diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 33048-8.txt | 6510 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 33048-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 122605 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 33048-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 151101 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 33048-h/33048-h.htm | 9157 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 33048-h/images/img-front.jpg | bin | 0 -> 25679 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 33048.txt | 6510 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 33048.zip | bin | 0 -> 122578 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
10 files changed, 22193 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/33048-8.txt b/33048-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cacb872 --- /dev/null +++ b/33048-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6510 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jap Herron, by Emily Grant Hutchings + +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: Jap Herron + A Novel Written from the Ouija Board + +Author: Emily Grant Hutchings + +Release Date: November 20, 2010 [EBook #33048] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAP HERRON *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: A DRAWING FROM LIFE BY JOHN CECIL CLAY] + + + + + +JAP HERRON + + +A NOVEL WRITTEN FROM + +THE OUIJA BOARD + + + +WITH AN INTRODUCTION + +THE COMING OF JAP HERRON + + + + +by + +Emily Grant Hutchings + + + + +NEW YORK + +MITCHELL KENNERLEY + +MCMXVII + + + + +COPYRIGHT 1917 BY + +MITCHELL KENNERLEY + + + +PRINTED IN AMERICA + + + + +THE COMING OF "JAP HERRON" + + +On the afternoon of the second Thursday in March, 1916, I responded to +an invitation to the regular meeting of a small psychical research +society. There was to be a lecture on cosmic relations, and the +hostess for the afternoon, whom I had met twice socially, thought I +might be interested, my name having appeared in connection with a +recently detailed series of psychic experiments. To all those present, +with the exception of the hostess, I was a total stranger. I learned, +with some surprise, that these men and women had been meeting, with an +occasional break of a few months, for more than five years. The record +of these meetings filled several type-written volumes. + +When word came that the lecturer was unavoidably detained, the hostess +requested Mrs. Lola V. Hays to entertain the members and guests by a +demonstration of her ability to transmit spirit messages by means of a +planchette and a lettered board. The apparatus was familiar to me; but +the outcome of that afternoon's experience revealed a new use for the +transmission board. After several messages, more or less personal, had +been spelled out, the pointer of the planchette traced the words: + +"Samuel L. Clemens, lazy Sam." There was a long pause, and then: +"Well, why don't some of you say something?" + +I was born in Hannibal, and my pulses quickened. I wanted to put a +host of questions to the greatest humorist and the greatest philosopher +of modern times; but I was an outsider, unacquainted with the usages of +the club, and I remained silent while the planchette continued: + +"Say, folks, don't knock my memoirs too hard. They were written when +Mark Twain was dead to all sense of decency. When brains are soft, the +method should be anćsthesia." + +Not one of those present had read Mark Twain's memoirs, and the plaint +fell upon barren soil. The arrival of the lecturer prevented further +confession from the unseen communicant; but I was so deeply impressed +that I begged my hostess to permit me to come again. For my benefit a +meeting was arranged at which there was no lecturer, and I was asked to +sit for the first time with Mrs. Hays. + +In my former psychic investigation, it had been my habit to pronounce +the letters as the pointer of the planchette indicated them, and Mrs. +Hays urged me to render the same service when I sat with her, because +she never permitted herself to look at the board, fearing that her own +mind would interfere with the transmission. Scarcely had our +finger-tips touched the planchette when it darted to the letters which +spelled the words: + +"I tried to write a romance once, and the little wife laughed at it. I +still think it is good stuff and I want it written. The plot is +simple. You'd best skeletonize the plot. Solly Jenks, Hiram +Wall--young men. Time, before the Civil War." + +Then the outline of a typical Mark Twain story came in short, explosive +sentences. It was entitled, "Up the Furrow to Fortune." A brief +account of its coming seems vital to the more sustained work which was +destined to follow it. I was not present at the next regular meeting +of the society; but at its close I was summoned to the telephone and +informed that Mark Twain had come again and had said that "the Hannibal +girl" was the one for whom he and Mrs. Hays had been waiting. When +they asked him what he meant, the planchette made reply: + +"Consult your record for 1911." + +One of the early volumes of the society's record was brought forth, and +a curious fact that all the members of the society had forgotten was +unearthed. About a year after his passing out, Mr. Clemens had told +Mrs. Hays that he had carried with him much valuable literary material +which he yearned to send back, and that he would transmit stories +through her, if she could find just the right person to sit with her at +the transmission board. Although she experimented with each member of +the club, and with several of her friends who were sympathetic though +not avowed investigators, he was not satisfied with any of them. Then +she gave up the attempt and dismissed it from her mind. A +twenty-minute test with me seemed to convince him that in me he had +found the negative side of the mysterious human mechanism for which he +had been waiting. + +The work of transmitting that first story was attended with the +greatest difficulty. No less than three distinct styles of diction, +accompanied by correspondingly distinct motion in the planchette under +our fingers, were thrust into the record. At first we were at a loss +to understand these intrusions. That they were intrusions there could +be no doubt. In each case there was a sharp deviation from the plot of +the story, as it had been given to us in the synopsis. After one of +these experiences, which resulted in the introduction of a paragraph +that was rather clever but not at all pertinent. Mark regained control +with the impatiently traced words: + +"Every scribe here wants a pencil on earth." + +Not until the middle of summer did we achieve that sureness of touch +which now enables us to recognize, intuitively, the presence of the one +scribe whose thoughts we are eager to transmit. That the story of Jap +Herron and the two short stories which preceded it are the actual +post-mortem work of Samuel L. Clemens, known to the world as Mark +Twain, we do not for one moment doubt. His individuality has been +revealed to us in ways which could leave no question in our minds. The +little, intimate touches which reveal personality are really of more +importance than the larger and more conspicuous fact that neither Mrs. +Hays nor I could have written the fiction that has come across our +transmission board. Our literary output is well known, and not even +the severest psychological skeptic could assert that it bears any +resemblance to the literary style of "Jap Herron." + +Mrs. Hays has found the best market for her short stories with one of +the large religious publishing houses, and in the early days Mark Twain +seemed to fear that her subconscious mind might inadvertently color or +distort his thought, in process of transmission. We had come to the +end of our fourth session when he added this: + +"There will be minor errors that you will be able to take care of. I +don't object. Only--don't try to correct my grammar. I know what I +want to say. And, dear ladies, when I say d-a-m-n, please don't write +d-a-r-n. Don't try to smooth it out. This is not a smooth story." + +That Mark should fear the blue pencil, at our hands, amused us greatly. +The story bristles with profanity and is roughly picturesque in its +diction. It deals with a section of the Ozark country with which +neither of us is familiar, and in the speech of the natives there are +words that we had never heard, that are included in no dictionary but +are, it transpires, perfectly familiar to the primitive people in the +southwestern part of the state. When the revision of the story was +almost complete. Mark interrupted the dictation, one afternoon, to +remark: + +"You are too tired. Forces must be strong for results. Somebody +handed you a lemon, back there. Cut out that part about the apple at +fly time. I am not carping. You have done well. The interpretation +is excellent. I was afraid of femininity. Women have their ideas, but +this is not a woman's story. Good-bye." + +There was another meeting, at which the revision of "Up the Furrow to +Fortune" was completed, and then we went to work on the second story, +"A Daughter of Mars." As in the case of the first one, it began with a +partial synopsis. Vallon Leithe, an enthusiastic aeronaut, was resting +after a long flight, when a strange air-craft fell out of the sky, +lodging in the top of a great tree. The occupant of the marvelously +constructed flying machine proved to be a girl from the planet Mars. +Her name was Ulethe, and she had many thrilling adventures on our +earth. The synopsis ended with the wholly unexpected words: + +"Now, girls, it is not yet clear in my mind whether we'd better send +Ulethe back to Mars, kill her, marry her to Leithe, or have an +expedition from Mars raise the dickens. But we will let it develop +itself." + +The board, on which two short stories and a novel have already been +transmitted, is one of the ordinary varieties, a polished surface over +which the planchette glides to indicate the letters of the alphabet and +the figures from 1 to 10. In the main our dictation came without any +apparent need for marks of punctuation. Occasionally the words +"quotation marks," or "Put that in quotes" would be interjected. Once +when my intonation, as I pronounced the words for the amanuensis who +was keeping our record, seemed to indicate a direct statement, the +planchette whirled under our fingers and traced the crisp statement, "I +meant that for a question." + +When I told my husband of these grippingly intimate evidences of an +unseen personality, it occurred to him that a complete set of +punctuation marks, carefully applied in India ink, where the pointer of +the planchette could pick them out as they were required, would +facilitate the transmission of sustained narrative. To him it seemed +that the absence of these marks on the board must be maddening, +especially to Mark Twain, whose thought could be hopelessly distorted +by the omission of so trivial a thing as a comma, and whose subtle use +of the colon was known to all the clan of printers. Before our next +meeting the board had been duly adorned with ten of the most important +marks, including the hyphen and the M-dash. The comma was at the head +of the right-hand column and the apostrophe at the bottom. My husband, +Mrs. Hays and I knew exactly what all these markings meanly yet we had +some confusion because Mark insisted on using the comma when he wished +to indicate a possessive case. The sentence was this, as I understood +it: + +"I was not wont to disobey my father, scommand." + +Instantly my husband, who had become interested and had taken the place +of our first amanuensis, perceived that I had made a mistake, when I +pronounced the combination, "f-a-t-h-e-r, comma, s-c-o-m-m-a-n-d." + +"But," I defended myself, "the pointer went to the comma. I can see +now that it should have been the apostrophe." As I spoke the pointer +of the planchette traced the words on the board: + +"Edwin did a pretty piece of work, but that apostrophe is too far down. +I am in danger of falling off the board every time I make a run for it." + +The result was that another apostrophe was placed in the middle of the +board, directly under the letter S. In connection with the M-dash we +had a yet more startling evidence of an outside personality, one +dependent on us for his means of communication, but wholly independent +of our thought and knowledge. Mark had dictated the synopsis for the +second story and had enlarged upon the first situation. Then, as has +since become his fixed habit, he indicated that the serious work for +the evening was ended, and returned for an informal chat. Mrs. Hays +and I had discussed the plot at some lengthy and after my husband had +read aloud the second evening's dictation we commented on some of the +obscure points, our fingers resting, the while, lightly on the +planchette. Suddenly it became agitated, assumed a vigorous sweeping +motion and traced very rapidly these words: + +"It is starting good; but will you two ladies stop speculating? I am +going to take care of this story. Don't try to dictate. You are +interrupting the thread of the story. There is ample time for +smoothing the rough places. I am not caviling. I am well pleased." +After a pause, he continued: "There is the same class of +interruption--those who could write stories, but are not to write +my----" At this, the planchette turned to the M-dash and slid back and +forth under it several times. It then spelled the word "stories." We +were utterly at a loss, until he explained: "I was using that black +line for an underscore." + +Again and again we have had the word "good" in an adverbial +construction, a usage that is not common to either Mrs. Hays or me; but +Mark has told us that he liked it, in familiar conversation. We have +tried to adhere with absolute fidelity to even the seeming errors which +came over the board. + +The second installment of the story gave all of us much trouble. +Incidentally it served to develop several bits of humorous +conversation. When it was finished, we received this comment: + +"I think that is all we can do to-night. I intend to enlarge upon this +chapter before going further. The forces are not strong enough +to-night. We will rewrite this part Monday night." + +We naturally expected a rehandling of that installment, which for +convenience he had designated a "chapter." To our surprise, the +pointer of the planchette gave this: + +"I have changed my mind. We will proceed to New York. I will probably +want to handle chapter second in a different way. It reads like a +printed porous plaster; but that is no one's fault. Begin!" + +The dictation went smoothly, and there were no interruptions from the +unseen rivals who had so persistently contested Mark Twain's right to +the exclusive use of our "pencil." Before the next meeting I was urged +to take a prominent part in another piece of psychic work, and to +persuade both my husband and Mrs. Hays to join me. I said nothing to +either one of them about it, intending to discuss it with them when the +evening's work was over. As soon, however, as we applied our finger +tips to the planchette, this astonishing communication came: + +"I am afraid that my pencil-holders are going to get wound up in other +stuff that will make much confusion. I heard Emily talking over the +telephone and making promises that are not good for our work." + +When I had been questioned concerning the meaning of this rebuke, and +had explained its import, Mark added: "If we are going to make good +there must be concentration, to that end. Get busy." We did! It was +a hot July night, and the planchette flew over the board so swiftly +that at times I could scarcely keep pace with it as I pronounced the +letters. With other amanuenses I had been forced to pronounce the +finished words, and to repeat sentences in whole or in part; but after +my husband came into the work this was not necessary. As much as a +score of letters might be run together, to be divided into words after +the dictation was ended. Sometimes, when I had failed utterly to catch +the thought, and would hesitate or ask to have the thing repeated, my +husband would say to me: "Don't stop him. I know what it means." Mrs. +Hays avoided looking at the board lest her own mind interfere with the +transmission, and with less efficient help, the entire responsibility +had been on me. When I came to realize that nothing was expected of me +beyond the mere pronouncing of the letters, the three of us developed +swiftly into a smoothly working machine. Yet Mark was constantly +worried for fear that my heart would be alienated and that I would "go +chasing after strange gods," as he once put it. + +When he had finished the fifth installment of the story, with a climax +that surprised and puzzled us, he said: + +"I reckon we had better lay by for a few days till I get this thing +riffled out. It has slipped its tether. I have had such things happen +often. Don't get scared." + +We discussed the use of the word "riffle," and then Mark became serious. + +"I don't want to be disappointed in the Hannibal girl. I have been +trying for several years to get through to the light. I don't want a +false sentiment for a crew of fanatics to wreck my chance. I don't +want to act nasty, but if you go into that other work I am likely to +ruin your reputation. You are likely to explode into some of the +mediocre piffle that is the height and depth of such would-be +communications with the other world. There is nothing to hold to. So, +my dear girls, if you want a future, cut it out. I don't want to +command all your time, but right now it is best to avoid all +complications." + +It is needless to say I declined the invitation. After this, whenever +anything went wrong, the rebuke or complaint was invariably addressed +to me. When there were humorous or pleasant things to be said, they +were dispensed equally to the three of us, whom Mark Twain had come to +designate as "my office force." Two bits of personal communication +came within the succeeding week which seem to have a bearing on the +whole mysterious experience. That second installment was undertaken +and abandoned again and again. Finally he said: + +"I am going ahead with the main body of the story. There will be +another round with that second chapter, but not until the theme is +fully developed. The second chapter sticks in my throat like the +cockleburr that I tried to swallow when I was five. It won't slip down +or come up." + +We had worked patiently on the latter part of the narrative and had +accomplished a big evening's work, when the dictation was interrupted +by this remark: + +"It is going good; but I sure wish that I had Edwin's pipe." + +We fairly gasped with astonishment; but we had no time for comment, as +the planchette continued its amazing revelation: + +"Smoke up, old man, for auld lang syne. In the other world they don't +know Walter Raleigh's weed, and I have not found Walter yet to make +complaint. I forget about it till I get Edwin's smoke. But for pity's +sake, Ed, cut out that tobacco you were trying out. It made me sick. +I hoped it would get you, so that you wouldn't try it again." + +My husband; whom neither Mrs. Hays nor I would, under any +circumstances, address by the abbreviation of his name, "Ed," asked +Mark what tobacco he had in mind. He replied: + +"That packet you were substituting, or that some one that had a grudge +against you gave you." + +A comparison of dates revealed the fact that on the evening when that +troublesome second installment was transmitted, my husband had smoked +some heavy imported tobacco that had been given to him by a friend he +had met that afternoon. The circumstance had passed from the minds of +all of us. Indeed, it had never impressed us in the least, and it had +not occurred to any of us that our unseen visitor still retained the +sense of smell, or that he could distinguish between two brands of +tobacco. He had given evidence of both sight and hearing, had told us +frequently that he was tired, at the end of a long evening's work, and +had made other incidental revelations of his environment and condition: +but his reference to the pipe was more significant than any of them. + +Early in August, when our second story was nearing completion, the +transmission began with this curious bit, which none of us understood +for a long time: + +"Emily, I think that when we finish this story we will do a pastoral of +Missouri. There appear high lights and shadows, purple and dark, and +the misty pink of dawnings that make world-weary ones have surcease." + +Not until "Jap Herron" was more than half finished did we realize that +it was the Missouri pastoral. There was one other veiled reference to +that story which must not be omitted. We had planned a trip to New +York, for some time in October or early November, although we had never +discussed it while at the board. One evening Mark terminated his +dictation abruptly, and said: + +"Emily, I think well of your plan." I asked what plan he referred to. +"New York. I will go, too. I will try to convince them that I am not +done working. I am rejuvenated and want to finish my work. When I was +in New York last I had a very beautiful dream. I did not understand it +then. It meant that my days were numbered, and gave me the picture of +an angel bringing a book from heaven to earth, and on its cover was +blazoned this: MARK TWAIN'S COMPLIMENTS. Ask them what they think +about that. I was so tired--so tired that I could not rest. A cool +hand seemed to soothe my weariness away and I slept, and, sleeping, +dreamed." + +When I found that passage in the early part of our record, I wondered +if "Jap Herron" might be the book sent to earth with Mark Twain's +compliments. I asked him about it, one evening when our regular +dictation had been finished. The reply was a slow journey of the +planchette to the word, "Yes," followed by the rapidly spelled words, +"But old Mark isn't done talking yet." + +We assumed that he had something further to say to us, and when I asked +him what he wanted to talk about, he gave this tantalizing reply: + +"Curious? Wait and see." Then, after a pause, "I shall have other +work for my office force." + +The explanation of this cryptic statement was not given until we had +completed the final revision of the story. Before I reveal what he had +in mind, I wish to state that which is to me the most convincing proof +of the supernormal origin of the three stories that had been traced, +letter by letter, on our transmission board. That they come through +Mrs. Hays, there can be no doubt whatever. My total lack of psychic +power has been abundantly demonstrated. Mrs. Hays has written much +light fiction; but it is necessary for her to write a story at one +sitting. If it does not come "all in one piece" it is foredoomed to +failure. I know nothing of Mark Twain's habits; but in all the work we +have done for him, the first draft has been rough and vigorous, and +sweeping changes have been made by him while the work was undergoing +revision. In the case of "Jap Herron" some of the most important +changes were made without a rereading of the story, changes that +involved incidents which we had forgotten, and for which I was +compelled to search the original record. When I had substituted these +passages for the ones they were to supplant, I made a typewritten copy +of the entire story and we read it aloud to Mark. Mrs. Hays and I sat +with our finger tips on the planchette so that he could interrupt; but +he made only a few minor corrections. The story had been virtually +rewritten twice, although a few of the chapters, as they now stand, are +exactly as they were transmitted, not so much as a word having been +changed. The only change made in the fourteenth chapter came near the +end, where Mark had suggested a line of dashes or stars to bridge the +break between Jap's leaving his mother and the announcement that his +mother was dead. Forty-eight words were dictated to show what Jap +actually did, in that painful interim, the three sentences being +rounded out by the words, "There, I think that sounds better." + +Sometimes, in the course of the revision, we have been interrupted by +the jerkily traced words, "Try this," or "We'll fix that better," or "I +told Emily to take out those repetitions." It has happened that he +used the same word four times in one paragraph, and in copying I have +substituted the obvious synonym. Occasionally he did not approve of my +correction and would rebuke me sharply. In the main he has expressed +himself as well pleased with the labor I have spared him. On the 10th +of January, 1916, Mrs. Hays came to my home for a last reading of the +finished manuscript. When she read it through, I asked her to sit at +the board with me. There was something about which I wanted to +question Mark, and I did not wish her mind to interfere in any way with +the answer. Mrs. Hays had had two curious psychic experiences in +connection with our work. The first came to her when we were still at +work on "A Daughter of Mars." It was in the form of a vivid dream in +which Mark Twain said to her, "Don't be discouraged, Lola. All that we +have done in the past is just forging the hammer for the larger strokes +we are going to make." The second was similar; but the man who +appeared to her was a stocky, bald-headed man in a frock coat. When +she asked him who he was and what he wanted, he replied, "Mark Twain +sent me to call on you." + +At this time, "Jap Herron" was being revised, and she supposed that +this man, with the striking personality, would be introduced somewhere. +However, the story was ended, and no such character had appeared. I +wanted to know whether or not the dream was significant. I said: + +"Mark, did you ever send anybody to call on Lola?" The planchette +replied: + +"Yes, I sent him. We will do another story. We will wait until the +smoke of this one clears away. I want Emily to have a rest, and many +other things will be adjusted. I would like to have my old office +force. It is to be a bigger book than this one--more important. The +man I sent you was Brent Roberts." + +We dropped our hands in amazement. Brent Roberts appears twice in the +Jap Herron story. He is not half so conspicuous as Holmes, the +saloon-keeper, or Hollins, the grocer. In truth, we had scarcely +noticed him. I asked: + +"Mark, are you going to give a sequel to 'Jap Herron'?" He said: + +"No. Brent Roberts had a story before he elected to spend his last +years in Bloomtown. Now, girls, don't speculate. I am taking care of +Brent Roberts." + +He added that it was "up to Emily" to give his book to the world, and +that he intended to explore a little of the Uncharted Country while he +was waiting for his office force to resume work. Once I asked him, +while he was transmitting "A Daughter of Mars," whether he had ever +visited that planet. He replied: + +"No, this is pure fiction. I elected to return to earth. I wanted to +take the taste of those memoirs out of my mouth." + +One other passage from the early record may profitably precede the +actual story of Jap's coming. We were in the midst of the most +critical revision. My husband was commanded to read the story, +paragraph by paragraph. When there was no comment, the planchette +remained motionless under our fingers, but there were few passages that +escaped some change. Several times the changed wording conflicted with +something farther along in the story, and it was necessary to go back +and make another correction. The revision sheets covered a big table, +and my husband found it very exasperating to make the corrections. At +length Mark said: + +"Smoke up and cool off, old boy. Perhaps I should apologize. The last +secretary I had used to wear an ice-soaked towel inside his head. The +girls and old Mark together make a riffle. Well, we will slow up. In +my ambition, I have been too eager. It is hard to explain how great a +thing is the power to project my mentality through the clods of +oblivion. I have so long sought for an opening. Be patient, please. +I am not carping. I get Edwin's position. We will be easy with the +new saddle, so the nag won't run away. I heard Edwin's suggestion, and +it is a good one. We will go straight through the story, beginning +where we left off to-night. That was what I intended to do, but that +second chapter nipped me." + +When next we met we had no thought of any other work than the revision +of the story on which we had been working at frequent intervals for +about two months. We never knew whether a session at the board would +begin with a bit of personal conversation or a prolonged stretch of +dictation. We held ourselves passive, ready to fall in with the humor +or whim of our astonishingly human though still intangible guest. The +beginning of that evening's work--it was the 6th of September--was +almost too great an upheaval for me. The planchette fairly raced as it +spelled the words: + +"This story will have legitimate chapters. Nosy nopsis. Then +ameisjapherron. Begin. Asevery well-bred story has a hero, and as the +reseems better material in jap than in any other party to this story, +we will dignify him." + +I wanted to stop, but my husband insisted that I make no break in the +impatient dictation. He had perceived that the first string of letters +spelled the words, "No synopsis. The name is Jap Herron," but I could +not see his copy, and to my mind the sentences spelled chaos. A little +farther along I ventured an interruption, when we had transmitted the +sentence, "The folks in Happy Hollow continued to say Magnesia long +after she left its fragrant depths." I had just spelled out the name, +Agnesia, and I was too deeply engrossed with the labor of following the +letters to even attempt to understand the meaning. I turned to my +husband and said: + +"It probably didn't intend to stop on that letter M," whereat the +planchette rebuked my stupidity thus: "Emily, they called her Magnesia." + +After that, I contrived to get control of my nerves, and the rest of +the dictation was not so difficult. When we had received the crisp +final sentence, "And stay he did," the planchette went right on with +this information, "This is the first copy of the first chapter. There +will be 25 or more chapters. This is enough for this time, as the +office force is a little weak. But results ... very good. We will +finish the other story and dip into this at the next session. There +will be better speed in this, for there will be no revision until it is +finished. We will work hard and fast. Emily may meet folks she knows +in this tale, for she knows a town with a river and a Happy Hollow. I +did not intend to start another story so soon, but other influences are +so strong that they may try to dominate the board. This will not tire +you so much. You must be determined not to permit intruders. If they +are recognized, you will not be free of them again. I am pushed aside. +Leave the board when they appear. Good-bye." + +The use of the name, Happy Hollow, forms a link with Hannibal; but if +any of the characters in "Jap Herron" were drawn from life, they must +have belonged to Mark Twain's generation and not to mine. Mark never +seems to take into account the fact that he left Hannibal before I was +born, and that there have been many changes in the old town. The +character of Jacky Herron may have been suggested by a disreputable +drunken fisherman whose experiences I have heard my father relate; but +there is one little touch in that first chapter that must have come +from Mark's own mind, since the underlying fact was not known to any of +us until we read Walter Prichard Eaton's article on birds' nests, +months later. When we transmitted that statement, "The father of the +little Herrons was a kingfisher," none of us knew that the kingfisher's +home nest is a filthy hole, close to the river bank. The application +is too perfect to have been accidental. + +Before another chapter of the story was transmitted, I went to spend a +morning with Mrs. Hays. At the request of her son, we consented to +allay his curiosity by a visible demonstration of the workings of the +mysterious board, of which he had necessarily heard much. He hoped to +receive some definite communication from his father, or the sister who +had died in her girlhood; but this is what he recorded: + +"Emily, I gave those synopses not for a guide but to prevent others +from imposing their ideas and confusing you. It might be said that it +made it easier for you, but that idea is wrong. It would be easier to +write the story direct. You have learned that this was wise, because +constant efforts have been made to break in and alter the stories. For +this reason I gave you the synopses, so that you could not be deceived. +Now I am going to trust you. I intended to advise you that it would be +a more convincing psychic record, if you have nothing on which a +subconscious mind might be said to be working. The synopsis was for +your protection, and has no value to the record. At first you had such +a conglomerate method of working that it was necessary. You did not +recognize the difficulties that were likely to occur. You were apt to +employ temporary help, so eliminate." + +Just what was meant by "temporary help" is not apparent; but there was +no opportunity to question him further, for at that moment we were +interrupted by the arrival of another luncheon guest and the board was +put aside. We devoted two sessions to the revision and finishing +touches of the troublesome short story, and then we plunged into the +transmission of "Jap Herron" in deadly earnest. + +As far as possible, we sat twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. We +usually worked uninterruptedly for two hours, with no sound save that +of my voice as I pronounced the letters and punctuation marks over +which the pointer of the planchette paused in its swift race across the +board. My husband discovered early in the work that if he permitted +himself the luxury of a smile he was in danger of distracting Mrs. +Hays, who always sat facing him, and thus of bringing about confusion +in the record. Under Mark's specific instruction she has schooled +herself to keep her mind as nearly blank as is possible for a woman who +is absolutely conscious and normal, and the evidence that something +humorous was being transmitted through her would be diverting, to say +the least. As for my own part in the work, I seldom realized the +import of the sentences I had spelled out, my whole attention being +concentrated on the rapidly gliding pointer. When my husband read +aloud the copy he had taken down it almost invariably came to Mrs. Hays +and me as something entirely new. + +The story of Jap Herron, as it stands completed, does not follow the +original order of the first fifteen chapters. The early part of the +tale was handled in a manner so sketchy and rapid in its action that +three whole chapters and seven fragments of chapters were dictated and +inserted after the work was finished. In the original copy the second +chapter suffered little change up to the point of George Thomas's +advent, with the suggestion that he might bring in some more turnips. +Following the disaster to Judge Bowers's speech, Mark took a short cut +to pave the way for the next chapter. It ran thus: + +"But bad luck cannot camp on your trail forever. In the gladsome +June-time, Ellis married Flossy Bowers, and her dowry of two thousand +dollars and her following of kin set the _Herald_ on its feet." + +These two sentences were expanded into the more important half of the +third chapter, almost five months after they had been dictated, and +this without a rereading of the story. At another time, when this +curious kind of revision was under way, Mark dictated the latter part +of the second chapter, wherein Ellis Hinton tells Jap how he happened +to be starving in Bloomtown. When he had finished the dictation, with +the words, "My boy, that blue calico lady was Mrs. Kelly Jones," he +continued: + +"Emily will know where to fit it in." + +This fitting in was not extremely difficult, since there was only one +place in the story into which each of the inserted chapters or +fragments could be made to fit; but the original copy had to be read +several times before these thin places became apparent, and I got no +help whatever from Mark. Once, when I implored him to tell me where a +certain brief but gripping paragraph belonged, he replied, "Emily, that +is your job. I don't want the Hannibal girl to fall down on it." + +On that second Monday night in September, when the "office force" +settled itself to serious work, my husband read to us the copy we had +transmitted. The chapter ended with what is now the closing paragraph +of the third chapter: + +"The _Herald_ put on a new dress, and the hell-box was dumped full of +the discarded, mutilated types that had so long given strabismus to the +patient readers of the Bloomtown _Herald_." + +The diet of turnips and sorghum and the other humorous touches of the +narrative overwhelmed us with laughter, whereat the planchette under +our fingers wrote: + +"Sounds like Mark, eh?" + +I asked him if he was satisfied with the use of the word "_Herald_" +twice in that last sentence. He replied: + +"You must excuse me. I am all in. I told you I would leave minor +points to your pencil. T-i-r-e-d. Good-bye." + +Our first acquaintance with Wat Harlow, as he appeared in the fourth +chapter, gave little promise of the character into which he was +destined to be developed. To the three of us, who laughed over the +episode of the vermilion handbill, he appeared to be nothing more than +a third-rate country politician. In the original transcription he +received only an occasional passing touch, until the death of Ellis +brought him forth in a new light. We did not know then what Ellis had +meant by "that reformed auctioneer," for the story of Wat's connection +with the upbuilding of Bloomtown, as it is set forth in the sixth +chapter, was not told until we were well along with the work of +revision. + +One of the most interesting personal touches, to be found only in our +private record, was introduced at the end of the fourth chapter. It +had been a long stretch of dictation, and when the planchette stopped I +asked if there was any more. The pointer gave only this, "No--30." +Having had no experience with printing offices, I was mystified until +my husband explained that "30 on the hook" means the end of a given +piece of work. + +Mark once made use of the expression, "the story contains a great deal +of brevity that will have to be untied later on." This untying process +is nowhere more aptly illustrated than in the fourth chapter of our +original copy, a brief chapter that contained the condensed material of +Wat Harlow's letter to Jap, the birth of little J.W. and Isabel +Granger's first kiss. There was nothing about Bill's boyhood, no +record of Jap's home surroundings, none of the amusing details of the +printing office wherein Jap and Bill were learning their trade. All +these incidents, which seem so essential to the story, were introduced +when the first draft of the story had been completed. The seventh +chapter, which has to do with the babyhood of little J.W., was dictated +after the revision had apparently been completed. When I asked Mark +why he inserted it, the planchette made this curious reply: + +"I was thinking that we'd better soften the shock of the boy's death." + +For us, through whom the story was being transmitted, there was no +softening of Ellis Hinton's death. We knew from the foregoing chapter +that the country editor had gone to the mountains for his health, and +that Flossy had no hope; but when we had recorded the words: "Jap +closed the press upon the inky type, and gathered the great bunches of +fragrant blossoms and heaped them upon the press, to be forever +silent," a great wave of sadness swept over me, I knew not why. The +action of the planchette was so rapid that I could not stop to think or +question. It was as if the man dictating the story had an unpleasant +task before him, which he wished to have done with as soon as possible. +When the final words, "At rest. FLOSSY," had been spelled out, and the +planchette stopped abruptly, Mrs. Hays cried: + +"My God, what has happened!" and I looked up to see that she was very +white, and tears were slipping down her cheeks. + +"Ellis is dead," my husband said, very simply. He had foreseen the +end, had grasped the infinite pathos of that old Washington press, +decked as a funeral casket with the flowers that had been sent to usher +in the new régime. + +When the evening's copy had been read, I asked Mark if he wished to +comment on it. + +"Not to-night, Emily," the planchette spelled. "I am all broken up. I +didn't want Ellis to die. I tried to figure a way to save him; but I +couldn't make it go." + +When we met again, on the 2d of October, the dictation began with these +words: + +"I want Edwin to go back to the beginning of the last chapter. I left +out a sentence that is necessary. It explains why Ellis left by rail. +You insert." + +Then he dictated the passage relating to the new railroad and the +temporary station. When he had finished he said, "Go on with the +story," and the next sentence began, "When Ellis went away it was to +the sound of jollity." The reference to Robert Louis Stevenson was new +to both of us, and we have not sought to verify the incident. That +Mark wanted it included in his story was sufficient for us. + +That next chapter contained another accumulation of brevity which was +afterward untied. The funeral, the reading of Ellis Hinton's will, +Judge Bowers's candidacy, the nomination of Jap Herron as the ugliest +man in Bloomtown, Bill's first spree and the local option fight, all +these were sketched with the sharpness and sudden transition of +pictures on a cinematograph screen. The following chapter was almost +as tightly packed with incident, and in the midst of it there was a +break, with an astonishing explanation. Three evenings in succession +we had had trouble with the planchette. It had seemed to me that Mrs. +Hays was trying to pull it from beneath my fingers. Meanwhile she had +mentally accused me of digital heaviness. She uses the finger tips of +her left hand while I use my right. As a rule our touch is so light +that the planchette glides automatically. On these three evenings we +had left the board with cramped fingers, and a general sense of +dissatisfaction. Several sentences that were plainly spurious were +afterward stricken from the record; but we had forgotten about the +other scribes who wanted "a pencil on earth," until Mark interrupted +the story to say: + +"I must ask you to be wary and sharp to dismiss impostors. Right now +there are more than twenty hands trying to control your dictation. It +is very hard for me. I am disconsolate, and powerless to help myself. +If we do not watch every avenue, our work is spoiled. There has been a +constant struggle for my rights. I only ask a little help, and you are +all my hope. If you fail me, I am undone." + +This illuminating outburst served to clear the atmosphere, and the +three chapters were afterward expanded into seven, much of the same +diction being reproduced. It was as if Mark, knowing the difficulties +on his own side of the shadow-line, had tried to get at least the +outline of his story down on paper, lest he lose his hold entirely. +After that evening we had almost no trouble with intruders. + +The story of Jones, of the Barton _Standard_, came to us like a thunder +clap from a cloudless sky, for the part which old Pee-Dee Jones played +in the development of Bloomtown and Barton was not related until we had +begun the work of revision. In the original story of that near-fight, +Mark gave us a significant cross-light on the conditions under which he +lives. The marshal had appeared in the office at the crucial moment, +as if he had dropped through the roof or arisen out of the floor. +Several times in the earlier part of the work the characters had thus +appeared without obvious means of locomotion, and I had called +attention to the inconsistency, with the result that Mark had dictated +a few words to show how or whence the new arrival had come. When +Wilfred Jones shouted to the marshal, "I demand protection," my +husband, who was reading the evening's copy aloud to us, said: + +"How does the marshal happen to be there? I don't see any previous +mention of him." + +Instantly the planchette, which we always kept in readiness under our +finger tips, began to move. It dictated this: + +"You might say, 'at that moment the town marshal, wearing his star +pinned to his blue flannel shirt, strolled in.' I have been away from +the need of going up-stairs and down-stairs for so long that I forget +about it." + +"How do you get from one place to another, Mark?" I asked. + +"Now, Emily, curiosity! But you know we haven't any Pullman cars or +elevators here. When I want to be at a place where I am free to +go--why, I am there." + +He took occasion, when our difficulties seemed to be at an end and his +grip on his "pencil" was once more firmly established, to make it very +plain to me that I alone was responsible for the annoyance we had had. +He put it thus: + +"Things will be all right if you don't give way to any more curiosity. +In the beginning I told you that it would not do. Emily wants to +investigate too much. It must be one or all. Edwin and I understand. +It was you that mixed the type. Lola must be passive. If she tries to +watch for intruders, she gets in my way. So it is up to the Hannibal +girl." + +I do not know, even now, how I could have prevented the trouble that +well-nigh wrecked our work. It is true I had taken part in another +psychic demonstration, but it was in a remote part of the city and it +had nothing to do with Mark Twain's "pencil." However, I took no +further chance with psychic investigation. + +When Jap Herron was elected Mayor of Bloomtown, and the girl he loved +had walked right into his astonished arms, it seemed to us that the +story must be ended. We had forgotten that Jap ever had a family of +his own, a mother and two sisters, and when the drunken hag reeled into +the _Herald_ office we were as greatly horrified as Jap himself was. I +had put my husband's carefully kept copy into type-written form, and it +occurred to me to get the opinion of a master critic on the story, not +as evidence of the survival of the human mind after physical death, but +as pure fiction. Acting upon the impulse, and without telling either +my husband or Mrs. Hays what I intended to do, I took the copy to +William Marion Reedy,[1] permitting him to infer that I had created it, +and asked him to tell me whether, in his judgment, the story was worth +finishing. It was the beginning of the week, when the issuing of the +_Mirror_ consumed all his time, and while I was waiting for his verdict +we received three more chapters. In the first of these we had a new +light on Isabel Granger's character, and came for the first time +absolutely to love Bill Bowers. After that nothing that Bill might do +would shake our faith in his ability to make good in the end. He might +be weak and foolish, but we understood why Jap believed in and loved +him. We were jubilant when Rosy Raymond was eliminated from the game, +for we feared, whenever we permitted ourselves to speculate, that Bill +would marry her, and regret the step. We assumed that the son of the +much-married Judge Bowers had inherited a nature sufficiently mobile to +recover from the shock of the silly girl's perfidy. + +While this unexpected development of the story was being revealed to +us, William Marion Reedy sent me, in the envelope with the first ten +chapters of "Jap Herron," a criticism that fairly made me tingle with +delight. Had the work been my own, I could not have been more pleased +with his unstinted praise. I wanted to go to him at once and confess +the truth; but he was not in his office when I called. + +Two of the succeeding chapters were taken down by friends who had been +let into the secret of our work and had asked permission to sit with +us. It was the time of year when my husband could seldom spare an +evening from his work, and Mark consented to break into his beloved +office-force arrangement, for the sake of expediency. Three men and +five women served us in the capacity of amanuenses while the latter +third of the book was being transmitted. The first deviation from our +original arrangement came in connection with the dictation of the +seventeenth chapter, the chapter that ends with the death of Flossy and +her son. We were three sympathetic women, and when the planchette had +traced the words, "It was a smile of heavenly beauty, as the pure soul +of Ellis Hinton's wife flew to join her loved ones," we three burst +simultaneously into violent weeping. I have never experienced more +genuine grief at the grave of a departed friend or relative than I felt +when this woman, who had come to be more than human to me, was released +from her envelope of mortal clay. + +The following day Mrs. Hays and I were invited to the home of a +delightful little Scotch woman who asked us to bring the planchette +board. She knew nothing of the story, and had no intimation of the +personality on the other side who was sending it across, through our +planchette; nevertheless she was willing to keep copy for us. The +chapter she wrote down is the eighteenth in the finished story, Jap's +funeral sermon and Isabel's song beside Flossy's coffin. Even now I +cannot think of that scene without a swelling of the throat and a +blinding rush of tears. It is needless to say we wept when the +dictation was ended. + +When our hostess had read aloud the copy I asked our invisible +companion if he had anything more to say. I avoided mentioning his +name, for we did not wish his identity disclosed. The planchette +traced the curious words: + +"You know that the air gets pretty damp for an old boy after this." + +I looked out of the window. It was a murky November afternoon, and I +asked, "Do you feel the dampness of the material atmosphere?" Like a +flash came the reply: + +"Emily, girl, you have been getting sob stuff." + +Then I yearned to get my fingers in his shock of white hair, for I knew +Mark Twain was laughing at me. But I had that which gave me +consolation, for I had brought with me Mr. Reedy's letter, analyzing +and commenting upon the story that Mark had created. Incidentally Mrs. +Reedy had asked Mrs. Hays and me to come to her home the following day +to luncheon. I had told her that Mrs. Hays possessed a high degree of +psychic power, and I consented to bring our board for a demonstration. +I wanted to see Mr. Reedy alone and explain to him that "Jap Herron" +had come to us over that insensate board, but opportunity was denied +me. As soon as luncheon was over we went up to that beautiful yellow +room in which the best of _Reedy's Mirror_ is created, and Mrs. Hays +and I placed the board on our knees. As soon as Mr. Reedy's fountain +pen was ready for action our planchette began: + +"Well, I should doff my plaidie and don a kirtle, for 'tis not the +sands o' Dee but the wearing o' the green." There was a wide sweep of +the planchette, and then, "'Tis not the shine of steel that always +reflects; but it is the claymore that cuts. Both are made of steel and +both will mirror sometimes the shillalah. Yet the shillalah is better +than the claymore, for the man that is cut will run; but if ye slug him +with the blackthorn he will have to listen. This is just a flicker of +high light. Bill jumped from bed as the rattle of the latch announced +the arrival of a visitor." + +My heart thumped wildly for a moment, then sank. I knew that the Bill +referred to was Bill Bowers, and not the editor whom hundreds delight +to call "Bill Reedy," and I knew, too, that it would be only a moment +until he must realize that the sentences he was writing down from my +dictation were part and parcel of the story whose first ten chapters he +had read and praised. I dared not lift my eyes from the board, yet I +wanted to stop and explain that I had not intended to deceive him--that +I only wanted an unbiased opinion of Mark Twain's story. In vain I +tried to stop the whirling planchette, my voice so husky that I could +scarcely pronounce the letters. It went right on, with a situation +that neither Mrs. Hays nor I had anticipated. We had schooled +ourselves not to speculate, yet the previous afternoon we had left Jap +in a fainting condition and on the verge of a long illness. The +chapter we transmitted that day was the story of a gubernatorial +election in a small Missouri town. + +Subsequently, when Mark gave us the intervening chapter, Jap's visit to +the cemetery and the humorous incidents of the campaign, I asked him: + +"Why didn't you give this chapter last Thursday?" + +"I thought that election would amuse Reedy. Don't worry, Emily. He +understood you. He knows the Hannibal girl is honest," was the +comforting reply. + +When the revision of the story was under way, and several fragments had +been dictated, the planchette spelled the words, "I want to add +something to the Reedy chapter," and without further ado it proceeded: +"The Bloomtown _Herald_ did itself proud that week." That fragment was +the easiest of them all to fit into place. At its conclusion we were +favored with a bit of pleasantry that seems significant. My husband +gave us a lift whenever he could spare the time; but on this occasion a +woman friend was sitting with us. She had written about two thousand +words of copy, when the tenor of the dictation changed suddenly to the +personal vein. + +"Old Mark has been working like a badger, and is pleased with the +story. The girls and friend Ed are going as well as Twain ever did +when he wielded his own pen. When Edwin lights up a fresh smoke and +smiles, I know that all is well. But when Lola frowns and Edwin +forgets to smoke, look out for leaks. The story has sprung and therain +was hesitthininspots." The last of the sentence came so rapidly that +none of us had any idea what it meant, or that it meant anything at +all. Before we had separated it into the words, "the rain washes it +thin in spots," I asked that that last part be repeated. Instead we +got the words: + +"When a board is sprung, it lets in rain. It is Emily who has to hold +the drip pan for the temperamental ones." + +"Thank you for those few kind words, Mark," I said. "But if you think +enough of me to trust me with this important work, why do you single me +out for all the scoldings, when Edwin and Lola sometimes deserve at +least a share in your displeasure?" + +"Whist, Hannibal girl, we know our office force," was the humorous +rejoinder. + +The appearance of Agnesia was one of the keen surprises of the story, +and before we realized what Jap's little sister would mean to +Bloomtown, Mark interrupted his dictation with the words, "Stop! +Girls, the yarn is nearly all unwound. We will skip a bit that we will +tie in later. But now--Bill sat doubled over the case, the stick held +listlessly in his hand. Nervously he fingered the copy, not knowing +what he was reading." + +Without a break, we received the brief final chapter, ending with the +words, "Isabel wants to call him Jasper William." The planchette +added, "The End." We transmitted no more that day, although we knew +that our story was far from completion. + +The next time we met we had another surprise in the coming of Jap's +elder sister. When the twenty-fifth chapter was finished, Mark said: + +"Girls, I think the story is done." + +"It's pretty short for a book," I protested. By way of reply, he gave +this: + +"Did you ever know about my prize joke? One day I went to church, +heard a missionary sermon, was carried away--to the extent of a hundred +dollars. The preacher kept talking. I reduced my ante to fifty +dollars. He talked on. I came down to twenty-five, to ten, to five, +and after he had said all that he had in him, I stole a nickel from the +basket. Reason for yourselves. Not how long but how strong. Yet I +have a sneaking wish to tell you something of the early days of Ellis's +work, especially about Granger and Blanke. But to-day I have writer's +cramp. So let's get together soon and make the finish complete." + +There were two more sessions, with the dictation of a whole chapter and +several fragments, at each meeting, and we met no more until I had put +the whole complex record into consecutive form. We had a final review +of the work, and a few minor changes in words and phrases were made. +Mark expressed himself as well pleased, and as a little farewell he +gave us this, which has nothing to do with Jap Herron: + +"There will be a great understanding some day. It will come when the +earth realizes that we must leave it, to live, and when it can put +itself in touch with the heavens that surround it. I have met a number +of preachers over here who would like to undo many things they +promulgated while they had a whack at sinners. + +"There are hardshell Baptists who have a happy time meeting their +members, to whom they preached hell and brimstone. They have many +things to explain. There is one melancholy Presbyterian who frankly +stated the fact--underscore 'fact'--that there were infants in hell not +an ell long. He has cleared out quite a space in hell since he woke +up. He doesn't rush out to meet his congregation. It would create +trouble and be embarrassing if they looked around for the suffering +infants. As I said before, there is everything to learn, after the +shackles of earth are thrown aside. I would like to write a story +about some of these preachers, and the mistakes they made, when the +doctrines of brimstone and everlasting punishment were ladled out as +freely to the little maid who danced as to the harlot. It showed a +mind asleep to the undiscovered country." + +"Can you shed any light on that undiscovered country?" I asked him. + +"Perhaps. But for the present there is enough of the truth of life and +death in 'Jap Herron' to hold you." + +And with that he told us good-bye. + +EMILY GRANT HUTCHINGS. + + + +[1] William Marion Reedy, Editor and Publisher of _Reedy's Mirror_, a +weekly journal published in St. Louis, has long been interested in +psychic phenomena, as a source of exotic and unusual literature. He +has also discovered and developed much purely terrestrial literary +talent, having brought out some of the best poets and fiction writers +of present-day America. As a critic, he is a recognized master. + + + + +JAP HERRON + +CHAPTER I + +As every well-bred story has a hero, and as there seems better material +in Jap than any other party to this story, we will dignify him. Mary +Herron feebly asserted her rights in the children by naming them +respectively, Fanny Maud, Jasper James and Agnesia. Jasper +deteriorated. He became Jap, and Jap he remained, despite the fact +that Fanny Maud developed into Fannye Maude and Agnesia changed her +cognomen, without recourse to law, to Mabelle. The folks in Happy +Hollow continued to say "Magnesia" long after she left its fragrant +depths. + +The father of the little Herrons was a kingfisher. He spent his hours +of toil on the river bank and his hours of ease in Mike's place. One +Friday, good luck peered through the dingy windows of the little shanty +where the Herrons starved, froze or sweltered. It was Friday, as I +remarked before. Mary was washing, against difficulties. It had +rained for a week. The clothes had to dry before Mary could cash her +labor, and it fretted Jacky Herron sorely. His credit had lost caste +with Mike, and Mike had the grip on the town. He had the only thirst +parlor in Happy Hollow. So Jacky smashed the only remaining window, +broke the family cup, and set forth defiantly in the rain. And in the +fog and slashing rain he lost his footing, and fell into the river. As +it was Friday, Mary had hopefully declared that luck would change--and +it did! + +The town buried Jacky and moved his family into decent lodgings, +because the Town Fathers did not want to contract typhoid in +ministering to them. Loosed of the incubus of a father, the little +family grew in grace. Jappie, as his baby sister called him, was the +problem. Agnesia was pretty, and the Mayor's wife adopted her. Fanny +Maud went west to live with her aunt, and Jap remained with his mother +until she, after the manner of womankind, who never know when they have +had luck, married another bum and began supporting him. Jap ran away. + +He was twelve years old, red-headed, freckled and lanky, when he +trailed into Bloomtown. He loafed along the main street until he +reached the printing office, and there he stopped. An aphorism of his +late lamented dad occurred to him. + +"Ef I had a grain of gumption," said dad, during an enforced session of +his family's society, "I would 'a' went to work in my daddy's printin' +office, instid of runnin' away when I was ten year old. I might 'a' +had money, aplenty, 'stid of bein' cumbered and helt down by you and +these brats." + +Jap straggled irregularly inside and heard the old Washington hand +press groan and grunt its weary way through the weekly edition of the +_Herald_. After the last damp sheet had been detached from the press, +and the papers were being folded by the weary-eyed, inky demon who had +manipulated the handle, he slouched forward. + +"Say, Mister," he asked confidently, "do you do that every day?" +indicating the press, "'cause I'm goin' to work for you." + +The editor, pressman and janitor looked upon him in surprise and pity. + +"I appreciate your ambition," he said, more in sorrow than anger, "but +I have become so attuned to starving alone that I don't think I could +adjust myself to the shock of breaking my fast on you." + +Jap was unmoved. + +"My dad onct thought he'd be a editor, but he got married," he said +calmly. + +"Sensible dad," commented the editor, with more truth than he dreamed. +"I suppose that he had three meals a day, and a change of socks on +Sunday." + +"But Ma had to get 'em," argued Jap. "I want to be a editor, and I am +agoin' to stay." And stay he did. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +"Run out and get a box of sardines," ordered the boss of the Washington +press. "I've got a nickel. I can't let you starve. I lived three +months on them--look at me!" + +Jap surveyed him apprehensively. + +"I'd hate to be so thin," he complained, "and I don't like sardines nor +any fishes. My dad fed us them every day. Allus wanted to taste +doughnuts. Can I buy them?" + +Ellis Hinton laughed shortly, and spun the nickel across the imposing +stone. Jap caught it deftly. An hour later he appeared for work, +smiling cheerfully. + +"Why the shiner?" queried Ellis, indicating a badly swollen and rapidly +discoloring eye. + +"Kid called me red-top," said Jap bluntly. + +"Love o' gracious," Ellis exclaimed, "what is the shade?" + +"It's red," quoth Jap, "but it ain't his business. If I am agoin' to +be a editor, nobody's goin' to get familiar with me." + +This was Jap's philosophy, and in less than a week he had mixed with +every youth of fighting age in town. The office took on metropolitan +airs because of the rush of indignant parents who thronged its portals. +Ellis pacified some of the mothers, outtalked part of the fathers and +thrashed the remainder. After he had mussed the outer office with +"Judge" Bowers, and tipped the case over with the final effort that +threw him, Jap said, solemnly surveying the wreck: + +"If I had a dad like you, I'd 'a' been the President some day." + +Ellis gazed ruefully into the mess of pi, and kicked absently at the +hell-box. + +"I'll work all night," cried Jap eagerly. "I'll clean it up." + +"We'll have plenty of time," said Ellis gloomily. "We have to hit the +road, kid. Judge Bowers owns the place. He has promised to set us out +before morning." + +But luck came with Jap. It was Friday again, and Bowers's wife +presented him with twins, his mother-in-law arrived, and his uncle +inherited a farm. There was only one way for the news to be +disseminated, and he came in with his truculent son and helped clean +up, so that the _Herald_ could be issued on time. More than that, he +made the boys shake hands, and concluded to put Bill to work in the +_Herald_ office. After he had puffed noisily out, Ellis looked +whimsically at Bill. + +"Are you going to board yourself out of what I am able to pay you?" he +asked. + +"Oh, I don't reckon Pappy cares about that," the boy said cheerfully. +"He just wants to keep me out of mischief, and he said that lookin' at +you was enough to sober a sot." + +Months dragged by. Bill and Jap worked more or less harmoniously. +Once a day they fought; but it was fast becoming a mere function, kept +up just for form. Ellis was doing better. He had set up housekeeping, +since Jap came, in the back room of the little wooden structure that +faced the Public Square, and housewives sent them real food once in a +while. + +Once Ellis feared that Jap was going to quit him for the Golden Shore. +It was on the occasion of Myrtilla Botts's wedding, when she baked the +cakes herself, for practice, and her mother thoughtfully sent most of +them to the Editor, to insure a big puff for Myrtilla. Ellis was +afraid; but Jap, with the enthusiasm and inexperience of youth, took a +chance. Bill was laid up with mumps, or the danger would have been +lessened. As it was, it took all the doctors in town to keep Jap alive +until they could uncurl him and straighten out his appendix, which +appeared to be cased in wedding cake. This experience gave Jap an +added distaste for the state of matrimony. + +"My dad allus said to keep away from marryin'," he moaned. "But how'd +I know you'd ketch it from the eatin's?" + +The subscription list grew apace. There was a load of section ties, +two bushel of turnips and six pumpkins paid in November. Bill and Jap +went hunting once a week, so the larder grew beyond sardines. Jap +acquired a hatred of turnips and pumpkins that was in after years +almost a mania. At Christmas, Kelly Jones brought in a barrel of +sorghum, "to sweeten 'em," he guffawed. Jap had grown to manhood +before he wholly forgave that pleasantry. It was a hard winter. +Everybody said so, and when Jap gazed at Ellis across the turnips and +sorghum of those weary months, he said he believed it. + +"Shame on you," rebuked Ellis, gulping his turnips with haste. "Think +of the wretched people who would be glad to get this food." + +"Do you know any of their addresses?" asked Jap abruptly. "Because I +can't imagine anybody happy on turnips and sorghum. I'd be willin' to +trade my wretched for theirn." + +Kelly said that Jap would be fat as butter if he ate plenty of +molasses, and this helped at first; but when the grass came, he begged +Ellis to cook it for a change. + +When George Thomas came in, one blustery March day, to say that if the +turnips were all gone, he would bring in some more, Ellis pied Judge +Bowers's speech on the duties of the Village Fathers to the alleys, +when he saw the malignant look that Jap cast upon the cheery farmer. + +Once a week Bill and Jap drew straws to determine which one should fare +forth in quest of funds, and for the first time in his brief business +career, Jap was glad the depressing task had fallen to him. "Pi" was +likely to bring on an acute attack of mental indigestion, and the boy +had learned to dread Ellis Hinton's infrequent but illuminating flame +of wrath. + +The catastrophe had been blotted out, the last stickful of type had +been set and Bill had gone home to supper when Jap, leg-weary and +discouraged, wandered into the office. Ellis looked up from the form +he was adjusting. + +"How did you ever pick out this town?" the boy complained, turning the +result of his day's collection on the table. + +Ellis turned from the bit of pine he was whittling, a makeshift +depressingly familiar to the country editor. He scanned the meager +assortment of coins with anxious eye. Jap's lower jaw dropped. + +"I'll have to fire you if you haven't got enough to pay for the paper." + +"Got enough for that," said Jap mournfully, "but not enough for meat." + +"Didn't Loghman owe for his ad?" Ellis demanded. "Did you ask him for +it?" + +"Says you owe him more 'n he's willin' for you to owe," Jap ventured. + +Ellis sighed. + +"Meat's not healthy this damp weather," he suggested. "Cook something +light." + +"It'll be darned light," said Jap. "There's one tater." + +"No bread?" asked Ellis. + +"Give that scrap to the cat," Jap returned, "Doc Hall says she's done +eat all the mice in town and if we don't feed her she'll be eatin' +off'n the subscribers." + +"Confound Doc Hall," stormed Ellis. "You take your orders from me. +That bread, stewed with potato, would have made a dandy dish." He +shook the form to settle it, and faced Jap. + +"How did I come to pick this place?" he said slowly. "Well, Jap, it +was the dirtiest deal a boy ever got. I had a little money after my +father died. I wanted to invest it in a newspaper, somewhere in the +West, where the world was honest and young. I had served my +apprenticeship in a dingy, narrow little New England office, and I +thought my lifework was cut out for me. I had big dreams, Jap. I saw +myself a power in my town. With straw and mud I wanted to build a town +of brick and stone. Dreams, dreams, Jap, dreams. Some day you may +have them, too." + +He let his lean form slowly down into a chair. Jap braced himself +against the table as the narrative continued: + +"In Hartford I met Hallam, the man who started the Bloomtown _Herald_. +I heard his flattering version. I inspected his subscription list and +studied the columns of his paper, full of ads. I bought. The subs +were deadheads, the ads--gratuitous, for my undoing. It was indeed +straw and mud, and, lad, it has remained straw and mud." He leaned his +head on his hand for a moment. + +"That was the year after you were born, Jap. I was only twenty-one. +For a year I was hopeful; then I dragged like a dead dog. You will be +surprised when I tell you what brought me to life again. I tell you +this, boy, so that you will never despise Opportunity, though she may +wear blue calico, as mine did. + +"It was one dark, cold day. No human face had come inside the office +for a week. That was the period of my life when I learned how human a +cat can be. We were starving, the cat and me, with the advantage in +favor of the cat. She could eat vermin. I sat by the table, wondering +the quickest way to get out of it. Yes, Jap, the first and, God help +me, the only time that life was worthless. The door opened and a plump +woman dressed in blue calico, a sunbonnet pushed back from her smiling +face, entered." + +To Jap, who listened with his heart in his throat, it seemed that Ellis +was quoting perhaps a page from the memoirs he had written for the +benefit of his townsmen. His deep, melodious voice fell into the +rhythmic cadence of a reader, as he continued: + +"'Howdy, Mr. Editor,' she chirped. 'I've been keenin' for a long time +to come in to see you. I think you are aprintin' the finest paper I +ever seen. I brought you a mess of sassage and a passel of bones from +the killin'. It's so cold, they'll keep a spell. And here's a dollar +for next year's paper. I don't want to miss a number. I am areadin' +it over and over. Seems like you are agoin' to make a real town out of +Bloomtown,' and with a friendly pat on the arm, she was gone." + +Ellis brushed the long hair from his brow, the strange modulation went +out of his voice and the fire returned to his brown eyes as he said: + +"Jap, I got up from that table and fell on my knees, and right there I +determined that starvation nor cold nor any other enemy should rout me. +Jap, I am going to make Bloomtown a real town yet. My boy, that blue +calico lady was Mrs. Kelly Jones." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +Ellis scowled and kicked his stool absently with his heels. + +"Will you explain where the colons and semicolons have emigrated to?" +he asked Bill, with suppressed wrath. + +"We was short of quads, and I whittled 'em off." + +Ellis glared at Bill's ingenuous face. + +"And what, pray, did you whittle to take their place?" + +"Never had no call to use 'em," muttered Bill, chewing up the item he +had just disposed of. "I can say all that I can think with commas and +periods." + +"Abraham Lincoln used colons and semicolons," said Ellis, shortly, "and +I am setting his immortal speech. What am I going to do about it, my +intelligent co-printer?" + +Bill coughed violently as the wad of paper slipped down his throat. + +"Try George Washington," he advised, "They didn't have so much +trimmin's to their talk them days." + +Jap shoved a chair against the door sill and flung the door ajar to cut +off the blast of hot air that swept the office. + +"Gee-whiz!" he complained, "I'm chokin' on the dust. However did they +get 'Bloomtown' hitched on to this patch of dirt? There ain't a flower +'in a mile, 'ceptin' the half-dead sprigs the wimmin are acoaxin' +against their will." + +"When I came here," said Ellis, "the old settlers told me that whenever +I wanted information I should hunt up Kelly Jones. There he goes now. +Call him in." + +But Kelly was coming anyway. He carried a mysterious basket and his +sun-burned face was full of suppressed excitement. + +"Wife allowed that you and Jap must be putty nigh starved," he +chuckled, shifting the quid to his other cheek. "I reckon she knowed +that Jap done the cookin' Wednesdays and Thursdays." + +He lifted the clean white towel from the basket, disclosing a pound of +yellow butter, a glass of jelly, a loaf of bread and two pies, fairly +reeking aroma. + +"Fu'st blackberries," asserted Kelly. "I ain't had a pie myself yet, +and wife forbid me to take a bite o' yourn." + +"God bless the wife of our countryman, Kelly Jones. May her shade +never grow less," said Ellis fervently, stowing the basket away. "If +Jap and Bill stick all the matter on the hooks before noon, they may +have pie. Otherwise the Editor of the _Herald_ exercises his +prerogative and eats both pies." + +"Kelly," asked Jap abruptly, "why did they call this patch of dust +'Bloomtown'? Did they ever have even peppergrass growin' along its +edges?" + +Kelly settled himself comfortably in Ellis's chair and draped his long +legs over the exchanges. Filling his mouth with Granger twist, he said: + +"'Twa'n't because of the blooms. Fact is, it never was 'bloom' in the +fu'st place. Old man Blome owned this track of land--his name was +Jerusalem Blome. Folks used to say Jerusalem Blown. Purty nice story +there is about this town and Barton, why neither of 'em has got a +railroad, and why Barton is bigger in money and scarcer in folks." + +Ellis put his stickful of type on the case resignedly. Bill and Jap +deposited their weary frames on the doorstep. The hot wind blew in +their faces, laden with dust. The smell of dried grass was odorous. + +"Looks like it mout blow up a rain," said Kelly, sniffing approvingly. + +"Well, Kelly," declared Ellis, "you have tied the wheels of this +machine. Deliver the goods you promised. We are not interested in +rain." + +"Humph!" ruminated Kelly, "it was this-a-way: Old man Blome bought this +track about the time that Luellen Barton moved to her plantation. It +mout 'a' been sooner; I ain't sure. Barton--leastways, what is Barton +now--belonged to old Simpson Barton. When he went south and married a +rip-snortin' widow, he brought his wife and a passel o' niggers to live +at the old home place. There hadn't never been no niggers there, along +of the fu'st Mis' Barton. + +"When war broke out the niggers run away, along of Jerusalem Blome, +that got up a nigger regimint. After the war there was talk of a +railroad. It would run right through the Blome farm and cross the +Barton place crossways. My daddy was overseer for Mis' Barton. Simp +didn't have nothin' to say about the runnin' of the place. I was a +tyke, doin' errands for everybody, and I heerd a lot o' the railroad +talk. Old Blome was sellin' his farm in town lots, gettin' ready for +the boom--for who would 'a' thought that Mis' Barton would turn her +back on such a proposition? + +"You see, it was this-a-way: Mis' Luellen was allus speculatin' in +niggers, and a month before war broke, she had bought a load of Guinea +niggers--the kind that looks like they are awearin' bustles, you know. +Simp kinder smelt war, but, Lordee, Luellen wouldn't be dictated to! +And she went broke, flat as a flitter. All that was left was the +thousand acres of Barton land. + +"Railroad? No, siree! She heard about old man Blome's activity, and +she had it in for Blome. She sat up and primped her lips when Pee-Dee +Jones come in behalf of the railroad. That's how the Barton Joneses +come to settle in this neck o' the woods. Pee-Dee Jones--no kin o' +mine--had a winnin' way, and he purty nigh got Mis' Luellen's name on +the paper, when he let slip that he intended buildin' a town on her +land. 'Do you think that I am agoin' to have a lot of blue-bellied +Yankees in my very dooryard?' she yelled. 'You are mistaken.' And so +she stuck. + +"Afterwards she learned that Pee-Dee Jones had follered Grant. Whew! +She nigh busted with rage. Mis' Luellen allus said that she could +smell a Yankee a mile, and as she didn't like the smell, she cropped +the railroad boom. It went five mile north of her place, and missed +Bloomtown twenty mile. That's why the two towns are just livin' along. +The folks that bought lots of old Blome tried to get another railroad +to come their way. That was when the Wabash looked like it was headed +for my farm; but I reckon that opportunities like that don't come but +onct in a lifetime. + +"I wonder that Mis' Luellen's spook don't howl around Barton every +night, for Jones bought the big house after she died, and the fambly +comes back there to live whenever their luck goes wrong. Pee-Dee's +boy, Brons Jones, started a paper there, about the time that Hallam +started the Bloomtown _Herald_. He sold out to a poor devil that's +racin' to see if he can starve quicker'n Ellis. Brons ain't been +around these parts, the last few years, but he owns a lot o' Barton +property that he thinks 'll make good some day." + +Kelly aimed a clear stream of tobacco juice at the dingy brown +cuspidor, and made as if to settle himself for further narrative. + +"Jap, Bill, get to work," commanded Ellis. "And, Kelly, much as I +appreciate you and your excellent wife, I must dispense with your +society. I need these boys." + +As the farmer departed, grinning cheerfully, Tom Granger appeared at +the door of the _Herald_ office. A conference of prominent citizens +had been summoned to meet, early that afternoon, in the Granger and +Harlow bank, a somewhat more pretentious building, separated from the +_Herald_ office by a narrow alley; and during a lull in the morning's +business Tom was serving himself in the capacity of errand boy. From +his place on the front steps, he could watch for the possible advent of +depositor or daylight robber, there being no rear door to the bank. + +"You'll be on hand, Ellis," he reminded. "Couldn't have any kind of a +meeting without the _Herald_, you know. We won't keep you long." + +But the session was more important than the banker had anticipated. +Judge Bowers had prepared a lengthy discourse, and others had opinions +that needed ventilating. Once or twice, Ellis was irritated by shrieks +of laughter that emanated from the office across the alley, usually in +Bill's shrill treble. When the cause of the merriment had reached an +exceptional climax, the Editor pounced upon his assistants, wearing the +scowl of a thunder god. Jap and Bill got up, shamefacedly, as he +demanded: + +"What do you think I am conducting this plant for? A circus for +horse-play?" + +He kicked the cat loose from the box Jap had it hitched to. The two +boys looked ruefully at their over-turned cart. + +"There goes the hell-box!" Bill screamed. + +Ellis stared at him in transfixed wrath. + +"Was that pi?" he demanded, looking down the hole in the floor into +which most of the contents of the box had spilled. + +Bill darted into the back room and sneaked swiftly out through the +alley door. The office saw him no more that day. With such tools as +were available, Jap set to work to undo the mischief he had wrought. +An hour later, he replaced the plank in the floor. The rescued type +was piled in a dirty litter of refuse. Ellis leaned over it, attracted +by a gleam that shone as not even new type could glitter. + +"It's a ring," explained Jap, furtively. "I reckon you won't be so mad +now. I can soak it when we get hungry. I soaked my ma's ring, lots of +times." + +"Why, you young reprobate!" exclaimed Ellis, "that ring is not yours, +or mine. We will advertise it." He smiled in Jap's disappointed face. +"It looked like a beefsteak, didn't it, boy? Well, virtue is its own +reward, and maybe the owner will pay for the ad." + +But she did not, and yet the kick given to the inoffensive office cat +had effects as far-reaching in the result to Bloomtown as did the kick +of the famous Chicago cow, with this difference, that the effects were +not disastrous. The brief ad in the _Herald_ brought Flossy Bowers +from her home in Barton to claim a ring she had lost fifteen years +before. + +"The office used to belong to Pap's daddy," Bill explained to Jap, as +Ellis and Miss Bowers stood chatting in the front door. "When Grandpap +was lawyerin', he had this for his office, and Aunt Flossy lost her +ring, scrubbin' the floor. I have heard tell that he made the wimmin +folks curry the horses. They say he had a big funeral. I wonder--" +Bill spoke wistfully, "I wonder if I have any kinfolks on the man-side +that love anybody but theirselves. Flossy didn't get to go off to +school till her daddy died. She's been teaching up to Barton, since my +pappy married this last time, and my stepmother don't like her, so she +never comes home." + +Jap and Bill noted that Ellis found frequent business in Barton, and +despite the inhospitable atmosphere of the substantial Bowers home, +across the little park from the _Herald_ office, Flossy came oftener +than usual to her girlhood town. The autumn, the winter and the spring +sped by. Ellis Hinton was too happy to scold, even when there was an +excess of horse-play. In the gladsome June-tide the young girls of +Bloomtown stripped their mothers' gardens to weave garlands for the +little church, and Judge Bowers opened his heart and his house for the +wedding reception. + +Flossy had a dower of two thousand dollars, besides the cottage, a part +of her father's patrimony, on one of the side streets, a ten-minute +walk from the office. In her trunk were stowed away the yellow linens +that should have served her, had a certain college friend proved +faithful, and the wedding presents came near to doing the rest. This +strange turn of the wheel of fortune landed Jap Herron in his first +real home. Flossy could cook, and thank the kind fates, she brought +something to cook with her. Flossy was a misnomer, for even in her +salad days, she had never been the least bit "flossy," and when Ellis +bestowed himself upon her she had well turned thirty. + +The Judge made Ellis a present of the office, thereby relieving him of +the haunting fear that he might, at some time, demand the rent. The +paper put on a new dress, and the hell-box was dumped full of the +discarded, mutilated types that had so long given strabismus to the +patient readers of the Bloomtown _Herald_. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +"To-morrow is Jap's birthday," announced Ellis, one noontide early in +July. "Jap, you are a joy-spoiler. With the Fourth yet smoking in the +air, we must be upset by your birthday." + +"Dad allus cussed that day," remarked Jap, wiping the blackberry juice +from his freckled face. "Gee, I never guessed that there was such grub +as this," regretfully gazing at the generous blackberry +cobbler--regretfully, because his exhausted stomach refused to give +another stitch. + +"Cussed it?" queried Ellis, who was beginning to fat up a bit. + +"He said that I was the first nail in the coffin of his troubles," +replied Jap cheerfully. + +"How dreadfully inhuman," exclaimed Flossy, scraping the scraps to the +chickens. "Well, Jappie," she bustled back to the dining-room where +her little family lingered, "we are going to begin making your +birthdays pleasant. What do you want most?" + +She had her mind's eye on the discarded ties of gorgeous hue, bought +while Ellis was courting, and still brand new. + +"Ca-can I have just what I want?" stuttered Jap, excitedly. + +"Why, certainly, Jappie. That is, if we can afford it." + +"Well--well," floundered Jap, astounded at his own temerity, "I allus +wanted a pair of knee pants. Ma thought that some time she could get +'em; but the folks that she washed for allus kept giving her pants of +their menfolks. I had to wear 'em. Can I have knee pants?" + +Flossy stared dazedly after Ellis, whose vision of Jap in knee trousers +was most unsettling. Before the momentous request had been granted, he +was already half way down the alley. He was still convulsed with +laughter when he reached the side door of the _Herald_ office. But his +mental picture paled into dull commonplace, by comparison with the +reality that was in store for him. + +Jap bought the cherished pants! + +Bloomtown had seen the circus, the Methodist church fire and Judge +Lesley's funeral, the greatest in the history of the county; but none +of these created the interest that Jap brought out when he traveled the +length of Spring street, rounded the corner at Blanke's drug store and +walked solemnly along Main street to the office. + +Ellis was looking out of the window when he appeared, and despite his +effort at composure, was writhing on the floor in agony when Jap +entered. Bill looked up, as the vision crossed the threshold, and he +involuntarily swallowed four type he was holding in his lips while he +adjusted a pied stickful of "More Anon's" communication from Pluffot. +Jap was so interested in himself that these things passed him by. He +sat solemnly on his stool and looked vacantly into the e-box. Poking +absently among the dusty types, he said, with profound solemnity: + +"Bill, did you ever want anything right bad?" + +Bill swallowed the last type with difficulty. It was the last capital +Z, and they were getting five dollars for the announcement of Zachariah +Zigler's daughter, Zella Zena's graduation into matrimony, and Bill had +been picking enough Z's out of the "More Anon" to spell it, when the pi +happened. His mind feebly recognized the calamity. He stared at the +apparition before him, too stunned by the catastrophe to apprehend +Jap's appearance further. Jap pressed him for reply. + +"Once," he admitted gloomily. "I wanted to eat musherroons." + +"Did you like 'em--when you got them?" asked Jap wanly. + +"Naw! Tasted nasty. Never could see why folks keened after 'em." + +Jap sighed. + +"I allus wanted knee pants," he said plaintively. "But seems like I +wa'n't made for that kind of luxury. I ain't a bit happy, like I +thought. Seems kind of indecent to show your legs, when you never done +it before." + +And Jap donned his long trousers again, much to the relief of +Bloomtown. Ellis afterward declared that the three-and-a-half feet of +spindling legs that dangled along under the buckled bands of those +short trousers were the most remarkable things he had ever seen. They +resembled nothing more than the legs of a spring lamb, cavorting in +knee pants, in the butcher's window. + +When we have achieved our heart's desire, we often taste the ashes of +illusion. + +Jap did not worry further about his appearance, but, dressed in the +neat jumpers that Flossy provided, he seemed content. The memory of +the episode was beginning to lose some of its sting when Dame Fortune +gave a mighty turn to her wheel. He was in the alley with Bill, +playing marbles, when Wat Harlow came rushing out. + +"Where is Ellis?" he gasped. "There's hell afloat." + +"Ellis and Flossy have gone to Birdtown to stay till Monday," +vouchsafed Bill. "It's goin' to be big doin's at an anniversary, +Sunday." + +"Good God!" cried Wat, "what can I do?" + +Jap arose and dusted himself. + +"Is it a dark secret?" he inquired. "Did Ellis owe you a bill? +Lordee, man, you can find plenty more in your fix. Forget it." + +Wat continued to tear up and down the narrow alley. + +"I'm ruined," he groaned. "They've got an infernal lie out about me, +and it's going to kill me out." + +Jap was interested. + +"Maybe I know what Ellis could do," he suggested. + +"I am running for the Legislature again," Wat said, pacing wildly over +the marbles. "The Morgan crowd have got it out that I sold myself to +the crowd that are trying to lobby a bill for a big appropriation for +the State University. The county is solid against it, and they will +vote me out of politics forever." + +"What could Ellis do?" asked Jap, sympathetically. + +"I thought that he could print the truth in handbills that could be +sent out. It is now Friday, and Tuesday is election day. There will +be no chance for help after Monday. They would have to have time to +get all over the county." He sat down and wiped his forehead. + +"What is your defense?" asked Jap judicially. + +"They said that I was in the headquarters of the University gang--and I +was," he said bitterly. "They said I shook hands with Barks--and I +did. They said that he walked with me down the steps, with his arm +around my shoulder--and he did." + +"Love of Mike!" exploded Bill, "What do you want to talk about it for, +then?" + +"The University headquarters are in Bolton's furniture store," +explained Wat. "My--my baby died last night, and I went there for her +little coffin." He choked and walked over to the gate. After a moment +he turned back. "Barks was there. When he found why I came, he walked +out with me. He put his arm around my shoulder. He--he was telling me +that he buried his youngest, a few weeks ago. And now, while I am tied +here, and the time is so short, Ellis is gone. And I'll be ruined!" + +He leaned heavily on the rickety gate. Bill wiped his snub nose, +openly, but Jap straightened up. The fire of battle was in his eyes. + +"Come inside," he cried valiantly. "Ellis is gone, but the office is +here. Come on, Bill. We have great things to do." + +All night long the two boys labored. After the story was in type, they +printed it on the Washington press. It was Bill's suggestion that +brought forth a can of vermilion, to lend color to the heart story. +Wat was in and out all night, but there was no "in and out" for the +boys. At daybreak they flung the last handbill upon the stack of bills +and sank exhausted upon them. Wat carried a mail pouch full of them to +the stage that started on its daily trip to Faber, at seven o'clock, +and the pathetic story saved the day for Legislator Harlow. + +"Boys, I will never forget it," he declared. + +Ellis saw one of the badly spelled, ink-smeared agonies on Saturday +evening, and took the next stage for home, wrathful enough to thrash +both boys. They had adorned the bill with the cut that Ellis had had +made for Johnson, the tombstone cutter, a weeping angel drooping its +long wings over a stately head-stone. A rooster and two prancing +stallions at the bottom presaged victory for the vilified Wat. + +It was midnight when Ellis slammed the door open. The two boys were +asleep in the midst of the litter of torn, ink-gaumed and otherwise +spoiled copies of that hideous handbill. The last pull on the lever of +the press had let it fly back too quickly, and it had flapped its +handle loose and lay wrecked on the floor. The office had the +appearance of a battleground. The ink was blood, and the press and +scattered type, casualties. He stirred the boys with an angry kick. +Jap sat up and peered through the ink over his eyes at his angry +employer. + +"We fixed him solid," he declared jubilantly. "There can't nothing +beat Wat now. We opened the eyes of the county." + +"You surely did," groaned Ellis. "When the Press Association add to +their Hall of Fame, they will shroud me in the folds of that dad-blamed +bit of art!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +Jap came running into the office, early in January, his freckled face +aglow, his red hair standing wildly erect. + +"Golly Haggins!" he exploded, "I got a letter from Wat. He's up at the +Legislator and he writes--he writes this!" He fairly lunged the letter +at Ellis. + +Ellis read, scowling: + + +"My dear young Friend,-- + +"I am at the Halls of Justice and I want to fill my promise to reward +you for the noble deed you done. There is a chance for a bright boy as +page, and I have spoke for it for my noble boy. Come at once. Time +and tide won't wait, and there is thirty other boys camped on the trail, + +"Respectfully your Friend, + "WAT HARLOW." + + +"Whoopee!" yelled Bill, jumping from his stool and turning a handspring +across the office. + +"Reckon I'd better ask Flossy to fix my things--get my clothes out?" +asked Jap, beaming radiantly over the big barrel stove. He started +toward the door. + +"Stop!" said Ellis, in a voice Jap had never heard. "You are not +going." + +"Not going?" echoed both boys hollowly. + +"No!" almost shouted Ellis, his brown eyes flashing. "I might have +expected this from that wooden-headed son of a lost art. Do you think +that you are going to leave my office to lick the boots of that loafing +gang of pie-biters? Not in a thousand years! I am going to put a tuck +in that idea right now. And while I'm talking about it, you may as +well know that Flossy is getting ready to teach you how to 'read and +write and 'rithmetic,' as Bill says. And as for you, Bill, Flossy says +that if your father hasn't enough pride to do the right thing by you, +she'll give you an education, along with Jap. You begin your lessons +to-morrow evening. + +"Jap, write to that reformed auctioneer and thank him for his favor. +Tell him that you belong to the ancient and honorable order of +printers. When he runs for governor, you will boom him. Till then, +nothing doing in the 'Halls of Justice.'" + +Jap sulked all day, but he wrote the letter whose contents might have +changed his career, and the following evening he and Bill began the +schooling that Flossy had planned. It was a full winter for the boys, +the most important of their lives. Even when spring came, with its +yawns and its drowsy fever, they begged that the lessons continue. +Already the effect was beginning to show in the galley proof. + +One morning in July, Jap had held down the office alone. Flossy was +not well, and Ellis spent as much time with her as possible. Bill +blustered in, a look of disgust in his brown eyes. + +"Ain't nothin' doin' in town, 'cept at Summers's," he exploded, +luxuriating in the kind of speech that was tabooed in the presence of +his elders. "Only ad I could scare up was at Summers's, and Ellis +don't want that." + +Jap looked from the door, beyond the little village park and the hotel, +to where the dingy white face of the saloon stared impudently upon the +town. + +"I never see one of them places without scringin'," he said slowly. +"My pappy almost lived in one. When we were cold, he was warm. When +Ma and us children were hungry, the saloon fed him, because--because he +could be so amusing and entertaining when he was half drunk. Ma said +that my pappy's folks were quality, but they didn't have any time for +him. + +"I used to creep around to the side winder to see what kind of a drunk +he had. If it was a mean one, I'd run home and sneak Aggie out and +hide. He had a spite agin us two, and when he had a mean drunk he used +to beat us. He was skeered to fetch Fanny Maud. She had the +wild-cattest temper you ever saw. He tried to pull her out of bed by +her hair one night, and she jumped on him and scratched his face like a +map. Ma had to drag her off, and if he hadn't run, Fanny would 'a' got +him again. After that he would brag what a fine girl she was. One +night Aggie and me hid in a straw stack all night." + +Bill looked sorrowfully upon his friend. + +"I thought I was the most forsakenest boy in the world," he said. "But +my father never beat me, and he never touches no kind of licker. He +just don't like me around. You know my mother died when I was born, +and somehow he seems to blame it on me. I don't know how to figger it, +for he married in a year, and when that one died it didn't take him no +time to start lookin' out again. He hardly ever speaks to me, 'cept to +cuss me or tell me what a nuisance I am. Allus makes me feel like a +cabbage worm." + +"Cabbage worm?" queried Jap. + +"Yes, they turn green when they eat, and I feel like I am green, every +bite I take. He looks at me so mean, like he thought I hadn't any +right to eat. That's why I eat at Flossy's, every time she asks me. +The only nice thing my pappy ever done for me was to put me in here +with Ellis. Jap," he broke off suddenly, "I'm durn glad you licked me, +that day. But your hair _was_ red!" + +Ellis had come quietly in at the rear door and had listened, half +consciously, to the sacred confession. His face saddened for a moment. +Then he squared his shoulders and his dark eyes flashed. + +"I am going to make men of those boys yet," he promised himself. "Who +knows----" + +He interrupted the spasm of painful speculation, the dark foreboding +that had for days hovered over him. The heat of summer and his anxiety +over Flossy were beginning to tell on his nerves. He tiptoed softly +out of the back door, across the weed-grown yard and out through the +alley gate. A moment later he came in at the front door, whistling +blithely. + +The summer was intensely hot. As the dog-days waxed, Ellis grew ever +more and more morose. His sharp bursts of temper were made tolerable +only by the swift justice of the amend. Late in September he came down +to the office one morning, pale and shaken. The boys had been sticking +type for an hour when his sudden entrance startled them. + +"Flossy is very sick," he said with lips that quivered, "and I will +have to trust you boys." + +Jap followed him to the door. His face was downcast. + +"Is it true, Ellis? Bill said that Flossy would--would----" He +gulped. He could not finish. Ellis turned suddenly and sat down at +the table and buried his face in the pile of exchanges. His body shook +with the effort to suppress his emotion. Bill slipped down from his +stool and the two awkward, ungainly youths looked at each other in +embarrassed sorrow. Finally Jap laid an inky hand on Ellis's shoulder. + +"Tell her--tell her," he stuttered, "that Bill and me are--are +a--prayin'." + +Ellis gave a mighty sob and rushed away, bare-headed. + +The two apprentices sat at their cases, the tears wetting the type in +their sticks. The long day dragged by. Neither of them remembered +noon, but plodded stolidly and silently through the clippings on their +copy hooks. + +It was growing dusk when a great commotion arose. It seemed to come +from the corner near Blanke's drug store. It gathered force as it +neared Granger's bank, Now it had reached the mouth of the alley that +separated the bank from the _Herald_ office. There was cheering and +laughter. Jap's face hardened. He slung one leg to the floor. How +dared any one cheer or laugh, when Flossy lay dying? + +In another instant Ellis burst into the room. His dark locks were +rumpled, his eyes wild and bright. + +"Get out all the roosters--and the stallions, too!" he shouted. "Open +a can of vermilion and, in long pica, double-lead it: 'It is a boy!'" + +Jap let the other leg fall and dragged himself around. His mouth had +fallen loose on its hinges. He sat down on the floor and gaped +foolishly at Ellis. + +"She's feeling fine," babbled Ellis, "and you and Bill are coming in +the morning to see the boy." He rushed out again. + +Jap looked at Billy glued to the stool, holding in one paralyzed hand +the inverted stick. + +"Gee!" said Jap. + +In the morning they tiptoed into Flossy's room. Very pale and weak was +the energetic little woman who had taken the moulding of their +destinies into her hands. She smiled gently and, as mothers have done +since time was, she tenderly drew back the covers from a tiny black +head and motioned for the two to look. + +"Our boy," she said, smiling radiantly. "I am going to name him Jasper +William, and I want you to make him very proud of the men he was named +for." + +The hot tears sprang to Jap's eyes and fell upon the little red face. +The wee mite, perhaps prompted by an angel whisper from the land from +whence he came, threw aloft one wrinkled hand and touched him on the +cheek. Sobbing stormily, Jap hid his face in the covers as he knelt +beside the bed. Then he took the little fingers in his. + +"If God lets me live, Flossy, I will make him proud of me." + +He choked and dashed outside to join Bill, who was snubbing +[Transcriber's note: "snubbing" is what's in the source book. Perhaps +the author meant "snuffling" or "sobbing".] audibly on the back steps. +After a muffled silence he said, his eyes growing suddenly bright: + +"Bill, did you notice what Flossy said? She said the 'men' that he was +named after. Bill, we've got to quit kiddin' and begin to grow up." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +Time passed, after the easy-going manner of Bloomtown. Jap was +sixteen, long, ungainly and stooped from bending over the case. Bill, +a little older in months, but possessed of immortal youth, was stocky +and rather good looking. Four years of daily intercourse had wrought a +subtle change in their relations, four years of the stern and the sweet +that Ellis and Flossy Hinton had brought, for the first time, into +their lives. + +Bill was at the table, the exchanges pushed back in a disorderly heap, +as he surreptitiously figured a tough problem in bookkeeping that +Flossy had given him. Jap, with furtive air, bolted the history lesson +that ought to have been learned the day before. Ellis, his back to the +one big window in the office, scowled over the proofs he was rattling. +From time to time he peppered the air with remarks that fell like bird +shot on the tough oblivion of his two assistants. At length +forbearance gave way under the strain, and he said, in cold and +measured tones: + +"When you are unable to decipher the idea I am trying to convey, I wish +that you would take me into your confidence." + +Bill looked up, a grin on his round, shining face, a grin that was +fixed to immobility by the fierceness of Ellis's glance. + +"I note that you have injected much native humor into perfectly +legitimate prose," the stern voice continued. He read: + +"'Jim Blanke has a splendid assortment of Sundays.' Now please +explain. You are causing the good folks of this town unnecessary +worry. My copy reads, 'sundries.'" + +"Jap done it," vouchsafed Bill. + +"Who done this?" Ellis stressed the verbal blunder witheringly, as he +pointed his pencil at the next item. It read: + +"Ross Hawkins soled twenty-five yearling calves." + +"It looked that way," argued Jap. + +"A devil of a couple you are," declared Ellis wrathfully. "Can't +either of you reason? Did you ever hear of any one soling a yearling +calf? Ross Hawkins is an auctioneer, not a shoemaker." + +The boys looked sheepishly at each other. Suddenly Bill flung himself +on his stomach and howled in glee. + +"Lordee! What if that had 'a' got in the paper!" he gasped. + +"There would be two fine, large, lazy boys out of a job," Ellis said +severely. + +He threw aside the copy and lifted the type. Jap followed the movement +with anxious eye. Another explosion hung, tense and imminent, in the +air. + +"Have you washed that type yet, Bill?" he asked, eager to placate Ellis. + +It was the custom for the boy nearest the door to disappear when the +time for washing a form was at hand. + +"It was your job," protested Bill. "You promised to wash Wat Harlow's +speech if I cleaned Kelly Joneses stock bill." + +Ellis sat down wearily. + +"Oh, we're agoing to do it all, this evening," cried Bill, defiantly. +"You promised that we could clean out that box of cuts. You promised a +long time ago." + +"Go to it," said Ellis, his voice relaxing, and the two boys bolted +into the back room. A little later he joined them. Jap and Bill sat +on the floor, blowing the dust from a lot of dirty old woodcuts. + +"I bought them with the job," he said, turning the pile over with his +foot. He sat down on the emptied box and watched them as they examined +the cuts. + +"What is this?" asked Jap, peering at the largest block in the lot. + +"That is a cut of the town, as it was when I came here," said Ellis, a +shadow of reminiscence crossing his face, as he took the block in his +long fingers. + +Bill drew himself to his knees and looked at the maze of lines and +depressions curiously. The picture was as strange to him as it was to +Jap. Ellis continued: + +"There were three business houses here, besides the blacksmith shop and +the saloon. Here they are. Ezra Bowers, Bill's grandfather, with the +help of his three sons, ran a general store where they sold everything +from castor oil to mowing machines. Phineas Blome--an unmistakable son +of old Jerusalem--sold clothing and more castor oil and mowing +machines. There wasn't such a thing as a butcher shop in Bloomtown. +When the natives wanted fresh meat, they ordered it brought out on the +hack. In other parts of the world, that institution is sometimes +called a stage; but here I learned that its right name is 'hack.' The +southern terminus of the Bloomtown, Barton and Faber hack-line, that +has done its best for thirty years to prevent us from being entirely +marooned, was over there at the south side of Blome's Park, exactly as +it is to-day. The hotel didn't have a bit more paint, the first night +I slept in it, than it has now." + +"Flossy said that weathered shingles were fashionable," Bill grinned, +taking up another cut. "Here's the Public Square--you call it Blome's +Park, but I never heard anybody else call it that," he added, his voice +lifting in a note of query. "That's the Square, all right, and the +Town Hall, with 'leven horses hitched in front of it." + +"Yes, when old man Blome laid out his farm in town lots, he reserved +his woods pasture for a city park. You never heard of an orthodox town +that didn't begin with a Public Square, and that little rocky glade +with the wet-weather spring had the only trees within ten miles of +here. It wasn't fit for farming, so Blome argued that nobody would buy +it with a view to raising garden truck. But your foxy Uncle Blome +didn't sacrifice anything by his generosity to the town that was about +to be born. He reserved the lots facing the park on three sides, and +held them at an exorbitant figure--as much as five dollars a front +foot, I should say. + +"The lots at the north and east were to be sold for high-class +residences only. Those at the west were reserved for business houses. +Behold the embryo Main street! Overlooking the park at the south was +Blome's farm house, since metamorphosed into a tavern and barns for the +stage horses. The last of the Blomes shook the dust of Bloomtown from +his feet when Carter bought his interest in the hack line. Bill's +grandfather had a farm adjoining Blome's land at the west; but Ezra +Bowers, merchant prince and attorney-at-law," he said whimsically, "had +to have a residence in the fashionable quarter, fronting the park. A +little patch of the old farm is quite good enough for Mr. and Mrs. +Ellis Hinton and their two sons, Jap and Jasper William." + +Jap caught Ellis's hand, a lump arising in his throat. Bill relieved +the momentary tension by turning over another cut. A familiar face +looked out at him from the grime of years. Ellis glanced at it and +smiled. + +"It is a great thing, Jap, the birth of a town. Bloomtown was really +never born. The stork dropped her when he was traveling for a friendly +haven. For ten years she lay, just as she fell, without visible signs +of life. About twenty families existed, somehow. They had pigs, +chickens and garden truck, and to all intents they would go on existing +till the last trump. + +"One day I went out into the country to attend a sale. Boys, I was +never so well pleased with a day's work as I was with that day's jaunt. +I heard the most masterly bit of eloquence that ever came from the lips +of an auctioneer. The man had the crowd hypnotized. He even sold me +an accordion, a thing I was born to hate. The fact that it was +wind-broken and rattly never occurred to me until I woke up, after he +had done. Then I went to him and said: + +"'You an auctioneer! You should be in the Halls of Justice, telling +the people how to interpret their laws.' + +"The idea struck him. He came into town with me and we talked the +matter over. He was easily the best known and most liked man in the +county. It was then that the political bug stung our good friend, Wat +Harlow. Wat moved his family to town and soon he had a decent +habitation. He stimulated a rain of paint and a hail of shingle nails. +He prodded the older inhabitants to an era of wooden pavements and +stone crossings. Bill's grandfather objected, because he said it cut +down the sale of rubber hip-boots; but Wat's eloquence was the key to +fit anything that tried to lock the wheels of progress. He did more +than that. He brought Jim Blanke from Leesburg to start a decent drug +store. + +"After that he robbed Barton of Tom Granger, and together they started +the first bank of Bloomtown. Granger's wife and baby, with Wat's wife, +were the civilization. Mrs. Granger was almost an invalid, even then, +but she gathered the women together and formed an aid society. She +begged and cajoled Bowers out of enough money to build a little church +on the lot that Blome had donated. I joined the church, for the moral +example. I don't remember what denomination it was supposed to be. We +had services once a month; but Mrs. Granger was the real power in the +town. She introduced boiled shirts and neckties. Tom bought the big +patch of ground, north of the park, and set out those elm trees before +his foundation was in. Then Jim Blanke got Otto Kraus to come here and +start a private school. Otto played the little cabinet organ in +church, and taught all the children music, after school hours. Thus +was Bloomtown born. Wat Harlow made the blood circulate in her +moribund veins." + +Jap looked into Ellis's face, his freckled cheeks glowing. + +"That's not what Wat Harlow said," he declared breathlessly. + +"What did he say?" asked Ellis sharply. + +"Why--why," gulped Jap, "he said that Bloomtown was dead as a herring, +and too no-account to be buried, till Ellis Hinton came and jerked her +out of the mud and started her to breathe." + +Ellis got up and dusted his trousers. + +"As I said before, Wat was an eloquent auctioneer. Talk is his trade, +and he keeps in practice. Dilute his enthusiasm one-half, Jap. And +now, get to work, washing up." + +As he left the office he encountered a group of tittering girls, in +front of the bank. They scattered when they perceived that Ellis and +not Bill had come forth. Bill was the lion of the town. Already the +girls had begun to come after papa's paper, on publishing day, which +upset the machinery of the office, never too dependable. + +One Thursday when the air was full of snow, the little office +registered its capacity crowd. Ellis was at home with a heavy cold, +and Jap and Bill were getting out the paper. The ink congealed on the +rollers and needed constant warming to lubricate the items reposing on +the bosom of the Washington press. This warming was Bill's job, and +Jap was exasperated to fighting pitch by the dilatory method of Bill's +peregrinations around the circle of rosy-faced girls, hanging +admiringly on his efforts. + +"Chase those girls out," he growled. "No use for them to hang around. +We won't get this paper out in a week if they stick around after you." + +"Old Crabby!" sniffed one of the girls. "You're just mad because +nobody wants to hang after you." + +"Jap is particular," chaffed Bill, half apologetically. Since they had +assumed the responsibility for the right uplift of Flossy's boy, there +had been growing a new, shy pride in themselves. "Better wait and come +back in the morning," he suggested. + +The girls filed slowly out. As they passed the table, where Jap was +piling the papers to fold, Isabel Granger, doubtless inspired by the +demon of mischief, leaned forward suddenly and kissed him full on the +mouth. Then she fled, shrieking with glee. Jap stood as if stricken +to stone. Bill looked at him in fright. There was no color in his +freckled face. His gray eyes were staring, as if some wonderful vision +had blasted his sight. + +"Gee, Jap," said Bill uneasily, "are you sick?" + +Jap aroused himself and turned toward the press. + +"No," he said slowly, "but I don't like for folks to be familiar like +that. If I wanted to be a fool like you----" He stopped and stared a +moment from the window. + +"The next time she kisses me," he said shortly, "she will mean it." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +What a wonderful thing is a baby! Babies were not new to either Bill +or Jap. In Bill's memory lingered the shrill duet of his twin +half-sisters, a continuous performance that had lasted more than a +year. And Jap had never fully corrected a lurch to the left side, due +to carrying his sister, Agnesia, when he was little more than a baby +himself. Yet the little visitor from the Land of Yesterday was a never +failing miracle to them. His cry filled them with fear for his +well-being, and his laugh intoxicated them with its glee. + +"Wait till he can talk," smiled Flossy, "Then you will see how wise he +is." + +In her heart she was beginning to combat the fear that he would never +talk. Other children of his age were already chattering like magpies. + +"Ma said that I said 'papa' when I was eight months old," declared Jap. +"But I don't know why I should 'a' said that." + +Bill grinned fatuously as the baby pulled at his hair. + +"Bill won't get his hair cut," said Jap. "He knows that J. W. would +hang after me, if it wasn't for his curly hair." + +The little fellow, who for obvious reasons could be neither Jasper nor +William, had learned to respond with amiable toleration to the soothing +abbreviation, "J. W." Kicking his stubby legs gleefully, he tangled +his fingers more mercilessly in Bill's brown locks. Flossy loosed the +fingers gently, as she cooed: + +"Naughty, naughty! Mamma said baby mustn't." + +Flinging his fingers aloft in protest, he gurgled: "Ja--Bi!" + +Flossy's eyes shone with sudden joy. It was her son's first attempt at +articulate speech. The boys lunged forward with one impulse. + +"He said 'Jappie,'" Jap cried, his chest swelling with the importance +of it. Bill glared. + +"Why, Jap!" Pain and indignation were in his tone. "He tried to say +'Bill.'" + +Flossy smiled on them both. It was a wonderful little kingdom, of +which she had assumed the place of absolute monarch, a monarch so +gentle and so just that her sway was never questioned. + +"Ellis puts in half his time trying to teach baby to say the two names +all in one mouthful, so that you boys won't fight about his first +word," she vouchsafed. "It would have to be either Jap or Bill, +because you never tell him anything but your names." + +When they waved their caps in farewell, they were still discussing the +mooted question vehemently. Was it "Jappie," or a combination of Jap +and Bill? To both of them the question was vital. Jap had the better +of the argument, when Bill blurted: + +"Anyhow, he's my cousin, and he ain't no relation of yours." Then he +remembered that significant remark of Ellis's: "A little patch of the +old farm is quite good enough for Mr. and Mrs. Ellis Hinton and their +two sons, Jap and Jasper William," and he was silent the rest of the +way back to the office. + +Little J. W. was three years old before he could speak distinctly. The +child was born with other afflictions than the serious impediment to +his speech, and the four who hung with anguished love on his every +gesture were never free from a certain unnamed anxiety. He loved Bill, +but he worshipped Jap. Both were his willing slaves. + +One rainy, dismal night in early fall, when Bill's step-mother lay +seriously ill, Flossy left her baby to the care of the small but +usually capable maid who assisted her with the work of the cottage, +while she and Ellis went to the home of Judge Bowers to relieve the +trained nurse who had come up from the city. At the supper table, +Ellis had remarked that Jap and Bill would be working late that night, +in order to get out a job that had come in when all the resources of +the office were needed for the weekly edition of the _Herald_. He had +added that he would go over and help them, if his presence could be +spared from the sick-room. + +The remark must have lodged in the baby's mind, for he slipped out of +bed, while the maid was employed in the kitchen, and toddled through +the cold rain almost all the way to Main street. Jim Blanke found him +lying exhausted in the road, a little way from the drug store, the rain +beating pitilessly on his unconscious head and his scantily clad body. + +After a night of anxious care, the little fellow relapsed into a state +of coma, and lay for hours, white and still, save for the rasping of +his breath. The office was closed. Both boys, frantic with fear, +stood with Ellis as the child lay in his mother's arms, the four +dreading that each hoarse breath would be his last. Flossy sat erect +in the wide rocking chair, her brave eyes watching every sigh that tore +the little bosom. Dr. Hall, whose dictum was life and death, was +silent. And this silence was the last straw for Jap. He crept nearer. +In fear, he turned from the face of the beloved sufferer. Ellis caught +the look in the boy's anguished eyes, and a spasm crossed his tightly +compressed lips. The physician rallied himself from the torpor of +despair that had laid hold on him. + +"Try to arouse him," he commanded. "Try again." The resources of his +experience and his prescription blank had long since been exhausted. + +Flossy bent over her child and called softly: + +"Baby, dearest, mamma loves you. Won't you speak?" + +Ellis leaned forward. His face blanched. The rasping had ceased! Jap +caught the look of horror, and dragged himself up to look into the +baby's face. + +"He isn't dead! He's all right!" he shrieked, not knowing that he +spoke. "He's still breathing. I can hear him." His hands grasped the +cold body and lifted it, unconscious of the thing he was doing. + +"Oh, J. W.! Oh, J. W.!" he screamed, "don't go away from us!" + +He pressed the child to his breast convulsively, and the miracle +happened. The solemn black eyes opened and a husky voice said, +"Jappie." + +After the excitement was over, and the exhausted mother slept beside +her sleeping child. Bill said humbly: + +"He did say 'Jap' first." + +"But he tried to say 'Bill,' too," Jap said loyally. + +The next morning, when the office had resumed its normal routine, a +routine that was destined to be only partially interrupted by the death +of Bill's second stepmother, a few days later, Ellis called Jap into +the little back room where, in the dismal days before Flossy's coming, +they had performed all the functions of housekeeping. He closed the +door, as he laid his hand on Jap's shoulders. + +"You saved J. W.'s life," he said solemnly. "Doc Hall said that you +stopped him, on the threshold, when you gave that dreadful cry." + +The baby did not rally, and Ellis worried about this incessantly. One +day, some weeks after another mound had been added to the group in +Judge Bowers's family lot, and Bill had gone with his father to +appraise the merits of a prospective housekeeper from Birdtown, Ellis +looked up from the proof he was correcting. Jap noted the anxiety in +his face, and the gray eyes, that could so often render speech +unnecessary, put the question. Ellis sighed. + +"He's not getting along the way he ought to," he mused. "Doc Hall +prescribed a tonic for him a month ago; but it doesn't seem to take +hold. He has no constitution to begin with. His father, exhausted by +privation and ill-health, has handicapped him in the start. + +"Jap," he said, as he arose and laid one arm confidingly around the +boy's shoulder, "you must remember that, in the years to come. I +didn't give the baby a fair chance. He may need all the help he can +get to carry him through. If you should live longer than I, you must +be his father and big brother, both." + +Jap's gray eyes opened in astonishment. The idea that there could ever +be a time when Ellis would not be there had never entered his mind. He +looked into the dark, thin face with its pallor and its unnaturally +bright eyes, and a joyous smile took the place of the momentary shock. + +"Doc Hall said that you had grit enough to outlive any disease that +ever lurked in the brush of Bloomtown," he declared eagerly. + +"Doc Hall is an optimist," Ellis laughed hollowly. "I'm not so much +concerned for myself as for the boy and his mother. You know what J. +W. means to her." + +"Bill and I have already talked it over," Jap returned. "We're going +to be big brothers to J. W. We're going to take turns at taking him +for long rides on Judge Bowers's old horse, Jeremiah. Doc Hall said +that long, jolty rides would set him up, rosy and fat, in a little +while. Bill told me this morning that he had J. W. weighed again, on +Hollins's scales, and he has gained three pounds." + +Ellis Hinton's face cleared. There was a new elasticity in his step as +he crossed the room and laid the copy down on the case. Unconsciously +he began to whistle, as he clicked the type in the stick. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +Flossy came into the office, leading the boy by the hand, and called +Ellis aside. Old Jeremiah had done wonders for the little fellow; but +on Flossy Hinton's face there was a look that boded ill to some one. + +"I sent for Brother William to meet me here," she said crisply. "I +want you to back up all that I say." + +Before Ellis had breathed twice, she was out looking up the street, and +in less time than you could think it out, she was back, towing the +Judge, who puffed explosively. Ellis and the three boys had retreated +to the rear office. + +"There is not a bit of use to argue, William," she said, her lips in a +hard, straight line. "Ellis has done more than any one else in town +could do. When I heard that you had subscribed five thousand dollars +to the new church, I concluded that your charity was a little far +fetched. Now I want you to subscribe five thousand dollars to the +institution that is making a man of your son. I want five thousand +dollars for the printing office. It is too small, and the press is out +of date. We need all that goes into an up-to-date printing office." + +Her brother looked upon her tolerantly. + +"Keep it up, Floss. It never fazed you to ask favors, and you ain't +run down yet." + +"It's a shame," she stormed. "Just look at this little shed! Why, +even a cross-road blacksmith shop is better." + +He looked around appraisingly. + +"I reckon it'll house all Ellis's business," he commented. + +"Ellis," she flashed, "tell William about the railroad." + +Ellis came from the inside office. He generally withdrew from the +conferences between Flossy and her brother. + +"Wat Harlow told me that two of the big railroad systems have entered +into a joint arrangement to shorten their mileage, on through trains to +the West. He's got it all fixed for the new track to pass through +Bloomtown. It will give us all the benefit of two railroads." + +"You see," said Flossy triumphantly, "the town will boom. People will +move in, and a first-class newspaper will be the greatest asset." + +"I think that the town will take a big start," assured Ellis. "The +boys will have all they can do with job work, and the office is small +for our present needs." + +"Pap, you should watch us carving letters when we get short," +interposed Bill. "Last week Jap had to carve three A's for Allen's +handbill. There are only three of 'em in that case, and Allen wanted +to use six. His name is Pawhattan Abram Allen, and he wanted the whole +blamed thing spelled out in caps. I told Jap it was lucky Allen's +folks didn't name him Aaron, on top of all the rest." + +"That's good practice for you boys," the Judge snorted. "I'm mighty +glad you learned something for all the money I spent on you." He +glanced at his sister witheringly; but Flossy had her eyes fixed on her +husband. + +"I wish," Ellis stirred himself to say, "that the town would boom +enough to take all these frame shacks off of Main street, so that the +place wouldn't look like a settlement of campers." + +"A good fire would help," commented Bill boldly. + +Judge Bowers looked over his glasses at his son. + +"Well, when the railroad comes, and the rest of the shacks are moved +out, I will write you a check for five thousand dollars," he snorted, +turning his rotund form out of the door. + +Flossy picked up the boy and flounced out, in speechless indignation. +By argument and cajolery she had succeeded in getting six months apiece +for Bill and Jap at the School of Journalism, and at twenty the boys +were far more expert than Ellis was when he began the publication of +the _Herald_. She had set her heart on the new printing office, and +her eyes were abrim with tears as she stumbled home. + +The week wore on until printing day. It was a day of unimagined +exasperations. Everything went wrong. Ellis's usually smooth temper +bent under the stormy comments of the boys, and in the late afternoon +he developed a violent headache and went home. Things continued to +pile up until it was evident that the boys would have to print the +paper after dark. + +It was ten o'clock when they finished. Jap followed Bill to the +pavement, pausing to lock the door and slip the key in his pocket. The +town was asleep. Not a soul was to be seen on Main street. Bill, who +usually took the short cut across the Public Square to his fathers +house, turned with Jap and walked along Main street to the farther end +of the block. At Blanke's drug store, he turned into Spring street. +He was saying, in a tone of mixed penitence and anxiety: + +"I wish we hadn't riled Ellis so, to-day. I don't like those headaches +he's having so often, and the way his face gets red every afternoon. +If he ever sneaked out and took a drink--But I know he never does." + +"Oh, Ellis is all right, now that little J. W. is getting strong," Jap +insisted. + +They had gone some distance in the direction of Flossy's cottage, when +Bill looked across an expanse of vacant lots to where a dim light +burned in the loft of Bolton's barn. + +"They're running a poker game," said Bill wisely. + +Almost before the words were gone, a wild shriek rent the air. A flash +of light from the barn loft, a scrambling of feet, and a succession of +dark objects catapulted the ooze of the barnyard, and it was all +ablaze. A stiff breeze was blowing from the southwest. Bill ran to +the mill to set the fire whistle, and Jap scrambled through a window of +the Methodist church and began to fling the chimes abroad, so that he +who slept might know that there was a fire in town. There had been no +rain for weeks, and the frame structures were ripe for burning. + +In less than half an hour the row of stores on Main street, in the +block below the _Herald_ office, began to smoke. From Hollins's +grocery store a brand was carried by the wind and lodged among the dry +shingles of Summers's saloon. The excitement was augmented, a few +minutes later, by a series of pyrotechnic explosions. Bucket brigades +were formed, the firemen mostly in undress uniform. + +Jap and Bill were in their glory. Jap was mounted on top of the Town +Hall, directing operations. Right down the row rushed the flames, +eating up the town. As if in parting salutation, the fiery monster +leaped across a vacant lot, thick set with dried weeds, and clutched +with heat-red claws at the _Herald_ office. + +"This way, men!" yelled Jap. "You have to get the press and enough +type out to tell about the fire." + +Ellis was staring hopelessly at the flame that was licking at the rear +of the office. The water was exhausted from the town well, and there +was no hope of saving the plant. But youth is omniscient, and the +townsmen followed the wildly yelling apprentices and hastened to +demolish the office and drag away the debris, some of it already +blazing. From the salvage rescued from Price's hardware store, and +heaped in a disorderly pile in the Public Square, Jap handed out the +latest thing in fire fighting apparatus. The flimsy structure, that +had been Ellis Hinton's stronghold for almost twenty years, gave way to +an assault with axes, and the contents, pretty well scattered, were +left standing. It was nothing that Granger and Harlow's bank went down +with little left to show its location save the fire-proof vault, and +that only a shift in the wind prevented the flames from crossing to the +fashionable residence section east of Main street. + +In the morning the _Herald_ force began business in the ruins of its +time-worn shelter, and set up gory accounts of the fire, on brown +manila paper with vermilion and black ink. A crowd assembled to watch +the exciting spectacle. + +"What's the use of a railroad now?" bleated Judge Bowers. "There ain't +no town to run it through." + +"Why ain't there?" asked Jap sharply. + +"Why, all the folks are talking of pulling up stakes and moving to +Barton." + +"Well, if that is the kind of backbone they have been backing this town +with," snapped the youth, his red hair standing erect, "you help them +move, and the _Herald_ will show them up for quitters--and fill the +town with real men." + +And being full of wrath, he proceeded to incorporate this thought in +the half column he was setting up. The paper was eagerly snapped up by +the crowd. + +"Who wrote this?" fairly howled Tom Granger. "I want to hold his grimy +hand and help him shout for a bigger and better town." + +Ellis shoved Jap forward. + +"Here is the fire-eater," he announced. Jap flushed through the dirt +on his face. + +"It's true," he said, half shyly. "There's no good in a quitter. The +best thing is to smoke them out and get live men to take their places." + +"Bravely said," shouted Granger. "The bank will rebuild with brick. +Who else builds on Main street?" + +Before the end of the following week the town was humming with +industry. Every hack brought its contingent of insurance adjusters, +and merchants elbowed contractors in the little telegraph office, in +endeavors to get supplies. On Thursday a curious crowd stood watching +Ellis and the boys run the blistered but still faithful Washington +press in the boiling sun. + +"Goin' to get winter after a while, Jap," shouted one of the +bystanders. "You'll have to wear ear muffs to get out your paper." + +Jap grinned and swung the lever around methodically. + +"What are you going to do, Ellis?" asked the honorable member from the +"Halls of Justice," who had hurried to his little home town in her hour +of trouble. "There ain't a vacant shack in town. It seems a darned +shame that you'll have to give up, after starving with the town till it +gets its toes set in gravel at last. Now that the railroad is running +this way like a scared wolf, the town needs a paper worse than ever." + +"Who said they was going to quit?" demanded Judge Bowers pugnaciously. +"They ain't! Ellis is goin' to have a two-story brick, with a printin' +press that runs itself. This here town ain't no quitter." He glared +fiercely at Harlow. + +Jap lingered with Ellis until the last of the day's work was finished. +As he started for home he came upon an animated group, in the shade of +the half-burned drug store. Behind a pile of wreckage, Bill was +holding court. Jap stopped short. Bill was telling a lurid tale of +superhuman strength and dare-devil bravery, of which Jap Herron was the +hero, a tale that grew with every telling. A wave of embarrassment +swept over Jap. As he turned hastily away, he felt a soft clutch on +his arm. He looked back. Two sparkling black eyes were looking up +into his. + +"I think that you are the bravest boy in the world," whispered Isabel +Granger, "and--and I am glad I kissed you that time." + +Jap stared at her, stunned by a new emotion. In another moment she was +gone, flying across the street in the direction of her home. + +"Anybody but Jap would 'a took her up on that," insinuated Bill, who +had heard Isabel's last words. + +Jap turned a murderous look upon him. The crowd of girls tittered as +they dispersed. When supper was over Jap returned to the spot, and +long after dark he sat upon the pile of wreckage, thinking long, long +thoughts. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +The scraping of saw, the clang of hammer and the smell of fresh paint +classed Bloomtown as "Boomtown." The railroad had already peered into +the northern environs of the town, cutting diagonally across Main +street, some half-dozen blocks from the plot of ground that had been +rechristened Court House Square. A substantial municipal building took +the place of the dingy old Town Hall, and the barns of the now almost +defunct Bloomtown, Barton and Faber hack line had been cleared away to +make room for a decent hotel. In the angle between the railroad tracks +and Main street a small temporary station sheltered travelers. The +half-moribund village had burst its swaddling bands and begun to +expand. Everybody was wearing grins as a radiant garment. + +As the summer traveled toward July, the headaches that had been so +frequent the past winter merged into a feeling of utter exhaustion, and +Ellis came down to the office but few days of each week. Flossy +stopped Jap at the gate one noon hour. + +"Ellis has something to tell you, Jappie, and I want you to be very +composed. Don't let yourself go." Her voice was full of pleading. +She turned quickly as Ellis appeared in the doorway. He walked out to +meet them. + +"Let us sit out under the trellis while Flossy finishes fixing dinner," +he said, leading the way. "Jap, your birthday comes to-morrow, and I +am going to ask you to accept a sacred trust that is a burden. You are +twenty-one and, as they say, 'your own man.' I want to ask you to be +_my man_. Jap, I am going away, how far God only knows. The doctor +says that my lungs are all wrong, and life in the mountains may save +me. My boy--for you have been my boy since you walked through my door, +nine years ago--I want you to take charge of the office, and shoulder +the support of Flossy and the little one if--if----" He caught the +horror-stricken boy's hand. "Jap, I will never come back. I know it. +I have talked with my soul and it is well. Will you do it, Jap?" + +Jap pressed Ellis's feverish hand between his strong young palms. He +could not speak. His eyes were dry and his lips twitched. + +"There," cautioned Ellis, "no heavy face before Flossy. God bless her! +she thinks that I will be well before the new office is done, and is +making more splendid plans for the big opening! She is---- Jap, you +dunce, grin about something!" + +Flossy and the boy came dancing down the sun-flecked path and Jap swung +the slender little fellow to his shoulder and began a mock race from +Ellis. + +As soon as dinner was over, a dinner that stuck in his throat for +hours, he told Flossy that two men were rushing Bill to desperation for +their handbills. He hurried out by way of the alley. Flossy ran after +him. "You forgot your hat, Jap," she cried breathlessly. He took the +hat and started off silently. + +"Wait a minute, Jap." Her voice was insistent. "You didn't put on a +grave face with Ellis, did you? Oh, Jap"--the cry was from her +heart--"he will never live to see the new office! He will never know +of the realization of his dreams, the big town, the trains whirling +through, and he looking down from his lofty window with a smile of +superior joy. Oh, Jap, how often have we heard him tell about it! He +doesn't know. He is full of hope. Only just before you came he was +joking about the Star Spangled Banner he was going to wind around his +brow when he dedicated the _Herald_ office. Jap, be true to his faith, +for he will never open the door of that office. He will never help to +get out the first paper." + +She strangled and turned away. Then in brisk tones she added: + +"Now, Jap, hurry along. Here comes Ellis to scold." And in the +marvelous manner that is God-given to loving women, she forced a smile +to her lips as she gave the youth a playful shove and ran to meet her +husband. + +A few days later they left. The town took a holiday, and with laughter +and merrymaking it celebrated Ellis Hinton's first vacation. A water +tank was in process of construction, at the upper end of a half-mile +stretch of double track, and at the lower end of the siding, close to +Main street, the imposing brick railroad station stood in potential +grandeur, its bricks still separated by straw and its ample foundation +giving promise of stability as it reposed in sacks of cement and piles +of crushed stone. Something of this was incorporated in Ellis's +farewell speech as he addressed his townspeople. When the train began +to move his black head was still visible, as he returned quip for joke. +And Flossy was flitting from her lifelong friends as if no trouble +clouded her brow. + +Little J. W. was the feature of the going, and under the pretense of +caring for his wants, their sleeper compartment had been piled with +fruit and flowers by loving friends who had gone on to the nearest town +to meet the train, so that the surprise should be the more complete. +Then, to the sound of the village band, Ellis left what he had always +called "my town." Jap did not go to the station, and when Bill found +the door of their improvised office locked, he turned silently away. +His heart was full, too. + +The Widow Raymond had offered them a room for a printing office. The +press occupied the room. Jap and Bill set the type in the woodshed and +carried the galleys in. During the nine years of their association +Bill had been the unsteady member of the team, consuming more effort in +devising ways and means of escaping work than the work would have cost, +and toiling with feverish penitence when he realized that he had +wrought a hardship to Jap or Ellis. But now, inspired by the dimpled +face of Rosy Raymond, he worked as he had never worked in his life. +Odd things began to happen. Bill insisted on doing all the +proof-reading, a task he had hitherto detested. A bit of verse +occasionally crept into the columns of the _Herald_. Jap did not +detect this verse for several weeks. When he did, he descended upon +Bill. + +"Where in Heck did you filch that doggerel?" + +"Who said it was doggerel?" demanded Bill. + +"Lord love you," cried Jap, "what could any sane being call it? What +did you get for publishing it--advertising rates?" + +"You're a fool!" snapped Bill. "You think that you're a criterion. I +will have you know that lots of folks have complimented it." + +Jap took up the offending sheet. + +"'Thine eyes are blue, thine lips are red, thine locks are gold,'" he +groaned. He looked at Bill. Just then the door opened and Rosy +stepped into the room. A great light shone on Jap's understanding. +Her eyes were blue, her lips certainly red, and a fervid imagination +could call her hair gold. He sighed pathetically. + +"Bill, don't you think you could write it out and relieve the pressure +on your heart, without endangering our prestige?" + +Bill kicked at the mongrel dog that had its habitat under the press, +and marched out indignantly. + +"I'll be glad if I get him out of here single," mused Jap. "He has +these spells as regular as the seasons change. Heretofore his +prospects have never entitled him to consideration. This time it may +be different." + +Bill had been systematically chased from every front gate in town, +behind which rosy-cheeked girls abode; but the disquieting conviction +swooped down upon Jap that Barkis, in the shape of the Widow Raymond, +might be more than "willin'" to hitch Bill to her sixteen-year-old +daughter. And if Bill had not contracted a new variety of measles at +the most opportune time, Jap's forebodings might have been realized. +Bill had the "catching" habit. No contagion in town ever escaped him, +and this time he was so ill that he had to go to the country to +recuperate. + +The new stores opened, one by one, with much celebration. Owing to +several unaccountable financial complications, the last of all the +important buildings on Main street to be finished was the _Herald_ +office. A cylinder press, second-handed, to be sure, but none the less +an object of admiration, was installed, and fonts of clean, new type +stood ready for work. There was a great, sunny front office on the +main floor, and the ample space behind it had been divided into +composing room, press room and private office. On the second floor was +a small job press, and here, at Jap's suggestion, the old Washington +press was stored. The rooms were decorated with flags, and bunting was +strung across the front of the office. Judge Bowers had personally +attended to this. + +"You're going to have a dandy paper," Tom Granger beamed, as he +accompanied Jap on the final tour of inspection. "We'll all have to +stop business to watch this cylinder press spill out the news." + +Wat Harlow had run down from the Capital to congratulate the staff. At +his suggestion the merchants had ordered flowers from the city, and +great vases of roses and carnations, and decorative pieces in symbolic +design, stood around in fragrant profusion. Every room of the office +was filled with them. + +The forms were ready for the printing of that first paper, and only +awaited the conclusion of Wat's speech, to be placed upon the press, so +that Bloomtown should receive the salutatory _Herald_. Jap turned to +the assemblage, waiting in eager curiosity to see the cylinder revolve. + +"The paper will be printed on Ellis's press," he said briefly. "I +don't want to be ungrateful for your kindness, but will you leave Bill +and me alone to get out our first edition?" + +They filed out slowly, awed by the grief in the voice of Ellis's boy. + +With the old types, on the old Washington hand press, they printed the +first _Herald_ of the new régime. With the exception of the greeting +on the front page, every word was reprinted from the predictions +written by Ellis in the years agone, and the greeting, in long pica on +the first page, was his telegram to them and his townsmen received that +morning. + +When the last paper was printed by the two sad-faced boys on their day +of jubilee, and the pile had been folded and carried downstairs, Jap +closed the press upon the inky type, and gathered the great bunches of +fragrant blossoms and heaped them upon the press, to be forever silent. +With a groan of anguish, he threw himself against them. Bill slipped +his arm through Jap's, and together they celebrated the day that was +Ellis's. And in the night the telegram came: + +"At rest. FLOSSY." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +When Ellis went away it was to the sound of jollity. He came back to a +town shrouded in mourning. Every store was closed, and symbols of +grief adorned most of them. Wat Harlow, with a delicacy Ellis would +scarcely have expected of him, had ordered purple ribbon and white +flowers to tie with the crape. Silent and grief-stricken, the town +stood waiting the arrival of the train. When it came, the coffin was +lifted by loving hands and carried the ten long blocks to the church. +No cold hearse rattled his precious body, but, even as the body of +Robert Louis Stevenson was held by human touch until the last office +was done, so was Ellis Hinton, the country printer, carried to his last +repose by the hands of his friends. + +Not until Jap looked for a long, anguished moment upon the +flower-massed grave did he realize that he was alone, that he was +drifting, that he had no anchor. Something of this he expressed to +Flossy, between dry sobs, when they had left Ellis alone in the +secluded little cemetery. Her eyes burned with a strange, maternal +light as she comforted the boy whose grief was of the fibre of her own. + +"Ellis knew that you would feel that way," she said gently, "and +because of that, he made a will that is to be read to-night. Wat +Harlow has it. Until it is read, I want you not to trouble." + +That evening, with all the important men of the town assembled in the +big front room of the _Herald_ office, Wat Harlow read brokenly the +last "reading notice" of Bloomtown's sleeping hero. It was written in +the familiar scrawl that everybody knew, with scarcely a waver in its +lines to tell that a dying hand had penned it: + + +"I am going a long journey, but not so far that I cannot vision your +growth. It was the labor of love to plan for this time. In the +gracious wisdom of God it was not intended that I should enjoy it with +you; but as Moses looked into his promised land, so through the eyes of +the _Herald_ I have seen mine. And God, in His wonderful way, has sent +you another optimist to do the royal work of upbuilding a town. + +"My town, my people, I leave to you the greatest gift I have to offer. +I give you my boy, Jap. He is worthy. Hold up his hands, in memory of + +"ELLIS HINTON." + + +As Harlow folded the paper, with hands that trembled, he was not +conscious of the fact that hot tears were streaming down his cheeks. +There was an instant of tense silence. Then Tom Granger walked over to +the boy who lay, face downward across the table, arms outspread in +abandon of grief. He took one limp hand in his, and a voiceless +message went from heart to heart. Jap aroused himself. One by one the +men of Bloomtown filed by. No word was spoken, but each man pledged +himself to Ellis Hinton as he took the hand of Ellis's boy in a firm +clasp. When the others had gone, Wat Harlow remained. + +For a moment he stood silent beside the table. Then with a cry of +utter heartbreak, he sank to his knees and permitted the bereaved boy +to give vent to his long-repressed agony in a saving flood of tears. +When they left the office together, there had been welded a friendship +that was stronger than years of any other understanding could have +given. + +Flossy went back to the cottage, and, like the brave helpmeet of such a +man as Ellis Hinton must have been, did not sadden the days with her +grief. Sometimes, in the little arbor, with J. W. playing at her feet, +she sang softly over her sewing: + + "Beautiful isle of Somewhere, + Isle of the true, where we live anew, + Beautiful isle of Somewhere." + + +It was her advice that caused the boys to fit up a bedroom and +living-room on the second floor of the office. It was her idea that +separated Bill from the unsteady air of his home. The Judge, heeding +the scriptural injunction implied in the immortal words of Moses, "It +is not good that man should be alone," had taken unto himself a fourth +wife, and Bill had so many rows with his latest stepmother that there +was no opposition to the change. Tom Granger observed that it had been +so many matrimonial moons since Bill had a mother that he did not know +whether he had any real kinfolks at all. It was certain that he knew +little of the real meaning of the word "home." Flossy boarded them, +and her cottage was their haven of refuge during many a long evening. +It was sad comfort, and yet it was the surest comfort, to have her live +over again those last days in the mountains, when Ellis's thoughts +bridged space and visualized the rebuilding of Bloomtown. + +Perhaps Flossy sensed the fact that these evenings were bone and sinew +to Jap's manhood. The boy, never careless, was changing to a man of +purpose, such as would be the product of Ellis Hinton's training. The +stray, born of the union of purposeless, useless Jacky Herron, and +Mary, peevish and fretful, changeable and inconstant, had been born +again into the likeness of the man who bad been almost a demigod to him. + +The town was growing, as Ellis had prophesied, and was creeping in +three directions across the prairie. It incorporated and began to +settle into regular lines. Spring street showed but few gaps in the +line of cottages that ran almost all the way from the rear of Blanke's +drug store to Flossy's home, and another line of modest cottages looked +at them from the other side of the street. A new and fashionable +residence place was laid out, in the extreme south end of town, as far +from the grime and soot of the railroad as possible; but the +substantial old families still clung to their ancestral halls in the +vicinity of Court House Square. + +One day in early spring Bill burst into the office, his reporter's pad +flapping wildly. His brown eyes danced. + +"Big doings!" he shouted. "Pap's going to run for mayor, and he wants +the _Herald_ to voice the cry of the town for his services." + +"Who said so?" queried Jap, sticking away at the last legislative +report. + +"Nobody but him--as far as I can find out," Bill returned, grinning +knowingly. "It seems that they had a mess of turnip greens, from +cellar sprouts, and they gave him cramps. He was dozing under +paregoric when the idea hit him. It grew like the turnip sprouts, fast +but pale. He wants us to water the sprouts and give 'em air, so that +they'll get color in them." + +"How much did he send in for the color?" asked Jap, climbing down +interestedly. + +The Associate Editor flashed a two-dollar bill. + +"I told Pap that if any opposition sprouted, he'd have to raise the +ante," he remarked. "He squealed loud enough when I squeezed him for +this, but I convinced him that we had about done away with charity +practice. Told him the _Herald_ was out of the amateur class, and +after this election the ante 'd be five bones." + +"Well," conceded Jap, "as he is Flossy's brother, we'll have to spread +it on thick for the low price of introduction. Look up that woodcut of +Sames, the Chautauqua lecturer. If you'll chisel off the beard, we can +use it for the Judge. I think that we will kill that story you cribbed +from the St. Louis _Republic_, about the President's morning canter +with his family physician, and run the Judge along the first column. +By the way, Bill, it would be a good idea to trace his career from +joyous boyhood to the dignity of the judicial office. What judge was +he? Since I have known him, he has never 'worked at the bench.'" + +Bill grinned wickedly. + +"He was judge of live stock at the county fair!" + +"Fallen is Caesar!" Jap exploded. "What can we say about him?" + +"Nothin' for certain, as Kelly Jones says," Bill lamented. + +"I never tried fiction," Jap averred, "but for the honor of the first +aspirant to the office of Mayor of Bloomtown, and the greater glory of +our Associate Editor, I am going to plunge." + +And plunge he did. When the town read the eulogium that Jap spread +upon the front page of the _Herald_ it gasped as from a sudden cold +plunge, sat up, rubbed its eyes, and concluded that it had somehow +failed to understand or appreciate its foremost son. Hollins, the +leading grocer, and Bolton, the furniture dealer, had felt the itch for +office; and Marquis, the attorney, had stood in his doorway for a week +awaiting the delegation that would press upon him the nomination; but +all these aspirants faded like poppies in the wake of the reaper. +Nobody could be found to buck a sure thing, such as Judge Bowers, +backed by the power of the press. + +The week after election, the _Herald_ sported fifty small flags through +its columns, and quoted Wat Harlow's speech in which he declared that +Judge William Hiram Bowers was "the noblest Roman of them all." For +which Bill accounted to Jap by the astute observation that Rome was a +long way off. The Judge hardly caught Wat's meaning, and came into the +office to protest. + +"I am afeard that folks 'll think we have Catholic blood in the +family," he complained, shaking the paper nervously. + +"Mystery is the blood of progress, Pap," assured Bill gravely. "If you +will notice, the men that get there always have a skeleton rattling a +limb now and then." + +"Mis' Bowers don't like it," he objected. "I had to quit the +Methodists and be immersed in the Baptists afore she'd have me, and now +she's fairly tearin' up the wind over this talk about me bein' a Roman. +You gotta correct it!" + +"We have given you a hundred dollars' worth of advertising for a measly +two-dollar bill," declared Jap emphatically. "The columns of the +_Herald_ are free to news. Advertising at our regular rates. Bill +will give you particulars." + +"Dollar an inch for display," crisped Bill; "ten cents a line for +readers." He seated himself, pencil in band, as he added, "payable in +advance." + +"Make a flat rate of ten dollars, as it is the Judge," advised Jap +judicially. + +The Mayor-elect decided to let it alone; but Jap mentioned the fact, in +the next issue of the _Herald_, that Judge Bowers had alleged that he +was born in New England, of Puritan stock, and had no Italian +sympathies--which lucid statement abundantly satisfied Judge and Mrs. +Bowers, but set the town to wondering what the Judge was hiding in the +dim annals of his past. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +"I worked a bunch of passes out of the agent for that Indian medicine +show," announced Bill, washing his hands. "Want to take her, Jap?" and +he jerked his head in the direction of the front door, where Isabel +Granger was passing. + +"No; I'm going out to Flossy's a while. I want to talk some things +over with her." + +There was no further discussion, for at that moment Rosy Raymond +floated by, and Bill started out in eager pursuit. Ever since the +election, Jap had been obsessed by a disquieting foreboding. One of +Mayor Bowers's first official acts was to authorize the opening of a +second saloon on Main street, and he was rapidly pushing the work of +erecting two new business houses which, rumor declared, were to house +other thirst palaces. Hitherto the natives and the surrounding +territory had been amply supplied by Holmes; but Bloomtown was growing +beyond the reach of one saloon. + +Holmes had come across with a double-sized license, under promise of +the Mayor that he should continue to have a monopoly of the trade. And +when the good people of the various churches waited upon Judge Bowers +to protest against what they were disposed to call the "introduction of +Satan into their town," he called their attention to the need for +municipal revenue. If one saloon was a help, two saloons would double +that help. The town had already begun to show signs of genuine +progress. It had to build a calaboose to take care of the saloon's +patrons, and the regular fines for plain drunks almost paid the cost of +the court that collected them. + +Once Jap thought he detected a sinister reason for Bill's flushed +cheeks and unsteady gait as he passed hastily through the office on his +way to the sleeping room above. The next morning Bill declared that he +had been a fool, and had paid for his folly with a severe headache, and +Jap, with the delicacy that was Jap's, let the subject drop. It was +becoming fashionable for the young fellows of the town to assume a +tough swagger. Those who had formerly resorted to barn lofts and musty +cellars paraded their sophistication on Main street, and Bill would +rather be dead than out of style. Jap wanted to talk it over with +Flossy, but he had never found the key to open such poignant +confidence. What right had he to burden Flossy with fresh anxiety? In +his loneliness, he yearned for Ellis as he had never yearned before. + +He was sitting on the little front porch, tossing J. W. on the tough +old trotting horse afforded by his two ill-padded knees, and vaguely +wondering how he could introduce the subject of Bloomtown's swift +decay, without wounding Judge Bowers's sister and Bill's aunt, when +they heard a great tumult in the vicinity of the medicine show. After +a while Bill came up the walk with Rosy. + +"What was the racket about?" Jap asked incuriously. + +Rosy giggled. + +"They wanted to nominate the ugliest man in town, and there was a +fight," she said. + +"Shut up!" growled Bill. "Haven't you got any sense?" + +"Sam Waldron nominated Jap," she sputtered, between giggles. + +A hot flush swept over Jap. Always keenly sensitive, he had never +armored himself against the playful brutalities of his friends. The +shame of being made a subject of ridicule cut deeply. + +"Rosy is a fool!" snapped Bill. + +"What was the fuss about?" asked Flossy, prompted by a conviction that +further revelation would be good for Jap. + +"Why, Isabel Granger slapped his face, and Bill jumped in and punched +him in the ribs, and the crowd wanted to take him down to the pond and +duck him." + +Flossy's hand sought Jap's, and she laughed softly. + +"That was worth while, boy. How Ellis would have written it up!" + +Jap smiled, but the sting was still there. When it was evident that +Bill and Rosy expected to spend the evening, he arose with a tired, +"Well, I'll be going," and walked around the cottage to the alley gate. +He was afraid of meeting some one on Spring street, and he made excuse +to his own consciousness that the alley had always been the rational +highway between the cottage and the office. He put his hand in his +pocket for his key, as he emerged on Main street. + +As he approached the door, he saw that some one was sitting on the +steps. She sprang up and laid trembling hands on his arm. + +"Oh, Jap, you won't mind! You won't let it hurt you? Everybody knows +that you are the best-looking man in town. At least I--think so!" + +Before he could grasp her arm, the girl was gone. That night Jap lay +awake long hours, thinking, thinking. With the morning, reason +returned. He had assumed responsibility for Flossy and the boy. He +must not think again. + +And indeed the next few days gave him little time for thought. Wat +Harlow slipped into the office late one afternoon. He wore a furtive +look and an appearance of guilt. There was about him a suggestion of +gum shoes. Something must be amiss. + +"I want to see you alone, Jap," he confessed. + +Jap led the way to the little private office. Harlow was pulling +nervously at the stubby mustache that hid his short upper lip. + +"In trouble, Wat?" asked Jap anxiously. + +"No--not exactly. You see, it's this way----" He coughed +apologetically. "The wife had a dream, a funny dream, the other night. +She's had curious dreams ever since we took that long trip, to New York +and all over, last year, and there may be nothing to it, but----" He +lit a fresh cigar, and went at it again. "She says that she saw me +going into the Capitol at Washington just as if I belonged there. And +she got a notion---- Jap, you know how notionate women are. She +thinks--well, she thinks that I might be called to run for the House of +Representatives." + +"Oh, I see," said Jap, illuminated. "It would sound good for the +_Herald_ to mention that you are in line?" + +"Not rough-like, Jap! Just a little tickle in the ribs, to see what +they'd say." + +"Oh, I'll fix that," declared Jap, laughing. And the _Herald_ flung +the hat in the ring for "Harlow, the one honest man." + +Jap smiled sadly as he read his copy over. He had a habit of wondering +what Ellis would have said. He wondered, too, what attitude the editor +of the Barton _Standard_ would take. The _Standard_ had recently +changed hands, and since Bloomtown had pulled a saloon, a sunbonnet +factory and two business houses out of Barton, a rapid-fire editorial +war had been in progress. By some curious dispensation of Providence, +Jones of the _Standard_ and Herron of the _Herald_ had never met. Jap +was not hunting trouble, but the same spirit that prompted him to +thrash his tormentors, the day of his advent in Ellis Hinton's town, +caused him to wield a fire-tipped pen against the _Standard_. + +That opposition to Wat's candidacy would develop, before the +nomination, was to be expected; but opposition on the part of the +Barton _Standard_ would be a purely personal matter, the _Standard_ +having its own party fights to foster. But that was all Jap feared. + +It was even worse than he could have imagined, for Jones dug up a +bloody ghost to walk at every political meeting. Not only were all Wat +Harlow's sins of omission and commission paraded in the _Standard_, but +he was proclaimed as the implacable foe of higher education. In vain +did his home paper print his record, of beneficent bills introduced, of +committee work on behalf of the district schools, and his great speech +setting forth the need of a new normal school building. Jones had one +trump card left in his hand, and the day before the convention he +played it. It was a handbill, yellow with age and ragged around the +edges, but still showing a badly spelled, abominably punctuated story +in vermilion ink, with a weeping angel at the top and a rooster and two +prancing stallions at the bottom. It proved Wat Harlow the undying foe +of the State University. + +Despite all the _Herald's_ valiant work, that nightmare was Harlow's +undoing. The nomination went to a rising politician at the opposite +side of the congressional district. A great change had come over the +sentiment, of the state, since the day when the University had been the +favorite tool of the political grafters. Every village had its band of +rooters for the Alma Mater, and when the nominating convention came to +a close it was apparent that Wat Harlow was hardly an "also ran." + +Defeat was galling enough; but the _Standard's_ expressions of glee +were unbearable. Jap's red hair stood on end, "like quills upon the +fretful porcupine," as he stood at his case and threw the type into the +stick, hot from the wrath in his soul. The paper was printed, as +usual, on Thursday; but Friday brought a change in the even tenor of +Bloomtown's way. Jones, of the _Standard_, was a passenger on the +eastbound train that left Barton a little after noon. His destination +was Bloomtown. + +"I am looking for a cross-eyed, slit-eared pup by the name of Herron," +was the greeting he flung into the _Herald's_ sanctum. The door to the +composing room was open. Jap looked up wearily. + +"Would you mind sitting down and keeping quiet till I finish setting up +this address to the bag of wind that edits the Barton _Standard_?" he +said impersonally. + +Jones, of the _Standard_, sat down and gaped at the long, lank figure +on the stool. A moment he went limp and terrified; then he rallied his +courage. + +"Do you unwind all at once?" he asked, as Jap disentangled his legs +from the stool. "I take back what I said about a pup. You're a +full-grown dog, all right. I wasn't looking for a brick-top, either. +No wonder you have a weakness for vermilion." + +"Better come outside of town," Jap interrupted. "I've been intending +to go over to Barton to have a look at you, but it's better thus. I +have been stealing space from my readers long enough. They pay for +more important things than my private opinion of you. I made up my +mind to stop the argument by giving you a hell of a licking, and I've +only waited because I didn't care to risk my reputation in a +neighboring town. Here it will be different. In the midst of my +friends, I hope to fix you so that you'll never try to throw filth on +any one again." + +Jones arose hastily. + +"I want no row," he said uneasily. "I just want an understanding." + +"You have the right idea," cried Jap. "You are going to get lots of +understanding before you leave Bloomtown." + +At that moment the town marshal strolled in, wearing his star pinned on +his blue flannel shirt. + +"I demand protection," Jones shouted. "This man has threatened me." + +"What's the row, Jap?" asked the monitor of peace tolerantly. + +"This is Mr. Wilfred Jones, of the Barton _Standard_," was all that Jap +said. But the effect was electrical. The man of peace was transformed +into an engine of vengeance. + +"Going to beat him up?" he yelled. "Go to it, and I'm here, if you +need help." + +Jap took off his coat, deliberately. He unclasped his cuffs and was in +the act of unbuttoning his collar, when the local freight whistled for +the crossing below town. With a mighty leap the man from Barton +cleared the space between his chair and the door. The strolling +populace of Main street was scattered like leaves before a sudden gust +of wind. There was an abortive cry of "Stop, thief!" and a bewildered +pursuit by several tipsy bums who had been loafing in front of +Bingham's saloon, but the appearance of the marshal, wearing a broad +grin of satisfaction, dispelled apprehension. + +"That was Jones, travelin' light," he explained. + +The next issue of the _Standard_ failed to mention the editorial visit +to Bloomtown; but the scurrilous articles ceased and there was quiet +again. + +"Did Ellis ever have a fight--that kind of a fight--with anybody?" Jap +asked Flossy, when Bill had finished his second-hand recital of the +show that "he wouldn't have missed for his farm in Texas." In Bill's +heart there arose a mighty resentment against Rosy Raymond, who had +enticed him from the office just before Jones arrived. + +"Ellis did a good deal of fighting before he got me to fight his +battles for him," she said, a whimsical smile in her gentle eyes. "You +ought to know, Jap. I never would have had Ellis if he hadn't whipped +Brother William." + +"But that wasn't a matter of personal grudge," Jap argued. It had +seemed to him that somehow he had degraded himself when he went down to +Jones's ethical level. "I wanted to use my fists because Jones +ridiculed me. When Ellis licked the Judge, it wasn't a personal +matter. He did it for me." + +"And you did this for--for the honor of Bloomtown," cried Bill, with +enthusiasm. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +"Something's broke loose," announced Bill, slamming the door violently. +"Pap's bought an automobile." Which illuminative remark indicated that +Judge Bowers's mind had expanded to let in a fresh vagary. + +Jap looked up inquiringly. + +"I reckon it's all on account of Billy Wamkiss," Bill explained. + +"Billy who? There never was no such animal," and Jap scowled at the +stick in his hand. Conditions in Bloomtown were, as Jim Blanke +expressed it, all to the bad. While the political fight was at white +heat the Mayor had contrived to have his own way. He was going to +"make the town" which Ellis Hinton had failed to make. There would be +revenue enough to provide metropolitan improvements, and already there +was a metropolitan, perhaps even a Monte Carlo-tan, air to the recently +awakened village, as every train disgorged its Saturday evening crowd +of gamblers from the city where the lid had gone on with ruthless +completeness. + +Mrs. Granger had arisen from a sick-bed to call together the women of +all the churches to make protest at the licensing of another pool-room, +with bar and poker attachment, not two blocks from her home, a stroke +that had met its counter stroke when the saloon element threatened to +boycott Granger's bank and open a rival financial institution in one of +the store-rooms of the recently erected hotel that faced the Court +House Square, half a block away. Another crowd, the men with +store-rooms and cottages to rent, promised to carry all their banking +business to Barton, if Granger didn't "sit on his wife good and proper." + +"Never was no such animal?" Bill repeated. "Wake up, Jap. Don't you +know who Billy Wamkiss is?" + +"Never heard of the guy," Jap insisted. + +"He's that greasy, wall-eyed temperance lecturer that's been stringing +the town for a week." + +"Humph!" Jap snorted. "Time for you to wake up, Bill. You brought in +the ad yourself, and you wrote the account of the first lecture. The +columns of the _Herald_ will bear me out that the reverend gentleman's +name is Silas Parsons." + +"Yes, that's his reverend name," Bill snorted. "When he's the advance +agent of a rotgut whiskey house over in Kentucky that supplies fancy +packages to all the dry territory around here, he's plain Billy +Wamkiss." + +"Oh, that's his game!" Jap sat up, his gray eyes wide with +astonishment. "How did you get next to it?" + +"Your good friend, Wilfred Jones, put me wise. He didn't mean to, but +he let it slip out when he wasn't watching. I ran into him over in +Barton this morning and he was roasting Bloomtown as usual. Said we +were a bunch of Rubes, to fall for a raw proposition like Billy +Wamkiss, dressed up as a temperance lecturer. And then he went on to +say that my daddy would get richer'n he already is, from his rake-off +on the moisture that'll be injected into the town after she goes dry. +He said he met Wamkiss in Chicago three years ago, and he's been doing +a rattling business all over the country--deliver lectures on the evils +of the Demon Rum that'd bring tears to the eyes of a potato; dry up the +territory, with the help of the churches; and then fill up the town +with drug stores. That's his program, and it's going to work here, +thanks to my amiable and honorable father." + +Jap was silent. He had no words with which to express his emotions. +Bill went out on the street, his reporter's pad under his arm. In half +an hour he returned. + +"It's worse--I mean more incriminating--than I thought, Jap," he said, +as he drew his partner into the private office and shut the door. + +"Did you attend that meeting at the Baptist Church?" Jap asked +anxiously. + +"Yes, and I had to dig out before it was over. I wanted to explode, +and blow up the whole bunch of idiots and crooks. Pap and Wamkiss, +alias Parsons, have formed some kind of a Templar lodge, and my daddy's +got himself elected secretary. They're going to dry up Bloomtown. +Fancy it! They did a lot of crooked work over at the Court House, so +as to make it look as if all the licenses would expire at the same +time. Holmes is the only one that's likely to squeal, because he's +paid his second fee, and the others have only a few months to run. +They'll make it up to Holmes, I reckon, rather'n have him give the snap +away. Of course, Jap, I haven't got the goods for any of this. I just +put two and two together while I was listening to the speeches, +especially my father's speech." + +"Bill"--Jap laid his hand on Bill's arm--"you made the mistake of your +career when you picked that owl for a daddy. He has made more trouble +than three towns could stand up against. First, he throws the place +wide open and takes all the stray saloons and gambling dens to his +bosom; and just when we have a reputation for being the toughest town +on the road and doing a land-office business in sin, he is--he is fool +enough to try to pull off a stunt like this. What becomes of his plea +for municipal revenue when he turns saloons into drug stores?" + +"Well, the lid's going on," Bill returned. "The preachers and the +ladies are strong for it, and the right honorable Mayor announced that +he was the Poo Bah that was going to put up the shutters." + +"Better order a granite," Jap muttered, as he returned to the composing +room. + +And his prediction was well founded, for the town had become so used to +its "morning's morning" that it fairly ravened for the blood of Mayor +Bowers. The _Herald_ office became a forum for indignant orators, +while the Mayor strutted proudly up and down Main street, with the +black-coated Parsons, feeling that the eyes of the world were glued on +him. + +"Parsons! Bah!" spluttered Kelly Jones, who had driven four miles with +his empty jug. "Ef the town has got any git-up, it'll ride him and +that old jackass of a mayor on a rail." + +"Judge Bowers is the honored father of our Associate Editor," informed +Jap gravely. + +As Bill looked up he thumped the galley he was carrying against the +case and pied the whole column. After he had said what he thought +about the catastrophe, Kelly grinned appreciatively. + +"Them's my sentiments, Bill. Ef you love your pappy, you'd better let +him go, along of Parsons, 'cause there's goin' to be doings around +Bloomtown that'll hurt his pride. Parsons! They say out our way that +his right name's Wamkiss." + +The turgid tide of popular sentiment caused Mayor Bowers some +uneasiness; but before anything could happen five new drug stores were +opened for business and things moved placidly along again. Barton +began to refer to "our neighbor, Bumtown," and it was reported that two +blind tigers prowled in the environs of the railroad station. + +"Bill," said Jap one morning, "this won't do. We'll have to raise hell +in this town. This is Ellis's town, and we're not going to let a +dod-blinged mugwump like your asinine daddy ruin it. Bill, if you have +got any speech to make, get ready. If you can't stand for my program, +name your price, for the _Herald_ is going to everlastingly lambaste +William Bowers, Senior." + +"Pull the throttle and run 'er wild," Bill retorted, as he ducked down +behind the press and dragged forth a box from the corner. "I'm going +to get out that last lot of cuts that Ellis made," he continued. +"Kelly Jones knows sense. If I remember right, Ellis had twenty-five +cuts of jacks for the stock bill. We will stick every blamed one of +'em in next week's issue, and label 'em Mayor Bowers. He has killed +the town with his ideas. What can we do with him but hang him?" + +When the _Herald_ appeared the following Thursday afternoon, the town +quit business to read the war cry of Ellis's boy. It was a flaming +sword, hurled at the Board of Aldermen. Bowers, foaming with wrath, +stormed into the office. + +"You take all that back," he yelled, "or I'll put you out of this here +building. I've told you times enough this office belongs to me. I +never turned it over to Ellis." + +Jap stuck type, deadly calm on the surface of his being. Bill shifted +uneasily, his hands clinched, his ruddy face glowing. + +"You hear me?" bawled the irate Mayor. + +Jap turned to consult his copy. Before the act could be imagined +Bowers had struck him over the head with the revolver he dragged from +his pocket. Jap fell, crumpling to the floor, the blood spurting +across the type. For an instant there was horrified silence. Then, +with a howl like that of a wild beast, Bill threw himself upon his +father. But for the intervention of Tom Granger, who had followed the +Mayor because he scented trouble, there would have been a quick finish +to the pompous career of Bill Bowers's progenitor, for Bill had wrested +the pistol from his father's hand and was pressing it against the +temple of the worst scared coward Bloomtown had ever seen. There was a +sharp tussle between the broad-shouldered banker and the frenzied +youth. Several men rushed in from the street. + +"Let me go!" shouted Bill, "for if he's killed Jap he's got to die." + +They were carrying Jap out of the composing room, limp and bleeding. + +"Let him alone, Bill," Tom counselled wisely. "Let your father alone, +for if Jap is dead, we'll lynch him." + +Jap was pretty weak when they brought the Mayor's resignation up from +the calaboose for him to read. A representative delegation stood +around his bed. + +"Let the Judge out, for Bill's sake," Jap said. + +"We'd better keep him locked up for his own sake," declared Tom +Granger. "For in Bill's present frame of mind he's likely to make an +orphan of himself." + +Flossy came in from the little sitting-room and leaned over the bed. + +"I am going to see Brother William," she said quietly. "I am going to +take Brent Roberts with me. William will give you boys a quitclaim +bill to this property, for this dastardly deed." + +She was an impersonation of righteous wrath as she swept into the jail, +followed by Bloomtown's leading attorney. Judge Bowers had said more +than once that Flossy had a willing tongue, but its full willingness +was never conceived until she descended upon him that eventful day. + +An arrangement, made by Ellis just before his departure, gave the +contents of the office to the boys, on regular payments to Flossy. The +ground on which the new building stood had been deeded to Ellis and +Flossy on their wedding day; but the building, presumed to be a gift to +Ellis, had been reclaimed by Bowers; it was held, however, as Bill's +share in the firm. As yet no occasion had arisen that demanded the +settling of the question of ownership. Whenever the Judge had an +attack of bile he came into the office to remind Bill and Jap that the +building was still his. + +For one heated hour Flossy detailed the past, present and future of her +cowering brother. When she left him he was a wiser, and probably a +sadder, man, for she had deprived him of his weapon. + +There was a big bonfire on the circus grounds, and a celebration in +Court House Square that night. The next day there was a great vacuum +in the City Hall, for the Board of Aldermen resigned unanimously. A +special election was called, and before Jap was strong enough to sit at +his case he had been elected Mayor of Bloomtown. + +He looked sadly from the window of his bedroom, after the joyous crowd +of serenaders that had come to congratulate him. Bill had followed in +their wake, to escort Rosy home. It was late. The clock in the +Presbyterian church spire chimed twelve, as he stood alone. He took +his hat from the rack and went cautiously downstairs. On the pavement +he paused a moment to steady himself. His head still reeled after any +unwonted exertion. Then he walked slowly up Main street, across the +railroad tracks, and out to the quiet village whose inhabitants slept +'neath marble and sod. Standing beside the grave of his first friend, +he said: + +"Ellis, make the town proud of your boy. Help me to be your right +hand. If I can only fulfill your plan, I am willing that no other +ambition be fulfilled." + +A lonely night bird called softly. The willow branches waved in the +breeze. Thick darkness hung over the City of the Dead. Suddenly the +moon peered through the clouds, flooding the night with beauty, and Jap +read from the stone the last message of Ellis: + +"I go, but not as one unsatisfied. In God's plan, my work will live." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +"Now that you've got it, Jap," asked Tom Granger, "what are you going +to do with it?" Jap looked silently from the door. + +"He put in about eight hours of thinking about that himself," Bill +averred. "News is that ten saloons are loaded on freight cars, waiting +word from Jap." + +"You'll have to strike a happy medium," suggested Tom. "I know that +you are the boy to deliver the goods." + +"Ellis wasn't against saloons," commented Bill, "so Jap won't have that +to chew over. Ellis wasn't either for or against 'em." + +"No," Tom said seriously, "Ellis was dead set against hypocrisy. He +hated a liar and a grafter worse than a murderer. He knew that the way +to make people want a thing was to tell 'em they couldn't have it." + +Jap's face was grave. A panorama of wretched pictures moved slowly +before his wandering gaze, pictures that began and ended in Mike's +place, in the half-forgotten village of Happy Hollow. He aroused +himself with a start. + +"I'm going to put it up to the new Board to allow as many saloons as +want to, to come in," he said shortly. + +Tom Granger let go a shrill whistle. + +"At the license asked," continued Jap calmly. "The license will be +three thousand dollars a year, and strict enforcement of all laws. At +the first break, the lid will fall." + +"Jumping cats!" howled Tom. "Where will you get the saloon that'll pay +that?" + +Jap smiled wearily. "I am not hunting a saloon for Bloomtown," he +said, and turned toward the door in time to bump into Isabel Granger, +her arms full of bundles. She blushed and dimpled prettily. + +"I am looking for my papa," she cried, pinching Tom's cheek with her +one free hand. "I want you to carry these packages for me." + +"Run along, pet. I'm busy." + +"You look it," she reproved. "I simply can't carry all these things. +My arm is almost broken now, and the dressmaker has to have them." + +"Jap will tote them for you," chuckled Tom, watching the blood rush +over Jap's sensitive face. To his surprise, Jap took the bundles and +walked out with Isabel. He looked after them approvingly. + +"Now there goes the likeliest boy in the state," he declared. "It's +plumb funny the way he's got of getting right next to your marrow +bones. I wish I had a boy like him." + +"No great matter," drawled Bill, with tantalizing indefiniteness. + +Tom looked up at him quizzically, as he picked absently at the pile of +exchanges. Something in the young man's tone piqued him. + +"If Jap wasn't so all-fired conscientious," Bill blurted, "you'd have a +son, in quick order." + +"Lord!" exploded Tom. "Dunderhead that I am!" He slapped his thigh, +and a great, joyous laugh set his shoulders to heaving. "Bill, you're +a genius for spying out mysteries. How did you get on to it?" + +"Mysteries!" shouted Bill. "Why, everybody in Bloomtown, including +Isabel, knows that Jap is fairly sapheaded about her." + +"Well, what's hampering him?" inquired Tom. "Why don't he confide in +me?" + +"Confide your hat!" remarked Bill crisply. "Isabel will die of old age +before Jap asks her. You see, he is such a durn fool that he thinks he +isn't good enough for her. When the Lord made Jap Herron He made a +man, I tell you!" + +"Who said He didn't?" stormed Tom. "I can't know what is in the boy's +mind, can I? What do you want me to do, kidnap him and get his +consent? Bill, you're a fool. You needn't tell me that Jap Herron is +such a mealy-mouth." + +"All I know is that he won't ask Isabel," Bill said gloomily. "I'd +like to get married myself, but as long as Jap stays single, I stick +too." And thinking of Rosy's blue eyes, he sighed heavily. + +"It beats me, the way young folks do. It was different when I went +courting," Tom muttered, turning to go. + +At the door he met Kelly Jones, who had come in to inquire what Jap +intended to do about the "licker" business. He was too busy with his +fall plowing to be running over to Barton for his jug of good cheer, +and he didn't like the brand he could get at Bingham's drug store, on +Doc Connor's prescription. While he was still holding forth, Jap came +in, with half-a-dozen constituents, all busy with the same problem. +Bill took up his notebook and wandered out. At Blanke's drug store he +met Isabel. She motioned for him to come back in the store. + +"What do you want to know, Iz?" he asked with the familiarity born of +long years of propinquity. "Reckon you want to ask what everybody else +wants to know--when is Jap going to get a saloon?" + +"You are too smart, Bill Bowers," she retorted, with annoyance. She +had had a subject of more personal nature on the tip of her tongue. "I +think that Jap will be able to answer his own questions without any +help from you." + +"It is to be hoped that he will make a better stagger at answering than +he does at asking," remarked Bill shortly. + +"Now, Bill Bowers, just what do you mean?" she demanded, her black eyes +flashing angrily. + +"What's the use?" said Bill, in disgust. "Rosy says that she's going +to Kansas this fall, and I just will have to let her go because I can't +ask her to stay." + +"Pity about you," she snapped. "Thought you said Jap couldn't ask." + +"I did," assented Bill, "for if he had gumption enough to get married, +or even go courting, I might get by. But as long as he sticks alone +I'm going to stick, too." + +Isabel's face flamed. She stooped to pick up a hit of paper. + +"What do you want to tell me about it for?" she complained. "My +goodness, I'm not to blame." + +"You are," stormed Bill. "Jap knows that he is not your equal, and he +never will marry." + +"Who said that Jap Herron was not more than the equal of any man on +earth?" she blazed. "If Jap will ask me, I'll marry him to-morrow." + +She whirled away in her wrath, and ran into the arms of Jap Herron, +standing half paralyzed with the wonder of it. Bill, who had been +watching the unconscious Jap approaching for several minutes, +discreetly withdrew. + +"Gee!" he said, "but they ought not to be kissing in such a public +place." + +There were a dozen customers in the store, but neither Jap nor Isabel +knew it. And it is to the credit of Bloomtown that they all looked the +other way, as they hurriedly transacted their business and departed. +Blanke declared afterward that he filled fifteen prescriptions with +epsom salts in his abstraction, and accidentally cured Doc Horton's +best paying patient. Moss, the paper hanger, went out with his rolls +of paper, and hung the border on the walls, instead of the siding. The +mistakes reported were legion; but the town was all courting Isabel +with Jap, at heart. + +Bill rambled into the bank and suggested that Tom go over to Blanke's +and lead Jap and Isabel out, as Blanke might want to close the store. +Half an hour later Tom came from the drug store, with an arm locked +with each of the glowing pair. Straight across Main street they +marched, and down the shady walk that flanked the little park until +they were opposite the front gate of the Granger home. Then they went +in to break the news to Isabel's invalid mother. + +Flossy heard about it, almost before Jap had awakened to his own joy, +and he never knew of the hour she spent in passionate grief. In some +vague way it seemed to tear open the old wound. Without knowing why, +she resented the fact that Isabel's brunette beauty had won Jap. She +told herself that it was not a fitting match for him. Flossy, in her +maternal soul, had looked to heights undreamed of by the retiring boy. +She had planned a future for him that would be sadly hampered by +marriage with a village belle. But only smiles met him when he brought +Isabel to her, his plain features glorified by joy in her possession. + +Somehow the story of Jap Herron, the youthful Mayor of Bloomtown, his +advent in its environs, and the story of his romance with the banker's +daughter, crept into the country press, was carried over into the city +papers and flung broadcast, so that friend and foe might seek him out. +One dreary fall day, when the rain was beating sullenly down on the +sodden leaves, a haggard, dirty woman straggled into the office. + +"I'm lookin' for Jasper Herron," she mumbled. "They told me I'd find +him in here." + +Jap looked at her in horror. His heart sank. + +"I am his poor old mother, that he run away from and left to starve," +she said viciously. + +And Jap, just on the threshold of his greatest happiness, was turned +aside by this grizzly, drunken phantom from the past. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +Little J. W. crawled out from under Bill's case, his brown eyes wide +with surprise at this vagrant who called Jap "son." + +"Run like sin," counselled Bill, in a whisper, "and bring your mother. +She will know what to do." + +While the boy went to do his bidding, Bill slipped out of the rear door +of the office and was waiting in front of the bank when Flossy came +hurrying along. + +"Oh, Bill, what has Jap said?" she asked breathlessly. From J. W.'s +lisping description--he always lisped when he was excited--she had come +to fear the worst. + +"Nothing," said Bill bluntly. "He's sitting at his case, sticking type +as if he was hired by the minute." + +"And she--that awful woman?" + +"Gee!" Bill spat the word. "You don't know anything yet. Wait till +you lamp her over." + +"That bad, Bill?" + +"Worse," muttered Bill. And when Flossy came inside and looked into +the little inner office where the woman sprawled, half asleep and +muttering incoherently, the fumes of liquor and the presence of filth +all too evident, her stomach rebelled and she retreated swiftly. +Softly she slipped into the composing room through the wide-open door. +Timidly she approached Jap and touched his arm. He looked at her with +eyes utterly hopeless. + +"Oh, Jap, what can I do!" + +"You cannot do anything," his voice flat and emotionless. "No one can. +Could you take her in? No! She is impossible, and yet--she is my +mother. Perhaps if I had stayed with her it would have been different, +so I must make up for it." + +Flossy looked into his set face in affright. + +"I am going away--with her." Jap's tones were calm. "You can see, +Flossy, that it is the only way. I cannot be Mayor of Ellis's town +with such a disgrace to shame me. I must give up Isabel and--and the +_Herald_." + +Flossy clung to his arm. + +"Listen to me, Jap Herron," she cried shrilly. "You shall not do it! +You shall not let this horrible old woman drag you down in the dirt." + +Jap smiled sadly. + +"What could I do, Flossy? She must be cared for. She has been all +over town. Everybody has seen her. They know the truth, that my +mother is--what she is." + +Suddenly he threw himself forward on the case and began to sob, such +hard, racking sobs as might tear his very breast. Flossy threw her +arms around him and cried aloud. Bill stood in the little private +office, looking down upon the snoring woman with a murderous glare. He +turned as Tom Granger came noiselessly from the outer office and stood +beside him. Grief was in Granger's face. + +"I heard what Jap said just now," he whispered, "and he is right. It +would be impossible for him to stay with her in the town. She has +ruined Jap." + +"You're a gol-dinged fool," shouted Bill, dragging him across the big +office and out of the front door. "Pretty sort of friend you are, +anyway. I'll fight you, or a half-dozen like you, if you murmur a word +like that to Jap." + +He whirled as his father ambled up the street, his round face wearing a +grin. + +"What is that greasy smirk for?" demanded Bill. "If you have any +business in the _Herald_ office, spit it out." + +"I knowed it would come out sooner or later," spluttered Bowers, +shifting his position to avoid a pool in the pavement, left by the +recent rain. "With half an eye, anybody could see the mongrel streak +in----" + +He stopped as his son advanced swiftly toward him. + +"What kind of a streak?" he threatened. "I dare you to say that again, +and hitch anybody's name to it." + +"Why, William," expostulated his father, "you shorely ain't goin' to +have Jap and his mammy hitched up to the _Herald_? Barton 'll ride +Bloomtown proper." + +"It will give Jones a whack at the _Herald_," suggested Granger mildly. + +"And it will be his last whack!" foamed Bill. "For I'll finish him and +his filthy paper before I go to the pen for burning down the _Herald_ +office. The day that Jap Herron leaves the _Herald_, there will be the +hell-firedest bonfire that Bloomtown ever saw!" His eyes were blazing. +"Get away from here," he cried fiercely, "you--you milksop friends!" + +He stopped as Isabel, her eyes swollen from crying, crossed the street. +She had come across the corner of the park, and her face was white and +drawn. Bill stepped up into the doorway and awaited her. + +"I want to speak to Jap," she said, as he barred the passage. + +"What do you want with him?" Bill demanded truculently. "Because he is +packing all the load now that he can stand, and you ain't going to add +another chip to it. Give me your old engagement ring, and I'll pitch +it in the hell-box. I reckon that's what you came for." + +She pushed him aside, her eyes blazing with wrath. + +"Get out of my way, Bill Bowers. You never did have any sense. Let me +by!" + +She flung herself past him and ran into the composing room. At sight +of Flossy, she paused. Flossy raised her head from Jap's shoulder and +looked defiantly at the girl, but only for a second. She knew, in that +glance. Softly she crept out as Isabel, with a heart-shaking cry, ran +to Jap and threw herself against him. + +"Take me in your arms, Jap," she cried stormily, "for I love you." + +Jap stared up, dully, for an instant. Then, forgetting all but love, +he opened his arms and clasped her to his heart. Bill rushed outside +after Flossy. + +"I never knew that she was the real goods," he said remorsefully, +wiping his eyes. + +"Get a wagon from the grocer," Flossy said, decisive again. "I am +going to take her home with me." + +"Meaning that?" Bill flipped his thumb toward Jap's mother. + +"Send her up to the house, and I will have a doctor, and some one to +bathe her and clean her up. Maybe after she is clean and sober, she +won't be so dreadful." + +When Jap came out of his stupor enough to try to put Isabel away, he +discovered what Flossy had done. With Isabel clinging to him, he +walked with downcast head through the streets that lay between the +_Herald_ office and Flossy's cottage. + +His mother was in bed, clean and yet disgusting in her drunken sleep. +He forgot Isabel, silent by his side, as he stood looking down upon the +blotched and sunken face, thinking what thoughts God only knew. He +seemed years older as he walked out again, after the doctor had told +him that nothing could be determined until she had slept the liquor +off. Slowly and silently he and Isabel walked past the row of neat +cottages until they reached Main street. On the corner Jap paused. + +"You must go home, Isabel," he said brokenly. "Sweetheart, I +understand, and I know that you are the bravest girl in the world. But +you must leave me now." + +"I will not," she declared. "I want you to take me right down to the +office and send for a license. I am going to marry you, and show this +town what I think of you!" + +"But I cannot let you," Jap said simply. "I know--you don't." + +"Then," said Isabel defiantly, "I will go back to Flossy's and take +care of your mother until you are ready to talk sense." + +Jap looked at her helplessly. They were in front of Blanke's drug +store. Jim Blanke stepped outside and grasped Jap's hand. Isabel +looked proudly up at him, her arm drawn tightly through Jap's. As they +passed down the street, citizens sprang up, apparently from nowhere, +and clasped Jap's hand in a fraternal grip. Isabel peered into his +silent face. The tears were streaming unheeded down his cheeks. Her +father frowned as they appeared at the door of the bank. + +"Papa," she called resolutely, "you coming with us?" + +He stood gnawing at his lips, his face overcast. An instant he battled +with his pride and his love for the boy. Then, with his old +heartiness, he clapped Jap on the shoulder. + +"Straighten your shoulders, lad. We're all your friends!" And the +storm cloud lightened. + +All that night Jap paced the floor of the office, while Bill, too +sympathetic for sleep, tossed in the room above and swore at fate. It +was noon the next day when little J. W. came in to say that Mrs. Herron +was awake and wanted to see her son. + +She was half sitting among the pillows when Jap entered. Flossy had +drawn the muslin curtains, to soften the garish light as it fell on her +seamed and shame-scarred face. She peered up at him from blood-shot, +sunken eyes. + +"You look like your pappy's folks, Jasper," she croaked. "And they +tell me you air a fine, likely boy, and follerin' in the trade of your +gran'pap. I wisht that I had a known where you was, long ago. I have +had a hard life, Jasper. Your step-pa beat me, and that's more'n your +pappy ever done. He died of the trimmins, three year ago, and I have +been wanderin' every since, huntin' my childurn. But Aggie's a bigbug +now, and she drove me off. And Fanny's goin' to a fine music school, +and sent me word that she'd have me put in a sanitary if I bothered +her. She saw a piece about you in the paper, and sent it to me. So I +tramped thirty mile to come." + +Her face was pathetic in its misery. She sank back in the pillows and +closed her eyes. Jap leaned down and drew the covers tenderly over her +arms. She opened her eyes, at the touch, and looked up at him sadly. + +"Thanky, Jasper," she mumbled, "You be-ant mad?" + +He patted her cheek softly, and the sunken eyes lighted with a smile of +weary contentment. Then the lids fluttered, like the last effort of a +spent candle, and she slept. Like one in the maze of a vague, +uncertain dream, Jap went back to the office. Unconsciously he took +the familiar way, through the alley. Automatically he climbed to his +stool and began setting up the editorial that had been interrupted by +his mother's coming the previous day. + + +At sunset Bill touched his shoulder softly. Jap raised his head from +his hands. + +"Your--your mother never woke up after you left her, Jap," he said +huskily. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +Bill looked up as a long, lank form glided surreptitiously into the +office. + +"Been a long time since you drifted our way," he commented, as the form +resolved itself into the six-foot length of Kelly Jones. + +"Might' nigh three month," averred Kelly grimly. "I've been tradin' +over at Barton. Couldn't stand for Jap's damfoolishness. Had to buy +my licker there, and just traded there. It's twelve mile from my farm +to Barton, and four mile to Bloomtown. Spring's comin' on, and work to +do. I hate to take that trip every time the wife needs a spool o' +thread. Did you get my letter, sayin' to stop the paper?" + +"Stopped it, didn't we?" queried Bill crisply, scattering the type from +the financial report of Bloomtown into the case. + +"Yes," assented Kelly, "you did. What'd you do it for?" + +"Not forcing the _Herald_ on anybody," announced Bill glibly. "Got +past that. We used to hold 'em up and feed the _Herald_ to them, but +we don't have to do it now." + +"I hear tell that Jap made Tim Simpson night marshal. Why, he run a +blind tiger beyond the water tank," exclaimed Kelly. "I reckon Jap +didn't know that." + +"Just because he did know it, he made Tim night marshal," declared +Bill, flinging the last type into the box and descending from the +stool. "Just you stroll down the tracks in either direction, and see +if you can find a whisker or a tawny hair from the tip of any tiger's +tail lying loose along the way. Jap knows several things, Kelly, my +boy, and he is fighting fire with fire. Tim Simpson understands the +operations of the kind of menagerie that usually flourishes in a dry +town, and Jap put him on his honor. He's so conscientious that he goes +over to Barton to get full. He won't drink it here. He's got pride in +making Bloomtown the whitest town in the state. But explain the return +of the prodigal. How come your feet in our dust again?" + +"Well," said Kelly shamefacedly, "the wife said that I was a durn fool. +I stopped the _Herald_ and subscribed for the _Standard_--and a pretty +standard it is! While Jap Herron was cleanin' up, it was slingin' muck +at him. The wife read it, and one day she goes up to Barton and starts +an argument with Jones. I reckon she had the last word. If she +didn't, it was the fu'st time. She come home so rip-snortin' mad that +she threatened to lick me if I didn't tackle Jones. Well, to keep +peace in the family, I run in to see him the next time I went to +Barton. Well, Jones put it up to me, if Jap was doin' much for +Bloomtown in havin' unlicensed drug stores, instid of regular saloons." + +"Sure sign that you don't know the news," said Bill, unfolding a copy +of the _Herald_. "Since last Saturday night there has been only one +drug store in Bloomtown. That's Blanke's, and Jim Blanke wouldn't sell +liquor on anybody's prescription but Doc Hall's, and Doc Hall would let +you die of snake-bite, if nothing but whiskey would cure you. Any +other drug stores that may open up in this town 'll have to pattern +after Blanke's or out they go." + +Kelly took the paper up and scanned its columns. He snorted. + +"Well, I do declare! I see that might' nigh all the doctors have +packed up and are threatenin' to leave town. Well, there wa'n't enough +doctorin' to keep twenty of 'em in cash nohow." + +"You ought to have heard Jap's speech when they were putting a plea for +local option," said Bill. "My pap has carried a sore ear against Jap's +reign ever since he was elected to fill out that unexpired term, and he +stirred up a lot of bellyaches among the guzzlers. It was a sickening +mess, because the whole town knows that my daddy can't stand even the +smell of liquor. It wouldn't be so bad--so hypocritical, if he really +liked it and was used to it. As I was telling you, he and the old +booze gang had been burning the midnight dip to plan a crimp for Mayor +Herron, when that local option idea struck him. Well, Jap got up and +made a speech, calling their attention to the bonds we voted, and the +sound financial condition back of those bonds; the granitoid pavement +on Main street, the electric light plant that's going up, and the water +works, and sewers that are under way--all managed since the town went +dry. Then he nominated Tom Granger for mayor, and what do you reckon +they did?" + +"Seein' as how he ain't mayor," said Kelly, with a twinkle, "I allow +they done nothin'." + +"Why," said Bill, his brown eyes kindling, "they arose as one man and +yelled, 'We want Jap Herron!' and that settled it." + +The farmer stood in the middle of the office, his arms gesticulating +and his head bobbing with animation, as Jap hurried in. He gazed at +the back of Kelly's familiar slicker incredulously. + +"What!" he hailed joyously, "our old friend of the sorghum barrel! +Where have you been hibernating? Surely a cure for sore eyes," and Jap +seized his shoulder and whirled him around so that he could grasp his +hand. + +"Chipmunking in Barton," prompted Bill. "This sadly misguided farmer +has been lost but now is found." + +"The Missus sent a package to Miss Flossy. You and Bill 'll eat it, I +reckon," and he produced a parcel from his pocket. "She said if Ellis +was here, he'd appreciate it. It's sausage that she made herself. +And--and she sent a dollar for the paper. She wants the _Herald_." + +"And what about Kelly?" Jap asked, a wave of memory sweeping over him. + +"Just you write it down that Kelly Jones is a yaller pup," said Kelly +morosely. + +"Never!" declared Jap heartily. "Misled, perhaps, but with a heart of +gold." + +Kelly groped for his handkerchief. + +"I've got on the water wagon, Jap," he sniffled. "I reckon I kin get +along without the stuff. Sary hid my jug, and I done 'thout it for a +week, and I felt fine. I am goin' to make a stagger at it, if I do +fall down." + +Jap pushed him into a chair. + +"Why, you old rascal," he cried, "you have backbone enough to do +anything you will to do. Move into town and help us turn the wheels." + +Kelly wiped his nose on the tail of his slicker as he started for the +door. + +"Don't happen to need any basses, do you?" he grinned. + +Jap flung an empty ink bottle after him. When quiet had returned to +the office, he said, as he hung his hat on the nail: + +"Isabel wants to learn to stick type." + +"Funny," said Bill shortly, "so does Rosy, and they hate each other +like Pap hates beer. Pretty mix-up we'll have on our hands." + +"That's all nonsense, Bill. Rosy can't help liking Isabel." + +Bill scanned the copy on his hook, his eyes narrowing. + +"Appears like she can," he muttered. + +"Now, Bill, this won't do," argued Jap earnestly. "We can't afford to +have dissension in such a vital matter. You must talk to Rosy." + +"You can have the job," waived Bill, picking up a type. "Isabel said +that Rosy was shallow and only skin-deep, and Rosy heard about it. +Isabel Granger is not so much----" + +He stopped abruptly as Jap's hand went up in pained alarm. + +"Look here, Bill, are we going to let the chatter of women come between +us? There is something deeper holding us together than the friendship +of a day. Give me your hand, Bill, and tell me that it is Ellis's work +and not these trifles that you care for. We have a work to do, you and +I." + +Bill threw the stick upon the case and grasped Jap's outstretched hand. +Tears glistened in his eyes. + +"Better than all the loves in the world, I love you, Jap," he stormed. +Jerking his hat from the nail, he strode out to walk off the +emotionalism he decried. + +That afternoon he strove manfully to show Isabel how to put type in the +stick upside down, and to save her feelings he stealthily corrected her +faulty work, suppressing a grin at Jap's pride in her first attempt. +Bill shook his head sadly as they strolled out together, Jap's eyes +drinking in the girl's slender beauty. + +"Petticoat government 'll get old Jap tripped up," he complained to the +office cat. "And then where'll I be? When Jap marries I'll play +second fiddle. Come seven, come 'leven!" and he snapped his fingers in +the air. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +The sun was streaming through the east windows. Jap looked anxiously +up and down the street. Bill had not been home all night. This was a +state of affairs alarming to Jap. He walked back to the table and +turned the exchanges over restlessly. + +"I wonder if the boy could have persuaded that butterfly to elope with +him, as he threatened he would, when her mother cut up so rough," he +worried. + +Tim Simpson came in and peered around furtively. + +"Bill is drunk as a lord," he announced in a stage whisper. "I've got +him in the back room of the calaboose, to sober up without the news +leakin'." + +Jap paled. + +"Bill drunk?" he faltered. "Who got him into it? Is he asleep, Tim?" + +"Lord, no! If he was, I would 'a' left him out when he come to, and +said no word to you about it. But I'm plum scared about him. He's +chargin' up and down like a Barnum lion. I reckon as how you'd better +mosey down there and try to ca'm him." + +As Jap walked rapidly down the alley beside the night marshal, he asked: + +"Did you try to talk to him?" + +"Yes," said Simpson ruefully. "He kicked me out and was chasin' after +me when I slammed the door on him. He's blind crazy loaded. I fu'st +seen him after number nine pulled in, so I think he come on her. He +was mutterin' and shakin' his fist when he hove in sight. I got him +and steered him into the jug without much trouble, and it was only a +hour ago that he started this ragin' and ravin'." + +As they entered the jail, sounds of tramping feet and mutterings +reached their ears. Bill's swollen, blotched face and reddened eyes +appeared behind the grating. + +"Let me out of here!" he shouted. "You'll get a broken head for this, +you old mule." He shook the grating furiously. + +"Bill," said Jap slowly, "do you want to come with me, or do you want +me to stay here with you till you've had a bath and a good sleep?" + +Bill laughed discordantly. + +"A sleep! A sleep!" he cried. "Yes, a long, long sleep. As soon as +you take me out of this hell-hole, I'll take a sleep that'll last." + +Jap opened the door and stepped inside. + +"Don't come any nearer," warned Bill. "I'm too filthy, Jap. But let +me stay as I am till it's over." + +He sat down on the cot and stared crazily into the corridor. Jap sat +down beside him and drew his arm around his shoulder, with the +tenderness of a woman. + +"Tell me about it, Bill, boy," he counselled gently. "Tim, you may +leave us." + +Bill sat a long time, staring sullenly at the floor. + +"Well, this is a hell of a display for me to bring to Bloomtown," he +declared at last. "I should have ended it in Jones's town. If I +hadn't been so dumb with rotgut that I didn't know what I was doing, I +would be furnishing some excitement for the Bartonites this morning. +The finest place in the world to die in--it isn't fit to live in." + +Jap shook him briskly. + +"Straighten up, Bill, and tell me what kind of a mess you have been in." + +Bill laughed wildly. After a moment he dragged a letter from his +pocket. Jap read: + +"When you read this, I will be the wife of Wilfred Jones, the Editor of +the Barton _Standard_. Maybe you will be pleased? I prefer to marry a +real editor, not the half of Jap Herron." + +The letter was signed, "Rosalie," but the affectation carried none of +the elements of a disguise. To Jap it was the crowning insult. +Crushing the silly note in his hand, he threw it from him. Standing +up, he drew Bill to his feet. + +"We are going home," he said curtly. "When you are sober I will tell +you how disappointed I am in my brother." + +The news that Bill had been jilted spread over Bloomtown like fire in a +stubble-field, and deep resentment greeted the announcement that Jones +of the _Standard_ had scored another notch against the _Herald_. + +Bill, sullen and defiant, had battled it out in the room above the +office. All the vagaries of a sick mind were his. Murder, suicide, +mysterious disappearance, chased each other across the field of his +vision, and ever the specter of suicide returned to grin at him. For a +day and a night Jap sat beside his bed, talking, soothing, comforting. +Finally he made this compact: + +"To show you that I love you better than myself, Bill, I am going to +promise that I will not marry until you are cured of this blow. Not a +word, Bill! Happiness would turn to ashes if I accepted it at your +cost. How far I am to blame in your trouble, I can only guess. I am +not going to preach philosophy. I am only going to plead my love for +you." + +He took the revolver from the drawer and laid it on the table beside +Bill. + +"If you are the boy I think you are, you will be sticking type when I +come back from Flossy's. If you are a coward, I will not grieve to +find you have taken the soul that God gave you and flung it at His +feet." + +Not trusting himself to look back, he hurried down the stairs. His +heart was heavy with dread as he locked the office and walked blindly +to the cottage where all his problems had been carried. He could not +talk to Flossy, but, sitting beside her on the little front porch, he +fought the mad impulse to run back to the office. He strained his ears +for the sound that he was praying not to hear. + +Two hours he sat there, fighting with his fears, the longest hours of +his life. Flossy sat as silent. No one knew Jap as Flossy did. +Smoothing his tumbled hair and stroking his tightly clenched hands were +her only expressions. Futile indeed would words be now. The tragedy +that hovered over them both must work itself out. + +A whistle shrilled from the road. Jap sprang up with a strangled cry, +as Wat Harlow came through the gate. His face was stern. + +"Bill allowed that this is where I'd find you, chatting your valuable +time away," he chaffed. Then the mask of his countenance broke into a +grin. + +"Is Bill in the office?" Jap's lips were so stiff he could scarcely +articulate. + +"Sure he is," said Harlow cheerfully. "He wants you to ramble down +there." + +"There's a hen on, Jap," he confided, after they had taken leave of +Flossy. "We'll try to hatch something this time. I'm going to get in +the game again. You know the old saying: 'You mustn't keep a good dog +chained up.'" + +"Well?" queried Jap, his thoughts springing space and picturing what +Bill might be doing. Wat was discreetly silent until they had passed +through town and were inside the office. Bill, pale and haggard, +looked up from his desk. He extended the paper he was writing on. Jap +took it without a word. + +"WAT HARLOW FOR GOVERNOR!" + +"How's that for a head?" he demanded. "If we're going into this thing, +we might as well go with both feet." + +He looked into Jap's face. Their eyes met. With one voice they cried: + +"Ellis!" + +"'When Harlow runs for governor,'" Jap quoted tremulously, "'you will +boom him. Till then, nothing doing in the Halls of Justice.' Bill, +Ellis was a prophet. He even knew that he wouldn't be in the game. +Wat, we'll put you across this time." + +"Yes, and it'll be a nasty fight," Wat returned, as Bill leaned over +and picked nervously at the ears of the office cat. "We've got Bronson +Jones to buck up against, in all political probability. He's almost +sure of the nomination." + +"Just who is Bronson Jones?" Jap asked. "Seems to me I ought to place +him. He's been in the papers down in the southwestern part of the +state a good deal." + +"He's the smooth proposition that came back here a couple of years ago +and bought back his old newspaper for his son and has managed up to the +present time to keep his own name discreetly out of that same paper," +vouchsafed Harlow. "He won't let it leak out till the psychological +moment. He's the daddy of the split-hoofed imp of Satan that runs the +Barton _Standard_!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +Jap threw his pencil impatiently on the desk. + +"I can't get my thoughts running clear this morning," he said abruptly. +"Every time I try to write, the pale face of little J. W. comes between +me and the page." + +"They're back from the city," Bill said uneasily. "I saw them coming +from the train. I fully meant to tell you, Jap." + +"I hope the specialist has quieted Flossy's fears." Jap ran his +fingers through his loose red locks. "The boy is growing too fast. +Why, look at the way he has shot up in the last year. Ellis told me +that he ran up like a bean pole, the way I did, and just as thin. J. +W. is exactly like him." + +"And Ellis died at forty----" + +"Don't, Bill," Jap choked. "I can't bear it." He walked to the door +and gazed out into the hazy silver autumn air. + +"This weather is like wine," he declared. "It will set the boy up, +fine as a fiddle. You must remember, Bill, that Ellis impoverished his +system by the life of hardship he was forced to endure while the town +was growing. The things he used to tell were humorous enough, the +droll way he had of telling them. But they break our hearts when we +think of them now, and know that it was that privation that killed him. +It was bad enough here when I was a youngster, and that was luxury to +what he had had. J. W. has not had such a handicap. Of course he was +a delicate baby, but he certainly outgrew all that." + +Bill was discreetly silent. He knew that Jap was only arguing with his +fears. In the early summer, J. W. had been acutely ill, and as the +heat progressed, he languished with headache and fever. In the end, +Dr. Hall had counselled taking him to a noted specialist in the city. + +"Better take a run up to Flossy's," Bill suggested. "You'll be better +satisfied." + +Jap took a copy of the _Herald_ from the table and went out. All the +way along Spring street he strove with his anxiety. Flossy met him on +the porch. One glance was enough for Jap. He sat down, helpless, on +the lower step. + +"J. W. is tired out and asleep," said Flossy softly. "Come with me, +Jap, down to the arbor. You remember the day that Ellis told you the +truth about himself?" + +Jap followed her beneath the grape trellis, stumbling clumsily. When +they reached the arbor, with its bench and rustic table, she faced him, +slender to attenuation. + +"Jap," she said brokenly, "J. W. has tuberculosis in the worst form. +His entire body is filled with it. He contracted it while we were with +Ellis--and we never knew, never suspected----" Her voice broke. "Not +even a miracle can prolong his life longer than spring. The doctors +insisted on examining me, too. They say I have it, in incipiency, and +my only chance of escape is to leave my boy to the care of others. +Under the right conditions they say I have a fighting chance." + +"You are sure that you have every advice?" Jap's voice was so hoarse +that she looked up at him in alarm. + +"Yes, Jap, but I knew it before. Months ago, even before he was so +sick in the summer, I had a dream, and this was my dream: Ellis, with +that beautiful smile that every one loved, was waiting out there at the +gate, and I was hurrying to get the boy ready to go with him. I knew, +when I awoke, that he was ready to wait our boy's coming. Oh, Jap, do +you think that smile was for me, too?" + +The look of agony in Jap's sensitive face was more than she could bear. +She clutched his arm. + +"Oh, Jap, pray--help me to pray that he was waiting for me, too. The +time has been so long. I want to be with my boy to the last. You +understand, Jap. I don't believe that words are needed." + +He put his arms around her. He could not speak, but his head bent +above hers and the hot tears dropped upon her brown hair, now streaked +with gray. + +"I have done the work he wanted me to do," she sobbed. "He wanted me +to be a mother until you were on the plane he had planned. Like the +butterfly whose day is done, Jap, I would go. I am so tired, and--boy, +I have never ceased to long for Ellis. The world could not supply +another soul like his." + +"Flossy," Jap said in smothered tones, "I know. I have walked the +floor for hours, missing him until I was almost frantic. But, little +Mother, what is left to me if you go? Without you, I am drifting +again." + +"I would fear that, if I had never seen into the deeps of Isabel's +nature. And to think that I once decried--but I didn't understand, +Jap. When your mother came, there was a revelation. I don't fear for +your future now. And when I knew this, I suddenly felt tired and old. +I pray not to survive my boy." + + +The following morning brought the first fall rain. And then, for +endless weeks, the leaden sky drooped over the world. Dreary +depression and the penetrating chill of approaching winter filled the +air. Only the unwonted pressure of work kept the boys from brooding +over the inevitable that would come with the spring-time. To relieve +Flossy of all unnecessary burdens, Jap and Bill went to the hotel for +their meals, but every evening one or the other went to sit with her. +At length there came a time, late in November, when the office work was +more than both of them could handle, and for several days the visits +were interrupted. + +"Flossy is sick," announced Bill, hanging his dripping raincoat behind +the door. "I saw Pap just now, and he told me. He and his wife were +there all night. He says that J. W. has been so bad off for a week, +has had such bad spells at night, that Flossy has hardly slept, and +yesterday she broke down and sent for Pap. He took Doc Hall along, and +they are afraid she has pneumonia." + +Jap threw his paper aside. + +"Why didn't we know that J. W. was worse?" he demanded. "I sent some +one to inquire every morning while we had the big rush on, and Flossy +said that they were all right. I thought that she was going to take +him to the mountains." + +"I guess that she didn't know how sick he was," commented Bill. "Pap +was to haul the trunks to-morrow, as Flossy told us. She wanted to +start on Sunday so that you and I could go as far as Cliffton with her. +She knew we were working overtime to get things cleaned up." + +Jap put on his raincoat, for it was pouring a deluge. + +"I will not be back if Flossy needs me," he said. + +For three days and nights he hovered over the two sick-beds, while the +wind soughed mournfully around the cottage, and the rain dripped, +dripped, dripped, like tears against the wall outside. Neighbors and +friends volunteered their services. Bill and Isabel came as often as +was possible; but when all the others had gone, Jap kept his solemn +vigil alone. On the afternoon of the fourth day, there was a sudden +turn for the worse. Dr. Hall was hastily summoned. And then, all at +once, without any seeming warning, it happened. + +The last gasping breath faded from the body of Ellis's child, and as +Jap leaned over to close the wide, staring eyes, he could hear the +rasping breaths that rent Flossy's bosom, as she lay unconscious in the +next room. + +"With God's help we may pull her through," whispered Isabel, twining +her arms around his neck. He turned stony eyes of grief upon her. + +"If God helps, He will let her go with J. W. to meet Ellis," he said in +a voice strained to breaking. + +He drew the girl from the chamber of death, and sat down beside +Flossy's bed. He caught one fluttering, fever-burned hand in his, and +the restless muttering ceased. Then the eyes opened. They seemed to +be looking not at Jap but above him. + +"Ellis!" she cried, and slept. + +"When she awakes, she will be better or----" Dr. Hall broke off, and +went over to the window. "It's the crisis," he finished huskily. + +Flossy, in her quiet, optimistic bravery, had made her place in the +hearts of her townspeople. Isabel knelt beside her, watching Jap's +face, with its unnatural calm, fearfully. She dared not speak. Bill +stood awkwardly at the foot of the bed, his cap twirling uncertainly in +his hand. His eyes shifted uneasily from the thin, white face on the +pillow to the frozen features of Jap. A clock ticked loudly. + +The thick gloom broke. A tiny linnet that Jap had given Flossy +fluttered to the swing in its cage and burst, all at once, into song, +and a vagrant sunbeam darted through the western clouds. Flossy opened +her eyes. + +"Jap," she gasped painfully, "is this the thing called Death, this +uplift of joy?" + +The doctor raised her in his arms and gave her a few sips of medicine. +She was easier. She motioned Jap to bend closer. + +"Is he gone?" she asked clearly. "Is my boy with his father?" + +Jap kissed her forehead gently. + +"He is with Ellis," he whispered. + +"Then I thank You, great Giver of all Good," she cried happily, "for I +can go now." She summoned Bill with her eyes. + +"I want you to make the boy very proud of the men he was named for," +she smiled. It was a smile of heavenly beauty, as the pure soul of +Ellis Hinton's wife flew to join her loved ones. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +Bill and Isabel led Jap from the room as the doctor drew the sheet over +Flossy's face. Together the three left the cottage. In dazed silence +they walked past the row of modest homes until the business street was +reached. Across Main street they went, in stony silence, the girl +clinging to an arm of each of her escorts. In front of the elm-shaded +residence of Tom Granger, now stark and bare in its late autumn +undress, they paused. Isabel, unheedful of the passing crowd, threw +her arms around Jap's neck and kissed him passionately. A moment he +held her in his arms, his tearless eyes burning. And in her awakened +woman's heart, she knew that he was looking through her, beholding the +trio of adored ones whose influence had made his heart a fitting +habitation for her own. And in that consciousness Isabel Granger +experienced no twinge of jealousy. + +Silently she walked up the brick-paved path to the stately old house, +as Jap and Bill turned back toward Main street. When they reached the +office, they locked the door behind them. With the mechanical action +of automata, they climbed to their stools and threw the belated issue +of the _Herald_ into type. + +"Bill, can you do it?" Jap asked at length. + +"I'll do my best," Bill said huskily. And his tears wet the type as he +set up a brief obituary notice. + +The morning of the funeral broke clear and sunny, as fall days come. +The air was clear and sounds echoed for long distances. It was a +joyous new day, and yet a threnody swept through its music. Something +of this Jap and Bill felt as they hurried to the house of Death. Judge +Bowers met them at the door. His face was red and overcast. He +shifted uneasily. + +"I sent for you, because we have to fix things decently for Flossy." + +"Decently?" echoed Bill. + +"Why, yes. Ma and me got the caskets and all that. Everything's +'tended to, but the service. You know Flossy was a free-thinker, and +never belonged to no church." + +"Well, what of it?" Bill said shortly. + +"We have got to get somebody to preach a sermon," asserted the Judge, +his flaccid face showing real concern. "I don't see how we are going +to manage it. It looks queer to ask anybody to preach over a +non-professor." + +"Why do it then?" Bill's tone was enigmatic, as he followed Jap into +the little parlor where the effects of the Judge's work were apparent. + +Side by side stood the caskets, each one holding a jewel more precious +than any diadem. Jap sat down between them, dumb to the greetings of +the friends who came for a last look at the two set faces, and there he +sat until the afternoon. The room was half filled with people when the +Judge aroused him by a sharp grip on his arm. + +"Come on, Jap," he whispered huskily, "they have come for them." + +"Who?" asked Jap, tonelessly. + +"The hearses," said the Judge, his flabby cheeks trembling. + +Jap walked outside and climbed into the carriage with Bill, and +together they went to the church where Ellis had met his townsmen for +the last time. It was the handsome new church whose claim on her +brother's generosity had called forth from Flossy such righteous +resentment. Mechanically the two young men followed the usher to the +pew that had been set apart for them. Vaguely Jap smiled at Isabel as +she passed him, clinging to the arm of her father. As in a dream, he +followed her slender form as she took her accustomed place at the +organ. Clutching the arm of the seat, he sat there, deaf, dumb and +blind, until the wailing notes of the organ appraised him that the +service was beginning. + +He turned his head as a heavy, rolling sound reached him, and looked +upon the most heart-shaking sight in the history of the town: two +coffins traveling up the aisles to meet at the altar. Sick and faint, +he turned his head away. Bill's arm crept around him, while Bill +sobbed aloud. + +Frozen to silence, Jap stared at the boxes containing all that linked +him to his past. Stony-eyed, he gazed at the masses of flowers, +casually admiring the gorgeous chrysanthemums and the pink glory of the +carnations. He even read, with calm curiosity, the card of sympathy +hanging from one of the floral offerings on Flossy's casket. Then he +sank into blunt indifference until he was aroused by Bill's start. + +He looked up dully. The minister was praying--and his prayer was for +forgiveness for Flossy. + +"She was a wanderer from grace," the ominous voice droned, "but Thou +who didst forgive the thief on the cross wilt grant her mercy." + +Bill clasped his hands fiercely over Jap's arm. His breath hissed +through his set teeth. Jap sat upright, his gray eyes searching the +face of the man of God, as he drawled through a flock of platitudes, +promising in the end that on the last great day Flossy and her son +would be called by the trump to arise, purified and forgiven. + +Wiping his forehead complacently, he sat down. + +Jap Herron arose to his feet and walked to the coffin of the only +mother he had ever known. Facing the assembly, he said in low, clear +tones: + +"Friends of mine, friends of Flossy and her boy, and friends of Ellis +Hinton, you have listened to this minister. Now you must listen to me. +I knew Flossy. Some of you knew her, but none as I did. She had no +religion, he says. Flossy Hinton's life was a religion. What is +religion? Love, faith and works. Dare any of you claim that she had +not all of these? If such soul as hers needs help to carry it through +the ramparts of heaven, then God help all of you. + +"She will not sleep until a trumpet calls her! No! Alive and vital +and everlasting, her soul is with us now. Did Ellis Hinton sleep? He +has never been away. He has dwelt right here, in the hearts of all who +loved him. Friends, dry your eyes if you grieve for the sins of +Flossy." + +Raising his hand above the casket, as if in benediction, and looking +into the face beneath the glass, he said brokenly: + +"A saint she lived among us. In heaven she could be no more." + +The descending sun shot a ray of white light across the church, as it +sank below the opaque designs in the gorgeous memorial window that +flanked the choir. A moment later it would be crimson, then purple, +then amber; but for an instant it filtered through pure, untinted +glass. Creeping stealthily, the white ray reached the space in front +of the altar and rested a moment on the still face within the casket. +To Jap it seemed that the lips that had always smiled for him relaxed +into a smile of transcendent beauty. Entranced he looked, forgetting +all else. Then the strength of his young manhood crumbled. The hinges +of his knees gave way, and he sank to the floor. + +Bill sprang to his side and carried him to a seat. Isabel, half +distracted, started from her place at the organ. As she passed, the +white face in the coffin met her eyes. She stopped. A tide of feeling +swept her back, back from Jap, whose limp form called her. The song +that Flossy had loved came singing to her lips. Inspired in that +moment, she stood beside the coffin and sang, as never before, the +words that had comforted Flossy in her years of loneliness: + + "Somewhere the stars are shining, + Somewhere the song birds dwell. + Cease then thy sad repining! + God lives, and all is well." + + +Her face was glorified. She sang to that silent one, and to the world +that had been hers. In a dream she sang on, as the mother and her boy +were taken from her sight, sang on while the people silently departed. +"Somewhere, somewhere," she sang, + + "Beautiful isle of Somewhere, + Isle of the true, where we live anew, + Beautiful isle of Somewhere." + + +Her voice broke as uncontrollable sobs rent her slender body, and she +sank against the shoulder of her father and followed Bill from the +church. Half-a-dozen kindly hands were carrying Jap outside. + +The long line of carriages had already started on its way to the little +plot of ground where two fern-lined graves awaited the loved ones of +Ellis Hinton. The horses of the remaining carriage pawed the ground +restlessly in the sharp November air. + +"Better take him to his room in a hurry," Dr. Hall commanded. "The boy +has been through too much. I was afraid of this." + +"You can't take him to that dreary office," Isabel pleaded. "Papa, +tell Dr. Hall what to do." + +And, as always, she had her way. In the sunny south room above the +library, with the shadows of the stark elms doing grotesque dances on +the window panes, with Isabel and her mother hovering in tender +solicitude over him, Jap Herron tossed for weeks in the delirium of +fever, calling always for Flossy. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +"Mr. Bowers wants to talk to you," Isabel said, smoothing Jap's limp +hair from his haggard face. "He has been here every day for a week, +and Mamma wouldn't hear to his bothering you, especially as you had +concluded that you must talk to Bill about the office." + +"Let him come," said Jap wearily. + +The Judge tramped heavily into the bedroom. + +"I want to talk to you about Flossy's affairs," he declared, dropping +into a chair and blowing his nose. + +Jap's face flushed, then paled. He lifted one thin hand to his eyes +and leaned back in the pillows. + +"I sent for Bill to meet me here and have Brent Roberts read Flossy's +will." + +"Why?" Jap's voice rasped with pain. + +"You have been sick nigh a month," said the Judge, "and there's a power +o' things that oughter be seen to, and Brent refused to read Flossy's +will till you could hear it. I want to settle the bills." + +Isabel slipped her arm around Jap's shoulder and glared at the Judge. + +"You ought to be ashamed," she cried. "Jap is not strong enough to be +bothered with business." + +Jap put her aside gently and sat up. + +"The Judge is right, sweetheart," he said. "I will not be tired with +doing anything for--for her." + +He covered his face with his hands. Bill entered softly. His brows +lowered at sight of his father. + +"What did you want with me and Roberts?" he queried shortly. + +"It is all right, Bill," Jap said brokenly. "It will hurt whenever it +comes, so let's get it done." + +After the will was read Jap lay silent, the tears slipping down his +cheeks, for Flossy's will gave all that she possessed to her son, Jap +Herron. It was made the day after she knew that her own child was +doomed to an early death. + +They filed slowly from the room, even the Judge awed by the face of the +boy. + +The New Year had turned the corner when Jap was moved to the office. +Little by little he grew back into harness. They did not talk of +Flossy in those early days. It was not possible. One chill spring +day, when the grass was greening, and the first blossoms were opening +among the hyacinths on Ellis's grave, Jap walked with Bill to the +cemetery. He bent above the dried wreaths with their faded ribbons, +sodden and dinged by the winter's snows. + +"Throw them away, Bill," he choked. "They are the tawdry tokens of +mourning. I am trying to forget that mourning." + +Bill gathered the dry bundles and carried them away. Coming back, he +stood looking mournfully upon the muddy sod. Jap raised his eyes +suddenly, and they gazed for a long minute into each other's hearts. +Bill threw his hands over his eyes and cried aloud. + +"Don't, Bill!" Jap's hand clutched him tightly. "For God's sake, help +me to be a man!" + +And forgetting the sodden grass, they knelt beside the grave and sobbed +together in an abandon of grief. Boys they were, despite their years, +and Flossy had been more to them than the mother whom youth is prone to +take for granted. When the tempest of sorrow and desolation had spent +itself they arose. + +"It is done," said Jap, looking up into the sky where the stars were +beginning to twinkle palely. "It had to be done. Now I can realize +that they laid Flossy beneath the earth. But, please God, I can forget +it. Now I know that she has left the beautiful shell behind. But, +Bill," he touched the mound with his fingers, "Flossy has never been +here, never for an instant." + +"She is in heaven," said Bill reverently. + +Jap laid his arm around Bill's shoulders. + +"You don't believe that, Bill. You know better. Flossy is right with +us, as Ellis has always been. Just as he has inspired us to develop +his paper and his town, so she will stay with us, to create good and +optimism and faith in ourselves. Bill, when those two wonderful people +came into our lives, they came to stay. Do you think Ellis and Flossy +would get any joy out of strumming on a harp and taking their own +selfish ease? No, Bill, that's all a mistake. They're working right +with us, and it's up to you and me to so wholly reflect them that we +will be to this town what they have been to us. In any crisis in our +lives, let us not forget that Ellis and Flossy Hinton are not dead. We +may have need to remember it, Bill." + +The next morning he climbed on his stool and took the stick in his +hand. Bill stopped at the door of the composing room, something in +Jap's attitude arresting him. + +"What are you going to do, Jap?" + +"Get busy," declared Jap. "We have given out enough plate. The +_Herald_ is going back on the job." + +Bill felt a lump rise in his throat as he paused to finger the copy on +his hook. + +"We have to get the drums beating," said Jap. "We have to elect Wat +Harlow governor, and, believe the Barton _Standard_, we have some rough +road to travel." + +And the battle was on! Alone, the Bloomtown _Herald_ tackled the job +of making a governor. Watson Harlow had been a familiar figure in +state politics for more than twenty years, but as gubernatorial timber +no one had ever regarded him seriously. His opponent, on the other +hand, was a fresh figure in the state, with all the novelty of the +unknown quantity about him. It was an off year for the dominant party, +both locally and nationally, and the fight promised to be a complicated +one. + +Week by week the battle raged between the types. Little by little the +country press began to get in the fight. Not content with the +picturesque drumming of his own machine, Jap interested the city press +in the history of Wat Harlow, the "Lone Pine, of Integrity Absolute." +This descriptive title was proclaimed in and out of season during the +months of battle, both before and after the nomination of Harlow and +Jones. Jap invented a stinger for Bronson Jones. In his past history, +it was alleged, he had much that were better concealed than revealed. +Not the least of his offenses was that he had assisted his father, a +certain P. D. Jones, in stealing red-hot cook-stoves from the ruins of +the Chicago fire. Jap so declared, and he offered to prove that Jones +had sold these same stoves to their former owners, when they became +cold. In one instance, the victim was a widow who had lost everything, +even her former mate, in the fire. And Jones carried the title, "The +Widow's Friend," for years. All this was fun for the city dailies, and +cartoons of the "Lone Pine" being fed to the "Cook-Stove" alternated +with those of the pine falling upon the "Widow's Friend" as he was +about to sell a stove to the above-mentioned widow. + +The color came back to Jap's cheeks, and the battle light flamed in his +gray eyes. His one relaxation was the tranquil hour with Isabel. +Harlow, like an uneasy ghost, haunted the _Herald_ office when he was +not out storming the hustings. The Barton _Standard_ continued to pry +into Wat's past, while the _Herald_ continued to lift the lid from the +chest of Bronson's secret garments. Unfortunately, the _Standard_ had +played its big trump card in the congressional campaign. The vermilion +handbill was once more dragged to light, but it worked like a +boomerang, for several of Wat's own party workers had been caught +red-handed in the act of attempting to operate a shameless graft game, +in the name of the university. And Jap utilized the story to show that +Wat was a man above party, a man in whose mind integrity was indeed +absolute. + +Argument grew red hot, every place but Bloomtown. There, there was no +one to argue with. Bloomtown was one man for Harlow. Jones undertook +to deliver one speech there, and that bright hour nearly became his +last. After the good-natured raillery of the opening address, Jones +plunged into the vitriolic explosion he had delivered at the various +places he had spoken. For exactly ten minutes it lasted. By that +time, Kelly Jones had reached Hollins's grocery store and gathered +enough eggs to start a protest against the defamation of Wat Harlow's +character. And the protest was proclaimed unanimous! + +It was stated that there were no eggs on Bloomtown's breakfast table +next morning, and no Sunday cakes. + +"But," said the _Herald_, "if Bronson Jones wants any more hen-fruit, +the housewives of Bloomtown will cheerfully sacrifice themselves in his +behalf." + +And so the months sped away until the grass had mossed the graves in +the cemetery with lush beauty, and the three mounds were merged into +one by the riotous growth of sweet alyssum, Flossy's best loved +blossom. The summer waned. The autumn hasted, and chill winds +whispered around the Lone Pine as the last sortie was made. Then +Bloomtown pressed her hands to her throbbing breast and got ready +for--Victory? + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +Bill jumped from bed as the rattle of the latch announced the arrival +of a visitor. Without waiting for the formality of more than a +bathrobe, Rosy Raymond's last birthday gift to him, he bolted down the +stairs and across the office. He flung the door open and disclosed the +hazy features of Kelly Jones, peering at him through the November fog. + +"What, ho! Kelly, what brings you to our door in the glooming?" + +Kelly shook the rain from his slicker and came inside. + +"Wife called me at three o'clock," he announced. "Had my breakfast and +rid like hell to git to town early. I want to cast the fu'st vote for +Wat for governor." + +Bill yawned. + +"You could have ridden more leisurely, and saved us a couple of hours' +sleep," he complained. "There are at least a thousand voters of +Bloomtown with that same laudable intention. Tom Granger has been +missing since seven o'clock last night. It is believed that he is +locked in the booth so that his vote will skin the rest." + +Kelly looked ruefully back into the rain. + +"I reckon that I will come in and set a while, that bein' the report." + +"Any man found voting for Jones is to be lynched at sunset," declared +Bill, pushing a chair forward. + +"Reckon this'll be a big day for the Democrats," commented Kelly, +stretching his feet across the table comfortably. "'Tain't nothin' to +keep 'em home, so they'll kill time, votin'. That's why I allus cussed +my daddy for raisin' me a Democrat. Bein' as I am one, I've got to +stick by and see the durn fools shuckin' corn while the Republicans are +haulin' their grand-daddies in town to vote the Republicans in." + +Bill retired to don a few garments and Jap tumbled from bed, for this +was a big day in Bloomtown. Before six o'clock the roads were lined +with vehicles, as for an Independence holiday. The county was coming +in to help the town vote for her favorite son. + +About noon Harlow came creeping up the alley and slipped in at the back +door. He wore a slicker that he had borrowed from some constituent who +was short. It hung sorrowfully about his knees. Bill remembered that +in spike-tail coat and white necktie Wat Harlow looked enough like a +governor to pass for one, but just now he resembled nothing so much as +a draggled rooster. The stove in the little private office hissed and +sputtered as he shook the rain from the coat. + +"I thought that the only place that victory would be complete would be +the _Herald_ office," he said, relaxing into a chair. "And if we are +beat, I could meet it better here." He took a paper in his shaking +hands and tried to read. + +The rain poured in torrents, but Bloomtown cast her record vote--and +not one scurrilous vote against him dropped into the ballot box. At +sunset a wild yell proclaimed that Bloomtown had done her duty. It was +now up to the rest of the state whether Wat Harlow, proclaimed from +border to border as an honest man, would be its next governor. On his +record as opposed to State University graft, he had once been elected +to the legislature when the running was close. On that same record, as +opposed to higher education, he was defeated for United States +Congressman, and on that same record he was running for governor of his +state. + +The _Herald_ office lighted up. All the big men of Bloomtown smoked +the air blue, waiting for the returns. First good, then crushingly +bad, they varied. By the tone of the operator's yell, the waiters +guessed each bulletin. If he came silent, they all coughed and waited +for some one to take the fatal slip of paper. The dawn was graying +when they dispersed, with the issue still in doubt. It was late +afternoon before they knew that Harlow was elected. Bill grinned +joyously, for the first time since Rosy Raymond carried her heart to +Barton and left it there. + +"How many roosters have we?" he asked impishly, as he walked over to +the telephone. + +"Why?" queried Jap. + +"I am going to 'phone Jones that we want to borrow all that he don't +need," said Bill, taking the receiver from the hook. + +"We done it!" yelled Kelly Jones, slapping his slouch hat against the +door. "And I'm goin' over to Barton and git on the hell-firedest drunk +that that jay town ever seen. Whoopee!" And off he set at a run to +catch the local freight. + +About half of Bloomtown seemed inspired with the same spirit, and the +freight pulled out amid wild yells of joy. Several of the most agile +among the jubilant ones draped the box cars with strips of faded, soggy +bunting, and Harlow's picture adorned the cow-catcher. The yelling, +that had been discontinued for economic reasons, was resumed in raucous +chorus as the train rolled into Barton to celebrate Harlow's victory in +Jones's town. + +The Bloomtown _Herald_ did itself proud that week. A mammoth picture +of the Lone Pine stood forth on the front page. Around it fluttered +one hundred flags. Every page sported roosters and flags in each +available space, between local readers and editorial paragraphs. It +was a thing of beauty and a joy forever--at least to Wat Harlow. One +other cut found place at the bottom of the editorial page. Bill did +not forget to boomerang Wilfred Jones by reprinting the weeping angel. +For a week there were bonfires every night, and a number of Bloomtown's +citizens sought to lighten Barton's woes by buying fire-water there. +Wat swelled until he looked more like a corpulent oak than a lone pine. + +"My house is yours," he cried, alternately wringing Jap and Bill by +their weary hands. He had come across once more from his headquarters +in the Court House to make sure his appreciation was understood. Jap +smiled wanly as the village band followed him with its intermittent +serenade. + +Bloomtown had long since outgrown the village class; but not a drum nor +a horn had encroached upon the old traditions of that band. Mike +Hawkins was far too conservative to permit innovation, and as there was +no provision for retiring the bandmaster on half pay, the problem of +dividing nothing in half having as yet been unsolved, Mike continued to +hold the job. All day the band had been vibrating between the Court +House and the _Herald_ office, having delivered ten serenades at each +side of Main street, for it was understood that the _Herald_ shared the +victory with Harlow. As the Governor-elect retreated to the other side +of the street, the band at his heels, Bill groaned aloud. + +"I wish that that bunch of musicians had had more confidence that Wat +was going to get it," he sighed, "so that they could have learned one +tune good." + +Kelly Jones was capering down the street. Kelly had absorbed enough of +Barton booze to make him believe he owned the half of Bloomtown that +did not belong to Wat Harlow. He had been having what Bill described +as "one large, full time." As he came in sight, Bill's brow darkened. + +"I've been afraid that Kelly would burst and catch fire," he said +morosely, "and now, by jolly, I wish he would. It's funny how much +your good friends will get in your way when they pair off with John +Barleycorn. Kelly is certainly one ding-buster when he is lit up." + +Jap leaned from the door to watch the procession that had formed for +the purpose of escorting Wat Harlow to the station. + +"Kelly's time is wrinkling," he laughed. "Here comes Mrs. Kelly Jones, +with worriment on her brow." + +Bill ran his inky fingers through his hair. Something was troubling +him. + +"Jap," he said as he walked toward the door of the composing room, +"that skunk of a Jones----" + +"Who? Kelly?" + +"Oh, no." Bill wheeled, and his face was deadly earnest. "Kelly's not +a skunk, even when he has soaked up all the rotgut in Barton. But I +had Kelly Jones in the back of my head, just the same, when I mentioned +the honorable Editor of the Barton _Standard_. It's getting under my +skin, Jap, the way he has of tempting these Bloomtown fools over to his +filthy village to get the booze we won't let 'em have at home, and then +holding them up to ridicule when they make asses of themselves." + +"It's one of the angles of this problem that I haven't figured out +yet," Jap said earnestly. "Do you think it would do any good to go +gunning for Jones?" + +"I've thought of that possibility several times," and Bill's tone was +not entirely humorous. + +Jap shoved his stool to the case. As he climbed upon it, he sighed +uneasily. It had been sixteen months since Wilfred Jones turned the +neat trick that left Bill disconsolate, and still the venom lingered in +the bereft boy's heart. To Jap, with his standard of womanhood +established by Flossy and Isabel, the thing was monstrous, +inconceivable. And yet it was a fact to be faced. + +"We'll have to get busy, Bill," he said. "We've got enough job work on +the hooks to keep us up till midnight for a week. We haven't done a +thing the last month but elect Wat Harlow." + +"I hope to grab he won't run for another office till I have six sons to +help me," Bill snorted. + +Jap heaved a sudden sigh of relief. + +"Looking out again, Bill?" he asked, jerking his thumb in the direction +of the vacant photograph frame above Bill's case. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +It was the day after Thanksgiving. Bill was twirling the chambers of +his revolver around. His face was grim. Jap halted in the door of +their bedroom. + +"Going gunning for Jones?" he asked lightly. + +Bill turned, and the black look on his face startled Jap. + +"I am," he said deliberately, "and I will come back to jail or in my +coffin." + +Jap caught the revolver from his hand. + +"Bill," he said sharply, "wake up!" + +Bill threw a letter to him, and continued his hasty toilet. Jap read: + + +"Dear Will,-- + +"Come to me. I am almost crazy. Wilfred accused me of giving you +information against his father that beat him in the election, and he +struck me in the mouth. He said he only married me to spite you, and +he hates me. I will meet you at the section house, where the train +slows up for the switch, at six o'clock. I want you to take me away, I +don't care where. I don't love anybody but you, and I can't live with +Wilfred another night. I don't care whether anybody ever speaks to me +again, if you will take me and love me. + +"Your distracted ROSALIE." + + +Jap stared at the note as if it had been a snake-tressed Medusa that +turned him to stone. He stood rigid and paralyzed as Bill said, deadly +calm: + +"I am going to Barton, and I am going to shoot that dog." + +"And after that?" Jap's voice was toneless. + +"After that!" Bill broke out fiercely. "After that, what more?" + +Jap drew Bill around to face him. Rivers of fire seemed suddenly to +course through his body, and an unprecedented rage burned up within him. + +"You are not going to Barton, and you are not going to meet that +foolish light-o'-love at the section house," he said sternly. + +"Who will stop me? Not you, Jap, for even if an angel from heaven +tried to bar my way, I would brush it aside. I wanted to kill him when +he stole her away and----" + +Jap shook him angrily. + +"No one stole her, Bill. Have you forgotten the insolent, flippant +letter she wrote you?" + +Bill shook Jap's hand from his shoulder. + +"It's no use, Jap. I am going to kill him!" + +Jap set his teeth and his gray eyes blazed as he gripped Bill's arms +and shoved him into a chair. + +"I will have you locked up, you foolish hot-head," he exclaimed, "and +give Wilfred Jones a few hours to consider his attitude toward his +wife. She _is_ his wife, Bill, and all your heroics won't gloss that +fact from sight. Do you want to hang, because you were a damned fool? +I can consider a romantic close to your career, but not as an intruder +in another man's home--no matter how great your feeling of injustice. +Rosy was not a child when she married Wilfred Jones." + +"But he struck her," gulped Bill. + +"I have known times," declared Jap vehemently, "when, if I had been of +the fibre of Wilfred Jones, I would have felt satisfaction in thrashing +Rosy Raymond. Not having been Jones, I had to content myself with +kicking the furniture around. I don't want to rile you, Bill, but I +rather think there are two sides to this story, and I want to hear both +sides. If it is proven that Jones has mistreated Rosy brutally, I will +hold him while you give him the licking he deserves. More than that, I +will help Rosy to get a divorce. Isn't that fair enough, Bill? What +is revenge upon a dead body, especially if you expiate that revenge on +the gallows? Tell me, who profits? For the woman, disgrace. For +you---- Humph! the only one who comes out of it honorably is the dead +man, Jones." + +Bill glowered at him. + +"You had no mother, Bill, because she died when she gave you to the +world. I had no mother, because Providence gave me where I was a +burden. But God gave both of us a mother. Bill, before you go any +farther with this adventure--misadventure--I want you to kneel with me +before Flossy's picture and ask for her approval and her blessing. +Because, Bill, brother, she knows. And what do you suppose will be her +counsel? What would Flossy want you to do?" + +He took the photograph from the table and held it out to Bill. The +brown eyes remained downcast. The hands opened and closed +spasmodically. Jap lowered the picture so that Bill's eyes could not +choose but meet the loved face. A great, gulping sob shook him, and he +dashed into the other room and slammed the door. Jap's tense features +relaxed into a smile. He knew that Flossy had won. + +"Will you let me go to Barton instead of you?" he asked through the +closed door. There was no reply, and he turned the knob. Bill was +staring stolidly from the window. "I won't carry healing oil if the +case doesn't call for it," he insisted. "You will believe me, boy?" + +"It's your job," Bill said, in smothered, tear-drenched tones. + +"I can just make the 5:20," said Jap, as he caught up his hat and +overcoat from the foot of the bed where he had flung them. Then he +hurried to the station, with Rosy's foolish letter in his pocket. + +Without looking to right or left he boarded the train that would have +carried Bill to his love tryst. Already the evening shadows were +beginning to settle, and it was almost dark when the local train ran +into the siding to permit the east-bound special to pass. He stood on +the steps of the rear coach as the wheels crunched with the stopping of +the train. Then he dropped quietly to the ground. The special, that +was wont to throw dust in the eyes of both Bloomtown and Barton, came +thundering by, and the friendly local took up its westward journey. + +Jap hurried over to the cloaked figure that crouched in the shadow of +the little section house. Rosy crept out quickly, but retreated with a +cry of alarm when she saw that Jap, and not Bill, was coming to meet +her. He caught her by the arm and drew her into the light of an +electric bulb that glowed above the section boss's door. Scanning her +silly face for a moment, he said sharply: + +"So you lied to Bill! There is no mark of a blow on your face." + +"He--he did push me," she sobbed. "And I don't love him, anyway. It +was your fault that I ran away with Wilfred." + +"My fault?" echoed Jap. + +"Yes," she said, and her tone rasped with cruel spite. "What girl +wants to have her sweetheart only half hers? Jap Herron only had to +twist his thumb, and Bill would run like a foolish girl. I wanted a +whole man or none." + +"Seems that you got one," commented Jap, "and don't appreciate him. +Now, Rosy, if you think you are going to ruin three lives by starting +this kind of a play, I am going to undeceive you. I am going to take +you home and look into this affair." + +"I won't go!" she screamed. "He would kill me." + +"What did you do?" demanded Jap, holding her tightly. + +"I wrote him a note that I had run away with Bill," she confessed +sullenly. + +For the first time Jap became conscious of the suitcase at her feet. +His grip on her arm tightened until she cried with pain. + +"You idiotic little fool," he ground between his teeth. "Where is your +husband?" + +"He went to the city this morning. He said he'd come home on the local +if he got through his business in time. Otherwise he wouldn't come +till the midnight train. I thought Bill could get a rig and drive to +Faber. I thought he could take me away somehow before Wilfred got the +news." + +"News? Great God!" cried Jap. "And such as you could win the golden +heart of Bill Bowers! Come with me. If your husband takes the late +train, there is still time to destroy that note. If he is already at +home----" + +"He'd go to the office first, anyway," Rosy cried. "But I don't want +to go home." + +"You're going home, no matter what the consequences," Jap told her. +"And if you ever attempt to communicate with Bill again, I will have +you put in an asylum. You are not capable of going through life +sensibly." + +He walked her rapidly up the railroad track and through the streets +that lay between the business part of Barton and her own pretty home. +On the corner opposite the house he stopped, while she ran across the +street in terror and rushed up the steps. She had told him that if all +was yet well, she would appear at the window. As he stood there, his +eyes glued on the great square of glass, some one touched him on the +arm. He turned. It was Wilfred Jones. + +"Well, Daddy-long-legs," he said brusquely. "You think you turned a +pretty trick. Well, it was a fair fight, and I'm all over it." + +Jap shook his hand mechanically, his eyes seeking the window from which +Rosy was peering. + +"Tell Bill that bygones must be bygones," Jones continued, "for we want +to get the two papers together on the main issue. The old man will +come in on the senatorship on the strength of his race for governor. +And I want to tell you a secret that makes me very happy--and will make +Bill feel different. The doctor has just told me that these queer +spells and moods that Rosalie has been having lately mean--Jap, do you +understand? I will be a father before summer!" + +Jap wrung Jones's hand, a whirl of fancies going through his head. As +he sought for suitable words of congratulation, a boy ran up. + +"I been chasin' all over town ahuntin' for you, Mr. Herron," he said +breathlessly. "I got a telegram for you." + +Trembling with dread, Jap tore it open and read: + + +"_Come home at once. Your sister Agnosia is here._--BILL." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +The streets were deserted as Jap came from the station. In his state +of mind, he did not reflect on the oddity of this circumstance. But +had he reflected, the condition of traffic congestion at the corner +near Blanke's drug store and the further congestion in front of the +bank would have enlightened him. All the business men of Bloomtown, +who had rushed to the _Herald_ office with important advertisements or +news items, were reluctantly giving place to those who had discovered a +sudden want of letter-heads. + +The telegraph office at Bloomtown was no secret repository, and in less +than ten minutes after Bill had telegraphed Jap to hurry home the whole +street knew that the beautiful vision that arrived on the 6:20 was Jap +Herron's sister, Agnesia. And forthwith traffic filed that way. + +The vision arose as Jap entered the front door, and waited until he +came into the private office. It was apparent that Bill had played +host, to the limit of his meager resources. Agnesia's hat and +fur-trimmed coat lay on the table of exchanges. + +"Well, Jappie," she laughed in silvery tones, "how long you are!" + +He took her little ringed hands in his and looked at her silently. +Agnesia was the beauty of the family. Her golden curls fluffed +bewitchingly about her face and her wide blue eyes smiled +affectionately. + +"You are grown, too, Aggie. I have been thinking of you as a very +little----" + +"Mercy!" she broke in. "Please, Jappie, don't drag that awful name to +light. When I went to the new home, they mercifully killed Agnesia. I +have been Mabelle Hastings so long that I had almost forgotten Aggie +Herron. I gave that hideous name to your friend," she flung a +gold-flashed smile at Bill, "because you had no sister Mabelle in the +old days. Our folks made a bad selection of names for their progeny. +And why Jasper? Why didn't they put the James first? It sounds so +much more human." + +"Not a bit of it!" declared Bill. "What is there about James? This +town had to have its Jap Herron. No substitute would have made good." + +She slipped a glance through her long lashes at Bill. + +"I called him 'Jappie,'" she confided. "I was a lisping baby and +couldn't say 'Jasper.' Dear old Jappie, how he slaved for me! And I +was a tyrant, demanding service every minute of the day." + +Jap's face clouded. "Aggie is a bigbug now," came surging into his +memory, as a wizened face obtruded itself between the laughing eyes of +his sister and his own. The girl noted the swift change. She took his +handy her voice quivering with appeal. + +"I know what you are thinking about," she said. "But I could not help +it, Jappie. We don't have to keep up the pretense before Mr. Bowers. +He knows the worst, I take it. Jappie, you may not remember, but when +Mrs. Hastings adopted me, my mother had reported that she would either +turn me out or give me to the county. Afterward my foster-mother took +me away from Happy Hollow when she saw that our mother was bringing +disgrace on all of us. She sacrificed her home and moved far enough +away so that no smirch could come to me. You don't know, brother, and +I would never want you to know the dreadful things she did. I had not +heard from her since she married that drunken brute, until she came to +the house one hot day. When she found no one at home, she laid down on +the porch and went to sleep, drunk and unspeakably filthy. She was +there when we returned with a party of friends. Can you imagine it, +Jappie?" + +Jap nodded his head slowly. + +"Mrs. Hastings had her taken out of town, and told her if she came +there again she would have her put in an asylum for drunkards. After +that she threatened to descend upon Fanny Maud. Fanny could not afford +to have her career spoiled. Perhaps we were cruel. I read the +scorching letter you wrote to Fanny after her--after mother's death. +But Fanny was not angry with you, and--and she was willing to have me +come to you now. Next spring she will graduate in vocal music from the +highest university in the country, and then she goes to Paris to study +under the artists there. Jappie, she has made a large part of it, +herself, teaching and singing in the church choir, and studying +whenever she had enough money ahead. At last Uncle Francis died and +left her a snug little sum, and she went to New York, where they say +her voice is a wonder. We should be proud of her. She wants you to +come with me in June to hear her sing when she graduates." + +Jap stared at the floor. She laid her hand coaxingly on his shoulder. + +"Of course Jap will go!" Bill's brown eyes were glowing. Jap looked +across at him in astonishment and wonder. His brain reeled. The day +had been too full. + +"And you?" the girl queried, smiling into those dancing brown eyes. + +"We can't both go at once," he blurted. "The paper has to come out on +time." + +She arose and wandered through the rooms that occupied the lower floor +of the building, stepping from a hasty and uncomprehending glance at +the press room and the composing room to dwell with critical eye on the +big, bare office. + +"You need a little fixing up," she commented. "You should have a nice +rug and shades, and a roll-top desk and swivel chair." + +"So we should," lamented Bill, looking around with an air of +disapproval. "But not having anybody to tell us----" He stopped +short, embarrassed. + +"I guess that I will have to keep house for Jappie, and boss the office +too. That is, if you want me, Jappie," she appealed. "Mrs. Hastings +died last March, and I have been with Fanny ever since. My +foster-mother left me well provided for. I won't be a burden, Jappie," +she cried. "We have all made good. We must rejoice together." + +Bill was half way across the office in his excitement. + +"You can take Flossy's house," he burst out. "It's ready any time, +because Pap had it completely overhauled after the tenants moved out. +It's the only ready-furnished house in Bloomtown and----" His voice +lowered and there was a note of wistfulness in it. "Jap, Flossy would +be so happy!" + +Jap surveyed his erstwhile desperate friend with a gleam of merriment. +As yet, Bill did not know but that his sacrificing partner was a +fugitive from the law. He had not even remembered to ask about the +well-being of Wilfred Jones and his wife. + +"Perhaps Aggie--Mabelle," he hastily corrected, "is just joking. She +would hardly like to bury herself in this little town after New York. +There would be so little to compensate." + +"Oh, I don't fear that I will regret New York," said Mabelle, letting +her blue eyes dwell on Bill's ingenuous countenance for a throbbing +moment. "Really, Jappie, there's nothing to regret." + +Bill's heart turned over twice. His face was appealing. He met Jap's +dancing eyes defiantly. + +"Well," said Jap, "you might get the keys and show the cottage to +Ag--Mabelle, and see how much enthusiasm it provokes. Perhaps it would +make a better first impression by electric light. Here, put an extra +bulb in your pocket, if one happens to be missing," and he drew out the +table drawer, where many things lay hidden. + +Bill was helping Mabelle on with her coat, his well-set body charged +with electricity that was strangely illuminating to Jap. As the two +left the office, a few minutes later, a teasing voice called after them: + +"Remember, Bill, that you took on a pile of orders this evening, and we +were loaded to the guards with job work already." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +Jap looked up as a shadow fell across the door of the composing room. + +"Well," he queried quizzically, "what about it?" + +"Well," Bill repeated, drawing the girl into the room after him, +"Mabelle thinks that the cottage needs a bathroom and about a wagon +load of plumbing, besides paint and paper. Otherwise, it's all right." + +Mabelle slipped past him and approached the case. Standing on tiptoe +beside the high stool, she laid a hand coaxingly on the strong, angular +shoulder. + +"Now, Jappie, boy, iron out that worry-frown. I am going to do the +fixing up myself. It shan't cost you a cent." + +"No!" Jap exploded. + +"Now, dear boy, forget your pride. I have lots and lots of money, and +this is to be my home." + +"The firm is not insolvent," suggested Bill. + +"It isn't a matter for the firm," Jap said gravely. "The cottage +belongs to me, and we can't allow our finances to get mixed. I'm +willing to have you put in all the repairs that I can afford." + +His mind reverted to Flossy, happy and clean without a bathroom. + +"Let me take a mortgage on the property for whatever the work costs," +Mabelle pleaded, her lips puckering irresistibly. + +Jap descended from the stool and caught her in his arms. Somehow she +had, all at once, become his baby sister again. The episode of the +straw stack loomed before him. She had puckered her lips just like +that when she fled to him for protection. With little coquettish +touches, she slipped one arm around his neck, while she smoothed his +red locks gently. Bill, looking on, was overcome by an unaccountable +restlessness. + +"What a pity Isabel isn't home!" he blurted. And Bill never knew why +he had recourse to Isabel at that moment. The observation bore the +desired fruit. Mabelle freed herself from her brother's embrace, with +the pained exclamation: + +"Isabel not at home! Oh, Jappie, I have just been waiting for you to +tell me about her. Ever since we read in the paper--and the one little +reference to her in your letter to Fanny----" + +She stopped, her blue eyes filling with tears. + +"They went away just after the election was over," Bill explained. "Iz +wouldn't leave Jap while the thing was in doubt, not even for her +mother." + +"I don't think that's quite square," Jap interposed. "Mrs. Granger +didn't want to go at all, and only consented when Dr. Hall told her how +ill Isabel was. The rest of us knew that Mrs. Granger couldn't live +through another winter here; but he had to make Isabel's poor health +the pretext when he sent them to Florida for the cold weather." + +"Is she--is she seriously sick?" Mabelle asked tremulously. "The +mother, I mean." + +"It's a desperate hope, a kind of last resort," Bill vouchsafed. "I +heard Doc Hall talking to Tom Granger in the bank, the morning before +they left. He said he didn't want to scare him, but he wanted to +prepare him for the worst, I thought." + +"I'm sure if Isabel were at home, she'd insist on your coming right to +her," Jap said slowly. "Bill and I have been bunking together up +there," he jerked his thumb in the direction of the ceiling. "We have +a bedroom and a little combination living-room, dressing-room and +library. The library's Bill's part. We take our meals at the hotel, +down in the next block. The hotel isn't bad for a town of this size." + +"Oh, I've already met the hotel," Mabelle laughed. "Bill--Mr. Bowers +took me there to dinner this evening while we were waiting for you to +come home." + +"Aw, chuck that 'Mr. Bowers,'" Bill interrupted. "I'm plain Bill to +everybody in this town, and I guess Jap's sister can call me that." + +"The hotel, as I was saying," Jap resumed, "will have to take care of +you for the present till you can get a bathroom attachment for the +cottage. It'll probably be lonely for you, just at first." + +"I'll see to it that Mabelle meets all the best people in town," Bill +offered. + +The temporary housing problem settled, they returned to the discussion +of repairs necessary and repairs superfluous. After two hours of +parley, Jap consented to let his energetic sister work her will on +Flossy's cottage. It was after midnight when the girl had been +established in her room at the hotel, and Jap and Bill tumbled into +bed. The shank of that night had wrought miracles for unsuspecting +Bloomtown. A vision of blue eyes, red lips and golden tresses kept +floating through Bill's dreams, a vision that bore not the least +resemblance to Rosy Raymond. Meanwhile Jap stalked through one dream +controversy after another with plumbers, painters and the other +defilers of Flossy's home. + +By noon on Monday Mabelle had Bloomtown by the ears, and by the end of +the week it was all up with Bill. Jap had to hire a boy to help get +out the _Herald_. It consumed all of Bill's time threatening and +cajoling merchants into the prompt delivery of supplies, and seeing to +it that the workmen were on the job when Mabelle arrived at the cottage +in the morning. Bloomtown carpenters, paper hangers and plumbers +usually took their own sweet time. They had a great awakening when +Mabelle employed them. With Bill to pour oil on the troubled waters, +strikes were narrowly averted. + +One morning, soon after the radiant one arrived, Kelly Jones wandered +into the office, where a lively dispute with the boss plumber was under +way. In ten minutes, Kelly had fallen a victim to the little tyrant. + +"'Tain't no use talkin' about her gittin' along without a cellar," he +confided to Jap. "I'll dig it myself, and that'll save all this row +about how the pipes is got to run. I ain't got nothin' much to do, now +the corn's all in. And it's lucky we ain't had a hard freeze. The +ground's fine for diggin'," and the following morning he was on the job. + +For two months Bloomtown was demoralized. A cellar made possible a +furnace, and the elimination of stoves called for a fireplace in the +living-room, a fireplace framed in by soft blue and yellow tiles. One +by one Mabelle added her receipted bills to the packet of documents +that would go into the making of that mortgage on Jap's property. One +by one the housewives of Bloomtown demanded of their paralyzed husbands +bathrooms, cellars, furnaces, tiled fireplaces. + +At last the agony was over. A load of furniture had arrived from the +city, and Bill, as usual, left his stickful of type and hastened to +superintend the transfer of it from the freight depot to the cottage. +The evening shadows were lengthening in the office when he returned. +Jap had gone up-stairs to get out a rush order on the job press, and +there was a little commotion on the stairway just before Bill presented +himself, his brown eyes full of trouble. Jap looked at him, and his +heart sank. Had it come to this? Mabelle, in spite of her scanty +years, was older than Bill. She must have known. The whole town knew. + +"For goodness' sake, Bill, don't pi this galley," he shouted, bending +over the imposing stone. "Look where you're going. I wish that +Mabelle would wake to the fact that you have a half-hearted interest in +this office. She thinks you have nothing to do but keep tagging on her +errands." + +The office cat rubbed her sleek side against Bill's leg. + +"Get out and let me alone!" he screamed, jumping with nervous +irritation. + +"Don't do that, Bill," Jap said firmly. "What's the matter with you, +anyway? You are as pernickety as a setting hen, as Kelly said +yesterday. When even Kelly begins to notice your aberrations it's time +for you to get a wake-up. Are you sick? Have things gone wrong?" + +Bill walked over to the window and ran his thumb down the pane of glass +absently. + +"Jap, have you that mortgage handy--all that business that Mabelle gave +you?" + +Jap went to the safe and took out the packet of papers. + +"Why?" he asked, as he glanced through the long list of items. "Has my +sister thought of anything else she absolutely needs? In another week, +I'll owe her more than the cottage is worth." + +Bill took the documents gingerly. His mobile face flamed. + +"I--I--want to take up the deeds," he stammered. + +Jap whirled to face him. + +"You see," stuttered Bill, "I--that is, we--Mabelle and I, we----" + +Jap sprang forward, lithe as a panther, and caught Bill by the arm. +Drawing him to the light, he looked full in the embarrassed face. + +"Where is she?" he shouted. "Where is that sister of mine? Where is +she hiding?" + +The girl came from the dark hall, her eyes defiant, her head set with +charming insolence on one side. Jap struggled with his self-possession +an instant. Then a great, gurgling laugh shook his shoulders as he +gathered the pair into his long arms. + +"Golly Haggins!" the expletive of his boyhood leaped to his lips, "I'm +glad the agony is over. Now perhaps we will be able to get the +_Herald_ to our subscribers on time." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +"Tom Granger got a telegram," announced Bill, coming into the office +one morning early in April. "He wants to see you at once, Jap." + +Jap's face blanched. He looked dumbly at Bill. + +"No, it's not her," Bill hastened to say. "It's her mother." + +Jap stumbled awkwardly up the walk to the Granger home. The letters +from Isabel had been far from reassuring, and only the previous day Dr. +Hall had sounded a warning that the care of the invalid was too much +for the girl, taxed as she was in both mind and body. Into Jap's +consciousness there crept the thought that she had never fully +recovered from those terrible weeks when she hovered over him. + +Tom Granger met him at the door. His eyes were red with weeping. He +drew Jap into the parlor and gave him two telegrams. + +"This came at midnight," he said brokenly. Jap read: + +"Mother sinking. Come. ISABEL." + +"And this just arrived," Granger choked, as the fatal words met Jap's +eye: + +"Mother dying. Come. Bring Jap. ISABEL." + +"The train leaves in half an hour. I don't have to ask you anything, +my boy." + +Jap turned and hastened away. He did not weaken Granger's feeble +strength with words of sympathy. + +It was the afternoon of the second day when the two stood with Isabel +at the foot of the bed. Alice Granger lifted her heavy lids, and a +gleam of recognition shone in her eyes. Swiftly those two, the husband +and the child, drew near, eager for any word that might pass the +stiffening lips. Jap stood looking sorrowfully down on her as they +knelt at her side. + +"Jap," she whispered, "you, too," and her feeble fingers drew him. + +With a choked sob he knelt beside Isabel. The mother fumbled with the +covers until her hand, icy cold, touched his. Instantly his firm, +strong hand closed over it. She smiled and murmured: + +"Tom. Isabel." + +They leaned over her in a panic of fear. + +"Isabel's hand," she breathed, and placed the two hands together. +"Tom, there is time," she whispered; "I want----" She sank helpless. + +"I know what you would say," cried Granger, the tears streaming down +his face. "You want him to be our son before--before you say good-bye." + +A flash of joy illumined her thin face. She sighed contentedly. + +A minister was hastily summoned, and a half hour later Isabel sobbed +her grief in the arms of her husband, as they stood awaiting the coming +of the Death Angel. + +"It made such a difference in her feeling toward you, your illness at +our house," Tom said, looking down upon her closed eyes and fluttering +lips. "She never understood you, and in her quiet way she was always +reserving judgment, when I used to talk so much about you. A mother +finds it hard to think any man is the right one for her only child, and +she was so dependent on Isabel. She hadn't any doubts, after she saw +you in that dreadful fever, with all your soul laid bare to us. She +knew Isabel would be safe, and after that she stopped worrying." + +A grim hand caught at Jap's throat, as Tom sank on his knees and buried +his face in the pillow to smother his sobs. Into his memory there came +the words of Flossy: "When your mother came, there was a revelation. I +don't fear for your future now. And when I knew this, Jap, I suddenly +felt tired and old." + +Flossy had clung to life until he had found the woman who could take +her place. Then, all at once, she let go. And now Alice Granger, an +invalid for twenty-three years, had relaxed her feeble hold on life +when she knew that her child was in safe and gentle hands. Must Death +forever draw its grim fingers between him and his happiness? He looked +at his bride, fragile as a spring flower, and a great fear rushed over +him. Dumb, he stood there, stroking Isabel's hair with futile caresses. + +At last the glazing eyes opened, and Alice Granger said faintly: + +"Tom, not alone." + +"Not alone?" he cried in anguish. "Always alone without you, Alice." + +She only smiled--and then she fell asleep. + + +It was a strange wedding journey. Between the half-crazed father and +the exhausted wife, Jap was taxed to the uttermost. Isabel, for once +helpless, lay white and silent in the compartment, too weak to do more +than cling to her one tower of strength, while Tom Granger rent Jap's +sympathetic heart with his unreasoning grief. At length nature +demanded her own; from sheer exhaustion they slept. Jap left them +alone and stood out on the platform between the coaches. + +"Is my life always to hold grief?" he queried of his soul. A throb of +fear tore at his consciousness. Isabel's death-white face arose before +him. + +"No!" he cried fiercely, "there is a God. He will not take all from +me." + +He went back into the car and, kneeling beside his sleeping wife, +prayed madly to his God for mercy. + +The grasses were green along the tracks, and the blue violets lifted +their rain-washed faces as the familiar stations loomed in sight near +the journey's end. At the last station below Bloomtown, Bill and Dr. +Hall entered the sleeper. + +"We have everything arranged," Dr. Hall said to Jap, while Bill fought +with his tears. "Isabel Granger has gone through too much to stand the +harrowing experience of a funeral. The carriages are waiting, and it +has all been attended to at the cemetery. We'll just have a short +service out there, and I want you to keep her in the carriage with you. +Bill and I did things with a high hand, but it had to be so. I +wouldn't risk having the girl look into her mother's grave. She +couldn't stand it." + +The platform was crowded with friends, and Tom Granger was responding +to sympathetic greetings with tears he did not try to hold. Jap half +carried Isabel to the nearest carriage, and Dr. Hall took his place +with them. Bill had hurried to meet Mabelle, who tactfully drew Tom +Granger into the second carriage, in which the minister sat waiting. +In a dream the well known landmarks of Bloomtown passed before Jap's +eyes. There was the quick jolt that marked the crossing of the +railroad tracks, and then the cool green of the cemetery came into view. + +While the brief service was read, Jap held Isabel tight to his aching +breast. His eyes wandered away beyond the yellow mound of earth, and +in the hazy distance he saw his City of Hope. The young grass smiled +above the mounds that held the empty shells of those he had loved, the +first in all the world who had loved him. On Flossy's straight white +shaft he read "I Hope." That was all. + +After the slow cortčge had moved its way back to town, Mabelle left the +carriage and approached her brother. Bill, with his face frankly +tear-stained, was beside her. The coachman had descended from his box, +and was opening the door. + +"Let me take her--let me take your sweetheart to our cottage," she +pleaded. Leaning past him, she took one of Isabel's black-gloved +hands. "Dear, I am Jappie's sister. I want to have you with me until +you are better." + +Tom Granger sat up and leaned out of the carriage, so that all could +hear him. + +"Jap is coming home with us," he said. "He is my son. He was married +to Isabel just before her mother left us." + +And it was thus that after well-nigh three years of waiting Bloomtown +celebrated the long-expected happiness of her best loved son. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +Isabel had a long, lingering illness. It was plainly impossible for +Jap and Mabelle to go to New York to see Fanny Maud make her debut. +Mabelle had been a ministering angel, so faithful in her care of the +invalid that an unreasoning jealousy blotted the grin of contentment +from Bill's face as he uncomplainingly took the brunt of work at the +office. Jap was too abstracted to notice the Associate Editor's woe. +One day, when rosy June was just bursting its buds, he glanced +hurriedly through the columns of the _Herald_, still damp from the +press. He started, and looked keenly at Bill. Second column, first +page, under a double head that reduced the day's political sensation to +minor importance, he read: + +"OUR NEIGHBOR REJOICES; TWINS COME TO THE EDITOR OF THE BARTON +STANDARD." + +"Whew!" he whistled. Bill looked up. The red flew to his cheeks. + +"Both boys," he commented, folding papers rapidly. "Be in line for +pages, when old Brons lands in the Halls of Justice." + +Jap hurried home to tell the news. Isabel, still pale and weak, was +lying in the hammock on the screened porch. She laughed, her old merry +laugh, when Jap told her of Rosy Raymond's achievement. Mabelle tossed +her yellow curls. + +"Well, I don't think she was worrying Bill," she snapped. + +"There is no heavier blow to romance than twins," Jap said. + +"Maybe she will call them Jap and Bill," crisped Mabelle, and stopped +short when her brother walked abruptly to the other end of the porch. + +"I hope that it won't fluster you to know that Bill and I are going to +be married before Fanny Maud leaves for Europe," she flung at him. "I +want that haughty sister of mine to know that I am marrying a real man." + +Jap came swiftly back. + +"Have you taken Bill into your confidence, Sis?" he asked, patting +Isabel's shoulder gently, as he smiled his whimsical smile at Mabelle. + +"You're naughty to tease her so," his wife chided. + +"Bill and I are going to New York on our wedding trip, just as soon as +Isabel can spare me. I want Fanny Maud to see----" She stopped, then +took the bit in her teeth. "Jappie, you never knew why I ran away from +New York last Thanksgiving. Of course I told Bill all about it long +ago. Fanny and I certainly don't agree when it comes to men. I can't +imagine she will approve of Bill, after the one she picked for me." + +Further confidence was cut short by the appearance of Bill, turning the +corner. She arose and ran to meet him. + +"Poor Bill," Jap laughed, as the two came arm in arm up the shady lawn. + +Before her designs upon Bill could be executed, a strange thing +happened. Fanny Maud and a company of musicians made a summer concert +tour. It was only a little run from the city, and such an aggregation +of artists as Bloomtown's wildest dreams had never visioned descended +upon the town. The hotel was taxed to its uttermost capacity, with six +song birds, an orchestra, three lap dogs, and an Impresario whose +manner implied that he had designs other than professional on the +leading soprano. Her stay was short, and left an impression of +perfume, fluffy ruffles, French and haste. Her manager consented to +have her sing for Jap and Isabel. + +Bloomtown stood out in the road, listening, agape. Perhaps Kelly Jones +had been to Barton that summer night, for he declared that cats were +climbing out of Tom Granger's chimneys, screeching for help, and a man +kept scaring them worse by howling at them. When Fanny Maud reached +the famous high note she was justly proud of, Kelly clapped his hands +to his stomach and yelled for mercy. + +"That's clawsick music," abjured Bill, who was sitting on the lawn with +Mabelle. Kelly looked at them with sorrow. + +"I was skeered that she had busted her throat, and all the sound was +comin' out to onct," he complained. + +The last night of the brief but exciting visit Bill and Mabelle were +quietly married. Quietly--yes and no. Mike Hawking rallied the band +and all the tinware in town to celebrate. Mabelle was indignant at +first, but soon began to enjoy the fun, and created the happiest +impression on the older generation of Bloomtown by insisting on +marching arm in arm with Kelly Jones at the head of the procession. +After Bill had given his solemn oath never to repeat the offense the +"chivaree" broke up, with wild yells of congratulation. + +They took up residence in Mabelle's cottage. By consensus of opinion +it was Mabelle's cottage. The town in fact so thoroughly recognized +Mabelle, in the possessive case, that Jap cautioned Bill against the +contingency of being referred to as "Mabelle's husband." Bill was +proud of his wife, and when fortune brought him lucre, from the +long-forgotten bit of Texas land that suddenly showed oil, he began to +improve the whole street by putting out trees. + +As Jap feelingly declared, Mabelle had even improved the dirt under the +doorstep of the cottage, and Bill was fairly pushed out on the street +for improving to do. Under her fostering care, Bill had learned to +make violent demands on the Town Board. And they, the aldermen of +Bloomtown, bent on pursuing the even tenor of their way at any hazard, +had to adjust themselves to a new ebullition from Bill every Tuesday +night. But Bill and Mabelle were not doomed to see their enthusiasm go +up in vapor. It bore, instead, the most substantial fruit. The +barren, treeless town was beginning to grow shade for the aldermen to +rest under in their old age. + +Kelly Jones said that if Jap had brought Mabelle with him, instead of +waiting fourteen years to import her, the town would be larger than St. +Louis. As it was, Bloomtown might yet run that city a swift race. +Mabelle set the fashions; told the School Board how to run the schools; +the preachers how to make their churches popular; the mothers how to +train their children. And the Town Fathers all carried their hats in +their hands when she breezed down the street. Jap and Isabel watched +and smiled, serene in the happiness that was theirs. + + +"How wonderful it is, Jap, dear," said Isabel, standing in the sunset +glow, on that Easter Sunday, after the year had flown. The last red +gleam touched the tip of the monument to Ellis Hinton, that had been +erected by Bloomtown and dedicated that morning. Together they had +gone to the cemetery, when the crowd would not be there, Isabel's arms +full of garlands for the low green tents of their loved ones. + +"It seemed that Flossy must be smiling at you as you stood there, +saying the marvelous things that must have come to you direct from the +lips of your spirit father. Ellis Hinton spoke through you when you +told the story of our town." + +Jap drew her tenderly to the fostering shadow of the monument and +pressed her to his heart. Her face was glorified as she looked up into +his. + +"Oh, Jap, what if Ellis had never lived!" + +Jap drew her close. Many hours had he wrought with his fear, but now +the roses had come again to her cheeks and the light to her eyes. He +looked over the City of Peace, and his own eyes were full with joy. + +"But, thank God, Ellis did live." And arm in arm they walked back to +Ellis Hinton's real town. + +As they crossed the railroad tracks, Kelly Jones came ambling down from +the station, where a large contingent from the vicinity of the steel +highway between Barton and Bloomtown waited for the evening +"Accommodation." + +"Gimmeny!" he exclaimed, clapping Jap on the shoulder, "I sure was +proud of Ellis's boy to-day. Ellis says to me, the day he went away, +says he, 'Watch my boy, Kelly. He is goin' to put the electricity in +Bloomtown's backbone,' and, by jolly, you done it! I reckon you felt +proud," he went on, turning to Isabel, "when Wat Harlow called Jap the +man that made Bloomtown a real town, and the crowd yelled, 'Yes.' +Well, ma'am, for a minute I shook and grunted. And then the wife said, +'Wait a bit,' so I waited. And when Jap got up and told the folks that +not Jap Herron but a greater man than he ever hoped to be, had cradled +and nussed Bloomtown and learnt her to walk, I might' nigh split my +guzzle yellin' for joy. Did you hear me yellin', 'Hurrah for Ellis's +boy!' And did you hear the crowd say it after me?" + +As Isabel took his hardened hand in hers, her eyes overflowed. + +"Jap is Ellis," she said gently, "to you and to his town. I know it, +and I am glad." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +Bill sat doubled over the case, the stick held listlessly in his hand. +Nervously he fingered the copy, not knowing what he was reading. From +time to time he slid down from the stool and lounged across the big +office to the street door. Vacantly he returned the greetings of his +townsmen, as he gazed past them, across the corner of the little park +that lay, brown and gold, in the glory of Indian Summer, across the +intervening street where Tom Granger's sedate old house looked out on +the leaf-strewn lawn. He could see Tom Granger, pacing up and down the +walk. He could see Jap, sitting under the great elm, his face hidden +in his hands. + +"Poor old Jap," Bill muttered, brushing aside a tear, as he returned +once more to his case, "life has slammed him so many tough licks that +he is always cringing, afraid of another lick." + +The morning wore on. Bill gave up the effort at type-setting and tried +to apply himself to the exchanges, so that he could the better watch +the front of that house. He was near the door, trying to read, when, +all at once, Tom stopped pacing. Jap sprang up and bounded across the +lawn and into the front door. A white-capped nurse ran through the +wide hall, and in a little while Mabelle put her head out of an upper +window and peered over at the office. Bill pushed his chair back and +tramped heavily to the pavement. Then he tramped back again. + +"Certainly there are enough of them to let somebody come here with +news," he growled. "They don't seem to know that there are +telephones--or that I would care." + +Half an hour dragged. Then, all alone, his face shining with holy joy, +Jap hurried to the office. For a moment neither could speak. Hand in +hand, heart beating with heart, they stood looking into each other's +eyes. Then Jap said huskily: + +"Do you remember what Ellis said, that day when his greatest joy came?" + +Bill flung his arms around Jap and hugged him lustily. + +"Get out all the roosters?" he cried, tears gushing from his brown eyes. + +"And," said Jap slowly, "Isabel wants to call him Jasper William." + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Jap Herron, by Emily Grant Hutchings + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAP HERRON *** + +***** This file should be named 33048-8.txt or 33048-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/0/4/33048/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/33048-8.zip b/33048-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0732f98 --- /dev/null +++ b/33048-8.zip diff --git a/33048-h.zip b/33048-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b495694 --- /dev/null +++ b/33048-h.zip diff --git a/33048-h/33048-h.htm b/33048-h/33048-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9e0ccbb --- /dev/null +++ b/33048-h/33048-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9157 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of Jap Herron, by Emily Grant Hutchings +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.footnote {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +H4.h4center { margin-left: 0; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: none ; + clear: both ; + text-align: center } + +IMG.imgcenter { margin-left: auto; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-top: 1%; + margin-right: auto; } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jap Herron, by Emily Grant Hutchings + +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: Jap Herron + A Novel Written from the Ouija Board + +Author: Emily Grant Hutchings + +Release Date: November 20, 2010 [EBook #33048] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAP HERRON *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<A NAME="img-front"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-front.jpg" ALT="A DRAWING FROM LIFE BY JOHN CECIL CLAY" BORDER="2" WIDTH="292" HEIGHT="485"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center" STYLE="width: 292px"> +A DRAWING FROM LIFE BY JOHN CECIL CLAY +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +JAP HERRON +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A NOVEL WRITTEN FROM +<BR> +THE OUIJA BOARD +</H3> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +WITH AN INTRODUCTION +</H4> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE COMING OF JAP HERRON +</H3> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +by +</H4> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Emily Grant Hutchings +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +NEW YORK +<BR> +MITCHELL KENNERLEY +<BR> +MCMXVII +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +COPYRIGHT 1917 BY +<BR> +MITCHELL KENNERLEY +<BR><BR><BR> +PRINTED IN AMERICA +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap00b"></A> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +THE COMING OF "JAP HERRON" +</H2> + +<P> +On the afternoon of the second Thursday in March, 1916, I responded to +an invitation to the regular meeting of a small psychical research +society. There was to be a lecture on cosmic relations, and the +hostess for the afternoon, whom I had met twice socially, thought I +might be interested, my name having appeared in connection with a +recently detailed series of psychic experiments. To all those present, +with the exception of the hostess, I was a total stranger. I learned, +with some surprise, that these men and women had been meeting, with an +occasional break of a few months, for more than five years. The record +of these meetings filled several type-written volumes. +</P> + +<P> +When word came that the lecturer was unavoidably detained, the hostess +requested Mrs. Lola V. Hays to entertain the members and guests by a +demonstration of her ability to transmit spirit messages by means of a +planchette and a lettered board. The apparatus was familiar to me; but +the outcome of that afternoon's experience revealed a new use for the +transmission board. After several messages, more or less personal, had +been spelled out, the pointer of the planchette traced the words: +</P> + +<P> +"Samuel L. Clemens, lazy Sam." There was a long pause, and then: +"Well, why don't some of you say something?" +</P> + +<P> +I was born in Hannibal, and my pulses quickened. I wanted to put a +host of questions to the greatest humorist and the greatest philosopher +of modern times; but I was an outsider, unacquainted with the usages of +the club, and I remained silent while the planchette continued: +</P> + +<P> +"Say, folks, don't knock my memoirs too hard. They were written when +Mark Twain was dead to all sense of decency. When brains are soft, the +method should be anćsthesia." +</P> + +<P> +Not one of those present had read Mark Twain's memoirs, and the plaint +fell upon barren soil. The arrival of the lecturer prevented further +confession from the unseen communicant; but I was so deeply impressed +that I begged my hostess to permit me to come again. For my benefit a +meeting was arranged at which there was no lecturer, and I was asked to +sit for the first time with Mrs. Hays. +</P> + +<P> +In my former psychic investigation, it had been my habit to pronounce +the letters as the pointer of the planchette indicated them, and Mrs. +Hays urged me to render the same service when I sat with her, because +she never permitted herself to look at the board, fearing that her own +mind would interfere with the transmission. Scarcely had our +finger-tips touched the planchette when it darted to the letters which +spelled the words: +</P> + +<P> +"I tried to write a romance once, and the little wife laughed at it. I +still think it is good stuff and I want it written. The plot is +simple. You'd best skeletonize the plot. Solly Jenks, Hiram +Wall—young men. Time, before the Civil War." +</P> + +<P> +Then the outline of a typical Mark Twain story came in short, explosive +sentences. It was entitled, "Up the Furrow to Fortune." A brief +account of its coming seems vital to the more sustained work which was +destined to follow it. I was not present at the next regular meeting +of the society; but at its close I was summoned to the telephone and +informed that Mark Twain had come again and had said that "the Hannibal +girl" was the one for whom he and Mrs. Hays had been waiting. When +they asked him what he meant, the planchette made reply: +</P> + +<P> +"Consult your record for 1911." +</P> + +<P> +One of the early volumes of the society's record was brought forth, and +a curious fact that all the members of the society had forgotten was +unearthed. About a year after his passing out, Mr. Clemens had told +Mrs. Hays that he had carried with him much valuable literary material +which he yearned to send back, and that he would transmit stories +through her, if she could find just the right person to sit with her at +the transmission board. Although she experimented with each member of +the club, and with several of her friends who were sympathetic though +not avowed investigators, he was not satisfied with any of them. Then +she gave up the attempt and dismissed it from her mind. A +twenty-minute test with me seemed to convince him that in me he had +found the negative side of the mysterious human mechanism for which he +had been waiting. +</P> + +<P> +The work of transmitting that first story was attended with the +greatest difficulty. No less than three distinct styles of diction, +accompanied by correspondingly distinct motion in the planchette under +our fingers, were thrust into the record. At first we were at a loss +to understand these intrusions. That they were intrusions there could +be no doubt. In each case there was a sharp deviation from the plot of +the story, as it had been given to us in the synopsis. After one of +these experiences, which resulted in the introduction of a paragraph +that was rather clever but not at all pertinent. Mark regained control +with the impatiently traced words: +</P> + +<P> +"Every scribe here wants a pencil on earth." +</P> + +<P> +Not until the middle of summer did we achieve that sureness of touch +which now enables us to recognize, intuitively, the presence of the one +scribe whose thoughts we are eager to transmit. That the story of Jap +Herron and the two short stories which preceded it are the actual +post-mortem work of Samuel L. Clemens, known to the world as Mark +Twain, we do not for one moment doubt. His individuality has been +revealed to us in ways which could leave no question in our minds. The +little, intimate touches which reveal personality are really of more +importance than the larger and more conspicuous fact that neither Mrs. +Hays nor I could have written the fiction that has come across our +transmission board. Our literary output is well known, and not even +the severest psychological skeptic could assert that it bears any +resemblance to the literary style of "Jap Herron." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Hays has found the best market for her short stories with one of +the large religious publishing houses, and in the early days Mark Twain +seemed to fear that her subconscious mind might inadvertently color or +distort his thought, in process of transmission. We had come to the +end of our fourth session when he added this: +</P> + +<P> +"There will be minor errors that you will be able to take care of. I +don't object. Only—don't try to correct my grammar. I know what I +want to say. And, dear ladies, when I say d-a-m-n, please don't write +d-a-r-n. Don't try to smooth it out. This is not a smooth story." +</P> + +<P> +That Mark should fear the blue pencil, at our hands, amused us greatly. +The story bristles with profanity and is roughly picturesque in its +diction. It deals with a section of the Ozark country with which +neither of us is familiar, and in the speech of the natives there are +words that we had never heard, that are included in no dictionary but +are, it transpires, perfectly familiar to the primitive people in the +southwestern part of the state. When the revision of the story was +almost complete. Mark interrupted the dictation, one afternoon, to +remark: +</P> + +<P> +"You are too tired. Forces must be strong for results. Somebody +handed you a lemon, back there. Cut out that part about the apple at +fly time. I am not carping. You have done well. The interpretation +is excellent. I was afraid of femininity. Women have their ideas, but +this is not a woman's story. Good-bye." +</P> + +<P> +There was another meeting, at which the revision of "Up the Furrow to +Fortune" was completed, and then we went to work on the second story, +"A Daughter of Mars." As in the case of the first one, it began with a +partial synopsis. Vallon Leithe, an enthusiastic aeronaut, was resting +after a long flight, when a strange air-craft fell out of the sky, +lodging in the top of a great tree. The occupant of the marvelously +constructed flying machine proved to be a girl from the planet Mars. +Her name was Ulethe, and she had many thrilling adventures on our +earth. The synopsis ended with the wholly unexpected words: +</P> + +<P> +"Now, girls, it is not yet clear in my mind whether we'd better send +Ulethe back to Mars, kill her, marry her to Leithe, or have an +expedition from Mars raise the dickens. But we will let it develop +itself." +</P> + +<P> +The board, on which two short stories and a novel have already been +transmitted, is one of the ordinary varieties, a polished surface over +which the planchette glides to indicate the letters of the alphabet and +the figures from 1 to 10. In the main our dictation came without any +apparent need for marks of punctuation. Occasionally the words +"quotation marks," or "Put that in quotes" would be interjected. Once +when my intonation, as I pronounced the words for the amanuensis who +was keeping our record, seemed to indicate a direct statement, the +planchette whirled under our fingers and traced the crisp statement, "I +meant that for a question." +</P> + +<P> +When I told my husband of these grippingly intimate evidences of an +unseen personality, it occurred to him that a complete set of +punctuation marks, carefully applied in India ink, where the pointer of +the planchette could pick them out as they were required, would +facilitate the transmission of sustained narrative. To him it seemed +that the absence of these marks on the board must be maddening, +especially to Mark Twain, whose thought could be hopelessly distorted +by the omission of so trivial a thing as a comma, and whose subtle use +of the colon was known to all the clan of printers. Before our next +meeting the board had been duly adorned with ten of the most important +marks, including the hyphen and the M-dash. The comma was at the head +of the right-hand column and the apostrophe at the bottom. My husband, +Mrs. Hays and I knew exactly what all these markings meanly yet we had +some confusion because Mark insisted on using the comma when he wished +to indicate a possessive case. The sentence was this, as I understood +it: +</P> + +<P> +"I was not wont to disobey my father, scommand." +</P> + +<P> +Instantly my husband, who had become interested and had taken the place +of our first amanuensis, perceived that I had made a mistake, when I +pronounced the combination, "f-a-t-h-e-r, comma, s-c-o-m-m-a-n-d." +</P> + +<P> +"But," I defended myself, "the pointer went to the comma. I can see +now that it should have been the apostrophe." As I spoke the pointer +of the planchette traced the words on the board: +</P> + +<P> +"Edwin did a pretty piece of work, but that apostrophe is too far down. +I am in danger of falling off the board every time I make a run for it." +</P> + +<P> +The result was that another apostrophe was placed in the middle of the +board, directly under the letter S. In connection with the M-dash we +had a yet more startling evidence of an outside personality, one +dependent on us for his means of communication, but wholly independent +of our thought and knowledge. Mark had dictated the synopsis for the +second story and had enlarged upon the first situation. Then, as has +since become his fixed habit, he indicated that the serious work for +the evening was ended, and returned for an informal chat. Mrs. Hays +and I had discussed the plot at some lengthy and after my husband had +read aloud the second evening's dictation we commented on some of the +obscure points, our fingers resting, the while, lightly on the +planchette. Suddenly it became agitated, assumed a vigorous sweeping +motion and traced very rapidly these words: +</P> + +<P> +"It is starting good; but will you two ladies stop speculating? I am +going to take care of this story. Don't try to dictate. You are +interrupting the thread of the story. There is ample time for +smoothing the rough places. I am not caviling. I am well pleased." +After a pause, he continued: "There is the same class of +interruption—those who could write stories, but are not to write +my——" At this, the planchette turned to the M-dash and slid back and +forth under it several times. It then spelled the word "stories." We +were utterly at a loss, until he explained: "I was using that black +line for an underscore." +</P> + +<P> +Again and again we have had the word "good" in an adverbial +construction, a usage that is not common to either Mrs. Hays or me; but +Mark has told us that he liked it, in familiar conversation. We have +tried to adhere with absolute fidelity to even the seeming errors which +came over the board. +</P> + +<P> +The second installment of the story gave all of us much trouble. +Incidentally it served to develop several bits of humorous +conversation. When it was finished, we received this comment: +</P> + +<P> +"I think that is all we can do to-night. I intend to enlarge upon this +chapter before going further. The forces are not strong enough +to-night. We will rewrite this part Monday night." +</P> + +<P> +We naturally expected a rehandling of that installment, which for +convenience he had designated a "chapter." To our surprise, the +pointer of the planchette gave this: +</P> + +<P> +"I have changed my mind. We will proceed to New York. I will probably +want to handle chapter second in a different way. It reads like a +printed porous plaster; but that is no one's fault. Begin!" +</P> + +<P> +The dictation went smoothly, and there were no interruptions from the +unseen rivals who had so persistently contested Mark Twain's right to +the exclusive use of our "pencil." Before the next meeting I was urged +to take a prominent part in another piece of psychic work, and to +persuade both my husband and Mrs. Hays to join me. I said nothing to +either one of them about it, intending to discuss it with them when the +evening's work was over. As soon, however, as we applied our finger +tips to the planchette, this astonishing communication came: +</P> + +<P> +"I am afraid that my pencil-holders are going to get wound up in other +stuff that will make much confusion. I heard Emily talking over the +telephone and making promises that are not good for our work." +</P> + +<P> +When I had been questioned concerning the meaning of this rebuke, and +had explained its import, Mark added: "If we are going to make good +there must be concentration, to that end. Get busy." We did! It was +a hot July night, and the planchette flew over the board so swiftly +that at times I could scarcely keep pace with it as I pronounced the +letters. With other amanuenses I had been forced to pronounce the +finished words, and to repeat sentences in whole or in part; but after +my husband came into the work this was not necessary. As much as a +score of letters might be run together, to be divided into words after +the dictation was ended. Sometimes, when I had failed utterly to catch +the thought, and would hesitate or ask to have the thing repeated, my +husband would say to me: "Don't stop him. I know what it means." Mrs. +Hays avoided looking at the board lest her own mind interfere with the +transmission, and with less efficient help, the entire responsibility +had been on me. When I came to realize that nothing was expected of me +beyond the mere pronouncing of the letters, the three of us developed +swiftly into a smoothly working machine. Yet Mark was constantly +worried for fear that my heart would be alienated and that I would "go +chasing after strange gods," as he once put it. +</P> + +<P> +When he had finished the fifth installment of the story, with a climax +that surprised and puzzled us, he said: +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon we had better lay by for a few days till I get this thing +riffled out. It has slipped its tether. I have had such things happen +often. Don't get scared." +</P> + +<P> +We discussed the use of the word "riffle," and then Mark became serious. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want to be disappointed in the Hannibal girl. I have been +trying for several years to get through to the light. I don't want a +false sentiment for a crew of fanatics to wreck my chance. I don't +want to act nasty, but if you go into that other work I am likely to +ruin your reputation. You are likely to explode into some of the +mediocre piffle that is the height and depth of such would-be +communications with the other world. There is nothing to hold to. So, +my dear girls, if you want a future, cut it out. I don't want to +command all your time, but right now it is best to avoid all +complications." +</P> + +<P> +It is needless to say I declined the invitation. After this, whenever +anything went wrong, the rebuke or complaint was invariably addressed +to me. When there were humorous or pleasant things to be said, they +were dispensed equally to the three of us, whom Mark Twain had come to +designate as "my office force." Two bits of personal communication +came within the succeeding week which seem to have a bearing on the +whole mysterious experience. That second installment was undertaken +and abandoned again and again. Finally he said: +</P> + +<P> +"I am going ahead with the main body of the story. There will be +another round with that second chapter, but not until the theme is +fully developed. The second chapter sticks in my throat like the +cockleburr that I tried to swallow when I was five. It won't slip down +or come up." +</P> + +<P> +We had worked patiently on the latter part of the narrative and had +accomplished a big evening's work, when the dictation was interrupted +by this remark: +</P> + +<P> +"It is going good; but I sure wish that I had Edwin's pipe." +</P> + +<P> +We fairly gasped with astonishment; but we had no time for comment, as +the planchette continued its amazing revelation: +</P> + +<P> +"Smoke up, old man, for auld lang syne. In the other world they don't +know Walter Raleigh's weed, and I have not found Walter yet to make +complaint. I forget about it till I get Edwin's smoke. But for pity's +sake, Ed, cut out that tobacco you were trying out. It made me sick. +I hoped it would get you, so that you wouldn't try it again." +</P> + +<P> +My husband; whom neither Mrs. Hays nor I would, under any +circumstances, address by the abbreviation of his name, "Ed," asked +Mark what tobacco he had in mind. He replied: +</P> + +<P> +"That packet you were substituting, or that some one that had a grudge +against you gave you." +</P> + +<P> +A comparison of dates revealed the fact that on the evening when that +troublesome second installment was transmitted, my husband had smoked +some heavy imported tobacco that had been given to him by a friend he +had met that afternoon. The circumstance had passed from the minds of +all of us. Indeed, it had never impressed us in the least, and it had +not occurred to any of us that our unseen visitor still retained the +sense of smell, or that he could distinguish between two brands of +tobacco. He had given evidence of both sight and hearing, had told us +frequently that he was tired, at the end of a long evening's work, and +had made other incidental revelations of his environment and condition: +but his reference to the pipe was more significant than any of them. +</P> + +<P> +Early in August, when our second story was nearing completion, the +transmission began with this curious bit, which none of us understood +for a long time: +</P> + +<P> +"Emily, I think that when we finish this story we will do a pastoral of +Missouri. There appear high lights and shadows, purple and dark, and +the misty pink of dawnings that make world-weary ones have surcease." +</P> + +<P> +Not until "Jap Herron" was more than half finished did we realize that +it was the Missouri pastoral. There was one other veiled reference to +that story which must not be omitted. We had planned a trip to New +York, for some time in October or early November, although we had never +discussed it while at the board. One evening Mark terminated his +dictation abruptly, and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Emily, I think well of your plan." I asked what plan he referred to. +"New York. I will go, too. I will try to convince them that I am not +done working. I am rejuvenated and want to finish my work. When I was +in New York last I had a very beautiful dream. I did not understand it +then. It meant that my days were numbered, and gave me the picture of +an angel bringing a book from heaven to earth, and on its cover was +blazoned this: MARK TWAIN'S COMPLIMENTS. Ask them what they think +about that. I was so tired—so tired that I could not rest. A cool +hand seemed to soothe my weariness away and I slept, and, sleeping, +dreamed." +</P> + +<P> +When I found that passage in the early part of our record, I wondered +if "Jap Herron" might be the book sent to earth with Mark Twain's +compliments. I asked him about it, one evening when our regular +dictation had been finished. The reply was a slow journey of the +planchette to the word, "Yes," followed by the rapidly spelled words, +"But old Mark isn't done talking yet." +</P> + +<P> +We assumed that he had something further to say to us, and when I asked +him what he wanted to talk about, he gave this tantalizing reply: +</P> + +<P> +"Curious? Wait and see." Then, after a pause, "I shall have other +work for my office force." +</P> + +<P> +The explanation of this cryptic statement was not given until we had +completed the final revision of the story. Before I reveal what he had +in mind, I wish to state that which is to me the most convincing proof +of the supernormal origin of the three stories that had been traced, +letter by letter, on our transmission board. That they come through +Mrs. Hays, there can be no doubt whatever. My total lack of psychic +power has been abundantly demonstrated. Mrs. Hays has written much +light fiction; but it is necessary for her to write a story at one +sitting. If it does not come "all in one piece" it is foredoomed to +failure. I know nothing of Mark Twain's habits; but in all the work we +have done for him, the first draft has been rough and vigorous, and +sweeping changes have been made by him while the work was undergoing +revision. In the case of "Jap Herron" some of the most important +changes were made without a rereading of the story, changes that +involved incidents which we had forgotten, and for which I was +compelled to search the original record. When I had substituted these +passages for the ones they were to supplant, I made a typewritten copy +of the entire story and we read it aloud to Mark. Mrs. Hays and I sat +with our finger tips on the planchette so that he could interrupt; but +he made only a few minor corrections. The story had been virtually +rewritten twice, although a few of the chapters, as they now stand, are +exactly as they were transmitted, not so much as a word having been +changed. The only change made in the fourteenth chapter came near the +end, where Mark had suggested a line of dashes or stars to bridge the +break between Jap's leaving his mother and the announcement that his +mother was dead. Forty-eight words were dictated to show what Jap +actually did, in that painful interim, the three sentences being +rounded out by the words, "There, I think that sounds better." +</P> + +<P> +Sometimes, in the course of the revision, we have been interrupted by +the jerkily traced words, "Try this," or "We'll fix that better," or "I +told Emily to take out those repetitions." It has happened that he +used the same word four times in one paragraph, and in copying I have +substituted the obvious synonym. Occasionally he did not approve of my +correction and would rebuke me sharply. In the main he has expressed +himself as well pleased with the labor I have spared him. On the 10th +of January, 1916, Mrs. Hays came to my home for a last reading of the +finished manuscript. When she read it through, I asked her to sit at +the board with me. There was something about which I wanted to +question Mark, and I did not wish her mind to interfere in any way with +the answer. Mrs. Hays had had two curious psychic experiences in +connection with our work. The first came to her when we were still at +work on "A Daughter of Mars." It was in the form of a vivid dream in +which Mark Twain said to her, "Don't be discouraged, Lola. All that we +have done in the past is just forging the hammer for the larger strokes +we are going to make." The second was similar; but the man who +appeared to her was a stocky, bald-headed man in a frock coat. When +she asked him who he was and what he wanted, he replied, "Mark Twain +sent me to call on you." +</P> + +<P> +At this time, "Jap Herron" was being revised, and she supposed that +this man, with the striking personality, would be introduced somewhere. +However, the story was ended, and no such character had appeared. I +wanted to know whether or not the dream was significant. I said: +</P> + +<P> +"Mark, did you ever send anybody to call on Lola?" The planchette +replied: +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I sent him. We will do another story. We will wait until the +smoke of this one clears away. I want Emily to have a rest, and many +other things will be adjusted. I would like to have my old office +force. It is to be a bigger book than this one—more important. The +man I sent you was Brent Roberts." +</P> + +<P> +We dropped our hands in amazement. Brent Roberts appears twice in the +Jap Herron story. He is not half so conspicuous as Holmes, the +saloon-keeper, or Hollins, the grocer. In truth, we had scarcely +noticed him. I asked: +</P> + +<P> +"Mark, are you going to give a sequel to 'Jap Herron'?" He said: +</P> + +<P> +"No. Brent Roberts had a story before he elected to spend his last +years in Bloomtown. Now, girls, don't speculate. I am taking care of +Brent Roberts." +</P> + +<P> +He added that it was "up to Emily" to give his book to the world, and +that he intended to explore a little of the Uncharted Country while he +was waiting for his office force to resume work. Once I asked him, +while he was transmitting "A Daughter of Mars," whether he had ever +visited that planet. He replied: +</P> + +<P> +"No, this is pure fiction. I elected to return to earth. I wanted to +take the taste of those memoirs out of my mouth." +</P> + +<P> +One other passage from the early record may profitably precede the +actual story of Jap's coming. We were in the midst of the most +critical revision. My husband was commanded to read the story, +paragraph by paragraph. When there was no comment, the planchette +remained motionless under our fingers, but there were few passages that +escaped some change. Several times the changed wording conflicted with +something farther along in the story, and it was necessary to go back +and make another correction. The revision sheets covered a big table, +and my husband found it very exasperating to make the corrections. At +length Mark said: +</P> + +<P> +"Smoke up and cool off, old boy. Perhaps I should apologize. The last +secretary I had used to wear an ice-soaked towel inside his head. The +girls and old Mark together make a riffle. Well, we will slow up. In +my ambition, I have been too eager. It is hard to explain how great a +thing is the power to project my mentality through the clods of +oblivion. I have so long sought for an opening. Be patient, please. +I am not carping. I get Edwin's position. We will be easy with the +new saddle, so the nag won't run away. I heard Edwin's suggestion, and +it is a good one. We will go straight through the story, beginning +where we left off to-night. That was what I intended to do, but that +second chapter nipped me." +</P> + +<P> +When next we met we had no thought of any other work than the revision +of the story on which we had been working at frequent intervals for +about two months. We never knew whether a session at the board would +begin with a bit of personal conversation or a prolonged stretch of +dictation. We held ourselves passive, ready to fall in with the humor +or whim of our astonishingly human though still intangible guest. The +beginning of that evening's work—it was the 6th of September—was +almost too great an upheaval for me. The planchette fairly raced as it +spelled the words: +</P> + +<P> +"This story will have legitimate chapters. Nosy nopsis. Then +ameisjapherron. Begin. Asevery well-bred story has a hero, and as the +reseems better material in jap than in any other party to this story, +we will dignify him." +</P> + +<P> +I wanted to stop, but my husband insisted that I make no break in the +impatient dictation. He had perceived that the first string of letters +spelled the words, "No synopsis. The name is Jap Herron," but I could +not see his copy, and to my mind the sentences spelled chaos. A little +farther along I ventured an interruption, when we had transmitted the +sentence, "The folks in Happy Hollow continued to say Magnesia long +after she left its fragrant depths." I had just spelled out the name, +Agnesia, and I was too deeply engrossed with the labor of following the +letters to even attempt to understand the meaning. I turned to my +husband and said: +</P> + +<P> +"It probably didn't intend to stop on that letter M," whereat the +planchette rebuked my stupidity thus: "Emily, they called her Magnesia." +</P> + +<P> +After that, I contrived to get control of my nerves, and the rest of +the dictation was not so difficult. When we had received the crisp +final sentence, "And stay he did," the planchette went right on with +this information, "This is the first copy of the first chapter. There +will be 25 or more chapters. This is enough for this time, as the +office force is a little weak. But results ... very good. We will +finish the other story and dip into this at the next session. There +will be better speed in this, for there will be no revision until it is +finished. We will work hard and fast. Emily may meet folks she knows +in this tale, for she knows a town with a river and a Happy Hollow. I +did not intend to start another story so soon, but other influences are +so strong that they may try to dominate the board. This will not tire +you so much. You must be determined not to permit intruders. If they +are recognized, you will not be free of them again. I am pushed aside. +Leave the board when they appear. Good-bye." +</P> + +<P> +The use of the name, Happy Hollow, forms a link with Hannibal; but if +any of the characters in "Jap Herron" were drawn from life, they must +have belonged to Mark Twain's generation and not to mine. Mark never +seems to take into account the fact that he left Hannibal before I was +born, and that there have been many changes in the old town. The +character of Jacky Herron may have been suggested by a disreputable +drunken fisherman whose experiences I have heard my father relate; but +there is one little touch in that first chapter that must have come +from Mark's own mind, since the underlying fact was not known to any of +us until we read Walter Prichard Eaton's article on birds' nests, +months later. When we transmitted that statement, "The father of the +little Herrons was a kingfisher," none of us knew that the kingfisher's +home nest is a filthy hole, close to the river bank. The application +is too perfect to have been accidental. +</P> + +<P> +Before another chapter of the story was transmitted, I went to spend a +morning with Mrs. Hays. At the request of her son, we consented to +allay his curiosity by a visible demonstration of the workings of the +mysterious board, of which he had necessarily heard much. He hoped to +receive some definite communication from his father, or the sister who +had died in her girlhood; but this is what he recorded: +</P> + +<P> +"Emily, I gave those synopses not for a guide but to prevent others +from imposing their ideas and confusing you. It might be said that it +made it easier for you, but that idea is wrong. It would be easier to +write the story direct. You have learned that this was wise, because +constant efforts have been made to break in and alter the stories. For +this reason I gave you the synopses, so that you could not be deceived. +Now I am going to trust you. I intended to advise you that it would be +a more convincing psychic record, if you have nothing on which a +subconscious mind might be said to be working. The synopsis was for +your protection, and has no value to the record. At first you had such +a conglomerate method of working that it was necessary. You did not +recognize the difficulties that were likely to occur. You were apt to +employ temporary help, so eliminate." +</P> + +<P> +Just what was meant by "temporary help" is not apparent; but there was +no opportunity to question him further, for at that moment we were +interrupted by the arrival of another luncheon guest and the board was +put aside. We devoted two sessions to the revision and finishing +touches of the troublesome short story, and then we plunged into the +transmission of "Jap Herron" in deadly earnest. +</P> + +<P> +As far as possible, we sat twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. We +usually worked uninterruptedly for two hours, with no sound save that +of my voice as I pronounced the letters and punctuation marks over +which the pointer of the planchette paused in its swift race across the +board. My husband discovered early in the work that if he permitted +himself the luxury of a smile he was in danger of distracting Mrs. +Hays, who always sat facing him, and thus of bringing about confusion +in the record. Under Mark's specific instruction she has schooled +herself to keep her mind as nearly blank as is possible for a woman who +is absolutely conscious and normal, and the evidence that something +humorous was being transmitted through her would be diverting, to say +the least. As for my own part in the work, I seldom realized the +import of the sentences I had spelled out, my whole attention being +concentrated on the rapidly gliding pointer. When my husband read +aloud the copy he had taken down it almost invariably came to Mrs. Hays +and me as something entirely new. +</P> + +<P> +The story of Jap Herron, as it stands completed, does not follow the +original order of the first fifteen chapters. The early part of the +tale was handled in a manner so sketchy and rapid in its action that +three whole chapters and seven fragments of chapters were dictated and +inserted after the work was finished. In the original copy the second +chapter suffered little change up to the point of George Thomas's +advent, with the suggestion that he might bring in some more turnips. +Following the disaster to Judge Bowers's speech, Mark took a short cut +to pave the way for the next chapter. It ran thus: +</P> + +<P> +"But bad luck cannot camp on your trail forever. In the gladsome +June-time, Ellis married Flossy Bowers, and her dowry of two thousand +dollars and her following of kin set the <I>Herald</I> on its feet." +</P> + +<P> +These two sentences were expanded into the more important half of the +third chapter, almost five months after they had been dictated, and +this without a rereading of the story. At another time, when this +curious kind of revision was under way, Mark dictated the latter part +of the second chapter, wherein Ellis Hinton tells Jap how he happened +to be starving in Bloomtown. When he had finished the dictation, with +the words, "My boy, that blue calico lady was Mrs. Kelly Jones," he +continued: +</P> + +<P> +"Emily will know where to fit it in." +</P> + +<P> +This fitting in was not extremely difficult, since there was only one +place in the story into which each of the inserted chapters or +fragments could be made to fit; but the original copy had to be read +several times before these thin places became apparent, and I got no +help whatever from Mark. Once, when I implored him to tell me where a +certain brief but gripping paragraph belonged, he replied, "Emily, that +is your job. I don't want the Hannibal girl to fall down on it." +</P> + +<P> +On that second Monday night in September, when the "office force" +settled itself to serious work, my husband read to us the copy we had +transmitted. The chapter ended with what is now the closing paragraph +of the third chapter: +</P> + +<P> +"The <I>Herald</I> put on a new dress, and the hell-box was dumped full of +the discarded, mutilated types that had so long given strabismus to the +patient readers of the Bloomtown <I>Herald</I>." +</P> + +<P> +The diet of turnips and sorghum and the other humorous touches of the +narrative overwhelmed us with laughter, whereat the planchette under +our fingers wrote: +</P> + +<P> +"Sounds like Mark, eh?" +</P> + +<P> +I asked him if he was satisfied with the use of the word "<I>Herald</I>" +twice in that last sentence. He replied: +</P> + +<P> +"You must excuse me. I am all in. I told you I would leave minor +points to your pencil. T-i-r-e-d. Good-bye." +</P> + +<P> +Our first acquaintance with Wat Harlow, as he appeared in the fourth +chapter, gave little promise of the character into which he was +destined to be developed. To the three of us, who laughed over the +episode of the vermilion handbill, he appeared to be nothing more than +a third-rate country politician. In the original transcription he +received only an occasional passing touch, until the death of Ellis +brought him forth in a new light. We did not know then what Ellis had +meant by "that reformed auctioneer," for the story of Wat's connection +with the upbuilding of Bloomtown, as it is set forth in the sixth +chapter, was not told until we were well along with the work of +revision. +</P> + +<P> +One of the most interesting personal touches, to be found only in our +private record, was introduced at the end of the fourth chapter. It +had been a long stretch of dictation, and when the planchette stopped I +asked if there was any more. The pointer gave only this, "No—30." +Having had no experience with printing offices, I was mystified until +my husband explained that "30 on the hook" means the end of a given +piece of work. +</P> + +<P> +Mark once made use of the expression, "the story contains a great deal +of brevity that will have to be untied later on." This untying process +is nowhere more aptly illustrated than in the fourth chapter of our +original copy, a brief chapter that contained the condensed material of +Wat Harlow's letter to Jap, the birth of little J.W. and Isabel +Granger's first kiss. There was nothing about Bill's boyhood, no +record of Jap's home surroundings, none of the amusing details of the +printing office wherein Jap and Bill were learning their trade. All +these incidents, which seem so essential to the story, were introduced +when the first draft of the story had been completed. The seventh +chapter, which has to do with the babyhood of little J.W., was dictated +after the revision had apparently been completed. When I asked Mark +why he inserted it, the planchette made this curious reply: +</P> + +<P> +"I was thinking that we'd better soften the shock of the boy's death." +</P> + +<P> +For us, through whom the story was being transmitted, there was no +softening of Ellis Hinton's death. We knew from the foregoing chapter +that the country editor had gone to the mountains for his health, and +that Flossy had no hope; but when we had recorded the words: "Jap +closed the press upon the inky type, and gathered the great bunches of +fragrant blossoms and heaped them upon the press, to be forever +silent," a great wave of sadness swept over me, I knew not why. The +action of the planchette was so rapid that I could not stop to think or +question. It was as if the man dictating the story had an unpleasant +task before him, which he wished to have done with as soon as possible. +When the final words, "At rest. FLOSSY," had been spelled out, and the +planchette stopped abruptly, Mrs. Hays cried: +</P> + +<P> +"My God, what has happened!" and I looked up to see that she was very +white, and tears were slipping down her cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +"Ellis is dead," my husband said, very simply. He had foreseen the +end, had grasped the infinite pathos of that old Washington press, +decked as a funeral casket with the flowers that had been sent to usher +in the new régime. +</P> + +<P> +When the evening's copy had been read, I asked Mark if he wished to +comment on it. +</P> + +<P> +"Not to-night, Emily," the planchette spelled. "I am all broken up. I +didn't want Ellis to die. I tried to figure a way to save him; but I +couldn't make it go." +</P> + +<P> +When we met again, on the 2d of October, the dictation began with these +words: +</P> + +<P> +"I want Edwin to go back to the beginning of the last chapter. I left +out a sentence that is necessary. It explains why Ellis left by rail. +You insert." +</P> + +<P> +Then he dictated the passage relating to the new railroad and the +temporary station. When he had finished he said, "Go on with the +story," and the next sentence began, "When Ellis went away it was to +the sound of jollity." The reference to Robert Louis Stevenson was new +to both of us, and we have not sought to verify the incident. That +Mark wanted it included in his story was sufficient for us. +</P> + +<P> +That next chapter contained another accumulation of brevity which was +afterward untied. The funeral, the reading of Ellis Hinton's will, +Judge Bowers's candidacy, the nomination of Jap Herron as the ugliest +man in Bloomtown, Bill's first spree and the local option fight, all +these were sketched with the sharpness and sudden transition of +pictures on a cinematograph screen. The following chapter was almost +as tightly packed with incident, and in the midst of it there was a +break, with an astonishing explanation. Three evenings in succession +we had had trouble with the planchette. It had seemed to me that Mrs. +Hays was trying to pull it from beneath my fingers. Meanwhile she had +mentally accused me of digital heaviness. She uses the finger tips of +her left hand while I use my right. As a rule our touch is so light +that the planchette glides automatically. On these three evenings we +had left the board with cramped fingers, and a general sense of +dissatisfaction. Several sentences that were plainly spurious were +afterward stricken from the record; but we had forgotten about the +other scribes who wanted "a pencil on earth," until Mark interrupted +the story to say: +</P> + +<P> +"I must ask you to be wary and sharp to dismiss impostors. Right now +there are more than twenty hands trying to control your dictation. It +is very hard for me. I am disconsolate, and powerless to help myself. +If we do not watch every avenue, our work is spoiled. There has been a +constant struggle for my rights. I only ask a little help, and you are +all my hope. If you fail me, I am undone." +</P> + +<P> +This illuminating outburst served to clear the atmosphere, and the +three chapters were afterward expanded into seven, much of the same +diction being reproduced. It was as if Mark, knowing the difficulties +on his own side of the shadow-line, had tried to get at least the +outline of his story down on paper, lest he lose his hold entirely. +After that evening we had almost no trouble with intruders. +</P> + +<P> +The story of Jones, of the Barton <I>Standard</I>, came to us like a thunder +clap from a cloudless sky, for the part which old Pee-Dee Jones played +in the development of Bloomtown and Barton was not related until we had +begun the work of revision. In the original story of that near-fight, +Mark gave us a significant cross-light on the conditions under which he +lives. The marshal had appeared in the office at the crucial moment, +as if he had dropped through the roof or arisen out of the floor. +Several times in the earlier part of the work the characters had thus +appeared without obvious means of locomotion, and I had called +attention to the inconsistency, with the result that Mark had dictated +a few words to show how or whence the new arrival had come. When +Wilfred Jones shouted to the marshal, "I demand protection," my +husband, who was reading the evening's copy aloud to us, said: +</P> + +<P> +"How does the marshal happen to be there? I don't see any previous +mention of him." +</P> + +<P> +Instantly the planchette, which we always kept in readiness under our +finger tips, began to move. It dictated this: +</P> + +<P> +"You might say, 'at that moment the town marshal, wearing his star +pinned to his blue flannel shirt, strolled in.' I have been away from +the need of going up-stairs and down-stairs for so long that I forget +about it." +</P> + +<P> +"How do you get from one place to another, Mark?