The Ranch Girls in Europe

It never occurred to Jack that she would be running any risk of falling by moving from her place. Never had she been able to think of herself as an invalid, even after her two years' experience. Besides, was she not well by this time and the railing of the deck but a few feet away?

When the ship had righted itself she stepped forward without any difficulty, laying her hand lightly on the rail for support.

Then she became wholly absorbed. The plunging and tossing of the great steamer was fairly regular, so that Jack found no especial trouble in keeping her footing.

So unconscious was she that she did not glance over her shoulder at the solitary passenger pacing the deck, although in the course of his march he must have passed her at least half a dozen times. Nevertheless the man had not been so unmindful of his fellow traveler. He was possibly twenty years or more her senior.

Unexpectedly the ship gave an uneven lurch, almost twisting herself about, and at the same instant an immense amount of spray struck Jack Ralston full in the face. With a little cry of surprise straightway she lost her clasp on the rail and would have gone down in a heap if an arm had not immediately steadied her.

"I beg your pardon; you might have fallen. At the moment I happened to be passing." The man spoke stiffly.

In Jack's position, after her long suffering from a fall, one might have expected her to be frightened. However, although she was being kept on her feet by a perfect stranger with no one else in sight, while a storm raged around them, she was not even embarrassed.

Catching hold on her old support again, this time more firmly, Jack said "Thank you" in an even voice. And then, as though she must have sympathy in her enjoyment from some quarter: "Isn't this storm splendid? It seems to me that before I have seen nothing but land, land all my life! I thought I loved it, but somehow all this water gives one quite a different sensation. I feel as if I weren't a person, but just a pair of eyes and lungs!" Jack spoke these last words with little gaspings for breath. So hard was the wind blowing that it had wrapped her heavy coat close about her; her hat had slipped backward and her heavy yellow-brown hair whipped across her face.

Her courage and frankness made her companion smile. And, although until this moment Jack had not paid any special attention to her rescuer, she now observed that he had a skin so bronzed as to look almost like leather, that he had a closely clipped blonde moustache and equally light hair. Also, that his eyes were of the deep blue seen only with that complexion, and that his bearing was distinctly military.

"But the sea is after all not so unlike a distant view of your American prairies," he replied. And in answer to Jack's expression of surprise:

"I know your name, Miss Ralston. Among many other things I have tried running a ranch in the west, although none too successfully."

Whatever the strange man's intentions, certainly his words succeeded in arousing Jack's attention. For at once, without liking to ask, she was curious to find out how he had discovered her name. Then she was always interested in any ranching experience. The people she had been meeting on board ship were most of them from cities and without any special outdoor knowledge. Only a few persons actually have kinship with nature, and they have usually spent their youth in the real country, in big, open, unpeopled spaces as Jacqueline Ralston had.

This time she smiled more shyly. "I thought you were an Englishman – a soldier." Jack hesitated. She did not think that a few words of conversation with a stranger, who had been kind to her, made any difference, but it would not do to talk on indefinitely.

Instantly, as though divining her thought, the man's hat was lifted, and he moved a few paces away.

But at this moment the storm broke. No rain had been falling up to this time, but now the clouds lightened, and from between two of them a heavy sheet of water descended, apparently straight on to the ship's deck.

Why did Jack not run to shelter? Still she stood clinging with both hands to the ship's rail, her head thrown back inhaling deep breaths of the salt spray air. She was enjoying the storm but actually was afraid to move. Surely now that the storm had fairly broken either Olive or Jean would come for her. Both girls had made her promise not to return to her stateroom alone and at the present time it was impossible. The decks were soaking wet and slippery and she was tired from too long standing and opposing her strength to the fury of the wind.

Yet the sailors were rushing about, lashing the tarpaulins to the balustrade, and in a few seconds she would be obliged to move.

Jack set her teeth. It was absurd to be afraid of falling just because of a former weakness. She turned, took a few steps forward and then the ship gave another sudden lurch.

It was Jean Bruce, however, who made the outcry. She and Olive were running down the deck without hats or coats and regardless of the storm for their own sakes. They were not yet near enough to save Jack from slipping. However, there was no need for them.

When Captain Madden turned and left Jack he walked only a few steps away and then as the rain descended swung himself about to enter the door of the saloon about midway the promenade deck. Naturally he expected the girl with whom he had just been talking to have run on before him, she was even less well prepared for the downpour. But to his surprise he saw that Jack had remained fixed at her place.

This was carrying a love of nature a little too far. Not only would the young woman get a thorough soaking, she would be in positive danger in a few moments should a wave break over the deck. It was odd that no ship's officer had yet suggested that she go inside.

