XVIII
FLAGGED DOWN
Brockway read the President's telegram twice, folded it very small, andtucked it into his waistcoat pocket.
"That's just about what I expected he'd do, and it's a straight bluff,"he muttered. "All the same, she's not going back. And I've got to blockit without getting Burton into trouble."
There was no time for anything but the simplest expedient. He jumped offagain and ran back to the telegraph office.
"Say, Jim, that message to Miss Vennor is bulled. Ask Denver to repeatit to Beaver Brook, will you?" he said, interrupting the operator as hewas repeating the train order.
The man of dots and dashes finished the order. "Can't do it, Fred; getme into hot water up to my neck. Think of something else."
"Will you help me if I do?"
"Sure; any way that won't cost me my job."
The conductor and engineer had signed the order, but Brockway begged fora respite. "Just a minute, Halsey, while I write a message," he said,snatching a pad of blanks and writing hastily, while the conductorwaited.
"TO FRANCIS VENNOR, "Private Car 050, Denver.
"Can't you reconsider and leave Denver to-morrow morning, as previously arranged? Am quite sure Miss Vennor prefers to go on. Answer at Beaver Brook.
"FREDERICK BROCKWAY."
He tossed the pad to the operator.
"There you are, Jim; don't break your neck to make a 'rush' of it; andwhen you hear the answer coming do what you can to make it limp alittle--anything to change the sense a bit."
"I'll do it," quoth the operator; and then the conductor gave thesignal, and Brockway boarded the train and rejoined Gertrude.
"Did you think I had deserted you?" he asked.
"Oh, no; and Mr. Burton's been in to keep me company. He came to ask ifI didn't want to go back to Denver."
"Did he?" said Brockway, wondering if Burton had also had a message."And you told him no?"
"Of course I did. Haven't we made a compact?"
"Yes, but----"
"But what?"
"You said you were going to be irresponsible, you know, and I didn'tknow just where it might crop out."
"Not in that direction, you may be sure. You said we were to do as wepleased, and I don't please to go back to Denver. But Mr. Burton seemedto be quite anxious about it, for some reason. I wonder why?"
"So do I," rejoined Brockway, innocently.
Gertrude stole a glance at him, and he tried to look inscrutable, andfailed. Then they both laughed.
"You are keeping something back; tell me all about it," Gertrudecommanded.
"I am afraid you will be very angry if I do."
"I shall be quite furious if you don't. My! how close that rock was!"
The train was storming up the canyon, dodging back and forth from wallto wall, roaring over diminutive bridges, and vying with the foamingtorrent at the track-side in its twistings and turnings. The noise wasdeafening, but it was bearable, since it served to isolate them.
"Does the compact mean that we are to have no secrets from each other?"he asked, not daring to anticipate the answer; but Gertrude parried thedirect question.
"What do two people who are trying to be very young and foolish andirresponsible know about secrets?" she demanded. "You are beating aboutthe bush, and I won't have it. Tell me!"
For reply, he took the telegram from his pocket, opened it, smoothed itcarefully on his knee, and handed it to her. She read it at a glance,and a faint flush came and went in her cheek, but whether of vexation ornot he could not determine.
"You are very daring," she said, passing the square of paper back tohim, and her voice was so low that he barely caught the words.
"You told me I wasn't to do anything that I meant to do: I certainly didnot premeditate intercepting your telegrams--or answering them," headded.
"Then you have answered it? How?"
He turned the paper over and wrote his reply on the back, word for word.
"You dared to say that to my father!" she exclaimed. "How could you?"
"Under some circumstances, I think I could dare anything. But you areangry, as I said you'd be."
"Of course I am--very. I demand to be taken back to Denver this minute."
"Do you mean that?"
"Didn't I say it?"
Brockway tried in vain to read a contradiction in her face, but thesteady eyes were veiled, and it is the eyes that speak when the lips aresilent.
"I'm sorry," he began; "it meant a great deal to me, but I know it wasinexcusable. I'll go and tell Burton, and you can go back from theForks, where the trains meet."
Now Gertrude had builded upon the supposition that she was safe beyondthe reach of recall, and she made haste to retract.
"Yes, do!" she said, tragically; "make me go down on my knees and begyou not to--I'll do it, if you insist. How was I to know that you wereonly trying to humiliate me?"
