Then he heard a man’s voice. That would be their butler. It sounded like a servant.
“I would like to speak to Miss Lisle Kingsley, please,” he said, trying to make his voice as steady as possible. “Is she in?”
“I’ll see, sir,” said the servant. “Who shall I say wants to speak with her?”
“Mr. Sargent,” said John. “John Sargent.”
The servant went away with a deferential murmur and was gone several moments. John stood there anxiously waiting, growing more troubled by the moment. This was a terrible situation, if he really was responsible for this girl’s safety. Then the servant returned to the telephone.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Sargent, Miss Kingsley has not come in yet. Can you leave a message?”
“Oh!” said John, a great lump of fear springing up in his throat. “Do you—? That is, has she gone somewhere that I could reach her by phone? It is quite important.”
“No, I’m afraid,” said the butler. “I understand they do not have a telephone at the place where she is. It is some sort of chapel, I think, where they have classes. Perhaps it might be some of her war work.”
“Oh!” said John almost incoherently. “Is it a place where she is in the habit of going? I might try to find her. Did she go alone?”
“Oh, no! She did not go alone. Madam, her mother, does not permit her to go alone in the evening these days. She went in the car with the chauffeur. The chauffeur has not returned yet.”
John was getting his senses back, just as it used to be when he was in athletics and had made a strategic play and didn’t know yet whether it was going to reach its destination or not. Then there would come an instant of clear thinking, and his mind would be on the alert for the next play. So now he was thinking on. He had to bear this anxiety yet again. She was not back! How dared he wait before he did something more definite?
“How soon could you reasonably expect her?” he asked, trying to give his voice a natural businesslike sound.
“Well, she ought to be in any minute now. They don’t often stay as late as this. But I should say in a half hour, at least.”
John considered, his heart heavy within him.
“All right, then. I’ll call again,” he said.
“Very well, sir.”
A moment later Joseph called up to have Mark sent with the service car, and so put the butler’s mind at rest. The young lady was all right. The chauffeur was looking after her. But John Sargent carried a heavy heart as he dialed the number of the police station and held a worried conversation with his friend. No, they hadn’t been able to get any information out of the man they had arrested. “He said he’d never heard of Miss Kingsley and didn’t know what we were talking about. He’s a shifty baby all right,” finished the policeman.
“Yes, I was afraid that would be what he would say,” said John anxiously. “I should have made him tell me more, only I was afraid you would be gone and we would get nowhere.”
“It’s all right, kid. We’ll call up her house and ask to speak to her. We just tried, but the wire was busy.”
“Yes,” said John, “I was trying to get her myself, but she hasn’t come in yet.”
“That so? Well, we’ll keep watching. Don’tcha worry, kid. You ain’t ta blame. We’ll get the other birds and find out all about it.”
It was a little more than half an hour before John ventured to call the Kingsley house again, and then he held his breath till the answer came.
“Is Miss Kingsley at home yet?”
“Yes, Mr. Sargent. They have just come in. There was an accident to the car, that is, they ran over some glass or nails or something, and they had to telephone for the service car to be sent for them. But they are just entering now. I’ll call Miss Lisle.”
John stood there in the booth with the cold sweat standing on his forehead, and he found an inward trembling from head to foot. The horror and fear were over, for the time. Thank the Lord! Then he heard her voice, and it thrilled him as a voice had never done before. Afterward he called himself to account for that, but just now he was too weak with gladness to take account of it.
“Oh, I am glad to hear your voice,” he said, his own trembling with relief. “I was afraid—I was afraid something might have happened to you.”
“No! Oh no. They told you about the car and how Joseph telephoned for the other one to come, didn’t they? But I wasn’t in it, you see, and didn’t know that anything had happened to it till Joseph came for me.”
“Well, I didn’t know about the car,” owned John, “but I just had a feeling you might have gone down to the mission, and I worried, because in a way I was responsible for your going there in the first place. And I’ve been hearing—” He paused, realizing that he must somehow explain this without being too explicit, without frightening her. “You see, I’ve been hearing that there are some rather tough characters around that neighborhood. I had reason to think there were, and I felt you ought not to be down there alone. I wish you would promise me you won’t go down there alone anymore.”
“Oh, but I don’t. Joseph always comes for me, and if I go late he usually takes me, too.”
“Well, please be careful, won’t you? Don’t trust anybody you aren’t sure of. There are lots of unpleasant things happening these days. You are too—too—precious—to be running any risks!”
“Why, Mr. Sargent! How strange for you to talk that way! And tonight, when I really had almost a scare. A man whose looks I didn’t like came to me at the close of the meeting—he was right outside by the door, and he told me my car had had an accident and my chauffeur had sent him to take me home.”
“Oh!” groaned John. “You didn’t go with him?”
