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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/483-h.zip b/483-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..99470db --- /dev/null +++ b/483-h.zip diff --git a/483-h/483-h.htm b/483-h/483-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3db9c2f --- /dev/null +++ b/483-h/483-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,13894 @@ +<!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 The Conquest of Canaan, by Booth Tarkington +</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%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.finis { text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Conquest of Canaan, by Booth Tarkington + +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: The Conquest of Canaan + +Author: Booth Tarkington + +Posting Date: October 9, 2008 [EBook #483] +Release Date: April, 1996 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Keller. HTML version by Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BY +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +BOOTH TARKINGTON +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> + To<BR> + L.F.T.<BR> +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">ENTER CHORUS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">A RESCUE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">OLD HOPES</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">THE DISASTER</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">BEAVER BEACH</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">"YE'LL TAK' THE HIGH ROAD AND I'LL TAK' THE LOW ROAD"</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">GIVE A DOG A BAD NAME</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">A BAD PENNY TURNS UP</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">OUTER DARKNESS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">THE TRYST</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">WHEN HALF-GODS GO</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">TO REMAIN ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE IS NOT ALWAYS A VICTORY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">THE WATCHER AND THE WARDEN</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap14">WHITE ROSES IN A LAW-OFFICE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap15">HAPPY FEAR GIVES HIMSELF UP</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap16">THE TWO CANAANS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap17">MR. SHEEHAN'S HINTS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap18">IN THE HEAT OF THE DAY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap19">ESKEW ARP</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap20">THREE ARE ENLISTED</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap21">NORBERT WAITS FOR JOE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap22">MR. SHEEHAN SPEAKS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap23">JOE WALKS ACROSS THE COURT-HOUSE YARD</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap24">MARTIN PIKE KEEPS AN ENGAGEMENT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap25">THE JURY COMES IN</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXVI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap26">"ANCIENT OF DAYS"</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN +</H1> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +ENTER CHORUS +</H3> + +<P> +A dry snow had fallen steadily throughout the still night, so that when +a cold, upper wind cleared the sky gloriously in the morning the +incongruous Indiana town shone in a white harmony—roof, ledge, and +earth as evenly covered as by moonlight. There was no thaw; only where +the line of factories followed the big bend of the frozen river, their +distant chimneys like exclamation points on a blank page, was there a +first threat against the supreme whiteness. The wind passed quickly +and on high; the shouting of the school-children had ceased at nine +o'clock with pitiful suddenness; no sleigh-bells laughed out on the +air; and the muffling of the thoroughfares wrought an unaccustomed +peace like that of Sunday. This was the phenomenon which afforded the +opening of the morning debate of the sages in the wide windows of the +"National House." +</P> + +<P> +Only such unfortunates as have so far failed to visit Canaan do not +know that the "National House" is on the Main Street side of the +Court-house Square, and has the advantage of being within two minutes' +walk of the railroad station, which is in plain sight of the +windows—an inestimable benefit to the conversation of the aged men who +occupied these windows on this white morning, even as they were wont in +summer to hold against all comers the cane-seated chairs on the +pavement outside. Thence, as trains came and went, they commanded the +city gates, and, seeking motives and adding to the stock of history, +narrowly observed and examined into all who entered or departed. Their +habit was not singular. He who would foolishly tax the sages of Canaan +with a bucolic light-mindedness must first walk in Piccadilly in early +June, stroll down the Corso in Rome before Ash Wednesday, or regard +those windows of Fifth Avenue whose curtains are withdrawn of a winter +Sunday; for in each of these great streets, wherever the windows, not +of trade, are widest, his eyes must behold wise men, like to those of +Canaan, executing always their same purpose. +</P> + +<P> +The difference is in favor of Canaan; the "National House" was the +club, but the perusal of traveller or passer by was here only the spume +blown before a stately ship of thought; and you might hear the sages +comparing the Koran with the speeches of Robert J. Ingersoll. +</P> + +<P> +In the days of board sidewalks, "mail-time" had meant a precise moment +for Canaan, and even now, many years after the first postman, it +remained somewhat definite to the aged men; for, out of deference to a +pleasant, olden custom, and perhaps partly for an excuse to "get down +to the hotel" (which was not altogether in favor with the elderly +ladies), most of them retained their antique boxes in the post-office, +happily in the next building. +</P> + +<P> +In this connection it may be written that a subscription clerk in the +office of the Chicago Daily Standard, having noted a single subscriber +from Canaan, was, a fortnight later, pleased to receive, by one mail, +nine subscriptions from that promising town. If one brought nine +others in a fortnight, thought he, what would nine bring in a month? +Amazingly, they brought nothing, and the rest was silence. Here was a +matter of intricate diplomacy never to come within that youth his ken. +The morning voyage to the post-office, long mocked as a fable and +screen by the families of the sages, had grown so difficult to +accomplish for one of them, Colonel Flitcroft (Colonel in the war with +Mexico), that he had been put to it, indeed, to foot the firing-line +against his wife (a lady of celebrated determination and hale-voiced at +seventy), and to defend the rental of a box which had sheltered but +three missives in four years. Desperation is often inspiration; the +Colonel brilliantly subscribed for the Standard, forgetting to give his +house address, and it took the others just thirteen days to wring his +secret from him. Then the Standard served for all. +</P> + +<P> +Mail-time had come to mean that bright hour when they all got their +feet on the brass rod which protected the sills of the two big windows, +with the steam-radiators sizzling like kettles against the side wall. +Mr. Jonas Tabor, who had sold his hardware business magnificently (not +magnificently for his nephew, the purchaser) some ten years before, was +usually, in spite of the fact that he remained a bachelor at +seventy-nine, the last to settle down with the others, though often the +first to reach the hotel, which he always entered by a side door, +because he did not believe in the treating system. And it was Mr. Eskew +Arp, only seventy-five, but already a thoroughly capable cynic, who, +almost invariably "opened the argument," and it was he who discovered +the sinister intention behind the weather of this particular morning. +Mr. Arp had not begun life so sourly: as a youth he had been proud of +his given name, which had come to him through his mother's family, who +had made it honorable, but many years of explanations that Eskew did +not indicate his initials had lowered his opinion of the intelligence +and morality of the race. +</P> + +<P> +The malevolence of his voice and manner this morning, therefore, when +he shook his finger at the town beyond the windows, and exclaimed, with +a bitter laugh, "Look at it!" was no surprise to his companions. "Jest +look at it! I tell you the devil is mighty smart. Ha, ha! Mighty +smart!" +</P> + +<P> +Through custom it was the duty of Squire Buckalew (Justice of the Peace +in '59) to be the first to take up Mr. Arp. The others looked to him +for it. Therefore, he asked, sharply: +</P> + +<P> +"What's the devil got to do with snow?" +</P> + +<P> +"Everything to do with it, sir," Mr. Arp retorted. "It's plain as day +to anybody with eyes and sense." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I wish you'd p'int it out," said Buckalew, "if you've got either." +</P> + +<P> +"By the Almighty, Squire"—Mr. Arp turned in his chair with sudden +heat—"if I'd lived as long as you—" +</P> + +<P> +"You have," interrupted the other, stung. "Twelve years ago!" +</P> + +<P> +"If I'd lived as long as you," Mr. Arp repeated, unwincingly, in a +louder voice, "and had follered Satan's trail as long as you have, and +yet couldn't recognize it when I see it, I'd git converted and vote +Prohibitionist." +</P> + +<P> +"<I>I</I> don't see it," interjected Uncle Joe Davey, in his querulous +voice. (He was the patriarch of them all.) "<I>I</I> can't find no +cloven-hoof-prints in the snow." +</P> + +<P> +"All over it, sir!" cried the cynic. "All over it! Old Satan loves +tricks like this. Here's a town that's jest one squirmin' mass of lies +and envy and vice and wickedness and corruption—" +</P> + +<P> +"Hold on!" exclaimed Colonel Flitcroft. "That's a slander upon our +hearths and our government. Why, when I was in the Council—" +</P> + +<P> +"It wasn't a bit worse then," Mr. Arp returned, unreasonably. "Jest +you look how the devil fools us. He drops down this here virgin mantle +on Canaan and makes it look as good as you pretend you think it is: as +good as the Sunday-school room of a country church—though THAT"—he +went off on a tangent, venomously—"is generally only another whited +sepulchre, and the superintendent's mighty apt to have a bottle of +whiskey hid behind the organ, and—" +</P> + +<P> +"Look here, Eskew," said Jonas Tabor, "that's got nothin' to do with—" +</P> + +<P> +"Why ain't it? Answer me!" cried Mr. Arp, continuing, without pause: +"Why ain't it? Can't you wait till I git through? You listen to me, +and when I'm ready I'll listen to—" +</P> + +<P> +"See here," began the Colonel, making himself heard over three others, +"I want to ask you—" +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir!" Mr. Arp pounded the floor irascibly with his hickory stick. +"Don't you ask me anything! How can you tell that I'm not going to +answer your question without your asking it, till I've got through? +You listen first. I say, here's a town of nearly thirty thousand +inhabitants, every last one of 'em—men, women, and children—selfish +and cowardly and sinful, if you could see their innermost natures; a +town of the ugliest and worst built houses in the world, and governed +by a lot of saloon-keepers—though I hope it 'll never git down to +where the ministers can run it. And the devil comes along, and in one +night—why, all you got to do is LOOK at it! You'd think we needn't +ever trouble to make it better. That's what the devil wants us to +do—wants us to rest easy about it, and paints it up to look like a +heaven of peace and purity and sanctified spirits. Snowfall like this +would of made Lot turn the angel out-of-doors and say that the old home +was good enough for him. Gomorrah would of looked like a Puritan +village—though I'll bet my last dollar that there was a lot, and a +WHOLE lot, that's never been told about Puritan villages. A lot that—" +</P> + +<P> +"WHAT never was?" interrupted Mr. Peter Bradbury, whose granddaughter +had lately announced her discovery that the Bradburys were descended +from Miles Standish. "What wasn't told about Puritan villages?" +</P> + +<P> +"Can't you wait?" Mr. Arp's accents were those of pain. "Haven't I got +ANY right to present my side of the case? Ain't we restrained enough +to allow of free speech here? How can we ever git anywhere in an +argument like this, unless we let one man talk at a time? How—" +</P> + +<P> +"Go on with your statement," said Uncle Joe Davey, impatiently. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Arp's grievance was increased. "Now listen to YOU! How many more +interruptions are comin'? I'll listen to the other side, but I've got +to state mine first, haven't I? If I don't make my point clear, what's +the use of the argument? Argumentation is only the comparison of two +sides of a question, and you have to see what the first side IS before +you can compare it with the other one, don't you? Are you all agreed +to that?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, yes," said the Colonel. "Go ahead. We won't interrupt until +you're through." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well," resumed Mr. Arp, with a fleeting expression of +satisfaction, "as I said before, I wish to—as I said—" He paused, in +some confusion. "As I said, argumentation is—that is, I say—" He +stopped again, utterly at sea, having talked himself so far out of his +course that he was unable to recall either his sailing port or his +destination. Finally he said, feebly, to save the confession, "Well, +go on with your side of it." +</P> + +<P> +This generosity was for a moment disconcerting; however, the quietest +of the party took up the opposition—Roger Tabor, a very thin, old man +with a clean-shaven face, almost as white as his hair, and melancholy, +gentle, gray eyes, very unlike those of his brother Jonas, which were +dark and sharp and button-bright. (It was to Roger's son that Jonas +had so magnificently sold the hardware business.) Roger was known in +Canaan as "the artist"; there had never been another of his profession +in the place, and the town knew not the word "painter," except in +application to the useful artisan who is subject to lead-poisoning. +There was no indication of his profession in the attire of Mr. Tabor, +unless the too apparent age of his black felt hat and a neat patch at +the elbow of his shiny, old brown overcoat might have been taken as +symbols of the sacrifice to his muse which his life had been. He was +not a constant attendant of the conclave, and when he came it was +usually to listen; indeed, he spoke so seldom that at the sound of his +voice they all turned to him with some surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose," he began, "that Eskew means the devil is behind all +beautiful things." +</P> + +<P> +"Ugly ones, too," said Mr. Arp, with a start of recollection. "And I +wish to state—" +</P> + +<P> +"Not now!" Colonel Flitcroft turned upon him violently. "You've +already stated it." +</P> + +<P> +"Then, if he is behind the ugly things, too," said Roger, "we must take +him either way, so let us be glad of the beauty for its own sake. +Eskew says this is a wicked town. It may be—I don't know. He says +it's badly built; perhaps it is; but it doesn't seem to me that it's +ugly in itself. I don't know what its real self is, because it wears +so many aspects. God keeps painting it all the time, and never shows +me twice the same picture; not even two snowfalls are just alike, nor +the days that follow them; no more than two misty sunsets are +alike—for the color and even the form of the town you call ugly are a +matter of the season of the year and of the time of day and of the +light and air. The ugly town is like an endless gallery which you can +walk through, from year-end to year-end, never seeing the same canvas +twice, no matter how much you may want to—and there's the pathos of +it. Isn't it the same with people with the characters of all of us, +just as it is with our faces? No face remains the same for two +successive days—" +</P> + +<P> +"It don't?" Colonel Flitcroft interrupted, with an explosive and rueful +incredulity. "Well, I'd like to—" Second thoughts came to him almost +immediately, and, as much out of gallantry as through discretion, +fearing that he might be taken as thinking of one at home, he relapsed +into silence. +</P> + +<P> +Not so with the others. It was as if a firecracker had been dropped +into a sleeping poultry-yard. Least of all could Mr. Arp contain +himself. At the top of his voice, necessarily, he agreed with Roger +that faces changed, not only from day to day, and not only because of +light and air and such things, but from hour to hour, and from minute +to minute, through the hideous stimulus of hypocrisy. +</P> + +<P> +The "argument" grew heated; half a dozen tidy quarrels arose; all the +sages went at it fiercely, except Roger Tabor, who stole quietly away. +The aged men were enjoying themselves thoroughly, especially those who +quarrelled. Naturally, the frail bark of the topic which had been +launched was whirled about by too many side-currents to remain long in +sight, and soon became derelict, while the intellectual dolphins dove +and tumbled in the depths. At the end of twenty minutes Mr. Arp +emerged upon the surface, and in his mouth was this: +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me, why ain't the Church—why ain't the Church and the rest of +the believers in a future life lookin' for immortality at the other end +of life, too? If we're immortal, we always have been; then why don't +they ever speculate on what we were before we were born? It's because +they're too blame selfish—don't care a flapdoodle about what WAS, all +they want is to go on livin' forever." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Arp's voice had risen to an acrid triumphancy, when it suddenly +faltered, relapsed to a murmur, and then to a stricken silence, as a +tall, fat man of overpowering aspect threw open the outer door near by +and crossed the lobby to the clerk's desk. An awe fell upon the sages +with this advent. They were hushed, and after a movement in their +chairs, with a strange effect of huddling, sat disconcerted and +attentive, like school-boys at the entrance of the master. +</P> + +<P> +The personage had a big, fat, pink face and a heavily undershot jaw, +what whitish beard he wore following his double chin somewhat after the +manner displayed in the portraits of Henry the Eighth. His eyes, very +bright under puffed upper lids, were intolerant and insultingly +penetrating despite their small size. Their irritability held a kind +of hotness, and yet the personage exuded frost, not of the weather, all +about him. You could not imagine man or angel daring to greet this +being genially—sooner throw a kiss to Mount Pilatus! +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Brown," he said, with ponderous hostility, in a bull bass, to the +clerk—the kind of voice which would have made an express train leave +the track and go round the other way—"do you hear me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh yes, Judge," the clerk replied, swiftly, in tones as unlike those +which he used for strange transients as a collector's voice in his +ladylove's ear is unlike that which he propels at delinquents. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you see that snow?" asked the personage, threateningly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Judge." Mr. Brown essayed a placating smile. "Yes, indeed, +Judge Pike." +</P> + +<P> +"Has your employer, the manager of this hotel, seen that snow?" pursued +the personage, with a gesture of unspeakable solemn menace. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir. I think so. Yes, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think he fully understands that I am the proprietor of this +building?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly, Judge, cer—" +</P> + +<P> +"You will inform him that I do not intend to be discommoded by his +negligence as I pass to my offices. Tell him from me that unless he +keeps the sidewalks in front of this hotel clear of snow I will cancel +his lease. Their present condition is outrageous. Do you understand +me? Outrageous! Do you hear?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Judge, I do so," answered the clerk, hoarse with respect. "I'll +see to it this minute, Judge Pike." +</P> + +<P> +"You had better." The personage turned himself about and began a grim +progress towards the door by which he had entered, his eyes fixing +themselves angrily upon the conclave at the windows. +</P> + +<P> +Colonel Flitcroft essayed a smile, a faltering one. +</P> + +<P> +"Fine weather, Judge Pike," he said, hopefully. +</P> + +<P> +There was no response of any kind; the undershot jaw became more +intolerant. The personage made his opinion of the group +disconcertingly plain, and the old boys understood that he knew them +for a worthless lot of senile loafers, as great a nuisance in his +building as was the snow without; and much too evident was his unspoken +threat to see that the manager cleared them out of there before long. +</P> + +<P> +He nodded curtly to the only man of substance among them, Jonas Tabor, +and shut the door behind him with majestic insult. He was Canaan's +millionaire. +</P> + +<P> +He was one of those dynamic creatures who leave the haunting impression +of their wills behind them, like the tails of Bo-Peep's sheep, like the +evil dead men have done; he left his intolerant image in the ether for +a long time after he had gone, to confront and confound the aged men +and hold them in deferential and humiliated silence. Each of them was +mysteriously lowered in his own estimation, and knew that he had been +made to seem futile and foolish in the eyes of his fellows. They were +all conscious, too, that the clerk had been acutely receptive of Judge +Pike's reading of them; that he was reviving from his own squelchedness +through the later snubbing of the colonel; also that he might further +seek to recover his poise by an attack on them for cluttering up the +office. +</P> + +<P> +Naturally, Jonas Tabor was the first to speak. "Judge Pike's lookin' +mighty well," he said, admiringly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, he is," ventured Squire Buckalew, with deference; "mighty well." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir," echoed Peter Bradbury; "mighty well." +</P> + +<P> +"He's a great man," wheezed Uncle Joe Davey; "a great man, Judge Martin +Pike; a great man!" +</P> + +<P> +"I expect he has considerable on his mind," said the Colonel, who had +grown very red. "I noticed that he hardly seemed to see us." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir," Mr. Bradbury corroborated, with an attempt at an amused +laugh. "I noticed it, too. Of course a man with all his cares and +interests must git absent-minded now and then." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course he does," said the colonel. "A man with all his +responsibilities—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, that's so," came a chorus of the brethren, finding comfort and +reassurance as their voices and spirits began to recover from the +blight. +</P> + +<P> +"There's a party at the Judge's to-night," said Mr. Bradbury—"kind of +a ball Mamie Pike's givin' for the young folks. Quite a doin's, I +hear." +</P> + +<P> +"That's another thing that's ruining Canaan," Mr. Arp declared, +morosely. "These entertainments they have nowadays. Spend all the +money out of town—band from Indianapolis, chicken salad and darkey +waiters from Chicago! And what I want to know is, What's this town +goin' to do about the nigger question?" +</P> + +<P> +"What about it?" asked Mr. Davey, belligerently. +</P> + +<P> +"What about it?" Mr. Arp mocked, fiercely. "You better say, 'What about +it?'" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what?" maintained Mr. Davey, steadfastly. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll bet there ain't any less than four thousand niggers in Canaan +to-day!" Mr. Arp hammered the floor with his stick. "Every last one of +'em criminals, and more comin' on every train." +</P> + +<P> +"No such a thing," said Squire Buckalew, living up to his bounden duty. +"You look down the street. There's the ten-forty-five comin' in now. +I'll bet you a straight five-cent Peek-a-Boo cigar there ain't ary +nigger on the whole train, except the sleepin'-car porters." +</P> + +<P> +"What kind of a way to argue is that?" demanded Mr. Arp, hotly. +"Bettin' ain't proof, is it? Besides, that's the through express from +the East. I meant trains from the South." +</P> + +<P> +"You didn't say so," retorted Buckalew, triumphantly. "Stick to your +bet, Eskew, stick to your bet." +</P> + +<P> +"My bet!" cried the outraged Eskew. "Who offered to bet?" +</P> + +<P> +"You did," replied the Squire, with perfect assurance and sincerity. +The others supported him in the heartiest spirit of on-with-the-dance, +and war and joy were unconfined. +</P> + +<P> +A decrepit hack or two, a couple of old-fashioned surreys, and a few +"cut-unders" drove by, bearing the newly arrived and their valises, the +hotel omnibus depositing several commercial travellers at the door. A +solitary figure came from the station on foot, and when it appeared +within fair range of the window, Uncle Joe Davey, who had but hovered +on the flanks of the combat, first removed his spectacles and wiped +them, as though distrusting the vision they offered him, then, +replacing them, scanned anew the approaching figure and uttered a +smothered cry. +</P> + +<P> +"My Lord A'mighty!" he gasped. "What's this? Look there!" +</P> + +<P> +They looked. A truce came involuntarily, and they sat in paralytic +silence as the figure made its stately and sensational progress along +Main Street. +</P> + +<P> +Not only the aged men were smitten. Men shovelling snow from the +pavements stopped suddenly in their labors; two women, talking busily +on a doorstep, were stilled and remained in frozen attitudes as it +passed; a grocer's clerk, crossing the pavement, carrying a heavily +laden basket to his delivery wagon, halted half-way as the figure came +near, and then, making a pivot of his heels as it went by, behaved +towards it as does the magnetic needle to the pole. +</P> + +<P> +It was that of a tall gentleman, cheerfully, though somewhat with +ennui, enduring his nineteenth winter. His long and slender face he +wore smiling, beneath an accurately cut plaster of dark hair cornicing +his forehead, a fashion followed by many youths of that year. This +perfect bang was shown under a round black hat whose rim was so small +as almost not to be there at all; and the head was supported by a +waxy-white sea-wall of collar, rising three inches above the blue +billows of a puffed cravat, upon which floated a large, hollow pearl. +His ulster, sporting a big cape at the shoulders, and a tasselled hood +over the cape, was of a rough Scotch cloth, patterned in faint, +gray-and-white squares the size of baggage-checks, and it was so long +that the skirts trailed in the snow. His legs were lost in the +accurately creased, voluminous garments that were the tailors' canny +reaction from the tight trousers with which the 'Eighties had begun: +they were, in color, a palish russet, broadly striped with gray, and, +in size, surpassed the milder spirit of fashion so far as they +permitted a liberal knee action to take place almost without +superficial effect. Upon his feet glistened long shoes, shaped, save +for the heels, like sharp racing-shells; these were partially protected +by tan-colored low gaiters with flat, shiny, brown buttons. In one +hand the youth swung a bone-handled walking-stick, perhaps an inch and +a half in diameter, the other carried a yellow leather banjo-case, upon +the outer side of which glittered the embossed-silver initials, "E. B." +He was smoking, but walked with his head up, making use, however, of a +gait at that time new to Canaan, a seeming superbly irresponsible +lounge, engendering much motion of the shoulders, producing an effect +of carelessness combined with independence—an effect which the +innocent have been known to hail as an unconscious one. +</P> + +<P> +He looked about him as he came, smilingly, with an expression of +princely amusement—as an elderly cabinet minister, say, strolling +about a village where he had spent some months in his youth, a hamlet +which he had then thought large and imposing, but which, being +revisited after years of cosmopolitan glory, appeals to his whimsy and +his pity. The youth's glance at the court-house unmistakably said: +"Ah, I recall that odd little box. I thought it quite large in the days +before I became what I am now, and I dare say the good townsfolk still +think it an imposing structure!" With everything in sight he deigned to +be amused, especially with the old faces in the "National House" +windows. To these he waved his stick with airy graciousness. +</P> + +<P> +"My soul!" said Mr. Davey. "It seems to know some of us!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," agreed Mr. Arp, his voice recovered, "and <I>I</I> know IT." +</P> + +<P> +"You do?" exclaimed the Colonel. +</P> + +<P> +"I do, and so do you. It's Fanny Louden's boy, 'Gene, come home for +his Christmas holidays." +</P> + +<P> +"By George! you're right," cried Flitcroft; "I recognize him now." +</P> + +<P> +"But what's the matter with him?" asked Mr. Bradbury, eagerly. "Has he +joined some patent-medicine troupe?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not a bit," replied Eskew. "He went East to college last fall." +</P> + +<P> +"Do they MAKE the boys wear them clothes?" persisted Bradbury. "Is it +some kind of uniform?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't care what it is," said Jonas Tabor. "If I was Henry Louden I +wouldn't let him wear 'em around here." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, you wouldn't, wouldn't you, Jonas?" Mr. Arp employed the accents +of sarcasm. "I'd like to see Henry Louden try to interfere with 'Gene +Bantry. Fanny'd lock the old fool up in the cellar." +</P> + +<P> +The lofty vision lurched out of view. +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon," said the Colonel, leaning forward to see the last of it—"I +reckon Henry Louden's about the saddest case of abused step-father I +ever saw." +</P> + +<P> +"It's his own fault," said Mr. Arp—"twice not havin' sense enough not +to marry. Him with a son of his own, too!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," assented the Colonel, "marryin' a widow with a son of her own, +and that widow Fanny!" +</P> + +<P> +"Wasn't it just the same with her first husband—Bantry?" Mr. Davey +asked, not for information, as he immediately answered himself. "You +bet it was! Didn't she always rule the roost? Yes, she did. She made +a god of 'Gene from the day he was born. Bantry's house was run for +him, like Louden's is now." +</P> + +<P> +"And look," exclaimed Mr. Arp, with satisfaction, "at the way he's +turned out!" +</P> + +<P> +"He ain't turned out at all yet; he's too young," said Buckalew. +"Besides, clothes don't make the man." +</P> + +<P> +"Wasn't he smokin' a cigareet!" cried Eskew, triumphantly. This was +final. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a pity Henry Louden can't do something for his own son," said Mr. +Bradbury. "Why don't he send him away to college?" +</P> + +<P> +"Fanny won't let him," chuckled Mr. Arp, malevolently. "Takes all +their spare change to keep 'Gene there in style. I don't blame her. +'Gene certainly acts the fool, but that Joe Louden is the orneriest boy +I ever saw in an ornery world-full." +</P> + +<P> +"He always was kind of misCHEEvous," admitted Buckalew. "I don't think +he's mean, though, and it does seem kind of not just right that Joe's +father's money—Bantry didn't leave anything to speak of—has to go to +keepin' 'Gene on the fat of the land, with Joe gittin' up at half-past +four to carry papers, and him goin' on nineteen years old." +</P> + +<P> +"It's all he's fit for!" exclaimed Eskew. "He's low down, I tell ye. +Ain't it only last week Judge Pike caught him shootin' craps with +Pike's nigger driver and some other nigger hired-men in the alley back +of Pike's barn." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Schindlinger, the retired grocer, one of the silent members, +corroborated Eskew's information. "I heert dot, too," he gave forth, in +his fat voice. "He blays dominoes pooty often in der room back off +Louie Farbach's tsaloon. I see him myself. Pooty often. Blayin' fer a +leedle money—mit loafers! Loafers!" +</P> + +<P> +"Pretty outlook for the Loudens!" said Eskew Arp, much pleased. "One +boy a plum fool and dressed like it, the other gone to the dogs +already!" +</P> + +<P> +"What could you expect Joe to be?" retorted Squire Buckalew. "What +chance has he ever had? Long as I can remember Fanny's made him fetch +and carry for 'Gene. 'Gene's had everything—all the fancy clothes, +all the pocket-money, and now college!" +</P> + +<P> +"You ever hear that boy Joe talk politics?" asked Uncle Joe Davey, +crossing a cough with a chuckle. "His head's so full of schemes fer +running this town, and state, too, it's a wonder it don't bust. Henry +Louden told me he's see Joe set around and study by the hour how to +save three million dollars for the state in two years." +</P> + +<P> +"And the best he can do for himself," added Eskew, "is deliverin' the +Daily Tocsin on a second-hand Star bicycle and gamblin' with niggers +and riff-raff! None of the nice young folks invite him to their doin's +any more." +</P> + +<P> +"That's because he's got so shabby he's quit goin' with em," said +Buckalew. +</P> + +<P> +"No, it ain't," snapped Mr. Arp. "It's because he's so low down. He's +no more 'n a town outcast. There ain't ary one of the girls 'll have a +thing to do with him, except that rip-rarin' tom-boy next door to +Louden's; and the others don't have much to do with HER, neither, I can +tell ye. That Arie Tabor—" +</P> + +<P> +Colonel Flitcroft caught him surreptitiously by the arm. "SH, Eskew!" +he whispered. "Look out what you're sayin'!" +</P> + +<P> +"You needn't mind me," Jonas Tabor spoke up, crisply. "I washed my +hands of all responsibility for Roger's branch of the family long ago. +Never was one of 'em had the energy or brains to make a decent livin', +beginning with Roger; not one worth his salt! I set Roger's son up in +business, and all the return he ever made me was to go into bankruptcy +and take to drink, till he died a sot, like his wife did of shame. I +done all I could when I handed him over my store, and I never expect to +lift a finger for 'em again. Ariel Tabor's my grandniece, but she +didn't act like it, and you can say anything you like about her, for +what I care. The last time I spoke to her was a year and a half ago, +and I don't reckon I'll ever trouble to again." +</P> + +<P> +"How was that, Jonas?" quickly inquired Mr. Davey, who, being the +eldest of the party, was the most curious. "What happened?" +</P> + +<P> +"She was out in the street, up on that high bicycle of Joe Louden's. +He was teachin' her to ride, and she was sittin' on it like a man does. +I stopped and told her she wasn't respectable. Sixteen years old, goin' +on seventeen!" +</P> + +<P> +"What did she say?" +</P> + +<P> +"Laughed," said Jonas, his voice becoming louder as the recital of his +wrongs renewed their sting in his soul. "Laughed!" +</P> + +<P> +"What did you do?" +</P> + +<P> +"I went up to her and told her she wasn't a decent girl, and shook the +wheel." Mr. Tabor illustrated by seizing the lapels of Joe Davey and +shaking him. "I told her if her grandfather had any spunk she'd git an +old-fashioned hidin' for behavin' that way. And I shook the wheel +again." Here Mr. Tabor, forgetting in the wrath incited by the +recollection that he had not to do with an inanimate object, swung the +gasping and helpless Mr. Davey rapidly back and forth in his chair. "I +shook it good and hard!" +</P> + +<P> +"What did she do then?" asked Peter Bradbury. +</P> + +<P> +"Fell off on me," replied Jonas, violently. "On purpose!" +</P> + +<P> +"I wisht she'd killed ye," said Mr. Davey, in a choking voice, as, +released, he sank back in his chair. +</P> + +<P> +"On purpose!" repeated Jonas. "And smashed a straw hat I hadn't had +three months! All to pieces! So it couldn't be fixed!" +</P> + +<P> +"And what then?" pursued Bradbury. +</P> + +<P> +"SHE ran," replied Jonas, bitterly—"ran! And Joe Louden—Joe +Louden—" He paused and gulped. +</P> + +<P> +"What did he do?" Peter leaned forward in his chair eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +The narrator of the outrage gulped again, and opened and shut his mouth +before responding. +</P> + +<P> +"He said if I didn't pay for a broken spoke on his wheel he'd have to +sue me!" +</P> + +<P> +No one inquired if Jonas had paid, and Jonas said no more. The +recollection of his wrongs, together with the illustrative violence +offered to Mr. Davey, had been too much for him. He sank back, +panting, in his chair, his hands fluttering nervously over his heart, +and closed his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder why," ruminated Mr. Bradbury—"I wonder why 'Gene Bantry +walked up from the deepo. Don't seem much like his style. Should +think he'd of rode up in a hack." +</P> + +<P> +"Sho!" said Uncle Joe Davey, his breath recovered. "He wanted to walk +up past Judge Pike's, to see if there wasn't a show of Mamie's bein' at +the window, and give her a chance to look at that college uniform and +banjo-box and new walk of his." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Arp began to show signs of uneasiness. +</P> + +<P> +"I'd like mighty well to know," he said, shifting round in his chair, +"if there's anybody here that's been able to answer the question I PUT, +yesterday, just before we went home. You all tried to, but I didn't +hear anything I could consider anyways near even a fair argument." +</P> + +<P> +"Who tried to?" asked Buckalew, sharply, sitting up straight. "What +question?" +</P> + +<P> +"What proof can you bring me," began Mr. Arp, deliberately, "that we +folks, modernly, ain't more degenerate than the ancient Romans?" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A RESCUE +</H3> + +<P> +Main Street, already muffled by the snow, added to its quietude a +frozen hush where the wonder-bearing youth pursued his course along its +white, straight way. None was there in whom impertinence overmastered +astonishment, or who recovered from the sight in time to jeer with +effect; no "Trab's boy" gathered courage to enact in the thoroughfare a +scene of mockery and of joy. Leaving business at a temporary +stand-still behind him, Mr. Bantry swept his long coat steadily over +the snow and soon emerged upon that part of the street where the mart +gave way to the home. The comfortable houses stood pleasantly back +from the street, with plenty of lawn and shrubbery about them; and +often, along the picket-fences, the laden branches of small cedars, +bending low with their burden, showered the young man's swinging +shoulders glitteringly as he brushed by. +</P> + +<P> +And now that expression he wore—the indulgent amusement of a man of +the world—began to disintegrate and show signs of change. It became +finely grave, as of a high conventionality, lofty, assured, and +mannered, as he approached the Pike mansion. (The remotest stranger +must at once perceive that the Canaan papers could not have called it +otherwise without pain.) +</P> + +<P> +It was a big, smooth-stone-faced house, product of the 'Seventies, +frowning under an outrageously insistent mansard, capped by a cupola, +and staring out of long windows overtopped with "ornamental" slabs. +Two cast-iron deer, painted death-gray, twins of the same mould, stood +on opposite sides of the front walk, their backs towards it and each +other, their bodies in profile to the street, their necks bent, +however, so that they gazed upon the passer-by—yet gazed without +emotion. Two large, calm dogs guarded the top of the steps leading to +the front-door; they also were twins and of the same interesting metal, +though honored beyond the deer by coats of black paint and shellac. It +was to be remarked that these dogs were of no distinguishable species +or breed, yet they were unmistakably dogs; the dullest must have +recognized them as such at a glance, which was, perhaps, enough. It +was a hideous house, important-looking, cold, yet harshly aggressive, a +house whose exterior provoked a shuddering guess of the brass +lambrequins and plush fringes within; a solid house, obviously—nay, +blatantly—the residence of the principal citizen, whom it had grown to +resemble, as is the impish habit of houses; and it sat in the middle of +its flat acre of snowy lawn like a rich, fat man enraged and sitting +straight up in bed to swear. +</P> + +<P> +And yet there was one charming thing about this ugly house. Some +workmen were enclosing a large side porch with heavy canvas, evidently +for festal purposes. Looking out from between two strips of the canvas +was the rosy and delicate face of a pretty girl, smiling upon Eugene +Bantry as he passed. It was an obviously pretty face, all the youth +and prettiness there for your very first glance; elaborately pretty, +like the splendid profusion of hair about and above it—amber-colored +hair, upon which so much time had been spent that a circle of large, +round curls rose above the mass of it like golden bubbles tipping a +coronet. +</P> + +<P> +The girl's fingers were pressed thoughtfully against her chin as Eugene +strode into view; immediately her eyes widened and brightened. He +swung along the fence with the handsomest appearance of +unconsciousness, until he reached a point nearly opposite her. Then he +turned his head, as if haphazardly, and met her eyes. At once she +threw out her hand towards him, waving him a greeting—a gesture which, +as her fingers had been near her lips, was a little like throwing a +kiss. He crooked an elbow and with a one-two-three military movement +removed his small-brimmed hat, extended it to full arm's-length at the +shoulder-level, returned it to his head with Life-Guard precision. This +was also new to Canaan. He was letting Mamie Pike have it all at once. +</P> + +<P> +The impression was as large as he could have desired. She remained at +the opening in the canvas and watched him until he wagged his shoulders +round the next corner and disappeared into a cross street. As for +Eugene, he was calm with a great calm, and very red. +</P> + +<P> +He had not covered a great distance, however, before his gravity was +replaced by his former smiling look of the landed gentleman amused by +the innocent pastimes of the peasants, though there was no one in sight +except a woman sweeping some snow from the front steps of a cottage, +and she, not perceiving him, retired in-doors without knowing her loss. +He had come to a thinly built part of the town, the perfect quiet of +which made the sound he heard as he opened the picket gate of his own +home all the more startling. It was a scream—loud, frantic, and +terror-stricken. +</P> + +<P> +Eugene stopped, with the gate half open. +</P> + +<P> +Out of the winter skeleton of a grape-arbor at one side of the +four-square brick house a brown-faced girl of seventeen precipitated +herself through the air in the midst of a shower of torn card-board +which she threw before her as she leaped. She lit upon her toes and +headed for the gate at top speed, pursued by a pale young man whose +thin arms strove spasmodically to reach her. Scattering snow behind +them, hair flying, the pair sped on like two tattered branches before a +high wind; for, as they came nearer Eugene (of whom, in the tensity of +their flight, they took no note), it was to be seen that both were so +shabbily dressed as to be almost ragged. There was a brown patch upon +the girl's faded skirt at the knee; the shortness of the garment +indicating its age to be something over three years, as well as +permitting the knowledge to become more general than befitting that her +cotton stockings had been clumsily darned in several places. Her +pursuer was in as evil case; his trousers displayed a tendency to +fringedness at pocket and heel; his coat, blowing open as he ran, threw +pennants of torn lining to the breeze, and made it too plain that there +were but three buttons on his waistcoat. +</P> + +<P> +The girl ran beautifully, but a fleeter foot was behind her, and though +she dodged and evaded like a creature of the woods, the reaching hand +fell upon the loose sleeve of her red blouse, nor fell lightly. She +gave a wrench of frenzy; the antique fabric refused the strain; parted +at the shoulder seam so thoroughly that the whole sleeve came away—but +not to its owner's release, for she had been brought round by the jerk, +so that, agile as she had shown herself, the pursuer threw an arm about +her neck, before she could twist away, and held her. +</P> + +<P> +There was a sharp struggle, as short as it was fierce. Neither of +these extraordinary wrestlers spoke. They fought. Victory hung in the +balance for perhaps four seconds; then the girl was thrown heavily upon +her back, in such a turmoil of snow that she seemed to be the mere +nucleus of a white comet. She struggled to get up, plying knee and +elbow with a very anguish of determination; but her opponent held her, +pinioned both her wrists with one hand, and with the other rubbed great +handfuls of snow into her face, sparing neither mouth nor eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"You will!" he cried. "You will tear up my pictures! A dirty trick, +and you get washed for it!" +</P> + +<P> +Half suffocated, choking, gasping, she still fought on, squirming and +kicking with such spirit that the pair of them appeared to the beholder +like figures of mist writhing in a fountain of snow. +</P> + +<P> +More violence was to mar the peace of morning. Unexpectedly attacked +from the rear, the conqueror was seized by the nape of the neck and one +wrist, and jerked to his feet, simultaneously receiving a succession of +kicks from his assailant. Prompted by an entirely natural curiosity, he +essayed to turn his head to see who this might be, but a twist of his +forearm and the pressure of strong fingers under his ear constrained +him to remain as he was; therefore, abandoning resistance, and, oddly +enough, accepting without comment the indication that his captor +desired to remain for the moment incognito, he resorted calmly to +explanations. +</P> + +<P> +"She tore up a picture of mine," he said, receiving the punishment +without apparent emotion. "She seemed to think because she'd drawn it +herself she had a right to." +</P> + +<P> +There was a slight whimsical droop at the corner of his mouth as he +spoke, which might have been thought characteristic of him. He was an +odd-looking boy, not ill-made, though very thin and not tall. His +pallor was clear and even, as though constitutional; the features were +delicate, almost childlike, but they were very slightly distorted, +through nervous habit, to an expression at once wistful and humorous; +one eyebrow was a shade higher than the other, one side of the mouth +slightly drawn down; the eyelids twitched a little, habitually; the +fine, blue eyes themselves were almost comically reproachful—the look +of a puppy who thinks you would not have beaten him if you had known +what was in his heart. All of this was in the quality of his voice, +too, as he said to his invisible captor, with an air of detachment from +any personal feeling: +</P> + +<P> +"What peculiar shoes you wear! I don't think I ever felt any so +pointed before." +</P> + +<P> +The rescuing knight took no thought of offering to help the persecuted +damsel to arise; instead, he tightened his grip upon the prisoner's +neck until, perforce, water—not tears—started from the latter's eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"You miserable little muff," said the conqueror, "what the devil do you +mean, making this scene on our front lawn?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, it's Eugene!" exclaimed the helpless one. "They didn't expect you +till to-night. When did you get in?" +</P> + +<P> +"Just in time to give you a lesson, my buck," replied Bantry, grimly. +"In GOOD time for that, my playful step-brother." +</P> + +<P> +He began to twist the other's wrist—a treatment of bone and ligament +in the application of which school-boys and even freshmen are often +adept. Eugene made the torture acute, and was apparently enjoying the +work, when suddenly—without any manner of warning—he received an +astounding blow upon the left ear, which half stunned him for the +moment, and sent his hat flying and himself reeling, so great was the +surprise and shock of it. It was not a slap, not an open-handed push, +nothing like it, but a fierce, well-delivered blow from a clinched fist +with the shoulder behind it, and it was the girl who had given it. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you dare to touch Joe!" she cried, passionately. "Don't you lay +a finger on him." +</P> + +<P> +Furious and red, he staggered round to look at her. +</P> + +<P> +"You wretched little wild-cat, what do you mean by that?" he broke out. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you touch Joe!" she panted. "Don't you—" Her breath caught +and there was a break in her voice as she faced him. She could not +finish the repetition of that cry, "Don't you touch Joe!" +</P> + +<P> +But there was no break in the spirit, that passion of protection which +had dealt the blow. Both boys looked at her, something aghast. +</P> + +<P> +She stood before them, trembling with rage and shivering with cold in +the sudden wind which had come up. Her hair had fallen and blew across +her streaming face in brown witch-wisps; one of the ill-darned +stockings had come down and hung about her shoe in folds full of snow; +the arm which had lost its sleeve was bare and wet; thin as the arm of +a growing boy, it shook convulsively, and was red from shoulder to +clinched fist. She was covered with snow. Mists of white drift blew +across her, mercifully half veiling her. +</P> + +<P> +Eugene recovered himself. He swung round upon his heel, restored his +hat to his head with precision, picked up his stick and touched his +banjo-case with it. +</P> + +<P> +"Carry that into the house," he said, indifferently, to his +step-brother. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you do it!" said the girl, hotly, between her chattering teeth. +</P> + +<P> +Eugene turned towards her, wearing the sharp edge of a smile. Not +removing his eyes from her face, he produced with deliberation a flat +silver box from a pocket, took therefrom a cigarette, replaced the box, +extracted a smaller silver box from another pocket, shook out of it a +fusee, slowly lit the cigarette—this in a splendid silence, which he +finally broke to say, languidly, but with particular distinctness: +</P> + +<P> +"Ariel Tabor, go home!" +</P> + +<P> +The girl's teeth stopped chattering, her lips remaining parted; she +shook the hair out of her eyes and stared at him as if she did not +understand, but Joe Louden, who had picked up the banjo-case +obediently, burst into cheerful laughter. +</P> + +<P> +"That's it, 'Gene," he cried, gayly. "That's the way to talk to her!" +</P> + +<P> +"Stow it, you young cub," replied Eugene, not turning to him. "Do you +think I'm trying to be amusing?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know what you mean by 'stow it,'" Joe began, "but if—" +</P> + +<P> +"I mean," interrupted the other, not relaxing his faintly smiling stare +at the girl—"I mean that Ariel Tabor is to go home. Really, we can't +have this kind of thing occurring upon our front lawn!" +</P> + +<P> +The flush upon her wet cheeks deepened and became dark; even her arm +grew redder as she gazed back at him. In his eyes was patent his +complete realization of the figure she cut, of this bare arm, of the +strewn hair, of the fallen stocking, of the ragged shoulder of her +blouse, of her patched short skirt, of the whole dishevelled little +figure. He was the master of the house, and he was sending her home as +ill-behaved children are sent home by neighbors. +</P> + +<P> +The immobile, amused superiority of this proprietor of silver boxes, +this wearer of strange and brilliant garments, became slightly +intensified as he pointed to the fallen sleeve, a rag of red and snow, +lying near her feet. +</P> + +<P> +"You might take that with you?" he said, interrogatively. +</P> + +<P> +Her gaze had not wavered in meeting his, but at this her eyelashes +began to wink uncontrollably, her chin to tremble. She bent over the +sleeve and picked it up, before Joe Louden, who had started towards +her, could do it for her. Then turning, her head still bent so that +her face was hidden from both of them, she ran out of the gate. +</P> + +<P> +"DO go!" Joe called after her, vehemently. "Go! Just to show what a +fool you are to think 'Gene's in earnest." +</P> + +<P> +He would have followed, but his step-brother caught him by the arm. +"Don't stop her," said Eugene. "Can't you tell when I AM in earnest, +you bally muff!" +</P> + +<P> +"I know you are," returned the other, in a low voice. "I didn't want +her to think so for your sake." +</P> + +<P> +"Thousands of thanks," said Eugene, airily. "You are a wise young +judge. She couldn't stay—in THAT state, could she? I sent her for +her own good." +</P> + +<P> +"She could have gone in the house and your mother might have loaned her +a jacket," returned Joe, swallowing. "You had no business to make her +go out in the street like that." +</P> + +<P> +Eugene laughed. "There isn't a soul in sight—and there, she's all +right now. She's home." +</P> + +<P> +Ariel had run along the fence until she came to the next gate, which +opened upon a walk leading to a shabby, meandering old house of one +story, with a very long, low porch, once painted white, running the +full length of the front. Ariel sprang upon the porch and disappeared +within the house. +</P> + +<P> +Joe stood looking after her, his eyelashes winking as had hers. "You +oughtn't to have treated her that way," he said, huskily. +</P> + +<P> +Eugene laughed again. "How were YOU treating her when I came up? You +bully her all you want to yourself, but nobody else must say even a +fatherly word to her!" +</P> + +<P> +"That wasn't bullying," explained Joe. "We fight all the time." +</P> + +<P> +"Mais oui!" assented Eugene. "I fancy!" +</P> + +<P> +"What?" said the other, blankly. +</P> + +<P> +"Pick up that banjo-case again and come on," commanded Mr. Bantry, +tartly. "Where's the mater?" +</P> + +<P> +Joe stared at him. "Where's what?" +</P> + +<P> +"The mater!" was the frowning reply. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh yes, I know!" said Joe, looking at his step-brother curiously. +"I've seen it in stories. She's up-stairs. You'll be a surprise. +You're wearing lots of clothes, 'Gene." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose it will seem so to Canaan," returned the other, weariedly. +"Governor feeling fit?" +</P> + +<P> +"I never saw him," Joe replied; then caught himself. "Oh, I see what +you mean! Yes, he's all right." +</P> + +<P> +They had come into the hall, and Eugene was removing the long coat, +while his step-brother looked at him thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"'Gene," asked the latter, in a softened voice, "have you seen Mamie +Pike yet?" +</P> + +<P> +"You will find, my young friend," responded Mr. Bantry, "if you ever go +about much outside of Canaan, that ladies' names are not supposed to be +mentioned indiscriminately." +</P> + +<P> +"It's only," said Joe, "that I wanted to say that there's a dance at +their house to-night. I suppose you'll be going?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly. Are you?" +</P> + +<P> +Both knew that the question was needless; but Joe answered, gently: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh no, of course not." He leaned over and fumbled with one foot as if +to fasten a loose shoe-string. "She wouldn't be very likely to ask me." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what about it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Only that—that Arie Tabor's going." +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed!" Eugene paused on the stairs, which he had begun to ascend. +"Very interesting." +</P> + +<P> +"I thought," continued Joe, hopefully, straightening up to look at him, +"that maybe you'd dance with her. I don't believe many will ask +her—I'm afraid they won't—and if you would, even only once, it would +kind of make up for"—he faltered—"for out there," he finished, +nodding his head in the direction of the gate. +</P> + +<P> +If Eugene vouchsafed any reply, it was lost in a loud, shrill cry from +above, as a small, intensely nervous-looking woman in blue silk ran +half-way down the stairs to meet him and caught him tearfully in her +arms. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear old mater!" said Eugene. +</P> + +<P> +Joe went out of the front-door quickly. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +OLD HOPES +</H3> + +<P> +The door which Ariel had entered opened upon a narrow hall, and down +this she ran to her own room, passing, with face averted, the entrance +to the broad, low-ceilinged chamber that had served Roger Tabor as a +studio for almost fifty years. He was sitting there now, in a hopeless +and disconsolate attitude, with his back towards the double doors, +which were open, and had been open since their hinges had begun to give +way, when Ariel was a child. Hearing her step, he called her name, but +did not turn; and, receiving no answer, sighed faintly as he heard her +own door close upon her. +</P> + +<P> +Then, as his eyes wandered about the many canvases which leaned against +the dingy walls, he sighed again. Usually they showed their brown +backs, but to-day he had turned them all to face outward. Twilight, +sunset, moonlight (the Court-house in moonlight), dawn, morning, noon +(Main Street at noon), high summer, first spring, red autumn, +midwinter, all were there—illimitably detailed, worked to a smoothness +like a glaze, and all lovingly done with unthinkable labor. +</P> + +<P> +And there were "Italian Flower-Sellers," damsels with careful hair, two +figures together, one blonde, the other as brunette as lampblack, the +blonde—in pink satin and blue slippers—leaning against a pillar and +smiling over the golden coins for which she had exchanged her posies; +the brunette seated at her feet, weeping upon an unsold bouquet. There +were red-sashed "Fisher Lads" wading with butterfly-nets on their +shoulders; there was a "Tying the Ribbon on Pussy's Neck"; there were +portraits in oil and petrifactions in crayon, as hard and tight as the +purses of those who had refused to accept them, leaving them upon their +maker's hands because the likeness had failed. +</P> + +<P> +After a time the old man got up, went to his easel near a window, and, +sighing again, began patiently to work upon one of these failures—a +portrait, in oil, of a savage old lady, which he was doing from a +photograph. The expression of the mouth and the shape of the nose had +not pleased her descendants and the beneficiaries under the will, and +it was upon the images of these features that Roger labored. He leaned +far forward, with his face close to the canvas, holding his brushes +after the Spencerian fashion, working steadily through the afternoon, +and, when the light grew dimmer, leaning closer to his canvas to see. +When it had become almost dark in the room, he lit a student-lamp with +a green-glass shade, and, placing it upon a table beside him, continued +to paint. Ariel's voice interrupted him at last. +</P> + +<P> +"It's quitting-time, grandfather," she called, gently, from the doorway +behind him. +</P> + +<P> +He sank back in his chair, conscious, for the first time, of how tired +he had grown. "I suppose so," he said, "though it seemed to me that I +was just getting my hand in." His eyes brightened for a moment. "I +declare, I believe I've caught it a great deal better. Come and look, +Ariel. Doesn't it seem to you that I'm getting it? Those pearly +shadows in the flesh—" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure of it. Those people ought to be very proud to have it." She +came to him quietly, took the palette and brushes from his hands and +began to clean them, standing in the shadow behind him. "It's too good +for them." +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder if it is," he said, slowly, leaning forward and curving his +hands about his eyes so as to shut off everything from his view except +the canvas. "I wonder if it is!" he repeated. Then his hands dropped +sadly in his lap, and he sank back again with a patient kind of +revulsion. "No, no, it isn't! I always think they're good when I've +just finished them. I've been fooled that way all my life. They don't +look the same afterwards." +</P> + +<P> +"They're always beautiful," she said, softly. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, ah!" he sighed. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Roger!" she cried, with cheerful sharpness, continuing her work. +</P> + +<P> +"I know," he said, with a plaintive laugh,—"I know. Sometimes I think +that all my reward has been in the few minutes I've had just after +finishing them. During those few minutes I seem to see in them all +that I wanted to put in them; I see it because what I've been trying to +express is still so warm in my own eyes that I seem to have got it on +the canvas where I wanted it." +</P> + +<P> +"But you do," she said. "You do get it there." +</P> + +<P> +"No," he murmured, in return. "I never did. I got out some of the old +ones when I came in this morning, some that I hadn't looked at for +years, and it's the same with them. You can do it much better +yourself—your sketches show it." +</P> + +<P> +"No, no!" she protested, quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, they do; and I wondered if it was only because you were young. +But those I did when I was young are almost the same as the ones I +paint now. I haven't learned much. There hasn't been any one to show +me! And you can't learn from print, never! Yet I've grown in what I +SEE—grown so that the world is full of beauty to me that I never +dreamed of seeing when I began. But I can't paint it—I can't get it on +the canvas. Ah, I think I might have known how to, if I hadn't had to +teach myself, if I could only have seen how some of the other fellows +did their work. If I'd ever saved money to get away from Canaan—if I +could have gone away from it and come back knowing how to paint it—if +I could have got to Paris for just one month! PARIS—for just one +month!" +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps we will; you can't tell what MAY happen." It was always her +reply to this cry of his. +</P> + +<P> +"PARIS—for just one month!" he repeated, with infinite wistfulness, +and then realizing what an old, old cry it was with him, he shook his +head, impatiently sniffing out a laugh at himself, rose and went +pottering about among the canvases, returning their faces to the wall, +and railing at them mutteringly. +</P> + +<P> +"Whatever took me into it, I don't know. I might have done something +useful. But I couldn't bring myself ever to consider doing anything +else—I couldn't bear even to think of it! Lord forgive me, I even +tried to encourage your father to paint. Perhaps he might as well, poor +boy, as to have put all he'd made into buying Jonas out. Ah me! There +you go, 'Flower-Girls'! Turn your silly faces to the wall and smile +and cry there till I'm gone and somebody throws you on a bonfire. I'LL +never look at you again." He paused, with the canvas half turned. +"And yet," he went on, reflectively, "a man promised me thirty-five +dollars for that picture once. I painted it to order, but he went away +before I finished it, and never answered the letters I wrote him about +it. I wish I had the money now—perhaps we could have more than two +meals a day." +</P> + +<P> +"We don't need more," said Ariel, scraping the palette attentively. +"It's healthier with only breakfast and supper. I think I'd rather +have a new dress than dinner." +</P> + +<P> +"I dare say you would," the old man mused. "You're young—you're young. +What were you doing all this afternoon, child?" +</P> + +<P> +"In my room, trying to make over mamma's wedding-dress for to-night." +</P> + +<P> +"To-night?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mamie Pike invited me to a dance at their house." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well; I'm glad you're going to be gay," he said, not seeing the +faintly bitter smile that came to her face. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think I'll be very gay," she answered. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know why I go—nobody ever asks me to dance." +</P> + +<P> +"Why not?" he asked, with an old man's astonishment. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know. Perhaps it's because I don't dress very well." Then, +as he made a sorrowful gesture, she cut him off before he could speak. +"Oh, it isn't altogether because we're poor; it's more I don't know how +to wear what I've got, the way some girls do. I never cared much +and—well, I'M not worrying, Roger! And I think I've done a good deal +with mamma's dress. It's a very grand dress. I wonder I never thought +of wearing it until to-day. I may be"—she laughed and blushed—"I may +be the belle of the ball—who knows!" +</P> + +<P> +"You'll want me to walk over with you and come for you afterwards, I +expect." +</P> + +<P> +"Only to take me. It may be late when I come away—if a good many +SHOULD ask me to dance, for once! Of course I could come home alone. +But Joe Louden is going to sort of hang around outside, and he'll meet +me at the gate and see me safe home." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" he exclaimed, blankly. +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't it all right?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"I think I'd better come for you," he answered, gently. "The truth is, +I—I think you'd better not be with Joe Louden a great deal." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, he doesn't seem a vicious boy to me, but I'm afraid he's getting +rather a bad name, my dear." +</P> + +<P> +"He's not getting one," she said, gravely. "He's already got one. +He's had a bad name in Canaan for a long while. It grew in the first +place out of shabbiness and mischief, but it did grow; and if people +keep on giving him a bad name the time will come when he'll live up to +it. He's not any worse than I am, and I guess my own name isn't too +good—for a girl. And yet, so far, there's nothing against him except +his bad name." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid there is," said Roger. "It doesn't look very well for a +young man of his age to be doing no better than delivering papers." +</P> + +<P> +"It gives him time to study law," she answered, quickly. "If he +clerked all day in a store, he couldn't." +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't know he was studying now. I thought I'd heard that he was in +a lawyer's office for a few weeks last year, and was turned out for +setting fire to it with a pipe—" +</P> + +<P> +"It was an accident," she interposed. +</P> + +<P> +"But some pretty important papers were burned, and after that none of +the other lawyers would have him." +</P> + +<P> +"He's not in an office," she admitted. "I didn't mean that. But he +studies a great deal. He goes to the courts all the time they're in +session, and he's bought some books of his own." +</P> + +<P> +"Well—perhaps," he assented; "but they say he gambles and drinks, and +that last week Judge Pike threatened to have him arrested for throwing +dice with some negroes behind the Judge's stable." +</P> + +<P> +"What of it? I'm about the only nice person in town that will have +anything to do with him—and nobody except you thinks I'M very nice!" +</P> + +<P> +"Ariel! Ariel!" +</P> + +<P> +"I know all about his gambling with darkies," she continued, excitedly, +her voice rising, "and I know that he goes to saloons, and that he's an +intimate friend of half the riffraff in town; and I know the reason for +it, too, because he's told me. He wants to know them, to understand +them; and he says some day they'll make him a power, and then he can +help them!" +</P> + +<P> +The old man laughed helplessly. "But I can't let him bring you home, +my dear." +</P> + +<P> +She came to him slowly and laid her hands upon his shoulders. +Grandfather and granddaughter were nearly of the same height, and she +looked squarely into his eyes. "Then you must say it is because you +want to come for me, not because I mustn't come with Joe." +</P> + +<P> +"But I think it is a little because you mustn't come with Joe," he +answered, "especially from the Pikes'. Don't you see that it mightn't +be well for Joe himself, if the Judge should happen to see him? I +understand he warned the boy to keep away from the neighborhood +entirely or he would have him locked up for dice-throwing. The Judge +is a very influential man, you know, and as determined in matters like +this as he is irritable." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, if you put it on that ground," the girl replied, her eyes +softening, "I think you'd better come for me yourself." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, I put it on that ground," he returned, smiling upon her. +</P> + +<P> +"Then I'll send Joe word and get supper," she said, kissing him. +</P> + +<P> +It was the supper-hour not only for them but everywhere in Canaan, and +the cold air of the streets bore up and down and around corners the +smell of things frying. The dining-room windows of all the houses +threw bright patches on the snow of the side-yards; the windows of +other rooms, except those of the kitchens, were dark, for the rule of +the place was Puritanical in thrift, as in all things; and the good +housekeepers disputed every record of the meters with unhappy +gas-collectors. +</P> + +<P> +There was no better housekeeper in town than Mrs. Louden, nor a +thriftier, but hers was one of the few houses in Canaan, that evening, +which showed bright lights in the front rooms while the family were at +supper. It was proof of the agitation caused by the arrival of Eugene +that she forgot to turn out the gas in her parlor, and in the chamber +she called a library, on her way to the evening meal. +</P> + +<P> +That might not have been thought a cheerful feast for Joe Louden. The +fatted calf was upon the board, but it had not been provided for the +prodigal, who, in this case, was the brother that stayed at home: the +fete rewarded the good brother, who had been in strange lands, and the +good one had found much honor in his wanderings, as he carelessly let +it appear. Mrs. Louden brightened inexpressibly whenever Eugene spoke +of himself, and consequently she glowed most of the time. Her +husband—a heavy, melancholy, silent man with a grizzled beard and no +mustache—lowered at Joe throughout the meal, but appeared to take a +strange comfort in his step-son's elegance and polish. Eugene wore new +evening clothes and was lustrous to eye and ear. +</P> + +<P> +Joe escaped as soon as he could, though not before the count of his +later sins had been set before Eugene in detail, in mass, and in all of +their depth, breadth, and thickness. His father spoke but once, after +nodding heavily to confirm all points of Mrs. Louden's recital. +</P> + +<P> +"You better use any influence you've got with your brother," he said to +Eugene, "to make him come to time. I can't do anything with him. If +he gets in trouble, he needn't come to me! I'll never help him again. +I'm TIRED of it!" +</P> + +<P> +Eugene glanced twinklingly at the outcast. "I didn't know he was such +a roarer as all that!" he said, lightly, not taking Joe as of enough +consequence to be treated as a sinner. +</P> + +<P> +This encouraged Mrs. Louden to pathos upon the subject of her shame +before other women when Joe happened to be mentioned, and the supper +was finished with the topic. Joe slipped away through the kitchen, +sneakingly, and climbed the back fence. In the alley he lit a cheap +cigarette, and thrusting his hands into his pockets and shivering +violently—for he had no overcoat,—walked away singing to himself, "A +Spanish cavalier stood in his retreat," his teeth affording an +appropriate though involuntary castanet accompaniment. +</P> + +<P> +His movements throughout the earlier part of that evening are of +uncertain report. It is known that he made a partial payment of +forty-five cents at a second-hand book-store for a number of +volumes—Grindstaff on Torts and some others—which he had negotiated +on the instalment system; it is also believed that he won twenty-eight +cents playing seven-up in the little room behind Louie Farbach's bar; +but these things are of little import compared to the established fact +that at eleven o'clock he was one of the ball guests at the Pike +Mansion. He took no active part in the festivities, nor was he one of +the dancers: his was, on the contrary, the role of a quiet observer. +He lay stretched at full length upon the floor of the enclosed porch +(one of the strips of canvas was later found to have been loosened), +wedged between the outer railing and a row of palms in green tubs. The +position he occupied was somewhat too draughty to have been recommended +by a physician, but he commanded, between the leaves of the screening +palms, an excellent view of the room nearest the porch. A long window, +open, afforded communication between this room, one of those used for +dancing, and the dim bower which had been made of the veranda, whither +flirtatious couples made their way between the dances. +</P> + +<P> +It was not to play eavesdropper upon any of these that the uninvited +Joe had come. He was not there to listen, and it is possible that, had +the curtains of other windows afforded him the chance to behold the +dance, he might not have risked the dangers of his present position. +He had not the slightest interest in the whispered coquetries that he +heard; he watched only to catch now and then, over the shoulders of the +dancers, a fitful glimpse of a pretty head that flitted across the +window—the amber hair of Mamie Pike. He shivered in the draughts; and +the floor of the porch was cement, painful to elbow and knee, the space +where he lay cramped and narrow; but the golden bubbles of her hair, +the shimmer of her dainty pink dress, and the fluffy wave of her lace +scarf as she crossed and recrossed in a waltz, left him, apparently, in +no discontent. He watched with parted lips, his pale cheeks reddening +whenever those fair glimpses were his. At last she came out to the +veranda with Eugene and sat upon a little divan, so close to Joe that, +daring wildly in the shadow, he reached out a trembling hand and let +his fingers rest upon the end of her scarf, which had fallen from her +shoulders and touched the floor. She sat with her back to him, as did +Eugene. +</P> + +<P> +"You have changed, I think, since last summer," he heard her say, +reflectively. +</P> + +<P> +"For the worse, ma cherie?" Joe's expression might have been worth +seeing when Eugene said "ma cherie," for it was known in the Louden +household that Mr. Bantry had failed to pass his examination in the +French language. +</P> + +<P> +"No," she answered. "But you have seen so much and accomplished so +much since then. You have become so polished and so—" She paused, and +then continued, "But perhaps I'd better not say it; you might be +offended." +</P> + +<P> +"No. I want you to say it," he returned, confidently, and his +confidence was fully justified, for she said: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, then, I mean that you have become so thoroughly a man of the +world. Now I've said it! You ARE offended—aren't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not at all, not at all," replied Mr. Bantry, preventing by a masterful +effort his pleasure from showing in his face. "Though I suppose you +mean to imply that I'm rather wicked." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh no," said Mamie, with profound admiration, "not exactly wicked." +</P> + +<P> +"University life IS fast nowadays," Eugene admitted. "It's difficult +not to be drawn into it!" +</P> + +<P> +"And I suppose you look down on poor little Canaan now, and everybody +in it!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh no," he laughed, indulgently. "Not at all, not at all! I find it +very amusing." +</P> + +<P> +"All of it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not you," he answered, becoming very grave. +</P> + +<P> +"Honestly—DON'T you?" Her young voice trembled a little. +</P> + +<P> +"Honestly—indeed—truly—" Eugene leaned very close to her and the +words were barely audible. +</P> + +<P> +"You KNOW I don't!" +</P> + +<P> +"Then I'm—glad," she whispered, and Joe saw his step-brother touch her +hand, but she rose quickly. "There's the music," she cried, happily. +"It's a waltz, and it's YOURS!" +</P> + +<P> +Joe heard her little high heels tapping gayly towards the window, +followed by the heavier tread of Eugene, but he did not watch them go. +</P> + +<P> +He lay on his back, with the hand that had touched Mamie's scarf +pressed across his closed eyes. +</P> + +<P> +The music of that waltz was of the old-fashioned swingingly sorrowful +sort, and it would be hard to say how long it was after that before the +boy could hear the air played without a recurrence of the bitterness of +that moment. The rhythmical pathos of the violins was in such accord +with a faint sound of weeping which he heard near him, presently, that +for a little while he believed this sound to be part of the music and +part of himself. Then it became more distinct, and he raised himself +on one elbow to look about. +</P> + +<P> +Very close to him, sitting upon the divan in the shadow, was a girl +wearing a dress of beautiful silk. She was crying softly, her face in +her hands. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE DISASTER +</H3> + +<P> +Ariel had worked all the afternoon over her mother's wedding-gown, and +two hours were required by her toilet for the dance. She curled her +hair frizzily, burning it here and there, with a slate-pencil heated +over a lamp chimney, and she placed above one ear three or four large +artificial roses, taken from an old hat of her mother's, which she had +found in a trunk in the store-room. Possessing no slippers, she +carefully blacked and polished her shoes, which had been clumsily +resoled, and fastened into the strings of each small rosettes of red +ribbon; after which she practised swinging the train of her skirt until +she was proud of her manipulation of it. She had no powder, but found +in her grandfather's room a lump of magnesia, that he was in the habit +of taking for heart-burn, and passed it over and over her brown face +and hands. Then a lingering gaze into her small mirror gave her joy at +last: she yearned so hard to see herself charming that she did see +herself so. Admiration came and she told herself that she was more +attractive to look at than she had ever been in her life, and that, +perhaps, at last she might begin to be sought for like other girls. +The little glass showed a sort of prettiness in her thin, unmatured +young face; tripping dance-tunes ran through her head, her feet keeping +the time,—ah, she did so hope to dance often that night! +Perhaps—perhaps she might be asked for every number. And so, wrapping +an old waterproof cloak about her, she took her grandfather's arm and +sallied forth, high hopes in her beating heart. +</P> + +<P> +It was in the dressing-room that the change began to come. Alone, at +home in her own ugly little room, she had thought herself almost +beautiful, but here in the brightly lighted chamber crowded with the +other girls it was different. There was a big cheval-glass at one end +of the room, and she faced it, when her turn came—for the mirror was +popular—with a sinking spirit. There was the contrast, like a picture +painted and framed. The other girls all wore their hair after the +fashion introduced to Canaan by Mamie Pike the week before, on her +return from a visit to Chicago. None of them had "crimped" and none +had bedecked their tresses with artificial flowers. Her alterations of +the wedding-dress had not been successful; the skirt was too short in +front and higher on one side than on the other, showing too plainly the +heavy-soled shoes, which had lost most of their polish in the walk +through the snow. The ribbon rosettes were fully revealed, and as she +glanced at their reflection she heard the words, "LOOK AT THAT TRAIN +AND THOSE ROSETTES!" whispered behind her, and saw in the mirror two +pretty young women turn away with their handkerchiefs over their mouths +and retreat hurriedly to an alcove. All the feet in the room except +Ariel's were in dainty kid or satin slippers of the color of the +dresses from which they glimmered out, and only Ariel wore a train. +</P> + +<P> +She went away from the mirror and pretended to be busy with a hanging +thread in her sleeve. +</P> + +<P> +She was singularly an alien in the chattering room, although she had +been born and lived all her life in the town. Perhaps her position +among the young ladies may be best defined by the remark, generally +current among them, that evening, to the effect that it was "very sweet +of Mamie to invite her." Ariel was not like the others; she was not of +them, and never had been. Indeed, she did not know them very well. +Some of them nodded to her and gave her a word of greeting pleasantly; +all of them whispered about her with wonder and suppressed amusement; +but none talked to her. They were not unkindly, but they were young +and eager and excited over their own interests,—which were then in the +"gentlemen's dressing-room." +</P> + +<P> +Each of the other girls had been escorted by a youth of the place, and, +one by one, joining these escorts in the hall outside the door, they +descended the stairs, until only Ariel was left. She came down alone +after the first dance had begun, and greeted her young hostess's mother +timidly. Mrs. Pike—a small, frightened-looking woman with a prominent +ruby necklace—answered her absently, and hurried away to see that the +imported waiters did not steal anything. +</P> + +<P> +Ariel sat in one of the chairs against the wall and watched the dancers +with a smile of eager and benevolent interest. In Canaan no parents, +no guardians nor aunts, were haled forth o' nights to duenna the +junketings of youth; Mrs. Pike did not reappear, and Ariel sat +conspicuously alone; there was nothing else for her to do. It was not +an easy matter. +</P> + +<P> +When the first dance reached an end, Mamie Pike came to her for a +moment with a cheery welcome, and was immediately surrounded by a +circle of young men and women, flushed with dancing, shouting as was +their wont, laughing inexplicably over words and phrases and +unintelligible mono-syllables, as if they all belonged to a secret +society and these cries were symbols of things exquisitely humorous, +which only they understood. Ariel laughed with them more heartily than +any other, so that she might seem to be of them and as merry as they +were, but almost immediately she found herself outside of the circle, +and presently they all whirled away into another dance, and she was +left alone again. +</P> + +<P> +So she sat, no one coming near her, through several dances, trying to +maintain the smile of delighted interest upon her face, though she felt +the muscles of her face beginning to ache with their fixedness, her +eyes growing hot and glazed. All the other girls were provided with +partners for every dance, with several young men left over, these +latter lounging hilariously together in the doorways. Ariel was careful +not to glance towards them, but she could not help hating them. Once +or twice between the dances she saw Miss Pike speak appealingly to one +of the superfluous, glancing, at the same time, in her own direction, +and Ariel could see, too, that the appeal proved unsuccessful, until at +last Mamie approached her, leading Norbert Flitcroft, partly by the +hand, partly by will-power. Norbert was an excessively fat boy, and at +the present moment looked as patient as the blind. But he asked Ariel +if she was "engaged for the next dance," and, Mamie having flitted +away, stood disconsolately beside her, waiting for the music to begin. +Ariel was grateful for him. +</P> + +<P> +"I think you must be very good-natured, Mr. Flitcroft," she said, with +an air of raillery. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I'm not," he replied, plaintively. "Everybody thinks I am because +I'm fat, and they expect me to do things they never dream of asking +anybody else to do. I'd like to see 'em even ASK 'Gene Bantry to go +and do some of the things they get me to do! A person isn't +good-natured just because he's fat," he concluded, morbidly, "but he +might as well be!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I meant good-natured," she returned, with a sprightly laugh, +"because you're willing to waltz with me." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, well," he returned, sighing, "that's all right." +</P> + +<P> +The orchestra flourished into "La Paloma"; he put his arm mournfully +about her, and taking her right hand with his left, carried her arm out +to a rigid right angle, beginning to pump and balance for time. They +made three false starts and then got away. Ariel danced badly; she +hopped and lost the step, but they persevered, bumping against other +couples continually. Circling breathlessly into the next room, they +passed close to a long mirror, in which Ariel saw herself, although in +a flash, more bitterly contrasted to the others than in the +cheval-glass of the dressing-room. The clump of roses was flopping +about her neck, her crimped hair looked frowzy, and there was something +terribly wrong about her dress. Suddenly she felt her train to be +ominously grotesque, as a thing following her in a nightmare. +</P> + +<P> +A moment later she caught her partner making a burlesque face of +suffering over her shoulder, and, turning her head quickly, saw for +whose benefit he had constructed it. Eugene Bantry, flying expertly by +with Mamie, was bestowing upon Mr. Flitcroft a condescendingly +commiserative wink. The next instant she tripped in her train and fell +to the floor at Eugene's feet, carrying her partner with her. +</P> + +<P> +There was a shout of laughter. The young hostess stopped Eugene, who +would have gone on, and he had no choice but to stoop to Ariel's +assistance. +</P> + +<P> +"It seems to be a habit of mine," she said, laughing loudly. +</P> + +<P> +She did not appear to see the hand he offered, but got to her feet +without help and walked quickly away with Norbert, who proceeded to +live up to the character he had given himself. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps we had better not try it again," she laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I should think not," he returned, with the frankest gloom. With +the air of conducting her home he took her to the chair against the +wall whence he had brought her. There his responsibility for her +seemed to cease. "Will you excuse me?" he asked, and there was no +doubt that he felt that he had been given more than his share that +evening, even though he was fat. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, indeed." Her laughter was continuous. "I should think you WOULD +be glad to get rid of me after that. Ha, ha, ha! Poor Mr. Flitcroft, +you know you are!" +</P> + +<P> +It was the deadly truth, and the fat one, saying, "Well, if you'll just +excuse me now," hurried away with a step which grew lighter as the +distance from her increased. Arrived at the haven of a far doorway, he +mopped his brow and shook his head grimly in response to frequent +rallyings. +</P> + +<P> +Ariel sat through more dances, interminable dances and intermissions, +in that same chair, in which, it began to seem, she was to live out the +rest of her life. Now and then, if she thought people were looking at +her as they passed, she broke into a laugh and nodded slightly, as if +still amused over her mishap. +</P> + +<P> +After a long time she rose, and laughing cheerfully to Mr. Flitcroft, +who was standing in the doorway and replied with a wan smile, stepped +out quickly into the hall, where she almost ran into her great-uncle, +Jonas Tabor. He was going towards the big front doors with Judge Pike, +having just come out of the latter's library, down the hall. +</P> + +<P> +Jonas was breathing heavily and was shockingly pale, though his eyes +were very bright. He turned his back upon his grandniece sharply and +went out of the door. Ariel turned from him quite as abruptly and +re-entered the room whence she had come. She laughed again to her fat +friend as she passed him, and, still laughing, went towards the fatal +chair, when her eyes caught sight of Eugene Bantry and Mamie coming in +through the window from the porch. Still laughing, she went to the +window and looked out; the porch seemed deserted and was faintly +illuminated by a few Japanese lanterns. She sprang out, dropped upon +the divan, and burying her face in her hands, cried heart-brokenly. +Presently she felt something alive touch her foot, and, her breath +catching with alarm, she started to rise. A thin hand, issuing from a +shabby sleeve, had stolen out between two of the green tubs and was +pressing upon one of her shoes. +</P> + +<P> +"'SH!" said Joe. "Don't make a noise!" +</P> + +<P> +His warning was not needed; she had recognized the hand and sleeve +instantly. She dropped back with a low sound which would have been +hysterical if it had been louder, while he raised himself on his arm +until she could see his face dimly, as he peered at her between the +palms. +</P> + +<P> +"What were you going on about?" he asked, angrily. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing," she answered. "I wasn't. You must go away, and quick. +It's too dangerous. If the Judge found you—" +</P> + +<P> +"He won't!" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, you'd risk anything to see Mamie Pike—" +</P> + +<P> +"What were you crying about?" he interrupted. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing, I tell you!" she repeated, the tears not ceasing to gather in +her eyes. "I wasn't." +</P> + +<P> +"I want to know what it was," he insisted. "Didn't the fools ask you to +dance? Ah! You needn't tell me. That's it. I've been here for the +last three dances and you weren't in sight till you came to the window. +Well, what do you care about that for?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't!" she answered. "I don't!" Then suddenly, without being able +to prevent it, she sobbed. +</P> + +<P> +"No," he said, gently, "I see you don't. And you let yourself be a +fool because there are a lot of fools in there." +</P> + +<P> +She gave way, all at once, to a gust of sorrow and bitterness; she bent +far over and caught his hand and laid it against her wet cheek. "Oh, +Joe," she whispered, brokenly, "I think we have such hard lives, you +and I! It doesn't seem right—while we're so young! Why can't we be +like the others? Why can't we have some of the fun?" +</P> + +<P> +He withdrew his hand, with the embarrassment and shame he would have +felt had she been a boy. "Get out!" he said, feebly. +</P> + +<P> +She did not seem to notice, but, still stooping, rested her elbows on +her knees and her face in her hands. "I try so hard to have fun, to be +like the rest,—and it's always a mistake, always, always, always!" +She rocked herself, slightly, from side to side. "I am a fool, it's +the truth, or I wouldn't have come to-night. I want to be +attractive—I want to be in things. I want to laugh like they do—" +</P> + +<P> +"To laugh just to laugh, and not because there's something funny?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I do, I do! And to know how to dress and to wear my hair—there +must be some place where you can learn those things. I've never had +any one to show me! Ah! Grandfather said something like that this +afternoon—poor man! We're in the same case. If we only had some one +to show us! It all seems so BLIND, here in Canaan, for him and me! I +don't say it's not my own fault as much as being poor. I've been a +hoyden; I don't feel as if I'd learned how to be a girl yet, Joe. It's +only lately I've cared, but I'm seventeen, Joe, and—and +to-day—to-day—I was sent home—and to-night—" She faltered, came to +a stop, and her whole body was shaken with sobs. "I hate myself so for +crying—for everything!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll tell you something," he whispered, chuckling desperately. "'Gene +made me unpack his trunk, and I don't believe he's as great a man at +college as he is here. I opened one of his books, and some one had +written in it, 'Prigamaloo Bantry, the Class Try-To-Be'! He'd never +noticed, and you ought to have heard him go on! You'd have just died, +Ariel—I almost bust wide open! It was a mean trick in me, but I +couldn't help showing it to him." +</P> + +<P> +Joe's object was obtained. She stopped crying, and, wiping her eyes, +smiled faintly. Then she became grave. "You're jealous of Eugene," +she said. +</P> + +<P> +He considered this for a moment. "Yes," he answered, thoughtfully, "I +am. But I wouldn't think about him differently on that account. And I +wouldn't talk about him to any one but you." +</P> + +<P> +"Not even to—" She left the question unfinished. +</P> + +<P> +"No," he said, quietly. "Of course not." +</P> + +<P> +"No? Because it wouldn't be any use?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know. I never have a chance to talk to her, anyway." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course you don't!" Her voice had grown steady. "You say I'm a +fool. What are you?" +</P> + +<P> +"You needn't worry about me," he began. "I can take care—" +</P> + +<P> +"'SH!" she whispered, warningly. The music had stopped, a loud clatter +of voices and laughter succeeding it. +</P> + +<P> +"What need to be careful," Joe assured her, "with all that noise going +on?" +</P> + +<P> +"You must go away," she said, anxiously. "Oh, please, Joe!" +</P> + +<P> +"Not yet; I want—" +</P> + +<P> +She coughed loudly. Eugene and Mamie Pike had come to the window, with +the evident intention of occupying the veranda, but perceiving Ariel +engaged with threads in her sleeve, they turned away and disappeared. +Other couples looked out from time to time, and finding the solitary +figure in possession, retreated abruptly to seek stairways and remote +corners for the things they were impelled to say. +</P> + +<P> +And so Ariel held the porch for three dances and three intermissions, +occupying a great part of the time with entreaties that her obdurate +and reckless companion should go. When, for the fourth time, the music +sounded, her agitation had so increased that she was visibly trembling. +"I can't stand it, Joe," she said, bending over him. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know what would happen if they found you. You've GOT to go!" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I haven't," he chuckled. "They haven't even distributed the +supper yet!" +</P> + +<P> +"And you take all the chances," she said, slowly, "just to see her pass +that window a few times." +</P> + +<P> +"What chances?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of what the Judge will do if any one sees you." +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing; because if any one saw me I'd leave." +</P> + +<P> +"Please go." +</P> + +<P> +"Not till—" +</P> + +<P> +"'SH!" +</P> + +<P> +A colored waiter, smiling graciously, came out upon the porch bearing a +tray of salad, hot oysters, and coffee. Ariel shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want any," she murmured. +</P> + +<P> +The waiter turned away in pity and was re-entering the window, when a +passionate whisper fell upon his ear as well as upon Ariel's. +</P> + +<P> +"TAKE IT!" +</P> + +<P> +"Ma'am?" said the waiter. +</P> + +<P> +"I've changed my mind," she replied, quickly. The waiter, his elation +restored, gave of his viands with the superfluous bounty loved by his +race when distributing the product of the wealthy. +</P> + +<P> +When he had gone, "Give me everything that's hot," said Joe. "You can +keep the salad." +</P> + +<P> +"I couldn't eat it or anything else," she answered, thrusting the plate +between the palms. +</P> + +<P> +For a time there was silence. From within the house came the +continuous babble of voices and laughter, the clink of cutlery on +china. The young people spent a long time over their supper. By-and-by +the waiter returned to the veranda, deposited a plate of colored ices +upon Ariel's knees with a noble gesture, and departed. +</P> + +<P> +"No ice for me," said Joe. +</P> + +<P> +"Won't you please go now?" she entreated! +</P> + +<P> +"It wouldn't be good manners," he responded. "They might think I only +came for supper—" +</P> + +<P> +"Hand me back the things. The waiter might come for them any minute." +</P> + +<P> +"Not yet. I haven't quite finished. I eat with contemplation, Ariel, +because there's more than the mere food and the warmth of it to +consider. There's the pleasure of being entertained by the great Martin +Pike. Think what a real kindness I'm doing him, too. I increase his +good deeds and his hospitality without his knowing it or being able to +help it. Don't you see how I boost his standing with the Recording +Angel? If Lazarus had behaved the way I do, Dives needn't have had +those worries that came to him in the after-life." +</P> + +<P> +"Give me the dish and coffee-cup," she whispered, impatiently. +"Suppose the waiter came and had to look for them? Quick!" +</P> + +<P> +"Take them, then. You'll see that jealousy hasn't spoiled my +appetite—" +</P> + +<P> +A bottle-shaped figure appeared in the window and she had no time to +take the plate and cup which were being pushed through the palm-leaves. +She whispered a syllable of warning, and the dishes were hurriedly +withdrawn as Norbert Flitcroft, wearing a solemn expression of injury, +came out upon the veranda. +</P> + +<P> +He halted suddenly. "What's that?" he asked, with suspicion. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing," answered Ariel, sharply. "Where?" +</P> + +<P> +"Behind those palms." +</P> + +<P> +"Probably your own shadow," she laughed; "or it might have been a +draught moving the leaves." +</P> + +<P> +He did not seem satisfied, but stared hard at the spot where the dishes +had disappeared, meantime edging back cautiously nearer the window. +</P> + +<P> +"They want you," he said, after a pause. "Some one's come for you." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, is grandfather waiting?" She rose, at the same time letting her +handkerchief fall. She stooped to pick it up, with her face away from +Norbert and towards the palms, whispering tremulously, but with +passionate urgency, "Please GO!" +</P> + +<P> +"It isn't your grandfather that has come for you," said the fat one, +slowly. "It is old Eskew Arp. Something's happened." +</P> + +<P> +She looked at him for a moment, beginning to tremble violently, her +eyes growing wide with fright. +</P> + +<P> +"Is my grandfather—is he sick?" +</P> + +<P> +"You better go and see. Old Eskew's waiting in the hall. He'll tell +you." +</P> + +<P> +She was by him and through the window instantly. Norbert did not follow +her; he remained for several moments looking earnestly at the palms; +then he stepped through the window and beckoned to a youth who was +lounging in the doorway across the room. +</P> + +<P> +"There's somebody hiding behind those plants," he whispered, when his +friend reached him. "Go and tell Judge Pike to send some of the +niggers to watch outside the porch, so that he doesn't get away. Then +tell him to get his revolver and come here." +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile Ariel had found Mr. Arp waiting in the hall, talking in a low +voice to Mrs. Pike. +</P> + +<P> +"Your grandfather's all right," he told the frightened girl, quickly. +"He sent me for you, that's all. Just hurry and get your things." +</P> + +<P> +She was with him again in a moment, and seizing the old man's arm, +hurried him down the steps and toward the street almost at a run. +</P> + +<P> +"You're not telling me the truth," she said. "You're not telling me the +truth!" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing has happened to Roger," panted Mr. Arp. "Nothing to mind, I +mean. Here! We're going this way, not that." They had come to the +gate, and as she turned to the right he pulled her round sharply to the +left. "We're not going to your house." +</P> + +<P> +"Where are we going?" +</P> + +<P> +"We're going to your uncle Jonas's." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" she cried, in supreme astonishment. "What do you want to take me +there for? Don't you know that he's stopped speaking to me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said the old man, grimly, with something of the look he wore +when delivering a clincher at the "National House,"—"he's stopped +speaking to everybody." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +V +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BEAVER BEACH +</H3> + +<P> +The Canaan Daily Tocsin of the following morning "ventured the +assertion" upon its front page that "the scene at the Pike Mansion was +one of unalloyed festivity, music, and mirth; a fairy bower of airy +figures wafting here and there to the throb of waltz-strains; a +veritable Temple of Terpsichore, shining forth with a myriad of lights, +which, together with the generous profusion of floral decorations and +the mingled delights afforded by Minds's orchestra of Indianapolis and +Caterer Jones of Chicago, was in all likelihood never heretofore +surpassed in elegance in our city.... Only one incident," the Tocsin +remarked, "marred an otherwise perfect occasion, and out of regard for +the culprit's family connections, which are prominent in our social +world, we withhold his name. Suffice it to say that through the +vigilance of Mr. Norbert Flitcroft, grandson of Colonel A. A. +Flitcroft, who proved himself a thorough Lecoq (the celebrated French +detective), the rascal was seized and recognized. Mr. Flitcroft, +having discovered him in hiding, had a cordon of waiters drawn up +around his hiding-place, which was the charmingly decorated side piazza +of the Pike Mansion, and sent for Judge Pike, who came upon the +intruder by surprise. He evaded the Judge's indignant grasp, but +received a well-merited blow over the head from a poker which the Judge +had concealed about his person while pretending to approach the +hiding-place casually. Attracted to the scene by the cries of Mr. +Flitcroft, who, standing behind Judge Pike, accidentally received a +blow from the same weapon, all the guests of the evening sprang to view +the scene, only to behold the culprit leap through a crevice between +the strips of canvas which enclosed the piazza. He was seized by the +colored coachman of the Mansion, Sam Warden, and immediately pounced +upon by the cordon of Caterer Jones's dusky assistants from Chicago, +who were in ambush outside. Unfortunately, after a brief struggle he +managed to trip Warden, and, the others stumbling upon the prostrate +body of the latter, to make his escape in the darkness. +</P> + +<P> +"It is not believed by many that his intention was burglary, though +what his designs were can only be left to conjecture, as he is far +beyond the age when boys perform such actions out of a sense of +mischief. He had evidently occupied his hiding-place some time, and an +idea of his coolness may be obtained from his having procured and eaten +a full meal through an unknown source. Judge Pike is justly incensed, +and swears that he will prosecute him on this and other charges as soon +as he can be found. Much sympathy is felt for the culprit's family, +who feel his shame most keenly, but who, though sorrowing over the +occurrence, declare that they have put up with his derelictions long +enough, and will do nothing to step between him and the Judge's +righteous indignation." +</P> + +<P> +The Pike Mansion, "scene of festivity, music, and mirth" (not quite so +unalloyed, after all, the stricken Flitcroft keeping his room for a +week under medical supervision), had not been the only bower of the +dance in Canaan that evening: another Temple of Terpsichore had shone +forth with lights, though of these there were not quite a myriad. The +festivities they illumined obtained no mention in the paper, nor did +they who trod the measures in this second temple exhibit any sense of +injury because of the Tocsin's omission. Nay, they were of that class, +shy without being bashful, exclusive yet not proud, which shuns +publicity with a single-heartedness almost unique in our republic, +courting observation neither in the prosecution of their professions +nor in the pursuit of happiness. +</P> + +<P> +Not quite a mile above the northernmost of the factories on the +water-front, there projected into the river, near the end of the +crescent bend above the town, a long pier, relic of steamboat days, +rotting now, and many years fallen from its maritime uses. About +midway of its length stood a huge, crazy shed, long ago utilized as a +freight storeroom. This had been patched and propped, and a +dangerous-looking veranda attached to it, over-hanging the water. +Above the doorway was placed a sign whereon might be read the words, +"Beaver Beach, Mike's Place." The shore end of the pier was so ruinous +that passage was offered by a single row of planks, which presented an +appearance so temporary, as well as insecure, that one might have +guessed their office to be something in the nature of a drawbridge. +From these a narrow path ran through a marsh, left by the receding +river, to a country road of desolate appearance. Here there was a +rough enclosure, or corral, with some tumble-down sheds which afforded +shelter, on the night of Joseph Louden's disgrace, for a number of +shaggy teams attached to those decrepit and musty vehicles known +picturesquely and accurately as Night-Hawks. The presence of such +questionable shapes in the corral indicated that the dance was on at +Beaver Beach, Mike's Place, as surely as the short line of cabs and +family carriages on upper Main Street made it known that gayety was the +order of the night at the Pike Mansion. But among other differences +was this, that at the hour when the guests of the latter were leaving, +those seeking the hospitalities of Beaver Beach had just begun to +arrive. +</P> + +<P> +By three o'clock, however, joy at Mike's Place had become beyond +question unconfined, and the tokens of it were audible for a long +distance in all directions. If, however, there is no sound where no +ear hears, silence rested upon the country-side until an hour later. +Then a lonely figure came shivering from the direction of the town, not +by the road, but slinking through the snow upon the frozen river. It +came slowly, as though very tired, and cautiously, too, often turning +its head to look behind. Finally it reached the pier, and stopped as +if to listen. +</P> + +<P> +Within the house above, a piano of evil life was being beaten to death +for its sins and clamoring its last cries horribly. The old shed +rattled in every part with the thud of many heavy feet, and trembled +with the shock of noise—an incessant roar of men's voices, punctuated +with women's screams. Then the riot quieted somewhat; there was a +clapping of hands, and a violin began to squeak measures intended to be +Oriental. The next moment the listener scrambled up one of the rotting +piles and stood upon the veranda. A shaft of red light through a +broken shutter struck across the figure above the shoulders, revealing +a bloody handkerchief clumsily knotted about the head, and, beneath it, +the face of Joe Louden. +</P> + +<P> +He went to the broken shutter and looked in. Around the blackened walls +of the room stood a bleared mob, applausively watching, through a fog +of smoke, the contortions of an old woman in a red calico wrapper, who +was dancing in the centre of the floor. The fiddler—a rubicund person +evidently not suffering from any great depression of spirit through the +circumstance of being "out on bail," as he was, to Joe's intimate +knowledge—sat astride a barrel, resting his instrument upon the foamy +tap thereof, and playing somewhat after the manner of a 'cellist; in no +wise incommoded by the fact that a tall man (known to a few friends as +an expert in the porch-climbing line) was sleeping on his shoulder, +while another gentleman (who had prevented many cases of typhoid by +removing old plumbing from houses) lay on the floor at the musician's +feet and endeavored to assist him by plucking the strings of the fiddle. +</P> + +<P> +Joe opened the door and went in. All of the merry company (who were +able) turned sharply toward the door as it opened; then, recognizing +the new-comer, turned again to watch the old woman. One or two nearest +the door asked the boy, without great curiosity, what had happened to +his head. He merely shook it faintly in reply, and crossed the room to +an open hallway beyond. At the end of this he came to a frowzy bedroom, +the door of which stood ajar. Seated at a deal table, and working by a +dim lamp with a broken chimney, a close-cropped, red-bearded, +red-haired man in his shirt-sleeves was jabbing gloomily at a column of +figures scrawled in a dirty ledger. He looked up as Joe appeared in +the doorway, and his eyes showed a slight surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"I never thought ye had the temper to git somebody to split yer head," +said he. "Where'd ye collect it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nowhere," Joe answered, dropping weakly on the bed. "It doesn't +amount to anything." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'll take just a look fer myself," said the red-bearded man, +rising. "And I've no objection to not knowin' how ye come by it. +Ye've always been the great one fer keepin' yer mysteries to yerself." +</P> + +<P> +He unwound the handkerchief and removed it from Joe's head gently. +"WHEE!" he cried, as a long gash was exposed over the forehead. "I +hope ye left a mark somewhere to pay a little on the score o' this!" +</P> + +<P> +Joe chuckled and dropped dizzily back upon the pillow. "There was +another who got something like it," he gasped, feebly; "and, oh, Mike, +I wish you could have heard him going on! Perhaps you did—it was only +three miles from here." +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing I'd liked better!" said the other, bringing a basin of clear +water from a stand in the corner. "It's a beautiful thing to hear a +man holler when he gits a grand one like ye're wearing to-night." +</P> + +<P> +He bathed the wound gently, and hurrying from the room, returned +immediately with a small jug of vinegar. Wetting a rag with this +tender fluid, he applied it to Joe's head, speaking soothingly the +while. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing in the world like a bit o' good cider vinegar to keep off the +festerin'. It may seem a trifle scratchy fer the moment, but it +assassinates the blood-p'ison. There ye go! It's the fine thing fer +ye, Joe—what are ye squirmin' about?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm only enjoying it," the boy answered, writhing as the vinegar +worked into the gash. "Don't you mind my laughing to myself." +</P> + +<P> +"Ye're a good one, Joe!" said the other, continuing his ministrations. +"I wisht, after all, ye felt like makin' me known to what's the +trouble. There's some of us would be glad to take it up fer ye, and—" +</P> + +<P> +"No, no; it's all right. I was somewhere I had no business to be, and +I got caught." +</P> + +<P> +"Who caught ye?" +</P> + +<P> +"First, some nice white people"—Joe smiled his distorted smile—"and +then a low-down black man helped me to get away as soon as he saw who +it was. He's a friend of mine, and he fell down and tripped up the +pursuit." +</P> + +<P> +"I always knew ye'd git into large trouble some day." The red-bearded +man tore a strip from an old towel and began to bandage the boy's head +with an accustomed hand. "Yer taste fer excitement has been growin' on +ye every minute of the four years I've known ye." +</P> + +<P> +"Excitement!" echoed Joe, painfully blinking at his friend. "Do you +think I'm hunting excitement?" +</P> + +<P> +"Be hanged to ye!" said the red-bearded man. "Can't I say a teasing +word without gittin' called to order fer it? I know ye, my boy, as +well as ye know yerself. Ye're a queer one. Ye're one of the few that +must know all sides of the world—and can't content themselves with +bein' respectable! Ye haven't sunk to 'low life' because ye're low +yourself, but ye'll never git a damned one o' the respectable to +believe it. There's a few others like ye in the wide world, and I've +seen one or two of 'em. I've been all over, steeple-chasin', +sailorman, soldier, pedler, and in the PO-lice; I've pulled the Grand +National in Paris, and I've been handcuffed in Hong-Kong; I've seen all +the few kinds of women there is on earth and the many kinds of men. +Yer own kind is the one I've seen the fewest of, but I knew ye belonged +to it the first time I laid eyes on ye!" He paused, then continued +with conviction: "Ye'll come to no good, either, fer yerself, yet no +one can say ye haven't the talents. Ye've helped many of the boys out +of a bad hole with a word of advice around the courts and the jail. +Who knows but ye'd be a great lawyer if ye kept on?" +</P> + +<P> +Young people usually like to discuss themselves under any +conditions—hence the rewards of palmistry,—but Joe's comment on this +harangue was not so responsive as might have been expected. "I've got +seven dollars," he said, "and I'll leave the clothes I've got on. Can +you fix me up with something different?" +</P> + +<P> +"Aha!" cried the red-bearded man. "Then ye ARE in trouble! I thought +it 'd come to ye some day! Have ye been dinnymitin' Martin Pike?" +</P> + +<P> +"See what you can do," said Joe. "I want to wait here until daybreak." +</P> + +<P> +"Lie down, then," interrupted the other. "And fergit the hullabaloo in +the throne-room beyond." +</P> + +<P> +"I can easily do that"—Joe stretched himself upon the bed,—"I've got +so many other things to remember." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll have the things fer ye, and I'll let ye know I have no use fer +seven dollars," returned the red-bearded man, crossly. "What are ye +sniffin' fer?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm thinking of the poor fellow that got the mate to this," said Joe, +touching the bandage. "I can't help crying when I think they may have +used vinegar on his head, too." +</P> + +<P> +"Git to sleep if ye can!" exclaimed the Samaritan, as a hideous burst +of noise came from the dance-room, where some one seemed to be breaking +a chair upon an acquaintance. "I'll go out and regulate the boys a +bit." He turned down the lamp, fumbled in his hip-pocket, and went to +the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't forget," Joe called after him. +</P> + +<P> +"Go to sleep," said the red-bearded man, his hand on the door-knob. +"That is, go to thinkin', fer ye won't sleep; ye're not the kind. But +think easy; I'll have the things fer ye. It's a matter of pride with +me that I always knew ye'd come to trouble." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +YE'LL TAK' THE HIGH ROAD AND I'LL TAK' THE LOW ROAD +</H3> + +<P> +The day broke with a scream of wind out of the prairies and such +cloudbursts of snow that Joe could see neither bank of the river as he +made his way down the big bend of ice. The wind struck so bitterly that +now and then he stopped and, panting and gasping, leaned his weight +against it. The snow on the ground was caught up and flew like sea +spume in a hurricane; it swirled about him, joining the flakes in the +air, so that it seemed to be snowing from the ground upward as much as +from the sky downward. Fierce as it was, hard as it was to fight +through, snow from the earth, snow from the sky, Joe was grateful for +it, feeling that it veiled him, making him safer, though he trusted +somewhat the change of costume he had effected at Beaver Beach. A +rough, workman's cap was pulled down over his ears and eyebrows; a +knitted comforter was wound about the lower part of his face; under a +ragged overcoat he wore blue overalls and rubber boots; and in one of +his red-mittened hands he swung a tin dinner-bucket. +</P> + +<P> +When he reached the nearest of the factories he heard the exhaust of +its engines long before he could see the building, so blinding was the +drift. Here he struck inland from the river, and, skirting the edges of +the town, made his way by unfrequented streets and alleys, bearing in +the general direction of upper Main Street, to find himself at last, +almost exhausted, in the alley behind the Pike Mansion. There he +paused, leaning heavily against a board fence and gazing at the vaguely +outlined gray plane which was all that could be made of the house +through the blizzard. He had often, very often, stood in this same +place at night, and there was one window (Mrs. Pike's) which he had +guessed to be Mamie's. +</P> + +<P> +The storm was so thick that he could not see this window now, but he +looked a long time through the thickness at that part of the gray plane +where he knew it was. Then his lips parted. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-bye, Mamie," he said, softly. "Goodbye, Mamie." +</P> + +<P> +He bent his body against the wind and went on, still keeping to the +back ways, until he came to the alley which passed behind his own home, +where, however, he paused only for a moment to make a quick survey of +the premises. A glance satisfied him; he ran to the next fence, +hoisted himself wearily over it, and dropped into Roger Tabor's back +yard. +</P> + +<P> +He took shelter from the wind for a moment or two, leaning against the +fence, breathing heavily; then he stumbled on across the obliterated +paths of a vegetable-garden until he reached the house, and beginning +with the kitchen, began to make the circuit of the windows, peering +cautiously into each as he went, ready to tap on the pane should he +catch a glimpse of Ariel, and prepared to run if he stumbled upon her +grandfather. But the place seemed empty: he had made his reconnaisance +apparently in vain, and was on the point of going away, when he heard +the click of the front gate and saw Ariel coming towards him, her old +water-proof cloak about her head and shoulders, the patched, scant, +faded skirt, which he knew so well, blowing about her tumultuously. At +the sound of the gate he had crouched close against the side of the +house, but she saw him at once. +</P> + +<P> +She stopped abruptly, and throwing the water-proof back from her head, +looked at him through the driven fog of snow. One of her hands was +stretched towards him involuntarily, and it was in that attitude that +he long remembered her: standing in the drift which had piled up +against the gate almost knee-deep, the shabby skirt and the black +water-proof flapping like torn sails, one hand out-stretched like that +of a figure in a tableau, her brown face with its thin features mottled +with cold and unlovely, her startled eyes fixed on him with a strange, +wild tenderness that held something of the laughter of whole +companionship in it mingling with a loyalty and championship that was +almost ferocious—she looked an Undine of the snow. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly she ran to him, still keeping her hand out-stretched until it +touched his own. +</P> + +<P> +"How did you know me?" he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Know you!" was all the answer she made to that question. "Come into +the house. I've got some coffee on the stove for you. I've been up +and down the street waiting for you ever since it began to get light." +</P> + +<P> +"Your grandfather won't—" +</P> + +<P> +"He's at Uncle Jonas's; he won't be back till noon. There's no one +here." +</P> + +<P> +She led him to the front-door, where he stamped and shook himself; he +was snow from head to foot. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm running away from the good Gomorrah," he said, "but I've stopped +to look back, and I'm a pretty white pillar." +</P> + +<P> +"I know where you stopped to look back," she answered, brushing him +heartily with her red hands. "You came in the alley way. It was +Mamie's window." +</P> + +<P> +He did not reply, and the only visible token that he had any +consciousness of this clairvoyance of hers was a slight lift of his +higher eyebrow. She wasted no time in getting him to the kitchen, +where, when she had removed his overcoat, she placed him in a chair, +unwound the comforter, and, as carefully as a nurse, lifted the cap +from his injured head. When the strip of towel was disclosed she stood +quite still for a moment with the cap in her hand; then with a broken +little cry she stooped and kissed a lock of his hair, which escaped, +discolored, beneath the bandage. +</P> + +<P> +"Stop that!" he commanded, horribly embarrassed. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Joe," she cried, "I knew! I knew it was there—but to SEE it! +And it's my fault for leaving you—I HAD to go or I wouldn't have—I—" +</P> + +<P> +"Where'd you hear about it?" he asked, shortly. +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't been to bed," she answered. "Grandfather and I were up all +night at Uncle Jonas's, and Colonel Flitcroft came about two o'clock, +and he told us." +</P> + +<P> +"Did he tell you about Norbert?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—a great deal." She poured coffee into a cup from a pot on the +stove, brought it to him, then placing some thin slices of bread upon a +gridiron, began to toast them over the hot coals. "The Colonel said +that Norbert thought he wouldn't get well," she concluded; "and Mr. Arp +said Norbert was the kind that never die, and they had quite an +argument." +</P> + +<P> +"What were you doing at Jonas Tabor's?" asked Joe, drinking his coffee +with a brightening eye. +</P> + +<P> +"We were sent for," she answered. +</P> + +<P> +"What for?" +</P> + +<P> +She toasted the bread attentively without replying, and when she +decided that it was brown enough, piled it on a warm plate. This she +brought to him, and kneeling in front of him, her elbow on his knee, +offered for his consideration, looking steadfastly up at his eyes. He +began to eat ravenously. +</P> + +<P> +"What for?" he repeated. "I didn't suppose Jonas would let you come in +his house. Was he sick?" +</P> + +<P> +"Joe," she said, quietly, disregarding his questions—-"Joe, have you +GOT to run away?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I've got to," he answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Would you have to go to prison if you stayed?" She asked this with a +breathless tensity. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not going to beg father to help me out," he said, determinedly. +"He said he wouldn't, and he'll be spared the chance. He won't mind +that; nobody will care! Nobody! What does anybody care what <I>I</I> do!" +</P> + +<P> +"Now you're thinking of Mamie!" she cried. "I can always tell. +Whenever you don't talk naturally you're thinking of her!" +</P> + +<P> +He poured down the last of the coffee, growing red to the tips of his +ears. "Ariel," he said, "if I ever come back—" +</P> + +<P> +"Wait," she interrupted. "Would you have to go to prison right away if +they caught you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it isn't that," he laughed, sadly. "But I'm going to clear out. +I'm not going to take any chances. I want to see other parts of the +world, other kinds of people. I might have gone, anyhow, soon, even if +it hadn't been for last night. Don't you ever feel that way?" +</P> + +<P> +"You know I do," she said. "I've told you—how often! But, Joe, +Joe,—you haven't any MONEY! You've got to have money to LIVE!" +</P> + +<P> +"You needn't worry about that," returned the master of seven dollars, +genially. "I've saved enough to take care of me for a LONG time." +</P> + +<P> +"Joe, PLEASE! I know it isn't so. If you could wait just a little +while—only a few weeks,—only a FEW, Joe—" +</P> + +<P> +"What for?" +</P> + +<P> +"I could let you have all you want. It would be such a beautiful thing +for me, Joe. Oh, I know how you'd feel; you wouldn't even let me give +you that dollar I found in the street last year; but this would be only +lending it to you, and you could pay me back sometime—" +</P> + +<P> +"Ariel!" he exclaimed, and, setting his empty cup upon the floor, took +her by the shoulders and shook her till the empty plate which had held +the toast dropped from her hand and broke into fragments. "You've been +reading the Arabian Nights!" +</P> + +<P> +"No, no," she cried, vehemently. "Grandfather would give me anything. +He'll give me all the money I ask for!" +</P> + +<P> +"Money!" said Joe. "Which of us is wandering? MONEY? Roger Tabor give +you MONEY?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not for a while. A great many things have to be settled first." +</P> + +<P> +"What things?" +</P> + +<P> +"Joe," she asked, earnestly, "do you think it's bad of me not to feel +things I OUGHT to feel?" +</P> + +<P> +"No." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I'm glad," she said, and something in the way she spoke made him +start with pain, remembering the same words, spoken in the same tone, +by another voice, the night before on the veranda. "I'm glad, Joe, +because I seemed all wrong to myself. Uncle Jonas died last night, and +I haven't been able to get sorry. Perhaps it's because I've been so +frightened about you, but I think not, for I wasn't sorry even before +Colonel Flitcroft told me about you." +</P> + +<P> +"Jonas Tabor dead!" said Joe. "Why, I saw him on the street yesterday!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and I saw him just before I came out on the porch where you were. +He was there in the hall; he and Judge Pike had been having a long +talk; they'd been in some speculations together, and it had all turned +out well. It's very strange, but they say now that Uncle Jonas's heart +was weak—he was an old man, you know, almost eighty,—and he'd been +very anxious about his money. The Judge had persuaded him to risk it; +and the shock of finding that he'd made a great deal suddenly—" +</P> + +<P> +"I've heard he'd had that same shock before," said Joe, "when he sold +out to your father." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but this was different, grandfather says. He told me it was in +one of those big risky businesses that Judge Pike likes to go into. +And last night it was all finished, the strain was over, and Uncle +Jonas started home. His house is only a little way from the Pikes', +you know; but he dropped down in the snow at his own gate, and some +people who were going by saw him fall. He was dead before grandfather +got there." +</P> + +<P> +"I can't be sorry," said Joe, slowly. +</P> + +<P> +"Neither can I. That's the dreadful part of it! They say he hadn't +made a will, that though he was sharper than anybody else in the whole +world about any other matter of business, that was the one thing he put +off. And we're all the kin he had in the world, grandfather and I. +And they say"—her voice sank to a whisper of excitement—"they say he +was richer than anybody knew, and that this last business with Judge +Pike, the very thing that killed him—something about grain—made him +five times richer than before!" +</P> + +<P> +She put her hand on the boy's arm, and he let it remain there. Her +eyes still sought his with a tremulous appeal. +</P> + +<P> +"God bless you, Ariel!" he said. "It's going to be a great thing for +you." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Yes, it is." The tears came suddenly to her eyes. "I was +foolish last night, but there had been such a long time of WANTING +things; and now—and now grandfather and I can go—" +</P> + +<P> +"You're going, too!" Joe chuckled. +</P> + +<P> +"It's heartless, I suppose, but I've settled it! We're going—" +</P> + +<P> +"<I>I</I> know," he cried. "You've told me a thousand times what HE'S +said—ten times a thousand. You're going to Paris!" +</P> + +<P> +"Paris! Yes, that's it. To Paris, where he can see at last how the +great ones have painted,—where the others can show him! To Paris, +where we can study together, where he can learn how to put the pictures +he sees upon canvas, and where I—" +</P> + +<P> +"Go on," Joe encouraged her. "I want to hear you say it. You don't +mean that you're going to study painting; you mean that you're going to +learn how to make such fellows as Eugene ask you to dance. Go ahead +and SAY it!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—to learn how to DRESS!" she said. +</P> + +<P> +Joe was silent for a moment. Then he rose and took the ragged overcoat +from the back of his chair. "Where's that muffler?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +She brought it from where she had placed it to dry, behind the stove. +</P> + +<P> +"Joe," she said, huskily, "can't you wait till—" +</P> + +<P> +"Till the estate is settled and you can coax your grandfather to—" +</P> + +<P> +"No, no! But you could go with us." +</P> + +<P> +"To Paris?" +</P> + +<P> +"He would take you as his secretary." +</P> + +<P> +"Aha!" Joe's voice rang out gayly as he rose, refreshed by the coffee, +toast, and warmth she had given him. "You've been story-reading, +Ariel, like Eugene! 'Secretary'!" +</P> + +<P> +"Please, Joe!" +</P> + +<P> +"Where's my tin dinner-pail?" He found it himself upon the table where +he had set it down. "I'm going to earn a dishonest living," he went on. +"I have an engagement to take a freight at a water-tank that's a friend +of mine, half a mile south of the yards. Thank God, I'm going to get +away from Canaan!" +</P> + +<P> +"Wait, Joe!" She caught at his sleeve. "I want you to—" +</P> + +<P> +He had swung out of the room and was already at the front-door. She +followed him closely. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-bye, Ariel!" +</P> + +<P> +"No, no! WAIT, Joe!" +</P> + +<P> +He took her right hand in his own, and gave it a manly shake. "It's +all right," he said. +</P> + +<P> +He threw open the door and stepped out, but she sought to detain him. +"Oh, have you GOT to go?" she cried. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you ever worry about me." He bent his head to the storm as he +sprang down the steps, and snow-wreaths swirled between them. +</P> + +<P> +He disappeared in a white whirlwind. +</P> + +<P> +She stood for several minutes shivering in the doorway. Then it came +to her that she would not know where to write to him. She ran down to +the gate and through it. Already the blizzard had covered his +footprints. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +GIVE A DOG A BAD NAME +</H3> + +<P> +The passing of Joseph from Canaan was complete. It was an evanishment +for which there was neither sackcloth nor surprise; and though there +came no news of him it cannot be said that Canaan did not hear of him, +for surely it could hear itself talk. The death of Jonas Tabor and +young Louden's crime and flight incited high doings in the "National +House" windows; many days the sages lingered with the broken meats of +morals left over from the banquet of gossip. But, after all, it is +with the ladies of a community that reputations finally rest, and the +matrons of Canaan had long ago made Joe's exceedingly uncertain. Now +they made it certain. +</P> + +<P> +They did not fail of assistance. The most powerful influence in the +town was ponderously corroborative: Martin Pike, who stood for all that +was respectable and financial, who passed the plate o' Sundays, who +held the fortunes of the town in his left hand, who was trustee for the +widow and orphan,—Martin Pike, patron of all worthy charities, courted +by ministers, feared by the wicked and idle, revered by the +good,—Judge Martin Pike never referred to the runaway save in the +accents of an august doomster. His testimony settled it. +</P> + +<P> +In time the precise nature of the fugitive's sins was distorted in +report and grew vague; it was recalled that he had done dread things; +he became a tradition, a legend, and a warning to the young; a Richard +in the bush to frighten colts. He was preached at boys caught playing +marbles "for keeps": "Do you want to grow up like Joe Louden?" The +very name became a darkling threat, and children of the town would have +run had one called suddenly, "HERE COMES JOE LOUDEN!" Thus does the +evil men do live after them, and the ill-fame of the unrighteous +increase when they are sped! +</P> + +<P> +Very little of Joseph's adventures and occupations during the time of +his wandering is revealed to us; he always had an unwilling memory for +pain and was not afterwards wont to speak of those years which cut the +hard lines in his face. The first account of him to reach Canaan came +as directly to the windows of the "National House" as Mr. Arp, +hastening thither from the station, satchel in hand, could bring it. +</P> + +<P> +This was on a September morning, two years after the flight, and Eskew, +it appears, had been to the State Fair and had beheld many things +strangely affirming his constant testimony that this unhappy world +increaseth in sin; strangest of all, his meeting with our vagrant +scalawag of Canaan. "Not a BLAMEBIT of doubt about it," declared Eskew +to the incredulous conclave. "There was that Joe, and nobody else, +stuck up in a little box outside a tent at the Fair Grounds, and +sellin' tickets to see the Spotted Wild Boy!" Yes, it was Joe Louden! +Think you, Mr. Arp could forget that face, those crooked eyebrows? Had +Eskew tested the recognition? Had he spoken with the outcast? Had he +not! Ay, but with such peculiar result that the battle of words among +the sages began with a true onset of the regulars; for, according to +Eskew's narrative, when he had delivered grimly at the boy this charge, +"I know you—YOU'RE JOE LOUDEN!" the extraordinary reply had been made +promptly and without change of countenance: "POSITIVELY NO FREE SEATS!" +</P> + +<P> +On this, the house divided, one party maintaining that Joe had thus +endeavored to evade recognition, the other (to the embitterment of Mr. +Arp) that the reply was a distinct admission of identity and at the +same time a refusal to grant any favors on the score of past +acquaintanceship. +</P> + +<P> +Goaded by inquiries, Mr. Arp, who had little desire to recall such +waste of silver, admitted more than he had intended: that he had +purchased a ticket and gone in to see the Spotted Wild Boy, halting in +his description of this marvel with the unsatisfactory and acrid +statement that the Wild Boy was "simply SPOTTED,"—and the stung query, +"I suppose you know what a spot IS, Squire?" When he came out of the +tent he had narrowly examined the ticket-seller,—who seemed unaware of +his scrutiny, and, when not engaged with his tickets, applied himself +to a dirty law-looking book. It was Joseph Louden, reasserted Eskew, a +little taller, a little paler, incredibly shabby and miraculously thin. +If there were any doubt left, his forehead was somewhat disfigured by +the scar of an old wound—such as might have been caused by a blunt +instrument in the nature of a poker. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter with YOU?" Mr. Arp whirled upon Uncle Joe Davey, who +was enjoying himself by repeating at intervals the unreasonable words, +"Couldn't of be'n Joe," without any explanation. "Why couldn't it?" +shouted Eskew. "It was! Do you think my eyes are as fur gone as yours? +I saw him, I tell you! The same ornery Joe Louden, run away and +sellin' tickets for a side-show. He wasn't even the boss of it; the +manager was about the meanest-lookin' human I ever saw—and most humans +look mighty mean, accordin' to my way of thinkin'! Riffraff of the +riffraff are his friends now, same as they were here. Weeds! and HE'S +a weed, always was and always will be! Him and his kind ain't any more +than jimpsons; overrun everything if you give 'em a chance. +Devil-flowers! They have to be hoed out and scattered—even then, like +as not, they'll come back next year and ruin your plantin' once more. +That boy Joe 'll turn up here again some day; you'll see if he don't. +He's a seed of trouble and iniquity, and anything of that kind is sure +to come back to Canaan!" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Arp stuck to his prediction for several months; then he began to +waver and evade. By the end of the second year following its first +utterance, he had formed the habit of denying that he had ever made it +at all, and, finally having come to believe with all his heart that the +prophecy had been deliberately foisted upon him and put in his mouth by +Squire Buckalew, became so sore upon the subject that even the hardiest +dared not refer to it in his presence. +</P> + +<P> +Eskew's story of the ticket-seller was the only news of Joe Louden that +came to Canaan during seven years. Another citizen of the town +encountered the wanderer, however, but under circumstances so +susceptible to misconception that, in a moment of illumination, he +decided to let the matter rest in a golden silence. This was Mr. +Bantry. +</P> + +<P> +Having elected an elaborate course in the Arts, at the University which +was of his possessions, what more natural than that Eugene should seek +the Metropolis for the short Easter vacation of his Senior year, in +order that his perusal of the Masters should be uninterrupted? But it +was his misfortune to find the Metropolitan Museum less interesting +than some intricate phases of the gayety of New York—phases very +difficult to understand without elaborate study and a series of +experiments which the discreetly selfish permit others to make for +them. Briefly, Eugene found himself dancing, one night, with a young +person in a big hat, at the "Straw-Cellar," a crowded hall, down very +deep in the town and not at all the place for Eugene. +</P> + +<P> +Acute crises are to be expected at the "Straw-Cellar," and Eugene was +the only one present who was thoroughly surprised when that of this +night arrived, though all of the merrymakers were frightened when they +perceived its extent. There is no need to detail the catastrophe. It +came suddenly, and the knife did not flash. Sick and thinking of +himself, Eugene stood staring at the figure lying before him upon the +reddening floor. A rabble fought with the quick policemen at the +doors, and then the lights went out, extinguished by the proprietor, +living up to his reputation for always being thoughtful of his patrons. +The place had been a nightmare; it became a black impossibility. Eugene +staggered to one of the open windows, from the sill of which a man had +just leaped. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't jump," said a voice close to his ear. "That fellow broke his +leg, I think, and they caught him, anyway, as soon as he struck the +pavement. It's a big raid. Come this way." +</P> + +<P> +A light hand fell upon his arm and he followed its leading, blindly, to +find himself pushed through a narrow doorway and down a flight of +tricky, wooden steps, at the foot of which, silhouetted against a +street light, a tall policeman was on guard. He laid masterful hands on +Eugene. +</P> + +<P> +"'SH, Mack!" whispered a cautious voice from the stairway. "That's a +friend of mine and not one of those you need. He's only a student and +scared to death." +</P> + +<P> +"Hurry," said the policeman, under his breath, twisting Eugene sharply +by him into the street; after which he stormed vehemently: "On yer +way, both of ye! Move on up the street! Don't be tryin' to poke yer +heads in here! Ye'd be more anxious to git out, once ye got in, I tell +ye!" +</P> + +<P> +A sob of relief came from Bantry as he gained the next corner, the +slight figure of his conductor at his side. "You'd better not go to +places like the 'Straw-Cellar,'" said the latter, gravely. "I'd been +watching you for an hour. You were dancing with the girl who did the +cutting." +</P> + +<P> +Eugene leaned against a wall, faint, one arm across his face. He was +too ill to see, or care, who it was that had saved him. "I never saw +her before," he babbled, incoherently, "never, never, never! I thought +she looked handsome, and asked her if she'd dance with me. Then I saw +she seemed queer—and wild, and she kept guiding and pushing as we +danced until we were near that man—and then she—then it was all +done—before—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said the other; "she's been threatening to do it for a long +time. Jealous. Mighty good sort of a girl, though, in lots of ways. +Only yesterday I talked with her and almost thought I'd calmed her out +of it. But you can't tell with some women. They'll brighten up and +talk straight and seem sensible, one minute, and promise to behave, and +mean it too, and the next, there they go, making a scene, cutting +somebody or killing themselves! You can't count on them. But that's +not to the point, exactly, I expect. You'd better keep away from the +'Straw-Cellar.' If you'd been caught with the rest you'd have had a +hard time, and they'd have found out your real name, too, because it's +pretty serious on account of your dancing with her when she did it, and +the Canaan papers would have got hold of it and you wouldn't be invited +to Judge Pike's any more, Eugene." +</P> + +<P> +Eugene dropped his arm from his eyes and stared into the face of his +step-brother. +</P> + +<P> +"Joe Louden!" he gasped. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll never tell," said Joe. "You'd better keep out of all this sort. +You don't understand it, and you don't—you don't do it because you +care." He smiled wanly, his odd distorted smile of friendliness. "When +you go back you might tell father I'm all right. I'm working through a +law-school here—and remember me to Norbert Flitcroft," he finished, +with a chuckle. +</P> + +<P> +Eugene covered his eyes again and groaned. +</P> + +<P> +"It's all right," Joe assured him. "You're as safe as if it had never +happened. And I expect"—he went on, thoughtfully—"I expect, maybe, +you'd prefer NOT to say you'd seen me, when you go back to Canaan. +Well, that's all right. I don't suppose father will be asking after +me—exactly." +</P> + +<P> +"No, he doesn't," said Eugene, still white and shaking. "Don't stand +talking. I'm sick." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course," returned Joe. "But there's one thing I would like to ask +you—" +</P> + +<P> +"Your father's health is perfect, I believe." +</P> + +<P> +"It—it—it was something else," Joe stammered, pitifully. "Are they +all—are they all—all right at—at Judge Pike's?" +</P> + +<P> +"Quite!" Eugene replied, sharply. "Are you going to get me away from +here? I'm sick, I tell you!" +</P> + +<P> +"This street," said Joe, and cheerfully led the way. +</P> + +<P> +Five minutes later the two had parted, and Joe leaned against a cheap +restaurant sign-board, drearily staring after the lamps of the gypsy +night-cab he had found for his step-brother. Eugene had not offered to +share the vehicle with him, had not even replied to his good-night. +</P> + +<P> +And Joe himself had neglected to do something he might well have done: +he had not asked Eugene for news of Ariel Tabor. It will not justify +him entirely to suppose that he assumed that her grandfather and she +had left Canaan never to return, and therefore Eugene knew nothing of +her; no such explanation serves Joe for his neglect, for the fair truth +is that he had not thought of her. She had been a sort of playmate, +before his flight, a friend taken for granted, about whom he had +consciously thought little more than he thought about himself—and +easily forgotten. Not forgotten in the sense that she had passed out +of his memory, but forgotten none the less; she had never had a place +in his imaginings, and so it befell that when he no longer saw her from +day to day, she had gone from his thoughts altogether. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A BAD PENNY TURNS UP +</H3> + +<P> +Eugene did not inform Canaan, nor any inhabitant, of his adventure of +"Straw-Cellar," nor did any hear of his meeting with his step-brother; +and after Mr. Arp's adventure, five years passed into the imperishable +before the town heard of the wanderer again, and then it heard at first +hand; Mr. Arp's prophecy fell true, and he took it back to his bosom +again, claimed it as his own the morning of its fulfilment. Joe Louden +had come back to Canaan. +</P> + +<P> +The elder Louden was the first to know of his prodigal's return. He +was alone in the office of the wooden-butter-dish factory, of which he +was the superintendent, when the young man came in unannounced. He was +still pale and thin; his eyebrows had the same crook, one corner of his +mouth the same droop; he was only an inch or so taller, not enough to +be thought a tall man; and yet, for a few moments the father did not +recognize his son, but stared at him, inquiring his business. During +those few seconds of unrecognition, Mr. Louden was somewhat favorably +impressed with the stranger's appearance. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't know me," said Joe, smiling cheerfully. "Perhaps I've +changed in seven years." And he held out his hand. +</P> + +<P> +Then Mr. Louden knew; he tilted back in his desk-chair, his mouth +falling open. "Good God!" he said, not noticing the out-stretched +hand. "Have YOU come back?" +</P> + +<P> +Joe's hand fell. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I've come back to Canaan." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Louden looked at him a long time without replying; finally he +remarked: +</P> + +<P> +"I see you've still got a scar on your forehead." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I've forgotten all about that," said the other, twisting his hat +in his hands. "Seven years wipes out a good many grievances and +wrongs." +</P> + +<P> +"You think so?" Mr Louden grunted. "I suppose it might wipe out a good +deal with some people. How'd you happen to stop off at Canaan? On your +way somewhere, I suppose." +</P> + +<P> +"No, I've come back to stay." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Louden plainly received this as no pleasant surprise. "What for?" +he asked, slowly. +</P> + +<P> +"To practise law, father." +</P> + +<P> +"What!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said the young man. "There ought to be an opening here for me. +I'm a graduate of as good a law-school as there is in the country—" +</P> + +<P> +"You are!" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly," said Joe, quietly. "I've put myself through, working in +the summer—" +</P> + +<P> +"Working!" Mr. Louden snorted. "Side-shows?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, worse than that, sometimes," returned his son, laughing. +"Anything I could get. But I've always wanted to come back home and +work here." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Louden leaned forward, a hand on each knee, his brow deeply +corrugated. "Do you think you'll get much practice in Canaan?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why not? I've had a year in a good office in New York since I left +the school, and I think I ought to get along all right." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," said Mr. Louden, briefly. "You do?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Who do you think in Canaan would put a case in your hands?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I don't expect to get anything important at the start. But after +a while—" +</P> + +<P> +"With your reputation?" +</P> + +<P> +The smile which had faded from Joe's lips returned to them. "Oh, I +know they thought I was a harum-scarum sort of boy," he answered +lightly, "and that it was a foolish thing to run away for nothing; but +you had said I mustn't come to you for help—" +</P> + +<P> +"I meant it," said Mr. Louden. +</P> + +<P> +"But that's seven years ago, and I suppose the town's forgotten all +about it, and forgotten me, too. So, you see, I can make a fresh +start. That's what I came back for." +</P> + +<P> +"You've made up your mind to stay here, then?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe," said Mr. Louden, with marked uneasiness, "that Mrs. +Louden would be willing to let you live with us." +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Joe, gently. "I didn't expect it." He turned to the window +and looked out, averting his face, yet scoring himself with the +contempt he had learned to feel for those who pity themselves. His +father had not even asked him to sit down. There was a long silence, +disturbed only by Mr. Louden's breathing, which could be heard, heavy +and troubled. +</P> + +<P> +At last Joe turned again, smiling as before. "Well, I won't keep you +from your work," he said. "I suppose you're pretty busy—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I am," responded his father, promptly. "But I'll see you again +before you go. I want to give you some advice." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not going," said Joe. "Not going to leave Canaan, I mean. Where +will I find Eugene?" +</P> + +<P> +"At the Tocsin office; he's the assistant editor. Judge Pike bought the +Tocsin last year, and he thinks a good deal of Eugene. Don't forget I +said to come to see me again before you go." +</P> + +<P> +Joe came over to the older man and held out his hand. "Shake hands, +father," he said. Mr. Louden looked at him out of small implacable +eyes, the steady hostility of which only his wife or the imperious +Martin Pike, his employer, could quell. He shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see any use in it," he answered. "It wouldn't mean anything. +All my life I've been a hard-working man and an abiding man. Before +you got in trouble you never did anything you ought to; you ran with +the lowest people in town, and I and all your folks were ashamed of +you. I don't see that we've got a call to be any different now." He +swung round to his desk emphatically, on the last word, and Joe turned +away and went out quietly. +</P> + +<P> +But it was a bright morning to which he emerged from the outer doors of +the factory, and he made his way towards Main Street at a lively gait. +As he turned the corner opposite the "National House," he walked into +Mr. Eskew Arp. The old man drew back angrily. +</P> + +<P> +"Lord 'a' mercy!" cried Joe, heartily. "It's Mr. Arp! I almost ran +you down!" Then, as Mr. Arp made no response, but stood stock-still in +the way, staring at him fiercely, "Don't you know me, Mr. Arp?" the +young man asked. "I'm Joe Louden." +</P> + +<P> +Eskew abruptly thrust his face close to the other's. "NO FREE SEATS!" +he hissed, savagely; and swept across to the hotel to set his world +afire. +</P> + +<P> +Joe looked after the irate, receding figure, and watched it disappear +into the Main Street door of the "National House." As the door closed, +he became aware of a mighty shadow upon the pavement, and turning, +beheld a fat young man, wearing upon his forehead a scar similar to his +own, waddling by with eyes fixed upon him. +</P> + +<P> +"How are you, Norbert?" Joe began. "Don't you remember me? I—" He +came to a full stop, as the fat one, thrusting out an under lip as his +only token of recognition, passed balefully on. +</P> + +<P> +Joe proceeded slowly until he came to the Tocsin building. At the foot +of the stairway leading up to the offices he hesitated for a few +moments; then he turned away and walked towards the quieter part of +Main Street. Most of the people he met took no notice of him, only two +or three giving him second glances of half-cognizance, as though he +reminded them of some one they could not place, and it was not until he +had come near the Pike Mansion that he saw a full recognition in the +eyes of one of the many whom he knew, and who had known him in his +boyhood in the town. A lady, turning a corner, looked up carelessly, +and then half-stopped within a few feet of him, as if startled. Joe's +cheeks went a sudden crimson; for it was the lady of his old dreams. +</P> + +<P> +Seven years had made Mamie Pike only prettier. She had grown into her +young womanhood with an ampleness that had nothing of oversufficiency +in it, nor anywhere a threat that some day there might be too much of +her. Not quite seventeen when he had last seen her, now, at +twenty-four, her amber hair elaborately becoming a plump and regular +face, all of her old charm came over him once more, and it immediately +seemed to him that he saw clearly his real reason for coming back to +Canaan. She had been the Rich-Little-Girl of his child days, the +golden princess playing in the Palace-Grounds, and in his early boyhood +(until he had grown wicked and shabby) he had been sometimes invited to +the Pike Mansion for the games and ice-cream of the daughter of the +house, before her dancing days began. He had gone timidly, not daring +ever to "call" her in "Quaker Meeting" or "Post-office," but watching +her reverently and surreptitiously and continually. She had always +seemed to him the one thing of all the world most rare, most +mysterious, most unapproachable. She had not offered an apparition +less so in those days when he began to come under the suspicion of +Canaan, when the old people began to look upon him hotly, the young +people coldly. His very exclusion wove for him a glamour about her, +and she was more than ever his moon, far, lovely, unattainable, and +brilliant, never to be reached by his lifted arms, but only by his +lifted eyes. Nor had his long absence obliterated that light; +somewhere in his dreams it always had place, shining, perhaps, with a +fainter lustre as the years grew to seven, but never gone altogether. +Now, at last, that he stood in her very presence again, it sprang to +the full flood of its old brilliance—and more! +</P> + +<P> +As she came to her half-stop of surprise, startled, he took his courage +in two hands, and, lifting his hat, stepped to her side. +</P> + +<P> +"You—you remember me?" he stammered. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she answered, a little breathlessly. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, that's kind of you!" he cried, and began to walk on with her, +unconsciously. "I feel like a returned ghost wandering +about—invisible and unrecognized. So few people seem to remember me!" +</P> + +<P> +"I think you are wrong. I think you'll find everybody remembers you," +she responded, uneasily. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I'm afraid not," he began. "I—" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid they do!" +</P> + +<P> +Joe laughed a little. "My father was saying something like that to me +a while ago. He meant that they used to think me a great scapegrace +here. Do you mean that?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'd scarcely like to say," she answered, her face growing more +troubled; for they were close on the imperial domain. +</P> + +<P> +"But it's long ago—and I really didn't do anything so outrageous, it +seems to me." He laughed again. "I know your father was angry with me +once or twice, especially the night I hid on your porch to watch +you—to watch you dance, I mean. But, you see, I've come back to +rehabilitate myself, to—" +</P> + +<P> +She interrupted him. They were not far from her gate, and she saw her +father standing in the yard, directing a painter who was at work on one +of the cast-iron deer. The Judge was apparently in good spirits, +laughing with the workman over some jest between them, but that did not +lessen Mamie's nervousness. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Louden," she said, in as kindly a tone as she could, "I shall have +to ask you not to walk with me. My father would not like it." +</P> + +<P> +Joe stopped with a jerk. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, I—I thought I'd go in and shake hands with him,—and tell him +I—" +</P> + +<P> +Astonishment that partook of terror and of awe spread itself instantly +upon her face. +</P> + +<P> +"Good gracious!" she cried. "NO!" +</P> + +<P> +"Very well," said Joe, humbly. "Good-bye." +</P> + +<P> +He was too late to get away with any good grace. Judge Pike had seen +them, and, even as Joe turned to go, rushed down to the gate, flung it +open, and motioned his daughter to enter. This he did with one wide +sweep of his arm, and, with another sweep, forbade Joe to look upon +either moon OR sun. It was a magnificent gesture: it excluded the +young man from the street, Judge Pike's street, and from the town, +Judge Pike's town. It swept him from the earth, abolished him, denied +him the right to breathe the common air, to be seen of men; and, at +once a headsman's stroke and an excommunication, destroyed him, soul +and body, thus rebuking the silly Providence that had created him, and +repairing Its mistake by annihilating him. This hurling Olympian +gesture smote the street; the rails of the car-track sprang and +quivered with the shock; it thundered, and, amid the dumfounding uproar +of the wrath of a god, the Will of the Canaanite Jove wrote the words +in fiery letters upon the ether: +</P> + +<P> +"CEASE TO BE!" +</P> + +<P> +Joe did not go in to shake hands with Judge Pike. +</P> + +<P> +He turned the next corner a moment later, and went down the quiet +street which led to the house which had been his home. He did not +glance at that somewhat grim edifice, but passed it, his eyes averted, +and stopped in front of the long, ramshackle cottage next door. The +windows were boarded; the picket-fence dropped even to the ground in +some sections; the chimneys sagged and curved; the roof of the long +porch sprinkled shingles over the unkempt yard with every wind, and +seemed about to fall. The place was desolate with long emptiness and +decay: it looked like a Haunted House; and nailed to the padlocked gate +was a sign, half obliterated with the winters it had fronted, "For Sale +or Rent." +</P> + +<P> +Joe gat him meditatively back to Main Street and to the Tocsin +building. This time he did not hesitate, but mounted the stairs and +knocked upon the door of the assistant editor. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," said Eugene. "YOU'VE turned up, you?" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Bantry of the Tocsin was not at all the Eugene rescued from the +"Straw-Cellar." The present gentleman was more the electric Freshman +than the frightened adventurer whom Joe had encountered in New York. +It was to be seen immediately that the assistant editor had nothing +undaintily business-like about him, nor was there the litter on his +desk which one might have expected. He had the air of a gentleman +dilettante who amused himself slightly by spending an hour or two in +the room now and then. It was the evolution to the perfect of his +Freshman manner, and his lively apparel, though somewhat chastened by +an older taste, might have been foretold from that which had smitten +Canaan seven years before. He sat not at the orderly and handsome +desk, but lay stretched upon a divan of green leather, smoking a cigar +of purest ray and reading sleepily a small verse-looking book in +morocco. His occupation, his general air, the furniture of the room, +and his title (doubtless equipped with a corresponding salary) might +have inspired in an observant cynic the idea that here lay a pet of +Fortune, whose position had been the fruit of nepotism, or, mayhap, a +successful wooing of some daughter, wife, or widow. Eugene looked +competent for that. +</P> + +<P> +"I've come back to stay, 'Gene," said Joe. +</P> + +<P> +Bantry had dropped his book and raised himself on an elbow. +"Exceedingly interesting," he said. "I suppose you'll try to find +something to do. I don't think you could get a place here; Judge Pike +owns the Tocsin, and I greatly fear he has a prejudice against you." +</P> + +<P> +"I expect he has," Joe chuckled, somewhat sadly. "But I don't want +newspaper work. I'm going to practice law." +</P> + +<P> +"By Jove! you have courage, my festive prodigal. VRAIMENT!" +</P> + +<P> +Joe cocked his head to one side with his old look of the friendly +puppy. "You always did like to talk that noveletty way, 'Gene, didn't +you?" he said, impersonally. +</P> + +<P> +Eugene's color rose. "Have you saved up anything to starve on?" he +asked, crisply. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I'm not so badly off. I've had a salary in an office for a year, +and I had one pretty good day at the races—" +</P> + +<P> +"You'd better go back and have another," said his step-brother. "You +don't seem to comprehend your standing in Canaan." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm beginning to." Joe turned to the door. "It's funny, too—in a +way. Well—I won't keep you any longer. I just stopped in to say +good-day—" He paused, faltering. +</P> + +<P> +"All right, all right," Eugene said, briskly. "And, by-the-way, I +haven't mentioned that I saw you in New York." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I didn't suppose that you would." +</P> + +<P> +"And you needn't say anything about it, I fancy." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think," said Joe,—"I don't think that you need be afraid I'll +do that. Good-bye." +</P> + +<P> +"Be sure to shut the door, please; it's rather noisy with it open. +Good-bye." Eugene waved his hand and sank back upon the divan. +</P> + +<P> +Joe went across the street to the "National House." The sages fell as +silent as if he had been Martin Pike. They had just had the pleasure +of hearing a telephone monologue by Mr. Brown, the clerk, to which they +listened intently: "Yes. This is Brown. Oh—oh, it's Judge Pike? +Yes indeed, Judge, yes indeed, I hear you—ha, ha! Of course, I +understand. Yes, Judge, I heard he was in town. No, he hasn't been +here. Not yet, that is, Judge. Yes, I hear. No, I won't, of course. +Certainly not. I will, I will. I hear perfectly, I understand. Yes, +sir. Good-bye, Judge." +</P> + +<P> +Joe had begun to write his name in the register. "My trunk is still at +the station," he said. "I'll give you my check to send down for it." +</P> + +<P> +"Excuse me," said the clerk. "We have no rooms." +</P> + +<P> +"What!" cried Joe, innocently. "Why, I never knew more than eight +people to stay here at the same time in my life." +</P> + +<P> +"We have no rooms," repeated the clerk, curtly. +</P> + +<P> +"Is there a convention here?" +</P> + +<P> +"We have no rooms, I say!" +</P> + +<P> +Joe looked up into the condensed eyes of Mr. Brown. "Oh," he said, "I +see." +</P> + +<P> +Deathly silence followed him to the door, but, as it closed behind him, +he heard the outbreak of the sages like a tidal wave striking a +dump-heap of tin cans. +</P> + +<P> +Two hours later he descended from an evil ark of a cab at the corral +attached to Beaver Beach, and followed the path through the marsh to +the crumbling pier. A red-bearded man was seated on a plank by the +water edge, fishing. +</P> + +<P> +"Mike," said Joe, "have you got room for me? Can you take me in for a +few days until I find a place in town where they'll let me stay?" +</P> + +<P> +The red-bearded man rose slowly, pushed back his hat, and stared hard +at the wanderer; then he uttered a howl of joy and seized the other's +hands in his and shook them wildly. +</P> + +<P> +"Glory be on high!" he shouted. "It's Joe Louden come back! We never +knew how we missed ye till ye'd gone! Place fer ye! Can I find it? +There ain't a imp o' perdition in town, includin' myself, that wouldn't +kill me if I couldn't! Ye'll have old Maggie's room, my own aunt's; ye +remember how she used to dance! Ha, ha! She's been burnin' below +these four years! And we'll have the celebration of yer return this +night. There'll be many of 'em will come when they hear ye're back in +Canaan! Praise God, we'll all hope ye're goin' to stay a while!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +"OUTER DARKNESS" +</H3> + +<P> +If any echo of doubt concerning his undesirable conspicuousness sounded +faintly in Joe's mind, it was silenced eftsoons. Canaan had not +forgotten him—far from it!—so far that it began pointing him out to +strangers on the street the very day of his return. His course of +action, likewise that of his friends, permitted him little obscurity, +and when the rumors of his finally obtaining lodging at Beaver Beach, +and of the celebration of his installation there, were presently +confirmed, he stood in the lime-light indeed, as a Mephistopheles +upsprung through the trap-door. +</P> + +<P> +The welcoming festivities had not been so discreetly conducted as to +accord with the general policy of Beaver Beach. An unfortunate +incident caused the arrest of one of the celebrators and the +ambulancing to the hospital of another on the homeward way, the ensuing +proceedings in court bringing to the whole affair a publicity devoutly +unsought for. Mr. Happy Fear (such was the habitual name of the +imprisoned gentleman) had to bear a great amount of harsh criticism for +injuring a companion within the city limits after daylight, and for +failing to observe that three policemen were not too distant from the +scene of operations to engage therein. +</P> + +<P> +"Happy, if ye had it in mind to harm him," said the red-bearded man to +Mr. Fear, upon the latter's return to society, "why didn't ye do it out +here at the Beach?