guess we had better get away from here,” said Dorothy, still faintly, looking uneasily about her. She clapped her hands to her ears nervously as another thunder clap broke above their heads. “Help me, Tavia, please—I feel a little—weak.”
She tried to stumble to her feet, but sank down again with a cry of alarm.
“Not so fast!” Tavia scolded her. “You lost quite a good deal of blood, my dear, if you did but know it, and naturally you feel pretty faint.”
“Blood!” echoed Dorothy alarmed. “I had no idea——”
“Only a scalp wound,” Tavia said quickly. “But it bled like sixty. Now, let’s try it again. That’s the idea. Feel better?”