The Motor Maids Across the Continent

  CHAPTER XX.--THE ELOPEMENT.

  The morning mists still clung to the mountains and the citizens of theMormon city appeared to be wrapped in a profound slumber when the Cometflashed joyously along the quiet streets.

  How good it seemed to settle back among his comfortable cushions andhasten to leave this unfriendly town.

  Billie at the wheel looked straight in front of her. Her heart wasunquiet and her gray eyes troubled.

  "If I only had the nerve to break the news to Cousin Helen that I haveinvited Evelyn to come with us," she thought. "By seven o'clock we shallbe there. Oh, dear! oh, dear! I have asked her, so I suppose I'll haveto stand by my own deeds, and I'm glad she's going to run away, but I dowish she had eloped in another direction."

  The other Motor Maids were likewise troubled in their minds, and sat inuneasy silence. Miss Helen herself finally broke the quiet. First sheremoved a black veil, a thing she rarely wore, and replaced it with herusual blue one. Her face had resumed its normal happy expression, andthe dimple had returned to her left cheek. Salt Lake City lay behindthem.

  "If I were not afraid of turning to a pillar of salt," she said, smilingher old, natural smile, "I should like to look back just once on thisstrange town that turns its visitors from its doors, for I shall nevercome here again unless I'm brought in irons."

  The girls smiled, somewhat relieved that their beloved chaperone hademerged from the one fit of rage in which they had ever seen her.

  "But my heart bleeds for that poor girl," she continued. "I wish I hadthe power to help her. Has the child no spirit that she permits herselfto be forced into this unhappy marriage?"

  "Would you really like to help Evelyn Stone if you had a chance, CousinHelen?" asked Billie suddenly.

  "I only wish I had the chance, dear," exclaimed the other charitably.

  Billie gave the merest blink of a wink to Nancy and increased theComet's speed to forty miles an hour.

  It was long before seven o'clock, therefore, when they drew up at theOgden railroad station. Only a few people were about at that early hour,but framed in the doorway of the waiting room stood a slender, girlishfigure, dressed in gray, a gray veil wrapped closely around her hat andface.

  Billie drew a deep breath.

  "Cousin Helen, you've got the chance to help Evelyn Stone," she said,getting over the confusion as quickly as possible. "I asked her theother night to run away with us in the Comet, and she has accepted. Hereshe is."

  There was not time for the astonished lady to reply; for the girl ingray, seeing the red car, rushed out, carrying her suitcase with her.

  In another instant, she and her luggage were installed on the front seatwith Nancy and a new Motor Maid was added to the Comet.

  "Dear Miss Campbell," she said leaning back and taking the older woman'shand, "I can't tell you how happy I am. You are the kindest, the nicest,the best--" she continued incoherently, her voice choking with emotion."If I had had anyone else to go to--but I have no one except my father'ssister, and she is not in sympathy with me. I thought of going somewhereby train, but where? The other time when I ran away I had decided toteach school, but it was very difficult to get a position, and when Ifound you knew Daniel and Billie asked me, I couldn't resist it. Youwill forgive me, won't you?"

  Miss Campbell was not proof against the charms of the beautiful girl,and melted at once into her old delightful and agreeable self.

  "My dear," she said, pressing the girl's hand, "it is a pleasure to addyou to our party. I confess I'm afraid of your father, but I trust hehas no idea you have run away with us."

  "No, no, he hasn't. You see I left last night before he came up to hisroom. He thought I was asleep. I am certain he thinks I've gone East,because I bought a ticket to Chicago and took the midnight train. He hasno way to know that I left the train at Ogden and he has no legalgrounds for stopping me anyway, unless he trumps up something as he didbefore when I went off with the horse."

  "He'd be quite capable of trumping up anything he could think of,"thought Miss Campbell, but she said nothing and they did not allude tothe subject again that day.

  Evelyn Stone, free from the thraldom of her father and her unhappyengagement, was like a bird out of a cage. She was so happy that it wasimpossible to be sad in her presence. Although indirectly she had beenthe cause of their disgraceful departure from Salt Lake City, they wereobliged to admit that she was a great addition to the party in theirpresent strained state of nerves. When she finally unwound the long grayveil and disclosed her lovely face glowing with color, the Motor Maidsand Miss Campbell felt that they would be willing to take almost anyrisk to do her a service.

  The whole thing was like a strange dream at any rate. She was abeautiful princess flying from her old ogre of a father through countryof surpassing loveliness; for nothing can exceed the beauty of thescenery around Ogden. However, they did not pause until they had leftthe country of the ogre well behind them and had passed into the stateof Nevada. The Comet covered one hundred and five miles that day andthey slept that night at a small country hotel well on the other side ofthe border.

  The next morning on the way to breakfast, Evelyn bought a newspaper atthe desk.

