THE ARREST
After eating supper, and spending the evening at an old-fashioned
Southern Inn on the Virginia side of the Potomac River, the two
automobile parties started back to Washington.
Barbara and Peter Dillon occupied seats in the car with Harriet and Mr.
Meyers, Mrs. Wilson, and two Washington girls who had been members of
their party.
As Ruth did not know the roads it was decided that she keep to the rear
and follow the car in front of her.
It was a clear moonlight night, and, though the roads were not good, no
member of the party dreamed of trouble.
Bab sat next to Charlie Meyers, and her host was in a decidedly sulky
temper. For Harriet had grown tired of his devotion, after several hours
of it during the afternoon, and was amusing herself with Peter.
No sooner had the two cars sped away from the peaceful shadows of Mt.
Vernon, than Peter began to play Prince Charming to Harriet.
Charlie Meyers did not know what to do. He was a stupid fellow, who
expected his money to carry him through everything. He would hardly
listen to Barbara's conversation or take the slightest interest in
anything she tried to say.
Every time Harriet's gay laugh rang out from the next seat Charlie Meyers
would drive his car faster than ever, until it fairly bounded over the
rough places in the road.
Several times Mrs. Wilson remonstrated with him. "You are going too fast,
Mr. Meyers. It is dark, and I am afraid we shall have an accident if you
are not more careful. Please go slower."
For an instant, Mr. Meyers would obey Mrs. Wilson's request to lessen the
speed of his car. Then he would dash ahead as though the very furies were
after him.
As for Ruth, she had to follow the automobile in front in order to find
her way, so it was necessary for her to run her car at the same high
speed. Neither Ruth nor her companions knew the pitfalls along the road.
Hugh did not keep his automobile in Washington, and, though he had a
general idea of the direction they should take, he had never driven along
the particular course selected by Mr. Meyers for their return trip.
Ruth felt her face flush with temper as her car shook and plunged along
the road. In order to keep within a reasonable distance of the heavier
car, she had to put on full power and forge blindly ahead.
Once or twice Ruth called out: "Won't you go a little slower in front,
please? I can't find my way along this road at such a swift pace."
But Ruth's voice floated back on the winds and the leading car paid no
heed to her.
Then Elmer and Hugh took up the refrain, shouting with all their lung
power. They merely wasted their breath. Charlie Meyers either did not
hear them or pretended not to do so. He never once turned his head, or
asked if those back of him were making a safe journey.
Barbara was furious. She fully realized Ruth's predicament, although she
was not in her chum's car. "Please don't get out of sight of Ruth's car,
Mr. Meyers," Bab urged her companion. But he paid not the slightest
attention to her request.
Bab looked anxiously back over the road. Now and then she could see Mr.
A. Bubble's lamps; more often Ruth's car was out of sight. Patience was
not Barbara's strong point.
"Harriet," she protested, "Won't you ask Mr. Meyers to slow down so that
Ruth can follow him. He will not pay the least attention to me."
"What is your hurry, Charlie!" asked Harriet, in a most provoking tone.
She knew the young fellow was not a gentleman, and that he was showing
his anger against her by making them all uncomfortable. But Harriet was
in a wicked humor herself, and she would not try to appease their cross
host. She was having an extremely pleasant time with Peter Dillon, and
really did not realize Ruth's difficulties.
The front car slowed imperceptibly, then hurried on again.
At about half past ten o'clock, Mr. Meyers turned into one of the narrow
old-fashioned streets of the town of Alexandria, which is just south-west
of Washington. The town was only dimly lighted and the roads made winding
turns, so that it was impossible to see any great distance ahead.
Ruth had managed to keep her car going, though she had long since lost
her sweet temper, and the others of her party were very angry.
"It serves us right," Hugh Post declared to Ruth. "We ought never to have
accepted this fellow's invitation. I knew he wasn't a gentleman, and I
know Mr. Hamlin does not wish Harriet to have anything to do with him.
Yet, just because the fellow is enormously rich and gives automobile
parties, here we have been spending the evening as his guests. Look here,
Ruth, do you think I can forget I have enjoyed his hospitality, and
punch his head for him when we get back to Washington, for leading you on
a chase like this?"
Ruth smiled and shook her head. She was seldom nervous about her
automobile after all her experiences as chauffeur. Yet this wild ride at
night through towns of which she knew little or nothing, was not exactly
her idea of sport.
