CHAPTER IX
STRANGE EXPERIENCES
"Why doesn't he come back! Oh! what will my mother think of my stayingaway like this? All the help she has now, too, and needing me so much.I'll wait just five minutes longer, then I'll go home, anyway, whetherthat 'witness' who's to tell me so much about myself and my real fatherand mother comes or not. No father or mother could be as dear to me asfather John and mother Martha. I don't want any others. Let them keeptheir old fortune the rest of the time, since they've kept it so longand never sent for me," said Dorothy C. to herself, after she had waitedwith what slight patience she could for Mr. Smith's return, and morethan an hour had already passed.
Hitherto she had not deemed it polite to explore her present quarters,but now began to do so in an idle sort of way. If her "lawyer" left herso long alone he couldn't blame her if she amused herself in somemanner; and first she examined the few books which were tossed in a heapon the untidy desk. They did not look like law-books, many of them,though one or two were bound in dirty calf-skin and showed muchhandling. In any case none of them interested her.
Next she tried to open the window, that gave upon the hall from one sideof the room as the door by which she had entered did upon another, butfound it fast.
"Why, that's funny! What would anybody want to nail an inside windowtight for? Oh! maybe because this is an apartment house, he said, andother people might come in. My father says he wouldn't like to live in aflat, it's so mixed up with different families. He'd rather have a tinyhouse like ours and have it separate. Well! if I can't open the window,I reckon I can that door which must go into a back room."
Immediately she proceeded to try this second door, which was oppositethe nailed window, and, to her delight, found that it yielded easily toher touch. But the room thus disclosed was almost as dark as the"office" she had just quitted, although it had two windows at the back.The upper sashes of these had been lowered as far as possible, butbehind them were wooden shutters and these were also nailed, or spikedfast. There were crescent-shaped holes in the tops of the shutters andthrough these a little air and light penetrated into the gloom of what,now that her eyes had become accustomed to the dimness, she perceivedwas a bedroom. From one side of this opened a bathroom, whose window wassecured like those of the bedroom, but where was the cheerful sound ofrunning water.
Now terribly frightened by her strange surroundings, Dorothy's throatgrew so dry and parched that she hastened to get a drink from thefaucet, beneath which hung a rusty tin cup. Then she thought:
"Maybe I can get out into the hall by this bathroom door!"
It could not be opened, and now half-frantic with fear, the imprisonedgirl ran from one door to another, only to find that while she had thefreedom of the three apartments, every exit from these into the hall wassecurely bolted, or locked, upon the outside, and realized that it waswith some evil intention she had been brought to this place.
For hours she worked over doors, then windows, and back again to thedoors--testing her puny strength against them, only to fail each time.The heat was intolerable in the rooms, for it was the top story of asmall house with the sun beating against the roof. Even below, in thestreet, people mopped their faces and groaned beneath this unseasonabletemperature. As for poor Dorothy, she felt herself growing faint, andremembered that she, as well as her mother, had taken but a lightbreakfast; but her eyes had now grown accustomed to the dim light of therooms and the gas jet still flickered in the "office," so that, after atime, she threw herself on the bed, worn out with her efforts and hopinga few moments' rest might help her "to think a way out" of her prison.
How long she slept, she never knew, for it was that of utterexhaustion, but she was suddenly roused by the sound of a bolt shot inits lock, and the opening of the "office" door. It was Mr. Smithreturning, profuse with apologies which Dorothy scarcely heard andwholly disdained, as, darting past him, she made for the entrance withall her speed.
"Why, Miss Chester! Don't, I beg, don't treat me so suspiciously.Indeed, it is quite as I tell you. I was--was detained against my will.I have only just now been able to come back here, and you mustimagine--for I cannot describe them--what my sufferings have been onyour account. I know that you'll think hardly of me, but, indeed, I meanyou nothing but good. Wait, please; wait just a moment and taste thesesandwiches I've brought and this bottle of milk. You must be famished.You can't? You won't? Why, my dear young lady, how am I ever to do youany good if you mistrust me so on such slight grounds?"
"Slight grounds!" almost screamed Dorothy, struggling to free herselffrom the man's grasp, which, apparently gentle, was still far too firmfor her to resist.
At once, also, he began again to talk, so fast, so plausibly, that hiswords fairly tripped each other up, and still pressing upon heracceptance a paper of very dainty sandwiches and a glass of mostinnocent appearing milk.
