"Here, Samanthy!" called Josiah, from below stairs. "Come and git me a cup of coffee. I ain"t got all day to wait around! I"ve got to git to town!"
"All right, Josh. I"ll be there right away. Now, dearie, jest you be patient, and everything will come out all right."
"But can"t I have a window open? I am almost smothered. You know I am used to almost living out doors."
"Well," then, she whispered, "wait till Josh gets off and I"ll slip up and fix you. He"s awfully fussy about some things."
There was nothing for Dorothy to do but wait. But how long it seemed!
How close the day was, as the sun opened up on that hot roof! Oh, if she did not get away, surely she _would_ go crazy!
She could hear the old farmer grumbling. Evidently he was not pleased about something. But Mrs. Hobbs was cautioning him not to speak so loud. Of course they were afraid of being overheard. "If she opens the window," Dorothy decided, "I"ll drop to the piazza roof! Then I can escape! Oh, I must escape!"
She dare not, however, make any preparations to get away until after the farmer had gone to town; until after Mrs. Hobbs had opened the window and until after--she hoped this would happen--after Mrs. Hobbs went off to the fields for her berries.
CHAPTER XVII
STRANGER STILL
"You kin mend furst rate, Betsy," complimented old Sam Dixon, as Tavia plied her needle in the little ticket office, "and do you know, I"ve taken quite a shine to you? You might be my niece if you liked. I have a penny or two, and there ain"t no pockets in shrouds."
Tavia looked up in surprise! After all, might there be "a fortune"
somewhere for her or for her family? The thought seemed too absurd.
"Why, Uncle Sam, what do you mean?" she asked.
"Even Sam Dixon can"t live forever, sis, and you know it"s sort of lonely to think, that, when he goes, there won"t be no one to think of him, like he thinks of them. That"s why I want your name and address.
But there comes the train from the city. Would you mind attendin" to the window while I run out with the mail bag?"
"Certainly I will--I know where the tickets are, and can ask you the price if any one wants to buy one." Wasn"t it queer to sell tickets?
But that was the train to the city!
"Oh, Uncle Sam!" called Tavia. "Isn"t that the train I should go on?"
"Without giving me your address?" and he was running down the platform with the mail bag. "Couldn"t you wait till the next?"
There seemed nothing else to do! But to stay longer away from camp?
Well, she might as well be content now. It was too late to get a ticket, too late to say good-bye to Sam, too late to do anything but attend to the people who came in the station after the train pulled out.
"Have you seen the carriage from the sanitarium?"
The speaker, who had just alighted from the train, addressed Tavia, but the latter was so surprised that she caught her finger in the ticket stamper. Before the little window stood a young woman in the garb of a nurse--and she wanted the carriage from the sanitarium.
"If you will wait a minute or two the agent will be back," said Tavia in her very nicest voice. "He is just putting the mail on the train."
"Dear me!" and the nurse turned away. Then she returned. "Are you his daughter?"
"No, his--his niece," quibbled Tavia. What else could she do just then? And didn"t Sam say he would adopt her?
"Well, since you are going to be around here we may as well get acquainted--I shall probably have plenty of calls at the station. I see you are the whole service outfit. The telephone, telegraph, and, I suppose, the--Press Bureau."
"Oh, yes," replied Tavia, not grasping the sarcasm of the "Press"
remark. "Uncle Sam has a great deal to attend to."
The nurse laughed to show her pretty teeth, Tavia thought. She was pretty, and her immaculate white linen was immensely becoming.
"My name is--Bell--Mary Bell," she said, "and yours is----"
"Betsy Dixon," replied Tavia. (Oh, what a tangled web we weave!)
"What a charming name--Betsy Dixon! Quite like a--bullet from Molly Pitcher"s gun," said the nurse. Tavia smiled but failed to catch the significance of that remark. Betsy was a good old name. Why like a war bullet?
"Here is the station agent," said Tavia, as Sam limped back. "Uncle Sam, have you seen the carriage from the sanitarium?"
Tavia could not overlook the joy in that name--Uncle Sam. It was so simple, and so mouth-fitting.
"Here it comes," replied Sam, also noting how nicely Tavia fell into her role. "But is this the new nurse? I have an important message for Miss Bennet. That"s her--in the carriage."
"Miss Bennet! Why, she"s my cla.s.smate! I never expected to find her, out here in the hills," spoke the stranger.
The carriage drew up to the little platform. Miss Bennet alighted and Miss Bell hurried out to meet her.
"Oh, you dear thing!"--this was very extravagant for trained and graduated nurses--"to think I should meet you here! Isn"t it just too nice!" It was Miss Bell who said that.
"Why, Mary Bell!" replied Miss Bennet. "How glad I am to see you! And what a surprise! You are the new nurse! And I never knew it. I"m just starting out on such an interesting case! A young girl, the dearest little thing, has escaped from the sanitarium, and I came out with the carriage to hunt her up. We had word last night that an old farmer--named Hobbs--had caught her. It may not be true, but I am going out there to see. It"s a lovely ride. Can you come?"
The girl who escaped! Tavia remembered Sarah"s story.
"Miss Bennet, I have a message for you," said Sam, very slowly. "It came in over the wire a half hour ago." And he handed her the yellow slip of paper.
Miss Bennet looked at it.
"Oh, my!" she gasped. "My mother!" and she dropped upon a nearby bench. "She--is--dying!"
Her face turned as white as the linen she wore. Instinctively Tavia ran for the water at the corner of the room. Miss Bell s.n.a.t.c.hed up a paper and started to fan her.
"There, dear, don"t faint," said the new nurse. "Of course, you must go to her."
"But! I must go after the escaped girl!" gasped Miss Bennet, and she again almost swooned. "Oh, my darling mother! All I have in the whole, wide world!"
"You go to her. Take my coat and hat, and I will take your case.
Agent, what time does a train leave for Mountainview?" She had the telegram in her hand.
"In just two minutes. There"s the bell now."