Then she fell into the sound sleep of one who has done her duty.
Off in the blackness of the night the Graeme children were traveling on into their own life, and all those servants who ought to have been answering the Graeme telephone that night were far and away out of sight of any of those interfering relatives. And the dim, faraway stars looked wisely down upon a tempestuous sleeping world that would presently wake and go at their chosen activities again when morning began to dawn.
Chapter 10
Gray dawn was beginning to steal over the earth when Jennifer, driving, came at last to the edge of the wooded road and swept out into a wider way. There was a vacant, empty stretch of dim high grass on each side and now and then a clump of bushes.
There were no lights anywhere except those faraway stars that seemed so dim. But over toward the east a band of dim light seemed to be breaking the darkness. It was impossible to tell where she was or what might be ahead. There might be a body of water not far off, but there was nothing to show it yet, no luminous stretch, no glimmer of brightness, nor even any stretch of darkness that might be water.
She drove on because there was no turning elsewhere. Jerry had given no directions. If she came to a turning she would have to stop, or else wake Jerry, and she hated to do that. She knew how tired he must be.
His head was back, his face turned slightly from her, and she could dimly see that his whole body was slumping wearily. His arms must be very tired. She was so tired herself that she could hardly keep her eyes open. Oh, would there be a way to sleep pretty soon, or would they find when they came near the boat that someone had started a search for them and they would have to go on, tired as they were?
Occasionally now they passed a little house by the side of the road, still dark, for it was so early no one would be up yet. And now the sky was showing a decided streak of light, which gradually grew rosy as they went on. A new day was coming. What would it bring to them? Would those awful relatives pursue them and drag them back to be parceled out among themselves or to schools, or worse still, sent up to the farm under Abigail Storm? Oh, that couldn’t be! It shouldn’t be! She wouldn’t stand for it! She would hunt up some of Daddy’s friends and make such a protest that somebody would have to do something. But, of course, the best thing would be not to be caught until she was of age and had a right to say what should be done. She wondered just how much power guardians had and wished she had stayed in the library long enough to find that out. But then she couldn’t, of course, for if Aunt Petra and Aunt Majesta had found her there and had known that she had heard all they had said, the matter would have come to a head, and she would not have been able to do a thing. They would have taken the children right away from her influence and made it appear that she was bad for them. They would undoubtedly have had their way, and it would have done no good whatever to protest. She knew those aunts.
She began to wonder if there was a guardian. They had spoken as if they expected there was. And if there was one, who could it be? Did they always appoint relatives as guardians, or were guardians usually lawyers or businessmen? She was quite ignorant of the custom in cases like theirs. If she could only get to a dictionary or, better, an encyclopedia in a public library she might be able to look up the subject and find out something. But what would she look up? How would she start? Would the word guardian bring her any light? Well, she couldn’t go to a library at present to find out, and anyway, what difference did it make? They were off, and they just must not get caught; that was the whole thing. When she was of age she would see what the law was, but meantime she would hide those children where the aunts couldn’t get their hands on them, if she had to lose everything else she cared for. And that did not include Peter Willis, because she had definitely decided now that she did not want Peter Willis in her life anymore!
The sky was growing lighter now, and the far dim stars were paling more and more. The morning star, which had been bright and cheery when she swept out of the woods, was now so dim she could scarcely make it out. The dawn was coming up beautifully. Jennifer didn’t remember ever to have watched the dawn come up alone before. Now and again coming home from occasional parties there had been a dawn, but there had been a lot of noisy companions along, and nobody looked at the sky. Besides, it was usually in a city where there wasn’t any sky to speak of. Here it was high and wide. The rose of dawn was creeping higher every minute, and it thrilled her.
There were more houses now along the roadside. There was a filling station, but it didn’t seem to be open yet. She glanced at the gauge. There was still some gas. Was it far to the boat? she wondered. Would there be gas there? And where would they park the car? Of course, the aunts—even the uncles—wouldn’t be likely to know the number of the car license, not that car anyway, because none of them likely knew it existed, unless it was Aunt Petra. Aunt Petra never missed anything.
