"THE FLY-BY-NIGHT"
Janice Day could never have told how long she sat there, elbows on the
bureau, eyes glued to those black lines on the newspaper page. The heat
of the tall oil lamp almost scorched her face; but her back was
freezing. There was never anything invented--not even a cold storage
plant--as cold as the ordinary New England farmhouse bedchamber!
But the girl felt neither the lamp's heat, nor the deadly chill of the
room. For a long time she could not even read beyond the mere headlines
of the article telegraphed from Cida.
This seemed to be conclusive. It was the end of all hope for Janice--or,
so she then believed. There seemed not a single chance that her father
could have escaped. No news had been good news, after all. This story in
the paper was all too evil--all too certainly evil!
By and by she managed to concentrate her numbed mind upon the story
itself. There is no need to repeat it here in full; when Janice had
read it twice she could not easily forget its most unimportant phrase.
The man, John Makepiece, with Broxton Day, of Granadas district, had
been held "incommunicado" for months by the bandit, Raphele. This leader
had fought with his _commando_ for the Constitutionalists at the battle
of Granadas; but he was really an outlaw and cutthroat, and many of his
followers were brigands like him.
The prisoners had been held for ransom. Several of the Mexican captives
of Raphele had managed to pay their way out of the villain's clutches;
but both Americans refused to apply to their friends for ransom. Indeed,
they did not trust to Raphele's protestations, believing that if any
money at all for their release was forthcoming, it would only whet the
villain's cupidity and cause Raphele to make larger demands.
Raphele feared now to remain longer in that part of Chihuahua. His
unlawful acts had called down upon his head the serious strictures of
the Constitutionalist leaders. They were about to abolish his command.
In his rage and bloodthirstiness he had declared his intention of either
destroying his remaining prisoners, or sending them to their homes
crippled. But the two Americans he treated differently. With fiendish
delight in seeing those two brave men suffer, he had commanded them to
cast lots to see which should be escorted beyond the lines, while the
other was marched to the edge of an open grave, there to find a sure and
sudden end under the rain of bullets from a "firing squad."
John Makepiece had drawn the long straw. There was no help for it. He
rode away on a sorry nag that was given him, and from a distant height
saw the other American marched out to the place of burial, and even
waited to see the puff of smoke from the guns as the soldiers fired at
the doomed man.
The details were horrible. The effect upon Janice was a most unhappy
one. For more than an hour she sat there before her bureau in the cold
room, her gaze fastened upon the story in the newspaper.
Then the family came up to bed. Aunt 'Mira saw the light under the
girl's door.
"Janice! Janice!" she whispered. "Whatever is the matter with you?"
Aunt 'Mira had been crying and her voice was still husky. When she
pushed open the door a little way and saw the girl, she gasped out in
alarm.
"Oh, my dear!" sobbed Aunt 'Mira. "_Do you know?_"
Janice could not then speak. She pointed to the paper, and when Aunt
'Mira folded her in her arms, the girl burst into tears--tears that
relieved her overcharged heart.
"You run down an' open up the drafts of that stove again, Jason,"
exclaimed the fleshy lady, for once taking command of affairs. "This
child's got a chill. She's got ter have suthin' hot, or she'll be sick
on our hands--poor dear! She's been a-settin' here readin' all that
stuff Marty told us was in the paper--I do believe. Ain't that so,
child?"
Janice, sobbing on her broad bosom, intimated that it was a fact.
"That boy ain't no good. He didn't burn up the paper at all. She got
holt on it," declared Uncle Jason, quite angry.
"Oh, it wasn't--wasn't Marty's fault," sobbed Janice. "And I had to
know! I had to know!"
They got her downstairs, and Mrs. Day sent "the men folks" to bed. She
insisted upon putting Janice's feet into a mustard-water bath, and made
her swallow fully a pint of steaming hot "composition." Two hours later
Janice was able to go to bed, and, because she hoped against hope, and
was determined not to believe the story until it was thoroughly
confirmed, she fell immediately into a dreamless sleep.
When she awoke on Christmas morning, it was with a full and clear
knowledge of what had happened, and a pang of desolation and grief such
as had swept over her the night before. But she set herself to hope as
long as she could, and to suppress any untoward exhibition of her sorrow
and pain, while she made every effort to find out the truth about her
father.
The family was very gentle with the heartsick girl. Even Marty showed by
his manner that he sympathized with her. And she could not forget that
he had tried his very best to keep the knowledge of the awful crime from
her.
Janice brought down with her to the breakfast table the little presents
which she had prepared for her uncle, and aunt, and cousin. There were
no boisterous "Merry Christmases" in the old Day house that morning;
even Uncle Jason wiped his eyes after saying grace at the breakfast
table.
After all, Janice was the most self-controlled of the four. She said,
midway of the meal:
"I cannot believe all of that dreadful story in the paper. I want to
know more of the particulars."
"Oh, hush! hush!" begged her aunt. "I read it. It's too horrible! I
wouldn't want to know any more, child."
