The Red Signal (Grace Livingston Hill Book) (16 page)
Read The Red Signal (Grace Livingston Hill Book) Online
Authors: Grace Livingston Hill
Mrs. Schwarz grew suddenly white and reeled toward her chair with a clutching hand outstretched to the back.
“It iss the truth!” she cried broken. “She iss nod here! She has runned away! She vas a pad girl und vould nod stay!”
“You can't expect us to believe that, Mrs. Schwarz!”
“But it iss the truth! She runned avay this early morning and shumped on de drain ven it vas already started. She leaf a letter on de table! She haf gone to her mudder!”
“Where is the note?” demanded the young man.
Mrs. Schwarz, with a fearful glance toward the garden to see if any of the men were watching, tottered toward the door and presently came out with the letter.
“Tague id und go pefore my husband cumes bag!” she implored. “He iss very ankry. He vill haf kill me for it showing to you.”
The young man glanced through the paper and turned to Hilda's mother:
“Mrs. Lessing, is that your daughter's writing?”
Mrs. Lessing took the letter with trembling fingers, while Karl eagerly peered over his mother's shoulder:
“Sure! That's Hilda's writing!” declared the boy before his mother could collect her shaken senses to read it.
“Yes! It is Hilda’s,” she declared a moment later. “Oh, where do you suppose she has gone? She didn't have any money. Unless, perhaps, you paid her; did you, Mrs. Schwarz?”
“Ach! No! I never haf money und Schwarz. say she vas nod vorth id.”
“Well, take this, Mrs. Schwarz, and don't say any-thing about our visit to your husband. Then he can't make you any trouble. We're going away now, and he needn't know we have been here,” said the young engineer, putting his hand in his pocket and handing out some money.
She gazed at the ten dollar note he had given her in utter amazement and then eyed him suspiciously. That was a big sum of money for an engineer to hand out recklessly all at once like that. But money seldom came her way and she grappled it to her with a swift, ingathering movement and absorbed it in her ample bosom, murmuring:
“Ach! Vell!”
Then, with a frightened glance about to see if she were being watched by the men, she toppled into the house and shut the door.
The young man honed with a half laugh and shrug to the distressed mother:
“Mrs. Lessing, I think it would be 'Wise for us to beat it! Will you accept the hospitality of a freight train to the city, or would you prefer to wait at the station for a passenger coach? I'm afraid you might have quite a wait for the afternoon train, and that station isn't very comfortable. Besides, I can't keep my train waiting any longer and I would like to talk to you. I know your daughter just a little and I will do my best to help you find her.”
“You are very kind,” murmured the bewildered woman. “I don't want to put you to any trouble, but I don't know what to do. If Hilda has gone back home, perhaps I ought to follow her to Chicago.”
“H’m! That's an idea! I must find out which train she took and we can easily trace her and catch her by wire. Son, you take your mother down across the field to that freight train you see. Go just as straight and as quick as you can, and I'll be with you in three jerks of a lamb's tail. Understand?”
Karl nodded like a soldier taking orders from a beloved officer and taking his mother in tow with a firm young hand piloted her over the field toward the fence while the young man strode across the porch and sought information of the vanished Mrs. Schwarz. A moment more and he was skimming over the field himself in long bounds, reaching the fence in time to help the lady over, and fairly carrying her up the bank to the train. She hesitated and gave a troubled look at the long line of freight cars.
“I'm sorry it isn't any better,” he said dubiously, but it's the best I can do for accommodations at present, and we really ought to hurry to the next station where we can wire your daughter as soon as possible. It seems she got on the train going east, and she likely will land in Philadelphia. I think we can catch the train by wire at West Philly. I'm behind time, but I'll try to make up if you don't mind sitting on a box in an empty car for a few minutes. I'll just swing you up and then get ahead to my engine as quick as I can. After a bit I’ll get a chance to come back and tell you about things.”
Heinrich, watching behind his powder house, saw the train begin to move again and drew a long sigh of relief. Thanks to the thick growth of elderberry, lie had not seen the strange passengers nor the manoeuvers of the engineer. After the train had crossed the bridge and vanished out of sight, he went to the house and hunted up Mrs. Schwarz.
“Did you see what was the matter with that freight train stopping?” he asked her.
“No, I been to zleep!” she responded with a grouchy yawn, and Heinrich departed to hunt up the other men.
The freight train rumbled its way to the next station and its unexpected passengers sat on two boxes and looked at one another.
