So they set valiantly forth, though the early nightfall was now swiftly coming; but the “somewhere” they sought was far and hard to find.
CHAPTER XIV.
HOW THE FIRST DAY ENDED.
The three girls walked on till, as Natalie said, their legs “felt like sticks, hopping up and down” and Aubrey was in a frenzy of fear. This was so unlike her that it had a most terrifying effect on Natalie and even Jessica was dismayed. Then, too, she suddenly remembered that she had once before been “lost” on a Los Angeles’ street and that a “station-house,” such as these girls dreaded, had been her refuge. They had come to an open lot, whereon a row of buildings was to be erected, the cellars already dug; and upon some of the stones heaped there they sat down to consult.
“I’d be afraid to go back now. I—I’m awful afraid, anyway. I guess, I guess our ‘lark’ wasn’t so nice as it seemed. I was never out in the dark like this, without grown-ups with me. Madame—I daren’t think of Madame! Nor of my father. The last time I got into disgrace he said that the next time he would punish me by making me stay at school during all the Christmas holidays. And now—the ‘next time’ has come. Madame will never overlook this runaway.”
“Aubrey, hush! Don’t!” cried frightened Natalie, more disturbed by these words of her leader than even by her present condition. Till then, though anxious, she had not had the least doubt but that they were still on that road to “somewhere” which Jessica had suggested, or that “somewhere” would not be in the immediate vicinity of their school.
“Do you mean that we’ve done wrong, real wrong, coming away without being told we might?” demanded Jessica, with sudden anger.
“Course. You didn’t think we were doing the other thing—‘right’—did you? Madame will punish us awfully if—if we ever get back. She’ll stop our pocket money and give us extra lessons and—Oh! dear! I wish I’d never—never come!” answered Aubrey, collapsing to that degree she sobbed aloud.
Natalie also began to wail, in an audible and most distressing manner. She was a girl greatly afraid of “the dark” and the dark was swiftly coming. October days are short, even when brightest, and the sky was now overclouded with signs of an approaching storm. An icy breeze swept round the open place and set them shivering, and the keen hunger of healthy schoolgirls added to their discomfort.
A policeman came along and Jessica made prompt decision; calling eagerly: