April 17, 2025 • 10 mins
In this closing volume of the Ranch Girls series, romance takes center stage as the four girls return to Rainbow Ranch. Familiar faces and new adventures lead to heartfelt conclusions.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Cook. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The explosion,
the new crowd of miners were anxiously waiting about the
mouth of the pit shaft, which led down into the
deepest excavation that had yet been dug in the neighborhood
of the Rainbow Creek. There were other openings, but because
this was the largest, Ralph Merritt had desired that his
(00:21):
workmen begin their labor here, for by extending and deepening
the passages in the lower part of this shaft, he
hoped to make important discoveries of new veins of ore,
and once convinced that a quantity of new gold was
actually to be found under this ground, the young engineer
had no idea of giving up before he had devised
some intelligent and not too expensive method of bringing more
(00:43):
wealth to the surface of the earth. Not many feet
from the company of men, Jack Ralston and Frank Kent
were standing together talking of some detail in connection with
the work, while Jim Colter was hanging over the pit
opening in company with the men who had charge of
the lowering and raising of the mine elevator. Evidently, Ralph
Merritt and his two companions had made a seaf lanting below.
(01:06):
For Shortly after their disappearance, there was a signal, and
slowly the live traveled up into the daylight again, now
ready to take on another lot of passengers. Steady, no crowding,
Jim Colter called out, as the next relay stepped hastily forward,
Merritt will want to start things going in the tunnel
before you descend. One man had already gotten aboard, while
(01:28):
another had one foot extended toward the platform, when suddenly,
from underneath them there came a tearing, splitting noise, and
then a muffled roar like the instantaneous explosion of a
thousand guns. The passengers in the elevator fell on their knees,
and all around the opening of the pit there was
powder and blackness and a fall of stones like a
(01:48):
swift rain of meteors. By accident, Ruth Colter's back happened
to be turned away from the scene at the mine,
so that the first sound she remembered hearing was her
husband's horse shout of horror, and then as she turned
the sight of his great form lying prostrate on the ground,
with Jack and Frank trying to drag him away from danger,
(02:09):
but when Ruth would have rushed toward him, Olive and
Frieda held her fast, and the next instant a wave
of weakness and darkness so overwhelmed her that she had
no strength to move. When she opened her eyes, she
could see Jeane's face, white as a sheet, dancing before her,
and hear saying, Jim, isn't her dear only stunned by
his fall? See he is on his feet again, giving orders.
(02:32):
And Jack and Frank must be all right. They were
not so near. But what could have happened? What caused
the explosion? It's the men down inside the mine who
must be horribly hurt, Ralph, but Jean shook with such
nervous terror that Frida's arm encircled her, and the next
moment the four women moved nearer to the place of
the disaster. They were just in time for. At the
(02:54):
moment of their approach, although Jim Calder's face was so
black that you could hardly distinguish it. Him, with his
forehead bleeding from an ugly wound and his clothes torn
and burnt, he was giving orders like the general of
an army, and like trained soldiers, the miners were obeying him.
I'll take four or few men who will volunteer to
go down inside the mine with me. I don't know
(03:15):
what has happened, but we are pretty apt to find
things serious. It sounded like a dynamite explosion, and there
may be another. Fortunately for us, the elevator is above
ground and we can lower it. Some of you see
that stretchers are brought here. Jack, keep your head and
get hold of a doctor at once. I hope we
may need him, the man added grimly, as he swung
(03:37):
his great length aboard the small car. His companions crowded
close against him, unmindful of the odd silence that had
followed the noise of the explosion, unmindful of the two
score of roughh strange men. Ruth, breaking away from the girls,
now ran forward, crying, Jim, you can't go down into
the mine first. I can't let you. There is the
(03:59):
baby and me. You must think of us and of
the girls. You may be horribly hurt. She was near
enough now so that she could look straight into her
husband's blue eyes, and something in Jim's expression calmed her instantly.
Then for the time, he too seemed conscious of the
presence of no one else. Don't be frightened Ruth, I
(04:19):
shall be all right, dear, and back again with you
in ten minutes perhaps, But in any case, girl, don't
you see I have got to go down before the others.
This is our mind, and two of the men down
there are almost boys some quiet order. Jim then gave
and slowly, for the second time, the lift sank down
toward the dark abyss under the earth. For Ruth had
(04:42):
made no other sound or protest, only keeping tight hold
on Frida's in Jean's hands. Olive had gone with Jack
and Frank kent in the direction of the Rainbow Lodge
to the watchers at the pit opening. After the elevator
had landed the second time, there was a moment when
they believed that they could hear voices below. Then the
waiting seemed interminable. In point of fact, only a few
(05:04):
moments more had passed before the signal indicated that the
car must be drawn up again, And this time it
was Jean Bruce who covered her eyes with her hands.
