Buried in thought, Tessie forgot Frank’s warning to look out for the express, until a shrill whistle rent the air and Gyp sprang forward, almost tossing the girl from her seat on the wagon.

Frantically she yelled at the little horse to “Whoa!” But on he dashed, and the gates were down directly ahead!

Realizing her danger and leaning forward in her panic of fear, something happened to the rein, for she felt it fall, and even the power of pulling on Gyp’s head was now lost.

And the express could be seen rounding the curve!

Prayers rose to Tessie’s lips while terror gripped her heart.

Moments were like hours, yet time had no proportion in the fear of death that seemed almost certain.

Then just as the frightened little animal shied clear of a telegraph pole, and with head high in the air seemed to make a final dash, he was suddenly pulled back.  The jolt threw Tessie against the side curtain.

The little girl scout—­she whom Tessie had noticed but a few minutes before, was now hanging on the reins!

But Gyp was dragging her on.  Would she, too, be killed?  If some man would only come to their rescue!

Then everything seemed to whirl before Tessie’s distorted vision.  Things “got black and went out.”  Next, she felt herself tumble back in the box of daisies.

But Gyp had stopped!  The girl scout had pulled him up somehow, and now Frank was there talking, and shouting, and praising the girl who had saved Tessie’s life.

“And she wouldn’t even give her name,” he was calling to Tessie.  “Some narrow escape, I’ll say.  Why, that express no more than shot by when you touched the gates.  If you hadn’t looked so dead, I might have got that girl’s name, but she’s in one of those cottages by now.  Well, we’ll beat it for home,” and he turned cautiously into the broader roadway.  “Gyp, you’ll go on a light diet for this, see if you don’t!”

But all the joy of her lovely ride was erased in the perilous experience.  And again the influence of the girl scouts forced its way into her uncertain life.  Truly the little heroes in that modest uniform deserved such merit badges as the one so lately given to Jacqueline Douglass.

But it would not be wise to recount to the invalid child anything of this wild adventure.  This Tessie felt instinctively.  Nevertheless, when that night Jacqueline was placed in her dining chair, and while chatting with her brother she proudly displayed the clover leaf pin in a new little velvet case, Tessie wondered what could have been the original feat of heroism for which this badge had been bestowed.

“And the girl who saved my life deserves the highest award,” she reflected, “although no one will ever know, I suppose.  She risked her own life in the attempt.”  Such was Tessie’s decision, while that little scout was congratulating herself on having really saved a life “without anyone knowing who did it.”  She had her secret now and it was delightful to cuddle so securely in her happy little heart.