“It's all very strange,” said Mrs. Lessing. “How do I know that this young man is all right? How do I know where he is taking us? And what does he know of Hilda? Perhaps be is in league with these people. I cannot understand what your Uncle Otto could mean. There must be some mistake.”
The tears blurred into her pretty, tired eyes.
“Don't you worry, mother! That engineer's all right. He had a letter in his pocket from our Hilda. I saw it when we were out back of the house. He said he was worried about her himself. Trust me mother. I know a man when I see him.”
Karl was sitting up very straight with importance and excitement, holding the little red scarf clasped tightly between his hands, and looking out eagerly on the passing landscape. To think that he should get to ride in a freight train like this! It was unbelievable delight! Perhaps, when the young man came back he would take him up and show him the engine, or maybe let him ride in it with him. His very finger tips tingled with the daring thought.
The mother smiled through her tears.
“Yes, dear, but you might be mistaken. And. how in the world would a young man, an engineers have a letter from Hilda? Why, she doesn't know any young men, and she wouldn't even talk to a stranger -----our Hilda! She knows better. No, dear, I'm afraid something is wrong. I believe we had better get off when this train stops again and just slip away. We can telegraph Uncle Otto and ask him what to do.”
“Not on your life, mother! Don't you do that! Uncle Otto would be mad as a hatter that we left his old asylum. Just you stick by this guy for a while and see. He knows what he's about and you can't tell but Hilda has met him, all right. Anyway, what's being strange when he's nice? Why, he's simply great, mother! He lifted me right up on his shoulders to the second-story window, so I could get this scarf and Hilda's handkerchief. And, say, mother, there's something awful queer about that place! There was a big hole in the ground with an iron lid, under the plants, and we dug up some plants and looked in. I guess he thought maybe they had Hilda hid down there. He went down into a kind of a cellar with a ladder, but she wasn't there, of course, and then he covered it all up and put the plants back again. He looked kind of funny when he came up and he told me to be real still. I mean to ask him what he saw down there when he comes again. Maybe there was some bombs down there. Maybe that Mrs. Schwarz is a German spy!
“Nonsense, child! What queer notions you do get. Your father always said that was a newspaper lie. He said there were no German spies.”
“Weil, maybe he didn't know,” suggested the son shyly.
The mother cast an anxious glance ahead. She was scarcely listening. The long train rumbled itself up to a station and stopped. The freight car where the two passengers sat was high and dry above a steep embankment. Mrs. Lessing stood poised in the open doorway studying the distance to the ground and trying to make up her mind to get out when the young engineer came flying up to the door.
“Now, Mrs. Lessing,” he said cheerfully. “I've wired Philly, and I've found out that that train will be in Broad Street Station in half an hour. I've given directions to have the conductor at the phone when I pull into my next stop, so I can talk to him. Then we'll know what we are about. Meantime, I hope you haven't been too uncomfortable. I've sent one of the men back to the caboose for some cushions, and I've got my raincoat up here in the engine to spread over it. I think we can make you a more comfortable place than that box to rest. You can lie down if you like. And then if you'll let the kid come up in the cab with me show him a thing or two about engines. My name is Stevens, Dan Stevens, and I met your daughter down at the Junction by accident the day she arrived. I had the honor of pulling her away from before an express train, and naturally we found out each other's names. The other day she returned the service by telephoning me just in the nick of time about a plot she had found out to blow up a bridge and wreck my train, so you see we're rather well acquainted, although we've never seen each other but once.”
“Oh!” gasped the mother. “How perfectly dreadful And now she's gone! And no telling what other terrible thing has happened to her!”
“Don't worry, Mrs. Lessing. She has a level head, and she'll turn out all right. We'll soon be on the track of her. I suspect she had to run away from those people. There's pretty good evidence that they are German spies!”
“Spies! Oh, no! How dreadful! How could that be? My brother-in-law said they were good friends of his!”
“Well, I suspect a good many of us are liable to discover that we don't know all about our friends in these days. But, anyway, don't worry, Mrs. Lessing. Here come the cushions. You just lie down a bit, and I’ll take the kid up front with me.”
At the next stop it was discovered through telephone conversation with the Philadelphia conductor that a young girl had boarded the train at Platt's Crossing, but had disappeared at West Philadelphia, and no one seemed to know when she got off. The young man rushed back to reassure the mother that her daughter was probably safe and sound in Philadelphia; and to tell her that he had just been talking to his own father in. that city, who had promised to use all possible means to locate Hilda at once.
