Madge Morton's Secret Part 15

He tossed his s.h.a.ggy head, giving the signal to his company. The entire troop started on a wild gallop through the avenue of trees. Madge was directly in front of their charge.

Blind fear overtook her. She ran without seeing where she was going.

She knew she was about to be run down by a stampede of wild horses, and in her terror she stumbled, then fell headlong. She could hear the horses galloping straight on. There was no time for her to struggle to her feet. She lay face downward, expecting each moment to be trampled to death.

Phyllis took in the whole situation. From her safe vantage in the tree, even more certainly than Madge, she realized the fate that must soon overtake her chum.

Phil's tree was only a few yards from the place where Madge had fallen.

Without an instant's hesitation Phyllis Alden dropped to the ground.

She must have made one flying leap, for she landed in front of the little captain's prostrate body. If Madge were to be trampled to death, that fate should not come to her alone.

Phil had marvelous presence of mind. What she did she must have done by instinct. There was no time to think. She saw the flecks of white foam between the teeth of the horse that was leading the charge. As it bore down upon her Phyllis lifted up both arms. She gave a wild and unexpected shout, waving both arms frantically before the horse's face.

The horse paused for the fraction of a moment. Phil waved more violently than ever, shouting hoa.r.s.ely and in more commanding tones.

The horse was startled. He looked at Phil with his ears erect and his eyes restless. Then he deliberately swerved from the path that would have led straight over the bodies of the two girls, made a sweep to the right, and thundered on, followed by his drove of wild horses.

From her position, face downward on the ground, Madge had been acutely conscious of everything that had occurred. She seemed to have seen with her ears rather than her eyes. She knew that Phil had risked her own life to save hers, and that Phil's presence of mind had saved them both.

"It's all right, dear," remarked Phil coolly, when the horses had pa.s.sed out of sight. But the hand she reached out to Madge to help lift her from the ground was trembling.

Once she was on her feet the little captain caught tight hold of Phil's arm.

"It was real, wasn't it, Phil? We _did_ see a drove of wild horses dash by us?"

Phil nodded calmly. "It was much too real for a few seconds," she rejoined. "Now I understand the far-off noise of the tramping of many feet that we have heard before. These horses must always stay herded together. When they are weary of grazing they make these wild rushes.

How do you suppose they ever came on this island?"

Madge shook her head. She had no possible guess that she dared to make.

There is a story, which the girls heard long afterward, about this drove of wild horses, that even at the present time lives on an island not far from the Chesapeake Bay. Many years ago a Spanish family had their estate on this now deserted island. When they moved away they left their horses alone on the island. Forsaken by man, these horses returned to the wild, free state in which they lived before they were haltered, harnessed and trained by human beings to become their beasts of burden.

CHAPTER XV

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

It was late afternoon of the same day. The two girls had made their way across the greater part of the island without finding a human habitation or seeing another human being. What had become of the men that Phil had seen in the woods?

How far the girls had traveled they did not know. The way may have seemed long, because there were no paths and they were entirely unfamiliar with the country. But Madge and Phil had made up their minds that there was nothing else for them to do. They must spend the night in the woods. It was out of the question for them to attempt to recross the island before daylight. Perhaps on their way home the next day they might have better luck in discovering the aid they sought.

Though neither of them would have cared to confess it to the other, they were tired. They had been walking steadily since early morning, and they had carried what were, to them, heavy packs.

Phil had a light woven-gra.s.s hammock in her bundle that had once been swung across the deck of the "Merry Maid." Madge carried a light, rubber-proof blanket, which was their sole protection against rain. Of course, the girls divided the burden of the food supply for their two days' march.

At last, out of sheer weariness, they dropped their packs under a tree and sat down to rest. They had hoped to have the satisfaction of reaching the opposite side of the island before nightfall. They longed to know if land could be seen from that side, or if pa.s.sing ships could be hailed from the beach.