"But I must _know_ more--if there's more to be known. I believe I can
telegraph to Cida. At least, Mr. Buchanan at Juarez may know something
more about this man's story. I wish there was either telegraph, or
telephone, in Poketown."
"Gee, Janice!" exclaimed Marty. "Nobody could git over to Middletown
to-day. Not even Walky Dexter. The wind blowed great guns last night,
and the roads are full of drifts."
"But it doesn't look so from my window," said his cousin.
"Pshaw! all you can see is the lake. Snow blowed right across the ice,
an' never scarcely touched it. But there's heaps and heaps in the road.
Say! we got ter dig out Hillside Avenue--ain't we, Dad?"
"A lot of snow fell in the night--that's a fact," admitted Uncle Jason.
"But I see somebody coming up the street now," cried Janice, jumping up
eagerly from the table.
It was Walky Dexter, plowing his way through the drifts in hip boots.
"This is sure a white Christmas!" he bawled from the gate. "I got
suthin' for you, Janice. Hi tunket! can't git through this here gate, so
I'll climb over it. Wal, Janice, a Merry Christmas to ye!" he added, as
he stumped up upon the porch, and handed her a little package from Miss
'Rill.
"I am afraid not a very merry one, Walky," said the girl, shaking his
mittened hand. "Come inside by the fire. Uncle Jason, where is that
paper? I want Mr. Dexter to read it."
"Oh, dear, me!" murmured Walky, when he saw the heading of the Mexican
telegraph despatch. Then, with his fur cap cocked over one ear, and his
boots steaming on the stove hearth, he read the story through. "Oh,
dear, me!" he said again.
"I want you to try to get me to Middletown, Walky," Janice said, with a
little catch in her voice. "Right away."
"Mercy on us, child! a day like this?" gasped her aunt.
"Why, the storm's over," said Janice, firmly. "And I must send some
telegrams and get answers. Oh, I must! I must!"
"Hoity-toity, Miss Janice!" broke in Walky. "'Must' is a hard driver, I
know. But I tell ye, we couldn't win through the drif's. Why, I been as
slow as a toad funeral gettin' up here from High Street. The ox teams
won't be out breakin' the paths before noon, and they won't get out of
town before to-morrer, that's sure, Miss."
"Oh, my dear!" cried her aunt, again. "You mustn't think of doing such a
thing. Wait."
"I _can't_ wait," declared Janice, with pallid face and trembling lip,
but her hazel eyes dry and hard. "I tell you I must know _more_."
"I can't take ye to Middletown, Janice. Not till the roads is broke,"
Walky said, firmly, shaking his head.
"Hi! here comes somebody else up the road," shouted Marty, from outside.
Janice ran, hoping to see a team. It was only a single figure struggling
through the snow.
"By jinks!" exclaimed Marty. "It's the teacher."
"It _is_ Mr. Haley," murmured Janice.
The young collegian, well dressed for winter weather, waved his hand
when he saw them, and struggled on. He carried a long parcel and when he
went through the more than waist-high drifts he held this high above his
head.
"Hi, there!" yelled Marty, waving his mittened hands. "Ain't you lost
over here, Mr. Haley?"
"I see somebody has been before me," laughed Nelson Haley, following
Walky Dexter's tracks over the fence and up to the cleared porch. "How
do you do, Miss Janice? A very happy Christmas to you!"
"Thank you for your good wish, Mr. Haley," she replied, soberly. "But it
is not going to be a very glad Christmas for me, I fear. Oh! is it for
_me_?" for he had thrust the long pasteboard box into her arms.
"If you will accept them, Miss Janice," returned the young man, with a
bow.
"Open it, Janice!" exclaimed Marty. "Let's see."
"I--I----"
"Lemme do it for you," cried Marty, the curious.
He broke the string, yanked off the paper, and Janice herself lifted the
cover. A great breath of spicy odor rushed out at her from the box.
"Oh! Mr. Haley! Cut flowers! _Hothouse flowers!_ Wherever did you get
them?" cried Janice, drawing aside the tissue paper and burying her face
in the fragrant, dewy blossoms.
"Aw--flowers! Huh!" grunted Marty, in disappointment.
"I am glad you like them so," said Nelson Haley. "Marty, I didn't bring
them to _you_. But here is something that will please you better, I
know," and he put into the boy's hand a combination pocketknife that
would have delighted any out-of-door youth. "Only you must give me a
penny for it. I don't believe in giving sharp-edged presents to friends.
It cuts friendship, they say," and the collegian laughed.
"Golly! that's a dandy!" acknowledged Marty. "Here's your cent. Thanks!
See what Mr. Haley gimme, Maw!" and he rushed into the house to display
his treasure.
Haley and Janice were left alone in a sheltered corner of the porch.
"Oh, Mr. Haley," the girl repeated. "How lovely they are! And how kind
of you to get them for me! How did you ever secure such fresh cut
flowers 'way up here? Nobody has a hothouse in Poketown."
"They come from Colonel Van Dyne's place at the Landing."
