Part 29 (2/2)
”Oh, Billie!” exclaimed Mary, ”there is no telling what that dreadful man will do to us. He may put us in jail, too.”
The notion was too much for their endurance, and with one accord they rose and fled from the room.
They found Elinor sitting on the floor beside Miss Campbell holding her hand. The doc.u.ment was spread out before them, and Miss Campbell was reading it aloud.
”'You are regarded as suspicious characters,'” she read in a voice that had a tone of shrillness in it the girls had never heard before. ”'As suspicious characters,'” she repeated, hardly able to take in the meaning of the words, ”'and, therefore, as persons undesirable in this city, you are requested to leave the town within twelve hours. If not, you will be compelled to give an account of certain actions not regarded as lawful in the State of Utah. Signed, Chief of Police.'”
The girls were breathless with amazement and horror. Driven out of town like criminals, and all for having s.h.i.+elded a poor, repentant thief who had returned what he had stolen.
Without a word Billie went to the telephone and called up the garage wherein the Comet was temporarily stabled.
”What time does the sun rise?” she asked while she waited for the number.
”At about five o'clock, I think,” answered Mary.
”Have Miss Campbell's motor car at the hotel to-morrow morning at five o'clock,” she ordered.
Miss Campbell rose. The girls looked at her timidly. They had never seen her angry before.
”I won't try to talk with you to-night,” she said in a voice that was almost a whisper. ”I shall not attempt to speak again until we leave this hateful city far behind us.”
She had hardly left the room when there was a light tap on the other door.
Billie opened it and a chambermaid gave her a note, and quickly departed down the corridor.
This is what the note said:
”I accept your invitation, and will meet you to-morrow at the railroad station in Ogden. Send a line by the chambermaid, who will wait around the corner of the hall, letting me know what time you intend to start. With a heart full of grat.i.tude from one who is most unhappy,
”E. S.”
CHAPTER XX.-THE ELOPEMENT.
The morning mists still clung to the mountains and the citizens of the Mormon city appeared to be wrapped in a profound slumber when the Comet flashed joyously along the quiet streets.
How good it seemed to settle back among his comfortable cus.h.i.+ons and hasten to leave this unfriendly town.
Billie at the wheel looked straight in front of her. Her heart was unquiet and her gray eyes troubled.
”If I only had the nerve to break the news to Cousin Helen that I have invited Evelyn to come with us,” she thought. ”By seven o'clock we shall be there. Oh, dear! oh, dear! I have asked her, so I suppose I'll have to stand by my own deeds, and I'm glad she's going to run away, but I do wish she had eloped in another direction.”
The other Motor Maids were likewise troubled in their minds, and sat in uneasy silence. Miss Helen herself finally broke the quiet. First she removed a black veil, a thing she rarely wore, and replaced it with her usual blue one. Her face had resumed its normal happy expression, and the dimple had returned to her left cheek. Salt Lake City lay behind them.
”If I were not afraid of turning to a pillar of salt,” she said, smiling her old, natural smile, ”I should like to look back just once on this strange town that turns its visitors from its doors, for I shall never come here again unless I'm brought in irons.”
The girls smiled, somewhat relieved that their beloved chaperone had emerged from the one fit of rage in which they had ever seen her.
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