There! There was a house with a light in the kitchen! Now people were beginning to get up. There seemed to be a side street on ahead a little way. Would she have to wake up Jerry? Poor Jerry. She glanced at him, and a moment later he stirred. Then he spoke and his eyes were wide open, alert.
“Turn left here! Cross the bridge, and on about a couple of miles farther,” he said.
Then he shifted Robin and, settling him down in the seat between them, pushed his hair back from his forehead.
“Wake up, old man!” he said gently. “Going to cross a bridge and see some boats. Going over a river, old man. Better get your eyes open. You’ll miss something.”
Tryon stirred in the middle seat and sat up alertly, stretching his stiff limbs and blinking around in the dawning.
“Yeah?” he said. “What bridge, Jerry? Is it a draw bridge?”
“Why, I believe it is,” said Jeremy.
“Fwat’s a dwaw bwidge?” said Robin, speaking out of the depths of deep sleep and squinting one eye open to gaze around him.
“It’s a bridge they can draw up in the air out of the way, to let a tall sailboat or a steamer go under.”
“Ship?” said Heather, suddenly sitting bolt upright and staring straight ahead. “We aren’t going to Europe, are we, Jennifer?”
“Well no, not this morning,” laughed Jennifer, so weary that she had either to laugh or cry.
Jeremy gave her a quick keen look.
“Stop the car, Jen, and give me the wheel,” he ordered. “You’re all in. I ought not to have slept so long.”
“Oh yes you ought,” said Jennifer. “I’m absolutely all right, and if it’s only two or three miles farther, why not let me finish?”
“Well, it’s a little farther than that,” said the boy. “Besides, I know where I want to park the car, and you don’t. I’ve got it all thought out.”
So Jennifer stopped the car and took the other seat, and Jeremy took the wheel.
The river lay still like a ribbon of silver in the dawning with flecks of rose color shimmering on its surface. Little boats here and there, masts penciled against a sky of promise, a soft melody of wood thrushes at matins on shore, gulls stirring against the beauty of the morning. The children, still drowsy with sleep, stared in wonder at it all, gazing in silence, as if it might still be a rosy dream. Even little Karen roused and sat up to look.
Then they swept on down the road, through a little town, past more fields of tall grasses, and out into the open road again, stopping at a filling station that was just opening, because there was less risk now than later in the day. A station that had been closed all night wouldn’t be on the lookout for their license number. “Don’t make any noise!” Jerry warned them as the service boy came out to them, and they all shrank down in their seats again until they were out and away. Then Tryon spoke.
“Why not?” he asked his brother.
“Can’t you figure that out, kid?” said Jerry. “We don’t want to attract attention to us so that they will remember we have been here and report which way we were going, in case some of the aunts get busy and try to find u
s.”
“I see,” said Tryon and looked wisely at his sisters.
“Yes,” said Jeremy at second thought, “and that reminds me. If at any time on this journey you hear me say, ‘Scram!’ it means you are to pipe down and shut up and be as out of sight as possible. Get me?”
They all nodded solemnly at him and looked a bit like a squad of young soldiers about to enter battle.
“You know,” explained Jennifer, “that’ll probably be when Jerry sees somebody he thinks might know us and go home and tell Aunt Petra where we are.”
“Oh! Yes!” they chorused with a relieved smile, and then added one by one, “Okay!”
In ten minutes more Jerry came within sight of another bridge and suddenly turned right, sweeping into a short road, which led behind several tall white buildings with glimpses of a river beyond.
“Here we are!” he announced in a tone that carried relief mingled with a bit of excitement.
“Was that anuvver dwaw bwidge?” questioned Robin, quietly alert now.
“No, that was just a plain bridge. Don’t you see there aren’t any towers or weights to haul it up with?”
“Wes,” said Robin, turning to study the bridge. “Why isn’t it a dwaw bwidge?”
“Oh, because this river isn’t important enough to have big ships on it and the bridge doesn’t have to rise up to let them through.”
