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22 - Ranch Girls at Rainbow Lodge by Margaret Vandercook · Ranch Girls at Rainbow Lodge

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  Speaker 1: Baumer. The Ranch Girls at Rainbow Lodge by Margaret Vandercook,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty two. A voice in the night, a rough
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  Speaker 1: voice aroused olive. She sprang up in terror and stood
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  Speaker 1: pressed close against the piled up freight in the car.
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  Speaker 1: It was an odd looking figure. She made, as though
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  Speaker 1: she had stepped out of a world several hundred years
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  Speaker 1: younger than the present one. The coarse man who watched
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  Speaker 1: her dimly felt it. The girl's shoes were ragged and
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  Speaker 1: hardly covered her slender feet. Her skirt was torn and old.
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  Speaker 1: Over her shoulders hung a strange fur garment, shapeless save
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  Speaker 1: that a hole had been cut in the center for
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  Speaker 1: her head. Her beautiful black hair was braided, and one
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  Speaker 1: long plate hung over each shoulder. Her head was uncovered,
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  Speaker 1: and her delicate face, with its pointed chin, was deathly pale.
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  Speaker 1: She was trembling. Dark shadows encircled her great black eyes,
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  Speaker 1: and there was a look not of defiance but of
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  Speaker 1: pleading in them. So picturesque a passenger had never before
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  Speaker 1: stolen a ride on a modern freight train. She belonged
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  Speaker 1: to the days of the pioneer settlers in the New
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  Speaker 1: Land of America. How did you come here, the man
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  Speaker 1: demanded gruffly. Oller's voice shook. She had thought it would
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  Speaker 1: be easy to tell her story if she could only
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  Speaker 1: get away from the Indians, but this fierce man frightened
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  Speaker 1: her more than any one of them could have done.
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  Speaker 1: What must she say? Where could she begin with the
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  Speaker 1: tale of her misfortunes. I stole in when the train
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  Speaker 1: stopped a while ago. I don't just know when, Olive
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  Speaker 1: answered vaguely. She could not tell how long she had
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  Speaker 1: been asleep. Then you'll get out the next time it stops,
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  Speaker 1: young missy, the trainman announced harshly. I'd put you off
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  Speaker 1: right now, but we are already behind time because of
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  Speaker 1: a rascally Indian boy a piece up the road. Better
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  Speaker 1: stay hid and not let our engineer catch sight of you,
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  Speaker 1: or he'd make it good and hot for you. Maybe
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  Speaker 1: he would turn you over to the police. Olive could
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  Speaker 1: not realize it, but her appearance had already touched her discoverer.
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  Speaker 1: She crouched in her corner again and bowed her head
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  Speaker 1: in her slim brown hands, as she had the day
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  Speaker 1: when the ranch girls brought her out of Frita's cave.
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  Speaker 1: She did not try to defend herself. The trainmen climbed
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  Speaker 1: up on a box and sat whittling a stick and
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  Speaker 1: watching Olive out of a pair of shrewd Irish blue eyes.
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  Speaker 1: He was not a fierce man. He had a wife
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  Speaker 1: and five tow headed children living in one of the
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  Speaker 1: little framed shacks along the line of the railroad. The
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  Speaker 1: man was clever enough to see that Olive was not
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  Speaker 1: an ordinary thief or impostor are you sick, girl, the
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  Speaker 1: man inquired, Surprised by Olive's silence, The girl shook her head.
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  Speaker 1: Oh no, I am not sick, thank you, Olive answered gently.
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  Speaker 1: But I am very tired. I ran away from an
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  Speaker 1: Indian encampment before dawn to day. Would you mind telling
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  Speaker 1: me where this train is going? Little by little, Olive
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  Speaker 1: told the whole story of her strange life to the
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  Speaker 1: irishman who sat on a box in the freight car
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  Speaker 1: and never ceased his whittling for a moment. By Saint Peter,
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  Speaker 1: he muttered when Olive finished replying to his last question.