“Why, no, of course not. You see, he was a man I had seen before who seemed to be staring at me. I’ve seen him a couple of times in different places, and it sort of made me uneasy, so I thanked him and told him he needn’t wait, that I had friends in the hall and would rather go with them, and then I went back to the teacher.”
“Thank the Lord!” said John fervently. “I think that is the man the police are looking for, and that was why I was worried when I called up and found you were not at home, and so late! So I called again, for I was uneasy.”
“Well, that was awfully kind of you. I have been wondering what had become of you. And then tonight they announced that your grandmother had died. I felt so sorry for you. And yet I know it must be good to know that she is really at rest and in heaven.”
“Yes,” said the young man. “That was the main reason for my daring to intrude upon you. I wanted to tell you of her going. You had been so kind in sending her those flowers. I shall never forget that.”
“Oh, but I’m sorry that I did not send her more. I thought of it several times, but was afraid perhaps you would think I was presuming.”
“Never!” said John. “How could I feel that way about a beautiful kindness?”
“Well, I would have loved to send more flowers and also send some to the service if I had known about it. I never read the death notices, and of course I didn’t know. But I did want to let you know how I sympathize with you.”
“Thank you,” said John. “That means a lot to me. And someday in heaven, I’m sure my little grandmother will be thanking you, too.”
“Oh, what a lovely thought! I shall look forward to that!”
“And now I mustn’t keep you any longer. I know you must be tired. But I do want you to promise me that you will never go down to that neighborhood again alone, please? I would love to take you down sometime if I were free, but since I can’t, please get someone to go with you. Or else don’t go. Will you do that? It’s important or I wouldn’t ask it.”
“Why, thank you for your interest. Yes, of course I’ll promise. In fact, my mother is rather worked up about it and would be more so if she knew what happened tonight. She insists that I go in the car, so you needn’t worry. But I’m sorry you had to miss the meeting tonight. It was wonderful!” They talked
for several minutes about the message, and then before he hung up he asked Lisle to describe the man who tried to take her home. What did he look like? And Lisle did her best.
“He’s medium height, sort of slender and drab-looking, hat drawn down over his eyes, a little round-shouldered, with his hands in his pockets and his coat collar turned up. It was rather dark out by the street door, and the light from the streetlight shone right into my eyes, but that is the impression he gave me.”
“Well, I guess it’s the same man I saw one day. Wanted me to take a crooked job. Has kind of a whine when he speaks, doesn’t he?”
“Oh yes, definitely.”
“Well, thank you. Now, take care of yourself.”
“Oh, but I don’t have to take care of myself,” said Lisle with a little lilt of a laugh in her voice. “The teacher quoted a verse tonight, and I’m taking it to live by. ‘The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him, and the Lord shall cover Him all the day long.’ He helped me to see that I would not be presuming to take that for mine and that I might count myself ‘beloved’ of the Lord.”
“Oh yes, of course. I’m glad you feel that way. I’ll be praying, too, that He will guide you. Well, good night!”
“Good night,” said Lisle softly, and then, “But oh, where are you now? You said you had moved. May I have the address?”
But John Sargent had hung up.
“Oh,” mourned Lisle. “Why didn’t I find that out sooner?”
Chapter 13
But John Sargent seemed to have disappeared from off the face of Lisle’s earth again. He did not call up the next day as she had hoped. He did not write. And when she tried to call him on the telephone at the place where he had told her he worked, they said there was no such person there at the time. He might have worked there some time ago, the janitor wasn’t sure, but he wasn’t there now. And, no, they didn’t have his present address. He hadn’t left a forwarding address.
She did not know that there had not passed a day since that night he talked to her that he had not walked by her home, sometimes several times. She did not know that there had been not a day when he had not communicated quietly over the kitchen telephone with Joseph or the butler, and found out in a businesslike way of the safety of the young lady of the house. He had made a compact with the butler and the chauffeur to keep a watch on her, and had told them how to let him know if anything was wrong or she should be missing. Not that he revealed his identity, only as a friend. “One of the boys she had helped” he called himself to the servants who had found out that certain gangsters were trying to pull something with her as the victim and he was doing his best to stop it. Neither did Lisle know that he had gone that first night, as soon as he hung up the receiver, straight to her father and had told him all he needed to know to protect his daughter, without troubling her too much with nervous fears. She did not know that even her mother had been made aware that great protection should be about her. And she did not know that the police were a guard about her continually wherever she went.
Oh, it is true that John Sargent’s police-friend did call at the house one early evening just after dinner and ask to see her for a brief interview. And her father, after speaking with the policeman first, came back to Lisle with a smile on his kindly face.