"Just take these first. I should be distressed beyond measure to haveyou return to your home in this condition. I have a carriage at the doorto carry you there and we'll start immediately after you have eaten, orat least drank something. You needn't be so alarmed. Your motherreceived your note only a few moments after you sent it, with theenvelope enclosed. She is now most anxious for you to hear all that mywitness--witnesses, in fact--have to disclose as to your real parentageand possessions. It is such a grand thing for her and her husband, nowthat he has lost his health. Just five minutes, to keep yourself fromfainting, then we'll be off. Indeed, I'm far more anxious to be on theroad than you are, I so deeply regret this misadventure."
At that moment there was the ring of sincerity in his words, and alsojust then there was the sound of footsteps on the stairs, followed bythe appearance at the door of a hack-driver in the attire of his class.
"Time's erbout up, suh, 't I was hired for, an' soon's you-all's ready,suh, I----"
"All right, Jehu. I'll pay for overtime, but can't hurry a young lady,you know. Especially one that's been shut up by accident almost all dayin my office." Then turning to Dorothy, who still refrained fromtouching the sandwiches which, however, began to look irresistiblytempting, he begged: "At least drink the milk. This good fellow seems tobe in haste, though it's only a few minutes' drive to Brown Street andyou can nibble the sandwiches in the carriage."
She was not worldly-wise, she was very hungry, and the man seemedprofoundly distressed that she had suffered such treatment at his hands.Moreover, it appeared that the shortest way to liberty was to obey him.She would drink the milk, she was fairly famishing for it, but onceupon the street she would enter no carriage of his providing but trustrather to her own nimble feet to reach her home, and, if need be, to theprotection of the first policeman she could summon.
Wrapping the sandwiches once more in their paper, she hastily drank themilk and again started to leave. This time she was not prevented nor asthey left the "office" did its proprietor use the precaution of the boltwhich anybody from outside could unfasten--none from within! But he didturn out the gas, with a noteworthy prudence, and still retained hiscourteous support of Dorothy's arm.
Released at last from the imprisonment which had so terrified her shewas strangely dizzy. Her head felt very much as it had done when she hadbeen knocked down by Mrs. Cecil's big dogs, and it was now of her ownaccord that she clutched Mr. Smith's arm, fearing she would fall.
How far, far away sounded the hackman's footsteps, retreating beforethem to the street! How queerly her feet jogged up and down on thestairs, which seemed to spring upward into her very face as shedescended! In all her life she had never, never felt so tired andcuriously weak as now, when all the power to move her limbs seemedsuddenly to leave her.
"Ah! the carriage!" She could dimly see it, in the glare of an electriclight, and now she welcomed it most eagerly. If ever she were to reachthat blessed haven of home she would have to be carried there. So shemade no remonstrance when she was bodily lifted into the coupe andplaced upon its cushions, where, at once, she went to sleep.
*
* * * *
"Here girl. Time you woke up and took your breakfast."
After that strange dizziness in descending the stairs of the house inHoward Street, Dorothy's first sensation was one of languid surprise. Abig, coarse-looking woman stood beside the bed on which she lay, holdinga plate in one hand, a cup in the other. Broad beams of sunlightstreamed through an uncurtained window near, and a fresh breeze blew infrom the fields beyond.
"Why--the country! Have we come to it so soon and I not knowing? Mother!Where is my mother?" she asked, gaining in strength and rising upon herelbow. Then she saw that she had lain down without undressing andcautiously stepped to the floor, which was bare and not wholly clean.Her head felt light and dizzy still, so that she suddenly again sat downon the bed's edge to recover herself. Thereupon the woman dragged awooden chair forward and, placing the breakfast on it, said:
"I can't bother no more. Eat it or leave it. I've got my fruit to pick."
Then she turned away, but Dorothy reached forward, caught the blue denimskirt, and demanded:
"Tell me where my mother is? I want her. I want her right away."
"Like enough. I don't know. I'm goin'. I'll be in to get your dinner.You can lie down again or do what you want, only stay inside. Orders."
Dorothy was very hungry. The hunger of yesterday was nothing compared tothe craving she felt now and, postponing all further questions tillthat was satisfied, she fell to eating the contents of the great platewith greed. Then she drank the bowl of coffee and, still strangelydrowsy, lay back upon the pillow and again instantly dropped asleep.