There was a grinding of the cables and then an
unmistakable groan. So it was not only the faces of
the women that blanched whier. Many of these miners were
middle aged men who had been in mining disasters where
(05:26):
many hundreds of lives were at stake. Now, since no
further disturbance had followed the first brief explosion, they realized
that only the three men who had first gone down
into the pit had been injured. Yet it was nerve
racking not to be able to foretell whether these three
men would be brought up alive or dead. Jim Colter
and one of his helpers were standing upright in the car,
(05:48):
and Jim held in his arms a limp crumpled figure, unconscious,
his blue overall's charred and blackened, his absurd old hat
quite gone. Indeed, the grave and learned professor of ancient
languages looked like a broken slip of a boy in
the big man's keeping. There on the floor of the car,
another figure was resting. The face was upturned to the light,
(06:11):
and though the eyes were closed, the expression of the
mouth showed that the man had not fainted, but was
suffering great pain. Freida touch Jean Bruce on the arm.
It is not Ralph, but the new foreman, who seems
to be very badly hurt, She whispered, Look, the other
men are carrying him off. I can't tell about Ralph's friend,
mister Russell. But where is Ralph? Why hasn't he come
(06:35):
up with the others? And this last question of Frida's
was being echoed in the minds of the waiting women
and girl. Why had Jim brought up two of the
wounded men and left the third, their oldest friend, still
in the depth of rainbow mine. It was impossible not
to believe that Jim had done this because these men
were not too badly injured to be helped, For he
(06:55):
had not placed his burden on the ground, and was
examining the young man with the skill and care of
the surgeon, while some one else bathed his face. A
stretcher had been secured for the foreman, who was now
being taken to his own quarters to await the coming
of a surgeon. Jim. Ruth culed Topert a hand on
her husband's shoulder, and her face was almost as white
(07:18):
and strained as it had been during her last speech
with him. The elevator is going down again and you
are not going with it. Tell us, please, what has
happened to Ralph? Without waiting to hear her guardian's answer,
Freda's suddenly burst into tears. Of course, she had been
dreadfully unnerved by the recent accident, and now this uncertainty
(07:39):
about their friend, besides the sight of their new acquaintance
stretched out there at her feet as though he were
dead when the last time she had seen him he
had been eating his dinner was more than she could bear.
Ralph Great Scott, I am a brute ruth Jean Frieda
Jim Calder exclaimed, why didn't I tell you at once?
Ralph isn't badly heard it all? He is bruised and
(08:01):
burnt and shaken up, but nothing more so far as
I could tell. So of course he insisted that we
bring up the two other fellows first. It's a plain
miracle that there's anything left of the three of them,
so far as I could understand. Somebody had fixed a
bomb down at the end of the pit shaft, but
the thing was clumsily made and only half went off.
(08:23):
Ralph said they were blown about a good deal, and
the atmosphere was pretty thick. But unless the new foreman
has been injured internally, there was no great harm done.
I think this young man has nothing more serious the
matter with him than a broken leg. And I expect
we shall be able to mend that for him at
Rainbow Lodge. At these words, Henry Russell opened his eyes.
(08:44):
But whether because of Jim's suggestion or the pain he
was enduring, or whether because the sight of the girls,
he groaned aloud and then closed his lips again. I
don't think he wants to be taken to the lodge,
Frieda suggested, mournfully. You see he wants to think he
has gone away. Then, possibly because Ruth and Jim's nerves
(09:05):
had both been strained almost past endurance for the past
half hour, they laughed aloud at Frieda's speech. Jean had
slipped away, and it was her white and yet happy
face that Ralph Merrit saw first as he came back
into the world of daylight again. There, though he was
staggering and nearly blind and covered with blood and grind
from the shocky just received, he found Jean's hands before
(09:28):
any others and held them close for a moment while
she murmured, I am so glad, so glad. It is
because you have some big work to do in the
world that you have been saved. I am sure, Ralph.
A moment later, Ralph was quietly accepting the congratulations of
his workmen while he tried to explain to them just
how the explosion had taken place. That the bomb had
(09:50):
been placed down the shaft by one of the former miners,
there could be no shadow of doubt. End of Chapter fourteen,
read by Nancy Cochran, Gurgen Gilbert, Arizona, February nine, twenty
twenty three.
