Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders Among the Kentucky Mountaineers Part 30

"No. The little one's heart is not acting right. We must have treatment for her as soon as possible."

"Very well. I will hurry back to camp. Hippy must go after the doctor, though I really hate to ask him. What do you think is the matter with them?" nodding toward the bed.

"Frankly, I don't know. I do know that they are very sick children."

"Poor Hippy," murmured Grace, a faint smile on her face, as she hurried from the mountain cabin and started at a run towards the Overland Riders' camp.

CHAPTER XX

HIPPY AS A ROUGHRIDER

Reaching her camp, Grace quickly acquainted the girls with conditions at the Thompson cabin. She then turned to Hippy and told him that he must ride to Holcomb Court House and fetch a doctor.

"All right. I'll get an early start in the morning and--"

"No! To-night! Now, Hippy. To-morrow may be too late," urged Grace.

"Of course, if it is so bad as that. Why don't you have Emma Dean 'con-centrate'?"

"This is not a matter to make light of, Hippy Wingate," rebuked Nora.

"Of course you will go."

"Laundry, get my pony, and be lively about it," ordered Lieutenant Wingate.

While this was being done, and Hippy was looking to his rifle and revolver, Grace was explaining to him how to reach Holcomb over the broad wagon trail that they had followed during the last day of their journey. Nora, in the meantime, was packing her husband's kit with sufficient food, that had been picked up from the scattered remnants, to see him through the trip. Twenty minutes later they had started Hippy on his way.

"If I don't come back, remember that I had a price on my head," he called back to his companions.

"Pack up!" directed Grace. "We must move up near the Thompson cabin. It won't do for you girls to remain here alone."

"Where shall we camp?" asked Anne, a worried look on her face. "We have no tents fit for use."

"I don't know just yet, but they have a barn. Perhaps you might sleep there. I must stay with Elfreda, at least until the doctor comes."

All the girls began to prepare for moving, and finally their possessions were strapped in packs, some of which they placed on the backs of ponies, for they were one mule short, and moved up to Thompson's.

Bidding her companions wait outside, Grace went in and consulted with the mountaineer's wife.

"Yes, you folks will have to sleep in the barn," Grace informed them.

"I never thought I should have to sleep with the pigs and the cows,"

declared Nora. "Bad luck to the man that spoiled our fun."

There was an old haymow overhead in the barn, and there the girls decided to make their bed for the night.

"If there are mice up here I shall die of fright, I know," groaned Emma.

"'Con-centrate' on the mice," advised Anne teasingly. "Once they b.u.mp against that 'imponderable quant.i.ty,' the mice will trouble you no more."

"Why can't we go into the cabin and lie down on the floor? It can't be worse than the barn," urged Nora.

Grace firmly refused to permit it. Not knowing what the two children were suffering from, she knew that it would be inadvisable for her companions even to enter the cabin.

The girls found their way to the hayloft, after many b.u.mps and falls accompanied by smothered cries and loud protests from Emma, and after he had tethered the horses and the mule just outside the barn, Washington Washington was put to bed on the barn floor. Grace then returned to the cabin.

The children were still delirious and Elfreda said that their temperature seemed to be rising. She decided to give them a sponge bath.

This occupied some time, but it had the effect of reducing their temperatures somewhat.

Julie watched every movement of the Overland nurses, following them with eyes in which wonder was not unmixed with admiration, but Mrs.

Thompson seemed helpless to do or think, and sat regarding them with expressionless eyes, now and then heaving a troubled sigh.

Along towards morning the children ceased their babbling and sank into an uneasy sleep. The mother, soon after, dozed off in her chair.

"Julie, get some water and soap and help us clean this place. It's a fright," declared Miss Briggs.

This Julie did, so far as getting the water was concerned, but she took so little interest in scrubbing the floor that Grace and Elfreda were obliged to take that task into their own hands. They were down on their knees scrubbing away, when Mrs. Thompson awakened.

"What you-all doin'?" she demanded blinkingly.

"Cleaning house," replied Elfreda briefly.

"'Tain't no use. It'll git dirty ag'in. Ah reckon Jed won't like it, neither."

"We don't care whether Jed likes it or not," retorted Grace. "Leave him to us, Mrs. Thompson."

Early in the morning Grace and Elfreda went out to the barn to see how it had fared with their friends. They were a "frowzy lot," as Miss Briggs characterized their appearance. Their heads were full of hay, their eyes were red, and their faces showed much loss of sleep.

"You folks go down to the brook and wash, and by the time you return we shall have breakfast cooked for you," offered Elfreda.

The breakfast they cooked on Mrs. Thompson's stove, but in the Overlanders' utensils. Nor would they permit any of the girls to come into the house for the food. Handing the breakfast out to the eagerly waiting hands of their companions, Grace and Miss Briggs soon followed and joined the girls at breakfast in the open.

It was not a particularly enjoyable meal. Not once during the breakfast had one mentioned Hippy Wingate and his mission, and it was not until they had finished and sat back that Nora broached the subject.

"When should Hippy be back?" she asked.

"If he found the doctor at once he should have been here two or three hours ago," replied Grace.

"Don't get excited, Nora," begged Elfreda, as Nora's face paled ever so little. "A number of things may have occurred to detain him. Hippy is not one to be beaten when he starts out with a definite purpose in view."

"Especially when I am con-centrating on him," spoke up Emma.

This brought a laugh and put all the girls in instant good humor. They were interrupted by Julie who came out rubbing her eyes, after a few hours' sleep on a blanket on the floor of the cabin.

"Maw wants to know what she'll give Sue and Liz fer breakfast?" she asked.