"No, no!" pleaded Lina, faint and trembling, for the reaction of the recent terror was upon her, and she grew sick now that the danger was over. "I am ill--blind--Ralph--Ralph!"
She spoke his name in faint murmurs, her head fell forward and her eyes closed. Ralph thought she was dying. He remembered that the rattlesnake had touched her in his first spring, and took the faintness as the working of his venom in her veins. He called out in the agony of this thought,--
"Ben! Ben! she is dying--she is dead--he struck her!"
Ben gave the rattlesnake a vigorous lash, which turned him on his back again, and sprang up the rocks.
"Have you killed him? Is he dead? Oh, Ben, he has struck her on her arm or hand, perhaps! Look, look--see if you can find the wound!"
Ben gave a hasty glance at the white face lying upon Ralph"s shoulder, uttered a smothered humph, and with this emphatic expression turned to watch the common enemy. The snake had turned slowly over upon the moss and was slinking away through a crevice in the rocks. Ben uttered a mellow chuckling laugh as his rattles disappeared.
"Did you see him, the sneak? Did you see him steal off?" he said, looking at Ralph.
CHAPTER IV.
LINA COMES OUT OF HER FAINTING FIT.
Ralph lifted his white face to old Ben and broke forth fiercely:
"You should have crushed him--ground him to powder. He has poisoned all the sweet life in her veins. She is dying, Ben, she is dying!"
Ben threw down the ash branch and plunged one hand into a pocket in search of his tobacco box. With great deliberation he rolled up a quant.i.ty of the weed and deposited it under one cheek, before he attempted to answer either the pleading looks or pa.s.sionate language of the youth.
"Mister Ralph, it"s plain as a marlin-spike, you ain"t used to snakes and wimmen. In that partiklar your education"s been shamefully neglected. Never kill a rattlesnake arter he"s shut in his fangs and turns on his back for mercy--its sneakin" business. Never think a woman is dead till the s.e.xton sends in his bill. Snakes and feminine wimmen is hard to kill. Now any landshark, as has his eyes out of his heart, could see that Miss Lina"s only took a faintin" turn, that comes after a skeer like hers, axactly as sleep stills a tired baby. Just give her here now, I"ll take her down the river, throw a cap full of water in her face, and she"ll be bright as a new dollar long before we get across."
The look of relief that came to the face of Ralph Harrington was like a flash of sunshine. A grateful smile lighted his eyes, but instead of resigning Lina to the stout arms held out by Ben Benson, he gathered her close to his bosom, saying in a proud voice,
"Why, Ben, I want no help to carry Lina."
Then he bore her down the hill, looking now and then upon her face so tenderly, that Ben, who was eyeing him all the way with sidelong glances, made a hideous face to himself, as if to capitulate with his dignity for wanting to smile at anything so childish.
"Sit down there," said Ben, pointing to the stern of his boat, "sit down there, Mister Ralph, and kinder ease her down to the seat; your face is hot as fire a carrying her. Now I"ll fill my hat with water and give her a souse that"ll bring the red to her mouth in a jiffy."
"No, no," said Ralph, arresting Ben as he stooped to fill his little glazed hat, "don"t throw it, hold your cap here, Ben, and I"ll sprinkle her face. How pale it is! How like a dear lifeless angel she looks?"
Ben stooped to the water, and Ralph trembling and flushed, bent over the pale beautiful face on his bosom, closer, closer, till his lips drew the blood back to hers, and her eyelids began to quiver like shadows on a white rose.
Ben had slowly risen from the water with the glazed hat dripping between his two great hands; but when he saw Ralph"s position, the good fellow ducked downward again, and made a terrible splashing in the river, as he dipped the br.i.m.m.i.n.g hat a second time, while that grotesque suppression of a smile convulsed his hard features.
It was wonderful how long it took Ben to fill his hat this time. One would have thought him fishing for pearls in the depths of the river, he was so fastidious in finding the exact current best calculated to restore a young lady from faintness. When he did arise, everything about the young people was, to use his nautical expression, ship-shape and above-board. The color was stealing back to Lina"s face, like blushes from the first flowering of apple blossoms, and a brightness stole from beneath her half-closed eyelids, that had something softer and deeper than mere life in it.
"It is not necessary, Ben; she is better, I think," said the young man, looking half-timidly into the boatman"s face. "Don"t you think she looks beauti----I mean, don"t you think she looks better, a great deal better, Ben?"
Again, that grotesque expression seized upon Ben"s features; and, setting down his hat, as if it had been a washbowl, he took Lina"s straw hat from the bottom of the boat, where it had fallen, and began to shake out the ribbons with great energy.
"She grows pale--I"m afraid she is losing ground again, Ben," said Ralph, as the color wavered to and fro on the fair cheek beneath his gaze.
"Shall I fill the hat again?" answered Ben, demurely.
"It kinder seems to be the filling on it that brings her round easiest?"
"No, you"re very kind, but I"ll sprinkle her forehead--she has been so frightened, you know, I dare say she thought the snake had bitten--had bitten one of us, Ben! That is right, hold the hat this way."
Ben dropped on his knees in the bottom of the boat, crushing down a whole forest of Lina"s wild flowers, and held up the hat reverently between his hands.
Ralph put back the ma.s.ses of brown hair from Lina"s face, and began to bathe it gently, almost holding his breath, as if she were a babe he was afraid of waking.
"Isn"t she a dear, generous creature?" he said, at last, with a burst of admiration. "It took a fright like this, to prove how precious she was to us all!"
Instantly, a cloud of crimson swept over Lina"s face and bosom, and with it came an illumination of the features, that made the young man tremble beneath her light weight.
"Lina, dear Lina!" he whispered.
She arose from his arms, crimson again to the temples, and sat down in silence, her eyes downcast, her lips trembling, as if a great effort kept her from bursting into tears.
Ralph saw this, and his face clouded.
"What have I done? Are you angry with me, Lina?" he whispered, as Ben pushed the boat off and gathered up his oars.
"Angry! No, I cannot tell. What has happened to us, Ralph?"
"Don"t you remember, Lina?"
"Remember?--yes--now. Oh, it was horrible!"
"I, Lina, I shall always remember it with more pleasure than pain."
She lifted her eyes with a timid, questioning glance. The young man drew close to her, and as Ben dashed his oars in the water, thus drowning his voice to all but her, whispered--
"Because it has told me in my heart of hearts how entirely I love you, Lina."
Her maidenly shame was aroused now. She shrunk from his glance, blushing and in silence.
"Will you not speak to me, Lina?"
"What can I say, Ralph?"
"That you love me."
A little coquettish smile stole over her mouth.
"We have said that to each other from the cradle up."
"No, never before, never with this depth of meaning--my heart is broken up, Lina; there is nothing left of it but a flood of tender love--you are no longer my sister, but my idol; I worship you, Lina!"