CHAPTER XIV "A.'S AND N. E.'S."
The girls held tight as they had been commanded, their nerves taut andtense. Jerry's prophecy that they might yet have another thrillingadventure and narrow escape filled them with a sort of startledexpectancy. They could not see the forking valley roads until they haddropped down the last steep descent of the mountain and were almost uponthem. Jerry unconsciously uttered an exclamation of relief. The road thatwent straight as a taut lariat across miles of flat, sandy waste wasglistening in the late afternoon sun. The distant Chiricahua range, atthe foot of which nestled the Newcomb ranch, was hung with a misty lilachaze. Peace seemed to pervade the scene and yet they could all fourdistinctly hear a dull ominous roar.
Before starting to "beat the world's record," Jerry stopped the car andlistened. His desert-trained ear could surely discern the direction ofthe roaring sound. They were still too close to the mountain to see thedesert on their right or left.
Turning to Dick, he asked, "Is there any water left in the canteen?"
"Yes," the other boy replied, sensing the seriousness of the request,"about a gallon, I should say. It's right here at our feet."
"Good! Have the top loose so that you can drench our handkerchiefs at asplit second's notice. Have them ready, girls."
"Why, Jerry," Mary's expression was one of excited animation, "do youexpect the sand storm to overtake us?"
"No, I really don't." The cowboy was starting the engine again. "But it'salways wise to take precautions." Then, addressing the small car, "Now,little old 'tin Cayuse,' show your stuff."
The start was so sudden and so violent that Dora was thrown forward. Dickdrew her back and they smiled at each other glowingly.
"Life is a jolly lark today, isn't it, so full of a.'s and n. e.'s."
"I suppose you mean adventures and narrow escapes." Dora straightened hersmall hat that had been twisted awry. Then, as they sped away from theshelter of the grim, gray towering mountain, they all four looked quicklyto the right and left. The desert lay dreaming in the sun. To the farsouth of them the air was full of a sinister yellow wall of flying sandand dust. It was surely headed in the opposite direction. Jerry did notdoubt it and since he did not, the girls and Dick had no sense of fear.The ominous roaring sound had lessened, although, of course, they couldhear little when that small car was speeding, its own squeaks and rattleshaving been increased.
Mary turned a face flushed with excitement and called back to Dora, "Tenmiles! Only ten more to go."
It was a perfect road, recently completed. There was almost no sand on itand very few dips.
Dick waved up toward a low circling vulture. "That fellow's eyes arepopping out in amazement, more than likely," he shouted to Dora.
She laughed back, holding tight to her hat. "He probably thinks this issome new kind of a stampede."
Again Mary's pretty glowing face appeared in the opening back of thefront seat. "Fifteen miles! Only five more to go."
Dick's expression became anxious. He said, close to Dora's ear, "If Jerryfeels so sure that the sand storm is headed toward Mexico, I don't thinkhe ought to race this little machine. He may know a lot more than I doabout busting bronchos, but--"
An explosion interrupted Dick's remark, then the car zigzagged wildlyfrom side to side. Jerry turned off the spark and the gas. Dick, withoutthought, leaped out onto the running board and put his weight over thewheel with the blow-out in its tire.
Almost miraculously the car stayed in the road. The girls had beenwonderful. White and terrorized, yet neither had clutched at hercompanion, nor hindered his doing what was best for their safety.
When the car stopped, the front right tire was almost off the road. Thegirls, quivering with excitement, got out and exclaimed simultaneously,"Another adventure and narrow escape!"
Dick, knowing better than the girls how truly narrow their escape hadbeen, stepped forward, his dark eyes serious, and extended a hand to thecowboy. "Jerry," he said earnestly, "I won't say again that I probablyknow more about managing cars than you do. If it hadn't been for yourquick thinking and skill, we would surely have turned turtle in the sandand if the spark had been on, the car might have gone up in flames."
But Jerry would not accept the compliment. He shook his head as heremoved his sombrero and wiped beads of moisture from his forehead."Dick," he said, "thanks just the same, but I reckon I was needlesslyreckless. I wasn't right sure about the sand storm, just at first, butlater when I saw that it was heading south all right, I kept onspeeding."