Cook. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The explosion,
the new crowd of miners were anxiously waiting about the
mouth of the pit shaft, which led down into the
deepest excavation that had yet been dug in the neighborhood
of the Rainbow Creek. There were other openings, but because
this was the largest, Ralph Merritt had desired that his
(00:21):
workmen begin their labor here, for by extending and deepening
the passages in the lower part of this shaft, he
hoped to make important discoveries of new veins of ore,
and once convinced that a quantity of new gold was
actually to be found under this ground, the young engineer
had no idea of giving up before he had devised
some intelligent and not too expensive method of bringing more
(00:43):
wealth to the surface of the earth. Not many feet
from the company of men, Jack Ralston and Frank Kent
were standing together talking of some detail in connection with
the work, while Jim Colter was hanging over the pit
opening in company with the men who had charge of
the lowering and raising of the mine elevator. Evidently, Ralph
Merritt and his two companions had made a seaf lanting below.
(01:06):
For Shortly after their disappearance, there was a signal, and
slowly the live traveled up into the daylight again, now
ready to take on another lot of passengers. Steady, no crowding,
Jim Colter called out, as the next relay stepped hastily forward,
Merritt will want to start things going in the tunnel
before you descend. One man had already gotten aboard, while
(01:28):
another had one foot extended toward the platform, when suddenly,
from underneath them there came a tearing, splitting noise, and
then a muffled roar like the instantaneous explosion of a
thousand guns. The passengers in the elevator fell on their knees,
and all around the opening of the pit there was
powder and blackness and a fall of stones like a
(01:48):
swift rain of meteors. By accident, Ruth Colter's back happened
to be turned away from the scene at the mine,
so that the first sound she remembered hearing was her
husband's horse shout of horror, and then as she turned
the sight of his great form lying prostrate on the ground,
with Jack and Frank trying to drag him away from danger,
(02:09):
but when Ruth would have rushed toward him, Olive and
Frieda held her fast, and the next instant a wave
of weakness and darkness so overwhelmed her that she had
no strength to move. When she opened her eyes, she
could see Jeane's face, white as a sheet, dancing before her,
and hear saying, Jim, isn't her dear only stunned by
his fall? See he is on his feet again, giving orders.
(02:32):
And Jack and Frank must be all right. They were
not so near. But what could have happened? What caused
the explosion? It's the men down inside the mine who
must be horribly hurt, Ralph, but Jean shook with such
nervous terror that Frida's arm encircled her, and the next
moment the four women moved nearer to the place of
the disaster. They were just in time for. At the
(02:54):
moment of their approach, although Jim Calder's face was so
black that you could hardly distinguish it. Him, with his
forehead bleeding from an ugly wound and his clothes torn
and burnt, he was giving orders like the general of
an army, and like trained soldiers, the miners were obeying him.
I'll take four or few men who will volunteer to
go down inside the mine with me. I don't know
(03:15):
what has happened, but we are pretty apt to find
things serious. It sounded like a dynamite explosion, and there
may be another. Fortunately for us, the elevator is above
ground and we can lower it. Some of you see
that stretchers are brought here. Jack, keep your head and
get hold of a doctor at once. I hope we
may need him, the man added grimly, as he swung
(03:37):
his great length aboard the small car. His companions crowded
close against him, unmindful of the odd silence that had
followed the noise of the explosion, unmindful of the two
score of roughh strange men. Ruth, breaking away from the girls,
now ran forward, crying, Jim, you can't go down into
the mine first. I can't let you. There is the
(03:59):
baby and me. You must think of us and of
the girls. You may be horribly hurt. She was near
enough now so that she could look straight into her
husband's blue eyes, and something in Jim's expression calmed her instantly.
Then for the time, he too seemed conscious of the
presence of no one else. Don't be frightened Ruth, I
(04:19):
shall be all right, dear, and back again with you
in ten minutes perhaps, But in any case, girl, don't
you see I have got to go down before the others.
This is our mind, and two of the men down
there are almost boys some quiet order. Jim then gave
and slowly, for the second time, the lift sank down
toward the dark abyss under the earth. For Ruth had
(04:42):
made no other sound or protest, only keeping tight hold
on Frida's in Jean's hands. Olive had gone with Jack
and Frank kent in the direction of the Rainbow Lodge
to the watchers at the pit opening. After the elevator
had landed the second time, there was a moment when
they believed that they could hear voices below. Then the
waiting seemed interminable. In point of fact, only a few
(05:04):
moments more had passed before the signal indicated that the
car must be drawn up again, And this time it
was Jean Bruce who covered her eyes with her hands.