The swift little recantation gave Brockway a glimpse into herpersonality which was exceedingly precious while it lasted. A man mayfall in love with a sweet face on slight provocation and withoutpreliminaries, but he knows little of the height and depth of passionuntil association has taught him. But love of the instantaneous varietyhas this to commend it, that its demands are modest and based uponthings visible. Wherefore, certain small excellences of character in thesubject, brought to light by a better acquaintance, come in the natureof so many ecstatic little surprises.
That is the man's point of view. The woman takes the excellences forgranted, and if they are lacking, one of two things may happen: a greatsmashing of ideals, or an attack of heavenly blindness. Gertrude was ofthe tribe of those who go blind; and deep down in her heart she rejoicedin Brockway's audacity. Hence it was only for form's sake that she said,"How was I to know that you were only trying to humiliate me?"
"I humiliate you!" he repeated, quite aghast at the bare suggestion."Not knowingly, you may be very sure. But about the telegram; you arenot angry with me because I was desperate enough to answer it withouthaving first shown it to you?"
"I said I was, and so I must be. But I don't see how you could have doneotherwise--not after you had promised not to let anything interfere. Doyou think Mr. Burton had a telegram, too?"
"I was just wondering," Brockway rejoined, reflectively. "I think we aresafe in assuming that he hadn't."
"I don't care; I'm not going back," said Gertrude, with finedetermination. "Papa gave me this day, early in the morning, and I'mgoing to keep it. What do you think of an irresponsible young person whosays such an unfilial thing as that?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you what I think."
"Try me and see."
"That is one of the things I don't dare--not yet."
"You'd better not abate any of your daring; you'll need it all when weget back," laughed Gertrude, speaking far better than she knew.
"To take the consequences of my impudence?"
"Yes. You don't know my father; he is steel and ice when he is angry."
Remembering the object-lesson on the station platform in Denver,Brockway ventured to dissent from this, though he was politic enough notto do so openly.
"You think he will be very angry, then?"
"Indeed I don't--I know it."
"I'm sorry; but I'm afraid he will be angrier yet, before long."
"Why?"
"You read my message: I asked him to answer at Beaver Brook. He'll bepretty sure to send you a peremptory order to turn back from ForksCreek, won't he?"
"Why, of course he will; and I'll have to go back, after all--I sha'n'tdare disobey. Oh, why didn't you make it impossible, while you weredoing it?"
"I had to do what I could; and you, and Burton, and the operator, had tobe saved blameless. But I'll venture a prediction. As well as you knowyour father, you may prepare yourself to be surprised at what he willsay. I am no mind-reader, but I'm going to prophesy that he doesn'trecall you."
"But why? I don't underst
and----"
"We are due at Beaver Brook in five minutes; wait, and you will see."
So they waited while the pygmy locomotive snorted and labored, and theyellow torrent roared and fled backward, and the gray cliffs on eitherhand flung back the clamorous echoes, and the cool damp air of thecanyon, flushed now and then with a jet of spray, blew in at the carwindows.
For the first time since her father had suggested the trip with theBurtons, Gertrude began to understand that it could scarcely have beenhis intention to give her an uninterrupted day in the company of thepassenger agent. But in that case, why had he proposed the trip, knowingthat Brockway's party would be on the train? The answer to this querydid not tarry. She had caught the surprised exclamations of theTadmorians when Brockway made his appearance, and they pointed to thesupposition that his presence on the train was unexpected. And he hadbeen evidently embarrassed; and Mrs. Burton was curiously distrait andunmistakably anxious to get them out of the way before her husbandshould return.
These things were but straws, but they all pointed to one conclusion.Her father knew, or thought he knew, that the passenger agent was tostay behind in Denver, and he had deliberately sent her away for the dayto preclude the possibility of another meeting. And when he haddiscovered that the little plan had miscarried, he had quite asdeliberately ordered her return.
Speaking broadly, the President's daughter was not undutiful; but shewas sufficiently like her father to be quickly resentful of coercivemeasures. Wherefore, when she had cleared up the small mystery to herown satisfaction, she hardened her heart and promised herself thatnothing short of a repetition of the peremptory order should make herreturn on the forenoon train. And the shriek of the engine, whistlingfor Beaver Brook, punctuated the resolve.