“Oh,” said Robin solemnly and then added with a sigh, “Well, I’m hungwy!”
“Of course you are!” said Jennifer, with a smile. “And we’re going to have a nice breakfast pretty soon. Just you be patient.”
“Do theys have bweakfst in that big while house there?” he asked after a moment of reflection.
“No, we have it with us in the car, but we have to wait till Jerry gets ready to unpack things. We’re going to eat it on a boat.”
“Ummmm!” said Robin, round eyed.
“Really, sister, are we?” whispered Hazel, leaning across.
“Pip down, all of you, till I find out how the land lies,” said Jerry, swinging out of the car and disappearing between the two houses and out onto the slip in front.
They sat very still waiting. They could hear a strange, gruffly pleasant voice talking, and then Jerry’s, and presently Jerry came toward them again, and they caught a glimpse of a big stranger with a kindly smile looking toward them.
“Okay!” said Jerry as he came back and began to unbuckle the straps that held the baggage to the running board. “Captain Andy says our boat is here and ready for service. He had heard about the accident and was waiting for instructions. I told him you kids were all in and we’d run down here to rest for a few days and get away from people. He said that was okay. He wouldn’t let on to anyone we were here. He recognized me right away. He said he’d do all he could for us, and it was all right for us to go right out. He’ll take us in his service boat. So, Jen, you get the kids together and we’ll get off before the people on other boats wake up and look us over. You know, of course, there may be somebody down here we know, and we’ll have to lie low till we find out. So keep your mouths shut, and don’t make a fuss at anything.”
He glared around on his brothers and sisters, and they regarded him with awe and shut their firm little mouths tight.
So, ignoring stiff joints, the game little party climbed out of the car into the clear morning air and walked down the boardwalk to the slip where the boat was tied that was to take them over to their own cruiser, moored at a little distance. They followed their brother solemnly and filed across the slip and into the boat, Robin coming last with Jennifer and trying to act as old as the rest of them. It wasn’t an entirely new experience for them, of course, for they had been with their father and mother, two at a time, on the old boat; but coming as it did on the steps of all the injunctions they had received, they felt that they were living out a kind of mystery-story of their own, and their dignity was astonishing.
Jeremy saw them safely aboard their own boat and went back with Captain Andy to get the rest of the things from the car, and then park the car in a safe place where its license wouldn’t be under the public gaze. Jennifer gathered her little flock in an orderly group on the sheltered part of the deck and provided them with sandwiches and a glass of milk apiece. They were charmed with the whole performance, and hungry as so many young bears. But if one of them ventured a word aloud, Jennifer put her fingers on her lips and shook her head. They looked fearsomely toward the other boats anchored at little distances around them and subsided.
Jeremy came back and brought more milk and a big chunk of ice for the refrigerator and then ate his share of sandwiches and milk.
A family of young ducks came quacking up to the boat, and the children were delighted to throw them a few crusts and watch them gobble them up, but Jennifer quickly put at stop to that lest they would wake someone on the other boats. She was full of fear lest it would be reported at home that they had been seen.
Then she marshaled them all into the cabin and made them help put their things away. They had difficulty stifling their squeals of delight over the various cozy nooks and clever gadgets on this new boat that none of them had seen. But one by one they were lured into their bunks, just to see how comfortable they were.
“Because you didn’t get your full night’s rest, you know,” she explained, when they were about to protest.
Jennifer found a lump rising in her throat as she realized what this trip might have been with Daddy and Mother. Again and again little comforts reminded of her father’s care for them all.
The children were surprised to find how good it felt to take off their shoes and stretch out full length on the nice soft mattresses. There had been no suggestion that they were to go to sleep, only to lie still for a while and rest, but before many minutes everyone was asleep, and Jennifer and Jeremy were only too glad to follow suit. And so the first morning and early afternoon passed, for the whole group was utterly worn out.
