Abduction -- Fiction; Americans -- Europe -- Fiction; Love stories
“Is this another abduction?” she asked, sweetly, and both laughed
merrily, in spite of their predicament. His haggard face, still
showing the effects of illness, grew more and more troubled, and at
last he said they would have to get down from the trap, not only to
avoid the danger of tipping over the cliff, but to relieve the
horse. In this sorry fashion they plodded along, now far above the
forest, and in the cool air of the hilltops.
“There certainly must be a top to this accursed hill,” he panted. He
was leading the horse by the bit, and she was bravely trudging at
his side.
“There is a bend in the road up yonder, Phil,” she said.
When they turned the bend in the tortuous mountain road, both drew
up sharply, with a gasp of astonishment. For a long time neither
spoke, their bewildered minds struggling to comprehend the vast
puzzle that confronted them. Even the fagged horse pricked up his
ears and looked ahead with interest. Not three hundred yards beyond
the bend stood the ruins of an enormous castle.
“It is Craneycrow!” gasped the man, leaning dizzily against the
shaft of the trap. She could only look at him in mute consternation.
It was Craneycrow, beyond all doubt, but what supernatural power had
transferred it bodily from the squarrose hill on which it had stood
for centuries, to the spot it now occupied, grim and almost
grinning? “Is this a dream, Dorothy? Are we really back again?”
“I can't believe it,” she murmured. “We must be deceived by a
strange resem--”
“There is Bob himself! Good heavens, this paralyzes me! Hey, Bob!
Bob!”
A few minutes later a limping horse dragged his bones into the
courtyard and two shame faced travelers stood before a taunting
quartet, enduring their laughter, wincing under their jests,
blushing like children when the shots went home. For hours they had
driven in a circle, rounding the great row of hills, at last coming
to the very gate from which they had started forth so confidently.
They were tired and hungry and nervous.
“Did you telegraph your mother you were coming?” asked Dickey
Savage.
“We did not even see a telegraph wire,” answered Dorothy, dismally.
“What did you see?” he asked, maliciously,
“You should not ask confusing questions, Richard,” reprimanded Lady
Jane, with mock severity.
“Well, we'll try it over again to-morrow,” decided Quentin,
doggedly.
“Do you expect me to let you kill every horse I own?” demanded Lord
Bob. “They can't stand these round-the-world pleasure trips every
day, don't you know. Glad to oblige you, my boy, but I must be
humane.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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