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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/5848-h.zip b/5848-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..043b4bc --- /dev/null +++ b/5848-h.zip diff --git a/5848-h/5848-h.htm b/5848-h/5848-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3c1c258 --- /dev/null +++ b/5848-h/5848-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3931 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta content="pg2html (binary v0.17)" name="linkgenerator" /> + <title> + The Flyers, by George Barr Mccutcheon + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .75em; margin-bottom: .75em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; text-align: justify; font-size: 80%; font-style: italic;} + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + .xx-small {font-size: 60%;} + .x-small {font-size: 75%;} + .small {font-size: 85%;} + .large {font-size: 115%;} + .x-large {font-size: 130%;} + .indent5 { margin-left: 5%;} + .indent10 { margin-left: 10%;} + .indent15 { margin-left: 15%;} + .indent20 { margin-left: 20%;} + .indent25 { margin-left: 25%;} + .indent30 { margin-left: 30%;} + .indent35 { margin-left: 35%;} + .indent40 { margin-left: 40%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; right: 1%; font-size: 0.6em; + font-variant: normal; font-style: normal; + text-align: right; background-color: #FFFACD; + border: 1px solid; padding: 0.3em;text-indent: 0em;} + .side { float: left; font-size: 75%; width: 15%; padding-left: 0.8em; + border-left: dashed thin; text-align: left; + text-indent: 0; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; + font-weight: bold; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: solid 1px;} + .head { float: left; font-size: 90%; width: 98%; padding-left: 0.8em; + border-left: dashed thin; text-align: center; + text-indent: 0; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; + font-weight: bold; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: solid 1px;} + p.pfirst, p.noindent {text-indent: 0} + span.dropcap { float: left; margin: 0 0.1em 0 0; line-height: 0.8 } + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Flyers, by George Barr McCutcheon + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Flyers + +Author: George Barr McCutcheon + +Release Date: June, 2004 [EBook #5848] +First Posted: September 13, 2002 +Last Updated: May 10, 2019 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLYERS *** + + + + +Etext produced by Charles Aldarondo, Charles Franks, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +HTML file produced by David Widger + + +</pre> + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + THE FLYERS + </h1> + <h2> + By George Barr Mccutcheon + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + <b>CONTENTS</b> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I — THE FARAWAY CLUB </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II — THE FLYERS CATCH THE FLYER + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III — THE MORNING AFTER </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV — MRS. VAN TRUDER INTRUDES </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V — AS NIGHT APPROACHES </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI — THE ROAD TO PARADISE </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER I — THE FARAWAY CLUB + </h2> + <p> + A cold, thick drizzle, blown by a biting wind that sent chills to the + marrow, marred the early spring night, and kept indoors the few hardy + members who had haunted the clubhouse since the season's opening a week + before. Not more than a dozen loyal devotees to the sports of the open air + lounged about the big clubhouse. Three or four rangy young women in + sweaters and jackets strove bravely to dispel the gloom of the night as it + settled down upon the growling masculine majority. The club steward + hovered near, anxiously directing the movements of a silent and as yet + undrilled corps of servants who flitted from group to group with decanters + and checks, taking and mistaking orders with the usual abandon. A huge + fireplace threw out heat sufficient to make the big lounging room + comfortable. Now and then a spiteful gust of wind swept the rain against + the western window-panes with a menace that set the teeth on edge. + </p> + <p> + "Rotten night," reflected the big man who monopolised the roomiest chair + and the best position in front of the blazing logs. "Going to town + to-night?" The question was general: there were half a dozen answers. + Every one was going in by the last express. All of them had dined well: + they had been hungry and the club was a wealthy one; even the most + exclusive of appetites could be entertained at the Faraway Country Club. + The last 'bus was to leave the clubhouse at ten minutes past ten, and it + was then half-past eight. Ten minutes' drive from the clubhouse on the + edge of the little town to the railway station—then thirty minutes + to the heart of the big city in which the members lived and died at great + risk to themselves. + </p> + <p> + Each succeeding spring saw the formal opening of the Faraway Country Club. + The boards were pulled down from the windows and the door hinges were + oiled properly after a winter of discontent. May saw the reopening, but it + was not until June that crowds began to fill the house and grounds. Only + the more restless and hardy had the temerity to test the pleasures of the + raw spring days and nights. The M.F.H. was a loyal, eager chap; he knew + what was required of him in his official capacity. With the first symptoms + of softening soil he led his followers through field and wood, promising + the "real hunt" inside of a month. Following a pack of overfed hounds was + what every one at Faraway Club called a "real hunt." + </p> + <p> + The night so meagrely described at the beginning of this tale followed + hard upon a grey, chill day. A few golfers had spent the afternoon upon + the course, inanely cursing the temporary tees and greens. A couple of + polo enthusiasts tried out their ponies, and several men and women took + their hunters over the course, that fairly bristled with spectres of last + year's anise-seed. Now they were comfortably ensconced in the clubhouse, + berating the unfortunate elements, and waiting for the last express with a + persistency which allowed three or four earlier trains to come and go + unnoticed. The cheerful highball was coming into its own. A stern winter + of bridge had not killed the ardour of certain worshippers; continuous + criticism of play arose from the table in the corner where two men and two + women were engaged with the cards. + </p> + <p> + The perennial bore, who noses into everything in order to sniff his own + wit, sauntered amiably from group to group, pouring out jests as murky as + the night itself. He saw none of the scowls nor heard the toe-taps; he + went blithely along his bridgeless way. + </p> + <p> + "I say, Brown, I saw your wife on the street yesterday, but she didn't see + me," he observed to the blase-looking man in corduroys. + </p> + <p> + "Ya-as," returned the other, calmly staring past him; "so she told me last + night." The bore and his blissful smile passed on to the next group. + There, two or three women were chatting with as many men, yawning and + puffing at their cigarettes, bored by the risque stories the men were + telling, but smiling as though they had not already heard them from other + men. Occasional remarks, dropped softly into the ears of the women, may + have brought faint blushes to their cheeks, but the firelight was a fickle + consort to such changes. The sly turn of a sentence gave many a double + meaning; the subtle glance of the eye intended no harm. Dobson's new toast + to "fair women" earned a roar of laughter, but afterwards Dobson was + called to account by a husband who realised. A man over in the corner was + thumping aimlessly on the piano; a golf fanatic was vigorously contending + that he had driven 243 yards against the wind; a tennis enthusiast was + lamenting the fact that the courts were too soft to be used; there was a + certain odour of rain-soaked clothes in the huge room, ascendant even + above the smell of cigarettes. Altogether, it was a night that owed much + to the weather. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Scudaway, dashing horsewoman and exponent of the free rein, was + repeating the latest story concerning an intimate friend of every one + present—and, consequently, absent. + </p> + <p> + "She's just sailed for Europe, and that good-looking actor friend of the + family happened to go on the same steamer," she was saying with a joyous + smile. + </p> + <p> + "Accidents will happen," remarked some one, benevolently. + </p> + <p> + "Where's her husband? I haven't seen him with her in months," came from + one of the men. + </p> + <p> + "Oh, they have two children, you know," explained Mrs. Scudaway. + </p> + <p> + "Delicate, I hear," said Miss Ratliff. + </p> + <p> + "Naturally; he nurses them," said Mrs. Scudaway, blowing smoke half-way + across the room through her delicate nostrils. + </p> + <p> + "I say, Mrs. Scudaway," cried the rapt bore, "don't you ever do anything + but inhale?" + </p> + <p> + "Yes, I exhale occasionally. No, thanks," as he held forth an ash tray. + Then she flecked the ashes into the fireplace, ten feet away. + </p> + <p> + "Good Lord, it's a rotten night!" repeated the big man, returning dismally + from a visit to the window. "There's a beastly fog mixed in with the + rain." + </p> + <p> + "Better blow the fog horn for Henderson," said Ratliff, with a jerk of his + thumb. "He's half seas over already and shipping a lot of water." + Henderson, the convivial member, was on his third siphon. + </p> + <p> + "I don't care a whoop what McAlpine says," roared an irascible gentleman + on the opposite side of the fireplace; "a man ought to use a midiron when + he gets that kind of a lie. Nobody but an ass would take a brassie. He's—-" + </p> + <p> + "Just listen to that blethering idiot," said young Rolfe to the lady + beside him. "He ought to be choked." + </p> + <p> + "I like the way you speak of my husband," she responded gaily. + </p> + <p> + "Oh, I forgot. He is your husband, isn't he?" Then, after a moment's easy + contemplation of the pretty young woman and a scornful glance at the + golfer: "Lucky, but a very poor watchdog." + </p> + <p> + "He barks beautifully," resented the young wife, with a loyal grimace. + </p> + <p> + "That's why you're not afraid of him," he said quickly. + </p> + <p> + "Don't you think he'd bite?" + </p> + <p> + "They never do." + </p> + <p> + "Well, you just try him, that's all," remarked the young wife coldly, + rising and moving away, a touch of red in her cheeks. + </p> + <p> + "I will," he sang out genially, as he crossed his legs and stretched his + feet out to the fire. She looked back with a mirthless smile on her lips. + </p> + <p> + The man at the piano struck up the insidious "La Mattchiche," suggestive + of the Bal Tabarin and other Fourteenth of July devotions. + </p> + <p> + "Don't play that, Barkley," complained the big man, as every one began + beating time to the fascinating air. "I'm trying to forget Paris." + </p> + <p> + "Can you ever forget that night in Maxim's—-" began Mrs. Scudaway. + </p> + <p> + "I recall the next day more vividly," he interrupted. + </p> + <p> + "Changing the subject," inserted the amiable bore, his moon-face beaming, + "I see that the Thursdales have opened their place across the ravine. + Isn't it rather early for them to leave town for the summer?" + </p> + <p> + "They come out every year about this time." + </p> + <p> + "Lot of people will be opening their places next week. I saw Mrs. Gorgus + to-day. She says they're putting her house in shape—-" + </p> + <p> + "Impossible!" cried Mrs. Tanner. "It hasn't any shape." + </p> + <p> + "The only thing that could put the Gorgus house in shape is an earthquake. + Who was the architect of that abortion?" demanded Rolfe. + </p> + <p> + "Denison. He's an impressionist." + </p> + <p> + "The Thursdales have a new French car. Have you seen it? Eleanor ran over + here in it this afternoon with her Englishman. Showing off both of her + novelties at once, d'ye see?" said Carter, the tennis player. + </p> + <p> + "I understand the thing's a go—sure go," said the big man. "In the + fall some time. He's a rather decent chap, too." + </p> + <p> + "And, what's better, if his brother and his cousin should happen to die, + he'll be a duke." + </p> + <p> + "If they're as healthy as he seems to be, there'll be nothing doing for + him." + </p> + <p> + A good-looking young fellow, who had been staring at the fire all evening, + moved uneasily in his lounging chair. Several quick glances were sent to + where he sat moodily apart from the others, and then surreptitious winks + and nudges were exchanged. + </p> + <p> + "Joe is as crazy in love with her as ever, poor devil," whispered Rolfe. + Gradually the group of gossips came closer together over the table top; + the conversation was continued in more subdued tones. + </p> + <p> + "They're discussing me, damn 'em," said the moody young man to himself. "I + suppose they're pitying me. Damn cats! But I'll show 'em a thing or two + they're not looking for before long." He looked at his watch for the + twentieth time in an hour and scowled at the drenched window-panes across + the way. For some reason this exceedingly nice-looking young man was in a + state of extreme nervousness, a condition which, luckily for him, he was + able to keep within himself. + </p> + <p> + And this was what Mrs. Scudaway was saying in an urgent undertone to the + half dozen who leaned across the big table: "Joe is a mighty good sort, + and I'm sorry for him. He's been good enough for Eleanor Thursdale ever + since she came out two years ago, and I don't see why he should cease + being good enough for her now. This Englishman hasn't any more money and + he isn't half as good looking. He's English, that's all. Her mother's + crazy to have a look in at some of those London functions she's read so + much about. She's an awful ass, don't you think, Tommy?" + </p> + <p> + "Ya-as," said the blase man; "such as she is." + </p> + <p> + "Mighty hard lines, this thing of being an ordinary American," lamented + the placid bore. + </p> + <p> + "One might just as well be called Abraham or Isaac," reflected Carter. + </p> + <p> + "No romantic young lover would live through the first chapter with either + of those names," said pretty Miss Ratliff, who read every novel that came + out. + </p> + <p> + "Dauntless has been terribly out of humour for the past week or two," said + Carter. "He's horribly cut up over the affair,—grouchy as blazes, + and flocks by himself all the time. That's not like him, either." + </p> + <p> + "He's the sweetest boy I know," commented little Mrs. Tanner, whose + husband had barked about the midiron. + </p> + <p> + "I've heard he's the only man you ever really loved," murmured Rolfe, + close to her ear. + </p> + <p> + "Nonsense! I've known him all my life," she replied, with quick and + suspicious resentment. + </p> + <p> + "Trite phrase," scoffed he. "I'll wager my head that every woman living + has uttered that same worn expression a hundred times. 'Known him all my + life!' Ha, ha! It's a stock apology, my dear. Women, good and bad, trade + under that flag. Please, to oblige me, get a fresh excuse." + </p> + <p> + "The most ignorant duffer in the world could lay you a stymie if—-" + the loud-voiced golfer was complaining just at that instant. The man he + was addressing was nodding his head politely and at the same time trying + to hear what was being said at the round table. + </p> + <p> + "Joe Dauntless is good enough for anybody's daughter," vouchsafed the + blase man in corduroys. + </p> + <p> + "He's a ripping good fellow," again said Mrs. Scudaway. + </p> + <p> + "Mrs. Thursdale's got an English governess for her kids, an English + butler, an English bull terrier, and a new Cobden-Sanderson binding on + that antique History of England she talks so much about," observed Carter. + </p> + <p> + "And she's beginning to wear her evening gowns on the street in the + morning. Besides, her shoes lob over at the heels," remarked the rangy + Mrs. Carter. + </p> + <p> + "Yes, she's getting to be thoroughly English. I've noticed a tendency to + chirp like a bird when she talks, too." + </p> + <p> + "That governess is a mighty stunning girl, by the way," said Rolfe. + </p> + <p> + "She's been over here a year, you know," said Mrs. Scudaway, with no + apparent relevancy. + </p> + <p> + "Have you heard when Eleanor's engagement is to be announced?" asked Miss + Ratliff. + </p> + <p> + "I'm not supposed to tell, but I have it on the best authority that it + will be announced next week, and the wedding will take place in November. + I suppose they'll ask Joe Dauntless to be an usher," said Mrs. Carter. + </p> + <p> + "Hello! Joe's gone outside. He must have heard something we said," said + Rolfe, setting his highball glass down with a thump. + </p> + <p> + "Oh, if he had only been educated at Cambridge instead of in Cambridge," + mourned Mrs. Carter. + </p> + <p> + It was true that the tall, good-looking Mr. Dauntless had left the room, + but not because he had heard the comments of his friends. He was standing + on the wind-swept verandah, peering through the mist toward a distant + splash of light across the ravine to the right of the club grounds. The + fog and mist combined to run the many lights of the Thursdale windows into + a single smear of colour a few shades brighter than the darkness from + which it protruded. Dauntless's heart was inside that vague, + impressionistic circle of colour, but his brain was very much in evidence + on the distant outside. What were the workings of that eager brain will + soon be revealed—to the reader, at least, if not to the occupants of + the rain-bound clubhouse. + </p> + <p> + A word concerning Dauntless. He was the good-looking son of old banker + Dauntless, who died immediately after his cashier brought ruin to the + concern of which he was president. This blow fell when his son was in his + senior year at Harvard. He took his degree, and then, instead of the + promised trip around the world, he came home and went to work in the + offices of a big brokerage firm. Everybody knew and liked him. He was a + steady, earnest worker, and likewise a sportsman of the right temperament. + Big, fashionable Faraway looked upon him as its most gallant member; no + one cared to remember that he might have been very rich; every one loved + him because he had been rich and was worthy in spite of that. It was + common knowledge that he was desperately in love with pretty Eleanor + Thursdale, daughter of the eminently fashionable and snobbishly + aristocratic widow Thursdale, mistress of many millions and leader of + select hundreds. Moreover, it was now pretty well known that Mrs. + Thursdale had utterly lost sight of Dauntless in surveying the field of + desirable husbands for Eleanor. She could see nothing but Englishmen, + behind whom lurked the historic London drawing-rooms and British estates. + That is how and why young Windomshire, a most delightful Londoner, with + prospects and a peerage behind him, came to be a guest in her city house, + following close upon a long sojourn in the Bermudas. HE had been chosen; + the battle was over, so far as Eleanor's hand was concerned. What matter + if Dauntless had her heart? + </p> + <p> + The object of this indifference and scorn gazed long and hard at the blob + of light across the ravine. His heart was beating fast, and his body + tingled with a strange excitement, which made itself manifest in a mixture + of impatient frowns and prophetic smiles. + </p> + <p> + "If it wasn't such a beastly night," he was muttering in one breath, and, + "Still, it's just the sort of a night we want," in the next. He was + looking at his watch in the light from the window when an automobile + whizzed up the wet gravel drive and came to a stop in front of the club + steps. As Dauntless re-entered the house from the verandah, a tall young + man in a motor coat and goggles came in through the opposite door. They + paused and looked steadily at each other, then nodded briefly. The crowd + of loungers glanced at the two men with instant curiosity and then + breathed easily. The man who was going to marry Miss Thursdale and the man + who wanted to marry her were advancing to shake hands—a trifle + awkwardly, perhaps, but more or less frankly. + </p> + <p> + "Rough weather for motoring," remarked Dauntless, nervously. Windomshire + removed his cap and goggles. + </p> + <p> + "Beastly. I just ran over for something to warm the inside man. Won't you + join me?" His voice was pleasant to the ear, his manner easy and + appealing. He was not so good looking as Dauntless, true, but he had the + air of a thoroughbred in his make-up—from head to foot. + </p> + <p> + "Sit down here," called Mrs. Scudaway readily, creating a general shift of + chairs. The two men hesitated a moment, nervousness apparent in both, and + then sat down quickly. The Englishman was next Mrs. Scudaway. "What were + you doing out in the rain?" she asked after the order for drinks had been + taken. + </p> + <p> + "Hurrying to get out of it," he said with evasive good humour, "and + thinking how much nicer your fogs are than ours," he added quickly. + </p> + <p> + "Anybody come over with you?" asked the bore, agreeably. + </p> + <p> + "No, they're playing bridge over at Mrs. Thursdale's and that lets me out. + Beastly headache, too. Got out for a breath of air." The silence that + followed this observation seemed to call for further explanations. "Miss + Thursdale retired soon after dinner, wretchedly under the weather. That + rather left me adrift, don't you know. I'm not playing bridge this year." + </p> + <p> + "You're not? Why not, pray?" + </p> + <p> + "Chiefly because of last year. My Mercedes came on from New York yesterday + and I got her out for a spin. Couldn't resist, don't you know. She's + working beautifully." + </p> + <p> + "There's one thing about a Mercedes that I don't like—and you don't + find it in a Panhard. I've got a Panhard and—" Dobson was saying + with all the arrogance of a motor fiend, when Mrs. Scudaway ruthlessly and + properly cut him off. + </p> + <p> + "We know all about your Panhard, Dobby. Don't bother. Is Eleanor really + ill, Mr. Windomshire?" + </p> + <p> + "I had it from her own lips, Mrs. Scudaway." + </p> + <p> + "Oh, you know what I mean. Is it likely to be serious?" + </p> + <p> + "Really, I can't say. I offered to go and fetch the doctor in my car, but + she assured me she'd be all right in the morning. What say, Mr. + Dauntless?" + </p> + <p> + "I didn't speak, Mr. Windomshire." + </p> + <p> + "I thought you did." More than one at the table had heard Joe's + involuntary chuckle. + </p> + <p> + "I say, Windomshire, what's the name of that pretty governess over at + Thursdale's?" asked the busy bore. "Saw her this morning." + </p> + <p> + The Englishman looked down and flecked the ashes from his cigarette before + answering. + </p> + <p> + "Miss Courtenay," he responded. + </p> + <p> + "She's a corking pretty girl." Windomshire went through the unnecessary + act of flecking ashes again, but said nothing in reply. "Are there any + more at home like her?" with a fine chuckle in behalf of his wit. + </p> + <p> + "She's of a very good family, I believe," said Windomshire, looking about + helplessly. Mrs. Scudaway caught the look in his eyes and remembered that + English gentlemen are not supposed to discuss women outside of their own + set. + </p> + <p> + "It must be time for the 'bus," she said. "We're all going in by the + 10.10, Mr. Windomshire." + </p> + <p> + "Can't I take some of you over to the station in my car?" + </p> + <p> + "The 'bus is dryer, I think, thank you." She led the way, and the other + women followed her upstairs. "We'll be down in time," she called. + </p> + <p> + "I'll take some of you men over in Hardy's machine," volunteered + Dauntless. "I've got it out here this week, while he's east." + </p> + <p> + "Ain't you going in, Joe?" demanded Rolfe. + </p> + <p> + "Not to-night. I'm staying overnight with my uncle in Cobberly Road." + </p> + <p> + "The 'bus is good enough for me. I haven't forgotten how you ran off the + Peters Bridge last fall," said Carter. + </p> + <p> + "Hang it, man, he wasn't thinking about bridges that time," said the + cheerful bore. "There was a girl with him. Elea—Ahem! I say, old + man, what the devil time is it? Time for the confounded 'bus? Don't want + to miss the train." He had caught the scowl of warning from Carter and, + for a wonder, understood. + </p> + <p> + "By the way," said Windomshire, irrelevantly, "what was the disturbance + over in O'Brien's Lane this morning? Anybody hurt? I was driving the car + up Andrews' Hill when I saw the excitement. Couldn't make it out. Were all + of the horses running away?" + </p> + <p> + "Running away!" roared the blase man, forgetting his pose for the first + time. "Running away!" and he broke into a roar of laughter. "Why, that was + the advance guard of the Faraway Country Club. Good Lord, did you see them + coming in?" + </p> + <p> + "My word, they were coming in. But what was the rush? I came over to-night + to see if any of the women had been hurt. I could have sworn the horses + were absolutely unmanageable. They were tearing through bushes and taking + fences they'd never seen before. Egad, I give you my word, one of the + women took the fence at the south end of the golf course, and she didn't + turn out for the bunker at No. 7, either. She took it like a bird, and + straight across the course she flew on a dead line for the home green. + What the deuce—-" + </p> + <p> + "Sh! Windomshire, it will cost you your life if she hears you. That was + Mrs. Scudaway. You don't know what happened, so I'll tell you. Half a + dozen of the women went out with us for a run over the usual course. They + are among our best and oldest hunters, too. Well, they were keeping right + up with the men and having a splendid hunt, when all of a sudden a real, + live fox dashed into view. By gad, sir, he started a panic. They'd never + seen one in their lives, and they set up a howl that went clear to heaven. + And they started for home—well, you saw 'em on the stretch. It was + great! There never has been such riding in America. Mrs. Hooper lost her + hat in the woods, and Mrs. Graves lost part of her habit coming through + that break in the hedge over there. That skinny Miss Elperson, who never + before has had nerve enough to jump her horse over the lawn hose, cleared + the wall that runs along O'Brien's mill,—nobody's ever done it + before,—and she came in hanging to the horse's mane and yelling like + a wild-cat. Gad, it was two hours before we got 'em quiet and sent'em to + town. They thought it was a tiger, I understand, although some of them + held out for the lion and the hyena. Mrs. Scudaway was game enough to stay + and enjoy the laugh." + </p> + <p> + "What became of the fox?" demanded the Englishman, his eyes glistening. At + that moment the women came trooping down stairs; the 'bus bell was + clanging sleepily. + </p> + <p> + "The fox? Oh—er—hanged if I know. I—er—-" + </p> + <p> + "Were you riding?" + </p> + <p> + "Well—er—just a practice run, you know, old man. Er—I + say, ladies, the 'bus waits!" + </p> + <p> + Two minutes later the 'bus rolled away in the fog and drizzle, leaving + Dauntless and Windomshire alone on the steps. + </p> + <p> + "Good-night," said the Englishman, after an awkward silence. + </p> + <p> + "Good-night," was the response. Then, following a brief pause, both + started toward their cars. The next minute they were chugging away, in the + night and the lights in the clubhouse began to go out. + </p> + <p> + Two hours later a stealthy figure crept across the Thursdale lawn, lurking + behind the rose beds and lilac bushes, finally worming its way to a + dripping but secluded spot under the weather side of the house. It was + past twelve o'clock, but there were still lights in the front part of the + big summer-house. Quiet reigned there, however; the noise of merry-making + came from the servants' quarters overlooking the ravine. A handful of + gravel left an impatient hand and rattled against the second-story window + above. Almost instantaneously the window was raised and a head came forth. + </p> + <p> + "Joe?" came a shrill whisper from above. + </p> + <p> + "What's the matter?" whispered the man below. "I've been waiting out there + for two hours—well, half an hour, at least. Aren't you coming, + dear?" + </p> + <p> + "I can't get out," came in a whispered wail. "I've had my hat on for + hours, but—-" + </p> + <p> + "Why can't you get out? Good Lord, you just must!" + </p> + <p> + "They're playing bridge in the front part of the house and the servants + are having a reunion in the back. Oh, I've been nearly crazy. What are we + to do? Shall I jump?" + </p> + <p> + "Don't! Is there no way to sneak out?" + </p> + <p> + "I'm afraid of being seen. It would give everything away if any one saw me + in this automobile rigging at this time of night—and in a rain like + this, too. Oh, dear, dear, I know I shall go mad! You poor darling, aren't + you wet to the skin? I really couldn't help it. I just couldn't be there + at 11.30." + </p> + <p> + "We'll never make that train—never in the world," groaned Dauntless. + "It's ten miles, and the road's horrible all the way. By Jove, Nell, you + must get out some way. It's now or never. I've got everything fixed." + </p> + <p> + "Oh, Joe—listen! Do you think you can get a ladder out from under + the verandah? The painters left them there this morning. Look out for + paint, dear. Don't make a noise—not a sound. Mr. Windomshire's room + is just over the porte cochere. For Heaven's sake, don't arouse him." + </p> + <p> + "Drop your bag down first, dear,—here! I'll catch it." + </p> + <p> + "I've got to put some things in it first. It isn't quite ready," she + gasped, darting away from the window. + </p> + <p> + "'T was ever thus," he muttered in despair. Cautiously he made his way to + the end of the verandah. A close listener might have heard him snarl + "damn" more than once as he tugged away at the painters' ladders, which + had been left there when the rain began. He was a good-natured chap, but + barking his knuckles, bumping his head, and banging his shins, added to + the misfortunes that had gone before, were enough to demoralise a saint. + </p> + <p> + He imagined that he was making enough noise to rouse the neighbours for + blocks around. No time was to be lost in self-commiseration, however. He + hurriedly dragged out a ladder, which he managed to place against the + window-sill without accident. + </p> + <p> + "Here it is," she whispered excitedly. The next instant a heavy object + dropped at his feet with a crash. "Oh!" she exclaimed with horror, "my + perfume bottles!" + </p> + <p> + "Good Lord!" he gasped. + </p> + <p> + "I thought you were going to catch it. Oh, here's the ladder. Do you think + I'll fall? Oh, oh!" + </p> + <p> + "Don't be afraid. Climb out, dear—and hurry!" + </p> + <p> + She was brave enough in the crisis. While he held the bottom of the ladder + she scrambled through the window and hurried downward. Before she reached + the bottom he lifted her from the ladder in his strong arms and held her + close for a moment. + </p> + <p> + "Take the ladder down, dearest," she whispered between kisses. "I don't + want mother to know I left that way—not just yet,—nor Mr. + Windomshire, either." + </p> + <p> + "Come this way," he whispered, after replacing the ladder. "I left the car + just around the corner. Come on, darling, and we'll soon be safe. Don't + make a noise!" + </p> + <p> + "Goodness, isn't it dark! What a horrid night! Oh, what's that?" + </p> + <p> + "Gad, I thought I heard something over there in the croquet ground. + Sounded like some one mixing it up with a wicket. Quick! Out this way!" He + had her hand in his, and was rushing ruthlessly through flower-beds toward + the big gate, her travelling bag banging against his knee with the + insistence of a hundredweight. + </p> + <p> + Panting and gasping for breath, they finally floundered into the roadway, + and dashed off through the muddy surface toward the unseen automobile. + </p> + <p> + She was half fainting with the panic of excitement as he started to lift + her into the tonneau of the car. "No, no! Please let me sit with you in + the front seat," she implored. She had her way, and a moment later he was + up beside her, both wrapped in the oil-cloths, the drizzle blowing in + their hot faces. + </p> + <p> + "We're off, thank God!" he whispered joyously, as the car leaped forward + under his hand. + </p> + <p> + "I wonder—oh, dear, how I wonder what mamma will say," she was + crying in his ear. + </p> + <p> + Dauntless grinned happily as the car shot onward through the blackness of + the night. Its lanterns were dark and cold, but he knew the road. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II — THE FLYERS CATCH THE FLYER + </h2> + <p> + No one would have recognised either of them had it been possible to see + them,—so carefully were their heads swathed in their coverings. She + was veiled and he was goggled, and both of them scrooged down in the seat + apprehensively. Hardy's car, borrowed in reality for the occasion, was + performing nobly. It careened through the muddy streets of the village + with a sturdiness that augured well for the enterprise. Out into the + country road, scudding northward, it sped. Dauntless increased the speed, + not to the limit, on account of the fog and uncertainty of the road, but + enough to add new thrills to the girl who crouched beside him. Neither + spoke until they were far from the town line; the strain was too intense. + </p> + <p> + "What will everybody say?" she finally cried in his ear—the most + natural question in the world. "And the newspapers? Oh, dear!" + </p> + <p> + "You're not weakening, are you?" he cried. "Shall I turn back?" + </p> + <p> + She was silent for half a mile. + </p> + <p> + "No," she replied at last, "I couldn't climb UP that ladder. And besides—" + with a gasp as the car shot over the railroad tracks,—"we never + could get as good a start as this again." + </p> + <p> + "Bully for you!" he shouted. + </p> + <p> + "How far is it to Fenlock, Joe?" she asked, a quaver in her high-pitched + voice. + </p> + <p> + "About seven miles. We'll take the short cut through O'Brien's Lane and + strike Cobberly Road again at the crossroads. Then it will be easy going. + We'll catch the flyer all right, Nell. Everything's arranged. You go into + Car 5 and I in Car 7—" + </p> + <p> + "With a whole car between us? Heavens!" + </p> + <p> + "It's safest, dear. There might happen to be some one on board who'd know + us and suspect. Keep your veil down until you get into the berth. There's + not much danger of any one being up at this time of night, but don't take + any chances." + </p> + <p> + "Goodness, isn't it thrilling! And when do we get to Omegon?" + </p> + <p> + "Little after seven in the morning. My cousin will meet us in a hack and + drive us straight to the church. His wife will go with us as the extra + witness. By eight o'clock we'll be married. Derby will be on the train + with us. He's a full-fledged preacher now, and he'll marry us without a + whimper." + </p> + <p> + "Oh," she sighed deliciously, in spite of the jarring of the motor, "isn't + it nice to have old college chums who can be depended upon?" + </p> + <p> + "Poor old Windomshire," he laughed in the buoyancy of conquest. + </p> + <p> + "I don't think he'll—-" She stopped. + </p> + <p> + "What?" + </p> + <p> + "Care very much," she concluded. He laughed doubtingly. + </p> + <p> + Mile after mile the car traversed the misty night, jolting over the ruts + in the lane, taking the hills blindly—driven entirely by the hand of + Good Luck. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly the "honk, honk!" of an invisible motor struck upon their tense + ears, the sound coming from some point ahead in the black, narrow lane. + Dauntless sat straight and peered ahead, sounding his horn sharply. + </p> + <p> + "I hope no one is coming toward us," he groaned, slowing up sharply. "We + never can pass in this confounded lane. If we get off into the soft ground—Hello! + Here he comes—and no lights either! Hey! Look out!" He brought his + car to an abrupt standstill. + </p> + <p> + "Where are we, Joe?" she cried. + </p> + <p> + "Near the crossroads, I'm sure. Curse an idiot that runs around without + lights on a night like this," he growled, forgetting that his own lamps + were dark. + </p> + <p> + Out of the misty blackness loomed another car, directly ahead. It had come + to a sudden stop not ten feet away. Both cars were tooting their horns + viciously. + </p> + <p> + "Where are your lights?" roared Dauntless. + </p> + <p> + "Where are yours?" came back angrily through the fog. + </p> + <p> + "Good Lord!" gasped Joe, panic-stricken. + </p> + <p> + "It's Mr. Windomshire," whispered Eleanor, in consternation. + </p> + <p> + Before she realised what was happening her companion lifted her bodily + over the back of the seat and deposited her in the bed of the tonneau. + </p> + <p> + "Hide, dearest," he whispered. "Get under the storm blankets. He must not + see you! I'll—I'll bluff it out some way." + </p> + <p> + "Wha—what is he doing out here in a machine?" she was whispering + wildly. "He is pursuing us! He has found out!" + </p> + <p> + In the other car Windomshire—for it was the tall Englishman—was + hoarsely whispering to some one beside him: + </p> + <p> + "It's Dauntless! Hang him! What's he doing here?" Then followed a hurried + scuffling and subdued whispers. A long silence, fraught with an importance + which the throbbing of the two engines was powerless to disturb, followed + the mutual discovery. Joe's brain worked the quicker. Disguising his voice + as best he could, he shouted through the fog: + </p> + <p> + "We can't pass here." + </p> + <p> + "Is—is this Cobberly Road?" cried Windomshire, striving to obtain + what he considered the American twang. + </p> + <p> + "No, it's not. It's O'Brien's Lane." + </p> + <p> + Then, after a long silence, "Can't you back out?" + </p> + <p> + "It's rather—I mean sorter risky, mister. I don't know how far I'd + have to back, doncherknow—er, ahem!" + </p> + <p> + "The crossroads can't be more than a hundred yards behind you. Where are + you going?" + </p> + <p> + "I'm going for—a doctor," called Windomshire, hastily. + </p> + <p> + "Well, then, we ought not to stand here all night," groaned Joe, his ears + open to catch the sound of the locomotive's whistle. There was no time to + be lost. + </p> + <p> + "I'll—I'll try to back her out," shouted Windomshire. Eleanor + whispered something shrilly and anxiously from the tonneau, and Joe called + out instantly: + </p> + <p> + "Who is ill?" + </p> + <p> + "Mrs.—Mrs. Smith," replied the other, bravely. + </p> + <p> + "Good!" exclaimed Dauntless, heartily. Windomshire was not in the least + annoyed by the lack of sympathy. He began to drive his car backward by + jerks and jolts, blindly trusting to luck in the effort to reach the road + which he had passed in his haste a few minutes before. Joe was shouting + encouragement and pushing slowly forward in his own machine. The noise of + the engines was deafening. + </p> + <p> + "Hang it all, man, don't blow your horn like that!" roared Windomshire at + last, harassed and full of dread. Joe, in his abstraction, was sounding + his siren in a most insulting manner. + </p> + <p> + At last Windomshire's wheels struck a surface that seemed hard and + resisting. He gave a shout of joy. + </p> + <p> + "Here we are! It's macadam!" + </p> + <p> + "Cobberly Road," cried Joe. "Back off to the right and let me run in + ahead. I'm—I'm in a devil of a hurry." + </p> + <p> + "By Gad, sir, so am I. Hi, hold back there! Look out where you're going, + confound you!" + </p> + <p> + "Now for it," cried Joe to Eleanor. "We've got the lead; I'll bet a bun he + can't catch us." He had deliberately driven across the other's bows, as it + were, scraping the wheel, and was off over Cobberly Road like the wind. + "Turn to your right at the next crossing," he shouted back to Windomshire. + Then to himself hopefully: "If he does that, he'll miss Fenlock by three + miles." + </p> + <p> + They had covered two rash, terrifying miles before a word was spoken. Then + he heard her voice in his ear—an anxious, troubled voice that could + scarcely be heard above the rushing wind. + </p> + <p> + "What will we do if the train is late, dear? He'll be—be sure to + catch us." + </p> + <p> + "She's never late. Besides, what if he does catch us? We don't have to go + back, do we? You're of age. Brace up; be a man!" he called back + encouragingly. + </p> + <p> + "There are too many men as it is," she wailed, sinking back into the + tonneau. + </p> + <p> + "Here we are!" he shouted, as the car whizzed into a murky, dimly lighted + street on the edge of Fenlock, the county seat. "There are the station + lights just ahead." + </p> + <p> + "Is the train in?" she cried, struggling to her feet eagerly. + </p> + <p> + "I think not." He was slowing down. A moment later the throbbing car came + to a stop beside the railway station platform. The lights blinked feebly + through the mist; far off in the night arose the faint toot of a + locomotive's whistle. + </p> + <p> + "We're just in time," he cried. "She's coming. Quick!" He lifted her + bodily over the side of the car, jerked two suitcases from beneath the + curtains, and rushed frantically to the shelter of the platform sheds. + </p> + <p> + "I'll leave you here, dear," he was saying rapidly. "Wait a second; there + is your railroad ticket and your drawing-room ticket, too. I'll wake Derby + when I get on board. I have to run the automobile down to Henry's garage + first. Won't take ten seconds. Don't worry. The train won't be here for + three or four minutes. Get on board and go to sleep. I'll be two cars + ahead." + </p> + <p> + "Oh, Joe, won't I see you again before we start?" she cried despairingly. + </p> + <p> + "I'll be back in a minute. It's only half a block to Henry's. All I have + to do is to leave the car in front of his place. His men will look after + it. It's all understood, dearest; don't worry. I'll be here before the + train, never fear. Stand here in the shadow, dear." He gave her what might + have been a passionate kiss had it not been for the intervention of veil + and goggles. Then he was off to the motor, his heart thumping frantically. + Standing as stiff and motionless as a statue against the damp brick wall, + she heard the automobile leap away and go pounding down the street. + Apparently she was alone on the platform; the ticking of telegraph + instruments came to her anxious ears, however, and she knew there were + living people inside the long, low building. The experience certainly was + new to this tall, carefully nurtured girl. Never before had she been left + alone at such an hour and place; it goes without saying that the + circumstances were unique. Here she was, standing alone in the most + wretched of nights, her heart throbbing with a dozen emotions, her eyes + and ears labouring in a new and thrilling enterprise, her whole life + poised on the social dividing line. She was running away to marry the man + she had loved for years; slipping away from the knot that ambition was + trying to throw over her rebellious head. If she had any thought of the + past or the future, however, it was lost among the fears and anxieties of + the present. Her soul was crying out for the approach of two objects—Joe + Dauntless and the north-bound flyer. + </p> + <p> + Her sharp ears caught the sound which told her that the motor had stopped + down the street; it was a welcome sound, for it meant that he was racing + back to the station—and just in time, too; the flyer was pounding + the rails less than half a mile away. + </p> + <p> + Fenlock was a division point in the railroad. The company's yards and the + train despatcher's office were located there. A huge round-house stood off + to the right; half a dozen big headlights glared out at the shivering + Eleanor like so many spying, accusing eyes. She knew that all trains + stopped in Fenlock. Joe had told her that the flyer's pause was the + briefest of any during the day or night; still she wondered if it would go + thundering through and spoil everything. + </p> + <p> + Miss Thursdale, watching the approaching headlight, her ears filled with + the din of the wheels, did not see or hear a second motor car rush up to + the extreme south end of the platform. She was not thinking of Windomshire + or his machine. That is why she failed to witness an extraordinary + incident. + </p> + <p> + As the driver leaped from the car a second man disconnected himself from + the shadows, paused for a moment to take orders from the new arrival, and + then jumped into the seat just vacated. Whereupon the one-time driver + performed precisely the same feat that Dauntless had performed three + minutes before him. He jerked forth a couple of bags and then proceeded to + lift from the tonneau of the car a vague but animate something, which, an + instant later, resolved itself into the form of a woman at his side. + </p> + <p> + "I've settled with the company, Meaders," hurriedly announced Windomshire + to the man on the seat. "The car is in your hands now." + </p> + <p> + "Yes, sir; I understand. Your week is up to-night. Hope it was + satisfactory, sir." The car shot off in the night, almost running down a + man who scudded across the street in its path. + </p> + <p> + "Just in time, Anne," said Windomshire to the tall, hooded figure beside + him. "Thank God, we didn't miss it." + </p> + <p> + "Hasn't it been good sport, Harry?" cried the young woman, with an + unmistakably English inflection. "It's just like a book." + </p> + <p> + "Only more so," he observed. "This has really happened, you know. Things + never really happen in books, don't you know. You've not lost your + tickets, dear?" + </p> + <p> + "No; they do that only in books. Really, I'm trembling like a leaf. I + can't realise that it is all taking place as we planned, and that I am to + be your wife after all. Ah, Harry! isn't it splendid?" + </p> + <p> + "'Gad, little woman, I am the one who hasn't the right to realise. By + Jove, I didn't give myself credit for the cleverness to fool every one so + neatly. Really, don't you know, however, I feel a bit sorry for Miss + Thursdale. She's a ripping good sort, and I'm sorry on that account." + </p> + <p> + Miss Courtenay—erstwhile governess—took hold of the lapels of + his raincoat and looked seriously up into his face. "Are you sure you'll + never regret giving her up for me—with all her money?" + </p> + <p> + "Oh, I say, Anne dear, it's I who am running away, not you. I've always + wanted you—all my life. I've been something of a cad—-" + </p> + <p> + "It wasn't your fault. Mrs. Thursdale was bound to have you. It's her + way." + </p> + <p> + "It hurts my pride to say it, but hanged if I think—er—Eleanor + was very strong for the match. I've a notion she was bullied into it." + </p> + <p> + "I'm quite sure of it." + </p> + <p> + "You're doing her a good turn, my dear. You see, I couldn't love her, and + I'd probably have beaten her and all that. It wasn't as if I had to marry + her for her money. Deuce take it, I've got a few pounds of my own." + </p> + <p> + "I'm only Anne Courtenay, the governess." + </p> + <p> + "You'll be Lady Windomshire some day, my word for it—if the other + chaps manage to die, God bless 'em. I say, here's the train. Good-night, + dear, up you go! I'll go up ahead. Don't forget! The wedding's at noon + to-morrow." + </p> + <p> + The long, shadowy train came to a stop. He elbowed the porter aside and + helped her up the steps. Neither of them noticed the vague figure which + rushed across the platform and into the second car below. + </p> + <p> + "Where's the luggage car?" shouted Windomshire to the porter. + </p> + <p> + "The what?" + </p> + <p> + "I mean the baggage van." + </p> + <p> + "Way up front, sir. Where they're puttin' on the trunks, sir." + </p> + <p> + Swinging his travelling bag almost at arm's length, the long Englishman + raced forward. His own and Miss Courtenay's pieces had come over during + the afternoon, skilfully smuggled out of the Thursdale house. Just as he + reached the baggage truck a panting, mud-covered individual dashed up from + the opposite direction, madly rushing for the train. They tried to avoid a + collision, but failed. A second later the two men were staring into each + other's eyes, open-mouthed and dismayed. + </p> + <p> + "Hello!" gasped Dauntless, staggered. + </p> + <p> + "What the devil, sir, do—My word! It's Dauntless!" sputtered + Windomshire. + </p> + <p> + "Where is she?" shouted Joe, convinced that his rival had captured his + runaway fiancee and was now confronting him for explanation. + </p> + <p> + "Confound you, sir, it's none of your business," roared Windomshire, + confident that Dauntless had been sent by Mrs. Thursdale to intercept him + in his flight with the governess. "Damn your impudence!" + </p> + <p> + "Stand aside, Windomshire," exclaimed Joe, white with anger and dread. + "I'm going to find her. What have you done with her?" + </p> + <p> + "You sha'n't interfere, Dauntless," cried Windomshire, squaring himself. + "She's going to be my wife, and—-" + </p> + <p> + "I