But young Mr. Carey did not trust his voice to answer. Standing erect, with folded arms, in dark silhouette in the light of the hall, he bowed his head.
Deaf to alarm bells, to pistol shots, to cries for help, they found her brother and Ernest Peabody sleeping soundly.
“Sam is a charming chaperon,” said the owner of the car.
With the girl beside him, with Fred crouched, shivering, on the step, he threw in the clutch; the servants from the house waved the emptied buckets in salute, and the great car sprang forward into the awakening day toward the golden dome over the Boston Common. In the rear seat Peabody shivered and yawned, and then sat erect.
“Did you get the water?” he demanded, anxiously.
There was a grim silence.
“Yes,” said the owner of the car patiently. “You needn’t worry any longer. We got the water.”
III
THE KIDNAPPERS
During the last two weeks of the “whirlwind” campaign, automobiles had carried the rival candidates to every election district in Greater New York.
During these two weeks, at the disposal of Ernest Peabody—on the Reform Ticket “the people’s choice for Lieutenant-Governor”—Winthrop had placed his Scarlet Car, and, as its chauffeur, himself.