"We won't stay here without you, David," said Carol.
"I tell you what," said Gooding brightly, "we'll get my mattress and
put it in the room for me, and we'll move David's mattress on Carol's
bed for David, and then we'll move the girls' mattress in on the floor
for them."
No one offered objections to this arrangement. "Hurry up, then, and
get your mattress," begged Carol. "I am so sleepy."
"I can't carry them alone through those long dark halls," Gooding
insisted. Miss Landbury would not accompany him without a third party,
Carol flatly refused to leave dear sick David alone in that porch, and
at last in despair David donned his bath robe and the four of them
crossed the wide parlor, traversed the dark hall to Gooding's room and
returned with mattress, pillows and blankets. After a great deal of
panting and pulling, the little party was settled for sleep.
It must have been an hour later when they were startled into sitting
posture, their hearts in their throats, by piercing screams which rang
out over the mesa, one after another in quick succession.
"David, David, David," gasped Carol.
"I'm right here, Carol; we're all right," he assured her quickly.
Miss Landbury swayed dizzily and fell back, half-conscious, upon the
pillows. Gooding, with one bound, landed on David's bed, nearly
crushing the breath out of that feeble hero of the darkness.
Lights flashed quickly from tent to tent on the mesa, frightened voices
called for nurses, doors slammed, bells rang, and nurses and porters
rushed to the rescue.
"Who was it?" "Where was it?" "What is it?"
"Over here, I think," shouted a man. "Miss Tucker. I called to her
and she did not answer."
A low indistinct sound, half groan, half sobbing, came from the open
windows of the little tent. And as they drew near, their feet rattling
the dry sand, there came a warning call.
"A light, a light, a light," begged Miss Tucker. The nurses hesitated,
half frightened, and as they paused they heard a low drip, drip, inside
the tent, each drop emphasized by Miss Tucker's sobs.
The porter flashed a pocket-light, and they opened the door. Miss
Tucker lay in a huddled heap on her bed, her hands over her face, her
shoulders rising and falling. The nurses shook her sternly.
"What is the matter with you?" they demanded.
Finally, she was persuaded to lift her face and mumble an explanation.
"I was asleep, and I heard my name called, and I looked up. There was
a white shadow on the door. I seized my pillow and threw it with all
my might, and there was a loud crash and a roar, and then began that
drip, drip, drip,--oh-h-h!"
"You silly thing," said Miss Alien. "Of course there was a crash. You
knocked the chimney off your lamp,--that made a crash all right. And
the lamp upset, and it is the kerosene drip, dripping from the table to
the floor. Girls who must have kerosene lamps to heat their curlers
must look for trouble."
"The white shadow--" protested the girl.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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