The Outdoor Girls at Bluff Point Part 14

"I don't know whether it will seem important to you or not," he said at last, turning slowly toward her. "But what I have to tell you is just about the most important thing in life to me."

The tone as well as the words sobered Betty, and she turned to him earnestly.

"I shall be very glad to hear it then," she said simply.

"I--you--it's rather hard to begin," he stammered, then straightened up and faced her frankly.

"The truth is, I can't help knowing that you wondered when you first saw me and am wondering now--as any one has a right to wonder these days when they see a fellow like me in civilian clothes--"

Betty started and the color rushed to her face.

"No, I haven't--" she began, then stopped confused, remembering that she had been wondering just that thing only a few minutes, yes, only a minute before. "I mean I thought--"

"Yes, it's easy to guess what you thought," he interrupted, misinterpreting her sentence while the bitter look crept once more into his eyes. "It's easy enough to guess what everybody thinks. But," he straightened his shoulders and threw back his head, "I don't think anybody will have a right to think that very much longer. You see," he added, turning to her again and speaking more calmly, "I tried to enlist at the beginning of the war, but they told me there was something wrong here," he touched his chest, "with my lungs."

Betty gave an involuntary exclamation of pity.

"The doctor said it was just beginning," he went on slowly, "and he said--he was a good old scout, that doctor--that if I got out of the city where I could get fresh air, eggs, and milk--you know, the same old stuff--that I might succeed in curing myself up in a hurry and get in the game in time to bring in my share of helmets after all."

"Oh, so that's why you and your mother are away out here!" cried Betty eagerly, laying an impulsive little hand on his. "And you are well, aren't you? Why, you must be! You look the very picture of health."

Joe gulped a little, looked at the friendly little hand on his, tried to speak once or twice and failed, then--

"I feel just fine," he said, striving to make his voice sound natural.

"I never cough any more, and I've got the appet.i.te of a wolf--you saw how I ate to-night--" a faint smile lighted his eyes and found an answering one in Betty's. "Yet, I've been holding off for more than three weeks for fear--just for fear--everything isn't all right. You see, they've made a coward of me. I'm afraid of being refused twice."

"Oh, but you won't be!" cried Betty, with honest conviction in her voice. "I'm not much of a doctor, although I've met so many of them at Camp Liberty and heard them talk so much about different diseases that I feel I ought at least to qualify as an a.s.sistant," she paused to smile at herself and he thought he had never seen anything so pretty in his life, "and I would say that whatever your trouble has been, it is cured now. I'm sure of it."

"Hold on, hold on," he entreated a little huskily. "If I could only believe that--"

"Say, you two over there," Mollie's voice broke in upon them gayly, "we've been trying hard to be polite and not interrupt, but the clock has just struck twelve and we have a long ride before us to-morrow--or rather, to-day!"

Betty replied laughingly, but before she could rejoin the others, Joe had whispered another question.

"You really meant what you said?" he asked.

"With all my heart," she answered earnestly.

CHAPTER XII

NEARLY AN ACCIDENT

"Look at the sun! Look at the sun!" cried Betty, sitting up in bed and gazing joyfully out at the sun-drenched landscape. "Girls, for goodness sake, wake up. How can you sleep, Grace?"

Grace groaned and opened one eye.

"House afire?" she asked sleepily.

"Of course not, Silly. But the world is."

Betty was evidently in high spirits, thought Grace, as she rolled over and regarded her critically.

"What do you mean--'the world is'?" she inquired grumpily, managing with great difficulty, to open the other eye. "Can't you talk sense?"

"Not on a morning like this," retorted Betty, running to the window and thrusting her head far out into the balmy air. "Look, Lazybones, the roads are pretty nearly dry and we couldn't ask for a more wonderful day."

"What time is it?" queried Grace, without enthusiasm. She was always unenthusiastic before breakfast in the morning, especially if she happened to get to bed rather late the night before.

"Half-past six," replied Betty, turning from the window and beginning hurriedly to gather her things together. "And we all agreed last night to get up at six. I wonder if I'm the only one stirring."

As if in answer to her question, there came a soft tap on the door and their hostess' voice speaking to them.

"Breakfast is almost ready," she said. "I had it prepared early especially for you."

"That was dear of you," replied Betty, adding with the greatest of optimism, considering that three of them were not yet out of bed: "We'll be down in ten minutes."

Although the ten minutes stretched into fifteen, it is a tribute to Betty's excellent generalship that the dressing of the other three girls was managed in that time.

But perhaps the aroma of bacon floating temptingly up to them had something to do with it after all, for they all four boasted youthfully unimpaired appet.i.tes.

However that may be, the fact remains that in fifteen minutes from the time Mrs. Barnes stopped at the door, four very pretty and very hungry young girls gathered in the dining room, ready and eager for the day's adventure. Mrs. Ford was already there.

Joe was there too, looking even more bronzed and attractive in the morning light, and Betty, glancing at him, could scarcely believe that what the boy had told her the night before had not been a dream. That splendid specimen of young manhood refused the right to serve his country because he had lung trouble! She could not even bring herself to think that other word, that horrible word, consumption.

But there was one thing certain--she had not been mistaken in her judgment of the night before. He might once have been the victim of disease, but he surely was not now.

Perhaps something of what she was thinking was reflected in her eyes as she looked at him, for he returned the glance with so much admiration in his own that she hastily looked away and became absorbed in the bacon on her plate.

It was a very merry breakfast and a very good one, and when the time came at last for taking leave of their lovely hostess, they found themselves unexpectedly reluctant to do so.

"I wish you were coming with us," said Mrs. Ford, after the lady had waved aside her thanks for the good time they had had. "I am sure you would enjoy the trip almost as much as we would enjoy having you with us."

"I wish it were possible for me to go," Mrs. Barnes replied rather wistfully, as they started down the steps to the waiting automobiles.

"It is rather lonesome out here," then, catching a glance from her son, who was trying to carry three handbags at once, she added hastily: "But of course I love it and would miss it awfully. Joe, be careful, dear, you nearly dropped that bag in the dirt."

"I always thought I'd make good in the juggling profession," replied Joe ruefully, as he skillfully recovered the bag in question, "but I guess I was mistaken. Where do these go, Miss Billette--anywhere?" he asked, turning to Mollie.

"Yes, just throw them in," replied Mollie, carelessly, absorbed in testing out her engine. "Only leave room for Mrs. Ford, that's all."

Then, as Amy stopped to speak to Grace, Joe escorted Betty to her little racer and helped her into the driver's seat, though little help Betty needed or asked of anyone.

"It's rather a rough deal, isn't it?" he asked suddenly.

"What?" inquired Betty, surprised.