There was a new difficulty now, for the little vehicle had no place in which Daisy could remain lying down.  The seat was fast; the Captain could not remove it.  He did the best he could.  He put Daisy sideways on the seat, so that the hurt foot could be stretched out and kept in one position upon it; and he himself stood behind her, holding the reins.  In that way he served as a sort of support for the little head which he sometimes feared would sink in a swoon; for while she lay on the ground and he was trying measures with the wagon, the closed eyes and pale cheeks had given the Captain a good many desperately uneasy thoughts.  Now Daisy sat still, leaning against him, with her eyes open; and he drove as tenderly as he could.  He had a frisky horse to manage, and the Captain congratulated himself for this occasion at least that he was a skilled whip.  Still the motion of the wagon was very trying to Daisy, and every jar went through the Captain’s foot up to his heart.

“How is it, Daisy?” he asked after they had gone some distance.

“It isn’t good, Capt.  Drummond,” she said softly.

“Bad, isn’t it?”

“Rather.”

“I have to make this fellow go slowly, you see, or he would shake you too much.  Could you bear to go faster?”

“I’ll try.”

The Captain tried cautiously.  But his question, and possibly Daisy’s answer, were stimulated by the view of the western horizon, over which clouds were gathering thick and fast.  Could they get home in time? that was the doubt in both minds.

“Capt.  Drummond,” said Daisy presently, “I can’t bear this shaking.”

“Must I go slower?”

“If you please.”

“Daisy, do you see how the sky bodes yonder?  What do you suppose we shall do if those clouds come up?”

“I don’t know,” she answered.  But she said it with such a quiet tone of voice, that the Captain wondered anew.  He had hoped that her fears might induce her to bear the pain.

“Daisy, do you think it will come up a storm?”

“I think it will.”

“How soon? you know the signs better than I do.  How soon will it be here?”

“It will come soon, I think.”

Yet there was no anxiety in Daisy’s voice.  It was perfectly calm, though feeble.  The Captain held his peace, looked at the clouds, and drove on; but not as fast as he would have liked.  He knew it was a ride of great suffering to his little charge, for she became exceedingly pale; still she said nothing, except her soft replies to his questions.  The western clouds rolled up in great volumes of black and grey, rolling and gathering and spreading at a magnificent rate.  The sun was presently hid behind the fringe of this curtain of blackness; by and by the mountains were hid beneath a further fringe of rain; a very thick fringe.  Between, the masses of vapour in the sky seemed charging for a tremendous outburst.  It had not come yet when the slow going little wagon passed through Crum Elbow; but by this time the Captain had seen distant darts of lightning, and even heard the far-off warning growl of the thunder.  A new idea started up in the Captain’s mind; his frisky horse might not like lightning.