"'Way down there!" exclaimed Janice, in wonder. "Why, it's farther than
Middletown. That's where I took the boat to get here?"
"I guess so, Miss Janice."
"But--but the boats aren't running," she cried, in amazement. "And
these flowers are so fresh."
"_My_ boat is running," and Haley laughed. "I brought them up for you
yesterday afternoon. Got in just before it began to snow hard."
"Mr. Haley! The lake is frozen solidly!"
"Sure," he laughed. "But my boat sails on the ice. Didn't you hear that
I had built the _Fly-by-Night_? It's an ice boat--and it's a dandy! I
hope to take you out in it----"
"An ice boat?" cried Janice. "Oh! you can--you shall! You can take me to
the Landing. There is a telegraph office there, isn't there?"
"Why--why----Yes! At the railroad station," the young man admitted,
rather amazed.
Janice stepped up to him, with the pasteboard box of flowers in her
arms, and her eyes shining in expectation.
"Oh, Mr. Haley! You _must_ take me down there. Won't you?"
Marty ran out again, and heard what she said. "Where you goin'?" he
demanded. "Mr. Haley can't ice boat you to Middletown."
"To the Landing," begged Janice.
"By jinks! so he can," shouted the boy. "Lemme go, too, Mr. Haley.
You'll want somebody to 'tend sheet on the _Fly-by-Night_."
"But I do not understand?" queried the teacher, staring from one to the
other of the excited pair.
"You--you tell him, Marty!" said Janice, turning toward the door. "I
must put these beautiful flowers in water. Come in, Mr. Haley, and get
warm."
But the teacher remained out there on the windswept porch while he
listened to what Marty had to tell. The girl's trouble struck home to
the generous-hearted young man. He was moved deeply for her--especially
upon a day like this when, in the nature of things, all persons should
be joyous and glad.
"I will take you to the Landing, if the breeze holds fair," he declared
and he pooh-poohed Mrs. Day's fears that there was any danger in sailing
the ice boat. He had come up from the Landing himself the night before
in an hour and a half.
"What a dreadful, dreadful way to spend Christmas Day!" moaned Aunt
'Mira, as she helped Janice to dress. "Something's likely to happen to
that ice boat. I've seen 'em racing on the lake. Them folks jest take
their lives in their han's--that's right!"
"I'll make the boys take care," Janice promised.
Aunt 'Mira saw them go with fear and trembling, and immediately
ensconced herself in the window of Janice's room, with a shawl around
her shoulders, to watch the flight of the ice boat after it got under
way down at the dock.
Janice, and the teacher and Marty had fairly to wade to the shore of the
lake. The drifts were very deep on land; but, as Marty said, the wind
had swept the ice almost bare. Here and there a ridge of snow had formed
upon the glistening surface; but Mr. Haley made light of these
obstructions.
"The _Fly-by-Night_ will just go humming through those, Miss Janice.
Don't you fear," he said.
There were few people abroad in High Street, for it was not yet
mid-forenoon. Most who were out were busily engaged shoveling paths. The
three young folks got down to the dock, and Haley and Marty turned up
the heavy body of the ice boat and swept the snow off.
There was a good deal of a drift of snow right along the edge of the
lake; but they pushed the ice boat out beyond this windrow, with
Janice's help, and then stepped the mast and bent on the heavy sail. It
was a cross-T boat, with a short nose and a single sail. The steersman
had a box in the rear and in this there was room for Janice to ride,
too. The sheet-tender likewise ballasted the boat by lying out on one or
the other end of the crosspiece.
There was a keen wind, not exactly fair for the trip down the lake; yet
their sheet filled nicely on the longer tack, and the _Fly-by-Night_
swept out from the Poketown dock at a very satisfactory speed.
"We'll hit the Landing in two hours, at the longest, Miss Janice,"
declared Nelson Haley. "Keep your head down. This wind cuts like
needles. Too bad you haven't a mask of some kind."
He was wearing his motorcycle goggles, while Marty had one of those
plush caps, that pull down all around one's face so that nothing but the
eyes peer out, and was doing very well.
As the ice yacht gathered speed, Janice found that she could not face
the wind. Nor could she look ahead, for the sun was shining boldly now,
and the glare of it on the ice was all but blinding.
The timbers of the boat groaned and shook. The runners whined over the
ice with an ever-increasing note. Ice-dust rose in a thin cloud from the
sharp shoes, and the sunlight, in which the dust danced, flecked the
mist with dazzling, rainbow colors.
When the ice boat came about, it was with a leap and bound that seemed
almost to capsize the craft. Janice had never traveled so fast
before--or so she believed. It fairly took her breath, and she clung to
the hand-holds with all her strength.
"Hi, Janice!" yelled Marty, grinning from ear to ear. "How d'ye like it?
Gittin' scaret?"
She had to shake her head negatively and smile. But to tell the truth
there was an awful sinking in her heart, and when one runner went
suddenly over a hummock and tipped the ice boat, she could scarcely keep
from voicing her alarm.