"And the noise of them is so terrifying," went on Ruth, "that the poor headless horseman would probably have been scared back to death again."

Presently the girls came to a steep declivity in the land that seemed to dip and rise with equal suddenness.

"Is this the Hollow?" asked Mollie a little awed.

"This land is full of hollows, my dear," answered Miss Sallie, who did not like uneven traveling. "We have been through several already, and, with that hobgoblin on an infernal machine coming after us, and all these dense forests packing us in on every side, and nothing but a lonesome churchyard in front of us, it seems to me we should have brought along some better protectors than two slips of girls."

Here Miss Sallie paused in order to regain breath.

"I declare," exclaimed Ruth, "I don't know which one of these roads leads to the churchyard. Of course we can explore both of them, but we don't want to miss seeing the old church, and we certainly don't want to miss lunch. It will be so cheerful picnicking in a graveyard."

The automobile stopped and the motor cycle, catching up with them just then, stopped also. The rider put his foot down to steady himself, and removing his black leather cap and gla.s.ses, bowed courteously to Miss Stuart.

"Is Madame looking for the ancient church?" he asked, in very excellent English with just a touch of accent.

The five women remembered, at once, that this was the stranger whom they had lately seen at breakfast. From closer quarters they saw that he was good-looking, not with the kind of looks they were accustomed to admire, but still undeniably handsome. His features had rather a haughty turn to them, and his black eyes had a melancholy look; but even the heavy leather suit he wore could not hide the graceful slenderness of his figure.

"Yes; we were looking for the church," replied Miss Sallie in a somewhat mollified tone, considering she had just called him a hobgoblin on an infernal machine. "Will you be good enough to tell us which one of these roads we must take?"

"If you will follow me," answered the stranger, "I also am going there.

You will pardon me if I go in front? If you will wait a moment I will get somewhat ahead, so that madame and the other ladies will not be dusted."

"I must say he is rather a polite young man," admitted Miss Sallie, "if he is somewhat rapid in his movements."

"He is curiously good-looking," reflected Ruth. "Not exactly our kind, I should say; but, after all, he may be just foreign and different. Just because he is not an American type doesn't keep him from being nice."

All the time the foliage was getting more impenetrable. Tall trees reared themselves on either side of the road, seeming vanguards of the forests behind them. A cool, woodsy breeze touched their cheeks softly, and Barbara closed her eyes for a moment that she might feel the enchantment of the place.

"How many Dutch burghers and their wives must have driven up this same gra.s.sy road," she was thinking to herself. "How many wedding parties and funeral trains, too, for here is their graveyard. No wonder a traveler imagined he saw ghosts on this lonely road, with nothing but a cemetery and an old church to cheer him on his way. And here is our auto running in the very same ruts their funny old carriages and rockaways must have made, and this stranger in front of us on something queerer still. I wonder if ghosts of the future will ride in phantom autos or on motor cycles. What a fearful sight! A headless man on an infernal machine--"

Her reflections were interrupted by the turning around of the automobile. Ruth had evidently decided to go back by the way they had come. Opening her eyes she saw before her a quaint and charming old church set in the midst of a rambling graveyard.

There also stood the black cyclist, like a gruesome sentinel among the tombs. He lifted his cap as they drew up, and, after hesitating a moment, came forward to open the door and help Miss Sallie alight.

"Permit me, Madam," he said, with such grace of demeanor that the lady thanked him almost with effusion. Grace and Mollie were a.s.sisted as if they had been princesses of the blood, as they described it later, while the other two girls leaped to the ground before he had time to make any overtures in their direction.

There was rather an awkward pause, for a moment, as the stranger, with uncovered head, stood aside to let them pa.s.s. The silence was not broken and Miss Stuart chose to let it remain so.

"One cannot be too careful," she had always said, "of chance acquaintances, especially men." However, she was predisposed in favor of the cyclist, whose manners were exceptional.

The girls were strolling about among the graves, examining the stones with their quaint epitaphs, while the stranger leaned against a tree and lit a cigarette.