guess NOT! Get out of my way, or—-" + </p> + <p> + "She's on that train, confound you, and I'm going away with her whether + you like it or not—or anybody else, for that matter," said + Windomshire, refusing to budge an inch. + </p> + <p> + "Well, you'll have a damned hard time getting rid of me," roared Joe, + trying to break past his rival. A baggage-man leaped between them in time + to prevent blows. He held the angry, mistaken rivals apart,—rivals + no longer, if they only knew. "Let go of me! Hold this fellow and I'll + give you a hundred dollars—hold him till the train goes!" + </p> + <p> + "Hold me, will you? My word! What is this? A highway robbery!" + </p> + <p> + Both men broke away from the baggage-man and rushed frantically down the + line of cars, each trying to hold the other back. Joe succeeded in + grasping the handrail of the first sleeping-car, but his adversary pulled + him away. An instant later they were struggling across the station + platform, clasped in savage and hysterical combat. The station employees + were rushing up to separate them when the train began to move slowly away. + </p> + <p> + They came to their senses a moment later to find themselves held firmly by + brawny peacemakers, the black cars rushing swiftly by without them. + </p> + <p> + Forgetting the battle so inopportunely begun, they started off madly in + pursuit, shouting, yelling, commanding. But the flyer was deaf to their + cries, callous against their tears. It whistled off into the north, + carrying two trusting, nervous young women, who were secure in the belief + that their liege lords to be were aboard, utterly unconscious of the true + state of affairs. In the drawing-room of Car 5 Eleanor was still sitting, + with her veil down, her raincoat saturating the couch on which she sat + stiff and silent. Anne Courtenay in Car 7 was philosophically preparing + for bed, absolutely confident that the Englishman she had loved for years + was not going to fail her. + </p> + <p> + Windomshire, alas, came to grief in his useless pursuit. He fell off the + end of the platform and rolled in the mud, half stunned. When he painfully + picked himself up, he saw Dauntless sitting on the edge of the walk, his + haggard, staring face lighted by the glare of a sympathetic lantern. The + station agent was offering vain but well-intended commiseration. + </p> + <p> + "Good God!" he heard Joe groan, but he did not catch the words, "she's + gone without me!" + </p> + <p> + The next instant the distracted eloper was on his feet demanding a special + engine. + </p> + <p> + "I've got to have it!" he shouted. + </p> + <p> + Windomshire's wits returned. Why not have a special too? It was the only + way. + </p> + <p> + "You can order one for me, too," he exclaimed. "At once. It's imperative." + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III — THE MORNING AFTER + </h2> + <p> + The sun was peeping over the hilltops and shooting his merry glance across + the rain-soaked lowlands when Eleanor Thursdale awoke from her final + snatch of slumber. A hundred feverish lapses into restless + subconsciousness had marked the passage of nearly as many miles of clatter + and turmoil. Never before had she known a train to be so noisy; never + before had she lain awake long enough to make the natural discovery. It + seemed hours before she dropped off in the first surrender to sleep; it + seemed hours between the succeeding falls. Her brain and heart were waging + the most relentless battle against peace and security. She KNEW Joe + Dauntless was but two cars ahead, and yet she wondered if were really + there; she wondered and was troubled—oh, so troubled. + </p> + <p> + Daylight was creeping in beneath the curtain of the window. She stretched + her fine, tired young body, and for the first time really felt like going + to sleep. The perversity of early morning! Gradually it dawned upon her + that the train was not moving; as far back as she could recall in her now + wakeful spell it occurred to her that the cars had been standing still and + that everything was as quiet as death. She looked at her watch; it was six + o'clock. + </p> + <p> + "Goodness!" she thought, sitting up suddenly, "what is the matter?" The + curtain flew up and her startled eyes blinked out upon the glaring world. + </p> + <p> + There was not a house in sight as far as her eyes could range forward and + behind. Instead, a wide sweep of farm lands partially submerged by the + flood water of many rains. Far away there were brown hills and a long army + of tall trees standing at attention,—a bleak prospect despite the + cheery intentions of the sun, which lurked behind the hills. Despondent + cornstalks of last year's growth stood guard over the soggy fields; + drenched, unhappy tufts of grass, and forlorn but triumphant reeds arose + here and there from the watery wastes, asserting their victory over a + dismantled winter. It was not a glorious view that met the gaze of the + bride on her wedding morn. + </p> + <p> + Strangest of all, the train was so quiet, so utterly inactive, that an + absurd feeling of loneliness grew upon her, gradually developing into the + alarming certainty that she was the only living person in the world. Then + she heard men's voices outside of the window; her relief was almost + hysterical. Scrambling out of the berth, she began a hasty, nervous + toilet. Three sharp pushes on the button brought the company's ladies' + maid—advertised as a part of the luxury and refinement which made + the flyer "the finest train in the world." + </p> + <p> + "What has happened? Where are we?" she demanded, upon the entrance of the + sleepy young coloured woman. + </p> + <p> + "The Pride River bridge is washed away, ma'am," said the maid. "We can't + go on no furder." + </p> + <p> + "Dear me," sighed Eleanor, turning to be buttoned at the back. "And where + is Pride River bridge—or where was it, I mean?" + </p> + <p> + "'Bout twenty mile south of Omegon, ma'am—miss. The river's a sight—highest + 'at it's ever been known. It's all over the bottoms. This here train came + mighty nigh running into it, too. A boy flagged it just in time, 'bout + five o'clock." + </p> + <p> + "Have we been standing here a whole hour?" + </p> + <p> + "Yes, miss; right here. They say we can't go back till the section boss + has examined the track in Baxter's Cut. Seems as though there's some + danger of a washout back yander." + </p> + <p> + "Do you mean to say we are likely to stay here indefinitely?" gasped + Eleanor. "Ouch! Be careful, please!" + </p> + <p> + "Oh, it won't be long. The porter says they've sent back over the line to + telegraft for the section men." + </p> + <p> + "Good Heavens, is there no station here?" + </p> + <p> + "No, ma'am; five miles back. They's one jest across the river, but it + might as well be in Africa." + </p> + <p> + "Be quick, please, and then send the conductor to me—and the porter + too," urged Eleanor, in distress. + </p> + <p> + The porter was the first to arrive. + </p> + <p> + "Porter, will you go to Car 7 and see if the occupant of lower 4 is awake? + I am quite sure that is right, but if it should happen to be wrong, please + let me know at once." + </p> + <p> + "Yes, miss; and what shall I tell her?" + </p> + <p> + "Ahem! It's a—a gentleman. Ask him to—to come to the rear end + of the train. That's all. Oh, conductor, how soon will we be on the track + again?" The conductor was standing in the door, evidently impressed by the + summons from the drawing-room. + </p> + <p> + "We're not off the track, madam. There is no danger—just a little + delay. I have telegraphed to see if I can have a relief train come down + from Omegon and pick us up after we've been ferried across the river." + </p> + <p> + "This is the very worst road I've ever travelled over—the very + worst," was Eleanor's natural complaint. "When will that get us to + Omegon?" + </p> + <p> + "We should be there in an hour after leaving here." + </p> + <p> + "And when did you say we'd leave here?" + </p> + <p> + "I didn't say. I don't know." + </p> + <p> + "Who does know, if you don't?" demanded Eleanor. + </p> + <p> + "God, I presume," observed the harassed conductor, turning away with the + realisation that he had erred in coming to her in the first place. The + porter returned at that moment. + </p> + <p> + "Nobody in that section, ma'am. It was sold, but the party didn't show + up." + </p> + <p> + "Good Heavens, you—but he DID show up. I—I know he did. Look + again. Try—but wait! Ask for Mr. Dauntless. Ask quietly, please." + </p> + <p> + "Yes, ma'am." + </p> + <p> + Her nerves at highest tension, Miss Thursdale made her way toward the rear + platform of the train. She passed down the curtained aisles of two + coaches, wondering how people could sleep so soundly in a crisis like + this. A porter politely opened a door and she slipped out upon the last + platform. As far as the eye could reach stretched the roadbed and its + telegraph poles, finally disappearing in the haze of the morning. + Wide-spread flood, soaking the flat— + </p> + <p> + A sharp cry of amazement came from the track just below her. She looked + down and into the eyes of Anne Courtenay, the governess. For a full minute + they stared blankly at each other, apparently bereft of all the agencies + that fall to the lot of woman. + </p> + <p> + "Miss Courtenay!" finally came from the lips of the girl on the platform. + </p> + <p> + "Miss Thursdale!" murmured Anne, reaching out to support herself against + the bumper. Other words failed to come for the time being. In sheer + despair, neither could accomplish more than a pallid smile. To the reader + is left the privilege of analysing the thoughts which surged through the + brains of the bewildered young women,—the fears, the doubts, the + resentments. + </p> + <p> + "Where—where have you been?" at last fell from Miss Thursdale's + lips. + </p> + <p> + "Been?" repeated Miss Courtenay, vaguely. "Oh, yes; I've been taking a + walk—a constitutional. I always do." + </p> + <p> + Eleanor stared harder than ever. "All this distance?" she murmured. + </p> + <p> + "Down the track for half a mile, Miss Thursdale." + </p> + <p> + "Are—were you on this train?" ejaculated Eleanor. + </p> + <p> + "Yes—but I—I—-" stammered Anne, her face growing red + with rising resentment. "I did not think this of you." + </p> + <p> + "What do you mean? It is—May I ask why you are here, Miss Courtenay? + It is most extraordinary." + </p> + <p> + "It is very easily explained," said Miss Courtenay, after a moment's + battle with veracity. "My aunt is very ill in Vancouver." To herself she + was saying: "I must keep her from really seeing Harry. She knows what he + has done—in heaven's name, how could she have found it out?—and + she is waiting to catch us if she can. She has followed us! Thank + goodness, I've seen her first." + </p> + <p> + Eleanor was not blessed with the possibility of such an explanation for + Anne's presence; she could only believe that the governess had been + suddenly called to the bedside of her aunt—a real person, she + happened to know, and very rich. But how was she to account for her own + astonishing departure from home? Miss Courtenay had seen her at dinner; + nothing had been said regarding "an unexpected journey." In truth, Eleanor + remembered with inflexible accuracy that she had announced her intention + to go to bed with a headache. Then, what must Miss Courtenay be thinking + at this very instant? + </p> + <p> + An inspiration came to her like a flash. "I—I am running away, Miss + Courtenay," she cried, with a brave attempt to appear naive. + </p> + <p> + "I don't understand," murmured poor Anne. + </p> + <p> + "Of course you don't," said Eleanor, inspiration heaping itself up within + her. "Not really, you know, but just for a few days' rest. Mother thinks + I'm looking wretchedly. We didn't say anything about it—except to + Mr. Windomshire, of course. He knows. Perhaps he will run up to Omegon in + a day or two to see me. It's very quiet there, and I'll get a good rest. + The hotel is delightful—facing the lake. And the bathing's good. + Dear me, I'm so sorry about your aunt." Miss Courtenay's eyes actually + blinked with perplexity. This was a most staggering bit of news. Eleanor + flushed painfully under the gaze of the other; utter rout followed. She + stammered some flimsy excuse and dashed back into the car. To herself she + was crying: "I must find Joe and tell him to keep out of sight. Oh, how + awful this is!" + </p> + <p> + Just inside the door she met her porter. + </p> + <p> + "There's nobody named Dauntless on the train, miss. A gentleman who said + he was his friend thinks he missed the train perhaps." + </p> + <p> + "He—he—oh, I see!" said Eleanor, suddenly perceiving method in + Joe's reluctance to answer to his own name. "Thank you. That's all." Then, + to herself: "He has seen Miss Courtenay, and she HASN'T seen him,—that's + plain." She handed the porter a coin. + </p> + <p> + "I went to the berth you mentioned, ma'am, and I asked through the + curtains: 'Is Mr. Dauntless in here?' There was a lady in the upper, miss, + an'—an'—well, I'll never forget what she said to me." Eleanor + had gone before he concluded, determined to unearth her cautious lover, if + possible. + </p> + <p> + Anne caught the porter before he could follow. + </p> + <p> + "See here, porter," she whispered softly, "go to Car 5, section 6, and + call its occupant. Tell him NOT to get up. Do you understand? NOT to get + up!" + </p> + <p> + It goes without saying, of course, that all efforts, secret or otherwise, + failed to locate the missing men. The distracted brides, each trying to + run away from the other in a way, were in a state of collapse, necessarily + subdued but most alarming. The Rev. Henry Derby, a nice-looking young + fellow, who looked more like a tennis player than a minister of the + gospel, eventually identified his old friend's ladye faire, and introduced + himself with a discreetness that proved him to have been in college at the + proper period and in a somewhat different class from that which he now + sought to lead. In the privacy of her drawing-room the bewitching but + distressed young woman discussed the situation with the man who had been + chosen to perform the clandestine ceremony in the far-away town of Omegon. + Derby, coming on from his eastern home in loyal acquiescence to his + friend's request, had designedly taken this train, it being understood + that Dauntless would board it at Fenlock with his fair conspirator. We all + know why Dauntless failed to perform his part of the agreement; Derby, + with the perspicuity of a college man, finally advanced a reason for his + inexplicable failure to appear. Eleanor had begun tearfully to accuse him + of abandoning her at the last moment; Mr. Derby indignantly scouted the + idea. When she related their chase in the motor and their escape from + Windomshire, he formed his conclusions, and they were in the main + remarkably correct. + </p> + <p> + "I'm afraid, Miss Thursdale, that your disappointed lover, our ancient + enemy, the Englishman, was not to be overcome so neatly. Has it occurred + to you that he may have reached Fenlock before the train left, and that he + is the explanation for Joe's non-appearance?" + </p> + <p> + "You—you don't mean that he has killed—-" she was gasping, + growing whiter and whiter. He hastened to reassure her. + </p> + <p> + "Oh, no; not so bad as that. But it is possible and quite probable that he—if, + as you say, he was on to your—I should say, aware of your flight, it + is probable that he succeeded in detaining Joe in Fenlock. That would—-" + "Impossible! Joe wouldn't let him!" she cried indignantly. + </p> + <p> + "Perhaps Joe couldn't help himself. Such things happen. At any rate, + you'll understand, the despised enemy could have—-" + </p> + <p> + "Mr. Windomshire is not a despised enemy. He's a VERY nice man, Mr. + Derby," she interrupted. + </p> + <p> + "Certainly, Miss Thursdale. What I meant to say was, that he was morally + sure of preventing the wedding if he could only keep you far enough apart. + Now that is probably what he has done. You can't marry Joe in Omegon or + anywhere else unless he is there and not in Fenlock." + </p> + <p> + "I see. Well, I'll go back to Fenlock!" she exclaimed emphatically, a + little line of determination and stubbornness settling about the erstwhile + trembling lips. + </p> + <p> + "I admire your loyalty," he said warmly. "Just at present, however, we are + water-bound here, and we've got to make the best of it. I fancy Joe will + telegraph before long." + </p> + <p> + "If—if he hasn't been hurt. Oh, Mr. Derby, they may have fought. It + would be just like them. It may be dreadfully serious. You don't know as + much about men as I do. They're terribly—-" + </p> + <p> + "Please don't worry, Miss Thursdale," he said, smiling in recollection of + his football days. "You'll find there's been nothing bloody about all + this. The delay is vexatious, but only temporary, I'm sure." + </p> + <p> + "I'll marry Joe Dauntless now if it has to be delayed a hundred years," + she cried, her eyes flashing. + </p> + <p> + During the next half-hour poor Derby ran errands, carried messages and + complaints to every one of the train men, finally administering smelling + salts when it occurred to Eleanor that Joe might have fallen off the train + during the night. + </p> + <p> + In the meantime Anne Courtenay was having a sad half-hour of it. She had + no one to turn to, no one to think it all out for her; she was alone and + in great despair. The porter had failed to find the tall Englishman; the + conductor had been equally unsuccessful; she herself had searched in vain. + His trunks and hers were in the baggage car, she found, but there was no + sign of the man himself. She was a self-reliant, sensible young woman, + accustomed to the rigours of the world, but this was quite too + overwhelming. The presence on the train of the girl that she had, to all + intents and purposes, cruelly deceived, did not add to her comfort. As a + matter of fact, she was quite fond of Eleanor; they were warm friends + despite the vagaries of love. Miss Courtenay, among other things, began to + wonder, as she sat in her tumbled berth, if retribution had more to do + with this than chance. + </p> + <p> + "Could he have fallen off the train?" she wondered, with a sudden chill of + apprehension. The next instant she was calling to the porter. "Send the + conductor to me at once. My friend has fallen off the train—out of + his window, perhaps. I am quite sure of it. I want an engine to go back + and look for him. Hurry, please! don't stand there grinning." + </p> + <p> + The Pullman conductor came up at that moment. + </p> + <p> + "Are you the young lady who was asking for Mr. Dauntless?" he asked. + </p> + <p> + "Dauntless?" she murmured. "No, I'm asking for an engine. Have you—" + </p> + <p> + "There's another young lady asking for an engine, too, madam. It's + impossible." + </p> + <p> + "Am I to understand that I shall have to walk?—Oh," with a sudden + start, "is—is there a Mr. Dauntless missing too?" + </p> + <p> + "Seems so. He's gone." + </p> + <p> + Anne dropped the curtains in his face, and then stared at them for a long + time. Gradually she began to comprehend. A panic of fear came over her. + </p> + <p> + "They have met somewhere and quarrelled! Mr. Dauntless was jealous—terribly + so. He may have—good Heavens!—he may have killed him in the + mistaken idea that Harry was running away with Eleanor. She's on this very + train! It's perfectly natural. Porter," she called, "there has been foul + play!" + </p> + <p> + "Gee, miss! That's what the other lady is saying!" + </p> + <p> + "The other—then it is a double murder! Don't laugh! It's—it's—" + </p> + <p> + "Don't cry, miss; it's all right." She looked at him piteously for a + moment, and then smiled at the absurdity of her conjecture. + </p> + <p> + A tousled head came from between the curtains of the upper berth opposite, + and a sleepy, hoarse voice demanded: + </p> + <p> + "How long will we be here? What's the latest?" + </p> + <p> + "We're on time, sah," replied the porter, from sheer force of habit. + </p> + <p> + "The devil we are! Say, I've got to be in Omegon by ten o'clock. I'll sue + this infernal road," snarled the irascible party, snapping the curtains + together. It transpired that he was an agent for a medical college, + travelling to Omegon on a most unwholesome but edifying mission. He was + going up to take possession of the body of a man who had willed his + carcass to the school. As the poor chap was not yet dead, but hopelessly + ill, the desire for haste on the part of the agent may be misunderstood. + It seems, however, that there was some talk of interference by relatives—and + the disquieting prospect of a new will. + </p> + <p> + "If I were you, miss," counselled the porter, "I'd go out and take a + little walk. The sun is up, an' it's fine. The relief train will be here + 'fore long—an' you all will be rowed acrost the river. Don't worry." + </p> + <p> + "But I want to go back the way I came," expostulated Anne, feebly. "I + can't go on without—until I know what has happened to—to Mr. + Windomshire." She took his advice, however, and made her way to the rear + platform. + </p> + <p> + A number of disgruntled passengers were now abroad, and complaining + bitterly of the delay. There was no hope of breakfast until the train + reached Omegon, where a dining car was waiting. She stood on the platform + and looked gloomily back over the long stretch of roadbed. + </p> + <p> + "Isn't that an engine coming?" some one asked excitedly at her side. She + turned and found Miss Thursdale, attended by a gentleman, to whom the + question was addressed. + </p> + <p> + "I believe—yes, it is, Miss Thursdale." + </p> + <p> + "Then—then we'll all be taken back to the city," she said + dejectedly. + </p> + <p> + "I fancy not. It's probably bringing relief." + </p> + <p> + "They—they may be bringing bad news," Eleanor groaned. "Oh, Miss + Courtenay, how do you do—again? How is your—your grandmother, + wasn't it?" + </p> + <p> + "I—I—yes, I think so—I mean, I think she's no better. + They may be bringing his body!" said the other girl, her eyes fixed on the + distant locomotive. + </p> + <p> + "Oh!" almost screamed Eleanor, and stared wildly without words. + </p> + <p> + A brakeman far down the track was flagging the locomotive; it came to a + stop, and several men were seen climbing down from the cab. Two of them + eventually disengaged themselves from the little group and hurried + forward. One was carrying a suitcase, and both walked as though they were + either in pain or attended by extreme old age. + </p> + <p> + "Why—why—" gasped Eleanor, "it's Joe!" + </p> + <p> + "And—yes, thank God, it's Har—Mr. Windomshire," almost + shrieked Anne. + </p> + <p> + Then they turned and looked at each other in confusion. Neither had the + courage to carry out the desire to fly to the arms of the man she longed + to see more than all else in the world. They felt themselves to be caught + red-handed. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV — MRS. VAN TRUDER INTRUDES + </h2> + <p> + None but the most eager, loving eyes could possibly have recognised the + newcomers. It is not unlikely that the remaining passengers mistook them + for tramps. The rivals, morbidly suspicious of each other, taciturn to the + point of unfriendliness, had indeed chartered a locomotive—not + jointly by intention, but because of provoking necessity. There was but + one engine to be had. It is safe to say that while they travelled many + sore and turbulent miles in close proximity to each other, neither felt + called upon to offer or to demand an explanation. + </p> + <p> + Five hours in the tender of an engine had done much to reduce them to the + level of the men in the cab, so far as personal appearance was concerned. + They were still wearing their raincoats, much crumpled and discoloured; + their faces were covered with coal dust; they were wet, bedraggled, and + humble to the last degree. The American, naturally, was the one who clung + to his suitcase; he had foreseen the need for a change of linen. They came + toward the train with hesitating, uncertain steps. If their souls were + gladdened by the sight of the two young women, general appearances failed + to make record of it. It was noted by those who watched their approach + that once both of them stopped short and seemed to waver in their + determination to advance. That was when each became suddenly aware of the + presence of an unexpected girl. Naturally, the Englishman was seriously + staggered. The unexplained Eleanor appeared before his very eyes as an + accusing nemesis; it is no wonder that his jaw dropped and his befuddled + brain took to whirling. + </p> + <p> + The girls, less regardful of appearances, climbed down from the platform + and started forward to meet their knights-errant. The reader may readily + appreciate the feelings of the quartette. Not one of them knew just + precisely how much or how little the others knew; they were precariously + near to being lost in the labyrinth. Something intangible but regular + urged Windomshire to be politic; he advanced to meet Eleanor as if it were + her due. Anne fell back, perplexed and hurt. + </p> + <p> + "Hang it all," thought Joe, rage in his heart, "he beat me to her, after + all. He'll be enough of a damned ass to try to kiss her before all these + people, too." Whereupon, he closed his eyes tightly. When he opened them, + Miss Courtenay was walking beside him and asking questions about the + weather. Her cheeks were very pink. Windomshire had awkwardly clasped the + hand of Miss Thursdale, muttering something not quite intelligible, even + to himself. Eleanor was replying with equal blitheness. + </p> + <p> + "How nice of you to come. Where are you going?" + </p> + <p> + "Surprised, are you?" he was floundering. "Charmed. Ha, ha! By Jove, + Eleanor—er—I heard you were booked by this train and I—I + tried to catch it for a bit of a ride with you. I missed it, don't you + know. I'll—I'll wager you don't know what I did in my desperation." + </p> + <p> + "I couldn't guess," she said, trying to catch Joe's eye. + </p> + <p> + "I hired a private engine, 'pon my word, and then telegraphed ahead to + stop this train!" + </p> + <p> + "Di—did you do that?" she gasped, forgetting that the bridge was + out. + </p> + <p> + Dauntless, meantime, was trying to explain to Miss Courtenay. She already + had told him that her aunt was ill in Vancouver, and he had smiled + politely and aimlessly. + </p> + <p> + "I'm on my way to M——. Sudden trip, very important," he was + saying. "Missed the train—I dare say it was this one—so I took + an engine to follow up. Had to ride in the tender." + </p> + <p> + "It must have been important," she ventured. + </p> + <p> + "It was. I—" then with an inspired plunge—"I was due at a + wedding." + </p> + <p> + "How unfortunate! I hope you won't miss it altogether." + </p> + <p> + Joe caught his breath and thought: "Now what the devil did she mean by + that? Has Eleanor told her the whole story?" + </p> + <p> + It must not be supposed that these young persons were lacking in the + simpler gifts of intelligence; they were, individually, beginning to put + two and two together, as the saying goes. They were grasping the real + situation—groping for it, perhaps, but with a clear-sightedness and + acumen which urged that a cautious tongue was expedient. If the duplicity + was really as four-handed as it seemed, there could be no harm in waiting + for the other fellow to blunder into exposure. Nothing could be explained, + of course, until the conspirators found opportunity to consult privately + under the new order of assignment. + </p> + <p> + "How romantic!" Eleanor said, as she walked stiffly ahead with her + uncomfortable fiance. + </p> + <p> + "Eh?" was his simple remark. He was suddenly puzzled over the fact that he + HAD caught up to the train. There was something startling in that. "Oh—er—not + at all romantic, most prosaic. Couldn't get a coach. Been here long?" + </p> + <p> + "Since five o'clock." + </p> + <p> + "I—I suppose you got up to see the sunrise." + </p> + <p> + "No, to see the river rise," she replied. "The bridge is gone." He was + silent for twenty paces, trying to recall what he had said about + telegraphing ahead. + </p> + <p> + "You don't mean it! Then I daresay they haven't got my telegram stopping + the train." + </p> + <p> + "How annoying!" + </p> + <p> + Dauntless had just said to Anne, in a fit of disgust: "Windomshire's got a + lot of nerve. That was my engine, you know. I hired it." + </p> + <p> + Windomshire went on to say, careful that Joe was quite out of hearing: + "Mr. Dauntless was quite annoying. He got into my engine without an + invitation, and I'm hanged if he'd take a hint, even after I hired a + stoker to throw a spadeful of coal over him. I don't know why he should be + in such a confounded hurry to get to—what's the name of the place? I—er—I + really think I must go and speak to Miss Courtenay, Eleanor. She—er—looks + ill." + </p> + <p> + "It's her grandmother who is ill—not she. But, yes! Please try to + cheer her up a bit, Harry. She's terribly upset." + </p> + <p> + "I'm sure she is," muttered he, dropping back with more haste than + gallantry. Mr. Dauntless sprang forward with equal alacrity, and wrong was + right a moment later. + </p> + <p> + "Joe dear," whispered Eleanor, "I've been nearly crazy. What happened?" He + was vainly trying to clasp her hand. + </p> + <p> + "Nell, he's on to us. I wish I knew just why Miss Courtenay is here. Lord, + I'll never forget that ride." + </p> + <p> + "It was just like you to take advantage of his engine." + </p> + <p> + "His engine!" exploded Joe, wrathfully. Securely separated from the + others, the elopers analysed the situation as best they could. Two + separate enterprises struggled earnestly for an outcome. On the surface, + the truth seemed plain enough: it was quite clear to both parties that the + extraordinary chain of coincidence was not entirely due to Providence. + There was something of design behind it all. The staggering part was the + calamitous way in which chance had handled their dear and private affairs. + </p> + <p> + "He doesn't know that you were in my automobile," concluded Dauntless, + almost at the same time that a like opinion was being expressed by + Windomshire. "Are you willing to go on with it, Nell? Are you scared out + of it?" + </p> + <p> + "No, indeed," she exclaimed, perplexity leaving her brow. "At first I + feared he might have telegraphed to mother, but now I am sure he hasn't. + He was not following me at all. He is in love with Anne, and he was + surreptitiously off for a part of the distance with her. He really doesn't + want to marry me, you know." + </p> + <p> + "Well, he isn't going to, you see. By all that is holy, nothing shall stop + us now, dear. We'll go on to Omegon and carry out everything just as we + planned. If he's running off after another girl, it's time you put an end + to him. Don't give him a thought." + </p> + <p> + "Don't you think we'd better talk it over with Mr. Derby? He discreetly + disappeared when he saw it was you." + </p> + <p> + "Right! Let's hunt him out. By Jove, we can have him marry us right here,—great!" + </p> + <p> + "No," she cried firmly, "it MUST be in a church." He could not move her + from that stand. + </p> + <p> + "Oh, if we could only get across that confounded river!" scolded Joe, as + they went off in search of Derby. + </p> + <p> + Windomshire was slowly reconciling himself to the fact that Eleanor loved + Dauntless, but he could not get it out of his head that she still expected + to marry as her mother had planned. + </p> + <p> + "See here, Anne, it's all very well to say that she loves Dauntless. Of + course she does. But that isn't going to prevent her from marrying me. I + don't believe she was running away with him, don't you know. He was simply + following her. That's the way these Americans do, you know. Now, the + question is, won't she think it odd that you and I should happen to be + doing almost the same thing?" + </p> + <p> + "To be sure she will," said Anne, coolly. "She has a very bad opinion of + me. I'm sure she doesn't believe you expect to marry me." + </p> + <p> + "By Jove, dear, it sounds rather dreadful, doesn't it?" he groaned. "But + of course you ARE going to marry me, so what's the odds? Then she can + marry Dauntless to her heart's content. I say, are we never to get away + from this beastly place?" + </p> + <p> + "They are to row us across the river in boats. We'll be taken up by + another train over there and carried on. Poor Mr. Dauntless, he looks so + harassed." + </p> + <p> + "By Jove, I feel rather cut up about him. He ought to have her, Anne. He's + a decent chap, although he was da—very unreasonable last night. I + like him, too, in spite of the fact that he kicked coal over me twice in + that confounded bin. He was good enough to take a cinder out of my eye + this morning, and I helped him to find his watch in the coal-bin. I say, + Anne, we might get a farm wagon and drive to some village where there is a + minister—" + </p> + <p> + "No, Harry! you know I've set my heart on being married in a church. It + seems so much more decent and—regular; especially after what has + just happened." + </p> + <p> + A porter appeared in the rear platform and shouted a warning to all those + on the ground. + </p> + <p> + "Get yo' things together. The boats'll be ready in ten minutes, ladies and + gen'l'men." The locomotive uttered a few sharp whistles to reinforce his + shouts, and everybody made a rush for the cars. + </p> + <p> + The conductor and other trainmen had all they could do to reassure the + more nervous and apprehensive of the passengers, many of whom were afraid + of the swollen, ugly river just ahead. Boats had been sent up from a town + some miles down the stream, and the passengers with their baggage, the + express, and the mail pouches were to be ferried across. Word had been + received that a makeshift train would pick them up on the other side, not + far from the wrecked bridge, and take them to Omegon as quickly as + possible. + </p> + <p> + It was also announced that the company would be unable to send a train + beyond Omegon and into the northwest for eight or ten hours, owing to + extensive damage by the floods. Repairs to bridges and roadbed were + necessary. In the meantime, the passengers would be cared for at the + Somerset Hotel in Omegon, at the company's expense. The company regretted + and deplored, etc. + </p> + <p> + There was a frightful clamour by the through passengers, threats of + lawsuits, claims for damage, execrations, and groans. In time, however, + the whole company went trooping down the track under the leadership of the + patient conductor. It was a sorry, disgruntled parade. Everybody wanted a + porter at once, and when he could not get one, berated the road in fiercer + terms than ever; men who had always carried their own bags to escape + feeing a porter, now howled and raged because there was not an army of + them on the spot. Everybody was constantly "damning" the luck. + </p> + <p> + The conductor led his charges from the track through a muddy stubble-field + and down to a point where half a dozen small rowboats were waiting among + the willows. Dauntless and Eleanor were well up in front, their faces set + resolutely toward Omegon. For some well-defined reason, Windomshire and + Anne were the last in the strange procession. The medical college agent, + the tall and sombre Mr. Hooker, was the first man into a boat. He said it + was a case of life or death. + </p> + <p> + Eleanor looked backward down the long file of trailers, a little smile on + her lips. + </p> + <p> + "They are not all going away to be married, are they, Joe?" she said, + taking note of the unbroken array of sour countenances. + </p> + <p> + "It looks like a funeral, my dear. Look at the cadaverous individual + beside the con—Heavens, Nell, isn't that—by George, it is! + It's old Mrs. Van Truder! Back there about half-way—the fat one. See + her? Good Lord!" + </p> + <p> + Eleanor turned pale and the joyous light fled from her eyes. + </p> + <p> + "Oh, dear! I forgot that the Van Truders spend all their summers at + Omegon. And it is she—and he, too. Oh, Joe, it's just awful!" + </p> + <p> + "She's the worst old cat in town," groaned Dauntless. "We can't escape + her. She'll spot us, and she'll never let go of us. I don't mind him. He's + so near-sighted he couldn't see us. But she!" + </p> + <p> + "She will suspect, Joe—she's sure to suspect, and she'll watch us + like a hawk," whispered the distressed Eleanor. The Van Truders lived in + the same block with the Thursdales in town. "She'll telegraph to mother!" + </p> + <p> + "That reminds me," muttered Joe, looking at his watch. "I had hoped to + telegraph to your mother about this time." + </p> + <p> + "She will forgive us," said she, but she failed in her assumption of + confidence. As a matter of fact she felt that her mother would not + forgive. + </p> + <p> + "Well, you left a note pinned on your pillow," said he, as if that covered + all the sins. + </p> + <p> + "Yes, but it was directed to Miss Courtenay, asking her to break it gently + to mamma," said she, dismally. + </p> + <p> + They had reached the edge of the river by this time and others came up + with them. For a while they managed to keep out of old Mrs. Van Truder's + range of vision, but her sharp eyes soon caught sight of them as they + tried to slip into a boat that was already crowded to its full capacity. + </p> + <p> + "Why, Eleanor Thursdale!" shouted the old lady, her aristocratic eyes + almost crossing in their stare of amazement. + </p> + <p> + "Discovered!" groaned Dauntless to the willows. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Van Truder pounced upon Eleanor and, between personal questions and + impersonal reflections upon non-government railways, gave her a dizzy + quarter of an hour. She ignored Mr. Dauntless almost completely,—quite + entirely when she discovered Mr. Windomshire in the background. Little old + Mr. Van Truder, in his usual state of subjection, was permitted to study + the scenery at close range. + </p> + <p> + "I was so afraid you'd marry that horrid Dauntless fellow," whispered Mrs. + Van Truder. Eleanor gave vent to a constrained laugh. + </p> + <p> + "How perfectly preposterous!" + </p> + <p> + "When are you to be married, my dear?" + </p> + <p> + "At once—I mean, quite soon. Isn't the scenery beautiful, Mr. Van + Truder?" asked Eleanor in desperation. + </p> + <p> + "It's too far away. I can't see it," grumbled the old gentleman. + </p> + <p> + "He's so very near-sighted," explained his wife. "Do you expect to stay + long at the Somerset?" + </p> + <p> + "It all depends," said Eleanor, with a glance at Dauntless. + </p> + <p> + "Isn't that your governess with Mr. Windomshire? I can't be mistaken." + </p> + <p> + "Yes, she's going out to spend a few weeks with a rich aunt,—her + sister's mother, I think." + </p> + <p> + "How's that?" gasped the old lady. + </p> + <p> + "I mean her mother's sister." + </p> + <p> + "It sounded very strange, my dear." + </p> + <p> + "About the mother having a sister?" guessed old Mr. Van Truder, sharply. + "Seems all right to me." + </p> + <p> + "They are going to row us across the river," volunteered Eleanor, + helplessly. + </p> + <p> + "Good-morning, Mr. Windomshire," called Mrs. Van Truder. Windomshire + started and got very red in the face. Miss Courtenay's bow went unnoticed + by the old lady. In sheer despair, the Englishman turned to Dauntless, a + fellow-sufferer. + </p> + <p> + "I say, old man," he began nervously, "I'd like to ask a favour of you." + </p> + <p> + "Go ahead—anything I can do," said the other, blankly. Windomshire + continued in lowered tones: + </p> + <p> + "Deucedly awkward, but I forgot my bags at Fenlock. I see you've got + yours. Would you mind lending me a fresh shirt and a collar, old chap?" + </p> + <p> + "Gladly," cried Joe, very much relieved. "Will you take them now?" + starting to open his bag. Windomshire hastily interposed. + </p> + <p> + "I'd rather not, old chap. It's rather exposed here, don't you know. Later + on, if you please. Thanks, old man; I'll not forget this." They shook + hands without any apparent excuse. + </p> + <p> + "Mr. Windomshire!" called Mrs. Van Truder. He turned with a hopeless look + in his eyes. The two girls had misery and consternation plainly stamped in + their faces. "We can't all go over in the next boats, you know. I've no + doubt you and Miss Thursdale would not in the least mind being left to the + last," with a sly smile. + </p> + <p> + "Oh—er—ah, by Jove!" gasped Windomshire, with a glance at the + still faces of the young women. He saw no relief there. + </p> + <p> + "Blamed cat!" muttered Dauntless, gritting his teeth. + </p> + <p> + "Mr. Dauntless, will you and Miss Courtenay come with us in this boat? I + want some one to keep the snakes away; Mr. Van Truder can't see them, you + know." + </p> + <p> + There was no way out of it. Joe and Anne meekly followed the Van Truders + into the wobbly boat, resentment in their hearts, uncertainty in their + minds. They rowed away, leaving Windomshire and Eleanor standing among the + willows, ill at ease and troubled beyond expression. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER V — AS NIGHT APPROACHES + </h2> + <p> + Neither spoke until the boat came to its slippery, uncertain landing-place + on the opposite side of the river. Then each breathed easier, in a sigh + that seemed to express both relief and dismay. + </p> + <p> + "It's a very ugly looking river," she murmured encouragingly. She was + afraid he might feel obliged, in honour, to offer an explanation for his + presence, perhaps attempt to convince her in some tangible way that she + was to expect nothing but slavish devotion from him in the future. + </p> + <p> + "I don't wonder that the bridge gave way," he replied politely. They + looked at each other involuntarily, and then instantly looked away. + </p> + <p> + "I'd give my head to know what she expects of me," thought Windomshire + miserably. + </p> + <p> + "How I despise that old woman!" welled up in Eleanor's bitter heart. + Everything was awry. Luckily for both of them a small boy slipped into the + river at that moment. He was rescued by the brakeman, but not until the + catastrophe had served its purpose as a godsend. The excitement which + attended the rescue saved the couple an uncomfortable ten minutes. Eleanor + went to the assistance of the distracted mother; Windomshire, in his + eagerness to do something, offered to exchange clothes with the dripping + trainman; the small boy howled as lustily as his wheezy lungs would + permit. Everybody shouted advice to the mother, rebukes to the boy, and + praise to the hero; altogether Providence was acting most handsomely. + </p> + <p> + At last the final boatload of passengers crossed the river and drew up at + the landing; Eleanor, with her bewildered fiance, stepped into the beaming + presence of Mrs. Van Truder. + </p> + <p> + "Come with us," she said with a friendliness that shattered all hope. "Mr. + Van Truder has just arranged for breakfast at that farmhouse over there. + The relief train won't be here for half an hour or more and you must be + famished." Eleanor's flimsy excuses were unavailing; her protestations + that she could not eat a mouthful fell on obdurate ears. Windomshire, + catching sight of the forlorn Anne, was about to assert himself vigorously + in declining the invitation when a meaning look from the governess caused + him to refrain. The look very plainly told him to accept. + </p> + <p> + The unhappy couple followed the Van Truders to the nearby farmhouse. They + left behind them on the edge of the crowd, seated side by side on a pile + of ties, two miserable partners in the fiasco. Gloomy, indeed, was the + outlook for Miss Courtenay and the despised Mr. Dauntless. They were + silent for many minutes after the departure, rage in their hearts. Then + Mr. Dauntless could hold his tongue no longer. + </p> + <p> + "Damn her!" he exploded so viciously that Anne jumped and cried out,— + </p> + <p> + "Mr. Dauntless!" + </p> + <p> + "Oh, you feel just as I do about it only you won't say it aloud," he + exclaimed. "I won't stand for it!" + </p> + <p> + "I—I am sure Miss Thursdale has done nothing to deserve your + curses," she began diplomatically. + </p> + <p> + "Good Heavens, Miss Courtenay, you—Oh, I say, you know I didn't mean + Eleanor. The old pelican—that's the one. Old Mrs. Intruder," he + grated. + </p> + <p> + "I am sure it is all quite regular," observed Anne, so seriously that he + looked at her in wonder. It began to creep into his head that his + speculations were wrong, after all. At any rate it seemed advisable to put + a sharp curb on his tongue. + </p> + <p> + "I'm sorry I spoke as I did about the old lady," he said, after a moment's + reflection. "I was thinking of the way in which she left you out of her + invitation to breakfast." + </p> + <p> + "And yourself, incidentally," she smiled. + </p> + <p> + "Miss Courtenay, I'm—I'm a confounded ass for not thinking of your + breakfast. It's not too late. We are both hungry. Won't you come with me + and have a bit of something to eat? We'll try that farmhouse ourselves. + Come, let us hurry or the crowd will get in ahead of us. Ham and eggs and + coffee! they always have that sort of breakfast in farmhouses, I'm told. + Come." + </p> + <p> + She sprang up cheerfully, and followed him across the meadow to the + farmhouse. The Van Truder party was entering the door, smoke pouring forth + suggestively from a chimney in the rear of the house. The sudden desire + for ham and eggs was overcoming, in a way, the pangs of outraged love; + there was solace in the new thought. + </p> + <p> + That breakfast was one never to be forgotten by four persons; two others + remembered it to their last days on account of its amazing excellence. A + dozen persons were crowded into the little dining-room; no one went forth + upon his travels with an empty stomach. No such profitable harvest had + ever been reaped by the farmer. Dauntless and Anne ate off of a + sewing-table in the corner. Mrs. Van Truder deliberately refused to hear + Mr. Windomshire's timorous suggestion that they "make room" for them at + the select table. Silent anathemas accompanied every mouthful of food that + went down the despot's throat, but she did not know it. Fortunately the + lovers were healthy and hungry. + </p> + <p> + They fared forth after that memorable breakfast with lighter hearts, + though still misplaced by an unrelenting fate. + </p> + <p> + All the way to Omegon Anne sat in the seat with the seething Dauntless, + each nursing a pride that had received almost insupportable injuries + during the morning hours. Windomshire and Eleanor, under the espionage of + the "oldest friend of the family," moped and sighed with a frankness that + could not have escaped more discerning eyes. Mrs. Van Truder, having + established herself as the much needed chaperon, sat back complacently and + gave her charges every opportunity to hold private and no doubt sacred + communication in the double seat just across the aisle. + </p> + <p> + Eleanor pleaded fatigue, and forthwith closed her wistful eyes. + Windomshire, with fine consideration, sank into a rapt study of the + flitting farm lands. Having got but little sleep among the coals, he + finally dropped off into a peaceful cat nap. + </p> + <p> + Omegon was reached before Eleanor had the courage to awaken him. She did + so then only because it was impossible for her to crawl over his knees + without losing her dignity; they were planted sturdily against the seat in + front. She fled like a scared child to Joe's side, her mind made up to + cling to him now, no matter what manner of opposition prevailed. + </p> + <p> + "I'll go with you, Joe," she whispered fiercely. "I don't care what any + one says or thinks. Your cousin WILL meet us with the carriage, won't he?" + she concluded piteously. Windomshire also had taken the bull by the horns + and was helping Miss Courtenay from the train with an assiduity that + brought down the wrath of obstructing passengers upon his devoted head. + </p> + <p> + "He said he would," replied Dauntless, his spirits in the clouds. "We must + get away from these people, Nell. I'll go crazy in another minute. There's + Derby waiting for instructions. Dear old Darb—he's a brick. My + cousin Jim is a deacon or something in the village church, dear, and he + has promised to let us in. I suppose he has a key. He and his wife will be + the only witnesses. By George, nothing can stop us now, dear, if you have + the nerve to—Where the dickens is Jim? Confound him, I don't see him + on the platform." + </p> + <p> + He looked about the station platform—first anxiously, then + impatiently, then—with consternation! His cousin was nowhere in + sight. Cold with apprehensiveness, he dashed over to a citizen who wore a + star upon his coat, almost dragging Eleanor after him. + </p> + <p> + "Is Jim Carpenter here? Have you seen him? Do you know him?" he demanded. + </p> + <p> + "He was here, mister. 