Madge Morton's Secret Part 16

"Why do you wish to get out?" demanded Madge, trying to gain time until she could master her amazement.

The voice inside laughed less hoa.r.s.ely. "Oh, I want to get out to breathe, to get away from this beastly hole and to attend to my own affairs. I could go on giving you reasons all night. But please hurry.

Batter down the door! I don't see how the house has ever happened to be left unguarded so long. You are young boys, I suppose. Your voices sound like it. If you'll let me out, I'll do anything in the world for you," continued the prisoner, "only, make haste!"

"What shall we do?" whispered Phil.

"I don't know," returned Madge. "I am afraid there is a crazy person shut up in this house. Perhaps the men you saw were his keepers."

"But he talks as though he were sane," argued Phil.

"Crazy people often do," retorted Madge. "I've read _that_!"

"Madge, let's open the door," entreated Phil. "The voice doesn't sound as if the man were crazy. Think how dreadful if some one is really shut up here on this deserted island against his will!"

Madge hesitated. "It will be dreadfully foolish of us, Phil, to open the door. There is no telling what trouble we may bring on ourselves."

"For the love of Heaven, please open the door. I swear to you that there is no reason in the world why I should be kept imprisoned here.

If you will only help me to get away, I can prove it to you." This time the voice pleaded desperately.

Phil seized the ax. "We can run for our lives once the door is open. I believe we have been sent to save this person."

"All right, Phil. I won't turn coward unless you do." Madge picked up a sharp stick to pry under the door.

Phil had struck her first blow when Madge, whose ears were open to every sound, cried sharply: "Stop! There is some one coming. Do let's run!"

Phil dropped her axe as softly as possible. Then she and Madge took to their heels. They ran through the thicket of trees, back behind a dense growth of underbrush. They had never run so fleetly or so silently before. A single glance had revealed the figures of two men approaching the prison-house from the beach. Not for worlds would the girls have been discovered hammering at their door. They had crossed the island to ask for succor. They needed friends. Suppose these men had seen them trying to break into their house? They might have been taken for common thieves. Madge and Phil were quick to repent of their foolishness. They had not come forth on their long pilgrimage to save a man locked up in a hut; they had come to find aid for Miss Jenny Ann and the other girls.

It was almost dark when they made their way back to their packs, which they had left under a tree. They made a fire, fried their fish, and ate their supper.

Then they swung their hammock in the branches of a great, low-armed sycamore tree. Neither was afraid, though the night was dark and they were far from their lodge, which to-night seemed like home. They were too weary to lie awake. By the time the stars were out they had crawled into their hammock together and covered themselves with their blanket.

All night long they slept serenely, the good fairies keeping watch over them.

CHAPTER XVI

THE DISAPPOINTED KNIGHTS

Not long after daylight the two girls were out of their hammock bed.

But they waited until a reasonable hour before they approached the house in the woods to ask for a.s.sistance. Then they walked back to the place cautiously and quietly. To their relief they saw an old gypsy woman stirring something in a pot by an open fire. A young boy was busily cleaning some fish.

The explorers walked directly up to the boy, who did not turn or take the slightest interest in their approach. But when Phyllis touched him on the arm he whirled about, dropped his fishing knife, and gave a queer, guttural call.

The old gypsy woman came toward Madge and Phil, looking alarmed, but brandishing a long stick.

"I don't wonder you are surprised," apologized Phil. "But, really, we are not ghosts; we are human beings. We have been shipwrecked on this island for two weeks and you are the first human beings we have seen.

Can you tell us how we can get away?"

Still the boy stared and the gypsy woman made menacing gestures. The boy was about sixteen. He had handsome features and wavy black hair, but a strange, half-stupid expression.

"Why don't one of you speak?" demanded Madge in her impatient fashion.

"We wish to know who lives in that house over there? Go and tell them we wish to speak to them."

The boy put his fingers on his lips, moving his hand curiously in the air. Then the girls understood. The gypsy boy was deaf and dumb.

It was vexatious to have struggled across the whole island, to have been nearly trampled to death by a drove of wild horses, only to discover a crazy person shut up in an old house, a deaf and dumb boy and a stupid old woman keeping guard.

Madge's sense of humor came to their rescue. She threw back her head and laughed. As her merry laugh rang out the back door of the house was burst suddenly open. A savage-looking man dashed out. "Who's there?" he demanded angrily. "I thought I heard strange voices."

The man ran down the few steps that led to the yard, staring at the newcomers as though he had seen an apparition.

Phyllis bowed to the man politely. Madge smiled at him with engaging frankness. But he paid no attention to their friendly overtures. He raged, stormed and talked to himself. Neither would he listen to Madge's explanation of their appearance.

"Won't you please be good enough to tell us how we can get away from this island?" Madge finally demanded in desperation. "We are very anxious to get back to the mainland, so that we can let our friends know where we are."

"I'll tell you how you can get away from this house in double-quick time. Be off with you!" roared the man. "What do you mean by turning up here and scaring a man out of his wits? We thought this island didn't have a soul on it but us."

"What are you doing here?" asked Phil quietly.

The man turned red and stammered. He was too stupid to think of a prompt answer.

At this moment a man who had all the appearance of a gentleman appeared at one side of the house. He bowed pleasantly to Madge and Phil, but did not try to conceal his amazement at seeing them.

The girls were equally nonplussed. They certainly had not been prepared to meet a gentleman in this oddly a.s.sorted company.

"I overheard your story," he remarked pleasantly. "You will forgive the surprise of my servants at your unexpected presence. We presumed we were alone on the island. It is supposed to be entirely uninhabited, except in the hunting season. The place is so desolate that I brought this gypsy lad and his mother over to look after my man and me. I am sorry that I can not offer you any a.s.sistance in returning to your homes at present. My boat brought me to this island and left me, as I wish to be entirely alone."

"How funny!" exclaimed matter-of-fact Phil. "I should think you would be awfully lonely."

"I am--I am recovering from an attack of the nerves, due to overwork,"

replied the stranger suavely.

"And are you all alone in the house, except for your servants?"

questioned Madge, with her most innocent, far-away expression.

"Yes," replied the man in the same moment, fixing his cold, blue eyes on Madge and Phil. "I am entirely alone in the house except for my man.

The gypsy woman and her boy Jeff live in a tent a little distance off.

I am sorry you have had your long journey across the island for nothing. The boy will show you a shorter way back. Rest a.s.sured that as soon as my boat comes for me, I will communicate with you. Until then it is wisest for you not to return to this side of the island."

The stranger spoke to them with perfect courtesy, but they knew that he would admit of no trifling. If they had heard a sound in the house that was not meant for their ears, they must pretend to be deaf.

The man summoned the deaf and dumb lad by a gesture. He talked to him on his fingers for a few minutes. The boy grinned and nodded, as though he thoroughly understood.

"I have told this fellow to show you a short cut across the island,"

the stranger said politely, turning to the girls. "He is ready to start--at once."

The man's eyes narrowed. There was no mistaking his meaning.