Where Two Ways Met (30 page)

There was no room for their car to drive down there. It was the railroad track and the river, with only a narrow road a little above.

Paige drove as far as he could go, parked his car, and then they got out and began to walk down, finding it very hard to get anywhere because there were so many others searching for dear ones, just as they were.

They marveled as they went on that anybody was saved alive out of that wreckage.

There were great crews of wreckers, trying to clear the tracks for the other trains to pass. There was another crew laying a temporary track. And how were they going to find June? They traveled from one end of the wreckage to the other. They asked questions of people who didn’t know how to answer them. They found a couple of conductors and a few brakemen who couldn’t tell them about the girl they were looking for. At last they decided to separate, one going to one end of the wreckage, the other to the other, and then meet again in a few minutes to decide what to do next.

A moment’s questioning of a passing conductor informed them that no passengers had left for other locations yet, except as some were gone to hospitals, a few to the nearest morgue. But at last they found the man who had taken all the names of those who could give them. Oh, it was anxious work, of course. If they failed to find her here, they must go to distant hospitals and search. They
must
find her. If they only were near a telephone and could discover if possibly someone had taken her home, yet they would not dare telephone and let her Mother know that they had not found her yet.

So the thoughts went beating through the brains and hearts of the two, and now and again it would come to them that this wasn’t trusting the Lord. They had handed their burden over to Him and then taken it away with them and were carrying it themselves.

There was no time to kneel down and get quiet with the Lord, and no place to kneel. It was all confusion and clamor about them, souls in a panic crying out, yet so many of them not knowing to whom to cry.

Paige’s heart ached for the father. Poor man. He was almost dead on his feet. He had been up all night with that desperately sick man, had helped him die, and then come home to this. He could scarcely keep going, yet he tumbled on. She was his little girl who was missing. What must it mean to him not to be able to find her?

So Paige quickened his own steps and stumbled on. Down closer to a bend in the river and just beyond the clamor of the crowd, he caught a glimpse of a light dress, some mother likely, sitting or lying beside a child. It wasn’t in the least likely it was June, but he had resolved to pass no group, or single person, without looking into their faces and making sure. That was the only way, after all. The person or persons he saw were a little off the main road where everybody was stirring around, and almost he thought it wasn’t worthwhile to take the time to go, and then as he neared the trees that half hid the group, he could see that two were lying on the ground together.

Heartsick, he took another step, till he could plainly see the two lying beneath a tree, fast asleep. A tiny little child, with a quivering sob shaking her small shoulders now and then, trembling her pretty lips, and a young girl with a lovely protecting arm across the child, drawing her into a sheltering embrace. The attitude and the gentleness were so like a thing that June would do that he stepped closer to look at her face that was turned away; and, too, there was something familiar about a blue wool coat that was spread over her shoulders. So he bent over and looked intently at the girl’s face half hidden beside the little child.

Then suddenly he was down on his knees beside her, his own hand on the sweet little ministering hand, rejoicing that her hand was not cold, but warm. She was
alive
at least!

“June!” he whispered softly. “Oh, my darling June! Have I
really
found you?”

June stirred and opened her eyes, looked at him with bewilderment, and then a queer little tired smile dawned in her eyes.

“Paige!” she murmured softly. “Are you
real
—or—only—just a dream?”

Paige’s heart leaped.

“I’m
real
, darling,” he said joyously, and tenderly he stooped and put a reverent kiss on her forehead.

Afterward he wondered how he had dared, but at the time it seemed the right and beautiful thing to do. Her face bloomed into radiant joy, but still there was that little pucker of bewilderment on her forehead and in her dear eyes.

“But—
how
did you—come to
be
—
here
?” she asked, as if still thinking it might be but a dream.

Paige smiled down tenderly at her. “Your father and I came to find you,” he said.

“But—how did you
know
?”

“Your father heard the accident announced on the radio. He came over for me, and we’ve been searching some time for you. By the way, I must go and find him and tell him the good news. Will you let me carry you?”

“Oh, I can walk!” said June. “But I don’t know that I should leave this poor, frightened baby. Her mother has been taken to the hospital, and somehow they missed taking her. There were so many desperate cases. I promised her mother I would look after her till the ambulance comes back.”

Paige smiled to himself to think that when he had seen her first she was being called to serve a little needy one, and here it was again. He had found her in service for a needy one.

He wondered what he ought to do. He couldn’t bear to leave her now he had found her. There was so much confusion around, she might get lost. Still, he must tell her father.

Then all at once a tall person in a Red Cross uniform came toward them and looked down at the two on the ground.

“Is this the child whose mother was taken to Mercy Hospital? The little one called Mary Lou Fenner? Her mother is frantic lest she’ll be lost.”

“Yes, she told me her name was Mary Lou,” said June.

“Don’t stir, please,” said the Red Cross. “I’ll lift her away from you. Perhaps she won’t wake up.”

The nurse stooped and lifted the little girl with accustomed ease, cradling her gently in her arms as the child stirred. She hushed her, and turning, strode over to the ambulance with her. As she left, Paige, with a great sigh of relief, lifted June in his arms, a precious burden, and carried her across the poor people huddled on the ground awaiting help.

“Oh,” said June in a protesting little voice, “you mustn’t try to carry me. I can walk.”

“Yes, I know, but you are tired. I can see that, and besides I
like
to carry you!”

“But I’m too heavy to be carried over this rough ground.”

“No, no, you’re not heavy. You are—
precious
! Excuse me, but you don’t know how we feel about you after hunting for you so long. And besides, this is the quickest way to get back to your father and relieve his anxiety. Just lie still and relax till we get there. It isn’t far.”

So June relaxed, smiling, and lay thinking how strong and restful his arms were and how glad she was to be taken care of.

