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diff --git a/33409-8.txt b/33409-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e0c548e --- /dev/null +++ b/33409-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6618 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Ranch Girls at Rainbow Lodge, by Margaret Vandercook + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Ranch Girls at Rainbow Lodge + The Ranch Girls Series + +Author: Margaret Vandercook + +Illustrator: Hugh A. Bodine + +Release Date: August 11, 2010 [EBook #33409] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RANCH GIRLS AT RAINBOW LODGE *** + + + + +Produced by Emmy, Darleen Dove and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + + +THE RANCH GIRLS SERIES + + +The Ranch Girls at Rainbow Lodge + + + + +BOOKS BY MARGARET VANDERCOOK + + +THE RANCH GIRLS SERIES + + THE RANCH GIRLS AT RAINBOW LODGE + THE RANCH GIRLS' POT OF GOLD + THE RANCH GIRLS AT BOARDING SCHOOL + THE RANCH GIRLS IN EUROPE + THE RANCH GIRLS AT HOME AGAIN + THE RANCH GIRLS AND THEIR GREAT ADVENTURE + + +THE RED CROSS GIRLS SERIES + + THE RED CROSS GIRLS IN THE BRITISH TRENCHES + THE RED CROSS GIRLS ON THE FRENCH FIRING LINE + THE RED CROSS GIRLS IN BELGIUM + THE RED CROSS GIRLS WITH THE RUSSIAN ARMY + THE RED CROSS GIRLS WITH THE ITALIAN ARMY + THE RED CROSS GIRLS UNDER THE STARS AND STRIPES + + +STORIES ABOUT CAMP FIRE GIRLS + + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT SUNRISE HILL + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AMID THE SNOWS + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE OUTSIDE WORLD + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ACROSS THE SEA + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS' CAREERS + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN AFTER YEARS + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE DESERT + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT THE END OF THE TRAIL + +[Illustration: SHE WAVED HER WONDERFUL PAPER BEFORE HER FRIENDS] + + + + +THE RANCH GIRLS SERIES + + +The Ranch Girls + +AT + +Rainbow Lodge + +BY + +MARGARET VANDERCOOK + + ILLUSTRATED BY + HUGH A. BODINE + + + THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY + PHILADELPHIA + + + + + Copyright, 1911, by + THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO. + + + PRINTED IN U. S. A. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. THE LOST TRAIL 9 + II. IN THE SHADOW OF THE GIANT'S FACE 27 + III. FRIEDA AND THE OTHER GIRL 39 + IV. THE RESCUE 54 + V. SEEKING ADVICE 66 + VI. THE ARRIVAL AT THE HOUSE PARTY 78 + VII. A VISIT TO OLD LASKA 86 + VIII. THE ESCAPE FROM THE DANCE 99 + IX. JACQUELINE'S MISFORTUNE 108 + X. BACK TO RAINBOW LODGE 122 + XI. BREAKING THE NEWS 132 + XII. ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DIVIDE 147 + XIII. THE WET BLANKET 160 + XIV. AN UNFORTUNATE ARRIVAL 172 + XV. ALL SAVE, JACK! 181 + XVI. WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK 193 + XVII. THE ROUND-UP 202 + XVIII. A RACE FOR LIFE 218 + XIX. NO NEWS 227 + XX. OLIVE 243 + XXI. THE WAY OF ESCAPE 258 + XXII. A VOICE IN THE NIGHT 266 + XXIII. JACK IS HAPPY 275 + XXIV. CHRISTMAS EVE 282 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + SHE WAVED HER WONDERFUL PAPER BEFORE HER FRIENDS _Frontispiece_ + + PAGE + FRIEDA FLUNG HERSELF VALIANTLY IN THE PATH OF + THE INDIAN WOMAN 40 + + "CAN I DO ANYTHING FOR YOU, MA'AM?" 173 + + SOMEONE CREPT UP BEHIND HER WITH THE STEALTHINESS + POSSIBLE ONLY TO AN INDIAN 243 + + + + +The Ranch Girls at Rainbow Lodge. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE LOST TRAIL. + + +OVER the brown plain a shaggy broncho trotted slowly, with its head +drooping. + +A girl stood up in her saddle with one hand to her lips. "Halloo! +Halloo!" she cried. "I wonder where on earth I am? I thought I knew +every inch of this country, yet here I am lost and I can't be but a few +miles from our ranch. I must have missed the trail somewhere. Jim! Jim +Colter! If there is anybody near, please answer me." + +Jacqueline Ralston rode astride. Her eyes and cheeks were glowing and +her gold brown hair, deep grey eyes and brilliant color, formed an +unusually attractive picture. + +She leaned over and gave her pony a penitent hug. "Poor little Hotspur, +you shall have a rest pretty soon, even if I have to spend the night out +of doors. But won't Jean and Frieda be frightened? Jim will scour the +prairies for me." + +The pony was treading through a vast field of purple clover fading to +brown in the autumn sun. It was just before sunset. Away to the right, +Jacqueline could see a group of slow moving objects, which she knew to +be cattle. Half a mile on the opposite side was a sparse group of +evergreen trees and low bushes. But there was nothing else that broke +the vision of a long line of level country, until the snow-capped peaks +of the distant mountains shone like gold in the rays of the setting sun. + +"We will try the trees, Hotspur," Jacqueline urged coaxingly. "Perhaps +we may find a trail over there. Anyhow I believe I would rather be a +solitary babe in the woods, than to wander around here in the alfalfa +fields until to-morrow morning." + +The girl wore a short, brown corduroy jacket and skirt, leather leggings +and riding boots. Over the pommel of her saddle hung a bunch of silver +grouse and a smart little rifle was suspended at her side. + +"I am desperately hungry," she announced aloud. "I do wish I had a match +so I could light a fire. Jolly good advice that of Jim's for a ranch +girl, 'never try to find your match, always carry it with you.'" + +Jacqueline laughed. She was not willing to confess that she was tired, +although she had been riding since eight o'clock that morning. Against +the wishes of her sister Frieda, her cousin Jean, and the overseer of +their ranch, Jim Colter, she had gone off alone to inspect the corral +which had been recently built to protect their sheep for the winter. + +Inside the woods the way was darker and there was no sign of a road. +Jacqueline let the reins slacken on her pony's neck. Really Hotspur +would have to find the right trail home, if they were to reach the ranch +house that night. She could hear the rabbits and squirrels scurrying +back into their retreats. They were not accustomed to being disturbed at +their supper time and at first there was no other sound. + +"Who goes there?" suddenly a rough voice demanded, and a horse came +plunging through an opening in the trees. + +Jacqueline's color paled. She recognized the rider, a boy of about +sixteen, nearly her own age. "I am Jacqueline Ralston," she answered +quietly. "I have lost the trail. Will you please show me the way to the +Rainbow Ranch?" + +The young fellow laughed rudely. "Miss Ralston, is it?" he sneered. +"Don't tell me you are lost on our ranch. You have been over here spying +at our cattle. Just you trot along home as fast as you can. I shall +report to my father what I caught you doing." The boy's light blue eyes +blazed angrily. + +Jacqueline had reined in her pony and waited. Her temper was not her +strong point, but she replied politely: "I am not spying, Dan Norton; I +wonder why you should think it necessary. I will leave your ranch as +soon as I can get away from it. Will you please show me the trail?" + +Jacqueline held her head very high. "Won't you tell me?" she asked +again. "Because we happen to be enemies is no reason why you shouldn't +believe my word." The young girl's tones were gentle, but her face was +white with anger in the gathering dusk. Her firm red lips were pressed +tight together to keep her from saying the things she really felt. + +Dan Norton rode closer toward her and for reply struck her pony sharply +with his short riding whip. Tired little Hotspur quivered with pain, +but stood still under his mistress' gentle words. + +"Don't do that again, Dan," Jacqueline protested, feeling the hot blood +rush to her face and then leave her cold and still with anger. "There is +not another person in Wyoming who would be so rude to me. But there has +been trouble enough between you and us. I shall not speak of this, but I +shall never be able to forgive you to the longest day I live;" and +Jacqueline's grey eyes looked so proudly and so scornfully into the +boy's that his own dropped. + +"Your way's to the left," he muttered. "If you ride quick, you will soon +be on the boundary of your own ranch. Hurry, there is some one else +coming this way." + +Jacqueline did not stir. A few minutes before, she would have trotted +off gladly. Now nothing would have induced her to go. She would not run +away from her enemy. Indeed she preferred to explain her presence on his +ranch to Mr. Norton. + +In the silence between the two young people another voice entered, but +it was not Mr. Norton's. Some one was singing. + +Dan Norton rode hurriedly out of sight and Jacqueline lifted her rifle, +letting it rest in her arm. + + "If a body meet a body, + Comin' through the rye; + If a body kiss a body, + Need a body cry? + Every lassie has her laddie, + Nane they say have-- + +"Oh!" the song stopped abruptly. The singer threw up both hands and +burst into a merry boyish laugh. "I surrender in the name of--in the +name of most anything, if you will only put down that gun," he declared. +"Who would have thought of meeting a girl in these woods? Whatever are +you doing here? Poaching? No, I believe you don't have game preserves in +this country, so poaching isn't against your law." The stranger laughed, +though he had taken off his hat and bowed courteously to his fellow +traveler. "Please tell me, are you Rosalind in the forest of Arden? You +look like her, although I never heard of her on horseback," he ended +merrily. + +Jacqueline bit her lips. The young man was evidently a newcomer in the +neighborhood and at any other time Jacqueline would have liked him. He +must have been about seventeen and was tall and slender, with light +brown hair and clever brown eyes. His dress was that of a cowboy, but +Jacqueline saw with a feeling of instant disdain that his clothes were +too new and his face too white for him to have lived long in her +country. Besides he did not ride or talk like a Westerner. + +"I am Frank Kent, at your service," he explained, puzzled by +Jacqueline's haughty silence. "I am an Englishman and I don't quite know +what I ought to do or say out in Wyoming. But may I be of any service to +you?" + +Jacqueline's feeling of hurt and anger began to subside and she smiled +in a more friendly fashion. Frank Kent decided that he had never seen +such a pretty girl before in his life. Had she been a city girl, her +skin would have been fair, but from her outdoor life it had become +exquisitely darkened by the wind and sun of the prairies. Her hair was +like bronze and her color a deep rose. + +"I ought not to be asking favors of you," Jacqueline replied in her +usual manner. "You are a stranger in a strange land, while I have lived +out West since I was a baby. But can you show me the trail to the +Rainbow Ranch? Anyhow tell me how to get off of this place. I have +never been on it before, and--" To save her life Jacqueline could not +keep her voice from trembling. + +"Surely I can show you," Frank answered. He spoke with such a funny +English accent, that Jacqueline would have liked to have made fun of +him, if she had known him better. + +"I have heard a lot about the girls who run Rainbow Ranch," he went on +quickly. "They sound like such an awfully good sort that I have made Dan +Norton tell me a lot about them. I am visiting him, surely you must know +him," the young fellow concluded eagerly. + +What in the world had he said? Frank Kent was startled. The girl he had +just met seemed quite friendly a moment before. Now she stiffened up on +her pony, her cheeks turned scarlet and her eyes flashed. + +"I won't trouble you any further," she announced. "I will find my own +way home from here." Without another word or a backward glance, +Jacqueline gave her pony a gentle cut and Hotspur galloped quickly away. + +"Whew," Frank Kent whistled, "methinks some one told me that the people +one met out West were awfully friendly and informal. That girl was as +touchy as you find them. But I wonder who she is? I think I will ride +after her and show her the trail, even if she is so high and mighty." + +Jacqueline pretended not to hear the young man trotting along behind +her, and did not turn her head. She rode faster and faster until a sound +like a stifled moan arrested her. Jacqueline paused and saw that the +young fellow who had been so polite to her a few minutes before was +ghastly white. He was swaying so in his saddle that he had not the +strength to stop his horse. + +Jacqueline caught his bridle. "Rest a minute," she urged gently. "You +will soon be all right. You have ridden too far and you are not used to +it. People always do too much, when they first come to Wyoming. My name +is Jacqueline Ralston and I am one of the girls at the Rainbow Ranch. I +am sorry I was rude to you a little while ago, but the Nortons are not +our friends." Jacqueline was talking so that the young man could get his +breath. She could not help admiring the brave fight he made. He seemed +to be dreadfully ashamed of his own weakness. + +"You will let me show you the right trail, won't you?" he asked. "I am +sorry you are not friendly with my hosts. I thought I heard you talking +to Dan, when I rode up to you, but that won't matter about me, will it? +I don't know anything about your quarrel and if we were properly +introduced, don't you think we could be friends? I can't tell you how +plucky I think it is for you three girls to be managing your own ranch. +Don't you think you might tell me a thing or two about it? It is pretty +lonely out here for a stranger." + +The young fellow looked so nice, and so ill, in spite of his efforts to +hide it, that Jacqueline almost relented. Then the thought of Dan +Norton's rudeness and the long feud between them swept over her, and +Jacqueline shook her head firmly. + +"I am sorry," she returned. "With any one else it would not matter, but +we can't be friendly with any guest of the Norton's." Jacqueline +hesitated, "I can't explain it to you, there isn't time. Good-bye. I +know the way home from here." + +Frank Kent watched Jacqueline ride out of sight, sitting on her pony as +though she had been made on it, like a figure cut from bronze, all in +soft tones of gold and brown. + +It was quite dark when Jacqueline at last spied the lights of her own +ranch house twinkling at her warmly through the open windows and doors. + +The broncho hurried faster, forgetting his hard day and Jacqueline +talked low in his ear. + +"Home and supper, Hotspur! See the lights of home ahead. Soon they will +hear us coming. Suppose I give our call and relieve the suspense." Three +times in rapid succession, Jacqueline touched her red lips with her +slender fingers and gave a shrill, clear whistle like an Indian's call. + +Instantly figures moved about in the ranch house. A dark lantern was +swung off its place over the front door and a man and two girls hurried +down the drive. Jacqueline was lifted off her horse. Her sister, Frieda, +seized her by one arm, her cousin, Jean, by the other. + +"What has kept you so long?" Frieda demanded anxiously. + +"If you have had an adventure and wouldn't let me go with you to-day, I +shall never get over it," Jean insisted. "Come into the house this +minute. Do tell us where you have been. Jim telephoned over to the other +side of the ranch three hours back, but the sheep herders said you +started for home long ago. We have been frightened to death ever since." + +Frieda pulled at her sister's jacket. Jean, although she kept up her +scolding, got a pair of soft, red felt slippers and placed them +invitingly in front of the big, living-room fire. + +Rainbow Lodge was built of pine logs. The great sitting-room was forty +feet long and two-thirds as wide and it looked like a man's room, but +the three ranch girls did not know it. The floor was covered with +buffalo robes and beautiful bright Navajo blankets made by the Indians +in the nearby villages, and the head of an elk thrusting forth giant +antlers dominated the scene from above the stone fireplace. An Andrew +Jackson table made of hewn logs, with a smooth polished top, occupied +one side of the fireplace, holding a reading lamp and some half-opened +books. + +In another corner the home-made book shelves were filled with much-read +novels and books of travel. There were low, comfortable chairs about +everywhere. It was an odd room to be occupied by three young girls, but +a very noble one. The ranch girls had kept it just as their father had +left it when he died, six months before. + +Jacqueline gave a comfy sigh. "I _am_ glad to be at home," she murmured. +"I haven't had any special adventure. Jean, I know you will be disgusted +with me, but I got lost and wandered over on the Norton ranch. I met Dan +Norton and he was horrid to me. Oh, Frieda darling, hasn't Aunt Ellen +saved me anything to eat? I am simply starving," Jacqueline ended, +anxious to change the subject. + +Aunt Ellen came in at this moment bearing a waiter. She was nearly six +feet tall, part Indian and part colored, and she had lived with the +Ralstons ever since Mr. and Mrs. Ralston came to Wyoming from the East, +bringing Jack, who was then only two years old. + +The old woman was frowning and shaking her head, as she put down Jack's +supper. "Ought never to have ridden off across the ranch alone, ought +not to be coming back home way after dark. I am sure the master never +would have liked you chilluns living here and trying to run things for +yourself," she muttered. + +Jack flushed, although she patted the old woman's hand affectionately +and said nothing. Jack knew she deserved the scolding and that she would +have another from Jim Colter, the manager of their ranch, in the +morning. To-night he had led Hotspur away without a word and retired to +his own quarters. + +No one, excepting strangers, ever called Jacqueline Ralston anything but +Jack. She never thought of herself by her pretty French name, except +when she wished to appear very grown up and impressive. As for little +Frieda, she had been born at Rainbow Ranch house thirteen years before +on Christmas eve. She was such a fair little German-looking baby, with +her blue eyes and flaxen hair, that her mother gave her the pretty +German name of Frieda, which means peace. Mrs. Ralston died when Frieda +was only a few months old, but the little girl had fairly earned her +name all her life. Peace and War, Jean used to call the two sisters, +when she wanted to tease Jack, for Jacqueline was as high-tempered and +determined as Frieda was gentle and serene. + +Jean was a slender, graceful maiden, with hair and eyes of the same nut +brown color. She had come to live at the ranch ten years before, when +her mother, Mr. Ralston's sister, died, and Mr. Ralston decided it would +be better to bring up three motherless girls than two. Jean had a +gentle, far-away expression, though Jack always asserted that Jean was +present when she wanted to be. She only dreamed dreams and wore her +aloof expression when people bored her, or when she felt sad and thought +she needed sympathy. Jack and Frieda knew no difference in their feeling +for Jean and for each other. + +When Jacqueline finished supper, she curled herself in a big armchair in +front of the fire. Frieda sat on a low stool at her feet while Jean, +with an open book, was not far away. Jean was the reader of the three +girls, but to-night her book was neglected. + +"Out with it, Jack," Jean insisted calmly. "You know perfectly well that +you haven't told us all that happened to you this afternoon. Fire away +and get it over with, I want to finish my book to-night." + +After much urging, Jack told her story in full and Jean flung her book +down and danced about the room on her tip-toes, she was so angry, when +she heard how Dan Norton had treated her. But she had a different +feeling about the young English fellow. + +"I really think you were rather horrid, Jacqueline Ralston," she +announced coolly. "Of course we can't be having visitors or making +friends with any one visiting those hateful Nortons, but I think you +might have told that young fellow we would be nice to him when we met +him other places. He is a far-off cousin of the Nortons, whose health +broke down while he was at college in England and his people sent him +over here to recover. His father is a Lord, or a Sir or something, I +can't remember which. But Mrs. Simpson says he is awfully nice and--" + +Jack put both fingers in her ears. "For goodness sake, hush, Jean +Bruce," she protested. "You are such a snob. What difference can it make +to us, whether this Frank Kent is a lord or a prizefighter? We certainly +can't have anything to do with him. I shan't even speak to him again if +I can help it. For the life of me, Jean, I don't see how you happen to +find out the gossip in Wyoming with our ranches five miles apart." + +Jean's brown eyes sparkled. She and Jack had many differences of +opinion, but to-night Jack was tired and her cousin decided not to +answer back. + +"Have you gotten your lessons, Frieda?" Jack asked gently a moment +later, kissing her hand apologetically to Jean. + +Frieda shook her head. She had two long blonde plaits, like a little +German girl, with a curl at the end of each one of them. Her cheeks were +a faint pink, and her nose tilted just enough to curl her lips up into a +smile. + +"No," she replied calmly. "Jean offered to hear me recite, but I didn't +feel like it. You and Jean haven't studied your French for three +evenings. I don't see why I have to do all the studying, because I am +the youngest. When we planned to live by ourselves this winter, you and +Jean declared that you were going to study three or four hours every +day." + +Jack pulled Frieda's hair and Jean had just picked up her French grammar +with a sigh when there came the noise of some one riding up to the ranch +house. + +The three girls flew to the window. It was too dark to recognize the +figure on horseback. But a few moments later, Aunt Ellen brought in an +envelope addressed to "Miss Jacqueline Ralston." + +It was a surly note of apology from Dan Norton for his rudeness to her +in the afternoon. The girls wondered what in the world had induced him +to write it. + +Long after Jean and Frieda were asleep, Jacqueline lay awake. She was +the oldest and most responsible member of the ranch girl family of +three. Frieda was right, she and Jean had been neglecting their studies +shamefully. Now and then Jack could not help thinking that perhaps it +was not wise for them to live without a teacher or a chaperon. They did +not want to grow up perfect greenhorns, yet how they hated the idea of +introducing a stranger into their home at Rainbow Ranch. Jack was still +puzzling, when she fell asleep, with the familiar sound in her ears of +the far-off lowing of the wild cattle across the prairie and the distant +bark of the faithful sheep dogs. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +IN THE SHADOW OF THE GIANT'S FACE. + + +FRIEDA walked ankle deep in purple violets. Her hands were full of them +and she carried a brimful basket on her arm. + +"What a picture you are, Frieda," Jack called, as she came out on the +broad veranda of the ranch house at about eight o'clock the next +morning. + +"I don't care if we don't make our everlasting fortunes with our violet +beds, they are just too sweet for anything! Jean is coming out to help +you pick the flowers in a minute; I have got to go down to the rancho to +make my peace with Jim." + +Jack walked briskly along. It was a gentle October day with a bright sun +and warm wind. You seemed to be able to see half way across the world, +the horizon line stretched so far beyond you. + +One of the ways in which Jean and Frieda had been trying to help to make +the ranch pay was by starting a violet farm. Nearly an acre of land near +the house had been irrigated and glistened with the dark green leaves +and purple stars of the young plants. The flowers were to be covered +with glass later on. Now the fresh morning air was fragrant with their +perfume. Of course the flowers had not yet had time to pay for the +expense of planting them, but Frieda was eagerly calculating how many +bunches she would have to send to the nearest town, when Jean joined +her. + +"Don't you wish we could spend this whole day out of doors, Jean?" +Frieda suggested. "I forgot to say anything about it to Jack, but you +know how we have talked about riding over to the Giant's Cañon to have +our lunch. Aunt Ellen can pack our saddle bags, and we can join Jack at +the rancho." + +After a ten minutes' walk, Jacqueline Ralston touched the brim of her +broad sombrero hat with a military salute and brought her heels sharply +together, when a tall figure came down the path toward her from the +rancho with his hands deep in his old leather trousers. She was near the +mess-house, where the men who worked the ranch had their quarters. The +girls called it "Jim's rancho," to distinguish it from their own home +half a mile away. + +Jim Colter returned Jack's salute gravely. He was a handsome man of +about thirty, with black hair and skin almost as swarthy as a Mexican's. +The queer thing about his appearance was that his eyes were as blue and +as gentle as a baby's, except when he was angry and then there was no +harder man in Wyoming to deal with than the overseer of Rainbow Ranch. +Jack would not have dared to let him know how rude Dan Norton had been +to her. + +Jim was a man of mystery. He came from goodness knows where; no one knew +anything of his past. One day, many years before, he rode up to the +ranch house nearly dead from fatigue and hunger. Mr. Ralston took him in +and he never went away again. But he would not say one word about +himself and no one dared to ask him many questions, because his blue +eyes would suddenly grow black and angry and he would look as though he +were recalling something he wanted to forget. + +Jim was devoted to Jack and Jean, but Frieda was his special favorite. +She was only two years old when he came to live at Rainbow Ranch, but he +taught her to ride and to swim, when other babies were only just +learning to walk. He and Mr. Ralston used to ride all over the great +ranch, with Frieda tucked up in front of Jim's saddle and Jack perched +behind her father's when both little girls were almost babies. By the +time she was fourteen, Jacqueline Ralston, who was her father's shadow, +knew the trick of lassoing. There was not a cowboy on the ranch who +could ride faster, shoot straighter, or understood more about the +business of caring for the cattle and the sheep than she did, and since +Mr. Ralston's death, Jim had always consulted Jack about each new +business venture. + +Jack made her report of yesterday's expedition, but without a word of +her meeting with Dan. Jim said nothing about the fright Jack had given +them, but Jack found herself blushing and feeling like a little girl, +instead of the head of a thousand acre ranch as he looked at her. + +"It really wasn't my fault I was out late, yesterday, Jim," Jack +apologized. "But we girls have decided to turn over a new leaf. We have +made up our minds to stay at home and study, until we are regular blue +stockings." + +Jim laughed and at this moment glanced up the road. Jean and Frieda were +riding calmly toward them. Jean was leading Hotspur and the three +girls' saddle bags were packed as though they were pioneers traveling +across the Deadwood trail to the gold regions of California. + +Jim chuckled. "Looks like a party of bluestockings from Boston, Jack, +coming this way, 'specially that there fishing tackle Jean's carrying. +Where was you expecting to spend to-day?" he drawled in a funny Western +fashion. + +Frieda tucked a small bunch of violets in the buttonhole of Jim's khaki +shirt. She wore a blue riding suit and a big Mexican hat like Jack's and +her face looked very young and babyish under it. "We are going to the +Giant's Cañon, Jim," she said apologetically. "It's such a dream of a +day, but Jack doesn't know. We have brought her sketch book and Jean's +along and I have my history, so we can get our lessons outdoors and then +we can make a fire and have lunch in my own little cave in the rocks." + +"We will be back early, Jim," Jean added. + +"All right," Jim agreed. His eyes twinkled at the vision of Jean and +Jack sketching under the shadow of the great stone peaks whose broken +outline looked like the profile of a giant's face. The Giant's Cañon was +five miles across the plains, but the ranch girls were in the habit of +riding over to it. Between the ridges of rock, nestling in the deep +gorge, were little lakes filled with shimmering trout. One of the rocky +caverns in the cañon, Frieda had adopted as her very own. The girls +always spoke of it as Frieda's cave. + +Frieda's stone castle was really two stories high. A large flat rock +jutted out over a second one about eight feet below it while a flight of +natural stairs ran from the ground to the floor of the cave. + +Frieda unpacked the saddle bags, while Jean and Jack tethered the ponies +to a great cottonwood tree not far from the edge of the gorge. The place +was entirely deserted, except for an eagle that swooped out of her eyrie +and floated above the newcomers' heads. Frieda slipped down the stairs +into her cave, spread out her pony's blanket and set to housekeeping, +humming as cheerfully as though she had been in her own private room at +the ranch. She was not in the least awed by the grandeur and loneliness +of the scenery about her. Indeed Frieda was so much at home in her +cavern that she kept an old frying pan hung from one of the sharp points +of the rock and some broken dishes stored away in a crevice which formed +a kind of natural pantry. + +Jean and Jack made a fire, because no camper is really happy without +one. Then they religiously got out their sketch books and set to work to +make pictures of their three sturdy bronchos munching the buffalo grass +in their neighborhood. + +Both girls worked patiently for about ten minutes and then Jean sighed +once or twice. She had used her eraser oftener than her drawing pencil. +Holding her drawing out, she gazed at it critically. Finally she tore it +into small bits and strolled over to Jack, to gaze over her shoulder. + +"And what be those critturs you are picturing, Friend Ralston?" Jean +demanded, in a familiar, Western tone. "If they are native to this here +state of Wyoming, I ain't never seen 'em before. Be they mules or +buffaloes?" + +Jack frowned and bit her pencil. "Don't be a goose, Jean," she answered, +"and please don't interrupt." Jack surveyed her masterpiece critically. +"The ponies do look a bit queer," she confessed. "One of them has three +legs and the other five, but then I haven't worked very long. Do go away +and see if you can do any better yourself. You know we solemnly vowed +that we were going to sketch an hour each day." + +Jean departed to another ten minutes of labor. But the sun was shining +gloriously; the day was one long, sunlit delight. She could hear the +water trickling over the rocks in the gorge below, and Frieda moving +about at her housekeeping. Jean picked up her fishing rod, selected a +choice fly and slipped her sketch book into her knapsack. + +"Au revoir, Jack dear," she announced cheerfully. "Stay here and look +after Frieda. I am going down to the pool to get some trout for lunch." +Jean flung some pine knots on their fire, kissed her hand to Frieda and +marched off, smiling wickedly at Jack, who was drawing as though her +life depended on it. She wished to be an object lesson of industry to +slothful Jean. + +When Jean had entirely disappeared down the side of the ravine, Jack +stopped to gaze sadly at her morning's work. "I am afraid I am not a +natural-born artist," she declared aloud. "It may be all right for +geniuses to work from life, but I can't make any headway without a +teacher. I wish Cousin Ruth had not put French and drawing into her list +of what a young woman should know. They may be easy enough for girls to +learn in her beloved old Vermont, but they are pretty hard work out +here. I am afraid the ranch girls don't know any of the things they +should." Jack's red lips parted. "But it's lots of fun to know the +unnecessary things like fishing and riding. Gee whiz, I can't stand +working any longer." + +Jack leaned over the ledge of rock. Her drawing fluttered down to her +sister. "Here Frieda, decorate your cave with that work of art. It looks +like a drawing made by the Indians in pre-historic days. You won't mind, +will you, if I go away for a while? I won't be out of calling distance +and I won't stay long. If you need me, just sing out." + +Frieda smiled. Her blue eyes looked like a reflection of the clear sky +above them. She had so little idea of feeling any fear, that she did not +even trouble to answer Jack's question. There were no more wild animals +in the gorge. Besides, the ranch girls knew that few animals would +attack them, except in self-defense. + +Frieda climbed down the rocky cliff to fill an old teakettle with water +from a spring not far below and then hung it over the fire on a crooked +stick. If the water boiled long before Jean and Jack returned, the +pleasant, sizzly sound would keep her company. Frieda's house was in +order, so she set out her luncheon dishes, arranging them around in a +circle on the floor of her cave. In the center, in a broken teacup, she +placed the bunch of violets she had worn in her trip across the plain. +Still the girls had not returned; Frieda might have studied, but she +decided that it would be more fun to enlarge the crevice in the rocks, +which formed the storehouse for her kitchen and dining-room utensils. + +She struck the rock sharply with a large stone. A piece chipped off, +then another. It was red sandstone and not very hard and Frieda was +banging away with all her might, when she gave a quick exclamation of +surprise. A great crack appeared along one side of the stone wall, and a +big boulder crashed down at Frieda's feet. Before her, she beheld +another cavern in the rock, almost as large as the one in which she +played. + +The little girl jumped back. At any moment she expected to see a pair of +wild eyes glaring at her from the rocky retreat, believing that she had +accidentally broken into the cave of some animal. But nothing happened; +there was no stir, no sound from the darkness inside. + +Frieda's heart beat rapidly. Her face was pale from excitement. She +looked cautiously into the opening, thrust one small hand into it and +drew out a round dish of hard, baked clay, engraved with queer, Indian +characters. Frieda gave a shriek of delight, although she did not +realize that she had accidentally discovered an important collection of +Indian relics. But she was fascinated with the arrow heads and queer +Indian dolls that she dug out a second later. + +In the midst of her search, Frieda heard a sound that made her heart +stand still. At the head of the gorge, about a quarter of a mile away, +there was a dense thicket of evergreens. From this direction came a cry +of pain and terror. Frieda flew up to the ground above. + +"Jean, Jack!" she called. "What has happened? Is one of you hurt? Please +come to me." Frieda gave the call, that was always the signal between +the three ranch girls. "Oh-oo, Oh-ooo, Oh-oooo," ending in a shrill, +drawn-out note, as she touched her lips with her fingers, three times in +quick succession. + +Then she listened, but neither Jean nor Jack answered her. The ranch +girls could hear sounds from afar off, as they had spent their lives in +the open country. As Frieda ran forward a few steps, she caught the echo +of light feet, flying along the ground. A girl came out of the woods, +rushing toward her blindly. But Frieda could not tell who it was or +guess what had happened. Was it Jean or Jack? + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +FRIEDA AND THE OTHER GIRL. + + +THE apparition drew near enough for Frieda to see that it was a stranger +with straight black hair. She was barefoot and wore a short, ragged +skirt, a bright red jacket, and a red scarf twisted around her throat. +In her startled glance at the girl, Frieda beheld a pair of immense +black eyes, set in a thin, pointed face, with cheeks flushed crimson, +perhaps from the swiftness of her flight. Her breath came in short +gasps. Frieda thought of a fawn she had once seen pursued by some +hunters, with its great soft eyes transformed into staring pools of +terror and its soft sides quivering as though its heart were breaking in +its final effort to evade its pursuers. + +"Oh, what is it?" Frieda cried, with quick sympathy. + +The girl looked at her hopelessly and ran on. But Frieda now understood. +An old Indian woman armed with a stick, trotted out of the screen of the +trees. She was running more slowly but her face was terrifying. Her +small black eyes were red with anger and she waved a long arm at the +girl. + +[Illustration: FRIEDA FLUNG HERSELF VALIANTLY IN THE PATH OF THE INDIAN +WOMAN.] + +Frieda wanted to help, but what could she do? "Jean! Jack!" she called +again. She could see that the hunted girl had no chance of escaping. She +was nearly dropping with exhaustion. There was no place for her to hide, +for the plain stretched on, covered only with grass and low sage brush. + +Frieda flung herself valiantly in the path of the Indian woman. She was +used to the Indians. Ever since she could remember she had been making +trips to their villages, and a number of half-breed Indian boys had +worked on their ranch. But the girl had never seen one of them so +furiously angry as this old squaw. She was frightened and at the same +time wanted to laugh. The woman was so fat and in such a temper, "that +she shook when she ran, like a bowlful of jelly," Frieda thought to +herself. + +The squaw did not lift her beady, black eyes until she was within a few +feet of Frieda. + +"Ugh," she grunted. "Git out." + +She tried to push Frieda away with her stick, but Frieda stretched +out both arms and danced up and down in front of the old woman, until +she did not know which way to turn. + +Old Laska had not run all this distance and gotten out of breath to be +stopped by a pale-face chit of a child. She struck Frieda with her +staff. Frieda gave a sudden, sharp cry and looked quickly around. She +saw that the Indian girl had fallen only a short distance beyond them +and was vainly struggling to get on her feet again. Frieda shut her +eyes; in another moment she knew that she would hear cruel blows being +rained down on the defenseless girl by the furious old woman. + +At this moment, a golden brown head, wearing a