The on the March Part 7 (1/2)
As she had expected, Jake did not enter the station. She had no sooner taken up her position in the shelter of the billboard than she was able to single him out from the men who were lounging about, waiting for the train. His movements were still furtive and sly, and Bessie had to repress a shudder of disgust. Such work seemed to bring out everything small and mean and sly in Jake's nature, and Bessie's thoughts were full of sympathy for his father. After all, Paw Hoover had always been good to her, and when she and Zara had run away from Hedgeville, he had helped them instead of turning them back, as he might so easily have done. It seemed strange to Bessie that so good and kind a man should have such a worthless son.
Twice, as Bessie looked, she saw Jake approach one of the windows of the station building furtively, but each time he was scared away from it before he had a chance to look in.
”Trying to make sure that I'm in there, and afraid of being seen at his spying,” decided Bessie. ”That's great! If he doesn't see me, he'll just decide that I must be there anyhow, and take a chance. It's a good thing he's such a coward. But I wonder what he thinks we'd do to him, even if we did see him?”
She laughed at the thought. Never having had a really guilty conscience herself, Bessie had no means of knowing what a torturing, weakening thing it is. She could not properly imagine Jake's mental state, in which everything that happened alarmed him. Having done wrong, he fancied all the time that he was about to be haled up, and made to pay for his wrongdoing. And that, of course, was the explanation of his actions, when, as a matter of fact, he could have walked with entire safety into the station and the midst of the Camp Fire Girls.
Soon the whistle of the train that was to carry the Camp Fire Girls to Plum Beach was heard in the distance, and a minute later it roared into the station, stopped, and was off again. Seeing a great waving of handkerchiefs from the last car, Bessie guessed what they meant. Miss Eleanor had agreed to her plan, and this was the way the girls took of bidding her good-bye and good luck.
As soon as the train had gone Jake rushed into the station, and Bessie walked boldly toward it, a new idea in her mind. She had made up her mind that to be afraid of Jake Hoover was a poor policy. If the guess she and Dolly had made concerning his relations with those who were persecuting her was correct, Jake must be a good deal more afraid of them, or of what he had done, than she could possibly be of him, and Bessie knew that there should be no great difficulty in dealing very much as she liked with a coward.
Moreover, the presence of a policeman at the station gave her a.s.surance that she need fear no physical danger from Jake, and she felt that was the only thing that need check her at all.
When she reached the station she looked in the window first, and saw Jake standing by the ticket agent's window. The ticket agent was also the telegraph operator, and Bessie saw that she was writing something on a yellow telegraph blank. Evidently Jake was sending a message, and Bessie knew that, while he could read a very little, Jake had always been so stupid and so lazy that he had never learned to write properly. The sight made her smile, because, unless her plans had miscarried completely, Dolly was inside the little ticket office, and must be hearing every word of that message!
So she waited until Jake, satisfied, turned from the window, and then she walked boldly in. For a minute Jake, who was looking out of one of the windows in front toward the track, did not see her at all. In that moment Bessie got in line with the ticket window and, seeing Dolly, waved to her to come out. Then she walked over to Jake, smiled at his amazed face as he turned to her, and saluted him cheerfully.
”h.e.l.lo, Jake Hoover,” she said. ”Were you looking for me!”
Jake's face fell, and he stared at her in comical dismay.
”Well, I snum!” he said. ”How in tarnation did you come to git off that there train, hey?”
”I never was on it, Jake,” said Bessie, pleasantly. ”You just thought I was, you see. You don't want to jump to a conclusion so quickly.”
Jake was petrified. When he saw Dolly come out of the ticket office, puzzled by Bessie's action, but entirely willing to back her up, his face turned white.
”You're a pretty poor spy, Jake,” said Dolly, contemptuously. ”I guess Mr. Holmes won't be very pleased when he gets your message at Canton, telling him Bessie went on that train and then doesn't find her aboard at all.”
”What's that?” asked Bessie, suddenly. ”Is that the message he sent, Dolly!”
”It certainly is,” said Dolly. ”Why, what's the matter, Bessie?”
But Bessie didn't answer her. Instead she had raced toward a big railroad map that hung on the wall of the station, and was looking for Canton on it.
”I thought so!” she gasped. Then she ran over to the ticket window, and spoke to the agent.
”If I send a telegram right now, can it be delivered to Miss Mercer, on that train that just went out, before she gets to Canton?” she asked.
The agent looked at her time-table.
”Oh, yes,” she said, cheerfully. ”That's easy. I'll send it right out for you, and it will reach her at Whitemarsh which is only twenty-five miles away.”