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Emily, curiosity! But you know we haven't any Pullman cars or +elevators here. When I want to be at a place where I am free to +go—why, I am there." +</P> + +<P> +He took occasion, when our difficulties seemed to be at an end and his +grip on his "pencil" was once more firmly established, to make it very +plain to me that I alone was responsible for the annoyance we had had. +He put it thus: +</P> + +<P> +"Things will be all right if you don't give way to any more curiosity. +In the beginning I told you that it would not do. Emily wants to +investigate too much. It must be one or all. Edwin and I understand. +It was you that mixed the type. Lola must be passive. If she tries to +watch for intruders, she gets in my way. So it is up to the Hannibal +girl." +</P> + +<P> +I do not know, even now, how I could have prevented the trouble that +well-nigh wrecked our work. It is true I had taken part in another +psychic demonstration, but it was in a remote part of the city and it +had nothing to do with Mark Twain's "pencil." However, I took no +further chance with psychic investigation. +</P> + +<P> +When Jap Herron was elected Mayor of Bloomtown, and the girl he loved +had walked right into his astonished arms, it seemed to us that the +story must be ended. We had forgotten that Jap ever had a family of +his own, a mother and two sisters, and when the drunken hag reeled into +the <I>Herald</I> office we were as greatly horrified as Jap himself was. I +had put my husband's carefully kept copy into type-written form, and it +occurred to me to get the opinion of a master critic on the story, not +as evidence of the survival of the human mind after physical death, but +as pure fiction. Acting upon the impulse, and without telling either +my husband or Mrs. Hays what I intended to do, I took the copy to +William Marion Reedy,[<A NAME="chap00bfn1text"></A><A HREF="#chap00bfn1">1</A>] permitting him to infer that I had created it, +and asked him to tell me whether, in his judgment, the story was worth +finishing. It was the beginning of the week, when the issuing of the +<I>Mirror</I> consumed all his time, and while I was waiting for his verdict +we received three more chapters. In the first of these we had a new +light on Isabel Granger's character, and came for the first time +absolutely to love Bill Bowers. After that nothing that Bill might do +would shake our faith in his ability to make good in the end. He might +be weak and foolish, but we understood why Jap believed in and loved +him. We were jubilant when Rosy Raymond was eliminated from the game, +for we feared, whenever we permitted ourselves to speculate, that Bill +would marry her, and regret the step. We assumed that the son of the +much-married Judge Bowers had inherited a nature sufficiently mobile to +recover from the shock of the silly girl's perfidy. +</P> + +<P> +While this unexpected development of the story was being revealed to +us, William Marion Reedy sent me, in the envelope with the first ten +chapters of "Jap Herron," a criticism that fairly made me tingle with +delight. Had the work been my own, I could not have been more pleased +with his unstinted praise. I wanted to go to him at once and confess +the truth; but he was not in his office when I called. +</P> + +<P> +Two of the succeeding chapters were taken down by friends who had been +let into the secret of our work and had asked permission to sit with +us. It was the time of year when my husband could seldom spare an +evening from his work, and Mark consented to break into his beloved +office-force arrangement, for the sake of expediency. Three men and +five women served us in the capacity of amanuenses while the latter +third of the book was being transmitted. The first deviation from our +original arrangement came in connection with the dictation of the +seventeenth chapter, the chapter that ends with the death of Flossy and +her son. We were three sympathetic women, and when the planchette had +traced the words, "It was a smile of heavenly beauty, as the pure soul +of Ellis Hinton's wife flew to join her loved ones," we three burst +simultaneously into violent weeping. I have never experienced more +genuine grief at the grave of a departed friend or relative than I felt +when this woman, who had come to be more than human to me, was released +from her envelope of mortal clay. +</P> + +<P> +The following day Mrs. Hays and I were invited to the home of a +delightful little Scotch woman who asked us to bring the planchette +board. She knew nothing of the story, and had no intimation of the +personality on the other side who was sending it across, through our +planchette; nevertheless she was willing to keep copy for us. The +chapter she wrote down is the eighteenth in the finished story, Jap's +funeral sermon and Isabel's song beside Flossy's coffin. Even now I +cannot think of that scene without a swelling of the throat and a +blinding rush of tears. It is needless to say we wept when the +dictation was ended. +</P> + +<P> +When our hostess had read aloud the copy I asked our invisible +companion if he had anything more to say. I avoided mentioning his +name, for we did not wish his identity disclosed. The planchette +traced the curious words: +</P> + +<P> +"You know that the air gets pretty damp for an old boy after this." +</P> + +<P> +I looked out of the window. It was a murky November afternoon, and I +asked, "Do you feel the dampness of the material atmosphere?" Like a +flash came the reply: +</P> + +<P> +"Emily, girl, you have been getting sob stuff." +</P> + +<P> +Then I yearned to get my fingers in his shock of white hair, for I knew +Mark Twain was laughing at me. But I had that which gave me +consolation, for I had brought with me Mr. Reedy's letter, analyzing +and commenting upon the story that Mark had created. Incidentally Mrs. +Reedy had asked Mrs. Hays and me to come to her home the following day +to luncheon. I had told her that Mrs. Hays possessed a high degree of +psychic power, and I consented to bring our board for a demonstration. +I wanted to see Mr. Reedy alone and explain to him that "Jap Herron" +had come to us over that insensate board, but opportunity was denied +me. As soon as luncheon was over we went up to that beautiful yellow +room in which the best of <I>Reedy's Mirror</I> is created, and Mrs. Hays +and I placed the board on our knees. As soon as Mr. Reedy's fountain +pen was ready for action our planchette began: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I should doff my plaidie and don a kirtle, for 'tis not the +sands o' Dee but the wearing o' the green." There was a wide sweep of +the planchette, and then, "'Tis not the shine of steel that always +reflects; but it is the claymore that cuts. Both are made of steel and +both will mirror sometimes the shillalah. Yet the shillalah is better +than the claymore, for the man that is cut will run; but if ye slug him +with the blackthorn he will have to listen. This is just a flicker of +high light. Bill jumped from bed as the rattle of the latch announced +the arrival of a visitor." +</P> + +<P> +My heart thumped wildly for a moment, then sank. I knew that the Bill +referred to was Bill Bowers, and not the editor whom hundreds delight +to call "Bill Reedy," and I knew, too, that it would be only a moment +until he must realize that the sentences he was writing down from my +dictation were part and parcel of the story whose first ten chapters he +had read and praised. I dared not lift my eyes from the board, yet I +wanted to stop and explain that I had not intended to deceive him—that +I only wanted an unbiased opinion of Mark Twain's story. In vain I +tried to stop the whirling planchette, my voice so husky that I could +scarcely pronounce the letters. It went right on, with a situation +that neither Mrs. Hays nor I had anticipated. We had schooled +ourselves not to speculate, yet the previous afternoon we had left Jap +in a fainting condition and on the verge of a long illness. The +chapter we transmitted that day was the story of a gubernatorial +election in a small Missouri town. +</P> + +<P> +Subsequently, when Mark gave us the intervening chapter, Jap's visit to +the cemetery and the humorous incidents of the campaign, I asked him: +</P> + +<P> +"Why didn't you give this chapter last Thursday?" +</P> + +<P> +"I thought that election would amuse Reedy. Don't worry, Emily. He +understood you. He knows the Hannibal girl is honest," was the +comforting reply. +</P> + +<P> +When the revision of the story was under way, and several fragments had +been dictated, the planchette spelled the words, "I want to add +something to the Reedy chapter," and without further ado it proceeded: +"The Bloomtown <I>Herald</I> did itself proud that week." That fragment was +the easiest of them all to fit into place. At its conclusion we were +favored with a bit of pleasantry that seems significant. My husband +gave us a lift whenever he could spare the time; but on this occasion a +woman friend was sitting with us. She had written about two thousand +words of copy, when the tenor of the dictation changed suddenly to the +personal vein. +</P> + +<P> +"Old Mark has been working like a badger, and is pleased with the +story. The girls and friend Ed are going as well as Twain ever did +when he wielded his own pen. When Edwin lights up a fresh smoke and +smiles, I know that all is well. But when Lola frowns and Edwin +forgets to smoke, look out for leaks. The story has sprung and therain +was hesitthininspots." The last of the sentence came so rapidly that +none of us had any idea what it meant, or that it meant anything at +all. Before we had separated it into the words, "the rain washes it +thin in spots," I asked that that last part be repeated. Instead we +got the words: +</P> + +<P> +"When a board is sprung, it lets in rain. It is Emily who has to hold +the drip pan for the temperamental ones." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you for those few kind words, Mark," I said. "But if you think +enough of me to trust me with this important work, why do you single me +out for all the scoldings, when Edwin and Lola sometimes deserve at +least a share in your displeasure?" +</P> + +<P> +"Whist, Hannibal girl, we know our office force," was the humorous +rejoinder. +</P> + +<P> +The appearance of Agnesia was one of the keen surprises of the story, +and before we realized what Jap's little sister would mean to +Bloomtown, Mark interrupted his dictation with the words, "Stop! +Girls, the yarn is nearly all unwound. We will skip a bit that we will +tie in later. But now—Bill sat doubled over the case, the stick held +listlessly in his hand. Nervously he fingered the copy, not knowing +what he was reading." +</P> + +<P> +Without a break, we received the brief final chapter, ending with the +words, "Isabel wants to call him Jasper William." The planchette +added, "The End." We transmitted no more that day, although we knew +that our story was far from completion. +</P> + +<P> +The next time we met we had another surprise in the coming of Jap's +elder sister. When the twenty-fifth chapter was finished, Mark said: +</P> + +<P> +"Girls, I think the story is done." +</P> + +<P> +"It's pretty short for a book," I protested. By way of reply, he gave +this: +</P> + +<P> +"Did you ever know about my prize joke? One day I went to church, +heard a missionary sermon, was carried away—to the extent of a hundred +dollars. The preacher kept talking. I reduced my ante to fifty +dollars. He talked on. I came down to twenty-five, to ten, to five, +and after he had said all that he had in him, I stole a nickel from the +basket. Reason for yourselves. Not how long but how strong. Yet I +have a sneaking wish to tell you something of the early days of Ellis's +work, especially about Granger and Blanke. But to-day I have writer's +cramp. So let's get together soon and make the finish complete." +</P> + +<P> +There were two more sessions, with the dictation of a whole chapter and +several fragments, at each meeting, and we met no more until I had put +the whole complex record into consecutive form. We had a final review +of the work, and a few minor changes in words and phrases were made. +Mark expressed himself as well pleased, and as a little farewell he +gave us this, which has nothing to do with Jap Herron: +</P> + +<P> +"There will be a great understanding some day. It will come when the +earth realizes that we must leave it, to live, and when it can put +itself in touch with the heavens that surround it. I have met a number +of preachers over here who would like to undo many things they +promulgated while they had a whack at sinners. +</P> + +<P> +"There are hardshell Baptists who have a happy time meeting their +members, to whom they preached hell and brimstone. They have many +things to explain. There is one melancholy Presbyterian who frankly +stated the fact—underscore 'fact'—that there were infants in hell not +an ell long. He has cleared out quite a space in hell since he woke +up. He doesn't rush out to meet his congregation. It would create +trouble and be embarrassing if they looked around for the suffering +infants. As I said before, there is everything to learn, after the +shackles of earth are thrown aside. I would like to write a story +about some of these preachers, and the mistakes they made, when the +doctrines of brimstone and everlasting punishment were ladled out as +freely to the little maid who danced as to the harlot. It showed a +mind asleep to the undiscovered country." +</P> + +<P> +"Can you shed any light on that undiscovered country?" I asked him. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps. But for the present there is enough of the truth of life and +death in 'Jap Herron' to hold you." +</P> + +<P> +And with that he told us good-bye. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +EMILY GRANT HUTCHINGS. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap00bfn1"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap00bfn1text">1</A>] William Marion Reedy, Editor and Publisher of <I>Reedy's Mirror</I>, a +weekly journal published in St. Louis, has long been interested in +psychic phenomena, as a source of exotic and unusual literature. He +has also discovered and developed much purely terrestrial literary +talent, having brought out some of the best poets and fiction writers +of present-day America. As a critic, he is a recognized master. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +JAP HERRON +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H3> + +<P> +As every well-bred story has a hero, and as there seems better material +in Jap than any other party to this story, we will dignify him. Mary +Herron feebly asserted her rights in the children by naming them +respectively, Fanny Maud, Jasper James and Agnesia. Jasper +deteriorated. He became Jap, and Jap he remained, despite the fact +that Fanny Maud developed into Fannye Maude and Agnesia changed her +cognomen, without recourse to law, to Mabelle. The folks in Happy +Hollow continued to say "Magnesia" long after she left its fragrant +depths. +</P> + +<P> +The father of the little Herrons was a kingfisher. He spent his hours +of toil on the river bank and his hours of ease in Mike's place. One +Friday, good luck peered through the dingy windows of the little shanty +where the Herrons starved, froze or sweltered. It was Friday, as I +remarked before. Mary was washing, against difficulties. It had +rained for a week. The clothes had to dry before Mary could cash her +labor, and it fretted Jacky Herron sorely. His credit had lost caste +with Mike, and Mike had the grip on the town. He had the only thirst +parlor in Happy Hollow. So Jacky smashed the only remaining window, +broke the family cup, and set forth defiantly in the rain. And in the +fog and slashing rain he lost his footing, and fell into the river. As +it was Friday, Mary had hopefully declared that luck would change—and +it did! +</P> + +<P> +The town buried Jacky and moved his family into decent lodgings, +because the Town Fathers did not want to contract typhoid in +ministering to them. Loosed of the incubus of a father, the little +family grew in grace. Jappie, as his baby sister called him, was the +problem. Agnesia was pretty, and the Mayor's wife adopted her. Fanny +Maud went west to live with her aunt, and Jap remained with his mother +until she, after the manner of womankind, who never know when they have +had luck, married another bum and began supporting him. Jap ran away. +</P> + +<P> +He was twelve years old, red-headed, freckled and lanky, when he +trailed into Bloomtown. He loafed along the main street until he +reached the printing office, and there he stopped. An aphorism of his +late lamented dad occurred to him. +</P> + +<P> +"Ef I had a grain of gumption," said dad, during an enforced session of +his family's society, "I would 'a' went to work in my daddy's printin' +office, instid of runnin' away when I was ten year old. I might 'a' +had money, aplenty, 'stid of bein' cumbered and helt down by you and +these brats." +</P> + +<P> +Jap straggled irregularly inside and heard the old Washington hand +press groan and grunt its weary way through the weekly edition of the +<I>Herald</I>. After the last damp sheet had been detached from the press, +and the papers were being folded by the weary-eyed, inky demon who had +manipulated the handle, he slouched forward. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, Mister," he asked confidently, "do you do that every day?" +indicating the press, "'cause I'm goin' to work for you." +</P> + +<P> +The editor, pressman and janitor looked upon him in surprise and pity. +</P> + +<P> +"I appreciate your ambition," he said, more in sorrow than anger, "but +I have become so attuned to starving alone that I don't think I could +adjust myself to the shock of breaking my fast on you." +</P> + +<P> +Jap was unmoved. +</P> + +<P> +"My dad onct thought he'd be a editor, but he got married," he said +calmly. +</P> + +<P> +"Sensible dad," commented the editor, with more truth than he dreamed. +"I suppose that he had three meals a day, and a change of socks on +Sunday." +</P> + +<P> +"But Ma had to get 'em," argued Jap. "I want to be a editor, and I am +agoin' to stay." And stay he did. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H3> + +<P> +"Run out and get a box of sardines," ordered the boss of the Washington +press. "I've got a nickel. I can't let you starve. I lived three +months on them—look at me!" +</P> + +<P> +Jap surveyed him apprehensively. +</P> + +<P> +"I'd hate to be so thin," he complained, "and I don't like sardines nor +any fishes. My dad fed us them every day. Allus wanted to taste +doughnuts. Can I buy them?" +</P> + +<P> +Ellis Hinton laughed shortly, and spun the nickel across the imposing +stone. Jap caught it deftly. An hour later he appeared for work, +smiling cheerfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Why the shiner?" queried Ellis, indicating a badly swollen and rapidly +discoloring eye. +</P> + +<P> +"Kid called me red-top," said Jap bluntly. +</P> + +<P> +"Love o' gracious," Ellis exclaimed, "what is the shade?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's red," quoth Jap, "but it ain't his business. If I am agoin' to +be a editor, nobody's goin' to get familiar with me." +</P> + +<P> +This was Jap's philosophy, and in less than a week he had mixed with +every youth of fighting age in town. The office took on metropolitan +airs because of the rush of indignant parents who thronged its portals. +Ellis pacified some of the mothers, outtalked part of the fathers and +thrashed the remainder. After he had mussed the outer office with +"Judge" Bowers, and tipped the case over with the final effort that +threw him, Jap said, solemnly surveying the wreck: +</P> + +<P> +"If I had a dad like you, I'd 'a' been the President some day." +</P> + +<P> +Ellis gazed ruefully into the mess of pi, and kicked absently at the +hell-box. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll work all night," cried Jap eagerly. "I'll clean it up." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll have plenty of time," said Ellis gloomily. "We have to hit the +road, kid. Judge Bowers owns the place. He has promised to set us out +before morning." +</P> + +<P> +But luck came with Jap. It was Friday again, and Bowers's wife +presented him with twins, his mother-in-law arrived, and his uncle +inherited a farm. There was only one way for the news to be +disseminated, and he came in with his truculent son and helped clean +up, so that the <I>Herald</I> could be issued on time. More than that, he +made the boys shake hands, and concluded to put Bill to work in the +<I>Herald</I> office. After he had puffed noisily out, Ellis looked +whimsically at Bill. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you going to board yourself out of what I am able to pay you?" he +asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I don't reckon Pappy cares about that," the boy said cheerfully. +"He just wants to keep me out of mischief, and he said that lookin' at +you was enough to sober a sot." +</P> + +<P> +Months dragged by. Bill and Jap worked more or less harmoniously. +Once a day they fought; but it was fast becoming a mere function, kept +up just for form. Ellis was doing better. He had set up housekeeping, +since Jap came, in the back room of the little wooden structure that +faced the Public Square, and housewives sent them real food once in a +while. +</P> + +<P> +Once Ellis feared that Jap was going to quit him for the Golden Shore. +It was on the occasion of Myrtilla Botts's wedding, when she baked the +cakes herself, for practice, and her mother thoughtfully sent most of +them to the Editor, to insure a big puff for Myrtilla. Ellis was +afraid; but Jap, with the enthusiasm and inexperience of youth, took a +chance. Bill was laid up with mumps, or the danger would have been +lessened. As it was, it took all the doctors in town to keep Jap alive +until they could uncurl him and straighten out his appendix, which +appeared to be cased in wedding cake. This experience gave Jap an +added distaste for the state of matrimony. +</P> + +<P> +"My dad allus said to keep away from marryin'," he moaned. "But how'd +I know you'd ketch it from the eatin's?" +</P> + +<P> +The subscription list grew apace. There was a load of section ties, +two bushel of turnips and six pumpkins paid in November. Bill and Jap +went hunting once a week, so the larder grew beyond sardines. Jap +acquired a hatred of turnips and pumpkins that was in after years +almost a mania. At Christmas, Kelly Jones brought in a barrel of +sorghum, "to sweeten 'em," he guffawed. Jap had grown to manhood +before he wholly forgave that pleasantry. It was a hard winter. +Everybody said so, and when Jap gazed at Ellis across the turnips and +sorghum of those weary months, he said he believed it. +</P> + +<P> +"Shame on you," rebuked Ellis, gulping his turnips with haste. "Think +of the wretched people who would be glad to get this food." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know any of their addresses?" asked Jap abruptly. "Because I +can't imagine anybody happy on turnips and sorghum. I'd be willin' to +trade my wretched for theirn." +</P> + +<P> +Kelly said that Jap would be fat as butter if he ate plenty of +molasses, and this helped at first; but when the grass came, he begged +Ellis to cook it for a change. +</P> + +<P> +When George Thomas came in, one blustery March day, to say that if the +turnips were all gone, he would bring in some more, Ellis pied Judge +Bowers's speech on the duties of the Village Fathers to the alleys, +when he saw the malignant look that Jap cast upon the cheery farmer. +</P> + +<P> +Once a week Bill and Jap drew straws to determine which one should fare +forth in quest of funds, and for the first time in his brief business +career, Jap was glad the depressing task had fallen to him. "Pi" was +likely to bring on an acute attack of mental indigestion, and the boy +had learned to dread Ellis Hinton's infrequent but illuminating flame +of wrath. +</P> + +<P> +The catastrophe had been blotted out, the last stickful of type had +been set and Bill had gone home to supper when Jap, leg-weary and +discouraged, wandered into the office. Ellis looked up from the form +he was adjusting. +</P> + +<P> +"How did you ever pick out this town?" the boy complained, turning the +result of his day's collection on the table. +</P> + +<P> +Ellis turned from the bit of pine he was whittling, a makeshift +depressingly familiar to the country editor. He scanned the meager +assortment of coins with anxious eye. Jap's lower jaw dropped. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll have to fire you if you haven't got enough to pay for the paper." +</P> + +<P> +"Got enough for that," said Jap mournfully, "but not enough for meat." +</P> + +<P> +"Didn't Loghman owe for his ad?" Ellis demanded. "Did you ask him for +it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Says you owe him more 'n he's willin' for you to owe," Jap ventured. +</P> + +<P> +Ellis sighed. +</P> + +<P> +"Meat's not healthy this damp weather," he suggested. "Cook something +light." +</P> + +<P> +"It'll be darned light," said Jap. "There's one tater." +</P> + +<P> +"No bread?" asked Ellis. +</P> + +<P> +"Give that scrap to the cat," Jap returned, "Doc Hall says she's done +eat all the mice in town and if we don't feed her she'll be eatin' +off'n the subscribers." +</P> + +<P> +"Confound Doc Hall," stormed Ellis. "You take your orders from me. +That bread, stewed with potato, would have made a dandy dish." He +shook the form to settle it, and faced Jap. +</P> + +<P> +"How did I come to pick this place?" he said slowly. "Well, Jap, it +was the dirtiest deal a boy ever got. I had a little money after my +father died. I wanted to invest it in a newspaper, somewhere in the +West, where the world was honest and young. I had served my +apprenticeship in a dingy, narrow little New England office, and I +thought my lifework was cut out for me. I had big dreams, Jap. I saw +myself a power in my town. With straw and mud I wanted to build a town +of brick and stone. Dreams, dreams, Jap, dreams. Some day you may +have them, too." +</P> + +<P> +He let his lean form slowly down into a chair. Jap braced himself +against the table as the narrative continued: +</P> + +<P> +"In Hartford I met Hallam, the man who started the Bloomtown <I>Herald</I>. +I heard his flattering version. I inspected his subscription list and +studied the columns of his paper, full of ads. I bought. The subs +were deadheads, the ads—gratuitous, for my undoing. It was indeed +straw and mud, and, lad, it has remained straw and mud." He leaned his +head on his hand for a moment. +</P> + +<P> +"That was the year after you were born, Jap. I was only twenty-one. +For a year I was hopeful; then I dragged like a dead dog. You will be +surprised when I tell you what brought me to life again. I tell you +this, boy, so that you will never despise Opportunity, though she may +wear blue calico, as mine did. +</P> + +<P> +"It was one dark, cold day. No human face had come inside the office +for a week. That was the period of my life when I learned how human a +cat can be. We were starving, the cat and me, with the advantage in +favor of the cat. She could eat vermin. I sat by the table, wondering +the quickest way to get out of it. Yes, Jap, the first and, God help +me, the only time that life was worthless. The door opened and a plump +woman dressed in blue calico, a sunbonnet pushed back from her smiling +face, entered." +</P> + +<P> +To Jap, who listened with his heart in his throat, it seemed that Ellis +was quoting perhaps a page from the memoirs he had written for the +benefit of his townsmen. His deep, melodious voice fell into the +rhythmic cadence of a reader, as he continued: +</P> + +<P> +"'Howdy, Mr. Editor,' she chirped. 'I've been keenin' for a long time +to come in to see you. I think you are aprintin' the finest paper I +ever seen. I brought you a mess of sassage and a passel of bones from +the killin'. It's so cold, they'll keep a spell. And here's a dollar +for next year's paper. I don't want to miss a number. I am areadin' +it over and over. Seems like you are agoin' to make a real town out of +Bloomtown,' and with a friendly pat on the arm, she was gone." +</P> + +<P> +Ellis brushed the long hair from his brow, the strange modulation went +out of his voice and the fire returned to his brown eyes as he said: +</P> + +<P> +"Jap, I got up from that table and fell on my knees, and right there I +determined that starvation nor cold nor any other enemy should rout me. +Jap, I am going to make Bloomtown a real town yet. My boy, that blue +calico lady was Mrs. Kelly Jones." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H3> + +<P> +Ellis scowled and kicked his stool absently with his heels. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you explain where the colons and semicolons have emigrated to?" +he asked Bill, with suppressed wrath. +</P> + +<P> +"We was short of quads, and I whittled 'em off." +</P> + +<P> +Ellis glared at Bill's ingenuous face. +</P> + +<P> +"And what, pray, did you whittle to take their place?" +</P> + +<P> +"Never had no call to use 'em," muttered Bill, chewing up the item he +had just disposed of. "I can say all that I can think with commas and +periods." +</P> + +<P> +"Abraham Lincoln used colons and semicolons," said Ellis, shortly, "and +I am setting his immortal speech. What am I going to do about it, my +intelligent co-printer?" +</P> + +<P> +Bill coughed violently as the wad of paper slipped down his throat. +</P> + +<P> +"Try George Washington," he advised, "They didn't have so much +trimmin's to their talk them days." +</P> + +<P> +Jap shoved a chair against the door sill and flung the door ajar to cut +off the blast of hot air that swept the office. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee-whiz!" he complained, "I'm chokin' on the dust. However did they +get 'Bloomtown' hitched on to this patch of dirt? There ain't a flower +'in a mile, 'ceptin' the half-dead sprigs the wimmin are acoaxin' +against their will." +</P> + +<P> +"When I came here," said Ellis, "the old settlers told me that whenever +I wanted information I should hunt up Kelly Jones. There he goes now. +Call him in." +</P> + +<P> +But Kelly was coming anyway. He carried a mysterious basket and his +sun-burned face was full of suppressed excitement. +</P> + +<P> +"Wife allowed that you and Jap must be putty nigh starved," he +chuckled, shifting the quid to his other cheek. "I reckon she knowed +that Jap done the cookin' Wednesdays and Thursdays." +</P> + +<P> +He lifted the clean white towel from the basket, disclosing a pound of +yellow butter, a glass of jelly, a loaf of bread and two pies, fairly +reeking aroma. +</P> + +<P> +"Fu'st blackberries," asserted Kelly. "I ain't had a pie myself yet, +and wife forbid me to take a bite o' yourn." +</P> + +<P> +"God bless the wife of our countryman, Kelly Jones. May her shade +never grow less," said Ellis fervently, stowing the basket away. "If +Jap and Bill stick all the matter on the hooks before noon, they may +have pie. Otherwise the Editor of the <I>Herald</I> exercises his +prerogative and eats both pies." +</P> + +<P> +"Kelly," asked Jap abruptly, "why did they call this patch of dust +'Bloomtown'? Did they ever have even peppergrass growin' along its +edges?" +</P> + +<P> +Kelly settled himself comfortably in Ellis's chair and draped his long +legs over the exchanges. Filling his mouth with Granger twist, he said: +</P> + +<P> +"'Twa'n't because of the blooms. Fact is, it never was 'bloom' in the +fu'st place. Old man Blome owned this track of land—his name was +Jerusalem Blome. Folks used to say Jerusalem Blown. Purty nice story +there is about this town and Barton, why neither of 'em has got a +railroad, and why Barton is bigger in money and scarcer in folks." +</P> + +<P> +Ellis put his stickful of type on the case resignedly. Bill and Jap +deposited their weary frames on the doorstep. The hot wind blew in +their faces, laden with dust. The smell of dried grass was odorous. +</P> + +<P> +"Looks like it mout blow up a rain," said Kelly, sniffing approvingly. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Kelly," declared Ellis, "you have tied the wheels of this +machine. Deliver the goods you promised. We are not interested in +rain." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph!" ruminated Kelly, "it was this-a-way: Old man Blome bought this +track about the time that Luellen Barton moved to her plantation. It +mout 'a' been sooner; I ain't sure. Barton—leastways, what is Barton +now—belonged to old Simpson Barton. When he went south and married a +rip-snortin' widow, he brought his wife and a passel o' niggers to live +at the old home place. There hadn't never been no niggers there, along +of the fu'st Mis' Barton. +</P> + +<P> +"When war broke out the niggers run away, along of Jerusalem Blome, +that got up a nigger regimint. After the war there was talk of a +railroad. It would run right through the Blome farm and cross the +Barton place crossways. My daddy was overseer for Mis' Barton. Simp +didn't have nothin' to say about the runnin' of the place. I was a +tyke, doin' errands for everybody, and I heerd a lot o' the railroad +talk. Old Blome was sellin' his farm in town lots, gettin' ready for +the boom—for who would 'a' thought that Mis' Barton would turn her +back on such a proposition? +</P> + +<P> +"You see, it was this-a-way: Mis' Luellen was allus speculatin' in +niggers, and a month before war broke, she had bought a load of Guinea +niggers—the kind that looks like they are awearin' bustles, you know. +Simp kinder smelt war, but, Lordee, Luellen wouldn't be dictated to! +And she went broke, flat as a flitter. All that was left was the +thousand acres of Barton land. +</P> + +<P> +"Railroad? No, siree! She heard about old man Blome's activity, and +she had it in for Blome. She sat up and primped her lips when Pee-Dee +Jones come in behalf of the railroad. That's how the Barton Joneses +come to settle in this neck o' the woods. Pee-Dee Jones—no kin o' +mine—had a winnin' way, and he purty nigh got Mis' Luellen's name on +the paper, when he let slip that he intended buildin' a town on her +land. 'Do you think that I am agoin' to have a lot of blue-bellied +Yankees in my very dooryard?' she yelled. 'You are mistaken.' And so +she stuck. +</P> + +<P> +"Afterwards she learned that Pee-Dee Jones had follered Grant. Whew! +She nigh busted with rage. Mis' Luellen allus said that she could +smell a Yankee a mile, and as she didn't like the smell, she cropped +the railroad boom. It went five mile north of her place, and missed +Bloomtown twenty mile. That's why the two towns are just livin' along. +The folks that bought lots of old Blome tried to get another railroad +to come their way. That was when the Wabash looked like it was headed +for my farm; but I reckon that opportunities like that don't come but +onct in a lifetime. +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder that Mis' Luellen's spook don't howl around Barton every +night, for Jones bought the big house after she died, and the fambly +comes back there to live whenever their luck goes wrong. Pee-Dee's +boy, Brons Jones, started a paper there, about the time that Hallam +started the Bloomtown <I>Herald</I>. He sold out to a poor devil that's +racin' to see if he can starve quicker'n Ellis. Brons ain't been +around these parts, the last few years, but he owns a lot o' Barton +property that he thinks 'll make good some day." +</P> + +<P> +Kelly aimed a clear stream of tobacco juice at the dingy brown +cuspidor, and made as if to settle himself for further narrative. +</P> + +<P> +"Jap, Bill, get to work," commanded Ellis. "And, Kelly, much as I +appreciate you and your excellent wife, I must dispense with your +society. I need these boys." +</P> + +<P> +As the farmer departed, grinning cheerfully, Tom Granger appeared at +the door of the <I>Herald</I> office. A conference of prominent citizens +had been summoned to meet, early that afternoon, in the Granger and +Harlow bank, a somewhat more pretentious building, separated from the +<I>Herald</I> office by a narrow alley; and during a lull in the morning's +business Tom was serving himself in the capacity of errand boy. From +his place on the front steps, he could watch for the possible advent of +depositor or daylight robber, there being no rear door to the bank. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll be on hand, Ellis," he reminded. "Couldn't have any kind of a +meeting without the <I>Herald</I>, you know. We won't keep you long." +</P> + +<P> +But the session was more important than the banker had anticipated. +Judge Bowers had prepared a lengthy discourse, and others had opinions +that needed ventilating. Once or twice, Ellis was irritated by shrieks +of laughter that emanated from the office across the alley, usually in +Bill's shrill treble. When the cause of the merriment had reached an +exceptional climax, the Editor pounced upon his assistants, wearing the +scowl of a thunder god. Jap and Bill got up, shamefacedly, as he +demanded: +</P> + +<P> +"What do you think I am conducting this plant for? A circus for +horse-play?" +</P> + +<P> +He kicked the cat loose from the box Jap had it hitched to. The two +boys looked ruefully at their over-turned cart. +</P> + +<P> +"There goes the hell-box!" Bill screamed. +</P> + +<P> +Ellis stared at him in transfixed wrath. +</P> + +<P> +"Was that pi?" he demanded, looking down the hole in the floor into +which most of the contents of the box had spilled. +</P> + +<P> +Bill darted into the back room and sneaked swiftly out through the +alley door. The office saw him no more that day. With such tools as +were available, Jap set to work to undo the mischief he had wrought. +An hour later, he replaced the plank in the floor. The rescued type +was piled in a dirty litter of refuse. Ellis leaned over it, attracted +by a gleam that shone as not even new type could glitter. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a ring," explained Jap, furtively. "I reckon you won't be so mad +now. I can soak it when we get hungry. I soaked my ma's ring, lots of +times." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, you young reprobate!" exclaimed Ellis, "that ring is not yours, +or mine. We will advertise it." He smiled in Jap's disappointed face. +"It looked like a beefsteak, didn't it, boy? Well, virtue is its own +reward, and maybe the owner will pay for the ad." +</P> + +<P> +But she did not, and yet the kick given to the inoffensive office cat +had effects as far-reaching in the result to Bloomtown as did the kick +of the famous Chicago cow, with this difference, that the effects were +not disastrous. The brief ad in the <I>Herald</I> brought Flossy Bowers +from her home in Barton to claim a ring she had lost fifteen years +before. +</P> + +<P> +"The office used to belong to Pap's daddy," Bill explained to Jap, as +Ellis and Miss Bowers stood chatting in the front door. "When Grandpap +was lawyerin', he had this for his office, and Aunt Flossy lost her +ring, scrubbin' the floor. I have heard tell that he made the wimmin +folks curry the horses. They say he had a big funeral. I wonder—" +Bill spoke wistfully, "I wonder if I have any kinfolks on the man-side +that love anybody but theirselves. Flossy didn't get to go off to +school till her daddy died. She's been teaching up to Barton, since my +pappy married this last time, and my stepmother don't like her, so she +never comes home." +</P> + +<P> +Jap and Bill noted that Ellis found frequent business in Barton, and +despite the inhospitable atmosphere of the substantial Bowers home, +across the little park from the <I>Herald</I> office, Flossy came oftener +than usual to her girlhood town. The autumn, the winter and the spring +sped by. Ellis Hinton was too happy to scold, even when there was an +excess of horse-play. In the gladsome June-tide the young girls of +Bloomtown stripped their mothers' gardens to weave garlands for the +little church, and Judge Bowers opened his heart and his house for the +wedding reception. +</P> + +<P> +Flossy had a dower of two thousand dollars, besides the cottage, a part +of her father's patrimony, on one of the side streets, a ten-minute +walk from the office. In her trunk were stowed away the yellow linens +that should have served her, had a certain college friend proved +faithful, and the wedding presents came near to doing the rest. This +strange turn of the wheel of fortune landed Jap Herron in his first +real home. Flossy could cook, and thank the kind fates, she brought +something to cook with her. Flossy was a misnomer, for even in her +salad days, she had never been the least bit "flossy," and when Ellis +bestowed himself upon her she had well turned thirty. +</P> + +<P> +The Judge made Ellis a present of the office, thereby relieving him of +the haunting fear that he might, at some time, demand the rent. The +paper put on a new dress, and the hell-box was dumped full of the +discarded, mutilated types that had so long given strabismus to the +patient readers of the Bloomtown <I>Herald</I>. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H3> + +<P> +"To-morrow is Jap's birthday," announced Ellis, one noontide early in +July. "Jap, you are a joy-spoiler. With the Fourth yet smoking in the +air, we must be upset by your birthday." +</P> + +<P> +"Dad allus cussed that day," remarked Jap, wiping the blackberry juice +from his freckled face. "Gee, I never guessed that there was such grub +as this," regretfully gazing at the generous blackberry +cobbler—regretfully, because his exhausted stomach refused to give +another stitch. +</P> + +<P> +"Cussed it?" queried Ellis, who was beginning to fat up a bit. +</P> + +<P> +"He said that I was the first nail in the coffin of his troubles," +replied Jap cheerfully. +</P> + +<P> +"How dreadfully inhuman," exclaimed Flossy, scraping the scraps to the +chickens. "Well, Jappie," she bustled back to the dining-room where +her little family lingered, "we are going to begin making your +birthdays pleasant. What do you want most?" +</P> + +<P> +She had her mind's eye on the discarded ties of gorgeous hue, bought +while Ellis was courting, and still brand new. +</P> + +<P> +"Ca-can I have just what I want?" stuttered Jap, excitedly. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, certainly, Jappie. That is, if we can afford it." +</P> + +<P> +"Well—well," floundered Jap, astounded at his own temerity, "I allus +wanted a pair of knee pants. Ma thought that some time she could get +'em; but the folks that she washed for allus kept giving her pants of +their menfolks. I had to wear 'em. Can I have knee pants?" +</P> + +<P> +Flossy stared dazedly after Ellis, whose vision of Jap in knee trousers +was most unsettling. Before the momentous request had been granted, he +was already half way down the alley. He was still convulsed with +laughter when he reached the side door of the <I>Herald</I> office. But his +mental picture paled into dull commonplace, by comparison with the +reality that was in store for him. +</P> + +<P> +Jap bought the cherished pants! +</P> + +<P> +Bloomtown had seen the circus, the Methodist church fire and Judge +Lesley's funeral, the greatest in the history of the county; but none +of these created the interest that Jap brought out when he traveled the +length of Spring street, rounded the corner at Blanke's drug store and +walked solemnly along Main street to the office. +</P> + +<P> +Ellis was looking out of the window when he appeared, and despite his +effort at composure, was writhing on the floor in agony when Jap +entered. Bill looked up, as the vision crossed the threshold, and he +involuntarily swallowed four type he was holding in his lips while he +adjusted a pied stickful of "More Anon's" communication from Pluffot. +Jap was so interested in himself that these things passed him by. He +sat solemnly on his stool and looked vacantly into the e-box. Poking +absently among the dusty types, he said, with profound solemnity: +</P> + +<P> +"Bill, did you ever want anything right bad?" +</P> + +<P> +Bill swallowed the last type with difficulty. It was the last capital +Z, and they were getting five dollars for the announcement of Zachariah +Zigler's daughter, Zella Zena's graduation into matrimony, and Bill had +been picking enough Z's out of the "More Anon" to spell it, when the pi +happened. His mind feebly recognized the calamity. He stared at the +apparition before him, too stunned by the catastrophe to apprehend +Jap's appearance further. Jap pressed him for reply. +</P> + +<P> +"Once," he admitted gloomily. "I wanted to eat musherroons." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you like 'em—when you got them?" asked Jap wanly. +</P> + +<P> +"Naw! Tasted nasty. Never could see why folks keened after 'em." +</P> + +<P> +Jap sighed. +</P> + +<P> +"I allus wanted knee pants," he said plaintively. "But seems like I +wa'n't made for that kind of luxury. I ain't a bit happy, like I +thought. Seems kind of indecent to show your legs, when you never done +it before." +</P> + +<P> +And Jap donned his long trousers again, much to the relief of +Bloomtown. Ellis afterward declared that the three-and-a-half feet of +spindling legs that dangled along under the buckled bands of those +short trousers were the most remarkable things he had ever seen. They +resembled nothing more than the legs of a spring lamb, cavorting in +knee pants, in the butcher's window. +</P> + +<P> +When we have achieved our heart's desire, we often taste the ashes of +illusion. +</P> + +<P> +Jap did not worry further about his appearance, but, dressed in the +neat jumpers that Flossy provided, he seemed content. The memory of +the episode was beginning to lose some of its sting when Dame Fortune +gave a mighty turn to her wheel. He was in the alley with Bill, +playing marbles, when Wat Harlow came rushing out. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is Ellis?" he gasped. "There's hell afloat." +</P> + +<P> +"Ellis and Flossy have gone to Birdtown to stay till Monday," +vouchsafed Bill. "It's goin' to be big doin's at an anniversary, +Sunday." +</P> + +<P> +"Good God!" cried Wat, "what can I do?" +</P> + +<P> +Jap arose and dusted himself. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it a dark secret?" he inquired. "Did Ellis owe you a bill? +Lordee, man, you can find plenty more in your fix. Forget it." +</P> + +<P> +Wat continued to tear up and down the narrow alley. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm ruined," he groaned. "They've got an infernal lie out about me, +and it's going to kill me out." +</P> + +<P> +Jap was interested. +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe I know what Ellis could do," he suggested. +</P> + +<P> +"I am running for the Legislature again," Wat said, pacing wildly over +the marbles. "The Morgan crowd have got it out that I sold myself to +the crowd that are trying to lobby a bill for a big appropriation for +the State University. The county is solid against it, and they will +vote me out of politics forever." +</P> + +<P> +"What could Ellis do?" asked Jap, sympathetically. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought that he could print the truth in handbills that could be +sent out. It is now Friday, and Tuesday is election day. There will +be no chance for help after Monday. They would have to have time to +get all over the county." He sat down and wiped his forehead. +</P> + +<P> +"What is your defense?" asked Jap judicially. +</P> + +<P> +"They said that I was in the headquarters of the University gang—and I +was," he said bitterly. "They said I shook hands with Barks—and I +did. They said that he walked with me down the steps, with his arm +around my shoulder—and he did." +</P> + +<P> +"Love of Mike!" exploded Bill, "What do you want to talk about it for, +then?" +</P> + +<P> +"The University headquarters are in Bolton's furniture store," +explained Wat. "My—my baby died last night, and I went there for her +little coffin." He choked and walked over to the gate. After a moment +he turned back. "Barks was there. When he found why I came, he walked +out with me. He put his arm around my shoulder. He—he was telling me +that he buried his youngest, a few weeks ago. And now, while I am tied +here, and the time is so short, Ellis is gone. And I'll be ruined!" +</P> + +<P> +He leaned heavily on the rickety gate. Bill wiped his snub nose, +openly, but Jap straightened up. The fire of battle was in his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Come inside," he cried valiantly. "Ellis is gone, but the office is +here. Come on, Bill. We have great things to do." +</P> + +<P> +All night long the two boys labored. After the story was in type, they +printed it on the Washington press. It was Bill's suggestion that +brought forth a can of vermilion, to lend color to the heart story. +Wat was in and out all night, but there was no "in and out" for the +boys. At daybreak they flung the last handbill upon the stack of bills +and sank exhausted upon them. Wat carried a mail pouch full of them to +the stage that started on its daily trip to Faber, at seven o'clock, +and the pathetic story saved the day for Legislator Harlow. +</P> + +<P> +"Boys, I will never forget it," he declared. +</P> + +<P> +Ellis saw one of the badly spelled, ink-smeared agonies on Saturday +evening, and took the next stage for home, wrathful enough to thrash +both boys. They had adorned the bill with the cut that Ellis had had +made for Johnson, the tombstone cutter, a weeping angel drooping its +long wings over a stately head-stone. A rooster and two prancing +stallions at the bottom presaged victory for the vilified Wat. +</P> + +<P> +It was midnight when Ellis slammed the door open. The two boys were +asleep in the midst of the litter of torn, ink-gaumed and otherwise +spoiled copies of that hideous handbill. The last pull on the lever of +the press had let it fly back too quickly, and it had flapped its +handle loose and lay wrecked on the floor. The office had the +appearance of a battleground. The ink was blood, and the press and +scattered type, casualties. He stirred the boys with an angry kick. +Jap sat up and peered through the ink over his eyes at his angry +employer. +</P> + +<P> +"We fixed him solid," he declared jubilantly. "There can't nothing +beat Wat now. We opened the eyes of the county." +</P> + +<P> +"You surely did," groaned Ellis. "When the Press Association add to +their Hall of Fame, they will shroud me in the folds of that dad-blamed +bit of art!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H3> + +<P> +Jap came running into the office, early in January, his freckled face +aglow, his red hair standing wildly erect. +</P> + +<P> +"Golly Haggins!" he exploded, "I got a letter from Wat. He's up at the +Legislator and he writes—he writes this!" He fairly lunged the letter +at Ellis. +</P> + +<P> +Ellis read, scowling: +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"My dear young Friend,— +</P> + +<P> +"I am at the Halls of Justice and I want to fill my promise to reward +you for the noble deed you done. There is a chance for a bright boy as +page, and I have spoke for it for my noble boy. Come at once. Time +and tide won't wait, and there is thirty other boys camped on the trail, +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"Respectfully your Friend,<BR> + "WAT HARLOW."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Whoopee!" yelled Bill, jumping from his stool and turning a handspring +across the office. +</P> + +<P> +"Reckon I'd better ask Flossy to fix my things—get my clothes out?" +asked Jap, beaming radiantly over the big barrel stove. He started +toward the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Stop!" said Ellis, in a voice Jap had never heard. "You are not +going." +</P> + +<P> +"Not going?" echoed both boys hollowly. +</P> + +<P> +"No!" almost shouted Ellis, his brown eyes flashing. "I might have +expected this from that wooden-headed son of a lost art. Do you think +that you are going to leave my office to lick the boots of that loafing +gang of pie-biters? Not in a thousand years! I am going to put a tuck +in that idea right now. And while I'm talking about it, you may as +well know that Flossy is getting ready to teach you how to 'read and +write and 'rithmetic,' as Bill says. And as for you, Bill, Flossy says +that if your father hasn't enough pride to do the right thing by you, +she'll give you an education, along with Jap. You begin your lessons +to-morrow evening. +</P> + +<P> +"Jap, write to that reformed auctioneer and thank him for his favor. +Tell him that you belong to the ancient and honorable order of +printers. When he runs for governor, you will boom him. Till then, +nothing doing in the 'Halls of Justice.'" +</P> + +<P> +Jap sulked all day, but he wrote the letter whose contents might have +changed his career, and the following evening he and Bill began the +schooling that Flossy had planned. It was a full winter for the boys, +the most important of their lives. Even when spring came, with its +yawns and its drowsy fever, they begged that the lessons continue. +Already the effect was beginning to show in the galley proof. +</P> + +<P> +One morning in July, Jap had held down the office alone. Flossy was +not well, and Ellis spent as much time with her as possible. Bill +blustered in, a look of disgust in his brown eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Ain't nothin' doin' in town, 'cept at Summers's," he exploded, +luxuriating in the kind of speech that was tabooed in the presence of +his elders. "Only ad I could scare up was at Summers's, and Ellis +don't want that." +</P> + +<P> +Jap looked from the door, beyond the little village park and the hotel, +to where the dingy white face of the saloon stared impudently upon the +town. +</P> + +<P> +"I never see one of them places without scringin'," he said slowly. +"My pappy almost lived in one. When we were cold, he was warm. When +Ma and us children were hungry, the saloon fed him, because—because he +could be so amusing and entertaining when he was half drunk. Ma said +that my pappy's folks were quality, but they didn't have any time for +him. +</P> + +<P> +"I used to creep around to the side winder to see what kind of a drunk +he had. If it was a mean one, I'd run home and sneak Aggie out and +hide. He had a spite agin us two, and when he had a mean drunk he used +to beat us. He was skeered to fetch Fanny Maud. She had the +wild-cattest temper you ever saw. He tried to pull her out of bed by +her hair one night, and she jumped on him and scratched his face like a +map. Ma had to drag her off, and if he hadn't run, Fanny would 'a' got +him again. After that he would brag what a fine girl she was. One +night Aggie and me hid in a straw stack all night." +</P> + +<P> +Bill looked sorrowfully upon his friend. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought I was the most forsakenest boy in the world," he said. "But +my father never beat me, and he never touches no kind of licker. He +just don't like me around. You know my mother died when I was born, +and somehow he seems to blame it on me. I don't know how to figger it, +for he married in a year, and when that one died it didn't take him no +time to start lookin' out again. He hardly ever speaks to me, 'cept to +cuss me or tell me what a nuisance I am. Allus makes me feel like a +cabbage worm." +</P> + +<P> +"Cabbage worm?" queried Jap. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, they turn green when they eat, and I feel like I am green, every +bite I take. He looks at me so mean, like he thought I hadn't any +right to eat. That's why I eat at Flossy's, every time she asks me. +The only nice thing my pappy ever done for me was to put me in here +with Ellis. Jap," he broke off suddenly, "I'm durn glad you licked me, +that day. But your hair <I>was</I> red!" +</P> + +<P> +Ellis had come quietly in at the rear door and had listened, half +consciously, to the sacred confession. His face saddened for a moment. +Then he squared his shoulders and his dark eyes flashed. +</P> + +<P> +"I am going to make men of those boys yet," he promised himself. "Who +knows——" +</P> + +<P> +He interrupted the spasm of painful speculation, the dark foreboding +that had for days hovered over him. The heat of summer and his anxiety +over Flossy were beginning to tell on his nerves. He tiptoed softly +out of the back door, across the weed-grown yard and out through the +alley gate. A moment later he came in at the front door, whistling +blithely. +</P> + +<P> +The summer was intensely hot. As the dog-days waxed, Ellis grew ever +more and more morose. His sharp bursts of temper were made tolerable +only by the swift justice of the amend. Late in September he came down +to the office one morning, pale and shaken. The boys had been sticking +type for an hour when his sudden entrance startled them. +</P> + +<P> +"Flossy is very sick," he said with lips that quivered, "and I will +have to trust you boys." +</P> + +<P> +Jap followed him to the door. His face was downcast. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it true, Ellis? Bill said that Flossy would—would——" He +gulped. He could not finish. Ellis turned suddenly and sat down at +the table and buried his face in the pile of exchanges. His body shook +with the effort to suppress his emotion. Bill slipped down from his +stool and the two awkward, ungainly youths looked at each other in +embarrassed sorrow. Finally Jap laid an inky hand on Ellis's shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell her—tell her," he stuttered, "that Bill and me are—are +a—prayin'." +</P> + +<P> +Ellis gave a mighty sob and rushed away, bare-headed. +</P> + +<P> +The two apprentices sat at their cases, the tears wetting the type in +their sticks. The long day dragged by. Neither of them remembered +noon, but plodded stolidly and silently through the clippings on their +copy hooks. +</P> + +<P> +It was growing dusk when a great commotion arose. It seemed to come +from the corner near Blanke's drug store. It gathered force as it +neared Granger's bank, Now it had reached the mouth of the alley that +separated the bank from the <I>Herald</I> office. There was cheering and +laughter. Jap's face hardened. He slung one leg to the floor. How +dared any one cheer or laugh, when Flossy lay dying? +</P> + +<P> +In another instant Ellis burst into the room. His dark locks were +rumpled, his eyes wild and bright. +</P> + +<P> +"Get out all the roosters—and the stallions, too!" he shouted. "Open +a can of vermilion and, in long pica, double-lead it: 'It is a boy!'" +</P> + +<P> +Jap let the other leg fall and dragged himself around. His mouth had +fallen loose on its hinges. He sat down on the floor and gaped +foolishly at Ellis. +</P> + +<P> +"She's feeling fine," babbled Ellis, "and you and Bill are coming in +the morning to see the boy." He rushed out again. +</P> + +<P> +Jap looked at Billy glued to the stool, holding in one paralyzed hand +the inverted stick. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee!" said Jap. +</P> + +<P> +In the morning they tiptoed into Flossy's room. Very pale and weak was +the energetic little woman who had taken the moulding of their +destinies into her hands. She smiled gently and, as mothers have done +since time was, she tenderly drew back the covers from a tiny black +head and motioned for the two to look. +</P> + +<P> +"Our boy," she said, smiling radiantly. "I am going to name him Jasper +William, and I want you to make him very proud of the men he was named +for." +</P> + +<P> +The hot tears sprang to Jap's eyes and fell upon the little red face. +The wee mite, perhaps prompted by an angel whisper from the land from +whence he came, threw aloft one wrinkled hand and touched him on the +cheek. Sobbing stormily, Jap hid his face in the covers as he knelt +beside the bed. Then he took the little fingers in his. +</P> + +<P> +"If God lets me live, Flossy, I will make him proud of me." +</P> + +<P> +He choked and dashed outside to join Bill, who was snubbing +[Transcriber's note: "snubbing" is what's in the source book. Perhaps +the author meant "snuffling" or "sobbing".] audibly on the back steps. +After a muffled silence he said, his eyes growing suddenly bright: +</P> + +<P> +"Bill, did you notice what Flossy said? She said the 'men' that he was +named after. Bill, we've got to quit kiddin' and begin to grow up." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI +</H3> + +<P> +Time passed, after the easy-going manner of Bloomtown. Jap was +sixteen, long, ungainly and stooped from bending over the case. Bill, +a little older in months, but possessed of immortal youth, was stocky +and rather good looking. Four years of daily intercourse had wrought a +subtle change in their relations, four years of the stern and the sweet +that Ellis and Flossy Hinton had brought, for the first time, into +their lives. +</P> + +<P> +Bill was at the table, the exchanges pushed back in a disorderly heap, +as he surreptitiously figured a tough problem in bookkeeping that +Flossy had given him. Jap, with furtive air, bolted the history lesson +that ought to have been learned the day before. Ellis, his back to the +one big window in the office, scowled over the proofs he was rattling. +From time to time he peppered the air with remarks that fell like bird +shot on the tough oblivion of his two assistants. At length +forbearance gave way under the strain, and he said, in cold and +measured tones: +</P> + +<P> +"When you are unable to decipher the idea I am trying to convey, I wish +that you would take me into your confidence." +</P> + +<P> +Bill looked up, a grin on his round, shining face, a grin that was +fixed to immobility by the fierceness of Ellis's glance. +</P> + +<P> +"I note that you have injected much native humor into perfectly +legitimate prose," the stern voice continued. He read: +</P> + +<P> +"'Jim Blanke has a splendid assortment of Sundays.' Now please +explain. You are causing the good folks of this town unnecessary +worry. My copy reads, 'sundries.'" +</P> + +<P> +"Jap done it," vouchsafed Bill. +</P> + +<P> +"Who done this?" Ellis stressed the verbal blunder witheringly, as he +pointed his pencil at the next item. It read: +</P> + +<P> +"Ross Hawkins soled twenty-five yearling calves." +</P> + +<P> +"It looked that way," argued Jap. +</P> + +<P> +"A devil of a couple you are," declared Ellis wrathfully. "Can't +either of you reason? Did you ever hear of any one soling a yearling +calf? Ross Hawkins is an auctioneer, not a shoemaker." +</P> + +<P> +The boys looked sheepishly at each other. Suddenly Bill flung himself +on his stomach and howled in glee. +</P> + +<P> +"Lordee! What if that had 'a' got in the paper!" he gasped. +</P> + +<P> +"There would be two fine, large, lazy boys out of a job," Ellis said +severely. +</P> + +<P> +He threw aside the copy and lifted the type. Jap followed the movement +with anxious eye. Another explosion hung, tense and imminent, in the +air. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you washed that type yet, Bill?" he asked, eager to placate Ellis. +</P> + +<P> +It was the custom for the boy nearest the door to disappear when the +time for washing a form was at hand. +</P> + +<P> +"It was your job," protested Bill. "You promised to wash Wat Harlow's +speech if I cleaned Kelly Joneses stock bill." +</P> + +<P> +Ellis sat down wearily. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, we're agoing to do it all, this evening," cried Bill, defiantly. +"You promised that we could clean out that box of cuts. You promised a +long time ago." +</P> + +<P> +"Go to it," said Ellis, his voice relaxing, and the two boys bolted +into the back room. A little later he joined them. Jap and Bill sat +on the floor, blowing the dust from a lot of dirty old woodcuts. +</P> + +<P> +"I bought them with the job," he said, turning the pile over with his +foot. He sat down on the emptied box and watched them as they examined +the cuts. +</P> + +<P> +"What is this?" asked Jap, peering at the largest block in the lot. +</P> + +<P> +"That is a cut of the town, as it was when I came here," said Ellis, a +shadow of reminiscence crossing his face, as he took the block in his +long fingers. +</P> + +<P> +Bill drew himself to his knees and looked at the maze of lines and +depressions curiously. The picture was as strange to him as it was to +Jap. Ellis continued: +</P> + +<P> +"There were three business houses here, besides the blacksmith shop and +the saloon. Here they are. Ezra Bowers, Bill's grandfather, with the +help of his three sons, ran a general store where they sold everything +from castor oil to mowing machines. Phineas Blome—an unmistakable son +of old Jerusalem—sold clothing and more castor oil and mowing +machines. There wasn't such a thing as a butcher shop in Bloomtown. +When the natives wanted fresh meat, they ordered it brought out on the +hack. In other parts of the world, that institution is sometimes +called a stage; but here I learned that its right name is 'hack.' The +southern terminus of the Bloomtown, Barton and Faber hack-line, that +has done its best for thirty years to prevent us from being entirely +marooned, was over there at the south side of Blome's Park, exactly as +it is to-day. The hotel didn't have a bit more paint, the first night +I slept in it, than it has now." +</P> + +<P> +"Flossy said that weathered shingles were fashionable," Bill grinned, +taking up another cut. "Here's the Public Square—you call it Blome's +Park, but I never heard anybody else call it that," he added, his voice +lifting in a note of query. "That's the Square, all right, and the +Town Hall, with 'leven horses hitched in front of it." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, when old man Blome laid out his farm in town lots, he reserved +his woods pasture for a city park. You never heard of an orthodox town +that didn't begin with a Public Square, and that little rocky glade +with the wet-weather spring had the only trees within ten miles of +here. It wasn't fit for farming, so Blome argued that nobody would buy +it with a view to raising garden truck. But your foxy Uncle Blome +didn't sacrifice anything by his generosity to the town that was about +to be born. He reserved the lots facing the park on three sides, and +held them at an exorbitant figure—as much as five dollars a front +foot, I should say. +</P> + +<P> +"The lots at the north and east were to be sold for high-class +residences only. Those at the west were reserved for business houses. +Behold the embryo Main street! Overlooking the park at the south was +Blome's farm house, since metamorphosed into a tavern and barns for the +stage horses. The last of the Blomes shook the dust of Bloomtown from +his feet when Carter bought his interest in the hack line. Bill's +grandfather had a farm adjoining Blome's land at the west; but Ezra +Bowers, merchant prince and attorney-at-law," he said whimsically, "had +to have a residence in the fashionable quarter, fronting the park. A +little patch of the old farm is quite good enough for Mr. and Mrs. +Ellis Hinton and their two sons, Jap and Jasper William." +</P> + +<P> +Jap caught Ellis's hand, a lump arising in his throat. Bill relieved +the momentary tension by turning over another cut. A familiar face +looked out at him from the grime of years. Ellis glanced at it and +smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a great thing, Jap, the birth of a town. Bloomtown was really +never born. The stork dropped her when he was traveling for a friendly +haven. For ten years she lay, just as she fell, without visible signs +of life. About twenty families existed, somehow. They had pigs, +chickens and garden truck, and to all intents they would go on existing +till the last trump. +</P> + +<P> +"One day I went out into the country to attend a sale. Boys, I was +never so well pleased with a day's work as I was with that day's jaunt. +I heard the most masterly bit of eloquence that ever came from the lips +of an auctioneer. The man had the crowd hypnotized. He even sold me +an accordion, a thing I was born to hate. The fact that it was +wind-broken and rattly never occurred to me until I woke up, after he +had done. Then I went to him and said: +</P> + +<P> +"'You an auctioneer! You should be in the Halls of Justice, telling +the people how to interpret their laws.' +</P> + +<P> +"The idea struck him. He came into town with me and we talked the +matter over. He was easily the best known and most liked man in the +county. It was then that the political bug stung our good friend, Wat +Harlow. Wat moved his family to town and soon he had a decent +habitation. He stimulated a rain of paint and a hail of shingle nails. +He prodded the older inhabitants to an era of wooden pavements and +stone crossings. Bill's grandfather objected, because he said it cut +down the sale of rubber hip-boots; but Wat's eloquence was the key to +fit anything that tried to lock the wheels of progress. He did more +than that. He brought Jim Blanke from Leesburg to start a decent drug +store. +</P> + +<P> +"After that he robbed Barton of Tom Granger, and together they started +the first bank of Bloomtown. Granger's wife and baby, with Wat's wife, +were the civilization. Mrs. Granger was almost an invalid, even then, +but she gathered the women together and formed an aid society. She +begged and cajoled Bowers out of enough money to build a little church +on the lot that Blome had donated. I joined the church, for the moral +example. I don't remember what denomination it was supposed to be. We +had services once a month; but Mrs. Granger was the real power in the +town. She introduced boiled shirts and neckties. Tom bought the big +patch of ground, north of the park, and set out those elm trees before +his foundation was in. Then Jim Blanke got Otto Kraus to come here and +start a private school. Otto played the little cabinet organ in +church, and taught all the children music, after school hours. Thus +was Bloomtown born. Wat Harlow made the blood circulate in her +moribund veins." +</P> + +<P> +Jap looked into Ellis's face, his freckled cheeks glowing. +</P> + +<P> +"That's not what Wat Harlow said," he declared breathlessly. +</P> + +<P> +"What did he say?" asked Ellis sharply. +</P> + +<P> +"Why—why," gulped Jap, "he said that Bloomtown was dead as a herring, +and too no-account to be buried, till Ellis Hinton came and jerked her +out of the mud and started her to breathe." +</P> + +<P> +Ellis got up and dusted his trousers. +</P> + +<P> +"As I said before, Wat was an eloquent auctioneer. Talk is his trade, +and he keeps in practice. Dilute his enthusiasm one-half, Jap. And +now, get to work, washing up." +</P> + +<P> +As he left the office he encountered a group of tittering girls, in +front of the bank. They scattered when they perceived that Ellis and +not Bill had come forth. Bill was the lion of the town. Already the +girls had begun to come after papa's paper, on publishing day, which +upset the machinery of the office, never too dependable. +</P> + +<P> +One Thursday when the air was full of snow, the little office +registered its capacity crowd. Ellis was at home with a heavy cold, +and Jap and Bill were getting out the paper. The ink congealed on the +rollers and needed constant warming to lubricate the items reposing on +the bosom of the Washington press. This warming was Bill's job, and +Jap was exasperated to fighting pitch by the dilatory method of Bill's +peregrinations around the circle of rosy-faced girls, hanging +admiringly on his efforts. +</P> + +<P> +"Chase those girls out," he growled. "No use for them to hang around. +We won't get this paper out in a week if they stick around after you." +</P> + +<P> +"Old Crabby!" sniffed one of the girls. "You're just mad because +nobody wants to hang after you." +</P> + +<P> +"Jap is particular," chaffed Bill, half apologetically. Since they had +assumed the responsibility for the right uplift of Flossy's boy, there +had been growing a new, shy pride in themselves. "Better wait and come +back in the morning," he suggested. +</P> + +<P> +The girls filed slowly out. As they passed the table, where Jap was +piling the papers to fold, Isabel Granger, doubtless inspired by the +demon of mischief, leaned forward suddenly and kissed him full on the +mouth. Then she fled, shrieking with glee. Jap stood as if stricken +to stone. Bill looked at him in fright. There was no color in his +freckled face. His gray eyes were staring, as if some wonderful vision +had blasted his sight. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee, Jap," said Bill uneasily, "are you sick?" +</P> + +<P> +Jap aroused himself and turned toward the press. +</P> + +<P> +"No," he said slowly, "but I don't like for folks to be familiar like +that. If I wanted to be a fool like you——" He stopped and stared a +moment from the window. +</P> + +<P> +"The next time she kisses me," he said shortly, "she will mean it." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII +</H3> + +<P> +What a wonderful thing is a baby! Babies were not new to either Bill +or Jap. In Bill's memory lingered the shrill duet of his twin +half-sisters, a continuous performance that had lasted more than a +year. And Jap had never fully corrected a lurch to the left side, due +to carrying his sister, Agnesia, when he was little more than a baby +himself. Yet the little visitor from the Land of Yesterday was a never +failing miracle to them. His cry filled them with fear for his +well-being, and his laugh intoxicated them with its glee. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait till he can talk," smiled Flossy, "Then you will see how wise he +is." +</P> + +<P> +In her heart she was beginning to combat the fear that he would never +talk. Other children of his age were already chattering like magpies. +</P> + +<P> +"Ma said that I said 'papa' when I was eight months old," declared Jap. +"But I don't know why I should 'a' said that." +</P> + +<P> +Bill grinned fatuously as the baby pulled at his hair. +</P> + +<P> +"Bill won't get his hair cut," said Jap. "He knows that J. W. would +hang after me, if it wasn't for his curly hair." +</P> + +<P> +The little fellow, who for obvious reasons could be neither Jasper nor +William, had learned to respond with amiable toleration to the soothing +abbreviation, "J. W." Kicking his stubby legs gleefully, he tangled +his fingers more mercilessly in Bill's brown locks. Flossy loosed the +fingers gently, as she cooed: +</P> + +<P> +"Naughty, naughty! Mamma said baby mustn't." +</P> + +<P> +Flinging his fingers aloft in protest, he gurgled: "Ja—Bi!" +</P> + +<P> +Flossy's eyes shone with sudden joy. It was her son's first attempt at +articulate speech. The boys lunged forward with one impulse. +</P> + +<P> +"He said 'Jappie,'" Jap cried, his chest swelling with the importance +of it. Bill glared. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Jap!" Pain and indignation were in his tone. "He tried to say +'Bill.'" +</P> + +<P> +Flossy smiled on them both. It was a wonderful little kingdom, of +which she had assumed the place of absolute monarch, a monarch so +gentle and so just that her sway was never questioned. +</P> + +<P> +"Ellis puts in half his time trying to teach baby to say the two names +all in one mouthful, so that you boys won't fight about his first +word," she vouchsafed. "It would have to be either Jap or Bill, +because you never tell him anything but your names." +</P> + +<P> +When they waved their caps in farewell, they were still discussing the +mooted question vehemently. Was it "Jappie," or a combination of Jap +and Bill? To both of them the question was vital. Jap had the better +of the argument, when Bill blurted: +</P> + +<P> +"Anyhow, he's my cousin, and he ain't no relation of yours." Then he +remembered that significant remark of Ellis's: "A little patch of the +old farm is quite good enough for Mr. and Mrs. Ellis Hinton and their +two sons, Jap and Jasper William," and he was silent the rest of the +way back to the office. +</P> + +<P> +Little J. W. was three years old before he could speak distinctly. The +child was born with other afflictions than the serious impediment to +his speech, and the four who hung with anguished love on his every +gesture were never free from a certain unnamed anxiety. He loved Bill, +but he worshipped Jap. Both were his willing slaves. +</P> + +<P> +One rainy, dismal night in early fall, when Bill's step-mother lay +seriously ill, Flossy left her baby to the care of the small but +usually capable maid who assisted her with the work of the cottage, +while she and Ellis went to the home of Judge Bowers to relieve the +trained nurse who had come up from the city. At the supper table, +Ellis had remarked that Jap and Bill would be working late that night, +in order to get out a job that had come in when all the resources of +the office were needed for the weekly edition of the <I>Herald</I>. He had +added that he would go over and help them, if his presence could be +spared from the sick-room. +</P> + +<P> +The remark must have lodged in the baby's mind, for he slipped out of +bed, while the maid was employed in the kitchen, and toddled through +the cold rain almost all the way to Main street. Jim Blanke found him +lying exhausted in the road, a little way from the drug store, the rain +beating pitilessly on his unconscious head and his scantily clad body. +</P> + +<P> +After a night of anxious care, the little fellow relapsed into a state +of coma, and lay for hours, white and still, save for the rasping of +his breath. The office was closed. Both boys, frantic with fear, +stood with Ellis as the child lay in his mother's arms, the four +dreading that each hoarse breath would be his last. Flossy sat erect +in the wide rocking chair, her brave eyes watching every sigh that tore +the little bosom. Dr. Hall, whose dictum was life and death, was +silent. And this silence was the last straw for Jap. He crept nearer. +In fear, he turned from the face of the beloved sufferer. Ellis caught +the look in the boy's anguished eyes, and a spasm crossed his tightly +compressed lips. The physician rallied himself from the torpor of +despair that had laid hold on him. +</P> + +<P> +"Try to arouse him," he commanded. "Try again." The resources of his +experience and his prescription blank had long since been exhausted. +</P> + +<P> +Flossy bent over her child and called softly: +</P> + +<P> +"Baby, dearest, mamma loves you. Won't you speak?" +</P> + +<P> +Ellis leaned forward. His face blanched. The rasping had ceased! Jap +caught the look of horror, and dragged himself up to look into the +baby's face. +</P> + +<P> +"He isn't dead! He's all right!" he shrieked, not knowing that he +spoke. "He's still breathing. I can hear him." His hands grasped the +cold body and lifted it, unconscious of the thing he was doing. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, J. W.! Oh, J. W.!" he screamed, "don't go away from us!" +</P> + +<P> +He pressed the child to his breast convulsively, and the miracle +happened. The solemn black eyes opened and a husky voice said, +"Jappie." +</P> + +<P> +After the excitement was over, and the exhausted mother slept beside +her sleeping child. Bill said humbly: +</P> + +<P> +"He did say 'Jap' first." +</P> + +<P> +"But he tried to say 'Bill,' too," Jap said loyally. +</P> + +<P> +The next morning, when the office had resumed its normal routine, a +routine that was destined to be only partially interrupted by the death +of Bill's second stepmother, a few days later, Ellis called Jap into +the little back room where, in the dismal days before Flossy's coming, +they had performed all the functions of housekeeping. He closed the +door, as he laid his hand on Jap's shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"You saved J. W.'s life," he said solemnly. "Doc Hall said that you +stopped him, on the threshold, when you gave that dreadful cry." +</P> + +<P> +The baby did not rally, and Ellis worried about this incessantly. One +day, some weeks after another mound had been added to the group in +Judge Bowers's family lot, and Bill had gone with his father to +appraise the merits of a prospective housekeeper from Birdtown, Ellis +looked up from the proof he was correcting. Jap noted the anxiety in +his face, and the gray eyes, that could so often render speech +unnecessary, put the question. Ellis sighed. +</P> + +<P> +"He's not getting along the way he ought to," he mused. "Doc Hall +prescribed a tonic for him a month ago; but it doesn't seem to take +hold. He has no constitution to begin with. His father, exhausted by +privation and ill-health, has handicapped him in the start. +</P> + +<P> +"Jap," he said, as he arose and laid one arm confidingly around the +boy's shoulder, "you must remember that, in the years to come. I +didn't give the baby a fair chance. He may need all the help he can +get to carry him through. If you should live longer than I, you must +be his father and big brother, both." +</P> + +<P> +Jap's gray eyes opened in astonishment. The idea that there could ever +be a time when Ellis would not be there had never entered his mind. He +looked into the dark, thin face with its pallor and its unnaturally +bright eyes, and a joyous smile took the place of the momentary shock. +</P> + +<P> +"Doc Hall said that you had grit enough to outlive any disease that +ever lurked in the brush of Bloomtown," he declared eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +"Doc Hall is an optimist," Ellis laughed hollowly. "I'm not so much +concerned for myself as for the boy and his mother. You know what J. +W. means to her." +</P> + +<P> +"Bill and I have already talked it over," Jap returned. "We're going +to be big brothers to J. W. We're going to take turns at taking him +for long rides on Judge Bowers's old horse, Jeremiah. Doc Hall said +that long, jolty rides would set him up, rosy and fat, in a little +while. Bill told me this morning that he had J. W. weighed again, on +Hollins's scales, and he has gained three pounds." +</P> + +<P> +Ellis Hinton's face cleared. There was a new elasticity in his step as +he crossed the room and laid the copy down on the case. Unconsciously +he began to whistle, as he clicked the type in the stick. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII +</H3> + +<P> +Flossy came into the office, leading the boy by the hand, and called +Ellis aside. Old Jeremiah had done wonders for the little fellow; but +on Flossy Hinton's face there was a look that boded ill to some one. +</P> + +<P> +"I sent for Brother William to meet me here," she said crisply. "I +want you to back up all that I say." +</P> + +<P> +Before Ellis had breathed twice, she was out looking up the street, and +in less time than you could think it out, she was back, towing the +Judge, who puffed explosively. Ellis and the three boys had retreated +to the rear office. +</P> + +<P> +"There is not a bit of use to argue, William," she said, her lips in a +hard, straight line. "Ellis has done more than any one else in town +could do. When I heard that you had subscribed five thousand dollars +to the new church, I concluded that your charity was a little far +fetched. Now I want you to subscribe five thousand dollars to the +institution that is making a man of your son. I want five thousand +dollars for the printing office. It is too small, and the press is out +of date. We need all that goes into an up-to-date printing office." +</P> + +<P> +Her brother looked upon her tolerantly. +</P> + +<P> +"Keep it up, Floss. It never fazed you to ask favors, and you ain't +run down yet." +</P> + +<P> +"It's a shame," she stormed. "Just look at this little shed! Why, +even a cross-road blacksmith shop is better." +</P> + +<P> +He looked around appraisingly. +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon it'll house all Ellis's business," he commented. +</P> + +<P> +"Ellis," she flashed, "tell William about the railroad." +</P> + +<P> +Ellis came from the inside office. He generally withdrew from the +conferences between Flossy and her brother. +</P> + +<P> +"Wat Harlow told me that two of the big railroad systems have entered +into a joint arrangement to shorten their mileage, on through trains to +the West. He's got it all fixed for the new track to pass through +Bloomtown. It will give us all the benefit of two railroads." +</P> + +<P> +"You see," said Flossy triumphantly, "the town will boom. People will +move in, and a first-class newspaper will be the greatest asset." +</P> + +<P> +"I think that the town will take a big start," assured Ellis. "The +boys will have all they can do with job work, and the office is small +for our present needs." +</P> + +<P> +"Pap, you should watch us carving letters when we get short," +interposed Bill. "Last week Jap had to carve three A's for Allen's +handbill. There are only three of 'em in that case, and Allen wanted +to use six. His name is Pawhattan Abram Allen, and he wanted the whole +blamed thing spelled out in caps. I told Jap it was lucky Allen's +folks didn't name him Aaron, on top of all the rest." +</P> + +<P> +"That's good practice for you boys," the Judge snorted. "I'm mighty +glad you learned something for all the money I spent on you." He +glanced at his sister witheringly; but Flossy had her eyes fixed on her +husband. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish," Ellis stirred himself to say, "that the town would boom +enough to take all these frame shacks off of Main street, so that the +place wouldn't look like a settlement of campers." +</P> + +<P> +"A good fire would help," commented Bill boldly. +</P> + +<P> +Judge Bowers looked over his glasses at his son. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, when the railroad comes, and the rest of the shacks are moved +out, I will write you a check for five thousand dollars," he snorted, +turning his rotund form out of the door. +</P> + +<P> +Flossy picked up the boy and flounced out, in speechless indignation. +By argument and cajolery she had succeeded in getting six months apiece +for Bill and Jap at the School of Journalism, and at twenty the boys +were far more expert than Ellis was when he began the publication of +the <I>Herald</I>. She had set her heart on the new printing office, and +her eyes were abrim with tears as she stumbled home. +</P> + +<P> +The week wore on until printing day. It was a day of unimagined +exasperations. Everything went wrong. Ellis's usually smooth temper +bent under the stormy comments of the boys, and in the late afternoon +he developed a violent headache and went home. Things continued to +pile up until it was evident that the boys would have to print the +paper after dark. +</P> + +<P> +It was ten o'clock when they finished. Jap followed Bill to the +pavement, pausing to lock the door and slip the key in his pocket. The +town was asleep. Not a soul was to be seen on Main street. Bill, who +usually took the short cut across the Public Square to his fathers +house, turned with Jap and walked along Main street to the farther end +of the block. At Blanke's drug store, he turned into Spring street. +He was saying, in a tone of mixed penitence and anxiety: +</P> + +<P> +"I wish we hadn't riled Ellis so, to-day. I don't like those headaches +he's having so often, and the way his face gets red every afternoon. +If he ever sneaked out and took a drink—But I know he never does." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Ellis is all right, now that little J. W. is getting strong," Jap +insisted. +</P> + +<P> +They had gone some distance in the direction of Flossy's cottage, when +Bill looked across an expanse of vacant lots to where a dim light +burned in the loft of Bolton's barn. +</P> + +<P> +"They're running a poker game," said Bill wisely. +</P> + +<P> +Almost before the words were gone, a wild shriek rent the air. A flash +of light from the barn loft, a scrambling of feet, and a succession of +dark objects catapulted the ooze of the barnyard, and it was all +ablaze. A stiff breeze was blowing from the southwest. Bill ran to +the mill to set the fire whistle, and Jap scrambled through a window of +the Methodist church and began to fling the chimes abroad, so that he +who slept might know that there was a fire in town. There had been no +rain for weeks, and the frame structures were ripe for burning. +</P> + +<P> +In less than half an hour the row of stores on Main street, in the +block below the <I>Herald</I> office, began to smoke. From Hollins's +grocery store a brand was carried by the wind and lodged among the dry +shingles of Summers's saloon. The excitement was augmented, a few +minutes later, by a series of pyrotechnic explosions. Bucket brigades +were formed, the firemen mostly in undress uniform. +</P> + +<P> +Jap and Bill were in their glory. Jap was mounted on top of the Town +Hall, directing operations. Right down the row rushed the flames, +eating up the town. As if in parting salutation, the fiery monster +leaped across a vacant lot, thick set with dried weeds, and clutched +with heat-red claws at the <I>Herald</I> office. +</P> + +<P> +"This way, men!" yelled Jap. "You have to get the press and enough +type out to tell about the fire." +</P> + +<P> +Ellis was staring hopelessly at the flame that was licking at the rear +of the office. The water was exhausted from the town well, and there +was no hope of saving the plant. But youth is omniscient, and the +townsmen followed the wildly yelling apprentices and hastened to +demolish the office and drag away the debris, some of it already +blazing. From the salvage rescued from Price's hardware store, and +heaped in a disorderly pile in the Public Square, Jap handed out the +latest thing in fire fighting apparatus. The flimsy structure, that +had been Ellis Hinton's stronghold for almost twenty years, gave way to +an assault with axes, and the contents, pretty well scattered, were +left standing. It was nothing that Granger and Harlow's bank went down +with little left to show its location save the fire-proof vault, and +that only a shift in the wind prevented the flames from crossing to the +fashionable residence section east of Main street. +</P> + +<P> +In the morning the <I>Herald</I> force began business in the ruins of its +time-worn shelter, and set up gory accounts of the fire, on brown +manila paper with vermilion and black ink. A crowd assembled to watch +the exciting spectacle. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the use of a railroad now?" bleated Judge Bowers. "There ain't +no town to run it through." +</P> + +<P> +"Why ain't there?" asked Jap sharply. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, all the folks are talking of pulling up stakes and moving to +Barton." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if that is the kind of backbone they have been backing this town +with," snapped the youth, his red hair standing erect, "you help them +move, and the <I>Herald</I> will show them up for quitters—and fill the +town with real men." +</P> + +<P> +And being full of wrath, he proceeded to incorporate this thought in +the half column he was setting up. The paper was eagerly snapped up by +the crowd. +</P> + +<P> +"Who wrote this?" fairly howled Tom Granger. "I want to hold his grimy +hand and help him shout for a bigger and better town." +</P> + +<P> +Ellis shoved Jap forward. +</P> + +<P> +"Here is the fire-eater," he announced. Jap flushed through the dirt +on his face. +</P> + +<P> +"It's true," he said, half shyly. "There's no good in a quitter. The +best thing is to smoke them out and get live men to take their places." +</P> + +<P> +"Bravely said," shouted Granger. "The bank will rebuild with brick. +Who else builds on Main street?" +</P> + +<P> +Before the end of the following week the town was humming with +industry. Every hack brought its contingent of insurance adjusters, +and merchants elbowed contractors in the little telegraph office, in +endeavors to get supplies. On Thursday a curious crowd stood watching +Ellis and the boys run the blistered but still faithful Washington +press in the boiling sun. +</P> + +<P> +"Goin' to get winter after a while, Jap," shouted one of the +bystanders. "You'll have to wear ear muffs to get out your paper." +</P> + +<P> +Jap grinned and swung the lever around methodically. +</P> + +<P> +"What are you going to do, Ellis?" asked the honorable member from the +"Halls of Justice," who had hurried to his little home town in her hour +of trouble. "There ain't a vacant shack in town. It seems a darned +shame that you'll have to give up, after starving with the town till it +gets its toes set in gravel at last. Now that the railroad is running +this way like a scared wolf, the town needs a paper worse than ever." +</P> + +<P> +"Who said they was going to quit?" demanded Judge Bowers pugnaciously. +"They ain't! Ellis is goin' to have a two-story brick, with a printin' +press that runs itself. This here town ain't no quitter." He glared +fiercely at Harlow. +</P> + +<P> +Jap lingered with Ellis until the last of the day's work was finished. +As he started for home he came upon an animated group, in the shade of +the half-burned drug store. Behind a pile of wreckage, Bill was +holding court. Jap stopped short. Bill was telling a lurid tale of +superhuman strength and dare-devil bravery, of which Jap Herron was the +hero, a tale that grew with every telling. A wave of embarrassment +swept over Jap. As he turned hastily away, he felt a soft clutch on +his arm. He looked back. Two sparkling black eyes were looking up +into his. +</P> + +<P> +"I think that you are the bravest boy in the world," whispered Isabel +Granger, "and—and I am glad I kissed you that time." +</P> + +<P> +Jap stared at her, stunned by a new emotion. In another moment she was +gone, flying across the street in the direction of her home. +</P> + +<P> +"Anybody but Jap would 'a took her up on that," insinuated Bill, who +had heard Isabel's last words. +</P> + +<P> +Jap turned a murderous look upon him. The crowd of girls tittered as +they dispersed. When supper was over Jap returned to the spot, and +long after dark he sat upon the pile of wreckage, thinking long, long +thoughts. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX +</H3> + +<P> +The scraping of saw, the clang of hammer and the smell of fresh paint +classed Bloomtown as "Boomtown." The railroad had already peered into +the northern environs of the town, cutting diagonally across Main +street, some half-dozen blocks from the plot of ground that had been +rechristened Court House Square. A substantial municipal building took +the place of the dingy old Town Hall, and the barns of the now almost +defunct Bloomtown, Barton and Faber hack line had been cleared away to +make room for a decent hotel. In the angle between the railroad tracks +and Main street a small temporary station sheltered travelers. The +half-moribund village had burst its swaddling bands and begun to +expand. Everybody was wearing grins as a radiant garment. +</P> + +<P> +As the summer traveled toward July, the headaches that had been so +frequent the past winter merged into a feeling of utter exhaustion, and +Ellis came down to the office but few days of each week. Flossy +stopped Jap at the gate one noon hour. +</P> + +<P> +"Ellis has something to tell you, Jappie, and I want you to be very +composed. Don't let yourself go." Her voice was full of pleading. +She turned quickly as Ellis appeared in the doorway. He walked out to +meet them. +</P> + +<P> +"Let us sit out under the trellis while Flossy finishes fixing dinner," +he said, leading the way. "Jap, your birthday comes to-morrow, and I +am going to ask you to accept a sacred trust that is a burden. You are +twenty-one and, as they say, 'your own man.' I want to ask you to be +<I>my man</I>. Jap, I am going away, how far God only knows. The doctor +says that my lungs are all wrong, and life in the mountains may save +me. My boy—for you have been my boy since you walked through my door, +nine years ago—I want you to take charge of the office, and shoulder +the support of Flossy and the little one if—if——" He caught the +horror-stricken boy's hand. "Jap, I will never come back. I know it. +I have talked with my soul and it is well. Will you do it, Jap?" +</P> + +<P> +Jap pressed Ellis's feverish hand between his strong young palms. He +could not speak. His eyes were dry and his lips twitched. +</P> + +<P> +"There," cautioned Ellis, "no heavy face before Flossy. God bless her! +she thinks that I will be well before the new office is done, and is +making more splendid plans for the big opening! She is—— Jap, you +dunce, grin about something!" +</P> + +<P> +Flossy and the boy came dancing down the sun-flecked path and Jap swung +the slender little fellow to his shoulder and began a mock race from +Ellis. +</P> + +<P> +As soon as dinner was over, a dinner that stuck in his throat for +hours, he told Flossy that two men were rushing Bill to desperation for +their handbills. He hurried out by way of the alley. Flossy ran after +him. "You forgot your hat, Jap," she cried breathlessly. He took the +hat and started off silently. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait a minute, Jap." Her voice was insistent. "You didn't put on a +grave face with Ellis, did you? Oh, Jap"—the cry was from her +heart—"he will never live to see the new office! He will never know +of the realization of his dreams, the big town, the trains whirling +through, and he looking down from his lofty window with a smile of +superior joy. Oh, Jap, how often have we heard him tell about it! He +doesn't know. He is full of hope. Only just before you came he was +joking about the Star Spangled Banner he was going to wind around his +brow when he dedicated the <I>Herald</I> office. Jap, be true to his faith, +for he will never open the door of that office. He will never help to +get out the first paper." +</P> + +<P> +She strangled and turned away. Then in brisk tones she added: +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Jap, hurry along. Here comes Ellis to scold." And in the +marvelous manner that is God-given to loving women, she forced a smile +to her lips as she gave the youth a playful shove and ran to meet her +husband. +</P> + +<P> +A few days later they left. The town took a holiday, and with laughter +and merrymaking it celebrated Ellis Hinton's first vacation. A water +tank was in process of construction, at the upper end of a half-mile +stretch of double track, and at the lower end of the siding, close to +Main street, the imposing brick railroad station stood in potential +grandeur, its bricks still separated by straw and its ample foundation +giving promise of stability as it reposed in sacks of cement and piles +of crushed stone. Something of this was incorporated in Ellis's +farewell speech as he addressed his townspeople. When the train began +to move his black head was still visible, as he returned quip for joke. +And Flossy was flitting from her lifelong friends as if no trouble +clouded her brow. +</P> + +<P> +Little J. W. was the feature of the going, and under the pretense of +caring for his wants, their sleeper compartment had been piled with +fruit and flowers by loving friends who had gone on to the nearest town +to meet the train, so that the surprise should be the more complete. +Then, to the sound of the village band, Ellis left what he had always +called "my town." Jap did not go to the station, and when Bill found +the door of their improvised office locked, he turned silently away. +His heart was full, too. +</P> + +<P> +The Widow Raymond had offered them a room for a printing office. The +press occupied the room. Jap and Bill set the type in the woodshed and +carried the galleys in. During the nine years of their association +Bill had been the unsteady member of the team, consuming more effort in +devising ways and means of escaping work than the work would have cost, +and toiling with feverish penitence when he realized that he had +wrought a hardship to Jap or Ellis. But now, inspired by the dimpled +face of Rosy Raymond, he worked as he had never worked in his life. +Odd things began to happen. Bill insisted on doing all the +proof-reading, a task he had hitherto detested. A bit of verse +occasionally crept into the columns of the <I>Herald</I>. Jap did not +detect this verse for several weeks. When he did, he descended upon +Bill. +</P> + +<P> +"Where in Heck did you filch that doggerel?" +</P> + +<P> +"Who said it was doggerel?" demanded Bill. +</P> + +<P> +"Lord love you," cried Jap, "what could any sane being call it? What +did you get for publishing it—advertising rates?" +</P> + +<P> +"You're a fool!" snapped Bill. "You think that you're a criterion. I +will have you know that lots of folks have complimented it." +</P> + +<P> +Jap took up the offending sheet. +</P> + +<P> +"'Thine eyes are blue, thine lips are red, thine locks are gold,'" he +groaned. He looked at Bill. Just then the door opened and Rosy +stepped into the room. A great light shone on Jap's understanding. +Her eyes were blue, her lips certainly red, and a fervid imagination +could call her hair gold. He sighed pathetically. +</P> + +<P> +"Bill, don't you think you could write it out and relieve the pressure +on your heart, without endangering our prestige?" +</P> + +<P> +Bill kicked at the mongrel dog that had its habitat under the press, +and marched out indignantly. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll be glad if I get him out of here single," mused Jap. "He has +these spells as regular as the seasons change. Heretofore his +prospects have never entitled him to consideration. This time it may +be different." +</P> + +<P> +Bill had been systematically chased from every front gate in town, +behind which rosy-cheeked girls abode; but the disquieting conviction +swooped down upon Jap that Barkis, in the shape of the Widow Raymond, +might be more than "willin'" to hitch Bill to her sixteen-year-old +daughter. And if Bill had not contracted a new variety of measles at +the most opportune time, Jap's forebodings might have been realized. +Bill had the "catching" habit. No contagion in town ever escaped him, +and this time he was so ill that he had to go to the country to +recuperate. +</P> + +<P> +The new stores opened, one by one, with much celebration. Owing to +several unaccountable financial complications, the last of all the +important buildings on Main street to be finished was the <I>Herald</I> +office. A cylinder press, second-handed, to be sure, but none the less +an object of admiration, was installed, and fonts of clean, new type +stood ready for work. There was a great, sunny front office on the +main floor, and the ample space behind it had been divided into +composing room, press room and private office. On the second floor was +a small job press, and here, at Jap's suggestion, the old Washington +press was stored. The rooms were decorated with flags, and bunting was +strung across the front of the office. Judge Bowers had personally +attended to this. +</P> + +<P> +"You're going to have a dandy paper," Tom Granger beamed, as he +accompanied Jap on the final tour of inspection. "We'll all have to +stop business to watch this cylinder press spill out the news." +</P> + +<P> +Wat Harlow had run down from the Capital to congratulate the staff. At +his suggestion the merchants had ordered flowers from the city, and +great vases of roses and carnations, and decorative pieces in symbolic +design, stood around in fragrant profusion. Every room of the office +was filled with them. +</P> + +<P> +The forms were ready for the printing of that first paper, and only +awaited the conclusion of Wat's speech, to be placed upon the press, so +that Bloomtown should receive the salutatory <I>Herald</I>. Jap turned to +the assemblage, waiting in eager curiosity to see the cylinder revolve. +</P> + +<P> +"The paper will be printed on Ellis's press," he said briefly. "I +don't want to be ungrateful for your kindness, but will you leave Bill +and me alone to get out our first edition?" +</P> + +<P> +They filed out slowly, awed by the grief in the voice of Ellis's boy. +</P> + +<P> +With the old types, on the old Washington hand press, they printed the +first <I>Herald</I> of the new régime. With the exception of the greeting +on the front page, every word was reprinted from the predictions +written by Ellis in the years agone, and the greeting, in long pica on +the first page, was his telegram to them and his townsmen received that +morning. +</P> + +<P> +When the last paper was printed by the two sad-faced boys on their day +of jubilee, and the pile had been folded and carried downstairs, Jap +closed the press upon the inky type, and gathered the great bunches of +fragrant blossoms and heaped them upon the press, to be forever silent. +With a groan of anguish, he threw himself against them. Bill slipped +his arm through Jap's, and together they celebrated the day that was +Ellis's. And in the night the telegram came: +</P> + +<P> +"At rest. FLOSSY." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X +</H3> + +<P> +When Ellis went away it was to the sound of jollity. He came back to a +town shrouded in mourning. Every store was closed, and symbols of +grief adorned most of them. Wat Harlow, with a delicacy Ellis would +scarcely have expected of him, had ordered purple ribbon and white +flowers to tie with the crape. Silent and grief-stricken, the town +stood waiting the arrival of the train. When it came, the coffin was +lifted by loving hands and carried the ten long blocks to the church. +No cold hearse rattled his precious body, but, even as the body of +Robert Louis Stevenson was held by human touch until the last office +was done, so was Ellis Hinton, the country printer, carried to his last +repose by the hands of his friends. +</P> + +<P> +Not until Jap looked for a long, anguished moment upon the +flower-massed grave did he realize that he was alone, that he was +drifting, that he had no anchor. Something of this he expressed to +Flossy, between dry sobs, when they had left Ellis alone in the +secluded little cemetery. Her eyes burned with a strange, maternal +light as she comforted the boy whose grief was of the fibre of her own. +</P> + +<P> +"Ellis knew that you would feel that way," she said gently, "and +because of that, he made a will that is to be read to-night. Wat +Harlow has it. Until it is read, I want you not to trouble." +</P> + +<P> +That evening, with all the important men of the town assembled in the +big front room of the <I>Herald</I> office, Wat Harlow read brokenly the +last "reading notice" of Bloomtown's sleeping hero. It was written in +the familiar scrawl that everybody knew, with scarcely a waver in its +lines to tell that a dying hand had penned it: +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"I am going a long journey, but not so far that I cannot vision your +growth. It was the labor of love to plan for this time. In the +gracious wisdom of God it was not intended that I should enjoy it with +you; but as Moses looked into his promised land, so through the eyes of +the <I>Herald</I> I have seen mine. And God, in His wonderful way, has sent +you another optimist to do the royal work of upbuilding a town. +</P> + +<P> +"My town, my people, I leave to you the greatest gift I have to offer. +I give you my boy, Jap. He is worthy. Hold up his hands, in memory of +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"ELLIS HINTON." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +As Harlow folded the paper, with hands that trembled, he was not +conscious of the fact that hot tears were streaming down his cheeks. +There was an instant of tense silence. Then Tom Granger walked over to +the boy who lay, face downward across the table, arms outspread in +abandon of grief. He took one limp hand in his, and a voiceless +message went from heart to heart. Jap aroused himself. One by one the +men of Bloomtown filed by. No word was spoken, but each man pledged +himself to Ellis Hinton as he took the hand of Ellis's boy in a firm +clasp. When the others had gone, Wat Harlow remained. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment he stood silent beside the table. Then with a cry of +utter heartbreak, he sank to his knees and permitted the bereaved boy +to give vent to his long-repressed agony in a saving flood of tears. +When they left the office together, there had been welded a friendship +that was stronger than years of any other understanding could have +given. +</P> + +<P> +Flossy went back to the cottage, and, like the brave helpmeet of such a +man as Ellis Hinton must have been, did not sadden the days with her +grief. Sometimes, in the little arbor, with J. W. playing at her feet, +she sang softly over her sewing: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Beautiful isle of Somewhere,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Isle of the true, where we live anew,</SPAN><BR> +Beautiful isle of Somewhere."