The Adventure Girls at K Bar O

  Chapter XX

  REWARD

  The sun was warm and dazzling. Gale felt uncomfortably hot as she rodealong. The creak of saddle leather and the clop clop of her horse'shoofs were all the sounds that disturbed the stillness. Somehow she hadlost the others when she stopped some distance back and now she rodealone.

  It was the day the Adventure Girls had planned to leave for home, butthey hadn't carried out their plans. Yesterday the notorious banditshad, under heavy guard, left for a federal prison. The Sheriff hadbestowed the reward, one thousand dollars, upon the Adventure Girls. Nowthe question was, what were they to do with it? They had all agreed uponusing it for some worthy cause rather than keeping it for themselves,but they couldn't find a worthy cause.

  Dismounting from her horse, Gale let him drink from a tiny brooklet. Alow, cheerily whistled tune caught her attention and she looked aboutfor the whistler. Several yards from her, industriously whittling awooden twig, sat a small boy, with ragged clothes and tangled curlyhair. His eyes, when he looked up at Gale, were as blue as the skiesoverhead.

  "'Lo," he said with an engaging grin.

  "Hello," she replied smilingly, dropping down beside him.

  "Fine horse, that," he declared. "You're from the K Bar O, aintcha?"

  "That's right," she answered. "Who are you?"

  "I'm Bobby," he answered brightly.

  She accepted this wondering who in the world Bobby might be. "You livearound here?" she asked.

  "On t'other side of the hill," he replied. "You're just visitin', huh?"

  "Yes, I live in the East."

  "Where?"

  "In Marchton, that's a little town near the Atlantic Ocean," shereplied.

  "What's an ocean?" he wanted to know.

  "Why an ocean is a--um--a big body of water," she said.

  "Somethin' like a lake, huh?"

  "Something like it, only much bigger," she assured him. "Don't you learnabout oceans in school?"

  "I don't go to school," he replied.

  "Why not?" Gale asked.

  "Cause my Mother hasn't any money for my clothes or books," he answeredbrightly. "Anyway, I'm goin' to be a cowboy when I get big and I don'thaveta know much for that."

  "Wouldn't you like to go to school?" she persisted.

  He bent over his knife and the wood he was whittling. "Aw, shucks," hesaid. "Course I would. But I can't. I talk to the riders a lot an' Tomand Virginia too. They tell me stories and Virginia teaches me'rithmetic sometimes."

  Gale wondered why Virginia had never mentioned the little boy to theAdventure Girls. Then she remembered when they had first arrivedVirginia had casually talked about him, but the girls had gone off ontheir camping trip and he had not been mentioned again. Gale liked him,he seemed a bright little fellow, quick to learn and to imitate.

  "I can ride an' fish an' shoot," he bragged. "Course I don't know muchouta books, but I'll get along."

  Gale marveled that a youngster, scarcely eight, could be so optimisticand have such a cheerful acceptance of his destiny. She felt a trifleguilty that she didn't have such philosophy about the things she wantedbut couldn't have.

  "Do you have a horse of your own?" she asked.

  "No," he admitted, "but Tom loans me one lots of times."

  "Want to take a ride on mine?" she asked.

  His eyes sparkled joyfully at the suggestion and he murmured a bashful"Gee!"

  "Go ahead," she invited. "I'll wait here for you."

  His legs didn't reach to the stirrups, but horse and rider seemed weldedtogether as Bobby urged the roan across the valley. At first Gale wasafraid he might be unseated, but she soon discovered she need have nofear. Bobby was a born rider, and knew as much about sticking in thesaddle as Gale herself.

  "He sure can run," Bobby panted as he jumped off beside Gale and handedher the reins.

  "He sure can," she replied with a smile. She held out her hand and Bobbyplaced his in it. "Goodbye, Bobby," she said cheerfully. "Maybe I'll seeyou again before I go home."

  "I live in the cabin over by the creek," he said. "Ma an' me'll be gladto see ya," he declared.

  "Oh, and Bobby," she said, pausing, one foot in the stirrup. "If a fairygave you a wish what would you wish?"

  "I'd wish to go to school," he answered promptly. "Are you a fairy?" headded.

  "Hardly," Gale said, "but I might meet one and I'll tell her about you."

  As she rode away she looked back at the sturdy little figure standinggazing after her. He was such an oldish little chap for his years. Whata pity he had to waste his active little brain because his mother had nomoney to send him to the country school. What Gale admired was hisfortitude and readiness to accept the little good things that did comehis way.

