Eve finished her morning"s work, "pegged" the baseball at the target she had marked with a brush on the sheep fold fence, managing to scare all the woolly muttons out of at least half of their senses, and then grabbed up a bridle and ran down to the pasture bars and whistled for the mare.
The old horse came cantering across the field. Eve never failed to have a lump of sugar in her pocket, and the old girl nuzzled around for it and would not be content until she had munched it. Meanwhile Eve slipped on the bridle and sprang upon the creature"s back.
Hester Grimes, and Lily Pendleton, and some of the wealthier girls who went to Central High, rode horseback in the parks. They went to a riding school and cantered around a tanbark ring, and then rode, very demurely, two and two, upon old broken-kneed hacks through the bridle-paths. Mrs.
Case approved of horseback exercise for girls, either astride or side-saddle, as they pleased; but she certainly would have held her breath in fear had she seen Eve Sitz career down the rocky pasture upon her mount on this keen-aired morning.
It had rained over night and the bushes were still dripping. Every time a sharp hoof of the unshod mare tore up a clod as she cantered, Eve got the scent of the wet earth in her nostrils, and drank it in with long and deep inhalations. She rode the mare with a loose rein and let her take her head.
They dashed down the hill and through the narrow path that crossed a piece of Mr. Sitz"s swamp land. Here the dogwood was budding and a few Judas-trees displayed a purple blush, as though a colored mist hung about them. In a few days the bushes would burst forth in full flower.
Eve rode fast along the swamp path. It was narrow, and to have ventured three yards upon either side would have been to sink, horse and all, into the quagmire. This was a waste piece of the farm that her father hoped to drain at some time, but now it was only a covert for birds and frogs.
But suddenly, as the girl rode fast, she thought she heard a cry. She half checked her mount; but the sound was not repeated.
A minute later the gray mare was through the marsh-piece and out upon the field beyond. Eve intended circling around by Peveril Pond and so reach home again by another path; yet the mysterious cry she had heard back there in the swamp-piece kept returning to her mind.
Suppose it had been a real cry--a human cry--a cry for help?
The thought came back to her again and again. She was in sight of the pond, when she could stand it no longer, but pulled the mare about.
"Come, old girl! We"ve got to be sure of this," cried Eve. "Back you go!"
Her mount cantered back again. They reached the edge of the swamp and Eve pulled the mare down to a walk. Stepping daintily, the steed followed the narrow path through the over-bushed swamp. One could not see a dozen feet on either hand, so tall were the bushes, and so thick--not even at the height Eve rode.
She halted her horse and called aloud:
"Ahoy! Hullo! Who called?"
No answer--for half a minute. The farmer"s daughter shouted again. Then she heard it again--a half-stifled cry--a cry that ended in a choking gasp and which chilled the blood in her veins and made her hold her own breath for a moment.
Was it an actual voice calling for help that had answered her? Or had she imagined the cry?
She held in the anxious horse, and waited. Again the m.u.f.fled shriek reached her ears. Somebody was caught in the quagmire--in the quicksand.
It was off to the left, and not many yards from the path.
CHAPTER XI--BOBBY IS INTERESTED
Indeed, one could not have ventured many feet from the path at this season of the year, when the heavy Spring rains had filled the swamp, without sinking into the mire. Eve knew this very well, and it was with fast-beating heart that she slipped from her horse, tied the bridle-rein to a sapling, and ventured cautiously in the direction of the half-choked cries.
"I"m coming! Where are you?" she called.
The cry for help came for a third time. Eve parted the bushes before her, and then shrank back. She had been about to put her foot upon a bit of shaking moss which, when she disturbed the branches of the bush, sank completely out of sight in the black mire.
Another step might have proved her own undoing!
But on the other side of this dimpling pool of mire a willow tree of the "weeping" variety stood with its roots deep in the swamp. And clinging to a drooping branch of this tree were two sun-browned hands--muscular, but small.
"A woman!" gasped Eve. Then, the next moment, she added: "A girl!"