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +It was her advice that caused the boys to fit up a bedroom and +living-room on the second floor of the office. It was her idea that +separated Bill from the unsteady air of his home. The Judge, heeding +the scriptural injunction implied in the immortal words of Moses, "It +is not good that man should be alone," had taken unto himself a fourth +wife, and Bill had so many rows with his latest stepmother that there +was no opposition to the change. Tom Granger observed that it had been +so many matrimonial moons since Bill had a mother that he did not know +whether he had any real kinfolks at all. It was certain that he knew +little of the real meaning of the word "home." Flossy boarded them, +and her cottage was their haven of refuge during many a long evening. +It was sad comfort, and yet it was the surest comfort, to have her live +over again those last days in the mountains, when Ellis's thoughts +bridged space and visualized the rebuilding of Bloomtown. +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps Flossy sensed the fact that these evenings were bone and sinew +to Jap's manhood. The boy, never careless, was changing to a man of +purpose, such as would be the product of Ellis Hinton's training. The +stray, born of the union of purposeless, useless Jacky Herron, and +Mary, peevish and fretful, changeable and inconstant, had been born +again into the likeness of the man who bad been almost a demigod to him. +</P> + +<P> +The town was growing, as Ellis had prophesied, and was creeping in +three directions across the prairie. It incorporated and began to +settle into regular lines. Spring street showed but few gaps in the +line of cottages that ran almost all the way from the rear of Blanke's +drug store to Flossy's home, and another line of modest cottages looked +at them from the other side of the street. A new and fashionable +residence place was laid out, in the extreme south end of town, as far +from the grime and soot of the railroad as possible; but the +substantial old families still clung to their ancestral halls in the +vicinity of Court House Square. +</P> + +<P> +One day in early spring Bill burst into the office, his reporter's pad +flapping wildly. His brown eyes danced. +</P> + +<P> +"Big doings!" he shouted. "Pap's going to run for mayor, and he wants +the <I>Herald</I> to voice the cry of the town for his services." +</P> + +<P> +"Who said so?" queried Jap, sticking away at the last legislative +report. +</P> + +<P> +"Nobody but him—as far as I can find out," Bill returned, grinning +knowingly. "It seems that they had a mess of turnip greens, from +cellar sprouts, and they gave him cramps. He was dozing under +paregoric when the idea hit him. It grew like the turnip sprouts, fast +but pale. He wants us to water the sprouts and give 'em air, so that +they'll get color in them." +</P> + +<P> +"How much did he send in for the color?" asked Jap, climbing down +interestedly. +</P> + +<P> +The Associate Editor flashed a two-dollar bill. +</P> + +<P> +"I told Pap that if any opposition sprouted, he'd have to raise the +ante," he remarked. "He squealed loud enough when I squeezed him for +this, but I convinced him that we had about done away with charity +practice. Told him the <I>Herald</I> was out of the amateur class, and +after this election the ante 'd be five bones." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," conceded Jap, "as he is Flossy's brother, we'll have to spread +it on thick for the low price of introduction. Look up that woodcut of +Sames, the Chautauqua lecturer. If you'll chisel off the beard, we can +use it for the Judge. I think that we will kill that story you cribbed +from the St. Louis <I>Republic</I>, about the President's morning canter +with his family physician, and run the Judge along the first column. +By the way, Bill, it would be a good idea to trace his career from +joyous boyhood to the dignity of the judicial office. What judge was +he? Since I have known him, he has never 'worked at the bench.'" +</P> + +<P> +Bill grinned wickedly. +</P> + +<P> +"He was judge of live stock at the county fair!" +</P> + +<P> +"Fallen is Caesar!" Jap exploded. "What can we say about him?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothin' for certain, as Kelly Jones says," Bill lamented. +</P> + +<P> +"I never tried fiction," Jap averred, "but for the honor of the first +aspirant to the office of Mayor of Bloomtown, and the greater glory of +our Associate Editor, I am going to plunge." +</P> + +<P> +And plunge he did. When the town read the eulogium that Jap spread +upon the front page of the <I>Herald</I> it gasped as from a sudden cold +plunge, sat up, rubbed its eyes, and concluded that it had somehow +failed to understand or appreciate its foremost son. Hollins, the +leading grocer, and Bolton, the furniture dealer, had felt the itch for +office; and Marquis, the attorney, had stood in his doorway for a week +awaiting the delegation that would press upon him the nomination; but +all these aspirants faded like poppies in the wake of the reaper. +Nobody could be found to buck a sure thing, such as Judge Bowers, +backed by the power of the press. +</P> + +<P> +The week after election, the <I>Herald</I> sported fifty small flags through +its columns, and quoted Wat Harlow's speech in which he declared that +Judge William Hiram Bowers was "the noblest Roman of them all." For +which Bill accounted to Jap by the astute observation that Rome was a +long way off. The Judge hardly caught Wat's meaning, and came into the +office to protest. +</P> + +<P> +"I am afeard that folks 'll think we have Catholic blood in the +family," he complained, shaking the paper nervously. +</P> + +<P> +"Mystery is the blood of progress, Pap," assured Bill gravely. "If you +will notice, the men that get there always have a skeleton rattling a +limb now and then." +</P> + +<P> +"Mis' Bowers don't like it," he objected. "I had to quit the +Methodists and be immersed in the Baptists afore she'd have me, and now +she's fairly tearin' up the wind over this talk about me bein' a Roman. +You gotta correct it!" +</P> + +<P> +"We have given you a hundred dollars' worth of advertising for a measly +two-dollar bill," declared Jap emphatically. "The columns of the +<I>Herald</I> are free to news. Advertising at our regular rates. Bill +will give you particulars." +</P> + +<P> +"Dollar an inch for display," crisped Bill; "ten cents a line for +readers." He seated himself, pencil in band, as he added, "payable in +advance." +</P> + +<P> +"Make a flat rate of ten dollars, as it is the Judge," advised Jap +judicially. +</P> + +<P> +The Mayor-elect decided to let it alone; but Jap mentioned the fact, in +the next issue of the <I>Herald</I>, that Judge Bowers had alleged that he +was born in New England, of Puritan stock, and had no Italian +sympathies—which lucid statement abundantly satisfied Judge and Mrs. +Bowers, but set the town to wondering what the Judge was hiding in the +dim annals of his past. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI +</H3> + +<P> +"I worked a bunch of passes out of the agent for that Indian medicine +show," announced Bill, washing his hands. "Want to take her, Jap?" and +he jerked his head in the direction of the front door, where Isabel +Granger was passing. +</P> + +<P> +"No; I'm going out to Flossy's a while. I want to talk some things +over with her." +</P> + +<P> +There was no further discussion, for at that moment Rosy Raymond +floated by, and Bill started out in eager pursuit. Ever since the +election, Jap had been obsessed by a disquieting foreboding. One of +Mayor Bowers's first official acts was to authorize the opening of a +second saloon on Main street, and he was rapidly pushing the work of +erecting two new business houses which, rumor declared, were to house +other thirst palaces. Hitherto the natives and the surrounding +territory had been amply supplied by Holmes; but Bloomtown was growing +beyond the reach of one saloon. +</P> + +<P> +Holmes had come across with a double-sized license, under promise of +the Mayor that he should continue to have a monopoly of the trade. And +when the good people of the various churches waited upon Judge Bowers +to protest against what they were disposed to call the "introduction of +Satan into their town," he called their attention to the need for +municipal revenue. If one saloon was a help, two saloons would double +that help. The town had already begun to show signs of genuine +progress. It had to build a calaboose to take care of the saloon's +patrons, and the regular fines for plain drunks almost paid the cost of +the court that collected them. +</P> + +<P> +Once Jap thought he detected a sinister reason for Bill's flushed +cheeks and unsteady gait as he passed hastily through the office on his +way to the sleeping room above. The next morning Bill declared that he +had been a fool, and had paid for his folly with a severe headache, and +Jap, with the delicacy that was Jap's, let the subject drop. It was +becoming fashionable for the young fellows of the town to assume a +tough swagger. Those who had formerly resorted to barn lofts and musty +cellars paraded their sophistication on Main street, and Bill would +rather be dead than out of style. Jap wanted to talk it over with +Flossy, but he had never found the key to open such poignant +confidence. What right had he to burden Flossy with fresh anxiety? In +his loneliness, he yearned for Ellis as he had never yearned before. +</P> + +<P> +He was sitting on the little front porch, tossing J. W. on the tough +old trotting horse afforded by his two ill-padded knees, and vaguely +wondering how he could introduce the subject of Bloomtown's swift +decay, without wounding Judge Bowers's sister and Bill's aunt, when +they heard a great tumult in the vicinity of the medicine show. After +a while Bill came up the walk with Rosy. +</P> + +<P> +"What was the racket about?" Jap asked incuriously. +</P> + +<P> +Rosy giggled. +</P> + +<P> +"They wanted to nominate the ugliest man in town, and there was a +fight," she said. +</P> + +<P> +"Shut up!" growled Bill. "Haven't you got any sense?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sam Waldron nominated Jap," she sputtered, between giggles. +</P> + +<P> +A hot flush swept over Jap. Always keenly sensitive, he had never +armored himself against the playful brutalities of his friends. The +shame of being made a subject of ridicule cut deeply. +</P> + +<P> +"Rosy is a fool!" snapped Bill. +</P> + +<P> +"What was the fuss about?" asked Flossy, prompted by a conviction that +further revelation would be good for Jap. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Isabel Granger slapped his face, and Bill jumped in and punched +him in the ribs, and the crowd wanted to take him down to the pond and +duck him." +</P> + +<P> +Flossy's hand sought Jap's, and she laughed softly. +</P> + +<P> +"That was worth while, boy. How Ellis would have written it up!" +</P> + +<P> +Jap smiled, but the sting was still there. When it was evident that +Bill and Rosy expected to spend the evening, he arose with a tired, +"Well, I'll be going," and walked around the cottage to the alley gate. +He was afraid of meeting some one on Spring street, and he made excuse +to his own consciousness that the alley had always been the rational +highway between the cottage and the office. He put his hand in his +pocket for his key, as he emerged on Main street. +</P> + +<P> +As he approached the door, he saw that some one was sitting on the +steps. She sprang up and laid trembling hands on his arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Jap, you won't mind! You won't let it hurt you? Everybody knows +that you are the best-looking man in town. At least I—think so!" +</P> + +<P> +Before he could grasp her arm, the girl was gone. That night Jap lay +awake long hours, thinking, thinking. With the morning, reason +returned. He had assumed responsibility for Flossy and the boy. He +must not think again. +</P> + +<P> +And indeed the next few days gave him little time for thought. Wat +Harlow slipped into the office late one afternoon. He wore a furtive +look and an appearance of guilt. There was about him a suggestion of +gum shoes. Something must be amiss. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to see you alone, Jap," he confessed. +</P> + +<P> +Jap led the way to the little private office. Harlow was pulling +nervously at the stubby mustache that hid his short upper lip. +</P> + +<P> +"In trouble, Wat?" asked Jap anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"No—not exactly. You see, it's this way——" He coughed +apologetically. "The wife had a dream, a funny dream, the other night. +She's had curious dreams ever since we took that long trip, to New York +and all over, last year, and there may be nothing to it, but——" He +lit a fresh cigar, and went at it again. "She says that she saw me +going into the Capitol at Washington just as if I belonged there. And +she got a notion—— Jap, you know how notionate women are. She +thinks—well, she thinks that I might be called to run for the House of +Representatives." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I see," said Jap, illuminated. "It would sound good for the +<I>Herald</I> to mention that you are in line?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not rough-like, Jap! Just a little tickle in the ribs, to see what +they'd say." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I'll fix that," declared Jap, laughing. And the <I>Herald</I> flung +the hat in the ring for "Harlow, the one honest man." +</P> + +<P> +Jap smiled sadly as he read his copy over. He had a habit of wondering +what Ellis would have said. He wondered, too, what attitude the editor +of the Barton <I>Standard</I> would take. The <I>Standard</I> had recently +changed hands, and since Bloomtown had pulled a saloon, a sunbonnet +factory and two business houses out of Barton, a rapid-fire editorial +war had been in progress. By some curious dispensation of Providence, +Jones of the <I>Standard</I> and Herron of the <I>Herald</I> had never met. Jap +was not hunting trouble, but the same spirit that prompted him to +thrash his tormentors, the day of his advent in Ellis Hinton's town, +caused him to wield a fire-tipped pen against the <I>Standard</I>. +</P> + +<P> +That opposition to Wat's candidacy would develop, before the +nomination, was to be expected; but opposition on the part of the +Barton <I>Standard</I> would be a purely personal matter, the <I>Standard</I> +having its own party fights to foster. But that was all Jap feared. +</P> + +<P> +It was even worse than he could have imagined, for Jones dug up a +bloody ghost to walk at every political meeting. Not only were all Wat +Harlow's sins of omission and commission paraded in the <I>Standard</I>, but +he was proclaimed as the implacable foe of higher education. In vain +did his home paper print his record, of beneficent bills introduced, of +committee work on behalf of the district schools, and his great speech +setting forth the need of a new normal school building. Jones had one +trump card left in his hand, and the day before the convention he +played it. It was a handbill, yellow with age and ragged around the +edges, but still showing a badly spelled, abominably punctuated story +in vermilion ink, with a weeping angel at the top and a rooster and two +prancing stallions at the bottom. It proved Wat Harlow the undying foe +of the State University. +</P> + +<P> +Despite all the <I>Herald's</I> valiant work, that nightmare was Harlow's +undoing. The nomination went to a rising politician at the opposite +side of the congressional district. A great change had come over the +sentiment, of the state, since the day when the University had been the +favorite tool of the political grafters. Every village had its band of +rooters for the Alma Mater, and when the nominating convention came to +a close it was apparent that Wat Harlow was hardly an "also ran." +</P> + +<P> +Defeat was galling enough; but the <I>Standard's</I> expressions of glee +were unbearable. Jap's red hair stood on end, "like quills upon the +fretful porcupine," as he stood at his case and threw the type into the +stick, hot from the wrath in his soul. The paper was printed, as +usual, on Thursday; but Friday brought a change in the even tenor of +Bloomtown's way. Jones, of the <I>Standard</I>, was a passenger on the +eastbound train that left Barton a little after noon. His destination +was Bloomtown. +</P> + +<P> +"I am looking for a cross-eyed, slit-eared pup by the name of Herron," +was the greeting he flung into the <I>Herald's</I> sanctum. The door to the +composing room was open. Jap looked up wearily. +</P> + +<P> +"Would you mind sitting down and keeping quiet till I finish setting up +this address to the bag of wind that edits the Barton <I>Standard</I>?" he +said impersonally. +</P> + +<P> +Jones, of the <I>Standard</I>, sat down and gaped at the long, lank figure +on the stool. A moment he went limp and terrified; then he rallied his +courage. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you unwind all at once?" he asked, as Jap disentangled his legs +from the stool. "I take back what I said about a pup. You're a +full-grown dog, all right. I wasn't looking for a brick-top, either. +No wonder you have a weakness for vermilion." +</P> + +<P> +"Better come outside of town," Jap interrupted. "I've been intending +to go over to Barton to have a look at you, but it's better thus. I +have been stealing space from my readers long enough. They pay for +more important things than my private opinion of you. I made up my +mind to stop the argument by giving you a hell of a licking, and I've +only waited because I didn't care to risk my reputation in a +neighboring town. Here it will be different. In the midst of my +friends, I hope to fix you so that you'll never try to throw filth on +any one again." +</P> + +<P> +Jones arose hastily. +</P> + +<P> +"I want no row," he said uneasily. "I just want an understanding." +</P> + +<P> +"You have the right idea," cried Jap. "You are going to get lots of +understanding before you leave Bloomtown." +</P> + +<P> +At that moment the town marshal strolled in, wearing his star pinned on +his blue flannel shirt. +</P> + +<P> +"I demand protection," Jones shouted. "This man has threatened me." +</P> + +<P> +"What's the row, Jap?" asked the monitor of peace tolerantly. +</P> + +<P> +"This is Mr. Wilfred Jones, of the Barton <I>Standard</I>," was all that Jap +said. But the effect was electrical. The man of peace was transformed +into an engine of vengeance. +</P> + +<P> +"Going to beat him up?" he yelled. "Go to it, and I'm here, if you +need help." +</P> + +<P> +Jap took off his coat, deliberately. He unclasped his cuffs and was in +the act of unbuttoning his collar, when the local freight whistled for +the crossing below town. With a mighty leap the man from Barton +cleared the space between his chair and the door. The strolling +populace of Main street was scattered like leaves before a sudden gust +of wind. There was an abortive cry of "Stop, thief!" and a bewildered +pursuit by several tipsy bums who had been loafing in front of +Bingham's saloon, but the appearance of the marshal, wearing a broad +grin of satisfaction, dispelled apprehension. +</P> + +<P> +"That was Jones, travelin' light," he explained. +</P> + +<P> +The next issue of the <I>Standard</I> failed to mention the editorial visit +to Bloomtown; but the scurrilous articles ceased and there was quiet +again. +</P> + +<P> +"Did Ellis ever have a fight—that kind of a fight—with anybody?" Jap +asked Flossy, when Bill had finished his second-hand recital of the +show that "he wouldn't have missed for his farm in Texas." In Bill's +heart there arose a mighty resentment against Rosy Raymond, who had +enticed him from the office just before Jones arrived. +</P> + +<P> +"Ellis did a good deal of fighting before he got me to fight his +battles for him," she said, a whimsical smile in her gentle eyes. "You +ought to know, Jap. I never would have had Ellis if he hadn't whipped +Brother William." +</P> + +<P> +"But that wasn't a matter of personal grudge," Jap argued. It had +seemed to him that somehow he had degraded himself when he went down to +Jones's ethical level. "I wanted to use my fists because Jones +ridiculed me. When Ellis licked the Judge, it wasn't a personal +matter. He did it for me." +</P> + +<P> +"And you did this for—for the honor of Bloomtown," cried Bill, with +enthusiasm. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII +</H3> + +<P> +"Something's broke loose," announced Bill, slamming the door violently. +"Pap's bought an automobile." Which illuminative remark indicated that +Judge Bowers's mind had expanded to let in a fresh vagary. +</P> + +<P> +Jap looked up inquiringly. +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon it's all on account of Billy Wamkiss," Bill explained. +</P> + +<P> +"Billy who? There never was no such animal," and Jap scowled at the +stick in his hand. Conditions in Bloomtown were, as Jim Blanke +expressed it, all to the bad. While the political fight was at white +heat the Mayor had contrived to have his own way. He was going to +"make the town" which Ellis Hinton had failed to make. There would be +revenue enough to provide metropolitan improvements, and already there +was a metropolitan, perhaps even a Monte Carlo-tan, air to the recently +awakened village, as every train disgorged its Saturday evening crowd +of gamblers from the city where the lid had gone on with ruthless +completeness. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Granger had arisen from a sick-bed to call together the women of +all the churches to make protest at the licensing of another pool-room, +with bar and poker attachment, not two blocks from her home, a stroke +that had met its counter stroke when the saloon element threatened to +boycott Granger's bank and open a rival financial institution in one of +the store-rooms of the recently erected hotel that faced the Court +House Square, half a block away. Another crowd, the men with +store-rooms and cottages to rent, promised to carry all their banking +business to Barton, if Granger didn't "sit on his wife good and proper." +</P> + +<P> +"Never was no such animal?" Bill repeated. "Wake up, Jap. Don't you +know who Billy Wamkiss is?" +</P> + +<P> +"Never heard of the guy," Jap insisted. +</P> + +<P> +"He's that greasy, wall-eyed temperance lecturer that's been stringing +the town for a week." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph!" Jap snorted. "Time for you to wake up, Bill. You brought in +the ad yourself, and you wrote the account of the first lecture. The +columns of the <I>Herald</I> will bear me out that the reverend gentleman's +name is Silas Parsons." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, that's his reverend name," Bill snorted. "When he's the advance +agent of a rotgut whiskey house over in Kentucky that supplies fancy +packages to all the dry territory around here, he's plain Billy +Wamkiss." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that's his game!" Jap sat up, his gray eyes wide with +astonishment. "How did you get next to it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Your good friend, Wilfred Jones, put me wise. He didn't mean to, but +he let it slip out when he wasn't watching. I ran into him over in +Barton this morning and he was roasting Bloomtown as usual. Said we +were a bunch of Rubes, to fall for a raw proposition like Billy +Wamkiss, dressed up as a temperance lecturer. And then he went on to +say that my daddy would get richer'n he already is, from his rake-off +on the moisture that'll be injected into the town after she goes dry. +He said he met Wamkiss in Chicago three years ago, and he's been doing +a rattling business all over the country—deliver lectures on the evils +of the Demon Rum that'd bring tears to the eyes of a potato; dry up the +territory, with the help of the churches; and then fill up the town +with drug stores. That's his program, and it's going to work here, +thanks to my amiable and honorable father." +</P> + +<P> +Jap was silent. He had no words with which to express his emotions. +Bill went out on the street, his reporter's pad under his arm. In half +an hour he returned. +</P> + +<P> +"It's worse—I mean more incriminating—than I thought, Jap," he said, +as he drew his partner into the private office and shut the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you attend that meeting at the Baptist Church?" Jap asked +anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and I had to dig out before it was over. I wanted to explode, +and blow up the whole bunch of idiots and crooks. Pap and Wamkiss, +alias Parsons, have formed some kind of a Templar lodge, and my daddy's +got himself elected secretary. They're going to dry up Bloomtown. +Fancy it! They did a lot of crooked work over at the Court House, so +as to make it look as if all the licenses would expire at the same +time. Holmes is the only one that's likely to squeal, because he's +paid his second fee, and the others have only a few months to run. +They'll make it up to Holmes, I reckon, rather'n have him give the snap +away. Of course, Jap, I haven't got the goods for any of this. I just +put two and two together while I was listening to the speeches, +especially my father's speech." +</P> + +<P> +"Bill"—Jap laid his hand on Bill's arm—"you made the mistake of your +career when you picked that owl for a daddy. He has made more trouble +than three towns could stand up against. First, he throws the place +wide open and takes all the stray saloons and gambling dens to his +bosom; and just when we have a reputation for being the toughest town +on the road and doing a land-office business in sin, he is—he is fool +enough to try to pull off a stunt like this. What becomes of his plea +for municipal revenue when he turns saloons into drug stores?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, the lid's going on," Bill returned. "The preachers and the +ladies are strong for it, and the right honorable Mayor announced that +he was the Poo Bah that was going to put up the shutters." +</P> + +<P> +"Better order a granite," Jap muttered, as he returned to the composing +room. +</P> + +<P> +And his prediction was well founded, for the town had become so used to +its "morning's morning" that it fairly ravened for the blood of Mayor +Bowers. The <I>Herald</I> office became a forum for indignant orators, +while the Mayor strutted proudly up and down Main street, with the +black-coated Parsons, feeling that the eyes of the world were glued on +him. +</P> + +<P> +"Parsons! Bah!" spluttered Kelly Jones, who had driven four miles with +his empty jug. "Ef the town has got any git-up, it'll ride him and +that old jackass of a mayor on a rail." +</P> + +<P> +"Judge Bowers is the honored father of our Associate Editor," informed +Jap gravely. +</P> + +<P> +As Bill looked up he thumped the galley he was carrying against the +case and pied the whole column. After he had said what he thought +about the catastrophe, Kelly grinned appreciatively. +</P> + +<P> +"Them's my sentiments, Bill. Ef you love your pappy, you'd better let +him go, along of Parsons, 'cause there's goin' to be doings around +Bloomtown that'll hurt his pride. Parsons! They say out our way that +his right name's Wamkiss." +</P> + +<P> +The turgid tide of popular sentiment caused Mayor Bowers some +uneasiness; but before anything could happen five new drug stores were +opened for business and things moved placidly along again. Barton +began to refer to "our neighbor, Bumtown," and it was reported that two +blind tigers prowled in the environs of the railroad station. +</P> + +<P> +"Bill," said Jap one morning, "this won't do. We'll have to raise hell +in this town. This is Ellis's town, and we're not going to let a +dod-blinged mugwump like your asinine daddy ruin it. Bill, if you have +got any speech to make, get ready. If you can't stand for my program, +name your price, for the <I>Herald</I> is going to everlastingly lambaste +William Bowers, Senior." +</P> + +<P> +"Pull the throttle and run 'er wild," Bill retorted, as he ducked down +behind the press and dragged forth a box from the corner. "I'm going +to get out that last lot of cuts that Ellis made," he continued. +"Kelly Jones knows sense. If I remember right, Ellis had twenty-five +cuts of jacks for the stock bill. We will stick every blamed one of +'em in next week's issue, and label 'em Mayor Bowers. He has killed +the town with his ideas. What can we do with him but hang him?" +</P> + +<P> +When the <I>Herald</I> appeared the following Thursday afternoon, the town +quit business to read the war cry of Ellis's boy. It was a flaming +sword, hurled at the Board of Aldermen. Bowers, foaming with wrath, +stormed into the office. +</P> + +<P> +"You take all that back," he yelled, "or I'll put you out of this here +building. I've told you times enough this office belongs to me. I +never turned it over to Ellis." +</P> + +<P> +Jap stuck type, deadly calm on the surface of his being. Bill shifted +uneasily, his hands clinched, his ruddy face glowing. +</P> + +<P> +"You hear me?" bawled the irate Mayor. +</P> + +<P> +Jap turned to consult his copy. Before the act could be imagined +Bowers had struck him over the head with the revolver he dragged from +his pocket. Jap fell, crumpling to the floor, the blood spurting +across the type. For an instant there was horrified silence. Then, +with a howl like that of a wild beast, Bill threw himself upon his +father. But for the intervention of Tom Granger, who had followed the +Mayor because he scented trouble, there would have been a quick finish +to the pompous career of Bill Bowers's progenitor, for Bill had wrested +the pistol from his father's hand and was pressing it against the +temple of the worst scared coward Bloomtown had ever seen. There was a +sharp tussle between the broad-shouldered banker and the frenzied +youth. Several men rushed in from the street. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me go!" shouted Bill, "for if he's killed Jap he's got to die." +</P> + +<P> +They were carrying Jap out of the composing room, limp and bleeding. +</P> + +<P> +"Let him alone, Bill," Tom counselled wisely. "Let your father alone, +for if Jap is dead, we'll lynch him." +</P> + +<P> +Jap was pretty weak when they brought the Mayor's resignation up from +the calaboose for him to read. A representative delegation stood +around his bed. +</P> + +<P> +"Let the Judge out, for Bill's sake," Jap said. +</P> + +<P> +"We'd better keep him locked up for his own sake," declared Tom +Granger. "For in Bill's present frame of mind he's likely to make an +orphan of himself." +</P> + +<P> +Flossy came in from the little sitting-room and leaned over the bed. +</P> + +<P> +"I am going to see Brother William," she said quietly. "I am going to +take Brent Roberts with me. William will give you boys a quitclaim +bill to this property, for this dastardly deed." +</P> + +<P> +She was an impersonation of righteous wrath as she swept into the jail, +followed by Bloomtown's leading attorney. Judge Bowers had said more +than once that Flossy had a willing tongue, but its full willingness +was never conceived until she descended upon him that eventful day. +</P> + +<P> +An arrangement, made by Ellis just before his departure, gave the +contents of the office to the boys, on regular payments to Flossy. The +ground on which the new building stood had been deeded to Ellis and +Flossy on their wedding day; but the building, presumed to be a gift to +Ellis, had been reclaimed by Bowers; it was held, however, as Bill's +share in the firm. As yet no occasion had arisen that demanded the +settling of the question of ownership. Whenever the Judge had an +attack of bile he came into the office to remind Bill and Jap that the +building was still his. +</P> + +<P> +For one heated hour Flossy detailed the past, present and future of her +cowering brother. When she left him he was a wiser, and probably a +sadder, man, for she had deprived him of his weapon. +</P> + +<P> +There was a big bonfire on the circus grounds, and a celebration in +Court House Square that night. The next day there was a great vacuum +in the City Hall, for the Board of Aldermen resigned unanimously. A +special election was called, and before Jap was strong enough to sit at +his case he had been elected Mayor of Bloomtown. +</P> + +<P> +He looked sadly from the window of his bedroom, after the joyous crowd +of serenaders that had come to congratulate him. Bill had followed in +their wake, to escort Rosy home. It was late. The clock in the +Presbyterian church spire chimed twelve, as he stood alone. He took +his hat from the rack and went cautiously downstairs. On the pavement +he paused a moment to steady himself. His head still reeled after any +unwonted exertion. Then he walked slowly up Main street, across the +railroad tracks, and out to the quiet village whose inhabitants slept +'neath marble and sod. Standing beside the grave of his first friend, +he said: +</P> + +<P> +"Ellis, make the town proud of your boy. Help me to be your right +hand. If I can only fulfill your plan, I am willing that no other +ambition be fulfilled." +</P> + +<P> +A lonely night bird called softly. The willow branches waved in the +breeze. Thick darkness hung over the City of the Dead. Suddenly the +moon peered through the clouds, flooding the night with beauty, and Jap +read from the stone the last message of Ellis: +</P> + +<P> +"I go, but not as one unsatisfied. In God's plan, my work will live." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIII +</H3> + +<P> +"Now that you've got it, Jap," asked Tom Granger, "what are you going +to do with it?" Jap looked silently from the door. +</P> + +<P> +"He put in about eight hours of thinking about that himself," Bill +averred. "News is that ten saloons are loaded on freight cars, waiting +word from Jap." +</P> + +<P> +"You'll have to strike a happy medium," suggested Tom. "I know that +you are the boy to deliver the goods." +</P> + +<P> +"Ellis wasn't against saloons," commented Bill, "so Jap won't have that +to chew over. Ellis wasn't either for or against 'em." +</P> + +<P> +"No," Tom said seriously, "Ellis was dead set against hypocrisy. He +hated a liar and a grafter worse than a murderer. He knew that the way +to make people want a thing was to tell 'em they couldn't have it." +</P> + +<P> +Jap's face was grave. A panorama of wretched pictures moved slowly +before his wandering gaze, pictures that began and ended in Mike's +place, in the half-forgotten village of Happy Hollow. He aroused +himself with a start. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to put it up to the new Board to allow as many saloons as +want to, to come in," he said shortly. +</P> + +<P> +Tom Granger let go a shrill whistle. +</P> + +<P> +"At the license asked," continued Jap calmly. "The license will be +three thousand dollars a year, and strict enforcement of all laws. At +the first break, the lid will fall." +</P> + +<P> +"Jumping cats!" howled Tom. "Where will you get the saloon that'll pay +that?" +</P> + +<P> +Jap smiled wearily. "I am not hunting a saloon for Bloomtown," he +said, and turned toward the door in time to bump into Isabel Granger, +her arms full of bundles. She blushed and dimpled prettily. +</P> + +<P> +"I am looking for my papa," she cried, pinching Tom's cheek with her +one free hand. "I want you to carry these packages for me." +</P> + +<P> +"Run along, pet. I'm busy." +</P> + +<P> +"You look it," she reproved. "I simply can't carry all these things. +My arm is almost broken now, and the dressmaker has to have them." +</P> + +<P> +"Jap will tote them for you," chuckled Tom, watching the blood rush +over Jap's sensitive face. To his surprise, Jap took the bundles and +walked out with Isabel. He looked after them approvingly. +</P> + +<P> +"Now there goes the likeliest boy in the state," he declared. "It's +plumb funny the way he's got of getting right next to your marrow +bones. I wish I had a boy like him." +</P> + +<P> +"No great matter," drawled Bill, with tantalizing indefiniteness. +</P> + +<P> +Tom looked up at him quizzically, as he picked absently at the pile of +exchanges. Something in the young man's tone piqued him. +</P> + +<P> +"If Jap wasn't so all-fired conscientious," Bill blurted, "you'd have a +son, in quick order." +</P> + +<P> +"Lord!" exploded Tom. "Dunderhead that I am!" He slapped his thigh, +and a great, joyous laugh set his shoulders to heaving. "Bill, you're +a genius for spying out mysteries. How did you get on to it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mysteries!" shouted Bill. "Why, everybody in Bloomtown, including +Isabel, knows that Jap is fairly sapheaded about her." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what's hampering him?" inquired Tom. "Why don't he confide in +me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Confide your hat!" remarked Bill crisply. "Isabel will die of old age +before Jap asks her. You see, he is such a durn fool that he thinks he +isn't good enough for her. When the Lord made Jap Herron He made a +man, I tell you!" +</P> + +<P> +"Who said He didn't?" stormed Tom. "I can't know what is in the boy's +mind, can I? What do you want me to do, kidnap him and get his +consent? Bill, you're a fool. You needn't tell me that Jap Herron is +such a mealy-mouth." +</P> + +<P> +"All I know is that he won't ask Isabel," Bill said gloomily. "I'd +like to get married myself, but as long as Jap stays single, I stick +too." And thinking of Rosy's blue eyes, he sighed heavily. +</P> + +<P> +"It beats me, the way young folks do. It was different when I went +courting," Tom muttered, turning to go. +</P> + +<P> +At the door he met Kelly Jones, who had come in to inquire what Jap +intended to do about the "licker" business. He was too busy with his +fall plowing to be running over to Barton for his jug of good cheer, +and he didn't like the brand he could get at Bingham's drug store, on +Doc Connor's prescription. While he was still holding forth, Jap came +in, with half-a-dozen constituents, all busy with the same problem. +Bill took up his notebook and wandered out. At Blanke's drug store he +met Isabel. She motioned for him to come back in the store. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you want to know, Iz?" he asked with the familiarity born of +long years of propinquity. "Reckon you want to ask what everybody else +wants to know—when is Jap going to get a saloon?" +</P> + +<P> +"You are too smart, Bill Bowers," she retorted, with annoyance. She +had had a subject of more personal nature on the tip of her tongue. "I +think that Jap will be able to answer his own questions without any +help from you." +</P> + +<P> +"It is to be hoped that he will make a better stagger at answering than +he does at asking," remarked Bill shortly. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Bill Bowers, just what do you mean?" she demanded, her black eyes +flashing angrily. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the use?" said Bill, in disgust. "Rosy says that she's going +to Kansas this fall, and I just will have to let her go because I can't +ask her to stay." +</P> + +<P> +"Pity about you," she snapped. "Thought you said Jap couldn't ask." +</P> + +<P> +"I did," assented Bill, "for if he had gumption enough to get married, +or even go courting, I might get by. But as long as he sticks alone +I'm going to stick, too." +</P> + +<P> +Isabel's face flamed. She stooped to pick up a hit of paper. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you want to tell me about it for?" she complained. "My +goodness, I'm not to blame." +</P> + +<P> +"You are," stormed Bill. "Jap knows that he is not your equal, and he +never will marry." +</P> + +<P> +"Who said that Jap Herron was not more than the equal of any man on +earth?" she blazed. "If Jap will ask me, I'll marry him to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +She whirled away in her wrath, and ran into the arms of Jap Herron, +standing half paralyzed with the wonder of it. Bill, who had been +watching the unconscious Jap approaching for several minutes, +discreetly withdrew. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee!" he said, "but they ought not to be kissing in such a public +place." +</P> + +<P> +There were a dozen customers in the store, but neither Jap nor Isabel +knew it. And it is to the credit of Bloomtown that they all looked the +other way, as they hurriedly transacted their business and departed. +Blanke declared afterward that he filled fifteen prescriptions with +epsom salts in his abstraction, and accidentally cured Doc Horton's +best paying patient. Moss, the paper hanger, went out with his rolls +of paper, and hung the border on the walls, instead of the siding. The +mistakes reported were legion; but the town was all courting Isabel +with Jap, at heart. +</P> + +<P> +Bill rambled into the bank and suggested that Tom go over to Blanke's +and lead Jap and Isabel out, as Blanke might want to close the store. +Half an hour later Tom came from the drug store, with an arm locked +with each of the glowing pair. Straight across Main street they +marched, and down the shady walk that flanked the little park until +they were opposite the front gate of the Granger home. Then they went +in to break the news to Isabel's invalid mother. +</P> + +<P> +Flossy heard about it, almost before Jap had awakened to his own joy, +and he never knew of the hour she spent in passionate grief. In some +vague way it seemed to tear open the old wound. Without knowing why, +she resented the fact that Isabel's brunette beauty had won Jap. She +told herself that it was not a fitting match for him. Flossy, in her +maternal soul, had looked to heights undreamed of by the retiring boy. +She had planned a future for him that would be sadly hampered by +marriage with a village belle. But only smiles met him when he brought +Isabel to her, his plain features glorified by joy in her possession. +</P> + +<P> +Somehow the story of Jap Herron, the youthful Mayor of Bloomtown, his +advent in its environs, and the story of his romance with the banker's +daughter, crept into the country press, was carried over into the city +papers and flung broadcast, so that friend and foe might seek him out. +One dreary fall day, when the rain was beating sullenly down on the +sodden leaves, a haggard, dirty woman straggled into the office. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm lookin' for Jasper Herron," she mumbled. "They told me I'd find +him in here." +</P> + +<P> +Jap looked at her in horror. His heart sank. +</P> + +<P> +"I am his poor old mother, that he run away from and left to starve," +she said viciously. +</P> + +<P> +And Jap, just on the threshold of his greatest happiness, was turned +aside by this grizzly, drunken phantom from the past. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIV +</H3> + +<P> +Little J. W. crawled out from under Bill's case, his brown eyes wide +with surprise at this vagrant who called Jap "son." +</P> + +<P> +"Run like sin," counselled Bill, in a whisper, "and bring your mother. +She will know what to do." +</P> + +<P> +While the boy went to do his bidding, Bill slipped out of the rear door +of the office and was waiting in front of the bank when Flossy came +hurrying along. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Bill, what has Jap said?" she asked breathlessly. From J. W.'s +lisping description—he always lisped when he was excited—she had come +to fear the worst. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing," said Bill bluntly. "He's sitting at his case, sticking type +as if he was hired by the minute." +</P> + +<P> +"And she—that awful woman?" +</P> + +<P> +"Gee!" Bill spat the word. "You don't know anything yet. Wait till +you lamp her over." +</P> + +<P> +"That bad, Bill?" +</P> + +<P> +"Worse," muttered Bill. And when Flossy came inside and looked into +the little inner office where the woman sprawled, half asleep and +muttering incoherently, the fumes of liquor and the presence of filth +all too evident, her stomach rebelled and she retreated swiftly. +Softly she slipped into the composing room through the wide-open door. +Timidly she approached Jap and touched his arm. He looked at her with +eyes utterly hopeless. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Jap, what can I do!" +</P> + +<P> +"You cannot do anything," his voice flat and emotionless. "No one can. +Could you take her in? No! She is impossible, and yet—she is my +mother. Perhaps if I had stayed with her it would have been different, +so I must make up for it." +</P> + +<P> +Flossy looked into his set face in affright. +</P> + +<P> +"I am going away—with her." Jap's tones were calm. "You can see, +Flossy, that it is the only way. I cannot be Mayor of Ellis's town +with such a disgrace to shame me. I must give up Isabel and—and the +<I>Herald</I>." +</P> + +<P> +Flossy clung to his arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Listen to me, Jap Herron," she cried shrilly. "You shall not do it! +You shall not let this horrible old woman drag you down in the dirt." +</P> + +<P> +Jap smiled sadly. +</P> + +<P> +"What could I do, Flossy? She must be cared for. She has been all +over town. Everybody has seen her. They know the truth, that my +mother is—what she is." +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly he threw himself forward on the case and began to sob, such +hard, racking sobs as might tear his very breast. Flossy threw her +arms around him and cried aloud. Bill stood in the little private +office, looking down upon the snoring woman with a murderous glare. He +turned as Tom Granger came noiselessly from the outer office and stood +beside him. Grief was in Granger's face. +</P> + +<P> +"I heard what Jap said just now," he whispered, "and he is right. It +would be impossible for him to stay with her in the town. She has +ruined Jap." +</P> + +<P> +"You're a gol-dinged fool," shouted Bill, dragging him across the big +office and out of the front door. "Pretty sort of friend you are, +anyway. I'll fight you, or a half-dozen like you, if you murmur a word +like that to Jap." +</P> + +<P> +He whirled as his father ambled up the street, his round face wearing a +grin. +</P> + +<P> +"What is that greasy smirk for?" demanded Bill. "If you have any +business in the <I>Herald</I> office, spit it out." +</P> + +<P> +"I knowed it would come out sooner or later," spluttered Bowers, +shifting his position to avoid a pool in the pavement, left by the +recent rain. "With half an eye, anybody could see the mongrel streak +in——" +</P> + +<P> +He stopped as his son advanced swiftly toward him. +</P> + +<P> +"What kind of a streak?" he threatened. "I dare you to say that again, +and hitch anybody's name to it." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, William," expostulated his father, "you shorely ain't goin' to +have Jap and his mammy hitched up to the <I>Herald</I>? Barton 'll ride +Bloomtown proper." +</P> + +<P> +"It will give Jones a whack at the <I>Herald</I>," suggested Granger mildly. +</P> + +<P> +"And it will be his last whack!" foamed Bill. "For I'll finish him and +his filthy paper before I go to the pen for burning down the <I>Herald</I> +office. The day that Jap Herron leaves the <I>Herald</I>, there will be the +hell-firedest bonfire that Bloomtown ever saw!" His eyes were blazing. +"Get away from here," he cried fiercely, "you—you milksop friends!" +</P> + +<P> +He stopped as Isabel, her eyes swollen from crying, crossed the street. +She had come across the corner of the park, and her face was white and +drawn. Bill stepped up into the doorway and awaited her. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to speak to Jap," she said, as he barred the passage. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you want with him?" Bill demanded truculently. "Because he is +packing all the load now that he can stand, and you ain't going to add +another chip to it. Give me your old engagement ring, and I'll pitch +it in the hell-box. I reckon that's what you came for." +</P> + +<P> +She pushed him aside, her eyes blazing with wrath. +</P> + +<P> +"Get out of my way, Bill Bowers. You never did have any sense. Let me +by!" +</P> + +<P> +She flung herself past him and ran into the composing room. At sight +of Flossy, she paused. Flossy raised her head from Jap's shoulder and +looked defiantly at the girl, but only for a second. She knew, in that +glance. Softly she crept out as Isabel, with a heart-shaking cry, ran +to Jap and threw herself against him. +</P> + +<P> +"Take me in your arms, Jap," she cried stormily, "for I love you." +</P> + +<P> +Jap stared up, dully, for an instant. Then, forgetting all but love, +he opened his arms and clasped her to his heart. Bill rushed outside +after Flossy. +</P> + +<P> +"I never knew that she was the real goods," he said remorsefully, +wiping his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Get a wagon from the grocer," Flossy said, decisive again. "I am +going to take her home with me." +</P> + +<P> +"Meaning that?" Bill flipped his thumb toward Jap's mother. +</P> + +<P> +"Send her up to the house, and I will have a doctor, and some one to +bathe her and clean her up. Maybe after she is clean and sober, she +won't be so dreadful." +</P> + +<P> +When Jap came out of his stupor enough to try to put Isabel away, he +discovered what Flossy had done. With Isabel clinging to him, he +walked with downcast head through the streets that lay between the +<I>Herald</I> office and Flossy's cottage. +</P> + +<P> +His mother was in bed, clean and yet disgusting in her drunken sleep. +He forgot Isabel, silent by his side, as he stood looking down upon the +blotched and sunken face, thinking what thoughts God only knew. He +seemed years older as he walked out again, after the doctor had told +him that nothing could be determined until she had slept the liquor +off. Slowly and silently he and Isabel walked past the row of neat +cottages until they reached Main street. On the corner Jap paused. +</P> + +<P> +"You must go home, Isabel," he said brokenly. "Sweetheart, I +understand, and I know that you are the bravest girl in the world. But +you must leave me now." +</P> + +<P> +"I will not," she declared. "I want you to take me right down to the +office and send for a license. I am going to marry you, and show this +town what I think of you!" +</P> + +<P> +"But I cannot let you," Jap said simply. "I know—you don't." +</P> + +<P> +"Then," said Isabel defiantly, "I will go back to Flossy's and take +care of your mother until you are ready to talk sense." +</P> + +<P> +Jap looked at her helplessly. They were in front of Blanke's drug +store. Jim Blanke stepped outside and grasped Jap's hand. Isabel +looked proudly up at him, her arm drawn tightly through Jap's. As they +passed down the street, citizens sprang up, apparently from nowhere, +and clasped Jap's hand in a fraternal grip. Isabel peered into his +silent face. The tears were streaming unheeded down his cheeks. Her +father frowned as they appeared at the door of the bank. +</P> + +<P> +"Papa," she called resolutely, "you coming with us?" +</P> + +<P> +He stood gnawing at his lips, his face overcast. An instant he battled +with his pride and his love for the boy. Then, with his old +heartiness, he clapped Jap on the shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Straighten your shoulders, lad. We're all your friends!" And the +storm cloud lightened. +</P> + +<P> +All that night Jap paced the floor of the office, while Bill, too +sympathetic for sleep, tossed in the room above and swore at fate. It +was noon the next day when little J. W. came in to say that Mrs. Herron +was awake and wanted to see her son. +</P> + +<P> +She was half sitting among the pillows when Jap entered. Flossy had +drawn the muslin curtains, to soften the garish light as it fell on her +seamed and shame-scarred face. She peered up at him from blood-shot, +sunken eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"You look like your pappy's folks, Jasper," she croaked. "And they +tell me you air a fine, likely boy, and follerin' in the trade of your +gran'pap. I wisht that I had a known where you was, long ago. I have +had a hard life, Jasper. Your step-pa beat me, and that's more'n your +pappy ever done. He died of the trimmins, three year ago, and I have +been wanderin' every since, huntin' my childurn. But Aggie's a bigbug +now, and she drove me off. And Fanny's goin' to a fine music school, +and sent me word that she'd have me put in a sanitary if I bothered +her. She saw a piece about you in the paper, and sent it to me. So I +tramped thirty mile to come." +</P> + +<P> +Her face was pathetic in its misery. She sank back in the pillows and +closed her eyes. Jap leaned down and drew the covers tenderly over her +arms. She opened her eyes, at the touch, and looked up at him sadly. +</P> + +<P> +"Thanky, Jasper," she mumbled, "You be-ant mad?" +</P> + +<P> +He patted her cheek softly, and the sunken eyes lighted with a smile of +weary contentment. Then the lids fluttered, like the last effort of a +spent candle, and she slept. Like one in the maze of a vague, +uncertain dream, Jap went back to the office. Unconsciously he took +the familiar way, through the alley. Automatically he climbed to his +stool and began setting up the editorial that had been interrupted by +his mother's coming the previous day. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +At sunset Bill touched his shoulder softly. Jap raised his head from +his hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Your—your mother never woke up after you left her, Jap," he said +huskily. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XV +</H3> + +<P> +Bill looked up as a long, lank form glided surreptitiously into the +office. +</P> + +<P> +"Been a long time since you drifted our way," he commented, as the form +resolved itself into the six-foot length of Kelly Jones. +</P> + +<P> +"Might' nigh three month," averred Kelly grimly. "I've been tradin' +over at Barton. Couldn't stand for Jap's damfoolishness. Had to buy +my licker there, and just traded there. It's twelve mile from my farm +to Barton, and four mile to Bloomtown. Spring's comin' on, and work to +do. I hate to take that trip every time the wife needs a spool o' +thread. Did you get my letter, sayin' to stop the paper?" +</P> + +<P> +"Stopped it, didn't we?" queried Bill crisply, scattering the type from +the financial report of Bloomtown into the case. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," assented Kelly, "you did. What'd you do it for?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not forcing the <I>Herald</I> on anybody," announced Bill glibly. "Got +past that. We used to hold 'em up and feed the <I>Herald</I> to them, but +we don't have to do it now." +</P> + +<P> +"I hear tell that Jap made Tim Simpson night marshal. Why, he run a +blind tiger beyond the water tank," exclaimed Kelly. "I reckon Jap +didn't know that." +</P> + +<P> +"Just because he did know it, he made Tim night marshal," declared +Bill, flinging the last type into the box and descending from the +stool. "Just you stroll down the tracks in either direction, and see +if you can find a whisker or a tawny hair from the tip of any tiger's +tail lying loose along the way. Jap knows several things, Kelly, my +boy, and he is fighting fire with fire. Tim Simpson understands the +operations of the kind of menagerie that usually flourishes in a dry +town, and Jap put him on his honor. He's so conscientious that he goes +over to Barton to get full. He won't drink it here. He's got pride in +making Bloomtown the whitest town in the state. But explain the return +of the prodigal. How come your feet in our dust again?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Kelly shamefacedly, "the wife said that I was a durn fool. +I stopped the <I>Herald</I> and subscribed for the <I>Standard</I>—and a pretty +standard it is! While Jap Herron was cleanin' up, it was slingin' muck +at him. The wife read it, and one day she goes up to Barton and starts +an argument with Jones. I reckon she had the last word. If she +didn't, it was the fu'st time. She come home so rip-snortin' mad that +she threatened to lick me if I didn't tackle Jones. Well, to keep +peace in the family, I run in to see him the next time I went to +Barton. Well, Jones put it up to me, if Jap was doin' much for +Bloomtown in havin' unlicensed drug stores, instid of regular saloons." +</P> + +<P> +"Sure sign that you don't know the news," said Bill, unfolding a copy +of the <I>Herald</I>. "Since last Saturday night there has been only one +drug store in Bloomtown. That's Blanke's, and Jim Blanke wouldn't sell +liquor on anybody's prescription but Doc Hall's, and Doc Hall would let +you die of snake-bite, if nothing but whiskey would cure you. Any +other drug stores that may open up in this town 'll have to pattern +after Blanke's or out they go." +</P> + +<P> +Kelly took the paper up and scanned its columns. He snorted. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I do declare! I see that might' nigh all the doctors have +packed up and are threatenin' to leave town. Well, there wa'n't enough +doctorin' to keep twenty of 'em in cash nohow." +</P> + +<P> +"You ought to have heard Jap's speech when they were putting a plea for +local option," said Bill. "My pap has carried a sore ear against Jap's +reign ever since he was elected to fill out that unexpired term, and he +stirred up a lot of bellyaches among the guzzlers. It was a sickening +mess, because the whole town knows that my daddy can't stand even the +smell of liquor. It wouldn't be so bad—so hypocritical, if he really +liked it and was used to it. As I was telling you, he and the old +booze gang had been burning the midnight dip to plan a crimp for Mayor +Herron, when that local option idea struck him. Well, Jap got up and +made a speech, calling their attention to the bonds we voted, and the +sound financial condition back of those bonds; the granitoid pavement +on Main street, the electric light plant that's going up, and the water +works, and sewers that are under way—all managed since the town went +dry. Then he nominated Tom Granger for mayor, and what do you reckon +they did?" +</P> + +<P> +"Seein' as how he ain't mayor," said Kelly, with a twinkle, "I allow +they done nothin'." +</P> + +<P> +"Why," said Bill, his brown eyes kindling, "they arose as one man and +yelled, 'We want Jap Herron!' and that settled it." +</P> + +<P> +The farmer stood in the middle of the office, his arms gesticulating +and his head bobbing with animation, as Jap hurried in. He gazed at +the back of Kelly's familiar slicker incredulously. +</P> + +<P> +"What!" he hailed joyously, "our old friend of the sorghum barrel! +Where have you been hibernating? Surely a cure for sore eyes," and Jap +seized his shoulder and whirled him around so that he could grasp his +hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Chipmunking in Barton," prompted Bill. "This sadly misguided farmer +has been lost but now is found." +</P> + +<P> +"The Missus sent a package to Miss Flossy. You and Bill 'll eat it, I +reckon," and he produced a parcel from his pocket. "She said if Ellis +was here, he'd appreciate it. It's sausage that she made herself. +And—and she sent a dollar for the paper. She wants the <I>Herald</I>." +</P> + +<P> +"And what about Kelly?" Jap asked, a wave of memory sweeping over him. +</P> + +<P> +"Just you write it down that Kelly Jones is a yaller pup," said Kelly +morosely. +</P> + +<P> +"Never!" declared Jap heartily. "Misled, perhaps, but with a heart of +gold." +</P> + +<P> +Kelly groped for his handkerchief. +</P> + +<P> +"I've got on the water wagon, Jap," he sniffled. "I reckon I kin get +along without the stuff. Sary hid my jug, and I done 'thout it for a +week, and I felt fine. I am goin' to make a stagger at it, if I do +fall down." +</P> + +<P> +Jap pushed him into a chair. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, you old rascal," he cried, "you have backbone enough to do +anything you will to do. Move into town and help us turn the wheels." +</P> + +<P> +Kelly wiped his nose on the tail of his slicker as he started for the +door. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't happen to need any basses, do you?" he grinned. +</P> + +<P> +Jap flung an empty ink bottle after him. When quiet had returned to +the office, he said, as he hung his hat on the nail: +</P> + +<P> +"Isabel wants to learn to stick type." +</P> + +<P> +"Funny," said Bill shortly, "so does Rosy, and they hate each other +like Pap hates beer. Pretty mix-up we'll have on our hands." +</P> + +<P> +"That's all nonsense, Bill. Rosy can't help liking Isabel." +</P> + +<P> +Bill scanned the copy on his hook, his eyes narrowing. +</P> + +<P> +"Appears like she can," he muttered. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Bill, this won't do," argued Jap earnestly. "We can't afford to +have dissension in such a vital matter. You must talk to Rosy." +</P> + +<P> +"You can have the job," waived Bill, picking up a type. "Isabel said +that Rosy was shallow and only skin-deep, and Rosy heard about it. +Isabel Granger is not so much——" +</P> + +<P> +He stopped abruptly as Jap's hand went up in pained alarm. +</P> + +<P> +"Look here, Bill, are we going to let the chatter of women come between +us? There is something deeper holding us together than the friendship +of a day. Give me your hand, Bill, and tell me that it is Ellis's work +and not these trifles that you care for. We have a work to do, you and +I." +</P> + +<P> +Bill threw the stick upon the case and grasped Jap's outstretched hand. +Tears glistened in his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Better than all the loves in the world, I love you, Jap," he stormed. +Jerking his hat from the nail, he strode out to walk off the +emotionalism he decried. +</P> + +<P> +That afternoon he strove manfully to show Isabel how to put type in the +stick upside down, and to save her feelings he stealthily corrected her +faulty work, suppressing a grin at Jap's pride in her first attempt. +Bill shook his head sadly as they strolled out together, Jap's eyes +drinking in the girl's slender beauty. +</P> + +<P> +"Petticoat government 'll get old Jap tripped up," he complained to the +office cat. "And then where'll I be? When Jap marries I'll play +second fiddle. Come seven, come 'leven!" and he snapped his fingers in +the air. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVI +</H3> + +<P> +The sun was streaming through the east windows. Jap looked anxiously +up and down the street. Bill had not been home all night. This was a +state of affairs alarming to Jap. He walked back to the table and +turned the exchanges over restlessly. +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder if the boy could have persuaded that butterfly to elope with +him, as he threatened he would, when her mother cut up so rough," he +worried. +</P> + +<P> +Tim Simpson came in and peered around furtively. +</P> + +<P> +"Bill is drunk as a lord," he announced in a stage whisper. "I've got +him in the back room of the calaboose, to sober up without the news +leakin'." +</P> + +<P> +Jap paled. +</P> + +<P> +"Bill drunk?" he faltered. "Who got him into it? Is he asleep, Tim?" +</P> + +<P> +"Lord, no! If he was, I would 'a' left him out when he come to, and +said no word to you about it. But I'm plum scared about him. He's +chargin' up and down like a Barnum lion. I reckon as how you'd better +mosey down there and try to ca'm him." +</P> + +<P> +As Jap walked rapidly down the alley beside the night marshal, he asked: +</P> + +<P> +"Did you try to talk to him?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Simpson ruefully. "He kicked me out and was chasin' after +me when I slammed the door on him. He's blind crazy loaded. I fu'st +seen him after number nine pulled in, so I think he come on her. He +was mutterin' and shakin' his fist when he hove in sight. I got him +and steered him into the jug without much trouble, and it was only a +hour ago that he started this ragin' and ravin'." +</P> + +<P> +As they entered the jail, sounds of tramping feet and mutterings +reached their ears. Bill's swollen, blotched face and reddened eyes +appeared behind the grating. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me out of here!" he shouted. "You'll get a broken head for this, +you old mule." He shook the grating furiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Bill," said Jap slowly, "do you want to come with me, or do you want +me to stay here with you till you've had a bath and a good sleep?" +</P> + +<P> +Bill laughed discordantly. +</P> + +<P> +"A sleep! A sleep!" he cried. "Yes, a long, long sleep. As soon as +you take me out of this hell-hole, I'll take a sleep that'll last." +</P> + +<P> +Jap opened the door and stepped inside. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't come any nearer," warned Bill. "I'm too filthy, Jap. But let +me stay as I am till it's over." +</P> + +<P> +He sat down on the cot and stared crazily into the corridor. Jap sat +down beside him and drew his arm around his shoulder, with the +tenderness of a woman. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me about it, Bill, boy," he counselled gently. "Tim, you may +leave us." +</P> + +<P> +Bill sat a long time, staring sullenly at the floor. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, this is a hell of a display for me to bring to Bloomtown," he +declared at last. "I should have ended it in Jones's town. If I +hadn't been so dumb with rotgut that I didn't know what I was doing, I +would be furnishing some excitement for the Bartonites this morning. +The finest place in the world to die in—it isn't fit to live in." +</P> + +<P> +Jap shook him briskly. +</P> + +<P> +"Straighten up, Bill, and tell me what kind of a mess you have been in." +</P> + +<P> +Bill laughed wildly. After a moment he dragged a letter from his +pocket. Jap read: +</P> + +<P> +"When you read this, I will be the wife of Wilfred Jones, the Editor of +the Barton <I>Standard</I>. Maybe you will be pleased? I prefer to marry a +real editor, not the half of Jap Herron." +</P> + +<P> +The letter was signed, "Rosalie," but the affectation carried none of +the elements of a disguise. To Jap it was the crowning insult. +Crushing the silly note in his hand, he threw it from him. Standing +up, he drew Bill to his feet. +</P> + +<P> +"We are going home," he said curtly. "When you are sober I will tell +you how disappointed I am in my brother." +</P> + +<P> +The news that Bill had been jilted spread over Bloomtown like fire in a +stubble-field, and deep resentment greeted the announcement that Jones +of the <I>Standard</I> had scored another notch against the <I>Herald</I>. +</P> + +<P> +Bill, sullen and defiant, had battled it out in the room above the +office. All the vagaries of a sick mind were his. Murder, suicide, +mysterious disappearance, chased each other across the field of his +vision, and ever the specter of suicide returned to grin at him. For a +day and a night Jap sat beside his bed, talking, soothing, comforting. +Finally he made this compact: +</P> + +<P> +"To show you that I love you better than myself, Bill, I am going to +promise that I will not marry until you are cured of this blow. Not a +word, Bill! Happiness would turn to ashes if I accepted it at your +cost. How far I am to blame in your trouble, I can only guess. I am +not going to preach philosophy. I am only going to plead my love for +you." +</P> + +<P> +He took the revolver from the drawer and laid it on the table beside +Bill. +</P> + +<P> +"If you are the boy I think you are, you will be sticking type when I +come back from Flossy's. If you are a coward, I will not grieve to +find you have taken the soul that God gave you and flung it at His +feet." +</P> + +<P> +Not trusting himself to look back, he hurried down the stairs. His +heart was heavy with dread as he locked the office and walked blindly +to the cottage where all his problems had been carried. He could not +talk to Flossy, but, sitting beside her on the little front porch, he +fought the mad impulse to run back to the office. He strained his ears +for the sound that he was praying not to hear. +</P> + +<P> +Two hours he sat there, fighting with his fears, the longest hours of +his life. Flossy sat as silent. No one knew Jap as Flossy did. +Smoothing his tumbled hair and stroking his tightly clenched hands were +her only expressions. Futile indeed would words be now. The tragedy +that hovered over them both must work itself out. +</P> + +<P> +A whistle shrilled from the road. Jap sprang up with a strangled cry, +as Wat Harlow came through the gate. His face was stern. +</P> + +<P> +"Bill allowed that this is where I'd find you, chatting your valuable +time away," he chaffed. Then the mask of his countenance broke into a +grin. +</P> + +<P> +"Is Bill in the office?" Jap's lips were so stiff he could scarcely +articulate. +</P> + +<P> +"Sure he is," said Harlow cheerfully. "He wants you to ramble down +there." +</P> + +<P> +"There's a hen on, Jap," he confided, after they had taken leave of +Flossy. "We'll try to hatch something this time. I'm going to get in +the game again. You know the old saying: 'You mustn't keep a good dog +chained up.'" +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" queried Jap, his thoughts springing space and picturing what +Bill might be doing. Wat was discreetly silent until they had passed +through town and were inside the office. Bill, pale and haggard, +looked up from his desk. He extended the paper he was writing on. Jap +took it without a word. +</P> + +<P> +"WAT HARLOW FOR GOVERNOR!" +</P> + +<P> +"How's that for a head?" he demanded. "If we're going into this thing, +we might as well go with both feet." +</P> + +<P> +He looked into Jap's face. Their eyes met. With one voice they cried: +</P> + +<P> +"Ellis!" +</P> + +<P> +"'When Harlow runs for governor,'" Jap quoted tremulously, "'you will +boom him. Till then, nothing doing in the Halls of Justice.' Bill, +Ellis was a prophet. He even knew that he wouldn't be in the game. +Wat, we'll put you across this time." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and it'll be a nasty fight," Wat returned, as Bill leaned over +and picked nervously at the ears of the office cat. "We've got Bronson +Jones to buck up against, in all political probability. He's almost +sure of the nomination." +</P> + +<P> +"Just who is Bronson Jones?" Jap asked. "Seems to me I ought to place +him. He's been in the papers down in the southwestern part of the +state a good deal." +</P> + +<P> +"He's the smooth proposition that came back here a couple of years ago +and bought back his old newspaper for his son and has managed up to the +present time to keep his own name discreetly out of that same paper," +vouchsafed Harlow. "He won't let it leak out till the psychological +moment. He's the daddy of the split-hoofed imp of Satan that runs the +Barton <I>Standard</I>!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVII +</H3> + +<P> +Jap threw his pencil impatiently on the desk. +</P> + +<P> +"I can't get my thoughts running clear this morning," he said abruptly. +"Every time I try to write, the pale face of little J. W. comes between +me and the page." +</P> + +<P> +"They're back from the city," Bill said uneasily. "I saw them coming +from the train. I fully meant to tell you, Jap." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope the specialist has quieted Flossy's fears." Jap ran his +fingers through his loose red locks. "The boy is growing too fast. +Why, look at the way he has shot up in the last year. Ellis told me +that he ran up like a bean pole, the way I did, and just as thin. J. +W. is exactly like him." +</P> + +<P> +"And Ellis died at forty——" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't, Bill," Jap choked. "I can't bear it." He walked to the door +and gazed out into the hazy silver autumn air. +</P> + +<P> +"This weather is like wine," he declared. "It will set the boy up, +fine as a fiddle. You must remember, Bill, that Ellis impoverished his +system by the life of hardship he was forced to endure while the town +was growing. The things he used to tell were humorous enough, the +droll way he had of telling them. But they break our hearts when we +think of them now, and know that it was that privation that killed him. +It was bad enough here when I was a youngster, and that was luxury to +what he had had. J. W. has not had such a handicap. Of course he was +a delicate baby, but he certainly outgrew all that." +</P> + +<P> +Bill was discreetly silent. He knew that Jap was only arguing with his +fears. In the early summer, J. W. had been acutely ill, and as the +heat progressed, he languished with headache and fever. In the end, +Dr. Hall had counselled taking him to a noted specialist in the city. +</P> + +<P> +"Better take a run up to Flossy's," Bill suggested. "You'll be better +satisfied." +</P> + +<P> +Jap took a copy of the <I>Herald</I> from the table and went out. All the +way along Spring street he strove with his anxiety. Flossy met him on +the porch. One glance was enough for Jap. He sat down, helpless, on +the lower step. +</P> + +<P> +"J. W. is tired out and asleep," said Flossy softly. "Come with me, +Jap, down to the arbor. You remember the day that Ellis told you the +truth about himself?" +</P> + +<P> +Jap followed her beneath the grape trellis, stumbling clumsily. When +they reached the arbor, with its bench and rustic table, she faced him, +slender to attenuation. +</P> + +<P> +"Jap," she said brokenly, "J. W. has tuberculosis in the worst form. +His entire body is filled with it. He contracted it while we were with +Ellis—and we never knew, never suspected——" Her voice broke. "Not +even a miracle can prolong his life longer than spring. The doctors +insisted on examining me, too. They say I have it, in incipiency, and +my only chance of escape is to leave my boy to the care of others. +Under the right conditions they say I have a fighting chance." +</P> + +<P> +"You are sure that you have every advice?" Jap's voice was so hoarse +that she looked up at him in alarm. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Jap, but I knew it before. Months ago, even before he was so +sick in the summer, I had a dream, and this was my dream: Ellis, with +that beautiful smile that every one loved, was waiting out there at the +gate, and I was hurrying to get the boy ready to go with him. I knew, +when I awoke, that he was ready to wait our boy's coming. Oh, Jap, do +you think that smile was for me, too?" +</P> + +<P> +The look of agony in Jap's sensitive face was more than she could bear. +She clutched his arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Jap, pray—help me to pray that he was waiting for me, too. The +time has been so long. I want to be with my boy to the last. You +understand, Jap. I don't believe that words are needed." +</P> + +<P> +He put his arms around her. He could not speak, but his head bent +above hers and the hot tears dropped upon her brown hair, now streaked +with gray. +</P> + +<P> +"I have done the work he wanted me to do," she sobbed. "He wanted me +to be a mother until you were on the plane he had planned. Like the +butterfly whose day is done, Jap, I would go. I am so tired, and—boy, +I have never ceased to long for Ellis. The world could not supply +another soul like his." +</P> + +<P> +"Flossy," Jap said in smothered tones, "I know. I have walked the +floor for hours, missing him until I was almost frantic. But, little +Mother, what is left to me if you go? Without you, I am drifting +again." +</P> + +<P> +"I would fear that, if I had never seen into the deeps of Isabel's +nature. And to think that I once decried—but I didn't understand, +Jap. When your mother came, there was a revelation. I don't fear for +your future now. And when I knew this, I suddenly felt tired and old. +I pray not to survive my boy." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The following morning brought the first fall rain. And then, for +endless weeks, the leaden sky drooped over the world. Dreary +depression and the penetrating chill of approaching winter filled the +air. Only the unwonted pressure of work kept the boys from brooding +over the inevitable that would come with the spring-time. To relieve +Flossy of all unnecessary burdens, Jap and Bill went to the hotel for +their meals, but every evening one or the other went to sit with her. +At length there came a time, late in November, when the office work was +more than both of them could handle, and for several days the visits +were interrupted. +</P> + +<P> +"Flossy is sick," announced Bill, hanging his dripping raincoat behind +the door. "I saw Pap just now, and he told me. He and his wife were +there all night. He says that J. W. has been so bad off for a week, +has had such bad spells at night, that Flossy has hardly slept, and +yesterday she broke down and sent for Pap. He took Doc Hall along, and +they are afraid she has pneumonia." +</P> + +<P> +Jap threw his paper aside. +</P> + +<P> +"Why didn't we know that J. W. was worse?" he demanded. "I sent some +one to inquire every morning while we had the big rush on, and Flossy +said that they were all right. I thought that she was going to take +him to the mountains." +</P> + +<P> +"I guess that she didn't know how sick he was," commented Bill. "Pap +was to haul the trunks to-morrow, as Flossy told us. She wanted to +start on Sunday so that you and I could go as far as Cliffton with her. +She knew we were working overtime to get things cleaned up." +</P> + +<P> +Jap put on his raincoat, for it was pouring a deluge. +</P> + +<P> +"I will not be back if Flossy needs me," he said. +</P> + +<P> +For three days and nights he hovered over the two sick-beds, while the +wind soughed mournfully around the cottage, and the rain dripped, +dripped, dripped, like tears against the wall outside. Neighbors and +friends volunteered their services. Bill and Isabel came as often as +was possible; but when all the others had gone, Jap kept his solemn +vigil alone. On the afternoon of the fourth day, there was a sudden +turn for the worse. Dr. Hall was hastily summoned. And then, all at +once, without any seeming warning, it happened. +</P> + +<P> +The last gasping breath faded from the body of Ellis's child, and as +Jap leaned over to close the wide, staring eyes, he could hear the +rasping breaths that rent Flossy's bosom, as she lay unconscious in the +next room. +</P> + +<P> +"With God's help we may pull her through," whispered Isabel, twining +her arms around his neck. He turned stony eyes of grief upon her. +</P> + +<P> +"If God helps, He will let her go with J. W. to meet Ellis," he said in +a voice strained to breaking. +</P> + +<P> +He drew the girl from the chamber of death, and sat down beside +Flossy's bed. He caught one fluttering, fever-burned hand in his, and +the restless muttering ceased. Then the eyes opened. They seemed to +be looking not at Jap but above him. +</P> + +<P> +"Ellis!" she cried, and slept. +</P> + +<P> +"When she awakes, she will be better or——" Dr. Hall broke off, and +went over to the window. "It's the crisis," he finished huskily. +</P> + +<P> +Flossy, in her quiet, optimistic bravery, had made her place in the +hearts of her townspeople. Isabel knelt beside her, watching Jap's +face, with its unnatural calm, fearfully. She dared not speak. Bill +stood awkwardly at the foot of the bed, his cap twirling uncertainly in +his hand. His eyes shifted uneasily from the thin, white face on the +pillow to the frozen features of Jap. A clock ticked loudly. +</P> + +<P> +The thick gloom broke. A tiny linnet that Jap had given Flossy +fluttered to the swing in its cage and burst, all at once, into song, +and a vagrant sunbeam darted through the western clouds. Flossy opened +her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Jap," she gasped painfully, "is this the thing called Death, this +uplift of joy?" +</P> + +<P> +The doctor raised her in his arms and gave her a few sips of medicine. +She was easier. She motioned Jap to bend closer. +</P> + +<P> +"Is he gone?" she asked clearly. "Is my boy with his father?" +</P> + +<P> +Jap kissed her forehead gently. +</P> + +<P> +"He is with Ellis," he whispered. +</P> + +<P> +"Then I thank You, great Giver of all Good," she cried happily, "for I +can go now." She summoned Bill with her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"I want you to make the boy very proud of the men he was named for," +she smiled. It was a smile of heavenly beauty, as the pure soul of +Ellis Hinton's wife flew to join her loved ones. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVIII +</H3> + +<P> +Bill and Isabel led Jap from the room as the doctor drew the sheet over +Flossy's face. Together the three left the cottage. In dazed silence +they walked past the row of modest homes until the business street was +reached. Across Main street they went, in stony silence, the girl +clinging to an arm of each of her escorts. In front of the elm-shaded +residence of Tom Granger, now stark and bare in its late autumn +undress, they paused. Isabel, unheedful of the passing crowd, threw +her arms around Jap's neck and kissed him passionately. A moment he +held her in his arms, his tearless eyes burning. And in her awakened +woman's heart, she knew that he was looking through her, beholding the +trio of adored ones whose influence had made his heart a fitting +habitation for her own. And in that consciousness Isabel Granger +experienced no twinge of jealousy. +</P> + +<P> +Silently she walked up the brick-paved path to the stately old house, +as Jap and Bill turned back toward Main street. When they reached the +office, they locked the door behind them. With the mechanical action +of automata, they climbed to their stools and threw the belated issue +of the <I>Herald</I> into type. +</P> + +<P> +"Bill, can you do it?" Jap asked at length. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll do my best," Bill said huskily. And his tears wet the type as he +set up a brief obituary notice. +</P> + +<P> +The morning of the funeral broke clear and sunny, as fall days come. +The air was clear and sounds echoed for long distances. It was a +joyous new day, and yet a threnody swept through its music. Something +of this Jap and Bill felt as they hurried to the house of Death. Judge +Bowers met them at the door. His face was red and overcast. He +shifted uneasily. +</P> + +<P> +"I sent for you, because we have to fix things decently for Flossy." +</P> + +<P> +"Decently?" echoed Bill. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, yes. Ma and me got the caskets and all that. Everything's +'tended to, but the service. You know Flossy was a free-thinker, and +never belonged to no church." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what of it?" Bill said shortly. +</P> + +<P> +"We have got to get somebody to preach a sermon," asserted the Judge, +his flaccid face showing real concern. "I don't see how we are going +to manage it. It looks queer to ask anybody to preach over a +non-professor." +</P> + +<P> +"Why do it then?" Bill's tone was enigmatic, as he followed Jap into +the little parlor where the effects of the Judge's work were apparent. +</P> + +<P> +Side by side stood the caskets, each one holding a jewel more precious +than any diadem. Jap sat down between them, dumb to the greetings of +the friends who came for a last look at the two set faces, and there he +sat until the afternoon. The room was half filled with people when the +Judge aroused him by a sharp grip on his arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, Jap," he whispered huskily, "they have come for them." +</P> + +<P> +"Who?" asked Jap, tonelessly. +</P> + +<P> +"The hearses," said the Judge, his flabby cheeks trembling. +</P> + +<P> +Jap walked outside and climbed into the carriage with Bill, and +together they went to the church where Ellis had met his townsmen for +the last time. It was the handsome new church whose claim on her +brother's generosity had called forth from Flossy such righteous +resentment. Mechanically the two young men followed the usher to the +pew that had been set apart for them. Vaguely Jap smiled at Isabel as +she passed him, clinging to the arm of her father. As in a dream, he +followed her slender form as she took her accustomed place at the +organ. Clutching the arm of the seat, he sat there, deaf, dumb and +blind, until the wailing notes of the organ appraised him that the +service was beginning. +</P> + +<P> +He turned his head as a heavy, rolling sound reached him, and looked +upon the most heart-shaking sight in the history of the town: two +coffins traveling up the aisles to meet at the altar. Sick and faint, +he turned his head away. Bill's arm crept around him, while Bill +sobbed aloud. +</P> + +<P> +Frozen to silence, Jap stared at the boxes containing all that linked +him to his past. Stony-eyed, he gazed at the masses of flowers, +casually admiring the gorgeous chrysanthemums and the pink glory of the +carnations. He even read, with calm curiosity, the card of sympathy +hanging from one of the floral offerings on Flossy's casket. Then he +sank into blunt indifference until he was aroused by Bill's start. +</P> + +<P> +He looked up dully. The minister was praying—and his prayer was for +forgiveness for Flossy. +</P> + +<P> +"She was a wanderer from grace," the ominous voice droned, "but Thou +who didst forgive the thief on the cross wilt grant her mercy." +</P> + +<P> +Bill clasped his hands fiercely over Jap's arm. His breath hissed +through his set teeth. Jap sat upright, his gray eyes searching the +face of the man of God, as he drawled through a flock of platitudes, +promising in the end that on the last great day Flossy and her son +would be called by the trump to arise, purified and forgiven. +</P> + +<P> +Wiping his forehead complacently, he sat down. +</P> + +<P> +Jap Herron arose to his feet and walked to the coffin of the only +mother he had ever known. Facing the assembly, he said in low, clear +tones: +</P> + +<P> +"Friends of mine, friends of Flossy and her boy, and friends of Ellis +Hinton, you have listened to this minister. Now you must listen to me. +I knew Flossy. Some of you knew her, but none as I did. She had no +religion, he says. Flossy Hinton's life was a religion. What is +religion? Love, faith and works. Dare any of you claim that she had +not all of these? If such soul as hers needs help to carry it through +the ramparts of heaven, then God help all of you. +</P> + +<P> +"She will not sleep until a trumpet calls her! No! Alive and vital +and everlasting, her soul is with us now. Did Ellis Hinton sleep? He +has never been away. He has dwelt right here, in the hearts of all who +loved him. Friends, dry your eyes if you grieve for the sins of +Flossy." +</P> + +<P> +Raising his hand above the casket, as if in benediction, and looking +into the face beneath the glass, he said brokenly: +</P> + +<P> +"A saint she lived among us. In heaven she could be no more." +</P> + +<P> +The descending sun shot a ray of white light across the church, as it +sank below the opaque designs in the gorgeous memorial window that +flanked the choir. A moment later it would be crimson, then purple, +then amber; but for an instant it filtered through pure, untinted +glass. Creeping stealthily, the white ray reached the space in front +of the altar and rested a moment on the still face within the casket. +To Jap it seemed that the lips that had always smiled for him relaxed +into a smile of transcendent beauty. Entranced he looked, forgetting +all else. Then the strength of his young manhood crumbled. The hinges +of his knees gave way, and he sank to the floor. +</P> + +<P> +Bill sprang to his side and carried him to a seat. Isabel, half +distracted, started from her place at the organ. As she passed, the +white face in the coffin met her eyes. She stopped. A tide of feeling +swept her back, back from Jap, whose limp form called her. The song +that Flossy had loved came singing to her lips. Inspired in that +moment, she stood beside the coffin and sang, as never before, the +words that had comforted Flossy in her years of loneliness: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Somewhere the stars are shining,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Somewhere the song birds dwell.</SPAN><BR> +Cease then thy sad repining!<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">God lives, and all is well."</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Her face was glorified. She sang to that silent one, and to the world +that had been hers. In a dream she sang on, as the mother and her boy +were taken from her sight, sang on while the people silently departed. +"Somewhere, somewhere," she sang, +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Beautiful isle of Somewhere,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Isle of the true, where we live anew,</SPAN><BR> +Beautiful isle of Somewhere."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Her voice broke as uncontrollable sobs rent her slender body, and she +sank against the shoulder of her father and followed Bill from the +church. Half-a-dozen kindly hands were carrying Jap outside. +</P> + +<P> +The long line of carriages had already started on its way to the little +plot of ground where two fern-lined graves awaited the loved ones of +Ellis Hinton. The horses of the remaining carriage pawed the ground +restlessly in the sharp November air. +</P> + +<P> +"Better take him to his room in a hurry," Dr. Hall commanded. "The boy +has been through too much. I was afraid of this." +</P> + +<P> +"You can't take him to that dreary office," Isabel pleaded. "Papa, +tell Dr. Hall what to do." +</P> + +<P> +And, as always, she had her way. In the sunny south room above the +library, with the shadows of the stark elms doing grotesque dances on +the window panes, with Isabel and her mother hovering in tender +solicitude over him, Jap Herron tossed for weeks in the delirium of +fever, calling always for Flossy. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIX +</H3> + +<P> +"Mr. Bowers wants to talk to you," Isabel said, smoothing Jap's limp +hair from his haggard face. "He has been here every day for a week, +and Mamma wouldn't hear to his bothering you, especially as you had +concluded that you must talk to Bill about the office." +</P> + +<P> +"Let him come," said Jap wearily. +</P> + +<P> +The Judge tramped heavily into the bedroom. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to talk to you about Flossy's affairs," he declared, dropping +into a chair and blowing his nose. +</P> + +<P> +Jap's face flushed, then paled. He lifted one thin hand to his eyes +and leaned back in the pillows. +</P> + +<P> +"I sent for Bill to meet me here and have Brent Roberts read Flossy's +will." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" Jap's voice rasped with pain. +</P> + +<P> +"You have been sick nigh a month," said the Judge, "and there's a power +o' things that oughter be seen to, and Brent refused to read Flossy's +will till you could hear it. I want to settle the bills." +</P> + +<P> +Isabel slipped her arm around Jap's shoulder and glared at the Judge. +</P> + +<P> +"You ought to be ashamed," she cried. "Jap is not strong enough to be +bothered with business." +</P> + +<P> +Jap put her aside gently and sat up. +</P> + +<P> +"The Judge is right, sweetheart," he said. "I will not be tired with +doing anything for—for her." +</P> + +<P> +He covered his face with his hands. Bill entered softly. His brows +lowered at sight of his father. +</P> + +<P> +"What did you want with me and Roberts?" he queried shortly. +</P> + +<P> +"It is all right, Bill," Jap said brokenly. "It will hurt whenever it +comes, so let's get it done." +</P> + +<P> +After the will was read Jap lay silent, the tears slipping down his +cheeks, for Flossy's will gave all that she possessed to her son, Jap +Herron. It was made the day after she knew that her own child was +doomed to an early death. +</P> + +<P> +They filed slowly from the room, even the Judge awed by the face of the +boy. +</P> + +<P> +The New Year had turned the corner when Jap was moved to the office. +Little by little he grew back into harness. They did not talk of +Flossy in those early days. It was not possible. One chill spring +day, when the grass was greening, and the first blossoms were opening +among the hyacinths on Ellis's grave, Jap walked with Bill to the +cemetery. He bent above the dried wreaths with their faded ribbons, +sodden and dinged by the winter's snows. +</P> + +<P> +"Throw them away, Bill," he choked. "They are the tawdry tokens of +mourning. I am trying to forget that mourning." +</P> + +<P> +Bill gathered the dry bundles and carried them away. Coming back, he +stood looking mournfully upon the muddy sod. Jap raised his eyes +suddenly, and they gazed for a long minute into each other's hearts. +Bill threw his hands over his eyes and cried aloud. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't, Bill!" Jap's hand clutched him tightly. "For God's sake, help +me to be a man!" +</P> + +<P> +And forgetting the sodden grass, they knelt beside the grave and sobbed +together in an abandon of grief. Boys they were, despite their years, +and Flossy had been more to them than the mother whom youth is prone to +take for granted. When the tempest of sorrow and desolation had spent +itself they arose. +</P> + +<P> +"It is done," said Jap, looking up into the sky where the stars were +beginning to twinkle palely. "It had to be done. Now I can realize +that they laid Flossy beneath the earth. But, please God, I can forget +it. Now I know that she has left the beautiful shell behind. But, +Bill," he touched the mound with his fingers, "Flossy has never been +here, never for an instant." +</P> + +<P> +"She is in heaven," said Bill reverently. +</P> + +<P> +Jap laid his arm around Bill's shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't believe that, Bill. You know better. Flossy is right with +us, as Ellis has always been. Just as he has inspired us to develop +his paper and his town, so she will stay with us, to create good and +optimism and faith in ourselves. Bill, when those two wonderful people +came into our lives, they came to stay. Do you think Ellis and Flossy +would get any joy out of strumming on a harp and taking their own +selfish ease? No, Bill, that's all a mistake. They're working right +with us, and it's up to you and me to so wholly reflect them that we +will be to this town what they have been to us. In any crisis in our +lives, let us not forget that Ellis and Flossy Hinton are not dead. We +may have need to remember it, Bill." +</P> + +<P> +The next morning he climbed on his stool and took the stick in his +hand. Bill stopped at the door of the composing room, something in +Jap's attitude arresting him. +</P> + +<P> +"What are you going to do, Jap?" +</P> + +<P> +"Get busy," declared Jap. "We have given out enough plate. The +<I>Herald</I> is going back on the job." +</P> + +<P> +Bill felt a lump rise in his throat as he paused to finger the copy on +his hook. +</P> + +<P> +"We have to get the drums beating," said Jap. "We have to elect Wat +Harlow governor, and, believe the Barton <I>Standard</I>, we have some rough +road to travel." +</P> + +<P> +And the battle was on! Alone, the Bloomtown <I>Herald</I> tackled the job +of making a governor. Watson Harlow had been a familiar figure in +state politics for more than twenty years, but as gubernatorial timber +no one had ever regarded him seriously. His opponent, on the other +hand, was a fresh figure in the state, with all the novelty of the +unknown quantity about him. It was an off year for the dominant party, +both locally and nationally, and the fight promised to be a complicated +one. +</P> + +<P> +Week by week the battle raged between the types. Little by little the +country press began to get in the fight. Not content with the +picturesque drumming of his own machine, Jap interested the city press +in the history of Wat Harlow, the "Lone Pine, of Integrity Absolute." +This descriptive title was proclaimed in and out of season during the +months of battle, both before and after the nomination of Harlow and +Jones. Jap invented a stinger for Bronson Jones. In his past history, +it was alleged, he had much that were better concealed than revealed. +Not the least of his offenses was that he had assisted his father, a +certain P. D. Jones, in stealing red-hot cook-stoves from the ruins of +the Chicago fire. Jap so declared, and he offered to prove that Jones +had sold these same stoves to their former owners, when they became +cold. In one instance, the victim was a widow who had lost everything, +even her former mate, in the fire. And Jones carried the title, "The +Widow's Friend," for years. All this was fun for the city dailies, and +cartoons of the "Lone Pine" being fed to the "Cook-Stove" alternated +with those of the pine falling upon the "Widow's Friend" as he was +about to sell a stove to the above-mentioned widow. +</P> + +<P> +The color came back to Jap's cheeks, and the battle light flamed in his +gray eyes. His one relaxation was the tranquil hour with Isabel. +Harlow, like an uneasy ghost, haunted the <I>Herald</I> office when he was +not out storming the hustings. The Barton <I>Standard</I> continued to pry +into Wat's past, while the <I>Herald</I> continued to lift the lid from the +chest of Bronson's secret garments. Unfortunately, the <I>Standard</I> had +played its big trump card in the congressional campaign. The vermilion +handbill was once more dragged to light, but it worked like a +boomerang, for several of Wat's own party workers had been caught +red-handed in the act of attempting to operate a shameless graft game, +in the name of the university. And Jap utilized the story to show that +Wat was a man above party, a man in whose mind integrity was indeed +absolute. +</P> + +<P> +Argument grew red hot, every place but Bloomtown. There, there was no +one to argue with. Bloomtown was one man for Harlow. Jones undertook +to deliver one speech there, and that bright hour nearly became his +last. After the good-natured raillery of the opening address, Jones +plunged into the vitriolic explosion he had delivered at the various +places he had spoken. For exactly ten minutes it lasted. By that +time, Kelly Jones had reached Hollins's grocery store and gathered +enough eggs to start a protest against the defamation of Wat Harlow's +character. And the protest was proclaimed unanimous! +</P> + +<P> +It was stated that there were no eggs on Bloomtown's breakfast table +next morning, and no Sunday cakes. +</P> + +<P> +"But," said the <I>Herald</I>, "if Bronson Jones wants any more hen-fruit, +the housewives of Bloomtown will cheerfully sacrifice themselves in his +behalf." +</P> + +<P> +And so the months sped away until the grass had mossed the graves in +the cemetery with lush beauty, and the three mounds were merged into +one by the riotous growth of sweet alyssum, Flossy's best loved +blossom. The summer waned. The autumn hasted, and chill winds +whispered around the Lone Pine as the last sortie was made. Then +Bloomtown pressed her hands to her throbbing breast and got ready +for—Victory? +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XX +</H3> + +<P> +Bill jumped from bed as the rattle of the latch announced the arrival +of a visitor. Without waiting for the formality of more than a +bathrobe, Rosy Raymond's last birthday gift to him, he bolted down the +stairs and across the office. He flung the door open and disclosed the +hazy features of Kelly Jones, peering at him through the November fog. +</P> + +<P> +"What, ho! Kelly, what brings you to our door in the glooming?" +</P> + +<P> +Kelly shook the rain from his slicker and came inside. +</P> + +<P> +"Wife called me at three o'clock," he announced. "Had my breakfast and +rid like hell to git to town early. I want to cast the fu'st vote for +Wat for governor." +</P> + +<P> +Bill yawned. +</P> + +<P> +"You could have ridden more leisurely, and saved us a couple of hours' +sleep," he complained. "There are at least a thousand voters of +Bloomtown with that same laudable intention. Tom Granger has been +missing since seven o'clock last night. It is believed that he is +locked in the booth so that his vote will skin the rest." +</P> + +<P> +Kelly looked ruefully back into the rain. +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon that I will come in and set a while, that bein' the report." +</P> + +<P> +"Any man found voting for Jones is to be lynched at sunset," declared +Bill, pushing a chair forward. +</P> + +<P> +"Reckon this'll be a big day for the Democrats," commented Kelly, +stretching his feet across the table comfortably. "'Tain't nothin' to +keep 'em home, so they'll kill time, votin'. That's why I allus cussed +my daddy for raisin' me a Democrat. Bein' as I am one, I've got to +stick by and see the durn fools shuckin' corn while the Republicans are +haulin' their grand-daddies in town to vote the Republicans in." +</P> + +<P> +Bill retired to don a few garments and Jap tumbled from bed, for this +was a big day in Bloomtown. Before six o'clock the roads were lined +with vehicles, as for an Independence holiday. The county was coming +in to help the town vote for her favorite son. +</P> + +<P> +About noon Harlow came creeping up the alley and slipped in at the back +door. He wore a slicker that he had borrowed from some constituent who +was short. It hung sorrowfully about his knees. Bill remembered that +in spike-tail coat and white necktie Wat Harlow looked enough like a +governor to pass for one, but just now he resembled nothing so much as +a draggled rooster. The stove in the little private office hissed and +sputtered as he shook the rain from the coat. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought that the only place that victory would be complete would be +the <I>Herald</I> office," he said, relaxing into a chair. "And if we are +beat, I could meet it better here." He took a paper in his shaking +hands and tried to read. +</P> + +<P> +The rain poured in torrents, but Bloomtown cast her record vote—and +not one scurrilous vote against him dropped into the ballot box. At +sunset a wild yell proclaimed that Bloomtown had done her duty. It was +now up to the rest of the state whether Wat Harlow, proclaimed from +border to border as an honest man, would be its next governor. On his +record as opposed to State University graft, he had once been elected +to the legislature when the running was close. On that same record, as +opposed to higher education, he was defeated for United States +Congressman, and on that same record he was running for governor of his +state. +</P> + +<P> +The <I>Herald</I> office lighted up. All the big men of Bloomtown smoked +the air blue, waiting for the returns. First good, then crushingly +bad, they varied. By the tone of the operator's yell, the waiters +guessed each bulletin. If he came silent, they all coughed and waited +for some one to take the fatal slip of paper. The dawn was graying +when they dispersed, with the issue still in doubt. It was late +afternoon before they knew that Harlow was elected. Bill grinned +joyously, for the first time since Rosy Raymond carried her heart to +Barton and left it there. +</P> + +<P> +"How many roosters have we?" he asked impishly, as he walked over to +the telephone. +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" queried Jap. +</P> + +<P> +"I am going to 'phone Jones that we want to borrow all that he don't +need," said Bill, taking the receiver from the hook. +</P> + +<P> +"We done it!" yelled Kelly Jones, slapping his slouch hat against the +door. "And I'm goin' over to Barton and git on the hell-firedest drunk +that that jay town ever seen. Whoopee!" And off he set at a run to +catch the local freight. +</P> + +<P> +About half of Bloomtown seemed inspired with the same spirit, and the +freight pulled out amid wild yells of joy. Several of the most agile +among the jubilant ones draped the box cars with strips of faded, soggy +bunting, and Harlow's picture adorned the cow-catcher. The yelling, +that had been discontinued for economic reasons, was resumed in raucous +chorus as the train rolled into Barton to celebrate Harlow's victory in +Jones's town. +</P> + +<P> +The Bloomtown <I>Herald</I> did itself proud that week. A mammoth picture +of the Lone Pine stood forth on the front page. Around it fluttered +one hundred flags. Every page sported roosters and flags in each +available space, between local readers and editorial paragraphs. It +was a thing of beauty and a joy forever—at least to Wat Harlow. One +other cut found place at the bottom of the editorial page. Bill did +not forget to boomerang Wilfred Jones by reprinting the weeping angel. +For a week there were bonfires every night, and a number of Bloomtown's +citizens sought to lighten Barton's woes by buying fire-water there. +Wat swelled until he looked more like a corpulent oak than a lone pine. +</P> + +<P> +"My house is yours," he cried, alternately wringing Jap and Bill by +their weary hands. He had come across once more from his headquarters +in the Court House to make sure his appreciation was understood. Jap +smiled wanly as the village band followed him with its intermittent +serenade. +</P> + +<P> +Bloomtown had long since outgrown the village class; but not a drum nor +a horn had encroached upon the old traditions of that band. Mike +Hawkins was far too conservative to permit innovation, and as there was +no provision for retiring the bandmaster on half pay, the problem of +dividing nothing in half having as yet been unsolved, Mike continued to +hold the job. All day the band had been vibrating between the Court +House and the <I>Herald</I> office, having delivered ten serenades at each +side of Main street, for it was understood that the <I>Herald</I> shared the +victory with Harlow. As the Governor-elect retreated to the other side +of the street, the band at his heels, Bill groaned aloud. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish that that bunch of musicians had had more confidence that Wat +was going to get it," he sighed, "so that they could have learned one +tune good." +</P> + +<P> +Kelly Jones was capering down the street. Kelly had absorbed enough of +Barton booze to make him believe he owned the half of Bloomtown that +did not belong to Wat Harlow. He had been having what Bill described +as "one large, full time." As he came in sight, Bill's brow darkened. +</P> + +<P> +"I've been afraid that Kelly would burst and catch fire," he said +morosely, "and now, by jolly, I wish he would. It's funny how much +your good friends will get in your way when they pair off with John +Barleycorn. Kelly is certainly one ding-buster when he is lit up." +</P> + +<P> +Jap leaned from the door to watch the procession that had formed for +the purpose of escorting Wat Harlow to the station. +</P> + +<P> +"Kelly's time is wrinkling," he laughed. "Here comes Mrs. Kelly Jones, +with worriment on her brow." +</P> + +<P> +Bill ran his inky fingers through his hair. Something was troubling +him. +</P> + +<P> +"Jap," he said as he walked toward the door of the composing room, +"that skunk of a Jones——" +</P> + +<P> +"Who? Kelly?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no." Bill wheeled, and his face was deadly earnest. "Kelly's not +a skunk, even when he has soaked up all the rotgut in Barton. But I +had Kelly Jones in the back of my head, just the same, when I mentioned +the honorable Editor of the Barton <I>Standard</I>. It's getting under my +skin, Jap, the way he has of tempting these Bloomtown fools over to his +filthy village to get the booze we won't let 'em have at home, and then +holding them up to ridicule when they make asses of themselves." +</P> + +<P> +"It's one of the angles of this problem that I haven't figured out +yet," Jap said earnestly. "Do you think it would do any good to go +gunning for Jones?" +</P> + +<P> +"I've thought of that possibility several times," and Bill's tone was +not entirely humorous. +</P> + +<P> +Jap shoved his stool to the case. As he climbed upon it, he sighed +uneasily. It had been sixteen months since Wilfred Jones turned the +neat trick that left Bill disconsolate, and still the venom lingered in +the bereft boy's heart. To Jap, with his standard of womanhood +established by Flossy and Isabel, the thing was monstrous, +inconceivable. And yet it was a fact to be faced. +</P> + +<P> +"We'll have to get busy, Bill," he said. "We've got enough job work on +the hooks to keep us up till midnight for a week. We haven't done a +thing the last month but elect Wat Harlow." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope to grab he won't run for another office till I have six sons to +help me," Bill snorted. +</P> + +<P> +Jap heaved a sudden sigh of relief. +</P> + +<P> +"Looking out again, Bill?" he asked, jerking his thumb in the direction +of the vacant photograph frame above Bill's case. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap21"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXI +</H3> + +<P> +It was the day after Thanksgiving. Bill was twirling the chambers of +his revolver around. His face was grim. Jap halted in the door of +their bedroom. +</P> + +<P> +"Going gunning for Jones?" he asked lightly. +</P> + +<P> +Bill turned, and the black look on his face startled Jap. +</P> + +<P> +"I am," he said deliberately, "and I will come back to jail or in my +coffin." +</P> + +<P> +Jap caught the revolver from his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Bill," he said sharply, "wake up!" +</P> + +<P> +Bill threw a letter to him, and continued his hasty toilet. Jap read: +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"Dear Will,— +</P> + +<P> +"Come to me. I am almost crazy. Wilfred accused me of giving you +information against his father that beat him in the election, and he +struck me in the mouth. He said he only married me to spite you, and +he hates me. I will meet you at the section house, where the train +slows up for the switch, at six o'clock. I want you to take me away, I +don't care where. I don't love anybody but you, and I can't live with +Wilfred another night. I don't care whether anybody ever speaks to me +again, if you will take me and love me. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"Your distracted ROSALIE." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Jap stared at the note as if it had been a snake-tressed Medusa that +turned him to stone. He stood rigid and paralyzed as Bill said, deadly +calm: +</P> + +<P> +"I am going to Barton, and I am going to shoot that dog." +</P> + +<P> +"And after that?" Jap's voice was toneless. +</P> + +<P> +"After that!" Bill broke out fiercely. "After that, what more?" +</P> + +<P> +Jap drew Bill around to face him. Rivers of fire seemed suddenly to +course through his body, and an unprecedented rage burned up within him. +</P> + +<P> +"You are not going to Barton, and you are not going to meet that +foolish light-o'-love at the section house," he said sternly. +</P> + +<P> +"Who will stop me? Not you, Jap, for even if an angel from heaven +tried to bar my way, I would brush it aside. I wanted to kill him when +he stole her away and——" +</P> + +<P> +Jap shook him angrily. +</P> + +<P> +"No one stole her, Bill. Have you forgotten the insolent, flippant +letter she wrote you?" +</P> + +<P> +Bill shook Jap's hand from his shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"It's no use, Jap. I am going to kill him!" +</P> + +<P> +Jap set his teeth and his gray eyes blazed as he gripped Bill's arms +and shoved him into a chair. +</P> + +<P> +"I will have you locked up, you foolish hot-head," he exclaimed, "and +give Wilfred Jones a few hours to consider his attitude toward his +wife. She <I>is</I> his wife, Bill, and all your heroics won't gloss that +fact from sight. Do you want to hang, because you were a damned fool? +I can consider a romantic close to your career, but not as an intruder +in another man's home—no matter how great your feeling of injustice. +Rosy was not a child when she married Wilfred Jones." +</P> + +<P> +"But he struck her," gulped Bill. +</P> + +<P> +"I have known times," declared Jap vehemently, "when, if I had been of +the fibre of Wilfred Jones, I would have felt satisfaction in thrashing +Rosy Raymond. Not having been Jones, I had to content myself with +kicking the furniture around. I don't want to rile you, Bill, but I +rather think there are two sides to this story, and I want to hear both +sides. If it is proven that Jones has mistreated Rosy brutally, I will +hold him while you give him the licking he deserves. More than that, I +will help Rosy to get a divorce. Isn't that fair enough, Bill? What +is revenge upon a dead body, especially if you expiate that revenge on +the gallows? Tell me, who profits? For the woman, disgrace. For +you—— Humph! the only one who comes out of it honorably is the dead +man, Jones." +</P> + +<P> +Bill glowered at him. +</P> + +<P> +"You had no mother, Bill, because she died when she gave you to the +world. I had no mother, because Providence gave me where I was a +burden. But God gave both of us a mother. Bill, before you go any +farther with this adventure—misadventure—I want you to kneel with me +before Flossy's picture and ask for her approval and her blessing. +Because, Bill, brother, she knows. And what do you suppose will be her +counsel? What would Flossy want you to do?" +</P> + +<P> +He took the photograph from the table and held it out to Bill. The +brown eyes remained downcast. The hands opened and closed +spasmodically. Jap lowered the picture so that Bill's eyes could not +choose but meet the loved face. A great, gulping sob shook him, and he +dashed into the other room and slammed the door. Jap's tense features +relaxed into a smile. He knew that Flossy had won. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you let me go to Barton instead of you?" he asked through the +closed door. There was no reply, and he turned the knob. Bill was +staring stolidly from the window. "I won't carry healing oil if the +case doesn't call for it," he insisted. "You will believe me, boy?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's your job," Bill said, in smothered, tear-drenched tones. +</P> + +<P> +"I can just make the 5:20," said Jap, as he caught up his hat and +overcoat from the foot of the bed where he had flung them. Then he +hurried to the station, with Rosy's foolish letter in his pocket. +</P> + +<P> +Without looking to right or left he boarded the train that would have +carried Bill to his love tryst. Already the evening shadows were +beginning to settle, and it was almost dark when the local train ran +into the siding to permit the east-bound special to pass. He stood on +the steps of the rear coach as the wheels crunched with the stopping of +the train. Then he dropped quietly to the ground. The special, that +was wont to throw dust in the eyes of both Bloomtown and Barton, came +thundering by, and the friendly local took up its westward journey. +</P> + +<P> +Jap hurried over to the cloaked figure that crouched in the shadow of +the little section house. Rosy crept out quickly, but retreated with a +cry of alarm when she saw that Jap, and not Bill, was coming to meet +her. He caught her by the arm and drew her into the light of an +electric bulb that glowed above the section boss's door. Scanning her +silly face for a moment, he said sharply: +</P> + +<P> +"So you lied to Bill! There is no mark of a blow on your face." +</P> + +<P> +"He—he did push me," she sobbed. "And I don't love him, anyway. It +was your fault that I ran away with Wilfred." +</P> + +<P> +"My fault?" echoed Jap. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she said, and her tone rasped with cruel spite. "What girl +wants to have her sweetheart only half hers? Jap Herron only had to +twist his thumb, and Bill would run like a foolish girl. I wanted a +whole man or none." +</P> + +<P> +"Seems that you got one," commented Jap, "and don't appreciate him. +Now, Rosy, if you think you are going to ruin three lives by starting +this kind of a play, I am going to undeceive you. I am going to take +you home and look into this affair." +</P> + +<P> +"I won't go!" she screamed. "He would kill me." +</P> + +<P> +"What did you do?" demanded Jap, holding her tightly. +</P> + +<P> +"I wrote him a note that I had run away with Bill," she confessed +sullenly. +</P> + +<P> +For the first time Jap became conscious of the suitcase at her feet. +His grip on her arm tightened until she cried with pain. +</P> + +<P> +"You idiotic little fool," he ground between his teeth. "Where is your +husband?" +</P> + +<P> +"He went to the city this morning. He said he'd come home on the local +if he got through his business in time. Otherwise he wouldn't come +till the midnight train. I thought Bill could get a rig and drive to +Faber. I thought he could take me away somehow before Wilfred got the +news." +</P> + +<P> +"News? Great God!" cried Jap. "And such as you could win the golden +heart of Bill Bowers! Come with me. If your husband takes the late +train, there is still time to destroy that note. If he is already at +home——" +</P> + +<P> +"He'd go to the office first, anyway," Rosy cried. "But I don't want +to go home." +</P> + +<P> +"You're going home, no matter what the consequences," Jap told her. +"And if you ever attempt to communicate with Bill again, I will have +you put in an asylum. You are not capable of going through life +sensibly." +</P> + +<P> +He walked her rapidly up the railroad track and through the streets +that lay between the business part of Barton and her own pretty home. +On the corner opposite the house he stopped, while she ran across the +street in terror and rushed up the steps. She had told him that if all +was yet well, she would appear at the window. As he stood there, his +eyes glued on the great square of glass, some one touched him on the +arm. He turned. It was Wilfred Jones. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Daddy-long-legs," he said brusquely. "You think you turned a +pretty trick. Well, it was a fair fight, and I'm all over it." +</P> + +<P> +Jap shook his hand mechanically, his eyes seeking the window from which +Rosy was peering. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell Bill that bygones must be bygones," Jones continued, "for we want +to get the two papers together on the main issue. The old man will +come in on the senatorship on the strength of his race for governor. +And I want to tell you a secret that makes me very happy—and will make +Bill feel different. The doctor has just told me that these queer +spells and moods that Rosalie has been having lately mean—Jap, do you +understand? I will be a father before summer!" +</P> + +<P> +Jap wrung Jones's hand, a whirl of fancies going through his head. As +he sought for suitable words of congratulation, a boy ran up. +</P> + +<P> +"I been chasin' all over town ahuntin' for you, Mr. Herron," he said +breathlessly. "I got a telegram for you." +</P> + +<P> +Trembling with dread, Jap tore it open and read: +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"<I>Come home at once. Your sister Agnosia is here.</I>—BILL." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap22"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXII +</H3> + +<P> +The streets were deserted as Jap came from the station. In his state +of mind, he did not reflect on the oddity of this circumstance. But +had he reflected, the condition of traffic congestion at the corner +near Blanke's drug store and the further congestion in front of the +bank would have enlightened him. All the business men of Bloomtown, +who had rushed to the <I>Herald</I> office with important advertisements or +news items, were reluctantly giving place to those who had discovered a +sudden want of letter-heads. +</P> + +<P> +The telegraph office at Bloomtown was no secret repository, and in less +than ten minutes after Bill had telegraphed Jap to hurry home the whole +street knew that the beautiful vision that arrived on the 6:20 was Jap +Herron's sister, Agnesia. And forthwith traffic filed that way. +</P> + +<P> +The vision arose as Jap entered the front door, and waited until he +came into the private office. It was apparent that Bill had played +host, to the limit of his meager resources. Agnesia's hat and +fur-trimmed coat lay on the table of exchanges. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Jappie," she laughed in silvery tones, "how long you are!" +</P> + +<P> +He took her little ringed hands in his and looked at her silently. +Agnesia was the beauty of the family. Her golden curls fluffed +bewitchingly about her face and her wide blue eyes smiled +affectionately. +</P> + +<P> +"You are grown, too, Aggie. I have been thinking of you as a very +little——" +</P> + +<P> +"Mercy!" she broke in. "Please, Jappie, don't drag that awful name to +light. When I went to the new home, they mercifully killed Agnesia. I +have been Mabelle Hastings so long that I had almost forgotten Aggie +Herron. I gave that hideous name to your friend," she flung a +gold-flashed smile at Bill, "because you had no sister Mabelle in the +old days. Our folks made a bad selection of names for their progeny. +And why Jasper? Why didn't they put the James first? It sounds so +much more human." +</P> + +<P> +"Not a bit of it!" declared Bill. "What is there about James? This +town had to have its Jap Herron. No substitute would have made good." +</P> + +<P> +She slipped a glance through her long lashes at Bill. +</P> + +<P> +"I called him 'Jappie,'" she confided. "I was a lisping baby and +couldn't say 'Jasper.' Dear old Jappie, how he slaved for me! And I +was a tyrant, demanding service every minute of the day." +</P> + +<P> +Jap's face clouded. "Aggie is a bigbug now," came surging into his +memory, as a wizened face obtruded itself between the laughing eyes of +his sister and his own. The girl noted the swift change. She took his +handy her voice quivering with appeal. +</P> + +<P> +"I know what you are thinking about," she said. "But I could not help +it, Jappie. We don't have to keep up the pretense before Mr. Bowers. +He knows the worst, I take it. Jappie, you may not remember, but when +Mrs. Hastings adopted me, my mother had reported that she would either +turn me out or give me to the county. Afterward my foster-mother took +me away from Happy Hollow when she saw that our mother was bringing +disgrace on all of us. She sacrificed her home and moved far enough +away so that no smirch could come to me. You don't know, brother, and +I would never want you to know the dreadful things she did. I had not +heard from her since she married that drunken brute, until she came to +the house one hot day. When she found no one at home, she laid down on +the porch and went to sleep, drunk and unspeakably filthy. She was +there when we returned with a party of friends. Can you imagine it, +Jappie?" +</P> + +<P> +Jap nodded his head slowly. +</P> + +<P> +"Mrs. Hastings had her taken out of town, and told her if she came +there again she would have her put in an asylum for drunkards. After +that she threatened to descend upon Fanny Maud. Fanny could not afford +to have her career spoiled. Perhaps we were cruel. I read the +scorching letter you wrote to Fanny after her—after mother's death. +But Fanny was not angry with you, and—and she was willing to have me +come to you now. Next spring she will graduate in vocal music from the +highest university in the country, and then she goes to Paris to study +under the artists there. Jappie, she has made a large part of it, +herself, teaching and singing in the church choir, and studying +whenever she had enough money ahead. At last Uncle Francis died and +left her a snug little sum, and she went to New York, where they say +her voice is a wonder. We should be proud of her. She wants you to +come with me in June to hear her sing when she graduates." +</P> + +<P> +Jap stared at the floor. She laid her hand coaxingly on his shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course Jap will go!" Bill's brown eyes were glowing. Jap looked +across at him in astonishment and wonder. His brain reeled. The day +had been too full. +</P> + +<P> +"And you?" the girl queried, smiling into those dancing brown eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"We can't both go at once," he blurted. "The paper has to come out on +time." +</P> + +<P> +She arose and wandered through the rooms that occupied the lower floor +of the building, stepping from a hasty and uncomprehending glance at +the press room and the composing room to dwell with critical eye on the +big, bare office. +</P> + +<P> +"You need a little fixing up," she commented. "You should have a nice +rug and shades, and a roll-top desk and swivel chair." +</P> + +<P> +"So we should," lamented Bill, looking around with an air of +disapproval. "But not having anybody to tell us——" He stopped +short, embarrassed. +</P> + +<P> +"I guess that I will have to keep house for Jappie, and boss the office +too. That is, if you want me, Jappie," she appealed. "Mrs. Hastings +died last March, and I have been with Fanny ever since. My +foster-mother left me well provided for. I won't be a burden, Jappie," +she cried. "We have all made good. We must rejoice together." +</P> + +<P> +Bill was half way across the office in his excitement. +</P> + +<P> +"You can take Flossy's house," he burst out. "It's ready any time, +because Pap had it completely overhauled after the tenants moved out. +It's the only ready-furnished house in Bloomtown and——" His voice +lowered and there was a note of wistfulness in it. "Jap, Flossy would +be so happy!" +</P> + +<P> +Jap surveyed his erstwhile desperate friend with a gleam of merriment. +As yet, Bill did not know but that his sacrificing partner was a +fugitive from the law. He had not even remembered to ask about the +well-being of Wilfred Jones and his wife. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps Aggie—Mabelle," he hastily corrected, "is just joking. She +would hardly like to bury herself in this little town after New York. +There would be so little to compensate." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I don't fear that I will regret New York," said Mabelle, letting +her blue eyes dwell on Bill's ingenuous countenance for a throbbing +moment. "Really, Jappie, there's nothing to regret." +</P> + +<P> +Bill's heart turned over twice. His face was appealing. He met Jap's +dancing eyes defiantly. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Jap, "you might get the keys and show the cottage to +Ag—Mabelle, and see how much enthusiasm it provokes. Perhaps it would +make a better first impression by electric light. Here, put an extra +bulb in your pocket, if one happens to be missing," and he drew out the +table drawer, where many things lay hidden. +</P> + +<P> +Bill was helping Mabelle on with her coat, his well-set body charged +with electricity that was strangely illuminating to Jap. As the two +left the office, a few minutes later, a teasing voice called after them: +</P> + +<P> +"Remember, Bill, that you took on a pile of orders this evening, and we +were loaded to the guards with job work already." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap23"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIII +</H3> + +<P> +Jap looked up as a shadow fell across the door of the composing room. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," he queried quizzically, "what about it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well," Bill repeated, drawing the girl into the room after him, +"Mabelle thinks that the cottage needs a bathroom and about a wagon +load of plumbing, besides paint and paper. Otherwise, it's all right." +</P> + +<P> +Mabelle slipped past him and approached the case. Standing on tiptoe +beside the high stool, she laid a hand coaxingly on the strong, angular +shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Jappie, boy, iron out that worry-frown. I am going to do the +fixing up myself. It shan't cost you a cent." +</P> + +<P> +"No!" Jap exploded. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, dear boy, forget your pride. I have lots and lots of money, and +this is to be my home." +</P> + +<P> +"The firm is not insolvent," suggested Bill. +</P> + +<P> +"It isn't a matter for the firm," Jap said gravely. "The cottage +belongs to me, and we can't allow our finances to get mixed. I'm +willing to have you put in all the repairs that I can afford." +</P> + +<P> +His mind reverted to Flossy, happy and clean without a bathroom. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me take a mortgage on the property for whatever the work costs," +Mabelle pleaded, her lips puckering irresistibly. +</P> + +<P> +Jap descended from the stool and caught her in his arms. Somehow she +had, all at once, become his baby sister again. The episode of the +straw stack loomed before him. She had puckered her lips just like +that when she fled to him for protection. With little coquettish +touches, she slipped one arm around his neck, while she smoothed his +red locks gently. Bill, looking on, was overcome by an unaccountable +restlessness. +</P> + +<P> +"What a pity Isabel isn't home!" he blurted. And Bill never knew why +he had recourse to Isabel at that moment. The observation bore the +desired fruit. Mabelle freed herself from her brother's embrace, with +the pained exclamation: +</P> + +<P> +"Isabel not at home! Oh, Jappie, I have just been waiting for you to +tell me about her. Ever since we read in the paper—and the one little +reference to her in your letter to Fanny——" +</P> + +<P> +She stopped, her blue eyes filling with tears. +</P> + +<P> +"They went away just after the election was over," Bill explained. "Iz +wouldn't leave Jap while the thing was in doubt, not even for her +mother." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think that's quite square," Jap interposed. "Mrs. Granger +didn't want to go at all, and only consented when Dr. Hall told her how +ill Isabel was. The rest of us knew that Mrs. Granger couldn't live +through another winter here; but he had to make Isabel's poor health +the pretext when he sent them to Florida for the cold weather." +</P> + +<P> +"Is she—is she seriously sick?" Mabelle asked tremulously. "The +mother, I mean." +</P> + +<P> +"It's a desperate hope, a kind of last resort," Bill vouchsafed. "I +heard Doc Hall talking to Tom Granger in the bank, the morning before +they left. He said he didn't want to scare him, but he wanted to +prepare him for the worst, I thought." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure if Isabel were at home, she'd insist on your coming right to +her," Jap said slowly. "Bill and I have been bunking together up +there," he jerked his thumb in the direction of the ceiling. "We have +a bedroom and a little combination living-room, dressing-room and +library. The library's Bill's part. We take our meals at the hotel, +down in the next block. The hotel isn't bad for a town of this size." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I've already met the hotel," Mabelle laughed. "Bill—Mr. Bowers +took me there to dinner this evening while we were waiting for you to +come home." +</P> + +<P> +"Aw, chuck that 'Mr. Bowers,'" Bill interrupted. "I'm plain Bill to +everybody in this town, and I guess Jap's sister can call me that." +</P> + +<P> +"The hotel, as I was saying," Jap resumed, "will have to take care of +you for the present till you can get a bathroom attachment for the +cottage. It'll probably be lonely for you, just at first." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll see to it that Mabelle meets all the best people in town," Bill +offered. +</P> + +<P> +The temporary housing problem settled, they returned to the discussion +of repairs necessary and repairs superfluous. After two hours of +parley, Jap consented to let his energetic sister work her will on +Flossy's cottage. It was after midnight when the girl had been +established in her room at the hotel, and Jap and Bill tumbled into +bed. The shank of that night had wrought miracles for unsuspecting +Bloomtown. A vision of blue eyes, red lips and golden tresses kept +floating through Bill's dreams, a vision that bore not the least +resemblance to Rosy Raymond. Meanwhile Jap stalked through one dream +controversy after another with plumbers, painters and the other +defilers of Flossy's home. +</P> + +<P> +By noon on Monday Mabelle had Bloomtown by the ears, and by the end of +the week it was all up with Bill. Jap had to hire a boy to help get +out the <I>Herald</I>. It consumed all of Bill's time threatening and +cajoling merchants into the prompt delivery of supplies, and seeing to +it that the workmen were on the job when Mabelle arrived at the cottage +in the morning. Bloomtown carpenters, paper hangers and plumbers +usually took their own sweet time. They had a great awakening when +Mabelle employed them. With Bill to pour oil on the troubled waters, +strikes were narrowly averted. +</P> + +<P> +One morning, soon after the radiant one arrived, Kelly Jones wandered +into the office, where a lively dispute with the boss plumber was under +way. In ten minutes, Kelly had fallen a victim to the little tyrant. +</P> + +<P> +"'Tain't no use talkin' about her gittin' along without a cellar," he +confided to Jap. "I'll dig it myself, and that'll save all this row +about how the pipes is got to run. I ain't got nothin' much to do, now +the corn's all in. And it's lucky we ain't had a hard freeze. The +ground's fine for diggin'," and the following morning he was on the job. +</P> + +<P> +For two months Bloomtown was demoralized. A cellar made possible a +furnace, and the elimination of stoves called for a fireplace in the +living-room, a fireplace framed in by soft blue and yellow tiles. One +by one Mabelle added her receipted bills to the packet of documents +that would go into the making of that mortgage on Jap's property. One +by one the housewives of Bloomtown demanded of their paralyzed husbands +bathrooms, cellars, furnaces, tiled fireplaces. +</P> + +<P> +At last the agony was over. A load of furniture had arrived from the +city, and Bill, as usual, left his stickful of type and hastened to +superintend the transfer of it from the freight depot to the cottage. +The evening shadows were lengthening in the office when he returned. +Jap had gone up-stairs to get out a rush order on the job press, and +there was a little commotion on the stairway just before Bill presented +himself, his brown eyes full of trouble. Jap looked at him, and his +heart sank. Had it come to this? Mabelle, in spite of her scanty +years, was older than Bill. She must have known. The whole town knew. +</P> + +<P> +"For goodness' sake, Bill, don't pi this galley," he shouted, bending +over the imposing stone. "Look where you're going. I wish that +Mabelle would wake to the fact that you have a half-hearted interest in +this office. She thinks you have nothing to do but keep tagging on her +errands." +</P> + +<P> +The office cat rubbed her sleek side against Bill's leg. +</P> + +<P> +"Get out and let me alone!" he screamed, jumping with nervous +irritation. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't do that, Bill," Jap said firmly. "What's the matter with you, +anyway? You are as pernickety as a setting hen, as Kelly said +yesterday. When even Kelly begins to notice your aberrations it's time +for you to get a wake-up. Are you sick? Have things gone wrong?" +</P> + +<P> +Bill walked over to the window and ran his thumb down the pane of glass +absently. +</P> + +<P> +"Jap, have you that mortgage handy—all that business that Mabelle gave +you?" +</P> + +<P> +Jap went to the safe and took out the packet of papers. +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" he asked, as he glanced through the long list of items. "Has my +sister thought of anything else she absolutely needs? In another week, +I'll owe her more than the cottage is worth." +</P> + +<P> +Bill took the documents gingerly. His mobile face flamed. +</P> + +<P> +"I—I—want to take up the deeds," he stammered. +</P> + +<P> +Jap whirled to face him. +</P> + +<P> +"You see," stuttered Bill, "I—that is, we—Mabelle and I, we——" +</P> + +<P> +Jap sprang forward, lithe as a panther, and caught Bill by the arm. +Drawing him to the light, he looked full in the embarrassed face. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is she?" he shouted. "Where is that sister of mine? Where is +she hiding?" +</P> + +<P> +The girl came from the dark hall, her eyes defiant, her head set with +charming insolence on one side. Jap struggled with his self-possession +an instant. Then a great, gurgling laugh shook his shoulders as he +gathered the pair into his long arms. +</P> + +<P> +"Golly Haggins!" the expletive of his boyhood leaped to his lips, "I'm +glad the agony is over. Now perhaps we will be able to get the +<I>Herald</I> to our subscribers on time." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap24"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIV +</H3> + +<P> +"Tom Granger got a telegram," announced Bill, coming into the office +one morning early in April. "He wants to see you at once, Jap." +</P> + +<P> +Jap's face blanched. He looked dumbly at Bill. +</P> + +<P> +"No, it's not her," Bill hastened to say. "It's her mother." +</P> + +<P> +Jap stumbled awkwardly up the walk to the Granger home. The letters +from Isabel had been far from reassuring, and only the previous day Dr. +Hall had sounded a warning that the care of the invalid was too much +for the girl, taxed as she was in both mind and body. Into Jap's +consciousness there crept the thought that she had never fully +recovered from those terrible weeks when she hovered over him. +</P> + +<P> +Tom Granger met him at the door. His eyes were red with weeping. He +drew Jap into the parlor and gave him two telegrams. +</P> + +<P> +"This came at midnight," he said brokenly. Jap read: +</P> + +<P> +"Mother sinking. Come. ISABEL." +</P> + +<P> +"And this just arrived," Granger choked, as the fatal words met Jap's +eye: +</P> + +<P> +"Mother dying. Come. Bring Jap. ISABEL." +</P> + +<P> +"The train leaves in half an hour. I don't have to ask you anything, +my boy." +</P> + +<P> +Jap turned and hastened away. He did not weaken Granger's feeble +strength with words of sympathy. +</P> + +<P> +It was the afternoon of the second day when the two stood with Isabel +at the foot of the bed. Alice Granger lifted her heavy lids, and a +gleam of recognition shone in her eyes. Swiftly those two, the husband +and the child, drew near, eager for any word that might pass the +stiffening lips. Jap stood looking sorrowfully down on her as they +knelt at her side. +</P> + +<P> +"Jap," she whispered, "you, too," and her feeble fingers drew him. +</P> + +<P> +With a choked sob he knelt beside Isabel. The mother fumbled with the +covers until her hand, icy cold, touched his. Instantly his firm, +strong hand closed over it. She smiled and murmured: +</P> + +<P> +"Tom. Isabel." +</P> + +<P> +They leaned over her in a panic of fear. +</P> + +<P> +"Isabel's hand," she breathed, and placed the two hands together. +"Tom, there is time," she whispered; "I want——" She sank helpless. +</P> + +<P> +"I know what you would say," cried Granger, the tears streaming down +his face. "You want him to be our son before—before you say good-bye." +</P> + +<P> +A flash of joy illumined her thin face. She sighed contentedly. +</P> + +<P> +A minister was hastily summoned, and a half hour later Isabel sobbed +her grief in the arms of her husband, as they stood awaiting the coming +of the Death Angel. +</P> + +<P> +"It made such a difference in her feeling toward you, your illness at +our house," Tom said, looking down upon her closed eyes and fluttering +lips. "She never understood you, and in her quiet way she was always +reserving judgment, when I used to talk so much about you. A mother +finds it hard to think any man is the right one for her only child, and +she was so dependent on Isabel. She hadn't any doubts, after she saw +you in that dreadful fever, with all your soul laid bare to us. She +knew Isabel would be safe, and after that she stopped worrying." +</P> + +<P> +A grim hand caught at Jap's throat, as Tom sank on his knees and buried +his face in the pillow to smother his sobs. Into his memory there came +the words of Flossy: "When your mother came, there was a revelation. I +don't fear for your future now. And when I knew this, Jap, I suddenly +felt tired and old." +</P> + +<P> +Flossy had clung to life until he had found the woman who could take +her place. Then, all at once, she let go. And now Alice Granger, an +invalid for twenty-three years, had relaxed her feeble hold on life +when she knew that her child was in safe and gentle hands. Must Death +forever draw its grim fingers between him and his happiness? He looked +at his bride, fragile as a spring flower, and a great fear rushed over +him. Dumb, he stood there, stroking Isabel's hair with futile caresses. +</P> + +<P> +At last the glazing eyes opened, and Alice Granger said faintly: +</P> + +<P> +"Tom, not alone." +</P> + +<P> +"Not alone?" he cried in anguish. "Always alone without you, Alice." +</P> + +<P> +She only smiled—and then she fell asleep. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +It was a strange wedding journey. Between the half-crazed father and +the exhausted wife, Jap was taxed to the uttermost. Isabel, for once +helpless, lay white and silent in the compartment, too weak to do more +than cling to her one tower of strength, while Tom Granger rent Jap's +sympathetic heart with his unreasoning grief. At length nature +demanded her own; from sheer exhaustion they slept. Jap left them +alone and stood out on the platform between the coaches. +</P> + +<P> +"Is my life always to hold grief?" he queried of his soul. A throb of +fear tore at his consciousness. Isabel's death-white face arose before +him. +</P> + +<P> +"No!" he cried fiercely, "there is a God. He will not take all from +me." +</P> + +<P> +He went back into the car and, kneeling beside his sleeping wife, +prayed madly to his God for mercy. +</P> + +<P> +The grasses were green along the tracks, and the blue violets lifted +their rain-washed faces as the familiar stations loomed in sight near +the journey's end. At the last station below Bloomtown, Bill and Dr. +Hall entered the sleeper. +</P> + +<P> +"We have everything arranged," Dr. Hall said to Jap, while Bill fought +with his tears. "Isabel Granger has gone through too much to stand the +harrowing experience of a funeral. The carriages are waiting, and it +has all been attended to at the cemetery. We'll just have a short +service out there, and I want you to keep her in the carriage with you. +Bill and I did things with a high hand, but it had to be so. I +wouldn't risk having the girl look into her mother's grave. She +couldn't stand it." +</P> + +<P> +The platform was crowded with friends, and Tom Granger was responding +to sympathetic greetings with tears he did not try to hold. Jap half +carried Isabel to the nearest carriage, and Dr. Hall took his place +with them. Bill had hurried to meet Mabelle, who tactfully drew Tom +Granger into the second carriage, in which the minister sat waiting. +In a dream the well known landmarks of Bloomtown passed before Jap's +eyes. There was the quick jolt that marked the crossing of the +railroad tracks, and then the cool green of the cemetery came into view. +</P> + +<P> +While the brief service was read, Jap held Isabel tight to his aching +breast. His eyes wandered away beyond the yellow mound of earth, and +in the hazy distance he saw his City of Hope. The young grass smiled +above the mounds that held the empty shells of those he had loved, the +first in all the world who had loved him. On Flossy's straight white +shaft he read "I Hope." That was all. +</P> + +<P> +After the slow cortčge had moved its way back to town, Mabelle left the +carriage and approached her brother. Bill, with his face frankly +tear-stained, was beside her. The coachman had descended from his box, +and was opening the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me take her—let me take your sweetheart to our cottage," she +pleaded. Leaning past him, she took one of Isabel's black-gloved +hands. "Dear, I am Jappie's sister. I want to have you with me until +you are better." +</P> + +<P> +Tom Granger sat up and leaned out of the carriage, so that all could +hear him. +</P> + +<P> +"Jap is coming home with us," he said. "He is my son. He was married +to Isabel just before her mother left us." +</P> + +<P> +And it was thus that after well-nigh three years of waiting Bloomtown +celebrated the long-expected happiness of her best loved son. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap25"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXV +</H3> + +<P> +Isabel had a long, lingering illness. It was plainly impossible for +Jap and Mabelle to go to New York to see Fanny Maud make her debut. +Mabelle had been a ministering angel, so faithful in her care of the +invalid that an unreasoning jealousy blotted the grin of contentment +from Bill's face as he uncomplainingly took the brunt of work at the +office. Jap was too abstracted to notice the Associate Editor's woe. +One day, when rosy June was just bursting its buds, he glanced +hurriedly through the columns of the <I>Herald</I>, still damp from the +press. He started, and looked keenly at Bill. Second column, first +page, under a double head that reduced the day's political sensation to +minor importance, he read: +</P> + +<P> +"OUR NEIGHBOR REJOICES; TWINS COME TO THE EDITOR OF THE BARTON +STANDARD." +</P> + +<P> +"Whew!" he whistled. Bill looked up. The red flew to his cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +"Both boys," he commented, folding papers rapidly. "Be in line for +pages, when old Brons lands in the Halls of Justice." +</P> + +<P> +Jap hurried home to tell the news. Isabel, still pale and weak, was +lying in the hammock on the screened porch. She laughed, her old merry +laugh, when Jap told her of Rosy Raymond's achievement. Mabelle tossed +her yellow curls. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I don't think she was worrying Bill," she snapped. +</P> + +<P> +"There is no heavier blow to romance than twins," Jap said. +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe she will call them Jap and Bill," crisped Mabelle, and stopped +short when her brother walked abruptly to the other end of the porch. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope that it won't fluster you to know that Bill and I are going to +be married before Fanny Maud leaves for Europe," she flung at him. "I +want that haughty sister of mine to know that I am marrying a real man." +</P> + +<P> +Jap came swiftly back. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you taken Bill into your confidence, Sis?" he asked, patting +Isabel's shoulder gently, as he smiled his whimsical smile at Mabelle. +</P> + +<P> +"You're naughty to tease her so," his wife chided. +</P> + +<P> +"Bill and I are going to New York on our wedding trip, just as soon as +Isabel can spare me. I want Fanny Maud to see——" She stopped, then +took the bit in her teeth. "Jappie, you never knew why I ran away from +New York last Thanksgiving. Of course I told Bill all about it long +ago. Fanny and I certainly don't agree when it comes to men. I can't +imagine she will approve of Bill, after the one she picked for me." +</P> + +<P> +Further confidence was cut short by the appearance of Bill, turning the +corner. She arose and ran to meet him. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor Bill," Jap laughed, as the two came arm in arm up the shady lawn. +</P> + +<P> +Before her designs upon Bill could be executed, a strange thing +happened. Fanny Maud and a company of musicians made a summer concert +tour. It was only a little run from the city, and such an aggregation +of artists as Bloomtown's wildest dreams had never visioned descended +upon the town. The hotel was taxed to its uttermost capacity, with six +song birds, an orchestra, three lap dogs, and an Impresario whose +manner implied that he had designs other than professional on the +leading soprano. Her stay was short, and left an impression of +perfume, fluffy ruffles, French and haste. Her manager consented to +have her sing for Jap and Isabel. +</P> + +<P> +Bloomtown stood out in the road, listening, agape. Perhaps Kelly Jones +had been to Barton that summer night, for he declared that cats were +climbing out of Tom Granger's chimneys, screeching for help, and a man +kept scaring them worse by howling at them. When Fanny Maud reached +the famous high note she was justly proud of, Kelly clapped his hands +to his stomach and yelled for mercy. +</P> + +<P> +"That's clawsick music," abjured Bill, who was sitting on the lawn with +Mabelle. Kelly looked at them with sorrow. +</P> + +<P> +"I was skeered that she had busted her throat, and all the sound was +comin' out to onct," he complained. +</P> + +<P> +The last night of the brief but exciting visit Bill and Mabelle were +quietly married. Quietly—yes and no. Mike Hawking rallied the band +and all the tinware in town to celebrate. Mabelle was indignant at +first, but soon began to enjoy the fun, and created the happiest +impression on the older generation of Bloomtown by insisting on +marching arm in arm with Kelly Jones at the head of the procession. +After Bill had given his solemn oath never to repeat the offense the +"chivaree" broke up, with wild yells of congratulation. +</P> + +<P> +They took up residence in Mabelle's cottage. By consensus of opinion +it was Mabelle's cottage. The town in fact so thoroughly recognized +Mabelle, in the possessive case, that Jap cautioned Bill against the +contingency of being referred to as "Mabelle's husband." Bill was +proud of his wife, and when fortune brought him lucre, from the +long-forgotten bit of Texas land that suddenly showed oil, he began to +improve the whole street by putting out trees. +</P> + +<P> +As Jap feelingly declared, Mabelle had even improved the dirt under the +doorstep of the cottage, and Bill was fairly pushed out on the street +for improving to do. Under her fostering care, Bill had learned to +make violent demands on the Town Board. And they, the aldermen of +Bloomtown, bent on pursuing the even tenor of their way at any hazard, +had to adjust themselves to a new ebullition from Bill every Tuesday +night. But Bill and Mabelle were not doomed to see their enthusiasm go +up in vapor. It bore, instead, the most substantial fruit. The +barren, treeless town was beginning to grow shade for the aldermen to +rest under in their old age. +</P> + +<P> +Kelly Jones said that if Jap had brought Mabelle with him, instead of +waiting fourteen years to import her, the town would be larger than St. +Louis. As it was, Bloomtown might yet run that city a swift race. +Mabelle set the fashions; told the School Board how to run the schools; +the preachers how to make their churches popular; the mothers how to +train their children. And the Town Fathers all carried their hats in +their hands when she breezed down the street. Jap and Isabel watched +and smiled, serene in the happiness that was theirs. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"How wonderful it is, Jap, dear," said Isabel, standing in the sunset +glow, on that Easter Sunday, after the year had flown. The last red +gleam touched the tip of the monument to Ellis Hinton, that had been +erected by Bloomtown and dedicated that morning. Together they had +gone to the cemetery, when the crowd would not be there, Isabel's arms +full of garlands for the low green tents of their loved ones. +</P> + +<P> +"It seemed that Flossy must be smiling at you as you stood there, +saying the marvelous things that must have come to you direct from the +lips of your spirit father. Ellis Hinton spoke through you when you +told the story of our town." +</P> + +<P> +Jap drew her tenderly to the fostering shadow of the monument and +pressed her to his heart. Her face was glorified as she looked up into +his. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Jap, what if Ellis had never lived!" +</P> + +<P> +Jap drew her close. Many hours had he wrought with his fear, but now +the roses had come again to her cheeks and the light to her eyes. He +looked over the City of Peace, and his own eyes were full with joy. +</P> + +<P> +"But, thank God, Ellis did live." And arm in arm they walked back to +Ellis Hinton's real town. +</P> + +<P> +As they crossed the railroad tracks, Kelly Jones came ambling down from +the station, where a large contingent from the vicinity of the steel +highway between Barton and Bloomtown waited for the evening +"Accommodation." +</P> + +<P> +"Gimmeny!" he exclaimed, clapping Jap on the shoulder, "I sure was +proud of Ellis's boy to-day. Ellis says to me, the day he went away, +says he, 'Watch my boy, Kelly. He is goin' to put the electricity in +Bloomtown's backbone,' and, by jolly, you done it! I reckon you felt +proud," he went on, turning to Isabel, "when Wat Harlow called Jap the +man that made Bloomtown a real town, and the crowd yelled, 'Yes.' +Well, ma'am, for a minute I shook and grunted. And then the wife said, +'Wait a bit,' so I waited. And when Jap got up and told the folks that +not Jap Herron but a greater man than he ever hoped to be, had cradled +and nussed Bloomtown and learnt her to walk, I might' nigh split my +guzzle yellin' for joy. Did you hear me yellin', 'Hurrah for Ellis's +boy!' And did you hear the crowd say it after me?" +</P> + +<P> +As Isabel took his hardened hand in hers, her eyes overflowed. +</P> + +<P> +"Jap is Ellis," she said gently, "to you and to his town. I know it, +and I am glad." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap26"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXVI +</H3> + +<P> +Bill sat doubled over the case, the stick held listlessly in his hand. +Nervously he fingered the copy, not knowing what he was reading. From +time to time he slid down from the stool and lounged across the big +office to the street door. Vacantly he returned the greetings of his +townsmen, as he gazed past them, across the corner of the little park +that lay, brown and gold, in the glory of Indian Summer, across the +intervening street where Tom Granger's sedate old house looked out on +the leaf-strewn lawn. He could see Tom Granger, pacing up and down the +walk. He could see Jap, sitting under the great elm, his face hidden +in his hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor old Jap," Bill muttered, brushing aside a tear, as he returned +once more to his case, "life has slammed him so many tough licks that +he is always cringing, afraid of another lick." +</P> + +<P> +The morning wore on. Bill gave up the effort at type-setting and tried +to apply himself to the exchanges, so that he could the better watch +the front of that house. He was near the door, trying to read, when, +all at once, Tom stopped pacing. Jap sprang up and bounded across the +lawn and into the front door. A white-capped nurse ran through the +wide hall, and in a little while Mabelle put her head out of an upper +window and peered over at the office. Bill pushed his chair back and +tramped heavily to the pavement. Then he tramped back again. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly there are enough of them to let somebody come here with +news," he growled. "They don't seem to know that there are +telephones—or that I would care." +</P> + +<P> +Half an hour dragged. Then, all alone, his face shining with holy joy, +Jap hurried to the office. For a moment neither could speak. Hand in +hand, heart beating with heart, they stood looking into each other's +eyes. Then Jap said huskily: +</P> + +<P> +"Do you remember what Ellis said, that day when his greatest joy came?" +</P> + +<P> +Bill flung his arms around Jap and hugged him lustily. +</P> + +<P> +"Get out all the roosters?" he cried, tears gushing from his brown eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"And," said Jap slowly, "Isabel wants to call him Jasper William." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="finis"> +THE END +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Jap Herron, by Emily Grant Hutchings + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAP HERRON *** + +***** This file should be named 33048-h.htm or 33048-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/0/4/33048/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</BODY> + +</HTML> + diff --git a/33048-h/images/img-front.jpg b/33048-h/images/img-front.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d10ce6a --- /dev/null +++ b/33048-h/images/img-front.jpg diff --git a/33048.txt b/33048.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e543876 --- /dev/null +++ b/33048.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6510 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jap Herron, by Emily Grant Hutchings + +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: Jap Herron + A Novel Written from the Ouija Board + +Author: Emily Grant Hutchings + +Release Date: November 20, 2010 [EBook #33048] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAP HERRON *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: A DRAWING FROM LIFE BY JOHN CECIL CLAY] + + + + + +JAP HERRON + + +A NOVEL WRITTEN FROM + +THE OUIJA BOARD + + + +WITH AN INTRODUCTION + +THE COMING OF JAP HERRON + + + + +by + +Emily Grant Hutchings + + + + +NEW YORK + +MITCHELL KENNERLEY + +MCMXVII + + + + +COPYRIGHT 1917 BY + +MITCHELL KENNERLEY + + + +PRINTED IN AMERICA + + + + +THE COMING OF "JAP HERRON" + + +On the afternoon of the second Thursday in March, 1916, I responded to +an invitation to the regular meeting of a small psychical research +society. There was to be a lecture on cosmic relations, and the +hostess for the afternoon, whom I had met twice socially, thought I +might be interested, my name having appeared in connection with a +recently detailed series of psychic experiments. To all those present, +with the exception of the hostess, I was a total stranger. I learned, +with some surprise, that these men and women had been meeting, with an +occasional break of a few months, for more than five years. The record +of these meetings filled several type-written volumes. + +When word came that the lecturer was unavoidably detained, the hostess +requested Mrs. Lola V. Hays to entertain the members and guests by a +demonstration of her ability to transmit spirit messages by means of a +planchette and a lettered board. The apparatus was familiar to me; but +the outcome of that afternoon's experience revealed a new use for the +transmission board. After several messages, more or less personal, had +been spelled out, the pointer of the planchette traced the words: + +"Samuel L. Clemens, lazy Sam." There was a long pause, and then: +"Well, why don't some of you say something?" + +I was born in Hannibal, and my pulses quickened. I wanted to put a +host of questions to the greatest humorist and the greatest philosopher +of modern times; but I was an outsider, unacquainted with the usages of +the club, and I remained silent while the planchette continued: + +"Say, folks, don't knock my memoirs too hard. They were written when +Mark Twain was dead to all sense of decency. When brains are soft, the +method should be anaesthesia." + +Not one of those present had read Mark Twain's memoirs, and the plaint +fell upon barren soil. The arrival of the lecturer prevented further +confession from the unseen communicant; but I was so deeply impressed +that I begged my hostess to permit me to come again. For my benefit a +meeting was arranged at which there was no lecturer, and I was asked to +sit for the first time with Mrs. Hays. + +In my former psychic investigation, it had been my habit to pronounce +the letters as the pointer of the planchette indicated them, and Mrs. +Hays urged me to render the same service when I sat with her, because +she never permitted herself to look at the board, fearing that her own +mind would interfere with the transmission. Scarcely had our +finger-tips touched the planchette when it darted to the letters which +spelled the words: + +"I tried to write a romance once, and the little wife laughed at it. I +still think it is good stuff and I want it written. The plot is +simple. You'd best skeletonize the plot. Solly Jenks, Hiram +Wall--young men. Time, before the Civil War." + +Then the outline of a typical Mark Twain story came in short, explosive +sentences. It was entitled, "Up the Furrow to Fortune." A brief +account of its coming seems vital to the more sustained work which was +destined to follow it. I was not present at the next regular meeting +of the society; but at its close I was summoned to the telephone and +informed that Mark Twain had come again and had said that "the Hannibal +girl" was the one for whom he and Mrs. Hays had been waiting. When +they asked him what he meant, the planchette made reply: + +"Consult your record for 1911." + +One of the early volumes of the society's record was brought forth, and +a curious fact that all the members of the society had forgotten was +unearthed. About a year after his passing out, Mr. Clemens had told +Mrs. Hays that he had carried with him much valuable literary material +which he yearned to send back, and that he would transmit stories +through her, if she could find just the right person to sit with her at +the transmission board. Although she experimented with each member of +the club, and with several of her friends who were sympathetic though +not avowed investigators, he was not satisfied with any of them. Then +she gave up the attempt and dismissed it from her mind. A +twenty-minute test with me seemed to convince him that in me he had +found the negative side of the mysterious human mechanism for which he +had been waiting. + +The work of transmitting that first story was attended with the +greatest difficulty. No less than three distinct styles of diction, +accompanied by correspondingly distinct motion in the planchette under +our fingers, were thrust into the record. At first we were at a loss +to understand these intrusions. That they were intrusions there could +be no doubt. In each case there was a sharp deviation from the plot of +the story, as it had been given to us in the synopsis. After one of +these experiences, which resulted in the introduction of a paragraph +that was rather clever but not at all pertinent. Mark regained control +with the impatiently traced words: + +"Every scribe here wants a pencil on earth." + +Not until the middle of summer did we achieve that sureness of touch +which now enables us to recognize, intuitively, the presence of the one +scribe whose thoughts we are eager to transmit. That the story of Jap +Herron and the two short stories which preceded it are the actual +post-mortem work of Samuel L. Clemens, known to the world as Mark +Twain, we do not for one moment doubt. His individuality has been +revealed to us in ways which could leave no question in our minds. The +little, intimate touches which reveal personality are really of more +importance than the larger and more conspicuous fact that neither Mrs. +Hays nor I could have written the fiction that has come across our +transmission board. Our literary output is well known, and not even +the severest psychological skeptic could assert that it bears any +resemblance to the literary style of "Jap Herron." + +Mrs. Hays has found the best market for her short stories with one of +the large religious publishing houses, and in the early days Mark Twain +seemed to fear that her subconscious mind might inadvertently color or +distort his thought, in process of transmission. We had come to the +end of our fourth session when he added this: + +"There will be minor errors that you will be able to take care of. I +don't object. Only--don't try to correct my grammar. I know what I +want to say. And, dear ladies, when I say d-a-m-n, please don't write +d-a-r-n. Don't try to smooth it out. This is not a smooth story." + +That Mark should fear the blue pencil, at our hands, amused us greatly. +The story bristles with profanity and is roughly picturesque in its +diction. It deals with a section of the Ozark country with which +neither of us is familiar, and in the speech of the natives there are +words that we had never heard, that are included in no dictionary but +are, it transpires, perfectly familiar to the primitive people in the +southwestern part of the state. When the revision of the story was +almost complete. Mark interrupted the dictation, one afternoon, to +remark: + +"You are too tired. Forces must be strong for results. Somebody +handed you a lemon, back there. Cut out that part about the apple at +fly time. I am not carping. You have done well. The interpretation +is excellent. I was afraid of femininity. Women have their ideas, but +this is not a woman's story. Good-bye." + +There was another meeting, at which the revision of "Up the Furrow to +Fortune" was completed, and then we went to work on the second story, +"A Daughter of Mars." As in the case of the first one, it began with a +partial synopsis. Vallon Leithe, an enthusiastic aeronaut, was resting +after a long flight, when a strange air-craft fell out of the sky, +lodging in the top of a great tree. The occupant of the marvelously +constructed flying machine proved to be a girl from the planet Mars. +Her name was Ulethe, and she had many thrilling adventures on our +earth. The synopsis ended with the wholly unexpected words: + +"Now, girls, it is not yet clear in my mind whether we'd better send +Ulethe back to Mars, kill her, marry her to Leithe, or have an +expedition from Mars raise the dickens. But we will let it develop +itself." + +The board, on which two short stories and a novel have already been +transmitted, is one of the ordinary varieties, a polished surface over +which the planchette glides to indicate the letters of the alphabet and +the figures from 1 to 10. In the main our dictation came without any +apparent need for marks of punctuation. Occasionally the words +"quotation marks," or "Put that in quotes" would be interjected. Once +when my intonation, as I pronounced the words for the amanuensis who +was keeping our record, seemed to indicate a direct statement, the +planchette whirled under our fingers and traced the crisp statement, "I +meant that for a question." + +When I told my husband of these grippingly intimate evidences of an +unseen personality, it occurred to him that a complete set of +punctuation marks, carefully applied in India ink, where the pointer of +the planchette could pick them out as they were required, would +facilitate the transmission of sustained narrative. To him it seemed +that the absence of these marks on the board must be maddening, +especially to Mark Twain, whose thought could be hopelessly distorted +by the omission of so trivial a thing as a comma, and whose subtle use +of the colon was known to all the clan of printers. Before our next +meeting the board had been duly adorned with ten of the most important +marks, including the hyphen and the M-dash. The comma was at the head +of the right-hand column and the apostrophe at the bottom. My husband, +Mrs. Hays and I knew exactly what all these markings meanly yet we had +some confusion because Mark insisted on using the comma when he wished +to indicate a possessive case. The sentence was this, as I understood +it: + +"I was not wont to disobey my father, scommand." + +Instantly my husband, who had become interested and had taken the place +of our first amanuensis, perceived that I had made a mistake, when I +pronounced the combination, "f-a-t-h-e-r, comma, s-c-o-m-m-a-n-d." + +"But," I defended myself, "the pointer went to the comma. I can see +now that it should have been the apostrophe." As I spoke the pointer +of the planchette traced the words on the board: + +"Edwin did a pretty piece of work, but that apostrophe is too far down. +I am in danger of falling off the board every time I make a run for it." + +The result was that another apostrophe was placed in the middle of the +board, directly under the letter S. In connection with the M-dash we +had a yet more startling evidence of an outside personality, one +dependent on us for his means of communication, but wholly independent +of our thought and knowledge. Mark had dictated the synopsis for the +second story and had enlarged upon the first situation. Then, as has +since become his fixed habit, he indicated that the serious work for +the evening was ended, and returned for an informal chat. Mrs. Hays +and I had discussed the plot at some lengthy and after my husband had +read aloud the second evening's dictation we commented on some of the +obscure points, our fingers resting, the while, lightly on the +planchette. Suddenly it became agitated, assumed a vigorous sweeping +motion and traced very rapidly these words: + +"It is starting good; but will you two ladies stop speculating? I am +going to take care of this story. Don't try to dictate. You are +interrupting the thread of the story. There is ample time for +smoothing the rough places. I am not caviling. I am well pleased." +After a pause, he continued: "There is the same class of +interruption--those who could write stories, but are not to write +my----" At this, the planchette turned to the M-dash and slid back and +forth under it several times. It then spelled the word "stories." We +were utterly at a loss, until he explained: "I was using that black +line for an underscore." + +Again and again we have had the word "good" in an adverbial +construction, a usage that is not common to either Mrs. Hays or me; but +Mark has told us that he liked it, in familiar conversation. We have +tried to adhere with absolute fidelity to even the seeming errors which +came over the board. + +The second installment of the story gave all of us much trouble. +Incidentally it served to develop several bits of humorous +conversation. When it was finished, we received this comment: + +"I think that is all we can do to-night. I intend to enlarge upon this +chapter before going further. The forces are not strong enough +to-night. We will rewrite this part Monday night." + +We naturally expected a rehandling of that installment, which for +convenience he had designated a "chapter." To our surprise, the +pointer of the planchette gave this: + +"I have changed my mind. We will proceed to New York. I will probably +want to handle chapter second in a different way. It reads like a +printed porous plaster; but that is no one's fault. Begin!" + +The dictation went smoothly, and there were no interruptions from the +unseen rivals who had so persistently contested Mark Twain's right to +the exclusive use of our "pencil." Before the next meeting I was urged +to take a prominent part in another piece of psychic work, and to +persuade both my husband and Mrs. Hays to join me. I said nothing to +either one of them about it, intending to discuss it with them when the +evening's work was over. As soon, however, as we applied our finger +tips to the planchette, this astonishing communication came: + +"I am afraid that my pencil-holders are going to get wound up in other +stuff that will make much confusion. I heard Emily talking over the +telephone and making promises that are not good for our work." + +When I had been questioned concerning the meaning of this rebuke, and +had explained its import, Mark added: "If we are going to make good +there must be concentration, to that end. Get busy." We did! It was +a hot July night, and the planchette flew over the board so swiftly +that at times I could scarcely keep pace with it as I pronounced the +letters. With other amanuenses I had been forced to pronounce the +finished words, and to repeat sentences in whole or in part; but after +my husband came into the work this was not necessary. As much as a +score of letters might be run together, to be divided into words after +the dictation was ended. Sometimes, when I had failed utterly to catch +the thought, and would hesitate or ask to have the thing repeated, my +husband would say to me: "Don't stop him. I know what it means." Mrs. +Hays avoided looking at the board lest her own mind interfere with the +transmission, and with less efficient help, the entire responsibility +had been on me. When I came to realize that nothing was expected of me +beyond the mere pronouncing of the letters, the three of us developed +swiftly into a smoothly working machine. Yet Mark was constantly +worried for fear that my heart would be alienated and that I would "go +chasing after strange gods," as he once put it. + +When he had finished the fifth installment of the story, with a climax +that surprised and puzzled us, he said: + +"I reckon we had better lay by for a few days till I get this thing +riffled out. It has slipped its tether. I have had such things happen +often. Don't get scared." + +We discussed the use of the word "riffle," and then Mark became serious. + +"I don't want to be disappointed in the Hannibal girl. I have been +trying for several years to get through to the light. I don't want a +false sentiment for a crew of fanatics to wreck my chance. I don't +want to act nasty, but if you go into that other work I am likely to +ruin your reputation. You are likely to explode into some of the +mediocre piffle that is the height and depth of such would-be +communications with the other world. There is nothing to hold to. So, +my dear girls, if you want a future, cut it out. I don't want to +command all your time, but right now it is best to avoid all +complications." + +It is needless to say I declined the invitation. After this, whenever +anything went wrong, the rebuke or complaint was invariably addressed +to me. When there were humorous or pleasant things to be said, they +were dispensed equally to the three of us, whom Mark Twain had come to +designate as "my office force." Two bits of personal communication +came within the succeeding week which seem to have a bearing on the +whole mysterious experience. That second installment was undertaken +and abandoned again and again. Finally he said: + +"I am going ahead with the main body of the story. There will be +another round with that second chapter, but not until the theme is +fully developed. The second chapter sticks in my throat like the +cockleburr that I tried to swallow when I was five. It won't slip down +or come up." + +We had worked patiently on the latter part of the narrative and had +accomplished a big evening's work, when the dictation was interrupted +by this remark: + +"It is going good; but I sure wish that I had Edwin's pipe." + +We fairly gasped with astonishment; but we had no time for comment, as +the planchette continued its amazing revelation: + +"Smoke up, old man, for auld lang syne. In the other world they don't +know Walter Raleigh's weed, and I have not found Walter yet to make +complaint. I forget about it till I get Edwin's smoke. But for pity's +sake, Ed, cut out that tobacco you were trying out. It made me sick. +I hoped it would get you, so that you wouldn't try it again." + +My husband; whom neither Mrs. Hays nor I would, under any +circumstances, address by the abbreviation of his name, "Ed," asked +Mark what tobacco he had in mind. He replied: + +"That packet you were substituting, or that some one that had a grudge +against you gave you." + +A comparison of dates revealed the fact that on the evening when that +troublesome second installment was transmitted, my husband had smoked +some heavy imported tobacco that had been given to him by a friend he +had met that afternoon. The circumstance had passed from the minds of +all of us. Indeed, it had never impressed us in the least, and it had +not occurred to any of us that our unseen visitor still retained the +sense of smell, or that he could distinguish between two brands of +tobacco. He had given evidence of both sight and hearing, had told us +frequently that he was tired, at the end of a long evening's work, and +had made other incidental revelations of his environment and condition: +but his reference to the pipe was more significant than any of them. + +Early in August, when our second story was nearing completion, the +transmission began with this curious bit, which none of us understood +for a long time: + +"Emily, I think that when we finish this story we will do a pastoral of +Missouri. There appear high lights and shadows, purple and dark, and +the misty pink of dawnings that make world-weary ones have surcease." + +Not until "Jap Herron" was more than half finished did we realize that +it was the Missouri pastoral. There was one other veiled reference to +that story which must not be omitted. We had planned a trip to New +York, for some time in October or early November, although we had never +discussed it while at the board. One evening Mark terminated his +dictation abruptly, and said: + +"Emily, I think well of your plan." I asked what plan he referred to. +"New York. I will go, too. I will try to convince them that I am not +done working. I am rejuvenated and want to finish my work. When I was +in New York last I had a very beautiful dream. I did not understand it +then. It meant that my days were numbered, and gave me the picture of +an angel bringing a book from heaven to earth, and on its cover was +blazoned this: MARK TWAIN'S COMPLIMENTS. Ask them what they think +about that. I was so tired--so tired that I could not rest. A cool +hand seemed to soothe my weariness away and I slept, and, sleeping, +dreamed." + +When I found that passage in the early part of our record, I wondered +if "Jap Herron" might be the book sent to earth with Mark Twain's +compliments. I asked him about it, one evening when our regular +dictation had been finished. The reply was a slow journey of the +planchette to the word, "Yes," followed by the rapidly spelled words, +"But old Mark isn't done talking yet." + +We assumed that he had something further to say to us, and when I asked +him what he wanted to talk about, he gave this tantalizing reply: + +"Curious? Wait and see." Then, after a pause, "I shall have other +work for my office force." + +The explanation of this cryptic statement was not given until we had +completed the final revision of the story. Before I reveal what he had +in mind, I wish to state that which is to me the most convincing proof +of the supernormal origin of the three stories that had been traced, +letter by letter, on our transmission board. That they come through +Mrs. Hays, there can be no doubt whatever. My total lack of psychic +power has been abundantly demonstrated. Mrs. Hays has written much +light fiction; but it is necessary for her to write a story at one +sitting. If it does not come "all in one piece" it is foredoomed to +failure. I know nothing of Mark Twain's habits; but in all the work we +have done for him, the first draft has been rough and vigorous, and +sweeping changes have been made by him while the work was undergoing +revision. In the case of "Jap Herron" some of the most important +changes were made without a rereading of the story, changes that +involved incidents which we had forgotten, and for which I was +compelled to search the original record. When I had substituted these +passages for the ones they were to supplant, I made a typewritten copy +of the entire story and we read it aloud to Mark. Mrs. Hays and I sat +with our finger tips on the planchette so that he could interrupt; but +he made only a few minor corrections. The story had been virtually +rewritten twice, although a few of the chapters, as they now stand, are +exactly as they were transmitted, not so much as a word having been +changed. The only change made in the fourteenth chapter came near the +end, where Mark had suggested a line of dashes or stars to bridge the +break between Jap's leaving his mother and the announcement that his +mother was dead. Forty-eight words were dictated to show what Jap +actually did, in that painful interim, the three sentences being +rounded out by the words, "There, I think that sounds better." + +Sometimes, in the course of the revision, we have been interrupted by +the jerkily traced words, "Try this," or "We'll fix that better," or "I +told Emily to take out those repetitions." It has happened that he +used the same word four times in one paragraph, and in copying I have +substituted the obvious synonym. Occasionally he did not approve of my +correction and would rebuke me sharply. In the main he has expressed +himself as well pleased with the labor I have spared him. On the 10th +of January, 1916, Mrs. Hays came to my home for a last reading of the +finished manuscript. When she read it through, I asked her to sit at +the board with me. There was something about which I wanted to +question Mark, and I did not wish her mind to interfere in any way with +the answer. Mrs. Hays had had two curious psychic experiences in +connection with our work. The first came to her when we were still at +work on "A Daughter of Mars." It was in the form of a vivid dream in +which Mark Twain said to her, "Don't be discouraged, Lola. All that we +have done in the past is just forging the hammer for the larger strokes +we are going to make." The second was similar; but the man who +appeared to her was a stocky, bald-headed man in a frock coat. When +she asked him who he was and what he wanted, he replied, "Mark Twain +sent me to call on you." + +At this time, "Jap Herron" was being revised, and she supposed that +this man, with the striking personality, would be introduced somewhere. +However, the story was ended, and no such character had appeared. I +wanted to know whether or not the dream was significant. I said: + +"Mark, did you ever send anybody to call on Lola?" The planchette +replied: + +"Yes, I sent him. We will do another story. We will wait until the +smoke of this one clears away. I want Emily to have a rest, and many +other things will be adjusted. I would like to have my old office +force. It is to be a bigger book than this one--more important. The +man I sent you was Brent Roberts." + +We dropped our hands in amazement. Brent Roberts appears twice in the +Jap Herron story. He is not half so conspicuous as Holmes, the +saloon-keeper, or Hollins, the grocer. In truth, we had scarcely +noticed him. I asked: + +"Mark, are you going to give a sequel to 'Jap Herron'?" He said: + +"No. Brent Roberts had a story before he elected to spend his last +years in Bloomtown. Now, girls, don't speculate. I am taking care of +Brent Roberts." + +He added that it was "up to Emily" to give his book to the world, and +that he intended to explore a little of the Uncharted Country while he +was waiting for his office force to resume work. Once I asked him, +while he was transmitting "A Daughter of Mars," whether he had ever +visited that planet. He replied: + +"No, this is pure fiction. I elected to return to earth. I wanted to +take the taste of those memoirs out of my mouth." + +One other passage from the early record may profitably precede the +actual story of Jap's coming. We were in the midst of the most +critical revision. My husband was commanded to read the story, +paragraph by paragraph. When there was no comment, the planchette +remained motionless under our fingers, but there were few passages that +escaped some change. Several times the changed wording conflicted with +something farther along in the story, and it was necessary to go back +and make another correction. The revision sheets covered a big table, +and my husband found it very exasperating to make the corrections. At +length Mark said: + +"Smoke up and cool off, old boy. Perhaps I should apologize. The last +secretary I had used to wear an ice-soaked towel inside his head. The +girls and old Mark together make a riffle. Well, we will slow up. In +my ambition, I have been too eager. It is hard to explain how great a +thing is the power to project my mentality through the clods of +oblivion. I have so long sought for an opening. Be patient, please. +I am not carping. I get Edwin's position. We will be easy with the +new saddle, so the nag won't run away. I heard Edwin's suggestion, and +it is a good one. We will go straight through the story, beginning +where we left off to-night. That was what I intended to do, but that +second chapter nipped me." + +When next we met we had no thought of any other work than the revision +of the story on which we had been working at frequent intervals for +about two months. We never knew whether a session at the board would +begin with a bit of personal conversation or a prolonged stretch of +dictation. We held ourselves passive, ready to fall in with the humor +or whim of our astonishingly human though still intangible guest. The +beginning of that evening's work--it was the 6th of September--was +almost too great an upheaval for me. The planchette fairly raced as it +spelled the words: + +"This story will have legitimate chapters. Nosy nopsis. Then +ameisjapherron. Begin. Asevery well-bred story has a hero, and as the +reseems better material in jap than in any other party to this story, +we will dignify him." + +I wanted to stop, but my husband insisted that I make no break in the +impatient dictation. He had perceived that the first string of letters +spelled the words, "No synopsis. The name is Jap Herron," but I could +not see his copy, and to my mind the sentences spelled chaos. A little +farther along I ventured an interruption, when we had transmitted the +sentence, "The folks in Happy Hollow continued to say Magnesia long +after she left its fragrant depths." I had just spelled out the name, +Agnesia, and I was too deeply engrossed with the labor of following the +letters to even attempt to understand the meaning. I turned to my +husband and said: + +"It probably didn't intend to stop on that letter M," whereat the +planchette rebuked my stupidity thus: "Emily, they called her Magnesia." + +After that, I contrived to get control of my nerves, and the rest of +the dictation was not so difficult. When we had received the crisp +final sentence, "And stay he did," the planchette went right on with +this information, "This is the first copy of the first chapter. There +will be 25 or more chapters. This is enough for this time, as the +office force is a little weak. But results ... very good. We will +finish the other story and dip into this at the next session. There +will be better speed in this, for there will be no revision until it is +finished. We will work hard and fast. Emily may meet folks she knows +in this tale, for she knows a town with a river and a Happy Hollow. I +did not intend to start another story so soon, but other influences are +so strong that they may try to dominate the board. This will not tire +you so much. You must be determined not to permit intruders. If they +are recognized, you will not be free of them again. I am pushed aside. +Leave the board when they appear. Good-bye." + +The use of the name, Happy Hollow, forms a link with Hannibal; but if +any of the characters in "Jap Herron" were drawn from life, they must +have belonged to Mark Twain's generation and not to mine. Mark never +seems to take into account the fact that he left Hannibal before I was +born, and that there have been many changes in the old town. The +character of Jacky Herron may have been suggested by a disreputable +drunken fisherman whose experiences I have heard my father relate; but +there is one little touch in that first chapter that must have come +from Mark's own mind, since the underlying fact was not known to any of +us until we read Walter Prichard Eaton's article on birds' nests, +months later. When we transmitted that statement, "The father of the +little Herrons was a kingfisher," none of us knew that the kingfisher's +home nest is a filthy hole, close to the river bank. The application +is too perfect to have been accidental. + +Before another chapter of the story was transmitted, I went to spend a +morning with Mrs. Hays. At the request of her son, we consented to +allay his curiosity by a visible demonstration of the workings of the +mysterious board, of which he had necessarily heard much. He hoped to +receive some definite communication from his father, or the sister who +had died in her girlhood; but this is what he recorded: + +"Emily, I gave those synopses not for a guide but to prevent others +from imposing their ideas and confusing you. It might be said that it +made it easier for you, but that idea is wrong. It would be easier to +write the story direct. You have learned that this was wise, because +constant efforts have been made to break in and alter the stories. For +this reason I gave you the synopses, so that you could not be deceived. +Now I am going to trust you. I intended to advise you that it would be +a more convincing psychic record, if you have nothing on which a +subconscious mind might be said to be working. The synopsis was for +your protection, and has no value to the record. At first you had such +a conglomerate method of working that it was necessary. You did not +recognize the difficulties that were likely to occur. You were apt to +employ temporary help, so eliminate." + +Just what was meant by "temporary help" is not apparent; but there was +no opportunity to question him further, for at that moment we were +interrupted by the arrival of another luncheon guest and the board was +put aside. We devoted two sessions to the revision and finishing +touches of the troublesome short story, and then we plunged into the +transmission of "Jap Herron" in deadly earnest. + +As far as possible, we sat twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. We +usually worked uninterruptedly for two hours, with no sound save that +of my voice as I pronounced the letters and punctuation marks over +which the pointer of the planchette paused in its swift race across the +board. My husband discovered early in the work that if he permitted +himself the luxury of a smile he was in danger of distracting Mrs. +Hays, who always sat facing him, and thus of bringing about confusion +in the record. Under Mark's specific instruction she has schooled +herself to keep her mind as nearly blank as is possible for a woman who +is absolutely conscious and normal, and the evidence that something +humorous was being transmitted through her would be diverting, to say +the least. As for my own part in the work, I seldom realized the +import of the sentences I had spelled out, my whole attention being +concentrated on the rapidly gliding pointer. When my husband read +aloud the copy he had taken down it almost invariably came to Mrs. Hays +and me as something entirely new. + +The story of Jap Herron, as it stands completed, does not follow the +original order of the first fifteen chapters. The early part of the +tale was handled in a manner so sketchy and rapid in its action that +three whole chapters and seven fragments of chapters were dictated and +inserted after the work was finished. In the original copy the second +chapter suffered little change up to the point of George Thomas's +advent, with the suggestion that he might bring in some more turnips. +Following the disaster to Judge Bowers's speech, Mark took a short cut +to pave the way for the next chapter. It ran thus: + +"But bad luck cannot camp on your trail forever. In the gladsome +June-time, Ellis married Flossy Bowers, and her dowry of two thousand +dollars and her following of kin set the _Herald_ on its feet." + +These two sentences were expanded into the more important half of the +third chapter, almost five months after they had been dictated, and +this without a rereading of the story. At another time, when this +curious kind of revision was under way, Mark dictated the latter part +of the second chapter, wherein Ellis Hinton tells Jap how he happened +to be starving in Bloomtown. When he had finished the dictation, with +the words, "My boy, that blue calico lady was Mrs. Kelly Jones," he +continued: + +"Emily will know where to fit it in." + +This fitting in was not extremely difficult, since there was only one +place in the story into which each of the inserted chapters or +fragments could be made to fit; but the original copy had to be read +several times before these thin places became apparent, and I got no +help whatever from Mark. Once, when I implored him to tell me where a +certain brief but gripping paragraph belonged, he replied, "Emily, that +is your job. I don't want the Hannibal girl to fall down on it." + +On that second Monday night in September, when the "office force" +settled itself to serious work, my husband read to us the copy we had +transmitted. The chapter ended with what is now the closing paragraph +of the third chapter: + +"The _Herald_ put on a new dress, and the hell-box was dumped full of +the discarded, mutilated types that had so long given strabismus to the +patient readers of the Bloomtown _Herald_." + +The diet of turnips and sorghum and the other humorous touches of the +narrative overwhelmed us with laughter, whereat the planchette under +our fingers wrote: + +"Sounds like Mark, eh?" + +I asked him if he was satisfied with the use of the word "_Herald_" +twice in that last sentence. He replied: + +"You must excuse me. I am all in. I told you I would leave minor +points to your pencil. T-i-r-e-d. Good-bye." + +Our first acquaintance with Wat Harlow, as he appeared in the fourth +chapter, gave little promise of the character into which he was +destined to be developed. To the three of us, who laughed over the +episode of the vermilion handbill, he appeared to be nothing more than +a third-rate country politician. In the original transcription he +received only an occasional passing touch, until the death of Ellis +brought him forth in a new light. We did not know then what Ellis had +meant by "that reformed auctioneer," for the story of Wat's connection +with the upbuilding of Bloomtown, as it is set forth in the sixth +chapter, was not told until we were well along with the work of +revision. + +One of the most interesting personal touches, to be found only in our +private record, was introduced at the end of the fourth chapter. It +had been a long stretch of dictation, and when the planchette stopped I +asked if there was any more. The pointer gave only this, "No--30." +Having had no experience with printing offices, I was mystified until +my husband explained that "30 on the hook" means the end of a given +piece of work. + +Mark once made use of the expression, "the story contains a great deal +of brevity that will have to be untied later on." This untying process +is nowhere more aptly illustrated than in the fourth chapter of our +original copy, a brief chapter that contained the condensed material of +Wat Harlow's letter to Jap, the birth of little J.W. and Isabel +Granger's first kiss. There was nothing about Bill's boyhood, no +record of Jap's home surroundings, none of the amusing details of the +printing office wherein Jap and Bill were learning their trade. All +these incidents, which seem so essential to the story, were introduced +when the first draft of the story had been completed. The seventh +chapter, which has to do with the babyhood of little J.W., was dictated +after the revision had apparently been completed. When I asked Mark +why he inserted it, the planchette made this curious reply: + +"I was thinking that we'd better soften the shock of the boy's death." + +For us, through whom the story was being transmitted, there was no +softening of Ellis Hinton's death. We knew from the foregoing chapter +that the country editor had gone to the mountains for his health, and +that Flossy had no hope; but when we had recorded the words: "Jap +closed the press upon the inky type, and gathered the great bunches of +fragrant blossoms and heaped them upon the press, to be forever +silent," a great wave of sadness swept over me, I knew not why. The +action of the planchette was so rapid that I could not stop to think or +question. It was as if the man dictating the story had an unpleasant +task before him, which he wished to have done with as soon as possible. +When the final words, "At rest. FLOSSY," had been spelled out, and the +planchette stopped abruptly, Mrs. Hays cried: + +"My God, what has happened!" and I looked up to see that she was very +white, and tears were slipping down her cheeks. + +"Ellis is dead," my husband said, very simply. He had foreseen the +end, had grasped the infinite pathos of that old Washington press, +decked as a funeral casket with the flowers that had been sent to usher +in the new regime. + +When the evening's copy had been read, I asked Mark if he wished to +comment on it. + +"Not to-night, Emily," the planchette spelled. "I am all broken up. I +didn't want Ellis to die. I tried to figure a way to save him; but I +couldn't make it go." + +When we met again, on the 2d of October, the dictation began with these +words: + +"I want Edwin to go back to the beginning of the last chapter. I left +out a sentence that is necessary. It explains why Ellis left by rail. +You insert." + +Then he dictated the passage relating to the new railroad and the +temporary station. When he had finished he said, "Go on with the +story," and the next sentence began, "When Ellis went away it was to +the sound of jollity." The reference to Robert Louis Stevenson was new +to both of us, and we have not sought to verify the incident. That +Mark wanted it included in his story was sufficient for us. + +That next chapter contained another accumulation of brevity which was +afterward untied. The funeral, the reading of Ellis Hinton's will, +Judge Bowers's candidacy, the nomination of Jap Herron as the ugliest +man in Bloomtown, Bill's first spree and the local option fight, all +these were sketched with the sharpness and sudden transition of +pictures on a cinematograph screen. The following chapter was almost +as tightly packed with incident, and in the midst of it there was a +break, with an astonishing explanation. Three evenings in succession +we had had trouble with the planchette. It had seemed to me that Mrs. +Hays was trying to pull it from beneath my fingers. Meanwhile she had +mentally accused me of digital heaviness. She uses the finger tips of +her left hand while I use my right. As a rule our touch is so light +that the planchette glides automatically. On these three evenings we +had left the board with cramped fingers, and a general sense of +dissatisfaction. Several sentences that were plainly spurious were +afterward stricken from the record; but we had forgotten about the +other scribes who wanted "a pencil on earth," until Mark interrupted +the story to say: + +"I must ask you to be wary and sharp to dismiss impostors. Right now +there are more than twenty hands trying to control your dictation. It +is very hard for me. I am disconsolate, and powerless to help myself. +If we do not watch every avenue, our work is spoiled. There has been a +constant struggle for my rights. I only ask a little help, and you are +all my hope. If you fail me, I am undone." + +This illuminating outburst served to clear the atmosphere, and the +three chapters were afterward expanded into seven, much of the same +diction being reproduced. It was as if Mark, knowing the difficulties +on his own side of the shadow-line, had tried to get at least the +outline of his story down on paper, lest he lose his hold entirely. +After that evening we had almost no trouble with intruders. + +The story of Jones, of the Barton _Standard_, came to us like a thunder +clap from a cloudless sky, for the part which old Pee-Dee Jones played +in the development of Bloomtown and Barton was not related until we had +begun the work of revision. In the original story of that near-fight, +Mark gave us a significant cross-light on the conditions under which he +lives. The marshal had appeared in the office at the crucial moment, +as if he had dropped through the roof or arisen out of the floor. +Several times in the earlier part of the work the characters had thus +appeared without obvious means of locomotion, and I had called +attention to the inconsistency, with the result that Mark had dictated +a few words to show how or whence the new arrival had come. When +Wilfred Jones shouted to the marshal, "I demand protection," my +husband, who was reading the evening's copy aloud to us, said: + +"How does the marshal happen to be there? I don't see any previous +mention of him." + +Instantly the planchette, which we always kept in readiness under our +finger tips, began to move. It dictated this: + +"You might say, 'at that moment the town marshal, wearing his star +pinned to his blue flannel shirt, strolled in.' I have been away from +the need of going up-stairs and down-stairs for so long that I forget +about it." + +"How do you get from one place to another, Mark?" I asked. + +"Now, Emily, curiosity! But you know we haven't any Pullman cars or +elevators here. When I want to be at a place where I am free to +go--why, I am there." + +He took occasion, when our difficulties seemed to be at an end and his +grip on his "pencil" was once more firmly established, to make it very +plain to me that I alone was responsible for the annoyance we had had. +He put it thus: + +"Things will be all right if you don't give way to any more curiosity. +In the beginning I told you that it would not do. Emily wants to +investigate too much. It must be one or all. Edwin and I understand. +It was you that mixed the type. Lola must be passive. If she tries to +watch for intruders, she gets in my way. So it is up to the Hannibal +girl." + +I do not know, even now, how I could have prevented the trouble that +well-nigh wrecked our work. It is true I had taken part in another +psychic demonstration, but it was in a remote part of the city and it +had nothing to do with Mark Twain's "pencil." However, I took no +further chance with psychic investigation. + +When Jap Herron was elected Mayor of Bloomtown, and the girl he loved +had walked right into his astonished arms, it seemed to us that the +story must be ended. We had forgotten that Jap ever had a family of +his own, a mother and two sisters, and when the drunken hag reeled into +the _Herald_ office we were as greatly horrified as Jap himself was. I +had put my husband's carefully kept copy into type-written form, and it +occurred to me to get the opinion of a master critic on the story, not +as evidence of the survival of the human mind after physical death, but +as pure fiction. Acting upon the impulse, and without telling either +my husband or Mrs. Hays what I intended to do, I took the copy to +William Marion Reedy,[1] permitting him to infer that I had created it, +and asked him to tell me whether, in his judgment, the story was worth +finishing. It was the beginning of the week, when the issuing of the +_Mirror_ consumed all his time, and while I was waiting for his verdict +we received three more chapters. In the first of these we had a new +light on Isabel Granger's character, and came for the first time +absolutely to love Bill Bowers. After that nothing that Bill might do +would shake our faith in his ability to make good in the end. He might +be weak and foolish, but we understood why Jap believed in and loved +him. We were jubilant when Rosy Raymond was eliminated from the game, +for we feared, whenever we permitted ourselves to speculate, that Bill +would marry her, and regret the step. We assumed that the son of the +much-married Judge Bowers had inherited a nature sufficiently mobile to +recover from the shock of the silly girl's perfidy. + +While this unexpected development of the story was being revealed to +us, William Marion Reedy sent me, in the envelope with the first ten +chapters of "Jap Herron," a criticism that fairly made me tingle with +delight. Had the work been my own, I could not have been more pleased +with his unstinted praise. I wanted to go to him at once and confess +the truth; but he was not in his office when I called. + +Two of the succeeding chapters were taken down by friends who had been +let into the secret of our work and had asked permission to sit with +us. It was the time of year when my husband could seldom spare an +evening from his work, and Mark consented to break into his beloved +office-force arrangement, for the sake of expediency. Three men and +five women served us in the capacity of amanuenses while the latter +third of the book was being transmitted. The first deviation from our +original arrangement came in connection with the dictation of the +seventeenth chapter, the chapter that ends with the death of Flossy and +her son. We were three sympathetic women, and when the planchette had +traced the words, "It was a smile of heavenly beauty, as the pure soul +of Ellis Hinton's wife flew to join her loved ones," we three burst +simultaneously into violent weeping. I have never experienced more +genuine grief at the grave of a departed friend or relative than I felt +when this woman, who had come to be more than human to me, was released +from her envelope of mortal clay. + +The following day Mrs. Hays and I were invited to the home of a +delightful little Scotch woman who asked us to bring the planchette +board. She knew nothing of the story, and had no intimation of the +personality on the other side who was sending it across, through our +planchette; nevertheless she was willing to keep copy for us. The +chapter she wrote down is the eighteenth in the finished story, Jap's +funeral sermon and Isabel's song beside Flossy's coffin. Even now I +cannot think of that scene without a swelling of the throat and a +blinding rush of tears. It is needless to say we wept when the +dictation was ended. + +When our hostess had read aloud the copy I asked our invisible +companion if he had anything more to say. I avoided mentioning his +name, for we did not wish his identity disclosed. The planchette +traced the curious words: + +"You know that the air gets pretty damp for an old boy after this." + +I looked out of the window. It was a murky November afternoon, and I +asked, "Do you feel the dampness of the material atmosphere?" Like a +flash came the reply: + +"Emily, girl, you have been getting sob stuff." + +Then I yearned to get my fingers in his shock of white hair, for I knew +Mark Twain was laughing at me. But I had that which gave me +consolation, for I had brought with me Mr. Reedy's letter, analyzing +and commenting upon the story that Mark had created. Incidentally Mrs. +Reedy had asked Mrs. Hays and me to come to her home the following day +to luncheon. I had told her that Mrs. Hays possessed a high degree of +psychic power, and I consented to bring our board for a demonstration. +I wanted to see Mr. Reedy alone and explain to him that "Jap Herron" +had come to us over that insensate board, but opportunity was denied +me. As soon as luncheon was over we went up to that beautiful yellow +room in which the best of _Reedy's Mirror_ is created, and Mrs. Hays +and I placed the board on our knees. As soon as Mr. Reedy's fountain +pen was ready for action our planchette began: + +"Well, I should doff my plaidie and don a kirtle, for 'tis not the +sands o' Dee but the wearing o' the green." There was a wide sweep of +the planchette, and then, "'Tis not the shine of steel that always +reflects; but it is the claymore that cuts. Both are made of steel and +both will mirror sometimes the shillalah. Yet the shillalah is better +than the claymore, for the man that is cut will run; but if ye slug him +with the blackthorn he will have to listen. This is just a flicker of +high light. Bill jumped from bed as the rattle of the latch announced +the arrival of a visitor." + +My heart thumped wildly for a moment, then sank. I knew that the Bill +referred to was Bill Bowers, and not the editor whom hundreds delight +to call "Bill Reedy," and I knew, too, that it would be only a moment +until he must realize that the sentences he was writing down from my +dictation were part and parcel of the story whose first ten chapters he +had read and praised. I dared not lift my eyes from the board, yet I +wanted to stop and explain that I had not intended to deceive him--that +I only wanted an unbiased opinion of Mark Twain's story. In vain I +tried to stop the whirling planchette, my voice so husky that I could +scarcely pronounce the letters. It went right on, with a situation +that neither Mrs. Hays nor I had anticipated. We had schooled +ourselves not to speculate, yet the previous afternoon we had left Jap +in a fainting condition and on the verge of a long illness. The +chapter we transmitted that day was the story of a gubernatorial +election in a small Missouri town. + +Subsequently, when Mark gave us the intervening chapter, Jap's visit to +the cemetery and the humorous incidents of the campaign, I asked him: + +"Why didn't you give this chapter last Thursday?" + +"I thought that election would amuse Reedy. Don't worry, Emily. He +understood you. He knows the Hannibal girl is honest," was the +comforting reply. + +When the revision of the story was under way, and several fragments had +been dictated, the planchette spelled the words, "I want to add +something to the Reedy chapter," and without further ado it proceeded: +"The Bloomtown _Herald_ did itself proud that week." That fragment was +the easiest of them all to fit into place. At its conclusion we were +favored with a bit of pleasantry that seems significant. My husband +gave us a lift whenever he could spare the time; but on this occasion a +woman friend was sitting with us. She had written about two thousand +words of copy, when the tenor of the dictation changed suddenly to the +personal vein. + +"Old Mark has been working like a badger, and is pleased with the +story. The girls and friend Ed are going as well as Twain ever did +when he wielded his own pen. When Edwin lights up a fresh smoke and +smiles, I know that all is well. But when Lola frowns and Edwin +forgets to smoke, look out for leaks. The story has sprung and therain +was hesitthininspots." The last of the sentence came so rapidly that +none of us had any idea what it meant, or that it meant anything at +all. Before we had separated it into the words, "the rain washes it +thin in spots," I asked that that last part be repeated. Instead we +got the words: + +"When a board is sprung, it lets in rain. It is Emily who has to hold +the drip pan for the temperamental ones." + +"Thank you for those few kind words, Mark," I said. "But if you think +enough of me to trust me with this important work, why do you single me +out for all the scoldings, when Edwin and Lola sometimes deserve at +least a share in your displeasure?" + +"Whist, Hannibal girl, we know our office force," was the humorous +rejoinder. + +The appearance of Agnesia was one of the keen surprises of the story, +and before we realized what Jap's little sister would mean to +Bloomtown, Mark interrupted his dictation with the words, "Stop! +Girls, the yarn is nearly all unwound. We will skip a bit that we will +tie in later. But now--Bill sat doubled over the case, the stick held +listlessly in his hand. Nervously he fingered the copy, not knowing +what he was reading." + +Without a break, we received the brief final chapter, ending with the +words, "Isabel wants to call him Jasper William." The planchette +added, "The End." We transmitted no more that day, although we knew +that our story was far from completion. + +The next time we met we had another surprise in the coming of Jap's +elder sister. When the twenty-fifth chapter was finished, Mark said: + +"Girls, I think the story is done." + +"It's pretty short for a book," I protested. By way of reply, he gave +this: + +"Did you ever know about my prize joke? One day I went to church, +heard a missionary sermon, was carried away--to the extent of a hundred +dollars. The preacher kept talking. I reduced my ante to fifty +dollars. He talked on. I came down to twenty-five, to ten, to five, +and after he had said all that he had in him, I stole a nickel from the +basket. Reason for yourselves. Not how long but how strong. Yet I +have a sneaking wish to tell you something of the early days of Ellis's +work, especially about Granger and Blanke. But to-day I have writer's +cramp. So let's get together soon and make the finish complete." + +There were two more sessions, with the dictation of a whole chapter and +several fragments, at each meeting, and we met no more until I had put +the whole complex record into consecutive form. We had a final review +of the work, and a few minor changes in words and phrases were made. +Mark expressed himself as well pleased, and as a little farewell he +gave us this, which has nothing to do with Jap Herron: + +"There will be a great understanding some day. It will come when the +earth realizes that we must leave it, to live, and when it can put +itself in touch with the heavens that surround it. I have met a number +of preachers over here who would like to undo many things they +promulgated while they had a whack at sinners. + +"There are hardshell Baptists who have a happy time meeting their +members, to whom they preached hell and brimstone. They have many +things to explain. There is one melancholy Presbyterian who frankly +stated the fact--underscore 'fact'--that there were infants in hell not +an ell long. He has cleared out quite a space in hell since he woke +up. He doesn't rush out to meet his congregation. It would create +trouble and be embarrassing if they looked around for the suffering +infants. As I said before, there is everything to learn, after the +shackles of earth are thrown aside. I would like to write a story +about some of these preachers, and the mistakes they made, when the +doctrines of brimstone and everlasting punishment were ladled out as +freely to the little maid who danced as to the harlot. It showed a +mind asleep to the undiscovered country." + +"Can you shed any light on that undiscovered country?" I asked him. + +"Perhaps. But for the present there is enough of the truth of life and +death in 'Jap Herron' to hold you." + +And with that he told us good-bye. + +EMILY GRANT HUTCHINGS. + + + +[1] William Marion Reedy, Editor and Publisher of _Reedy's Mirror_, a +weekly journal published in St. Louis, has long been interested in +psychic phenomena, as a source of exotic and unusual literature. He +has also discovered and developed much purely terrestrial literary +talent, having brought out some of the best poets and fiction writers +of present-day America. As a critic, he is a recognized master. + + + + +JAP HERRON + +CHAPTER I + +As every well-bred story has a hero, and as there seems better material +in Jap than any other party to this story, we will dignify him. Mary +Herron feebly asserted her rights in the children by naming them +respectively, Fanny Maud, Jasper James and Agnesia. Jasper +deteriorated. He became Jap, and Jap he remained, despite the fact +that Fanny Maud developed into Fannye Maude and Agnesia changed her +cognomen, without recourse to law, to Mabelle. The folks in Happy +Hollow continued to say "Magnesia" long after she left its fragrant +depths. + +The father of the little Herrons was a kingfisher. He spent his hours +of toil on the river bank and his hours of ease in Mike's place. One +Friday, good luck peered through the dingy windows of the little shanty +where the Herrons starved, froze or sweltered. It was Friday, as I +remarked before. Mary was washing, against difficulties. It had +rained for a week. The clothes had to dry before Mary could cash her +labor, and it fretted Jacky Herron sorely. His credit had lost caste +with Mike, and Mike had the grip on the town. He had the only thirst +parlor in Happy Hollow. So Jacky smashed the only remaining window, +broke the family cup, and set forth defiantly in the rain. And in the +fog and slashing rain he lost his footing, and fell into the river. As +it was Friday, Mary had hopefully declared that luck would change--and +it did! + +The town buried Jacky and moved his family into decent lodgings, +because the Town Fathers did not want to contract typhoid in +ministering to them. Loosed of the incubus of a father, the little +family grew in grace. Jappie, as his baby sister called him, was the +problem. Agnesia was pretty, and the Mayor's wife adopted her. Fanny +Maud went west to live with her aunt, and Jap remained with his mother +until she, after the manner of womankind, who never know when they have +had luck, married another bum and began supporting him. Jap ran away. + +He was twelve years old, red-headed, freckled and lanky, when he +trailed into Bloomtown. He loafed along the main street until he +reached the printing office, and there he stopped. An aphorism of his +late lamented dad occurred to him. + +"Ef I had a grain of gumption," said dad, during an enforced session of +his family's society, "I would 'a' went to work in my daddy's printin' +office, instid of runnin' away when I was ten year old. I might 'a' +had money, aplenty, 'stid of bein' cumbered and helt down by you and +these brats." + +Jap straggled irregularly inside and heard the old Washington hand +press groan and grunt its weary way through the weekly edition of the +_Herald_. After the last damp sheet had been detached from the press, +and the papers were being folded by the weary-eyed, inky demon who had +manipulated the handle, he slouched forward. + +"Say, Mister," he asked confidently, "do you do that every day?" +indicating the press, "'cause I'm goin' to work for you." + +The editor, pressman and janitor looked upon him in surprise and pity. + +"I appreciate your ambition," he said, more in sorrow than anger, "but +I have become so attuned to starving alone that I don't think I could +adjust myself to the shock of breaking my fast on you." + +Jap was unmoved. + +"My dad onct thought he'd be a editor, but he got married," he said +calmly. + +"Sensible dad," commented the editor, with more truth than he dreamed. +"I suppose that he had three meals a day, and a change of socks on +Sunday." + +"But Ma had to get 'em," argued Jap. "I want to be a editor, and I am +agoin' to stay." And stay he did. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +"Run out and get a box of sardines," ordered the boss of the Washington +press. "I've got a nickel. I can't let you starve. I lived three +months on them--look at me!" + +Jap surveyed him apprehensively. + +"I'd hate to be so thin," he complained, "and I don't like sardines nor +any fishes. My dad fed us them every day. Allus wanted to taste +doughnuts. Can I buy them?" + +Ellis Hinton laughed shortly, and spun the nickel across the imposing +stone. Jap caught it deftly. An hour later he appeared for work, +smiling cheerfully. + +"Why the shiner?" queried Ellis, indicating a badly swollen and rapidly +discoloring eye. + +"Kid called me red-top," said Jap bluntly. + +"Love o' gracious," Ellis exclaimed, "what is the shade?" + +"It's red," quoth Jap, "but it ain't his business. If I am agoin' to +be a editor, nobody's goin' to get familiar with me." + +This was Jap's philosophy, and in less than a week he had mixed with +every youth of fighting age in town. The office took on metropolitan +airs because of the rush of indignant parents who thronged its portals. +Ellis pacified some of the mothers, outtalked part of the fathers and +thrashed the remainder. After he had mussed the outer office with +"Judge" Bowers, and tipped the case over with the final effort that +threw him, Jap said, solemnly surveying the wreck: + +"If I had a dad like you, I'd 'a' been the President some day." + +Ellis gazed ruefully into the mess of pi, and kicked absently at the +hell-box. + +"I'll work all night," cried Jap eagerly. "I'll clean it up." + +"We'll have plenty of time," said Ellis gloomily. "We have to hit the +road, kid. Judge Bowers owns the place. He has promised to set us out +before morning." + +But luck came with Jap. It was Friday again, and Bowers's wife +presented him with twins, his mother-in-law arrived, and his uncle +inherited a farm. There was only one way for the news to be +disseminated, and he came in with his truculent son and helped clean +up, so that the _Herald_ could be issued on time. More than that, he +made the boys shake hands, and concluded to put Bill to work in the +_Herald_ office. After he had puffed noisily out, Ellis looked +whimsically at Bill. + +"Are you going to board yourself out of what I am able to pay you?" he +asked. + +"Oh, I don't reckon Pappy cares about that," the boy said cheerfully. +"He just wants to keep me out of mischief, and he said that lookin' at +you was enough to sober a sot." + +Months dragged by. Bill and Jap worked more or less harmoniously. +Once a day they fought; but it was fast becoming a mere function, kept +up just for form. Ellis was doing better. He had set up housekeeping, +since Jap came, in the back room of the little wooden structure that +faced the Public Square, and housewives sent them real food once in a +while. + +Once Ellis feared that Jap was going to quit him for the Golden Shore. +It was on the occasion of Myrtilla Botts's wedding, when she baked the +cakes herself, for practice, and her mother thoughtfully sent most of +them to the Editor, to insure a big puff for Myrtilla. Ellis was +afraid; but Jap, with the enthusiasm and inexperience of youth, took a +chance. Bill was laid up with mumps, or the danger would have been +lessened. As it was, it took all the doctors in town to keep Jap alive +until they could uncurl him and straighten out his appendix, which +appeared to be cased in wedding cake. This experience gave Jap an +added distaste for the state of matrimony. + +"My dad allus said to keep away from marryin'," he moaned. "But how'd +I know you'd ketch it from the eatin's?" + +The subscription list grew apace. There was a load of section ties, +two bushel of turnips and six pumpkins paid in November. Bill and Jap +went hunting once a week, so the larder grew beyond sardines. Jap +acquired a hatred of turnips and pumpkins that was in after years +almost a mania. At Christmas, Kelly Jones brought in a barrel of +sorghum, "to sweeten 'em," he guffawed. Jap had grown to manhood +before he wholly forgave that pleasantry. It was a hard winter. +Everybody said so, and when Jap gazed at Ellis across the turnips and +sorghum of those weary months, he said he believed it. + +"Shame on you," rebuked Ellis, gulping his turnips with haste. "Think +of the wretched people who would be glad to get this food." + +"Do you know any of their addresses?" asked Jap abruptly. "Because I +can't imagine anybody happy on turnips and sorghum. I'd be willin' to +trade my wretched for theirn." + +Kelly said that Jap would be fat as butter if he ate plenty of +molasses, and this helped at first; but when the grass came, he begged +Ellis to cook it for a change. + +When George Thomas came in, one blustery March day, to say that if the +turnips were all gone, he would bring in some more, Ellis pied Judge +Bowers's speech on the duties of the Village Fathers to the alleys, +when he saw the malignant look that Jap cast upon the cheery farmer. + +Once a week Bill and Jap drew straws to determine which one should fare +forth in quest of funds, and for the first time in his brief business +career, Jap was glad the depressing task had fallen to him. "Pi" was +likely to bring on an acute attack of mental indigestion, and the boy +had learned to dread Ellis Hinton's infrequent but illuminating flame +of wrath. + +The catastrophe had been blotted out, the last stickful of type had +been set and Bill had gone home to supper when Jap, leg-weary and +discouraged, wandered into the office. Ellis looked up from the form +he was adjusting. + +"How did you ever pick out this town?" the boy complained, turning the +result of his day's collection on the table. + +Ellis turned from the bit of pine he was whittling, a makeshift +depressingly familiar to the country editor. He scanned the meager +assortment of coins with anxious eye. Jap's lower jaw dropped. + +"I'll have to fire you if you haven't got enough to pay for the paper." + +"Got enough for that," said Jap mournfully, "but not enough for meat." + +"Didn't Loghman owe for his ad?" Ellis demanded. "Did you ask him for +it?" + +"Says you owe him more 'n he's willin' for you to owe," Jap ventured. + +Ellis sighed. + +"Meat's not healthy this damp weather," he suggested. "Cook something +light." + +"It'll be darned light," said Jap. "There's one tater." + +"No bread?" asked Ellis. + +"Give that scrap to the cat," Jap returned, "Doc Hall says she's done +eat all the mice in town and if we don't feed her she'll be eatin' +off'n the subscribers." + +"Confound Doc Hall," stormed Ellis. "You take your orders from me. +That bread, stewed with potato, would have made a dandy dish." He +shook the form to settle it, and faced Jap. + +"How did I come to pick this place?" he said slowly. "Well, Jap, it +was the dirtiest deal a boy ever got. I had a little money after my +father died. I wanted to invest it in a newspaper, somewhere in the +West, where the world was honest and young. I had served my +apprenticeship in a dingy, narrow little New England office, and I +thought my lifework was cut out for me. I had big dreams, Jap. I saw +myself a power in my town. With straw and mud I wanted to build a town +of brick and stone. Dreams, dreams, Jap, dreams. Some day you may +have them, too." + +He let his lean form slowly down into a chair. Jap braced himself +against the table as the narrative continued: + +"In Hartford I met Hallam, the man who started the Bloomtown _Herald_. +I heard his flattering version. I inspected his subscription list and +studied the columns of his paper, full of ads. I bought. The subs +were deadheads, the ads--gratuitous, for my undoing. It was indeed +straw and mud, and, lad, it has remained straw and mud." He leaned his +head on his hand for a moment. + +"That was the year after you were born, Jap. I was only twenty-one. +For a year I was hopeful; then I dragged like a dead dog. You will be +surprised when I tell you what brought me to life again. I tell you +this, boy, so that you will never despise Opportunity, though she may +wear blue calico, as mine did. + +"It was one dark, cold day. No human face had come inside the office +for a week. That was the period of my life when I learned how human a +cat can be. We were starving, the cat and me, with the advantage in +favor of the cat. She could eat vermin. I sat by the table, wondering +the quickest way to get out of it. Yes, Jap, the first and, God help +me, the only time that life was worthless. The door opened and a plump +woman dressed in blue calico, a sunbonnet pushed back from her smiling +face, entered." + +To Jap, who listened with his heart in his throat, it seemed that Ellis +was quoting perhaps a page from the memoirs he had written for the +benefit of his townsmen. His deep, melodious voice fell into the +rhythmic cadence of a reader, as he continued: + +"'Howdy, Mr. Editor,' she chirped. 