The clatter of dishes in the room beyond that one where she lay was whatnext roused her and her head was now nearly normal. Only a dull painremained and her wits were clearing of the mist that had enveloped them.Memories of strange stories came to her, and she thought:
"Something has happened to me, more than I dreamed. I've been kidnapped!I see it, understand it all now. But--why? _Why?_ An orphan foundlinglike me--what should anybody steal me away from my home for? Father andmother have no money to pay ransom--like that little boy father readabout in the paper--who was stolen and not given back till thousands ofdollars were sent. But I'm somewhere in the country now, and in a housethat's all open, every side. It's easy to get away from _here_. I'll go.I'll go right away, soon as I wash my face and brush my hair--if I canfind a brush. I'll go into that other room and act just as if I wasn'tafraid and--that dinner smells good!"
The big woman, whose denim skirt and blouse suggested the overalls of aday laborer, was bending over a small cooking stove whereon was fryingsome bacon and eggs. A great pot of boiled potatoes waited on thestove-hearth, and on an oilcloth-covered table were set out a fewdishes. A boy was just entering the kitchen from the lean-to beyond andwas carrying a wooden pail of water with a tin dipper. He was almost astall as the woman but bore no further resemblance to her, beingextremely thin and fair. Indeed, his hair was so nearly white thatDorothy stared at it, and his eyes were very blue, while the womanlooked like a swarthy foreigner from some south country.
Mother Martha had a saying, when anybody about her was inclined tosharpness of speech, that "you can catch more flies with molasses thanwith vinegar," and, oddly enough, the adage came to Dorothy's mind atthat very instant. She had come into the kitchen prepared to demand herliberty and to be directed home, but she now spoke as politely as shewould have done to the minister's wife:
"Please, madam, will you show me where I can wash and freshen myself alittle? I feel so dirty I'd like to do it before I eat my dinner or gohome."
The woman rose from above her frying pan with a face of astonishment.She was so tanned and burned by the sun as well as by the heat ofcooking that the contrast between herself and her son--if he were herson--made him look fairly ghostlike. Furthermore, as the inwardlyanxious, if outwardly suave, little girl perceived--her face was morestupid than vicious.
Without the waste of a word the woman nodded over her shoulder towardthe lean-to and proceeded to dish up her bacon, now cooked to hersatisfaction. She placed it in the middle of a great yellow platter, theeggs around it, and a row of potatoes around them. Then she set theplatter on the table, drew her own chair to it, filled a tin plate withthe mixture, and proceeded with her dinner. She made no remark when theboy, also, sat down, and neither of them waited an instant for theirgirl guest.
But Dorothy's spirit was now roused and she felt herself fully equal todealing with these rustics: and it was with all the dignity she couldsummon that she drew a third chair to the table and herself sat down,saying:
"Now, if you please, I wish to be told where I am and how I came here."
The hostess paid no more heed than if a fly had touched her, but the ladpaused in the act of shoveling food into his mouth and stared atDorothy, as he might have done at the same fly, could it have spoken.Nor did he remove his gaze from her till she had repeated her question.Then he shifted it to the woman's face, who waited awhile longer, thensaid:
"I tell nothing. Drink your milk."
"Oh, indeed! Then I suppose I must find out for myself. I don't care forthe milk, thank you. I rarely drink it at home, but I'm fond of baconand eggs, and yours look nice. Please serve me some."
The woman made no answer. She had finished her own meal and left theothers to do the same. So, as the taciturn creature departed for theopen fields, with a hoe over her shoulder, Dorothy drew the plattertoward her, found a third empty tin plate, and helped herself.
She had noticed one thing that the others had, apparently, not known shehad: a sign of silence interchanged between the woman and the lanky lad.He had been bidden to hold his tongue and been left to clear up thedinner matters. He did this as deftly as a girl, though not after themanner in which Dorothy had been trained: and casting a look of contemptupon him, she finished her dinner, rose, and quietly left the room andthe house.
But she got no further than a few rods' distance when she felt a stronghand on her arm, herself turned rudely about, and led back to thecottage. There she was pushed upon the doorstep and a note thrust intoher hand by this abnormally silent woman, who had returned from thefield as suddenly as if she had sprung from the earth at the girl's veryfeet.
The note was plainly enough written and to the point:
"Stay quiet where you are and you'll soon be set free. Try to run away and you'll meet big trouble."
There was no signature and the handwriting was unknown: and Dorothy wasstill blankly gazing at it when it was snatched from her hand, the womanhad again disappeared, and a huge mastiff had come around the corner ofthe cottage, to seat himself upon the doorstep beside her. Hisattentions might have been friendly; but Dorothy was afraid of dogs, andshrank from this one into the smallest space possible, while therefluttered down over her shoulder the note that had been seized. Therewas now pinned to it a scrap of paper on which were scrawled threewords:
"Drink no milk."