Turning to the smaller girl who stood very still; seemingly calm, thoughher lips quivered when she tried to smile, the cowboy said contritely,"Little Sister, if you won't stop trusting me, I'll swear to never againtake any such needless risks."
Dora, watching the two, thought, "It matters such a terrible lot to Jerrywhat Mary thinks about him. Some day she's going to wake up and realizethat he loves her."
Dick was removing his coat, and Jerry, evidently satisfied with Mary'slow-spoken reply, turned to get tools out from under the front seat.
Half an hour later the small car was again on its way. The sun wassetting behind the mountains where so recently they had been.
Mary looked back at them. Grim and dark and forbidding they were, deep inshadow, but the peaks were aglow with flame color. The floor of thedesert valley about them was like a sea of shimmering golden water; theripples and dunes of sand were like glistening waves.
"Such a gloriousness!" Dora exclaimed, turning a radiant face toward hercompanion.
"I can see the color of it in your eyes," the boy told her, and a suddenadmiration in his own dark eyes caused Dora to think that Dick was reallyseeing her for the first time.
It was lilac dusk when the small car drove along the lane of cottonwoodtrees and stopped at one side of the _Bar N_ ranch house.
Mrs. Newcomb's round pleasant face looked out of a kitchen window, thenher apron-covered person appeared in the open side door. Her arms wereheld out to welcome Mary.
"My dear, my dear," she said tenderly, "how glad I am that you blew overto _Bar N_."
"We almost literally _did_ blow over," Mary laughingly replied. "That is,we were running away from a sand storm." Then, suddenly serious, sheasked, "Oh, Aunt Molly, may I use your telephone at once? Dad doesn'tknow that I'm here and he will be expecting us back for supper."
"Of course, dear. You know where it is, in the living-room." Then, whenMary had skipped away, Dora following her, Mrs. Newcomb asked, "Has therebeen a sand storm in the valley? I hadn't heard about it."
Jerry was about to drive the small car around to the old barn and so Dickreplied, "Yes, Mrs. Newcomb. That's what Jerry called it. We first saw iton the other side of the range back of Gleeson. Later we saw it far awayto the south. It didn't cross this part of the valley at all, but Jerrythought we'd better not try the Gleeson road."
"He was wise. I hope the wires aren't down."
The good woman's anxiety was quickly ended by the reappearance of thegirls. "All's well!" Mary announced. Then to Dick, "Your mother answeredthe phone. She said that they had heard the roaring and had seen somedust in the air but that the storm had passed around our tableland."
"Well, you girls had quite an adventure and perhaps a narrow escape aswell." Little did Mrs. Newcomb realize that she was repeating the phrasethey had so often used that day. "Now, Mary, you take your friend to thespare room and get ready for supper. Your Uncle Henry will be in fromriding the range pronto, and starved as a lean wolf, no doubt. He's beengone since sun-up and he won't take along what he ought for hismid-lunch."
The girls were about to leave the kitchen when Jerry called to Dick andaway he went into the gathering darkness.
"The boys sleep in the bunk house out by the corral," Mrs. Newcombexplained. "They'll be back, I reckon, soon as you're ready."
The spare room was large, square, with a small fireplace in it. The bedwas an old-fashioned four-poster and looke
d luxuriously comfortable.
A table, a dresser, two chairs of dark wood and a bright rag rugcompleted the furnishings.
"How quiet it is," Mary said. "There isn't a neighbor nearer than thoseDooleys and Jerry said they are way over in the canyon."
Dora, wondering if Mary could be contented if she became Jerry's wife,some day in the future, asked, "Would _you_ like to live on a ranch, doyou think?"
Innocently, Mary replied as she lighted the kerosene lamp on the bureau,"Why, yes, I'm sure I would, if Dad could be with me."
Dora sighed as she thought, "Poor Jerry. She's still blind and I _did_think today that her eyes were opened."