MONA'S ESCAPE.
The gentleman and lady both regarded the young girl with curious and
searching interest as she stood, flushed and panting from excitement,
in the center of the room beneath the blazing chandelier.
"Sit here, Miss Montague," said the gentleman, pulling forward a low
rocker for her, "but first," he added, with a pleasant smile, "allow me
to introduce myself. My name is Cutler--Justin Cutler, and this lady is
my sister, Miss Marie Cutler. Now, it is late--we will waive all
ceremony, so tell us at once about your trouble, and then we will see
if we cannot help you out of it."
Mona sat down and briefly related all that had occurred in connection
with her trip since she left New York, together with some of the
circumstances which she believed had made Mrs. Montague and Louis
Hamblin so resolute to force her into a marriage with the latter.
Her companions listened to her with deep interest, and it was plain to be
seen that all their warmest sympathies were enlisted in her cause.
Mr. Cutler expressed great indignation, and declared that Louis Hamblin
merited the severest sentence that the law could impose, but, of course,
he knew that nothing could be done to bring him to justice in that
strange country; so, after considering the matter for a while, he
concluded that the best way to release Mona from her difficulties would
be by the use of strategy.
"We are to leave on a steamer for New York to-morrow morning, and you
shall go with us," Mr. Cutler remarked, "and if we can get you away from
the hotel and on board the boat without young Hamblin's knowledge, you
will be all right, and there will be no disagreeable disturbance or
scandal to annoy you. Even should he discover your flight, and succeed in
boarding the vessel before she sails, he will be helpless, for a quiet
appeal to the captain will effectually baffle him. But how about your
baggage?" he asked in conclusion.
"My trunk is in my room," Mona returned.
"Of course you must have that," said Mr. Cutler; "the only difficulty
will be in getting it away without exciting suspicion. We must have this
door between these rooms opened by some means. I wonder if the key to
ours would fit the lock."
He arose immediately and went to try it, but it would not work.
"No. I did not expect our first effort would succeed," he smilingly
remarked, as he saw Mona's face fall. "There is one way that we can do
if all other plans fail," he added, after thinking a moment; "you can go
back to the other room and unpack your trunk, when I could easily remove
it through the window, and it could be repacked in here; but that plan
would require considerable time and labor, and shall be adopted only as
a last resort. But wait a minute."
He sprang to his feet, and disappeared through the window, and the next
moment they heard him moving softly about in the other room.
Presently he returned, but looking grave and thoughtful.
"I hoped I might find a key somewhere in there," he explained, "but the
door bolts on that side. There should, then, be a key to depend upon for
this side. I wonder--"
He suddenly seized a chair, placed it before the door, stepped upon it,
and reached up over the fanciful molding above it, slipping his hand
along behind it.
"Aha!" he triumphantly exclaimed all at once, "I have it!" and he held up
before their eager gaze a rusty and dusty iron key.
A moment later the door was unlocked, and swung open between the two
rooms.
Five minutes after, all Mona's baggage was transferred to Miss Cutler's
apartment, the door was relocked and bolted as before, and the fair girl
felt as if her troubles were over.
Overcome by the sense of relief which this assurance afforded her, she
impulsively threw her arms about Miss Cutler, laid her head on her
shoulder, and burst into grateful tears.
"Oh, I am so glad--so thankful!" she sobbed.
"Hush, dear child," said the gentle lady, kindly, "you must not allow
yourself to become unnerved, for you will not sleep, and I am sure you
need rest. I am going to send Justin away at once, then we will both
retire."
"Yes, I will go directly," Mr. Cutler remarked, "but I shall call you
early. I will have your breakfast sent up here, when your trunks can be
removed. Then, Miss Montague, you are to put on a wrap belonging to my
sister, and tie a thick veil over your face. I will come to take you to
the carriage, and no one will suspect but that you are Marie. Meantime
she will slip down another stairway, and out of the private entrance;
then away we will speed to the steamer, and all will be well. Now,
good-night, ladies, and a good sleep to you," he concluded, cheerfully,
as he quietly left the room.
Miss Cutler and Mona proceeded to retire at once, but while disrobing the
elder lady told her companion how it happened that she and her brother
were in Havana so opportunely. She had been out of health, and had come
to Cuba early in the fall to spend the winter. Her brother had come a few
weeks earlier to take her home, and they had been making excursions
to different points of interest on the island.
"I am so glad," she said, in conclusion, "that we decided to take rooms
at this hotel during our sojourn in Havana. At first I thought I would
like to go to some more quiet place, but Justin thought we would be
better served here, and," with a gentle smile, "I believe it was wisely
ordered so that we could help you."
Mona feared that she should not be able to sleep at all, her nerves had
been so wrought upon, but her companion was so cheerful and reassuring in
all that she said that before she was hardly aware that she was sleepy
she had dropped off into a sound slumber.
At six o'clock the next morning a sharp rap on their door awakened the
two ladies.
They arose immediately, and had hardly finished dressing when an
appetizing breakfast appeared. Miss Cutler received the tray at the door,
so that the waiter need not enter the room, and then was so merry and
entertaining as, with her own hands she served Mona, that the young girl
forgot her nervousness, in a measure, and ate quite heartily.
By the time their meal was finished another rap warned them that the
porters had come for their trunks.
"Step inside the closet, dear," said Miss Cutler, in a whisper, and Mona
noiselessly obeyed her.
The door was then opened, and both trunks were removed, apparently
without exciting any suspicion over the fact that there were two instead
of one as when Miss Cutler arrived.
A few minutes later Mr. Cutler appeared, and Mona, clad in Miss Cutler's
long ulster--which she had worn almost every day during her sojourn
there--and with a thick veil over her face, took her tall protector's
arm, and went tremblingly out.
Her heart almost failed her as she passed through the main entrance hall,
which she had crossed in such despair only a few hours previously; but
Mr. Cutler quietly bade her "be calm and have no fear," then led her down
the steps, and assisted her to enter the carriage that was waiting at the
door.
The next moment another figure stepped quickly in after her, Mr. Cutler
followed, the door was closed, and they were driven rapidly away.
Arriving at the steamer-landing, they all went on board, and after
attending to the baggage, Mr. Cutler conducted his ladies directly to
their stateroom.
"I will get you a room by yourself, if you prefer;" he said to Mona, "but
I thought perhaps you might feel less lonely if you should share my
sister's."
"Thank you, but I should much prefer to remain with Miss Cutler if it
will be agreeable to her," Mona returned, with a wistful glance at the
lady.
"Indeed, I shall be very glad to have you with me," was the cordial
reply, accompanied by a charming smile, for already the gentlewoman had
become greatly interested in her fair companion.
"That is settled, then," said the gentleman, smiling, "and now you may
feel perfectly safe; do not give yourself the least uneasiness, but try
to enjoy the voyage--that is, if old Neptune will be quiet and allow
you."
"You are very kind, Mr. Cutler, and I cannot tell you how grateful I am
to both yourself and your sister," Mona said, feelingly. "But, truly,"
she added, flushing, "I shall not feel quite easy until we get off,
for I am in constant fear that Mr. Hamblin will discover my flight, and
come directly here to search for me."
"Well, even if he does, you need fear nothing," Mr. Cutler returned,
reassuringly; "you shall have my protection, and should Mr. Hamblin make
his appearance before we sail and try to create a disturbance, we will
just hand the young man over to the authorities. The only thing I regret
in connection with him," the gentleman concluded, with a twinkle in his
eye, "is that I cannot have the pleasure of witnessing his astonishment
and dismay when he makes the discovery that his bird has flown. Now,
ladies, make yourselves comfortable, then come and join me on deck."
He left them together to get settled for their voyage, and went up stairs
for a smoke and to keep his eye upon the shore, for he fully expected to
see Louis Hamblin come tearing down to the boat at any moment. The reader
has, of course, recognized in Justin Cutler the gentleman who, at the
opening of our story, was made the victim of the accomplished sharper,
Mrs. Bently, in the diamond crescent affair. It will be remembered also
that he came on to New York at the time of the arrest of Mrs. Vanderheck,
and that he informed Detective Rider of his intention of going to Cuba to
meet his invalid sister and accompany her home, and thus we find him
acting as Mona's escort and protector also.
While the three voyagers were settling themselves and waiting for the
steamer to sail, we will see how Louis Hamblin bore the discovery of
Mona's escape.
He did not rise until eight o'clock, and after having his bath and a cup
of coffee in his own room, he went to Mona's door and knocked.
Receiving no answer, he thought she must be sleeping, and resolved that
he would not arouse her just then.
He went down stairs, and had his breakfast, then strolled out to smoke
his cigar, after which he went back, and again tapped upon Mona's door.
Still no answer.
He called her name, but receiving no response, he took the key from his
pocket and coolly unlocking the door, threw it wide open.
The room was, of course, empty.
There were no signs that the bed had been occupied during the night, and
both the girl and her trunk were gone.
With a fierce imprecation of rage, the astonished young man rushed down
to the office to interview the proprietor as to the meaning of the girl's
disappearance.
Although Mona had supposed there was no one in the house who could speak
English, there was an interpreter, and through him Louis soon made his
trouble known.
"Impossible!" the amazed proprietor asserted; "no trunk had been removed
from Number Eleven, and no young lady had left the house that morning."
Louis angrily insisted that there had, and in company with the landlord
and the interpreter, he returned to Mona's room to prove his statement.
