"Not much! not much!" exclaimed the storekeeper, hastily. "He"s jest a squatter. Come from one of the lower counties, I b"lieve.
Holler-chested. Bad lungs, he said. Goin" to live in the open an" cure "em."
"He ought to go to the hospital at once," growled the doctor.
"I can take him," said Hester, quietly. "He"s a very brave man, I believe. He warned all the people through the section back of Tentorville----"
"I guess you druv the car, Miss," cackled Carey, the storekeeper.
"But I should have driven it home in a hurry after finding him on the road without knowing anything about the people in danger," said the girl, honestly. "He did it."
"No matter who did it. I want to get him to the hospital. I"ll go to Centerport with him, Miss, if you"ll take us."
"Of course," said Hester.
"You know him, Carey," said the doctor, turning to the storekeeper.
"Can I use your name at the hospital in Centerport?"
"No, you can"t," said the other, quickly. "I can"t stand no "nearest friend" game for a man that never spent fo" bits a week in my store for groceries. No. I dunno him."
"We"ll stand sponsor for him, sir," said Hester, hastily. "Come on.
You"ll have to tell me how to drive. I don"t know these roads very well."
"What"s your name, Miss?" asked the physician, climbing into the car as Hester touched the electric starter.
Hester told him, and the medical man nodded. "Henry Grimes"s gal, eh?"
he said. "Well, he"s well able to be sponsor for this poor fellow.
Drive on."
He was a shabby old man, this country doctor. His name was Leffert, and he seemed none too blessed with this world"s goods. But he was kindly and he eased the senseless man into a comfortable position in the tonneau with the gentleness of a woman.
The car started on the long run to Centerport with a plentifully filled tank. And the engine worked nicely. When they pa.s.sed the Sitz place Hester saw that the farmer and Otto were out ploughing along the edge of the woods by lantern light. But the sky above the ridge glowed like a live coal. The forest fire was sweeping on.
When they came down the hill past Robinson"s Woods the doctor nudged Hester from behind.
"Hadn"t you better take that left-hand turn, Miss?" he demanded.
"What for? This is the nearest way," returned the girl, slowing down a bit.
"But it goes through the Four Corners. They have a habit of setting on automobiles there."
"They won"t dare bother us," declared Hester. "Most of those people work for father."
"Aw--well," said the doctor, and sat down again.
The car roared through the settlement of shacks about the Four Corners like a fast express. n.o.body tried to bother them. In twenty minutes thereafter the car stopped at the City Hospital. The patient was carried in on a stretcher, and one of the interns took Hester"s name and address. Dr. Leffert evidently had no standing at the inst.i.tution, and he merely handed the patient over to the hospital authorities and hurried away. Hester drove the car home and found both her mother and father excitedly awaiting her coming.
"Now, don"t you bother about me--or the car!" she said, sharply, when her parents began to take her to task for worrying them so. "I haven"t had a bite to eat, and I"m tired, too. Your old car isn"t hurt any----"
"But you can"t ride that car all over this country alone, Hess! I swear I won"t have it!"
"But I _did_ drive it alone, didn"t I? And it isn"t hurt any. Neither am I," she replied, and it was several days before her parents learned the particulars of their daughter"s wild ride over the mountainside with the squatter, Billson, warning the small farmers of the coming fire.
"I declare for"t!" her mother then said. "You"re the greatest girl, Hess! The folks say you"re a heroine."
"They say a whole lot beside their prayers, I reckon," snapped Hester.
"But one of the country papers has got a long article in it about you and that Mr. Billson. Only they don"t know your name."
"No. I told Doc. Leffert to keep still about it," said Hester. "Now!
there"s been enough talk. I want two dollars, Ma. I want to send that Billson some jelly and some flowers. He"s having a mighty hard time at the hospital. And there isn"t a soul who cares anything about him--whether he lives or dies."
"Ain"t that just like you, Hessie?" complained her mother. "You throw that poor fellow good things like you was throwing a bone to a dog!
I--I wish you wasn"t so hard."
But events were making Hester seem harder than usual these days. She was completely cut off from the society of her school fellows. She had no part in the after-hour athletics. n.o.body spoke to her about the fine time expected at Keyport when the basketball team went over to battle with the team of the Keyport High.
And when that day arrived, fully a carload entrained at the Hill station of the C. K. & M. Railroad, bound for the neighboring city.
These were all the girls of Central High interested in the game and their friends among the boys.
It was not a long run by train to Keyport, but they had a lot of fun.
Chet and Lance were full of an incident that had occurred in Professor Dimp"s cla.s.s that morning, and Chet was telling his sister and a group of friends about it.
"Short and Long got one on Old Dimple again to-day," said Chet. "You know he"s forever hammering the Romans into us. We ought to call him "The Old Roman"--we really had! There"s that Roman lad who was such an athlete and all-around pug----"
""Pug!"" gasped Laura. "Wait till mother hears you say _that_."
"Ha! I"m going to watch to see that she doesn"t hear me, Sis,"
returned her brother. "Well, Old Dimple was telling us about this lad who used to swim across the Tiber three times before breakfast. And when he"d expatiated on the old boy"s performance, Short and Long put up a mitt----"
""A mitt!"" groaned Laura again.
"Aw, well! His hand, then. Dimple perked right up, thinking that Short and Long was really showing some interest, and says he:
""What"s your question, Mr. Long?"
"And Billy says: "What"s puzzling me, is why he swam it _three_ times?""
""Eh?" says Dimple. "How"s that, young man?""
""Why didn"t he swim it _four_ times," says Billy, grave as a judge, "and so get back to the bank where he"d left his clothes?" And not a smile cracked Short and Long"s face! Dimple didn"t know whether to laugh or get mad, and just then the gong sounded "Time" and Dimple got out of it without answering Billy"s question."
"Tickets!" cried Lance, as the girls laughed at the story. "Here comes the conductor. Get your pasteboards ready."
"Who says that"s the conductor, Lance?" demanded Chet.
"Huh! It"s Mr. Wood, isn"t it? He"s the conductor of this train."
"Impossible," sighed Chet "Wood is a non-conductor."