Mrs. Lessing shed a few quiet tears as the train went on its lumbering way once more, but her growing confidence in the young engineer enabled her to be on the whole quite calm, and when her son. came scrambling back to her at another stop with a glowing account of his wonderful ride on the engine she began to take a more cheerful view of things. After all, if Hilda were in Philadelphia, it would be a good place for them all to stay and begin a new life together.
Arrived in Philadelphia at last, the young man came for them, neatly dressed now, without his overalls and greasy cap, and looking like any handsome young man. He had a studied air of cheerfulness about him, but one who knew him well would have read the little pucker between his eyes as betokening anxiety. He escorted Mrs. Lessing into the station to freshen up her toilet after the rough journey, and betook himself to the telephone booth. Ten minutes later he met her once more in the waiting room, still with that studied air of cheerfulness.
“We haven't got on the right track yet,” he said, “but I think we will soon. Father has wired all the trains going toward Chicago that left West Philadelphia after she reached there, but she does not appear to be on board any of them. However, that is nothing. She may have thought best to stop overnight and rest; or wire you in the west before starting. If you will give me your former address that may help some. Also I would like a description of what she would probably wear, although as she may have left in a hurry, that might not be a guide. You don't happen to have her photograph, do you? Good! That will help! And, by the way, our road detective is on Schwarz's track. Before midnight he will know just where he has been this afternoon and whether he was trying to trace her and bring her back. You see she did some rather important detective work for the road and her country yesterday, and if Schwarz suspects that he may try to catch her and hide her; but we shall soon find him out, so there is nothing to worry about. Now, Mrs. Lessing, unless you have friends in Philadelphia with whom you prefer to stay, I would be very glad to have you come home with me. My mother will, I know, make you welcome, and doubly so when she knows that your daughter saved my life yesterday.”
And so, amid the poor woman's protests and hesitations, and the eager pleading of the boy to go, young Daniel Stevens, Jr., led his guests away to a taxi and they were soon on their way to his father's house.
WHEN Hilda had finished telling her story the men plied her with questions. Did she see a wireless anywhere about? What did the inside of that barn look like? What sort of wires had she spoken of as being stretched on the barn walls and how were they arranged? Just how did the man look who came in an aeroplane and how many times did he come?
When she described him the men nodded to one another.
“I guess it's the same chap. He must be in charge of the whole ring in this part of the country.”
In the midst of it all the orderly entered with a great silver tray on which were all manner of good things to eat, beginning with soup and fried chicken and ending with ice cream and coffee. The tray was arranged on a little table and. the men had the courtesy to withdraw to the other end of the room and consult while Hilda ate her supper.
Such a good supper! Delicacies that she had seldom seen, and plenty of everything. Even the war bread was delicious, and from her long fasting tasted doubly so. Right in the middle of it, before she had even tasted the ice-cream, she remembered the suitcase and, jumping up, she ran over with it to the chief.
“I forgot all about this!” she said eagerly, “and it's perhaps the most important thing of all.” She set the suitcase down in their midst and told the story of how she stole it and got away on the train with it.
“Well, you certainly are some nervy little girl,” said one of the officers, as he watched her sensitive face light up with her story. “Now, what do you expect to find in that suitcase?”
The chief reached over to take it.
“If it contains all the evidence the night visitor suggested it will be the biggest find we've had in this war, Miss Lessing,” he said with his courteous smile.
So Hilda stood by, forgetful of her melting cream, while they broke the lock and examined the contents carefully.
There was little inside that told her anything. Papers with writing and drawings, of whose importance she could only judge by the look on the faces of the officers and their low exclamations as they passed the papers from one to the other.
She slipped back to her dinner after a little and watched them from afar as they read, examined and commented in low tones. She saw that they were disappointed about something. Had they not after all found what they wanted? Suddenly she remembered. The lining! Some of the important papers were sewed up in the lining!
She slipped over to the men again.
“Won't you please look inside the lining?” she said timidly. “That man said some of the most important things were there. He said the suitcase was especially made for the purpose, and that it must be delivered to the captain of the submarine by next Wednesday night. Those were his words.”
The chief picked up the empty suitcase again and they all clustered about him and began to examine it. Carefully they cut away the lining and disclosed some more very thin papers. Gravely the chief examined them and passed them to the others with a knowing look and then sat back and looked at Hilda:
“My clear young lady,” he said earnestly, “I have the honor to inform you that you have performed one of the greatest possible services for your country. These papers give the key to our enemies' plans and will enable us to frustrate them. Without these we might have gone on for months helplessly in the dark. You need have no fear; your information shall certainly be placed in the hands of the President, and I have no doubt he will see you himself and let you know what he thinks of your bravery and patriotism. Your promptness has saved many lives and much property, and may be a key to the ending of this terrible war. And now, I know you must be weary after your long, exciting day, but there are just two or three questions I would like to ask before you go.”
