The next Sunday came, bright and sunny. Girls who were busy bringing up
their work mourned because they had to “waste so much time in study.”
Early after lunch, a number of girls started off for their ride, one
groom in charge. Most of these were seniors, whose experience in
horseback riding guaranteed a good time. Greycliff boasted handsome
horses, for some of which the girls felt a real affection. Juliet and
Pauline were already mounted and holding in their impatient steeds, when
Cathalina and Betty came down to the pavilion. Grooms were bringing out
the horses, helping the girls to mount, which most of them did most
easily.
Cathalina patted the black head of her pretty horse and whispered to
him, “Nice old Prince, I think I like you best of all our horses. But
we’ll have to change your name, I guess, because, as Kipling says, ‘the
captains and the kings depart’ in these days. Come, Boy, quiet now.”
Betty called the groom to her and asked him to fix her saddle a little.
“It feels loose, some way. Thank you.”
Cathalina pulled her horse beside Betty’s, as they waited for the entire
company to assemble, and asked her what she was going to do after she
came back. “I’d like to take a row, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes, I’d love to, but I can’t. I’m going off by myself and bone, as
Donald says, for that Lit. quiz on Monday. There are some things I
haven’t read at all! I’ll try not to think of you girls out rowing. I’m
just going for this ride and that is all the outing I’ll dare take. I
love the bridle path through the woods, don’t you? There are so many
lovely places along the shore, too. Do you remember that wonderful
picnic we had before the boys went away?”
“Oh, don’t I!”
“There they go. Pauline is a fine rider, isn’t she?”
“Yes, but Juliet is even better, and I think that you are the prettiest
thing on horseback that I ever saw.”
“Thanks, but you are partial.”
“Not a bit of it. It is my artistic eye.”
“Shall we bring up the rear? Come on, Calico. This horse has Arabian
blood in him. See his spots?”
“Is that why they call him that ridiculous name?”
“I suppose so, but they often call horses that. Let’s catch up with
Pauline if we can. There come Lilian and Hilary, I guess they are going.
They are dressed for it, at least. See, they are explaining why they are
late.”
In the woods, vines trailed down over their heads, branches met above
them and the sunlight flickered down through lacy leaves once more. The
riders slowed their horses to a walk or jogging trot, while the path
wound between tall trees or spindling saplings. Further on, they had a
gallop on the country road until they struck the bridle path along the
shore, where a beautiful view of the lake was one of the attractive
features. Miss Perin, the teacher who had “substituted for Patty,” as
the girls said, on the picnic at White Wings, was with the girls and let
them stop occasionally to examine a wild flower or pursue some new bird
a little distance.
“There’s a wonderful old farm-house over there, Miss Perin,” called
Juliet. “Can’t we ride up their drive and see if we can get some milk?”
“You are not hungry now, are you?”
“I am starved, aren’t you, Pauline?” The girls laughed, but looked at
Miss Perin with beseeching glances. “Girls are almost always hungry on a
ride, you know, Miss Perin.”
“Or anywhere else,” said Miss Perin, “All right; lead the way, Juliet.”
It was a modern place up whose concrete drive they trotted, Juliet
bringing up her horse in style at a side entrance, where a very small
girl sat on a stool just inside a latticed path. She ran out upon the
upper step to see who was coming, then quickly ran back and hid behind
the lattice, peeping out at them.
“Little girl, will you ask your mother if we can have a drink of milk?”
asked Juliet, in coaxing tones. A bareheaded, barefooted little boy next
came running around the corner of the house and stood still, blinking in
the sun and staring at the girls and horses. The girls sat on their
horses and looked in turn at the clean lawn, the flower beds, the
comfortable looking brick house with its newly painted grey blinds and
wide front porch, the big barns and tall silo, the stretching fields,
one of them with a herd of handsome Holstein cattle.
“Here is wealth, health and contentment,” said Juliet, just as a thin,
tall woman came from the porch and descended the steps, an inquiring
look on her face. “Pardon me,” continued Juliet. “One time when some of
us were riding we got some milk here, and we think that it would taste
very good again.”
