asTish had taught me by turning a lever on the dashboard and moving up athrottle on the wheel, what was my horror to see the car moving slowlyoff, with Aggie in the rear seat and as white as chalk.
Tish, in her patriotic fervor, had stopped the thing in gear.
I ran beside it, but was unable to get onto the running board. I thensaw Aggie, generally so timid, crawling over the back of the seat, andcalled to her to put on the brake. She did so, but not until the car hadmounted the sidewalk and struck a policeman in the back.
This would not be worth recording, as there were no immediate results,had it not been for the policeman. It brought us to his attention, andcame near to ruining Tish's plan. But of this later on.
I do not, even now, know just what arguments Tish used with Myrtle. Yes,that was her name. We had a great deal of time later on to learn hername, and all about her. The matter is a delicate one, and we have notsince discussed the events of that day. But Aggie said later on, when wewere sitting in the dark and wondering what to do next, that Tish hadprobably waited until Mr. Culver went out to look up a minister.
Whatever Tish said or did, the result was that only a short time afterAggie had jammed on the brake, they came out together, and Tish wascarrying a suitcase. Myrtle was hanging back, but Tish had her by thearm.
At first she did not see us. When she did, however, she worked her waythrough the crowd and opened the rear door.
"Get in," she said, in an uncompromising tone.
"But I really think," said Myrtle, "that I should----"
"Get in," Tish said again, firmly. "We can talk it over later."
"But are you sure he sent for me?" she demanded, looking ready to cryagain. "I think it must be a mistake. He said to wait, and he would comeback as soon as----"
It was the crowd that really settled the matter, for some one yelledthat the girl had been eloping and that her mother had caught her in theLicense Court. Most of them were men, but they called to Myrtle not tolet the old lady bully her. Also one young man said that if her youngman didn't come back she could have him and welcome. It frightenedMyrtle, and she got into the car and asked Tish to drive away quickly.
"I know it will be in the papers," she said forlornly. "And my peoplethink I am at a house party."
But the next moment I caught her looking at Tish's hat, and her lipquivered.
"I guess I'm nervous," she said, in a choking voice. "I had no idea itwas so much trouble to get married."
Tish heard her, although she had her hands full getting the car back tothe street. She said nothing until we were in the street again, andmoving away slowly.
"Then you might as well settle down and be quiet," she said. "Becauseyou are not going to be married today."
Myrtle may have suspected something before that, perhaps when she firstsaw Tish's hat, for she looked dazed for a moment, and then stood up inthe car and yelled that she was being kidnapped. Tish threw on the gasjust then, and she had to sit down, but I looked back just in time tosee Mr. Culver and the policeman standing in the center of the street,gesticulating madly.
"Little fool!" Tish muttered, and bent low over the wheel.
Well, they followed us. At the top of the first hill the girl was cryinghard, and there were eleven automobiles, Aggie counted, not far behindus. At the end of the next rise there were still ten. It was then thatTish, with her customary presence of mind, told us to scatter the tacksover the road behind us.
The result was that only four were to be seen when we got to the top ofGraham's Hill, and they had lost time and were far away. Tish was in aterrible way. Her plan had been merely to take the girl away, becauseCulver belonged in her precinct and it was her business, as ordered bythe government, to gather in all the slackers, matrimonial or otherwise.Then, after Culver had registered as a single man, he could, as Tishtersely observed later, either marry or go and drown himself. It wasimmaterial to her.
But now we were likely to be arrested for abduction, and the whole thingwould get in the papers.
"Tish," Aggie begged, "do stop and put her out in the road. That Culverand the policeman are in the first car. I can see them plainly--and theycan pick her up and take her back."
But Tish ignored her, and kept on. She merely asked, once, if we had anyscissors with us, and on Aggie finding a pair in her knitting bag, saidto get them out and have them ready.
I pause here for a moment to reflect on Tish's resourcefulness. How manytimes, in the years of our association, has her active brain come to ourrescue in trying times? And, once the danger is over, how quickly shebecomes again one of us, busy with her charities, her Sunday schoolclass, and her knitting for the poor! Indomitable spirit and Christiansoul, her only fault, if any, perhaps a slight lack of humor, that isLetitia Carberry.
"Watch for a barbed wire fence, Lizzie," she said, as we flew along."And see how near they are."
Well, they were very close, but owing to Tish leaving the macadam atthis point, they lost time at a crossroads. At the top of the next hillAggie said she could not see anything of them. It was then that Myrtletried to jump out, and would have succeeded had not Tish speeded up thecar.
I could hear Aggie trying to soothe her, and telling her that Tish wasnot insane, but was merely saving her from a terrible fate.
"I have never been married, my dear, owing to an unfortunatecircumstance," she said, in her gentle voice. "But to marry withoutlove----"
The girl sat up, startled.
"But how do you know I don't love him?" she demanded.
"I am speaking of the young man," said Aggie. "My dear child, all overthis great land of ours today, here and there are wretches who would usea confiding young woman in order----"
"Barbed wire!" said Tish exultantly, and stopped the car with a jerk. Inan instant she was out in the road, cutting lengths of barbed wire froma fence with the scissors and placing them across the road behind us.Her expression was set and tense. When she had placed some six pieces ofwire in position, she returned to the car.
