Coming Through the Rye (36 page)

“Yep! We'll see!” said Chris significantly. “
I'll
see!”

They were silent then till they lurched in sight of the great house in the distance and began to hear the jazzy hum of the music and the strange jangle of voices, with now and then a clear sentence startling whole out of the darkness as voices will sometimes carry in clear distance in the still, open air.

They parked the car about a mile down the mountain, ran it into the woods behind a thicket, and left it standing, and on foot the two crept stealthily up toward the house.

“We'll have to locate that car first,” rumbled Chris softly.

Sherwood assented silently. They said no more. When they came in sight of the house, they stood in the woods and took a long look.

It was easy to see from the sounds that proceeded that a revel was in progress. The servants would likely be busy, and there would be little interference with them. There seemed to be no dogs about. Chris laid a loving hand on a little weapon in his belt.

They made a circuit around the house, getting the lay of the land and cautiously approaching the widespread and deserted garage to which the roadway led. Yes, there was the yellow car, standing out boldly among the others, even in the darkness. They reconnoitered and found the servants were all in the house, eating and drinking on what the masters had left. They were evidently not expecting intruders in that remote place and at that time of night.

Chris went carefully over the car with a skilled hand. The key was in it, and he found a neat little revolver of the best type. He put both key and weapon in his pocket.

“Better get this outta here now,” he whispered. Sherwood nodded, and they went to work.

Fortunately the car was so placed as to be easy to remove. It had not been run into the garage at all but left standing as it had been driven up, in the driveway, and they found little difficulty in pushing it out and down a road that evidently was used for trucks when they brought up supplies. They pushed and dragged and lifted and pried until they got to the downgrade and Chris could get into the car and guide it. Sherwood walked near to search out the way with a flashlight, for they dared not turn on the lights of the car so near to the house. But at last they had it down in the road quite near to the other car, and turned, satisfied, to creep back and await developments.

“We'll wait and see if we can locate him first,” said Sherwood softly. “They'll stop this party sometime before morning, and we may be able to separate him from the rest. If we can't, we'll have to march boldly in and make our arrest, but I'd like to avoid publicity if possible. It makes such a mess and might involve Miss Ransom.”

“Sure!” said Chris.

So they took up grim watch among the trees, two stalwart sentinels, weary but determined.

If only Romayne had known they stood there guarding her, how her faith and courage would have blazed forth.

But the clatter went on and on, and the two men in the quiet wood were beginning to grow sleepy and impatient. Almost they were on the verge of walking up to the house and ending the suspense. Then suddenly they heard a noise in a part of the house that had been dark and still. A movement at the window, a curtain tearing and someone clambering out. A white face, and a strange movement of shadows on the roof of the veranda. Then a light at the window and Kearney Krupper's face looking out. Something fell with a soft thud to the ground.

The two men in the forest stood alert and tense, every faculty working. The face at the window disappeared, and in a moment more Kearney Krupper came flying out the lower door and down the steps into the drive.

Someone sprang up from the ground and flashed away into the darkness of the trees, a girl with a white face and dark dress. They could see the gleam of white arms, one hand held to the throat as she ran. The man was running after her.

Simultaneously, like two panthers crouching for their prey, Sherwood and Chris stole over toward the two. They could hear the girl gasp as the man caught her and fell with a scream that was instantly smothered. Then they sprang.

The moon, which had been coming up quietly veiled with a cloud, took that moment to roll out from behind the cloud and shed full radiance into the night, and a soft brilliance penetrated the denseness of the pines where they were and made visible what before had been but a moving blackness against more black. They could see that the man had the girl down and was holding her by the throat.

They could hear his voice like the hiss of a serpent: “I've got you now, Romayne Ransom,” with an oath. “I'll teach you to sneer at me and think you're too good for me, and run away! I'll teach you to lie to me that you haven't any money! I'll make you cringe and beg on your knees! I'll ruin you for life! I'll—”

But a great blow on the jaw brought an end to the awful threat, and a heavy hand grasped the man by the collar and lifted him bodily from the ground. Kearney Krupper had revealed himself with all his evil soul exposed there in the darkness when he thought no one was by but the girl, who was at last utterly in his power. And Chris lifted him as he would have lifted a snake and flung him against a tree, where he lay limp and stunned, not knowing what had happened. Then Chris took handcuffs out of his pocket and shackled him hand and foot and put a gag in his mouth. Silently and swiftly he worked, while Sherwood lifted the frightened girl and held her in his arms.

“Romayne, is it you?” he asked tenderly, not knowing he had called her so. “Are you hurt—dear?” and he put his face close to hers that he might be sure she had not fainted.

“Oh, is it
you
?” cried Romayne faintly. “Oh, I am so glad you have come. Please take me away from this awful place!” And she began to cry weakly and hid her face against his shoulder.

Evan Sherwood's arms were around her now in earnest and his lips against her forehead softly.

“My poor little darling!” he was saying. “My little darling!” over and over again, and holding her close, and she clinging to him.

Something wonderful had come to them both. They did not understand it; they had never looked for anything like this. It was as if a benediction had fallen upon them, welding them into one, as if they had known and loved one another all their days.

Chris, surrounded by the darkness, saw, nevertheless, how it was with them and rejoiced. There were sudden tears in his good, kind eyes, but he was glad. Since he could not have her for himself, he was glad his chief had found out the right way. And he fumbled about his prisoner and wondered how long he ought to let things go on. They ought to be getting away before anyone in the house was roused.

They came to themselves in a moment more and drew apart, half-embarrassed, and then Sherwood deliberately drew Romayne into his arms and kissed her very gently on the forehead as if he were sealing something in a holy way that had just been ratified in heaven.

“Now, tell me, quickly,” he said as she drew away shyly, though leaving her hand in his in a close grasp, and she told him briefly what had happened.