“Are you the girls from the school?” asked the woman, smiling a little.
Miss Perin replied this time, “Yes, these are the girls from Greycliff.”
“Oh, yes, I see. Once in a while some of them stop, but we can’t always
let them have the milk. And we charge a good price for it,” she warned.
“We have enough today, though.”
The girls dismounted, tying their horses, or letting the groom do it, to
the fence that ran along one side of the driveway.
“Don’t tie yer horse to no tree,” said the little boy, waving back one
of the girls who was about to fasten her horse to a young peach tree.
“They either breaks the branches or gnaws the bark,” he added.
The little girl had overcome her shyness by this time and was edging
outside of the porch, trying to make up her mind whether she dared
descend or not, among so many big girls. A big man, dressed roughly for
his chores, came from one of the barns and added to the audience as he
stood and watched the girls and his children from a distance.
Presently the woman reappeared carrying a big, white pitcher, and a
young girl of about the same age as the Greycliff girls brought a tray
of glasses, shining and clean.
“It can’t cost more than a Buster Brown or a pecan fudge sundae,” said
Pauline. “Doesn’t it look good?” The milk was being poured by this time,
creamy and cool.
Lilian, meanwhile, had found a few pieces of candy in her pocket and was
coaxing the little girl to talk to her. The candy was left from Phil’s
last tribute, ordered from New York, since he was not there to send it
to her. Cathalina, too, fumbled in her pockets and discovered a little
red pencil, with a silk cord attached, which had been used for some
society doings and recently put in her pocket as convenient for taking
her bird notes when afield.
“What is your name?” asked Cathalina.
“Charlotte,” replied the child, much taken with the red pencil.
“I have a cousin Charlotte, who is just about as old as you are, I
think. Do you go to school yet?”
The child shook her head and broke away from the girls to show her
treasures to her mother, who was too busy, however, to pay much
attention.
“It’s a shame we haven’t anything for the little boy!” exclaimed
Cathalina. “I haven’t another thing in my coat pocket but a
handkerchief.”
“I believe I’ve got one of those pencils,” said Hilary, “and I put a
little memorandum book in my pocket this morning. I though we’d
certainly see something new, but I haven’t made a note in it.”
Hilary searched her pockets to see if she, too, had brought one of the
pretty pencils, for she usually preferred a more substantial kind and
had provided one of that sort for this trip. But she found a bright blue
one, which she hastened to offer to the small boy with the memorandum
book, and received a beaming smile as a reward.
By this time the farmer himself had joined the company and took the
empty glasses from Miss Perin and Betty, who happened to be standing
together. “Did you hear about the bomb explosion?” he asked.
“No, where?”
“O, a piece up the road, about ten mile, I reckon,—railroad bridge.
Something went wrong and it wasn’t hurt much, but a troop train was
about due. They’ll have to guard all them bridges. Some queer doin’s
around here.”
Betty’s mind immediately flew to the cave and the queer men. Miss
Perin’s brow contracted. “You wouldn’t think there was anybody who could
do anything like that.”
“Easier to kill ’em off here before they get over, I suppose—a bombed
train or a ship sunk by a submarine, not much difference.”
The girls settled for their milk and the contents of a jar of cookies,
not a trace of which remained, and the cavalcade moved on, this time
toward Greycliff. Cathalina and Betty fell back to the rear, though all
the horses traveled at a pretty good pace, as horses do when their faces
are turned homeward.
“Really I don’t want to hurry,” said Betty, “even if I ought to. Perhaps
I can study better.”
“I wonder what time it is,” said Cathalina, “I did not put on my watch.”
“Neither did I,” said Betty, “but the wood thrushes have been singing
steadily for some time and I’ve noticed that they begin to tune up about
three o’clock sun time. We lost lots of time at the farm-house. It will
be pretty late by the time we get home, I mean, late to begin studying.
Don’t worry if I’m not at dinner. I’ll get excused afterwards. Would you
mind making me a sandwich and putting it somewhere in the suite where
nobody will eat it up?”
“Oh, Betty, you ought to take time to eat!”
“Dinner takes too long. I’d rather have the time here.”
“I feel more like hurrying, if we get a row before dinner.”
“Let’s catch up, then.”
The girls had been lagging behind the rest for a few minutes, as they
were in the bridle path in the woods, the last lap before the final
gallop to Greycliff Hall, and the groom who kept behind them, according
to orders, had shown some slight restlessness, though he did not
interrupt their conversation. The column of riders closed up, and some
one from in front called to the groom to come and fix something. He
passed a dozen of the girls till he reached the one who needed
assistance, and as they were in sight of the school, he did not return
to his position as rear guard, but kept along with the rest.
“Don’t wait for me, Cathalina,” said Betty, “I see something I
positively must have for my book of Greycliff flowers. Gallop along,
I’ll be there in a minute.” So saying, she waved her hand to Cathalina,
who gave reins to Prince. He needed no urging to hurry through the rest
of the way in the wood and to gallop, with clattering feet, on the road
which led so shortly to Greycliff.
At the point where Betty stopped, the wood was open for a little way in
the direction in which Betty had seen the bright flower. Instead of
dismounting, then, Betty turned her horse aside and advanced toward the
spot, thinking that she would hold “Calico” while she picked the flower.
But Calico was nervous. He wanted to get on with the rest, and when a
rabbit started up from almost under his feet, he suddenly bolted, and
before Betty could tighten her loose reins he darted ahead where the
woods was still open, paying no attention to Betty’s “Whoa, whoa, Boy!
Whoa, Calico! Steady now!”
Betty shook her feet lose and prepared for the worst. “If he goes under
those trees, I’ll try to catch hold of a limb,” she thought. But being
unexpectedly whirled among the trees does not give one much of a chance
for any gymnastic exploit. Calico stopped suddenly in front of an
apparently impenetrable wall of bushes, and as Betty shot over his head,
wheeled and started in another direction.
Meanwhile, Cathalina, galloping with the gay company of seniors and
others, had never a thought that anything could happen to Betty. At the
pavilion she slipped quickly from her fiery Black Prince, as she called
him, ran to catch up with Hilary and Pauline who were ahead of her,
hurried to Lakeview Suite, donned more suitable attire for the lake, and
joined Hilary, Lilian and some of the other girls who were bound for the
same place. Arrived at the lake, they found the waters smooth, and to
their delight, the _Greycliff_ ready to take any of the girls for a
ride. It had recently come in from a trip to White Wings and was only
waiting to be filled up again.
“This is better for lazy folks like me than rowing,” said Cathalina.
“We are all pretty tired after our long ride anyway,” said Hilary. “Poor
Betty! I don’t believe she could have resisted this, if she had known
that the _Greycliff_ was going out. Had she come when you left
Cathalina?”
“No; I was only a few minutes behind you girls. I was almost ready when
I told you to start on. She was going to gather a flower or two she saw
for her book. I imagine she stayed to talk to some of the girls at the
pavilion.”
“Eloise couldn’t come, either, had a music lesson. She had forgotten it
and went back, after she saw the _Greycliff_ and everything. ‘O!’ she
said, ‘There’s that music lesson!’ The next minute she was running up to
the hall on the double-quick.”
“How lovely the sky and lake, and the shore, with its trees and cliffs,
look when everything is safe and happy!” said Lilian, who was sitting in
the bow, watching the water and the clouds, and thinking of Philip.
“Were you thinking of the ‘Wreck of the Hesperus’?” asked Isabel, who
sat next.
“No, I was thinking of the boys and of how quickly sometimes things can
change.”
Isabel patted Lilian’s hand. Quietly the girls sat as the boat cut
through the water and rocked a little when Mickey turned it about to
take them back. Nobody felt like singing, but if they had, Betty, lying
in the woods, could not have heard them.
