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+Project Gutenberg's A Reversible Santa Claus, by Meredith Nicholson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Reversible Santa Claus
+
+Author: Meredith Nicholson
+
+Release Date: February 14, 2005 [EBook #15044]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A REVERSIBLE SANTA CLAUS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the PG Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.(www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A
+REVERSIBLE
+SANTA CLAUS
+
+BY
+MEREDITH NICHOLSON
+
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
+FLORENCE H. MINARD
+
+BOSTON and NEW YORK
+HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+
+The Riverside Press, Cambridge
+
+1917
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY MEREDITH NICHOLSON
+
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+_Published October 1917_
+
+
+By Meredeth Nicholson
+
+    A REVERSIBLE SANTA CLAUS. Illustrated.
+    THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING. Illustrated.
+    THE POET. Illustrated.
+    OTHERWISE PHYLLIS. With frontispiece in color.
+    THE PROVINCIAL AMERICAN AND OTHER PAPERS.
+    A HOOSIER CHRONICLE. With illustrations.
+    THE SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SUITORS. With illustrations.
+
+HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+
+BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+
+A Reversible Santa Claus
+
+[Illustration: "DO YOU MIND TELLING ME JUST WHY YOU READ THAT NOTE?"
+_(Page 78)_]
+
+
+Illustrations
+
+"DO YOU MIND TELLING ME JUST WHY YOU READ THAT NOTE?"   _Frontispiece_
+
+THE HOPPER GRINNED, PROUD OF HIS SUCCESS,
+  WHICH MARY AND HUMPY VIEWED WITH GRUDGING ADMIRATION                  44
+
+THE FAINT CLICK OF A LATCH MARKED THE PROWLER'S PROXIMITY TO A HEDGE   116
+
+THE THREE MEN GATHERED ROUND THEM, STARING DULLY                       150
+
+_From Drawings by F. Minard_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+A Reversible Santa Claus
+
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+Mr. William B. Aikins, _alias_ "Softy" Hubbard, _alias_ Billy The Hopper,
+paused for breath behind a hedge that bordered a quiet lane and peered out
+into the highway at a roadster whose tail light advertised its presence to
+his felonious gaze. It was Christmas Eve, and after a day of unseasonable
+warmth a slow, drizzling rain was whimsically changing to snow.
+
+The Hopper was blowing from two hours' hard travel over rough country. He
+had stumbled through woodlands, flattened himself in fence corners to
+avoid the eyes of curious motorists speeding homeward or flying about
+distributing Christmas gifts, and he was now bent upon committing himself
+to an inter-urban trolley line that would afford comfortable
+transportation for the remainder of his journey. Twenty miles, he
+estimated, still lay between him and his domicile.
+
+The rain had penetrated his clothing and vigorous exercise had not greatly
+diminished the chill in his blood. His heart knocked violently against his
+ribs and he was dismayed by his shortness of wind. The Hopper was not so
+young as in the days when his agility and genius for effecting a quick
+"get-away" had earned for him his sobriquet. The last time his Bertillon
+measurements were checked (he was subjected to this humiliating
+experience in Omaha during the Ak-Sar-Ben carnival three years earlier)
+official note was taken of the fact that The Hopper's hair, long carried
+in the records as black, was rapidly whitening.
+
+At forty-eight a crook--even so resourceful and versatile a member of the
+fraternity as The Hopper--begins to mistrust himself. For the greater part
+of his life, when not in durance vile, The Hopper had been in hiding, and
+the state or condition of being a fugitive, hunted by keen-eyed agents of
+justice, is not, from all accounts, an enviable one. His latest experience
+of involuntary servitude had been under the auspices of the State of
+Oregon, for a trifling indiscretion in the way of safe-blowing. Having
+served his sentence, he skillfully effaced himself by a year's siesta on
+a pine-apple plantation in Hawaii. The island climate was not wholly
+pleasing to The Hopper, and when pine-apples palled he took passage from
+Honolulu as a stoker, reached San Francisco (not greatly chastened in
+spirit), and by a series of characteristic hops, skips, and jumps across
+the continent landed in Maine by way of the Canadian provinces. The Hopper
+needed money. He was not without a certain crude philosophy, and it had
+been his dream to acquire by some brilliant _coup_ a sufficient fortune
+upon which to retire and live as a decent, law-abiding citizen for the
+remainder of his days. This ambition, or at least the means to its
+fulfillment, can hardly be defended as praiseworthy, but The Hopper was a
+singular character and we must take him as we find him. Many prison
+chaplains and jail visitors bearing tracts had striven with little
+success to implant moral ideals in the mind and soul of The Hopper, but he
+was still to be catalogued among the impenitent; and as he moved southward
+through the Commonwealth of Maine he was so oppressed by his poverty, as
+contrasted with the world's abundance, that he lifted forty thousand
+dollars in a neat bundle from an express car which Providence had
+sidetracked, apparently for his personal enrichment, on the upper waters
+of the Penobscot. Whereupon he began perforce playing his old game of
+artful dodging, exercising his best powers as a hopper and skipper. Forty
+thousand dollars is no inconsiderable sum of money, and the success of
+this master stroke of his career was not to be jeopardized by careless
+moves. By craftily hiding in the big woods and making himself agreeable
+to isolated lumberjacks who rarely saw newspapers, he arrived in due
+course on Manhattan Island, where with shrewd judgment he avoided the
+haunts of his kind while planning a future commensurate with his new
+dignity as a capitalist.
+
+He spent a year as a diligent and faithful employee of a garage which
+served a fashionable quarter of the metropolis; then, animated by a worthy
+desire to continue to lead an honest life, he purchased a chicken farm
+fifteen miles as the crow flies from Center Church, New Haven, and boldly
+opened a bank account in that academic center in his newly adopted name of
+Charles S. Stevens, of Happy Hill Farm. Feeling the need of companionship,
+he married a lady somewhat his junior, a shoplifter of the second class,
+whom he had known before the vigilance of the metropolitan police
+necessitated his removal to the Far West. Mrs. Stevens's inferior talents
+as a petty larcenist had led her into many difficulties, and she
+gratefully availed herself of The Hopper's offer of his heart and hand.
+
+They had added to their establishment a retired yegg who had lost an eye
+by the premature popping of the "soup" (i.e., nitro-glycerin) poured into
+the crevices of a country post-office in Missouri. In offering shelter to
+Mr. James Whitesides, _alias_ "Humpy" Thompson, The Hopper's motives had
+not been wholly unselfish, as Humpy had been entrusted with the herding of
+poultry in several penitentiaries and was familiar with the most advanced
+scientific thought on chicken culture.
+
+The roadster was headed toward his home and The Hopper contemplated it in
+the deepening dusk with greedy eyes. His labors in the New York garage had
+familiarized him with automobiles, and while he was not ignorant of the
+pains and penalties inflicted upon lawless persons who appropriate motors
+illegally, he was the victim of an irresistible temptation to jump into
+the machine thus left in the highway, drive as near home as he dared, and
+then abandon it. The owner of the roadster was presumably eating his
+evening meal in peace in the snug little cottage behind the shrubbery, and
+The Hopper was aware of no sound reason why he should not seize the
+vehicle and further widen the distance between himself and a
+suspicious-looking gentleman he had observed on the New Haven local.
+
+The Hopper's conscience was not altogether at ease, as he had, that
+afternoon, possessed himself of a bill-book that was protruding from the
+breast-pocket of a dignified citizen whose strap he had shared in a
+crowded subway train. Having foresworn crime as a means of livelihood, The
+Hopper was chagrined that he had suffered himself to be beguiled into
+stealing by the mere propinquity of a piece of red leather. He was angry
+at the world as well as himself. People should not go about with
+bill-books sticking out of their pockets; it was unfair and unjust to
+those weak members of the human race who yield readily to temptation.
+
+He had agreed with Mary when she married him and the chicken farm that
+they would respect the Ten Commandments and all statutory laws, State and
+Federal, and he was painfully conscious that when he confessed his sin she
+would deal severely with him. Even Humpy, now enjoying a peace that he had
+rarely known outside the walls of prison, even Humpy would be bitter. The
+thought that he was again among the hunted would depress Mary and Humpy,
+and he knew that their harshness would be intensified because of his
+violation of the unwritten law of the underworld in resorting to
+purse-lifting, an infringement upon a branch of felony despicable and
+greatly inferior in dignity to safe-blowing.
+
+These reflections spurred The Hopper to action, for the sooner he reached
+home the more quickly he could explain his protracted stay in New York (to
+which metropolis he had repaired in the hope of making a better price for
+eggs with the commission merchants who handled his products), submit
+himself to Mary's chastisement, and promise to sin no more. By returning
+on Christmas Eve, of all times, again a fugitive, he knew that he would
+merit the unsparing condemnation that Mary and Humpy would visit upon him.
+It was possible, it was even quite likely, that the short, stocky
+gentleman he had seen on the New Haven local was not a "bull"--not really
+a detective who had observed the little transaction in the subway; but the
+very uncertainty annoyed The Hopper. In his happy and profitable year at
+Happy Hill Farm he had learned to prize his personal comfort, and he was
+humiliated to find that he had been frightened into leaving the train at
+Bansford to continue his journey afoot, and merely because a man had
+looked at him a little queerly.
+
+Any Christmas spirit that had taken root in The Hopper's soul had been
+disturbed, not to say seriously threatened with extinction, by the
+untoward occurrences of the afternoon.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+The Hopper waited for a limousine to pass and then crawled out of his
+hiding-place, jumped into the roadster, and was at once in motion. He
+glanced back, fearing that the owner might have heard his departure, and
+then, satisfied of his immediate security, negotiated a difficult turn in
+the road and settled himself with a feeling of relief to careful but
+expeditious flight. It was at this moment, when he had urged the car to
+its highest speed, that a noise startled him--an amazing little chirrupy
+sound which corresponded to none of the familiar forewarnings of engine
+trouble. With his eyes to the front he listened for a repetition of the
+sound. It rose again--it was like a perplexing cheep and chirrup, changing
+to a chortle of glee.
+
+"Goo-goo! Goo-goo-goo!"
+
+The car was skimming a dark stretch of road and a superstitious awe fell
+upon The Hopper. Murder, he gratefully remembered, had never been among
+his crimes, though he had once winged a too-inquisitive policeman in
+Kansas City. He glanced over his shoulder, but saw no pursuing ghost in
+the snowy highway; then, looking down apprehensively, he detected on the
+seat beside him what appeared to be an animate bundle, and, prompted by a
+louder "goo-goo," he put out his hand. His fingers touched something warm
+and soft and were promptly seized and held by Something.
+
+The Hopper snatched his hand free of the tentacles of the unknown and
+shook it violently. The nature of the Something troubled him. He renewed
+his experiments, steering with his left hand and exposing the right to
+what now seemed to be the grasp of two very small mittened hands.
+
+"Goo-goo! Goody; teep wunnin'!"
+
+"A kid!" The Hopper gasped.
+
+That he had eloped with a child was the blackest of the day's calamities.
+He experienced a strange sinking feeling in the stomach. In moments of
+apprehension a crook's thoughts run naturally into periods of penal
+servitude, and the punishment for kidnaping, The Hopper recalled, was
+severe. He stopped the car and inspected his unwelcome fellow passenger
+by the light of matches. Two big blue eyes stared at him from a hood and
+two mittens were poked into his face. Two small feet, wrapped tightly in a
+blanket, kicked at him energetically.
+
+"Detup! Mate um skedaddle!"
+
+Obedient to this command The Hopper made the car skedaddle, but
+superstitious dread settled upon him more heavily. He was satisfied now
+that from the moment he transferred the strap-hanger's bill-book to his
+own pocket he had been hoodooed. Only a jinx of the most malevolent type
+could have prompted his hurried exit from a train to dodge an imaginary
+"bull." Only the blackest of evil spirits could be responsible for this
+involuntary kidnaping!
+
+"Mate um wun! Mate um 'ippity stip!"
+
+The mittened hands reached for the wheel at this juncture and an
+unlooked-for "jippity skip" precipitated the young passenger into The
+Hopper's lap.
+
+This mishap was attended with the jolliest baby laughter. Gently but with
+much firmness The Hopper restored the youngster to an upright position and
+supported him until sure he was able to sustain himself.
+
+"Ye better set still, little feller," he admonished.
+
+The little feller seemed in no wise astonished to find himself abroad with
+a perfect stranger and his courage and good cheer were not lost upon The
+Hopper. He wanted to be severe, to vent his rage for the day's calamities
+upon the only human being within range, but in spite of himself he felt no
+animosity toward the friendly little bundle of humanity beside him.
+Still, he had stolen a baby and it was incumbent upon him to free himself
+at once of the appalling burden; but a baby is not so easily disposed of.
+He could not, without seriously imperiling his liberty, return to the
+cottage. It was the rule of house-breakers, he recalled, to avoid babies.
+He had heard it said by burglars of wide experience and unquestioned
+wisdom that babies were the most dangerous of all burglar alarms. All
+things considered, kidnaping and automobile theft were not a happy
+combination with which to appear before a criminal court. The Hopper was
+vexed because the child did not cry; if he had shown a bad disposition The
+Hopper might have abandoned him; but the youngster was the cheeriest and
+most agreeable of traveling companions. Indeed, The Hopper's spirits rose
+under his continued "goo-gooing" and chirruping.
+
+"Nice little Shaver!" he said, patting the child's knees.
+
+Little Shaver was so pleased by this friendly demonstration that he threw
+up his arms in an effort to embrace The Hopper.
+
+"Bil-lee," he gurgled delightedly.
+
+The Hopper was so astonished at being addressed in his own lawful name by
+a strange baby that he barely averted a collision with a passing motor
+truck. It was unbelievable that the baby really knew his name, but perhaps
+it was a good omen that he had hit upon it. The Hopper's resentment
+against the dark fate that seemed to pursue him vanished. Even though he
+had stolen a baby, it was a merry, brave little baby who didn't mind at
+all being run away with! He dismissed the thought of planting the little
+shaver at a door, ringing the bell and running away; this was no way to
+treat a friendly child that had done him no injury, and The Hopper highly
+resolved to do the square thing by the youngster even at personal
+inconvenience and risk.
+
+The snow was now falling in generous Christmasy flakes, and the high speed
+the car had again attained was evidently deeply gratifying to the young
+person, whose reckless tumbling about made it necessary for The Hopper to
+keep a hand on him.
+
+"Steady, little un; steady!" The Hopper kept mumbling.
+
+His wits were busy trying to devise some means of getting rid of the
+youngster without exposing himself to the danger of arrest. By this time
+some one was undoubtedly busily engaged in searching for both baby and
+car; the police far and near would be notified, and would be on the
+lookout for a smart roadster containing a stolen child.
+
+"Merry Christmas!" a boy shouted from a farm gate.
+
+"M'y Kwismus!" piped Shaver.
+
+The Hopper decided to run the machine home and there ponder the
+disposition of his blithe companion with the care the unusual
+circumstances demanded.
+
+"'Urry up; me's goin' 'ome to me's gwanpa's kwismus t'ee!"
+
+"Right ye be, little un; right ye be!" affirmed The Hopper.
+
+The youngster was evidently blessed with a sanguine and confiding nature.
+His reference to his grandfather's Christmas tree impinged sharply upon
+The Hopper's conscience. Christmas had never figured very prominently in
+his scheme of life. About the only Christmases that he recalled with any
+pleasure were those that he had spent in prison, and those were marked
+only by Christmas dinners varying with the generosity of a series of
+wardens.
+
+But Shaver was entitled to all the joys of Christmas, and The Hopper had
+no desire to deprive him of them.
+
+"Keep a-larfin', Shaver, keep a-larfin'," said the Hopper. "Ole Hop ain't
+a-goin' to hurt ye!"
+
+The Hopper, feeling his way cautiously round the fringes of New Haven,
+arrived presently at Happy Hill Farm, where he ran the car in among the
+chicken sheds behind the cottage and carefully extinguished the lights.
+
+"Now, Shaver, out ye come!"
+
+Whereupon Shaver obediently jumped into his arms.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+The Hopper knocked twice at the back door, waited an instant, and knocked
+again. As he completed the signal the door was opened guardedly. A man and
+woman surveyed him in hostile silence as he pushed past them, kicked the
+door shut, and deposited the blinking child on the kitchen table. Humpy,
+the one-eyed, jumped to the windows and jammed the green shades close into
+the frames. The woman scowlingly waited for the head of the house to
+explain himself, and this, with the perversity of one who knows the
+dramatic value of suspense, he was in no haste to do.
+
+"Well," Mary questioned sharply. "What ye got there, Bill?"
+
+The Hopper was regarding Shaver with a grin of benevolent satisfaction.
+The youngster had seized a bottle of catsup and was making heroic efforts
+to raise it to his mouth, and the Hopper was intensely tickled by Shaver's
+efforts to swallow the bottle. Mrs. Stevens, _alias_ Weeping Mary, was not
+amused, and her husband's enjoyment of the child's antics irritated her.
+
+"Come out with ut, Bill!" she commanded, seizing the bottle. "What ye been
+doin'?"
+
+Shaver's big blue eyes expressed surprise and displeasure at being
+deprived of his plaything, but he recovered quickly and reached for a
+plate with which he began thumping the table.
+
+"Out with ut, Hop!" snapped Humpy nervously. "Nothin' wuz said about
+kidnapin', an' I don't stand for ut!"
+
+"When I heard the machine comin' in the yard I knowed somethin' was wrong
+an' I guess it couldn't be no worse," added Mary, beginning to cry. "You
+hadn't no right to do ut, Bill. Hookin' a buzz-buzz an' a kid an' when we
+wuz playin' the white card! You ought t' 'a' told me, Bill, what ye went
+to town fer, an' it bein' Christmas, an' all."
+
+That he should have chosen for his fall the Christmas season of all times
+was reprehensible, a fact which Mary and Humpy impressed upon him in the
+strongest terms. The Hopper was fully aware of the inopportuneness of his
+transgressions, but not to the point of encouraging his wife to abuse
+him.
+
+As he clumsily tried to unfasten Shaver's hood, Mary pushed him aside and
+with shaking fingers removed the child's wraps. Shaver's cheeks were rosy
+from his drive through the cold; he was a plump, healthy little shaver and
+The Hopper viewed him with intense pride. Mary held the hood and coat to
+the light and inspected them with a sophisticated eye. They were of
+excellent quality and workmanship, and she shook her head and sighed
+deeply as she placed them carefully on a chair.
+
+"It ain't on the square, Hop," protested Humpy, whose lone eye expressed
+the most poignant sorrow at The Hopper's derelictions. Humpy was tall and
+lean, with a thin, many-lined face. He was an ill-favored person at best,
+and his habit of turning his head constantly as though to compel his
+single eye to perform double service gave one an impression of restless
+watchfulness.
+
+"Cute little Shaver, ain't 'e? Give Shaver somethin' to eat, Mary. I guess
+milk'll be the right ticket considerin' th' size of 'im. How ole you make
+'im? Not more'n three, I reckon?"
+
+"Two. He ain't more'n two, that kid."
+
+"A nice little feller; you're a cute un, ain't ye, Shaver?"
+
+Shaver nodded his head solemnly. Having wearied of playing with the plate
+he gravely inspected the trio; found something amusing in Humpy's bizarre
+countenance and laughed merrily. Finding no response to his friendly
+overtures he appealed to Mary.
+
+"Me wants me's paw-widge," he announced.
+
+"Porridge," interpreted Humpy with the air of one whose superior breeding
+makes him the proper arbiter of the speech of children of high social
+station. Whereupon Shaver appreciatively poked his forefinger into Humpy's
+surviving optic.
+
+"I'll see what I got," muttered Mary. "What ye used t' eatin' for supper,
+honey?"
+
+The "honey" was a concession, and The Hopper, who was giving Shaver his
+watch to play with, bent a commendatory glance upon his spouse.
+
+"Go on an' tell us what ye done," said Mary, doggedly busying herself
+about the stove.
+
+The Hopper drew a chair to the table to be within reach of Shaver and
+related succinctly his day's adventures.
+
+"A dip!" moaned Mary as he described the seizure of the purse in the
+subway.
+
+"You hadn't no right to do ut, Hop!" bleated Humpy, who had tipped his
+chair against the wall and was sucking a cold pipe. And then, professional
+curiosity overmastering his shocked conscience, he added: "What'd she
+measure, Hop?"
+
+The Hopper grinned.
+
+"Flubbed! Nothin' but papers," he confessed ruefully.
+
+Mary and Humpy expressed their indignation and contempt in unequivocal
+terms, which they repeated after he told of the suspected "bull" whose
+presence on the local had so alarmed him. A frank description of his
+flight and of his seizure of the roadster only added to their bitterness.
+
+Humpy rose and paced the floor with the quick, short stride of men
+habituated to narrow spaces. The Hopper watched the telltale step so
+disagreeably reminiscent of evil times and shrugged his shoulders
+impatiently.
+
+"Set down, Hump; ye make me nervous. I got thinkin' to do."
+
+"Ye'd better be quick about doin' ut!" Humpy snorted with an oath.
+
+"Cut the cussin'!" The Hopper admonished sharply. Since his retirement to
+private life he had sought diligently to free his speech of profanity and
+thieves' slang, as not only unbecoming in a respectable chicken farmer,
+but likely to arouse suspicions as to his origin and previous condition of
+servitude. "Can't ye see Shaver ain't use to ut? Shaver's a little gent;
+he's a reg'ler little juke; that's wot Shaver is."
+
+"The more 'way up he is the worse fer us," whimpered Humpy. "It's
+kidnapin', that's wot ut is!"
+
+"That's wot it _ain't_," declared The Hopper, averting a calamity to his
+watch, which Shaver was swinging by its chain. "He was took by accident I
+tell ye! I'm goin' to take Shaver back to his ma--ain't I, Shaver?"
+
+"Take 'im back!" echoed Mary.
+
+Humpy crumpled up in his chair at this new evidence of The Hopper's
+insanity.
+
+"I'm goin' to make a Chris'mas present o' Shaver to his ma," reaffirmed
+The Hopper, pinching the nearer ruddy cheek of the merry, contented
+guest.
+
+Shaver kicked The Hopper in the stomach and emitted a chortle expressive
+of unshakable confidence in The Hopper's ability to restore him to his
+lawful owners. This confidence was not, however, manifested toward Mary,
+who had prepared with care the only cereal her pantry afforded, and now
+approached Shaver, bowl and spoon in hand. Shaver, taken by surprise,
+inspected his supper with disdain and spurned it with a vigor that sent
+the spoon rattling across the floor.
+
+"Me wants me's paw-widge bowl! Me wants me's _own_ paw-widge bowl!" he
+screamed.
+
+Mary expostulated; Humpy offered advice as to the best manner of dealing
+with the refractory Shaver, who gave further expression to his resentment
+by throwing The Hopper's watch with violence against the wall. That the
+table-service of The Hopper's establishment was not to Shaver's liking was
+manifested in repeated rejections of the plain white bowl in which Mary
+offered the porridge. He demanded his very own porridge bowl with the
+increasing vehemence of one who is willing to starve rather than accept so
+palpable a substitute. He threw himself back on the table and lay there
+kicking and crying. Other needs now occurred to Shaver: he wanted his
+papa; he wanted his mamma; he wanted to go to his gwan'pa's. He clamored
+for Santa Claus and numerous Christmas trees which, it seemed, had been
+promised him at the houses of his kinsfolk. It was amazing and bewildering
+that the heart of one so young could desire so many things that were not
+immediately attainable. He had begun to suspect that he was among
+strangers who were not of his way of life, and this was fraught with the
+gravest danger.
+
+"They'll hear 'im hollerin' in China," wailed the pessimistic Humpy,
+running about the room and examining the fastenings of doors and windows.
+"Folks goin' along the road'll hear 'im, an' it's terms fer the whole
+bunch!"
+
+The Hopper began pacing the floor with Shaver, while Humpy and Mary
+denounced the child for unreasonableness and lack of discipline, not
+overlooking the stupidity and criminal carelessness of The Hopper in
+projecting so lawless a youngster into their domestic circle.
+
+"Twenty years, that's wot ut is!" mourned Humpy.
+
+"Ye kin get the chair fer kidnapin'," Mary added dolefully. "Ye gotta get
+'im out o' here, Bill."
+
+Pleasant predictions of a long prison term with capital punishment as the
+happy alternative failed to disturb The Hopper. To their surprise and
+somewhat to their shame he won the Shaver to a tractable humor. There was
+nothing in The Hopper's known past to justify any expectation that he
+could quiet a crying baby, and yet Shaver with a child's unerring instinct
+realized that The Hopper meant to be kind. He patted The Hopper's face
+with one fat little paw, chokingly declaring that he was hungry.
+
+'"Course Shaver's hungry; an' Shaver's goin' to eat nice porridge Aunt
+Mary made fer 'im. Shaver's goin' to have 'is own porridge bowl
+to-morry--yes, sir-ee, oo is, little Shaver!"
+
+Restored to the table, Shaver opened his mouth in obedience to The
+Hopper's patient pleading and swallowed a spoonful of the mush, Humpy
+holding the bowl out of sight in tactful deference to the child's delicate
+ęsthetic sensibilities. A tumbler of milk was sipped with grateful gasps.
+
+[Illustration: THE HOPPER GRINNED, PROUD OF HIS SUCCESS, WHICH MARY AND
+HUMPY VIEWED WITH GRUDGING ADMIRATION]
+
+The Hopper grinned, proud of his success, while Mary and Humpy viewed his
+efforts with somewhat grudging admiration, and waited patiently until The
+Hopper took the wholly surfeited Shaver in his arms and began pacing the
+floor, humming softly. In normal circumstances The Hopper was not musical,
+and Humpy and Mary exchanged looks which, when interpreted, pointed to
+nothing less than a belief that the owner of Happy Hill Farm was bereft of
+his senses. There was some question as to whether Shaver should be
+undressed. Mary discouraged the idea and Humpy took a like view.
+
+"Ye gotta chuck 'im quick; that's what ye gotta do," said Mary hoarsely.
+"We don't want 'im sleepin' here."
+
+Whereupon The Hopper demonstrated his entire independence by carrying the
+Shaver to Humpy's bed and partially undressing him. While this was in
+progress, Shaver suddenly opened his eyes wide and raising one foot until
+it approximated the perpendicular, reached for it with his chubby hands.
+
+"Sant' Claus comin'; m'y Kwismus!"
+
+"Jes' listen to Shaver!" chuckled The Hopper. "'Course Santy is comin,'
+an' we're goin' to hang up Shaver's stockin', ain't we, Shaver?"
+
+He pinned both stockings to the foot-board of Humpy's bed. By the time
+this was accomplished under the hostile eyes of Mary and Humpy, Shaver
+slept the sleep of the innocent.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+They watched the child in silence for a few minutes and then Mary detached
+a gold locket from his neck and bore it to the kitchen for examination.
+
+"Ye gotta move quick, Hop," Humpy urged. "The white card's what we wuz all
+goin' to play. We wuz fixed nice here, an' things goin' easy; an' the yard
+full o' br'ilers. I don't want to do no more time. I'm an ole man, Hop."
+
+"Cut ut!" ordered The Hopper, taking the locket from Mary and weighing it
+critically in his hand. They bent over him as he scrutinized the face on
+which was inscribed:--
+
+    _Roger Livingston Talbot_
+    _June 13, 1913_
+
+"Lemme see; he's two an' a harf. Ye purty nigh guessed 'im right, Mary."
+
+The sight of the gold trinket, the probability that the Shaver belonged to
+a family of wealth, proved disturbing to Humpy's late protestations of
+virtue.
+
+"They'd be a heap o' kale in ut, Hop. His folks is rich, I reckon. Ef we
+wuzn't playin' the white card--"
+
+Ignoring this shocking evidence of Humpy's moral instability, The Hopper
+became lost in reverie, meditatively drawing at his pipe.
+
+"We ain't never goin' to quit playin' ut square," he announced, to Mary's
+manifest relief. "I hadn't ought t' 'a' done th' dippin'. It were a
+mistake. My ole head wuzn't workin' right er I wouldn't 'a' slipped. But
+ye needn't jump on me no more."
+
+"Wot ye goin' to do with that kid? Ye tell me that!" demanded Mary,
+unwilling too readily to accept The Hopper's repentance at face value.
+
+"I'm goin' to take 'im to 'is folks, that's wot I'm goin' to do with 'im,"
+announced The Hopper.
+
+"Yer crazy--yer plum' crazy!" cried Humpy, slapping his knees excitedly.
+"Ye kin take 'im to an orphant asylum an' tell um ye found 'im in that
+machine ye lifted. And mebbe ye'll git by with ut an' mebbe ye won't, but
+ye gotta keep me out of ut!"
+
+"I found the machine in th' road, right here by th' house; an' th' kid
+was in ut all by hisself. An' bein' humin an' respectible I brought 'im in
+to keep 'im from freezin' t' death," said The Hopper, as though repeating
+lines he was committing to memory. "They ain't nobody can say as I didn't.
+Ef I git pinched, that's my spiel to th' cops. It ain't kidnapin'; it's
+life-savin', that's wot ut is! I'm a-goin' back an' have a look at that
+place where I got 'im. Kind o' queer they left the kid out there in the
+buzz-wagon; _mighty_ queer, now's I think of ut. Little house back from
+the road; lots o' trees an' bushes in front. Didn't seem to be no lights.
+He keeps talkin' about Chris'mas at his grandpa's. Folks must 'a' been
+goin' to take th' kid somewheres fer Chris'mas. I guess it'll throw a
+skeer into 'em to find him up an' gone."
+
+"They's rich, an' all the big bulls'll be lookin' fer 'im; ye'd better
+'phone the New Haven cops ye've picked 'im up. Then they'll come out, an'
+yer spiel about findin' 'im'll sound easy an' sensible like."
+
+The Hopper, puffing his pipe philosophically, paid no heed to Humpy's
+suggestion even when supported warmly by Mary.
+
+"I gotta find some way o' puttin' th' kid back without seein' no cops.
+I'll jes' take a sneak back an' have a look at th' place," said The
+Hopper. "I ain't goin' to turn Shaver over to no cops. Ye can't take no
+chances with 'em. They don't know nothin' about us bein' here, but they
+ain't fools, an' I ain't goin' to give none o' 'em a squint at me!"
+
+He defended his plan against a joint attack by Mary and Humpy, who saw in
+it only further proof of his tottering reason. He was obliged to tell
+them in harsh terms to be quiet, and he added to their rage by the
+deliberation with which he made his preparations to leave.
+
+He opened the door of a clock and drew out a revolver which he examined
+carefully and thrust into his pocket. Mary groaned; Humpy beat the air in
+impotent despair. The Hopper possessed himself also of a jimmy and an
+electric lamp. The latter he flashed upon the face of the sleeping Shaver,
+who turned restlessly for a moment and then lay still again. He smoothed
+the coverlet over the tiny form, while Mary and Humpy huddled in the
+doorway. Mary wept; Humpy was awed into silence by his old friend's
+perversity. For years he had admired The Hopper's cleverness, his genius
+for extricating himself from difficulties; he was deeply shaken to think
+that one who had stood so high in one of the most exacting of professions
+should have fallen so low. As The Hopper imperturbably buttoned his coat
+and walked toward the door, Humpy set his back against it in a last
+attempt to save his friend from his own foolhardiness.
+
+"Ef anybody turns up here an' asks for th' kid, ye kin tell 'em wot I
+said. We finds 'im in th' road right here by the farm when we're doin' th'
+night chores an' takes 'im in t' keep 'im from freezin'. Ye'll have th'
+machine an' kid here to show 'em. An' as fer me, I'm off lookin' fer his
+folks."
+
+Mary buried her face in her apron and wept despairingly. The Hopper,
+noting for the first time that Humpy was guarding the door, roughly pushed
+him aside and stood for a moment with his hand on the knob.
+
+"They's things wot is," he remarked with a last attempt to justify his
+course, "an' things wot ain't. I reckon I'll take a peek at that place an'
+see wot's th' best way t' shake th' kid. Ye can't jes' run up to a house
+in a machine with his folks all settin' round cryin' an' cops askin'
+questions. Ye got to do some plannin' an' thinkin'. I'm goin' t' clean ut
+all up before daylight, an' ye needn't worry none about ut. Hop ain't
+worryin'; jes' leave ut t' Hop!"
+
+There was no alternative but to leave it to Hop, and they stood mute as he
+went out and softly closed the door.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+The snow had ceased and the stars shone brightly on a white world as The
+Hopper made his way by various trolley lines to the house from which he
+had snatched Shaver. On a New Haven car he debated the prospects of more
+snow with a policeman who seemed oblivious to the fact that a child had
+been stolen--shamelessly carried off by a man with a long police record.
+Merry Christmas passed from lip to lip as if all creation were attuned to
+the note of love and peace, and crime were an undreamed of thing.
+
+For two years The Hopper had led an exemplary life and he was keenly alive
+now to the joy of adventure. His lapses of the day were unfortunate; he
+thought of them with regret and misgivings, but he was zestful for
+whatever the unknown held in store for him. Abroad again with a pistol in
+his pocket, he was a lawless being, but with the difference that he was
+intent now upon making restitution, though in such manner as would give
+him something akin to the old thrill that he experienced when he enjoyed
+the reputation of being one of the most skillful yeggs in the country. The
+successful thief is of necessity an imaginative person; he must be able to
+visualize the unseen and to deal with a thousand hidden contingencies. At
+best the chances are against him; with all his ingenuity the broad, heavy
+hand of the law is likely at any moment to close upon him from some
+unexpected quarter. The Hopper knew this, and knew, too, that in yielding
+to the exhilaration of the hour he was likely to come to grief. Justice
+has a long memory, and if he again made himself the object of police
+scrutiny that little forty-thousand dollar affair in Maine might still be
+fixed upon him.
+
+When he reached the house from whose gate he had removed the roadster with
+Shaver attached, he studied it with the eye of an experienced strategist.
+No gleam anywhere published the presence of frantic parents bewailing the
+loss of a baby. The cottage lay snugly behind its barrier of elms and
+shrubbery as though its young heir had not vanished into the void. The
+Hopper was a deliberating being and he gave careful weight to these
+circumstances as he crept round the walk, in which the snow lay
+undisturbed, and investigated the rear of the premises. The lattice door
+of the summer kitchen opened readily, and, after satisfying himself that
+no one was stirring in the lower part of the house, he pried up the sash
+of a window and stepped in. The larder was well stocked, as though in
+preparation for a Christmas feast, and he passed on to the dining-room,
+whose appointments spoke for good taste and a degree of prosperity in the
+householder.
+
+Cautious flashes of his lamp disclosed on the table a hamper, in which
+were packed a silver cup, plate, and bowl which at once awoke the Hopper's
+interest. Here indubitably was proof that this was the home of Shaver, now
+sleeping sweetly in Humpy's bed, and this was the porridge bowl for which
+Shaver's soul had yearned. If Shaver did not belong to the house, he had
+at least been a visitor there, and it struck The Hopper as a reasonable
+assumption that Shaver had been deposited in the roadster while his lawful
+guardians returned to the cottage for the hamper preparatory to an
+excursion of some sort. But The Hopper groped in the dark for an
+explanation of the calmness with which the householders accepted the loss
+of the child. It was not in human nature for the parents of a youngster so
+handsome and in every way so delightful as Shaver to permit him to be
+stolen from under their very noses without making an outcry. The Hopper
+examined the silver pieces and found them engraved with the name borne by
+the locket. He crept through a living-room and came to a Christmas
+tree--the smallest of Christmas trees. Beside it lay a number of packages
+designed clearly for none other than young Roger Livingston Talbot.
+
+Housebreaking is a very different business from the forcible entry of
+country post-offices, and The Hopper was nervous. This particular house
+seemed utterly deserted. He stole upstairs and found doors open and a
+disorder indicative of the occupants' hasty departure. His attention was
+arrested by a small room finished in white, with a white enameled bed, and
+other furniture to match. A generous litter of toys was the last proof
+needed to establish the house as Shaver's true domicile. Indeed, there was
+every indication that Shaver was the central figure of this home of whose
+charm and atmosphere The Hopper was vaguely sensible. A frieze of dancing
+children and watercolor sketches of Shaver's head, dabbed here and there
+in the most unlooked-for places, hinted at an artistic household. This
+impression was strengthened when The Hopper, bewildered and baffled,
+returned to the lower floor and found a studio opening off the living
+room. The Hopper had never visited a studio before, and satisfied now that
+he was the sole occupant of the house, he passed passed about shooting his
+light upon unfinished canvases, pausing finally before an easel supporting
+a portrait of Shaver--newly finished, he discovered, by poking his finger
+into the wet paint. Something fell to the floor and he picked up a large
+sheet of drawing paper on which this message was written in charcoal:--
+
+                                        _Six-thirty._
+    _Dear Sweetheart:_--
+
+
+    This is a fine trick you have played on me, you dear girl! I've
+    been expecting you back all afternoon. At six I decided that you
+    were going to spend the night with your infuriated parent and
+    thought I'd try my luck with mine! I put Billie into the
+    roadster and, leaving him there, ran over to the Flemings's to
+    say Merry Christmas and tell 'em we were off for the night. They
+    kept me just a minute to look at those new Jap prints Jim's so
+    crazy about, and while I was gone you came along and skipped
+    with Billie and the car! I suppose this means that you've been
+    making headway with your dad and want to try the effect of
+    Billie's blandishments. Good luck! But you might have stopped
+    long enough to tell me about it! How fine it would be if
+    everything could be straightened out for Christmas! Do you
+    remember the first time I kissed you--it was on Christmas Eve
+    four years ago at the Billings's dance! I'm just trolleying out
+    to father's to see what an evening session will do. I'll be back
+    early in the morning.
+
+
+    Love always,
+                     ROGER.
+
+Billie was undoubtedly Shaver's nickname. This delighted The Hopper. That
+they should possess the same name appeared to create a strong bond of
+comradeship. The writer of the note was presumably the child's father and
+the "Dear Sweetheart" the youngster's mother. The Hopper was not reassured
+by these disclosures. The return of Shaver to his parents was far from
+being the pleasant little Christmas Eve adventure he had imagined. He had
+only the lowest opinion of a father who would, on a winter evening,
+carelessly leave his baby in a motor-car while he looked at pictures, and
+who, finding both motor and baby gone, would take it for granted that the
+baby's mother had run off with them. But these people were artists, and
+artists, The Hopper had heard, were a queer breed, sadly lacking in
+common sense. He tore the note into strips which he stuffed into his
+pocket.
+
+Depressed by the impenetrable wall of mystery along which he was groping,
+he returned to the living-room, raised one of the windows and unbolted the
+front door to make sure of an exit in case these strange, foolish Talbots
+should unexpectedly return. The shades were up and he shielded his light
+carefully with his cap as he passed rapidly about the room. It began to
+look very much as though Shaver would spend Christmas at Happy Hill
+Farm--a possibility that had not figured in The Hopper's calculations.
+
+Flashing his lamp for a last survey a letter propped against a lamp on the
+table arrested his eye. He dropped to the floor and crawled into a corner
+where he turned his light upon the note and read, not without difficulty,
+the following:--
+
+                                  _Seven o'clock._
+    _Dear Roger:--_
+
+
+    I've just got back from father's where I spent the last three
+    hours talking over our troubles. I didn't tell you I was going,
+    knowing you would think it foolish, but it seemed best, dear,
+    and I hope you'll forgive me. And now I find that you've gone
+    off with Billie, and I'm guessing that you've gone to _your_
+    father's to see what you can do. I'm taking the trolley into New
+    Haven to ask Mamie Palmer about that cook she thought we might
+    get, and if possible I'll bring the girl home with me. Don't
+    trouble about me, as I'll be perfectly safe, and, as you know, I
+    rather enjoy prowling around at night. You'll certainly get back
+    before I do, but if I'm not here don't be alarmed.
