"Go slow now, Connie, it's hard to hear you. Did you say _Sylvia'd run
away_?"
Then Mrs. Fowler said, trying to speak slower:
"Yes, with Jack Reddy. We've been hunting for her and we've just found a
letter from him in her desk. Do you hear--her desk, in the top drawer?
It told her to meet him at seven in the Lane and go with him in his car
to Bloomington."
"Bloomington? That's a hundred and fifty miles off."
"I can't help how far off it is. That's where the letter said he was
going to take her. It said they'd go by the turnpike to Bloomington and
be married there. And we can't find Virginie--they've evidently taken
her with them."
"I see--by the turnpike, did you say?"
"Yes. Can't you go up there and meet them and bring her back?"
"Yes--keep cool now, I'll head them off. What time did you say they
left?"
"The letter said he'd meet her in the Lane at seven and it's a little
after eight now. Have you time to get up there and catch them?"
"Time?--to burn. On a night like this Reddy can't get round to the part
of the pike where I'll strike it under three and a half to four hours."
"But can you go--can you leave your case?"
"Yes--Dalzell's improving. Graham can attend to it. Now don't get
excited, I'll have her back some time to-night. And not a word to
anybody. We don't want this to get about. We'll have to shut the mouth
of that fool of a French woman, but I'll see to that later. Don't see
anyone. Go to your room and say nothing."
Just as the message was finished Minnie Trail came in. I made the record
of it and then got up asking her, as natural as you please, how she
felt. Anne did the same and you'd never have thought to hear us
sympathizing with her that we were just bursting to get outside.
When we did we walked slow down the street, me telling her what I'd
heard. All the time I was speaking I was thinking of Sylvia and Jack
Reddy tearing away through that still, black night, flying along the
pale line of the road, flashing past the lights of farms and country
houses, swinging down between the rolling hills and out by the open
fields, till they'd see the glow of Bloomington low down in the sky.
It was Anne who brought me back to where I was. She suddenly stopped
short, staring in front of her and then turned to me:
"Why, how can she be eloping with Reddy by the turnpike when Jim Donahue
saw her get on the train?"