Miss Gordon once had told the Brownies that whenever anything went wrong, the important thing was to remain very calm.
Connie felt anything but calm now. She was so excited she trembled all over. But she knew she had to think clearly or Veve might never be saved.
“I’ll call the police,” she thought.
At the next to last Brownie meeting, Miss Gordon had shown the girls how to dial police and fire department numbers in an emergency. Only Connie had no nickel and the nearest telephone was at the drugstore a block away.
Well, she had to do something quickly. Even if Veve were lucky enough not to be thrown from her sled, the driver was almost certain to take her far away without knowing it.
20 Dragging her sled, Connie ran all the way to the drugstore. The druggist was there, waiting on a customer who wanted a box of cough tablets.
“Please,” said Connie breathlessly, “will you lend me a nickel?”
The druggist looked so surprised she realized that the request must seem an odd one. So she added quickly:
“Veve was carried away on her sled by an automobile1! I must call the police station.”
“The police station!” exclaimed the druggist.
He didn’t understand what Connie meant about Veve and the sled, but he could see from her worried look that something was wrong.
He gave her a nickel and showed her where the telephone booth was located.
“Can you dial the numbers yourself?” he asked.
Connie nodded. The telephone directory hung on a hook, and on the front cover in large print were the instructions:
“In case of Emergency Dial Police—Adams 1234.” The number was an easy one to remember.
A light flashed on as Connie stepped into the booth. She dropped the nickel into the coin box and waited for the clear dial tone. When she heard it, she carefully whirled the numbers.
21 Almost at once a gruff voice barked in her ear:
“Police station!”
Connie was a trifle nervous, for she never before had talked to anyone at the police station. However, she forced herself to speak slowly and relate exactly what had happened.
“Please come as fast as you can,” she urged. “Veve McGuire and I were coasting at Kelly’s Hill. She hooked a ride with her sled on an automobile—and was carried away.”
The police sergeant2 seemed to grasp the situation instantly. He barked: “Did you get the car license3 number?”
“No-o,” Connie admitted, trying hard to remember. “The first two letters were EB—the same as Edith Bailey’s initials. But I can’t remember the numbers. It was a large gray sedan.”
“Going what direction?”
“West.” Of this Connie was certain. “It was headed up the hill and went on toward the country.”
“Highway 20,” said the police sergeant, making notes on his pad. “The girl’s name is Veve McGuire. Address?”
“2179 Kingston Drive.”
“Right-o. And your name?”
22 Connie gave that too and then asked the sergeant if he thought Veve could be found. The officer promised to do his very best. He told her the information would be broadcast over the police shortwave radio system and picked up by all cruising police cars.
Connie hung up the telephone receiver and thanked the druggist for the nickel.
“I’ll pay it back tomorrow,” she promised. “Brownie Scout’s honor.”
“Don’t give it another thought,” he replied. “I only hope you find your little friend.”
Both he and the lady customer asked many questions about how Veve had been carried away on the sled.
Connie answered them all as fast as she could and then hurried away home to tell her mother and Mrs. McGuire what had occurred.
She was quite breathless by the time she burst into the kitchen where her mother was getting the evening meal.
“Why, Connie,” said Mrs. Williams in surprise. “Is anything wrong?”
“Veve’s been carried away in a car, Mother!”
Again Connie told about the coasting mishap4.
“Oh, Connie!” exclaimed Mrs. Gordon in a frightened voice. “Does Mrs. McGuire know?”
23 “Not yet, Mother. I haven’t had time to tell her.”
“We must, at once. Though I’m afraid she still may be at work. Oh, dear!”
Veve’s father was dead, and the little girl’s mother worked part-time in a downtown office. During the afternoon Veve’s grandmother usually came in to stay with her, but on this Saturday no one had been at the McGuire home.
Connie had never seen her mother look more worried. She hastened to the telephone and, after making several calls, reached Mrs. McGuire. Next she called Connie’s father, asking him to pick up Mrs. McGuire at her office and bring her home.
“Will Veve be hurt, do you think?” Connie asked anxiously.
Mrs. Williams did not answer. She was in the front hallway putting on her hat and coat.
Ten minutes later Connie’s father drove up in the car. He had made a very fast trip home.
With him in the car was Mrs. McGuire, her hat at a rakish angle. She asked Connie to tell her exactly what had happened at the hill.
“Veve is so reckless,” she said when she heard the story. “Oh, I’m afraid she may be badly hurt.”
“Now don’t worry, Mrs. McGuire,” said Connie’s mother kindly5. “Connie telephoned the police and24 already they are searching for the car. We’ll start out too.”
Connie could tell by the tone of her mother’s voice that she was proud of her for having called the police station so promptly6.
“We’ll want you to go with us, Connie, because you may be able to recognize the car,” said her mother, motioning for her to get into the Williams’ automobile.
Connie rode in the front seat beside her father. At Kelly’s Hill she pointed7 out the bend in the road where she last had seen the gray sedan.
Driving quite slowly, Mr. Williams watched both sides of the road. He was afraid Veve might have been thrown from her sled into a snowy ditch.
For nearly an hour, the car went up one street and down another. Mr. Williams drove far out on Highway 20, stopping at two filling stations to ask the attendants if they had seen a little girl in a red snowsuit being pulled on her sled by a gray car. No one had.
Connie sat with her face pressed against the car window, watching and hoping. Twice she thought she saw the gray car. But always it proved to be a different automobile.
Soon it was so dark she scarcely could see the25 road. Lights winked8 on inside the houses. Mr. Williams had to turn on the car headlights.
“We may as well return home,” he said at last.
“By this time, the police may have found Veve,” said Connie’s mother. She spoke9 as cheerfully as she could because Mrs. McGuire looked as if she were about to cry.
“Let’s go back as quickly as we can,” agreed Mrs. McGuire.
Soon the car turned down the familiar, winding10 street, but Connie saw that the McGuire house was dark. Veve’s grandmother had not returned. Veve couldn’t be home either, or the lights would have been turned on.
When Mrs. McGuire looked at the dark windows, she began to cry. She couldn’t help it because she was so very worried. Connie’s mother held her arm as she helped her from the car.
“Now we’ll soon find Veve,” she reassured11 her. “Do come in while I telephone the police station. They may have news for us.”
Mrs. McGuire started with Mrs. Williams into the house. Connie intended to go with them, but as she cut across the yard past the half-melted snowman, she noticed a car coming slowly down the street.
26 At first she couldn’t even guess at its color because of the darkness.
However, the automobile looked very much like the one that had carried Veve away.
“Oh, Mother!” she cried. “See that car! I think it may be the one!”
Now Connie had made that very remark several times during the search for the gray sedan. Upon each occasion, she had been mistaken.
So, although her mother and Mrs. McGuire turned quickly to gaze down the street, they held little hope that she could be right.
Nearer and nearer came the automobile, passing directly under a bright street light.
“Oh, it is a gray sedan!” shouted Connie, fairly beside herself with excitement.
She tried to read the license number but could not make it out. The driver seemed to be alone in the car. He kept peering at the house numerals along the street.
“Mother,” cried Connie, “the car is slowing down!”
Even as she spoke, it stopped directly in front of the McGuire house.
“It’s the same car!” shouted Connie. “But where is Veve?”
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1
automobile
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| n.汽车，机动车 | |
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sergeant
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| n.警官，中士 | |
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3
license
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| n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许 | |
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mishap
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| n.不幸的事，不幸；灾祸 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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7
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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8
winked
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| v.使眼色( wink的过去式和过去分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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9
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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10
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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11
reassured
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| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
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