CHAPTER XIV.
AN AUTOMOBILE AND A DRIVER.
Along in the last week of May, Nyoda, on a shopping tour downtown,dropped into a restaurant for a bit of lunch. As she was sitting down tothe table, another young woman came and sat down opposite her. The twoglanced at each other.
"Why, Elizabeth Kent!" exclaimed the latest arrival.
"Why, Norma Williamson!" exclaimed Nyoda, recognizing an old collegefriend.
"Not Norma Williamson any more," said the friend, blushing as she drewoff her glove and displayed the rings on her fourth finger; "NormaBates."
"What are you doing to pass the time away?" asked the pretty littlematron when she had exhausted her own experiences of the last few years.Nyoda told her about her teaching and the guardianship of theWinnebagos. "Camp Fire Girls?" said Mrs. Bates. "How delightful! I thinkthat is one of the best things that ever happened to girls. If I werenot so frightfully busy I would take a group too--I may yet. But I wishyou would bring your girls out to visit us. We're living on the LakeShore for the summer. Camp Fire Girls would certainly know how to have agood time at our place. We have a launch and a sailboat and horses toride and a tennis court. Can't you come out next Saturday?" Nyodathought perhaps they could. "I'll tell you what to do," said Mrs. Bates,warming to the scheme. "Come out Friday after school and stay untilSunday night. That will give the girls more chance to do things. We haveplenty of room."
"The same hospitable Norma Williamson as of old," said Nyoda, smiling ather. "Don't you remember how we girls used to flock to your room incollege, and when it was apparently as fall as it could get you wouldalways make room for one more?"
"I love to have people visit me," said Mrs. Bates simply.
"By the way," said Nyoda, as she rose to depart, "how do you get toBates Villa?"
"Take the Interurban car," replied Mrs. Bates, "and get off at Stop_42_. The Limited leaves the Interurban Station at four o'clock; thatwould be a good car to come on."
"All right," said Nyoda, extending her hand in farewell; "we'll bethere."
The news of the invitation to spend a week-end in the country wasreceived with a shout by the Winnebagos. Their only regret was thatSahwah would be unable to go. "Never mind, Sahwah," comforted Nyoda,"Mrs. Bates wants us to come out again when the water is warm enough togo in bathing and by that time your hip will be all right."
On Friday, after school was out, Nyoda and Gladys left the buildingtogether. "You are coming home with me, as we planned, until it is timeto take the car?" asked Nyoda.
"I'm afraid I'll have to go home first, after all," said Gladys. "I cameaway in such a hurry this morning that I forgot my sweater and my tennisshoes and I really must have them. You come home with me."
But on arriving at the Evans house they found nobody home. Gladys rangand waited and rang again, but there was no answer. Gladys frowned withvexation. "I simply must have that sweater and those shoes," she said."There's no use in waiting until some one comes home; it'll be too late.Mother has gone for the day and father is out of town, and if Katy hasbeen given a day off she won't be at home until evening. We'll have tobreak into the house, that's all there is to it."
Feeling like burglars, they tried all the windows on the first floor andthe basement. Everything was locked tightly. Gladys began to feeldesperate. "Do you suppose I had better break the pantry window," sheasked, "or possibly one of the cellar ones? I'll pay for it out of myallowance. I think the pantry window would be the best, because the doorat the head of the cellar stairs is likely to be locked and we might notbe able to get upstairs if we did get into the cellar."
Nyoda was inspecting the upper windows of the house. "There is one opena little," she said; "the one over the side entrance." Gladys abandonedher idea of breaking the pantry window and bent her energies to reachingthe open one. With the aid of Nyoda she climbed up the post of thelittle side porch, swung herself over the edge of the roof and raisedthe window.
"Stop where you are!" called a commanding voice. Gladys and Nyoda bothstarted guiltily. A man was running across the lawn from the nextestate. "Stop or I'll call the police," he said, coming upon the drive.
He looked much disconcerted when Nyoda and Gladys both burst into aringing peal of laughter. "Oh, it's too funny for anything," saidGladys, wiping her eyes, "to be caught breaking into your own house.You're a good man, whoever you are, for keeping an eye on the house,"she said to the puzzled-looking arrester, "but the joke is on you thistime. This is my father's house. I'm Gladys Evans. Give him one of mycards out of my purse, Nyoda, so he'll believe it."
