Now they felt the train stand still and then begin slowly to move backwards, which only hastened their flight. But there is an end to everything, and presently the last sleeper had been pa.s.sed through, and they emerged, hot and breathless, into the baggage-car, immediately behind the engine. Here for the first time they found an open door, the vestibules having all been tightly closed.
Spotts, who led the way, wasted no time in explanation, but making one dash at the burly baggage-master who confronted him, gave him a blow that sent him flying backwards. At the same instant he managed to trip up his a.s.sistant, causing the two men to come down on the floor together, bringing with them in their fall two bicycles and half a dozen crates of eggs.
Grasping any light luggage he could seize, Friend Othniel added this to the heap, while Spotts, throwing open the great door in the side of the car, cried:
"Jump for all you"re worth!"
Smith stood cowering on the edge of the door-sill, little relishing the prospect of a wild leap into the night. But the Quaker, who had no time to waste on arguments, smashed down the top bicycle with one hand, thus placing his two opponents on their backs on the floor, and swinging round at the same moment, delivered a kick to the tragedian which sent him flying into outer darkness after the manner of a spread eagle.
The train was only just moving, and Spotts sprang quickly to the ground, and, running alongside the car, called to Miss Arminster to jump into his arms, which she promptly did. Putting her to one side out of the reach of the train, he ran forward to receive Mrs. Mackintosh; but that good lady, being unaccustomed to such acrobatic feats, and arriving with more force than precision, completely bowled him over, and they went flying into s.p.a.ce together. Banborough and Friend Othniel followed almost immediately, and, both trying to get out of the door at the same time, collided with considerable force, and performed a series of somersaults, landing with safety, but emphasis, in a potato-patch.
As the engine swept by them, Cecil sat up and surveyed the scene. It certainly was an unusual situation, and the half-light of the early morning only served to make their att.i.tudes the more grotesque. The party was scattered at large over the field in question. Smith, on one knee, was rubbing the bruised portions of his body. Miss Arminster, who had landed safely on her feet, was standing with both hands clasped to her head, an att.i.tude suggesting concussion of the brain, but which in reality betokened nothing more dreadful than an utter disarrangement of her hair. Spotts had a.s.sumed an unconventional att.i.tude at her feet, while the Quaker, face down, with hands and legs outspread, seemed to be trying to swim due north.
Directly opposite the Englishman, seated erect and prim on what had once been a hill of potatoes, her bonnet perched rakishly on one ear, and her grey toupee partially disarranged, hanging with its sustaining hairpins over her eyes, was Mrs. Mackintosh, firmly grasping in one hand her green silk parasol which she had never relinquished.
As Banborough met her gaze, she demanded sternly:
"What next, young man, I should like to know?"
"Really, Mrs. Mackintosh," he replied, "if for no other reason, you ought to be deeply indebted to me as a purveyor of new sensations."
"This is not a time for levity, sir," remarked that lady sternly, dropping her parasol and hastily restoring her toupee to its original position, "and I consider it perfectly disgraceful that you should cause a lady of my character to be arrested in a potato-patch at four o"clock in the morning!"
"That"s just what I"ve been endeavouring to prevent," he said. "I believe this to be Canada."
"Then Canada"s a very poor sort of a country," she replied snappishly.
The others now approached them, and all eyes were turned to the railroad station a few hundred yards distant, which was alive with bobbing lanterns. Presently a cl.u.s.ter of lights detached itself from the rest and came towards them.
"Do you think they"re going to arrest us?" asked Miss Arminster timidly.
"Don"t you be afraid, miss," returned Friend Othniel. "You just let me run this circus, and I"ll get you out all right and no mistake."
The party now came up to them. It consisted of the station-master, the conductor, several trainmen, and the two policemen.
"Here!" said the conductor. "What did you mean by pulling the cord and starting the train?"
"Because we was anxious to see the beauties of Canady," replied the tramp.
"Ah, I thought as much," said one of the policemen.
"I am afraid," added the other, "we shall be obliged to persuade you and your party to stay in the United States for a while. You may consider yourselves under arrest."
"Thank yer," said the tramp sweetly.
"So, to save trouble," continued the officer, "you might as well come back quietly with us to the station."