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  Speaker 1: This girl tells a story that might have come out
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  Speaker 1: of a poetry or a history book. The funny thing
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  Speaker 1: is her story must be true. Oh well, he announced
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  Speaker 1: to himself. Not to Olive. There is one thing certain
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  Speaker 1: nobody can ever make up in their heads. Such all fired,
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  Speaker 1: queer things has happened every day. But the man had
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  Speaker 1: not answered Ally's question as to where this train was going.
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  Speaker 1: She had not the courage to ask him again. By
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  Speaker 1: and by, Olive saw little houses along the road and
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  Speaker 1: knew that their train was nearing a small western town.
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  Speaker 1: She got up and touched the irishman timidly on the arm.
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  Speaker 1: May I get off at the station myself, please, she begged.
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  Speaker 1: You won't have to put me off. The man shook
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  Speaker 1: his head severely. No, you are not going to get
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  Speaker 1: off yourself, he returned griffly. And I ain't going to
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  Speaker 1: put you off either. If you can keep on making
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  Speaker 1: yourself small, and you are a pretty thin kind of
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  Speaker 1: a girl, I am going to take you farther down
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  Speaker 1: the road with us. I have an idea this here
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  Speaker 1: freight train will run along somewhere near Wolfville in the
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  Speaker 1: course of the afternoon. You have had such bad look
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  Speaker 1: in the past, Missy, that maybe your luck has changed. Anyhow.
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  Speaker 1: When you butted blindly into this freight car, you found
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  Speaker 1: a coach going in just about the way you needed
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  Speaker 1: to travel. Don't worry your head any more about what
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  Speaker 1: you are to do. I'll put you off at Wolfville.
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  Speaker 1: And though it looks a bit cloudy, as though it
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  Speaker 1: might mean to blow up a bit of snow, I
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  Speaker 1: expect you'll manage to get back to the Ralston Ranch somehow.
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  Speaker 1: Before night, Olive, satisfied that this kind hearted stranger would
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  Speaker 1: look out for her, dozed on, half waking and half sleeping.
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  Speaker 1: Neither she nor her new friend knew how exhausted she was.
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  Speaker 1: She had passed through several weeks of dreadful hardship, exposure,
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  Speaker 1: and unhappiness, and now she felt too happy to think
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  Speaker 1: or care because her head ached dully and her legs
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  Speaker 1: shook so she could hardly stand on them. She would
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  Speaker 1: be home soon with Frieda and Jean and Jack. Several
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  Speaker 1: hours went by. The trainman left the car and attended
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  Speaker 1: to his duties, but Olive had entire faith that he
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  Speaker 1: would not forget her. At a little past five o'clock
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  Speaker 1: in the afternoon, the freight train came to a stop
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  Speaker 1: near the little town of Wolfville, which was only a
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  Speaker 1: matter of ten miles from Rainbow Ranch. The wind was
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  Speaker 1: blowing with a queer ominous rattling sound, and a few
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  Speaker 1: flakes of snow were falling. Olive's new friend gazed at
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  Speaker 1: her a little queerly as he lifted her out on
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  Speaker 1: the platform. There were no people in sight except the
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  Speaker 1: station master, for it was almost dark and the stopping
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  Speaker 1: of a freight train was of little interest. Sure you
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  Speaker 1: know how to get to your friends from here, the
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  Speaker 1: irishman asked Olive. She took time to nod and wave
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  Speaker 1: her hand, then ran swiftly away from the station in
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  Speaker 1: the direction of Rainbow Ranch. If Olive had gone into
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  Speaker 1: the town, someone would have driven her to the lodge,
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  Speaker 1: or else sent word to Jim Colder or the Raw
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  Speaker 1: Sun Girls that she was in safe keeping for the night.
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  Speaker 1: A prairie snowstorm was approaching, and few people would have
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  Speaker 1: cared to trust themselves to a ten mile drive at
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  Speaker 1: this hour in the winter evening, but Olive did not
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  Speaker 1: think of further danger. Ten miles seemed to her to
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  Speaker 1: be so near home that she could not bear a
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  Speaker 1: second's delay in trying to reach there. For the first
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  Speaker 1: few miles she ran swiftly along as she knew the
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  Speaker 1: trail and it was not too dark to follow it.
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  Speaker 1: The stinging wind cut her face, and at times the
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  Speaker 1: snow blinded her. But the distance was only a short
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  Speaker 1: walk for a girl who had spent all her life
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  Speaker 1: out of doors in the Great West. Yet Olive should
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  Speaker 1: have known what a snow storm in Wyoming with a
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  Speaker 1: heavy pall of great clouds and a scudding blast meant.
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  Speaker 1: After a while, her feet in her worn shoes felt
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  Speaker 1: like wooden pegs stumping on the frozen earth. Her hands
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  Speaker 1: had lost all feeling, although she managed to draw the
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  Speaker 1: rabbit skin firs that Carlos had given her over her
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  Speaker 1: head and to keep her hands under them. The snow
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  Speaker 1: no longer fell in flakes, but in white sheets, lashed
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  Speaker 1: and driven by the force of the storm. The trail
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  Speaker 1: across the plains to the Ralston Ranch was quickly hidden.
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  Speaker 1: Mountains of snow piled up in front of Olive. Deep
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  Speaker 1: gullies appeared at her feet, where the land was usually
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  Speaker 1: as level as a table, and she had no idea
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  Speaker 1: in which direction she should try to travel, But she
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  Speaker 1: fought her way on, thinking perhaps that another wanderer might
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  Speaker 1: overtake her, or that she might catch a glimpse of
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  Speaker 1: the lights of some ranch house if she could find
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  Speaker 1: an objective point ahead of her. She felt that she
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  Speaker 1: might get to it, But to move blindly in a
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  Speaker 1: circle of snow brought no hope of any relief. Yet
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  Speaker 1: Olive knew she must keep moving if she wished to
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  Speaker 1: li She did not suffer the same agony from the
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  Speaker 1: cold that she had at first. The wind blew her
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  Speaker 1: about as though she had been a bit of paper.
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  Speaker 1: She staggered and fell in the snow drifts, got up
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  Speaker 1: and pressed on, wishing that even a wild animal would
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  Speaker 1: scurry past her on the way to its retreat. But
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  Speaker 1: animals are always wiser than human beings. Before the approach
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  Speaker 1: of a storm, every head of cattle, every horse on
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  Speaker 1: the plains, every beast in the forest, had found a
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  Speaker 1: rude shelter. Olie felt herself entirely alone in a savage,
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  Speaker 1: white world. But in quiet natures like Olaves, there is
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  Speaker 1: a wonderful power of resistance. She had endured so much,
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  Speaker 1: she had learned the fortitude that comes with misfortune. She
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  Speaker 1: prayed silently through the hours she struggled. There were moments
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  Speaker 1: when she believed she spied the light of rainbow lodge
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  Speaker 1: gleaming on the cruel surface of the snow. She would
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  Speaker 1: fight her way to this place, only to discover that
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  Speaker 1: her own blind desire had led her astray. Night came on,
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  Speaker 1: but there was little change from the twilight. The few
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  Speaker 1: stars that broke through the clouds only made the way
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  Speaker 1: more blinding. Olive's patience Carlos Planning seemed to have been
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  Speaker 1: in vain again. Olive dreamed she saw some lights ahead
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  Speaker 1: of her. Her mind was no longer clear. She could
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  Speaker 1: not remember why she was out alone in the snow.
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  Speaker 1: She cried for Jack when she had the strength, but
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  Speaker 1: the tears rose on her face. Olive reached out her
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  Speaker 1: arms toward her vision of the lights of Rainbow Lodge.
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  Speaker 1: She was either too blind or too utterly spent to
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  Speaker 1: see the snow bank of front of her, as suddenly
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  Speaker 1: it shut out her mirage of home. The girl gave
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  Speaker 1: a cry of despair with all the feeble strength that
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  Speaker 1: was left in her, and tumbled headlong into the cold
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  Speaker 1: embrace of the snow. But the snow was no longer cold.
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  Speaker 1: It was strangely warm, and she was shut away from
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  Speaker 1: the cruel winds. End of Chapter twenty two