The Motor Maids by Rose, Shamrock and Thistle Part 20

"Look at the creature. If we move, he'll be at us. Oh, oh!" she groaned.

Even Billie's ingenious mind did not respond to the situation; especially since she saw three men with spiked poles, who had run up behind the great quivering beast, now pause irresolutely, seeing the party of tea drinkers.

Now, if they had been able to nerve themselves to sit perfectly still without so much as moving a muscle, it is highly probable the bull would have sniffed at them contemptuously and pa.s.sed them by. But, in the first place, not one of the five motorists was aware of this peculiarity of the bovine family, and, in the second place, seeing the beast toss his head with a low, angry bellow, it was impossible for human flesh to remain inert.

With wild cries, they got to their feet somehow, but there was no time to scatter as the bull charged into their midst and toppled them over like so many ten pins. It was a moment of such paralyzing terror, that what happened next was a sort of blur on their minds.

Billie remembered being tossed in the air and at the same moment hearing the crack of a pistol three times in quick succession. A most blissful period of unconsciousness followed this incident. Perhaps, when the bull had tossed her, she had not come down but was still floating above the heads of her friends, whose voices she could dimly hear a great way off.

"This is a bad day's work you've done, sir, and bad luck to you," said some one quite near.

Billie opened her eyes and tried to sit up, but her head seemed to be weighted with lead and there was a pain in her side.

Miss Campbell was kneeling beside her dabbing her face with a wet handkerchief. Elinor and Nancy were chafing her wrists, while Mary sat at her feet and gazed at her with the sorrowful expression of one who is looking upon the face of a dead friend.

"Nonsense," said another voice, and Billie, twisting her head, saw that it was Feargus O'Connor who spoke, "do you think I'm the man to stand by while a mad bull charges a party of ladies?"

Never had his Irish brogue been more distinct than at that moment.

"Ye might ha' winged him without killin' 'im dead. Five hundred pounds he were worth, and no less. A grand animal! What will His Grace say to this day's doin's, I wonder?"

"Whoever he is, if he has any manhood in his soul, he'll say I did right," cried Feargus with a laugh. "Are five ladies to be gored to death for the sake of a few pounds of beef? You English are all alike.

Afraid to call your souls your own; afraid to do right; afraid to save a life because of what some lord can do to you. You're a poor set of cringing peasants, that's what you are. Do you think I'm afraid of having defended five ladies against a mad bull? Bring on 'His Grace,'

whoever he is. I'll tell him so to his face."

Feargus had become very excited with the injustice of the men's views.

He gesticulated like a speech maker and his voice had an oratorical ring.

"And who, pray, is the owner of this dead creature?" demanded Miss Campbell, rising with dignity from her ministrations to Billie.

"The Duke of Kilkenty, ma'am."

"What," cried Feargus, "that low villain? The meanest man in three kingdoms, who has turned against his own people, robbed the widows and orphans of their lands and trodden on the poor? Now, by all the saints in heaven, I'm glad I killed his beast, and if I had it to do ten times over, I should do the same thing."

"Take this man and these women into custody," said a cold, calm voice.

"They are trespa.s.sers on my ground and I order them to be arrested."

Billie sat up without a.s.sistance. Anger and amazement stirred her blood into action, and she no longer felt the throbbing in her head or the pain in her side.

Standing nearby was a very tall man with a cold, insolent face.

Everything about him had a look of steel: his eyes were steel-gray, his clothes and hair, even his skin, had a touch of gray. His lips were thin and his nose like the beak of a bird of prey.

Now, when Miss Helen Campbell's blood was up, she was a match for any foe, no matter how formidable. She drew herself to her full height of some five feet two inches; bright spots of red burned on her cheeks and her eyes turned almost black.

"May I ask who you are and by what right you give this unjust order?"

she asked.

"I am the Duke of Kilkenty," answered the man sternly.

"Duke or no duke," exclaimed Miss Campbell, "you had better take back that order, or you will regret it to the last day of your life. We are not cringing peasantry and we are not cowards. We are Americans, thank G.o.d, and you'd better be careful how you deal with us. If this man killed a mad bull who was about to kill one of us, he did right, and there is not a court in England that would not uphold him in his action.

Are you going to place the life of a human being in the balance with the life of a dangerous beast? Take it to court and see how such a thing would sound. A creditable action for the Duke of Kilkenty to arrest a man for saving five lives!"

Miss Campbell was growing more angry every moment.

"As trespa.s.sers on my private grounds, you are all subject to arrest,"

said the Duke of Kilkenty, pointing to a signboard near the bars which they had not noticed before. It read:

"A FINE OF FIVE POUNDS WILL BE CHARGED AGAINST PERSONS FOUND TRESPa.s.sING ON THESE GROUNDS."

Miss Campbell turned to the Motor Maids, who had gathered about her as lieutenants around their chief officer.

"Bring me my hand bag," she ordered.

Mary Price, at her elbow, hastened with swift obedience to the motor, returning with the bag.

"Now," announced the redoubtable General Helen Eustace Campbell, searching in the depths of the bag, "we may consider the case as settled." She brought forth a five-pound note which she almost tossed at the Duke of Kilkenty. "It will give me great pleasure to tell in America that we were made to pay five pounds by an English duke--"

"Irish--" put in Feargus.

"For just escaping being gored to death by one of his own beasts."

The Duke of Kilkenty actually took the money and examined it carefully.

"I shall demand five pounds of each one of you," he said. "This is not enough, as you will see by the sign."

Again they turned toward the sign.

Miss Campbell was somewhat nonplussed. It seemed rather a stiff price to pay for having stepped across the bars into a meadow. But Mary Price, well up in English grammar and quick to notice shades of meaning, now stepped into the breach. She was trembling a little at her own boldness, but her voice, with its sweet high note, was clear and steady.

"Five pounds is the correct amount," she said. "The sign reads: 'A fine of five pounds will be charged against persons found trespa.s.sing on these grounds.' You should have said 'each person' if you meant to charge so much."

Mary's friends could have hugged her for this astute observation, and even the cold and bloodless Duke of Kilkenty showed a flicker of admiration.

"You are a very clever young woman," he said. "It's the first time in my life I have ever been outwitted by a woman, old or young. You may go free."

Miss Campbell tossed her head.

"Free, indeed! We are free. Free-born Americans," she thought.

"As for you, young man," continued the Duke, turning to Feargus, whose blue eyes were still blazing with rage. "Take yourself out of this neighborhood at once or it will be the worse for you."

Feargus gazed fearlessly into the man's eyes.

"Now, by all the saints, neither you nor any other man can order me out of this neighborhood for doing no wrong. I'll take myself off your grounds, and take pleasure in doing it. I would not have put foot to the soil here if I'd known who owned it. But as for leaving the neighborhood, I'll leave it when I get ready and no sooner, and I'm not afraid of the Duke of Kilkenty nor any other Irishman turned English."

All this time Billie had been trying to keep her balance. The fields seemed to be swimming around her and she had a dizzy feeling, as if her feet were going to rise over her head.

There was something she had to say when they had all finished talking.

What was it? She had almost forgotten. Oh, yes. Taking one uncertain step toward the Duke of Kilkenty, she looked inquiringly in his face.