"We can thank the war for that," she observed, coolly. "As long as thebarbed wire fences hold out they'll never get us."
The first car was in sight by that time, and we could see that Mr.Culver and the policeman were in it. They shouted with joy when they sawus, but Tish merely smiled, and let in the clutch. Soon after we heard aseries of small explosions, and Tish observed that the enemy attack waschecked against our barbed wire, and that she reckoned we could hold theposition indefinitely.
Aggie looked back and reported that they were both out of the car, andthat the policeman was standing on one foot and hopping up and down.
It had been Tish's intention, as I learned later, merely to take theyoung woman for a country ride, and there to strive to instill into herthe weakness and folly of being married by Mr. Culver as an exemptionplea. But as we had been making forty-five miles an hour by thespeedometer, there had been little opportunity.
However, as the last car was now standing on four rims in the barbedwire entanglement behind us, and as Tish's farm was not far ahead, sheimproved the occasion with a short but highly patriotic speech, flungover her shoulder.
"I don't believe it," said Myrtle, sullenly. "He loves me. We only ranaway today instead of some other day later because my father is leadingthe parade in my town, and mother is presenting a flag at theschoolhouse."
"Very well," said Tish. "If he loves you, well and good. When your youngman has registered, I'll see that you get married, if I have to kidnap apreacher to do it. But I'll tell you right now, I don't think you'll begetting anything worth having."
Well, Myrtle grew quieter then, and I heard Aggie saying Miss Tish nevermade a promise she could not fulfill. She then told about Mr. Wiggins,and had just reached the place where he had slipped on the eve of hiswedding and fallen off a roof, when the car stopped dead.
Tish pushed a few things on the dashboard, but it only hiccoughed twiceand then stopped breathing.
"No gasoline!" she exclaimed, in a rage. "We'll have to
run for it."
The farmhouse was in sight now, about a half mile ahead. Aggie groaned,but got out and turned to Myrtle. But Myrtle was sitting back in the carwith a gleam of triumph in her eyes.
"Certainly _not_," she said calmly.
"Very well," Tish replied. "I don't know but you are just as well whereyou are. That last car is done for, if I know anything about barbedwire, and they're not likely to chase a machine on foot. They'reprobably on their way back to town now, and I hope the policeman has tohop all the way. It's only forty miles or so."
She then started up the road, but turned:
"Bring her suitcase, Lizzie," she said. "There's no use leaving it therefor tramps to come along and steal it."
She then stalked majestically up the road, and we followed. I am not acomplaining woman, but if that girl had left any clothes at home theycouldn't have amounted to much. Aggie refused to help with the suitcase,as she had her knitting bag, and as any exertion in summer brings on herhay fever.
It was perhaps five minutes later that I heard a faint call behind me,and turned to see Myrtle coming along behind. She was not crying now,and her mouth was shut tight.
"I suppose," she said angrily, "that it does not matter if tramps get_me_."
"Miss Tish invited you to the farm," I replied.
"Invited!" she snapped. "If this is what she calls an invitation, I'dhate to have her make it a request."
However, she seemed to be really a very nice girl, although misguided,for she took one end of the suitcase. But I learned then how difficultit is for the average mind to grasp the high moral purpose and loftyconception of a woman like Tish.
"I might as well tell you now," she said, "that I don't believe they'llpay any large sum. They're not going to be very keen about me at home,since this elopement business."
"Who'll pay what sum?"
"The ransom," she said, impatiently. "You don't suppose I fell for allthat patriotic stuff, do you?"
I could only stare at her in dumb rage.
"At first, of course," she said, "I thought you were white slavers. ButI've got it now. The other game is different. Oh, I may come from asmall town, but I'm not unsophisticated. You people didn't send myfather those black hand letters he's been getting lately, I suppose?"
"Tish!" I called sharply.
But Tish had stopped and was listening intently. Suddenly she said:
"Run!"
There was a sort of pounding noise somewhere behind, and Aggie screechedthat it was the Knowleses' bull loose on the road. I thought it quitelikely, and as we had once had a very unpleasant time with it, spendingthe entire night in the Knowleses' pig pen, with the animal putting hishorns through the chinks every now and then, I dropped the suitcase andran. Myrtle ran too, and we reached the farmhouse in safety.
It was then that we realized that the sound was the pursuing car,bumping along slowly on four flat tires. Tish shut and bolted the door,and as the windows were closed with wooden frames, nailed on, we werethen in darkness. We could hear the runabout, however, thudding slowlyup the drive, and the voices of Mr. Culver and the policeman as theytried the door and the window shutters.
Tish stood just inside the door, and Myrtle was just beside me. Aggiehad collapsed on a hall chair. I have, I think, neglected to say thatthe farmhouse was furnished. Tish's mother used to go out there everysummer, and she was a great woman for being comfortable.
At last Mr. Culver came to the front door and spoke through it.
"Hello, inside there!" he called, in a furious voice. As no one replied,he then banged at the door, and from the sound I fancy the policeman washammering also, with his mace.
