April 17, 2025 • 12 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
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This LibriVox, according is in the public domain. Jack surrenders
at last. It was almost dawn when Frank kent believe
that he heard a faint answer to his last shouting.
He was several miles from the outskirts of the Rainbow Ranch,
and in a neighborhood where he might least expect to
find the girl he sought. But every acre of the
ranch had been thoroughly gone over during the night, and
(00:23):
still the men under Jim Colter's leadership were continuing the
search along the track swet by the storm, but without
finding a trace of Jack or the Indian boy, or
of the two horses which they were known to have
been riding so independently of the others. Frank had recently
decided to try a new neighborhood, not because he had
any faith in its being the right one, but because
(00:45):
he felt that he must work alone. It was unendurable
to continue longer. Hearing the other men declared that there
was little chance of finding Jack or Carlos alive, for
had they not been within the track of the sand storm,
they must certainly have returned home before this. Now Frank
plunged on in the direction of the recent sound, although
he had heard nothing a second time in reply to
(01:07):
his continued calling. Deep in his heart he was devoutly
grateful that the dawn was finally breaking, the stars had disappeared,
and beyond the universal grayness there was now a faint
rose light. A moment before, a western lark had risen
before his aching eyes, poising, fluttering, and then sailing straight overhead,
(01:28):
singing its song of praise at the approach of the sun.
So Frank, in a measure could behold the objects ahead
of him, though among them he saw nothing to suggest
Jacqueline Ralston. He was riding over flat country with little
before him but sand and low scrub plants, and there
were no signs of a horse's hosts, having Lady struggled
through it. Finally, however, Frank got down off his own horse, and,
(01:53):
stooping low, examined some faint tracings in the sands. He
had not been trained to making observations of this sort,
and even with the best of scouts, it is difficult
to find footprints in so fine as shifting a soil. Nevertheless,
when Frank straightened up again, his face was less haggard
and discouraged, for he had found the suggestion of a
(02:14):
girl's writing bootprint in the sand. And now and then,
in curious circles, there were other such impressions. With her
head resting on a sand dune as though it were
a nature's pillow. Frank at length came upon the girl,
and even when within a few feet of Jack, it
was impossible to tell whether she was asleep or had fainted,
(02:35):
or whether her silence and rigidity meant something worse. Yet,
the girl's expression was too worn and exhausted for the
last great mystery. It had not the ineffable peace that
comes after nature's final surrender. Even before he could touch her,
Frank had recognized this. Quietly, he began bathing her face
with water poured upon his handkerchief from the water flask
(02:58):
which he had carried all night in his post. Jack's
own little water jug told its own story, since it
was lying empty at her side, drained to the last drop. Then,
when the girl's heavy lids fluttered slightly, Frank poured water
between her scorched lips. Her first sign of consciousness was
when she put up her hands to try and cling
(03:18):
to his flask that she might have more. Yet the
man drew it away, telling her to keep quiet and
close her eyes for a few moments longer Afterwards, he
allowed her another drink of water, and then a few
drops of beef tea from a smaller bottle which Ruth
Colter had given him. Finally, with Frank's arm about her,
(03:38):
Jack managed to sit up. I am so glad it
was you who found me, Frank, she said a moment later.
All night I have thought you would come. She did
not even try to walk or to explain what had happened,
but let Frank lift her up on his horse, where
she leaned against him in utter weakness and dependence, while
the horse darted slowly toward home. The right needs must
(04:00):
be a long and fatiguing one, even though aide reached
them before their arrival at the lodge, and Jack's pulse
was still too faint to have her suffer further exhaustion.
But after a while Frank leaned over, pressing his lips
against the girl's heavy gold brown hair, which had become
unloosened from her long wandering and hung in two curled
braids down her back. Are you glad I found you
(04:22):
because you care for me? Jack? He whispered, feeling that
it was not altogether fair of him to ask such
a question at such a time, and yet too impatient
to wait, the girl answered yes quite simply. A little later,
she added, like a child. Besides, I knew you wouldn't
scold Frank, and of course I have been foolish and headstrong.