  "I knew I would find something," she said. "Listen to this: 'The weddingof Miss Evelyn Stone, only daughter of John James Stone of Salt LakeCity, to Ebenezer Stone, bank president and owner of gold mines, hasbeen postponed on account of the serious illness of the young woman. Theceremony was to have taken place to-day at twelve o'clock in the Annexof the Tabernacle. John James Stone has been called East on importantbusiness. His daughter is with her aunt at their country place, GraniteHills.'"

  "Thank heavens, he's going East," observed Miss Campbell, "since we aregoing West."

  Evelyn continued to search the paper anxiously.

  "Poor Danny, I'm afraid there's no news about him," she said at lastwith a sigh.

  "At least he'll be glad to know that the marriage didn't take place,"suggested Elinor.

  Once more Evelyn gave her radiant smile.

  "To think that if it hadn't been for all of you--"

  "Chiefly Billie--" put in Nancy.

  "Yes, Billie, especially, I should have been this morning the mostwretched about-to-be-bride that ever--"

  She broke off suddenly and screened her face with the newspaper.

  "Father and Ebenezer passed by the door just then," she whispered. "Oh,what shall I do? I'm so afraid of bringing trouble on you, MissCampbell. Perhaps I'd better give up. There's no use trying--" the poorgirl began to sob miserably.

  Now, there was a decidedly martial strain in the Campbell family whichhad produced soldiers and fighting men in war and politics for threegenerations in America and a dozen in Scotland, and two members of thatillustrious race at that moment began to hear the pibroch of the clansummoning them to battle. Two of the Campbell children exchanged glancesof stern Campbell determination. Two descendants of Sir RoderickCampbell, illustrious scion of a fighting race, bore suddenly a strongresemblance to his unflinching countenance as depicted in an oldportrait in Miss Campbell's dining room.

  Miss Campbell rose from the table. There was a dangerous light in herusually gentle eyes and she held her head well up.

  "Boom, boom!" sounded the call to battle in her ears. The bagpipes ofher ancestors were playing a wild strain. Down through the ages andacross thousands of miles of land and water she could hear that martialair:

  "The Campbells are coming, O-ho! O-ho! The Campbells are coming, O-ho! O-ho!"

  Then up rose the younger Campbell all booted and kilted for the fray.

  "Evelyn," said the elder Campbell quietly, "are you a girl of any spiritand courage at all?"

  "I hope so," exclaimed the poor girl, shrinking into her chairmiserably.

  But we must not blame her for her lack of courage. Remember, that shehad been brought up by a man who was granite straight through to theheart.

  "Well, now is the time to show it then, my child. We shall fight foryou, the
girls and I, and we will stand by you, but you must make someeffort yourself. You cannot be made to marry if you don't want to, andthere is no law that I know of that would require you to return againstyour will to your father. You are not a child."

  Fortunately that morning the dining room was quite empty, and only apoor waitress saw the two armies lined up for battle. The opposingforces now entered. John James Stone and his relative, Ebenezer, marchedquietly into the field, looking very formidable, it must be owned, withtheir white, expressionless faces and black clothes. General HelenEustace Campbell and Captain Billie lead the other army, which marchedgallantly out to meet them. The battle was a brief one.

  "Evelyn, disobedient and wicked girl, how dare you mortify me as youhave done?" began John James in a voice of thunder.

  Evelyn shook with fear.

  "And how dare you," exclaimed the intrepid Helen, "interrupt me and myguests at breakfast? This young woman, twenty years of age, has placedherself in my care. She declines to marry your relative and there is nolaw in this country by which you can force her to do so. She alsodeclines your support and protection and there is no law which willforce her to accept it if she does not wish. She is not a child."

  "Madam, do you know who I am that you dare to interfere with me and myaffairs?" cried the infuriated Mormon.

  "I do," exclaimed Miss Campbell in a high, clear voice, folding herarms. "I know that you are a scoundrel and that you are willing to cheatand lie in order to obtain your ends. I am not afraid of you and I donot consider you of the least importance. Your daughter is at thismoment my guest, and I refuse to have her annoyed."

  The tall man and the little woman faced each other while the poor,craven bridegroom that was to have been, shrank back in amazement.

  Then the most remarkable transformation took place on the face ofGoliath, John James. He dropped his stone mask with a suddenness soabrupt that they almost imagined they heard it break as it fell to thefloor. His brow cleared and he flashed a smile that had a faintglimmering of Evelyn's in the curve of the lips.

  "Madam," he said, holding out his hand, "let us be friends. I admit thatI am beaten and that I may say that I am not ashamed to be conquered bya woman of such spirit and courage. I only wish my daughter had asmuch."

  Miss Helen put her small hand into his. She was too amazed for themoment to realize what she was doing.

  "Come, Ebenezer."

  The great man made a low, ceremonious bow and departed from the room.

  Then, what did General Helen Eustace Campbell do but have a genuine caseof hysterics and require to be supported to her apartment by five highlyexcited young women!