"Open, in the name of the law!" bellowed the policeman.
"Stop that racket," Tish replied sternly. "Or I shall fire."
Of course she had no weapon, but they did not know this. We could hearMr. Culver telling the policeman to keep back, as he knew us, and we hadany other set of desperadoes he had ever heard of beaten forrecklessness with a gun.
There was a moment's silence, during which I heard Aggie's knittingneedles going furiously. She learned to knit by touch once when she hadiritis and was obliged to finish a slumber robe in time for Tish'sbirthday. So the darkness did not trouble her, and I knew she wasknitting to compose herself.
Tish then stood inside the door, and delivered through it one of themost inspiring patriotic speeches I have ever heard. She spoke of ourlong tolerance, while the world waited. Then of the decision, and thecall to arms. She said that the sons of the Nation were rising that dayin their might.
"But," she finished, "there are some among us who would shirk, wouldavoid the high and lofty duty. There are some who would profane the nameof love, and hide behind it to save their own cowardly skins. To theseignoble ones there is but one course left open. Go. Put your name on theroster of your country as a free man, unmarried and without impedimentsof any sort. Then return and these doors will fly open before the magicof a blue card."
It was at that time, we learned later, that the policeman, who was but arough and untutored type, decided that Tish was insane--how often, alas,is genius thus mistaken!--and started off for the Knowles farm to bringhelp. Mr. Culver made no reply to Tish's speech, and we learned laterhad gone away in the midst of it. Later on he was reported by Aggie, wholooked out from an upper window, to be sitting under the chestnut treewhere he had once rescued Tish's black alpaca skirt, sulking andwatching.
Tish then went up and spoke to him from the window.
"See here," she said angrily, "do you think that I did not mean what Isaid through that door?"
He had the audacity to yawn.
"I didn't hear all of it," he said. "But judging from what I know ofyou, I daresay you meant it. Would you mind tossing me a tin cup orsomething to drink out of?"
"You are not going back to town to register, then?"
"It's early," he replied, coolly. "If you mean do I intend to walk back,I do not. I shall wait for the Sheriff and the posse."
It was then that Tish saw the policeman crossing a field toward theKnowles farm and she tried to reason with the young man. But he droppedhis pretence of indifference, and would not even listen to her.
"I've only one thing to say," he said, fiercely. "You be careful of thatyoung lady. As to whether I register or not, that's my business and hasnothing to do with the case. When you open that door and send her out,with four good tires to take the place of the ones you ruined, I'll talkto you, and not before."
He then got up and walked away, and Tish came downstairs and lighted acandle with hands that shook with rage. We had heard the entireconversation, and in the candlelight I could see that Aggie was as whiteas wax.
Well, the situation was really desperate, but Tish's face forbadequestions. Aggie ventured to observe that perhaps it would be better tounlock the door and release the girl, but Tish only gave her a ferociousglance.
"I am doing my duty," she said, firmly. "I have done nothing for whichthe law can punish me. If a young lady comes willingly into my car for aride, as you did"--she turned sharply to Myrtle--"and if a young foolchooses to sit in my front yard instead of registering to serve hiscountry, it is not my fault. As a matter of fact, I can probably havehim arrested for trespass."
As I have said, the farmhouse is still furnished with Tish's mother'sthings. She was a Biggs, and all the things the Biggses had not wantedfor sixty years were in the house. So at least we had chairs to sit on,and if we had only had water, for we were all thirsty from excitementand dust, we could have been fairly comfortable, although Myrtlecomplained bitterly of thirst.
"And I want to wash," she said fretfully. "If I could wash I'd change myblouse and look like something."
"For whom?" Tish demanded. "For that slacker outside?"
Suddenly Myrtle laughed. She had been in tears for so long that itsurprised us. We all stared at her, but she seemed to get worse andworse.
"She's hysterical, poor child," Aggie said, feeling for her smellingsalt
s. "I don't know that I blame her, Tish. No one knows better than Ido what it is to expect to be married, and then find the divine hand ofProvidence intervening."
But Myrtle suddenly walked over to Aggie and, stooping, kissed her onthe top of her right ear.
"You dear thing!" she said. "I still don't get all the idea, but I don'tmuch care if I don't. I haven't had so much excitement since I ran awayfrom boarding school."
She then straightened and looked at Tish. It was clear that her feelingfor dear Tish was still vague, but was rather more of respect than oflove.
"As for the--the young man outside," she said, "I seem to gather that hehasn't registered, and that I am not to marry him until he has. Verywell. I hadn't thought about it before, but that speech ofyours--suppose you tell him that I won't marry him until he has a--amagic blue card. I should like to see his face."
But Tish is a woman of delicacy, and she suggested that Myrtle do itherself, from an upper window. I went up with her, and we found Mr.Culver again under the tree. The conversation ran like this:
MYRTLE, (looking very pretty indeed but very firm): Look here, I--I'vedecided not to marry you.
MR. CULVER (rousing suddenly and staring up at her): I beg your pardon!
MYRTLE: I know now that I was making a terrible mistake. No matter howmuch I care for you,