The Automobile Girls Along the Hudson: or, Fighting Fire in Sleepy Hollow

José smiled up at the faces leaning over him.

“You have all been so good to me,” he said. “I want to thank you for your kindness and for believing in me when my character looked black enough to have condemned me without any more proof. And I want to thank you for my brother, too, and my poor little sister.”

His eyes filled with tears.

“There, there,” cried the major, pressing the boy’s hand. “It’s a little enough we have done, I’m sure. I only wish we could have saved you from your tumble,” he added, gazing sadly toward the right wing of Ten Eyck Hall.

“And is it really true that our friends are going to leave us this afternoon?” asked José.

“Yes,” answered the major; “all our girls and boys are going. We shall be lonesome enough when they are gone.”

There was the sound of a motor horn down the avenue.

“Ah, here comes Stephen at last. I was afraid he would be late,” said Major Ten Eyck, as his automobile pulled up at the door and Stephen, Martin and Alfred jumped out.

“I’ve got them, uncle,” cried Stephen. “They arrived this morning.” And he handed his uncle a registered package carefully done up and sealed with red sealing wax.

The major took the box and disappeared into the house while the boys exchanged significant looks.

“Stephen,” said Bab, as they strolled down to the end of the-piazza while the others were examining the morning papers and reading their mail, “did you ever ask José where he was the morning we went to see the hermit!”

“Oh, yes,” replied her friend; “or, rather, he told me without being asked. He was to meet his brother by appointment at the haunted pool. I suppose he was there too soon, because Antonio chose to inflict us with his antics before he went to see José, who heard a great deal of the nonsense, so he said, and there was a quarrel afterwards, a very bitter one, and José threatened to give Antonio over to the authorities unless he consented to give up his lawless life. Zerlina was hovering around later, and heard the pistol shots after the fight with the tramps. She thought, of course, it was a duel between her two brothers. That is why she paid you the mysterious visit and tried to read the note.”

“How does Antonio strike you?” asked Bab.

“Just as a mischievous boy might. I think he will outgrow his vicious tendencies now that he has been taken hold of. For one thing he no longer hates poor old José. I told him, plainly, what a fine fellow his brother was, and that it was only on José’s account we were not going to have him arrested. He seemed to be a good deal impressed, I think.”

“A note for you, Miss,” said John, handing Bab a three-cornered missive on a tray.

“Will Miss Barbara Thurston grant one last interview to an old admirer?” the note ran.

“It’s from your great-uncle,” exclaimed Bab, giving Stephen the note to read.

Stephen smiled as his eye took in the crabbed, old-fashioned handwriting.

“The poor old fellow can’t quite get the proper focus as to who you really are,” he said. “You appear to represent two Barbaras to him. But you will go over for a few minutes, won’t you, Bab? I doubt if Uncle Stephen will last much longer, and seeing you may be a great comfort to him.”

“Of course I will,” Bab replied. “If seeing me can bring a ray of pleasure into his life, I am glad enough to be able to do it. I should like to take him a few flowers. I know he loves them. Suppose we get some honeysuckle and late roses out of the garden before we go.”

Together they strolled toward the major’s garden, which the flames had spared, partly because it was protected by a high brick wall on three sides, and partly owing to a daily watering it had received from the gardener.

With Stephen’s penknife they clipped a bunch of dewy white roses with yellow centers, and a few sprays of honeysuckle whose fragrance was overpoweringly sweet.

The old man was watching for the young people at the window when the attendant opened the door for them. He came forward with some of the major’s grace and took Barbara’s hand in his.

“It was very good of you to come,” he said. “I heard you were going, and I wanted to say a last good-bye. I feel happier than I have felt in many years. You have forgiven me, have you not, little Barbara?” he went on, his mind confusing her again with that other Barbara whose tragic death had bereft him of his reason. “And you have brought me the roses, too?”

She nodded her head.

“Did they come from the bush near the arbor?”

“Yes,” she replied, wondering a little.

“Don’t you remember that it was our bush, the one we chose when you were here on a visit? Our white rose bush, Barbara. That you should not have forgotten, after all these years!” Then his memory came back. “But what am I saying?” he exclaimed. “My mind often gets confused. It was the likeness, I suppose. I want you to see this portrait of your grand-aunt.”

He went over to a desk near the window and drew from one of its drawers an old daguerreotype.

“It is very, very like,” he murmured, as he handed it to Barbara.

It was, indeed, even more like the present Bab than the miniature which the hermit had treasured during his years of solitude.

“I want you to keep this picture, Barbara,” said Stephen’s uncle. “I have another one, and it will be a pleasure to me, at the last, to know that it belongs to another Barbara Thurston. This ring must also be yours.” He drew from the desk a little black velvet case. “It was a ring I gave to her after we were engaged. Will you wear it for me!”

Barbara opened the case and slipped the ring on her finger. It was a very old ring of beaten silver with a sapphire setting.

“Thank you,” she said and gave him her hand.

