liniment bottle in my satchel. I
forgot. Oh, Ruth, Ruth, what will we do? It is a deadly poison."

Then to have realized the scene that followed you should have been there
to sea. Ruth gave one loud shriek that seemed to re-echo through the
trees, and Eurie's moan was hardly less terrible. Marion sprang out of
bed, and was alert and alive in a moment.

"Ruth, lie down; Eurie, stop groaning and act. What was it? Tell me this
instant."

"Oh, I don't _know_ what it was, only he said that ten drops would kill
a person, and she took a tea-spoonful."

"I know where the doctor's cottage is," said Flossy, dressing rapidly.
"I can go for him." And almost as soon as the words were spoken she had
slipped out into the darkness.

Ruth had obeyed the imperative command of Marion and laid herself on the
bed. She was deadly pale, and Eurie, who felt eagerly for her pulse,
felt in vain. Whether it was gone, or whether her excitement was too
great to find it, she did not know. Meantime, Marion fumbled in Flossy's
trunk and came toward them with a bottle.

"Hold the light, Eurie; this is Flossy's hair-oil. I happen to know that
it is harmless, and oil is an antidote for half the poisons in the
world. Ruth, swallow this and keep up courage; we will save you."

Down went the horrid spoonful, and Marion was eagerly at work chafing
her limbs and rubbing her hands, hurrying Eurie meantime who had started
for the hotel in search of help and hot water.

That dreadful fifteen minutes! Not one of them but that thought it was
hours. They never forgot the time when they fought so courageously, and
yet so hopelessly, with death. Ruth did not seem to grow worse, but she
looked ghastly enough for death to have claimed her for his victim; and
Flossy did not return. Eurie came back to report a fire made and water
heating, and seizing a pail was about to start again, when her eye
caught the open satchel, and a bottle quietly reposing there, closely
corked and tied over the top with a bit of kid; she gave a scream as
loud as the first had been.

"What _is_ the matter now?" Marion said. "Eurie, do have a little common
sense."

"She didn't take it!" burst forth Eurie. "It is all a mistake. It _was_
the right bottle. Here is the other, corked, just as I put it."

Before this sentence was half concluded Ruth was sitting up in bed, and
Marion, utterly overcome by this sudden revulsion of feeling, was crying
hysterically. There is no use in trying t