Dinner-time came. “Where is Betty?” asked Hilary, who sat at the head of
a table now. When there were not enough teachers to go around, senior
girls were chosen to grace the head of tables. Betty and the rest of the
suite-mates sat at the same table.
“Betty asked me to make a sandwich for her and put it where it would not
be eaten. I think she meant to stay in the library. Dorothy, you were
reading in the library, weren’t you? Did you see Betty?”
“No, but she may have been in the stacks. I was over by the reference
books.”
“She ought not to do this,” said Hilary, “but I won’t see you if you
make a sandwich, Cathalina. She will be starved.”
“We had that milk in the afternoon,” said Dorothy.
“I think we have a few crackers in the suite, too,” added Cathalina.
After dinner the girls had their usual time of recreation, some of them
outdoors, some at the pianos, some visiting in different parts of the
hall; then the three girls of Lakeview Suite met in their rooms and
prepared to study. Hilary declared that she could scarcely keep her eyes
open and was going to bed as soon as she finished reviewing her French.
“I think I will go early, too,” said Lilian. “Not having ‘society’ last
night put me ahead with my work.”
An hour or so went by, then Hilary and Lilian began to take down their
locks and braid them, while they finished the last of their student
tasks.
“Thanks, Lil, I was hoping you would bring me my comb when you got
yours, but couldn’t quite bring myself to ask you.”
Cathalina yawned. “I wonder how late Betty will stay up.”
“What time is it?” asked Hilary, whose back was toward the clock.
“Eight-thirty, almost. I believe I’ll go over to the library and hunt up
Betty,—O, I forgot. I certainly can’t do it in this rig.” Cathalina
looked down upon her silk kimono and smiled. “Oh, hum. I guess it’s
moonlight, isn’t it?” she said as she crossed the room to the window.
Kneeling on the window-seat, she looked out to see a fitful moonlight
and a moon crossed by floating clouds. Then she startled the girls by an
explanation,—“Why, girls! Here are all Betty’s books!”
“Well?” said Lilian inquiringly, “Wasn’t she going to read at the
library?”
“Not altogether, and besides, here are her notes, and everything that
she told me she had all ready to use when she came back. Why, _girls_!
I’ll have to go to the library now.”
Nobody was sleepy then. Cathalina dressed as quickly as possible and
started over to the library. Hilary and Lilian started on the rounds of
the rooms and suites in which Betty might possibly be visiting. No
Betty, and the first bell rang for the close of study hours.
Cathalina came back looking frightened. “She isn’t anywhere over there,
or in the practice rooms, or the chapel, and I even went over to the
pest house, thinking that she might have slipped in there to see
somebody. But after all, girls, those books on the window-seat tell the
story, because I know that she was going to use them.”
Hilary and Lilian had been the rounds, too, but agreed with Cathalina
that the presence of the books indicated something wrong, or at least a
different plan.
“I’m going right down to Miss Randolph and she will tell us what to do,”
decided Cathalina.
“We’ll dress and come down, too,” the girls assured her.
Miss Randolph listened gravely to Cathalina’s story, sandwich and all.
“The first thing to do,” said she, “is to find out if the horse Betty
was on came in. I can’t see, though, if the groom was riding according
to orders, how Betty could have been left behind. It was a new groom,
however.”
“Oh, yes, Miss Randolph, I remember that he was called up front to fix
one of the girls straps or saddle or something, and Betty said she was
just going to gather that one flower and for me to hurry on. I supposed
she was coming and I don’t remember a thing but hurrying to get to the
Hall. There was such a crowd of us at the pavilion.”
“I’ll call up the stables. It is possible that with the horses turned
into the pasture, the absence of one would not be noticed. What horse
did you say Betty had?”
“Calico,” replied Cathalina with a smile. “Betty was talking about his
being part Arabian.”