  She had an idea in her head and all the way back to the ranch house itpersisted in teasing her. But what would the other girls think of heridea? That she meant to find out as soon as possible. She dismounted atthe corral and Jim came forward to take her horse. On the porch of theranch house were gathered the Adventure Girls with Virginia.

  "Aha, run away from us, will you?" accused Janet.

  "You lost me," Gale replied.

  "We have been discussing ways of spending your reward," Carol informedher. "We have about decided to save it for another trip out here nextsummer."

  "To meet some more bandits," interposed Valerie dryly.

  "That might not happen in another hundred years," Virginia declared."You would have to pick the summer that we were having trouble. Otheryears all is peaceful and serene."

  "Look," Phyllis said laughingly, "if we hadn't come out you might stillbe having trouble. We cleared everything up."

  "Of course," Virginia laughed teasingly. "You're good!"

  "What do you think, Gale?" Madge asked.

  "Hm?" Gale brought her gaze back from the tops of the far pine trees onthe horizon. "About what?"

  "You weren't listening," Janet accused.

  Gale laughed. "No, I wasn't," she confessed. "What were you saying?"

  "Don't listen to them," Val interrupted. "Each one has a worse idea howto spend the thousand dollars."

  "Haven't you an idea that will put our minds at rest?" Phyllis demandedof Gale. "We really have to do something, you know. We start for hometomorrow and we haven't much time."

  "Don't you have a plan, Gale?" Janet demanded. "You must have, everybodyelse does. Come now, confess!"

  "Yes," Gale said, "I have a plan, and I'm wondering what you would thinkof it."

  "Well, we can't think a thing unless you tell us what it is," Carol saidpractically.

  "Yes, Gale, tell us," Phyllis agreed. "Yours will probably be the best.The rest of these weak minded people will soon suggest buying anairplane."

  "I resent that!" Janet said loudly. "What is the matter with anairplane?"

  "Not a thing," Phyllis consoled her. "I just----"

  "Suppose we let Gale talk?" Madge cut in.

  "This afternoon when I lost you girls I met a little boy. A cute littlechap. About eight, I should say. He has the most trusting blue eyes andcurliest hair----"

  "Are you going to adopt him?" interposed Carol.

  "Silly," Gale said. "Let me finish. I talked to him quite a while. He isawf'ly cunning and smart--as smart as any of you," she added wickedly.

  "He must be smart to compare with us," Janet declared modestly.

  "Hush!" Valerie commanded. "Go on, Gale."

  "He asked me where I lived and I told him a little town on the coast ofthe Atlantic Ocean. He wanted to know what an ocean was."

  "I hope you could tell him," Carol murmured mischievously.

  "I wish you could have seen him, girls. He is positively thirsting forknowledge. But he can't go to school because his mother has no moneywith which to send him. It is a shame because an education wouldcertainly not be lost on him. It made my heart ache just to see him andto hear him tell about how fortunate he was that Tom and Vir
ginia andthe other cowboys told him stories and taught him a little of arithmeticand spelling. He is so cheerful with what he has, his riding and fishingand hunting. He could be such a fine man because he has an insatiableambition.

  "I thought we might give him the thousand dollars. It would see himthrough the little country school here and by the time he is older hemight be able to earn more. It would be such a good use to which to putour money. We could always remember how happy we made one little boy. Itis something he wants more than anything else in the world. Just to lookat him made me want it, too.

  "Of course all you girls have a share in the reward and it is up to youto do as you please, but I can tell you if you should agree with meBobby would love it--and you," she finished.

  "Hurrah for Bobby!" Carol said loudly. "I want to meet him."

  "Didn't I say Gale's plan would be the best?" Phyllis demanded, huggingGale affectionately. "You always seem to know just what we'd like," shetold her chum.

  Virginia hugged Gale too. "You're a darling, Gale, to think of Bobby. Iknow he'll be tickled pink. Let's go tell him now."

  With one accord the girls ran to the corral and saddled their horses.Virginia, who had been to see Bobby often before, led the way to thebroken down little cabin.

  Gale had the check for the thousand dollars and the girls all agreedthat she should be the one to present their gift to the little boy.

  Before the cabin, its door hanging ajar on one rusty hinge, the girlsdismounted. Virginia sent a ringing halloo into the interior and Bobbysoon appeared. He gravely informed his visitors that his mother wasn'thome. He greeted Gale with a wide grin and smiled shyly at the othergirls, who were all delighted with the appearance of their littleprotege.

  "Bobby, honey," Virginia said, "Gale has something to tell you."