Hilda's heart began to sink. Where was she to go? But then, she had money. She could go to a hotel. She would ask this courteous soldier where was a safe place. She gave her attention to his questions.
“Will you tell me once more about your telephoning to the Junction? To whom did you telephone? Daniel Stevens, an engineer? A friend of yours? I see. He had saved your life and you wanted to return the favor. Do you know where this Daniel Stevens lives and what his route is? I wonder if we could reach him by phone to-night? I suppose the railroad department can look that up for us. Better do it at once. Now, what was it? Daniel Stevens, No. 5 Freight ----”
“Excuse me, Captain,” spoke up one of the officers. “That couldn't by any possibility be D. K. Stevens's son, could it? You know he is doing practical work on the road preparatory to going to France in charge of a company.”
“Oh, not likely,” said the chief.
But Hilda was fumbling in her pocket and bringing out a letter from which she extracted a small visiting card.
“This is his mother's address,” she said quietly. “He wrote this note to me and sent it by a little boy with some money and a pass. He said if I ever needed a friend I was to go to his mother, but I think that's in Philadelphia. Perhaps you ought to read the letter,” and she surrendered her precious letter to the astonished gaze of an interested public.
One of the officers picked up the white card.
“Well, that's who it is!” he exclaimed. “Dan Stevens! You better get him on the 'phone, Captain!”
"Yes. Get him on the 'phone at once!” said the Captain, looking up with startled eyes. “Don't waste a minute. If he isn't there, perhaps his father is. I want to talk to him. This puts a new phase on the Whole matter! D.K. Stevens's son!”
Hilda settled back in her chair again, a sudden weariness and faintness coming over her. Something in the tone of the men and the way they spoke of this Dan Stevens made her feel infinitely removed from him. After all, her work was done, and it was time now for her to drop out of things and find a spot in the world for herself—this big, weary world that somehow didn't need her!
She put her head back against the chair and closed her eyes while the men were talking. She knew that the secretary had gone to the telephone in the little booth behind the desk and that presently they would somehow be in touch with the young engineer. Then her responsibility would be at an end. Probably she would never see him again. It gave her heart a heavy tug to realize that. Well, never mind! He was not of her world, anyway. He had been kind, and made her life a little more bearable during those awful days at the truck farm; and she could remember him that way, and keep his letter to help out the pleasant memory--that is, if they gave her letter back. They might need it for evidence. Well, he had saved her life and she had been able to save his, and so they were even! Now she must set about getting into communication with her mother!
She opened her eyes suddenly and realized that the Chief was standing by her chair and addressing her:
“My clear young lady, I am afraid that in the excitement of the occasion we have been most neglectful of you. You are very weary, of course. You must go at once to your rest. Have you any ----”
But Hilda interrupted him gravely:
“I was just going to ask you if there was any plain, cheap place not far away where I could stay to-night? In the morning I must start back and try to find my mother.”
“Why, certainly, certainly; we'll find a suitable place for you. And it may be that we shall have to ask you to stay here several days. We may need you for evidence, you know. This is a very important matter, affecting the country's best interests. We must keep in touch with you until everything is perfectly plain. Meantime, I shall find a comfortable place for you to stay and a suitable companion. You will be the guest of the Government, of course. You do not need to worry about the price. But excuse me just a moment. They have my number on the 'phone!”
Hilda sat back again too bewildered to think, half frightened at the prospect. She had never dreamed that her duty would detain her longer than to tell her story. The tears were brimming near the surface, and for one awful moment a lump in her throat threatened to overwhelm her, but she conquered it as she sat white-lipped and tried to get control of herself. Of course, if she was needed she must stay, and perhaps it was right they should pay her necessary expenses as long as they needed her. Meantime, of course, she could telegraph to her mother, and find out what she ought to do. But how could she stay in a great city without more suitable clothing? She looked down at herself in her little brown working gingham, and her hand went instinctively up to the improvised hat, which, all unknown to her, looked very sweet and pretty on her shapely crown of hair, with its little rumpled waves and curls slipping loose about her tired face. To the young men who watched her furtively she seemed a pleasant picture.
There was, however, deep distress in her eyes when the Chief hurried back a few minutes later, and she began to speak at once.