“Is there anyone else here who will trouble you if you were to stay in your room until morning?” he asked anxiously.

“No, oh, no. They have all been quite decent—that is until today. Alida Freeman is here, and she has told them about me. They look down upon me. I must go away.”

“I see. Of course. But in any case, now, of course. Now we must work fast. It will not look well for you and Krupper to disappear together.”

“Oh! No! Of course not,” said Romayne with her hand clasped to her heart. “Is he going to disappear?”

“Yes. We're arresting him. We have a warrant. Would it be possible for you to get back to your room till morning and then let me come for you? Do any of them know what has happened?”

“I do not think so,” faltered Romayne. “I suppose you are right. I must go back to my room and wait till morning. But how am I to get up there without anyone seeing me? I have not been downstairs since dinner. They think I have gone to bed.”

“You came down that roof,” he said, pointing toward the house. “Could you go back that way if I put you up?”

“I think so.”

“Wait a minute.”

He motioned Chris.

“Prisoner all right, kid?”

“Yep. Not come to yet, but he'll be okay.”

“Manage him alone?”

“Oh sure!”

“I'll stay then and come up for the girl in the morning.”

“H'm!” said Chris, puckering his lips. “You can't take her in that car and ride into town. Make talk here even if you come after her in that.”

“So it will, Chris, but I guess it can't be helped. She ought not to stay here any longer. She's been under a terrible nervous strain, and they are very disagreeable to her.”

“Well, you tell her to buck up. I'll telegraph when I get to a station and have 'em send two men and a limousine out, and they can drive the other car back. Let's see, what time is it now? About two? They oughtta be able to make it to that inn back there by nine o'clock. These folks won't come to after this bout till eleven in the morning at least. Tell her you'll probably be here after her between ten and eleven. That'll give you a chance to make a respectable getaway before the folks. Tell 'em her folks back home need her or something.”

“Kid, you're great,” said Sherwood with deep feeling in his voice. “I'll never forget what you've done tonight.”

“Aw, quit yer kidding,” responded Chris quickly and sounding as if he were going to cry. “I gotta beat it back! Sure you're all right, Cap?”

“Sure. Only I oughtn't to let you go alone with that snake!”

“Aw, he's nothing! Knock the tar outta him easy as pie. Don't you worry about us. Got his clippers on him nice and tight and a bone to suck. Won't hear a peep outta him till I get him where I want him. Got a couppla guns, too, if I need 'em. So long, Cap! Better get a little sleep on these pine needles while you wait. You gotta good long stretch before you yet, and we gotta get around and see how that ‘lection came out, yet, too.”

Chris stopped and picked up his inert burden as if Kearney had been a child and stepped off down the mountain.

Sherwood stepped back to Romayne with his arm around her, and together they watched until Chris was out of sight among the weird moonlit shadows of the wood.

Then Sherwood drew her to him once more and whispered softly: “Romayne, I love you. Will you let me take care of you the rest of your life?”

And Romayne hid her tired face against his shoulder and whispered, “Yes.”

That was a wonderful moment for both of them. They would have liked to wander out into the forest and tell their hearts to one another, and wonder over the miracle that had come to each in that moment of rescue, but Sherwood was mindful of the tongues that would need only a tiny start to make ugliness out of joy, and he called a halt in the beauty that was surging into their lives.

“We've got to put you right back into your room, darling,” he whispered. “Any minute someone might come out and see us, and there would be no way of explaining it all that would not be embarrassing to you. We hope we'll have a whole lifetime of joy together, so we can bear to wait a few hours now for your sake. But when you get back into the room, have you any way of locking your door so that you cannot be disturbed till morning? I do not trust people who are drinking.…”

“Yes, I'll put something through the key so that it can't be turned,” said Romayne.

“Well, and you might draw a trunk or something across the door.”

“I never did send for my trunk,” said Romayne, “but there's a desk, and some heavy chairs. I'll fix it. But I'm not afraid
now
.” And she looked up at him with a look that went to his heart even in the darkness. “And besides, that awful man is gone.”

“Yes, he's gone. You need not be afraid of him anymore. And with his going, a lot of other troubles are going to vanish also. You don't know what he's been to this liquor business—and other things. But I'll tell you later. Come!”

He folded her in his arms for just one more quick embrace, and then softly they stole through the shadows close to the house, and he lifted her on his shoulders and braced her until she was safe upon the roof. Then softly, slowly she crept up, scraping her pretty little black evening dress most terribly, but what did that matter now! And when she was safely inside her window, she waved him a kiss and slipped out of sight, and Evan Sherwood disappeared into the shadows of the wood.

But he did not go far. He watched the house from a safe distance until the music at last stopped, the excited voices died away one after another, the lights appeared upstairs one at a time and blinked out again after a few minutes, and at last even the servants' quarters were dark, and everyone seemed asleep.

Then and not till then did Evan Sherwood lie down on the pine needles and relax.

But not even then did he sleep. He did not intend to sleep. He was keeping watch over his beloved until the morning light should break. She was his beloved! He let that thought sink deeply, joyously, into his soul. She did not dislike his presence anymore. She wanted him to take care of her. She had asked him to take her away, even before she knew that he loved her. He was watching over her now with her permission. He did not any longer have to do it through other people and in secret. She was his, and he lay looking up at the pines in the moonlight and seeing a long vista of beautiful future ahead, until the moonlight paled and blushed into rosy light of the dawn. Then he got up, and after a brief reconnoiter to be sure all was well at the house, he went down to Chris's car and climbed in, and the Humdinger went down the mountain at a great pace till it came to the inn on the highway. There Evan Sherwood got a room and shaved and made himself as fine as could be under the circumstances, and waited for his chariot to appear.