Part 19 (1/2)

Another wild shot rang out, and frightful oaths. Geraldine heard the former, though the latter were inaudible, and she became tense from her head to the little feet which pushed against the foot-board as if to hasten their flight. She clutched the side of the veering plane. With every rod they gained her relief grew. Ben, looking into her face for signs of fear, received a smile which made even his enviable life better worth living than ever before. No exultant conqueror ever experienced greater thrills. Up, up, up, they flew out of reach of bullets and all the sordidness of earth; and when the meadow became a blur Geraldine felt like a disembodied spirit, so great was her exaltation. Not a vestige of fear a.s.sailed the heart which had so recently wondered if the cranberry pond was deep enough to still its misery. She rejoiced to be near the low-lying, fleecy clouds which a little while ago had aroused her apprehensions for the morrow. Let come what would, she was safe from Rufus Carder and she was free. Her sentiment for her leather-coated deliverer was little short of adoration. Grat.i.tude seemed too poor a term. He had taken her from h.e.l.l, and it seemed to her as they went up, up, up, they must be nearing heaven. At last he began flying in a direct line.

Below was her former jailer, foaming at the mouth, and Pete, poor Pete, lying on the ground rolling in an agony of loss. ”She's gone, she's gone,” he moaned and sobbed, over and over; and even Carder saw that if there had been any plot afoot the dwarf had not been in it. So long as the plane was in sight, all the farm-workers stared open-mouthed. None of them loved the master, but none dared comment on his fury now or ask a question. His gun was in his hand and his eyes were bloodshot. His open mouth worked. They had all seen the beautiful girl who had now been s.n.a.t.c.hed away so amazingly, and there was plenty to talk about and wonder about for months to come on the Carder farm. Rufus Carder, when the swift scout plane had become a speck, tore at his collar. The veins stood out in his neck and his forehead. He felt the curious gaze of his helpers and in impotent fury he turned and walked up to the house. His mother, still in the kitchen, saw him come in and started back with a cry. His collar and s.h.i.+rt flying open, his face crimson and distorted, his scowl, and his gun, terrified her almost to fainting. She sank into a chair. Her lips moved, but she could not make a sound.

”What did the girl tell you!” cried her son.

She clutched her breast, her lips moved, but no sound emerged.

Rufus saw that she was too frightened to speak.

”Don't be scared,” he said roughly. ”All you've got to do is to tell me the truth.” He made a mighty effort to control his rasping voice. ”Did you know Geraldine was goin' away?”

Mrs. Carder shook her head speechlessly.

”Sit up, Ma. Talk if you've got any sense. What did the girl tell you?

Why was she dressin' up every day?”

”I--I thought”--stammered Mrs. Carder, ”I thought she wanted to look pretty. I--I thought you were goin' to marry her. She never told me anything. Gone away?” Some curiosity struggled through the old woman's paralyzing fear. ”How could she go away? She hadn't any hat on.” She spoke tremulously.

”Come up to her room,” said Rufus sternly.

He flung his gun into a corner and strode toward the stairs, the shaky old woman following him.

Up in Geraldine's chamber he stood still for a moment scowling and viewing its neatness, then strode to the closet and opened the door. Her shabby suit was hanging there, and the pale-green challie gown she had worn in his office. He grasped its soft folds in crus.h.i.+ng fingers. The gingham dress in which she worked every morning was also hanging on its hook. Her hat was on the shelf. That was all. Her few toilet articles were neatly arranged on the shabby old bureau. He opened its drawers and tossed their meager contents ruthlessly, searching for some letter or sc.r.a.p of paper to throw light on her exit. He went to the trunk which contained some sheets of music and a few books. These he scattered about searching, searching between their leaves.

His mother, trembling before him, spoke tremulously. ”Did she have any money to go away?”

”No,” he growled.

”You can see she didn't expect to go, Rufus,” said the old woman timidly. ”All her things are here. Why--why don't you take the car and--and go after her?”

”Because she went up in the air, that's why; and I'll kill him!” He shook his fists in impotent rage. ”He'll find he didn't get away with it as neat as he thought.”

He stormed out of the room, and lucky it was for Pete that that threshold could tell no tales.

The old woman stared after him in a new terror. Her son, the most important man in the county, had lost his mind, and all for the sake of that girl who had managed in some mysterious way to give him the slip.

”Gone up in the air!” Poor Rufus. He had gone mad. She managed that night to get an interview in the woodshed with the grief-stricken Pete, and in spite of his incoherence and renewed sobs she learned what had happened. The dwarf believed that his G.o.ddess had been kidnapped. It never occurred to his dull brain to connect her disappearance with the letters he had conveyed to her.

The next day Carder was amazed to have the boy seek him. Never before had Pete ventured to volunteer a word to him. He was sitting in his den gnawing his nails and revolving in his mind some scheme for Geraldine's recovery when the dwarf appeared at the door. His shock of hair stood up as usual and his eyes were swollen.

”Can't we--can't we--look for her, master?” he asked beseechingly. ”They may hurt her--the man that stole her. Can't you--find him, master?”

Carder's scowl bent upon the humble suppliant.

”I ought to have shot him the first time he came,” he said savagely.

”Did the--the areoplane ever come before?” asked Pete, amazed, his heart's desire to see again and save his G.o.ddess supplying him with courage to speak. His dull eyes opened as wide as their puffiness would permit.

”No,” snarled Carder; ”but it was that d.a.m.ned fool on the motor-cycle without a doubt. I don't see how he got at her. No letter ever came.”