'Bout two hours ago, I reckon. I guess you must be + the fellow he was to meet—" + </p> + <p> + "Yes, yes,—where is he now?" + </p> + <p> + "I don't know, mister. His wife's got pneumonia, an' he told me to tell + you he couldn't wait. He took the doctor right out to—" + </p> + <p> + "Good Lord!" exploded Joe. The citizen jumped a few inches into the air. + "He's gone?" + </p> + <p> + "Yep. But he told me to tell you to go over to the Somerset an' wait till + you hear from him." + </p> + <p> + "Wait—till—I hear—from—him?" groaned Dauntless, + wild-eyed but faint. He and Eleanor looked at each other in despair. + </p> + <p> + "Go—to—the—hotel?" she murmured, her heart in her boots. + "I never can do that," she continued. Her voice was full of tears. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Van Truder bore down upon them like an angry vulture. They saw her + coming, but neither had the strength of purpose to move. + </p> + <p> + Before they really knew how it happened, she was leading Eleanor to the + hotel 'bus and he was limply following, lugging both bags with a + faithfulness that seemed pathetic. Two minutes later they were in the + 'bus, touching knees with the equally dazed and discomfited English + people. + </p> + <p> + Back on the platform the elongated medical gentleman, Mr. Hooker, was + talking loudly, wrathfully to the station agent. His voice rang in their + ears long after the 'bus rolled away on its "trip" to the big summer + hotel. + </p> + <p> + "You say old man Grover ain't dead yet?" Mr. Hooker was growling + resentfully, even indignantly. + </p> + <p> + "He ain't expected to live till night, sir, poor old man," replied the + agent. + </p> + <p> + "Well, I'll be damned!" roared Mr. Hooker. "I don't see any sense in a man + of his age hanging on like this. He's eighty-three. My time is valuable"—looking + at his big silver watch—"and I can't afford to hang around here if + he's going to act like this." The agent stared after him as if he were + looking at a maniac. Mr. Hooker set off in the direction of old Mr. + Grover's house, which had been pointed out to him by a gaping small boy. + "I'll go up and see about it," he remarked, as he stepped across a wide + rivulet in the middle of the main street. The Somerset Hotel was situated + on the most beautiful point of land touching that trim little lake which + attracted hundreds of city people annually by its summer wiles. It was too + sedate and quiet to be fashionable; the select few who went there sought + rest from the frivolities of the world. Eleanor Thursdale had spent one + tiresome but proper season there immediately after the death of her + father. She hated everything in connection with the place except the + little old-fashioned church at the extreme end of the village street, + fully half a mile from the hotel. She had chosen it, after romantic + reflection, as the sanctuary in which she should become the wife of the + man she loved, spurning the great church in town and one of its loveless + matches. + </p> + <p> + The forenoon is left to the imagination of the reader,—with all of + its unsettled plans, its doubts and misgivings, its despairs and its + failures, its subterfuges and its strategies, its aggravations and + complaints. Bell-boys carried surreptitious notes from room to room; + assurances, hopes, and reassurances passed one another in systematic + confusion. Love was trying to find its way out of the maze. + </p> + <p> + Immediately after luncheon Dauntless set out to discover his faithless + cousin. Eleanor kept close to her room, in readiness for instant flight. + The necessary Mr. Derby had his instructions to remain where he could be + found without trouble. Mrs. Van Truder, taking up Eleanor's battles, + busied herself and every one else in the impossible task of locating the + young woman's trunks, which, according to uncertain reports, had gone + mysteriously astray. Moreover, she had prepared a telegram to the young + lady's mother, assuring her that she was quite safe; but Mr. Dauntless + boldly intercepted Mr. Van Truder on his way to the desk. + </p> + <p> + "Allow me," he remarked, deliberately taking the despatch from the old + gentleman. "I'll send it from the station. Don't bother about it, Mr. Van + Truder." He drove through the village, but did not stop at the station; + his instructions to the driver did not include a pause anywhere. It is not + necessary to relate what took place when he descended upon the unfortunate + Jim; it is sufficient to say that he dragged him from his sick wife's + bedside and berated him soundly for his treachery. Then it was all + rearranged,—the hapless Jim being swept into promises which he could + not break, even with death staring his wife in the face. The agitated Mr. + Dauntless drove back to the hotel with a new set of details perfected. + This time nothing should go wrong. + </p> + <p> + His first action was to acquaint Derby with the plans, and then to send a + note of instructions to Eleanor, guarding against any chance that they + might not be able to communicate with each other in person. + </p> + <p> + "It's all fixed," he announced to Derby, in a secluded corner of the + grounds. "To-night at nine we are to be at the church down the road there—see + it? Nobody is on to us, and Jim has a key. He will meet you there at a + quarter of nine. But, hang it all, his wife can't act as a witness. We've + got to provide one. He suggested the postmaster, but I don't like the + idea; it looks too much like a cheap elopement. I'd just as soon have the + cook or the housemaid. I'll get Eleanor there if I have to kill that Van + Truder woman. Now, whom shall we have as the second witness?" + </p> + <p> + "Windomshire, I'm afraid," lamented Derby. "You won't be able to get rid + of him." + </p> + <p> + "Hang him!" groaned Dauntless, his spirits falling, but instantly + reviving. "But he's dead in love with Miss Courtenay. It's pitiful, old + man. He feels that he's got to marry Nell, but it's not in his heart to do + it. Now if we could only shunt him off on to Miss Courtenay this evening! + Her train leaves at nine, they say. He might be forced to take her to the + station if you will only get busy and make him jealous." + </p> + <p> + "Jealous? I?" + </p> + <p> + "Certainly. It won't be much of an effort for you, and it will help me + immensely. Make love to her this afternoon, and when you suggest taking + her to the station this evening he'll be so wrought up that he won't stand + for it. See what I mean?" + </p> + <p> + "Now see here, Joe, I'm willing to do a great deal for you, but this is + too much. You forget that I am a minister of the gospel. It's—" + </p> + <p> + "I know, old man, but you might do a little thing like this for—By + Jove, I've got it! Why not have old Mr. Van Truder for the other witness?" + </p> + <p> + Mr. Van Truder was crossing the lawn, picking his way carefully. + </p> + <p> + "Good afternoon," greeted Dauntless. + </p> + <p> + "Afternoon," responded Mr. Van Truder. "Is this the hotel?" + </p> + <p> + "No, sir; the hotel is about ten feet to your left. By the way, Mr. Van + Truder, would you mind doing me a favour this evening?" + </p> + <p> + "Gladly. Who are you?" + </p> + <p> + "Joe Dauntless." + </p> + <p> + "Anything, my dear Joe." + </p> + <p> + "Well, it's a dead secret." + </p> + <p> + "A secret? Trust me," cried the old man, joyfully. + </p> + <p> + "First, let me introduce my friend, the Rev. Mr. Derby. He's in the + secret. It will go no farther, I trust, Mr. Van Truder." + </p> + <p> + "My wife says I can't keep a secret, but I'll show her that I can. Trust + me, my boy." + </p> + <p> + "I'll bet you a hundred dollars you can't keep this one," said Joe, + inspired. + </p> + <p> + "Done!" + </p> + <p> + "Well," bravely but cautiously, "I'm going to be married to-night. Be + careful now! Look out! Don't explode! Remember the bet!" The old gentleman + repressed his feelings. + </p> + <p> + "Beautiful!" he exclaimed. "Congratulations, my boy." + </p> + <p> + "Now for the favour. I want you to act as a witness. It's to be a very + quiet affair." Dauntless explained as much of the situation to him as he + thought necessary, omitting the lady's name. Mr. Van Truder bubbled over + with joy and eagerness. He promised faithfully to accompany Mr. Derby, + pooh-hooing the suggestion that he could not slip away from the hotel + without his wife being aware of the fact. + </p> + <p> + "Trust me, my boy. Don't worry. I'm always Johnny-on-the-spot. Where did + you say the hotel was? I'll go up and get ready. Oh, by the way, who is + the young lady?" + </p> + <p> + "She's a friend of Mr. Dauntless's," said Mr. Derby. + </p> + <p> + "To be sure; I might have known. Silly question." + </p> + <p> + The young men watched him enter the hotel, but they did not see him fall + into the clutches of his wife just inside the door. + </p> + <p> + "Where have you been?" demanded Mrs. Van Truder. + </p> + <p> + "I've been looking everywhere for you, my dear," he said, almost + whimpering. "I've got a grand secret, but I can't tell you. Don't ask me!" + </p> + <p> + "Is it a wedding?" she demanded sternly. + </p> + <p> + "Dear me! Do you know it too?" he cried, bewildered. "But that's not the + real secret; it's only part of it. Joe is going to marry some friend of + his to-night—but that's as far as I'll go. I'll NOT betray the + secret." He hurried away to avoid questions, muttering to himself as he + went: "She's dying to know. But a secret's a secret. She sha'n't know that + I am to be a witness." + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Van Truder pondered long and deeply, but she was not well enough + acquainted with all of the facts to hazard a guess as to who the girl + might be. It came to her memory that Dauntless had been with Miss + Courtenay all morning, however, and she wondered not a little. Windomshire + was approaching in search of Anne, who was to have met him as if by + accident in a corner of the reading-room. + </p> + <p> + "Oh, Mr. Windomshire," exclaimed Mrs. Van Truder, darting toward him. + </p> + <p> + "How do, Mrs. Van Truder? How are you to-day?" he asked, scarcely able to + hide his annoyance. + </p> + <p> + "That is the tenth time you've asked me that question. I must repeat: I am + quite well." + </p> + <p> + "Oh, pardon my inquisitiveness. It has been a very long day, you know." + </p> + <p> + "I want you and Miss Thursdale to dine with me at eight this evening. I + think I'll have a little surprise for you," she said mysteriously. + Windomshire glared, and then managed to give a provisional acceptance. It + all depended on the hour for leaving for the train. As he hurried off to + find Anne he was groaning to himself: "How the deuce can I go to a dinner + and run off again with Anne? I've got everything arranged. I can't let a + beastly dinner interfere. I won't go, hang me if I do." He came upon Anne + in the corner of the library—the most unfrequented corner. + </p> + <p> + "Well?" she questioned eagerly. He clasped her hands, beaming once more. + </p> + <p> + "I've seen him, dear. It's all right. My word, I've had no end of a busy + day. The confounded fellow was out making calls on the congregation, as + they say, and I had to pursue him from house to house, always missing him, + by Jove." + </p> + <p> + "But you DID find him?" anxiously. + </p> + <p> + "Of course. He will be at the church at nine to-night—sharp. He + understands that no one is to know about it. His fee is ten pounds—quite + a bit for a chap like him. I found him calling upon a fellow who is about + to die—a Mr. Grover. He sent out word I'd have to wait as the old + gentleman was passing away. By Jove, do you know I was that intense that I + sent in word that the old gentleman would have to wait a bit—I + COULDN'T. The pastor came out and—well, it seems that the fee for + helping a chap to get married is more substantial than what he gets for + helping one to die. And, as luck would have it, I found a fellow who will + act as one of the witnesses to the ceremony at this same house,—a + Mr. Hooker, Anne. He came down on the train with us. Tall, dark, + professional looking man. He was sitting on Mr. Grover's front steps when + I got there. The other witness—must have two, you know—is the + head-waiter in the dining-room here—" + </p> + <p> + "The—head-waiter?" she gasped. + </p> + <p> + "He's a very decent sort of chap, my dear—and, besides, we can't be + choosers. Waiters are most discreet fellows, too. He's to get two pounds + for his trouble. By Jove, I think I've done rather well. I'm sorry if you + don't approve," he lamented. + </p> + <p> + "But I do approve, Harry," she cried bravely. "It's lovely!" + </p> + <p> + "Good! I knew you would. Now all we have to do is to slip away from here + this evening, and—Oh, I say, hang it all! Mrs. Van Truder has asked + me to dine with them this evening." + </p> + <p> + "Isn't she running you a bit?" cried Anne, indignantly. "She had you for + breakfast and luncheon and now it's dinner. I daresay she'll have you for + tea too." + </p> + <p> + "But I'm not going to her confounded dinner. That's settled. I can't do + it, you know, and be on time for the wedding. Deuce take it, what does she + take a fellow for? Hello, here comes the chap that Dauntless introduced to + us this morning." Derby was approaching with a warm and ingratiating + smile. "What's his name? Confound him." + </p> + <p> + "Mr. Derby, I think. Why can't they give us a moment's peace?" she pouted. + Derby came up to them, his eyes sparkling with a fire which they could not + and were not to understand. He had surveyed them from a distance for some + time before deciding to ruthlessly, cruelly break in upon the tranquil + situation. + </p> + <p> + "She's a pretty girl," he reflected, unconsciously going back to his + college days, and quite forgetting his cloth—which, by the way, was + a neat blue serge with a tender stripe. Consoling himself with the thought + that he was doing it to accommodate an old friend, the good-looking Mr. + Derby boldly entered the lists for the afternoon. He felt, somehow, that + he had it in his power to make Mr. Windomshire quite jealous—and at + the same time do nothing reprehensible. What he did succeed in doing, + alas, was to make two young people needlessly miserable for a whole + afternoon—bringing on grievous headaches and an attack of suppressed + melancholia that savoured somewhat of actual madness. + </p> + <p> + True to his project, he laboured hard and skilfully for hours. Windomshire + moved about in solitude, gnashing his teeth, while Derby unceremoniously + whisked the dazed Anne off for pleasant walks or held her at bay in some + secluded corner of the parlours. By dinner-time, encouraged by Joe's wild + but cautious applause, he had driven Windomshire almost to distraction. A + thing he did not know, however,—else his pride might have cringed + perceptibly,—was that Anne Courtenay was growing to hate him as no + one was ever hated before. + </p> + <p> + "Well," he said to the nervous Mr. Dauntless at seven o'clock that + evening, having arrived at what he called the conclusion of his day's + work, "I think I've done all that was expected, haven't I?" + </p> + <p> + "You've got him crazy, old boy. Look at him! It's the first minute he's + had since half-past two. Say, what do you think of this cursed weather? + It's raining again—and muddy! Great Scot, old man! it's knee deep, + and we don't dare take a carriage to the church. One can't sneak worth a + cent in a cab, you know. See you later! There's Eleanor waiting to speak + to me. By George, I'm nervous. You WON'T fail us, old man?" + </p> + <p> + "I'll do my part, Joe," said Derby, smiling. + </p> + <p> + "Well, so long, if I don't see you before nine. You look out for old Mr. + Van Truder, will you? See that he sneaks out properly. And—" + </p> + <p> + "Don't worry, old chap. Go to Miss Thursdale. She seems nervous." + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI — THE ROAD TO PARADISE + </h2> + <p> + Night again—and again the mist and the drizzle; again the country + lane, but without the warm club-house fire, the cheery lights, the + highball, and the thumping motor car. Soggy, squashy mud instead of the + clean tonneau; heavy, cruel wading through unknown by-ways in place of the + thrilling rush to Fenlock. Not twenty-four hours had passed, and yet it + seemed that ages lay between the joyous midnight and the sodden, + heart-breaking eve that followed. + </p> + <p> + The guests at the Somerset kept close indoors,—that is, most of them + did. It is with those who fared forth resolutely into the night that we + have to do; the rest of the world is to be barred from any further + connection with this little history. It is far out in the dreary country + lane and not inside the warm hotel that we struggle to attain our end. + First one, then another stealthy figure crept forth into the drizzle; + before the big clock struck half-past eight, at least six respectable and + supposedly sensible persons had mysteriously disappeared. Only one of our + close acquaintances remained in the hotel,—Mrs. Van Truder. It was + not to be long, however, before she, too, would be adventuring forth in + search of the unknown. + </p> + <p> + By this it may be readily understood that Mr. Van Truder had succeeded in + escaping from beneath her very nose, as it were. + </p> + <p> + The little village church stood at the extreme end of the street,—dark, + dismal, quite awe-inspiring on a night like this. A narrow lane stretched + from the hotel to the sanctuary and beyond. There is nothing at hand to + show whether it is a Methodist, a Presbyterian, or a Baptist church. As + the two young women most vitally concerned in this tale were professedly + high church, it is therefore no more than right that, in the darkness, it + should be looked upon as an Episcopalian church. + </p> + <p> + Two stumbling figures, pressing close to each other in the shelter of a + single wobbly umbrella, forged their uncertain way through the muddy lane. + Except for the brief instants when the dull flicker of lightning came to + their relief, they were in pitch darkness. + </p> + <p> + "Beastly dark, isn't it?" said one of the figures. + </p> + <p> + "And beastly muddy too," said the other, in a high, disconsolate treble. + "Oh, dear, where are we?" + </p> + <p> + "I don't know, but I feel as though we were about to step off of something + every moment. Do you know, Anne, it's extraordinary that I shouldn't know + how to light one of these confounded lanterns." + </p> + <p> + "Try it again, Harry dear. I'll hold the umbrella." + </p> + <p> + "Oh, I see! By Jove, one has to open the thing, don't you know. Ah, there + we are! That's better," he said, after he had succeeded in finally + lighting the wick. He held the lantern up close to her face and they + looked at each other for a moment. "Anne, I do love you!" he exclaimed. + Then he kissed her. "That's the first time I've had a chance to kiss you + in thirty-six hours." + </p> + <p> + They plodded onward, closer together than ever, coming at last to the + little gate which opened into the churchyard. Before them stood the black + little building with its steeple, but the windows were as dark as Erebus. + They stopped in consternation. He looked at his watch. + </p> + <p> + "Confound him, he's not here!" growled Windomshire. + </p> + <p> + "Perhaps we are early," suggested Anne, feebly. + </p> + <p> + "It's a quarter to nine," he said. "I suppose there is nothing left for us + to do but to wait. I'll look around a bit, dear. Perhaps the witnesses are + here somewhere." + </p> + <p> + "Oo-oo-ooh! Don't leave me!" she almost shrieked. "Look! There is a + graveyard! I won't stay here alone!" They were standing at the foot of the + rough wooden steps leading up to the church door. + </p> + <p> + "Pooh! Don't be afraid of tombstones," he scoffed; but he was conscious of + a little shiver in his back. "They can't bite, you know. Besides, all + churches have graveyards and crypts and—" + </p> + <p> + "This one has no crypt," she announced positively. "Goodness, I'm mud up + to my knees and rain down to them. Why doesn't he come?" + </p> + <p> + "I'll give the signal; we had to arrange one, you know, for the sake of + identity." He gave three loud, guttural coughs. A dog in the distance + howled mournfully, as if in response. Anne crept closer to his side. + </p> + <p> + "It sounded as if some one were dying," she whispered. "Look, isn't that a + light?—over there among the gravestones!" A light flickered for an + instant in the wretched little graveyard and then disappeared as + mysteriously as it came. "It's gone! How ghostly!" + </p> + <p> + "Extraordinary! I don't understand. By Jove, it's beginning to rain again. + I'm sure to have tonsilitis. I feel it when I cough." He coughed again, + louder than before. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly the steady beam of a dark lantern struck their faces squarely; a + moment later the cadaverous Mr. Hooker was climbing over the graveyard + fence. + </p> + <p> + "Am I late?" he asked, as he came forward. + </p> + <p> + "I say, turn that beastly light the other way," complained Windomshire, + half blinded. "I thought no one but robbers carried dark lanterns." + </p> + <p> + "The darker the deed, the darker the lantern," said Mr. Hooker, genially. + "Good-evening, madam. Are we the only ones here?" He was very + matter-of-fact and business-like; Anne loathed him on the instant. + </p> + <p> + "We're all here but the minister and the other witness. I'll cough again—although + it hurts me to do it." + </p> + <p> + He coughed thrice, but instead of a response in kind, three sharp whistles + came from the trees at the left. + </p> + <p> + "What's that?" he gasped. "Has he forgotten the signal?" + </p> + <p> + "Maybe he is trying to cough," said Hooker, "and can't do any better than + wheeze. It's this rotten weather." + </p> + <p> + "No, it was a whistle. Good Heavens, Anne—it may be detectives." + </p> + <p> + "Detectives!" exclaimed Mr. Hooker, hoarsely. "Then this is no place for + me. Excuse me, I'll just step around the corner." As he scurried off, he + might have been heard to mutter to himself: "They've been hounding me ever + since that job in the Cosgrove cemetery. Damn 'em, I wonder if they think + I'm up here to rob the grave of one of these jays." From which it may be + suspected that Mr. Hooker had been employed in the nefarious at one time + or another. + </p> + <p> + "Detectives, Harry?" gasped Anne. "Why should there be detectives? We're + not criminals." + </p> + <p> + "You can't tell what Mrs. Thursdale may have done when she discovered—Hello! + There's a light down the road! 'Gad, I'll hide this lantern until we're + sure." He promptly stuck the lantern inside his big raincoat and they were + in darkness again. A hundred yards to the left a light bobbed about, + reminding them of childhood's will-o'-the-wisp. Without a word Windomshire + drew her around the church, stumbling over a discarded pew seat that stood + against the wall. Groaning with pain, he urged her to crouch down with him + behind the seat. All the while he held the umbrella manfully over her + devoted head. + </p> + <p> + Voices were heard, drawing nearer and nearer—one deep and cheery, + the other high and querulous. + </p> + <p> + "It—it—oh, Harry, it's that Mr. Derby!" she whispered. "I'd + know his voice in a thousand." + </p> + <p> + "The devil!" he whispered intensely, gripping her hand. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Derby was saying encouragingly: "There is the church, Mr. Van Trader. + Brace up. We seem to be the first to arrive." + </p> + <p> + "It's much farther away than you think," growled Mr. Van Truder. "I can't + see the lights in the window." + </p> + <p> + "There are no lights yet. We are ahead of them. I'll try the door." + </p> + <p> + The young minister kicked the mud from his shoes as he went up the steps + with the lantern. He tried the door vigorously, and then, holding the + lantern high, surveyed the surroundings. Mr. Van Truder, bundled up like a + motorman, stood below shivering—but with joy. + </p> + <p> + "This is a great night for an affair of this kind," he quaked. "By George, + I feel twenty years younger. I believe I could turn handsprings." + </p> + <p> + "I wouldn't if I were you. Don't forget your somersault over that log back + there, and your splendid headspin in the mud puddle. It's past nine + o'clock. Joe's cousin was to be here at 8.45. Wonder what keeps him. Joe + will be here himself in a jiffy. Dear me, what a dreadful night they have + chosen for a wedding!" + </p> + <p> + Windomshire whispered in horror to the girl beside him: "Good Lord, Anne, + they're following us." + </p> + <p> + "Please, Harry," she whispered petulantly, "hold the umbrella still. The + water from the rainspout is dripping down my back." + </p> + <p> + "By George, I wish Mrs. Van Truder could see me now," came valiantly from + the old gentleman around the corner. "Say, whistle again." Derby gave + three sharp, shrill whistles. In silence they waited a full minute for the + response. There was not a sound except the dripping of the rain. + </p> + <p> + "I'm afraid something is wrong," said Derby. Just at that instant + Windomshire, despite most heroic efforts to prevent the catastrophe, + sneezed with a violence that shook his entire frame. "Sh! don't speak," + hissed the startled minister. "We are being watched. That was unmistakably + a sneeze." + </p> + <p> + "I can't see any one," whispered Mr. Van Trader, excitedly. "I see just as + well in the dark as I do in the light, too." + </p> + <p> + "Some one is coming. See! There's a light down the road. Let's step out of + sight just for a moment." + </p> + <p> + Windomshire sneezed again, as if to accelerate the movements of the two + men. + </p> + <p> + "Hang it all!" he gurgled in despair. Mr. Derby had blinded his lantern + and was hurrying off into the grove with his companion. + </p> + <p> + "I can't help laughing, Harry," whispered Anne, giggling softly. "You + sneeze like an elephant." + </p> + <p> + "But an elephant has more sense than to sneeze as I do. I knew I'd take + cold. Anne, they're after us. It's old Mrs. Van Truder's work. What are + they up to?" + </p> + <p> + "Whatever it is, dear, they're just as much mystified as we are. Did you + hear him whistle? It is a signal." + </p> + <p> + "I say, Anne, it's a beastly mess I've got you into," groaned he. + </p> + <p> + "Dear old Harry, it is but the beginning of the mess you're getting + yourself into. I love this—every bit of it." + </p> + <p> + "You're ripping, Anne; that's what you are. I—Great Scotland! Here + comes the head-waiter, but we don't dare show ourselves. Did you ever know + such beastly luck?" + </p> + <p> + "There's another man too, away back there. And, look! Isn't that a light + coming through the trees back of the gravestones? Good Heavens, Harry, we + can't be married in a public thoroughfare. Everybody is walking with + lanterns. It's awful." + </p> + <p> + "Let's go around to the rear of the church," he exclaimed suddenly. + "Perhaps we can get our brains to work on a plan of action. But, look + here, Anne, no matter who they are or what they want, I'm going to marry + you to-night if I have to do it in the face of the entire crowd." + </p> + <p> + As they scurried off through the tall wet grass to a less exposed station, + a solitary figure came haltingly through the little gate. It was the + head-waiter, and, as he carried no lantern, he was compelled to light + matches now and then; after getting his bearings he would dart resolutely + on for a dozen paces before lighting another. Stopping in front of the + church door, he nervously tried to penetrate the gloom with an anxious + gaze; then, suddenly bethinking, he gave three timid little coughs. + Getting no immediate response, he growled aloud in his wrath: + </p> + <p> + "I've coughed my head off in front of every house between here and the + hotel, and I'm gettin' darned tired of it. I don't like this business; and + I never could stand for graveyards. Good Lord! what's that?" + </p> + <p> + Three sharp whistles came to his alert ears, coming, it seemed, from the + very heart of some grim old gravestone. A man strode boldly across the + yard from the gate, his walk indicating that he was perfectly familiar + with the lay of the land. + </p> + <p> + "Who coughed?" he demanded loudly. "Is there no one here? What the dickens + does it mean? Joe Dauntless! Where are you? No fooling now; my wife's + worse, and I can't stay here all night." He whistled again, and the + head-waiter coughed in a bewildered reply. "That's queer. Nothing was said + about coughing." + </p> + <p> + "Hello!" called the head-waiter. "Is it you, sir?" + </p> + <p> + Joe Dauntless's cousin held his lantern on high and finally discovered the + waiter near the pile of cordwood, ready to run at a moment's notice. + </p> + <p> + "Who are you?" demanded Mr. Carpenter. + </p> + <p> + "Gustave. But you ain't the man." + </p> + <p> + "I ain't, eh? Didn't you whistle a minute ago?" + </p> + <p> + "I ain't supposed to. I cough. Say, do you know if a wedding has taken + place here? I am a witness." + </p> + <p> + "Oh, I see. He said he'd bring one. Are you alone?" + </p> + <p> + "I don't know. It feels like a crowd every time I cough. Are you the + preacher?" + </p> + <p> + "No, I'm the bridegroom's cousin. We've got to get in through a window. I + couldn't find my key. Would you mind giving me a leg?" + </p> + <p> + "A leg? Nothing was said about legs," said the waiter, moving away. + Carpenter laughed. + </p> + <p> + "I mean a boost up to the window." + </p> + <p> + "Oh! Sure." + </p> + <p> + "There's one in the rear I can smash. We'll get inside and light up. I can + open the door from that side, too. Come on—follow me." They turned + the corner and followed the path so lately taken by Windomshire and Anne. + As they came to the back of the church they were startled and not a little + alarmed by the sound of sudden scurrying and a well-defined imprecation, + but it was too dark for them to distinguish any one. While they were + trying to effect an entrance through one of the windows, other mystified + participants in the night's affairs were looking on from secret and divers + hiding-places. Far out in the little grove Derby and his old companion + watched the operations of the church-breakers, the sickly glare of + Carpenter's lantern as it stood upon the edge of the rain barrel affording + an unholy light for the occasion. Windomshire and Anne, crouching behind a + stack of old benches, looked on in amazement. Mr. Hooker, whose conscience + was none too easy, doubtless for excellent reasons, peered forth from + behind a tall tombstone. He had arrived at the conclusion that he was + being hounded down as a body-snatcher. + </p> + <p> + "This is a devil of a mess," he muttered dolefully. "If they catch me in + this graveyard, I'll have a hard time proving an alibi. What an idiot I + was to get into this thing! I guess I'll get out of it. He's got plenty of + witnesses and I've got his ten dollars." He began sneaking off toward the + extreme west end of the graveyard, bent on finding the road to town. "Holy + smoke!" stopping short. "Another bunch of them coming! I'm surrounded!" He + dropped down behind a weed-covered mound and glared straight ahead. Almost + directly in his path a lantern wobbled and reeled slowly, finally bringing + its bearer to the fence between the burying-ground and the churchyard. A + man carried the light and half carried the form of a woman besides. + </p> + <p> + "Brace up, Nell dear," Mr. Hooker heard the newcomer say as tenderly as + his exertions would allow. "The worst is over. Here's the church. Good + Heavens, just think of being lost in a graveyard!" + </p> + <p> + "And climbing four fences and a tree," moaned Eleanor Thursdale. They had + come up through the graveyard by mistake. + </p> + <p> + "It wasn't a tree; it was a fence post. Great Scot! There's no light in + the church. What's up? Wait here, dear, and I'll investigate." + </p> + <p> + "Alone? Never!" she cried. They climbed their fifth fence, notwithstanding + the fact that a gate was near at hand. + </p> + <p> + "This is an awful pickle I've got you into. You ought to hate me—" + he was groaning, but she checked him nobly. + </p> + <p> + "Hush, Joe, I LOVE it," she cried. + </p> + <p> + "You just wait and see how happy I'll make you for this." He was about to + kiss her rapturously, but the act was stayed by the sound of a shrill + whistle, thrice given. "There's Jim Carpenter and Derby," he exclaimed, + and whistled in response. A moment later Derby strolled up from the grove, + followed by the chattering Mr. Van Truder. + </p> + <p> + "That you, Joe?" + </p> + <p> + "Hello, Darb. Good! Where's Jim?" + </p> + <p> + Some one whistled sharply off to the left, and then Jim Carpenter came + hurrying up, the head-waiter close behind. + </p> + <p> + "Hello, Joe. Say, has either of you been coughing?" demanded Carpenter, + his hair ready to stand on end. + </p> + <p> + "I should say not," said Joe. "I've scarcely been breathing." + </p> + <p> + "Then some ghost is having a hemorrhage," said the head-waiter, dismally. + </p> + <p> + "Hello, Mr. Dauntless, are you a witness too?" + </p> + <p> + "Say, Joe," said his cousin, quickly, "there's something strange going on. + The whole place is full of people. I went back there to open a window and + at least two men coughed—one of 'em sneezed. We're being watched. + This man says he heard a woman back there, and I saw a funny kind of light + in the graveyard." + </p> + <p> + "Hang 'em!" growled Joe. "We can't stop now. Open up the church, Jim." + </p> + <p> + "Can't. Lost my key. Is this Miss Thursdale? Glad to meet you. The + window's the only way and they're surely watching back there." + </p> + <p> + "Mamma has sent the officers after us," wailed Eleanor. + </p> + <p> + "Let's go home," said the waiter. "I didn't agree to stay out all night." + </p> + <p> + "Agree? Aha, I see. You are a spy!" cried Joe. + </p> + <p> + "A spy? I guess not. I'm a witness." + </p> + <p> + "It's the same thing," cackled Mr. Van Truder. "You're a spy witness." + </p> + <p> + "Joe, isn't this fellow your witness?" demanded Carpenter. + </p> + <p> + "I should say not. Mr. Van Truder is mine." + </p> + <p> + "By George, I don't understand—" + </p> + <p> + "Never mind, Jim, break into the church and let's have it over with. It's + going to rain again." + </p> + <p> + "Oh, I'm so tired," moaned the poor bride, mud-spattered, wet, and very + far from being the spick and span young woman that fashionable society + knew and loved. + </p> + <p> + "By Jove!" came suddenly from the darkness, startling the entire party—a + masculine voice full of surprise and—yes, consternation. Then there + strode into the circle of light a tall figure in a shimmering mackintosh, + closely followed by a young, resolute woman. + </p> + <p> + "Windomshire!" gasped Dauntless, leaping in front of Eleanor, prepared to + defend her with his life. + </p> + <p> + "Miss Courtenay, too," murmured Eleanor, peeking under his arm. + </p> + <p> + "Yes, by Jove," announced the harassed Englishman, at bay,—"Windomshire + and Miss Courtenay." There was a long silence—a tableau, in fact. + "Well, why doesn't some one say something? You've got us, don't you know." + </p> + <p> + Eleanor Thursdale was the first to find words. She was faint with + humiliation, but strong with the new resolve. Coming forth from behind + Dauntless, she presented herself before the man her mother had chosen. + </p> + <p> + "So you have found me out, Mr. Windomshire," she said pleadingly, a wry + little smile on her lips. "You know all about it?" + </p> + <p> + "I—er—by Jove, this is quite beyond me. Found you out? My + word, you don't mean to say—" + </p> + <p> + "I say, old man," said Dauntless, manfully, "let me explain. We've always + loved each other. It isn't that she—" + </p> + <p> + "Hang it all, man, I knew that," expostulated Windomshire. "It was a + mistake all around. I love Anne, don't you know. There's no real harm + done, I'm sure. But what puzzles me is this: why does Miss Thursdale + persist in pursuing us if she loves you and doesn't care to marry me?" + </p> + <p> + "The deuce! I like that," cried Dauntless. "You'd better begin by asking + questions at home." + </p> + <p> + "I take it," interposed Mr. Derby, with rare tact and discernment, "that + both of you expect to be married, but not to each other as originally + planned." Both Eleanor and Windomshire signified eager affirmation in more + ways than one. "Then it seems to me a simple case of coincidence, which + may be explained later on. Why discuss it now? I am in reality a minister, + Miss Courtenay, and I am here to unite Miss Thursdale and Mr. Dauntless in + the holy bonds of matrimony. I trust we may expect no interference on the + part of Mr. Windomshire?" + </p> + <p> + "Good Lord! No!" almost shouted Windomshire, clasping Anne's hand in a + mighty grasp. "That's what we are here for ourselves—to be married—but + the damned parson has deceived us." Jim Carpenter came out of his trance + at this. "Say, are you the fellow Rev. Smith was to marry? Well, he won't + be here. There's a surprise pound party at his house and the whole town is + there. He couldn't leave to save his soul. It's the way he gets his + living." + </p> + <p> + "Oh, Anne!" cried Windomshire, in real despair. + </p> + <p> + Anne slipped into the breach with rare old English fortitude. She + addressed herself sweetly to Mr. Derby. + </p> + <p> + "Mr. Derby, do you remember saying this afternoon that you'd do anything + in the world for me?" Mr. Derby blushed and looked most unworthy of his + calling, but managed to say that he WOULD do anything in the world for + her. "Then, please take the place of the minister who couldn't come." + </p> + <p> + "Good!" cried Dauntless, almost dancing. + </p> + <p> + "I will, Miss Courtenay," said Derby. Windomshire grasped him by the hand, + speechless with joy and relief. + </p> + <p> + "I don't understand all this," complained Mr. Van Truder, vainly trying to + see the excited, jubilant quartette. He only knew that they were all + talking at once, suddenly without restraint. "I wish my wife were here; + she'd understand." + </p> + <p> + Jim Carpenter at last came to his senses and, dragging the head-waiter + after him, sped to the rear of the church. A few minutes later lights + flashed in the windows and then the front door swung open. Carpenter and + Gustave stood smiling upon the threshold. + </p> + <p> + "Enter!" called out the former. As the group quickly passed through the + doorway, a long figure climbed down from the fence hard by and ventured up + to the portal. It was Mr. Hooker, his face the picture of bewilderment. + </p> + <p> + "Well, this beats me!" he ejaculated, leaning against the door jamb; none + of those at the altar heard his remark. He stood there listening until the + last words of the service which united two couples were uttered. Then he + turned sorrowfully away and started across the yard. The sound of a + wedding march played upon the wheezy cabinet organ by Jim Carpenter + followed him into the gloom; above the gasp of the organ was lifted the + unmistakable chatter of joyous voices. + </p> + <p> + As he passed through the gate a great vehicle rolled up and stopped. It + was drawn by two steaming horses, and the wagon lanterns told him that it + was the Somerset Hotel 'bus. "I'll ride back with 'em," he thought + comfortably. + </p> + <p> + Some one climbed down from the rear of the 'bus, assisted by two young men + in brass buttons. Mr. Hooker made way for a corpulent, puffing old lady. + She stopped in front of him and demanded in hot, strident tones: + </p> + <p> + "Where is my husband?" + </p> + <p> + "Your husband?" repeated Mr. Hooker, politely. "Madam, you can search me. + There's a whole churchful of husbands up there." + </p> + <p> + "You—you—-" she sputtered. "Am I too late? Support me, you + fools," she cried to the two bell-boys. They hurried across the + churchyard, Mr. Hooker following. At the doorway she stopped, glaring hard + at the well-lighted interior. "Mr. Van Truder! Mr. Van Truder!" she called + out angrily, but her joyful other half did not hear her. He was trying at + that moment to organise the company into a wedding procession. + </p> + <p> + "Say," said Mr. Hooker, "maybe you'd better cough three times." + </p> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Flyers, by George Barr McCutcheon + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLYERS *** + +***** This file should be named 5848-h.htm or 5848-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/8/4/5848/ + +Etext produced by Charles Aldarondo, Charles Franks, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +HTML file produced by David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Flyers + +Author: George Barr McCutcheon + +Posting Date: April 12, 2013 [EBook #5848] +Release Date: June, 2004 +First Posted: September 13, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLYERS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Charles Franks, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + +THE FLYERS + +BY GEORGE BARR MCCUTCHEON + +Author of "Graustark" "Beverly of Graustark" etc. + + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAP. + + I. THE FARAWAY CLUB + II. THE FLYERS CATCH THE FLYER +III. THE MORNING AFTER + IV. MRS. VAN TRUDER INTRUDES + V. AS NIGHT APPROACHES + VI. THE ROAD TO PARADISE + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +Anne Courtenay ..... Frontispiece + +Eleanor was still sitting. . . stiff and silent + +Seated side by side. . . two miserable partners in the fiasco + +Windomshire + +"Hush, Joe, I LOVE it," she cried + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE FARAWAY CLUB + + +A cold, thick drizzle, blown by a biting wind that sent chills to the +marrow, marred the early spring night, and kept indoors the few hardy +members who had haunted the clubhouse since the season's opening a week +before. Not more than a dozen loyal devotees to the sports of the open +air lounged about the big clubhouse. Three or four rangy young women in +sweaters and jackets strove bravely to dispel the gloom of the night as +it settled down upon the growling masculine majority. The club steward +hovered near, anxiously directing the movements of a silent and as yet +undrilled corps of servants who flitted from group to group with +decanters and checks, taking and mistaking orders with the usual +abandon. A huge fireplace threw out heat sufficient to make the big +lounging room comfortable. Now and then a spiteful gust of wind swept +the rain against the western window-panes with a menace that set the +teeth on edge. + +"Rotten night," reflected the big man who monopolised the roomiest +chair and the best position in front of the blazing logs. "Going to +town to-night?" The question was general: there were half a dozen +answers. Every one was going in by the last express. All of them had +dined well: they had been hungry and the club was a wealthy one; even +the most exclusive of appetites could be entertained at the Faraway +Country Club. The last 'bus was to leave the clubhouse at ten minutes +past ten, and it was then half-past eight. Ten minutes' drive from the +clubhouse on the edge of the little town to the railway station--then +thirty minutes to the heart of the big city in which the members lived +and died at great risk to themselves. + +Each succeeding spring saw the formal opening of the Faraway Country +Club. The boards were pulled down from the windows and the door hinges +were oiled properly after a winter of discontent. May saw the +reopening, but it was not until June that crowds began to fill the +house and grounds. Only the more restless and hardy had the temerity to +test the pleasures of the raw spring days and nights. The M.F.H. was a +loyal, eager chap; he knew what was required of him in his official +capacity. With the first symptoms of softening soil he led his +followers through field and wood, promising the "real hunt" inside of a +month. Following a pack of overfed hounds was what every one at Faraway +Club called a "real hunt." + +The night so meagrely described at the beginning of this tale followed +hard upon a grey, chill day. A few golfers had spent the afternoon upon +the course, inanely cursing the temporary tees and greens. A couple of +polo enthusiasts tried out their ponies, and several men and women took +their hunters over the course, that fairly bristled with spectres of +last year's anise-seed. Now they were comfortably ensconced in the +clubhouse, berating the unfortunate elements, and waiting for the last +express with a persistency which allowed three or four earlier trains +to come and go unnoticed. The cheerful highball was coming into its +own. A stern winter of bridge had not killed the ardour of certain +worshippers; continuous criticism of play arose from the table in the +corner where two men and two women were engaged with the cards. + +The perennial bore, who noses into everything in order to sniff his own +wit, sauntered amiably from group to group, pouring out jests as murky +as the night itself. He saw none of the scowls nor heard the toe-taps; +he went blithely along his bridgeless way. + +"I say, Brown, I saw your wife on the street yesterday, but she didn't +see me," he observed to the blase-looking man in corduroys. + +"Ya-as," returned the other, calmly staring past him; "so she told me +last night." The bore and his blissful smile passed on to the next +group. There, two or three women were chatting with as many men, +yawning and puffing at their cigarettes, bored by the risque stories +the men were telling, but smiling as though they had not already heard +them from other men. Occasional remarks, dropped softly into the ears +of the women, may have brought faint blushes to their cheeks, but the +firelight was a fickle consort to such changes. The sly turn of a +sentence gave many a double meaning; the subtle glance of the eye +intended no harm. Dobson's new toast to "fair women" earned a roar of +laughter, but afterwards Dobson was called to account by a husband who +realised. A man over in the corner was thumping aimlessly on the piano; +a golf fanatic was vigorously contending that he had driven 243 yards +against the wind; a tennis enthusiast was lamenting the fact that the +courts were too soft to be used; there was a certain odour of +rain-soaked clothes in the huge room, ascendant even above the smell of +cigarettes. Altogether, it was a night that owed much to the weather. + +Mrs. Scudaway, dashing horsewoman and exponent of the free rein, was +repeating the latest story concerning an intimate friend of every one +present--and, consequently, absent. + +"She's just sailed for Europe, and that good-looking actor friend of +the family happened to go on the same steamer," she was saying with a +joyous smile. + +"Accidents will happen," remarked some one, benevolently. + +"Where's her husband? I haven't seen him with her in months," came from +one of the men. + +"Oh, they have two children, you know," explained Mrs. Scudaway. + +"Delicate, I hear," said Miss Ratliff. + +"Naturally; he nurses them," said Mrs. Scudaway, blowing smoke half-way +across the room through her delicate nostrils. + +"I say, Mrs. Scudaway," cried the rapt bore, "don't you ever do +anything but inhale?" + +"Yes, I exhale occasionally. No, thanks," as he held forth an ash tray. +Then she flecked the ashes into the fireplace, ten feet away. + +"Good Lord, it's a rotten night!" repeated the big man, returning +dismally from a visit to the window. "There's a beastly fog mixed in +with the rain." + +"Better blow the fog horn for Henderson," said Ratliff, with a jerk of +his thumb. "He's half seas over already and shipping a lot of water." +Henderson, the convivial member, was on his third siphon. + +"I don't care a whoop what McAlpine says," roared an irascible +gentleman on the opposite side of the fireplace; "a man ought to use a +midiron when he gets that kind of a lie. Nobody but an ass would take a +brassie. He's---" + +"Just listen to that blethering idiot," said young Rolfe to the lady +beside him. "He ought to be choked." + +"I like the way you speak of my husband," she responded gaily. + +"Oh, I forgot. He is your husband, isn't he?" Then, after a moment's +easy contemplation of the pretty young woman and a scornful glance at +the golfer: "Lucky, but a very poor watchdog." + +"He barks beautifully," resented the young wife, with a loyal grimace. + +"That's why you're not afraid of him," he said quickly. + +"Don't you think he'd bite?" + +"They never do." + +"Well, you just try him, that's all," remarked the young wife coldly, +rising and moving away, a touch of red in her cheeks. + +"I will," he sang out genially, as he crossed his legs and stretched +his feet out to the fire. She looked back with a mirthless smile on her +lips. + +The man at the piano struck up the insidious "La Mattchiche," +suggestive of the Bal Tabarin and other Fourteenth of July devotions. + +"Don't play that, Barkley," complained the big man, as every one began +beating time to the fascinating air. "I'm trying to forget Paris." + +"Can you ever forget that night in Maxim's---" began Mrs. Scudaway. + +"I recall the next day more vividly," he interrupted. + +"Changing the subject," inserted the amiable bore, his moon-face +beaming, "I see that the Thursdales have opened their place across the +ravine. Isn't it rather early for them to leave town for the summer?" + +"They come out every year about this time." + +"Lot of people will be opening their places next week. I saw Mrs. +Gorgus to-day. She says they're putting her house in shape---" + +"Impossible!" cried Mrs. Tanner. "It hasn't any shape." + +"The only thing that could put the Gorgus house in shape is an +earthquake. Who was the architect of that abortion?" demanded Rolfe. + +"Denison. He's an impressionist." + +"The Thursdales have a new French car. Have you seen it? Eleanor ran +over here in it this afternoon with her Englishman. Showing off both of +her novelties at once, d'ye see?" said Carter, the tennis player. + +"I understand the thing's a go--sure go," said the big man. "In the +fall some time. He's a rather decent chap, too." + +"And, what's better, if his brother and his cousin should happen to +die, he'll be a duke." + +"If they're as healthy as he seems to be, there'll be nothing doing for +him." + +A good-looking young fellow, who had been staring at the fire all +evening, moved uneasily in his lounging chair. Several quick glances +were sent to where he sat moodily apart from the others, and then +surreptitious winks and nudges were exchanged. + +"Joe is as crazy in love with her as ever, poor devil," whispered +Rolfe. Gradually the group of gossips came closer together over the +table top; the conversation was continued in more subdued tones. + +"They're discussing me, damn 'em," said the moody young man to himself. +"I suppose they're pitying me. Damn cats! But I'll show 'em a thing or +two they're not looking for before long." He looked at his watch for +the twentieth time in an hour and scowled at the drenched window-panes +across the way. For some reason this exceedingly nice-looking young man +was in a state of extreme nervousness, a condition which, luckily for +him, he was able to keep within himself. + +And this was what Mrs. Scudaway was saying in an urgent undertone to +the half dozen who leaned across the big table: "Joe is a mighty good +sort, and I'm sorry for him. He's been good enough for Eleanor +Thursdale ever since she came out two years ago, and I don't see why he +should cease being good enough for her now. This Englishman hasn't any +more money and he isn't half as good looking. He's English, that's all. +Her mother's crazy to have a look in at some of those London functions +she's read so much about. She's an awful ass, don't you think, Tommy?" + +"Ya-as," said the blase man; "such as she is." + +"Mighty hard lines, this thing of being an ordinary American," lamented +the placid bore. + +"One might just as well be called Abraham or Isaac," reflected Carter. + +"No romantic young lover would live through the first chapter with +either of those names," said pretty Miss Ratliff, who read every novel +that came out. + +"Dauntless has been terribly out of humour for the past week or two," +said Carter. "He's horribly cut up over the affair,--grouchy as blazes, +and flocks by himself all the time. That's not like him, either." + +"He's the sweetest boy I know," commented little Mrs. Tanner, whose +husband had barked about the midiron. + +"I've heard he's the only man you ever really loved," murmured Rolfe, +close to her ear. + +"Nonsense! I've known him all my life," she replied, with quick and +suspicious resentment. + +"Trite phrase," scoffed he. "I'll wager my head that every woman living +has uttered that same worn expression a hundred times. 