CHAPTER II
NEARLY A TRAGEDY
The collision changed the direction of the bobsled, and by the merestfraction it escaped striking a tree. Nan, however, despite her mentalanguish, kept her head and dexterously guided it into the glade, whereit found soft snow and gradually came to a stop.
Then the frightened girls rose and rushed as fast as they could towardthe victim of the accident, who was lying still in a heap of snow at theside of the road.
Nan dropped on the snow beside her and took her head in her arms, whileRhoda put her hand on the woman's heart.
"Oh," sobbed Grace, "we've killed her!"
"No, we haven't," replied Rhoda. "I can feel that her heart is beating.She's fainted, either from pain or fright or both, poor thing. We musthelp her."
"Here, Bess," directed Nan, "you hold her head while I see if any bonesare broken. And you other girls take turns in chafing her hands. If shelives near here we'll take her home and send for a doctor. If not,we'll take her up to the Hall."
The others followed Nan's directions and worked with frantic energy. Andwhile the girls are trying to revive the unconscious stranger, it may bewell for the sake of those who have not yet read the earlier volumes ofthis series to tell who Nan Sherwood is, and what experiences andadventures she and her friends have had up to the time at which thepresent story opens.
Mr. Sherwood was a foreman in the Atwater Mills in Tillbury, and "PapaSherwood" and "Momsey" and Nan were a devoted and happy family in theirpretty little cottage on Amity Street. Then the mills shut down for anindefinite length of time. The Sherwoods, with others even less wellable to face the future, were staring poverty and the loss of theirpretty home in the face, when suddenly, in the case of the Sherwoods,fortune took a hand and sent relief in the shape of a legacy from adistant relative of Mrs. Sherwood's.
To settle the business in connection with this legacy, Mr. and Mrs.Sherwood were called to Scotland. To the grief of all three, it wasnecessary that Nan should be left behind, but it was arranged that sheshould stay with her Uncle Henry, her father's brother, in a lumber campin the Michigan Peninsula. What exciting adventures Nan had there andwhat she accomplished for good, can be found in the first volume ofthis series, entitled: "Nan Sherwood at Pine Camp; or, The OldLumberman's Secret."
Nan's best girl friend in Tillbury was Bess Harley. Bess was lookingforward to going to school at Lakeview Hall, and, never having known anylack of money, could not understand why Nan would not say that she, too,would go. When the loss of Mr. Sherwood's position made even Bess seethat it would be out of the question for Nan to go, she wasinconsolable, for she was devoted to her friend, and rather dependent onher.
Nan Sherwood herself wanted to go to Lakeview Hall more than she hadtold either Bess or her parents, and when the legacy from Scotland madethis possible the two girls were delighted and went wild with joy.
What they did at the Hall, the plucky spirit Nan showed on more than oneoccasion, and the friends they made are told of in the volume entitled:"Nan Sherwood at Lakeview Hall; or, The Mystery of the HauntedBoathouse."
Among the girls Nan and Bess met at Lakeview Hall was Grace Mason ofChicago. In "Nan Sherwood's Winter Holidays; or, Rescuing the Runaways"is described the visit that Nan and Bess made to the Mason home duringthe midwinter holidays. It is a record of parties and girlish fun, butin the midst of this Nan succeeded in helping two foolish girls who hadrun far away from home.
On the opening of Lakeview Hall after those winter holidays a new girlcame to the school. She was from the far West, and she did not at firstunderstand or enter into the fun of the other girls. For a while she waswithout friends there, but gradually Nan Sherwood's sympathy and tactworked a change and Rhoda Hammond became one with the other girls.
She was not only grateful to Nan, but she became very fond of her. Bythis time Mr. Sherwood was well established in a business of his own, sowhen Rhoda asked Nan and Bess and Grace Mason and her brother Walter togo with her to her home in the West on a ranch, Nan, as well as theothers, was able to accept. What exciting adventures the young peoplehad at Rose Ranch, how staunchly they faced peril on one or twooccasions, and what novel pleasures came to them, are all told of in"Nan Sherwood at Rose Ranch; or, The Old Mexican's Treasure."
And now let us go back to Nan and her chums and the poor woman who hadbrought the bobsled race to such an inglorious termination.
The ministrations of the excited girls to the poor woman soon producedan effect. The woman stirred uneasily, groaned, and at length opened hereyes, to the infinite relief of the girls, who had feared they had beenparticipants in a tragedy.
Nan's deft fingers had in the meantime established the fact that nobones were broken, and she now spoke gently to the woman, whose eyeswandered from one face to another in a dazed fashion.
"I hope you are not badly hurt," Nan said kindly. "Do you feel muchpain?"
"What am I doing here?" the woman asked. "What has happened?"
"Our sled struck you and knocked you down," answered Nan. "We did ourbest to steer out of the way, but we couldn't. I hope you are not muchhurt."
A spasm of fear came into the face, which they could see was that of awoman about sixty years old.
"Oh, yes, I remember now," she said weakly. "I thought surely I wasgoing to be killed. It all happened so sudden like."
She struggled into a sitting position, and the girls supported her headand shoulders.
"Tell us where you live," said Nan, "and we will take you home and sendfor a doctor. Or perhaps we had better take you right up to the schoolon top of the hill and take care of you there."
"Oh, I wouldn't want to give you young ladies so much trouble," answeredthe woman.
"Trouble, indeed!" protested Nan. "It's you that have had all thetrouble, and there's nothing we can do for you that will make up forit."
"Do tell us where you live," urged Bess. "You ought to be in bed just assoon as you can. You'll catch your death out here in the snow."
"I live down on the Milltown road," the woman replied, "but I think Ican get there without bothering you. Just help me up and you'll findthat I'm able to walk all right."
She strove to rise to her feet as she spoke, the girls supporting her oneach side, but her feet gave way under her and she would have fallen hadthey not sustained her.
"I'm afraid my ankle is broken," she murmured, as they eased her to asitting position on the sled that thoughtful Rhoda had run and broughtup to where the group were gathered.
"No," said Nan, "it isn't broken, I think; but it is very badlysprained. Now, girls, wrap her up well and then take hold of the ropesand we'll get her home just as soon as we possibly can. You live on theMilltown road, you say?" she went on, turning to the sufferer. "Abouthow far is your home from here?"
"About a mile or a little more," was the answer. "It's just beyond theblacksmith's shop after you cross the bridge."
"I know where it is," interposed Grace. "I've often passed the placewhile out riding with Walter."
"You can show us the way then," said Nan, setting the example to theothers by taking hold of the rope. "Come along, girls, and we'll getthere as soon as we can. Bess, hadn't you better go up the hill and tellthe professor all about this, and then hurry and catch up with us?"
Bess did as her chum suggested, and the other girls started off at abrisk pace, drawing the sled with its burden after them.