“Excuse me,” she said, “you have been very kind, but I don't believe I can stay any longer than to-morrow morning. Couldn't I tell you all that is necessary now and then go? You see, I haven't anything with me. I had to run away just as I was, in my working clothes, and I dropped my hat and coat on the way to the train and couldn't stop to pick them up because Mr. Schwarz was almost up to me. I had to pin my apron together into a hat to wear on the train.”
She touched her brown denim hat with a laughing apology. The eyes of the officers went to the innocent-look cap in astonishment. There was nothing to suggest an apron in that shapely little crown. It seemed to them that any pretty woman might have worn it to advantage.
“You see, I couldn't bring any of my own things along because I had at the last minute to leave my suitcase in place of the other one, so they wouldn't discover theirs was gone. Mr. Schwarz was to take it to ‘Adolph,’ whoever he is, on the noon train, and I suppose he may have taken mine; so I'm not likely to get hold of my own things again if he carries out his program and gives it to the captain of the submarine on Wednesday night.”
“Why, what's that? You don't say!” said the Chief sitting clown again. “I forgot all about that submarine business and ‘Adolph.’ You say they have your suitcase? Well, that's interesting. That gives us another clue. I wonder if you could tell me just what was in that case?”
There ensued another conference in which Hilda gave a complete list of what was in her own suitcase, and told in detail once more the story of the bridge plot and how she put a stop to it. This time she told about the paper on the ground containing the list of names and how she had got possession of it by means of toothpaste and her ink bottle. Her audience was so much interested in the story and her cleverness, and above all in the little paper which she produced, that they congratulated her again and again upon what she had done. She almost forgot her weariness, and her perplexity about where she was to spend the night, until suddenly the Chief remembered and exclaimed: “Here we are keeping on at business again when you ought to have been resting long ago. By the way, Mr. Stevens just told me that he has been trying all the evening to trace you. His son phoned about your disappearance. It seems you hung a signal in your window before you left, did you?”
The color flamed into Hilda's white cheeks.
“Yes,” she nodded. “I hung out my little red scarf. He told me to put something red in the window if I got into any trouble.”
“Well, Dan Stevens saw it and went to investigate. They traced you to West Philadelphia, but lost track there.”
Hilda's eyes shone. To think that he had seen her signal and stopped his train! It was too wonderful! How kind and good he must be! Of course, that was not surprising now that she had discovered he belonged to a great family—and yet, wasn't it even more surprising when one thought it out? That a man of consequence should stop to think of a little working girl in whom, of course, he could have no interest save a passing one?
The telephone bell interrupted her thoughts, for the secretary who answered it came out of the booth immediately saying:
“Mr. Daniel Stevens, Jr., wishes to speak to Miss Lessing.”
Hilda grew suddenly cold and hot all over to hear the formal announcement. It seemed to put the young engineer so far away above her and make it such a solemn affair calling her “Miss Lessing.” He had never called her that before. Why, at the Junction he had addressed her as “Kid” and given her a homey, little-girl feeling that put her at her ease. With faltering footsteps she entered the booth and closed the door, saying “Hello” in such a weak little frightened voice that she had to repeat it before it was heard. But then came the hearty voice of her own friendly engineer over the phone:
“Thank goodness! Then its really you, Hilda Lessing, is it? We certainly have had some hunt. You nervy little kid, you, what have you been doing? Turning detective on your own account and beating the Secret Service to it? Well, I'm proud of you, but I am mighty glad I've found you at last, for we've had all kinds of a scare about you. Your mother came on to see you, you know.”
“My mother!” gasped Hilda with delight and relief. “Oh, where is she?”
“She's right here beside me, and she's going to talk to you in a minute, but first I want to tell you something. When I got home just now I found that my mother was gone to Washington on a short trip, so I got her on the phone at once, and she's coming after you right away and going to take you to her hotel with her. You stay right where you are! till she gets there; because she won't know you otherwise, and we don't want to lose you again, you know. 'We've had all kinds of a time finding you.”
“Oh, but I couldn't go to a fine hotel!” gasped Hilda. “I've only my working dress! And I lost my hat and coat running for the train. I'm really not fit----”
“Oh! that doesn't make any difference,” came the hearty response. “My mother'll fix you all up. She'll love to do it. You just tell her all about it. She's a peach of a mother, and she loves girls. My sister died when she was a baby, and mother has always wanted a. daughter. She'll just be tickled to death to get hold of you. You'll love her, I know, for she's simply great! I know, for I'm a good judge of mothers. You've got a mighty fine one yourself, and now she wants to talk to you.”