CHAPTER XXV.
SAVED!
Professor Ruggles had not been remiss in his judgment. It was MadgeScarlet who stole his victim from his arms almost in the hour of hisdevilish triumph. She did not get on the train from the little waystation, however. She was on the train when it drew out of the greatcity by the lake, but the scheming Ruggles knew it not.
She, too, wore a veil, and was otherwise disguised, and managed not toshow herself to the man she had once called friend. Immediately on herrelease from jail she began to watch Ruggles, who kept himself out ofthe way, or walked the streets only in disguise.
She haunted the depots of the city, and was lucky enough to see himwhen he took passage. Quietly boarding the same train, she bided hertime, intent on gaining possession of the detective's sister forpurposes of her own.
The fires of insanity were already burning in the brain of theconvict's wife.
Revenge for past wrongs seemed the sole object of her life now, andthis was the incentive that placed her on the track of a fleeingvillain and his intended victim.
Madge saw Ruggles when he left the car. She watched her opportunity,and lifting the partially insensible girl, bore her swiftly to theoutside, as the train halted for a minute.
She gave vent to a chuckle as the train went thundering on its course.
She had passed from the cars on the opposite side from the depot, andconsequently was able to elude the gaze of the depot agent.
Along the track she went, pausing at times to rest, until she wasfully a mile from the station. In the shadow of a clump of trees thehag came to a halt and deposited her burden on the ground.
A moan from the drugged and helpless Nell reached her ears.
And then Mrs. Scarlet chuckled the louder.
"Good; she's coming out of her bad spell. I want her to realize herfate, else there wouldn't be the least bit of pleasure in my revenge."
Removing veil and light cloak, Mrs. Scarlet gazed down into the pallidface of poor Nell, with only hatred gleaming from her sunken, beadyeyes.
"Ho! I've outwitted the master devil himself, and now I will have youall to myself, to deal with in a way that will cut to the quick whenDyke Darrel hears of it."
Nell had on only a light summer robe under the shawl. She looked veryinnocent and beautiful as she lay there under the gaze of that humanhyena.
"Pretty's a picture," hissed the wicked Madge. "I'll all the moredelight in seeing you suffer. Ah! she is coming out of her stupor. Howdo you feel, dear?"
Nell had opened her eyes and gazed at the wicked face above her, in adazed semi-consciousness.
No answer was vouchsafed.
Then, in looking about, the gleam of steel lines under the moon's raysseemed to attract the notice of Mrs. Scarlet for the first time--thestraight lines that marked the course of the Erie road.
Their glitter seemed to offer a diabolical suggestion to MadgeScarlet.
"Ha! I have it."
Springing to her feet, she laid her arms about the slender form of thehelpless girl, and, lifting her, walked swiftly to the railway track.In the centre, between the rails, she deposited her burden.
"Revenge! sweet revenge!" cackled the hag in a blood-curdling voice.
Again the girl moved and moaned; yet she seemed unable to change herposition.
"Rest yourself comfortably, my girl; you won't be in trouble long,"muttered the demon woman, with a grin that was absolutely sickening.
Poor Nell! She lay quite still after that, between the fatal rails,only giving sign of life by a faint moan occasionally.
Mrs. Scarlet retired to her leafy covert to wait the outcome. Shecould see far beyond the track a farm-house, and near her a heap ofties, and a rude fence--the moonlight revealed everything plainly.Chuckling with hideous satisfaction, the she demon waited the comingof the express that could not be far distant. Morning was alreadybrightening the East.
Far away was the sound of a moving train. The sullen, distant roarsent a thrill to the heart of the demon woman, who crouched in thebushes to await the completion of her unhallowed revenge.
The sullen jar seemed to act like a shock of electricity on the nervesof Nell Darrel. She felt a strange and awful numbness. With a mightyeffort the girl roused herself to a consciousness of her awfulposition.
Louder and louder roared the train. It was but a mile distant now, andthe road was straight.
Nell raised her head, and resting on her hands gazed down the trackwhere, in the distance, gleamed the light of the locomotive.
"God help me!" moaned the poor girl. Then she tried to throw herselffrom the track, but she could not. Her limbs were numb, and refused toobey her will.
A wild laugh rang out on the moonlit air.
Madge Scarlet sprang up and glared through the bushes at her victimwith maniacal delight.
"Ha' ha! You cannot escape! Them pretty limbs'll be crushed and tornasunder! the white flesh cut and gashed, and that delicate body made ahorrid mass of blood and mangled fragments! THEN I will present themto you, Dyke Darrel. Ho! ho!"
Her voice was raised to a high pitch now, and even reached the ears ofthe startled Nell.
No help, no hope!
On thundered the iron monster.
On and on till the eye of the engineer catches sight of something onthe track--SOMETHING!
Quickly the engine is reversed and the air brakes come into play.
Too late!
A moan of agonized terror falls from the lips of the half dead girl,and then she sank helplessly to the ground. At the same instant helpcame from an unexpected source.
A man dashed swiftly through the moonlight and flung a heavy oak tiein front of the slackened engine.
A rumble and a jar, and then the train came to a dead stop, withinthree feet of the prostrate girl!
It was a narrow escape.
The man who had come so unexpectedly out of the shadows dragged Nellfrom her dangerous position. The engineer and fireman came down andcongratulated the young man on his presence.
"The brakes couldn't quite do it," said the engineer. "That tie savedthe girl, with no damage to the train."
"It seems to be a lucky accident all round," said the young man, whohad laid Nell on a safe spot, and now turned his attention toassisting in removing the obstruction from the rails.
"Yes. Who is she?"
"I can't say."
"Well, I must be on the way," uttered the engineer, "we are behindtime now."
By this time the conductor was on the ground, but the train wasrunning again, and he received a full explanation from the engineerafterward.
When the young man made a closer inspection of the girl he hadrescued, a cry of surprise fell from his lips.
"As I live, it is Nell Darrel!"
But she could not speak to thank him for his act, since she hadfainted.
Lifting her tenderly the young man turned his steps in the directionof the farm-house, where he had been stopping during the past twodays.
"Curse you! curse you!" were the venomous words flung after the man byMadge Scarlet.
But she dared not interfere to prevent the rescue.
When Nell Darrel again opened her eyes, it was to find herself calmlyresting on a couch in a little room, whose cozy appearance was likehome indeed. And the face that bent over her was not that of astranger. Could it be that she was dreaming?
"Thank Heaven!" murmured a manly voice, and then a mustached lip bentand pressed a clinging kiss to the cheek of poor Nell.
"Harry, dear Harry!"
Thus had the lovers met after many long months of separation.
A smile rested on the face of the fair girl as she held Harry's handwhile he talked of the past.
She explained as best she could the strangeness of her situation; buteverything was so much like a dream, it was a hard matter to reconcilesome of the events of the past few weeks.
"The end draws nigh," assured young Bernard, after a time. "If thenotorious man calling himself Ruggles wa
s on the train, he will, ondiscovering his loss, turn back, and then I will capture him."