Shirley gasped and caught at her self-control.
"I"ve dropped my book," she stammered out wildly, "Could you stop long enough to pick it up? It was borrowed!" she ended sweetly as if by inspiration, and wondering at the steadiness of her tone when blood was pounding so in her throat and ears, and everything was black before her. Perhaps--oh, perhaps they would stop and she could cry out to the people for help.
The man rose up in his seat and looked back. Shirley cast one frightened glance back, too, and saw in that brief second that the other car had stopped and someone was standing up and looking back.
"h.e.l.l! No!" said her captor briefly, ducking down in his seat. "_Let her out!_" he howled to the driver, and the car broke into a galloping streak, the wheels hardly seeming to touch the ground, the tonneau bounding and swaying this way and that. Shirley had all she could do to keep in her seat. At one moment she thought how easy it would be to spring from the car and lie in a little still heap at the roadside.
But there were the notes! She must not abandon her trust even for so fearful an escape from her captors. Suddenly, without warning, they turned a sharp curve and struck into a rough, almost unbroken road into the woods, and the thick growth seemed to close in behind them and shut them out from the world.
Shirley shut her eyes and prayed.
CHAPTER XXIII
The next trolley that pa.s.sed the old barn after the Hollisters had left brought a maid servant and a man servant from the Graham place. The other old servant met them, and together the three went to work. They had brought with them a lot of large dust-covers and floor-spreads such as are used by housemaids in cleaning a room, and with these they now proceeded to cover all the large pieces of furniture in the place. In a very short s.p.a.ce of time the rugs and bits of carpet were carefully rolled up, the furniture piled in small compa.s.s in the middle of the rooms, and everything enveloped in thick coverings. The curtains, bric-a-brac, and even the dishes were put away carefully, and the whole big, inviting home was suddenly denuded. The clothes from the calico-curtained clothes-presses were folded and laid in drawers, and everything made perfectly safe for a lot of workmen to come into the house. Even the hay-loft bedrooms shared in this process. Only a cot was left for the old servant and a few necessary things for him to use, and most of these he transported to the bas.e.m.e.nt out of the way. When the work was done the man and maid took the trolley back home again and the other old man servant arranged to make his Sabbath as pleasant as possible in the company of his brother from the near-by farm.
Monday morning promptly at eight o"clock the trolley landed a bevy of workmen, carpenters, plasterers, plumbers, and furnace men, with a foreman who set them all at work as if it were a puzzle he had studied out and memorized the solution. In a short time the quiet spot was full of sound, the symphony of industry, the rhythm of toil. Some men were working away with the furnace that had been stored in the cellar; others were measuring, fitting, cutting holes for lead pipes; still others were sawing away at the roof, making great gashes in its mossy extent; and two men were busy taking down the old barn door. Out in front more men were building a vat for mortar, and opening bags of lime and sand that began to arrive. Three men with curious ap.r.o.ns made of ticking, filled with thin wire nails, were frantically putting laths on the uprights that the carpenters had already set up, and stabbing them with nails from a seemingly inexhaustible supply in their mouths. It was as if they had all engaged to build the tower of Babel in a day, and meant to win a prize at it. Such sounds! Such shoutings, such bangings, thumpings, and harsh, raucous noises! The bird in the tall tree looked and shivered, thankful that her brood were well away on their wings before all this cataclysm came to pa.s.s.
Presently arrived a load of sashes, doors, and wooden frames, and another load of lumber. Things can be done in a hurry if you have money and influence and the will to insist upon what you want. Before night there was a good start made toward big changes in the old barn.
Plumbers and gas-fitters and men who were putting in the hot-water heat chased one another around the place, each man seeking to get his pipes in place before the lathers got to that spot; and the contractor was everywhere, proving his right to be selected for this rush job. As soon as the lathers had finished with a room the plasterers took possession, and the old door was rapidly being replaced with a great glazed floor set in a frame of more sashes, so that the old darkness was gone entirely.
In the roof big dormer windows were taking the place of the two or three little eyebrow affairs that had given air to the hay heretofore, and the loft was fast becoming pleasanter than the floor below.
Outside laborers were busy building up a terrace, where a wide cement-floor piazza with stone foundations and low stone walls was to run across the entire front. Another chimney was rising from the region of the kitchen. A white enamel sink with a wide drain-shelf attached appeared next, with signs of a butler"s pantry between kitchen and dining-room. A delightful set of china-closet doors with little diamond panes that matched the windows was put in one corner of the dining-room, and some bookcases with sliding doors began to develop along the walls of the living-room. Down in the bas.e.m.e.nt a man was fitting stationary tubs for a laundry, and on both the first floor and the second bathrooms were being made. If the place hadn"t been so big, the workmen would have got in one another"s way. Closets big and little were being put in, and parts of a handsome staircase were lying about, until you wouldn"t know the place at all. Every evening the old servant and the neighbor next door, who used to rent the old barn before he built his own new one, came together to look over what had been accomplished during the day, and to discourse upon this changing world and the wonders of it. The farmer, in fact, learned a great deal about modern improvements, and at once set about bringing some of them to bear upon his own modest farmhouse. He had money in the bank, and why shouldn"t he "have things convenient for Sally"?
