After taking off her things, she asked, "Where"s Zell?"
"Lying down, I think," said Laura. "She complained of not feeling well this afternoon."
But Hannibal"s anxious face in the door now caught her attention, and she joined him at once.
"Didn"t you meet Miss Zell?" he asked in a whisper.
"Meet her? No," answered Edith, excitedly.
"Dat"s quare. She went out with hat and shawl on a little while ago.
P"raps she"s come back, and gone upstairs again."
Trembling so she could hardly walk steadily, Edith hurried to her room, and there saw Zell"s note. Tearing it open, she only read the first line, and then rushed down to her mother and Laura, sobbing:
"Zell"s gone."
"Gone! Where?" they said, with dismayed faces.
Edith"s only reply was to look suddenly at her watch, put on her hat, and dart out of the door. She saw that there were still ten minutes before the evening boat pa.s.sed the Pushton landing, and remembered that it was sometimes delayed. There was a shorter road to the dock than the one through the village, and this she took, with flying feet, and a white but determined face. It would have been a terrible thing for Van Dam to have met her then. She seemed sustained by supernatural strength, and, walking and running by turns, made the mile and a half in an incredibly short s.p.a.ce of time. As she reached the top of the hill above the landing, she saw the boat coming in to the dock. Though panting and almost spent, again she ran at the top of her speed. Half-way down she heard the plank ring out upon the wharf.
"Stop!" she called. But her parched lips uttered only a faint sound, like the cry of one in a dream.
A moment later, as she struggled desperately forward, there came, like the knell of hope, the command:
"All aboard!"
"Oh, wait, wait!" she again tried to call, but her tongue seemed paralyzed.
As she reached the commencement of the long dock, she saw the lines cast off. The great wheels gave a vigorous revolution, and the boat swept away.
She was too late. She staggered forward a few steps more, and then all her remaining strength went into one agonized cry:
"Zell!"
And she fell fainting on the dock.
Zell heard that cry, and recognized the voice. Taking her hand from Mr. Van Dam"s arm, she covered her face in sudden remorseful weeping.
But it was too late.
She had left the shelter of home, and ventured out into the great pitiless world on nothing better than Van Dam"s word. It was like walking a rotten plank out into the sea.
Zell was lost!
CHAPTER XX
DESOLATION
Not only did Edith"s bitter cry startle poor Zell, coming to her ear as a despairing recall from the battlements of heaven might have sounded to a falling angel, but Arden Lacey was as thoroughly aroused from his painful revery as if shaken by a giant hand. He had been down to meet the boat, with many others, and was sending off some little produce from their place. He had not noticed in the dusk the closely-veiled lady; indeed, he rarely noticed any one unless they spoke to him, and then gave but brief, surly attention. Only one had scanned Zell curiously, and that was Tom Crowl. With his quick eye for something wrong in human action, he was attracted by Zell"s manner. He could not make out through her thick veil who she was, in the increasing darkness, but he saw that she was agitated, and that she looked eagerly for the coming of the boat, also landward, where the road came out on the dock, as if fearing or expecting something from that quarter. But when he saw her join Van Dam, he recognized his old bar-room acquaintance, and surmised that the lady was one of the Allen family. Possessing these links in the chain, he was ready for the next. Edith"s presence and cry supplied this, and he chuckled exultantly:
"An elopement!" and ran in the direction of the sound.
But Arden was already at Edith"s side, having reached her almost at a bound, and was gently lifting the unconscious girl, and regarding her with a tenderness only equalled by his helplessness and perplexity in not knowing what to do with her.
The first impulse of his great strength was to carry her directly to her home. But Edith was anything but ethereal, and long before he could have pa.s.sed the mile and a half, he would have fainted under the burden, even though love nerved his arms. But while he stood in piteous irresolution, there came out from the crowd that had gathered round, a stout, middle-aged woman, who said, in a voice that not only betokened the utmost confidence in herself, but also the a.s.surance that all the world had confidence in her:
"Here, give me the girl. What do you men-folks know about women?"
"I declare, it"s Mrs. Groody from the hotel," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Tom Crowl, as this delightful drama (to him) went on from act to act.
"Standin" there and holdin" of her," continued Mrs. Groody, who was sometimes a little severe on both s.e.xes, "won"t bring her to, unless she fainted "cause she wanted some one to hold her."
A general laugh greeted this implied satire, but Arden, between anger and desire to do something, was almost beside himself. He had the presence of mind to rush to the boat-house for a bucket of water, and when he arrived with it a man had also procured a lantern, which revealed to the curious onlookers who gathered round with craning necks the pale features of Edith Allen.
"By golly, but it"s one of them Allen girls," said Tom Crowl, eagerly.
"I see it all now. She"s down to stop her sister, who"s just run away with one of those city scamps that was up here awhile ago. I saw her join him and take his arm on the boat, but wasn"t sure who she was then."
"Might know you was around, Tom Crowl," said Mrs. Groody. "There"s never nothing wrong going on but you see it. You are worse than any old woman for gossip. Why don"t you put on petticoats and go out to tea for a livin"?"
When the laugh ceased at Crowl"s expense, he said:
"Don"t you put on airs, Mrs. Groody; you are as glad, to hear the news as any one. It"s a pity you turned up and spoiled Mr. Lacey"s part of the play, for, if this one is anything like her sister, she, perhaps, wanted to be held, as you--"
Tom"s further utterance was effectually stopped by such a blow across his mouth, from Lacey"s hand, as brought the blood profusely on the spot, and caused such disfigurement, for days after, that appropriate justice seemed visited on the offending region.
"Leave this dock," said Arden, sternly; "and if I trace any slander to you concerning this lady or myself, I will break every bone in your miserable body."
Crowl shrank off amid the jeers of the crowd, but on reaching a safe distance, said, "You will be sorry for this."
Arden paid no need to him, for Edith, under Mrs. Groody"s treatment, gave signs of returning consciousness. She slowly opened her eyes, and turned them wonderingly around; then came a look of wild alarm, as she saw herself surrounded by strange bearded faces, that appeared both savage and grotesque in the flickering light of the lantern.
"O, Heaven! have mercy," she cried, faintly. "Where am I?"
"Among friends, I a.s.sure you, Miss Allen," said Arden, kneeling at her side.
"Mr. Lacey! and are you here?" said Edith, trying to rise. "You surely will protect me."
"Do not be afraid, Miss Allen. No one would harm you for the world; and Mrs. Groody is a good kind lady, and will see you safely home, I am sure."
Edith now became conscious that it was Mrs. Groody who was supporting her, and regained confidence, as she recognized the presence of a woman.
"Law bless you, child, you needn"t be scared. You have only had a faint. I"ll take care of you, as young Lacey says. Seems to me he"s got wonderfully polite since last summer," she muttered to herself.
"But where am I?" asked Edith, with a bewildered air; "what has happened?"