  "Yes, Bobby," Gale said smiling broadly, "remember me telling you Imight meet a fairy when I was riding back to the ranch?"

  "Did you?" he demanded eagerly.

  "I did," Gale said gravely. "I told her all about you and how fine a manyou are. I told her you wanted more than anything in the world to go toschool and what do you think?"

  "What?" Bobby asked, his wide, earnest gaze fixed on Gale's face.

  "She gave me this." Gale handed Bobby the check and at his puzzledexpression continued: "It is worth a whole lot of money, enough to sendyou to school for a couple of years."

  He looked dazedly from one smiling face to the other and back at Gale."I'm goin' to school?" he said in a dazed voice.

  "Yes, darling, as soon as it opens for the term," Gale said.

  To their surprise his lip puckered and he flung himself on Gale, hidinghis face on her shoulder with a smothered sob. Across his blond head,Gale and Virginia exchanged a smiling glance, tears not far from thesurface of either pair of clear eyes.

  "Bobby," Gale murmured, "aren't you glad? Don't you want to go toschool?"

  "Course I do," he said, choking, "t-that's why I'm cryin'."

  "Gosh," Carol said when the girls rode away, leaving an ecstatic,beaming Bobby behind them. "I never knew it was so nice to play SantaClaus. We'll have to do it often," she said slyly tucking herhandkerchief back into her pocket.

  "I'm so glad you suggested giving the money to Bobby, Gale," Val said, asuspicious thickness in her voice.

  "So am I," Janet declared, "but hang it all, I almost cried with him."

  "I guess we never realized before how fortunate we were," Phyllis said,contemplating the blue sky overhead. "Didn't it do something to you justnow? I feel all sort of big inside. Like--like I wanted to be nice toeverybody in the world."

  "It does make you happy just to make somebody else happy," Madge agreed."He is such a cunning little chap."

  "And worthy of anything we might do for him," Virginia declared. "Hismother has raised him with the best manners of any youngster inArizona."

  "What happened to his father?" Valerie asked.

  "He used to work in a silver mine," Virginia said. "He and several othermen owned it in partnership. Bobby's father was killed trying to rescueone of the other men from a cave-in or something. I don't know the exactfacts. Bobby's mother is wonderful with sewing and my mother and someother ladies from Coxton keep her supplied. That is the only way theyget along."

  "I wish we had had two thousand dollars," Janet said.

  "But if Bobby's father owned a silver mine why don't they have money?"Madge asked.

  "The mine never amounted to much," Virginia answered. "It was only asmall vein of silver and it didn't last very long."

  The girls returned to the ranch house, each with a little warm glow inher heart. Making Bobby happy as they had done, had shown each one howmuch happiness there is in giving joy to some one else.

  The Wilsons had prepared a festive program for their guests' last nightat the ranch. There were music and dancing and chatter and laughter. Thehilarity kept up for hours.

  "You know," Janet said, "I feel like celebrating tonight--for Bobby."

  "Strange as it may seem, I was thinking the same thing," Phyllisdeclared.

  "I used to get the jitters every time I thought of Pedro and his knife,"Val confided to Gale in a secluded dark corner of the porch where theyhad gone for a breath of air between spurts of gaiety. "Now I'm glad wedid meet them as we did."

  "Why?" Gale wanted to know.

  "Well, look what we did with the money," Val said. "It was worth all ouradventures to see that little boy's face this afternoon."

  "He was just about overwhelmed," Gale smiled softly. "It is amazing thathe could be so starved for knowledge and contact with other youngstershis age."

  "Tomorrow we shall leave all this," Val said, motioning to the trees andsky, lit by the giant yellow moon and sparkling stars, and the ranchhouse and the corral.

  "Wasn't it a worth while summer, though?" Gale asked. "We're all so muchbetter able to cope with the studies and struggles we'll have this, ourlast term, in high school."

  "Where are you going to college?" Val asked suddenly.

  "Why--I don't know----" Gale said vaguely. "I want to go to Briarhurst.I don't know if I shall, though."

  "That's my aim, too. I shall probably----"

  "Say, aren't you having a good time?" Carol demanded through the window.

  "Sure we are," Val declared.

  "Then come in and join the party," Carol commanded.

  "The queen commands," laughed Gale. "We have to obey."

  The two went back to the living room and danced some more. The noisekept up until the wee hours of the morning when, out of sheer necessity,the girls went off to bed. Each had a vague suspicion that they wouldnot be able to get up the next morning and get the early start on whichthey had planned.