CHAPTER XVI--AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL
As the night advanced the two girls continued to talk, in low andsubdued voices because of their anxiety and growing fears. They kept thecandles trimmed, for the light lent them courage. They were not hungry,although they had eaten nothing since noon, but they were beginning tosuffer from thirst.
The baby wakened with shrill screams and the only way to quiet her wasto give her the bottle, which was now less than a third full. Mildredwas in a quandary whether to withhold the remainder of the food fromlittle Jane, so as to prolong her life as much as possible, or to allowthe baby to eat what she desired, as long as any of the food remained.She finally decided on the latter course, hoping the morning would bringsome one to their rescue.
After the little one was again hushed in slumber and cuddled in warmblankets on a seat beside them, the two imprisoned girls renewed theirdesultory conversation. They realized it must be long after midnight butMildred avoided looking at her watch because that made the minutes dragso slowly.
Finally a dull sound from the other side of the wall reached their ears.It seemed that some one was pounding upon the adobe. Both girls sprangto their feet in excitement, their heads bent to listen. The poundingwas not repeated but a voice was heard--a far-away voice--as of onecalling.
Mildred answered the cry, at the top of her lungs, and immediately Inezfollowed with a shrill scream that roused a thousand echoes in thehidden passage. And now Toodlums joined the chorus, startled from hersleep and terrified by the riot of sound.
They tried to listen, but the baby's cries prevented anything else frombeing heard, so they devoted themselves to quieting little Jane. It tooksome time to do this, for the sobbing infant was thoroughly frightened,but finally Inez succeeded in comforting her and the bottle of preciousmilk was sacrificed to put baby to sleep again.
By this time the sounds on the other side of the wall had ceased; butthe girls were now full of eager hope, believing they had succeeded inletting their friends know they were imprisoned in the wall.
Within the hour more dull pounding began and this continued so regularlythat Mildred told Inez the rescuers were surely trying to break throughthe adobe. They listened alertly to each blow and for a time forgot boththirst and fatigue in the excitement of the moment. Daybreak was near,for already a gray light was creeping in through the gratings overhead.
Suddenly a crash like a thunder-clap resounded from the end of thepassage. From the gloomy recess behind the couch a man's form appeared,struck the bed, was rebounded by the springs into the air, turned acomplete somersault and landed on the floor of the passage in a sittingposition, facing the two startled nurses.
He did not seem to be hurt, but was evidently bewildered. He glared inamazement at the girls and they glared in amazement at him. Then,slowly, he turned his eyes to view his surroundings and blinked stupidlyat the candles, the antique carved furniture, the baby bundled upon acushioned seat and finally rested his eyes again upon the faces of thenurses.
"Why, it is Senor Bul-Run!" cried Inez, clapping her hands with joy. "Hehave come to save us."
"Pardon me," said the man, in a rather quavering falsetto, "I'm not surewhether I've come to save you or to share your peril. Where am I,please?"
"It is the hollow of the wall, sir," replied Mildred, who had never seenthe big fellow before. "It is the secret apartment constructed by SenorCristoval, who built this house."
"Well," said he, slowly getting upon his feet and with another curiousglance around, "I can't say that I consider it a desirable place ofresidence. Certainly it's no place for our precious Toodlums," and hebent over the sleeping babe and tenderly kissed its forehead. Then,straightening up, he said in as determined a tone as his high voicewould permit: "We must find a way to get out of here!"
"Can't you get out the same way you got in?" asked Mildred.
He looked at her in perplexed astonishment.
"How did I get in?" he inquired.
"Don't you know?"
"I've no idea. I was sitting in the window of the blue room, resting,when there was a bang, whirligig, fireworks--and here I am, youruninvited guest."
"The blue room!" cried Mildred.
"Yes. Did you happen to notice my arrival? I don't mean its lack ofdignity, but the direction I came from?"
"You came from somewhere behind that bed. I saw you strike the mattressand--and bound up again."
"To be sure. I remember bounding up again. I--I didn't care to stop, yousee. I was anxious to--to--see if baby Jane was all right."
Mildred could not repress a smile, while Inez giggled openly.
"However," continued the big man, good-humoredly, "the direction affordsus a clew. Pardon my absence for a moment while I investigate."
He took one of the candles, cautiously made his way over the couch andstood upon the oak chest at the end of the narrow chamber. Here he wasable to examine the heavy planking set in the adobe, through which hehad doubtless made his appearance but which now appeared as solid andimmovable as the wall itself.
Runyon's first act was to pass the light of the candle carefully overevery joint and edge, with the idea of discovering a spring or hinge.But no such thing seemed to exist. Then he took out his big jackknifeand began prying. When a blade snapped he opened another, only to breakit in his vain twisting and jabbing. Finally he threw the now uselessknife from him and began pounding with his fists upon the planking, atthe same time shouting with the best voice he could muster. Perhaps thepounding might have been heard had not his friends at that moment beenseeking for his mangled form in the garden, among the rose vines.
After listening in vain for a reply, Runyon came back to the girls,saying:
"This is certainly a singular occurrence. I came in as easily as I everdid anything in my life, I assure you; but the way out is not so easy.However, we won't have to endure this confinement long, for the boys arebreaking down the wall in two places."
Then, in reply to their anxious questioning, he related the incidents ofthe night: how the discovery was made that Toodlums and her two nurseswere missing; of the search throughout the country in automobiles; howthe major had heard the "ghost" of baby Jane, which had given them theirfirst intimation of the truth, and of the desperate and vain attemptsmade to get into the secret chamber.
Mildred, in return, explained the accident that had led to theirimprisonment and of their failure to find any means of escape.
"There must be a way out, of course," she added, "for Senor Cristovalwould never invent such clever and complicated ways of getting into thishollow wall without inventing other means of getting out."
"True enough," agreed Runyon; "but I can't see why he thought itnecessary to make the means of getting _out_ a secret. These rooms wereprobably built as hiding-places, and there are at least two separateentrances. But whoever hid here should be master of the situation andhave no difficulty in escaping when the danger was over."
"Unless," said Mildred, thoughtfully, "the rooms were also intended as aprison."
"Well, perhaps that is it," said the man. "Old Cristoval may havethought the occasion would arise when he would like to keep one or moreprisoners here, so he concealed the exits as carefully as the entrances.Let us admit, young ladies, that it's a first-class prison. But," histone changing to one of kindly concern, "how have you stood this ordeal?You must be worn out with anxiety, and desperately hungry, too."
As he gazed into Mildred's face it occurred to him, for the first time,that Jane's new nurse was an interesting girl. She was not exactlybeautiful, but--attractive. Indeed, at that moment Mildred was at herbest, despite the night's vigil. The hard, defiant look had left hereyes for the first time in years, driven out by a train of excitingevents that had led her to forget herself and her rebellion againstfate, at least for the time being.
"We are not very hungry," she said, smiling at the big, boyish rancher,"but we are thirsty. I'd give anything for a good drink of water. Andbaby is now devouring the last few drops
of her prepared food. When itis gone there is nothing here that she can eat."
"Well," said he, spurred to action by this report, "I'm going to explorethis place carefully, for if we can manage to find a way out it willsave Weldon and his men from ruining that wall, and also save time, forthe blamed adobe is so hard and thick that it will still require hoursfor them to make a hole big enough to get us out."
Aunt Jane's Nieces on the Ranch Page 16