There was some delay. Miss Randolph called again and several men went
out into the pasture to see if the spotted horse were there. It would
not have been hard to see in the moonlight, but Calico was not in the
pasture. Cathalina was waiting for the report. When it came, Miss
Randolph’s voice shook a little, as she told Cathalina to go up and put
on a wrap. “You will have to go with us to show us the place where you
saw Betty last,” she said. “Don’t alarm the girls, or tell anybody but
those who already know. Tell them to go to bed. The bell for lights out
has rung, so only your suite-mates will have to know about it. Perhaps
Betty is all right. I hope so.” Miss Randolph turned again to the
telephone and Cathalina flew upstairs as fast as her feet could carry
her.
Miss Randolph had too much faith in her girls’ keeping the rules, or
pretended to have, though pretence and Miss Randolph were scarcely
acquainted. When Cathalina got upstairs, out of breath and excited, the
room was full. Hilary and Lilian were fully dressed. Pauline, Helen,
Eloise and Juliet were still in their usual study-hour habiliments.
Isabel’s slippered feet peeped out from her white night-robe, and her
kimono was only gathered around her shoulders.
“We went down, Cathalina, as we said we would, but Miss Randolph was
telephoning and we did not dare knock. What is it? Any news? Hilary and
Lilian were both speaking at once, while the other girls, in hushed
silence, waited for Cathalina to get her breath and reply.
“Calico isn’t in. I’m to go at once and show them where I saw Betty
last. Miss Randolph said for me to get a wrap and come down, and for
everybody to go to bed. I guess she meant for me to think that Betty is
just lost in the woods. Oh, girls, if I just hadn’t gone on! Here we
have been having a good time and maybe Betty——”
“Hush, Cathie,—it wasn’t your fault,” said Hilary. “Come, now, let’s not
imagine the worst. I’ll go downstairs with you, Cathalina, even if we do
get scolded. Here is your coat. You’d better have a scarf or something
on your head, too. Miss Randolph is right; everybody ought to go to bed.
Come over in the morning, girls, and you will probably find Betty here.”
Such was Hilary’s influence that the girls, Isabel and Virgie shivering
with nervousness, departed at once to their rooms to crawl into bed, and
after declaring that they should not sleep a wink, to fall sound asleep
not to waken until the rising bell should wake them.
By the time Cathalina had gone downstairs, Miss Randolph was ready. She
smiled at Hilary and Lilian, told them to go to bed, took Cathalina’s
arm and started. Capable Mickey was on hand, as Cathalina was glad to
see, and helped them into the small car which had been brought around in
front of Greycliff Hall. There was several men on horseback, armed with
large flashlights.
It seemed only a minute before they came to the bridle path which
started off the main road. Then Cathalina and Miss Randolph were put on
horses and led along the path until they came to the spot where
Cathalina said Betty had stopped. With flashlights they examined the
place and saw the hoof marks where Calico had stampeded. Cathalina
wondered why she and Miss Randolph had not been put on horseback at
first, then shudderingly realized that they might need the car for
Betty. As soon as Cathalina had identified the spot, she and Miss
Randolph were led back to the car to wait while the search went on; but
just as they started, a loud whinny was heard from the depths of the
woods further on, and the men started in that direction. “That is our
horse!” exclaimed Miss Randolph. “It must be!”
“Why don’t they call to Betty?” asked Cathalina.
“They will pretty soon,” replied Miss Randolph, and sure enough, there
were a few loud hails that came to their ears as they sat in the car.
Presently, one of the men came to report that the horse had been found,
the saddle partly off, and the bridle so caught in a strong branch that
the animal could not get away. “Miss Betty was not anywhere near the
horse, nor near the place where the horse must have bolted. We think
that it would be better for you and Miss Cathalina to go back to the
Hall. We are intending to stay out all night, if necessary, to find the
girl.”
Cathalina looked around at the shadows, the dark trees and bushes,
wondering if Betty were somewhere among them and thought of what Lilian
had said in the afternoon about its all being so beautiful “when every
thing was safe and happy.”