(04:46):
I don't seem to know how to grow up. You'll
ask Ruth and Jim not to make me explain to
him until I have rested. Frank smiled, but felt a
curious lump in his throat. This new humility and dependence
were so unlike Jack. Unconsciously, the arm that had been
holding her up closed more firmly about the girl's figure.
(05:06):
Jack Jack, he murmured, leaning low down till his lips
were not far from her ear. I have waited so long.
I can wait no longer. You have just said that
you cared for me, and for the second time I
have believed you. Then you mean you must mean that
you are willing to be my wife. For just an instant,
(05:27):
the girl's body quivered, as though with a weakness beyond
her power of control. The next moment she was shaking
her head quietly and firmly, and although her companion could
not see her face, he heard her whisper no, with
a measure of her old decision very well. Then Frank returned,
just as firmly, you shall never be troubled by my
(05:48):
asking you that question again. As soon as possible, I
shall go home to England once more. The girl's shoulders
trembled as if she had been struck an unexpected blow,
but she made no reply. Frank realized that he was
not playing fair, and that she should not be troubled further.
For five or ten minutes more, they rode on in
(06:09):
complete silence, while Jack felt herself growing weaker and weaker.
She was ashamed to be such a burden, and yet
only her own will power and Frank's arm were sustaining her.
A little later and Jack had again to be put
down on the ground in a half fainting condition. By
this time they had passed beyond the stretches of sandy
(06:30):
desert and were in one of the outline meadows of
the Rainbow Ranch, not far from a branch of their creek.
As Jack was almost unconscious, Frank was able to bathe
her face more comfortably, pushing back the tangled hair out
of her eyes. That she might look more like the
girl he loved. Then he shut his lips close together,
and his chin became square, and his jaw firmer than
(06:52):
ever Jacklin's had been in her most obstinate days. I
have just told a lie, he said to himself, and
yet rather grit for of course, I shall go on
asking Jack to marry me until she find me consents.
If she did not care for me, that would be
another matter, and I should be a cat to annoy her.
But there can't be any other barrier, real or fancied,
(07:14):
that is big enough to come between us permanently. Then,
as Jack opened her eyes for the second time and
sat straight up, as though vexed with her own weakness,
Frank had a sudden recollection of Olive's strange message to
him when he had first started on his search. Tell
her it has been a dreadful mistake, and then there
(07:34):
is nothing in the whole world that will make me
so happy as her engagement to you. What could Olive's
words mean? Who had made a mistake? Had Jack been
under some cruelly false impression. Frank was utterly mystified, Yet
he held out his hand, Come, dear, we will walk
for a few minutes, he said gently, and I will
(07:55):
lead the horse. You will feel less stiff and tired
with a little exercise. See the daylight has come. How
beautiful and franklant the world is. Some change in Frank's
voice or in his manner. The girl did not know
or care to think what the change might mean, made
her take the hand held out so quietly toward her
(08:16):
and hold it close in her own cold fingers. How
exquisitely she could always be at peace with Frank, how
perfectly he understood things without having them explained to him.
After all, he was not going to be angry with
her because of her unreasonable and unkind behavior. She had
felt his anger a little more than she was willing
to endure in her present state of exhaustion. So Jack
(08:38):
looked overhead with more of her accustomed sparkle and animation
than she had yet showed. The sky was a radiant
rose color, so deeply pink that it cast its reflection
on the ground at her feet. They were near a
group of trees, and the birds were beginning to waken
one another with mild reproaches and then sudden bursts of
eloquent song. Frank Jack again pensively. Enough. I never saw
(09:02):
more wonderful dawn. But do you happen to have anything
in your pocket more substantial than beef tea? I have
not had anything to eat since yesterday at noon, and
I think perhaps I am dying of hunger. With a laugh,
her companion led Gore, hand drawing a package from his pocket.