The minister was already at the place appointed, waiting, for it was some minutes past the time they had arranged for meeting. His face was ashen with anxiety, and he certainly needed to be reminded again that there was a state called “trusting” for such as he.

Then he saw them, June in Paige’s arms, and his fears leaped up again. Was June dead, that Madison had picked her up and was carrying her; or was she hurt, disabled? Nevertheless, he drew a breath of relief that the long search was over, even if there was more trouble to come.

But almost at once he saw that June was smiling, turning toward where he stood, and waving her pretty hand. That gave relief, and then suddenly she was beside him and Paige was setting her down.

“Are you all right?” asked the anxious father.

“Oh, yes,” said June. “I’m all right, but you look tired to death you dear,
dear daddy
.”

“I thought when I saw you being carried,” said the father, “that you were hurt.”

“No,” explained Paige, “I just thought this was the quickest way to get here, and I was afraid, too, that she might be tempted to stop at every troubled person she saw and consider herself a rescue squad. That’s what she’s been doing, I gather, ever since the accident. So I carried her. Besides, I found her asleep under a tree, and I figured she was pretty tired.”

“Well, of course,” June said, smiling. “But I’m quite all right, Daddy, truly I am.”

“Thank the dear Lord for that!” said the father, with his face shining.

Paige’s voice quietly echoed the words.

“And now,” said he, “I think what we ought to do is to get to our car as quickly as possible and get started somewhere for something to eat. There obviously wouldn’t be anything around here. Have you any baggage or anything? Were you able to bring anything out with you, June?”

June shook her head.

“I had two suitcases with me and my hat was hanging in the berth, but when I went back to the car I couldn’t get in, so I just let them go. I can get home without them, and all I want is to get home anyway.”

“Well, I’ll ask one of the officers about it. It may be possible to have your things sent on if they are not available before we get started. I’ll get you and your father to the car, and then I’ll ask the baggage master. Would you like me to carry you up the embankment, June? I’d be pleased to do it, if I may.”

June laughed and shook her head.

“I’m perfectly able to walk. I think we’ll both have to help Dad. He looks about all in.”

“Yes,” said Paige. “You know, he was up all night with a dying man before we left, and this has been a trying day for him. And there’s another thing we must remember. We should telephone the two mothers. They will have been anxious all day.”

So as swiftly as possible they made their way to the car. Paige went back to see about June’s belongings, and then they were soon on their way to a place where they could get a meal and telephone home.

They put Mr. Culbertson in the backseat to sleep for a while, and June insisted on sitting in front, saying she wanted to catch up on her acquaintance with Paige.

And so they started off joyously.

Mr. Culbertson was soon sound asleep, but the two young people in the front seat were suddenly terribly conscious of that kiss that had been given when Paige first found June, and the words of endearment that had slipped out in the stress of finding her. Paige wondered if she had heard them and if she realized that he had kissed her, and June, with a glad quiver in her happy heart, remembered them both and was wondering if Paige had
cared
or those had just been pleasant expressions of anxiety relieved.

But they were both too happy over having found each other again, and knowing that they were going to their beloved homes to stay and not be separated, to let any sad thoughts spoil their joy.

They were soon quietly chatting. Telling of the accident and of the trip in search of June. Telling about why Paige happened to be at home to come with June’s father in search of her. And that opened the way for Paige to tell of his shore experiences and how he came to resign his job.

June looked a little grave when she heard he had resigned.

“But isn’t that going to disappoint you terribly?” she asked. “Weren’t you a bit hasty doing that?”

“No,” said Paige decidedly. “I put it in the Lord’s hands, and that was what He indicated.” Then he told her of his old friend Brown, and the good proposition for the future he had made, and her face grew glad.

“Isn’t God wonderful, the way He answers when you trust
entirely
?” she said. “That was the way He took care of me when I didn’t think I could possibly stand Aunt Letitia and her faultfinding ways any longer, and then came that letter of Dad’s asking me to come right home, that Mother needed me.”

Paige began to laugh, and June looked at him curiously.

“I’m laughing,” Paige explained, “because your father was worrying a great part of the way over that he had written that letter. He said if anything happened to you it would be
his fault
, because he had told you to come right home.”

“Oh, that’s lovely,” June said, smiling. “Just another instance of how all things work together for good to them that love God. God let that letter come, knowing that He would take care of me when the accident came. And He did.”

“Thank the Lord,” murmured Paige softly.

It was growing dusky now, and the stars were peeking out one by one. By and by the moon would be coming up, but it could not bring to mind the last time he had watched it rise, making a path of silver on the sea. He had something better beside him now than a girl who despised him because he loved God’s Word.

There was quite a silence between the two as they drove through a village, and then June asked casually, “Did you ever get to know that daughter of Mr. Chalmers any better than you used to?”

Paige grinned.

“I certainly did,” he said. Then with sudden resolve—“and I guess here’s where I tell you all about it. Then we’ll cross her off our list for all time and make no more mention of her.”

“Oh!” said June with a little gasp in her breath. Was there something coming that was going to hurt?

So Paige told her the whole story in detail, from the first arrogant barging in of the daughter of his boss, through the dancing incident, and on to the morning when she walked into his room, snatched his Bible, and threw it across the room.

“Poor child!” said June sadly. “What a life to live!”

“Yes, isn’t it?” said Paige.

And so he went on to tell more of Mr. Brown’s offer and how his business prospects had all been changed into something that he felt sure was going to be wonderful for him by and by, and how relieved he was to be out of the atmosphere of Harris Chalmers and Company.

It was quite dark now, and the moon was making a silver rim over the mountains as they drove.

“You must be very tired,” said Paige. “Wouldn’t you be willing to put your head on my shoulder and rest? Shut your eyes and go to sleep?”

June’s cheeks grew hot with pleasure, but she laughed.