+
+    We are so happy in each other, dear, and if only we could get
+    our foolish fathers to stop hating each other, how beautiful
+    everything would be! And we could all have such a merry, merry
+    Christmas!
+
+    MURIEL.
+
+The Hopper's acquaintance with the epistolary art was the slightest, but
+even to a mind unfamiliar with this branch of literature it was plain that
+Shaver's parents were involved in some difficulty that was attributable,
+not to any lessening of affection between them, but to a row of some sort
+between their respective fathers. Muriel, running into the house to write
+her note, had failed to see Roger's letter in the studio, and this was
+very fortunate for The Hopper; but Muriel might return at any moment, and
+it would add nothing to the plausibility of the story he meant to tell if
+he were found in the house.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+Anxious and dejected at the increasing difficulties that confronted him,
+he was moving toward the door when a light, buoyant step sounded on the
+veranda. In a moment the living-room lights were switched on from the
+entry and a woman called out sharply:--
+
+"Stop right where you are or I'll shoot!"
+
+The authoritative voice of the speaker, the quickness with which she had
+grasped the situation and leveled her revolver, brought The Hopper to an
+abrupt halt in the middle of the room, where he fell with a discordant
+crash across the keyboard of a grand piano. He turned, cowering, to
+confront a tall, young woman in a long ulster who advanced toward him
+slowly, but with every mark of determination upon her face. The Hopper
+stared beyond the gun, held in a very steady hand, into a pair of fearless
+dark eyes. In all his experiences he had never been cornered by a woman,
+and he stood gaping at his captor in astonishment. She was a very pretty
+young woman, with cheeks that still had the curve of youth, but with a
+chin that spoke for much firmness of character. A fur toque perched a
+little to one side gave her a boyish air.
+
+This undoubtedly was Shaver's mother who had caught him prowling in her
+house, and all The Hopper's plans for explaining her son's disappearance
+and returning him in a manner to win praise and gratitude went glimmering.
+There was nothing in the appearance of this Muriel to encourage a hope
+that she was either embarrassed or alarmed by his presence. He had been
+captured many times, but the trick had never been turned by any one so
+cool as this young woman. She seemed to be pondering with the greatest
+calmness what disposition she should make of him. In the intentness of her
+thought the revolver wavered for an instant, and The Hopper, without
+taking his eyes from her, made a cat-like spring that brought him to the
+window he had raised against just such an emergency.
+
+"None of that!" she cried, walking slowly toward him without lowering the
+pistol. "If you attempt to jump from that window I'll shoot! But it's
+cold in here and you may lower it."
+
+The Hopper, weighing the chances, decided that the odds were heavily
+against escape, and lowered the window.
+
+"Now," said Muriel, "step into that corner and keep your hands up where I
+can watch them."
+
+The Hopper obeyed her instructions strictly. There was a telephone on the
+table near her and he expected her to summon help; but to his surprise she
+calmly seated herself, resting her right elbow on the arm of the chair,
+her head slightly tilted to one side, as she inspected him with greater
+attention along the blueblack barrel of her automatic. Unless he made a
+dash for liberty this extraordinary woman would, at her leisure, turn him
+over to the police as a housebreaker and his peaceful life as a chicken
+farmer would be at an end. Her prolonged silence troubled The Hopper. He
+had not been more nervous when waiting for the report of the juries which
+at times had passed upon his conduct, or for judges to fix his term of
+imprisonment.
+
+"Yes'm," he muttered, with a view to ending a silence that had become
+intolerable.
+
+Her eyes danced to the accompaniment of her thoughts, but in no way did
+she betray the slightest perturbation.
+
+"I ain't done nothin'; hones' to God, I ain't!" he protested brokenly.
+
+"I saw you through the window when you entered this room and I was
+watching while you read that note," said his captor. "I thought it funny
+that you should do that instead of packing up the silver. Do you mind
+telling me just why you read that note?"
+
+"Well, miss, I jes' thought it kind o' funny there wuzn't nobody round an'
+the letter was layin' there all open, an' I didn't see no harm in
+lookin'."
+
+"It was awfully clever of you to crawl into the corner so nobody could see
+your light from the windows," she said with a tinge of admiration. "I
+suppose you thought you might find out how long the people of the house
+were likely to be gone and how much time you could spend here. Was that
+it?"
+
+"I reckon ut wuz some thin' like that," he agreed.
+
+This was received with the noncommittal "Um" of a person whose thoughts
+are elsewhere. Then, as though she were eliciting from an artist or man of
+letters a frank opinion as to his own ideas of his attainments and
+professional standing, she asked, with a meditative air that puzzled him
+as much as her question:--
+
+"Just how good a burglar are you? Can you do a job neatly and safely?"
+
+The Hopper, staggered by her inquiry and overcome by modesty, shrugged his
+shoulders and twisted about uncomfortably.
+
+"I reckon as how you've pinched me I ain't much good," he replied, and was
+rewarded with a smile followed by a light little laugh. He was beginning
+to feel pleased that she manifested no fear of him. In fact, he had
+decided that Shaver's mother was the most remarkable woman he had ever
+encountered, and by all odds the handsomest. He began to take heart.
+Perhaps after all he might hit upon some way of restoring Shaver to his
+proper place in the house of Talbot without making himself liable to a
+long term for kidnaping.
+
+"If you're really a successful burglar--one who doesn't just poke abound
+in empty houses as you were doing here, but clever and brave enough to
+break into houses where people are living and steal things without making
+a mess of it; and if you can play fair about it--then I think--I
+think--maybe--we can come to terms!"
+
+"Yes'm!" faltered The Hopper, beginning to wonder if Mary and Humpy had
+been right in saying that he had lost his mind. He was so astonished that
+his arms wavered, but she was instantly on her feet and the little
+automatic was again on a level with his eyes.
+
+"Excuse me, miss, I didn't mean to drop 'em. I weren't goin' to do
+nothin'. Hones' I wuzn't!" he pleaded with real contrition. "It jes'
+seemed kind o' funny what ye said."
+
+He grinned sheepishly. If she knew that her Billie, _alias_ Shaver, was
+not with her husband at his father's house, she would not be dallying in
+this fashion. And if the young father, who painted pictures, and left
+notes in his studio in a blind faith that his wife would find them,--if
+that trusting soul knew that Billie was asleep in a house all of whose
+inmates had done penance behind prison bars, he would very quickly become
+a man of action. The Hopper had never heard of such careless parenthood!
+These people were children! His heart warmed to them in pity and
+admiration, as it had to little Billie.
+
+"I forgot to ask you whether you are armed," she remarked, with just as
+much composure as though she were asking him whether he took two lumps of
+sugar in his tea; and then she added, "I suppose I ought to have asked you
+that in the first place."
+
+"I gotta gun in my coat--right side," he confessed. "An' that's all I
+got," he added, batting his eyes under the spell of her bewildering smile.
+
+With her left hand she cautiously extracted his revolver and backed away
+with it to the table.
+
+"If you'd lied to me I should have killed you; do you understand?"
+
+"Yes'm," murmured The Hopper meekly.
+
+She had spoken as though homicide were a common incident of her life, but
+a gleam of humor in the eyes she was watching vigilantly abated her
+severity.
+
+"You may sit down--there, please!"
+
+She pointed to a much bepillowed davenport and The Hopper sank down on it,
+still with his hands up. To his deepening mystification she backed to the
+windows and lowered the shades, and this done she sat down with the table
+between them, remarking,--
+
+"You may put your hands down now, Mr. ----?"
+
+He hesitated, decided that it was unwise to give any of his names; and
+respecting his scruples she said with great magnanimity:--
+
+"Of course you wouldn't want to tell me your name, so don't trouble about
+that."
+
+She sat, wholly tranquil, her arms upon the table, both hands caressing
+the small automatic, while his own revolver, of different pattern and
+larger caliber, lay close by. His status was now established as that of a
+gentleman making a social call upon a lady who, in the pleasantest manner
+imaginable and yet with undeniable resoluteness, kept a deadly weapon
+pointed in the general direction of his person.
+
+A clock on the mantel struck eleven with a low, silvery note. Muriel
+waited for the last stroke and then spoke crisply and directly.
+
+"We were speaking of that letter I left lying here on the table. You
+didn't understand it, of course; you couldn't--not really. So I will
+explain it to you. My husband and I married against our fathers' wishes;
+both of them were opposed to it."
+
+She waited for this to sink into his perturbed consciousness. The Hopper
+frowned and leaned forward to express his sympathetic interest in this
+confidential disclosure.
+
+"My father," she resumed, "is just as stupid as my father-in-law and they
+have both continued to make us just as uncomfortable as possible. The
+cause of the trouble is ridiculous. There's nothing against my husband or
+me, you understand; it's simply a bitter jealousy between the two men due
+to the fact that they are rival collectors."
+
+The Hopper stared blankly. The only collectors with whom he had enjoyed
+any acquaintance were persons who presented bills for payment.
+
+"They are collectors," Muriel hastened to explain, "of ceramics--precious
+porcelains and that sort of thing."
+
+"Yes'm," assented The Hopper, who hadn't the faintest notion of what she
+meant.
+
+"For years, whenever there have been important sales of these things,
+which men fight for and are willing to die for--whenever there has been
+something specially fine in the market, my father-in-law--he's Mr.
+Talbot--and Mr. Wilton--he's my father--have bid for them. There are
+auctions, you know, and people come from all over the world looking for a
+chance to buy the rarest pieces. They've explored China and Japan hunting
+for prizes and they are experts--men of rare taste and judgment--what you
+call connoisseurs."
+
+The Hopper nodded gravely at the unfamiliar word, convinced that not only
+were Muriel and her husband quite insane, but that they had inherited the
+infirmity.
+
+"The trouble has been," Muriel continued, "that Mr. Talbot and my father
+both like the same kind of thing; and when one has got something the other
+wanted, of course it has added to the ill-feeling. This has been going on
+for years and recently they have grown more bitter. When Roger and I ran
+off and got married, that didn't help matters any; but just within a few
+days something has happened to make things much worse than ever."
+
+The Hopper's complete absorption in this novel recital was so manifest
+that she put down the revolver with which she had been idling and folded
+her hands.
+
+"Thank ye, miss," mumbled The Hopper.
+
+"Only last week," Muriel continued, "my father-in-law bought one of those
+pottery treasures--a plum-blossom vase made in China hundreds of years ago
+and very, very valuable. It belonged to a Philadelphia collector who died
+not long ago and Mr. Talbot bought it from the executor of the estate, who
+happened to be an old friend of his. Father was very angry, for he had
+been led to believe that this vase was going to be offered at auction and
+he'd have a chance to bid on it. And just before that father had got hold
+of a jar--a perfectly wonderful piece of red Lang-Yao--that collectors
+everywhere have coveted for years. This made Mr. Talbot furious at father.
+My husband is at his father's now trying to make him see the folly of all
+this, and I visited _my_ father to-day to try to persuade him to stop
+being so foolish. You see I wanted us all to be happy for Christmas! Of
+course, Christmas ought to be a time of gladness for everybody. Even
+people in your--er--profession must feel that Christmas is one day in the
+year when all hard feelings should be forgotten and everybody should try
+to make others happy."
+
+"I guess yer right, miss. Ut sure seems foolish fer folks t' git mad about
+jugs like you says. Wuz they empty, miss?"
+
+"Empty!" repeated Muriel wonderingly, not understanding at once that her
+visitor was unaware that the "jugs" men fought over were valued as art
+treasures and not for their possible contents. Then she laughed merrily,
+as only the mother of Shaver could laugh.
+
+"Oh! Of course they're _empty!_ That does seem to make it sillier,
+doesn't it? But they're like famous pictures, you know, or any beautiful
+work of art that only happens occasionally. Perhaps it seems odd to you
+that men can be so crazy about such things, but I suppose sometimes you
+have wanted things very, very much, and--oh!"
+
+She paused, plainly confused by her tactlessness in suggesting to a member
+of his profession the extremities to which one may be led by covetousness.
+
+"Yes, miss," he remarked hastily; and he rubbed his nose with the back of
+his hand, and grinned indulgently as he realized the cause of her
+embarrassment. It crossed his mind that she might be playing a trick of
+some kind; that her story, which seemed to him wholly fantastic and not at
+all like a chronicle of the acts of veritable human beings, was merely a
+device for detaining him until help arrived. But he dismissed this
+immediately as unworthy of one so pleasing, so beautiful, so perfectly
+qualified to be the mother of Shaver!
+
+"Well, just before luncheon, without telling my husband where I was going,
+I ran away to papa's, hoping to persuade him to end this silly feud. I
+spent the afternoon there and he was very unreasonable. He feels that Mr.
+Talbot wasn't fair about that Philadelphia purchase, and I gave it up and
+came home. I got here a little after dark and found my husband had taken
+Billie--that's our little boy--and gone. I knew, of course, that he had
+gone to _his_ father's hoping to bring him round, for both our fathers are
+simply crazy about Billie. But you see I never go to Mr. Talbot's and my
+husband never goes--Dear me!" she broke off suddenly. "I suppose I ought
+to telephone and see if Billie is all right."
+
+The Hopper, greatly alarmed, thrust his head forward as she pondered this.
+If she telephoned to her father-in-law's to ask about Billie, the jig
+would be up! He drew his hand across his face and fell back with relief as
+she went on, a little absently:--
+
+"Mr. Talbot hates telephoning, and it might be that my husband is just
+getting him to the point of making concessions, and I shouldn't want to
+interrupt. It's so late now that of course Roger and Billie will spend the
+night there. And Billie and Christmas ought to be a combination that would
+soften the hardest heart! You ought to see--you just ought to see Billie!
+He's the cunningest, dearest baby in the world!"
+
+The Hopper sat pigeon-toed, beset by countless conflicting emotions. His
+ingenuity was taxed to its utmost by the demands of this complex
+situation. But for his returning suspicion that Muriel was leading up to
+something; that she was detaining him for some purpose not yet apparent,
+he would have told her of her husband's note and confessed that the adored
+Billie was at that moment enjoying the reluctant hospitality of Happy Hill
+Farm. He resolved to continue his policy of silence as to the young heir's
+whereabouts until Muriel had shown her hand. She had not wholly abandoned
+the thought of telephoning to her father-in-law's, he found, from her next
+remark.
+
+"You think it's all right, don't you? It's strange Roger didn't leave me
+a note of some kind. Our cook left a week ago and there was no one here
+when he left."
+
+"I reckon as how yer kid's all right, miss," he answered consolingly.
+
+Her voluble confidences had enthralled him, and her reference of this
+matter to his judgment was enormously flattering. On the rough edges of
+society where he had spent most of his life, fellow craftsmen had
+frequently solicited his advice, chiefly as to the disposition of their
+ill-gotten gains or regarding safe harbors of refuge, but to be taken into
+counsel by the only gentlewoman he had ever met roused his self-respect,
+touched a chivalry that never before had been wakened in The Hopper's
+soul. She was so like a child in her guilelessness, and so brave amid her
+perplexities!
+
+"Oh, I know Roger will take beautiful care of Billie. And now," she smiled
+radiantly, "you're probably wondering what I've been driving at all this
+time. Maybe"--she added softly--"maybe it's providential, your turning up
+here in this way!"
+
+She uttered this happily, with a little note of triumph and another of her
+smiles that seemed to illuminate the universe. The Hopper had been called
+many names in his varied career, but never before had he been invested
+with the attributes of an agent of Providence.
+
+"They's things wot is an' they's things wot ain't, miss; I reckon I ain't
+as bad as some. I mean to be on the square, miss."
+
+"I believe that," she said. "I've always heard there's honor among
+thieves, and"--she lowered her voice to a whisper--"it's possible I might
+become one myself!"
+
+The Hopper's eyes opened wide and he crossed and uncrossed his legs
+nervously in his agitation.
+
+"If--if"--she began slowly, bending forward with a grave, earnest look in
+her eyes and clasping her fingers tightly--"if we could only get hold of
+father's Lang-Yao jar and that plum-blossom vase Mr. Talbot has--if we
+could only do that!"
+
+The Hopper swallowed hard. This fearless, pretty young woman was calmly
+suggesting that he commit two felonies, little knowing that his score for
+the day already aggregated three--purse-snatching, the theft of an
+automobile from her own door, and what might very readily be construed as
+the kidnaping of her own child!
+
+"I don't know, miss," he said feebly, calculating that the sum total of
+even minimum penalties for the five crimes would outrun his natural life
+and consume an eternity of reincarnations.
+
+"Of course it wouldn't be stealing in the ordinary sense," she explained.
+"What I want you to do is to play the part of what we will call a
+reversible Santa Claus, who takes things away from stupid people who don't
+enjoy them anyhow. And maybe if they lost these things they'd behave
+themselves. I could explain afterward that it was all my fault, and of
+course I wouldn't let any harm come to _you_. I'd be responsible, and of
+course I'd see you safely out of it; you would have to rely on me for
+that. I'm trusting _you_ and you'd have to trust _me!_"
+
+"Oh, I'd trust ye, miss! An' ef I was to get pinched I wouldn't never
+squeal on ye. We don't never blab on a pal, miss!"
+
+He was afraid she might resent being called a "pal," but his use of the
+term apparently pleased her.
+
+"We understand each other, then. It really won't be very difficult, for
+papa's place is over on the Sound and Mr. Talbot's is right next to it, so
+you wouldn't have far to go."
+
+Her utter failure to comprehend the enormity of the thing she was
+proposing affected him queerly. Even among hardened criminals in the
+underworld such undertakings are suggested cautiously; but Muriel was
+ordering a burglary as though it were a pound of butter or a dozen eggs!
+
+"Father keeps his most valuable glazes in a safe in the pantry," she
+resumed after a moment's reflection, "but I can give you the combination.
+That will make it a lot easier."
+
+The Hopper assented, with a pontifical nod, to this sanguine view of the
+matter.
+
+"Mr. Talbot keeps his finest pieces in a cabinet built into the
+bookshelves in his library. It's on the left side as you stand in the
+drawing-room door, and you look for the works of Thomas Carlyle. There's a
+dozen or so volumes of Carlyle, only they're not books,--not really,--but
+just the backs of books painted on the steel of a safe. And if you press a
+spring in the upper right-hand corner of the shelf just over these books
+the whole section swings out. I suppose you've seen that sort of
+hiding-place for valuables?"
+
+"Well, not exactly, miss. But havin' a tip helps, an' ef there ain't no
+soup to pour--"
+
+"Soup?" inquired Muriel, wrinkling her pretty brows.
+
+"That's the juice we pour into the cracks of a safe to blow out the lid
+with," The Hopper elucidated. "Ut's a lot handier ef you've got the
+combination. Ut usually ain't jes' layin' around."
+
+"I should hope not!" exclaimed Muriel.
+
+She took a sheet of paper from the leathern stationery rack and fell to
+scribbling, while he furtively eyed the window and again put from him the
+thought of flight.
+
+"There! That's the combination of papa's safe." She turned her wrist and
+glanced at her watch. "It's half-past eleven and you can catch a trolley
+in ten minutes that will take you right past papa's house. The butler's an
+old man who forgets to lock the windows half the time, and there's one in
+the conservatory with a broken catch. I noticed it to-day when I was
+thinking about stealing the jar myself!"
+
+They were established on so firm a basis of mutual confidence that when he
+rose and walked to the table she didn't lift her eyes from the paper on
+which she was drawing a diagram of her father's house. He stood watching
+her nimble fingers, fascinated by the boldness of her plan for restoring
+amity between Shaver's grandfathers, and filled with admiration for her
+resourcefulness.
+
+He asked a few questions as to exits and entrances and fixed in his mind a
+very accurate picture of the home of her father. She then proceeded to
+enlighten him as to the ways and means of entering the home of her
+father-in-law, which she sketched with equal facility.
+
+"There's a French window--a narrow glass door--on the veranda. I think you
+might get in _there!_" She made a jab with the pencil. "Of course I should
+hate awfully to have you get caught! But you must have had a lot of
+experience, and with all the help I'm giving you--!"
+
+A sudden lifting of her head gave him the full benefit of her eyes and he
+averted his gaze reverently.
+
+"There's always a chance o' bein' nabbed, miss," he suggested with
+feeling.
+
+Shaver's mother wielded the same hypnotic power, highly intensified, that
+he had felt in Shaver. He knew that he was going to attempt what she
+asked; that he was committed to the project of robbing two houses merely
+to please a pretty young woman who invited his coöperation at the point of
+a revolver!
+
+"Papa's always a sound sleeper," she was saying. "When I was a little girl
+a burglar went all through our house and carried off his clothes and he
+never knew it until the next morning. But you'll have to be careful at Mr.
+Talbot's, for he suffers horribly from insomnia."
+
+"They got any o' them fancy burglar alarms?" asked The Hopper as he
+concluded his examination of her sketches.
+
+"Oh, I forgot to tell you about that!" she cried contritely. "There's
+nothing of the kind at Mr. Talbot's, but at papa's there's a switch in
+the living-room, right back of a bust--a white marble thing on a pedestal.
+You turn it off _there_. Half the time papa forgets to switch it on before
+he goes to bed. And another thing--be careful about stumbling over that
+bearskin rug in the hall. People are always sticking their feet into its
+jaws."
+
+"I'll look out for ut, miss."
+
+Burglar alarms and the jaws of wild beasts were not inviting hazards. The
+programme she outlined so light-heartedly was full of complexities. It was
+almost pathetic that any one could so cheerfully and irresponsibly suggest
+the perpetration of a crime. The terms she used in describing the loot he
+was to filch were much stranger to him than Chinese, but it was fairly
+clear that at the Talbot house he was to steal a blue-and-white thing and
+at the Wilton's a red one. The form and size of these articles she
+illustrated with graceful gestures.
+
+"If I thought you were likely to make a mistake I'd--I'd go with you!" she
+declared.
+
+"Oh, no, miss; ye couldn't do that! I guess I can do ut fer ye. Ut's jes'
+a _leetle_ ticklish. I reckon ef yer pa wuz to nab me ut'd go hard with
+me."
+
+"I wouldn't let him be hard on you," she replied earnestly. "And now I
+haven't said anything about a--a--about what we will call a _reward_ for
+bringing me these porcelains. I shall expect to pay you; I couldn't think
+of taking up your time, you know, for nothing!"
+
+"Lor', miss, I couldn't take nothin' at all fer doin' ut! Ye see ut wuz
+sort of accidental our meetin', and besides, I ain't no
+housebreaker--not, as ye may say, reg'ler. I'll be glad to do ut fer ye,
+miss, an' ye can rely on me doin' my best fer ye. Ye've treated me right,
+miss, an' I ain't a-goin' t' fergit ut!"
+
+The Hopper spoke with feeling. Shaver's mother had, albeit at the pistol
+point, confided her most intimate domestic affairs to him. He realized,
+without finding just these words for it, that she had in effect decorated
+him with the symbol of her order of knighthood and he had every
+honorable--or dishonorable!--intention of proving himself worthy of her
+confidence.
+
+"If ye please, miss," he said, pointing toward his confiscated revolver.
+
+"Certainly; you may take it. But of course you won't kill anybody?"
+
+"No, miss; only I'm sort o' lonesome without ut when I'm on a job."
+
+"And you do understand," she said, following him to the door and noting in
+the distance the headlight of an approaching trolley, "that I'm only doing
+this in the hope that good may come of it. It isn't really criminal, you
+know; if you succeed, it may mean the happiest Christmas of my life!"
+
+"Yes, miss. I won't come back till mornin', but don't you worry none. We
+gotta play safe, miss, an' ef I land th' jugs I'll find cover till I kin
+deliver 'em safe."
+
+"Thank you; oh, thank you ever so much! And good luck!"
+
+She put out her hand; he held it gingerly for a moment in his rough
+fingers and ran for the car.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+The Hopper, in his rōle of the Reversible Santa Claus, dropped off the car
+at the crossing Muriel had carefully described, waited for the car to
+vanish, and warily entered the Wilton estate through a gate set in the
+stone wall. The clouds of the early evening had passed and the stars
+marched through the heavens resplendently, proclaiming peace on earth and
+good-will toward men. They were almost oppressively brilliant, seen
+through the clear, cold atmosphere, and as The Hopper slipped from one big
+tree to another on his tangential course to the house, he fortified his
+courage by muttering, "They's things wot is an' things wot
+ain't!"--finding much comfort and stimulus in the phrase.
+
+Arriving at the conservatory in due course, he found that Muriel's
+averments as to the vulnerability of that corner of her father's house
+were correct in every particular. He entered with ease, sniffed the warm,
+moist air, and, leaving the door slightly ajar, sought the pantry, lowered
+the shades, and, helping himself to a candle from a silver candelabrum,
+readily found the safe hidden away in one of the cupboards. He was
+surprised to find himself more nervous with the combination in his hand
+than on memorable occasions in the old days when he had broken into
+country postoffices and assaulted safes by force. In his haste he twice
+failed to give the proper turns, but the third time the knob caught, and
+in a moment the door swung open disclosing shelves filled with vases,
+bottles, bowls, and plates in bewildering variety. A chest of silver
+appealed to him distractingly as a much more tangible asset than the
+pottery, and he dizzily contemplated a jewel-case containing a diamond
+necklace with a pearl pendant. The moment was a critical one in The
+Hopper's eventful career. This dazzling prize was his for the taking, and
+he knew the operator of a fence in Chicago who would dispose of the
+necklace and make him a fair return. But visions of Muriel, the beautiful,
+the confiding, and of her little Shaver asleep on Humpy's bed, rose before
+him. He steeled his heart against temptation, drew his candle along the
+shelf and scrutinized the glazes. There could be no mistaking the red
+Lang-Yao whose brilliant tints kindled in the candle-glow. He lifted it
+tenderly, verifying the various points of Muriel's description, set it
+down on the floor and locked the safe.
+
+He was retracing his steps toward the conservatory and had reached the
+main hall when the creaking of the stairsteps brought him up with a start.
+Some one was descending, slowly and cautiously. For a second time and with
+grateful appreciation of Muriel's forethought, he carefully avoided the
+ferocious jaws of the bear, noiselessly continued on to the conservatory,
+crept through the door, closed it, and then, crouching on the steps,
+awaited developments. The caution exercised by the person descending the
+stairway was not that of a householder who has been roused from slumber
+by a disquieting noise. The Hopper was keenly interested in this fact.
+
+With his face against the glass he watched the actions of a tall, elderly
+man with a short, grayish beard, who wore a golf-cap pulled low on his
+head--points noted by The Hopper in the flashes of an electric lamp with
+which the gentleman was guiding himself. His face was clearly the original
+of a photograph The Hopper had seen on the table at Muriel's cottage--Mr.
+Wilton, Muriel's father, The Hopper surmised; but just why the owner of
+the establishment should be prowling about in this fashion taxed his
+speculative powers to the utmost. Warned by steps on the cement floor of
+the conservatory, he left the door in haste and flattened himself against
+the wall of the house some distance away and again awaited developments.
+
+Wilton's figure was a blur in the star-light as he stepped out into the
+walk and started furtively across the grounds. His conduct greatly
+displeased The Hopper, as likely to interfere with the further carrying
+out of Muriel's instructions. The Lang-Yao jar was much too large to go
+into his pocket and not big enough to fit snugly under his arm, and as the
+walk was slippery he was beset by the fear that he might fall and smash
+this absurd thing that had caused so bitter an enmity between Shaver's
+grandfathers. The soft snow on the lawn gave him a surer footing and he
+crept after Wilton, who was carefully pursuing his way toward a house
+whose gables were faintly limned against the sky. This, according to
+Muriel's diagram, was the Talbot place. The Hopper greatly mistrusted
+conditions he didn't understand, and he was at a loss to account for
+Wilton's strange actions.
+
+[Illustration: THE FAINT CLICK OF A LATCH MARKED THE PROWLER'S PROXIMITY
+TO A HEDGE]
+
+He lost sight of him for several minutes, then the faint click of a latch
+marked the prowler's proximity to a hedge that separated the two estates.
+The Hopper crept forward, found a gate through which Wilton had entered
+his neighbor's property, and stole after him. Wilton had been swallowed up
+by the deep shadow of the house, but The Hopper was aware, from an
+occasional scraping of feet, that he was still moving forward. He crawled
+over the snow until he reached a large tree whose boughs, sharply limned
+against the stars, brushed the eaves of the house.
+
+The Hopper was aroused, tremendously aroused, by the unaccountable
+actions of Muriel's father. It flashed upon him that Wilton, in his deep
+hatred of his rival collector, was about to set fire to Talbot's house,
+and incendiarism was a crime which The Hopper, with all his moral
+obliquity, greatly abhorred.
+
+Several minutes passed, a period of anxious waiting, and then a sound
+reached him which, to his keen professional sense, seemed singularly like
+the forcing of a window. The Hopper knew just how much pressure is
+necessary to the successful snapping back of a window catch, and Wilton
+had done the trick neatly and with a minimum amount of noise. The window
+thus assaulted was not, he now determined, the French window suggested by
+Muriel, but one opening on a terrace which ran along the front of the
+house. The Hopper heard the sash moving slowly in the frame. He reached
+the steps, deposited the jar in a pile of snow, and was soon peering into
+a room where Wilton's presence was advertised by the fitful flashing of
+his lamp in a far corner.
+
+"He's beat me to ut!" muttered The Hopper, realizing that Muriel's father
+was indeed on burglary bent, his obvious purpose being to purloin,
+extract, and remove from its secret hiding-place the coveted plum-blossom
+vase. Muriel, in her longing for a Christmas of peace and happiness, had
+not reckoned with her father's passionate desire to possess the porcelain
+treasure--a desire which could hardly fail to cause scandal, if it did not
+land him behind prison bars.
+
+This had not been in the programme, and The Hopper weighed judicially his
+further duty in the matter. Often as he had been the chief actor in
+daring robberies, he had never before enjoyed the high privilege of
+watching a rival's labors with complete detachment. Wilton must have known
+of the concealed cupboard whose panel fraudulently represented the works
+of Thomas Carlyle, the intent spectator reflected, just as Muriel had
+known, for though he used his lamp sparingly Wilton had found his way to
+it without difficulty.
+
+The Hopper had no intention of permitting this monstrous larceny to be
+committed in contravention of his own rights in the premises, and he was
+considering the best method of wresting the vase from the hands of the
+insolent Wilton when events began to multiply with startling rapidity. The
+panel swung open and the thief's lamp flashed upon shelves of pottery.
+
+At that moment a shout rose from somewhere in the house, and the library
+lights were thrown on, revealing Wilton before the shelves and their
+precious contents. A short, stout gentleman with a gleaming bald pate,
+clad in pajamas, dashed across the room, and with a yell of rage flung
+himself upon the intruder with a violence that bore them both to the
+floor.
+
+"Roger! Roger!" bawled the smaller man, as he struggled with his
+adversary, who wriggled from under and rolled over upon Talbot, whose arms
+were clasped tightly about his neck. This embrace seemed likely to
+continue for some time, so tenaciously had the little man gripped his
+neighbor. The fat legs of the infuriated householder pawed the air as he
+hugged Wilton, who was now trying to free his head and gain a position of
+greater dignity. Occasionally, as opportunity offered, the little man
+yelled vociferously, and from remote recesses of the house came answering
+cries demanding information as to the nature and whereabouts of the
+disturbance.
+
+The contestants addressed themselves vigorously to a spirited
+rough-and-tumble fight. Talbot, who was the more easily observed by reason
+of his shining pate and the pink stripes of his pajamas, appeared to be
+revolving about the person of his neighbor. Wilton, though taller, lacked
+the rotund Talbot's liveliness of attack.
+
+An authoritative voice, which The Hopper attributed to Shaver's father,
+anxiously demanding what was the matter, terminated The Hopper's
+enjoyment of the struggle. Enough was the matter to satisfy The Hopper
+that a prolonged stay in the neighborhood might be highly detrimental to
+his future liberty. The combatants had rolled a considerable distance away
+from the shelves and were near a door leading into a room beyond. A young
+man in a bath-wrapper dashed upon the scene, and in his precipitate
+arrival upon the battle-field fell sprawling across the prone figures. The
+Hopper, suddenly inspired to deeds of prowess, crawled through the window,
+sprang past the three men, seized the blue-and-white vase which Wilton had
+separated from the rest of Talbot's treasures, and then with one hop
+gained the window. As he turned for a last look, a pistol cracked and he
+landed upon the terrace amid a shower of glass from a shattered pane.
+
+A woman of unmistakable Celtic origin screamed murder from a third-story
+window. The thought of murder was disagreeable to The Hopper. Shaver's
+father had missed him by only the matter of a foot or two, and as he had
+no intention of offering himself again as a target he stood not upon the
+order of his going.
+
+He effected a running pick-up of the Lang-Yao, and with this art treasure
+under one arm and the plum-blossom vase under the other, he sprinted for
+the highway, stumbling over shrubbery, bumping into a stone bench that all
+but caused disaster, and finally reached the road on which he continued
+his flight toward New Haven, followed by cries in many keys and a
+fusillade of pistol shots.
+
+Arriving presently at a hamlet, where he paused for breath in the rear of
+a country store, he found a basket and a quantity of paper in which he
+carefully packed his loot. Over the top he spread some faded lettuce
+leaves and discarded carnations which communicated something of a blithe
+holiday air to his encumbrance. Elsewhere he found a bicycle under a shed,
+and while cycling over a snowy road in the dark, hampered by a basket
+containing pottery representative of the highest genius of the Orient, was
+not without its difficulties and dangers, The Hopper made rapid progress.
+
+Halfway through New Haven he approached two policemen and slowed down to
+allay suspicion.
+
+"Merry Chris'mas!" he called as he passed them and increased his weight
+upon the pedals.
+
+The officers of the law, cheered as by a greeting from Santa Claus
+himself, responded with an equally hearty Merry Christmas.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+At three o'clock The Hopper reached Happy Hill Farm, knocked as before at
+the kitchen door, and was admitted by Humpy.
+
+"Wot ye got now?" snarled the reformed yeggman.
+
+"He's gone and done ut ag'in!" wailed Mary, as she spied the basket.
+
+"I sure done ut, all right," admitted The Hopper good-naturedly, as he set
+the basket on the table where a few hours earlier he had deposited Shaver.
+"How's the kid?"
+
+Grudging assurances that Shaver was asleep and hostile glances directed at
+the mysterious basket did not disturb his equanimity.
+
+Humpy was thwarted in an attempt to pry into the contents of the basket by
+a tart reprimand from The Hopper, who with maddening deliberation drew
+forth the two glazes, found that they had come through the night's
+vicissitudes unscathed, and held them at arm's length, turning them about
+in leisurely fashion as though lost in admiration of their loveliness.
+Then he lighted his pipe, seated himself in Mary's rocker, and told his
+story.
+
+It was no easy matter to communicate to his irritable and contumelious
+auditors the sense of Muriel's charm, or the reasonableness of her request
+that he commit burglary merely to assist her in settling a family row.
+Mary could not understand it; Humpy paced the room nervously, shaking his
+head and muttering. It was their judgment, stated with much frankness,
+that if he had been a fool in the first place to steal the child, his
+character was now blackened beyond any hope by his later crimes. Mary wept
+copiously; Humpy most annoyingly kept counting upon his fingers as he
+reckoned the "time" that was in store for all of them.
+
+"I guess I got into ut an' I guess I'll git out," remarked The Hopper
+serenely. He was disposed to treat them with high condescension, as
+incapable of appreciating the lofty philosophy of life by which he was
+sustained. Meanwhile, he gloated over the loot of the night.
+
+"Them things is wurt' mints; they's more valible than di'mon's, them
+things is! Only eddicated folks knows about 'em. They's fer emp'rors and
+kings t' set up in their palaces, an' men goes nutty jes' hankerin' fer
+'em. The pigtails made 'em thousand o' years back, an' th' secret died
+with 'em. They ain't never goin' to be no more jugs like them settin'
+right there. An' them two ole sports give up their business jes' t' chase
+things like them. They's some folks goes loony about chickens, an' hosses,
+an' fancy dogs, but this here kind o' collectin' 's only fer millionaires.
+They's more difficult t' pick than a lucky race-hoss. They's barrels o'
+that stuff in them houses, that looked jes' as good as them there, but
+nowheres as valible."
+
+An informal lecture on Chinese ceramics before daylight on Christmas
+morning was not to the liking of the anxious and nerve-torn Mary and
+Humpy. They brought The Hopper down from his lofty heights to practical
+questions touching his plans, for the disposal of Shaver in the first
+instance, and the ceramics in the second. The Hopper was singularly
+unmoved by their forebodings.
+
+"I guess th' lady got me to do ut!" he retorted finally. "Ef I do time fer
+ut I reckon's how she's in fer ut, too! An' I seen her pap breakin' into a
+house an' I guess I'd be a state's witness fer that! I reckon they ain't
+goin' t' put nothin' over on Hop! I guess they won't peep much about
+kidnapin' with th' kid safe an' us pickin' 'im up out o' th' road an'
+shelterin' 'im. Them folks is goin' to be awful nice to Hop fer all he
+done fer 'em." And then, finding that they were impressed by his defense,
+thus elaborated, he magnanimously referred to the bill-book which had
+started him on his downward course.
+
+"That were a mistake; I grant ye ut were a mistake o' jedgment. I'm goin'
+to keep to th' white card. But ut's kind o' funny about that
+poke--queerest thing that ever happened."
+
+He drew out the book and eyed the name on the flap. Humpy tried to grab
+it, but The Hopper, frustrating the attempt, read his colleague a sharp
+lesson in good manners. He restored it to his pocket and glanced at the
+clock.
+
+"We gotta do somethin' about Shaver's stockin's. Ut ain't fair fer a kid
+to wake up an' think Santy missed 'im. Ye got some candy, Mary; we kin put
+candy into 'em; that's reg'ler."
+
+Humpy brought in Shaver's stockings and they were stuffed with the candy
+and popcorn Mary had provided to adorn their Christmas feast. Humpy
+inventoried his belongings, but could think of nothing but a revolver that
+seemed a suitable gift for Shaver. This Mary scornfully rejected as
+improper for one so young. Whereupon Humpy produced a Mexican silver
+dollar, a treasured pocket-piece preserved through many tribulations, and
+dropped it reverently into one of the stockings. Two brass buttons of
+unknown history, a mouth-organ Mary had bought for a neighbor boy who
+assisted at times in the poultry yard, and a silver spectacle case of
+uncertain antecedents were added.
+
+"We ought t' 'a' colored eggs fer 'im!" said The Hopper with sudden
+inspiration, after the stockings had been restored to Shaver's bed. "Some
+yaller an' pink eggs would 'a' been the right ticket."
+
+Mary scoffed at the idea. Eggs wasn't proper fer Christmas; eggs was fer
+Easter. Humpy added the weight of his personal experience of Christian
+holidays to this statement. While a trusty in the Missouri penitentiary
+with the chicken yard in his keeping, he remembered distinctly that eggs
+were in demand for purposes of decoration by the warden's children
+sometime in the spring; mebbe it was Easter, mebbe it was Decoration Day;
+Humpy was not sure of anything except that it wasn't Christmas.
+
+The Hopper was meek under correction. It having been settled that colored
+eggs would not be appropriate for Christmas he yielded to their demand
+that he show some enthusiasm for disposing of his ill-gotten treasures
+before the police arrived to take the matter out of his hands.
