The two young men had shoved the old canoe up on the bank, turned it
over, emptied it, and put it back in the water. Fred Hicks was holding
it at arm's length now in the water; and the would-be bridegroom had
crawled out to the extreme end, and with rolled-up sleeves was pawing
about in the water, which did not appear to be very deep. At the cry
they turned; and Fred Hicks, forgetting the other man's plight, let go
the boat, and dashed back to the road. Young Laws, arising too
hastily, rolled into the water completely, and came splashing up the
bank in a frothy state of mind. But suddenly, as they came, while
Myrtle's best efforts were put forth to hinder Leslie's movements,
something cold and gleaming flashed in her face that sent her
crouching back in the corner of her seat and screaming. Leslie had
slipped her hand into the little secret pocket of the car door and
brought out her revolver, hoping fervently that it was still loaded,
and that Allison had not chosen to shoot at a mark or anything with it
the last time he was out.
"You'd better sit down and keep quiet," she said coolly. "I'm a good
shot."
Then she put her foot on the clutch, and the car started just as Fred
Hicks lit on the running-board.
Leslie's little revolver came promptly around to meet him, and he
dropped away with a gasp of surprise as suddenly as he had lit.
Suddenly Leslie became aware of the other young man dripping and
breathless, but with a dangerous look in his eye, bearing down upon
her from the lake side of the road; and she flashed around and sent a
shot ringing out into the road, the bullet ploughing into the dust at
his very feet. The car leaped forward to obey her touch, and in a
second more they had left the two young men safely behind them.
Myrtle was crouched in the back seat, weeping; and Leslie, cool and
brave in the front seat, was trembling from head to foot. This was a
new road to her; at least, she had never been more than two or three
miles on it, and she did not know where she would bring up. She began
to wonder how long her gasoline would hold out, for she had been in
such a hurry to get away with Myrtle before Allison should come home
that she had forgotten to look to see if everything was all right; and
she now remembered that Allison had had the car out late the night
before. Everything seemed to be falling in chaos about her. The earth
rose and fell in front of her excited gaze; the sun was going down;
and the road ahead seemed endless, without a turning as far as she
could see.
A great burying-ground stretched for what seemed like miles along one
side of the road. The polished marble gleamed red and bleak in the
setting sun. The sky had suddenly gone lead-color, and there was a
chill in the air. Leslie longed for nothing so much as to hide her
head in Julia Cloud's lap and weep. Yet she must go on and on and on
till this awful road came to an end. Would it _ever_ come to an end?
Oh, it _must_ somewhere! A great tower of bricks loomed ahead with a
wide paved driveway leading to it through an arched gateway, and over
the arch some words. Leslie got only one of them, "CREMATORY." She
shuddered, and put on speed. It seemed that she had come to the place
of death and desolation. It was lonely everywhere, and not a soul in
sight. What horror if her gasoline should give out in a place like
this, and they have to spend the night here, she and that poor, weak
creature sobbing behind! What contempt she felt for her former friend!
What contempt she felt for herself! Oh, she was well punished for her
wilfulness! To think she should have presumed to hope she could help
her to better ways, she, a little innocent, who never dreamed of such
depths of duplicity as had been shown her that afternoon! Oh, to think
of that loathsome Hicks person daring to touch her! To try to take her
car away from her! and to _smile_ at her in that disgusting way!
On and on went the car, and the road wound away into the dusk up a
high hill and down again, up another, past an old farmhouse with one
dim light in the back window and a great dog howling like one in some
old classic tale she had read; on and on, till at last a cross-road
came, and she knew not which way to take, to right or to left. There
was a sign-board; but it was too dark to read, and she dared not get
out and leave Myrtle. There was no telling but she might try to run
off with the car. It was at the crematory that she began to pray, and,
when she reached the crossing, her heart put up a second plea for
guidance. "O God, if You will just help me home, I will try, _try_,
TRY to be what You want me to be! Please, please, _please_!" It was
the old vow of a heart bowed down and brought to the limit. It was the
first time Leslie had ever realized that there could be a situation
in which Leslie Cloud would not find some way out. It was the first
time, too, perhaps, when she realized herself as being a sinner in the
sense of having a will against God and having exercised it for her own
pleasure rather than for His glory.
