A LAST CHANCE
Helen's choice of closed windows in preference to invading companies of
moths and June-bugs had made the room so insufferably warm that between
heat and excitement Betty could not get to sleep. Instead she tossed
restlessly about on her narrow couch, listening to the banging of the
trolleys at the next corner and wishing she were still sitting on the
breezy front seat, as the car dashed down the long hill toward the
station. At length she slipped softly out of bed and opened the door.
Perhaps the breeze would come in better then. As she stood for a moment
testing the result of her experiment, she noticed with surprise that
Eleanor's door was likewise open. This simple fact astonished her,
because she remembered that on the hottest nights last fall Eleanor had
persisted in shutting and locking her door. She had acquired the habit
from living so much in hotels, she said; she could never go to sleep at
all so long as her door was unfastened. "Perhaps it's all right,"
thought Betty, "but it looks queer. I believe I'll just see if she's in
bed." So she crept softly across the hall and looked into Eleanor's
room. It was empty, and the couch was in its daytime dress, covered with
an oriental spread and piled high with pillows. "I suppose she stopped
on the campus and got belated," was Betty's first idea. "But no, she
couldn't stay down there all night, and it's long after ten. It must be
half past eleven. I'll--I'd better consult--Katherine."
She chose Katherine instead of Rachel, because she had heard Eleanor
speak about going to Paradise, and so could best help to decide whether
it was reasonable to suppose that she was still there. Rachel was
steadier and more dependable, but Katherine was resourceful and
quick-witted. Besides, she was not a bit afraid of the dark.
She was sound asleep, but Betty managed to wake her and get her into the
hall without disturbing any one else.
"Goodness!" exclaimed Katherine, when she heard the news. "You don't
think----"
"I think she's lost in Paradise. It must have been pitch dark down there
under the trees even before she got started, and you know she hasn't any
sense of direction. Don't you remember her laughing about getting turned
around every time she went to New York?"
"Yes, but it doesn't seem possible to get lost on that little pond."
"It's bigger than it looks," said Betty, "and there is the mist, too, to
confuse her."
"I hadn't thought of that. Does she know how to manage a boat?"
"Yes, capitally," said Betty in so frightened a voice that Katherine
dropped the subject.
"She's lost up stream somewhere and afraid to move for fear of hitting a
rock," she said easily. "Or perhaps she's right out in the pond by the
boat-house and doesn't dare to cross because she might go too far down
toward the dam. We can find her all right, I guess."
"Then you'll come?" said Betty eagerly.
"Why, of course. You weren't thinking of going alone, were you?"
"I thought maybe you'd think it was silly for any one to go. I suppose
she might be at one of the campus houses."
"She might, but I doubt it," said Katherine. "She was painfully intent
on solitude when she left here. Now don't fuss too long about dressing."
Without a word Betty sped off to her room. She was just pulling a
rain-coat over a very meagre toilet when Katherine put her head in at
the door. "Bring matches," she said in a sepulchral whisper. Betty
emptied the contents of her match-box into her ulster pocket, threw a
cape over her arm for Eleanor, and followed Katherine cat-footed down
the stairs. In the lower hall they stopped for a brief consultation.
"Ought we to tell Mrs. Chapin?" asked Betty doubtfully.
"Eleanor will hate us forever if we do," said Katherine, "and I don't
see any special advantage in it. If we don't find her, Mrs. Chapin
can't. We might tell Rachel though, in case we were missed."
"Or we might leave a note where she would find it," suggested Betty.
"Then if we weren't missed no one need know."
"All right. You can go more quietly; I'll wait here." Katherine sank
down on the lowest stair, while Betty flew back to scribble a note which
she laid on Rachel's pillow. Then the relief expedition started.
It was very strange being out so late. Before ten o'clock a girl may go
anywhere in Harding, but after ten the streets are deserted and
dreadful. Betty shivered and clung close to Katherine, who marched
boldly along, declaring that it was much nicer outdoors than in, and
that midnight was certainly the top of the evening for a walk.
"And if we find her way up the river we can all camp out for the night,"
she suggested jovially.
