That evening some city friends called at the hotel to see the Parkes and Davises, and wishing the children to get a good night"s sleep, the parents decided to receive the callers in a parlor downstairs, and turn down the lights in their own parlor.
After they had gone down, George felt so restless he could not keep quiet, so he slipped out of bed and went out to the parlor to amuse himself. The lights were turned up again, and a souvenir book of the Woolworth building was found on the table. This book had been purchased when they were up in the tower, but so much had been crowded in the few days in the city, that no one had taken time to look at the pictures.
Now, however, George found the pictures and text very entertaining for want of company or something better to do. He pored over the ill.u.s.tration of the tower, wondering at the great height of the structure, and the manner in which it was built.
He sat in a corner of the comfortable couch, his bare feet sticking out from his new pajamas purchased that very day. As he read the book, his eyelids drooped several times, but George always fought off sleep to the very last moment, so he bravely refused to give in to it now.
Suddenly, as he turned a page of the book, he heard a stealthy step behind him, coming from the open window. He turned just in time to see a masked face lean over the couch, and then a great bony hand reached out and grabbed him under the arms and lifted him up.
George immediately essayed to scream for help, but a hand was placed over his mouth, while the man growled: "You help me gag him, then we"ll tie this towel tight about his wrists and ankles."
This was done, while poor George was helpless to defend himself. He wondered if George Washington ever had such a cowardly game played on him.
"Now we"ll sneak downstairs with him and watch our chance to get away,"
whispered the man to his accomplice.
George felt himself carried to the door, but in a sudden twist of his body he managed to slip out of the villain"s grasp, and in rolling upon the floor, he upset a stand with a jardiniere of flowers on it. This crashed down and woke up the other children, which was just what George wanted.
The two rascals quickly caught up their victim again, and rushed out, leaving the door wide open. The three other children were heard running out and calling "George! George!" but he could not reply.
Just as the two men reached the head of the stairs, the three pajamaed children ran out in the hall and saw them carrying George away. He saw them follow and heard them scream for help, but he himself was helpless to move or utter a sound.
Down the many flights of stairs the two men now rushed with their burden, the three night-dressed children running after. On the main floor, they fled down the wide marble ornamental stairs and through the lobby, throwing people right and left as they rushed madly for the door.
The three white-robed friends of George followed close at the heels of the villains.
A hue and cry then started, and as the men reached the curb to jump into a waiting taxicab, the people of the hotel and the crowds on the street joined in the chase. The Parkes and Davises, and the children as well, all ran screaming to the sidewalk, yelling to every one to stop the runaways. George could hear this until the cab turned the corner and tore down Broadway.
As the reckless driver flew downtown, George held his breath in constant fear of being smashed to atoms by colliding with a trolley or automobile crossing one of the many streets.
Down the densely-thronged thoroughfare flew the cab, the police whistling signals for it to stop, and shooting revolvers at the tires to cause a puncture, but, strange to say, the cab escaped without a single damage to windows or tires.
By the time the runaways reached Union Square, a long mob of people were tearing after them, all in hot pursuit of the villains. In the foremost ranks ran the parents and the bare-footed, night-robed children. George heard the men say so, as they watched from the window in the back.
Down Fifth Avenue went the cab until it reached Washington Square. Under the famous Washington Arch it flew, one wheel striking the base and causing the cab to swerve. As it righted itself again, one of the wheels came loose, and so on down, down they tore in constant danger of throwing the wheel and being flung into a stone building or a pa.s.sing trolley.
That fearful shaking and fear almost made George sick, but he remembered how Washington must have felt when everything seemed against him and his country. "Did he give up and let Howe get away with him and his army?
No, siree! He did not. Neither will I!" thought George.
Finally the cab reached City Hall Park, and around the park it flew, while the two men wondered where they could go with their captive.
"Can"t cross the bridge without being arrested, you know. They have guards there," said one.
"Can"t go across to Liberty Island at this time of night. Can"t go anywhere except to the Woolworth Tower!" said the other.
"Just the place! If any one follows we will drop him off!" threatened the first man.
So the cab pulled up by the side entrance to the Woolworth building, and the two men hustled George on an elevator inside, and made the man send the elevator to the top where the room was that visitors had to pa.s.s through to reach the tower. Here they found the man asleep, as no visitors were expected that night.
They bundled George on the tiny elevator that ran to the very tip-top of the tower, and one of the rascals ran it up. Then they went out on the narrow balcony that circled the tower. As they walked around here, dragging George by the belt of his pajamas, they watched the mob tearing across City Hall Park in pursuit.
George could look over the parapet, and he was sure he saw his mother in front, calling to him, "way up in that tower. He wanted to a.s.sure her that he was brave and would be all right, but one of the men thought he was signalling to his friends.