Down the road to the left the car sped, and after a mile and a half of
growing darkness, with woods and scattered farmhouses, the lights of a
village began to appear. But it was no village that Leslie knew, and
nothing anywhere gave her a clew. A trolley line appeared, however;
and after a little a car came along with a name that showed it was
going cityward. Leslie decided to follow the trolley track.
In the meantime the girl in the back seat roused up, and began to look
about her, evidently recognizing something familiar in the streets or
town.
"You can put me out here, Leslie; I'm done with you," she said
haughtily. "I don't care to go any farther with you. I'll go back on
the train."
"No!" said Leslie sharply. "You'll go home with me. I took you away
without knowing what you intended, but I mean to put you back where
you were before I'm done. Then my responsibility for you will be over.
I was a fool to let you deceive me that way, but I'm not a fool any
longer."
"Well, I _won't_ go home with you, so! and that's flat, Leslie Cloud.
You needn't think you can frighten me into going, either. We're in a
village now, and my aunt lives here. If you get out that revolver
again, I'll scream and have you arrested, and tell them you're trying
to murder me; so there!"
For answer Leslie turned sharply into a cross-road that led away from
the settled portion of the town, and put on all speed, tearing away
into the dusk like a wild creature. Myrtle screamed and stormed behind
her, all to no purpose. Leslie Cloud had her mettle up, and meant to
take her prisoner home. Out of the town she turned into another road
that ran parallel to the trolley track, from which she could see the
lights of the trolleys passing now and again, as it grew darker; and
by and by when they came to another cross-road, Leslie got back to the
trolley track, and followed it; but whenever they came into a town she
kept to its outskirts.
Leslie had a pretty good general sense of direction, and she knew just
where the sun went down. If it had not been for a river and some hills
that turned up and bewildered her, she would have made a pretty direct
course home; but, as it was, she went far out of her way, and was long
delayed and much distressed besides, being continually harassed by the
angry girl in the back seat. The gasoline was holding out. It was
evident that Allison had looked after it. Blessed Allison, who always
did everything when he ought to do it, and never put off things until
the next day! How cross she had been with him for the last six weeks,
and how good and kind he always was to her! How she had deceived dear
Cloudy and troubled her by going off this afternoon! Oh, what would
they think? Would they ever forgive her, and take her back into their
hearts, and trust her again? The tears were blurring her eyes now as
she stared ahead at the road. It seemed as if she had been tearing on
through the night for hours like this. Her arms ached with the nervous
strain; her back ached; her head ached. Perhaps they were going around
the world, and would only stop when the gasoline gave out!
They swept around a curve. Could it be that those were the lights of
the college ahead on the hill? Oh, joy at last! They were! Up this
hill, over across two blocks, and the little pink-and-white house
would be nestled among the hemlocks; and rest and home at last! But
there was something to be done first. She turned toward the back seat,
where sat her victim silent and angry.
"Well, you can let me out now, Leslie Cloud," said Myrtle scornfully.
"I suppose you won't dare lord it over me any longer, and I'll take
good care that the rest of the town understands what a dangerous
little spitfire _you_ are. You ought to be arrested for this night's
work! That's all _I've_ got to say."
"Well, I have one more thing to say," said Leslie slowly, as she
swerved into her own street and her eyes hungrily sought for the
lights of Cloudy Villa. "You're coming into the house with me first,
before you go anywhere else, and you're going to tell this whole story
to my Aunt Jewel. After that--_I should worry_!"
"Well, I rather guess I am not going into your old house and tell your
old aunt anything! I'm going to get right out here this minute; and
you're good and going to _let_ me out, too, or I'll scream bloody
murder, and tell it all over this town how you went out there to meet
those boys. You haven't got any witnesses, and _I have_, remember!"
said Myrtle, suddenly feeling courageous now that she was back among
familiar streets.