When Sidney Graham reached the city on Monday morning he scarcely took time to read his mail in the office and give the necessary attention to the day"s work before he was up and off again, flying along the Glenside Road as fast as his car would carry him. His mind certainly was not on business that morning. He was as eager as a child to see how work at the old barn was progressing, and the workmen stood small chance of lying down on their job that week, for he meant to make every minute count, no matter how much it cost. He spent a large part of Monday hovering about the old barn, gloating over each new sign of progress, using his imagination on more things than the barn. But when Tuesday arrived an acc.u.mulation of work at the office in connection with a large order that had just come in kept him close to his desk.
He had hoped to get away in time to reach Glenside before the workmen left in the afternoon, but four o"clock arrived with still a great pile of letters for him to sign, before his work would be done for the day.
He had just signed his name for the forty-ninth time and laid his pen down with an impatient sigh of relief when the telephone on his desk rang. He hesitated. Should he answer it and be hindered again, or call his secretary and let her attend to it while he slipped away to his well-earned respite? A second insistent ring, however, brought him back to duty and he reached out and took up the receiver.
"Is this Mr. Sidney Graham? Long distance is calling!"
The young man frowned impatiently and wished he had sent for his secretary. It was probably another tiresome confab on that Chicago matter, and it really wasn"t worth the trouble, anyway. Then a small scared voice at the other end of the wire spoke:
"Is that you, Mr. Graham? Well, this is Carol. Say, Mr. Graham, I"m afraid something awful has happened to Shirley! I don"t know what to do, and I thought I"d better ask you." Her voice broke off in a gasp like a sob.
A cold chill struck at the young man"s heart, and a vision of Shirley battling with the ocean waves was instantly conjured up.
"Shirley! Where is she? Tell me, quick!" he managed to say, though the words seemed to stick in his throat.
"She"s down at Washington," answered Carol. "Mr. Barnard phoned her last night. There was something special n.o.body else could take notes about, because it was for a Government contract, and has to be secret.
Mr. Barnard asked her to please go and she went this morning. Mother didn"t like her to go, but she addressed a lot of postal cards for her to write back, and one came postmarked Baltimore in this afternoon"s mail, saying she was having a nice time. But just now a call came for mother to go to the telephone. She was asleep and George was crabbing so I had to come. It was a strange man in Washington. He said he had just found three postal cards on the road addressed to mother, that all said "Help! Quick! Two men were carrying off Shirley and please to phone to the police." He took the postals to the police station, but he thought he ought to phone us. And oh, Mr. Graham, _what shall I do_? I can"t tell mother. It will kill her, and how can we help Shirley?"
"Don"t tell mother," said Graham quickly, trying to speak calmly out of his horror. "Be a brave girl, Carol. A great deal depends on you just now. Have you phoned Mr. Barnard? Oh, you say he"s in Washington? He was to meet your sister in Baltimore? He _did_ meet her you say? The postal card said she had met him? Well, the next thing is to phone Mr.
Clegg and find out if he knows anything. I"ll do that at once, and unless he has heard that she is all right I will start for Washington on the next train. Suppose you stay right where you are till half-past five. I may want to call you up again and need you in a hurry. Then you go back to the cottage as fast as you can and talk cheerfully. Say you went to take a walk. Isn"t Elizabeth with you? Well, tell her to help keep your mother from suspecting anything. Above all things don"t cry! It won"t do any good and it may do lots of harm. Get George off by himself and tell him everything, and tell him I said he was to make some excuse to go down town after supper and stay at the telephone office till ten o"clock. I may want to call him up from Washington.
Now be a brave little girl. I suspect your sister Shirley would tell you to pray. Good-by."
"I will!" gasped Carol. "Good-by!"
Graham pressed his foot on the bell under his desk and reached out to slam his desk drawers shut and put away his papers. His secretary appeared at the door.
"Get me Barnard and Clegg on the phone! Ask for Mr. Barnard or, if he isn"t in, Mr. Clegg. Then go out to the other phone and call up the station. Find out what"s the next express to Washington. Tell Bromwell to be ready to drive me to the station and bring my car back to the garage."
He was working rapidly as he talked; putting papers in the safe, jotting down a few notes for the next day"s work, trying to think of everything at once. The secretary handed him the phone, quietly saying, "Mr. Clegg on the phone," and went out of the room.
Excited conference with Mr. Clegg brought out the fact that he was but just in receipt of a telegram from Police Headquarters in Washington saying that a book with Barnard and Clegg"s address and an appeal from a young woman named Shirley Hollister who was apparently being kidnapped by two strange men in an auto, had been flung into a pa.s.sing car and brought to them. They had sent forces in search of the girl at once and would do all in their power to find her. Meantime they would like any information that would be helpful in the search.
