CHAPTER XVI
THE SHADOW IN THE HEDGE
One hour later the motor party had put up safely at the Wayside, a comfortable, home-like place.
Of course the girls were disappointed that they could not enjoy any of the inn attractions that night, for a hop was in progress, but Mrs.
Robinson insisted, and the young men reluctantly agreed with her, that it was not only wisest, but actually imperative that each one of the girls go directly to her room, take a warm bath and then a hot drink, and "get right into bed."
Cora and Jack, however, had a short talk over their tea cups, Cora insisting upon knowing just what was the matter with the ignition system of her car, for she declared, since it was so simple a matter for the young men to fix, it surely could not have been difficult for her to have understood and set it right. As the trouble was really nothing more than the short circuiting of a wire, along with weak batteries, it was easy enough for Jack to explain it to her and how to remedy it.
On her part Cora had to tell her brother of the accident to the _Whirlwind_, and the sudden precipitation into the "City of the Dead,"
then the "escape" of the chauffeur, and the fright of all the party when "just girls and women" found themselves helpless and deserted in that lonely place.
Jack could not find words to express his indignation for the behavior of the man who was hired to take the party to the Wayside Inn. The ride from Chelton was one that might have been made safely under almost any road conditions, and from the Wayside to Lookout Beach the two ladies were to go by rail on the following morning.
"But suppose," ventured Cora, when, after a turn about the big porch, she was about to say good night to her brother, "that man goes back to that graveyard, and spends the night searching for us? We should have left a note, and a light at the door of the big vault."
"It would do that fellow all sorts of good to spend a night in a graveyard," returned Jack, "and, for my part, I would like to have the chance to slide a vault door shut on him, and give him an hour or so of silent meditation."
"You haven"t told me about the detectives," said Cora, who was standing at the door, reluctant to leave her brother. "What did they actually say, Jack?"
"The detectives!" he repeated vaguely. Then he recalled all about his positive engagement with the two officers--his engagement made to take Cora"s place in the interview. And he had broken his word with Cora!
"Can"t you tell me something they said?" she urged. "I know it is awfully late, and you can give me the details to-morrow, but I am so anxious to hear--just a word or two."
"Why, I didn"t see them," he blurted out, finally.
"Didn"t they come?"
"Not while I was--home."
"Then they must have been delayed--the trolleys from Squaton are so unreliable," said Cora. "I suppose they got to the house after you had started out? But I am not sorry you didn"t wait for them," she added with a sigh, "else we might still be in the graveyard."
"Oh, yes," Jack put in quickly. "It was a mighty good thing we found you, but the mean part of it was that we lost you. I had no idea of letting you get out of my sight, after we started."
He laughed strangely. But it was the thought of the detectives with the two odd women from the strawberry patch that occasioned the mirth.
"You must not laugh at us, Jack. It really was not a bit funny."
Jack put his arm about his sister. For one brief moment they stood there in the clear moonlight.
"Well, I must retire," said Cora, "although I feel more like sitting the night out. Good-night, Jack dear. We must be up with----"
She stopped. "What was that?" asked the young man, as a slight figure seemed to glide over the path at the very edge of the steps they stood facing.
"It--looked like a boy,--no, a girl," replied Cora, instinctively clutching her brother"s arm.
"There it goes," Jack indicated, as the figure almost disappeared in the thick hedge. "I thought at first the boys might be up to some prank, but that "ghost" walks too firmly to be a spirit."
"Queer for a girl to be out at this hour," reflected Cora. "I wonder who it can be, and what does she want, prowling about after midnight?"
"Want me to investigate?"
"What; run after it?"
"Or--whistle," he said jestingly.
Cora walked down the stone steps. She hesitated and listened. There was not a sound amid the leaves, through which the figure had just disappeared.
"I declare!" she said, "I feel creepy. I guess I had better go to bed.
I have had enough of ghosts for one night."
Jack went with her up the stairs and left her at the door of the room she was to occupy. But he did not go farther down the hall, to the big room in the alcove, where he and his chums were to sleep, although he noticed that blades of light were escaping under the door which meant, of course, that Ed and Walter were waiting up for him.
"I"ll just take another look for that specter," he told himself, going down the stairs noiselessly. "I rather think he, she, or it, had something to say either to me or Cora."
It was a curious thought, and Jack could not account for it, but he actually did make directly for the hedge where the streaks of moonlight fell, like silvery showers on the dark green foliage. A narrow path was outlined by a low hedge. He walked down this dark aisle, peering into the banks of green at either side.
"Who"s that?" he asked, as he distinctly heard a rustle, and at the same time saw the branches move.
No answer.
"Is there any one there?" he demanded, this time more emphatically.
Still no answer came.
Following the direction whence the movement and rustle came, Jack slipped under the hedge. As he did so a figure glided out, darted across the path, and ran toward the roadway.
As quickly as he could disengage himself from the tangled brush, Jack, too, ran down the path after the fast-disappearing shadow.
Again the figure made for the hedge.
Jack hesitated. If he followed in, the unknown one could slip out on the other side, and get away without the possibility of being overtaken.
Jack waited.
There was not a sound, or a movement.
Evidently the substance of the shadow was waiting for him to cross the hedge.
At this juncture he wished he had called the boys to aid him in the search. But it was too late to regret that omission now.
It seemed fully five minutes before either he, outside the hedge, or the figure within the green, moved. It was a silent challenge. Jack was determined now not to take the initiative.
"I can stand here until morning," he told himself. "But I will not get out of range of that person by any false move."