THINGS PRESENT AND THINGS TO COME
THE ensuing week at sea was one of the most delightful in the Ranch girls' lives and in many ways illustrative of their future history.
An ocean steamer filled with passengers is in itself a miniature world, so many different types of people are represented, there is such freedom of association, such a leveling of artificial barriers that often exist on land. Frequently a fellow traveler reveals more of his character and history to some stranger whom he may meet in crossing than ever he has confided to a life-long friend.
Until the present time the four Ranch girls and their chaperon, Ruth Drew, had lived singularly sheltered lives. First brought up almost like boys under the care of their overseer, Jim Colter, three of the girls had known only the few neighbors scattered within riding distance of their thousand-acre ranch. While Olive's acquaintance, owing to her curious childhood, had been evensmaller and more primitive. Then had come the year for Jean, Olive and Frieda at Primrose Hall under Miss Katherine Winthrop's charge, when their horizon had broadened, admitting a number of girls and a few young men to be their friends. But this could hardly be called real contact with the world, since always they were under Miss Winthrop's wise guidance. While as Jack had spent exactly the same length of time at a hospital she had had even less experience with people. The last ten months with three of the girls again at the Rainbow Ranch had meant a return to the same kind of quiet every-day existence, varied only by the interests of the working of the mine. Olive's six months apart from the others had simply been devoted to further study with Miss Winthrop with week-end visits to her grandmother at The Towers.
Then, although Ruth Drew was almost ten years older than any one of the Ranch girls, in many ways she was fully as ignorant of the world. It had never yet occurred to her that there were persons capable of misrepresenting themselves, nor of pretending to be what they were not and using innocent friendships for purposes of their own. Norhad it occurred to her that the reputation of the four girls for having suddenly acquired great wealth might place them in danger.
From the time Ruth had been a little girl she had never had the disposition for making many friends. Always she had been timid and retiring, devoting herself to her father until after his death. Except for the year spent at the Ranch and the winter at the hospital in New York with Jack, Ruth had never known anything outside the narrow circle of a Vermont village life. Not that a village does not furnish almost all there is to learn of human nature, but that she had shut herself in from most of it. The freedom of the wonderful ranch life, the contact and friendship with Jim Colter, which for a while had looked like something more than friendship, had widened the little Vermont school teacher's horizon. Then had come the break with Jim, and the past winter at home she had shut herself up even more completely. During the many evenings alone in her small cottage there had been plenty of opportunity for Ruth Drew to regret her decision against Jim, but whatever passed in her mind she had kept to herself. Not even to Jacqueline Ralston,who at one time had been her confidante, had she made any confession.
So perhaps from the standpoint of worldly wisdom the Rainbow Ranch party was none too well equipped for a long journey or for the meeting with many different types of people and the making of friendships which might be of grave importance in after years.
And, notwithstanding the fact that Ruth and the four girls were singularly devoted to one another, there was no question but that they were five widely unlike characters, and that their interests must often lie in as many different directions now that their opportunities were to be so much broader.
For a disinterested observer (if ever there is such an one) it would have been difficult at this time in the Ranch girls' lives to have decided which one was the most attractive—beauty and charm are in themselves so much a matter of personal taste. But perhaps to older and more thoughtful persons it was now Jacqueline Ralston who would make the strongest appeal.
Jack was only a few months older than her friend, Olive Van Mater, less than a year older than her cousin, Jean Bruce, and yet looked a good deal more mature and felt so.This was true, not only because after her father's death she had been in a measure the head of the Rainbow Ranch, but because her year of illness had given her more time for introspection than is allowed most girls of her age. Sometimes she believed that this whole year had been completely lost, and then again came the knowledge that she could have learned certain lessons in no other way. Yet now she was determined to waste no further time, but to get as much as possible out of each passing day and to live fully and completely.
Jacqueline Ralston did not look entirely like the brilliant, vigorous Ranch girl who three years before had ridden alone across the prairie to search for her lost cattle. She had less color in her cheeks, perhaps, except under the pressure of some unusual excitement, but her hair was a deeper bronze, her eyes a clearer gray, and her rather full lips a brighter crimson. There was something about her expression not always easy to understand. The old wilfulness was still there, the old habit of knowing her own mind and wishing to have her own way, but with it a greater power of self-control than most girls of nineteen have—and something else.What this other trait was neither Jack herself nor her friends yet knew. This trip abroad might mean more to her than to any one of the other four girls. In spite of her lameness, which was never apparent except when she was greatly fatigued, Jack was tall—five feet seven inches—and held her shoulders with the erectness of other days. Slender, Jack would always be, but not thin, for sixteen years of outdoor life had given her too fine a beginning.
In each person's atmosphere or aura, if you prefer to call it so, there is usually a suggestion of some one distinctive quality, some characteristic that shows above all others. With Jacqueline Ralston it was purity. She was straightforward and unafraid, without cowardice and without suspicion. Having once believed in you, Jack would stand by you through thick and thin. More than anything in the world she hated a lie. For some reason she had always been and always would be what for want of a better word is called "a man's woman," meaning that men would understand and sympathize with her point of view and she with theirs.