"Yah!" retorted the tramp. ""Will yer walk into my parlour?" said the spider to the fly. I knows that game, and I guess the climate o" Canady suits my const.i.tution."
"Nonsense!" replied the policeman. "You aren"t over the border by about two miles."
"Oh, ain"t we?" said the tramp. "Just oblige me, then, by putting them bracelets which I sees hangin" out o" your pocket on my wrists." And he held out his hands.
The policeman looked sheepish, whispered something to his companion, and presently they turned their backs on the party and walked away in the direction of the station.
"We"s so stuck on this piece o" land," called Friend Othniel after them, "that we thinks o" farmin" it permanently. Come back and spend Christmas with us, won"t yer?"
The officers did not deign to notice these remarks, and a few moments later the train swept by them on its way to Montreal, the baggage-master and his a.s.sistant giving their views on the party in general as they pa.s.sed.
The day now really began to break in earnest, bringing with it a cold, damp chill, which seemed to penetrate to their very marrow. Spotts took off his coat and wrapped it around the shivering Violet--an act of chivalry which made Banborough curse his own thoughtlessness. But Spotts"s endeavours to promote the comfort of the company did not end here. He roused Friend Othniel into action, and succeeded in collecting a little stubble and underbrush, and with the aid of a few matches they made an apology for a fire, round which the forlorn party huddled. But, damp with the early dews, the brush gave out more smoke than flame, only serving to emphasize their discomfort.
The increasing light showed them something of their surroundings. At distances varying from a mile to a mile and a half a few dilapidated dwellings peeped out of a fringe of woods. Everything else was pine-swamp, with the exception of the one small field of potatoes in which they were encamped, and which stood out as an oasis in the wilderness. Through the midst of the landscape straggled a muddy road, hopelessly impa.s.sable for foot-travellers. Certainly the outlook was not cheering.
It was therefore with a feeling of positive relief that they perceived shambling towards them the uncouth figure of the station-master. He paused on the edge of the patch, with one hand embedded in his shock of hair, and the other grasping a large piece of chalk, and surveyed the party critically.
"Say," he began after a few moments" silence, "them"s my potatoes you"re a-settin" on."
The tramp growled something unintelligible, and the others vouchsafed no reply whatsoever.
"I guess it must be purty damp out in that field," continued the station-master, "specially for the ladies, and I thought as how I"d let yer know as I was a-makin" some coffee over to the station, and yer could come and get it if yer liked."
"Yes, and get arrested into the bargain," said Spotts.
"I thought of that," replied the man, "and so I"ve drawed a line onto the platform with this piece of chalk, jest where the boundary be, and so long as yer stays to the northard of it yer can"t be ketched."
"How are we to know that that is just the boundary?" asked Banborough.
""Pears to me you"re mighty "spicious. Anyhow, thar"s the line and thar"s the coffee. Yer can take it or leave it, jest as yer likes."
"I"d make it worth your while to bring it to us down here," said Cecil.
"Humph!" returned the maker of beverages. "I don"t go totin" coffee all round the country, and I"d like to remind yer as potatoes ain"t eggs and don"t need no hatchin", so the sooner you gets through settin" on "em the better I"ll be pleased." And turning his back he slouched away to the station.
"What do you think about it?" said Banborough to Spotts.
"I think it"s a plan," replied the actor. "A New England farmer never misses a chance of making a penny when he can do so, and that fellow would have been glad enough to sell his coffee to us at a fancy price anywhere we chose to drink it if he hadn"t been offered more to entice us up to the station."
"Well, I"m not going to pa.s.s the rest of my days on top of a potato-hill," said Mrs. Mackintosh spitefully. "I"m so stiff now I can hardly move."
"Yes, I don"t think there"s much to wait for," agreed Cecil. "But where shall we go?"
"To the next station, I guess," said the tramp. "But in Canady that"s as likely to be thirteen miles as it is two, and this track ain"t ballasted for a walking-tour."
The fair Violet heaved a deep sigh.
"What is it?" asked Banborough anxiously. "Don"t you feel well?"
"I do feel a little faint," she replied, "but I dare say I"ll be better in a minute. I shouldn"t have sighed, only I was thinking what an old wretch that station-master is, and how good that coffee would have tasted."