“You will have to this time, and if you have to charge a leetle extra for making haste, why, that is not my fault; and seeing that the railway people have got to pay the bill, because it was the carelessness of their man what did the mischief, why, I shan’t be so much upset as if it had got to come out of my pocket,” drawled Bill Humphries, winking in the direction of the depot yard, as if it were all a very good joke indeed.
“Needs must, I suppose, when the old ’un drives,” rejoined Luke Moulden, with a slow, rumbling laugh. “You shall have the job finished to time, even if I have to sit up both nights to get it through, and I’ll hitch up for the young lady smart and early; for she won’t want to get benighted on the road.”
“I thought that I should manage him if I just happened to say he could charge a trifle more for getting it done quick,” chuckled Bill, as he went back with Bertha along the muddy road to the stores, where he spent half an hour with her, arranging for the lading of the wagon and the sort of goods he wanted her to bring back; and, when this was done, he had to mount his horse and ride off to Pentland Broads at the best pace he could make, while Bertha, left to her own devices, went slowly towards the police barracks to see what arrangements Inspector Grant had been able to make for her.
She did not have to wait for him this time, but found that he was waiting for her, and there was a smile on his face which seemed to indicate that he had been able to manage to his own satisfaction.
“Well, Miss Doyne, I have got on better than I expected,” he said cheerfully. “The wife of one of our men stationed at Brocken Ridge wants to go through to her husband, and she will take care of you on the way out to railhead, look after you while you are there, and see you safely on the cars for the return. I have got to write a pass for her, and I will write one for you also, then the journey will cost you nothing beyond your food and the bodily discomfort which you are bound to endure; for I warn you that the journey will not be exactly a picnic, as you will have to travel out on a freighter.”
“How very kind you are!” she exclaimed. “I don’t in the least mind the discomfort, if only I can get my errand done.”
“Very well, be at the depot by six o’clock this evening, and I will step along to introduce you to Mrs. Walford; she is a very respectable sort, and will take proper care of you. If I had had any doubt about her, I should not have allowed you to go; for railhead is not a nice place for a girl, despite the efforts of the contractors to keep the construction camps clean and wholesome.”
“I am not afraid,” said Bertha simply.
“I don’t believe that you are,” he answered, smiling at her in a kind, fatherly fashion, “but that is all the more reason why other people should be afraid for you when duty calls you into questionable places. Now, don’t forget it is six o’clock sharp, and be sure that you are at the depot in good time.”
Bertha thanked him, and then made her way to the boarding house kept by Mrs. Smith, a little Irishwoman who had arrived at Rownton with the railway and stayed there ever since.