Bessie was so interested and excited when she heard him speak of Zara that she forgot to eat the cherries. But she saw that she had hurt his feelings by her neglect of his present, and she made amends at once. She ate several of them, and smacked her lips.
"They"re splendid, Jack! They"re the best I"ve eaten this year. I think you"re lucky to be able to get them."
Jack was delighted.
"You come here again later on and I"ll give you some of the best pears you ever tasted."
"Tell me some more about the girl, Jack--the other girl, with black hair. I think perhaps she"s a friend of mine. Why was she crying?"
"I don"t know but she was. She was going on terrible. And she was with her pop, I guess. So I s"pose she"d just been naughty, and he"d punished her."
"What makes you think that, Jack?"
"Oh, he came in, and he talked to my pop, and they both laughed and looked at her. He had her by the hand, and she didn"t say anything--she just cried. And my pop says, "Well, I"ve got just the place for her. Too bad to send her off without her dinner, but when they"re bad they"ve got to be punished." And he winked at her, but she didn"t wink back."
"What happened then, Jack?"
"They put her up in my room. See, you can see it there, right over the tree with the branch torn off. See that branch? It was torn off in that storm yesterday."
"And didn"t she have any dinner?"
"Oh, yes. My pop, he sent her some dinner, of course. He was just joking. That"s why he winked at her. He"d never let anyone go hungry, my pop wouldn"t!"
"What sort of looking man brought her here, Jack?"
"Oh, he--he was just a man. He had white hair, and eye-gla.s.ses. Say, that"s his rig right there in the corner of the shed. I don"t think much of it, do you?"
Bessie wondered what she should do. She liked Jack, and she was sure he would do anything he could for her. But he was only a little boy, and it seemed as if that would not be very much. But he was her only hope, and she decided to trust him.
"Jack," she said, soberly, "that is my friend, and I"ve been looking for her. And that old man isn"t her father at all. He wants to make her do something horrid--something she doesn"t want to do at all. And if she doesn"t get away, I"m afraid he will, too."
"Say, I didn"t like him when I first saw him! I"d hate to have him for a pop. Why doesn"t she run away?"
"How can she, Jack?"
"Huh, that"s just as easy! Why, I never go down the stairs at all, hardly, from my room. The branches of that big tree stick right over to the window, and it"s awful easy to climb down."
"She could do that, too, Jack, but she doesn"t know I"m here to help her. She"d think there wasn"t any use getting down."
"Say, I"ll climb up and tell her, if you like. Shall I?"
"Will you, really, Jack? And tell her Bessie is waiting here for her?
Will you show her how to get down, and how to get here? And don"t you think someone will see her?"
"No, an" if they do, they can"t catch us. I"ve got a cave back here that"s the peachiest hiding-place you ever saw! I"ll show you. They"ll never find you there. You just wait!"
He was off like a flash, and Bessie, terribly anxious, but hopeful, too, saw him run up the tree like a squirrel. Then the branches hid him from her, and she couldn"t see what happened at the window. But before she had waited more than two minutes, although it seemed like hours to poor Bessie, Jack was in sight again, and behind him came Zara. She dropped easily to the ground, and ran toward Bessie, behind Jack, like a scared rabbit.
"Oh, Bessie, I"m so glad--so glad!" she cried. "I was so frightened--"
From the inn there was a shout of anger.
"Gee! He"s found out already," cried Jack. "Come on! Don"t be scared!
I"ll show you where to hide so he"ll never find you. Run--run, just as fast as you can!"
And they were off, while Farmer Weeks shouted behind them.
CHAPTER VIII
THE SHELTER OF THE WOODS
For the first few minutes as they ran, the three of them were too busy to talk, and they needed their breath too much to be anxious to say anything. Jack, his little legs flying, covered ground at an astonishing pace. Zara had always been a speedy runner, and now, clutching Bessie"s hand tightly, she helped her over some of the harder places.
They were running right into the woods, as it seemed to Bessie, and more than once, as she heard sounds of pursuit behind, she was frightened. It seemed to her impossible that little Jack, mean he never so well, could possibly enable them to escape from angry Farmer Weeks, who, for an old man, seemed to be keeping up astonishingly well in the race. But soon the noises behind them grew fainter, and it was not long before the ground began to rise sharply. Jack dropped to a walk, and the two girls, panting from the hard run, were not slow to follow his example.
"This is like playing Indians," said Jack, happily. "It"s lots of fun--much better than playing by myself. Here"s my cave."
"Don"t you think we"d better go on, Bessie?" panted Zara. "We"re ahead of them now, and they might find us here."
"No, I think we"d better stop right here. Would you ever know there was a cave here if Jack hadn"t uncovered the entrance? And see, it"s so wild that we"d have to stick to the path, and we don"t know the way. I"m afraid they"d be sure to catch us sooner or later if we went on."
"Listen!" said Jack. "They"re getting nearer again!"
And sure enough, they could hear the shouts of those who were following them, and the noise was getting louder. Bessie hesitated no longer, but pushed Zara before her into the cave. Jack followed them.
"See," he said, "I can pull those branches over, and they"ll never see the mouth of the cave. They"ll think these are just bushes growing here.
Isn"t it a bully place? I"ve played it was a smuggler"s cave, and all sorts of things, but it never was as good fun as this."
"Just think that way," said Bessie to poor Zara, who was trembling like a leaf. "When we get back with the girls, we"ll think this is just good fun--a fine adventure. So cheer up, we"re safe now."
"But how will we ever get back to them, even if they don"t catch us now?" asked Zara. "We"ll be seen when we go out, won"t we?"
"No, indeed," said Bessie. "I"ll bet Jack"s thought about that, haven"t you, Jack?"
"You bet!" he said, proudly. "They"ll go by, and they"ll keep on for a long way, and then they"ll think they"ve gone so far that a girl couldn"t ever have done it. And then they"ll decide they"ve missed her, and they"ll turn around and come back again, and hunt around near the hotel. And when they do that--"
"Hush!" said Bessie. "Here they come! Keep quiet, now, both of you!
Don"t even breathe hard--and don"t sneeze, whatever you do!"
And then, lying down close to one another, at full length on the floor of the cave, which Jack, for his play, had covered with soft branches of evergreen trees, they peeped out through the leafy covering of the cave while Farmer Weeks went by, snorting and puffing angrily, like some wild animal, his eyes straight ahead. He never looked at the cave, or in their direction, but the next man, one employed about the hotel, seemed to have his eyes fixed directly on the branches. Bessie thought he looked suspicious. She was sure that he had spied the device, and was about to call to Farmer Weeks. But, when he was still a few feet off, he tripped over a root, and sprawled on his face, and, if he had ever really had any suspicions at all, the fall seemed to drive them from his mind effectually. He picked himself up, laughing, since the fall had not hurt him, and, after he had shouted back a warning to two men who followed him, he went on, dusting himself off.
The root had been good to the fugitives, sure enough, for the men who followed kept their eyes on the ground, looking out for it, since they had no desire to share the tumble of the man in front, and neither of them so much as looked at the cave.
"My, but they"re brave men!" said Jack. "Three of them, all to chase one little girl!"