Mr. Clegg was much excited. He appeared to have lost his head. He seemed glad to have another cooler mind at work on the case. He spluttered a good deal about the importance of the case and the necessity for secrecy. He said he hoped it wouldn"t get into the papers, and that it would be Barnard and Clegg"s undoing if it did. He seemed more concerned about that and the notes that Shirley probably had, than about the girl"s situation. When Graham brought him up rather sharply he admitted that there had been a message from Barnard that he would be detained over night probably, but he had attached no significance to that. He knew Barnard"s usual hotel address in Washington but hadn"t thought to phone him about the telegram from police headquarters. Graham hung up at last in a panic of fury and dismay, ringing violently for his secretary again.
"The next train leaves at five o"clock," she said capably, as she entered. "Bromwell has gone after the car. I told him to buy you a mileage book and save your time at this end. You have forty minutes and he will be back in plenty of time."
"Good!" said Graham. "Now call up long distance and get me Police Headquarters in Washington. No! Use the phone in father"s office please, I"ll have to use this while you"re getting them."
As soon as she had left the room he called up the sh.o.r.e again and was fortunate in getting Carol almost immediately, the poor child being close at hand all in a tremble, with Elizabeth in no less a state of nervousness, brave and white, waiting for orders.
"Can you give me an exact description of your sister"s dress, and everything that she had with her when she started this morning?" asked Graham, prepared with pen and paper to write it down.
Carol summoned her wits and described Shirley"s simple outfit exactly, even down to the little black pumps on her feet, and went mentally through the small hand-bag she had carried.
"Oh, yes!" she added, "and she had a book to read! One she found here in the cottage. It had a red cover and was called, "From the Car Behind."
Graham wrote them all down carefully, asked a few more details of Shirley"s plans, and bade Carol again to be brave and go home with a message to George to be at the phone from half-past eight to ten.
He was all ready to go to his train when the Washington call came in, and as he hurried to his father"s office to answer it he found his heart crying out to an Unseen Power to help in this trying hour and protect the sweet girl in awful peril.
"Oh, G.o.d, I love her!" he found his heart saying over and over again, as if it had started out to be an individual by itself without his will or volition.
There was no comfort from Washington Police Headquarters. Nothing more had been discovered save another crumpled postal lying along the roadside. They received with alacrity, however, Mr. Barnard"s Washington hotel address, and the description of the young woman and her belongings. When Graham had finished the hasty conversation he had to fly to make his train, and when at last he lay back in his seat in the parlor car and let the waves of his anxiety and trouble roll over him he was almost overwhelmed. He had led a comparatively tranquil life for a young man who had never tried to steer clear of trouble, and this was the first great calamity that had ever come his way.
Calamity? No, he would not own yet that it was a calamity. He was hurrying to her! He would find her! He would not allow himself to think that anything had befallen her. But wherever she was, if she was still alive, no matter how great her peril, he was sure she was praying now, and he would pray too! Yes, pray as she had taught him. Oh, G.o.d!
If he only knew how to pray better! What was it she had said so often?
"Whatsoever ye ask in my name"--yes, that was it--"I will do it." What was that talismanic Name? Ah! Christ! "Oh, G.o.d, in the name of Christ--" But when he came to the thought of her she was too exquisite and dear to be put into words, so his pet.i.tion went up in spirit form, unframed by words to weight it down, wafted up by the pain of a soul in torture.
At Baltimore it occurred to Graham to send a telegram to Barnard to meet him at the train, and when he got out at Union Station the first person he saw was Barnard, white and haggard, looking for him through the bars of the train gate. He grasped the young man"s hand as if it were a last straw for a drowning man to cling to, and demanded in a shaking voice to know if he had heard anything from Miss Hollister.
One of the first questions that Graham asked was whether Barnard had been back to the office where Miss Hollister had taken the dictation, to report her disappearance.
"Well, no, I hadn"t thought of that,"" said Barnard blankly. "What would they know about it? The fact is I was rather anxious to keep the facts from getting to them. You see they warned me that there were parties anxious to get hold of those specifications. It"s Government work, you know."
"They should know at once," said Graham sternly. "They may have inside information which would give us a clew to follow. The secret service men are onto a lot of things that we common mortals don"t suspect."
Mr. Barnard looked mortified and convinced.
"Well, what _have_ you done so far? We would better understand each other thoroughly so as to save time and not go over old ground. You have been in communication with Police Headquarters, of course?" asked Graham.
"Why, no," said the older man apologetically. "You see, I got here just in time for the train, and failing to find the young lady in the station where we had agreed to meet, I took it for granted that she had used the extra time in driving about to see a few sights in the city, as I suggested, and had somehow failed to get back in time. I couldn"t understand it because she had been quite anxious to get home to-night.
I could have caught the train myself, but didn"t exactly like to leave her alone in a strange city, though, of course, it"s perfectly safe for a steady girl like that. Afterward it occurred to me that she might have gotten on the train and perhaps I should have done so too, but there was really very little time to decide, for the train pulled out two minutes after I reached the station. I waited about here for a time, and then went over to the Continental, where my sister is stopping, thinking I would ask her to stay in the station and watch for the young lady and I would go home; but I found my sister had run down to the sh.o.r.e for a few days; so I had something to eat and while I was in the dining-room your telegram came. I was hoping somehow you had seen Miss Hollister, or had word from her, and it was all right."