Huldah"s heart sank with overwhelming sorrow. Was she really to be given up? was she to leave her new home, her new happiness, her work, Mrs. Perry, Miss Rose,--all to go back to the old torture? Oh no, it could not be. She could never bear it! Mrs. Perry spoke as if she would have to; but what would she herself do there alone? She would be almost frightened to death.
Poor Huldah grew frantic. "I am not going. I can"t go, and Miss Rose said you can"t make me. I am not yours. Oh, Miss Rose, Miss Rose do come and save us!"
With a little whimper of pain d.i.c.k crawled out of his corner and came towards her. He seemed to realise that his little mistress was in danger, and he meant to stand by her.
"Shut up your noise!" shouted her "uncle," and dealt her another sharp blow on the side of the head.
Mrs. Perry screamed, and fell fainting into the chair, and with the same Tom Smith picked up Huldah in his arms and made for the door.
The sound of footsteps and bitter cries died away in the lane, and a deep oppressive silence followed. The kettle sang and boiled and bubbled over, the supper burnt in the pan, the fire died down, and still that senseless form lay huddled up in her chair, her white face turned upwards to the ceiling, as though beseeching help.
Minutes pa.s.sed before any sign of life came back to her, and with a shuddering sigh she opened her eyes again. At first she was dazed, and her mind a blank, then the open door, the empty room, the stillness, brought all back to her in a sudden overwhelming rush of sorrow.
For a few moments she sat, weak, white, and trembling, trying to think; then rising stumblingly to her feet she picked up her shawl, and wrapping it over her head and shoulders, she groped her way out of the house, down the garden, and out into the darkness of the night.
Stumbling, tottering, having to pause every few minutes, to rest her shaking limbs and gasp for breath, she made her way up the lane.
She must find Miss Rose. Miss Rose must know, Miss Rose would help them! Oh it _must_ come right! She could not lose her child and d.i.c.k. She could not live without them now!
Tears welled up, and poured down her ashy face, as she thought of those two, and what they might be enduring now.
"Dear Father, protect them!" she prayed. "Dear Jesus, take care of them!" and all the way she went her pleadings beat at Heaven"s gate for the two poor waifs she so loved. "Dear Jesus, protect them, and bring them back to me. I love them so, and they are all I have."
Her heart laboured so heavily she could scarcely breathe, her head throbbed distractingly, her limbs shook so much under her that she could scarcely drag herself along. Every now and then she fancied she heard a scream or Huldah"s sobs; then again she thought she heard d.i.c.k"s bark, and each time she stopped and listened, and gazed into the darkness, but presently the loneliness and darkness so oppressed her that she could not bring herself to stop again. All she could do was to stumble onward until the vicarage was reached, and arrived there she sank down on the doorstep exhausted. The fright and the walk, so long for her, had nearly killed her.
Dinah came quickly to the door, in response to the frightened frantic knock, and as she opened it Martha Perry fell in at her feet, faint and helpless.
"My--Huldah"--she panted, "he"s found her; he"s taken her--away--and d.i.c.k too! Help me--to--" then, as they raised her and carried her into the kitchen, she lost consciousness entirely.
When she opened her eyes again Miss Rose was standing beside her.
"Huldah! where"s my Huldah?" she cried, her poor eyes filling with tears. "What--can we do?"
Miss Rose"s face was very white, but her eyes were brave and smiling.
"It"s all right, Martha, dear. She will be back with you to-morrow, I hope. We have sent to the police; they are to take the matter up, and see it through, and we have telegraphed to Belmouth, and Woodleigh, and Crinnock, to tell the police there to look out for the man, and stop him."
Mrs. Perry moaned with disappointment, she could not help it, when she thought of poor Huldah, every moment going further and further from them all. Longing, hoping, expecting every moment that someone would overtake them and save her, straining her ears to hear help coming,--and then, at last, in utter hopeless despair realising that she was left to herself, helpless, broken-hearted! She would not know that it was only for one night, and that help was coming in the morning.
Martha tried to smile back at Miss Rose, and to seem pleased, but her misery was too great. Then an idea came to her, which brought her swiftly to her feet, with new hope in her heart. Perhaps, oh, perhaps, Huldah and d.i.c.k might manage again to escape! If they did, they would go to her, surely! Of course she should be at home to receive them! She told Miss Rose, and though Miss Rose scarcely believed it possible, she thought it kinder to humour her,--besides which there was just the chance,--a chance which could not be missed.
So the two went back to the cottage, where the lamplight still shone out cheerfully through the open door. For a moment hope leaped in their hearts, then a glance round the little kitchen a.s.sured them that it was deserted still, and hope died down again.
"Never mind; morning will soon be here," said Miss Rose, hopefully, "and "joy cometh with the morning." Now I am going to make up a good fire, and I will read to you, and you must try, Martha, dear, to listen, and not to think of anything else."
