The in the Woods Part 7 (1/2)
”Oh, ho-ho,” he said, still laughing. ”I wouldn't have missed that for a week's pay! If I could only have seen his face! Don't you worry any more! We'll not send you back to him, even if you were running from him. Don't blame anyone for tryin' to get away from that old miser!”
”Wish he'd tried to jump aboard after we started,” said Jim, the brakeman. ”I'd have kicked him off and I wouldn't have done it gently, either!”
”We know Silas Weeks,” explained the conductor. ”He's the worst kicker and trouble maker that ever rode on this division. Every time he's aboard my train he gives us more trouble in one trip that all the other pa.s.sengers give us in ten. He's always trying to beat his way without payin' fare, and scarcely a time goes by that he don't write to the office about Jim or me.”
”Lot of good that does him,” said Jim. ”They don't pay any attention to him.”
”No, not now. They're getting used to him, and they know what sort of a mischief maker he is. But he's a big s.h.i.+pper, an' at first they used to get after me pretty hard when he wrote one of his kicks.”
”Before I came on the run, you mean?”
”Sure! He'd been at it a long time before I got you, Jim. You see, he sends so much stuff by freight they had to humor him -- and they still do. But now they just write him a letter apologizin' and don't bother me about it at all. Bet I've lost as much as a week's pay, I guess, goin' to headquarters in workin' time to explain his kicks. He's got a swell chance of gettin' help from me!”
Then the two trainmen pa.s.sed on, but not until they had promised to see the two girls safe off the car at Pine Bridge.
”People usually get paid back when they do something mean, Zara,” said Bessie. ”If Farmer Weeks hadn't treated those men badly, they would probably have sent us back. But as soon as they heard who he was, you saw how they acted.”
”That's right, Bessie. I bet he'd be madder than ever if he knew that. Someone ought to tell him.”
”He'd only try to make more trouble for them, and perhaps he could, too. No, I don't want to bother about him any more, Zara. I just want to forget all about him. I wonder how long we'll have to wait at Pine Bridge.”
”Miss Eleanor didn't say what she was going to do, did she?”
”No; she just said that she'd get there, and that she had decided to change all her plans on our account.”
”We're making an awful lot of trouble for her, Bessie.”
”I know we are, and we've got to show her that we're grateful and do anything we can to help her, if she ever needs our help. I thought when we started from Hedgeville after the fire that we would be able to get along together somehow, Zara, but I see now how foolish that was.”
”I believe you'd have managed somehow, Bessie. You can do 'most anything, I believe.”
”I'm afraid you'll find out that I can't before we're done, Zara. We didn't have any money, or any plans, or anything. It certainly was lucky for us that we went to that lake where the Camp Fire Girls were. If it hadn't been for them we'd be back in Hedgeville now, and much worse off than if we hadn't tried to get away.”
”There's the whistle, Bessie. I guess that means we're getting near Pine Bridge.”
”Well, here you are! Going to meet your friends here?” said the conductor.
”Yes; thank you,” said Bessie. ”We're ever so much obliged, and we'll be all right now.”
”You sit right down there on that bench in front of the station,” advised the conductor. ”Don't move away, or you'll get lost. Pine Bridge is quite a place. Bigger than Hedgeville -- quite a bit bigger. And if anyone tries to bother you, just you run around to the street in front of the station, and you'll find a fat policeman there. He's a friend of mine, and he'll look after you if you tell him Tom Norris sent you. Remember my name -- Tom Norris.”
”Thank you, and good-bye, Mr. Norris,” they called to him together, as they stepped off the car. Then the whistle blew again, and the train was off.
Although there were a good many people around, no one seemed to pay much attention to the two girls. Everyone seemed busy, and to be so occupied with his own affairs that he had no time to look at strangers or think about what they were doing.
”We're a long way from home now, Zara, you see,” said Bessie. ”I guess no one here will know us, and we'll just wait till Miss Eleanor comes.”
”Maybe she's here already, waiting for us.”
”Oh, I don't think so.”
”We'd better look around, though. How is she going to get here, Bessie?”
”I don't know. She never told me about that. We were talking as fast as we could because we were afraid Farmer Weeks might come along any time, and that would have meant a lot of trouble.”
”Suppose he follows us here, Bessie?”
”He won't! He'll know that we're safe from him as soon as we're out of the state. I'm not afraid of him now -- not a bit, and you needn't be, either.”
”Well, if you're not, I'll try not to be. But I wish Miss Eleanor would come along, Bessie. I'll feel safer then, really.”
”You've been brave enough so far, Zara. You mustn't get nervous now that we're out of the woods. That would be foolish.”
”I suppose so, but I wasn't really brave before, Bessie. I was terribly frightened when he locked me in that room. I didn't see how anyone would know what had become of me, or how they could find out where I was in time to help me.”
”Did you think about trying to run away by yourself?”
”Yes, indeed, but I was afraid I'd get lost. I didn't know where we were. I'd never been that way before.”
”It's a good thing you waited, Zara. Even if you had got away and got into those woods where Jack took us, it would have been dangerous. You might easily have got lost, and it's the hardest thing to find people who are in the woods.”
”Why?”
”Because they get to wandering around in circles. If you can see the sun, you can know which way you're going, and you can be sure of getting somewhere, if you only keep on long enough. But in the woods, unless you know a lot of things, there's nothing to guide you, and people just seem, somehow, bound to walk in a circle. They keep on coming back to the place they started from.”
Pine Bridge was a junction point, and while the girls waited, patiently enough, it began to grow dark. Several trains came in, but though they looked anxiously at the pa.s.sengers who descended from each one of them, there was no sign of Miss Mercer.
”I hope nothing's happened to her,” said Zara anxiously.
”Oh, we mustn't worry, Zara. She's all right, and she'll come along presently.”
”But suppose she didn't, what should we do?”
”We'd be able to find a place to spend the night. I've got money, you know, and the policeman would tell us where to go, if we went to him, as the conductor told us to do.”
Another train came in on the same track as the one that had brought them. Again they scanned its pa.s.sengers anxiously, but no one who looked at all like Miss Mercer got off, and they both sighed as they leaned back against the hard bench. Neither of them had paid any attention to the other pa.s.sengers, and they were both startled and dismayed when a tall, gaunt figure loomed up suddenly before them, and they heard the harsh voice of Farmer Weeks, chuckling sardonically as he looked down on them.
”Caught ye, ain't I?” he said. ”You've given me quite a chase -- but I've run you down now. Come on, you Zara!”
He seized her hand, but Bessie s.n.a.t.c.hed it from him.
”You let her alone!” she said, with spirit. ”You've no right to touch her!”
”I'll show you whether I've any right or not, and I'm going to take her back with me!” Farmer Weeks said, furiously. ”Come on, you baggage! You'll not make a fool of me again, I'll promise you that!”
”Come on,” said Bessie, suddenly. She still held Zara's hand, and before the surprised farmer could stop them, Bessie had dragged Zara to her feet, and they had dashed under his outstretched arm and got clear away, while the loafers about the station laughed at him ”Come back! You can't get away!” he shouted, as he broke into a clumsy run after them. ”Come back, or I'll make you sorry -- ”