The Search Part 9

Suddenly, as far ahead as they could see, a car darted out of the wooded roadside, swung into their road and plunged ahead at a tremendous rate.

They had a glimpse of khaki uniforms, but it was much too far away to distinguish faces or forms. Nevertheless, both women fastened their eyes upon it with but one thought. Ruth put on more speed and forged ahead, thankful that she was not within city lines yet, and that there was no one about to remind her of the speed limit. Something told her that the man she was seeking was in that car ahead.

It was a thrilling race. Ruth said no word, but she knew that her companion was aware that she was chasing that car. Mrs. Cameron sat straight and tense as if it had been a race of life and death, her cheeks glowing and her eyes s.h.i.+ning. Ruth was grateful that she did not talk.

Some women would have talked incessantly.

The other car did not go in to Chester proper at all, but veered away into a branch road and Ruth followed, leaping over the road as if it had been a gray velvet ribbon. She did not seem to be gaining on the car; but it was encouraging that they could keep it still in sight. Then there came a sharp turn of the road and it was gone. They were pulsing along now at a tremendous rate. The girl had cast caution to the winds. She was hearing the complacent sneer of Harry Wainwright as he boasted how they would get John Cameron into trouble, and all the force of her strong young will was enlisted to frustrate his plans.

It was growing dusk, and lights leaped out on the munition factories all about them. Along the river other lights flashed and flickered in the white mist that rose like a wreath. But Ruth saw nothing of it all. She was straining her eyes for the little black speck of a car which she had been following and which now seemed to be swallowed up by the evening.

She had not relaxed her speed, and the miles were whirling by, and she had a growing consciousness that she might be pa.s.sing the object of her chase at any minute without knowing it. Presently they came to a junction of three roads, and she paused. On ahead the road was broad and empty save for a car coming towards them. Off to the right was a desolate way leading to a little cemetery. Down to the left a smooth wooded road wound into the darkness. There were sign boards up. Ruth leaned out and flashed a pocket torch on the board. "TO PINE TREE INN, 7 Miles" it read. Did she fancy it or was it really true that she could hear the distant sound of a car among the pines?

"I'm going down this way!" she said decidedly to her companion, as if her action needed an explanation, and she turned her car into the new road.

"But it's too late now," said Mrs. Cameron wistfully. "The train will be gone, of course, even from Wilmington. And you ought to be going home.

I'm very wrong to have let you come so far; and it's getting dark. Your folks will be worrying about you. That man will likely do his best to get him to camp in time."

"No," said Ruth decidedly, "there's no one at home to worry just now, and I often go about alone rather late. Besides, aren't we having a good time? We're going a little further anyway before we give up."

She began to wonder in her heart if she ought not to have told somebody else and taken Thomas along to help. It was rather a questionable thing for her to do, in the dusk of the evening--to women all alone. But then, she had Mrs. Cameron along and that made it perfectly respectable. But if she failed now, what else could she do? Her blood boiled hotly at the thought of letting Harry Wainwright succeed in his miserable plot. Oh, for cousin La Rue! He would have thought a way out of this. If everything else failed she would tell the whole story to Captain La Rue and beg him to exonerate John Cameron. But that, of course, she knew would be hard to do, there was so much red tape in the army, and there were so many unwritten laws that could not be set aside just for private individuals.

Still, there must be a way if she had to go herself to someone and tell what she had overheard. She set her pretty lips firmly and rode on at a brisk pace down the dark road, switching on her head lights to seem the way here in the woods. And then suddenly, just in time she jerked on the brake and came to a jarring stop, for ahead of her a big car was sprawled across the road, and there, rising hurriedly from a kneeling posture before the engine, in the full blaze of her headlights, blinking and frowning with anxiety, stood John Cameron!

X

The end of her chase came so unexpectedly that her wits were completely scattered. Now that she was face to face with the tall soldier she had nothing to say for her presence there. What would he think of her? How could she explain her coming? She had undertaken the whole thing in such haste that she had not planned ahead. Now she knew that from the start she had understood that she must not explain how she came to be possessed of any information concerning him. She felt a kind of responsible shame for her old playmate Harry Wainright, and a certain loyalty toward her own social set that prevented her from that, the only possible explanation that could make her coming justifiable. So, now in the brief interval before he had recognized them she must stage the next act, and she found herself unable to speak, her throat dry, her lips for the instant paralyzed. It was the jubilant little mother that stepped into the crisis and did the most natural thing in the world:

"John! Oh John! It's really you! We've caught you!" she cried, and the troubled young soldier peering into the dusk to discover if here was a vehicle he might presume to commandeer to help him out of his predicament lifted startled eyes to the two faces in the car and strode forward, abandoning with a clang the wrench with which he had been working on the car.

