Chapter XXI: "dear Little Sister

"I have a strange task before me, to tell you of the fineness and greatness and goodness of a man I once told you was not good enough to save your life. I feel as if I must ask your forgiveness and his. You were keener sighted than we all and we are ashamed!

"Jean, what will you say when I tell you that Jasper Holt lies in our guest chamber, your old room--dying, I am afraid? And that we have him to thank that our precious baby did not die a horrible death?

"Let me go back and tell you the whole story.

"After you went away James had the most extraordinary change of mind about Jasper Holt I ever saw in him. He just turned right around and began to talk in his favor, even wanted me to invite him to dinner once. It was some business, of course, that he thought he could help him in; but he really got to liking him a little I could see. I suppose it was that tournament and his riding so well; though I never could understand why men make so much of sports. But after it happened you didn't hear nearly so many people talking against Jasper Holt. I think, too, your being so good as to ride around the track with him had something to do with it. People saw you were not ashamed and they had a good look at him and saw the possibilities. They say he was asked, yes, just actually begged, to come in the next tournament and ride, but he wouldn't do it. He hasn't appeared that way since you left. He just went about his business gravely, and everybody began to have a lot of respect for him. They say he has done a lot of good to those men he has living on his place, and they simply worship him. Somebody told James there wasn't one of them but would give his life for him any day. Well, that's something, of course. Strange we never heard about it before. Why, people used to be actually afraid of him and his men. But he has been doing some splendid things here lately. When Mr. Whateley died, just before the harvest, and Mrs. Whateley was left to look after her five little children he took his full force of men over to her place and harvested everything, and fixed up things a great deal better than they were ever fixed up before, for Mr. Whateley wasn't much of a manager. And when Lucy Whitcorn was lost for three days he organized his men and went out and searched till he found her. They took hold of hands and marched across country, through the wheat fields, over every spot so they couldn't miss her; and her grandmother just put her arms around Jasper Holt's neck and cried and kissed him when he brought Lucy back asleep in his arms.

"But the greatest thing was when he made the raid on the saloons. You remember Slosson's and The Three Geese? They used to have terrible carouses there. Slosson built a concert room over his saloon, and advertised--had balls and dinners there, and The Three Geese got a moving picture show over their place; and between them they made a pretty fair imitation of the bottomless pit in Hawk Valley for a while. People got together and talked about it, and said something ought to be done to stop it, and Sallie White even started a petition about it and got some people to sign, but it was near election and no one dared do much. Then one night when things were at their height, and there had been a shooting affair or two, we heard the silver whistle of Jasper Holt's men, and the whole cavalcade of them cantered by on horseback. They went like a streak on their dark horses, and they rode straight up to The Three Geese and dismounted. Before anybody knew what was happening they had marched into the bar-room and the concert hall and taken possession. They handcuffed everybody in the place and bound them, men and women, and then they set to work and emptied out all the liquor and turned the big fire hose into every room till there wasn't a smell of whiskey left, and it was cleaner than it ever was since it was built. They went to Slosson's and did the same thing. Slosson, and Craven of The Three Geese, they put into jail, and some of the others who had been most criminal, and they cleaned the whole place out. Jasper Holt took some of the prisoners to his own house and kept them there till he reformed them, and he has been keeping an eye on them right along ever since. Of course after that people rallied around him and were only too glad to be counted in with him. They all admired his nerve, and they saw he could make things go, so they turned to work and last month they made him mayor of the town, and he has reformed everything in the place, till you wouldn't know it for the same town. Now, that's the preface and I ought to have told you long ago, little sister, but I suppose I was ashamed to, after all I had said.

"But now I'm coming to the real story, the one that brings the tears to my eyes and makes me feel like sobbing; and I have to stop writing and go and kiss my baby before I can go on.