'I've been keenin' for a long time +to come in to see you. I think you are aprintin' the finest paper I +ever seen. I brought you a mess of sassage and a passel of bones from +the killin'. It's so cold, they'll keep a spell. And here's a dollar +for next year's paper. I don't want to miss a number. I am areadin' +it over and over. Seems like you are agoin' to make a real town out of +Bloomtown,' and with a friendly pat on the arm, she was gone." + +Ellis brushed the long hair from his brow, the strange modulation went +out of his voice and the fire returned to his brown eyes as he said: + +"Jap, I got up from that table and fell on my knees, and right there I +determined that starvation nor cold nor any other enemy should rout me. +Jap, I am going to make Bloomtown a real town yet. My boy, that blue +calico lady was Mrs. Kelly Jones." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +Ellis scowled and kicked his stool absently with his heels. + +"Will you explain where the colons and semicolons have emigrated to?" +he asked Bill, with suppressed wrath. + +"We was short of quads, and I whittled 'em off." + +Ellis glared at Bill's ingenuous face. + +"And what, pray, did you whittle to take their place?" + +"Never had no call to use 'em," muttered Bill, chewing up the item he +had just disposed of. "I can say all that I can think with commas and +periods." + +"Abraham Lincoln used colons and semicolons," said Ellis, shortly, "and +I am setting his immortal speech. What am I going to do about it, my +intelligent co-printer?" + +Bill coughed violently as the wad of paper slipped down his throat. + +"Try George Washington," he advised, "They didn't have so much +trimmin's to their talk them days." + +Jap shoved a chair against the door sill and flung the door ajar to cut +off the blast of hot air that swept the office. + +"Gee-whiz!" he complained, "I'm chokin' on the dust. However did they +get 'Bloomtown' hitched on to this patch of dirt? There ain't a flower +'in a mile, 'ceptin' the half-dead sprigs the wimmin are acoaxin' +against their will." + +"When I came here," said Ellis, "the old settlers told me that whenever +I wanted information I should hunt up Kelly Jones. There he goes now. +Call him in." + +But Kelly was coming anyway. He carried a mysterious basket and his +sun-burned face was full of suppressed excitement. + +"Wife allowed that you and Jap must be putty nigh starved," he +chuckled, shifting the quid to his other cheek. "I reckon she knowed +that Jap done the cookin' Wednesdays and Thursdays." + +He lifted the clean white towel from the basket, disclosing a pound of +yellow butter, a glass of jelly, a loaf of bread and two pies, fairly +reeking aroma. + +"Fu'st blackberries," asserted Kelly. "I ain't had a pie myself yet, +and wife forbid me to take a bite o' yourn." + +"God bless the wife of our countryman, Kelly Jones. May her shade +never grow less," said Ellis fervently, stowing the basket away. "If +Jap and Bill stick all the matter on the hooks before noon, they may +have pie. Otherwise the Editor of the _Herald_ exercises his +prerogative and eats both pies." + +"Kelly," asked Jap abruptly, "why did they call this patch of dust +'Bloomtown'? Did they ever have even peppergrass growin' along its +edges?" + +Kelly settled himself comfortably in Ellis's chair and draped his long +legs over the exchanges. Filling his mouth with Granger twist, he said: + +"'Twa'n't because of the blooms. Fact is, it never was 'bloom' in the +fu'st place. Old man Blome owned this track of land--his name was +Jerusalem Blome. Folks used to say Jerusalem Blown. Purty nice story +there is about this town and Barton, why neither of 'em has got a +railroad, and why Barton is bigger in money and scarcer in folks." + +Ellis put his stickful of type on the case resignedly. Bill and Jap +deposited their weary frames on the doorstep. The hot wind blew in +their faces, laden with dust. The smell of dried grass was odorous. + +"Looks like it mout blow up a rain," said Kelly, sniffing approvingly. + +"Well, Kelly," declared Ellis, "you have tied the wheels of this +machine. Deliver the goods you promised. We are not interested in +rain." + +"Humph!" ruminated Kelly, "it was this-a-way: Old man Blome bought this +track about the time that Luellen Barton moved to her plantation. It +mout 'a' been sooner; I ain't sure. Barton--leastways, what is Barton +now--belonged to old Simpson Barton. When he went south and married a +rip-snortin' widow, he brought his wife and a passel o' niggers to live +at the old home place. There hadn't never been no niggers there, along +of the fu'st Mis' Barton. + +"When war broke out the niggers run away, along of Jerusalem Blome, +that got up a nigger regimint. After the war there was talk of a +railroad. It would run right through the Blome farm and cross the +Barton place crossways. My daddy was overseer for Mis' Barton. Simp +didn't have nothin' to say about the runnin' of the place. I was a +tyke, doin' errands for everybody, and I heerd a lot o' the railroad +talk. Old Blome was sellin' his farm in town lots, gettin' ready for +the boom--for who would 'a' thought that Mis' Barton would turn her +back on such a proposition? + +"You see, it was this-a-way: Mis' Luellen was allus speculatin' in +niggers, and a month before war broke, she had bought a load of Guinea +niggers--the kind that looks like they are awearin' bustles, you know. +Simp kinder smelt war, but, Lordee, Luellen wouldn't be dictated to! +And she went broke, flat as a flitter. All that was left was the +thousand acres of Barton land. + +"Railroad? No, siree! She heard about old man Blome's activity, and +she had it in for Blome. She sat up and primped her lips when Pee-Dee +Jones come in behalf of the railroad. That's how the Barton Joneses +come to settle in this neck o' the woods. Pee-Dee Jones--no kin o' +mine--had a winnin' way, and he purty nigh got Mis' Luellen's name on +the paper, when he let slip that he intended buildin' a town on her +land. 'Do you think that I am agoin' to have a lot of blue-bellied +Yankees in my very dooryard?' she yelled. 'You are mistaken.' And so +she stuck. + +"Afterwards she learned that Pee-Dee Jones had follered Grant. Whew! +She nigh busted with rage. Mis' Luellen allus said that she could +smell a Yankee a mile, and as she didn't like the smell, she cropped +the railroad boom. It went five mile north of her place, and missed +Bloomtown twenty mile. That's why the two towns are just livin' along. +The folks that bought lots of old Blome tried to get another railroad +to come their way. That was when the Wabash looked like it was headed +for my farm; but I reckon that opportunities like that don't come but +onct in a lifetime. + +"I wonder that Mis' Luellen's spook don't howl around Barton every +night, for Jones bought the big house after she died, and the fambly +comes back there to live whenever their luck goes wrong. Pee-Dee's +boy, Brons Jones, started a paper there, about the time that Hallam +started the Bloomtown _Herald_. He sold out to a poor devil that's +racin' to see if he can starve quicker'n Ellis. Brons ain't been +around these parts, the last few years, but he owns a lot o' Barton +property that he thinks 'll make good some day." + +Kelly aimed a clear stream of tobacco juice at the dingy brown +cuspidor, and made as if to settle himself for further narrative. + +"Jap, Bill, get to work," commanded Ellis. "And, Kelly, much as I +appreciate you and your excellent wife, I must dispense with your +society. I need these boys." + +As the farmer departed, grinning cheerfully, Tom Granger appeared at +the door of the _Herald_ office. A conference of prominent citizens +had been summoned to meet, early that afternoon, in the Granger and +Harlow bank, a somewhat more pretentious building, separated from the +_Herald_ office by a narrow alley; and during a lull in the morning's +business Tom was serving himself in the capacity of errand boy. From +his place on the front steps, he could watch for the possible advent of +depositor or daylight robber, there being no rear door to the bank. + +"You'll be on hand, Ellis," he reminded. "Couldn't have any kind of a +meeting without the _Herald_, you know. We won't keep you long." + +But the session was more important than the banker had anticipated. +Judge Bowers had prepared a lengthy discourse, and others had opinions +that needed ventilating. Once or twice, Ellis was irritated by shrieks +of laughter that emanated from the office across the alley, usually in +Bill's shrill treble. When the cause of the merriment had reached an +exceptional climax, the Editor pounced upon his assistants, wearing the +scowl of a thunder god. Jap and Bill got up, shamefacedly, as he +demanded: + +"What do you think I am conducting this plant for? A circus for +horse-play?" + +He kicked the cat loose from the box Jap had it hitched to. The two +boys looked ruefully at their over-turned cart. + +"There goes the hell-box!" Bill screamed. + +Ellis stared at him in transfixed wrath. + +"Was that pi?" he demanded, looking down the hole in the floor into +which most of the contents of the box had spilled. + +Bill darted into the back room and sneaked swiftly out through the +alley door. The office saw him no more that day. With such tools as +were available, Jap set to work to undo the mischief he had wrought. +An hour later, he replaced the plank in the floor. The rescued type +was piled in a dirty litter of refuse. Ellis leaned over it, attracted +by a gleam that shone as not even new type could glitter. + +"It's a ring," explained Jap, furtively. "I reckon you won't be so mad +now. I can soak it when we get hungry. I soaked my ma's ring, lots of +times." + +"Why, you young reprobate!" exclaimed Ellis, "that ring is not yours, +or mine. We will advertise it." He smiled in Jap's disappointed face. +"It looked like a beefsteak, didn't it, boy? Well, virtue is its own +reward, and maybe the owner will pay for the ad." + +But she did not, and yet the kick given to the inoffensive office cat +had effects as far-reaching in the result to Bloomtown as did the kick +of the famous Chicago cow, with this difference, that the effects were +not disastrous. The brief ad in the _Herald_ brought Flossy Bowers +from her home in Barton to claim a ring she had lost fifteen years +before. + +"The office used to belong to Pap's daddy," Bill explained to Jap, as +Ellis and Miss Bowers stood chatting in the front door. "When Grandpap +was lawyerin', he had this for his office, and Aunt Flossy lost her +ring, scrubbin' the floor. I have heard tell that he made the wimmin +folks curry the horses. They say he had a big funeral. I wonder--" +Bill spoke wistfully, "I wonder if I have any kinfolks on the man-side +that love anybody but theirselves. Flossy didn't get to go off to +school till her daddy died. She's been teaching up to Barton, since my +pappy married this last time, and my stepmother don't like her, so she +never comes home." + +Jap and Bill noted that Ellis found frequent business in Barton, and +despite the inhospitable atmosphere of the substantial Bowers home, +across the little park from the _Herald_ office, Flossy came oftener +than usual to her girlhood town. The autumn, the winter and the spring +sped by. Ellis Hinton was too happy to scold, even when there was an +excess of horse-play. In the gladsome June-tide the young girls of +Bloomtown stripped their mothers' gardens to weave garlands for the +little church, and Judge Bowers opened his heart and his house for the +wedding reception. + +Flossy had a dower of two thousand dollars, besides the cottage, a part +of her father's patrimony, on one of the side streets, a ten-minute +walk from the office. In her trunk were stowed away the yellow linens +that should have served her, had a certain college friend proved +faithful, and the wedding presents came near to doing the rest. This +strange turn of the wheel of fortune landed Jap Herron in his first +real home. Flossy could cook, and thank the kind fates, she brought +something to cook with her. Flossy was a misnomer, for even in her +salad days, she had never been the least bit "flossy," and when Ellis +bestowed himself upon her she had well turned thirty. + +The Judge made Ellis a present of the office, thereby relieving him of +the haunting fear that he might, at some time, demand the rent. The +paper put on a new dress, and the hell-box was dumped full of the +discarded, mutilated types that had so long given strabismus to the +patient readers of the Bloomtown _Herald_. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +"To-morrow is Jap's birthday," announced Ellis, one noontide early in +July. "Jap, you are a joy-spoiler. With the Fourth yet smoking in the +air, we must be upset by your birthday." + +"Dad allus cussed that day," remarked Jap, wiping the blackberry juice +from his freckled face. "Gee, I never guessed that there was such grub +as this," regretfully gazing at the generous blackberry +cobbler--regretfully, because his exhausted stomach refused to give +another stitch. + +"Cussed it?" queried Ellis, who was beginning to fat up a bit. + +"He said that I was the first nail in the coffin of his troubles," +replied Jap cheerfully. + +"How dreadfully inhuman," exclaimed Flossy, scraping the scraps to the +chickens. "Well, Jappie," she bustled back to the dining-room where +her little family lingered, "we are going to begin making your +birthdays pleasant. What do you want most?" + +She had her mind's eye on the discarded ties of gorgeous hue, bought +while Ellis was courting, and still brand new. + +"Ca-can I have just what I want?" stuttered Jap, excitedly. + +"Why, certainly, Jappie. That is, if we can afford it." + +"Well--well," floundered Jap, astounded at his own temerity, "I allus +wanted a pair of knee pants. Ma thought that some time she could get +'em; but the folks that she washed for allus kept giving her pants of +their menfolks. I had to wear 'em. Can I have knee pants?" + +Flossy stared dazedly after Ellis, whose vision of Jap in knee trousers +was most unsettling. Before the momentous request had been granted, he +was already half way down the alley. He was still convulsed with +laughter when he reached the side door of the _Herald_ office. But his +mental picture paled into dull commonplace, by comparison with the +reality that was in store for him. + +Jap bought the cherished pants! + +Bloomtown had seen the circus, the Methodist church fire and Judge +Lesley's funeral, the greatest in the history of the county; but none +of these created the interest that Jap brought out when he traveled the +length of Spring street, rounded the corner at Blanke's drug store and +walked solemnly along Main street to the office. + +Ellis was looking out of the window when he appeared, and despite his +effort at composure, was writhing on the floor in agony when Jap +entered. Bill looked up, as the vision crossed the threshold, and he +involuntarily swallowed four type he was holding in his lips while he +adjusted a pied stickful of "More Anon's" communication from Pluffot. +Jap was so interested in himself that these things passed him by. He +sat solemnly on his stool and looked vacantly into the e-box. Poking +absently among the dusty types, he said, with profound solemnity: + +"Bill, did you ever want anything right bad?" + +Bill swallowed the last type with difficulty. It was the last capital +Z, and they were getting five dollars for the announcement of Zachariah +Zigler's daughter, Zella Zena's graduation into matrimony, and Bill had +been picking enough Z's out of the "More Anon" to spell it, when the pi +happened. His mind feebly recognized the calamity. He stared at the +apparition before him, too stunned by the catastrophe to apprehend +Jap's appearance further. Jap pressed him for reply. + +"Once," he admitted gloomily. "I wanted to eat musherroons." + +"Did you like 'em--when you got them?" asked Jap wanly. + +"Naw! Tasted nasty. Never could see why folks keened after 'em." + +Jap sighed. + +"I allus wanted knee pants," he said plaintively. "But seems like I +wa'n't made for that kind of luxury. I ain't a bit happy, like I +thought. Seems kind of indecent to show your legs, when you never done +it before." + +And Jap donned his long trousers again, much to the relief of +Bloomtown. Ellis afterward declared that the three-and-a-half feet of +spindling legs that dangled along under the buckled bands of those +short trousers were the most remarkable things he had ever seen. They +resembled nothing more than the legs of a spring lamb, cavorting in +knee pants, in the butcher's window. + +When we have achieved our heart's desire, we often taste the ashes of +illusion. + +Jap did not worry further about his appearance, but, dressed in the +neat jumpers that Flossy provided, he seemed content. The memory of +the episode was beginning to lose some of its sting when Dame Fortune +gave a mighty turn to her wheel. He was in the alley with Bill, +playing marbles, when Wat Harlow came rushing out. + +"Where is Ellis?" he gasped. "There's hell afloat." + +"Ellis and Flossy have gone to Birdtown to stay till Monday," +vouchsafed Bill. "It's goin' to be big doin's at an anniversary, +Sunday." + +"Good God!" cried Wat, "what can I do?" + +Jap arose and dusted himself. + +"Is it a dark secret?" he inquired. "Did Ellis owe you a bill? +Lordee, man, you can find plenty more in your fix. Forget it." + +Wat continued to tear up and down the narrow alley. + +"I'm ruined," he groaned. "They've got an infernal lie out about me, +and it's going to kill me out." + +Jap was interested. + +"Maybe I know what Ellis could do," he suggested. + +"I am running for the Legislature again," Wat said, pacing wildly over +the marbles. "The Morgan crowd have got it out that I sold myself to +the crowd that are trying to lobby a bill for a big appropriation for +the State University. The county is solid against it, and they will +vote me out of politics forever." + +"What could Ellis do?" asked Jap, sympathetically. + +"I thought that he could print the truth in handbills that could be +sent out. It is now Friday, and Tuesday is election day. There will +be no chance for help after Monday. They would have to have time to +get all over the county." He sat down and wiped his forehead. + +"What is your defense?" asked Jap judicially. + +"They said that I was in the headquarters of the University gang--and I +was," he said bitterly. "They said I shook hands with Barks--and I +did. They said that he walked with me down the steps, with his arm +around my shoulder--and he did." + +"Love of Mike!" exploded Bill, "What do you want to talk about it for, +then?" + +"The University headquarters are in Bolton's furniture store," +explained Wat. "My--my baby died last night, and I went there for her +little coffin." He choked and walked over to the gate. After a moment +he turned back. "Barks was there. When he found why I came, he walked +out with me. He put his arm around my shoulder. He--he was telling me +that he buried his youngest, a few weeks ago. And now, while I am tied +here, and the time is so short, Ellis is gone. And I'll be ruined!" + +He leaned heavily on the rickety gate. Bill wiped his snub nose, +openly, but Jap straightened up. The fire of battle was in his eyes. + +"Come inside," he cried valiantly. "Ellis is gone, but the office is +here. Come on, Bill. We have great things to do." + +All night long the two boys labored. After the story was in type, they +printed it on the Washington press. It was Bill's suggestion that +brought forth a can of vermilion, to lend color to the heart story. +Wat was in and out all night, but there was no "in and out" for the +boys. At daybreak they flung the last handbill upon the stack of bills +and sank exhausted upon them. Wat carried a mail pouch full of them to +the stage that started on its daily trip to Faber, at seven o'clock, +and the pathetic story saved the day for Legislator Harlow. + +"Boys, I will never forget it," he declared. + +Ellis saw one of the badly spelled, ink-smeared agonies on Saturday +evening, and took the next stage for home, wrathful enough to thrash +both boys. They had adorned the bill with the cut that Ellis had had +made for Johnson, the tombstone cutter, a weeping angel drooping its +long wings over a stately head-stone. A rooster and two prancing +stallions at the bottom presaged victory for the vilified Wat. + +It was midnight when Ellis slammed the door open. The two boys were +asleep in the midst of the litter of torn, ink-gaumed and otherwise +spoiled copies of that hideous handbill. The last pull on the lever of +the press had let it fly back too quickly, and it had flapped its +handle loose and lay wrecked on the floor. The office had the +appearance of a battleground. The ink was blood, and the press and +scattered type, casualties. He stirred the boys with an angry kick. +Jap sat up and peered through the ink over his eyes at his angry +employer. + +"We fixed him solid," he declared jubilantly. "There can't nothing +beat Wat now. We opened the eyes of the county." + +"You surely did," groaned Ellis. "When the Press Association add to +their Hall of Fame, they will shroud me in the folds of that dad-blamed +bit of art!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +Jap came running into the office, early in January, his freckled face +aglow, his red hair standing wildly erect. + +"Golly Haggins!" he exploded, "I got a letter from Wat. He's up at the +Legislator and he writes--he writes this!" He fairly lunged the letter +at Ellis. + +Ellis read, scowling: + + +"My dear young Friend,-- + +"I am at the Halls of Justice and I want to fill my promise to reward +you for the noble deed you done. There is a chance for a bright boy as +page, and I have spoke for it for my noble boy. Come at once. Time +and tide won't wait, and there is thirty other boys camped on the trail, + +"Respectfully your Friend, + "WAT HARLOW." + + +"Whoopee!" yelled Bill, jumping from his stool and turning a handspring +across the office. + +"Reckon I'd better ask Flossy to fix my things--get my clothes out?" +asked Jap, beaming radiantly over the big barrel stove. He started +toward the door. + +"Stop!" said Ellis, in a voice Jap had never heard. "You are not +going." + +"Not going?" echoed both boys hollowly. + +"No!" almost shouted Ellis, his brown eyes flashing. "I might have +expected this from that wooden-headed son of a lost art. Do you think +that you are going to leave my office to lick the boots of that loafing +gang of pie-biters? Not in a thousand years! I am going to put a tuck +in that idea right now. And while I'm talking about it, you may as +well know that Flossy is getting ready to teach you how to 'read and +write and 'rithmetic,' as Bill says. And as for you, Bill, Flossy says +that if your father hasn't enough pride to do the right thing by you, +she'll give you an education, along with Jap. You begin your lessons +to-morrow evening. + +"Jap, write to that reformed auctioneer and thank him for his favor. +Tell him that you belong to the ancient and honorable order of +printers. When he runs for governor, you will boom him. Till then, +nothing doing in the 'Halls of Justice.'" + +Jap sulked all day, but he wrote the letter whose contents might have +changed his career, and the following evening he and Bill began the +schooling that Flossy had planned. It was a full winter for the boys, +the most important of their lives. Even when spring came, with its +yawns and its drowsy fever, they begged that the lessons continue. +Already the effect was beginning to show in the galley proof. + +One morning in July, Jap had held down the office alone. Flossy was +not well, and Ellis spent as much time with her as possible. Bill +blustered in, a look of disgust in his brown eyes. + +"Ain't nothin' doin' in town, 'cept at Summers's," he exploded, +luxuriating in the kind of speech that was tabooed in the presence of +his elders. "Only ad I could scare up was at Summers's, and Ellis +don't want that." + +Jap looked from the door, beyond the little village park and the hotel, +to where the dingy white face of the saloon stared impudently upon the +town. + +"I never see one of them places without scringin'," he said slowly. +"My pappy almost lived in one. When we were cold, he was warm. When +Ma and us children were hungry, the saloon fed him, because--because he +could be so amusing and entertaining when he was half drunk. Ma said +that my pappy's folks were quality, but they didn't have any time for +him. + +"I used to creep around to the side winder to see what kind of a drunk +he had. If it was a mean one, I'd run home and sneak Aggie out and +hide. He had a spite agin us two, and when he had a mean drunk he used +to beat us. He was skeered to fetch Fanny Maud. She had the +wild-cattest temper you ever saw. He tried to pull her out of bed by +her hair one night, and she jumped on him and scratched his face like a +map. Ma had to drag her off, and if he hadn't run, Fanny would 'a' got +him again. After that he would brag what a fine girl she was. One +night Aggie and me hid in a straw stack all night." + +Bill looked sorrowfully upon his friend. + +"I thought I was the most forsakenest boy in the world," he said. "But +my father never beat me, and he never touches no kind of licker. He +just don't like me around. You know my mother died when I was born, +and somehow he seems to blame it on me. I don't know how to figger it, +for he married in a year, and when that one died it didn't take him no +time to start lookin' out again. He hardly ever speaks to me, 'cept to +cuss me or tell me what a nuisance I am. Allus makes me feel like a +cabbage worm." + +"Cabbage worm?" queried Jap. + +"Yes, they turn green when they eat, and I feel like I am green, every +bite I take. He looks at me so mean, like he thought I hadn't any +right to eat. That's why I eat at Flossy's, every time she asks me. +The only nice thing my pappy ever done for me was to put me in here +with Ellis. Jap," he broke off suddenly, "I'm durn glad you licked me, +that day. But your hair _was_ red!" + +Ellis had come quietly in at the rear door and had listened, half +consciously, to the sacred confession. His face saddened for a moment. +Then he squared his shoulders and his dark eyes flashed. + +"I am going to make men of those boys yet," he promised himself. "Who +knows----" + +He interrupted the spasm of painful speculation, the dark foreboding +that had for days hovered over him. The heat of summer and his anxiety +over Flossy were beginning to tell on his nerves. He tiptoed softly +out of the back door, across the weed-grown yard and out through the +alley gate. A moment later he came in at the front door, whistling +blithely. + +The summer was intensely hot. As the dog-days waxed, Ellis grew ever +more and more morose. His sharp bursts of temper were made tolerable +only by the swift justice of the amend. Late in September he came down +to the office one morning, pale and shaken. The boys had been sticking +type for an hour when his sudden entrance startled them. + +"Flossy is very sick," he said with lips that quivered, "and I will +have to trust you boys." + +Jap followed him to the door. His face was downcast. + +"Is it true, Ellis? Bill said that Flossy would--would----" He +gulped. He could not finish. Ellis turned suddenly and sat down at +the table and buried his face in the pile of exchanges. His body shook +with the effort to suppress his emotion. Bill slipped down from his +stool and the two awkward, ungainly youths looked at each other in +embarrassed sorrow. Finally Jap laid an inky hand on Ellis's shoulder. + +"Tell her--tell her," he stuttered, "that Bill and me are--are +a--prayin'." + +Ellis gave a mighty sob and rushed away, bare-headed. + +The two apprentices sat at their cases, the tears wetting the type in +their sticks. The long day dragged by. Neither of them remembered +noon, but plodded stolidly and silently through the clippings on their +copy hooks. + +It was growing dusk when a great commotion arose. It seemed to come +from the corner near Blanke's drug store. It gathered force as it +neared Granger's bank, Now it had reached the mouth of the alley that +separated the bank from the _Herald_ office. There was cheering and +laughter. Jap's face hardened. He slung one leg to the floor. How +dared any one cheer or laugh, when Flossy lay dying? + +In another instant Ellis burst into the room. His dark locks were +rumpled, his eyes wild and bright. + +"Get out all the roosters--and the stallions, too!" he shouted. "Open +a can of vermilion and, in long pica, double-lead it: 'It is a boy!'" + +Jap let the other leg fall and dragged himself around. His mouth had +fallen loose on its hinges. He sat down on the floor and gaped +foolishly at Ellis. + +"She's feeling fine," babbled Ellis, "and you and Bill are coming in +the morning to see the boy." He rushed out again. + +Jap looked at Billy glued to the stool, holding in one paralyzed hand +the inverted stick. + +"Gee!" said Jap. + +In the morning they tiptoed into Flossy's room. Very pale and weak was +the energetic little woman who had taken the moulding of their +destinies into her hands. She smiled gently and, as mothers have done +since time was, she tenderly drew back the covers from a tiny black +head and motioned for the two to look. + +"Our boy," she said, smiling radiantly. "I am going to name him Jasper +William, and I want you to make him very proud of the men he was named +for." + +The hot tears sprang to Jap's eyes and fell upon the little red face. +The wee mite, perhaps prompted by an angel whisper from the land from +whence he came, threw aloft one wrinkled hand and touched him on the +cheek. Sobbing stormily, Jap hid his face in the covers as he knelt +beside the bed. Then he took the little fingers in his. + +"If God lets me live, Flossy, I will make him proud of me." + +He choked and dashed outside to join Bill, who was snubbing +[Transcriber's note: "snubbing" is what's in the source book. Perhaps +the author meant "snuffling" or "sobbing".] audibly on the back steps. +After a muffled silence he said, his eyes growing suddenly bright: + +"Bill, did you notice what Flossy said? She said the 'men' that he was +named after. Bill, we've got to quit kiddin' and begin to grow up." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +Time passed, after the easy-going manner of Bloomtown. Jap was +sixteen, long, ungainly and stooped from bending over the case. Bill, +a little older in months, but possessed of immortal youth, was stocky +and rather good looking. Four years of daily intercourse had wrought a +subtle change in their relations, four years of the stern and the sweet +that Ellis and Flossy Hinton had brought, for the first time, into +their lives. + +Bill was at the table, the exchanges pushed back in a disorderly heap, +as he surreptitiously figured a tough problem in bookkeeping that +Flossy had given him. Jap, with furtive air, bolted the history lesson +that ought to have been learned the day before. Ellis, his back to the +one big window in the office, scowled over the proofs he was rattling. +From time to time he peppered the air with remarks that fell like bird +shot on the tough oblivion of his two assistants. At length +forbearance gave way under the strain, and he said, in cold and +measured tones: + +"When you are unable to decipher the idea I am trying to convey, I wish +that you would take me into your confidence." + +Bill looked up, a grin on his round, shining face, a grin that was +fixed to immobility by the fierceness of Ellis's glance. + +"I note that you have injected much native humor into perfectly +legitimate prose," the stern voice continued. He read: + +"'Jim Blanke has a splendid assortment of Sundays.' Now please +explain. You are causing the good folks of this town unnecessary +worry. My copy reads, 'sundries.'" + +"Jap done it," vouchsafed Bill. + +"Who done this?" Ellis stressed the verbal blunder witheringly, as he +pointed his pencil at the next item. It read: + +"Ross Hawkins soled twenty-five yearling calves." + +"It looked that way," argued Jap. + +"A devil of a couple you are," declared Ellis wrathfully. "Can't +either of you reason? Did you ever hear of any one soling a yearling +calf? Ross Hawkins is an auctioneer, not a shoemaker." + +The boys looked sheepishly at each other. Suddenly Bill flung himself +on his stomach and howled in glee. + +"Lordee! What if that had 'a' got in the paper!" he gasped. + +"There would be two fine, large, lazy boys out of a job," Ellis said +severely. + +He threw aside the copy and lifted the type. Jap followed the movement +with anxious eye. Another explosion hung, tense and imminent, in the +air. + +"Have you washed that type yet, Bill?" he asked, eager to placate Ellis. + +It was the custom for the boy nearest the door to disappear when the +time for washing a form was at hand. + +"It was your job," protested Bill. "You promised to wash Wat Harlow's +speech if I cleaned Kelly Joneses stock bill." + +Ellis sat down wearily. + +"Oh, we're agoing to do it all, this evening," cried Bill, defiantly. +"You promised that we could clean out that box of cuts. You promised a +long time ago." + +"Go to it," said Ellis, his voice relaxing, and the two boys bolted +into the back room. A little later he joined them. Jap and Bill sat +on the floor, blowing the dust from a lot of dirty old woodcuts. + +"I bought them with the job," he said, turning the pile over with his +foot. He sat down on the emptied box and watched them as they examined +the cuts. + +"What is this?" asked Jap, peering at the largest block in the lot. + +"That is a cut of the town, as it was when I came here," said Ellis, a +shadow of reminiscence crossing his face, as he took the block in his +long fingers. + +Bill drew himself to his knees and looked at the maze of lines and +depressions curiously. The picture was as strange to him as it was to +Jap. Ellis continued: + +"There were three business houses here, besides the blacksmith shop and +the saloon. Here they are. Ezra Bowers, Bill's grandfather, with the +help of his three sons, ran a general store where they sold everything +from castor oil to mowing machines. Phineas Blome--an unmistakable son +of old Jerusalem--sold clothing and more castor oil and mowing +machines. There wasn't such a thing as a butcher shop in Bloomtown. +When the natives wanted fresh meat, they ordered it brought out on the +hack. In other parts of the world, that institution is sometimes +called a stage; but here I learned that its right name is 'hack.' The +southern terminus of the Bloomtown, Barton and Faber hack-line, that +has done its best for thirty years to prevent us from being entirely +marooned, was over there at the south side of Blome's Park, exactly as +it is to-day. The hotel didn't have a bit more paint, the first night +I slept in it, than it has now." + +"Flossy said that weathered shingles were fashionable," Bill grinned, +taking up another cut. "Here's the Public Square--you call it Blome's +Park, but I never heard anybody else call it that," he added, his voice +lifting in a note of query. "That's the Square, all right, and the +Town Hall, with 'leven horses hitched in front of it." + +"Yes, when old man Blome laid out his farm in town lots, he reserved +his woods pasture for a city park. You never heard of an orthodox town +that didn't begin with a Public Square, and that little rocky glade +with the wet-weather spring had the only trees within ten miles of +here. It wasn't fit for farming, so Blome argued that nobody would buy +it with a view to raising garden truck. But your foxy Uncle Blome +didn't sacrifice anything by his generosity to the town that was about +to be born. He reserved the lots facing the park on three sides, and +held them at an exorbitant figure--as much as five dollars a front +foot, I should say. + +"The lots at the north and east were to be sold for high-class +residences only. Those at the west were reserved for business houses. +Behold the embryo Main street! Overlooking the park at the south was +Blome's farm house, since metamorphosed into a tavern and barns for the +stage horses. The last of the Blomes shook the dust of Bloomtown from +his feet when Carter bought his interest in the hack line. Bill's +grandfather had a farm adjoining Blome's land at the west; but Ezra +Bowers, merchant prince and attorney-at-law," he said whimsically, "had +to have a residence in the fashionable quarter, fronting the park. A +little patch of the old farm is quite good enough for Mr. and Mrs. +Ellis Hinton and their two sons, Jap and Jasper William." + +Jap caught Ellis's hand, a lump arising in his throat. Bill relieved +the momentary tension by turning over another cut. A familiar face +looked out at him from the grime of years. Ellis glanced at it and +smiled. + +"It is a great thing, Jap, the birth of a town. Bloomtown was really +never born. The stork dropped her when he was traveling for a friendly +haven. For ten years she lay, just as she fell, without visible signs +of life. About twenty families existed, somehow. They had pigs, +chickens and garden truck, and to all intents they would go on existing +till the last trump. + +"One day I went out into the country to attend a sale. Boys, I was +never so well pleased with a day's work as I was with that day's jaunt. +I heard the most masterly bit of eloquence that ever came from the lips +of an auctioneer. The man had the crowd hypnotized. He even sold me +an accordion, a thing I was born to hate. The fact that it was +wind-broken and rattly never occurred to me until I woke up, after he +had done. Then I went to him and said: + +"'You an auctioneer! You should be in the Halls of Justice, telling +the people how to interpret their laws.' + +"The idea struck him. He came into town with me and we talked the +matter over. He was easily the best known and most liked man in the +county. It was then that the political bug stung our good friend, Wat +Harlow. Wat moved his family to town and soon he had a decent +habitation. He stimulated a rain of paint and a hail of shingle nails. +He prodded the older inhabitants to an era of wooden pavements and +stone crossings. Bill's grandfather objected, because he said it cut +down the sale of rubber hip-boots; but Wat's eloquence was the key to +fit anything that tried to lock the wheels of progress. He did more +than that. He brought Jim Blanke from Leesburg to start a decent drug +store. + +"After that he robbed Barton of Tom Granger, and together they started +the first bank of Bloomtown. Granger's wife and baby, with Wat's wife, +were the civilization. Mrs. Granger was almost an invalid, even then, +but she gathered the women together and formed an aid society. She +begged and cajoled Bowers out of enough money to build a little church +on the lot that Blome had donated. I joined the church, for the moral +example. I don't remember what denomination it was supposed to be. We +had services once a month; but Mrs. Granger was the real power in the +town. She introduced boiled shirts and neckties. Tom bought the big +patch of ground, north of the park, and set out those elm trees before +his foundation was in. Then Jim Blanke got Otto Kraus to come here and +start a private school. Otto played the little cabinet organ in +church, and taught all the children music, after school hours. Thus +was Bloomtown born. Wat Harlow made the blood circulate in her +moribund veins." + +Jap looked into Ellis's face, his freckled cheeks glowing. + +"That's not what Wat Harlow said," he declared breathlessly. + +"What did he say?" asked Ellis sharply. + +"Why--why," gulped Jap, "he said that Bloomtown was dead as a herring, +and too no-account to be buried, till Ellis Hinton came and jerked her +out of the mud and started her to breathe." + +Ellis got up and dusted his trousers. + +"As I said before, Wat was an eloquent auctioneer. Talk is his trade, +and he keeps in practice. Dilute his enthusiasm one-half, Jap. And +now, get to work, washing up." + +As he left the office he encountered a group of tittering girls, in +front of the bank. They scattered when they perceived that Ellis and +not Bill had come forth. Bill was the lion of the town. Already the +girls had begun to come after papa's paper, on publishing day, which +upset the machinery of the office, never too dependable. + +One Thursday when the air was full of snow, the little office +registered its capacity crowd. Ellis was at home with a heavy cold, +and Jap and Bill were getting out the paper. The ink congealed on the +rollers and needed constant warming to lubricate the items reposing on +the bosom of the Washington press. This warming was Bill's job, and +Jap was exasperated to fighting pitch by the dilatory method of Bill's +peregrinations around the circle of rosy-faced girls, hanging +admiringly on his efforts. + +"Chase those girls out," he growled. "No use for them to hang around. +We won't get this paper out in a week if they stick around after you." + +"Old Crabby!" sniffed one of the girls. "You're just mad because +nobody wants to hang after you." + +"Jap is particular," chaffed Bill, half apologetically. Since they had +assumed the responsibility for the right uplift of Flossy's boy, there +had been growing a new, shy pride in themselves. "Better wait and come +back in the morning," he suggested. + +The girls filed slowly out. As they passed the table, where Jap was +piling the papers to fold, Isabel Granger, doubtless inspired by the +demon of mischief, leaned forward suddenly and kissed him full on the +mouth. Then she fled, shrieking with glee. Jap stood as if stricken +to stone. Bill looked at him in fright. There was no color in his +freckled face. His gray eyes were staring, as if some wonderful vision +had blasted his sight. + +"Gee, Jap," said Bill uneasily, "are you sick?" + +Jap aroused himself and turned toward the press. + +"No," he said slowly, "but I don't like for folks to be familiar like +that. If I wanted to be a fool like you----" He stopped and stared a +moment from the window. + +"The next time she kisses me," he said shortly, "she will mean it." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +What a wonderful thing is a baby! Babies were not new to either Bill +or Jap. In Bill's memory lingered the shrill duet of his twin +half-sisters, a continuous performance that had lasted more than a +year. And Jap had never fully corrected a lurch to the left side, due +to carrying his sister, Agnesia, when he was little more than a baby +himself. Yet the little visitor from the Land of Yesterday was a never +failing miracle to them. His cry filled them with fear for his +well-being, and his laugh intoxicated them with its glee. + +"Wait till he can talk," smiled Flossy, "Then you will see how wise he +is." + +In her heart she was beginning to combat the fear that he would never +talk. Other children of his age were already chattering like magpies. + +"Ma said that I said 'papa' when I was eight months old," declared Jap. +"But I don't know why I should 'a' said that." + +Bill grinned fatuously as the baby pulled at his hair. + +"Bill won't get his hair cut," said Jap. "He knows that J. W. would +hang after me, if it wasn't for his curly hair." + +The little fellow, who for obvious reasons could be neither Jasper nor +William, had learned to respond with amiable toleration to the soothing +abbreviation, "J. W." Kicking his stubby legs gleefully, he tangled +his fingers more mercilessly in Bill's brown locks. Flossy loosed the +fingers gently, as she cooed: + +"Naughty, naughty! Mamma said baby mustn't." + +Flinging his fingers aloft in protest, he gurgled: "Ja--Bi!" + +Flossy's eyes shone with sudden joy. It was her son's first attempt at +articulate speech. The boys lunged forward with one impulse. + +"He said 'Jappie,'" Jap cried, his chest swelling with the importance +of it. Bill glared. + +"Why, Jap!" Pain and indignation were in his tone. "He tried to say +'Bill.'" + +Flossy smiled on them both. It was a wonderful little kingdom, of +which she had assumed the place of absolute monarch, a monarch so +gentle and so just that her sway was never questioned. + +"Ellis puts in half his time trying to teach baby to say the two names +all in one mouthful, so that you boys won't fight about his first +word," she vouchsafed. "It would have to be either Jap or Bill, +because you never tell him anything but your names." + +When they waved their caps in farewell, they were still discussing the +mooted question vehemently. Was it "Jappie," or a combination of Jap +and Bill? To both of them the question was vital. Jap had the better +of the argument, when Bill blurted: + +"Anyhow, he's my cousin, and he ain't no relation of yours." Then he +remembered that significant remark of Ellis's: "A little patch of the +old farm is quite good enough for Mr. and Mrs. Ellis Hinton and their +two sons, Jap and Jasper William," and he was silent the rest of the +way back to the office. + +Little J. W. was three years old before he could speak distinctly. The +child was born with other afflictions than the serious impediment to +his speech, and the four who hung with anguished love on his every +gesture were never free from a certain unnamed anxiety. He loved Bill, +but he worshipped Jap. Both were his willing slaves. + +One rainy, dismal night in early fall, when Bill's step-mother lay +seriously ill, Flossy left her baby to the care of the small but +usually capable maid who assisted her with the work of the cottage, +while she and Ellis went to the home of Judge Bowers to relieve the +trained nurse who had come up from the city. At the supper table, +Ellis had remarked that Jap and Bill would be working late that night, +in order to get out a job that had come in when all the resources of +the office were needed for the weekly edition of the _Herald_. He had +added that he would go over and help them, if his presence could be +spared from the sick-room. + +The remark must have lodged in the baby's mind, for he slipped out of +bed, while the maid was employed in the kitchen, and toddled through +the cold rain almost all the way to Main street. Jim Blanke found him +lying exhausted in the road, a little way from the drug store, the rain +beating pitilessly on his unconscious head and his scantily clad body. + +After a night of anxious care, the little fellow relapsed into a state +of coma, and lay for hours, white and still, save for the rasping of +his breath. The office was closed. Both boys, frantic with fear, +stood with Ellis as the child lay in his mother's arms, the four +dreading that each hoarse breath would be his last. Flossy sat erect +in the wide rocking chair, her brave eyes watching every sigh that tore +the little bosom. Dr. Hall, whose dictum was life and death, was +silent. And this silence was the last straw for Jap. He crept nearer. +In fear, he turned from the face of the beloved sufferer. Ellis caught +the look in the boy's anguished eyes, and a spasm crossed his tightly +compressed lips. The physician rallied himself from the torpor of +despair that had laid hold on him. + +"Try to arouse him," he commanded. "Try again." The resources of his +experience and his prescription blank had long since been exhausted. + +Flossy bent over her child and called softly: + +"Baby, dearest, mamma loves you. Won't you speak?" + +Ellis leaned forward. His face blanched. The rasping had ceased! Jap +caught the look of horror, and dragged himself up to look into the +baby's face. + +"He isn't dead! He's all right!" he shrieked, not knowing that he +spoke. "He's still breathing. I can hear him." His hands grasped the +cold body and lifted it, unconscious of the thing he was doing. + +"Oh, J. W.! Oh, J. W.!" he screamed, "don't go away from us!" + +He pressed the child to his breast convulsively, and the miracle +happened. The solemn black eyes opened and a husky voice said, +"Jappie." + +After the excitement was over, and the exhausted mother slept beside +her sleeping child. Bill said humbly: + +"He did say 'Jap' first." + +"But he tried to say 'Bill,' too," Jap said loyally. + +The next morning, when the office had resumed its normal routine, a +routine that was destined to be only partially interrupted by the death +of Bill's second stepmother, a few days later, Ellis called Jap into +the little back room where, in the dismal days before Flossy's coming, +they had performed all the functions of housekeeping. He closed the +door, as he laid his hand on Jap's shoulders. + +"You saved J. W.'s life," he said solemnly. "Doc Hall said that you +stopped him, on the threshold, when you gave that dreadful cry." + +The baby did not rally, and Ellis worried about this incessantly. One +day, some weeks after another mound had been added to the group in +Judge Bowers's family lot, and Bill had gone with his father to +appraise the merits of a prospective housekeeper from Birdtown, Ellis +looked up from the proof he was correcting. Jap noted the anxiety in +his face, and the gray eyes, that could so often render speech +unnecessary, put the question. Ellis sighed. + +"He's not getting along the way he ought to," he mused. "Doc Hall +prescribed a tonic for him a month ago; but it doesn't seem to take +hold. He has no constitution to begin with. His father, exhausted by +privation and ill-health, has handicapped him in the start. + +"Jap," he said, as he arose and laid one arm confidingly around the +boy's shoulder, "you must remember that, in the years to come. I +didn't give the baby a fair chance. He may need all the help he can +get to carry him through. If you should live longer than I, you must +be his father and big brother, both." + +Jap's gray eyes opened in astonishment. The idea that there could ever +be a time when Ellis would not be there had never entered his mind. He +looked into the dark, thin face with its pallor and its unnaturally +bright eyes, and a joyous smile took the place of the momentary shock. + +"Doc Hall said that you had grit enough to outlive any disease that +ever lurked in the brush of Bloomtown," he declared eagerly. + +"Doc Hall is an optimist," Ellis laughed hollowly. "I'm not so much +concerned for myself as for the boy and his mother. You know what J. +W. means to her." + +"Bill and I have already talked it over," Jap returned. "We're going +to be big brothers to J. W. We're going to take turns at taking him +for long rides on Judge Bowers's old horse, Jeremiah. Doc Hall said +that long, jolty rides would set him up, rosy and fat, in a little +while. Bill told me this morning that he had J. W. weighed again, on +Hollins's scales, and he has gained three pounds." + +Ellis Hinton's face cleared. There was a new elasticity in his step as +he crossed the room and laid the copy down on the case. Unconsciously +he began to whistle, as he clicked the type in the stick. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +Flossy came into the office, leading the boy by the hand, and called +Ellis aside. Old Jeremiah had done wonders for the little fellow; but +on Flossy Hinton's face there was a look that boded ill to some one. + +"I sent for Brother William to meet me here," she said crisply. "I +want you to back up all that I say." + +Before Ellis had breathed twice, she was out looking up the street, and +in less time than you could think it out, she was back, towing the +Judge, who puffed explosively. Ellis and the three boys had retreated +to the rear office. + +"There is not a bit of use to argue, William," she said, her lips in a +hard, straight line. "Ellis has done more than any one else in town +could do. When I heard that you had subscribed five thousand dollars +to the new church, I concluded that your charity was a little far +fetched. Now I want you to subscribe five thousand dollars to the +institution that is making a man of your son. I want five thousand +dollars for the printing office. It is too small, and the press is out +of date. We need all that goes into an up-to-date printing office." + +Her brother looked upon her tolerantly. + +"Keep it up, Floss. It never fazed you to ask favors, and you ain't +run down yet." + +"It's a shame," she stormed. "Just look at this little shed! Why, +even a cross-road blacksmith shop is better." + +He looked around appraisingly. + +"I reckon it'll house all Ellis's business," he commented. + +"Ellis," she flashed, "tell William about the railroad." + +Ellis came from the inside office. He generally withdrew from the +conferences between Flossy and her brother. + +"Wat Harlow told me that two of the big railroad systems have entered +into a joint arrangement to shorten their mileage, on through trains to +the West. He's got it all fixed for the new track to pass through +Bloomtown. It will give us all the benefit of two railroads." + +"You see," said Flossy triumphantly, "the town will boom. People will +move in, and a first-class newspaper will be the greatest asset." + +"I think that the town will take a big start," assured Ellis. "The +boys will have all they can do with job work, and the office is small +for our present needs." + +"Pap, you should watch us carving letters when we get short," +interposed Bill. "Last week Jap had to carve three A's for Allen's +handbill. There are only three of 'em in that case, and Allen wanted +to use six. His name is Pawhattan Abram Allen, and he wanted the whole +blamed thing spelled out in caps. I told Jap it was lucky Allen's +folks didn't name him Aaron, on top of all the rest." + +"That's good practice for you boys," the Judge snorted. "I'm mighty +glad you learned something for all the money I spent on you." He +glanced at his sister witheringly; but Flossy had her eyes fixed on her +husband. + +"I wish," Ellis stirred himself to say, "that the town would boom +enough to take all these frame shacks off of Main street, so that the +place wouldn't look like a settlement of campers." + +"A good fire would help," commented Bill boldly. + +Judge Bowers looked over his glasses at his son. + +"Well, when the railroad comes, and the rest of the shacks are moved +out, I will write you a check for five thousand dollars," he snorted, +turning his rotund form out of the door. + +Flossy picked up the boy and flounced out, in speechless indignation. +By argument and cajolery she had succeeded in getting six months apiece +for Bill and Jap at the School of Journalism, and at twenty the boys +were far more expert than Ellis was when he began the publication of +the _Herald_. She had set her heart on the new printing office, and +her eyes were abrim with tears as she stumbled home. + +The week wore on until printing day. It was a day of unimagined +exasperations. Everything went wrong. Ellis's usually smooth temper +bent under the stormy comments of the boys, and in the late afternoon +he developed a violent headache and went home. Things continued to +pile up until it was evident that the boys would have to print the +paper after dark. + +It was ten o'clock when they finished. Jap followed Bill to the +pavement, pausing to lock the door and slip the key in his pocket. The +town was asleep. Not a soul was to be seen on Main street. Bill, who +usually took the short cut across the Public Square to his fathers +house, turned with Jap and walked along Main street to the farther end +of the block. At Blanke's drug store, he turned into Spring street. +He was saying, in a tone of mixed penitence and anxiety: + +"I wish we hadn't riled Ellis so, to-day. I don't like those headaches +he's having so often, and the way his face gets red every afternoon. +If he ever sneaked out and took a drink--But I know he never does." + +"Oh, Ellis is all right, now that little J. W. is getting strong," Jap +insisted. + +They had gone some distance in the direction of Flossy's cottage, when +Bill looked across an expanse of vacant lots to where a dim light +burned in the loft of Bolton's barn. + +"They're running a poker game," said Bill wisely. + +Almost before the words were gone, a wild shriek rent the air. A flash +of light from the barn loft, a scrambling of feet, and a succession of +dark objects catapulted the ooze of the barnyard, and it was all +ablaze. A stiff breeze was blowing from the southwest. Bill ran to +the mill to set the fire whistle, and Jap scrambled through a window of +the Methodist church and began to fling the chimes abroad, so that he +who slept might know that there was a fire in town. There had been no +rain for weeks, and the frame structures were ripe for burning. + +In less than half an hour the row of stores on Main street, in the +block below the _Herald_ office, began to smoke. From Hollins's +grocery store a brand was carried by the wind and lodged among the dry +shingles of Summers's saloon. The excitement was augmented, a few +minutes later, by a series of pyrotechnic explosions. Bucket brigades +were formed, the firemen mostly in undress uniform. + +Jap and Bill were in their glory. Jap was mounted on top of the Town +Hall, directing operations. Right down the row rushed the flames, +eating up the town. As if in parting salutation, the fiery monster +leaped across a vacant lot, thick set with dried weeds, and clutched +with heat-red claws at the _Herald_ office. + +"This way, men!" yelled Jap. "You have to get the press and enough +type out to tell about the fire." + +Ellis was staring hopelessly at the flame that was licking at the rear +of the office. The water was exhausted from the town well, and there +was no hope of saving the plant. But youth is omniscient, and the +townsmen followed the wildly yelling apprentices and hastened to +demolish the office and drag away the debris, some of it already +blazing. From the salvage rescued from Price's hardware store, and +heaped in a disorderly pile in the Public Square, Jap handed out the +latest thing in fire fighting apparatus. The flimsy structure, that +had been Ellis Hinton's stronghold for almost twenty years, gave way to +an assault with axes, and the contents, pretty well scattered, were +left standing. It was nothing that Granger and Harlow's bank went down +with little left to show its location save the fire-proof vault, and +that only a shift in the wind prevented the flames from crossing to the +fashionable residence section east of Main street. + +In the morning the _Herald_ force began business in the ruins of its +time-worn shelter, and set up gory accounts of the fire, on brown +manila paper with vermilion and black ink. A crowd assembled to watch +the exciting spectacle. + +"What's the use of a railroad now?" bleated Judge Bowers. "There ain't +no town to run it through." + +"Why ain't there?" asked Jap sharply. + +"Why, all the folks are talking of pulling up stakes and moving to +Barton." + +"Well, if that is the kind of backbone they have been backing this town +with," snapped the youth, his red hair standing erect, "you help them +move, and the _Herald_ will show them up for quitters--and fill the +town with real men." + +And being full of wrath, he proceeded to incorporate this thought in +the half column he was setting up. The paper was eagerly snapped up by +the crowd. + +"Who wrote this?" fairly howled Tom Granger. "I want to hold his grimy +hand and help him shout for a bigger and better town." + +Ellis shoved Jap forward. + +"Here is the fire-eater," he announced. Jap flushed through the dirt +on his face. + +"It's true," he said, half shyly. "There's no good in a quitter. The +best thing is to smoke them out and get live men to take their places." + +"Bravely said," shouted Granger. "The bank will rebuild with brick. +Who else builds on Main street?" + +Before the end of the following week the town was humming with +industry. Every hack brought its contingent of insurance adjusters, +and merchants elbowed contractors in the little telegraph office, in +endeavors to get supplies. On Thursday a curious crowd stood watching +Ellis and the boys run the blistered but still faithful Washington +press in the boiling sun. + +"Goin' to get winter after a while, Jap," shouted one of the +bystanders. "You'll have to wear ear muffs to get out your paper." + +Jap grinned and swung the lever around methodically. + +"What are you going to do, Ellis?" asked the honorable member from the +"Halls of Justice," who had hurried to his little home town in her hour +of trouble. "There ain't a vacant shack in town. It seems a darned +shame that you'll have to give up, after starving with the town till it +gets its toes set in gravel at last. Now that the railroad is running +this way like a scared wolf, the town needs a paper worse than ever." + +"Who said they was going to quit?" demanded Judge Bowers pugnaciously. +"They ain't! Ellis is goin' to have a two-story brick, with a printin' +press that runs itself. This here town ain't no quitter." He glared +fiercely at Harlow. + +Jap lingered with Ellis until the last of the day's work was finished. +As he started for home he came upon an animated group, in the shade of +the half-burned drug store. Behind a pile of wreckage, Bill was +holding court. Jap stopped short. Bill was telling a lurid tale of +superhuman strength and dare-devil bravery, of which Jap Herron was the +hero, a tale that grew with every telling. A wave of embarrassment +swept over Jap. As he turned hastily away, he felt a soft clutch on +his arm. He looked back. Two sparkling black eyes were looking up +into his. + +"I think that you are the bravest boy in the world," whispered Isabel +Granger, "and--and I am glad I kissed you that time." + +Jap stared at her, stunned by a new emotion. In another moment she was +gone, flying across the street in the direction of her home. + +"Anybody but Jap would 'a took her up on that," insinuated Bill, who +had heard Isabel's last words. + +Jap turned a murderous look upon him. The crowd of girls tittered as +they dispersed. When supper was over Jap returned to the spot, and +long after dark he sat upon the pile of wreckage, thinking long, long +thoughts. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +The scraping of saw, the clang of hammer and the smell of fresh paint +classed Bloomtown as "Boomtown." The railroad had already peered into +the northern environs of the town, cutting diagonally across Main +street, some half-dozen blocks from the plot of ground that had been +rechristened Court House Square. A substantial municipal building took +the place of the dingy old Town Hall, and the barns of the now almost +defunct Bloomtown, Barton and Faber hack line had been cleared away to +make room for a decent hotel. In the angle between the railroad tracks +and Main street a small temporary station sheltered travelers. The +half-moribund village had burst its swaddling bands and begun to +expand. Everybody was wearing grins as a radiant garment. + +As the summer traveled toward July, the headaches that had been so +frequent the past winter merged into a feeling of utter exhaustion, and +Ellis came down to the office but few days of each week. Flossy +stopped Jap at the gate one noon hour. + +"Ellis has something to tell you, Jappie, and I want you to be very +composed. Don't let yourself go." Her voice was full of pleading. +She turned quickly as Ellis appeared in the doorway. He walked out to +meet them. + +"Let us sit out under the trellis while Flossy finishes fixing dinner," +he said, leading the way. "Jap, your birthday comes to-morrow, and I +am going to ask you to accept a sacred trust that is a burden. You are +twenty-one and, as they say, 'your own man.' I want to ask you to be +_my man_. Jap, I am going away, how far God only knows. The doctor +says that my lungs are all wrong, and life in the mountains may save +me. My boy--for you have been my boy since you walked through my door, +nine years ago--I want you to take charge of the office, and shoulder +the support of Flossy and the little one if--if----" He caught the +horror-stricken boy's hand. "Jap, I will never come back. I know it. +I have talked with my soul and it is well. Will you do it, Jap?" + +Jap pressed Ellis's feverish hand between his strong young palms. He +could not speak. His eyes were dry and his lips twitched. + +"There," cautioned Ellis, "no heavy face before Flossy. God bless her! +she thinks that I will be well before the new office is done, and is +making more splendid plans for the big opening! She is---- Jap, you +dunce, grin about something!" + +Flossy and the boy came dancing down the sun-flecked path and Jap swung +the slender little fellow to his shoulder and began a mock race from +Ellis. + +As soon as dinner was over, a dinner that stuck in his throat for +hours, he told Flossy that two men were rushing Bill to desperation for +their handbills. He hurried out by way of the alley. Flossy ran after +him. "You forgot your hat, Jap," she cried breathlessly. He took the +hat and started off silently. + +"Wait a minute, Jap." Her voice was insistent. "You didn't put on a +grave face with Ellis, did you? Oh, Jap"--the cry was from her +heart--"he will never live to see the new office! He will never know +of the realization of his dreams, the big town, the trains whirling +through, and he looking down from his lofty window with a smile of +superior joy. Oh, Jap, how often have we heard him tell about it! He +doesn't know. He is full of hope. Only just before you came he was +joking about the Star Spangled Banner he was going to wind around his +brow when he dedicated the _Herald_ office. Jap, be true to his faith, +for he will never open the door of that office. He will never help to +get out the first paper." + +She strangled and turned away. Then in brisk tones she added: + +"Now, Jap, hurry along. Here comes Ellis to scold." And in the +marvelous manner that is God-given to loving women, she forced a smile +to her lips as she gave the youth a playful shove and ran to meet her +husband. + +A few days later they left. The town took a holiday, and with laughter +and merrymaking it celebrated Ellis Hinton's first vacation. A water +tank was in process of construction, at the upper end of a half-mile +stretch of double track, and at the lower end of the siding, close to +Main street, the imposing brick railroad station stood in potential +grandeur, its bricks still separated by straw and its ample foundation +giving promise of stability as it reposed in sacks of cement and piles +of crushed stone. Something of this was incorporated in Ellis's +farewell speech as he addressed his townspeople. When the train began +to move his black head was still visible, as he returned quip for joke. +And Flossy was flitting from her lifelong friends as if no trouble +clouded her brow. + +Little J. W. was the feature of the going, and under the pretense of +caring for his wants, their sleeper compartment had been piled with +fruit and flowers by loving friends who had gone on to the nearest town +to meet the train, so that the surprise should be the more complete. +Then, to the sound of the village band, Ellis left what he had always +called "my town." Jap did not go to the station, and when Bill found +the door of their improvised office locked, he turned silently away. +His heart was full, too. + +The Widow Raymond had offered them a room for a printing office. The +press occupied the room. Jap and Bill set the type in the woodshed and +carried the galleys in. During the nine years of their association +Bill had been the unsteady member of the team, consuming more effort in +devising ways and means of escaping work than the work would have cost, +and toiling with feverish penitence when he realized that he had +wrought a hardship to Jap or Ellis. But now, inspired by the dimpled +face of Rosy Raymond, he worked as he had never worked in his life. +Odd things began to happen. Bill insisted on doing all the +proof-reading, a task he had hitherto detested. A bit of verse +occasionally crept into the columns of the _Herald_. Jap did not +detect this verse for several weeks. When he did, he descended upon +Bill. + +"Where in Heck did you filch that doggerel?" + +"Who said it was doggerel?" demanded Bill. + +"Lord love you," cried Jap, "what could any sane being call it? What +did you get for publishing it--advertising rates?" + +"You're a fool!" snapped Bill. "You think that you're a criterion. I +will have you know that lots of folks have complimented it." + +Jap took up the offending sheet. + +"'Thine eyes are blue, thine lips are red, thine locks are gold,'" he +groaned. He looked at Bill. Just then the door opened and Rosy +stepped into the room. A great light shone on Jap's understanding. +Her eyes were blue, her lips certainly red, and a fervid imagination +could call her hair gold. He sighed pathetically. + +"Bill, don't you think you could write it out and relieve the pressure +on your heart, without endangering our prestige?" + +Bill kicked at the mongrel dog that had its habitat under the press, +and marched out indignantly. + +"I'll be glad if I get him out of here single," mused Jap. "He has +these spells as regular as the seasons change. Heretofore his +prospects have never entitled him to consideration. This time it may +be different." + +Bill had been systematically chased from every front gate in town, +behind which rosy-cheeked girls abode; but the disquieting conviction +swooped down upon Jap that Barkis, in the shape of the Widow Raymond, +might be more than "willin'" to hitch Bill to her sixteen-year-old +daughter. And if Bill had not contracted a new variety of measles at +the most opportune time, Jap's forebodings might have been realized. +Bill had the "catching" habit. No contagion in town ever escaped him, +and this time he was so ill that he had to go to the country to +recuperate. + +The new stores opened, one by one, with much celebration. Owing to +several unaccountable financial complications, the last of all the +important buildings on Main street to be finished was the _Herald_ +office. A cylinder press, second-handed, to be sure, but none the less +an object of admiration, was installed, and fonts of clean, new type +stood ready for work. There was a great, sunny front office on the +main floor, and the ample space behind it had been divided into +composing room, press room and private office. On the second floor was +a small job press, and here, at Jap's suggestion, the old Washington +press was stored. The rooms were decorated with flags, and bunting was +strung across the front of the office. Judge Bowers had personally +attended to this. + +"You're going to have a dandy paper," Tom Granger beamed, as he +accompanied Jap on the final tour of inspection. "We'll all have to +stop business to watch this cylinder press spill out the news." + +Wat Harlow had run down from the Capital to congratulate the staff. At +his suggestion the merchants had ordered flowers from the city, and +great vases of roses and carnations, and decorative pieces in symbolic +design, stood around in fragrant profusion. Every room of the office +was filled with them. + +The forms were ready for the printing of that first paper, and only +awaited the conclusion of Wat's speech, to be placed upon the press, so +that Bloomtown should receive the salutatory _Herald_. Jap turned to +the assemblage, waiting in eager curiosity to see the cylinder revolve. + +"The paper will be printed on Ellis's press," he said briefly. "I +don't want to be ungrateful for your kindness, but will you leave Bill +and me alone to get out our first edition?" + +They filed out slowly, awed by the grief in the voice of Ellis's boy. + +With the old types, on the old Washington hand press, they printed the +first _Herald_ of the new regime. With the exception of the greeting +on the front page, every word was reprinted from the predictions +written by Ellis in the years agone, and the greeting, in long pica on +the first page, was his telegram to them and his townsmen received that +morning. + +When the last paper was printed by the two sad-faced boys on their day +of jubilee, and the pile had been folded and carried downstairs, Jap +closed the press upon the inky type, and gathered the great bunches of +fragrant blossoms and heaped them upon the press, to be forever silent. +With a groan of anguish, he threw himself against them. Bill slipped +his arm through Jap's, and together they celebrated the day that was +Ellis's. And in the night the telegram came: + +"At rest. FLOSSY." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +When Ellis went away it was to the sound of jollity. He came back to a +town shrouded in mourning. Every store was closed, and symbols of +grief adorned most of them. Wat Harlow, with a delicacy Ellis would +scarcely have expected of him, had ordered purple ribbon and white +flowers to tie with the crape. Silent and grief-stricken, the town +stood waiting the arrival of the train. When it came, the coffin was +lifted by loving hands and carried the ten long blocks to the church. +No cold hearse rattled his precious body, but, even as the body of +Robert Louis Stevenson was held by human touch until the last office +was done, so was Ellis Hinton, the country printer, carried to his last +repose by the hands of his friends. + +Not until Jap looked for a long, anguished moment upon the +flower-massed grave did he realize that he was alone, that he was +drifting, that he had no anchor. Something of this he expressed to +Flossy, between dry sobs, when they had left Ellis alone in the +secluded little cemetery. Her eyes burned with a strange, maternal +light as she comforted the boy whose grief was of the fibre of her own. + +"Ellis knew that you would feel that way," she said gently, "and +because of that, he made a will that is to be read to-night. Wat +Harlow has it. Until it is read, I want you not to trouble." + +That evening, with all the important men of the town assembled in the +big front room of the _Herald_ office, Wat Harlow read brokenly the +last "reading notice" of Bloomtown's sleeping hero. It was written in +the familiar scrawl that everybody knew, with scarcely a waver in its +lines to tell that a dying hand had penned it: + + +"I am going a long journey, but not so far that I cannot vision your +growth. It was the labor of love to plan for this time. In the +gracious wisdom of God it was not intended that I should enjoy it with +you; but as Moses looked into his promised land, so through the eyes of +the _Herald_ I have seen mine. And God, in His wonderful way, has sent +you another optimist to do the royal work of upbuilding a town. + +"My town, my people, I leave to you the greatest gift I have to offer. +I give you my boy, Jap. He is worthy. Hold up his hands, in memory of + +"ELLIS HINTON." + + +As Harlow folded the paper, with hands that trembled, he was not +conscious of the fact that hot tears were streaming down his cheeks. +There was an instant of tense silence. Then Tom Granger walked over to +the boy who lay, face downward across the table, arms outspread in +abandon of grief. He took one limp hand in his, and a voiceless +message went from heart to heart. Jap aroused himself. One by one the +men of Bloomtown filed by. No word was spoken, but each man pledged +himself to Ellis Hinton as he took the hand of Ellis's boy in a firm +clasp. When the others had gone, Wat Harlow remained. + +For a moment he stood silent beside the table. Then with a cry of +utter heartbreak, he sank to his knees and permitted the bereaved boy +to give vent to his long-repressed agony in a saving flood of tears. +When they left the office together, there had been welded a friendship +that was stronger than years of any other understanding could have +given. + +Flossy went back to the cottage, and, like the brave helpmeet of such a +man as Ellis Hinton must have been, did not sadden the days with her +grief. Sometimes, in the little arbor, with J. W. playing at her feet, +she sang softly over her sewing: + + "Beautiful isle of Somewhere, + Isle of the true, where we live anew, + Beautiful isle of Somewhere." + + +It was her advice that caused the boys to fit up a bedroom and +living-room on the second floor of the office. It was her idea that +separated Bill from the unsteady air of his home. The Judge, heeding +the scriptural injunction implied in the immortal words of Moses, "It +is not good that man should be alone," had taken unto himself a fourth +wife, and Bill had so many rows with his latest stepmother that there +was no opposition to the change. Tom Granger observed that it had been +so many matrimonial moons since Bill had a mother that he did not know +whether he had any real kinfolks at all. It was certain that he knew +little of the real meaning of the word "home." Flossy boarded them, +and her cottage was their haven of refuge during many a long evening. +It was sad comfort, and yet it was the surest comfort, to have her live +over again those last days in the mountains, when Ellis's thoughts +bridged space and visualized the rebuilding of Bloomtown. + +Perhaps Flossy sensed the fact that these evenings were bone and sinew +to Jap's manhood. The boy, never careless, was changing to a man of +purpose, such as would be the product of Ellis Hinton's training. The +stray, born of the union of purposeless, useless Jacky Herron, and +Mary, peevish and fretful, changeable and inconstant, had been born +again into the likeness of the man who bad been almost a demigod to him. + +The town was growing, as Ellis had prophesied, and was creeping in +three directions across the prairie. It incorporated and began to +settle into regular lines. Spring street showed but few gaps in the +line of cottages that ran almost all the way from the rear of Blanke's +drug store to Flossy's home, and another line of modest cottages looked +at them from the other side of the street. A new and fashionable +residence place was laid out, in the extreme south end of town, as far +from the grime and soot of the railroad as possible; but the +substantial old families still clung to their ancestral halls in the +vicinity of Court House Square. + +One day in early spring Bill burst into the office, his reporter's pad +flapping wildly. His brown eyes danced. + +"Big doings!" he shouted. "Pap's going to run for mayor, and he wants +the _Herald_ to voice the cry of the town for his services." + +"Who said so?" queried Jap, sticking away at the last legislative +report. + +"Nobody but him--as far as I can find out," Bill returned, grinning +knowingly. "It seems that they had a mess of turnip greens, from +cellar sprouts, and they gave him cramps. He was dozing under +paregoric when the idea hit him. It grew like the turnip sprouts, fast +but pale. He wants us to water the sprouts and give 'em air, so that +they'll get color in them." + +"How much did he send in for the color?" asked Jap, climbing down +interestedly. + +The Associate Editor flashed a two-dollar bill. + +"I told Pap that if any opposition sprouted, he'd have to raise the +ante," he remarked. "He squealed loud enough when I squeezed him for +this, but I convinced him that we had about done away with charity +practice. Told him the _Herald_ was out of the amateur class, and +after this election the ante 'd be five bones." + +"Well," conceded Jap, "as he is Flossy's brother, we'll have to spread +it on thick for the low price of introduction. Look up that woodcut of +Sames, the Chautauqua lecturer. If you'll chisel off the beard, we can +use it for the Judge. I think that we will kill that story you cribbed +from the St. Louis _Republic_, about the President's morning canter +with his family physician, and run the Judge along the first column. +By the way, Bill, it would be a good idea to trace his career from +joyous boyhood to the dignity of the judicial office. What judge was +he? Since I have known him, he has never 'worked at the bench.'" + +Bill grinned wickedly. + +"He was judge of live stock at the county fair!" + +"Fallen is Caesar!" Jap exploded. "What can we say about him?" + +"Nothin' for certain, as Kelly Jones says," Bill lamented. + +"I never tried fiction," Jap averred, "but for the honor of the first +aspirant to the office of Mayor of Bloomtown, and the greater glory of +our Associate Editor, I am going to plunge." + +And plunge he did. When the town read the eulogium that Jap spread +upon the front page of the _Herald_ it gasped as from a sudden cold +plunge, sat up, rubbed its eyes, and concluded that it had somehow +failed to understand or appreciate its foremost son. Hollins, the +leading grocer, and Bolton, the furniture dealer, had felt the itch for +office; and Marquis, the attorney, had stood in his doorway for a week +awaiting the delegation that would press upon him the nomination; but +all these aspirants faded like poppies in the wake of the reaper. +Nobody could be found to buck a sure thing, such as Judge Bowers, +backed by the power of the press. + +The week after election, the _Herald_ sported fifty small flags through +its columns, and quoted Wat Harlow's speech in which he declared that +Judge William Hiram Bowers was "the noblest Roman of them all." For +which Bill accounted to Jap by the astute observation that Rome was a +long way off. The Judge hardly caught Wat's meaning, and came into the +office to protest. + +"I am afeard that folks 'll think we have Catholic blood in the +family," he complained, shaking the paper nervously. + +"Mystery is the blood of progress, Pap," assured Bill gravely. "If you +will notice, the men that get there always have a skeleton rattling a +limb now and then." + +"Mis' Bowers don't like it," he objected. "I had to quit the +Methodists and be immersed in the Baptists afore she'd have me, and now +she's fairly tearin' up the wind over this talk about me bein' a Roman. +You gotta correct it!" + +"We have given you a hundred dollars' worth of advertising for a measly +two-dollar bill," declared Jap emphatically. "The columns of the +_Herald_ are free to news. Advertising at our regular rates. Bill +will give you particulars." + +"Dollar an inch for display," crisped Bill; "ten cents a line for +readers." He seated himself, pencil in band, as he added, "payable in +advance." + +"Make a flat rate of ten dollars, as it is the Judge," advised Jap +judicially. + +The Mayor-elect decided to let it alone; but Jap mentioned the fact, in +the next issue of the _Herald_, that Judge Bowers had alleged that he +was born in New England, of Puritan stock, and had no Italian +sympathies--which lucid statement abundantly satisfied Judge and Mrs. +Bowers, but set the town to wondering what the Judge was hiding in the +dim annals of his past. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +"I worked a bunch of passes out of the agent for that Indian medicine +show," announced Bill, washing his hands. "Want to take her, Jap?" and +he jerked his head in the direction of the front door, where Isabel +Granger was passing. + +"No; I'm going out to Flossy's a while. I want to talk some things +over with her." + +There was no further discussion, for at that moment Rosy Raymond +floated by, and Bill started out in eager pursuit. Ever since the +election, Jap had been obsessed by a disquieting foreboding. One of +Mayor Bowers's first official acts was to authorize the opening of a +second saloon on Main street, and he was rapidly pushing the work of +erecting two new business houses which, rumor declared, were to house +other thirst palaces. Hitherto the natives and the surrounding +territory had been amply supplied by Holmes; but Bloomtown was growing +beyond the reach of one saloon. + +Holmes had come across with a double-sized license, under promise of +the Mayor that he should continue to have a monopoly of the trade. And +when the good people of the various churches waited upon Judge Bowers +to protest against what they were disposed to call the "introduction of +Satan into their town," he called their attention to the need for +municipal revenue. If one saloon was a help, two saloons would double +that help. The town had already begun to show signs of genuine +progress. It had to build a calaboose to take care of the saloon's +patrons, and the regular fines for plain drunks almost paid the cost of +the court that collected them. + +Once Jap thought he detected a sinister reason for Bill's flushed +cheeks and unsteady gait as he passed hastily through the office on his +way to the sleeping room above. The next morning Bill declared that he +had been a fool, and had paid for his folly with a severe headache, and +Jap, with the delicacy that was Jap's, let the subject drop. It was +becoming fashionable for the young fellows of the town to assume a +tough swagger. Those who had formerly resorted to barn lofts and musty +cellars paraded their sophistication on Main street, and Bill would +rather be dead than out of style. Jap wanted to talk it over with +Flossy, but he had never found the key to open such poignant +confidence. What right had he to burden Flossy with fresh anxiety? In +his loneliness, he yearned for Ellis as he had never yearned before. + +He was sitting on the little front porch, tossing J. W. on the tough +old trotting horse afforded by his two ill-padded knees, and vaguely +wondering how he could introduce the subject of Bloomtown's swift +decay, without wounding Judge Bowers's sister and Bill's aunt, when +they heard a great tumult in the vicinity of the medicine show. After +a while Bill came up the walk with Rosy. + +"What was the racket about?" Jap asked incuriously. + +Rosy giggled. + +"They wanted to nominate the ugliest man in town, and there was a +fight," she said. + +"Shut up!" growled Bill. "Haven't you got any sense?" + +"Sam Waldron nominated Jap," she sputtered, between giggles. + +A hot flush swept over Jap. Always keenly sensitive, he had never +armored himself against the playful brutalities of his friends. The +shame of being made a subject of ridicule cut deeply. + +"Rosy is a fool!" snapped Bill. + +"What was the fuss about?" asked Flossy, prompted by a conviction that +further revelation would be good for Jap. + +"Why, Isabel Granger slapped his face, and Bill jumped in and punched +him in the ribs, and the crowd wanted to take him down to the pond and +duck him." + +Flossy's hand sought Jap's, and she laughed softly. + +"That was worth while, boy. How Ellis would have written it up!" + +Jap smiled, but the sting was still there. When it was evident that +Bill and Rosy expected to spend the evening, he arose with a tired, +"Well, I'll be going," and walked around the cottage to the alley gate. +He was afraid of meeting some one on Spring street, and he made excuse +to his own consciousness that the alley had always been the rational +highway between the cottage and the office. He put his hand in his +pocket for his key, as he emerged on Main street. + +As he approached the door, he saw that some one was sitting on the +steps. She sprang up and laid trembling hands on his arm. + +"Oh, Jap, you won't mind! You won't let it hurt you? Everybody knows +that you are the best-looking man in town. At least I--think so!" + +Before he could grasp her arm, the girl was gone. That night Jap lay +awake long hours, thinking, thinking. With the morning, reason +returned. He had assumed responsibility for Flossy and the boy. He +must not think again. + +And indeed the next few days gave him little time for thought. Wat +Harlow slipped into the office late one afternoon. He wore a furtive +look and an appearance of guilt. There was about him a suggestion of +gum shoes. Something must be amiss. + +"I want to see you alone, Jap," he confessed. + +Jap led the way to the little private office. Harlow was pulling +nervously at the stubby mustache that hid his short upper lip. + +"In trouble, Wat?" asked Jap anxiously. + +"No--not exactly. You see, it's this way----" He coughed +apologetically. "The wife had a dream, a funny dream, the other night. +She's had curious dreams ever since we took that long trip, to New York +and all over, last year, and there may be nothing to it, but----" He +lit a fresh cigar, and went at it again. "She says that she saw me +going into the Capitol at Washington just as if I belonged there. And +she got a notion---- Jap, you know how notionate women are. She +thinks--well, she thinks that I might be called to run for the House of +Representatives." + +"Oh, I see," said Jap, illuminated. "It would sound good for the +_Herald_ to mention that you are in line?" + +"Not rough-like, Jap! Just a little tickle in the ribs, to see what +they'd say." + +"Oh, I'll fix that," declared Jap, laughing. And the _Herald_ flung +the hat in the ring for "Harlow, the one honest man." + +Jap smiled sadly as he read his copy over. He had a habit of wondering +what Ellis would have said. He wondered, too, what attitude the editor +of the Barton _Standard_ would take. The _Standard_ had recently +changed hands, and since Bloomtown had pulled a saloon, a sunbonnet +factory and two business houses out of Barton, a rapid-fire editorial +war had been in progress. By some curious dispensation of Providence, +Jones of the _Standard_ and Herron of the _Herald_ had never met. Jap +was not hunting trouble, but the same spirit that prompted him to +thrash his tormentors, the day of his advent in Ellis Hinton's town, +caused him to wield a fire-tipped pen against the _Standard_. + +That opposition to Wat's candidacy would develop, before the +nomination, was to be expected; but opposition on the part of the +Barton _Standard_ would be a purely personal matter, the _Standard_ +having its own party fights to foster. But that was all Jap feared. + +It was even worse than he could have imagined, for Jones dug up a +bloody ghost to walk at every political meeting. Not only were all Wat +Harlow's sins of omission and commission paraded in the _Standard_, but +he was proclaimed as the implacable foe of higher education. In vain +did his home paper print his record, of beneficent bills introduced, of +committee work on behalf of the district schools, and his great speech +setting forth the need of a new normal school building. Jones had one +trump card left in his hand, and the day before the convention he +played it. It was a handbill, yellow with age and ragged around the +edges, but still showing a badly spelled, abominably punctuated story +in vermilion ink, with a weeping angel at the top and a rooster and two +prancing stallions at the bottom. It proved Wat Harlow the undying foe +of the State University. + +Despite all the _Herald's_ valiant work, that nightmare was Harlow's +undoing. The nomination went to a rising politician at the opposite +side of the congressional district. A great change had come over the +sentiment, of the state, since the day when the University had been the +favorite tool of the political grafters. Every village had its band of +rooters for the Alma Mater, and when the nominating convention came to +a close it was apparent that Wat Harlow was hardly an "also ran." + +Defeat was galling enough; but the _Standard's_ expressions of glee +were unbearable. Jap's red hair stood on end, "like quills upon the +fretful porcupine," as he stood at his case and threw the type into the +stick, hot from the wrath in his soul. The paper was printed, as +usual, on Thursday; but Friday brought a change in the even tenor of +Bloomtown's way. Jones, of the _Standard_, was a passenger on the +eastbound train that left Barton a little after noon. His destination +was Bloomtown. + +"I am looking for a cross-eyed, slit-eared pup by the name of Herron," +was the greeting he flung into the _Herald's_ sanctum. The door to the +composing room was open. Jap looked up wearily. + +"Would you mind sitting down and keeping quiet till I finish setting up +this address to the bag of wind that edits the Barton _Standard_?" he +said impersonally. + +Jones, of the _Standard_, sat down and gaped at the long, lank figure +on the stool. A moment he went limp and terrified; then he rallied his +courage. + +"Do you unwind all at once?" he asked, as Jap disentangled his legs +from the stool. "I take back what I said about a pup. You're a +full-grown dog, all right. I wasn't looking for a brick-top, either. +No wonder you have a weakness for vermilion." + +"Better come outside of town," Jap interrupted. "I've been intending +to go over to Barton to have a look at you, but it's better thus. I +have been stealing space from my readers long enough. They pay for +more important things than my private opinion of you. I made up my +mind to stop the argument by giving you a hell of a licking, and I've +only waited because I didn't care to risk my reputation in a +neighboring town. Here it will be different. In the midst of my +friends, I hope to fix you so that you'll never try to throw filth on +any one again." + +Jones arose hastily. + +"I want no row," he said uneasily. "I just want an understanding." + +"You have the right idea," cried Jap. "You are going to get lots of +understanding before you leave Bloomtown." + +At that moment the town marshal strolled in, wearing his star pinned on +his blue flannel shirt. + +"I demand protection," Jones shouted. "This man has threatened me." + +"What's the row, Jap?" asked the monitor of peace tolerantly. + +"This is Mr. Wilfred Jones, of the Barton _Standard_," was all that Jap +said. But the effect was electrical. The man of peace was transformed +into an engine of vengeance. + +"Going to beat him up?" he yelled. "Go to it, and I'm here, if you +need help." + +Jap took off his coat, deliberately. He unclasped his cuffs and was in +the act of unbuttoning his collar, when the local freight whistled for +the crossing below town. With a mighty leap the man from Barton +cleared the space between his chair and the door. The strolling +populace of Main street was scattered like leaves before a sudden gust +of wind. There was an abortive cry of "Stop, thief!" and a bewildered +pursuit by several tipsy bums who had been loafing in front of +Bingham's saloon, but the appearance of the marshal, wearing a broad +grin of satisfaction, dispelled apprehension. + +"That was Jones, travelin' light," he explained. + +The next issue of the _Standard_ failed to mention the editorial visit +to Bloomtown; but the scurrilous articles ceased and there was quiet +again. + +"Did Ellis ever have a fight--that kind of a fight--with anybody?" Jap +asked Flossy, when Bill had finished his second-hand recital of the +show that "he wouldn't have missed for his farm in Texas." In Bill's +heart there arose a mighty resentment against Rosy Raymond, who had +enticed him from the office just before Jones arrived. + +"Ellis did a good deal of fighting before he got me to fight his +battles for him," she said, a whimsical smile in her gentle eyes. "You +ought to know, Jap. I never would have had Ellis if he hadn't whipped +Brother William." + +"But that wasn't a matter of personal grudge," Jap argued. It had +seemed to him that somehow he had degraded himself when he went down to +Jones's ethical level. "I wanted to use my fists because Jones +ridiculed me. When Ellis licked the Judge, it wasn't a personal +matter. He did it for me." + +"And you did this for--for the honor of Bloomtown," cried Bill, with +enthusiasm. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +"Something's broke loose," announced Bill, slamming the door violently. +"Pap's bought an automobile." Which illuminative remark indicated that +Judge Bowers's mind had expanded to let in a fresh vagary. + +Jap looked up inquiringly. + +"I reckon it's all on account of Billy Wamkiss," Bill explained. + +"Billy who? There never was no such animal," and Jap scowled at the +stick in his hand. Conditions in Bloomtown were, as Jim Blanke +expressed it, all to the bad. While the political fight was at white +heat the Mayor had contrived to have his own way. He was going to +"make the town" which Ellis Hinton had failed to make. There would be +revenue enough to provide metropolitan improvements, and already there +was a metropolitan, perhaps even a Monte Carlo-tan, air to the recently +awakened village, as every train disgorged its Saturday evening crowd +of gamblers from the city where the lid had gone on with ruthless +completeness. + +Mrs. Granger had arisen from a sick-bed to call together the women of +all the churches to make protest at the licensing of another pool-room, +with bar and poker attachment, not two blocks from her home, a stroke +that had met its counter stroke when the saloon element threatened to +boycott Granger's bank and open a rival financial institution in one of +the store-rooms of the recently erected hotel that faced the Court +House Square, half a block away. Another crowd, the men with +store-rooms and cottages to rent, promised to carry all their banking +business to Barton, if Granger didn't "sit on his wife good and proper." + +"Never was no such animal?" Bill repeated. "Wake up, Jap. Don't you +know who Billy Wamkiss is?" + +"Never heard of the guy," Jap insisted. + +"He's that greasy, wall-eyed temperance lecturer that's been stringing +the town for a week." + +"Humph!" Jap snorted. "Time for you to wake up, Bill. You brought in +the ad yourself, and you wrote the account of the first lecture. The +columns of the _Herald_ will bear me out that the reverend gentleman's +name is Silas Parsons." + +"Yes, that's his reverend name," Bill snorted. "When he's the advance +agent of a rotgut whiskey house over in Kentucky that supplies fancy +packages to all the dry territory around here, he's plain Billy +Wamkiss." + +"Oh, that's his game!" Jap sat up, his gray eyes wide with +astonishment. "How did you get next to it?" + +"Your good friend, Wilfred Jones, put me wise. He didn't mean to, but +he let it slip out when he wasn't watching. I ran into him over in +Barton this morning and he was roasting Bloomtown as usual. Said we +were a bunch of Rubes, to fall for a raw proposition like Billy +Wamkiss, dressed up as a temperance lecturer. And then he went on to +say that my daddy would get richer'n he already is, from his rake-off +on the moisture that'll be injected into the town after she goes dry. +He said he met Wamkiss in Chicago three years ago, and he's been doing +a rattling business all over the country--deliver lectures on the evils +of the Demon Rum that'd bring tears to the eyes of a potato; dry up the +territory, with the help of the churches; and then fill up the town +with drug stores. That's his program, and it's going to work here, +thanks to my amiable and honorable father." + +Jap was silent. He had no words with which to express his emotions. +Bill went out on the street, his reporter's pad under his arm. In half +an hour he returned. + +"It's worse--I mean more incriminating--than I thought, Jap," he said, +as he drew his partner into the private office and shut the door. + +"Did you attend that meeting at the Baptist Church?" Jap asked +anxiously. + +"Yes, and I had to dig out before it was over. I wanted to explode, +and blow up the whole bunch of idiots and crooks. Pap and Wamkiss, +alias Parsons, have formed some kind of a Templar lodge, and my daddy's +got himself elected secretary. They're going to dry up Bloomtown. +Fancy it! They did a lot of crooked work over at the Court House, so +as to make it look as if all the licenses would expire at the same +time. Holmes is the only one that's likely to squeal, because he's +paid his second fee, and the others have only a few months to run. +They'll make it up to Holmes, I reckon, rather'n have him give the snap +away. Of course, Jap, I haven't got the goods for any of this. I just +put two and two together while I was listening to the speeches, +especially my father's speech." + +"Bill"--Jap laid his hand on Bill's arm--"you made the mistake of your +career when you picked that owl for a daddy. He has made more trouble +than three towns could stand up against. First, he throws the place +wide open and takes all the stray saloons and gambling dens to his +bosom; and just when we have a reputation for being the toughest town +on the road and doing a land-office business in sin, he is--he is fool +enough to try to pull off a stunt like this. What becomes of his plea +for municipal revenue when he turns saloons into drug stores?" + +"Well, the lid's going on," Bill returned. "The preachers and the +ladies are strong for it, and the right honorable Mayor announced that +he was the Poo Bah that was going to put up the shutters." + +"Better order a granite," Jap muttered, as he returned to the composing +room. + +And his prediction was well founded, for the town had become so used to +its "morning's morning" that it fairly ravened for the blood of Mayor +Bowers. The _Herald_ office became a forum for indignant orators, +while the Mayor strutted proudly up and down Main street, with the +black-coated Parsons, feeling that the eyes of the world were glued on +him. + +"Parsons! Bah!" spluttered Kelly Jones, who had driven four miles with +his empty jug. "Ef the town has got any git-up, it'll ride him and +that old jackass of a mayor on a rail." + +"Judge Bowers is the honored father of our Associate Editor," informed +Jap gravely. + +As Bill looked up he thumped the galley he was carrying against the +case and pied the whole column. After he had said what he thought +about the catastrophe, Kelly grinned appreciatively. + +"Them's my sentiments, Bill. Ef you love your pappy, you'd better let +him go, along of Parsons, 'cause there's goin' to be doings around +Bloomtown that'll hurt his pride. Parsons! They say out our way that +his right name's Wamkiss." + +The turgid tide of popular sentiment caused Mayor Bowers some +uneasiness; but before anything could happen five new drug stores were +opened for business and things moved placidly along again. Barton +began to refer to "our neighbor, Bumtown," and it was reported that two +blind tigers prowled in the environs of the railroad station. + +"Bill," said Jap one morning, "this won't do. We'll have to raise hell +in this town. This is Ellis's town, and we're not going to let a +dod-blinged mugwump like your asinine daddy ruin it. Bill, if you have +got any speech to make, get ready. If you can't stand for my program, +name your price, for the _Herald_ is going to everlastingly lambaste +William Bowers, Senior." + +"Pull the throttle and run 'er wild," Bill retorted, as he ducked down +behind the press and dragged forth a box from the corner. "I'm going +to get out that last lot of cuts that Ellis made," he continued. +"Kelly Jones knows sense. If I remember right, Ellis had twenty-five +cuts of jacks for the stock bill. We will stick every blamed one of +'em in next week's issue, and label 'em Mayor Bowers. He has killed +the town with his ideas. What can we do with him but hang him?" + +When the _Herald_ appeared the following Thursday afternoon, the town +quit business to read the war cry of Ellis's boy. It was a flaming +sword, hurled at the Board of Aldermen. Bowers, foaming with wrath, +stormed into the office. + +"You take all that back," he yelled, "or I'll put you out of this here +building. I've told you times enough this office belongs to me. I +never turned it over to Ellis." + +Jap stuck type, deadly calm on the surface of his being. Bill shifted +uneasily, his hands clinched, his ruddy face glowing. + +"You hear me?" bawled the irate Mayor. + +Jap turned to consult his copy. Before the act could be imagined +Bowers had struck him over the head with the revolver he dragged from +his pocket. Jap fell, crumpling to the floor, the blood spurting +across the type. For an instant there was horrified silence. Then, +with a howl like that of a wild beast, Bill threw himself upon his +father. But for the intervention of Tom Granger, who had followed the +Mayor because he scented trouble, there would have been a quick finish +to the pompous career of Bill Bowers's progenitor, for Bill had wrested +the pistol from his father's hand and was pressing it against the +temple of the worst scared coward Bloomtown had ever seen. There was a +sharp tussle between the broad-shouldered banker and the frenzied +youth. Several men rushed in from the street. + +"Let me go!" shouted Bill, "for if he's killed Jap he's got to die." + +They were carrying Jap out of the composing room, limp and bleeding. + +"Let him alone, Bill," Tom counselled wisely. "Let your father alone, +for if Jap is dead, we'll lynch him." + +Jap was pretty weak when they brought the Mayor's resignation up from +the calaboose for him to read. A representative delegation stood +around his bed. + +"Let the Judge out, for Bill's sake," Jap said. + +"We'd better keep him locked up for his own sake," declared Tom +Granger. "For in Bill's present frame of mind he's likely to make an +orphan of himself." + +Flossy came in from the little sitting-room and leaned over the bed. + +"I am going to see Brother William," she said quietly. "I am going to +take Brent Roberts with me. William will give you boys a quitclaim +bill to this property, for this dastardly deed." + +She was an impersonation of righteous wrath as she swept into the jail, +followed by Bloomtown's leading attorney. Judge Bowers had said more +than once that Flossy had a willing tongue, but its full willingness +was never conceived until she descended upon him that eventful day. + +An arrangement, made by Ellis just before his departure, gave the +contents of the office to the boys, on regular payments to Flossy. The +ground on which the new building stood had been deeded to Ellis and +Flossy on their wedding day; but the building, presumed to be a gift to +Ellis, had been reclaimed by Bowers; it was held, however, as Bill's +share in the firm. As yet no occasion had arisen that demanded the +settling of the question of ownership. Whenever the Judge had an +attack of bile he came into the office to remind Bill and Jap that the +building was still his. + +For one heated hour Flossy detailed the past, present and future of her +cowering brother. When she left him he was a wiser, and probably a +sadder, man, for she had deprived him of his weapon. + +There was a big bonfire on the circus grounds, and a celebration in +Court House Square that night. The next day there was a great vacuum +in the City Hall, for the Board of Aldermen resigned unanimously. A +special election was called, and before Jap was strong enough to sit at +his case he had been elected Mayor of Bloomtown. + +He looked sadly from the window of his bedroom, after the joyous crowd +of serenaders that had come to congratulate him. Bill had followed in +their wake, to escort Rosy home. It was late. The clock in the +Presbyterian church spire chimed twelve, as he stood alone. He took +his hat from the rack and went cautiously downstairs. On the pavement +he paused a moment to steady himself. His head still reeled after any +unwonted exertion. Then he walked slowly up Main street, across the +railroad tracks, and out to the quiet village whose inhabitants slept +'neath marble and sod. Standing beside the grave of his first friend, +he said: + +"Ellis, make the town proud of your boy. Help me to be your right +hand. If I can only fulfill your plan, I am willing that no other +ambition be fulfilled." + +A lonely night bird called softly. The willow branches waved in the +breeze. Thick darkness hung over the City of the Dead. Suddenly the +moon peered through the clouds, flooding the night with beauty, and Jap +read from the stone the last message of Ellis: + +"I go, but not as one unsatisfied. In God's plan, my work will live." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +"Now that you've got it, Jap," asked Tom Granger, "what are you going +to do with it?" Jap looked silently from the door. + +"He put in about eight hours of thinking about that himself," Bill +averred. "News is that ten saloons are loaded on freight cars, waiting +word from Jap." + +"You'll have to strike a happy medium," suggested Tom. "I know that +you are the boy to deliver the goods." + +"Ellis wasn't against saloons," commented Bill, "so Jap won't have that +to chew over. Ellis wasn't either for or against 'em." + +"No," Tom said seriously, "Ellis was dead set against hypocrisy. He +hated a liar and a grafter worse than a murderer. He knew that the way +to make people want a thing was to tell 'em they couldn't have it." + +Jap's face was grave. A panorama of wretched pictures moved slowly +before his wandering gaze, pictures that began and ended in Mike's +place, in the half-forgotten village of Happy Hollow. He aroused +himself with a start. + +"I'm going to put it up to the new Board to allow as many saloons as +want to, to come in," he said shortly. + +Tom Granger let go a shrill whistle. + +"At the license asked," continued Jap calmly. "The license will be +three thousand dollars a year, and strict enforcement of all laws. At +the first break, the lid will fall." + +"Jumping cats!" howled Tom. "Where will you get the saloon that'll pay +that?" + +Jap smiled wearily. "I am not hunting a saloon for Bloomtown," he +said, and turned toward the door in time to bump into Isabel Granger, +her arms full of bundles. She blushed and dimpled prettily. + +"I am looking for my papa," she cried, pinching Tom's cheek with her +one free hand. "I want you to carry these packages for me." + +"Run along, pet. I'm busy." + +"You look it," she reproved. "I simply can't carry all these things. +My arm is almost broken now, and the dressmaker has to have them." + +"Jap will tote them for you," chuckled Tom, watching the blood rush +over Jap's sensitive face. To his surprise, Jap took the bundles and +walked out with Isabel. He looked after them approvingly. + +"Now there goes the likeliest boy in the state," he declared. "It's +plumb funny the way he's got of getting right next to your marrow +bones. I wish I had a boy like him." + +"No great matter," drawled Bill, with tantalizing indefiniteness. + +Tom looked up at him quizzically, as he picked absently at the pile of +exchanges. Something in the young man's tone piqued him. + +"If Jap wasn't so all-fired conscientious," Bill blurted, "you'd have a +son, in quick order." + +"Lord!" exploded Tom. "Dunderhead that I am!" He slapped his thigh, +and a great, joyous laugh set his shoulders to heaving. "Bill, you're +a genius for spying out mysteries. How did you get on to it?" + +"Mysteries!" shouted Bill. "Why, everybody in Bloomtown, including +Isabel, knows that Jap is fairly sapheaded about her." + +"Well, what's hampering him?" inquired Tom. "Why don't he confide in +me?" + +"Confide your hat!" remarked Bill crisply. "Isabel will die of old age +before Jap asks her. You see, he is such a durn fool that he thinks he +isn't good enough for her. When the Lord made Jap Herron He made a +man, I tell you!" + +"Who said He didn't?" stormed Tom. "I can't know what is in the boy's +mind, can I? What do you want me to do, kidnap him and get his +consent? Bill, you're a fool. You needn't tell me that Jap Herron is +such a mealy-mouth." + +"All I know is that he won't ask Isabel," Bill said gloomily. "I'd +like to get married myself, but as long as Jap stays single, I stick +too." And thinking of Rosy's blue eyes, he sighed heavily. + +"It beats me, the way young folks do. It was different when I went +courting," Tom muttered, turning to go. + +At the door he met Kelly Jones, who had come in to inquire what Jap +intended to do about the "licker" business. He was too busy with his +fall plowing to be running over to Barton for his jug of good cheer, +and he didn't like the brand he could get at Bingham's drug store, on +Doc Connor's prescription. While he was still holding forth, Jap came +in, with half-a-dozen constituents, all busy with the same problem. +Bill took up his notebook and wandered out. At Blanke's drug store he +met Isabel. She motioned for him to come back in the store. + +"What do you want to know, Iz?" he asked with the familiarity born of +long years of propinquity. "Reckon you want to ask what everybody else +wants to know--when is Jap going to get a saloon?" + +"You are too smart, Bill Bowers," she retorted, with annoyance. She +had had a subject of more personal nature on the tip of her tongue. "I +think that Jap will be able to answer his own questions without any +help from you." + +"It is to be hoped that he will make a better stagger at answering than +he does at asking," remarked Bill shortly. + +"Now, Bill Bowers, just what do you mean?" she demanded, her black eyes +flashing angrily. + +"What's the use?" said Bill, in disgust. "Rosy says that she's going +to Kansas this fall, and I just will have to let her go because I can't +ask her to stay." + +"Pity about you," she snapped. "Thought you said Jap couldn't ask." + +"I did," assented Bill, "for if he had gumption enough to get married, +or even go courting, I might get by. But as long as he sticks alone +I'm going to stick, too." + +Isabel's face flamed. She stooped to pick up a hit of paper. + +"What do you want to tell me about it for?" she complained. "My +goodness, I'm not to blame." + +"You are," stormed Bill. "Jap knows that he is not your equal, and he +never will marry." + +"Who said that Jap Herron was not more than the equal of any man on +earth?" she blazed. "If Jap will ask me, I'll marry him to-morrow." + +She whirled away in her wrath, and ran into the arms of Jap Herron, +standing half paralyzed with the wonder of it. Bill, who had been +watching the unconscious Jap approaching for several minutes, +discreetly withdrew. + +"Gee!" he said, "but they ought not to be kissing in such a public +place." + +There were a dozen customers in the store, but neither Jap nor Isabel +knew it. And it is to the credit of Bloomtown that they all looked the +other way, as they hurriedly transacted their business and departed. +Blanke declared afterward that he filled fifteen prescriptions with +epsom salts in his abstraction, and accidentally cured Doc Horton's +best paying patient. Moss, the paper hanger, went out with his rolls +of paper, and hung the border on the walls, instead of the siding. The +mistakes reported were legion; but the town was all courting Isabel +with Jap, at heart. + +Bill rambled into the bank and suggested that Tom go over to Blanke's +and lead Jap and Isabel out, as Blanke might want to close the store. +Half an hour later Tom came from the drug store, with an arm locked +with each of the glowing pair. Straight across Main street they +marched, and down the shady walk that flanked the little park until +they were opposite the front gate of the Granger home. Then they went +in to break the news to Isabel's invalid mother. + +Flossy heard about it, almost before Jap had awakened to his own joy, +and he never knew of the hour she spent in passionate grief. In some +vague way it seemed to tear open the old wound. Without knowing why, +she resented the fact that Isabel's brunette beauty had won Jap. She +told herself that it was not a fitting match for him. Flossy, in her +maternal soul, had looked to heights undreamed of by the retiring boy. +She had planned a future for him that would be sadly hampered by +marriage with a village belle. But only smiles met him when he brought +Isabel to her, his plain features glorified by joy in her possession. + +Somehow the story of Jap Herron, the youthful Mayor of Bloomtown, his +advent in its environs, and the story of his romance with the banker's +daughter, crept into the country press, was carried over into the city +papers and flung broadcast, so that friend and foe might seek him out. +One dreary fall day, when the rain was beating sullenly down on the +sodden leaves, a haggard, dirty woman straggled into the office. + +"I'm lookin' for Jasper Herron," she mumbled. "They told me I'd find +him in here." + +Jap looked at her in horror. His heart sank. + +"I am his poor old mother, that he run away from and left to starve," +she said viciously. + +And Jap, just on the threshold of his greatest happiness, was turned +aside by this grizzly, drunken phantom from the past. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +Little J. W. crawled out from under Bill's case, his brown eyes wide +with surprise at this vagrant who called Jap "son." + +"Run like sin," counselled Bill, in a whisper, "and bring your mother. +She will know what to do." + +While the boy went to do his bidding, Bill slipped out of the rear door +of the office and was waiting in front of the bank when Flossy came +hurrying along. + +"Oh, Bill, what has Jap said?" she asked breathlessly. From J. W.'s +lisping description--he always lisped when he was excited--she had come +to fear the worst. + +"Nothing," said Bill bluntly. "He's sitting at his case, sticking type +as if he was hired by the minute." + +"And she--that awful woman?" + +"Gee!" Bill spat the word. "You don't know anything yet. Wait till +you lamp her over." + +"That bad, Bill?" + +"Worse," muttered Bill. And when Flossy came inside and looked into +the little inner office where the woman sprawled, half asleep and +muttering incoherently, the fumes of liquor and the presence of filth +all too evident, her stomach rebelled and she retreated swiftly. +Softly she slipped into the composing room through the wide-open door. +Timidly she approached Jap and touched his arm. He looked at her with +eyes utterly hopeless. + +"Oh, Jap, what can I do!" + +"You cannot do anything," his voice flat and emotionless. "No one can. +Could you take her in? No! She is impossible, and yet--she is my +mother. Perhaps if I had stayed with her it would have been different, +so I must make up for it." + +Flossy looked into his set face in affright. + +"I am going away--with her." Jap's tones were calm. "You can see, +Flossy, that it is the only way. I cannot be Mayor of Ellis's town +with such a disgrace to shame me. I must give up Isabel and--and the +_Herald_." + +Flossy clung to his arm. + +"Listen to me, Jap Herron," she cried shrilly. "You shall not do it! +You shall not let this horrible old woman drag you down in the dirt." + +Jap smiled sadly. + +"What could I do, Flossy? She must be cared for. She has been all +over town. Everybody has seen her. They know the truth, that my +mother is--what she is." + +Suddenly he threw himself forward on the case and began to sob, such +hard, racking sobs as might tear his very breast. Flossy threw her +arms around him and cried aloud. Bill stood in the little private +office, looking down upon the snoring woman with a murderous glare. He +turned as Tom Granger came noiselessly from the outer office and stood +beside him. Grief was in Granger's face. + +"I heard what Jap said just now," he whispered, "and he is right. It +would be impossible for him to stay with her in the town. She has +ruined Jap." + +"You're a gol-dinged fool," shouted Bill, dragging him across the big +office and out of the front door. "Pretty sort of friend you are, +anyway. I'll fight you, or a half-dozen like you, if you murmur a word +like that to Jap." + +He whirled as his father ambled up the street, his round face wearing a +grin. + +"What is that greasy smirk for?" demanded Bill. "If you have any +business in the _Herald_ office, spit it out." + +"I knowed it would come out sooner or later," spluttered Bowers, +shifting his position to avoid a pool in the pavement, left by the +recent rain. "With half an eye, anybody could see the mongrel streak +in----" + +He stopped as his son advanced swiftly toward him. + +"What kind of a streak?" he threatened. "I dare you to say that again, +and hitch anybody's name to it." + +"Why, William," expostulated his father, "you shorely ain't goin' to +have Jap and his mammy hitched up to the _Herald_? Barton 'll ride +Bloomtown proper." + +"It will give Jones a whack at the _Herald_," suggested Granger mildly. + +"And it will be his last whack!" foamed Bill. "For I'll finish him and +his filthy paper before I go to the pen for burning down the _Herald_ +office. The day that Jap Herron leaves the _Herald_, there will be the +hell-firedest bonfire that Bloomtown ever saw!" His eyes were blazing. +"Get away from here," he cried fiercely, "you--you milksop friends!" + +He stopped as Isabel, her eyes swollen from crying, crossed the street. +She had come across the corner of the park, and her face was white and +drawn. Bill stepped up into the doorway and awaited her. + +"I want to speak to Jap," she said, as he barred the passage. + +"What do you want with him?" Bill demanded truculently. "Because he is +packing all the load now that he can stand, and you ain't going to add +another chip to it. Give me your old engagement ring, and I'll pitch +it in the hell-box. I reckon that's what you came for." + +She pushed him aside, her eyes blazing with wrath. + +"Get out of my way, Bill Bowers. You never did have any sense. Let me +by!" + +She flung herself past him and ran into the composing room. At sight +of Flossy, she paused. Flossy raised her head from Jap's shoulder and +looked defiantly at the girl, but only for a second. She knew, in that +glance. Softly she crept out as Isabel, with a heart-shaking cry, ran +to Jap and threw herself against him. + +"Take me in your arms, Jap," she cried stormily, "for I love you." + +Jap stared up, dully, for an instant. Then, forgetting all but love, +he opened his arms and clasped her to his heart. Bill rushed outside +after Flossy. + +"I never knew that she was the real goods," he said remorsefully, +wiping his eyes. + +"Get a wagon from the grocer," Flossy said, decisive again. "I am +going to take her home with me." + +"Meaning that?" Bill flipped his thumb toward Jap's mother. + +"Send her up to the house, and I will have a doctor, and some one to +bathe her and clean her up. Maybe after she is clean and sober, she +won't be so dreadful." + +When Jap came out of his stupor enough to try to put Isabel away, he +discovered what Flossy had done. With Isabel clinging to him, he +walked with downcast head through the streets that lay between the +_Herald_ office and Flossy's cottage. + +His mother was in bed, clean and yet disgusting in her drunken sleep. +He forgot Isabel, silent by his side, as he stood looking down upon the +blotched and sunken face, thinking what thoughts God only knew. He +seemed years older as he walked out again, after the doctor had told +him that nothing could be determined until she had slept the liquor +off. Slowly and silently he and Isabel walked past the row of neat +cottages until they reached Main street. On the corner Jap paused. + +"You must go home, Isabel," he said brokenly. "Sweetheart, I +understand, and I know that you are the bravest girl in the world. But +you must leave me now." + +"I will not," she declared. "I want you to take me right down to the +office and send for a license. I am going to marry you, and show this +town what I think of you!" + +"But I cannot let you," Jap said simply. "I know--you don't." + +"Then," said Isabel defiantly, "I will go back to Flossy's and take +care of your mother until you are ready to talk sense." + +Jap looked at her helplessly. They were in front of Blanke's drug +store. Jim Blanke stepped outside and grasped Jap's hand. Isabel +looked proudly up at him, her arm drawn tightly through Jap's. As they +passed down the street, citizens sprang up, apparently from nowhere, +and clasped Jap's hand in a fraternal grip. Isabel peered into his +silent face. The tears were streaming unheeded down his cheeks. Her +father frowned as they appeared at the door of the bank. + +"Papa," she called resolutely, "you coming with us?" + +He stood gnawing at his lips, his face overcast. An instant he battled +with his pride and his love for the boy. Then, with his old +heartiness, he clapped Jap on the shoulder. + +"Straighten your shoulders, lad. We're all your friends!" And the +storm cloud lightened. + +All that night Jap paced the floor of the office, while Bill, too +sympathetic for sleep, tossed in the room above and swore at fate. It +was noon the next day when little J. W. came in to say that Mrs. Herron +was awake and wanted to see her son. + +She was half sitting among the pillows when Jap entered. Flossy had +drawn the muslin curtains, to soften the garish light as it fell on her +seamed and shame-scarred face. She peered up at him from blood-shot, +sunken eyes. + +"You look like your pappy's folks, Jasper," she croaked. "And they +tell me you air a fine, likely boy, and follerin' in the trade of your +gran'pap. I wisht that I had a known where you was, long ago. I have +had a hard life, Jasper. Your step-pa beat me, and that's more'n your +pappy ever done. He died of the trimmins, three year ago, and I have +been wanderin' every since, huntin' my childurn. But Aggie's a bigbug +now, and she drove me off. And Fanny's goin' to a fine music school, +and sent me word that she'd have me put in a sanitary if I bothered +her. She saw a piece about you in the paper, and sent it to me. So I +tramped thirty mile to come." + +Her face was pathetic in its misery. She sank back in the pillows and +closed her eyes. Jap leaned down and drew the covers tenderly over her +arms. She opened her eyes, at the touch, and looked up at him sadly. + +"Thanky, Jasper," she mumbled, "You be-ant mad?" + +He patted her cheek softly, and the sunken eyes lighted with a smile of +weary contentment. Then the lids fluttered, like the last effort of a +spent candle, and she slept. Like one in the maze of a vague, +uncertain dream, Jap went back to the office. Unconsciously he took +the familiar way, through the alley. Automatically he climbed to his +stool and began setting up the editorial that had been interrupted by +his mother's coming the previous day. + + +At sunset Bill touched his shoulder softly. Jap raised his head from +his hands. + +"Your--your mother never woke up after you left her, Jap," he said +huskily. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +Bill looked up as a long, lank form glided surreptitiously into the +office. + +"Been a long time since you drifted our way," he commented, as the form +resolved itself into the six-foot length of Kelly Jones. + +"Might' nigh three month," averred Kelly grimly. "I've been tradin' +over at Barton. Couldn't stand for Jap's damfoolishness. Had to buy +my licker there, and just traded there. It's twelve mile from my farm +to Barton, and four mile to Bloomtown. Spring's comin' on, and work to +do. I hate to take that trip every time the wife needs a spool o' +thread. Did you get my letter, sayin' to stop the paper?" + +"Stopped it, didn't we?" queried Bill crisply, scattering the type from +the financial report of Bloomtown into the case. + +"Yes," assented Kelly, "you did. What'd you do it for?" + +"Not forcing the _Herald_ on anybody," announced Bill glibly. "Got +past that. We used to hold 'em up and feed the _Herald_ to them, but +we don't have to do it now." + +"I hear tell that Jap made Tim Simpson night marshal. Why, he run a +blind tiger beyond the water tank," exclaimed Kelly. "I reckon Jap +didn't know that." + +"Just because he did know it, he made Tim night marshal," declared +Bill, flinging the last type into the box and descending from the +stool. "Just you stroll down the tracks in either direction, and see +if you can find a whisker or a tawny hair from the tip of any tiger's +tail lying loose along the way. Jap knows several things, Kelly, my +boy, and he is fighting fire with fire. Tim Simpson understands the +operations of the kind of menagerie that usually flourishes in a dry +town, and Jap put him on his honor. He's so conscientious that he goes +over to Barton to get full. He won't drink it here. He's got pride in +making Bloomtown the whitest town in the state. But explain the return +of the prodigal. How come your feet in our dust again?" + +"Well," said Kelly shamefacedly, "the wife said that I was a durn fool. +I stopped the _Herald_ and subscribed for the _Standard_--and a pretty +standard it is! While Jap Herron was cleanin' up, it was slingin' muck +at him. The wife read it, and one day she goes up to Barton and starts +an argument with Jones. I reckon she had the last word. If she +didn't, it was the fu'st time. She come home so rip-snortin' mad that +she threatened to lick me if I didn't tackle Jones. Well, to keep +peace in the family, I run in to see him the next time I went to +Barton. Well, Jones put it up to me, if Jap was doin' much for +Bloomtown in havin' unlicensed drug stores, instid of regular saloons." + +"Sure sign that you don't know the news," said Bill, unfolding a copy +of the _Herald_. "Since last Saturday night there has been only one +drug store in Bloomtown. That's Blanke's, and Jim Blanke wouldn't sell +liquor on anybody's prescription but Doc Hall's, and Doc Hall would let +you die of snake-bite, if nothing but whiskey would cure you. Any +other drug stores that may open up in this town 'll have to pattern +after Blanke's or out they go." + +Kelly took the paper up and scanned its columns. He snorted. + +"Well, I do declare! I see that might' nigh all the doctors have +packed up and are threatenin' to leave town. Well, there wa'n't enough +doctorin' to keep twenty of 'em in cash nohow." + +"You ought to have heard Jap's speech when they were putting a plea for +local option," said Bill. "My pap has carried a sore ear against Jap's +reign ever since he was elected to fill out that unexpired term, and he +stirred up a lot of bellyaches among the guzzlers. It was a sickening +mess, because the whole town knows that my daddy can't stand even the +smell of liquor. It wouldn't be so bad--so hypocritical, if he really +liked it and was used to it. As I was telling you, he and the old +booze gang had been burning the midnight dip to plan a crimp for Mayor +Herron, when that local option idea struck him. Well, Jap got up and +made a speech, calling their attention to the bonds we voted, and the +sound financial condition back of those bonds; the granitoid pavement +on Main street, the electric light plant that's going up, and the water +works, and sewers that are under way--all managed since the town went +dry. Then he nominated Tom Granger for mayor, and what do you reckon +they did?" + +"Seein' as how he ain't mayor," said Kelly, with a twinkle, "I allow +they done nothin'." + +"Why," said Bill, his brown eyes kindling, "they arose as one man and +yelled, 'We want Jap Herron!' and that settled it." + +The farmer stood in the middle of the office, his arms gesticulating +and his head bobbing with animation, as Jap hurried in. He gazed at +the back of Kelly's familiar slicker incredulously. + +"What!" he hailed joyously, "our old friend of the sorghum barrel! +Where have you been hibernating? Surely a cure for sore eyes," and Jap +seized his shoulder and whirled him around so that he could grasp his +hand. + +"Chipmunking in Barton," prompted Bill. "This sadly misguided farmer +has been lost but now is found." + +"The Missus sent a package to Miss Flossy. You and Bill 'll eat it, I +reckon," and he produced a parcel from his pocket. "She said if Ellis +was here, he'd appreciate it. It's sausage that she made herself. +And--and she sent a dollar for the paper. She wants the _Herald_." + +"And what about Kelly?" Jap asked, a wave of memory sweeping over him. + +"Just you write it down that Kelly Jones is a yaller pup," said Kelly +morosely. + +"Never!" declared Jap heartily. "Misled, perhaps, but with a heart of +gold." + +Kelly groped for his handkerchief. + +"I've got on the water wagon, Jap," he sniffled. "I reckon I kin get +along without the stuff. Sary hid my jug, and I done 'thout it for a +week, and I felt fine. I am goin' to make a stagger at it, if I do +fall down." + +Jap pushed him into a chair. + +"Why, you old rascal," he cried, "you have backbone enough to do +anything you will to do. Move into town and help us turn the wheels." + +Kelly wiped his nose on the tail of his slicker as he started for the +door. + +"Don't happen to need any basses, do you?" he grinned. + +Jap flung an empty ink bottle after him. When quiet had returned to +the office, he said, as he hung his hat on the nail: + +"Isabel wants to learn to stick type." + +"Funny," said Bill shortly, "so does Rosy, and they hate each other +like Pap hates beer. Pretty mix-up we'll have on our hands." + +"That's all nonsense, Bill. Rosy can't help liking Isabel." + +Bill scanned the copy on his hook, his eyes narrowing. + +"Appears like she can," he muttered. + +"Now, Bill, this won't do," argued Jap earnestly. "We can't afford to +have dissension in such a vital matter. You must talk to Rosy." + +"You can have the job," waived Bill, picking up a type. "Isabel said +that Rosy was shallow and only skin-deep, and Rosy heard about it. +Isabel Granger is not so much----" + +He stopped abruptly as Jap's hand went up in pained alarm. + +"Look here, Bill, are we going to let the chatter of women come between +us? There is something deeper holding us together than the friendship +of a day. Give me your hand, Bill, and tell me that it is Ellis's work +and not these trifles that you care for. We have a work to do, you and +I." + +Bill threw the stick upon the case and grasped Jap's outstretched hand. +Tears glistened in his eyes. + +"Better than all the loves in the world, I love you, Jap," he stormed. +Jerking his hat from the nail, he strode out to walk off the +emotionalism he decried. + +That afternoon he strove manfully to show Isabel how to put type in the +stick upside down, and to save her feelings he stealthily corrected her +faulty work, suppressing a grin at Jap's pride in her first attempt. +Bill shook his head sadly as they strolled out together, Jap's eyes +drinking in the girl's slender beauty. + +"Petticoat government 'll get old Jap tripped up," he complained to the +office cat. "And then where'll I be? When Jap marries I'll play +second fiddle. Come seven, come 'leven!" and he snapped his fingers in +the air. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +The sun was streaming through the east windows. Jap looked anxiously +up and down the street. Bill had not been home all night. This was a +state of affairs alarming to Jap. He walked back to the table and +turned the exchanges over restlessly. + +"I wonder if the boy could have persuaded that butterfly to elope with +him, as he threatened he would, when her mother cut up so rough," he +worried. + +Tim Simpson came in and peered around furtively. + +"Bill is drunk as a lord," he announced in a stage whisper. "I've got +him in the back room of the calaboose, to sober up without the news +leakin'." + +Jap paled. + +"Bill drunk?" he faltered. "Who got him into it? Is he asleep, Tim?" + +"Lord, no! If he was, I would 'a' left him out when he come to, and +said no word to you about it. But I'm plum scared about him. He's +chargin' up and down like a Barnum lion. I reckon as how you'd better +mosey down there and try to ca'm him." + +As Jap walked rapidly down the alley beside the night marshal, he asked: + +"Did you try to talk to him?" + +"Yes," said Simpson ruefully. "He kicked me out and was chasin' after +me when I slammed the door on him. He's blind crazy loaded. I fu'st +seen him after number nine pulled in, so I think he come on her. He +was mutterin' and shakin' his fist when he hove in sight. I got him +and steered him into the jug without much trouble, and it was only a +hour ago that he started this ragin' and ravin'." + +As they entered the jail, sounds of tramping feet and mutterings +reached their ears. Bill's swollen, blotched face and reddened eyes +appeared behind the grating. + +"Let me out of here!" he shouted. "You'll get a broken head for this, +you old mule." He shook the grating furiously. + +"Bill," said Jap slowly, "do you want to come with me, or do you want +me to stay here with you till you've had a bath and a good sleep?" + +Bill laughed discordantly. + +"A sleep! A sleep!" he cried. "Yes, a long, long sleep. As soon as +you take me out of this hell-hole, I'll take a sleep that'll last." + +Jap opened the door and stepped inside. + +"Don't come any nearer," warned Bill. "I'm too filthy, Jap. But let +me stay as I am till it's over." + +He sat down on the cot and stared crazily into the corridor. Jap sat +down beside him and drew his arm around his shoulder, with the +tenderness of a woman. + +"Tell me about it, Bill, boy," he counselled gently. "Tim, you may +leave us." + +Bill sat a long time, staring sullenly at the floor. + +"Well, this is a hell of a display for me to bring to Bloomtown," he +declared at last. "I should have ended it in Jones's town. If I +hadn't been so dumb with rotgut that I didn't know what I was doing, I +would be furnishing some excitement for the Bartonites this morning. +The finest place in the world to die in--it isn't fit to live in." + +Jap shook him briskly. + +"Straighten up, Bill, and tell me what kind of a mess you have been in." + +Bill laughed wildly. After a moment he dragged a letter from his +pocket. Jap read: + +"When you read this, I will be the wife of Wilfred Jones, the Editor of +the Barton _Standard_. Maybe you will be pleased? I prefer to marry a +real editor, not the half of Jap Herron." + +The letter was signed, "Rosalie," but the affectation carried none of +the elements of a disguise. To Jap it was the crowning insult. +Crushing the silly note in his hand, he threw it from him. Standing +up, he drew Bill to his feet. + +"We are going home," he said curtly. "When you are sober I will tell +you how disappointed I am in my brother." + +The news that Bill had been jilted spread over Bloomtown like fire in a +stubble-field, and deep resentment greeted the announcement that Jones +of the _Standard_ had scored another notch against the _Herald_. + +Bill, sullen and defiant, had battled it out in the room above the +office. All the vagaries of a sick mind were his. Murder, suicide, +mysterious disappearance, chased each other across the field of his +vision, and ever the specter of suicide returned to grin at him. For a +day and a night Jap sat beside his bed, talking, soothing, comforting. +Finally he made this compact: + +"To show you that I love you better than myself, Bill, I am going to +promise that I will not marry until you are cured of this blow. Not a +word, Bill! Happiness would turn to ashes if I accepted it at your +cost. How far I am to blame in your trouble, I can only guess. I am +not going to preach philosophy. I am only going to plead my love for +you." + +He took the revolver from the drawer and laid it on the table beside +Bill. + +"If you are the boy I think you are, you will be sticking type when I +come back from Flossy's. If you are a coward, I will not grieve to +find you have taken the soul that God gave you and flung it at His +feet." + +Not trusting himself to look back, he hurried down the stairs. His +heart was heavy with dread as he locked the office and walked blindly +to the cottage where all his problems had been carried. He could not +talk to Flossy, but, sitting beside her on the little front porch, he +fought the mad impulse to run back to the office. He strained his ears +for the sound that he was praying not to hear. + +Two hours he sat there, fighting with his fears, the longest hours of +his life. Flossy sat as silent. No one knew Jap as Flossy did. +Smoothing his tumbled hair and stroking his tightly clenched hands were +her only expressions. Futile indeed would words be now. The tragedy +that hovered over them both must work itself out. + +A whistle shrilled from the road. Jap sprang up with a strangled cry, +as Wat Harlow came through the gate. His face was stern. + +"Bill allowed that this is where I'd find you, chatting your valuable +time away," he chaffed. Then the mask of his countenance broke into a +grin. + +"Is Bill in the office?" Jap's lips were so stiff he could scarcely +articulate. + +"Sure he is," said Harlow cheerfully. "He wants you to ramble down +there." + +"There's a hen on, Jap," he confided, after they had taken leave of +Flossy. "We'll try to hatch something this time. I'm going to get in +the game again. You know the old saying: 'You mustn't keep a good dog +chained up.'" + +"Well?" queried Jap, his thoughts springing space and picturing what +Bill might be doing. Wat was discreetly silent until they had passed +through town and were inside the office. Bill, pale and haggard, +looked up from his desk. He extended the paper he was writing on. Jap +took it without a word. + +"WAT HARLOW FOR GOVERNOR!" + +"How's that for a head?" he demanded. "If we're going into this thing, +we might as well go with both feet." + +He looked into Jap's face. Their eyes met. With one voice they cried: + +"Ellis!" + +"'When Harlow runs for governor,'" Jap quoted tremulously, "'you will +boom him. Till then, nothing doing in the Halls of Justice.' Bill, +Ellis was a prophet. He even knew that he wouldn't be in the game. +Wat, we'll put you across this time." + +"Yes, and it'll be a nasty fight," Wat returned, as Bill leaned over +and picked nervously at the ears of the office cat. "We've got Bronson +Jones to buck up against, in all political probability. He's almost +sure of the nomination." + +"Just who is Bronson Jones?" Jap asked. "Seems to me I ought to place +him. He's been in the papers down in the southwestern part of the +state a good deal." + +"He's the smooth proposition that came back here a couple of years ago +and bought back his old newspaper for his son and has managed up to the +present time to keep his own name discreetly out of that same paper," +vouchsafed Harlow. "He won't let it leak out till the psychological +moment. He's the daddy of the split-hoofed imp of Satan that runs the +Barton _Standard_!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +Jap threw his pencil impatiently on the desk. + +"I can't get my thoughts running clear this morning," he said abruptly. +"Every time I try to write, the pale face of little J. W. comes between +me and the page." + +"They're back from the city," Bill said uneasily. "I saw them coming +from the train. I fully meant to tell you, Jap." + +"I hope the specialist has quieted Flossy's fears." Jap ran his +fingers through his loose red locks. "The boy is growing too fast. +Why, look at the way he has shot up in the last year. Ellis told me +that he ran up like a bean pole, the way I did, and just as thin. J. +W. is exactly like him." + +"And Ellis died at forty----" + +"Don't, Bill," Jap choked. "I can't bear it." He walked to the door +and gazed out into the hazy silver autumn air. + +"This weather is like wine," he declared. "It will set the boy up, +fine as a fiddle. You must remember, Bill, that Ellis impoverished his +system by the life of hardship he was forced to endure while the town +was growing. The things he used to tell were humorous enough, the +droll way he had of telling them. But they break our hearts when we +think of them now, and know that it was that privation that killed him. +It was bad enough here when I was a youngster, and that was luxury to +what he had had. J. W. has not had such a handicap. Of course he was +a delicate baby, but he certainly outgrew all that." + +Bill was discreetly silent. He knew that Jap was only arguing with his +fears. In the early summer, J. W. had been acutely ill, and as the +heat progressed, he languished with headache and fever. In the end, +Dr. Hall had counselled taking him to a noted specialist in the city. + +"Better take a run up to Flossy's," Bill suggested. "You'll be better +satisfied." + +Jap took a copy of the _Herald_ from the table and went out. All the +way along Spring street he strove with his anxiety. Flossy met him on +the porch. One glance was enough for Jap. He sat down, helpless, on +the lower step. + +"J. W. is tired out and asleep," said Flossy softly. "Come with me, +Jap, down to the arbor. You remember the day that Ellis told you the +truth about himself?" + +Jap followed her beneath the grape trellis, stumbling clumsily. When +they reached the arbor, with its bench and rustic table, she faced him, +slender to attenuation. + +"Jap," she said brokenly, "J. W. has tuberculosis in the worst form. +His entire body is filled with it. He contracted it while we were with +Ellis--and we never knew, never suspected----" Her voice broke. "Not +even a miracle can prolong his life longer than spring. The doctors +insisted on examining me, too. They say I have it, in incipiency, and +my only chance of escape is to leave my boy to the care of others. +Under the right conditions they say I have a fighting chance." + +"You are sure that you have every advice?" Jap's voice was so hoarse +that she looked up at him in alarm. + +"Yes, Jap, but I knew it before. Months ago, even before he was so +sick in the summer, I had a dream, and this was my dream: Ellis, with +that beautiful smile that every one loved, was waiting out there at the +gate, and I was hurrying to get the boy ready to go with him. I knew, +when I awoke, that he was ready to wait our boy's coming. Oh, Jap, do +you think that smile was for me, too?" + +The look of agony in Jap's sensitive face was more than she could bear. +She clutched his arm. + +"Oh, Jap, pray--help me to pray that he was waiting for me, too. The +time has been so long. I want to be with my boy to the last. You +understand, Jap. I don't believe that words are needed." + +He put his arms around her. He could not speak, but his head bent +above hers and the hot tears dropped upon her brown hair, now streaked +with gray. + +"I have done the work he wanted me to do," she sobbed. "He wanted me +to be a mother until you were on the plane he had planned. Like the +butterfly whose day is done, Jap, I would go. I am so tired, and--boy, +I have never ceased to long for Ellis. The world could not supply +another soul like his." + +"Flossy," Jap said in smothered tones, "I know. I have walked the +floor for hours, missing him until I was almost frantic. But, little +Mother, what is left to me if you go? Without you, I am drifting +again." + +"I would fear that, if I had never seen into the deeps of Isabel's +nature. And to think that I once decried--but I didn't understand, +Jap. When your mother came, there was a revelation. I don't fear for +your future now. And when I knew this, I suddenly felt tired and old. +I pray not to survive my boy." + + +The following morning brought the first fall rain. And then, for +endless weeks, the leaden sky drooped over the world. Dreary +depression and the penetrating chill of approaching winter filled the +air. Only the unwonted pressure of work kept the boys from brooding +over the inevitable that would come with the spring-time. To relieve +Flossy of all unnecessary burdens, Jap and Bill went to the hotel for +their meals, but every evening one or the other went to sit with her. +At length there came a time, late in November, when the office work was +more than both of them could handle, and for several days the visits +were interrupted. + +"Flossy is sick," announced Bill, hanging his dripping raincoat behind +the door. "I saw Pap just now, and he told me. He and his wife were +there all night. He says that J. W. has been so bad off for a week, +has had such bad spells at night, that Flossy has hardly slept, and +yesterday she broke down and sent for Pap. He took Doc Hall along, and +they are afraid she has pneumonia." + +Jap threw his paper aside. + +"Why didn't we know that J. W. was worse?" he demanded. "I sent some +one to inquire every morning while we had the big rush on, and Flossy +said that they were all right. I thought that she was going to take +him to the mountains." + +"I guess that she didn't know how sick he was," commented Bill. "Pap +was to haul the trunks to-morrow, as Flossy told us. She wanted to +start on Sunday so that you and I could go as far as Cliffton with her. +She knew we were working overtime to get things cleaned up." + +Jap put on his raincoat, for it was pouring a deluge. + +"I will not be back if Flossy needs me," he said. + +For three days and nights he hovered over the two sick-beds, while the +wind soughed mournfully around the cottage, and the rain dripped, +dripped, dripped, like tears against the wall outside. Neighbors and +friends volunteered their services. Bill and Isabel came as often as +was possible; but when all the others had gone, Jap kept his solemn +vigil alone. On the afternoon of the fourth day, there was a sudden +turn for the worse. Dr. Hall was hastily summoned. And then, all at +once, without any seeming warning, it happened. + +The last gasping breath faded from the body of Ellis's child, and as +Jap leaned over to close the wide, staring eyes, he could hear the +rasping breaths that rent Flossy's bosom, as she lay unconscious in the +next room. + +"With God's help we may pull her through," whispered Isabel, twining +her arms around his neck. He turned stony eyes of grief upon her. + +"If God helps, He will let her go with J. W. to meet Ellis," he said in +a voice strained to breaking. + +He drew the girl from the chamber of death, and sat down beside +Flossy's bed. He caught one fluttering, fever-burned hand in his, and +the restless muttering ceased. Then the eyes opened. They seemed to +be looking not at Jap but above him. + +"Ellis!" she cried, and slept. + +"When she awakes, she will be better or----" Dr. Hall broke off, and +went over to the window. "It's the crisis," he finished huskily. + +Flossy, in her quiet, optimistic bravery, had made her place in the +hearts of her townspeople. Isabel knelt beside her, watching Jap's +face, with its unnatural calm, fearfully. She dared not speak. Bill +stood awkwardly at the foot of the bed, his cap twirling uncertainly in +his hand. His eyes shifted uneasily from the thin, white face on the +pillow to the frozen features of Jap. A clock ticked loudly. + +The thick gloom broke. A tiny linnet that Jap had given Flossy +fluttered to the swing in its cage and burst, all at once, into song, +and a vagrant sunbeam darted through the western clouds. Flossy opened +her eyes. + +"Jap," she gasped painfully, "is this the thing called Death, this +uplift of joy?" + +The doctor raised her in his arms and gave her a few sips of medicine. +She was easier. She motioned Jap to bend closer. + +"Is he gone?" she asked clearly. "Is my boy with his father?" + +Jap kissed her forehead gently. + +"He is with Ellis," he whispered. + +"Then I thank You, great Giver of all Good," she cried happily, "for I +can go now." She summoned Bill with her eyes. + +"I want you to make the boy very proud of the men he was named for," +she smiled. It was a smile of heavenly beauty, as the pure soul of +Ellis Hinton's wife flew to join her loved ones. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +Bill and Isabel led Jap from the room as the doctor drew the sheet over +Flossy's face. Together the three left the cottage. In dazed silence +they walked past the row of modest homes until the business street was +reached. Across Main street they went, in stony silence, the girl +clinging to an arm of each of her escorts. In front of the elm-shaded +residence of Tom Granger, now stark and bare in its late autumn +undress, they paused. Isabel, unheedful of the passing crowd, threw +her arms around Jap's neck and kissed him passionately. A moment he +held her in his arms, his tearless eyes burning. And in her awakened +woman's heart, she knew that he was looking through her, beholding the +trio of adored ones whose influence had made his heart a fitting +habitation for her own. And in that consciousness Isabel Granger +experienced no twinge of jealousy. + +Silently she walked up the brick-paved path to the stately old house, +as Jap and Bill turned back toward Main street. When they reached the +office, they locked the door behind them. With the mechanical action +of automata, they climbed to their stools and threw the belated issue +of the _Herald_ into type. + +"Bill, can you do it?" Jap asked at length. + +"I'll do my best," Bill said huskily. And his tears wet the type as he +set up a brief obituary notice. + +The morning of the funeral broke clear and sunny, as fall days come. +The air was clear and sounds echoed for long distances. It was a +joyous new day, and yet a threnody swept through its music. Something +of this Jap and Bill felt as they hurried to the house of Death. Judge +Bowers met them at the door. His face was red and overcast. He +shifted uneasily. + +"I sent for you, because we have to fix things decently for Flossy." + +"Decently?" echoed Bill. + +"Why, yes. Ma and me got the caskets and all that. Everything's +'tended to, but the service. You know Flossy was a free-thinker, and +never belonged to no church." + +"Well, what of it?" Bill said shortly. + +"We have got to get somebody to preach a sermon," asserted the Judge, +his flaccid face showing real concern. "I don't see how we are going +to manage it. It looks queer to ask anybody to preach over a +non-professor." + +"Why do it then?" Bill's tone was enigmatic, as he followed Jap into +the little parlor where the effects of the Judge's work were apparent. + +Side by side stood the caskets, each one holding a jewel more precious +than any diadem. Jap sat down between them, dumb to the greetings of +the friends who came for a last look at the two set faces, and there he +sat until the afternoon. The room was half filled with people when the +Judge aroused him by a sharp grip on his arm. + +"Come on, Jap," he whispered huskily, "they have come for them." + +"Who?" asked Jap, tonelessly. + +"The hearses," said the Judge, his flabby cheeks trembling. + +Jap walked outside and climbed into the carriage with Bill, and +together they went to the church where Ellis had met his townsmen for +the last time. It was the handsome new church whose claim on her +brother's generosity had called forth from Flossy such righteous +resentment. Mechanically the two young men followed the usher to the +pew that had been set apart for them. Vaguely Jap smiled at Isabel as +she passed him, clinging to the arm of her father. As in a dream, he +followed her slender form as she took her accustomed place at the +organ. Clutching the arm of the seat, he sat there, deaf, dumb and +blind, until the wailing notes of the organ appraised him that the +service was beginning. + +He turned his head as a heavy, rolling sound reached him, and looked +upon the most heart-shaking sight in the history of the town: two +coffins traveling up the aisles to meet at the altar. Sick and faint, +he turned his head away. Bill's arm crept around him, while Bill +sobbed aloud. + +Frozen to silence, Jap stared at the boxes containing all that linked +him to his past. Stony-eyed, he gazed at the masses of flowers, +casually admiring the gorgeous chrysanthemums and the pink glory of the +carnations. He even read, with calm curiosity, the card of sympathy +hanging from one of the floral offerings on Flossy's casket. Then he +sank into blunt indifference until he was aroused by Bill's start. + +He looked up dully. The minister was praying--and his prayer was for +forgiveness for Flossy. + +"She was a wanderer from grace," the ominous voice droned, "but Thou +who didst forgive the thief on the cross wilt grant her mercy." + +Bill clasped his hands fiercely over Jap's arm. His breath hissed +through his set teeth. Jap sat upright, his gray eyes searching the +face of the man of God, as he drawled through a flock of platitudes, +promising in the end that on the last great day Flossy and her son +would be called by the trump to arise, purified and forgiven. + +Wiping his forehead complacently, he sat down. + +Jap Herron arose to his feet and walked to the coffin of the only +mother he had ever known. Facing the assembly, he said in low, clear +tones: + +"Friends of mine, friends of Flossy and her boy, and friends of Ellis +Hinton, you have listened to this minister. Now you must listen to me. +I knew Flossy. Some of you knew her, but none as I did. She had no +religion, he says. Flossy Hinton's life was a religion. What is +religion? Love, faith and works. Dare any of you claim that she had +not all of these? If such soul as hers needs help to carry it through +the ramparts of heaven, then God help all of you. + +"She will not sleep until a trumpet calls her! No! Alive and vital +and everlasting, her soul is with us now. Did Ellis Hinton sleep? He +has never been away. He has dwelt right here, in the hearts of all who +loved him. Friends, dry your eyes if you grieve for the sins of +Flossy." + +Raising his hand above the casket, as if in benediction, and looking +into the face beneath the glass, he said brokenly: + +"A saint she lived among us. In heaven she could be no more." + +The descending sun shot a ray of white light across the church, as it +sank below the opaque designs in the gorgeous memorial window that +flanked the choir. A moment later it would be crimson, then purple, +then amber; but for an instant it filtered through pure, untinted +glass. Creeping stealthily, the white ray reached the space in front +of the altar and rested a moment on the still face within the casket. +To Jap it seemed that the lips that had always smiled for him relaxed +into a smile of transcendent beauty. Entranced he looked, forgetting +all else. Then the strength of his young manhood crumbled. The hinges +of his knees gave way, and he sank to the floor. + +Bill sprang to his side and carried him to a seat. Isabel, half +distracted, started from her place at the organ. As she passed, the +white face in the coffin met her eyes. She stopped. A tide of feeling +swept her back, back from Jap, whose limp form called her. The song +that Flossy had loved came singing to her lips. Inspired in that +moment, she stood beside the coffin and sang, as never before, the +words that had comforted Flossy in her years of loneliness: + + "Somewhere the stars are shining, + Somewhere the song birds dwell. + Cease then thy sad repining! + God lives, and all is well." + + +Her face was glorified. She sang to that silent one, and to the world +that had been hers. In a dream she sang on, as the mother and her boy +were taken from her sight, sang on while the people silently departed. +"Somewhere, somewhere," she sang, + + "Beautiful isle of Somewhere, + Isle of the true, where we live anew, + Beautiful isle of Somewhere." + + +Her voice broke as uncontrollable sobs rent her slender body, and she +sank against the shoulder of her father and followed Bill from the +church. Half-a-dozen kindly hands were carrying Jap outside. + +The long line of carriages had already started on its way to the little +plot of ground where two fern-lined graves awaited the loved ones of +Ellis Hinton. The horses of the remaining carriage pawed the ground +restlessly in the sharp November air. + +"Better take him to his room in a hurry," Dr. Hall commanded. "The boy +has been through too much. I was afraid of this." + +"You can't take him to that dreary office," Isabel pleaded. "Papa, +tell Dr. Hall what to do." + +And, as always, she had her way. In the sunny south room above the +library, with the shadows of the stark elms doing grotesque dances on +the window panes, with Isabel and her mother hovering in tender +solicitude over him, Jap Herron tossed for weeks in the delirium of +fever, calling always for Flossy. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +"Mr. Bowers wants to talk to you," Isabel said, smoothing Jap's limp +hair from his haggard face. "He has been here every day for a week, +and Mamma wouldn't hear to his bothering you, especially as you had +concluded that you must talk to Bill about the office." + +"Let him come," said Jap wearily. + +The Judge tramped heavily into the bedroom. + +"I want to talk to you about Flossy's affairs," he declared, dropping +into a chair and blowing his nose. + +Jap's face flushed, then paled. He lifted one thin hand to his eyes +and leaned back in the pillows. + +"I sent for Bill to meet me here and have Brent Roberts read Flossy's +will." + +"Why?" Jap's voice rasped with pain. + +"You have been sick nigh a month," said the Judge, "and there's a power +o' things that oughter be seen to, and Brent refused to read Flossy's +will till you could hear it. I want to settle the bills." + +Isabel slipped her arm around Jap's shoulder and glared at the Judge. + +"You ought to be ashamed," she cried. "Jap is not strong enough to be +bothered with business." + +Jap put her aside gently and sat up. + +"The Judge is right, sweetheart," he said. "I will not be tired with +doing anything for--for her." + +He covered his face with his hands. Bill entered softly. His brows +lowered at sight of his father. + +"What did you want with me and Roberts?" he queried shortly. + +"It is all right, Bill," Jap said brokenly. "It will hurt whenever it +comes, so let's get it done." + +After the will was read Jap lay silent, the tears slipping down his +cheeks, for Flossy's will gave all that she possessed to her son, Jap +Herron. It was made the day after she knew that her own child was +doomed to an early death. + +They filed slowly from the room, even the Judge awed by the face of the +boy. + +The New Year had turned the corner when Jap was moved to the office. +Little by little he grew back into harness. They did not talk of +Flossy in those early days. It was not possible. One chill spring +day, when the grass was greening, and the first blossoms were opening +among the hyacinths on Ellis's grave, Jap walked with Bill to the +cemetery. He bent above the dried wreaths with their faded ribbons, +sodden and dinged by the winter's snows. + +"Throw them away, Bill," he choked. "They are the tawdry tokens of +mourning. I am trying to forget that mourning." + +Bill gathered the dry bundles and carried them away. Coming back, he +stood looking mournfully upon the muddy sod. Jap raised his eyes +suddenly, and they gazed for a long minute into each other's hearts. +Bill threw his hands over his eyes and cried aloud. + +"Don't, Bill!" Jap's hand clutched him tightly. "For God's sake, help +me to be a man!" + +And forgetting the sodden grass, they knelt beside the grave and sobbed +together in an abandon of grief. Boys they were, despite their years, +and Flossy had been more to them than the mother whom youth is prone to +take for granted. When the tempest of sorrow and desolation had spent +itself they arose. + +"It is done," said Jap, looking up into the sky where the stars were +beginning to twinkle palely. "It had to be done. Now I can realize +that they laid Flossy beneath the earth. But, please God, I can forget +it. Now I know that she has left the beautiful shell behind. But, +Bill," he touched the mound with his fingers, "Flossy has never been +here, never for an instant." + +"She is in heaven," said Bill reverently. + +Jap laid his arm around Bill's shoulders. + +"You don't believe that, Bill. You know better. Flossy is right with +us, as Ellis has always been. Just as he has inspired us to develop +his paper and his town, so she will stay with us, to create good and +optimism and faith in ourselves. Bill, when those two wonderful people +came into our lives, they came to stay. Do you think Ellis and Flossy +would get any joy out of strumming on a harp and taking their own +selfish ease? No, Bill, that's all a mistake. They're working right +with us, and it's up to you and me to so wholly reflect them that we +will be to this town what they have been to us. In any crisis in our +lives, let us not forget that Ellis and Flossy Hinton are not dead. We +may have need to remember it, Bill." + +The next morning he climbed on his stool and took the stick in his +hand. Bill stopped at the door of the composing room, something in +Jap's attitude arresting him. + +"What are you going to do, Jap?" + +"Get busy," declared Jap. "We have given out enough plate. The +_Herald_ is going back on the job." + +Bill felt a lump rise in his throat as he paused to finger the copy on +his hook. + +"We have to get the drums beating," said Jap. "We have to elect Wat +Harlow governor, and, believe the Barton _Standard_, we have some rough +road to travel." + +And the battle was on! Alone, the Bloomtown _Herald_ tackled the job +of making a governor. Watson Harlow had been a familiar figure in +state politics for more than twenty years, but as gubernatorial timber +no one had ever regarded him seriously. His opponent, on the other +hand, was a fresh figure in the state, with all the novelty of the +unknown quantity about him. It was an off year for the dominant party, +both locally and nationally, and the fight promised to be a complicated +one. + +Week by week the battle raged between the types. Little by little the +country press began to get in the fight. Not content with the +picturesque drumming of his own machine, Jap interested the city press +in the history of Wat Harlow, the "Lone Pine, of Integrity Absolute." +This descriptive title was proclaimed in and out of season during the +months of battle, both before and after the nomination of Harlow and +Jones. Jap invented a stinger for Bronson Jones. In his past history, +it was alleged, he had much that were better concealed than revealed. +Not the least of his offenses was that he had assisted his father, a +certain P. D. Jones, in stealing red-hot cook-stoves from the ruins of +the Chicago fire. Jap so declared, and he offered to prove that Jones +had sold these same stoves to their former owners, when they became +cold. In one instance, the victim was a widow who had lost everything, +even her former mate, in the fire. And Jones carried the title, "The +Widow's Friend," for years. All this was fun for the city dailies, and +cartoons of the "Lone Pine" being fed to the "Cook-Stove" alternated +with those of the pine falling upon the "Widow's Friend" as he was +about to sell a stove to the above-mentioned widow. + +The color came back to Jap's cheeks, and the battle light flamed in his +gray eyes. His one relaxation was the tranquil hour with Isabel. +Harlow, like an uneasy ghost, haunted the _Herald_ office when he was +not out storming the hustings. The Barton _Standard_ continued to pry +into Wat's past, while the _Herald_ continued to lift the lid from the +chest of Bronson's secret garments. Unfortunately, the _Standard_ had +played its big trump card in the congressional campaign. The vermilion +handbill was once more dragged to light, but it worked like a +boomerang, for several of Wat's own party workers had been caught +red-handed in the act of attempting to operate a shameless graft game, +in the name of the university. And Jap utilized the story to show that +Wat was a man above party, a man in whose mind integrity was indeed +absolute. + +Argument grew red hot, every place but Bloomtown. There, there was no +one to argue with. Bloomtown was one man for Harlow. Jones undertook +to deliver one speech there, and that bright hour nearly became his +last. After the good-natured raillery of the opening address, Jones +plunged into the vitriolic explosion he had delivered at the various +places he had spoken. For exactly ten minutes it lasted. By that +time, Kelly Jones had reached Hollins's grocery store and gathered +enough eggs to start a protest against the defamation of Wat Harlow's +character. And the protest was proclaimed unanimous! + +It was stated that there were no eggs on Bloomtown's breakfast table +next morning, and no Sunday cakes. + +"But," said the _Herald_, "if Bronson Jones wants any more hen-fruit, +the housewives of Bloomtown will cheerfully sacrifice themselves in his +behalf." + +And so the months sped away until the grass had mossed the graves in +the cemetery with lush beauty, and the three mounds were merged into +one by the riotous growth of sweet alyssum, Flossy's best loved +blossom. The summer waned. The autumn hasted, and chill winds +whispered around the Lone Pine as the last sortie was made. Then +Bloomtown pressed her hands to her throbbing breast and got ready +for--Victory? + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +Bill jumped from bed as the rattle of the latch announced the arrival +of a visitor. Without waiting for the formality of more than a +bathrobe, Rosy Raymond's last birthday gift to him, he bolted down the +stairs and across the office. He flung the door open and disclosed the +hazy features of Kelly Jones, peering at him through the November fog. + +"What, ho! Kelly, what brings you to our door in the glooming?" + +Kelly shook the rain from his slicker and came inside. + +"Wife called me at three o'clock," he announced. "Had my breakfast and +rid like hell to git to town early. I want to cast the fu'st vote for +Wat for governor." + +Bill yawned. + +"You could have ridden more leisurely, and saved us a couple of hours' +sleep," he complained. "There are at least a thousand voters of +Bloomtown with that same laudable intention. Tom Granger has been +missing since seven o'clock last night. It is believed that he is +locked in the booth so that his vote will skin the rest." + +Kelly looked ruefully back into the rain. + +"I reckon that I will come in and set a while, that bein' the report." + +"Any man found voting for Jones is to be lynched at sunset," declared +Bill, pushing a chair forward. + +"Reckon this'll be a big day for the Democrats," commented Kelly, +stretching his feet across the table comfortably. "'Tain't nothin' to +keep 'em home, so they'll kill time, votin'. That's why I allus cussed +my daddy for raisin' me a Democrat. Bein' as I am one, I've got to +stick by and see the durn fools shuckin' corn while the Republicans are +haulin' their grand-daddies in town to vote the Republicans in." + +Bill retired to don a few garments and Jap tumbled from bed, for this +was a big day in Bloomtown. Before six o'clock the roads were lined +with vehicles, as for an Independence holiday. The county was coming +in to help the town vote for her favorite son. + +About noon Harlow came creeping up the alley and slipped in at the back +door. He wore a slicker that he had borrowed from some constituent who +was short. It hung sorrowfully about his knees. Bill remembered that +in spike-tail coat and white necktie Wat Harlow looked enough like a +governor to pass for one, but just now he resembled nothing so much as +a draggled rooster. The stove in the little private office hissed and +sputtered as he shook the rain from the coat. + +"I thought that the only place that victory would be complete would be +the _Herald_ office," he said, relaxing into a chair. "And if we are +beat, I could meet it better here." He took a paper in his shaking +hands and tried to read. + +The rain poured in torrents, but Bloomtown cast her record vote--and +not one scurrilous vote against him dropped into the ballot box. At +sunset a wild yell proclaimed that Bloomtown had done her duty. It was +now up to the rest of the state whether Wat Harlow, proclaimed from +border to border as an honest man, would be its next governor. On his +record as opposed to State University graft, he had once been elected +to the legislature when the running was close. On that same record, as +opposed to higher education, he was defeated for United States +Congressman, and on that same record he was running for governor of his +state. + +The _Herald_ office lighted up. All the big men of Bloomtown smoked +the air blue, waiting for the returns. First good, then crushingly +bad, they varied. By the tone of the operator's yell, the waiters +guessed each bulletin. If he came silent, they all coughed and waited +for some one to take the fatal slip of paper. The dawn was graying +when they dispersed, with the issue still in doubt. It was late +afternoon before they knew that Harlow was elected. Bill grinned +joyously, for the first time since Rosy Raymond carried her heart to +Barton and left it there. + +"How many roosters have we?" he asked impishly, as he walked over to +the telephone. + +"Why?" queried Jap. + +"I am going to 'phone Jones that we want to borrow all that he don't +need," said Bill, taking the receiver from the hook. + +"We done it!" yelled Kelly Jones, slapping his slouch hat against the +door. "And I'm goin' over to Barton and git on the hell-firedest drunk +that that jay town ever seen. Whoopee!" And off he set at a run to +catch the local freight. + +About half of Bloomtown seemed inspired with the same spirit, and the +freight pulled out amid wild yells of joy. Several of the most agile +among the jubilant ones draped the box cars with strips of faded, soggy +bunting, and Harlow's picture adorned the cow-catcher. The yelling, +that had been discontinued for economic reasons, was resumed in raucous +chorus as the train rolled into Barton to celebrate Harlow's victory in +Jones's town. + +The Bloomtown _Herald_ did itself proud that week. A mammoth picture +of the Lone Pine stood forth on the front page. Around it fluttered +one hundred flags. Every page sported roosters and flags in each +available space, between local readers and editorial paragraphs. It +was a thing of beauty and a joy forever--at least to Wat Harlow. One +other cut found place at the bottom of the editorial page. Bill did +not forget to boomerang Wilfred Jones by reprinting the weeping angel. +For a week there were bonfires every night, and a number of Bloomtown's +citizens sought to lighten Barton's woes by buying fire-water there. +Wat swelled until he looked more like a corpulent oak than a lone pine. + +"My house is yours," he cried, alternately wringing Jap and Bill by +their weary hands. He had come across once more from his headquarters +in the Court House to make sure his appreciation was understood. Jap +smiled wanly as the village band followed him with its intermittent +serenade. + +Bloomtown had long since outgrown the village class; but not a drum nor +a horn had encroached upon the old traditions of that band. Mike +Hawkins was far too conservative to permit innovation, and as there was +no provision for retiring the bandmaster on half pay, the problem of +dividing nothing in half having as yet been unsolved, Mike continued to +hold the job. All day the band had been vibrating between the Court +House and the _Herald_ office, having delivered ten serenades at each +side of Main street, for it was understood that the _Herald_ shared the +victory with Harlow. As the Governor-elect retreated to the other side +of the street, the band at his heels, Bill groaned aloud. + +"I wish that that bunch of musicians had had more confidence that Wat +was going to get it," he sighed, "so that they could have learned one +tune good." + +Kelly Jones was capering down the street. Kelly had absorbed enough of +Barton booze to make him believe he owned the half of Bloomtown that +did not belong to Wat Harlow. He had been having what Bill described +as "one large, full time." As he came in sight, Bill's brow darkened. + +"I've been afraid that Kelly would burst and catch fire," he said +morosely, "and now, by jolly, I wish he would. It's funny how much +your good friends will get in your way when they pair off with John +Barleycorn. Kelly is certainly one ding-buster when he is lit up." + +Jap leaned from the door to watch the procession that had formed for +the purpose of escorting Wat Harlow to the station. + +"Kelly's time is wrinkling," he laughed. "Here comes Mrs. Kelly Jones, +with worriment on her brow." + +Bill ran his inky fingers through his hair. Something was troubling +him. + +"Jap," he said as he walked toward the door of the composing room, +"that skunk of a Jones----" + +"Who? Kelly?" + +"Oh, no." Bill wheeled, and his face was deadly earnest. "Kelly's not +a skunk, even when he has soaked up all the rotgut in Barton. But I +had Kelly Jones in the back of my head, just the same, when I mentioned +the honorable Editor of the Barton _Standard_. It's getting under my +skin, Jap, the way he has of tempting these Bloomtown fools over to his +filthy village to get the booze we won't let 'em have at home, and then +holding them up to ridicule when they make asses of themselves." + +"It's one of the angles of this problem that I haven't figured out +yet," Jap said earnestly. "Do you think it would do any good to go +gunning for Jones?" + +"I've thought of that possibility several times," and Bill's tone was +not entirely humorous. + +Jap shoved his stool to the case. As he climbed upon it, he sighed +uneasily. It had been sixteen months since Wilfred Jones turned the +neat trick that left Bill disconsolate, and still the venom lingered in +the bereft boy's heart. To Jap, with his standard of womanhood +established by Flossy and Isabel, the thing was monstrous, +inconceivable. And yet it was a fact to be faced. + +"We'll have to get busy, Bill," he said. "We've got enough job work on +the hooks to keep us up till midnight for a week. We haven't done a +thing the last month but elect Wat Harlow." + +"I hope to grab he won't run for another office till I have six sons to +help me," Bill snorted. + +Jap heaved a sudden sigh of relief. + +"Looking out again, Bill?" he asked, jerking his thumb in the direction +of the vacant photograph frame above Bill's case. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +It was the day after Thanksgiving. Bill was twirling the chambers of +his revolver around. His face was grim. Jap halted in the door of +their bedroom. + +"Going gunning for Jones?" he asked lightly. + +Bill turned, and the black look on his face startled Jap. + +"I am," he said deliberately, "and I will come back to jail or in my +coffin." + +Jap caught the revolver from his hand. + +"Bill," he said sharply, "wake up!" + +Bill threw a letter to him, and continued his hasty toilet. Jap read: + + +"Dear Will,-- + +"Come to me. I am almost crazy. Wilfred accused me of giving you +information against his father that beat him in the election, and he +struck me in the mouth. He said he only married me to spite you, and +he hates me. I will meet you at the section house, where the train +slows up for the switch, at six o'clock. I want you to take me away, I +don't care where. I don't love anybody but you, and I can't live with +Wilfred another night. I don't care whether anybody ever speaks to me +again, if you will take me and love me. + +"Your distracted ROSALIE." + + +Jap stared at the note as if it had been a snake-tressed Medusa that +turned him to stone. He stood rigid and paralyzed as Bill said, deadly +calm: + +"I am going to Barton, and I am going to shoot that dog." + +"And after that?" Jap's voice was toneless. + +"After that!" Bill broke out fiercely. "After that, what more?" + +Jap drew Bill around to face him. Rivers of fire seemed suddenly to +course through his body, and an unprecedented rage burned up within him. + +"You are not going to Barton, and you are not going to meet that +foolish light-o'-love at the section house," he said sternly. + +"Who will stop me? Not you, Jap, for even if an angel from heaven +tried to bar my way, I would brush it aside. I wanted to kill him when +he stole her away and----" + +Jap shook him angrily. + +"No one stole her, Bill. Have you forgotten the insolent, flippant +letter she wrote you?" + +Bill shook Jap's hand from his shoulder. + +"It's no use, Jap. I am going to kill him!" + +Jap set his teeth and his gray eyes blazed as he gripped Bill's arms +and shoved him into a chair. + +"I will have you locked up, you foolish hot-head," he exclaimed, "and +give Wilfred Jones a few hours to consider his attitude toward his +wife. She _is_ his wife, Bill, and all your heroics won't gloss that +fact from sight. Do you want to hang, because you were a damned fool? +I can consider a romantic close to your career, but not as an intruder +in another man's home--no matter how great your feeling of injustice. +Rosy was not a child when she married Wilfred Jones." + +"But he struck her," gulped Bill. + +"I have known times," declared Jap vehemently, "when, if I had been of +the fibre of Wilfred Jones, I would have felt satisfaction in thrashing +Rosy Raymond. Not having been Jones, I had to content myself with +kicking the furniture around. I don't want to rile you, Bill, but I +rather think there are two sides to this story, and I want to hear both +sides. If it is proven that Jones has mistreated Rosy brutally, I will +hold him while you give him the licking he deserves. More than that, I +will help Rosy to get a divorce. Isn't that fair enough, Bill? What +is revenge upon a dead body, especially if you expiate that revenge on +the gallows? Tell me, who profits? For the woman, disgrace. For +you---- Humph! the only one who comes out of it honorably is the dead +man, Jones." + +Bill glowered at him. + +"You had no mother, Bill, because she died when she gave you to the +world. I had no mother, because Providence gave me where I was a +burden. But God gave both of us a mother. Bill, before you go any +farther with this adventure--misadventure--I want you to kneel with me +before Flossy's picture and ask for her approval and her blessing. +Because, Bill, brother, she knows. And what do you suppose will be her +counsel? What would Flossy want you to do?" + +He took the photograph from the table and held it out to Bill. The +brown eyes remained downcast. The hands opened and closed +spasmodically. Jap lowered the picture so that Bill's eyes could not +choose but meet the loved face. A great, gulping sob shook him, and he +dashed into the other room and slammed the door. Jap's tense features +relaxed into a smile. He knew that Flossy had won. + +"Will you let me go to Barton instead of you?" he asked through the +closed door. There was no reply, and he turned the knob. Bill was +staring stolidly from the window. "I won't carry healing oil if the +case doesn't call for it," he insisted. "You will believe me, boy?" + +"It's your job," Bill said, in smothered, tear-drenched tones. + +"I can just make the 5:20," said Jap, as he caught up his hat and +overcoat from the foot of the bed where he had flung them. Then he +hurried to the station, with Rosy's foolish letter in his pocket. + +Without looking to right or left he boarded the train that would have +carried Bill to his love tryst. Already the evening shadows were +beginning to settle, and it was almost dark when the local train ran +into the siding to permit the east-bound special to pass. He stood on +the steps of the rear coach as the wheels crunched with the stopping of +the train. Then he dropped quietly to the ground. The special, that +was wont to throw dust in the eyes of both Bloomtown and Barton, came +thundering by, and the friendly local took up its westward journey. + +Jap hurried over to the cloaked figure that crouched in the shadow of +the little section house. Rosy crept out quickly, but retreated with a +cry of alarm when she saw that Jap, and not Bill, was coming to meet +her. He caught her by the arm and drew her into the light of an +electric bulb that glowed above the section boss's door. Scanning her +silly face for a moment, he said sharply: + +"So you lied to Bill! There is no mark of a blow on your face." + +"He--he did push me," she sobbed. "And I don't love him, anyway. It +was your fault that I ran away with Wilfred." + +"My fault?" echoed Jap. + +"Yes," she said, and her tone rasped with cruel spite. "What girl +wants to have her sweetheart only half hers? Jap Herron only had to +twist his thumb, and Bill would run like a foolish girl. I wanted a +whole man or none." + +"Seems that you got one," commented Jap, "and don't appreciate him. +Now, Rosy, if you think you are going to ruin three lives by starting +this kind of a play, I am going to undeceive you. I am going to take +you home and look into this affair." + +"I won't go!" she screamed. "He would kill me." + +"What did you do?" demanded Jap, holding her tightly. + +"I wrote him a note that I had run away with Bill," she confessed +sullenly. + +For the first time Jap became conscious of the suitcase at her feet. +His grip on her arm tightened until she cried with pain. + +"You idiotic little fool," he ground between his teeth. "Where is your +husband?" + +"He went to the city this morning. He said he'd come home on the local +if he got through his business in time. Otherwise he wouldn't come +till the midnight train. I thought Bill could get a rig and drive to +Faber. I thought he could take me away somehow before Wilfred got the +news." + +"News? Great God!" cried Jap. "And such as you could win the golden +heart of Bill Bowers! Come with me. If your husband takes the late +train, there is still time to destroy that note. If he is already at +home----" + +"He'd go to the office first, anyway," Rosy cried. "But I don't want +to go home." + +"You're going home, no matter what the consequences," Jap told her. +"And if you ever attempt to communicate with Bill again, I will have +you put in an asylum. You are not capable of going through life +sensibly." + +He walked her rapidly up the railroad track and through the streets +that lay between the business part of Barton and her own pretty home. +On the corner opposite the house he stopped, while she ran across the +street in terror and rushed up the steps. She had told him that if all +was yet well, she would appear at the window. As he stood there, his +eyes glued on the great square of glass, some one touched him on the +arm. He turned. It was Wilfred Jones. + +"Well, Daddy-long-legs," he said brusquely. "You think you turned a +pretty trick. Well, it was a fair fight, and I'm all over it." + +Jap shook his hand mechanically, his eyes seeking the window from which +Rosy was peering. + +"Tell Bill that bygones must be bygones," Jones continued, "for we want +to get the two papers together on the main issue. The old man will +come in on the senatorship on the strength of his race for governor. +And I want to tell you a secret that makes me very happy--and will make +Bill feel different. The doctor has just told me that these queer +spells and moods that Rosalie has been having lately mean--Jap, do you +understand? I will be a father before summer!" + +Jap wrung Jones's hand, a whirl of fancies going through his head. As +he sought for suitable words of congratulation, a boy ran up. + +"I been chasin' all over town ahuntin' for you, Mr. Herron," he said +breathlessly. "I got a telegram for you." + +Trembling with dread, Jap tore it open and read: + + +"_Come home at once. Your sister Agnosia is here._--BILL." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +The streets were deserted as Jap came from the station. In his state +of mind, he did not reflect on the oddity of this circumstance. But +had he reflected, the condition of traffic congestion at the corner +near Blanke's drug store and the further congestion in front of the +bank would have enlightened him. All the business men of Bloomtown, +who had rushed to the _Herald_ office with important advertisements or +news items, were reluctantly giving place to those who had discovered a +sudden want of letter-heads. + +The telegraph office at Bloomtown was no secret repository, and in less +than ten minutes after Bill had telegraphed Jap to hurry home the whole +street knew that the beautiful vision that arrived on the 6:20 was Jap +Herron's sister, Agnesia. And forthwith traffic filed that way. + +The vision arose as Jap entered the front door, and waited until he +came into the private office. It was apparent that Bill had played +host, to the limit of his meager resources. Agnesia's hat and +fur-trimmed coat lay on the table of exchanges. + +"Well, Jappie," she laughed in silvery tones, "how long you are!" + +He took her little ringed hands in his and looked at her silently. +Agnesia was the beauty of the family. Her golden curls fluffed +bewitchingly about her face and her wide blue eyes smiled +affectionately. + +"You are grown, too, Aggie. I have been thinking of you as a very +little----" + +"Mercy!" she broke in. "Please, Jappie, don't drag that awful name to +light. When I went to the new home, they mercifully killed Agnesia. I +have been Mabelle Hastings so long that I had almost forgotten Aggie +Herron. I gave that hideous name to your friend," she flung a +gold-flashed smile at Bill, "because you had no sister Mabelle in the +old days. Our folks made a bad selection of names for their progeny. +And why Jasper? Why didn't they put the James first? It sounds so +much more human." + +"Not a bit of it!" declared Bill. "What is there about James? This +town had to have its Jap Herron. No substitute would have made good." + +She slipped a glance through her long lashes at Bill. + +"I called him 'Jappie,'" she confided. "I was a lisping baby and +couldn't say 'Jasper.' Dear old Jappie, how he slaved for me! And I +was a tyrant, demanding service every minute of the day." + +Jap's face clouded. "Aggie is a bigbug now," came surging into his +memory, as a wizened face obtruded itself between the laughing eyes of +his sister and his own. The girl noted the swift change. She took his +handy her voice quivering with appeal. + +"I know what you are thinking about," she said. "But I could not help +it, Jappie. We don't have to keep up the pretense before Mr. Bowers. +He knows the worst, I take it. Jappie, you may not remember, but when +Mrs. Hastings adopted me, my mother had reported that she would either +turn me out or give me to the county. Afterward my foster-mother took +me away from Happy Hollow when she saw that our mother was bringing +disgrace on all of us. She sacrificed her home and moved far enough +away so that no smirch could come to me. You don't know, brother, and +I would never want you to know the dreadful things she did. I had not +heard from her since she married that drunken brute, until she came to +the house one hot day. When she found no one at home, she laid down on +the porch and went to sleep, drunk and unspeakably filthy. She was +there when we returned with a party of friends. Can you imagine it, +Jappie?" + +Jap nodded his head slowly. + +"Mrs. Hastings had her taken out of town, and told her if she came +there again she would have her put in an asylum for drunkards. After +that she threatened to descend upon Fanny Maud. Fanny could not afford +to have her career spoiled. Perhaps we were cruel. I read the +scorching letter you wrote to Fanny after her--after mother's death. +But Fanny was not angry with you, and--and she was willing to have me +come to you now. Next spring she will graduate in vocal music from the +highest university in the country, and then she goes to Paris to study +under the artists there. Jappie, she has made a large part of it, +herself, teaching and singing in the church choir, and studying +whenever she had enough money ahead. At last Uncle Francis died and +left her a snug little sum, and she went to New York, where they say +her voice is a wonder. We should be proud of her. She wants you to +come with me in June to hear her sing when she graduates." + +Jap stared at the floor. She laid her hand coaxingly on his shoulder. + +"Of course Jap will go!" Bill's brown eyes were glowing. Jap looked +across at him in astonishment and wonder. His brain reeled. The day +had been too full. + +"And you?" the girl queried, smiling into those dancing brown eyes. + +"We can't both go at once," he blurted. "The paper has to come out on +time." + +She arose and wandered through the rooms that occupied the lower floor +of the building, stepping from a hasty and uncomprehending glance at +the press room and the composing room to dwell with critical eye on the +big, bare office. + +"You need a little fixing up," she commented. "You should have a nice +rug and shades, and a roll-top desk and swivel chair." + +"So we should," lamented Bill, looking around with an air of +disapproval. "But not having anybody to tell us----" He stopped +short, embarrassed. + +"I guess that I will have to keep house for Jappie, and boss the office +too. That is, if you want me, Jappie," she appealed. "Mrs. Hastings +died last March, and I have been with Fanny ever since. My +foster-mother left me well provided for. I won't be a burden, Jappie," +she cried. "We have all made good. We must rejoice together." + +Bill was half way across the office in his excitement. + +"You can take Flossy's house," he burst out. "It's ready any time, +because Pap had it completely overhauled after the tenants moved out. +It's the only ready-furnished house in Bloomtown and----" His voice +lowered and there was a note of wistfulness in it. "Jap, Flossy would +be so happy!" + +Jap surveyed his erstwhile desperate friend with a gleam of merriment. +As yet, Bill did not know but that his sacrificing partner was a +fugitive from the law. He had not even remembered to ask about the +well-being of Wilfred Jones and his wife. + +"Perhaps Aggie--Mabelle," he hastily corrected, "is just joking. She +would hardly like to bury herself in this little town after New York. +There would be so little to compensate." + +"Oh, I don't fear that I will regret New York," said Mabelle, letting +her blue eyes dwell on Bill's ingenuous countenance for a throbbing +moment. "Really, Jappie, there's nothing to regret." + +Bill's heart turned over twice. His face was appealing. He met Jap's +dancing eyes defiantly. + +"Well," said Jap, "you might get the keys and show the cottage to +Ag--Mabelle, and see how much enthusiasm it provokes. Perhaps it would +make a better first impression by electric light. Here, put an extra +bulb in your pocket, if one happens to be missing," and he drew out the +table drawer, where many things lay hidden. + +Bill was helping Mabelle on with her coat, his well-set body charged +with electricity that was strangely illuminating to Jap. As the two +left the office, a few minutes later, a teasing voice called after them: + +"Remember, Bill, that you took on a pile of orders this evening, and we +were loaded to the guards with job work already." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +Jap looked up as a shadow fell across the door of the composing room. + +"Well," he queried quizzically, "what about it?" + +"Well," Bill repeated, drawing the girl into the room after him, +"Mabelle thinks that the cottage needs a bathroom and about a wagon +load of plumbing, besides paint and paper. Otherwise, it's all right." + +Mabelle slipped past him and approached the case. Standing on tiptoe +beside the high stool, she laid a hand coaxingly on the strong, angular +shoulder. + +"Now, Jappie, boy, iron out that worry-frown. I am going to do the +fixing up myself. It shan't cost you a cent." + +"No!" Jap exploded. + +"Now, dear boy, forget your pride. I have lots and lots of money, and +this is to be my home." + +"The firm is not insolvent," suggested Bill. + +"It isn't a matter for the firm," Jap said gravely. "The cottage +belongs to me, and we can't allow our finances to get mixed. I'm +willing to have you put in all the repairs that I can afford." + +His mind reverted to Flossy, happy and clean without a bathroom. + +"Let me take a mortgage on the property for whatever the work costs," +Mabelle pleaded, her lips puckering irresistibly. + +Jap descended from the stool and caught her in his arms. Somehow she +had, all at once, become his baby sister again. The episode of the +straw stack loomed before him. She had puckered her lips just like +that when she fled to him for protection. With little coquettish +touches, she slipped one arm around his neck, while she smoothed his +red locks gently. Bill, looking on, was overcome by an unaccountable +restlessness. + +"What a pity Isabel isn't home!" he blurted. And Bill never knew why +he had recourse to Isabel at that moment. The observation bore the +desired fruit. Mabelle freed herself from her brother's embrace, with +the pained exclamation: + +"Isabel not at home! Oh, Jappie, I have just been waiting for you to +tell me about her. Ever since we read in the paper--and the one little +reference to her in your letter to Fanny----" + +She stopped, her blue eyes filling with tears. + +"They went away just after the election was over," Bill explained. "Iz +wouldn't leave Jap while the thing was in doubt, not even for her +mother." + +"I don't think that's quite square," Jap interposed. "Mrs. Granger +didn't want to go at all, and only consented when Dr. Hall told her how +ill Isabel was. The rest of us knew that Mrs. Granger couldn't live +through another winter here; but he had to make Isabel's poor health +the pretext when he sent them to Florida for the cold weather." + +"Is she--is she seriously sick?" Mabelle asked tremulously. "The +mother, I mean." + +"It's a desperate hope, a kind of last resort," Bill vouchsafed. "I +heard Doc Hall talking to Tom Granger in the bank, the morning before +they left. He said he didn't want to scare him, but he wanted to +prepare him for the worst, I thought." + +"I'm sure if Isabel were at home, she'd insist on your coming right to +her," Jap said slowly. "Bill and I have been bunking together up +there," he jerked his thumb in the direction of the ceiling. "We have +a bedroom and a little combination living-room, dressing-room and +library. The library's Bill's part. We take our meals at the hotel, +down in the next block. The hotel isn't bad for a town of this size." + +"Oh, I've already met the hotel," Mabelle laughed. "Bill--Mr. Bowers +took me there to dinner this evening while we were waiting for you to +come home." + +"Aw, chuck that 'Mr. Bowers,'" Bill interrupted. "I'm plain Bill to +everybody in this town, and I guess Jap's sister can call me that." + +"The hotel, as I was saying," Jap resumed, "will have to take care of +you for the present till you can get a bathroom attachment for the +cottage. It'll probably be lonely for you, just at first." + +"I'll see to it that Mabelle meets all the best people in town," Bill +offered. + +The temporary housing problem settled, they returned to the discussion +of repairs necessary and repairs superfluous. After two hours of +parley, Jap consented to let his energetic sister work her will on +Flossy's cottage. It was after midnight when the girl had been +established in her room at the hotel, and Jap and Bill tumbled into +bed. The shank of that night had wrought miracles for unsuspecting +Bloomtown. A vision of blue eyes, red lips and golden tresses kept +floating through Bill's dreams, a vision that bore not the least +resemblance to Rosy Raymond. Meanwhile Jap stalked through one dream +controversy after another with plumbers, painters and the other +defilers of Flossy's home. + +By noon on Monday Mabelle had Bloomtown by the ears, and by the end of +the week it was all up with Bill. Jap had to hire a boy to help get +out the _Herald_. It consumed all of Bill's time threatening and +cajoling merchants into the prompt delivery of supplies, and seeing to +it that the workmen were on the job when Mabelle arrived at the cottage +in the morning. Bloomtown carpenters, paper hangers and plumbers +usually took their own sweet time. They had a great awakening when +Mabelle employed them. With Bill to pour oil on the troubled waters, +strikes were narrowly averted. + +One morning, soon after the radiant one arrived, Kelly Jones wandered +into the office, where a lively dispute with the boss plumber was under +way. In ten minutes, Kelly had fallen a victim to the little tyrant. + +"'Tain't no use talkin' about her gittin' along without a cellar," he +confided to Jap. "I'll dig it myself, and that'll save all this row +about how the pipes is got to run. I ain't got nothin' much to do, now +the corn's all in. And it's lucky we ain't had a hard freeze. The +ground's fine for diggin'," and the following morning he was on the job. + +For two months Bloomtown was demoralized. A cellar made possible a +furnace, and the elimination of stoves called for a fireplace in the +living-room, a fireplace framed in by soft blue and yellow tiles. One +by one Mabelle added her receipted bills to the packet of documents +that would go into the making of that mortgage on Jap's property. One +by one the housewives of Bloomtown demanded of their paralyzed husbands +bathrooms, cellars, furnaces, tiled fireplaces. + +At last the agony was over. A load of furniture had arrived from the +city, and Bill, as usual, left his stickful of type and hastened to +superintend the transfer of it from the freight depot to the cottage. +The evening shadows were lengthening in the office when he returned. +Jap had gone up-stairs to get out a rush order on the job press, and +there was a little commotion on the stairway just before Bill presented +himself, his brown eyes full of trouble. Jap looked at him, and his +heart sank. Had it come to this? Mabelle, in spite of her scanty +years, was older than Bill. She must have known. The whole town knew. + +"For goodness' sake, Bill, don't pi this galley," he shouted, bending +over the imposing stone. "Look where you're going. I wish that +Mabelle would wake to the fact that you have a half-hearted interest in +this office. She thinks you have nothing to do but keep tagging on her +errands." + +The office cat rubbed her sleek side against Bill's leg. + +"Get out and let me alone!" he screamed, jumping with nervous +irritation. + +"Don't do that, Bill," Jap said firmly. "What's the matter with you, +anyway? You are as pernickety as a setting hen, as Kelly said +yesterday. When even Kelly begins to notice your aberrations it's time +for you to get a wake-up. Are you sick? Have things gone wrong?" + +Bill walked over to the window and ran his thumb down the pane of glass +absently. + +"Jap, have you that mortgage handy--all that business that Mabelle gave +you?" + +Jap went to the safe and took out the packet of papers. + +"Why?" he asked, as he glanced through the long list of items. "Has my +sister thought of anything else she absolutely needs? In another week, +I'll owe her more than the cottage is worth." + +Bill took the documents gingerly. His mobile face flamed. + +"I--I--want to take up the deeds," he stammered. + +Jap whirled to face him. + +"You see," stuttered Bill, "I--that is, we--Mabelle and I, we----" + +Jap sprang forward, lithe as a panther, and caught Bill by the arm. +Drawing him to the light, he looked full in the embarrassed face. + +"Where is she?" he shouted. "Where is that sister of mine? Where is +she hiding?" + +The girl came from the dark hall, her eyes defiant, her head set with +charming insolence on one side. Jap struggled with his self-possession +an instant. Then a great, gurgling laugh shook his shoulders as he +gathered the pair into his long arms. + +"Golly Haggins!" the expletive of his boyhood leaped to his lips, "I'm +glad the agony is over. Now perhaps we will be able to get the +_Herald_ to our subscribers on time." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +"Tom Granger got a telegram," announced Bill, coming into the office +one morning early in April. "He wants to see you at once, Jap." + +Jap's face blanched. He looked dumbly at Bill. + +"No, it's not her," Bill hastened to say. "It's her mother." + +Jap stumbled awkwardly up the walk to the Granger home. The letters +from Isabel had been far from reassuring, and only the previous day Dr. +Hall had sounded a warning that the care of the invalid was too much +for the girl, taxed as she was in both mind and body. Into Jap's +consciousness there crept the thought that she had never fully +recovered from those terrible weeks when she hovered over him. + +Tom Granger met him at the door. His eyes were red with weeping. He +drew Jap into the parlor and gave him two telegrams. + +"This came at midnight," he said brokenly. Jap read: + +"Mother sinking. Come. ISABEL." + +"And this just arrived," Granger choked, as the fatal words met Jap's +eye: + +"Mother dying. Come. Bring Jap. ISABEL." + +"The train leaves in half an hour. I don't have to ask you anything, +my boy." + +Jap turned and hastened away. He did not weaken Granger's feeble +strength with words of sympathy. + +It was the afternoon of the second day when the two stood with Isabel +at the foot of the bed. Alice Granger lifted her heavy lids, and a +gleam of recognition shone in her eyes. Swiftly those two, the husband +and the child, drew near, eager for any word that might pass the +stiffening lips. Jap stood looking sorrowfully down on her as they +knelt at her side. + +"Jap," she whispered, "you, too," and her feeble fingers drew him. + +With a choked sob he knelt beside Isabel. The mother fumbled with the +covers until her hand, icy cold, touched his. Instantly his firm, +strong hand closed over it. She smiled and murmured: + +"Tom. Isabel." + +They leaned over her in a panic of fear. + +"Isabel's hand," she breathed, and placed the two hands together. +"Tom, there is time," she whispered; "I want----" She sank helpless. + +"I know what you would say," cried Granger, the tears streaming down +his face. "You want him to be our son before--before you say good-bye." + +A flash of joy illumined her thin face. She sighed contentedly. + +A minister was hastily summoned, and a half hour later Isabel sobbed +her grief in the arms of her husband, as they stood awaiting the coming +of the Death Angel. + +"It made such a difference in her feeling toward you, your illness at +our house," Tom said, looking down upon her closed eyes and fluttering +lips. "She never understood you, and in her quiet way she was always +reserving judgment, when I used to talk so much about you. A mother +finds it hard to think any man is the right one for her only child, and +she was so dependent on Isabel. She hadn't any doubts, after she saw +you in that dreadful fever, with all your soul laid bare to us. She +knew Isabel would be safe, and after that she stopped worrying." + +A grim hand caught at Jap's throat, as Tom sank on his knees and buried +his face in the pillow to smother his sobs. Into his memory there came +the words of Flossy: "When your mother came, there was a revelation. I +don't fear for your future now. And when I knew this, Jap, I suddenly +felt tired and old." + +Flossy had clung to life until he had found the woman who could take +her place. Then, all at once, she let go. And now Alice Granger, an +invalid for twenty-three years, had relaxed her feeble hold on life +when she knew that her child was in safe and gentle hands. Must Death +forever draw its grim fingers between him and his happiness? He looked +at his bride, fragile as a spring flower, and a great fear rushed over +him. Dumb, he stood there, stroking Isabel's hair with futile caresses. + +At last the glazing eyes opened, and Alice Granger said faintly: + +"Tom, not alone." + +"Not alone?" he cried in anguish. "Always alone without you, Alice." + +She only smiled--and then she fell asleep. + + +It was a strange wedding journey. Between the half-crazed father and +the exhausted wife, Jap was taxed to the uttermost. Isabel, for once +helpless, lay white and silent in the compartment, too weak to do more +than cling to her one tower of strength, while Tom Granger rent Jap's +sympathetic heart with his unreasoning grief. At length nature +demanded her own; from sheer exhaustion they slept. Jap left them +alone and stood out on the platform between the coaches. + +"Is my life always to hold grief?" he queried of his soul. A throb of +fear tore at his consciousness. Isabel's death-white face arose before +him. + +"No!" he cried fiercely, "there is a God. He will not take all from +me." + +He went back into the car and, kneeling beside his sleeping wife, +prayed madly to his God for mercy. + +The grasses were green along the tracks, and the blue violets lifted +their rain-washed faces as the familiar stations loomed in sight near +the journey's end. At the last station below Bloomtown, Bill and Dr. +Hall entered the sleeper. + +"We have everything arranged," Dr. Hall said to Jap, while Bill fought +with his tears. "Isabel Granger has gone through too much to stand the +harrowing experience of a funeral. The carriages are waiting, and it +has all been attended to at the cemetery. We'll just have a short +service out there, and I want you to keep her in the carriage with you. +Bill and I did things with a high hand, but it had to be so. I +wouldn't risk having the girl look into her mother's grave. She +couldn't stand it." + +The platform was crowded with friends, and Tom Granger was responding +to sympathetic greetings with tears he did not try to hold. Jap half +carried Isabel to the nearest carriage, and Dr. Hall took his place +with them. Bill had hurried to meet Mabelle, who tactfully drew Tom +Granger into the second carriage, in which the minister sat waiting. +In a dream the well known landmarks of Bloomtown passed before Jap's +eyes. There was the quick jolt that marked the crossing of the +railroad tracks, and then the cool green of the cemetery came into view. + +While the brief service was read, Jap held Isabel tight to his aching +breast. His eyes wandered away beyond the yellow mound of earth, and +in the hazy distance he saw his City of Hope. The young grass smiled +above the mounds that held the empty shells of those he had loved, the +first in all the world who had loved him. On Flossy's straight white +shaft he read "I Hope." That was all. + +After the slow cortege had moved its way back to town, Mabelle left the +carriage and approached her brother. Bill, with his face frankly +tear-stained, was beside her. The coachman had descended from his box, +and was opening the door. + +"Let me take her--let me take your sweetheart to our cottage," she +pleaded. Leaning past him, she took one of Isabel's black-gloved +hands. "Dear, I am Jappie's sister. I want to have you with me until +you are better." + +Tom Granger sat up and leaned out of the carriage, so that all could +hear him. + +"Jap is coming home with us," he said. "He is my son. He was married +to Isabel just before her mother left us." + +And it was thus that after well-nigh three years of waiting Bloomtown +celebrated the long-expected happiness of her best loved son. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +Isabel had a long, lingering illness. It was plainly impossible for +Jap and Mabelle to go to New York to see Fanny Maud make her debut. +Mabelle had been a ministering angel, so faithful in her care of the +invalid that an unreasoning jealousy blotted the grin of contentment +from Bill's face as he uncomplainingly took the brunt of work at the +office. Jap was too abstracted to notice the Associate Editor's woe. +One day, when rosy June was just bursting its buds, he glanced +hurriedly through the columns of the _Herald_, still damp from the +press. He started, and looked keenly at Bill. Second column, first +page, under a double head that reduced the day's political sensation to +minor importance, he read: + +"OUR NEIGHBOR REJOICES; TWINS COME TO THE EDITOR OF THE BARTON +STANDARD." + +"Whew!" he whistled. Bill looked up. The red flew to his cheeks. + +"Both boys," he commented, folding papers rapidly. "Be in line for +pages, when old Brons lands in the Halls of Justice." + +Jap hurried home to tell the news. Isabel, still pale and weak, was +lying in the hammock on the screened porch. She laughed, her old merry +laugh, when Jap told her of Rosy Raymond's achievement. Mabelle tossed +her yellow curls. + +"Well, I don't think she was worrying Bill," she snapped. + +"There is no heavier blow to romance than twins," Jap said. + +"Maybe she will call them Jap and Bill," crisped Mabelle, and stopped +short when her brother walked abruptly to the other end of the porch. + +"I hope that it won't fluster you to know that Bill and I are going to +be married before Fanny Maud leaves for Europe," she flung at him. "I +want that haughty sister of mine to know that I am marrying a real man." + +Jap came swiftly back. + +"Have you taken Bill into your confidence, Sis?" he asked, patting +Isabel's shoulder gently, as he smiled his whimsical smile at Mabelle. + +"You're naughty to tease her so," his wife chided. + +"Bill and I are going to New York on our wedding trip, just as soon as +Isabel can spare me. I want Fanny Maud to see----" She stopped, then +took the bit in her teeth. "Jappie, you never knew why I ran away from +New York last Thanksgiving. Of course I told Bill all about it long +ago. Fanny and I certainly don't agree when it comes to men. I can't +imagine she will approve of Bill, after the one she picked for me." + +Further confidence was cut short by the appearance of Bill, turning the +corner. She arose and ran to meet him. + +"Poor Bill," Jap laughed, as the two came arm in arm up the shady lawn. + +Before her designs upon Bill could be executed, a strange thing +happened. Fanny Maud and a company of musicians made a summer concert +tour. It was only a little run from the city, and such an aggregation +of artists as Bloomtown's wildest dreams had never visioned descended +upon the town. The hotel was taxed to its uttermost capacity, with six +song birds, an orchestra, three lap dogs, and an Impresario whose +manner implied that he had designs other than professional on the +leading soprano. Her stay was short, and left an impression of +perfume, fluffy ruffles, French and haste. Her manager consented to +have her sing for Jap and Isabel. + +Bloomtown stood out in the road, listening, agape. Perhaps Kelly Jones +had been to Barton that summer night, for he declared that cats were +climbing out of Tom Granger's chimneys, screeching for help, and a man +kept scaring them worse by howling at them. When Fanny Maud reached +the famous high note she was justly proud of, Kelly clapped his hands +to his stomach and yelled for mercy. + +"That's clawsick music," abjured Bill, who was sitting on the lawn with +Mabelle. Kelly looked at them with sorrow. + +"I was skeered that she had busted her throat, and all the sound was +comin' out to onct," he complained. + +The last night of the brief but exciting visit Bill and Mabelle were +quietly married. Quietly--yes and no. Mike Hawking rallied the band +and all the tinware in town to celebrate. Mabelle was indignant at +first, but soon began to enjoy the fun, and created the happiest +impression on the older generation of Bloomtown by insisting on +marching arm in arm with Kelly Jones at the head of the procession. +After Bill had given his solemn oath never to repeat the offense the +"chivaree" broke up, with wild yells of congratulation. + +They took up residence in Mabelle's cottage. By consensus of opinion +it was Mabelle's cottage. The town in fact so thoroughly recognized +Mabelle, in the possessive case, that Jap cautioned Bill against the +contingency of being referred to as "Mabelle's husband." Bill was +proud of his wife, and when fortune brought him lucre, from the +long-forgotten bit of Texas land that suddenly showed oil, he began to +improve the whole street by putting out trees. + +As Jap feelingly declared, Mabelle had even improved the dirt under the +doorstep of the cottage, and Bill was fairly pushed out on the street +for improving to do. Under her fostering care, Bill had learned to +make violent demands on the Town Board. And they, the aldermen of +Bloomtown, bent on pursuing the even tenor of their way at any hazard, +had to adjust themselves to a new ebullition from Bill every Tuesday +night. But Bill and Mabelle were not doomed to see their enthusiasm go +up in vapor. It bore, instead, the most substantial fruit. The +barren, treeless town was beginning to grow shade for the aldermen to +rest under in their old age. + +Kelly Jones said that if Jap had brought Mabelle with him, instead of +waiting fourteen years to import her, the town would be larger than St. +Louis. As it was, Bloomtown might yet run that city a swift race. +Mabelle set the fashions; told the School Board how to run the schools; +the preachers how to make their churches popular; the mothers how to +train their children. And the Town Fathers all carried their hats in +their hands when she breezed down the street. Jap and Isabel watched +and smiled, serene in the happiness that was theirs. + + +"How wonderful it is, Jap, dear," said Isabel, standing in the sunset +glow, on that Easter Sunday, after the year had flown. The last red +gleam touched the tip of the monument to Ellis Hinton, that had been +erected by Bloomtown and dedicated that morning. Together they had +gone to the cemetery, when the crowd would not be there, Isabel's arms +full of garlands for the low green tents of their loved ones. + +"It seemed that Flossy must be smiling at you as you stood there, +saying the marvelous things that must have come to you direct from the +lips of your spirit father. Ellis Hinton spoke through you when you +told the story of our town." + +Jap drew her tenderly to the fostering shadow of the monument and +pressed her to his heart. Her face was glorified as she looked up into +his. + +"Oh, Jap, what if Ellis had never lived!" + +Jap drew her close. Many hours had he wrought with his fear, but now +the roses had come again to her cheeks and the light to her eyes. He +looked over the City of Peace, and his own eyes were full with joy. + +"But, thank God, Ellis did live." And arm in arm they walked back to +Ellis Hinton's real town. + +As they crossed the railroad tracks, Kelly Jones came ambling down from +the station, where a large contingent from the vicinity of the steel +highway between Barton and Bloomtown waited for the evening +"Accommodation." + +"Gimmeny!" he exclaimed, clapping Jap on the shoulder, "I sure was +proud of Ellis's boy to-day. Ellis says to me, the day he went away, +says he, 'Watch my boy, Kelly. He is goin' to put the electricity in +Bloomtown's backbone,' and, by jolly, you done it! I reckon you felt +proud," he went on, turning to Isabel, "when Wat Harlow called Jap the +man that made Bloomtown a real town, and the crowd yelled, 'Yes.' +Well, ma'am, for a minute I shook and grunted. And then the wife said, +'Wait a bit,' so I waited. And when Jap got up and told the folks that +not Jap Herron but a greater man than he ever hoped to be, had cradled +and nussed Bloomtown and learnt her to walk, I might' nigh split my +guzzle yellin' for joy. Did you hear me yellin', 'Hurrah for Ellis's +boy!' And did you hear the crowd say it after me?" + +As Isabel took his hardened hand in hers, her eyes overflowed. + +"Jap is Ellis," she said gently, "to you and to his town. I know it, +and I am glad." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +Bill sat doubled over the case, the stick held listlessly in his hand. +Nervously he fingered the copy, not knowing what he was reading. From +time to time he slid down from the stool and lounged across the big +office to the street door. Vacantly he returned the greetings of his +townsmen, as he gazed past them, across the corner of the little park +that lay, brown and gold, in the glory of Indian Summer, across the +intervening street where Tom Granger's sedate old house looked out on +the leaf-strewn lawn. He could see Tom Granger, pacing up and down the +walk. He could see Jap, sitting under the great elm, his face hidden +in his hands. + +"Poor old Jap," Bill muttered, brushing aside a tear, as he returned +once more to his case, "life has slammed him so many tough licks that +he is always cringing, afraid of another lick." + +The morning wore on. Bill gave up the effort at type-setting and tried +to apply himself to the exchanges, so that he could the better watch +the front of that house. He was near the door, trying to read, when, +all at once, Tom stopped pacing. Jap sprang up and bounded across the +lawn and into the front door. A white-capped nurse ran through the +wide hall, and in a little while Mabelle put her head out of an upper +window and peered over at the office. Bill pushed his chair back and +tramped heavily to the pavement. Then he tramped back again. + +"Certainly there are enough of them to let somebody come here with +news," he growled. "They don't seem to know that there are +telephones--or that I would care." + +Half an hour dragged. Then, all alone, his face shining with holy joy, +Jap hurried to the office. For a moment neither could speak. Hand in +hand, heart beating with heart, they stood looking into each other's +eyes. Then Jap said huskily: + +"Do you remember what Ellis said, that day when his greatest joy came?" + +Bill flung his arms around Jap and hugged him lustily. + +"Get out all the roosters?" he cried, tears gushing from his brown eyes. + +"And," said Jap slowly, "Isabel wants to call him Jasper William." + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Jap Herron, by Emily Grant Hutchings + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAP HERRON *** + +***** This file should be named 33048.txt or 33048.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/0/4/33048/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/33048.zip b/33048.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2f0037a --- /dev/null +++ b/33048.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ebedfef --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #33048 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33048) |