"Mother!" he said, a shade of deep anxiety in his voice. "What is the matter? How came you to be here?"

"Why, I came after you," she said laughing like a girl. "We're going to see that you get to camp in time. We've made pretty good time so far.

Jump in quick and we'll tell you the rest on the way. We mustn't waste time."

Cameron's startled gaze turned on Ruth now, and a great wonder and delight sprang up in his eyes. It was like the day when he went away on the train, only more so, and it brought a rich flush into Ruth's cheeks.

As she felt the hot waves she was glad that she was sitting behind the light.

"What! You?" he breathed wonderingly. "But this is too much! And after the way I treated you!"

His mother looked wonderingly from one to the other:

"Get in, John, quick. We mustn't lose a minute. Something might delay us later." It was plain she was deeply impressed with the necessity for the soldier not to be found wanting.

"Yes, please get in quickly, and let us start. Then we can talk!" said Ruth, casting an anxious glance toward the other car.

His hand went out to the door to open it, the wonder still s.h.i.+ning in his face, when a low murmur like a growl went up behind him.

Ruth looked up, and there in the full glare of the lights stood two burly civilians and a big soldier:

"Oh, I say!" drawled the soldier in no very pleasant tone, "you're not going to desert us that way! Not after Pa.s.s came out of his way for us! I didn't think you had a yellow streak!"

Cameron paused and a troubled look came into his face. He glanced at the empty back seat with a repression of his disappointment in the necessity.

"There's another fellow here that has to get back at the same time I do,"

he said looking at Ruth hesitatingly.

"Certainly. Ask him, of course." Ruth's voice was hearty and put the whole car at his disposal.

"There's room for you, too, Chalmers," he said with relief. "And Pa.s.smore will be glad to get rid of us I suspect. He'll be able to get home soon.

There isn't much the matter with that engine. If you do what I told you to that carburetor you'll find it will go all right. Come on, Chalmers.

We ought to hurry!"

"No thanks! I stick to my friends!" said the soldier shortly.

"As you please!" said Cameron stepping on the running board.

"Not as _you_ please!" said a gruff voice, "I'm running this party and we all go together? See?" A heavy hand came down upon Cameron's shoulder with a mighty grip.

Cameron landed a smas.h.i.+ng blow under the man's chin which sent him reeling and sprang inside as Ruth threw in the clutch and sent her car leaping forward. The two men in front were taken by surprise and barely got out of the way in time, but instantly recovered their senses and sprang after the car, the one nearest her reaching for the wheel.

Cameron, leaning forward, sent him rolling down the gully, and Ruth turned the car sharply to avoid the other car which was occupying as much of the road as possible, and left the third man scrambling to his knees behind her. It was taking a big chance to dash past that car in the narrow s.p.a.ce over rough ground, but Ruth was not conscious of anything but the necessity of getting away. In an instant they were back in the road and flas.h.i.+ng along through the dark.

"Mother, you better let me help you back here," said her son leaning forward and almost lifting his mother into the back seat, then stepping over to take her place beside Ruth.

"Better turn out your back lights!" he said in a quiet, steady voice.

"They might follow, you know. They're in an ugly mood. They've been drinking."

"Then the car isn't really out of commission?"

"Not seriously."

"We're not on the right road, did you know? This road goes to The Pine Tree Inn and Singleton!"

Cameron gave a low exclamation:

"Then they're headed for more liquor. I thought something was up."

"Is there a cross road back to the Pike?"

"I'm not sure. Probably. I know there is about three miles farther on, almost to the Inn. This is an awful mess to have got you into! I'd rather have been in the guard house than have this happen to you!"

"Please don't!" said Ruth earnestly. "It's an adventure! I'm enjoying it.

I'm not a doll to be kept in cotton wool!"

"I should say not!" said Cameron with deep admiration in his tone. "You haven't shown yourself much of a doll to-night. Some doll, to run a car the way you did in the face of all that. I'll tell you better what I think when we get out of this!"

"They are coming, I believe!" said Ruth glancing back. "Don't you see a light? Look!"

Mrs. Cameron was looking, too, through the little back window. Now she spoke quietly: