CHAPTER XXII
DISASTER THREATENS
Before Curly could comply with Ruth's whispered request, her fingersslipped on the edge of the flooring. "Oh!" she cried out, and--dropped asmuch as three inches!
"Goodness me, Ruth!" gasped Ann Hicks. "Are you killed?"
"No--o. But I might as well have been as to be scared to death," declaredthe girl of the Red Mill. "I never thought the cellar was so shallow."
There was a rustling near by. Ruth thought of rats and almost screamedaloud. "Give me the lantern--quick!" she called up to Curly Smith.
"Here you are," said that youth. "And if Amy is down there she ought to beashamed of herself--making us so much trouble."
Amy was there, as Ruth saw almost immediately when she could throw theradiance of the lantern about her. But Ruth did not feel like scolding theyounger girl.
Amy had crept away into a corner. Her movements made the rustling Ruthhad heard. She hid her face against her arm and sobbed with abandonment.Her dress was torn and muddy, her shoes showed that she had waded in mire.She had lost her hat and her flaxen hair was a tangle of briers and greenburrs.
"My _dear_!" cried Ruth, kneeling down beside her. "What does it mean? Whydid you come here? Oh, you're sick!"
A single glance at the flushed face and neck of the smaller girl, and atentative touch upon her wrist, assured Ruth of that last fact. Amy seemedburning up with fever. Ruth had never seen a case of scarlet fever, butshe feared that might be Amy's trouble.
"How long have you been here?" she asked Amy.
"Si--since--since it got dark," choked the girl.
"Is your throat sore?" asked Ruth, anxiously.
"Yes, it is; aw--awful sore."
"And you're feverish," said Ruth.
"I--I'm aw--all shivery, too," wept Amy Gregg, quite given up to miserynow.
Ruth was confident that the smaller girl had developed the fever that shefeared. Chill, fever, sore throat, and all, made the diagnosis seem quitereasonable.
"How did you get into this cellar?" she asked Amy.
"There's a hole in the underpinning over yonder," said the culprit.
"Come on, then; we'll get out that way. Can you walk?"
"Oh--oh--yes," choked Amy.
She proved this by immediately starting out of the cellar. Ruth lit theway with the lantern.
"Hi!" shouted Curly Smith, "where are you going with that light?"
"Come back to the door," commanded Ruth's muffled voice in the cellar."You can find your way all right."
"What do you know about that?" demanded Ann. "Leaves us in the lurch forthat miserable child, who ought to be walloped."
"Oh, Ann, don't say that!" cried Ruth, as she and the sick girl appearedat the mill door. "No! don't come near us. I'll carry the lantern myselfand lead Amy. She's not feeling well, but she can walk. We must get her toMrs. Smith's just as soon as possible and call a doctor."
"What's the matter with her?" demanded Curly, curiously.
"She feels bad. That's enough," said Ruth, shortly. "Come on, Amy."
For once Amy Gregg was glad to accept Ruth Fielding's help. She had noidea what Ruth thought was the matter with her, and she stumbled on besidethe older girl, sleepy and ill, given up to utter misery. Curly and Annbegan to be suspicious when Ruth forbade them to approach Amy and herself.
"Old Scratch!" whispered the boy to the Western girl. "I bet Amy's gotsmall-pox or something. Ruth Fielding will catch it, too."
"Hush!" exclaimed Ann, fiercely. "It's not as bad as that."
It was a long walk to Mrs. Sadoc Smith's. At the last, Ruth almost carriedAmy, who was not a particularly small girl. Curly grabbed the lantern andinsisted upon walking close to them.
"No matter if I _do_ catch the epizootic; guess I'll get over it," saidthe boy.
They finally came to the Smith house. Helen and Mrs. Sadoc Smith came outon the porch when the dog barked. Ruth made Ann and Curly go ahead andheld back with the sick girl.
"You go right upstairs with Helen, Ann," commanded Ruth. "I want to talkto Mrs. Smith about Amy. She must be put in a warm room downstairs."
Mrs. Sadoc Smith agreed to this proposal the instant she saw Amy's flushedface and heard her muttering.
"You telephone for Doctor Lambert, Henry," commanded Mrs. Smith. "We'llhave him give a look at her--though I could dose her myself, I reckon, andbring her out all right."
Ruth feared the worst. She secretly stuck to her first diagnosis that Amyhad scarlet fever, but she did not say this to Mrs. Smith. They put Amy tobed between blankets, and Mrs. Smith succeeded in getting the girl todrink a dose of hot tea.
"That'll start her perspiring, which won't do a bit of harm," she said toRuth. "But I never saw anybody's face so red before--and her hands andarms, too. She's breaking all out, I do declare."
Ruth was thinking: "If they have to quarantine Amy, I'll be quarantinedwith her. I'll have to nurse her instead of going to school. Poor littlething! she will require somebody's constant attention.
"But, oh dear!" added the girl of the Red Mill, "what will become of myschool work? I'll never be able to graduate in the world. Lucky thosemoving pictures are taken--I won't be needed any more in those. Oh, dear!"
Ruth did not allow a murmur to escape her lips, however. She insisted onremaining by the patient all night, too. Mrs. Smith was not able to quietthe sick girl as well as Ruth did when the delirium Amy developed becamewilder.
It was almost daylight before Dr. Lambert came. He had been out of town ona case, but came at once when he returned to Lumberton and found the callfrom Mrs. Sadoc Smith's.
"What is it, Doctor?" asked the old lady. "She's as red as a lobster. Isit anything catching? This girl ought not to be here, if it is."
"This girl had better remain here till we find out just what is thematter," the doctor returned, scowling in a puzzled way at the patient. Hehad seen at once that Ruth could control Amy.
"But what is it?"
"Fever. Delirium. You can see for yourself. What its name is, I'll tellyou when I come again. Keep on just as you are doing, and give her thissoothing medicine, and plenty of cracked ice--on her tongue, at least.That is what is the matter; she is consumed with thirst. I'll have to seethat eruption again before I can say for sure what the matter is."
He went, and left the house in a turmoil of excitement. Helen and Ann didnot wish to go to Briarwood and leave Ruth; but Mrs. Tellingham commandedthem to. Much to his delight, Curly was kept out of his school to runerrands.
Ruth got a nap on the lounge in the sitting room, and felt better. Thedoctor returned at nine o'clock in the forenoon and by that time the sickgirl's face was so swollen that she could scarcely see out of her eyes.Her hands and wrists were puffed badly, too.
"Where has she been?" demanded Dr. Lambert.
Ruth told him what they supposed had happened to Amy the day before andwhere she had been found late at night.
"Humph!" grunted the medical practitioner. "That's what I thought. Effectof the _Rhus Toxicodendron_. Bad case."
This sounded very terrible to Ruth until she suddenly remembered somethingshe had read in her botany. A great feeling of relief came over her.
"Oh! poison-ash!" she cried.
"Good land! Nothin' but poison ivy?" demanded Mrs. Sadoc Smith.
"Poison oak, or poison sumac--whatever you have a mind to call it. But abad case of it, I assure you. I'll leave more of the cooling draught; andI'll send up a salve to put on her face and hands. Don't let it get intothe poor child's eyes--and don't let her tear off the mask which she willhave to wear."
"Then there is no danger of scarlet fever," whispered Ruth, feelingrelieved.