tern of
dauntlessness, "come on if you want to. I'll go with you." The two
climbed up the steep hill, dragging the bob after them. When Sahwah was
sitting behind the steering wheel, poised at the top and ready to make
the swift descent, she shuddered at the sight of the sharp incline. It
looked so much worse from the top than from the bottom. She would have
drawn back and given it up, but Sahwah had a stubborn pride that shrank
from saying she was afraid to do anything she had undertaken.

"Shove off!" she commanded, gritting her chattering teeth together. The
bob shot downward like a cannon ball. In spite of her terror Sahwah
enjoyed the sensation. She held firmly on to the steering wheel and made
for the great bank of snow which had been thrown up by the men cleaning
the foot walks. At that moment an automobile turned into the lake drive,
and its blinding lights shone full into Sahwah's eyes. Dazzled, she
turned her head away, at the same time jerking the steering wheel to the
right. The bob swerved sharply to one side and crashed into a tree. The
force of the impact threw Dick clear of the sled and he rolled head over
heels down the hill, landing in the snow at the bottom badly shaken, but
otherwise unhurt. Sahwah lay motionless in the snow beside the wreck of
the bob.

CHAPTER XII.

DR. HOFFMAN.

The girls and boys crowded around her with frightened faces. "Is she
killed?" they asked each other in terrified tones.

"It's all my fault," said Dick Albright, nearly beside himself; "I
should have known better than to let her go. She didn't think of the
danger, but I did, and I should have prevented her. Was there ever such
a fool as I?"

Gladys and Migwan were kneeling beside Sahwah and opening her coat. "She
is not dead," said Gladys, feeling her pulse. "We must get her home. She
is possibly only stunned." Sahwah moved slightly and groaned, but she
did not open her eyes. A passing automobile was hailed and she was
carried to it as carefully as possible and taken home.

"A slight concussion of the brain," said the hastily summoned doctor,
after he had made his examination, "and a fractured hip. The hip can be
fixed all right, but the concussion may be worse than it looks. That is
an ugly contusion on her head." The next few days were anxious ones in
the Brewster home. Sahwah gave no sign of returning consciousness, and
her fever rose steadily. Mrs. Brewster felt her hair turning gray with
the suspense,