CHAPTER XXII.--THE REFUGEES.
A ship had sailed into the little harbor of West Haven on Mondaymorning. She carried a load of lumber from down the coast and aftershowing her clearance papers and discharging her cargo with all dueformality, she hoisted sails again and moved around the curve of theharbor into a deep inlet, where she rested at anchor in a position justopposite Boulder Lane.
Darkness fell very early that Monday afternoon as those who were not intheir homes will remember.
Mr. Bangs will recall the inky blackness of the lowering sky, as he cameout of the telegraph office, where he had wired to his chief to senddown another man, and turned his steps toward the rooms occupied by Mme.Alta.
Our Motor Maids have not forgotten how they sped back to town after aswift ride in their beloved "Comet," in the late afternoon, when theydiscussed the situation long and earnestly.
Three figures turned into Boulder Lane as the motor car flashed past,but the girls were too intent on their conversation to notice them. Thefirst, who was a tall, stout woman, walked stoically along with thetread of a grenadier. She carried a large suit case with one hand and anenormous bundle with the other. Her two upper teeth protruding over herlower lip gave her that strange animal look which Billie had disliked somuch. For it was Mme. Alta, as you have no doubt guessed, trudging upBoulder Lane. Her daughter, Francesca, walked behind. She also carried asuit case and a bundle. Occasionally she flashed a look of hatred backto the lights of West Haven, which place she had never loved.
Can this be Belle Rogers who brings up the procession, staggering undera heavy satchel and moaning and weeping as she stumbles along?
"I am glad I left word that I had gone out to spend the night," she saidto herself. "At least, they won't know it for a while, and it will betoo late then."
It was a long walk before they reached the end of Boulder Lane and foundthemselves on the beach of the little cove. The lights of the ship madea rippling, cheerful track on the water, but Belle shivered when she sawthe black hull outlined in the darkness.
Several men were waiting for them near a boat, which had been moored onthe beach, and presently the three women climbed in; their luggage waspiled at one end and they were rowed away in the darkness. Two wagonscame lumbering up the beach, and half the night, Belle, who was tossingfeverishly in her stuffy berth, trying to stifle her sobs, heard thesailors loading a cargo, while the boats plied back and forth from theshore to the ship.
There was no wind that night and an ominous silence seemed to brood overthe sea. At last in the stillness, Belle slept. Toward morning she wasawakened by the sound of a voice. A man in a small boat just below herporthole was calling up to some one on deck.
"Hello, Captain, it's Ruiz. I'm coming aboard. We must sail by dawn.They've got word about us. If that girl has turned traitor, she shallpay for it."
Belle could not hear the captain's reply, but he must have made someobjection to sailing that morning, for the man named Ruiz answered:
"Storm or no storm, I'm master here, and I say we sail at once."
And sail they did without more argument. She could hear the sailorsrunning about the ship. The masts creaked and groaned. Chains rattled.Presently the boat was in motion, and from her porthole she saw thefamiliar shores glide past her.
We cannot help pitying poor Belle in her misery and distress. Shedragged herself from her berth--Fannie was still sleeping soundly--andput on her clothes. For the first time, she became aware of a sustainedand ever-increasing sound. What she had mistaken in the beginning forthe eternal noise of the waters, she recognized now as the wind. As shecast one long regretful look back to the shores of West Haven, which shehad never really loved until now, the hurricane burst upon them with aroar like a thousand angry beasts. The ship went scurrying through theharbor entrance in the teeth of the gale.
Belle hurried upstairs to the deck, pulling on her ulster as she ran.Not a vestige of curl had the wet air left in her light gold hair; butfor the first time in her life, since she had been old enough toremember, she had forgotten that she had any hair and she did not evenstop to push back the damp, uneven locks from her eyes.
The boat had cleared the Black Reefs and was making for the open sea,when suddenly the demon wind played a trick on the captain of the littleschooner and changed its tack. Down went the mainmast with a greatcrash. Through the shrieking of the wind, Belle could hear the cursesand cries of the sailors and the yells of the captain. Mme. Altaappeared, looking more than ever like a walrus, in her greasy old blackdressing gown. Fannie ran up behind her, making a great outcry.
The hurricane seemed to lift the ship in its arms and carry it along.Then, with a hideous grinding noise, the vessel stood perfectly still.
Some one screamed:
"We're on the rocks!"
And Belle knew without being told that they had tossed onto the BlackReefs.
* * * * *
"Wake up, Billie," cried Nancy, shaking her friend's shoulder violently."Get up and dress. We are all waiting below."
