The Ranch Girls and Their Great Adventure Part 20

It seemed to her she never wished to go back again to the Lodge.

But finally a little clearer judgment came to her and she turned back.

It was almost dawn.

There, standing on the porch of the Rainbow Lodge, was a man's figure.

Jack supposed it was Jim.

He started toward her and the next moment Jack was in his arms.

"Do you know, Frank?" Jack queried.

Frank drew her closer to him.

A little later she allowed Frank to lead her into the house, where she undressed and went to bed, with him sitting beside her.

She had made no inquiry about how he had arrived at such a moment. Jack had but one thought at this time, no others could enter her mind.

The facts were that Frank had left England ten days before bringing Captain MacDonnell with him. He had a mission from his Government so as to make the trip possible. But more than anything else he felt he must see his wife.

He had tried to write Jack, to tell her that he believed he had been unfair, that his obstinacy should never make an issue between them again. But it had all been so difficult to write and it must be so long before he could receive Jack's answer.

Moreover, Frank wanted to bring Captain MacDonnell to the ranch to stay during his convalescence. Soon after Jack's departure he had gone over to France, as an act of expiation both to his wife and friend. There he had found Captain MacDonnell recovering, but infinitely depressed with the thought that he could no longer serve his country, but must be only a burden.

On the arrival of his steamer in New York Lord Kent had wired Jim Colter, but Jim had thought it best not to speak to Jack until Frank was able to reach her.

He had therefore sent him a wire telling of Vive's illness, and Frank had hurried west, leaving Captain MacDonnell with friends in New York city.

CHAPTER XVII

FAREWELL

ABOUT a week later Captain MacDonnell arrived at the Rainbow Ranch accompanied by a man servant who waited upon him. He looked better than any of his friends had antic.i.p.ated.

Since there was so much sorrow in the world at the present time, Jack and Frank had made up their minds that they would not let their own influence other people more than they could avoid. Moreover, they had found each other again at just the right moment and were more devoted, more united than ever before. Frank explained his own change of att.i.tude to his wife, but all the events of the past seemed small in comparison with their loss.

It was Frieda who for a while seemed the more outwardly inconsolable.

Actually the Professor came one day in distress to Jack herself.

"My dear Jack, I don't know what I shall do with my little Frieda when you have gone home to England!" he exclaimed. For it had been decided that Jack and Jimmie were to return home when Frank did.

"But you will both be coming over soon," Jack answered, showing no sign that it might be strange under the circ.u.mstances to expect her to comfort Frieda.

The Professor did not see this. He really saw very little else in the world except his wife and his work.

"We may not be able to come for several months. In the meantime if she frets herself ill?"

Jack promised to talk to her sister.

One evening when Frieda complained of a headache and did not come down to dinner, Jack went up to her.

She found her sister lying on a couch and looking very young and sweet.

"You are not to worry too much on my account, Frieda dear," Jack began.

"I am not supposed to be unselfish," Frieda murmured.

But Jack paid no attention to her speech. "Perhaps you'll have a baby some day yourself, dear."

At this Frieda pulled her sister down and whispered something in her ear. Jack's face flushed.

"I should be happier than anything! Remember you and Henry are to come to us as soon as it can be arranged."

A few days later Lord and Lady Kent with their little boy left for the East. They were to stop a few days in Washington and then sail.

Not long afterwards Frieda and the Professor also went away from the ranch, as Professor Russell had a good many things to look after and Frieda would not be separated from him.

As Ralph Merritt had arrived for a visit, Jean's attention was occupied with him. So as a matter of fact Captain MacDonnell was rather left to Olive's care.

At first it did not seem a large duty simply to try and keep Captain MacDonnell amused and she had wanted to do something. But Olive had not reckoned with her task.

Captain MacDonnell was an Irishman and a Scotchman, which means he was able to be very gay and also very melancholy. And always in times past, when his melancholy mood had taken hold on him, he could mount his horse and ride the spectre away, or else engage in some other active outdoor occupation.

But here he was still so young a man, with all his future before him, and compelled to sit all day in a wheeled chair, or else hobble about on crutches.

It has not been the illness that has been hardest for the soldiers to bear, but oftentimes this coming back to accept with resignation a new kind of life.

Yet Captain MacDonnell tried to be patient, tried to let no one guess what he was suffering at thus having his career ended so soon, and being also unable to go on with the service to his country which he so longed to give.

But Olive, who had always more of a gift for sympathy than any one of the Ranch girls, appreciated what he was enduring more than she even revealed to him.

She had been reading him a volume of Kipling one day, and happening to raise her eyes, saw that he was not listening. She even stopped a few moments and found that he was unaware of it.

When Captain MacDonnell did discover his own absorption, he turned to Olive with a charming smile.

"Forgive me," he explained. "I do not intend to be ungrateful, indeed I am more grateful than I know how to express. But those stories of India started me to thinking of the first years I was out there. It is a strange country, India. I don't think we western people understand it."

He and Olive were sitting on the Lodge verandah.

Olive nodded, "I do understand what you must feel and I do wish there was something else to interest you."

Then she remained silent. After all Captain MacDonnell could not go on in idleness like this. There must be something he could find to do, some real thing. Poorer men were learning trades. It would be better for him to do this if only he could be persuaded to feel enough interest.

Olive did not realize she was frowning.