SAVED!
Professor Ruggles had not been remiss in his judgment. It was Madge
Scarlet who stole his victim from his arms almost in the hour of his
devilish triumph. She did not get on the train from the little way
station, however. She was on the train when it drew out of the great
city by the lake, but the scheming Ruggles knew it not.
She, too, wore a veil, and was otherwise disguised, and managed not to
show herself to the man she had once called friend. Immediately on her
release from jail she began to watch Ruggles, who kept himself out of
the way, or walked the streets only in disguise.
She haunted the depots of the city, and was lucky enough to see him
when he took passage. Quietly boarding the same train, she bided her
time, intent on gaining possession of the detective's sister for
purposes of her own.
The fires of insanity were already burning in the brain of the
convict's wife.
Revenge for past wrongs seemed the sole object of her life now, and
this was the incentive that placed her on the track of a fleeing
villain and his intended victim.
Madge saw Ruggles when he left the car. She watched her opportunity,
and lifting the partially insensible girl, bore her swiftly to the
outside, as the train halted for a minute.
She gave vent to a chuckle as the train went thundering on its course.
She had passed from the cars on the opposite side from the depot, and
consequently was able to elude the gaze of the depot agent.
Along the track she went, pausing at times to rest, until she was
fully a mile from the station. In the shadow of a clump of trees the
hag came to a halt and deposited her burden on the ground.
A moan from the drugged and helpless Nell reached her ears.
And then Mrs. Scarlet chuckled the louder.
"Good; she's coming out of her bad spell. I want her to realize her
fate, else there wouldn't be the least bit of pleasure in my revenge."
Removing veil and light cloak, Mrs. Scarlet gazed down into the pallid
face of poor Nell, with only hatred gleaming from her sunken, beady
eyes.
"Ho! I've outwitted the master devil himself, and now I will have you
all to myself, to deal with in a way that will cut to the quick when
Dyke Darrel hears of it."
Nell had on only a light summer robe under the shawl. She looked very
innocent and beautiful as she lay there under the gaze of that human
hyena.
"Pretty's a picture," hissed the wicked Madge. "I'll all the more
delight in seeing you suffer. Ah! she is coming out of her stupor. How
do you feel, dear?"
Nell had opened her eyes and gazed at the wicked face above her, in a
dazed semi-consciousness.
No answer was vouchsafed.
Then, in looking about, the gleam of steel lines under the moon's rays
seemed to attract the notice of Mrs. Scarlet for the first time--the
straight lines that marked the course of the Erie road.
Their glitter seemed to offer a diabolical suggestion to Madge
Scarlet.
"Ha! I have it."
Springing to her feet, she laid her arms about the slender form of the
helpless girl, and, lifting her, walked swiftly to the railway track.
In the centre, between the rails, she deposited her burden.
"Revenge! sweet revenge!" cackled the hag in a blood-curdling voice.
Again the girl moved and moaned; yet she seemed unable to change her
position.
"Rest yourself comfortably, my girl; you won't be in trouble long,"
muttered the demon woman, with a grin that was absolutely sickening.
Poor Nell! She lay quite still after that, between the fatal rails,
only giving sign of life by a faint moan occasionally.
Mrs. Scarlet retired to her leafy covert to wait the outcome. She
could see far beyond the track a farm-house, and near her a heap of
ties, and a rude fence--the moonlight revealed everything plainly.
Chuckling with hideous satisfaction, the she demon waited the coming
of the express that could not be far distant. Morning was already
brightening the East.
Far away was the sound of a moving train. The sullen, distant roar
sent a thrill to the heart of the demon woman, who crouched in the
bushes to await the completion of her unhallowed revenge.
The sullen jar seemed to act like a shock of electricity on the nerves
of Nell Darrel. She felt a strange and awful numbness. With a mighty
effort the girl roused herself to a consciousness of her awful
position.
Louder and louder roared the train. It was but a mile distant now, and
the road was straight.
Nell raised her head, and resting on her hands gazed down the track
where, in the distance, gleamed the light of the locomotive.
"God help me!" moaned the poor girl. Then she tried to throw herself
from the track, but she could not. Her limbs were numb, and refused to
obey her will.
A wild laugh rang out on the moonlit air.
Madge Scarlet sprang up and glared through the bushes at her victim
with maniacal delight.
"Ha' ha! You cannot escape! Them pretty limbs'll be crushed and torn
asunder! the white flesh cut and gashed, and that delicate body made a
horrid mass of blood and mangled fragments! THEN I will present them
to you, Dyke Darrel. Ho! ho!"
Her voice was raised to a high pitch now, and even reached the ears of
the startled Nell.
No help, no hope!
On thundered the iron monster.
On and on till the eye of the engineer catches sight of something on
the track--SOMETHING!
Quickly the engine is reversed and the air brakes come into play.
Too late!
A moan of agonized terror falls from the lips of the half dead girl,
and then she sank helplessly to the ground. At the same instant help
came from an unexpected source.
A man dashed swiftly through the moonlight and flung a heavy oak tie
in front of the slackened engine.
A rumble and a jar, and then the train came to a dead stop, within
three feet of the prostrate girl!
It was a narrow escape.
The man who had come so unexpectedly out of the shadows dragged Nell
from her dangerous position. The engineer and fireman came down and
congratulated the young man on his presence.
"The brakes couldn't quite do it," said the engineer. "That tie saved
the girl, with no damage to the train."
"It seems to be a lucky accident all round," said the young man, who
had laid Nell on a safe spot, and now turned his attention to
assisting in removing the obstruction from the rails.
"Yes. Who is she?"
"I can't say."
"Well, I must be on the way," uttered the engineer, "we are behind
time now."
By this time the conductor was on the ground, but the train was
running again, and he received a full explanation from the engineer
afterward.
When the young man made a closer inspection of the girl he had
rescued, a cry of surprise fell from his lips.
"As I live, it is Nell Darrel!"
But she could not speak to thank him for his act, since she had
fainted.
Lifting her tenderly the young man turned his steps in the direction
of the farm-house, where he had been stopping during the past two
days.
"Curse you! curse you!" were the venomous words flung after the man by
Madge Scarlet.
But she dared not interfere to prevent the rescue.
When Nell Darrel again opened her eyes, it was to find herself calmly
resting on a couch in a little room, whose cozy appearance was like
home indeed. And the face that bent over her was not that of a
stranger. Could it be that she was dreaming?
"Thank Heaven!" murmured a manly voice, and then a mustached lip bent
and pressed a clinging kiss to the cheek of poor Nell.
"Harry, dear Harry!"
Thus had the lovers met after many long months of separation.
A smile rested on the face of the fair girl as she held Harry's hand
while he talked of the past.
She explained as best she could the strangeness of her situation; but
everything was so much like a dream, it was a hard matter to reconcile
some of the events of the past few weeks.
"The end draws nigh," assured young Bernard, after a time. "If the
notorious man calling himself Ruggles was on the train, he will, on
discovering his loss, turn back, and then I will capture him."