Olive Van Mater was just the oppositeof Jack. Although the story of her strange early life was now fully explained, she would never lose her shyness and look of gentle mystery. Nor would she ever be able to make friends among strangers so readily as the three other girls. Many persons there would always be who would explain her shyness as coldness and a lack of interest. Still she could reveal herself more easily to girls and to women than to men. And although her peculiar beauty and sweetness could not fail to win her admirers because of her sympathy and self-forgetfulness, all the days of her life her own sex would make the strongest appeal to her.
In Jean Bruce the two types were mingled. Jean wanted to attract people. She wanted to make everybody like her and she always had and always would. It did not matter to her who the people were, whether they were young or old, girls or boys, she simply had the desire to be liked and went about accomplishing it on shipboard just as she had at Primrose Hall and everywhere else. This proved that Jean had the real social gift, but then her talent had never been disputed by any member of her family.
With Frieda Ralston, however, the questionof type was at this time not important. She was two years younger not only in years but in a great many other things, and when it did not interfere with her pleasure she meant to keep so. There was only one thing at present that Frieda was interested in and that was having a good time, and certainly she was accomplishing it. When Dick Grant was not dancing attendance upon her, and very often when he was, there were a dozen other girls and young men of about Frieda's age aboard, by whom she was constantly surrounded. It worried Ruth a great deal, but then, unfortunately, Ruth was the only member of the Rainbow Ranch party who was seasick. And the three girls simply did not take the trouble to spend much time looking after Frieda.
Though neither of them wished her to know it, both Olive and Jean tried to be especially careful of Jack. And this was particularly hard since Jack resented any suggestion that she was not as strong as they were. She was under the impression that she could walk without difficulty in spite of the rolling and pitching of the ship. Nevertheless she did finally promise Ruth to remain in her steamer chair unless one ofthe girls could be with her, and though she did not see any sense in her promise, meant to keep her word.
On the fourth afternoon out, at about four o'clock in the afternoon, the weather became unexpectedly heavy. Ruth had long ago given up and gone to her room. Frieda was playing games in the salon, but Jack, Olive and Jean were on deck watching the approach of the storm. Jack adored the water. She had wanted the ocean to look altogether different from her prairies, to bring a wholly new impression into her life. But until today the calm, gentle, even roll of the waves at a sufficient distance had not been so unlike the far-off rippling of the prairie fields. Now, with the approach of a storm, with the blackness, everything seemed different.
The three girls had been wrapped in their steamer rugs sitting quietly in their chairs, Jack supposing that Olive and Jean were as interested in the storm as she was.
Suddenly Jean sighed. "The face of the waters gets a bit tiresome after a while, don't you think so?" she asked. "Remember the Princess asked us to come and have tea with her some afternoon. Suppose we go now. Seems as though she is a chancethat ought not to be neglected. Who knows if the Princess takes a truly fancy to us she may do something thrilling for us when we get to Rome. Ask us to a court ball perhaps!" Jean laughed at the absurdity of her suggestion.
But Jack frowned a little. She was grateful to the stranger for her interest and former kindness to them; yet she rather resented the air of mystery and seclusion surrounding her and her haughty attitude toward the other passengers. A princess might of course be different from other human beings; Jack felt she had no way of knowing. Nevertheless the Princess Colonna had confessed that she was an American girl. Why should a marriage have made so great a change in her point of view? In a vague fashion Jack was a little resentful of the homage which Ruth and the three other girls offered their new acquaintance. Now she slowly shook her head.
"You and Olive go, Jean. Really I would prefer to stay by myself for a little while and watch the storm."
Five minutes afterwards the two girls had departed, leaving Jack comfortably wrapped up in her steamer chair, and insisting that they would return in time to take her down to her stateroom to dress for dinner.
A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE
JACK may have been asleep for a little while. She was not quite sure. Anyhow, when she opened her eyes, she was surprised to see how the storm had increased and how entirely the promenade deck had become deserted. There had been a few persons about when Jean and Olive had departed, but now she saw no one except a man walking quietly up and down as though the pitching of the ship in no way affected him. He was wearing an English mackintosh with the collar turned up past his ears, but neither his appearance nor his existence at present interested Jack. Her only thought was for the oncoming storm. As yet there was no rain falling, only a cold gray Atlantic mist enveloped the sky and the sea. The waves had curling borders of white foam as they rolled and broke. There was no relief in the sky. Once the thunder roared as though they were cannonading on the other side of the world and then a single flash oflightning split straight across the horizon. Jack had thrown aside her steamer rug and was sitting upright in her chair, her hands clasping both sides. The color had gone from her cheeks (the storm was so wonderful, almost it was taking her breath away), but her head was thrown back, showing the beautiful line of her throat, and her lips were parted with the intensity of her admiration. Then the boat dipped and half the ocean picture became obscured.
It never occurred to Jack that she would be running any risk of falling by moving from her place. Never had she been able to think of herself as an invalid, even after her two years' experience. Besides, was she not well by this time and the railing of the deck but a few feet away?
When the ship had righted itself she stepped forward without any difficulty, laying her hand lightly on the rail for support.
Then she became wholly absorbed. The plunging and tossing of the great steamer was fairly regular, so that Jack found no especial trouble in keeping her footing.
So unconscious was she that she did not glance over her shoulder at the solitary passenger pacing the deck, although in thecourse of his march he must have passed her at least half a dozen times. Nevertheless the man had not been so unmindful of his fellow traveler. He was possibly twenty years or more her senior.
