Chapter 53
Hugh Ritson ran faster.
Then he saw haggard men and women appearing and disappearing before him in the light of a fire that panted on the ground like an overthrown horse.
The north train had been wrecked.
Within a dozen yards from the station the engine and three of the front carriages had broken from their couplings and plunged on to the bank.
The last four carriages, free of the fatal chain, had kept the rails and were standing unharmed above.
Women who had been dragged through the tops of the overturned carriages fled away with white faces into the darkness of the fields. Men, too, with panic-stricken eyes, sat down on the gra.s.s, helpless and useless.
Some resolute souls, roused to activity, were pulling at the carriages to set them right. Men from the station came with lanterns, and rescued the injured, and put them to lie out of harm's way.
The scene was harrowing, and only two of its incidents are material to this history. Over all the rest, the clamor, the tumult, the agony, the abject fear, and the n.o.ble courage, let a veil be drawn.
Fate had brought together, in that hour of disaster, three men whose lives, hitherto apart, were henceforth to be bound up as one life for good or ill.
Hugh Ritson rushed here and there like a man distraught. He peered into every face. He caught up a lantern that some one had set down, and ran to and fro in the darkness, stooping to let the light fall on those on the ground, holding up the red glare to the windows of the uninjured carriages.
At that moment all his frozen soul seemed to melt. Face to face with the pitiless work of destiny, his own heartless schemes disappeared. At last he saw the face he looked for. Then he dropped the lantern to his side, and turned the gla.s.s of it from him.
"Stay here, Greta," said a voice he knew. "I shall be back with you presently. Let me lend them a hand over yonder." The man went by him in the darkness.
Hark!
Hugh
"Help! help! I am robbed--- help!" came out of the darkness.
"Where are you?" asked another voice.
"Here! Help! help!"
Hugh Ritson ran toward the place whence the first voice came, and saw the figure of a man stooping over something that lay on the ground. At the same moment another man rushed up and laid strong hold of the stooping figure. There was a short, sharp struggle. The two men were of one stature, one strength. There was a sound as of cloth ripped asunder.
At the next moment one of the men went by like the wind and was lost in the blackness of the fields. But Hugh Ritson had held up the lantern as the man pa.s.sed, and caught one swift glimpse of his face. He knew him.
A group had gathered about the injured person on the ground and about the other man who had struggled to defend him.
"Could you not hold the scoundrel?" said one.
"I held him till his coat came to pieces in my hand. See here," said the other.
Hugh Ritson knew the voice.
"A piece of Irish frieze, I should say" (feeling it).
"You must have gripped him by the lappel of his ulster. Let me keep this. I am a police sergeant. What is your name, sir?"
"Paul Ritson."
"And your address?"
"I was on my way to Morley's Hotel, Trafalgar Square. What place is this?"
"Hendon."
"Could one get accommodation here for the night? A lady is with me."
"Best go up by the twelve-thirty, sir."
"The lady is too much worn and excited. Any hotel, inn, lodging-house?"
A porter came up.
"The Hawk and Heron's handiest. A mile, sir. Drayton--it's him as keeps it--he's here somewhere. Drayton!" (calling).
"Can you get me a fly, my good fellow?"
"Yes, sir."
The police sergeant moved off.
"Then I may look for you at the Hawk and Heron?" he said.
Hugh Ritson heard all. He kept the lantern down. In the darkness not a face of that group was seen of any man.
A quarter of an hour later, Hugh Ritson, panting for breath, was knocking at the door of the inn. The landlady within fumbled with the iron bar behind it.
"Come, quick!" said Hugh.
The door opened, and he stepped in sharply, bathed in perspiration.
"Is your son back?" he said, catching his breath.
"Back, sir? No, sir; it's a mercy if he gets home afore morning, sir; he's noways--"
"Stop your clatter. The girl is in her room. Go and turn the key on her!"
It was at that moment that Mercy, having stood an instant at the bottom of the stairs, had ventured nervously into the bar. Turning about, Hugh Ritson came face to face with her. At the sight of her his crimsoning cheeks became white with wrath.
"Didn't I tell you to be in bed?" he muttered, in a low, hoa.r.s.e whisper.
"I've only come for... I came down for... Hugh, don't be angry with me."
"Come, get back, then; don't stand there. Quick--and mind you lock your door."
"Yes, I'm going. You wouldn't be angry with me, would you?"
"Well, no, perhaps not; only get off--and quick! Do you hear? Why don't you go?"