Mr. Bubble was again outdistanced. As the streets were deserted, Ruth
decided to make one more violent spurt in an effort to catch up with the
front car. Poor Mr. A. Bubble who had traveled so far with his carload of
happy girls was shaking from side to side. But Ruth did not think of
danger. Alexandria is a sleepy old Southern town and nearly all its
inhabitants were in bed.
"Aren't there any speed regulations in this part of the world, Hugh?"
Ruth suddenly inquired.
But she was too late. At this instant everyone in her car heard a
loud shout.
"Hold up there! Stop!" A figure on a bicycle darted out of a dark alley
in hot pursuit of them.
"Go it, Ruth!" Hugh whispered. But Ruth shook her head.
"No," she answered. "We must face the music." Ruth put on her stop brake
and her car slowed down.
"What do you mean," cried a wrathful voice, "tearing through a peaceful
town like this, lickitty-split, as though there were no folks on earth
but you. You just come along to the station with me! You'll find out,
pretty quick, what twenty-five miles an hour means in this here town."
"Let me explain matters to you," Hugh protested. "It is all a mistake."
"I ain't never arrested anybody for speeding yet that they ain't told me
it was just a mistake," fumed the policeman. "But you will git a chance
to tell your story to the chief of police. You're just wasting good time
talkin' to me. I ain't got a mite of patience with crazy automobilists."
"Don't take us all to the station house, officer!" Hugh pleaded. "Just
take me along, and let the rest of the party go on back to Washington.
It's awfully late. You surely wouldn't keep these young ladies."
"It's the lady that's a-runnin' the car, ain't it? She's the one that is
under arrest," said the policeman obstinately.
Ruth had not spoken since her automobile was stopped.
She had a lump in her throat, caused partly by anger and partly by
embarrassment and fright. Then, too, Ruth was wondering what her father
would say. In the years she had been running her automobile, over all the
thousands of miles she had traveled, Ruth had never before been stopped
for breaking the speed laws. She had always promised Mr. Stuart to be
careful. And one cannot have followed the fortunes of Ruth Stuart and her
friends in their adventures without realizing Ruth's high and fine regard
for her word. Yet here were Ruth and her friends about to be taken to
jail for breaking the laws of the little Virginia city.
It was small wonder that Ruth found it difficult to speak.
"I will go with the policeman," she assented. "Perhaps he will let you
take Mollie and Grace on home."
Of course no one paid the slightest attention to Ruth's ridiculous
suggestion. Her friends were not very likely to leave her alone to argue
her case before the justice of the peace.
"I say, man, do be reasonable," Hugh urged. He would not give up. "You
can hold me in jail all night if you will just let the others go."
"Please don't argue with the policeman, Hugh," Ruth begged. "He is only
doing his duty. I am so sorry, Mollie darling, for you and Grace. But I
know you won't leave me."
"Oh, we don't mind," the two girls protested. "I suppose we can pay the
fine and they will let us go at once."
Hugh said nothing, for he knew that he had only a few dollars in
his pocket.
When Ruth's car finally reached the station house it was almost
eleven o'clock.
The policeman took the automobile party inside the station. It was bitter
cold in the room, for the winter chill had fallen with the close of the
December day. The fire had died out in the air-tight iron stove in the
room, and Mollie, Ruth and Grace could hardly keep from shivering.
"Well, where is the justice of the peace or whatever man we ought to see
about this wretched business?" Hugh demanded.
At last the policeman looked a little apologetic. "I'll get some one to
make up a fire for you," he answered. "I have got to go out and wake up
the justice to look after your case. It's bed-time and he's home asleep."
"Do you expect us to sit here in this freezing dirty old room half the
night while you go around looking up a magistrate?" Hugh demanded,
wrathfully.
"I told you I would have the fire built up," the policeman answered
sullenly. "But it ain't my fault you got into this trouble. You ought
not to have broken the law. We have had about as much trouble with
automobilists in this here town as we are willing to stand for. And I
might as well tell you, right now, the court will make it pretty hot for
you. It may be I can't get the justice to hear your case until to-morrow,
and you'll have to stay here all night."
"Stay here all night!" cried the five young people, as they sank down
into five hard wooden chairs in utter despair.
"Harriet, have you seen Ruth's automobile?" Bab asked, as Charlie Meyers'
car got safely out of Alexandria and started on the road toward
Washington.
Harriet and Peter both looked around and strained their eyes in the
darkness. But there was no sign of Ruth or her party.
"Don't you think we had better go back a little, Charlie?" Harriet now
suggested. "I am afraid you have gotten too far ahead of Ruth for her to
follow you."
"What has Miss Stuart got Hugh Post and Elmer Wilson with her for, if
they can't show her the way to town?" argued the impolite host of the
automobile parties.