"This morning (it seems a week ago) I sat at my desk writing my paper for the next Club meeting. Baby was out in the yard in his white rompers and his little white hat, with his new red cart that James brought him from Chicago on his last trip. The window was open and I could see him gathering leaves and carrying them in his cart to the sidewalk, where he dumped them in a pile at the edge of the road. I had been having a terrible search for a word in the dictionary, and when I looked up again I saw baby standing out in the middle of the road working away with all his might to back up his cart, the way he saw the big carts do, and dump his leaves on the outside of the pile. I didn't think much about it, because there are no teams around in the early morning usually, and the autos, the few we have in town, don't come on this street much; but just as I was beginning to write again I heard a horrible roaring sound, and horse's feet flying down the street. Something gripped my throat with fear and I could scarcely get out of my chair. I could see the baby standing perfectly still, looking at something coming towards him. His little red wagon was standing on end, the red paint gleaming in the sun. Then I heard that roar again and I called to Jamie to come in quickly, but he didn't seem to know just what to do. He took hold of the handle of his cart and seemed to be worried for fear it would be run over. He tried to hurry with it on to the side walk, but being on end it wouldn't work quickly. On came that terrible roar! I don't know how I got out on the porch, but there I saw a great, angry bull bearing down straight upon the baby. I screamed and tried to run down the steps, but I was so frightened my knees just sank under me, and there I was in a heap on the steps struggling to get up, and my baby standing still, not ten feet from that snorting, fiery creature, with its horns lowered at him. I shut my eyes, it was so terrible, like a nightmare, you know, when you can't do a thing. I thought I was going to faint, and I tried to call James, though I knew he wasn't at home. Then a wonderful thing happened. A horse was flying down the street from the opposite direction, straight at the bull, but baby was between. I hadn't time to think before the man on the horse swung over from his saddle, gathered up the baby and dashed sideways out of the bull's way. It was Jasper Holt, and he picked up Jamie just as he did your handkerchief that day at the tournament. The poor little mite held on to his dear red cart handle till he was up in the saddle, hindering the horse's movements, of course, and it dangled for a minute right in front of the infuriated bull's eyes, who charged at it viciously. Then the weight of the cart wrenched it from Jamie's hand, and it fell clattering under the horse's feet, but the bull turned and made for the horse, who dashed back and forth from side to side, dodging those awful horns as if he were a human being and knew how to reason. Jasper Holt tried to get near the fence to drop the baby over, but every time he came near the bull was in the way. It was only a second of time that it all took, of course, but it seemed hours; and I could only scream, but the bull roared so loud that I couldn't be heard. Then the dear black horse plunged right over the bull and started down the street; but the bull turned and caught him in the thigh with his horn and tore a great gash--oh, Jean, I can't describe it all! It makes me faint even to think of it again. The horse stumbled on bravely for a few paces, but you could see he hadn't a chance with the bull any more for he was crippled, and Jasper Holt saw it, too.

"By that time some men had come with guns, and that splendid fellow, with the horse staggering under him and the bull charging straight at him, held the baby up in the air and told the men to shoot. It meant a terrible risk to himself, of course, because he was in the line of fire. But there was nothing else to do. They shot as carefully as they could, and in a minute or two the bull gave one awful roar and lurched back. The horse sank, too, and some one took the baby. It is all confusion in my mind. I don't really know what happened, only that after I got Jamie in my arms and had hugged him and kissed him till he cried, I looked up and saw them bringing Jasper Holt in at the gate. His eyes were shut and one arm hung at the side. They said he had been shot, but had held up the baby till the bull was out of the fight.

"I made them take him to your room, and someone brought the doctor almost at once, but it was a serious thing, I could see from the first. They wouldn't let me in the room. I telephoned for James, and put the baby to sleep, for he was all worn out with the excitement, and kept starting awake and crying out, 'Naughty cow! Naughty cow!' but just as I laid him down in his crib the doctor came and said Jasper Holt wanted to see me.

"Jean, I didn't think a few minutes could make a difference like that in a great, big, strong man. He lay there so still I thought he was dead at first; and white under all his fine tan he was white as a ghost, with his head all done up in bandages and his beautiful hair clotted with blood--one of the shots plowed deep into the scalp, it seems. He opened his eyes--what wonderful eyes he has!--and looked at me as if he were pinning his last hope upon me, and he smiled just faintly. I never knew what perfect lips and teeth he had before--and his smile just like a little child's!

"One could see it was a great effort for him to speak.

"'Will you tell your sister that I've kept my promise?' he said, slowly and distinctly.

"When I told him I would, his eyes lighted up, as if the sun were shining behind them, and then they fell shut and I think he must have fainted again. I came quite close and tried to tell him how grateful I was to him for saving the baby's life, but his eyelids never even quivered. Then the doctor drew me away and said it wasn't any use to talk, that he couldn't hear me, so I came away, but I couldn't do a thing but just hover around the door till James came. Then he went in and found out how things were. It seems the bull gored him--that is they call it a 'scratch,' but by their faces I know its a pretty serious scratch.

"Three shots entered his body, one a deep scalp wound, one in his shoulder, and one in his arm. They have been probing the wound and having some kind of an operation. They don't know whether he will pull through or not. They say the only thing that is in his favor is his splendid health. The men are talking now about his fine clean life, and way he has been doing lately, especially. It seems he never drank nor did a lot of things that people took for granted he did. Oh, Jean, I can't stand it if he doesn't get well so I can thank him for saving my baby to me. To think that if it weren't for him lying there dying now I should have nothing left of my beautiful baby but a little mangled corpse!

"Jean, I know now why you looked that way when you said I did not know Jasper Holt--the fine, true, strong, brave, tender----"

But the tears blinded Jean's eyes and she could read no more. For a moment she bent her head and sobbed behind the vines. But only for a moment. A frenzy of fear seized her. He was dying perhaps, and he needed her!

She lifted her head with sudden resolve and hastily read the closing sentences of the letter. Then gathering up the scattered sheets she hurried in to her father.