"What is it?" he bellowed in his excitement.
"It"s a woman, Big-foot! It"s a woman! Oh, I hope you did not hit her!"
"It"s no woman; it"s a spook. I know it"s a spook!" fairly shouted the cowboy.
"I tell you it"s a woman!" cried Tad.
He was down on his knees by her side now, raising her head.
"Get help--_quick_!"
Sanders took the shortest way of doing this. He, too, was alarmed now.
Raising his gun above his head, he pulled the trigger three times in quick succession. As many sharp flashes leaped into the air, and as many quick reports followed.
"Sure she ain"t a spirit?" demanded the cowman, peering down suspiciously, fearfully. He could make out the form on the ground but dimly.
"Don"t be foolish. Run out there and meet them. I hear the ponies coming. Don"t let any of them use their guns, in the excitement, or some one may get hurt," warned Tad Butler, with rare judgment.
Big-foot hurried out into the open. In the meantime Tad stroked the face and head of the woman. She was unconscious, but her flesh seemed warm to his touch.
"I wonder what it means," the perplexed boy asked himself. Tad could feel his own pulses beating against his temples. It seemed to him as if all the blood in his body were hurling itself against them.
Cowboys on their ponies came thundering up from different directions. In the lead was Bob Stallings, the foreman of the outfit.
"You idiots!" he shouted. "Do you want to stampede the herd again? What do you mean?"
"I"ve winged a spook!" yelled Big-foot Sanders. "She"s over there by the steps now. The kid"s got her."
"Spook--nonsense!" snapped the foreman, leaping from his pony and rushing to the spot indicated by Big-foot.
"What----" chorused the cowboys.
"Is it the boy--have they found him?"
"If you all don"t insist on talking at once, mebby we can find out what the row"s about," snarled Curley Adams.
The foreman stopped suddenly as he observed Tad sitting at the foot of the church steps. He saw, too, another form there, but it was so dimly outlined in the deep shadows that he was unable to make it out.
"What does this mean?" he demanded sternly.
"I don"t know. It"s a woman. I"m afraid Big-foot"s bullet hit her. We must have a light."
"Bring matches!" roared the foreman.
No one had any.
"Rustle for the camp, and fetch a lantern--and be quick about it! I"ve had enough of this fooling. What was she doing--how did it happen?"
Tad explained as clearly as he could how they had been disturbed by the strange noises, resulting finally in a shot from Big-foot"s gun.
"The idiot! It"ll be a sorry day for him if he"s done any damage,"
growled the foreman. He stooped over and ran his hand over the unconscious woman"s face. Then he applied his ear to the region of the heart.
"Huh!" he snapped, rising.
"Find anything!" asked Tad in a half whisper.
"She"s alive. Heart weak, but I don"t think she"s seriously hurt. I don"t understand it at all."
"No more do I. I"m getting dizzy over all this rapid-fire business,"
added the lad. "There they come with a light."
Stallings strode to the cowman who had brought the lantern. Jerking it from the man"s hand the foreman ran back.
"We"ll straighten her up against the steps, and try to find out how badly she is hurt," he said, placing the lantern on the ground.
Tad had partially raised her, when he let the girl drop with a sudden, startled exclamation.
"What is it?" demanded Stallings incisively.
"It"s Miss Ruth!"
"Who?"
"Miss Ruth----"
By the dim lantern light the foreman saw her face outlined against the dark background of green. His eyes were fixed upon her, and Bob Stallings seemed scarcely to breathe.
"Ruth Brayton!" he gasped.
"Yes," answered Tad in a low voice, not fully comprehending the meaning of the scene that was being enacted before him.
"Ruth Brayton," repeated Stallings, slowly pa.s.sing a hand across his forehead. "Ruth!" he cried, throwing himself to his knees beside her.
"I tell ye I winged a spook," insisted Big-foot Sanders to a companion as they came up.
Tad raised a warning hand for silence.
CHAPTER XXIV
CONCLUSION
"Get back to that herd!" commanded the foreman sharply. "All of you!
Tad, you stay with me. The girl has fallen and struck her head on the flagging. I don"t think she is seriously hurt."