“Good-bye, little Barbara!” cried the old man. “You have brought peace to me at last. You and my dear friend, Richard. I have changed a great deal, you see,” he was lapsing back into the old mania, “but you are as young and pretty as ever, Barbara.”

“It is time to go,” whispered Stephen, hurriedly. The attendant had already opened the door for them and they slipped out together.

“The hermit has promised to come and see him every day,” said Stephen, as they hastened through the passage. “Indeed, Uncle John has invited the hermit to live at Ten Eyck Hall for the rest of his days, and he has all but consented. He is a wonderful old man, I think, and whether he swam off and left ‘you’ or not, he has atoned for it after all these years.”

“Stephen,” replied Barbara, “I shall never believe that he did that, no matter if he were to tell me so himself.”

They reached the piazza just in time to hear Miss Sallie saying:

“Girls, I think we had better go up and get ready for the trip, before luncheon is announced. We want to start promptly, this time, even if we shall have such an excellent guard of young men. José, I am sorry you are not well enough to come in to our last meal,” she added, turning to the sick boy and taking his hand. “But we shall run up and say good-bye to you before we leave, and if ever you go as far west as Chicago, I want you to come and see us. Perhaps Ruth and I shall see you and your father this autumn when we are in Europe.”

“Indeed, I hope you will come to Madrid and visit at my home,” cried José. “Will you not arrange it?”

“That would be delightful” said Miss Sallie, “but we shall be over only for six weeks. We must return in time for Ruth’s school, you know.”

The last luncheon at Ten Eyck Hall was a very gay one. The dangers of the previous week were over and the mysteries cleared away.

The major fairly beamed on his guests across the hospitable board.

“It must have been Miss Sallie’s fault,” thought Mollie, watching his handsome face with a secret admiration. “He is certainly the dearest old man alive. I wonder if she isn’t sorry now?”

And as if in answer to her unspoken question, she heard Miss Sallie saying:

“John, I hope this is not the last visit you will let us make to Ten Eyck Hall. In spite of its fires and tramps I should like to come again.”

“I should be the happiest man in the world if you only would,” he answered. “I am greatly relieved that you haven’t got an everlasting prejudice against it.”

“When I settle down for the winter,” Jimmie Butler was heard to remark above the hum of conversation, “I mean to take up a certain study and not leave off studying it until I have graduated with diploma and honors.”

“What is it, Jimmie?” demanded the others.

“Prize fighting,” he replied. “I intend to learn wrestling and boxing, likewise just plain hair-pulling and scratching. Prize fighting in all its varieties for me before another year rolls round.”

“You will have to go into training, then, Jim,” exclaimed Alfred. “You will not be permitted to eat anything you like and not too much of anything else.”

“No more hot bread for you, Jimmie,” continued Stephen. “No more waffles and Johnnie-cakes. You will have to punch the bag mornings, when you would rather be sleeping, and give up theatres in the evenings for early bedtime. It’s a fearful life, my boy.”

“Be that as it may,” persisted Jimmie, “I’m going to learn how to deal a blow that will give a man a black eye the first time, and if ever I get hold of that wiry individual who gave me these in the woods, yonder,” he pointed to his red nose and discolored eye, “he’ll get such a ‘licking’ as he’ll remember to his last hour. Even Stephen’s giant won’t be a match for me.”

There was joyous laughter at this, followed by remarks from Martin and Alfred of a rather sarcastic character, such as “Give it to him, Jimmie! Give him a bump in the ribs!”

“I am going to have the woods patrolled, hereafter, in the summer time,” observed the major, “and all dangerous characters will be excluded. The next time we have a house party there will be no tramps to threaten my guests.”

“By the way,” said Stephen, “the giant tramp is in the hospital now. He was drunk when the fire started, and fell asleep. He was badly burned and almost suffocated, but his poor, long-suffering wife managed to save him somehow. The other two had left him to die.”

“Will you have him arrested when he gets well, Major?” asked Ruth.

“No,” replied the major, somewhat confused. “I suppose I should, but he tells me he was despoiled of his living by a dishonest master, and I have concluded to make it up to him for being richer than he is by giving him something to do. We have several farms back in the country and I have put him in charge of the smallest one. It seems that farming is the very thing he wants to do more than anything else in life. He will have to travel a good distance before he can get anything to drink, and his wife is the happiest woman over the prospect you ever saw.”

“Major, major!” protested Miss Sallie. “What will you do next?”

“Ah, well,” exclaimed the major, “it is good to be able to give a man a chance to earn an honest living, especially if he wants to take it. And, when this poor wretch heard about that bit of land and little cottage back yonder in the hills, he looked as if he had had a glimpse of heaven. His wife told me that he had really tried, again and again to find something to do; but indoor life was very irksome to him because he had been brought up on a farm, and working in factories and foundries had been his undoing.”

“Stephen, how do you feel about it?” asked Alfred. “He was your opponent in the fight, you know.”