'Known him all +my life!' Ha, ha! It's a stock apology, my dear. Women, good and bad, +trade under that flag. Please, to oblige me, get a fresh excuse." + +"The most ignorant duffer in the world could lay you a stymie if---" +the loud-voiced golfer was complaining just at that instant. The man he +was addressing was nodding his head politely and at the same time +trying to hear what was being said at the round table. + +"Joe Dauntless is good enough for anybody's daughter," vouchsafed the +blase man in corduroys. + +"He's a ripping good fellow," again said Mrs. Scudaway. + +"Mrs. Thursdale's got an English governess for her kids, an English +butler, an English bull terrier, and a new Cobden-Sanderson binding on +that antique History of England she talks so much about," observed +Carter. + +"And she's beginning to wear her evening gowns on the street in the +morning. Besides, her shoes lob over at the heels," remarked the rangy +Mrs. Carter. + +"Yes, she's getting to be thoroughly English. I've noticed a tendency +to chirp like a bird when she talks, too." + +"That governess is a mighty stunning girl, by the way," said Rolfe. + +"She's been over here a year, you know," said Mrs. Scudaway, with no +apparent relevancy. + +"Have you heard when Eleanor's engagement is to be announced?" asked +Miss Ratliff. + +"I'm not supposed to tell, but I have it on the best authority that it +will be announced next week, and the wedding will take place in +November. I suppose they'll ask Joe Dauntless to be an usher," said +Mrs. Carter. + +"Hello! Joe's gone outside. He must have heard something we said," said +Rolfe, setting his highball glass down with a thump. + +"Oh, if he had only been educated at Cambridge instead of in +Cambridge," mourned Mrs. Carter. + +It was true that the tall, good-looking Mr. Dauntless had left the +room, but not because he had heard the comments of his friends. He was +standing on the wind-swept verandah, peering through the mist toward a +distant splash of light across the ravine to the right of the club +grounds. The fog and mist combined to run the many lights of the +Thursdale windows into a single smear of colour a few shades brighter +than the darkness from which it protruded. Dauntless's heart was inside +that vague, impressionistic circle of colour, but his brain was very +much in evidence on the distant outside. What were the workings of that +eager brain will soon be revealed--to the reader, at least, if not to +the occupants of the rain-bound clubhouse. + +A word concerning Dauntless. He was the good-looking son of old banker +Dauntless, who died immediately after his cashier brought ruin to the +concern of which he was president. This blow fell when his son was in +his senior year at Harvard. He took his degree, and then, instead of +the promised trip around the world, he came home and went to work in +the offices of a big brokerage firm. Everybody knew and liked him. He +was a steady, earnest worker, and likewise a sportsman of the right +temperament. Big, fashionable Faraway looked upon him as its most +gallant member; no one cared to remember that he might have been very +rich; every one loved him because he had been rich and was worthy in +spite of that. It was common knowledge that he was desperately in love +with pretty Eleanor Thursdale, daughter of the eminently fashionable +and snobbishly aristocratic widow Thursdale, mistress of many millions +and leader of select hundreds. Moreover, it was now pretty well known +that Mrs. Thursdale had utterly lost sight of Dauntless in surveying +the field of desirable husbands for Eleanor. She could see nothing but +Englishmen, behind whom lurked the historic London drawing-rooms and +British estates. That is how and why young Windomshire, a most +delightful Londoner, with prospects and a peerage behind him, came to +be a guest in her city house, following close upon a long sojourn in +the Bermudas. HE had been chosen; the battle was over, so far as +Eleanor's hand was concerned. What matter if Dauntless had her heart? + +The object of this indifference and scorn gazed long and hard at the +blob of light across the ravine. His heart was beating fast, and his +body tingled with a strange excitement, which made itself manifest in a +mixture of impatient frowns and prophetic smiles. + +"If it wasn't such a beastly night," he was muttering in one breath, +and, "Still, it's just the sort of a night we want," in the next. He +was looking at his watch in the light from the window when an +automobile whizzed up the wet gravel drive and came to a stop in front +of the club steps. As Dauntless re-entered the house from the verandah, +a tall young man in a motor coat and goggles came in through the +opposite door. They paused and looked steadily at each other, then +nodded briefly. The crowd of loungers glanced at the two men with +instant curiosity and then breathed easily. The man who was going to +marry Miss Thursdale and the man who wanted to marry her were advancing +to shake hands--a trifle awkwardly, perhaps, but more or less frankly. + +"Rough weather for motoring," remarked Dauntless, nervously. +Windomshire removed his cap and goggles. + +"Beastly. I just ran over for something to warm the inside man. Won't +you join me?" His voice was pleasant to the ear, his manner easy and +appealing. He was not so good looking as Dauntless, true, but he had +the air of a thoroughbred in his make-up--from head to foot. + +"Sit down here," called Mrs. Scudaway readily, creating a general shift +of chairs. The two men hesitated a moment, nervousness apparent in +both, and then sat down quickly. The Englishman was next Mrs. Scudaway. +"What were you doing out in the rain?" she asked after the order for +drinks had been taken. + +"Hurrying to get out of it," he said with evasive good humour, "and +thinking how much nicer your fogs are than ours," he added quickly. + +"Anybody come over with you?" asked the bore, agreeably. + +"No, they're playing bridge over at Mrs. Thursdale's and that lets me +out. Beastly headache, too. Got out for a breath of air." The silence +that followed this observation seemed to call for further explanations. +"Miss Thursdale retired soon after dinner, wretchedly under the +weather. That rather left me adrift, don't you know. I'm not playing +bridge this year." + +"You're not? Why not, pray?" + +"Chiefly because of last year. My Mercedes came on from New York +yesterday and I got her out for a spin. Couldn't resist, don't you +know. She's working beautifully." + +"There's one thing about a Mercedes that I don't like--and you don't +find it in a Panhard. I've got a Panhard and--" Dobson was saying with +all the arrogance of a motor fiend, when Mrs. Scudaway ruthlessly and +properly cut him off. + +"We know all about your Panhard, Dobby. Don't bother. Is Eleanor really +ill, Mr. Windomshire?" + +"I had it from her own lips, Mrs. Scudaway." + +"Oh, you know what I mean. Is it likely to be serious?" + +"Really, I can't say. I offered to go and fetch the doctor in my car, +but she assured me she'd be all right in the morning. What say, Mr. +Dauntless?" + +"I didn't speak, Mr. Windomshire." + +"I thought you did." More than one at the table had heard Joe's +involuntary chuckle. + +"I say, Windomshire, what's the name of that pretty governess over at +Thursdale's?" asked the busy bore. "Saw her this morning." + +The Englishman looked down and flecked the ashes from his cigarette +before answering. + +"Miss Courtenay," he responded. + +"She's a corking pretty girl." Windomshire went through the unnecessary +act of flecking ashes again, but said nothing in reply. "Are there any +more at home like her?" with a fine chuckle in behalf of his wit. + +"She's of a very good family, I believe," said Windomshire, looking +about helplessly. Mrs. Scudaway caught the look in his eyes and +remembered that English gentlemen are not supposed to discuss women +outside of their own set. + +"It must be time for the 'bus," she said. "We're all going in by the +10.10, Mr. Windomshire." + +"Can't I take some of you over to the station in my car?" + +"The 'bus is dryer, I think, thank you." She led the way, and the other +women followed her upstairs. "We'll be down in time," she called. + +"I'll take some of you men over in Hardy's machine," volunteered +Dauntless. "I've got it out here this week, while he's east." + +"Ain't you going in, Joe?" demanded Rolfe. + +"Not to-night. I'm staying overnight with my uncle in Cobberly Road." + +"The 'bus is good enough for me. I haven't forgotten how you ran off +the Peters Bridge last fall," said Carter. + +"Hang it, man, he wasn't thinking about bridges that time," said the +cheerful bore. "There was a girl with him. Elea--Ahem! I say, old man, +what the devil time is it? Time for the confounded 'bus? Don't want to +miss the train." He had caught the scowl of warning from Carter and, +for a wonder, understood. + +"By the way," said Windomshire, irrelevantly, "what was the disturbance +over in O'Brien's Lane this morning? Anybody hurt? I was driving the +car up Andrews' Hill when I saw the excitement. Couldn't make it out. +Were all of the horses running away?" + +"Running away!" roared the blase man, forgetting his pose for the first +time. "Running away!" and he broke into a roar of laughter. "Why, that +was the advance guard of the Faraway Country Club. Good Lord, did you +see them coming in?" + +"My word, they were coming in. But what was the rush? I came over +to-night to see if any of the women had been hurt. I could have sworn +the horses were absolutely unmanageable. They were tearing through +bushes and taking fences they'd never seen before. Egad, I give you my +word, one of the women took the fence at the south end of the golf +course, and she didn't turn out for the bunker at No. 7, either. She +took it like a bird, and straight across the course she flew on a dead +line for the home green. What the deuce---" + +"Sh! Windomshire, it will cost you your life if she hears you. That was +Mrs. Scudaway. You don't know what happened, so I'll tell you. Half a +dozen of the women went out with us for a run over the usual course. +They are among our best and oldest hunters, too. Well, they were +keeping right up with the men and having a splendid hunt, when all of a +sudden a real, live fox dashed into view. By gad, sir, he started a +panic. They'd never seen one in their lives, and they set up a howl +that went clear to heaven. And they started for home--well, you saw 'em +on the stretch. It was great! There never has been such riding in +America. Mrs. Hooper lost her hat in the woods, and Mrs. Graves lost +part of her habit coming through that break in the hedge over there. +That skinny Miss Elperson, who never before has had nerve enough to +jump her horse over the lawn hose, cleared the wall that runs along +O'Brien's mill,--nobody's ever done it before,--and she came in hanging +to the horse's mane and yelling like a wild-cat. Gad, it was two hours +before we got 'em quiet and sent'em to town. They thought it was a +tiger, I understand, although some of them held out for the lion and +the hyena. Mrs. Scudaway was game enough to stay and enjoy the laugh." + +"What became of the fox?" demanded the Englishman, his eyes glistening. +At that moment the women came trooping down stairs; the 'bus bell was +clanging sleepily. + +"The fox? Oh--er--hanged if I know. I--er---" + +"Were you riding?" + +"Well--er--just a practice run, you know, old man. Er--I say, ladies, +the 'bus waits!" + +Two minutes later the 'bus rolled away in the fog and drizzle, leaving +Dauntless and Windomshire alone on the steps. + +"Good-night," said the Englishman, after an awkward silence. + +"Good-night," was the response. Then, following a brief pause, both +started toward their cars. The next minute they were chugging away, in +the night and the lights in the clubhouse began to go out. + +Two hours later a stealthy figure crept across the Thursdale lawn, +lurking behind the rose beds and lilac bushes, finally worming its way +to a dripping but secluded spot under the weather side of the house. It +was past twelve o'clock, but there were still lights in the front part +of the big summer-house. Quiet reigned there, however; the noise of +merry-making came from the servants' quarters overlooking the ravine. A +handful of gravel left an impatient hand and rattled against the +second-story window above. Almost instantaneously the window was raised +and a head came forth. + +"Joe?" came a shrill whisper from above. + +"What's the matter?" whispered the man below. "I've been waiting out +there for two hours--well, half an hour, at least. Aren't you coming, +dear?" + +"I can't get out," came in a whispered wail. "I've had my hat on for +hours, but---" + +"Why can't you get out? Good Lord, you just must!" + +"They're playing bridge in the front part of the house and the servants +are having a reunion in the back. Oh, I've been nearly crazy. What are +we to do? Shall I jump?" + +"Don't! Is there no way to sneak out?" + +"I'm afraid of being seen. It would give everything away if any one saw +me in this automobile rigging at this time of night--and in a rain like +this, too. Oh, dear, dear, I know I shall go mad! You poor darling, +aren't you wet to the skin? I really couldn't help it. I just couldn't +be there at 11.30." + +"We'll never make that train--never in the world," groaned Dauntless. +"It's ten miles, and the road's horrible all the way. By Jove, Nell, +you must get out some way. It's now or never. I've got everything +fixed." + +"Oh, Joe--listen! Do you think you can get a ladder out from under the +verandah? The painters left them there this morning. Look out for +paint, dear. Don't make a noise--not a sound. Mr. Windomshire's room is +just over the porte cochere. For Heaven's sake, don't arouse him." + +"Drop your bag down first, dear,--here! I'll catch it." + +"I've got to put some things in it first. It isn't quite ready," she +gasped, darting away from the window. + +"'T was ever thus," he muttered in despair. Cautiously he made his way +to the end of the verandah. A close listener might have heard him snarl +"damn" more than once as he tugged away at the painters' ladders, which +had been left there when the rain began. He was a good-natured chap, +but barking his knuckles, bumping his head, and banging his shins, +added to the misfortunes that had gone before, were enough to +demoralise a saint. + +He imagined that he was making enough noise to rouse the neighbours for +blocks around. No time was to be lost in self-commiseration, however. +He hurriedly dragged out a ladder, which he managed to place against +the window-sill without accident. + +"Here it is," she whispered excitedly. The next instant a heavy object +dropped at his feet with a crash. "Oh!" she exclaimed with horror, "my +perfume bottles!" + +"Good Lord!" he gasped. + +"I thought you were going to catch it. Oh, here's the ladder. Do you +think I'll fall? Oh, oh!" + +"Don't be afraid. Climb out, dear--and hurry!" + +She was brave enough in the crisis. While he held the bottom of the +ladder she scrambled through the window and hurried downward. Before +she reached the bottom he lifted her from the ladder in his strong arms +and held her close for a moment. + +"Take the ladder down, dearest," she whispered between kisses. "I don't +want mother to know I left that way--not just yet,--nor Mr. +Windomshire, either." + +"Come this way," he whispered, after replacing the ladder. "I left the +car just around the corner. Come on, darling, and we'll soon be safe. +Don't make a noise!" + +"Goodness, isn't it dark! What a horrid night! Oh, what's that?" + +"Gad, I thought I heard something over there in the croquet ground. +Sounded like some one mixing it up with a wicket. Quick! Out this way!" +He had her hand in his, and was rushing ruthlessly through flower-beds +toward the big gate, her travelling bag banging against his knee with +the insistence of a hundredweight. + +Panting and gasping for breath, they finally floundered into the +roadway, and dashed off through the muddy surface toward the unseen +automobile. + +She was half fainting with the panic of excitement as he started to +lift her into the tonneau of the car. "No, no! Please let me sit with +you in the front seat," she implored. She had her way, and a moment +later he was up beside her, both wrapped in the oil-cloths, the drizzle +blowing in their hot faces. + +"We're off, thank God!" he whispered joyously, as the car leaped +forward under his hand. + +"I wonder--oh, dear, how I wonder what mamma will say," she was crying +in his ear. + +Dauntless grinned happily as the car shot onward through the blackness +of the night. Its lanterns were dark and cold, but he knew the road. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE FLYERS CATCH THE FLYER + + +No one would have recognised either of them had it been possible to see +them,--so carefully were their heads swathed in their coverings. She +was veiled and he was goggled, and both of them scrooged down in the +seat apprehensively. Hardy's car, borrowed in reality for the occasion, +was performing nobly. It careened through the muddy streets of the +village with a sturdiness that augured well for the enterprise. Out +into the country road, scudding northward, it sped. Dauntless increased +the speed, not to the limit, on account of the fog and uncertainty of +the road, but enough to add new thrills to the girl who crouched beside +him. Neither spoke until they were far from the town line; the strain +was too intense. + +"What will everybody say?" she finally cried in his ear--the most +natural question in the world. "And the newspapers? Oh, dear!" + +"You're not weakening, are you?" he cried. "Shall I turn back?" + +She was silent for half a mile. + +"No," she replied at last, "I couldn't climb UP that ladder. And +besides--" with a gasp as the car shot over the railroad tracks,--"we +never could get as good a start as this again." + +"Bully for you!" he shouted. + +"How far is it to Fenlock, Joe?" she asked, a quaver in her +high-pitched voice. + +"About seven miles. We'll take the short cut through O'Brien's Lane and +strike Cobberly Road again at the crossroads. Then it will be easy +going. We'll catch the flyer all right, Nell. Everything's arranged. +You go into Car 5 and I in Car 7--" + +"With a whole car between us? Heavens!" + +"It's safest, dear. There might happen to be some one on board who'd +know us and suspect. Keep your veil down until you get into the berth. +There's not much danger of any one being up at this time of night, but +don't take any chances." + +"Goodness, isn't it thrilling! And when do we get to Omegon?" + +"Little after seven in the morning. My cousin will meet us in a hack +and drive us straight to the church. His wife will go with us as the +extra witness. By eight o'clock we'll be married. Derby will be on the +train with us. He's a full-fledged preacher now, and he'll marry us +without a whimper." + +"Oh," she sighed deliciously, in spite of the jarring of the motor, +"isn't it nice to have old college chums who can be depended upon?" + +"Poor old Windomshire," he laughed in the buoyancy of conquest. + +"I don't think he'll---" She stopped. + +"What?" + +"Care very much," she concluded. He laughed doubtingly. + +Mile after mile the car traversed the misty night, jolting over the +ruts in the lane, taking the hills blindly--driven entirely by the hand +of Good Luck. + +Suddenly the "honk, honk!" of an invisible motor struck upon their +tense ears, the sound coming from some point ahead in the black, narrow +lane. Dauntless sat straight and peered ahead, sounding his horn +sharply. + +"I hope no one is coming toward us," he groaned, slowing up sharply. +"We never can pass in this confounded lane. If we get off into the soft +ground--Hello! Here he comes--and no lights either! Hey! Look out!" He +brought his car to an abrupt standstill. + +"Where are we, Joe?" she cried. + +"Near the crossroads, I'm sure. Curse an idiot that runs around without +lights on a night like this," he growled, forgetting that his own lamps +were dark. + +Out of the misty blackness loomed another car, directly ahead. It had +come to a sudden stop not ten feet away. Both cars were tooting their +horns viciously. + +"Where are your lights?" roared Dauntless. + +"Where are yours?" came back angrily through the fog. + +"Good Lord!" gasped Joe, panic-stricken. + +"It's Mr. Windomshire," whispered Eleanor, in consternation. + +Before she realised what was happening her companion lifted her bodily +over the back of the seat and deposited her in the bed of the tonneau. + +"Hide, dearest," he whispered. "Get under the storm blankets. He must +not see you! I'll--I'll bluff it out some way." + +"Wha--what is he doing out here in a machine?" she was whispering +wildly. "He is pursuing us! He has found out!" + +In the other car Windomshire--for it was the tall Englishman--was +hoarsely whispering to some one beside him: + +"It's Dauntless! Hang him! What's he doing here?" Then followed a +hurried scuffling and subdued whispers. A long silence, fraught with an +importance which the throbbing of the two engines was powerless to +disturb, followed the mutual discovery. Joe's brain worked the quicker. +Disguising his voice as best he could, he shouted through the fog: + +"We can't pass here." + +"Is--is this Cobberly Road?" cried Windomshire, striving to obtain what +he considered the American twang. + +"No, it's not. It's O'Brien's Lane." + +Then, after a long silence, "Can't you back out?" + +"It's rather--I mean sorter risky, mister. I don't know how far I'd +have to back, doncherknow--er, ahem!" + +"The crossroads can't be more than a hundred yards behind you. Where +are you going?" + +"I'm going for--a doctor," called Windomshire, hastily. + +"Well, then, we ought not to stand here all night," groaned Joe, his +ears open to catch the sound of the locomotive's whistle. There was no +time to be lost. + +"I'll--I'll try to back her out," shouted Windomshire. Eleanor +whispered something shrilly and anxiously from the tonneau, and Joe +called out instantly: + +"Who is ill?" + +"Mrs.--Mrs. Smith," replied the other, bravely. + +"Good!" exclaimed Dauntless, heartily. Windomshire was not in the least +annoyed by the lack of sympathy. He began to drive his car backward by +jerks and jolts, blindly trusting to luck in the effort to reach the +road which he had passed in his haste a few minutes before. Joe was +shouting encouragement and pushing slowly forward in his own machine. +The noise of the engines was deafening. + +"Hang it all, man, don't blow your horn like that!" roared Windomshire +at last, harassed and full of dread. Joe, in his abstraction, was +sounding his siren in a most insulting manner. + +At last Windomshire's wheels struck a surface that seemed hard and +resisting. He gave a shout of joy. + +"Here we are! It's macadam!" + +"Cobberly Road," cried Joe. "Back off to the right and let me run in +ahead. I'm--I'm in a devil of a hurry." + +"By Gad, sir, so am I. Hi, hold back there! Look out where you're +going, confound you!" + +"Now for it," cried Joe to Eleanor. "We've got the lead; I'll bet a bun +he can't catch us." He had deliberately driven across the other's bows, +as it were, scraping the wheel, and was off over Cobberly Road like the +wind. "Turn to your right at the next crossing," he shouted back to +Windomshire. Then to himself hopefully: "If he does that, he'll miss +Fenlock by three miles." + +They had covered two rash, terrifying miles before a word was spoken. +Then he heard her voice in his ear--an anxious, troubled voice that +could scarcely be heard above the rushing wind. + +"What will we do if the train is late, dear? He'll be--be sure to catch +us." + +"She's never late. Besides, what if he does catch us? We don't have to +go back, do we? You're of age. Brace up; be a man!" he called back +encouragingly. + +"There are too many men as it is," she wailed, sinking back into the +tonneau. + +"Here we are!" he shouted, as the car whizzed into a murky, dimly +lighted street on the edge of Fenlock, the county seat. "There are the +station lights just ahead." + +"Is the train in?" she cried, struggling to her feet eagerly. + +"I think not." He was slowing down. A moment later the throbbing car +came to a stop beside the railway station platform. The lights blinked +feebly through the mist; far off in the night arose the faint toot of a +locomotive's whistle. + +"We're just in time," he cried. "She's coming. Quick!" He lifted her +bodily over the side of the car, jerked two suitcases from beneath the +curtains, and rushed frantically to the shelter of the platform sheds. + +"I'll leave you here, dear," he was saying rapidly. "Wait a second; +there is your railroad ticket and your drawing-room ticket, too. I'll +wake Derby when I get on board. I have to run the automobile down to +Henry's garage first. Won't take ten seconds. Don't worry. The train +won't be here for three or four minutes. Get on board and go to sleep. +I'll be two cars ahead." + +"Oh, Joe, won't I see you again before we start?" she cried +despairingly. + +"I'll be back in a minute. It's only half a block to Henry's. All I +have to do is to leave the car in front of his place. His men will look +after it. It's all understood, dearest; don't worry. I'll be here +before the train, never fear. Stand here in the shadow, dear." He gave +her what might have been a passionate kiss had it not been for the +intervention of veil and goggles. Then he was off to the motor, his +heart thumping frantically. Standing as stiff and motionless as a +statue against the damp brick wall, she heard the automobile leap away +and go pounding down the street. Apparently she was alone on the +platform; the ticking of telegraph instruments came to her anxious +ears, however, and she knew there were living people inside the long, +low building. The experience certainly was new to this tall, carefully +nurtured girl. Never before had she been left alone at such an hour and +place; it goes without saying that the circumstances were unique. Here +she was, standing alone in the most wretched of nights, her heart +throbbing with a dozen emotions, her eyes and ears labouring in a new +and thrilling enterprise, her whole life poised on the social dividing +line. She was running away to marry the man she had loved for years; +slipping away from the knot that ambition was trying to throw over her +rebellious head. If she had any thought of the past or the future, +however, it was lost among the fears and anxieties of the present. Her +soul was crying out for the approach of two objects--Joe Dauntless and +the north-bound flyer. + +Her sharp ears caught the sound which told her that the motor had +stopped down the street; it was a welcome sound, for it meant that he +was racing back to the station--and just in time, too; the flyer was +pounding the rails less than half a mile away. + +Fenlock was a division point in the railroad. The company's yards and +the train despatcher's office were located there. A huge round-house +stood off to the right; half a dozen big headlights glared out at the +shivering Eleanor like so many spying, accusing eyes. She knew that all +trains stopped in Fenlock. Joe had told her that the flyer's pause was +the briefest of any during the day or night; still she wondered if it +would go thundering through and spoil everything. + +Miss Thursdale, watching the approaching headlight, her ears filled +with the din of the wheels, did not see or hear a second motor car rush +up to the extreme south end of the platform. She was not thinking of +Windomshire or his machine. That is why she failed to witness an +extraordinary incident. + +As the driver leaped from the car a second man disconnected himself +from the shadows, paused for a moment to take orders from the new +arrival, and then jumped into the seat just vacated. Whereupon the +one-time driver performed precisely the same feat that Dauntless had +performed three minutes before him. He jerked forth a couple of bags +and then proceeded to lift from the tonneau of the car a vague but +animate something, which, an instant later, resolved itself into the +form of a woman at his side. + +"I've settled with the company, Meaders," hurriedly announced +Windomshire to the man on the seat. "The car is in your hands now." + +"Yes, sir; I understand. Your week is up to-night. Hope it was +satisfactory, sir." The car shot off in the night, almost running down +a man who scudded across the street in its path. + +"Just in time, Anne," said Windomshire to the tall, hooded figure +beside him. "Thank God, we didn't miss it." + +"Hasn't it been good sport, Harry?" cried the young woman, with an +unmistakably English inflection. "It's just like a book." + +"Only more so," he observed. "This has really happened, you know. +Things never really happen in books, don't you know. You've not lost +your tickets, dear?" + +"No; they do that only in books. Really, I'm trembling like a leaf. I +can't realise that it is all taking place as we planned, and that I am +to be your wife after all. Ah, Harry! isn't it splendid?" + +"'Gad, little woman, I am the one who hasn't the right to realise. By +Jove, I didn't give myself credit for the cleverness to fool every one +so neatly. Really, don't you know, however, I feel a bit sorry for Miss +Thursdale. She's a ripping good sort, and I'm sorry on that account." + +Miss Courtenay--erstwhile governess--took hold of the lapels of his +raincoat and looked seriously up into his face. "Are you sure you'll +never regret giving her up for me--with all her money?" + +"Oh, I say, Anne dear, it's I who am running away, not you. I've always +wanted you--all my life. I've been something of a cad---" + +"It wasn't your fault. Mrs. Thursdale was bound to have you. It's her +way." + +"It hurts my pride to say it, but hanged if I think--er--Eleanor was +very strong for the match. I've a notion she was bullied into it." + +"I'm quite sure of it." + +"You're doing her a good turn, my dear. You see, I couldn't love her, +and I'd probably have beaten her and all that. It wasn't as if I had to +marry her for her money. Deuce take it, I've got a few pounds of my +own." + +"I'm only Anne Courtenay, the governess." + +"You'll be Lady Windomshire some day, my word for it--if the other +chaps manage to die, God bless 'em. I say, here's the train. +Good-night, dear, up you go! I'll go up ahead. Don't forget! The +wedding's at noon to-morrow." + +The long, shadowy train came to a stop. He elbowed the porter aside and +helped her up the steps. Neither of them noticed the vague figure which +rushed across the platform and into the second car below. + +"Where's the luggage car?" shouted Windomshire to the porter. + +"The what?" + +"I mean the baggage van." + +"Way up front, sir. Where they're puttin' on the trunks, sir." + +Swinging his travelling bag almost at arm's length, the long Englishman +raced forward. His own and Miss Courtenay's pieces had come over during +the afternoon, skilfully smuggled out of the Thursdale house. Just as +he reached the baggage truck a panting, mud-covered individual dashed +up from the opposite direction, madly rushing for the train. They tried +to avoid a collision, but failed. A second later the two men were +staring into each other's eyes, open-mouthed and dismayed. + +"Hello!" gasped Dauntless, staggered. + +"What the devil, sir, do--My word! It's Dauntless!" sputtered +Windomshire. + +"Where is she?" shouted Joe, convinced that his rival had captured his +runaway fiancee and was now confronting him for explanation. + +"Confound you, sir, it's none of your business," roared Windomshire, +confident that Dauntless had been sent by Mrs. Thursdale to intercept +him in his flight with the governess. "Damn your impudence!" + +"Stand aside, Windomshire," exclaimed Joe, white with anger and dread. +"I'm going to find her. What have you done with her?" + +"You sha'n't interfere, Dauntless," cried Windomshire, squaring +himself. "She's going to be my wife, and---" + +"I guess NOT! Get out of my way, or---" + +"She's on that train, confound you, and I'm going away with her whether +you like it or not--or anybody else, for that matter," said +Windomshire, refusing to budge an inch. + +"Well, you'll have a damned hard time getting rid of me," roared Joe, +trying to break past his rival. A baggage-man leaped between them in +time to prevent blows. He held the angry, mistaken rivals +apart,--rivals no longer, if they only knew. "Let go of me! Hold this +fellow and I'll give you a hundred dollars--hold him till the train +goes!" + +"Hold me, will you? My word! What is this? A highway robbery!" + +Both men broke away from the baggage-man and rushed frantically down +the line of cars, each trying to hold the other back. Joe succeeded in +grasping the handrail of the first sleeping-car, but his adversary +pulled him away. An instant later they were struggling across the +station platform, clasped in savage and hysterical combat. The station +employees were rushing up to separate them when the train began to move +slowly away. + +[Illustration: Eleanor was still sitting ... stiff and silent] + +They came to their senses a moment later to find themselves held firmly +by brawny peacemakers, the black cars rushing swiftly by without them. + +Forgetting the battle so inopportunely begun, they started off madly in +pursuit, shouting, yelling, commanding. But the flyer was deaf to their +cries, callous against their tears. It whistled off into the north, +carrying two trusting, nervous young women, who were secure in the +belief that their liege lords to be were aboard, utterly unconscious of +the true state of affairs. In the drawing-room of Car 5 Eleanor was +still sitting, with her veil down, her raincoat saturating the couch on +which she sat stiff and silent. Anne Courtenay in Car 7 was +philosophically preparing for bed, absolutely confident that the +Englishman she had loved for years was not going to fail her. + +Windomshire, alas, came to grief in his useless pursuit. He fell off +the end of the platform and rolled in the mud, half stunned. When he +painfully picked himself up, he saw Dauntless sitting on the edge of +the walk, his haggard, staring face lighted by the glare of a +sympathetic lantern. The station agent was offering vain but +well-intended commiseration. + +"Good God!" he heard Joe groan, but he did not catch the words, "she's +gone without me!" + +The next instant the distracted eloper was on his feet demanding a +special engine. + +"I've got to have it!" he shouted. + +Windomshire's wits returned. Why not have a special too? It was the +only way. + +"You can order one for me, too," he exclaimed. "At once. It's +imperative." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE MORNING AFTER + + +The sun was peeping over the hilltops and shooting his merry glance +across the rain-soaked lowlands when Eleanor Thursdale awoke from her +final snatch of slumber. A hundred feverish lapses into restless +subconsciousness had marked the passage of nearly as many miles of +clatter and turmoil. Never before had she known a train to be so noisy; +never before had she lain awake long enough to make the natural +discovery. It seemed hours before she dropped off in the first +surrender to sleep; it seemed hours between the succeeding falls. Her +brain and heart were waging the most relentless battle against peace +and security. She KNEW Joe Dauntless was but two cars ahead, and yet +she wondered if were really there; she wondered and was troubled--oh, +so troubled. + +Daylight was creeping in beneath the curtain of the window. She +stretched her fine, tired young body, and for the first time really +felt like going to sleep. The perversity of early morning! Gradually it +dawned upon her that the train was not moving; as far back as she could +recall in her now wakeful spell it occurred to her that the cars had +been standing still and that everything was as quiet as death. She +looked at her watch; it was six o'clock. + +"Goodness!" she thought, sitting up suddenly, "what is the matter?" The +curtain flew up and her startled eyes blinked out upon the glaring +world. + +There was not a house in sight as far as her eyes could range forward +and behind. Instead, a wide sweep of farm lands partially submerged by +the flood water of many rains. Far away there were brown hills and a +long army of tall trees standing at attention,--a bleak prospect +despite the cheery intentions of the sun, which lurked behind the +hills. Despondent cornstalks of last year's growth stood guard over the +soggy fields; drenched, unhappy tufts of grass, and forlorn but +triumphant reeds arose here and there from the watery wastes, asserting +their victory over a dismantled winter. It was not a glorious view that +met the gaze of the bride on her wedding morn. + +Strangest of all, the train was so quiet, so utterly inactive, that an +absurd feeling of loneliness grew upon her, gradually developing into +the alarming certainty that she was the only living person in the +world. Then she heard men's voices outside of the window; her relief +was almost hysterical. Scrambling out of the berth, she began a hasty, +nervous toilet. Three sharp pushes on the button brought the company's +ladies' maid--advertised as a part of the luxury and refinement which +made the flyer "the finest train in the world." + +"What has happened? Where are we?" she demanded, upon the entrance of +the sleepy young coloured woman. + +"The Pride River bridge is washed away, ma'am," said the maid. "We +can't go on no furder." + +"Dear me," sighed Eleanor, turning to be buttoned at the back. "And +where is Pride River bridge--or where was it, I mean?" + +"'Bout twenty mile south of Omegon, ma'am--miss. The river's a +sight--highest 'at it's ever been known. It's all over the bottoms. +This here train came mighty nigh running into it, too. A boy flagged it +just in time, 'bout five o'clock." + +"Have we been standing here a whole hour?" + +"Yes, miss; right here. They say we can't go back till the section boss +has examined the track in Baxter's Cut. Seems as though there's some +danger of a washout back yander." + +"Do you mean to say we are likely to stay here indefinitely?" gasped +Eleanor. "Ouch! Be careful, please!" + +"Oh, it won't be long. The porter says they've sent back over the line +to telegraft for the section men." + +"Good Heavens, is there no station here?" + +"No, ma'am; five miles back. They's one jest across the river, but it +might as well be in Africa." + +"Be quick, please, and then send the conductor to me--and the porter +too," urged Eleanor, in distress. + +The porter was the first to arrive. + +"Porter, will you go to Car 7 and see if the occupant of lower 4 is +awake? I am quite sure that is right, but if it should happen to be +wrong, please let me know at once." + +"Yes, miss; and what shall I tell her?" + +"Ahem! It's a--a gentleman. Ask him to--to come to the rear end of the +train. That's all. Oh, conductor, how soon will we be on the track +again?" The conductor was standing in the door, evidently impressed by +the summons from the drawing-room. + +"We're not off the track, madam. There is no danger--just a little +delay. I have telegraphed to see if I can have a relief train come down +from Omegon and pick us up after we've been ferried across the river." + +"This is the very worst road I've ever travelled over--the very worst," +was Eleanor's natural complaint. "When will that get us to Omegon?" + +"We should be there in an hour after leaving here." + +"And when did you say we'd leave here?" + +"I didn't say. I don't know." + +"Who does know, if you don't?" demanded Eleanor. + +"God, I presume," observed the harassed conductor, turning away with +the realisation that he had erred in coming to her in the first place. +The porter returned at that moment. + +"Nobody in that section, ma'am. It was sold, but the party didn't show +up." + +"Good Heavens, you--but he DID show up. I--I know he did. Look again. +Try--but wait! Ask for Mr. Dauntless. Ask quietly, please." + +"Yes, ma'am." + +Her nerves at highest tension, Miss Thursdale made her way toward the +rear platform of the train. She passed down the curtained aisles of two +coaches, wondering how people could sleep so soundly in a crisis like +this. A porter politely opened a door and she slipped out upon the last +platform. As far as the eye could reach stretched the roadbed and its +telegraph poles, finally disappearing in the haze of the morning. +Wide-spread flood, soaking the flat-- + +A sharp cry of amazement came from the track just below her. She looked +down and into the eyes of Anne Courtenay, the governess. For a full +minute they stared blankly at each other, apparently bereft of all the +agencies that fall to the lot of woman. + +"Miss Courtenay!" finally came from the lips of the girl on the +platform. + +"Miss Thursdale!" murmured Anne, reaching out to support herself +against the bumper. Other words failed to come for the time being. In +sheer despair, neither could accomplish more than a pallid smile. To +the reader is left the privilege of analysing the thoughts which surged +through the brains of the bewildered young women,--the fears, the +doubts, the resentments. + +"Where--where have you been?" at last fell from Miss Thursdale's lips. + +"Been?" repeated Miss Courtenay, vaguely. "Oh, yes; I've been taking a +walk--a constitutional. I always do." + +Eleanor stared harder than ever. "All this distance?" she murmured. + +"Down the track for half a mile, Miss Thursdale." + +"Are--were you on this train?" ejaculated Eleanor. + +"Yes--but I--I---" stammered Anne, her face growing red with rising +resentment. "I did not think this of you." + +"What do you mean? It is--May I ask why you are here, Miss Courtenay? +It is most extraordinary." + +"It is very easily explained," said Miss Courtenay, after a moment's +battle with veracity. "My aunt is very ill in Vancouver." To herself +she was saying: "I must keep her from really seeing Harry. She knows +what he has done--in heaven's name, how could she have found it +out?--and she is waiting to catch us if she can. She has followed us! +Thank goodness, I've seen her first." + +Eleanor was not blessed with the possibility of such an explanation for +Anne's presence; she could only believe that the governess had been +suddenly called to the bedside of her aunt--a real person, she happened +to know, and very rich. But how was she to account for her own +astonishing departure from home? Miss Courtenay had seen her at dinner; +nothing had been said regarding "an unexpected journey." In truth, +Eleanor remembered with inflexible accuracy that she had announced her +intention to go to bed with a headache. Then, what must Miss Courtenay +be thinking at this very instant? + +An inspiration came to her like a flash. "I--I am running away, Miss +Courtenay," she cried, with a brave attempt to appear naive. + +"I don't understand," murmured poor Anne. + +"Of course you don't," said Eleanor, inspiration heaping itself up +within her. "Not really, you know, but just for a few days' rest. +Mother thinks I'm looking wretchedly. We didn't say anything about +it--except to Mr. Windomshire, of course. He knows. Perhaps he will run +up to Omegon in a day or two to see me. It's very quiet there, and I'll +get a good rest. The hotel is delightful--facing the lake. And the +bathing's good. Dear me, I'm so sorry about your aunt." Miss +Courtenay's eyes actually blinked with perplexity. This was a most +staggering bit of news. Eleanor flushed painfully under the gaze of the +other; utter rout followed. She stammered some flimsy excuse and dashed +back into the car. To herself she was crying: "I must find Joe and tell +him to keep out of sight. Oh, how awful this is!" + +Just inside the door she met her porter. + +"There's nobody named Dauntless on the train, miss. A gentleman who +said he was his friend thinks he missed the train perhaps." + +"He--he--oh, I see!" said Eleanor, suddenly perceiving method in Joe's +reluctance to answer to his own name. "Thank you. That's all." Then, to +herself: "He has seen Miss Courtenay, and she HASN'T seen him,--that's +plain." She handed the porter a coin. + +"I went to the berth you mentioned, ma'am, and I asked through the +curtains: 'Is Mr. Dauntless in here?' There was a lady in the upper, +miss, an'--an'--well, I'll never forget what she said to me." Eleanor +had gone before he concluded, determined to unearth her cautious lover, +if possible. + +Anne caught the porter before he could follow. + +"See here, porter," she whispered softly, "go to Car 5, section 6, and +call its occupant. Tell him NOT to get up. Do you understand? NOT to +get up!" + +It goes without saying, of course, that all efforts, secret or +otherwise, failed to locate the missing men. The distracted brides, +each trying to run away from the other in a way, were in a state of +collapse, necessarily subdued but most alarming. The Rev. Henry Derby, +a nice-looking young fellow, who looked more like a tennis player than +a minister of the gospel, eventually identified his old friend's ladye +faire, and introduced himself with a discreetness that proved him to +have been in college at the proper period and in a somewhat different +class from that which he now sought to lead. In the privacy of her +drawing-room the bewitching but distressed young woman discussed the +situation with the man who had been chosen to perform the clandestine +ceremony in the far-away town of Omegon. Derby, coming on from his +eastern home in loyal acquiescence to his friend's request, had +designedly taken this train, it being understood that Dauntless would +board it at Fenlock with his fair conspirator. We all know why +Dauntless failed to perform his part of the agreement; Derby, with the +perspicuity of a college man, finally advanced a reason for his +inexplicable failure to appear. Eleanor had begun tearfully to accuse +him of abandoning her at the last moment; Mr. Derby indignantly scouted +the idea. When she related their chase in the motor and their escape +from Windomshire, he formed his conclusions, and they were in the main +remarkably correct. + +"I'm afraid, Miss Thursdale, that your disappointed lover, our ancient +enemy, the Englishman, was not to be overcome so neatly. Has it +occurred to you that he may have reached Fenlock before the train left, +and that he is the explanation for Joe's non-appearance?" + +"You--you don't mean that he has killed---" she was gasping, growing +whiter and whiter. He hastened to reassure her. + +"Oh, no; not so bad as that. But it is possible and quite probable that +he--if, as you say, he was on to your--I should say, aware of your +flight, it is probable that he succeeded in detaining Joe in Fenlock. +That would---" "Impossible! Joe wouldn't let him!" she cried +indignantly. + +"Perhaps Joe couldn't help himself. Such things happen. At any rate, +you'll understand, the despised enemy could have---" + +"Mr. Windomshire is not a despised enemy. He's a VERY nice man, Mr. +Derby," she interrupted. + +"Certainly, Miss Thursdale. What I meant to say was, that he was +morally sure of preventing the wedding if he could only keep you far +enough apart. Now that is probably what he has done. You can't marry +Joe in Omegon or anywhere else unless he is there and not in Fenlock." + +"I see. Well, I'll go back to Fenlock!" she exclaimed emphatically, a +little line of determination and stubbornness settling about the +erstwhile trembling lips. + +"I admire your loyalty," he said warmly. "Just at present, however, we +are water-bound here, and we've got to make the best of it. I fancy Joe +will telegraph before long." + +"If--if he hasn't been hurt. Oh, Mr. Derby, they may have fought. It +would be just like them. It may be dreadfully serious. You don't know +as much about men as I do. They're terribly---" + +"Please don't worry, Miss Thursdale," he said, smiling in recollection +of his football days. "You'll find there's been nothing bloody about +all this. The delay is vexatious, but only temporary, I'm sure." + +"I'll marry Joe Dauntless now if it has to be delayed a hundred years," +she cried, her eyes flashing. + +During the next half-hour poor Derby ran errands, carried messages and +complaints to every one of the train men, finally administering +smelling salts when it occurred to Eleanor that Joe might have fallen +off the train during the night. + +In the meantime Anne Courtenay was having a sad half-hour of it. She +had no one to turn to, no one to think it all out for her; she was +alone and in great despair. The porter had failed to find the tall +Englishman; the conductor had been equally unsuccessful; she herself +had searched in vain. His trunks and hers were in the baggage car, she +found, but there was no sign of the man himself. She was a +self-reliant, sensible young woman, accustomed to the rigours of the +world, but this was quite too overwhelming. The presence on the train +of the girl that she had, to all intents and purposes, cruelly +deceived, did not add to her comfort. As a matter of fact, she was +quite fond of Eleanor; they were warm friends despite the vagaries of +love. Miss Courtenay, among other things, began to wonder, as she sat +in her tumbled berth, if retribution had more to do with this than +chance. + +"Could he have fallen off the train?" she wondered, with a sudden chill +of apprehension. The next instant she was calling to the porter. "Send +the conductor to me at once. My friend has fallen off the train--out of +his window, perhaps. I am quite sure of it. I want an engine to go back +and look for him. Hurry, please! don't stand there grinning." + +The Pullman conductor came up at that moment. + +"Are you the young lady who was asking for Mr. Dauntless?" he asked. + +"Dauntless?" she murmured. "No, I'm asking for an engine. Have you--" + +"There's another young lady asking for an engine, too, madam. It's +impossible." + +"Am I to understand that I shall have to walk?