Madge's head was resting in Phil's lap when she heard a peculiar buzzing in her ears, which she thought must come from weariness. She sat up with a jerk.

"Don't stir," begged Phil. "You and I are too tired to move on now. I am sure I hear the noise of the ocean. We can't be very far from a beach. Surely, surely, we will find something, or somebody, on this sh.o.r.e."

Madge lay down again and for a few minutes neither girl spoke.

Phyllis was thinking of home. She was also wondering what young Lieutenant Lawton must have thought of her disappearance with his box.

The mysterious box was in the bottom of her trunk in their lodge in the woods. What a time she had had, dragging the trunk ash.o.r.e, and then, piece by piece, carrying its contents to the lodge! Phil laughed. If Jimmy Lawton wanted his box kept safe, he had certainly given it to the right person. But if he happened to need the contents on land, at the present time, he would have to cry for it.

Phil gave Madge a little shake. "Come on," she commanded. "I have an idea that we had better go to the beach. I can't wait another second. I somehow feel as though we would find friends there. I can't believe that we are the only persons on this island."

Phil's hopefulness was inspiring. Madge sprang to her feet and the two girls hurried ahead, leaving their bundles under the tree.

The booming of the surf soon smote their ears, then the welcome splash and murmur of the waves. Like two little girls, Madge and Phil joined hands and ran down to the open sh.o.r.e.

Far and wide was a waste of water and a pebbly beach. It was lonely, far lonelier than their own sh.o.r.e. The "Merry Maid," riding out on the waves near the spot where they had first found refuge, had given their sh.o.r.e almost a homelikeness.

This beach was dreadful! Besides, it was getting so late. Phil's black eyes suddenly brimmed with tears of disappointment. Madge slipped her arm in Phil's and the two forlorn girls walked up and down the sh.o.r.e, looking in every possible direction for some sign of life.

A fish-hawk rose suddenly from the waves and wheeled over their heads.

It uttered a hoa.r.s.e cry of fright and dropped a good sized fish at the girls' feet. The fish had been too large for the bird to carry.

Madge picked up the fish, which had just been freshly caught out of the sea. "Phil," she said, smiling bravely, "if we are deserted by human beings, we are being fed from Heaven. Let us cook this for our supper.

Come, let us go back to the woods, swing our hammock and prepare to make a night of it."

"Let's look just a little farther along," Phyllis begged.

The girls went a quarter of a mile farther up the silent sh.o.r.e, then turned into the woods.

Madge, who was a few rods in advance, gave a sharp cry of surprise.

There, ahead of her, appeared most unexpectedly a small house, not a great deal larger than their own lodge. But it was very differently built. The door of this house had great bars across it; the windows were securely fastened. The walls were fortified with heavy beams of wood. The house looked deserted. Yet in front of the barred door stood a bucket of fresh water and an ax lay on the ground, with some chips of freshly hewn wood near it. Also the girls noticed that the way up to the door had lately been trodden by heavy feet.

Without asking anybody's permission the girls drank long and deeply of the fresh water. Then they knocked on the fast-locked door. There was no answer. They banged again. Madge tried to shake the door. A heavy chain rattled on the inside.

"The house must be empty, Phil," she suggested. "The men you saw must have been here and gone away again. Perhaps they will be back soon. We had better return in the morning to see."

Phil gave a farewell shake to the door.

A voice called out unexpectedly: "Stop shaking that door and come in.

What is the use of your trifling with me? Have you lost the key, so that you can't get in? It would be good of you to leave me here to starve."

Madge and Phil felt their knees shaking in sudden terror.

"We are strangers; we haven't the key to your house," answered Phil.

"We wished to ask you for help."

A dreary laugh answered the girls. "You must be joking," the voice said. "But if you are human, you will help me get out of this hole. I have been imprisoned for I don't know how long. Oh, it is a long story.

Once I am out, I can explain everything to you. I promise not to harm you."