“Oh, I don’t mind,” replied Stephen. “He didn’t give me a black eye, and I am glad for him to earn an honest living. Uncle’s a brick.”

When the meal was over Major Ten Eyck rose from the table, clearing his throat as if he were about to make a speech, which indeed he was.

“I have something to say before this party breaks up, for myself and the boys. We want to express to you, how deeply grateful we feel to you, Miss Sallie and ‘The Automobile Girls,’ for what you have done for us.

“You have saved our old home for us, at the risk of your own precious lives, and there is nothing we can really do or say to show how much we appreciate it. The place has been in the family ever since there were any Ten Eycks to live in it. I was born here and I love it, and I hope to end my days here – ”

“Don’t speak as if you were on the brink of the grave, Major, I beg of you,” protested Miss Sallie. “You are not many years older than I am, and I certainly will not allow such mournful thoughts to trouble me so soon.”

“You will always be young, Sallie,” replied the gallant major.

“You are nothing but a boy yourself, John,” replied Miss Stuart, blushing in spite of herself, while the young people exchanged stealthy smiles at these elderly compliments.

“I was saying,” continued the major, who remained standing to finish his speech, “that there was nothing we could do, the boys and I, to show how we feel in this matter. But when you wear these little ornaments” (here the major handed Miss Sallie and each of the girls a little jeweler’s box) “we hope you will remember that we are your devoted friends always. It was Stephen’s idea, and there was not much time to get them, but the jeweler undertook a rush order for us, and I hope they are all right.”

“Hurray!” cried Jimmie, rolling his napkin into a ball and tossing it into the air.

There were cries of pleasure when the boxes gave up their treasures, small gold firemen’s helmets studded with pearls and a row of rubies on the curve of the brim.

As if this were not enough, John came in with a tray of bouquets, each one different, as on a former occasion. The major had picked and arranged the flowers himself for Miss Sallie and “The Automobile Girls,” as a last reminder of Ten Eyck Hall, he said.

“It is worth while going into the firemen’s business, if one is to be so well repaid,” exclaimed Ruth.

Bab felt particularly rich in souvenirs of her visit, with a picture of a new and hitherto unknown great-aunt, a ring and a beautiful pin.

“We are all much too excited to thank you properly, Major,” she said.

“I don’t want any thanks, my dear child,” replied the major. “I wish to avoid them.”

“Somebody should make a speech,” cried Jimmie’s voice above the jollity. “I think I’ll be the one.” He cleared his throat. “Major John Ten Eyck,” he said bowing toward the major, “I know these young ladies appreciate deeply the handsome souvenirs you have bestowed upon them, but youth and inexperience have tied their tongues. However, mine is loosened and I wish to thank you a thousand times for the souvenirs which I also am carrying away from Ten Eyck Hall, namely my beautiful ruby nose and my blue enameled eyes.”

There was more laughter and more exchange of jokes and fun, when Martin who had slipped out of the room for a moment, returned with a small bundle which he handed to Jimmie.

“We’ll give you a booby prize, Jimmie,” he said, “since the ladies have been awarded the first prize.”

Jimmie opened the bundle and drew forth a boxing glove which he put on immediately and chased Martin out of the room. This was the signal for the breaking up of the lunch party.

The boxes and suit cases were already piled in their accustomed place on the back of the car and there was nothing for the girls to do but to pin on their hats and veils, slip on their silk dusters and go.

The servants had lined up in the hall to say good-bye. José had begged to be permitted to remain downstairs until after the visitors had gone. As the automobiles sped down the avenue, the major, standing by the sick boy’s cot, waved good-bye from the piazza.

Only Bab saw another handkerchief waving its pathetic farewell from a window in the right wing. She gave an answering wave with her own little handkerchief which she hoped the old man would not miss.

“Good-bye to Ten Eyck Hall,” she said to herself as she looked back at the beautiful old house. “You are full of tragic memories, but I love you and I would have risked much to have saved you from crumbling to a heap of ashes.”

As they passed over the bridge and came to the crossroads by the woods, they were stopped by blind Jennie, who silently presented Bab and Ruth each with a small cross she herself had carved from wood. Then to Bab she gave a beautiful bunch of yellow roses, which the hermit had begged the girl to accept with his best wishes.

CHAPTER XXV – CONCLUSION

In spite of the strange chain of events following so closely on each other’s heels, “The Automobile Girls” had only pleasant memories of Ten Eyck Hall and its occupants.

Among their trips they counted this as one of the most interesting, but Ruth, who was ever planning future surprises, had a plan that would outdo all other visits. This was nothing less than a journey to her own home, Chicago.

This excursion, every moment of which was to throb with interest for our four girls, involved the attempt to discover a hidden treasure buried in what had once been the prairie home of an old Illinois family. These adventures, with exciting scenes on the Stock Exchange where Barbara Thurston learned of a plot to ruin her friends, and much more, all is vividly described in the next volume of this series:

“The Automobile Girls at Chicago; or, Winning Out Against Heavy Odds.”

THE END