"I beg your pardon," said the man, convinced that Gladys had a right toenter the Evans's house by the second-story window if she chose. "I'mthe new gardener next door and I didn't know you, and it always lookssuspicious to see such goings-on."
"You did perfectly right," said Gladys, as he went back to his work.
Laughing extravagantly over their being taken for housebreakers, Gladysclimbed into the window and went downstairs. Opening the front door acrack, she gave a low whistle which she fondly believed to be aburglar-like signal. Nyoda answered with a similar whistle. "Is thatyou, Diamond Dick?" she asked in a thrilling whisper.
"Who stands without?" asked Gladys.
"It is I, Dark-lantern Pete," hissed Nyoda.
"Give the countersign," commanded Gladys.
"Six buckets of blood!" replied Nyoda in a curdling voice.
Gladys admitted her into the house and they both sat down on the stairsand shrieked with laughter. "Oh, I can hardly wait until we get down tothe car, so we can tell the other girls," said Gladys. "Caught in theact! My fair name is ruined. Now for some dinner."
"I'm hungry for a pickle," she said as they foraged in the pantry forsomething to eat. "Wait a minute until I go down cellar and get some."As she opened the door of the cool cellar she started back in surprise.On the floor lay Katy, the maid, unconscious. An overturned chair besideher and a shattered light globe told how she had tried to screw a newbulb into the fixture in the ceiling and had tipped over with the chair,striking her head on the cement floor. "Nyoda, come down here," calledGladys. Nyoda hastened down. Together they laid the unconscious girl ona pile of carpet and tried to revive her. After a few minutes' workNyoda went upstairs and called the ambulance to take Katy to thehospital. When she had been examined by a surgeon and pronounced badlystunned but not seriously injured, Gladys and Nyoda breathed a sigh ofrelief and left her in the care of the hospital.
"We've had enough excitement to-day to last a month," said Gladys, asthey hastened tack to the house the second time to get the sweater andshoes. "I'm all tired out."
"So am I," said Nyoda.
"We have just time enough to make that four o'clock car, and none tospare," said Gladys, as they rode toward town in the street-car. As ifeverything were conspiring against them to-day, a heavy truck, loadedwith boxes, got caught in the car-track right in front of them andblocked traffic for ten minutes. Gladys and Nyoda looked tragically ateach other at this delay. Nyoda held up her watch significantly. It wasten minutes to four. Just then Gladys spied a man she knew in anautomobile, slowly passing the car. She called to him through the openwindow. "Will you take us in if we get off the car?" she asked. "We'retrying to make the four o'clock Limited."
"Certainly," agreed the obliging friend. The transfer of seats was soonmade. "How much time have you?" asked the friend as he shoved in thespark.
"Ten minutes," replied Gladys.
"We'll make it," said the friend, dodging between the vehicles that werestanding around the disabled truck, helping to pull it from thecar-tracks. Getting into a clear road, he opened the throttle and theyproceeded like the wind for about six blocks. Then, for no apparentreason, the car slowed down, and with a whining whir of machinery cameto a dead stop. "I'm afraid I can't make good my promise to catch thatcar," said the friend in a vexed tone, after vainly trying to start thecar for several minutes. "I'll have to be towed to a garage," Nyoda andGladys jumped out, hailed a
passing street-car and reached the stationjust five minutes too late. The Limited had already pulled out.
"Five girls with red ties?" repeated the crossing policeman when theymade inquiries to find out if the other girls had gone and left them."They all got on the Limited." There was no doubt about their havinggone, then.
"You know, you said if any were late they'd get left," said Gladys."Whoever was here for the car was to go and not wait. Won't they laugh,though, at you being the late one?"
"There won't be another Limited for two hours," said Nyoda impatiently,"and the local takes twice as long to get there. I'll telephone Mrs.Bates that we missed this car but will come out on the next Limited."