"I think Charlie is right, Harriet. I would not worry," interposed Mrs.
Wilson, in her soft tones. "Elmer may not have known the road during the
early part of our trip, but neither one of the boys is very apt to lose
his way between Alexandria and Washington." Mrs. Wilson laughed at the
very absurdity of the idea.
Harriet said nothing more, and, although Bab was by no means satisfied,
she felt compelled to hold her peace.
"Will you leave me at my house, Charlie?" Mrs. Wilson demanded, as soon
as their automobile reached Washington. "I know Harriet expects to make a
Welsh rarebit for you at her home, but I am going to ask you to excuse
me. I am a good deal older than you children, and I am tired."
When Barbara reached the Hamlin house she hoped ardently to see the
familiar lights of her old friend, A. Bubble waiting outside the door.
But the street was bare of automobiles.
There was nothing to do but to follow the other young people into the
house and take off her hat and coat. But Bab had not the heart to join
Harriet in the dining-room where the preparations for making the rarebit
were now going on. She lingered forlornly in the hall. Every now and then
she would peer anxiously out into the darkness. Still there was no sign
of Ruth or any member of her party! Barbara was wretched. She was now
convinced that some accident had befallen them.
"Come in, Barbara," called Harriet cheerfully. "The Welsh rarebit is
done and it has to be eaten on the instant. I will make another for
Ruth's crowd when they get in. They are certainly awfully slow in
arriving."
"Harriet!" Barbara's white face appeared at the dining-room door. "I
hate to be a nuisance, but I am dreadfully worried about the other
girls. I know they would have gotten home by this time if nothing had
happened to them."
Poor Barbara had to make a dreadful effort to swallow her pride, for
Charlie Meyers had been dreadfully rude to her all afternoon. "Mr.
Meyers," she pleaded, "won't you take me back in your car to look for my
friends? I simply can't bear the suspense any longer." Barbara's eyes
were full of tears.
"Oh, Bab, you are foolish to worry," Harriet protested. "It would not be
worth while for you and Mr. Meyers to go back now. You would only pass
Ruth on the road. It is nearly midnight."
"I know it is," Bab agreed. "And that is why I am so frightened. Don't
you think you could take me to look for them? Please do, Mr. Meyers."
The ill-bred fellow shrugged his shoulders. "What do you take me for,
Miss Thurston? I am not going to let my rarebit get cold. There is
nothing the matter with your friends. They are likely to be along at
any minute."
Barbara did not know what to do. Mr. Hamlin had not yet come in. Yet she
must find out what had happened to Ruth, Mollie and Grace. Bab once
thought of starting out alone and on foot, back up the long country road,
but she gave up the idea as sheer foolishness.
At that moment the grandfather's clock in the hall chimed midnight.
Almost two hours had passed since the two automobiles had entered
Alexandria, and the little town was only eight miles from Washington.
Bab felt she was going to cry before Harriet's guests. She slipped her
hand in her pocket to find her handkerchief. As she silently pressed her
handkerchief against her trembling lips she smelt a delicate perfume.
Something fresh and cool and aromatic touched her face. It was the tiny
rose-bud Peter Dillon had presented to her in the garden!
Now Bab had determined never to ask Peter to do her a favor. She felt
that, once she returned his pledge to him, he had the same right to ask
a favor of her. But what could Barbara do? Her beloved sister and
friends had certainly come to grief somewhere. And Bab was helpless to
find them alone.
"Mr. Dillon," Bab spoke under her breath, just showing her handkerchief
to him with the rose-bud crushed between its damp folds, "won't you help
me to find Ruth?" Bab only glanced at the flower with a shy smile. But
Peter saw it.
He jumped to his feet, his face flushing.
"Put the flower back, Miss Thurston," he said quietly to Barbara. "You do
not need to ask me to help you look for your friends as a favor to you. I
am ashamed of myself to have waited until you asked me. Harriet, I am
going back to look for your guests."
Harriet, who was also feeling uneasy without being willing to confess it,
cheerfully agreed.
"I am going to take your car, Meyers," declared Peter Dillon without
saying so much as by your leave.
Bab and Peter Dillon hurried out to the waiting automobile. Both stopped
only to take coats and caps from the rack in the hall.
If Peter Dillon wished to make a friend of Barbara Thurston, his prompt
response to her plea for help came nearer accomplishing it than anything
else in the world. When Peter refused Bab's proffered rose-bud she then
determined to do him any favor that she could whenever he might desire to
ask it of her.