”Good!” said Bessie, and wrote out a long telegram. In a minute she returned to Jake and Dolly, and the sound of the ticking telegraph instrument filled the station with its chatter.
”He wanted to run away, Bessie,” said Dolly. ”But I told him it wasn't polite to do that when a young lady wanted to talk to him, so he stayed. That was nice of him, wasn't it?”
”Very,” said Bessie, her tone as sarcastic as Dolly's own. ”Now, look here, Jake, what have you done that makes you so afraid of Mr. Holmes and these other wicked men?”
Jake's jaw fell again, but he was speechless. He just stared at her.
”There's no use standing there like a dying calf, Jake Hoover!” said Bessie, angrily. ”I know perfectly well you've been up to some dreadful mischief, and these men have told you that if you don't do just as they tell you they'll see that you're punished. Isn't that true?”
”How--how in time did you ever find that out?” stammered Jake.
”I've known you a long time, Jake Hoover,” said Bessie, crisply. ”And now tell me this. Haven't I always been willing to be your friend? Didn't I forgive you for all the mean things you did, and help you every way I could? Did I ever tell on you when you'd done anything wrong, and your father would have licked you?”
Bessie's tone grew more kindly as she spoke to him, and Jake seemed to be astonished. He hung his head, and his look at her was sheepish.
”No, I guess you're a pretty good sort, Bessie,” he said. ”Mebbe I've been pretty mean to you--”
”It's about time you found it out!” said Dolly, furiously. ”Oh, I'd like to--”
”Let him alone, Dolly,” said Bessie. ”I'm running this. Now, Jake, look here. I want to be your friend. I'm very fond of your father, and I'd hate to see him have a lot of sorrow on your account. Don't you know that these men would sacrifice you and throw you over in a minute if they thought they couldn't get anything more out of you? Don't you see that they're just using you, and that when they've got all they can, they'll let you get into any sort of trouble, without lifting a finger to save you?”
”Do you think they'd do that, Bessie? They promised--”
”What are their promises worth, Jake? You ought to know them well enough to understand that they don't care what they do. If you're in trouble, I know someone who will help you. Mr. Jamieson, in the city.”
”He--why, he would like to get me into trouble--”
”No, he wouldn't. And if I ask him to help you, I know he'll do it. He can do more for you than they can, too. You go to him, and tell him the whole story, and you'll find he will be a good friend, if you make up your mind to behave yourself after this. We'll forget all the things you've done, and you shall, too, and start over again. Don't you want to be friends, Jake?”
”Sure--sure I do, Bessie!” said Jake, looking really repentant. ”Do you mean you'd be willing--that you'd be friends with me, after all the mean things I've done to you?”
Bessie held out her hand.
”I certainly do, Jake,” she said. ”Now, you go to Mr. Jamieson, and tell him everything you know. Everything, do you hear? I can guess what this latest plot was, but you tell him all you know about it. And you'll find that they've told you a great many things that aren't so at all. Very likely they've just tried to frighten you into thinking you were in danger so that they could make you do what they wanted.”
”I'll do it, Bessie!” said Jake.
CHAPTER XI.
A NARROW ESCAPE.
Despite Dolly's frantic curiosity, Bessie drew Jake aside where there was no danger of their being overheard by any of the others in the station, and talked to him earnestly for a long time. Jake seemed to have changed his whole att.i.tude. He was plainly nervous and frightened, but Dolly could see that he was listening to Bessie with respect. And finally he threw up his head with a gesture entirely strange to him, and, when Bessie held out her hand, shook it happily.
”Here's Mr. Jamieson's address,” said Bessie, writing on a piece of paper which she handed to him. ”Now you go straight to him, and do whatever he tells you. You'll be all right. How soon will you start?”
”There's a train due right now,” said Jake, excitedly. ”I'll get aboard, and as soon as I get to town I'll do just as you say, Bessie. Good-bye.”
”Good-bye, Jake--and good luck!” said Bessie warmly. ”We're going to be good friends, now.”
”Well, I never!” gasped Dolly. She stared at Jake's retreating form, and then back to Bessie; as if she were paralyzed with astonishment. ”Whatever does this mean, Bessie? I should think you would be pretty hard up for friends before you'd make one of Jake Hoover!”
”Jake's been more stupid than mean, Dolly. And he's found out that he's been wrong, I'm sure. From this time he's going to do a whole lot for us, unless I'm badly mistaken. I'm sure it's better to have him on our side than against us.”