Unexpectedly the ship gave an uneven lurch, almost twisting herself about, and at the same instant an immense amount of spray struck Jack Ralston full in the face. With a little cry of surprise straightway she lost her clasp on the rail and would have gone down in a heap if an arm had not immediately steadied her.
"I beg your pardon; you might have fallen. At the moment I happened to be passing." The man spoke stiffly.
In Jack's position, after her long suffering from a fall, one might have expected her to be frightened. However, although she was being kept on her feet by a perfect stranger with no one else in sight, while a storm raged around them, she was not even embarrassed.
Catching hold on her old support again, this time more firmly, Jack said "Thank you" in an even voice. And then, as though she must have sympathy in her enjoyment from some quarter: "Isn't this storm splendid?It seems to me that before I have seen nothing but land, land all my life! I thought I loved it, but somehow all this water gives one quite a different sensation. I feel as if I weren't a person, but just a pair of eyes and lungs!" Jack spoke these last words with little gaspings for breath. So hard was the wind blowing that it had wrapped her heavy coat close about her; her hat had slipped backward and her heavy yellow-brown hair whipped across her face.
Her courage and frankness made her companion smile. And, although until this moment Jack had not paid any special attention to her rescuer, she now observed that he had a skin so bronzed as to look almost like leather, that he had a closely clipped blonde moustache and equally light hair. Also, that his eyes were of the deep blue seen only with that complexion, and that his bearing was distinctly military.
"But the sea is after all not so unlike a distant view of your American prairies," he replied. And in answer to Jack's expression of surprise:
"I know your name, Miss Ralston. Among many other things I have tried running a ranch in the west, although none too successfully."
Whatever the strange man's intentions, certainly his words succeeded in arousing Jack's attention. For at once, without liking to ask, she was curious to find out how he had discovered her name. Then she was always interested in any ranching experience. The people she had been meeting on board ship were most of them from cities and without any special outdoor knowledge. Only a few persons actually have kinship with nature, and they have usually spent their youth in therealcountry, in big, open, unpeopled spaces as Jacqueline Ralston had.
This time she smiled more shyly. "I thought you were an Englishman—a soldier." Jack hesitated. She did not think that a few words of conversation with a stranger, who had been kind to her, made any difference, but it would not do to talk on indefinitely.
Instantly, as though divining her thought, the man's hat was lifted, and he moved a few paces away.
But at this moment the storm broke. No rain had been falling up to this time, but now the clouds lightened, and from between two of them a heavy sheet of water descended, apparently straight on to the ship's deck.
Why did Jack not run to shelter? Still she stood clinging with both hands to the ship's rail, her head thrown back inhaling deep breaths of the salt spray air. She was enjoying the storm but actually was afraid to move. Surely now that the storm had fairly broken either Olive or Jean would come for her. Both girls had made her promise not to return to her stateroom alone and at the present time it was impossible. The decks were soaking wet and slippery and she was tired from too long standing and opposing her strength to the fury of the wind.
Yet the sailors were rushing about, lashing the tarpaulins to the balustrade, and in a few seconds she would be obliged to move.
Jack set her teeth. It was absurd to be afraid of falling just because of a former weakness. She turned, took a few steps forward and then the ship gave another sudden lurch.
It was Jean Bruce, however, who made the outcry. She and Olive were running down the deck without hats or coats and regardless of the storm for their own sakes. They were not yet near enough to save Jack from slipping. However, there was no need for them.
When Captain Madden turned and left Jack he walked only a few steps away and then as the rain descended swung himself about to enter the door of the saloon about midway the promenade deck. Naturally he expected the girl with whom he had just been talking to have run on before him, she was even less well prepared for the downpour. But to his surprise he saw that Jack had remained fixed at her place.
This was carrying a love of nature a little too far. Not only would the young woman get a thorough soaking, she would be in positive danger in a few moments should a wave break over the deck. It was odd that no ship's officer had yet suggested that she go inside.
Captain Madden did not wish to offend Jack by officiousness. He had still no idea of her lameness, although he had been watching her more carefully than any one dreamed for the past few days. However, he did not wish to see her hurt and so put an end to his scarcely thought-out plan.
The second time that the stranger held her up on her feet Jack could only stammer and blush. It seemed rather absurd to have been rescued by the same person twice inten minutes and yet she did not even now wish to confess her difficulty in walking alone.
Jean and Olive saved the situation.
"Thank you ever so much," Olive began, arriving first and a little out of breath.
"We never can be sufficiently grateful to you!" Jean exclaimed. "And oh, Jack, I suppose you can't imagine what had become of us? We sent the stewardess for you half an hour ago. Ruth is dreadfully worried."
But Jean was not in the habit of forgetting her manners and so stopped speaking of their private concerns. She and Frieda had both seen and spoken of the man who was now with her cousin. He had his place at a table across from theirs and, possibly because of his soldierly appearance, had seemed unlike the other men aboard.
"My cousin isn't very well, or at least she hasn't been," Jean announced, remembering Jack's sensitiveness. And then as Jack and Olive moved quickly away she added with a gracious condescension that made the older man smile: "Our chaperon, Miss Drew, will express her appreciation to you in the morning." And fled out of the rain as though she had been eight instead of eighteen.
Notwithstanding, Captain Madden did not immediately leave the deck after the girls' withdrawal.