It was Jennifer who woke first and stealthily went to the complete little galley to look over her larder and prepare another meal. More sandwiches and a big pot of cocoa. That was enough for a hasty lunch. Pretty soon the fish would come, and they would have that for dinner. Both she and Jerry had gone camping enough to know how to cook fish. She was thankful for that. Besides, she had spied a cookbook on the shelf. She felt sure they were going to be able to get along all right, and it was going to be grand, if only nobody turned up hunting them who would run home and tell. They couldn’t expect to keep the children quiet indefinitely, though. Well, they would just have to go a day at a time and see what developed.
Jerry woke up when the smell of the cocoa began to make itself known. He unfolded a delightful leaf-table from concealment within a panel; then he brought forth dishes, plates, cups, and spoons. It was really fun. If only Mother and Daddy could be there with them!
And presently Karen voiced the thought, which was more or less in all their minds. “Sister, do you suppose Mother and Daddy can see us now? Do they know we are down here?”
“Why, I don’t know,” said Jennifer sadly, wondering just what was right to say. “I shouldn’t wonder. Perhaps!”
“Of course they can!” snapped Jerry unexpectedly, and quite crossly.
“Does they know I’se being dood, Jerry?” questioned Robin, pausing with his sandwich halfway to his mouth.
“Oh sure! said Jerry, almost hoarsely, and got out his handkerchief and blew his nose vigorously.
Then he rose and looked at the three little girls. “Why don’t you three girls clear off this table and wash the dishes? And don’t make a racket doing it, either. There are a lot of people over on that next boat, and I haven’t had a chance to look ’em over yet. So pipe down, and remember: if I say scram, you’re every one to slide into your bunks in short order and don’t open your lips. You don’t want to have to leave here in a hurry and have a policeman or somebody chase us over the United States to take us back to our relatives, do you? Well then
, let’s see you do it! Scram!”
With round, excited eyes, the five children disappeared into their bunks and lay like mummies until Jerry said, “Okay!” and then they all flew up and began to clear off the table.
In a very short time the boat was in immaculate order, and Tryon, who had been sent to hunt bathing suits, discovered a lot of other things, among them several boxes of jigsaw puzzles, some of them simple enough for even Karen and Robin. The children quite willingly settled down to work at them, the older ones at the table, the two youngest on the floor. Jennifer looked at them in wonder and couldn’t believe that this would last. They had not always been model children at home. But then they had never all been together this way without a nurse before. They seemed to enter into the occasion in a rather wonderful way. They would surely feel the confinement of the boat if it lasted too long, but it was great to have this first day going so well.
About the middle of the afternoon the fish arrived, and after disposing of them safely in the refrigerator and getting the oil stove filled and ready for cooking them later, Jerry started up the engine. To the great delight of them all, they started down the river. They were a silent little company, and when they met another boat they ducked into the cabin and peered out the portholes, studying the faces of those on board. But though Jerry and Jennifer had binoculars and were watching carefully, they saw no familiar faces. They went on their way to a pleasant anchorage Jerry remembered from his last trip, and there they cooked their supper of fish and ate their bread and butter and drank their milk with a relish. Then they weighed anchor and started back to the harbor.
The sun was dropping down like a great ball of fire when they reached their haven, and Tryon, following his brother’s instruction, stood on the bow with his boat hook and picked up the mooring. Then there was a quick rush to get out pajamas and brushes and combs, and have everything in order for retiring before it got dark, for Jerry had ordered that there were to be no lights on board that night. He didn’t want to have curious eyes upon their hiding. After everything was in readiness so they could undress in the dark, they came back and crept silently out on deck, nestling down together among the cushions and in the wicker chairs to watch the sunset. It was a lovely picture, the crimson from the slowly dropping sun streaking up into the sky and making every tree and house and object stand out clearly and rippling the water with a thousand tints. A little company of wild ducks came by quacking their pleasantries of the day to one another and hastening to their resting place for the night. A sea gull floated over, flapping its wings, and came to rest on a tall piling of the dock. A tiny light gleamed on the tallest mast of a nearby sloop. It was all as if the stage had been planned and set for the twilight performance.