Lucile Triumphant Part 22

Later came the call to luncheon, and everybody hurried down to the dining-room, where the atmosphere of excitement and unrest prevailed to such a degree that people almost forgot to eat, or else bolted their meals in half the ordinary time, anxious not to miss a moment above decks.

Then, toward one o'clock in the afternoon, Mrs. Payton advised the girls to get everything ready, and see that nothing was left in the stateroom.

"We will dock in a few minutes," she explained, "and we don't want to leave everything until the last instant."

Down rushed the girls to the stateroom obediently, treading on each other's heels and not even bothering to apologize, for what was so everyday a thing as politeness at such a time?

Jessie and Evelyn waited in undisguised impatience while Lucile fumblingly fitted the key into the lock with fingers that trembled rebelliously.

"Oh, for goodness' sake, let me have it!" said Jessie, in desperation.

"Hold on a minute; there it is!" And as the door swung open, they tumbled rather than walked into the room.

"Oh, bother! Where did I put my comb?" moaned Evelyn, searching wildly under the dresser for the missing article. "You might know it would disappear just when I haven't any time to look for it. Are you sure you're not sitting on it, Lucy?"

"Of course not," denied Lucile; "but if you don't get off my suitcase this minute, Jessie Sanderson, I'll know the reason why."

"Here's your comb, Evelyn! Catch!" said Jessie, throwing the missing article toward her friend. "If you would only keep it over on your side instead----"

"Oh, if you talk so much you will never be ready, Jessie! Do hurry!" And so on in this fashion until, finally, the last thing was ready and they tumbled up on deck again, only to be swallowed up by a jostling, gesticulating throng intent, apparently, on getting nowhere in particular, and doing it, withal, with a perseverance that was truly admirable.

"h.e.l.lo!" said Phil, elbowing his way through the crowd. "We dock in ten minutes. Just look at the harbor now;" and he was off again.

With difficulty they made their way to the rail and stood gazing at the scene with wondering eyes and parted lips. Craft of all sizes and descriptions plowed and snorted through the ruffled water, and everywhere was life and bustle and activity. And further back, past the lines of docks and warehouses, the girls could discern the spires and steeples of--England!

"Well," came Mr. Payton's gruff, hearty voice from just behind them, "how do you like your first glimpse of the Old World, eh? It won't be any time at all before you set foot upon it."

"Oh, Daddy, isn't it magnificent?" said Lucile, drawing a long breath.

"It all looks just exactly the way I dreamed it would, though. Oh, I can't wait!" and she leaned far over the rail, as if by that means to bring it so much the nearer.

Her father's strong hand drew her back to safety, and he said, reprovingly, "Don't do that again, Lucy. Accidents will happen, you know."

"Even in the best-regulated families," finished Lucile, gaily.

Her father laughed, and pinched the tip of one pink ear fondly. "I suppose there is no use trying to make any of you serious at such a time," he said, with the resigned air of one giving up all hope; "but there is one little phrase that it will be well for you to remember, and that is, 'Safety first.'"

And with that fatherly admonition he left them, bidding them wait where they were until he could rejoin them. In a few minutes he returned, bringing his wife and Phil, declaring that nothing now remained to be done but walk off the ship when the time came.

The great "Mauretania" was very near her destination now, and was nosing her way carefully through the traffic, convoyed by two snorting and puffing tugs. The raucous shouts and cries of sailors and watermen came to their ears, with now and then a s.n.a.t.c.h of song from the decks of some tall, four-masted freighter. There were shouts of "aye, aye, sir" and "ship, ahoy," mingled with the rasping of cables and the clatter of cargo cranes--and behind all this noise and confusion lay the quaint, historic streets of Liverpool, and later, London, filled with the glory of ancient times.

The girls' eyes were large and dark with wonder and excitement as they lowered their gla.s.ses and looked at each other.

"Yes, you are awake," said Mrs. Payton, with a laugh, interpreting the look.

"Jessie looks as though she had just seen a ghost," said Phil.

A few minutes later the great liner was warped securely alongside the great landing stage, while the whistle shrieked a noisy greeting.

Pa.s.sengers hurried from one group to another, shaking hands in a final farewell with shipboard acquaintances whom they had come to know so well in so short a time. Porters hurried past, laden with luggage, and groups of eager pa.s.sengers formed about the entrance to the gangways.

"I feel as though my hand had been shaken off," said Evelyn, regarding that very necessary appendage ruefully.

"Oh, there's Mrs. Applegate and Puss," said Lucile, and darted off through the crowd so suddenly that the girls could only follow her with their eyes.

"Lucile," cried Mrs. Payton, and then, as her voice would not carry above all the noise, "Go after her, Phil," she said. "If she gets separated from us now, we will have a hard time finding her."

Phil hurried off and was soon lost to sight in the swaying crowd.

"Oh, what did she do that for?" wailed Jessie. "If Lucy goes and gets lost now in all this crowd----"

"Don't worry; Phil will have her back in a jiffy," said Mr. Payton, soothingly, but the frown on his forehead betrayed his own anxiety.

The gangplanks were lowered, and the people had already begun to surge forward, and still no sign of either Lucile or Phil.

They eagerly searched the faces of the pa.s.sers-by, nodding to some, yet scarcely seeing them, while Mr. Payton began to mutter something about "tying a string to that cyclonic young flyaway" when he got her back again.

Five minutes pa.s.sed. The deck was beginning to be emptied of people, and they had begun to make their way slowly toward the gangplank, when Phil came rushing up to them, very red and very much out of breath.

"Well?" they cried together, and Mr. Payton took him by the shoulder, demanding, sternly, "Where is she?"

"Wouldn't it make you sick?" panted Phil, disgustedly. "Here I rush all over the boat trying to locate her, and get everybody scared to death, thinking she's fallen overboard or something, and then I find her down on the float there, talking to the----"

"What?" interrupted Mr. Payton, incredulously.

"Yes. Isn't it the limit?" said Phil, fanning himself with his hat. "Said she couldn't find her way back to you, so thought she'd wait with the Applegates at the foot of the gangplank; said she knew you would find her there."

The girls laughed hysterically, and even Mr. Payton's stern face relaxed; the action was so truly "Lucilian."

"Well, I suppose all we can do is to follow," said Mr. Payton, and Mrs.

Payton added, pathetically, "I do wish Lucile would be a trifle less impulsive now and then; it might save us a good deal of trouble."

Mr. Payton had felt inclined to read his "cyclonic" young daughter a lecture, but the sight of her bright young face completely disarmed him, and he could only breathe a prayer of thankfulness that she was safe.

They said good-by to Mr. and Mrs. Applegate and their very diminutive daughter--whom somebody had fondly nicknamed "Puss"--and turned to follow the crowd. A short time later they set foot for the first time on the soil of the Old World.

"Where are we going, Dad, now that we're here?" asked Phil.

"To London, as fast as we can, by the train that connects with our steamer," said his father. "Stick together, everybody--here we are," and he hustled them before him into the long coach--for in England, you must remember, trains are not made up of cars, but of "coaches."

By this time it was getting late, and after vainly trying to distinguish objects through streaked and misty gla.s.s, the girls gave up and leaned back with a sigh of tired but absolute content.

"Well, we're here, and still going," said Lucile, happily, feeling for her friend's hands.

"We jolly well know that, my de-ar," came in sweet, falsetto tones from Phil. "We ought to have no end of sport, you know; rippin', what-what!"

"Bally goose!" murmured Jessie.

The reproof that rose to Mrs. Payton's lips was drowned in a shout of laughter.