Ruth gave me this at midnight, along with the beef tea,
(09:23):
but I have not been interested enough to see what
was in it, he explained greedily. Jack tore open the
bundle and had devoured a large chicken sandwich before good
Manners even suggested her sharing the luncheon with its owner. Afterwards,
Frank also confessed to being hungry, and so they walked
on toward the lodge like happy runaway children, almost safe
(09:44):
at home again. Yet while he talked and laughed and ate,
Frank Kent was not forgetting Olive's words, nor her final
injunction to him. Please tell her what I say when
you first find her. Don't wait too long, she had
begged Jack. Dear Frank began casually, in the midst of
something else they have been discussing. There is something I
(10:06):
want to ask your forgiveness for before another five minutes
have passed, because I don't think I can hold out
much longer. Back there on horseback, when you were nearly
dead with fatigue, I was angry with you, and I
told you that I never meant to ask you to
marry me again. That was the most untruthful speech a
man ever made. Because if you are too tired to listen,
(10:28):
I may have to wait until you have rested a
little while, but not any longer. You know you care
for me, Dear. You are not the kind of a
girl who would deceive a man by your words or
your manner. After all these years of friendship, there is
some mystery that is keeping you from showing me your
real feelings. I can't guess what it is, yet all
(10:49):
of must think so, too, For she told me to
tell you that you have been making a dreadful mistake
about something rather Heaven only knows what, and that our
engagement would make her happier than anything in the world.
Jacqueline Ralston stood ankle deep in the rose touched meadow grass,
with her straightforward, honest gray eyes looking into the blue
eyes of her companion. Did Olive tell you to say
(11:12):
that to me? Did she really and truly seem to
mean it? She asked wonderingly. Frank Kent nodded, not trusting
himself to speak, nor wishing to lose an instant's vision
of the girl's face or an inflection of her voice.
Jack had been paled before, but now her face had
flushed with such a look of exquisite gentleness and surrender, that,
(11:35):
in spite of all she had recently endured, she had
never been so beautiful. Then it was like her to say,
with self evident sincerity, of course you are right, Frank, dear,
I could not hide how much I cared for you,
even though I have done my best. It will be
hard for me to leave the ranch and the people
I love, but it would be harder to stay on
(11:56):
here without you. End of Chapter eighteen, read by Nancy
Cochran Gergen Gilbert, Arizona, March twenty eight, two thousand, twenty three.
This LibriVox, according is in the public domain. Jack surrenders
at last. It was almost dawn when Frank kent believe
that he heard a faint answer to his last shouting.
He was several miles from the outskirts of the Rainbow Ranch,
and in a neighborhood where he might least expect to
find the girl he sought. But every acre of the
ranch had been thoroughly gone over during the night, and
(00:23):
still the men under Jim Colter's leadership were continuing the
search along the track swet by the storm, but without
finding a trace of Jack or the Indian boy, or
of the two horses which they were known to have
been riding so independently of the others. Frank had recently
decided to try a new neighborhood, not because he had
any faith in its being the right one, but because
(00:45):
he felt that he must work alone. It was unendurable
to continue longer. Hearing the other men declared that there
was little chance of finding Jack or Carlos alive, for
had they not been within the track of the sand storm,
they must certainly have returned home before this. Now Frank
plunged on in the direction of the recent sound, although
he had heard nothing a second time in reply to
(01:07):
his continued calling. Deep in his heart he was devoutly
grateful that the dawn was finally breaking, the stars had disappeared,
and beyond the universal grayness there was now a faint
rose light. A moment before, a western lark had risen
before his aching eyes, poising, fluttering, and then sailing straight overhead,
(01:28):
singing its song of praise at the approach of the sun.
