THE RECOGNITION
Madge had kept guard before the flaming door, with Jeff dancing about
her, making frenzied gestures of excitement. Miss Jenny Ann had been
torn between the necessity for watching for the approach of their foes,
and at the same time seeing what Phyllis was doing inside the burning
building. She darted from one place to the other, fairly beside herself
with anxiety.
But there was little work for Madge to do now, except to watch and wait
for Phyllis. The little captain was growing worried. The flames, that
had been so long in catching, were now spreading across the entire
front of the house.
"Come out, Phil!" she called. "You must not stay in the house any
longer, you have done all you possibly can." She crept as near to the
house as she could. The heat was scorching. She could just catch a
glimpse of her chum at work on the inside.
The wind was blowing so that the smoke poured into the house. The
danger was not so much from the fire as that Phil and Lieutenant Lawton
would be stifled by the thick smoke.
Jimmy Lawton could feel the waves of heat entering the house.
"Please clear out, young fellow," he urged Phyllis. The idea that she
was a girl had never dawned on him. In their few words of conversation
he had been too excited to think of the girlish tones of her voice. "I
am afraid you will be burnt in this place. You have done all you can
for me. Once this room is in flames I will fight my way out."
Phil's answer was to pick up the ax, which she had dragged into the
house with her. Lieutenant Lawton had made a hole in the door large
enough to thrust his hand through. Phil handed him the ax. The young
man pulled it through the door and gave a shout of triumph. "Now run
for your life, boy!" he commanded. "I'll be after you in a minute. We
haven't a minute to lose."
Jimmy Lawton's inside prison door was smoking; one end of it was in
flames. Phyllis recognized that there was no reason for her to wait any
longer. She realized that she was nearly choked with the smoke. Phyllis
turned to fight her way to the hole through which she had come into the
house.
A solid wall of smoke met her gaze. The small room at the front of the
house might have been any size or shape. It was impossible to see
anything in it except the leaping tongues of flame in front.
Outside, Madge called in terror, "Phil! Phil!"
Guided by the sound of her friend's voice, Phil groped her way. She
struck a chair in the way and fell on her knees.
There was a noise behind her, and Phyllis felt a man's hand grope for
hers. He pulled her quickly to her feet. "Close your eyes and keep your
mouth shut," he ordered. "We will both be out of this in a moment."
In one place the smoke was less dense and a faint breath of air
penetrated the room. Phil felt herself lifted off her feet and thrust
through this opening almost into Madge's arms. Her skirt was on fire,
but Madge had beaten out the flames before Jimmy Lawton joined them.
Even now the young man did not recognize his rescuers. He was dazed,
weak from his long confinement, and only anxious to be off.
"Let's get away from this place!" he cried. Blindly he reached out for
Phil's hand the second time. Madge seized hold of Miss Jenny Ann. They
started toward the thick woods on a run, forgetting their friend, Jeff.
So far they had not been interrupted by the men they feared.
"Look ahead!" called out Madge sharply under her breath. Her quick ears
had caught the sound of footsteps approaching.
"Hide in the thicket," Jimmy commanded. He pulled Phil down behind a
fallen log. Madge and Miss Jenny Ann crouched behind some thick bushes.
They waited in absolute silence.
Now, for the first time, Lieutenant James Mandeville Lawton opened his
eyes and surveyed his deliverer!
He stared and blinked, and stared and blinked again, until Phil wanted
to laugh aloud in spite of their danger, the young man's expression was
so ludicrous.
"Great Scott!" he muttered. "I never dreamed my rescuers were girls."
Phil put a warning finger on her lips.
They waited until the noise they had heard had completely died away.
Then Lieutenant Lawton sprang to his feet, ran to Miss Jenny Ann and
took both her hands. "Your appearing on this island is like a miracle!"
he exclaimed. "Tell me how you happen to be here? I would never, never
have let you run the risk of trying to save me if I had known you were
girls instead of boys."
Madge laughed. "Mr. Lawton, girls are equal, nowadays, to any situation
that a boy can master."
The little party had not gone on much farther before they heard the
noise of swift feet in pursuit. Instead of walking, as our party of
friends had lately done, in order to rest, they broke into a run. Still
their pursuer gained on them.
Lieutenant Lawton thrust the three women behind him. He stood at bay
with a stick in his hand as his only weapon.
A wild figure burst upon them. It was Jeff, whom they had forgotten!
The poor lad's clothes were torn, as though he had received a severe
beating.
Jimmy Lawton dropped his stick. He turned red with shame. "Poor old
Jeff!" he cried. "We ought never to have run off without you. Of
course, you would get the blame of my escape."
In the days of his imprisonment Jimmy Lawton had learned to understand
a few words that the boy could spell on his fingers.
Jeff now managed to explain to them that Lieutenant Lawton's jailers
had returned to the house a little while after they made their escape.
They found the prison house in flames and their prisoner gone! The
gypsy woman told the story of the appearance of the two girls and their
chaperon, and the aid they had given to the prisoner. She made no
accusation against her son. But the boy's master demanded to know in
what direction his prisoner and the women had run. Jeff would not
tell. He had managed to escape from the angry men and, guided by some
instinct, he had found his friends in the woods.
"Jeff declares he will show us a way through the island that no one
will be able to follow," announced Lieutenant Lawton to Miss Jenny Ann.
"Will you allow him to go on with us? The boy has been so good to me
that I am going to look after him for the rest of my days."
"Have the men started after us?" inquired Madge.
It took Lieutenant Lawton some time to find out. At last Jeff made him
understand. The men had absolutely no idea of any difficulty in
overtaking their prisoner and bringing him back to his late jail. They
believed that he had no way of escaping from the island, no weapons and
no friends except a company of young girls, who would be more of a
hindrance to him than a help if he meant to resist recapture.
Jeff announced that he had left the men fighting the flames in the
prison house. They meant to put out the fire before they followed the
fugitives.
It was now almost dark. The woods were thick with shadows. The party
stumbled on. Had it not been for Jeff, they must have spent the night
in the forest. But the deaf and dumb boy had the gift of remarkable
sight. He could see almost as well by night as by day. No other mortal
man could have traced the route by which he led his friends home. Jeff
was a creature of the out-doors. He knew his deserted island
thoroughly.
It was only a little after ten o'clock when the party of three women
and two men arrived at the lodge.
Before they got inside the door they caught a whiff of a grateful odor.
Lillian and Eleanor had put a great part of their last rations into a
big kettle of soup. The last can of tomatoes had been sacrificed, the
last half dozen potatoes. Nothing remained but some musty corn meal, a
few teaspoons of tea and a little sugar. Unless relief came soon the
houseboat party would truly have to be fed from Heaven.