True Love's Reward Part 28

Five minutes after, all Mona's baggage was transferred to Miss Cutler's apartment, the door was relocked and bolted as before, and the fair girl felt as if her troubles were over.

Overcome by the sense of relief which this a.s.surance afforded her, she impulsively threw her arms about Miss Cutler, laid her head on her shoulder, and burst into grateful tears.

"Oh, I am so glad--so thankful!" she sobbed.

"Hush, dear child," said the gentle lady, kindly, "you must not allow yourself to become unnerved, for you will not sleep, and I am sure you need rest. I am going to send Justin away at once, then we will both retire."

"Yes, I will go directly," Mr. Cutler remarked, "but I shall call you early. I will have your breakfast sent up here, when your trunks can be removed. Then, Miss Montague, you are to put on a wrap belonging to my sister, and tie a thick veil over your face. I will come to take you to the carriage, and no one will suspect but that you are Marie. Meantime she will slip down another stairway, and out of the private entrance; then away we will speed to the steamer, and all will be well. Now, good-night, ladies, and a good sleep to you," he concluded, cheerfully, as he quietly left the room.

Miss Cutler and Mona proceeded to retire at once, but while disrobing the elder lady told her companion how it happened that she and her brother were in Havana so opportunely. She had been out of health, and had come to Cuba early in the fall to spend the winter. Her brother had come a few weeks earlier to take her home, and they had been making excursions to different points of interest on the island.

"I am so glad," she said, in conclusion, "that we decided to take rooms at this hotel during our sojourn in Havana. At first I thought I would like to go to some more quiet place, but Justin thought we would be better served here, and," with a gentle smile, "I believe it was wisely ordered so that we could help you."

Mona feared that she should not be able to sleep at all, her nerves had been so wrought upon, but her companion was so cheerful and rea.s.suring in all that she said that before she was hardly aware that she was sleepy she had dropped off into a sound slumber.

At six o'clock the next morning a sharp rap on their door awakened the two ladies.

They arose immediately, and had hardly finished dressing when an appetizing breakfast appeared. Miss Cutler received the tray at the door, so that the waiter need not enter the room, and then was so merry and entertaining as, with her own hands she served Mona, that the young girl forgot her nervousness, in a measure, and ate quite heartily.

By the time their meal was finished another rap warned them that the porters had come for their trunks.

"Step inside the closet, dear," said Miss Cutler, in a whisper, and Mona noiselessly obeyed her.

The door was then opened, and both trunks were removed, apparently without exciting any suspicion over the fact that there were two instead of one as when Miss Cutler arrived.

A few minutes later Mr. Cutler appeared, and Mona, clad in Miss Cutler's long ulster--which she had worn almost every day during her sojourn there--and with a thick veil over her face, took her tall protector's arm, and went tremblingly out.

Her heart almost failed her as she pa.s.sed through the main entrance hall, which she had crossed in such despair only a few hours previously; but Mr. Cutler quietly bade her "be calm and have no fear," then led her down the steps, and a.s.sisted her to enter the carriage that was waiting at the door.

The next moment another figure stepped quickly in after her, Mr. Cutler followed, the door was closed, and they were driven rapidly away.

Arriving at the steamer-landing, they all went on board, and after attending to the baggage, Mr. Cutler conducted his ladies directly to their stateroom.

"I will get you a room by yourself, if you prefer;" he said to Mona, "but I thought perhaps you might feel less lonely if you should share my sister's."

"Thank you, but I should much prefer to remain with Miss Cutler if it will be agreeable to her," Mona returned, with a wistful glance at the lady.

"Indeed, I shall be very glad to have you with me," was the cordial reply, accompanied by a charming smile, for already the gentlewoman had become greatly interested in her fair companion.

"That is settled, then," said the gentleman, smiling, "and now you may feel perfectly safe; do not give yourself the least uneasiness, but try to enjoy the voyage--that is, if old Neptune will be quiet and allow you."

"You are very kind, Mr. Cutler, and I cannot tell you how grateful I am to both yourself and your sister," Mona said, feelingly. "But, truly,"

she added, flus.h.i.+ng, "I shall not feel quite easy until we get off, for I am in constant fear that Mr. Hamblin will discover my flight, and come directly here to search for me."