So Frank, in a measure could behold the objects ahead
of him, though among them he saw nothing to suggest
Jacqueline Ralston. He was riding over flat country with little
before him but sand and low scrub plants, and there
were no signs of a horse's hosts, having Lady struggled
through it. Finally, however, Frank got down off his own horse, and,
(01:53):
stooping low, examined some faint tracings in the sands. He
had not been trained to making observations of this sort,
and even with the best of scouts, it is difficult
to find footprints in so fine as shifting a soil. Nevertheless,
when Frank straightened up again, his face was less haggard
and discouraged, for he had found the suggestion of a
(02:14):
girl's writing bootprint in the sand. And now and then,
in curious circles, there were other such impressions. With her
head resting on a sand dune as though it were
a nature's pillow. Frank at length came upon the girl,
and even when within a few feet of Jack, it
was impossible to tell whether she was asleep or had fainted,
(02:35):
or whether her silence and rigidity meant something worse. Yet,
the girl's expression was too worn and exhausted for the
last great mystery. It had not the ineffable peace that
comes after nature's final surrender. Even before he could touch her,
Frank had recognized this. Quietly, he began bathing her face
with water poured upon his handkerchief from the water flask
(02:58):
which he had carried all night in his post. Jack's
own little water jug told its own story, since it
was lying empty at her side, drained to the last drop. Then,
when the girl's heavy lids fluttered slightly, Frank poured water
between her scorched lips. Her first sign of consciousness was
when she put up her hands to try and cling
(03:18):
to his flask that she might have more. Yet the
man drew it away, telling her to keep quiet and
close her eyes for a few moments longer Afterwards, he
allowed her another drink of water, and then a few
drops of beef tea from a smaller bottle which Ruth
Colter had given him. Finally, with Frank's arm about her,
(03:38):
Jack managed to sit up. I am so glad it
was you who found me, Frank, she said a moment later.
All night I have thought you would come. She did
not even try to walk or to explain what had happened,
but let Frank lift her up on his horse, where
she leaned against him in utter weakness and dependence, while
the horse darted slowly toward home. The right needs must
(04:00):
be a long and fatiguing one, even though aide reached
them before their arrival at the lodge, and Jack's pulse
was still too faint to have her suffer further exhaustion.
But after a while Frank leaned over, pressing his lips
against the girl's heavy gold brown hair, which had become
unloosened from her long wandering and hung in two curled
braids down her back. Are you glad I found you
(04:22):
because you care for me? Jack? He whispered, feeling that
it was not altogether fair of him to ask such
a question at such a time, and yet too impatient
to wait, the girl answered yes quite simply. A little later,
she added, like a child. Besides, I knew you wouldn't
scold Frank, and of course I have been foolish and headstrong.
(04:46):
I don't seem to know how to grow up. You'll
ask Ruth and Jim not to make me explain to
him until I have rested. Frank smiled, but felt a
curious lump in his throat. This new humility and dependence
were so unlike Jack. Unconsciously, the arm that had been
holding her up closed more firmly about the girl's figure.
(05:06):
Jack Jack, he murmured, leaning low down till his lips
were not far from her ear. I have waited so long.
I can wait no longer. You have just said that
you cared for me, and for the second time I
have believed you. Then you mean you must mean that
you are willing to be my wife. For just an instant,
(05:27):
the girl's body quivered, as though with a weakness beyond
her power of control. The next moment she was shaking
her head quietly and firmly, and although her companion could
not see her face, he heard her whisper no, with
a measure of her old decision very well. Then Frank returned,
just as firmly, you shall never be troubled by my
(05:48):
asking you that question again. As soon as possible, I
shall go home to England once more. The girl's shoulders
trembled as if she had been struck an unexpected blow,
but she made no reply. Frank realized that he was
not playing fair, and that she should not be troubled further.
For five or ten minutes more, they rode on in
(06:09):
complete silence, while Jack felt herself growing weaker and weaker.
She was ashamed to be such a burden, and yet
only her own will power and Frank's arm were sustaining her.
A little later and Jack had again to be put
down on the ground in a half fainting condition. By
this time they had passed beyond the stretches of sandy
(06:30):
desert and were in one of the outline meadows of
the Rainbow Ranch, not far from a branch of their creek.
As Jack was almost unconscious, Frank was able to bathe
her face more comfortably, pushing back the tangled hair out
of her eyes. That she might look more like the
girl he loved. Then he shut his lips close together,
and his chin became square, and his jaw firmer than
(06:52):
ever Jacklin's had been in her most obstinate days. I
have just told a lie, he said to himself, and
yet rather grit for of course, I shall go on
asking Jack to marry me until she find me consents.
If she did not care for me, that would be
another matter, and I should be a cat to annoy her.