+
+"I guess that Muriel'll be glad to see me," he remarked. "I guess me and
+her understands each other. They's things wot is an' things wot ain't; an'
+I guess Hop ain't goin' to spend no Chris'mas in jail. It's the white card
+an' poultry an' eggs fer us; an' we're goin' t' put in a couple more
+incubators right away. I'm thinkin' some o' rentin' that acre across th'
+brook back yonder an' raisin' turkeys. They's mints in turks, ef ye kin
+keep 'em from gettin' their feet wet an' dyin' o' pneumonia, which wipes
+out thousands o' them birds. I reckon ye might make some coffee, Mary."
+
+The Christmas dawn found them at the table, where they were renewing a
+pledge to play "the white card" when a cry from Shaver brought them to
+their feet.
+
+Shaver was highly pleased with his Christmas stockings, but his pleasure
+was nothing to that of The Hopper, Mary, and Humpy, as they stood about
+the bed and watched him. Mary and Humpy were so relieved by The Hopper's
+promises to lead a better life that they were now disposed to treat their
+guest with the most distinguished consideration. Humpy, absenting himself
+to perform his morning tasks in the poultry-houses, returned bringing a
+basket containing six newly hatched chicks. These cheeped and ran over
+Shaver's fat legs and performed exactly as though they knew they were a
+part of his Christmas entertainment. Humpy, proud of having thought of the
+chicks, demanded the privilege of serving Shaver's breakfast. Shaver ate
+his porridge without a murmur, so happy was he over his new playthings.
+
+Mary bathed and dressed him with care. As the candy had stuck to the
+stockings in spots, it was decided after a family conference that Shaver
+would have to wear them wrong side out as there was no time to be wasted
+in washing them. By eight o'clock The Hopper announced that it was time
+for Shaver to go home. Shaver expressed alarm at the thought of leaving
+his chicks; whereupon Humpy conferred two of them upon him in the best
+imitation of baby talk that he could muster.
+
+"Me's tate um to me's gwanpas," said Shaver; "chickee for me's two
+gwanpas,"--a remark which caused The Hopper to shake for a moment with
+mirth as he recalled his last view of Shaver's "gwanpas" in a death grip
+upon the floor of "Gwanpa" Talbot's house.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+
+When The Hopper rolled away from Happy Hill Farm in the stolen machine,
+accompanied by one stolen child and forty thousand dollars' worth of
+stolen pottery, Mary wept, whether because of the parting with Shaver, or
+because she feared that The Hopper would never return, was not clear.
+
+Humpy, too, showed signs of tears, but concealed his weakness by
+performing a grotesque dance, dancing grotesquely by the side of the car,
+much to Shaver's joy--a joy enhanced just as the car reached the gate,
+where, as a farewell attention, Humpy fell down and rolled over and over
+in the snow.
+
+The Hopper's wits were alert as he bore Shaver homeward. By this time it
+was likely that the confiding young Talbots had conferred over the
+telephone and knew that their offspring had disappeared. Doubtless the New
+Haven police had been notified, and he chose his route with discretion to
+avoid unpleasant encounters. Shaver, his spirits keyed to holiday pitch,
+babbled ceaselessly, and The Hopper, highly elated, babbled back at him.
+
+They arrived presently at the rear of the young Talbots' premises, and The
+Hopper, with Shaver trotting at his side, advanced cautiously upon the
+house bearing the two baskets, one containing Shaver's chicks, the other
+the precious porcelains. In his survey of the landscape he noted with
+trepidation the presence of two big limousines in the highway in front of
+the cottage and decided that if possible he must see Muriel alone and make
+his report to her.
+
+The moment he entered the kitchen he heard the clash of voices in angry
+dispute in the living-room. Even Shaver was startled by the violence of
+the conversation in progress within, and clutched tightly a fold of The
+Hopper's trousers.
+
+"I tell you it's John Wilton who has stolen Billie!" a man cried
+tempestuously. "Anybody who would enter a neighbor's house in the dead of
+night and try to rob him--rob him, yes, and _murder_ him in the most
+brutal fashion--would not scruple to steal his own grandchild!"
+
+"Me's gwanpa," whispered Shaver, gripping The Hopper's hand, "an' 'im's
+mad."
+
+That Mr. Talbot was very angry indeed was established beyond cavil.
+However, Mr. Wilton was apparently quite capable of taking care of himself
+in the dispute.
+
+"You talk about my stealing when you robbed me of my Lang-Yao--bribed my
+servants to plunder my safe! I want you to understand once for all, Roger
+Talbot, that if that jar isn't returned within one hour,--within one hour,
+sir,--I shall turn you over to the police!"
+
+"Liar!" bellowed Talbot, who possessed a voice of great resonance. "You
+can't mitigate your foul crime by charging me with another! I never saw
+your jar; I never wanted it! I wouldn't have the thing on my place!"
+
+Muriel's voice, full of tears, was lifted in expostulation.
+
+"How can you talk of your silly vases when Billie's lost! Billie's been
+stolen--and you two men can think of nothing but pot-ter-ree!"
+
+Shaver lifted a startled face to The Hopper.
+
+"Mamma's cwyin'; gwanpa's hurted mamma!"
+
+The strategic moment had arrived when Shaver must be thrust forward as an
+interruption to the exchange of disagreeable epithets by his grandfathers.
+
+"You trot right in there t' yer ma, Shaver. Ole Hop ain't goin' t' let 'em
+hurt ye!"
+
+He led the child through the dining room to the living-room door and
+pushed him gently on the scene of strife. Talbot, senior, was pacing the
+floor with angry strides, declaiming upon his wrongs,--indeed, his theme
+might have been the misery of the whole human race from the vigor of his
+lamentations. His son was keeping step with him, vainly attempting to
+persuade him to sit down. Wilton, with a patch over his right eye, was
+trying to disengage himself from his daughter's arms with the obvious
+intention of doing violence to his neighbor.
+
+"I'm sure papa never meant to hurt you; it was all a dreadful mistake,"
+she moaned.
+
+"He had an accomplice," Talbot thundered, "and while he was trying to kill
+me there in my own house the plum-blossom vase was carried off; and if
+Roger hadn't pushed him out of the window after his hireling--I'd--I'd--"
+
+A shriek from Muriel happily prevented the completion of a sentence that
+gave every promise of intensifying the prevailing hard feeling.
+
+"Look!" Muriel cried. "It's Billie come back! Oh, Billie!"
+
+She sprang toward the door and clasped the frightened child to her heart.
+The three men gathered round them, staring dully. The Hopper from behind
+the door waited for Muriel's joy over Billie's return to communicate
+itself to his father and the two grandfathers.
+
+"Me's dot two chick-ees for Kwismus," announced Billie, wriggling in his
+mother's arms.
+
+Muriel, having satisfied herself that Billie was intact,--that he even
+bore the marks of maternal care,--was in the act of transferring him to
+his bewildered father, when, turning a tear-stained face toward the door,
+she saw The Hopper awkwardly twisting the derby which he had donned as
+proper for a morning call of ceremony. She walked toward him with quick,
+eager step.
+
+"You--you came back!" she faltered, stifling a sob.
+
+"Yes'm," responded The Hopper, rubbing his hand across his nose. His
+appearance roused Billie's father to a sense of his parental
+responsibility.
+
+"You brought the boy back! You are the kidnaper!"
+
+"Roger," cried Muriel protestingly, "don't speak like that! I'm sure this
+gentleman can explain how he came to bring Billie."
+
+The quickness with which she regained her composure, the ease with which
+she adjusted herself to the unforeseen situation, pleased The Hopper
+greatly. He had not misjudged Muriel; she was an admirable ally, an ideal
+confederate. She gave him a quick little nod, as much as to say, "Go on,
+sir; we understand each other perfectly,"--though, of course, she did not
+understand, nor was she enlightened until some time later, as to just how
+The Hopper became possessed of Billie.
+
+[Illustration: THE THREE MEN GATHERED ROUND THEM, STARING DULLY]
+
+Billie's father declared his purpose to invoke the law upon his son's
+kidnapers no matter where they might be found.
+
+"I reckon as mebbe ut wuz a kidnapin' an' I reckon as mebbe ut wuzn't,"
+The Hopper began unhurriedly. "I live over Shell Road way; poultry and
+eggs is my line; Happy Hill Farm. Stevens's the name--Charles S. Stevens.
+An' I found Shaver--'scuse me, but ut seemed sort o' nat'ral name fer
+'im?--I found 'im a settin' up in th' machine over there by my place,
+chipper's ye please. I takes 'im into my house an' Mary'--that's th'
+missus--she gives 'im supper and puts 'im t' sleep. An' we thinks mebbe
+somebody'd come along askin' fer 'im. An' then this mornin' I calls th'
+New Haven police, an' they tole me about you folks, an' me and Shaver
+comes right over."
+
+This was entirely plausible and his hearers, The Hopper noted with relief,
+accepted it at face value.
+
+"How dear of you!" cried Muriel. "Won't you have this chair, Mr. Stevens!"
+
+"Most remarkable!" exclaimed Wilton. "Some scoundrelly tramp picked up the
+car and finding there was a baby inside left it at the roadside like the
+brute he was!"
+
+Billie had addressed himself promptly to the Christmas tree, to his very
+own Christmas tree that was laden with gifts that had been assembled by
+the family for his delectation. Efforts of Grandfather Wilton to extract
+from the child some account of the man who had run away with him were
+unavailing. Billie was busy, very busy, indeed. After much patient effort
+he stopped sorting the animals in a bright new Noah's Ark to point his
+finger at The Hopper and remark:--
+
+"'Ims nice mans; 'ims let Bil-lee play wif 'ims watch!"
+
+As Billie had broken the watch his acknowledgment of The Hopper's courtesy
+in letting him play with it brought a grin to The Hopper's face.
+
+Now that Billie had been returned and his absence satisfactorily accounted
+for, the two connoisseurs showed signs of renewing their quarrel.
+Responsive to a demand from Billie, The Hopper got down on the floor to
+assist in the proper mating of Noah's animals. Billie's father was
+scrutinizing him fixedly and The Hopper wondered whether Muriel's handsome
+young husband had recognized him as the person who had vanished through
+the window of the Talbot home bearing the plum-blossom vase. The thought
+was disquieting; but feigning deep interest in the Ark he listened
+attentively to a violent tirade upon which the senior Talbot was launched.
+
+"My God!" he cried bitterly, planting himself before Wilton in a
+belligerent attitude, "every infernal thing that can happen to a man
+happened to me yesterday. It wasn't enough that you robbed me and tried to
+murder me--yes, you did, sir!--but when I was in the city I was robbed in
+the subway by a pickpocket. A thief took my bill-book containing
+invaluable data I had just received from my agent in China giving me a
+clue to porcelains, sir, such as you never dreamed of! Some more of your
+work--Don't you contradict me! You don't contradict me! Roger, he doesn't
+contradict me!"
+
+Wilton, choking with indignation at this new onslaught, was unable to
+contradict him.
+
+Pained by the situation, The Hopper rose from the floor and coughed
+timidly.
+
+"Shaver, go fetch yer chickies. Bring yer chickies in an' put 'em on th'
+boat."
+
+Billie obediently trotted off toward the kitchen and The Hopper turned his
+back upon the Christmas tree, drew out the pocket-book and faced the
+company.
+
+"I beg yer pardon, gents, but mebbe this is th' book yer fightin' about.
+Kind o' funny like! I picked ut up on th' local yistiddy afternoon. I wuz
+goin' t' turn ut int' th' agint, but I clean fergot ut. I guess them
+papers may be valible. I never touched none of 'em."
+
+Talbot snatched the bill-book and hastily examined the contents. His brow
+relaxed and he was grumbling something about a reward when Billie
+reappeared, laboriously dragging two baskets.
+
+"Bil-lee's dot chick-_ees_! Bil-lee's dot pitty dishes. Bil-lee make
+dishes go 'ippity!"
+
+Before he could make the two jars go 'ippity, The Hopper leaped across
+the room and seized the basket. He tore off the towel with which he had
+carefully covered the stolen pottery and disclosed the contents for
+inspection.
+
+"'Scuse me, gents; no crowdin'," he warned as the connoisseurs sprang
+toward him. He placed the porcelains carefully on the floor under the
+Christmas tree. "Now ye kin listen t' me, gents. I reckon I'm goin' t'
+have somethin' t' say about this here crockery. I stole 'em--I stole 'em
+fer th' lady there, she thinkin' ef ye didn't have 'em no more ye'd stop
+rowin' about 'em. Ye kin call th' bulls an' turn me over ef ye likes; but
+I ain't goin' t' have ye fussin' an' causin' th' lady trouble no more. I
+ain't goin' to stand fer ut!"
+
+"Robber!" shouted Talbot. "You entered my house at the instance of this
+man; it was you--"
+
+"I never saw the gent before," declared The Hopper hotly. "I ain't never
+had no thin' to do with neither o' ye."
+
+"He's telling the truth!" protested Muriel, laughing hysterically. "I did
+it--I got him to take them!"
+
+The two collectors were not interested in explanations; they were hungrily
+eyeing their property. Wilton attempted to pass The Hopper and reach the
+Christmas tree under whose protecting boughs the two vases were looking
+their loveliest.
+
+"Stand back," commanded The Hopper, "an' stop callin' names! I guess ef
+I'm yanked fer this I ain't th' only one that's goin' t' do time fer house
+breakin'."
+
+This statement, made with considerable vigor, had a sobering effect upon
+Wilton, but Talbot began dancing round the tree looking for a chance to
+pounce upon the porcelains.
+
+"Ef ye don't set down--the whole caboodle o' ye--I'll smash 'em--I'll
+smash 'em both! I'll bust 'em--sure as shootin'!" shouted The Hopper.
+
+They cowered before him; Muriel wept softly; Billie played with his
+chickies, disdainful of the world's woe. The Hopper, holding the two angry
+men at bay, was enjoying his command of the situation.
+
+"You gents ain't got no business to be fussin' an' causin' yer childern
+trouble. An' ye ain't goin' to have these pretty jugs to fuss about no
+more. I'm goin' t' give 'em away; I'm goin' to make a Chris'mas present of
+'em to Shaver. They're goin' to be little Shaver's right here, all orderly
+an' peace'ble, or I'll tromp on 'em! Looky here, Shaver, wot Santy Claus
+brought ye!"
+
+"Nice dood Sant' Claus!" cried Billie, diving under the davenport in quest
+of the wandering chicks.
+
+Silence held the grown-ups. The Hopper stood patiently by the Christmas
+tree, awaiting the result of his diplomacy.
+
+Then suddenly Wilton laughed--a loud laugh expressive of relief. He turned
+to Talbot and put out his hand.
+
+"It looks as though Muriel and her friend here had cornered us! The idea
+of pooling our trophies and giving them as a Christmas present to Billie
+appeals to me strongly. And, besides we've got to prepare somebody to love
+these things after we're gone. We can work together and train Billie to be
+the greatest collector in America!"
+
+"Please, father," urged Roger as Talbot frowned and shook his head
+impatiently.
+
+Billie, struck with the happy thought of hanging one of his chickies on
+the Christmas tree, caused them all to laugh at this moment. It was
+difficult to refuse to be generous on Christmas morning in the presence of
+the happy child!
+
+"Well," said Talbot, a reluctant smile crossing his face, "I guess it's
+all in the family anyway."
+
+The Hopper, feeling that his work as the Reversible Santa Claus was
+finished, was rapidly retreating through the dining-room when Muriel and
+Roger ran after him.
+
+"We're going to take you home," cried Muriel, beaming.
+
+"Yer car's at the back gate, all right-side-up," said The Hopper, "but I
+kin go on the trolley."
+
+"Indeed you won't! Roger will take you home. Oh, don't be alarmed! My
+husband knows everything about our conspiracy. And we want you to come
+back this afternoon. You know I owe you an apology for thinking--for
+thinking you were--you were--a--"
+
+"They's things wot is an' things wot ain't, miss. Circumstantial evidence
+sends lots o' men to th' chair. Ut's a heap more happy like," The Hopper
+continued in his best philosophical vein, "t' play th' white card, helpin'
+widders an' orfants an' settlin' fusses. When ye ast me t' steal them jugs
+I hadn't th' heart t' refuse ye, miss. I wuz scared to tell ye I had yer
+baby an' ye seemed so sort o' trustin' like. An' ut bein' Chris'mus an'
+all."
+
+When he steadfastly refused to promise to return, Muriel announced that
+they would visit The Hopper late in the afternoon and bring Billie along
+to express their thanks more formally.
+
+"I'll be glad to see ye," replied The Hopper, though a little doubtfully
+and shame-facedly. "But ye mustn't git me into no more house-breakin'
+scrapes," he added with a grin. "It's mighty dangerous, miss, fer
+amachures, like me an' yer pa!"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+
+Mary was not wholly pleased at the prospect of visitors, but she fell to
+work with Humpy to put the house in order. At five o'clock not one, but
+three automobiles drove into the yard, filling Humpy with alarm lest at
+last The Hopper's sins had overtaken him, and they were all about to be
+hauled away to spend the rest of their lives in prison. It was not the
+police, but the young Talbots, with Billie and his grandfathers, on their
+way to a family celebration at the house of an aunt of Muriel's.
+
+The grandfathers were restored to perfect amity, and were deeply curious
+now about The Hopper, whom the peace-loving Muriel had cajoled into
+robbing their houses.
+
+"And you're only an honest chicken farmer, after all!" exclaimed Talbot,
+senior, when they were all sitting in a semicircle about the fireplace in
+Mary's parlor. "I hoped you were really a burglar; I always wanted to know
+a burglar."
+
+Humpy had chopped down a small fir that had adorned the front yard and had
+set it up as a Christmas tree--an attention that was not lost upon Billie.
+The Hopper had brought some mechanical toys from town, and Humpy essayed
+the agreeable task of teaching the youngster how to operate them. Mary
+produced coffee and pound cake for the guests; The Hopper assumed the
+rōle of lord of the manor with a benevolent air that was intended as much
+to impress Mary and Humpy as the guests.
+
+"Of course," said Mr. Wilton, whose appearance was the least bit comical
+by reason of his bandaged head,--"of course it was very foolish for a man
+of your sterling character to allow a young woman like my daughter to
+bully you into robbing houses for her. Why, when Roger fired at you as you
+were jumping out of the window, he didn't miss you more than a foot! It
+would have been ghastly for all of us if he had killed you!"
+
+"Well, o' course it all begun from my goin' into th' little house lookin'
+fer Shaver's folks," replied The Hopper.
+
+"But you haven't told us how you came to find our house," said Roger,
+suggesting a perfectly natural line of inquiries that caused Humpy to
+become deeply preoccupied with a pump he was operating in a basin of water
+for Billie's benefit.
+
+"Well, ut jes' looked like a house that Shaver would belong to, cute an'
+comfortable like," said The Hopper; "I jes' suspicioned it wuz th' place
+as I wuz passin' along."
+
+"I don't think we'd better begin trying to establish alibis," remarked
+Muriel, very gently, "for we might get into terrible scrapes. Why, if Mr.
+Stevens hadn't been so splendid about _everything_ and wasn't just the
+kindest man in the world, he could make it very ugly for me."
+
+"I shudder to think of what he might do to me," said Wilton, glancing
+guardedly at his neighbor.
+
+"The main thing," said Talbot,--"the main thing is that Mr. Stevens has
+done for us all what nobody else could ever have done. He's made us see
+how foolish it is to quarrel about mere baubles. He's settled all our
+troubles for us, and for my part I'll say his solution is entirely
+satisfactory."
+
+"Quite right," ejaculated Wilton. "If I ever have any delicate business
+negotiations that are beyond my powers I'm going to engage Mr. Stevens to
+handle them."
+
+"My business's hens an' eggs," said The Hopper modestly; "an' we're doin'
+purty well."
+
+When they rose to go (a move that evoked strident protests from Billie,
+who was enjoying himself hugely with Humpy) they were all in the jolliest
+humor.
+
+"We must be neighborly," said Muriel, shaking hands with Mary, who was at
+the point of tears so great was her emotion at the success of The Hopper's
+party. "And we're going to buy all our chickens and eggs from you. We
+never have any luck raising our own."
+
+Whereupon The Hopper imperturbably pressed upon each of the visitors a
+neat card stating his name (his latest and let us hope his last!) with the
+proper rural route designation of Happy Hill Farm.
+
+The Hopper carried Billie out to his Grandfather Wilton's car, while Humpy
+walked beside him bearing the gifts from the Happy Hill Farm Christmas
+tree. From the door Mary watched them depart amid a chorus of merry
+Christmases, out of which Billie's little pipe rang cheerily.
+
+When The Hopper and Humpy returned to the house, they abandoned the
+parlor for the greater coziness of the kitchen and there took account of
+the events of the momentous twenty-four hours.
+
+"Them's what I call nice folks," said Humpy. "They jes' put us on an' wore
+us like we wuz a pair o' ole slippers."
+
+"They wuzn't uppish--not to speak of," Mary agreed. "I guess that girl's
+got more gumption than any of 'em. She's got 'em straightened up now and I
+guess she'll take care they don't cut up no more monkey-shines about that
+Chinese stuff. Her husban' seemed sort o' gentle like."
+
+"Artists is that way," volunteered The Hopper, as though from deep
+experience of art and life. "I jes' been thinkin' that knowin' folks like
+that an' findin' 'em humin, makin' mistakes like th' rest of us, kind o'
+makes ut seem easier fer us all t' play th' game straight. Ut's goin' to
+be th' white card fer me--jes' chickens an' eggs, an' here's hopin' the
+bulls don't ever find out we're settled here."
+
+Humpy, having gone into the parlor to tend the fire, returned with two
+envelopes he had found on the mantel. There was a check for a thousand
+dollars in each, one from Wilton, the other from Talbot, with "Merry
+Christmas" written across the visiting-cards of those gentlemen. The
+Hopper permitted Mary and Humpy to examine them and then laid them on the
+kitchen table, while he deliberated. His meditations were so prolonged
+that they grew nervous.
+
+"I reckon they could spare ut, after all ye done fer 'em, Hop," remarked
+Humpy.
+
+"They's millionaires, an' money ain't nothin' to 'em," said The Hopper.
+
+"We can buy a motor-truck," suggested Mary, "to haul our stuff to town;
+an' mebbe we can build a new shed to keep ut in."
+
+The Hopper set the catsup bottle on the checks and rubbed his cheek,
+squinting at the ceiling in the manner of one who means to be careful of
+his speech.
+
+"They's things wot is an' things wot ain't," he began. "We ain't none o'
+us ever got nowheres bein' crooked. I been figurin' that I still got about
+twenty thousan' o' that bunch o' green I pulled out o' that express car,
+planted in places where 'taint doin' nobody no good. I guess ef I do ut
+careful I kin send ut back to the company, a little at a time, an' they'd
+never know where ut come from."
+
+Mary wept; Humpy stared, his mouth open, his one eye rolling queerly.
+
+"I guess we kin put a little chunk away every year," The Hopper went on.
+"We'd be comfortabler doin' ut. We could square up ef we lived long
+enough, which we don't need t' worry about, that bein' the Lord's
+business. You an' me's cracked a good many safes, Hump, but we never made
+no money at ut, takin' out th' time we done."
+
+"He's got religion; that's wot he's got!" moaned Humpy, as though this
+marked the ultimate tragedy of The Hopper's life.
+
+"Mebbe ut's religion an' mebbe ut's jes' sense," pursued The Hopper,
+unshaken by Humpy's charge. "They wuz a chaplin in th' Minnesoty pen as
+used t' say ef we're all square with our own selves ut's goin' to be all
+right with God. I guess I got a good deal o' squarin' t' do, but I'm goin'
+t' begin ut. An' all these things happenin' along o' Chris'mus, an' little
+Shaver an' his ma bein' so friendly like, an' her gittin' me t' help
+straighten out them ole gents, an' doin' all I done an' not gettin'
+pinched seems more 'n jes' luck; it's providential's wot ut is!"
+
+This, uttered in a challenging tone, evoked a sob from Humpy, who
+announced that he "felt like" he was going to die.
+
+"It's th' Chris'mus time, I reckon," said Mary, watching The Hopper
+deposit the two checks in the clock. "It's the only decent Chris'mus I
+ever knowed!"
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Reversible Santa Claus, by Meredith Nicholson
+
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+
+Project Gutenberg's A Reversible Santa Claus, by Meredith Nicholson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Reversible Santa Claus
+
+Author: Meredith Nicholson
+
+Release Date: February 14, 2005 [EBook #15044]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A REVERSIBLE SANTA CLAUS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the PG Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.(www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Illustrations">
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="./images/cover.jpg"><img src="./images/cover-tb.jpg" alt="Cover" title="Cover" /></a></td>
+<td align='right'><a href="./images/title.jpg"><img src="./images/title-tb.jpg" alt="Title page" title="Title Page" /></a></td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<h2>Contents</h2>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents">
+<tr><td align='center'> <a href="#I"><b>I</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'> <a href="#II"><b>II</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'> <a href="#III"><b>III</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'> <a href="#IV"><b>IV</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'> <a href="#V"><b>V</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'> <a href="#VI"><b>VI</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'> <a href="#VII"><b>VII</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'> <a href="#VIII"><b>VIII</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'> <a href="#IX"><b>IX</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'> <a href="#X"><b>X</b></a></td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<h2><b>By Meredith Nicholson</b></h2>
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Booklist">
+<tr><td align='left'>A REVERSIBLE SANTA CLAUS. Illustrated.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING. Illustrated.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE POET. Illustrated.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>OTHERWISE PHYLLIS. With frontispiece in color.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE PROVINCIAL AMERICAN AND OTHER PAPERS.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A HOOSIER CHRONICLE. With illustrations.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>THE SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SUITORS. With illustrations.</td></tr></table>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class='smcap'>Boston and New York</span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+<h1>A</h1>
+<h1>REVERSIBLE</h1>
+<h1>SANTA CLAUS</h1>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+<h2>MEREDITH NICHOLSON</h2>
+
+<p class="center">WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
+FLORENCE H. MINARD</p>
+
+<p class="center">BOSTON and NEW YORK
+HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY</p>
+
+<p class="center">The Riverside Press, Cambridge</p>
+
+<p class="center">1917</p>
+
+<p class="center">COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY MEREDITH NICHOLSON</p>
+
+<p class="center">ALL RIGHTS RESERVED</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Published October 1917</i>
+</p>
+
+<h2>A Reversible Santa Claus</h2>
+
+<p class="figcenter"><a name="DO_YOU_MIND" id="DO_YOU_MIND" /><a href="./images/frontispiece.jpg"><img src="./images/frontispiece-tb.jpg" alt="&quot;DO YOU MIND TELLING ME JUST WHY YOU READ THAT NOTE?&quot;" title="&quot;DO YOU MIND TELLING ME JUST WHY YOU READ THAT NOTE?&quot;" /></a></p>
+<p class="figcenter">&quot;DO YOU MIND TELLING ME JUST WHY YOU READ THAT NOTE?&quot;. (<i>page</i> <a href="#Page_78"><i>78</i></a>)</p>
+
+
+<h2>Illustrations</h2>
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Illustrations">
+<tr><td align='left'>&quot;DO YOU MIND TELLING ME JUST WHY YOU READ THAT NOTE?&quot;</td>
+<td align='right'><a href="#DO_YOU_MIND"><b><i>Frontispiece</i></b></a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>THE HOPPER GRINNED, PROUD OF HIS SUCCESS,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">WHICH MARY AND HUMPY VIEWED WITH GRUDGING ADMIRATION</span></td>
+<td align='right'><a href="#VIEWED_WITH"><b><i>44</i></b></a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>THE FAINT CLICK OF A LATCH MARKED THE PROWLER'S PROXIMITY TO A HEDGE</td>
+<td align='right'><a href="#FAINT_CLICK"><b><i>116</i></b></a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>THE THREE MEN GATHERED ROUND THEM, STARING DULLY</td>
+<td align='right'><a href="#MEN_GATHERED"><b><i>150</i></b></a></td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><i>From Drawings by F. Minard</i></p>
+
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+
+<p class="figcenter"><a href="./images/1.jpg"><img src="./images/1-tb.jpg" alt="Chapter 1" title="Chapter 1" /></a></p>
+
+
+<h2>A Reversible Santa Claus</h2>
+
+
+<h2><a name="I" id="I" />I</h2>
+
+
+<p>Mr. William B. Aikins, <i>alias</i> &quot;Softy&quot; Hubbard, <i>alias</i> Billy The Hopper,
+paused for breath behind a hedge that bordered a quiet lane and peered out
+into the highway at a roadster whose tail light advertised its presence to
+his felonious gaze. It was Christmas Eve, and after a day of unseasonable
+warmth a slow, drizzling rain was whimsically changing to snow.</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper was blowing from two hours' hard travel over rough country. He
+had stumbled through woodlands, flattened himself in fence corners to
+avoid the eyes of curious motorists speeding homeward or flying about
+distributing Christmas gifts, and he was now bent upon committing himself
+to an inter-urban trolley line that would afford comfortable
+transportation for the remainder of his journey. Twenty miles, he
+estimated, still lay between him and his domicile.</p>
+
+<p>The rain had penetrated his clothing and vigorous exercise had not greatly
+diminished the chill in his blood. His heart knocked violently against his
+ribs and he was dismayed by his shortness of wind. The Hopper was not so
+young as in the days when his agility and genius for effecting a quick
+&quot;get-away&quot; had earned for him his sobriquet. The last time his Bertillon
+measurements were checked (he was subjected to this humiliating
+experience in Omaha during the Ak-Sar-Ben carnival three years earlier)
+official note was taken of the fact that The Hopper's hair, long carried
+in the records as black, was rapidly whitening.</p>
+
+<p>At forty-eight a crook&mdash;even so resourceful and versatile a member of the
+fraternity as The Hopper&mdash;begins to mistrust himself. For the greater part
+of his life, when not in durance vile, The Hopper had been in hiding, and
+the state or condition of being a fugitive, hunted by keen-eyed agents of
+justice, is not, from all accounts, an enviable one. His latest experience
+of involuntary servitude had been under the auspices of the State of
+Oregon, for a trifling indiscretion in the way of safe-blowing. Having
+served his sentence, he skillfully effaced himself by a year's siesta on
+a pine-apple plantation in Hawaii. The island climate was not wholly
+pleasing to The Hopper, and when pine-apples palled he took passage from
+Honolulu as a stoker, reached San Francisco (not greatly chastened in
+spirit), and by a series of characteristic hops, skips, and jumps across
+the continent landed in Maine by way of the Canadian provinces. The Hopper
+needed money. He was not without a certain crude philosophy, and it had
+been his dream to acquire by some brilliant <i>coup</i> a sufficient fortune
+upon which to retire and live as a decent, law-abiding citizen for the
+remainder of his days. This ambition, or at least the means to its
+fulfillment, can hardly be defended as praiseworthy, but The Hopper was a
+singular character and we must take him as we find him. Many prison
+chaplains and jail visitors bearing tracts had striven with little
+success to implant moral ideals in the mind and soul of The Hopper, but he
+was still to be catalogued among the impenitent; and as he moved southward
+through the Commonwealth of Maine he was so oppressed by his poverty, as
+contrasted with the world's abundance, that he lifted forty thousand
+dollars in a neat bundle from an express car which Providence had
+sidetracked, apparently for his personal enrichment, on the upper waters
+of the Penobscot. Whereupon he began perforce playing his old game of
+artful dodging, exercising his best powers as a hopper and skipper. Forty
+thousand dollars is no inconsiderable sum of money, and the success of
+this master stroke of his career was not to be jeopardized by careless
+moves. By craftily hiding in the big woods and making himself agreeable
+to isolated lumberjacks who rarely saw newspapers, he arrived in due
+course on Manhattan Island, where with shrewd judgment he avoided the
+haunts of his kind while planning a future commensurate with his new
+dignity as a capitalist.</p>
+
+<p>He spent a year as a diligent and faithful employee of a garage which
+served a fashionable quarter of the metropolis; then, animated by a worthy
+desire to continue to lead an honest life, he purchased a chicken farm
+fifteen miles as the crow flies from Center Church, New Haven, and boldly
+opened a bank account in that academic center in his newly adopted name of
+Charles S. Stevens, of Happy Hill Farm. Feeling the need of companionship,
+he married a lady somewhat his junior, a shoplifter of the second class,
+whom he had known before the vigilance of the metropolitan police
+necessitated his removal to the Far West. Mrs. Stevens's inferior talents
+as a petty larcenist had led her into many difficulties, and she
+gratefully availed herself of The Hopper's offer of his heart and hand.</p>
+
+<p>They had added to their establishment a retired yegg who had lost an eye
+by the premature popping of the &quot;soup&quot; (i.e., nitro-glycerin) poured into
+the crevices of a country post-office in Missouri. In offering shelter to
+Mr. James Whitesides, <i>alias</i> &quot;Humpy&quot; Thompson, The Hopper's motives had
+not been wholly unselfish, as Humpy had been entrusted with the herding of
+poultry in several penitentiaries and was familiar with the most advanced
+scientific thought on chicken culture.</p>
+
+<p>The roadster was headed toward his home and The Hopper contemplated it in
+the deepening dusk with greedy eyes. His labors in the New York garage had
+familiarized him with automobiles, and while he was not ignorant of the
+pains and penalties inflicted upon lawless persons who appropriate motors
+illegally, he was the victim of an irresistible temptation to jump into
+the machine thus left in the highway, drive as near home as he dared, and
+then abandon it. The owner of the roadster was presumably eating his
+evening meal in peace in the snug little cottage behind the shrubbery, and
+The Hopper was aware of no sound reason why he should not seize the
+vehicle and further widen the distance between himself and a
+suspicious-looking gentleman he had observed on the New Haven local.</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper's conscience was not altogether at ease, as he had, that
+afternoon, possessed himself of a bill-book that was protruding from the
+breast-pocket of a dignified citizen whose strap he had shared in a
+crowded subway train. Having foresworn crime as a means of livelihood, The
+Hopper was chagrined that he had suffered himself to be beguiled into
+stealing by the mere propinquity of a piece of red leather. He was angry
+at the world as well as himself. People should not go about with
+bill-books sticking out of their pockets; it was unfair and unjust to
+those weak members of the human race who yield readily to temptation.</p>
+
+<p>He had agreed with Mary when she married him and the chicken farm that
+they would respect the Ten Commandments and all statutory laws, State and
+Federal, and he was painfully conscious that when he confessed his sin she
+would deal severely with him. Even Humpy, now enjoying a peace that he had
+rarely known outside the walls of prison, even Humpy would be bitter. The
+thought that he was again among the hunted would depress Mary and Humpy,
+and he knew that their harshness would be intensified because of his
+violation of the unwritten law of the underworld in resorting to
+purse-lifting, an infringement upon a branch of felony despicable and
+greatly inferior in dignity to safe-blowing.</p>
+
+<p>These reflections spurred The Hopper to action, for the sooner he reached
+home the more quickly he could explain his protracted stay in New York (to
+which metropolis he had repaired in the hope of making a better price for
+eggs with the commission merchants who handled his products), submit
+himself to Mary's chastisement, and promise to sin no more. By returning
+on Christmas Eve, of all times, again a fugitive, he knew that he would
+merit the unsparing condemnation that Mary and Humpy would visit upon him.
+It was possible, it was even quite likely, that the short, stocky
+gentleman he had seen on the New Haven local was not a &quot;bull&quot;&mdash;not really
+a detective who had observed the little transaction in the subway; but the
+very uncertainty annoyed The Hopper. In his happy and profitable year at
+Happy Hill Farm he had learned to prize his personal comfort, and he was
+humiliated to find that he had been frightened into leaving the train at
+Bansford to continue his journey afoot, and merely because a man had
+looked at him a little queerly.</p>
+
+<p>Any Christmas spirit that had taken root in The Hopper's soul had been
+disturbed, not to say seriously threatened with extinction, by the
+untoward occurrences of the afternoon.</p>
+
+<p class="figcenter"><a href="./images/1a.jpg"><img src="./images/1a-tb.jpg" alt="Car" title="Car" /></a></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p class="figcenter"><a href="./images/2.jpg"><img src="./images/2-tb.jpg" alt="Chapter 2" title="Chapter 2" /></a></p>
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="II" id="II" />II</h2>
+
+
+<p>The Hopper waited for a limousine to pass and then crawled out of his
+hiding-place, jumped into the roadster, and was at once in motion. He
+glanced back, fearing that the owner might have heard his departure, and
+then, satisfied of his immediate security, negotiated a difficult turn in
+the road and settled himself with a feeling of relief to careful but
+expeditious flight. It was at this moment, when he had urged the car to
+its highest speed, that a noise startled him&mdash;an amazing little chirrupy
+sound which corresponded to none of the familiar forewarnings of engine
+trouble. With his eyes to the front he listened for a repetition of the
+sound. It rose again&mdash;it was like a perplexing cheep and chirrup, changing
+to a chortle of glee.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Goo-goo! Goo-goo-goo!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The car was skimming a dark stretch of road and a superstitious awe fell
+upon The Hopper. Murder, he gratefully remembered, had never been among
+his crimes, though he had once winged a too-inquisitive policeman in
+Kansas City. He glanced over his shoulder, but saw no pursuing ghost in
+the snowy highway; then, looking down apprehensively, he detected on the
+seat beside him what appeared to be an animate bundle, and, prompted by a
+louder &quot;goo-goo,&quot; he put out his hand. His fingers touched something warm
+and soft and were promptly seized and held by Something.</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper snatched his hand free of the tentacles of the unknown and
+shook it violently. The nature of the Something troubled him. He renewed
+his experiments, steering with his left hand and exposing the right to
+what now seemed to be the grasp of two very small mittened hands.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Goo-goo! Goody; teep wunnin'!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A kid!&quot; The Hopper gasped.</p>
+
+<p>That he had eloped with a child was the blackest of the day's calamities.
+He experienced a strange sinking feeling in the stomach. In moments of
+apprehension a crook's thoughts run naturally into periods of penal
+servitude, and the punishment for kidnaping, The Hopper recalled, was
+severe. He stopped the car and inspected his unwelcome fellow passenger
+by the light of matches. Two big blue eyes stared at him from a hood and
+two mittens were poked into his face. Two small feet, wrapped tightly in a
+blanket, kicked at him energetically.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Detup! Mate um skedaddle!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Obedient to this command The Hopper made the car skedaddle, but
+superstitious dread settled upon him more heavily. He was satisfied now
+that from the moment he transferred the strap-hanger's bill-book to his
+own pocket he had been hoodooed. Only a jinx of the most malevolent type
+could have prompted his hurried exit from a train to dodge an imaginary
+&quot;bull.&quot; Only the blackest of evil spirits could be responsible for this
+involuntary kidnaping!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mate um wun! Mate um 'ippity stip!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The mittened hands reached for the wheel at this juncture and an
+unlooked-for &quot;jippity skip&quot; precipitated the young passenger into The
+Hopper's lap.</p>
+
+<p>This mishap was attended with the jolliest baby laughter. Gently but with
+much firmness The Hopper restored the youngster to an upright position and
+supported him until sure he was able to sustain himself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ye better set still, little feller,&quot; he admonished.</p>
+
+<p>The little feller seemed in no wise astonished to find himself abroad with
+a perfect stranger and his courage and good cheer were not lost upon The
+Hopper. He wanted to be severe, to vent his rage for the day's calamities
+upon the only human being within range, but in spite of himself he felt no
+animosity toward the friendly little bundle of humanity beside him.
+Still, he had stolen a baby and it was incumbent upon him to free himself
+at once of the appalling burden; but a baby is not so easily disposed of.
+He could not, without seriously imperiling his liberty, return to the
+cottage. It was the rule of house-breakers, he recalled, to avoid babies.
