Tish Marches On by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Author:Mary Roberts Rinehart [Roberts Rinehart, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4804-4622-9
Publisher: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road
Published: 2013-09-11T01:00:00+00:00

IV

FOR THE NEXT DAY or two Tish was not her calm and usual self. It was in vain that Aggie baked a devil’s-food cake, for Tish did not touch it. It rained for two days, also, and so we did not see Lelia; but when it cleared on the second evening Tish suddenly proposed that we go down to the house where the girl was a prisoner and there test the truth of her story.

Aggie protested wildly, as she not only had taken a fresh cold but after her experience with the skunk she feared the nocturnal life of the fields. Tish, however, was firm, and at last we started out.

It was midnight when we left, and as, in order to avoid observation, Tish had left the lane and taken to the pastures, we moved but slowly. I am sorry to say that it was in our own lower meadow that Aggie had her unfortunate experience with the bull. We had quite forgotten that Jeremiah, some days before, had said that it would be necessary to borrow a bull for some purpose or other, and the first Tish and I knew of it was the sound of some creature moving about and pawing the ground with its feet. It was a dark night and we saw nothing, and suddenly we were almost paralyzed by Aggie’s agonized voice.

“He’s comig after be!” she yelled. “The bull! He’s comig! Help!”

How can I record the horror of that moment, when we heard the enormous animal rushing across the meadow, an agonized final yelp from Aggie, and then the dull thud which could only be her poor body, thrown over the fence to land in the road! Or our relief when, on bending over her with a flashlight, we saw her open her eyes! But a moment later she sat up and, clapping her hands to her mouth, gave us a strange and dreadful look.

“I have thwallowed by teeth!” she said dully.

It was indeed a shocking moment, for she certainly did not have them. But she was otherwise uninjured, and I may say here that Jeremiah found both sets clear across the road the next morning and seemed highly suspicious when he handed them to us.

Obviously she could not go on with us, nor did she wish to do so. Instead, we propped her up in a fence corner and continued on to Lelia’s house, which proved to be a large one in extensive grounds. And had we doubted the truth of the girl’s story, we now had proof of it.

The Bellamy man was on guard under a tree, and as we watched from the shrubbery we heard a window open and Lelia’s voice.

“Listen,” she called down. “Do you have to whistle? I need some sleep.”

“Sweetheart!” he said cheerfully. “I just wanted you to know that I am here. You might be lonely, you know.”

“Oh, stop it,” she said in a tone of desperation. “I’m sick of seeing you. I’m sick of hearing you talk and hearing you whistle.

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