“On my ankle!” she cried. “Oh! oh! what shall I do? Oh, somebody run to the house and ask them to send for Cousin Arthur as quick as they can. But I’ll die before they can get him here! So it’s no use.”
But before her sentence was half finished several of them were flying toward the mansion.
Lulu was not one of them. She had dropped down on her knees beside Rosie, who was now seated on the grass, crying and wringing her hands. Without a word she rapidly tore off Rosie’s slipper and stocking, tied a handkerchief tightly round her leg, just above the wound, then put her lips to it and sucked away the poison.
“Oh, Lu, Lu, don’t! It’ll kill you!” cried Grace, in horror.
“Oh, Lu, how good in you! But how can you bear to do it?” sobbed Rosie.
But Lulu did not stop to answer either of them.
Meantime the cries and screams of the frightened girls had brought everybody running to see what was amiss. Among them was Dr. Arthur Conly himself.
He was a frequent visitor to Woodburn, being strongly attached to his Cousin Violet, a great admirer of the captain, and quite fond of the children, and had stopped in passing but a moment before the alarm.
“A rattlesnake! a rattlesnake! it has bitten Rosie!” was the terrible announcement of the girls whom he and the captain met on the threshold, and both gentlemen hastened at the top of their speed in the direction of the woods, guided to the spot by the continued cries of the children there, and knowing that the least delay might prove fatal.
They found Lulu still sucking the wound.