CHAPTER XXV
AN EXCITING FATHER
A tall man, who was very good looking indeed, stood beside the librarytable. A man of perhaps forty, with a fair skin, bronzed by muchexposure to the sun, abundant light hair that grew in a pleasing way andfine blue eyes. He was gazing expectantly toward the door.
Henrietta, after one look at the visitor, was across the room with herarms about his neck.
"Daddy! Why, _Dad_!"
Marjory, wisely concluding that no chaperon was needed, slipped unheededfrom the room and fled away through twisting hallways and long corridorsto the West wing where she found that Sallie had already spread thenews.
"Henrietta's father," breathed Bettie, "isn't that great! And only twohours ago Henrietta was weeping on her bed because her grandmother'sletter was so discouraging."
"Does he look like Henrietta?" asked Jean. "You know we've never seenhim."
"Not a bit," said Marjory, "he's fair--a regular blond. And oh, so goodlooking. She's like the pictures of her dark mother, you know."
"He looks just like an earl or a duke or something like that," saidSallie. "When the Seniors see him they're going to be glad that theywere polite to Henrietta. He's the best looking father that ever came tothis school and I ought to know, because I've been making a study offathers for a long, long time. Of course, most _any_ kind of a fatherlooks mighty good to _me_. I don't envy Henrietta her good clothes, herpretty looks or her pretty ways; but I _would_ like to wake up suddenlyand find myself down in that library shaking hands with a _father_."
In the meantime, Henrietta, who had been almost speechless at first, wasmaking up for lost time. There were traces of tears on her cheeks buther eyes were joyful.
"So you went right straight to Lakeville from San Francisco and as soonas Grandmother told you where I was you came right here?"
"And I didn't bring you a single thing. My luggage is still in Shanghai,I suppose. I believe I picked up some odds and ends in Canton. I wasthere for a very short time and foolishly neglected to cable Henshaw.When they rescued me from that coral reef, absolutely the only thing Iowned was half a pair of trousers. I had to borrow clothes from thecaptain of the ship before I could land in San Francisco and I had totelegraph to London for money with which to travel east. YourGrandmother tells me that Henshaw has sent out a reliefexpedition--perhaps he'll rescue my luggage. It seems to me I bought amandarin's coat and some beads--"
"I wouldn't have cared if you hadn't bought me a single thing. It wasjust you I wanted, Daddy. Don't _ever_ get lost again. It's too hard onthe family."
"Do you know, it hadn't occurred to me that you were grown up enough toworry; but, since you are, I suppose I'll have to mend my ways. I _have_been careless a great deal of the time. I haven't always written when I_could_; and of course, sometimes, I couldn't. Now, couldn't we gooutside, some place? It seems dark and stuffy in here to a man who haslived on a coral reef for months."
"Why," cried Henrietta, "I do believe it's clearing up."
Henrietta was right. The rain had ceased, the sun was making up for losttime and in more ways than one it was now a pleasant day. On the verandathe happy little girl introduced her father to such of her specialfriends as were there and sent little Jane Pool flying after all theothers. The entire West Corridor rushed down and out, as Maude saidafterwards. Mr. Bedford bowed and smiled in a charming way and murmured:"Delighted, I'm suah." He was not a talkative man, for which the girlswere sorry because his speech was so delightfully English that thethoroughly American children were greatly impressed. They loved to hearhim say "Cawn't" and "Just fawncy," and "Chuesday"--for Tuesday. And theywere overjoyed when he asked Henrietta if she hadn't better put on her"goloshes" before she walked on the wet grass.
Henrietta took her father for a walk to the village. It is to besuspected that she led him straight to the best candy store in thevillage because she returned later with an enormous box of chocolates.The girls were even gladder to see that her cheeks were glowing withsome of their former bright color. Her father was placed in the companyseat at Doctor Rhodes's own table at dinner time that night; Henriettasat demurely beside him; but occasionally she turned her head longenough to make an impish face at the girls at her own table.
"She'd rather be here," said Jean, sagely.
"I wish she were," said Maude. "I love to hear her father talk."
It was bedtime before the West Corridor girls had a chance to hear allabout it. They had flocked into Henrietta's room and most of themundressed in there while listening to what she had to say.
"I'm going to do something wonderful," said Henrietta. "First, I'm tospend tomorrow in Chicago with Father, and then he's going right toEngland. Grandmother is going to meet us in Chicago, and what do youthink! You couldn't guess in a thousand years. We are both going rightover to England with him so we can have a good long visit on the way.We're going to stay just long enough for Grandmother to count herrelatives over there--Father says it won't be more than three weeksaltogether--and then we're coming back. I'm going to bring something toevery one of you. I may even get to Paris for just about a minute--Fathersays he has to go there to tell something to the French Government aboutsomething he dug up somewhere."
"How lovely!" cried Jean.
"How splendid," cried Bettie.
"How grand!" cried Marjory.
"How perfectly sweet," cried Cora.
"How darling," cried little Jane Pool.
"But, Henrietta," demanded Mabel. "You haven't told us where your fatherhas been all this time. Why didn't he write?"
"Why, so I haven't," said Henrietta, "And this is my last chance--I'mgoing early in the morning, with just a few duds in a suitcase. Well,here's the story, all I could dig out of him. I'll sit on the dresser soyou can all hear. It's really quite a tale.