+He had heard it said by burglars of wide experience and unquestioned
+wisdom that babies were the most dangerous of all burglar alarms. All
+things considered, kidnaping and automobile theft were not a happy
+combination with which to appear before a criminal court. The Hopper was
+vexed because the child did not cry; if he had shown a bad disposition The
+Hopper might have abandoned him; but the youngster was the cheeriest and
+most agreeable of traveling companions. Indeed, The Hopper's spirits rose
+under his continued &quot;goo-gooing&quot; and chirruping.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nice little Shaver!&quot; he said, patting the child's knees.</p>
+
+<p>Little Shaver was so pleased by this friendly demonstration that he threw
+up his arms in an effort to embrace The Hopper.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bil-lee,&quot; he gurgled delightedly.</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper was so astonished at being addressed in his own lawful name by
+a strange baby that he barely averted a collision with a passing motor
+truck. It was unbelievable that the baby really knew his name, but perhaps
+it was a good omen that he had hit upon it. The Hopper's resentment
+against the dark fate that seemed to pursue him vanished. Even though he
+had stolen a baby, it was a merry, brave little baby who didn't mind at
+all being run away with! He dismissed the thought of planting the little
+shaver at a door, ringing the bell and running away; this was no way to
+treat a friendly child that had done him no injury, and The Hopper highly
+resolved to do the square thing by the youngster even at personal
+inconvenience and risk.</p>
+
+<p>The snow was now falling in generous Christmasy flakes, and the high speed
+the car had again attained was evidently deeply gratifying to the young
+person, whose reckless tumbling about made it necessary for The Hopper to
+keep a hand on him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Steady, little un; steady!&quot; The Hopper kept mumbling.</p>
+
+<p>His wits were busy trying to devise some means of getting rid of the
+youngster without exposing himself to the danger of arrest. By this time
+some one was undoubtedly busily engaged in searching for both baby and
+car; the police far and near would be notified, and would be on the
+lookout for a smart roadster containing a stolen child.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Merry Christmas!&quot; a boy shouted from a farm gate.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;M'y Kwismus!&quot; piped Shaver.</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper decided to run the machine home and there ponder the
+disposition of his blithe companion with the care the unusual
+circumstances demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Urry up; me's goin' 'ome to me's gwanpa's kwismus t'ee!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Right ye be, little un; right ye be!&quot; affirmed The Hopper.</p>
+
+<p>The youngster was evidently blessed with a sanguine and confiding nature.
+His reference to his grandfather's Christmas tree impinged sharply upon
+The Hopper's conscience. Christmas had never figured very prominently in
+his scheme of life. About the only Christmases that he recalled with any
+pleasure were those that he had spent in prison, and those were marked
+only by Christmas dinners varying with the generosity of a series of
+wardens.</p>
+
+<p>But Shaver was entitled to all the joys of Christmas, and The Hopper had
+no desire to deprive him of them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Keep a-larfin', Shaver, keep a-larfin',&quot; said the Hopper. &quot;Ole Hop ain't
+a-goin' to hurt ye!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper, feeling his way cautiously round the fringes of New Haven,
+arrived presently at Happy Hill Farm, where he ran the car in among the
+chicken sheds behind the cottage and carefully extinguished the lights.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, Shaver, out ye come!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Whereupon Shaver obediently jumped into his arms.</p>
+
+<p class="figcenter"><a href="./images/2a.jpg"><img src="./images/2a-tb.jpg" alt="House" title="House" /></a></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p class="figcenter"><a href="./images/3.jpg"><img src="./images/3-tb.jpg" alt="Chapter 3" title="Chapter 3" /></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="III" id="III" />III</h2>
+
+
+<p>The Hopper knocked twice at the back door, waited an instant, and knocked
+again. As he completed the signal the door was opened guardedly. A man and
+woman surveyed him in hostile silence as he pushed past them, kicked the
+door shut, and deposited the blinking child on the kitchen table. Humpy,
+the one-eyed, jumped to the windows and jammed the green shades close into
+the frames. The woman scowlingly waited for the head of the house to
+explain himself, and this, with the perversity of one who knows the
+dramatic value of suspense, he was in no haste to do.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well,&quot; Mary questioned sharply. &quot;What ye got there, Bill?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper was regarding Shaver with a grin of benevolent satisfaction.
+The youngster had seized a bottle of catsup and was making heroic efforts
+to raise it to his mouth, and the Hopper was intensely tickled by Shaver's
+efforts to swallow the bottle. Mrs. Stevens, <i>alias</i> Weeping Mary, was not
+amused, and her husband's enjoyment of the child's antics irritated her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come out with ut, Bill!&quot; she commanded, seizing the bottle. &quot;What ye been
+doin'?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Shaver's big blue eyes expressed surprise and displeasure at being
+deprived of his plaything, but he recovered quickly and reached for a
+plate with which he began thumping the table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Out with ut, Hop!&quot; snapped Humpy nervously. &quot;Nothin' wuz said about
+kidnapin', an' I don't stand for ut!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When I heard the machine comin' in the yard I knowed somethin' was wrong
+an' I guess it couldn't be no worse,&quot; added Mary, beginning to cry. &quot;You
+hadn't no right to do ut, Bill. Hookin' a buzz-buzz an' a kid an' when we
+wuz playin' the white card! You ought t' 'a' told me, Bill, what ye went
+to town fer, an' it bein' Christmas, an' all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>That he should have chosen for his fall the Christmas season of all times
+was reprehensible, a fact which Mary and Humpy impressed upon him in the
+strongest terms. The Hopper was fully aware of the inopportuneness of his
+transgressions, but not to the point of encouraging his wife to abuse
+him.</p>
+
+<p>As he clumsily tried to unfasten Shaver's hood, Mary pushed him aside and
+with shaking fingers removed the child's wraps. Shaver's cheeks were rosy
+from his drive through the cold; he was a plump, healthy little shaver and
+The Hopper viewed him with intense pride. Mary held the hood and coat to
+the light and inspected them with a sophisticated eye. They were of
+excellent quality and workmanship, and she shook her head and sighed
+deeply as she placed them carefully on a chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It ain't on the square, Hop,&quot; protested Humpy, whose lone eye expressed
+the most poignant sorrow at The Hopper's derelictions. Humpy was tall and
+lean, with a thin, many-lined face. He was an ill-favored person at best,
+and his habit of turning his head constantly as though to compel his
+single eye to perform double service gave one an impression of restless
+watchfulness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Cute little Shaver, ain't 'e? Give Shaver somethin' to eat, Mary. I guess
+milk'll be the right ticket considerin' th' size of 'im. How ole you make
+'im? Not more'n three, I reckon?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Two. He ain't more'n two, that kid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A nice little feller; you're a cute un, ain't ye, Shaver?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Shaver nodded his head solemnly. Having wearied of playing with the plate
+he gravely inspected the trio; found something amusing in Humpy's bizarre
+countenance and laughed merrily. Finding no response to his friendly
+overtures he appealed to Mary.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Me wants me's paw-widge,&quot; he announced.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Porridge,&quot; interpreted Humpy with the air of one whose superior breeding
+makes him the proper arbiter of the speech of children of high social
+station. Whereupon Shaver appreciatively poked his forefinger into Humpy's
+surviving optic.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll see what I got,&quot; muttered Mary. &quot;What ye used t' eatin' for supper,
+honey?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The &quot;honey&quot; was a concession, and The Hopper, who was giving Shaver his
+watch to play with, bent a commendatory glance upon his spouse.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go on an' tell us what ye done,&quot; said Mary, doggedly busying herself
+about the stove.</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper drew a chair to the table to be within reach of Shaver and
+related succinctly his day's adventures.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A dip!&quot; moaned Mary as he described the seizure of the purse in the
+subway.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You hadn't no right to do ut, Hop!&quot; bleated Humpy, who had tipped his
+chair against the wall and was sucking a cold pipe. And then, professional
+curiosity overmastering his shocked conscience, he added: &quot;What'd she
+measure, Hop?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper grinned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Flubbed! Nothin' but papers,&quot; he confessed ruefully.</p>
+
+<p>Mary and Humpy expressed their indignation and contempt in unequivocal
+terms, which they repeated after he told of the suspected &quot;bull&quot; whose
+presence on the local had so alarmed him. A frank description of his
+flight and of his seizure of the roadster only added to their bitterness.</p>
+
+<p>Humpy rose and paced the floor with the quick, short stride of men
+habituated to narrow spaces. The Hopper watched the telltale step so
+disagreeably reminiscent of evil times and shrugged his shoulders
+impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Set down, Hump; ye make me nervous. I got thinkin' to do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ye'd better be quick about doin' ut!&quot; Humpy snorted with an oath.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Cut the cussin'!&quot; The Hopper admonished sharply. Since his retirement to
+private life he had sought diligently to free his speech of profanity and
+thieves' slang, as not only unbecoming in a respectable chicken farmer,
+but likely to arouse suspicions as to his origin and previous condition of
+servitude. &quot;Can't ye see Shaver ain't use to ut? Shaver's a little gent;
+he's a reg'ler little juke; that's wot Shaver is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The more 'way up he is the worse fer us,&quot; whimpered Humpy. &quot;It's
+kidnapin', that's wot ut is!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's wot it <i>ain't</i>,&quot; declared The Hopper, averting a calamity to his
+watch, which Shaver was swinging by its chain. &quot;He was took by accident I
+tell ye! I'm goin' to take Shaver back to his ma&mdash;ain't I, Shaver?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Take 'im back!&quot; echoed Mary.</p>
+
+<p>Humpy crumpled up in his chair at this new evidence of The Hopper's
+insanity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm goin' to make a Chris'mas present o' Shaver to his ma,&quot; reaffirmed
+The Hopper, pinching the nearer ruddy cheek of the merry, contented
+guest.</p>
+
+<p>Shaver kicked The Hopper in the stomach and emitted a chortle expressive
+of unshakable confidence in The Hopper's ability to restore him to his
+lawful owners. This confidence was not, however, manifested toward Mary,
+who had prepared with care the only cereal her pantry afforded, and now
+approached Shaver, bowl and spoon in hand. Shaver, taken by surprise,
+inspected his supper with disdain and spurned it with a vigor that sent
+the spoon rattling across the floor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Me wants me's paw-widge bowl! Me wants me's <i>own</i> paw-widge bowl!&quot; he
+screamed.</p>
+
+<p>Mary expostulated; Humpy offered advice as to the best manner of dealing
+with the refractory Shaver, who gave further expression to his resentment
+by throwing The Hopper's watch with violence against the wall. That the
+table-service of The Hopper's establishment was not to Shaver's liking was
+manifested in repeated rejections of the plain white bowl in which Mary
+offered the porridge. He demanded his very own porridge bowl with the
+increasing vehemence of one who is willing to starve rather than accept so
+palpable a substitute. He threw himself back on the table and lay there
+kicking and crying. Other needs now occurred to Shaver: he wanted his
+papa; he wanted his mamma; he wanted to go to his gwan'pa's. He clamored
+for Santa Claus and numerous Christmas trees which, it seemed, had been
+promised him at the houses of his kinsfolk. It was amazing and bewildering
+that the heart of one so young could desire so many things that were not
+immediately attainable. He had begun to suspect that he was among
+strangers who were not of his way of life, and this was fraught with the
+gravest danger.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They'll hear 'im hollerin' in China,&quot; wailed the pessimistic Humpy,
+running about the room and examining the fastenings of doors and windows.
+&quot;Folks goin' along the road'll hear 'im, an' it's terms fer the whole
+bunch!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper began pacing the floor with Shaver, while Humpy and Mary
+denounced the child for unreasonableness and lack of discipline, not
+overlooking the stupidity and criminal carelessness of The Hopper in
+projecting so lawless a youngster into their domestic circle.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Twenty years, that's wot ut is!&quot; mourned Humpy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ye kin get the chair fer kidnapin',&quot; Mary added dolefully. &quot;Ye gotta get
+'im out o' here, Bill.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Pleasant predictions of a long prison term with capital punishment as the
+happy alternative failed to disturb The Hopper. To their surprise and
+somewhat to their shame he won the Shaver to a tractable humor. There was
+nothing in The Hopper's known past to justify any expectation that he
+could quiet a crying baby, and yet Shaver with a child's unerring instinct
+realized that The Hopper meant to be kind. He patted The Hopper's face
+with one fat little paw, chokingly declaring that he was hungry.</p>
+
+<p>'&quot;Course Shaver's hungry; an' Shaver's goin' to eat nice porridge Aunt
+Mary made fer 'im. Shaver's goin' to have 'is own porridge bowl
+to-morry&mdash;yes, sir-ee, oo is, little Shaver!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Restored to the table, Shaver opened his mouth in obedience to The
+Hopper's patient pleading and swallowed a spoonful of the mush, Humpy
+holding the bowl out of sight in tactful deference to the child's delicate
+&aelig;sthetic sensibilities. A tumbler of milk was sipped with grateful gasps.</p>
+
+<p class="figcenter"><a name="VIEWED_WITH" id="VIEWED_WITH" /><a href="./images/194.jpg"><img src="./images/194-tb.jpg" alt=" THE HOPPER GRINNED, PROUD OF HIS SUCCESS, WHICH MARY AND HUMPY VIEWED WITH GRUDGING ADMIRATION" title=" THE HOPPER GRINNED, PROUD OF HIS SUCCESS, WHICH MARY AND HUMPY VIEWED WITH GRUDGING ADMIRATION" /></a></p>
+<p class="figcenter"> THE HOPPER GRINNED, PROUD OF HIS SUCCESS, WHICH MARY AND HUMPY VIEWED WITH GRUDGING ADMIRATION</p>
+
+
+<p>The Hopper grinned, proud of his success, while Mary and Humpy viewed his
+efforts with somewhat grudging admiration, and waited patiently until The
+Hopper took the wholly surfeited Shaver in his arms and began pacing the
+floor, humming softly. In normal circumstances The Hopper was not musical,
+and Humpy and Mary exchanged looks which, when interpreted, pointed to
+nothing less than a belief that the owner of Happy Hill Farm was bereft of
+his senses. There was some question as to whether Shaver should be
+undressed. Mary discouraged the idea and Humpy took a like view.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ye gotta chuck 'im quick; that's what ye gotta do,&quot; said Mary hoarsely.
+&quot;We don't want 'im sleepin' here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Whereupon The Hopper demonstrated his entire independence by carrying the
+Shaver to Humpy's bed and partially undressing him. While this was in
+progress, Shaver suddenly opened his eyes wide and raising one foot until
+it approximated the perpendicular, reached for it with his chubby hands.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sant' Claus comin'; m'y Kwismus!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jes' listen to Shaver!&quot; chuckled The Hopper. &quot;'Course Santy is comin,'
+an' we're goin' to hang up Shaver's stockin', ain't we, Shaver?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He pinned both stockings to the foot-board of Humpy's bed. By the time
+this was accomplished under the hostile eyes of Mary and Humpy, Shaver
+slept the sleep of the innocent.</p>
+
+<p class="figcenter"><a href="./images/3a.jpg"><img src="./images/3a-tb.jpg" alt="Asleep" title="Asleep" /></a></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p class="figcenter"><a href="./images/4.jpg"><img src="./images/4-tb.jpg" alt="Chapter 4" title="Chapter 4" /></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="IV" id="IV" />IV</h2>
+
+
+<p>They watched the child in silence for a few minutes and then Mary detached
+a gold locket from his neck and bore it to the kitchen for examination.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ye gotta move quick, Hop,&quot; Humpy urged. &quot;The white card's what we wuz all
+goin' to play. We wuz fixed nice here, an' things goin' easy; an' the yard
+full o' br'ilers. I don't want to do no more time. I'm an ole man, Hop.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Cut ut!&quot; ordered The Hopper, taking the locket from Mary and weighing it
+critically in his hand. They bent over him as he scrutinized the face on
+which was inscribed:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Roger Livingston Talbot</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>June 13, 1913</i></span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lemme see; he's two an' a harf. Ye purty nigh guessed 'im right, Mary.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The sight of the gold trinket, the probability that the Shaver belonged to
+a family of wealth, proved disturbing to Humpy's late protestations of
+virtue.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They'd be a heap o' kale in ut, Hop. His folks is rich, I reckon. Ef we
+wuzn't playin' the white card&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Ignoring this shocking evidence of Humpy's moral instability, The Hopper
+became lost in reverie, meditatively drawing at his pipe.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We ain't never goin' to quit playin' ut square,&quot; he announced, to Mary's
+manifest relief. &quot;I hadn't ought t' 'a' done th' dippin'. It were a
+mistake. My ole head wuzn't workin' right er I wouldn't 'a' slipped. But
+ye needn't jump on me no more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wot ye goin' to do with that kid? Ye tell me that!&quot; demanded Mary,
+unwilling too readily to accept The Hopper's repentance at face value.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm goin' to take 'im to 'is folks, that's wot I'm goin' to do with 'im,&quot;
+announced The Hopper.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yer crazy&mdash;yer plum' crazy!&quot; cried Humpy, slapping his knees excitedly.
+&quot;Ye kin take 'im to an orphant asylum an' tell um ye found 'im in that
+machine ye lifted. And mebbe ye'll git by with ut an' mebbe ye won't, but
+ye gotta keep me out of ut!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I found the machine in th' road, right here by th' house; an' th' kid
+was in ut all by hisself. An' bein' humin an' respectible I brought 'im in
+to keep 'im from freezin' t' death,&quot; said The Hopper, as though repeating
+lines he was committing to memory. &quot;They ain't nobody can say as I didn't.
+Ef I git pinched, that's my spiel to th' cops. It ain't kidnapin'; it's
+life-savin', that's wot ut is! I'm a-goin' back an' have a look at that
+place where I got 'im. Kind o' queer they left the kid out there in the
+buzz-wagon; <i>mighty</i> queer, now's I think of ut. Little house back from
+the road; lots o' trees an' bushes in front. Didn't seem to be no lights.
+He keeps talkin' about Chris'mas at his grandpa's. Folks must 'a' been
+goin' to take th' kid somewheres fer Chris'mas. I guess it'll throw a
+skeer into 'em to find him up an' gone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They's rich, an' all the big bulls'll be lookin' fer 'im; ye'd better
+'phone the New Haven cops ye've picked 'im up. Then they'll come out, an'
+yer spiel about findin' 'im'll sound easy an' sensible like.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper, puffing his pipe philosophically, paid no heed to Humpy's
+suggestion even when supported warmly by Mary.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I gotta find some way o' puttin' th' kid back without seein' no cops.
+I'll jes' take a sneak back an' have a look at th' place,&quot; said The
+Hopper. &quot;I ain't goin' to turn Shaver over to no cops. Ye can't take no
+chances with 'em. They don't know nothin' about us bein' here, but they
+ain't fools, an' I ain't goin' to give none o' 'em a squint at me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He defended his plan against a joint attack by Mary and Humpy, who saw in
+it only further proof of his tottering reason. He was obliged to tell
+them in harsh terms to be quiet, and he added to their rage by the
+deliberation with which he made his preparations to leave.</p>
+
+<p>He opened the door of a clock and drew out a revolver which he examined
+carefully and thrust into his pocket. Mary groaned; Humpy beat the air in
+impotent despair. The Hopper possessed himself also of a jimmy and an
+electric lamp. The latter he flashed upon the face of the sleeping Shaver,
+who turned restlessly for a moment and then lay still again. He smoothed
+the coverlet over the tiny form, while Mary and Humpy huddled in the
+doorway. Mary wept; Humpy was awed into silence by his old friend's
+perversity. For years he had admired The Hopper's cleverness, his genius
+for extricating himself from difficulties; he was deeply shaken to think
+that one who had stood so high in one of the most exacting of professions
+should have fallen so low. As The Hopper imperturbably buttoned his coat
+and walked toward the door, Humpy set his back against it in a last
+attempt to save his friend from his own foolhardiness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ef anybody turns up here an' asks for th' kid, ye kin tell 'em wot I
+said. We finds 'im in th' road right here by the farm when we're doin' th'
+night chores an' takes 'im in t' keep 'im from freezin'. Ye'll have th'
+machine an' kid here to show 'em. An' as fer me, I'm off lookin' fer his
+folks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Mary buried her face in her apron and wept despairingly. The Hopper,
+noting for the first time that Humpy was guarding the door, roughly pushed
+him aside and stood for a moment with his hand on the knob.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They's things wot is,&quot; he remarked with a last attempt to justify his
+course, &quot;an' things wot ain't. I reckon I'll take a peek at that place an'
+see wot's th' best way t' shake th' kid. Ye can't jes' run up to a house
+in a machine with his folks all settin' round cryin' an' cops askin'
+questions. Ye got to do some plannin' an' thinkin'. I'm goin' t' clean ut
+all up before daylight, an' ye needn't worry none about ut. Hop ain't
+worryin'; jes' leave ut t' Hop!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was no alternative but to leave it to Hop, and they stood mute as he
+went out and softly closed the door.</p>
+
+<p class="figcenter"><a href="./images/4a.jpg"><img src="./images/4a-tb.jpg" alt="Tools" title="Tools" /></a></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p class="figcenter"><a href="./images/5.jpg"><img src="./images/5-tb.jpg" alt="Chapter 5" title="Chapter 5" /></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="V" id="V" />V</h2>
+
+
+<p>The snow had ceased and the stars shone brightly on a white world as The
+Hopper made his way by various trolley lines to the house from which he
+had snatched Shaver. On a New Haven car he debated the prospects of more
+snow with a policeman who seemed oblivious to the fact that a child had
+been stolen&mdash;shamelessly carried off by a man with a long police record.
+Merry Christmas passed from lip to lip as if all creation were attuned to
+the note of love and peace, and crime were an undreamed of thing.</p>
+
+<p>For two years The Hopper had led an exemplary life and he was keenly alive
+now to the joy of adventure. His lapses of the day were unfortunate; he
+thought of them with regret and misgivings, but he was zestful for
+whatever the unknown held in store for him. Abroad again with a pistol in
+his pocket, he was a lawless being, but with the difference that he was
+intent now upon making restitution, though in such manner as would give
+him something akin to the old thrill that he experienced when he enjoyed
+the reputation of being one of the most skillful yeggs in the country. The
+successful thief is of necessity an imaginative person; he must be able to
+visualize the unseen and to deal with a thousand hidden contingencies. At
+best the chances are against him; with all his ingenuity the broad, heavy
+hand of the law is likely at any moment to close upon him from some
+unexpected quarter. The Hopper knew this, and knew, too, that in yielding
+to the exhilaration of the hour he was likely to come to grief. Justice
+has a long memory, and if he again made himself the object of police
+scrutiny that little forty-thousand dollar affair in Maine might still be
+fixed upon him.</p>
+
+<p>When he reached the house from whose gate he had removed the roadster with
+Shaver attached, he studied it with the eye of an experienced strategist.
+No gleam anywhere published the presence of frantic parents bewailing the
+loss of a baby. The cottage lay snugly behind its barrier of elms and
+shrubbery as though its young heir had not vanished into the void. The
+Hopper was a deliberating being and he gave careful weight to these
+circumstances as he crept round the walk, in which the snow lay
+undisturbed, and investigated the rear of the premises. The lattice door
+of the summer kitchen opened readily, and, after satisfying himself that
+no one was stirring in the lower part of the house, he pried up the sash
+of a window and stepped in. The larder was well stocked, as though in
+preparation for a Christmas feast, and he passed on to the dining-room,
+whose appointments spoke for good taste and a degree of prosperity in the
+householder.</p>
+
+<p>Cautious flashes of his lamp disclosed on the table a hamper, in which
+were packed a silver cup, plate, and bowl which at once awoke the Hopper's
+interest. Here indubitably was proof that this was the home of Shaver, now
+sleeping sweetly in Humpy's bed, and this was the porridge bowl for which
+Shaver's soul had yearned. If Shaver did not belong to the house, he had
+at least been a visitor there, and it struck The Hopper as a reasonable
+assumption that Shaver had been deposited in the roadster while his lawful
+guardians returned to the cottage for the hamper preparatory to an
+excursion of some sort. But The Hopper groped in the dark for an
+explanation of the calmness with which the householders accepted the loss
+of the child. It was not in human nature for the parents of a youngster so
+handsome and in every way so delightful as Shaver to permit him to be
+stolen from under their very noses without making an outcry. The Hopper
+examined the silver pieces and found them engraved with the name borne by
+the locket. He crept through a living-room and came to a Christmas
+tree&mdash;the smallest of Christmas trees. Beside it lay a number of packages
+designed clearly for none other than young Roger Livingston Talbot.</p>
+
+<p>Housebreaking is a very different business from the forcible entry of
+country post-offices, and The Hopper was nervous. This particular house
+seemed utterly deserted. He stole upstairs and found doors open and a
+disorder indicative of the occupants' hasty departure. His attention was
+arrested by a small room finished in white, with a white enameled bed, and
+other furniture to match. A generous litter of toys was the last proof
+needed to establish the house as Shaver's true domicile. Indeed, there was
+every indication that Shaver was the central figure of this home of whose
+charm and atmosphere The Hopper was vaguely sensible. A frieze of dancing
+children and watercolor sketches of Shaver's head, dabbed here and there
+in the most unlooked-for places, hinted at an artistic household. This
+impression was strengthened when The Hopper, bewildered and baffled,
+returned to the lower floor and found a studio opening off the living
+room. The Hopper had never visited a studio before, and satisfied now that
+he was the sole occupant of the house, he passed passed about shooting his
+light upon unfinished canvases, pausing finally before an easel supporting
+a portrait of Shaver&mdash;newly finished, he discovered, by poking his finger
+into the wet paint. Something fell to the floor and he picked up a large
+sheet of drawing paper on which this message was written in charcoal:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 28em;"><i>Six-thirty.</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>Dear Sweetheart:</i>&mdash;</span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>This is a fine trick you have played on me, you dear girl! I've
+    been expecting you back all afternoon. At six I decided that you
+    were going to spend the night with your infuriated parent and
+    thought I'd try my luck with mine! I put Billie into the
+    roadster and, leaving him there, ran over to the Flemings's to
+    say Merry Christmas and tell 'em we were off for the night. They
+    kept me just a minute to look at those new Jap prints Jim's so
+    crazy about, and while I was gone you came along and skipped
+    with Billie and the car! I suppose this means that you've been
+    making headway with your dad and want to try the effect of
+    Billie's blandishments. Good luck! But you might have stopped
+    long enough to tell me about it! How fine it would be if
+    everything could be straightened out for Christmas! Do you
+    remember the first time I kissed you&mdash;it was on Christmas Eve
+    four years ago at the Billings's dance! I'm just trolleying out
+    to father's to see what an evening session will do. I'll be back
+    early in the morning.</p></div>
+
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 22em;">Love always,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 30.5em;">ROGER.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Billie was undoubtedly Shaver's nickname. This delighted The Hopper. That
+they should possess the same name appeared to create a strong bond of
+comradeship. The writer of the note was presumably the child's father and
+the &quot;Dear Sweetheart&quot; the youngster's mother. The Hopper was not reassured
+by these disclosures. The return of Shaver to his parents was far from
+being the pleasant little Christmas Eve adventure he had imagined. He had
+only the lowest opinion of a father who would, on a winter evening,
+carelessly leave his baby in a motor-car while he looked at pictures, and
+who, finding both motor and baby gone, would take it for granted that the
+baby's mother had run off with them. But these people were artists, and
+artists, The Hopper had heard, were a queer breed, sadly lacking in
+common sense. He tore the note into strips which he stuffed into his
+pocket.</p>
+
+<p>Depressed by the impenetrable wall of mystery along which he was groping,
+he returned to the living-room, raised one of the windows and unbolted the
+front door to make sure of an exit in case these strange, foolish Talbots
+should unexpectedly return. The shades were up and he shielded his light
+carefully with his cap as he passed rapidly about the room. It began to
+look very much as though Shaver would spend Christmas at Happy Hill
+Farm&mdash;a possibility that had not figured in The Hopper's calculations.</p>
+
+<p>Flashing his lamp for a last survey a letter propped against a lamp on the
+table arrested his eye. He dropped to the floor and crawled into a corner
+where he turned his light upon the note and read, not without difficulty,
+the following:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 27em;"><i>Seven o'clock.</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>Dear Roger:&mdash;</i></span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I've just got back from father's where I spent the last three
+    hours talking over our troubles. I didn't tell you I was going,
+    knowing you would think it foolish, but it seemed best, dear,
+    and I hope you'll forgive me. And now I find that you've gone
+    off with Billie, and I'm guessing that you've gone to <i>your</i>
+    father's to see what you can do. I'm taking the trolley into New
+    Haven to ask Mamie Palmer about that cook she thought we might
+    get, and if possible I'll bring the girl home with me. Don't
+    trouble about me, as I'll be perfectly safe, and, as you know, I
+    rather enjoy prowling around at night. You'll certainly get back
+    before I do, but if I'm not here don't be alarmed.</p>
+
+<p>    We are so happy in each other, dear, and if only we could get
+    our foolish fathers to stop hating each other, how beautiful
+    everything would be! And we could all have such a merry, merry
+    Christmas!</p></div>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 22em;">MURIEL.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper's acquaintance with the epistolary art was the slightest, but
+even to a mind unfamiliar with this branch of literature it was plain that
+Shaver's parents were involved in some difficulty that was attributable,
+not to any lessening of affection between them, but to a row of some sort
+between their respective fathers. Muriel, running into the house to write
+her note, had failed to see Roger's letter in the studio, and this was
+very fortunate for The Hopper; but Muriel might return at any moment, and
+it would add nothing to the plausibility of the story he meant to tell if
+he were found in the house.</p>
+
+<p class="figcenter"><a href="./images/5a.jpg"><img src="./images/5a-tb.jpg" alt="Paints" title="Paints" /></a></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p class="figcenter"><a href="./images/6.jpg"><img src="./images/6-tb.jpg" alt="Chapter 6" title="Chapter 6" /></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="VI" id="VI" />VI</h2>
+
+
+<p>Anxious and dejected at the increasing difficulties that confronted him,
+he was moving toward the door when a light, buoyant step sounded on the
+veranda. In a moment the living-room lights were switched on from the
+entry and a woman called out sharply:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Stop right where you are or I'll shoot!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The authoritative voice of the speaker, the quickness with which she had
+grasped the situation and leveled her revolver, brought The Hopper to an
+abrupt halt in the middle of the room, where he fell with a discordant
+crash across the keyboard of a grand piano. He turned, cowering, to
+confront a tall, young woman in a long ulster who advanced toward him
+slowly, but with every mark of determination upon her face. The Hopper
+stared beyond the gun, held in a very steady hand, into a pair of fearless
+dark eyes. In all his experiences he had never been cornered by a woman,
+and he stood gaping at his captor in astonishment. She was a very pretty
+young woman, with cheeks that still had the curve of youth, but with a
+chin that spoke for much firmness of character. A fur toque perched a
+little to one side gave her a boyish air.</p>
+
+<p>This undoubtedly was Shaver's mother who had caught him prowling in her
+house, and all The Hopper's plans for explaining her son's disappearance
+and returning him in a manner to win praise and gratitude went glimmering.
+There was nothing in the appearance of this Muriel to encourage a hope
+that she was either embarrassed or alarmed by his presence. He had been
+captured many times, but the trick had never been turned by any one so
+cool as this young woman. She seemed to be pondering with the greatest
+calmness what disposition she should make of him. In the intentness of her
+thought the revolver wavered for an instant, and The Hopper, without
+taking his eyes from her, made a cat-like spring that brought him to the
+window he had raised against just such an emergency.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;None of that!&quot; she cried, walking slowly toward him without lowering the
+pistol. &quot;If you attempt to jump from that window I'll shoot! But it's
+cold in here and you may lower it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper, weighing the chances, decided that the odds were heavily
+against escape, and lowered the window.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now,&quot; said Muriel, &quot;step into that corner and keep your hands up where I
+can watch them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper obeyed her instructions strictly. There was a telephone on the
+table near her and he expected her to summon help; but to his surprise she
+calmly seated herself, resting her right elbow on the arm of the chair,
+her head slightly tilted to one side, as she inspected him with greater
+attention along the blueblack barrel of her automatic. Unless he made a
+dash for liberty this extraordinary woman would, at her leisure, turn him
+over to the police as a housebreaker and his peaceful life as a chicken
+farmer would be at an end. Her prolonged silence troubled The Hopper. He
+had not been more nervous when waiting for the report of the juries which
+at times had passed upon his conduct, or for judges to fix his term of
+imprisonment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes'm,&quot; he muttered, with a view to ending a silence that had become
+intolerable.</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes danced to the accompaniment of her thoughts, but in no way did
+she betray the slightest perturbation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I ain't done nothin'; hones' to God, I ain't!&quot; he protested brokenly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I saw you through the window when you entered this room and I was
+watching while you read that note,&quot; said his captor. &quot;I thought it funny
+that you should do that instead of packing up the silver.<a name="Page_78" id="Page_78" /> Do you mind
+telling me just why you read that note?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, miss, I jes' thought it kind o' funny there wuzn't nobody round an'
+the letter was layin' there all open, an' I didn't see no harm in
+lookin'.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was awfully clever of you to crawl into the corner so nobody could see
+your light from the windows,&quot; she said with a tinge of admiration. &quot;I
+suppose you thought you might find out how long the people of the house
+were likely to be gone and how much time you could spend here. Was that
+it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I reckon ut wuz some thin' like that,&quot; he agreed.</p>
+
+<p>This was received with the noncommittal &quot;Um&quot; of a person whose thoughts
+are elsewhere. Then, as though she were eliciting from an artist or man of
+letters a frank opinion as to his own ideas of his attainments and
+professional standing, she asked, with a meditative air that puzzled him
+as much as her question:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just how good a burglar are you? Can you do a job neatly and safely?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper, staggered by her inquiry and overcome by modesty, shrugged his
+shoulders and twisted about uncomfortably.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I reckon as how you've pinched me I ain't much good,&quot; he replied, and was
+rewarded with a smile followed by a light little laugh. He was beginning
+to feel pleased that she manifested no fear of him. In fact, he had
+decided that Shaver's mother was the most remarkable woman he had ever
+encountered, and by all odds the handsomest. He began to take heart.
+Perhaps after all he might hit upon some way of restoring Shaver to his
+proper place in the house of Talbot without making himself liable to a
+long term for kidnaping.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you're really a successful burglar&mdash;one who doesn't just poke abound
+in empty houses as you were doing here, but clever and brave enough to
+break into houses where people are living and steal things without making
+a mess of it; and if you can play fair about it&mdash;then I think&mdash;I
+think&mdash;maybe&mdash;we can come to terms!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes'm!&quot; faltered The Hopper, beginning to wonder if Mary and Humpy had
+been right in saying that he had lost his mind. He was so astonished that
+his arms wavered, but she was instantly on her feet and the little
+automatic was again on a level with his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Excuse me, miss, I didn't mean to drop 'em. I weren't goin' to do
+nothin'. Hones' I wuzn't!&quot; he pleaded with real contrition. &quot;It jes'
+seemed kind o' funny what ye said.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He grinned sheepishly. If she knew that her Billie, <i>alias</i> Shaver, was
+not with her husband at his father's house, she would not be dallying in
+this fashion. And if the young father, who painted pictures, and left
+notes in his studio in a blind faith that his wife would find them,&mdash;if
+that trusting soul knew that Billie was asleep in a house all of whose
+inmates had done penance behind prison bars, he would very quickly become
+a man of action. The Hopper had never heard of such careless parenthood!
+These people were children! His heart warmed to them in pity and
+admiration, as it had to little Billie.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I forgot to ask you whether you are armed,&quot; she remarked, with just as
+much composure as though she were asking him whether he took two lumps of
+sugar in his tea; and then she added, &quot;I suppose I ought to have asked you
+that in the first place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I gotta gun in my coat&mdash;right side,&quot; he confessed. &quot;An' that's all I
+got,&quot; he added, batting his eyes under the spell of her bewildering smile.</p>
+
+<p>With her left hand she cautiously extracted his revolver and backed away
+with it to the table.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you'd lied to me I should have killed you; do you understand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes'm,&quot; murmured The Hopper meekly.</p>
+
+<p>She had spoken as though homicide were a common incident of her life, but
+a gleam of humor in the eyes she was watching vigilantly abated her
+severity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You may sit down&mdash;there, please!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She pointed to a much bepillowed davenport and The Hopper sank down on it,
+still with his hands up. To his deepening mystification she backed to the
+windows and lowered the shades, and this done she sat down with the table
+between them, remarking,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You may put your hands down now, Mr. &mdash;&mdash;?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He hesitated, decided that it was unwise to give any of his names; and
+respecting his scruples she said with great magnanimity:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course you wouldn't want to tell me your name, so don't trouble about
+that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She sat, wholly tranquil, her arms upon the table, both hands caressing
+the small automatic, while his own revolver, of different pattern and
+larger caliber, lay close by. His status was now established as that of a
+gentleman making a social call upon a lady who, in the pleasantest manner
+imaginable and yet with undeniable resoluteness, kept a deadly weapon
+pointed in the general direction of his person.</p>
+
+<p>A clock on the mantel struck eleven with a low, silvery note. Muriel
+waited for the last stroke and then spoke crisply and directly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We were speaking of that letter I left lying here on the table. You
+didn't understand it, of course; you couldn't&mdash;not really. So I will
+explain it to you. My husband and I married against our fathers' wishes;
+both of them were opposed to it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She waited for this to sink into his perturbed consciousness. The Hopper
+frowned and leaned forward to express his sympathetic interest in this
+confidential disclosure.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My father,&quot; she resumed, &quot;is just as stupid as my father-in-law and they
+have both continued to make us just as uncomfortable as possible. The
+cause of the trouble is ridiculous. There's nothing against my husband or
+me, you understand; it's simply a bitter jealousy between the two men due
+to the fact that they are rival collectors.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper stared blankly. The only collectors with whom he had enjoyed
+any acquaintance were persons who presented bills for payment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They are collectors,&quot; Muriel hastened to explain, &quot;of ceramics&mdash;precious
+porcelains and that sort of thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes'm,&quot; assented The Hopper, who hadn't the faintest notion of what she
+meant.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For years, whenever there have been important sales of these things,
+which men fight for and are willing to die for&mdash;whenever there has been
+something specially fine in the market, my father-in-law&mdash;he's Mr.
+Talbot&mdash;and Mr. Wilton&mdash;he's my father&mdash;have bid for them. There are
+auctions, you know, and people come from all over the world looking for a
+chance to buy the rarest pieces. They've explored China and Japan hunting
+for prizes and they are experts&mdash;men of rare taste and judgment&mdash;what you
+call connoisseurs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper nodded gravely at the unfamiliar word, convinced that not only
+were Muriel and her husband quite insane, but that they had inherited the
+infirmity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The trouble has been,&quot; Muriel continued, &quot;that Mr. Talbot and my father
+both like the same kind of thing; and when one has got something the other
+wanted, of course it has added to the ill-feeling. This has been going on
+for years and recently they have grown more bitter. When Roger and I ran
+off and got married, that didn't help matters any; but just within a few
+days something has happened to make things much worse than ever.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper's complete absorption in this novel recital was so manifest
+that she put down the revolver with which she had been idling and folded
+her hands.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thank ye, miss,&quot; mumbled The Hopper.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only last week,&quot; Muriel continued, &quot;my father-in-law bought one of those
+pottery treasures&mdash;a plum-blossom vase made in China hundreds of years ago
+and very, very valuable. It belonged to a Philadelphia collector who died
+not long ago and Mr. Talbot bought it from the executor of the estate, who
+happened to be an old friend of his. Father was very angry, for he had
+been led to believe that this vase was going to be offered at auction and
+he'd have a chance to bid on it. And just before that father had got hold
+of a jar&mdash;a perfectly wonderful piece of red Lang-Yao&mdash;that collectors
+everywhere have coveted for years. This made Mr. Talbot furious at father.