"Missed the car?" said Mrs. Bates, when they had her on the wire."That's too bad. But you won't have to wait for the other Limited. Ourdriver is in town to-day with the automobile and he can bring you out.He's in Morrison's now ordering some supplies, and the car is at thecorner of ----th Avenue and L---- Street. Just get into the car andit'll be all right. John always calls me up before he starts for homeand I'll tell him about you. It's a blue car, rather bright, with a canestreamer."
Much cheered by the thought of an automobile ride through the countryinstead of a two-hour wait and the prospect of being packed likesardines into the crowded interurban car, Nyoda and Gladys moved down tothe corner of ----th Avenue and L---- Street and found the car just asMrs. Bates had said. With a sigh of comfort they settled down on thecushions. "Our struggles are over," said Nyoda, leaning back luxuriouslyand counting over the various things that had happened to them sinceleaving school at noon. In a few moments the driver appeared, touchedhis hat respectfully to the two girls in the tonneau, and got into thefront seat without any comment. He had his orders from Mrs. Bates.
"It's just like Norma Williamson to have a blue car with blue cushions,"said Nyoda, as they sped through the streets toward the city limits."She was always so fond of blue in college. And this cane streamer isjust the finishing touch. She always liked things trimmed up gaily. It'sa pleasant thing for the Winnebagos that I met her that day. She'll be aregular fairy godmother to us." Talking happily about the fun they wouldhave on this week-end party, they rode along the pleasant country roads,bordered with flowering apple trees, and drank in the sweet-scented airwith unbounded delight. "Could anything be lovelier than the country inMay?" sighed Nyoda.
"Wouldn't it be a joke," said Gladys, "if we were to get there ahead ofthe others, after missing the car? Wouldn't they stare, though, to findus waiting for them? We must be nearly there now." The automobile leftthe main road and turned down toward the lake. "That must be the place,"continued Gladys, as a white house came into view far in the distance.
"I don't see any of the girls waiting for us," said Nyoda. "I declare, Ibelieve we're here first. Oh, what a joke!" The estate through whichthey were driving was a very large one, much of it covered with greattrees. The house was painted white, and perched directly on the edge ofthe cliff. The automobile halted before the porch and Nyoda and Gladysgot out. A woman, evidently a servant, came to the screen door and heldit open, motioning them to come in. Neither Mrs. Bates nor any of thegirls were in evidence. The servant said nothing.
"I believe they're all hiding on us!" said Nyoda, getting a sudden lighton this apparently neglectful reception. "I know Norma's tricks of old.If we could only think of some way to turn the laugh on them!" Theservant who had admitted them led the way to an inner room and opened adoor, stepping aside to let them go first. Then she followed and closedthe door after them. They found that they were in an elevator. The womanpushed a button and they began to rise. "Of all things, an elevator in acountry house!" said Gladys. They rose to a height which must haveequalled the third story of the house, although they passed no openfloor. They came to a halt before an opening covered with an irongrating. To the girls it looked like the ordinary elevator entrance. Ata touch from the woman the grating moved aside and they stepped out intothe room. The elevator descended noiselessly and Nyoda and Gladys werealone.
"It's a tower room!" said Gladys. The chamber they were in was square,about fifteen by fifteen, furnished as a bedroom. Through a door whichopened at one side they could see a luxurious tiled bath. The walls andceiling of the chamber were tinted a deep violet, and the covers on thebed, dresser, table and the upholstery of the chairs were of the sameshade. The lamp globes hanging from the ceiling were deep purple.
"What an extraordinary color to decorate a room in," said Nyoda. "Iwonder if this is where we are going to sleep. Where can Mrs. Bates be,I wonder?" she said, getting rather impatient for the joke to be sprung.
Just at this time Gladys made a discovery. There was only one window inthe room, curtained with heavy cretonne, purple, to match the rest ofthe hangings. Drawing the curtain aside to look out at the landscape,she suddenly stood still, frozen to the spot. At her exclamation Nyodaturned around and also stood as if turned to stone. _The window wasbarred_! "What does it mean?" asked Gladys in a horrified voice. The twohastened back to the elevator entrance and looked for the button tosummon the elevator. There was none. They called down the shaftrepeatedly, but there was no answer. As they stood listening for soundsfrom below they heard the automobile which had brought them start up anddrive away from the house. After that there was not another sound of anykind. An unnamable terror seized them both. Each read the other's fearin her eyes. Rushing to the window, they looked out. There was nothingto be seen but the lake stretching out before them, calm and smiling inthe May sunshine. The boom of the waves sounded directly beneath them,and they knew that the tower was on the extreme edge of the bluff.