At first the affair was a great mystery, and created considerable
excitement, but it was finally remembered that Americans had occupied the
adjoining rooms, and it was therefore concluded that the young girl had
managed in some way to make her situation known to them, and they, having
left that morning, had, doubtless, assisted her in her flight.
"Who were they, and where were they going?" Louis demanded, in great
excitement.
"Cutler was the name, and they had left early to take the steamer for New
York," they told him.
"What was her hour for sailing?" cried the young man.
"Nine-thirty," he was informed.
Louis looked at his watch.
It lacked fifteen minutes of the time.
"A carriage! a carriage!" he cried, as he dashed out of the hotel and
down the steps at a break-neck pace.
He sprang into the first vehicle he could find, made the driver
understand that he wanted him to hasten with all possible speed to the
New York steamer, and enforced his wishes by showing the man a piece of
glittering gold.
He was terribly excited; his face was deathly white, and his eyes had the
look of a baffled demon. But he was not destined to have the satisfaction
of even seeing Mona, for he reached the pier just in season to see the
noble steamer sailing with stately bearing slowly out into the harbor,
and he knew that the fair girl was beyond his reach.
Meantime, as soon as she had seen Louis and Mona safely on board the
steamer, bound for Havana, Mrs. Montague, instead of going into the
stateroom that had been engaged for her only as a blind, slipped
stealthily back upon deck, hastened off the boat, and into her carriage,
which had been ordered to wait for her, and was driven directly to the
railway station, where she took the express going northward.
She did not spare herself, but traveled day and night until she reached
New York, when she immediately sent a note to Mr. Palmer, notifying him
of her return and desire to see him.
He at once hastened to her, for she had intimated in her communication
that she was in trouble, and upon inquiring the cause of it, she informed
him, with many sighs and expressions of grief, that her nephew and
prospective heir had eloped with her seamstress.
Mr. Palmer looked amazed.
"With that pretty, modest girl, whom you had at Hazeldean with you?" he
exclaimed, incredulously.
"Yes, with that pretty, modest girl," sneered Mrs. Montague. "These sly,
quiet things are just the ones to entrap a young man like Louis, and
there is poor Kitty McKenzie who will break her heart over the affair."
The wily widow's acting was very good, and Mr. Palmer sympathized with
her, and used his best efforts to comfort her. But all that Mrs. Montague
had cared to do was to set the ball rolling so that Ray might get it, and
gradually led the conversation into a more interesting channel, and they
discussed at length the subject of their own approaching union.
Mr. Palmer urged an early date, and after a little strategic hesitation,
Mrs. Montague finally consented to make him happy, and the wedding was
set for just one month from that day. This matter settled, the sedate
lover took his leave, and his _fiancée_ with a triumphant look on her
handsome face, went up stairs to look over her wardrobe to see what
additions would be needed for the important event.
"Whether Louis succeeds in making the girl marry him or not, she will
have been so compromised by this escapade that Ray Palmer will, of
course, never think of making her his wife, and my purpose will be
accomplished," she muttered, with an evil smile.
She did not give a thought to the wanderers after that, but went about
the preparations for her approaching marriage with all the zeal and
enthusiasm that might have been expected in a far younger bride-elect.
Mr. Palmer went home feeling a trifle anxious as to how Ray would receive
the news that the day was set for making Mrs. Montague his wife.
To see that he dreaded revealing the fact expresses but little of what he
felt, but he had never taken any important step of late years without
consulting his son, and he did not feel at liberty to now ignore him
upon a matter of such vital interest.
So, after tea that evening, when they sat down to read their papers, he
thought the opportunity would be a favorable one to make his confession.
Ray seemed anxious and depressed, for he had not received his usual
semi-weekly letter from Mona that day, and was wondering what could be
the reason, when Mr. Palmer suddenly remarked:
"Mrs. Montague has returned."
"Ah!" said Ray, and instantly his face brightened, for his natural
inference was that Mona had, of course, returned with Mrs. Montague, and
that accounted for his having received no letter that day.
"Yes, she arrived this morning," said his father.
"She is well, I suppose?" Ray remarked, feeling that he must make some
courteous inquiry regarding his stepmother-elect.
"Yes, physically; but that scapegrace of a nephew has been giving her
considerable trouble," Mr. Palmer observed.
"Trouble?" repeated his son.
"Yes, he eloped with a girl from New Orleans. They went on board a
steamer bound for Havana, registered as man and wife, and that is the
last she has heard of him, while she was obliged to return to New York
alone," explained Mr. Palmer, wondering how he was going to introduce the
subject of his approaching marriage.
"Is that possible? Who was the girl?" exclaimed Ray, astonished and
utterly unsuspicious of the blow awaiting his fond heart.
"Mrs. Montague's seamstress--Ruth Richards."