"But if we don't find her?"
Katherine, who had noticed Betty's growing nervousness, refused to
entertain the possibility.
"We shall," she said.
"But if we don't?" persisted Betty.
"Then I suppose we shall have to tell somebody who--who could--why, hunt
for her more thoroughly," stammered Katherine. "Or possibly we'd better
wait till morning and make sure that she didn't stay all night with Miss
Day. But if we don't find her, there will be plenty of time to discuss
that."
At the campus gateway the girls hesitated.
"Suppose we should meet the night-watchman?" said Betty anxiously.
"Would he arrest us?"
Katherine laughed at her fears. "I was only wondering if we hadn't
better take the path through the orchard. If we go down by the
dwelling-houses we might meet him, of course, and it would be awkward
getting rid of him if he has an ordinary amount of curiosity."
"But that path is spooky dark," objected Betty.
"Not so dark as the street behind the campus," said Katherine decidedly,
"and that's the only alternative. Come on."
When they had almost reached the back limit of the campus Katherine
halted suddenly. Betty clutched her in terror. "Do you see any one?" she
whispered. Katherine put an arm around her frightened little comrade.
"Not a person," she said reassuringly, "not even the ghost of my
grandmother. I was just wondering, Betty, if you'd care to go ahead down
to the landing and call, while I waited up by the road. Eleanor is such
a proud thing; she'll hate dreadfully to be caught in this fix, and I
know she'd rather have you come to find her than me or both of us. But
perhaps you'd rather not go ahead. It is pretty dark down there."
Betty lifted her face from Katherine's shoulder and looked at the black
darkness that was the road and the river bank, and below it to the pond
that glistened here and there where the starlight fell on its cloak of
mist.
"Of course," said Katherine after a moment's silence, "we can keep
together just as well as not, as far as I am concerned. I only thought
that perhaps, since this was your plan and you are so fond of
Eleanor--oh well, I just thought you might like to have the fun of
rescuing her," finished Katherine desperately.
"Do you mean for me to go ahead and call, and if Eleanor answers not to
say anything to her about your having come?"
"Yes."
"Then how would you get home?"
"Oh, walk along behind you, just out of sight."
"Wouldn't you be afraid?"
"Hardly."
"But I should be taking the credit for something I hadn't done."
"And Eleanor would be the happier thereby and none of the rest of the
world would be affected either way."
Betty looked at the pond again and then gave Katherine a soft little
hug. "Katherine Kittredge, you're an old dear," she said, "and if you
really don't mind, I'll go ahead; but if she asks me how I dared to come
alone or says anything about how I got here, I shall tell her that you
were with me."
"All right, but I fancy she won't be thinking about that. The matches
are so she can see her way to you. It's awfully hard to follow a sound
across the water, but if you light one match after another she can get
to you before the supply gives out, if she's anywhere near. Don't light
any till she answers. If she doesn't answer, I'll come down to you and
we'll walk on up the river a little way and find her there."
"Yes," said Betty. "Where shall you stay?"
"Oh, right under this tree, I guess," answered Katherine carelessly.
"Good-bye."
"Good-bye."
When Betty had fairly gone, doubts began to assail Katherine, as they
have a habit of assailing impulsive people, after it is too late to pay
heed to them. It occurred to her that she was cooperating in what might
easily turn out to be a desperate adventure, and that it would have been
the part of wisdom to enlist the services of more competent and better
equipped searchers at once, without risking delay on the slender chance
of finding Eleanor near the wharf. "Eleanor would have hated the
publicity, but if she wants to come up here in the dark and frighten us
all into hysteria she must take the consequences. And I'd have let her
too, if it hadn't been for Betty."
An owl hooted, and Katherine jumped as nervously as Betty would have
done. Poor Betty! She must be almost at the landing by this time. At
that very moment a little quavering voice rang out over the water.
"Eleanor! Eleanor Watson! Eleanor! Oh, Eleanor, where are you?"
For a long moment there was silence. Then the owl hooted again. That was
too much. Katherine jumped up with a bound and started down the bank
toward Betty. She did not stop to find the path, and at the second step
caught her foot and fell headlong. Apparently Betty did not hear her.