“I suggest that you go in and see him, daughter,” he said to her, as if it were a matter of small moment. “It is only right that we should do our best to help the police, who are our natural protectors, to do their work well. You needn’t be startled, child. He merely wants to get your impression of the man who offered to take you home that night that Joseph had the accident with the car, and I think you should try your best to remember everything you can about it.”
So Lisle went into the reception room, met the police officer, and did her best to describe Lacey, even mentioning the other times when she had thought she saw him watching her.
The officer thanked her and said he thought he had a line on the man and that her description tallied with their suspicions. He told her that it was important because it was linked up with something some spies were trying to pull off for the enemy. She personally just happened to be the intended victim that night through whom they hoped to work their plans. But she needn’t worry lest it would happen again. They thought they had the kingpin of the gang safe in jail, and were now sure of this other man, and perhaps another, who was the head instigator. Then he smiled and went his way, and Lisle heard nothing more about it, and did not even know certainly that there had been a plot to kidnap her. Her main concern was that she could not get in touch with John Sargent and tell him of some wonderful comfort she had heard at the class that she thought might help him.
So the busy days went on, and Lisle was deeper and deeper in war work, going to classes whenever her duties at the university did not interfere, and going to her Bible class at the mission whenever she could persuade someone to go with her. Sometimes it would be Joseph or Mark or even the butler, but often it was her mother. Once her father went and sat studying the plain, simple people with the radiance of trust and peace in their faces, wondering how these people seemed to have gotten hold of such deep wisdom and half deciding that he, too, someday would take time to find out just what it was all about and if there was anything in it that they with all their wealth and culture and righteousness were in the way of missing.
Every time that Lisle went to the mission, or even went abroad on the street, she was always looking for the young man with the very blue eyes and the true smile. But he was never there. And because she had kept silent about him for so long, she was shy about mentioning him, so her mother and father knew nothing about her contacts with John Sargent.
And then, the very next time she saw him, he was in uniform.
Lisle had been taking a visiting girlfriend to catch her New York train. As she waved farewell and turned to walk back to her car where Joseph was waiting, she saw a group of soldiers standing on the other side of the platform, and foremost among them, standing just a little apart and looking back toward the street as if he were searching for someone, stood John! In uniform!
Lisle’s heart gave a sudden quick leap of mingled dread and triumph. He was in uniform! He had said he wanted to go, and now he was going. But oh, he was going! That was something else she hadn’t considered yet. How was she going to feel about having him go away? Of course, she hadn’t been seeing him much. What right had she to have that desperate sinking feeling? He was nothing to her but a casual acquaintance. That she had allowed him to become something more in her thoughts was a matter she had not reckoned on. That would have to be dealt with later, when she was by herself with her thoughts. But now, he was here, and she was seeing him! She could have this to remember! How fine he looked in his uniform!
All this was just a bit of coloring in her mind as she went with swift steps to meet him.
As if he had been drawn by her very approach to turn, he looked behind him and saw her coming. Then quickly he dropped the suitcase he was carrying and hurried to meet her, his smile lighting up his face like a flash of sunshine. He came with both hands out, a quiet eagerness upon him that she had not seen in him before. Her own hands went out to meet his, and so they met, clasping each other’s hands and looking into one another’s eyes.
“Oh,” she said, speaking first, almost breathlessly. “You are going! I did not know you were in the army! I’m so glad I happened to meet you!”
“Yes, it is great for me! I almost got up the courage to call you and say good-bye, but I really had very little time. My orders just came through, and it was all I could do to rush what I had to finish and get off at the time ordered. But I wanted to see you. I wanted so much to know if you are all right. I’ve had a report from the detective people who are looking after you in a way, you know.” He smiled. “You knew they were going to do that, didn’t you?”
“Why, yes, you told me something like that, but I supposed that was only for a day or two. I thought that was ove
r long ago.”
“No,” said John, looking down at her with an almost loving look in his eyes. “It was still going on. They have orders to keep you in mind as long as any of that gang is at large, although I don’t believe that you’ll have any more trouble now that I’ll be gone. You see, they had tried to rope me into their spy gang, and as they happened to see us together that night of the blackout, they figured that you and I were friends and that if they got you in trouble they could bribe me into telling them what they wanted to know by promising to let you out if I came across. Only you see, they misfired when they tried to get you into that man’s car and their man got arrested. So I really think you’ll have no further trouble with any of that gang. If I thought you would, I don’t believe I would have the heart to go away. I couldn’t see anything happening to you.”
All this time they were gripping each other’s hands and looking into each other’s eyes, breathlessly aware that it was a train they were waiting for, and that when it came, it would snatch them inexorably apart. They were irrationally unaware of any who might be observing them. And because it was something so new and so glad to them both to have found one another at this, the last moment as it were, they had thoughts for nothing else but the moment.