--Oh," with a sudden +start, "is--is there a Mr. Dauntless missing too?" + +"Seems so. He's gone." + +Anne dropped the curtains in his face, and then stared at them for a +long time. Gradually she began to comprehend. A panic of fear came over +her. + +"They have met somewhere and quarrelled! Mr. Dauntless was +jealous--terribly so. He may have--good Heavens!--he may have killed +him in the mistaken idea that Harry was running away with Eleanor. +She's on this very train! It's perfectly natural. Porter," she called, +"there has been foul play!" + +"Gee, miss! That's what the other lady is saying!" + +"The other--then it is a double murder! Don't laugh! It's--it's--" + +"Don't cry, miss; it's all right." She looked at him piteously for a +moment, and then smiled at the absurdity of her conjecture. + +A tousled head came from between the curtains of the upper berth +opposite, and a sleepy, hoarse voice demanded: + +"How long will we be here? What's the latest?" + +"We're on time, sah," replied the porter, from sheer force of habit. + +"The devil we are! Say, I've got to be in Omegon by ten o'clock. I'll +sue this infernal road," snarled the irascible party, snapping the +curtains together. It transpired that he was an agent for a medical +college, travelling to Omegon on a most unwholesome but edifying +mission. He was going up to take possession of the body of a man who +had willed his carcass to the school. As the poor chap was not yet +dead, but hopelessly ill, the desire for haste on the part of the agent +may be misunderstood. It seems, however, that there was some talk of +interference by relatives--and the disquieting prospect of a new will. + +"If I were you, miss," counselled the porter, "I'd go out and take a +little walk. The sun is up, an' it's fine. The relief train will be +here 'fore long--an' you all will be rowed acrost the river. Don't +worry." + +"But I want to go back the way I came," expostulated Anne, feebly. "I +can't go on without--until I know what has happened to--to Mr. +Windomshire." She took his advice, however, and made her way to the +rear platform. + +A number of disgruntled passengers were now abroad, and complaining +bitterly of the delay. There was no hope of breakfast until the train +reached Omegon, where a dining car was waiting. She stood on the +platform and looked gloomily back over the long stretch of roadbed. + +"Isn't that an engine coming?" some one asked excitedly at her side. +She turned and found Miss Thursdale, attended by a gentleman, to whom +the question was addressed. + +"I believe--yes, it is, Miss Thursdale." + +"Then--then we'll all be taken back to the city," she said dejectedly. + +"I fancy not. It's probably bringing relief." + +"They--they may be bringing bad news," Eleanor groaned. "Oh, Miss +Courtenay, how do you do--again? How is your--your grandmother, wasn't +it?" + +"I--I--yes, I think so--I mean, I think she's no better. They may be +bringing his body!" said the other girl, her eyes fixed on the distant +locomotive. + +"Oh!" almost screamed Eleanor, and stared wildly without words. + +A brakeman far down the track was flagging the locomotive; it came to a +stop, and several men were seen climbing down from the cab. Two of them +eventually disengaged themselves from the little group and hurried +forward. One was carrying a suitcase, and both walked as though they +were either in pain or attended by extreme old age. + +"Why--why--" gasped Eleanor, "it's Joe!" + +"And--yes, thank God, it's Har--Mr. Windomshire," almost shrieked Anne. + +Then they turned and looked at each other in confusion. Neither had the +courage to carry out the desire to fly to the arms of the man she +longed to see more than all else in the world. They felt themselves to +be caught red-handed. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +MRS. VAN TRUDER INTRUDES + + +None but the most eager, loving eyes could possibly have recognised the +newcomers. It is not unlikely that the remaining passengers mistook +them for tramps. The rivals, morbidly suspicious of each other, +taciturn to the point of unfriendliness, had indeed chartered a +locomotive--not jointly by intention, but because of provoking +necessity. There was but one engine to be had. It is safe to say that +while they travelled many sore and turbulent miles in close proximity +to each other, neither felt called upon to offer or to demand an +explanation. + +Five hours in the tender of an engine had done much to reduce them to +the level of the men in the cab, so far as personal appearance was +concerned. They were still wearing their raincoats, much crumpled and +discoloured; their faces were covered with coal dust; they were wet, +bedraggled, and humble to the last degree. The American, naturally, was +the one who clung to his suitcase; he had foreseen the need for a +change of linen. They came toward the train with hesitating, uncertain +steps. If their souls were gladdened by the sight of the two young +women, general appearances failed to make record of it. It was noted by +those who watched their approach that once both of them stopped short +and seemed to waver in their determination to advance. That was when +each became suddenly aware of the presence of an unexpected girl. +Naturally, the Englishman was seriously staggered. The unexplained +Eleanor appeared before his very eyes as an accusing nemesis; it is no +wonder that his jaw dropped and his befuddled brain took to whirling. + +The girls, less regardful of appearances, climbed down from the +platform and started forward to meet their knights-errant. The reader +may readily appreciate the feelings of the quartette. Not one of them +knew just precisely how much or how little the others knew; they were +precariously near to being lost in the labyrinth. Something intangible +but regular urged Windomshire to be politic; he advanced to meet +Eleanor as if it were her due. Anne fell back, perplexed and hurt. + +"Hang it all," thought Joe, rage in his heart, "he beat me to her, +after all. He'll be enough of a damned ass to try to kiss her before +all these people, too." Whereupon, he closed his eyes tightly. When he +opened them, Miss Courtenay was walking beside him and asking questions +about the weather. Her cheeks were very pink. Windomshire had awkwardly +clasped the hand of Miss Thursdale, muttering something not quite +intelligible, even to himself. Eleanor was replying with equal +blitheness. + +"How nice of you to come. Where are you going?" + +"Surprised, are you?" he was floundering. "Charmed. Ha, ha! By Jove, +Eleanor--er--I heard you were booked by this train and I--I tried to +catch it for a bit of a ride with you. I missed it, don't you know. +I'll--I'll wager you don't know what I did in my desperation." + +"I couldn't guess," she said, trying to catch Joe's eye. + +"I hired a private engine, 'pon my word, and then telegraphed ahead to +stop this train!" + +"Di--did you do that?" she gasped, forgetting that the bridge was out. + +Dauntless, meantime, was trying to explain to Miss Courtenay. She +already had told him that her aunt was ill in Vancouver, and he had +smiled politely and aimlessly. + +"I'm on my way to M----. Sudden trip, very important," he was saying. +"Missed the train--I dare say it was this one--so I took an engine to +follow up. Had to ride in the tender." + +"It must have been important," she ventured. + +"It was. I--" then with an inspired plunge--"I was due at a wedding." + +"How unfortunate! I hope you won't miss it altogether." + +Joe caught his breath and thought: "Now what the devil did she mean by +that? Has Eleanor told her the whole story?" + +It must not be supposed that these young persons were lacking in the +simpler gifts of intelligence; they were, individually, beginning to +put two and two together, as the saying goes. They were grasping the +real situation--groping for it, perhaps, but with a clear-sightedness +and acumen which urged that a cautious tongue was expedient. If the +duplicity was really as four-handed as it seemed, there could be no +harm in waiting for the other fellow to blunder into exposure. Nothing +could be explained, of course, until the conspirators found opportunity +to consult privately under the new order of assignment. + +"How romantic!" Eleanor said, as she walked stiffly ahead with her +uncomfortable fiance. + +"Eh?" was his simple remark. He was suddenly puzzled over the fact that +he HAD caught up to the train. There was something startling in that. +"Oh--er--not at all romantic, most prosaic. Couldn't get a coach. Been +here long?" + +"Since five o'clock." + +"I--I suppose you got up to see the sunrise." + +"No, to see the river rise," she replied. "The bridge is gone." He was +silent for twenty paces, trying to recall what he had said about +telegraphing ahead. + +"You don't mean it! Then I daresay they haven't got my telegram +stopping the train." + +"How annoying!" + +Dauntless had just said to Anne, in a fit of disgust: "Windomshire's +got a lot of nerve. That was my engine, you know. I hired it." + +Windomshire went on to say, careful that Joe was quite out of hearing: +"Mr. Dauntless was quite annoying. He got into my engine without an +invitation, and I'm hanged if he'd take a hint, even after I hired a +stoker to throw a spadeful of coal over him. I don't know why he should +be in such a confounded hurry to get to--what's the name of the place? +I--er--I really think I must go and speak to Miss Courtenay, Eleanor. +She--er--looks ill." + +"It's her grandmother who is ill--not she. But, yes! Please try to +cheer her up a bit, Harry. She's terribly upset." + +"I'm sure she is," muttered he, dropping back with more haste than +gallantry. Mr. Dauntless sprang forward with equal alacrity, and wrong +was right a moment later. + +"Joe dear," whispered Eleanor, "I've been nearly crazy. What happened?" +He was vainly trying to clasp her hand. + +"Nell, he's on to us. I wish I knew just why Miss Courtenay is here. +Lord, I'll never forget that ride." + +"It was just like you to take advantage of his engine." + +"His engine!" exploded Joe, wrathfully. Securely separated from the +others, the elopers analysed the situation as best they could. Two +separate enterprises struggled earnestly for an outcome. On the +surface, the truth seemed plain enough: it was quite clear to both +parties that the extraordinary chain of coincidence was not entirely +due to Providence. There was something of design behind it all. The +staggering part was the calamitous way in which chance had handled +their dear and private affairs. + +"He doesn't know that you were in my automobile," concluded Dauntless, +almost at the same time that a like opinion was being expressed by +Windomshire. "Are you willing to go on with it, Nell? Are you scared +out of it?" + +"No, indeed," she exclaimed, perplexity leaving her brow. "At first I +feared he might have telegraphed to mother, but now I am sure he +hasn't. He was not following me at all. He is in love with Anne, and he +was surreptitiously off for a part of the distance with her. He really +doesn't want to marry me, you know." + +"Well, he isn't going to, you see. By all that is holy, nothing shall +stop us now, dear. We'll go on to Omegon and carry out everything just +as we planned. If he's running off after another girl, it's time you +put an end to him. Don't give him a thought." + +"Don't you think we'd better talk it over with Mr. Derby? He discreetly +disappeared when he saw it was you." + +"Right! Let's hunt him out. By Jove, we can have him marry us right +here,--great!" + +"No," she cried firmly, "it MUST be in a church." He could not move her +from that stand. + +"Oh, if we could only get across that confounded river!" scolded Joe, +as they went off in search of Derby. + +Windomshire was slowly reconciling himself to the fact that Eleanor +loved Dauntless, but he could not get it out of his head that she still +expected to marry as her mother had planned. + +"See here, Anne, it's all very well to say that she loves Dauntless. Of +course she does. But that isn't going to prevent her from marrying me. +I don't believe she was running away with him, don't you know. He was +simply following her. That's the way these Americans do, you know. Now, +the question is, won't she think it odd that you and I should happen to +be doing almost the same thing?" + +"To be sure she will," said Anne, coolly. "She has a very bad opinion +of me. I'm sure she doesn't believe you expect to marry me." + +"By Jove, dear, it sounds rather dreadful, doesn't it?" he groaned. +"But of course you ARE going to marry me, so what's the odds? Then she +can marry Dauntless to her heart's content. I say, are we never to get +away from this beastly place?" + +"They are to row us across the river in boats. We'll be taken up by +another train over there and carried on. Poor Mr. Dauntless, he looks +so harassed." + +"By Jove, I feel rather cut up about him. He ought to have her, Anne. +He's a decent chap, although he was da--very unreasonable last night. I +like him, too, in spite of the fact that he kicked coal over me twice +in that confounded bin. He was good enough to take a cinder out of my +eye this morning, and I helped him to find his watch in the coal-bin. I +say, Anne, we might get a farm wagon and drive to some village where +there is a minister--" + +"No, Harry! you know I've set my heart on being married in a church. It +seems so much more decent and--regular; especially after what has just +happened." + +A porter appeared in the rear platform and shouted a warning to all +those on the ground. + +"Get yo' things together. The boats'll be ready in ten minutes, ladies +and gen'l'men." The locomotive uttered a few sharp whistles to +reinforce his shouts, and everybody made a rush for the cars. + +The conductor and other trainmen had all they could do to reassure the +more nervous and apprehensive of the passengers, many of whom were +afraid of the swollen, ugly river just ahead. Boats had been sent up +from a town some miles down the stream, and the passengers with their +baggage, the express, and the mail pouches were to be ferried across. +Word had been received that a makeshift train would pick them up on the +other side, not far from the wrecked bridge, and take them to Omegon as +quickly as possible. + +It was also announced that the company would be unable to send a train +beyond Omegon and into the northwest for eight or ten hours, owing to +extensive damage by the floods. Repairs to bridges and roadbed were +necessary. In the meantime, the passengers would be cared for at the +Somerset Hotel in Omegon, at the company's expense. The company +regretted and deplored, etc. + +There was a frightful clamour by the through passengers, threats of +lawsuits, claims for damage, execrations, and groans. In time, however, +the whole company went trooping down the track under the leadership of +the patient conductor. It was a sorry, disgruntled parade. Everybody +wanted a porter at once, and when he could not get one, berated the +road in fiercer terms than ever; men who had always carried their own +bags to escape feeing a porter, now howled and raged because there was +not an army of them on the spot. Everybody was constantly "damning" the +luck. + +The conductor led his charges from the track through a muddy +stubble-field and down to a point where half a dozen small rowboats +were waiting among the willows. Dauntless and Eleanor were well up in +front, their faces set resolutely toward Omegon. For some well-defined +reason, Windomshire and Anne were the last in the strange procession. +The medical college agent, the tall and sombre Mr. Hooker, was the +first man into a boat. He said it was a case of life or death. + +Eleanor looked backward down the long file of trailers, a little smile +on her lips. + +"They are not all going away to be married, are they, Joe?" she said, +taking note of the unbroken array of sour countenances. + +"It looks like a funeral, my dear. Look at the cadaverous individual +beside the con--Heavens, Nell, isn't that--by George, it is! It's old +Mrs. Van Truder! Back there about half-way--the fat one. See her? Good +Lord!" + +Eleanor turned pale and the joyous light fled from her eyes. + +"Oh, dear! I forgot that the Van Truders spend all their summers at +Omegon. And it is she--and he, too. Oh, Joe, it's just awful!" + +"She's the worst old cat in town," groaned Dauntless. "We can't escape +her. She'll spot us, and she'll never let go of us. I don't mind him. +He's so near-sighted he couldn't see us. But she!" + +"She will suspect, Joe--she's sure to suspect, and she'll watch us like +a hawk," whispered the distressed Eleanor. The Van Truders lived in the +same block with the Thursdales in town. "She'll telegraph to mother!" + +"That reminds me," muttered Joe, looking at his watch. "I had hoped to +telegraph to your mother about this time." + +"She will forgive us," said she, but she failed in her assumption of +confidence. As a matter of fact she felt that her mother would not +forgive. + +"Well, you left a note pinned on your pillow," said he, as if that +covered all the sins. + +"Yes, but it was directed to Miss Courtenay, asking her to break it +gently to mamma," said she, dismally. + +They had reached the edge of the river by this time and others came up +with them. For a while they managed to keep out of old Mrs. Van +Truder's range of vision, but her sharp eyes soon caught sight of them +as they tried to slip into a boat that was already crowded to its full +capacity. + +"Why, Eleanor Thursdale!" shouted the old lady, her aristocratic eyes +almost crossing in their stare of amazement. + +"Discovered!" groaned Dauntless to the willows. + +Mrs. Van Truder pounced upon Eleanor and, between personal questions +and impersonal reflections upon non-government railways, gave her a +dizzy quarter of an hour. She ignored Mr. Dauntless almost +completely,--quite entirely when she discovered Mr. Windomshire in the +background. Little old Mr. Van Truder, in his usual state of +subjection, was permitted to study the scenery at close range. + +"I was so afraid you'd marry that horrid Dauntless fellow," whispered +Mrs. Van Truder. Eleanor gave vent to a constrained laugh. + +"How perfectly preposterous!" + +"When are you to be married, my dear?" + +"At once--I mean, quite soon. Isn't the scenery beautiful, Mr. Van +Truder?" asked Eleanor in desperation. + +"It's too far away. I can't see it," grumbled the old gentleman. + +"He's so very near-sighted," explained his wife. "Do you expect to stay +long at the Somerset?" + +"It all depends," said Eleanor, with a glance at Dauntless. + +"Isn't that your governess with Mr. Windomshire? I can't be mistaken." + +"Yes, she's going out to spend a few weeks with a rich aunt,--her +sister's mother, I think." + +"How's that?" gasped the old lady. + +"I mean her mother's sister." + +"It sounded very strange, my dear." + +"About the mother having a sister?" guessed old Mr. Van Truder, +sharply. "Seems all right to me." + +"They are going to row us across the river," volunteered Eleanor, +helplessly. + +"Good-morning, Mr. Windomshire," called Mrs. Van Truder. Windomshire +started and got very red in the face. Miss Courtenay's bow went +unnoticed by the old lady. In sheer despair, the Englishman turned to +Dauntless, a fellow-sufferer. + +"I say, old man," he began nervously, "I'd like to ask a favour of you." + +"Go ahead--anything I can do," said the other, blankly. Windomshire +continued in lowered tones: + +"Deucedly awkward, but I forgot my bags at Fenlock. I see you've got +yours. Would you mind lending me a fresh shirt and a collar, old chap?" + +"Gladly," cried Joe, very much relieved. "Will you take them now?" +starting to open his bag. Windomshire hastily interposed. + +"I'd rather not, old chap. It's rather exposed here, don't you know. +Later on, if you please. Thanks, old man; I'll not forget this." They +shook hands without any apparent excuse. + +"Mr. Windomshire!" called Mrs. Van Truder. He turned with a hopeless +look in his eyes. The two girls had misery and consternation plainly +stamped in their faces. "We can't all go over in the next boats, you +know. I've no doubt you and Miss Thursdale would not in the least mind +being left to the last," with a sly smile. + +"Oh--er--ah, by Jove!" gasped Windomshire, with a glance at the still +faces of the young women. He saw no relief there. + +"Blamed cat!" muttered Dauntless, gritting his teeth. + +"Mr. Dauntless, will you and Miss Courtenay come with us in this boat? +I want some one to keep the snakes away; Mr. Van Truder can't see them, +you know." + +There was no way out of it. Joe and Anne meekly followed the Van +Truders into the wobbly boat, resentment in their hearts, uncertainty +in their minds. They rowed away, leaving Windomshire and Eleanor +standing among the willows, ill at ease and troubled beyond expression. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +AS NIGHT APPROACHES + + +Neither spoke until the boat came to its slippery, uncertain +landing-place on the opposite side of the river. Then each breathed +easier, in a sigh that seemed to express both relief and dismay. + +"It's a very ugly looking river," she murmured encouragingly. She was +afraid he might feel obliged, in honour, to offer an explanation for +his presence, perhaps attempt to convince her in some tangible way that +she was to expect nothing but slavish devotion from him in the future. + +"I don't wonder that the bridge gave way," he replied politely. They +looked at each other involuntarily, and then instantly looked away. + +"I'd give my head to know what she expects of me," thought Windomshire +miserably. + +"How I despise that old woman!" welled up in Eleanor's bitter heart. +Everything was awry. Luckily for both of them a small boy slipped into +the river at that moment. He was rescued by the brakeman, but not until +the catastrophe had served its purpose as a godsend. The excitement +which attended the rescue saved the couple an uncomfortable ten +minutes. Eleanor went to the assistance of the distracted mother; +Windomshire, in his eagerness to do something, offered to exchange +clothes with the dripping trainman; the small boy howled as lustily as +his wheezy lungs would permit. Everybody shouted advice to the mother, +rebukes to the boy, and praise to the hero; altogether Providence was +acting most handsomely. + +At last the final boatload of passengers crossed the river and drew up +at the landing; Eleanor, with her bewildered fiance, stepped into the +beaming presence of Mrs. Van Truder. + +"Come with us," she said with a friendliness that shattered all hope. +"Mr. Van Truder has just arranged for breakfast at that farmhouse over +there. The relief train won't be here for half an hour or more and you +must be famished." Eleanor's flimsy excuses were unavailing; her +protestations that she could not eat a mouthful fell on obdurate ears. +Windomshire, catching sight of the forlorn Anne, was about to assert +himself vigorously in declining the invitation when a meaning look from +the governess caused him to refrain. The look very plainly told him to +accept. + +The unhappy couple followed the Van Truders to the nearby farmhouse. +They left behind them on the edge of the crowd, seated side by side on +a pile of ties, two miserable partners in the fiasco. Gloomy, indeed, +was the outlook for Miss Courtenay and the despised Mr. Dauntless. They +were silent for many minutes after the departure, rage in their hearts. +Then Mr. Dauntless could hold his tongue no longer. + +"Damn her!" he exploded so viciously that Anne jumped and cried out,-- + +"Mr. Dauntless!" + +"Oh, you feel just as I do about it only you won't say it aloud," he +exclaimed. "I won't stand for it!" + +"I--I am sure Miss Thursdale has done nothing to deserve your curses," +she began diplomatically. + +"Good Heavens, Miss Courtenay, you--Oh, I say, you know I didn't mean +Eleanor. The old pelican--that's the one. Old Mrs. Intruder," he grated. + +"I am sure it is all quite regular," observed Anne, so seriously that +he looked at her in wonder. It began to creep into his head that his +speculations were wrong, after all. At any rate it seemed advisable to +put a sharp curb on his tongue. + +"I'm sorry I spoke as I did about the old lady," he said, after a +moment's reflection. "I was thinking of the way in which she left you +out of her invitation to breakfast." + +"And yourself, incidentally," she smiled. + +"Miss Courtenay, I'm--I'm a confounded ass for not thinking of your +breakfast. It's not too late. We are both hungry. Won't you come with +me and have a bit of something to eat? We'll try that farmhouse +ourselves. Come, let us hurry or the crowd will get in ahead of us. Ham +and eggs and coffee! they always have that sort of breakfast in +farmhouses, I'm told. Come." + +[Illustration: Seated side by side...two miserable partner in the +fiasco] + +She sprang up cheerfully, and followed him across the meadow to the +farmhouse. The Van Truder party was entering the door, smoke pouring +forth suggestively from a chimney in the rear of the house. The sudden +desire for ham and eggs was overcoming, in a way, the pangs of outraged +love; there was solace in the new thought. + +That breakfast was one never to be forgotten by four persons; two +others remembered it to their last days on account of its amazing +excellence. A dozen persons were crowded into the little dining-room; +no one went forth upon his travels with an empty stomach. No such +profitable harvest had ever been reaped by the farmer. Dauntless and +Anne ate off of a sewing-table in the corner. Mrs. Van Truder +deliberately refused to hear Mr. Windomshire's timorous suggestion that +they "make room" for them at the select table. Silent anathemas +accompanied every mouthful of food that went down the despot's throat, +but she did not know it. Fortunately the lovers were healthy and hungry. + +They fared forth after that memorable breakfast with lighter hearts, +though still misplaced by an unrelenting fate. + +All the way to Omegon Anne sat in the seat with the seething Dauntless, +each nursing a pride that had received almost insupportable injuries +during the morning hours. Windomshire and Eleanor, under the espionage +of the "oldest friend of the family," moped and sighed with a frankness +that could not have escaped more discerning eyes. Mrs. Van Truder, +having established herself as the much needed chaperon, sat back +complacently and gave her charges every opportunity to hold private and +no doubt sacred communication in the double seat just across the aisle. + +Eleanor pleaded fatigue, and forthwith closed her wistful eyes. +Windomshire, with fine consideration, sank into a rapt study of the +flitting farm lands. Having got but little sleep among the coals, he +finally dropped off into a peaceful cat nap. + +Omegon was reached before Eleanor had the courage to awaken him. She +did so then only because it was impossible for her to crawl over his +knees without losing her dignity; they were planted sturdily against +the seat in front. She fled like a scared child to Joe's side, her mind +made up to cling to him now, no matter what manner of opposition +prevailed. + +"I'll go with you, Joe," she whispered fiercely. "I don't care what any +one says or thinks. Your cousin WILL meet us with the carriage, won't +he?" she concluded piteously. Windomshire also had taken the bull by +the horns and was helping Miss Courtenay from the train with an +assiduity that brought down the wrath of obstructing passengers upon +his devoted head. + +"He said he would," replied Dauntless, his spirits in the clouds. "We +must get away from these people, Nell. I'll go crazy in another minute. +There's Derby waiting for instructions. Dear old Darb--he's a brick. My +cousin Jim is a deacon or something in the village church, dear, and he +has promised to let us in. I suppose he has a key. He and his wife will +be the only witnesses. By George, nothing can stop us now, dear, if you +have the nerve to--Where the dickens is Jim? Confound him, I don't see +him on the platform." + +He looked about the station platform--first anxiously, then +impatiently, then--with consternation! His cousin was nowhere in sight. +Cold with apprehensiveness, he dashed over to a citizen who wore a star +upon his coat, almost dragging Eleanor after him. + +"Is Jim Carpenter here? Have you seen him? Do you know him?" he +demanded. + +"He was here, mister. 'Bout two hours ago, I reckon. I guess you must +be the fellow he was to meet--" + +"Yes, yes,--where is he now?" + +"I don't know, mister. His wife's got pneumonia, an' he told me to tell +you he couldn't wait. He took the doctor right out to--" + +"Good Lord!" exploded Joe. The citizen jumped a few inches into the +air. "He's gone?" + +"Yep. But he told me to tell you to go over to the Somerset an' wait +till you hear from him." + +"Wait--till--I hear--from--him?" groaned Dauntless, wild-eyed but +faint. He and Eleanor looked at each other in despair. + +"Go--to--the--hotel?" she murmured, her heart in her boots. "I never +can do that," she continued. Her voice was full of tears. + +Mrs. Van Truder bore down upon them like an angry vulture. They saw her +coming, but neither had the strength of purpose to move. + +Before they really knew how it happened, she was leading Eleanor to the +hotel 'bus and he was limply following, lugging both bags with a +faithfulness that seemed pathetic. Two minutes later they were in the +'bus, touching knees with the equally dazed and discomfited English +people. + +Back on the platform the elongated medical gentleman, Mr. Hooker, was +talking loudly, wrathfully to the station agent. His voice rang in +their ears long after the 'bus rolled away on its "trip" to the big +summer hotel. + +"You say old man Grover ain't dead yet?" Mr. Hooker was growling +resentfully, even indignantly. + +"He ain't expected to live till night, sir, poor old man," replied the +agent. + +"Well, I'll be damned!" roared Mr. Hooker. "I don't see any sense in a +man of his age hanging on like this. He's eighty-three. My time is +valuable"--looking at his big silver watch--"and I can't afford to hang +around here if he's going to act like this." The agent stared after him +as if he were looking at a maniac. Mr. Hooker set off in the direction +of old Mr. Grover's house, which had been pointed out to him by a +gaping small boy. "I'll go up and see about it," he remarked, as he +stepped across a wide rivulet in the middle of the main street. The +Somerset Hotel was situated on the most beautiful point of land +touching that trim little lake which attracted hundreds of city people +annually by its summer wiles. It was too sedate and quiet to be +fashionable; the select few who went there sought rest from the +frivolities of the world. Eleanor Thursdale had spent one tiresome but +proper season there immediately after the death of her father. She +hated everything in connection with the place except the little +old-fashioned church at the extreme end of the village street, fully +half a mile from the hotel. She had chosen it, after romantic +reflection, as the sanctuary in which she should become the wife of the +man she loved, spurning the great church in town and one of its +loveless matches. + +The forenoon is left to the imagination of the reader,--with all of its +unsettled plans, its doubts and misgivings, its despairs and its +failures, its subterfuges and its strategies, its aggravations and +complaints. Bell-boys carried surreptitious notes from room to room; +assurances, hopes, and reassurances passed one another in systematic +confusion. Love was trying to find its way out of the maze. + +Immediately after luncheon Dauntless set out to discover his faithless +cousin. Eleanor kept close to her room, in readiness for instant +flight. The necessary Mr. Derby had his instructions to remain where he +could be found without trouble. Mrs. Van Truder, taking up Eleanor's +battles, busied herself and every one else in the impossible task of +locating the young woman's trunks, which, according to uncertain +reports, had gone mysteriously astray. Moreover, she had prepared a +telegram to the young lady's mother, assuring her that she was quite +safe; but Mr. Dauntless boldly intercepted Mr. Van Truder on his way to +the desk. + +"Allow me," he remarked, deliberately taking the despatch from the old +gentleman. "I'll send it from the station. Don't bother about it, Mr. +Van Truder." He drove through the village, but did not stop at the +station; his instructions to the driver did not include a pause +anywhere. It is not necessary to relate what took place when he +descended upon the unfortunate Jim; it is sufficient to say that he +dragged him from his sick wife's bedside and berated him soundly for +his treachery. Then it was all rearranged,--the hapless Jim being swept +into promises which he could not break, even with death staring his +wife in the face. The agitated Mr. Dauntless drove back to the hotel +with a new set of details perfected. This time nothing should go wrong. + +His first action was to acquaint Derby with the plans, and then to send +a note of instructions to Eleanor, guarding against any chance that +they might not be able to communicate with each other in person. + +"It's all fixed," he announced to Derby, in a secluded corner of the +grounds. "To-night at nine we are to be at the church down the road +there--see it? Nobody is on to us, and Jim has a key. He will meet you +there at a quarter of nine. But, hang it all, his wife can't act as a +witness. We've got to provide one. He suggested the postmaster, but I +don't like the idea; it looks too much like a cheap elopement. I'd just +as soon have the cook or the housemaid. I'll get Eleanor there if I +have to kill that Van Truder woman. Now, whom shall we have as the +second witness?" + +"Windomshire, I'm afraid," lamented Derby. "You won't be able to get +rid of him." + +"Hang him!" groaned Dauntless, his spirits falling, but instantly +reviving. "But he's dead in love with Miss Courtenay. It's pitiful, old +man. He feels that he's got to marry Nell, but it's not in his heart to +do it. Now if we could only shunt him off on to Miss Courtenay this +evening! Her train leaves at nine, they say. He might be forced to take +her to the station if you will only get busy and make him jealous." + +"Jealous? I?" + +"Certainly. It won't be much of an effort for you, and it will help me +immensely. Make love to her this afternoon, and when you suggest taking +her to the station this evening he'll be so wrought up that he won't +stand for it. See what I mean?" + +"Now see here, Joe, I'm willing to do a great deal for you, but this is +too much. You forget that I am a minister of the gospel. It's--" + +"I know, old man, but you might do a little thing like this for--By +Jove, I've got it! Why not have old Mr. Van Truder for the other +witness?" + +Mr. Van Truder was crossing the lawn, picking his way carefully. + +"Good afternoon," greeted Dauntless. + +"Afternoon," responded Mr. Van Truder. "Is this the hotel?" + +"No, sir; the hotel is about ten feet to your left. By the way, Mr. Van +Truder, would you mind doing me a favour this evening?" + +"Gladly. Who are you?" + +"Joe Dauntless." + +"Anything, my dear Joe." + +"Well, it's a dead secret." + +"A secret? Trust me," cried the old man, joyfully. + +"First, let me introduce my friend, the Rev. Mr. Derby. He's in the +secret. It will go no farther, I trust, Mr. Van Truder." + +"My wife says I can't keep a secret, but I'll show her that I can. +Trust me, my boy." + +"I'll bet you a hundred dollars you can't keep this one," said Joe, +inspired. + +"Done!" + +"Well," bravely but cautiously, "I'm going to be married to-night. Be +careful now! Look out! Don't explode! Remember the bet!" The old +gentleman repressed his feelings. + +"Beautiful!" he exclaimed. "Congratulations, my boy." + +"Now for the favour. I want you to act as a witness. It's to be a very +quiet affair." Dauntless explained as much of the situation to him as +he thought necessary, omitting the lady's name. Mr. Van Truder bubbled +over with joy and eagerness. He promised faithfully to accompany Mr. +Derby, pooh-hooing the suggestion that he could not slip away from the +hotel without his wife being aware of the fact. + +"Trust me, my boy. Don't worry. I'm always Johnny-on-the-spot. Where +did you say the hotel was? I'll go up and get ready. Oh, by the way, +who is the young lady?" + +"She's a friend of Mr. Dauntless's," said Mr. Derby. + +"To be sure; I might have known. Silly question." + +The young men watched him enter the hotel, but they did not see him +fall into the clutches of his wife just inside the door. + +"Where have you been?" demanded Mrs. Van Truder. + +"I've been looking everywhere for you, my dear," he said, almost +whimpering. "I've got a grand secret, but I can't tell you. Don't ask +me!" + +"Is it a wedding?" she demanded sternly. + +"Dear me! Do you know it too?" he cried, bewildered. "But that's not +the real secret; it's only part of it. Joe is going to marry some +friend of his to-night--but that's as far as I'll go. I'll NOT betray +the secret." He hurried away to avoid questions, muttering to himself +as he went: "She's dying to know. But a secret's a secret. She sha'n't +know that I am to be a witness." + +Mrs. Van Truder pondered long and deeply, but she was not well enough +acquainted with all of the facts to hazard a guess as to who the girl +might be. It came to her memory that Dauntless had been with Miss +Courtenay all morning, however, and she wondered not a little. +Windomshire was approaching in search of Anne, who was to have met him +as if by accident in a corner of the reading-room. + +"Oh, Mr. Windomshire," exclaimed Mrs. Van Truder, darting toward him. + +"How do, Mrs. Van Truder? How are you to-day?" he asked, scarcely able +to hide his annoyance. + +"That is the tenth time you've asked me that question. I must repeat: I +am quite well." + +"Oh, pardon my inquisitiveness. It has been a very long day, you know." + +"I want you and Miss Thursdale to dine with me at eight this evening. I +think I'll have a little surprise for you," she said mysteriously. +Windomshire glared, and then managed to give a provisional acceptance. +It all depended on the hour for leaving for the train. As he hurried +off to find Anne he was groaning to himself: "How the deuce can I go to +a dinner and run off again with Anne? I've got everything arranged. I +can't let a beastly dinner interfere. I won't go, hang me if I do." He +came upon Anne in the corner of the library--the most unfrequented +corner. + +"Well?" she questioned eagerly. He clasped her hands, beaming once more. + +"I've seen him, dear. It's all right. My word, I've had no end of a +busy day. The confounded fellow was out making calls on the +congregation, as they say, and I had to pursue him from house to house, +always missing him, by Jove." + +"But you DID find him?" anxiously. + +"Of course. He will be at the church at nine to-night--sharp. He +understands that no one is to know about it. His fee is ten +pounds--quite a bit for a chap like him. I found him calling upon a +fellow who is about to die--a Mr. Grover. He sent out word I'd have to +wait as the old gentleman was passing away. By Jove, do you know I was +that intense that I sent in word that the old gentleman would have to +wait a bit--I COULDN'T. The pastor came out and--well, it seems that +the fee for helping a chap to get married is more substantial than what +he gets for helping one to die. And, as luck would have it, I found a +fellow who will act as one of the witnesses to the ceremony at this +same house,--a Mr. Hooker, Anne. He came down on the train with us. +Tall, dark, professional looking man. He was sitting on Mr. Grover's +front steps when I got there. The other witness--must have two, you +know--is the head-waiter in the dining-room here--" + +"The--head-waiter?" she gasped. + +"He's a very decent sort of chap, my dear--and, besides, we can't be +choosers. Waiters are most discreet fellows, too. He's to get two +pounds for his trouble. By Jove, I think I've done rather well. I'm +sorry if you don't approve," he lamented. + +"But I do approve, Harry," she cried bravely. "It's lovely!" + +"Good! I knew you would. Now all we have to do is to slip away from +here this evening, and--Oh, I say, hang it all! Mrs. Van Truder has +asked me to dine with them this evening." + +"Isn't she running you a bit?" cried Anne, indignantly. "She had you +for breakfast and luncheon and now it's dinner. I daresay she'll have +you for tea too." + +"But I'm not going to her confounded dinner. That's settled. I can't do +it, you know, and be on time for the wedding. Deuce take it, what does +she take a fellow for? Hello, here comes the chap that Dauntless +introduced to us this morning." Derby was approaching with a warm and +ingratiating smile. "What's his name? Confound him." + +"Mr. Derby, I think. Why can't they give us a moment's peace?" she +pouted. Derby came up to them, his eyes sparkling with a fire which +they could not and were not to understand. He had surveyed them from a +distance for some time before deciding to ruthlessly, cruelly break in +upon the tranquil situation. + +"She's a pretty girl," he reflected, unconsciously going back to his +college days, and quite forgetting his cloth--which, by the way, was a +neat blue serge with a tender stripe. Consoling himself with the +thought that he was doing it to accommodate an old friend, the +good-looking Mr. Derby boldly entered the lists for the afternoon. He +felt, somehow, that he had it in his power to make Mr. Windomshire +quite jealous--and at the same time do nothing reprehensible. What he +did succeed in doing, alas, was to make two young people needlessly +miserable for a whole afternoon--bringing on grievous headaches and an +attack of suppressed melancholia that savoured somewhat of actual +madness. + +[Illustration: Windomshire] + +True to his project, he laboured hard and skilfully for hours. +Windomshire moved about in solitude, gnashing his teeth, while Derby +unceremoniously whisked the dazed Anne off for pleasant walks or held +her at bay in some secluded corner of the parlours. By dinner-time, +encouraged by Joe's wild but cautious applause, he had driven +Windomshire almost to distraction. A thing he did not know, +however,--else his pride might have cringed perceptibly,--was that Anne +Courtenay was growing to hate him as no one was ever hated before. + +"Well," he said to the nervous Mr. Dauntless at seven o'clock that +evening, having arrived at what he called the conclusion of his day's +work, "I think I've done all that was expected, haven't I?" + +"You've got him crazy, old boy. Look at him! It's the first minute he's +had since half-past two. Say, what do you think of this cursed weather? +It's raining again--and muddy! Great Scot, old man! it's knee deep, and +we don't dare take a carriage to the church. One can't sneak worth a +cent in a cab, you know. See you later! There's Eleanor waiting to +speak to me. By George, I'm nervous. You WON'T fail us, old man?" + +"I'll do my part, Joe," said Derby, smiling. + +"Well, so long, if I don't see you before nine. You look out for old +Mr. Van Truder, will you? See that he sneaks out properly. And--" + +"Don't worry, old chap. Go to Miss Thursdale. She seems nervous." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE ROAD TO PARADISE + + +Night again--and again the mist and the drizzle; again the country +lane, but without the warm club-house fire, the cheery lights, the +highball, and the thumping motor car. Soggy, squashy mud instead of the +clean tonneau; heavy, cruel wading through unknown by-ways in place of +the thrilling rush to Fenlock. Not twenty-four hours had passed, and +yet it seemed that ages lay between the joyous midnight and the sodden, +heart-breaking eve that followed. + +The guests at the Somerset kept close indoors,--that is, most of them +did. It is with those who fared forth resolutely into the night that we +have to do; the rest of the world is to be barred from any further +connection with this little history. It is far out in the dreary +country lane and not inside the warm hotel that we struggle to attain +our end. First one, then another stealthy figure crept forth into the +drizzle; before the big clock struck half-past eight, at least six +respectable and supposedly sensible persons had mysteriously +disappeared. Only one of our close acquaintances remained in the +hotel,--Mrs. Van Truder. It was not to be long, however, before she, +too, would be adventuring forth in search of the unknown. + +By this it may be readily understood that Mr. Van Truder had succeeded +in escaping from beneath her very nose, as it were. + +The little village church stood at the extreme end of the +street,--dark, dismal, quite awe-inspiring on a night like this. A +narrow lane stretched from the hotel to the sanctuary and beyond. There +is nothing at hand to show whether it is a Methodist, a Presbyterian, +or a Baptist church. As the two young women most vitally concerned in +this tale were professedly high church, it is therefore no more than +right that, in the darkness, it should be looked upon as an +Episcopalian church. + +Two stumbling figures, pressing close to each other in the shelter of a +single wobbly umbrella, forged their uncertain way through the muddy +lane. Except for the brief instants when the dull flicker of lightning +came to their relief, they were in pitch darkness. + +"Beastly dark, isn't it?" said one of the figures. + +"And beastly muddy too," said the other, in a high, disconsolate +treble. "Oh, dear, where are we?" + +"I don't know, but I feel as though we were about to step off of +something every moment. Do you know, Anne, it's extraordinary that I +shouldn't know how to light one of these confounded lanterns." + +"Try it again, Harry dear. I'll hold the umbrella." + +"Oh, I see! By Jove, one has to open the thing, don't you know. Ah, +there we are! That's better," he said, after he had succeeded in +finally lighting the wick. He held the lantern up close to her face and +they looked at each other for a moment. "Anne, I do love you!" he +exclaimed. Then he kissed her. "That's the first time I've had a chance +to kiss you in thirty-six hours." + +They plodded onward, closer together than ever, coming at last to the +little gate which opened into the churchyard. Before them stood the +black little building with its steeple, but the windows were as dark as +Erebus. They stopped in consternation. He looked at his watch. + +"Confound him, he's not here!" growled Windomshire. + +"Perhaps we are early," suggested Anne, feebly. + +"It's a quarter to nine," he said. "I suppose there is nothing left for +us to do but to wait. I'll look around a bit, dear. Perhaps the +witnesses are here somewhere." + +"Oo-oo-ooh! Don't leave me!" she almost shrieked. "Look! There is a +graveyard! I won't stay here alone!" They were standing at the foot of +the rough wooden steps leading up to the church door. + +"Pooh! Don't be afraid of tombstones," he scoffed; but he was conscious +of a little shiver in his back. "They can't bite, you know. Besides, +all churches have graveyards and crypts and--" + +"This one has no crypt," she announced positively. "Goodness, I'm mud +up to my knees and rain down to them. Why doesn't he come?" + +"I'll give the signal; we had to arrange one, you know, for the sake of +identity." He gave three loud, guttural coughs. A dog in the distance +howled mournfully, as if in response. Anne crept closer to his side. + +"It sounded as if some one were dying," she whispered. "Look, isn't +that a light?