She made Martha comfortable in the old armchair, with her feet upon a stool, and a shawl about her knees, then she took down the well-worn Bible, and began to read. Her sweet voice rose and fell evenly, soothingly; for more than an hour she read on, unwearied, never faltering, selecting all the most helpful and comforting pa.s.sages she could find; and by-and-by Martha Perry"s face grew less drawn and anxious, her sad eyes grew tired, then the lids closed in a blessed, peaceful slumber, and Miss Rose"s voice ceased, and silence fell on the little cottage.
The night sped on, the cold grew greater, the darkness deeper.
Miss Rose sat quietly at the table, the open Bible before her, keeping watch over the sleeping woman and the fire, her ear always alert for a sound outside. Her hearing grew so strained that over and over again she thought she heard footsteps coming, Huldah"s quick, brisk step and d.i.c.k"s pat-pat patter; again and again she tip-toed to the door, and opening it wide peered out into the darkness. But no real sound broke the silence, save the hoot of an owl, and by-and-by the chirping of the waking birds.
Then at last day dawned, and streaks of light appeared in the sky, turning presently to a glorious fiery radiance, as the sun rose, flooding the sky and all the world with brightness and with hope.
Martha Perry stirred stiffly in her chair, and opened her eyes.
"Oh, Miss Rose, I"ve been asleep, and left you keeping watch all by yourself! Oh, I am ashamed!"
"Not by myself, Martha. I had this," laying her hand on the open Bible, "and I felt G.o.d nearer me than ever in my life before, I think. He is going to help us, I know. I feel that He has given me His word this night!"
"She has not come?" sighed Martha, glancing round the kitchen, as though expecting to see Huldah hiding somewhere. "Oh, what a night of misery she must have endured!"
"She has not come yet, but she is coming, and brownie is very brave, Martha, and patient and hopeful. She has the blessed gift of making the best of what can"t be helped, and she has a wonderful faith.
Look, Martha, look at the sky, does it not already sing to us "joy cometh with the morning"?"
Martha Perry walked to the door and looked out, and even her timid, doubting heart could not but feel calmed and comforted.
""G.o.d"s in His heaven: All"s right with the world,"" quoted Miss Rose, softly, as they stood there together. And already help was on its way to Huldah.
CHAPTER IX.
TO THE RESCUE.
When Bob Thorp awoke that same morning about six o"clock, his first thought was that he had six shillings in his pocket. Six shillings got without working for them, so that he had every right to look on them as an extra, and spend them on himself.
Having made up his mind on this point, he lay for a happy half-hour, thinking how he should lay it out to get most pleasure out of it.
"Why, I know!" he almost exclaimed aloud, as a particularly pleasant idea struck him. "I"ll go to the big football match at Crinnock.
It"s going to be a clipper, they say. Ain"t I glad I thought of it!
I shall have just enough to do it comfortably."
The idea so excited him that he jumped out of bed then and there, and, banging at his poor mother"s door, he bade her get up sharp, and light the fire, and get the breakfast, because he had to be off early. Then he dressed himself in the best he"d got, and presented himself in the kitchen.
In answer to his mother"s surprised looks and questionings, he explained that he had to go away on business, in search of a job, and must look his best; and his mother, rejoicing in the prospect of a day of freedom from him, cooked him the last egg she had, and gave him as big a breakfast as he could eat; and he ate it heartily, without a qualm of conscience for his deception towards her.
At the railway station he met quite a crowd, all going in the same direction as himself; neither the darkness nor the cold could affect their energy or spirits, and Bob"s spirits rose too, as he followed the stream of travellers into the little gas-lit booking office for his ticket.
"Third return, Crinnock," he said, loudly, tossing a shining new florin on to the counter.
At the sound of it the booking clerk half hesitated in stamping the ticket he held in his hand, glanced sharply at the florin, and hurriedly picking it up, scanned it closely.
"Bad "un," he said, shortly, handing it back to Bob. "Ninepence, please." Then, seeing the look of blank dismay on Bob"s face, he added, "Been had?"
Bob"s cheeks were white, and his hand shaking, as he dived in his pocket for the other two florins,--the only money he possessed in the world. He saw himself tricked, cheated out of a day"s pleasure, made to look small in everyone"s eyes.
He turned out the two other florins upon the counter, and at the first ring of them on the wood he knew the truth, and his pa.s.sion blazed out fiercely against the man who had fooled him under cover of the darkness.
"I"ll have the law of him!" he stammered, almost speechless with anger. "I know where he is, or pretty near, and I"ll set the p"lice on him, I will. Why--why--I might have been had up myself for trying to pa.s.s bad money! Oh I"ll make him sorry he ever tried his games on me, I will!"
Back through the waiting crowd Bob elbowed his way, in search of a policeman. His disappointment about the football match was swallowed up in his longing for revenge.
"Look here, bobby," he said, going up to the constable who was standing on the platform to see the crowd off peacefully. "Look at this!" thrusting the coins under his very nose. "Bad money, that"s what "tis,--pa.s.sed off on me last night! But I know who done it, and where he is,--leastways where he was last night, and he can"t have got so very far. He"s Tom Smith, the hawker, and he"d got his van in a field nigh "pon the top of Woodend Lane last night--put it there without a with-your-leave or a by-your-leave! Trespa.s.sing, that"s what he was, and that"s another thing you can have him up for.