"Things have turned out rather better than I could have arranged them," he remarked thoughtfully, pulling at his moustache. "She is an uncommonly attractive girl. Lots of spirit, but I've an idea she has yet to learn a great deal about men and women. It's worth trying anyhow. It's jolly odd my having run across them in this fashion and recalling what I was once told."
RUTH'S ATTITUDE
BY the next morning the storm had abated, and for the rest of that day and evening Captain Madden devoted the greater part of his time to making the acquaintance of the Ranch girls' chaperon. More than this he accomplished, for he inspired in Ruth Drew a genuine admiration and liking. And while she and the older man talked together Jack usually sat quietly by listening to everything that was said.
In all their lives Ruth and Jack had never known anyone like this Captain Madden. Here was a man who had traveled all over the world, who had fought in the Boer war and more recently in Mexico and had hunted big game in Africa. Indeed he had done most of the things and seen most of the people that had before appeared to them like events and figures to be known only through books. And yet he was modest, never once picturing himself as a hero or even a particularly important person,although there were times when both Ruth and Jack felt that he was being hardly fair to himself. And on those occasions, if the man observed any change in the young girl's face, there was no sign on his part. Captain Madden was not particularly good-looking, but had unusually charming manners and the soldierly carriage that can not fail to win admiration. Then, as he was forty years old and had attracted considerable notice on board, it was something for the Rainbow Ranch party to be singled out for his attention.
Frankly, however, Frieda Ralston thought her sister's rescuer dreadfully elderly and a bore. Olive and Jean, although agreeing to her first conclusion, could not accept the second. Nevertheless neither of the two girls from the beginning of their association liked Captain Madden particularly well. They both wondered why Ruth and Jack should find him so agreeable. Then after the passing of another twenty-four hours, there was not so much a question of Ruth's liking, as of Jack's enjoying talking to a stranger for hours and hours.
Actually before the Martha Washington had sighted Gibraltar Jean had already complainedto their chaperon of Jack's intimacy with a stranger, besides almost quarreling with her cousin.
It was true that Peter Drummond and Jack had been and were specially devoted friends and Peter was as old as their new ship acquaintance. But then Peter had always seemed different somehow, and his fancy for Jack had been largely explained by her likeness to Jessica Hunt. For while Jessica was still teaching at Primrose Hall and no word had been spoken of an engagement between her and Mr. Drummond, the Ranch girls were still convinced that something would develop between them later on.
To Jean's grumblings that Jack was making herself conspicuous by seeming to prefer Captain Madden to any other one of their new friends on the ship Ruth explained that it was but natural. For while Jean and Olive and Frieda could walk endless miles with anybody who happened to please their fancy at the moment, Jack could only take short walks now and then and with some one who understood her difficulty. And while they danced every afternoon and evening in the saloon, or pitched quoits for hours on deck, Jack's only chance for amusement layin conversation. It was only because Captain Madden knew more and talked better than their other new friends that Jack seemed to prefer his society. Since his discovery of her old accident he had shown her every consideration.
Of course if Captain Madden had had no introduction to the Ranch girls and their chaperon, save that of his having assisted Jack at a difficult moment, Ruth Drew would never have permitted their acquaintance to have taken so intimate a tone in a few days. However, half an hour after his first meeting with her, the mystery of his having appeared to guess Jacqueline Ralston's name in his first conversation with her had been explained.
In this world it is perfectly useless to marvel over the coming together of persons in the most unlikely places, who happen to know exactly the same people that we do, and yet we will always go on exclaiming and being tremendously surprised by this fact.
Not only was Captain Madden intimately acquainted with the Ranch girls' old friend, Frank Kent, but actually was a cousin of his. Although, as he confessed, he belonged to the Irish and therefore the poor branch of theKent family. It was not until Frank had returned to England, after spending the winter at the Norton place next the Rainbow Ranch, that Captain Madden had made up his mind to come to America and try his own fortune in the west.
And there could be no question of the truth of his history, since he chanced to have a photograph of the Kent house in Surrey which Frank had often in times past shown to Jack. Besides he knew the names and characters of every member of Frank's immediate family. Moreover, he had remembered Frank's description of the Rainbow Ranch, Jack's and Frieda's names and Jean Bruce's and a little something of their discovery of Olive. He had even heard of Jack's and Frank's finding of the first gold in Rainbow Creek. And on seeing a group of these same names printed together on the ship's sailing list, Frank's story had come back to him and he had then guessed that Jack was the oldest of the girls and must be Miss Ralston.
As a matter of course it then followed that this kinship with Frank Kent proved a bond between Captain Madden and the ranch party, but more especially with JacquelineRalston, who had been Frank's most intimate friend.
For nearly two years there had been no meeting between Frank and the girls, not since his sailing for home, when Jack was taken to the New York hospital.
Nevertheless their former intimacy had largely continued, Frank often writing to Ruth and the four girls. Perhaps Jack had heard oftener than the others because of her illness; shortly before their sailing Frank had written to ask if he might join the Rainbow Ranch party in Italy. But to Jack's letter begging him to wait until their coming to England in May there had been no time as yet for a reply.
It was Olive's argument in the beginning that Jack's pleasure in Captain Madden's society was due to her past fondness for Frank. But from the first Jean's point of view was otherwise.