But Leslie turned sharply into the little drive, and brought up the
car in a flood of light at the end of the terrace.
"Now, get out!" she ordered, swinging the door open and flashing her
little revolver about again at the angry girl.
"O Leslie!" pleaded the victim, quickly quelled by the sight of the
cold steel, and thrilled with the memory of that shot whistling by her
into the road a few hours before.
"Get out!" said Leslie coolly as the front door was flung open and
Julia Cloud peered through the brightness of the porch light into the
darkness.
"Get out!" Leslie held the cold steel nearer to Myrtle's face, and the
girl shuddered, and got out.
"Now go into the house!" she ordered; and shuddering, shivering, with
a frightened glance behind her and a fearful glance ahead, she walked
straight into the wondering, shocked presence of Julia Cloud, who
threw the door open wide and stepped aside to let them in. Leslie,
with the revolver still raised, and pointed toward the other girl,
came close behind Myrtle, who sidled hastily around to get behind Miss
Cloud.
"Why, Leslie! What is the matter?" gasped Julia Cloud.
"Tell her!" ordered Leslie, the revolver still pointed straight at
Myrtle.
"What shall I tell?" gasped the other girl, turning a white, miserable
face toward Miss Cloud as if to appeal to her leniency. But there was
a severity in Julia Cloud's face now after her long hours of anxiety
that boded no good for the cause of all her alarm.
"Tell her the whole story!" ordered the fierce young voice of Leslie.
"Why, we went out to take a ride," began Myrtle, looking up with her
old braggadocio. There had seldom been a time when Myrtle had not
been able to get out of a situation by use of her wily tongue.
"Tell it all," said Leslie, looking across the barrel of her weapon.
"Tell who wanted to go on that ride."
"Why, yes, I asked Leslie to take me. I--we--well, that is--I wanted
to meet a friend."
"Tell it straight!" ordered Leslie.
"Why, of course I didn't tell Leslie I expected to meet them--him. I
wasn't just sure he could make the arrangements. I meant to tell her
when we got out. And when we met him--and my cousin--it was my cousin
I was to meet--you see I'm--we--he----"
Myrtle was getting all tangled up with her glib tongue under the clear
gaze of Julia Cloud's truth-compelling eyes. She looked up and down,
and twisted the fringe on her sash, and turned red and white by turns,
and seemed for the first time a very young, very silly child. But
Leslie had suffered, and just now Leslie had no mercy. This girl had
been a kind of idol to whom she had sacrificed much, and now that her
idol had fallen she wanted to make the idol pay. Or no, was that it?
Leslie afterwards searched her heart, and felt that she could truly
say that her strongest motive in compelling this confession had been
to get the burden of the knowledge of it off her own shrinking soul.
"Tell the rest!" came the relentless voice of Leslie, and Myrtle
struggled on.
"Well, I'm engaged to Mr. Bartram Laws; and my guardian won't let us
get married till I'm through college, and we fixed it up to get
married to-day quietly. I knew it would be all right after he found
out he couldn't help himself, and so----"
"Tell how you asked the boys to get in the car!" ordered the fierce
voice again; and Myrtle, recalled from another attempt to pass it all
off pleasantly, went step by step through the whole shameful story
until it was complete.
Then Leslie with a sudden motion of finality flung the little weapon
down upon the mahogany table, and dashed into Julia Cloud's arms in a
storm of tears. "O Cloudy, I'll never, never do any such thing again!
And I hate her! I _hate_ her! I'll never forgive her! Can you ever
forgive _me_?"
No one had heard a sudden, startled exclamation from the porch room as
Leslie and Myrtle came into the house; but now Myrtle suddenly looked
up, thinking the time had come for her to steal away unseen; and there
in the two doorways that opened on either side of the fireplace stood,
on one side Allison Cloud and the dean of the college, and on the
other side two members of the student executive body, all looking
straight at her! Moreover, she read it in their eyes that they had
heard every word of her confession. Without a word she dropped white
and stricken into a chair, and covered her face with her hands. For
once her brazen wiles were gone.