"What shall we do if some of them follow us up here and try to catch us?" wondered one of the men.
"We"ll warn them--we"ll throw him over if they try to come up!" said the other, shaking a fist at the crowds in the park.
Meantime, as many as could get on the elevators, did come up to the room, but the small elevator that ran to the tower would only hold five or six at a time, and there was no one to run it. The man who slept in the chair could not be roused, so Mr. Parke said he would run the lift to the top.
The two villains threatened in vain--George"s father started for the balcony to save his son. Then the men lifted George upon the stone guard, and he could look down into the dizzy depths, where the people ran about like ants on the earth.
"If you step another inch, down he goes!" roared one of the men.
"What shall we do?" wailed Mrs. Parke, wringing her hands.
While one of the men stood guard at the door that opened on the balcony, the other carried George around to the other side of the balcony. The moment George found but one man to hold him, he squirmed and wriggled so that he soon got out of the fellow"s hold, and then he managed in some way to free his two hands.
The man tried to hold him again, but with his hands free George also managed to free his feet. Then he jumped up and defied the rascal. As the man turned to call his partner, George saw that the mayor had ordered an aeroplane from Governor"s Island to rise and save him.
Determined to hold off the two villains long enough to give the aviators time to reach the tower, George ran around and around the tower--the door leading to the balcony having been bolted on the outside by the villain on guard to keep help and friends from reaching George. Then, as the aeroplane almost flew over George"s head, the men saw it and realized that they would soon lose their prize unless they could catch him again. So one of them planned to go one way, and the other the other way, and so catch George before he could be carried off.
Fortunately for George, an experienced aviator flew the machine, and as he swooped down in a graceful loop, he dropped a tackle out and caught George in the back of his pajamas. Just as the two men met in a swift run around the balcony and b.u.mped together, they saw their victim lifted out of their grasp, and they jumped to catch hold of him.
But the plane was swiftly skimming over the city on its way to the hangars on Governor"s Island. George never dared to move or even breathe for fear that the great hook would rip the madras of his pajama coat and so let him drop.
The aeroplane reached the water, however, and was speeding over the bay to the island, when George heard an ominous r-r-rip at his back. He tried to call to his friend, the aviator, to haul him up, but the madras kept right on tearing once it started, and just as George could see the aviation field on the island, and could feel the aeroplane rapidly descending, the material in the coat gave way entirely and down plunged the luckless George into the deep water.
The mayor had very thoughtfully ordered the whistles on the bay to blow, and many scows and other craft tied up for the night, showed lights or blew whistles. Just as the coat began tearing, a powerful searchlight, called the Sperry light, shot across the bay, and when George fell, a great chorus of steam-whistles started their warning signals to ferryboats and other ships that were still pa.s.sing back and forth.
George felt himself going down, down into the water, but it was not as cold as he feared it might be. He soon bobbed up on the surface, and no sooner had his head appeared in the great flashing pathway of light shed on the bay, than a submarine shot past and a long arm lifted him out of the water and dragged him into the hold.
Down went the submarine, and George rubbed the salt water from his eyes to find himself a prisoner of some fierce-looking German pirates.
They taunted him at first, but when the captain came in from his private den, they were silenced.
"Who are you?" demanded the captain.
"I am George Washington, commander-in-chief of the American forces!"
proudly replied George.
"Yah! Such a fine prize ve never hoped to get in New York vaters.
Frents, ve sail home mit him to once, and present him to our Kaiser!"
gloated the captain, rubbing his hands together.
Immediately the men in the submarine went to work, and George felt the undersea craft fairly flying through the water. But they left him alone, never dreaming that he was a brave and determined fighter. When no one was looking, George crept over to the opening where the torpedoes were shoved in and launched. He had a desperate idea.
He managed to swing a torpedo about and slide it in the tube. Then he managed in some marvelous manner, to close the door of the tube, first seating himself astride the torpedo. He pulled with all his might on a cord that hung inside the tube, and simultaneously with the opening of the steel plate in front of the torpedo, the swift missile shot forth from the submarine.
George had no idea where it might strike, but he clung like a leech to the slippery sides, as it flew through the green waters. So swiftly did it fly that George never had a good look at the shark that swam up eager to eat him.
Suddenly something deflected the torpedo, and it rose up on the surface and skimmed over the top of the waves. Straight on for Brooklyn Heights the awful explosive went, and all George could see was General Howe giving the sign to hang Nathan Hale to a telegraph pole, when the torpedo struck and blew all of Long Island into the air. George rose with it, and while he tried to catch his breath, the great American eagle flew over his head and stretched out a claw. He was firmly held in this clutch, and carried dangling over the East River and right up to the cupola of City Hall, where the eagle had built a nest, all unknown to the citizens.