Chapter Fourteen

As soon as the fleeing children realized that Rutherford wasn’t pounding after them, they stumbled to a halt at the edge of a poplar stand and stood bent over, gasping for breath. When they managed to gather their wits, all eyes focused accusingly on Felix. He was the one who had blabbed about the real jewels being in the Markdale safe. It seemed obvious where Rutherford and Amanda would head.

“We have to go there,” Sara asserted urgently. “We have to warn the constable.”

The idea was a nobleone, but by the time they got there they were too late. The Markdale constable had found out for himself the perils of having a pair such as Rutherford and Amanda loose in the neighborhood. The children discovered him nursing a large lump on his head and mournfully contemplating the empty interior of his safe.

“I woke up and the gems were gone,” he lamented as Felicity and Sara hurriedly applied a makeshift ice-pack to his head.

Gus grimaced, realizing that he himself bore a lot of the blame for the way things had turned out. “I should have told the truth about those gems in the first place,” he groaned.

Felicity gingerly patted the ice at the constable’s hairline, then turned to the others. Once again, she remembered that she was supposed to be in charge of the King household.

“Well, I’ll tell you one thing, if Mother and Father ever find out, they’ll never leave Avonlea again.”

After the constable was on his feet and the small office tidied up, there seemed to be nothing more for the young people to do but go home again and swear to stay clear of any more bamboozling strangers. At a time when all ordinary children ought to have been in their beds, the little party, Gus included, retired to the farmhouse kitchen to further contemplate their escapades.

Adventuring, as Felix long ago could have told them, turned out be a hungry business. Sara had provided nothing edible for their supper, and with all the running about the countryside in fear of their live they had worked up a gigantic appetite. Felicity applied herself to the problem and soon the kitchen table was piled with everything edible that was left in the house. Cheese, bread, butter, jam, biscuits, raisins, dried fruit and more were sacrificed to refuel the party.

“I suppose they’ll be far away by now,” Sara said with a resigned sigh. In hindsight, she couldn’t believe that she and Felicity had actually broken into Amanda’s hotel room. She quaked in her shoes to think what her Aunt Hetty would have done had she and Felicity been arrested for trespassing too.

“And good riddance to them,” Felix asserted, stuffing his mouth with a huge date square. He had had more than enough of the whole business.

“Sorry I got you into this mess,” Gus said sheepishly.

“I’m just sorry that Miss Stone escaped punishment,” said Felicity, just as though she would have been quite happy to have seen Amanda led away in chains.

“Well,” Sara told her confidently, despite the Markdale officer’s condition, “the constable will be after them now.”

No one commented that, considering the episode of the safe, the Markdale constable wasn’t likely to be much of a threat to the two resourceful fugitives.

“But what I want to know,” Felix put in, “is what happened to Lord Doom after he fell into the pit?”

All the children brightened at the thought of at least one trap working as it ought. Gus picked up the magazine from the kitchen table, where they had left it before going out. Proudly, he demonstrated his new reading skills.

“When the villagers looked down at the Count’s crumpled body,” he began, “his black clothing stained by scarlet blood in the torchlight, they could see the fire in his eyes was not damp-ened. And that fire was the fire of madness; the fire that had sent him out in the night on his bloody rampages, to ride his black horse in search of victims was jealousy for the love of a pure maiden he could not obtain.”

The children grew so engrossed that they all jumped in their chairs as Digger suddenly barked and rushed to the door. Gus, nearest to the door, opened it obligingly, and Digger bolted outside.

“Oh, no!” Felicity squealed, realizing that Gus didn’t know how Digger had led them into the adventure in the first place.

“Not again!” Felix echoed.

The children jumped up to get their coats and pursue their dog.

Digger, it seemed, couldn’t leave well enough alone either. He headed towards the cliffs, barking excitedly. And he had good reason to bark, for a horse hurtled along, at full gallop, hot breath steaming from its nostrils.

While the children had been dashing to Mark- dale and back, the threatening storm clouds had rolled away, leaving a clear sky and a full, bright moon. The children, running after the dog, were silhouetted in the moonlight. Then another silhouette appeared, showing up sharply against the moon-sparkling sea.

It was, of course, Amanda, her hood thrown back, her hair streaming behind her. She looked over her shoulder as she ran and she clutched in her hand the oh-so-familiar bag of gems. In the distance, a dog howled.

Far behind, Rutherford, caped and ominous, whipped his black horse for more speed. He called out into the wind.

“You’ll never escape, Amanda Stone. I’ll chase you to the ends of the earth!”

Rutherford’s words echoed back to the children, who stood and watched as the villain caught Amanda and lifted her onto the saddle in front of him. And they could have sworn Amanda was laughing, confident that she could outwit Rutherford, or anyone else who got in her way. This time, they had the sense to realize just how much Amanda enjoyed the game. And they were quite content to allow the pair, gems and all, to dash out of sight. Let them cause trouble somewhere else and leave the people of Avonlea to their peaceful, uneventful lives.

 

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