+My husband is at his father's now trying to make him see the folly of all
+this, and I visited <i>my</i> father to-day to try to persuade him to stop
+being so foolish. You see I wanted us all to be happy for Christmas! Of
+course, Christmas ought to be a time of gladness for everybody. Even
+people in your&mdash;er&mdash;profession must feel that Christmas is one day in the
+year when all hard feelings should be forgotten and everybody should try
+to make others happy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I guess yer right, miss. Ut sure seems foolish fer folks t' git mad about
+jugs like you says. Wuz they empty, miss?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Empty!&quot; repeated Muriel wonderingly, not understanding at once that her
+visitor was unaware that the &quot;jugs&quot; men fought over were valued as art
+treasures and not for their possible contents. Then she laughed merrily,
+as only the mother of Shaver could laugh.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh! Of course they're <i>empty!</i> That does seem to make it sillier,
+doesn't it? But they're like famous pictures, you know, or any beautiful
+work of art that only happens occasionally. Perhaps it seems odd to you
+that men can be so crazy about such things, but I suppose sometimes you
+have wanted things very, very much, and&mdash;oh!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She paused, plainly confused by her tactlessness in suggesting to a member
+of his profession the extremities to which one may be led by covetousness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, miss,&quot; he remarked hastily; and he rubbed his nose with the back of
+his hand, and grinned indulgently as he realized the cause of her
+embarrassment. It crossed his mind that she might be playing a trick of
+some kind; that her story, which seemed to him wholly fantastic and not at
+all like a chronicle of the acts of veritable human beings, was merely a
+device for detaining him until help arrived. But he dismissed this
+immediately as unworthy of one so pleasing, so beautiful, so perfectly
+qualified to be the mother of Shaver!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, just before luncheon, without telling my husband where I was going,
+I ran away to papa's, hoping to persuade him to end this silly feud. I
+spent the afternoon there and he was very unreasonable. He feels that Mr.
+Talbot wasn't fair about that Philadelphia purchase, and I gave it up and
+came home. I got here a little after dark and found my husband had taken
+Billie&mdash;that's our little boy&mdash;and gone. I knew, of course, that he had
+gone to <i>his</i> father's hoping to bring him round, for both our fathers are
+simply crazy about Billie. But you see I never go to Mr. Talbot's and my
+husband never goes&mdash;Dear me!&quot; she broke off suddenly. &quot;I suppose I ought
+to telephone and see if Billie is all right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper, greatly alarmed, thrust his head forward as she pondered this.
+If she telephoned to her father-in-law's to ask about Billie, the jig
+would be up! He drew his hand across his face and fell back with relief as
+she went on, a little absently:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Talbot hates telephoning, and it might be that my husband is just
+getting him to the point of making concessions, and I shouldn't want to
+interrupt. It's so late now that of course Roger and Billie will spend the
+night there. And Billie and Christmas ought to be a combination that would
+soften the hardest heart! You ought to see&mdash;you just ought to see Billie!
+He's the cunningest, dearest baby in the world!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper sat pigeon-toed, beset by countless conflicting emotions. His
+ingenuity was taxed to its utmost by the demands of this complex
+situation. But for his returning suspicion that Muriel was leading up to
+something; that she was detaining him for some purpose not yet apparent,
+he would have told her of her husband's note and confessed that the adored
+Billie was at that moment enjoying the reluctant hospitality of Happy Hill
+Farm. He resolved to continue his policy of silence as to the young heir's
+whereabouts until Muriel had shown her hand. She had not wholly abandoned
+the thought of telephoning to her father-in-law's, he found, from her next
+remark.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You think it's all right, don't you? It's strange Roger didn't leave me
+a note of some kind. Our cook left a week ago and there was no one here
+when he left.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I reckon as how yer kid's all right, miss,&quot; he answered consolingly.</p>
+
+<p>Her voluble confidences had enthralled him, and her reference of this
+matter to his judgment was enormously flattering. On the rough edges of
+society where he had spent most of his life, fellow craftsmen had
+frequently solicited his advice, chiefly as to the disposition of their
+ill-gotten gains or regarding safe harbors of refuge, but to be taken into
+counsel by the only gentlewoman he had ever met roused his self-respect,
+touched a chivalry that never before had been wakened in The Hopper's
+soul. She was so like a child in her guilelessness, and so brave amid her
+perplexities!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, I know Roger will take beautiful care of Billie. And now,&quot; she smiled
+radiantly, &quot;you're probably wondering what I've been driving at all this
+time. Maybe&quot;&mdash;she added softly&mdash;&quot;maybe it's providential, your turning up
+here in this way!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She uttered this happily, with a little note of triumph and another of her
+smiles that seemed to illuminate the universe. The Hopper had been called
+many names in his varied career, but never before had he been invested
+with the attributes of an agent of Providence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They's things wot is an' they's things wot ain't, miss; I reckon I ain't
+as bad as some. I mean to be on the square, miss.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I believe that,&quot; she said. &quot;I've always heard there's honor among
+thieves, and&quot;&mdash;she lowered her voice to a whisper&mdash;&quot;it's possible I might
+become one myself!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper's eyes opened wide and he crossed and uncrossed his legs
+nervously in his agitation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If&mdash;if&quot;&mdash;she began slowly, bending forward with a grave, earnest look in
+her eyes and clasping her fingers tightly&mdash;&quot;if we could only get hold of
+father's Lang-Yao jar and that plum-blossom vase Mr. Talbot has&mdash;if we
+could only do that!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper swallowed hard. This fearless, pretty young woman was calmly
+suggesting that he commit two felonies, little knowing that his score for
+the day already aggregated three&mdash;purse-snatching, the theft of an
+automobile from her own door, and what might very readily be construed as
+the kidnaping of her own child!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know, miss,&quot; he said feebly, calculating that the sum total of
+even minimum penalties for the five crimes would outrun his natural life
+and consume an eternity of reincarnations.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course it wouldn't be stealing in the ordinary sense,&quot; she explained.
+&quot;What I want you to do is to play the part of what we will call a
+reversible Santa Claus, who takes things away from stupid people who don't
+enjoy them anyhow. And maybe if they lost these things they'd behave
+themselves. I could explain afterward that it was all my fault, and of
+course I wouldn't let any harm come to <i>you</i>. I'd be responsible, and of
+course I'd see you safely out of it; you would have to rely on me for
+that. I'm trusting <i>you</i> and you'd have to trust <i>me!</i>&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, I'd trust ye, miss! An' ef I was to get pinched I wouldn't never
+squeal on ye. We don't never blab on a pal, miss!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was afraid she might resent being called a &quot;pal,&quot; but his use of the
+term apparently pleased her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We understand each other, then. It really won't be very difficult, for
+papa's place is over on the Sound and Mr. Talbot's is right next to it, so
+you wouldn't have far to go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her utter failure to comprehend the enormity of the thing she was
+proposing affected him queerly. Even among hardened criminals in the
+underworld such undertakings are suggested cautiously; but Muriel was
+ordering a burglary as though it were a pound of butter or a dozen eggs!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father keeps his most valuable glazes in a safe in the pantry,&quot; she
+resumed after a moment's reflection, &quot;but I can give you the combination.
+That will make it a lot easier.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper assented, with a pontifical nod, to this sanguine view of the
+matter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Talbot keeps his finest pieces in a cabinet built into the
+bookshelves in his library. It's on the left side as you stand in the
+drawing-room door, and you look for the works of Thomas Carlyle. There's a
+dozen or so volumes of Carlyle, only they're not books,&mdash;not really,&mdash;but
+just the backs of books painted on the steel of a safe. And if you press a
+spring in the upper right-hand corner of the shelf just over these books
+the whole section swings out. I suppose you've seen that sort of
+hiding-place for valuables?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, not exactly, miss. But havin' a tip helps, an' ef there ain't no
+soup to pour&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Soup?&quot; inquired Muriel, wrinkling her pretty brows.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's the juice we pour into the cracks of a safe to blow out the lid
+with,&quot; The Hopper elucidated. &quot;Ut's a lot handier ef you've got the
+combination. Ut usually ain't jes' layin' around.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should hope not!&quot; exclaimed Muriel.</p>
+
+<p>She took a sheet of paper from the leathern stationery rack and fell to
+scribbling, while he furtively eyed the window and again put from him the
+thought of flight.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There! That's the combination of papa's safe.&quot; She turned her wrist and
+glanced at her watch. &quot;It's half-past eleven and you can catch a trolley
+in ten minutes that will take you right past papa's house. The butler's an
+old man who forgets to lock the windows half the time, and there's one in
+the conservatory with a broken catch. I noticed it to-day when I was
+thinking about stealing the jar myself!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They were established on so firm a basis of mutual confidence that when he
+rose and walked to the table she didn't lift her eyes from the paper on
+which she was drawing a diagram of her father's house. He stood watching
+her nimble fingers, fascinated by the boldness of her plan for restoring
+amity between Shaver's grandfathers, and filled with admiration for her
+resourcefulness.</p>
+
+<p>He asked a few questions as to exits and entrances and fixed in his mind a
+very accurate picture of the home of her father. She then proceeded to
+enlighten him as to the ways and means of entering the home of her
+father-in-law, which she sketched with equal facility.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There's a French window&mdash;a narrow glass door&mdash;on the veranda. I think you
+might get in <i>there!</i>&quot; She made a jab with the pencil. &quot;Of course I should
+hate awfully to have you get caught! But you must have had a lot of
+experience, and with all the help I'm giving you&mdash;!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A sudden lifting of her head gave him the full benefit of her eyes and he
+averted his gaze reverently.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There's always a chance o' bein' nabbed, miss,&quot; he suggested with
+feeling.</p>
+
+<p>Shaver's mother wielded the same hypnotic power, highly intensified, that
+he had felt in Shaver. He knew that he was going to attempt what she
+asked; that he was committed to the project of robbing two houses merely
+to please a pretty young woman who invited his co&ouml;peration at the point of
+a revolver!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Papa's always a sound sleeper,&quot; she was saying. &quot;When I was a little girl
+a burglar went all through our house and carried off his clothes and he
+never knew it until the next morning. But you'll have to be careful at Mr.
+Talbot's, for he suffers horribly from insomnia.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They got any o' them fancy burglar alarms?&quot; asked The Hopper as he
+concluded his examination of her sketches.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, I forgot to tell you about that!&quot; she cried contritely. &quot;There's
+nothing of the kind at Mr. Talbot's, but at papa's there's a switch in
+the living-room, right back of a bust&mdash;a white marble thing on a pedestal.
+You turn it off <i>there</i>. Half the time papa forgets to switch it on before
+he goes to bed. And another thing&mdash;be careful about stumbling over that
+bearskin rug in the hall. People are always sticking their feet into its
+jaws.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll look out for ut, miss.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Burglar alarms and the jaws of wild beasts were not inviting hazards. The
+programme she outlined so light-heartedly was full of complexities. It was
+almost pathetic that any one could so cheerfully and irresponsibly suggest
+the perpetration of a crime. The terms she used in describing the loot he
+was to filch were much stranger to him than Chinese, but it was fairly
+clear that at the Talbot house he was to steal a blue-and-white thing and
+at the Wilton's a red one. The form and size of these articles she
+illustrated with graceful gestures.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I thought you were likely to make a mistake I'd&mdash;I'd go with you!&quot; she
+declared.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, no, miss; ye couldn't do that! I guess I can do ut fer ye. Ut's jes'
+a <i>leetle</i> ticklish. I reckon ef yer pa wuz to nab me ut'd go hard with
+me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wouldn't let him be hard on you,&quot; she replied earnestly. &quot;And now I
+haven't said anything about a&mdash;a&mdash;about what we will call a <i>reward</i> for
+bringing me these porcelains. I shall expect to pay you; I couldn't think
+of taking up your time, you know, for nothing!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lor', miss, I couldn't take nothin' at all fer doin' ut! Ye see ut wuz
+sort of accidental our meetin', and besides, I ain't no
+housebreaker&mdash;not, as ye may say, reg'ler. I'll be glad to do ut fer ye,
+miss, an' ye can rely on me doin' my best fer ye. Ye've treated me right,
+miss, an' I ain't a-goin' t' fergit ut!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper spoke with feeling. Shaver's mother had, albeit at the pistol
+point, confided her most intimate domestic affairs to him. He realized,
+without finding just these words for it, that she had in effect decorated
+him with the symbol of her order of knighthood and he had every
+honorable&mdash;or dishonorable!&mdash;intention of proving himself worthy of her
+confidence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If ye please, miss,&quot; he said, pointing toward his confiscated revolver.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly; you may take it. But of course you won't kill anybody?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, miss; only I'm sort o' lonesome without ut when I'm on a job.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you do understand,&quot; she said, following him to the door and noting in
+the distance the headlight of an approaching trolley, &quot;that I'm only doing
+this in the hope that good may come of it. It isn't really criminal, you
+know; if you succeed, it may mean the happiest Christmas of my life!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, miss. I won't come back till mornin', but don't you worry none. We
+gotta play safe, miss, an' ef I land th' jugs I'll find cover till I kin
+deliver 'em safe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thank you; oh, thank you ever so much! And good luck!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She put out her hand; he held it gingerly for a moment in his rough
+fingers and ran for the car.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p class="figcenter"><a href="./images/7.jpg"><img src="./images/7-tb.jpg" alt="Chapter 7" title="Chapter 7" /></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="VII" id="VII" />VII</h2>
+
+
+<p>The Hopper, in his r&ocirc;le of the Reversible Santa Claus, dropped off the car
+at the crossing Muriel had carefully described, waited for the car to
+vanish, and warily entered the Wilton estate through a gate set in the
+stone wall. The clouds of the early evening had passed and the stars
+marched through the heavens resplendently, proclaiming peace on earth and
+good-will toward men. They were almost oppressively brilliant, seen
+through the clear, cold atmosphere, and as The Hopper slipped from one big
+tree to another on his tangential course to the house, he fortified his
+courage by muttering, &quot;They's things wot is an' things wot
+ain't!&quot;&mdash;finding much comfort and stimulus in the phrase.</p>
+
+<p>Arriving at the conservatory in due course, he found that Muriel's
+averments as to the vulnerability of that corner of her father's house
+were correct in every particular. He entered with ease, sniffed the warm,
+moist air, and, leaving the door slightly ajar, sought the pantry, lowered
+the shades, and, helping himself to a candle from a silver candelabrum,
+readily found the safe hidden away in one of the cupboards. He was
+surprised to find himself more nervous with the combination in his hand
+than on memorable occasions in the old days when he had broken into
+country postoffices and assaulted safes by force. In his haste he twice
+failed to give the proper turns, but the third time the knob caught, and
+in a moment the door swung open disclosing shelves filled with vases,
+bottles, bowls, and plates in bewildering variety. A chest of silver
+appealed to him distractingly as a much more tangible asset than the
+pottery, and he dizzily contemplated a jewel-case containing a diamond
+necklace with a pearl pendant. The moment was a critical one in The
+Hopper's eventful career. This dazzling prize was his for the taking, and
+he knew the operator of a fence in Chicago who would dispose of the
+necklace and make him a fair return. But visions of Muriel, the beautiful,
+the confiding, and of her little Shaver asleep on Humpy's bed, rose before
+him. He steeled his heart against temptation, drew his candle along the
+shelf and scrutinized the glazes. There could be no mistaking the red
+Lang-Yao whose brilliant tints kindled in the candle-glow. He lifted it
+tenderly, verifying the various points of Muriel's description, set it
+down on the floor and locked the safe.</p>
+
+<p>He was retracing his steps toward the conservatory and had reached the
+main hall when the creaking of the stairsteps brought him up with a start.
+Some one was descending, slowly and cautiously. For a second time and with
+grateful appreciation of Muriel's forethought, he carefully avoided the
+ferocious jaws of the bear, noiselessly continued on to the conservatory,
+crept through the door, closed it, and then, crouching on the steps,
+awaited developments. The caution exercised by the person descending the
+stairway was not that of a householder who has been roused from slumber
+by a disquieting noise. The Hopper was keenly interested in this fact.</p>
+
+<p>With his face against the glass he watched the actions of a tall, elderly
+man with a short, grayish beard, who wore a golf-cap pulled low on his
+head&mdash;points noted by The Hopper in the flashes of an electric lamp with
+which the gentleman was guiding himself. His face was clearly the original
+of a photograph The Hopper had seen on the table at Muriel's cottage&mdash;Mr.
+Wilton, Muriel's father, The Hopper surmised; but just why the owner of
+the establishment should be prowling about in this fashion taxed his
+speculative powers to the utmost. Warned by steps on the cement floor of
+the conservatory, he left the door in haste and flattened himself against
+the wall of the house some distance away and again awaited developments.</p>
+
+<p>Wilton's figure was a blur in the star-light as he stepped out into the
+walk and started furtively across the grounds. His conduct greatly
+displeased The Hopper, as likely to interfere with the further carrying
+out of Muriel's instructions. The Lang-Yao jar was much too large to go
+into his pocket and not big enough to fit snugly under his arm, and as the
+walk was slippery he was beset by the fear that he might fall and smash
+this absurd thing that had caused so bitter an enmity between Shaver's
+grandfathers. The soft snow on the lawn gave him a surer footing and he
+crept after Wilton, who was carefully pursuing his way toward a house
+whose gables were faintly limned against the sky. This, according to
+Muriel's diagram, was the Talbot place. The Hopper greatly mistrusted
+conditions he didn't understand, and he was at a loss to account for
+Wilton's strange actions.</p>
+
+<p class="figcenter"><a name="FAINT_CLICK" id="FAINT_CLICK" /><a href="./images/196.jpg"><img src="./images/196-tb.jpg" alt="THE FAINT CLICK OF A LATCH MARKED THE PROWLER'S PROXIMITY TO A HEDGE" title="THE FAINT CLICK OF A LATCH MARKED THE PROWLER'S PROXIMITY TO A HEDGE" /></a></p>
+<p class="figcenter">THE FAINT CLICK OF A LATCH MARKED THE PROWLER'S PROXIMITY TO A HEDGE</p>
+
+
+<p>He lost sight of him for several minutes, then the faint click of a latch
+marked the prowler's proximity to a hedge that separated the two estates.
+The Hopper crept forward, found a gate through which Wilton had entered
+his neighbor's property, and stole after him. Wilton had been swallowed up
+by the deep shadow of the house, but The Hopper was aware, from an
+occasional scraping of feet, that he was still moving forward. He crawled
+over the snow until he reached a large tree whose boughs, sharply limned
+against the stars, brushed the eaves of the house.</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper was aroused, tremendously aroused, by the unaccountable
+actions of Muriel's father. It flashed upon him that Wilton, in his deep
+hatred of his rival collector, was about to set fire to Talbot's house,
+and incendiarism was a crime which The Hopper, with all his moral
+obliquity, greatly abhorred.</p>
+
+<p>Several minutes passed, a period of anxious waiting, and then a sound
+reached him which, to his keen professional sense, seemed singularly like
+the forcing of a window. The Hopper knew just how much pressure is
+necessary to the successful snapping back of a window catch, and Wilton
+had done the trick neatly and with a minimum amount of noise. The window
+thus assaulted was not, he now determined, the French window suggested by
+Muriel, but one opening on a terrace which ran along the front of the
+house. The Hopper heard the sash moving slowly in the frame. He reached
+the steps, deposited the jar in a pile of snow, and was soon peering into
+a room where Wilton's presence was advertised by the fitful flashing of
+his lamp in a far corner.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's beat me to ut!&quot; muttered The Hopper, realizing that Muriel's father
+was indeed on burglary bent, his obvious purpose being to purloin,
+extract, and remove from its secret hiding-place the coveted plum-blossom
+vase. Muriel, in her longing for a Christmas of peace and happiness, had
+not reckoned with her father's passionate desire to possess the porcelain
+treasure&mdash;a desire which could hardly fail to cause scandal, if it did not
+land him behind prison bars.</p>
+
+<p>This had not been in the programme, and The Hopper weighed judicially his
+further duty in the matter. Often as he had been the chief actor in
+daring robberies, he had never before enjoyed the high privilege of
+watching a rival's labors with complete detachment. Wilton must have known
+of the concealed cupboard whose panel fraudulently represented the works
+of Thomas Carlyle, the intent spectator reflected, just as Muriel had
+known, for though he used his lamp sparingly Wilton had found his way to
+it without difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper had no intention of permitting this monstrous larceny to be
+committed in contravention of his own rights in the premises, and he was
+considering the best method of wresting the vase from the hands of the
+insolent Wilton when events began to multiply with startling rapidity. The
+panel swung open and the thief's lamp flashed upon shelves of pottery.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment a shout rose from somewhere in the house, and the library
+lights were thrown on, revealing Wilton before the shelves and their
+precious contents. A short, stout gentleman with a gleaming bald pate,
+clad in pajamas, dashed across the room, and with a yell of rage flung
+himself upon the intruder with a violence that bore them both to the
+floor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Roger! Roger!&quot; bawled the smaller man, as he struggled with his
+adversary, who wriggled from under and rolled over upon Talbot, whose arms
+were clasped tightly about his neck. This embrace seemed likely to
+continue for some time, so tenaciously had the little man gripped his
+neighbor. The fat legs of the infuriated householder pawed the air as he
+hugged Wilton, who was now trying to free his head and gain a position of
+greater dignity. Occasionally, as opportunity offered, the little man
+yelled vociferously, and from remote recesses of the house came answering
+cries demanding information as to the nature and whereabouts of the
+disturbance.</p>
+
+<p>The contestants addressed themselves vigorously to a spirited
+rough-and-tumble fight. Talbot, who was the more easily observed by reason
+of his shining pate and the pink stripes of his pajamas, appeared to be
+revolving about the person of his neighbor. Wilton, though taller, lacked
+the rotund Talbot's liveliness of attack.</p>
+
+<p>An authoritative voice, which The Hopper attributed to Shaver's father,
+anxiously demanding what was the matter, terminated The Hopper's
+enjoyment of the struggle. Enough was the matter to satisfy The Hopper
+that a prolonged stay in the neighborhood might be highly detrimental to
+his future liberty. The combatants had rolled a considerable distance away
+from the shelves and were near a door leading into a room beyond. A young
+man in a bath-wrapper dashed upon the scene, and in his precipitate
+arrival upon the battle-field fell sprawling across the prone figures. The
+Hopper, suddenly inspired to deeds of prowess, crawled through the window,
+sprang past the three men, seized the blue-and-white vase which Wilton had
+separated from the rest of Talbot's treasures, and then with one hop
+gained the window. As he turned for a last look, a pistol cracked and he
+landed upon the terrace amid a shower of glass from a shattered pane.</p>
+
+<p>A woman of unmistakable Celtic origin screamed murder from a third-story
+window. The thought of murder was disagreeable to The Hopper. Shaver's
+father had missed him by only the matter of a foot or two, and as he had
+no intention of offering himself again as a target he stood not upon the
+order of his going.</p>
+
+<p>He effected a running pick-up of the Lang-Yao, and with this art treasure
+under one arm and the plum-blossom vase under the other, he sprinted for
+the highway, stumbling over shrubbery, bumping into a stone bench that all
+but caused disaster, and finally reached the road on which he continued
+his flight toward New Haven, followed by cries in many keys and a
+fusillade of pistol shots.</p>
+
+<p>Arriving presently at a hamlet, where he paused for breath in the rear of
+a country store, he found a basket and a quantity of paper in which he
+carefully packed his loot. Over the top he spread some faded lettuce
+leaves and discarded carnations which communicated something of a blithe
+holiday air to his encumbrance. Elsewhere he found a bicycle under a shed,
+and while cycling over a snowy road in the dark, hampered by a basket
+containing pottery representative of the highest genius of the Orient, was
+not without its difficulties and dangers, The Hopper made rapid progress.</p>
+
+<p>Halfway through New Haven he approached two policemen and slowed down to
+allay suspicion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Merry Chris'mas!&quot; he called as he passed them and increased his weight
+upon the pedals.</p>
+
+<p>The officers of the law, cheered as by a greeting from Santa Claus
+himself, responded with an equally hearty Merry Christmas.</p>
+
+<p class="figcenter"><a href="./images/7a.jpg"><img src="./images/7a-tb.jpg" alt="Basket" title="Basket" /></a></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p class="figcenter"><a href="./images/8.jpg"><img src="./images/8-tb.jpg" alt="Chapter 8" title="Chapter 8" /></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII" />VIII</h2>
+
+
+<p>At three o'clock The Hopper reached Happy Hill Farm, knocked as before at
+the kitchen door, and was admitted by Humpy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wot ye got now?&quot; snarled the reformed yeggman.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's gone and done ut ag'in!&quot; wailed Mary, as she spied the basket.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I sure done ut, all right,&quot; admitted The Hopper good-naturedly, as he set
+the basket on the table where a few hours earlier he had deposited Shaver.
+&quot;How's the kid?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Grudging assurances that Shaver was asleep and hostile glances directed at
+the mysterious basket did not disturb his equanimity.</p>
+
+<p>Humpy was thwarted in an attempt to pry into the contents of the basket by
+a tart reprimand from The Hopper, who with maddening deliberation drew
+forth the two glazes, found that they had come through the night's
+vicissitudes unscathed, and held them at arm's length, turning them about
+in leisurely fashion as though lost in admiration of their loveliness.
+Then he lighted his pipe, seated himself in Mary's rocker, and told his
+story.</p>
+
+<p>It was no easy matter to communicate to his irritable and contumelious
+auditors the sense of Muriel's charm, or the reasonableness of her request
+that he commit burglary merely to assist her in settling a family row.
+Mary could not understand it; Humpy paced the room nervously, shaking his
+head and muttering. It was their judgment, stated with much frankness,
+that if he had been a fool in the first place to steal the child, his
+character was now blackened beyond any hope by his later crimes. Mary wept
+copiously; Humpy most annoyingly kept counting upon his fingers as he
+reckoned the &quot;time&quot; that was in store for all of them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I guess I got into ut an' I guess I'll git out,&quot; remarked The Hopper
+serenely. He was disposed to treat them with high condescension, as
+incapable of appreciating the lofty philosophy of life by which he was
+sustained. Meanwhile, he gloated over the loot of the night.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Them things is wurt' mints; they's more valible than di'mon's, them
+things is! Only eddicated folks knows about 'em. They's fer emp'rors and
+kings t' set up in their palaces, an' men goes nutty jes' hankerin' fer
+'em. The pigtails made 'em thousand o' years back, an' th' secret died
+with 'em. They ain't never goin' to be no more jugs like them settin'
+right there. An' them two ole sports give up their business jes' t' chase
+things like them. They's some folks goes loony about chickens, an' hosses,
+an' fancy dogs, but this here kind o' collectin' 's only fer millionaires.
+They's more difficult t' pick than a lucky race-hoss. They's barrels o'
+that stuff in them houses, that looked jes' as good as them there, but
+nowheres as valible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>An informal lecture on Chinese ceramics before daylight on Christmas
+morning was not to the liking of the anxious and nerve-torn Mary and
+Humpy. They brought The Hopper down from his lofty heights to practical
+questions touching his plans, for the disposal of Shaver in the first
+instance, and the ceramics in the second. The Hopper was singularly
+unmoved by their forebodings.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I guess th' lady got me to do ut!&quot; he retorted finally. &quot;Ef I do time fer
+ut I reckon's how she's in fer ut, too! An' I seen her pap breakin' into a
+house an' I guess I'd be a state's witness fer that! I reckon they ain't
+goin' t' put nothin' over on Hop! I guess they won't peep much about
+kidnapin' with th' kid safe an' us pickin' 'im up out o' th' road an'
+shelterin' 'im. Them folks is goin' to be awful nice to Hop fer all he
+done fer 'em.&quot; And then, finding that they were impressed by his defense,
+thus elaborated, he magnanimously referred to the bill-book which had
+started him on his downward course.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That were a mistake; I grant ye ut were a mistake o' jedgment. I'm goin'
+to keep to th' white card. But ut's kind o' funny about that
+poke&mdash;queerest thing that ever happened.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He drew out the book and eyed the name on the flap. Humpy tried to grab
+it, but The Hopper, frustrating the attempt, read his colleague a sharp
+lesson in good manners. He restored it to his pocket and glanced at the
+clock.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We gotta do somethin' about Shaver's stockin's. Ut ain't fair fer a kid
+to wake up an' think Santy missed 'im. Ye got some candy, Mary; we kin put
+candy into 'em; that's reg'ler.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Humpy brought in Shaver's stockings and they were stuffed with the candy
+and popcorn Mary had provided to adorn their Christmas feast. Humpy
+inventoried his belongings, but could think of nothing but a revolver that
+seemed a suitable gift for Shaver. This Mary scornfully rejected as
+improper for one so young. Whereupon Humpy produced a Mexican silver
+dollar, a treasured pocket-piece preserved through many tribulations, and
+dropped it reverently into one of the stockings. Two brass buttons of
+unknown history, a mouth-organ Mary had bought for a neighbor boy who
+assisted at times in the poultry yard, and a silver spectacle case of
+uncertain antecedents were added.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We ought t' 'a' colored eggs fer 'im!&quot; said The Hopper with sudden
+inspiration, after the stockings had been restored to Shaver's bed. &quot;Some
+yaller an' pink eggs would 'a' been the right ticket.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Mary scoffed at the idea. Eggs wasn't proper fer Christmas; eggs was fer
+Easter. Humpy added the weight of his personal experience of Christian
+holidays to this statement. While a trusty in the Missouri penitentiary
+with the chicken yard in his keeping, he remembered distinctly that eggs
+were in demand for purposes of decoration by the warden's children
+sometime in the spring; mebbe it was Easter, mebbe it was Decoration Day;
+Humpy was not sure of anything except that it wasn't Christmas.</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper was meek under correction. It having been settled that colored
+eggs would not be appropriate for Christmas he yielded to their demand
+that he show some enthusiasm for disposing of his ill-gotten treasures
+before the police arrived to take the matter out of his hands.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I guess that Muriel'll be glad to see me,&quot; he remarked. &quot;I guess me and
+her understands each other. They's things wot is an' things wot ain't; an'
+I guess Hop ain't goin' to spend no Chris'mas in jail. It's the white card
+an' poultry an' eggs fer us; an' we're goin' t' put in a couple more
+incubators right away. I'm thinkin' some o' rentin' that acre across th'
+brook back yonder an' raisin' turkeys. They's mints in turks, ef ye kin
+keep 'em from gettin' their feet wet an' dyin' o' pneumonia, which wipes
+out thousands o' them birds. I reckon ye might make some coffee, Mary.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Christmas dawn found them at the table, where they were renewing a
+pledge to play &quot;the white card&quot; when a cry from Shaver brought them to
+their feet.</p>
+
+<p>Shaver was highly pleased with his Christmas stockings, but his pleasure
+was nothing to that of The Hopper, Mary, and Humpy, as they stood about
+the bed and watched him. Mary and Humpy were so relieved by The Hopper's
+promises to lead a better life that they were now disposed to treat their
+guest with the most distinguished consideration. Humpy, absenting himself
+to perform his morning tasks in the poultry-houses, returned bringing a
+basket containing six newly hatched chicks. These cheeped and ran over
+Shaver's fat legs and performed exactly as though they knew they were a
+part of his Christmas entertainment. Humpy, proud of having thought of the
+chicks, demanded the privilege of serving Shaver's breakfast. Shaver ate
+his porridge without a murmur, so happy was he over his new playthings.</p>
+
+<p>Mary bathed and dressed him with care. As the candy had stuck to the
+stockings in spots, it was decided after a family conference that Shaver
+would have to wear them wrong side out as there was no time to be wasted
+in washing them. By eight o'clock The Hopper announced that it was time
+for Shaver to go home. Shaver expressed alarm at the thought of leaving
+his chicks; whereupon Humpy conferred two of them upon him in the best
+imitation of baby talk that he could muster.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Me's tate um to me's gwanpas,&quot; said Shaver; &quot;chickee for me's two
+gwanpas,&quot;&mdash;a remark which caused The Hopper to shake for a moment with
+mirth as he recalled his last view of Shaver's &quot;gwanpas&quot; in a death grip
+upon the floor of &quot;Gwanpa&quot; Talbot's house.</p>
+
+<p class="figcenter"><a href="./images/8a.jpg"><img src="./images/8a-tb.jpg" alt="Chicks" title="Chicks" /></a></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p class="figcenter"><a href="./images/9.jpg"><img src="./images/9-tb.jpg" alt="Chapter 9" title="Chapter 9" /></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="IX" id="IX" />IX</h2>
+
+
+<p>When The Hopper rolled away from Happy Hill Farm in the stolen machine,
+accompanied by one stolen child and forty thousand dollars' worth of
+stolen pottery, Mary wept, whether because of the parting with Shaver, or
+because she feared that The Hopper would never return, was not clear.</p>
+
+<p>Humpy, too, showed signs of tears, but concealed his weakness by
+performing a grotesque dance, dancing grotesquely by the side of the car,
+much to Shaver's joy&mdash;a joy enhanced just as the car reached the gate,
+where, as a farewell attention, Humpy fell down and rolled over and over
+in the snow.</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper's wits were alert as he bore Shaver homeward. By this time it
+was likely that the confiding young Talbots had conferred over the
+telephone and knew that their offspring had disappeared. Doubtless the New
+Haven police had been notified, and he chose his route with discretion to
+avoid unpleasant encounters. Shaver, his spirits keyed to holiday pitch,
+babbled ceaselessly, and The Hopper, highly elated, babbled back at him.</p>
+
+<p>They arrived presently at the rear of the young Talbots' premises, and The
+Hopper, with Shaver trotting at his side, advanced cautiously upon the
+house bearing the two baskets, one containing Shaver's chicks, the other
+the precious porcelains. In his survey of the landscape he noted with
+trepidation the presence of two big limousines in the highway in front of
+the cottage and decided that if possible he must see Muriel alone and make
+his report to her.</p>
+
+<p>The moment he entered the kitchen he heard the clash of voices in angry
+dispute in the living-room. Even Shaver was startled by the violence of
+the conversation in progress within, and clutched tightly a fold of The
+Hopper's trousers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I tell you it's John Wilton who has stolen Billie!&quot; a man cried
+tempestuously. &quot;Anybody who would enter a neighbor's house in the dead of
+night and try to rob him&mdash;rob him, yes, and <i>murder</i> him in the most
+brutal fashion&mdash;would not scruple to steal his own grandchild!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Me's gwanpa,&quot; whispered Shaver, gripping The Hopper's hand, &quot;an' 'im's
+mad.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>That Mr. Talbot was very angry indeed was established beyond cavil.
+However, Mr. Wilton was apparently quite capable of taking care of himself
+in the dispute.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You talk about my stealing when you robbed me of my Lang-Yao&mdash;bribed my
+servants to plunder my safe! I want you to understand once for all, Roger
+Talbot, that if that jar isn't returned within one hour,&mdash;within one hour,
+sir,&mdash;I shall turn you over to the police!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Liar!&quot; bellowed Talbot, who possessed a voice of great resonance. &quot;You
+can't mitigate your foul crime by charging me with another! I never saw
+your jar; I never wanted it! I wouldn't have the thing on my place!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Muriel's voice, full of tears, was lifted in expostulation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How can you talk of your silly vases when Billie's lost! Billie's been
+stolen&mdash;and you two men can think of nothing but pot-ter-ree!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Shaver lifted a startled face to The Hopper.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mamma's cwyin'; gwanpa's hurted mamma!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The strategic moment had arrived when Shaver must be thrust forward as an
+interruption to the exchange of disagreeable epithets by his grandfathers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You trot right in there t' yer ma, Shaver. Ole Hop ain't goin' t' let 'em
+hurt ye!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He led the child through the dining room to the living-room door and
+pushed him gently on the scene of strife. Talbot, senior, was pacing the
+floor with angry strides, declaiming upon his wrongs,&mdash;indeed, his theme
+might have been the misery of the whole human race from the vigor of his
+lamentations. His son was keeping step with him, vainly attempting to
+persuade him to sit down. Wilton, with a patch over his right eye, was
+trying to disengage himself from his daughter's arms with the obvious
+intention of doing violence to his neighbor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm sure papa never meant to hurt you; it was all a dreadful mistake,&quot;
+she moaned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He had an accomplice,&quot; Talbot thundered, &quot;and while he was trying to kill
+me there in my own house the plum-blossom vase was carried off; and if
+Roger hadn't pushed him out of the window after his hireling&mdash;I'd&mdash;I'd&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A shriek from Muriel happily prevented the completion of a sentence that
+gave every promise of intensifying the prevailing hard feeling.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look!&quot; Muriel cried. &quot;It's Billie come back! Oh, Billie!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She sprang toward the door and clasped the frightened child to her heart.
+The three men gathered round them, staring dully. The Hopper from behind
+the door waited for Muriel's joy over Billie's return to communicate
+itself to his father and the two grandfathers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Me's dot two chick-ees for Kwismus,&quot; announced Billie, wriggling in his
+mother's arms.</p>
+
+<p>Muriel, having satisfied herself that Billie was intact,&mdash;that he even
+bore the marks of maternal care,&mdash;was in the act of transferring him to
+his bewildered father, when, turning a tear-stained face toward the door,
+she saw The Hopper awkwardly twisting the derby which he had donned as
+proper for a morning call of ceremony. She walked toward him with quick,
+eager step.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You&mdash;you came back!&quot; she faltered, stifling a sob.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes'm,&quot; responded The Hopper, rubbing his hand across his nose. His
+appearance roused Billie's father to a sense of his parental
+responsibility.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You brought the boy back! You are the kidnaper!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Roger,&quot; cried Muriel protestingly, &quot;don't speak like that! I'm sure this
+gentleman can explain how he came to bring Billie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The quickness with which she regained her composure, the ease with which
+she adjusted herself to the unforeseen situation, pleased The Hopper
+greatly. He had not misjudged Muriel; she was an admirable ally, an ideal
+confederate. She gave him a quick little nod, as much as to say, &quot;Go on,
+sir; we understand each other perfectly,&quot;&mdash;though, of course, she did not
+understand, nor was she enlightened until some time later, as to just how
+The Hopper became possessed of Billie.</p>
+
+<p class="figcenter"><a name="MEN_GATHERED" id="MEN_GATHERED" /><a href="./images/198.jpg"><img src="./images/198-tb.jpg" alt="THE THREE MEN GATHERED ROUND THEM, STARING DULLY" title="THE THREE MEN GATHERED ROUND THEM, STARING DULLY" /></a></p>
+<p class="figcenter">THE THREE MEN GATHERED ROUND THEM, STARING DULLY</p>
+
+<p>Billie's father declared his purpose to invoke the law upon his son's
+kidnapers no matter where they might be found.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I reckon as mebbe ut wuz a kidnapin' an' I reckon as mebbe ut wuzn't,&quot;
+The Hopper began unhurriedly. &quot;I live over Shell Road way; poultry and
+eggs is my line; Happy Hill Farm. Stevens's the name&mdash;Charles S. Stevens.
+An' I found Shaver&mdash;'scuse me, but ut seemed sort o' nat'ral name fer
+'im?&mdash;I found 'im a settin' up in th' machine over there by my place,
+chipper's ye please. I takes 'im into my house an' Mary'&mdash;that's th'
+missus&mdash;she gives 'im supper and puts 'im t' sleep. An' we thinks mebbe
+somebody'd come along askin' fer 'im. An' then this mornin' I calls th'
+New Haven police, an' they tole me about you folks, an' me and Shaver
+comes right over.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This was entirely plausible and his hearers, The Hopper noted with relief,
+accepted it at face value.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How dear of you!&quot; cried Muriel. &quot;Won't you have this chair, Mr. Stevens!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Most remarkable!&quot; exclaimed Wilton. &quot;Some scoundrelly tramp picked up the
+car and finding there was a baby inside left it at the roadside like the
+brute he was!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Billie had addressed himself promptly to the Christmas tree, to his very
+own Christmas tree that was laden with gifts that had been assembled by
+the family for his delectation. Efforts of Grandfather Wilton to extract
+from the child some account of the man who had run away with him were
+unavailing. Billie was busy, very busy, indeed. After much patient effort
+he stopped sorting the animals in a bright new Noah's Ark to point his
+finger at The Hopper and remark:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Ims nice mans; 'ims let Bil-lee play wif 'ims watch!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As Billie had broken the watch his acknowledgment of The Hopper's courtesy
+in letting him play with it brought a grin to The Hopper's face.</p>
+
+<p>Now that Billie had been returned and his absence satisfactorily accounted
+for, the two connoisseurs showed signs of renewing their quarrel.
