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When Helen forgot herself so far as to roll on the ground it was indeed a laughing matter. Dale's big frame shook as he possessed himself of a towel and, wetting it at the spring, began to wipe the mud off Bo's face. But that did not serve. Bo asked to be led to the water, where she knelt and, with splashing, washed out her eyes, and then her face, and then the bedraggled strands of hair.
Then occurred one of Bo's sweet, bewildering, unexpected transformations. Her defiance, resentment, rebelliousness, vanished from a softly agitated face. "Oh, Nell, I know that.... You just watch me if I ever get another chance at him!... Then maybe he'd never drink again!" "Bo, be happy and be good. Don't ride off any more don't tease the boys. It'll all come right in the end."
With eyes and nose stopped up? Oooo! I'm full of mud. And my nice new riding-suit!" Bo's tones indicated that she was ready to cry. Helen, realizing Bo had not been hurt, began to laugh. Her sister was the funniest-looking object that had ever come before her eyes. "Nell Rayner are you laughing at me?" demanded Bo, in most righteous amaze and anger. "Me laugh-ing? N-never, Bo," replied Helen.
When she slept it was to dream horrible dreams; when she lay awake it was to have her heart leap to her throat at a rustle of leaves near the window, and to be in torture of imagination as to poor Bo's plight. A thousand times Helen said to herself that Beasley could have had the ranch and welcome, if only Bo had been spared. Helen absolutely connected her enemy with her sister's disappearance.
Then Helen forgot her troubles and the uncertain future, and what with listening to Bo's chatter, and partaking again of the endless good things to eat in the huge basket, and watching the noble mountains, she drew once more into happy mood.
That was Bo's blunt and characteristic way of advising the elimination of Helen's superficialities. It sank deep. Helen had no retort. Her ambition, as far as the West was concerned, had most assuredly not been for such a wild, unheard-of jaunt as this. But possibly the West a living from day to day was one succession of adventures, trials, tests, troubles, and achievements.
When this was over, Yulee, never at a loss, began to sing for Bo's amusement and her own comfort. She sang all the songs she knew just as they came into her head. "There is a happy land," "Three little kittens." "Pop goes the weasel," "The sunday-school," and some others which I have forgotten. Would you believe it? Bo fell fast asleep with his head in her lap.
From head to foot she was dripping black ooze. "Oh, Bo! Are you hurt?" cried Helen. Evidently Bo's mouth was full of mud. "Pp su tt! Ough! Whew!" she sputtered. "Hurt? No! Can't you see what I lit in? Dale, the sun-of-a-gun didn't throw me. He fell, and I went over his head." "Right. You sure rode him. An' he tripped an' slung you a mile," replied Dale. "It's lucky you lit in that bog." "Lucky!
"Riggs ran her down made off with her!" cried Helen, passionately. "Oh, the villain! He had men in waiting. That's Beasley's work. They were after me." "It may not be just what you said, but that's close enough. An' Bo's in a bad fix. You must face that an' try to bear up under fears of the worst." "My friend! You will save her!" "I'll fetch her back, alive or dead." "Dead! Oh, my God!"
So the match was laid down to Bo's grief, and Yulee proceeded to unpack the box containing her tea-set. They chose for a table a flat rock sunken in the sand, and just the right size. On this they arranged the cups and saucers, and tea-pot and sugar-bowl and creamer. "We ought to have some real sugar," said Bo. "So we ought," said Yulee. "There ought to be some in the ship's stores," she added.
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