"Well, even if he does, you need fear nothing," Mr. Cutler returned, rea.s.suringly; "you shall have my protection, and should Mr. Hamblin make his appearance before we sail and try to create a disturbance, we will just hand the young man over to the authorities. The only thing I regret in connection with him," the gentleman concluded, with a twinkle in his eye, "is that I cannot have the pleasure of witnessing his astonishment and dismay when he makes the discovery that his bird has flown. Now, ladies, make yourselves comfortable, then come and join me on deck."

He left them together to get settled for their voyage, and went up stairs for a smoke and to keep his eye upon the sh.o.r.e, for he fully expected to see Louis Hamblin come tearing down to the boat at any moment. The reader has, of course, recognized in Justin Cutler the gentleman who, at the opening of our story, was made the victim of the accomplished sharper, Mrs. Bently, in the diamond crescent affair. It will be remembered also that he came on to New York at the time of the arrest of Mrs. Vanderheck, and that he informed Detective Rider of his intention of going to Cuba to meet his invalid sister and accompany her home, and thus we find him acting as Mona's escort and protector also.

While the three voyagers were settling themselves and waiting for the steamer to sail, we will see how Louis Hamblin bore the discovery of Mona's escape.

He did not rise until eight o'clock, and after having his bath and a cup of coffee in his own room, he went to Mona's door and knocked.

Receiving no answer, he thought she must be sleeping, and resolved that he would not arouse her just then.

He went down stairs, and had his breakfast, then strolled out to smoke his cigar, after which he went back, and again tapped upon Mona's door.

Still no answer.

He called her name, but receiving no response, he took the key from his pocket and coolly unlocking the door, threw it wide open.

The room was, of course, empty.

There were no signs that the bed had been occupied during the night, and both the girl and her trunk were gone.

With a fierce imprecation of rage, the astonished young man rushed down to the office to interview the proprietor as to the meaning of the girl's disappearance.

Although Mona had supposed there was no one in the house who could speak English, there was an interpreter, and through him Louis soon made his trouble known.

"Impossible!" the amazed proprietor a.s.serted; "no trunk had been removed from Number Eleven, and no young lady had left the house that morning."

Louis angrily insisted that there had, and in company with the landlord and the interpreter, he returned to Mona's room to prove his statement.

At first the affair was a great mystery, and created considerable excitement, but it was finally remembered that Americans had occupied the adjoining rooms, and it was therefore concluded that the young girl had managed in some way to make her situation known to them, and they, having left that morning, had, doubtless, a.s.sisted her in her flight.

"Who were they, and where were they going?" Louis demanded, in great excitement.

"Cutler was the name, and they had left early to take the steamer for New York," they told him.

"What was her hour for sailing?" cried the young man.

"Nine-thirty," he was informed.

Louis looked at his watch.

It lacked fifteen minutes of the time.

"A carriage! a carriage!" he cried, as he dashed out of the hotel and down the steps at a break-neck pace.

He sprang into the first vehicle he could find, made the driver understand that he wanted him to hasten with all possible speed to the New York steamer, and enforced his wishes by showing the man a piece of glittering gold.

He was terribly excited; his face was deathly white, and his eyes had the look of a baffled demon. But he was not destined to have the satisfaction of even seeing Mona, for he reached the pier just in season to see the n.o.ble steamer sailing with stately bearing slowly out into the harbor, and he knew that the fair girl was beyond his reach.

Meantime, as soon as she had seen Louis and Mona safely on board the steamer, bound for Havana, Mrs. Montague, instead of going into the stateroom that had been engaged for her only as a blind, slipped stealthily back upon deck, hastened off the boat, and into her carriage, which had been ordered to wait for her, and was driven directly to the railway station, where she took the express going northward.

She did not spare herself, but traveled day and night until she reached New York, when she immediately sent a note to Mr. Palmer, notifying him of her return and desire to see him.

He at once hastened to her, for she had intimated in her communication that she was in trouble, and upon inquiring the cause of it, she informed him, with many sighs and expressions of grief, that her nephew and prospective heir had eloped with her seamstress.

Mr. Palmer looked amazed.