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because," returned the indiscreet, "he didn't say what he was goin' to +say till we got in town." +</P> + +<P> +Extraordinary probing on the part of the prosecutor had developed at +the trial that the obnoxious speech had referred to the guest of the +evening. The assaulted party, one "Nashville" Cory, was not of Canaan, +but a bit of drift-wood haply touching shore for the moment at Beaver +Beach; and—strange is this world—he had been introduced to the +coterie of Mike's Place by Happy Fear himself, who had enjoyed a brief +acquaintance with him on a day when both had chanced to travel +incognito by the same freight. Naturally, Happy had felt responsible +for the proper behavior of his protege—was, in fact, bound to enforce +it; additionally, Happy had once been saved from a term of imprisonment +(at a time when it would have been more than ordinarily inconvenient) +by help and advice from Joe, and he was not one to forget. Therefore he +was grieved to observe that his own guest seemed to be somewhat jealous +of the hero of the occasion and disposed to look coldly upon him. The +stranger, however, contented himself with innuendo (mere expressions of +the face and other manner of things for which one could not squarely +lay hands upon him) until such time as he and his sponsor had come to +Main Street in the clear dawn on their way to Happy's apartment—a +variable abode. It may be that the stranger perceived what Happy did +not; the three bluecoats in the perspective; at all events, he now put +into words of simple strength the unfavorable conception he had formed +of Joe. The result was mediaevally immediate, and the period of Mr. +Cory's convalescence in the hospital was almost half that of his +sponsor's detention in the county jail. +</P> + +<P> +It needed nothing to finish Joe with the good people of Canaan; had it +needed anything, the trial of Happy Fear would have overspilled the +necessity. An item of the testimony was that Joseph Louden had helped +to carry one of the ladies present—a Miss Le Roy, who had fainted—to +the open air, and had jostled the stranger in passing. After this, the +oldest woman in Canaan would not have dared to speak to Joe on the +street (even if she wanted to), unless she happened to be very poor or +very wicked. The Tocsin printed an adequate account (for there was "a +large public interest"), recording in conclusion that Mr. Louden paid +the culprit's fine which was the largest in the power of the presiding +judge in his mercy to bestow. Editorially, the Tocsin leaned to the +facetious: "Mr. Louden has but recently 'returned to our midst.' We +fervently hope that the distinguished Happy Fear will appreciate his +patron's superb generosity. We say 'his patron,' but perhaps we err in +this. Were it not better to figure Mr. Louden as the lady in distress, +Mr. Fear as the champion in the lists? In the present case, however, +contrary to the rules of romance, the champion falls in duress and +passes to the dungeon. We merely suggest, en passant, that some of our +best citizens might deem it a wonderful and beauteous thing if, in +addition to paying the fine, Mr. Louden could serve for the loyal Happy +his six months in the Bastile!" +</P> + +<P> +"En passant," if nothing else, would have revealed to Joe, in this +imitation of a better trick, the hand of Eugene. And, little doubt, he +would have agreed with Squire Buckalew in the Squire's answer to the +easily expected comment of Mr. Arp. +</P> + +<P> +"Sometimes," said Eskew, "I think that 'Gene Bantry is jest a leetle +bit spiderier than he is lazy. That's the first thing he's written in +the Tocsin this month—one of the boys over there told me. He wrote it +out of spite against Joe; but he'd ought to of done better. If his +spite hadn't run away with what mind he's got, he'd of said that both +Joe Louden and that tramp Fear ought to of had ten years!" +</P> + +<P> +"'Gene Bantry didn't write that out of spite," answered Buckalew. "He +only thought he saw a chance to be kind of funny and please Judge Pike. +The Judge has always thought Joe was a no-account—" +</P> + +<P> +"Ain't he right?" cried Mr. Arp. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>I</I> don't say he ain't." Squire Buckalew cast a glance at Mr. Brown, +the clerk, and, perceiving that he was listening, added, "The Judge +always IS right!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir!" said Colonel Flitcroft. +</P> + +<P> +"I can't stand up for Joe Louden to any extent, but I don't think he +done wrong," Buckalew went on, recovering, "when he paid this man +Fear's fine." +</P> + +<P> +"You don't!" exclaimed Mr. Arp. "Why, haven't you got gumption enough +to see—" +</P> + +<P> +"Look here, Eskew," interposed his antagonist. "How many friends have +you got that hate to hear folks talk bad about you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not a one!" For once Eskew's guard was down, and his consistency led +him to destruction. "Not a one! It ain't in human nature. They're +bound to enjoy it!" +</P> + +<P> +"Got any friends that would FIGHT for you?" +</P> + +<P> +Eskew walked straight into this hideous trap. "No! There ain't a dozen +men ever LIVED that had! Caesar was a popular man, but he didn't have +a soul to help him when the crowd lit on him, and I'll bet old Mark +Antony was mighty glad they got him out in the yard before it +happened,—HE wouldn't have lifted a finger without a gang behind him! +Why, all Peter himself could do was to cut off an ear that wasn't no +use to anybody. What are you tryin' to get AT?" +</P> + +<P> +The Squire had him; and paused, and stroked his chin, to make the ruin +complete. "Then I reckon you'll have to admit," he murmured, "that, +while I ain't defendin' Joe Louden's character, it was kind of proper +for him to stand by a feller that wouldn't hear nothin' against him, +and fought for him as soon as he DID hear it!" +</P> + +<P> +Eskew Arp rose from his chair and left the hotel. It was the only +morning in all the days of the conclave when he was the first to leave. +</P> + +<P> +Squire Buckalew looked after the retreating figure, total triumph +shining brazenly from his spectacles. "I expect," he explained, +modestly, to the others,—"I expect I don't think any more of Joe +Louden than he does, and I'll be glad when Canaan sees the last of him +for good; but sometimes the temptation to argue with Eskew does lead me +on to kind of git the better of him." +</P> + +<P> +When Happy Fear had suffered—with a give-and-take simplicity of +patience—his allotment of months in durance, and was released and sent +into the streets and sunshine once more, he knew that his first duty +lay in the direction of a general apology to Joe. But the young man +was no longer at Beaver Beach; the red-bearded proprietor dwelt alone +there, and, receiving Happy with scorn and pity, directed him to +retrace his footsteps to the town. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye must have been in the black hole of incarceration indeed, if ye +haven't heard that Mr. Louden has his law-office on the Square, and his +livin'-room behind the office. It's in that little brick buildin' +straight acrost from the sheriff's door o' the jail—ye've been +neighbors this long time! A hard time the boy had, persuadin' any one +to rent to him, but by payin' double the price he got a place at last. +He's a practisin' lawyer now, praise the Lord! And all the boys and +girls of our acquaintance go to him with their troubles. Ye'll see him +with a murder case to try before long, as sure as ye're not worth yer +salt! But I expect ye can still call him by his name of Joe, all the +same!" +</P> + +<P> +It was a bleak and meagre little office into which Mr. Fear ushered +himself to offer his amends. The cracked plaster of the walls was bare +(save for dust); there were no shelves; the fat brown volumes, most of +them fairly new, were piled in regular columns upon a cheap pine table; +there was but one window, small-paned and shadeless; an inner door of +this sad chamber stood half ajar, permitting the visitor unreserved +acquaintance with the domestic economy of the tenant; for it disclosed +a second room, smaller than the office, and dependent upon the window +of the latter for air and light. Behind a canvas camp-cot, dimly +visible in the obscurity of the inner apartment, stood a small +gas-stove, surmounted by a stew-pan, from which projected the handle of +a big tin spoon, so that it needed no ghost from the dead to whisper +that Joseph Louden, attorney-at-law, did his own cooking. Indeed, he +looked it! +</P> + +<P> +Upon the threshold of the second room reposed a small, worn, +light-brown scrub-brush of a dog, so cosmopolitan in ancestry that his +species was almost as undeterminable as the cast-iron dogs of the Pike +Mansion. He greeted Mr. Fear hospitably, having been so lately an +offcast of the streets himself that his adoption had taught him to lose +only his old tremors, not his hopefulness. At the same time Joe rose +quickly from the deal table, where he had been working with one hand in +his hair, the other splattering ink from a bad pen. +</P> + +<P> +"Good for you, Happy!" he cried, cheerfully. "I hoped you'd come to see +me to-day. I've been thinking about a job for you." +</P> + +<P> +"What kind of a job?" asked the visitor, as they shook hands. "I need +one bad enough, but you know there ain't nobody in Canaan would gimme +one, Joe." +</P> + +<P> +Joe pushed him into one of the two chairs which completed the furniture +of his office. "Yes, there is. I've got an idea—" +</P> + +<P> +"First," broke in Mr. Fear, fingering his shapeless hat and fixing his +eyes upon it with embarrassment,—"first lemme say what I come here to +say. I—well—" His embarrassment increased and he paused, rubbing the +hat between his hands. +</P> + +<P> +"About this job," Joe began. "We can fix it so—" +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Happy. "You lemme go on. I didn't mean fer to cause you no +trouble when I lit on that loud-mouth, 'Nashville'; I never thought +they'd git me, or you'd be dragged in. But I jest couldn't stand him +no longer. He had me all wore out—all evening long a-hintin' and +sniffin' and wearin' that kind of a high-smile 'cause they made so much +fuss over you. And then when we got clear in town he come out with it! +Said you was too quiet to suit HIM—said he couldn't see nothin' TO +you! 'Well,' I says to myself, 'jest let him go on, jest one more,' I +says, 'then he gits it.' And he did. Said you tromped on his foot on +purpose, said he knowed it,—when the Lord-a'mightiest fool on earth +knows you never tromped on no one! Said you was one of the po'rest +young sports he ever see around a place like the Beach. You see, he +thought you was jest one of them fool 'Bloods' that come around raisin' +a rumpus, and didn't know you was our friend and belonged out there, +the same as me or Mike hisself. 'Go on,' I says to myself, 'jest one +more!' 'HE better go home to his mamma,' he says; 'he'll git in +trouble if he don't. Somebody 'll soak him if he hangs around in MY +company. <I>I</I> don't like his WAYS.' Then I HAD to do it. There jest +wasn't nothin' LEFT—but I wouldn't of done you no harm by it—" +</P> + +<P> +"You didn't do me any harm, Happy." +</P> + +<P> +"I mean your repitation." +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't have one—so nothing in the world could harm it. About your +getting some work, now—" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll listen," said Happy, rather suspiciously. +</P> + +<P> +"You see," Joe went on, growing red, "I need a sort of janitor here—" +</P> + +<P> +"What fer?" Mr. Fear interrupted, with some shortness. +</P> + +<P> +"To look after the place." +</P> + +<P> +"You mean these two rooms?" +</P> + +<P> +"There's a stairway, too," Joe put forth, quickly. "It wouldn't be any +sinecure, Happy. You'd earn your money; don't be afraid of that!" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Fear straightened up, his burden of embarrassment gone from him, +transferred to the other's shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"There always was a yellow streak in you, Joe," he said, firmly. +"You're no good as a liar except when you're jokin'. A lot you need a +janitor! You had no business to pay my fine; you'd ort of let me worked +it out. Do you think my eyes ain't good enough to see how much you +needed the money, most of all right now when you're tryin' to git +started? If I ever take a cent from you, I hope the hand I hold out +fer it 'll rot off." +</P> + +<P> +"Now don't say that, Happy." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want a job, nohow!" said Mr. Fear, going to the door; "I don't +want to work. There's plenty ways fer me to git along without that. +But I've said what I come here to say, and I'll say one thing more. +Don't you worry about gittin' law practice. Mike says you're goin' to +git all you want—and if there ain't no other way, why, a few of us 'll +go out and MAKE some fer ye!" +</P> + +<P> +These prophecies and promises, over which Joe chuckled at first, with +his head cocked to one side, grew very soon, to his amazement, to wear +a supernatural similarity to actual fulfilment. His friends brought +him their own friends, such as had sinned against the laws of Canaan, +those under the ban of the sheriff, those who had struck in anger, +those who had stolen at night, those who owed and could not pay, those +who lived by the dice, and to his other titles to notoriety was added +that of defender of the poor and wicked. He found his hands full, +especially after winning his first important case—on which occasion +Canaan thought the jury mad, and was indignant with the puzzled Judge, +who could not see just how it had happened. +</P> + +<P> +Joe did not stop at that. He kept on winning cases, clearing the +innocent and lightening the burdens of the guilty; he became the most +dangerous attorney for the defence in Canaan; his honorable brethren, +accepting the popular view of him, held him in personal contempt but +feared him professionally; for he proved that he knew more law than +they thought existed; nor could any trick him—failing which, many +tempers were lost, but never Joe's. His practice was not all criminal, +as shown by the peevish outburst of the eminent Buckalew (the Squire's +nephew, esteemed the foremost lawyer in Canaan), "Before long, there +won't be any use trying to foreclose a mortgage or collect a +note—unless this shyster gets himself in jail!" +</P> + +<P> +The wrath of Judge Martin Pike was august—there was a kind of +sublimity in its immenseness—on a day when it befell that the shyster +stood betwixt him and money. +</P> + +<P> +That was a monstrous task—to stand between these two and separate +them, to hold back the hand of Martin Pike from what it had reached out +to grasp. It was in the matter of some tax-titles which the magnate +had acquired, and, in court, Joe treated the case with such horrifying +simplicity that it seemed almost credible that the great man had +counted upon the ignorance and besottedness of Joe's client—a +hard-drinking, disreputable old farmer—to get his land away from him +without paying for it. Now, as every one knew such a thing to be +ludicrously impossible, it was at once noised abroad in Canaan that Joe +had helped to swindle Judge Pike out of a large sum of money—it was +notorious that the shyster could bamboozle court and jury with his +tricks; and it was felt that Joe Louden was getting into very deep +waters indeed. THIS was serious: if the young man did not LOOK OUT, he +might find himself in the penitentiary. +</P> + +<P> +The Tocsin paragraphed him with a fine regularity after this, usually +opening with a Walrus-and-the-Carpenter gravity: "The time has come +when we must speak of a certain matter frankly," or, "At last the time +has arrived when the demoralization of the bar caused by a certain +criminal lawyer must be dealt with as it is and without gloves." Once +when Joe had saved a half-witted negro from "the extreme penalty" for +murder, the Tocsin had declared, with great originality: "This is just +the kind of thing that causes mobs and justifies them. If we are to +continue to permit the worst class of malefactors to escape the +consequences of their crimes through the unwholesome dexterities and +the shifty manipulations and technicalities of a certain criminal +lawyer, the time will come when an outraged citizenry may take the +enforcement of the law in its own hands. Let us call a spade a spade. +If Canaan's streets ever echo with the tread of a mob, the fault lies +upon the head of Joseph Louden, who has once more brought about a +miscarriage of justice...." +</P> + +<P> +Joe did not move into a larger office; he remained in the little room +with its one window and its fine view of the jail; his clients were +nearly all poor, and many of his fees quite literally nominal. Tatters +and rags came up the narrow stairway to his door—tatters and rags and +pitiful fineries: the bleared, the sodden, the flaunting and rouged, +the furtive and wary, some in rags, some in tags, and some—the +sorriest—in velvet gowns. With these, the distressed, the +wrong-doers, the drunken, the dirty, and the very poor, his work lay +and his days and nights were spent. +</P> + +<P> +Ariel had told Roger Tabor that in time Joe might come to be what the +town thought him, if it gave him no other chance. Only its dinginess +and evil surrounded him; no respectable house was open to him; the +barrooms—except that of the "National House"—welcomed him gratefully +and admiringly. Once he went to church, on a pleasant morning when +nice girls wear pretty spring dresses; it gave him a thrill of delight +to see them, to be near clean, good people once more. Inadvertently, he +took a seat by his step-mother, who rose with a slight rustle of silk +and moved to another pew; and it happened, additionally, that this was +the morning that the minister, fired by the Tocsin's warnings, had +chosen to preach on the subject of Joe himself. +</P> + +<P> +The outcast returned to his own kind. No lady spoke to him upon the +street. Mamie Pike had passed him with averted eyes since her first +meeting with him, but the shunning and snubbing of a young man by a +pretty girl have never yet, if done in a certain way, prevented him +from continuing to be in love with her. Mamie did it in the certain +way. Joe did not wince, therefore it hurt all the more, for blows from +which one cringes lose much of their force. +</P> + +<P> +The town dog had been given a bad name, painted solid black from head +to heel. He was a storm centre of scandal; the entrance to his dingy +stairway was in square view of the "National House," and the result is +imaginable. How many of Joe's clients, especially those sorriest of +the velvet gowns, were conjectured to ascend his stairs for reasons +more convivial than legal! Yes, he lived with his own kind, and, so +far as the rest of Canaan was concerned, might as well have worn the +scarlet letter on his breast or branded on his forehead. +</P> + +<P> +When he went about the streets he was made to feel his condition by the +elaborate avoidance, yet furtive attention, of every respectable person +he met; and when he came home to his small rooms and shut the door +behind him, he was as one who has been hissed and shamed in public and +runs to bury his hot face in his pillow. He petted his mongrel +extravagantly (well he might!), and would sit with him in his rooms at +night, holding long converse with him, the two alone together. The dog +was not his only confidant. There came to be another, a more and more +frequent partner to their conversations, at last a familiar spirit. +This third came from a brown jug which Joe kept on a shelf in his +bedroom, a vessel too frequently replenished. When the day's work was +done he shut himself up, drank alone and drank hard. Sometimes when the +jug ran low and the night was late he would go out for a walk with his +dog, and would awake in his room the next morning not remembering where +he had gone or how he had come home. Once, after such a lapse of +memory, he woke amazed to find himself at Beaver Beach, whither, he +learned from the red-bearded man, Happy Fear had brought him, having +found him wandering dazedly in a field near by. These lapses grew more +frequent, until there occurred that which was one of the strange things +of his life. +</P> + +<P> +It was a June night, a little more than two years after his return to +Canaan, and the Tocsin had that day announced the approaching marriage +of Eugene Bantry and his employer's daughter. Joe ate nothing during +the day, and went through his work clumsily, visiting the bedroom shelf +at intervals. At ten in the evening he went out to have the jug +refilled, but from the moment he left his door and the fresh air struck +his face, he had no clear knowledge of what he did or of what went on +about him until he woke in his bed the next morning. +</P> + +<P> +And yet, whatever little part of the soul of him remained, that night, +still undulled, not numbed, but alive, was in some strange manner +lifted out of its pain towards a strange delight. His body was an +automaton, his mind in bondage, yet there was a still, small +consciousness in him which knew that in his wandering something +incredible and unexpected was happening. What this was he did not +know, could not see, though his eyes were open, could not have told +himself any more than a baby could tell why it laughs, but it seemed +something so beautiful and wonderful that the night became a night of +perfume, its breezes bearing the music of harps and violins, while +nightingales sang from the maples that bordered the streets of Canaan. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +X +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE TRYST +</H3> + +<P> +He woke to the light of morning amazed and full of a strange wonder +because he did not know what had amazed him. For a little while after +his eyes opened, he lay quite motionless; then he lifted his head +slightly and shook it with some caution. This had come to be custom. +The operation assured him of the worst; the room swam round him, and, +with a faint groan, he let his head fall back upon the pillow. But he +could not sleep again; pain stung its way through his heart as memory +began to come back to him, not of the preceding night—that was all +blank,—but realization that the girl of whom he had dreamed so long +was to be married. That his dreams had been quite hopeless was no balm +to his hurt. +</P> + +<P> +A chime of bells sounded from a church steeple across the Square, +ringing out in assured righteousness, summoning the good people who +maintained them to come and sit beneath them or be taken to task; and +they fell so dismally upon Joe's ear that he bestirred himself and +rose, to the delight of his mongrel, who leaped upon him joyfully. An +hour later, or thereabout, the pair emerged from the narrow stairway +and stood for a moment, blinking in the fair sunshine, apparently +undecided which way to go. The church bells were silent; there was no +breeze; the air trembled a little with the deep pipings of the organ +across the Square, and, save for that, the town was very quiet. The +paths which crossed the Court-house yard were flecked with steady +shadow, the strong young foliage of the maples not moving, having the +air of observing the Sabbath with propriety. There were benches here +and there along the walks, and to one of these Joe crossed, and sat +down. The mongrel, at his master's feet, rolled on his back in morning +ecstasy, ceased abruptly to roll and began to scratch his ear with a +hind foot intently. A tiny hand stretched to pat his head, and the dog +licked it appreciatively. It belonged to a hard-washed young lady of +six (in starchy, white frills and new, pink ribbons), who had run ahead +of her mother, a belated church-goer; and the mongrel charmed her. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you give me this dog?" she asked, without any tedious formalities. +</P> + +<P> +Involuntarily, she departed before receiving a reply. The mother, a +red-faced matron whom Joe recognized as a sister of Mrs. Louden's, +consequently his step-aunt, swooped at the child with a rush and rustle +of silk, and bore her on violently to her duty. When they had gone a +little way the matron's voice was heard in sharp reproof; the child, +held by one wrist and hurried along on tiptoe, staring back over one +shoulder at Joe, her eyes wide, and her mouth the shape of the "O" she +was ejaculating. +</P> + +<P> +The dog looked up with wistful inquiry at his master, who cocked an +eyebrow at him in return, wearing much the same expression. The mother +and child disappeared within the church doors and left the Square to +the two. Even the hotel showed no signs of life, for the wise men were +not allowed to foregather on Sundays. The organ had ceased to stir the +air and all was in quiet, yet a quiet which, for Louden, was not peace. +He looked at his watch and, without intending it, spoke the hour aloud: +"A quarter past eleven." The sound of his own voice gave him a little +shock; he rose without knowing why, and, as he did so, it seemed to him +that he heard close to his ear another voice, a woman's, troubled and +insistent, but clear and sweet, saying: +</P> + +<P> +"REMEMBER! ACROSS MAIN STREET BRIDGE AT NOON!" +</P> + +<P> +It was so distinct that he started and looked round. Then he laughed. +"I'll be seeing circus parades next!" His laughter fled, for, louder +than the ringing in his ears, unmistakably came the strains of a +far-away brass band which had no existence on land or sea or in the +waters under the earth. +</P> + +<P> +"Here!" he said to the mongrel. "We need a walk, I think. Let's you +and me move on before the camels turn the corner!" +</P> + +<P> +The music followed him to the street, where he turned westward toward +the river, and presently, as he walked on, fanning himself with his +straw hat, it faded and was gone. But the voice he had heard returned. +</P> + +<P> +"REMEMBER! ACROSS MAIN STREET BRIDGE AT NOON!" it said again, close to +his ear. +</P> + +<P> +This time he did not start. "All right," he answered, wiping his +forehead; "if you'll let me alone, I'll be there." +</P> + +<P> +At a dingy saloon corner, near the river, a shabby little man greeted +him heartily and petted the mongrel. "I'm mighty glad you didn't go, +after all, Joe," he added, with a brightening face. +</P> + +<P> +"Go where, Happy?" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Fear looked grave. "Don't you rec'lect meetin' me last night?" +</P> + +<P> +Louden shook his head. "No. Did I?" +</P> + +<P> +The other's jaw fell and his brow corrugated with self-reproach. +"Well, if that don't show what a thick-head I am! I thought ye was all +right er I'd gone on with ye. Nobody c'd 'a' walked straighter ner +talked straighter. Said ye was goin' to leave Canaan fer good and +didn't want nobody to know it. Said ye was goin' to take the +'leven-o'clock through train fer the West, and told me I couldn't come +to the deepo with ye. Said ye'd had enough o' Canaan, and of +everything! I follered ye part way to the deepo, but ye turned and +made a motion fer me to go back, and I done it, because ye seemed to be +kind of in trouble, and I thought ye'd ruther be by yerself. Well, +sir, it's one on me!" +</P> + +<P> +"Not at all," said Joe. "I was all right." +</P> + +<P> +"Was ye?" returned the other. "DO remember, do ye?" +</P> + +<P> +"Almost," Joe smiled, faintly. +</P> + +<P> +"ALMOST," echoed Happy, shaking his head seriously. "I tell ye, Joe, ef +I was YOU—" he began slowly, then paused and shook his head again. He +seemed on the point of delivering some advice, but evidently perceiving +the snobbishness of such a proceeding, or else convinced by his own +experience of the futility of it, he swerved to cheerfulness: +</P> + +<P> +"I hear the boys is all goin' to work hard fer the primaries. Mike +says ye got some chances ye don't know about; HE swears ye'll be the +next Mayor of Canaan." +</P> + +<P> +"Nonsense! Folly and nonsense, Happy! That's the kind of thing I used +to think when I was a boy. But now—pshaw!" Joe broke off with a tired +laugh. "Tell them not to waste their time. Are you going out to the +Beach this afternoon?" +</P> + +<P> +The little man lowered his eyes moodily. "I'll be near there," he +said, scraping his patched shoe up and down the curbstone. "That +feller's in town agin." +</P> + +<P> +"What fellow?" +</P> + +<P> +"'Nashville' they call him; Ed's the name he give the hospital: +Cory—him that I soaked the night you come back to Canaan. He's after +Claudine to git his evens with me. He's made a raise somewheres, and +plays the spender. And her—well, I reckon she's tired waitin' table +at the National House; tired o' me, too. I got a hint that they're +goin' out to the Beach together this afternoon." +</P> + +<P> +Joe passed his hand wearily over his aching forehead. "I understand," +he said, "and you'd better try to. Cory's laying for you, of course. +You say he's after your wife? He must have set about it pretty openly +if they're going to the Beach to-day, for there is always a crowd there +on Sundays. Is it hard for you to see why he's doing it? It's because +he wants to make you jealous. What for? So that you'll tackle him +again. And why does he want that? Because he's ready for you!" +</P> + +<P> +The other's eyes suddenly became bloodshot, his nostrils expanding +incredibly. "READY, is he? He BETTER be ready. I—" +</P> + +<P> +"That's enough!" Joe interrupted, swiftly. "We'll have no talk like +that. I'll settle this for you, myself. You send word to Claudine +that I want to see her at my office to-morrow morning, and you—you +stay away from the Beach to-day. Give me your word." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Fear's expression softened. "All right, Joe," he said. "I'll do +whatever you tell me to. Any of us 'll do that; we sure know who's our +friend." +</P> + +<P> +"Keep out of trouble, Happy." Joe turned to go and they shook hands. +"Good day, and—keep out of trouble!" +</P> + +<P> +When he had gone, Mr. Fear's countenance again gloomed ominously, and, +shaking his head, he ruminatively entered an adjacent bar through the +alley door. +</P> + +<P> +The Main Street bridge was an old-fashioned, wooden, covered one, +dust-colored and very narrow, squarely framing the fair, open country +beyond; for the town had never crossed the river. Joe found the cool +shadow in the bridge gracious to his hot brow, and through the slender +chinks of the worn flooring he caught bright glimpses of running water. +When he came out of the other end he felt enough refreshed to light a +cigar. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, here I am," he said. "Across Main Street bridge—and it must be +getting on toward noon!" He spoke almost with the aspect of daring, +and immediately stood still, listening. "'REMEMBER,"' he ventured to +repeat, again daring, "'REMEMBER! ACROSS MAIN STREET BRIDGE AT NOON!'" +And again he listened. Then he chuckled faintly with relief, for the +voice did not return. "Thank God, I've got rid of that!" he whispered. +"And of the circus band too!" +</P> + +<P> +A dust road turned to the right, following the river and shaded by big +sycamores on the bank; the mongrel, intensely preoccupied with this +road, scampered away, his nose to the ground. "Good enough," said the +master. "Lead on and I'll come after you." +</P> + +<P> +But he had not far to follow. The chase led him to a half-hollow log +which lay on a low, grass-grown levee above the stream, where the dog's +interest in the pursuit became vivid; temporarily, however, for after a +few minutes of agitated investigation, he was seized with indifference +to the whole world; panted briefly; slept. Joe sat upon the log, which +was in the shade, and smoked. +</P> + +<P> +"'REMEMBER!'" He tried it once more. "'ACROSS MAIN STREET BRIDGE AT +NOON!'" Safety still; the voice came not. But the sound of his own +repetition of the words brought him an eerie tremor; for the mist of a +memory came with it; nothing tangible, nothing definite, but something +very far away and shadowy, yet just poignant enough to give him a queer +feeling that he was really keeping an appointment here. Was it with +some water-sprite that would rise from the river? Was it with a dryad +of the sycamores? He knew too well that he might expect strange +fancies to get hold of him this morning, and, as this one grew +uncannily stronger, he moved his head briskly as if to shake it off. +The result surprised him; the fancy remained, but his headache and +dizziness had left him. +</P> + +<P> +A breeze wandered up the river and touched the leaves and grass to +life. Sparrows hopped and chirped in the branches, absurdly surprised; +without doubt having concluded in the Sunday stillness that the world +would drowse forever; and the mongrel lifted his head, blinked at them, +hopelessly wishing they would alight near him, scratched his ear with +the manner of one who has neglected such matters overlong; reversed his +position; slept again. The young corn, deep green in the bottomland, +moved with a staccato flurry, and the dust ghost of a mad whirling +dervish sped up the main road to vanish at the bridge in a climax of +lunacy. The stirring air brought a smell of blossoms; the distance took +on faint lavender hazes which blended the outlines of the fields, lying +like square coverlets upon the long slope of rising ground beyond the +bottom-land, and empurpled the blue woodland shadows of the groves. +</P> + +<P> +For the first time, it struck Joe that it was a beautiful day, and it +came to him that a beautiful day was a thing which nothing except +death, sickness, or imprisonment could take from him—not even the ban +of Canaan! Unforewarned, music sounded in his ears again; but he did +not shrink from it now; this was not the circus band he had heard as he +left the Square, but a melody like a far-away serenade at night, as of +"the horns of elf-land faintly blowing"; and he closed his eyes with +the sweetness of it. +</P> + +<P> +"Go ahead!" he whispered. "Do that all you want to. If you'll keep it +up like this awhile, I'll follow with 'Little Brown Jug, How I Love +Thee!' It seems to pay, after all!" +</P> + +<P> +The welcome strains, however, were but the prelude to a harsher sound +which interrupted and annihilated them: the Court-house bell clanging +out twelve. "All right," said Joe. "It's noon and I'm 'across Main +Street bridge.'" +</P> + +<P> +He opened his eyes and looked about him whimsically. Then he shook his +head again. +</P> + +<P> +A lady had just emerged from the bridge and was coming toward him. +</P> + +<P> +It would be hard to get at Joe's first impressions of her. We can find +conveyance for only the broadest and heaviest. Ancient and modern +instances multiply the case of the sleeper who dreams out a long story +in accurate color and fine detail, a tale of years, in the opening and +shutting of a door. So with Joseph, in the brief space of the lady's +approach. And with him, as with the sleeper, it must have been—in +fact it was, in his recollections, later—a blur of emotion. +</P> + +<P> +At first sight of her, perhaps it was pre-eminently the shock of seeing +anything so exquisite where he had expected to see nothing at all. For +she was exquisite—horrid as have been the uses of the word, its best +and truest belong to her; she was that and much more, from the ivory +ferrule of the parasol she carried, to the light and slender footprint +she left in the dust of the road. Joe knew at once that nothing like +her had ever before been seen in Canaan. +</P> + +<P> +He had little knowledge of the millinery arts, and he needed none to +see the harmony—harmony like that of the day he had discovered a +little while ago. Her dress and hat and gloves and parasol showed a +pale lavender overtint like that which he had seen overspreading the +western slope. (Afterward, he discovered that the gloves she wore that +day were gray, and that her hat was for the most part white.) The +charm of fabric and tint belonging to what she wore was no shame to +her, not being of primal importance beyond herself; it was but the +expression of her daintiness and the adjunct of it. She was tall, but +if Joe could have spoken or thought of her as "slender," he would have +been capable of calling her lips "red," in which case he would not have +been Joe, and would have been as far from the truth as her lips were +from red, or as her supreme delicateness was from mere slenderness. +</P> + +<P> +Under the summer hat her very dark hair swept back over her temples +with something near trimness in the extent to which it was withheld +from being fluffy. It may be that this approach to trimness, which +was, after all, only a sort of coquetry with trimness, is the true key +to the mystery of the vision of the lady who appeared to Joe. Let us +say that she suppressed everything that went beyond grace; that the +hint of floridity was abhorrent to her. "Trim" is as clumsy as +"slender"; she had escaped from the trimness of girlhood as wholly as +she had gone through its coltishness. "Exquisite." Let us go back to +Joe's own blurred first thought of her and be content with that! +</P> + +<P> +She was to pass him—so he thought—and as she drew nearer, his breath +came faster. +</P> + +<P> +"REMEMBER! ACROSS MAIN STREET BRIDGE AT NOON!" Was THIS the fay of +whom the voice had warned him? With that, there befell him the mystery +of last night. He did not remember, but it was as if he lived again, +dimly, the highest hour of happiness in a life a thousand years ago; +perfume and music, roses, nightingales and plucked harp-strings. Yes; +something wonderful was happening to him. +</P> + +<P> +She had stopped directly in front of him; stopped and stood looking at +him with her clear eyes. He did not lift his own to hers; he had long +experience of the averted gaze of women; but it was not only that; a +great shyness beset him. He had risen and removed his hat, trying +(ineffectually) not to clear his throat; his every-day sense urging +upon him that she was a stranger in Canaan who had lost her way—the +preposterousness of any one's losing the way in Canaan not just now +appealing to his every—day sense. +</P> + +<P> +"Can I—can I—" he stammered, blushing miserably, meaning to finish +with "direct you," or "show you the way." +</P> + +<P> +Then he looked at her again and saw what seemed to him the strangest +sight of his life. The lady's eyes had filled with tears—filled and +overfilled. "I'll sit here on the log with you," she said. And her +voice was the voice which he had heard saying, "REMEMBER! ACROSS MAIN +STREET BRIDGE AT NOON!" +</P> + +<P> +"WHAT!" he gasped. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't need to dust it!" she went on, tremulously. And even then +he did not know who she was. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +WHEN HALF-GODS GO +</H3> + +<P> +There was a silence, for if the dazzled young man could have spoken at +all, He could have found nothing to say; and, perhaps, the lady would +not trust her own voice just then. His eyes had fallen again; he was +too dazed, and, in truth, too panic-stricken, now, to look at her, +though if he had been quite sure that she was part of a wonderful dream +he might have dared. She was seated beside him, and had handed him her +parasol in a little way which seemed to imply that of course he had +reached for it, so that it was to be seen how used she was to have all +tiny things done for her, though this was not then of his tremulous +observing. He did perceive, however, that he was to furl the dainty +thing; he pressed the catch, and let down the top timidly, as if +fearing to break or tear it; and, as it closed, held near his face, he +caught a very faint, sweet, spicy emanation from it like wild roses and +cinnamon. +</P> + +<P> +He did not know her; but his timidity and a strange little choke in his +throat, the sudden fright which had seized upon him, were not caused by +embarrassment. He had no thought that she was one he had known but +could not, for the moment, recall; there was nothing of the awkwardness +of that; no, he was overpowered by the miracle of this meeting. And +yet, white with marvelling, he felt it to be so much more touchingly a +great happiness than he had ever known that at first it was +inexpressibly sad. +</P> + +<P> +At last he heard her voice again, shaking a little, as she said: +</P> + +<P> +"I am glad you remembered." +</P> + +<P> +"Remembered what?" he faltered. +</P> + +<P> +"Then you don't?" she cried. "And yet you came." +</P> + +<P> +"Came here, do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—now, at noon." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah!" he half whispered, unable to speak aloud. "Was it you who +said—who said, 'Remember! Across—across—"' +</P> + +<P> +"'Across Main Street bridge at noon!'" she finished for him, gently. +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +He took a deep breath in the wonder of it. "Where was it you said +that?" he asked, slowly. "Was it last night?" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you even know that you came to meet me?" +</P> + +<P> +"<I>I</I>—came to—to meet—you!" +</P> + +<P> +She gave a little pitying cry, very near a sob, seeing his utter +bewilderment. +</P> + +<P> +"It was like the strangest dream in the world," she said. "You were at +the station when I came, last night. You don't remember at all?" +</P> + +<P> +His eyes downcast, his face burning hotly, he could only shake his head. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she continued. "I thought no one would be there, for I had not +written to say what train I should take, but when I stepped down from +the platform, you were standing there; though you didn't see me at +first, not until I had called your name and ran to you. You said, +'I've come to meet you,' but you said it queerly, I thought. And then +you called a carriage for me; but you seemed so strange you couldn't +tell how you knew that I was coming, and—and then I—I understood you +weren't yourself. You were very quiet, but I knew, I knew! So I made +you get into the carriage—and—and—" +</P> + +<P> +She faltered to a stop, and with that, shame itself brought him +courage; he turned and faced her. She had lifted her handkerchief to +her eyes, but at his movement she dropped it, and it was not so much +the delicate loveliness of her face that he saw then as the tears upon +her cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, poor boy!" she cried. "I knew! I knew!" +</P> + +<P> +"You—you took me home?" +</P> + +<P> +"You told me where you lived," she answered. "Yes, I took you home." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't understand," he stammered, huskily. "I don't understand!" +</P> + +<P> +She leaned toward him slightly, looking at him with great intentness. +</P> + +<P> +"You didn't know me last night," she said. "Do you know me now?" +</P> + +<P> +For answer he could only stare at her, dumfounded. He lifted an +unsteady hand toward her appealingly. But the manner of the lady, as +she saw the truth, underwent an April change. She drew back lightly; he +was favored with the most delicious, low laugh he had ever heard, and, +by some magic whisk which she accomplished, there was no sign of tears +about her. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! I'm glad you're the same, Joe!" she said. "You never would or +could pretend very well. I'm glad you're the same, and I'm glad I've +changed, though that isn't why you have forgotten me. You've forgotten +me because you never thought of me. Perhaps I should not have known +you if you had changed a great deal—as I have!" +</P> + +<P> +He started, leaning back from her. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah!" she laughed. "That's it! That funny little twist of the head +you always had, like a—like a—well, you know I must have told you a +thousand times that it was like a nice friendly puppy; so why shouldn't +I say so now? And your eyebrows! When you look like that, nobody +could ever forget you, Joe!" +</P> + +<P> +He rose from the log, and the mongrel leaped upon him uproariously, +thinking they were to go home, belike to food. +</P> + +<P> +The lady laughed again. "Don't let him spoil my parasol. And I must +warn you now: Never, never TREAD ON MY SKIRT! I'm very irritable +about such things!" +</P> + +<P> +He had taken three or four uncertain backward steps from her. She sat +before him, radiant with laughter, the loveliest creature he had ever +seen; but between him and this charming vision there swept, through the +warm, scented June air, a veil of snow like a driven fog, and, half +obscured in the heart of it, a young girl stood, knee-deep in a drift +piled against an old picket gate, her black water-proof and shabby +skirt flapping in the blizzard like torn sails, one of her hands +out-stretched toward him, her startled eyes fixed on his. +</P> + +<P> +"And, oh, how like you," said the lady; "how like you and nobody else +in the world, Joe, to have a yellow dog!" +</P> + +<P> +"ARIEL TABOR!" +</P> + +<P> +His lips formed the words without sound. +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't it about time?" she said. "Are strange ladies in the HABIT of +descending from trains to take you home?" +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Once, upon a white morning long ago, the sensational progress of a +certain youth up Main Street had stirred Canaan. But that day was as +nothing to this. Mr. Bantry had left temporary paralysis in his wake; +but in the case of the two young people who passed slowly along the +street to-day it was petrifaction, which seemingly threatened in +several instances (most notably that of Mr. Arp) to become permanent. +</P> + +<P> +The lower portion of the street, lined with three and four story +buildings of brick and stone, rather grim and hot facades under the +mid-day sun, afforded little shade to the church-comers, who were +working homeward in processional little groups and clumps, none walking +fast, though none with the appearance of great leisure, since neither +rate of progress would have been esteemed befitting the day. The +growth of Canaan, steady, though never startling, had left almost all +of the churches down-town, and Main Street the principal avenue of +communication between them and the "residence section." So, to-day, +the intermittent procession stretched along the new cement side-walks +from a little below the Square to Upper Main Street, where maples lined +the thoroughfare and the mansions of the affluent stood among pleasant +lawns and shrubberies. It was late; for this had been a communion +Sunday, and those far in advance, who had already reached the pretty +and shady part of the street, were members of the churches where +services had been shortest; though few in the long parade looked as if +they had been attending anything very short, and many heads of families +were crisp in their replies to the theological inquiries of their +offspring. The men imparted largely a gloom to the itinerant +concourse, most of them wearing hot, long black coats and having wilted +their collars; the ladies relieving this gloom somewhat by the lighter +tints of their garments; the spick-and-span little girls relieving it +greatly by their white dresses and their faces, the latter bright with +the hope of Sunday ice-cream; while the boys, experiencing some solace +in that they were finally out where a person could at least scratch +himself if he had to, yet oppressed by the decorous necessities of the +day, marched along, furtively planning, behind imperturbably secretive +countenances, various means for the later dispersal of an odious +monotony. +</P> + +<P> +Usually the conversation of this long string of the homeward-bound was +not too frivolous or worldly; nay, it properly inclined to discussion +of the sermon; that is, praise of the sermon, with here and there a +mild "I-didn't-like-his-saying" or so; and its lighter aspects were apt +to concern the next "Social," or various pleasurable schemes for the +raising of funds to help the heathen, the quite worthy poor, or the +church. +</P> + +<P> +This was the serious and seemly parade, the propriety of whose behavior +was to-day almost disintegrated when the lady of the bridge walked up +the street in the shadow of a lacy, lavender parasol carried by Joseph +Louden. The congregation of the church across the Square, that to +which Joe's step-aunt had been late, was just debouching, almost in +mass, upon Main Street, when these two went by. It is not quite the +truth to say that all except the children came to a dead halt, but it +is not very far from it. The air was thick with subdued exclamations +and whisperings. +</P> + +<P> +Here is no mystery. Joe was probably the only person of respectable +derivation in Canaan who had not known for weeks that Ariel Tabor was +on her way home. And the news that she had arrived the night before +had been widely disseminated on the way to church, entering church, IN +church (even so!), and coming out of church. An account of her house +in the Avenue Henri Martin, and of her portrait in the Salon—a +mysterious business to many, and not lacking in grandeur for that!—had +occupied two columns in the Tocsin, on a day, some months before, when +Joe had found himself inimically head-lined on the first page, and had +dropped the paper without reading further. Ariel's name had been in +the mouth of Canaan for a long time; unfortunately for Joe, however, +not in the mouth of that Canaan which held converse with him. +</P> + +<P> +Joe had not known her. The women recognized her, infallibly, at first +glance; even those who had quite forgotten her. And the women told +their men. Hence the un-Sunday-like demeanor of the procession, for +few towns hold it more unseemly to stand and stare at passers-by, +especially on the Sabbath.—BUT Ariel Tabor returned—and walking +with—WITH JOE LOUDEN! ... +</P> + +<P> +A low but increasing murmur followed the two as they proceeded. It ran +up the street ahead of them; people turned to look back and paused, so +that they had to walk round one or two groups. They had, also, to walk +round Norbert Flitcroft, which was very like walking round a group. He +was one of the few (he was waddling home alone) who did not identify +Miss Tabor, and her effect upon him was extraordinary. His mouth +opened and he gazed stodgily, his widening eyes like sun-dogs coming +out of a fog. He did not recognize her escort; did not see him at all +until they had passed, after which Mr. Flitcroft experienced a few +moments of trance; came out of it stricken through and through; felt +nervously of his tie; resolutely fell in behind the heeling mongrel and +followed, at a distance of some forty paces, determined to learn what +household this heavenly visitor honored, and thrilling with the +intention to please that same household with his own presence as soon +and as often as possible. +</P> + +<P> +Ariel flushed a little when she perceived the extent of their +conspicuousness; but it was not the blush that Joe remembered had +reddened the tanned skin of old; for her brownness had gone long ago, +though it had not left her merely pink and white. This was a delicate +rosiness rising from her cheeks to her temples as the earliest dawn +rises. If there had been many words left in Joe, he would have called +it a divine blush; it fascinated him, and if anything could have +deepened the glamour about her, it would have been this blush. He did +not understand it, but when he saw it he stumbled. +</P> + +<P> +Those who gaped and stared were for him only blurs in the background; +truly, he saw "men as trees walking"; and when it became necessary to +step out to the curb in passing some clump of people, it was to him as +if Ariel and he, enchantedly alone, were working their way through +underbrush in the woods. +</P> + +<P> +He kept trying to realize that this lady of wonder was Ariel Tabor, but +he could not; he could not connect the shabby Ariel, whom he had +treated as one boy treats another, with this young woman of the world. +He had always been embarrassed, himself, and ashamed of her, when +anything she did made him remember that, after all, she was a girl; as, +on the day he ran away, when she kissed a lock of his hair escaping +from the bandage. With that recollection, even his ears grew red: it +did not seem probable that it would ever happen again! The next +instant he heard himself calling her "Miss Tabor." +</P> + +<P> +At this she seemed amused. "You ought to have called me that, years +ago," she said, "for all you knew me!" +</P> + +<P> +"I did know her—YOU, I mean!" he answered. "I used to know nearly +everything you were going to say before you said it. It seems strange +now—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she interrupted. "It does seem strange now!" +</P> + +<P> +"Somehow," he went on, "I doubt if now I'd know." +</P> + +<P> +"Somehow," she echoed, with fine gravity, "I doubt it, too." +</P> + +<P> +Although he had so dim a perception of the staring and whispering which +greeted and followed them, Ariel, of course, was thoroughly aware of +it, though the only sign she gave was the slight blush, which very soon +disappeared. That people turned to look at her may have been not +altogether a novelty: a girl who had learned to appear unconscious of +the Continental stare, the following gaze of the boulevards, the frank +glasses of the Costanza in Rome, was not ill equipped to face Main +Street, Canaan, even as it was to-day. +</P> + +<P> +Under the sycamores, before they started, they had not talked a great +deal; there had been long silences: almost all her questions concerning +the period of his runaway absence; she appeared to know and to +understand everything which had happened since his return to the town. +He had not, in his turn, reached the point where he would begin to +question her; he was too breathless in his consciousness of the +marvellous present hour. She had told him of the death of Roger Tabor, +the year before. "Poor man," she said, gently, "he lived to see 'how +the other fellows did it' at last, and everybody liked him. He was +very happy over there." +</P> + +<P> +After a little while she had said that it was growing close upon +lunch-time; she must be going back. +</P> + +<P> +"Then—then—good-bye," he replied, ruefully. +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid you don't understand. It wouldn't do for you to be seen +with me. Perhaps, though, you do understand. Wasn't that why you +asked me to meet you out here beyond the bridge?" +</P> + +<P> +In answer she looked at him full and straight for three seconds, then +threw back her head and closed her eyes tight with laughter. Without a +word she took the parasol from him, opened it herself, placed the +smooth white coral handle of it in his hand, and lightly took his arm. +There was no further demur on the part of the young man. He did not +know where she was going; he did not ask. +</P> + +<P> +Soon after Norbert turned to follow them, they came to the shady part +of the street, where the town in summer was like a grove. Detachments +from the procession had already, here and there, turned in at the +various gates. Nobody, however, appeared to have gone in-doors, except +for fans, armed with which immediately to return to rockers upon the +shaded verandas. As Miss Tabor and Joe went by, the rocking-chairs +stopped; the fans poised, motionless; and perspiring old gentlemen, +wiping their necks, paused in arrested attitudes. +</P> + +<P> +Once Ariel smiled politely, not at Mr. Louden, and inclined her head +twice, with the result that the latter, after thinking for a time of +how gracefully she did it and how pretty the top of her hat was, became +gradually conscious of a meaning in her action: that she had bowed to +some one across the street. He lifted his hat, about four minutes +late, and discovered Mamie Pike and Eugene, upon the opposite pavement, +walking home from church together. Joe changed color. +</P> + +<P> +There, just over the way, was she who had been, in his first youth, the +fairy child, the little princess playing in the palace yard, and always +afterward his lady of dreams, his fair unreachable moon! And Joe, +seeing her to-day, changed color; that was all! He had passed Mamie in +the street only a week before, and she had seemed all that she had +always seemed; to-day an incomprehensible and subtle change had +befallen her—a change so mystifying to him that for a moment he almost +doubted that she was Mamie Pike. It came to him with a breath-taking +shock that her face lacked a certain vivacity of meaning; that its +sweetness was perhaps too placid; that there would have been a deeper +goodness in it had there been any hint of daring. Astonishing questions +assailed him, startled him: could it be true that, after all, there +might be some day too much of her? Was her amber hair a little +too—FLUFFY? Was something the matter with her dress? Everything she +wore had always seemed so beautiful. Where had the exquisiteness of it +gone? For there was surely no exquisiteness about it now! It was +incredible that any one could so greatly alter in the few days elapsed +since he had seen her. +</P> + +<P> +Strange matters! Mamie had never looked prettier. +</P> + +<P> +At the sound of Ariel's voice he emerged from the profundities of his +psychic enigma with a leap. +</P> + +<P> +"She is lovelier than ever, isn't she?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, indeed," he answered, blankly. +</P> + +<P> +"Would you still risk—" she began, smiling, but, apparently thinking +better of it, changed her question: "What is the name of your dog, Mr. +Louden? You haven't told me." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, he's just a yellow dog," he evaded, unskilfully. +</P> + +<P> +"YOUNG MAN!" she said, sharply. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," he admitted, reluctantly, "I call him Speck for short." +</P> + +<P> +"And what for long? I want to know his real name." +</P> + +<P> +"It's mighty inappropriate, because we're fond of each other," said +Joe, "but when I picked him up he was so yellow, and so thin, and so +creeping, and so scared that I christened him 'Respectability.'" +</P> + +<P> +She broke into light laughter, stopped short in the midst of it, and +became grave. "Ah, you've grown bitter," she said, gently. +</P> + +<P> +"No, no," he protested. "I told you I liked him." +</P> + +<P> +She did not answer. +</P> + +<P> +They were now opposite the Pike Mansion, and to his surprise she +turned, indicating the way by a touch upon his sleeve, and crossed the +street toward the gate, which Mamie and Eugene had entered. Mamie, +after exchanging a word with Eugene upon the steps, was already +hurrying into the house. +</P> + +<P> +Ariel paused at the gate, as if waiting for Joe to open it. +</P> + +<P> +He cocked his head, his higher eyebrow rose, and the distorted smile +appeared. "I don't believe we'd better stop here," he said. "The last +time I tried it I was expunged from the face of the universe." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you know?" she cried. "I'm staying here. Judge Pike has charge +of all my property; he was the administrator, or something." Then +seeing him chopfallen and aghast, she went on: "Of course you don't +know! You don't know anything about me. You haven't even asked!" +</P> + +<P> +"You're going to live HERE?" he gasped. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you come to see me?" she laughed. "Will you come this afternoon?" +</P> + +<P> +He grew white. "You know I can't," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"You came here once. You risked a good deal then, just to see Mamie +dance by a window. Don't you dare a little for an old friend?" +</P> + +<P> +"All right," he gulped. "I'll try." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Bantry had come down to the gate and was holding it open, his eyes +fixed upon Ariel, within them a rising glow. An impression came to Joe +afterward that his step-brother had looked very handsome. +</P> + +<P> +"Possibly you remember me, Miss Tabor?" said Eugene, in a deep and +impressive voice, lifting his hat. "We were neighbors, I believe, in +the old days." +</P> + +<P> +She gave him her hand in a fashion somewhat mannerly, favoring him with +a bright, negligent smile. "Oh, quite," she answered, turning again to +Joe as she entered the gate. "Then I shall expect you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll try," said Joe. "I'll try." +</P> + +<P> +He stumbled away; Respectability and he, together, + interfering alarmingly with the comfort of<BR> +Mr. Flitcroft, who had stopped in the middle of the pavement to stare +glassily at Ariel. Eugene accompanied the latter into the house, and +Joe, looking back, understood: Mamie had sent his step-brother to +bring Ariel in—and to keep him from following. +</P> + +<P> +"This afternoon!" The thought took away his breath, and he became +paler. +</P> + +<P> +The Pike brougham rolled by him, and Sam Warden, from the box, favored +his old friend upon the pavement with a liberal display of the whites +of his eyes. The Judge, evidently, had been detained after +services—without doubt a meeting of the church officials. Mrs. Pike, +blinking and frightened, sat at her husband's side, agreeing feebly +with the bull-bass which rumbled out of the open window of the +brougham: "I want orthodox preaching in MY church, and, by God, madam, +I'll have it! That fellow has got to go!" Joe took off his hat and +wiped his brow. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TO REMAIN ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE IS NOT ALWAYS A VICTORY +</H3> + +<P> +Mamie, waiting just inside the door as Ariel and Eugene entered, gave +the visitor a pale greeting, and, a moment later, hearing the wheels of +the brougham crunch the gravel of the carriage-drive, hurried away, +down the broad hall, and disappeared. Ariel dropped her parasol upon a +marble-topped table near the door, and, removing her gloves, drifted +into a room at the left, where a grand piano found shelter beneath +crimson plush. After a moment of contemplation, she pushed back the +coverlet, and, seating herself upon the plush-covered piano-stool (to +match), let her fingers run up and down the key-board once and fall +listlessly in her lap, as she gazed with deep interest at three +life-sized colored photographs (in carved gilt frames) upon the wall +she was facing: Judge Pike, Mamie, and Mrs. Pike with her rubies. +</P> + +<P> +"Please don't stop playing, Miss Tabor," said a voice behind her. She +had not observed that Eugene had followed her into the room. +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, if you like," she answered, looking up to smile absently at +him. And she began to play a rakish little air which, composed by some +rattle-brain at a cafe table, had lately skipped out of the Moulin +Rouge to disport itself over Paris. She played it slowly, in the minor, +with elfish pathos; while he leaned upon the piano, his eyes fixed upon +her fingers, which bore few rings, none, he observed with an +unreasonable pleasure, upon the third finger of the left hand. +</P> + +<P> +"It's one of those simpler Grieg things, isn't it?" he said, sighing +gently. "I care for Grieg." +</P> + +<P> +"Would you mind its being Chaminade?" she returned, dropping her eyes +to cloak the sin. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah no; I recognize it now," replied Eugene. "He appeals to me even +more than Grieg." +</P> + +<P> +At this she glanced quickly up at him, but more quickly down again, and +hastened the time emphatically, swinging the little air into the major. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you play the 'Pilgrim's Chorus'?" +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +"Vous name pas Wagner?" inquired Eugene, leaning toward her. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh yes," she answered, bending her head far over, so that her face was +concealed from him, except the chin, which, he saw with a thrill of +inexplicable emotion, was trembling slightly. There were some small +white flowers upon her hat, and these shook too. +</P> + +<P> +She stopped playing abruptly, rose from the stool and crossed the room +to a large mahogany chair, upholstered in red velvet and of hybrid +construction, possessing both rockers and legs. She had moved in a way +which prevented him from seeing her face, but he was certain of her +agitation, and strangely glad, while curious, tremulous half-thoughts, +edged with prophecy, bubbled to the surface of his consciousness. +</P> + +<P> +When she turned to him, he was surprised to see that she looked +astonishingly happy, almost as if she had been struggling with joy, +instead of pain. +</P> + +<P> +"This chair," she said, sinking into it, "makes me feel at home." +</P> + +<P> +Naturally he could not understand. +</P> + +<P> +"Because," she explained, "I once thought I was going to live in it. +It has been reupholstered, but I should know it if I met in anywhere in +the world!" +</P> + +<P> +"How very odd!" exclaimed Eugene, staring. +</P> + +<P> +"I settled here in pioneer days," she went on, tapping the arms lightly +with her finger-tips. "It was the last dance I went to in Canaan." +</P> + +<P> +"I fear the town was very provincial at that time," he returned, having +completely forgotten the occasion she mentioned, therefore wishing to +shift the subject. "I fear you may still find it so. There is not +much here that one is in sympathy with, intellectually—few people +really of the world." +</P> + +<P> +"Few people, I suppose you mean," she said, softly, with a look that +went deep enough into his eyes, "few people who really understand one?" +</P> + +<P> +Eugene had seated himself on the sill of an open window close by. +"There has been," he answered, with the ghost of a sigh, "no one." +</P> + +<P> +She turned her head slightly away from him, apparently occupied with a +loose thread in her sleeve. There were no loose threads; it was an old +habit of hers which she retained. "I suppose," she murmured, in a +voice as low as his had been, "that a man of your sort might find +Canaan rather lonely and sad." +</P> + +<P> +"It HAS been!" Whereupon she made him a laughing little bow. +</P> + +<P> +"You are sure you complain of Canaan?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!" he exclaimed. "You don't know what it is to live here—" +</P> + +<P> +"I think I do. I lived here seventeen years." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh yes," he began to object, "as a child, but—" +</P> + +<P> +"Have you any recollection," she interrupted, "of the day before your +brother ran away? Of coming home for vacation—I think it was your +first year in college—and intervening between your brother and me in a +snow-fight?" +</P> + +<P> +For a moment he was genuinely perplexed; then his face cleared. +"Certainly," he said: "I found him bullying you and gave him a good +punishing for it." +</P> + +<P> +"Is that all you remember?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he replied, honestly. "Wasn't that all?" +</P> + +<P> +"Quite!" she smiled, her eyes half closed. "Except that I went home +immediately afterward." +</P> + +<P> +"Naturally," said Eugene. "My step-brother wasn't very much chevalier +sans peur et sans reproche! Ah, I should like to polish up my French a +little. Would you mind my asking you to read a bit with me, some +little thing of Daudet's if you care for him, in the original? An +hour, now and then, perhaps—" +</P> + +<P> +Mamie appeared in the doorway and Eugene rose swiftly. "I have been +trying to persuade Miss Tabor," he explained, with something too much +of laughter, "to play again. You heard that little thing of +Chaminade's—" +</P> + +<P> +Mamie did not appear to hear him; she entered breathlessly, and there +was no color in her cheeks. "Ariel," she exclaimed, "I don't want you +to think I'm a tale-bearer—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, my dear!" Ariel said, with a gesture of deprecation. +</P> + +<P> +"No," Miss Pike went on, all in one breath, "but I'm afraid you will +think it, because papa knows and he wants to see you." +</P> + +<P> +"What is it that he knows?" +</P> + +<P> +"That you were walking with Joseph Louden!" (This was as if she had +said, "That you poisoned your mother.") "I DIDN'T tell him, but when +we saw you with him I was troubled, and asked Eugene what I'd better +do, because Eugene always knows what is best." (Mr. Bantry's +expression, despite this tribute, was not happy.) "And he advised me +to tell mamma about it and leave it in her hands. But she always tells +papa everything—" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly; that is understood," said Ariel, slowly, turning to smile +at Eugene. +</P> + +<P> +"And she told him this right away," Mamie finished. +</P> + +<P> +"Why shouldn't she, if it is of the slightest interest to him?" +</P> + +<P> +The daughter of the house exhibited signs of consternation. "He wants +to see you," she repeated, falteringly. "He's in the library." +</P> + +<P> +Having thus discharged her errand, she hastened to the front-door, +which had been left open, and out to the steps, evidently with the +intention of removing herself as soon and as far as possible from the +vicinity of the library. +</P> + +<P> +Eugene, visibly perturbed, followed her to the doorway of the room, and +paused. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know the way?" he inquired, with a note of solemnity. +</P> + +<P> +"Where?" Ariel had not risen. +</P> + +<P> +"To the library." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course," she said, beaming upon him. "I was about to ask you if +you wouldn't speak to the Judge for me. This is such a comfortable old +friend, this chair." +</P> + +<P> +"Speak to him for you?" repeated the non-plussed Eugene. +</P> + +<P> +She nodded cheerfully. "If I may trouble you. Tell him, certainly, I +shall be glad to see him." +</P> + +<P> +He threw a piteous glance after Mamie, who was now, as he saw, through +the open door, out upon the lawn and beyond easy hailing distance. +When he turned again to look at Ariel he discovered that she had +shifted the position of her chair slightly, and was gazing out of the +window with every appearance of cheerful meditation. She assumed so +unmistakably that he had of course gone on her mission that, dismayed +and his soul quaking, he could find neither an alternative nor words to +explain to this dazzling lady that not he nor any other could bear such +a message to Martin Pike. +</P> + +<P> +Eugene went. There was nothing else to do; and he wished with every +step that the distance to the portals of the library might have been +greater. +</P> + +<P> +In whatever guise he delivered the summons, it was perfectly +efficacious. A door slammed, a heavy and rapid tread was heard in the +hall, and Ariel, without otherwise moving, turned her head and offered +a brilliant smile of greeting. +</P> + +<P> +"It was good of you," she said, as the doorway filled with red, +imperial wrath, "to wish to have a little chat with me. I'm anxious, +of course, to go over my affairs with you, and last night, after my +journey, I was too tired. But now we might begin; not in detail, of +course, just yet. That will do for later, when I've learned more about +business." +</P> + +<P> +The great one had stopped on the threshold. +</P> + +<P> +"Madam," he began, coldly, "when I say my library, I mean my—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh yes," she interrupted, with amiable weariness. "I know. You mean +you keep all the papers and books of the estate in there, but I think +we'd better put them off for a few days—" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not talking about the estate!" he exclaimed. "What I want to talk +to you about is being seen with Joseph Louden!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she nodded, brightly. "That's along the line we must take up +first." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it is!" He hurled his bull-bass at her. "You knew everything +about him and his standing in this community! I know you did, because +Mrs. Pike told me you asked all about him from Mamie after you came +last night, and, see here, don't you—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, but I knew before that," she laughed. "I had a correspondent in +Canaan, one who has always taken a great interest in Mr. Louden. I +asked Miss Pike only to get her own point of view." +</P> + +<P> +"I want to tell you, madam," he shouted, coming toward her, "that no +member of my household—" +</P> + +<P> +"That's another point we must take up to-day. I'm glad you remind me of +it," she said, thoughtfully, yet with so magically compelling an +intonation that he stopped his shouting in the middle of a word; +stopped with an apoplectic splutter. "We must arrange to put the old +house in order at once." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll arrange nothing of the sort," he responded, after a moment of +angry silence. "You're going to stay right here." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, I know your hospitality," she bowed, graciously. "But of course I +must not tax it too far. And about Mr. Louden? As I said, I want to +speak to you about him." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he intervened, harshly. "So do I, and I'm going to do it quick! +You'll find—" +</P> + +<P> +Again she mysteriously baffled him. "He's a dear old friend of mine, +you know, and I have made up my mind that we both need his help, you +and I." +</P> + +<P> +"What!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she continued, calmly, "in a business way I mean. I know you +have great interests in a hundred directions, all more important than +mine; it isn't fair that you should bear the whole burden of my +affairs, and I think it will be best to retain Mr. Louden as my man of +business. He could take all the cares of the estate off your +shoulders." +</P> + +<P> +Martin Pike spoke no word, but he looked at her strangely; and she +watched him with sudden keenness, leaning forward in her chair, her +gaze alert but quiet, fixed on the dilating pupils of his eyes. He +seemed to become dizzy, and the choleric scarlet which had overspread +his broad face and big neck faded splotchily. +</P> + +<P> +Still keeping her eyes upon him, she went on: "I haven't asked him yet, +and so I don't know whether or not he'll consent, but I think it +possible that he may come to see me this afternoon, and if he does we +can propose it to him together and go over things a little." +</P> + +<P> +Judge Pike recovered his voice. "He'll get a warm welcome," he +promised, huskily, "if he sets foot on my premises!" +</P> + +<P> +"You mean you prefer I shouldn't receive him here?" She nodded +pleasantly. "Then certainly I shall not. Such things are much better +for offices; you are quite right." +</P> + +<P> +"You'll not see him at all!" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, Judge Pike," she lifted her hand with gentle deprecation, "don't +you understand that we can't quite arrange that? You see, Mr. Louden +is even an older friend of mine than you are, and so I must trust his +advice about such things more than yours. Of course, if he too should +think it better for me not to see him—" +</P> + +<P> +The Judge advanced toward her. "I'm tired of this," he began, in a +loud voice. "I'm—" +</P> + +<P> +She moved as if to rise, but he had come very close, leaning above her, +one arm out-stretched and at the end of it a heavy forefinger which he +was shaking at her, so that it was difficult to get out of her chair +without pushing him away—a feat apparently impossible. Ariel Tabor, +in rising, placed her hand upon his out-stretched arm, quite as if he +had offered it to assist her; he fell back a step in complete +astonishment; she rose quickly, and released his arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," she said, beamingly. "It's quite all my fault that you're +tired. I've been thoughtless to keep you so long, and you have been +standing, too!" She swept lightly and quickly to the door, where she +paused, gathering her skirts. "I shall not detain you another instant! +And if Mr. Louden comes, this afternoon, I'll remember. I'll not let +him come in, of course. It will be perhaps pleasanter to talk over my +proposition as we walk!" +</P> + +<P> +There was a very faint, spicy odor like wild roses and cinnamon left in +the room where Martin Pike stood alone, staring whitely at the open +doorway. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE WATCHER AND THE WARDEN +</H3> + +<P> +There was a custom of Canaan, time-worn and seldom honored in the +breach, which put Ariel, that afternoon, in easy possession of a coign +of vantage commanding the front gate. The heavy Sunday dinner was +finished in silence (on the part of Judge Pike, deafening) about three +o'clock, and, soon after, Mamie tossed a number of cushions out upon +the stoop between the cast-iron dogs,—Sam Warden having previously +covered the steps with a rug and placed several garden chairs near by +on the grass. These simple preparations concluded, Eugene sprawled +comfortably upon the rug, and Mamie seated herself near him, while +Ariel wandered with apparent aimlessness about the lawn, followed by +the gaze of Mr. Bantry, until Miss Pike begged her, a little +petulantly, to join them. +</P> + +<P> +She came, looking about her dreamily, and touching to her lips, now and +then, with an absent air, a clover blossom she had found in the longer +grass against the fence. She stopped to pat the neck of one of the +cast-iron deer, and with grave eyes proffered the clover-top first for +inspection, then as food. There were those in the world who, seeing +her, might have wondered that the deer did not play Galatea and come to +life. +</P> + +<P> +"No?" she said, aloud, to the steadfast head. "You won't? What a +mistake to be made of cast-iron!" She smiled and nodded to a clump of +lilac-bushes near a cedar-tree, and to nothing else—so far as Eugene +and Mamie could see,—then walked thoughtfully to the steps. +</P> + +<P> +"Who in the world were you speaking to?" asked Mamie, curiously. +</P> + +<P> +"That deer." +</P> + +<P> +"But you bowed to some one." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that," Ariel lifted her eyebrows,—"that was your father. Didn't +you see him?" +</P> + +<P> +"No." +</P> + +<P> +"I believe you can't from here, after all," said Ariel, slowly. "He is +sitting upon a rustic bench between the bushes and the cedar-tree, +quite near the gate. No, you couldn't see him from here; you'd have to +go as far as the deer, at least, and even then you might not notice +him, unless you looked for him. He has a book—a Bible, I think—but I +don't think he is reading." +</P> + +<P> +"He usually takes a nap on Sunday afternoons," said Mamie. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think he will, to-day." Ariel looked at Eugene, who avoided +her clear gaze. "He has the air of having settled himself to stay for +a long time, perhaps until evening." +</P> + +<P> +She had put on her hat after dinner, and Mamie now inquired if she +would not prefer to remove it, offering to carry it in-doors for her, +to Ariel's room, to insure its safety. "You look so sort of temporary, +wearing it," she urged, "as if you were only here for a little while. +It's the loveliest hat I ever saw, and so fragile, too, but I'll take +care—" +</P> + +<P> +Ariel laughed, leaned over, and touched the other's hand lightly. "It +isn't that, dear." +</P> + +<P> +"What is it, then?" Mamie beamed out into a joyful smile. She had +felt sure that she could not understand Ariel; was, indeed, afraid of +her; and she found herself astonishingly pleased to be called "dear," +and delighted with the little familiarity of the hand-tap. Her feeling +toward the visitor (who was, so her father had announced, to become a +permanent member of the household) had been, until now, undefined. She +had been on her guard, watching for some sign of conscious +"superiority" in this lady who had been so long over-seas, not knowing +what to make of her; though thrown, by the contents of her trunks, into +a wistfulness which would have had something of rapture in it had she +been sure that she was going to like Ariel. She had gone to the +latter's room before church, and had perceived uneasily that it had +become, even by the process of unpacking, the prettiest room she had +ever seen. Mrs. Warden, wife of Sam, and handmaiden of the mansion, +was assisting, alternately faint and vociferous with marvelling. Mamie +feared that Ariel might be a little overpowering. +</P> + +<P> +With the word "dear" (that is, of course, with the way it was spoken), +and with the touch upon the hand, it was all suddenly settled; she +would not understand Ariel always—that was clear—but they would like +each other. +</P> + +<P> +"I am wearing my hat," answered Ariel, "because at any moment I may +decide to go for a long walk!