soft, round Mexican hat, +appeared above an opening in the gorge. "Frieda, what's the matter? +Didn't we hear you call?" Jack's voice rang out unexpectedly. She jumped +lightly from the rocks to the ground and ran toward her sister, guessing +at once that the Indian woman had frightened Frieda. + +"Stop," Jack ordered imperiously. + +The woman hesitated. Something in Jack's commanding tone impressed her +and at the same instant Jean crawled slowly into sight above the +ravine, swinging a string of trout over her shoulder. + +The Giant's Cañon seemed suddenly alive with girls. + +Jean gazed at the scene in bewilderment. Jack's hands were clasped +behind her and her head was thrown back in a fashion she had when she +was angry. Frieda was in tears and between the two sisters stood a fat +squaw. + +Jack and Jean looked so ready to do battle at a moment's notice, that +the Indian's manner changed. + +"I want not to hurt the little Missie," she mumbled. "I try to catch my +own girl. She run away from her good home. She ver' bad." The old +woman's head with its straight black hair, plaited in small braids, +bobbed fiercely up and down and she shook her stick threateningly ahead +of her. + +During the whole scene Jack and Jean had had their backs turned to the +hunted girl. Jack was blocking the way of the Indian woman. Only Frieda +had been able to see and through her tears she had discovered that the +girl, who had been lying helpless on the level ground only a few seconds +before, had now vanished completely. + +Frieda smiled at Jack's and Jean's puzzled expressions. "Indian girl! +What did the old woman mean?" The two girls looked about. There was no +one in sight. Evidently the squaw had not intended to hurt Frieda and +Jack and Jean were anxious to get rid of her. The next instant the +Indian waddled on, though she, too, had lost sight of the fragile figure +she was pursuing. + +Frieda walked over to the fire and stirred it into a blaze without a +word. She winked mysteriously at Jean and Jack, but neither of them had +the faintest idea of what she meant. + +"Let's fry the fish, before we go down into the cave," Frieda whispered. +"I don't want the Indian to come along this way and find out where it +is." + +Jean and Jack knew that Frieda wished to keep her playhouse a secret +from all the world, so they thought nothing of her odd manner. + +Frieda was bending over the glowing ashes, humming softly, with her +cheeks rosy and her two long blonde plaits fairly trembling with +excitement when she noticed the Indian woman coming back toward them. +She was alone. Evidently she had gone on for half a mile or more before +she decided it was useless to hunt any longer. + +Frieda never looked up. The woman sidled up to Jean and Jack with a +wheedling expression on her broad, stupid face. + +Jack and Jean paid no attention to her. They were making a pile of shiny +fish scales into a silver hill at their feet, as it was their part to +clean the trout, while Frieda did the cooking. + +The Indian eyed the two girls doubtfully. She firmly believed that one +of them had helped the truant to escape, yet they had not stirred from +before her eyes, in the time when the runaway girl threw her off the +scent. + +"You know where my girl is, you hide her from me," the woman said +accusingly. + +Jean glanced at her in a bored fashion. "Will you please go away?" she +demanded. "We are busy. We do not want to talk to you. I told you that +we had never seen any Indian girl." + +Frieda did not move, but her rosy cheeks burned a deeper red from the +heat of the flames. + +The squaw waddled slowly out of sight. What did it matter if she had +not caught Olilie? The girl would soon have to return to the hut. She +could not live long alone out on the plains and when she came back she +should be taught her place. Olilie was only a squaw in spite of the +nonsense she had learned at the white people's school. She should do the +work and be the slave of the man chief, like all Indian girls had from +the beginning. + +"Jean, Jack," Frieda hissed softly. She came over toward her cousin and +sister with the fish still sizzling and popping in her frying pan. + +"Oh, do be careful, Frieda," Jean begged. Some of the hot fat sputtered +out of the pan into Jean's lap and she slid backwards off the rock where +she was seated. + +But Jack saw that something unusual was the matter with Frieda. + +"What in the world has happened to you, child? Your eyes are as big as +saucers!" she exclaimed. + +Frieda set down her pan and though the Indian woman was now well out of +sight, she whispered a few words that made both girls jump to their +feet. + +"Then there was an Indian girl all the time?" Jean murmured. + +Frieda nodded. "We must find her," she argued quietly. "She slipped over +the side of the gorge not far from here, when no one was looking at her +except me. She can't be very far away for she was too tired to have gone +much further." + +"All right, Frieda," Jack agreed. "We will look for the Indian princess +as soon as we have had our lunch. We must eat the fish first, it is so +brown and delicious. Really we will have more strength to search if we +have some food," Jack pleaded, seeing Frieda's injured expression. + +"She will get away, Jack," Frieda answered. "Then she may be lost on the +plains and starve and nobody will ever find her. She was so pretty and +so frightened that I am sure you would have been interested if you had +only seen her." + +Jack heaved a deep sigh. "Come along, Jean," she insisted. "Frieda wants +us to look for the will-o-the-wisp, so look we must." + +Frieda was not tempestuous like Jack and Jean, but, just the same, like +a great many other gentle people, she always had her way. "Little +Chinook," Jim used to call her, because "Chinook" is the Indian name for +a soft, west wind, that blows so quietly, so persistently, that it +carries everything before it. It even wafts all one's troubles away. + +Jack, Jean and Frieda crawled down into the great cañon, among the giant +rocks, poking their noses into every opening, where they thought it +possible that anybody could be concealed. There was no sign of any one, +though Frieda called and called, assuring the runaway that the Indian +woman had gone back home. + +"I am afraid she must have fallen and gotten hurt somehow, Jack," Frieda +suggested, when the three girls had explored for half an hour. + +Jean turned resolutely upon the two sisters. "I am very sorry, Frieda +Ralston," she announced firmly, "but I decline to look for that tiresome +girl another minute. I will be fed. I don't see for the life of me, why +you are so worried over the fate of an unknown Indian maiden, when your +own devoted cousin is perishing before your eyes." + +Frieda's cave was soon spread with the luncheon dishes and the girls sat +down Turkish fashion, with their long-delayed feast in front of them. + +Frieda's face was half buried in a ham sandwich when Jean gave a sudden +exclamation of surprise. "Look, girls, there must have been an +earthquake or something around here. There is a hole in the rocks back +of Frieda's cave, nearly as large as this one. Funny we never noticed it +this morning!" + +"Oh, I forgot to tell you," Frieda remarked indifferently. "I was +banging away there, trying to make my pantry larger, when a huge stone +fell out and rolled into the gorge. Lo and behold, there was another +cavern! I found some queer Indian relics in it. Come see." + +Frieda led the way over to the new pit and dropped down on her knees in +front of it, with Jack and Jean on either side of her. "I was afraid to +go inside until you came," she said, "but it is quite empty,--look!" + +Frieda's breath gave out. She stared and stared, clutching at her cousin +and her sister. The three girls were spellbound! + +Gazing at them from out the black darkness, was what Frieda had feared +at the first moment of her discovery of the mysterious cavity, a pair of +burning, glowing eyes. They might belong to some wild animal, though +they were not fierce, only timid and pleading. + +The ranch girls were not cowards, but not one of them wished to enter +the obscurity of that strange hiding place. + +The figure stirred. The girls were now more used to the darkness. + +"Why it's the Indian girl!" Frieda cried. "Do come out, please. We won't +hurt you and the Indian woman has been gone a long time." + +But the girl seemed to be afraid to move. Frieda crawled fearlessly into +the hole and gave her little, white hand into the girl's thin, dark one. + +As the Indian maid came out into the bright, invigorating air, she tried +to stand up, but she swayed in the wind, like a scarlet poppy that is +trying to oppose its frail strength to the blast of a storm. + +Before Jack and Jean could get to her and in spite of Frieda's efforts, +the girl took a step forward, staggered and fell at their feet. + +As they picked her up, they discovered that she was flushed with fever. +But while Jean washed her face with cool water and Jack held her in her +arms, she opened her mournful black eyes. "I am sorry to have troubled +you," she said, without a trace of an Indian accent. "I have run away +and I am tired. If you will please give me some water and let me stay +here for a few minutes I am sure I will be all right." + +But she was not all right, even though the ranch girls persuaded her to +eat something, as well as to drink a cup of hot tea. She did not seem to +be able to move, but sat perfectly still with her lovely dark head +resting between her slender hands. She did not try to explain to them +why she had run away from home or when she expected to return. + +Jack glanced anxiously upward. They had solemnly promised Jim to be back +at the ranch house before dark and the ranch girls could tell the time +of day from the position of the sun in the sky. This was one of the +things they knew instead of French or drawing. Unless they left the +cañon pretty soon, Jack knew they would never get home in time; yet what +could they do with Frieda's Indian girl? They could not leave her in the +gorge alone, and yet she did not seem to have the strength or the desire +to go. + +Jack once had seen a copy of a wonderful picture of Ishmael in the +desert, whom Abraham had cast out with his mother, Hagar. Hagar had gone +to find some fuel and the child is alone. Around him is a great, grey +plain, with nothing else alive on it. There was something in this Indian +girl's position, her fragile grace, and dreadful loneliness, that +recalled this picture to Jacqueline Ralston's mind. She put her arm +gently over the other girl's shoulder. + +The Indian maid looked up. Perhaps it was the difference in her +appearance and in Jacqueline's that made her eyes fill with tears. +Jack's proud, high-bred face was softened to pity. Her grey eyes were +tender and the usual proud curve to her lips was changed to an +expression that she seldom showed to any one but Frieda or Jean since +her father's death. + +"We must go back to our home now," Jack explained kindly, "but we can't +leave you here alone. Tell us why you ran away? Don't you think you +could return; or is there anything we could do for you?" + +The girl shook her head. She was as tall as Jean, but so thin that she +might be only an overgrown child. She seemed very young to Jacqueline; +almost as young as Frieda and as much in need of some one to take care +of her. + +The three ranch girls were gazing intently at the stranger. + +She flung her hands up over her face again. "I can't go back, I can't," +she insisted. "You are to go away. I am not afraid. Only let me stay in +this ravine, until I can find some place that is further away, where no +one can find me. I shall not be hungry, I can hunt and fish. Only to-day +I am tired." She shook, as though she were having a chill. + +Jacqueline dropped down on the ground by her side. Frieda and Jean were +trying not to cry. + +"You poor little thing, you know we can't leave you here," Jack +declared. "Won't you? Can't you?" Jack looked appealingly at Jean and +Frieda. She was the oldest of the ranch girls, but she never decided +anything without their advice. Both of them nodded. "Don't you think you +could come home to the ranch with us, until you feel better and can tell +us what troubles you? You are ill now and worn out. Why you might even +die if you stayed here alone." + +Jack did not wait for an answer. She almost lifted the Indian girl to +her feet and brought her out of Frieda's cave. She helped her upon her +own pony, and getting up behind Frieda, she led Hotspur and his new +rider to the beloved Rainbow Ranch house, whose doors opened to admit +not three girls, but four. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE RESCUE. + + +WHEN Olilie, the Indian girl, came back to consciousness, after being +put to bed at the ranch house, three days had passed. She lay between +broad sheets smelling of violets and whiter than anything she had ever +seen, except the new snow on the prairies. + +Over in the corner of a big empty room sat a strange little girl. She +was sewing on some small doll clothes and humming softly to herself. Two +braids like plaited silk of the corn hung over her face. Olilie did not +recall ever having seen her before and had not the faintest idea how she +happened to be in this wonderful place, instead of the dirty hut of +Laska the Indian woman and her son Josef. + +Some one else tiptoed softly into the chamber. Olilie half closed her +eyes. She remembered this other face faintly, but where and when had she +seen it? + +"Hasn't she spoken yet?" a voice asked in a disappointed tone. "I am so +sorry, but I simply have to ride over the range with Jim this morning. +Some of the cattle keep disappearing. If our patient wants to talk, +please don't let her tell you everything before I get back. She must be +kept pretty quiet." + +Just for a second, Olilie felt that a face bent over hers. But she gave +no sign of being awake, although she now knew where she was and how she +happened to be there. It had flashed across her memory--her flight, her +hiding and the meeting with the ranch girls. She understood that she had +been ill but was going to get well again. The hot, uncomfortable feeling +had left her head, she had no pain, only she was very weak and she did +not think that she could bear to go away from this beautiful place. If +only she could have been ill a little longer! + +Olilie's wistful, black eyes were wide open, when the bedroom door +unclosed the second time. She caught a glimpse of a tall, dark figure +and a wave of terror swept over her. Already had Laska come to take her +home? + +But the woman walked quietly up to the bed, took one of Olilie's thin +hands and gazed at it earnestly, turning it over in her own brown palm. +She shook her head, smoothed up the covers and nodded to Olilie not to +try to talk. + +"This girl has been brought up among white people, hasn't she, Frieda?" +Aunt Ellen inquired softly. + +The blonde plaits moved slightly. + +"I am sure I don't know," came a faint voice from between them. "We know +nothing about her, except what Jack told you. She did not talk like an +Indian, so I suppose she has been to school. Her mother, from whom she +was running away, was a full-blooded Indian but she don't look a bit +like her." Frieda lowered her voice still further. "Has the Indian woman +been here to inquire for her daughter? Jack was afraid she would find +out who we were and come over here." + +Aunt Ellen gave her head a warning shake and said something to Frieda +that the sick girl on the bed could not hear. But Frieda jumped up and +her bits of doll dresses scattered about on the floor. "When will Jack +and Jim come back?" she demanded quickly. "If we had only known before +they went away!" + +"Known what?" Olilie asked, as naturally as though she had been taking +part in the conversation all the time. "I am quite well now, thank you. +If you don't mind, I should like to get out of bed." + +Frieda's face turned quite red and her blue eyes were round with +surprise. She ran to Olilie and threw her arms around her. "You are well +now, aren't you?" she exclaimed. "I'm so glad. Just wait until I run and +find Jean. She won't like it unless I tell her at once." + +"Child," Aunt Ellen queried, as soon as Frieda went away, "is the +Arapaho woman who makes baskets and strings beads at the end of the Wind +Creek valley your mother and is the lad Josef her son?" + +Olilie nodded. "I think so," she replied. "At least I know of no other +woman who is my mother. I have lived with her always." + +"But you are not a full-blooded Indian girl," Aunt Ellen argued, +"although your hair is so black and straight and your skin is dark. +Look," Aunt Ellen picked up the girl's hand again. "See, your finger +nails are pink and that is not the case with the red or brown-skinned +people." Aunt Ellen opened the girl's gown, and where her skin was +untouched by the sun and wind, it was a beautiful olive color. + +Aunt Ellen lifted her up, wrapped her in a blue dressing gown and sat +her in Frieda's vacant chair. "It's a hard time ahead of you, child," +she murmured to herself. "Mixed blood don't never bring happiness, when +one of 'em runs dark." + +Jean's and Frieda's faces both wore strange expressions when they came +back to their guest. But Olilie did not know them well enough to guess +that anything unusual was the matter. + +She stretched out both hands humbly and took one of Jean's and one of +Frieda's in her own. "Won't you let me thank you for keeping me here and +let me tell you why I ran away?" she asked gratefully. + +Jean shook her head nervously, her brown eyes fastened on the +tight-closed door, against which Aunt Ellen stood like a body-guard. +"No, please don't try to tell us anything now," Jean begged. "I am sure +you are not strong enough. And Jack, she is the oldest of us, she would +like you to wait until she comes back this afternoon." + +The ranch house was built on one floor. A long hall led straight through +the centre of it. There were four bedrooms beside the living-room and +Aunt Ellen's room, which opened off the kitchen. Aunt Ellen and her +husband, Zack, slept on the place and the old man helped Frieda and Jean +with their violet beds. To-day he had ridden over to the nearest village +to see about the building of the new greenhouses. + +A tramp of heavy feet echoed out in the passageway. Jean kept on +talking, as though she wished to drown the sound. The Indian girl did +not seem to be disturbed. She was too happy and too weak to care much +what was going on outside her room. + +"Don't you think I might tell you my name at least?" she begged. "It is +Olilie, an Indian name. I don't know just what it means. I--" + +There were no locks on the doors inside the big hospitable ranch house. +What need was there of locking people either out or in, in this great +open western land? + +Yet Aunt Ellen kept her hand on the doorknob. "You are not to come in +here," she insisted fiercely. "I told you to leave our ranch." + +The door burst rudely open. The squat ugly figure of Laska appeared +inside the room, followed by a young Indian boy, who looked sheepish and +ashamed. + +"Ugh," grunted the old squaw. "Did you think we no find you? Come, git +up. You go with me." She pushed aside Frieda and Jean, who were trying +to guard the sick girl. + +Olilie's face was so white that no one could have thought her an Indian. +She could not speak, she only clutched at the arms of her chair as +though nothing could part her from it. + +Jean stamped her foot angrily. "Go out of this house at once," she +ordered angrily. "How dare you thrust your way in here? Your daughter is +too ill for you to move her. Besides, we are going to keep her here +until we find out whether you were cruel to her and why she won't live +with you." + +"No, no, I shall not live with her again," Olilie burst out +passionately. "I do not mind the work or the blows, but I will not be a +squaw woman. I will not light the pipe, clean the gun, hew the wood and +fetch the water for her son. At the school they have taught me that a +girl is a boy's equal. I will not, because I am a girl, be a slave. +Please, please go." The Indian girl looked not at her mother, but at +Josef, the Indian boy. He kept his head down and mumbled something that +only Laska and Olilie could understand. + +Laska pointed toward the girl. Then her eyes held her son. "Take her to +the tepee of her own people," she commanded. "I know the laws of the +white race are many and strange, but they take not the child from her +mother, while she is yet young." + +Josef went toward Olilie, but Jean's body covered her and he did not +dare to thrust the white girl aside. + +Frieda flung herself half way out the open window. In front of the ranch +was a grove of cottonwood trees, to one side ran a long, winding creek. +There was no one in sight, even their watch dog had followed Jack and +Jim across the range. + +Jean was trying bribery and corruption. She had slipped her hand in her +pocket and brought out two bright silver dollars. She held one up before +the boy, the other before old Laska. "I will give you these if you will +leave the girl with us for a few days longer," she suggested. + +The Indian boy did not lift his hand. He was gazing at the figure of his +sister in the chair. "I no take her, she sick," he said. "I no want her +to work for me. It is Laska who make her. She not like other Indian +girl. She different somehow. She read books. She talk like teachers at +school." + +Laska seized the boy by the arm and shook him roughly. "You no talk +foolish," she declared. "You bring girl home. We take not white money. +Always you try to make the Indian sell big things for little." + +"Oh, if somebody would only come to help us," Frieda thought +despairingly. She saw that Josef had picked Olilie up in his arms. She +felt like Sister Anne in the dreadful story of Bluebeard. If she could +see a little cloud of dust arising somewhere down the long road that led +through the trees from the far trail of the plains, she knew that help +would come to them! If only she could catch sight of one of the cowboys +returning to the ranch! + +Frieda did spy a little dust along the trail on the upper side of the +creek. She seized a white scarf from the table near by and waved it +frantically out the window. "Help! Help! Jim! Jack! Somebody come quick! +We need you!" she cried. + +The Indian boy and woman waited, puzzled and alarmed by the noise that +Frieda was making. + +Frieda saw a rider catch sight of her signal, plunge down the trail and +through the muddy creek, straight to the ranch house door. She knew that +it was some one whom she had never seen before in her life, but it did +not make the least difference to her. + +"Won't you come in here?" she begged. "The door is open. There are some +Indians trying to steal a girl away--" Frieda drew her blonde head back +inside the window, just in time to see the stranger stalk into their +room. + +"Put the girl down," he commanded Josef in a tone of authority. Nothing +loath, the Indian boy returned Olilie to her chair. The newcomer then +spoke to the surly Indian woman. "You and your son leave this ranch at +once. It was fortunate that I learned that you were coming here this +morning. I rode over just in time." + +The young man had brown hair and eyes. His face was quite pale. He did +not look in the least strong, but there was something in his quiet +manner that showed he was accustomed to being obeyed. + +"We come back to get my girl, when she well," the Indian woman +threatened, as the door closed behind her. + +There was an awkward silence when the Indians had gone. The young fellow +immediately lost his grown-up manner and seemed very uncertain and shy. +He colored and held his new cowboy hat in his hands. + +"I am awfully glad I turned up in time to help you drive those people +out of the house," he declared. "I happened to hear that they were +coming over to your ranch to take the Indian girl away from you to-day. +If there had been anybody to send over to tell you, I wouldn't have come +myself," he ended. "Will you please tell the older Miss Ralston this. I +won't intrude on you any longer. Good-bye." + +Jean laughed and held out her hand. "Please don't go quite yet," she +said. "At least stay until we thank you. I know who you are and Jack +will be just as grateful to you as Frieda and I are. You must not think +she is always so unfriendly. Aren't you Frank Kent, the English fellow +who is the guest of the Nortons? Jack told us about you But you see the +Nortons are--" + +"Yes, I understand," Frank Kent answered quickly. "At least I have been +told what the trouble is between you, but I hope it may be a mistake. I +can't believe Mr. Norton and Dan--" Frank stopped. Jean's and Frieda's +cheeks were crimson. He realized that he had no right to talk about +their private affairs. Aunt Ellen was looking at him suspiciously. + +Frank Kent bowed. "I think I had better go," he announced. Just as he +started out of the room, Jacqueline Ralston marched into it. Every bit +of color left her face and she stared at him in blank astonishment. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +SEEKING ADVICE. + + +JEAN giggled. Frank Kent and Jack were so funny. They both turned and +glared at her with reproachful eyes. + +"I hope you don't think I have intruded," Frank protested hotly. + +"Oh, no, certainly not," Jack answered with frozen politeness. "That is, +at least,--I don't understand." + +The scene was enough to have bewildered almost anybody. The quiet room +where Jack had left the Indian girl half unconscious and guarded only by +tranquil Frieda, was now in a state of suppressed excitement. + +Olilie lay back in her chair with the same expression on her face that +she had worn on the day she was discovered. Aunt Ellen had her eyes +rolled back so that only the whites were showing. Frieda was bouncing up +and down, she was so agitated, and Jean looked as though she had been +through the war. And in the midst of the family group stood the strange +young fellow whom Jacqueline had met on the Norton ranch and most +cordially requested not to make their acquaintance. + +Frieda rushed into the breach. "Oh, Jack, the most awfullest thing +almost happened!" she exclaimed, clasping her hands and forgetting her +grammar in her hurry. "That dreadful old Indian woman and a boy came +here and tried to drag Olilie away. I hollered and hollered out the +window for Jim or you or anybody to come drive them off, and he came," +Frieda bobbed her head at their visitor. + +She was so excited that Jean and Jack laughed. But Frank Kent did not +smile the least bit. You see he was English and English people don't see +jokes quickly. Besides, he was angry at Jack's first suspicion of him. +He guessed by her high and mighty manner that she thought he had come to +the ranch against her wishes. + +He looked so stiff and unfriendly that Jacqueline did not know what to +say first. + +"Your cousin will tell you how I happened to be near," he said icily, +backing out the door. + +Jack rushed after him, nearly tripping over the spurs on her riding +boots. "Please don't go quite yet," she begged. "At least let me thank +you for whatever you did." Jack had a way of smiling suddenly that +changed her whole expression, and made people forgive her almost +anything. "Won't you please come into the living-room and one of you +tell me calmly exactly what has happened, or I shall simply die of +curiosity." + +Jack led the way into the big, sunlit room, followed by Jean and more +slowly by Frank Kent. + +"O! dear here's a kettle of fish," Jack sighed, when Jean finished her +story. She didn't think of her slang till she saw Frank's puzzled +expression, then she blushed. "I am afraid we can't keep this little +Indian girl at the ranch, Jean, if her own people will have her," Jack +went on. "You see I had a long talk with Jim this morning. He says we +must not make the Indians in the neighborhood angry with us. They will +say we kidnapped the girl, or something horrid. And we have troubles +enough without that." A second after Jack was ashamed of having spoken +of their difficulties before a perfect stranger. + +To tell the truth affairs were not going very well at Rainbow Ranch. +The big creek which ran along through Rainbow Valley for nearly a mile +and supplied their ranch with water was almost dry in the middle of +October. There might soon be nothing for the cattle and horses to drink +until the winter snows fell. Jim had confided to Jack that he suspected +some one was draining their creek by digging a channel for the water +lower down the valley. He could not find out, but if it were true, it +meant ruin for the ranch girls! There was another, even more serious +difficulty, that might be in store for them, but of this the girls would +not speak. + +"Has anything happened, Jack?" Jean asked hurriedly. + +Jack shook her head. "Nothing unusual," she replied. "Only I shall feel +dreadfully sorry if we have to send the Indian girl back to her people. +You and Frieda must not think I am hateful if we find we have to." + +Frank Kent forgot his English shyness. + +"You girls are just bully to be fighting this strange girl's battles," +he broke in. "I wonder if you wouldn't let me help you! I believe there +is something queer about her parentage anyhow. Even an English duffer +like I am, can tell by looking at her that she isn't a full-blooded +Indian." + +Frank's face turned red as a beet and he stammered hurriedly. "Of course +if you let me help you in this, we need not know each other afterwards." + +Jacqueline was as fiery red as her guest and Jean giggled again. + +"We couldn't be as horrid as all that," Jack declared in a +straightforward fashion, exactly like another boy would have done. "We +would not make use of you and then cut you afterwards. And please don't +be angry with us, if I tell you again, that we simply can't be anything +but just acquaintances with the Nortons' relatives or friends. You +understand, don't you?" Jack held out her hand as though she did not +know just what to do or say. Jean wouldn't utter a word to help her. + +Frank Kent shook Jack's hand warmly and this time he did not seem +offended. + +"All right," he answered sadly. "But if there is ever anything I can do +to help you, I am going to do it, whether we are friends or not." + +And though Jack and Jean did not see how this strange fellow could ever +be mixed up in their affairs, they were comforted somehow by what he +promised. + +"I am going over to Mrs. Simpson's this afternoon, Jean," Jack announced +a few minutes after their guest's departure. "I know people say that we +ranch girls never take anybody's advice, but just the same I am going to +ask Mrs. Simpson what we had better do about this Indian child. Will you +come along?" + +Mrs. Simpson, the ranch girls' most intimate friend, and her husband +were the wealthiest ranch owners in that part of Wyoming. She was a +typical Western woman, with a big heart and a sharp tongue. She used to +lecture the girls and at the same time was awfully proud of their +courage and independence. + +"I'm game, Jack," Jean agreed, "but I haven't any proper riding habit. I +wouldn't mind a bit if that wretched niece of Mrs. Simpson's wasn't +there. I wish you had seen how she stared at me the other day when I +called Mrs. Simpson, Aunt Sallie, as though we hadn't called her Aunt +all the days of our youth. Do you think Aunt Ellen could mend this for +me before we go?" Jean held up a green broadcloth riding habit very +much the worse for wear, with a long ugly rent in it. + +"You need a new habit dreadfully, Jean," Jack declared. "I am afraid we +haven't any really proper clothes. The worst of it is, I don't know just +what we ought to have or where to get them. I wonder if we are too much +like boys?" + +"What's the odds, Jack, so long as we are happy," Jean sang out +cheerfully. "Besides, Jim says that money hasn't been flowing in to +Rainbow Ranch any too plentifully lately. It takes pretty much all he +can get hold of to run things, so I thought I wouldn't trouble about +another habit. But the idea of that fashionable Miss Laura Post, from +Miss Beatty's school, New York City, staring at me with her china-blue +eyes does rattle me. She and her mother treat us exactly as though we +were a Wild West show. Besides it is my unpleasant impression that I had +this same tear in my skirt when I rode over to Aunt Sallie's the last +time." + +"Jean, you are lazy; why didn't you mend it yourself?" Jack scolded. +"You know Aunt Ellen can't sew a bit. Isn't it dreadful that little +Frieda is the only one of us who ever touches a needle and she has no +one to show her how to sew, poor baby. Come along, I'll see what I can +do with your old skirt. Let's go in the Indian girl's room while I do my +worst, best, I mean." + +Olilie had very little to tell her rescuers of her history. She could +not explain why Laska wanted her to live with her, because she had +always hated her and been unkind to her. Olilie had but one friend, a +teacher in the Indian school in the Indian village in Wind Creek valley. +The sick girl did not talk so freely before Jack, as she seemed a little +afraid of her, but she begged the girls to find her a home at one of the +ranch houses where she might earn her living, for she declared that she +would never go back to the "Crow's nest," as old Laska's hut was called. + +Jack and Jean galloped swiftly over the ten miles that lay between their +ranch and the Simpson's. No one could grow tired, no matter how long the +ride, in this glorious October air in Wyoming, as clear and sparkling as +crystal. The girls forgot their difficulties, also they quite failed to +remember the languid young lady from the East who was Mrs. Simpson's +adored niece. + +A mile from the Simpson ranch house, Jean stood up in her saddle and +waved a challenge to Jack. "Beat you to the veranda!" she called back, +loosening the reins on her pony's neck and giving him a light cut with +her quirt. + +Jean was off like a shot before Jack could get a start. She reached the +porch several yards ahead of her cousin. But Jack was determined not to +be outclassed as a rider. Just in front of the house was a row of +hitching posts about five feet high. "Clear the track," Jack shouted. + +She thrust her feet forward in their long, loose Western stirrups, threw +her body back and her pony rose in the air like a bird, straight over +the posts, and she landed at Jean's side with a small Indian war-whoop +of triumph. + +A languid clap of hands from the front porch and a horrified +exclamation, made Jean's cheeks burn and Jack's grey eyes kindle. + +"Buffalo Bill at his best! I congratulate you," a soft voice exclaimed. +"I wish you had more of an audience." + +Jack laughed lightly. "Oh, we can do ever so much better than that, when +we try, Miss Post; perhaps if you stay out West for a while we may show +you how to ride. We would be glad to do anything for Aunt Sallie's +guest." Jack's tones were sweetly innocent, but Jean snickered. + +Laura Post bit her lips angrily. "Teach Laura to ride?" her mother +protested indignantly. "Why my daughter has been trained in the best New +York riding academies. I am afraid they would not care for your Western +riding in Central Park." + +Jean did not see how in the world Jacqueline could appear so undisturbed +by the vision of elegance which confronted them. Laura was dressed in a +soft cream flannel skirt and coat with a pale blue blouse and wore a big +felt hat with a blue pompon on it, to shade her delicate +peaches-and-cream skin. Jean felt Laura's eyes fasten on the long rent +in her riding skirt, which Jack had mended, with such an expression of +superior amusement that she wanted to pull her hair or to scratch her, +or to do something else that was violent. + +Laura Post was a very pretty girl, all daintiness and fluffiness. She +had very light curly hair and blue eyes, and she looked as though she +had never done anything for herself in her life. Her mother was just +like her, only a more faded and dressed-up edition. Jean did not know +why they both made her feel so awkward, as though it were dreadfully +inelegant to have one's skin tanned and hair blown by a long, glorious +ride across the open country. + +Mrs. Post and Laura would not go when Mrs. Simpson came out and sat down +by the ranch girls, holding Jean's hand in one of hers and Jack's in the +other, and wondering why Jean, who was her favorite of the three ranch +girls, looked so hot and uncomfortable. + +"The first thing for you to do, Jacqueline Ralston, is to bring this +Indian girl over here for me to take a look at her," Mrs. Simpson +announced at the end of Jack's story. "I was going to send a note over +to you this very afternoon. I want you children to come over to spend a +few days with us. I would like Laura to have some real Western parties +and good times, and I think the best way is to have you stay right here +with us. There isn't any other way to manage with you young people so +far from one another, so bring your Indian girl to our house party. I +confess I am curious to see her." + +"You are awfully good, Mrs. Simpson, but I am afraid we can't come," +Jack answered gratefully. In spite of the fact that Laura and her +mother were both staring at her, Jack went on: "You see we have not the +right clothes to stay on a house party. I am afraid we don't even +understand just what we ought to have. Father did not know much about +girls' things and we have never had any one else to tell us, and besides +I don't think your niece would like to have an Indian girl for her +guest. Olilie is awfully shy, and I don't expect she would know how to +behave." + +Mrs. Simpson gave Jack a little shake. + +"Nonsense, Jacqueline Ralston, what perfect foolishness you are talking! +When did you begin to worry about clothes? You know that you and Jean +are belles wherever you are. As for Laura, I am sure she will be glad +enough to have the Indian girl and I'll look after the child. I want to +study her. If she is a regular Indian, she would probably be hard to +manage." + +Laura shrugged her pretty shoulders. "Oh yes, please do bring the Indian +maiden with you," she remarked with an innocent, babyish expression that +fooled her Aunt but not her visitors. "I am sure the Indian can't be any +queerer than the other people one meets out West." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE ARRIVAL AT THE HOUSE PARTY. + + +"I CAN'T call you Olilie, it is too long and too funny a name," Frieda +announced. + +The four girls were being driven over to the Simpson ranch in a big +wagon, which was used in the spring as one of the mess-wagons at the +round-up, when the cowboys brought in the stock to be branded. + +Jack sat on the driver's seat with Jim; Frieda, Jean and Olilie were on +piles of straw in the back. There was a big, rusty valise between them +which contained the entire wardrobe of the four members of the house +party from Rainbow Ranch. + +Jean and Jack had even fewer costumes than usual, for they had divided +their belongings with the Indian girl, and the valise was the very same +one that Mr. Ralston had brought across the prairies with him fourteen +years before. It had never dawned on the girls that it was shabby and +old-fashioned looking, as they had never traveled more than a few miles +from the ranch and knew nothing of stylish suit cases and leather +hand-bags. + +Jack screwed her head around at Frieda's words: "I wonder if you would +mind our calling you Olive, instead of Olilie," she suggested. "It is +ever so much easier to say, and I have always thought Olive a perfectly +beautiful name. Besides you seem like a wild olive, you are so pretty +and Spanish-looking." Jack spoke carelessly, not dreaming that the +young, captive girl had conceived the deepest devotion to her. Olilie +was grateful to Jean and Frieda for their kindness to her, but as long +as she lived she would remember that it was Jacqueline who had put her +arms about her and brought her to the ranch house on the day she had +decided that she could bear life with old Laska no longer. Olilie was +too shy to show what she felt, but Jack was to find it out some day in a +wonderful way. + +"I shall be very glad to have you call me, Olive," she answered, in the +musical tones that surprised everybody acquainted with the guttural +sounds the Indians make in trying to speak English. + +Jim turned to stare back of him. He was very much displeased with this +latest escapade of the ranch girls, and had no idea of giving his +consent to their keeping this girl. Already he had ridden over to tell +Laska and Josef that they could have her back in a few days. Frieda and +Jean were treating this Indian wench like a sister, and a stop had to be +put to their nonsense. Jim swallowed hard as he caught sight of Olilie +whom he had seen but a few times before to-day: "Kind of wish the girls +had never run across this one," he muttered to himself. "They have got +plenty to do to take care of themselves." + +Olilie looked to-day as you would imagine a gypsy maiden appeared long +years ago in her own land of Romany. She had on a faded blue gown of +Jean's and a cape of Jack's; her hair was parted in the middle, like +Jack's and Frieda's and plaited in two braids, coming way down over her +low broad forehead. Her eyes were long and narrow, of a clear burning +black, her skin a dark olive and her color spread all over her cheeks +instead of centering in single, bright patches. + +"Jack," Jim whispered, "don't you say too much at the Simpson's about +keeping this Indian girl at Rainbow Ranch and don't you be telling +anything at this house party about what is worrying us. What we want to +do is to keep mum and fight our own battles; if we get the Indians +against us, the cattle and horses will disappear faster than they are +going now." + +There were at least a dozen young people, the sons and daughters of the +most prosperous ranchmen in that part of Wyoming, scattered all about +the front of the Simpson ranch house when the girls drove up in their +old wagon. An automobile stood in front of the door, for Mr. Simpson was +an up-to-date cattleman and rode around his vast place in a sixty +horse-power machine, instead of on the back of a shaggy broncho. + +"Hurrah for the Ranch Girls of Rainbow Lodge!" some one shouted. Jack +and Jean and Frieda waved their hands, but Olive was too frightened to +stir. + +The girls tumbled out of the wagon one over the other, trying to speak +to all their friends at once. People did not see each other every day +out West as they do in smaller places, and a house party like Mrs. +Simpson's was a notable event. + +Frieda kept tight hold on Olive, knowing that she was feeling shy and +the little girl was glad to have a companion herself, as most of the +other young people were older. + +Mrs. Simpson stared curiously at her unknown visitor. Then she patted +her kindly. "Laura does not see that you have come," she explained to +the little group. + +Jack and Jean glanced up at one end of the long veranda. Laura could +plainly see their arrival. But she made no effort to welcome them. She +was talking to two boys. + +"Children, perhaps I ought to have told you," Mrs. Simpson whispered, "I +simply had to invite Dan Norton and his guest to our house party, for +Laura likes Dan better than any one she has met in the neighborhood. And +I don't approve of you girls carrying on an old feud simply because your +father and Dan's were enemies." + +Jack had her head in the air and her cheeks were scarlet. Jean openly +rebelled: "You ought to have told us, Aunt Sallie, you know we have a +perfect right to hate those Nortons," she murmured. + +"Of course we will be as polite as we know how," Jacqueline agreed. But, +Mrs. Simpson frowned; she knew Jack's high temper and she feared there +would be a clash between her and Dan before the house party was over. + +"How do you do, Miss Ralston, and Miss Bruce and Frieda," Laura Post +said frigidly, holding her hand so high up in the air to shake hands +that it almost touched her nose. "I suppose you know Mr. Norton and his +guest, Mr. Kent." Laura had not paid the least attention to the +existence of the Indian girl. Olilie might have been a wooden image. + +Jack bowed coldly as though she were speaking to perfect strangers. But +Jean's brown eyes laughed and Frieda held out her hand innocently to +Frank Kent: "I am awfully glad to see you again," she said. "See, things +are quite all right so far. We still have our new friend with us." + +Jack could not help flashing a grateful look at Frank Kent. He came over +at once and bowed in his best English fashion to Olive, and then stood +by her while the others were talking. + +"There goes the latest addition to the wonderful maidens who are running +their own ranch," Laura breathed in an undertone to Dan Norton, as the +newcomers moved toward the door to go to their rooms. + +Dan laughed. "Their ranch, did you say? We have a different idea over at +our place as to whom Rainbow Ranch belongs. Those girls are a bit too +sure of themselves; I expect to see their pride taken down a peg or two +some day." + +"What do you mean?" Laura whispered excitedly, her cheeks getting pinker +and her eyes sparkling from curiosity. + +Dan shrugged his shoulders and waited until he was sure that Frank could +not hear him. "Oh, we don't talk about it much out here; remember I am +telling you this in the strictest confidence," he went on. "But Rainbow +Ranch actually belongs to my father and me. You see, it is like this: +Father came to Wyoming before Mr. Ralston did. And father and some +friends laid claim to the best part of the Ralston ranch. Mr. Ralston +says he bought the ranch from father's friends and father says he had +already purchased their part. So you understand the mix-up. But the +bully thing is, that since Mr. Ralston's death the girls have never been +able to find his title to the property. They haven't a sign of a paper +to prove they are the owners of Rainbow Ranch. Court records did not +use, to be kept very well in Wyoming. We are not sure about it, but +father is working quietly. Some day we will bring suit and just take +possession of their place; won't it be corking? Rainbow Ranch is right +next ours, and when we get it we will have the biggest ranch in this +part of the state. If you stay out here long enough, you may see some +fun." + +Laura nodded eagerly. She did not like the ranch girls, besides she was +one of the disagreeable persons who dearly love to see other people in +hot water. She did not mind how much it hurt them so long as it did not +affect her. "No, I will never tell anybody what you have told me," she +agreed confidentially. "Only if anything should develop, you will be +sure to tell me about it, won't you?" she begged. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +A VISIT TO OLD LASKA. + + +"JACK, Aunt Sallie will take us over to the Indian village this +afternoon if you wish to go," Jean said next day. + +Jean and Jack thought they were entirely alone. They did not realize +that the door of the little room next theirs, which Frieda and the +Indian girl occupied, was open. + +"Why should we go to the village, Jean?" Jack inquired indifferently. +She had just discovered a thrilling novel and she wanted to be left in +peace to read it. + +"Because something has to be done about Olive at once," Jean insisted +valiantly. "You know perfectly well, that it isn't fair for us to keep +her in suspense about what is to become of her and then maybe turn her +off and send her back to old Laska in the end. We must find out if there +is any chance of her not being Laska's real child and if not, what right +she has to her. Aunt Sallie says she will keep Olive here as a maid for +Laura if we don't want her at the ranch and we can get her away from +the Indians." + +"Maid for Laura!" Jack bit her lips indignantly. Jean kept her face +turned away, so that Jack could not see her expression. She knew that +her cousin was very undecided about what they ought to do with their +protegée and was anxious to influence Jack for Olive's sake. + +"I don't think that Olilie--I mean Olive--is very well suited for such a +distinguished position as maid to Miss Laura Post," Jack replied. "I +think if I were the Indian girl I should prefer to remain with the +Indians. Of course I will go over to the village with you and Aunt +Sallie whenever you like." + +Jean put her arm around her cousin. "You won't be cross about something +if I tell you, will you?" she urged coaxingly. + +Jack frowned. "I don't know, Jean Bruce, what is it now?" she demanded, +for she could guess by the half mischievous, half conciliatory +expression in Jean's brown eyes, that she had something to confide which +would not be to her liking. + +"Aunt Sallie has asked Frank Kent to drive over to the Indian village +with us," Jean returned. "You see he has never seen an Indian village, +and being an Englishman, Aunt Sallie naturally thought he would be +curious about one. So after all he is going to help us to find out about +Olive, although you refused to allow him. Funny, isn't it?" + +This was a very unwise fashion for Jean Bruce to have explained the +situation to Jack, for if there was one thing which Miss Jacqueline +Ralston did particularly like, it was to have her own way. Having said +that she desired no assistance from their new acquaintance in their +efforts for Olilie, she was not going to be forced into accepting it +against her will. + +Jack quietly removed her big Mexican hat, sat down comfortably in her +chair and reopened her book. "Oh, very well," she remarked carelessly. +"Then I won't go with you at all. My presence won't be in the least +necessary. You and Aunt Sallie and Mr. Kent can make all the +investigations and decide what is best to do without any interference +from me." + +Jack arched her level brows, dilated her nostrils and half closed her +eyes. Jean knew that particular obstinate expression of her cousin's +and said nothing more for a few moments, but put on her own coat and hat +and started to leave the room. At the door she turned to her cousin. +"Jacqueline Ralston," she inquired coolly, "has it ever occurred to you, +that you are a very hard-headed and selfish person?" + +Jack's grey eyes grew steely. "Oh, do go on, Jean dear," she urged +politely. "Tell me any other nice things you know about me; one always +is appreciated by one's relatives." + +Jean flushed. "Don't be so hateful, Jack," she pleaded. "Can't you see +that it is selfish of you to refuse to go with us to try to find out +about Olilie? You brought her home to the ranch, and you know you will +be able to stand up for her and find out more about her than either Aunt +Sallie or I can. Aunt Sallie means well, but goodness knows she isn't +tactful. And you know you are obstinate to stay at home simply because +Frank Kent is to go with us. Aunt Sallie did not know what you had said +to him, and simply wanted to show him one of our modern Indian +settlements. It is one of the things he came West to see." + +"Oh, I don't blame Aunt Sallie," Jack replied, slightly appeased by +Jean's half-hearted apology. + +"Well, you needn't blame Frank Kent, either," Jean retorted quickly. +"You can put every bit of the blame on me. Frank Kent told Aunt Sallie +that he did not think he would care to go with us and behaved so queer +and stiffish that she was offended with him. I knew he was thinking +about what you had said, so I just marched up to him and told him that +if he had refused Mrs. Simpson's invitation because he thought you would +not wish him to come along with us, he was entirely mistaken. You see I +thought you would not want him to give up the pleasure of the trip, just +on your account. He is a guest here with us and I can see no sense in +your being so uppish. It is perfectly foolish, Jack." This time Jean +opened the door. "Jacqueline Ralston, c-h-u-m-p spells chump. It is +exactly what you are." + +Jack's bad tempers had a way of ending abruptly. "Wait a minute, please, +Jean," she called persuasively, "I expect you are right. I will come +along." + +Jean gave Jack a hug as they went out of the room together, which was +intended to convey the idea that, though what she had just said to her +cousin was perfectly true, she was sorry to have been obliged to say it. + +Jack had another shock as she was about to get into the Simpson motor +car. Seated on the comfortable rear seat and engaged in airy +conversation were Dan Norton and Laura Post with Mrs. Simpson beside +them. Jean and Jean's special friend, Harry Pryor occupied the centre +chairs. So Jack and Frank Kent, as the car only held seven people, were +compelled to crowd in front with the chauffeur. + +"You are sure you don't mind my going over with you," said Frank Kent in +an apologetic tone and turning a deep red. "I can just as easily stay at +the ranch, if you prefer it." + +No girl could be proof against such good manners as Frank Kent's, +certainly not Jacqueline Ralston. + +The Indian village was not so very far from the Simpson ranch, in the +way that Western people count distances. Pretty soon the automobile +party saw circles of smoke arising in the air. On a rounded green slope +of the prairie near a little river was a collection of wigwams and +huts. + +"I am jolly glad some of the Indians still live in tepees." Frank +confided to Jack. "I was dreadfully afraid that your up-to-date, +government-cared-for 'Injun,' was going to be just like everybody else +and wear store clothes and live in a regular American house, and then +what could I have to tell my people when I go back home to England?" + +Frank was staring ahead of him and for the first time since his first +meeting with Jack, he had entirely gotten over his British shyness. + +"Don't you worry," Jack answered gaily. "I am awfully glad you have come +with us. Now you'll see the real thing! Of course, some of our Indians +have been educated and civilized, but I am sure many of them are just +the same in their hearts as they used to be, and would lead the same +kind of lives if they had a chance. I can tell you they try to get their +revenge, if you make them angry!" + +There were a number of lean horses grazing near the village. The streets +were dreadfully dirty and overflowing with thin, brown children rolling +in the sand and playing with wolfish, half-fed dogs. In front of the +rude huts or the cone-shaped tents with sheafs of poles extending +through their tops, were big Indian men, as solemn, silent and +terrifying as though they had been Indian war chiefs meditating on some +terrible massacre. Most of them wore fringed leather trousers and had +bright blankets wrapped about them. They were calmly smoking, and only +barely turned their narrow eyes to glance at the automobile, as it +passed by them. + +Near most of the dwellings were outdoor fires, with pots boiling above +them, as few of the Indians can make up their minds to use kitchen +stoves instead of their familiar campfires. Old women sat near the +fires, stringing bright beads, or weaving mats. Some of them were making +Indian blankets on rude frames of logs, set upright some feet apart, and +strung with cords, like an old-fashioned wooden loom. + +The chauffeur slowed down and the girls and boys could see that the +Indians were talking about their party, making queer sounds and signs to +one another. The women rushed out with trinkets to sell, the children +sat cross-legged in the dirt, the dogs barked and young women with +babies on their backs crept out of their doors. But among the whole +number, there was no sign of Laska or Josef. + +Laura bought quantities of Indian bead-work and pottery. She would not +let her Aunt inquire for the Indian girl's people until she had seen +everything there was to be seen. Frank timidly offered Jack a string of +blue beads, when he saw that Jean had accepted a small gift from Harry +Pryor, and Jack received them very graciously, wishing to show that she +no longer resented Frank's having made the trip. + +"Can you tell me where to find the home of Laska?" Mrs. Simpson inquired +of an Indian girl, who looked more intelligent than the others and spoke +very good English. + +The girl shook her head. "Don't know," she replied stupidly. Mrs. +Simpson asked half a dozen other people. Some of them spoke, others only +grunted dully. "Crow's Nest," Laska's hut, had apparently never been +heard of. + +"Let's don't waste time asking questions, Aunt Sallie," Jack called +back. "The Indians won't tell you about each other unless they know what +you want. Let's drive straight to the school; Olilie's teacher can best +tell us what to do." + +In the midst of the Indian village were three well-built houses, the +trading store, a small church and the school. Mrs. Simpson and Jack went +into the schoolhouse together and were gone for half an hour. When they +came out, Jack's face was crimson with excitement and Mrs. Simpson +looked deeply interested. She entered the car after telling her +chauffeur exactly how to find old Laska's hut, but neither she nor Jack +gave any account to the others of what the teacher at the Indian school +had told them of Olilie. + +Jean could not bear it. She gave Jack a little shake. "What are you so +mysterious about?" she questioned softly. "Olilie is not Laska's child, +is she? You have found out something about her and you don't dare tell." + +Jack hesitated. "It is queerer than we thought," she confessed. "Mrs. +Merton, Olilie's teacher, does not think that Olilie is Laska's child, +but she has no way of proving it. The funny thing is, she says that +Laska gets money each month for taking care of Olilie and that is why +she does not wish to give her up. No one knows who sends her the money +nor where it comes from, Mrs. Merton says. But maybe if we tell Laska +that she can keep this money if she lets us have Olilie, she will give +her up to us. Mrs. Merton has tried to get Olilie away from Laska +herself and to find out more about her, but she has never learned the +least little thing." + +Laska's hut was better than many of the other Indian houses, being made +of timber plastered with mud and with a dirt roof. The door was half +open, but it was impossible to tell whether any one inside saw the +approach of the automobile. + +Jack and Jean ran up the path ahead, without waiting for Mrs. Simpson +and were almost at Laska's door when a low, savage growl stopped them. +Jean stepped back a moment and clutched at Jack's skirts, but Jack went +on without thinking of danger. She only half heard Jean's cry of warning +as she lifted her hand to knock on the door. In that second a great, +grey figure sprang up in front of her and Jack saw two rows of sharp +teeth on a level with her throat. She had lived all her life among the +wild animals of the prairies and of the ranch, and knew that if, in a +second of danger, she flinched or showed cowardice, she was lost. How +she was able to stand perfectly still for that second she did not know, +for a moment later, she gasped and turned white as a sheet, but Jean and +Mrs. Simpson caught her. Frank Kent had managed in some remarkable +fashion to get in front of Jack and strike down the huge brute with his +stick. A few minutes later Laska came to the door of her hut. She had +seen Jean and Jack approaching alone and had not known what friends they +had with them. + +A long and useless conversation followed. Laska would give no +satisfaction about Olilie, insisting that the girl was her child, that +she knew nothing of any money that came for her care. Josef was away, +but they both wanted the girl to return home. + +Mrs. Simpson grew weary of argument and pleading. "Look here, Laska," +she said at last, "we are not going to allow the Indian girl to come +back to you. Any one could look at you both and see that she is not your +own child, and if you try to get her away from us or to molest her in +any way, I shall make it my business to find out who sends you money for +her and you shall have neither the money nor the girl." + +Laska made no further objection, but neither Jean, nor Jack, nor Frank +Kent liked the expression of her face, as she watched them leave her +cabin. She made a sign of some kind in the air and mumbled a curious +Indian incantation that had a menacing sound. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE ESCAPE FROM THE DANCE. + + +"IT is all settled, Laura dear," Mrs. Simpson announced comfortably as +the automobile drew up in front of her ranch-house door. "The Indian +girl is to stay with us and be your maid, as your mother says you are +accustomed to having some one to look after you, and Mrs. Merton tells +me she has taught this Olilie how to behave about a house. She seems to +have made quite a pet of her. I haven't talked it over with Jean and +Jack yet, but I am sure it would be most unwise for them to attempt to +keep the Indian girl at their ranch. They have Aunt Ellen and Zack to do +their work, and indeed they ought to have some one to look after them, +instead of undertaking to care for some one else." Mrs. Simpson nodded +emphatically. She was fond of giving advice, a little more fond than +Jean and Jack were of receiving it. + +The ranch girls said nothing, but Frank broke in to the conversation, +unexpectedly. "Oh, I say, Mrs. Simpson," he remarked thoughtfully. +"Don't you know, this Olilie, or Olive as you sometimes call her, don't +strike me in the least as belonging to the servant class. Of course we +look at these things differently in England from what you do out West, +but this girl is so gentle and refined, it seems to me she ought to have +a real chance." + +Jack smiled gratefully, with her head turned away. "I think so too," she +murmured to herself. "I only wish we knew how to manage it." + +The house party was to have a dance at the ranch house that evening. +Jean and Jack and Frieda had never had any real dancing lessons, but the +two older girls were accustomed to going to the informal parties at the +other ranch houses. They knew how to dance the waltz, two-step and +quadrille, and it never occurred to them that Laura would try to +introduce the new style dances at their Western party. Of course some of +her guests had been to schools in the big Western cities and understood +the latest dances. Dan Norton had spent a year at the Leland Stanford +University, and, though he had not been able to pass his Sophomore +exams., he considered himself very superior to the boys and girls who +had never been away either to college or school. + +The three ranch girls were not worried about their dancing, but they +were about their costumes. Mrs. Simpson had suggested that Olive would +feel shy, if she came to the party, and she was grateful to be left out. +If only Jean and Jack would tell her what they had found out at the +Indian village, and what they meant to do with her! But the girls did +not realize that the Indian girl knew anything of their trip of the +afternoon or that she was eating her heart out in silence rather than +ask them what had occurred. + +Jean shook out her party dress anxiously; Jack surveyed hers with an +expression half of affection and half of disdain. The dresses were their +best last summer frocks and Jim had gone over to Laramie and brought +them home with him in triumph. They were not what the girls would have +chosen for themselves, but they had been proud of them until to-night. + +"Do you think she will laugh at us, Jack?" Jean inquired, bravely. "I am +sure I don't care if she does." + +At least poor Jim had had a good eye for color, if the materials he had +chosen for the girls' gowns were odd. + +Jean's was a soft rose color, just the shade of the wild rose that +covers the western prairies in the early spring and the girl smiled +slightly as she looked at herself critically in the glass. The gown was +becoming to her nut-brown hair and eyes and her clear, colorless skin. + +Jack was dressing Frieda in a corner. "You are pretty as a picture, +Jean!" she insisted. "Please don't care so much about what Laura Post +may think. Come and kiss Frieda, she is sweet enough to eat." + +Frieda's costume was the prettiest of the three, although it was of +coarse white embroidery, such as only a man would buy. Her long blonde +hair was freshly braided and tied with pale blue ribbons, and around her +plump little waist was a blue sash which in color matched her eyes, +sparkling now from excitement at attending her first dance. Jean marched +Frieda over to a chair and held her in her lap, so that Jack could get +ready to go to the reception room with them. + +Jacqueline Ralston thought little about her own appearance. She probably +knew she was pretty, most pretty people are aware of it, but Jack had +really had so much to do and so many things to think about, that she had +almost none of the vanities of most girls of sixteen. She coiled her +gold-brown braids around her head in simple fashion, though she usually +wore them down, as it was so difficult to keep her hair up when she was +on horseback. But to-night, in honor of the party, she wished to look +more grown up. Jack's hair waved from the roots to the ends and broke +out all over her forehead in wayward curls and was particularly becoming +to her, arranged in a simple coronet. In five minutes she had on her +blue cotton crêpe gown and the three went into Mrs. Simpson's big +living-room. + +The room had a hardwood floor and had been charmingly decorated with +evergreens, which the men had brought in from the woods at the far end +of the Simpson Ranch. + +"Oh, Jack, Jean, look!" Frieda suddenly gasped. A vision of fashionable +loveliness swept before their girlish eyes. Miss Laura Post was crossing +the room followed by her mother. Jack and Jean felt like creeping back +to their bedroom, not realizing how inappropriate Laura's and her +mother's costumes were for such a simple home party. + +Laura was a picture and looked as if she had just stepped out of the +pages of a magazine. She wore a white lace gown over silk and chiffon, +trimmed in silver lace. Her hair was elaborately dressed in a +bewildering mass of small, blonde puffs and around her neck a string of +pearls shone softly. Mrs. Post was in violet satin, and wore a diamond +crescent, which made Frieda's round eyes open wider and wider. She had +never seen real diamonds, only their crystal imitations shining in the +great Wyoming rocks. + +For a little while Jean and Jack felt as dowdy as old rag dolls, but +when the dancing began they forgot to care about their clothes. There +were a number of other guests besides the house party, who had driven +over to the dance, and most of them were friends of the ranch girls. + +Frank did not ask Jack to dance nor did he make any effort to talk to +her. She had said she could not be friends with him and he did not mean +to take advantage of their being at the same house party together, to +thrust himself upon her, as his attentions seemed unwelcome. + +After supper, Laura Post grew tired of the simple old-fashioned waltz +which had entertained her visitors the first of the evening, and +insisted that the Spanish waltz was the newest thing in her set, and +that she wanted to try it. She managed to get half a dozen young people +to attempt it with her while others sat around the wall. + +Jean dearly loved to dance, and had no intention of being a wall flower, +so she and Harry Pryor slipped out on the big ranch veranda to talk. It +was a wonderful moonlight night, as clear and brilliant as the day, and +across the wide stretch of lowlands the moon shimmered and shone, as if +reflected on the still surface of the ocean. + +Jacqueline Ralston saw Jean and Harry disappear; slowly she followed +them and stood for a moment drinking in the wonderful beauty of the +Western night, then crossed to Jean and Harry. + +"Jean, Harry, wouldn't it be a glorious night for a ride?" she asked +breathlessly. "Do you think it would be wrong if we should go for a +little run across the prairies? We could easily find the trail, for it +is as bright as daytime." + +Jean clapped her hands softly. "Bully!" Harry announced quietly. "It is +not ten o'clock yet and we can be back long before the dance breaks up. +I'll go saddle the ponies while you girls slip into your riding togs." + +"Be sure to get Hotspur and Frisk, Jean's pony," Jack entreated. "Jim +sent over our own ponies from the ranch, and I simply hate to ride any +horse but dear little Hotspur." + +Just as Jean and Jack slipped into the front hall to go to their room, +Frank Kent stepped out on the porch. He was looking pale and ill, for +the heat of the room and the effort of dancing had brought the old +weakness back on him that he had felt only a few times since his coming +to Wyoming. + +Jack felt a sudden wave of sympathy and friendliness. She touched Frank +lightly on the arm: "My cousin and I and Harry Pryor are going to steal +away from the dance for a little horseback ride. Would you care to come +with us?" she asked. + +Frank's face lost most of its pallor. He immediately insisted that the +one thing in the world he most wished to do was to take a moonlight ride +across the prairies. + +Ten minutes later the two girls and two boys cantered away from the +Simpson ranch. They had no thought of staying out long, and had left +word with Mrs. Simpson's maid that they would be back in about an hour. +Aunt Sallie was too busy with her other guests to be interrupted, and it +never dawned on the girls that they should not have gone for a ride at +night, for they were just like a couple of careless boys. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +JACQUELINE'S MISFORTUNE. + + +TO one side of Mr. Simpson's big ranch lay a new orchard. The ranch +people in Wyoming were just beginning to discover what wonderful fruit +could be grown in certain portions of their cattle country and Jean and +Jack were dreadfully envious of their neighbor's five acres of pears, +plums, apples and cherries. Their own poor orchard had been set out only +two years before and the trees appeared like a collection of feeble +switches. + +"Let's ride through the orchard and fill our pockets with apples before +we start on our way," Harry suggested. The moonlight was so clear and +radiant that the boys could distinguish the color of the few late apples +that still hung on the trees. The road back of the orchard led to a +trail across the prairies, which neither the ranch girls nor Harry knew. +It seemed to travel to the land of nowhere across a shining path of +light. + +Jacqueline took the lead, followed by Frank Kent, Jean and Harry. The +ponies had been all day in the corrals and some of the witchery of the +October night had gotten into them as well as their riders. They +galloped swiftly, their shaggy manes shaking and their long tails +arched, and soon left the level lands of their host's ranch far behind. + +"I never had such a wonderful ride in my life!" Frank Kent exclaimed. +"How utterly still the night is!" + +Jack's hands hardly touched her reins and she laughed joyously. "Oh, +that is because we are out on the prairie and going too swiftly for you +to hear. Over there where we see a line of shadow, I believe we will +find some water and a grove of trees. Then you will hear the noises of +the night, which are part of our Western life." + +Jack and Frank slowed down. Jean and Harry were a short distance behind +them. They had ridden to the edge of a ravine, and across the gorge was +a solitary butte or low mountain. On this side the moonlight fell on a +stretch of evergreen forest, whose tall trees rose black between the +splashes of light. + +"Listen," Jack whispered softly. + +First came the mournful call of the wildcats from the depth of the +ravine, then, near the entrance to the woods, the whimper and squeak of +the owls. + +Frank caught a sound which the last few weeks in Wyoming had taught him +to understand, the long melancholy wail of the coyotes, the wolf dogs of +the prairies. But to-night the howl was deeper and more prolonged. + +"What was that?" Frank asked quickly. + +"Wolves, I suppose," Jack answered with perfect calmness. "There may be +a few of them prowling about. They often come out at night at some +distance from the ranches." + +Jean and Harry cantered up. "Hasn't the ride been just too beautiful?" +Jean sighed. "I can't bear to think we must turn back to go home." + +"Home? Why it's not late," Harry argued, but Jean shook her head. + +"We have got to try the forest trail for just a little bit of the way, +Jean," Jack pleaded recklessly. "We won't go far in. It will be like +fairyland in there to-night. See how plain the trail is, there must be +water somewhere and the trail was made by the deer and antelope on the +way to the pool to drink. To-night I shan't believe that anybody knows +of these woods but us." + +Jack did not wait for an answer. She would not listen to Jean's +remonstrance, for all the willfulness in her was aroused and she thought +only of her own desire. + +She turned Hotspur's head into the woods. There was no chance to ride +beside her, as the way was too narrow, so the rest of the party followed +in single file. + +"You ought to have let me go on ahead, Jack," Harry declared in a +worried tone. "You know nothing of this trail and you may come to +grief!" + +Jacqueline laughed teasingly. "Don't be preachy, Harry. You know Hotspur +and I are used to looking after ourselves." Jack whistled like a naughty +boy: + + "On the road to Mandalay, + Where the flying fishes play,"-- + +and waved her hand to the others to follow her at a sharper pace. + +"Jack's awfully silly to-night," Jean remarked to Frank Kent. "I hope +Aunt Sallie won't mind, but there is nothing for us to do but to keep up +with her. We won't get back to the ranch until awfully late." + +Frank hesitated. "Look here, Miss Bruce, I know I am a tenderfoot, but +do you think we ought to go into these woods at night? Don't think, +please, that I am afraid for myself. But Miss Ralston just told me that +there might be wolves about. I am not armed, though I believe that Harry +has his pistol. I should hate to have you get in trouble." + +Jean understood Frank Kent better than Jacqueline did. To tell the +truth, he seemed a bit slow to Jack, she liked people with more get up +and go, more fire and energy in them. But Jean guessed that Frank had +plenty of strength and courage beneath his quiet manner, and Jean was +right. + +"Wolves don't attack parties, not once in a thousand times," Jean +explained simply. "And we are making entirely too much noise to be in +any danger. It is the solitary individual the wolves like to get after. +They are such mean cowardly wretches." + +Frank Kent smiled grimly. The ranch girls were a puzzle to him, they +talked about wolves and bears and wild cattle as calmly as most girls +spoke of dogs and cats and canary birds, and Frank could see that they +were not putting on airs. They would not have gone deliberately into +danger any more than a sensible fellow would have done; but Jean and +Jack had grown up in a country where men had lived by the killing of +wild game. Their house was filled with the skins of wild animals, shot +by their father and the cowboys from their place. While they were still +little children they had been taught the use of a gun. Jack often had +been on hunting trips with her father in the northern parts of the State +and was perfectly able to bring down a lynx or a cougar with a +well-trained shot between its eyes. She had never been able to shoot a +deer, for in spite of being brought up like a boy, her heart failed her +at the thought of destroying anything that did not live by preying on +other animals. + +Jack gave a cry of pleasure. "See!" she called back. "I haven't brought +you to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but I have led you to +a pool of silver." She had brought Hotspur to a standstill in front of a +little silver lake, where the ravine extended in a circle into the +woods. + +For a moment the four riders were breathless with admiration, then a big +brown form lumbered out of a clump of low bushes. Hotspur reared and +the indistinct mass rolled by Jacqueline and made for a thicket. + +"It's a bear!" Jack shouted triumphantly. "Who would have thought we +could have had such luck? Let's go after old Bruin and see what becomes +of him; he won't eat us up." + +Jack was only joking. She had no real idea of following the bear; she +wasn't even sure what beast had trundled by them, but was only in a wild +humor and wondered how far the others would follow her. She gave Hotspur +a little cut with her whip. + +"Come back, Miss Ralston," Frank called sharply. He had ridden near +enough to her to reach out for her bridle. + +Jack grew more reckless. She sprang aside but did not notice that the +ground opened in front of her in a narrow, broken crevice, until +Hotspur's fore feet went down the incline and Jack pitched headlong over +him, falling with a crash in the brushwood beyond. + +In the medley of cries and confusion that followed, Jacqueline did not +know whether she had been unconscious a second or an age when she was +aroused by a peculiar noise which she was familiar with. It was a +horse's terrible cry of pain. She tried to sit up. Jean and Frank Kent +had dismounted hurriedly and come over to her, while Harry Pryor was +trying to get Hotspur out of the gully. + +"I am afraid you will have to help me, Frank, if Miss Ralston isn't +hurt; I am afraid Hotspur has broken his leg." + +Jacqueline gave a little cry and Jean covered her cousin's eyes with her +hands. There was a pain in Jack's