"This is not Norma Bates's house," said Nyoda in a frightened voice."She said that they were a hundred feet back from the lake."
"Whose house is it, then?" asked Gladys.
"I can't imagine," said Nyoda. "It's all a mistake somewhere."
"But that was the Bates's automobile, all right, that we got into," saidGladys.
"Yes," said Nyoda reflectively; "bright blue with a cane streamer,standing at the corner of ----th Avenue and L---- Street. _But was itthe right one?"_ she asked suddenly, putting her hands to her head."That driver never said a word, just got in and drove off. What on earthare we into?"
Gladys's face suddenly went as white as chalk. "Nyoda!" she gasped,clutching the other girl's arm.
"What is it?" asked Nyoda.
"You read every day in the papers of girls disappearing," said Gladysfaintly, "never to be heard of again. Have we--have we--disappeared?"
"I don't know," said Nyoda, with thoughts whirling. She turned away fromthe window, toward the elevator. Not a sound of any kind had been heard,and yet when she turned around there was the elevator up again with thesame woman in it who had brought them up. Instead of opening the door,however, she pressed something and a little slide opened at about theheight of her head. Through this she passed a supper tray, which she seton a shelf on the wall at the side of the elevator. Gladys and Nyodahastened toward her.
"What is the meaning of this?" asked Nyoda. The woman made no answer."In whose house are we?" demanded Nyoda. Still no reply. "Answer me,"said Nyoda sharply. The woman pointed to her ears and shook her head,then pointed to her lips and shook her head. "She's deaf and dumb!"exclaimed Nyoda. The woman pressed a button and the elevator sank fromsight.
Nyoda and Gladys faced each other in consternation. The mystery wasbecoming deeper. Beyond a doubt they were not in Mrs. Bates's house;beyond a doubt they were the victims of some mistake; but how was themistake to be cleared up if they could not make themselves understood?They looked the room over thoroughly for some clew to the mystery. Theyfound none. There was no door leading from the room except the oneopening into the bath. There was no door leading out from the bath, toany other room; neither was there any window. The little room waslighted by electricity. As in the other room, everything here wasviolet-colored. The tiled walls, the floor, the calcimined ceiling, thelight globe, the enameled medicine chest, the outside o
f the bathtub,and even a little three-legged stool, were all the same shade. Thewonder of the girls increased momentarily.
"Can this be real," asked Nyoda, looking around her in a daze, "or arewe in the middle of some nightmare? Pinch me to see if I'm awake."
"We're awake, all right," said Gladys.
"Then have we dropped back into one of the novels of Dumas? Can this bethe year 1915? Imprisoned in a lonely tower, with no window except oneover the lake, and that window barred. How did we get here, anyway?" sheasked wearily, her head spinning with the effort to make head or tailout of their position. "Let's see, just how was it? We missed theLimited, telephoned Mrs. Bates, and she told us that her automobile wasat the corner of ----th Avenue and L---- Street--a bright blueautomobile with a cane streamer--and we should get in and the driverwould come and take us out to Bates Villa. We went down to the corner,found the automobile, got in, and the driver came and drove off and welanded here." Her temples throbbed as she tried to recall anything outof the way in the business. But no light came. The whole thing wasmysterious, inexplicable, grotesque.
"Hadn't we better eat something?" suggested Gladys gently. "It evidentlyisn't their intention to starve us, whatever they are keeping us herefor."
"You are right," said Nyoda, and she lifted the tray down from theshelf. The dishes and silver were of good quality, but the knives wereso dull that it was impossible to cut anything with them. After vainlytrying to make an impression on a piece of meat, Gladys threw her knifeaside impatiently.
"They certainly never made those knives to cut with," she said.
At her remark Nyoda raised her head suddenly. She thought she saw a rayof light on the situation. "Gladys," she said, "do you know what kind ofpeople they give dull knives to? It's insane people! This room wasundoubtedly designed for some one afflicted in that way. That is why thewindow is barred, and there is no door, and why the room is done inlavender. Lavender has a soothing and depressing effect on people'snerves and would probably keep an insane person from becoming violent.We got here through some awful mistake."
Gladys shuddered violently. "How horrible!" she said. "I suppose thatwoman actually considers us insane. How long do you suppose they willkeep us here?"
"Only until they find out their mistake," answered Nyoda, "which I hopewill be soon. I shall write a note and give it to the woman when shecomes up again."
Both their spirits revived when they arrived at this theory, and theyreturned to their supper with good appetites. "I wish I could cut thismeat," sighed Gladys. Then she brightened. "I have my Wohelo knife in myhandbag," she said, rising and going over to the bed where her coat lay.She stopped in disappointment when she opened the bag. The knife was notthere. "I remember now," she said; "I took it out just before we lefthome and must have forgotten to put it back in again, we left in such ahurry."
"What will the girls think, anyway, when we fail to arrive at theBates's?" said Nyoda.
"They'll probably telephone to town," said Gladys, "and mother will knowI didn't get there and she will be frantic." She lost all her appetitewith a rush when this thought came to her.
They waited impatiently for the return of the woman with the tray. Nyodawrote a note and had it ready for her. It read:
"There has been some mistake. We are not the persons you intended tokeep here."
But the woman did not come. Darkness fell outside the window and theylighted the lights in the room, but still there was no movement of theelevator. They spent the evening pacing up and down the room, discussingthe mysterious situation in which they found themselves, until fromsheer weariness they lay down on the bed. They did not undress and theyleft the lights burning, intending to watch for the return of the woman.They set the tray on the floor at some distance from the elevator.
"Can it be possible," said Gladys, "that it was only this afternoon thatwe broke into our house? It seems years ago." Nyoda lay staring at theelevator shaft, awaiting the return of the cage.
"This purple glare over everything hurts my eyes," she said. She closedthem a minute to get relief. When she opened them again there was abroad streak of light coming in through the window. The lights were outin the room and the tray had disappeared from the floor. Gladys laysound asleep, her head pillowed on her arm. Nyoda started up and was onthe point of rousing Gladys. "No, I'll let her sleep," she thought;"it's a good thing she can."
She went to the window and looked out through the bars at the sun risingover the water. There was the same old lake with which she had beenfamiliar all her life, with the cliffs jutting out in points, one alwaysa little farther out than the other, to form the great curve of theshore line. She must have passed this place dozens of times while ridingin the lake boats. Here was a scene she had admired many times from theopen shore, and now she was looking at it from behind bars, a prisoner.It was too grotesque to be true. She turned pensively toward the bed andnoticed with a start that a tray containing breakfast for two stood onthe shelf beside the elevator. And yet she had not heard a sound! Gladyswas still asleep on the bed. As Nyoda stood looking down at her she wokeup and stared around the room uncomprehendingly. She could not placeherself at first. Then at the sight of the violet room the events ofyesterday came back to her.
They ate breakfast with what appetite they could and then sat down closebeside the elevator shaft to be sure and see the deaf-mute when shecame, for it seemed impossible to detect her visit when they had theirbacks turned. While they waited they examined the iron grating for thedoor opening, but found none. There was apparently no break in thescroll-work anywhere, no hinge, no slide arrangement. "Did we come intothe room through there, or did we only imagine it?" asked Nyoda,completely baffled. "Surely we didn't come through that little gratingthat opens on top, did we? I declare, I'm getting so bewildered that ifany one told us we did come in that way I wouldn't dispute them."
Almost while she was speaking the elevator cage shot rapidly andnoiselessly into view and the deaf-mute opened the slide to take thetray. Instead of giving it to her, however, they gave her the notefirst. She took it and read it and then looked at the two girls insilence. "Maybe she would write something if you gave her a pencil,"suggested Gladys.
Nyoda handed the woman a pencil through the iron scroll-work. She wrotesomething on the bottom of the paper and handed it back to Nyoda. Nyodatook the piece of paper and read:
"_There is no mistake about your being here._"
As she stood in open-mouthed astonishment the elevator sank from view.
The Camp Fire Girls at School; Or, The Wohelo Weavers Page 14