It may have been caused by the old temperamental differences between Jean and her cousin. Fond as they would always be of one another, never had they been able to agree on liking the same people or things. So to Jean's suggestion that she could see nothing in Captain Madden to make Jacklike to talk to him so much, Jack had replied that she could see nothing in Jean's American-Italian princess to make Jean wish to follow after her like an admiring shadow. At least Captain Madden had had exciting experiences that must always interest a girl of Jacqueline Ralston's disposition. She did not mind his age, for how could he have known all that he did had he been younger? Jack, it must be remembered, had been brought up on a ranch, had ridden horseback, hunted, fished and done most things that usually appeal to a boy more than a girl. She could not help admiring physical bravery beyond anything else. If the time of her illness had taught her something of the value of spiritual courage, there was still a great deal that she had yet to learn. Captain Madden had fought with Lord Roberts in South Africa, and had lately been with the Mexicans under Madero. What more reasonable than that the stories he was able to tell should be deeply entertaining to Jack, who, after two years of being shut up indoors, was more than ever in love with the thought of an active life?
And Jean's Princess would of course appeal to her, since her ideal of life andromance had always been of so different a kind.
To her it seemed wonderful almost past belief that a princess should have taken a fancy to four inconspicuous American girls. Jean did not say or even think that this liking was more for her than for the others, but this was plain enough to them. Every day the Princess invited Jean alone to her stateroom for a little talk, and sometimes would walk about for hours on the deck with her. Unlike Captain Madden in frankness, she had told Jean little of herself. Nevertheless in some unexplained fashion the young girl had guessed that in spite of wealth, beauty and position, her Princess Beatrice was not particularly happy. Perhaps her husband was the trouble! Only once or twice had she mentioned the Prince's name, and that in such a casual fashion that it was impossible to get any real notion of him. Jean was not without the hope of having her curiosity gratified later on, however, since in an idle moment (and perhaps without really meaning it) the Princess had asked Jean to come and bring her cousins and friends to see her when they reached Rome. Nobody except Olive, who was always sympathetic with one's wishesand dreams, believed that this invitation meant anything serious. Nevertheless Jean cherished the hope of being a guest in a real palace some day.
Although the Princess Colonna seemed to have nothing to do with anybody aboard the Martha Washington, by an odd coincidence she appeared to have previously met Captain Madden. Probably their acquaintance was a slight one, for they only bowed in passing and had never been seen talking to each other. Indeed, Jean's new friend was in a measure responsible for her prejudice against Jack's. She had hinted several times in a veiled fashion that the girls must remember not to become too intimate with strangers in traveling abroad. There was no direct reference to Captain Madden. So when Jean mentioned her own impression of the Princess' meaning to her cousin, Jack naturally suggested that the Princess was equally a stranger and so equally to be avoided.
However, it must not be supposed that this question of new friendships had become a really serious one during the early part of their ocean voyage. For after nine days, when the Martha Washington was to make her first stop at Gibraltar, the girls wereequally delighted at the prospect of being shown over the great English fort by a British army officer. Also Captain Madden agreed to have any other friends that Ruth or the Ranch girls desired to join their party. And at Ruth's invitation the Princess Colonna consented to be one of them.
GIBRALTAR
EARLY on the morning of their steamship's first landing during the voyage, Jack came up on deck. She had asked Olive to come with her, but she was at the moment engaged in writing to Miss Winthrop at Primrose Hall, who had become more like her mother than a friend. She promised to join her room-mate in a few moments.
It was an ideal morning, and Jack hoped to have a long look at the sea before the other passengers were about to distract her with conversation. In a short while their steamer was due to pass Cape Trafalgar, where Lord Nelson won his famous victory over the French and Spanish in 1805, and from then on every traveler aboard, except the ill ones, would be crowding about the ship's railing for the best views.
Jack felt wonderfully well. Only a few days more than a week at sea, and how much she had already improved! Not since thewinter at the ranch when she was sixteen had she felt so vigorous and had such joy in living. Surely before their trip was over she would be her old self again. And if this part of their journey had been so unusually interesting, what would their trip through Italy mean, with Switzerland and England to follow in May?
"How much of my young heart, O Spain,Went out to thee in days of yore,What dreams romantic filled my brainAnd summoned back to life againThe paladins of Charlemagne,The Cid Campeador."
Jack laughed, recognizing the speaker's voice at once.
"I am the wrong person to be quoting poetry to, Captain Madden," she replied, scarcely turning her head. "I told you the other day that Jean and Olive are the literary members of our family. I hardly ever used to read a book, except now and then my school ones, until my accident. Then I took to reading from necessity. I am not in the least clever or romantic, and reading has so often seemed to me like finding out things second-hand. I am afraid I really want todothe exciting things myself."
Jack was hardly looking or thinking of her audience as she talked. One of the nicest things about their new acquaintance was that one was able to say almost anything to him and he would understand. She was feeling curiously gay this morning, as though something of unusual importance was about to happen to her. Of course it was the thought of their first leaving the steamer after nine days of ocean travel. Nevertheless, Jack had dressed with unusual care, not intending to make another toilet before going ashore. Instead of her usual brown steamer coat she was wearing a long, heavy white woolen one, with a soft white hat trimmed in a single feather curling close around the crown. And under the brim her hair was pure bronze in the sunlight and all the old color of the ranch days had this morning come back into her cheeks.