Miss Stuart, with her lorgnette, was making a survey of the church.

"From the account of the supper party at the Van Ta.s.sels' in Sleepy Hollow," said Ruth, "the early Dutch must have just about eaten themselves to death. Do you remember all the food there was piled on the table at the famous quilting party? Every kind of cake known to man, to begin with; or rather, Washington Irving began with cakes. Roast fowls and turkeys, hams and sausages, puddings and pies and the humming tea-urn in the midst of it."

"I don't think the women had such big appet.i.tes as the men," observed Mollie. "At least Katrina Van Ta.s.sel is described as being very dainty, and I can't imagine a pretty young girl working straight through such a bill of fare, and yet looking quite the same ever after."

"But remember that they took lots of exercise," put in Barbara, "of a kind we know nothing about. All the Dutch girls were taught to scrub and polish and clean."

"What were we doing when Ruth and Miss Sallie and Mr. Stuart arrived, Bab, I'd like to know?" interrupted Mollie indignantly. "Weren't we rubbing the parlor furniture and polishing the floor?"

"Yes," returned Barbara, "but you could put our entire house down in the parlor of one of those old Dutch farm houses, and still have room and to spare."

"And think of all the copper kettles they had to keep polished," added Grace.

"And the spinning they had to do," said Ruth.

"And the cooking and b.u.t.ter making," continued Bab. "Yes, Mistress Mollie, I think there's some excuse for sausages and all the rest. And I am sure I could have forgiven Katrina if she ate everything in sight."

"Ah, well," replied Mollie, "no doubt she was fat at thirty!"

CHAPTER IV-A CRY FOR HELP

AS they talked the young girls wandered over the gra.s.sy sward of the churchyard and their voices grew fainter and fainter to the cyclist and Miss Sallie.

The latter had seated herself on the stump of an old tree and was busily engaged in re-reading her mail, at which she had glanced only carelessly that morning.

The air was very still and hot, and the hum of insects made a drowsy accompaniment to the songs of the birds. The cyclist had stretched himself at full length on the gra.s.s under an immense elm tree and was lazily blowing blue rings of smoke skywards.

Presently there broke upon the noonday stillness a cry for help. It was in a high, girlish voice-Mollie's in fact-and it was followed by others in quick succession.

Miss Stuart, scattering her mail on the ground in her fright, rushed in the direction of the cries, the cyclist close behind her.

On a knoll near the church the sight which met Miss Sallie's eyes almost made her knees give way. But she had a cool head in danger, in spite of her lavender draperies and pretended helplessness.

A tramp, who seemed to them all at the moment as big as a giant, with matted hair and beard and face swollen from drink, had seized Ruth and Barbara by the wrists with one of his enormous hands. A woman equally ragged in appearance was tugging at the fellow's other hand in an effort to quiet him.

As Miss Sallie ran toward the group she heard Barbara say quietly:

"Let go our wrists and we shall be glad to give you all the money we have with us."

"I tell you I want more money than that," said the man in a hoa.r.s.e, terrible voice. "I want enough money to keep me for the rest of my days.

Do you think I like to sleep on the ground and eat bread and water? I tell you I want my rights. Why should you be rich and me poor? Why should you be dressed in silks while my wife wears rags?"

As he raved, he jerked his hand away from the woman, almost throwing her forward in his violence, and gesticulated wildly.

The two girls were both very pale and calm, but the poor tramp woman was crying bitterly.

Barbara's lips were moving, but she said nothing, and only Mollie knew it was her mother's prayer she was repeating.

"Don't be frightened, young ladies," sobbed the woman, "I will see that no harm comes to you, even if he kills me."

"Do you call this a free country," continued the tramp, "when there are thousands of people like me who have no houses and must beg for food? I would like to kill all the rich men in this country and turn their children loose to beg and steal, as we must do to get a living! Do you think I would ever have come to this pa.s.s if a rich man had not brought me to it? Do you think I was always a tramp like this, and my wife yonder a tramp, too?"