There was a grinding of the cables and then an
unmistakable groan. So it was not only the faces of
the women that blanched whier. Many of these miners were
middle aged men who had been in mining disasters where
(05:26):
many hundreds of lives were at stake. Now, since no
further disturbance had followed the first brief explosion, they realized
that only the three men who had first gone down
into the pit had been injured. Yet it was nerve
racking not to be able to foretell whether these three
men would be brought up alive or dead. Jim Colter
and one of his helpers were standing upright in the car,
(05:48):
and Jim held in his arms a limp crumpled figure, unconscious,
his blue overall's charred and blackened, his absurd old hat
quite gone. Indeed, the grave and learned professor of ancient
languages looked like a broken slip of a boy in
the big man's keeping. There on the floor of the car,
another figure was resting. The face was upturned to the light,
(06:11):
and though the eyes were closed, the expression of the
mouth showed that the man had not fainted, but was
suffering great pain. Freida touch Jean Bruce on the arm.
It is not Ralph, but the new foreman, who seems
to be very badly hurt, She whispered, Look, the other
men are carrying him off. I can't tell about Ralph's friend,
mister Russell. But where is Ralph? Why hasn't he come
(06:35):
up with the others? And this last question of Frida's
was being echoed in the minds of the waiting women
and girl. Why had Jim brought up two of the
wounded men and left the third, their oldest friend, still
in the depth of rainbow mine. It was impossible not
to believe that Jim had done this because these men
were not too badly injured to be helped, For he
(06:55):
had not placed his burden on the ground, and was
examining the young man with the skill and care of
the surgeon, while some one else bathed his face. A
stretcher had been secured for the foreman, who was now
being taken to his own quarters to await the coming
of a surgeon. Jim. Ruth culed Topert a hand on
her husband's shoulder, and her face was almost as white
(07:18):
and strained as it had been during her last speech
with him. The elevator is going down again and you
are not going with it. Tell us, please, what has
happened to Ralph? Without waiting to hear her guardian's answer,
Freda's suddenly burst into tears. Of course, she had been
dreadfully unnerved by the recent accident, and now this uncertainty
(07:39):
about their friend, besides the sight of their new acquaintance
stretched out there at her feet as though he were
dead when the last time she had seen him he
had been eating his dinner was more than she could bear.
Ralph Great Scott, I am a brute ruth Jean Frieda
Jim Calder exclaimed, why didn't I tell you at once?
Ralph isn't badly heard it all? He is bruised and
(08:01):
burnt and shaken up, but nothing more so far as
I could tell. So of course he insisted that we
bring up the two other fellows first. It's a plain
miracle that there's anything left of the three of them,
so far as I could understand. Somebody had fixed a
bomb down at the end of the pit shaft, but
the thing was clumsily made and only half went off.
(08:23):
Ralph said they were blown about a good deal, and
the atmosphere was pretty thick. But unless the new foreman
has been injured internally, there was no great harm done.
I think this young man has nothing more serious the
matter with him than a broken leg. And I expect
we shall be able to mend that for him at
Rainbow Lodge. At these words, Henry Russell opened his eyes.
(08:44):
But whether because of Jim's suggestion or the pain he
was enduring, or whether because the sight of the girls,
he groaned aloud and then closed his lips again. I
don't think he wants to be taken to the lodge,
Frieda suggested, mournfully. You see he wants to think he
has gone away. Then, possibly because Ruth and Jim's nerves
(09:05):
had both been strained almost past endurance for the past
half hour, they laughed aloud at Frieda's speech. Jean had
slipped away, and it was her white and yet happy
face that Ralph Merrit saw first as he came back
into the world of daylight again. There, though he was
staggering and nearly blind and covered with blood and grind
from the shocky just received, he found Jean's hands before
(09:28):
any others and held them close for a moment while
she murmured, I am so glad, so glad. It is
because you have some big work to do in the
world that you have been saved. I am sure, Ralph.
A moment later, Ralph was quietly accepting the congratulations of
his workmen while he tried to explain to them just
how the explosion had taken place. That the bomb had
(09:50):
been placed down the shaft by one of the former miners,
there could be no shadow of doubt. End of Chapter fourteen,
read by Nancy Cochran, Gurgen Gilbert, Arizona, February nine, twenty
twenty three.
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