"Sit on my lap while it heats," Tavia told the child, not thinking it safe to allow her to move about in the small place with a strange kind of stove burning.
The child jumped up eager to hear a story. The wood-kind, full of bears with remarkable appet.i.tes, pleased her most, Tavia discovered, and it was in such a mental delight that the child pa.s.sed a very happy little "minute."
"It must be hot--" said Tavia.
She turned and at that very moment a strange flash shot up to the ceiling!
An explosion! Then such a blinding flame!
With the child still in her arms Tavia made a dash for the door.
Frantically she pulled at it but it would not open! The child screamed piteously.
"Help! Help!" shouted Tavia, clutching at the k.n.o.b with one hand, while she clung to the child with the other.
Instantly Dorothy was on her feet and down at that little door.
"Open it!" she screamed, for the smell of smoke had reached her on the outside.
Without waiting for an answer, or for those at hand to act, Dorothy jumped to a seat and grasped the bell rope.
At that moment the door gave in to Tavia"s pulling, and she fell headlong out into the aisle with the baby in her arms.
The train stopped, and brakemen were now running through the cars in search of the trouble. Pa.s.sengers had broken the tool boxes and were fighting the spreading flames with hand grenades and portable extinguishers. Fainting women called for attention--among these being Lily"s mother.
Tavia was now lifted to a seat, and Dorothy had called into her ears that the baby was safe--she was not even scratched!
But Tavia was not so fortunate, for an ugly red mark showed where the tongue of fire scorched her, and her hair--
One side was entirely burned off!
Dorothy"s heart sank as she noticed the loss, but it was nothing, of course, compared to what might have happened to the baby.
The excitement in the rear of the car had, by this time subsided somewhat, showing that the flames were extinguished. Lily, safe and uninjured, sat in her mother"s lap--no danger of her getting away again evidently.
Among the pa.s.sengers was a doctor who offered his services to Tavia.
The burns were slight, he declared but there was danger of shock, and the loss of her beautiful hair was to be regretted.
Tavia tried to laugh to a.s.sure Dorothy she was all right, and then she insisted upon talking about the accident.
"The lamp did not explode," she declared. "The fire came from the other end of the room."
The trainmen listened anxiously to this report. They were obliged to make a most careful investigation, and Tavia was very willing to help them. Professional looking men crowded around--one who introduced himself to the doctor as a well known lawyer of Rochester called Dorothy aside and offered to look out for the interests of the injured girl.
"Whatever you think best," Dorothy said, "I have never had any experience with law. But if you think we should take account of it at all I should be most grateful for your help."
Then Tavia was taken into a private compartment, and there, with Dorothy encouraging her, and the lawyer and doctor listening, she told the story of the accident.
"I had lighted the alcohol lamp," she declared, "but I am positive that did not explode. The flash came from behind us--the other end of the room. Then the door would not open--oh how dreadful that was!"
For a moment Tavia covered her eyes, then she resumed:
"I heard Dorothy"s voice and that seemed to keep me from falling in the smoke. At last the door opened and that"s all I know."
"Now, you just rest here," the doctor advised, "while Mr. French and I do some outside investigating."
Then it was that the important clew was discovered, for at the very door of the little room, where the fire had raged, was found a piece of gla.s.s with a label!
Gasoline!
"She was right," declared the lawyer, taking possession of the tell-tale piece of bottle, the railroad men would have been so glad to have seen first, "this tells the story. A bottle of gasoline exploded."
Looking carefully over the damaged room the lawyer made some entries in his note book and, with the doctor, approached Lily"s mother. The woman positively refused to make known her name, and even the railroad men had not succeeded in learning who she was.
"That my baby is safe," she declared, "is all I ask. People saw the girl coax her off, but even this I am entirely willing to overlook, and I will positively make no claims against the company."
The doctor saw the child was not in the least injured, and also was convinced there was no danger of shock to the little nervous system, as the tot looked upon the whole occurrence as "good fun," so the professional men withdrew their offer to serve either the woman or her child.
CHAPTER XXI
AT AUNT WINNIE"S
Dorothy had fastened Tavia"s hair up under her hat, so that the one long and uninjured side covered the burnt ends and hid the damage. She looked like a pretty boy, Dorothy told her, and the red line about her neck was not noticeable at all, for around the scar Dorothy had pinned her own white silk handkerchief. Except for a few tell-tale spots of "scorch" marking the back of her new dress, from her appearance Tavia might never have been suspected of being the heroine of a railroad accident.
"Oh, there is Aunt Winnie!" exclaimed Dorothy as the train stopped, and she looked out of the window near the door.
A depot wagon was drawn up to the platform, and in it sat a stylishly dressed woman.
If Tavia had felt "alarmed at the style" as she afterward told Dorothy, the moment Mrs. White grasped her hand in welcoming her to Birchland all nervousness left her, for Mrs. White had an unmistakable way of greeting her guests--she really was glad to see them. Dorothy climbed up beside her aunt, while Tavia took the spare seat at front, and it seemed to her the world had suddenly fallen from its level, everything was beneath her. She had risen physically, mentally and socially from her former self--the first ride on a box seat was an inspiration to the country girl, and Tavia felt its influence keenly.
Dorothy chatted pleasantly to her aunt, occasionally referring to something to Tavia to give her a chance to join in the conversation and Tavia noticed that Dorothy had already cheered up wonderfully.
"I suppose this is the sort of company Doro belongs in," Tavia thought.
"There is something so different about society people."
Mrs. White certainly was different. She knew exactly how to interest the girls, and she also knew how to make them feel at home. She had asked all sorts of polite questions about Dalton folks, and showed the keenest interest in the new appointment of Squire Travers. Tavia insisted that Dorothy had elected him, and this item of news Mrs. White begged Tavia would repeat to the "boys" as she declared they would be "just delighted to hear how their girl cousin managed Dalton politics."
The boys were at camp, Mrs. White told the girls, and an early visit to their quarters was among the treats promised.
From the station to the "Cedars" was but a short ride, and when the carriage turned into the cedar shaded driveway Tavia felt another "spasm" of alarm--it was such an imposing looking place.
"This is where you may play games," said Mrs. White, pointing out the broad campus behind the trees. "The boys have no end of sport hiding in the cedars, and I am sure you girls will find them jolly. There are some very pleasant neighbors at the next cottage--one young girl among them."
"This is splendid," Tavia said. "We can invent new games here. I think "tree-toad" would be a novelty."