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I hope not," said Mamie. "There are sure to be people: a few +still come, even though I'm an engaged girl. I expect that's just to +console me, though," she added, smiling over this worn quip of the +betrothed, and shaking her head at Eugene, who grew red and coughed. +"There'll be plenty to-day, but they won't be here to see me. It's +you, Ariel, and they'd be terribly disappointed if you weren't here. I +shouldn't wonder if the whole town came; it's curious enough about you!" +</P> + +<P> +Canaan (at least that part of it which Mamie meant when she said "the +whole town") already offered testimony to her truthfulness. Two +gentlemen, aged nine and eleven, and clad in white "sailor suits," were +at that moment grooving their cheeks between the round pickets of the +gate. They had come from the house across the street, evidently +stimulated by the conversation at their own recent dinner-table (they +wore a few deposits such as are left by chocolate-cake), and the motive +of their conduct became obvious when, upon being joined by a person +from next door (a starched and frilled person of the opposite sex but +sympathetic age), one of them waggled a forefinger through the gate at +Ariel, and a voice was heard in explanation: +</P> + +<P> +"THAT'S HER." +</P> + +<P> +There was a rustle in the lilac-bushes near the cedar-tree; the three +small heads turned simultaneously in that direction; something terrific +was evidently seen, and with a horrified "OOOH!" the trio skedaddled +headlong. +</P> + +<P> +They were but the gay vanguard of the life which the street, quite dead +through the Sunday dinner-hour, presently took on. Young couples with +their progeny began to appear, returning from the weekly reunion Sunday +dinner with relatives; young people meditative (until they reached the +Pike Mansion), the wives fanning themselves or shooing the +tots-able-to-walk ahead of them, while the husbands, wearing long +coats, satin ties, and showing dust upon their blazing shoes, +invariably pushed the perambulators. Most of these passers-by +exchanged greetings with Mamie and Eugene, and all of them looked hard +at Ariel as long as it was possible. +</P> + +<P> +And now the young men of the town, laboriously arranged as to apparel, +began to appear on the street in small squads, making their Sunday +rounds; the youngest working in phalanxes of threes and fours, those +somewhat older inclining to move in pairs; the eldest, such as were now +beginning to be considered middle-aged beaux, or (by the extremely +youthful) "old bachelors," evidently considered it advantageous to +travel alone. Of all these, there were few who did not, before evening +fell, turn in at the gate of the Pike Mansion. Consciously, shyly or +confidently, according to the condition of their souls, they made their +way between the cast-iron deer to be presented to the visitor. +</P> + +<P> +Ariel sat at the top of the steps, and, looking amiably over their +heads, talked with such as could get near her. There were many who +could not, and Mamie, occupying the bench below, was surrounded by the +overflow. The difficulty of reaching and maintaining a position near +Miss Tabor was increased by the attitude and behavior of Mr. Flitcroft, +who that day cooled the feeling of friendship which several of his +fellow-townsmen had hitherto entertained for him. He had been the +first to arrive, coming alone, though that was not his custom, and he +established himself at Ariel's right, upon the step just below her, so +disposing the great body and the ponderous arms and legs the gods had +given him, that no one could mount above him to sit beside her, or +approach her from that direction within conversational distance. Once +established, he was not to be dislodged, and the only satisfaction for +those in this manner debarred from the society of the beautiful +stranger was obtained when they were presented to her and when they +took their departure. On these occasions it was necessary by custom for +them to shake her hand, a ceremony they accomplished by leaning across +Mr. Flitcroft, which was a long way to lean, and the fat back and +shoulders were sore that night because of what had been surreptitiously +done to them by revengeful elbows and knees. +</P> + +<P> +Norbert, not ordinarily talkative, had nothing to say; he seemed to +find sufficient occupation in keeping the place he had gained; and from +this close vantage he fastened his small eyes immovably upon Ariel's +profile. Eugene, also apparently determined not to move, sat +throughout the afternoon at her left, but as he was thin, others, who +came and went, were able to approach upon that side and hold speech +with her. +</P> + +<P> +She was a stranger to these young people, most of whom had grown up +together in a nickname intimacy. Few of them had more than a very +imperfect recollection of her as she was before Roger Tabor and she had +departed out of Canaan. She had lived her girlhood only upon their +borderland, with no intimates save her grandfather and Joe; and she +returned to her native town "a revelation and a dream," as young Mr. +Bradbury told his incredulous grandmother that night. +</P> + +<P> +The conversation of the gallants consisted, for the greater part, of +witticisms at one another's expense, which, though evoked for Ariel's +benefit (all eyes furtively reverting to her as each shaft was loosed), +she found more or less enigmatical. The young men, however, laughed at +each other loudly, and seemed content if now and then she smiled. "You +must be frightfully ennuied with all this," Eugene said to her. "You +see how provincial we still are." +</P> + +<P> +She did not answer; she had not heard him. The shadows were stretching +themselves over the grass, long and attenuated; the sunlight upon the +trees and houses was like a thin, rosy pigment; black birds were +calling each other home to beech and elm; and Ariel's eyes were fixed +upon the western distance of the street where gold-dust was beginning +to quiver in the air. She did not hear Eugene, but she started, a +moment later, when the name "Joe Louden" was pronounced by a young man, +the poetic Bradbury, on the step below Eugene. Some one immediately +said "'SH!" But she leaned over and addressed Mr. Bradbury, who, shut +out, not only from the group about her, but from the other centring +upon Miss Pike, as well, was holding a private conversation with a +friend in like misfortune. +</P> + +<P> +"What were you saying of Mr. Louden?" she asked, smiling down upon the +young man. (It was this smile which inspired his description of her as +"a revelation and a dream.") +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, nothing particular," was his embarrassed reply. "I only mentioned +I'd heard there was some talk among the—" He paused awkwardly, +remembering that Ariel had walked with Joseph Louden in the face of +Canaan that very day. "That is, I mean to say, there's some talk of his +running for Mayor." +</P> + +<P> +"WHAT?" +</P> + +<P> +There was a general exclamation, followed by an uncomfortable moment or +two of silence. No one present was unaware of that noon walk, though +there was prevalent a pleasing notion that it would not happen again, +founded on the idea that Ariel, having only arrived the previous +evening, had probably met Joe on the street by accident, and, +remembering him as a playmate of her childhood and uninformed as to his +reputation, had, naturally enough, permitted him to walk home with her. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Flitcroft broke the silence, rushing into words with a derisive +laugh: "Yes, he's 'talked of' for Mayor—by the saloon people and the +niggers! I expect the Beaver Beach crowd would be for him, and if +tramps could vote he might—" +</P> + +<P> +"What is Beaver Beach?" asked Ariel, not turning. +</P> + +<P> +"What is Beaver Beach?" he repeated, and cast his eyes to the sky, +shaking his head awesomely. "It's a Place," he said, with abysmal +solemnity,—"a Place I shouldn't have mentioned in your presence, Miss +Tabor." +</P> + +<P> +"What has it to do with Mr. Louden?" +</P> + +<P> +The predestined Norbert conceived the present to be a heaven-sent +opportunity to enlighten her concerning Joe's character, since the +Pikes appeared to have been derelict in the performance of this +kindness. +</P> + +<P> +"He goes there!" he proceeded heavily. "He lived there for a while +when he first came back from running away, and he's a friend of Mike +Sheehan's that runs it; he's a friend of all the riff-raff that hang +around there." +</P> + +<P> +"How do you know he goes there?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, it was in the paper the day after he came back!" He appealed for +corroboration. "Wasn't it, Eugene?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, no!" she persisted. "Newspapers are sometimes mistaken, aren't +they?" Laughing a little, she swept across the bulbous face beside her +a swift regard that was like a search-light. "How do you KNOW, Mr. +Flitcroft," she went on very rapidly, raising her voice,—"how do you +KNOW that Mr. Louden is familiar with this place? The newspapers may +have been falsely informed; you must admit that? Then how do you KNOW? +Have you ever MET any one who has seen him there?" +</P> + +<P> +"I've seen him there myself!" The words skipped out of Norbert's mouth +like so many little devils, the instant he opened it. She had spoken +so quickly and with such vehemence, looking him full in the eye, that +he had forgotten everything in the world except making the point to +which her insistence had led him. +</P> + +<P> +Mamie looked horrified; there was a sound of smothered laughter, and +Norbert, overwhelmed by the treachery of his own mouth, sat gasping. +</P> + +<P> +"It can't be such a terrific place, then, after all," said Ariel, +gently, and turning to Eugene, "Have you ever been there, Mr. Bantry?" +she asked. +</P> + +<P> +He changed color, but answered with enough glibness: "No." +</P> + +<P> +Several of the young men rose; the wretched Flitcroft, however, evading +Mamie's eye—in which there was a distinct hint,—sat where he was +until all of them, except Eugene, had taken a reluctant departure, one +group after another, leaving in the order of their arrival. +</P> + +<P> +The rosy pigment which had colored the trees faded; the gold-dust of +the western distance danced itself pale and departed; dusk stalked into +the town from the east; and still the watcher upon the steps and the +warden of the gate (he of the lilac-bushes and the Bible) held their +places and waited—waited, alas! in vain.... Ah! Joe, is THIS the +mettle of your daring? Did you not say you would "try"? Was your +courage so frail a vessel that it could not carry you even to the gate +yonder? Surely you knew that if you had striven so far, there you would +have been met! Perhaps you foresaw that not one, but two, would meet +you at the gate, both the warden and the watcher. What of that? What +of that, O faint heart? What was there to fear? Listen! The gate +clicks. Ah, have you come at last? +</P> + +<P> +Ariel started to her feet, but the bent figure, coming up the walk in +the darkness, was that of Eskew Arp. He bowed gloomily to Mamie, and +in response to her inquiry if he wished to see her father, answered no; +he had come to talk with the granddaughter of his old friend Roger +Tabor. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Arp!" called Ariel. "I am so very glad!" She ran down to him and +gave him her hand. "We'll sit here on the bench, sha'n't we?" +</P> + +<P> +Mamie had risen, and skirting Norbert frostily, touched Eugene upon the +shoulder as she went up the steps. He understood that he was to follow +her in-doors, and, after a deep look at the bench where Ariel had +seated herself beside Mr. Arp, he obeyed. Norbert was left a lonely +ruin between the cold, twin dogs. He had wrought desolation this +afternoon, and that sweet verdure, his good name, so long in the +planting, so carefully tended, was now a dreary waste; yet he +contemplated this not so much as his present aspect of splendid +isolation. Frozen by the daughter of the house, forgotten by the +visitor, whose conversation with Mr. Arp was carried on in tones so low +that he could not understand it, the fat one, though heart-breakingly +loath to take himself away, began to comprehend that his hour had +struck. He rose, descended the steps to the bench, and seated himself +unexpectedly upon the cement walk at Ariel's feet. "Leg's gone to +sleep," he explained, in response to her startled exclamation; but, +like a great soul, ignoring the accident of his position as well as the +presence of Mr. Arp, he immediately proceeded: "Will you go riding with +me to-morrow afternoon?" +</P> + +<P> +"Aren't you very good-natured, Mr. Flitcroft?" she asked, with an odd +intonation. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm imposed on, often enough," he replied, rubbing his leg, "by people +who think I am! Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is only that your sitting so abruptly upon the ground reminded me +of something that happened long ago, before I left Canaan, the last +time I met you." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think I knew you before you went away. You haven't said if +you'll go riding with me to-morrow. Please—" +</P> + +<P> +"Get up," interrupted Mr. Arp, acidly. "Somebody 'll fall over you if +you stay there." +</P> + +<P> +Such a catastrophe in truth loomed imminent. Judge Pike was rapidly +approaching on his way to the house, Bible in hand—far better in hand +than was his temper, for it is an enraging thing to wait five hours in +ambush for a man who does not come. In the darkness a desecration +occurred, and Norbert perfected to the last detail whatever had been +left incomplete of his own destruction. He began lumberingly to rise, +talking at the same time, urging upon Ariel the charms of the roadside; +wild flowers were in blossom, he said, recounting the benefits she +might derive through acceptance of his invitation; and having, thus +busily, risen to his knees, became aware that some one was passing near +him. This some one Mr. Flitcroft, absorbed in artful persuasions, may +have been betrayed by the darkness to mistake for Eugene. Reaching out +for assistance, he mechanically seized upon the skirts of a coat, which +he put to the uses of a rope, coming up hand-over-hand with such noble +weight and energy that he brought himself to his feet and the owner of +the coat to the ground simultaneously. The latter, hideously +astonished, went down with an objurgation so outrageous in venom that +Mr. Arp jumped with the shock. Judge Pike got to his feet quickly, but +not so quickly as the piteous Flitcroft betook himself into the deep +shadows of the street. Only a word, hoarse and horror-stricken, was +left quivering on the night breeze by this accursed, whom the gods, +intent upon his ruin, had early in the day, at his first sight of +Ariel, in good truth, made mad: "MURDER!" +</P> + +<P> +"Can I help you brush off, Judge?" asked Eskew, rising painfully. +</P> + +<P> +Either Martin Pike was beyond words, or the courtesy proposed by the +feeble old fellow (for Eskew was now very far along in years, and +looked his age) emphasized too bitterly the indignity which had been +put upon him: whatever the case, he went his way in-doors, leaving the +cynic's offer unacknowledged. Eskew sank back upon the bench, with the +little rusty sounds, suggestions of creaks and sighs, which accompany +the movement of antiques. "I've always thought," he said, "that the +Judge had spells when he was hard of hearing." +</P> + +<P> +Oblongs of light abruptly dropped from the windows confronting them, +one, falling across the bench, appropriately touching with lemon the +acrid, withered face and trembling hands of the veteran. "You are +younger than you were nine years ago, Mr. Arp," said Ariel, gayly. "I +caught a glimpse of you upon the street, to-day, and I thought so then. +Now I see that I was right." +</P> + +<P> +"Me—YOUNGER!" he groaned. "No, ma'am! I'm mighty near through with +this fool world—and I'd be glad of it, if I didn't expect that if +there IS another one afterwards, it would be jest as ornery!" +</P> + +<P> +She laughed, leaning forward, resting her elbows on her knee, and her +chin in her hand, so that the shadow of her hat shielded her eyes from +the light. "I thought you looked surprised when you saw me to day." +</P> + +<P> +"I reckon I did!" he exclaimed. "Who wouldn't of been?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" he repeated, confounded by her simplicity. "Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she laughed. "That's what I'm anxious to know." +</P> + +<P> +"Wasn't the whole town the same way?" he demanded. "Did you meet +anybody that didn't look surprised?" +</P> + +<P> +"But why should they?" +</P> + +<P> +"Good Lord Admighty!" he broke out. "Ain't you got any +lookin'-glasses?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think almost all I have are still in the customs warehouse." +</P> + +<P> +"Then use Mamie Pike's," responded the old man. "The town never +dreamed you were goin' to turn out pretty at all, let alone the WAY +you've turned out pretty! The Tocsin had a good deal about your looks +and so forth in it once, in a letter from Paris, but the folks that +remembered you kind of set that down to the way papers talk about +anybody with money, and nobody was prepared for it when they saw you. +You don't need to drop no curtseys to ME." He set his mouth grimly, in +response to the bow she made him. "<I>I</I> think female beauty is like all +other human furbelows, and as holler as heaven will be if only the good +people are let in! But yet I did stop to look at you when you went +past me to-day, and I kept on lookin', long as you were in sight. I +reckon I always will, when I git the chance, too—only shows what human +nature IS! But that wasn't all that folks were starin' at to-day. It +was your walkin' with Joe Louden that really finished 'em, and I can +say it upset me more than anything I've seen for a good many years." +</P> + +<P> +"Upset you, Mr. Arp?" she cried. "I don't quite see." +</P> + +<P> +The old man shook his head deploringly. "After what I'd written you +about that boy—" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," she said, softly, touching his sleeve with her fingers, "I +haven't thanked you for that." +</P> + +<P> +"You needn't," he returned, sharply. "It was a pleasure. Do you +remember how easy and quick I promised you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I remember that you were very kind." +</P> + +<P> +"Kind!" He gave forth an acid and chilling laugh. "It was about two +months after Louden ran away, and before you and Roger left Canaan, and +you asked me to promise to write to you whenever word of that outcast +came—" +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't put it so, Mr. Arp." +</P> + +<P> +"No, but you'd ought of! You asked me to write you whatever news of +him should come, and if he came back to tell you how and when and all +about it. And I did it, and kept you sharp on his record ever since he +landed here again. Do you know why I've done it? Do you know why I +promised so quick and easy I WOULD do it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Out of the kindness of your heart, I think." +</P> + +<P> +The acid laugh was repeated. "NO, ma 'am! You couldn't of guessed +colder. I promised, and I kept my promise, because I knew there would +never be anything good to tell! AND THERE NEVER WAS!" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing at all?" she insisted, gravely. +</P> + +<P> +"Never! I leave it to you if I've written one good word of him." +</P> + +<P> +"You've written of the treatment he has received here," she began, "and +I've been able to see what he has borne—and bears!" +</P> + +<P> +"But have I written one word to show that he didn't deserve it all? +Haven't I told you everything, of his associates, his—" +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed you have!" +</P> + +<P> +"Then do you wonder that I was more surprised than most when I saw you +walking with him to-day? Because I knew you did it in cold blood and +knowledge aforethought! Other folks thought it was because you hadn't +been here long enough to hear his reputation, but I KNEW!" +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me," she said, "if you were disappointed when you saw me with +him." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he snapped. "I was!" +</P> + +<P> +"I thought so. I saw the consternation in your face! You APPROVED, +didn't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know what you're talking about!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, you do! I know it bothers you to have me read you between the +lines, but for this once you must let me. You are so consistent that +you are never disappointed when things turn out badly, or people are +wicked or foolish, are you?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, certainly not. I expect it." +</P> + +<P> +"And you were disappointed in me to-day. Therefore, it must be that I +was doing something you knew was right and good. You see?" She leaned +a little closer to him, smiling angelically. "Ah, Mr. Arp," she cried, +"I know your secret: you ADMIRE me!" +</P> + +<P> +He rose, confused and incoherent, as full of denial as a detected +pickpocket. "I DON'T! Me ADMIRE? WHAT? It's an ornery world," he +protested. "I don't admire any human that ever lived!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, you do," she persisted. "I've just proved it! But that is the +least of your secret; the great thing is this: YOU ADMIRE MR. LOUDEN!" +</P> + +<P> +"I never heard such nonsense," he continued to protest, at the same +time moving down the walk toward the gate, leaning heavily on his +stick. "Nothin' of the kind. There ain't any LOGIC to that kind of an +argument, nor no REASON!" +</P> + +<P> +"You see, I understand you," she called after him. "I'm sorry you go +away in the bitterness of being found out." +</P> + +<P> +"Found out!" His stick ceased for a moment to tap the cement. "Pooh!" +he ejaculated, uneasily. There was a pause, followed by a malevolent +chuckle. "At any rate," he said, with joy in the afterthought, "you'll +never go walkin' with him AGAIN!" +</P> + +<P> +He waited for the answer, which came, after a time, sadly. "Perhaps +you are right. Perhaps I shall not." +</P> + +<P> +"Ha, I thought so! Good-night." +</P> + +<P> +"Good-night, Mr. Arp." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +She turned toward the lighted house. Through the windows nearest her +she could see Mamie, seated in the familiar chair, following with happy +and tender eyes the figure of Eugene, who was pacing up and down the +room. The town was deadly quiet: Ariel could hear the sound of +footsteps perhaps a block away. She went to the gate and gazed a long +time into the empty street, watching the yellow grains of light, sieved +through the maples from the arc lights on the corner, moving to and fro +in the deep shadow as the lamp swung slightly in the night air. +Somewhere, not far away, the peace was broken by the screams of a +"parlor organ," which honked and wailed in pious agonies (the intention +was hymnal), interminably protracting each spasm. Presently a woman's +voice outdid the organ, a voice which made vivid the picture of the +woman who owned it, and the ploughed forehead of her, above the +nose-glasses, when the "grace-notes" were proudly given birth. "Rescue +the Perishing" was the startlingly appropriate selection, rendered with +inconceivable lingering upon each syllable: "Roos-cyoo the +Poor-oosh-oong!" At unexpected intervals two male voices, evidently +belonging to men who had contracted the habit of holding tin in their +mouths, joined the lady in a thorough search for the Lost Chord. +</P> + +<P> +That was the last of silence in Canaan for an hour or so. The organ +was merely inaugural: across the street a piano sounded; firm, +emphatic, determined, vocal competition with the instrument here also; +"Rock of Ages" the incentive. Another piano presently followed suit, +in a neighboring house: "Precious Jewels." More distant, a second +organ was heard; other pianos, other organs, took up other themes; and +as a wakeful puppy's barking will go over a village at night, stirring +first the nearer dogs to give voice, these in turn stimulating those +farther away to join, one passing the excitement on to another, until +hounds in farm-yards far beyond the town contribute to the +long-distance conversation, even so did "Rescue the Perishing" enliven +the greater part of Canaan. +</P> + +<P> +It was this that made Ariel realize a thing of which hitherto she had +not been able to convince herself: that she was actually once more in +the town where she had spent her long-ago girlhood; now grown to seem +the girlhood of some other person. It was true: her foot was on her +native heath and her name was Ariel Tabor—the very name of the girl +who had shared the town's disapproval with Joe Louden! "Rescue the +Perishing" brought it all back to her; and she listened to these +sharply familiar rites of the Canaanite Sabbath evening with a shiver +of pain. +</P> + +<P> +She turned from the gate to go into the house, heard Eugene's voice at +the door, and paused. He was saying good-night to Mamie. +</P> + +<P> +"And please say 'au revoir' to Miss Tabor for me," he added, peering +out under his hand. "I don't know where she can have gone." +</P> + +<P> +"Probably she came in and went to her room," said Mamie. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't forget to tell her 'au revoir.'" +</P> + +<P> +"I won't, dear. Good-night." +</P> + +<P> +"Good-night." She lifted her face and he kissed her perfunctorily. +Then he came down the steps and went slowly toward the gate, looking +about him into the darkness as if searching for something; but Ariel +had fled away from the path of light that led from the open door. +</P> + +<P> +She skimmed noiselessly across the lawn and paused at the side of the +house, leaning against the veranda, where, on a night long past, a boy +had hid and a girl had wept. A small creaking sound fell upon her ear, +and she made out an ungainly figure approaching, wheeling something of +curious shape. +</P> + +<P> +"Is that you, Sam?" she said. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Warden stopped, close by. "Yes'm," he replied. "I'm a-gittin' out +de hose to lay de dus' yonnah." He stretched an arm along the +cross-bar of the reel, relaxing himself, apparently, for conversation. +"Y'all done change consid'able, Miss Airil," he continued, with the +directness of one sure of privilege. +</P> + +<P> +"You think so, Sam?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes'm. Ev'ybody think so, <I>I</I> reckon. Be'n a tai'ble lot o' talkum +'bout you to-day. Dun'no' how all dem oth' young ladies goin' take +it!" He laughed with immoderate delight, yet, as to the volume of mere +sound, discreetly, with an eye to open windows. "You got 'em all beat, +Miss Airil! Dey ain' be'n no one 'roun' dis town evah got in a thousum +mile o' you! Fer looks, an' de way you walk an' ca'y yo'self; an' as +fer de clo'es—name o' de good lan', honey, dey ain' nevah SEE style +befo'! My ole woman say you got mo' fixin's in a minute dan de whole +res' of 'em got in a yeah. She say when she helpin' you onpack she +must 'a' see mo'n a hunerd paihs o' slippahs alone! An' de good Man +knows I 'membuh w'en you runnin' roun' back-yods an' up de alley +rompin' 'ith Joe Louden, same you's a boy!" +</P> + +<P> +"Do you ever see Mr. Louden, nowadays?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +His laugh was repeated with the same discreet violence. "Ain' I seen +him dis ve'y day, fur up de street at de gate yonnah, stan'in' 'ith +you, w'en I drivin' de Judge?" +</P> + +<P> +"You—you didn't happen to see him anywhere this—this afternoon?" +</P> + +<P> +"No'm, I ain' SEE him." Sam's laughter vanished and his lowered voice +became serious. "I ain' SEE him, but I hearn about him." +</P> + +<P> +"What did you hear?" +</P> + +<P> +"Dey be'n consid'able stir on de aidge o' town, I reckon," he answered, +gravely, "an' dey be'n havin' some trouble out at de Beach—" +</P> + +<P> +"Beaver Beach, do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes'm. Dey be'n some shootin' goin' on out dat way." +</P> + +<P> +She sprang forward and caught at his arm without speaking. +</P> + +<P> +"Joe Louden all right," he said, reassuringly. "Ain' nuffum happen to +him! Nigh as I kin mek out f'm de TALK, dat Happy Fear gone on de +ramPAGE ag'in, an' dey hatta sent fer Mist' Louden to come in a hurry." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XIV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +WHITE ROSES IN A LAW-OFFICE +</H3> + +<P> +As upon a world canopied with storm, hung with mourning purple and +habited in black, did Mr. Flitcroft turn his morning face at eight +o'clock antemeridian Monday, as he hied himself to his daily duty at +the Washington National Bank. Yet more than the merely funereal +gloomed out from the hillocky area of his countenance. Was there not, +i'faith, a glow, a Vesuvian shimmer, beneath the murk of that darkling +eye? Was here one, think you, to turn the other cheek? Little has he +learned of Norbert Flitcroft who conceives that this fiery spirit was +easily to be quenched! Look upon the jowl of him, and let him who +dares maintain that people—even the very Pikes themselves—were to +grind beneath their brougham wheels a prostrate Norbert and ride on +scatheless! In this his own metaphor is nearly touched "I guess not! +They don't run over ME! Martin Pike better look out how he tries it!" +</P> + +<P> +So Mother Nature at her kindly tasks, good Norbert, uses for her +unguent our own perfect inconsistency: and often when we are stabbed +deep in the breast she distracts us by thin scratches in other parts, +that in the itch of these we may forget the greater hurt till it be +healed. Thus, the remembrance of last night, when you undisguisedly +ran from the wrath of a Pike, with a pretty girl looking on (to say +nothing of the acrid Arp, who will fling the legend on a thousand +winds), might well agonize you now, as, in less hasty moments and at a +safe distance, you brood upon the piteous figure you cut. On the +contrary, behold: you see no blood crimsoning the edges of the horrid +gash in your panoply of self-esteem: you but smart and scratch the +scratches, forgetting your wound in the hot itch for vengeance. It is +an itch which will last (for in such matters your temper shall be +steadfast), and let the great Goliath in the mean time beware of you! +You ran, last night. You ran—of course you ran. Why not? You ran to +fight another day! +</P> + +<P> +A bank clerk sometimes has opportunities. +</P> + +<P> +The stricken fat one could not understand how it came about that he had +blurted out the damning confession that he had visited Beaver Beach. +When he tried to solve the puzzle, his mind refused the strain, became +foggy and the terrors of his position acute. Was he, like Joe Louden, +to endure the ban of Canaan, and like him stand excommunicate beyond +the pale because of Martin Pike's displeasure? For Norbert saw with +perfect clearness to-day what the Judge had done for Joe. Now that he +stood in danger of a fate identical, this came home to him. How many +others, he wondered, would do as Mamie had done and write notes such as +he had received by the hand of Sam Warden, late last night? +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"DEAR SIR." (This from Mamie, who, in the Canaanitish way, had been +wont to address him as "Norb"!)—"My father wishes me to state that +after your remark yesterday afternoon on the steps which was overheard +by my mother who happened to be standing in the hall behind you and +your BEHAVIOR to himself later on—he considers it impossible to allow +you to call any more or to speak to any member of his household. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> + "Yours respectfully,<BR> + "MAMIE PIKE."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Erasures and restorations bore witness to a considerable doubt in +Mamie's mind concerning "Yours respectfully," but she had finally let +it stand, evidently convinced that the plain signature, without +preface, savored of an intimacy denied by the context. +</P> + +<P> +"'DEAR SIR'!" repeated Norbert, between set teeth. "'IMPOSSIBLE TO +ALLOW YOU TO CALL any more'!" These and other terms of his dismissal +recurred to him during the morning, and ever and anon he looked up from +his desk, his lips moving to the tune of those horrid phrases, and +stared out at the street. Basilisk glaring this, with no Christian +softness in it, not even when it fell upon his own grandfather, sitting +among the sages within easy eye-shot from the big window at Norbert's +elbow. However, Colonel Flitcroft was not disturbed by the gaze of his +descendant, being, in fact, quite unaware of it. The aged men were +having a busy morning. +</P> + +<P> +The conclave was not what it had been. [See Arp and all his works.] +There had come, as the years went by, a few recruits; but faces were +missing: the two Tabors had gone, and Uncle Joe Davey could no longer +lay claim to the patriarchship; he had laid it down with a half-sigh +and gone his way. Eskew himself was now the oldest of the conscript +fathers, the Colonel and Squire Buckalew pressing him closely, with +Peter Bradbury no great time behind. +</P> + +<P> +To-day they did not plant their feet upon the brass rail inside the +hotel windows, but courted the genial weather out-doors, and, as their +summer custom was, tilted back their chairs in the shade of the western +wall of the building. +</P> + +<P> +"And who could of dreamed," Mr. Bradbury was saying, with a side-glance +of expectancy at Eskew, "that Jonas Tabor would ever turn out to have a +niece like that!" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Arp ceased to fan himself with his wide straw hat and said grimly: +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see as Jonas HAS 'turned out'—not in particular! If he's +turned at all, lately, I reckon it's in his grave, and I'll bet he HAS +if he had any way of hearin' how much she must of spent for clothes!" +</P> + +<P> +"I believe," Squire Buckalew began, "that young folks' memories are +short." +</P> + +<P> +"They're lucky!" interjected Eskew. "The shorter your memory the less +meanness you know." +</P> + +<P> +"I meant young folks don't remember as well as older people do," +continued the Squire. "I don't see what's so remarkable in her comin' +back and walkin' up-street with Joe Louden. She used to go kitin' +round with him all the time, before she left here. And yet everybody +talks as if they never HEARD of sech a thing!" +</P> + +<P> +"It seems to me," said Colonel Flitcroft, hesitatingly, "that she did +right. I know it sounds kind of a queer thing to say, and I stirred up +a good deal of opposition at home, yesterday evening, by sort of +mentioning something of the kind. Nobody seemed to agree with me, +except Norbert, and he didn't SAY much, but—" +</P> + +<P> +He was interrupted by an uncontrollable cackle which issued from the +mouth of Mr. Arp. The Colonel turned upon him with a frown, inquiring +the cause of his mirth. +</P> + +<P> +"It put me in mind," Mr. Arp began promptly, "of something that +happened last night." +</P> + +<P> +"What was it?" +</P> + +<P> +Eskew's mouth was open to tell, but he remembered, just in time, that +the grandfather of Norbert was not the audience properly to be selected +for this recital, choked a half-born word, coughed loudly, realizing +that he must withhold the story of the felling of Martin Pike until the +Colonel had taken his departure, and replied: +</P> + +<P> +"Nothin' to speak of. Go on with your argument." +</P> + +<P> +"I've finished," said the Colonel. "I only wanted to say that it seems +to me a good action for a young lady like that to come back here and +stick to her old friend and playmate." +</P> + +<P> +"STICK to him!" echoed Mr. Arp. "She walked up Main Street with him +yesterday. Do you call that stickin' to him? She's been away a good +while; she's forgotten what Canaan IS. You wait till she sees for +herself jest what his standing in this com—" +</P> + +<P> +"I agree with Eskew for once," interrupted Peter Bradbury. "I agree +because—" +</P> + +<P> +"Then you better wait," cried Eskew, allowing him to proceed no +farther, "till you hear what you're agreein' to! I say: you take a +young lady like that, pretty and rich and all cultured up, and it +stands to reason that she won't—" +</P> + +<P> +"No, it don't," exclaimed Buckalew, impatiently. "Nothing of the sort! +I tell you—" +</P> + +<P> +Eskew rose to his feet and pounded the pavement with his stick. "It +stands to reason that she won't stick to a man no other decent woman +will speak to, a feller that's been the mark for every stone throwed in +the town, ever since he was a boy, an outcast with a reputation as +black as a preacher's shoes on Sunday! I don't care if he's her oldest +friend on EARTH, she won't stick to him! She walked with him +yesterday, but you can mark my words: his goose is cooked!" The old +man's voice rose, shrill and high. "It ain't in human nature fer her +to do it! You hear what I say: you'll never see her with Joe Louden +again in this livin' world, and she as good as told me so, herself, +last night. You can take your oath she's quit him already! Don't—" +</P> + +<P> +Eskew paused abruptly, his eyes widening behind his spectacles; his jaw +fell; his stick, raised to hammer the pavement, remained suspended in +the air. A sudden color rushed over his face, and he dropped +speechless in his chair. The others, after staring at him in momentary +alarm, followed the direction of his gaze. +</P> + +<P> +Just across Main Street, and in plain view, was the entrance to the +stairway which led to Joe's office. Ariel Tabor, all in cool gray, +carrying a big bunch of white roses in her white-gloved hands, had just +crossed the sidewalk from a carriage and was ascending the dark +stairway. A moment later she came down again, empty-handed, got into +the carriage, and drove away. +</P> + +<P> +"She missed him," said Squire Buckalew. "I saw him go out half an hour +ago. BUT," he added, and, exercising a self-restraint close upon the +saintly, did not even glance toward the heap which was Mr. Arp, "I +notice she left her flowers!" +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Ariel was not the only one who climbed the dingy stairs that day and +read the pencilled script upon Joe's door: "Will not return until +evening. J. Louden." Many others came, all exceedingly unlike the +first visitor: some were quick and watchful, dodging into the narrow +entrance furtively; some smiled contemptuously as long as they were in +view of the street, drooping wanly as they reached the stairs: some +were brazen and amused; and some were thin and troubled. Not all of +them read the message, for not all could read, but all looked curiously +through the half-opened door at the many roses which lifted their heads +delicately from a water-pitcher on Joe's desk to scent that dusty place +with their cool breath. +</P> + +<P> +Most of these clients, after a grunt of disappointment, turned and went +away; though there were a few, either unable to read the message or so +pressed by anxiety that they disregarded it, who entered the room and +sat down to wait for the absentee. [There were plenty of chairs in the +office now, bookcases also, and a big steel safe.] But when evening +came and the final gray of twilight had vanished from the window-panes, +all had gone except one, a woman who sat patiently, her eyes upon the +floor, and her hands folded in her lap, until the footsteps of the last +of the others to depart had ceased to sound upon the pavement below. +Then, with a wordless exclamation, she sprang to her feet, pulled the +window-shade carefully down to the sill, and, when she had done that, +struck a match on the heel of her shoe—a soiled white canvas shoe, not +a small one—and applied the flame to a gas jet. The yellow light +flared up; and she began to pace the room haggardly. +</P> + +<P> +The court-house bell rang nine, and as the tremors following the last +stroke pulsed themselves into silence, she heard a footfall on the +stairs and immediately relapsed into a chair, folding her hands again +in her lap, her expression composing itself to passivity, for the step +was very much lighter than Joe's. +</P> + +<P> +A lady beautifully dressed in white dimity appeared in the doorway. +She hesitated at the threshold, not, apparently, because of any +timidity (her expression being too thoughtfully assured for that), but +almost immediately she came in and seated herself near the desk, +acknowledging the other's presence by a slight inclination of the head. +</P> + +<P> +This grave courtesy caused a strong, deep flush to spread itself under +the rouge which unevenly covered the woman's cheeks, as she bowed +elaborately in return. Then, furtively, during a protracted silence, +she took stock of the new-comer, from the tip of her white suede shoes +to the filmy lace and pink roses upon her wide white hat; and the +sidelong gaze lingered marvellingly upon the quiet, delicate hands, +slender and finely expressive, in their white gloves. +</P> + +<P> +Her own hands, unlike the lady's, began to fidget confusedly, and, the +silence continuing, she coughed several times, to effect the preface +required by her sense of fitness, before she felt it proper to observe, +with a polite titter: +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Louden seems to be a good while comin'." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you been waiting very long?" asked the lady. +</P> + +<P> +"Ever since six o'clock!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said the other. "That is very long." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, ma'am, it cert'nly is." The ice thus broken, she felt free to +use her eyes more directly, and, after a long, frank stare, exclaimed: +</P> + +<P> +"Why, you must be Miss Ariel Tabor, ain't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." Ariel touched one of the roses upon Joe's desk with her +finger-tips. "I am Miss Tabor." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, excuse me fer asking; I'm sure it ain't any business of mine," +said the other, remembering the manners due one lady from another. +"But I thought it must be. I expect," she added, with loud, +inconsequent laughter, "there's not many in Canaan ain't heard you've +come back." She paused, laughed again, nervously, and again, less +loudly, to take off the edge of her abruptness: gradually tittering +herself down to a pause, to fill which she put forth: "Right nice +weather we be'n havin'." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Ariel. +</P> + +<P> +"It was rainy, first of last week, though. <I>I</I> don't mind rain so +much"—this with more laughter,—"I stay in the house when it rains. +Some people don't know enough to, they say! You've heard that saying, +ain't you, Miss Tabor?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I tell YOU," she exclaimed, noisily, "there's plenty ladies and +gen'lemen in this town that's like that!" +</P> + +<P> +Her laughter did not cease; it became louder and shriller. It had +been, until now, a mere lubrication of the conversation, helping to +make her easier in Miss Tabor's presence, but as it increased in +shrillness, she seemed to be losing control of herself, as if her +laughter were getting away with her; she was not far from hysteria, +when it stopped with a gasp, and she sat up straight in her chair, +white and rigid. +</P> + +<P> +"THERE!" she said, listening intently. "Ain't that him?" Steps +sounded upon the pavement below; paused for a second at the foot of the +stairs; there was the snap of a match; then the steps sounded again, +retreating. She sank back in her chair limply. "It was only some one +stoppin' to light his cigar in the entry. It wasn't Joe Louden's step, +anyway." +</P> + +<P> +"You know his step?" Ariel's eyes were bent upon the woman wonderingly. +</P> + +<P> +"I'd know it to-night," was the answer, delivered with a sharp and +painful giggle. "I got plenty reason to!" +</P> + +<P> +Ariel did not respond. She leaned a little closer to the roses upon +the desk, letting them touch her face, and breathing deeply of their +fragrance to neutralize a perfume which pervaded the room; an odor as +heavy and cheap-sweet as the face of the woman who had saturated her +handkerchief with it, a scent which went with her perfectly and made +her unhappily definite; suited to her clumsily dyed hair, to her soiled +white shoes, to the hot red hat smothered in plumage, to the restless +stub-fingered hands, to the fat, plated rings, of which she wore a +great quantity, though, surprisingly enough, the large diamonds in her +ears were pure, and of a very clear water. +</P> + +<P> +It was she who broke the silence once more. "Well," she drawled, +coughing genteelly at the same time, "better late than never, as the +saying is. I wonder who it is gits up all them comical sayings?" +Apparently she had no genuine desire for light upon this mystery, as +she continued, immediately: "I have a gen'leman friend that's always +gittin' 'em off. 'Well,' he says, 'the best of friends must part,' +and, 'Thou strikest me to the heart'—all kinds of cracks like that. +He's real comical. And yet," she went on in an altered voice, "I don't +like him much. I'd be glad if I'd never seen him." +</P> + +<P> +The change of tone was so marked that Ariel looked at her keenly, to +find herself surprised into pitying this strange client of Joe's; for +tears had sprung to the woman's eyes and slid along the lids, where she +tried vainly to restrain them. Her face had altered too, like her +voice, haggard lines suddenly appearing about the eyes and mouth as if +they had just been pencilled there: the truth issuing from beneath her +pinchbeck simulations, like a tragic mask revealed by the displacement +of a tawdry covering. +</P> + +<P> +"I expect you think I'm real foolish," she said, "but I be'n waitin' so +awful long—and I got a good deal of worry on my mind till I see Mr. +Louden." +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry," Ariel turned from the roses, and faced her and the heavy +perfume. "I hope he will come soon." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope so," said the other. "It's something to do with me that keeps +him away, and the longer he is the more it scares me." She shivered +and set her teeth together. "It's kind of hard, waitin'. I cert'nly +got my share of troubles." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you think that Mr. Louden will be able to take care of them for +you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I HOPE so, Miss Tabor! If he can't, nobody can." She was crying +openly now, wiping her eyes with her musk-soaked handkerchief. "We had +to send fer him yesterday afternoon—" +</P> + +<P> +"To come to Beaver Beach, do you mean?" asked Ariel, leaning forward. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, ma'am. It all begun out there,—least-ways it begun before that +with me. It was all my fault. I deserve all that's comin' to me, I +guess. I done wrong—I done wrong! I'd oughtn't never to of went out +there yesterday." +</P> + +<P> +She checked herself sharply, but, after a moment's pause, continued, +encouraged by the grave kindliness of the delicate face in the shadow +of the wide white hat. "I'd oughtn't to of went," she repeated. "Oh, +I reckon I'll never, never learn enough to keep out o' trouble, even +when I see it comin'! But that gentleman friend of mine—Mr. Nashville +Cory's his name—he kind o' coaxed me into it, and he's right comical +when he's with ladies, and he's good company—and he says, 'Claudine, +we'll dance the light fantastic,' he says, and I kind o' wanted +something cheerful—I'd be'n workin' steady quite a spell, and it +looked like he wanted to show me a good time, so I went, and that's +what started it." Now that she had begun, she babbled on with her +story, at times incoherently; full of excuses, made to herself more +than to Ariel, pitifully endeavoring to convince herself that the +responsibility for the muddle she had made was not hers. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Cory told me my husband was drinkin' and wouldn't know about it, +and, 'Besides,' he says, 'what's the odds?' Of course I knowed there +was trouble between him and Mr. Fear—that's my husband—a good while +ago, when Mr. Fear up and laid him out. That was before me and Mr. +Fear got married; I hadn't even be'n to Canaan then; I was on the +stage. I was on the stage quite a while in Chicago before I got +acquainted with my husband." +</P> + +<P> +"You were on the stage?" Ariel exclaimed, involuntarily. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, ma'am. Livin' pitchers at Goldberg's Rat'skeller, and amunchoor +nights I nearly always done a sketch with a gen'leman friend. That's +the way I met Mr. Fear; he seemed to be real struck with me right away, +and soon as I got through my turn he ast me to order whatever I wanted. +He's always gen'lemanlike when he ain't had too much, and even then he +vurry, vurry seldom acks rough unless he's jealous. That was the +trouble yesterday. I never would of gone to the Beach if I'd dreamed +what was comin'! When we got there I saw Mike—that's the gen'leman +that runs the Beach—lookin' at my company and me kind of anxious, and +pretty soon he got me away from Mr. Cory and told me what's what. +Seems this Cory only wanted me to go with him to make my husband mad, +and he'd took good care that Mr. Fear heard I'd be there with him! And +he'd be'n hangin' around me, every time he struck town, jest to make +Mr. Fear mad—the fresh thing! You see he wanted to make my husband +start something again, this Mr. Cory did, and he was fixed for it." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't understand," said Ariel. +</P> + +<P> +"It's this way: if Mr. Fear attacted Mr. Cory, why, Mr. Cory could +shoot him down and claim self-defence. You see, it would be easy for +Mr. Cory, because Mr Fear nearly killed him when they had their first +trouble, and that would give Mr. Cory a good excuse to shoot if Mr. +Fear jest only pushed him. That's the way it is with the law. Mr. +Cory could wipe out their old score and git off scot-free." +</P> + +<P> +"Surely not!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, ma'am, that's the way it would be. And when Mike told me that +Mr. Cory had got me out there jest to provoke my husband I went +straight up to him and begun to give him a piece of my mind. I didn't +talk loud, because I never was one to make a disturbance and start +trouble the way SOME do; and right while I was talkin' we both see my +husband pass the window. Mr. Cory give a kind of yelling laugh and put +his arm round me jest as Mr. Fear come in the door. And then it all +happened so quick that you could hardly tell what WAS goin' on. Mr. +Fear, we found afterwards, had promised Mr. Louden that he wouldn't +come out there, but he took too much—you could see that by the look of +him—and fergot his promise; fergot everything but me and Cory, I guess. +</P> + +<P> +"He come right up to us, where I was tryin' to git away from Cory's +arm—it was the left one he had around me, and the other behind his +back—and neither of 'em said a word. Cory kept on laughin' loud as he +could, and Mr. Fear struck him in the mouth. He's little, but he can +hit awful hard, and Mr. Cory let out a screech, and I see his gun go +off—right in Mr. Fear's face, I thought, but it wasn't; it only +scorched him. Most of the other gen'lemen had run, but Mike made a +dive and managed to knock the gun to one side, jest barely in time. +Then Mike and three or four others that come out from behind things +separated 'em—both of 'em fightin' to git at each other. They locked +Mr. Cory up in Mike's room, and took Mr. Fear over to where they hitch +the horses. Then Mike sent fer Mr. Louden to come out to talk to my +husband and take care of him—he's the only one can do anything with +him when he's like that—but before Mr. Louden could git there, Mr. +Fear broke loose and run through a corn-field and got away; at least +they couldn't find him. And Mr. Cory jumped through a window and slid +down into one of Mike's boats, so they'd both gone. When Mr. Louden +come, he only stayed long enough to hear what had happened and started +out to find Happy—that's my husband. He's bound to keep them apart, +but he hasn't found Mr. Fear yet or he'd be here." +</P> + +<P> +Ariel had sunk back in her chair. "Why should your husband hide?" she +asked, in a low voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Waitin' fer his chance at Cory," the woman answered, huskily. "I +expect he's afraid the cops are after him, too, on account of the +trouble, and he doesn't want to git locked up till he's met Cory again. +They ain't after him, but he may not know it. They haven't heard of +the trouble, I reckon, or they'd of run Cory in. HE'S around town +to-day, drinkin' heavy, and I guess he's lookin' fer Mr. Fear about as +hard as Mr. Louden is." She rose to her feet, lifted her coarse hands, +and dropped them despairingly. "Oh, I'm scared!" she said. "Mr. +Fear's be'n mighty good to me." +</P> + +<P> +A slow and tired footstep was heard upon the stairs, and Joe's dog ran +into the room droopingly, wagged his tail with no energy, and crept +under the desk. Mrs. Fear wheeled toward the door and stood, rigid, +her hands clenched tight, her whole body still, except her breast, +which rose and fell with her tumultuous breathing. She could not wait +till the laggard step reached the landing. +</P> + +<P> +"MR. LOUDEN!" she called, suddenly. +</P> + +<P> +Joe's voice came from the stairway. "It's all right, Claudine. It's +all fixed up. Don't worry." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Fear gave a thick cry of relief and sank back in her chair as Joe +entered the room. He came in shamblingly, with his hand over his eyes +as if they were very tired and the light hurt them, so that, for a +moment or two, he did not perceive the second visitor. Then he let his +hand fall, revealing a face very white and worn. +</P> + +<P> +"It's all right, Claudine," he repeated. "It's all right." +</P> + +<P> +He was moving to lay his hat on the desk when his eye caught first the +roses, then fell upon Ariel, and he stopped stock-still with one arm +outstretched, remaining for perhaps ten seconds in that attitude, while +she, her lips parted, her eyes lustrous, returned his gaze with a look +that was as inscrutable as it was kind. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she said, as if in answer to a question, "I have come here twice +to-day." She nodded slightly toward Mrs. Fear. "I can wait. I am +very glad you bring good news." +</P> + +<P> +Joe turned dazedly toward the other. "Claudine," he said, "you've been +telling Miss Tabor." +</P> + +<P> +"I cert'nly have!" Mrs. Fear's expression had cleared and her tone was +cheerful. "I don't see no harm in that! I'm sure she's a good friend +of YOURS, Mr. Louden." +</P> + +<P> +Joe glanced at Ariel with a faint, troubled smile, and turned again to +Mrs. Fear. "I've had a long talk with Happy." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm awful glad. Is he ready to listen to reason? she asked, with a +titter. +</P> + +<P> +"He's waiting for you." +</P> + +<P> +"Where?" She rose quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"Stop," said Joe, sharply. "You must be very careful with him—" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you s'pose I'm goin' to be?" she interrupted, with a catch in +her voice. "Don't you s'pose I've had trouble enough?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Joe, deliberately and impersonally, "I don't. Unless you +keep remembering to be careful all the time, you'll follow the first +impulse you have, as you did yesterday, and your excuse will be that +you never thought any harm would come of it. He's in a queer mood; but +he will forgive you if you ask him—" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, ain't that what I WANT to do!" she exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +"I know, I know," he said, dropping into the desk-chair and passing his +hand over his eyes with a gesture of infinite weariness. "But you must +be very careful. I hunted for him most of the night and all day. He +was trying to keep out of my way because he didn't want me to find him +until he had met this fellow Nashville. Happy is a hard man to come at +when he doesn't care to be found, and he kept shifting from place to +place until I ran him down. Then I got him in a corner and told him +that you hadn't meant any harm—which is always true of you, poor +woman!—and I didn't leave him till he had promised me to forgive you +if you would come and ask him. And you must keep him out of Cory's way +until I can arrange to have him—Cory, I mean—sent out of town. Will +you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, cert'nly," she answered, smiling. "That Nashville's the vurry +last person I ever want to see again—the fresh thing!" Mrs. Fear's +burden had fallen; her relief was perfect and she beamed vapidly; but +Joe marked her renewed irresponsibility with an anxious eye. +</P> + +<P> +"You mustn't make any mistakes," he said, rising stiffly with fatigue. +</P> + +<P> +"Not ME! <I>I</I> don't take no more chances," she responded, tittering +happily. "Not after yesterday. MY! but it's a load off my shoulders! +I do hate it to have gen'lemen quarrelling over me, especially Mr. +Fear. I never DID like to START anything; I like to see people laugh +and be friendly, and I'm mighty glad it's all blown over. I kind o' +thought it would, all along. PSHO!" She burst into genuine, noisy +laughter. "I don't expect either of 'em meant no real harm to each +other, after they got cooled off a little! If they'd met to-day, +they'd probably both run! Now, Mr. Louden, where's Happy?" +</P> + +<P> +Joe went to the door with her. He waited a moment, perplexed, then his +brow cleared and he said in a low voice: "You know the alley beyond +Vent Miller's pool-room? Go down the alley till you come to the second +gate. Go in, and you'll see a basement door opening into a little room +under Miller's bar. The door won't be locked, and Happy's in there +waiting for you. But remember—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, don't you worry," she cut him off, loudly. "I know HIM! Inside of +an hour I'll have him LAUGHIN' over all this. You'll see!" +</P> + +<P> +When she had gone, he stood upon the landing looking thoughtfully after +her. "Perhaps, after all, that is the best mood to let her meet him +in," he murmured. +</P> + +<P> +Then, with a deep breath, he turned. The heavy perfume had gone; the +air was clear and sweet, and Ariel was pressing her face into the roses +again. As he saw how like them she was, he was shaken with a profound +and mysterious sigh, like that which moves in the breast of one who +listens in the dark to his dearest music. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +HAPPY FEAR GIVES HIMSELF UP +</H3> + +<P> +"I know how tired you are," said Ariel, as he came back into the room. +"I shall not keep you long." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, please do!" he returned, quickly, beginning to fumble with the +shade of a student-lamp at one end of the desk. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me do that," she said. "Sit down." He obeyed at once, and +watched her as she lit the lamp, and, stretching upon tiptoe, turned +out the gas. "No," she continued, seated again and looking across the +desk at him, "I wanted to see you at the first possible opportunity, +but what I have to say—" +</P> + +<P> +"Wait," he interrupted. "Let me tell you why I did not come yesterday." +</P> + +<P> +"You need not tell me. I know." She glanced at the chair which had +been occupied by Mrs. Fear. "I knew last night that they had sent for +you." +</P> + +<P> +"You did?" he exclaimed. "Ah, I understand. Sam Warden must have told +you." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she said. "It was he; and I have been wondering ever since how +he heard of it. He knew last night, but there was nothing in the +papers this morning; and until I came here I heard no one else speak of +it; yet Canaan is not large." +</P> + +<P> +Joe laughed. "It wouldn't seem strange if you lived with the Canaan +that I do. Sam had been down-town during the afternoon and had met +friends; the colored people are a good deal like a freemasonry, you +know. A great many knew last night all about what had happened, and +had their theories about what might happen to-day in case the two men +met. Still, you see, those who knew, also knew just what people not to +tell. The Tocsin is the only newspaper worth the name here; but even +if the Tocsin had known of the trouble, it wouldn't have been likely to +mention it. That's a thing I don't understand." He frowned and rubbed +the back of his head. "There's something underneath it. For more than +a year the Tocsin hasn't spoken of Beaver Beach. I'd like to know why." +</P> + +<P> +"Joe," she said, slowly, "tell me something truly. A man said to me +yesterday that he found life here insufferable. Do you find it so?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, no!" he answered, surprised. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you hate Canaan?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly not." +</P> + +<P> +"You don't find it dull, provincial, unsympathetic?" +</P> + +<P> +He laughed cheerily. "Well, there's this," he explained: "I have an +advantage over your friend. I see a more interesting side of things +probably. The people I live among are pretty thorough cosmopolites in a +way, and the life I lead—" +</P> + +<P> +"I think I begin to understand a little about the life you lead," she +interrupted. "Then you don't complain of Canaan?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course not." +</P> + +<P> +She threw him a quick, bright, happy look, then glanced again at the +chair in which Mrs. Fear had sat. "Joe," she said, "last night I heard +the people singing in the houses, the old Sunday-evening way. It 'took +me back so'!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it would. And something else: there's one hymn they sing more +than any other; it's Canaan's favorite. Do you know what it is?" +</P> + +<P> +"Is it 'Rescue the Perishing'?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's it. 'Rescue the Perishing'!" he cried, and repeating the words +again, gave forth a peal of laughter so hearty that it brought tears to +his eyes. "'RESCUE THE PERISHING'!" +</P> + +<P> +At first she did not understand his laughter, but, after a moment, she +did, and joined her own to it, though with a certain tremulousness. +</P> + +<P> +"It IS funny, isn't it?" said Joe, wiping the moisture from his eyes. +Then all trace of mirth left him. "Is it really YOU, sitting here and +laughing with me, Ariel?" +</P> + +<P> +"It seems to be," she answered, in a low voice. "I'm not at all sure." +</P> + +<P> +"You didn't think, yesterday afternoon," he began, almost in a +whisper,—"you didn't think that I had failed to come because I—" He +grew very red, and shifted the sentence awkwardly: "I was afraid you +might think that I was—that I didn't come because I might have been +the same way again that I was when—when I met you at the station?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh no!" she answered, gently. "No. I knew better." +</P> + +<P> +"And do you know," he faltered, "that that is all over? That it can +never happen again?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I know it," she returned, quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"Then you know a little of what I owe you." +</P> + +<P> +"No, no," she protested. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he said. "You've made that change in me already. It wasn't +hard—it won't be—though it might have been if—if you hadn't come +soon." +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me something," she demanded. "If these people had not sent for +you yesterday, would you have come to Judge Pike's house to see me? +You said you would try." She laughed a little, and looked away from +him. "I want to know if you would have come." +</P> + +<P> +There was a silence, and in spite of her averted glance she knew that +he was looking at her steadily. Finally, "Don't you know?" he said. +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head and blushed faintly. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you know?" he repeated. +</P> + +<P> +She looked up and met his eyes, and thereupon both became very grave. +"Yes, I do," she answered. "You would have come. When you left me at +the gate and went away, you were afraid. But you would have come." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes,—I'd have come. You are right. I was afraid at first; but I +knew," he went on, rapidly, "that you would have come to the gate to +meet me." +</P> + +<P> +"You understood that?" she cried, her eyes sparkling and her face +flushing happily. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. I knew that you wouldn't have asked me to come," he said, with a +catch in his voice which was half chuckle, half groan, "if you hadn't +meant to take care of me! And it came to me that you would know how to +do it." +</P> + +<P> +She leaned back in her chair, and again they laughed together, but only +for a moment, becoming serious and very quiet almost instantly. +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't thanked you for the roses," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh yes, you did. When you first looked at them!" +</P> + +<P> +"So I did," he whispered. "I'm glad you saw. To find them here took my +breath away—and to find you with them—" +</P> + +<P> +"I brought them this morning, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"Would you have come if you had not understood why I failed yesterday?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh yes, I think so," she returned, the fine edge of a smile upon her +lips. "For a time last evening, before I heard what had happened, I +thought you were too frightened a friend to bother about." +</P> + +<P> +He made a little ejaculation, partly joyful, partly sad. +</P> + +<P> +"And yet," she went on, "I think that I should have come this morning, +after all, even if you had a poorer excuse for your absence, because, +you see, I came on business." +</P> + +<P> +"You did?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's why I've come again. That makes it respectable for me to be +here now, doesn't it?—for me to have come out alone after dark without +their knowing it? I'm here as your client, Joe." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +She did not answer at once, but picked up a pen from beneath her hand +on the desk, and turning it, meditatively felt its point with her +forefinger before she said slowly, "Are most men careful of other +people's—well, of other people's money?" +</P> + +<P> +"You mean Martin Pike?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. I want you to take charge of everything I have for me." +</P> + +<P> +He bent a frowning regard upon the lamp-shade. "You ought to look after +your own property," he said. "You surely have plenty of time." +</P> + +<P> +"You mean—you mean you won't help me?" she returned, with intentional +pathos. +</P> + +<P> +"Ariel!" he laughed, shortly, in answer; then asked, "What makes you +think Judge Pike isn't trustworthy?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing very definite perhaps, unless it was his look when I told him +that I meant to ask you to take charge of things for me." +</P> + +<P> +"He's been rather hard pressed this year, I think," said Joe. "You +might be right—if he could have found a way. I hope he hasn't." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid," she began, gayly, "that I know very little of my own +affairs. He sent me a draft every three months, with receipts and +other things to sign and return to him. I haven't the faintest notion +of what I own—except the old house and some money from the income that +I hadn't used and brought with me. Judge Pike has all the +papers—everything." +</P> + +<P> +Joe looked troubled. "And Roger Tabor, did he—" +</P> + +<P> +"The dear man!" She shook her head. "He was just the same. To him +poor Uncle Jonas's money seemed to come from heaven through the hands +of Judge Pike—" +</P> + +<P> +"And there's a handsome roundabout way!" said Joe. +</P> + +<P> +"Wasn't it!" she agreed, cheerfully. "And he trusted the Judge +absolutely. I don't, you see." +</P> + +<P> +He gave her a thoughtful look and nodded. "No, he isn't a good man," he +said, "not even according to his lights; but I doubt if he could have +managed to get away with anything of consequence after he became the +administrator. He wouldn't have tried it, probably, unless he was more +desperately pushed than I think he has been. It would have been too +dangerous. Suppose you wait a week or so and think it over." +</P> + +<P> +"But there's something I want you to do for me immediately, Joe." +</P> + +<P> +"What's that?" +</P> + +<P> +"I want the old house put in order. I'm going to live there." +</P> + +<P> +"Alone?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm almost twenty-seven, and that's being enough of an old maid for me +to risk Canaan's thinking me eccentric, isn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"It will think anything you do is all right." +</P> + +<P> +"And once," she cried, "it thought everything I did all wrong!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. That's the difference." +</P> + +<P> +"You mean it will commend me because I'm thought rich?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, no," he said, meditatively, "it isn't that. It's because everybody +will be in love with you." +</P> + +<P> +"Quite everybody!" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly," he replied. "Anybody who didn't would be absurd." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, Joe!" she laughed. "You always were the nicest boy in the world, +my dear!" +</P> + +<P> +At that he turned toward her with a sudden movement and his lips +parted, but not to speak. She had rested one arm upon the desk, and her +cheek upon her hand; the pen she had picked up, still absently held in +her fingers, touching her lips; and it was given to him to know that he +would always keep that pen, though he would never write with it again. +The soft lamplight fell across the lower part of her face, leaving her +eyes, which were lowered thoughtfully, in the shadow of her hat. The +room was blotted out in darkness behind her. Like the background of an +antique portrait, the office, with its dusty corners and shelves and +hideous safe, had vanished, leaving the charming and thoughtful face +revealed against an even, spacious brownness. Only Ariel and the roses +and the lamp were clear; and a strange, small pain moved from Joe's +heart to his throat, as he thought that this ugly office, always before +so harsh and grim and lonely—loneliest for him when it had been most +crowded,—was now transfigured into something very, very different from +an office; that this place where he sat, with a lamp and flowers on a +desk between him and a woman who called him "my dear," must be +like—like something that people called "home." +</P> + +<P> +And then he leaned across the desk toward her, as he said again what he +had said a little while before,—and his voice trembled: +</P> + +<P> +"Ariel, it IS you?" +</P> + +<P> +She looked at him and smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll be here always, won't you? You're not going away from Canaan +again?" +</P> + +<P> +For a moment it seemed that she had not heard him. Then her bright +glance at him wavered and fell. She rose, turning slightly away from +him, but not so far that he could not see the sudden agitation in her +face. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah!" he cried, rising too, "I don't want you to think I don't +understand, or that I meant <I>I</I> should ever ask you to stay here! I +couldn't mean that; you know I couldn't, don't you? You know I +understand that it's all just your beautiful friendliness, don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"It isn't beautiful; it's just ME, Joe," she said. "It couldn't be any +other way." +</P> + +<P> +"It's enough that you should be here now," he went on, bravely, his +voice steady, though his hand shook. "Nothing so wonderful as your +staying could ever actually happen. It's just a light coming into a +dark room and out again. One day, long ago—I never forgot it—some +apple-blossoms blew by me as I passed an orchard; and it's like that, +too. But, oh, my dear, when you go you'll leave a fragrance in my +heart that will last!" +</P> + +<P> +She turned toward him, her face suffused with a rosy light. "You'd +rather have died than have said that to me once," she cried. "I'm glad +you're weak enough now to confess it!" +</P> + +<P> +He sank down again into his chair and his arms fell heavily on the +desk. "Confess it!" he cried, despairingly. "And you don't deny that +you're going away again—so it's true! I wish I hadn't realized it so +soon. I think I'd rather have tried to fool myself about it a little +longer!" +</P> + +<P> +"Joe," she cried, in a voice of great pain, "you mustn't feel like +that! How do you know I'm going away again? Why should I want the old +house put in order unless I mean to stay? And if I went, you know that +I could never change; you know how I've always cared for you—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he said, "I do know how. It was always the same and it always +will be, won't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"I've shown that," she returned, quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. You say I know how you've cared for me—and I do. I know HOW. +It's just in one certain way—Jonathan and David—" +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't that a pretty good way, Joe?" +</P> + +<P> +"Never fear that I don't understand!" He got to his feet again and +looked at her steadily. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, Joe." She wiped sudden tears from her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you be sorry for me," he said. "Do you think that 'passing the +love of women' isn't enough for me?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," she answered, humbly. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll have people at work on the old house to-morrow," he began. "And +for the—" +</P> + +<P> +"I've kept you so long!" she interrupted, helped to a meek sort of +gayety by his matter-of-fact tone. "Good-night, Joe." She gave him her +hand. "I don't want you to come with me. It isn't very late and this +is Canaan." +</P> + +<P> +"I want to come with you, however," he said, picking up his hat. "You +can't go alone." +</P> + +<P> +"But you are so tired, you—" +</P> + +<P> +She was interrupted. There were muffled, flying footsteps on the +stairs, and a shabby little man ran furtively into the room, shut the +door behind him, and set his back against it. His face was mottled +like a colored map, thick lines of perspiration shining across the +splotches. +</P> + +<P> +"Joe," he panted, "I've got Nashville good, and he's got me good, +too;—I got to clear out. He's fixed me good, damn him! but he won't +trouble nobody—" +</P> + +<P> +Joe was across the room like a flying shadow. +</P> + +<P> +"QUIET!" His voice rang like a shot, and on the instant his hand fell +sharply across the speaker's mouth. "In THERE, Happy!" +</P> + +<P> +He threw an arm across the little man's shoulders and swung him toward +the door of the other room. +</P> + +<P> +Happy Fear looked up from beneath the down-bent brim of his black +slouch hat; his eyes followed an imperious gesture toward Ariel, gave +her a brief, ghastly stare, and stumbled into the inner chamber. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait!" Joe said, cavalierly, to Ariel. He went in quickly after Mr. +Fear and closed the door. +</P> + +<P> +This was Joseph Louden, Attorney-at-Law; and to Ariel it was like a new +face seen in a flash-light—not at all the face of Joe. The sense of +his strangeness, his unfamiliarity in this electrical aspect, overcame +her. She was possessed by astonishment: Did she know him so well, +after all? The strange client had burst in, shaken beyond belief with +some passion unknown to her, but Joe, alert, and masterful beyond +denial, had controlled him instantly; had swept him into the other room +as with a broom. Could it be that Joe sometimes did other things in +the same sweeping fashion? +</P> + +<P> +She heard a match struck in the next room, and the voices of the two +men: Joe's, then the other's, the latter at first broken and +protestive, but soon rising shrilly. She could hear only fragments. +Once she heard the client cry, almost scream: "By God! Joe, I thought +Claudine had chased him around there to DO me!" And, instantly, +followed Louden's voice: +</P> + +<P> +"STEADY, HAPPY, STEADY!" +</P> + +<P> +The name "Claudine" startled her; and although she had had no +comprehension of the argot of Happy Fear, the sense of a mysterious +catastrophe oppressed her; she was sure that something horrible had +happened. She went to the window; touched the shade, which disappeared +upward immediately, and lifted the sash. The front of a square +building in the Court-house Square was bright with lights; and figures +were passing in and out of the Main Street doors. She remembered that +this was the jail. +</P> + +<P> +"Claudine!" The voice of the husband of Claudine was like the voice of +one lamenting over Jerusalem. +</P> + +<P> +"STEADY, HAPPY, STEADY!" +</P> + +<P> +"But, Joe, if they git me, what'll she do? She can't hold her job no +longer—not after this...." +</P> + +<P> +The door opened, and the two men came out, Joe with his hand on the +other's shoulder. The splotches had gone from Happy's face, leaving it +an even, deathly white. He did not glance toward Ariel; he gazed far +beyond all that was about him; and suddenly she was aware of a great +tragedy. The little man's chin trembled and he swallowed painfully; +nevertheless he bore himself upright and dauntlessly as the two walked +slowly to the door, like men taking part in some fateful ceremony. Joe +stopped upon the landing at the head of the stairs, but Happy Fear went +on, clumping heavily down the steps. +</P> + +<P> +"It's all right, Happy," said Joe. "It's better for you to go alone. +Don't you worry. I'll see you through. It will be all right." +</P> + +<P> +"Just as YOU say, Joe," a breaking voice came back from the foot of the +steps,—"just as YOU say!" +</P> + +<P> +The lawyer turned from the landing and went rapidly to the window +beside Ariel. Together they watched the shabby little figure cross the +street below; and she felt an infinite pathos gathering about it as it +paused for a moment, hesitating, underneath the arc-lamp at the corner. +They saw the white face lifted as Happy Fear gave one last look about +him; then he set his shoulders sturdily, and steadfastly entered the +door of the jail. +</P> + +<P> +Joe took a deep breath. "Now we'll go," he said. "I must be quick." +</P> + +<P> +"What was it?" she asked, tremulously, as they reached the street. +"Can you tell me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing—just an old story." +</P> + +<P> +He had not offered her his arm, but walked on hurriedly, a pace ahead +of her, though she came as rapidly as she could. She put her hand +rather timidly on his sleeve, and without need of more words from her +he understood her insistence. +</P> + +<P> +"That was the husband of the woman who told you her story," he said. +"Perhaps it would shock you less if I tell you now than if you heard it +to-morrow, as you will. He's just shot the other man." +</P> + +<P> +"Killed him!" she gasped. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he answered. "He wanted to run away, but I wouldn't let him. +He has my word that I'll clear him, and I made him give himself up." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XVI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE TWO CANAANS +</H3> + +<P> +When Joe left Ariel at Judge Pike's gate she lingered there, her elbows +upon the uppermost cross-bar, like a village girl at twilight, watching +his thin figure vanish into the heavy shadow of the maples, then emerge +momentarily, ghost-gray and rapid, at the lighted crossing down the +street, to disappear again under the trees beyond, followed a second +later by a brownish streak as the mongrel heeled after him. When they +had passed the second corner she could no longer be certain of them, +although the street was straight, with flat, draughtsmanlike Western +directness: both figures and Joe's quick footsteps merging with the +night. Still she did not turn to go; did not alter her position, nor +cease to gaze down the dim street. Few lights shone; almost all the +windows of the houses were darkened, and, save for the summer murmurs, +the faint creak of upper branches, and the infinitesimal voices of +insects in the grass, there was silence: the pleasant and somnolent +hush, swathed in which that part of Canaan crosses to the far side of +the eleventh hour. +</P> + +<P> +But Ariel, not soothed by this balm, sought beyond it, to see that +unquiet Canaan whither her old friend bent his steps and found his +labor and his dwelling: that other Canaan where peace did not fall +comfortably with the coming of night; a place as alien in habit, in +thought, and almost in speech as if it had been upon another continent. +And yet—so strange is the duality of towns—it lay but a few blocks +distant. +</P> + +<P> +Here, about Ariel, as she stood at the gate of the Pike Mansion, the +houses of the good (secure of salvation and daily bread) were closed +and quiet, as safely shut and sound asleep as the churches; but deeper +in the town there was light and life and merry, evil +industry,—screened, but strong to last until morning; there were +haunts of haggard merriment in plenty: surreptitious chambers where +roulette-wheels swam beneath dizzied eyes; ill-favored bars, reached by +devious ways, where quavering voices offered song and were harshly +checked; and through the burdened air of this Canaan wandered heavy +smells of musk like that upon Happy Fear's wife, who must now be so +pale beneath her rouge. And above all this, and for all this, and +because of all this, was that one resort to which Joe now made his way; +that haven whose lights burn all night long, whose doors are never +closed, but are open from dawn until dawn—the jail. +</P> + +<P> +There, in that desolate refuge, lay Happy Fear, surrendered sturdily by +himself at Joe's word. The picture of the little man was clear and +fresh in Ariel's eyes, and though she had seen him when he was newly +come from a thing so terrible that she could not realize it as a fact, +she felt only an overwhelming pity for him. She was not even +horror-stricken, though she had shuddered. The pathos of the shabby +little figure crossing the street toward the lighted doors had touched +her. Something about him had appealed to her, for he had not seemed +wicked; his face was not cruel, though it was desperate. Perhaps it +was partly his very desperation which had moved her. She had +understood Joe, when he told her, that this man was his friend; and +comprehended his great fear when he said: "I've got to clear him! I +promised him." +</P> + +<P> +Over and over Joe had reiterated: "I've got to save him! I've got +to!" She had answered gently, "Yes, Joe," hurrying to keep up with +him. "He's a good man," he said. "I've known few better, given his +chances. And none of this would have happened except for his old-time +friendship for me. It was his loyalty—oh, the rarest and absurdest +loyalty!—that made the first trouble between him and the man he shot. +I've got to clear him!" +</P> + +<P> +"Will it be hard?" +</P> + +<P> +"They may make it so. I can only see part of it surely. When his wife +left the office, she met Cory on the street. You saw what a pitiful +kind of fool she was, irresponsible and helpless and feather-brained. +There are thousands of women like that everywhere—some of them are +'Court Beauties,' I dare say—and they always mix things up; but they +are most dangerous when they're like Claudine, because then they live +among men of action like Cory and Fear. Cory was artful: he spent the +day about town telling people that he had always liked Happy; that his +ill feeling of yesterday was all gone; he wanted to find him and shake +his hand, bury past troubles and be friends. I think he told Claudine +the same thing when they met, and convinced the tiny brainlet of his +sincerity. Cory was a man who 'had a way with him,' and I can see +Claudine flattered at the idea of being peace-maker between 'two such +nice gen'lemen as Mr. Cory and Mr. Fear.' Her commonest +asseveration—quite genuine, too—is that she doesn't like to have the +gen'lemen making trouble about her! So the poor imbecile led him to +where her husband was waiting. All that Happy knew of this was in her +cry afterwards. He was sitting alone, when Cory threw open the door +and said, 'I've got you this time, Happy!' His pistol was raised but +never fired. He waited too long, meaning to establish his case of +'self-defence,' and Fear is the quickest man I know. Cory fell just +inside the door. Claudine stumbled upon him as she came running after +him, crying out to her husband that she 'never meant no trouble,' that +Cory had sworn to her that he only wanted to shake hands and 'make up.' +Other people heard the shot and broke into the room, but they did not +try to stop Fear; he warned them off and walked out without hindrance, +and came to me. I've got to clear him." +</P> + +<P> +Ariel knew what he meant: she realized the actual thing as it was, and, +though possessed by a strange feeling that it must all be medieval and +not possibly of to-day, understood that he would have to fight to keep +his friend from being killed; that the unhappy creature who had run +into the office out of the dark stood in high danger of having his neck +broken, unless Joe could help him. He made it clear to her that the +State would kill Happy if it could; that it would be a point of pride +with certain deliberate men holding office to take the life of the +little man; that if they did secure his death it would be set down to +their efficiency, and was even competent as campaign material. "I wish +to point out," Joe had heard a candidate for re-election vehemently +orate, "that in addition to the other successful convictions I have +named, I and my assistants have achieved the sending of three men to +the gallows during my term of office!" +</P> + +<P> +"I can't tell yet," said Joe, at parting. "It may be hard. I'm so +sorry you saw all this. I—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh NO!" she cried. "I want to UNDERSTAND!" +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +She was still there, at the gate, her elbows resting upon the +cross-bar, when, a long time after Joe had gone, there came from the +alley behind the big back yard the minor chordings of a quartette of +those dark strollers who never seem to go to bed, who play by night and +playfully pretend to work by day: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "You know my soul is a-full o' them-a-trub-bils,<BR> + Ev-ry mawn!