She had not yet given up hope, for she was calling again, pausing each
time to listen for the answer that did not come.
"Oh, Eleanor, Eleanor, aren't you there?" she cried and stopped, even
the courage of despair gone at last. Katherine, nursing a bruised knee
on the hill above, had opened her mouth to call encouragement, when a
low "Who is it?" floated across the water.
"Eleanor, is that you? It's I--Betty Wales!" shrieked Betty.
Katherine nodded her head in silent token of "I told you so," and slid
back among the bushes to recuperate and await developments.
For the end was not yet. Eleanor was evidently far down toward the dam,
close to the opposite bank. It was hard for her to hear Betty, and still
harder for Betty to hear her. Her voice sounded faint and far off, and
she seemed to be paralyzed with fear and quite incapable of further
effort. When Betty begged her to paddle right across and began lighting
matches in reckless profusion to show her the way, Eleanor simply
repeated, "I can't, I can't," in dull, dispirited monotone.
"Shall--I--come--for--you?" shouted Betty.
"You can't," returned Eleanor again.
"Non--sense!" shrieked Betty and then stood still on the wharf,
apparently weighing Eleanor's last opinion.
"Go ahead," called Katherine in muffled tones from above.
Betty did not answer.
"Thinks I'm another owl, I suppose," muttered Katherine, and limped down
the bank to the wharf, frightening the nervous, overwrought Betty almost
out of her wits at first, and then vastly relieving her by taking the
entire direction of affairs into her own competent hands.
"You go right ahead. It's the only way, and it's perfectly easy in a
heavy boat. That canoe might possibly go down with the current, but a
big boat wouldn't. Rachel and I tried it last week, when the river was
higher. Now cross straight over and feel along the bank until you get to
her. Then beach the canoe and come back the same way. Give me some
matches. I'll manage that part of it and then retire,--unless you'd
rather be the one to wait here."
"No, I'll go," answered Betty eagerly, vanishing into the boat-house
after a pair of oars.
"She must be hanging on to something on shore," went on Katherine, when
Betty reappeared, "and she's lost her nerve and doesn't dare to let go.
If you can't get her into your boat, I'll come; but somebody really
ought to stay here. I had no idea the fog was so thick. Hurry now and
cross straight over. You're sure you're not afraid?"
"Quite sure." Betty was off, splashing her oars nervously through the
still water, wrapped in the mist, whispering over and over Katherine's
last words, "Hurry and go straight. Hurry, hurry, go straight across."
When she reached the other shore she called again to Eleanor, and the
sobbing cry of relief that answered her made all the strain and effort
seem as nothing. Cautiously creeping along the bank where the river was
comparatively quiet, backing water now and then to test her strength
with the current, she finally reached Eleanor, who had happened quite by
chance to run near the bank and now sat in the frail canoe hanging by
both hands to a branch that swept low over the water, exactly as
Katherine had guessed.
"Why didn't you beach the canoe, and stay on shore?" asked Betty, who
had tied her own boat just above and was now up to her knees in the
water, pulling Eleanor in.
"I tried to, but I lost my paddle, and so I was afraid to let go the
tree again, and the water looked so deep. Oh, Betty, Betty!"
Eleanor sank down on the bank, sobbing as if her heart would break.
Betty patted her arm in silence, and in a few moments she stood up,
quieted. "You're going to take me back?" she asked.
"Of course," said Betty, cheerfully, leading the way to her boat.
"Please wait a minute," commanded Eleanor.
Betty trembled. "She's going to say she won't go back with me," she
thought. "Please let me do it, Eleanor," she begged.
"Yes," said Eleanor, quickly, "but first I want to say something. I've
been a hateful, horrid thing, Betty. I've believed unkind stories and
done no end of mean things, and I deserve all that I've had to-night,
except your coming after me. I've been ashamed of myself for months,
only I wouldn't say so. I know you can never want me for a friend again,
after all my meanness; but Betty, say that you won't let it hurt
you--that you'll try to forget all about it."
Betty put a wet arm around Eleanor's neck and kissed her cheek softly.
"You weren't to blame," she said. "It was all a mistake and my horrid
carelessness. Of course I want you for a friend. I want it more than
anything else. And now don't say another word about it, but just get
into the boat and come home."
They hardly spoke during the return passage; Eleanor was worn out with
all she had gone through, and Betty was busy rowing and watching for
Katherine's matches, which made tiny, glimmering dots of light in the
gloom. Eleanor did not seem to notice them, nor the shadowy figure that
vanished around the boat-house just before they reached the wharf.
From her appointed station under the pine-tree Katherine heard the
grinding of the boat on the gravel, the rattle of oars thrown down on
the wharf, and then a low murmur of conversation that did not start up
the hill toward her, as she had expected.
"Innocents!" sighed Katherine. "They're actually stopping to talk it out
down there in the wet. I'm glad they've made it up, and I'd do anything
in reason for Betty Wales, but I certainly am sleepy," and she yawned so
loud that a blue jay that was roosting in the tree above her head
fluttered up to a higher branch, screaming angrily.
"The note of the nestle," laughed Katherine, and yawned again.
Down on the wharf Betty and Eleanor were curled up close together in an
indiscriminate, happy tangle of rain-coat, golf-cape, and very drabbled
muslin, holding a conversation that neither would ever forget. Yet it
was perfectly commonplace; Harding girls are not given to the expression
of their deeper emotions, though it must not therefore be inferred that
they do not have any to express.
"Oh, Betty, you can't imagine how dreadful it was out there!" Eleanor
was saying. "And I thought I should have to stay all night, of course.
How did you know I hadn't come in?"
Betty explained.
"I don't see why you bothered," said Eleanor. "I'm sure I shouldn't
have, for any one as horrid as I've been. Oh, Betty, will you truly
forgive me?"
"Don't say that. I've wanted to do something that would make you forgive
me."
"Oh, I know you have," broke in Eleanor quickly. "Miss Ferris told me."
"She did!" interrupted Betty in her turn. "Why, she promised not to."
"Yes, but I asked her. It seemed to me queer that she should have taken
such an interest in me, and all of a sudden it flashed over me, as I sat
talking to her, that you were at the bottom of it. So I said, 'Miss
Ferris, Betty Wales asked you to say this to me,' and she said, 'Yes,
but she also asked me not to mention her having done so.' I was ashamed
enough then, for she'd made me see pretty plainly how badly I needed
looking after, but I was bound I wouldn't give in. Oh, Betty, haven't I
been silly!"
"I didn't mean to hurt your feelings by what I said at that class
meeting, Eleanor," said Betty shyly.
"You didn't hurt them. I was just cross at things in general--at myself,
I suppose that means,--and angry at you because I'd made you despise me,
which certainly wasn't your fault."
"Eleanor, what nonsense! I despise you?"
A rustling on the bank reminded Betty that Katherine was waiting. "We
must go home," she said. "It's after midnight."
"So it is," agreed Eleanor, getting up stiffly. "Oh, Betty, I am glad
I'm not out there hanging on to that branch and shivering and wondering
how soon I should have to let go and end it all. Oh, I shall never
forget the feel of that stifling mist."
They walked home almost in silence. Katherine, missing the murmur of
conversation, wondered if this last effort at reconciliation had failed
after all; but near Mrs. Chapin's the talk began again.
"I'm only sorry there isn't more of spring term left to have a good time
in. Why, Eleanor, there's only two weeks."
"But there's all next year," answered Eleanor.
"I thought you weren't coming back."
"I wasn't, but I am now. I've got to--I can't go off letting people
think that I'm only a miserable failure. The Watson pride won't let me,
Betty."
"Oh, people don't think anything of that kind," objected Betty
consolingly.
"I know one person who does," said Eleanor with decision, "and her name
is Eleanor Watson. I decided while I was out there waiting for you that
one's honest opinion of herself is about as important as any outsider's.
Don't you think so?"
"Perhaps," said Betty gaily. "But the thing that interests me is that
you're coming back next year. Why, it's just grand! Shall you go on the
campus?"