h. The doctor is
afraid to even turn him. Besides, Mart himself won't have it. 'I'm
better here,' he says. So we've propped him into the easiest position
possible. There's nothing to do but wait for the girl."

CHAPTER V

BERTHA'S UPWARD FLIGHT

Bertha was eating her supper, after a hard day's work in her little
hotel, when a little yellow envelope was handed to her. The words of the
message were few, but they were meaning-full: "Come at once. Mart hurt,
not expected to live." It was signed by Williams. While still she sat
stunned and hesitant, under the weight of this demand, another and much
more explicit telegram came: "Johnson, superintendent, is ordered to
fetch you with special train. Don't delay. Mart needs you--is calling
for you. Come at once!"

The phrase "is calling for you" reached her heart--decided her. She
rose, and, with a word of explanation to her housekeeper, put on her
hat, and threw a cloak over her arm. "I've got to go to Cripple. Captain
Haney is sick, and I've got to go to him. I don't know when I'll be
back," she said. "Get along the best you can." Her face was white but
calm, and her manner deliberate. "Send word to mother that Mart is hurt,
and I've gone up to see him. Tell her not to worry."

To her night clerk, who had come on duty, she quietly remarked: "I
reckon you'll have to look after things to-morrow. I'll try to get back
the day after. If I don't, Lem Markham will take my place." While still
she stood arranging the details of her business a short, dark man
stepped inside the door, and very kindly and gravely explained his
errand. "I'm Johnson, the division superintendent. They've telegraphed
me for a special, and I'm going to take you up myself. Mart is a friend
of mine," he added, with some feeling.

She thanked him with a look and a quick clasp of his hand, and together
they hurried into the street and down to the station, where a locomotive
coupled to a single coach stood panting like a fierce animal, a cloud of
spark-lit smoke rolling from its low stack. The coach was merely a short
caboose; but the girl stepped into it without a moment's hesitation, and
the engine took the track like a spirited horse. As the fireman got up
speed the car began to rock and roll violently, and Johnson remarked to
the girl: "I guess you'd better take my chair; it's bolted to the floor,
and you can hang on when we go round the curves."

She obeyed instantly, and with her small hands gr