Part 8 (2/2)
”By Jove, dear, it sounds rather dreadful, doesn't it?” he groaned.
”But of course you ARE going to marry me, so what's the odds? Then she can marry Dauntless to her heart's content. I say, are we never to get away from this beastly place?”
”They are to row us across the river in boats. We'll be taken up by another train over there and carried on. Poor Mr. Dauntless, he looks so hara.s.sed.”
”By Jove, I feel rather cut up about him. He ought to have her, Anne.
He's a decent chap, although he was da--very unreasonable last night. I like him, too, in spite of the fact that he kicked coal over me twice in that confounded bin. He was good enough to take a cinder out of my eye this morning, and I helped him to find his watch in the coal-bin. I say, Anne, we might get a farm wagon and drive to some village where there is a minister--”
”No, Harry! you know I've set my heart on being married in a church. It seems so much more decent and--regular; especially after what has just happened.”
A porter appeared in the rear platform and shouted a warning to all those on the ground.
”Get yo' things together. The boats'll be ready in ten minutes, ladies and gen'l'men.” The locomotive uttered a few sharp whistles to reinforce his shouts, and everybody made a rush for the cars.
The conductor and other trainmen had all they could do to rea.s.sure the more nervous and apprehensive of the pa.s.sengers, many of whom were afraid of the swollen, ugly river just ahead. Boats had been sent up from a town some miles down the stream, and the pa.s.sengers with their baggage, the express, and the mail pouches were to be ferried across.
Word had been received that a makes.h.i.+ft train would pick them up on the other side, not far from the wrecked bridge, and take them to Omegon as quickly as possible.
It was also announced that the company would be unable to send a train beyond Omegon and into the northwest for eight or ten hours, owing to extensive damage by the floods. Repairs to bridges and roadbed were necessary. In the meantime, the pa.s.sengers would be cared for at the Somerset Hotel in Omegon, at the company's expense. The company regretted and deplored, etc.
There was a frightful clamour by the through pa.s.sengers, threats of lawsuits, claims for damage, execrations, and groans. In time, however, the whole company went trooping down the track under the leaders.h.i.+p of the patient conductor. It was a sorry, disgruntled parade. Everybody wanted a porter at once, and when he could not get one, berated the road in fiercer terms than ever; men who had always carried their own bags to escape feeing a porter, now howled and raged because there was not an army of them on the spot. Everybody was constantly ”d.a.m.ning” the luck.
The conductor led his charges from the track through a muddy stubble-field and down to a point where half a dozen small rowboats were waiting among the willows. Dauntless and Eleanor were well up in front, their faces set resolutely toward Omegon. For some well-defined reason, Windoms.h.i.+re and Anne were the last in the strange procession.
The medical college agent, the tall and sombre Mr. Hooker, was the first man into a boat. He said it was a case of life or death.
Eleanor looked backward down the long file of trailers, a little smile on her lips.
”They are not all going away to be married, are they, Joe?” she said, taking note of the unbroken array of sour countenances.
”It looks like a funeral, my dear. Look at the cadaverous individual beside the con--Heavens, Nell, isn't that--by George, it is! It's old Mrs. Van Truder! Back there about half-way--the fat one. See her? Good Lord!”
Eleanor turned pale and the joyous light fled from her eyes.
”Oh, dear! I forgot that the Van Truders spend all their summers at Omegon. And it is she--and he, too. Oh, Joe, it's just awful!”
”She's the worst old cat in town,” groaned Dauntless. ”We can't escape her. She'll spot us, and she'll never let go of us. I don't mind him.
He's so near-sighted he couldn't see us. But she!”
”She will suspect, Joe--she's sure to suspect, and she'll watch us like a hawk,” whispered the distressed Eleanor. The Van Truders lived in the same block with the Thursdales in town. ”She'll telegraph to mother!”
”That reminds me,” muttered Joe, looking at his watch. ”I had hoped to telegraph to your mother about this time.”
”She will forgive us,” said she, but she failed in her a.s.sumption of confidence. As a matter of fact she felt that her mother would not forgive.
”Well, you left a note pinned on your pillow,” said he, as if that covered all the sins.
”Yes, but it was directed to Miss Courtenay, asking her to break it gently to mamma,” said she, dismally.
They had reached the edge of the river by this time and others came up with them. For a while they managed to keep out of old Mrs. Van Truder's range of vision, but her sharp eyes soon caught sight of them as they tried to slip into a boat that was already crowded to its full capacity.
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