Captain Madden did not wish to offend Jack by officiousness. He had still no idea of her lameness, although he had been watching her more carefully than any one dreamed for the past few days. However, he did not wish to see her hurt and so put an end to his scarcely thought-out plan.

The second time that the stranger held her up on her feet Jack could only stammer and blush. It seemed rather absurd to have been rescued by the same person twice in ten minutes and yet she did not even now wish to confess her difficulty in walking alone.

Jean and Olive saved the situation.

"Thank you ever so much," Olive began, arriving first and a little out of breath.

"We never can be sufficiently grateful to you!" Jean exclaimed. "And oh, Jack, I suppose you can't imagine what had become of us? We sent the stewardess for you half an hour ago. Ruth is dreadfully worried."

But Jean was not in the habit of forgetting her manners and so stopped speaking of their private concerns. She and Frieda had both seen and spoken of the man who was now with her cousin. He had his place at a table across from theirs and, possibly because of his soldierly appearance, had seemed unlike the other men aboard.

"My cousin isn't very well, or at least she hasn't been," Jean announced, remembering Jack's sensitiveness. And then as Jack and Olive moved quickly away she added with a gracious condescension that made the older man smile: "Our chaperon, Miss Drew, will express her appreciation to you in the morning." And fled out of the rain as though she had been eight instead of eighteen.

Notwithstanding, Captain Madden did not immediately leave the deck after the girls' withdrawal.

"Things have turned out rather better than I could have arranged them," he remarked thoughtfully, pulling at his moustache. "She is an uncommonly attractive girl. Lots of spirit, but I've an idea she has yet to learn a great deal about men and women. It's worth trying anyhow. It's jolly odd my having run across them in this fashion and recalling what I was once told."

CHAPTER VI

RUTH'S ATTITUDE

BY the next morning the storm had abated, and for the rest of that day and evening Captain Madden devoted the greater part of his time to making the acquaintance of the Ranch girls' chaperon. More than this he accomplished, for he inspired in Ruth Drew a genuine admiration and liking. And while she and the older man talked together Jack usually sat quietly by listening to everything that was said.

In all their lives Ruth and Jack had never known anyone like this Captain Madden. Here was a man who had traveled all over the world, who had fought in the Boer war and more recently in Mexico and had hunted big game in Africa. Indeed he had done most of the things and seen most of the people that had before appeared to them like events and figures to be known only through books. And yet he was modest, never once picturing himself as a hero or even a particularly important person, although there were times when both Ruth and Jack felt that he was being hardly fair to himself. And on those occasions, if the man observed any change in the young girl's face, there was no sign on his part. Captain Madden was not particularly good-looking, but had unusually charming manners and the soldierly carriage that can not fail to win admiration. Then, as he was forty years old and had attracted considerable notice on board, it was something for the Rainbow Ranch party to be singled out for his attention.

Frankly, however, Frieda Ralston thought her sister's rescuer dreadfully elderly and a bore. Olive and Jean, although agreeing to her first conclusion, could not accept the second. Nevertheless neither of the two girls from the beginning of their association liked Captain Madden particularly well. They both wondered why Ruth and Jack should find him so agreeable. Then after the passing of another twenty-four hours, there was not so much a question of Ruth's liking, as of Jack's enjoying talking to a stranger for hours and hours.

Actually before the Martha Washington had sighted Gibraltar Jean had already complained to their chaperon of Jack's intimacy with a stranger, besides almost quarreling with her cousin.

It was true that Peter Drummond and Jack had been and were specially devoted friends and Peter was as old as their new ship acquaintance. But then Peter had always seemed different somehow, and his fancy for Jack had been largely explained by her likeness to Jessica Hunt. For while Jessica was still teaching at Primrose Hall and no word had been spoken of an engagement between her and Mr. Drummond, the Ranch girls were still convinced that something would develop between them later on.

To Jean's grumblings that Jack was making herself conspicuous by seeming to prefer Captain Madden to any other one of their new friends on the ship Ruth explained that it was but natural. For while Jean and Olive and Frieda could walk endless miles with anybody who happened to please their fancy at the moment, Jack could only take short walks now and then and with some one who understood her difficulty. And while they danced every afternoon and evening in the saloon, or pitched quoits for hours on deck, Jack's only chance for amusement lay in conversation. It was only because Captain Madden knew more and talked better than their other new friends that Jack seemed to prefer his society. Since his discovery of her old accident he had shown her every consideration.

Of course if Captain Madden had had no introduction to the Ranch girls and their chaperon, save that of his having assisted Jack at a difficult moment, Ruth Drew would never have permitted their acquaintance to have taken so intimate a tone in a few days. However, half an hour after his first meeting with her, the mystery of his having appeared to guess Jacqueline Ralston's name in his first conversation with her had been explained.

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