+Responsive to a demand from Billie, The Hopper got down on the floor to
+assist in the proper mating of Noah's animals. Billie's father was
+scrutinizing him fixedly and The Hopper wondered whether Muriel's handsome
+young husband had recognized him as the person who had vanished through
+the window of the Talbot home bearing the plum-blossom vase. The thought
+was disquieting; but feigning deep interest in the Ark he listened
+attentively to a violent tirade upon which the senior Talbot was launched.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My God!&quot; he cried bitterly, planting himself before Wilton in a
+belligerent attitude, &quot;every infernal thing that can happen to a man
+happened to me yesterday. It wasn't enough that you robbed me and tried to
+murder me&mdash;yes, you did, sir!&mdash;but when I was in the city I was robbed in
+the subway by a pickpocket. A thief took my bill-book containing
+invaluable data I had just received from my agent in China giving me a
+clue to porcelains, sir, such as you never dreamed of! Some more of your
+work&mdash;Don't you contradict me! You don't contradict me! Roger, he doesn't
+contradict me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Wilton, choking with indignation at this new onslaught, was unable to
+contradict him.</p>
+
+<p>Pained by the situation, The Hopper rose from the floor and coughed
+timidly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shaver, go fetch yer chickies. Bring yer chickies in an' put 'em on th'
+boat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Billie obediently trotted off toward the kitchen and The Hopper turned his
+back upon the Christmas tree, drew out the pocket-book and faced the
+company.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I beg yer pardon, gents, but mebbe this is th' book yer fightin' about.
+Kind o' funny like! I picked ut up on th' local yistiddy afternoon. I wuz
+goin' t' turn ut int' th' agint, but I clean fergot ut. I guess them
+papers may be valible. I never touched none of 'em.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Talbot snatched the bill-book and hastily examined the contents. His brow
+relaxed and he was grumbling something about a reward when Billie
+reappeared, laboriously dragging two baskets.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bil-lee's dot chick-<i>ees</i>! Bil-lee's dot pitty dishes. Bil-lee make
+dishes go 'ippity!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Before he could make the two jars go 'ippity, The Hopper leaped across
+the room and seized the basket. He tore off the towel with which he had
+carefully covered the stolen pottery and disclosed the contents for
+inspection.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Scuse me, gents; no crowdin',&quot; he warned as the connoisseurs sprang
+toward him. He placed the porcelains carefully on the floor under the
+Christmas tree. &quot;Now ye kin listen t' me, gents. I reckon I'm goin' t'
+have somethin' t' say about this here crockery. I stole 'em&mdash;I stole 'em
+fer th' lady there, she thinkin' ef ye didn't have 'em no more ye'd stop
+rowin' about 'em. Ye kin call th' bulls an' turn me over ef ye likes; but
+I ain't goin' t' have ye fussin' an' causin' th' lady trouble no more. I
+ain't goin' to stand fer ut!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Robber!&quot; shouted Talbot. &quot;You entered my house at the instance of this
+man; it was you&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I never saw the gent before,&quot; declared The Hopper hotly. &quot;I ain't never
+had no thin' to do with neither o' ye.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's telling the truth!&quot; protested Muriel, laughing hysterically. &quot;I did
+it&mdash;I got him to take them!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The two collectors were not interested in explanations; they were hungrily
+eyeing their property. Wilton attempted to pass The Hopper and reach the
+Christmas tree under whose protecting boughs the two vases were looking
+their loveliest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Stand back,&quot; commanded The Hopper, &quot;an' stop callin' names! I guess ef
+I'm yanked fer this I ain't th' only one that's goin' t' do time fer house
+breakin'.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This statement, made with considerable vigor, had a sobering effect upon
+Wilton, but Talbot began dancing round the tree looking for a chance to
+pounce upon the porcelains.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ef ye don't set down&mdash;the whole caboodle o' ye&mdash;I'll smash 'em&mdash;I'll
+smash 'em both! I'll bust 'em&mdash;sure as shootin'!&quot; shouted The Hopper.</p>
+
+<p>They cowered before him; Muriel wept softly; Billie played with his
+chickies, disdainful of the world's woe. The Hopper, holding the two angry
+men at bay, was enjoying his command of the situation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You gents ain't got no business to be fussin' an' causin' yer childern
+trouble. An' ye ain't goin' to have these pretty jugs to fuss about no
+more. I'm goin' t' give 'em away; I'm goin' to make a Chris'mas present of
+'em to Shaver. They're goin' to be little Shaver's right here, all orderly
+an' peace'ble, or I'll tromp on 'em! Looky here, Shaver, wot Santy Claus
+brought ye!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nice dood Sant' Claus!&quot; cried Billie, diving under the davenport in quest
+of the wandering chicks.</p>
+
+<p>Silence held the grown-ups. The Hopper stood patiently by the Christmas
+tree, awaiting the result of his diplomacy.</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly Wilton laughed&mdash;a loud laugh expressive of relief. He turned
+to Talbot and put out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It looks as though Muriel and her friend here had cornered us! The idea
+of pooling our trophies and giving them as a Christmas present to Billie
+appeals to me strongly. And, besides we've got to prepare somebody to love
+these things after we're gone. We can work together and train Billie to be
+the greatest collector in America!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Please, father,&quot; urged Roger as Talbot frowned and shook his head
+impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>Billie, struck with the happy thought of hanging one of his chickies on
+the Christmas tree, caused them all to laugh at this moment. It was
+difficult to refuse to be generous on Christmas morning in the presence of
+the happy child!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well,&quot; said Talbot, a reluctant smile crossing his face, &quot;I guess it's
+all in the family anyway.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper, feeling that his work as the Reversible Santa Claus was
+finished, was rapidly retreating through the dining-room when Muriel and
+Roger ran after him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We're going to take you home,&quot; cried Muriel, beaming.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yer car's at the back gate, all right-side-up,&quot; said The Hopper, &quot;but I
+kin go on the trolley.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Indeed you won't! Roger will take you home. Oh, don't be alarmed! My
+husband knows everything about our conspiracy. And we want you to come
+back this afternoon. You know I owe you an apology for thinking&mdash;for
+thinking you were&mdash;you were&mdash;a&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They's things wot is an' things wot ain't, miss. Circumstantial evidence
+sends lots o' men to th' chair. Ut's a heap more happy like,&quot; The Hopper
+continued in his best philosophical vein, &quot;t' play th' white card, helpin'
+widders an' orfants an' settlin' fusses. When ye ast me t' steal them jugs
+I hadn't th' heart t' refuse ye, miss. I wuz scared to tell ye I had yer
+baby an' ye seemed so sort o' trustin' like. An' ut bein' Chris'mus an'
+all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>When he steadfastly refused to promise to return, Muriel announced that
+they would visit The Hopper late in the afternoon and bring Billie along
+to express their thanks more formally.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll be glad to see ye,&quot; replied The Hopper, though a little doubtfully
+and shame-facedly. &quot;But ye mustn't git me into no more house-breakin'
+scrapes,&quot; he added with a grin. &quot;It's mighty dangerous, miss, fer
+amachures, like me an' yer pa!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="figcenter"><a href="./images/9a.jpg"><img src="./images/9a-tb.jpg" alt="Christmas Tree" title="Christmas Tree" /></a></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p class="figcenter"><a href="./images/10.jpg"><img src="./images/10-tb.jpg" alt="Chapter 10" title="Chapter 10" /></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="X" id="X" />X</h2>
+
+
+<p>Mary was not wholly pleased at the prospect of visitors, but she fell to
+work with Humpy to put the house in order. At five o'clock not one, but
+three automobiles drove into the yard, filling Humpy with alarm lest at
+last The Hopper's sins had overtaken him, and they were all about to be
+hauled away to spend the rest of their lives in prison. It was not the
+police, but the young Talbots, with Billie and his grandfathers, on their
+way to a family celebration at the house of an aunt of Muriel's.</p>
+
+<p>The grandfathers were restored to perfect amity, and were deeply curious
+now about The Hopper, whom the peace-loving Muriel had cajoled into
+robbing their houses.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you're only an honest chicken farmer, after all!&quot; exclaimed Talbot,
+senior, when they were all sitting in a semicircle about the fireplace in
+Mary's parlor. &quot;I hoped you were really a burglar; I always wanted to know
+a burglar.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Humpy had chopped down a small fir that had adorned the front yard and had
+set it up as a Christmas tree&mdash;an attention that was not lost upon Billie.
+The Hopper had brought some mechanical toys from town, and Humpy essayed
+the agreeable task of teaching the youngster how to operate them. Mary
+produced coffee and pound cake for the guests; The Hopper assumed the
+r&ocirc;le of lord of the manor with a benevolent air that was intended as much
+to impress Mary and Humpy as the guests.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course,&quot; said Mr. Wilton, whose appearance was the least bit comical
+by reason of his bandaged head,&mdash;&quot;of course it was very foolish for a man
+of your sterling character to allow a young woman like my daughter to
+bully you into robbing houses for her. Why, when Roger fired at you as you
+were jumping out of the window, he didn't miss you more than a foot! It
+would have been ghastly for all of us if he had killed you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, o' course it all begun from my goin' into th' little house lookin'
+fer Shaver's folks,&quot; replied The Hopper.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But you haven't told us how you came to find our house,&quot; said Roger,
+suggesting a perfectly natural line of inquiries that caused Humpy to
+become deeply preoccupied with a pump he was operating in a basin of water
+for Billie's benefit.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, ut jes' looked like a house that Shaver would belong to, cute an'
+comfortable like,&quot; said The Hopper; &quot;I jes' suspicioned it wuz th' place
+as I wuz passin' along.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't think we'd better begin trying to establish alibis,&quot; remarked
+Muriel, very gently, &quot;for we might get into terrible scrapes. Why, if Mr.
+Stevens hadn't been so splendid about <i>everything</i> and wasn't just the
+kindest man in the world, he could make it very ugly for me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shudder to think of what he might do to me,&quot; said Wilton, glancing
+guardedly at his neighbor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The main thing,&quot; said Talbot,&mdash;&quot;the main thing is that Mr. Stevens has
+done for us all what nobody else could ever have done. He's made us see
+how foolish it is to quarrel about mere baubles. He's settled all our
+troubles for us, and for my part I'll say his solution is entirely
+satisfactory.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Quite right,&quot; ejaculated Wilton. &quot;If I ever have any delicate business
+negotiations that are beyond my powers I'm going to engage Mr. Stevens to
+handle them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My business's hens an' eggs,&quot; said The Hopper modestly; &quot;an' we're doin'
+purty well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>When they rose to go (a move that evoked strident protests from Billie,
+who was enjoying himself hugely with Humpy) they were all in the jolliest
+humor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We must be neighborly,&quot; said Muriel, shaking hands with Mary, who was at
+the point of tears so great was her emotion at the success of The Hopper's
+party. &quot;And we're going to buy all our chickens and eggs from you. We
+never have any luck raising our own.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Whereupon The Hopper imperturbably pressed upon each of the visitors a
+neat card stating his name (his latest and let us hope his last!) with the
+proper rural route designation of Happy Hill Farm.</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper carried Billie out to his Grandfather Wilton's car, while Humpy
+walked beside him bearing the gifts from the Happy Hill Farm Christmas
+tree. From the door Mary watched them depart amid a chorus of merry
+Christmases, out of which Billie's little pipe rang cheerily.</p>
+
+<p>When The Hopper and Humpy returned to the house, they abandoned the
+parlor for the greater coziness of the kitchen and there took account of
+the events of the momentous twenty-four hours.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Them's what I call nice folks,&quot; said Humpy. &quot;They jes' put us on an' wore
+us like we wuz a pair o' ole slippers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They wuzn't uppish&mdash;not to speak of,&quot; Mary agreed. &quot;I guess that girl's
+got more gumption than any of 'em. She's got 'em straightened up now and I
+guess she'll take care they don't cut up no more monkey-shines about that
+Chinese stuff. Her husban' seemed sort o' gentle like.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Artists is that way,&quot; volunteered The Hopper, as though from deep
+experience of art and life. &quot;I jes' been thinkin' that knowin' folks like
+that an' findin' 'em humin, makin' mistakes like th' rest of us, kind o'
+makes ut seem easier fer us all t' play th' game straight. Ut's goin' to
+be th' white card fer me&mdash;jes' chickens an' eggs, an' here's hopin' the
+bulls don't ever find out we're settled here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Humpy, having gone into the parlor to tend the fire, returned with two
+envelopes he had found on the mantel. There was a check for a thousand
+dollars in each, one from Wilton, the other from Talbot, with &quot;Merry
+Christmas&quot; written across the visiting-cards of those gentlemen. The
+Hopper permitted Mary and Humpy to examine them and then laid them on the
+kitchen table, while he deliberated. His meditations were so prolonged
+that they grew nervous.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I reckon they could spare ut, after all ye done fer 'em, Hop,&quot; remarked
+Humpy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They's millionaires, an' money ain't nothin' to 'em,&quot; said The Hopper.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We can buy a motor-truck,&quot; suggested Mary, &quot;to haul our stuff to town;
+an' mebbe we can build a new shed to keep ut in.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Hopper set the catsup bottle on the checks and rubbed his cheek,
+squinting at the ceiling in the manner of one who means to be careful of
+his speech.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They's things wot is an' things wot ain't,&quot; he began. &quot;We ain't none o'
+us ever got nowheres bein' crooked. I been figurin' that I still got about
+twenty thousan' o' that bunch o' green I pulled out o' that express car,
+planted in places where 'taint doin' nobody no good. I guess ef I do ut
+careful I kin send ut back to the company, a little at a time, an' they'd
+never know where ut come from.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Mary wept; Humpy stared, his mouth open, his one eye rolling queerly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I guess we kin put a little chunk away every year,&quot; The Hopper went on.
+&quot;We'd be comfortabler doin' ut. We could square up ef we lived long
+enough, which we don't need t' worry about, that bein' the Lord's
+business. You an' me's cracked a good many safes, Hump, but we never made
+no money at ut, takin' out th' time we done.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's got religion; that's wot he's got!&quot; moaned Humpy, as though this
+marked the ultimate tragedy of The Hopper's life.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mebbe ut's religion an' mebbe ut's jes' sense,&quot; pursued The Hopper,
+unshaken by Humpy's charge. &quot;They wuz a chaplin in th' Minnesoty pen as
+used t' say ef we're all square with our own selves ut's goin' to be all
+right with God. I guess I got a good deal o' squarin' t' do, but I'm goin'
+t' begin ut. An' all these things happenin' along o' Chris'mus, an' little
+Shaver an' his ma bein' so friendly like, an' her gittin' me t' help
+straighten out them ole gents, an' doin' all I done an' not gettin'
+pinched seems more 'n jes' luck; it's providential's wot ut is!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This, uttered in a challenging tone, evoked a sob from Humpy, who
+announced that he &quot;felt like&quot; he was going to die.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's th' Chris'mus time, I reckon,&quot; said Mary, watching The Hopper
+deposit the two checks in the clock. &quot;It's the only decent Chris'mus I
+ever knowed!&quot;</p>
+
+
+<h2>THE END</h2>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Reversible Santa Claus, by Meredith Nicholson
+
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+</body>
+</html>
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+Project Gutenberg's A Reversible Santa Claus, by Meredith Nicholson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Reversible Santa Claus
+
+Author: Meredith Nicholson
+
+Release Date: February 14, 2005 [EBook #15044]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A REVERSIBLE SANTA CLAUS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the PG Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.(www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A
+REVERSIBLE
+SANTA CLAUS
+
+BY
+MEREDITH NICHOLSON
+
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
+FLORENCE H. MINARD
+
+BOSTON and NEW YORK
+HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+
+The Riverside Press, Cambridge
+
+1917
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY MEREDITH NICHOLSON
+
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+_Published October 1917_
+
+
+By Meredeth Nicholson
+
+    A REVERSIBLE SANTA CLAUS. Illustrated.
+    THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING. Illustrated.
+    THE POET. Illustrated.
+    OTHERWISE PHYLLIS. With frontispiece in color.
+    THE PROVINCIAL AMERICAN AND OTHER PAPERS.
+    A HOOSIER CHRONICLE. With illustrations.
+    THE SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SUITORS. With illustrations.
+
+HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+
+BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+
+A Reversible Santa Claus
+
+[Illustration: "DO YOU MIND TELLING ME JUST WHY YOU READ THAT NOTE?"
+_(Page 78)_]
+
+
+Illustrations
+
+"DO YOU MIND TELLING ME JUST WHY YOU READ THAT NOTE?"   _Frontispiece_
+
+THE HOPPER GRINNED, PROUD OF HIS SUCCESS,
+  WHICH MARY AND HUMPY VIEWED WITH GRUDGING ADMIRATION                  44
+
+THE FAINT CLICK OF A LATCH MARKED THE PROWLER'S PROXIMITY TO A HEDGE   116
+
+THE THREE MEN GATHERED ROUND THEM, STARING DULLY                       150
+
+_From Drawings by F. Minard_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+A Reversible Santa Claus
+
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+Mr. William B. Aikins, _alias_ "Softy" Hubbard, _alias_ Billy The Hopper,
+paused for breath behind a hedge that bordered a quiet lane and peered out
+into the highway at a roadster whose tail light advertised its presence to
+his felonious gaze. It was Christmas Eve, and after a day of unseasonable
+warmth a slow, drizzling rain was whimsically changing to snow.
+
+The Hopper was blowing from two hours' hard travel over rough country. He
+had stumbled through woodlands, flattened himself in fence corners to
+avoid the eyes of curious motorists speeding homeward or flying about
+distributing Christmas gifts, and he was now bent upon committing himself
+to an inter-urban trolley line that would afford comfortable
+transportation for the remainder of his journey. Twenty miles, he
+estimated, still lay between him and his domicile.
+
+The rain had penetrated his clothing and vigorous exercise had not greatly
+diminished the chill in his blood. His heart knocked violently against his
+ribs and he was dismayed by his shortness of wind. The Hopper was not so
+young as in the days when his agility and genius for effecting a quick
+"get-away" had earned for him his sobriquet. The last time his Bertillon
+measurements were checked (he was subjected to this humiliating
+experience in Omaha during the Ak-Sar-Ben carnival three years earlier)
+official note was taken of the fact that The Hopper's hair, long carried
+in the records as black, was rapidly whitening.
+
+At forty-eight a crook--even so resourceful and versatile a member of the
+fraternity as The Hopper--begins to mistrust himself. For the greater part
+of his life, when not in durance vile, The Hopper had been in hiding, and
+the state or condition of being a fugitive, hunted by keen-eyed agents of
+justice, is not, from all accounts, an enviable one. His latest experience
+of involuntary servitude had been under the auspices of the State of
+Oregon, for a trifling indiscretion in the way of safe-blowing. Having
+served his sentence, he skillfully effaced himself by a year's siesta on
+a pine-apple plantation in Hawaii. The island climate was not wholly
+pleasing to The Hopper, and when pine-apples palled he took passage from
+Honolulu as a stoker, reached San Francisco (not greatly chastened in
+spirit), and by a series of characteristic hops, skips, and jumps across
+the continent landed in Maine by way of the Canadian provinces. The Hopper
+needed money. He was not without a certain crude philosophy, and it had
+been his dream to acquire by some brilliant _coup_ a sufficient fortune
+upon which to retire and live as a decent, law-abiding citizen for the
+remainder of his days. This ambition, or at least the means to its
+fulfillment, can hardly be defended as praiseworthy, but The Hopper was a
+singular character and we must take him as we find him. Many prison
+chaplains and jail visitors bearing tracts had striven with little
+success to implant moral ideals in the mind and soul of The Hopper, but he
+was still to be catalogued among the impenitent; and as he moved southward
+through the Commonwealth of Maine he was so oppressed by his poverty, as
+contrasted with the world's abundance, that he lifted forty thousand
+dollars in a neat bundle from an express car which Providence had
+sidetracked, apparently for his personal enrichment, on the upper waters
+of the Penobscot. Whereupon he began perforce playing his old game of
+artful dodging, exercising his best powers as a hopper and skipper. Forty
+thousand dollars is no inconsiderable sum of money, and the success of
+this master stroke of his career was not to be jeopardized by careless
+moves. By craftily hiding in the big woods and making himself agreeable
+to isolated lumberjacks who rarely saw newspapers, he arrived in due
+course on Manhattan Island, where with shrewd judgment he avoided the
+haunts of his kind while planning a future commensurate with his new
+dignity as a capitalist.
+
+He spent a year as a diligent and faithful employee of a garage which
+served a fashionable quarter of the metropolis; then, animated by a worthy
+desire to continue to lead an honest life, he purchased a chicken farm
+fifteen miles as the crow flies from Center Church, New Haven, and boldly
+opened a bank account in that academic center in his newly adopted name of
+Charles S. Stevens, of Happy Hill Farm. Feeling the need of companionship,
+he married a lady somewhat his junior, a shoplifter of the second class,
+whom he had known before the vigilance of the metropolitan police
+necessitated his removal to the Far West. Mrs. Stevens's inferior talents
+as a petty larcenist had led her into many difficulties, and she
+gratefully availed herself of The Hopper's offer of his heart and hand.
+
+They had added to their establishment a retired yegg who had lost an eye
+by the premature popping of the "soup" (i.e., nitro-glycerin) poured into
+the crevices of a country post-office in Missouri. In offering shelter to
+Mr. James Whitesides, _alias_ "Humpy" Thompson, The Hopper's motives had
+not been wholly unselfish, as Humpy had been entrusted with the herding of
+poultry in several penitentiaries and was familiar with the most advanced
+scientific thought on chicken culture.
+
+The roadster was headed toward his home and The Hopper contemplated it in
+the deepening dusk with greedy eyes. His labors in the New York garage had
+familiarized him with automobiles, and while he was not ignorant of the
+pains and penalties inflicted upon lawless persons who appropriate motors
+illegally, he was the victim of an irresistible temptation to jump into
+the machine thus left in the highway, drive as near home as he dared, and
+then abandon it. The owner of the roadster was presumably eating his
+evening meal in peace in the snug little cottage behind the shrubbery, and
+The Hopper was aware of no sound reason why he should not seize the
+vehicle and further widen the distance between himself and a
+suspicious-looking gentleman he had observed on the New Haven local.
+
+The Hopper's conscience was not altogether at ease, as he had, that
+afternoon, possessed himself of a bill-book that was protruding from the
+breast-pocket of a dignified citizen whose strap he had shared in a
+crowded subway train. Having foresworn crime as a means of livelihood, The
+Hopper was chagrined that he had suffered himself to be beguiled into
+stealing by the mere propinquity of a piece of red leather. He was angry
+at the world as well as himself. People should not go about with
+bill-books sticking out of their pockets; it was unfair and unjust to
+those weak members of the human race who yield readily to temptation.
+
+He had agreed with Mary when she married him and the chicken farm that
+they would respect the Ten Commandments and all statutory laws, State and
+Federal, and he was painfully conscious that when he confessed his sin she
+would deal severely with him. Even Humpy, now enjoying a peace that he had
+rarely known outside the walls of prison, even Humpy would be bitter. The
+thought that he was again among the hunted would depress Mary and Humpy,
+and he knew that their harshness would be intensified because of his
+violation of the unwritten law of the underworld in resorting to
+purse-lifting, an infringement upon a branch of felony despicable and
+greatly inferior in dignity to safe-blowing.
+
+These reflections spurred The Hopper to action, for the sooner he reached
+home the more quickly he could explain his protracted stay in New York (to
+which metropolis he had repaired in the hope of making a better price for
+eggs with the commission merchants who handled his products), submit
+himself to Mary's chastisement, and promise to sin no more. By returning
+on Christmas Eve, of all times, again a fugitive, he knew that he would
+merit the unsparing condemnation that Mary and Humpy would visit upon him.
+It was possible, it was even quite likely, that the short, stocky
+gentleman he had seen on the New Haven local was not a "bull"--not really
+a detective who had observed the little transaction in the subway; but the
+very uncertainty annoyed The Hopper. In his happy and profitable year at
+Happy Hill Farm he had learned to prize his personal comfort, and he was
+humiliated to find that he had been frightened into leaving the train at
+Bansford to continue his journey afoot, and merely because a man had
+looked at him a little queerly.
+
+Any Christmas spirit that had taken root in The Hopper's soul had been
+disturbed, not to say seriously threatened with extinction, by the
+untoward occurrences of the afternoon.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+The Hopper waited for a limousine to pass and then crawled out of his
+hiding-place, jumped into the roadster, and was at once in motion. He
+glanced back, fearing that the owner might have heard his departure, and
+then, satisfied of his immediate security, negotiated a difficult turn in
+the road and settled himself with a feeling of relief to careful but
+expeditious flight. It was at this moment, when he had urged the car to
+its highest speed, that a noise startled him--an amazing little chirrupy
+sound which corresponded to none of the familiar forewarnings of engine
+trouble. With his eyes to the front he listened for a repetition of the
+sound. It rose again--it was like a perplexing cheep and chirrup, changing
+to a chortle of glee.
+
+"Goo-goo! Goo-goo-goo!"
+
+The car was skimming a dark stretch of road and a superstitious awe fell
+upon The Hopper. Murder, he gratefully remembered, had never been among
+his crimes, though he had once winged a too-inquisitive policeman in
+Kansas City. He glanced over his shoulder, but saw no pursuing ghost in
+the snowy highway; then, looking down apprehensively, he detected on the
+seat beside him what appeared to be an animate bundle, and, prompted by a
+louder "goo-goo," he put out his hand. His fingers touched something warm
+and soft and were promptly seized and held by Something.
+
+The Hopper snatched his hand free of the tentacles of the unknown and
+shook it violently. The nature of the Something troubled him. He renewed
+his experiments, steering with his left hand and exposing the right to
+what now seemed to be the grasp of two very small mittened hands.
+
+"Goo-goo! Goody; teep wunnin'!"
+
+"A kid!" The Hopper gasped.
+
+That he had eloped with a child was the blackest of the day's calamities.
+He experienced a strange sinking feeling in the stomach. In moments of
+apprehension a crook's thoughts run naturally into periods of penal
+servitude, and the punishment for kidnaping, The Hopper recalled, was
+severe. He stopped the car and inspected his unwelcome fellow passenger
+by the light of matches. Two big blue eyes stared at him from a hood and
+two mittens were poked into his face. Two small feet, wrapped tightly in a
+blanket, kicked at him energetically.
+
+"Detup! Mate um skedaddle!"
+
+Obedient to this command The Hopper made the car skedaddle, but
+superstitious dread settled upon him more heavily. He was satisfied now
+that from the moment he transferred the strap-hanger's bill-book to his
+own pocket he had been hoodooed. Only a jinx of the most malevolent type
+could have prompted his hurried exit from a train to dodge an imaginary
+"bull." Only the blackest of evil spirits could be responsible for this
+involuntary kidnaping!
+
+"Mate um wun! Mate um 'ippity stip!"
+
+The mittened hands reached for the wheel at this juncture and an
+unlooked-for "jippity skip" precipitated the young passenger into The
+Hopper's lap.
+
+This mishap was attended with the jolliest baby laughter. Gently but with
+much firmness The Hopper restored the youngster to an upright position and
+supported him until sure he was able to sustain himself.
+
+"Ye better set still, little feller," he admonished.
+
+The little feller seemed in no wise astonished to find himself abroad with
+a perfect stranger and his courage and good cheer were not lost upon The
+Hopper. He wanted to be severe, to vent his rage for the day's calamities
+upon the only human being within range, but in spite of himself he felt no
+animosity toward the friendly little bundle of humanity beside him.
+Still, he had stolen a baby and it was incumbent upon him to free himself
+at once of the appalling burden; but a baby is not so easily disposed of.
+He could not, without seriously imperiling his liberty, return to the
+cottage. It was the rule of house-breakers, he recalled, to avoid babies.
+He had heard it said by burglars of wide experience and unquestioned
+wisdom that babies were the most dangerous of all burglar alarms. All
+things considered, kidnaping and automobile theft were not a happy
+combination with which to appear before a criminal court. The Hopper was
+vexed because the child did not cry; if he had shown a bad disposition The
+Hopper might have abandoned him; but the youngster was the cheeriest and
+most agreeable of traveling companions. Indeed, The Hopper's spirits rose
+under his continued "goo-gooing" and chirruping.
+
+"Nice little Shaver!" he said, patting the child's knees.
+
+Little Shaver was so pleased by this friendly demonstration that he threw
+up his arms in an effort to embrace The Hopper.
+
+"Bil-lee," he gurgled delightedly.
+
+The Hopper was so astonished at being addressed in his own lawful name by
+a strange baby that he barely averted a collision with a passing motor
+truck. It was unbelievable that the baby really knew his name, but perhaps
+it was a good omen that he had hit upon it. The Hopper's resentment
+against the dark fate that seemed to pursue him vanished. Even though he
+had stolen a baby, it was a merry, brave little baby who didn't mind at
+all being run away with! He dismissed the thought of planting the little
+shaver at a door, ringing the bell and running away; this was no way to
+treat a friendly child that had done him no injury, and The Hopper highly
+resolved to do the square thing by the youngster even at personal
+inconvenience and risk.
+
+The snow was now falling in generous Christmasy flakes, and the high speed
+the car had again attained was evidently deeply gratifying to the young
+person, whose reckless tumbling about made it necessary for The Hopper to
+keep a hand on him.
+
+"Steady, little un; steady!" The Hopper kept mumbling.
+
+His wits were busy trying to devise some means of getting rid of the
+youngster without exposing himself to the danger of arrest. By this time
+some one was undoubtedly busily engaged in searching for both baby and
+car; the police far and near would be notified, and would be on the
+lookout for a smart roadster containing a stolen child.
+
+"Merry Christmas!" a boy shouted from a farm gate.
+
+"M'y Kwismus!" piped Shaver.
+
+The Hopper decided to run the machine home and there ponder the
+disposition of his blithe companion with the care the unusual
+circumstances demanded.
+
+"'Urry up; me's goin' 'ome to me's gwanpa's kwismus t'ee!"
+
+"Right ye be, little un; right ye be!" affirmed The Hopper.
+
+The youngster was evidently blessed with a sanguine and confiding nature.
+His reference to his grandfather's Christmas tree impinged sharply upon
+The Hopper's conscience. Christmas had never figured very prominently in
+his scheme of life. About the only Christmases that he recalled with any
+pleasure were those that he had spent in prison, and those were marked
+only by Christmas dinners varying with the generosity of a series of
+wardens.
+
+But Shaver was entitled to all the joys of Christmas, and The Hopper had
+no desire to deprive him of them.
+
+"Keep a-larfin', Shaver, keep a-larfin'," said the Hopper. "Ole Hop ain't
+a-goin' to hurt ye!"
+
+The Hopper, feeling his way cautiously round the fringes of New Haven,
+arrived presently at Happy Hill Farm, where he ran the car in among the
+chicken sheds behind the cottage and carefully extinguished the lights.
+
+"Now, Shaver, out ye come!"
+
+Whereupon Shaver obediently jumped into his arms.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+The Hopper knocked twice at the back door, waited an instant, and knocked
+again. As he completed the signal the door was opened guardedly. A man and
+woman surveyed him in hostile silence as he pushed past them, kicked the
+door shut, and deposited the blinking child on the kitchen table. Humpy,
+the one-eyed, jumped to the windows and jammed the green shades close into
+the frames. The woman scowlingly waited for the head of the house to
+explain himself, and this, with the perversity of one who knows the
+dramatic value of suspense, he was in no haste to do.
+
+"Well," Mary questioned sharply. "What ye got there, Bill?"
+
+The Hopper was regarding Shaver with a grin of benevolent satisfaction.
+The youngster had seized a bottle of catsup and was making heroic efforts
+to raise it to his mouth, and the Hopper was intensely tickled by Shaver's
+efforts to swallow the bottle. Mrs. Stevens, _alias_ Weeping Mary, was not
+amused, and her husband's enjoyment of the child's antics irritated her.
+
+"Come out with ut, Bill!" she commanded, seizing the bottle. "What ye been
+doin'?"
+
+Shaver's big blue eyes expressed surprise and displeasure at being
+deprived of his plaything, but he recovered quickly and reached for a
+plate with which he began thumping the table.
+
+"Out with ut, Hop!" snapped Humpy nervously. "Nothin' wuz said about
+kidnapin', an' I don't stand for ut!"
+
+"When I heard the machine comin' in the yard I knowed somethin' was wrong
+an' I guess it couldn't be no worse," added Mary, beginning to cry. "You
+hadn't no right to do ut, Bill. Hookin' a buzz-buzz an' a kid an' when we
+wuz playin' the white card! You ought t' 'a' told me, Bill, what ye went
+to town fer, an' it bein' Christmas, an' all."
+
+That he should have chosen for his fall the Christmas season of all times
+was reprehensible, a fact which Mary and Humpy impressed upon him in the
+strongest terms. The Hopper was fully aware of the inopportuneness of his
+transgressions, but not to the point of encouraging his wife to abuse
+him.
+
+As he clumsily tried to unfasten Shaver's hood, Mary pushed him aside and
+with shaking fingers removed the child's wraps. Shaver's cheeks were rosy
+from his drive through the cold; he was a plump, healthy little shaver and
+The Hopper viewed him with intense pride. Mary held the hood and coat to
+the light and inspected them with a sophisticated eye. They were of
+excellent quality and workmanship, and she shook her head and sighed
+deeply as she placed them carefully on a chair.
+
+"It ain't on the square, Hop," protested Humpy, whose lone eye expressed
+the most poignant sorrow at The Hopper's derelictions. Humpy was tall and
+lean, with a thin, many-lined face. He was an ill-favored person at best,
+and his habit of turning his head constantly as though to compel his
+single eye to perform double service gave one an impression of restless
+watchfulness.
+
+"Cute little Shaver, ain't 'e? Give Shaver somethin' to eat, Mary. I guess
+milk'll be the right ticket considerin' th' size of 'im. How ole you make
+'im? Not more'n three, I reckon?"
+
+"Two. He ain't more'n two, that kid."
+
+"A nice little feller; you're a cute un, ain't ye, Shaver?"
+
+Shaver nodded his head solemnly. Having wearied of playing with the plate
+he gravely inspected the trio; found something amusing in Humpy's bizarre
+countenance and laughed merrily. Finding no response to his friendly
+overtures he appealed to Mary.
+
+"Me wants me's paw-widge," he announced.
+
+"Porridge," interpreted Humpy with the air of one whose superior breeding
+makes him the proper arbiter of the speech of children of high social
+station. Whereupon Shaver appreciatively poked his forefinger into Humpy's
+surviving optic.
+
+"I'll see what I got," muttered Mary. "What ye used t' eatin' for supper,
+honey?"
+
+The "honey" was a concession, and The Hopper, who was giving Shaver his
+watch to play with, bent a commendatory glance upon his spouse.
+
+"Go on an' tell us what ye done," said Mary, doggedly busying herself
+about the stove.
+
+The Hopper drew a chair to the table to be within reach of Shaver and
+related succinctly his day's adventures.
+
+"A dip!" moaned Mary as he described the seizure of the purse in the
+subway.
+
+"You hadn't no right to do ut, Hop!" bleated Humpy, who had tipped his
+chair against the wall and was sucking a cold pipe. And then, professional
+curiosity overmastering his shocked conscience, he added: "What'd she
+measure, Hop?"
+
+The Hopper grinned.
+
+"Flubbed! Nothin' but papers," he confessed ruefully.
+
+Mary and Humpy expressed their indignation and contempt in unequivocal
+terms, which they repeated after he told of the suspected "bull" whose
+presence on the local had so alarmed him. A frank description of his
+flight and of his seizure of the roadster only added to their bitterness.
+
+Humpy rose and paced the floor with the quick, short stride of men
+habituated to narrow spaces. The Hopper watched the telltale step so
+disagreeably reminiscent of evil times and shrugged his shoulders
+impatiently.
+
+"Set down, Hump; ye make me nervous. I got thinkin' to do."
+
+"Ye'd better be quick about doin' ut!" Humpy snorted with an oath.
+
+"Cut the cussin'!" The Hopper admonished sharply. Since his retirement to
+private life he had sought diligently to free his speech of profanity and
+thieves' slang, as not only unbecoming in a respectable chicken farmer,
+but likely to arouse suspicions as to his origin and previous condition of
+servitude. "Can't ye see Shaver ain't use to ut? Shaver's a little gent;
+he's a reg'ler little juke; that's wot Shaver is."
+
+"The more 'way up he is the worse fer us," whimpered Humpy. "It's
+kidnapin', that's wot ut is!"
+
+"That's wot it _ain't_," declared The Hopper, averting a calamity to his
+watch, which Shaver was swinging by its chain. "He was took by accident I
+tell ye! I'm goin' to take Shaver back to his ma--ain't I, Shaver?"
+
+"Take 'im back!" echoed Mary.
+
+Humpy crumpled up in his chair at this new evidence of The Hopper's
+insanity.
+
+"I'm goin' to make a Chris'mas present o' Shaver to his ma," reaffirmed
+The Hopper, pinching the nearer ruddy cheek of the merry, contented
+guest.
+
+Shaver kicked The Hopper in the stomach and emitted a chortle expressive
+of unshakable confidence in The Hopper's ability to restore him to his
+lawful owners. This confidence was not, however, manifested toward Mary,
+who had prepared with care the only cereal her pantry afforded, and now
+approached Shaver, bowl and spoon in hand. Shaver, taken by surprise,
+inspected his supper with disdain and spurned it with a vigor that sent
+the spoon rattling across the floor.
+
+"Me wants me's paw-widge bowl! Me wants me's _own_ paw-widge bowl!" he
+screamed.
+
+Mary expostulated; Humpy offered advice as to the best manner of dealing
+with the refractory Shaver, who gave further expression to his resentment
+by throwing The Hopper's watch with violence against the wall. That the
+table-service of The Hopper's establishment was not to Shaver's liking was
+manifested in repeated rejections of the plain white bowl in which Mary
+offered the porridge. He demanded his very own porridge bowl with the
+increasing vehemence of one who is willing to starve rather than accept so
+palpable a substitute. He threw himself back on the table and lay there
+kicking and crying. Other needs now occurred to Shaver: he wanted his
+papa; he wanted his mamma; he wanted to go to his gwan'pa's. He clamored
+for Santa Claus and numerous Christmas trees which, it seemed, had been
+promised him at the houses of his kinsfolk. It was amazing and bewildering
+that the heart of one so young could desire so many things that were not
+immediately attainable. He had begun to suspect that he was among
+strangers who were not of his way of life, and this was fraught with the
+gravest danger.
+
+"They'll hear 'im hollerin' in China," wailed the pessimistic Humpy,
+running about the room and examining the fastenings of doors and windows.
+"Folks goin' along the road'll hear 'im, an' it's terms fer the whole
+bunch!"
+
+The Hopper began pacing the floor with Shaver, while Humpy and Mary
+denounced the child for unreasonableness and lack of discipline, not
+overlooking the stupidity and criminal carelessness of The Hopper in
+projecting so lawless a youngster into their domestic circle.