"What's happened?" asked Billie, sitting up in bed and rubbing her eyes.
"A ship is wrecked on the Black Reefs."
Billie leaped from her bed and began to dress hurriedly.
"It must be a fearful sight," she exclaimed, as she pulled on herclothes. "The poor sailors, will they be saved?"
"I haven't heard," answered Nancy, "but the whole town is rushing up theCliff Road."
"Tell Ben to get 'The Comet.' He can run it as well as I can now."
"He has," answered Nancy, with the privilege of friendship. "I made himget it while I routed you out."
In another five minutes "The Comet," with its load of boys andgirls,--only Mary and Percy were missing,--was climbing Cliff Road in adriving hurricane of wind.
A straggling line of people hurried along the path toward theLife-Saving Station.
"Is that it?" demanded Billie breathlessly, when the car had come to astandstill opposite the light house.
"Yes," replied Merry, looking through the glasses. "She doesn't lookmuch larger than a fishing smack from this distance, but she's really apretty big schooner and she's in a bad fix, too. She has stuck right onthe Serpent's Fang, Ben. You remember that old fisherman showed it to uslast summer when we were sailing? It's a pointed rock that sticks uphigher than the others and it looked to be a pretty fierce propositionto me."
"The life-boat is being launched!" exclaimed Elinor.
They clutched each other in their excitement, while a boat, with sixbrave life-savers in it, leapt onto the crest of a big wave, only to behurled back again.
"They'll have to use the gun," put in Charlie. "They'll never make it inthis sea."
"What do you mean?" shouted Billie. It was almost impossible to be heardnow above the noise of the wind.
But before any one could shout back an explanation, her attention wasclaimed by a man in a long, thick ulster, buttoned to his chin, and avizored cap pulled well over his eyes. He had come to the front of themotor car and, bowing to Billie politely, he stood on tiptoe andbeckoned to her to lean down.
"You'll be surprised to hear that you have friends on that ship," hesaid in her ear, and she recognized Mr. Bangs.
"Friends?" she repeated, in amazement.
"Wait and see," he replied, as he moved away to join another man, whowas leaning against a tree smoking a cigar.
"Look!" cried some one, and just as Billie shifted her gaze from theship to the beach she saw a long black line shoot out over the water andlight on the deck of the ship. It was very confusing then, whathappened. There was a great deal of shouting on shore and scurrying ofsailors on the ship. Presently there seemed to be a double line of ropestretching out to the wreck.
After a long pause, Billie saw, creeping along one of the lines of rope,swaying and swinging almost to sea level, an object which appeared to beshaped like a pair of clumsy trouser legs with the head and shoulders ofa human being above.
r /> "It's a woman," cried Nancy, jumping up and down in her excitement, asshe looked through the glasses. "It's--it's----"
"It's Mme. Alta," exclaimed Billie, as the woman was lifted onto thebeach.
No one could explain why the music teacher should be found on a wreckedschooner, but Mr. Bangs and Billie exchanged meaning glances as Mme.Alta was supported into the Life-Saving Station.
The next time the buoy was drawn into shore it carried Fannie Alta, ashivering, wretched little figure, who followed her mother silently intothe life-savers' house.
"Who can the third one be?" said Billie out loud, although she wasspeaking to herself. "Can it be----"
She jumped out of the car and ran down the path to the beach, followedby her three chums. As she passed Mr. Bangs, he caught her by the armand said in her ear:
"The missing link."
No one but Billie and Mr. Bangs recognized Belle Rogers in the miserableobject which now crawled out of the breeches buoy. Her face was blue andpinched with cold. Her damp hair hung in her eyes, and she moaned andsobbed most pitifully.
When she saw Billie, she flung her wet arms around the young girl'sneck.
"Oh, forgive me! Forgive me!" she wept.
A crowd of people gathered around them.
Billie patted her on the shoulder.
"I do forgive you," she whispered, "and if you would rather not go intothe station, we will take you home in 'The Comet.'"
"Any place but home," sobbed Belle, as Ben threw his ulster around hershivering shoulders and Nancy wrapped a scarf about her head.
The others had now recognized the poor girl, and with a generous impulsethey tried to shield her from the gaze of the villagers.
"Will you go to Cousin Helen's, then?" asked Belle, as they half carriedher up the steep path.
"Yes," she answered, and in another ten minutes the miserable refugeewas being tenderly ministered to at Billie's home by three of the mostdetested members of the Blue Bird Society.