TWO ACCIDENTS AND A MYSTERY
February 17. I'm writing this under a good deal of difficulty, for my
left hand is in a sling and this blank-book slips around dreadfully. The
truth is that I had quite an accident the other day, and have been laid
up ever since. It was the day after I last wrote in my journal. We'd had
a heavy fall of snow overnight, followed by a hard frost. The coasting
on Eastward Hill was gorgeous, and we spent the whole of the next
afternoon there. Just at the last the Imp suggested that we try the
slide down the north slope of the hill. It's ever so much steeper than
the one we usually take, and is considered rather dangerous.
Louis said we'd better not, but the Imp begged so hard that we agreed to
try it just once. So Louis took Carol on his bobsled, and the Imp and I
had the other. She was steering, because she's awfully good at that.
They went first, and we followed. Everything went finely at the start.
It's the most exciting thing going down that steep slide, and I was just
enjoying it when suddenly something went wrong. I'm not sure yet just
what it was, but the Imp says there must have been a buried branch or
something under one of our runners.
Anyhow, the first I knew I was lying with my head in a snowbank and my
left arm doubled under me in the queerest manner. The Imp had been
landed in the bank, too, but she wasn't a bit hurt and was up in a
jiffy, dragging me out. First I thought I was all right, but when I
stood up my left arm began to hurt me so that I thought I'd die with the
pain of it. They put me on one of the sleds and hustled me home in a
hurry, and Louis went for the doctor.
He said it was only a sprain, but that I must stay in the house for a
while and take good care of it. So here I've been ever since. The Imp
has been an angel. That sounds funny, but I mean it! She nearly died of
remorse at having been the cause of my accident, and she can't do enough
for me. She waits on me hand and foot, and hasn't teased or been a bit
exasperating once. To show how angelic she can be, I must write what she
told me yesterday. She came in from a walk to the village, where she'd
been to get me some grapefruit, and announced:
"What do you think? I walked back most of the way with Monsieur. His
things have come."
"What things?" I asked, astonished, for I knew that his trunks came the
day after he arrived.
"Oh, didn't you know? A few things he brought with him. Two or three
pictures and a big lot of books."
"But what did he bring over things like that for?" I demanded. "If he's
only here for a visit, it's rather queer for him to be carting books and
pictures about with him. I shouldn't think he'd be staying long enough
to make it worth while."
"I think he's going to stay quite a long while," the Imp replied.
"Perhaps it will be a year or more, judging from what he says."
"How do you know all this?" I asked. It aroused all the old, jealous
feeling again to think that she knew so much more about it than I did.
"Why, this way. You see, we were walking up together, and we'd got about
as far as Louis's gate when we both noticed a cart, with those things
piled on it, standing there. Miss Yvonne was talking to the driver.
Monsieur suddenly said, 'Ah, my things have come! That is well!' Then he
turned to me and said, 'They are my most precious possessions. I never
travel far without them.' I said it was too bad that they'd been delayed
so long getting here from the steamer. For you know he's been here
nearly a month. Then he said, 'They were not delayed, Mademoiselle
Hélène. I did not send for them at once because--I was not sure I should
stay. Now I feel that my stay may be long.'
"Wasn't that queer?" added the Imp. "Why do you suppose he first
thought he mightn't stay long, and then decided that he would?"
"Perhaps he likes it here better than he thought he would," I suggested.
"Nothing of the sort!" answered the Imp. "He hates it. He told me the
climate was abominable. He didn't see how any one could exist in it."
"Then it must be because he likes the Meadows' and Louis so much," I
decided.
"I don't think that has anything to do with it," replied the Imp. "I'm
certain it's something else. He's staying on because things haven't gone
the way he'd planned. If they had, he'd have gone right home. I've
figured that much out about him."