+
+"Twenty years, that's wot ut is!" mourned Humpy.
+
+"Ye kin get the chair fer kidnapin'," Mary added dolefully. "Ye gotta get
+'im out o' here, Bill."
+
+Pleasant predictions of a long prison term with capital punishment as the
+happy alternative failed to disturb The Hopper. To their surprise and
+somewhat to their shame he won the Shaver to a tractable humor. There was
+nothing in The Hopper's known past to justify any expectation that he
+could quiet a crying baby, and yet Shaver with a child's unerring instinct
+realized that The Hopper meant to be kind. He patted The Hopper's face
+with one fat little paw, chokingly declaring that he was hungry.
+
+'"Course Shaver's hungry; an' Shaver's goin' to eat nice porridge Aunt
+Mary made fer 'im. Shaver's goin' to have 'is own porridge bowl
+to-morry--yes, sir-ee, oo is, little Shaver!"
+
+Restored to the table, Shaver opened his mouth in obedience to The
+Hopper's patient pleading and swallowed a spoonful of the mush, Humpy
+holding the bowl out of sight in tactful deference to the child's delicate
+aesthetic sensibilities. A tumbler of milk was sipped with grateful gasps.
+
+[Illustration: THE HOPPER GRINNED, PROUD OF HIS SUCCESS, WHICH MARY AND
+HUMPY VIEWED WITH GRUDGING ADMIRATION]
+
+The Hopper grinned, proud of his success, while Mary and Humpy viewed his
+efforts with somewhat grudging admiration, and waited patiently until The
+Hopper took the wholly surfeited Shaver in his arms and began pacing the
+floor, humming softly. In normal circumstances The Hopper was not musical,
+and Humpy and Mary exchanged looks which, when interpreted, pointed to
+nothing less than a belief that the owner of Happy Hill Farm was bereft of
+his senses. There was some question as to whether Shaver should be
+undressed. Mary discouraged the idea and Humpy took a like view.
+
+"Ye gotta chuck 'im quick; that's what ye gotta do," said Mary hoarsely.
+"We don't want 'im sleepin' here."
+
+Whereupon The Hopper demonstrated his entire independence by carrying the
+Shaver to Humpy's bed and partially undressing him. While this was in
+progress, Shaver suddenly opened his eyes wide and raising one foot until
+it approximated the perpendicular, reached for it with his chubby hands.
+
+"Sant' Claus comin'; m'y Kwismus!"
+
+"Jes' listen to Shaver!" chuckled The Hopper. "'Course Santy is comin,'
+an' we're goin' to hang up Shaver's stockin', ain't we, Shaver?"
+
+He pinned both stockings to the foot-board of Humpy's bed. By the time
+this was accomplished under the hostile eyes of Mary and Humpy, Shaver
+slept the sleep of the innocent.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+They watched the child in silence for a few minutes and then Mary detached
+a gold locket from his neck and bore it to the kitchen for examination.
+
+"Ye gotta move quick, Hop," Humpy urged. "The white card's what we wuz all
+goin' to play. We wuz fixed nice here, an' things goin' easy; an' the yard
+full o' br'ilers. I don't want to do no more time. I'm an ole man, Hop."
+
+"Cut ut!" ordered The Hopper, taking the locket from Mary and weighing it
+critically in his hand. They bent over him as he scrutinized the face on
+which was inscribed:--
+
+    _Roger Livingston Talbot_
+    _June 13, 1913_
+
+"Lemme see; he's two an' a harf. Ye purty nigh guessed 'im right, Mary."
+
+The sight of the gold trinket, the probability that the Shaver belonged to
+a family of wealth, proved disturbing to Humpy's late protestations of
+virtue.
+
+"They'd be a heap o' kale in ut, Hop. His folks is rich, I reckon. Ef we
+wuzn't playin' the white card--"
+
+Ignoring this shocking evidence of Humpy's moral instability, The Hopper
+became lost in reverie, meditatively drawing at his pipe.
+
+"We ain't never goin' to quit playin' ut square," he announced, to Mary's
+manifest relief. "I hadn't ought t' 'a' done th' dippin'. It were a
+mistake. My ole head wuzn't workin' right er I wouldn't 'a' slipped. But
+ye needn't jump on me no more."
+
+"Wot ye goin' to do with that kid? Ye tell me that!" demanded Mary,
+unwilling too readily to accept The Hopper's repentance at face value.
+
+"I'm goin' to take 'im to 'is folks, that's wot I'm goin' to do with 'im,"
+announced The Hopper.
+
+"Yer crazy--yer plum' crazy!" cried Humpy, slapping his knees excitedly.
+"Ye kin take 'im to an orphant asylum an' tell um ye found 'im in that
+machine ye lifted. And mebbe ye'll git by with ut an' mebbe ye won't, but
+ye gotta keep me out of ut!"
+
+"I found the machine in th' road, right here by th' house; an' th' kid
+was in ut all by hisself. An' bein' humin an' respectible I brought 'im in
+to keep 'im from freezin' t' death," said The Hopper, as though repeating
+lines he was committing to memory. "They ain't nobody can say as I didn't.
+Ef I git pinched, that's my spiel to th' cops. It ain't kidnapin'; it's
+life-savin', that's wot ut is! I'm a-goin' back an' have a look at that
+place where I got 'im. Kind o' queer they left the kid out there in the
+buzz-wagon; _mighty_ queer, now's I think of ut. Little house back from
+the road; lots o' trees an' bushes in front. Didn't seem to be no lights.
+He keeps talkin' about Chris'mas at his grandpa's. Folks must 'a' been
+goin' to take th' kid somewheres fer Chris'mas. I guess it'll throw a
+skeer into 'em to find him up an' gone."
+
+"They's rich, an' all the big bulls'll be lookin' fer 'im; ye'd better
+'phone the New Haven cops ye've picked 'im up. Then they'll come out, an'
+yer spiel about findin' 'im'll sound easy an' sensible like."
+
+The Hopper, puffing his pipe philosophically, paid no heed to Humpy's
+suggestion even when supported warmly by Mary.
+
+"I gotta find some way o' puttin' th' kid back without seein' no cops.
+I'll jes' take a sneak back an' have a look at th' place," said The
+Hopper. "I ain't goin' to turn Shaver over to no cops. Ye can't take no
+chances with 'em. They don't know nothin' about us bein' here, but they
+ain't fools, an' I ain't goin' to give none o' 'em a squint at me!"
+
+He defended his plan against a joint attack by Mary and Humpy, who saw in
+it only further proof of his tottering reason. He was obliged to tell
+them in harsh terms to be quiet, and he added to their rage by the
+deliberation with which he made his preparations to leave.
+
+He opened the door of a clock and drew out a revolver which he examined
+carefully and thrust into his pocket. Mary groaned; Humpy beat the air in
+impotent despair. The Hopper possessed himself also of a jimmy and an
+electric lamp. The latter he flashed upon the face of the sleeping Shaver,
+who turned restlessly for a moment and then lay still again. He smoothed
+the coverlet over the tiny form, while Mary and Humpy huddled in the
+doorway. Mary wept; Humpy was awed into silence by his old friend's
+perversity. For years he had admired The Hopper's cleverness, his genius
+for extricating himself from difficulties; he was deeply shaken to think
+that one who had stood so high in one of the most exacting of professions
+should have fallen so low. As The Hopper imperturbably buttoned his coat
+and walked toward the door, Humpy set his back against it in a last
+attempt to save his friend from his own foolhardiness.
+
+"Ef anybody turns up here an' asks for th' kid, ye kin tell 'em wot I
+said. We finds 'im in th' road right here by the farm when we're doin' th'
+night chores an' takes 'im in t' keep 'im from freezin'. Ye'll have th'
+machine an' kid here to show 'em. An' as fer me, I'm off lookin' fer his
+folks."
+
+Mary buried her face in her apron and wept despairingly. The Hopper,
+noting for the first time that Humpy was guarding the door, roughly pushed
+him aside and stood for a moment with his hand on the knob.
+
+"They's things wot is," he remarked with a last attempt to justify his
+course, "an' things wot ain't. I reckon I'll take a peek at that place an'
+see wot's th' best way t' shake th' kid. Ye can't jes' run up to a house
+in a machine with his folks all settin' round cryin' an' cops askin'
+questions. Ye got to do some plannin' an' thinkin'. I'm goin' t' clean ut
+all up before daylight, an' ye needn't worry none about ut. Hop ain't
+worryin'; jes' leave ut t' Hop!"
+
+There was no alternative but to leave it to Hop, and they stood mute as he
+went out and softly closed the door.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+The snow had ceased and the stars shone brightly on a white world as The
+Hopper made his way by various trolley lines to the house from which he
+had snatched Shaver. On a New Haven car he debated the prospects of more
+snow with a policeman who seemed oblivious to the fact that a child had
+been stolen--shamelessly carried off by a man with a long police record.
+Merry Christmas passed from lip to lip as if all creation were attuned to
+the note of love and peace, and crime were an undreamed of thing.
+
+For two years The Hopper had led an exemplary life and he was keenly alive
+now to the joy of adventure. His lapses of the day were unfortunate; he
+thought of them with regret and misgivings, but he was zestful for
+whatever the unknown held in store for him. Abroad again with a pistol in
+his pocket, he was a lawless being, but with the difference that he was
+intent now upon making restitution, though in such manner as would give
+him something akin to the old thrill that he experienced when he enjoyed
+the reputation of being one of the most skillful yeggs in the country. The
+successful thief is of necessity an imaginative person; he must be able to
+visualize the unseen and to deal with a thousand hidden contingencies. At
+best the chances are against him; with all his ingenuity the broad, heavy
+hand of the law is likely at any moment to close upon him from some
+unexpected quarter. The Hopper knew this, and knew, too, that in yielding
+to the exhilaration of the hour he was likely to come to grief. Justice
+has a long memory, and if he again made himself the object of police
+scrutiny that little forty-thousand dollar affair in Maine might still be
+fixed upon him.
+
+When he reached the house from whose gate he had removed the roadster with
+Shaver attached, he studied it with the eye of an experienced strategist.
+No gleam anywhere published the presence of frantic parents bewailing the
+loss of a baby. The cottage lay snugly behind its barrier of elms and
+shrubbery as though its young heir had not vanished into the void. The
+Hopper was a deliberating being and he gave careful weight to these
+circumstances as he crept round the walk, in which the snow lay
+undisturbed, and investigated the rear of the premises. The lattice door
+of the summer kitchen opened readily, and, after satisfying himself that
+no one was stirring in the lower part of the house, he pried up the sash
+of a window and stepped in. The larder was well stocked, as though in
+preparation for a Christmas feast, and he passed on to the dining-room,
+whose appointments spoke for good taste and a degree of prosperity in the
+householder.
+
+Cautious flashes of his lamp disclosed on the table a hamper, in which
+were packed a silver cup, plate, and bowl which at once awoke the Hopper's
+interest. Here indubitably was proof that this was the home of Shaver, now
+sleeping sweetly in Humpy's bed, and this was the porridge bowl for which
+Shaver's soul had yearned. If Shaver did not belong to the house, he had
+at least been a visitor there, and it struck The Hopper as a reasonable
+assumption that Shaver had been deposited in the roadster while his lawful
+guardians returned to the cottage for the hamper preparatory to an
+excursion of some sort. But The Hopper groped in the dark for an
+explanation of the calmness with which the householders accepted the loss
+of the child. It was not in human nature for the parents of a youngster so
+handsome and in every way so delightful as Shaver to permit him to be
+stolen from under their very noses without making an outcry. The Hopper
+examined the silver pieces and found them engraved with the name borne by
+the locket. He crept through a living-room and came to a Christmas
+tree--the smallest of Christmas trees. Beside it lay a number of packages
+designed clearly for none other than young Roger Livingston Talbot.
+
+Housebreaking is a very different business from the forcible entry of
+country post-offices, and The Hopper was nervous. This particular house
+seemed utterly deserted. He stole upstairs and found doors open and a
+disorder indicative of the occupants' hasty departure. His attention was
+arrested by a small room finished in white, with a white enameled bed, and
+other furniture to match. A generous litter of toys was the last proof
+needed to establish the house as Shaver's true domicile. Indeed, there was
+every indication that Shaver was the central figure of this home of whose
+charm and atmosphere The Hopper was vaguely sensible. A frieze of dancing
+children and watercolor sketches of Shaver's head, dabbed here and there
+in the most unlooked-for places, hinted at an artistic household. This
+impression was strengthened when The Hopper, bewildered and baffled,
+returned to the lower floor and found a studio opening off the living
+room. The Hopper had never visited a studio before, and satisfied now that
+he was the sole occupant of the house, he passed passed about shooting his
+light upon unfinished canvases, pausing finally before an easel supporting
+a portrait of Shaver--newly finished, he discovered, by poking his finger
+into the wet paint. Something fell to the floor and he picked up a large
+sheet of drawing paper on which this message was written in charcoal:--
+
+                                        _Six-thirty._
+    _Dear Sweetheart:_--
+
+
+    This is a fine trick you have played on me, you dear girl! I've
+    been expecting you back all afternoon. At six I decided that you
+    were going to spend the night with your infuriated parent and
+    thought I'd try my luck with mine! I put Billie into the
+    roadster and, leaving him there, ran over to the Flemings's to
+    say Merry Christmas and tell 'em we were off for the night. They
+    kept me just a minute to look at those new Jap prints Jim's so
+    crazy about, and while I was gone you came along and skipped
+    with Billie and the car! I suppose this means that you've been
+    making headway with your dad and want to try the effect of
+    Billie's blandishments. Good luck! But you might have stopped
+    long enough to tell me about it! How fine it would be if
+    everything could be straightened out for Christmas! Do you
+    remember the first time I kissed you--it was on Christmas Eve
+    four years ago at the Billings's dance! I'm just trolleying out
+    to father's to see what an evening session will do. I'll be back
+    early in the morning.
+
+
+    Love always,
+                     ROGER.
+
+Billie was undoubtedly Shaver's nickname. This delighted The Hopper. That
+they should possess the same name appeared to create a strong bond of
+comradeship. The writer of the note was presumably the child's father and
+the "Dear Sweetheart" the youngster's mother. The Hopper was not reassured
+by these disclosures. The return of Shaver to his parents was far from
+being the pleasant little Christmas Eve adventure he had imagined. He had
+only the lowest opinion of a father who would, on a winter evening,
+carelessly leave his baby in a motor-car while he looked at pictures, and
+who, finding both motor and baby gone, would take it for granted that the
+baby's mother had run off with them. But these people were artists, and
+artists, The Hopper had heard, were a queer breed, sadly lacking in
+common sense. He tore the note into strips which he stuffed into his
+pocket.
+
+Depressed by the impenetrable wall of mystery along which he was groping,
+he returned to the living-room, raised one of the windows and unbolted the
+front door to make sure of an exit in case these strange, foolish Talbots
+should unexpectedly return. The shades were up and he shielded his light
+carefully with his cap as he passed rapidly about the room. It began to
+look very much as though Shaver would spend Christmas at Happy Hill
+Farm--a possibility that had not figured in The Hopper's calculations.
+
+Flashing his lamp for a last survey a letter propped against a lamp on the
+table arrested his eye. He dropped to the floor and crawled into a corner
+where he turned his light upon the note and read, not without difficulty,
+the following:--
+
+                                  _Seven o'clock._
+    _Dear Roger:--_
+
+
+    I've just got back from father's where I spent the last three
+    hours talking over our troubles. I didn't tell you I was going,
+    knowing you would think it foolish, but it seemed best, dear,
+    and I hope you'll forgive me. And now I find that you've gone
+    off with Billie, and I'm guessing that you've gone to _your_
+    father's to see what you can do. I'm taking the trolley into New
+    Haven to ask Mamie Palmer about that cook she thought we might
+    get, and if possible I'll bring the girl home with me. Don't
+    trouble about me, as I'll be perfectly safe, and, as you know, I
+    rather enjoy prowling around at night. You'll certainly get back
+    before I do, but if I'm not here don't be alarmed.
+
+    We are so happy in each other, dear, and if only we could get
+    our foolish fathers to stop hating each other, how beautiful
+    everything would be! And we could all have such a merry, merry
+    Christmas!
+
+    MURIEL.
+
+The Hopper's acquaintance with the epistolary art was the slightest, but
+even to a mind unfamiliar with this branch of literature it was plain that
+Shaver's parents were involved in some difficulty that was attributable,
+not to any lessening of affection between them, but to a row of some sort
+between their respective fathers. Muriel, running into the house to write
+her note, had failed to see Roger's letter in the studio, and this was
+very fortunate for The Hopper; but Muriel might return at any moment, and
+it would add nothing to the plausibility of the story he meant to tell if
+he were found in the house.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+Anxious and dejected at the increasing difficulties that confronted him,
+he was moving toward the door when a light, buoyant step sounded on the
+veranda. In a moment the living-room lights were switched on from the
+entry and a woman called out sharply:--
+
+"Stop right where you are or I'll shoot!"
+
+The authoritative voice of the speaker, the quickness with which she had
+grasped the situation and leveled her revolver, brought The Hopper to an
+abrupt halt in the middle of the room, where he fell with a discordant
+crash across the keyboard of a grand piano. He turned, cowering, to
+confront a tall, young woman in a long ulster who advanced toward him
+slowly, but with every mark of determination upon her face. The Hopper
+stared beyond the gun, held in a very steady hand, into a pair of fearless
+dark eyes. In all his experiences he had never been cornered by a woman,
+and he stood gaping at his captor in astonishment. She was a very pretty
+young woman, with cheeks that still had the curve of youth, but with a
+chin that spoke for much firmness of character. A fur toque perched a
+little to one side gave her a boyish air.
+
+This undoubtedly was Shaver's mother who had caught him prowling in her
+house, and all The Hopper's plans for explaining her son's disappearance
+and returning him in a manner to win praise and gratitude went glimmering.
+There was nothing in the appearance of this Muriel to encourage a hope
+that she was either embarrassed or alarmed by his presence. He had been
+captured many times, but the trick had never been turned by any one so
+cool as this young woman. She seemed to be pondering with the greatest
+calmness what disposition she should make of him. In the intentness of her
+thought the revolver wavered for an instant, and The Hopper, without
+taking his eyes from her, made a cat-like spring that brought him to the
+window he had raised against just such an emergency.
+
+"None of that!" she cried, walking slowly toward him without lowering the
+pistol. "If you attempt to jump from that window I'll shoot! But it's
+cold in here and you may lower it."
+
+The Hopper, weighing the chances, decided that the odds were heavily
+against escape, and lowered the window.
+
+"Now," said Muriel, "step into that corner and keep your hands up where I
+can watch them."
+
+The Hopper obeyed her instructions strictly. There was a telephone on the
+table near her and he expected her to summon help; but to his surprise she
+calmly seated herself, resting her right elbow on the arm of the chair,
+her head slightly tilted to one side, as she inspected him with greater
+attention along the blueblack barrel of her automatic. Unless he made a
+dash for liberty this extraordinary woman would, at her leisure, turn him
+over to the police as a housebreaker and his peaceful life as a chicken
+farmer would be at an end. Her prolonged silence troubled The Hopper. He
+had not been more nervous when waiting for the report of the juries which
+at times had passed upon his conduct, or for judges to fix his term of
+imprisonment.
+
+"Yes'm," he muttered, with a view to ending a silence that had become
+intolerable.
+
+Her eyes danced to the accompaniment of her thoughts, but in no way did
+she betray the slightest perturbation.
+
+"I ain't done nothin'; hones' to God, I ain't!" he protested brokenly.
+
+"I saw you through the window when you entered this room and I was
+watching while you read that note," said his captor. "I thought it funny
+that you should do that instead of packing up the silver. Do you mind
+telling me just why you read that note?"
+
+"Well, miss, I jes' thought it kind o' funny there wuzn't nobody round an'
+the letter was layin' there all open, an' I didn't see no harm in
+lookin'."
+
+"It was awfully clever of you to crawl into the corner so nobody could see
+your light from the windows," she said with a tinge of admiration. "I
+suppose you thought you might find out how long the people of the house
+were likely to be gone and how much time you could spend here. Was that
+it?"
+
+"I reckon ut wuz some thin' like that," he agreed.
+
+This was received with the noncommittal "Um" of a person whose thoughts
+are elsewhere. Then, as though she were eliciting from an artist or man of
+letters a frank opinion as to his own ideas of his attainments and
+professional standing, she asked, with a meditative air that puzzled him
+as much as her question:--
+
+"Just how good a burglar are you? Can you do a job neatly and safely?"
+
+The Hopper, staggered by her inquiry and overcome by modesty, shrugged his
+shoulders and twisted about uncomfortably.
+
+"I reckon as how you've pinched me I ain't much good," he replied, and was
+rewarded with a smile followed by a light little laugh. He was beginning
+to feel pleased that she manifested no fear of him. In fact, he had
+decided that Shaver's mother was the most remarkable woman he had ever
+encountered, and by all odds the handsomest. He began to take heart.
+Perhaps after all he might hit upon some way of restoring Shaver to his
+proper place in the house of Talbot without making himself liable to a
+long term for kidnaping.
+
+"If you're really a successful burglar--one who doesn't just poke abound
+in empty houses as you were doing here, but clever and brave enough to
+break into houses where people are living and steal things without making
+a mess of it; and if you can play fair about it--then I think--I
+think--maybe--we can come to terms!"
+
+"Yes'm!" faltered The Hopper, beginning to wonder if Mary and Humpy had
+been right in saying that he had lost his mind. He was so astonished that
+his arms wavered, but she was instantly on her feet and the little
+automatic was again on a level with his eyes.
+
+"Excuse me, miss, I didn't mean to drop 'em. I weren't goin' to do
+nothin'. Hones' I wuzn't!" he pleaded with real contrition. "It jes'
+seemed kind o' funny what ye said."
+
+He grinned sheepishly. If she knew that her Billie, _alias_ Shaver, was
+not with her husband at his father's house, she would not be dallying in
+this fashion. And if the young father, who painted pictures, and left
+notes in his studio in a blind faith that his wife would find them,--if
+that trusting soul knew that Billie was asleep in a house all of whose
+inmates had done penance behind prison bars, he would very quickly become
+a man of action. The Hopper had never heard of such careless parenthood!
+These people were children! His heart warmed to them in pity and
+admiration, as it had to little Billie.
+
+"I forgot to ask you whether you are armed," she remarked, with just as
+much composure as though she were asking him whether he took two lumps of
+sugar in his tea; and then she added, "I suppose I ought to have asked you
+that in the first place."
+
+"I gotta gun in my coat--right side," he confessed. "An' that's all I
+got," he added, batting his eyes under the spell of her bewildering smile.
+
+With her left hand she cautiously extracted his revolver and backed away
+with it to the table.
+
+"If you'd lied to me I should have killed you; do you understand?"
+
+"Yes'm," murmured The Hopper meekly.
+
+She had spoken as though homicide were a common incident of her life, but
+a gleam of humor in the eyes she was watching vigilantly abated her
+severity.
+
+"You may sit down--there, please!"
+
+She pointed to a much bepillowed davenport and The Hopper sank down on it,
+still with his hands up. To his deepening mystification she backed to the
+windows and lowered the shades, and this done she sat down with the table
+between them, remarking,--
+
+"You may put your hands down now, Mr. ----?"
+
+He hesitated, decided that it was unwise to give any of his names; and
+respecting his scruples she said with great magnanimity:--
+
+"Of course you wouldn't want to tell me your name, so don't trouble about
+that."
+
+She sat, wholly tranquil, her arms upon the table, both hands caressing
+the small automatic, while his own revolver, of different pattern and
+larger caliber, lay close by. His status was now established as that of a
+gentleman making a social call upon a lady who, in the pleasantest manner
+imaginable and yet with undeniable resoluteness, kept a deadly weapon
+pointed in the general direction of his person.
+
+A clock on the mantel struck eleven with a low, silvery note. Muriel
+waited for the last stroke and then spoke crisply and directly.
+
+"We were speaking of that letter I left lying here on the table. You
+didn't understand it, of course; you couldn't--not really. So I will
+explain it to you. My husband and I married against our fathers' wishes;
+both of them were opposed to it."
+
+She waited for this to sink into his perturbed consciousness. The Hopper
+frowned and leaned forward to express his sympathetic interest in this
+confidential disclosure.
+
+"My father," she resumed, "is just as stupid as my father-in-law and they
+have both continued to make us just as uncomfortable as possible. The
+cause of the trouble is ridiculous. There's nothing against my husband or
+me, you understand; it's simply a bitter jealousy between the two men due
+to the fact that they are rival collectors."
+
+The Hopper stared blankly. The only collectors with whom he had enjoyed
+any acquaintance were persons who presented bills for payment.
+
+"They are collectors," Muriel hastened to explain, "of ceramics--precious
+porcelains and that sort of thing."
+
+"Yes'm," assented The Hopper, who hadn't the faintest notion of what she
+meant.
+
+"For years, whenever there have been important sales of these things,
+which men fight for and are willing to die for--whenever there has been
+something specially fine in the market, my father-in-law--he's Mr.
+Talbot--and Mr. Wilton--he's my father--have bid for them. There are
+auctions, you know, and people come from all over the world looking for a
+chance to buy the rarest pieces. They've explored China and Japan hunting
+for prizes and they are experts--men of rare taste and judgment--what you
+call connoisseurs."
+
+The Hopper nodded gravely at the unfamiliar word, convinced that not only
+were Muriel and her husband quite insane, but that they had inherited the
+infirmity.
+
+"The trouble has been," Muriel continued, "that Mr. Talbot and my father
+both like the same kind of thing; and when one has got something the other
+wanted, of course it has added to the ill-feeling. This has been going on
+for years and recently they have grown more bitter. When Roger and I ran
+off and got married, that didn't help matters any; but just within a few
+days something has happened to make things much worse than ever."
+
+The Hopper's complete absorption in this novel recital was so manifest
+that she put down the revolver with which she had been idling and folded
+her hands.
+
+"Thank ye, miss," mumbled The Hopper.
+
+"Only last week," Muriel continued, "my father-in-law bought one of those
+pottery treasures--a plum-blossom vase made in China hundreds of years ago
+and very, very valuable. It belonged to a Philadelphia collector who died
+not long ago and Mr. Talbot bought it from the executor of the estate, who
+happened to be an old friend of his. Father was very angry, for he had
+been led to believe that this vase was going to be offered at auction and
+he'd have a chance to bid on it. And just before that father had got hold
+of a jar--a perfectly wonderful piece of red Lang-Yao--that collectors
+everywhere have coveted for years. This made Mr. Talbot furious at father.
+My husband is at his father's now trying to make him see the folly of all
+this, and I visited _my_ father to-day to try to persuade him to stop
+being so foolish. You see I wanted us all to be happy for Christmas! Of
+course, Christmas ought to be a time of gladness for everybody. Even
+people in your--er--profession must feel that Christmas is one day in the
+year when all hard feelings should be forgotten and everybody should try
+to make others happy."
+
+"I guess yer right, miss. Ut sure seems foolish fer folks t' git mad about
+jugs like you says. Wuz they empty, miss?"
+
+"Empty!" repeated Muriel wonderingly, not understanding at once that her
+visitor was unaware that the "jugs" men fought over were valued as art
+treasures and not for their possible contents. Then she laughed merrily,
+as only the mother of Shaver could laugh.
+
+"Oh! Of course they're _empty!_ That does seem to make it sillier,
+doesn't it? But they're like famous pictures, you know, or any beautiful
+work of art that only happens occasionally. Perhaps it seems odd to you
+that men can be so crazy about such things, but I suppose sometimes you
+have wanted things very, very much, and--oh!"
+
+She paused, plainly confused by her tactlessness in suggesting to a member
+of his profession the extremities to which one may be led by covetousness.
+
+"Yes, miss," he remarked hastily; and he rubbed his nose with the back of
+his hand, and grinned indulgently as he realized the cause of her
+embarrassment. It crossed his mind that she might be playing a trick of
+some kind; that her story, which seemed to him wholly fantastic and not at
+all like a chronicle of the acts of veritable human beings, was merely a
+device for detaining him until help arrived. But he dismissed this
+immediately as unworthy of one so pleasing, so beautiful, so perfectly
+qualified to be the mother of Shaver!
+
+"Well, just before luncheon, without telling my husband where I was going,
+I ran away to papa's, hoping to persuade him to end this silly feud. I
+spent the afternoon there and he was very unreasonable. He feels that Mr.
+Talbot wasn't fair about that Philadelphia purchase, and I gave it up and
+came home. I got here a little after dark and found my husband had taken
+Billie--that's our little boy--and gone. I knew, of course, that he had
+gone to _his_ father's hoping to bring him round, for both our fathers are
+simply crazy about Billie. But you see I never go to Mr. Talbot's and my
+husband never goes--Dear me!" she broke off suddenly. "I suppose I ought
+to telephone and see if Billie is all right."
+
+The Hopper, greatly alarmed, thrust his head forward as she pondered this.
+If she telephoned to her father-in-law's to ask about Billie, the jig
+would be up! He drew his hand across his face and fell back with relief as
+she went on, a little absently:--
+
+"Mr. Talbot hates telephoning, and it might be that my husband is just
+getting him to the point of making concessions, and I shouldn't want to
+interrupt. It's so late now that of course Roger and Billie will spend the
+night there. And Billie and Christmas ought to be a combination that would
+soften the hardest heart! You ought to see--you just ought to see Billie!
+He's the cunningest, dearest baby in the world!"
+
+The Hopper sat pigeon-toed, beset by countless conflicting emotions. His
+ingenuity was taxed to its utmost by the demands of this complex
+situation. But for his returning suspicion that Muriel was leading up to
+something; that she was detaining him for some purpose not yet apparent,
+he would have told her of her husband's note and confessed that the adored
+Billie was at that moment enjoying the reluctant hospitality of Happy Hill
+Farm. He resolved to continue his policy of silence as to the young heir's
+whereabouts until Muriel had shown her hand. She had not wholly abandoned
+the thought of telephoning to her father-in-law's, he found, from her next
+remark.
+
+"You think it's all right, don't you? It's strange Roger didn't leave me
+a note of some kind. Our cook left a week ago and there was no one here
+when he left."
+
+"I reckon as how yer kid's all right, miss," he answered consolingly.
+
+Her voluble confidences had enthralled him, and her reference of this
+matter to his judgment was enormously flattering. On the rough edges of
+society where he had spent most of his life, fellow craftsmen had
+frequently solicited his advice, chiefly as to the disposition of their
+ill-gotten gains or regarding safe harbors of refuge, but to be taken into
+counsel by the only gentlewoman he had ever met roused his self-respect,
+touched a chivalry that never before had been wakened in The Hopper's
+soul. She was so like a child in her guilelessness, and so brave amid her
+perplexities!
+
+"Oh, I know Roger will take beautiful care of Billie. And now," she smiled
+radiantly, "you're probably wondering what I've been driving at all this
+time. Maybe"--she added softly--"maybe it's providential, your turning up
+here in this way!"
+
+She uttered this happily, with a little note of triumph and another of her
+smiles that seemed to illuminate the universe. The Hopper had been called
+many names in his varied career, but never before had he been invested
+with the attributes of an agent of Providence.
+
+"They's things wot is an' they's things wot ain't, miss; I reckon I ain't
+as bad as some. I mean to be on the square, miss."
+
+"I believe that," she said. "I've always heard there's honor among
+thieves, and"--she lowered her voice to a whisper--"it's possible I might
+become one myself!"
+
+The Hopper's eyes opened wide and he crossed and uncrossed his legs
+nervously in his agitation.
+
+"If--if"--she began slowly, bending forward with a grave, earnest look in
+her eyes and clasping her fingers tightly--"if we could only get hold of
+father's Lang-Yao jar and that plum-blossom vase Mr. Talbot has--if we
+could only do that!"
+
+The Hopper swallowed hard. This fearless, pretty young woman was calmly
+suggesting that he commit two felonies, little knowing that his score for
+the day already aggregated three--purse-snatching, the theft of an
+automobile from her own door, and what might very readily be construed as
+the kidnaping of her own child!
+
+"I don't know, miss," he said feebly, calculating that the sum total of
+even minimum penalties for the five crimes would outrun his natural life
+and consume an eternity of reincarnations.
+
+"Of course it wouldn't be stealing in the ordinary sense," she explained.
+"What I want you to do is to play the part of what we will call a
+reversible Santa Claus, who takes things away from stupid people who don't
+enjoy them anyhow. And maybe if they lost these things they'd behave
+themselves. I could explain afterward that it was all my fault, and of
+course I wouldn't let any harm come to _you_. I'd be responsible, and of
+course I'd see you safely out of it; you would have to rely on me for
+that. I'm trusting _you_ and you'd have to trust _me!_"
+
+"Oh, I'd trust ye, miss! An' ef I was to get pinched I wouldn't never
+squeal on ye. We don't never blab on a pal, miss!"
+
+He was afraid she might resent being called a "pal," but his use of the
+term apparently pleased her.
+
+"We understand each other, then. It really won't be very difficult, for
+papa's place is over on the Sound and Mr. Talbot's is right next to it, so
+you wouldn't have far to go."
+
+Her utter failure to comprehend the enormity of the thing she was
+proposing affected him queerly. Even among hardened criminals in the
+underworld such undertakings are suggested cautiously; but Muriel was
+ordering a burglary as though it were a pound of butter or a dozen eggs!
+
+"Father keeps his most valuable glazes in a safe in the pantry," she
+resumed after a moment's reflection, "but I can give you the combination.
+That will make it a lot easier."
+
+The Hopper assented, with a pontifical nod, to this sanguine view of the
+matter.
+
+"Mr. Talbot keeps his finest pieces in a cabinet built into the
+bookshelves in his library. It's on the left side as you stand in the
+drawing-room door, and you look for the works of Thomas Carlyle. There's a
+dozen or so volumes of Carlyle, only they're not books,--not really,--but
+just the backs of books painted on the steel of a safe. And if you press a
+spring in the upper right-hand corner of the shelf just over these books
+the whole section swings out. I suppose you've seen that sort of
+hiding-place for valuables?"
+
+"Well, not exactly, miss. But havin' a tip helps, an' ef there ain't no
+soup to pour--"
+
+"Soup?" inquired Muriel, wrinkling her pretty brows.
+
+"That's the juice we pour into the cracks of a safe to blow out the lid
+with," The Hopper elucidated. "Ut's a lot handier ef you've got the
+combination. Ut usually ain't jes' layin' around."
+
+"I should hope not!" exclaimed Muriel.
+
+She took a sheet of paper from the leathern stationery rack and fell to
+scribbling, while he furtively eyed the window and again put from him the
+thought of flight.
+
+"There! That's the combination of papa's safe." She turned her wrist and
+glanced at her watch. "It's half-past eleven and you can catch a trolley
+in ten minutes that will take you right past papa's house. The butler's an
+old man who forgets to lock the windows half the time, and there's one in
+the conservatory with a broken catch. I noticed it to-day when I was
+thinking about stealing the jar myself!"
+
+They were established on so firm a basis of mutual confidence that when he
+rose and walked to the table she didn't lift her eyes from the paper on
+which she was drawing a diagram of her father's house. He stood watching
+her nimble fingers, fascinated by the boldness of her plan for restoring
+amity between Shaver's grandfathers, and filled with admiration for her
+resourcefulness.
+
+He asked a few questions as to exits and entrances and fixed in his mind a
+very accurate picture of the home of her father. She then proceeded to
+enlighten him as to the ways and means of entering the home of her
+father-in-law, which she sketched with equal facility.
+
+"There's a French window--a narrow glass door--on the veranda. I think you
+might get in _there!_" She made a jab with the pencil. "Of course I should
+hate awfully to have you get caught! But you must have had a lot of
+experience, and with all the help I'm giving you--!"
+
+A sudden lifting of her head gave him the full benefit of her eyes and he
+averted his gaze reverently.
+
+"There's always a chance o' bein' nabbed, miss," he suggested with
+feeling.
+
+Shaver's mother wielded the same hypnotic power, highly intensified, that
+he had felt in Shaver. He knew that he was going to attempt what she
+asked; that he was committed to the project of robbing two houses merely
+to please a pretty young woman who invited his cooeperation at the point of
+a revolver!
+
+"Papa's always a sound sleeper," she was saying. "When I was a little girl
+a burglar went all through our house and carried off his clothes and he
+never knew it until the next morning. But you'll have to be careful at Mr.
+Talbot's, for he suffers horribly from insomnia."
+
+"They got any o' them fancy burglar alarms?" asked The Hopper as he
+concluded his examination of her sketches.
+
+"Oh, I forgot to tell you about that!" she cried contritely. "There's
+nothing of the kind at Mr. Talbot's, but at papa's there's a switch in
+the living-room, right back of a bust--a white marble thing on a pedestal.
+You turn it off _there_. Half the time papa forgets to switch it on before
+he goes to bed. And another thing--be careful about stumbling over that
+bearskin rug in the hall. People are always sticking their feet into its
+jaws."
+
+"I'll look out for ut, miss."
+
+Burglar alarms and the jaws of wild beasts were not inviting hazards. The
+programme she outlined so light-heartedly was full of complexities. It was
+almost pathetic that any one could so cheerfully and irresponsibly suggest
+the perpetration of a crime. The terms she used in describing the loot he
+was to filch were much stranger to him than Chinese, but it was fairly
+clear that at the Talbot house he was to steal a blue-and-white thing and
+at the Wilton's a red one. The form and size of these articles she
+illustrated with graceful gestures.
+
+"If I thought you were likely to make a mistake I'd--I'd go with you!" she
+declared.
+
+"Oh, no, miss; ye couldn't do that! I guess I can do ut fer ye. Ut's jes'
+a _leetle_ ticklish. I reckon ef yer pa wuz to nab me ut'd go hard with
+me."
+
+"I wouldn't let him be hard on you," she replied earnestly. "And now I
+haven't said anything about a--a--about what we will call a _reward_ for
+bringing me these porcelains. I shall expect to pay you; I couldn't think
+of taking up your time, you know, for nothing!"
+
+"Lor', miss, I couldn't take nothin' at all fer doin' ut! Ye see ut wuz
+sort of accidental our meetin', and besides, I ain't no
+housebreaker--not, as ye may say, reg'ler. I'll be glad to do ut fer ye,
+miss, an' ye can rely on me doin' my best fer ye. Ye've treated me right,
+miss, an' I ain't a-goin' t' fergit ut!"
+
+The Hopper spoke with feeling. Shaver's mother had, albeit at the pistol
+point, confided her most intimate domestic affairs to him. He realized,
+without finding just these words for it, that she had in effect decorated
+him with the symbol of her order of knighthood and he had every
+honorable--or dishonorable!--intention of proving himself worthy of her
+confidence.
+
+"If ye please, miss," he said, pointing toward his confiscated revolver.
+
+"Certainly; you may take it. But of course you won't kill anybody?"
+
+"No, miss; only I'm sort o' lonesome without ut when I'm on a job."
+
+"And you do understand," she said, following him to the door and noting in
+the distance the headlight of an approaching trolley, "that I'm only doing
+this in the hope that good may come of it. It isn't really criminal, you
+know; if you succeed, it may mean the happiest Christmas of my life!"
+
+"Yes, miss. I won't come back till mornin', but don't you worry none. We
+gotta play safe, miss, an' ef I land th' jugs I'll find cover till I kin
+deliver 'em safe."
+
+"Thank you; oh, thank you ever so much! And good luck!"
