CHAPTER X: A STARTLING SITUATION
In a number of G. A. A. girls as large as this it was natural that BettyLee should have contact with a good many outside of her own class. Lucialooked her up and her new satellite, Mathilde, was not far from Lucia;but one junior and one senior girl remained in Lucia's neighborhood atthe start of the hike home. Mathilde's fall and incidents of the hikeout had been related to Betty while she ate her luncheon and wereenlivened by Dotty's comments. Betty, however, was not disturbed by anyof the little undercurrents. She wasn't jealous of anybody, didn't hateanybody, the sophomore part of the hike had been a success and the wholething was great fun.
Mathilde still carried Lucia's alpenstock on the way back and used itwith great effect. She seemed in a happy mood and the only remark whichmight have been considered to carry a sting was one made when Bettywaxed enthusiastic over hearing a meadow lark. "Oh, listen!" criedBetty. "The birds aren't all gone yet by any means, and if there isn't adear old meadow lark singing in the sunshine!"
Lucia looked interested and followed Betty's glance, trying to find thebird. But Mathilde laughed. "Oh, yes. Betty Lee's from the country andknows the birds!"
Betty said nothing, but a junior girl remarked, "Well, then, let mestick to Betty on this hike. We study those things in the Girl Reservecamp. Are you a 'Girl Reserve,' Betty?"
"Oh, yes. I joined last year, but I don't belong to the same group inhigh school that you do, of course."
"No. We've been watching the fall migration and gathering some of thefall wild flowers for botany class, too."
"I'd like to do that," said Lucia. Mathilde tossed her head and lookeddisgusted, saying something about there being such a "fad for naturestudy."
"It's more than a fad," said Lucia. "It's good for you to get outdoorsmore, and then it helps your country to look after the birds and wildflowers. I don't know much about your American birds and flowers andtrees, but I could learn, perhaps."
"Oh, that would be lovely, Lucia!" cried Betty. "I don't know much, butI can tell you a little when we take the hikes. You'd soon get ahead ofmy small knowledge, though."
"Girls," said the junior, "I'm going to have a party Hallowe'en nightand I'd love to have you come. I'm getting it up rather suddenly, butthere are a few sophomore girls that I want. Will you be one of them?"
"Thank you," said Lucia. "I will ask Mother."
"I'd be delighted," said Mathilde.
"It's so good of you," smiled Betty. "I think I can come. Some of thegirls were talking about a sophomore party, but I don't see how we couldget up such a big affair on short notice."
"I wouldn't try a class affair," pleasantly advised the junior. "I'llcall you up, perhaps; but if I don't you will understand, I hope. I'msending out some funny invitations and suppose you just give me youraddresses now, though I _could_ look it up in the directory, of course."
Addresses were scribbled on scraps of paper, which was all any of themcould muster, it seemed. The invited guests were naturally wonderingwhat they would be expected to wear, though Hallowe'en customs gave thema pretty good idea. "What sort of a party is it?" asked Mathilde, "acostume party?"
"Yes. Wear anything you happen to have, and a mask, of course. We'll dothe usual things, indoors and out if it isn't too freezing cold by thattime. We've an attic and a basement and I'm going to use both forstunts."
"How jolly!" Betty's face brightened with her happiest enthusiasm, andthe junior, Marcella Waite, was glad that she had invited her, privatelythinking Betty a "dear."
Betty was wondering if Marcella was one of those who wanted Lucia in asorority, according to the ideas of Dotty and the rest. Oh, wasn't lifenice with so many mysteries and good friends and everything and plentyof things to do! She would probably meet a number of the older girls atthis party. It would have been more than human not to be pleased atnotice from the juniors. But of course it was probably on account ofLucia. She needn't plume _herself_ upon it.