<BR> + I cain' a-walk withouten I stum-bils!<BR> + Then le'ss go on—<BR> + Keep walkin' on!<BR> + These times is sow'owful, an' I am pow'owful<BR> + Sick an' fo'lawn!"<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +She heard a step upon the path behind her, and, turning, saw a +white-wrapped figure coming toward her. +</P> + +<P> +"Mamie?" she called. +</P> + +<P> +"Hush!" Mamie lifted a warning hand. "The windows are open," she +whispered. "They might hear you!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why haven't you gone to bed?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, don't you see?" Mamie answered, in deep distress,—"I've been +sitting up for you. We all thought you were writing letters in your +room, but after papa and mamma had gone to bed I went in to tell you +good night, and you weren't there, nor anywhere else; so I knew you +must have gone out. I've been sitting by the front window, waiting to +let you in, but I went to sleep until a little while ago, when the +telephone-bell rang and he got up and answered it. He kept talking a +long time; it was something about the Tocsin, and I'm afraid there's +been a murder down-town. When he went back to bed I fell asleep again, +and then those darkies woke me up. How on earth did you expect to get +in? Don't you know he always locks up the house?" +</P> + +<P> +"I could have rung," said Ariel. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh—oh!" gasped Miss Pike; and, after she had recovered somewhat, +asked: "Do you mind telling me where you've been? I won't tell +him—nor mamma, either. I think, after all, I was wrong yesterday to +follow Eugene's advice. He meant for the best, but I—" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't think that. You weren't wrong." Ariel put her arm round the +other's waist. "I went to talk over some things with Mr. Louden." +</P> + +<P> +"I think," whispered Mamie, trembling, "that you are the bravest girl I +ever knew—and—and—I could almost believe there's some good in him, +since you like him so. I know there is. And I—I think he's had a +hard time. I want you to know I won't even tell Eugene!" +</P> + +<P> +"You can tell everybody in the world," said Ariel, and kissed her. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XVII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MR. SHEEHAN'S HINTS +</H3> + +<P> +"Never," said the Tocsin on the morrow, "has this community been +stirred to deeper indignation than by the cold-blooded and unmitigated +brutality of the deliberate murder committed almost under the very +shadow of the Court-house cupola last night. The victim was not a man +of good repute, it is true, but at the moment of his death he was in +the act of performing a noble and generous action which showed that he +might have become, if he lived, a good and law-fearing citizen. In +brief, he went to forgive his enemy and was stretching forth the hand +of fellowship when that enemy shot him down. Not half an hour before +his death, Cory had repeated within the hearing of a dozen men what he +had been saying all day, as many can testify: 'I want to find my old +friend Fear and shake hands with him. I want to tell him that I +forgive him and that I am ashamed of whatever has been my part in the +trouble between us.' He went with that intention to his death. The +wife of the murderer has confessed that this was the substance of what +he said to her, and that she was convinced of his peaceful intentions. +When they reached the room where her husband was waiting for her, Cory +entered first. The woman claims now that as they neared the vicinity +he hastened forward at a pace which she could not equal. Naturally, +her testimony on all points favoring her husband is practically +worthless. She followed and heard the murdered man speak, though what +his words were she declares she does not know, and of course the +murderer, after consultation with his lawyer, claims that their nature +was threatening. Such a statement, in determining the truth, is worse +than valueless. It is known and readily proved that Fear repeatedly +threatened the deceased's life yesterday, and there is no question in +the mind of any man, woman, or child, who reads these words, of the +cold blooded nature of the crime. The slayer, who had formerly made a +murderous attack upon his victim, lately quarrelled with him and +uttered threats, as we have stated, upon his life. The dead man came +to him with protestations of friendship and was struck down a corpse. +It is understood that the defence will in desperation set up the theory +of self-defence, based on an unsubstantiated claim that Cory entered +the room with a drawn pistol. No pistol was found in the room. The +weapon with which the deed was accomplished was found upon the person +of the murderer when he was seized by the police, one chamber +discharged. Another revolver was discovered upon the person of the +woman, when she was arrested on the scene of the crime. This, upon +being strictly interrogated, she said she had picked up from the floor +in the confusion, thinking it was her husband's and hoping to conceal +it. The chambers were full and undischarged, and we have heard it +surmised that the defence means to claim that it was Cory's. Cory +doubtless went on his errand of forgiveness unarmed, and beyond doubt +the second weapon belonged to the woman herself, who has an unenviable +record. +</P> + +<P> +"The point of it all is plainly this: here is an unquestionable murder +in the first degree, and the people of this city and county are +outraged and incensed that such a crime should have been committed in +their law-abiding and respectable community. With whom does the fault +lie? On whose head is this murder? Not with the authorities, for they +do not countenance crime. Has it come to the pass that, counting on +juggleries of the law, criminals believe that they may kill, maim, +burn, and slay as they list without punishment? Is this to be another +instance of the law's delays and immunity for a hideous crime, +compassed by a cunning and cynical trickster of legal technicalities? +The people of Canaan cry out for a speedy trial, speedy conviction, and +speedy punishment of this cold-blooded and murderous monster. If he is +not dealt with quickly according to his deserts, the climax is upon us +and the limit of Canaan's patience has been reached. +</P> + +<P> +"One last word, and we shall be glad to have its significance noted: J. +Louden, Esq., has been retained for the defence! The murderer, before +being apprehended by the authorities, WENT STRAIGHT FROM THE SCENE OF +HIS CRIME TO PLACE HIS RETAINER IN HIS ATTORNEY'S POCKET! HOW LONG IS +THIS TO LAST?" +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The Tocsin was quoted on street corners that morning, in shop and store +and office, wherever people talked of the Cory murder; and that was +everywhere, for the people of Canaan and of the country roundabout +talked of nothing else. Women chattered of it in parlor and kitchen; +men gathered in small groups on the street and shook their heads +ominously over it; farmers, meeting on the road, halted their teams and +loudly damned the little man in the Canaan jail; milkmen lingered on +back porches over their cans to agree with cooks that it was an awful +thing, and that if ever any man deserved hanging, that there Fear +deserved it—his lawyer along with him! Tipsy men hammered bars with +fists and beer-glasses, inquiring if there was no rope to be had in the +town; and Joe Louden, returning to his office from the little +restaurant where he sometimes ate his breakfast, heard hisses following +him along Main Street. A clerk, a fat-shouldered, blue-aproned, +pimple-cheeked youth, stood in the open doors of a grocery, and as he +passed, stared him in the face and said "Yah!" with supreme disgust. +</P> + +<P> +Joe stopped. "Why?" he asked, mildly. +</P> + +<P> +The clerk put two fingers in his mouth and whistled shrilly in +derision. "You'd ort to be run out o' town!" he exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +"I believe," said Joe, "that we have never met before." +</P> + +<P> +"Go on, you shyster!" +</P> + +<P> +Joe looked at him gravely. "My dear sir," he returned, "you speak to +me with the familiarity of an old friend." +</P> + +<P> +The clerk did not recover so far as to be capable of repartee until Joe +had entered his own stairway. Then, with a bitter sneer, he seized a +bad potato from an open barrel and threw it at the mongrel, who had +paused to examine the landscape. The missile failed, and +Respectability, after bestowing a slightly injured look upon the clerk, +followed his master. +</P> + +<P> +In the office the red-bearded man sat waiting. Not so red-bearded as of +yore, however, was Mr. Sheehan, but grizzled and gray, and, this +morning, gray of face, too, as he sat, perspiring and anxious, wiping a +troubled brow with a black silk handkerchief. +</P> + +<P> +"Here's the devil and all to pay at last, Joe," he said, uneasily, on +the other's entrance. "This is the worst I ever knew; and I hate to +say it, but I doubt yer pullin' it off." +</P> + +<P> +"I've got to, Mike." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope on my soul there's a chanst of it! I like the little man, Joe." +</P> + +<P> +"So do I." +</P> + +<P> +"I know ye do, my boy. But here's this Tocsin kickin' up the public +sentiment; and if there ever was a follerin' sheep on earth, it's that +same public sentiment!" +</P> + +<P> +"If it weren't for that"—Joe flung himself heavily in a +chair—"there'd not be so much trouble. It's a clear enough case." +</P> + +<P> +"But don't ye see," interrupted Sheehan, "the Tocsin's tried it and +convicted him aforehand? And that if things keep goin' the way they've +started to-day, the gran' jury's bound to indict him, and the trial +jury to convict him? They wouldn't dare not to! What's more, they'll +want to! And they'll rush the trial, summer or no summer, and—" +</P> + +<P> +"I know, I know." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll tell ye one thing," said the other, wiping his forehead with the +black handkerchief, "and that's this, my boy: last night's business has +just about put the cap on the Beach fer me. I'm sick of it and I'm +tired of it! I'm ready to quit, sir!" +</P> + +<P> +Joe looked at him sharply. "Don't you think my old notion of what +might be done could be made to pay?" +</P> + +<P> +Sheehan laughed. "Whoo! You and yer hints, Joe! How long past have +ye come around me with 'em! 'I b'lieve ye c'd make more money, +Mike'—that's the way ye'd put it,—'if ye altered the Beach a bit. +Make a little country-side restaurant of it,' ye'd say, 'and have good +cookin', and keep the boys and girls from raisin' so much hell out +there. Soon ye'd have other people comin' beside the regular crowd. +Make a little garden on the shore, and let 'em eat at tables under +trees an' grape-arbors—'" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, why not?" asked Joe. +</P> + +<P> +"Haven't I been tellin' ye I'm thinkin' of it? It's only yer way of +hintin' that's funny to me,—yer way of sayin' I'd make more money, +because ye're afraid of preachin' at any of us: partly because ye know +the little good it 'd be, and partly because ye have humor. Well, I'm +thinkin' ye'll git yer way. I'M willin' to go into the missionary +business with ye!" +</P> + +<P> +"Mike!" said Joe, angrily, but he grew very red and failed to meet the +other's eye, "I'm not—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, ye are!" cried Sheehan. "Yes, sir! It's a thing ye prob'ly +haven't had the nerve to say to yerself since a boy, but that's yer +notion inside: ye're little better than a missionary! It took me a +long while to understand what was drivin' ye, but I do now. And ye've +gone the right way about it, because we know ye'll stand fer us when +we're in trouble and fight fer us till we git a square deal, as ye're +goin' to fight for Happy now." +</P> + +<P> +Joe looked deeply troubled. "Never mind," he said, crossly, and with +visible embarrassment. "You think you couldn't make more at the Beach +if you ran it on my plan?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm game to try," said Sheehan, slowly. "I'm too old to hold 'em down +out there the way I yoosta could, and I'm sick of it—sick of it into +the very bones of me!" He wiped his forehead. "Where's Claudine?" +</P> + +<P> +"Held as a witness." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not sorry fer HER!" said the red-bearded man, emphatically. +"Women o' that kind are so light-headed it's a wonder they don't float. +Think of her pickin' up Cory's gun from the floor and hidin' it in her +clothes! Took it fer granted it was Happy's, and thought she'd help +him by hidin' it! There's a hard point fer ye, Joe: to prove the gun +belonged to Cory. There's nobody about here could swear to it. I +couldn't myself, though I forced him to stick it back in his pocket +yesterday. He was a wanderer, too; and ye'll have to send a keen one to +trace him, I'm thinkin', to find where he got it, so's ye can show it +in court." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going myself. I've found out that he came here from Denver." +</P> + +<P> +"And from where before that?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know, but I'll keep on travelling till I get what I want." +</P> + +<P> +"That's right, my boy," exclaimed the other, heartily, "It may be a +long trip, but ye're all the little man has to depend on. Did ye +notice the Tocsin didn't even give him the credit fer givin' himself +up?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Joe. "It's part of their game." +</P> + +<P> +"Did it strike ye now," Mr. Sheehan asked, earnestly, leaning forward +in his chair,—"did it strike ye that the Tocsin was aimin' more to do +Happy harm because of you than himself?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." Joe looked sadly out of the window. "I've thought that over, +and it seemed possible that I might do Happy more good by giving his +case to some other lawyer." +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir!" exclaimed the proprietor of Beaver Beach, loudly. "They've +begun their attack; they're bound to keep it up, and they'd manage to +turn it to the discredit of both of ye. Besides, Happy wouldn't have +no other lawyer; he'd ruther be hung with you fightin' fer him than be +cleared by anybody else. I b'lieve it,—on my soul I do! But look +here," he went on, leaning still farther forward; "I want to know if it +struck ye that this morning the Tocsin attacked ye in a way that was +somehow vi'lenter than ever before?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," replied Joe, "because it was aimed to strike where it would most +count." +</P> + +<P> +"It ain't only that," said the other, excitedly. "It ain't only that! +I want ye to listen. Now see here: the Tocsin is Pike, and the town is +Pike—I mean the town ye naturally belonged to. Ain't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"In a way, I suppose—yes." +</P> + +<P> +"In a way!" echoed the other, scornfully. "Ye know it is! Even as a +boy Pike disliked ye and hated the kind of a boy ye was. Ye wasn't +respectable and he was! Ye wasn't rich and he was! Ye had a grin on +yer face when ye'd meet him on the street." The red-bearded man broke +off at a gesture from Joe and exclaimed sharply: "Don't deny it! <I>I</I> +know what ye was like! Ye wasn't impudent, but ye looked at him as if +ye saw through him. Now listen and I'll lead ye somewhere! Ye run +with riffraff, naggers, and even"—Mr. Sheehan lifted a forefinger +solemnly and shook it at his auditor—"and even with the Irish! Now I +ask ye this: ye've had one part of Canaan with ye from the start, MY +part, that is; but the other's against ye; that part's PIKE, and it's +the rulin' part—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Mike," said Joe, wearily. "In the spirit of things. I know." +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir," cried the other. "That's the trouble: ye don't know. +There's more in Canaan than ye've understood. Listen to this: Why was +the Tocsin's attack harder this morning than ever before? On yer soul +didn't it sound so bitter that it sounded desprit? Now why? It looked +to me as if it had started to ruin ye, this time fer good and all! Why? +What have ye had to do with Martin Pike lately? Has the old wolf GOT +to injure ye?" Mr. Sheehan's voice rose and his eyes gleamed under +bushy brows. "Think," he finished. "What's happened lately to make +him bite so hard?" +</P> + +<P> +There were some faded roses on the desk, and as Joe's haggard eyes fell +upon them the answer came. "What makes you think Judge Pike isn't +trustworthy?" he had asked Ariel, and her reply had been: "Nothing +very definite, unless it was his look when I told him that I meant to +ask you to take charge of things for me." +</P> + +<P> +He got slowly and amazedly to his feet. "You've got it!" he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Ye see?" cried Mike Sheehan, slapping his thigh with a big hand. "On +my soul I have the penetration! Ye don't need to tell me one thing +except this: I told ye I'd lead ye somewhere; haven't I kept me word?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Joe. +</P> + +<P> +"But I have the penetration!" exclaimed Mr. Sheehan. "Should I miss my +guess if I said that ye think Pike may be scared ye'll stumble on his +track in some queer performances? Should I miss it?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Joe. "You wouldn't miss it." +</P> + +<P> +"Just one thing more." The red-bearded man rose, mopping the inner +band of his straw hat. "In the matter of yer runnin' fer Mayor, now—" +</P> + +<P> +Joe, who had begun to pace up and down the room, made an impatient +gesture. "Pshaw!" he interrupted; but his friend stopped him with a +hand laid on his arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be treatin' it as clean out of all possibility, Joe Louden. If +ye do, it shows ye haven't sense to know that nobody can say what way +the wind's blowin' week after next. All the boys want ye; Louie +Farbach wants ye, and Louie has a big say. Who is it that doesn't want +ye?" +</P> + +<P> +"Canaan," said Joe. +</P> + +<P> +"Hold up! It's Pike's Canaan ye mean. If ye git the nomination, ye'd +be elected, wouldn't ye?" +</P> + +<P> +"I couldn't be nominated." +</P> + +<P> +"I ain't claimin' ye'd git Martin Pike's vote," returned Mr. Sheehan, +sharply, "though I don't say it's impossible. Ye've got to beat him, +that's all. Ye've got to do to him what he's done to YOU, and what +he's tryin' to do now worse than ever before. Well—there may be ways +to do it; and if he tempts me enough, I may fergit my troth and honor +as a noble gentleman and help ye with a word ye'd never guess yerself." +</P> + +<P> +"You've hinted at such mysteries before, Mike," Joe smiled. "I'd be +glad to know what you mean, if there's anything in them." +</P> + +<P> +"It may come to that," said the other, with some embarrassment. "It +may come to that some day, if the old wolf presses me too hard in the +matter o' tryin' to git the little man across the street hanged by the +neck and yerself mobbed fer helpin' him! But to-day I'll say no more." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, Mike." Joe turned wearily to his desk. "I don't want you +to break any promises." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Sheehan had gone to the door, but he paused on the threshold, and +wiped his forehead again. +</P> + +<P> +"And I don't want to break any," he said, "but if ever the time should +come when I couldn't help it"—he lowered his voice to a hoarse but +piercing whisper—"that will be the devourin' angel's day fer Martin +Pike!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XVIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IN THE HEAT OF THE DAY +</H3> + +<P> +It was a morning of the warmest week of mid-July, and Canaan lay inert +and helpless beneath a broiling sun. The few people who moved about the +streets went languidly, keeping close to the wall on the shady side; +the women in thin white fabrics; the men, often coatless, carrying +palm-leaf fans, and replacing collars with handkerchiefs. In the +Court-house yard the maple leaves, gray with blown dust and grown to +great breadth, drooped heavily, depressing the long, motionless +branches with their weight, so low that the four or five shabby idlers, +upon the benches beneath, now and then flicked them sleepily with +whittled sprigs. The doors and windows of the stores stood open, +displaying limp wares of trade, but few tokens of life; the clerks +hanging over dim counters as far as possible from the glare in front, +gossiping fragmentarily, usually about the Cory murder, and, anon, upon +a subject suggested by the sight of an occasional pedestrian passing +perspiring by with scrooged eyelids and purpling skin. From street and +sidewalk, transparent hot waves swam up and danced themselves into +nothing; while from the river bank, a half-mile away, came a sound +hotter than even the locust's midsummer rasp: the drone of a +planing-mill. A chance boy, lying prone in the grass of the +Court-house yard, was annoyed by the relentless chant and lifted his +head to mock it: "AWR-EER-AWR-EER! SHUT UP, CAN'T YOU?" The effort +was exhausting: he relapsed and suffered with increasing malice but in +silence. +</P> + +<P> +Abruptly there was a violent outbreak on the "National House" corner, +as when a quiet farmhouse is startled by some one's inadvertently +bringing down all the tin from a shelf in the pantry. The loafers on +the benches turned hopefully, saw what it was, then closed their eyes, +and slumped back into their former positions. The outbreak subsided as +suddenly as it had arisen: Colonel Flitcroft pulled Mr. Arp down into +his chair again, and it was all over. +</P> + +<P> +Greater heat than that of these blazing days could not have kept one of +the sages from attending the conclave now. For the battle was on in +Canaan: and here, upon the National House corner, under the shadow of +the west wall, it waxed even keener. Perhaps we may find full +justification for calling what was happening a battle in so far as we +restrict the figure to apply to this one spot; else where, in the +Canaan of the Tocsin, the conflict was too one-sided. The Tocsin had +indeed tried the case of Happy Fear in advance, had convicted and +condemned, and every day grew more bitter. Nor was the urgent vigor of +its attack without effect. Sleepy as Main Street seemed in the heat, +the town was incensed and roused to a tensity of feeling it had not +known since the civil war, when, on occasion, it had set out to hang +half a dozen "Knights of the Golden Circle." Joe had been hissed on +the street many times since the inimical clerk had whistled at him. +Probably demonstrations of that sort would have continued had he +remained in Canaan; but for almost a month he had been absent and his +office closed, its threshold gray with dust. There were people who +believed that he had run away again, this time never to return; among +those who held to this opinion being Mrs. Louden and her sister, Joe's +step-aunt. Upon only one point was everybody agreed: that twelve men +could not be found in the county who could be so far persuaded and +befuddled by Louden that they would dare to allow Happy Fear to escape. +The women of Canaan, incensed by the terrible circumstance of the case, +as the Tocsin colored it—a man shot down in the act of begging his +enemy's forgiveness—clamored as loudly as the men: there was only the +difference that the latter vociferated for the hanging of Happy; their +good ladies used the word "punishment." +</P> + +<P> +And yet, while the place rang with condemnation of the little man in +the jail and his attorney, there were voices, here and there, uplifted +on the other side. People existed, it astonishingly appeared, who +LIKED Happy Fear. These were for the greater part obscure and even +darkling in their lives, yet quite demonstrably human beings, able to +smile, suffer, leap, run, and to entertain fancies; even to have, +according to their degree, a certain rudimentary sense of right and +wrong, in spite of which they strongly favored the prisoner's +acquittal. Precisely on that account, it was argued, an acquittal would +outrage Canaan and lay it open to untold danger: such people needed a +lesson. +</P> + +<P> +The Tocsin interviewed the town's great ones, printing their opinions +of the heinousness of the crime and the character of the defendant's +lawyer.... "The Hon. P. J. Parrott, who so ably represented this county +in the Legislature some fourteen years ago, could scarcely restrain +himself when approached by a reporter as to his sentiments anent the +repulsive deed. 'I should like to know how long Canaan is going to put +up with this sort of business,' were his words. 'I am a law-abiding +citizen, and I have served faithfully, and with my full endeavor and +ability, to enact the laws and statutes of my State, but there is a +point in my patience, I would state, which lawbreakers and their +lawyers may not safely pass. Of what use are our most solemn +enactments, I may even ask of what use is the Legislature itself, +chosen by the will of the people, if they are to ruthlessly be set +aside by criminals and their shifty protectors? The blame should be put +upon the lawyers who by tricks enable such rascals to escape the rigors +of the carefully enacted laws, the fruits of the Solon's labor, more +than upon the criminals themselves. In this case, if there is any +miscarriage of justice, I will say here and now that in my opinion the +people of this county will be sorely tempted; and while I do not +believe in lynch-law, yet if that should be the result it is my +unalterable conviction that the vigilantes may well turn their +attention to the lawyers—OR LAWYER—who bring about such miscarriage. +I am sick of it.'" +</P> + +<P> +The Tocsin did not print the interview it obtained from Louie +Farbach—the same Louie Farbach who long ago had owned a beer-saloon +with a little room behind the bar, where a shabby boy sometimes played +dominoes and "seven-up" with loafers: not quite the same Louie Farbach, +however, in outward circumstance: for he was now the brewer of Farbach +Beer and making Canaan famous. His rise had been Teutonic and sure; +and he contributed one-twentieth of his income to the German Orphan +Asylum and one-tenth to his party's campaign fund. The twentieth saved +the orphans from the county, while the tithe gave the county to his +party. +</P> + +<P> +He occupied a kitchen chair, enjoying the society of some chickens in a +wired enclosure behind the new Italian villa he had erected in that +part of Canaan where he would be most uncomfortable, and he looked +woodenly at the reporter when the latter put his question. +</P> + +<P> +"Hef you any aguaintunce off Mitster Fear?" he inquired, in return, +with no expression decipherable either upon his Gargantuan face or in +his heavily enfolded eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir," replied the reporter, grinning. "I never ran across him." +</P> + +<P> +"Dot iss a goot t'ing fer you," said Mr. Farbach, stonily. "He iss not +a man peobles bedder try to run across. It iss what Gory tried. Now +Gory iss dead." +</P> + +<P> +The reporter, slightly puzzled, lit a cigarette. "See here, Mr. +Farbach," he urged, "I only want a word or two about this thing; and +you might give me a brief expression concerning that man Louden +besides: just a hint of what you think of his influence here, you know, +and of the kind of sharp work he practises. Something like that." +</P> + +<P> +"I see," said the brewer, slowly. "Happy Fear I hef knowt for a goot +many years. He iss a goot frient of mine." +</P> + +<P> +"What?" +</P> + +<P> +"Choe Louten iss a bedder one," continued Mr. Farbach, turning again to +stare at his chickens. +</P> + +<P> +"Git owit." +</P> + +<P> +"What?" +</P> + +<P> +"Git owit," repeated the other, without passion, without anger, without +any expression whatsoever. "Git owit." +</P> + +<P> +The reporter's prejudice against the German nation dated from that +moment. +</P> + +<P> +There were others, here and there, who were less self-contained than +the brewer. A farm-hand struck a fellow laborer in the harvest-field +for speaking ill of Joe; and the unravelling of a strange street fight, +one day, disclosed as its cause a like resentment, on the part of a +blind broom-maker, engendered by a like offence. The broom-maker's +companion, reading the Tocsin as the two walked together, had begun the +quarrel by remarking that Happy Fear ought to be hanged once for his +own sake and twice more "to show up that shyster Louden." Warm words +followed, leading to extremely material conflict, in which, in spite of +his blindness, the broom-maker had so much the best of it that he was +removed from the triumphant attitude he had assumed toward the person +of his adversary, which was an admirable imitation of the dismounted +St. George and the Dragon, and conveyed to the jail. Keenest +investigation failed to reveal anything oblique in the man's record; to +the astonishment of Canaan, there was nothing against him. He was +blind and moderately poor; but a respectable, hard-working artisan, and +a pride to the church in which he was what has been called an "active +worker." It was discovered that his sensitiveness to his companion's +attack on Joseph Louden arose from the fact that Joe had obtained the +acquittal of an imbecile sister of the blind man, a two-thirds-witted +woman who had been charged with bigamy. +</P> + +<P> +The Tocsin made what it could of this, and so dexterously that the +wrath of Canaan was one farther jot increased against the shyster. Ay, +the town was hot, inside and out. +</P> + +<P> +Let us consider the Forum. Was there ever before such a summer for the +"National House" corner? How voices first thundered there, then +cracked and piped, is not to be rendered in all the tales of the +fathers. One who would make vivid the great doings must indeed "dip +his brush in earthquake and eclipse"; even then he could but picture +the credible, and must despair of this: the silence of Eskew Arp. Not +that Eskew held his tongue, not that he was chary of speech—no! O +tempora, O mores! NO! But that he refused the subject in hand, that +he eschewed expression upon it and resolutely drove the argument in +other directions, that he achieved such superbly un-Arplike +inconsistency; and with such rich material for his sardonic humors, not +at arm's length, not even so far as his finger-tips, but beneath his +very palms, he rejected it: this was the impossible fact. +</P> + +<P> +Eskew—there is no option but to declare—was no longer Eskew. It is +the truth; since the morning when Ariel Tabor came down from Joe's +office, leaving her offering of white roses in that dingy, dusty, shady +place, Eskew had not been himself. His comrades observed it somewhat in +a physical difference, one of those alterations which may come upon men +of his years suddenly, like a "sea change": his face was whiter, his +walk slower, his voice filed thinner; he creaked louder when he rose or +sat. Old always, from his boyhood, he had, in the turn of a hand, +become aged. But such things come and such things go: after eighty +there are ups and downs; people fading away one week, bloom out +pleasantly the next, and resiliency is not at all a patent belonging to +youth alone. The material change in Mr. Arp might have been thought +little worth remarking. What caused Peter Bradbury, Squire Buckalew, +and the Colonel to shake their heads secretly to one another and wonder +if their good old friend's mind had not "begun to go" was something +very different. To come straight down to it: he not only abstained +from all argument upon the "Cory Murder" and the case of Happy Fear, +refusing to discuss either in any terms or under any circumstances, but +he also declined to speak of Ariel Tabor or of Joseph Louden; or of +their affairs, singular or plural, masculine, feminine, or neuter, or +in any declension. Not a word, committal or non-committal. None! +</P> + +<P> +And his face, when he was silent, fell into sorrowful and troubled +lines. +</P> + +<P> +At first they merely marvelled. Then Squire Buckalew dared to tempt +him. Eskew's faded eyes showed a blue gleam, but he withstood, +speaking of Babylon to the disparagement of Chicago. They sought to +lead him into what he evidently would not, employing many devices; but +the old man was wily and often carried them far afield by secret ways +of his own. This hot morning he had done that thing: they were close +upon him, pressing him hard, when he roused that outburst which had +stirred the idlers on the benches in the Court-house yard. Squire +Buckalew (sidelong at the others but squarely at Eskew) had volunteered +the information that Cory was a reformed priest. Stung by the mystery +of Eskew's silence, the Squire's imagination had become magically +gymnastic; and if anything under heaven could have lifted the veil, +this was the thing. Mr. Arp's reply may be reverenced. +</P> + +<P> +"I consider," he said, deliberately, "that James G. Blaine's furrin +policy was childish, and, what's more, I never thought much of HIM!" +</P> + +<P> +This outdefied Ajax, and every trace of the matter in hand went to the +four winds. Eskew, like Rome, was saved by a cackle, in which he +joined, and a few moments later, as the bench loafers saw, was pulled +down into his seat by the Colonel. +</P> + +<P> +The voices of the fathers fell to the pitch of ordinary discourse; the +drowsy town was quiet again; the whine of the planing-mill boring its +way through the sizzling air to every wakening ear. Far away, on a +quiet street, it sounded faintly, like the hum of a bee across a creek, +and was drowned in the noise of men at work on the old Tabor house. It +seemed the only busy place in Canaan that day: the shade of the big +beech-trees which surrounded it affording some shelter from the +destroying sun to the dripping laborers who were sawing, hammering, +painting, plumbing, papering, and ripping open old and new +packing-boxes. There were many changes in the old house pleasantly in +keeping with its simple character: airy enlargements now almost +completed so that some of the rooms were already finished, and stood, +furnished and immaculate, ready for tenancy. +</P> + +<P> +In that which had been Roger Tabor's studio sat Ariel, alone. She had +caused some chests and cases, stored there, to be opened, and had taken +out of them a few of Roger's canvases and set them along the wall. +Tears filled her eyes as she looked at them, seeing the tragedy of +labor the old man had expended upon them; but she felt the recompense: +hard, tight, literal as they were, he had had his moment of joy in each +of them before he saw them coldly and knew the truth. And he had been +given his years of Paris at last: and had seen "how the other fellows +did it." +</P> + +<P> +A heavy foot strode through the hall, coming abruptly to a halt in the +doorway, and turning, she discovered Martin Pike, his big +Henry-the-Eighth face flushed more with anger than with the heat. His +hat was upon his head, and remained there, nor did he offer any token +or word of greeting whatever, but demanded to know when the work upon +the house had been begun. +</P> + +<P> +"The second morning after my return," she answered. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to know," he pursued, "why it was kept secret from me, and I +want to know quick." +</P> + +<P> +"Secret?" she echoed, with a wave of her hand to indicate the noise +which the workmen were making. +</P> + +<P> +"Upon whose authority was it begun?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mine. Who else could give it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Look here," he said, advancing toward her, "don't you try to fool me! +You haven't done all this by yourself. Who hired these workmen?" +</P> + +<P> +Remembering her first interview with him, she rose quickly before he +could come near her. "Mr. Louden made most of the arrangements for +me," she replied, quietly, "before he went away. He will take charge +of everything when he returns. You haven't forgotten that I told you I +intended to place my affairs in his hands?" +</P> + +<P> +He had started forward, but at this he stopped and stared at her +inarticulately. +</P> + +<P> +"You remember?" she said, her hands resting negligently upon the back +of the chair. "Surely you remember?" +</P> + +<P> +She was not in the least afraid of him, but coolly watchful of him. +This had been her habit with him since her return. She had seen little +of him, except at table, when he was usually grimly laconic, though now +and then she would hear him joking heavily with Sam Warden in the yard, +or, with evidently humorous intent, groaning at Mamie over Eugene's +health; but it had not escaped Ariel that he was, on his part, watchful +of herself, and upon his guard with a wariness in which she was +sometimes surprised to believe that she saw an almost haggard +apprehension. +</P> + +<P> +He did not answer her question, and it seemed to her, as she continued +steadily to meet his hot eyes, that he was trying to hold himself under +some measure of control; and a vain effort it proved. +</P> + +<P> +"You go back to my house!" he burst out, shouting hoarsely. "You get +back there! You stay there!" +</P> + +<P> +"No," she said, moving between him and the door. "Mamie and I are +going for a drive." +</P> + +<P> +"You go back to my house!" He followed her, waving an arm fiercely at +her. "Don't you come around here trying to run over me! You talk +about your 'affairs'! All you've got on earth is this two-for-a-nickel +old shack over your head and a bushel-basket of distillery stock that +you can sell by the pound for old paper!" He threw the words in her +face, the bull-bass voice seamed and cracked with falsetto. "Old +paper, old rags, old iron, bottles, old clothes! You talk about your +affairs! Who are you? Rothschild? You haven't GOT any affairs!" +</P> + +<P> +Not a look, not a word, not a motion of his escaped her in all the fury +of sound and gesture in which he seemed fairly to envelop himself; +least of all did that shaking of his—the quivering of jaw and temple, +the tumultuous agitation of his hands—evade her watchfulness. +</P> + +<P> +"When did you find this out?" she said, very quickly. "After you +became administrator?" +</P> + +<P> +He struck the back of the chair she had vacated a vicious blow with his +open hand. "No, you spendthrift! All there was TO your grandfather +when you buried him was a basket full of distillery stock, I tell you! +Old paper! Can't you hear me? Old paper, old rags—" +</P> + +<P> +"You have sent me the same income," she lifted her voice to interrupt; +"you have made the same quarterly payments since his death that you +made before. If you knew, why did you do that?" +</P> + +<P> +He had been shouting at her with the frantic and incredulous +exasperation of an intolerant man utterly unused to opposition; his +face empurpled, his forehead dripping, and his hands ruthlessly +pounding the back of the chair; but this straight question stripped him +suddenly of gesture and left him standing limp and still before her, +pale splotches beginning to show on his hot cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +"If you knew, why did you do it?" she repeated. "You wrote me that my +income was from dividends, and I knew and thought nothing about it; but +if the stock which came to me was worthless, how could it pay +dividends?" +</P> + +<P> +"It did not," he answered, huskily. "That distillery stock, I tell +you, isn't worth the matches to burn it." +</P> + +<P> +"But there has been no difference in my income," she persisted, +steadily. "Why? Can you explain that to me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I can," he replied, and it seemed to her that he spoke with a +pallid and bitter desperation, like a man driven to the wall. "I can +if you think you want to know." +</P> + +<P> +"I do." +</P> + +<P> +"I sent it." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean from you own—" +</P> + +<P> +"I mean it was my own money." +</P> + +<P> +She had not taken her eyes from his, which met hers straightly and +angrily; and at this she leaned forward, gazing at him with profound +scrutiny. +</P> + +<P> +"Why did you send it?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Charity," he answered, after palpable hesitation. +</P> + +<P> +Her eyes widened and she leaned back against the lintel of the door, +staring at him incredulously. "Charity!" she echoed, in a whisper. +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps he mistook her amazement at his performance for dismay caused +by the sense of her own position, for, as she seemed to weaken before +him, the strength of his own habit of dominance came back to him. +"Charity, madam!" he broke out, shouting intolerably. "Charity, d'ye +hear? I was a friend of the man that made the money you and your +grandfather squandered; I was a friend of Jonas Tabor, I say! That's +why I was willing to support you for a year and over, rather than let a +niece of his suffer." +</P> + +<P> +"'Suffer'!" she cried. "'Support'! You sent me a hundred thousand +francs!" +</P> + +<P> +The white splotches which had mottled Martin Pike's face disappeared as +if they had been suddenly splashed with hot red. "You go back to my +house," he said. "What I sent you only shows the extent of my—" +</P> + +<P> +"Effrontery!" The word rang through the whole house, so loudly and +clearly did she strike it, rang in his ears till it stung like a +castigation. It was ominous, portentous of justice and of disaster. +There was more than doubt of him in it: there was conviction. +</P> + +<P> +He fell back from this word; and when he again advanced, Ariel had left +the house. She had turned the next corner before he came out of the +gate; and as he passed his own home on his way down-town, he saw her +white dress mingling with his daughter's near the horse-block beside +the fire, where the two, with their arms about each other, stood +waiting for Sam Warden and the open summer carriage. +</P> + +<P> +Judge Pike walked on, the white splotches reappearing like a pale rash +upon his face. A yellow butterfly zigzagged before him, knee-high, +across the sidewalk. He raised his foot and half kicked at it. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XIX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +ESKEW ARP +</H3> + +<P> +As the Judge continued his walk down Main Street, he wished profoundly +that the butterfly (which exhibited no annoyance) had been of greater +bulk and more approachable; and it was the evil fortune of Joe's +mongrel to encounter him in the sinister humor of such a wish +unfulfilled. Respectability dwelt at Beaver Beach under the care of Mr. +Sheehan until his master should return; and Sheehan was kind; but the +small dog found the world lonely and time long without Joe. He had +grown more and more restless, and at last, this hot morning, having +managed to evade the eye of all concerned in his keeping, made off +unobtrusively, partly by swimming, and reaching the road, cantered into +town, his ears erect with anxiety. Bent upon reaching the familiar +office, he passed the grocery from the doorway of which the pimply +cheeked clerk had thrown a bad potato at him a month before. The same +clerk had just laid down the Tocsin as Respectability went by, and, +inspired to great deeds in behalf of justice and his native city, he +rushed to the door, lavishly seized, this time, a perfectly good +potato, and hurled it with a result which ecstasized him, for it took +the mongrel fairly aside the head, which it matched in size. +</P> + +<P> +The luckless Respectability's purpose to reach Joe's stairway had been +entirely definite, but upon this violence he forgot it momentarily. It +is not easy to keep things in mind when one is violently smitten on +mouth, nose, cheek, eye, and ear by a missile large enough to strike +them simultaneously. Yelping and half blinded, he deflected to cross +Main Street. Judge Pike had elected to cross in the opposite +direction, and the two met in the middle of the street. +</P> + +<P> +The encounter was miraculously fitted to the Judge's need: here was no +butterfly, but a solid body, light withal, a wet, muddy, and dusty +yellow dog, eminently kickable. The man was heavily built about the +legs, and the vigor of what he did may have been additionally inspired +by his recognition of the mongrel as Joe Louden's. The impact of his +toe upon the little runner's side was momentous, and the latter rose +into the air. The Judge hopped, as one hops who, unshod in the night, +discovers an unexpected chair. Let us be reconciled to his pain and +not reproach the gods with it,—for two of his unintending adversary's +ribs were cracked. +</P> + +<P> +The dog, thus again deflected, retraced his tracks, shrieking +distractedly, and, by one of those ironical twists which Karma reserves +for the tails of the fated, dived for blind safety into the store +commanded by the ecstatic and inimical clerk. There were shouts; the +sleepy Square beginning to wake up: the boy who had mocked the +planing-mill got to his feet, calling upon his fellows; the bench +loafers strolled to the street; the aged men stirred and rose from +their chairs; faces appeared in the open windows of offices; sales +ladies and gentlemen came to the doorways of the trading-places; so +that when Respectability emerged from the grocery he had a notable +audience for the scene he enacted with a brass dinner-bell tied to his +tail. +</P> + +<P> +Another potato, flung by the pimpled, uproarious, prodigal clerk, added +to the impetus of his flight. A shower of pebbles from the hands of +exhilarated boys dented the soft asphalt about him; the hideous clamor +of the pursuing bell increased as he turned the next corner, running +distractedly. The dead town had come to life, and its inhabitants +gladly risked the dangerous heat in the interests of sport, whereby it +was a merry chase the little dog led around the block, For thus some +destructive instinct drove him; he could not stop with the unappeasable +Terror clanging at his heels and the increasing crowd yelling in +pursuit; but he turned to the left at each corner, and thus came back +to pass Joe's stairway again, unable to pause there or anywhere, unable +to do anything except to continue his hapless flight, poor meteor. +</P> + +<P> +Round the block he went once more, and still no chance at that empty +stairway where, perhaps, he thought, there might be succor and safety. +Blood was upon his side where Martin Pike's boot had crashed, foam and +blood hung upon his jaws and lolling tongue. He ran desperately, +keeping to the middle of the street, and, not howling, set himself +despairingly to outstrip the Terror. The mob, disdaining the sun +superbly, pursued as closely as it could, throwing bricks and rocks at +him, striking at him with clubs and sticks. Happy Fear, playing +"tic-tac-toe," right hand against left, in his cell, heard the uproar, +made out something of what was happening, and, though unaware that it +was a friend whose life was sought, discovered a similarity to his own +case, and prayed to his dim gods that the quarry might get away. +</P> + +<P> +"MAD DOG!" they yelled. "MAD DOG!" And there were some who cried, +"JOE LOUDEN'S DOG!" that being equally as exciting and explanatory. +</P> + +<P> +Three times round, and still the little fugitive maintained a lead. A +gray-helmeted policeman, a big fellow, had joined the pursuit. He had +children at home who might be playing in the street, and the thought of +what might happen to them if the mad dog should head that way resolved +him to be cool and steady. He was falling behind, so he stopped on the +corner, trusting that Respectability would come round again. He was +right, and the flying brownish thing streaked along Main Street, +passing the beloved stairway for the fourth time. The policeman lifted +his revolver, fired twice, missed once, but caught him with the second +shot in a forepaw, clipping off a fifth toe, one of the small claws +that grow above the foot and are always in trouble. This did not stop +him; but the policeman, afraid to risk another shot because of the +crowd, waited for him to come again; and many others, seeing the +hopeless circuit the mongrel followed, did likewise, armed with bricks +and clubs. Among them was the pimply clerk, who had been inspired to +commandeer a pitchfork from a hardware store. +</P> + +<P> +When the fifth round came, Respectability's race was run. He turned +into Main Street at a broken speed, limping, parched, voiceless, +flecked with blood and foam, snapping feebly at the showering rocks, +but still indomitably a little ahead of the hunt. There was no yelp +left in him—he was too thoroughly winded for that,—but in his +brilliant and despairing eyes shone the agony of a cry louder than the +tongue of a dog could utter: "O master! O all the god I know! Where +are you in my mortal need?" +</P> + +<P> +Now indeed he had a gauntlet to run; for the street was lined with +those who awaited him, while the pursuit grew closer behind. A number +of the hardiest stood squarely in his path, and he hesitated for a +second, which gave the opportunity for a surer aim, and many missiles +struck him. "Let him have it now, officer," said Eugene Bantry, +standing with Judge Pike at the policeman's elbow. "There's your +chance." +</P> + +<P> +But before the revolver could be discharged, Respectability had begun +to run again, hobbling on three legs and dodging feebly. A heavy stone +struck him on the shoulder and he turned across the street, making for +the "National House" corner, where the joyful clerk brandished his +pitchfork. Going slowly, he almost touched the pimply one as he passed, +and the clerk, already rehearsing in his mind the honors which should +follow the brave stroke, raised the tines above the little dog's head +for the coup de grace. They did not descend, and the daring youth +failed of fame as the laurel almost embraced his brows. A hickory +walking-stick was thrust between his legs; and he, expecting to strike, +received a blow upon the temple sufficient for his present undoing and +bedazzlement. He went over backwards, and the pitchfork (not the thing +to hold poised on high when one is knocked down) fell with the force he +had intended for Respectability upon his own shin. +</P> + +<P> +A train had pulled into the station, and a tired, travel-worn young +man, descending from a sleeper, walked rapidly up the street to learn +the occasion of what appeared to be a riot. When he was close enough +to understand its nature, he dropped his bag and came on at top speed, +shouting loudly to the battered mongrel, who tried with his remaining +strength to leap toward him through a cordon of kicking legs, while +Eugene Bantry again called to the policeman to fire. +</P> + +<P> +"If he does, damn you, I'll kill him!" Joe saw the revolver raised; and +then, Eugene being in his way, he ran full-tilt into his stepbrother +with all his force, sending him to earth, and went on literally over +him as he lay prone upon the asphalt, that being the shortest way to +Respectability. The next instant the mongrel was in his master's arms +and weakly licking his hands. +</P> + +<P> +But it was Eskew Arp who had saved the little dog; for it was his stick +which had tripped the clerk, and his hand which had struck him down. +All his bodily strength had departed in that effort, but he staggered +out into the street toward Joe. +</P> + +<P> +"Joe Louden!" called the veteran, in a loud voice. "Joe Louden!" and +suddenly reeled. The Colonel and Squire Buckalew were making their way +toward him, but Joe, holding the dog to his breast with one arm, threw +the other about Eskew. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a town—it's a town"—the old fellow flung himself free from the +supporting arm—"it's a town you couldn't even trust a yellow dog to!" +</P> + +<P> +He sank back upon Joe's shoulder, speechless. An open carriage had +driven through the crowd, the colored driver urged by two ladies upon +the back seat, and Martin Pike saw it stop by the group in the middle +of the street where Joe stood, the wounded dog held to his breast by +one arm, the old man, white and half fainting, supported by the other. +Martin Pike saw this and more; he saw Ariel Tabor and his own daughter +leaning from the carriage, the arms of both pityingly extended to Joe +Louden and his two burdens, while the stunned and silly crowd stood +round them staring, clouds of dust settling down upon them through the +hot air. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THREE ARE ENLISTED +</H3> + +<P> +Now in that blazing noon Canaan looked upon a strange sight: an open +carriage whirling through Main Street behind two galloping bays; upon +the back seat a ghostly white old man with closed eyes, supported by +two pale ladies, his head upon the shoulder of the taller; while beside +the driver, a young man whose coat and hands were bloody, worked over +the hurts of an injured dog. Sam Warden's whip sang across the horses; +lather gathered on their flanks, and Ariel's voice steadily urged on +the pace: "Quicker, Sam, if you can." For there was little breath +left in the body of Eskew Arp. +</P> + +<P> +Mamie, almost as white as the old man, was silent; but she had not +hesitated in her daring, now that she had been taught to dare; she had +not come to be Ariel's friend and honest follower for nothing; and it +was Mamie who had cried to Joe to lift Eskew into the carriage. "You +must come too," she said. "We will need you." And so it came to pass +that under the eyes of Canaan Joe Louden rode in Judge Pike's carriage +at the bidding of Judge Pike's daughter. +</P> + +<P> +Toward Ariel's own house they sped with the stricken octogenarian, for +he was "alone in the world," and she would not take him to the cottage +where he had lived for many years by himself, a bleak little house, a +derelict of the "early days" left stranded far down in the town between +a woollen-mill and the water-works. The workmen were beginning their +dinners under the big trees, but as Sam Warden drew in the lathered +horses at the gate, they set down their tin buckets hastily and ran to +help Joe lift the old man out. Carefully they bore him into the house +and laid him upon a bed in one of the finished rooms. He did not speak +or move and the workmen uncovered their heads as they went out, but Joe +knew that they were mistaken. "It's all right, Mr. Arp," he said, as +Ariel knelt by the bed with water and restoratives. "It's all right. +Don't you worry." +</P> + +<P> +Then the veteran's lips twitched, and though his eyes remained closed, +Joe saw that Eskew understood, for he gasped, feebly: +"Pos-i-tive-ly—no—free—seats!" +</P> + +<P> +To Mrs. Louden, sewing at an up-stairs window, the sight of her stepson +descending from Judge Pike's carriage was sufficiently startling, but +when she saw Mamie Pike take Respectability from his master's arms and +carry him tenderly indoors, while Joe and Ariel occupied themselves +with Mr. Arp, the good lady sprang to her feet as if she had been +stung, regardlessly sending her work-basket and its contents scattering +over the floor, and ran down the stairs three steps at a time. +</P> + +<P> +At the front door she met her husband, entering for his dinner, and she +leaped at him. Had he seen? What was it? What had happened? +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Louden rubbed his chin-beard, indulging himself in a pause which +was like to prove fatal to his companion, finally vouchsafing the +information that the doctor's buggy was just turning the corner; Eskew +Arp had suffered a "stroke," it was said, and, in Louden's opinion, was +a mighty sick man. His spouse replied in no uncertain terms that she +had seen quite that much for herself, urging him to continue, which he +did with a deliberation that caused her to recall their wedding-day +with a gust of passionate self-reproach. Presently he managed to +interrupt, reminding her that her dining-room windows commanded as +comprehensive a view of the next house as did the front steps, and +after a time her housewifely duty so far prevailed over her indignation +at the man's unwholesome stolidity that she followed him down the hall +to preside over the meal, not, however, to partake largely of it +herself. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Louden had no information of Eugene's mishap, nor had Mrs. Louden +any suspicion that all was not well with the young man, and, hearing +him enter the front door, she called to him that his dinner was +waiting. Eugene, however, made no reply and went up-stairs to his own +apartment without coming into the dining-room. +</P> + +<P> +A small crowd, neighboring children, servants, and negroes, had +gathered about Ariel's gate, and Mrs. Louden watched the working-men +disperse this assembly, gather up their tools, and depart; then Mamie +came out of the house, and, bowing sadly to three old men who were +entering the gate as she left it, stepped into her carriage and drove +away. The new-comers, Colonel Flitcroft, Squire Buckalew, and Peter +Bradbury, glanced at the doctor's buggy, shook their heads at one +another, and slowly went up to the porch, where Joe met them. Mrs. +Louden uttered a sharp exclamation, for the Colonel shook hands with +her stepson. +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps Flitcroft himself was surprised; he had offered his hand almost +unconsciously, and the greeting was embarrassed and perfunctory; but +his two companions, each in turn, gravely followed his lead, and Joe's +set face flushed a little. It was the first time in many years that +men of their kind in Canaan had offered him this salutation. +</P> + +<P> +"He wouldn't let me send for you," he told them. "He said he knew +you'd be here soon without that." And he led the way to Eskew's +bedside. +</P> + +<P> +Joe and the doctor had undressed the old man, and had put him into +night-gear of Roger Tabor's, taken from an antique chest; it was soft +and yellow and much more like color than the face above it, for the +white hair on the pillow was not whiter than that. Yet there was a +strange youthfulness in the eyes of Eskew; an eerie, inexplicable, +luminous, LIVE look; the thin cheeks seemed fuller than they had been +for years; and though the heavier lines of age and sorrow could be +seen, they appeared to have been half erased. He lay not in sunshine, +but in clear light; the windows were open, the curtains restrained, for +he had asked them not to darken the room. +</P> + +<P> +The doctor was whispering in a doctor's way to Ariel at the end of the +room opposite the bed, when the three old fellows came in. None of +them spoke immediately, and though all three cleared their throats with +what they meant for casual cheerfulness, to indicate that the situation +was not at all extraordinary or depressing, it was to be seen that the +Colonel's chin trembled under his mustache, and his comrades showed +similar small and unwilling signs of emotion. +</P> + +<P> +Eskew spoke first. "Well, boys?" he said, and smiled. +</P> + +<P> +That seemed to make it more difficult for the others; the three white +heads bent silently over the fourth upon the pillow; and Ariel saw +waveringly, for her eyes suddenly filled, that the Colonel laid his +unsteady hand upon Eskew's, which was outside the coverlet. +</P> + +<P> +"It's—it's not," said the old soldier, gently—"it's not on—on both +sides, is it, Eskew?" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Arp moved his hand slightly in answer. "It ain't paralysis," he +said. "They call it 'shock and exhaustion'; but it's more than that. +It's just my time. I've heard the call. We've all been slidin' on +thin ice this long time—and it's broke under me—" +</P> + +<P> +"Eskew, Eskew!" remonstrated Peter Bradbury. "You'd oughtn't to talk +that-a-way! You only kind of overdone a little—heat o' the day, too, +and—" +</P> + +<P> +"Peter," interrupted the sick man, with feeble asperity, "did you ever +manage to fool me in your life?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, Eskew." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you're not doin' it now!" +</P> + +<P> +Two tears suddenly loosed themselves from Squire Buckalew's eyelids, +despite his hard endeavor to wink them away, and he turned from the bed +too late to conceal what had happened. "There ain't any call to feel +bad," said Eskew. "It might have happened any time—in the night, +maybe—at my house—and all alone—but here's Airie Tabor brought me to +her own home and takin' care of me. I couldn't ask any better way to +go, could I?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know what we'll do," stammered the Colonel, "if you—you talk +about goin' away from us, Eskew. We—we couldn't get along—" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, sir, I'm almost kind of glad to think," Mr. Arp murmured, +between short struggles for breath, "that it 'll be—quieter—on +the—"National House" corner!" +</P> + +<P> +A moment later he called the doctor faintly and asked for a +restorative. "There," he said, in a stronger voice and with a gleam of +satisfaction in the vindication of his belief that he was dying. "I +was almost gone then. <I>I</I> know!" He lay panting for a moment, then +spoke the name of Joe Louden. +</P> + +<P> +Joe came quickly to the bedside. +</P> + +<P> +"I want you to shake hands with the Colonel and Peter and Buckalew." +</P> + +<P> +"We did," answered the Colonel, infinitely surprised and troubled. "We +shook hands outside before we came in." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Do it again," said Eskew. "I want to see you." +</P> + +<P> +And Joe, making shift to smile, was suddenly blinded, so that he could +not see the wrinkled hands extended to him, and was fain to grope for +them. +</P> + +<P> +"God knows why we didn't all take his hand long ago," said Eskew Arp. +"I didn't because I was stubborn. I hated to admit that the argument +was against me. I acknowledge it now before him and before you—and I +want the word of it CARRIED!" +</P> + +<P> +"It's all right, Mr. Arp," began Joe, tremulously. "You mustn't—" +</P> + +<P> +"Hark to me"—the old man's voice lifted higher: "If you'd ever +whimpered, or give back-talk, or broke out the wrong way, it would of +been different. But you never did. I've watched you and I know; and +you've just gone your own way alone, with the town against you because +you got a bad name as a boy, and once we'd given you that, everything +you did or didn't do, we had to give you a blacker one. Now it's time +some one stood by you! Airie Tabor 'll do that with all her soul and +body. She told me once I thought a good deal of you. She knew! But I +want these three old friends of mine to do it, too. I was boys with +them and they'll do it, I think. They've even stood up fer you against +me, sometimes, but mostly fer the sake of the argument, I reckon; but +now they must do it when there's more to stand against than just my +talk. They saw it all to-day—the meanest thing I ever knew! I could +of stood it all except that!" Before they could prevent him he had +struggled half upright in bed, lifting a clinched fist at the town +beyond the windows. "But, by God! when they got so low down they tried +to kill your dog—" +</P> + +<P> +He fell back, choking, in Joe's arms, and the physician bent over him, +but Eskew was not gone, and Ariel, upon the other side of the room, +could hear him whispering again for the restorative. She brought it, +and when he had taken it, went quickly out-of-doors to the side yard. +</P> + +<P> +She sat upon a workman's bench under the big trees, hidden from the +street shrubbery, and breathing deeply of the shaded air, began to cry +quietly. Through the windows came the quavering voice of the old man, +lifted again, insistent, a little querulous, but determined. Responses +sounded, intermittently, from the Colonel, from Peter, and from +Buckalew, and now and then a sorrowful, yet almost humorous, protest +from Joe; and so she made out that the veteran swore his three comrades +to friendship with Joseph Louden, to lend him their countenance in all +matters, to stand by him in weal and woe, to speak only good of him and +defend him in the town of Canaan. Thus did Eskew Arp on the verge of +parting this life render justice. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The gate clicked, and Ariel saw Eugene approaching through the +shrubbery. One of his hands was bandaged, a thin strip of +court-plaster crossed his forehead from his left eyebrow to his hair, +and his thin and agitated face showed several light scratches. +</P> + +<P> +"I saw you come out," he said. "I've been waiting to speak to you." +</P> + +<P> +"The doctor told us to let him have his way in whatever he might ask." +Ariel wiped her eyes. "I'm afraid that means—" +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't come to talk about Eskew Arp," interrupted Eugene. "I'm not +laboring under any anxiety about him. You needn't be afraid; he's too +sour to accept his conge so readily." +</P> + +<P> +"Please lower your voice," she said, rising quickly and moving away +from him toward the house; but, as he followed, insisting sharply that +he must speak with her, she walked out of ear-shot of the windows, and +stopping, turned toward him. +</P> + +<P> +"Very well," she said. "Is it a message from Mamie?" +</P> + +<P> +At this he faltered and hung fire. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you been to see her?" she continued. +</P> + +<P> +"I am anxious to know if her goodness and bravery caused her any—any +discomfort at home." +</P> + +<P> +"You may set your mind at rest about that," returned Eugene. "I was +there when the Judge came home to dinner. I suppose you fear he may +have been rough with her for taking my step-brother into the carriage. +He was not. On the contrary, he spoke very quietly to her, and went on +out toward the stables. But I haven't come to you to talk of Judge +Pike, either!" +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Ariel. "I don't care particularly to hear of him, but of +Mamie." +</P> + +<P> +"Nor of her, either!" he broke out. "I want to talk of you!" +</P> + +<P> +There was not mistaking him; no possibility of misunderstanding the +real passion that shook him, and her startled eyes betrayed her +comprehension. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I see you understand," he cried, bitterly. "That's because you've +seen others the same way. God help me," he went on, striking his +forehead with his open hand, "that young fool of a Bradbury told me you +refused him only yesterday! He was proud of even rejection from you! +And there's Norbert—and half a dozen others, perhaps, already, since +you've been here." He flung out his arms in ludicrous, savage despair. +"And here am I—" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah yes," she cut him off, "it is of yourself that you want to speak, +after all—not of me!" +</P> + +<P> +"Look here," he vociferated; "are you going to marry that Joe Louden? +I want to know whether you are or not. He gave me this—and this +to-day!" He touched his bandaged hand and plastered forehead. "He ran +into me—over me—for nothing, when I was not on my guard; struck me +down—stamped on me—" +</P> + +<P> +She turned upon him, cheeks aflame, eyes sparkling and dry. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Bantry," she cried, "he did a good thing! And now I want you to go +home. I want you to go home and try if you can discover anything in +yourself that is worthy of Mamie and of what she showed herself to be +this morning! If you can, you will have found something that I could +like!" +</P> + +<P> +She went rapidly toward the house, and he was senseless enough to +follow, babbling: "What do you think I'm made of? You trample on +me—as he did! I can't bear everything; I tell you—" +</P> + +<P> +But she lifted her hand with such imperious will that he stopped short. +Then, through the window of the sick-room came clearly the querulous +voice: +</P> + +<P> +"I tell you it was; I heard him speak just now—out there in the yard, +that no-account step-brother of Joe's! What if he IS a hired hand on +the Tocsin? He'd better give up his job and quit, than do what he's +done to help make the town think hard of Joe. And what IS he? Why, +he's worse than Cory. When that Claudine Fear first came here, 'Gene +Bantry was hangin' around her himself. Joe knew it and he'd never tell, +but I will. I saw 'em buggy-ridin' out near Beaver Beach and she +slapped his face fer him. It ought to be TOLD!" +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't know that Joe knew—that!" Eugene stammered huskily. "It +was—it was—a long time ago—" +</P> + +<P> +"If you understood Joe," she said, in a low voice, "you would know that +before these men leave this house, he will have their promise never to +tell." +</P> + +<P> +His eyes fell miserably, then lifted again; but in her clear and +unbearable gaze there shone such a flame of scorn as he could not +endure to look upon. For the first time in his life he saw a true light +upon himself, and though the vision was darkling, the revelation was +complete. +</P> + +<P> +"Heaven pity you!" she whispered. +</P> + +<P> +Eugene found himself alone, and stumbled away, his glance not lifted. +He passed his own home without looking up, and did not see his mother +beckoning frantically from a window. She ran to the door and called +him. He did not hear her, but went on toward the Tocsin office with +his head still bent. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap21"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XXI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NORBERT WAITS FOR JOE +</H3> + +<P> +There was meat for gossip a plenty in Canaan that afternoon and +evening; there were rumors that ran from kitchen to parlor, and rumors +that ran from parlor to kitchen; speculations that detained housewives +in talk across front gates; wonderings that held cooks in converse over +shadeless back fences in spite of the heat; and canards that brought +Main Street clerks running to the shop doors to stare up and down the +sidewalks. Out of the confusion of report, the judicious were able by +evenfall to extract a fair history of this day of revolution. There +remained no doubt that Joe Louden was in attendance at the death-bed of +Eskew Arp, and somehow it came to be known that Colonel Flitcroft, +Squire Buckalew, and Peter Bradbury had shaken hands with Joe and +declared themselves his friends. There were those (particularly among +the relatives of the hoary trio) who expressed the opinion that the +Colonel and his comrades were too old to be responsible and a +commission ought to sit on them; nevertheless, some echoes of Eskew's +last "argument" to the conclave had sounded in the town and were not +wholly without effect. +</P> + +<P> +Everywhere there was a nipping curiosity to learn how Judge Pike had +"taken" the strange performance of his daughter, and the eager were +much disappointed when it was truthfully reported that he had done and +said very little. He had merely discharged both Sam Warden and Sam's +wife from his service, the mild manner of the dismissal almost +unnerving Mr. Warden, although he was fully prepared for bird-shot; and +the couple had found immediate employment in the service of Ariel Tabor. +</P> + +<P> +Those who humanly felt the Judge's behavior to be a trifle flat and +unsensational were recompensed late in the afternoon when it became +known that Eugene Bantry had resigned his position on the Tocsin. His +reason for severing his connection was dumfounding; he had written a +formal letter to the Judge and repeated the gist of it to his +associates in the office and acquaintances upon the street. He +declared that he no longer sympathized with the attitude of the Tocsin +toward his step-brother, and regretted that he had previously assisted +in emphasizing the paper's hostility to Joe, particularly in the matter +of the approaching murder trial. This being the case, he felt that his +effectiveness in the service of the paper had ceased, and he must, in +justice to the owner, resign. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'm damned!" was the simple comment of the elder Louden when his +step-son sought him out at the factory and repeated this statement to +him. +</P> + +<P> +"So am I, I think," said Eugene, wanly. "Good-bye. I'm going now to +see mother, but I'll be gone before you come home." +</P> + +<P> +"Gone where?" +</P> + +<P> +"Just away. I don't know where," Eugene answered from the door. "I +couldn't live here any longer. I—" +</P> + +<P> +"You've been drinking," said Mr. Louden, inspired. "You'd better not +let Mamie Pike see you." +</P> + +<P> +Eugene laughed desolately. "I don't mean to. I shall write to her. +Good-bye," he said, and was gone before Mr. Louden could restore enough +order out of the chaos in his mind to stop him. +</P> + +<P> +Thus Mrs. Louden's long wait at the window was tragically rewarded, and +she became an unhappy actor in Canaan's drama of that day. Other +ladies attended at other windows, or near their front doors, throughout +the afternoon: the families of the three patriarchs awaiting their +return, as the time drew on, with something akin to frenzy. Mrs. +Flitcroft (a lady of temper), whose rheumatism confined her to a chair, +had her grandson wheel her out upon the porch, and, as the dusk fell +and she finally saw her husband coming at a laggard pace, leaning upon +his cane, his chin sunk on his breast, she frankly told Norbert that +although she had lived with that man more than fifty-seven years, she +would never be able to understand him. She repeated this with genuine +symptoms of hysteria when she discovered that the Colonel had not come +straight from the Tabor house, but had stopped two hours at Peter +Bradbury's to "talk it over." +</P> + +<P> +One item of his recital, while sufficiently startling to his wife, had +a remarkable effect upon his grandson. This was the information that +Ariel Tabor's fortune no longer existed. +</P> + +<P> +"What's that?" cried Norbert, starting to his feet. "What are you +talking about?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's true," said the Colonel, deliberately. "She told me so herself. +Eskew had dropped off into a sort of doze—more like a stupor, +perhaps,—and we all went into Roger's old studio, except Louden and +the doctor, and while we were there, talkin', one of Pike's clerks came +with a basket full of tin boxes and packages of papers and talked to +Miss Tabor at the door and went away. Then old Peter blundered out and +asked her point-blank what it was, and she said it was her estate, +almost everything she had, except the house. Buckalew, tryin' to make +a joke, said he'd be willin' to swap HIS house and lot for the basket, +and she laughed and told him she thought he'd be sorry; that all there +was, to speak of, was a pile of distillery stock—" "What?" repeated +Norbert, incredulously. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. It was the truth," said the Colonel, solemnly. "I saw it +myself: blocks and blocks of stock in that distillery trust that went +up higher'n a kite last year. Roger had put all of Jonas's good +money—" +</P> + +<P> +"Not into that!" shouted Norbert, uncontrollably excited. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, he did. I tell you I saw it!" +</P> + +<P> +"I tell you he didn't. He owned Granger Gas, worth more to-day than it +ever was! Pike was Roger's attorney-in-fact and bought it for him +before the old man died. The check went through my hands. You don't +think I'd forget as big a check as that, do you, even if it was more +than a year ago? Or how it was signed and who made out to? It was +Martin Pike that got caught with distillery stock. He speculated once +too often!" +</P> + +<P> +"No, you're wrong," persisted the Colonel. "I tell you I saw it +myself." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you're blind," returned his grandson, disrespectfully; "you're +blind or else—or else—" He paused, open-mouthed, a look of wonder +struggling its way to expression upon him, gradually conquering every +knobby outpost of his countenance. He struck his fat hands together. +"Where's Joe Louden?" he asked, sharply. "I want to see him. Did you +leave him at Miss Tabor's?" +</P> + +<P> +"He's goin' to sit up with Eskew. What do you want of him?" +</P> + +<P> +"I should say you better ask that!" Mrs. Flitcroft began, shrilly. +"It's enough, I guess, for one of this family to go runnin' after him +and shakin' hands with him and Heaven knows what not! NORBERT +FLITCROFT!" +</P> + +<P> +But Norbert jumped from the porch, ruthlessly crossed his grandmother's +geranium-bed, and, making off at as sharp a pace as his architecture +permitted, within ten minutes opened Ariel's gate. +</P> + +<P> +Sam Warden came forward to meet him. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't ring, please, suh," said Sam. "Dey sot me out heah to tell +inquirin' frien's dat po' ole Mist' Arp mighty low." +</P> + +<P> +"I want to see Mr. Louden," returned Norbert. "I want to see him +immediately." +</P> + +<P> +"I don' reckon he kin come out yit," Sam said, in a low tone. "But I +kin go in an' ast 'em." +</P> + +<P> +He stepped softly within, leaving Norbert waiting, and went to the door +of the sick-room. The door was open, the room brightly lighted, as +Eskew had commanded when, a little earlier, he awoke. +</P> + +<P> +Joe and Ariel were alone with him, leaning toward him with such white +anxiety that the colored man needed no warning to make him remain +silent in the hallway. The veteran was speaking and his voice was very +weak, seeming to come from a great distance. +</P> + +<P> +"It's mighty funny, but I feel like I used to when I was a little boy. +I reckon I'm kind of scared—after all. Airie Tabor,—are you—here?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Mr. Arp." +</P> + +<P> +"I thought—so—but I—I don't see very well—lately. +I—wanted—to—know—to know—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—to know?" She knelt close beside him. +</P> + +<P> +"It's kind of—foolish," he whispered. "I just—wanted to know if you +was still here. It—don't seem so lonesome now that I know." +</P> + +<P> +She put her arm lightly about him and he smiled and was silent for a +time. Then he struggled to rise upon his elbow, and they lifted him a +little. +</P> + +<P> +"It's hard to breathe," gasped the old man. "I'm pretty near—the big +road. Joe Louden—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes?" +</P> + +<P> +"You'd have been—willing—willing to change places with me—just +now—when Airie—" +</P> + +<P> +Joe laid his hand on his, and Eskew smiled again. "I thought so! And, +Joe—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes?" +</P> + +<P> +"You always—always had the—the best of that joke between us. Do +you—you suppose they charge admission—up there?" His eyes were +lifted. "Do you suppose you've got to—to show your good deeds to git +in?" The answering whisper was almost as faint as the old man's. +</P> + +<P> +"No," panted Eskew, "nobody knows. But I hope—I do hope—they'll have +some free seats. It's a—mighty poor show—we'll—all have—if +they—don't!" +</P> + +<P> +He sighed peacefully, his head grew heavier on Joe's arm; and the young +man set his hand gently upon the unseeing eyes. Ariel did not rise +from where she knelt, but looked up at him when, a little later, he +lifted his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Joe, "you can cry now." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap22"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XXII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MR. SHEEHAN SPEAKS +</H3> + +<P> +Joe helped to carry what was mortal of Eskew from Ariel's house to its +final abiding-place. With him, in that task, were Buckalew, Bradbury, +the Colonel, and the grandsons of the two latter, and Mrs. Louden drew +in her skirts grimly as her step-son passed her in the mournful +procession through the hall. Her eyes were red with weeping (not for +Eskew), but not so red as those of Mamie Pike, who stood beside her. +</P> + +<P> +On the way to the cemetery, Joe and Ariel were together in a carriage +with Buckalew and the minister who had read the service, a dark, +pleasant-eyed young man;—and the Squire, after being almost overcome +during the ceremony, experienced a natural reaction, talking cheerfully +throughout the long drive. He recounted many anecdotes of Eskew, +chuckling over most of them, though filled with wonder by a coincidence +which he and Flitcroft had discovered; the Colonel had recently been +made the custodian of his old friend's will, and it had been opened the +day before the funeral. Eskew had left everything he possessed—with +the regret that it was so little—to Joe. +</P> + +<P> +"But the queer thing about it," said the Squire, addressing himself to +Ariel, "was the date of it, the seventeenth of June. The Colonel and I +got to talkin' it over, out on his porch, last night, tryin' to +rec'lect what was goin' on about then, and we figgered it out that it +was the Monday after you come back, the very day he got so upset when +he saw you goin' up to Louden's law-office with your roses." +</P> + +<P> +Joe looked quickly at Ariel. She did not meet his glance, but, turning +instead to Ladew, the clergyman, began, with a barely perceptible +blush, to talk of something he had said in a sermon two weeks ago. The +two fell into a thoughtful and amiable discussion, during which there +stole into Joe's heart a strange and unreasonable pain. The young +minister had lived in Canaan only a few months, and Joe had never seen +him until that morning; but he liked the short, honest talk he had +made; liked his cadenceless voice and keen, dark face; and, recalling +what he had heard Martin Pike vociferating in his brougham one Sunday, +perceived that Ladew was the fellow who had "got to go" because his +sermons did not please the Judge. Yet Ariel remembered for more than a +fortnight a passage from one of these sermons. And as Joe looked at the +manly and intelligent face opposite him, it did not seem strange that +she should. +</P> + +<P> +He resolutely turned his eyes to the open window and saw that they had +entered the cemetery, were near the green knoll where Eskew was to lie +beside a brother who had died long ago. He let the minister help Ariel +out, going quickly forward himself with Buckalew; and then—after the +little while that the restoration of dust to dust mercifully needs—he +returned to the carriage only to get his hat. +</P> + +<P> +Ariel and Ladew and the Squire were already seated and waiting. +"Aren't you going to ride home with us?" she asked, surprised. +</P> + +<P> +"No," he explained, not looking at her. "I have to talk with Norbert +Flitcroft. I'm going back with him. Good-bye." +</P> + +<P> +His excuse was the mere truth, his conversation with Norbert, in the +carriage which they managed to secure to themselves, continuing +earnestly until Joe spoke to the driver and alighted at a corner, near +Mr. Farbach's Italian possessions. "Don't forget," he said, as he +closed the carriage door, "I've got to have both ends of the string in +my hands." +</P> + +<P> +"Forget!" Norbert looked at the cupola of the Pike Mansion, rising +above the maples down the street. "It isn't likely I'll forget!" +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +When Joe entered the "Louis Quinze room" which some decorator, drunk +with power, had mingled into the brewer's villa, he found the owner and +Mr. Sheehan, with five other men, engaged in a meritorious attempt to +tone down the apartment with smoke. Two of the five others were +prosperous owners of saloons; two were known to the public (whose +notion of what it meant when it used the term was something of the +vaguest) as politicians; the fifth was Mr. Farbach's closest friend, +one who (Joe had heard) was to be the next chairman of the city +committee of the party. They were seated about a table, enveloped in +blue clouds, and hushed to a grave and pertinent silence which +clarified immediately the circumstance that whatever debate had +preceded his arrival, it was now settled. +</P> + +<P> +Their greeting of him, however, though exceedingly quiet, indicated a +certain expectancy, as he accepted the chair which had been left for +him at the head of the table. He looked thinner and paler than usual, +which is saying a great deal; but presently, finding that the fateful +hush which his entrance had broken was immediately resumed, a twinkle +came into his eye, one of his eyebrows went up and a corner of his +mouth went down. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, gentlemen?" he said. +</P> + +<P> +The smokers continued to smoke and to do nothing else; the exception +being Mr. Sheehan, who, though he spoke not, exhibited tokens of +agitation and excitement which he curbed with difficulty; shifting +about in his chair, gnawing his cigar, crossing and uncrossing his +knees, rubbing and slapping his hands together, clearing his throat +with violence, his eyes fixed all the while, as were those of his +companions, upon Mr. Farbach; so that Joe was given to perceive that it +had been agreed that the brewer should be the spokesman. Mr. Farbach +was deliberate, that was all, which added to the effect of what he +finally did say. +</P> + +<P> +"Choe," he remarked, placidly, "you are der next Mayor off Canaan." +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you say that?" asked the young man, sharply. +</P> + +<P> +"Bickoss us here," he answered, interlocking the tips of his fingers +over his waistcoat, that being as near folding his hands as lay within +his power,—"bickoss us here shall try to fix it so, und so hef +ditcided." +</P> + +<P> +Joe took a deep breath. "Why do you want me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Dot," replied the brewer, "iss someding I shall tell you." He paused +to contemplate his cigar. "We want you bickoss you are der best man fer +dot positsion." +</P> + +<P> +"Louie, you mustn't make a mistake at the beginning," Joe said, +hurriedly. "I may not be the kind of man you're looking for. If I +went in—" He hesitated, stammering. "It seems an ungrateful thing to +say, but—but there wouldn't be any slackness—I couldn't be bound to +anybody—" +</P> + +<P> +"Holt up your hosses!" Mr. Farbach, once in his life, was so ready to +reply that he was able to interrupt. "Who hef you heert speak off +bounding? Hef I speakt off favors? Dit I say der shoult be slackness +in der city gofer'ment? Litsen to me, Choe." He renewed his +contemplation of his cigar, then proceeded: "I hef been t'inkin' it +ofer, now a couple years. I hef mate up my mind. If some peobles are +gombelt to keep der laws and oders are not, dot's a great atwantitch to +der oders. Dot iss what iss ruining der gountry und der peobles iss +commencement to take notice. Efer'veres in oder towns der iss +housecleaning; dey are reforming und indieding, und pooty soon dot +mofement comes here—shoo-er! If we intent to holt der parsly in +power, we shoult be a leetle ahead off dot mofement so, when it shoult +be here, we hef a goot 'minadstration to fall beck on. Now, dere iss +anoder brewery opened und trying to gombete mit me here in Canaan. If +dot brewery owns der Mayor, all der tsaloons buying my bier must shut +up at 'leven o'glock und Sundays, but der oders keep open. If I own +der Mayor, I make der same against dot oder brewery. Now I am pooty +sick off dot ways off bitsness und fighting all times. Also," Mr. +Farbach added, with magnificent calmness, "my trade iss larchly +owitside off Canaan, und it iss bedder dot here der laws shoult be +enforced der same fer all. Litsen, Choe; all us here beliefs der same +way. You are square. Der whole tsaloon element knows dot, und knows +dot all voult be treated der same. Mit you it voult be fairness fer +each one. Foolish peobles hef sait you are a law-tricker, but we know +dot you hef only mate der laws brotect as well as bunish. Und at such +times as dey het been broken, you hef made dem as mertsiful as you +coult. You are no tricker. We are willing to help you make it a glean +town. Odervise der fightin' voult go on until der mofement strikes here +und all der granks vake up und we git a fool reformer fer Mayor und der +town goes to der dogs. If I try to put in a man dot I own, der oder +brewery iss goin' to fight like hell, but if I work fer you it will not +fight so hart." +</P> + +<P> +"But the other people," Joe objected, "those outside of what is called +the saloon element—do you understand how many of them will be against +me?" +</P> + +<P> +"It iss der tsaloon element," Mr. Farbach returned, peacefully, "dot +does der fightin'." +</P> + +<P> +"And you have considered my standing with that part of Canaan which +considers itself the most respectable section?" He rose to his feet, +standing straight and quiet, facing the table, upon which, it chanced, +there lay a copy of the Tocsin. +</P> + +<P> +"Und yet," observed Mr. Farbach, with mildness, "we got some pooty +risbecdable men right here." +</P> + +<P> +"Except me," broke in Mr. Sheehan, grimly, "you have." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you thought of this?" Joe leaned forward and touched the paper +upon the table. +</P> + +<P> +"We hef," replied Mr. Farbach. "All of us. You shall beat it." +</P> + +<P> +There was a strong chorus of confirmation from the others, and Joe's +eyes flashed. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you considered," he continued, rapidly, while a warm color began +to conquer his pallor,—"have you considered the powerful influence +which will be against me, and more against me now, I should tell you, +than ever before? That influence, I mean, which is striving so hard to +discredit me that lynch-law has been hinted for poor Fear if I should +clear him! Have you thought of that? Have you thought—" +</P> + +<P> +"Have we thought o' Martin Pike?" exclaimed Mr. Sheehan, springing to +his feet, face aflame and beard bristling. "Ay, we've thought o' +Martin Pike, and our thinkin' of him is where he begins to git what's +comin' to him! What d'ye stand there pickin' straws fer? What's the +matter with ye?" he demanded, angrily, his violence tenfold increased +by the long repression he had put upon himself during the brewer's +deliberate utterances. "If Louie Farbach and his crowd says they're fer +ye, I guess ye've got a chanst, haven't ye?" +</P> + +<P> +"Wait," said Joe. "I think you underestimate Pike's influence—" +</P> + +<P> +"Underestimate the devil!" shouted Mr. Sheehan, uncontrollably excited. +"You talk about influence! He's been the worst influence this town's +ever had—and his tracks covered up in the dark wherever he set his +ugly foot down. These men know it, and you know some, but not the +worst of it, because none of ye live as deep down in it as I do! Ye +want to make a clean town of it, ye want to make a little heaven of the +Beach—" +</P> + +<P> +"And in the eyes of Judge Pike," Joe cut him off, "and of all who take +their opinions from him, I REPRESENT Beaver Beach!" +</P> + +<P> +Mike Sheehan gave a wild shout. "Whooroo! It's come! I knowed it +would! The day I couldn't hold my tongue, though I passed my word I +would when the coward showed the deed he didn't dare to git recorded! +Waugh!" He shouted again, with bitter laughter. "Ye do! In the eyes +o' them as follow Martin Pike ye stand fer the Beach and all its +wickedness, do ye? Whooroo! It's come! Ye're an offence in the eyes +o' Martin Pike and all his kind because ye stand fer the Beach, are ye?" +</P> + +<P> +"You know it!" Joe answered, sharply. "If they could wipe the Beach +off the map and me with it—" +</P> + +<P> +"Martin Pike would?" shouted Mr. Sheehan, while the others, +open-mouthed, stared at him. "Martin Pike would?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't need to tell you that," said Joe. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Sheehan's big fist rose high over the table and descended crashing +upon it. "It's a damn lie!" he roared. "Martin Pike owns Beaver +Beach!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap23"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XXIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +JOE WALKS ACROSS THE COURT-HOUSE YARD +</H3> + +<P> +From within the glossy old walnut bar that ran from wall to wall, the +eyes of the lawyers and reporters wandered often to Ariel as she sat in +the packed court-room watching Louden's fight for the life and liberty +of Happy Fear. She had always three escorts, and though she did not +miss a session, and the same three never failed to attend her, no +whisper of scandal arose. But not upon them did the glances of the +members of the bar and the journalists with tender frequency linger; +nor were the younger members of these two professions all who gazed +that way. Joe had fought out the selection of the jury with the +prosecutor at great length and with infinite pains; it was not a young +jury, and IT stared at her. The "Court" wore a gray beard with which a +flock of sparrows might have villaged a grove, and yet, in spite of the +vital necessity for watchfulness over this fighting case, IT once +needed to be stirred from a trancelike gaze in Miss Tabor's direction +and aroused to the realization that It was there to Sit and not to +dream. +</P> + +<P> +The August air was warm outside the windows, inviting to the open +country, to swimmin'-hole, to orchard reveries, or shaded pool wherein +to drop a meditative line; you would have thought no one could +willingly coop himself in this hot room for three hours, twice a day, +while lawyers wrangled, often unintelligibly, over the life of a dingy +little creature like Happy Fear, yet the struggle to swelter there was +almost like a riot, and the bailiffs were busy men. +</P> + +<P> +It was a fighting case throughout, fought to a finish on each tiny +point as it came up, dragging, in the mere matter of time, +interminably, yet the people of Canaan (not only those who succeeded in +penetrating to the court-room, but the others who hung about the +corridors, or outside the building, and the great mass of stay-at-homes +who read the story in the Tocsin) found each moment of it enthralling +enough. The State's attorney, fearful of losing so notorious a case, +and not underestimating his opponent, had modestly summoned others to +his aid; and the attorney for the defence, single-handed, faced "an +array of legal talent such as seldom indeed had hollered at this bar"; +faced it good-naturedly, an eyebrow crooked up and his head on one +side, most of the time, yet faced it indomitably. He had a certain +careless and disarming smile when he lost a point, which carried off +the defeat as of only humorous account and not at all part of the +serious business in hand; and in his treatment of witnesses, he was +plausible, kindly, knowing that in this case he had no intending +perjurer to entrap; brought into play the rare and delicate art of +which he was a master, employing in his questions subtle suggestions +and shadings of tone and manner, and avoiding words of debatable and +dangerous meanings;—a fine craft, often attempted by blunderers to +their own undoing, but which, practised by Joseph Louden, made +inarticulate witnesses articulate to the precise effects which he +desired. This he accomplished as much by the help of the continuous +fire of objections from the other side as in spite of them. He was +infinitely careful, asking never an ill-advised question for the other +side to use to his hurt, and, though exhibiting only a pleasant +easiness of manner, was electrically alert. +</P> + +<P> +A hundred things had shown Ariel that the feeling of the place, +influenced by "public sentiment" without, was subtly and profoundly +hostile to Joe and his client; she read this in the spectators, in the +jury, even in the Judge; but it seemed to her that day by day the +inimical spirit gradually failed, inside the railing, and also in those +spectators who, like herself, were enabled by special favor to be +present throughout the trial, and that now and then a kindlier +sentiment began to be manifested. She was unaware how strongly she +contributed to effect this herself, not only through the glow of +visible sympathy which radiated from her, but by a particular action. +Claudine was called by the State, and told as much of her story as the +law permitted her to tell, interlarding her replies with fervent +protestations (too quick to be prevented) that she "never meant to +bring no trouble to Mr. Fear" and that she "did hate to have gen'lemen +starting things on her account." When the defence took this perturbed +witness, her interpolations became less frequent, and she described +straightforwardly how she had found the pistol on the floor near the +prostrate figure of Cory, and hidden it in her own dress. The +attorneys for the State listened with a somewhat cynical amusement to +this portion of her testimony, believing it of no account, +uncorroborated, and that if necessary the State could impeach the +witness on the ground that it had been indispensable to produce her. +She came down weeping from the stand; and, the next witness not being +immediately called, the eyes of the jurymen naturally followed her as +she passed to her seat, and they saw Ariel Tabor bow gravely to her +across the railing. Now, a thousand things not set forth by +legislatures, law-men and judges affect a jury, and the slight +salutation caused the members of this one to glance at one another; for +it seemed to imply that the exquisite lady in white not only knew +Claudine, but knew that she had spoken the truth. It was after this, +that a feeling favorable to the defence now and then noticeably +manifested itself in the courtroom. Still, when the evidence for the +State was all in, the life of Happy Fear seemed to rest in a balance +precarious indeed, and the little man, swallowing pitifully, looked at +his attorney with the eyes of a sick dog. +</P> + +<P> +Then Joe gave the prosecutors an illuminating and stunning surprise, +and, having offered in evidence the revolver found upon Claudine, +produced as his first witness a pawnbroker of Denver, who identified +the weapon as one he had sold to Cory, whom he had known very well. +The second witness, also a stranger, had been even more intimately +acquainted with the dead man, and there began to be an uneasy +comprehension of what Joe had accomplished during that prolonged +absence of his which had so nearly cost the life of the little mongrel, +who was at present (most blissful Respectability!) a lively +convalescent in Ariel's back yard. The second witness also identified +the revolver, testifying that he had borrowed it from Cory in St. Louis +to settle a question of marksmanship, and that on his returning it to +the owner, the latter, then working his way eastward, had confided to +him his intention of stopping in Canaan for the purpose of exercising +its melancholy functions upon a man who had once "done him good" in +that city. +</P> + +<P> +By the time the witness had reached this point, the Prosecutor and his +assistants were on their feet, excitedly shouting objections, which +were promptly overruled. Taken unawares, they fought for time; thunder +was loosed, forensic bellowings; everybody lost his temper—except Joe; +and the examination of the witness proceeded. Cory, with that singular +inspiration to confide in some one, which is the characteristic and the +undoing of his kind, had outlined his plan of operations to the witness +with perfect clarity. He would first attempt, so he had declared, to +incite an attack upon himself by playing upon the jealousy of his +victim, having already made a tentative effort in that direction. +Failing in this, he would fall back upon one of a dozen schemes (for he +was ready in such matters, he bragged), the most likely of which would +be to play the peacemaker; he would talk of his good intentions toward +his enemy, speaking publicly of him in friendly and gentle ways; then, +getting at him secretly, destroy him in such a fashion as to leave open +for himself the kind gate of self-defence. In brief, here was the +whole tally of what had actually occurred, with the exception of the +last account in the sequence which had proved that demise for which +Cory had not arranged and it fell from the lips of a witness whom the +prosecution had no means of impeaching. When he left the stand, +unshaken and undiscredited, after a frantic cross-examination, Joe, +turning to resume his seat, let his hand fall lightly for a second upon +his client's shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +That was the occasion of a demonstration which indicated a sentiment +favorable to the defence (on the part of at least three of the +spectators); and it was in the nature of such a hammering of canes upon +the bare wooden floor as effectually stopped all other proceedings +instantly. The indignant Judge fixed the Colonel, Peter Bradbury, and +Squire Buckalew with his glittering eye, yet the hammering continued +unabated; and the offenders surely would have been conducted forth in +ignominy, had not gallantry prevailed, even in that formal place. The +Judge, reluctantly realizing that some latitude must be allowed to +these aged enthusiasts, since they somehow seemed to belong to Miss +Tabor, made his remarks general, with the time-worn threat to clear the +room, whereupon the loyal survivors of Eskew relapsed into unabashed +silence. +</P> + +<P> +It was now, as Joe had said, a clear-enough case. Only the case itself, +however, was clear, for, as he and his friends feared, the verdict +might possibly be neither in accordance with the law, the facts, nor +the convictions of the jury. Eugene's defection had not altered the +tone of the Tocsin. +</P> + +<P> +All day long a crowd of men and boys hung about the corridors of the +Court-house, about the Square and the neighboring streets, and from +these rose sombre murmurs, more and more ominous. The public sentiment +of a community like Canaan can make itself felt inside a court-room; +and it was strongly exerted against Happy Fear. The Tocsin had always +been a powerful agent; Judge Pike had increased its strength with a +staff which was thoroughly efficient, alert, and always able to strike +centre with the paper's readers; and in town and country it had +absorbed the circulation of the other local journals, which resisted +feebly at times, but in the matter of the Cory murder had not dared to +do anything except follow the Tocsin's lead. The Tocsin, having lit +the fire, fed it—fed it saltpetre and sulphur—for now Martin Pike was +fighting hard. +</P> + +<P> +The farmers and people of the less urban parts of the country were +accustomed to found their opinions upon the Tocsin. They regarded it +as the single immutable rock of journalistic righteousness and wisdom +in the world. Consequently, stirred by the outbursts of the paper, +they came into Canaan in great numbers, and though the pressure from +the town itself was so strong that only a few of them managed to crowd +into the court-room, the others joined their voices to those sombre +murmurs outdoors, which increased in loudness as the trial went on. +</P> + +<P> +The Tocsin, however, was not having everything its own way; the volume +of outcry against Happy Fear and his lawyer had diminished, it was +noticed, in "very respectable quarters." The information imparted by +Mike Sheehan to the politicians at Mr. Farbach's had been slowly +seeping through the various social strata of the town, and though at +first incredulously rejected, it began to find acceptance; Upper Main +Street cooling appreciably in its acceptance of the Tocsin as the law +and the prophets. There were even a few who dared to wonder in their +hearts if there had not been a mistake about Joe Louden; and although +Mrs. Flitcroft weakened not, the relatives of Squire Buckalew and of +Peter Bradbury began to hold up their heads a little, after having made +home horrible for those gentlemen and reproached them with their +conversion as the last word of senile shame. In addition, the +Colonel's grandson and Mr. Bradbury's grandson had both mystifyingly +lent countenance to Joe, consorting with him openly; the former for his +own purposes—the latter because he had cunningly discovered that it +was a way to Miss Tabor's regard, which, since her gentle rejection of +him, he had grown to believe (good youth!) might be the pleasantest +thing that could ever come to him. In short, the question had begun to +thrive: Was it possible that Eskew Arp had not been insane, after all? +</P> + +<P> +The best of those who gathered ominously about the Court-house and its +purlieus were the young farmers and field-hands, artisans and clerks; +one of the latter being a pimply faced young man (lately from the +doctor's hands), who limped, and would limp for the rest of his life, +he who, of all men, held the memory of Eskew Arp in least respect, and +was burningly desirous to revenge himself upon the living. +</P> + +<P> +The worst were of that mystifying, embryonic, semi-rowdy type, the +American voyou, in the production of which Canaan and her sister towns +everywhere over the country are prolific; the young man, youth, boy +perhaps, creature of nameless age, whose clothes are like those of a +brakeman out of work, but who is not a brakeman in or out of work; +wearing the black, soft hat tilted forward to shelter—as a counter +does the contempt of a clerk—that expression which the face does not +dare wear quite in the open, asserting the possession of supreme +capacity in wit, strength, dexterity, and amours; the dirty +handkerchief under the collar; the short black coat always +double-breasted; the eyelids sooty; one cheek always bulged; the +forehead speckled; the lips cracked; horrible teeth; and the +affectation of possessing secret information upon all matters of the +universe; above all, the instinct of finding the shortest way to any +scene of official interest to the policeman, fireman, or ambulance +surgeon,—a singular being, not professionally criminal; tough +histrionically rather than really; full of its own argot of brag; +hysterical when crossed, timid through great ignorance, and therefore +dangerous. It furnishes not the leaders but the mass of mobs; and it +springs up at times of crisis from Heaven knows where. You might have +driven through all the streets of Canaan, a week before the trial, and +have seen four or five such fellows; but from the day of its beginning +the Square was full of them, dingy shuttlecocks batted up into view by +the Tocsin. +</P> + +<P> +They kept the air whirring with their noise. The news of that sitting +which had caused the Squire, Flitcroft, and Peter Bradbury to risk the +Court's displeasure, was greeted outside with loud and vehement +disfavor; and when, at noon, the jurymen were marshalled out to cross +the yard to the "National House" for dinner, a large crowd followed and +surrounded them, until they reached the doors of the hotel. "Don't let +Lawyer Louden bamboozle you!" "Hang him!" "Tar and feathers fer ye ef +ye don't hang him!" These were the mildest threats, and Joe Louden, +watching from an upper window of the Court-house, observed with a +troubled eye how certain of the jury shrank from the pressure of the +throng, how the cheeks of others showed sudden pallor. Sometimes +"public sentiment" has done evil things to those who have not shared +it; and Joe knew how rare a thing is a jury which dares to stand square +against a town like Canaan aroused. +</P> + +<P> +The end of that afternoon's session saw another point marked for the +defence; Joe had put the defendant on the stand, and the little man had +proved an excellent witness. During his life he had been many +things—many things disreputable; high standards were not brightly +illumined for him in the beginning of the night-march which his life +had been. He had been a tramp, afterward a petty gambler; but his +great motive had finally come to be the intention to do what Joe told +him to do: that, and to keep Claudine as straight as he could. In a +measure, these were the two things that had brought him to the pass in +which he now stood, his loyalty to Joe and his resentment of whatever +tampered with Claudine's straightness. He was submissive to the +consequences: he was still loyal. And now Joe asked him to tell "just +what happened," and Happy obeyed with crystal clearness. Throughout +the long, tricky cross-examination he continued to tell "just what +happened" with a plaintive truthfulness not to be imitated, and +throughout it Joe guarded him from pitfalls (for lawyers in their +search after truth are compelled by the exigencies of their profession +to make pitfalls even for the honest), and gave him, by various +devices, time to remember, though not to think, and made the words +"come right" in his mouth. So that before the sitting was over, a +disquieting rumor ran through the waiting crowd in the corridors, +across the Square, and over the town, that the case was surely going +"Louden's way." This was also the opinion of a looker-on in Canaan—a +ferret-faced counsellor of corporations who, called to consultation +with the eminent Buckalew (nephew of the Squire), had afterward spent +an hour in his company at the trial. "It's going that young fellow +Louden's way," said the stranger. "You say he's a shyster, but—" +</P> + +<P> +"Well," admitted Buckalew, with some reluctance, "I don't mean that +exactly. I've got an old uncle who seems lately to think he's a great +man." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll take your uncle's word for it," returned the other, smiling. "I +think he'll go pretty far." +</P> + +<P> +They had come to the flight of steps which descended to the yard,—and +the visitor, looking down upon the angry crowd, added, "If they don't +kill him!" +</P> + +<P> +Joe himself was anxious concerning no such matter. He shook hands with +Happy at the end of the sitting, bidding him be of good cheer, and, +when the little man had marched away, under a strong guard, began to +gather and sort his papers at a desk inside the bar. This took him +perhaps five minutes, and when he had finished there were only three +people left in the room: a clerk, a negro janitor with a broom, and the +darky friend who always hopefully accompanies a colored man holding +high public office. These two approvingly greeted the young lawyer, +the janitor handing him a note from Norbert Flitcroft, and the friend +mechanically "borrowing" a quarter from him as he opened the envelope. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll be roun' yo' way to git a box o' SE-gahs," laughed the friend, +"soon ez de campaign open up good. Dey all goin' vote yo' way, down on +the levee bank, but dey sho' expecks to git to smoke a little 'fo' +leckshun-day! We knows who's OW frien'!" +</P> + +<P> +Norbert's missive was lengthy and absorbing; Joe went on his way, +perusing it with profound attention; but as he descended the stairway +to the floor below, a loud burst of angry shouting, outside the +building, caused him to hasten toward the big front doors which faced +Main Street. The doors opened upon an imposing vestibule, from which a +handsome flight of stone steps, protected by a marble balustrade, led +to the ground. +</P> + +<P> +Standing at the top of these steps and leaning over the balustrade, he +had a clear view of half the yard. No one was near him; everybody was +running in the opposite direction, toward that corner of the yard +occupied by the jail, the crowd centring upon an agitated whirlpool of +men which moved slowly toward a door in the high wall that enclosed the +building; and Joe saw that Happy Fear's guards, conducting the prisoner +back to his cell, were being jostled and rushed. The distance they had +made was short, but as they reached the door the pressure upon them +increased dangerously. Clubs rose in the air, hats flew, the whirlpool +heaved tumultuously, and the steel door clanged. +</P> + +<P> +Happy Fear was safe inside, but the jostlers were outside—baffled, +ugly, and stirred with the passion that changes a crowd into a mob. +</P> + +<P> +Then some of them caught sight of Joe as he stood alone at the top of +the steps, and a great shout of rage and exultation arose. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment or two he did not see his danger. At the clang of the +door, his eyes, caught by the gleam of a wide white hat, had turned +toward the street, and he was somewhat fixedly watching Mr. Ladew +extricate Ariel (and her aged and indignant escorts) from an overflow +of the crowd in which they had been caught. But a voice warned him: +the wild piping of a newsboy who had climbed into a tree near by. +</P> + +<P> +"JOE LOUDEN!" he screamed. "LOOK OUT!" +</P> + +<P> +With a muffled roar the crowd surged back from the jail and turned +toward the steps. "Tar and feather him!" "Take him over to the river +and throw him in!" "Drown him!" "Hang him!" +</P> + +<P> +Then a thing happened which was dramatic enough in its inception, but +almost ludicrous in its effect. Joe walked quietly down the steps and +toward the advancing mob with his head cocked to one side, one eyebrow +lifted, and one corner of his mouth drawn down in a faintly distorted +smile. +</P> + +<P> +He went straight toward the yelling forerunners, with only a small +bundle of papers in his hands, and then—while the non-partisan +spectators held their breath, expecting the shock of contact—straight +on through them. +</P> + +<P> +A number of the bulge-cheeked formed the scattering van of these +forerunners, charging with hoarse and cruel shrieks of triumph. The +first, apparently about to tear Joseph Louden to pieces, changed +countenance at arm's-length, swerved violently, and with the loud cry, +"HEAD HIM OFF!" dashed on up the stone steps. The man next behind him +followed his lead, with the same shout, strategy, and haste; then the +others of this advance attack, finding themselves confronting the quiet +man, who kept his even pace and showed no intention of turning aside +for them, turned suddenly aside for HIM, and, taking the cue from the +first, pursued their way, bellowing: "HEAD HIM OFF! HEAD HIM OFF!" +until there were a dozen and more rowdyish men and youths upon the +steps, their eyes blazing with fury, menacing Louden's back with +frightful gestures across the marble balustrade, as they hysterically +bleated the chorus, "HEAD HIM OFF!" +</P> + +<P> +Whether or not Joe could have walked through the entire mob as he had +walked through these is a matter for speculation; it was believed in +Canaan that he could. Already a gust of mirth began to sweep over the +sterner spirits as they paused to marvel no less at the disconcerting +advance of the lawyer than at the spectacle presented by the intrepid +dare-devils upon the steps; a kind of lane actually opening before the +young man as he walked steadily on. And when Mr. Sheehan, leading half +a dozen huge men from the Farbach brewery, unceremoniously shouldered a +way through the mob to Joe's side, reaching him where the press was +thickest, it is a question if the services of his detachment were +needed. +</P> + +<P> +The laughter increased. It became voluminous. Homeric salvos shook the +air. And never one of the fire-eaters upon the steps lived long enough +to live down the hateful cry of that day, "HEAD HIM OFF!" which was to +become a catch-word on the streets, a taunt more stinging than any +devised by deliberate invention, an insult bitterer than the ancestral +doubt, a fighting-word, and the great historical joke of Canaan, never +omitted in after-days when the tale was told how Joe Louden took that +short walk across the Court-house yard which made him Mayor of Canaan. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap24"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XXIV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MARTIN PIKE KEEPS AN ENGAGEMENT +</H3> + +<P> +An hour later, Martin Pike, looking forth from the Mansion, saw a man +open the gate, and, passing between the unemotional deer, rapidly +approach the house. He was a thin young fellow, very well dressed in +dark gray, his hair prematurely somewhat silvered, his face prematurely +somewhat lined, and his hat covered a scar such as might have been +caused by a blow from a blunt instrument in the nature of a poker. +</P> + +<P> +He did not reach the door, nor was there necessity for him to ring, +for, before he had set foot on the lowest step, the Judge had hastened +to meet him. Not, however, with any fulsomely hospitable intent; his +hand and arm were raised to execute one of his Olympian gestures, of +the kind which had obliterated the young man upon a certain by-gone +morning. +</P> + +<P> +Louden looked up calmly at the big figure towering above him. +</P> + +<P> +"It won't do, Judge," he said; that was all, but there was a +significance in his manner and a certainty in his voice which caused +the uplifted hand to drop limply; while the look of apprehension which +of late had grown more and more to be Martin Pike's habitual expression +deepened into something close upon mortal anxiety. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you any business to set foot upon my property?" he demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," answered Joe. "That's why I came." +</P> + +<P> +"What business have you got with me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Enough to satisfy you, I think. But there's one thing I don't want to +do"—Joe glanced at the open door—"and that is to talk about it +here—for your own sake and because I think Miss Tabor should be +present. I called to ask you to come to her house at eight o'clock +to-night." +</P> + +<P> +"You did!" Martin Pike spoke angrily, but not in the bull-bass of yore; +and he kept his voice down, glancing about him nervously as though he +feared that his wife or Mamie might hear. "My accounts with her estate +are closed," he said, harshly. "If she wants anything, let her come +here." +</P> + +<P> +Joe shook his head. "No. You must be there at eight o'clock." +</P> + +<P> +The Judge's choler got the better of his uneasiness. "You're a pretty +one to come ordering me around!" he broke out. "You slanderer, do you +suppose I haven't heard how you're going about traducing me, +undermining my character in this community, spreading scandals that I +am the real owner of Beaver Beach—" +</P> + +<P> +"It can easily be proved, Judge," Joe interrupted, quietly, "though +you're wrong: I haven't been telling people. I haven't needed to—even +if I'd wished. Once a thing like that gets out you can't stop +it—ever! That isn't all: to my knowledge you own other property worse +than the Beach; I know that you own half of the worst dens in the town: +profitable investments, too. You bought them very gradually and +craftily, only showing the deeds to those in charge—as you did to Mike +Sheehan, and not recording them. Sheehan's betrayal of you gave me the +key; I know most of the poor creatures who are your tenants, too, you +see, and that gave me an advantage because they have some confidence in +me. My investigations have been almost as quiet and careful as your +purchases." +</P> + +<P> +"You damned blackmailer!" The Judge bent upon him a fierce, inquiring +scrutiny in which, oddly enough, there was a kind of haggard +hopefulness. "And out of such stories," he sneered, "you are going to +try to make political capital against the Tocsin, are you?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Joe. "It was necessary in the interests of my client for me +to know pretty thoroughly just what property you own, and I think I do. +These pieces I've mentioned are about all you have not mortgaged. You +couldn't do that without exposure, and you've kept a controlling +interest in the Tocsin clear, too—for the sake of its influence, I +suppose. Now, do you want to hear any more, or will you agree to meet +me at Miss Tabor's this evening?" +</P> + +<P> +Whatever the look of hopefulness had signified, it fled from Pike's +face during this speech, but he asked with some show of contempt, "Do +you think it likely?" +</P> + +<P> +"Very well," said Joe, "if you want me to speak here." And he came a +little closer to him. "You bought a big block of Granger Gas for Roger +Tabor," he began, in a low voice. "Before his death you sold +everything he had, except the old house, put it all into cash for him, +and bought that stock; you signed the check as his attorney-in-fact, +and it came back to you through the Washington National, where Norbert +Flitcroft handled it. He has a good memory, and when he told me what +he knew, I had him to do some tracing; did a little myself, also. +Judge Pike, I must tell you that you stand in danger of the law. You +were the custodian of that stock for Roger Tabor; it was transferred in +blank; though I think you meant to be 'legal' at that time, and that +was merely for convenience in case Roger had wished you to sell it for +him. But just after his death you found yourself saddled with +distillery stock, which was going bad on your hands. Other +speculations of yours were failing at the same time; you had to have +money—you filed your report as administrator, crediting Miss Tabor +with your own stock which you knew was going to the wall, and +transferred hers to yourself. Then you sold it because you needed +ready money. You used her fortune to save yourself—but you were +horribly afraid! No matter how rotten your transactions had been, you +had always kept inside the law; and now that you had gone outside of +it, you were frightened. You didn't dare come flat out to Miss Tabor +with the statement that her fortune had gone; it had been in your +charge all the time and things might look ugly. So you put it off, +perhaps from day to day. You didn't dare tell her until you were +forced to, and to avoid the confession you sent her the income which +was rightfully hers. That was your great weakness." +</P> + +<P> +Joe had spoken with great rapidity, though keeping his voice low, and +he lowered it again, as he continued: "Judge Pike, what chance have +you to be believed in court when you swear that you sent her twenty +thousand dollars out of the goodness of your heart? Do you think SHE +believed you? It was the very proof to her that you had robbed her. +For she knew you! Do you want to hear more now? Do you think this is +a good place for it? Do you wish me to go over the details of each +step I have taken against you, to land you at the bar where this poor +fellow your paper is hounding stands to-day?" +</P> + +<P> +The Judge essayed to answer, and could not. He lifted his hand +uncertainly and dropped it, while a thick dew gathered on his temples. +Inarticulate sounds came from between his teeth. +</P> + +<P> +"You will come?" said Joe. +</P> + +<P> +Martin Pike bent his head dazedly; and at that the other turned quickly +from him and went away without looking back. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Ariel was in the studio, half an hour later, when Joe was announced by +the smiling Mr. Warden. Ladew was with her, though upon the point of +taking his leave, and Joe marked (with a sinking heart) that the young +minister's cheeks were flushed and his eyes very bright. +</P> + +<P> +"It was a magnificent thing you did, Mr. Louden," he said, offering his +hand heartily; "I saw it, and it was even finer in one way than it was +plucky. It somehow straightened things out with such perfect good +nature; it made those people feel that what they were doing was +ridiculous." +</P> + +<P> +"So it was," said Joe. +</P> + +<P> +"Few, under the circumstances, could have acted as if they thought so! +And I hope you'll let me call upon you, Mr. Louden." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope you will," he answered; and then, when the minister had +departed, stood looking after him with sad eyes, in which there dwelt +obscure meditations. Ladew's word of farewell had covered a deep look +at Ariel, which was not to be mistaken by Joseph Louden for anything +other than what it was: the clergyman's secret was an open one, and Joe +saw that he was as frank and manly in love as in all other things. +"He's a good fellow," he said at last, sighing. "A good man." +</P> + +<P> +Ariel agreed. "And he said more to me than he did to you." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I think it probable," Joe smiled sorrowfully. +</P> + +<P> +"About YOU, I mean." He had time to fear that her look admitted +confusion before she proceeded: "He said he had never seen anything so +fine as your coming down those steps. Ah, he was right! But it was +harder for me to watch you, I think, than for you to do it, Joe. I was +so horribly afraid—and the crowd between us—if we could have got near +you—but we couldn't—we—" +</P> + +<P> +She faltered, and pressed her hand close upon her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"We?" asked Joe, slowly. "You mean you and Mr. Ladew?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, he was there; but I mean"—her voice ran into a little laugh with +a beatific quaver in it—"I mean Colonel Flitcroft and Mr. Bradbury and +Mr. Buckalew, too—we were hemmed in together when Mr. Ladew found +us—and, oh, Joe, when that cowardly rush started toward you, those +three—I've heard wonderful things in Paris and Naples, cabmen +quarrelling and disappointed beggars—but never anything like them +to-day—" +</P> + +<P> +"You mean they were profane?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, magnificently—and with such inventiveness! All three begged my +pardon afterwards. I didn't grant it—I blessed them!" +</P> + +<P> +"Did they beg Mr. Ladew's pardon?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, Joe!" she reproached him. "He isn't a prig. And he's had to +fight some things that you of all men ought to understand. He's only +been here a few months, but he told me that Judge Pike has been against +him from the start. It seems that Mr. Ladew is too liberal in his +views. And he told me that if it were not for Judge Pike's losing +influence in the church on account of the Beaver Beach story, the Judge +would probably have been able to force him to resign; but now he will +stay." +</P> + +<P> +"He wishes to stay, doesn't he?" +</P> + +<P> +"Very much, I think. And, Joe," she continued, thoughtfully, "I want +you to do something for me. I want you to go to church with me next +Sunday." +</P> + +<P> +"To hear Mr. Ladew?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. I wouldn't ask except for that." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well," he consented, with averted eyes. "I'll go." +</P> + +<P> +Her face was radiant with the smile she gave him. "It will make me +very happy," she said. +</P> + +<P> +He bent his head and fumbled over some papers he had taken from his +pocket. "Will you listen to these memoranda? We have a great deal to +go over before eight o'clock." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Judge Pike stood for a long while where Joe had left him, staring out +at the street, apparently. Really he saw nothing. Undoubtedly an image +of blurring foliage, cast-iron, cement, and turf, with sunshine smeared +over all, flickered upon the retinas of his eyes; but the brain did not +accept the picture from the optic nerve. Martin Pike was busy with +other visions. Joe Louden had followed him back to his hidden deeds +and had read them aloud to him as Gabriel would read them on +Judgment-day. Perhaps THIS was the Judgment-day. +</P> + +<P> +Pike had taken charge of Roger Tabor's affairs because the commissions +as agent were not too inconsiderable to be neglected. To make the task +simpler, he had sold, as time went on, the various properties of the +estate, gradually converting all of them into cash. Then, the +opportunity offering, he bought a stock which paid excellent dividends, +had it transferred in blank, because if it should prove to Roger's +advantage to sell it, his agent could do so without any formal delays +between Paris and Canaan. At least, that is what the Judge had told +himself at the time, though it may be that some lurking whisperer in +his soul had hinted that it might be well to preserve the great amount +of cash in hand, and Roger's stock was practically that. Then came the +evil days. Laboriously, he had built up a name for conservatism which +most of the town accepted, but secretly he had always been a gambler: +Wall Street was his goal; to adventure there, as one of the great +single-eyed Cyclopean man-eaters, his fond ambition; and he had +conceived the distillery trust as a means to attain it; but the +structure tumbled about his ears; other edifices of his crumbled at the +same time; he found himself beset, his solvency endangered, and there +was the Tabor stock, quite as good as gold; Roger had just died, and it +was enough to save him.—Save? That was a strange way to be +remembering it to-day, when Fate grinned at him out of a dreadful mask +contorted like the face of Norbert Flitcroft. +</P> + +<P> +Martin Pike knew himself for a fool. What chance had he, though he +destroyed the check a thousand times over, to escape the records by +which the coil of modern trade duplicates and quadruplicates each slip +of scribbled paper? What chance had he against the memories of men? +Would the man of whom he had bought, forget that the check was signed +by Roger's agent? Had the bank-clerk forgotten? Thrice fool, Martin +Pike, to dream that in a town like Canaan, Norbert or any of his kind +could touch an order for so great a sum and forget it! But Martin Pike +had not dreamed that; had dreamed nothing. When failure confronted him +his mind refused to consider anything but his vital need at the time, +and he had supplied that need. And now he grew busy with the future: +he saw first the civil suit for restitution, pressed with the ferocity +and cunning of one who intended to satisfy a grudge of years; then, +perhaps, a criminal prosecution.... But he would fight it! Did they +think that such a man was to be overthrown by a breath of air? By a +girl, a bank-clerk, and a shyster lawyer? They would find their case +difficult to prove in court. He did not believe they COULD prove it. +They would be discredited for the attempt upon him and he would win +clear; these Beaver Beach scandals would die of inertia presently; +there would be a lucky trick in wheat, and Martin Pike would be Martin +Pike once more; reinstated, dictator of church, politics, business; all +those things which were the breath of his life restored. He would show +this pitiful pack what manner of man they hounded! Norbert +Flitcroft.... +</P> + +<P> +The Judge put his big hand up to his eyes and rubbed them. Curious +mechanisms the eyes.... That deer in line with the vision—not a zebra? +A zebra after all these years? And yet ... curious, indeed, the eyes! +... a zebra.... Who ever heard of a deer with stripes? The big hand +rose from the eyes and ran through the hair which he had always worn +rather long. It would seem strange to have it cut very short.... Did +they use clippers, perhaps? ... +</P> + +<P> +He started suddenly and realized that his next-door neighbor had passed +along the sidewalk with head averted, pretending not to see him. A few +weeks ago the man would not have missed the chance of looking in to +bow—with proper deference, too! Did he know? He could not know THIS! +It must be the Beaver Beach scandal. It must be. It could not be +THIS—not yet! But it MIGHT be. How many knew? Louden, Norbert, +Ariel—who else? And again the deer took on the strange zebra look. +</P> + +<P> +The Judge walked slowly down to the gate; spoke to the man he had +employed in Sam Warden's place, a Scotchman who had begun to refresh +the lawn with a garden hose; bowed affably in response to the +salutation of the elder Louden, who was passing, bound homeward from +the factory, and returned to the house with thoughtful steps. In the +hall he encountered his wife; stopped to speak with her upon various +household matters; then entered the library, which was his workroom. +He locked the door; tried it, and shook the handle. After satisfying +himself of its security, he pulled down the window-shades carefully, +and, lighting a gas drop-lamp upon his desk, began to fumble with +various documents, which he took from a small safe near by. But his +hands were not steady; he dropped the papers, scattering them over the +floor, and had great difficulty in picking them up. He perspired +heavily: whatever he touched became damp, and he continually mopped his +forehead with his sleeve. After a time he gave up the attempt to sort +the packets of papers; sank into a chair despairingly, leaving most of +them in disorder. A light tap sounded on the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Martin, it's supper-time." +</P> + +<P> +With a great effort he made shift to answer: "Yes, I know. You and +Mamie go ahead. I'm too busy to-night. I don't want anything." +</P> + +<P> +A moment before, he had been a pitiful figure, face distraught, hands +incoherent, the whole body incoordinate, but if eyes might have rested +upon him as he answered his wife they would have seen a strange thing; +he sat, apparently steady and collected, his expression cool, his body +quiet, poised exactly to the quality of his reply, for the same strange +reason that a young girl smiles archly and coquettes to a telephone. +</P> + +<P> +"But, Martin, you oughtn't to work so hard. You'll break down—" +</P> + +<P> +"No fear of that," he replied, cheerfully. "You can leave something on +the sideboard for me." +</P> + +<P> +After another fluttering remonstrance, she went away, and the room was +silent again. His arms rested upon the desk, and his head slowly sank +between his elbows. When he lifted it again the clock on the +mantel-piece had tinkled once. It was half-past seven. He took a +sheet of note-paper from a box before him and began to write, but when +he had finished the words, "My dear wife and Mamie," his fingers shook +so violently that he could go no further. He placed his left hand over +the back of his right to steady it, but found the device unavailing: +the pen left mere zigzags on the page, and he dropped it. +</P> + +<P> +He opened a lower drawer of the desk and took out of it a pistol; rose, +went to the door, tried it once more, and again was satisfied of his +seclusion. Then he took the weapon in both hands, the handle against +his fingers, one thumb against the trigger, and, shaking with nausea, +lifted it to the level of his eyes. His will betrayed him; he could +not contract his thumb upon the trigger, and, with a convulsive shiver, +he dropped the revolver upon the desk. +</P> + +<P> +He locked the door of the room behind him, crept down the stairs and +out of the front-door. He walked shamblingly, when he reached the +street, keeping close to the fences as he went on, now and then +touching the pickets with his hands like a feeble old man. +</P> + +<P> +He had always been prompt; it was one of the things of which he had +been proud: in all his life he had never failed to keep a business +engagement precisely upon the appointed time, and the Court-house bell +clanged eight when Sam Warden opened the door for his old employer +to-night. +</P> + +<P> +The two young people looked up gravely from the script-laden table +before them as Martin Pike came into the strong lamplight out of the +dimness of the hall, where only a taper burned. He shambled a few limp +steps into the room and came to a halt. Big as he was, his clothes +hung upon him loosely, like coverlets upon a collapsed bed; and he +seemed but a distorted image of himself, as if (save for the dull and +reddened eyes) he had been made of yellowish wax and had been left too +long in the sun. Abject, hopeless, his attitude a confession of ruin +and shame, he stood before his judges in such wretchedness that, in +comparison, the figure of Happy Fear, facing the court-room through his +darkest hour, was one to be envied. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," he said, brokenly, "what are you going to do?" +</P> + +<P> +Joe Louden looked at him with great intentness for several moments. +Then he rose and came forward. "Sit down, Judge," he said. "It's all +right. Don't worry." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap25"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XXV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE JURY COMES IN +</H3> + +<P> +Mrs. Flitcroft, at breakfast on the following morning, continued a +disquisition which had ceased, the previous night, only because of a +provoking human incapacity to exist without sleep. Her theme was one +which had exclusively occupied her since the passing of Eskew, and, her +rheumatism having improved so that she could leave her chair, she had +become a sort of walking serial; Norbert and his grandfather being well +assured that, whenever they left the house, the same story was to be +continued upon their reappearance. The Tocsin had been her great +comfort: she was but one helpless woman against two strong men; +therefore she sorely needed assistance in her attack upon them, and the +invaluable newspaper gave it in generous measure. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, young man," she said, as she lifted her first spoonful of +oatmeal, "you BETTER read the Tocsin!" +</P> + +<P> +"I AM reading it," responded Norbert, who was almost concealed by the +paper. +</P> + +<P> +"And your grandfather better read it!" she continued, severely. +</P> + +<P> +"I already have," said the Colonel, promptly. "Have you?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, but you can be sure I will!" The good lady gave the effect of +tossing her head. "And you better take what it says to heart, you and +some others. It's a wonder to me that you and Buckalew and old Peter +don't go and hold that Happy Fear's hand durin' the trial! And as for +Joe Louden, his step-mother's own sister, Jane, says to me only +yesterday afternoon, 'Why, law! Mrs. Flitcroft,' she says, 'it's a +wonder to me,' she says, 'that your husband and those two other old +fools don't lay down in the gutter and let that Joe Louden walk over +'em.'" +</P> + +<P> +"Did Jane Quimby say 'those two other old fools'?" inquired the +Colonel, in a manner which indicated that he might see Mr. Quimby in +regard to the slander. +</P> + +<P> +"I can't say as I remember just precisely her exact words," admitted +Mrs. Flitcroft, "but that was the sense of 'em! You've made yourselves +the laughin'-stock of the whole town!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, we have?" +</P> + +<P> +"And I'd like to know"—her voice became shrill and goading—"I'd like +to know what Judge Pike thinks of you and Norbert! I should think +you'd be ashamed to have him pass you in the street." +</P> + +<P> +"I've quit speaking to him," said Norbert, coldly, "ever since I heard +he owned Beaver Beach." +</P> + +<P> +"That story ain't proved yet!" returned his grandmother, with much +irascibility. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it will be; but that's not all." Norbert wagged his head. "You +may be a little surprised within the next few days." +</P> + +<P> +"I've been surprised for the PAST few!" she replied, with a bitterness +which overrode her satisfaction in the effectiveness of the retort. +"Surprised! I'd like to know who wouldn't be surprised when half the +town acts like it's gone crazy. People PRAISIN' that fellow, that +nobody in their sober minds and senses never in their lives had a good +word for before! Why, there was more talk yesterday about his doin's +at the Court-house—you'd of thought he was Phil Sheridan! It's 'Joe +Louden' here and 'Joe Louden' there, and 'Joe Louden' this and 'Joe +Louden' that, till I'm sick of the name!" +</P> + +<P> +"Then why don't you quit saying it?" asked the Colonel, reasonably. +</P> + +<P> +"Because it'd OUGHT to be said!" she exclaimed, with great heat. +"Because he'd ought to be held up to the community to be despised. You +let me have that paper a minute," she pursued, vehemently; "you just +let me have the Tocsin and I'll read you out some things about him that +'ll show him in his true light!" +</P> + +<P> +"All right," said Norbert, suddenly handing her the paper. "Go ahead." +</P> + +<P> +And after the exchange of a single glance the two gentlemen composed +themselves to listen. +</P> + +<P> +"Ha!" exclaimed Mrs. Flitcroft. "Here it is in head-lines on the first +page. 'Defence Scores Again and Again. Ridiculous Behavior of a +Would-Be Mob. Louden's—'" She paused, removed her spectacles, +examined them dubiously, restored them to place, and continued: +"'Louden's Masterly Conduct and Well-Deserved—'" she paused again, +incredulous—"'Well-Deserved Triumph—'" +</P> + +<P> +"Go on," said the Colonel, softly. +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed I will!" the old lady replied. "Do you think I don't know +sarcasm when I see it? Ha, ha!" She laughed with great heartiness. +"I reckon I WILL go on! You listen and try to LEARN something from +it!" She resumed the reading: +</P> + +<P> +"'It is generally admitted that after yesterday's sitting of the court, +the prosecution in the Fear-Cory murder trial has not a leg to stand +on. Louden's fight for his client has been, it must be confessed, of a +most splendid and talented order, and the bottom has fallen out of the +case for the State, while a verdict of Not Guilty, it is now conceded, +is the general wish of those who have attended and followed the trial. +But the most interesting event of the day took place after the session, +when some miscreants undertook to mob the attorney for the defence in +the Court-house yard. He met the attack with a coolness and nerve +which have won him a popularity that—'" Mrs. Flitcroft again faltered. +</P> + +<P> +"Go on," repeated the Colonel. "There's a great deal more." +</P> + +<P> +"Look at the editorials," suggested Norbert. "There's one on the same +subject." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Flitcroft, her theory of the Tocsin's sarcasm somewhat shaken, +turned the page. "We Confess a Mistake" was the rubric above the +leader, and she uttered a cry of triumph, for she thought the mistake +was what she had just been reading, and that the editorial would +apologize for the incomprehensible journalistic error upon the first +page. "'The best of us make mistakes, and it is well to have a change +of heart sometimes.'" (Thus Eugene's successor had written, and so +Mrs. Flitcroft read.) "'An open confession is good for the soul. The +Tocsin has changed its mind in regard to certain matters, and means to +say so freely and frankly. After yesterday's events in connection with +the murder trial before our public, the evidence being now all +presented, for we understand that neither side has more to offer, it is +generally conceded that all good citizens are hopeful of a verdict of +acquittal; and the Tocsin is a good citizen. No good citizen would +willingly see an innocent man punished, and that our city is not to be +disgraced by such a miscarriage of justice is due to the efforts of the +attorney for the defendant, who has gained credit not only by his +masterly management of this case, but by his splendid conduct in the +face of danger yesterday afternoon. He has distinguished himself so +greatly that we frankly assert that our citizens may point with pride +to—'" Mrs. Flitcroft's voice, at the beginning pitched to a high +exultation, had gradually lowered in key and dropped down the scale +till it disappeared altogether. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a wonder to me," the Colonel began, "that the Tocsin doesn't go +and hold Joe Louden's hand." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll read the rest of it for you," said Norbert, his heavy face +lighting up with cruelty. "Let's see—where were you? Oh yes—'point +with pride'? 'Our citizens may point with pride to ...'" +</P> + +<P> +Let us not linger to observe the unmanly behavior of an aged man and +his grandson left alone at the breakfast-table by a defenceless woman. +</P> + +<P> +The Tocsin's right-about-face undermined others besides Mrs. Flitcroft +that morning, and rejoiced greater (though not better) men than the +Colonel. Mr. Farbach and his lieutenants smiled, yet stared, amazed, +wondering what had happened. That was a thing which only three people +even certainly knew; yet it was very simple. +</P> + +<P> +The Tocsin was part of the Judge's restitution. +</P> + +<P> +"The controlling interest in the paper, together with the other +property I have listed," Joe had said, studying his memoranda under the +lamp in Roger's old studio, while Martin Pike listened with his head in +his hands, "make up what Miss Tabor is willing to accept. As I +estimate it, their total value is between a third and a half of that of +the stock which belonged to her." +</P> + +<P> +"But this boy—this Flitcroft," said Pike, feebly; "he might—" +</P> + +<P> +"He will do nothing," interrupted Joe. "The case is 'settled out of +court,' and even if he were disposed to harass you, he could hardly +hope to succeed, since Miss Tabor declines either to sue or to +prosecute." +</P> + +<P> +The Judge winced at the last word. "Yes—yes, I know; but he might—he +might—tell." +</P> + +<P> +"I think Miss Tabor's influence will prevent. If it should not—well, +you're not in a desperate case by any means; you're involved, but far +from stripped; in time you may be as sound as ever. And if Norbert +tells, there's nothing for you to do but to live it down." A faint +smile played upon Joe's lips as he lifted his head and looked at the +other. "It can be done, I think." +</P> + +<P> +It was then that Ariel, complaining of the warmth of the evening, +thought it possible that Joe might find her fan upon the porch, and as +he departed, whispered hurriedly: "Judge Pike, I'm not technically in +control of the Tocsin, but haven't I the right to control its policy?" +</P> + +<P> +"I understand," he muttered. "You mean about Louden—about this +trial—" +</P> + +<P> +"That is why I have taken the paper." +</P> + +<P> +"You want all that changed, you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +She nodded decisively. "From this instant. Before morning." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, well, I'll go down there and give the word." He rubbed his eyes +wearily with big thumbs. "I'm through fighting. I'm done. Besides, +what's the use? There's nothing more to fight." +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Judge," Joe said, as he came in briskly, "we'll go over the list +of that unencumbered property, if you will." +</P> + +<P> +This unencumbered property consisted of Beaver Beach and those other +belongings of the Judge which he had not dared to mortgage. Joe had +somehow explained their nature to Ariel, and these with the Tocsin she +had elected to accept in restitution. +</P> + +<P> +"You told me once that I ought to look after my own property, and now I +will. Don't you see?" she cried to Joe, eagerly. "It's my work!" She +resolutely set aside every other proposition; and this was the quality +of mercy which Martin Pike found that night. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +There was a great crowd to hear Joe's summing-up at the trial, and +those who succeeded in getting into the court-room declared that it was +worth the struggle. He did not orate, he did not "thunder at the +jury," nor did he slyly flatter them; he did not overdo the +confidential, nor seem so secure of understanding beforehand what their +verdict would be that they felt an instinctive desire to fool him. He +talked colloquially but clearly, without appeal to the pathetic and +without garnitures, not mentioning sunsets, birds, oceans, homes, the +glorious old State, or the happiness of liberty; but he made everybody +in the room quite sure that Happy Fear had fired the shot which killed +Cory to save his own life. And that, as Mr. Bradbury remarked to the +Colonel, was "what Joe was THERE for!" +</P> + +<P> +Ariel's escort was increased to four that day: Mr. Ladew sat beside +her, and there were times when Joe kept his mind entirely to the work +in hand only by an effort, but he always succeeded. The sight of the +pale and worshipping face of Happy Fear from the corner of his eye was +enough to insure that. And people who could not get near the doors, +asking those who could, "What's he doin' now?" were answered by +variations of the one formula, "Oh, jest walkin' away with it!" +</P> + +<P> +Once the court-room was disturbed and set in an uproar which even the +Judge's customary threat failed to subdue. Joe had been talking very +rapidly, and having turned the point he was making with perfect +dexterity, the jury listening eagerly, stopped for a moment to take a +swallow of water. A voice rose over the low hum of the crowd in a +delirious chuckle: "Why don't somebody 'HEAD HIM OFF!'" The room +instantly rocked with laughter, under cover of which the identity of +the sacrilegious chuckler was not discovered, but the voice was the +voice of Buckalew, who was incredibly surprised to find that he had +spoken aloud. +</P> + +<P> +The jury were "out," after the case had been given to them, seventeen +minutes and thirty seconds by the watch Claudine held in her hand. The +little man, whose fate was now on the knees of the gods, looked +pathetically at the foreman and then at the face of his lawyer and +began to shake violently, but not with fright. He had gone to the jail +on Joe's word, as a good dog goes where his master bids, trustfully; +and yet Happy had not been able to keep his mind from considering the +horrible chances. "Don't worry," Joe had said. "It's all right. I'll +see you through." And he had kept his word. +</P> + +<P> +The little man was cleared. +</P> + +<P> +It took Happy a long time to get through what he had to say to his +attorney in the anteroom, and even then, of course, he did not manage +to put it in words, for he had "broken down" with sheer gratitude. +"Why, damn ME, Joe," he sobbed, "if ever I—if ever you—well, by God! +if you ever—" This was the substance of his lingual accomplishment +under the circumstances. But Claudine threw her arms around poor Joe's +neck and kissed him. +</P> + +<P> +Many people were waiting to shake hands with Joe and congratulate him. +The trio, taking advantage of seats near the rail, had already done +that (somewhat uproariously) before he had followed Happy, and so had +Ariel and Ladew, both, necessarily, rather hurriedly. But in the +corridors he found, when he came out of the anteroom, clients, +acquaintances, friends: old friends, new friends, and friends he had +never seen before—everybody beaming upon him and wringing his hand, as +if they had been sure of it all from the start. +</P> + +<P> +"KNOW him?" said one to another. "Why, I've knowed him sence he was +that high! SMART little feller he was, too!" This was a total +stranger. +</P> + +<P> +"I said, years ago"—thus Mr. Brown, the "National House" clerk, +proving his prophetic vision—"that he'd turn out to be a big man some +day." +</P> + +<P> +They gathered round him if he stopped for an instant, and crowded after +him admiringly when he went on again, making his progress slow. When +he finally came out of the big doors into the sunshine, there were as +many people in the yard as there had been when he stood in the same +place and watched the mob rushing his client's guards. But to-day their +temper was different, and as he paused a moment, looking down on the +upturned, laughing faces, with a hundred jocular and congratulatory +salutations shouted up at him, somebody started a cheer, and it was +taken up with thunderous good-will. +</P> + +<P> +There followed the interrogation customary in such emergencies, and the +anxious inquirer was informed by four or five hundred people +simultaneously that Joe Louden was all right. +</P> + +<P> +"HEAD HIM OFF!" bellowed Mike Sheehan, suddenly darting up the steps. +The shout increased, and with good reason, for he stepped quickly back +within the doors; and, retreating through the building, made good his +escape by a basement door. +</P> + +<P> +He struck off into a long detour, but though he managed to evade the +crowd, he had to stop and shake hands with every third person he met. +As he came out upon Main Street again, he encountered his father. +</P> + +<P> +"Howdy do, Joe?" said this laconic person, and offered his hand. They +shook, briefly. "Well," he continued, rubbing his beard, "how are ye?" +</P> + +<P> +"All right, father, I think." +</P> + +<P> +"Satisfied with the verdict?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'd be pretty hard to please if I weren't," Joe laughed. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Louden rubbed his beard again. "I was there," he said, without +emotion. +</P> + +<P> +"At the trial, you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." He offered his hand once more, and again they shook. "Well, +come around and see us," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you. I will." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Mr. Louden, "good-day, Joe." +</P> + +<P> +"Good-day, father." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The young man stood looking after him with a curious smile. Then he +gave a slight start. Far up the street he saw two figures, one a +lady's, in white, with a wide white hat; the other a man's, wearing +recognizably clerical black. They seemed to be walking very slowly. +</P> + +<P> +It had been a day of triumph for Joe; but in all his life he never +slept worse than he did that night. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap26"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XXVI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +ANCIENT OF DAYS +</H3> + +<P> +He woke to the chiming of bells, and, as his eyes slowly opened, the +sorrowful people of a dream, who seemed to be bending over him, +weeping, swam back into the darkness of the night whence they had come, +and returned to the imperceptible, leaving their shadows in his heart. +Slowly he rose, stumbled into the outer room, and released the +fluttering shade; but the sunshine, springing like a golden lover +through the open window, only dazzled him, and found no answering +gladness to greet it, nor joy in the royal day it heralded. +</P> + +<P> +And yet, to the newly cleaned boys on their way to midsummer morning +Sunday-school, the breath of that cool August day was as sweet as +stolen apples. No doubt the stir of far, green thickets and the +twinkle of silver-slippered creeks shimmered in the longing vision of +their minds' eyes; even so, they were merry. But Joseph Louden, +sighing as he descended his narrow stairs, with the bitterness still +upon his lips of the frightful coffee he had made, heard the echo of +their laughter with wonder. +</P> + +<P> +It would be an hour at least before time to start to church, when Ariel +expected him; he stared absently up the street, then down, and, after +that, began slowly to walk in the latter direction, with no very active +consciousness, or care, of where he went. He had fallen into a +profound reverie, so deep that when he had crossed the bridge and +turned into a dusty road which ran along the river-bank, he stopped +mechanically beside the trunk of a fallen sycamore, and, lifting his +head, for the first time since he had set out, looked about him with a +melancholy perplexity, a little surprised to find himself there. +</P> + +<P> +For this was the spot where he had first seen the new Ariel, and on +that fallen sycamore they had sat together. "REMEMBER, ACROSS MAIN +STREET BRIDGE AT NOON!" And Joe's cheeks burned, as he recalled why he +had not understood the clear voice that had haunted him. But that +shame had fallen from him; she had changed all that, as she had changed +so many things. He sank down in the long grass, with his back against +the log, and stared out over the fields of tall corn, shaking in a +steady wind all the way to the horizon. +</P> + +<P> +"Changed so many things?" he said, half aloud. "Everything!" Ah, yes, +she had changed the whole world for Joseph Louden—at his first sight +of her! And now it seemed to him that he was to lose her, but not in +the way he had thought. +</P> + +<P> +Almost from the very first, he had the feeling that nothing so +beautiful as that she should stay in Canaan could happen to him. He +was sure that she was but for the little while, that her coming was +like the flying petals of which he had told her. +</P> + +<P> +He had lain upon the earth; and she had lifted him up. For a moment he +had felt the beatific wings enfolding him with gentle protection, and +then saw them lifted to bear the angel beyond his sight. For it was +incredible that the gods so loved Joe Louden that they would make +greater gifts to him than this little time with her which they had +granted him. +</P> + +<P> +"Changed so many things?" +</P> + +<P> +The bars that had been between him and half of his world were down, +shattered, never more to be replaced; and the ban of Canaan was lifted. +Could this have been, save for her? And upon that thought he got to +his feet, uttering an exclamation of bitter self-reproach, asking +himself angrily what he was doing. He knew how much she gave him, what +full measure of her affection! Was not that enough?—Out upon you, +Louden! Are you to sulk in your tent, dour in the gloom, or to play a +man's part, and if she be happy, turn a cheery face upon her joy? +</P> + +<P> +And thus this pilgrim recrossed the bridge, emerging to the street with +his head up, smiling, and his shoulders thrown back so that none might +see the burden he carried. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Ariel was waiting on the porch for him. She wore the same dress she +had worn that Sunday of their tryst; that exquisite dress, with the +faint lavender overtint, like the tender colors of the beautiful day he +made his own. She had not worn it since, and he was far distant when +he caught the first flickering glimpse of her through the lower +branches of the maples, but he remembered.... And again, as on that +day, he heard a far-away, ineffable music, the Elf-land horns, sounding +the mysterious reveille which had wakened his soul to her coming. +</P> + +<P> +She came to the gate to meet him, and gave him her hand in greeting, +without a word—or the need of one—from either. Then together they +set forth over the sun-flecked pavement, the maples swishing above +them, heavier branches crooning in the strong breeze, under a sky like +a Della Robbia background. And up against the glorious blue of it, +some laughing, invisible god was blowing small, rounded clouds of pure +cotton, as children blow thistledown. +</P> + +<P> +When he opened her parasol, as they came out into the broad sunshine +beyond Upper Main Street, there was the faintest mingling of wild roses +and cinnamon loosed on the air. +</P> + +<P> +"Joe," she said, "I'm very happy!" +</P> + +<P> +"That's right," he returned, heartily. "I think you always will be." +</P> + +<P> +"But, oh! I wish," she went on, "that Mr. Arp could have lived to see +you come down the Court-house steps." +</P> + +<P> +"God bless him!" said Joe. "I can hear the 'argument'!" +</P> + +<P> +"Those dear old men have been so loyal to you, Joe." +</P> + +<P> +"No," he returned; "loyal to Eskew." +</P> + +<P> +"To you both," she said. "I'm afraid the old circle is broken up; they +haven't met on the National House corner since he died. The Colonel +told me he couldn't bear to go there again." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe any of them ever will," he returned. "And yet I never +pass the place that I don't see Eskew in his old chair. I went there +last night to commune with him. I couldn't sleep, and I got up, and +went over there; they'd left the chairs out; the town was asleep, and +it was beautiful moonlight—" +</P> + +<P> +"To commune with him? What about?" +</P> + +<P> +"You." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" she asked, plainly mystified. +</P> + +<P> +"I stood in need of good counsel," he answered, cheerfully, "or a +friendly word, perhaps, and—as I sat there—after a while it came." +</P> + +<P> +"What was it?" +</P> + +<P> +"To forget that I was sodden with selfishness; to pretend not to be as +full of meanness as I really was! Doesn't that seem to be Eskew's own +voice?" +</P> + +<P> +"Weren't you happy last night, Joe?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it was all right," he said, quickly. "Don't you worry." +</P> + +<P> +And at this old speech of his she broke into a little laugh of which he +had no comprehension. +</P> + +<P> +"Mamie came to see me early this morning," she said, after they had +walked on in silence for a time. "Everything is all right with her +again; that is, I think it will be. Eugene is coming home. And," she +added, thoughtfully, "it will be best for him to have his old place on +the Tocsin again. She showed me his letter, and I liked it. I think +he's been through the fire—" +</P> + +<P> +Joe's distorted smile appeared. "And has come out gold?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"No," she laughed; "but nearer it! And I think he'll try to be more +worth her caring for. She has always thought that his leaving the +Tocsin in the way he did was heroic. That was her word for it. And it +WAS the finest thing he ever did." +</P> + +<P> +"I can't figure Eugene out." Joe shook his head. "There's something +behind his going away that I don't understand." This was altogether +the truth; nor was there ever to come a time when either he or Mamie +would understand what things had determined the departure of Eugene +Bantry; though Mamie never questioned, as Joe did, the reasons for it, +or doubted those Eugene had given her, which were the same he had given +her father. For she was content with his return. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Again the bells across the Square rang out their chime. The paths were +decorously enlivened with family and neighborhood groups, bound +churchward; and the rumble of the organ, playing the people into their +pews, shook on the air. And Joe knew that he must speak quickly, if he +was to say what he had planned to say, before he and Ariel went into +the church. +</P> + +<P> +"Ariel?" He tried to compel his voice to a casual cheerfulness, but it +would do nothing for him, except betray a desperate embarrassment. +</P> + +<P> +She looked at him quickly, and as quickly away. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes?" +</P> + +<P> +"I wanted to say something to you, and I'd better do it now, I +think—before I go to church for the first time in two years!" He +managed to laugh, though with some ruefulness, and continued +stammeringly: "I want to tell you how much I like him—how much I +admire him—" +</P> + +<P> +"Admire whom?" she asked, a little coldly, for she knew. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Ladew." +</P> + +<P> +"So do I," she answered, looking straight ahead. "That is one reason +why I wanted you to come with me to-day." +</P> + +<P> +"It isn't only that. I want to tell you—to tell you—" He broke off +for a second. "You remember that night in my office before Fear came +in?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; I remember." +</P> + +<P> +"And that I—that something I said troubled you because it—it sounded +as if I cared too much for you—" +</P> + +<P> +"No; not too much." She still looked straight ahead. They were +walking very slowly. "You didn't understand. You'd been in my mind, +you see, all those years, so much more than I in yours. I hadn't +forgotten YOU. But to you I was really a stranger—" +</P> + +<P> +"No, no!" he cried. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I was," she said, gently but very quickly. "And I—I didn't want +you to fall in love with me at first sight. And yet—perhaps I did! +But I hadn't thought of things in that way. I had just the same +feeling for you that I always had—always! I had never cared so much +for any one else, and it seemed to me the most necessary thing in my +life to come back to that old companionship— Don't you remember—it +used to trouble you so when I would take your hand? I think I loved +your being a little rough with me. And once, when I saw how you had +been hurt, that day you ran away—" +</P> + +<P> +"Ariel!" he gasped, helplessly. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you forgotten?" +</P> + +<P> +He gathered himself together with all his will. "I want to prove to +you," he said, resolutely, "that the dear kindness of you isn't thrown +away on me; I want you to know what I began to say: that it's all right +with me; and I think Ladew—" He stopped again. "Ah! I've seen how +much he cares for you—" +</P> + +<P> +"Have you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ariel," he said, "that isn't fair to me, if you trust me. You could +not have helped seeing—" +</P> + +<P> +"But I have not seen it," she interrupted, with great calmness. After +having said this, she finished truthfully: "If he did, I would never +let him tell me. I like him too much." +</P> + +<P> +"You mean you're not going to—" +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly she turned to him. "NO!" she said, with a depth of anger he +had not heard in her voice since that long-ago winter day when she +struck Eugene Bantry with her clenched fist. She swept over him a +blinding look of reproach. "How could I?" +</P> + +<P> +And there, upon the steps of the church, in the sudden, dazzling vision +of her love, fell the burden of him who had made his sorrowful +pilgrimage across Main Street bridge that morning. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +A manifold rustling followed them as they went down the aisle, and the +sibilance of many whisperings; but Joe was not conscious of that, as he +took his place in Ariel's pew beside her. For him there was only the +presence of divinity; the church was filled with it. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +They rose to sing: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Ancient of days, Who sittest, throned in glory,<BR> + To Thee all knees are bent, all voices pray;<BR> + Thy love has blest the wide world's wondrous story<BR> + With light and life since Eden's dawning day."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +And then, as they knelt to pray, there were the white heads of the +three old friends of Eskew Arp; and beyond was the silver hair of +Martin Pike, who knelt beside his daughter. Joe felt that people +should be very kind to the Judge. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The sun, so eager without, came temperately through the windows, where +stood angels and saints in gentle colors, and the face of the young +minister in this quiet light was like the faces in the windows.... +</P> + +<P> +"Not only to confront your enemies," he said; "that is not enough; nor +is it that I would have you bluster at them, nor take arms against +them; you will not have to do that if, when they come at you, you do +not turn one inch aside, but with an assured heart, with good nature, +not noisily, and with steadfastness, you keep on your way. If you can +do that, I say that they will turn aside for you, and you shall walk +straight through them, and only laughter be left of their anger!" +</P> + +<P> +There was a stir among the people, and many faces turned toward Joe. +Two years ago he had sat in the same church, when his character and +actions had furnished the underlying theme of a sermon, and he had +recognized himself without difficulty: to-day he had not the shadow of +a dream that the same thing was happening. He thought the people were +turning to look at Ariel, and he was very far from wondering at that. +</P> + +<P> +She saw that he did not understand; she was glad to have it so. She +had taken off her gloves, and he was holding them lightly and +reverently in his hands, looking down upon them, his thin cheeks a +little flushed. And at that, and not knowing the glory that was in his +soul, something forlorn in his careful tenderness toward her gloves so +touched her that she felt the tears coming to her eyes with a sudden +rush. And to prevent them. +</P> + +<P> +"Not the empty gloves, Joe," she whispered. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Conquest of Canaan, by Booth Tarkington + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN *** + +***** This file should be named 483-h.htm or 483-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/8/483/ + +Produced by Charles Keller. 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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: The Conquest of Canaan + +Author: Booth Tarkington + +Posting Date: October 9, 2008 [EBook #483] +Release Date: April, 1996 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Keller. HTML version by Al Haines + + + + + + + + +THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN + + +BY + +BOOTH TARKINGTON + + + + + To + L.F.T. + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I. ENTER CHORUS + II. A RESCUE + III. OLD HOPES + IV. THE DISASTER + V. BEAVER BEACH + VI. "YE'LL TAK' THE HIGH ROAD AND I'LL TAK' THE LOW ROAD" + VII. GIVE A DOG A BAD NAME + VIII. A BAD PENNY TURNS UP + IX. OUTER DARKNESS + X. THE TRYST + XI. WHEN HALF-GODS GO + XII. TO REMAIN ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE IS NOT ALWAYS A VICTORY + XIII. THE WATCHER AND THE WARDEN + XIV. WHITE ROSES IN A LAW-OFFICE + XV. HAPPY FEAR GIVES HIMSELF UP + XVI. THE TWO CANAANS + XVII. MR. SHEEHAN'S HINTS + XVIII. IN THE HEAT OF THE DAY + XIX. ESKEW ARP + XX. THREE ARE ENLISTED + XXI. NORBERT WAITS FOR JOE + XXII. MR. SHEEHAN SPEAKS + XXIII. JOE WALKS ACROSS THE COURT-HOUSE YARD + XXIV. MARTIN PIKE KEEPS AN ENGAGEMENT + XXV. THE JURY COMES IN + XXVI. "ANCIENT OF DAYS" + + + +THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN + + + + +I + +ENTER CHORUS + +A dry snow had fallen steadily throughout the still night, so that when +a cold, upper wind cleared the sky gloriously in the morning the +incongruous Indiana town shone in a white harmony--roof, ledge, and +earth as evenly covered as by moonlight. There was no thaw; only where +the line of factories followed the big bend of the frozen river, their +distant chimneys like exclamation points on a blank page, was there a +first threat against the supreme whiteness. The wind passed quickly +and on high; the shouting of the school-children had ceased at nine +o'clock with pitiful suddenness; no sleigh-bells laughed out on the +air; and the muffling of the thoroughfares wrought an unaccustomed +peace like that of Sunday. This was the phenomenon which afforded the +opening of the morning debate of the sages in the wide windows of the +"National House." + +Only such unfortunates as have so far failed to visit Canaan do not +know that the "National House" is on the Main Street side of the +Court-house Square, and has the advantage of being within two minutes' +walk of the railroad station, which is in plain sight of the +windows--an inestimable benefit to the conversation of the aged men who +occupied these windows on this white morning, even as they were wont in +summer to hold against all comers the cane-seated chairs on the +pavement outside. Thence, as trains came and went, they commanded the +city gates, and, seeking motives and adding to the stock of history, +narrowly observed and examined into all who entered or departed. Their +habit was not singular. He who would foolishly tax the sages of Canaan +with a bucolic light-mindedness must first walk in Piccadilly in early +June, stroll down the Corso in Rome before Ash Wednesday, or regard +those windows of Fifth Avenue whose curtains are withdrawn of a winter +Sunday; for in each of these great streets, wherever the windows, not +of trade, are widest, his eyes must behold wise men, like to those of +Canaan, executing always their same purpose. + +The difference is in favor of Canaan; the "National House" was the +club, but the perusal of traveller or passer by was here only the spume +blown before a stately ship of thought; and you might hear the sages +comparing the Koran with the speeches of Robert J. Ingersoll. + +In the days of board sidewalks, "mail-time" had meant a precise moment +for Canaan, and even now, many years after the first postman, it +remained somewhat definite to the aged men; for, out of deference to a +pleasant, olden custom, and perhaps partly for an excuse to "get down +to the hotel" (which was not altogether in favor with the elderly +ladies), most of them retained their antique boxes in the post-office, +happily in the next building. + +In this connection it may be written that a subscription clerk in the +office of the Chicago Daily Standard, having noted a single subscriber +from Canaan, was, a fortnight later, pleased to receive, by one mail, +nine subscriptions from that promising town. If one brought nine +others in a fortnight, thought he, what would nine bring in a month? +Amazingly, they brought nothing, and the rest was silence. Here was a +matter of intricate diplomacy never to come within that youth his ken. +The morning voyage to the post-office, long mocked as a fable and +screen by the families of the sages, had grown so difficult to +accomplish for one of them, Colonel Flitcroft (Colonel in the war with +Mexico), that he had been put to it, indeed, to foot the firing-line +against his wife (a lady of celebrated determination and hale-voiced at +seventy), and to defend the rental of a box which had sheltered but +three missives in four years. Desperation is often inspiration; the +Colonel brilliantly subscribed for the Standard, forgetting to give his +house address, and it took the others just thirteen days to wring his +secret from him. Then the Standard served for all. + +Mail-time had come to mean that bright hour when they all got their +feet on the brass rod which protected the sills of the two big windows, +with the steam-radiators sizzling like kettles against the side wall. +Mr. Jonas Tabor, who had sold his hardware business magnificently (not +magnificently for his nephew, the purchaser) some ten years before, was +usually, in spite of the fact that he remained a bachelor at +seventy-nine, the last to settle down with the others, though often the +first to reach the hotel, which he always entered by a side door, +because he did not believe in the treating system. And it was Mr. Eskew +Arp, only seventy-five, but already a thoroughly capable cynic, who, +almost invariably "opened the argument," and it was he who discovered +the sinister intention behind the weather of this particular morning. +Mr. Arp had not begun life so sourly: as a youth he had been proud of +his given name, which had come to him through his mother's family, who +had made it honorable, but many years of explanations that Eskew did +not indicate his initials had lowered his opinion of the intelligence +and morality of the race. + +The malevolence of his voice and manner this morning, therefore, when +he shook his finger at the town beyond the windows, and exclaimed, with +a bitter laugh, "Look at it!" was no surprise to his companions. "Jest +look at it! I tell you the devil is mighty smart. Ha, ha! Mighty +smart!" + +Through custom it was the duty of Squire Buckalew (Justice of the Peace +in '59) to be the first to take up Mr. Arp. The others looked to him +for it. Therefore, he asked, sharply: + +"What's the devil got to do with snow?" + +"Everything to do with it, sir," Mr. Arp retorted. "It's plain as day +to anybody with eyes and sense." + +"Then I wish you'd p'int it out," said Buckalew, "if you've got either." + +"By the Almighty, Squire"--Mr. Arp turned in his chair with sudden +heat--"if I'd lived as long as you--" + +"You have," interrupted the other, stung. "Twelve years ago!" + +"If I'd lived as long as you," Mr. Arp repeated, unwincingly, in a +louder voice, "and had follered Satan's trail as long as you have, and +yet couldn't recognize it when I see it, I'd git converted and vote +Prohibitionist." + +"_I_ don't see it," interjected Uncle Joe Davey, in his querulous +voice. (He was the patriarch of them all.) "_I_ can't find no +cloven-hoof-prints in the snow." + +"All over it, sir!" cried the cynic. "All over it! Old Satan loves +tricks like this. Here's a town that's jest one squirmin' mass of lies +and envy and vice and wickedness and corruption--" + +"Hold on!" exclaimed Colonel Flitcroft. "That's a slander upon our +hearths and our government. Why, when I was in the Council--" + +"It wasn't a bit worse then," Mr. Arp returned, unreasonably. "Jest +you look how the devil fools us. He drops down this here virgin mantle +on Canaan and makes it look as good as you pretend you think it is: as +good as the Sunday-school room of a country church--though THAT"--he +went off on a tangent, venomously--"is generally only another whited +sepulchre, and the superintendent's mighty apt to have a bottle of +whiskey hid behind the organ, and--" + +"Look here, Eskew," said Jonas Tabor, "that's got nothin' to do with--" + +"Why ain't it? Answer me!" cried Mr. Arp, continuing, without pause: +"Why ain't it? Can't you wait till I git through? You listen to me, +and when I'm ready I'll listen to--" + +"See here," began the Colonel, making himself heard over three others, +"I want to ask you--" + +"No, sir!" Mr. Arp pounded the floor irascibly with his hickory stick. +"Don't you ask me anything! How can you tell that I'm not going to +answer your question without your asking it, till I've got through? +You listen first. I say, here's a town of nearly thirty thousand +inhabitants, every last one of 'em--men, women, and children--selfish +and cowardly and sinful, if you could see their innermost natures; a +town of the ugliest and worst built houses in the world, and governed +by a lot of saloon-keepers--though I hope it 'll never git down to +where the ministers can run it. And the devil comes along, and in one +night--why, all you got to do is LOOK at it! You'd think we needn't +ever trouble to make it better. That's what the devil wants us to +do--wants us to rest easy about it, and paints it up to look like a +heaven of peace and purity and sanctified spirits. Snowfall like this +would of made Lot turn the angel out-of-doors and say that the old home +was good enough for him. Gomorrah would of looked like a Puritan +village--though I'll bet my last dollar that there was a lot, and a +WHOLE lot, that's never been told about Puritan villages. A lot that--" + +"WHAT never was?" interrupted Mr. Peter Bradbury, whose granddaughter +had lately announced her discovery that the Bradburys were descended +from Miles Standish. "What wasn't told about Puritan villages?" + +"Can't you wait?" Mr. Arp's accents were those of pain. "Haven't I got +ANY right to present my side of the case? Ain't we restrained enough +to allow of free speech here? How can we ever git anywhere in an +argument like this, unless we let one man talk at a time? How--" + +"Go on with your statement," said Uncle Joe Davey, impatiently. + +Mr. Arp's grievance was increased. "Now listen to YOU! How many more +interruptions are comin'? I'll listen to the other side, but I've got +to state mine first, haven't I? If I don't make my point clear, what's +the use of the argument? Argumentation is only the comparison of two +sides of a question, and you have to see what the first side IS before +you can compare it with the other one, don't you? Are you all agreed +to that?" + +"Yes, yes," said the Colonel. "Go ahead. We won't interrupt until +you're through." + +"Very well," resumed Mr. Arp, with a fleeting expression of +satisfaction, "as I said before, I wish to--as I said--" He paused, in +some confusion. "As I said, argumentation is--that is, I say--" He +stopped again, utterly at sea, having talked himself so far out of his +course that he was unable to recall either his sailing port or his +destination. Finally he said, feebly, to save the confession, "Well, +go on with your side of it." + +This generosity was for a moment disconcerting; however, the quietest +of the party took up the opposition--Roger Tabor, a very thin, old man +with a clean-shaven face, almost as white as his hair, and melancholy, +gentle, gray eyes, very unlike those of his brother Jonas, which were +dark and sharp and button-bright. (It was to Roger's son that Jonas +had so magnificently sold the hardware business.) Roger was known in +Canaan as "the artist"; there had never been another of his profession +in the place, and the town knew not the word "painter," except in +application to the useful artisan who is subject to lead-poisoning. +There was no indication of his profession in the attire of Mr. Tabor, +unless the too apparent age of his black felt hat and a neat patch at +the elbow of his shiny, old brown overcoat might have been taken as +symbols of the sacrifice to his muse which his life had been. He was +not a constant attendant of the conclave, and when he came it was +usually to listen; indeed, he spoke so seldom that at the sound of his +voice they all turned to him with some surprise. + +"I suppose," he began, "that Eskew means the devil is behind all +beautiful things." + +"Ugly ones, too," said Mr. Arp, with a start of recollection. "And I +wish to state--" + +"Not now!" Colonel Flitcroft turned upon him violently. "You've +already stated it." + +"Then, if he is behind the ugly things, too," said Roger, "we must take +him either way, so let us be glad of the beauty for its own sake. +Eskew says this is a wicked town. It may be--I don't know. He says +it's badly built; perhaps it is; but it doesn't seem to me that it's +ugly in itself. I don't know what its real self is, because it wears +so many aspects. God keeps painting it all the time, and never shows +me twice the same picture; not even two snowfalls are just alike, nor +the days that follow them; no more than two misty sunsets are +alike--for the color and even the form of the town you call ugly are a +matter of the season of the year and of the time of day and of the +light and air. The ugly town is like an endless gallery which you can +walk through, from year-end to year-end, never seeing the same canvas +twice, no matter how much you may want to--and there's the pathos of +it. Isn't it the same with people with the characters of all of us, +just as it is with our faces? No face remains the same for two +successive days--" + +"It don't?" Colonel Flitcroft interrupted, with an explosive and rueful +incredulity. "Well, I'd like to--" Second thoughts came to him almost +immediately, and, as much out of gallantry as through discretion, +fearing that he might be taken as thinking of one at home, he relapsed +into silence. + +Not so with the others. It was as if a firecracker had been dropped +into a sleeping poultry-yard. Least of all could Mr. Arp contain +himself. At the top of his voice, necessarily, he agreed with Roger +that faces changed, not only from day to day, and not only because of +light and air and such things, but from hour to hour, and from minute +to minute, through the hideous stimulus of hypocrisy. + +The "argument" grew heated; half a dozen tidy quarrels arose; all the +sages went at it fiercely, except Roger Tabor, who stole quietly away. +The aged men were enjoying themselves thoroughly, especially those who +quarrelled. Naturally, the frail bark of the topic which had been +launched was whirled about by too many side-currents to remain long in +sight, and soon became derelict, while the intellectual dolphins dove +and tumbled in the depths. At the end of twenty minutes Mr. Arp +emerged upon the surface, and in his mouth was this: + +"Tell me, why ain't the Church--why ain't the Church and the rest of +the believers in a future life lookin' for immortality at the other end +of life, too? If we're immortal, we always have been; then why don't +they ever speculate on what we were before we were born? It's because +they're too blame selfish--don't care a flapdoodle about what WAS, all +they want is to go on livin' forever." + +Mr. Arp's voice had risen to an acrid triumphancy, when it suddenly +faltered, relapsed to a murmur, and then to a stricken silence, as a +tall, fat man of overpowering aspect threw open the outer door near by +and crossed the lobby to the clerk's desk. An awe fell upon the sages +with this advent. They were hushed, and after a movement in their +chairs, with a strange effect of huddling, sat disconcerted and +attentive, like school-boys at the entrance of the master. + +The personage had a big, fat, pink face and a heavily undershot jaw, +what whitish beard he wore following his double chin somewhat after the +manner displayed in the portraits of Henry the Eighth. His eyes, very +bright under puffed upper lids, were intolerant and insultingly +penetrating despite their small size. Their irritability held a kind +of hotness, and yet the personage exuded frost, not of the weather, all +about him. You could not imagine man or angel daring to greet this +being genially--sooner throw a kiss to Mount Pilatus! + +"Mr. Brown," he said, with ponderous hostility, in a bull bass, to the +clerk--the kind of voice which would have made an express train leave +the track and go round the other way--"do you hear me?" + +"Oh yes, Judge," the clerk replied, swiftly, in tones as unlike those +which he used for strange transients as a collector's voice in his +ladylove's ear is unlike that which he propels at delinquents. + +"Do you see that snow?" asked the personage, threateningly. + +"Yes, Judge." Mr. Brown essayed a placating smile. "Yes, indeed, +Judge Pike." + +"Has your employer, the manager of this hotel, seen that snow?" pursued +the personage, with a gesture of unspeakable solemn menace. + +"Yes, sir. I think so. Yes, sir." + +"Do you think he fully understands that I am the proprietor of this +building?" + +"Certainly, Judge, cer--" + +"You will inform him that I do not intend to be discommoded by his +negligence as I pass to my offices. Tell him from me that unless he +keeps the sidewalks in front of this hotel clear of snow I will cancel +his lease. Their present condition is outrageous. Do you understand +me? Outrageous! Do you hear?" + +"Yes, Judge, I do so," answered the clerk, hoarse with respect. "I'll +see to it this minute, Judge Pike." + +"You had better." The personage turned himself about and began a grim +progress towards the door by which he had entered, his eyes fixing +themselves angrily upon the conclave at the windows. + +Colonel Flitcroft essayed a smile, a faltering one. + +"Fine weather, Judge Pike," he said, hopefully. + +There was no response of any kind; the undershot jaw became more +intolerant. The personage made his opinion of the group +disconcertingly plain, and the old boys understood that he knew them +for a worthless lot of senile loafers, as great a nuisance in his +building as was the snow without; and much too evident was his unspoken +threat to see that the manager cleared them out of there before long. + +He nodded curtly to the only man of substance among them, Jonas Tabor, +and shut the door behind him with majestic insult. He was Canaan's +millionaire. + +He was one of those dynamic creatures who leave the haunting impression +of their wills behind them, like the tails of Bo-Peep's sheep, like the +evil dead men have done; he left his intolerant image in the ether for +a long time after he had gone, to confront and confound the aged men +and hold them in deferential and humiliated silence. Each of them was +mysteriously lowered in his own estimation, and knew that he had been +made to seem futile and foolish in the eyes of his fellows. They were +all conscious, too, that the clerk had been acutely receptive of Judge +Pike's reading of them; that he was reviving from his own squelchedness +through the later snubbing of the colonel; also that he might further +seek to recover his poise by an attack on them for cluttering up the +office. + +Naturally, Jonas Tabor was the first to speak. "Judge Pike's lookin' +mighty well," he said, admiringly. + +"Yes, he is," ventured Squire Buckalew, with deference; "mighty well." + +"Yes, sir," echoed Peter Bradbury; "mighty well." + +"He's a great man," wheezed Uncle Joe Davey; "a great man, Judge Martin +Pike; a great man!" + +"I expect he has considerable on his mind," said the Colonel, who had +grown very red. "I noticed that he hardly seemed to see us." + +"Yes, sir," Mr. Bradbury corroborated, with an attempt at an amused +laugh. "I noticed it, too. Of course a man with all his cares and +interests must git absent-minded now and then." + +"Of course he does," said the colonel. "A man with all his +responsibilities--" + +"Yes, that's so," came a chorus of the brethren, finding comfort and +reassurance as their voices and spirits began to recover from the +blight. + +"There's a party at the Judge's to-night," said Mr. Bradbury--"kind of +a ball Mamie Pike's givin' for the young folks. Quite a doin's, I +hear." + +"That's another thing that's ruining Canaan," Mr. Arp declared, +morosely. "These entertainments they have nowadays. Spend all the +money out of town--band from Indianapolis, chicken salad and darkey +waiters from Chicago! And what I want to know is, What's this town +goin' to do about the nigger question?" + +"What about it?" asked Mr. Davey, belligerently. + +"What about it?" Mr. Arp mocked, fiercely. "You better say, 'What about +it?'" + +"Well, what?" maintained Mr. Davey, steadfastly. + +"I'll bet there ain't any less than four thousand niggers in Canaan +to-day!" Mr. Arp hammered the floor with his stick. "Every last one of +'em criminals, and more comin' on every train." + +"No such a thing," said Squire Buckalew, living up to his bounden duty. +"You look down the street. There's the ten-forty-five comin' in now. +I'll bet you a straight five-cent Peek-a-Boo cigar there ain't ary +nigger on the whole train, except the sleepin'-car porters." + +"What kind of a way to argue is that?" demanded Mr. Arp, hotly. +"Bettin' ain't proof, is it? Besides, that's the through express from +the East. I meant trains from the South." + +"You didn't say so," retorted Buckalew, triumphantly. "Stick to your +bet, Eskew, stick to your bet." + +"My bet!" cried the outraged Eskew. "Who offered to bet?" + +"You did," replied the Squire, with perfect assurance and sincerity. +The others supported him in the heartiest spirit of on-with-the-dance, +and war and joy were unconfined. + +A decrepit hack or two, a couple of old-fashioned surreys, and a few +"cut-unders" drove by, bearing the newly arrived and their valises, the +hotel omnibus depositing several commercial travellers at the door. A +solitary figure came from the station on foot, and when it appeared +within fair range of the window, Uncle Joe Davey, who had but hovered +on the flanks of the combat, first removed his spectacles and wiped +them, as though distrusting the vision they offered him, then, +replacing them, scanned anew the approaching figure and uttered a +smothered cry. + +"My Lord A'mighty!" he gasped. "What's this? Look there!" + +They looked. A truce came involuntarily, and they sat in paralytic +silence as the figure made its stately and sensational progress along +Main Street. + +Not only the aged men were smitten. Men shovelling snow from the +pavements stopped suddenly in their labors; two women, talking busily +on a doorstep, were stilled and remained in frozen attitudes as it +passed; a grocer's clerk, crossing the pavement, carrying a heavily +laden basket to his delivery wagon, halted half-way as the figure came +near, and then, making a pivot of his heels as it went by, behaved +towards it as does the magnetic needle to the pole. + +It was that of a tall gentleman, cheerfully, though somewhat with +ennui, enduring his nineteenth winter. His long and slender face he +wore smiling, beneath an accurately cut plaster of dark hair cornicing +his forehead, a fashion followed by many youths of that year. This +perfect bang was shown under a round black hat whose rim was so small +as almost not to be there at all; and the head was supported by a +waxy-white sea-wall of collar, rising three inches above the blue +billows of a puffed cravat, upon which floated a large, hollow pearl. +His ulster, sporting a big cape at the shoulders, and a tasselled hood +over the cape, was of a rough Scotch cloth, patterned in faint, +gray-and-white squares the size of baggage-checks, and it was so long +that the skirts trailed in the snow. His legs were lost in the +accurately creased, voluminous garments that were the tailors' canny +reaction from the tight trousers with which the 'Eighties had begun: +they were, in color, a palish russet, broadly striped with gray, and, +in size, surpassed the milder spirit of fashion so far as they +permitted a liberal knee action to take place almost without +superficial effect. Upon his feet glistened long shoes, shaped, save +for the heels, like sharp racing-shells; these were partially protected +by tan-colored low gaiters with flat, shiny, brown buttons. In one +hand the youth swung a bone-handled walking-stick, perhaps an inch and +a half in diameter, the other carried a yellow leather banjo-case, upon +the outer side of which glittered the embossed-silver initials, "E. B." +He was smoking, but walked with his head up, making use, however, of a +gait at that time new to Canaan, a seeming superbly irresponsible +lounge, engendering much motion of the shoulders, producing an effect +of carelessness combined with independence--an effect which the +innocent have been known to hail as an unconscious one. + +He looked about him as he came, smilingly, with an expression of +princely amusement--as an elderly cabinet minister, say, strolling +about a village where he had spent some months in his youth, a hamlet +which he had then thought large and imposing, but which, being +revisited after years of cosmopolitan glory, appeals to his whimsy and +his pity. The youth's glance at the court-house unmistakably said: +"Ah, I recall that odd little box. I thought it quite large in the days +before I became what I am now, and I dare say the good townsfolk still +think it an imposing structure!" With everything in sight he deigned to +be amused, especially with the old faces in the "National House" +windows. To these he waved his stick with airy graciousness. + +"My soul!" said Mr. Davey. "It seems to know some of us!" + +"Yes," agreed Mr. Arp, his voice recovered, "and _I_ know IT." + +"You do?" exclaimed the Colonel. + +"I do, and so do you. It's Fanny Louden's boy, 'Gene, come home for +his Christmas holidays." + +"By George! you're right," cried Flitcroft; "I recognize him now." + +"But what's the matter with him?" asked Mr. Bradbury, eagerly. "Has he +joined some patent-medicine troupe?" + +"Not a bit," replied Eskew. "He went East to college last fall." + +"Do they MAKE the boys wear them clothes?" persisted Bradbury. "Is it +some kind of uniform?" + +"I don't care what it is," said Jonas Tabor. "If I was Henry Louden I +wouldn't let him wear 'em around here." + +"Oh, you wouldn't, wouldn't you, Jonas?" Mr. Arp employed the accents +of sarcasm. "I'd like to see Henry Louden try to interfere with 'Gene +Bantry. Fanny'd lock the old fool up in the cellar." + +The lofty vision lurched out of view. + +"I reckon," said the Colonel, leaning forward to see the last of it--"I +reckon Henry Louden's about the saddest case of abused step-father I +ever saw." + +"It's his own fault," said Mr. Arp--"twice not havin' sense enough not +to marry. Him with a son of his own, too!" + +"Yes," assented the Colonel, "marryin' a widow with a son of her own, +and that widow Fanny!" + +"Wasn't it just the same with her first husband--Bantry?" Mr. Davey +asked, not for information, as he immediately answered himself. "You +bet it was! Didn't she always rule the roost? Yes, she did. She made +a god of 'Gene from the day he was born. Bantry's house was run for +him, like Louden's is now." + +"And look," exclaimed Mr. Arp, with satisfaction, "at the way he's +turned out!" + +"He ain't turned out at all yet; he's too young," said Buckalew. +"Besides, clothes don't make the man." + +"Wasn't he smokin' a cigareet!" cried Eskew, triumphantly. This was +final. + +"It's a pity Henry Louden can't do something for his own son," said Mr. +Bradbury. "Why don't he send him away to college?" + +"Fanny won't let him," chuckled Mr. Arp, malevolently. "Takes all +their spare change to keep 'Gene there in style. I don't blame her. +'Gene certainly acts the fool, but that Joe Louden is the orneriest boy +I ever saw in an ornery world-full." + +"He always was kind of misCHEEvous," admitted Buckalew. "I don't think +he's mean, though, and it does seem kind of not just right that Joe's +father's money--Bantry didn't leave anything to speak of--has to go to +keepin' 'Gene on the fat of the land, with Joe gittin' up at half-past +four to carry papers, and him goin' on nineteen years old." + +"It's all he's fit for!" exclaimed Eskew. "He's low down, I tell ye. +Ain't it only last week Judge Pike caught him shootin' craps with +Pike's nigger driver and some other nigger hired-men in the alley back +of Pike's barn." + +Mr. Schindlinger, the retired grocer, one of the silent members, +corroborated Eskew's information. "I heert dot, too," he gave forth, in +his fat voice. "He blays dominoes pooty often in der room back off +Louie Farbach's tsaloon. I see him myself. Pooty often. Blayin' fer a +leedle money--mit loafers! Loafers!" + +"Pretty outlook for the Loudens!" said Eskew Arp, much pleased. "One +boy a plum fool and dressed like it, the other gone to the dogs +already!" + +"What could you expect Joe to be?" retorted Squire Buckalew. "What +chance has he ever had? Long as I can remember Fanny's made him fetch +and carry for 'Gene. 'Gene's had everything--all the fancy clothes, +all the pocket-money, and now college!" + +"You ever hear that boy Joe talk politics?" asked Uncle Joe Davey, +crossing a cough with a chuckle. "His head's so full of schemes fer +running this town, and state, too, it's a wonder it don't bust. Henry +Louden told me he's see Joe set around and study by the hour how to +save three million dollars for the state in two years." + +"And the best he can do for himself," added Eskew, "is deliverin' the +Daily Tocsin on a second-hand Star bicycle and gamblin' with niggers +and riff-raff! None of the nice young folks invite him to their doin's +any more." + +"That's because he's got so shabby he's quit goin' with em," said +Buckalew. + +"No, it ain't," snapped Mr. Arp. "It's because he's so low down. He's +no more 'n a town outcast. There ain't ary one of the girls 'll have a +thing to do with him, except that rip-rarin' tom-boy next door to +Louden's; and the others don't have much to do with HER, neither, I can +tell ye. That Arie Tabor--" + +Colonel Flitcroft caught him surreptitiously by the arm. "SH, Eskew!" +he whispered. "Look out what you're sayin'!" + +"You needn't mind me," Jonas Tabor spoke up, crisply. "I washed my +hands of all responsibility for Roger's branch of the family long ago. +Never was one of 'em had the energy or brains to make a decent livin', +beginning with Roger; not one worth his salt! I set Roger's son up in +business, and all the return he ever made me was to go into bankruptcy +and take to drink, till he died a sot, like his wife did of shame. I +done all I could when I handed him over my store, and I never expect to +lift a finger for 'em again. Ariel Tabor's my grandniece, but she +didn't act like it, and you can say anything you like about her, for +what I care. The last time I spoke to her was a year and a half ago, +and I don't reckon I'll ever trouble to again." + +"How was that, Jonas?" quickly inquired Mr. Davey, who, being the +eldest of the party, was the most curious. "What happened?" + +"She was out in the street, up on that high bicycle of Joe Louden's. +He was teachin' her to ride, and she was sittin' on it like a man does. +I stopped and told her she wasn't respectable. Sixteen years old, goin' +on seventeen!" + +"What did she say?" + +"Laughed," said Jonas, his voice becoming louder as the recital of his +wrongs renewed their sting in his soul. "Laughed!" + +"What did you do?" + +"I went up to her and told her she wasn't a decent girl, and shook the +wheel." Mr. Tabor illustrated by seizing the lapels of Joe Davey and +shaking him. "I told her if her grandfather had any spunk she'd git an +old-fashioned hidin' for behavin' that way. And I shook the wheel +again." Here Mr. Tabor, forgetting in the wrath incited by the +recollection that he had not to do with an inanimate object, swung the +gasping and helpless Mr. Davey rapidly back and forth in his chair. "I +shook it good and hard!" + +"What did she do then?" asked Peter Bradbury. + +"Fell off on me," replied Jonas, violently. "On purpose!" + +"I wisht she'd killed ye," said Mr. Davey, in a choking voice, as, +released, he sank back in his chair. + +"On purpose!" repeated Jonas. "And smashed a straw hat I hadn't had +three months! All to pieces! So it couldn't be fixed!" + +"And what then?" pursued Bradbury. + +"SHE ran," replied Jonas, bitterly--"ran! And Joe Louden--Joe +Louden--" He paused and gulped. + +"What did he do?" Peter leaned forward in his chair eagerly. + +The narrator of the outrage gulped again, and opened and shut his mouth +before responding. + +"He said if I didn't pay for a broken spoke on his wheel he'd have to +sue me!" + +No one inquired if Jonas had paid, and Jonas said no more. The +recollection of his wrongs, together with the illustrative violence +offered to Mr. Davey, had been too much for him. He sank back, +panting, in his chair, his hands fluttering nervously over his heart, +and closed his eyes. + +"I wonder why," ruminated Mr. Bradbury--"I wonder why 'Gene Bantry +walked up from the deepo. Don't seem much like his style. Should +think he'd of rode up in a hack." + +"Sho!" said Uncle Joe Davey, his breath recovered. "He wanted to walk +up past Judge Pike's, to see if there wasn't a show of Mamie's bein' at +the window, and give her a chance to look at that college uniform and +banjo-box and new walk of his." + +Mr. Arp began to show signs of uneasiness. + +"I'd like mighty well to know," he said, shifting round in his chair, +"if there's anybody here that's been able to answer the question I PUT, +yesterday, just before we went home. You all tried to, but I didn't +hear anything I could consider anyways near even a fair argument." + +"Who tried to?" asked Buckalew, sharply, sitting up straight. "What +question?" + +"What proof can you bring me," began Mr. Arp, deliberately, "that we +folks, modernly, ain't more degenerate than the ancient Romans?" + + + +II + +A RESCUE + +Main Street, already muffled by the snow, added to its quietude a +frozen hush where the wonder-bearing youth pursued his course along its +white, straight way. None was there in whom impertinence overmastered +astonishment, or who recovered from the sight in time to jeer with +effect; no "Trab's boy" gathered courage to enact in the thoroughfare a +scene of mockery and of joy. Leaving business at a temporary +stand-still behind him, Mr. Bantry swept his long coat steadily over +the snow and soon emerged upon that part of the street where the mart +gave way to the home. The comfortable houses stood pleasantly back +from the street, with plenty of lawn and shrubbery about them; and +often, along the picket-fences, the laden branches of small cedars, +bending low with their burden, showered the young man's swinging +shoulders glitteringly as he brushed by. + +And now that expression he wore--the indulgent amusement of a man of +the world--began to disintegrate and show signs of change. It became +finely grave, as of a high conventionality, lofty, assured, and +mannered, as he approached the Pike mansion. (The remotest stranger +must at once perceive that the Canaan papers could not have called it +otherwise without pain.) + +It was a big, smooth-stone-faced house, product of the 'Seventies, +frowning under an outrageously insistent mansard, capped by a cupola, +and staring out of long windows overtopped with "ornamental" slabs. +Two cast-iron deer, painted death-gray, twins of the same mould, stood +on opposite sides of the front walk, their backs towards it and each +other, their bodies in profile to the street, their necks bent, +however, so that they gazed upon the passer-by--yet gazed without +emotion. Two large, calm dogs guarded the top of the steps leading to +the front-door; they also were twins and of the same interesting metal, +though honored beyond the deer by coats of black paint and shellac. It +was to be remarked that these dogs were of no distinguishable species +or breed, yet they were unmistakably dogs; the dullest must have +recognized them as such at a glance, which was, perhaps, enough. It +was a hideous house, important-looking, cold, yet harshly aggressive, a +house whose exterior provoked a shuddering guess of the brass +lambrequins and plush fringes within; a solid house, obviously--nay, +blatantly--the residence of the principal citizen, whom it had grown to +resemble, as is the impish habit of houses; and it sat in the middle of +its flat acre of snowy lawn like a rich, fat man enraged and sitting +straight up in bed to swear. + +And yet there was one charming thing about this ugly house. Some +workmen were enclosing a large side porch with heavy canvas, evidently +for festal purposes. Looking out from between two strips of the canvas +was the rosy and delicate face of a pretty girl, smiling upon Eugene +Bantry as he passed. It was an obviously pretty face, all the youth +and prettiness there for your very first glance; elaborately pretty, +like the splendid profusion of hair about and above it--amber-colored +hair, upon which so much time had been spent that a circle of large, +round curls rose above the mass of it like golden bubbles tipping a +coronet. + +The girl's fingers were pressed thoughtfully against her chin as Eugene +strode into view; immediately her eyes widened and brightened. He +swung along the fence with the handsomest appearance of +unconsciousness, until he reached a point nearly opposite her. Then he +turned his head, as if haphazardly, and met her eyes. At once she +threw out her hand towards him, waving him a greeting--a gesture which, +as her fingers had been near her lips, was a little like throwing a +kiss. He crooked an elbow and with a one-two-three military movement +removed his small-brimmed hat, extended it to full arm's-length at the +shoulder-level, returned it to his head with Life-Guard precision. This +was also new to Canaan. He was letting Mamie Pike have it all at once. + +The impression was as large as he could have desired. She remained at +the opening in the canvas and watched him until he wagged his shoulders +round the next corner and disappeared into a cross street. As for +Eugene, he was calm with a great calm, and very red. + +He had not covered a great distance, however, before his gravity was +replaced by his former smiling look of the landed gentleman amused by +the innocent pastimes of the peasants, though there was no one in sight +except a woman sweeping some snow from the front steps of a cottage, +and she, not perceiving him, retired in-doors without knowing her loss. +He had come to a thinly built part of the town, the perfect quiet of +which made the sound he heard as he opened the picket gate of his own +home all the more startling. It was a scream--loud, frantic, and +terror-stricken. + +Eugene stopped, with the gate half open. + +Out of the winter skeleton of a grape-arbor at one side of the +four-square brick house a brown-faced girl of seventeen precipitated +herself through the air in the midst of a shower of torn card-board +which she threw before her as she leaped. She lit upon her toes and +headed for the gate at top speed, pursued by a pale young man whose +thin arms strove spasmodically to reach her. Scattering snow behind +them, hair flying, the pair sped on like two tattered branches before a +high wind; for, as they came nearer Eugene (of whom, in the tensity of +their flight, they took no note), it was to be seen that both were so +shabbily dressed as to be almost ragged. There was a brown patch upon +the girl's faded skirt at the knee; the shortness of the garment +indicating its age to be something over three years, as well as +permitting the knowledge to become more general than befitting that her +cotton stockings had been clumsily darned in several places. Her +pursuer was in as evil case; his trousers displayed a tendency to +fringedness at pocket and heel; his coat, blowing open as he ran, threw +pennants of torn lining to the breeze, and made it too plain that there +were but three buttons on his waistcoat. + +The girl ran beautifully, but a fleeter foot was behind her, and though +she dodged and evaded like a creature of the woods, the reaching hand +fell upon the loose sleeve of her red blouse, nor fell lightly. She +gave a wrench of frenzy; the antique fabric refused the strain; parted +at the shoulder seam so thoroughly that the whole sleeve came away--but +not to its owner's release, for she had been brought round by the jerk, +so that, agile as she had shown herself, the pursuer threw an arm about +her neck, before she could twist away, and held her. + +There was a sharp struggle, as short as it was fierce. Neither of +these extraordinary wrestlers spoke. They fought. Victory hung in the +balance for perhaps four seconds; then the girl was thrown heavily upon +her back, in such a turmoil of snow that she seemed to be the mere +nucleus of a white comet. She struggled to get up, plying knee and +elbow with a very anguish of determination; but her opponent held her, +pinioned both her wrists with one hand, and with the other rubbed great +handfuls of snow into her face, sparing neither mouth nor eyes. + +"You will!" he cried. "You will tear up my pictures! A dirty trick, +and you get washed for it!" + +Half suffocated, choking, gasping, she still fought on, squirming and +kicking with such spirit that the pair of them appeared to the beholder +like figures of mist writhing in a fountain of snow. + +More violence was to mar the peace of morning. Unexpectedly attacked +from the rear, the conqueror was seized by the nape of the neck and one +wrist, and jerked to his feet, simultaneously receiving a succession of +kicks from his assailant. Prompted by an entirely natural curiosity, he +essayed to turn his head to see who this might be, but a twist of his +forearm and the pressure of strong fingers under his ear constrained +him to remain as he was; therefore, abandoning resistance, and, oddly +enough, accepting without comment the indication that his captor +desired to remain for the moment incognito, he resorted calmly to +explanations. + +"She tore up a picture of mine," he said, receiving the punishment +without apparent emotion. "She seemed to think because she'd drawn it +herself she had a right to." + +There was a slight whimsical droop at the corner of his mouth as he +spoke, which might have been thought characteristic of him. He was an +odd-looking boy, not ill-made, though very thin and not tall. His +pallor was clear and even, as though constitutional; the features were +delicate, almost childlike, but they were very slightly distorted, +through nervous habit, to an expression at once wistful and humorous; +one eyebrow was a shade higher than the other, one side of the mouth +slightly drawn down; the eyelids twitched a little, habitually; the +fine, blue eyes themselves were almost comically reproachful--the look +of a puppy who thinks you would not have beaten him if you had known +what was in his heart. All of this was in the quality of his voice, +too, as he said to his invisible captor, with an air of detachment from +any personal feeling: + +"What peculiar shoes you wear! I don't think I ever felt any so +pointed before." + +The rescuing knight took no thought of offering to help the persecuted +damsel to arise; instead, he tightened his grip upon the prisoner's +neck until, perforce, water--not tears--started from the latter's eyes. + +"You miserable little muff," said the conqueror, "what the devil do you +mean, making this scene on our front lawn?" + +"Why, it's Eugene!" exclaimed the helpless one. "They didn't expect you +till to-night. When did you get in?" + +"Just in time to give you a lesson, my buck," replied Bantry, grimly. +"In GOOD time for that, my playful step-brother." + +He began to twist the other's wrist--a treatment of bone and ligament +in the application of which school-boys and even freshmen are often +adept. Eugene made the torture acute, and was apparently enjoying the +work, when suddenly--without any manner of warning--he received an +astounding blow upon the left ear, which half stunned him for the +moment, and sent his hat flying and himself reeling, so great was the +surprise and shock of it. It was not a slap, not an open-handed push, +nothing like it, but a fierce, well-delivered blow from a clinched fist +with the shoulder behind it, and it was the girl who had given it. + +"Don't you dare to touch Joe!" she cried, passionately. "Don't you lay +a finger on him." + +Furious and red, he staggered round to look at her. + +"You wretched little wild-cat, what do you mean by that?" he broke out. + +"Don't you touch Joe!" she panted. "Don't you--" Her breath caught +and there was a break in her voice as she faced him. She could not +finish the repetition of that cry, "Don't you touch Joe!" + +But there was no break in the spirit, that passion of protection which +had dealt the blow. Both boys looked at her, something aghast. + +She stood before them, trembling with rage and shivering with cold in +the sudden wind which had come up. Her hair had fallen and blew across +her streaming face in brown witch-wisps; one of the ill-darned +stockings had come down and hung about her shoe in folds full of snow; +the arm which had lost its sleeve was bare and wet; thin as the arm of +a growing boy, it shook convulsively, and was red from shoulder to +clinched fist. She was covered with snow. Mists of white drift blew +across her, mercifully half veiling her. + +Eugene recovered himself. He swung round upon his heel, restored his +hat to his head with precision, picked up his stick and touched his +banjo-case with it. + +"Carry that into the house," he said, indifferently, to his +step-brother. + +"Don't you do it!" said the girl, hotly, between her chattering teeth. + +Eugene turned towards her, wearing the sharp edge of a smile. Not +removing his eyes from her face, he produced with deliberation a flat +silver box from a pocket, took therefrom a cigarette, replaced the box, +extracted a smaller silver box from another pocket, shook out of it a +fusee, slowly lit the cigarette--this in a splendid silence, which he +finally broke to say, languidly, but with particular distinctness: + +"Ariel Tabor, go home!" + +The girl's teeth stopped chattering, her lips remaining parted; she +shook the hair out of her eyes and stared at him as if she did not +understand, but Joe Louden, who had picked up the banjo-case +obediently, burst into cheerful laughter. + +"That's it, 'Gene," he cried, gayly. "That's the way to talk to her!" + +"Stow it, you young cub," replied Eugene, not turning to him. "Do you +think I'm trying to be amusing?" + +"I don't know what you mean by 'stow it,'" Joe began, "but if--" + +"I mean," interrupted the other, not relaxing his faintly smiling stare +at the girl--"I mean that Ariel Tabor is to go home. Really, we can't +have this kind of thing occurring upon our front lawn!" + +The flush upon her wet cheeks deepened and became dark; even her arm +grew redder as she gazed back at him. In his eyes was patent his +complete realization of the figure she cut, of this bare arm, of the +strewn hair, of the fallen stocking, of the ragged shoulder of her +blouse, of her patched short skirt, of the whole dishevelled little +figure. He was the master of the house, and he was sending her home as +ill-behaved children are sent home by neighbors. + +The immobile, amused superiority of this proprietor of silver boxes, +this wearer of strange and brilliant garments, became slightly +intensified as he pointed to the fallen sleeve, a rag of red and snow, +lying near her feet. + +"You might take that with you?" he said, interrogatively. + +Her gaze had not wavered in meeting his, but at this her eyelashes +began to wink uncontrollably, her chin to tremble. She bent over the +sleeve and picked it up, before Joe Louden, who had started towards +her, could do it for her. Then turning, her head still bent so that +her face was hidden from both of them, she ran out of the gate. + +"DO go!" Joe called after her, vehemently. "Go! Just to show what a +fool you are to think 'Gene's in earnest." + +He would have followed, but his step-brother caught him by the arm. +"Don't stop her," said Eugene. "Can't you tell when I AM in earnest, +you bally muff!" + +"I know you are," returned the other, in a low voice. "I didn't want +her to think so for your sake." + +"Thousands of thanks," said Eugene, airily. "You are a wise young +judge. She couldn't stay--in THAT state, could she? I sent her for +her own good." + +"She could have gone in the house and your mother might have loaned her +a jacket," returned Joe, swallowing. "You had no business to make her +go out in the street like that." + +Eugene laughed. "There isn't a soul in sight--and there, she's all +right now. She's home." + +Ariel had run along the fence until she came to the next gate, which +opened upon a walk leading to a shabby, meandering old house of one +story, with a very long, low porch, once painted white, running the +full length of the front. Ariel sprang upon the porch and disappeared +within the house. + +Joe stood looking after her, his eyelashes winking as had hers. "You +oughtn't to have treated her that way," he said, huskily. + +Eugene laughed again. "How were YOU treating her when I came up? You +bully her all you want to yourself, but nobody else must say even a +fatherly word to her!" + +"That wasn't bullying," explained Joe. "We fight all the time." + +"Mais oui!" assented Eugene. "I fancy!" + +"What?" said the other, blankly. + +"Pick up that banjo-case again and come on," commanded Mr. Bantry, +tartly. "Where's the mater?" + +Joe stared at him. "Where's what?" + +"The mater!" was the frowning reply. + +"Oh yes, I know!" said Joe, looking at his step-brother curiously. +"I've seen it in stories. She's up-stairs. You'll be a surprise. +You're wearing lots of clothes, 'Gene." + +"I suppose it will seem so to Canaan," returned the other, weariedly. +"Governor feeling fit?" + +"I never saw him," Joe replied; then caught himself. "Oh, I see what +you mean! Yes, he's all right." + +They had come into the hall, and Eugene was removing the long coat, +while his step-brother looked at him thoughtfully. + +"'Gene," asked the latter, in a softened voice, "have you seen Mamie +Pike yet?" + +"You will find, my young friend," responded Mr. Bantry, "if you ever go +about much outside of Canaan, that ladies' names are not supposed to be +mentioned indiscriminately." + +"It's only," said Joe, "that I wanted to say that there's a dance at +their house to-night. I suppose you'll be going?" + +"Certainly. Are you?" + +Both knew that the question was needless; but Joe answered, gently: + +"Oh no, of course not." He leaned over and fumbled with one foot as if +to fasten a loose shoe-string. "She wouldn't be very likely to ask me." + +"Well, what about it?" + +"Only that--that Arie Tabor's going." + +"Indeed!" Eugene paused on the stairs, which he had begun to ascend. +"Very interesting." + +"I thought," continued Joe, hopefully, straightening up to look at him, +"that maybe you'd dance with her. I don't believe many will ask +her--I'm afraid they won't--and if you would, even only once, it would +kind of make up for"--he faltered--"for out there," he finished, +nodding his head in the direction of the gate. + +If Eugene vouchsafed any reply, it was lost in a loud, shrill cry from +above, as a small, intensely nervous-looking woman in blue silk ran +half-way down the stairs to meet him and caught him tearfully in her +arms. + +"Dear old mater!" said Eugene. + +Joe went out of the front-door quickly. + + + +III + +OLD HOPES + +The door which Ariel had entered opened upon a narrow hall, and down +this she ran to her own room, passing, with face averted, the entrance +to the broad, low-ceilinged chamber that had served Roger Tabor as a +studio for almost fifty years. He was sitting there now, in a hopeless +and disconsolate attitude, with his back towards the double doors, +which were open, and had been open since their hinges had begun to give +way, when Ariel was a child. Hearing her step, he called her name, but +did not turn; and, receiving no answer, sighed faintly as he heard her +own door close upon her. + +Then, as his eyes wandered about the many canvases which leaned against +the dingy walls, he sighed again. Usually they showed their brown +backs, but to-day he had turned them all to face outward. Twilight, +sunset, moonlight (the Court-house in moonlight), dawn, morning, noon +(Main Street at noon), high summer, first spring, red autumn, +midwinter, all were there--illimitably detailed, worked to a smoothness +like a glaze, and all lovingly done with unthinkable labor. + +And there were "Italian Flower-Sellers," damsels with careful hair, two +figures together, one blonde, the other as brunette as lampblack, the +blonde--in pink satin and blue slippers--leaning against a pillar and +smiling over the golden coins for which she had exchanged her posies; +the brunette seated at her feet, weeping upon an unsold bouquet. There +were red-sashed "Fisher Lads" wading with butterfly-nets on their +shoulders; there was a "Tying the Ribbon on Pussy's Neck"; there were +portraits in oil and petrifactions in crayon, as hard and tight as the +purses of those who had refused to accept them, leaving them upon their +maker's hands because the likeness had failed. + +After a time the old man got up, went to his easel near a window, and, +sighing again, began patiently to work upon one of these failures--a +portrait, in oil, of a savage old lady, which he was doing from a +photograph. The expression of the mouth and the shape of the nose had +not pleased her descendants and the beneficiaries under the will, and +it was upon the images of these features that Roger labored. He leaned +far forward, with his face close to the canvas, holding his brushes +after the Spencerian fashion, working steadily through the afternoon, +and, when the light grew dimmer, leaning closer to his canvas to see. +When it had become almost dark in the room, he lit a student-lamp with +a green-glass shade, and, placing it upon a table beside him, continued +to paint. Ariel's voice interrupted him at last. + +"It's quitting-time, grandfather," she called, gently, from the doorway +behind him. + +He sank back in his chair, conscious, for the first time, of how tired +he had grown. "I suppose so," he said, "though it seemed to me that I +was just getting my hand in." His eyes brightened for a moment. "I +declare, I believe I've caught it a great deal better. Come and look, +Ariel. Doesn't it seem to you that I'm getting it? Those pearly +shadows in the flesh--" + +"I'm sure of it. Those people ought to be very proud to have it." She +came to him quietly, took the palette and brushes from his hands and +began to clean them, standing in the shadow behind him. "It's too good +for them." + +"I wonder if it is," he said, slowly, leaning forward and curving his +hands about his eyes so as to shut off everything from his view except +the canvas. "I wonder if it is!" he repeated. Then his hands dropped +sadly in his lap, and he sank back again with a patient kind of +revulsion. "No, no, it isn't! I always think they're good when I've +just finished them. I've been fooled that way all my life. They don't +look the same afterwards." + +"They're always beautiful," she said, softly. + +"Ah, ah!" he sighed. + +"Now, Roger!" she cried, with cheerful sharpness, continuing her work. + +"I know," he said, with a plaintive laugh,--"I know. Sometimes I think +that all my reward has been in the few minutes I've had just after +finishing them. During those few minutes I seem to see in them all +that I wanted to put in them; I see it because what I've been trying to +express is still so warm in my own eyes that I seem to have got it on +the canvas where I wanted it." + +"But you do," she said. "You do get it there." + +"No," he murmured, in return. "I never did. I got out some of the old +ones when I came in this morning, some that I hadn't looked at for +years, and it's the same with them. You can do it much better +yourself--your sketches show it." + +"No, no!" she protested, quickly. + +"Yes, they do; and I wondered if it was only because you were young. +But those I did when I was young are almost the same as the ones I +paint now. I haven't learned much. There hasn't been any one to show +me! And you can't learn from print, never! Yet I've grown in what I +SEE--grown so that the world is full of beauty to me that I never +dreamed of seeing when I began. But I can't paint it--I can't get it on +the canvas. Ah, I think I might have known how to, if I hadn't had to +teach myself, if I could only have seen how some of the other fellows +did their work. If I'd ever saved money to get away from Canaan--if I +could have gone away from it and come back knowing how to paint it--if +I could have got to Paris for just one month! PARIS--for just one +month!" + +"Perhaps we will; you can't tell what MAY happen." It was always her +reply to this cry of his. + +"PARIS--for just one month!" he repeated, with infinite wistfulness, +and then realizing what an old, old cry it was with him, he shook his +head, impatiently sniffing out a laugh at himself, rose and went +pottering about among the canvases, returning their faces to the wall, +and railing at them mutteringly. + +"Whatever took me into it, I don't know. I might have done something +useful. But I couldn't bring myself ever to consider doing anything +else--I couldn't bear even to think of it! Lord forgive me, I even +tried to encourage your father to paint. Perhaps he might as well, poor +boy, as to have put all he'd made into buying Jonas out. Ah me! There +you go, 'Flower-Girls'! Turn your silly faces to the wall and smile +and cry there till I'm gone and somebody throws you on a bonfire. I'LL +never look at you again." He paused, with the canvas half turned. +"And yet," he went on, reflectively, "a man promised me thirty-five +dollars for that picture once. I painted it to order, but he went away +before I finished it, and never answered the letters I wrote him about +it. I wish I had the money now--perhaps we could have more than two +meals a day." + +"We don't need more," said Ariel, scraping the palette attentively. +"It's healthier with only breakfast and supper. I think I'd rather +have a new dress than dinner." + +"I dare say you would," the old man mused. "You're young--you're young. +What were you doing all this afternoon, child?" + +"In my room, trying to make over mamma's wedding-dress for to-night." + +"To-night?" + +"Mamie Pike invited me to a dance at their house." + +"Very well; I'm glad you're going to be gay," he said, not seeing the +faintly bitter smile that came to her face. + +"I don't think I'll be very gay," she answered. + +"I don't know why I go--nobody ever asks me to dance." + +"Why not?" he asked, with an old man's astonishment. + +"I don't know. Perhaps it's because I don't dress very well." Then, +as he made a sorrowful gesture, she cut him off before he could speak. +"Oh, it isn't altogether because we're poor; it's more I don't know how +to wear what I've got, the way some girls do. I never cared much +and--well, I'M not worrying, Roger! And I think I've done a good deal +with mamma's dress. It's a very grand dress. I wonder I never thought +of wearing it until to-day. I may be"--she laughed and blushed--"I may +be the belle of the ball--who knows!" + +"You'll want me to walk over with you and come for you afterwards, I +expect." + +"Only to take me. It may be late when I come away--if a good many +SHOULD ask me to dance, for once! Of course I could come home alone. +But Joe Louden is going to sort of hang around outside, and he'll meet +me at the gate and see me safe home." + +"Oh!" he exclaimed, blankly. + +"Isn't it all right?" she asked. + +"I think I'd better come for you," he answered, gently. "The truth is, +I--I think you'd better not be with Joe Louden a great deal." + +"Why?" + +"Well, he doesn't seem a vicious boy to me, but I'm afraid he's getting +rather a bad name, my dear." + +"He's not getting one," she said, gravely. "He's already got one. +He's had a bad name in Canaan for a long while. It grew in the first +place out of shabbiness and mischief, but it did grow; and if people +keep on giving him a bad name the time will come when he'll live up to +it. He's not any worse than I am, and I guess my own name isn't too +good--for a girl. And yet, so far, there's nothing against him except +his bad name." + +"I'm afraid there is," said Roger. "It doesn't look very well for a +young man of his age to be doing no better than delivering papers." + +"It gives him time to study law," she answered, quickly. "If he +clerked all day in a store, he couldn't." + +"I didn't know he was studying now. I thought I'd heard that he was in +a lawyer's office for a few weeks last year, and was turned out for +setting fire to it with a pipe--" + +"It was an accident," she interposed. + +"But some pretty important papers were burned, and after that none of +the other lawyers would have him." + +"He's not in an office," she admitted. "I didn't mean that. But he +studies a great deal. He goes to the courts all the time they're in +session, and he's bought some books of his own." + +"Well--perhaps," he assented; "but they say he gambles and drinks, and +that last week Judge Pike threatened to have him arrested for throwing +dice with some negroes behind the Judge's stable." + +"What of it? I'm about the only nice person in town that will have +anything to do with him--and nobody except you thinks I'M very nice!" + +"Ariel! Ariel!" + +"I know all about his gambling with darkies," she continued, excitedly, +her voice rising, "and I know that he goes to saloons, and that he's an +intimate friend of half the riffraff in town; and I know the reason for +it, too, because he's told me. He wants to know them, to understand +them; and he says some day they'll make him a power, and then he can +help them!" + +The old man laughed helplessly. "But I can't let him bring you home, +my dear." + +She came to him slowly and laid her hands upon his shoulders. +Grandfather and granddaughter were nearly of the same height, and she +looked squarely into his eyes. "Then you must say it is because you +want to come for me, not because I mustn't come with Joe." + +"But I think it is a little because you mustn't come with Joe," he +answered, "especially from the Pikes'. Don't you see that it mightn't +be well for Joe himself, if the Judge should happen to see him? I +understand he warned the boy to keep away from the neighborhood +entirely or he would have him locked up for dice-throwing. The Judge +is a very influential man, you know, and as determined in matters like +this as he is irritable." + +"Oh, if you put it on that ground," the girl replied, her eyes +softening, "I think you'd better come for me yourself." + +"Very well, I put it on that ground," he returned, smiling upon her. + +"Then I'll send Joe word and get supper," she said, kissing him. + +It was the supper-hour not only for them but everywhere in Canaan, and +the cold air of the streets bore up and down and around corners the +smell of things frying. The dining-room windows of all the houses +threw bright patches on the snow of the side-yards; the windows of +other rooms, except those of the kitchens, were dark, for the rule of +the place was Puritanical in thrift, as in all things; and the good +housekeepers disputed every record of the meters with unhappy +gas-collectors. + +There was no better housekeeper in town than Mrs. Louden, nor a +thriftier, but hers was one of the few houses in Canaan, that evening, +which showed bright lights in the front rooms while the family were at +supper. It was proof of the agitation caused by the arrival of Eugene +that she forgot to turn out the gas in her parlor, and in the chamber +she called a library, on her way to the evening meal. + +That might not have been thought a cheerful feast for Joe Louden. The +fatted calf was upon the board, but it had not been provided for the +prodigal, who, in this case, was the brother that stayed at home: the +fete rewarded the good brother, who had been in strange lands, and the +good one had found much honor in his wanderings, as he carelessly let +it appear. Mrs. Louden brightened inexpressibly whenever Eugene spoke +of himself, and consequently she glowed most of the time. Her +husband--a heavy, melancholy, silent man with a grizzled beard and no +mustache--lowered at Joe throughout the meal, but appeared to take a +strange comfort in his step-son's elegance and polish. Eugene wore new +evening clothes and was lustrous to eye and ear. + +Joe escaped as soon as he could, though not before the count of his +later sins had been set before Eugene in detail, in mass, and in all of +their depth, breadth, and thickness. His father spoke but once, after +nodding heavily to confirm all points of Mrs. Louden's recital. + +"You better use any influence you've got with your brother," he said to +Eugene, "to make him come to time. I can't do anything with him. If +he gets in trouble, he needn't come to me! I'll never help him again. +I'm TIRED of it!" + +Eugene glanced twinklingly at the outcast. "I didn't know he was such +a roarer as all that!" he said, lightly, not taking Joe as of enough +consequence to be treated as a sinner. + +This encouraged Mrs. Louden to pathos upon the subject of her shame +before other women when Joe happened to be mentioned, and the supper +was finished with the topic. Joe slipped away through the kitchen, +sneakingly, and climbed the back fence. In the alley he lit a cheap +cigarette, and thrusting his hands into his pockets and shivering +violently--for he had no overcoat,--walked away singing to himself, "A +Spanish cavalier stood in his retreat," his teeth affording an +appropriate though involuntary castanet accompaniment. + +His movements throughout the earlier part of that evening are of +uncertain report. It is known that he made a partial payment of +forty-five cents at a second-hand book-store for a number of +volumes--Grindstaff on Torts and some others--which he had negotiated +on the instalment system; it is also believed that he won twenty-eight +cents playing seven-up in the little room behind Louie Farbach's bar; +but these things are of little import compared to the established fact +that at eleven o'clock he was one of the ball guests at the Pike +Mansion. He took no active part in the festivities, nor was he one of +the dancers: his was, on the contrary, the role of a quiet observer. +He lay stretched at full length upon the floor of the enclosed porch +(one of the strips of canvas was later found to have been loosened), +wedged between the outer railing and a row of palms in green tubs. The +position he occupied was somewhat too draughty to have been recommended +by a physician, but he commanded, between the leaves of the screening +palms, an excellent view of the room nearest the porch. A long window, +open, afforded communication between this room, one of those used for +dancing, and the dim bower which had been made of the veranda, whither +flirtatious couples made their way between the dances. + +It was not to play eavesdropper upon any of these that the uninvited +Joe had come. He was not there to listen, and it is possible that, had +the curtains of other windows afforded him the chance to behold the +dance, he might not have risked the dangers of his present position. +He had not the slightest interest in the whispered coquetries that he +heard; he watched only to catch now and then, over the shoulders of the +dancers, a fitful glimpse of a pretty head that flitted across the +window--the amber hair of Mamie Pike. He shivered in the draughts; and +the floor of the porch was cement, painful to elbow and knee, the space +where he lay cramped and narrow; but the golden bubbles of her hair, +the shimmer of her dainty pink dress, and the fluffy wave of her lace +scarf as she crossed and recrossed in a waltz, left him, apparently, in +no discontent. He watched with parted lips, his pale cheeks reddening +whenever those fair glimpses were his. At last she came out to the +veranda with Eugene and sat upon a little divan, so close to Joe that, +daring wildly in the shadow, he reached out a trembling hand and let +his fingers rest upon the end of her scarf, which had fallen from her +shoulders and touched the floor. She sat with her back to him, as did +Eugene. + +"You have changed, I think, since last summer," he heard her say, +reflectively. + +"For the worse, ma cherie?" Joe's expression might have been worth +seeing when Eugene said "ma cherie," for it was known in the Louden +household that Mr. Bantry had failed to pass his examination in the +French language. + +"No," she answered. "But you have seen so much and accomplished so +much since then. You have become so polished and so--" She paused, and +then continued, "But perhaps I'd better not say it; you might be +offended." + +"No. I want you to say it," he returned, confidently, and his +confidence was fully justified, for she said: + +"Well, then, I mean that you have become so thoroughly a man of the +world. Now I've said it! You ARE offended--aren't you?" + +"Not at all, not at all," replied Mr. Bantry, preventing by a masterful +effort his pleasure from showing in his face. "Though I suppose you +mean to imply that I'm rather wicked." + +"Oh no," said Mamie, with profound admiration, "not exactly wicked." + +"University life IS fast nowadays," Eugene admitted. "It's difficult +not to be drawn into it!" + +"And I suppose you look down on poor little Canaan now, and everybody +in it!" + +"Oh no," he laughed, indulgently. "Not at all, not at all! I find it +very amusing." + +"All of it?" + +"Not you," he answered, becoming very grave. + +"Honestly--DON'T you?" Her young voice trembled a little. + +"Honestly--indeed--truly--" Eugene leaned very close to her and the +words were barely audible. + +"You KNOW I don't!" + +"Then I'm--glad," she whispered, and Joe saw his step-brother touch her +hand, but she rose quickly. "There's the music," she cried, happily. +"It's a waltz, and it's YOURS!" + +Joe heard her little high heels tapping gayly towards the window, +followed by the heavier tread of Eugene, but he did not watch them go. + +He lay on his back, with the hand that had touched Mamie's scarf +pressed across his closed eyes. + +The music of that waltz was of the old-fashioned swingingly sorrowful +sort, and it would be hard to say how long it was after that before the +boy could hear the air played without a recurrence of the bitterness of +that moment. The rhythmical pathos of the violins was in such accord +with a faint sound of weeping which he heard near him, presently, that +for a little while he believed this sound to be part of the music and +part of himself. Then it became more distinct, and he raised himself +on one elbow to look about. + +Very close to him, sitting upon the divan in the shadow, was a girl +wearing a dress of beautiful silk. She was crying softly, her face in +her hands. + + + +IV + +THE DISASTER + +Ariel had worked all the afternoon over her mother's wedding-gown, and +two hours were required by her toilet for the dance. She curled her +hair frizzily, burning it here and there, with a slate-pencil heated +over a lamp chimney, and she placed above one ear three or four large +artificial roses, taken from an old hat of her mother's, which she had +found in a trunk in the store-room. Possessing no slippers, she +carefully blacked and polished her shoes, which had been clumsily +resoled, and fastened into the strings of each small rosettes of red +ribbon; after which she practised swinging the train of her skirt until +she was proud of her manipulation of it. She had no powder, but found +in her grandfather's room a lump of magnesia, that he was in the habit +of taking for heart-burn, and passed it over and over her brown face +and hands. Then a lingering gaze into her small mirror gave her joy at +last: she yearned so hard to see herself charming that she did see +herself so. Admiration came and she told herself that she was more +attractive to look at than she had ever been in her life, and that, +perhaps, at last she might begin to be sought for like other girls. +The little glass showed a sort of prettiness in her thin, unmatured +young face; tripping dance-tunes ran through her head, her feet keeping +the time,--ah, she did so hope to dance often that night! +Perhaps--perhaps she might be asked for every number. And so, wrapping +an old waterproof cloak about her, she took her grandfather's arm and +sallied forth, high hopes in her beating heart. + +It was in the dressing-room that the change began to come. Alone, at +home in her own ugly little room, she had thought herself almost +beautiful, but here in the brightly lighted chamber crowded with the +other girls it was different. There was a big cheval-glass at one end +of the room, and she faced it, when her turn came--for the mirror was +popular--with a sinking spirit. There was the contrast, like a picture +painted and framed. The other girls all wore their hair after the +fashion introduced to Canaan by Mamie Pike the week before, on her +return from a visit to Chicago. None of them had "crimped" and none +had bedecked their tresses with artificial flowers. Her alterations of +the wedding-dress had not been successful; the skirt was too short in +front and higher on one side than on the other, showing too plainly the +heavy-soled shoes, which had lost most of their polish in the walk +through the snow. The ribbon rosettes were fully revealed, and as she +glanced at their reflection she heard the words, "LOOK AT THAT TRAIN +AND THOSE ROSETTES!" whispered behind her, and saw in the mirror two +pretty young women turn away with their handkerchiefs over their mouths +and retreat hurriedly to an alcove. All the feet in the room except +Ariel's were in dainty kid or satin slippers of the color of the +dresses from which they glimmered out, and only Ariel wore a train. + +She went away from the mirror and pretended to be busy with a hanging +thread in her sleeve. + +She was singularly an alien in the chattering room, although she had +been born and lived all her life in the town. Perhaps her position +among the young ladies may be best defined by the remark, generally +current among them, that evening, to the effect that it was "very sweet +of Mamie to invite her." Ariel was not like the others; she was not of +them, and never had been. Indeed, she did not know them very well. +Some of them nodded to her and gave her a word of greeting pleasantly; +all of them whispered about her with wonder and suppressed amusement; +but none talked to her. They were not unkindly, but they were young +and eager and excited over their own interests,--which were then in the +"gentlemen's dressing-room." + +Each of the other girls had been escorted by a youth of the place, and, +one by one, joining these escorts in the hall outside the door, they +descended the stairs, until only Ariel was left. She came down alone +after the first dance had begun, and greeted her young hostess's mother +timidly. Mrs. Pike--a small, frightened-looking woman with a prominent +ruby necklace--answered her absently, and hurried away to see that the +imported waiters did not steal anything. + +Ariel sat in one of the chairs against the wall and watched the dancers +with a smile of eager and benevolent interest. In Canaan no parents, +no guardians nor aunts, were haled forth o' nights to duenna the +junketings of youth; Mrs. Pike did not reappear, and Ariel sat +conspicuously alone; there was nothing else for her to do. It was not +an easy matter. + +When the first dance reached an end, Mamie Pike came to her for a +moment with a cheery welcome, and was immediately surrounded by a +circle of young men and women, flushed with dancing, shouting as was +their wont, laughing inexplicably over words and phrases and +unintelligible mono-syllables, as if they all belonged to a secret +society and these cries were symbols of things exquisitely humorous, +which only they understood. Ariel laughed with them more heartily than +any other, so that she might seem to be of them and as merry as they +were, but almost immediately she found herself outside of the circle, +and presently they all whirled away into another dance, and she was +left alone again. + +So she sat, no one coming near her, through several dances, trying to +maintain the smile of delighted interest upon her face, though she felt +the muscles of her face beginning to ache with their fixedness, her +eyes growing hot and glazed. All the other girls were provided with +partners for every dance, with several young men left over, these +latter lounging hilariously together in the doorways. Ariel was careful +not to glance towards them, but she could not help hating them. Once +or twice between the dances she saw Miss Pike speak appealingly to one +of the superfluous, glancing, at the same time, in her own direction, +and Ariel could see, too, that the appeal proved unsuccessful, until at +last Mamie approached her, leading Norbert Flitcroft, partly by the +hand, partly by will-power. Norbert was an excessively fat boy, and at +the present moment looked as patient as the blind. But he asked Ariel +if she was "engaged for the next dance," and, Mamie having flitted +away, stood disconsolately beside her, waiting for the music to begin. +Ariel was grateful for him. + +"I think you must be very good-natured, Mr. Flitcroft," she said, with +an air of raillery. + +"No, I'm not," he replied, plaintively. "Everybody thinks I am because +I'm fat, and they expect me to do things they never dream of asking +anybody else to do. I'd like to see 'em even ASK 'Gene Bantry to go +and do some of the things they get me to do! A person isn't +good-natured just because he's fat," he concluded, morbidly, "but he +might as well be!" + +"Oh, I meant good-natured," she returned, with a sprightly laugh, +"because you're willing to waltz with me." + +"Oh, well," he returned, sighing, "that's all right." + +The orchestra flourished into "La Paloma"; he put his arm mournfully +about her, and taking her right hand with his left, carried her arm out +to a rigid right angle, beginning to pump and balance for time. They +made three false starts and then got away. Ariel danced badly; she +hopped and lost the step, but they persevered, bumping against other +couples continually. Circling breathlessly into the next room, they +passed close to a long mirror, in which Ariel saw herself, although in +a flash, more bitterly contrasted to the others than in the +cheval-glass of the dressing-room. The clump of roses was flopping +about her neck, her crimped hair looked frowzy, and there was something +terribly wrong about her dress. Suddenly she felt her train to be +ominously grotesque, as a thing following her in a nightmare. + +A moment later she caught her partner making a burlesque face of +suffering over her shoulder, and, turning her head quickly, saw for +whose benefit he had constructed it. Eugene Bantry, flying expertly by +with Mamie, was bestowing upon Mr. Flitcroft a condescendingly +commiserative wink. The next instant she tripped in her train and fell +to the floor at Eugene's feet, carrying her partner with her. + +There was a shout of laughter. The young hostess stopped Eugene, who +would have gone on, and he had no choice but to stoop to Ariel's +assistance. + +"It seems to be a habit of mine," she said, laughing loudly. + +She did not appear to see the hand he offered, but got to her feet +without help and walked quickly away with Norbert, who proceeded to +live up to the character he had given himself. + +"Perhaps we had better not try it again," she laughed. + +"Well, I should think not," he returned, with the frankest gloom. With +the air of conducting her home he took her to the chair against the +wall whence he had brought her. There his responsibility for her +seemed to cease. "Will you excuse me?" he asked, and there was no +doubt that he felt that he had been given more than his share that +evening, even though he was fat. + +"Yes, indeed." Her laughter was continuous. "I should think you WOULD +be glad to get rid of me after that. Ha, ha, ha! Poor Mr. Flitcroft, +you know you are!" + +It was the deadly truth, and the fat one, saying, "Well, if you'll just +excuse me now," hurried away with a step which grew lighter as the +distance from her increased. Arrived at the haven of a far doorway, he +mopped his brow and shook his head grimly in response to frequent +rallyings. + +Ariel sat