He hurried off as well as he could, leaving Howard in no very amiable frame of mind. He had laughed at Jack"s rhapsodies over Eloise Smith, and said to himself, "His interest in her will never be very lasting, no matter how pretty she is. Jack Harcourt and a basket-boarder! Ha, ha!
Rich. Still, I"d like to see her."
After that he had nearly forgotten her in his absorbing efforts to keep the right side of his uncle, and entertain Amy. And now she was here, and Jack was proposing to have him take her to Widow Biggs"s, which was a quarter of a mile beyond the park gates, Sam said, when consulted as to the widow"s whereabouts. There was no help for it, but he didn"t like it, and there was a scowl on his face as he waited for Jack, who came at last with Eloise and the agent, whose lantern shed a dim light on the handsomely-cushioned carriage when the door was open.
"I"m not fit to get in there, I am so wet," Eloise said, drawing back a little.
"As fit as we are," Jack replied, almost lifting her in, and tilting his umbrella till one of the sticks struck Howard in the eye, increasing his discomposure, and making him wish both Eloise and Mrs. Biggs in a much dryer place than he was.
"Now, Howard, in with you. There"s a little lull in the rain. We"ll take advantage of it," Jack continued, as he followed Howard into the carriage, where both sat down opposite Eloise, who crouched in her corner, afraid she did not know of what. Certainly not of the man who had been so kind to her, and who she wished was sitting in front of her, instead of the one who did not speak at all, except to ask Sam how the deuce they were to know when they reached the Widow Biggs"s.
"Easy enough. It is a squat-roofed house with lalock and piney bushes in the yard."
"Yes, but how are we to see a squat roof with lalocks and pineys on this beastly night?" Howard rejoined, in a tone which told that he was not antic.i.p.ating his trip to the widder Biggs"s. "Drive on, for heaven"s sake," he continued, "and don"t upset us. It is darker than a pocket."
"No, sir, not if I can help it. I never knew the horses so "fraid. Easy, Ca.s.s--easy Brute," Sam answered, as in response to a flash of lightning Brutus and Ca.s.sius both stood on their hind feet and pawed the air with terror. "Easy, easy, boys. Lightnin" can"t strike you but once," Sam continued soothingly to the restless, nervous horses, who were at last gotten safely from the station, and started down the road which lead through the village to Crompton Place.
CHAPTER IV
THE ACCIDENT
For a short time the carriage went on smoothly and swiftly through the town, where the street lamps of kerosene gave a little light to the darkness. Once out of town in the country Sam became less sure of his way, and as he could not see his hand before him, he finally left the matter to the horses, trusting their instinct to keep in the road.
"I shall know when I reach the gate, and so will Brute and Ca.s.s; but we"ve got to go farther to the Widder Biggs"s, and darned if I b"lieve they"ll know the place," he thought, with a growing conviction of his inability to recognize Mrs. Biggs"s squat roof and lilacs and peonies.
The storm which had abated for a short time was increasing again. The peals of thunder were more frequent, and with each flash of lightning the horses grew more unmanageable, until at last they flew along the highway at a speed which rocked the carriage from side to side, and began at last to alarm its occupants. Eloise in her corner was holding fast to the strap, when a lurid flame filled the carriage for an instant with a blaze of light. She had removed her hat, and her face, silhouetted against the dark cushions, startled both the young men with its beauty. It was very white, except the cheeks which were flushed with excitement. Her lips were apart, but her chief beauty was in her eyes, which were full of terror, and which shone like stars as they looked from one young man to the other.
"Oh, I am afraid. Let me out. I"d rather walk," she cried, starting to her feet and grasping the handle of the door.
"Please be quiet. There is no danger. You must not get out," Howard said, laying both his hands on hers, which he held for a moment, and pressed by way of rea.s.suring her as he pushed her gently back into her seat.
She felt the pressure and resented it, and releasing her hands put them behind her, lest in the darkness they should be touched again. The same lightning which had showed her face to Howard had also given her a glimpse of his black eyes kindling with surprise and admiration at a beauty he had not expected. A lurch of the carriage sent Jack from his seat, and Eloise felt him close beside her. Was he going to squeeze her hands, too? She didn"t know, and was holding them closely pressed behind her, when there was another flash, a deafening peal of thunder, a crash, and the next she knew the rain was falling upon her face, her head was lying against some one"s arm, and two pairs of hands were tugging at her collar and jacket.
"Do you think she is dead?" was asked, in the voice which had told her not to be afraid.
"Dead!" a second voice replied. "She cannot be dead. She must not be.
Miss Smith, Miss Smith! Where are you hurt?"
It was on the arm of this speaker she was lying, and she felt his breath on her face as he bent over her. With a great effort she moved her head and answered, "I"m not dead, nor hurt either, except my foot, which is twisted under me."
"Thank G.o.d!" Jack said, and instantly the two pairs of hands groped in the dark for the twisted foot.