+
+She put out her hand; he held it gingerly for a moment in his rough
+fingers and ran for the car.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+The Hopper, in his role of the Reversible Santa Claus, dropped off the car
+at the crossing Muriel had carefully described, waited for the car to
+vanish, and warily entered the Wilton estate through a gate set in the
+stone wall. The clouds of the early evening had passed and the stars
+marched through the heavens resplendently, proclaiming peace on earth and
+good-will toward men. They were almost oppressively brilliant, seen
+through the clear, cold atmosphere, and as The Hopper slipped from one big
+tree to another on his tangential course to the house, he fortified his
+courage by muttering, "They's things wot is an' things wot
+ain't!"--finding much comfort and stimulus in the phrase.
+
+Arriving at the conservatory in due course, he found that Muriel's
+averments as to the vulnerability of that corner of her father's house
+were correct in every particular. He entered with ease, sniffed the warm,
+moist air, and, leaving the door slightly ajar, sought the pantry, lowered
+the shades, and, helping himself to a candle from a silver candelabrum,
+readily found the safe hidden away in one of the cupboards. He was
+surprised to find himself more nervous with the combination in his hand
+than on memorable occasions in the old days when he had broken into
+country postoffices and assaulted safes by force. In his haste he twice
+failed to give the proper turns, but the third time the knob caught, and
+in a moment the door swung open disclosing shelves filled with vases,
+bottles, bowls, and plates in bewildering variety. A chest of silver
+appealed to him distractingly as a much more tangible asset than the
+pottery, and he dizzily contemplated a jewel-case containing a diamond
+necklace with a pearl pendant. The moment was a critical one in The
+Hopper's eventful career. This dazzling prize was his for the taking, and
+he knew the operator of a fence in Chicago who would dispose of the
+necklace and make him a fair return. But visions of Muriel, the beautiful,
+the confiding, and of her little Shaver asleep on Humpy's bed, rose before
+him. He steeled his heart against temptation, drew his candle along the
+shelf and scrutinized the glazes. There could be no mistaking the red
+Lang-Yao whose brilliant tints kindled in the candle-glow. He lifted it
+tenderly, verifying the various points of Muriel's description, set it
+down on the floor and locked the safe.
+
+He was retracing his steps toward the conservatory and had reached the
+main hall when the creaking of the stairsteps brought him up with a start.
+Some one was descending, slowly and cautiously. For a second time and with
+grateful appreciation of Muriel's forethought, he carefully avoided the
+ferocious jaws of the bear, noiselessly continued on to the conservatory,
+crept through the door, closed it, and then, crouching on the steps,
+awaited developments. The caution exercised by the person descending the
+stairway was not that of a householder who has been roused from slumber
+by a disquieting noise. The Hopper was keenly interested in this fact.
+
+With his face against the glass he watched the actions of a tall, elderly
+man with a short, grayish beard, who wore a golf-cap pulled low on his
+head--points noted by The Hopper in the flashes of an electric lamp with
+which the gentleman was guiding himself. His face was clearly the original
+of a photograph The Hopper had seen on the table at Muriel's cottage--Mr.
+Wilton, Muriel's father, The Hopper surmised; but just why the owner of
+the establishment should be prowling about in this fashion taxed his
+speculative powers to the utmost. Warned by steps on the cement floor of
+the conservatory, he left the door in haste and flattened himself against
+the wall of the house some distance away and again awaited developments.
+
+Wilton's figure was a blur in the star-light as he stepped out into the
+walk and started furtively across the grounds. His conduct greatly
+displeased The Hopper, as likely to interfere with the further carrying
+out of Muriel's instructions. The Lang-Yao jar was much too large to go
+into his pocket and not big enough to fit snugly under his arm, and as the
+walk was slippery he was beset by the fear that he might fall and smash
+this absurd thing that had caused so bitter an enmity between Shaver's
+grandfathers. The soft snow on the lawn gave him a surer footing and he
+crept after Wilton, who was carefully pursuing his way toward a house
+whose gables were faintly limned against the sky. This, according to
+Muriel's diagram, was the Talbot place. The Hopper greatly mistrusted
+conditions he didn't understand, and he was at a loss to account for
+Wilton's strange actions.
+
+[Illustration: THE FAINT CLICK OF A LATCH MARKED THE PROWLER'S PROXIMITY
+TO A HEDGE]
+
+He lost sight of him for several minutes, then the faint click of a latch
+marked the prowler's proximity to a hedge that separated the two estates.
+The Hopper crept forward, found a gate through which Wilton had entered
+his neighbor's property, and stole after him. Wilton had been swallowed up
+by the deep shadow of the house, but The Hopper was aware, from an
+occasional scraping of feet, that he was still moving forward. He crawled
+over the snow until he reached a large tree whose boughs, sharply limned
+against the stars, brushed the eaves of the house.
+
+The Hopper was aroused, tremendously aroused, by the unaccountable
+actions of Muriel's father. It flashed upon him that Wilton, in his deep
+hatred of his rival collector, was about to set fire to Talbot's house,
+and incendiarism was a crime which The Hopper, with all his moral
+obliquity, greatly abhorred.
+
+Several minutes passed, a period of anxious waiting, and then a sound
+reached him which, to his keen professional sense, seemed singularly like
+the forcing of a window. The Hopper knew just how much pressure is
+necessary to the successful snapping back of a window catch, and Wilton
+had done the trick neatly and with a minimum amount of noise. The window
+thus assaulted was not, he now determined, the French window suggested by
+Muriel, but one opening on a terrace which ran along the front of the
+house. The Hopper heard the sash moving slowly in the frame. He reached
+the steps, deposited the jar in a pile of snow, and was soon peering into
+a room where Wilton's presence was advertised by the fitful flashing of
+his lamp in a far corner.
+
+"He's beat me to ut!" muttered The Hopper, realizing that Muriel's father
+was indeed on burglary bent, his obvious purpose being to purloin,
+extract, and remove from its secret hiding-place the coveted plum-blossom
+vase. Muriel, in her longing for a Christmas of peace and happiness, had
+not reckoned with her father's passionate desire to possess the porcelain
+treasure--a desire which could hardly fail to cause scandal, if it did not
+land him behind prison bars.
+
+This had not been in the programme, and The Hopper weighed judicially his
+further duty in the matter. Often as he had been the chief actor in
+daring robberies, he had never before enjoyed the high privilege of
+watching a rival's labors with complete detachment. Wilton must have known
+of the concealed cupboard whose panel fraudulently represented the works
+of Thomas Carlyle, the intent spectator reflected, just as Muriel had
+known, for though he used his lamp sparingly Wilton had found his way to
+it without difficulty.
+
+The Hopper had no intention of permitting this monstrous larceny to be
+committed in contravention of his own rights in the premises, and he was
+considering the best method of wresting the vase from the hands of the
+insolent Wilton when events began to multiply with startling rapidity. The
+panel swung open and the thief's lamp flashed upon shelves of pottery.
+
+At that moment a shout rose from somewhere in the house, and the library
+lights were thrown on, revealing Wilton before the shelves and their
+precious contents. A short, stout gentleman with a gleaming bald pate,
+clad in pajamas, dashed across the room, and with a yell of rage flung
+himself upon the intruder with a violence that bore them both to the
+floor.
+
+"Roger! Roger!" bawled the smaller man, as he struggled with his
+adversary, who wriggled from under and rolled over upon Talbot, whose arms
+were clasped tightly about his neck. This embrace seemed likely to
+continue for some time, so tenaciously had the little man gripped his
+neighbor. The fat legs of the infuriated householder pawed the air as he
+hugged Wilton, who was now trying to free his head and gain a position of
+greater dignity. Occasionally, as opportunity offered, the little man
+yelled vociferously, and from remote recesses of the house came answering
+cries demanding information as to the nature and whereabouts of the
+disturbance.
+
+The contestants addressed themselves vigorously to a spirited
+rough-and-tumble fight. Talbot, who was the more easily observed by reason
+of his shining pate and the pink stripes of his pajamas, appeared to be
+revolving about the person of his neighbor. Wilton, though taller, lacked
+the rotund Talbot's liveliness of attack.
+
+An authoritative voice, which The Hopper attributed to Shaver's father,
+anxiously demanding what was the matter, terminated The Hopper's
+enjoyment of the struggle. Enough was the matter to satisfy The Hopper
+that a prolonged stay in the neighborhood might be highly detrimental to
+his future liberty. The combatants had rolled a considerable distance away
+from the shelves and were near a door leading into a room beyond. A young
+man in a bath-wrapper dashed upon the scene, and in his precipitate
+arrival upon the battle-field fell sprawling across the prone figures. The
+Hopper, suddenly inspired to deeds of prowess, crawled through the window,
+sprang past the three men, seized the blue-and-white vase which Wilton had
+separated from the rest of Talbot's treasures, and then with one hop
+gained the window. As he turned for a last look, a pistol cracked and he
+landed upon the terrace amid a shower of glass from a shattered pane.
+
+A woman of unmistakable Celtic origin screamed murder from a third-story
+window. The thought of murder was disagreeable to The Hopper. Shaver's
+father had missed him by only the matter of a foot or two, and as he had
+no intention of offering himself again as a target he stood not upon the
+order of his going.
+
+He effected a running pick-up of the Lang-Yao, and with this art treasure
+under one arm and the plum-blossom vase under the other, he sprinted for
+the highway, stumbling over shrubbery, bumping into a stone bench that all
+but caused disaster, and finally reached the road on which he continued
+his flight toward New Haven, followed by cries in many keys and a
+fusillade of pistol shots.
+
+Arriving presently at a hamlet, where he paused for breath in the rear of
+a country store, he found a basket and a quantity of paper in which he
+carefully packed his loot. Over the top he spread some faded lettuce
+leaves and discarded carnations which communicated something of a blithe
+holiday air to his encumbrance. Elsewhere he found a bicycle under a shed,
+and while cycling over a snowy road in the dark, hampered by a basket
+containing pottery representative of the highest genius of the Orient, was
+not without its difficulties and dangers, The Hopper made rapid progress.
+
+Halfway through New Haven he approached two policemen and slowed down to
+allay suspicion.
+
+"Merry Chris'mas!" he called as he passed them and increased his weight
+upon the pedals.
+
+The officers of the law, cheered as by a greeting from Santa Claus
+himself, responded with an equally hearty Merry Christmas.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+At three o'clock The Hopper reached Happy Hill Farm, knocked as before at
+the kitchen door, and was admitted by Humpy.
+
+"Wot ye got now?" snarled the reformed yeggman.
+
+"He's gone and done ut ag'in!" wailed Mary, as she spied the basket.
+
+"I sure done ut, all right," admitted The Hopper good-naturedly, as he set
+the basket on the table where a few hours earlier he had deposited Shaver.
+"How's the kid?"
+
+Grudging assurances that Shaver was asleep and hostile glances directed at
+the mysterious basket did not disturb his equanimity.
+
+Humpy was thwarted in an attempt to pry into the contents of the basket by
+a tart reprimand from The Hopper, who with maddening deliberation drew
+forth the two glazes, found that they had come through the night's
+vicissitudes unscathed, and held them at arm's length, turning them about
+in leisurely fashion as though lost in admiration of their loveliness.
+Then he lighted his pipe, seated himself in Mary's rocker, and told his
+story.
+
+It was no easy matter to communicate to his irritable and contumelious
+auditors the sense of Muriel's charm, or the reasonableness of her request
+that he commit burglary merely to assist her in settling a family row.
+Mary could not understand it; Humpy paced the room nervously, shaking his
+head and muttering. It was their judgment, stated with much frankness,
+that if he had been a fool in the first place to steal the child, his
+character was now blackened beyond any hope by his later crimes. Mary wept
+copiously; Humpy most annoyingly kept counting upon his fingers as he
+reckoned the "time" that was in store for all of them.
+
+"I guess I got into ut an' I guess I'll git out," remarked The Hopper
+serenely. He was disposed to treat them with high condescension, as
+incapable of appreciating the lofty philosophy of life by which he was
+sustained. Meanwhile, he gloated over the loot of the night.
+
+"Them things is wurt' mints; they's more valible than di'mon's, them
+things is! Only eddicated folks knows about 'em. They's fer emp'rors and
+kings t' set up in their palaces, an' men goes nutty jes' hankerin' fer
+'em. The pigtails made 'em thousand o' years back, an' th' secret died
+with 'em. They ain't never goin' to be no more jugs like them settin'
+right there. An' them two ole sports give up their business jes' t' chase
+things like them. They's some folks goes loony about chickens, an' hosses,
+an' fancy dogs, but this here kind o' collectin' 's only fer millionaires.
+They's more difficult t' pick than a lucky race-hoss. They's barrels o'
+that stuff in them houses, that looked jes' as good as them there, but
+nowheres as valible."
+
+An informal lecture on Chinese ceramics before daylight on Christmas
+morning was not to the liking of the anxious and nerve-torn Mary and
+Humpy. They brought The Hopper down from his lofty heights to practical
+questions touching his plans, for the disposal of Shaver in the first
+instance, and the ceramics in the second. The Hopper was singularly
+unmoved by their forebodings.
+
+"I guess th' lady got me to do ut!" he retorted finally. "Ef I do time fer
+ut I reckon's how she's in fer ut, too! An' I seen her pap breakin' into a
+house an' I guess I'd be a state's witness fer that! I reckon they ain't
+goin' t' put nothin' over on Hop! I guess they won't peep much about
+kidnapin' with th' kid safe an' us pickin' 'im up out o' th' road an'
+shelterin' 'im. Them folks is goin' to be awful nice to Hop fer all he
+done fer 'em." And then, finding that they were impressed by his defense,
+thus elaborated, he magnanimously referred to the bill-book which had
+started him on his downward course.
+
+"That were a mistake; I grant ye ut were a mistake o' jedgment. I'm goin'
+to keep to th' white card. But ut's kind o' funny about that
+poke--queerest thing that ever happened."
+
+He drew out the book and eyed the name on the flap. Humpy tried to grab
+it, but The Hopper, frustrating the attempt, read his colleague a sharp
+lesson in good manners. He restored it to his pocket and glanced at the
+clock.
+
+"We gotta do somethin' about Shaver's stockin's. Ut ain't fair fer a kid
+to wake up an' think Santy missed 'im. Ye got some candy, Mary; we kin put
+candy into 'em; that's reg'ler."
+
+Humpy brought in Shaver's stockings and they were stuffed with the candy
+and popcorn Mary had provided to adorn their Christmas feast. Humpy
+inventoried his belongings, but could think of nothing but a revolver that
+seemed a suitable gift for Shaver. This Mary scornfully rejected as
+improper for one so young. Whereupon Humpy produced a Mexican silver
+dollar, a treasured pocket-piece preserved through many tribulations, and
+dropped it reverently into one of the stockings. Two brass buttons of
+unknown history, a mouth-organ Mary had bought for a neighbor boy who
+assisted at times in the poultry yard, and a silver spectacle case of
+uncertain antecedents were added.
+
+"We ought t' 'a' colored eggs fer 'im!" said The Hopper with sudden
+inspiration, after the stockings had been restored to Shaver's bed. "Some
+yaller an' pink eggs would 'a' been the right ticket."
+
+Mary scoffed at the idea. Eggs wasn't proper fer Christmas; eggs was fer
+Easter. Humpy added the weight of his personal experience of Christian
+holidays to this statement. While a trusty in the Missouri penitentiary
+with the chicken yard in his keeping, he remembered distinctly that eggs
+were in demand for purposes of decoration by the warden's children
+sometime in the spring; mebbe it was Easter, mebbe it was Decoration Day;
+Humpy was not sure of anything except that it wasn't Christmas.
+
+The Hopper was meek under correction. It having been settled that colored
+eggs would not be appropriate for Christmas he yielded to their demand
+that he show some enthusiasm for disposing of his ill-gotten treasures
+before the police arrived to take the matter out of his hands.
+
+"I guess that Muriel'll be glad to see me," he remarked. "I guess me and
+her understands each other. They's things wot is an' things wot ain't; an'
+I guess Hop ain't goin' to spend no Chris'mas in jail. It's the white card
+an' poultry an' eggs fer us; an' we're goin' t' put in a couple more
+incubators right away. I'm thinkin' some o' rentin' that acre across th'
+brook back yonder an' raisin' turkeys. They's mints in turks, ef ye kin
+keep 'em from gettin' their feet wet an' dyin' o' pneumonia, which wipes
+out thousands o' them birds. I reckon ye might make some coffee, Mary."
+
+The Christmas dawn found them at the table, where they were renewing a
+pledge to play "the white card" when a cry from Shaver brought them to
+their feet.
+
+Shaver was highly pleased with his Christmas stockings, but his pleasure
+was nothing to that of The Hopper, Mary, and Humpy, as they stood about
+the bed and watched him. Mary and Humpy were so relieved by The Hopper's
+promises to lead a better life that they were now disposed to treat their
+guest with the most distinguished consideration. Humpy, absenting himself
+to perform his morning tasks in the poultry-houses, returned bringing a
+basket containing six newly hatched chicks. These cheeped and ran over
+Shaver's fat legs and performed exactly as though they knew they were a
+part of his Christmas entertainment. Humpy, proud of having thought of the
+chicks, demanded the privilege of serving Shaver's breakfast. Shaver ate
+his porridge without a murmur, so happy was he over his new playthings.
+
+Mary bathed and dressed him with care. As the candy had stuck to the
+stockings in spots, it was decided after a family conference that Shaver
+would have to wear them wrong side out as there was no time to be wasted
+in washing them. By eight o'clock The Hopper announced that it was time
+for Shaver to go home. Shaver expressed alarm at the thought of leaving
+his chicks; whereupon Humpy conferred two of them upon him in the best
+imitation of baby talk that he could muster.
+
+"Me's tate um to me's gwanpas," said Shaver; "chickee for me's two
+gwanpas,"--a remark which caused The Hopper to shake for a moment with
+mirth as he recalled his last view of Shaver's "gwanpas" in a death grip
+upon the floor of "Gwanpa" Talbot's house.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+
+When The Hopper rolled away from Happy Hill Farm in the stolen machine,
+accompanied by one stolen child and forty thousand dollars' worth of
+stolen pottery, Mary wept, whether because of the parting with Shaver, or
+because she feared that The Hopper would never return, was not clear.
+
+Humpy, too, showed signs of tears, but concealed his weakness by
+performing a grotesque dance, dancing grotesquely by the side of the car,
+much to Shaver's joy--a joy enhanced just as the car reached the gate,
+where, as a farewell attention, Humpy fell down and rolled over and over
+in the snow.
+
+The Hopper's wits were alert as he bore Shaver homeward. By this time it
+was likely that the confiding young Talbots had conferred over the
+telephone and knew that their offspring had disappeared. Doubtless the New
+Haven police had been notified, and he chose his route with discretion to
+avoid unpleasant encounters. Shaver, his spirits keyed to holiday pitch,
+babbled ceaselessly, and The Hopper, highly elated, babbled back at him.
+
+They arrived presently at the rear of the young Talbots' premises, and The
+Hopper, with Shaver trotting at his side, advanced cautiously upon the
+house bearing the two baskets, one containing Shaver's chicks, the other
+the precious porcelains. In his survey of the landscape he noted with
+trepidation the presence of two big limousines in the highway in front of
+the cottage and decided that if possible he must see Muriel alone and make
+his report to her.
+
+The moment he entered the kitchen he heard the clash of voices in angry
+dispute in the living-room. Even Shaver was startled by the violence of
+the conversation in progress within, and clutched tightly a fold of The
+Hopper's trousers.
+
+"I tell you it's John Wilton who has stolen Billie!" a man cried
+tempestuously. "Anybody who would enter a neighbor's house in the dead of
+night and try to rob him--rob him, yes, and _murder_ him in the most
+brutal fashion--would not scruple to steal his own grandchild!"
+
+"Me's gwanpa," whispered Shaver, gripping The Hopper's hand, "an' 'im's
+mad."
+
+That Mr. Talbot was very angry indeed was established beyond cavil.
+However, Mr. Wilton was apparently quite capable of taking care of himself
+in the dispute.
+
+"You talk about my stealing when you robbed me of my Lang-Yao--bribed my
+servants to plunder my safe! I want you to understand once for all, Roger
+Talbot, that if that jar isn't returned within one hour,--within one hour,
+sir,--I shall turn you over to the police!"
+
+"Liar!" bellowed Talbot, who possessed a voice of great resonance. "You
+can't mitigate your foul crime by charging me with another! I never saw
+your jar; I never wanted it! I wouldn't have the thing on my place!"
+
+Muriel's voice, full of tears, was lifted in expostulation.
+
+"How can you talk of your silly vases when Billie's lost! Billie's been
+stolen--and you two men can think of nothing but pot-ter-ree!"
+
+Shaver lifted a startled face to The Hopper.
+
+"Mamma's cwyin'; gwanpa's hurted mamma!"
+
+The strategic moment had arrived when Shaver must be thrust forward as an
+interruption to the exchange of disagreeable epithets by his grandfathers.
+
+"You trot right in there t' yer ma, Shaver. Ole Hop ain't goin' t' let 'em
+hurt ye!"
+
+He led the child through the dining room to the living-room door and
+pushed him gently on the scene of strife. Talbot, senior, was pacing the
+floor with angry strides, declaiming upon his wrongs,--indeed, his theme
+might have been the misery of the whole human race from the vigor of his
+lamentations. His son was keeping step with him, vainly attempting to
+persuade him to sit down. Wilton, with a patch over his right eye, was
+trying to disengage himself from his daughter's arms with the obvious
+intention of doing violence to his neighbor.
+
+"I'm sure papa never meant to hurt you; it was all a dreadful mistake,"
+she moaned.
+
+"He had an accomplice," Talbot thundered, "and while he was trying to kill
+me there in my own house the plum-blossom vase was carried off; and if
+Roger hadn't pushed him out of the window after his hireling--I'd--I'd--"
+
+A shriek from Muriel happily prevented the completion of a sentence that
+gave every promise of intensifying the prevailing hard feeling.
+
+"Look!" Muriel cried. "It's Billie come back! Oh, Billie!"
+
+She sprang toward the door and clasped the frightened child to her heart.
+The three men gathered round them, staring dully. The Hopper from behind
+the door waited for Muriel's joy over Billie's return to communicate
+itself to his father and the two grandfathers.
+
+"Me's dot two chick-ees for Kwismus," announced Billie, wriggling in his
+mother's arms.
+
+Muriel, having satisfied herself that Billie was intact,--that he even
+bore the marks of maternal care,--was in the act of transferring him to
+his bewildered father, when, turning a tear-stained face toward the door,
+she saw The Hopper awkwardly twisting the derby which he had donned as
+proper for a morning call of ceremony. She walked toward him with quick,
+eager step.
+
+"You--you came back!" she faltered, stifling a sob.
+
+"Yes'm," responded The Hopper, rubbing his hand across his nose. His
+appearance roused Billie's father to a sense of his parental
+responsibility.
+
+"You brought the boy back! You are the kidnaper!"
+
+"Roger," cried Muriel protestingly, "don't speak like that! I'm sure this
+gentleman can explain how he came to bring Billie."
+
+The quickness with which she regained her composure, the ease with which
+she adjusted herself to the unforeseen situation, pleased The Hopper
+greatly. He had not misjudged Muriel; she was an admirable ally, an ideal
+confederate. She gave him a quick little nod, as much as to say, "Go on,
+sir; we understand each other perfectly,"--though, of course, she did not
+understand, nor was she enlightened until some time later, as to just how
+The Hopper became possessed of Billie.
+
+[Illustration: THE THREE MEN GATHERED ROUND THEM, STARING DULLY]
+
+Billie's father declared his purpose to invoke the law upon his son's
+kidnapers no matter where they might be found.
+
+"I reckon as mebbe ut wuz a kidnapin' an' I reckon as mebbe ut wuzn't,"
+The Hopper began unhurriedly. "I live over Shell Road way; poultry and
+eggs is my line; Happy Hill Farm. Stevens's the name--Charles S. Stevens.
+An' I found Shaver--'scuse me, but ut seemed sort o' nat'ral name fer
+'im?--I found 'im a settin' up in th' machine over there by my place,
+chipper's ye please. I takes 'im into my house an' Mary'--that's th'
+missus--she gives 'im supper and puts 'im t' sleep. An' we thinks mebbe
+somebody'd come along askin' fer 'im. An' then this mornin' I calls th'
+New Haven police, an' they tole me about you folks, an' me and Shaver
+comes right over."
+
+This was entirely plausible and his hearers, The Hopper noted with relief,
+accepted it at face value.
+
+"How dear of you!" cried Muriel. "Won't you have this chair, Mr. Stevens!"
+
+"Most remarkable!" exclaimed Wilton. "Some scoundrelly tramp picked up the
+car and finding there was a baby inside left it at the roadside like the
+brute he was!"
+
+Billie had addressed himself promptly to the Christmas tree, to his very
+own Christmas tree that was laden with gifts that had been assembled by
+the family for his delectation. Efforts of Grandfather Wilton to extract
+from the child some account of the man who had run away with him were
+unavailing. Billie was busy, very busy, indeed. After much patient effort
+he stopped sorting the animals in a bright new Noah's Ark to point his
+finger at The Hopper and remark:--
+
+"'Ims nice mans; 'ims let Bil-lee play wif 'ims watch!"
+
+As Billie had broken the watch his acknowledgment of The Hopper's courtesy
+in letting him play with it brought a grin to The Hopper's face.
+
+Now that Billie had been returned and his absence satisfactorily accounted
+for, the two connoisseurs showed signs of renewing their quarrel.
+Responsive to a demand from Billie, The Hopper got down on the floor to
+assist in the proper mating of Noah's animals. Billie's father was
+scrutinizing him fixedly and The Hopper wondered whether Muriel's handsome
+young husband had recognized him as the person who had vanished through
+the window of the Talbot home bearing the plum-blossom vase. The thought
+was disquieting; but feigning deep interest in the Ark he listened
+attentively to a violent tirade upon which the senior Talbot was launched.
+
+"My God!" he cried bitterly, planting himself before Wilton in a
+belligerent attitude, "every infernal thing that can happen to a man
+happened to me yesterday. It wasn't enough that you robbed me and tried to
+murder me--yes, you did, sir!--but when I was in the city I was robbed in
+the subway by a pickpocket. A thief took my bill-book containing
+invaluable data I had just received from my agent in China giving me a
+clue to porcelains, sir, such as you never dreamed of! Some more of your
+work--Don't you contradict me! You don't contradict me! Roger, he doesn't
+contradict me!"
+
+Wilton, choking with indignation at this new onslaught, was unable to
+contradict him.
+
+Pained by the situation, The Hopper rose from the floor and coughed
+timidly.
+
+"Shaver, go fetch yer chickies. Bring yer chickies in an' put 'em on th'
+boat."
+
+Billie obediently trotted off toward the kitchen and The Hopper turned his
+back upon the Christmas tree, drew out the pocket-book and faced the
+company.
+
+"I beg yer pardon, gents, but mebbe this is th' book yer fightin' about.
+Kind o' funny like! I picked ut up on th' local yistiddy afternoon. I wuz
+goin' t' turn ut int' th' agint, but I clean fergot ut. I guess them
+papers may be valible. I never touched none of 'em."
+
+Talbot snatched the bill-book and hastily examined the contents. His brow
+relaxed and he was grumbling something about a reward when Billie
+reappeared, laboriously dragging two baskets.
+
+"Bil-lee's dot chick-_ees_! Bil-lee's dot pitty dishes. Bil-lee make
+dishes go 'ippity!"
+
+Before he could make the two jars go 'ippity, The Hopper leaped across
+the room and seized the basket. He tore off the towel with which he had
+carefully covered the stolen pottery and disclosed the contents for
+inspection.
+
+"'Scuse me, gents; no crowdin'," he warned as the connoisseurs sprang
+toward him. He placed the porcelains carefully on the floor under the
+Christmas tree. "Now ye kin listen t' me, gents. I reckon I'm goin' t'
+have somethin' t' say about this here crockery. I stole 'em--I stole 'em
+fer th' lady there, she thinkin' ef ye didn't have 'em no more ye'd stop
+rowin' about 'em. Ye kin call th' bulls an' turn me over ef ye likes; but
+I ain't goin' t' have ye fussin' an' causin' th' lady trouble no more. I
+ain't goin' to stand fer ut!"
+
+"Robber!" shouted Talbot. "You entered my house at the instance of this
+man; it was you--"
+
+"I never saw the gent before," declared The Hopper hotly. "I ain't never
+had no thin' to do with neither o' ye."
+
+"He's telling the truth!" protested Muriel, laughing hysterically. "I did
+it--I got him to take them!"
+
+The two collectors were not interested in explanations; they were hungrily
+eyeing their property. Wilton attempted to pass The Hopper and reach the
+Christmas tree under whose protecting boughs the two vases were looking
+their loveliest.
+
+"Stand back," commanded The Hopper, "an' stop callin' names! I guess ef
+I'm yanked fer this I ain't th' only one that's goin' t' do time fer house
+breakin'."
+
+This statement, made with considerable vigor, had a sobering effect upon
+Wilton, but Talbot began dancing round the tree looking for a chance to
+pounce upon the porcelains.
+
+"Ef ye don't set down--the whole caboodle o' ye--I'll smash 'em--I'll
+smash 'em both! I'll bust 'em--sure as shootin'!" shouted The Hopper.
+
+They cowered before him; Muriel wept softly; Billie played with his
+chickies, disdainful of the world's woe. The Hopper, holding the two angry
+men at bay, was enjoying his command of the situation.
+
+"You gents ain't got no business to be fussin' an' causin' yer childern
+trouble. An' ye ain't goin' to have these pretty jugs to fuss about no
+more. I'm goin' t' give 'em away; I'm goin' to make a Chris'mas present of
+'em to Shaver. They're goin' to be little Shaver's right here, all orderly
+an' peace'ble, or I'll tromp on 'em! Looky here, Shaver, wot Santy Claus
+brought ye!"
+
+"Nice dood Sant' Claus!" cried Billie, diving under the davenport in quest
+of the wandering chicks.
+
+Silence held the grown-ups. The Hopper stood patiently by the Christmas
+tree, awaiting the result of his diplomacy.
+
+Then suddenly Wilton laughed--a loud laugh expressive of relief. He turned
+to Talbot and put out his hand.
+
+"It looks as though Muriel and her friend here had cornered us! The idea
+of pooling our trophies and giving them as a Christmas present to Billie
+appeals to me strongly. And, besides we've got to prepare somebody to love
+these things after we're gone. We can work together and train Billie to be
+the greatest collector in America!"
+
+"Please, father," urged Roger as Talbot frowned and shook his head
+impatiently.
+
+Billie, struck with the happy thought of hanging one of his chickies on
+the Christmas tree, caused them all to laugh at this moment. It was
+difficult to refuse to be generous on Christmas morning in the presence of
+the happy child!
+
+"Well," said Talbot, a reluctant smile crossing his face, "I guess it's
+all in the family anyway."
+
+The Hopper, feeling that his work as the Reversible Santa Claus was
+finished, was rapidly retreating through the dining-room when Muriel and
+Roger ran after him.
+
+"We're going to take you home," cried Muriel, beaming.
+
+"Yer car's at the back gate, all right-side-up," said The Hopper, "but I
+kin go on the trolley."
+
+"Indeed you won't! Roger will take you home. Oh, don't be alarmed! My
+husband knows everything about our conspiracy. And we want you to come
+back this afternoon. You know I owe you an apology for thinking--for
+thinking you were--you were--a--"
+
+"They's things wot is an' things wot ain't, miss. Circumstantial evidence
+sends lots o' men to th' chair. Ut's a heap more happy like," The Hopper
+continued in his best philosophical vein, "t' play th' white card, helpin'
+widders an' orfants an' settlin' fusses. When ye ast me t' steal them jugs
+I hadn't th' heart t' refuse ye, miss. I wuz scared to tell ye I had yer
+baby an' ye seemed so sort o' trustin' like. An' ut bein' Chris'mus an'
+all."
+
+When he steadfastly refused to promise to return, Muriel announced that
+they would visit The Hopper late in the afternoon and bring Billie along
+to express their thanks more formally.
+
+"I'll be glad to see ye," replied The Hopper, though a little doubtfully
+and shame-facedly. "But ye mustn't git me into no more house-breakin'
+scrapes," he added with a grin. "It's mighty dangerous, miss, fer
+amachures, like me an' yer pa!"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+
+Mary was not wholly pleased at the prospect of visitors, but she fell to
+work with Humpy to put the house in order. At five o'clock not one, but
+three automobiles drove into the yard, filling Humpy with alarm lest at
+last The Hopper's sins had overtaken him, and they were all about to be
+hauled away to spend the rest of their lives in prison. It was not the
+police, but the young Talbots, with Billie and his grandfathers, on their
+way to a family celebration at the house of an aunt of Muriel's.
+
+The grandfathers were restored to perfect amity, and were deeply curious
+now about The Hopper, whom the peace-loving Muriel had cajoled into
+robbing their houses.
+
+"And you're only an honest chicken farmer, after all!" exclaimed Talbot,
+senior, when they were all sitting in a semicircle about the fireplace in
+Mary's parlor. "I hoped you were really a burglar; I always wanted to know
+a burglar."
+
+Humpy had chopped down a small fir that had adorned the front yard and had
+set it up as a Christmas tree--an attention that was not lost upon Billie.
+The Hopper had brought some mechanical toys from town, and Humpy essayed
+the agreeable task of teaching the youngster how to operate them. Mary
+produced coffee and pound cake for the guests; The Hopper assumed the
+role of lord of the manor with a benevolent air that was intended as much
+to impress Mary and Humpy as the guests.
+
+"Of course," said Mr. Wilton, whose appearance was the least bit comical
+by reason of his bandaged head,--"of course it was very foolish for a man
+of your sterling character to allow a young woman like my daughter to
+bully you into robbing houses for her. Why, when Roger fired at you as you
+were jumping out of the window, he didn't miss you more than a foot! It
+would have been ghastly for all of us if he had killed you!"
+
+"Well, o' course it all begun from my goin' into th' little house lookin'
+fer Shaver's folks," replied The Hopper.
+
+"But you haven't told us how you came to find our house," said Roger,
+suggesting a perfectly natural line of inquiries that caused Humpy to
+become deeply preoccupied with a pump he was operating in a basin of water
+for Billie's benefit.
+
+"Well, ut jes' looked like a house that Shaver would belong to, cute an'
+comfortable like," said The Hopper; "I jes' suspicioned it wuz th' place
+as I wuz passin' along."
+
+"I don't think we'd better begin trying to establish alibis," remarked
+Muriel, very gently, "for we might get into terrible scrapes. Why, if Mr.
+Stevens hadn't been so splendid about _everything_ and wasn't just the
+kindest man in the world, he could make it very ugly for me."
+
+"I shudder to think of what he might do to me," said Wilton, glancing
+guardedly at his neighbor.
+
+"The main thing," said Talbot,--"the main thing is that Mr. Stevens has
+done for us all what nobody else could ever have done. He's made us see
+how foolish it is to quarrel about mere baubles. He's settled all our
+troubles for us, and for my part I'll say his solution is entirely
+satisfactory."
+
+"Quite right," ejaculated Wilton. "If I ever have any delicate business
+negotiations that are beyond my powers I'm going to engage Mr. Stevens to
+handle them."
+
+"My business's hens an' eggs," said The Hopper modestly; "an' we're doin'
+purty well."
+
+When they rose to go (a move that evoked strident protests from Billie,
+who was enjoying himself hugely with Humpy) they were all in the jolliest
+humor.
+
+"We must be neighborly," said Muriel, shaking hands with Mary, who was at
+the point of tears so great was her emotion at the success of The Hopper's
+party. "And we're going to buy all our chickens and eggs from you. We
+never have any luck raising our own."
+
+Whereupon The Hopper imperturbably pressed upon each of the visitors a
+neat card stating his name (his latest and let us hope his last!) with the
+proper rural route designation of Happy Hill Farm.
+
+The Hopper carried Billie out to his Grandfather Wilton's car, while Humpy
+walked beside him bearing the gifts from the Happy Hill Farm Christmas
+tree. From the door Mary watched them depart amid a chorus of merry
+Christmases, out of which Billie's little pipe rang cheerily.
+
+When The Hopper and Humpy returned to the house, they abandoned the
+parlor for the greater coziness of the kitchen and there took account of
+the events of the momentous twenty-four hours.
+
+"Them's what I call nice folks," said Humpy. "They jes' put us on an' wore
+us like we wuz a pair o' ole slippers."
+
+"They wuzn't uppish--not to speak of," Mary agreed. "I guess that girl's
+got more gumption than any of 'em. She's got 'em straightened up now and I
+guess she'll take care they don't cut up no more monkey-shines about that
+Chinese stuff. Her husban' seemed sort o' gentle like."
+
+"Artists is that way," volunteered The Hopper, as though from deep
+experience of art and life. "I jes' been thinkin' that knowin' folks like
+that an' findin' 'em humin, makin' mistakes like th' rest of us, kind o'
+makes ut seem easier fer us all t' play th' game straight. Ut's goin' to
+be th' white card fer me--jes' chickens an' eggs, an' here's hopin' the
+bulls don't ever find out we're settled here."
+
+Humpy, having gone into the parlor to tend the fire, returned with two
+envelopes he had found on the mantel. There was a check for a thousand
+dollars in each, one from Wilton, the other from Talbot, with "Merry
+Christmas" written across the visiting-cards of those gentlemen. The
+Hopper permitted Mary and Humpy to examine them and then laid them on the
+kitchen table, while he deliberated. His meditations were so prolonged
+that they grew nervous.
+
+"I reckon they could spare ut, after all ye done fer 'em, Hop," remarked
+Humpy.
+
+"They's millionaires, an' money ain't nothin' to 'em," said The Hopper.
+
+"We can buy a motor-truck," suggested Mary, "to haul our stuff to town;
+an' mebbe we can build a new shed to keep ut in."
+
+The Hopper set the catsup bottle on the checks and rubbed his cheek,
+squinting at the ceiling in the manner of one who means to be careful of
+his speech.
+
+"They's things wot is an' things wot ain't," he began. "We ain't none o'
+us ever got nowheres bein' crooked. I been figurin' that I still got about
+twenty thousan' o' that bunch o' green I pulled out o' that express car,
+planted in places where 'taint doin' nobody no good. I guess ef I do ut
+careful I kin send ut back to the company, a little at a time, an' they'd
+never know where ut come from."
+
+Mary wept; Humpy stared, his mouth open, his one eye rolling queerly.
+
+"I guess we kin put a little chunk away every year," The Hopper went on.
+"We'd be comfortabler doin' ut. We could square up ef we lived long
+enough, which we don't need t' worry about, that bein' the Lord's
+business. You an' me's cracked a good many safes, Hump, but we never made
+no money at ut, takin' out th' time we done."
+
+"He's got religion; that's wot he's got!" moaned Humpy, as though this
+marked the ultimate tragedy of The Hopper's life.
+
+"Mebbe ut's religion an' mebbe ut's jes' sense," pursued The Hopper,
+unshaken by Humpy's charge. "They wuz a chaplin in th' Minnesoty pen as
+used t' say ef we're all square with our own selves ut's goin' to be all
+right with God. I guess I got a good deal o' squarin' t' do, but I'm goin'
+t' begin ut. An' all these things happenin' along o' Chris'mus, an' little
+Shaver an' his ma bein' so friendly like, an' her gittin' me t' help
+straighten out them ole gents, an' doin' all I done an' not gettin'
+pinched seems more 'n jes' luck; it's providential's wot ut is!"
+
+This, uttered in a challenging tone, evoked a sob from Humpy, who
+announced that he "felt like" he was going to die.
+
+"It's th' Chris'mus time, I reckon," said Mary, watching The Hopper
+deposit the two checks in the clock. "It's the only decent Chris'mus I
+ever knowed!"
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
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