"I am only quoting guide-book poetry," Captain Madden explained, after a moment's admiring glance at his young companion.
Suddenly Jack ceased gazing over the water to look at him. "Captain Madden," she asked with the directness which some persons liked and others disliked in her, "you told us once that you were a Britisharmy officer, didn't you? Then would you mind explaining why when you are to show us over the English fort at Gibraltar today, you are not wearing an English officer's uniform?"
If for the fraction of a second there was a slight hesitation before Captain Madden's reply Jack failed to notice it.
"I am very glad you asked me that question, Miss Ralston," he answered, coming to the edge of the ship's railing and leaning one arm upon it as he talked. "I am afraid I have been sailing under false colors with you and the other members of your little party. I simply meant you to understand that I was at one time a member of the British army. Several years ago I resigned my commission. Else, my dear young lady, how do you suppose I could have attempted to run a ranch in your west and been permitted to fight with the Mexicans on the losing side? I am a soldier of fortune or misfortune, whichever way you may choose to put it."
The older man spoke half in jest, but Jacqueline Ralston stared at him in a more critical fashion than she ever had before. Could she have been making a hero in her mind of a man who was no hero at all?
"But I can't understand how a man who has once been in the army could stop being," she remarked slowly.
Her companion shook his head. "No, of course you rich Americans can't understand," he replied. "The fact of the matter was that I did not have money enough to keep up my position. Though I can hardly expect a young American girl with a gold mine at her disposal to realize what a lack of money means."
Jack moved her shoulders impatiently, letting her clear gray eyes rest for the moment upon her companion's profile. He looked a soldier every inch of him and a brave man. Yet what could his confession mean?
"I haven't been a rich American girl always, Captain Madden," she returned. "And I don't know why you think I am one now. But a lack of money would never have made me give up my profession if I cared for it."
It was perfectly self-evident that Jack was feeling a sense of disappointment in her companion. Although they had only known one another for a week, and Captain Madden was so much older, intimacies develop more rapidly aboard ship than anywhere else in theworld, except perhaps on a desert island. Jack suddenly realized that she had been giving more thought to her companion's history than there was any reason for doing.
She looked back over her shoulder. Numbers of persons with field glasses in their hands were coming on to the deck.
"Miss Drew and the girls will soon be joining us," she suggested, meaning for Captain Madden to understand that she no longer wished to discuss his personal affairs. "I must go and search for them if they don't come at once. I think I can already see the point of Cape Trafalgar. In a short time we must be entering the Straits of Gibraltar."
The next second Jack started to move away, but a glance from the man at her side held her. It was curious that she, who had never yielded to any one in her life except of her own will, should feel his influence.
"You are only a young girl and I am possibly twice your age," Captain Madden began, "yet our acquaintance aboard ship has been so pleasant that I do not wish to have you misunderstand me. There were other reasons for my leaving the British army, but you may believe this to be the chief one: I am not a good soldier in times of peace.When the Boer war was over, I wanted to be where there was still fighting to be done. My country was weary of war and so I joined the Russians in their war with Japan."
Jack shyly extended her hand. "That is all right, Captain Madden," she replied. "I know Ruth and Olive think it dreadful for me to be interested in fighting. Of course I hope there may never be any more great wars, but—" and here Jack laughed at herself, "to save my life I can't help being interested in battles and heroes who fight on against losing odds. I had a grandfather who was a general in the Confederate army."
And Jack, resting her chin on her hand with her elbow on the balustrade, gazed out to sea, apparently satisfied. Indeed, she was so vitally interested in the view before her that she hardly heard Captain Madden add:
"If your friend, Frank Kent, should ever offer you any other reason for my resignation—" But at this instant Ruth Drew and Olive appeared between them, and Ruth slipped her arm through Jack's. At once Captain Madden stepped aside, surrendering his place to Olive.
It was odd, but as Ruth approached Jackand her companion, for just a passing moment an uncomfortable impression entered her mind. Jack and Captain Madden did seem to be talking together like intimate friends. Perhaps Jean had been justified in her grumbling. Nevertheless, Captain Madden was twice Jack's age, and why should they not be friends? It was as absurd to feel uneasy over them as over Frieda and her chocolate-drop boy.
And hearing Frieda's laugh behind her, the next second, Ruth turned around with a smothered sigh of relief. Here came Frieda in her crimson coat and hat with Dick Grant at her side holding the inevitable box of candy in his hand. Following them were Jean and her Princess.
They were just in time, because the Martha Washington was at this moment entering the Straits of Gibraltar. To the right there loomed, like a gray mirage in the background, the Mountain of the Apes in Africa. And there, directly ahead, was the historicRockof Gibraltar.
"Isn't it thrilling to have reached a foreign country at last!" Jack exclaimed, turning again to her first companion. But on her other side Frieda pulled at her coat sleeve impatiently.
"If you are going into raptures over everything you see while we are abroad, I don't know what is to become of you, Jacqueline Ralston!" she argued. "Of course the Rock of Gibraltar is fairly large, but I have seen almost as big stones in Wyoming. Have a piece of candy."
And when everybody in the little company laughed, Frieda would have been offended if she had not already grown accustomed to starting just such foolish attacks of laughter. What had she said that was in the least amusing, when she had just made a plain statement of fact? For how could she possibly have guessed how her point of view typified that of many American travelers?
