CHAPTER IV--A CRY FOR HELP
AS they talked the young girls wandered over the grassy sward of thechurchyard and their voices grew fainter and fainter to the cyclist andMiss Sallie.
The latter had seated herself on the stump of an old tree and was busilyengaged in re-reading her mail, at which she had glanced only carelesslythat morning.
The air was very still and hot, and the hum of insects made a drowsyaccompaniment to the songs of the birds. The cyclist had stretchedhimself at full length on the grass under an immense elm tree and waslazily blowing blue rings of smoke skywards.
Presently there broke upon the noonday stillness a cry for help. It wasin a high, girlish voice--Mollie's in fact--and it was followed byothers in quick succession.
Miss Stuart, scattering her mail on the ground in her fright, rushed inthe direction of the cries, the cyclist close behind her.
On a knoll near the church the sight which met Miss Sallie's eyes almostmade her knees give way. But she had a cool head in danger, in spite ofher lavender draperies and pretended helplessness.
A tramp, who seemed to them all at the moment as big as a giant, withmatted hair and beard and face swollen from drink, had seized Ruth andBarbara by the wrists with one of his enormous hands. A woman equallyragged in appearance was tugging at the fellow's other hand in an effortto quiet him.
As Miss Sallie ran toward the group she heard Barbara say quietly:
"Let go our wrists and we shall be glad to give you all the money wehave with us."
"I tell you I want more money than that," said the man in a hoarse,terrible voice. "I want enough money to keep me for the rest of my days.Do you think I like to sleep on the ground and eat bread and water? Itell you I want my rights. Why should you be rich and me poor? Whyshould you be dressed in silks while my wife wears rags?"
As he raved, he jerked his hand away from the woman, almost throwing herforward in his violence, and gesticulated wildly.
The two girls were both very pale and calm, but the poor tramp woman wascrying bitterly.
Barbara's lips were moving, but she said nothing, and only Mollie knewit was her mother's prayer she was repeating.
"Don't be frightened, young ladies," sobbed the woman, "I will see thatno harm comes to you, even if he kills me."
"Do you call this a free country," continued the tramp, "when there arethousands of people like me who have no houses and must beg for food? Iwould like to kill all the rich men in this country and turn theirchildren loose to beg and steal, as we must do to get a living! Do youthink I would ever have come to this pass if a rich man had not broughtme to it? Do you think I was always a tramp like this, and my wifeyonder a tramp, too?"
At this point the drunken wretch began to cry, but he still held the twogirls tightly by the wrists.
"I tell you I'll take a ransom for you and nothing less. I'll get out ofthe world all it's taken from me, and your father will have to do thepaying. Come on!" he cried in a tone of command, to his trembling wife.
At this critical moment Miss Stuart and the motor cyclist came runningto the scene.
There was a look of immense relief on Miss Sallie's face when she sawthe courteous stranger at her heels. She had been about to speak, butwas silent.
"Oh, ho!" cried the tramp, "so you've got a protector, have you? Well,come on! I'll fight the whole lot of you, women and men, too, and withone hand, at that!"
He loomed up like a giant beside the small, slender cyclist, but he wasa drunken giant nevertheless and not prepared for what was about tohappen.
However, at first, it appeared to them all that a little persuasionmight be better than force.
"If you will let the young ladies go, my good man," said the cyclist,"you will not regret it. You will be well paid. I would advise you totake a sensible view of the matter. You cannot kidnap us all, and itwould not take long to get help. Would you prefer a long term in jail toa sum of money?" And the cyclist drew a leather wallet from his coatpocket.
"You think you are mighty smart, young man," sneered the tramp, "but Ican kidnap all of you, and nobody ever be the wiser. Do you think I'dlet a chance like this go? My pals are right over there." He pointedwith his free hand to the woods back of him.
"You will be sorry," said the cyclist.
With an oath, the tramp put his finger to his mouth and gave a long,shrill whistle.
But in that moment he was off his guard, and the cyclist leaped upon himlike a leopard on a lion. One swift blow under the jaw and down tumbledthe giant as Goliath fell before David.
The poor woman, who was crouching in terror behind a tree, jumped to herfeet.
"Run!" she cried in a frightened whisper. "Run for your lives!"
The cyclist seized Miss Sallie by the arm.
"She is right. It is better to run. The others may be coming."
And they did run. Terror seemed to lend wings to their feet. Even MissStuart, assisted by their rescuer, fled over the grass as swiftly as hercharges.
Ruth and Barbara reached the automobile first. In an instant Ruth hadcranked up the machine while Barbara opened the door.
Another moment, and they were off down the road, the black-clad cyclistfollowing. Glancing back, they saw two other rough-looking men helpingtheir comrade to rise to his feet. Then they disappeared in the woodswhile the woman, with many anxious backward glances, followed hercompanions.
Nobody spoke for some time. The girls were too much terrified by thenarrow escape to trust to their voices. The bravest women will weepafter a danger is past, and all five of these women were very near thepoint of tears.
Presently the cyclist came up alongside of the automobile, which hadslowed down somewhat when they reached the main road.
"I will go ahead and inform the police," he called over his shoulder,"but I fear it will not be of much use. Men like that will scatter andhide themselves at the first alarm."
Miss Sallie smiled at him gratefully. Touching his cap, which wasfastened under his chin with a strap and could not be lifted withoutsome inconvenience, the stranger shot ahead and soon disappeared in acloud of dust.
Miss Sallie was thinking deeply. She wished that Major Ten Eyck and theboys had not left the hotel that morning. She felt need of the strongsupport of the opposite sex. She felt also the responsibility of beingat the head of her party of young girls.
Should they dare start off again next day into the wilderness after suchan experience? Of course, as long as they were in the automobile, goingat full speed, nothing could stop them except a puncture, and punctureson country roads were not as frequent as they were on city streets. Whatwould her brother say? Would he sanction such a trip after this fearfulexperience? And still she hesitated.
The truth was, Miss Stuart was as eager as the girls to accept theinvitation that had been so unexpectedly made. She did not wish torevive the romance of her youth, but she did have an overweening desireto see the ancestral home of her old lover, and to talk with him on thethousand subjects that spring up when two old friends come togetherafter many years.
It was, therefore, with half-hearted vehemence that she said to the fourrather listless girls:
"My dears, don't you think it would be very dangerous for us to go overto Major Ten Eyck's, to-morrow, after this fearful attack?"
Everybody looked relieved that somebody had had the courage to say thefirst word.
"Dear auntie, we'll leave it entirely to you," replied Ruth. "Although,I don't believe we are likely to be kidnapped as long as we keep theautomobile going. The fastest running tramp in Christendom couldn't keepup with us, even when we're going at an ordinary rate. From what MajorTen Eyck said, the road is pretty good. We ought to get there in anhour, since it's only fifteen miles from here, and the last mile or sois on his estate."
The other girls said nothing, it being a matter for the chaperon tosettle.
"Very well, my dear," answered Miss Sallie, acquiescing so suddenly thatthe others almost smiled in spite of the seriousness of t
heir feelingsat the moment. "But I do feel that we had a narrow escape this morning.If it had not been for the young man on the motor cycle I tremble tothink what would have been the consequences. And I certainly believe ifwe are not going back to New York, the sooner we get into the society ofsome male protectors the better for us. I am sorry that fifteen milesseparate us. I wish those boys had thought to motor back and get usto-morrow."
"Oh, well," observed Barbara, "fifteen miles is a mere bagatelle, whenyou come to think of it. Why, we shall be there before we know it."