They had played a few games before starting back, but to walk back fivemiles and arrive in time for lunch, even a late one, precluded a longstay at the picnic grounds. Besides this was a _hike_. It was aboutten-thirty when Betty received her invitation. The girls strolled along,not caring much whether they made any "record time" or not. This wouldbe their last hike, they supposed, while the country was still sopretty.
Chet, who had asked the privilege of "seeing Betty home" with much funand nonsense, had gotten separated from her group and was seen in thedistance with Carolyn and Peggy. Kathryn was nowhere in sight.
And now they had reached that wild stretch through which the earlyhikers had come and where Carolyn, Peggy, Lucia and Mathilde had rested,on one of the hills. That one they avoided but crossed the little streamon stones recently provided by the hikers. Lightly they jumped from oneto the other, balancing uncertainly on the log which was left by formerwaters, turned from its proper position, as Marcella said. "There musthave been a big current here," said Marcella, "to move that old thingthat's been here for years!"
"There ought to be some flowers along the little stream, ought therenot?" asked Lucia, whose English was often a bit formal.
"I think those frosts were pretty bad on the wild flowers, Lucia,"replied Marcella. But Lucia was strolling up stream along a low banklined with bushes, and the other girls followed her. Betty heard anothermeadow lark and turned to follow with her eyes the course of a hawk thatflew from a dead tree back from the stream. "That's a marsh hawk," shesaid, turning to Lucia, only to find Lucia rising with an exclamationfrom where she had been stooping close to Betty. She held up her hand,looking at it. "I've been bitten!" she exclaimed. "What sort of snakesdo you have here, Betty?"
"Oh--a lot of them, most of them harmless!" said Betty, startled, butnot wanting to frighten Lucia, who was white, yet with her lips pressedtogether in perfect self-control. She whipped out her handkerchiefhastily. "We must make a tourniquet at once. Let me wipe this off--andI'll suck out the poison, Lucia. I did once when Doris was bitten."Betty's memory went back to one awful experience alone in the woods withDoris.
"You will not," firmly replied Lucia. "It is dangerous for you mighthave some broken spot in your mouth. Reach in my pocket, Betty. I carrystuff for this sort of thing. Mother told me to bring it."
As she talked, Lucia, though white and trembling, was squeezing thewound, now bleeding a little, while Betty shakily was tying thehandkerchief about Lucia's wrist, just above the scars and stooped for astick to draw it tightly. Marcella, meantime, was at hand without a wordand reached in Lucia's pocket instead of Betty.
"Look out!" cried Lucia as when Betty stooped there was a rustle in thegrass and something long and slim darted across the little path betweenthe thickly lined stream and other bushes at this point. It all happenedalmost too quickly to describe. Betty recoiled, Marcella snatching thelittle stick from her hand and not losing a minute in tightening thebandage or tourniquet.
"Lucia--I saw it! I think it's only a garter snake!"
Betty gave one quick glance at Lucia, seeing that Lucia herself waspouring something from a tiny vial into the wound. The snake was lyingunder the fallen leaves, Betty thought, where a maple tree had beenshedding its brown and golden foliage. There was a stone of good size atthe very foot of the tree and this Betty seized, standing a moment tolocate the snake if she could. She thought that she detected a slightmovement under a pile of leaves and launched the stone, stepping backimmediately after to pick up a branch, thick and broken, that also layfairly near.
But the stick was not needed then. The stone, to Betty's own surprise,had hit the mark. There was a great whipping of leaves for a fewmoments. In spite of weeds and other growth Betty could see the patternon the little snake, not so long after all--oh, thanks be--it was agarter snake! Betty had dreaded its being either a rattler or acopperhead. There were what the boys called vipers, too, she had heard.How sensible of Lucia to have come prepared!
"You've got it, Betty," said Marcella with excitement. "It's only agar
ter snake, Lucia--I'm sure. How do you feel?"
"All right," said Lucia, though her pale face did not bear testimony toher words. "I ought to have used my knife to open up the place a little.You do it, Marcella! No, you'd hate to hurt me, wouldn't you?"
Bracing up with her words, Lucia drew a little pearl-handled knife fromher other pocket and carefully enlarged the punctures made by the snake.She paid not a bit of attention to Betty or the struggles of the snakecaught by the stone.
Betty, who had seen Dick kill snakes but had always felt rather sorryfor the snake and had never killed one herself, was bracing herself tofinish what she had begun. But when she cleared away the leaves with herstick and could see the results of her throw, she saw that the stone hadcrushed the snake's head and that the demise would not take long.Nothing more was necessary and she turned from the painful sight toLucia, who had succeeded in what she had attempted. My, but Lucia wasbrave!
"I can't be sure, girls, that that was the snake that bit me," saidLucia, "so I'll just do everything, just as if it were something verypoisonous. There isn't any of the venom that's very good to get intoyour system, I imagine. Can we sit down somewhere?"
The girls helped Lucia to a spot safe and clear where the hill began torise. None of the others were in sight, though it had been only a fewminutes since they had separated from several of them. Mathilde, to besure, was there, but useless.
"You feel all wobbly, I know, Lucia," said Betty, her arm around Lucia,who sat without a word, though her brows were drawn together in a frown.
"Yes, yes. It is painful. Betty, you could loosen the tourniquet now,I'm sure, and suppose you tie it again a little higher up."
"Oh, I wish we had some way of getting you home," said Marcella. "I'llwatch and hail somebody. Lean over on Betty, Lucia."
Marcella was afraid that Lucia was going to faint. But that did nothappen. "I do feel a bit sick, Marcella, but I never fainted in my lifeand I'll not begin now. I can walk home. It isn't so much, but not beingsure what sort of a bite it is, I've had to hurt myself more, you see.I'd rather look for flowers and birds, Betty, than for snakes. I thoughtI saw a flower under the leaves and stooped for it--and found a snakeinstead!"
"Oh, it's just too bad--your first hike and everything!" Betty wasloosening the tourniquet and making ready to put it on again. Marcellahad run around the hill.
Presently two girls made their appearance and Marcella came back. "We'llmake our way over to the road, Lucia. I've got a guard stationed to stopany automobile that looks as if it were being driven by anybodysafe--nobody that would kidnap us for ransom, I mean. Come on, if youthink you can walk as far as the road."
"I could walk all the way home, Marcella," said Lucia, smiling for thefirst time. "There is nothing the matter with me but a scare. Wait tillI take a look at that snake!"
By this time Betty dared push the stone off the snake's head, and theyall regarded it. They all agreed that it was a "big garter snake,"though Lucia remarked that she could tell better about its belonging tothe dangerous group if she could have seen the shape of the head. "Butit's shapeless now, poor thing," said Betty. "You did a bad thing foryourself, snakey, when you bit Lucia!"
"It was only protecting itself," said Lucia.
"What was that medicine, Lucia?"
"I don't know how Mother fixed it, but I heard her ask Uncle if he keptany permanganate of potash crystals, and when he said no, she sent tothe drug store. She wrapped this bottle in cotton and told me not tolose it. I had full instructions what to do if I got bitten bya--rattler, I believe. Mother makes a lot of fuss over me!" Lucia closedher remark rather apologetically, but the other girls were far from anycritical thought. The Countess Coletti had "fussed" to some purpose thistime. If it had been a diamond-backed rattlesnake! And perhaps it wasn'tthe garter snake that had bitten Lucia. Mathilde now kept bringing thatup with little sympathetic remarks like, "It is such a shame, Lucia! Ido hope that it will prove to be nothing serious. I don't think that it_could_ have been a rattlesnake, do you, Betty?"
Mathilde had screamed and run to a safe distance before she knew what itwas all about. Cautiously she had approached to see what had happenedand ran again as Betty started after the snake. Again she had tried tocome up and be sympathetic, but could not stand it to see the wound. "Ifaint so easily, girls," she had said, weakly, when the knife came out."I'll have to go away."
"Well if there's any fainting to be done," Marcella had said, "don't doit here!"
But the girls scarcely thought of Mathilde at all until it was all overand she sat down by Lucia on the hillside. Alas for Mathilde, and shehad wanted to join the sorority to which Marcella belonged! Yet Mathildehad not been trained to courage or helpfulness and was not altogether toblame for her inefficiency on this occasion. It had been a difficultsituation, when speed was a necessary element and knowing what to doanother.
"I looked out for the stick," said Mathilde, handing the alpenstock toLucia, who took it with a smile.
"I'm glad you did," she replied courteously. "No, Betty, with this I'llneed no help. I'm getting along famously now and don't feel sick anymore. Come on."
They made their way to the little dirt road and walked slowly toward thecity, relieving the guard, as Marcella put it. The other girls hurriedon, promising to send back any conveyance that they might come across,provided it were possible to engage it. "Don't take the trouble," urgedLucia.
But when they had walked about a mile further, Lucia was not sorry whenthe Allen car with Chauncey and Kathryn came speeding toward them.Without a word Lucia climbed in, smiling her welcome. Marcella, Mathildeand Betty followed, Betty asking Kathryn how it happened.
"One of the girls went to a house and telephoned," replied Kathryn."Chauncey had just gotten home after taking the things Miss Fox wantedbrought back to wherever she wanted 'em. He picked me up on theway--some of us were just getting into town, and so we're here. Now tellme, are you all right, Lucia?"
"Yes; just tired from being scared. I wonder why the girl didn'ttelephone for our car."
"Afraid of scaring your mother, she said," Kathryn replied. "We'll takeyou right up home."
"I want Betty, too, please," said Lucia. "Will you come?"
"Of course I'll come," said Betty, though wondering how she would get achance to telephone her mother.
It was Betty's first near look at the beautiful Murchison place whenChauncey drove in and stopped at its impressive front, but Betty hadother thoughts and dreaded the coming interview with the countess.Perhaps she would not be at home, however, and that would be worse.
A butler admitted the two girls, though Lucia did not ring and hurriedthrough the hall and up the stairs. "I need you as a shock absorber,"said Lucia in a low tone, a half smile twisting her lips, and Betty madea low response. But Betty thought that she would not enjoy being a shockabsorber and felt none too comfortable. Still, she thought to herself,the important thing was to make sure that Lucia was "all right."
It was an uncomfortable few minutes for sober Betty when Lucia entered alarge and beautifully furnished sitting-room upstairs and found thecountess there. Briefly Lucia told Countess Coletti what had happenedand said that she had followed directions. "The girls were lovely,Mother, and I brought Betty along to tell you better how the snakelooked."
The countess rose in some excitement and went directly to a low table onwhich the telephone apparatus stood. She tapped her foot impatientlywhile she waited for the operator to put her in touch with a doctor,whose presence was requested and the reason told him. Then therefollowed a busy few minutes of directions to Lucia and maids or personsof some sort, and when Lucia was ordered to her room, Betty rose fromher chair to go.
"Mother, can't Betty stay to lunch with me?" asked Lucia, protesting. "Iasked her to."
"Oh, but," began Betty, but the countess turned to Betty, whom she hadscarcely noticed, with a charming smile. "Another time, Lucia. Thankyou, Betty Lee, for everything. Now I must see to Lucia," And Bettyunderstood that she wa
s dismissed. That smile would make everything seemall right, thought Betty, as she was courteously bowed out by a solemnbutler. "I imagine that Countess Coletti tries that on the count timeswhen she is having her own way! But she can certainly do things!"
So ran Betty's thoughts, for Betty was learning to be an observinglittle person, though ashamed of herself when her observations were theleast unfriendly. No car but the street-car waited for Betty, but shetook one after quite a walk and went home to tell her mother and therest all about the "latest excitement" and to enjoy a delayed lunch.