Another conversation followed, which Jennie this time overheard; the speakers were no doubt nearer the telephone.
"Why do you want to let them get into Barrington at all?" one voice asked. "Why not stop them at the toll-gate?"
"To be sure!" said another. "If they get past the gate, like as not they'll turn down the Riverton road, and throw Allen off the track. They can't turn off before they get to the gate; we're sure of them as far as that."
"Tell the girl—" and then the speaker turned away, and Jennie caught only a confusion of sounds.
Presently she heard another "Hello!"
"Hello!" she responded.
"The Leicester Bank has been robbed," the voice went on, hurriedly, "by two men with a wagon and a white horse. They have driven toward Barrington, with Mr. Allen and two constables in pursuit, half an hour behind. You must—" Here the voice stopped as suddenly and completely as though it had had an extinguisher put over it. Even the hum of the electricity was checked, and Jennie knew enough about the telephone to be aware that in some way the connection had been abruptly cut off. It was in vain that she rang the bell and called "Hello!" No one answered. Jennie felt once more the old sense that she was out of the world. Leicester seemed all at once removed hundreds of miles away.
But what was it that she must or must not do? Why had not the connection lasted only a minute longer, when her instructions would have been complete? When were the robbers to be expected? Jennie made a little calculation. If they had been gone thirty minutes before any one started in pursuit, that would carry them, by fast driving, half-way to the toll-gate. If ten minutes had gone by before the telephone bell had rung, she might look for them within a quarter of an hour. What was she to do? The conversation which she had overheard came to her mind. "Stop them at the toll-gate," one of the voices had said. Very likely they would have told her to do that if the telephone had kept on. But how could a little girl arrest two armed and desperate men?
By this time she began to feel chilly. She could not go back to bed with this responsibility upon her, even though she did not know how to meet it; so, dressing herself, she opened the front door, and looked and listened. The night was darker than ever. A little space around the gate was lit up by the warning lantern. It would not help in stopping the burglars, she suddenly thought, to illuminate their way; so, going over to the light, she blew it out, and left the road in total darkness. That was at least one step toward the desired end.