A MORE IMPORTANT OBLIGATION
IT was in the late afternoon of the same day and over toward the west appeared the flaming colors of an African sunset.
Since mid-day hundreds of the Martha Washington's passengers had been landed at Gibraltar. They had been shown through the famous English stronghold, where guns and ammunition are so strangely stored for defense and had seen the town at the northwest foot of the rock protected by formidable batteries. Then, weary in mind and body, they had been again transferred to the special tender and put aboard their steamer.
Standing at the edge of the water and leaning on Olive's arm waiting her turn to be taken back, Jack wondered if among all their fellow passengers there was one half so fatigued as she? She had not mentioned it, but this was hardly worth while, for Jack's face, except for her lips and the shadows under her eyes, was perfectly colorless, yet that morning she had thought herself as strongas anyone else. However, Jack need not have felt discouraged, for every member of the Rainbow Ranch party looked almost equally used up. The truth is that, through Captain Madden's guidance, they had seen more of the great fort than the other ship's passengers. Then by accident they had lost their return places in the tender, and so been obliged to wait until a later trip.
The celebrated Rock of Gibraltar runs north and south three miles and is about three-quarters of a mile in width. The entire rock is undermined with subterranean galleries containing cannon in great number. Some of the lower galleries that are not in use may be visited by travelers, but both Frieda and Jean assured Captain Madden that if there were any possible passages which they had not journeyed through, it was indeed hard to believe.
Each member of the expedition was cross. For there is nothing more trying to the nerves and disposition than too strenuous sight-seeing.
Ruth was worried at having permitted Jack to undertake a trip that was so plainly too much for her strength. Jean was annoyed because the Princess Colonna, who had beenone of their party all day, had scarcely spoken to any of her friends. Even Captain Madden she had acknowledged only by the coldest greeting, while absolutely ignoring every one else. And although Dick Grant and his mother had been included in the Ranch girls' immediate party, solely on Frieda's account, she and the young man had been on the verge of quarreling at least half a dozen times. However, it was not altogether the young people's fault, because Mrs. Grant had been trying. Every once in a while Frieda had felt obliged to decide that in the future she must have nothing more to do with the son. If there was a possible stupid question to be asked, always Mrs. Grant had asked it; if there was a place where the rules forbade her entrance, that was the particular place which she had insisted upon seeing. Indeed, if Frieda had been able to foretell how Mrs. Grant was to end the long day with them, she would have wished that their original uncomfortable acquaintance could have closed on the morning it begun.
Suddenly from the signal station on top the Rock of Gibraltar the little company in waiting on shore heard the loud report of the six o'clock gun. Six o'clock and yethere they were on land! The ship's officer had announced that the Martha Washington must steam away again promptly at six! Nevertheless there seemed no real danger of the Rainbow Ranch party's being left behind. For half a mile out at sea their ship still waited at anchor, while approaching within a few yards of the Spanish shore was the small boat known as the tender.
Watching it come toward them Jack swayed and might have fallen except that Olive kept a tight hold on her.
"Please help me up the gang-plank when we go on board, Olive dear?" Jack whispered, "I don't want any one to guess how wobbly I feel."
And Olive nodded reassuringly.
A little later and the tender had reached the big ship. Now, however, the transference of the passengers was not to be so easily made. The waves were no longer blue and quiet as they had been all day. From somewhere a high wind had blown up off the land and each time the smaller boat attempted anchoringalongsidethe big one, a breaker drove it backward or forward. There was grave danger of the tender's being shattered against the great ship.
Nevertheless no one aboard either of the two boats seemed seriously frightened, excepting Mrs. Grant. Frieda was so scornful in watching the stout, elderly woman clutching at her son, asking dozens of hysterical questions that she quite forgot to be nervous herself. Indeed, she almost failed to appreciate the scene, so unique to her experience.
Ruth and the other three Ranch girls were not so oblivious. For the time being they were standing close together, having in the excitement forgotten all past weariness. The Spanish and English sailors, manning their small boat, were splendidly capable. Through a megaphone orders were called out to them from the big steamer, and instantly the men made ready to obey. But whatever the discipline and intelligence, the will of the sea was not to be soon conquered.
Had there been more time the smaller boat could have been finally brought alongside the larger one and her few remaining passengers safely put on board, but the night was coming down, and both the officers and travelers were growing impatient. A few moments afterward and the tender was brought to anchor within a safe distance of the Martha Washington. Then a lifeboat was lowered. When this came alongside the tender a ladder was dropped overboard and the Ranch party and their friends ordered to embark. The method appeared a simple enough one. One had only to climb down the ladder and be lifted into the small boat. Nevertheless, five persons looked anxiously at Jacqueline Ralston, and Jack purposely refused to return any gaze. Not for worlds would she have Ruth or the girls guess that she felt any nervousness at having to do so easy a thing, with several persons at hand to help her.
During this period of waiting, Captain Madden had been standing not far away, talking in low tones to the Princess. Now he moved quietly forward. His face was flushed as though his conversation had not been agreeable. However, his manner toward Jack was extremely kind.
"If the climbing down the ladder will be too much for you, Miss Ralston, won't you allow me—"
Jack shook her head. Already Jean was descending the side of the boat, the Princess following soon after. And although the small tender plunged with the movement of the waves and the rowboat rockedunceasingly, half a dozen hands held the ladder firm.
There was no danger. Jack joined Frieda in frowning impatiently at Mrs. Grant, who was nervously protesting to her son that she could never make the necessary effort. Then her gray eyes lighted with amusement. With a slight inclination of the head she suggested that Captain Madden play knight errant to the only female in distress.
Olive and Frieda went down one after the other. Ruth, however, would not leave the tender until she saw Jack safely through the climb overboard. And in the meantime the rowboat had made a journey to the steamer, put its occupants aboard and returned once more to the smaller ship.
But by this time the gorgeous sunset colors had faded and the twilight was fast closing down. And although Mrs. Grant, having at last mustered sufficient courage, insisted on being allowed to enter the rowboat first, Ruth Drew would not hear of it. She had waited, watching the other girls in order to see how difficult the climb might be for Jack. Now it was wiser to have no further delay.
If Jack had felt any nervousness previouslyit had now entirely passed. How absurd to be frightened by anything so simple! With a gesture to the man in the boat below she flung her heavy white coat down to him. Then she swung herself over the side of the boat and commenced descending the ladder with all the ease of her athletic days. The distance was not great. Although the boats were rocking and plunging the experience was exhilarating.
It happened during the few moments required for Jack's descent that Captain Madden and Dick Grant chanced to be standing on either side of Mrs. Grant. Therefore, what afterwards occurred could hardly have been prevented.
Of course Mrs. Grant was under the impression that Jack had reached the end of the ship's ladder. Some call from below or some mental hallucination must have given her the idea. For without a word she suddenly darted forward and before any one could speak or move seized hold of the top rung of the overhanging rope ladder. It was only for an instant. Immediately the sailor standing alongside, grasped her firmly by the arm, but the single movement had been sufficiently disastrous.
Jack had nearly reached the end of her climb. So near was she to stepping into the rowboat that one of the men below had his arms outstretched to receive her. So possibly she had relaxed the firmness of her hold. For when the surprising jerk came from the top of the ladder the girl wavered half a second and then appeared to let go altogether. She fell not backwards but over to one side. And only her own family understood why she had happened to collapse in this fashion.
Instantly, however, before an other sound could be heard, there came the queer rushing noise of the water closing over her. And then followed a cry that seemed to come from a hundred throats at once. Above them all Ruth believed she heard Frieda on the deck of the big steamer.
Ruth did not utter a sound. Really there seemed not to be time. Almost instantaneously did Captain Madden's coat drop at her feet. Then followed his dive overboard. There were plenty of people nearby to have pulled Jack out of the water. Perhaps his action was unnecessary. However, Captain Madden had at once recognized Jack's grave danger. They were only half a mile fromshore, where he suspected the undertow was dangerously strong. It was now almost dark so that her body might be drawn under one or the other of the two large boats. And his suspicion must have been true, because Jack did not come up near the spot where she had gone down. There were half a dozen sailors ready to offer aid had it been necessary. But the moment after Captain Madden's dive, he rose again holding the girl easily with one hand and swimming. When they reached the side of the life-boat the sailors pulled them in, wet of course, but otherwise unhurt.
"I am exceedingly sorry and ashamed and grateful," Jack murmured in Captain Madden's ear later when, safely wrapped in his coat, she was being rowed back to the Martha Washington. "In the words of Mr. Peggoty, if it hadn't been for you I might have been 'drowndead.'"
Captain Madden shook his head. More than anything else he admired Jacqueline Ralston's courage. Indeed, he was beginning to think that the task which he had set for himself might not be so disagreeable to perform.
"Oh no, there were dozens of other menequally ready to do just what I did, only I managed to have the honor first," he returned lightly. And of course by his ignoring his own action, Jack was the more impressed by it.
For she looked at the older man gravely. "I can understand that you don't want to be thanked for what you have done. I know that from my own experience once. But just the same I shall always be grateful to you. And if ever there is a time when I can in any way show my gratitude—"
To do Captain Madden justice he felt uncomfortable over Jack's excessive gratitude, for whatever his other faults of character, he was a physically brave man.
Although insisting that she was perfectly well and that her wetting had not done her the least harm, Jack was straightway put to bed and dosed with warm drinks. So that Olive, in order to talk with the other girls and yet allow Jack to sleep, was obliged to slip into Ruth's stateroom soon after dinner.
There she found Ruth and Jean engaged in argument.
"Of course I am grateful to Captain Madden," Jean was saying in an irritated tone of voice, "but just the same, I don'tsee why he could not have waited for one of the sailors whose business it was to rescue Jack. We all of us know what a queer disposition Jack has and how if she once likes a person she sticks to him through thick and thin. And I—well, candidly, I don't want her to like this Captain Madden any too much. I don't trust him and I would write to old Jim tonight if I knew a single thing to say against him or any reason for saying it."
"But you are simply prejudiced, Jean dear. Anyhow we will be landing in Naples in a few days and after that see no more of our ship friends," Ruth argued. "So if I were you I would say and think nothing more about this. Really, such a casual acquaintance is not of so great importance."
And Ruth frowned, because Frieda was staring at her cousin with her big blue eyes wide open with the effort to guess what possible reason Jean could have for showing so much unnecessary feeling. For her own part, her anger was directed entirely against Mrs. Grant and her son. And she firmly made up her mind not to speak to either one of them again, no matter how humble their apologies.