CHAPTER XV
A BEWILDERING EXPERIENCE
When Louise Merrick entered the brown limousine, which she naturallysupposed to belong to Arthur Weldon, she had not the faintest suspicionof any evil in her mind. Indeed, the girl was very happy this especialevening, although tired with her duties at the Kermess. A climax in heryoung life had arrived, and she greeted it joyously, believing she lovedArthur well enough to become his wife.
Now that the engagement had been announced to their immediate circle offriends she felt as proud and elated as any young girl has a right to beunder the circumstances.
Added to this pleasant event was the social triumph she and her cousinshad enjoyed at the Kermess, where Louise especially had met with rarefavor. The fashionable world had united in being most kind andconsiderate to the dainty, attractive young _debutante_, and only Dianahad seemed to slight her. This was not surprising in view of the factthat Diana evidently wanted Arthur for herself, and there was somesatisfaction in winning a lover who was elsewhere in prime demand. Inaddition to all this the little dance that concluded the evening'sentertainment had been quite delightful, and all things conspired to putLouise in a very contented frame of mind. Still fluttering with theinnocent excitements of the hour the girl went to join Arthur without afear of impending misfortune. She did not think of Charlie Mershone atall. He had been annoying and impertinent, and she had rebuked him andsent him away, cutting him out of her life altogether. Perhaps she oughtto have remembered that she had mildly flirted with Diana's cousin andgiven him opportunity for the impassioned speeches she resented; butLouise had a girlish idea that there was no harm in flirting,considering it a feminine license. She saw young Mershone at the Kermessthat evening paying indifferent attentions to other women and ignoringher, and was sincerely glad to have done with him for good and all.
She obeyed readily the man who asked her to be seated in the limousine.Arthur would be with her in a minute, he said. When the door closed andthe car started she had an impulse to cry out but next moment controlledit and imagined they were to pick up Mr. Weldon on some corner.
On and on they rolled, and still no evidence of the owner of thelimousine. What could it mean, Louise began to wonder. Had somethinghappened to Arthur, so that he had been forced to send her home alone?As the disquieting thought came she tried to speak with the chauffeur,but could not find the tube. The car was whirling along rapidly; thenight seemed very dark, only a few lights twinkled here and thereoutside.
Suddenly the speed slackened. There was a momentary pause, and then themachine slowly rolled upon a wooden platform. A bell clanged, there wasa whistle and the sound of revolving water-wheels. Louise decided theymust be upon a ferry-boat, and became alarmed for the first time.
The man in livery now opened the door, as if to reassure her.
"Where are we? Where is Mr. Weldon?" enquired the girl, almosthysterically.
"He is on the boat, miss, and will be with you shortly now," replied theman, very respectfully. "Mr. Weldon is very sorry to have annoyed you,Miss Merrick, but says he will soon explain everything, so that you willunderstand why he left you."
With this he quietly closed the door again, although Louise was eager toask a dozen more questions. Prominent was the query why they should beon a ferry-boat instead of going directly home. She knew the hour mustbe late.
But while these questions were revolving in her mind she still suspectedno plot against her liberty. She must perforce wait for Arthur toexplain his queer conduct; so she sat quietly enough in her placeawaiting his coming, while the ferry puffed steadily across the river tothe Jersey shore.
The stopping of the boat aroused Louise from her reflections. Arthur nothere yet? Voices were calling outside; vehicles were noisily leavingtheir positions on the boat to clatter across the platforms. But therewas no sign of Arthur.
Again Louise tried to find the speaking tube. Then she made an endeavorto open the door, although just then the car started with a jerk thatflung her back against the cushions.
The knowledge that she had been grossly deceived by her conductor atlast had the effect of arousing the girl to a sense of her danger.Something must be wrong. Something _was_ decidedly wrong, and fear creptinto her heart. She pounded on the glass windows with all her strength,and shouted as loudly as she could, but all to no avail.
Swiftly the limousine whirled over the dusky road and either her voicecould not be heard through the glass cage in which she was confined orthere was no one near who was willing to hear or to rescue her.
She now realized how wrong she had been to sit idly during the tripacross the ferry, where a score of passengers would gladly have assistedher. How cunning her captors had been to lull her fears during thatcritical period! Now, alas, it was too late to cry out, and she had noidea where she was being taken or the reason of her going.
Presently it occurred to her that this was not Arthur's limousine atall. There was no speaking tube for one thing. She leaned forward andfelt for the leathern pocket in which she kept a veil and her streetgloves. No pocket of any sort was to be found.
An unreasoning terror now possessed her. She knew not what to fear, yetfeared everything. She made another attempt to cry aloud for help andthen fell back unconscious on the cushions.
How long she lay in the faint she did not know. When she recovered thelimousine was still rattling forward at a brisk gait but bumping overruts in a manner that indicated a country road.
Through the curtains she could see little but the black night, althoughthere was a glow ahead cast by the searchlights of the car. Louise wasweak and unnerved. She had no energy to find a way to combat her fate,if such a way were possible. A dim thought of smashing a window andhurling herself through it gave her only a shudder of repulsion. Shelacked strength for such a desperate attempt.
On, on, on. Would the dreary journey never end? How long must she sitand suffer before she could know her fate, or at least find someexplanation of the dreadful mystery of this wild midnight ride?
At last, when she had settled down to dull despair, the car came to apaved road and began to move more slowly. It even stopped once or twice,as if the driver was not sure of his way. But they kept moving,nevertheless, and before long entered a driveway. There was another stopnow, and a long wait.
Louise lay dismally back upon the cushions, sobbing hysterically intoher dripping handkerchief. The door of her prison at last opened and alight shone in upon her.
"Here we are, miss," said the man in uniform, still in quiet, respectfultones. "Shall I assist you to alight?"
She started up eagerly, her courage returning with a bound. Steppingunassisted to the ground she looked around her in bewilderment.
The car stood before the entrance to a modest country house. There was alight in the hall and another upon the broad porch. Around the house amass of trees and shrubbery loomed dark and forbidding.
"Where am I?" demanded Louise, drawing back haughtily as the manextended a hand toward her.
"At your destination, miss," was the answer. "Will you please enter?"
"No! Not until I have an explanation of this--this--singular,high-handed proceeding," she replied, firmly.
Then she glanced at the house. The hall door had opened and a womanstood peering anxiously at the scene outside.
With sudden resolve Louise sprang up the steps and approached her. Anywoman, she felt, in this emergency, was a welcome refuge.
"Who are you?" she asked eagerly, "and why have I been brought here?"
"_Mademoiselle_ will come inside, please," said the woman, with aforeign accent. "It is cold in the night air, _N'est-ce-pas_?"
She turned to lead the way inside. While Louise hesitated to follow thelimousine started with a roar from its cylinders and disappeared downthe driveway, the two men going with it. The absence of the lampsrendered the darkness around the solitary house rather uncanny. Anintense stillness prevailed except for the diminishing rattle of thereceding motor car. In the hall was
a light and a woman.
Louise went in.