CHAPTER XXIV--COALS OF FIRE
Once Bashful Ike had taken the bit in his teeth, his nickname neverfitted him again. He believed in striking while the iron was hot, Ikedid. And before the touring car ran them down into Bullhide, he hadtalked so hard and talked so fast that he had really swept Miss SallyDickson away on the tide of his eloquence, and she had agreed to Ike'sgetting the marriage license and their being wedded on the spot!
But the foreman of Silver Ranch found Dr. Burgess first and made thephysician promise to accompany him to Tintacker. The doctor said hewould be ready in an hour.
"Gives us just about time enough, Sally," declared the suddenly awakenedIke. "I'll have that license and we'll catch Parson Brownlow on the fly.Come on!"
"For pity's sake, Ike!" gasped the young lady. "You take my breathaway."
"We ain't got no time to fool," declared Ike. And within the hour he wasa Benedict and Sally Dickson had become Mrs. Ike Stedman.
"And I'm going over to Tintacker with you, Ike," she declared as theyawaited before the doctor's office in the big automobile. "That poorfellow over there will need somebody more'n Ruth Fielding to nurse him.It takes skill to bring folks out of a fever spell. I nursed Dad througha bad case of it two year ago, and I know what to do."
"That's all right, Sally," agreed Ike. "I'll make Old Bill give me muhtime, if need be, and we'll spend our honeymoon at Tintacker. I kin fixup one of the old shacks to suit us to camp in. I don't wish that poorfeller over there any harm," he added, smiling broadly at the prettygirl beside him, "but if it hadn't been that he got this fever, you an'I wouldn't be married now, honey."
"You can thank Ruth Fielding--if you want to be thankful to anybody,"returned Sally, in her brisk way. "But maybe you won't be so thankful ayear or two from now, Ike."
Dr. Burgess came with his black bag and they were off. The automobile--asSally said herself--behaved "like an angel," and they reached SilverRanch (after halting for a brief time at the Crossing for Sally to pack_her_ bag and acquaint Old Lem Dickson of the sudden and unexpectedchange in her condition) late at night. Old Bill Hicks was off forTintacker and the party remained only long enough to eat and for BobSteele to go over the mechanism of the badly-shaken motor-car.
"I'll drive you on to the river myself, Ike," he said. "You are allgoing on from there on horseback, I understand, and I'll bring themachine back here."
But when the newly-married couple and the physician had eaten what Mariacould hastily put before them, and were ready to re-enter the car, MaryCox came out upon the verandah, ready to go likewise.
"For pity's sake, Mary!" gasped Heavy. "You don't want to ride over tothe river with them."
"I'm going to those mines," said The Fox, defiantly.
"What for?" asked Jane Ann, who had arrived at the ranch herself only ashort time before.
"That's my business. I am going," returned The Fox, shortly.
"Why, you can't do any such thing," began Jane Ann; but Mary turned toIke and proffered her request:
"Isn't there room for me in the car, Mr. Stedman?"
"Why, I reckon so, Miss," agreed Ike, slowly.
"And won't there be a pony for me to ride from the river to Tintacker?"
"I reckon we can find one."
"Then I'm going," declared Mary, getting promptly into the tonneau withthe doctor and Sally. "I've just as good a reason for being overthere--maybe a better reason for going--than Ruth Fielding."
None of her girl friends made any comment upon this statement in Mary'shearing; but Madge declared, as the car chugged away from theranch-house:
"I'll never again go anywhere with that girl unless she has a change ofheart! She is just as mean as she can be."
"She's the limit!" said Heavy, despondently. "And I used to think shewasn't a bad sort."
"And once upon a time," said Helen Cameron, gravely, "I followed herleadership to the neglect of Ruth. I really thought The Fox was the verysmartest girl I had ever met."
"But she couldn't hold the Up and Doing Club together," quoth the stoutgirl.
"Ruth's Sweetbriars finished both the Upedes and the Fussy Curls,"laughed Madge, referring to the two social clubs at Briarwood Hall,which had been quite put-out of countenance by the SweetbriarAssociation which had been inaugurated by the girl from the Red Mill.
"And The Fox has never forgiven Ruth," declared Heavy.
"What she means by forcing herself on this party at Tintacker, gets mytime!" exclaimed Jane Ann.
"Sally will make her walk a chalk line if she goes over there with her,"laughed Helen. "Think of her and Ike getting married without a word toanybody!"
Jane Ann laughed, too, at that. "Sally whispered to me that she neverwould have taken Ike so quick if it hadn't been for what we did at theparty the other night. She was afraid some of the other girls aroundhere would see what a good fellow Ike was and want to marry him. She'salways intended to take him some time, she said; but it was Ruth thatsettled the affair at that time."
"I declare! Ruth _does_ influence a whole lot of folk, doesn't she?"murmured Heavy. "I never saw such a girl."
And that last was the comment Dr. Burgess made regarding the girl of theRed Mill after the party arrived at Tintacker. They reached the minejust at daybreak the next morning. Mary Cox had kept them back some, forshe was not a good rider. But she had cried and taken on so when Sallyand Ike did not want her to go farther than the river, that they werereally forced to allow her to continue the entire journey.
Dr. Burgess examined the sick man and pronounced him to be in a verycritical condition. But he surely had improved since the hour that Ruthand Jib Pottoway had found him. Old Bill Hicks had helped care for thepatient during the night; but Ruth had actually gone ahead witheverything and--without much doubt, the doctor added--the stranger couldthank her for his life if he _did_ recover.
"That girl is all right!" declared the physician, preparing to returnthe long miles he had come by relays of horses to the ranch-house, andfrom thence to Bullhide in the automobile. "She has done just the rightthing."
"She's a mighty cute young lady," admitted Bill Hicks. "And thischap--John Cox, or whatever his name is--ought to feel that she's squaredthings up with him over that bear business----"
"Then you have learned his name?" queried Tom Cameron, who was present.
"I got the coat away from him when he was asleep in the night," said Mr.Hicks. "He had letters and papers and a wad of banknotes in it. Ruth'sgot 'em all. She says he is the man with whom her Uncle Jabez went intopartnership over the old Tintacker claims. Mebbe the feller's struck agood thing after all. He seems to have an assayer's report among hispapers that promises big returns on some specimens he had assayed. If hedug 'em out of the Tintacker Claim mebbe the old hole in the ground willtake on a new lease of life."
At that moment Mary Cox pushed forward, with Sally holding her by thearm.
"I've got to know!" cried The Fox. "You must tell me. Does the--the poorfellow say his name is Cox?"
"Jest the same as yourn, Miss," remarked Old Bill, watching her closely."Letters and deeds all to 'John Cox.'"
"I know it! I feared it all along!" cried The Fox, wringing her hands."I saw him in the canyon when he shot the bear and he looked so much likeJohn----"
"He's related to you, then, Miss?" asked the doctor.
"He's my brother--I know he is!" cried Mary, and burst into tears.