The Motor Maids Across the Continent Part 30

"But my heart bleeds for that poor girl," she continued. "I wish I had the power to help her. Has the child no spirit that she permits herself to be forced into this unhappy marriage?"

"Would you really like to help Evelyn Stone if you had a chance, Cousin Helen?" asked Billie suddenly.

"I only wish I had the chance, dear," exclaimed the other charitably.

Billie gave the merest blink of a wink to Nancy and increased the Comet's speed to forty miles an hour.

It was long before seven o'clock, therefore, when they drew up at the Ogden railroad station. Only a few people were about at that early hour, but framed in the doorway of the waiting room stood a slender, girlish figure, dressed in gray, a gray veil wrapped closely around her hat and face.

Billie drew a deep breath.

"Cousin Helen, you've got the chance to help Evelyn Stone," she said, getting over the confusion as quickly as possible. "I asked her the other night to run away with us in the Comet, and she has accepted. Here she is."

There was not time for the astonished lady to reply; for the girl in gray, seeing the red car, rushed out, carrying her suitcase with her.

In another instant, she and her luggage were installed on the front seat with Nancy and a new Motor Maid was added to the Comet.

"Dear Miss Campbell," she said leaning back and taking the older woman's hand, "I can't tell you how happy I am. You are the kindest, the nicest, the best-" she continued incoherently, her voice choking with emotion.

"If I had had anyone else to go to-but I have no one except my father's sister, and she is not in sympathy with me. I thought of going somewhere by train, but where? The other time when I ran away I had decided to teach school, but it was very difficult to get a position, and when I found you knew Daniel and Billie asked me, I couldn't resist it. You will forgive me, won't you?"

Miss Campbell was not proof against the charms of the beautiful girl, and melted at once into her old delightful and agreeable self.

"My dear," she said, pressing the girl's hand, "it is a pleasure to add you to our party. I confess I'm afraid of your father, but I trust he has no idea you have run away with us."

"No, no, he hasn't. You see I left last night before he came up to his room. He thought I was asleep. I am certain he thinks I've gone East, because I bought a ticket to Chicago and took the midnight train. He has no way to know that I left the train at Ogden and he has no legal grounds for stopping me anyway, unless he trumps up something as he did before when I went off with the horse."

"He'd be quite capable of trumping up anything he could think of,"

thought Miss Campbell, but she said nothing and they did not allude to the subject again that day.

Evelyn Stone, free from the thraldom of her father and her unhappy engagement, was like a bird out of a cage. She was so happy that it was impossible to be sad in her presence. Although indirectly she had been the cause of their disgraceful departure from Salt Lake City, they were obliged to admit that she was a great addition to the party in their present strained state of nerves. When she finally unwound the long gray veil and disclosed her lovely face glowing with color, the Motor Maids and Miss Campbell felt that they would be willing to take almost any risk to do her a service.

The whole thing was like a strange dream at any rate. She was a beautiful princess flying from her old ogre of a father through country of surpa.s.sing loveliness; for nothing can exceed the beauty of the scenery around Ogden. However, they did not pause until they had left the country of the ogre well behind them and had pa.s.sed into the state of Nevada. The Comet covered one hundred and five miles that day and they slept that night at a small country hotel well on the other side of the border.

The next morning on the way to breakfast, Evelyn bought a newspaper at the desk.

"I knew I would find something," she said. "Listen to this: 'The wedding of Miss Evelyn Stone, only daughter of John James Stone of Salt Lake City, to Ebenezer Stone, bank president and owner of gold mines, has been postponed on account of the serious illness of the young woman. The ceremony was to have taken place to-day at twelve o'clock in the Annex of the Tabernacle. John James Stone has been called East on important business. His daughter is with her aunt at their country place, Granite Hills.'"

"Thank heavens, he's going East," observed Miss Campbell, "since we are going West."

Evelyn continued to search the paper anxiously.

"Poor Danny, I'm afraid there's no news about him," she said at last with a sigh.

"At least he'll be glad to know that the marriage didn't take place,"

suggested Elinor.

Once more Evelyn gave her radiant smile.

"To think that if it hadn't been for all of you-"

"Chiefly Billie-" put in Nancy.

"Yes, Billie, especially, I should have been this morning the most wretched about-to-be-bride that ever-"

She broke off suddenly and screened her face with the newspaper.

"Father and Ebenezer pa.s.sed by the door just then," she whispered. "Oh, what shall I do? I'm so afraid of bringing trouble on you, Miss Campbell. Perhaps I'd better give up. There's no use trying-" the poor girl began to sob miserably.

Now, there was a decidedly martial strain in the Campbell family which had produced soldiers and fighting men in war and politics for three generations in America and a dozen in Scotland, and two members of that ill.u.s.trious race at that moment began to hear the pibroch of the clan summoning them to battle. Two of the Campbell children exchanged glances of stern Campbell determination. Two descendants of Sir Roderick Campbell, ill.u.s.trious scion of a fighting race, bore suddenly a strong resemblance to his unflinching countenance as depicted in an old portrait in Miss Campbell's dining room.

Miss Campbell rose from the table. There was a dangerous light in her usually gentle eyes and she held her head well up.

"Boom, boom!" sounded the call to battle in her ears. The bagpipes of her ancestors were playing a wild strain. Down through the ages and across thousands of miles of land and water she could hear that martial air:

"The Campbells are coming, O-ho! O-ho!

The Campbells are coming, O-ho! O-ho!"

Then up rose the younger Campbell all booted and kilted for the fray.

"Evelyn," said the elder Campbell quietly, "are you a girl of any spirit and courage at all?"

"I hope so," exclaimed the poor girl, shrinking into her chair miserably.

But we must not blame her for her lack of courage. Remember, that she had been brought up by a man who was granite straight through to the heart.

"Well, now is the time to show it then, my child. We shall fight for you, the girls and I, and we will stand by you, but you must make some effort yourself. You cannot be made to marry if you don't want to, and there is no law that I know of that would require you to return against your will to your father. You are not a child."

Fortunately that morning the dining room was quite empty, and only a poor waitress saw the two armies lined up for battle. The opposing forces now entered. John James Stone and his relative, Ebenezer, marched quietly into the field, looking very formidable, it must be owned, with their white, expressionless faces and black clothes. General Helen Eustace Campbell and Captain Billie lead the other army, which marched gallantly out to meet them. The battle was a brief one.

"Evelyn, disobedient and wicked girl, how dare you mortify me as you have done?" began John James in a voice of thunder.

Evelyn shook with fear.

"And how dare you," exclaimed the intrepid Helen, "interrupt me and my guests at breakfast? This young woman, twenty years of age, has placed herself in my care. She declines to marry your relative and there is no law in this country by which you can force her to do so. She also declines your support and protection and there is no law which will force her to accept it if she does not wish. She is not a child."

"Madam, do you know who I am that you dare to interfere with me and my affairs?" cried the infuriated Mormon.

"I do," exclaimed Miss Campbell in a high, clear voice, folding her arms. "I know that you are a scoundrel and that you are willing to cheat and lie in order to obtain your ends. I am not afraid of you and I do not consider you of the least importance. Your daughter is at this moment my guest, and I refuse to have her annoyed."

The tall man and the little woman faced each other while the poor, craven bridegroom that was to have been, shrank back in amazement.

Then the most remarkable transformation took place on the face of Goliath, John James. He dropped his stone mask with a suddenness so abrupt that they almost imagined they heard it break as it fell to the floor. His brow cleared and he flashed a smile that had a faint glimmering of Evelyn's in the curve of the lips.

"Madam," he said, holding out his hand, "let us be friends. I admit that I am beaten and that I may say that I am not ashamed to be conquered by a woman of such spirit and courage. I only wish my daughter had as much."

Miss Helen put her small hand into his. She was too amazed for the moment to realize what she was doing.

"Come, Ebenezer."