We didn't have any more time for talk just then, for Mother came in to
say that dinner was ready. But I've been thinking and thinking ever
since about what the Imp told me. She was never so communicative with me
before. It's worth while to have a damaged arm, but I wonder how long it
will last. I wish Carol were over here right now, so that I could tell
her. But she has a cold, and I haven't seen her for two days.
It has seemed rather curious to me, right along, that we young folks
were the only ones who seemed interested in Louis's affair and the new
visitor. I wondered why. But something that was said at table last night
made me realize that we are, after all, the only ones who know much of
the _inside_ of that affair. For instance, Mother said to Father:
"Who is that queer old gentleman visiting across the Green? He seems
like a foreigner."
"Monsieur something-or-other," Father answered. "I didn't catch his
name, though Louis tried to introduce us the other day, when they were
passing where I was working in the north pasture. I've never quite
understood the Meadows' household, anyway. They seem queer and
foreign--all but Louis. He is a true American boy. I've often wondered
where John Meadows hailed from. He brought Louis here as a small baby,
and I never knew where he came from. He would never say much about it.
By the way, Simpson wrote that we could have that new fertilizer next
month."
And that's all they thought or cared about it. But, at any rate, their
conversation had given me one bit of news--about Louis having been
brought here as a little baby, and that folks didn't know the Meadows'
people before. I'd always supposed that they had lived here all along,
too. I wonder if Louis knows this? I wonder if I had better tell him? I
don't know. Somehow that, and the news the Imp brought to-day, has made
me feel about as mixed up as possible. I can't make head or tail of
anything. I wish Carol were here.
I've just been looking over this journal from the beginning, noticing
all the queer things that have come up about Louis since I began it. I
think I'll put them down in order and see if it will help me to make
anything out of the strange situation.
First, the queer way that Louis's folks have always treated him and the
fact that he isn't any real relation. That looks to me very much as if
his antecedents or his forefathers or whatever you call them must have
been of some different station of life from the Meadows people. And yet
Louis says their families have always been old friends. At any rate,
they must feel, for some reason, responsible for him to some one, or
they wouldn't be so careful about him. By the way, that some one must be
"Monsieur"; who else _could_ it be?
Next there were those mysterious cablegrams. Of course they were from
"Monsieur," but what did he mean by saying, "The time is ripe"? Sounds
as if some sort of plot was being hatched. And then about those papers.
_What_ are they, and _where_ are they? Have they anything to do with
Louis? I suppose they must. Does Louis himself know anything about them?
He has never said a word to us.
Besides, there was that queer performance when Miss Yvonne had Louis dig
in the cellar at night. I'm simply positive she must have been hunting
for the papers then, and also on New Year's Eve in the attic. I believe
they must be documents to prove that Louis is to come into a great
fortune, perhaps one that his ancestors left him. Yes, that's a brand
new idea, and I'm certain it's nearer the truth than anything we've
thought of yet. "Monsieur" is probably the family lawyer in France, and
has come to straighten everything out. Hurrah! I do wish Carol was here,
so that we could talk this over. It's a much more sensible idea than the
one that Louis is the descendant of some titled person. It would explain
a number of things,--why "Monsieur" doesn't like Louis to do any work,
and that sort of thing. And probably, too, that's why they would like
him to go back to France and be a statesman, since he can't be a duke or
a marquis and flourish around with the nobility. I suppose it's the next
best thing, in their estimation.
It might even explain, too, why "Monsieur" expects to make so long a
stay here to get things all straightened out. Oh, I'm so glad I thought
of this! I can hardly wait for to-morrow to come, so that I can tell
Carol. And I believe I'll even tell the Imp, too. She's been so decent
to me of late that I'm willing to do 'most anything for her.
"Ahoy, girls! Come over and see the big smash!"
It was the Imp who thus hailed the two girls as they were coming home
from the village one Saturday afternoon early in March. She was one of a
group that was standing in Louis's front yard, and the girls hurried
over to see what it was all about. They found that a fine old
cherry-tree had been half blown over by a high wind the night before,
and now it threatened to fall at the slightest jar. Its fall would do
serious damage to the fence near which it stood. Louis had decided to
chop it down so that it would fall in the opposite direction. It was not
the first time that he had had the experience, and he rather enjoyed the
thought of the task before him. It was quite evident, however, that
"Monsieur" did not at all approve of this scheme. He paced back and
forth on the path, muttering impatiently to himself in French and
occasionally urging Louis to be extremely careful.
As this was the first time that either Sue or Carol had met "Monsieur,"
Louis stopped long enough to make the introductions. Monsieur bowed
formally and murmured that he was "charmed to meet mesdemoiselles," but
there his interest in them ended, and he continued to pace back and
forth and mutter to himself.
Once the Imp poked Sue and whispered:
"He says, 'Always, always this servant's work!' He's been having a fit
about this ever since they came out. But Louis was determined to get it
done. Monsieur certainly does make him mad and nervous, though."
The tree was almost ready to topple over, when an unfortunate thing
happened. It may have been that Louis _was_ nervous, or that his foot
slipped on a patch of ice, or that it was a combination of both. At any
rate, just as the ax was raised for one of his most telling blows, he
missed his aim and brought it down directly on his left foot. With a
slight groan, he dropped to the ground. An instant later blood began to
pour from the wound in sickening spurts. So sudden had it all been, that
his watchers hardly realized what had happened till the spouting blood
revealed the accident.
Immediately all was confusion. Monsieur uttered a cry that was almost a
scream and, stooping down, tried to lift Louis in his arms. Miss Yvonne
rushed out, wringing her hands and screaming, too, in her excitable
French fashion. Old Mr. Meadows raised the parlor-window and stood
calling out all sorts of impossible directions, half in French and half
in English. Carol turned as white as a sheet and looked as if she were
going to faint away. She usually did at the sight of blood. Only the Imp
seemed to have any sense left. She called out to Carol:
"You run to our house and telephone for any doctor you can get, either
in the village or at Bridgeton!"
Then she said to Monsieur:
"Please let Louis alone. He'll bleed to death if you lift him that way."
Lastly she turned to Miss Yvonne:
"Don't you think that between us we could manage to carry Louis into
the house? I'll hold his poor foot so that it won't bleed so much."
It was almost absurd to hear that small child giving everybody orders,
but it was rather fine, too. And somehow it restored them to their
senses. Carol went flying off to telephone, only too glad to get away.
Miss Yvonne stopped screaming and lifted Louis in her strong arms, while
Sue held his head and Monsieur his uninjured foot.
Louis had fainted by this time. The Imp held his injured foot in such a
way that as little blood as possible escaped. Sue admitted later that
she would scarcely have had the nerve to do it, even if she had been
able. She was very much hampered, because her left arm was still in a
sling, so that all she could do was to hold up the boy's head with her
right hand.
Somehow or other they got Louis into the house. Monsieur insisted that
they carry him up to his (Monsieur's) room, though the others thought it
would have been better to take him to his own room on the ground floor.
But Monsieur would have his way, and they got Louis there somehow. By
the time they had laid him in the big brass bed, Carol came flying back
to say that she couldn't reach a single doctor in town. Every one was
out. But she had managed to get a promise from Dr. Langmaid in Bridgeton
that he would come over directly in his car, as soon as he could leave a
serious surgical case that he was treating in his office.
Meanwhile Louis's foot was still bleeding horribly. Something had to be
done at once. Miss Yvonne had got his shoe and stocking off and was
bathing the horrid wound, but that didn't help much. No one but Sue
seemed to know how to stop the bleeding and she was practically helpless
because of her hand. The reason she knew was because she had just
finished a course of "First Aid to the Injured" lectures that had been
given to the Young Girls' Club in school by a trained nurse. Carol
didn't take the course, because she hated all that kind of thing and it
made her sick. But Sue had enjoyed it. One of the principal things she
had learned was about the tourniquet and bandaging. But how was she to
do anything with only one hand? Suddenly the idea that she could give
the Imp directions and let _her_ do it dawned on Sue. The Imp was so
quick that she would understand in a wink.