And a girl it was--a girl no older than herself. The victim was all but shoulder deep in the mire. She was clinging desperately to the branch of the tree. Her face was half hidden by the twigs and leaves, and by her own disarranged hair, which hung in black elf-locks about it.
But even in that moment of surprise and fear, Eve identified her. It was the girl who had been a fugitive from the Gypsy camp.
The ident.i.ty of the person in peril did not claim Eve"s attention for half a moment, however. It was her necessity, and the fact that she must be rescued immediately that spurred the farm girl to action.
"Hold on! I"ll save you!" she shouted, and even as she spoke she saw the girl slip down a hand"s breadth deeper into the ooze. If she was to save the victim Eve must indeed work rapidly, and to the purpose.
She saw how the girl had come into her evil plight. Beside the tree ran a narrow strip of gra.s.sy hummock. It looked sound, but Eve well knew that all such places were treacherous.
The Gypsy girl had trusted to it, venturing off the regular and beaten path. She had slipped, or the edge of the hummock had caved in with her.
Only by chance had she caught at the branch of the willow and so stayed her descent into the bottomless mora.s.s.
Fleet of foot, Eve sprang back to the bridle-path where the mare was tied. She wanted the only thing which, in this emergency, could be of help to her--and to the girl sinking in the mire.
There was no time to go for help. There was no fence near where she could obtain rails, even. Nor did she have anything with which to cut down saplings to aid the girl.
Quickly her nimble fingers unbound the leather bridle from the tree.
Then she unbuckled the reins and removed them entirely, letting the mare go free if she would. But the wise old horse stood and watched her, without offering to run away.
"That"s right! Stand still, old girl!" exclaimed Eve Sitz. "I"ll want you mighty bad in a minute, or two, perhaps."
She sprang upon the tussock on which the victim of the accident had evidently been before her. But she was cautious. She came to the place where the poor girl clung to the tree branch. Those twigs were slowly slipping through her cramped fingers. In a few seconds she would slip entirely from her hold. Already she was too far gone to speak, and her eyes were closed.
It was no use calling again. Eve bent forward and with a little prayer for help, cast the loop of the strong rein over the victim"s head and shoulders.
As she did so the girl"s hands slipped entirely from the tree branch.
Eve screamed. But she threw herself back, too, as the weight of the sinking girl came upon the bridle-rein. Eve easily held her up. She could sink no farther. But the question that troubled the farmer"s daughter was: Could she draw the unconscious girl out of the mire?
But Eve was the heavier of the two, and far stronger. The Gypsy girl could run and leap like a hare--as she had proven the day the girls of Central High had seen her escaping from the encampment of her Romany companions. But she had not been strong enough to scramble out of the mud when she had once fallen into it.
Now Eve, sure that the bridle-rein would hold, flung herself back and dragged the girl up. She came out upon the narrow tussock slowly, but surely.
Eve wrapped the lines about her wrists and tugged with all her weight and strength; and she was not many seconds in accomplishing the rescue.
The unfortunate girl lay helpless on the edge of the mora.s.s. She was a ma.s.s of mud, and her eyes were still closed. Eve seized her under the arms and dragged her across the trembling hummock to firmer ground. Once Eve herself stepped over the edge of the solid ground and plunged--knee-deep--into the mire.
But she recovered herself and quickly brought her burden, breathless though she herself was, to the bridle-path. The old gray mare looked upon the muddy figure on the ground with ears p.r.i.c.ked forward. But Eve spoke softly to her, and the creature stood still, as though she knew her help was needed.
Eve did not trouble to put on the rein again. When she got her breath she raised the girl, who was still only half conscious, in her arms, and managed to get her on the horse.
"You"ve got to carry double; but you can go just as slow as you want to, old girl!" Eve exclaimed, as she leaped upon the mare herself, sitting behind the other girl, and holding her on.
Then she spoke again to the mare, and the latter picked her way carefully over the narrow path and so to the North pasture. In fifteen minutes Eve had the strange girl at the farmhouse, where her kind-hearted mother helped put the visitor to bed. They were true Samaritans in that house. They reserved all questioning until after the needy had been aided.