It was there that they found Felicia. On the west side of the monument
the prospector had begun a hole and left it. It was not over a foot in
depth nor over three feet square. Too small to show in the vast levels
of the desert until one was upon it and protected from view from the
mountain because of the monument, tiny as it was, it was not too small
to hold her little body, huddled face downward, arms and legs cramped.
Roger lifted her out and Charley, without a word, fainted. Roger groaned
and covered his eyes for a moment, then he took the pack blanket and
rolled the little body in it and left it while he turned to Charley. A
part of the canteen of water poured gently over her face revived her. As
soon as Roger saw that she was looking at him intelligently he said,
sternly:
"Charley, you've got to brace up until we can get home. You must help me
get you and her back by keeping as much of a grip on yourself as you
can. Remember this is desert noon and we can't temporize. You mount
Peter. We'll leave the pack here. I'll carry Felicia."
He took the shot gun from the pack and fired three shots into the air,
followed by two more; the code that Ernest had suggested after the first
night's hunt had led them to fear the worst. Then he lifted the little
blanketed form across his breast and slowly led the way back to the
ranch. He could not weep. He could not curse. He could only hope,
blindly, that the volcano within him would not burst forth until his
work was done.
Ernest met him a short distance from the ranch house, and took the
little body from his arms, without a word. Roger turned back to Charley.
"I'm not coming up to the house just now," he said gruffly. "I'm afraid
to see Dick."
Elsa, hurrying up to help her friend, tears streaming down her tired,
pretty face, heard this:
"Don't try to see him, Rog, but you're not fit to go down to the camp
yet. Lie down on the cot on the porch for a little while first."
Roger who was dizzy and staggering caught Gustav's arm. The good fellow
had come panting up, uncertain what to say or do to show his sympathy
and pain.
"Just for a few minutes then," panted Roger; "I don't want to see Dick
for I'd kill him."
"No--don't vorry. I von't let you," said Gustav. "Come, lieber freund,
take the steps mit slowness."
Roger dropped on the couch and Elsa and Charley went into the living
room. Suddenly Dick shouted:
"Snake bite! On the ankle there! O God Almighty!"
Roger jumped to his feet and ran to the living-room door. Dick on an
improvised crutch was staring down at the little form on the cot. Roger
lunged for him with an oath, but Gustav caught Roger round the waist,
and Charley, who had been sitting weakly in one of the camp chairs, her
face bowed on the table, sprang forward, her eyes blazing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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