Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch Part 14

Sally d.i.c.kson asked Ruth, aside. "Or did he know enough to stay away?"

"I don't believe Mr. Hicks could have kept him on the ranch to-night,"

replied Ruth, smiling. "He has promised to dance with me at least once.

Ike is an awfully nice man, I think-and so kind! He's taught us all to ride and is never out of sorts, or too busy to help us out. We 'tenderfoots' are always getting 'bogged,' you know. And Ike is right there to help us. We all like him immensely."

Sally looked at her suspiciously. "Humph!" said she. "I never expected to hear that Bashful Ike was so popular."

"Oh, I a.s.sure you he is," rejoined Ruth, calmly. "He is developing into quite a lady's man."

Miss d.i.c.kson snorted. Nothing else could explain her method of emphatically expressing her disbelief. But Ruth was determined that the haughty little schoolmistress should have her eyes opened regarding Bashful Ike before the evening was over, and she proceeded to put into execution a plan she had already conceived on the way over from Silver Ranch.

CHAPTER XIV-BASHFUL IKE COMES OUT STRONG

Ruth first of all took Jane Ann into her confidence. The ranchman's niece had been going about the room renewing her acquaintance with the "neighbors," some of whom lived forty miles from Silver Ranch. The Western girl was proud of the friends she had made "Down East," too, and she was introducing them all, right and left. But Ruth pinched her arm and signified that she wished to see her alone for a moment.

"Now, Nita," the girl from the Red Mill whispered, "we want to see that Mr. Stedman has a good time to-night. You know, he's been awfully good to us all."

"Bashful Ike?" exclaimed Jane Ann.

"Yes. And we must give him so good a time that he will forget to be bashful."

"He's a right good feller-yes," admitted Jane Ann, somewhat puzzled.

"But what can we do for him?"

"Every one of us girls from the ranch must dance with him."

"Oh, crickey!" chuckled Jane Ann, suddenly. "You want to try to make Sally d.i.c.kson jealous, don't you?"

"No. I only want to make her see that Ike is popular, even if she doesn't think him worth being kind to. And Ike _is_ worth being kind to.

He's a gentleman, and as kind-hearted a man as I ever saw."

"He's all of that," admitted the Western girl. "But he's so clumsy-"

"Forget that!" exclaimed Ruth. "And make _him_ forget his clumsiness.

He's as good as gold and deserves better treatment at the hands of Sally than he has been getting. Of course, she won't be jealous of us young girls--"

"Humph! 'Young girls,'" scoffed Jane Ann. "I don't think we're so awful young."

"Well, we're too young to be accused of trying to take Sally's beau away from her," cried Ruth, merrily. "Now, you'll make him dance with you-and first, too. He'll have to if you say so, for he's your uncle's foreman."

"I'll do it," agreed Jane Ann.

Ruth of course found Helen ready and willing to agree to her plan, and Madge did not need much urging. They all liked Ike Stedman, and although the brisk little schoolmistress seemed to be a very nice girl, the foreman of Silver Ranch was quite worthy of her.

"If he dares to dance with me," chuckled Heavy, "I am willing to keep it up all the evening. That is, if you think such a course, Ruthie, will awaken Miss d.i.c.kson to poor Ike's good points."

"And how about those blisters you were complaining about the other day?"

asked Madge, slyly.

"Pshaw! what girl ever remembered blisters when she could dance?"

responded the stout girl, with scorn.

Ruth had all but The Fox in line when the violin struck up the first number; she did not think it wise to speak to Mary about the plan, for she feared that the latter would refuse to cooperate. The boys came straggling in at the first notes of Helen's violin, and there were no medals on Ike Stedman for bashfulness at first. Tom Cameron, spurred on by his sister, broke the ice and went at once to the school-teacher and asked for the dance. Bob followed suit by taking Mary c.o.x for a partner (Mary engineered _that_), and soon the sets began to form while Helen played her sprightliest.

The young men crowded in awkwardly and when Jane Ann saw the tall figure of Ike just outside the door she called to him:

"Come on in, Mr. Stedman. You know this is our dance. Hurry up!"

Now Ike usually didn't get up sufficient courage to appear upon the floor until half the evening was over, and there was a deal of chuckling and nudging when the foreman, his face flaming, pushed into the room.

But he could not escape "the boss' niece." Jane Ann deliberately led him into the set of which Tom and Sally d.i.c.kson were the nucleus.

"My great aunt!" groaned Ike. "Just as like as not, honey, I'll trample all over you an' mash yo' feet. It's like takin' life in your han's to dance with me."

"Mebbe I better take my feet in my hands, according to your warning, Ike," quoth Jane Ann. "Aw, come on, I reckon I can dodge your feet, big as they are."

Nor did Bashful Ike prove to be so poor a dancer, when he was once on the floor. But he went through the figures of the dance with a face-so Jane Ann said afterward-that flamed like a torchlight procession every time he came opposite to Sally d.i.c.kson.

"I see you're here early, Mr. Stedman," said the red-haired schoolmistress, as she was being swung by the giant cow puncher in one of the figures. "Usually you're like Parson Brown's cow's tail-always behind!"

"They drug me in, Sally-they just drug me in," explained the suffering Ike.

"Well, do brace up and look a little less like you was at your own funeral!" snapped the schoolmistress.

This sharp speech would have completely quenched Ike's desire to dance had Ruth not laid her plans so carefully. The moment the music ceased and Ike made for the door, Heavy stopped him. She was between the bashful cow puncher and all escape-unless he went through the window!

"Oh, Mr. Stedman! I do so want to dance," cried the stout girl, with her very broadest and friendliest smile. "n.o.body asked me to this time, and I just know they're all afraid of me. Do I look as though I bite?"

"Bless you, no, Miss!" responded the polite foreman of Silver Ranch.

"You look just as harmless as though you'd never cut a tooth, as fur as that goes!"

"Then you're not afraid to dance the next number with me? There! Helen's tuning up."

"If you re'lly want me to, Miss," exclaimed the much-flurried foreman.

"But I won't mislead ye. I ain't a good dancer."

"Then there will be a pair of us," was Heavy's cheerful reply. "If the other folk run off the floor, we'll be company for each other."

Carefully rehea.r.s.ed by Ruth Fielding, Jennie Stone likewise picked the group of dancers of which Sally d.i.c.kson and a new partner were members; and once again Bashful Ike found himself close to the object of his adoration.

"Hullo, Ike! you back again?" demanded Sally, cheerfully, as they clasped hands in a "walk-around." "I believe you are getting to be a regular lady's man."

"Aw-now-Sally!"

"So that Ruth Fielding says," laughed Sally. "You're sure popular with those youngsters."