Astonished as he was and gagged with bread and jam, Mr. Hugh’s anxiety and anger disappeared at the same moment, for both he and Miss Jule, who had driven completely around the circuit without finding the party, feared they might have tried to cross the river at the disabled bridge which had disappeared altogether at the rush of the suddenly swollen stream, and his turning into the lane at all had been quite an accident.
Instantly there was a confusion of tongues, and poor Mr. Hugh’s brain whirled as he heard the words: “punctured tire,” “across the fields,” “horrid barbed wire fence,” “dead tree that kept moving,” “Laddie in trap,” “license money stolen,” “dear old china,” “such delicious tea,” “saved Jill Waddles from starving to death,” “thunder and lightning,” “chestnut tree,” etc., each sentence coming from a different person. Nor was his bewilderment lessened by the sight of the Witch herself, leaning on her crutch by the chimney closet, dignified and silent, the very reverse of the whining beggar, half lunatic, half tramp, that she had been represented.
His first idea was to relieve Miss Jule’s mind and get the girls safely home, his second was to apologize to Mrs. Carr for his evident misunderstanding and abrupt entrance.
“You can tell me all about it on the way home,” he said to the group at large. “Elsa, your mother is nearly frantic about you all; fortunately Miss Jule expected to keep Anne at the Hill Farm all night, so her mother knows nothing about the matter.
The Herb Witch.
“The wheels are up under that chestnut? Very well, we will ask Mrs. Carr to keep the lame one until it can be called for to-morrow; its owner will have to drive with me, and the rest ride, at least, as far as the blacksmith’s on the turnpike, for it will be dark before I can send the horses back here. Whose wheel was disabled?”
“Miss Letty’s,” said Martica Willoughby, “and I should think she would be thankful to drive home, for it was hard enough for us to lead our wheels through all that stubble; but her front tire was so flat she almost had to carry hers.”
Miss Letty got into the runabout without more ado, having the tact not to make a fuss, and offer to ride Martica’s wheel. Mr. Hugh bowed pleasantly to Mrs. Carr, who came to the gate, drawing her cloak about her,—the same one that Anne remembered,—and led the way down the lane, crossing the river, which was narrow and swift just there, a couple of hundred feet west of the house.