shoulder that was wrenching and +tearing at her, but it was nothing to the feeling that Harry's words +created. + +"It can't be true," she sobbed. "I couldn't have hurt my pony like +that." + +But it was true, for Harry and Frank had Hotspur on the level ground and +the little pony lay moaning and neighing pitifully. There was only +moonlight to show what had happened, but Jack flung herself down beside +him and her tears fell in his shaggy mane. "What can we do?" she begged. +"Doesn't any one know how to set a pony's leg?" + +Harry shook his head. "You know it's hopeless, Jack. There is but one +thing to do for Hotspur. I can ride back to the ranch for help, but it +would only prolong his pain." + +"You mean you must shoot him, don't you, Harry?" Jack asked. + +Jean and Frank both turned away their heads. Even in the moonlight, they +could see that Jack's face was ghastly white and her lips almost blue. +Only Jean knew how much Jacqueline cared for her pony; he had been her +father's gift and for the past three years Jack had hardly ever ridden +any other horse, unless Hotspur were too weary to carry her. The thought +that her own heedlessness and obstinacy had brought the disaster only +made it the harder to bear. + +Harry nodded. "It's the only way, Jack, you know." + +"All right," Jack answered briefly. "Be quick." + +Jean's tears were blinding her but Jack looked straight ahead. + +"Take the girls toward home with you, Frank," Harry suggested. "I'll +come afterwards." + +"I would rather wait until it is over," Jack begged. "It is my fault +that this has happened and I won't go away like a coward, Hotspur would +like to hear my voice until the end." Jack felt her eyes burn and her +throat swell as now and then she patted the quivering broncho. + +Jean led her cousin a short distance off, but Jack's eyes never left her +pony. She saw Harry get out his pistol, load it and point straight at +Hotspur. A single shot rang out, a long tremor ran through the horse's +body, a single sound like a sigh shook it and Jack's best beloved friend +and servant was gone forever. + +"Take me back to the ranch, please," she whispered hoarsely, all her +courage gone. Harry lifted her on his broncho and for a time walked +beside her. Then Frank changed places and Harry rode. For a part of the +time, Jack cried silently. She had not mentioned the pain in her arm, +although it grew stiffer each moment, but now and then she winced. + +"You are hurt, aren't you, Miss Ralston?" Frank questioned. "I was +afraid you were all along." But Jack shook her head; she could think of +nothing but Hotspur. + +Jean, however, was thinking of something else. She remembered that it +was after midnight and they were not yet back at the Simpson ranch. +What would Aunt Sallie and Mr. Simpson say? And what would Laura and +Mrs. Post think of them? Jean shivered, for now that the excitement of +their trip with its sad ending was over, she realised that she and Jack +ought never to have gone off riding alone. Poor Jean's cheeks were hot +with blushes, in spite of her shivers. She and Jack had not meant to do +anything wrong, still they ought to have known better. Was it because +they had no mother that neither of them had thought? + +Just before they reached the ranch, Jack turned a white face toward the +other truants. "Remember, please, that whatever blame we receive for +to-night's ride, the fault is all mine; I proposed the ride, I would go +farther when Jean asked me to turn back. Don't anybody say anything +different, for you know it is true." + +Frank Kent listened silently. He made no reply, but it was hardly his +idea that a man should allow a girl to shoulder all the blame for any +mistake. + +Mrs. Simpson and her husband rushed down from the veranda, and were +followed by a few of Jean's, Jack's and Harry's most intimate friends. +Dan Norton was waiting for Frank, with an unpleasant grin on his face. +Laura and most of the company had gone to bed, but Laura's mother +surveyed the two ranch girls with an expression they had never seen in +their free happy girlhood. + +"I shall never forgive you children as long as I live," Aunt Sallie +exclaimed angrily. "Where in the world have you been? I knew you had +been left to your own devices, Jean and Jack, but I did think you had +more judgment than to ride across the country at this time of the +night." + +"It was all my fault," Jack repeated humbly. "We meant to go for just a +short ride and I didn't think you would care, but we went farther and +farther and Hotspur broke his leg, so we had to come back with just the +three horses. Jean did want to turn back sooner, Aunt Sallie," Jack +whispered. They were now inside the ranch house, under the lights of the +lamps. "Please don't scold her. I know I did very wrong and I'm sorry; +won't you please let me explain better in the morning?" + +And then Jack saw everything slipping away from her and the place grew +horribly dark. Big Mr. Simpson caught her in his arms. + +"There, Sallie, don't scold any more to-night," he ordered. "The child +is worn out. She did wrong, of course, but I expect she has been +punished enough by losing her pony. It's the boys who are most to blame, +I'll warrant you. Of course they led the girls on this wild goose +chase." + +Harry and Frank Kent eagerly bowed their heads. "I didn't think you +would believe any such nonsense as Miss Ralston has been telling you," +Frank avowed. "Of course Mr. Pryor and I are responsible for the ride +and everything that occurred," he ended, with more gallantry than truth. + +Aunt Sallie might have kept up her scolding all night, for she was a +good-hearted woman with a very high temper, adored by her successful +husband and accustomed to having her own way, but she saw that Jack was +in pain. There was something in the girl's white face with the dark +circles under her eyes and the look of penitence and pain instead of her +usual almost haughty expression, that touched her. + +"Come to bed, child," she said suddenly. She caught Jack's arm. For the +first time, the girl gave a cry of pain at her own hurt. "I think I have +sprained my shoulder a little, Aunt Sallie," she explained quietly. "I +will be all right in the morning." + +It was another hour before Mrs. Simpson got Jack's shoulder properly +bandaged and had her stored away in bed. Fortunately, the shoulder was +only sprained, not broken. Yet Jack could not sleep; it was not alone +the pain that kept her awake, but the realization that she and Jean were +no longer little girls and could not do what they liked without a +thought. It was she who had led Jean into mischief, yet try as she +might, she could not bear the whole burden of the wrongdoing, and she +wished to-night, that the ranch girls had some one to look after them, +some older woman. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +BACK TO RAINBOW LODGE. + + +"AUNT SALLIE, if you don't mind," said Jacqueline next day, "I think we +had better go back to Rainbow Lodge." + +Jack's arm and shoulder were swathed in white cotton and she had none of +her usual color, but she was out on the veranda and insisted that she +was not suffering in the least. + +"Nonsense, Jack," Mrs Simpson returned kindly. "You are not angry at the +scolding I gave you last night, are you? You know you deserved it, but +of course you and Jean were only thoughtless. We have forgotten all +about it to-day." + +Jack looked away. "Everybody hasn't forgotten, Aunt Sallie, but I am not +running away because of that. I had a note from Jim this morning and I +think he needs me at the ranch." + +Mrs. Simpson flushed. "I know you are referring to my niece and sister, +Jack, but you must remember that Mrs. Post and Laura have lived always +in the East. Laura has been very carefully brought up and they are not +accustomed to our Western ways of looking at things. But I am sure that +if you show them you are sorry, they will forgive you in course of +time." + +Jack's face was no longer pale, she was crimson with anger. If there was +one thing in the world which she had no intention of doing, it was to +show penitence for her conduct to Laura Post or her mother. It seemed to +Jack that to treat a guest in the fashion that Miss Post had treated her +and Jean and to be malicious and vain and small-minded, was a good deal +worse than to have committed the thoughtless act that she and Jean had +been guilty of. But for the sake of Mrs. Simpson, Jacqueline for the +moment held her peace. She hoped she would be able to hold it until she +got away from the Simpson ranch, but was by no means sure. + +Olive and Frieda were out in the yard walking quietly up and down. +Frieda was chattering like a magpie, but the Indian girl was silent and +rarely lifted her eyes. Frieda waved to Jack and the two girls started +toward her and Mrs. Simpson, but at this moment, Laura Post and Dan +came out of the front door of the ranch house. + +Jack saw Laura stop and say something to the Indian girl. Olive turned +quickly and with her head drooping went directly into the house. + +Sturdy little Frieda stood stock still and then raised a pair of +indignant blue eyes to Laura. "I don't believe you!" she exclaimed +hotly, "I am going to ask Jack." + +Frieda rushed across the porch, her eyes streaming with tears and flung +herself into Jacqueline's arms, Dan Norton and Laura following her more +slowly. + +Neither Olive nor Frieda had been told anything of Mrs. Simpson's plan +to keep Olive at her ranch as a maid for her niece. There had not been +time to discuss it and Mrs. Simpson had been too busy that morning to +talk to the Indian girl, but regarded the matter as having been entirely +settled with the ranch girls. + +"Oh, please, Jack," Frieda cried, her voice trembling, "Laura Post just +told Olive to go into the house at once. She said that as long as Olive +was to be her maid, she did not wish her to be out in the front with her +guests. It wasn't true, was it? She is coming back home with us, isn't +she?" + +Jack made no reply. She only looked at Laura Post with a pair of clear, +wide open, grey eyes that held more than a touch of scorn in them. + +For once, Mrs. Simpson appeared slightly displeased with her adored +niece. "Laura," she remarked disapprovingly, "I am sorry you spoke in +that way to the Indian girl. Remember I asked her here as your guest. I +have not had time to explain to her that she is to remain as your maid." + +"What on earth is all this pow-wow about?" Jean demanded, appearing +suddenly on the scene, swinging a tennis racquet and followed by Harry, +who was usually her shadow. "You look as tragic as the tale of Solomon +Grundy. 'Died on Saturday, buried on Sunday, this was the end of Solomon +Grundy,'" Jean chanted in mournful tones. "Who are you trying to get rid +of, at present?" + +"No one, Jean," Mrs. Simpson replied. "I was only speaking to Laura of +the Indian girl's remaining here as her maid. I will go now and tell the +girl about it myself." + +Jean caught hold of Aunt Sallie's ample skirts. "Not so quickly, +please, Aunt Sallie," she urged, while she looked pleadingly at Jack. +"We are not sure that we can give up Olive to you. You must not be +angry, for you know we did find her first and we have the first right to +her." + +"But I have got to have some one to wait on me," Laura broke in +pettishly. "I can't button my own shoes and comb my hair, and Auntie +promised me this girl for my maid." + +"Never mind, dear," Mrs. Simpson returned soothingly. "It is all +settled, Jean and Jack can't possibly be so foolish as to attempt to +keep this girl at Rainbow Lodge." + +"Oh, yes, we can, Aunt Sallie," Jack answered, sweetly but firmly. "I +have been wanting to talk to you alone, but I haven't had a chance. I +have thought things all over and though we do not wish Olive for a +servant at Rainbow Lodge, we do want her for another ranch girl!" You +could have heard a pin drop as Jacqueline went on. "You see we have +plenty of room in our home and I am sure that four girls ought to be +even happier together than just three. If Olive will trust herself with +us, we shall try to do the best that we can for her. I hope some day, +for her sake, we may find out who she really is, but if not, why +perhaps she may be willing to be known as one of us." + +Jack looked so proud and at the same time so generous and fine that +Frank Kent, who was standing near enough to overhear her, wanted to +shout with delight, but managed to appear perfectly indifferent, though +Laura did think she heard him say "Ripping!" under his breath. + +Mrs. Simpson was crimson with vexation. "Very well, Jack Ralston, do as +you like," she replied coldly. "Understand I wash my hands of the whole +affair. You will live to regret this piece of Quixotic foolishness and +when this Indian girl gets you into trouble, don't come to me." + +"We won't, Aunt Sallie," Jacqueline returned gently. "And I hope you +won't think we are ungrateful to you. We saw lots of real Indian girls +at the village yesterday, perhaps Miss Post will have one of them as her +maid. I'll ask Olive to recommend one." + +Jack walked quietly away from the group on the veranda, holding Frieda +by the hand while Jean murmured more apologies to Aunt Sallie, being as +careful as possible not to look that lady in the face. Miss Bruce +hardly wished Mrs. Simpson to see how her brown eyes were dancing with +pleasure and pride, but when Aunt Sallie had gone away, Jean made no +effort to conceal her satisfaction from Laura Post and Dan Norton. + +Jacqueline marched straight in to find Olive. She was not in her room. +She was not in the maids' room, nor in the big kitchen. Hong Su, Mrs. +Simpson's Chinese cook, explained that the 'Lil Mlissie' had gone out in +the back yard. + +To one side and behind the Simpson ranch house was a large kitchen +garden, at only a short distance from the house itself. + +Jack and Frieda could not find Olive at once. There was nothing to hide +her and she could not have gone down to the stables that were some +distance away, yet she was nowhere in sight. + +Half an acre of Indian corn was ripening and yellowing in the sun. It +rustled and its long dried leaves crackled and swayed, and they soon saw +the Indian girl walking through it with her head bent and tears falling +fast. Straightway Jacqueline thought of the Song of Hiawatha and the +Indian legend of the corn. Poor little Olive was the Minnehaha, after +her laughter had been stilled! Frieda ran straight to her friend and +threw her arms around her. "Oh, Olive, it isn't true," she cried. "You +are to come home with us to Rainbow Lodge." + +But Olive shook her head. She could not understand. + +Jacqueline took the girl's slender, brown hand. "Olive," she asked +gently, "do you think you could be happy if you came to live with us at +the ranch? I am dreadfully cross sometimes and you may not like me, but +Frieda and Jean are dears. We are only girls like you and perhaps we may +make mistakes, but you won't mind, if we all do our best together." + +Jacqueline was frightened at the expression of the Indian girl's face. +"You want me to live with you like one of you?" she gasped. "Oh, it +can't, it can't be true." + +"But it can be true, Olilie," Jack answered lightly, using the girl's +pretty Indian name. "And there is nothing so remarkable in our wanting +to have you. Suppose when mother and father came out here to Wyoming +from the East, something had happened to them and they had left me +somewhere for a stranger to find me. Then the same thing might have +happened to me that has happened to you, and I am sure you would have +come along and rescued me if you could." + +"Then you don't think I am an Indian girl?" Olive questioned eagerly. + +Jack hesitated. "I don't know, Olive, I'm sure," she returned. "Of +course I was only talking. Come, let's pack up our things, I think we +will go home to-morrow." + +"But if Laska and Josef come back for me?" Olive pleaded, unable to +believe in her wonderful good fortune. + +Jacqueline's face sobered. She was thinking of what Jim Colter would say +when he learned of their adoption of Olive. She knew that Jim was +troubled about something; had the ranch girls any right to offer a home +to any one when their own future was so uncertain? + +But Jack's lips closed firmly. "Never mind, Olive," she answered. "We +won't worry over things until they happen, when they do we will face +them the best we can." + +Rainbow Lodge had never looked more dear and homelike than it did when +the four ranch girls arrived before its open front door. Jim had sent +one of the cowboys to drive them home and Jack wondered why he had not +come himself. But she forgot to ask what had kept him, when she saw Aunt +Ellen's smiling face and smelt the odor of ginger cookies coming from +the kitchen back of her. + +"Isn't it great to be at home, children?" Jack exclaimed triumphantly. +But Frieda had flown to look after her chickens and Jean was shaking +hands with old Zack, who was building the frames over her violet beds. + +"This bandage is cutting my arm off, Olive," Jack went on, noticing +Olive's wistful face as Jack said the word "home." "Won't you come in +and fix it for me, please? I am going to make you and Jean and Frieda +wait on me all I can, now we are away from Aunt Sallie's. Of course I +had to pretend my arm didn't hurt over there, because I knew that that +abominable Laura Post and Dan Norton would say 'serves her right,' every +time I had a twinge of pain." + +Jack was talking nonsense to keep Olive from thinking and as the two +girls passed under the arch of the door, Jack kissed her lightly. "Good +luck to Ranch Girl Number Four. May you live long and prosper at Rainbow +Lodge," she whispered. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +BREAKING THE NEWS. + + +JEAN and Jack came down the wide sunlit hall with their two heads close +together. It was three days since their return from the house party to +their own home. + +Outside a half-opened door they stopped. "Listen, Jack," Jean whispered, +swallowing a giggle. "They have been doing it every single day." + +"If three fifths of a number is fifteen, what is the number?" Frieda's +voice read slowly and solemnly. She paused fora long moment. "The number +is fifteen, isn't it Olive? The sum said so." + +Jean would not have swallowed her giggle this time, except that Jack +pinched her on the arm. "Do be quiet, Jean," she entreated. "You will +hurt their feelings." + +"No, Frieda," Olive explained patiently. "You see one fifth of fifteen +is five--" + +Jack knocked lightly on the door. "May we interrupt the school a minute, +please?" she begged. "I have to go away in a little while with Jim and +I do want to see what is going on. I think it is perfectly sweet of you, +Olive, to be trying to teach Frieda. It makes Jean and me awfully +ashamed." + +Olive laughed shyly: "Oh, I am not teaching," she answered, "Frieda and +I are just studying together. There are such a lot of things I ought to +know so you won't be ashamed of me, and I am trying to learn the few +that I can. Frieda likes to study too." + +Frieda was chewing the end of her stubby pencil and making queer figures +on a crumpled piece of paper. Her little round face wore such a virtuous +and studious expression that Jack laughed. Jean went over and pulling +Frieda's hair said: "Since when, Frieda Ralston, have you developed into +a student? Far be it from you ever to get your lessons for _me_ without +a fuss; something must have come over the spirit of your dreams." + +Frieda shook her head impatiently. She was a very matter-of-fact person +at all times. "No such thing, Jean, dreams haven't anything to do with +it, it is only that Olive really takes an interest herself and is +awfully patient and does not laugh--" + +But Jean had put her fingers in her ears and slipped out the bedroom +door. + +Olive and Frieda were in their own room at a small table drawn up near +the window, and looking out, Jack saw Jim Colter come up the drive to +the door on horseback, leading a horse for her. Jean ran out in the yard +and stood for a moment talking to him. + +Jim had been away from Rainbow Ranch since the day of the girls' return, +and Jack could see that he looked tired and serious, not like his usual +self. + +Jack kissed Frieda. "Perhaps Jim and I won't be back until late, little +sister, don't worry. You know we are going to ride along the side of +Rainbow Creek to see about some of the cattle and horses. Maybe the poor +ponies and calves haven't any water to drink in some parts of the ranch. +Don't study until your pigtails turn grey." + +Frieda laughed, but the Indian girl looked at Jacqueline closely. There +was something odd in Jack's manner, as though she were trying to hide a +secret that she was not sure whether or not she wished to tell. + +"Good-bye, Olive," Jack called lightly, "don't talk about our being +ashamed of you, child. If you knew all I do not know, you would be +quite the wisest person in the world. Maybe Jean and I will have news +for you to-night. You have got to think it is good news, for Jean and I +hope it is. Anyhow, you two good, industrious children have made me make +up my feeble mind. _Auf wiedersehen._ That being about all the German I +know, I will translate it for you: 'Till we meet again.'" + +Jack stamped out on the porch to Jean and Jim. + +"Morning, overseer," she said brightly. + +Jim lifted his Mexican hat. "Morning, boss," he returned gravely. "How +is the wounded member?" + +Jack shrugged her sprained shoulder the least little bit. "It's not +first class yet, pard," she stammered, mimicking one of the cowboys on +the ranch. "But I think I can get over a good piece of ground by +catching hold on the reins with this here one good arm, if it's the same +to you. Is that the horse you mean me to use now, Jim?" Jack asked, her +voice and manner changing. + +"Best I can do at present," Jim replied soberly. "Tricks ain't up to +Hotspur and you may have to watch him a bit." + +"Jean," Jack whispered, just before she mounted her horse. "We have made +up our minds to it, haven't we? Do you think we will be able to endure +it?" + +Jean cast her brown eyes up to heaven. "Bear it?" she groaned. "Well I +suppose if we must, we must. Only tell Jim, maybe he will say we must +not, then think of the relief!" Jean sighed, half in fun and half in +earnest, and watched Jim and Jack scamper out of sight. + +"Wonder what old Jim and Jack are up to?" she murmured. "If they only +were going to see how nearly dry Rainbow Creek is, they would have taken +one of the cowboys with them. They are sure to have to pull a cow or a +calf out of a mud hole, before they are through. Jim looks as sober as a +judge. I hope he hasn't heard anything about the--" Jean broke off her +musing, with a stamp of her foot. "Of course not, I am a goose to think +of it," she told herself sternly. + +Jim Colter and Jack galloped on in silence, Jim riding high in his +saddle, standing nearly erect, with his feet well out in the Western +cowboy fashion. He wore a pair of fringed trousers, with a cartridge +belt around his waist and two big Colt's revolvers were stuck in the +holsters on either side. A forty-foot rope was coiled and hung at the +pommel of his saddle. Jim's Irish blue eyes were black with anger this +morning and his lips set in a firm, hard line. + +The two riders had followed the bed of Rainbow Creek for two miles +through the ranch before either one of them spoke. + +Jim wheeled and looked Jack straight in the eyes. "You have a piece of +news for me, haven't you, Jack?" he asked. + +Jack nodded. "My news will keep. What is it you have to tell me? I know +it is important." + +"Can you bear it, girl?" Jim asked abruptly. "It's pretty bad." + +Jack lifted her eyes without speaking. A moment later they filled with +tears and her lips trembled. "It isn't true though, Jim, is it?" she +entreated. "He can't prove what isn't true." + +Jim squared his shoulders. "That is just the point, Miss Jack, and what +we have got to fight. Daniel Norton says he can prove that he is the +rightful owner of Rainbow Ranch. He has papers to show it and we haven't +a sign of anything. What we have got to establish is that his claim is +a lie and that Rainbow Ranch don't belong to nobody on this earth but +John Ralston's daughters." + +"But how, Jim?" Jack asked. "You know we have lost the title to the +estate. We have never been able to find a sign of a paper to show that +the ranch is our property. I have looked through every one of father's +papers a thousand times. The deed is gone!" + +"Then it will have to return before January first," Jim answered coolly, +snapping his fingers in the wind. "That is the date Mr. Norton means to +bring suit. Remember the game we used to play with a bit of paper, when +you were a little girl, Jack, 'Fly away Peter, Come back Paul'? Paul +used to come back, so don't you be frightened. Daniel Norton hasn't +gotten our ranch from us yet, and before he does, he will see some +pretty tall scrapping. But I am afraid we have got to find our deed. I +was one of the witnesses when your father's title to this ranch was +drawn up. The other witness was a fellow from the East, who just +happened to be passing through the country. He stayed with us a few days +and then goodness only knows what became of him. He may be living in +New York or New Mexico for all I know." + +"But you can advertise for him, can't you, Jim?" Jack pleaded, her face +looking white and drawn. "Maybe if he would swear that father bought our +ranch and that Mr. Norton couldn't have any right to it, it might do +some good. What was his name?" + +"Will Corbin," Jim answered shortly. "But don't build your hopes on that +idea. I have been advertising for the fellow for months. Not a word from +him." + +"But the court records," Jack continued. "Of course I don't know +anything about law or business, Jim, but I am sure that I have heard +that if a person buys or sells a piece of property, some kind of record +of it is kept in a big book. Can't you get hold of that?" Jack begged +faintly. "If Mr. Norton brings suit and makes us leave our ranch in +January, what can we do? Where will we go? It will be so hard for Frieda +and Jean." Jack choked and could not go on for a moment. + +Jim was looking in every direction except at his companion and cleared +his throat once or twice. Jack was gazing out over the sweep of low +country bordered by the distant hills. To one side was an open field, +where a herd of wild horses was munching the dried buffalo grass; on the +wooded slope of the ravine on the further bank of the creek, cattle were +leading their calves to drink. It was all their own, hers and Jean's and +Frieda's; their beloved Rainbow Ranch! Jack could recall no fairer +picture than the scene before her. Her eyes had looked out only on the +western lands since she could remember. "Well, Jim, don't you think it +would be a good scheme for us to look up this court record?" Jack +inquired more hopefully. "Mr. Norton couldn't say it was false." + +"Look here, Jacqueline Ralston," Jim answered more gruffly than he had +ever spoken to her before. "Do you think that you are the only member of +Rainbow Ranch who has any business head? What have I been doing these +last few days but looking up that very record of the sale of Rainbow +Ranch to John Ralston, Esq.? But I have wasted my time. It wasn't any +use. The court record is gone, same as our own deed." + +"But that isn't possible, Jim," Jack argued faintly, feeling the world +begin to spin round faster and faster, so she could hardly sit on her +horse. "I thought nobody ever dared touch anything that belonged to a +court of law." + +"Jack," Jim demanded severely, "will you kindly remember that we are +living in the State of Wyoming and that we haven't been a State but a +powerful few years? When your father first came to Wyoming, this country +was pretty well filled up with wild beasts, wild Indians and some pretty +wild white men. There weren't but a few towns and they weren't slow +towns either. Things used to go on in them that a girl don't need to +know about. One of the tricks the bad men used to play was to change the +county seat over night, just for their own convenience. A band of men +would ride up to the courthouse, gather up the court records, the law +books and anything else that came in handy, and carry them off to a new +town. Next morning when folks woke up, they would find the county seat +moved and maybe a new judge and a new sheriff. In one of these here +little midnight excursions, they must have carried off the court records +which showed your father bought our old ranch fair and true. The book +must have been lost, for the record has disappeared, same as our own +title to the place. You can kind of see that old man Norton has got us +in a tight place, can't you, Jack?" Jim ended gloomily. + +"We don't have to tell Jean and Frieda yet, do we, Jim?" Jack pleaded +wistfully. "It won't do any good to make them miserable so long as we +can keep the news from them." + +Jim shook his head. "No sense in your bearing the whole burden alone, +Jack. You ain't much older than Jean, you know. Besides, maybe little +Frieda will be the very one of us to find our lost title to the old +ranch. Ain't things often revealed unto babes that are hid from the rest +of us?" Jim quoted reverently, not remembering exactly the great words +of the text, but sure enough of its meaning. + +"Wait here a minute for me, please, Jack," Jim remarked suddenly, "there +is one of our calves stuck in the mud in the creek bottom. Funny how the +farther we get away from the Lodge the slower our creek runs! It didn't +used to be that way. Ought to be five or six feet of water along here +and there's only about one, and that silly calf has sunk to her knees in +mud and slime." + +Jim rode away from Jack, a few feet into the creek, feeling his way +cautiously for fear of quicksands. The calf bleated and struggled, but +with a skillful swing of his lasso, Jim caught the mired animal securely +and dragged her back safe to dry land. When he joined Jack again, the +worried expression had disappeared entirely from his face. + +"Cheer up, pard," he resumed affectionately. "You have got the best head +on your shoulders of any girl on this side the great divide. We will +straighten things out some way and have one of the jolliest Christmases +that ever took place at Rainbow Lodge, as a celebration. But didn't you +and Jean have something on your minds that you meant to ask me about? +Out with it! We don't want to do any talking when we get along toward +the end of our creek. Sure as fate, some way the water is being drained +from our creek and I have got to find out how it's done." + +"Oh, my news doesn't amount to anything now, Jim," Jacqueline announced. +"After what you have just told me, there wouldn't be any point in trying +to carry out our plan. Indeed it is entirely out of the question." + +"Tell me the plan just the same, Jack," Jim insisted, anxious to get +Jack's mind off the subject of their troubles. + +"You will be awfully surprised, Jim," Jack declared, her face +crimsoning, "but Jean and I had just about decided that we ought to have +a chaperon to come to live with us at Rainbow Lodge." + +Jim gave a long drawn out whistle. He gazed meditatively up at the blue +sky. "Good thing it ain't night," he replied slowly, "because if it had +been, the stars would have fallen at that remark of yours. You and Jean +think you ought to have a chaperon! Well, my word!" + +"Don't be silly, Jim," Jack remonstrated. "You know we have talked over +our having a chaperon at the Lodge dozens of times since father died. +And even when I haven't talked, I have been thinking. We did hate the +idea of one and I am afraid I do still. But since our visit to Aunt +Sallie," Jack's beautiful straightforward face colored hotly, "Jean and +I believe we ought to have an older woman to live with us. You see it is +this way, Jim; we don't want to do things that even look wrong, just +because we don't know any better; and then we don't want to grow up +into perfect dunces. Jean and I don't seem to study at all with no one +to teach us, and Olive and Frieda are so anxious to learn that they make +us ashamed." Jack sighed. "What's the use of telling you all this? Of +course we can't think of sending for a chaperon now when we do not know +how long we will have a home to live in ourselves." + +Jack had been crying a little, but now she threw her head back with a +familiar gesture and winked bravely. "Let's don't talk about our +troubles any more, Jim. Mr. Norton hasn't taken possession of Rainbow +Ranch yet by any means. Who knows what may happen in two months?" + +"Shall I go to Laramie to-morrow and order out a chaperon, Miss +Ralston?" Jim queried calmly. "Suppose I put an ad in the paper. +'Wanted: a long-suffering lady, who knows everything, to chaperon and +instruct four young ladies who know nothing, but have difficult and +unmanageable tempers, particularly the eldest.' Sounds an attractive +advertisement. Ought to get a lot of answers." + +Jack gazed inquiringly at their devoted friend and counsellor. + +"You mean, Jim, that you think we had better go on and have a chaperon, +just as we planned, as though there was no danger of our losing the +ranch?" + +Jim nodded silently. He placed a cautious finger on his lips. He was +leaning forward in his saddle, intent on something ahead. + +Jack did not notice. "We don't want to have any one to live with us whom +we know nothing about," she went on, "so I expect we had better send for +mother's cousin, Ruth Drew. She is a fussy New England old maid, and +terribly prim, but she wrote she would come out to us, and if she can +stand for us, why,--what was that, Jim?" Jack finished breathlessly. + +"Shsh!" Jim whispered softly. "Keep perfectly still until we know." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DIVIDE. + + +JIM COLTER and Jack had ridden to the lower end of Rainbow Creek, where +it widened into a kind of natural reservoir. Some yards beyond it, a +line of upright rails divided the Ralston ranch from that of the +Nortons. The earth dipped slightly on the farther side and a thicket of +low sage brush covered the rise in the land beyond. + +Jim and Jack saw nothing moving in the sage brush or beyond it and there +was no one in sight. Their impression must have been a mistake, for the +only living thing in view was a flock of wild geese which flew over +their heads uttering their shrill clamor. Jim sat erect, silent and +watchful as an Indian, on the back of his equally motionless pony, his +hand shading his eyes. + +Jack waited on her horse gazing at the quiet waters of Rainbow Creek. +Suddenly there came a low rumble inside the earth, like a note of +warning, and then the land began to rise in sandy billows as though wave +on wave were seeking some distant shore. The two horses with their +silent riders shook as with the ague; the face of Rainbow Lake shivered, +then her waters lashed the shores as though they had been parted +asunder, and a moment later receded and began to disappear. It was as if +old Father Neptune had deserted his home at the bottom of the sea to +play his mighty games in the shallow waters of Rainbow Creek. It seemed +as though he had blown a great blast through his sacred horn and caused +the water to spurt upward, then had drawn it slowly back into his horn +again. + +The noise and the movement died away. + +"Was it an earthquake, Jim?" Jacqueline managed to murmur, as soon as +she could get her breath. She had slipped quietly off her pony and was +patting it softly, for the broncho was terribly frightened at the +strangeness of his experience. + +Jim nodded solemnly. "A human earthquake, I guess. Don't be alarmed, it +won't occur again, but get to cover quickly." + +Jacqueline Ralston knew as well as though she had been a pioneer woman +trained to warfare with the Indians in the early days in the West, what +Jim's mysterious words, "get to cover," meant. She and Jim used to +play, long years before, that they were travelers across the plains, +being hunted down by bands of roving Indians. This was when Jack was a +small, bronze-haired tomboy, riding bare-back over the prairies, +swimming with her father in the clear, cold mountain streams, afraid of +nothing and of no one, the pride of every cowboy on Rainbow Ranch. Later +she had learned the value of hiding in ambush in stalking wild game. +But, even if Jack had not understood the importance of Jim's advice, she +had been trained to obey instantly the word of a superior officer in the +moment of action. + +It was not an easy matter to seek shelter with a broncho fourteen and a +half hands high in the particular part of the ranch where Jack and Jim +happened to be at this moment. There were no trees, no underbush of any +kind. The trees that are usually found near the beds of streams in the +western country, were on the far side of Rainbow Creek. There was no +time to wade across. Jack dropped her reins, hoping her pony would +wander quietly away. She bent forward and ran as swiftly and silently as +possible toward the straggling rail fence. Then she lay down in the +short brown grass, as motionless as a frightened partridge who tries to +make the hunter believe he is a part of the still landscape. Jim Colter +crawled after Jack, bringing with him his long rope. + +A few minutes later a man's figure rose up from the screen of sage +bushes on the Norton ranch and the sun glinted on a bright red head. The +boy swung his hat in the air once, twice, three times. Then he repeated +the signal. + +Jim crept through the fence like an eel. Without making the least sound +that could be heard by the fellow, whose back was turned to him, Jim got +within thirty feet of his enemy. + +Jack wondered what on the face of the earth Jim intended to do. Then her +eyes widened with surprise and with laughter. There was a swish, a +streak through the air, as Jim's lariat uncoiled. Hearing the noise the +boy turned and the rope caught him around the waist, pinning his arms +securely to his side. He was lassoed as safely as any wild pony. + +Jim then calmly started to walk back toward the rail fence that divided +the two ranches. He seemed blissfully indifferent to the fact that he +dragged an angry and sputtering young man at the end of his rope. Dan +Norton, Jr., was a heavy, stocky fellow, with a good deal of brute +strength, but Jim Colter was long and lean, with muscles of steel. +Besides, as Dan threw his resisting strength against that of his +opponent, the rope tightened about him and cut more deeply into his +flesh. He kicked viciously like an unruly colt, but Jim did not +condescend to look behind him; his victim was kicking nothing but air, +as Jim was ten yards in front. + +"What are you doing? Where are you going?" Dan shouted, almost choking +with rage. + +Jack rose up from behind the shield of the fence. The sight of Jim and +his prize was too beautiful, and Jack felt that she was being repaid for +many of the cruel tricks that Dan and his father had played on her since +she was a little girl. She recalled the time that Dan had nearly put out +her eyes, when she was only four years old. She had been playing with +him and when she lifted her face to his in answer to some question, he +had thrown a great box of sand straight into her wide-open eyes. It was +curious how well Jack remembered the deed at this moment. + +"Let me go, I'll have you in jail for this. What do you mean by +trespassing on my land?" Dan yelled. + +Jim laughed and drew Dan closer to him. "Don't get so upset, sonnie, I +am not going to trespass on your land," he urged quietly. "This rope is +just a little scheme of mine to make you cross the great divide between +your ranch and ours, while we talk a few things over." Jim hauled Dan +through an opening in the fence. + +Jack dared not look straight at them. She did feel it would be too +hateful of her to laugh out loud, yet how could she help it? Dan was so +desperately angry that it made him fume and fuss and jump about like an +excited rooster, and his red head did suggest a rooster's comb. + +"Look out, Jim," Jack sang out. "Here come the men Dan was signaling." + +Across one of the Norton fields, with their gaze centered on the clump +of sage where they expected to find their young master, marched three +cowboys from the Norton ranch. + +"Come here," Dan shouted, trying in vain to loosen one of his hands to +wave to his men. + +Jim slipped one of his Colts out of its holster and passed it over to +Jack. "Just keep this for me, will you, Miss Ralston?" he asked +politely. "There won't be any use for it, but there is no harm in having +it handy." + +Jim spoke to the puzzled ranchmen and greeted them calmly. "Come as far +as you like on your own side of the fence," he said, "but kindly stop +right there. I have a few questions I would like to ask Mr. Daniel +Norton, Jr., and I wouldn't object to some witnesses. Needn't be afraid, +the earthquake is all over. Mr. Norton and I are going to talk quite +neighborly and friendly like, as soon as he cools off a bit." + +Jim Colter spoke so quietly that the men who watched him knew he meant +business. You see Jim's reputation was that he was one of the most +dangerous men in the country when he was aroused, and there was no doubt +of his present feeling. + +The three men nodded respectfully. They did not wish to have a fight, +for if they attacked Jim and tried to get Dan Norton away from him, he +would undoubtedly use his pistol, and then there was Jacqueline. + +The cowboys jerked their heads at Jack in a greeting intended to be +exceedingly polite. Jack understood and returned the men's bows with her +best smile. She did not desire to let Jim make the affair with Dan too +serious if she could help it, but she had rarely seen their overseer so +deeply angry in her life. + +An Eastern girl and most Western ones would have been horrified at +Jacqueline Ralston's present position. She was standing, a quiet and +attentive listener, in a group of five uncultured men. One of the +cowboys was Josef, the Indian Laska's son, the other a Mexican, and but +one of the three an American. They were all angry and lawless and only +one of the five her friend, yet Jacqueline did not think of her position +as unusual. She was far too much interested in what was about to take +place to think of herself at all and knew that not one of the cowboys +would touch her and she was not in the least in fear of Dan. Jacqueline +Ralston was not like a girl with a father and mother to care for her. +She had been brought up with the ideas of a pioneer woman and was trying +to run a ranch and to make a living for herself, her cousin and sister, +and if there was any danger that threatened their property or them, she +must know what it was and must do what she could to prevent it. Jack +was leaning on a rail of the fence. Her hat had fallen on the ground and +her face was white, yet it held a look of quiet power and strength +remarkable in a girl so young. + +Jim was aggravatingly slow. He was facing Dan Norton while the cowboys +hung over the pickets. Dan had ceased to struggle, but still refused to +look either at Jim or Jack. + +"Our little talk ain't going to take but a few minutes, sonnie, if you +will answer my questions straight from the shoulder," Jim drawled. "Did +any of you feel a bit of a shock, say like an earthquake, a few minutes +back? It 'peared like the ground near Rainbow Creek had gotten tired of +not being heard from for some time past and had suddenly swelled up and +bust." + +Jim pointed toward the lake only a few yards from them. Jack was +startled to see how much lower the water was. Could it have fallen an +inch in such a little while? + +Dan shook his head scornfully. "Earthquake! No, you are off your base," +he sputtered. "That is, at least I did feel a slight motion, but it +didn't amount to much. I don't see how you can hold me responsible for +an earthquake. Say fellers, Jim Colter is pretty far gone isn't he, if +he thinks I am powerful enough to move the earth." Dan grinned, +delighted with his own wit, but his cowboys only continued to stare at +him solemnly. + +"Glad you felt a little motion, though you was pretty safe out of the +way," Jim went on in the same quiet fashion. "Seems like I could shut my +eyes and tell you just how that earthquake happened. You ought to have +seen the waters of Rainbow Creek dash up in the air and then begin to +slide plum out of sight. It was most like a miracle." + +Dan faced Jim impudently. "Well, go on, tell us how your miracle +happened?" he invited scornfully. + +Jacqueline was puzzled. She had no idea how Jim would be able to explain +the peculiar phenomenon which they had just seen. + +"Oh, a charge of dynamite caused our little earthquake," Jim explained +briefly. + +"You see, Mr. Norton, you have been trying to drain the water from our +creek to your ranch for some time back, but digging a lower channel was +pretty slow work. That little bunch of dynamite just between your land +and our lake has made a pretty nice passage for our water to flow +through. I suppose you made your entrance underground somewhere near +that clump of sage brush, so it would be hard for us to discover." + +Dan shrugged his heavy shoulders, "What rotten nonsense," he returned +sullenly. + +Jacqueline's eyes were fairly starting with surprise and she opened her +lips to ask a question but closed them quickly. She couldn't expect to +comprehend Jim's accusation. What girl ever has understood anything +about engineering? + +Jim laughed, straightened up and glanced toward the three cowboys, who +were grouped picturesquely on the opposite side of the divide. "Oh, you +don't have to take my word for it," he remarked casually, "I will have +one of the State engineers over to prove it to you. You see if there is +one thing we are strict about in Wyoming, it is our water rights. + +"You and your father shall pay us a tidy sum of money in damages for +this work." Jim slowly let go the tight knot which had held Dan Norton. +"Now get along home when you like, young man," he concluded. "I am +through with you for to-day." + +Dan flung the lasso to the ground and glared angrily at Jim and then at +Jack. But his eyes fell before Jacqueline Ralston's. Jack was looking at +him steadily with the scornful, slightly haughty expression he so hated. + +Dan smiled. His light blue eyes were almost green with temper and +narrowed into two fine lines. "Oh, it don't matter about your old creek, +at present," he jeered. "You can keep the water on Rainbow Ranch for +another few months, when father and I take possession of the ranch, we +can drain the water over here if we like. So long!" and he glanced +contemptuously at Jack, as he marched by her. + +Jack had her riding whip in her left hand. For a second she longed to +strike at Dan Norton with it. How dared he speak in that calm and +self-assured fashion of some day taking possession of their own beloved +Rainbow Ranch? Jack's heart was like lead, but not a muscle of her +lovely face moved, her eyelashes did not even tremble. + +Jim watched Dan sneak across the divide and he and Jack waited until the +four men started on foot across the plain. Then Jim smiled a slow smile +which meant many things. "Don't you worry quite so much about our losing +our ranch, Jacqueline Ralston," Jim announced. "If old Daniel Norton had +felt so sure he was going to succeed in getting our place away from us, +he would never have tried to steal our water at this stage of the game." + +The two horses were grazing near by and Jim lifted Jack into her saddle. +They turned their faces toward Rainbow Lodge. + +Once or twice, Jim rubbed his chin. "Pretty good day's work for us, +boss?" he asked finally. + +Jack's eyes danced and a deep rose color glowed in her cheeks. She did +not look in the least like the girl who had received in tears the news +of the possible loss of her home. + +Jack laughed softly, under her breath. "It sure was a good day's work, +overseer, and we'll fight till the hat drops," she answered, in the tone +of another cowboy. Then Jack flicked her pony with her whip. "Do let's +hurry, Jim," she called gaily. "I never saw anything in my life so +delicious as the picture you made lassoing Dan. I am just dying to get +home to tell the other girls." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE WET BLANKET. + + +"JACK, how are we ever going to quit using slang?" Jean groaned. + +"Oh, we do worse things, Jean Bruce," Jack answered unfeelingly. "Little +we know how many crimes we do commit! Just wait until a straight-laced +old maid gets hold of us! And what will Cousin Ruth say about Jim's +grammar? You know she is a B.A. from some woman's college. Do you know +Jean, I often wonder if Jim talks in the careless way he does simply +because he has lived so long out here with the cowboys. He must have had +some education when he was young, he seems to have read a great many +books." + +"Jim Colter is a clam," Jean remarked impatiently, forgetting her +resolution to speak only "English, pure and undefiled." "He would rather +die than to let us learn anything of his past. I do declare, Jack, that +if he were anybody in the world except Jim, I should think he had +something in his life he wished to conceal. I wonder if he ever had a +tragic love affair?" + +"Oh, Jean, you are a romantic goose," Jack exclaimed. "What was it you +had to show me?" + +Jean and Jack were giving a thorough cleaning to the living-room; Aunt +Ellen had shaken the rugs and polished the pine floor, but the two girls +were dusting vigorously in every crack and corner and rubbing the brass +candlesticks with an unaccustomed ardor. + +Through the entire Lodge there rioted a sense of preparation, as before +the approach of some great event. + +Jean flung down her dust cloth, seized Jack by the hand and marched her +over to the corner lined with their book shelves. + +Jack discovered an entirely unknown row of books. "Why, Jean Bruce!" +Jack exclaimed in amazement. "Where did you ever find these old things +and what do we want with them anyhow?" + +Jack was staring at Congressional reports, a few ancient law books and a +treatise on medicine. But there also were eight volumes of Gibbon's +"Rome," Greene's "History of The English People," and several other +valuable old histories, arranged in a conspicuous place on the book +shelves. Jean's most cherished novels had been stuck out of sight. + +Jean smiled a superior smile. "I found the books upstairs in Uncle's +trunk, of course, and I brought them down here to impress our new +chaperon or governess, which ever you choose to call her. I was +determined she should not think we were perfect dunces when she arrived +at Rainbow Lodge." + +Jack appeared to reflect. "I don't see how it will do much good," she +argued, half laughing. "Cousin Ruth will soon find out that we don't +know anything in the books worth mentioning." + +But Jean was not in the least discouraged. "First impressions are always +the most important, Jacqueline Ralston," she announced calmly. "My +advice to this family is to let Cousin Ruth get her shocks from our wild +behavior by degrees so that she will have time to rally in between." + +"Do you think she is going to find us so very dreadful?" Jack inquired +quite seriously, without the trace of a smile. She was climbing up on a +ladder to try to straighten a beautiful golden lynx skin, which was +slipping off the wall. + +"Worse than wild Indians," Jean replied, unmoved, "just you mark my +words, Miss Ralston. For instance, Miss Drew is going to announce that +it is a perfect shame for any one to shoot a poor dear wildcat. Uncle +ought to have reasoned with that cat when it jumped at him. She is going +to hate us and all our ways forever and want to go back to her blessed +New England in a week." + +Jack sighed, "you are a Job's comforter, Jean. But you don't have to +worry, I know Cousin Ruth will hold me responsible for our wicked ways. +You see I wrote her that we did not want her to come out to us when she +first said she would. Then I had to eat humble pie and say we did. But +even if she does not like you or me, Jean, she can't help caring for +Olive and Frieda. Olive is the prettiest, shyest girl in the world." + +Jean nodded. "Jack," she asked more sympathetically, "is Cousin Ruth +horribly old?" + +"She is twenty-eight and a dreadful old maid," Jack confessed sadly. +"Jean, you have simply got to ride over to the station with Jim to meet +her this afternoon." + +Jean shook her head and dropped languidly into a large reclining chair. +"I am not at all well, Jack," she answered, "I forgot to tell you this +morning, but I feel a bad cold coming on. If I should take a long ride I +am sure I should be quite ill." + +Jack stared at her cousin searchingly. "You don't show the least sign of +a cold, Jean," she argued. + +"That is because appearances are deceiving, sweet coz," Jean murmured. +"How is our dear lady cousin going to get over to the ranch?" + +"Oh, Jim is going to lead a horse over for her to ride back on," Jack +announced quite unconscious of breakers ahead. "You see the train gets +in so late that we couldn't get home until after dark, if we drove over, +and I thought it would be kind of nice to have Cousin Ruth arrive at +Rainbow Lodge just at twilight. You didn't think to look among father's +books for a stray paper, did you, Jean?" Jack asked, trying to appear +indifferent. + +"Yes, I did, Jack," Jean returned quickly. "There wasn't anything. Let's +don't talk about it. I promise to have everything at the Lodge to-night +in ship-shape order, when you arrive. We have cleaned up the whole house +and we will put on our best clothes and stand out on the veranda to meet +you; we might even sing, 'Hail, the conquering hero comes,' if you think +it would be appreciated." + +"Do you suppose Jim could meet Cousin Ruth without me?" Jack queried, as +a forlorn hope. + +Jean shook her head decidedly. "Most certainly not, Jack; never in the +world! The lady would think Jim was trying to kidnap her and he would be +scared to death." Jean kissed Jack apologetically. "I know I am horrid, +Jack, to put all the hard things off on you because you are a little bit +the oldest, but really, if I had to meet Cousin Ruth at the station, I'd +shiver and shake until I fell off my horse. I will do the next hard +thing that has to be done on this place, I will honestly, cross my heart +and body," Jean argued penitently. + +Three weeks had passed since Jim Colter's and Jack's eventful ride +across the ranch. It was late October, but unusually mild and warm. +Cousin Ruth had been written to on the very evening of the decision, so +that there could be no chance for a change of purpose on the part of +the ranch girls, for they felt that they were in for it and were +determined to do their best. + +Miss Ruth Drew was entirely alone in the world except for one +good-for-nothing brother and had just enough money to eke out a bare +existence in a dull little Vermont town. She wanted an object in life +and believed that the ranch girls needed her. So soon as Jack's letter +arrived, she had telegraphed that she would come to them at once. Since +then, the days at Rainbow Lodge had slipped by like magic until the +fated day arrived. Jim Colter and Jack, with many inward misgivings, +mounted their ponies and leading an extra one for Miss Drew, rode to the +station. + +The express from the East would be due in an hour. + +Jack and Jim paced restlessly up and down the station platform, with +their arms locked. Jim looking even more wretched and unhappy than Jack. +He wondered how in the world he was to treat the old lady cousin when +she came out to them, and whether she would shut off from caring for his +adored ranch girls. + +Jim had not the remotest idea of Miss Ruth Drew's age. The name had an +elderly sound to it and Jack had described her as an old maid; +consequently Jim's mental picture showed a small, grey-haired woman with +corkscrew curls, somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty, with thin lips +and a penetrating eye. She would probably reduce him to powder with a +single glance, but he meant to be as polite to her as he humanly could +and to speak to her only when it was absolutely necessary. + +"Jim," Jack suggested finally, "you have sighed like a human bellows +three times in the past five minutes. If you meet Cousin Ruth with that +expression, she'll think we are sorry she has come. Please go over into +the town and buy yourself some tobacco or something to cheer you. I'll +get on Tricks and ride up and down near the track for a while, and then +we will both be in a better humor when the train finally does get in." + +Miss Ruth Drew sighed. She was sitting in the Pullman car with her eyes +closed and an expression of supreme fatigue on her sallow but not +unattractive face. + +It seemed to her that she had been traveling ever since she could +remember. Were there people in the world idiotic enough to think there +was beauty in the western prairies? For days she had looked out on bare +stretches of endless brown plains rising and falling in one monotonous +chain. The sand was in her eyes, in her ears, in her mouth; worst of +all, it had piled up in a great mass of homesickness on her heart. + +How could she have turned her back on dear New England villages, with +their sleepy, green and white homesteads and trim gardens, for this vast +desert? "Of course, she was doing her duty in coming to look after four +motherless girls," Ruth remembered, with a pang, but her duty at the +present moment did not appear cheerful. + +When the conductor announced that the next station was hers, Ruth sat up +and arranged her hat and veil neatly. She adjusted her glasses on her +thin nose and put back the single lock of hair that had strayed from its +place. Her heart began to flutter a little faster. Was she actually +arriving in the neighborhood of Rainbow Ranch? It didn't seem possible! + +If you can imagine a very prim, grey mouse kind of girl, who looked a +good deal older than she was, with ash brown hair and eyes and a neat +tailor-made suit to match, you will get a very good impression of Miss +Ruth Drew. Her figure was very good and her mouth might have been +pretty, except that it looked as though she disapproved of a great many +things, and that is never becoming. But she was tired and homesick and +it was not a fair time to judge her. + +It would be another fifteen minutes before she would get into Wolfville, +and Ruth closed her eyes again. There was nothing to see out of her +window that was in the least interesting and she preferred to think +about the ranch girls. She wondered if they would be very hard to get on +with, if they were very wild and reckless. It made her shudder: the idea +of her cousin's children growing up with only a common cowboy for their +friend and adviser. + +There was a little stir in the car, the engine had slowed down. Ruth +opened her eyes; what had made her traveling companions' faces brighten +with interest? Three or four of them rushed across the aisle and pressed +their noses up against the window panes on her side of the coach. One +man threw up the car window, leaned out and shouted: "Hurrah!" A woman +waved her handkerchief. + +Ruth's curiosity was aroused and she gazed languidly out her window. +Flying along the road that followed the line of the track, was a Western +pony. The horse was running like a streak, his nostrils quivering with +excitement, his feet pounding along the hard sand. + +"Beat it! beat it!" cried the excited stranger. "Did anybody ever see +such riding before?" The man addressed the entire car. + +Ruth could see that there was someone on the horse, running a race with +the express train. The rider was in brown and Ruth could not observe +very distinctly. She supposed that it was an Indian boy. + +"That girl is a wonder!" the man exclaimed, who had been traveling next +the prim young woman from the East for four days without daring to look +straight at her. He leaned over his seat and smiled. + +"Girl!" Miss Drew repeated in surprise. "Was the figure on horseback a +girl?" Ruth was quite willing to admit that she had never seen such +horsemanship in her life. The girl was perfectly graceful and at times +she leaned over to urge her pony on, or bent sideways as though she +swayed with the motion of the wind. She seemed to rest on her horse so +lightly that she added no burden to him but was like the spirit of +motion carrying him on. + +The engine ahead whistled three times. The train was moving slowly, +still it was remarkable how the rider kept up with the passenger coach. + +Just as the car rolled into the station, the girl on horseback flashed a +smile at the people watching her from the car windows, and Ruth had a +brief glimpse of a shaft of sunlight caught in a mass of bright, bronze +hair and a pair of radiant cheeks and eyes. Then she seized her suit +case and umbrella, slipped into her overshoes and hurried out of the +train. She had read that it rarely rained in Wyoming, except in the +spring, but she wished to run no risk of taking cold. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +AN UNFORTUNATE ARRIVAL. + + +THERE was no one on the platform when Ruth dismounted, but a tall man, +who was not looking for her. He was oddly handsome in spite of his queer +Western clothes, and Ruth wished for an instant that he might be Mr. +Colter. Evidently he was not. He stared at her curiously for a few +seconds, then searched anxiously along every other exit of the train. + +Cousin Ruth could discover no one else. The madcap girl, who had run her +wild race with the train, was a little distance off. She was holding +three ponies by their bridles, and as one of them was dancing with +nervousness on account of the noise of the engine, the girl had her +hands full. + +Ruth Drew's heart sank to ten degrees below zero. Had she traveled +across the continent to a wild Western town to find no one to meet her? +The ranch girls could not be so rude; and Ruth determined to ask the +good-looking man with the worried expression, what she ought to do. + +[Illustration: "CAN I DO ANYTHING FOR YOU, MA'AM?"] + +Jim was gazing sadly after the departing coaches. You see he was looking +for a white-haired woman of about fifty, and supposed that the old lady +hadn't known enough to get off the train at the right station, and had +gone on to the next stop. How in the world would he be able to connect +with her? + +Jim saw the young woman on the platform, but she wasn't as large and +didn't seem to him to be much older than Jack. He supposed she had come +to visit some of their ranch neighbors, yet she looked unhappy, as +though she wanted to cry. Jim's heart was touched. + +He took off his broad Mexican hat, and Ruth thought with a sudden gasp +that she had never seen such blue eyes and such black hair before. + +"Can I do anything for you, ma'am?" Jim inquired politely. "It 'pears +like your folks haven't come to meet you." + +Ruth shook her head. She was too full of tears to trust herself to speak +for a moment. "I am afraid not," she answered finally. "Will you be good +enough to tell me how I can get over to the Rainbow Ranch? I have come +to live with the Ralston girls. I am their cousin--" + +"Not Ruth?" Jim exclaimed, forgetting his shyness in his surprise. "You +can't be Cousin Ruth, because the girls told me she was an old maid." +Jim stopped abruptly, conscious that he had put his foot in it with his +first remark to their new visitor. + +Cousin Ruth drew herself up a little stiffly. She did not like to be +called "an old maid," perhaps because she knew she often acted and +looked like one, but she was too tired to care much about anything at +present. She only longed with all her heart to be driven home to Rainbow +Lodge. + +"I am Cousin Ruth just the same," she answered feebly, trying to smile. + +Jim grabbed her suit case, carried her umbrella like a shot gun, and +marched her toward the girl who was holding the three horses, the same +girl who had shocked and entertained her from the car window. + +Jacqueline slid off her pony and passed the three bridles to Jim. She +did not know whether she ought to kiss her cousin or only to shake hands +with her, for there was something in Ruth's expression that froze Jack's +first affectionate intention. Ruth was truly horrified at Jack's +behavior. She didn't see how a girl could be so reckless of +appearances. + +Jack held out a slim, cool hand. "I am awfully glad to see you, Cousin +Ruth. It was very good of you to come out to us. I hope you are not +tired," Jack remarked, as though she had learned her greeting out of an +etiquette book. She was as stiff as a wooden Indian, because she felt so +abominably shy. + +Ruth's feelings were hurt. She did not think of her own manners, merely +of Jack's. "Yes, I am tired," she replied coldly. "Is the carriage +waiting for us in the town?" + +Jack's face reddened. Jim gave a hasty glance of embarrassment toward +the two women. There was an awkward silence. + +Jack found her voice first. "We didn't bring a wagon over for you, +Cousin Ruth. We don't own a carriage," Jack explained. "It is so late +that we didn't think we would get to the ranch before night, if we +drove. We brought a horse for you to ride." + +Ruth Drew sank limply on the ground. "A horse to ride!" she exclaimed +faintly. "I have never been on a horse in my life. How far is it to the +ranch?" + +"Ten miles," Jack acknowledged shame-facedly. Ten miles did sound like +a great distance to a stranger, although the ranch girls had always +thought that they lived very close to town; but the idea of a +full-grown, able-bodied woman not knowing how to ride horseback had +never entered Jacqueline Ralston's head. What on the face of the green +earth were they to do? "You had better go over into the town and see if +you can get a carriage, Jim," Jack advised. "I never thought of Cousin +Ruth's not liking to ride. I can lead the two horses home, if you will +drive her over." + +Jack was really miserably embarrassed at her own failure as a hostess. +She knew that they were making a dreadful first impression on Cousin +Ruth, and Jean had warned her that first impressions were most +important. But Ruth Drew thought she caught something in Jack's tone +that sounded supercilious. There was nothing so extraordinary in Ruth's +being ignorant of horses, she had never been rich enough to own one; yet +it was quite impossible for the Eastern girl and the Western one to +understand each other's points of view. + +Jim Colter came back utterly crestfallen; there was no carriage to be +had in the town. + +With the courage of despair, Ruth let herself be swung up on the homely +broncho. She was horribly frightened, although Jack assured her that she +was riding the gentlest pony on the ranch, one that belonged to little +Frieda. It made no difference, Ruth slipped and slid. She clutched the +pony's mane in her hands and let Jim lead her, yet every time the pony +went out of a walk, Ruth wanted to shriek with fear. She had traveled +hundreds and hundreds of miles from Vermont to Wyoming, but the distance +was as nothing to her ten-mile horseback ride to Rainbow Lodge. + +Every muscle in Ruth's body ached; she had a horrid stitch in her side +and swayed uncertainly in the saddle. Each moment she expected to fall +off. + +The ride home seemed almost as long to Jack and Jim as it did to their +guest. They were so ashamed of themselves, and Jack's cheeks were hot +with blushes every time she looked at her new cousin. + +After about an hour of slow traveling, Jack caught sight of Ruth. Her +face was grey with pain and fatigue. + +"Stop, Jim," Jack called sharply. "Cousin Ruth is going to faint." + +Ruth had a dim recollection of being lifted off her horse and for the +rest of her journey she felt herself being held up by a strong arm. Now +and then a man's voice spoke to her, as if she were a little girl and he +were trying to comfort her. He was a haven of refuge and Ruth did not +think or care who or what he was, and finally he brought her safely to +Rainbow Lodge. + +Jack thought she had never seen her home so lovely. There was a golden +glow behind the house and the wind stirred through the quivering yellow +leaves of the cottonwood trees. Rainbow Creek lay on one side of them +and on the other the broad sweep of the plains. Jack gazed wistfully at +Ruth who was riding in front of Jim; surely their new cousin would show +some interest in her new home! + +Jean, Frieda and Olive ran out in the yard to meet the cavalcade. Jack +waved her hand, but Cousin Ruth did not open her eyes. + +"We are about home, now, Miss Drew," Jim found courage to say. + +"Heaven be praised!" Ruth sighed. She could barely speak. + +Aunt Ellen was waiting on the porch in a starched white apron, and took +in the situation with quick sympathy. She saw her girls' disappointed, +embarrassed faces and their cousin's worn one. + +Aunt Ellen gathered Ruth in her arms. "Leave her alone, honies, she is +just tired out," she explained to the ranch girls. And without the least +effort from Ruth, Aunt Ellen got her in bed, fed her some broth and told +her to go to sleep and not to worry. + +In the big living-room with its splendid pine fire, Jack, Jean, Frieda +and Olive ate their feast of welcome alone. + +It was hardly worth while to have taken so much trouble to get ready for +a guest who looked neither at you nor your house when she came in to it. + +Jack was plainly cast down. Jean, Frieda and Olive were almost as +discouraged. + +"I think Cousin Ruth is tiresome," Jean exclaimed petulantly. "I don't +see why she couldn't have spoken to us." + +Frieda's blue eyes filled with tears. "I don't believe she is going to +like us very much," she added disconsolately. + +"I am dreadfully afraid of her already," Olive sighed. "Are you sure, +Jack, that you explained to her about me? She not like my living with +you at the ranch." + +Jack put her arm about Olive and drew her toward the fire. "Of course +Cousin Ruth will care for you as much as she does for any one of us, +Olive; she has to," Jack insisted. "Remember that while you haven't any +name of your own, you are Olive Ralston. Isn't it splendid that old +Laska and Josef have left us in peace? I wonder if they do intend to +give you up to us without any more fuss!" + +Olive shivered a little in Jack's grasp. "I hope so," she answered +fervently. "Laska and the old Indian life seem hundreds of years away. +Yet I have been at the ranch only a little less than a month." + +"Don't worry, Olive," Jack returned thoughtfully. "Let us just be glad +to-night that we have one more evening alone;" which shows how Jack felt +about the arrival of the new chaperon. + +The girls sat up quite late. Frieda went to sleep with her head in +Jack's lap, Jean fell to nodding, but Olive and Jack were wide awake. +Olive was older than the ranch girls had thought her at first. She must +have come next to Jack, although old Laska had never told Olive her +exact birthday. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +ALL SAVE JACK! + + +IT was nearly noon next day when the latest comer to Rainbow Lodge +awoke. She still felt sore and stiff from her long journeyings, but she +could never remember such a blissful sleep in her life. + +Out her bedroom window, Ruth thought she caught the sound of the girls' +voices and dipping into her wrapper, threw up her window blind. The sun +flooded her room with a curious radiance. Ruth felt she had never known +what real sunlight was before. It certainly cleared away the mists from +her heart and brain. + +Ruth gazed around her room. It was a joy to her in its wide sunlit +emptiness. The girls had hung white muslin curtains at the windows, the +little pinewood table, chair and bureau were painted white and the bed +was white iron. A little fire burned in the low grate, for Aunt Ellen +had stolen in and laid it, without wakening their guest. There was no +color in the room except the soft brown stain on the walls and floor, +and one bright, red and black Indian blanket. + +Ruth understood that the girls had made the place lovely for her. She +began to feel that perhaps they did want her with them after all. +Unconsciously she yielded to the cheerful spirit of Rainbow Lodge and +hurrying into her clothes, found Aunt Ellen ready with her toast and +coffee. + +Aunt Ellen explained that the ranch girls had disappeared somewhere +about the ranch. They had waited for their visitor, but when it seemed +that she was going to sleep all day, they vanished. + +"You mustn't mind, Miss," Aunt Ellen murmured apologetically, "but they +can't somehow stay indoors, so long as the good weather holds." + +Cousin Ruth went shyly out on the ranch-house veranda. She was thinking +regretfully of what a bad impression she had made on her cousins the +night before, because she, too, had planned a very different kind of +meeting. No recollection remained of any one of the girls, except Jack, +whom she would always remember as the young Centaur she saw racing +across the plains. + +Ruth strolled slowly down the path through the cottonwood trees. She was +beginning to feel lonely, and hoped one of the girls would turn up soon. +Above her head the yellow leaves rustled softly and the brown landscape +no longer looked uninteresting. It was all new and strange, she thought, +but some day she might learn to care for it. + +If Miss Drew had not been so deep in her reflections, she would not have +been so terrified a moment later. For suddenly in her way there loomed a +big shaggy animal and a pair of huge paws clung to her shoulders. + +Ruth screamed. + +"Down! Shep, down!" cried a merry voice. "I am so sorry, Cousin Ruth. +Shep is our watchdog. He never realizes that visitors don't understand +his friendly intentions." + +Jean slipped through an opening in the trees, carrying a tin bucket on +her arm. "I have been for some milk," she explained. "The cows Jim keeps +for our use have their stable near Jim's house and Aunt Ellen wanted +some extra milk and sent me for it. I hope you feel quite rested." + +Jean sometimes tilted her head, with its mass of heavy brown hair, a bit +to one side, when she was deeply interested. She surveyed their new +chaperon with such a merry, friendly sparkle in her wide-open brown eyes +that Ruth was charmed with her at once. She couldn't have guessed that +Miss Jean Bruce was making a rapid inventory of Miss Ruth Drew's +character, inside and out. + +"Manner, stiff and old maidy; complexion, bad; hair pretty, if she fixed +it differently; mouth looks like she has eaten something acid, except +when she smiles, then mouth and eyes quite nice; figure small, but +distinctly good." + +Ruth was patting old Shep, for as usual Jean was talking in a steady +stream. "Hope you didn't mind our going off and leaving you," she +apologized. "You see we have a good many small duties about the ranch. +Jack probably won't be back until luncheon, but I am sure we will soon +find Frieda and Olive." + +Ruth leaned over. "Won't you kiss me, Jean?" she asked unexpectedly. "I +have an idea you and I may be good friends." She guessed that Jean was +mischievous and full of fun, but not nearly so hard to influence as +headstrong Jack. + +Jean's manner softened. She put down her milk pail and gave the +much-discussed cousin an affectionate hug. "I hope you are going to be +happy with us at Rainbow Lodge," she exclaimed. "You know we are used to +doing pretty much what we like, but remember, if things go wrong, you +are going to tell us how to behave," and she ended her advice with such +a funny expression that Cousin Ruth laughed and slipped her hand through +Jean's arm. + +"Just let me get through with playing 'Molly the Milkmaid,' Cousin Ruth, +and we will go find the other girls," Jean suggested when they got back +to the ranch house. A minute later Jean reported that Aunt Ellen thought +Olive and Frieda were somewhere near the creek. Olive had suggested that +she would try to catch some fresh fish for Cousin Ruth's luncheon. + +The waters of Rainbow Creek were no longer in danger of flowing into the +Norton ranch. Jim and his men had built a dam at the end of Rainbow +Lake, where the dynamite explosion had taken place. The Ralston Ranch +had filed suit for damages against Mr. Norton, but the claim had not yet +been settled. + +Ruth and Jean crossed some stepping-stones to the wooded side of the +stream and had walked only a short distance beyond, when Ruth spied a +gleam of color a little farther on. It was Frieda, who wore a red Tam, a +red sweater and her long blonde plaits tied with red ribbons. She was +sitting on the stump of an old tree sewing some bits of ribbon together +as calmly as though she had been in a little rocking-chair by the fire. +She looked so like a little German mädchen, though she was so far away +from the _Vaterland_, that Ruth wanted to laugh aloud. + +"Frieda!" called an unfamiliar voice. + +Frieda glanced quickly up. She was making a pincushion for their new +cousin and had not had time to finish, but hoped to be through with it +before Olive landed her fish. + +The bits of silk ribbon fluttered to the ground as Frieda caught sight +of a stranger not much larger than Jean. She had her arms outstretched +and such an eager look in her nearsighted eyes that Frieda flew straight +to her. + +"I am awfully glad to see you, I am really," Frieda announced, giving +her new cousin an old-fashioned hug. "There are such a lot of things I +want you to show me that Jack and Jean and Olive don't know a single +thing about. And I am sure I shall like you in spite of what--" But a +warning look from Jean cut short Frieda's confidences. + +"Where is Olive?" Jean asked quickly. + +"She is not very far away," Frieda answered, "but you must walk softly +or you will frighten the fish." + +Cousin Ruth tiptoed as softly as Frieda could wish. She was curious to +see this new ranch girl whom Jack had written her about, and she would +have been sorry to have missed her first vision of Olive. + +Olive hung out over the water, where the creek deepened into a small +pool, under the branches of a scrub pine tree. One slender arm clung to +a limb of the young tree as she looked down into the muddy water in the +shadow of the evergreen boughs. Ruth had a quick and vivid impression of +her glossy black hair; her delicate figure, with its peculiar woodland +grace, clothed in an old green dress the color of the autumn grass, and +caught her breath in wonder. The girl looked like a dryad who had stolen +out of the heart of a tree to catch an image of herself in the water. + +"Olive, don't fall in the creek," Jean called out gaily. "Come and be +introduced to Cousin Ruth; she would rather see you than have fish for +her luncheon." + +Olive gave a startled cry and Jean made a dive for her. But Olive did +not tumble into the water. She gave a quick jerk to her fishing line, +hooked and drew in a good-sized trout. Then Olive slipped up the bank to +the others. Ruth looked curiously at the dark, rich coloring of her +face; she did not seem like an Indian, and yet she certainly bore no +resemblance to an American girl. Cousin Ruth felt that she would be an +interesting study, although Olive was too shy to say more than a dozen +words of greeting. + +"Come on, let's walk a little farther along the creek, Jack won't be +home for a while yet," Jean declared. "Jack thinks the ranch would go to +rack and ruin unless she were around to boss things." + +"Don't you think maybe it would?" Olive questioned gently. + +Jean laughed. "Oh, I expect so, Olive; but how you do take up for Jack! +Cousin Ruth, you will have to protect Frieda and me. Olive thinks Jack +is perfection and agrees to anything she says." + +"Look, look! Oh, please don't talk," Frieda cried in excitement, +pointing up in the sky above the bed of the creek. + +A weird troop of birds was flying toward them, uttering a queer, +guttural noise. They were some distance off, but their short wings +seemed to clack like Spanish castanets and their long legs looked like +dangling bits of string. + +"What on earth are those creatures?" Ruth asked helplessly. She was +surely seeing interesting sights in what she had thought a barren and +desert land. + +"They are sand cranes," Olive whispered softly. "Let's be quite still. +They are flying so low, I think they mean to alight. They must have +mistaken the creek for a river." + +Frieda snickered and put her hand to her mouth. + +"Shsh, Frieda," Olive cautioned. "These funny birds are as shy as deer. +If they do alight, they will probably come down in the cleared field." + +The birds swept slowly down nearer the earth in a half circle, still +uttering their curious cries. It was as Olive said, they were moving +toward an open field. + +The four girls crept breathlessly through the trees and bushes, until +they could find peepholes. + +The cranes dipped down. One of them touched the ground, then another +descended, and the third joined them; the birds stood each with a long +thin leg drawn up out of sight, until the whole flock had landed in a +circle on the ground. The leader must have squawked: "Bow to your +partners, swing your corners," for the birds immediately started a +stately dance. They flapped their wings, they twisted their long necks, +they fanned their short tails and made strange signs to one another. +They hopped together to a given spot and then hopped back again, never +for a single moment losing their solemn dignity. + +Ruth held in as long as she could. But really this dance of the +sand-hill cranes was the funniest sight she had ever seen in her life! +She laughed silently, until the tears ran down her cheeks, her glasses +slid off her nose and she forgot she had ever thought of being +homesick. Frieda chuckled softly at first. But finally Jean and Olive +joined in, and the secret audience burst into a roar. + +The leader of the cranes cast a shocked, horrified glance behind him, +clacked a signal to his followers and the birds rose together in flight. + +Olive ran out into the field and a long, light brown feather fluttering +downward from the last bird in the flock, rested for a second in her +black hair. Frieda skipped toward her. "Give the feather to me, Olive," +Frieda begged. "It is exactly what I want to trim my doll's hat." + +But Olive made no answer, and when she joined Ruth and Jean she looked a +little pale. + +"What's the trouble, Olive?" Jean asked. "You look so funny, just like +you were frightened over something." + +Olive shook her head. "Oh, I know I am silly," she explained, "and I +don't really believe in it. But there is an old Indian legend, that when +a bird drops a feather at your feet, it is to give you a warning of +approaching danger. There is an Indian story of a young chief who was on +his way to war. Three times an eagle cast down a feather before him. +The chief knew what the signal meant, but he went on into battle just +the same. Of course he and his men were killed!" + +Jack was waiting at the ranch house when the girls returned. She tried +to stifle the pang of jealousy she felt when Frieda clung to her new +cousin, instead of racing to her in her usual fashion. + +Jack and Ruth shook hands politely. Each one of them tried to be as +friendly as possible to the other. But to save their lives they could +not get rid of their first feeling of antagonism. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK. + + +"THERE is not the least harm in it, Cousin Ruth. It is only that you +don't understand our Western customs," Jack announced sweetly. + +She was standing in front of the living-room fire with her hands clasped +behind her. Her head was up in the air, showing the firm line of her +chin and the mutinous expression of her eyes, which were half closed. + +It was after tea at Rainbow Lodge and, except for Jack and Cousin Ruth, +the scene would have been a peaceful and beautiful one. + +Jean was playing softly on a new piano which had lately been installed +at the Lodge, for among other things the new governess was giving the +ranch girls music lessons. Jean, who had studied before and had a good +deal of talent, was rarely away from the piano when she was in the +house. Frieda leaned against her cousin, watching her play, while Olive +had a book in her lap, pretending to read. Cousin Ruth sat by the +library table with a basket of mending beside her and a very +uncompromising expression on her face. She was pale to-night, although +she looked in better health and younger than she had when she first +arrived at Rainbow Ranch three weeks before. + +"I am sorry to differ with you, Jack," Ruth returned firmly. "But it +would be very difficult to convince me that a round-up is any place for +a young girl. If it is a western custom for girls to attend them, then I +think the custom is shocking. In any case I am certainly not willing for +you to go." + +Jack's eyes flashed defiantly. For three weeks there had been a kind of +armed neutrality between Jacqueline Ralston and her new cousin. Jack +considered that she had been very patient with Cousin Ruth's bossing. +Ruth believed that she had been very forbearing with Jack's pride. Jack +had given up her beloved custom of riding over the ranch every morning, +to spend three poky hours in the schoolroom with the other girls, but +she did not intend to be interfered with any further in her plans for +running their ranch. + +"I am sorry, Cousin Ruth," Jack argued, still keeping her temper under +control. "In anything else I should be quite willing to give up to your +judgment, but you see I happen to know about our Wyoming round-ups and +you don't. They are not nearly so wild and bloodthirsty as you imagine. +I shall not go near the place where they are herding the cattle, though +lots of times women drive over to the round-ups and stay on the +outskirts of things just to see the cowboys and horses pass by. It's +simply great!" For a moment Jack's eyes sparkled, but then she tried to +appear more serious. "Besides, Cousin Ruth, it happens to be a matter of +business for me to attend the round-up this fall. This is the last one +until spring and, as I told you, it will be only a small one, but lots +of our cattle have been disappearing for months and I want to consult +with some of our neighboring ranchmen about it. Jean Bruce, do please +stop making that noise," Jack demanded, her bad humor flashing out at +Jean. + +Jean brought her music to an end with a loud crash, and then came over +and sat down cross-legged on a rug by the fire in front of Ruth. + +"Don't waste your time arguing with Jack, Cousin Ruth," Jean advised. +"When she says she ought to do a thing, she means she intends to do it. +It is perfectly absurd for Jack to insist that she has any business at +the round-up, for she knows perfectly well that Jim can attend to +everything. It is nobody in the world but old Dan Norton who is stealing +our cattle and it seems to me we had better not have any more trouble +with him, until more important affairs are settled." + +"I entirely agree with you, Jean," said Cousin Ruth severely. "Jack, you +are not old enough to decide such matters for yourself." + +Jack did not answer. She directed a single angry glance at Jean, but +Jean was hard to quarrel with. She made the most irritating speeches and +then looked as innocent as a lamb. Frieda had stolen up to Jack and +slipped her hand in her sister's. It frightened Frieda terribly when +people quarreled, and Jack saw that her little sister's eyes were full +of tears. + +Jack walked over and sat down in a big chair, drawing little Frieda up +in her lap and there was an uncomfortable silence in the room until +feet sounded along the hall and a knock came at the living-room door. + +"Why it's Jim!" Jean exclaimed in surprise, scrambling to her feet. "I +wonder what brings him up to the ranch house to-night? We have seen +hardly anything of him since Cousin Ruth arrived!" + +Ruth bent her head lower over her work. It was true. She need not have +feared Mr. Colter's influence with the ranch girls, for he had not been +to the Lodge, except on business, since she undertook to chaperon them. +He was very polite to her, but he seemed afraid to speak in her +presence. Ruth wondered if she seemed as much of an old maid to him as +he had thought her at first. + +"Jim, what's up? You are a swell to-night," Jean teased. "Did you think +we were giving a party?" + +Jim did look different. He wore a stiff white shirt instead of a soft +flannel one and could hardly turn his head in his starched linen collar. + +Frieda flew to him with a little cry of welcome. + +"What's the matter, baby?" Jim demanded, noticing Frieda's flushed +cheeks. As he gazed slowly around the family group, he noticed Miss +Jacqueline Ralston's haughty expression and Miss Ruth Drew's severe one; +saw Olive's troubled face and Jean's mischievous one. "I guess I had +better be going," Jim suggested, backing toward the door. + +"Oh, no, Jim," Jack insisted carelessly. "There is nothing the matter, +only Cousin Ruth does not wish me to go to the round-up with you in the +morning. Will you please tell her that cowboys aren't all villains!" + +Jim frowned. "If your Cousin don't want you to go, Jack, seems like you +had better stay at home," he declared quietly. + +A little flush of triumph spread over Ruth's face. This was her first +trouble with any one of the ranch girls and their friend had sided with +her. She gave him a grateful glance, then closed her lips more firmly +than ever. With any one of the four girls save Jack, she would have +tried persuasion instead of command. But it seemed to her perfectly +useless to attempt to influence Jack. + +Jack shrugged her shoulders. "I don't agree with you, Jim," she declared +obstinately. + +Jim brought his lips together with a snap and stared straight at the +elder Miss Ralston. "Look here, Jack," he said, "wasn't it you who +asked your cousin to come out here to live with you, so as to have some +one to tell you what was right? Now it seems to me that you only want +her to tell you what you happen to want to do. I wasn't at all certain +that you ought to ride over to the round-up with me, but I've been +treating you like a boy so long, I can't somehow remember you're a girl. +Stay at home and keep out of mischief." Jim laughed. + +Ruth smiled, thinking the battle was won, but Jack got up calmly and +marched out of the room and they heard her bedroom door close. + +"I am afraid Jack is kind of hard-headed, but you mustn't mind," Jim +murmured apologetically. "You see she has always had things pretty much +her own way." + +"Oh, let's don't talk about Jack," Jean expostulated. "Jim, I have been +telling Cousin Ruth that it is perfectly absurd for her not to learn how +to ride horseback and that she might as well be buried alive as not to +know how to ride out here on the ranch. The very idea, we can't go to +return Mrs. Simpson's and the lovely Laura's call without hitching up +our old mess-wagon. For goodness sake, won't you teach Cousin Ruth to +ride? She won't be so scared with you." + +"Sure Mike," Jim exclaimed heartily and then turned a dark mahogany from +embarrassment. He had intended to use only copy-book language in his +conversation with the new governess. + +Ruth was surprised. Jim was a puzzle to her, but there was no doubt that +he was very kind and very good-looking. + +"I shall be horribly stupid and nervous, Mr. Colter," Ruth protested, +"but if you are sure you won't mind the trouble?" + +Jim did not leave the ranch house until ten o'clock that evening. He +managed to have five minutes alone with Ruth, after the girls said +good-night. + +"Miss Drew," he whispered, "will you be good enough not to let Olive go +away from the ranch alone? I came up to the Lodge to-night not knowing +whether or not I should tell the girls, but I have received threatening +notices from the Indians lately. They say they are going to have the +girl back with them at any cost. I don't believe they have any right to +her. She is old enough to be a free agent, but the Indians are a queer, +revengeful lot. They can bide their time and strike when you least +expect it." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE ROUND-UP. + + +JUST after dawn, Olive stole softly into Jack's and Jean's bedrooms. +Jean was asleep. But Jack's place was empty. On her pillow was a sheet +of paper addressed to "Miss Ruth Drew." + +Olive alone of the group before the living-room fire in the evening just +past, had realized that Jack had no idea of giving up her intention. + +Olive slipped quickly into her clothes, determined to follow her friend. +She was unusually timid, but she knew that Jack must not go alone among +the wild cattle and the strange men who gathered at the autumn round-up. +The girl had little knowledge of what a round-up was like but knew that +the Indians often went to it and camped about on the outskirts of the +plains to enjoy the racing and sports that usually closed the day's +work. + +Jack must have had about a half hour's start of Olive. She rode as fast +as she could tear for the first few miles of the way, knowing that Jim +had started several hours before. Their cowboys had been off over the +plains for two days searching for their stray cattle and herding them +into the great open field selected for the round-up. There was no one to +follow her and Jack slowed down. Then her heart began to fail her the +least little bit, for she supposed everybody at the ranch would be +furious with her for her disobedience. + +Jack heard another horse coming along the trail behind her. Her +repentance vanished, for she presumed Miss Drew had sent some one to +bring her ignominiously back home. + +"Jack, Jack," Olive's gentle voice called. "Won't you please slow down a +little? Your horse is faster than mine and my poor beast is tired +already." + +Jacqueline waited, but she stared at Olive reproachfully. "I did not +think you would come to try to make me go back home, Olive," Jack +exclaimed. "I thought you knew that when I said I intended to do a +thing, I would do it, in spite of all the Miss Ruth Drews and Mr. Jim +Colters in the world." + +Olive knew that Jack was behaving abominably but she could not help +feeling the deepest admiration for her. To Olive, Jack's courage and +high spirit were glorious. Olive was so shy and frightened; she had +borne so much ill treatment from the time she was a little girl that her +nature was almost crushed and she could only contend with people when +she was driven to the last limit of patience. But when Olive made up her +mind to a step, she had the Indian's power of endurance. + +"I only came to go along to the round-up with you, Jack," Olive replied +quietly. + +Jack flushed. She was fairly sure of being able to bear her own burdens, +but she did hate getting other people into trouble. "You are awfully +sweet, Olive dear, but do go back home," Jack urged. "Jim and Cousin +Ruth will both be furiously angry with us and there is no reason why you +should have any of the blame. You know you will hate this old round-up +and be dreadfully frightened, and that you are only coming on my +account." + +Olive shook her head. "Never mind, Jack," she answered, "I have come +with you now so I would have to get my share of the scolding and I am +not going to have you go to that place alone." Olive kept her horse just +behind Jack's and the two girls rode for a short time in silence. By +and by Jack sighed. + +"What's the matter, Jack?" Olive asked quickly. + +Jack laughed wickedly. "Oh, it is not that I have repented of my evil +deed, Olive," she returned. "It is only that I am so dreadfully hungry. +I sneaked off this morning without a bit of food. I know we can get some +lunch at the mess-wagons, or perhaps we may find some one we know at the +round-up. But the question with me is, how am I ever going to live until +then?" + +Olive silently produced two rolls with slices of bacon between them. + +"I stole them on my way to the stable," she announced happily. "I knew +you hadn't eaten anything and I didn't dare to wait." + +The two girls ate their outdoor breakfast ravenously, for both were +enjoying their morning ride. It was cold, but they wore heavy sweaters +and corduroy riding skirts and besides, the swift ride had sent the warm +blood tingling through them. Jack was in brown and Olive in green, the +color Jack liked best for her. The sun had just risen and there was a +faint rose glow over the bare prairies, and in the distance the girls +spied a few coyotes racing along over the hard ground in search of their +breakfast, but for miles and miles there was no sign of human life. + +Finally the girls rode up to a pair of tents set up within no great +distance of the plain chosen for the round-up. There was a fire near one +of them, but the girls saw no people about and decided that they must +have been used by the cowboys for their sleeping quarters at night. + +Olive brought her pony closer to Jack's. + +"Don't be nervous, Olive," said Jack reassuringly. "I expect the +round-up is a pretty wild business, but we won't go near enough to get +into trouble and you must be sure to stay close to me. I shall try to +see some one to ask about our cattle and then we will start right back +home. We will be sure to be at Rainbow Lodge by night." + +Away off in the distance, the girls soon saw a great swirling cloud of +grey dust, rising over the yellow plain. They could distinguish an +enormous mass of moving objects and hear a far hollow roaring and +bellowing of men and animals. To the left, across a diagonal trail, +Jack saw a dark line of wagons at some distance from the round-up. She +knew they were the mess-wagons and carriages of the ranchmen, who came +over to superintend the branding of their cattle. If the ranchmen +happened to live near the scene of the round-up their wives and families +sometimes drove over to spend a few hours, but the women were careful +not to go near the frightened animals and returned home before night. + +The two girls moved slowly along this trail. + +Jack's eyes were dancing and her cheeks were glowing with excitement. +She dearly loved this typical western scene and its noise and savagery +did not frighten her. It was a part of the business of the cattlemen to +which she had always been accustomed. She was sorry of course that the +poor animals had to be burned with the brands of their owners, but since +the cattle ranged together through vast tracts of land, she knew of no +other way by which one ranchman could distinguish his cattle from +another's. Jack had been careful never to witness the branding, but she +had often seen the cowboys driving the herds across the plains. + +But Olive did not feel so cheerful. The distant noise and the surging +crowd alarmed her. She wished that she and Jack were safe at home. + +Coming at full speed down the trail toward them, the two girls spied two +cowboys wearing the full cowboy regalia, leather suits with fringed +trousers and immense sombrero hats, tied under their chins. + +"Great Scott!" cried a familiar voice. "Here come Jack Ralston and her +Indian girl! What a place for a couple of girls to be alone!" + +Jack's ears burned. She recognized Dan's tones but was not so much +abashed by meeting him, as she was by Frank Kent's astonished face. The +young English fellow's surprise was unmistakable. + +"May I stay with you until your escort joins you, Miss Ralston?" Frank +asked immediately. "The men about here are pretty rough and if you +should happen to get too near the cattle it might be dangerous. I am +told they sometimes break out and start a stampede." + +Jack kept her face turned away while Frank was speaking. She was +actually ashamed to return his friendly gaze. Frank had entirely +separated himself from Dan Norton, who was grinning scornfully at Olive +and Jack. + +"Please don't worry about us, Mr. Kent," Jack said quietly. "We won't +get into danger. I don't exactly like to tell you, but we rode over to +the round-up by ourselves. You understand that we didn't mean to go near +the men or the cattle, but I thought we might find some one we knew near +the mess-wagons." + +"Come on, Frank Kent," Dan Norton yelled impatiently. "Do you think I +have got time to waste while you talk to Jack Ralston all day? I told +Laura we would be back with them in half an hour. Hustle." + +Frank Kent's face was no longer pale, as it had been when Jack had her +first meeting with him on the Ralston Ranch. It had been tanned and +reddened by his weeks in the sun and air of Wyoming, but that did not +account for the sudden color that flamed in it. "Be quiet, Dan, you +cad," he ordered sharply. "Go when you like, I shall stay with Miss +Ralston and her friend." + +"I say, Miss Ralston," Frank suggested suddenly. "Mr. and Mrs. Simpson +are not very far away. They came over in their automobile, because Mrs. +Simpson thought maybe her sister and niece would like to see the cowboys +from the different ranches ride up to their work. Gee, they are +stunning-looking fellows, aren't they? I wish I were an artist, I would +like to paint them. Won't you come over to Mrs. Simpson with me? They +are well out of any danger and I know Mrs. Simpson would want you and +Miss Olive to join her." + +An unregenerate twinkle returned to Jack's eyes. "To tell you the truth, +Mr. Kent, I would like awfully to go over and stay with Aunt Sallie. +Olive and I feel very strange here alone, but the fact is I deliberately +ran away from home to come to the round-up and Olive rode along to +protect me. I am ashamed to confess my sin to Mrs. Simpson." + +"Nevertheless you had better come," Frank urged, and for once, Jack +yielded to another will. + +It might have been wiser to have turned back home than to have faced +Aunt Sallie and her Eastern relatives, but Jack and Olive could not have +ridden to Rainbow Lodge without having something more to eat. Olive +already seemed exhausted. She was quite pale and scarcely lifted her +eyes. Jack knew that Olive hated to meet the members of the house party, +whom she had not seen since the time when she was rescued from being +Miss Laura Post's maid. + +"Jack Ralston, the most unlikely place in the world is the most likely +place to find you," Mrs. Simpson exclaimed laughingly, as Frank and the +two newcomers rode up to her big touring car. "What in the world are you +girls doing here?" + +"Shall I tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, Aunt Sallie?" +Jack demanded, smiling at Mrs. Simpson and bowing to Mrs. Post, Laura +and Mr. Simpson. Mrs. Post put up her lorgnettes, as though she were in +a box at the opera, to gaze at these extraordinary girls. Their clothes +were dusty and their hair showed the effects of their long, morning +ride, but turning, Mrs. Post beheld her beloved Laura swathed in a pale +pink motor veil and a long fur coat, and breathed a sigh of admiration +and relief. Surely her Laura was not in the least like these Western +tomboys! + +Mrs. Simpson shrugged her handsome shoulders. "Well, you usually tell +the truth, whatever else you do and don't do, Jack," Mrs. Simpson +avowed. "I know you have run off, so just stay here and have lunch with +me." + +Mrs. Simpson was talking to Jack, but she was really interested in +Olive. How the girl had changed, in the few weeks since she had seen +her: she had always been pretty, but she had lost her look of fear. Her +grace and quiet manner showed beyond a doubt that from some source she +had a heritage of gentle blood. Mr. and Mrs. Simpson shook hands with +Olive very kindly, but Mrs. Post and Laura utterly ignored her. Olive +showed no resentment, but Jack was exceedingly provoked. + +The girls dismounted and climbed into the automobile. Now and then +groups of cowboys would pass by them, jingling their spurs and joking +with one another. Olive recognized a number of Indian boys, who had +lived in the Indian village, where she had been brought up. Among them, +she thought she saw old Laska's son and her supposed brother, Josef. + +Mrs. Simpson was worried over Dan's return to their party. She and Mr. +Simpson, and indeed all the ranchmen in the neighborhood, now knew of +Mr. Daniel Norton's claim to the ownership of Rainbow Ranch, and his +efforts to get it away from the ranch girls. Most of the neighbors +deeply sympathized with the Ralston girls. Mrs. Simpson dreaded a +meeting between Jack and Dan. She knew they were open enemies and hated +each other very sincerely. + +But when Dan joined them, Jack showed no trace of ill feeling. She had +thought matters over and decided that good manners compelled her to +behave as naturally as possible. She had no right to continue a quarrel, +when she and Dan were both guests. + +Dan Norton was in no such humor. He was furious with Frank for having +brought Jack and Olive to Mrs. Simpson, and he was determined to get +even with Jack, if he possibly could, for Jim's treatment of him at +their last meeting. + +Mrs. Simpson had an early lunch, since they meant to return to their +ranch in a short time. The tablecloth was spread out on the ground, and +unconsciously she placed Laura and Dan next Olive, who made no effort to +speak to them. But Dan whispered something to Laura, immediately they +got up and marching to the other end of the line of guests, sat down +directly opposite Jack and Frank. + +Nobody had much to say. To save her life, Jack could not talk naturally +with Dan's sneering face across from her. Mr. and Mrs Simpson did their +best, but the luncheon party was a failure. + +Dan was awaiting his opportunity. + +"Jack," Mr. Simpson remarked innocently, "Jim Colter tells me that you +have recently been losing some of your cattle and young colts. He says +that they disappear from your ranch, and when they are seen again they +have the brand of another owner on them. That is a pretty bad business. +Have you any idea who is responsible for the trouble?" + +Jack shook her head desperately. She was determined to say nothing that +could make any trouble. "No, Mr. Simpson, we don't know. That is, it +don't make any difference. Perhaps we are mistaken," she answered +lamely. + +Mr. Simpson was puzzled by Jack's manner. There was an awkward silence. + +Dan leaned over and whispered to Laura in a tone that could be +distinctly heard, not only by Jack and Frank, but by every member of the +small company. "I shouldn't think Jack Ralston would worry about losing +a few of her old cattle. She is going to lose something else pretty +soon, that is a good deal more important." + +Laura snickered nervously. She caught sight of Jack's face. + +Mrs. Simpson frowned and glanced hastily at Jack. Mr. Simpson's eyes +flashed and he too watched his young girl guest. Jack was distinctly +conscious that everybody in the party stared straight at her when Dan +ended his insulting speech. + +Jack felt herself turn cold all over. Only her face was scorching hot. +Half a dozen angry retorts trembled on her lips. She started to speak, +but then she turned to Frank and said quietly. "Won't you tell me +something more about your home in England? I am awfully interested." + +Mrs. Simpson breathed a sigh of relief. Only Laura seemed disappointed. +There was nothing she loved half so well as a scene and she fondly +believed Dan and Jack meant to treat her to one. + +Ten minutes later, Jack went over to Mrs. Simpson. "Aunt Sallie, I think +Olive and I had better start back to the ranch now. You were awfully +good to give us our luncheon, but we ought to be at home by dark." + +Mrs. Simpson caught Jack's hand. "You were a trump, Jack dear," she +whispered. "I would like to shake that red-headed boy if I had a chance +at him, but I believe somebody else will when you go." + +Jack smiled, though her voice trembled a little. "I don't think Dan and +I ought to carry on our quarrels at your table, Aunt Sallie," she +answered. "But you know if he says anything like that to me again, I +should die if I didn't answer him back. So, good-bye." + +Jacqueline bowed her farewells and she and Olive started toward their +ponies. + +Frank Kent had a moment alone with Dan. + +"Dan Norton, you have got to settle with me for that speech, you cub," +he insisted, in a white passion of anger that startled his host. + +Dan thought Frank too much of a gentleman to be willing to fight. + +"All right," he rejoined calmly, "choose your own time." + +Half way over to their horses, Frank joined Olive and Jack. + +"I am going to ride back to your ranch with you, Miss Ralston," Frank +announced quietly. + +Olive looked relieved, but Jack shook her head firmly. + +"You are awfully good, Mr. Kent," Jack protested. "But really Olive and +I can go home perfectly well alone. We would rather not trouble you." + +Frank assisted Olive on her broncho and then climbed into his own +saddle, Jack being already mounted. + +"Mr. Simpson thinks I had better go home with you," Frank repeated +carelessly. "And I think you might let me act as an honorary escort, +because in case you don't I shall simply ride along behind you." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +A RACE FOR LIFE. + + +"JACK, don't you think we are going too near the corrals?" Olive +inquired timidly. + +It was high noon. The cattle had been brought by the cowboys into the +open field and each ranchman had divided his own stock from the herds. +The animals had been driven into the corrals, separate enclosures made +of fence rails, one belonging to each of the neighboring ranches. In the +afternoon the branding of the cattle took place, but most of the cowboys +had now gone off to get something to eat before the real business of the +day began. Only a dozen men guarded the entire stockade. + +"Oh, no, Olive," Jack answered lightly. "I believe, if we ride a little +closer, we may get some news of Jim. I would like to see him to ask him +some questions, before we start back home." Jack rode gaily ahead, +forgetting her disagreeable scene with Dan Norton. The swarming hundreds +of cows and calves, the bright sunshine, the brilliantly blue sky +overhead, the noise and splendid action of the scene interested her +tremendously. + +"I think Miss Olive is right, Miss Ralston," Frank insisted gravely. "We +must not ride too near the stock, for fear of a stampede." + +"Just a few feet more," Jack begged, turning half way around in her +saddle to glance back at Olive and Frank. + +At this moment an immense bull burst out of one of the corrals and made +a wild dash across an open field. He was not headed toward Jack, or +Olive, or Frank, and there did not appear to be the least danger. + +Two of the cowboys made a rush to cut off the bull's charge but turned +back a moment later to their companions. It was more important for the +men to keep the other animals from following their leader, than to +recapture the one infuriated beast. + +Jim Colter had warned Jacqueline, when he first gave her the new pony, +that "Tricks" was well named. He had told her that she would have to +watch the little animal pretty closely, but Jack was a trained rider and +so far the mare had not given her any trouble. She had not realized, +when she came to the round-up, that "Tricks" was one of the ponies that +had been formerly used by the cow-punchers at the round-ups. + +Tricks saw the bull break away from the stockade and make its plunge for +freedom at the moment that Jack turned her head and slightly relaxed her +hold on the broncho's bridle. + +The pony's fighting blood was up. She did not intend to see a bull +escape when it was her business as a cowboy's pony, to head him off and +turn him back toward the herd. She made a leap forward, running +diagonally across the plain, in order to cross in front of the bull at +the shortest possible distance. For the first time in her experience, +Jack Ralston completely lost control of the horse she was riding; the +pony's headlong rush had been too unexpected. Tricks was a good-sized +broncho with a will of her own and was convinced that she was doing her +duty. + +Jack had unfortunately taken off her gloves. People in the West never +ride the hard-mouthed little Western ponies, without thick leather +gauntlets. She pulled on her reins until they cut into her flesh, but +the pony ran on. Still Jack had no idea of not being able to control +her before she got into danger. + +No one, except Frank and Olive, saw Jack's wild dash. The cowboys were +riding in and out among the corrals, swinging their long ropes and +forcing the excited cattle back into their enclosures. + +"Get back out of the way," Frank commanded Olive quickly. Almost before +she realized what had taken place, Frank Kent was off like a shot after +the flying Jack. + +His horse pounded along, but Jack was yards ahead. Frank did not know +what he could do, if he reached Jack. He could only grasp her bridle and +try to stop both of their ponies. At best, if he got ahead of her, he +might be able to shut off the bull's mad charge. There would be only one +way to do it and that would be to let the animal rush upon his horse. He +knew nothing of the cowboys' methods. He had no lasso. He had seen +pictures of Spanish toreadors with their flaming scarlet scarfs. If he +only had as much as a red handkerchief, perhaps he might divert the +bull's course. Of course Frank realized that this would have been a +forlorn hope. But nothing really mattered. Jack's pony continued to +gain on his; he had not a fighting chance of overtaking her. + +Frank hardly dared look at Jack. He could see so clearly what would +happen: the range-bred pony would take her straight in front of the +furious bull, not knowing that her rider was not a cowboy and would be +unequal to the task of turning the great brute aside. She would do her +part and expected Jack to do the rest. Jack did not have so much as a +small riding whip in her hand, having lost it in her pony's first plunge +ahead. But she now realized her peril; one glimpse of her face would +have revealed this. It was white as marble save for the flying, bronze +gold of her hair. Her eyes were wide open and almost black and her lips +were parted. But there was no give-up in her expression; determination +marked every fine cut line. + +Jack had considered but two alternatives. Either she must stop her wild +pony or drive back the maddened bull. Now she knew she could do neither. +She was only a few yards from the bull and understood that an animal in +a wild rush for liberty, never turns aside unless he is driven. + +Half unconsciously Frank Kent closed his eyes. Jacqueline Ralston had +seemed to him so splendid, typifying to him the free, outdoor life of +the great West. He realized that Jack had lots of faults, but that she +was the kind of girl who would make a wonderful woman. She was a true +American girl, brave, generous and gay. The thought of her being +injured, or killed, was horrible. She was the very spirit of youth and +energy. + +Frank looked again. Jack was going to face death squarely, or else to +drive her pony across the bull's course, before it reached her. Yet the +last method seemed hopeless, because the pony was master of the race, +not Jack. The girl had stooped low in her saddle. Her feet were out of +the stirrups and she lay almost flat across the pony's back. She seemed +to slip to one side. Frank watched for another horrified second. Jack +and her horse were not a hundred feet from the bull. + +Then something slid along the ground on the right side of the pony, ran +a few feet, let go of the bridle and sat down limply in the brown grass. + +Frank shouted as he had never thought it in him to shout. The trick of +dropping from her horse that Jack had just effected, he had seen +accomplished once in a Buffalo Bill show in London. The vision of a girl +doing it for her own safety was the most thrilling sight he had ever +seen in his life. + +Tricks, deserted by her rider, and uncertain what she should do alone, +sprang to one side as the bull lunged at her, and the danger was all +over in an instant. + +Frank found Jack shaking like one in a chill. But she smiled at him +bravely and put out her hand to let him pull her off the ground. + +"Perhaps, Frank," she said, forgetting formalities in her thankfulness, +"if I live long enough, I may some day learn to do what I am told. +Please take me back to Olive." + +Tricks, exhausted by her wild run, was led back to Jack, a weary and +repentant pony. + +Jack was silent and shaken. She followed Frank back to the spot where +they had left Olive, without a word. + +The cowboys were returning to the work of branding the cattle and it was +high time the ranch girls started for home. But neither Jack nor Frank +could find a trace of Olive. She had completely disappeared. They rode +over to the spot where they had lunched with Mr. and Mrs. Simpson, but +the automobile party had left for their ranch. Frank inquired of a dozen +cowboys. No one of them had seen Olive. + +Jack tried not to cry, but the day's experiences had been too much for +her. She had never been so utterly wretched before. + +"Don't worry, Miss Ralston," Frank urged. "I'll bet you anything that +Miss Olive has run across your overseer, Jim Colter, and has returned to +Rainbow Ranch with him." + +Jack shook her head despairingly. "Olive would not go away without +telling me, for anything in the world," she insisted. "Besides, Jim +would not leave me here. He is somewhere around, won't you find him?" + +Frank insisted that Jack wait in a place of safety a mile farther along +the trail toward their ranch. For an hour Jack walked up and down a few +yards of barren ground, her pony resting near her. The time seemed an +eternity. + +By and by Frank arrived with Jim Colter. Jim looked sternly at Jack, but +she was past caring what he said or thought of her. + +"Can't you find Olive, Jim?" Jack pleaded. + +"I'll do my best," Jim returned. "Mr. Kent will take you home to the +ranch." + +"But I can't go without Olive, Jim. I'll stay here until you find her. +She has probably just lost her way," Jack entreated. + +"Hope so," Jim repeated shortly. "But in any case, your place is at +home." + +Jack hesitated. + +"Haven't you made enough trouble for yourself and other people already +to-day, Jack?" Jim questioned keenly. And Jack submissively bowed her +head. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +NO NEWS. + + +WEEKS passed and there was no word from Olive. The ranch girls had +almost ceased to talk of her return. They had begun to lose hope. + +Immediately after Frank Kent and Jack left him, on the day of the +round-up, Jim Colter had gone to the Indian village, but he could find +no trace of Olive there. Curiously enough old Laska had disappeared from +her hut several days before, so she could scarcely be held responsible +for the lost girl. She had said nothing of where she was going nor when +she expected to return. In Indian fashion, she had departed silently, +carrying only a bundle strapped across her back. + +Josef would give no information. Jim tried him with threats and bribes, +but the boy insisted he knew nothing of Olive. He had not seen her in +many weeks. It was useless to try to make an Indian betray a secret he +meant to keep and Jim Colter knew better than to waste his time. The +Indian is as suspicious and reticent to-day as he was in the old days, +when no kind of torture ever wrung a sound from him. + +Advertisements were inserted in the papers in the nearby towns, but no +girl answering to the description of Olive was ever reported. She had +vanished as completely as though she were dead. By and by Jim Colter +gave up the search. He did not believe that they would ever see the +Indian girl again. + +Frank Kent kept quietly at work. He was very rich, and without a word to +anyone, offered a reward for Olive's return, so large that had Laska +seen it and had she had Olive in her possession, she must surely have +given her up. Frank came often to Rainbow Lodge. The girls no longer +thought of him as the guest and relative of their bitterest enemy, and +the name of the Nortons was never mentioned between them. He used to +take Jean and Frieda and Cousin Ruth off on long excursions to keep them +amused, but Jack would rarely go with them. She seldom left the ranch +and spent the greater part of the time alone, refusing to talk either of +Olive or the prospect of losing Rainbow Ranch, which loomed nearer with +each passing day. Jack was polite to Cousin Ruth, but she never +expressed any penitence to her or to Jim for her wilfulness, which +seemed to be responsible for Olive's loss. But daily Jack grew paler and +thinner. She seemed much older and quieter than the radiant beautiful +girl who had been the ruling spirit of the entire ranch. Everyone who +knew her worried over the change in her, and most of all Ruth, who +wondered if she were not somehow to blame for the whole disaster. If she +had not opposed Jack's going to the round-up, Jim would have taken Jack +with him and Olive would not have left the Lodge. + +Jean and Frieda bore their troubles differently. Sometimes they would +talk of Olive and again of the loss of their home and Jean would weep +passionately for a few minutes and Frieda would cry softly. But they +would soon cheer up and be convinced of Olive's immediate return and the +discovery of the lost deed to the ranch. Jean even suggested that they +need not perish if the ranch were taken away from them. She was quite +sure she would be able to work and support herself and possibly Frieda. +And for once Jack laughed, for, as she explained to her cousin, she and +Jean knew nothing in the world except how to ride horseback, and ranch +girls though they were, they could hardly be expected to join a circus. + +But no one interfered with Jack. She took her long rides alone in spite +of the cold weather, for they seemed to be the only things that would +quiet her restlessness. When she was in the house, she was either +searching in every conceivable crack and corner for the lost title deed, +or else gazing listlessly out of the window. + +One clear, frosty morning, Jack came in to an early breakfast, wearing +her riding habit. + +"You won't mind if I am away from the ranch all day to-day, Cousin +Ruth?" she inquired quietly. "I would rather not say where I am going, +but I shall be in no danger and I shall be home before dark." + +Jean waved her fork pettishly in the air. "What in the world are you up +to, Jacqueline Ralston?" she demanded. "Frieda and I awfully wanted you +to go over to Aunt Sallie's for the day with us. You knew she had asked +us and Cousin Ruth can't go, because she won't learn to ride horseback. +I should think you would be tired of mysteries and secrets by this +time, I am sure I am. Rainbow Lodge didn't use to be like this. It is +the most changed place I ever saw," Jean sighed mournfully. But Jack +made her no answer and waited until Ruth agreed to her request. + +By ten o'clock, Ruth Drew was alone at the Lodge. The day began early at +the ranch, as the winter twilights soon closed in and there were no +lights but the stars to guide the wanderers over the prairies. + +Ruth had assured the girls she would not be lonely. She had lots of work +to do and letters to be written to the people at home. But somehow Ruth +did not feel in the mood for any of her tasks. She was astonished at +herself. Already the old village life in the East seemed far away; +Rainbow Lodge and the vast, primitive West meant home to her now. + +Outdoors the world looked utterly deserted. There was not a leaf, nor a +blade of green grass visible, not a human being, nor an animal in sight, +except old Shep, who howled dismally at having been left at home by the +ranch girls. + +Ruth slipped into a heavy old coat and went for a walk up and down the +frozen fields in front of Rainbow Lodge. Old Shep kept close beside her, +with his warm nose thrust in her hand. There were many things Ruth +wished to think about and it would be easier to see clearly and to know +what was best in the open air. + +Ruth was exceedingly vexed with the overseer of Rainbow Ranch. What was +to become of Frieda, Jean and Jack, in case they were forced to give up +their home at the beginning of the New Year? Jack had confided to Ruth +that they owned six thousand dollars in bank, beside the stock on their +place. But Jack had no ideas for their future, and Mr. Jim Colter had +not seen fit to discuss with their chaperon any plans that he might have +for the girls. Of one thing Ruth was determined, whatever happened, she +would stay with the girls. She had a little money and she could earn her +living as a teacher if it were necessary, but the ranch girls should not +face the world alone. Nevertheless, Mr. Colter should explain affairs to +her more fully. It was all very well for him to argue that Rainbow Ranch +could not fall into other hands. He should look at both sides of the +question. Ruth had not seen the overseer, except for a few minutes at a +time, since the evening before the round-up. He certainly had not +treated her with proper respect. + +The longer Miss Ruth Drew thought of her grievances, the angrier she +grew. Of course there was nothing personal in the matter, but as the +girls' chaperon, she deserved more consideration. + +Ruth's cheeks were glowing by this time, partly from the cold air, but +quite as much from temper. She had changed a good deal. Her complexion +was certainly not sallow. She no longer wore her glasses, except when +she wished to read, and her smooth hair was now blowing becomingly about +her face under an old felt hat of Jean's carelessly put on. + +But Ruth was not being altogether honest with herself; she did have a +little private spite against Jim. He had promised to teach her to ride +horseback weeks before and he had never referred to the subject again. +She dearly wished to learn. She had wanted to ride over to return Mrs. +Simpson's call and had only pretended an indifference to Jean, because +she did not intend in any way to remind Mr. Colter of his forgotten +promise. + +Ruth saw Jim riding up the road that led to the Lodge and drawing +herself up, gave him a stiff little bow. Of course she had known all +along that a cowboy could not be a gentleman, but Jim had struck her as +being rather superior, in spite of his bad grammar. However, no man +worth the name broke a promise to a woman. Ruth turned her back on the +rider and continued her walk with her head in the air. + +Jim reined up in front of the frosty young woman. "Good morning," he +said in rather an embarrassed fashion. + +The lady's manner was not encouraging. "Good morning," she repeated +severely, "I suppose you wanted to see one of the girls, but they are +all away from the ranch." + +Jim shook his head slowly, staring at Miss Ruth Drew with a puzzled +frown. He had not the faintest idea why she was so haughty, and clearing +his throat, continued to stare at her without a word until the silence +grew more and more embarrassing. + +Ruth's cheeks grew redder. She was irritated by Jim's silence and the +expression of his eyes, which were as blue and direct as a young boy's. + +"Do you want to leave a message for one of the girls or to speak to Aunt +Ellen or Zack?" Ruth inquired irritably. + +But still Jim did not speak. + +"For heaven's sake, tell me, what do you want, Mr. Colter?" Ruth +demanded. And suddenly Jim laughed. + +"Well, I thought I wanted to speak to you, Miss Drew," he drawled in his +slow, good-humored fashion. "But perhaps I had better not. I kind of +thought maybe you would like me to give you a riding lesson this +morning, but I can see now you wouldn't. I have been trying to get one +of the ranch ponies broke in for you ever since I heard you wanted to +learn to ride and now I have got a little broncho that is just about as +gentle as a kitten. But, so long, maybe you'll be feeling more like it +another day." + +Jim rode calmly away, leaving Ruth looking as young and foolish as a +cross child. + +She did want a horseback lesson to-day of all days, when she was alone +and a little blue. Ruth ran after Jim, entirely forgetting her dignity. + +"Mr. Colter, please wait," she called. "I do want to learn to ride, +dreadfully, and I should be awfully glad to have you show me how this +morning, if you don't think I would be too much of a chump." + +"Chump!" Ruth's ears burned. Jean's favorite word, "chump," had slipped +out of her lips as unconsciously as though she had never been a New +England school marm with a perfect horror of slang. She wondered if the +ranch overseer had noticed her break. + +When Jim turned and smiled down on Miss Drew, she was no longer the +superior person he had just left. + +"You'll learn to like it better in Wyoming, once you can ride," he +answered kindly. "Why, when the spring comes, our barren prairies +blossom like a rose and the birds are about everywhere. The ranch girls +want you to get fond of it out here. There ain't any feeling much worse +than being homesick for the things you left behind you. Now run along +and rig yourself up in some kind of a riding habit of the girls. I will +have the pony waiting by the time you are ready." + +Ruth rushed into the house, wondering why she felt so absurdly young and +happy all at once. + +The young chaperon did not acquire the art of learning to ride +horseback in a single lesson. But Jim was far too sweet-tempered to let +her know that she was the hardest pupil he ever tried to teach. Both the +master and pupil were elated when Ruth finally managed to sit straight +in her saddle, without slipping to either side, and to hold her reins +while the pony walked sedately up and down with Jim at his head. + +Late that afternoon, Ruth was sitting alone by the living-room window. +It was growing dark. The day had been a tiring one and she was feeling a +tiny bit depressed. Jack cantered up to the house, gave her pony over to +their colored man, and without so much as a glance at Ruth, strode past +the living-room into her own room and closed the door behind her. + +Ruth sighed. It did seem to her that Jack might have come in to speak to +her, thinking that she had been by herself all day. Ruth was beginning +to make up her mind that it was an utterly hopeless desire that she and +Jack should ever be friends. Jack was so reserved and unapproachable and +so bent on having her own way. + +Ruth did not expect Frieda and Jean to return for another hour. Mrs. +Simpson had promised to send some one over with them, so they could have +a longer visit with her. It was growing spooky in the living-room, with +only the dancing shadows of the fire. Aunt Ellen had forgotten to bring +in the lamp and Ruth started toward the kitchen down the wide hall. + +Outside Jack's door she heard a queer noise that startled her. It was a +strange choking sound, as though some one were in pain. Ruth listened. +The sound was not repeated, but the room was in perfect darkness and she +became vaguely uneasy. She did not understand Jack's disposition. The +girl had been so quiet and unhappy since Olive's disappearance and Ruth +wondered what Jack was doing in the dark alone. + +A knock on the door brought no answer and Ruth tried again. + +"What is it?" a stifled voice asked. + +"Won't you let me come in, Jack?" Ruth urged, feeling her uneasiness +increase. + +"I would much rather you wouldn't, I prefer to be alone," Jack replied +in her habitual frigid tones. But Ruth heard a queer little catch at the +end of her sentence that was unfamiliar. + +Ruth had her hand on the doorknob and without waiting for permission she +turned it and walked into Jack's room. "I think it is my duty to come in +to you, Jack," she explained, in her self-righteous, lady-governess +tones that Jack so much disliked. + +The room was in almost total darkness and Ruth could catch only a faint +outline of Jack's figure, drawn up in its usual proud pose. But to-night +her head was drooping. The fire had burned out in the grate, except for +a few colored ashes, but Ruth found paper and wood and soon brought it +to a blaze. She said nothing and Jack neither moved nor spoke. But Ruth +caught one glimpse of Jack's face, when the firelight leaped up into the +room. + +She found an old eiderdown wrapper in the closet and pushed a low chair +near the fire, putting the warm grey gown over Jack's rigid shoulders +and pushing her softly toward the chair. + +"There, dear, sit down by the fire," Ruth said gently. "I did not mean +to intrude on you and I will leave you by yourself, but you must try and +not let yourself get ill because you are miserable. There may be a lot, +you know, that you must do for Frieda and Jean." + +Ruth could see that Jack had lost her self-control and was trembling +with nervousness and cold, and turned to leave her, but Jack held out a +shaking hand. + +"Please don't go yet, Ruth," she pleaded, as though she were one girl +talking to another. "There is something I want to try to tell you if I +can." + +Ruth sat quietly down. She realized all at once how much harder it is +for some people to say the things they feel, than it is for others. + +"It's about Olive," Jack declared after an instant. "I have been over to +the Norton ranch to-day. I brought myself to ask a favor of Mr. Norton. +I asked him to let me speak to the Indian boy, Josef, who works on his +ranch. Mr. Norton consented, if I would allow him to stay in the room +while I talked. Of course he thought I wanted to play him some trick +about the ranch." Jack spoke indifferently. "I offered Josef everything +I had in the world, a hundred dollars father once gave me and my share +of my mother's jewelry, if he would only tell me what had become of +Olive. He wouldn't tell." Jack shook her head despairingly. "I am +beginning to believe Olive is dead." + +"I don't think so, Jack, somehow, though I don't know," Ruth returned +gravely. + +"I suppose there is something I ought to say to you, Cousin Ruth," Jack +continued quietly. "I ought to tell you and Jim that I am sorry that I +went off to the round-up against your wishes. Of course I am sorry, it +seems almost foolish for me to speak of it. I don't want to ask you to +forgive me, because of course I shall never think of forgiving myself +for losing Olive, no matter how long I live." + +Ruth took hold of Jack's cold fingers. Jack spoke with perfect +self-control, but Ruth began dimly to understand something of her +disposition. + +All at once, Jack's calmness gave way. She began to sob, as though she +were torn in pieces. "Oh, Cousin Ruth, won't Olive come back ever? I +used to think that having to give up our ranch would be the most +dreadful thing that could happen, but now I don't. Olive was so gentle +and so timid. I thought I was going to protect and take care of her as +though she were Frieda, but instead of that it was I who led her into +danger." + +Ruth and Jack talked quietly after this, until Jean and Frieda came +home. Ruth had entirely lost her school-teacher manner and forgot to +preach. + +Jack's reserve having once broken down, she told Ruth all she had +suffered in silence for the past few weeks. + +Though Ruth and Jack might have many conflicts of their two strong wills +in the future, they would never misunderstand each other so completely +as they had done in the past. + +[Illustration: SOMEONE CREPT UP BEHIND HER WITH THE STEALTHINESS +POSSIBLE ONLY TO AN INDIAN.] + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +OLIVE. + + +ON the day when Jacqueline Ralston's pony ran away so unexpectedly, and +Frank Kent commanded Olive to get out of danger, Olive had watched them +both for a few minutes in a kind of daze. She had then moved slowly +backward, keeping them both in sight, until she dimly saw Jack's leap +from her horse. She then continued alone along the trail which she and +Jack had traveled that morning, until the men and the cattle at the +round-up were entirely out of sight, supposing that Frank and Jack would +follow her as soon as they crossed the field. + +Olive stopped her horse finally. She was not looking about her, nor +thinking of anything in particular except her joy in Jack's safety. She +heard no sound. + +Someone crept up behind her with the stealthiness possible only to an +Indian. Suddenly Olive felt her hands drawn behind her and she was +forcibly dragged from her horse. + +Two or three times only she cried for help, but before she could do +more, a handkerchief was tied tightly about her lips and she was half +dragged and half carried to one of the very tents which she and Jack had +passed that morning on their way to the fateful round-up. + +Old Laska sat stolidly smoking a pipe. "Ugh," she grunted, but her +small, beady eyes flashed like coals in the sunlight. + +Although Olive was the last person she expected to see at such a moment, +she took the girl from Josef without a word, and held her so that she +could not get away. Josef disappeared immediately. He must have gone to +hide Olive's pony from sight. + +Olive struggled, but she could make no outcry, and in a little while +Laska bound her so that she could scarcely move. The girl was a captive +inside the tent at the moment when Frank Kent and Jack passed it, +unheeding, on their return to Rainbow Lodge. + +The Indian woman and her son had not thought to capture Olive at such a +time and place. But they had vowed to get hold of her by any means they +could. From the instant Josef discovered that Olive had come to the +round-up, he had not lost sight of her and when he found her alone, he +was ready. + +All afternoon she lay in the tightly closed tent with Laska, neither one +of the women moving, Olive being in a stupor from terror and pain. By +and by, when the dusk fell, Josef appeared silently at the tent +entrance, leading Olive's pony and a horse for his mother. He bound +Olive to her horse, and the two women set off across the prairies, Laska +with her bundle across her back and two jugs of water swung over her +saddle. + +Through all the long, cold night, Laska traveled across the barren +plains with her hand on Olive's bridle. At first there were shadowy +fences that marked the division of one ranch from another. These were +soon lost and the way lay through a trackless waste, unbroken by a trail +of man or animal. Laska had gone into the desert where there was no drop +of pure water. + +In the morning the Indian woman rested, built a fire, untied Olive and +fed her, knowing that if the girl ran away from her now she would not be +able to go back the way they had come. She must be lost and could not +fail to perish from hunger and thirst. Still Laska guarded her closely. + +On the morning of the third day of their journeying, Olive saw on the +far horizon some curling wreaths of smoke. Nearer there were a few lean +horses grazing on the scanty sage grass. A dozen Indian tepees were set +up in what seemed a small oasis in the desert. She knew that Laska had +brought her to the winter quarters of a small band of Indians who would +not stay in a village overlooked and regulated by the United States +Government. These Indians lived the old nomad life, wandering from place +to place, setting up their tents like gypsies, wherever they could +remain unmolested. + +Olive almost gave up hope. Here in the wilderness she would never come +in contact with any one from the outside world. When the spring came, +the Indians would gather up their belongings and wander farther away, +taking her with them, where she could have no chance of return. + +Laska and Olive had a tent of their own. In it they lived for some time, +rarely speaking to one another. Nobody was unkind to her and for some +reason Laska left her alone. It was growing bitterly cold and the old +woman used to sit smoking all day by the fire, either in her own wigwam +or one nearby. She did not try to watch Olive, knowing that she could +not get away. Laska had told her that she should never leave the Indians +again; that they would return no more to the neighborhood of the white +men and Olive seemed quietly to accept her fate. Even Laska, who had +trained the girl in her own school of silence, was deceived by her. She +thought that Olive no longer cared enough to go back to dare the perils +of the trip. + +At first it did appear utterly impossible to Olive. She had not the +faintest idea in what direction she and Laska had traveled and on +arriving among the Indians, her pony had been taken away from her. She +had no food except the little bit she was allowed each day, barely +enough to live on and knew that at any time now, the swift and bitter +snowstorms of the prairies might fall. Any traveler caught out in one of +them would surely perish and not be found until the snow melted. + +There were many hours, when Olive thought she would run away anyhow and +take whatever fate came to her. But the memory of Jack, and Jean and +Frieda, Cousin Ruth and Rainbow Lodge sustained her. A little time +before and she had not known any happiness. Now the thought of the joy +she would feel if she ever got home again, gave her patience and courage +to wait. + +Few of the older Indians paid much attention to the captive. Whatever +story old Laska had told them, they had accepted without question. They +spoke very little English and rarely stirred, except when the men went +off on long hunting expeditions to return with whatever deer they +managed to slay. + +Olive had only one friend, one person, with whom she talked in the weeks +she spent in the Indian camp. This was Carlos, a young Indian boy, about +twelve years old. He was as slender and straight as a young pine tree, +the fastest runner, the best rider and shot in the tribe. She had paid +little attention to the boy at first, but he followed her like a shadow. +Often when she came out of her tent, she would find him sitting like a +brown image on the cold ground. The boy was like an Eskimo and appeared +to feel neither hunger nor frost. + +One day Olive set out for a walk. She did not wish Carlos to go with +her, but before she had gone many rods the boy appeared at her side and +quietly marched beside her, looking neither to the right nor the left. + +"Go back, Carlos," Olive commanded quietly. + +The boy shook his head. "You travel not alone over the prairies, you do +not know your way," he answered stolidly. + +Olive's patience gave out. She seized the boy by the shoulders, tears +came into her soft black eyes and her face quivered. "You are hired to +spy on me, Carlos," she said accusingly. "I thought I had one friend in +you." + +Again Carlos shook his head. "Why should I spy on you?" he asked. "What +is it you would do?" + +Then Olive told the boy what had happened to her. + +Very quietly he listened. "I knew you were not of our people," he +answered. "I will find the way for you to get back home. You are a woman +and timid. Have faith in me." + +Olive smiled, and from this day she called the Indian boy, "Little +Brother," but she had no hope of his helping her and she saw him far +less often. Carlos was away from the camp nearly every day, returning +with rabbits that he shot on the plains. Olive saw him drying the skins +and sometimes he brought her their meat to eat, but he never referred to +his promise to show her a way of escape from the Indian camp. + +The days were long, but the nights were far longer and the long +twilights the saddest time of all. Olive sat often in the tent alone. + +One evening Laska had departed earlier than usual to the wigwam of a +neighboring squaw and Olive was huddled up on the dry grass in front of +their fire, trying to keep from freezing. The air was filled with smoke. +The girl looked scornfully at the two beds of straw, covered with coarse +Indian blankets, where she and Indian Laska slept. Before her eyes came +the vision of the splendid living-room at Rainbow Lodge. She could see +the ranch girls and their cousin before the great fire and wondered if +they ever thought of her now. Olive did not know how long a time had +passed since she was stolen. + +Sticking out from under Laska's bed was the bundle which she had borne +on her back across the plains. Until this moment she had kept it hidden +from Olive, except during their trip, when she had gotten their food +from it. + +Olive was not particularly interested in her discovery. But it occurred +to her that this bag might have something to eat in it, which would aid +her, if she could manage to get away. She drew out the dirty sheepskin +bag and thrust her hand into it, shuddering at the things she touched. +There were some odd bits of soiled clothing and a small package, tied up +in an old, red cotton handkerchief. Olive had seen the package in the +handkerchief before, in Laska's hut in the village. But she had never +been interested to find out what it contained. To-night she cared for +anything that would break the monotony of the long hours ahead of her. + +Olive looked cautiously at the tent opening. The place was entirely +still. There was not a sound in the lonely tepee, save the blowing of +the winter winds across the desert. The girl crawled to a spot where the +fire cast its brightest glow. Patiently she worked at the hard knots in +the handkerchief. There was a roll of money in it tied up with a cord. +Olive tossed the money impatiently aside. What use was money to her in +this wild land? Olive had known always that Laska got money from some +unknown source. She always had more than the other Indians in their +village, and Jack had explained to Olive that this money was sent to +Laska for taking care of her. Olive searched for a bit of paper, +something to show from what place or from whom this money came. But +there was no scrap of anything of that sort. + +Beside the money, there was a small box in the handkerchief. It was of +delicate, carved wood and smelled very sweet. Olive saw at once that the +carving had never been made by Indians. It was far too fine. + +She was so intent on opening this box that she did not hear a stealthy +noise just outside her tent. + +The lid of the sandalwood chest slid gently off. Inside, Olive beheld +some trinkets, which she knew in a moment of swift rapture, must belong +to her. One was a curiously wrought old silver chain, with a beautiful +cross hanging from it. A watch, large enough to belong to a man, had a +girl's picture painted in it which made Olive catch her breath. The +picture she knew looked like her, only it was far lovelier. This girl +had the same brilliant yet soft black eyes, the same straight, glossy +hair and the deep, olive coloring. She was not an American, but Olive +knew there was no trace of Indian blood in this woman. Whatever Indian +blood ran in Olive's veins, she guessed she must have inherited from her +father. Beside the watch and chain, the carved box held but one more +treasure. It was a little book about four inches square, written in a +language that Olive could not understand. + +The noise at the tent opening grew more distinct. Some one was peering +through a tiny opening, yet Olive seemed to have neither eyes nor ears. +Her face was flushed with happiness and she held the odd, sweet-smelling +box close against her cheek. + +Someone entered the tent. At last Olive awakened and springing to her +feet, thrust her treasures inside her dress. With her eyes flaming, she +turned to face her enemy; for Olive had not lived all her life among +nearly savage people without learning something from them. She meant to +fight now to save her possessions, as a real Indian girl would have +fought to the last moment of her strength. + +But instead of the ugly face of old Laska staring at her, Olive saw the +slight figure of Carlos, the Indian boy. + +Olive held out her treasures eagerly. "Look what I have found," she +exclaimed. "I know they must be mine." + +The Indian boy regarded the pieces of jewelry gravely. To him they +appeared like any other trinkets that the Indians loved. + +"I have come to tell you how you may return to your white friends," +Carlos announced proudly. "I told you that a man would find a way. It is +only women who give up." + +Olive shook her lovely head, her thoughts still dwelling with her +discovery. She did not understand exactly what the Indian lad said. + +He caught at her dress and pulled it impatiently. "Listen, woman. I have +found a way for you to get back to your ranch-land. Do you hear me, or +is it that you have changed your mind like all women and do not now wish +to go?" + +Olive laughed. It was so funny to hear this small boy take the +patronizing tone with her that the men of his race used toward all +women. She put her arm about him and drew him down on the floor by her. +The flickering lights of the fire played on the two dark heads, her hair +fine and soft as silk, his stiff and straight as a young colt's mane. + +"Of course I want to go back to my friends, Little Brother," Olive +sighed. "But let's don't talk of that to-night, I want to be a little +bit happy in thinking that I have found something that must once have +belonged to my mother." + +But the boy would not be persuaded. "We must talk of your getting away +to-night, for the time is ready," Carlos declared, in the solemn tone of +a young Indian chief making ready for battle. "You know I have been out +on the prairies for many days together and no one knew where or for what +I had gone. I have wandered in many directions seeking for the home of +some white man, for I know that however much the Indian pretends he is +in a wilderness, he is always to-day on the border of the white man's +land." + +"Well, have you found a friend to help me?" Olive demanded fervently. + +"I have found no friend," Carlos replied, refusing to be hurried or +disturbed. "But I have found an iron trail that stretches across the +desert. It must bring you to where the white people dwell." + +"An iron trail," Olive repeated wonderingly. "I am afraid I don't know +what you mean." + +The boy gazed at her with slow, unmoved patience. "It has an iron +carriage on it that flies along the trail more swiftly than any horse +can run," Carlos explained. "There is great heat and noise and smoke +like a prairie fire." + +Olive caught the boy's hand in hers. "You mean an engine and a railroad +track, don't you, Little Brother?" she queried. "You have seen a train +somewhere out on the desert. You will take me to it and somehow I will +find people to help me to get back to Rainbow Lodge." Olive flung her +arms about Carlos and hugged him as she might have hugged Frieda. She +poured out such a flood of questions, that the boy was convinced he was +right in his scorn of her sex, but he listened with deep gravity. + +"I do not know all things," he replied finally. "Only I have laid all +day on the ground near the trail. I know the hour when the iron carriage +passes over it. The walk is a long one, but if you will follow me, I +will take you there. I will come for you to-night just before the dawn +breaks. When you hear an owl hoot, you will know that Carlos is outside +your door. You will creep softly, so that we may have several hours +before old Laska wakes. I will bring food and the skins of many wild +rabbits that I have sewed together in the evenings, that you may not +freeze." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +THE WAY OF ESCAPE. + + +IN the darkness Olive kept tight hold of Carlos' hand. They ran swiftly +and softly, like frightened hares, each moment dreading to hear +footsteps behind them. But the darkness hid their tracks and a wind was +blowing, which shifted the sand and whirled it into hills and hollows, +so that not even an Indian could find the print of any passing foot. +Besides, old Laska slept soundly and she had not stirred when Olive +stole out from her tent. + +Carlos marched toward the east, where the sky looked less dark, until +the cold dawn broke. Before the sun was well up the boy saw something +glinting and glimmering ahead of them like a long steel serpent. He gave +a cry of victory. Breaking away from Olive, Carlos ran ahead. For a +moment he stood balancing himself on the track rails, waving his thin +brown arms and crowing like a young chanticler. + +"We will rest here by the iron trail," he announced happily. "I will +build a fire and we will eat. By and by the great wagon will pass by, +roaring and snorting like an angry buffalo. It will take you with it." +For a moment the boy's face clouded. Then, as Olive reached his side, he +laughed at the thought of her joy. + +"But, Carlos," Olive whispered. She was weary and almost frozen from her +long tramp across the plains. "You have brought me to the railroad +track, but where is the station? Did you not know that the white man's +trains will not stop unless there is a little house set up by a wooden +platform, where a man at a window sells you small squares of paper?" + +Carlos shook his head in confusion. He had no idea what Olive was +talking about, for he had never seen a railroad depot in the twelve +years of his wandering life. But he saw Olive's disappointment and knew +that something in his beautiful plan for his friend was wrong. + +"Never you mind, girl," Carlos insisted, shaking his straight, black +hair, like a little foreign king, "I will see that the wagon stops for +you here, where we wait." + +Olive dropped down on the ground, too tired to argue or to explain any +further. Carlos ran along the track, finding a few odd sticks and pieces +of wood. He made a little fire, into which he stuck one long stick, like +a staff, which he had carried from the camp; but he saw that only the +end of it burned. + +Hungrily Olive ate. She believed that she must follow the railroad track +until she came to a depot. She had no way of guessing how many more +miles she must walk, nor how many trains passed over this iron pathway +through the desert; but she did know that she must save whatever +strength she had, as her only hope was to reach a city somewhere. She +had not Carlos' faith, that the train would take her straight into the +arms of her beloved friends, yet she knew that once in a town, she could +probably find a way of communicating with them. + +Carlos and Olive did not dare to talk. Olive was listening for the sound +of a horse's hoofs, knowing that the journey, which had been so long on +foot, could be made on horseback in a little while, if old Laska ever +guessed the route they had taken. But Carlos listened for a louder +noise and one to him far less familiar. + +The boy and girl heard it at the same instant and both sprang to their +feet. Olive's face grew white and rigid with disappointment; but the +boy's eyes flashed with excitement. The train was coming along the track +past the spot where Olive and Carlos rested. Olive feared that her only +chance of escape for that day was gone. She had hoped to reach a depot +before a train went by them. + +Nearer the roar of the engine sounded. It was in sight far off across +the desert, but a very few minutes brought it close. + +Olive stepped quickly back to be out of danger and seized Carlos by his +woolen shirt to drag him with her. The boy jerked away, and before Olive +could dream what he intended to do, he grabbed his burning stick from +the fire. "I'll stop the train for you," he shouted valiantly. "Only be +quick. You must get on when I command it." + +Like a flash, the brave, brown figure ran along the track, waving his +tiny torch and facing with all his feeble strength the great monster of +iron and steel that was driving toward him. The blood of many centuries +of Indian chiefs must have been back of little Carlos. He dared the +unknown force of this engine to-day, as his ancestors had the bullets +and powder of their white enemies, with the same blind belief in his own +power against the forces of civilization. + +Olive saw Carlos go, with a feeling of sickening horror. The boy was so +small, so stupidly audacious. Olive's, "Come back, come back!" was lost +in the noise of the train, but Carlos would not have heeded her. What +Indian chief has ever obeyed a woman? There seemed to be but one fate +for him,--he would be crushed to death in an instant. + +The engineer saw the boy running toward his train, and the fire which +Olive and Carlos had built near the track. He had but one thought: there +must be danger somewhere ahead of them and these children had come to +warn him. + +Fortunately for Carlos, the train which he had chosen for Olive's escape +was not one of passenger coaches, but a freight train. The engine was +going at far less speed, and quickly slowed down and stopped. + +"Come, come, Olive," the boy shouted triumphantly, this time waving his +burning stick like a conquering hero. + +Olive ran toward the car, dazed, breathless, hardly knowing what had +taken place, nor what she was doing. The Indian boy's spirit had somehow +seized hold on the situation. + +"What has happened, imp?" the engineer roared out of his car window. "Is +something wrong ahead on the track?" + +Carlos danced up and down, as though he did not understand what the +engineer asked. He had only a dim idea of the man's meaning as he knew +so few English words. Olive was slipping by him and Carlos saw that she +meant to do what he had planned. The engineer was climbing out of his +cab, his back being turned, so that he did not see Olive swing herself +up into the next car. In an instant the girl had hidden herself in the +midst of great piles of boxes, unobserved by the other trainmen, who +were also interested in Carlos. + +The engineer was determined to find out what the Indian lad had to tell +him. If the boy had fooled him and there was nothing for them to fear +ahead, he should get the punishment he deserved. + +Carlos guessed the engineer's meaning from the expression of his face. +The boy made a dart that was almost as swift as the first plunge of an +arrow from a bow. He was a small brown spot some distance off, when the +engineer made up his mind to run after him. The man did run for a few +rods, but the idea of catching the boy was ridiculous. He was like a +breath of wind, blowing this way and that across the prairie. He could +lead the engineer off into the desert, so that he would not know how to +return, and the man realized this. He climbed slowly back into his +engine, determined to watch out himself for trouble along the track; +believing, however, that Carlos had played an ugly trick on him. It +would have gone hard with Olive if she had been discovered at this time. + +The train went tardily on. Olive could hear the men moving on the top of +the coach over her head. Once or twice a dirty-faced trainman stuck his +head in the open door of the freight car, but he saw nothing of the +frightened girl huddled between the boxes. Olive of course had no +knowledge of where she was going. Her plan was to crawl out of the car +as soon as it stopped at a town and then try to find some one to help +her. + +But the car did not stop and Olive finally fell asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +A VOICE IN THE NIGHT. + + +A ROUGH voice aroused Olive. She sprang up in terror and stood pressed +close against the piled up freight in the car. It was an odd-looking +figure she made, as though she had stepped out of a world several +hundred years younger than the present one. The coarse man who watched +her dimly felt it. + +The girl's shoes were ragged and hardly covered her slender feet, her +skirt was torn and old. Over her shoulders hung a strange fur garment, +shapeless, save that a hole had been cut in the center for her head. Her +beautiful black hair was braided and one long plait hung over each +shoulder; her head was uncovered and her delicate face, with its pointed +chin, was deathly pale. She was trembling. Dark shadows encircled her +great black eyes and there was a look not of defiance but of pleading in +them. + +So picturesque a passenger had never before stolen a ride on a modern +freight train. She belonged to the days of the pioneer settlers in the +new land of America. + +"How did you come here?" the man demanded gruffly. + +Olive's voice shook. She had thought it would be easy to tell her story, +if she could only get away from the Indians, but this fierce man +frightened her more than any one of them could have done. What must she +say? Where could she begin with the tale of her misfortunes. + +"I stole in, when the train stopped a while ago, I don't just know +when," Olive answered vaguely. She could not tell how long she had been +asleep. + +"Then you'll git out the next time it stops, young Missie," the trainman +announced harshly. "I'd put you off right now, but we are already behind +time, because of a rascally Indian boy a piece up the road. Better stay +hid and not let our engineer catch sight of you, or he'd make it good +and hot for you. Maybe he would turn you over to the police." + +Olive could not realize it, but her appearance had already touched her +discoverer. She crouched in her corner again and bowed her head in her +slim brown hands, as she had the day when the ranch girls brought her +out of Frieda's cave. She did not try to defend herself. + +The trainman climbed up on a box and sat whittling a stick and watching +Olive out of a pair of shrewd Irish blue eyes. He was not a fierce man. +He had a wife and five tow-headed children, living in one of the little +frame shacks along the line of the railroad. The man was clever enough +to see that Olive was not an ordinary thief or impostor. + +"Are you sick, girl?" the man inquired, surprised by Olive's silence. + +The girl shook her head. "Oh, no, I am not sick, thank you," Olive +answered gently, "but I am very tired. I ran away from an Indian +encampment before dawn to-day. Would you mind telling me where this +train is going?" + +Little by little Olive told the whole history of her strange life to the +Irishman, who sat on the box in the freight car and never ceased his +whittling for a moment. + +"By St. Peter!" he muttered, when Olive finished replying to his last +question. "This girl tells a story that might have come out of a poetry +or a history book. The funny thing is, her story must be true! Oh, +well," he announced to himself, not to Olive, "there is one thing +certain. Nobody can ever make up in their heads such all-fired queer +things as happen every day." + +But the man had not answered Olive's question as to where this train was +going. She had not the courage to ask him again. + +By and by Olive saw little houses along the road and knew that their +train was nearing a small, western town. She got up and touched the +Irishman timidly on the arm. "May I get off at the station myself, +please?" she begged. "You won't have to put me off." + +The man shook his head severely. "No, you are not going to get off +yourself," he returned gruffly, "and I ain't going to put you off +either. If you can keep on making yourself small, and you are a pretty +thin kind of a girl, I am going to take you farther down the road with +us. I have an idea this here freight train will run along somewhere near +Wolfville in the course of the afternoon. You have had such bad luck in +the past, Missie, that maybe your luck has changed. Anyhow, when you +butted blindly into this freight car, you found a coach going in just +about the way you needed to travel. Don't worry your head any more about +what you are to do. I'll put you off at Wolfville, and though it looks a +bit cloudy, as though it might mean to blow up a bit of snow, I expect +you'll manage to get back to the Ralston Ranch, somehow, before night." + +Olive, satisfied that this kind-hearted stranger would look out for her, +dozed on, half waking and half sleeping. Neither she nor her new friend +knew how exhausted she was. She had passed through several weeks of +dreadful hardship, exposure and unhappiness, and now she felt too happy +to think or care because her head ached dully, and her legs shook so she +could hardly stand on them. She would be home soon with Frieda and Jean +and Jack! + +Several hours went by. The trainman left the car and attended to his +duties. But Olive had entire faith that he would not forget her. + +At a little past five o'clock in the afternoon the freight train came to +a stop near the little town of Wolfville, which was only a matter of ten +miles from Rainbow Ranch. The wind was blowing with a queer, ominous +rattling sound and a few flakes of snow were falling. + +Olive's new friend gazed at her a little queerly, as he lifted her out +on the platform. There were no people in sight except the station +master, for it was almost dark and the stopping of a freight train was +of little interest. + +"Sure you know how to get to your friends from here?" the Irishman asked +Olive. She took time to nod and wave her hand, then ran swiftly away +from the station in the direction of Rainbow Ranch. + +If Olive had gone into the town, someone would have driven her to the +Lodge, or else sent word to Jim Colter or the Ralston girls that she was +in safe-keeping for the night. A prairie snowstorm was approaching and +few people would have cared to trust themselves to a ten-mile drive at +this hour of the winter evening. + +But Olive did not think of further danger. Ten miles seemed to her to be +so near home that she could not bear a second's delay in trying to reach +there. For the first few miles she ran swiftly along, as she knew the +trail and it was not too dark to follow it. The stinging wind cut her +face and at times the snow blinded her. But the distance was only a +short walk for a girl who had spent all her life out of doors in the +great West. Yet Olive should have known what a snowstorm in Wyoming, +with a heavy pall of gray clouds and a scudding blast, meant. + +After a while, her feet in her worn shoes felt like wooden pegs stumping +on the frozen earth. Her hands had lost all feeling, although she +managed to draw the rabbit-skin furs that Carlos had given her, over her +head and to keep her hands under them. The snow no longer fell in flakes +but in white sheets, lashed and driven by the force of the storm. + +The trail across the plains to the Ralston Ranch was quickly hidden. +Mountains of snow piled up in front of Olive, deep gullies appeared at +her feet, where the land was usually as level as a table, and she had no +idea in which direction she should try to travel. But she fought her way +on, thinking perhaps that another wanderer might overtake her, or that +she might catch a glimpse of the lights of some ranch house. If she +could find an objective point ahead of her, she felt that she might get +to it. But to move blindly in a circle of snow, brought no hope of any +relief. + +Yet Olive knew she must keep moving if she wished to live. She did not +suffer the same agony from the cold, that she had at first. The wind +blew her about, as though she had been a bit of paper. She staggered and +fell in the snowdrifts, got up and pressed on wishing that even a wild +animal would scurry past her on the way to its retreat. But animals are +always wiser than human beings before the approach of a storm. Every +head of cattle, every horse on the plains, every beast in the forest had +found a rude shelter. Olive felt herself entirely alone in a savage, +white world. + +But in quiet natures like Olive's, there is a wonderful power of +resistance. She had endured so much, she had learned the fortitude that +comes with misfortune. + +She prayed silently through the hours she struggled. There were moments +when she believed she spied the light of Rainbow Lodge gleaming on the +cruel surface of the snow. She would fight her way to this place, only +to discover that her own blind desire had led her astray. + +Night came on, but there was little change from the twilight. The few +stars that broke through the clouds only made the way more blinding. + +Olive's patience, Carlos' planning seemed to have been in vain. + +Again Olive dreamed she saw some lights ahead of her. Her mind was no +longer clear. She could not remember why she was out alone in the snow. +She cried for Jack, when she had the strength, but the tears froze on +her face. + +Olive reached out her arms toward her vision of the lights of Rainbow +Lodge. She was either too blind or too utterly spent to see the snowbank +in front of her, as suddenly it shut out her mirage of home. The girl +gave a cry of despair with all the feeble strength that was left in her +and tumbled headlong into the cold embrace of the snow. But the snow was +no longer cold. It was strangely warm and she was shut away from the +cruel winds. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +JACK IS HAPPY. + + +"CHILLUNS, it's time for bed," Cousin Ruth announced softly. "Frieda has +been asleep in my arms for the last ten minutes. Perhaps I can tumble +her in bed without waking her, she is so frightened at the storm." + +Jean glanced up at the clock over the living-room mantle. "Do let's wait +a little while longer?" she begged. "I am just at the most thrilling +part of my book and I am bound to finish it before I go to bed. Jack, +you stay here with me, if Cousin Ruth is going with Frieda. I don't like +to sit up alone. This storm is a terror! Listen how the wind howls down +the chimney. I hope our stock won't be frozen to death to-night." + +Ruth led Frieda gently out of the sitting-room while Jack got up and +wandered to the window. But the frost covered the glass. She scratched a +little space away with a hairpin, but there was nothing to see outside +save the snow. + +Jack walked restlessly up and down the room for a minute. It was just +nine o'clock and she did not feel like going to bed. She could not read +as Jean was doing. These terrible western storms, that came once or +twice every winter, always filled her with foreboding. Jack was too good +a rancher not to understand that they caused great suffering and loss +among the cattle. The rude corrals, which the ranchmen built for their +stock, could not save them on a night like this. + +Jack dropped down on her knees before their book shelves and began to +look over the collection of volumes that had once belonged to her +father. The books were the same ones that Jean had found in her uncle's +trunk and brought to the living-room to impress their new governess on +the day of her arrival at Rainbow Lodge. Shep got up from his warm place +by the fire and trotted over to lie down by Jack, seeming to know that +she was worried and wishing to offer her his subtle sympathy. + +Jack turned over the pages of half a dozen books, shaking them, so that +every leaf fluttered apart. + +Jean glanced over at her cousin. Jack was quieter and older than ever +to-night. "What are you doing, Jack, want me to help you?" Jean asked +lovingly. + +"No, Jean, I am not doing anything special," Jack replied quietly. "I am +just killing time." + +But Jean knew that her cousin was searching once more for the lost title +deed to Rainbow Ranch and she had gone to the window to gaze out on the +snow with the thought of Olive on her mind. Even light-hearted Jean +sighed. It was only a few days before Christmas. + +Jack was getting up off the floor, when a sound startled her. She jumped +quickly to her feet. Old Shep gave a long howl. + +"What is the matter with you, Jacqueline Ralston?" Jean demanded +pettishly, partly because she had just been so sorry for Jack. "You +almost scared me out of my wits." + +Jack was pointing toward the window. "I heard a noise outside in the +snow," she exclaimed excitedly. + +"You did no such thing, Jack, it's only the wind howling. It has been +making a racket for the last four hours. I don't see why you are so +surprised all of a sudden. I heard nothing unusual," Jean protested. + +"But it wasn't the wind I heard, Jean. This noise was quite different. +Shep heard it too, see how queerly he is acting," Jack argued. + +Old Shep had gone to the front door of the ranch house and was stretched +against it with his fore paws resting on the door. + +"Well, if you didn't hear the wind, it is some animal that has seen the +lights in the Lodge and stolen near here for protection. Do sit down, +Jack, you make me dreadfully nervous, staring like that. You know you +haven't heard the sound a second time. Let's go to bed." + +Jean slipped her arm about Jack's waist, but Jack pushed her gently off. +"I am going out in the snow to find out what that cry meant, Jean," Jack +announced decisively. "Suppose it was an animal, I can't allow anything +to die just outside our home to-night." + +Jean clung to her cousin's skirts. "You shan't go out that door, Jack," +Jean avowed. "You will be blown off your feet by the wind. You will be +frozen. If a wild animal has come out of the woods for shelter, you'll +be torn to pieces." Jean pictured every horrible fate that she could +imagine overtaking Jacqueline. But Jack was quickly buttoning up her +overcoat and tying a thick woolen scarf about her head. + +"I won't stay out but a minute, Jean dear," she returned. "Shep will go +with me. He will keep me from getting hurt." + +"I'll call Cousin Ruth, Jack, you are the most obstinate person in the +world!" Jean exclaimed passionately, but Jack had wrenched open the big +front door of the ranch house, and plunged out into the night. A gust of +snow swept into the wide hall. Straining with all her might, Jack closed +the door back of her, so that Jean should not feel the fury of the +storm. With Shep by her side, Jack faced the white wilderness of snow. + +Jean ran down the hall toward Ruth's room, but Ruth had already heard +the noise and joined her. For an instant the two women awaited Jack's +return. They believed that she would come into the house as soon as she +saw what lay ahead of her. + +Jack seized the lantern, that swung always above the door of their +Lodge. The light was out, but by crouching down and turning her back to +the wind, Jack managed to relight it. She knew the light would soon +blow out again, but for a minute it would serve a purpose. + +Jack climbed off the porch. Shep ploughed in front of her. Jack swung +her lantern once, twice it flashed, then the wind blew it out. + +But in that space of time she saw something dark in a mound of snow not +far from the house. Jack felt her way toward it, guided by an +overwhelming instinct. Shep shook all over, not with the cold, but with +the foreknowledge of what was ahead of them. + +When Jack reached Olive, Shep had already covered the still body with +his own warm one. Jack pushed Shep away. She had to feel under the +drifting snow before she knew the object she touched was a human being, +but it was not until her hand touched the delicate frozen face, that she +realized that Olive was found at last. + +Jack's cry for help brought Ruth, Jean, and from the kitchen, Aunt Ellen +and Zack. There was such agony in Jack's tones, that they all believed +some horrible thing had happened to her. + +The women got Olive inside the house, not one of them having an idea +that she was alive, but no one dared to tell Jack so. They stripped off +the girl's clothes and found the little sandal-wood box hidden inside +her dress. + +If Jack had not already learned to love Ruth Drew, she would have begun +to care for her to-night. For Ruth knew exactly what to do for Olive. +She would not let the girls and Aunt Ellen carry Olive too near the +fire. She sent Uncle Zack off to find Jim Colter. Ruth and Jack rubbed +Olive's stiff body with snow, until their hands felt almost as numb as +hers and forced hot tea between her clenched teeth. By and by Aunt Ellen +and Jean were allowed to bring warm blankets and hot irons. + +At last the blue, stark look left Olive's face. It was Jack who +discovered a tiny bit of color in her lips. Jack flung herself on her +knees and hardly knowing what she was doing, breathed all the warm, +vibrant breath of her own vigorous body into Olive's almost frozen +lungs. + +After another hour, Olive stirred and moved one hand. She half opened +her black eyes. "I am all right, Jack," she whispered. "I have got home +at last." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +CHRISTMAS EVE. + + +"IT'S the most beautiful one we have ever had, Jim; I'm so glad," Jack +declared happily. + +Jim beat the snow from his coat and folded his arms proudly. "It took +all day to get it, Jack, but it's worth it. Where are the other girls?" + +Jim Colter and Jacqueline were standing at the base of a wonderful pine +tree, whose top pressed against the ceiling of the living-room at +Rainbow Lodge. The frost still clung to the tree and the snow and +icicles melted into long chains of diamonds, as they fell in drops of +crystal clearness to the floor. + +"The girls are in Cousin Ruth's room at work," Jack answered. "Olive and +Frieda have promised not to look at the tree until the evening. We are +going to have everything in pure white, a regular German Christmas tree, +in honor of Frieda's birthday and her name. There is a white world +inside and out and we shall be at peace for to-night at least," Jack +ended with a little sigh. + +Jim moved nearer to the tree and shook one of the branches until the +bits of frost fell to the ground with a soft tinkle like the far-off +music of sleigh bells. He kept his clouded blue eyes turned away from +Jack's. + +Jack slipped her arm through his and pressed it affectionately. + +"Never you mind, Jim, I didn't mean to be doleful," Jack persisted. "I'm +not a bit, really. Olive is all right, and you've seen that that +wretched Josef and old Laska have been sent away, so they can't annoy +her any more. And I think it's perfectly great that we are going to have +such a lovely Christmas to-night as we have hardly ever had before! +Suppose it is our last one at the Lodge, we will have it to remember! +But, Mr. Colter," Jack danced away from Jim and made him a mock curtsy, +"you may kindly observe that I haven't begun to pack up the furniture at +the Lodge just yet. We never say die, do we, Jim? I think I will have +that motto engraved on a coat of arms for Rainbow Ranch." + +Jim nodded approvingly. "It's a pretty good sentiment, Jack," he agreed, +as he started toward the door. "I must be off now, but I'll be back +to-night, promptly at seven, for the festivities." + +But Jack clung to him. "See here, Jim, you can't go so soon. You haven't +said hello to Cousin Ruth or showed her the tree. You know you want to +see her. She has had a bad cold ever since the night we found Olive and +it is only polite that you should tell her you are glad she is well." +Jack's tones were perfectly serious and her expression as innocent as a +baby's. + +Jim flushed a little angrily. "No. I don't want to see her, at least not +particularly. Why should I?" Jim demanded awkwardly. "That is,--" + +Ruth was standing at the living-room door with her arms full of +mysterious packages. She laughed and came into the room, glad that Jim +looked as awkward as she felt on the day of her first horseback ride +with him. + +When Ruth was putting down her packages Jack winked solemnly at Jim, and +in return for his irritated glance at her, she slipped quietly out of +the room. + +All the way down the hall Jack was smiling to herself. "Wouldn't it be +too funny if old Jim should fall in love with Cousin Ruth?" she +thought. "Goodness knows why he is so touchy about her! She has been +awfully nice to him, since he taught her to ride horseback, but the +friendlier she is, the queerer he behaves. + + 'Oh, young Lochinvar has come out of the west, + Of all the wide world, his steed is the best,'" + +Jack quoted, apropos of nothing, as she joined the other girls in Ruth's +bedroom. + +Olive, Jean and Frieda were working industriously. Over in the corner +there was a little mound that looked like a pile of snow but was only +the strings of popcorn for the Christmas tree. Jean was fashioning an +immense silver star. Olive and Frieda were filling boxes of white paper, +decorated with the initials, "R. G.," with homemade taffy candy and +chocolate fudge. The ranch girls had not invited their neighbors to +their Christmas eve party, but the cowboys who worked on their ranch +were coming up to the Lodge to wish them good luck. + +Jack dropped down on the floor and deliberately began devouring the +fudge from a big China dish. "Don't work too hard, Olive," Jack +insisted, reaching up to pop a piece of candy into Olive's mouth. +"Remember you are not very strong yet." + +Olive only laughed. She was a little paler than when she first came to +the ranch in the early autumn, but her eyes were serene and untroubled +and she looked far less timid and shy. Since finding her mother's +picture in the possession of old Laska, Olive felt that she was more +like the other girls and the thought that old Laska had any real claim +on her, no longer worried her. + +"This isn't very hard work, Jack," Olive replied gaily. "And there is +still a lot for us to do to be ready for to-night. Just think, this will +be the first real Christmas tree I have ever seen!" + +"Well, we won't have so much work to do, Olive, if Jack eats all the +candy," Jean remarked severely. "And Jack, perhaps if you would help +Frieda and Olive, instead of talking so much, they wouldn't have such a +lot to do." + +Jack flung a cotton snowball at Jean. "Bear with me, sweet coz," she +pleaded cheerfully. "I don't know just why, girls, but I feel so kind of +happy to-day, that I suppose I am silly. I believe all the clouds have +passed over our benighted heads and the Rainbow Arch of Promise is just +over the Lodge." + +Jean pointed scornfully to the winter landscape outside the window. + +"It looks rather like we might have a rainbow after the summer shower: +don't you think so, Olive?" she inquired. But she bent over and crowned +Jack with a wreath of silver tinsel and went on with her work, smiling +as though she had more faith in Jack's prediction than she cared to +confess. + +"Ah, Jean," Jack went on, "don't you know there is a legend that +somewhere there is a wonderful land where all the rainbows that have +ever been or ever will be, drift to and fro, like beautiful colored +flowers? Perhaps one of these rainbows will find us to-night in spite of +the weather." Jack's face softened at her own pretty fancy. + +All day the girls worked and whispered and laughed. Ruth and Jean and +Jack decorated the great Christmas tree. The gifts were piled up under +the tree, for nothing was to be allowed to mar the perfect whiteness of +its decorations. Only Ruth's presents were to be given just before +supper time. She insisted that this was absolutely necessary, or else +they would lose half their value. + +When Jack came into her room at about five o'clock to get ready for the +evening, she saw what Ruth had meant. Lying on the foot of her bed was +the prettiest dress Jack had ever owned in her life. It was very simple, +of a soft white material like crêpe, with a lovely band of silver +embroidery about the low, square neck and around the waist and skirt. +Jean was busy in the kitchen. But Jack saw that her dress was of +delicate, pink cashmere, the color Jean most loved. + +Jack slipped into her costume very quickly and stole softly into the +great closed living-room, thinking she would find Ruth there. She had no +idea how beautiful she looked. + +The room was empty. The pine tree stood in one corner, lifting its noble +green branches hung in dim festoons and covered with myriads of small +white candles. It was quite dark. Only the fire, that never went out all +winter long at the Lodge, flickered and danced and threw fantastic +shadows over the girl who was standing near the Christmas tree. + +Jack's eyes were misty as she gazed about her. Her loves were not so +very many, but they were deep and strong. She cared for the old ranch +house more than most girls would for a fairy palace. + +Suddenly Jack heard a stamping on the porch just outside the front door +and Shep's quick bark. She ran swiftly to open it. She supposed Jim had +come up to the house earlier than he had promised. But it was dark and +the glare of the snow for a moment blinded her. + +Frank Kent held out his hand. "May I come in, Miss Ralston?" he asked. +"I know it's late, but I have tramped all the way over here and it's +taken a long time. I want to tell you something and I want to say +good-bye." + +Jack hurried Frank in near the fire. He had been to the Lodge once since +Olive was found, but the girls had not seen or heard of him in several +days. + +Jack lit the candles on the mantelpiece and then turned to smile at her +guest. Frank stared at her boyishly and then: "Gee, Miss Ralston," he +exclaimed. "If you don't mind my saying it, you look perfectly ripping!" + +But Jack was regarding Frank anxiously. He had a deep and rather +unbecoming bruise over one eye and the other side of his face was +somewhat swollen. + +"What on earth is the matter with you, Frank, Mr. Kent, I mean?" Jack +demanded. "You look like you had been in a fight." And Jack laughed at +the thought of so well-bred a fellow as Frank Kent engaging in such a +small-boy occupation. + +"I have. That is what I came over to tell you about." Frank replied. +"That is, I didn't come to tell you about the fight, but of something +that led to it. I shall not go back to the Norton ranch again. I am +through with those people forever." Frank dropped into a chair which +Jack drew forward. "You see, Miss Ralston, it's like this. I have been +knowing for some time that Dan Norton, Jr., was a cad, and I have had a +good many scores to settle with him. But I didn't know that he and his +father were thieves until to-day. I happened to be in the room next Mr. +Norton's study, when I heard Dan and the old man talking about your +ranch. I don't say I actually hurried away, but I wasn't going to +eavesdrop. Just as I started to clear out, however, I overheard Mr. +Norton say: 'Well, we've fixed them good and plenty, haven't we, Dan, +Jr. Rainbow Ranch is the same as ours! I tell you might is right in this +country, my lad.' I kind of stopped then, Miss Jack," Frank added. "I +didn't exactly like the sound of what Mr. Norton said." + +Jack had come close to Frank, but her hands were clasped behind her to +hide her impatience. "Do go on, please," she urged breathlessly. + +"Then Dan answered: 'You are sure right, Father. We are going to prove +that Rainbow Ranch belongs to us a whole lot easier than if it really +did.' I heard just exactly those words. Miss Ralston," Frank remarked, +quietly. "And I am ready to swear to them in any court of law." + +"Oh-h," Jack bit her lips to hide their trembling and a hot color +flooded her face. "What did you hear next?" she pleaded. "Do go on." + +"I didn't hear anything more," Frank answered. "I marched into their +study and told Mr. Norton and Dan exactly what I thought of them. Then +Dan and I got to using some language and we rather broke up the +furniture for a while. Of course I can't stay in the house of a man whom +I know to be a rogue. But will you tell your overseer, Mr. Colter, that +I won't get too far out of this neighborhood to appear when your suit +about the ownership of Rainbow Ranch comes into court." Frank looked +around for his hat. "I hope you will have a very happy Christmas," he +said. He held himself so erect, with a dignity of grace and breeding +such as Jack had rarely seen. Before Jack realized what was happening, +Frank was out of the room. + +For the second time in their acquaintance, she ran after him. This time +she put her hand on his and fairly dragged him back with her. + +"Oh, please, please don't go. You must stay and have Christmas at the +Lodge with us," Jack entreated. "We have plenty of room and we would so +love to have you. Do wait here until I go and find Cousin Ruth, I know +she will be more apt to persuade you to stay." + +Needless to say, Cousin Ruth was successful and at eight o'clock, the +ranch girls, Cousin Ruth, Frank Kent, Jim Colter, Aunt Ellen, Uncle +Zack, and six bashful cowboys were gathered about the mammoth Christmas +tree. + +Frieda was to light the candles. She looked like a plump little German +fairy in her new white frock, with her long braids of flaxen hair. + +But Frieda could not reach up to the tall candles on the big tree and +she would not allow either Jim or Frank to lift her up. + +On the largest chair in the room, Frieda could tiptoe up to almost the +tallest row of candles. But just under a little wax figure of the Virgin +and the Christ Child, Jean had set seven in a circle. These were the +topmost glory of the tree and Frieda's crowning ambition and were the +only candles she could not possibly reach from her chair. + +The little Christmas-eve girl slipped onto the floor, and before any of +the men in the room guessed what she was after, dragged out from the +book shelves an immense old law book, bound in worn brown leather. +Frieda started gallantly across the room with it. But it dropped from +her small hands and scattered yellow parchment leaves over the floor. +The back of the book ripped off and Frieda held only the leather cover. +Out of this, from a kind of inner pocket, a folded sheet of paper +fluttered and fell at Frieda's feet. + +The company crowded to the rescue. Blonde heads and brown heads bumped +into each other in picking up the leaves. Frieda started to the fire +with the old book cover and the folded paper. She gave them both a toss +toward the flames, but the paper fluttered back to her feet. + +Frieda laughed and picked it up again. "This paper won't be burned up, +Jack," she exclaimed. "Let's light it in the Christmas candles." + +Jack caught Frieda's hand. "May I look at it, dear?" she asked gently. + +Frieda consented to have Frank lift her to the row of lights on top of +their Christmas tree. Jim was talking to Cousin Ruth, Jean was +distributing boxes of candy, and it was Olive who put her arm around +Jack. + +"What is it, dear? What has happened?" she whispered. "Are you glad or +sorry over something?" It was no wonder Olive asked. Jack's eyes were +streaming in tears, but under them shone a kind of radiance. Her face +was white one minute and then glowed with a beautiful rose color. + +"Oh, I am so happy, happy, Olive!" she cried, throwing her arms around +Olive and forgetting the rest of the company. "See, we have the most +wonderful Christmas gift. Frieda has found our deed to Rainbow Ranch! I +believe somehow that Father sent it to us to-night." + +But Jim and Cousin Ruth and everybody in the room had heard Jack. + +Jim lifted Jack up in the chair, which Frieda had given up. She waved +her wonderful paper before her friends. The cowboys broke into a +prolonged cheer. The girls cried a little, because they couldn't help +it. Jim suddenly looked ten years younger and what he whispered to +Cousin Ruth, no one ever knew, but she blushed and shook her head. + +"Do let's dance or do something, quick!" Jean exclaimed, "or I simply +can't bear it." She ran over to the piano. But at this moment sleigh +bells sounded outside and a pair of horses could be heard stamping on +the frozen ground. Then another sleigh followed and the wide hall of +Rainbow Lodge was quickly crowded with Mr. and Mrs. Simpson, Harry +Pryor, Laura, who for once looked friendly, and all the neighbors of the +ranch girls for miles around. + + "Villagers all, this frosty tide, + Let your doors swing open wide, + Though wind may follow and snow beside, + Yet draw us in by your fire to bide." + +Harry Pryor sang the first verse of the old Christmas carol alone. +Before he had finished Jean was playing the air softly on the piano and +all the guests joined in the second verse. + + "Here we stand in the snow and the sleet, + Blowing fingers and stamping feet, + Come from far away, you to greet, + You by the fire and we in the street, + Bidding you joy in the morning." + +"How did you know, Aunt Sallie? How could you have come to congratulate +us at just the right moment?" Jack inquired with a puzzled frown, as she +helped Mrs. Simpson out of her wraps. "We only found it about a minute +before." + +"Found what?" Mrs. Simpson demanded curiously. But the next instant she +put her comfortable arms about Jack and hugged her with all her might. + +"Of course we didn't know you had found your deed to Rainbow Ranch, +child," Aunt Sallie exclaimed. "We came over because we were afraid you +might not be happy this Christmas. We wanted you to know that we all +meant to stand by you. I don't think there is anything in this State +that we have a better right to be proud of than our ranch girls," and +Aunt Sallie choked a little with mixed emotions. + +Jack laughed gaily. "You are a dear, Aunt Sallie," she answered +gratefully. "I don't know why you should be proud of us. But anyhow, it +is lots of fun to be a Ranch Girl." + + + + +The Ranch Girls Series. + + +The story of the four Ranch Girls is plainly just beginning. Girls so +entirely unlike in temperament and ideals, as Jack, Jean, Olive and +Frieda, cannot fail to lead lives that will develop in interest. In the +second volume in the Ranch Girls Series, which will be entitled, "The +Ranch Girls' Pot of Gold," they have even more unusual experiences and +adventures and are brought into closer contact with the real life of the +West. It isn't possible to tell exactly what the Ranch Girls will do in +this second book, but it is safe to promise that it will be something +even more original and full of delightful opportunity, than running a +ranch. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. Text uses both some one and +someone. + +Page 40, "timew anted" changed to "time wanted" (same time wanted to) + +Page 62, "franticall yout" changed to "frantically out" (frantically out +the window) + +Page 91, "Pryer" changed to "Pryor" (special friend, Harry Pryor) + +Page 178, "creek" changed to "Creek" (Rainbow Creek lay on) + +Page 241, "seemes" changed to "seems" (it seems almost foolish) + +Page 268, "we" changed to "me" (telling me where this) + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ranch Girls at Rainbow Lodge, by +Margaret Vandercook + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RANCH GIRLS AT RAINBOW LODGE *** + +***** This file should be named 33409-8.txt or 33409-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/4/0/33409/ + +Produced by Emmy, Darleen Dove and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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