No sooner said than done. She did not tell her aunts of her inspiration, knowing that valuable time would be lost in the discussion that would ensue, and she would probably be back before Aunt Melissa had left their own gates. She flew down stairs, picking up her worsted cap as she ran through the hall. It took but a moment to unfasten the back door and lift the wheel down the short flight of steps. Another moment and she was mounted and off.
The storm clouds had rolled away, and the sky was now perfectly clear. The moon had risen an hour since, making the night as bright as day with its strange, weird light, the light that transforms the world into such a different place from that which the sun reveals. Teddy had seldom been out at night, and now to go alone on such an errand and in such a manner filled her with excitement.
To be fleeing away on a bicycle at dead of night to save her aunt's life was something which she had never dreamed it would be her fate to do.
Puddles of rain-water stood here and there in her path, but the Alden roads were noted for their excellence, and even after the heavy shower they were hard as boards, and the pools were easily avoided. The moonlight cast strange shadows over the lawn, and as she flew past the gate-post it almost seemed as if some one were standing there and had moved; but of course that was only her imagination, Teddy told herself. The child had not a thought of fear.
Her aunts' house was on the outskirts of the town, and at this hour the street was but little frequented, and she met no one as she skimmed over the broad white road. Dr. Morton's house was about a mile from that of the Misses Middleton, and it did not take long to get there. The doctor's buggy was at the door, and he himself was just in the act of alighting, when there was the whiz of a wheel on the gravelled driveway and the sharp, sudden ring of a bicycle-bell.
The doctor turned in time to see a small girlish figure swing herself to the ground.
"Bless my soul!" exclaimed he, much startled. "Who is this?"
"It's Teddy Middleton, and Aunt Joanna is very ill. Please come just as quick as you can, Dr. Morton."
"Bless my soul!" repeated the Doctor. "You don't mean to tell me the good ladies have allowed you to come out at this hour of the night, and on a bicycle?"
He knew them well, and had heard them discourse more than once on the subject of their pet aversion.