Princess Polly's Playmates Part 14

The coachman hurried to the house.

"If ye please, 'm, the Jenks boy says he saw them out in the little garden that joins the studio at about six. It's about half past six, or so, now, 'm, an' ye've just reached home. I can't make out how ye missed them, but I think I'll go over ter Mr. Kirtland's house, and if he isn't out ter some reception, like he often is, I'll ask the loan of his key, and with the gardener, I'll hunt there first. I believe they're there."

Aunt Lois, now really wild with anxiety, could only say: "Go, at once.

Go somewhere, do something, to find them. See! It is getting dusky.

Wherever they are, they are frightened, I know, and surely I am almost sick with fear for their safety."

Mr. Kirtland was at home, and while he could not believe the children were in his studio, he felt that no place should be neglected in the effort to find them, and he insisted upon joining the searching party.

Meanwhile, in the studio the dusky shadows had grown deeper. The two terrified little girls had begun to wonder if anyone would ever come for them.

They still clung to each other, and for some time not a sound had broken the stillness. Naught save the ticking of the clock, and that did not startle them, but, rather, by its monotonous tune, seemed like a friend that sought to cheer them.

Not even a team pa.s.sed, and no footstep upon the sidewalk told of a pedestrian who walked by the building.

"If you heard someone walk past this place would you wish he'd stop, or would you wish he wouldn't?" whispered Rose.

"I'd hate to hear him go right by without stopping, because I'd know he wasn't coming to take us home, but if he stopped I'd be scared!"

whispered Polly.

"Hark!"

Rose grasped Polly's arm.

"It's in THERE! It's in THERE!" they shrieked, as if with one voice, then in a frightened little heap they slipped to the floor and tried to draw the rug over them to hide and s.h.i.+eld them from they knew not what!

Suddenly both rooms were flooded with light, and a familiar voice spoke.

"They're not here, you see; I felt sure that they could not be in the studio. We must search elsewhere, and lose no time about it."

It was Arthur Kirtland's voice, and scrambling to their feet, they ran to greet him, all fear left behind.

"Oh, Mr. Kirtland, we ARE here," cried Rose.

"And we've been here just almost FOREVER," Polly added.

"And, oh, here's John!" cried Rose. "Now we can go home!"

"I think ye can, bein's yer Aunt Lois thinks ye're both lost, and no knowin' whether we'll find ye or not. Ye better be tellin' Mr. Kirtland how it is ye are here after he'd thought the place empty, and he'd locked it up, an' gone home."

Quickly they told the story of their trip to the ice cream parlor, and of their late return, finding entrance by the little green door.

Of the lonely waiting, of the noises that had frightened them.

"Oh, Mr. Kirtland! That armor is standing just as it did when it was daylight here, but truly we heard his sword rattle against his s.h.i.+eld, and once--" Rose's voice faltered.

"Once," said Polly, taking up the story, "we thought he walked across the floor!"

"I have heard the same thing," was the quick reply, "and I am not at all surprised that you were terrified."

Rose and Polly were grateful that he did not laugh or even look amused.

"But he COULDN'T walk," said Rose; "it's only an iron suit."

"Oh, he surely doesn't move," Arthur Kirtland said, and he smiled kindly at the children, "but sometimes I think a tiny mouse mistakes it for a huge cage and runs around in it, and as to his walking, the cars on the railroad that runs back of the studio jar the building and shake the suit of armor. I think that may be what you heard."

"Well, it sounds harmless enough when ye know what made the noise," John said, with a laugh, "and now I guess ye'll be some willin' ter go home ter Aunt Lois. The carriage is at the door."

"Oh, yes, yes!" they cried.

"A studio is a lovely place in the day-time," said Polly, "and the pictures are beautiful then, but when it begins to be dark it's DIFFERENT."

"Different! I guess that's so," said the coachman; "and now, come! We'll drive home at a lively pace."

"Oh, doesn't it seem good to be safe!" cried Polly when, snugly seated in the carriage, they saw that they were on their own familiar avenue.

"Yes, and we always like to be GOING somewhere, and now we're glad that we're almost home," said Rose.

"I guess anybody would be glad to get away from that studio, if they'd ever been in there alone when it gets darker and darker every minute,"

said Polly.

"Do you b'lieve Mr. Kirtland would dare to be there at night?"

questioned Rose.

"Why, he came there after us!" cried Polly, in surprise.

"Well, he had our coachman with him," Rose replied; "he didn't come alone!"

"That's so," agreed Polly; "he couldn't be afraid with the coachman for company!"

Aunt Lois was just beginning to think that she could not bear waiting to hear from the searching party, when she heard little feet upon the piazza, the music of merry voices, and when the maid opened the door, Rose ran in, followed by Polly.

"Oh, please may I stay, 'm, to hear what happened to the two dears?"

pleaded Nora.

Aunt Lois smiled a.s.sent, and then Rose, with Polly's help, told the story of the afternoon, of their return to the studio, of the terror that seemed to fill shadowy corners when twilight came.

"And the noises! Oh, Aunt Lois, you don't know what strange sounds there were in that studio! I love the pictures, and it's beautiful there in the daylight, but I can't forget the fright we had, and I won't want to go there again for, oh, a LONG time!" said Rose.

"We've told you how dark and lonely it was," added Polly, "but you'd have to HEAR that armor clank to know how it sounded."

"I'm so deaf that some of the lesser noises would not have reached me, and really that is the only mercy I know of in being deaf," Aunt Lois said. "You've both been so completely frightened there, that I, too, think you would better not go there for some time. Indeed, I wish something very bright and cheery might occur that would turn your thoughts from the studio."

"Ye'll not let the children go there, but if I might make so bold as to advise ye, 'm, I'd ask ye ter let the portrait go an' stay away from there. The place is jist haunted, and the demons might get ye, even in daylight!" Nora had shrieked that Aunt Lois might hear.

"Nora! Nora! Not a word of demons or haunting! You well know that I do not approve of any such foolish notions," Aunt Lois replied.

Nora went back to the kitchen and there expressed her belief to the cook, that studio place was "just full of old spooks!"