"Oh!" Eloise cried, sitting upright, as a sharp pain shot from her ankle to her head. "Don"t touch me. I can"t bear it. I am afraid it is broken.
What has happened, and where is the carriage?"
"Home by this time, if Brutus and Ca.s.sius have not demolished it in their mad fright," Howard said, explaining that at the last heavy peal of thunder the horses had swerved from the road and upset the carriage at the entrance to the park; that Sam had been thrown to some distance from the box, but had gathered himself up, and gone after the horses tearing up the avenue. "I shouted to him to come back with a lantern as quickly as possible. He"ll be here soon, I think. Are you in great pain?"
"When I move, yes," Eloise replied, and then, as the full extent of the catastrophe burst upon her, she began to cry,--not softly to herself, but hysterically, with sobs which smote both Howard and Jack like blows.
It was a novel predicament in which they found themselves,--near midnight, in a thunderstorm, with a young girl on the ground unable to walk, and neither of them knowing what to do. Howard said it was a deuced shame, and Jack told her not to cry. Sam was sure to come with a lantern soon, and they"d see what was the matter. As he talked he put her head back upon his shoulder, and she let it lie there without protest.
After what seemed a long time, Sam came up with a lantern. The carriage was badly injured, he said, having been dragged through the avenue on its side. Brutus had a gouge on his shoulder from running into a tall shrub; he had hurt his arm when he fell from the box, and the Colonel was not in a very pious state of mind on account of his damaged property.
Eloise heard it all, but did not realize its import, her foot was paining her so badly. Jack had helped her up when Sam came, but she could not walk, and her face looked so white when the lantern light fell upon it, that both men feared she was going to faint.
"What shall we do?" Howard asked, standing first on one foot and then on the other, and feeling the water ooze over the tops of his shoes.
"Take her to the Crompton house, of course. It must be nearer than Mrs.
Biggs"s," Jack suggested.
Before Howard could reply, Eloise exclaimed, "Oh, no, I can hop on one foot to Mrs. Biggs"s if some one helps me. Is it far?"
The two men looked inquiringly at each other and then at Sam, who was the first to speak. In the Colonel"s state of mind, with regard to his carriage and his horses, he did not think it advisable to introduce a helpless stranger into the house, and he said, "I"ll tell you what; did you ever make a chair with your hands crossed--so?"
He indicated what he meant, and the chair was soon made, and Eloise lifted into it.
"That"s just the thing; but you"ll have to put an arm around each of our necks to steady yourself," Jack said. "So! That"s right! hold tight!" he continued, as Eloise put an arm around each neck.
Sam was directing matters, and taking up the lantern and Jack"s umbrella, which he had found lying in the mud, he said, "I"ll light the way and hold the umbrella over you. It don"t rain much now."
"My hat and satchel, please," Eloise said, but neither could be found, and the strange cortege started.
For an instant the ludicrousness of the affair struck both young men, convulsing them with laughter to such an extent that the chair came near being pulled apart and Eloise dropped to the ground. She felt it giving way, and, taking her arm from Howard, clung desperately to Jack.
"Don"t let me fall, please," she said.
"No danger; hold fast as you are," Jack answered cheerily, rather enjoying the feeling of the two arms clasping his neck so tightly.
What Howard felt was streams of water trickling down his back from the umbrella, which Sam held at exactly the right angle for him to get the full benefit of a bath between his collar and his neck. He did not like it, and was in a bad frame of mind mentally, when, after what seemed an eternity to Eloise, they came to three or four squat-roofed houses in a row, at one of which Sam stopped, confidently affirming it was the Widder Biggs"s, although he could not see the "lalock and pineys."
"Knock louder! Kick, if necessary," Howard said, applying his own foot to the door as there came no answer to Sam"s first appeal.
There was a louder knock and call, and at last a glimmer of light inside. Somebody was lighting a candle, which was at once extinguished when the door was open, and a gust of wind and rain swept in.
"Are you Mrs. Biggs?" Sam asked, as a tall figure in a very short night-robe was for a moment visible.
"Mrs. Biggs! Thunder, no! Don"t you know a man from a woman? She lives second house from here," was the masculine response.
The door was shut with a bang, and the cortege moved on to the third house, which, by investigating the lilac bushes and peonies, Sam made out belonged to the Widder Biggs. It was harder to rouse her than it had been to rouse her neighbor. She was a little deaf, and the noise of the wind and rain added to the difficulty. When she did awaken her first thought was of burglars, and there was a loud cry to her son Tim to come quick and bring his gun, for somebody was breaking into the house.
"Robbers don"t make such a noise as that! Open your window and see who"s there," was Tim"s sleepy answer, as Sam"s blows fell heavily upon the door, accompanied with thuds from Howard"s foot.
Mrs. Biggs opened her window cautiously, and thrust out her head, minus her false hair, and enveloped in a cotton nightcap.
"Who is it? What has happened? Anybody sick or dead?" she asked; and Sam replied, "Miss Smith is here with a broken laig, for"t I know!"