"Well, first he went to Shanghai because he'd heard of a temple that wasdifferent from most temples; but it was way up the Yengtze river--inChina, you know--so he rushed right up there to look for it. It was onthe estate of an old Chinaman who didn't want any Englishmen or otherforeigners poking round his old temple even outside--and it was said tobe certain death to go _inside_. But father _did_ manage to get insideand was copying some of the inscriptions as well as he could--it was toodark to use his camera and he didn't dare make a flashlight--whensomething hit him on the head. He doesn't know _yet_ what it was.
"The next thing he knew, he was in kind of a dungeon, all stone andmetal bars, under some building--that temple, perhaps, or possibly undera warehouse near the river. He says he doesn't know why they didn't killhim at once; but for some reason they didn't. Just kept him there andgave him very little food once a day for weeks and weeks and weeks--hedoes not know exactly how long.
"Then, one night, when he had just about given up all hope of _ever_getting out of that place, four big, ugly-looking Chinamen came and tieda bag over his head and bound his hands and feet and loaded him into aboat and poled it down a river for hours and hours. They chattered a lotin Chinese but Father couldn't understand them--his interpreter wasn'twith him when he went into the temple, and he doesn't know _what_ becameof _him_. After a long, long time, Father heard sounds like menclambering aboard a vessel; but he thinks that the small boat he was inwas towed for a long time behind some larger boat. He slept for part ofthe time, he says, and of course with that bag tied over his head hecouldn't see anything or even hear a great deal.
"The next thing he was really sure of was that his hands were free. Bythe time he got the bag off his head, there was an old Chinesejunk--that's a kind of a ship--way off in the distance, sailing away fromhim. He was alone in the boat but in one end of it he found a jar ofwater and some food. Also a long pole and a paddle. Of course hecouldn't reach bottom with the pole because he was out of the river bythat time and quite far out at sea--in the Yellow Sea or possibly theEastern Sea. You know how they run together along there; and he showedme what he thought _might_ be the place, on the atlas in the library.
"W
ell, Father thought other boats might come along that way so he stayedright there for about six hours; but none did; so then he fastened thelong pole up like a mast and ripped open that bag that had been over hishead and used it for a sail. He found some bits of rope and string andsome old fishing tackle stuffed into the bow of the boat and used themto tie his sail to the pole.
"He sailed wherever the wind took him and after awhile he was picked upby another Chinese junk. He thinks that the men aboard this one weresmugglers or pirates or something. He tried to get them to take him toShanghai or Hong Kong or some other Chinese port; but he was so raggedand dirty that probably they didn't believe he'd be able to pay themwhat he promised--even if they understood him--and all he could get out ofwhat _they_ said was something about 'Philippines.'
"But they never got to the Philippine Islands, if that's where they werebound for. There was a typhoon--a sudden, terrible storm--and they werewrecked. My father and one very strong young Chinese sailor were thrownby the waves inside a coral reef that stuck up like kind of a fence, ina big half-circle. It made sort of a front yard to a small coral islandand the water was smoother inside so they managed to swim ashore. Butthey were quite battered up at first and just crawled ashore on theirhands and knees and fell asleep on the first dry spot.
"Their island was only a little one, just about big enough for twopersons to live on. Fortunately there was a small spring of fresh waterbut it ran very slowly so that it took a long time to catch enough for asatisfying drink; and the young Chinaman was smart about catching fishand snaring sea birds and finding turtles' eggs. There were lots ofshell fish, too; and a box of rice washed ashore about the time they didand they saved some of that, so of course they didn't starve.
"But they had to stay there for months and months and months; untilanother ship got blown out of her course and was almost wrecked on thatcoral fence outside their little island. As soon as that storm calmeddown, the ship sent a boat ashore to explore the island. There wereEnglish sailors aboard her but the ship was going to Calcutta. Fathersays she was a rotten old tub but he and the Chinaman were glad to berescued by _anything_. He _wanted_ to go to England and he didn't wantto go to Calcutta; but after a day or two he had a good chance to betransferred to a much faster and safer ship bound for San Francisco sohe took it. The Captain had to give him some clothes--he lost just aboutall he had left when he was swimming to the island. He sent a wirelessto my grandmother from the American ship but for some reason she didn'tget it. And he didn't telegraph her from San Francisco because hesupposed she _had_ received the wireless."
"Tell us all the _awful_ part of it," pleaded Mabel. "Cannibals andtigers and things like that."
"That's one trouble with Father's adventures," complained Henrietta. "Hedoesn't _tell_ the ghastly details. He just gives the main facts. Hemust have been almost dead in that dungeon, he must have hated thatnasty bag over his head, and he must have been almost drowned swimmingashore and almost scared to death in that typhoon; but he doesn't _say_so. He did mention a shark in the lagoon--the Chinaman killed that withhis knife. Of course I'll be able to dig more out of him when there'smore time; but he won't tell me the _worst_ things; he never does."
"_I_ think," said Jean, "you managed to get considerable."
"Yes," agreed Maude, "you certainly own an exciting father."
"I'm so glad I still _own_ him," breathed Henrietta.
And then the girls slipped away to their own beds to dream of Chinesetemples, junks, dark dungeons, yellow pirates, sunny reefs and sunburnedfathers. And of course they were all glad to have their Henrietta againhappy and free from care; for they had all suffered with her.
Girls of Highland Hall: Further Adventures of the Dandelion Cottagers Page 26