“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, and the Winnebagos could neither eat nor sleep.  Poor Dick was frantic, yet he dared not show himself at the house for fear every one would point an accusing finger at him as the one responsible for the misfortune.

But Sahwah, true to her usual habit of always doing the unexpected thing, progressed along just the opposite lines from those prophesied by the physician.  After a few days her fever abated and the danger from the concussion was over.  Sahwah’s head had demonstrated itself to be of a superior solidness of construction.  But the hip, which at first had not given them a moment’s uneasiness, steadfastly refused to mend.  Dr. Benson looked puzzled; then grave.  The splintered end of that hip bone began to be a nightmare to him.  He called in another doctor for consultation.  The new doctor set it in a different way, nearly killing Sahwah with the pain, although she struggled valiantly to be brave