CHAPTER V--THE MOTOR CYCLIST
By this time the automobile had reached the hotel. Miss Sallie led theway to the dining room and they formed rather a weak-kneed procession,for they were beginning to experience that all-gone feeling that comesafter a fright.
The luncheon hamper full of good things had been carried back into thehotel, since there had been neither time nor opportunity for the picnicparty the girls had planned.
"I think a little food is what we really need, now," exclaimed Ruth."Cheer up, Mollie and Grace. Bab, smile for the ladies. It's all over.Here we are, safe, and we are going to have a beautiful time at MajorTen Eyck's. Please, dear friends, don't begin to take this gloomy viewof life. As for the anarchist person who attacked us in the woods, youmay depend upon it that he and his friends are so frightened they willbe running in an opposite direction from Tarrytown for another week. Asfor the foreign young man who stepped up to the rescue, he shouldcertainly be thanked."
Ruth had by nature a happy temperament. She quickly threw off smalltroubles, and depression in others made her really unhappy.
"It was truly a daring deed," replied Barbara, "and all the more daringconsidering that the tramp would have made about two of the cyclist. Butthe blow he gave was as swift and sure as a prize fighter's."
"Did you notice that the poor woman was rather pretty?" commentedMollie.
"My dear child," cried Miss Sallie, "I really believe you would noticepeople's looks on the way to your own execution. Now, for my part, Icould not see anything. I was almost too frightened to breathe. I feltthat I should faint at any moment."
"Why, Aunt Sallie, you are more frightened now than you were then,"exclaimed her niece. "You were as calm as the night. As for Grace, shelooked like a scared rabbit. Mollie, darling, I'm glad you had thepresence of mind to scream. If you hadn't Aunt Sallie and the motorcyclist might have looked for us in vain."
While she was speaking the cyclist came into the dining-room.
As soon as Miss Stuart saw him she rose from the table in her moststately manner and walked over to meet him.
"Sir," she said, and Ruth gave the merest flicker of a blink at Bab,"you did a very brave thing to-day, and I want to thank you for all ofus. If you had not been there my niece and her friend would undoubtedlyhave been kidnapped. You perhaps saved their lives. They might have beenkilled by those ruffians. Won't you give us your name and address? Mybrother, I am sure, would like to write to you himself. We shall beindebted to you always."
The young man's face flushed with embarrassment.
"It was nothing, I assure you, Madam," he replied. "It was easy becausethe man was intoxicated. He went over at the first blow. My name," hecontinued, "is Martinez. Jose Martinez. My address is the Waldorf, NewYork."
"I am Miss Stuart," said Miss Sallie, "and I would like to present youto my niece, Miss Ruth Stuart, and her friends Miss Grace Carter andMisses Barbara and Mollie Thurston. It would give us great pleasure ifyou would lunch with us, Mr. Martinez."
"When a man saves your life you certainly can't stand on ceremony,"commented Miss Sallie to herself.
An animated discussion followed. Mr. Martinez had been to see the chiefof police, he said, who would call on Miss Stuart that afternoon, ifconvenient. He could not offer any hope, however, of catching the men.
Miss Sallie replied that, for her part, she hoped they wouldn't take thecreatures. It would do no good and she did not want to spend any timecooped up in a court room in such scorching weather. But did Mr.Martinez think it would be dangerous for them to take a trip up into thehills the next day?
"It would depend upon the road," replied Mr. Martinez. "That is, if thetrip were taken by automobile. Of course my motor cycle can run on anyroad."
"It is a good road," replied Ruth. "At the crossroads there is a badroad; but, fortunately, we do not have to take it, since the new roadwith the bridge has been opened up, so Major Ten Eyck says."
In which case Mr. Jose Martinez was of a mind with the young ladies thatthe trip would be perfectly safe.
Miss Sallie gave a sigh of relief. If this estimable young mansanctioned the trip she felt they might take it with clear consciences.But she did hope her brother's views on the subject would be the same.
Then the talk drifted into other channels.
"You are a Spaniard, I presume, Mr. Martinez?" questioned Miss Sallie.
"Yes, Madam, a Spaniard by birth, a Frenchman by education and atpresent an American by choice. I have lived in England, also, but Ibelieve I prefer America to all other countries, even my own."
Miss Stuart was much gratified at this avowal. She felt that incomplimenting America he was complimenting her indirectly.
"Have you seen the Alhambra and the Rock of Gibraltar?" demanded Mollie,her wide, blue eyes full of interest.
"Oh, yes, Madamoiselle," replied the handsome Spaniard, smiling at hergently, "I have seen the Alhambra many times, and Gibraltar once only."A curious shade passed over his face as if Gibraltar held memories whichhe was not anxious to revive.
"Does the Rock of Gibraltar really look like a lion?" asked Grace, whohad not noticed his distaste to the mere mention of the name.
"I do not know, Madamoiselle," he replied shortly. "I saw it only fromland. I was," he added hesitatingly, "very ill when I was there."
The waiter announced the chief of police to see Miss Sallie, and theluncheon party adjourned to the shady side of the piazza.
All this time Barbara had been very quiet, so quiet, indeed, that Ruthhad asked her in a whisper, as they left the dining room, if she werestill feeling the shock of the morning.
"Oh, no," replied Barbara, "I am simply trying to stifle a ridiculousfear I have that, maybe, we ought not to go to-morrow. It is absurd, soplease don't mention it to the others, especially as even Miss Salliethinks it safe, and little coward Mollie is not afraid."
"You are just tired, poor dear," said sympathetic Ruth. "Come along upto your room, and we shall have a little 'relaxation,' as my old coloredmammy used to say. We'll spend a quiet afternoon in our rooms, and atsunset we can take a spin along the river bank before supper. What doyou say?"
"I am agreeable," replied Bab.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Martinez," said Ruth, as the others came up. "Youwill be wanting to take your siesta now, I suppose. Siestas, in Spain,are like afternoon tea in England, aren't they? Here in America we don'thave either, much, but I think we shall need both to-day. Perhaps weshall see you at dinner?"
"If I may have that pleasure," replied the Spaniard, bowing low.
"Strangers of the morning are friends in the afternoon, in this, ourlife of adventure," laughed Ruth as they passed along the corridor tothe steps.
But they did not see the stranger again that day. For some mysteriousreason he left the hotel in the afternoon, and did not return untilnearly midnight, when Barbara, who happened to be awake, heard himwhistling softly as he went down the hall to his room.
The Automobile Girls Along the Hudson; Or, Fighting Fire in Sleepy Hollow Page 5