So Sue asked Miss Yvonne if she'd tear up a sheet for some bandages, and
told the Imp that if she'd do as she told her, she thought they could
stop the bleeding. Miss Yvonne went right to work, and the Imp followed
Sue's directions well, while the latter did what she could with one
hand. They used a buttonhook for a tourniquet, and in five minutes
Louis's foot was bandaged roughly and not bleeding any more. Monsieur
had been spending the time in bathing Louis's head and holding ammonia
to his nose. Presently Louis came to and tried to ask what was the
matter. But they made him stop talking, because he was so weak from loss
of blood.
After that there wasn't anything to do but wait for the doctor, so they
sat around the room, not talking and all looking nervous and
embarrassed.
At last Dr. Langmaid arrived. He came jumping upstairs two steps at a
time. After he had taken one look at Louis's foot, he said:
"Whoever did that bandaging had good common sense. Perhaps it saved his
life."
That was all, but it made Sue feel proud for the Imp. The Imp, however,
declared that it was Sue's work, for she would never have known how to
do it herself. At any rate, after that the doctor turned out every one
but Miss Yvonne, and they stayed there with Louis for an age, while all
the rest waited downstairs for news. At last the doctor came down and
told them that Louis had almost severed an artery, but that he had
broken no bones. He sewed up the wound and left directions that Louis
was to stay in bed for some time and have careful attention, lest
blood-poisoning set in. But he said it was a miracle that nothing worse
had happened, and left his compliments for the two young ladies who did
the bandaging. At which the Imp and Sue pinched each other and took
their departure.
It was after they had left the house and were walking across the Green
to their own home, their knees still shaking with the excitement they
had experienced, that the Imp remarked:
"Did you see the queer thing that hung on 'Monsieur's' wall, right
opposite to the bed?"
"Why, no," answered Sue. "That is, I suppose I did, but I was so nervous
and worried that I can't remember anything about it. I hardly took my
eyes from Louis. What was it, anyway?"
"Three pictures, but the only one that I could see was the middle one.
It was a life-sized picture of a little boy about six or seven, I should
think. He had big brown eyes and brown wavy hair, and was quite a pretty
little chap, but he was dressed awfully queerly. I guess the picture
must be quite old, for his clothes weren't like anything that's been
worn for years. I wonder why 'Monsieur' carts it around and has it
hanging there. Must be some relation, I suppose, or some child of whom
he was very fond."
"But I thought you said his clothes were so queer and old-timey,"
suggested Sue. "I imagined from the way you spoke that they must be of a
fashion more than a hundred years old."
"I guess they were, too," admitted the Imp. "I had thought that perhaps
the boy was a son or a brother, but I guess he was from way before
_that_ time."
"Must be some famous ancestor, then," said Sue. "By the way, what did
you mean by saying that the boy's picture was the only one you could
see? If the three pictures were all hanging on the wall at the foot of
the bed, you could see the other two just as well, I should think."
"No, I couldn't; and for a very queer reason," replied the Imp darkly.
"Oh, for gracious sake, don't begin to tease!" cried Sue impatiently,
suspecting that the Imp was up to one of her usual tricks. "Things have
been so exciting, and you've been such a dear, that I hate to have you
spoil it by beginning that 'mysterious' business."
"But it _was_ mysterious," argued the Imp, "and you'd have seen it for
yourself, if you'd only had your eyes about you."
"Well, what was it?" sighed Sue. "I'm afraid you're making a whole lot
out of nothing."
"I'm _not_!" cried the Imp. "And I'll prove it this minute. I _couldn't_
see those two other pictures because--they both had a heavy, dark silk
covering of some kind stretched completely over them, frames and all!
_Now_ will you believe me?"
At this curious bit of information even doubting Sue had to admit that
the Imp was right.