But there can't be any other barrier, real or fancied,
(07:14):
that is big enough to come between us permanently. Then,
as Jack opened her eyes for the second time and
sat straight up, as though vexed with her own weakness,
Frank had a sudden recollection of Olive's strange message to
him when he had first started on his search. Tell
her it has been a dreadful mistake, and then there
(07:34):
is nothing in the whole world that will make me
so happy as her engagement to you. What could Olive's
words mean? Who had made a mistake? Had Jack been
under some cruelly false impression. Frank was utterly mystified, Yet
he held out his hand, Come, dear, we will walk
for a few minutes, he said gently, and I will
(07:55):
lead the horse. You will feel less stiff and tired
with a little exercise. See the daylight has come. How
beautiful and franklant the world is. Some change in Frank's
voice or in his manner. The girl did not know
or care to think what the change might mean, made
her take the hand held out so quietly toward her
(08:16):
and hold it close in her own cold fingers. How
exquisitely she could always be at peace with Frank, how
perfectly he understood things without having them explained to him.
After all, he was not going to be angry with
her because of her unreasonable and unkind behavior. She had
felt his anger a little more than she was willing
to endure in her present state of exhaustion. So Jack
(08:38):
looked overhead with more of her accustomed sparkle and animation
than she had yet showed. The sky was a radiant
rose color, so deeply pink that it cast its reflection
on the ground at her feet. They were near a
group of trees, and the birds were beginning to waken
one another with mild reproaches and then sudden bursts of
eloquent song. Frank Jack again pensively. Enough. I never saw
(09:02):
more wonderful dawn. But do you happen to have anything
in your pocket more substantial than beef tea? I have
not had anything to eat since yesterday at noon, and
I think perhaps I am dying of hunger. With a laugh,
her companion led Gore, hand drawing a package from his pocket.
Ruth gave me this at midnight, along with the beef tea,
(09:23):
but I have not been interested enough to see what
was in it, he explained greedily. Jack tore open the
bundle and had devoured a large chicken sandwich before good
Manners even suggested her sharing the luncheon with its owner. Afterwards,
Frank also confessed to being hungry, and so they walked
on toward the lodge like happy runaway children, almost safe
(09:44):
at home again. Yet while he talked and laughed and ate,
Frank Kent was not forgetting Olive's words, nor her final
injunction to him. Please tell her what I say when
you first find her. Don't wait too long, she had
begged Jack. Dear Frank began casually, in the midst of
something else they have been discussing. There is something I
(10:06):
want to ask your forgiveness for before another five minutes
have passed, because I don't think I can hold out
much longer. Back there on horseback, when you were nearly
dead with fatigue, I was angry with you, and I
told you that I never meant to ask you to
marry me again. That was the most untruthful speech a
man ever made. Because if you are too tired to listen,
(10:28):
I may have to wait until you have rested a
little while, but not any longer. You know you care
for me, Dear. You are not the kind of a
girl who would deceive a man by your words or
your manner. After all these years of friendship, there is
some mystery that is keeping you from showing me your
real feelings. I can't guess what it is, yet all
(10:49):
of must think so, too, For she told me to
tell you that you have been making a dreadful mistake
about something rather Heaven only knows what, and that our
engagement would make her happier than anything in the world.
Jacqueline Ralston stood ankle deep in the rose touched meadow grass,
with her straightforward, honest gray eyes looking into the blue
eyes of her companion. Did Olive tell you to say
(11:12):
that to me? Did she really and truly seem to
mean it? She asked wonderingly. Frank Kent nodded, not trusting
himself to speak, nor wishing to lose an instant's vision
of the girl's face or an inflection of her voice.
Jack had been paled before, but now her face had
flushed with such a look of exquisite gentleness and surrender, that,
(11:35):
in spite of all she had recently endured, she had
never been so beautiful. Then it was like her to say,
with self evident sincerity, of course you are right, Frank, dear,
I could not hide how much I cared for you,
even though I have done my best. It will be
hard for me to leave the ranch and the people
I love, but it would be harder to stay on
(11:56):
here without you. End of Chapter eighteen, read by Nancy
Cochran Gergen Gilbert, Arizona, March twenty eight, two thousand, twenty three.
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