--over there among the gravestones!" A light flickered for +an instant in the wretched little graveyard and then disappeared as +mysteriously as it came. "It's gone! How ghostly!" + +"Extraordinary! I don't understand. By Jove, it's beginning to rain +again. I'm sure to have tonsilitis. I feel it when I cough." He coughed +again, louder than before. + +Suddenly the steady beam of a dark lantern struck their faces squarely; +a moment later the cadaverous Mr. Hooker was climbing over the +graveyard fence. + +"Am I late?" he asked, as he came forward. + +"I say, turn that beastly light the other way," complained Windomshire, +half blinded. "I thought no one but robbers carried dark lanterns." + +"The darker the deed, the darker the lantern," said Mr. Hooker, +genially. "Good-evening, madam. Are we the only ones here?" He was very +matter-of-fact and business-like; Anne loathed him on the instant. + +"We're all here but the minister and the other witness. I'll cough +again--although it hurts me to do it." + +He coughed thrice, but instead of a response in kind, three sharp +whistles came from the trees at the left. + +"What's that?" he gasped. "Has he forgotten the signal?" + +"Maybe he is trying to cough," said Hooker, "and can't do any better +than wheeze. It's this rotten weather." + +"No, it was a whistle. Good Heavens, Anne--it may be detectives." + +"Detectives!" exclaimed Mr. Hooker, hoarsely. "Then this is no place +for me. Excuse me, I'll just step around the corner." As he scurried +off, he might have been heard to mutter to himself: "They've been +hounding me ever since that job in the Cosgrove cemetery. Damn 'em, I +wonder if they think I'm up here to rob the grave of one of these +jays." From which it may be suspected that Mr. Hooker had been employed +in the nefarious at one time or another. + +"Detectives, Harry?" gasped Anne. "Why should there be detectives? +We're not criminals." + +"You can't tell what Mrs. Thursdale may have done when she +discovered--Hello! There's a light down the road! 'Gad, I'll hide this +lantern until we're sure." He promptly stuck the lantern inside his big +raincoat and they were in darkness again. A hundred yards to the left a +light bobbed about, reminding them of childhood's will-o'-the-wisp. +Without a word Windomshire drew her around the church, stumbling over a +discarded pew seat that stood against the wall. Groaning with pain, he +urged her to crouch down with him behind the seat. All the while he +held the umbrella manfully over her devoted head. + +Voices were heard, drawing nearer and nearer--one deep and cheery, the +other high and querulous. + +"It--it--oh, Harry, it's that Mr. Derby!" she whispered. "I'd know his +voice in a thousand." + +"The devil!" he whispered intensely, gripping her hand. + +Mr. Derby was saying encouragingly: "There is the church, Mr. Van +Trader. Brace up. We seem to be the first to arrive." + +"It's much farther away than you think," growled Mr. Van Truder. "I +can't see the lights in the window." + +"There are no lights yet. We are ahead of them. I'll try the door." + +The young minister kicked the mud from his shoes as he went up the +steps with the lantern. He tried the door vigorously, and then, holding +the lantern high, surveyed the surroundings. Mr. Van Truder, bundled up +like a motorman, stood below shivering--but with joy. + +"This is a great night for an affair of this kind," he quaked. "By +George, I feel twenty years younger. I believe I could turn +handsprings." + +"I wouldn't if I were you. Don't forget your somersault over that log +back there, and your splendid headspin in the mud puddle. It's past +nine o'clock. Joe's cousin was to be here at 8.45. Wonder what keeps +him. Joe will be here himself in a jiffy. Dear me, what a dreadful +night they have chosen for a wedding!" + +Windomshire whispered in horror to the girl beside him: "Good Lord, +Anne, they're following us." + +"Please, Harry," she whispered petulantly, "hold the umbrella still. +The water from the rainspout is dripping down my back." + +"By George, I wish Mrs. Van Truder could see me now," came valiantly +from the old gentleman around the corner. "Say, whistle again." Derby +gave three sharp, shrill whistles. In silence they waited a full minute +for the response. There was not a sound except the dripping of the rain. + +"I'm afraid something is wrong," said Derby. Just at that instant +Windomshire, despite most heroic efforts to prevent the catastrophe, +sneezed with a violence that shook his entire frame. "Sh! don't speak," +hissed the startled minister. "We are being watched. That was +unmistakably a sneeze." + +"I can't see any one," whispered Mr. Van Trader, excitedly. "I see just +as well in the dark as I do in the light, too." + +"Some one is coming. See! There's a light down the road. Let's step out +of sight just for a moment." + +Windomshire sneezed again, as if to accelerate the movements of the two +men. + +"Hang it all!" he gurgled in despair. Mr. Derby had blinded his lantern +and was hurrying off into the grove with his companion. + +"I can't help laughing, Harry," whispered Anne, giggling softly. "You +sneeze like an elephant." + +"But an elephant has more sense than to sneeze as I do. I knew I'd take +cold. Anne, they're after us. It's old Mrs. Van Truder's work. What are +they up to?" + +"Whatever it is, dear, they're just as much mystified as we are. Did +you hear him whistle? It is a signal." + +"I say, Anne, it's a beastly mess I've got you into," groaned he. + +"Dear old Harry, it is but the beginning of the mess you're getting +yourself into. I love this--every bit of it." + +"You're ripping, Anne; that's what you are. I--Great Scotland! Here +comes the head-waiter, but we don't dare show ourselves. Did you ever +know such beastly luck?" + +"There's another man too, away back there. And, look! Isn't that a +light coming through the trees back of the gravestones? Good Heavens, +Harry, we can't be married in a public thoroughfare. Everybody is +walking with lanterns. It's awful." + +"Let's go around to the rear of the church," he exclaimed suddenly. +"Perhaps we can get our brains to work on a plan of action. But, look +here, Anne, no matter who they are or what they want, I'm going to +marry you to-night if I have to do it in the face of the entire crowd." + +As they scurried off through the tall wet grass to a less exposed +station, a solitary figure came haltingly through the little gate. It +was the head-waiter, and, as he carried no lantern, he was compelled to +light matches now and then; after getting his bearings he would dart +resolutely on for a dozen paces before lighting another. Stopping in +front of the church door, he nervously tried to penetrate the gloom +with an anxious gaze; then, suddenly bethinking, he gave three timid +little coughs. Getting no immediate response, he growled aloud in his +wrath: + +"I've coughed my head off in front of every house between here and the +hotel, and I'm gettin' darned tired of it. I don't like this business; +and I never could stand for graveyards. Good Lord! what's that?" + +Three sharp whistles came to his alert ears, coming, it seemed, from +the very heart of some grim old gravestone. A man strode boldly across +the yard from the gate, his walk indicating that he was perfectly +familiar with the lay of the land. + +"Who coughed?" he demanded loudly. "Is there no one here? What the +dickens does it mean? Joe Dauntless! Where are you? No fooling now; my +wife's worse, and I can't stay here all night." He whistled again, and +the head-waiter coughed in a bewildered reply. "That's queer. Nothing +was said about coughing." + +"Hello!" called the head-waiter. "Is it you, sir?" + +Joe Dauntless's cousin held his lantern on high and finally discovered +the waiter near the pile of cordwood, ready to run at a moment's notice. + +"Who are you?" demanded Mr. Carpenter. + +"Gustave. But you ain't the man." + +"I ain't, eh? Didn't you whistle a minute ago?" + +"I ain't supposed to. I cough. Say, do you know if a wedding has taken +place here? I am a witness." + +"Oh, I see. He said he'd bring one. Are you alone?" + +"I don't know. It feels like a crowd every time I cough. Are you the +preacher?" + +"No, I'm the bridegroom's cousin. We've got to get in through a window. +I couldn't find my key. Would you mind giving me a leg?" + +"A leg? Nothing was said about legs," said the waiter, moving away. +Carpenter laughed. + +"I mean a boost up to the window." + +"Oh! Sure." + +"There's one in the rear I can smash. We'll get inside and light up. I +can open the door from that side, too. Come on--follow me." They turned +the corner and followed the path so lately taken by Windomshire and +Anne. As they came to the back of the church they were startled and not +a little alarmed by the sound of sudden scurrying and a well-defined +imprecation, but it was too dark for them to distinguish any one. While +they were trying to effect an entrance through one of the windows, +other mystified participants in the night's affairs were looking on +from secret and divers hiding-places. Far out in the little grove Derby +and his old companion watched the operations of the church-breakers, +the sickly glare of Carpenter's lantern as it stood upon the edge of +the rain barrel affording an unholy light for the occasion. Windomshire +and Anne, crouching behind a stack of old benches, looked on in +amazement. Mr. Hooker, whose conscience was none too easy, doubtless +for excellent reasons, peered forth from behind a tall tombstone. He +had arrived at the conclusion that he was being hounded down as a +body-snatcher. + +"This is a devil of a mess," he muttered dolefully. "If they catch me +in this graveyard, I'll have a hard time proving an alibi. What an +idiot I was to get into this thing! I guess I'll get out of it. He's +got plenty of witnesses and I've got his ten dollars." He began +sneaking off toward the extreme west end of the graveyard, bent on +finding the road to town. "Holy smoke!" stopping short. "Another bunch +of them coming! I'm surrounded!" He dropped down behind a weed-covered +mound and glared straight ahead. Almost directly in his path a lantern +wobbled and reeled slowly, finally bringing its bearer to the fence +between the burying-ground and the churchyard. A man carried the light +and half carried the form of a woman besides. + +"Brace up, Nell dear," Mr. Hooker heard the newcomer say as tenderly as +his exertions would allow. "The worst is over. Here's the church. Good +Heavens, just think of being lost in a graveyard!" + +"And climbing four fences and a tree," moaned Eleanor Thursdale. They +had come up through the graveyard by mistake. + +"It wasn't a tree; it was a fence post. Great Scot! There's no light in +the church. What's up? Wait here, dear, and I'll investigate." + +"Alone? Never!" she cried. They climbed their fifth fence, +notwithstanding the fact that a gate was near at hand. + +"This is an awful pickle I've got you into. You ought to hate me--" he +was groaning, but she checked him nobly. + +"Hush, Joe, I LOVE it," she cried. + +"You just wait and see how happy I'll make you for this." He was about +to kiss her rapturously, but the act was stayed by the sound of a +shrill whistle, thrice given. "There's Jim Carpenter and Derby," he +exclaimed, and whistled in response. A moment later Derby strolled up +from the grove, followed by the chattering Mr. Van Truder. + +"That you, Joe?" + +"Hello, Darb. Good! Where's Jim?" + +Some one whistled sharply off to the left, and then Jim Carpenter came +hurrying up, the head-waiter close behind. + +"Hello, Joe. Say, has either of you been coughing?" demanded Carpenter, +his hair ready to stand on end. + +"I should say not," said Joe. "I've scarcely been breathing." + +"Then some ghost is having a hemorrhage," said the head-waiter, +dismally. + +[Illustration: "Hush, Joe, I LOVE it," she cried.] + +"Hello, Mr. Dauntless, are you a witness too?" + +"Say, Joe," said his cousin, quickly, "there's something strange going +on. The whole place is full of people. I went back there to open a +window and at least two men coughed--one of 'em sneezed. We're being +watched. This man says he heard a woman back there, and I saw a funny +kind of light in the graveyard." + +"Hang 'em!" growled Joe. "We can't stop now. Open up the church, Jim." + +"Can't. Lost my key. Is this Miss Thursdale? Glad to meet you. The +window's the only way and they're surely watching back there." + +"Mamma has sent the officers after us," wailed Eleanor. + +"Let's go home," said the waiter. "I didn't agree to stay out all +night." + +"Agree? Aha, I see. You are a spy!" cried Joe. + +"A spy? I guess not. I'm a witness." + +"It's the same thing," cackled Mr. Van Truder. "You're a spy witness." + +"Joe, isn't this fellow your witness?" demanded Carpenter. + +"I should say not. Mr. Van Truder is mine." + +"By George, I don't understand--" + +"Never mind, Jim, break into the church and let's have it over with. +It's going to rain again." + +"Oh, I'm so tired," moaned the poor bride, mud-spattered, wet, and very +far from being the spick and span young woman that fashionable society +knew and loved. + +"By Jove!" came suddenly from the darkness, startling the entire +party--a masculine voice full of surprise and--yes, consternation. Then +there strode into the circle of light a tall figure in a shimmering +mackintosh, closely followed by a young, resolute woman. + +"Windomshire!" gasped Dauntless, leaping in front of Eleanor, prepared +to defend her with his life. + +"Miss Courtenay, too," murmured Eleanor, peeking under his arm. + +"Yes, by Jove," announced the harassed Englishman, at +bay,--"Windomshire and Miss Courtenay." There was a long silence--a +tableau, in fact. "Well, why doesn't some one say something? You've got +us, don't you know." + +Eleanor Thursdale was the first to find words. She was faint with +humiliation, but strong with the new resolve. Coming forth from behind +Dauntless, she presented herself before the man her mother had chosen. + +"So you have found me out, Mr. Windomshire," she said pleadingly, a wry +little smile on her lips. "You know all about it?" + +"I--er--by Jove, this is quite beyond me. Found you out? My word, you +don't mean to say--" + +"I say, old man," said Dauntless, manfully, "let me explain. We've +always loved each other. It isn't that she--" + +"Hang it all, man, I knew that," expostulated Windomshire. "It was a +mistake all around. I love Anne, don't you know. There's no real harm +done, I'm sure. But what puzzles me is this: why does Miss Thursdale +persist in pursuing us if she loves you and doesn't care to marry me?" + +"The deuce! I like that," cried Dauntless. "You'd better begin by +asking questions at home." + +"I take it," interposed Mr. Derby, with rare tact and discernment, +"that both of you expect to be married, but not to each other as +originally planned." Both Eleanor and Windomshire signified eager +affirmation in more ways than one. "Then it seems to me a simple case +of coincidence, which may be explained later on. Why discuss it now? I +am in reality a minister, Miss Courtenay, and I am here to unite Miss +Thursdale and Mr. Dauntless in the holy bonds of matrimony. I trust we +may expect no interference on the part of Mr. Windomshire?" + +"Good Lord! No!" almost shouted Windomshire, clasping Anne's hand in a +mighty grasp. "That's what we are here for ourselves--to be +married--but the damned parson has deceived us." Jim Carpenter came out +of his trance at this. "Say, are you the fellow Rev. Smith was to +marry? Well, he won't be here. There's a surprise pound party at his +house and the whole town is there. He couldn't leave to save his soul. +It's the way he gets his living." + +"Oh, Anne!" cried Windomshire, in real despair. + +Anne slipped into the breach with rare old English fortitude. She +addressed herself sweetly to Mr. Derby. + +"Mr. Derby, do you remember saying this afternoon that you'd do +anything in the world for me?" Mr. Derby blushed and looked most +unworthy of his calling, but managed to say that he WOULD do anything +in the world for her. "Then, please take the place of the minister who +couldn't come." + +"Good!" cried Dauntless, almost dancing. + +"I will, Miss Courtenay," said Derby. Windomshire grasped him by the +hand, speechless with joy and relief. + +"I don't understand all this," complained Mr. Van Truder, vainly trying +to see the excited, jubilant quartette. He only knew that they were all +talking at once, suddenly without restraint. "I wish my wife were here; +she'd understand." + +Jim Carpenter at last came to his senses and, dragging the head-waiter +after him, sped to the rear of the church. A few minutes later lights +flashed in the windows and then the front door swung open. Carpenter +and Gustave stood smiling upon the threshold. + +"Enter!" called out the former. As the group quickly passed through the +doorway, a long figure climbed down from the fence hard by and ventured +up to the portal. It was Mr. Hooker, his face the picture of +bewilderment. + +"Well, this beats me!" he ejaculated, leaning against the door jamb; +none of those at the altar heard his remark. He stood there listening +until the last words of the service which united two couples were +uttered. Then he turned sorrowfully away and started across the yard. +The sound of a wedding march played upon the wheezy cabinet organ by +Jim Carpenter followed him into the gloom; above the gasp of the organ +was lifted the unmistakable chatter of joyous voices. + +As he passed through the gate a great vehicle rolled up and stopped. It +was drawn by two steaming horses, and the wagon lanterns told him that +it was the Somerset Hotel 'bus. "I'll ride back with 'em," he thought +comfortably. + +Some one climbed down from the rear of the 'bus, assisted by two young +men in brass buttons. Mr. Hooker made way for a corpulent, puffing old +lady. She stopped in front of him and demanded in hot, strident tones: + +"Where is my husband?" + +"Your husband?" repeated Mr. Hooker, politely. "Madam, you can search +me. There's a whole churchful of husbands up there." + +"You--you---" she sputtered. "Am I too late? Support me, you fools," +she cried to the two bell-boys. They hurried across the churchyard, Mr. +Hooker following. At the doorway she stopped, glaring hard at the +well-lighted interior. "Mr. Van Truder! Mr. Van Truder!" she called out +angrily, but her joyful other half did not hear her. He was trying at +that moment to organise the company into a wedding procession. + +"Say," said Mr. Hooker, "maybe you'd better cough three times." + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Flyers, by George Barr McCutcheon + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLYERS *** + +***** This file should be named 5848.txt or 5848.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/8/4/5848/ + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Charles Franks, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Flyers + +Author: George Barr McCutcheon + +Release Date: June, 2004 [EBook #5848] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on September 13, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE FLYERS *** + + + + +Charles Aldarondo, Charles Franks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team. + + + +THE FLYERS + +BY GEORGE BARR MCCUTCHEON + +Author of "Graustark" +"Beverly of Graustark" etc. + + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAP. + + I. THE FARAWAY CLUB + II. THE FLYERS CATCH THE FLYER +III. THE MORNING AFTER + IV. MRS. VAN TRUDER INTRUDES + V. AS NIGHT APPROACHES + VI. THE ROAD TO PARADISE + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +Anne Courtenay ..... Frontispiece + +Eleanor was still sitting. . . stiff and silent + +Seated side by side. . . two miserable partners in the fiasco + +Windomshire + +"Hush, Joe, I LOVE it," she cried + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE FARAWAY CLUB + + +A cold, thick drizzle, blown by a biting wind that sent chills to the +marrow, marred the early spring night, and kept indoors the few hardy +members who had haunted the clubhouse since the season's opening a +week before. Not more than a dozen loyal devotees to the sports of the +open air lounged about the big clubhouse. Three or four rangy young +women in sweaters and jackets strove bravely to dispel the gloom of +the night as it settled down upon the growling masculine majority. The +club steward hovered near, anxiously directing the movements of a +silent and as yet undrilled corps of servants who flitted from group +to group with decanters and checks, taking and mistaking orders with +the usual abandon. A huge fireplace threw out heat sufficient to make +the big lounging room comfortable. Now and then a spiteful gust of +wind swept the rain against the western window-panes with a menace +that set the teeth on edge. + +"Rotten night," reflected the big man who monopolised the roomiest +chair and the best position in front of the blazing logs. "Going to +town to-night?" The question was general: there were half a dozen +answers. Every one was going in by the last express. All of them had +dined well: they had been hungry and the club was a wealthy one; even +the most exclusive of appetites could be entertained at the Faraway +Country Club. The last 'bus was to leave the clubhouse at ten minutes +past ten, and it was then half-past eight. Ten minutes' drive from the +clubhouse on the edge of the little town to the railway station--then +thirty minutes to the heart of the big city in which the members lived +and died at great risk to themselves. + +Each succeeding spring saw the formal opening of the Faraway Country +Club. The boards were pulled down from the windows and the door hinges +were oiled properly after a winter of discontent. May saw the +reopening, but it was not until June that crowds began to fill the +house and grounds. Only the more restless and hardy had the temerity +to test the pleasures of the raw spring days and nights. The M.F.H. +was a loyal, eager chap; he knew what was required of him in his +official capacity. With the first symptoms of softening soil he led +his followers through field and wood, promising the "real hunt" inside +of a month. Following a pack of overfed hounds was what every one at +Faraway Club called a "real hunt." + +The night so meagrely described at the beginning of this tale followed +hard upon a grey, chill day. A few golfers had spent the afternoon +upon the course, inanely cursing the temporary tees and greens. A +couple of polo enthusiasts tried out their ponies, and several men and +women took their hunters over the course, that fairly bristled with +spectres of last year's anise-seed. Now they were comfortably +ensconced in the clubhouse, berating the unfortunate elements, and +waiting for the last express with a persistency which allowed three or +four earlier trains to come and go unnoticed. The cheerful highball +was coming into its own. A stern winter of bridge had not killed the +ardour of certain worshippers; continuous criticism of play arose from +the table in the corner where two men and two women were engaged with +the cards. + +The perennial bore, who noses into everything in order to sniff his +own wit, sauntered amiably from group to group, pouring out jests as +murky as the night itself. He saw none of the scowls nor heard the +toe-taps; he went blithely along his bridgeless way. + +"I say, Brown, I saw your wife on the street yesterday, but she didn't +see me," he observed to the blase-looking man in corduroys. + +"Ya-as," returned the other, calmly staring past him; "so she told me +last night." The bore and his blissful smile passed on to the next +group. There, two or three women were chatting with as many men, +yawning and puffing at their cigarettes, bored by the risque stories +the men were telling, but smiling as though they had not already heard +them from other men. Occasional remarks, dropped softly into the ears +of the women, may have brought faint blushes to their cheeks, but the +firelight was a fickle consort to such changes. The sly turn of a +sentence gave many a double meaning; the subtle glance of the eye +intended no harm. Dobson's new toast to "fair women" earned a roar of +laughter, but afterwards Dobson was called to account by a husband who +realised. A man over in the corner was thumping aimlessly on the +piano; a golf fanatic was vigorously contending that he had driven 243 +yards against the wind; a tennis enthusiast was lamenting the fact +that the courts were too soft to be used; there was a certain odour of +rain-soaked clothes in the huge room, ascendant even above the smell +of cigarettes. Altogether, it was a night that owed much to the +weather. + +Mrs. Scudaway, dashing horsewoman and exponent of the free rein, was +repeating the latest story concerning an intimate friend of every one +present--and, consequently, absent. + +"She's just sailed for Europe, and that good-looking actor friend of +the family happened to go on the same steamer," she was saying with a +joyous smile. + +"Accidents will happen," remarked some one, benevolently. + +"Where's her husband? I haven't seen him with her in months," came +from one of the men. + +"Oh, they have two children, you know," explained Mrs. Scudaway. + +"Delicate, I hear," said Miss Ratliff. + +"Naturally; he nurses them," said Mrs. Scudaway, blowing smoke half- +way across the room through her delicate nostrils. + +"I say, Mrs. Scudaway," cried the rapt bore, "don't you ever do +anything but inhale?" + +"Yes, I exhale occasionally. No, thanks," as he held forth an ash +tray. Then she flecked the ashes into the fireplace, ten feet away. + +"Good Lord, it's a rotten night!" repeated the big man, returning +dismally from a visit to the window. "There's a beastly fog mixed in +with the rain." + +"Better blow the fog horn for Henderson," said Ratliff, with a jerk of +his thumb. "He's half seas over already and shipping a lot of water." +Henderson, the convivial member, was on his third siphon. + +"I don't care a whoop what McAlpine says," roared an irascible +gentleman on the opposite side of the fireplace; "a man ought to use a +midiron when he gets that kind of a lie. Nobody but an ass would take +a brassie. He's---" + +"Just listen to that blethering idiot," said young Rolfe to the lady +beside him. "He ought to be choked." + +"I like the way you speak of my husband," she responded gaily. + +"Oh, I forgot. He is your husband, isn't he?" Then, after a moment's +easy contemplation of the pretty young woman and a scornful glance at +the golfer: "Lucky, but a very poor watchdog." + +"He barks beautifully," resented the young wife, with a loyal grimace. + +"That's why you're not afraid of him," he said quickly. + +"Don't you think he'd bite?" + +"They never do." + +"Well, you just try him, that's all," remarked the young wife coldly, +rising and moving away, a touch of red in her cheeks. + +"I will," he sang out genially, as he crossed his legs and stretched +his feet out to the fire. She looked back with a mirthless smile on +her lips. + +The man at the piano struck up the insidious "La Mattchiche," +suggestive of the Bal Tabarin and other Fourteenth of July devotions. + +"Don't play that, Barkley," complained the big man, as every one began +beating time to the fascinating air. "I'm trying to forget Paris." + +"Can you ever forget that night in Maxim's---" began Mrs. Scudaway. + +"I recall the next day more vividly," he interrupted. + +"Changing the subject," inserted the amiable bore, his moon-face +beaming, "I see that the Thursdales have opened their place across the +ravine. Isn't it rather early for them to leave town for the summer?" + +"They come out every year about this time." + +"Lot of people will be opening their places next week. I saw Mrs. +Gorgus to-day. She says they're putting her house in shape---" + +"Impossible!" cried Mrs. Tanner. "It hasn't any shape." + +"The only thing that could put the Gorgus house in shape is an +earthquake. Who was the architect of that abortion?" demanded Rolfe. + +"Denison. He's an impressionist." + +"The Thursdales have a new French car. Have you seen it? Eleanor ran +over here in it this afternoon with her Englishman. Showing off both +of her novelties at once, d'ye see?" said Carter, the tennis player. + +"I understand the thing's a go--sure go," said the big man. "In the +fall some time. He's a rather decent chap, too." + +"And, what's better, if his brother and his cousin should happen to +die, he'll be a duke." + +"If they're as healthy as he seems to be, there'll be nothing doing +for him." + +A good-looking young fellow, who had been staring at the fire all +evening, moved uneasily in his lounging chair. Several quick glances +were sent to where he sat moodily apart from the others, and then +surreptitious winks and nudges were exchanged. + +"Joe is as crazy in love with her as ever, poor devil," whispered +Rolfe. Gradually the group of gossips came closer together over the +table top; the conversation was continued in more subdued tones. + +"They're discussing me, damn 'em," said the moody young man to +himself. "I suppose they're pitying me. Damn cats! But I'll show 'em a +thing or two they're not looking for before long." He looked at his +watch for the twentieth time in an hour and scowled at the drenched +window-panes across the way. For some reason this exceedingly nice- +looking young man was in a state of extreme nervousness, a condition +which, luckily for him, he was able to keep within himself. + +And this was what Mrs. Scudaway was saying in an urgent undertone to +the half dozen who leaned across the big table: "Joe is a mighty good +sort, and I'm sorry for him. He's been good enough for Eleanor +Thursdale ever since she came out two years ago, and I don't see why +he should cease being good enough for her now. This Englishman hasn't +any more money and he isn't half as good looking. He's English, that's +all. Her mother's crazy to have a look in at some of those London +functions she's read so much about. She's an awful ass, don't you +think, Tommy?" + +"Ya-as," said the blase man; "such as she is." + +"Mighty hard lines, this thing of being an ordinary American," +lamented the placid bore. + +"One might just as well be called Abraham or Isaac," reflected Carter. + +"No romantic young lover would live through the first chapter with +either of those names," said pretty Miss Ratliff, who read every novel +that came out. + +"Dauntless has been terribly out of humour for the past week or two," +said Carter. "He's horribly cut up over the affair,--grouchy as +blazes, and flocks by himself all the time. That's not like him, +either." + +"He's the sweetest boy I know," commented little Mrs. Tanner, whose +husband had barked about the midiron. + +"I've heard he's the only man you ever really loved," murmured Rolfe, +close to her ear. + +"Nonsense! I've known him all my life," she replied, with quick and +suspicious resentment. + +"Trite phrase," scoffed he. "I'll wager my head that every woman +living has uttered that same worn expression a hundred times. 'Known +him all my life!' Ha, ha! It's a stock apology, my dear. Women, good +and bad, trade under that flag. Please, to oblige me, get a fresh +excuse." + +"The most ignorant duffer in the world could lay you a stymie if---" +the loud-voiced golfer was complaining just at that instant. The man +he was addressing was nodding his head politely and at the same time +trying to hear what was being said at the round table. + +"Joe Dauntless is good enough for anybody's daughter," vouchsafed the +blase man in corduroys. + +"He's a ripping good fellow," again said Mrs. Scudaway. + +"Mrs. Thursdale's got an English governess for her kids, an English +butler, an English bull terrier, and a new Cobden-Sanderson binding on +that antique History of England she talks so much about," observed +Carter. + +"And she's beginning to wear her evening gowns on the street in the +morning. Besides, her shoes lob over at the heels," remarked the rangy +Mrs. Carter. + +"Yes, she's getting to be thoroughly English. I've noticed a tendency +to chirp like a bird when she talks, too." + +"That governess is a mighty stunning girl, by the way," said Rolfe. + +"She's been over here a year, you know," said Mrs. Scudaway, with no +apparent relevancy. + +"Have you heard when Eleanor's engagement is to be announced?" asked +Miss Ratliff. + +"I'm not supposed to tell, but I have it on the best authority that it +will be announced next week, and the wedding will take place in +November. I suppose they'll ask Joe Dauntless to be an usher," said +Mrs. Carter. + +"Hello! Joe's gone outside. He must have heard something we said," +said Rolfe, setting his highball glass down with a thump. + +"Oh, if he had only been educated at Cambridge instead of in +Cambridge," mourned Mrs. Carter. + +It was true that the tall, good-looking Mr. Dauntless had left the +room, but not because he had heard the comments of his friends. He was +standing on the wind-swept verandah, peering through the mist toward a +distant splash of light across the ravine to the right of the club +grounds. The fog and mist combined to run the many lights of the +Thursdale windows into a single smear of colour a few shades brighter +than the darkness from which it protruded. Dauntless's heart was +inside that vague, impressionistic circle of colour, but his brain was +very much in evidence on the distant outside. What were the workings +of that eager brain will soon be revealed--to the reader, at least, if +not to the occupants of the rain-bound clubhouse. + +A word concerning Dauntless. He was the good-looking son of old banker +Dauntless, who died immediately after his cashier brought ruin to the +concern of which he was president. This blow fell when his son was in +his senior year at Harvard. He took his degree, and then, instead of +the promised trip around the world, he came home and went to work in +the offices of a big brokerage firm. Everybody knew and liked him. He +was a steady, earnest worker, and likewise a sportsman of the right +temperament. Big, fashionable Faraway looked upon him as its most +gallant member; no one cared to remember that he might have been very +rich; every one loved him because he had been rich and was worthy in +spite of that. It was common knowledge that he was desperately in love +with pretty Eleanor Thursdale, daughter of the eminently fashionable +and snobbishly aristocratic widow Thursdale, mistress of many millions +and leader of select hundreds. Moreover, it was now pretty well known +that Mrs. Thursdale had utterly lost sight of Dauntless in surveying +the field of desirable husbands for Eleanor. She could see nothing but +Englishmen, behind whom lurked the historic London drawing-rooms and +British estates. That is how and why young Windomshire, a most +delightful Londoner, with prospects and a peerage behind him, came to +be a guest in her city house, following close upon a long sojourn in +the Bermudas. HE had been chosen; the battle was over, so far as +Eleanor's hand was concerned. What matter if Dauntless had her heart? + +The object of this indifference and scorn gazed long and hard at the +blob of light across the ravine. His heart was beating fast, and his +body tingled with a strange excitement, which made itself manifest in +a mixture of impatient frowns and prophetic smiles. + +"If it wasn't such a beastly night," he was muttering in one breath, +and, "Still, it's just the sort of a night we want," in the next. He +was looking at his watch in the light from the window when an +automobile whizzed up the wet gravel drive and came to a stop in front +of the club steps. As Dauntless re-entered the house from the +verandah, a tall young man in a motor coat and goggles came in through +the opposite door. They paused and looked steadily at each other, then +nodded briefly. The crowd of loungers glanced at the two men with +instant curiosity and then breathed easily. The man who was going to +marry Miss Thursdale and the man who wanted to marry her were +advancing to shake hands--a trifle awkwardly, perhaps, but more or +less frankly. + +"Rough weather for motoring," remarked Dauntless, nervously. +Windomshire removed his cap and goggles. + +"Beastly. I just ran over for something to warm the inside man. Won't +you join me?" His voice was pleasant to the ear, his manner easy and +appealing. He was not so good looking as Dauntless, true, but he had +the air of a thoroughbred in his make-up--from head to foot. + +"Sit down here," called Mrs. Scudaway readily, creating a general +shift of chairs. The two men hesitated a moment, nervousness apparent +in both, and then sat down quickly. The Englishman was next Mrs. +Scudaway. "What were you doing out in the rain?" she asked after the +order for drinks had been taken. + +"Hurrying to get out of it," he said with evasive good humour, "and +thinking how much nicer your fogs are than ours," he added quickly. + +"Anybody come over with you?" asked the bore, agreeably. + +"No, they're playing bridge over at Mrs. Thursdale's and that lets me +out. Beastly headache, too. Got out for a breath of air." The silence +that followed this observation seemed to call for further +explanations. "Miss Thursdale retired soon after dinner, wretchedly +under the weather. That rather left me adrift, don't you know. I'm not +playing bridge this year." + +"You're not? Why not, pray?" + +"Chiefly because of last year. My Mercedes came on from New York +yesterday and I got her out for a spin. Couldn't resist, don't you +know. She's working beautifully." + +"There's one thing about a Mercedes that I don't like--and you don't +find it in a Panhard. I've got a Panhard and--" Dobson was saying with +all the arrogance of a motor fiend, when Mrs. Scudaway ruthlessly and +properly cut him off. + +"We know all about your Panhard, Dobby. Don't bother. Is Eleanor +really ill, Mr. Windomshire?" + +"I had it from her own lips, Mrs. Scudaway." + +"Oh, you know what I mean. Is it likely to be serious?" + +"Really, I can't say. I offered to go and fetch the doctor in my car, +but she assured me she'd be all right in the morning. What say, Mr. +Dauntless?" + +"I didn't speak, Mr. Windomshire." + +"I thought you did." More than one at the table had heard Joe's +involuntary chuckle. + +"I say, Windomshire, what's the name of that pretty governess over at +Thursdale's?" asked the busy bore. "Saw her this morning." + +The Englishman looked down and flecked the ashes from his cigarette +before answering. + +"Miss Courtenay," he responded. + +"She's a corking pretty girl." Windomshire went through the +unnecessary act of flecking ashes again, but said nothing in reply. +"Are there any more at home like her?" with a fine chuckle in behalf +of his wit. + +"She's of a very good family, I believe," said Windomshire, looking +about helplessly. Mrs. Scudaway caught the look in his eyes and +remembered that English gentlemen are not supposed to discuss women +outside of their own set. + +"It must be time for the 'bus," she said. "We're all going in by the +10.10, Mr. Windomshire." + +"Can't I take some of you over to the station in my car?" + +"The 'bus is dryer, I think, thank you." She led the way, and the +other women followed her upstairs. "We'll be down in time," she +called. + +"I'll take some of you men over in Hardy's machine," volunteered +Dauntless. "I've got it out here this week, while he's east." + +"Ain't you going in, Joe?" demanded Rolfe. + +"Not to-night. I'm staying overnight with my uncle in Cobberly Road." + +"The 'bus is good enough for me. I haven't forgotten how you ran off +the Peters Bridge last fall," said Carter. + +"Hang it, man, he wasn't thinking about bridges that time," said the +cheerful bore. "There was a girl with him. Elea--Ahem! I say, old man, +what the devil time is it? Time for the confounded 'bus? Don't want to +miss the train." He had caught the scowl of warning from Carter and, +for a wonder, understood. + +"By the way," said Windomshire, irrelevantly, "what was the +disturbance over in O'Brien's Lane this morning? Anybody hurt? I was +driving the car up Andrews' Hill when I saw the excitement. Couldn't +make it out. Were all of the horses running away?" + +"Running away!" roared the blase man, forgetting his pose for the +first time. "Running away!" and he broke into a roar of laughter. +"Why, that was the advance guard of the Faraway Country Club. Good +Lord, did you see them coming in?" + +"My word, they were coming in. But what was the rush? I came over to- +night to see if any of the women had been hurt. I could have sworn the +horses were absolutely unmanageable. They were tearing through bushes +and taking fences they'd never seen before. Egad, I give you my word, +one of the women took the fence at the south end of the golf course, +and she didn't turn out for the bunker at No. 7, either. She took it +like a bird, and straight across the course she flew on a dead line +for the home green. What the deuce---" + +"Sh! Windomshire, it will cost you your life if she hears you. That +was Mrs. Scudaway. You don't know what happened, so I'll tell you. +Half a dozen of the women went out with us for a run over the usual +course. They are among our best and oldest hunters, too. Well, they +were keeping right up with the men and having a splendid hunt, when +all of a sudden a real, live fox dashed into view. By gad, sir, he +started a panic. They'd never seen one in their lives, and they set up +a howl that went clear to heaven. And they started for home--well, you +saw 'em on the stretch. It was great! There never has been such riding +in America. Mrs. Hooper lost her hat in the woods, and Mrs. Graves +lost part of her habit coming through that break in the hedge over +there. That skinny Miss Elperson, who never before has had nerve +enough to jump her horse over the lawn hose, cleared the wall that +runs along O'Brien's mill,--nobody's ever done it before,--and she +came in hanging to the horse's mane and yelling like a wild-cat. Gad, +it was two hours before we got 'em quiet and sent'em to town. They +thought it was a tiger, I understand, although some of them held out +for the lion and the hyena. Mrs. Scudaway was game enough to stay and +enjoy the laugh." + +"What became of the fox?" demanded the Englishman, his eyes +glistening. At that moment the women came trooping down stairs; the +'bus bell was clanging sleepily. + +"The fox? Oh--er--hanged if I know. I--er---" + +"Were you riding?" + +"Well--er--just a practice run, you know, old man. Er--I say, ladies, +the 'bus waits!" + +Two minutes later the 'bus rolled away in the fog and drizzle, leaving +Dauntless and Windomshire alone on the steps. + +"Good-night," said the Englishman, after an awkward silence. + +"Good-night," was the response. Then, following a brief pause, both +started toward their cars. The next minute they were chugging away, in +the night and the lights in the clubhouse began to go out. + +Two hours later a stealthy figure crept across the Thursdale lawn, +lurking behind the rose beds and lilac bushes, finally worming its way +to a dripping but secluded spot under the weather side of the house. +It was past twelve o'clock, but there were still lights in the front +part of the big summer-house. Quiet reigned there, however; the noise +of merry-making came from the servants' quarters overlooking the +ravine. A handful of gravel left an impatient hand and rattled against +the second-story window above. Almost instantaneously the window was +raised and a head came forth. + +"Joe?" came a shrill whisper from above. + +"What's the matter?" whispered the man below. "I've been waiting out +there for two hours--well, half an hour, at least. Aren't you coming, +dear?" + +"I can't get out," came in a whispered wail. "I've had my hat on for +hours, but---" + +"Why can't you get out? Good Lord, you just must!" + +"They're playing bridge in the front part of the house and the +servants are having a reunion in the back. Oh, I've been nearly crazy. +What are we to do? Shall I jump?" + +"Don't! Is there no way to sneak out?" + +"I'm afraid of being seen. It would give everything away if any one +saw me in this automobile rigging at this time of night--and in a rain +like this, too. Oh, dear, dear, I know I shall go mad! You poor +darling, aren't you wet to the skin? I really couldn't help it. I just +couldn't be there at 11.30." + +"We'll never make that train--never in the world," groaned Dauntless. +"It's ten miles, and the road's horrible all the way. By Jove, Nell, +you must get out some way. It's now or never. I've got everything +fixed." + +"Oh, Joe--listen! Do you think you can get a ladder out from under the +verandah? The painters left them there this morning. Look out for +paint, dear. Don't make a noise--not a sound. Mr. Windomshire's room +is just over the porte cochere. For Heaven's sake, don't arouse him." + +"Drop your bag down first, dear,--here! I'll catch it." + +"I've got to put some things in it first. It isn't quite ready," she +gasped, darting away from the window. + +"'T was ever thus," he muttered in despair. Cautiously he made his way +to the end of the verandah. A close listener might have heard him +snarl "damn" more than once as he tugged away at the painters' +ladders, which had been left there when the rain began. He was a good- +natured chap, but barking his knuckles, bumping his head, and banging +his shins, added to the misfortunes that had gone before, were enough +to demoralise a saint. + +He imagined that he was making enough noise to rouse the neighbours +for blocks around. No time was to be lost in self-commiseration, +however. He hurriedly dragged out a ladder, which he managed to place +against the window-sill without accident. + +"Here it is," she whispered excitedly. The next instant a heavy object +dropped at his feet with a crash. "Oh!" she exclaimed with horror, "my +perfume bottles!" + +"Good Lord!" he gasped. + +"I thought you were going to catch it. Oh, here's the ladder. Do you +think I'll fall? Oh, oh!" + +"Don't be afraid. Climb out, dear--and hurry!" + +She was brave enough in the crisis. While he held the bottom of the +ladder she scrambled through the window and hurried downward. Before +she reached the bottom he lifted her from the ladder in his strong +arms and held her close for a moment. + +"Take the ladder down, dearest," she whispered between kisses. "I +don't want mother to know I left that way--not just yet,--nor Mr. +Windomshire, either." + +"Come this way," he whispered, after replacing the ladder. "I left the +car just around the corner. Come on, darling, and we'll soon be safe. +Don't make a noise!" + +"Goodness, isn't it dark! What a horrid night! Oh, what's that?" + +"Gad, I thought I heard something over there in the croquet ground. +Sounded like some one mixing it up with a wicket. Quick! Out this +way!" He had her hand in his, and was rushing ruthlessly through +flower-beds toward the big gate, her travelling bag banging against +his knee with the insistence of a hundredweight. + +Panting and gasping for breath, they finally floundered into the +roadway, and dashed off through the muddy surface toward the unseen +automobile. + +She was half fainting with the panic of excitement as he started to +lift her into the tonneau of the car. "No, no! Please let me sit with +you in the front seat," she implored. She had her way, and a moment +later he was up beside her, both wrapped in the oil-cloths, the +drizzle blowing in their hot faces. + +"We're off, thank God!" he whispered joyously, as the car leaped +forward under his hand. + +"I wonder--oh, dear, how I wonder what mamma will say," she was crying +in his ear. + +Dauntless grinned happily as the car shot onward through the blackness +of the night. Its lanterns were dark and cold, but he knew the road. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE FLYERS CATCH THE FLYER + + +No one would have recognised either of them had it been possible to +see them,--so carefully were their heads swathed in their coverings. +She was veiled and he was goggled, and both of them scrooged down in +the seat apprehensively. Hardy's car, borrowed in reality for the +occasion, was performing nobly. It careened through the muddy streets +of the village with a sturdiness that augured well for the enterprise. +Out into the country road, scudding northward, it sped. Dauntless +increased the speed, not to the limit, on account of the fog and +uncertainty of the road, but enough to add new thrills to the girl who +crouched beside him. Neither spoke until they were far from the town +line; the strain was too intense. + +"What will everybody say?" she finally cried in his ear--the most +natural question in the world. "And the newspapers? Oh, dear!" + +"You're not weakening, are you?" he cried. "Shall I turn back?" + +She was silent for half a mile. + +"No," she replied at last, "I couldn't climb UP that ladder. And +besides--" with a gasp as the car shot over the railroad tracks,--"we +never could get as good a start as this again." + +"Bully for you!" he shouted. + +"How far is it to Fenlock, Joe?" she asked, a quaver in her high- +pitched voice. + +"About seven miles. We'll take the short cut through O'Brien's Lane +and strike Cobberly Road again at the crossroads. Then it will be easy +going. We'll catch the flyer all right, Nell. Everything's arranged. +You go into Car 5 and I in Car 7--" + +"With a whole car between us? Heavens!" + +"It's safest, dear. There might happen to be some one on board who'd +know us and suspect. Keep your veil down until you get into the berth. +There's not much danger of any one being up at this time of night, but +don't take any chances." + +"Goodness, isn't it thrilling! And when do we get to Omegon?" + +"Little after seven in the morning. My cousin will meet us in a hack +and drive us straight to the church. His wife will go with us as the +extra witness. By eight o'clock we'll be married. Derby will be on the +train with us. He's a full-fledged preacher now, and he'll marry us +without a whimper." + +"Oh," she sighed deliciously, in spite of the jarring of the motor, +"isn't it nice to have old college chums who can be depended upon?" + +"Poor old Windomshire," he laughed in the buoyancy of conquest. + +"I don't think he'll---" She stopped. + +"What?" + +"Care very much," she concluded. He laughed doubtingly. + +Mile after mile the car traversed the misty night, jolting over the +ruts in the lane, taking the hills blindly--driven entirely by the +hand of Good Luck. + +Suddenly the "honk, honk!" of an invisible motor struck upon their +tense ears, the sound coming from some point ahead in the black, +narrow lane. Dauntless sat straight and peered ahead, sounding his +horn sharply. + +"I hope no one is coming toward us," he groaned, slowing up sharply. +"We never can pass in this confounded lane. If we get off into the +soft ground--Hello! Here he comes--and no lights either! Hey! Look +out!" He brought his car to an abrupt standstill. + +"Where are we, Joe?" she cried. + +"Near the crossroads, I'm sure. Curse an idiot that runs around +without lights on a night like this," he growled, forgetting that his +own lamps were dark. + +Out of the misty blackness loomed another car, directly ahead. It had +come to a sudden stop not ten feet away. Both cars were tooting their +horns viciously. + +"Where are your lights?" roared Dauntless. + +"Where are yours?" came back angrily through the fog. + +"Good Lord!" gasped Joe, panic-stricken. + +"It's Mr. Windomshire," whispered Eleanor, in consternation. + +Before she realised what was happening her companion lifted her bodily +over the back of the seat and deposited her in the bed of the tonneau. + +"Hide, dearest," he whispered. "Get under the storm blankets. He must +not see you! I'll--I'll bluff it out some way." + +"Wha--what is he doing out here in a machine?" she was whispering +wildly. "He is pursuing us! He has found out!" + +In the other car Windomshire--for it was the tall Englishman--was +hoarsely whispering to some one beside him: + +"It's Dauntless! Hang him! What's he doing here?" Then followed a +hurried scuffling and subdued whispers. A long silence, fraught with +an importance which the throbbing of the two engines was powerless to +disturb, followed the mutual discovery. Joe's brain worked the +quicker. Disguising his voice as best he could, he shouted through the +fog: + +"We can't pass here." + +"Is--is this Cobberly Road?" cried Windomshire, striving to obtain +what he considered the American twang. + +"No, it's not. It's O'Brien's Lane." + +Then, after a long silence, "Can't you back out?" + +"It's rather--I mean sorter risky, mister. I don't know how far I'd +have to back, doncherknow--er, ahem!" + +"The crossroads can't be more than a hundred yards behind you. Where +are you going?" + +"I'm going for--a doctor," called Windomshire, hastily. + +"Well, then, we ought not to stand here all night," groaned Joe, his +ears open to catch the sound of the locomotive's whistle. There was no +time to be lost. + +"I'll--I'll try to back her out," shouted Windomshire. Eleanor +whispered something shrilly and anxiously from the tonneau, and Joe +called out instantly: + +"Who is ill?" + +"Mrs.--Mrs. Smith," replied the other, bravely. + +"Good!" exclaimed Dauntless, heartily. Windomshire was not in the +least annoyed by the lack of sympathy. He began to drive his car +backward by jerks and jolts, blindly trusting to luck in the effort to +reach the road which he had passed in his haste a few minutes before. +Joe was shouting encouragement and pushing slowly forward in his own +machine. The noise of the engines was deafening. + +"Hang it all, man, don't blow your horn like that!" roared Windomshire +at last, harassed and full of dread. Joe, in his abstraction, was +sounding his siren in a most insulting manner. + +At last Windomshire's wheels struck a surface that seemed hard and +resisting. He gave a shout of joy. + +"Here we are! It's macadam!" + +"Cobberly Road," cried Joe. "Back off to the right and let me run in +ahead. I'm--I'm in a devil of a hurry." + +"By Gad, sir, so am I. Hi, hold back there! Look out where you're +going, confound you!" + +"Now for it," cried Joe to Eleanor. "We've got the lead; I'll bet a +bun he can't catch us." He had deliberately driven across the other's +bows, as it were, scraping the wheel, and was off over Cobberly Road +like the wind. "Turn to your right at the next crossing," he shouted +back to Windomshire. Then to himself hopefully: "If he does that, +he'll miss Fenlock by three miles." + +They had covered two rash, terrifying miles before a word was spoken. +Then he heard her voice in his ear--an anxious, troubled voice that +could scarcely be heard above the rushing wind. + +"What will we do if the train is late, dear? He'll be--be sure to +catch us." + +"She's never late. Besides, what if he does catch us? We don't have to +go back, do we? You're of age. Brace up; be a man!" he called back +encouragingly. + +"There are too many men as it is," she wailed, sinking back into the +tonneau. + +"Here we are!" he shouted, as the car whizzed into a murky, dimly +lighted street on the edge of Fenlock, the county seat. "There are the +station lights just ahead." + +"Is the train in?" she cried, struggling to her feet eagerly. + +"I think not." He was slowing down. A moment later the throbbing car +came to a stop beside the railway station platform. The lights blinked +feebly through the mist; far off in the night arose the faint toot of +a locomotive's whistle. + +"We're just in time," he cried. "She's coming. Quick!" He lifted her +bodily over the side of the car, jerked two suitcases from beneath the +curtains, and rushed frantically to the shelter of the platform sheds. + +"I'll leave you here, dear," he was saying rapidly. "Wait a second; +there is your railroad ticket and your drawing-room ticket, too. I'll +wake Derby when I get on board. I have to run the automobile down to +Henry's garage first. Won't take ten seconds. Don't worry. The train +won't be here for three or four minutes. Get on board and go to sleep. +I'll be two cars ahead." + +"Oh, Joe, won't I see you again before we start?" she cried +despairingly. + +"I'll be back in a minute. It's only half a block to Henry's. All I +have to do is to leave the car in front of his place. His men will +look after it. It's all understood, dearest; don't worry. I'll be here +before the train, never fear. Stand here in the shadow, dear." He gave +her what might have been a passionate kiss had it not been for the +intervention of veil and goggles. Then he was off to the motor, his +heart thumping frantically. Standing as stiff and motionless as a +statue against the damp brick wall, she heard the automobile leap away +and go pounding down the street. Apparently she was alone on the +platform; the ticking of telegraph instruments came to her anxious +ears, however, and she knew there were living people inside the long, +low building. The experience certainly was new to this tall, carefully +nurtured girl. Never before had she been left alone at such an hour +and place; it goes without saying that the circumstances were unique. +Here she was, standing alone in the most wretched of nights, her heart +throbbing with a dozen emotions, her eyes and ears labouring in a new +and thrilling enterprise, her whole life poised on the social dividing +line. She was running away to marry the man she had loved for years; +slipping away from the knot that ambition was trying to throw over her +rebellious head. If she had any thought of the past or the future, +however, it was lost among the fears and anxieties of the present. Her +soul was crying out for the approach of two objects--Joe Dauntless and +the north-bound flyer. + +Her sharp ears caught the sound which told her that the motor had +stopped down the street; it was a welcome sound, for it meant that he +was racing back to the station--and just in time, too; the flyer was +pounding the rails less than half a mile away. + +Fenlock was a division point in the railroad. The company's yards and +the train despatcher's office were located there. A huge round-house +stood off to the right; half a dozen big headlights glared out at the +shivering Eleanor like so many spying, accusing eyes. She knew that +all trains stopped in Fenlock. Joe had told her that the flyer's pause +was the briefest of any during the day or night; still she wondered if +it would go thundering through and spoil everything. + +Miss Thursdale, watching the approaching headlight, her ears filled +with the din of the wheels, did not see or hear a second motor car +rush up to the extreme south end of the platform. She was not thinking +of Windomshire or his machine. That is why she failed to witness an +extraordinary incident. + +As the driver leaped from the car a second man disconnected himself +from the shadows, paused for a moment to take orders from the new +arrival, and then jumped into the seat just vacated. Whereupon the +one-time driver performed precisely the same feat that Dauntless had +performed three minutes before him. He jerked forth a couple of bags +and then proceeded to lift from the tonneau of the car a vague but +animate something, which, an instant later, resolved itself into the +form of a woman at his side. + +"I've settled with the company, Meaders," hurriedly announced +Windomshire to the man on the seat. "The car is in your hands now." + +"Yes, sir; I understand. Your week is up to-night. Hope it was +satisfactory, sir." The car shot off in the night, almost running down +a man who scudded across the street in its path. + +"Just in time, Anne," said Windomshire to the tall, hooded figure +beside him. "Thank God, we didn't miss it." + +"Hasn't it been good sport, Harry?" cried the young woman, with an +unmistakably English inflection. "It's just like a book." + +"Only more so," he observed. "This has really happened, you know. +Things never really happen in books, don't you know. You've not lost +your tickets, dear?" + +"No; they do that only in books. Really, I'm trembling like a leaf. I +can't realise that it is all taking place as we planned, and that I am +to be your wife after all. Ah, Harry! isn't it splendid?" + +"'Gad, little woman, I am the one who hasn't the right to realise. By +Jove, I didn't give myself credit for the cleverness to fool every one +so neatly. Really, don't you know, however, I feel a bit sorry for +Miss Thursdale. She's a ripping good sort, and I'm sorry on that +account." + +Miss Courtenay--erstwhile governess--took hold of the lapels of his +raincoat and looked seriously up into his face. "Are you sure you'll +never regret giving her up for me--with all her money?" + +"Oh, I say, Anne dear, it's I who am running away, not you. I've +always wanted you--all my life. I've been something of a cad---" + +"It wasn't your fault. Mrs. Thursdale was bound to have you. It's her +way." + +"It hurts my pride to say it, but hanged if I think--er--Eleanor was +very strong for the match. I've a notion she was bullied into it." + +"I'm quite sure of it." + +"You're doing her a good turn, my dear. You see, I couldn't love her, +and I'd probably have beaten her and all that. It wasn't as if I had +to marry her for her money. Deuce take it, I've got a few pounds of my +own." + +"I'm only Anne Courtenay, the governess." + +"You'll be Lady Windomshire some day, my word for it--if the other +chaps manage to die, God bless 'em. I say, here's the train. Good- +night, dear, up you go! I'll go up ahead. Don't forget! The wedding's +at noon to-morrow." + +The long, shadowy train came to a stop. He elbowed the porter aside +and helped her up the steps. Neither of them noticed the vague figure +which rushed across the platform and into the second car below. + +"Where's the luggage car?" shouted Windomshire to the porter. + +"The what?" + +"I mean the baggage van." + +"Way up front, sir. Where they're puttin' on the trunks, sir." + +Swinging his travelling bag almost at arm's length, the long +Englishman raced forward. His own and Miss Courtenay's pieces had come +over during the afternoon, skilfully smuggled out of the Thursdale +house. Just as he reached the baggage truck a panting, mud-covered +individual dashed up from the opposite direction, madly rushing for +the train. They tried to avoid a collision, but failed. A second later +the two men were staring into each other's eyes, open-mouthed and +dismayed. + +"Hello!" gasped Dauntless, staggered. + +"What the devil, sir, do--My word! It's Dauntless!" sputtered +Windomshire. + +"Where is she?" shouted Joe, convinced that his rival had captured his +runaway fiancee and was now confronting him for explanation. + +"Confound you, sir, it's none of your business," roared Windomshire, +confident that Dauntless had been sent by Mrs. Thursdale to intercept +him in his flight with the governess. "Damn your impudence!" + +"Stand aside, Windomshire," exclaimed Joe, white with anger and dread. +"I'm going to find her. What have you done with her?" + +"You sha'n't interfere, Dauntless," cried Windomshire, squaring +himself. "She's going to be my wife, and---" + +"I guess NOT! Get out of my way, or---" + +"She's on that train, confound you, and I'm going away with her +whether you like it or not--or anybody else, for that matter," said +Windomshire, refusing to budge an inch. + +"Well, you'll have a damned hard time getting rid of me," roared Joe, +trying to break past his rival. A baggage-man leaped between them in +time to prevent blows. He held the angry, mistaken rivals apart,-- +rivals no longer, if they only knew. "Let go of me! Hold this fellow +and I'll give you a hundred dollars--hold him till the train goes!" + +"Hold me, will you? My word! What is this? A highway robbery!" + +Both men broke away from the baggage-man and rushed frantically down +the line of cars, each trying to hold the other back. Joe succeeded in +grasping the handrail of the first sleeping-car, but his adversary +pulled him away. An instant later they were struggling across the +station platform, clasped in savage and hysterical combat. The station +employees were rushing up to separate them when the train began to +move slowly away. + +[Illustration: Eleanor was still sitting ... stiff and silent] + +They came to their senses a moment later to find themselves held +firmly by brawny peacemakers, the black cars rushing swiftly by +without them. + +Forgetting the battle so inopportunely begun, they started off madly +in pursuit, shouting, yelling, commanding. But the flyer was deaf to +their cries, callous against their tears. It whistled off into the +north, carrying two trusting, nervous young women, who were secure in +the belief that their liege lords to be were aboard, utterly +unconscious of the true state of affairs. In the drawing-room of Car 5 +Eleanor was still sitting, with her veil down, her raincoat saturating +the couch on which she sat stiff and silent. Anne Courtenay in Car 7 +was philosophically preparing for bed, absolutely confident that the +Englishman she had loved for years was not going to fail her. + +Windomshire, alas, came to grief in his useless pursuit. He fell off +the end of the platform and rolled in the mud, half stunned. When he +painfully picked himself up, he saw Dauntless sitting on the edge of +the walk, his haggard, staring face lighted by the glare of a +sympathetic lantern. The station agent was offering vain but well- +intended commiseration. + +"Good God!" he heard Joe groan, but he did not catch the words, "she's +gone without me!" + +The next instant the distracted eloper was on his feet demanding a +special engine. + +"I've got to have it!" he shouted. + +Windomshire's wits returned. Why not have a special too? It was the +only way. + +"You can order one for me, too," he exclaimed. "At once. It's +imperative." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE MORNING AFTER + + +The sun was peeping over the hilltops and shooting his merry glance +across the rain-soaked lowlands when Eleanor Thursdale awoke from her +final snatch of slumber. A hundred feverish lapses into restless +subconsciousness had marked the passage of nearly as many miles of +clatter and turmoil. Never before had she known a train to be so +noisy; never before had she lain awake long enough to make the natural +discovery. It seemed hours before she dropped off in the first +surrender to sleep; it seemed hours between the succeeding falls. Her +brain and heart were waging the most relentless battle against peace +and security. She KNEW Joe Dauntless was but two cars ahead, and yet +she wondered if were really there; she wondered and was troubled--oh, +so troubled. + +Daylight was creeping in beneath the curtain of the window. She +stretched her fine, tired young body, and for the first time really +felt like going to sleep. The perversity of early morning! Gradually +it dawned upon her that the train was not moving; as far back as she +could recall in her now wakeful spell it occurred to her that the cars +had been standing still and that everything was as quiet as death. She +looked at her watch; it was six o'clock. + +"Goodness!" she thought, sitting up suddenly, "what is the matter?" +The curtain flew up and her startled eyes blinked out upon the glaring +world. + +There was not a house in sight as far as her eyes could range forward +and behind. Instead, a wide sweep of farm lands partially submerged by +the flood water of many rains. Far away there were brown hills and a +long army of tall trees standing at attention,--a bleak prospect +despite the cheery intentions of the sun, which lurked behind the +hills. Despondent cornstalks of last year's growth stood guard over +the soggy fields; drenched, unhappy tufts of grass, and forlorn but +triumphant reeds arose here and there from the watery wastes, +asserting their victory over a dismantled winter. It was not a +glorious view that met the gaze of the bride on her wedding morn. + +Strangest of all, the train was so quiet, so utterly inactive, that an +absurd feeling of loneliness grew upon her, gradually developing into +the alarming certainty that she was the only living person in the +world. Then she heard men's voices outside of the window; her relief +was almost hysterical. Scrambling out of the berth, she began a hasty, +nervous toilet. Three sharp pushes on the button brought the company's +ladies' maid--advertised as a part of the luxury and refinement which +made the flyer "the finest train in the world." + +"What has happened? Where are we?" she demanded, upon the entrance of +the sleepy young coloured woman. + +"The Pride River bridge is washed away, ma'am," said the maid. "We +can't go on no furder." + +"Dear me," sighed Eleanor, turning to be buttoned at the back. "And +where is Pride River bridge--or where was it, I mean?" + +"'Bout twenty mile south of Omegon, ma'am--miss. The river's a sight-- +highest 'at it's ever been known. It's all over the bottoms. This here +train came mighty nigh running into it, too. A boy flagged it just in +time, 'bout five o'clock." + +"Have we been standing here a whole hour?" + +"Yes, miss; right here. They say we can't go back till the section +boss has examined the track in Baxter's Cut. Seems as though there's +some danger of a washout back yander." + +"Do you mean to say we are likely to stay here indefinitely?" gasped +Eleanor. "Ouch! Be careful, please!" + +"Oh, it won't be long. The porter says they've sent back over the line +to telegraft for the section men." + +"Good Heavens, is there no station here?" + +"No, ma'am; five miles back. They's one jest across the river, but it +might as well be in Africa." + +"Be quick, please, and then send the conductor to me--and the porter +too," urged Eleanor, in distress. + +The porter was the first to arrive. + +"Porter, will you go to Car 7 and see if the occupant of lower 4 is +awake? I am quite sure that is right, but if it should happen to be +wrong, please let me know at once." + +"Yes, miss; and what shall I tell her?" + +"Ahem! It's a--a gentleman. Ask him to--to come to the rear end of the +train. That's all. Oh, conductor, how soon will we be on the track +again?" The conductor was standing in the door, evidently impressed by +the summons from the drawing-room. + +"We're not off the track, madam. There is no danger--just a little +delay. I have telegraphed to see if I can have a relief train come +down from Omegon and pick us up after we've been ferried across the +river." + +"This is the very worst road I've ever travelled over--the very +worst," was Eleanor's natural complaint. "When will that get us to +Omegon?" + +"We should be there in an hour after leaving here." + +"And when did you say we'd leave here?" + +"I didn't say. I don't know." + +"Who does know, if you don't?" demanded Eleanor. + +"God, I presume," observed the harassed conductor, turning away with +the realisation that he had erred in coming to her in the first place. +The porter returned at that moment. + +"Nobody in that section, ma'am. It was sold, but the party didn't show +up." + +"Good Heavens, you--but he DID show up. I--I know he did. Look again. +Try--but wait! Ask for Mr. Dauntless. Ask quietly, please." + +"Yes, ma'am." + +Her nerves at highest tension, Miss Thursdale made her way toward the +rear platform of the train. She passed down the curtained aisles of +two coaches, wondering how people could sleep so soundly in a crisis +like this. A porter politely opened a door and she slipped out upon +the last platform. As far as the eye could reach stretched the roadbed +and its telegraph poles, finally disappearing in the haze of the +morning. Wide-spread flood, soaking the flat--- + +A sharp cry of amazement came from the track just below her. She +looked down and into the eyes of Anne Courtenay, the governess. For a +full minute they stared blankly at each other, apparently bereft of +all the agencies that fall to the lot of woman. + +"Miss Courtenay!" finally came from the lips of the girl on the +platform. + +"Miss Thursdale!" murmured Anne, reaching out to support herself +against the bumper. Other words failed to come for the time being. In +sheer despair, neither could accomplish more than a pallid smile. To +the reader is left the privilege of analysing the thoughts which +surged through the brains of the bewildered young women,--the fears, +the doubts, the resentments. + +"Where--where have you been?" at last fell from Miss Thursdale's lips. + +"Been?" repeated Miss Courtenay, vaguely. "Oh, yes; I've been taking a +walk--a constitutional. I always do." + +Eleanor stared harder than ever. "All this distance?" she murmured. + +"Down the track for half a mile, Miss Thursdale." + +"Are--were you on this train?" ejaculated Eleanor. + +"Yes--but I--I---" stammered Anne, her face growing red with rising +resentment. "I did not think this of you." + +"What do you mean? It is--May I ask why you are here, Miss Courtenay? +It is most extraordinary." + +"It is very easily explained," said Miss Courtenay, after a moment's +battle with veracity. "My aunt is very ill in Vancouver." To herself +she was saying: "I must keep her from really seeing Harry. She knows +what he has done--in heaven's name, how could she have found it out?-- +and she is waiting to catch us if she can. She has followed us! Thank +goodness, I've seen her first." + +Eleanor was not blessed with the possibility of such an explanation +for Anne's presence; she could only believe that the governess had +been suddenly called to the bedside of her aunt--a real person, she +happened to know, and very rich. But how was she to account for her +own astonishing departure from home? Miss Courtenay had seen her at +dinner; nothing had been said regarding "an unexpected journey." In +truth, Eleanor remembered with inflexible accuracy that she had +announced her intention to go to bed with a headache. Then, what must +Miss Courtenay be thinking at this very instant? + +An inspiration came to her like a flash. "I--I am running away, Miss +Courtenay," she cried, with a brave attempt to appear naive. + +"I don't understand," murmured poor Anne. + +"Of course you don't," said Eleanor, inspiration heaping itself up +within her. "Not really, you know, but just for a few days' rest. +Mother thinks I'm looking wretchedly. We didn't say anything about it- +-except to Mr. Windomshire, of course. He knows. Perhaps he will run +up to Omegon in a day or two to see me. It's very quiet there, and +I'll get a good rest. The hotel is delightful--facing the lake. And +the bathing's good. Dear me, I'm so sorry about your aunt." Miss +Courtenay's eyes actually blinked with perplexity. This was a most +staggering bit of news. Eleanor flushed painfully under the gaze of +the other; utter rout followed. She stammered some flimsy excuse and +dashed back into the car. To herself she was crying: "I must find Joe +and tell him to keep out of sight. Oh, how awful this is!" + +Just inside the door she met her porter. + +"There's nobody named Dauntless on the train, miss. A gentleman who +said he was his friend thinks he missed the train perhaps." + +"He--he--oh, I see!" said Eleanor, suddenly perceiving method in Joe's +reluctance to answer to his own name. "Thank you. That's all." Then, +to herself: "He has seen Miss Courtenay, and she HASN'T seen him,-- +that's plain." She handed the porter a coin. + +"I went to the berth you mentioned, ma'am, and I asked through the +curtains: 'Is Mr. Dauntless in here?' There was a lady in the upper, +miss, an'--an'--well, I'll never forget what she said to me." Eleanor +had gone before he concluded, determined to unearth her cautious +lover, if possible. + +Anne caught the porter before he could follow. + +"See here, porter," she whispered softly, "go to Car 5, section 6, and +call its occupant. Tell him NOT to get up. Do you understand? NOT to +get up!" + +It goes without saying, of course, that all efforts, secret or +otherwise, failed to locate the missing men. The distracted brides, +each trying to run away from the other in a way, were in a state of +collapse, necessarily subdued but most alarming. The Rev. Henry Derby, +a nice-looking young fellow, who looked more like a tennis player than +a minister of the gospel, eventually identified his old friend's ladye +faire, and introduced himself with a discreetness that proved him to +have been in college at the proper period and in a somewhat different +class from that which he now sought to lead. In the privacy of her +drawing-room the bewitching but distressed young woman discussed the +situation with the man who had been chosen to perform the clandestine +ceremony in the far-away town of Omegon. Derby, coming on from his +eastern home in loyal acquiescence to his friend's request, had +designedly taken this train, it being understood that Dauntless would +board it at Fenlock with his fair conspirator. We all know why +Dauntless failed to perform his part of the agreement; Derby, with the +perspicuity of a college man, finally advanced a reason for his +inexplicable failure to appear. Eleanor had begun tearfully to accuse +him of abandoning her at the last moment; Mr. Derby indignantly +scouted the idea. When she related their chase in the motor and their +escape from Windomshire, he formed his conclusions, and they were in +the main remarkably correct. + +"I'm afraid, Miss Thursdale, that your disappointed lover, our ancient +enemy, the Englishman, was not to be overcome so neatly. Has it +occurred to you that he may have reached Fenlock before the train +left, and that he is the explanation for Joe's non-appearance?" + +"You--you don't mean that he has killed---" she was gasping, growing +whiter and whiter. He hastened to reassure her. + +"Oh, no; not so bad as that. But it is possible and quite probable +that he--if, as you say, he was on to your--I should say, aware of +your flight, it is probable that he succeeded in detaining Joe in +Fenlock. That would---" "Impossible! Joe wouldn't let him!" she cried +indignantly. + +"Perhaps Joe couldn't help himself. Such things happen. At any rate, +you'll understand, the despised enemy could have---" + +"Mr. Windomshire is not a despised enemy. He's a VERY nice man, Mr. +Derby," she interrupted. + +"Certainly, Miss Thursdale. What I meant to say was, that he was +morally sure of preventing the wedding if he could only keep you far +enough apart. Now that is probably what he has done. You can't marry +Joe in Omegon or anywhere else unless he is there and not in Fenlock." + +"I see. Well, I'll go back to Fenlock!" she exclaimed emphatically, a +little line of determination and stubbornness settling about the +erstwhile trembling lips. + +"I admire your loyalty," he said warmly. "Just at present, however, we +are water-bound here, and we've got to make the best of it. I fancy +Joe will telegraph before long." + +"If--if he hasn't been hurt. Oh, Mr. Derby, they may have fought. It +would be just like them. It may be dreadfully serious. You don't know +as much about men as I do. They're terribly---" + +"Please don't worry, Miss Thursdale," he said, smiling in recollection +of his football days. "You'll find there's been nothing bloody about +all this. The delay is vexatious, but only temporary, I'm sure." + +"I'll marry Joe Dauntless now if it has to be delayed a hundred +years," she cried, her eyes flashing. + +During the next half-hour poor Derby ran errands, carried messages and +complaints to every one of the train men, finally administering +smelling salts when it occurred to Eleanor that Joe might have fallen +off the train during the night. + +In the meantime Anne Courtenay was having a sad half-hour of it. She +had no one to turn to, no one to think it all out for her; she was +alone and in great despair. The porter had failed to find the tall +Englishman; the conductor had been equally unsuccessful; she herself +had searched in vain. His trunks and hers were in the baggage car, she +found, but there was no sign of the man himself. She was a self- +reliant, sensible young woman, accustomed to the rigours of the world, +but this was quite too overwhelming. The presence on the train of the +girl that she had, to all intents and purposes, cruelly deceived, did +not add to her comfort. As a matter of fact, she was quite fond of +Eleanor; they were warm friends despite the vagaries of love. Miss +Courtenay, among other things, began to wonder, as she sat in her +tumbled berth, if retribution had more to do with this than chance. + +"Could he have fallen off the train?" she wondered, with a sudden +chill of apprehension. The next instant she was calling to the porter. +"Send the conductor to me at once. My friend has fallen off the train- +-out of his window, perhaps. I am quite sure of it. I want an engine +to go back and look for him. Hurry, please! don't stand there +grinning." + +The Pullman conductor came up at that moment. + +"Are you the young lady who was asking for Mr. Dauntless?" he asked. + +"Dauntless?" she murmured. "No, I'm asking for an engine. Have you--" + +"There's another young lady asking for an engine, too, madam. It's +impossible." + +"Am I to understand that I shall have to walk?--Oh," with a sudden +start, "is--is there a Mr. Dauntless missing too?" + +"Seems so. He's gone." + +Anne dropped the curtains in his face, and then stared at them for a +long time. Gradually she began to comprehend. A panic of fear came +over her. + +"They have met somewhere and quarrelled! Mr. Dauntless was jealous-- +terribly so. He may have--good Heavens!--he may have killed him in the +mistaken idea that Harry was running away with Eleanor. She's on this +very train! It's perfectly natural. Porter," she called, "there has +been foul play!" + +"Gee, miss! That's what the other lady is saying!" + +"The other--then it is a double murder! Don't laugh! It's--it's--" + +"Don't cry, miss; it's all right." She looked at him piteously for a +moment, and then smiled at the absurdity of her conjecture. + +A tousled head came from between the curtains of the upper berth +opposite, and a sleepy, hoarse voice demanded: + +"How long will we be here? What's the latest?" + +"We're on time, sah," replied the porter, from sheer force of habit. + +"The devil we are! Say, I've got to be in Omegon by ten o'clock. I'll +sue this infernal road," snarled the irascible party, snapping the +curtains together. It transpired that he was an agent for a medical +college, travelling to Omegon on a most unwholesome but edifying +mission. He was going up to take possession of the body of a man who +had willed his carcass to the school. As the poor chap was not yet +dead, but hopelessly ill, the desire for haste on the part of the +agent may be misunderstood. It seems, however, that there was some +talk of interference by relatives--and the disquieting prospect of a +new will. + +"If I were you, miss," counselled the porter, "I'd go out and take a +little walk. The sun is up, an' it's fine. The relief train will be +here 'fore long--an' you all will be rowed acrost the river. Don't +worry." + +"But I want to go back the way I came," expostulated Anne, feebly. "I +can't go on without--until I know what has happened to--to Mr. +Windomshire." She took his advice, however, and made her way to the +rear platform. + +A number of disgruntled passengers were now abroad, and complaining +bitterly of the delay. There was no hope of breakfast until the train +reached Omegon, where a dining car was waiting. She stood on the +platform and looked gloomily back over the long stretch of roadbed. + +"Isn't that an engine coming?" some one asked excitedly at her side. +She turned and found Miss Thursdale, attended by a gentleman, to whom +the question was addressed. + +"I believe--yes, it is, Miss Thursdale." + +"Then--then we'll all be taken back to the city," she said dejectedly. + +"I fancy not. It's probably bringing relief." + +"They--they may be bringing bad news," Eleanor groaned. "Oh, Miss +Courtenay, how do you do--again? How is your--your grandmother, wasn't +it?" + +"I--I--yes, I think so--I mean, I think she's no better. They may be +bringing his body!" said the other girl, her eyes fixed on the distant +locomotive. + +"Oh!" almost screamed Eleanor, and stared wildly without words. + +A brakeman far down the track was flagging the locomotive; it came to +a stop, and several men were seen climbing down from the cab. Two of +them eventually disengaged themselves from the little group and +hurried forward. One was carrying a suitcase, and both walked as +though they were either in pain or attended by extreme old age. + +"Why--why--" gasped Eleanor, "it's Joe!" + +"And--yes, thank God, it's Har--Mr. Windomshire," almost shrieked +Anne. + +Then they turned and looked at each other in confusion. Neither had +the courage to carry out the desire to fly to the arms of the man she +longed to see more than all else in the world. They felt themselves to +be caught red-handed. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +MRS. VAN TRUDER INTRUDES + + +None but the most eager, loving eyes could possibly have recognised +the newcomers. It is not unlikely that the remaining passengers +mistook them for tramps. The rivals, morbidly suspicious of each +other, taciturn to the point of unfriendliness, had indeed chartered a +locomotive--not jointly by intention, but because of provoking +necessity. There was but one engine to be had. It is safe to say that +while they travelled many sore and turbulent miles in close proximity +to each other, neither felt called upon to offer or to demand an +explanation. + +Five hours in the tender of an engine had done much to reduce them to +the level of the men in the cab, so far as personal appearance was +concerned. They were still wearing their raincoats, much crumpled and +discoloured; their faces were covered with coal dust; they were wet, +bedraggled, and humble to the last degree. The American, naturally, +was the one who clung to his suitcase; he had foreseen the need for a +change of linen. They came toward the train with hesitating, uncertain +steps. If their souls were gladdened by the sight of the two young +women, general appearances failed to make record of it. It was noted +by those who watched their approach that once both of them stopped +short and seemed to waver in their determination to advance. That was +when each became suddenly aware of the presence of an unexpected girl. +Naturally, the Englishman was seriously staggered. The unexplained +Eleanor appeared before his very eyes as an accusing nemesis; it is no +wonder that his jaw dropped and his befuddled brain took to whirling. + +The girls, less regardful of appearances, climbed down from the +platform and started forward to meet their knights-errant. The reader +may readily appreciate the feelings of the quartette. Not one of them +knew just precisely how much or how little the others knew; they were +precariously near to being lost in the labyrinth. Something intangible +but regular urged Windomshire to be politic; he advanced to meet +Eleanor as if it were her due. Anne fell back, perplexed and hurt. + +"Hang it all," thought Joe, rage in his heart, "he beat me to her, +after all. He'll be enough of a damned ass to try to kiss her before +all these people, too." Whereupon, he closed his eyes tightly. When he +opened them, Miss Courtenay was walking beside him and asking +questions about the weather. Her cheeks were very pink. Windomshire +had awkwardly clasped the hand of Miss Thursdale, muttering something +not quite intelligible, even to himself. Eleanor was replying with +equal blitheness. + +"How nice of you to come. Where are you going?" + +"Surprised, are you?" he was floundering. "Charmed. Ha, ha! By Jove, +Eleanor--er--I heard you were booked by this train and I--I tried to +catch it for a bit of a ride with you. I missed it, don't you know. +I'll--I'll wager you don't know what I did in my desperation." + +"I couldn't guess," she said, trying to catch Joe's eye. + +"I hired a private engine, 'pon my word, and then telegraphed ahead to +stop this train!" + +"Di--did you do that?" she gasped, forgetting that the bridge was out. + +Dauntless, meantime, was trying to explain to Miss Courtenay. She +already had told him that her aunt was ill in Vancouver, and he had +smiled politely and aimlessly. + +"I'm on my way to M----. Sudden trip, very important," he was saying. +"Missed the train--I dare say it was this one--so I took an engine to +follow up. Had to ride in the tender." + +"It must have been important," she ventured. + +"It was. I--" then with an inspired plunge--"I was due at a wedding." + +"How unfortunate! I hope you won't miss it altogether." + +Joe caught his breath and thought: "Now what the devil did she mean by +that? Has Eleanor told her the whole story?" + +It must not be supposed that these young persons were lacking in the +simpler gifts of intelligence; they were, individually, beginning to +put two and two together, as the saying goes. They were grasping the +real situation--groping for it, perhaps, but with a clear-sightedness +and acumen which urged that a cautious tongue was expedient. If the +duplicity was really as four-handed as it seemed, there could be no +harm in waiting for the other fellow to blunder into exposure. Nothing +could be explained, of course, until the conspirators found +opportunity to consult privately under the new order of assignment. + +"How romantic!" Eleanor said, as she walked stiffly ahead with her +uncomfortable fiance. + +"Eh?" was his simple remark. He was suddenly puzzled over the fact +that he HAD caught up to the train. There was something startling in +that. "Oh--er--not at all romantic, most prosaic. Couldn't get a +coach. Been here long?" + +"Since five o'clock." + +"I--I suppose you got up to see the sunrise." + +"No, to see the river rise," she replied. "The bridge is gone." He was +silent for twenty paces, trying to recall what he had said about +telegraphing ahead. + +"You don't mean it! Then I daresay they haven't got my telegram +stopping the train." + +"How annoying!" + +Dauntless had just said to Anne, in a fit of disgust: "Windomshire's +got a lot of nerve. That was my engine, you know. I hired it." + +Windomshire went on to say, careful that Joe was quite out of hearing: +"Mr. Dauntless was quite annoying. He got into my engine without an +invitation, and I'm hanged if he'd take a hint, even after I hired a +stoker to throw a spadeful of coal over him. I don't know why he +should be in such a confounded hurry to get to--what's the name of the +place? I--er--I really think I must go and speak to Miss Courtenay, +Eleanor. She--er--looks ill." + +"It's her grandmother who is ill--not she. But, yes! Please try to +cheer her up a bit, Harry. She's terribly upset." + +"I'm sure she is," muttered he, dropping back with more haste than +gallantry. Mr. Dauntless sprang forward with equal alacrity, and wrong +was right a moment later. + +"Joe dear," whispered Eleanor, "I've been nearly crazy. What +happened?" He was vainly trying to clasp her hand. + +"Nell, he's on to us. I wish I knew just why Miss Courtenay is here. +Lord, I'll never forget that ride." + +"It was just like you to take advantage of his engine." + +"His engine!" exploded Joe, wrathfully. Securely separated from the +others, the elopers analysed the situation as best they could. Two +separate enterprises struggled earnestly for an outcome. On the +surface, the truth seemed plain enough: it was quite clear to both +parties that the extraordinary chain of coincidence was not entirely +due to Providence. There was something of design behind it all. The +staggering part was the calamitous way in which chance had handled +their dear and private affairs. + +"He doesn't know that you were in my automobile," concluded Dauntless, +almost at the same time that a like opinion was being expressed by +Windomshire. "Are you willing to go on with it, Nell? Are you scared +out of it?" + +"No, indeed," she exclaimed, perplexity leaving her brow. "At first I +feared he might have telegraphed to mother, but now I am sure he +hasn't. He was not following me at all. He is in love with Anne, and +he was surreptitiously off for a part of the distance with her. He +really doesn't want to marry me, you know." + +"Well, he isn't going to, you see. By all that is holy, nothing shall +stop us now, dear. We'll go on to Omegon and carry out everything just +as we planned. If he's running off after another girl, it's time you +put an end to him. Don't give him a thought." + +"Don't you think we'd better talk it over with Mr. Derby? He +discreetly disappeared when he saw it was you." + +"Right! Let's hunt him out. By Jove, we can have him marry us right +here,--great!" + +"No," she cried firmly, "it MUST be in a church." He could not move +her from that stand. + +"Oh, if we could only get across that confounded river!" scolded Joe, +as they went off in search of Derby. + +Windomshire was slowly reconciling himself to the fact that Eleanor +loved Dauntless, but he could not get it out of his head that she +still expected to marry as her mother had planned. + +"See here, Anne, it's all very well to say that she loves Dauntless. +Of course she does. But that isn't going to prevent her from marrying +me. I don't believe she was running away with him, don't you know. He +was simply following her. That's the way these Americans do, you know. +Now, the question is, won't she think it odd that you and I should +happen to be doing almost the same thing?" + +"To be sure she will," said Anne, coolly. "She has a very bad opinion +of me. I'm sure she doesn't believe you expect to marry me." + +"By Jove, dear, it sounds rather dreadful, doesn't it?" he groaned. +"But of course you ARE going to marry me, so what's the odds? Then she +can marry Dauntless to her heart's content. I say, are we never to get +away from this beastly place?" + +"They are to row us across the river in boats. We'll be taken up by +another train over there and carried on. Poor Mr. Dauntless, he looks +so harassed." + +"By Jove, I feel rather cut up about him. He ought to have her, Anne. +He's a decent chap, although he was da--very unreasonable last night. +I like him, too, in spite of the fact that he kicked coal over me +twice in that confounded bin. He was good enough to take a cinder out +of my eye this morning, and I helped him to find his watch in the +coal-bin. I say, Anne, we might get a farm wagon and drive to some +village where there is a minister--" + +"No, Harry! you know I've set my heart on being married in a church. +It seems so much more decent and--regular; especially after what has +just happened." + +A porter appeared in the rear platform and shouted a warning to all +those on the ground. + +"Get yo' things together. The boats'll be ready in ten minutes, ladies +and gen'l'men." The locomotive uttered a few sharp whistles to +reinforce his shouts, and everybody made a rush for the cars. + +The conductor and other trainmen had all they could do to reassure the +more nervous and apprehensive of the passengers, many of whom were +afraid of the swollen, ugly river just ahead. Boats had been sent up +from a town some miles down the stream, and the passengers with their +baggage, the express, and the mail pouches were to be ferried across. +Word had been received that a makeshift train would pick them up on +the other side, not far from the wrecked bridge, and take them to +Omegon as quickly as possible. + +It was also announced that the company would be unable to send a train +beyond Omegon and into the northwest for eight or ten hours, owing to +extensive damage by the floods. Repairs to bridges and roadbed were +necessary. In the meantime, the passengers would be cared for at the +Somerset Hotel in Omegon, at the company's expense. The company +regretted and deplored, etc. + +There was a frightful clamour by the through passengers, threats of +lawsuits, claims for damage, execrations, and groans. In time, +however, the whole company went trooping down the track under the +leadership of the patient conductor. It was a sorry, disgruntled +parade. Everybody wanted a porter at once, and when he could not get +one, berated the road in fiercer terms than ever; men who had always +carried their own bags to escape feeing a porter, now howled and raged +because there was not an army of them on the spot. Everybody was +constantly "damning" the luck. + +The conductor led his charges from the track through a muddy stubble- +field and down to a point where half a dozen small rowboats were +waiting among the willows. Dauntless and Eleanor were well up in +front, their faces set resolutely toward Omegon. For some well-defined +reason, Windomshire and Anne were the last in the strange procession. +The medical college agent, the tall and sombre Mr. Hooker, was the +first man into a boat. He said it was a case of life or death. + +Eleanor looked backward down the long file of trailers, a little smile +on her lips. + +"They are not all going away to be married, are they, Joe?" she said, +taking note of the unbroken array of sour countenances. + +"It looks like a funeral, my dear. Look at the cadaverous individual +beside the con--Heavens, Nell, isn't that--by George, it is! It's old +Mrs. Van Truder! Back there about half-way--the fat one. See her? Good +Lord!" + +Eleanor turned pale and the joyous light fled from her eyes. + +"Oh, dear! I forgot that the Van Truders spend all their summers at +Omegon. And it is she--and he, too. Oh, Joe, it's just awful!" + +"She's the worst old cat in town," groaned Dauntless. "We can't escape +her. She'll spot us, and she'll never let go of us. I don't mind him. +He's so near-sighted he couldn't see us. But she!" + +"She will suspect, Joe--she's sure to suspect, and she'll watch us +like a hawk," whispered the distressed Eleanor. The Van Truders lived +in the same block with the Thursdales in town. "She'll telegraph to +mother!" + +"That reminds me," muttered Joe, looking at his watch. "I had hoped to +telegraph to your mother about this time." + +"She will forgive us," said she, but she failed in her assumption of +confidence. As a matter of fact she felt that her mother would not +forgive. + +"Well, you left a note pinned on your pillow," said he, as if that +covered all the sins. + +"Yes, but it was directed to Miss Courtenay, asking her to break it +gently to mamma," said she, dismally. + +They had reached the edge of the river by this time and others came up +with them. For a while they managed to keep out of old Mrs. Van +Truder's range of vision, but her sharp eyes soon caught sight of them +as they tried to slip into a boat that was already crowded to its full +capacity. + +"Why, Eleanor Thursdale!" shouted the old lady, her aristocratic eyes +almost crossing in their stare of amazement. + +"Discovered!" groaned Dauntless to the willows. + +Mrs. Van Truder pounced upon Eleanor and, between personal questions +and impersonal reflections upon non-government railways, gave her a +dizzy quarter of an hour. She ignored Mr. Dauntless almost +completely,--quite entirely when she discovered Mr. Windomshire in the +background. Little old Mr. Van Truder, in his usual state of +subjection, was permitted to study the scenery at close range. + +"I was so afraid you'd marry that horrid Dauntless fellow," whispered +Mrs. Van Truder. Eleanor gave vent to a constrained laugh. + +"How perfectly preposterous!" + +"When are you to be married, my dear?" + +"At once--I mean, quite soon. Isn't the scenery beautiful, Mr. Van +Truder?" asked Eleanor in desperation. + +"It's too far away. I can't see it," grumbled the old gentleman. + +"He's so very near-sighted," explained his wife. "Do you expect to +stay long at the Somerset?" + +"It all depends," said Eleanor, with a glance at Dauntless. + +"Isn't that your governess with Mr. Windomshire? I can't be mistaken." + +"Yes, she's going out to spend a few weeks with a rich aunt,--her +sister's mother, I think." + +"How's that?" gasped the old lady. + +"I mean her mother's sister." + +"It sounded very strange, my dear." + +"About the mother having a sister?" guessed old Mr. Van Truder, +sharply. "Seems all right to me." + +"They are going to row us across the river," volunteered Eleanor, +helplessly. + +"Good-morning, Mr. Windomshire," called Mrs. Van Truder. Windomshire +started and got very red in the face. Miss Courtenay's bow went +unnoticed by the old lady. In sheer despair, the Englishman turned to +Dauntless, a fellow-sufferer. + +"I say, old man," he began nervously, "I'd like to ask a favour of +you." + +"Go ahead--anything I can do," said the other, blankly. Windomshire +continued in lowered tones: + +"Deucedly awkward, but I forgot my bags at Fenlock. I see you've got +yours. Would you mind lending me a fresh shirt and a collar, old +chap?" + +"Gladly," cried Joe, very much relieved. "Will you take them now?" +starting to open his bag. Windomshire hastily interposed. + +"I'd rather not, old chap. It's rather exposed here, don't you know. +Later on, if you please. Thanks, old man; I'll not forget this." They +shook hands without any apparent excuse. + +"Mr. Windomshire!" called Mrs. Van Truder. He turned with a hopeless +look in his eyes. The two girls had misery and consternation plainly +stamped in their faces. "We can't all go over in the next boats, you +know. I've no doubt you and Miss Thursdale would not in the least mind +being left to the last," with a sly smile. + +"Oh--er--ah, by Jove!" gasped Windomshire, with a glance at the still +faces of the young women. He saw no relief there. + +"Blamed cat!" muttered Dauntless, gritting his teeth. + +"Mr. Dauntless, will you and Miss Courtenay come with us in this boat? +I want some one to keep the snakes away; Mr. Van Truder can't see +them, you know." + +There was no way out of it. Joe and Anne meekly followed the Van +Truders into the wobbly boat, resentment in their hearts, uncertainty +in their minds. They rowed away, leaving Windomshire and Eleanor +standing among the willows, ill at ease and troubled beyond +expression. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +AS NIGHT APPROACHES + + +Neither spoke until the boat came to its slippery, uncertain landing- +place on the opposite side of the river. Then each breathed easier, in +a sigh that seemed to express both relief and dismay. + +"It's a very ugly looking river," she murmured encouragingly. She was +afraid he might feel obliged, in honour, to offer an explanation for +his presence, perhaps attempt to convince her in some tangible way +that she was to expect nothing but slavish devotion from him in the +future. + +"I don't wonder that the bridge gave way," he replied politely. They +looked at each other involuntarily, and then instantly looked away. + +"I'd give my head to know what she expects of me," thought Windomshire +miserably. + +"How I despise that old woman!" welled up in Eleanor's bitter heart. +Everything was awry. Luckily for both of them a small boy slipped into +the river at that moment. He was rescued by the brakeman, but not +until the catastrophe had served its purpose as a godsend. The +excitement which attended the rescue saved the couple an uncomfortable +ten minutes. Eleanor went to the assistance of the distracted mother; +Windomshire, in his eagerness to do something, offered to exchange +clothes with the dripping trainman; the small boy howled as lustily as +his wheezy lungs would permit. Everybody shouted advice to the mother, +rebukes to the boy, and praise to the hero; altogether Providence was +acting most handsomely. + +At last the final boatload of passengers crossed the river and drew up +at the landing; Eleanor, with her bewildered fiance, stepped into the +beaming presence of Mrs. Van Truder. + +"Come with us," she said with a friendliness that shattered all hope. +"Mr. Van Truder has just arranged for breakfast at that farmhouse over +there. The relief train won't be here for half an hour or more and you +must be famished." Eleanor's flimsy excuses were unavailing; her +protestations that she could not eat a mouthful fell on obdurate ears. +Windomshire, catching sight of the forlorn Anne, was about to assert +himself vigorously in declining the invitation when a meaning look +from the governess caused him to refrain. The look very plainly told +him to accept. + +The unhappy couple followed the Van Truders to the nearby farmhouse. +They left behind them on the edge of the crowd, seated side by side on +a pile of ties, two miserable partners in the fiasco. Gloomy, indeed, +was the outlook for Miss Courtenay and the despised Mr. Dauntless. +They were silent for many minutes after the departure, rage in their +hearts. Then Mr. Dauntless could hold his tongue no longer. + +"Damn her!" he exploded so viciously that Anne jumped and cried out,-- + +"Mr. Dauntless!" + +"Oh, you feel just as I do about it only you won't say it aloud," he +exclaimed. "I won't stand for it!" + +"I--I am sure Miss Thursdale has done nothing to deserve your curses," +she began diplomatically. + +"Good Heavens, Miss Courtenay, you--Oh, I say, you know I didn't mean +Eleanor. The old pelican--that's the one. Old Mrs. Intruder," he +grated. + +"I am sure it is all quite regular," observed Anne, so seriously that +he looked at her in wonder. It began to creep into his head that his +speculations were wrong, after all. At any rate it seemed advisable to +put a sharp curb on his tongue. + +"I'm sorry I spoke as I did about the old lady," he said, after a +moment's reflection. "I was thinking of the way in which she left you +out of her invitation to breakfast." + +"And yourself, incidentally," she smiled. + +"Miss Courtenay, I'm--I'm a confounded ass for not thinking of your +breakfast. It's not too late. We are both hungry. Won't you come with +me and have a bit of something to eat? We'll try that farmhouse +ourselves. Come, let us hurry or the crowd will get in ahead of us. +Ham and eggs and coffee! they always have that sort of breakfast in +farmhouses, I'm told. Come." + +[Illustration: Seated side by side...two miserable partner in the +fiasco] + +She sprang up cheerfully, and followed him across the meadow to the +farmhouse. The Van Truder party was entering the door, smoke pouring +forth suggestively from a chimney in the rear of the house. The sudden +desire for ham and eggs was overcoming, in a way, the pangs of +outraged love; there was solace in the new thought. + +That breakfast was one never to be forgotten by four persons; two +others remembered it to their last days on account of its amazing +excellence. A dozen persons were crowded into the little dining-room; +no one went forth upon his travels with an empty stomach. No such +profitable harvest had ever been reaped by the farmer. Dauntless and +Anne ate off of a sewing-table in the corner. Mrs. Van Truder +deliberately refused to hear Mr. Windomshire's timorous suggestion +that they "make room" for them at the select table. Silent anathemas +accompanied every mouthful of food that went down the despot's throat, +but she did not know it. Fortunately the lovers were healthy and +hungry. + +They fared forth after that memorable breakfast with lighter hearts, +though still misplaced by an unrelenting fate. + +All the way to Omegon Anne sat in the seat with the seething +Dauntless, each nursing a pride that had received almost insupportable +injuries during the morning hours. Windomshire and Eleanor, under the +espionage of the "oldest friend of the family," moped and sighed with +a frankness that could not have escaped more discerning eyes. Mrs. Van +Truder, having established herself as the much needed chaperon, sat +back complacently and gave her charges every opportunity to hold +private and no doubt sacred communication in the double seat just +across the aisle. + +Eleanor pleaded fatigue, and forthwith closed her wistful eyes. +Windomshire, with fine consideration, sank into a rapt study of the +flitting farm lands. Having got but little sleep among the coals, he +finally dropped off into a peaceful cat nap. + +Omegon was reached before Eleanor had the courage to awaken him. She +did so then only because it was impossible for her to crawl over his +knees without losing her dignity; they were planted sturdily against +the seat in front. She fled like a scared child to Joe's side, her +mind made up to cling to him now, no matter what manner of opposition +prevailed. + +"I'll go with you, Joe," she whispered fiercely. "I don't care what +any one says or thinks. Your cousin WILL meet us with the carriage, +won't he?" she concluded piteously. Windomshire also had taken the +bull by the horns and was helping Miss Courtenay from the train with +an assiduity that brought down the wrath of obstructing passengers +upon his devoted head. + +"He said he would," replied Dauntless, his spirits in the clouds. "We +must get away from these people, Nell. I'll go crazy in another +minute. There's Derby waiting for instructions. Dear old Darb--he's a +brick. My cousin Jim is a deacon or something in the village church, +dear, and he has promised to let us in. I suppose he has a key. He and +his wife will be the only witnesses. By George, nothing can stop us +now, dear, if you have the nerve to--Where the dickens is Jim? +Confound him, I don't see him on the platform." + +He looked about the station platform--first anxiously, then +impatiently, then--with consternation! His cousin was nowhere in +sight. Cold with apprehensiveness, he dashed over to a citizen who +wore a star upon his coat, almost dragging Eleanor after him. + +"Is Jim Carpenter here? Have you seen him? Do you know him?" he +demanded. + +"He was here, mister. 'Bout two hours ago, I reckon. I guess you must +be the fellow he was to meet--" + +"Yes, yes,--where is he now?" + +"I don't know, mister. His wife's got pneumonia, an' he told me to +tell you he couldn't wait. He took the doctor right out to--" + +"Good Lord!" exploded Joe. The citizen jumped a few inches into the +air. "He's gone?" + +"Yep. But he told me to tell you to go over to the Somerset an' wait +till you hear from him." + +"Wait--till--I hear--from--him?" groaned Dauntless, wild-eyed but +faint. He and Eleanor looked at each other in despair. + +"Go--to--the--hotel?" she murmured, her heart in her boots. "I never +can do that," she continued. Her voice was full of tears. + +Mrs. Van Truder bore down upon them like an angry vulture. They saw +her coming, but neither had the strength of purpose to move. + +Before they really knew how it happened, she was leading Eleanor to +the hotel 'bus and he was limply following, lugging both bags with a +faithfulness that seemed pathetic. Two minutes later they were in the +'bus, touching knees with the equally dazed and discomfited English +people. + +Back on the platform the elongated medical gentleman, Mr. Hooker, was +talking loudly, wrathfully to the station agent. His voice rang in +their ears long after the 'bus rolled away on its "trip" to the big +summer hotel. + +"You say old man Grover ain't dead yet?" Mr. Hooker was growling +resentfully, even indignantly. + +"He ain't expected to live till night, sir, poor old man," replied the +agent. + +"Well, I'll be damned!" roared Mr. Hooker. "I don't see any sense in a +man of his age hanging on like this. He's eighty-three. My time is +valuable"--looking at his big silver watch--"and I can't afford to +hang around here if he's going to act like this." The agent stared +after him as if he were looking at a maniac. Mr. Hooker set off in the +direction of old Mr. Grover's house, which had been pointed out to him +by a gaping small boy. "I'll go up and see about it," he remarked, as +he stepped across a wide rivulet in the middle of the main street. The +Somerset Hotel was situated on the most beautiful point of land +touching that trim little lake which attracted hundreds of city people +annually by its summer wiles. It was too sedate and quiet to be +fashionable; the select few who went there sought rest from the +frivolities of the world. Eleanor Thursdale had spent one tiresome but +proper season there immediately after the death of her father. She +hated everything in connection with the place except the little old- +fashioned church at the extreme end of the village street, fully half +a mile from the hotel. She had chosen it, after romantic reflection, +as the sanctuary in which she should become the wife of the man she +loved, spurning the great church in town and one of its loveless +matches. + +The forenoon is left to the imagination of the reader,--with all of +its unsettled plans, its doubts and misgivings, its despairs and its +failures, its subterfuges and its strategies, its aggravations and +complaints. Bell-boys carried surreptitious notes from room to room; +assurances, hopes, and reassurances passed one another in systematic +confusion. Love was trying to find its way out of the maze. + +Immediately after luncheon Dauntless set out to discover his faithless +cousin. Eleanor kept close to her room, in readiness for instant +flight. The necessary Mr. Derby had his instructions to remain where +he could be found without trouble. Mrs. Van Truder, taking up +Eleanor's battles, busied herself and every one else in the impossible +task of locating the young woman's trunks, which, according to +uncertain reports, had gone mysteriously astray. Moreover, she had +prepared a telegram to the young lady's mother, assuring her that she +was quite safe; but Mr. Dauntless boldly intercepted Mr. Van Truder on +his way to the desk. + +"Allow me," he remarked, deliberately taking the despatch from the old +gentleman. "I'll send it from the station. Don't bother about it, Mr. +Van Truder." He drove through the village, but did not stop at the +station; his instructions to the driver did not include a pause +anywhere. It is not necessary to relate what took place when he +descended upon the unfortunate Jim; it is sufficient to say that he +dragged him from his sick wife's bedside and berated him soundly for +his treachery. Then it was all rearranged,--the hapless Jim being +swept into promises which he could not break, even with death staring +his wife in the face. The agitated Mr. Dauntless drove back to the +hotel with a new set of details perfected. This time nothing should go +wrong. + +His first action was to acquaint Derby with the plans, and then to +send a note of instructions to Eleanor, guarding against any chance +that they might not be able to communicate with each other in person. + +"It's all fixed," he announced to Derby, in a secluded corner of the +grounds. "To-night at nine we are to be at the church down the road +there--see it? Nobody is on to us, and Jim has a key. He will meet you +there at a quarter of nine. But, hang it all, his wife can't act as a +witness. We've got to provide one. He suggested the postmaster, but I +don't like the idea; it looks too much like a cheap elopement. I'd +just as soon have the cook or the housemaid. I'll get Eleanor there if +I have to kill that Van Truder woman. Now, whom shall we have as the +second witness?" + +"Windomshire, I'm afraid," lamented Derby. "You won't be able to get +rid of him." + +"Hang him!" groaned Dauntless, his spirits falling, but instantly +reviving. "But he's dead in love with Miss Courtenay. It's pitiful, +old man. He feels that he's got to marry Nell, but it's not in his +heart to do it. Now if we could only shunt him off on to Miss +Courtenay this evening! Her train leaves at nine, they say. He might +be forced to take her to the station if you will only get busy and +make him jealous." + +"Jealous? I?" + +"Certainly. It won't be much of an effort for you, and it will help me +immensely. Make love to her this afternoon, and when you suggest +taking her to the station this evening he'll be so wrought up that he +won't stand for it. See what I mean?" + +"Now see here, Joe, I'm willing to do a great deal for you, but this +is too much. You forget that I am a minister of the gospel. It's--" + +"I know, old man, but you might do a little thing like this for--By +Jove, I've got it! Why not have old Mr. Van Truder for the other +witness?" + +Mr. Van Truder was crossing the lawn, picking his way carefully. + +"Good afternoon," greeted Dauntless. + +"Afternoon," responded Mr. Van Truder. "Is this the hotel?" + +"No, sir; the hotel is about ten feet to your left. By the way, Mr. +Van Truder, would you mind doing me a favour this evening?" + +"Gladly. Who are you?" + +"Joe Dauntless." + +"Anything, my dear Joe." + +"Well, it's a dead secret." + +"A secret? Trust me," cried the old man, joyfully. + +"First, let me introduce my friend, the Rev. Mr. Derby. He's in the +secret. It will go no farther, I trust, Mr. Van Truder." + +"My wife says I can't keep a secret, but I'll show her that I can. +Trust me, my boy." + +"I'll bet you a hundred dollars you can't keep this one," said Joe, +inspired. + +"Done!" + +"Well," bravely but cautiously, "I'm going to be married to-night. Be +careful now! Look out! Don't explode! Remember the bet!" The old +gentleman repressed his feelings. + +"Beautiful!" he exclaimed. "Congratulations, my boy." + +"Now for the favour. I want you to act as a witness. It's to be a very +quiet affair." Dauntless explained as much of the situation to him as +he thought necessary, omitting the lady's name. Mr. Van Truder bubbled +over with joy and eagerness. He promised faithfully to accompany Mr. +Derby, pooh-hooing the suggestion that he could not slip away from the +hotel without his wife being aware of the fact. + +"Trust me, my boy. Don't worry. I'm always Johnny-on-the-spot. Where +did you say the hotel was? I'll go up and get ready. Oh, by the way, +who is the young lady?" + +"She's a friend of Mr. Dauntless's," said Mr. Derby. + +"To be sure; I might have known. Silly question." + +The young men watched him enter the hotel, but they did not see him +fall into the clutches of his wife just inside the door. + +"Where have you been?" demanded Mrs. Van Truder. + +"I've been looking everywhere for you, my dear," he said, almost +whimpering. "I've got a grand secret, but I can't tell you. Don't ask +me!" + +"Is it a wedding?" she demanded sternly. + +"Dear me! Do you know it too?" he cried, bewildered. "But that's not +the real secret; it's only part of it. Joe is going to marry some +friend of his to-night--but that's as far as I'll go. I'll NOT betray +the secret." He hurried away to avoid questions, muttering to himself +as he went: "She's dying to know. But a secret's a secret. She sha'n't +know that I am to be a witness." + +Mrs. Van Truder pondered long and deeply, but she was not well enough +acquainted with all of the facts to hazard a guess as to who the girl +might be. It came to her memory that Dauntless had been with Miss +Courtenay all morning, however, and she wondered not a little. +Windomshire was approaching in search of Anne, who was to have met him +as if by accident in a corner of the reading-room. + +"Oh, Mr. Windomshire," exclaimed Mrs. Van Truder, darting toward him. + +"How do, Mrs. Van Truder? How are you to-day?" he asked, scarcely able +to hide his annoyance. + +"That is the tenth time you've asked me that question. I must repeat: +I am quite well." + +"Oh, pardon my inquisitiveness. It has been a very long day, you +know." + +"I want you and Miss Thursdale to dine with me at eight this evening. +I think I'll have a little surprise for you," she said mysteriously. +Windomshire glared, and then managed to give a provisional acceptance. +It all depended on the hour for leaving for the train. As he hurried +off to find Anne he was groaning to himself: "How the deuce can I go +to a dinner and run off again with Anne? I've got everything arranged. +I can't let a beastly dinner interfere. I won't go, hang me if I do." +He came upon Anne in the corner of the library--the most unfrequented +corner. + +"Well?" she questioned eagerly. He clasped her hands, beaming once +more. + +"I've seen him, dear. It's all right. My word, I've had no end of a +busy day. The confounded fellow was out making calls on the +congregation, as they say, and I had to pursue him from house to +house, always missing him, by Jove." + +"But you DID find him?" anxiously. + +"Of course. He will be at the church at nine to-night--sharp. He +understands that no one is to know about it. His fee is ten pounds-- +quite a bit for a chap like him. I found him calling upon a fellow who +is about to die--a Mr. Grover. He sent out word I'd have to wait as +the old gentleman was passing away. By Jove, do you know I was that +intense that I sent in word that the old gentleman would have to wait +a bit--I COULDN'T. The pastor came out and--well, it seems that the +fee for helping a chap to get married is more substantial than what he +gets for helping one to die. And, as luck would have it, I found a +fellow who will act as one of the witnesses to the ceremony at this +same house,--a Mr. Hooker, Anne. He came down on the train with us. +Tall, dark, professional looking man. He was sitting on Mr. Grover's +front steps when I got there. The other witness--must have two, you +know--is the head-waiter in the dining-room here--" + +"The--head-waiter?" she gasped. + +"He's a very decent sort of chap, my dear--and, besides, we can't be +choosers. Waiters are most discreet fellows, too. He's to get two +pounds for his trouble. By Jove, I think I've done rather well. I'm +sorry if you don't approve," he lamented. + +"But I do approve, Harry," she cried bravely. "It's lovely!" + +"Good! I knew you would. Now all we have to do is to slip away from +here this evening, and--Oh, I say, hang it all! Mrs. Van Truder has +asked me to dine with them this evening." + +"Isn't she running you a bit?" cried Anne, indignantly. "She had you +for breakfast and luncheon and now it's dinner. I daresay she'll have +you for tea too." + +"But I'm not going to her confounded dinner. That's settled. I can't +do it, you know, and be on time for the wedding. Deuce take it, what +does she take a fellow for? Hello, here comes the chap that Dauntless +introduced to us this morning." Derby was approaching with a warm and +ingratiating smile. "What's his name? Confound him." + +"Mr. Derby, I think. Why can't they give us a moment's peace?" she +pouted. Derby came up to them, his eyes sparkling with a fire which +they could not and were not to understand. He had surveyed them from a +distance for some time before deciding to ruthlessly, cruelly break in +upon the tranquil situation. + +"She's a pretty girl," he reflected, unconsciously going back to his +college days, and quite forgetting his cloth--which, by the way, was a +neat blue serge with a tender stripe. Consoling himself with the +thought that he was doing it to accommodate an old friend, the good- +looking Mr. Derby boldly entered the lists for the afternoon. He felt, +somehow, that he had it in his power to make Mr. Windomshire quite +jealous--and at the same time do nothing reprehensible. What he did +succeed in doing, alas, was to make two young people needlessly +miserable for a whole afternoon--bringing on grievous headaches and an +attack of suppressed melancholia that savoured somewhat of actual +madness. + +[Illustration: Windomshire] + +True to his project, he laboured hard and skilfully for hours. +Windomshire moved about in solitude, gnashing his teeth, while Derby +unceremoniously whisked the dazed Anne off for pleasant walks or held +her at bay in some secluded corner of the parlours. By dinner-time, +encouraged by Joe's wild but cautious applause, he had driven +Windomshire almost to distraction. A thing he did not know, however,-- +else his pride might have cringed perceptibly,--was that Anne +Courtenay was growing to hate him as no one was ever hated before. + +"Well," he said to the nervous Mr. Dauntless at seven o'clock that +evening, having arrived at what he called the conclusion of his day's +work, "I think I've done all that was expected, haven't I?" + +"You've got him crazy, old boy. Look at him! It's the first minute +he's had since half-past two. Say, what do you think of this cursed +weather? It's raining again--and muddy! Great Scot, old man! it's knee +deep, and we don't dare take a carriage to the church. One can't sneak +worth a cent in a cab, you know. See you later! There's Eleanor +waiting to speak to me. By George, I'm nervous. You WON'T fail us, old +man?" + +"I'll do my part, Joe," said Derby, smiling. + +"Well, so long, if I don't see you before nine. You look out for old +Mr. Van Truder, will you? See that he sneaks out properly. And--" + +"Don't worry, old chap. Go to Miss Thursdale. She seems nervous." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE ROAD TO PARADISE + + +Night again--and again the mist and the drizzle; again the country +lane, but without the warm club-house fire, the cheery lights, the +highball, and the thumping motor car. Soggy, squashy mud instead of +the clean tonneau; heavy, cruel wading through unknown by-ways in +place of the thrilling rush to Fenlock. Not twenty-four hours had +passed, and yet it seemed that ages lay between the joyous midnight +and the sodden, heart-breaking eve that followed. + +The guests at the Somerset kept close indoors,--that is, most of them +did. It is with those who fared forth resolutely into the night that +we have to do; the rest of the world is to be barred from any further +connection with this little history. It is far out in the dreary +country lane and not inside the warm hotel that we struggle to attain +our end. First one, then another stealthy figure crept forth into the +drizzle; before the big clock struck half-past eight, at least six +respectable and supposedly sensible persons had mysteriously +disappeared. Only one of our close acquaintances remained in the +hotel,--Mrs. Van Truder. It was not to be long, however, before she, +too, would be adventuring forth in search of the unknown. + +By this it may be readily understood that Mr. Van Truder had succeeded +in escaping from beneath her very nose, as it were. + +The little village church stood at the extreme end of the street,-- +dark, dismal, quite awe-inspiring on a night like this. A narrow lane +stretched from the hotel to the sanctuary and beyond. There is nothing +at hand to show whether it is a Methodist, a Presbyterian, or a +Baptist church. As the two young women most vitally concerned in this +tale were professedly high church, it is therefore no more than right +that, in the darkness, it should be looked upon as an Episcopalian +church. + +Two stumbling figures, pressing close to each other in the shelter of +a single wobbly umbrella, forged their uncertain way through the muddy +lane. Except for the brief instants when the dull flicker of lightning +came to their relief, they were in pitch darkness. + +"Beastly dark, isn't it?" said one of the figures. + +"And beastly muddy too," said the other, in a high, disconsolate +treble. "Oh, dear, where are we?" + +"I don't know, but I feel as though we were about to step off of +something every moment. Do you know, Anne, it's extraordinary that I +shouldn't know how to light one of these confounded lanterns." + +"Try it again, Harry dear. I'll hold the umbrella." + +"Oh, I see! By Jove, one has to open the thing, don't you know. Ah, +there we are! That's better," he said, after he had succeeded in +finally lighting the wick. He held the lantern up close to her face +and they looked at each other for a moment. "Anne, I do love you!" he +exclaimed. Then he kissed her. "That's the first time I've had a +chance to kiss you in thirty-six hours." + +They plodded onward, closer together than ever, coming at last to the +little gate which opened into the churchyard. Before them stood the +black little building with its steeple, but the windows were as dark +as Erebus. They stopped in consternation. He looked at his watch. + +"Confound him, he's not here!" growled Windomshire. + +"Perhaps we are early," suggested Anne, feebly. + +"It's a quarter to nine," he said. "I suppose there is nothing left +for us to do but to wait. I'll look around a bit, dear. Perhaps the +witnesses are here somewhere." + +"Oo-oo-ooh! Don't leave me!" she almost shrieked. "Look! There is a +graveyard! I won't stay here alone!" They were standing at the foot of +the rough wooden steps leading up to the church door. + +"Pooh! Don't be afraid of tombstones," he scoffed; but he was +conscious of a little shiver in his back. "They can't bite, you know. +Besides, all churches have graveyards and crypts and--" + +"This one has no crypt," she announced positively. "Goodness, I'm mud +up to my knees and rain down to them. Why doesn't he come?" + +"I'll give the signal; we had to arrange one, you know, for the sake +of identity." He gave three loud, guttural coughs. A dog in the +distance howled mournfully, as if in response. Anne crept closer to +his side. + +"It sounded as if some one were dying," she whispered. "Look, isn't +that a light?--over there among the gravestones!" A light flickered +for an instant in the wretched little graveyard and then disappeared +as mysteriously as it came. "It's gone! How ghostly!" + +"Extraordinary! I don't understand. By Jove, it's beginning to rain +again. I'm sure to have tonsilitis. I feel it when I cough." He +coughed again, louder than before. + +Suddenly the steady beam of a dark lantern struck their faces +squarely; a moment later the cadaverous Mr. Hooker was climbing over +the graveyard fence. + +"Am I late?" he asked, as he came forward. + +"I say, turn that beastly light the other way," complained +Windomshire, half blinded. "I thought no one but robbers carried dark +lanterns." + +"The darker the deed, the darker the lantern," said Mr. Hooker, +genially. "Good-evening, madam. Are we the only ones here?" He was +very matter-of-fact and business-like; Anne loathed him on the +instant. + +"We're all here but the minister and the other witness. I'll cough +again--although it hurts me to do it." + +He coughed thrice, but instead of a response in kind, three sharp +whistles came from the trees at the left. + +"What's that?" he gasped. "Has he forgotten the signal?" + +"Maybe he is trying to cough," said Hooker, "and can't do any better +than wheeze. It's this rotten weather." + +"No, it was a whistle. Good Heavens, Anne--it may be detectives." + +"Detectives!" exclaimed Mr. Hooker, hoarsely. "Then this is no place +for me. Excuse me, I'll just step around the corner." As he scurried +off, he might have been heard to mutter to himself: "They've been +hounding me ever since that job in the Cosgrove cemetery. Damn 'em, I +wonder if they think I'm up here to rob the grave of one of these +jays." From which it may be suspected that Mr. Hooker had been +employed in the nefarious at one time or another. + +"Detectives, Harry?" gasped Anne. "Why should there be detectives? +We're not criminals." + +"You can't tell what Mrs. Thursdale may have done when she discovered- +-Hello! There's a light down the road! 'Gad, I'll hide this lantern +until we're sure." He promptly stuck the lantern inside his big +raincoat and they were in darkness again. A hundred yards to the left +a light bobbed about, reminding them of childhood's will-o'-the-wisp. +Without a word Windomshire drew her around the church, stumbling over +a discarded pew seat that stood against the wall. Groaning with pain, +he urged her to crouch down with him behind the seat. All the while he +held the umbrella manfully over her devoted head. + +Voices were heard, drawing nearer and nearer--one deep and cheery, the +other high and querulous. + +"It--it--oh, Harry, it's that Mr. Derby!" she whispered. "I'd know +his voice in a thousand." + +"The devil!" he whispered intensely, gripping her hand. + +Mr. Derby was saying encouragingly: "There is the church, Mr. Van +Trader. Brace up. We seem to be the first to arrive." + +"It's much farther away than you think," growled Mr. Van Truder. "I +can't see the lights in the window." + +"There are no lights yet. We are ahead of them. I'll try the door." + +The young minister kicked the mud from his shoes as he went up the +steps with the lantern. He tried the door vigorously, and then, +holding the lantern high, surveyed the surroundings. Mr. Van Truder, +bundled up like a motorman, stood below shivering--but with joy. + +"This is a great night for an affair of this kind," he quaked. "By +George, I feel twenty years younger. I believe I could turn +handsprings." + +"I wouldn't if I were you. Don't forget your somersault over that log +back there, and your splendid headspin in the mud puddle. It's past +nine o'clock. Joe's cousin was to be here at 8.45. Wonder what keeps +him. Joe will be here himself in a jiffy. Dear me, what a dreadful +night they have chosen for a wedding!" + +Windomshire whispered in horror to the girl beside him: "Good Lord, +Anne, they're following us." + +"Please, Harry," she whispered petulantly, "hold the umbrella still. +The water from the rainspout is dripping down my back." + +"By George, I wish Mrs. Van Truder could see me now," came valiantly +from the old gentleman around the corner. "Say, whistle again." Derby +gave three sharp, shrill whistles. In silence they waited a full +minute for the response. There was not a sound except the dripping of +the rain. + +"I'm afraid something is wrong," said Derby. Just at that instant +Windomshire, despite most heroic efforts to prevent the catastrophe, +sneezed with a violence that shook his entire frame. "Sh! don't +speak," hissed the startled minister. "We are being watched. That was +unmistakably a sneeze." + +"I can't see any one," whispered Mr. Van Trader, excitedly. "I see +just as well in the dark as I do in the light, too." + +"Some one is coming. See! There's a light down the road. Let's step +out of sight just for a moment." + +Windomshire sneezed again, as if to accelerate the movements of the +two men. + +"Hang it all!" he gurgled in despair. Mr. Derby had blinded his +lantern and was hurrying off into the grove with his companion. + +"I can't help laughing, Harry," whispered Anne, giggling softly. "You +sneeze like an elephant." + +"But an elephant has more sense than to sneeze as I do. I knew I'd +take cold. Anne, they're after us. It's old Mrs. Van Truder's work. +What are they up to?" + +"Whatever it is, dear, they're just as much mystified as we are. Did +you hear him whistle? It is a signal." + +"I say, Anne, it's a beastly mess I've got you into," groaned he. + +"Dear old Harry, it is but the beginning of the mess you're getting +yourself into. I love this--every bit of it." + +"You're ripping, Anne; that's what you are. I--Great Scotland! Here +comes the head-waiter, but we don't dare show ourselves. Did you ever +know such beastly luck?" + +"There's another man too, away back there. And, look! Isn't that a +light coming through the trees back of the gravestones? Good Heavens, +Harry, we can't be married in a public thoroughfare. Everybody is +walking with lanterns. It's awful." + +"Let's go around to the rear of the church," he exclaimed suddenly. +"Perhaps we can get our brains to work on a plan of action. But, look +here, Anne, no matter who they are or what they want, I'm going to +marry you to-night if I have to do it in the face of the entire +crowd." + +As they scurried off through the tall wet grass to a less exposed +station, a solitary figure came haltingly through the little gate. It +was the head-waiter, and, as he carried no lantern, he was compelled +to light matches now and then; after getting his bearings he would +dart resolutely on for a dozen paces before lighting another. Stopping +in front of the church door, he nervously tried to penetrate the gloom +with an anxious gaze; then, suddenly bethinking, he gave three timid +little coughs. Getting no immediate response, he growled aloud in his +wrath: + +"I've coughed my head off in front of every house between here and the +hotel, and I'm gettin' darned tired of it. I don't like this business; +and I never could stand for graveyards. Good Lord! what's that?" + +Three sharp whistles came to his alert ears, coming, it seemed, from +the very heart of some grim old gravestone. A man strode boldly across +the yard from the gate, his walk indicating that he was perfectly +familiar with the lay of the land. + +"Who coughed?" he demanded loudly. "Is there no one here? What the +dickens does it mean? Joe Dauntless! Where are you? No fooling now; my +wife's worse, and I can't stay here all night." He whistled again, and +the head-waiter coughed in a bewildered reply. "That's queer. Nothing +was said about coughing." + +"Hello!" called the head-waiter. "Is it you, sir?" + +Joe Dauntless's cousin held his lantern on high and finally discovered +the waiter near the pile of cordwood, ready to run at a moment's +notice. + +"Who are you?" demanded Mr. Carpenter. + +"Gustave. But you ain't the man." + +"I ain't, eh? Didn't you whistle a minute ago?" + +"I ain't supposed to. I cough. Say, do you know if a wedding has taken +place here? I am a witness." + +"Oh, I see. He said he'd bring one. Are you alone?" + +"I don't know. It feels like a crowd every time I cough. Are you the +preacher?" + +"No, I'm the bridegroom's cousin. We've got to get in through a +window. I couldn't find my key. Would you mind giving me a leg?" + +"A leg? Nothing was said about legs," said the waiter, moving away. +Carpenter laughed. + +"I mean a boost up to the window." + +"Oh! Sure." + +"There's one in the rear I can smash. We'll get inside and light up. I +can open the door from that side, too. Come on--follow me." They +turned the corner and followed the path so lately taken by Windomshire +and Anne. As they came to the back of the church they were startled +and not a little alarmed by the sound of sudden scurrying and a well- +defined imprecation, but it was too dark for them to distinguish any +one. While they were trying to effect an entrance through one of the +windows, other mystified participants in the night's affairs were +looking on from secret and divers hiding-places. Far out in the little +grove Derby and his old companion watched the operations of the +church-breakers, the sickly glare of Carpenter's lantern as it stood +upon the edge of the rain barrel affording an unholy light for the +occasion. Windomshire and Anne, crouching behind a stack of old +benches, looked on in amazement. Mr. Hooker, whose conscience was none +too easy, doubtless for excellent reasons, peered forth from behind a +tall tombstone. He had arrived at the conclusion that he was being +hounded down as a body-snatcher. + +"This is a devil of a mess," he muttered dolefully. "If they catch me +in this graveyard, I'll have a hard time proving an alibi. What an +idiot I was to get into this thing! I guess I'll get out of it. He's +got plenty of witnesses and I've got his ten dollars." He began +sneaking off toward the extreme west end of the graveyard, bent on +finding the road to town. "Holy smoke!" stopping short. "Another bunch +of them coming! I'm surrounded!" He dropped down behind a weed-covered +mound and glared straight ahead. Almost directly in his path a lantern +wobbled and reeled slowly, finally bringing its bearer to the fence +between the burying-ground and the churchyard. A man carried the light +and half carried the form of a woman besides. + +"Brace up, Nell dear," Mr. Hooker heard the newcomer say as tenderly +as his exertions would allow. "The worst is over. Here's the church. +Good Heavens, just think of being lost in a graveyard!" + +"And climbing four fences and a tree," moaned Eleanor Thursdale. They +had come up through the graveyard by mistake. + +"It wasn't a tree; it was a fence post. Great Scot! There's no light +in the church. What's up? Wait here, dear, and I'll investigate." + +"Alone? Never!" she cried. They climbed their fifth fence, +notwithstanding the fact that a gate was near at hand. + +"This is an awful pickle I've got you into. You ought to hate me--" he +was groaning, but she checked him nobly. + +"Hush, Joe, I LOVE it," she cried. + +"You just wait and see how happy I'll make you for this." He was about +to kiss her rapturously, but the act was stayed by the sound of a +shrill whistle, thrice given. "There's Jim Carpenter and Derby," he +exclaimed, and whistled in response. A moment later Derby strolled up +from the grove, followed by the chattering Mr. Van Truder. + +"That you, Joe?" + +"Hello, Darb. Good! Where's Jim?" + +Some one whistled sharply off to the left, and then Jim Carpenter came +hurrying up, the head-waiter close behind. + +"Hello, Joe. Say, has either of you been coughing?" demanded +Carpenter, his hair ready to stand on end. + +"I should say not," said Joe. "I've scarcely been breathing." + +"Then some ghost is having a hemorrhage," said the head-waiter, +dismally. + +[Illustration: "Hush, Joe, I LOVE it," she cried.] + +"Hello, Mr. Dauntless, are you a witness too?" + +"Say, Joe," said his cousin, quickly, "there's something strange going +on. The whole place is full of people. I went back there to open a +window and at least two men coughed--one of 'em sneezed. We're being +watched. This man says he heard a woman back there, and I saw a funny +kind of light in the graveyard." + +"Hang 'em!" growled Joe. "We can't stop now. Open up the church, Jim." + +"Can't. Lost my key. Is this Miss Thursdale? Glad to meet you. The +window's the only way and they're surely watching back there." + +"Mamma has sent the officers after us," wailed Eleanor. + +"Let's go home," said the waiter. "I didn't agree to stay out all +night." + +"Agree? Aha, I see. You are a spy!" cried Joe. + +"A spy? I guess not. I'm a witness." + +"It's the same thing," cackled Mr. Van Truder. "You're a spy witness." + +"Joe, isn't this fellow your witness?" demanded Carpenter. + +"I should say not. Mr. Van Truder is mine." + +"By George, I don't understand--" + +"Never mind, Jim, break into the church and let's have it over with. +It's going to rain again." + +"Oh, I'm so tired," moaned the poor bride, mud-spattered, wet, and +very far from being the spick and span young woman that fashionable +society knew and loved. + +"By Jove!" came suddenly from the darkness, startling the entire +party--a masculine voice full of surprise and--yes, consternation. +Then there strode into the circle of light a tall figure in a +shimmering mackintosh, closely followed by a young, resolute woman. + +"Windomshire!" gasped Dauntless, leaping in front of Eleanor, prepared +to defend her with his life. + +"Miss Courtenay, too," murmured Eleanor, peeking under his arm. + +"Yes, by Jove," announced the harassed Englishman, at bay,-- +"Windomshire and Miss Courtenay." There was a long silence--a tableau, +in fact. "Well, why doesn't some one say something? You've got us, +don't you know." + +Eleanor Thursdale was the first to find words. She was faint with +humiliation, but strong with the new resolve. Coming forth from behind +Dauntless, she presented herself before the man her mother had chosen. + +"So you have found me out, Mr. Windomshire," she said pleadingly, a +wry little smile on her lips. "You know all about it?" + +"I--er--by Jove, this is quite beyond me. Found you out? My word, you +don't mean to say--" + +"I say, old man," said Dauntless, manfully, "let me explain. We've +always loved each other. It isn't that she--" + +"Hang it all, man, I knew that," expostulated Windomshire. "It was a +mistake all around. I love Anne, don't you know. There's no real harm +done, I'm sure. But what puzzles me is this: why does Miss Thursdale +persist in pursuing us if she loves you and doesn't care to marry me?" + +"The deuce! I like that," cried Dauntless. "You'd better begin by +asking questions at home." + +"I take it," interposed Mr. Derby, with rare tact and discernment, +"that both of you expect to be married, but not to each other as +originally planned." Both Eleanor and Windomshire signified eager +affirmation in more ways than one. "Then it seems to me a simple case +of coincidence, which may be explained later on. Why discuss it now? I +am in reality a minister, Miss Courtenay, and I am here to unite Miss +Thursdale and Mr. Dauntless in the holy bonds of matrimony. I trust we +may expect no interference on the part of Mr. Windomshire?" + +"Good Lord! No!" almost shouted Windomshire, clasping Anne's hand in a +mighty grasp. "That's what we are here for ourselves--to be married-- +but the damned parson has deceived us." Jim Carpenter came out of his +trance at this. "Say, are you the fellow Rev. Smith was to marry? +Well, he won't be here. There's a surprise pound party at his house +and the whole town is there. He couldn't leave to save his soul. It's +the way he gets his living." + +"Oh, Anne!" cried Windomshire, in real despair. + +Anne slipped into the breach with rare old English fortitude. She +addressed herself sweetly to Mr. Derby. + +"Mr. Derby, do you remember saying this afternoon that you'd do +anything in the world for me?" Mr. Derby blushed and looked most +unworthy of his calling, but managed to say that he WOULD do anything +in the world for her. "Then, please take the place of the minister who +couldn't come." + +"Good!" cried Dauntless, almost dancing. + +"I will, Miss Courtenay," said Derby. Windomshire grasped him by the +hand, speechless with joy and relief. + +"I don't understand all this," complained Mr. Van Truder, vainly +trying to see the excited, jubilant quartette. He only knew that they +were all talking at once, suddenly without restraint. "I wish my wife +were here; she'd understand." + +Jim Carpenter at last came to his senses and, dragging the head-waiter +after him, sped to the rear of the church. A few minutes later lights +flashed in the windows and then the front door swung open. Carpenter +and Gustave stood smiling upon the threshold. + +"Enter!" called out the former. As the group quickly passed through +the doorway, a long figure climbed down from the fence hard by and +ventured up to the portal. It was Mr. Hooker, his face the picture of +bewilderment. + +"Well, this beats me!" he ejaculated, leaning against the door jamb; +none of those at the altar heard his remark. He stood there listening +until the last words of the service which united two couples were +uttered. Then he turned sorrowfully away and started across the yard. +The sound of a wedding march played upon the wheezy cabinet organ by +Jim Carpenter followed him into the gloom; above the gasp of the organ +was lifted the unmistakable chatter of joyous voices. + +As he passed through the gate a great vehicle rolled up and stopped. +It was drawn by two steaming horses, and the wagon lanterns told him +that it was the Somerset Hotel 'bus. "I'll ride back with 'em," he +thought comfortably. + +Some one climbed down from the rear of the 'bus, assisted by two young +men in brass buttons. Mr. Hooker made way for a corpulent, puffing old +lady. She stopped in front of him and demanded in hot, strident tones: + +"Where is my husband?" + +"Your husband?" repeated Mr. Hooker, politely. "Madam, you can search +me. There's a whole churchful of husbands up there." + +"You--you---" she sputtered. "Am I too late? Support me, you fools," +she cried to the two bell-boys. They hurried across the churchyard, +Mr. Hooker following. At the doorway she stopped, glaring hard at the +well-lighted interior. "Mr. Van Truder! Mr. Van Truder!" she called +out angrily, but her joyful other half did not hear her. He was trying +at that moment to organise the company into a wedding procession. + +"Say," said Mr. Hooker, "maybe you'd better cough three times." + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE FLYERS *** + +This file should be named thfly10.txt or thfly10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, thfly11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, thfly10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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