through more dances, interminable dances and intermissions, +in that same chair, in which, it began to seem, she was to live out the +rest of her life. Now and then, if she thought people were looking at +her as they passed, she broke into a laugh and nodded slightly, as if +still amused over her mishap. + +After a long time she rose, and laughing cheerfully to Mr. Flitcroft, +who was standing in the doorway and replied with a wan smile, stepped +out quickly into the hall, where she almost ran into her great-uncle, +Jonas Tabor. He was going towards the big front doors with Judge Pike, +having just come out of the latter's library, down the hall. + +Jonas was breathing heavily and was shockingly pale, though his eyes +were very bright. He turned his back upon his grandniece sharply and +went out of the door. Ariel turned from him quite as abruptly and +re-entered the room whence she had come. She laughed again to her fat +friend as she passed him, and, still laughing, went towards the fatal +chair, when her eyes caught sight of Eugene Bantry and Mamie coming in +through the window from the porch. Still laughing, she went to the +window and looked out; the porch seemed deserted and was faintly +illuminated by a few Japanese lanterns. She sprang out, dropped upon +the divan, and burying her face in her hands, cried heart-brokenly. +Presently she felt something alive touch her foot, and, her breath +catching with alarm, she started to rise. A thin hand, issuing from a +shabby sleeve, had stolen out between two of the green tubs and was +pressing upon one of her shoes. + +"'SH!" said Joe. "Don't make a noise!" + +His warning was not needed; she had recognized the hand and sleeve +instantly. She dropped back with a low sound which would have been +hysterical if it had been louder, while he raised himself on his arm +until she could see his face dimly, as he peered at her between the +palms. + +"What were you going on about?" he asked, angrily. + +"Nothing," she answered. "I wasn't. You must go away, and quick. +It's too dangerous. If the Judge found you--" + +"He won't!" + +"Ah, you'd risk anything to see Mamie Pike--" + +"What were you crying about?" he interrupted. + +"Nothing, I tell you!" she repeated, the tears not ceasing to gather in +her eyes. "I wasn't." + +"I want to know what it was," he insisted. "Didn't the fools ask you to +dance? Ah! You needn't tell me. That's it. I've been here for the +last three dances and you weren't in sight till you came to the window. +Well, what do you care about that for?" + +"I don't!" she answered. "I don't!" Then suddenly, without being able +to prevent it, she sobbed. + +"No," he said, gently, "I see you don't. And you let yourself be a +fool because there are a lot of fools in there." + +She gave way, all at once, to a gust of sorrow and bitterness; she bent +far over and caught his hand and laid it against her wet cheek. "Oh, +Joe," she whispered, brokenly, "I think we have such hard lives, you +and I! It doesn't seem right--while we're so young! Why can't we be +like the others? Why can't we have some of the fun?" + +He withdrew his hand, with the embarrassment and shame he would have +felt had she been a boy. "Get out!" he said, feebly. + +She did not seem to notice, but, still stooping, rested her elbows on +her knees and her face in her hands. "I try so hard to have fun, to be +like the rest,--and it's always a mistake, always, always, always!" +She rocked herself, slightly, from side to side. "I am a fool, it's +the truth, or I wouldn't have come to-night. I want to be +attractive--I want to be in things. I want to laugh like they do--" + +"To laugh just to laugh, and not because there's something funny?" + +"Yes, I do, I do! And to know how to dress and to wear my hair--there +must be some place where you can learn those things. I've never had +any one to show me! Ah! Grandfather said something like that this +afternoon--poor man! We're in the same case. If we only had some one +to show us! It all seems so BLIND, here in Canaan, for him and me! I +don't say it's not my own fault as much as being poor. I've been a +hoyden; I don't feel as if I'd learned how to be a girl yet, Joe. It's +only lately I've cared, but I'm seventeen, Joe, and--and +to-day--to-day--I was sent home--and to-night--" She faltered, came to +a stop, and her whole body was shaken with sobs. "I hate myself so for +crying--for everything!" + +"I'll tell you something," he whispered, chuckling desperately. "'Gene +made me unpack his trunk, and I don't believe he's as great a man at +college as he is here. I opened one of his books, and some one had +written in it, 'Prigamaloo Bantry, the Class Try-To-Be'! He'd never +noticed, and you ought to have heard him go on! You'd have just died, +Ariel--I almost bust wide open! It was a mean trick in me, but I +couldn't help showing it to him." + +Joe's object was obtained. She stopped crying, and, wiping her eyes, +smiled faintly. Then she became grave. "You're jealous of Eugene," +she said. + +He considered this for a moment. "Yes," he answered, thoughtfully, "I +am. But I wouldn't think about him differently on that account. And I +wouldn't talk about him to any one but you." + +"Not even to--" She left the question unfinished. + +"No," he said, quietly. "Of course not." + +"No? Because it wouldn't be any use?" + +"I don't know. I never have a chance to talk to her, anyway." + +"Of course you don't!" Her voice had grown steady. "You say I'm a +fool. What are you?" + +"You needn't worry about me," he began. "I can take care--" + +"'SH!" she whispered, warningly. The music had stopped, a loud clatter +of voices and laughter succeeding it. + +"What need to be careful," Joe assured her, "with all that noise going +on?" + +"You must go away," she said, anxiously. "Oh, please, Joe!" + +"Not yet; I want--" + +She coughed loudly. Eugene and Mamie Pike had come to the window, with +the evident intention of occupying the veranda, but perceiving Ariel +engaged with threads in her sleeve, they turned away and disappeared. +Other couples looked out from time to time, and finding the solitary +figure in possession, retreated abruptly to seek stairways and remote +corners for the things they were impelled to say. + +And so Ariel held the porch for three dances and three intermissions, +occupying a great part of the time with entreaties that her obdurate +and reckless companion should go. When, for the fourth time, the music +sounded, her agitation had so increased that she was visibly trembling. +"I can't stand it, Joe," she said, bending over him. + +"I don't know what would happen if they found you. You've GOT to go!" + +"No, I haven't," he chuckled. "They haven't even distributed the +supper yet!" + +"And you take all the chances," she said, slowly, "just to see her pass +that window a few times." + +"What chances?" + +"Of what the Judge will do if any one sees you." + +"Nothing; because if any one saw me I'd leave." + +"Please go." + +"Not till--" + +"'SH!" + +A colored waiter, smiling graciously, came out upon the porch bearing a +tray of salad, hot oysters, and coffee. Ariel shook her head. + +"I don't want any," she murmured. + +The waiter turned away in pity and was re-entering the window, when a +passionate whisper fell upon his ear as well as upon Ariel's. + +"TAKE IT!" + +"Ma'am?" said the waiter. + +"I've changed my mind," she replied, quickly. The waiter, his elation +restored, gave of his viands with the superfluous bounty loved by his +race when distributing the product of the wealthy. + +When he had gone, "Give me everything that's hot," said Joe. "You can +keep the salad." + +"I couldn't eat it or anything else," she answered, thrusting the plate +between the palms. + +For a time there was silence. From within the house came the +continuous babble of voices and laughter, the clink of cutlery on +china. The young people spent a long time over their supper. By-and-by +the waiter returned to the veranda, deposited a plate of colored ices +upon Ariel's knees with a noble gesture, and departed. + +"No ice for me," said Joe. + +"Won't you please go now?" she entreated! + +"It wouldn't be good manners," he responded. "They might think I only +came for supper--" + +"Hand me back the things. The waiter might come for them any minute." + +"Not yet. I haven't quite finished. I eat with contemplation, Ariel, +because there's more than the mere food and the warmth of it to +consider. There's the pleasure of being entertained by the great Martin +Pike. Think what a real kindness I'm doing him, too. I increase his +good deeds and his hospitality without his knowing it or being able to +help it. Don't you see how I boost his standing with the Recording +Angel? If Lazarus had behaved the way I do, Dives needn't have had +those worries that came to him in the after-life." + +"Give me the dish and coffee-cup," she whispered, impatiently. +"Suppose the waiter came and had to look for them? Quick!" + +"Take them, then. You'll see that jealousy hasn't spoiled my +appetite--" + +A bottle-shaped figure appeared in the window and she had no time to +take the plate and cup which were being pushed through the palm-leaves. +She whispered a syllable of warning, and the dishes were hurriedly +withdrawn as Norbert Flitcroft, wearing a solemn expression of injury, +came out upon the veranda. + +He halted suddenly. "What's that?" he asked, with suspicion. + +"Nothing," answered Ariel, sharply. "Where?" + +"Behind those palms." + +"Probably your own shadow," she laughed; "or it might have been a +draught moving the leaves." + +He did not seem satisfied, but stared hard at the spot where the dishes +had disappeared, meantime edging back cautiously nearer the window. + +"They want you," he said, after a pause. "Some one's come for you." + +"Oh, is grandfather waiting?" She rose, at the same time letting her +handkerchief fall. She stooped to pick it up, with her face away from +Norbert and towards the palms, whispering tremulously, but with +passionate urgency, "Please GO!" + +"It isn't your grandfather that has come for you," said the fat one, +slowly. "It is old Eskew Arp. Something's happened." + +She looked at him for a moment, beginning to tremble violently, her +eyes growing wide with fright. + +"Is my grandfather--is he sick?" + +"You better go and see. Old Eskew's waiting in the hall. He'll tell +you." + +She was by him and through the window instantly. Norbert did not follow +her; he remained for several moments looking earnestly at the palms; +then he stepped through the window and beckoned to a youth who was +lounging in the doorway across the room. + +"There's somebody hiding behind those plants," he whispered, when his +friend reached him. "Go and tell Judge Pike to send some of the +niggers to watch outside the porch, so that he doesn't get away. Then +tell him to get his revolver and come here." + +Meanwhile Ariel had found Mr. Arp waiting in the hall, talking in a low +voice to Mrs. Pike. + +"Your grandfather's all right," he told the frightened girl, quickly. +"He sent me for you, that's all. Just hurry and get your things." + +She was with him again in a moment, and seizing the old man's arm, +hurried him down the steps and toward the street almost at a run. + +"You're not telling me the truth," she said. "You're not telling me the +truth!" + +"Nothing has happened to Roger," panted Mr. Arp. "Nothing to mind, I +mean. Here! We're going this way, not that." They had come to the +gate, and as she turned to the right he pulled her round sharply to the +left. "We're not going to your house." + +"Where are we going?" + +"We're going to your uncle Jonas's." + +"Why?" she cried, in supreme astonishment. "What do you want to take me +there for? Don't you know that he's stopped speaking to me?" + +"Yes," said the old man, grimly, with something of the look he wore +when delivering a clincher at the "National House,"--"he's stopped +speaking to everybody." + + + +V + +BEAVER BEACH + +The Canaan Daily Tocsin of the following morning "ventured the +assertion" upon its front page that "the scene at the Pike Mansion was +one of unalloyed festivity, music, and mirth; a fairy bower of airy +figures wafting here and there to the throb of waltz-strains; a +veritable Temple of Terpsichore, shining forth with a myriad of lights, +which, together with the generous profusion of floral decorations and +the mingled delights afforded by Minds's orchestra of Indianapolis and +Caterer Jones of Chicago, was in all likelihood never heretofore +surpassed in elegance in our city.... Only one incident," the Tocsin +remarked, "marred an otherwise perfect occasion, and out of regard for +the culprit's family connections, which are prominent in our social +world, we withhold his name. Suffice it to say that through the +vigilance of Mr. Norbert Flitcroft, grandson of Colonel A. A. +Flitcroft, who proved himself a thorough Lecoq (the celebrated French +detective), the rascal was seized and recognized. Mr. Flitcroft, +having discovered him in hiding, had a cordon of waiters drawn up +around his hiding-place, which was the charmingly decorated side piazza +of the Pike Mansion, and sent for Judge Pike, who came upon the +intruder by surprise. He evaded the Judge's indignant grasp, but +received a well-merited blow over the head from a poker which the Judge +had concealed about his person while pretending to approach the +hiding-place casually. Attracted to the scene by the cries of Mr. +Flitcroft, who, standing behind Judge Pike, accidentally received a +blow from the same weapon, all the guests of the evening sprang to view +the scene, only to behold the culprit leap through a crevice between +the strips of canvas which enclosed the piazza. He was seized by the +colored coachman of the Mansion, Sam Warden, and immediately pounced +upon by the cordon of Caterer Jones's dusky assistants from Chicago, +who were in ambush outside. Unfortunately, after a brief struggle he +managed to trip Warden, and, the others stumbling upon the prostrate +body of the latter, to make his escape in the darkness. + +"It is not believed by many that his intention was burglary, though +what his designs were can only be left to conjecture, as he is far +beyond the age when boys perform such actions out of a sense of +mischief. He had evidently occupied his hiding-place some time, and an +idea of his coolness may be obtained from his having procured and eaten +a full meal through an unknown source. Judge Pike is justly incensed, +and swears that he will prosecute him on this and other charges as soon +as he can be found. Much sympathy is felt for the culprit's family, +who feel his shame most keenly, but who, though sorrowing over the +occurrence, declare that they have put up with his derelictions long +enough, and will do nothing to step between him and the Judge's +righteous indignation." + +The Pike Mansion, "scene of festivity, music, and mirth" (not quite so +unalloyed, after all, the stricken Flitcroft keeping his room for a +week under medical supervision), had not been the only bower of the +dance in Canaan that evening: another Temple of Terpsichore had shone +forth with lights, though of these there were not quite a myriad. The +festivities they illumined obtained no mention in the paper, nor did +they who trod the measures in this second temple exhibit any sense of +injury because of the Tocsin's omission. Nay, they were of that class, +shy without being bashful, exclusive yet not proud, which shuns +publicity with a single-heartedness almost unique in our republic, +courting observation neither in the prosecution of their professions +nor in the pursuit of happiness. + +Not quite a mile above the northernmost of the factories on the +water-front, there projected into the river, near the end of the +crescent bend above the town, a long pier, relic of steamboat days, +rotting now, and many years fallen from its maritime uses. About +midway of its length stood a huge, crazy shed, long ago utilized as a +freight storeroom. This had been patched and propped, and a +dangerous-looking veranda attached to it, over-hanging the water. +Above the doorway was placed a sign whereon might be read the words, +"Beaver Beach, Mike's Place." The shore end of the pier was so ruinous +that passage was offered by a single row of planks, which presented an +appearance so temporary, as well as insecure, that one might have +guessed their office to be something in the nature of a drawbridge. +From these a narrow path ran through a marsh, left by the receding +river, to a country road of desolate appearance. Here there was a +rough enclosure, or corral, with some tumble-down sheds which afforded +shelter, on the night of Joseph Louden's disgrace, for a number of +shaggy teams attached to those decrepit and musty vehicles known +picturesquely and accurately as Night-Hawks. The presence of such +questionable shapes in the corral indicated that the dance was on at +Beaver Beach, Mike's Place, as surely as the short line of cabs and +family carriages on upper Main Street made it known that gayety was the +order of the night at the Pike Mansion. But among other differences +was this, that at the hour when the guests of the latter were leaving, +those seeking the hospitalities of Beaver Beach had just begun to +arrive. + +By three o'clock, however, joy at Mike's Place had become beyond +question unconfined, and the tokens of it were audible for a long +distance in all directions. If, however, there is no sound where no +ear hears, silence rested upon the country-side until an hour later. +Then a lonely figure came shivering from the direction of the town, not +by the road, but slinking through the snow upon the frozen river. It +came slowly, as though very tired, and cautiously, too, often turning +its head to look behind. Finally it reached the pier, and stopped as +if to listen. + +Within the house above, a piano of evil life was being beaten to death +for its sins and clamoring its last cries horribly. The old shed +rattled in every part with the thud of many heavy feet, and trembled +with the shock of noise--an incessant roar of men's voices, punctuated +with women's screams. Then the riot quieted somewhat; there was a +clapping of hands, and a violin began to squeak measures intended to be +Oriental. The next moment the listener scrambled up one of the rotting +piles and stood upon the veranda. A shaft of red light through a +broken shutter struck across the figure above the shoulders, revealing +a bloody handkerchief clumsily knotted about the head, and, beneath it, +the face of Joe Louden. + +He went to the broken shutter and looked in. Around the blackened walls +of the room stood a bleared mob, applausively watching, through a fog +of smoke, the contortions of an old woman in a red calico wrapper, who +was dancing in the centre of the floor. The fiddler--a rubicund person +evidently not suffering from any great depression of spirit through the +circumstance of being "out on bail," as he was, to Joe's intimate +knowledge--sat astride a barrel, resting his instrument upon the foamy +tap thereof, and playing somewhat after the manner of a 'cellist; in no +wise incommoded by the fact that a tall man (known to a few friends as +an expert in the porch-climbing line) was sleeping on his shoulder, +while another gentleman (who had prevented many cases of typhoid by +removing old plumbing from houses) lay on the floor at the musician's +feet and endeavored to assist him by plucking the strings of the fiddle. + +Joe opened the door and went in. All of the merry company (who were +able) turned sharply toward the door as it opened; then, recognizing +the new-comer, turned again to watch the old woman. One or two nearest +the door asked the boy, without great curiosity, what had happened to +his head. He merely shook it faintly in reply, and crossed the room to +an open hallway beyond. At the end of this he came to a frowzy bedroom, +the door of which stood ajar. Seated at a deal table, and working by a +dim lamp with a broken chimney, a close-cropped, red-bearded, +red-haired man in his shirt-sleeves was jabbing gloomily at a column of +figures scrawled in a dirty ledger. He looked up as Joe appeared in +the doorway, and his eyes showed a slight surprise. + +"I never thought ye had the temper to git somebody to split yer head," +said he. "Where'd ye collect it?" + +"Nowhere," Joe answered, dropping weakly on the bed. "It doesn't +amount to anything." + +"Well, I'll take just a look fer myself," said the red-bearded man, +rising. "And I've no objection to not knowin' how ye come by it. +Ye've always been the great one fer keepin' yer mysteries to yerself." + +He unwound the handkerchief and removed it from Joe's head gently. +"WHEE!" he cried, as a long gash was exposed over the forehead. "I +hope ye left a mark somewhere to pay a little on the score o' this!" + +Joe chuckled and dropped dizzily back upon the pillow. "There was +another who got something like it," he gasped, feebly; "and, oh, Mike, +I wish you could have heard him going on! Perhaps you did--it was only +three miles from here." + +"Nothing I'd liked better!" said the other, bringing a basin of clear +water from a stand in the corner. "It's a beautiful thing to hear a +man holler when he gits a grand one like ye're wearing to-night." + +He bathed the wound gently, and hurrying from the room, returned +immediately with a small jug of vinegar. Wetting a rag with this +tender fluid, he applied it to Joe's head, speaking soothingly the +while. + +"Nothing in the world like a bit o' good cider vinegar to keep off the +festerin'. It may seem a trifle scratchy fer the moment, but it +assassinates the blood-p'ison. There ye go! It's the fine thing fer +ye, Joe--what are ye squirmin' about?" + +"I'm only enjoying it," the boy answered, writhing as the vinegar +worked into the gash. "Don't you mind my laughing to myself." + +"Ye're a good one, Joe!" said the other, continuing his ministrations. +"I wisht, after all, ye felt like makin' me known to what's the +trouble. There's some of us would be glad to take it up fer ye, and--" + +"No, no; it's all right. I was somewhere I had no business to be, and +I got caught." + +"Who caught ye?" + +"First, some nice white people"--Joe smiled his distorted smile--"and +then a low-down black man helped me to get away as soon as he saw who +it was. He's a friend of mine, and he fell down and tripped up the +pursuit." + +"I always knew ye'd git into large trouble some day." The red-bearded +man tore a strip from an old towel and began to bandage the boy's head +with an accustomed hand. "Yer taste fer excitement has been growin' on +ye every minute of the four years I've known ye." + +"Excitement!" echoed Joe, painfully blinking at his friend. "Do you +think I'm hunting excitement?" + +"Be hanged to ye!" said the red-bearded man. "Can't I say a teasing +word without gittin' called to order fer it? I know ye, my boy, as +well as ye know yerself. Ye're a queer one. Ye're one of the few that +must know all sides of the world--and can't content themselves with +bein' respectable! Ye haven't sunk to 'low life' because ye're low +yourself, but ye'll never git a damned one o' the respectable to +believe it. There's a few others like ye in the wide world, and I've +seen one or two of 'em. I've been all over, steeple-chasin', +sailorman, soldier, pedler, and in the PO-lice; I've pulled the Grand +National in Paris, and I've been handcuffed in Hong-Kong; I've seen all +the few kinds of women there is on earth and the many kinds of men. +Yer own kind is the one I've seen the fewest of, but I knew ye belonged +to it the first time I laid eyes on ye!" He paused, then continued +with conviction: "Ye'll come to no good, either, fer yerself, yet no +one can say ye haven't the talents. Ye've helped many of the boys out +of a bad hole with a word of advice around the courts and the jail. +Who knows but ye'd be a great lawyer if ye kept on?" + +Young people usually like to discuss themselves under any +conditions--hence the rewards of palmistry,--but Joe's comment on this +harangue was not so responsive as might have been expected. "I've got +seven dollars," he said, "and I'll leave the clothes I've got on. Can +you fix me up with something different?" + +"Aha!" cried the red-bearded man. "Then ye ARE in trouble! I thought +it 'd come to ye some day! Have ye been dinnymitin' Martin Pike?" + +"See what you can do," said Joe. "I want to wait here until daybreak." + +"Lie down, then," interrupted the other. "And fergit the hullabaloo in +the throne-room beyond." + +"I can easily do that"--Joe stretched himself upon the bed,--"I've got +so many other things to remember." + +"I'll have the things fer ye, and I'll let ye know I have no use fer +seven dollars," returned the red-bearded man, crossly. "What are ye +sniffin' fer?" + +"I'm thinking of the poor fellow that got the mate to this," said Joe, +touching the bandage. "I can't help crying when I think they may have +used vinegar on his head, too." + +"Git to sleep if ye can!" exclaimed the Samaritan, as a hideous burst +of noise came from the dance-room, where some one seemed to be breaking +a chair upon an acquaintance. "I'll go out and regulate the boys a +bit." He turned down the lamp, fumbled in his hip-pocket, and went to +the door. + +"Don't forget," Joe called after him. + +"Go to sleep," said the red-bearded man, his hand on the door-knob. +"That is, go to thinkin', fer ye won't sleep; ye're not the kind. But +think easy; I'll have the things fer ye. It's a matter of pride with +me that I always knew ye'd come to trouble." + + + +VI + +YE'LL TAK' THE HIGH ROAD AND I'LL TAK' THE LOW ROAD + +The day broke with a scream of wind out of the prairies and such +cloudbursts of snow that Joe could see neither bank of the river as he +made his way down the big bend of ice. The wind struck so bitterly that +now and then he stopped and, panting and gasping, leaned his weight +against it. The snow on the ground was caught up and flew like sea +spume in a hurricane; it swirled about him, joining the flakes in the +air, so that it seemed to be snowing from the ground upward as much as +from the sky downward. Fierce as it was, hard as it was to fight +through, snow from the earth, snow from the sky, Joe was grateful for +it, feeling that it veiled him, making him safer, though he trusted +somewhat the change of costume he had effected at Beaver Beach. A +rough, workman's cap was pulled down over his ears and eyebrows; a +knitted comforter was wound about the lower part of his face; under a +ragged overcoat he wore blue overalls and rubber boots; and in one of +his red-mittened hands he swung a tin dinner-bucket. + +When he reached the nearest of the factories he heard the exhaust of +its engines long before he could see the building, so blinding was the +drift. Here he struck inland from the river, and, skirting the edges of +the town, made his way by unfrequented streets and alleys, bearing in +the general direction of upper Main Street, to find himself at last, +almost exhausted, in the alley behind the Pike Mansion. There he +paused, leaning heavily against a board fence and gazing at the vaguely +outlined gray plane which was all that could be made of the house +through the blizzard. He had often, very often, stood in this same +place at night, and there was one window (Mrs. Pike's) which he had +guessed to be Mamie's. + +The storm was so thick that he could not see this window now, but he +looked a long time through the thickness at that part of the gray plane +where he knew it was. Then his lips parted. + +"Good-bye, Mamie," he said, softly. "Goodbye, Mamie." + +He bent his body against the wind and went on, still keeping to the +back ways, until he came to the alley which passed behind his own home, +where, however, he paused only for a moment to make a quick survey of +the premises. A glance satisfied him; he ran to the next fence, +hoisted himself wearily over it, and dropped into Roger Tabor's back +yard. + +He took shelter from the wind for a moment or two, leaning against the +fence, breathing heavily; then he stumbled on across the obliterated +paths of a vegetable-garden until he reached the house, and beginning +with the kitchen, began to make the circuit of the windows, peering +cautiously into each as he went, ready to tap on the pane should he +catch a glimpse of Ariel, and prepared to run if he stumbled upon her +grandfather. But the place seemed empty: he had made his reconnaisance +apparently in vain, and was on the point of going away, when he heard +the click of the front gate and saw Ariel coming towards him, her old +water-proof cloak about her head and shoulders, the patched, scant, +faded skirt, which he knew so well, blowing about her tumultuously. At +the sound of the gate he had crouched close against the side of the +house, but she saw him at once. + +She stopped abruptly, and throwing the water-proof back from her head, +looked at him through the driven fog of snow. One of her hands was +stretched towards him involuntarily, and it was in that attitude that +he long remembered her: standing in the drift which had piled up +against the gate almost knee-deep, the shabby skirt and the black +water-proof flapping like torn sails, one hand out-stretched like that +of a figure in a tableau, her brown face with its thin features mottled +with cold and unlovely, her startled eyes fixed on him with a strange, +wild tenderness that held something of the laughter of whole +companionship in it mingling with a loyalty and championship that was +almost ferocious--she looked an Undine of the snow. + +Suddenly she ran to him, still keeping her hand out-stretched until it +touched his own. + +"How did you know me?" he said. + +"Know you!" was all the answer she made to that question. "Come into +the house. I've got some coffee on the stove for you. I've been up +and down the street waiting for you ever since it began to get light." + +"Your grandfather won't--" + +"He's at Uncle Jonas's; he won't be back till noon. There's no one +here." + +She led him to the front-door, where he stamped and shook himself; he +was snow from head to foot. + +"I'm running away from the good Gomorrah," he said, "but I've stopped +to look back, and I'm a pretty white pillar." + +"I know where you stopped to look back," she answered, brushing him +heartily with her red hands. "You came in the alley way. It was +Mamie's window." + +He did not reply, and the only visible token that he had any +consciousness of this clairvoyance of hers was a slight lift of his +higher eyebrow. She wasted no time in getting him to the kitchen, +where, when she had removed his overcoat, she placed him in a chair, +unwound the comforter, and, as carefully as a nurse, lifted the cap +from his injured head. When the strip of towel was disclosed she stood +quite still for a moment with the cap in her hand; then with a broken +little cry she stooped and kissed a lock of his hair, which escaped, +discolored, beneath the bandage. + +"Stop that!" he commanded, horribly embarrassed. + +"Oh, Joe," she cried, "I knew! I knew it was there--but to SEE it! +And it's my fault for leaving you--I HAD to go or I wouldn't have--I--" + +"Where'd you hear about it?" he asked, shortly. + +"I haven't been to bed," she answered. "Grandfather and I were up all +night at Uncle Jonas's, and Colonel Flitcroft came about two o'clock, +and he told us." + +"Did he tell you about Norbert?" + +"Yes--a great deal." She poured coffee into a cup from a pot on the +stove, brought it to him, then placing some thin slices of bread upon a +gridiron, began to toast them over the hot coals. "The Colonel said +that Norbert thought he wouldn't get well," she concluded; "and Mr. Arp +said Norbert was the kind that never die, and they had quite an +argument." + +"What were you doing at Jonas Tabor's?" asked Joe, drinking his coffee +with a brightening eye. + +"We were sent for," she answered. + +"What for?" + +She toasted the bread attentively without replying, and when she +decided that it was brown enough, piled it on a warm plate. This she +brought to him, and kneeling in front of him, her elbow on his knee, +offered for his consideration, looking steadfastly up at his eyes. He +began to eat ravenously. + +"What for?" he repeated. "I didn't suppose Jonas would let you come in +his house. Was he sick?" + +"Joe," she said, quietly, disregarding his questions---"Joe, have you +GOT to run away?" + +"Yes, I've got to," he answered. + +"Would you have to go to prison if you stayed?" She asked this with a +breathless tensity. + +"I'm not going to beg father to help me out," he said, determinedly. +"He said he wouldn't, and he'll be spared the chance. He won't mind +that; nobody will care! Nobody! What does anybody care what _I_ do!" + +"Now you're thinking of Mamie!" she cried. "I can always tell. +Whenever you don't talk naturally you're thinking of her!" + +He poured down the last of the coffee, growing red to the tips of his +ears. "Ariel," he said, "if I ever come back--" + +"Wait," she interrupted. "Would you have to go to prison right away if +they caught you?" + +"Oh, it isn't that," he laughed, sadly. "But I'm going to clear out. +I'm not going to take any chances. I want to see other parts of the +world, other kinds of people. I might have gone, anyhow, soon, even if +it hadn't been for last night. Don't you ever feel that way?" + +"You know I do," she said. "I've told you--how often! But, Joe, +Joe,--you haven't any MONEY! You've got to have money to LIVE!" + +"You needn't worry about that," returned the master of seven dollars, +genially. "I've saved enough to take care of me for a LONG time." + +"Joe, PLEASE! I know it isn't so. If you could wait just a little +while--only a few weeks,--only a FEW, Joe--" + +"What for?" + +"I could let you have all you want. It would be such a beautiful thing +for me, Joe. Oh, I know how you'd feel; you wouldn't even let me give +you that dollar I found in the street last year; but this would be only +lending it to you, and you could pay me back sometime--" + +"Ariel!" he exclaimed, and, setting his empty cup upon the floor, took +her by the shoulders and shook her till the empty plate which had held +the toast dropped from her hand and broke into fragments. "You've been +reading the Arabian Nights!" + +"No, no," she cried, vehemently. "Grandfather would give me anything. +He'll give me all the money I ask for!" + +"Money!" said Joe. "Which of us is wandering? MONEY? Roger Tabor give +you MONEY?" + +"Not for a while. A great many things have to be settled first." + +"What things?" + +"Joe," she asked, earnestly, "do you think it's bad of me not to feel +things I OUGHT to feel?" + +"No." + +"Then I'm glad," she said, and something in the way she spoke made him +start with pain, remembering the same words, spoken in the same tone, +by another voice, the night before on the veranda. "I'm glad, Joe, +because I seemed all wrong to myself. Uncle Jonas died last night, and +I haven't been able to get sorry. Perhaps it's because I've been so +frightened about you, but I think not, for I wasn't sorry even before +Colonel Flitcroft told me about you." + +"Jonas Tabor dead!" said Joe. "Why, I saw him on the street yesterday!" + +"Yes, and I saw him just before I came out on the porch where you were. +He was there in the hall; he and Judge Pike had been having a long +talk; they'd been in some speculations together, and it had all turned +out well. It's very strange, but they say now that Uncle Jonas's heart +was weak--he was an old man, you know, almost eighty,--and he'd been +very anxious about his money. The Judge had persuaded him to risk it; +and the shock of finding that he'd made a great deal suddenly--" + +"I've heard he'd had that same shock before," said Joe, "when he sold +out to your father." + +"Yes, but this was different, grandfather says. He told me it was in +one of those big risky businesses that Judge Pike likes to go into. +And last night it was all finished, the strain was over, and Uncle +Jonas started home. His house is only a little way from the Pikes', +you know; but he dropped down in the snow at his own gate, and some +people who were going by saw him fall. He was dead before grandfather +got there." + +"I can't be sorry," said Joe, slowly. + +"Neither can I. That's the dreadful part of it! They say he hadn't +made a will, that though he was sharper than anybody else in the whole +world about any other matter of business, that was the one thing he put +off. And we're all the kin he had in the world, grandfather and I. +And they say"--her voice sank to a whisper of excitement--"they say he +was richer than anybody knew, and that this last business with Judge +Pike, the very thing that killed him--something about grain--made him +five times richer than before!" + +She put her hand on the boy's arm, and he let it remain there. Her +eyes still sought his with a tremulous appeal. + +"God bless you, Ariel!" he said. "It's going to be a great thing for +you." + +"Yes. Yes, it is." The tears came suddenly to her eyes. "I was +foolish last night, but there had been such a long time of WANTING +things; and now--and now grandfather and I can go--" + +"You're going, too!" Joe chuckled. + +"It's heartless, I suppose, but I've settled it! We're going--" + +"_I_ know," he cried. "You've told me a thousand times what HE'S +said--ten times a thousand. You're going to Paris!" + +"Paris! Yes, that's it. To Paris, where he can see at last how the +great ones have painted,--where the others can show him! To Paris, +where we can study together, where he can learn how to put the pictures +he sees upon canvas, and where I--" + +"Go on," Joe encouraged her. "I want to hear you say it. You don't +mean that you're going to study painting; you mean that you're going to +learn how to make such fellows as Eugene ask you to dance. Go ahead +and SAY it!" + +"Yes--to learn how to DRESS!" she said. + +Joe was silent for a moment. Then he rose and took the ragged overcoat +from the back of his chair. "Where's that muffler?" he asked. + +She brought it from where she had placed it to dry, behind the stove. + +"Joe," she said, huskily, "can't you wait till--" + +"Till the estate is settled and you can coax your grandfather to--" + +"No, no! But you could go with us." + +"To Paris?" + +"He would take you as his secretary." + +"Aha!" Joe's voice rang out gayly as he rose, refreshed by the coffee, +toast, and warmth she had given him. "You've been story-reading, +Ariel, like Eugene! 'Secretary'!" + +"Please, Joe!" + +"Where's my tin dinner-pail?" He found it himself upon the table where +he had set it down. "I'm going to earn a dishonest living," he went on. +"I have an engagement to take a freight at a water-tank that's a friend +of mine, half a mile south of the yards. Thank God, I'm going to get +away from Canaan!" + +"Wait, Joe!" She caught at his sleeve. "I want you to--" + +He had swung out of the room and was already at the front-door. She +followed him closely. + +"Good-bye, Ariel!" + +"No, no! WAIT, Joe!" + +He took her right hand in his own, and gave it a manly shake. "It's +all right," he said. + +He threw open the door and stepped out, but she sought to detain him. +"Oh, have you GOT to go?" she cried. + +"Don't you ever worry about me." He bent his head to the storm as he +sprang down the steps, and snow-wreaths swirled between them. + +He disappeared in a white whirlwind. + +She stood for several minutes shivering in the doorway. Then it came +to her that she would not know where to write to him. She ran down to +the gate and through it. Already the blizzard had covered his +footprints. + + + +VII + +GIVE A DOG A BAD NAME + +The passing of Joseph from Canaan was complete. It was an evanishment +for which there was neither sackcloth nor surprise; and though there +came no news of him it cannot be said that Canaan did not hear of him, +for surely it could hear itself talk. The death of Jonas Tabor and +young Louden's crime and flight incited high doings in the "National +House" windows; many days the sages lingered with the broken meats of +morals left over from the banquet of gossip. But, after all, it is +with the ladies of a community that reputations finally rest, and the +matrons of Canaan had long ago made Joe's exceedingly uncertain. Now +they made it certain. + +They did not fail of assistance. The most powerful influence in the +town was ponderously corroborative: Martin Pike, who stood for all that +was respectable and financial, who passed the plate o' Sundays, who +held the fortunes of the town in his left hand, who was trustee for the +widow and orphan,--Martin Pike, patron of all worthy charities, courted +by ministers, feared by the wicked and idle, revered by the +good,--Judge Martin Pike never referred to the runaway save in the +accents of an august doomster. His testimony settled it. + +In time the precise nature of the fugitive's sins was distorted in +report and grew vague; it was recalled that he had done dread things; +he became a tradition, a legend, and a warning to the young; a Richard +in the bush to frighten colts. He was preached at boys caught playing +marbles "for keeps": "Do you want to grow up like Joe Louden?" The +very name became a darkling threat, and children of the town would have +run had one called suddenly, "HERE COMES JOE LOUDEN!" Thus does the +evil men do live after them, and the ill-fame of the unrighteous +increase when they are sped! + +Very little of Joseph's adventures and occupations during the time of +his wandering is revealed to us; he always had an unwilling memory for +pain and was not afterwards wont to speak of those years which cut the +hard lines in his face. The first account of him to reach Canaan came +as directly to the windows of the "National House" as Mr. Arp, +hastening thither from the station, satchel in hand, could bring it. + +This was on a September morning, two years after the flight, and Eskew, +it appears, had been to the State Fair and had beheld many things +strangely affirming his constant testimony that this unhappy world +increaseth in sin; strangest of all, his meeting with our vagrant +scalawag of Canaan. "Not a BLAMEBIT of doubt about it," declared Eskew +to the incredulous conclave. "There was that Joe, and nobody else, +stuck up in a little box outside a tent at the Fair Grounds, and +sellin' tickets to see the Spotted Wild Boy!" Yes, it was Joe Louden! +Think you, Mr. Arp could forget that face, those crooked eyebrows? Had +Eskew tested the recognition? Had he spoken with the outcast? Had he +not! Ay, but with such peculiar result that the battle of words among +the sages began with a true onset of the regulars; for, according to +Eskew's narrative, when he had delivered grimly at the boy this charge, +"I know you--YOU'RE JOE LOUDEN!" the extraordinary reply had been made +promptly and without change of countenance: "POSITIVELY NO FREE SEATS!" + +On this, the house divided, one party maintaining that Joe had thus +endeavored to evade recognition, the other (to the embitterment of Mr. +Arp) that the reply was a distinct admission of identity and at the +same time a refusal to grant any favors on the score of past +acquaintanceship. + +Goaded by inquiries, Mr. Arp, who had little desire to recall such +waste of silver, admitted more than he had intended: that he had +purchased a ticket and gone in to see the Spotted Wild Boy, halting in +his description of this marvel with the unsatisfactory and acrid +statement that the Wild Boy was "simply SPOTTED,"--and the stung query, +"I suppose you know what a spot IS, Squire?" When he came out of the +tent he had narrowly examined the ticket-seller,--who seemed unaware of +his scrutiny, and, when not engaged with his tickets, applied himself +to a dirty law-looking book. It was Joseph Louden, reasserted Eskew, a +little taller, a little paler, incredibly shabby and miraculously thin. +If there were any doubt left, his forehead was somewhat disfigured by +the scar of an old wound--such as might have been caused by a blunt +instrument in the nature of a poker. + +"What's the matter with YOU?" Mr. Arp whirled upon Uncle Joe Davey, who +was enjoying himself by repeating at intervals the unreasonable words, +"Couldn't of be'n Joe," without any explanation. "Why couldn't it?" +shouted Eskew. "It was! Do you think my eyes are as fur gone as yours? +I saw him, I tell you! The same ornery Joe Louden, run away and +sellin' tickets for a side-show. He wasn't even the boss of it; the +manager was about the meanest-lookin' human I ever saw--and most humans +look mighty mean, accordin' to my way of thinkin'! Riffraff of the +riffraff are his friends now, same as they were here. Weeds! and HE'S +a weed, always was and always will be! Him and his kind ain't any more +than jimpsons; overrun everything if you give 'em a chance. +Devil-flowers! They have to be hoed out and scattered--even then, like +as not, they'll come back next year and ruin your plantin' once more. +That boy Joe 'll turn up here again some day; you'll see if he don't. +He's a seed of trouble and iniquity, and anything of that kind is sure +to come back to Canaan!" + +Mr. Arp stuck to his prediction for several months; then he began to +waver and evade. By the end of the second year following its first +utterance, he had formed the habit of denying that he had ever made it +at all, and, finally having come to believe with all his heart that the +prophecy had been deliberately foisted upon him and put in his mouth by +Squire Buckalew, became so sore upon the subject that even the hardiest +dared not refer to it in his presence. + +Eskew's story of the ticket-seller was the only news of Joe Louden that +came to Canaan during seven years. Another citizen of the town +encountered the wanderer, however, but under circumstances so +susceptible to misconception that, in a moment of illumination, he +decided to let the matter rest in a golden silence. This was Mr. +Bantry. + +Having elected an elaborate course in the Arts, at the University which +was of his possessions, what more natural than that Eugene should seek +the Metropolis for the short Easter vacation of his Senior year, in +order that his perusal of the Masters should be uninterrupted? But it +was his misfortune to find the Metropolitan Museum less interesting +than some intricate phases of the gayety of New York--phases very +difficult to understand without elaborate study and a series of +experiments which the discreetly selfish permit others to make for +them. Briefly, Eugene found himself dancing, one night, with a young +person in a big hat, at the "Straw-Cellar," a crowded hall, down very +deep in the town and not at all the place for Eugene. + +Acute crises are to be expected at the "Straw-Cellar," and Eugene was +the only one present who was thoroughly surprised when that of this +night arrived, though all of the merrymakers were frightened when they +perceived its extent. There is no need to detail the catastrophe. It +came suddenly, and the knife did not flash. Sick and thinking of +himself, Eugene stood staring at the figure lying before him upon the +reddening floor. A rabble fought with the quick policemen at the +doors, and then the lights went out, extinguished by the proprietor, +living up to his reputation for always being thoughtful of his patrons. +The place had been a nightmare; it became a black impossibility. Eugene +staggered to one of the open windows, from the sill of which a man had +just leaped. + +"Don't jump," said a voice close to his ear. "That fellow broke his +leg, I think, and they caught him, anyway, as soon as he struck the +pavement. It's a big raid. Come this way." + +A light hand fell upon his arm and he followed its leading, blindly, to +find himself pushed through a narrow doorway and down a flight of +tricky, wooden steps, at the foot of which, silhouetted against a +street light, a tall policeman was on guard. He laid masterful hands on +Eugene. + +"'SH, Mack!" whispered a cautious voice from the stairway. "That's a +friend of mine and not one of those you need. He's only a student and +scared to death." + +"Hurry," said the policeman, under his breath, twisting Eugene sharply +by him into the street; after which he stormed vehemently: "On yer +way, both of ye! Move on up the street! Don't be tryin' to poke yer +heads in here! Ye'd be more anxious to git out, once ye got in, I tell +ye!" + +A sob of relief came from Bantry as he gained the next corner, the +slight figure of his conductor at his side. "You'd better not go to +places like the 'Straw-Cellar,'" said the latter, gravely. "I'd been +watching you for an hour. You were dancing with the girl who did the +cutting." + +Eugene leaned against a wall, faint, one arm across his face. He was +too ill to see, or care, who it was that had saved him. "I never saw +her before," he babbled, incoherently, "never, never, never! I thought +she looked handsome, and asked her if she'd dance with me. Then I saw +she seemed queer--and wild, and she kept guiding and pushing as we +danced until we were near that man--and then she--then it was all +done--before--" + +"Yes," said the other; "she's been threatening to do it for a long +time. Jealous. Mighty good sort of a girl, though, in lots of ways. +Only yesterday I talked with her and almost thought I'd calmed her out +of it. But you can't tell with some women. They'll brighten up and +talk straight and seem sensible, one minute, and promise to behave, and +mean it too, and the next, there they go, making a scene, cutting +somebody or killing themselves! You can't count on them. But that's +not to the point, exactly, I expect. You'd better keep away from the +'Straw-Cellar.' If you'd been caught with the rest you'd have had a +hard time, and they'd have found out your real name, too, because it's +pretty serious on account of your dancing with her when she did it, and +the Canaan papers would have got hold of it and you wouldn't be invited +to Judge Pike's any more, Eugene." + +Eugene dropped his arm from his eyes and stared into the face of his +step-brother. + +"Joe Louden!" he gasped. + +"I'll never tell," said Joe. "You'd better keep out of all this sort. +You don't understand it, and you don't--you don't do it because you +care." He smiled wanly, his odd distorted smile of friendliness. "When +you go back you might tell father I'm all right. I'm working through a +law-school here--and remember me to Norbert Flitcroft," he finished, +with a chuckle. + +Eugene covered his eyes again and groaned. + +"It's all right," Joe assured him. "You're as safe as if it had never +happened. And I expect"--he went on, thoughtfully--"I expect, maybe, +you'd prefer NOT to say you'd seen me, when you go back to Canaan. +Well, that's all right. I don't suppose father will be asking after +me--exactly." + +"No, he doesn't," said Eugene, still white and shaking. "Don't stand +talking. I'm sick." + +"Of course," returned Joe. "But there's one thing I would like to ask +you--" + +"Your father's health is perfect, I believe." + +"It--it--it was something else," Joe stammered, pitifully. "Are they +all--are they all--all right at--at Judge Pike's?" + +"Quite!" Eugene replied, sharply. "Are you going to get me away from +here? I'm sick, I tell you!" + +"This street," said Joe, and cheerfully led the way. + +Five minutes later the two had parted, and Joe leaned against a cheap +restaurant sign-board, drearily staring after the lamps of the gypsy +night-cab he had found for his step-brother. Eugene had not offered to +share the vehicle with him, had not even replied to his good-night. + +And Joe himself had neglected to do something he might well have done: +he had not asked Eugene for news of Ariel Tabor. It will not justify +him entirely to suppose that he assumed that her grandfather and she +had left Canaan never to return, and therefore Eugene knew nothing of +her; no such explanation serves Joe for his neglect, for the fair truth +is that he had not thought of her. She had been a sort of playmate, +before his flight, a friend taken for granted, about whom he had +consciously thought little more than he thought about himself--and +easily forgotten. Not forgotten in the sense that she had passed out +of his memory, but forgotten none the less; she had never had a place +in his imaginings, and so it befell that when he no longer saw her from +day to day, she had gone from his thoughts altogether. + + + +VIII + +A BAD PENNY TURNS UP + +Eugene did not inform Canaan, nor any inhabitant, of his adventure of +"Straw-Cellar," nor did any hear of his meeting with his step-brother; +and after Mr. Arp's adventure, five years passed into the imperishable +before the town heard of the wanderer again, and then it heard at first +hand; Mr. Arp's prophecy fell true, and he took it back to his bosom +again, claimed it as his own the morning of its fulfilment. Joe Louden +had come back to Canaan. + +The elder Louden was the first to know of his prodigal's return. He +was alone in the office of the wooden-butter-dish factory, of which he +was the superintendent, when the young man came in unannounced. He was +still pale and thin; his eyebrows had the same crook, one corner of his +mouth the same droop; he was only an inch or so taller, not enough to +be thought a tall man; and yet, for a few moments the father did not +recognize his son, but stared at him, inquiring his business. During +those few seconds of unrecognition, Mr. Louden was somewhat favorably +impressed with the stranger's appearance. + +"You don't know me," said Joe, smiling cheerfully. "Perhaps I've +changed in seven years." And he held out his hand. + +Then Mr. Louden knew; he tilted back in his desk-chair, his mouth +falling open. "Good God!" he said, not noticing the out-stretched +hand. "Have YOU come back?" + +Joe's hand fell. + +"Yes, I've come back to Canaan." + +Mr. Louden looked at him a long time without replying; finally he +remarked: + +"I see you've still got a scar on your forehead." + +"Oh, I've forgotten all about that," said the other, twisting his hat +in his hands. "Seven years wipes out a good many grievances and +wrongs." + +"You think so?" Mr Louden grunted. "I suppose it might wipe out a good +deal with some people. How'd you happen to stop off at Canaan? On your +way somewhere, I suppose." + +"No, I've come back to stay." + +Mr. Louden plainly received this as no pleasant surprise. "What for?" +he asked, slowly. + +"To practise law, father." + +"What!" + +"Yes," said the young man. "There ought to be an opening here for me. +I'm a graduate of as good a law-school as there is in the country--" + +"You are!" + +"Certainly," said Joe, quietly. "I've put myself through, working in +the summer--" + +"Working!" Mr. Louden snorted. "Side-shows?" + +"Oh, worse than that, sometimes," returned his son, laughing. +"Anything I could get. But I've always wanted to come back home and +work here." + +Mr. Louden leaned forward, a hand on each knee, his brow deeply +corrugated. "Do you think you'll get much practice in Canaan?" + +"Why not? I've had a year in a good office in New York since I left +the school, and I think I ought to get along all right." + +"Oh," said Mr. Louden, briefly. "You do?" + +"Yes. Don't you?" + +"Who do you think in Canaan would put a case in your hands?" + +"Oh, I don't expect to get anything important at the start. But after +a while--" + +"With your reputation?" + +The smile which had faded from Joe's lips returned to them. "Oh, I +know they thought I was a harum-scarum sort of boy," he answered +lightly, "and that it was a foolish thing to run away for nothing; but +you had said I mustn't come to you for help--" + +"I meant it," said Mr. Louden. + +"But that's seven years ago, and I suppose the town's forgotten all +about it, and forgotten me, too. So, you see, I can make a fresh +start. That's what I came back for." + +"You've made up your mind to stay here, then?" + +"Yes." + +"I don't believe," said Mr. Louden, with marked uneasiness, "that Mrs. +Louden would be willing to let you live with us." + +"No," said Joe, gently. "I didn't expect it." He turned to the window +and looked out, averting his face, yet scoring himself with the +contempt he had learned to feel for those who pity themselves. His +father had not even asked him to sit down. There was a long silence, +disturbed only by Mr. Louden's breathing, which could be heard, heavy +and troubled. + +At last Joe turned again, smiling as before. "Well, I won't keep you +from your work," he said. "I suppose you're pretty busy--" + +"Yes, I am," responded his father, promptly. "But I'll see you again +before you go. I want to give you some advice." + +"I'm not going," said Joe. "Not going to leave Canaan, I mean. Where +will I find Eugene?" + +"At the Tocsin office; he's the assistant editor. Judge Pike bought the +Tocsin last year, and he thinks a good deal of Eugene. Don't forget I +said to come to see me again before you go." + +Joe came over to the older man and held out his hand. "Shake hands, +father," he said. Mr. Louden looked at him out of small implacable +eyes, the steady hostility of which only his wife or the imperious +Martin Pike, his employer, could quell. He shook his head. + +"I don't see any use in it," he answered. "It wouldn't mean anything. +All my life I've been a hard-working man and an abiding man. Before +you got in trouble you never did anything you ought to; you ran with +the lowest people in town, and I and all your folks were ashamed of +you. I don't see that we've got a call to be any different now." He +swung round to his desk emphatically, on the last word, and Joe turned +away and went out quietly. + +But it was a bright morning to which he emerged from the outer doors of +the factory, and he made his way towards Main Street at a lively gait. +As he turned the corner opposite the "National House," he walked into +Mr. Eskew Arp. The old man drew back angrily. + +"Lord 'a' mercy!" cried Joe, heartily. "It's Mr. Arp! I almost ran +you down!" Then, as Mr. Arp made no response, but stood stock-still in +the way, staring at him fiercely, "Don't you know me, Mr. Arp?" the +young man asked. "I'm Joe Louden." + +Eskew abruptly thrust his face close to the other's. "NO FREE SEATS!" +he hissed, savagely; and swept across to the hotel to set his world +afire. + +Joe looked after the irate, receding figure, and watched it disappear +into the Main Street door of the "National House." As the door closed, +he became aware of a mighty shadow upon the pavement, and turning, +beheld a fat young man, wearing upon his forehead a scar similar to his +own, waddling by with eyes fixed upon him. + +"How are you, Norbert?" Joe began. "Don't you remember me? I--" He +came to a full stop, as the fat one, thrusting out an under lip as his +only token of recognition, passed balefully on. + +Joe proceeded slowly until he came to the Tocsin building. At the foot +of the stairway leading up to the offices he hesitated for a few +moments; then he turned away and walked towards the quieter part of +Main Street. Most of the people he met took no notice of him, only two +or three giving him second glances of half-cognizance, as though he +reminded them of some one they could not place, and it was not until he +had come near the Pike Mansion that he saw a full recognition in the +eyes of one of the many whom he knew, and who had known him in his +boyhood in the town. A lady, turning a corner, looked up carelessly, +and then half-stopped within a few feet of him, as if startled. Joe's +cheeks went a sudden crimson; for it was the lady of his old dreams. + +Seven years had made Mamie Pike only prettier. She had grown into her +young womanhood with an ampleness that had nothing of oversufficiency +in it, nor anywhere a threat that some day there might be too much of +her. Not quite seventeen when he had last seen her, now, at +twenty-four, her amber hair elaborately becoming a plump and regular +face, all of her old charm came over him once more, and it immediately +seemed to him that he saw clearly his real reason for coming back to +Canaan. She had been the Rich-Little-Girl of his child days, the +golden princess playing in the Palace-Grounds, and in his early boyhood +(until he had grown wicked and shabby) he had been sometimes invited to +the Pike Mansion for the games and ice-cream of the daughter of the +house, before her dancing days began. He had gone timidly, not daring +ever to "call" her in "Quaker Meeting" or "Post-office," but watching +her reverently and surreptitiously and continually. She had always +seemed to him the one thing of all the world most rare, most +mysterious, most unapproachable. She had not offered an apparition +less so in those days when he began to come under the suspicion of +Canaan, when the old people began to look upon him hotly, the young +people coldly. His very exclusion wove for him a glamour about her, +and she was more than ever his moon, far, lovely, unattainable, and +brilliant, never to be reached by his lifted arms, but only by his +lifted eyes. Nor had his long absence obliterated that light; +somewhere in his dreams it always had place, shining, perhaps, with a +fainter lustre as the years grew to seven, but never gone altogether. +Now, at last, that he stood in her very presence again, it sprang to +the full flood of its old brilliance--and more! + +As she came to her half-stop of surprise, startled, he took his courage +in two hands, and, lifting his hat, stepped to her side. + +"You--you remember me?" he stammered. + +"Yes," she answered, a little breathlessly. + +"Ah, that's kind of you!" he cried, and began to walk on with her, +unconsciously. "I feel like a returned ghost wandering +about--invisible and unrecognized. So few people seem to remember me!" + +"I think you are wrong. I think you'll find everybody remembers you," +she responded, uneasily. + +"No, I'm afraid not," he began. "I--" + +"I'm afraid they do!" + +Joe laughed a little. "My father was saying something like that to me +a while ago. He meant that they used to think me a great scapegrace +here. Do you mean that?" + +"I'd scarcely like to say," she answered, her face growing more +troubled; for they were close on the imperial domain. + +"But it's long ago--and I really didn't do anything so outrageous, it +seems to me." He laughed again. "I know your father was angry with me +once or twice, especially the night I hid on your porch to watch +you--to watch you dance, I mean. But, you see, I've come back to +rehabilitate myself, to--" + +She interrupted him. They were not far from her gate, and she saw her +father standing in the yard, directing a painter who was at work on one +of the cast-iron deer. The Judge was apparently in good spirits, +laughing with the workman over some jest between them, but that did not +lessen Mamie's nervousness. + +"Mr. Louden," she said, in as kindly a tone as she could, "I shall have +to ask you not to walk with me. My father would not like it." + +Joe stopped with a jerk. + +"Why, I--I thought I'd go in and shake hands with him,--and tell him +I--" + +Astonishment that partook of terror and of awe spread itself instantly +upon her face. + +"Good gracious!" she cried. "NO!" + +"Very well," said Joe, humbly. "Good-bye." + +He was too late to get away with any good grace. Judge Pike had seen +them, and, even as Joe turned to go, rushed down to the gate, flung it +open, and motioned his daughter to enter. This he did with one wide +sweep of his arm, and, with another sweep, forbade Joe to look upon +either moon OR sun. It was a magnificent gesture: it excluded the +young man from the street, Judge Pike's street, and from the town, +Judge Pike's town. It swept him from the earth, abolished him, denied +him the right to breathe the common air, to be seen of men; and, at +once a headsman's stroke and an excommunication, destroyed him, soul +and body, thus rebuking the silly Providence that had created him, and +repairing Its mistake by annihilating him. This hurling Olympian +gesture smote the street; the rails of the car-track sprang and +quivered with the shock; it thundered, and, amid the dumfounding uproar +of the wrath of a god, the Will of the Canaanite Jove wrote the words +in fiery letters upon the ether: + +"CEASE TO BE!" + +Joe did not go in to shake hands with Judge Pike. + +He turned the next corner a moment later, and went down the quiet +street which led to the house which had been his home. He did not +glance at that somewhat grim edifice, but passed it, his eyes averted, +and stopped in front of the long, ramshackle cottage next door. The +windows were boarded; the picket-fence dropped even to the ground in +some sections; the chimneys sagged and curved; the roof of the long +porch sprinkled shingles over the unkempt yard with every wind, and +seemed about to fall. The place was desolate with long emptiness and +decay: it looked like a Haunted House; and nailed to the padlocked gate +was a sign, half obliterated with the winters it had fronted, "For Sale +or Rent." + +Joe gat him meditatively back to Main Street and to the Tocsin +building. This time he did not hesitate, but mounted the stairs and +knocked upon the door of the assistant editor. + +"Oh," said Eugene. "YOU'VE turned up, you?" + +Mr. Bantry of the Tocsin was not at all the Eugene rescued from the +"Straw-Cellar." The present gentleman was more the electric Freshman +than the frightened adventurer whom Joe had encountered in New York. +It was to be seen immediately that the assistant editor had nothing +undaintily business-like about him, nor was there the litter on his +desk which one might have expected. He had the air of a gentleman +dilettante who amused himself slightly by spending an hour or two in +the room now and then. It was the evolution to the perfect of his +Freshman manner, and his lively apparel, though somewhat chastened by +an older taste, might have been foretold from that which had smitten +Canaan seven years before. He sat not at the orderly and handsome +desk, but lay stretched upon a divan of green leather, smoking a cigar +of purest ray and reading sleepily a small verse-looking book in +morocco. His occupation, his general air, the furniture of the room, +and his title (doubtless equipped with a corresponding salary) might +have inspired in an observant cynic the idea that here lay a pet of +Fortune, whose position had been the fruit of nepotism, or, mayhap, a +successful wooing of some daughter, wife, or widow. Eugene looked +competent for that. + +"I've come back to stay, 'Gene," said Joe. + +Bantry had dropped his book and raised himself on an elbow. +"Exceedingly interesting," he said. "I suppose you'll try to find +something to do. I don't think you could get a place here; Judge Pike +owns the Tocsin, and I greatly fear he has a prejudice against you." + +"I expect he has," Joe chuckled, somewhat sadly. "But I don't want +newspaper work. I'm going to practice law." + +"By Jove! you have courage, my festive prodigal. VRAIMENT!" + +Joe cocked his head to one side with his old look of the friendly +puppy. "You always did like to talk that noveletty way, 'Gene, didn't +you?" he said, impersonally. + +Eugene's color rose. "Have you saved up anything to starve on?" he +asked, crisply. + +"Oh, I'm not so badly off. I've had a salary in an office for a year, +and I had one pretty good day at the races--" + +"You'd better go back and have another," said his step-brother. "You +don't seem to comprehend your standing in Canaan." + +"I'm beginning to." Joe turned to the door. "It's funny, too--in a +way. Well--I won't keep you any longer. I just stopped in to say +good-day--" He paused, faltering. + +"All right, all right," Eugene said, briskly. "And, by-the-way, I +haven't mentioned that I saw you in New York." + +"Oh, I didn't suppose that you would." + +"And you needn't say anything about it, I fancy." + +"I don't think," said Joe,--"I don't think that you need be afraid I'll +do that. Good-bye." + +"Be sure to shut the door, please; it's rather noisy with it open. +Good-bye." Eugene waved his hand and sank back upon the divan. + +Joe went across the street to the "National House." The sages fell as +silent as if he had been Martin Pike. They had just had the pleasure +of hearing a telephone monologue by Mr. Brown, the clerk, to which they +listened intently: "Yes. This is Brown. Oh--oh, it's Judge Pike? +Yes indeed, Judge, yes indeed, I hear you--ha, ha! Of course, I +understand. Yes, Judge, I heard he was in town. No, he hasn't been +here. Not yet, that is, Judge. Yes, I hear. No, I won't, of course. +Certainly not. I will, I will. I hear perfectly, I understand. Yes, +sir. Good-bye, Judge." + +Joe had begun to write his name in the register. "My trunk is still at +the station," he said. "I'll give you my check to send down for it." + +"Excuse me," said the clerk. "We have no rooms." + +"What!" cried Joe, innocently. "Why, I never knew more than eight +people to stay here at the same time in my life." + +"We have no rooms," repeated the clerk, curtly. + +"Is there a convention here?" + +"We have no rooms, I say!" + +Joe looked up into the condensed eyes of Mr. Brown. "Oh," he said, "I +see." + +Deathly silence followed him to the door, but, as it closed behind him, +he heard the outbreak of the sages like a tidal wave striking a +dump-heap of tin cans. + +Two hours later he descended from an evil ark of a cab at the corral +attached to Beaver Beach, and followed the path through the marsh to +the crumbling pier. A red-bearded man was seated on a plank by the +water edge, fishing. + +"Mike," said Joe, "have you got room for me? Can you take me in for a +few days until I find a place in town where they'll let me stay?" + +The red-bearded man rose slowly, pushed back his hat, and stared hard +at the wanderer; then he uttered a howl of joy and seized the other's +hands in his and shook them wildly. + +"Glory be on high!" he shouted. "It's Joe Louden come back! We never +knew how we missed ye till ye'd gone! Place fer ye! Can I find it? +There ain't a imp o' perdition in town, includin' myself, that wouldn't +kill me if I couldn't! Ye'll have old Maggie's room, my own aunt's; ye +remember how she used to dance! Ha, ha! She's been burnin' below +these four years! And we'll have the celebration of yer return this +night. There'll be many of 'em will come when they hear ye're back in +Canaan! Praise God, we'll all hope ye're goin' to stay a while!" + + + +IX + +"OUTER DARKNESS" + +If any echo of doubt concerning his undesirable conspicuousness sounded +faintly in Joe's mind, it was silenced eftsoons. Canaan had not +forgotten him--far from it!--so far that it began pointing him out to +strangers on the street the very day of his return. His course of +action, likewise that of his friends, permitted him little obscurity, +and when the rumors of his finally obtaining lodging at Beaver Beach, +and of the celebration of his installation there, were presently +confirmed, he stood in the lime-light indeed, as a Mephistopheles +upsprung through the trap-door. + +The welcoming festivities had not been so discreetly conducted as to +accord with the general policy of Beaver Beach. An unfortunate +incident caused the arrest of one of the celebrators and the +ambulancing to the hospital of another on the homeward way, the ensuing +proceedings in court bringing to the whole affair a publicity devoutly +unsought for. Mr. Happy Fear (such was the habitual name of the +imprisoned gentleman) had to bear a great amount of harsh criticism for +injuring a companion within the city limits after daylight, and for +failing to observe that three policemen were not too distant from the +scene of operations to engage therein. + +"Happy, if ye had it in mind to harm him," said the red-bearded man to +Mr. Fear, upon the latter's return to society, "why didn't ye do it out +here at the Beach?" + +"Because," returned the indiscreet, "he didn't say what he was goin' to +say till we got in town." + +Extraordinary probing on the part of the prosecutor had developed at +the trial that the obnoxious speech had referred to the guest of the +evening. The assaulted party, one "Nashville" Cory, was not of Canaan, +but a bit of drift-wood haply touching shore for the moment at Beaver +Beach; and--strange is this world--he had been introduced to the +coterie of Mike's Place by Happy Fear himself, who had enjoyed a brief +acquaintance with him on a day when both had chanced to travel +incognito by the same freight. Naturally, Happy had felt responsible +for the proper behavior of his protege--was, in fact, bound to enforce +it; additionally, Happy had once been saved from a term of imprisonment +(at a time when it would have been more than ordinarily inconvenient) +by help and advice from Joe, and he was not one to forget. Therefore he +was grieved to observe that his own guest seemed to be somewhat jealous +of the hero of the occasion and disposed to look coldly upon him. The +stranger, however, contented himself with innuendo (mere expressions of +the face and other manner of things for which one could not squarely +lay hands upon him) until such time as he and his sponsor had come to +Main Street in the clear dawn on their way to Happy's apartment--a +variable abode. It may be that the stranger perceived what Happy did +not; the three bluecoats in the perspective; at all events, he now put +into words of simple strength the unfavorable conception he had formed +of Joe. The result was mediaevally immediate, and the period of Mr. +Cory's convalescence in the hospital was almost half that of his +sponsor's detention in the county jail. + +It needed nothing to finish Joe with the good people of Canaan; had it +needed anything, the trial of Happy Fear would have overspilled the +necessity. An item of the testimony was that Joseph Louden had helped +to carry one of the ladies present--a Miss Le Roy, who had fainted--to +the open air, and had jostled the stranger in passing. After this, the +oldest woman in Canaan would not have dared to speak to Joe on the +street (even if she wanted to), unless she happened to be very poor or +very wicked. The Tocsin printed an adequate account (for there was "a +large public interest"), recording in conclusion that Mr. Louden paid +the culprit's fine which was the largest in the power of the presiding +judge in his mercy to bestow. Editorially, the Tocsin leaned to the +facetious: "Mr. Louden has but recently 'returned to our midst.' We +fervently hope that the distinguished Happy Fear will appreciate his +patron's superb generosity. We say 'his patron,' but perhaps we err in +this. Were it not better to figure Mr. Louden as the lady in distress, +Mr. Fear as the champion in the lists? In the present case, however, +contrary to the rules of romance, the champion falls in duress and +passes to the dungeon. We merely suggest, en passant, that some of our +best citizens might deem it a wonderful and beauteous thing if, in +addition to paying the fine, Mr. Louden could serve for the loyal Happy +his six months in the Bastile!" + +"En passant," if nothing else, would have revealed to Joe, in this +imitation of a better trick, the hand of Eugene. And, little doubt, he +would have agreed with Squire Buckalew in the Squire's answer to the +easily expected comment of Mr. Arp. + +"Sometimes," said Eskew, "I think that 'Gene Bantry is jest a leetle +bit spiderier than he is lazy. That's the first thing he's written in +the Tocsin this month--one of the boys over there told me. He wrote it +out of spite against Joe; but he'd ought to of done better. If his +spite hadn't run away with what mind he's got, he'd of said that both +Joe Louden and that tramp Fear ought to of had ten years!" + +"'Gene Bantry didn't write that out of spite," answered Buckalew. "He +only thought he saw a chance to be kind of funny and please Judge Pike. +The Judge has always thought Joe was a no-account--" + +"Ain't he right?" cried Mr. Arp. + +"_I_ don't say he ain't." Squire Buckalew cast a glance at Mr. Brown, +the clerk, and, perceiving that he was listening, added, "The Judge +always IS right!" + +"Yes, sir!" said Colonel Flitcroft. + +"I can't stand up for Joe Louden to any extent, but I don't think he +done wrong," Buckalew went on, recovering, "when he paid this man +Fear's fine." + +"You don't!" exclaimed Mr. Arp. "Why, haven't you got gumption enough +to see--" + +"Look here, Eskew," interposed his antagonist. "How many friends have +you got that hate to hear folks talk bad about you?" + +"Not a one!" For once Eskew's guard was down, and his consistency led +him to destruction. "Not a one! It ain't in human nature. They're +bound to enjoy it!" + +"Got any friends that would FIGHT for you?" + +Eskew walked straight into this hideous trap. "No! There ain't a dozen +men ever LIVED that had! Caesar was a popular man, but he didn't have +a soul to help him when the crowd lit on him, and I'll bet old Mark +Antony was mighty glad they got him out in the yard before it +happened,--HE wouldn't have lifted a finger without a gang behind him! +Why, all Peter himself could do was to cut off an ear that wasn't no +use to anybody. What are you tryin' to get AT?" + +The Squire had him; and paused, and stroked his chin, to make the ruin +complete. "Then I reckon you'll have to admit," he murmured, "that, +while I ain't defendin' Joe Louden's character, it was kind of proper +for him to stand by a feller that wouldn't hear nothin' against him, +and fought for him as soon as he DID hear it!" + +Eskew Arp rose from his chair and left the hotel. It was the only +morning in all the days of the conclave when he was the first to leave. + +Squire Buckalew looked after the retreating figure, total triumph +shining brazenly from his spectacles. "I expect," he explained, +modestly, to the others,--"I expect I don't think any more of Joe +Louden than he does, and I'll be glad when Canaan sees the last of him +for good; but sometimes the temptation to argue with Eskew does lead me +on to kind of git the better of him." + +When Happy Fear had suffered--with a give-and-take simplicity of +patience--his allotment of months in durance, and was released and sent +into the streets and sunshine once more, he knew that his first duty +lay in the direction of a general apology to Joe. But the young man +was no longer at Beaver Beach; the red-bearded proprietor dwelt alone +there, and, receiving Happy with scorn and pity, directed him to +retrace his footsteps to the town. + +"Ye must have been in the black hole of incarceration indeed, if ye +haven't heard that Mr. Louden has his law-office on the Square, and his +livin'-room behind the office. It's in that little brick buildin' +straight acrost from the sheriff's door o' the jail--ye've been +neighbors this long time! A hard time the boy had, persuadin' any one +to rent to him, but by payin' double the price he got a place at last. +He's a practisin' lawyer now, praise the Lord! And all the boys and +girls of our acquaintance go to him with their troubles. Ye'll see him +with a murder case to try before long, as sure as ye're not worth yer +salt! But I expect ye can still call him by his name of Joe, all the +same!" + +It was a bleak and meagre little office into which Mr. Fear ushered +himself to offer his amends. The cracked plaster of the walls was bare +(save for dust); there were no shelves; the fat brown volumes, most of +them fairly new, were piled in regular columns upon a cheap pine table; +there was but one window, small-paned and shadeless; an inner door of +this sad chamber stood half ajar, permitting the visitor unreserved +acquaintance with the domestic economy of the tenant; for it disclosed +a second room, smaller than the office, and dependent upon the window +of the latter for air and light. Behind a canvas camp-cot, dimly +visible in the obscurity of the inner apartment, stood a small +gas-stove, surmounted by a stew-pan, from which projected the handle of +a big tin spoon, so that it needed no ghost from the dead to whisper +that Joseph Louden, attorney-at-law, did his own cooking. Indeed, he +looked it! + +Upon the threshold of the second room reposed a small, worn, +light-brown scrub-brush of a dog, so cosmopolitan in ancestry that his +species was almost as undeterminable as the cast-iron dogs of the Pike +Mansion. He greeted Mr. Fear hospitably, having been so lately an +offcast of the streets himself that his adoption had taught him to lose +only his old tremors, not his hopefulness. At the same time Joe rose +quickly from the deal table, where he had been working with one hand in +his hair, the other splattering ink from a bad pen. + +"Good for you, Happy!" he cried, cheerfully. "I hoped you'd come to see +me to-day. I've been thinking about a job for you." + +"What kind of a job?" asked the visitor, as they shook hands. "I need +one bad enough, but you know there ain't nobody in Canaan would gimme +one, Joe." + +Joe pushed him into one of the two chairs which completed the furniture +of his office. "Yes, there is. I've got an idea--" + +"First," broke in Mr. Fear, fingering his shapeless hat and fixing his +eyes upon it with embarrassment,--"first lemme say what I come here to +say. I--well--" His embarrassment increased and he paused, rubbing the +hat between his hands. + +"About this job," Joe began. "We can fix it so--" + +"No," said Happy. "You lemme go on. I didn't mean fer to cause you no +trouble when I lit on that loud-mouth, 'Nashville'; I never thought +they'd git me, or you'd be dragged in. But I jest couldn't stand him +no longer. He had me all wore out--all evening long a-hintin' and +sniffin' and wearin' that kind of a high-smile 'cause they made so much +fuss over you. And then when we got clear in town he come out with it! +Said you was too quiet to suit HIM--said he couldn't see nothin' TO +you! 'Well,' I says to myself, 'jest let him go on, jest one more,' I +says, 'then he gits it.' And he did. Said you tromped on his foot on +purpose, said he knowed it,--when the Lord-a'mightiest fool on earth +knows you never tromped on no one! Said you was one of the po'rest +young sports he ever see around a place like the Beach. You see, he +thought you was jest one of them fool 'Bloods' that come around raisin' +a rumpus, and didn't know you was our friend and belonged out there, +the same as me or Mike hisself. 'Go on,' I says to myself, 'jest one +more!' 'HE better go home to his mamma,' he says; 'he'll git in +trouble if he don't. Somebody 'll soak him if he hangs around in MY +company. _I_ don't like his WAYS.' Then I HAD to do it. There jest +wasn't nothin' LEFT--but I wouldn't of done you no harm by it--" + +"You didn't do me any harm, Happy." + +"I mean your repitation." + +"I didn't have one--so nothing in the world could harm it. About your +getting some work, now--" + +"I'll listen," said Happy, rather suspiciously. + +"You see," Joe went on, growing red, "I need a sort of janitor here--" + +"What fer?" Mr. Fear interrupted, with some shortness. + +"To look after the place." + +"You mean these two rooms?" + +"There's a stairway, too," Joe put forth, quickly. "It wouldn't be any +sinecure, Happy. You'd earn your money; don't be afraid of that!" + +Mr. Fear straightened up, his burden of embarrassment gone from him, +transferred to the other's shoulders. + +"There always was a yellow streak in you, Joe," he said, firmly. +"You're no good as a liar except when you're jokin'. A lot you need a +janitor! You had no business to pay my fine; you'd ort of let me worked +it out. Do you think my eyes ain't good enough to see how much you +needed the money, most of all right now when you're tryin' to git +started? If I ever take a cent from you, I hope the hand I hold out +fer it 'll rot off." + +"Now don't say that, Happy." + +"I don't want a job, nohow!" said Mr. Fear, going to the door; "I don't +want to work. There's plenty ways fer me to git along without that. +But I've said what I come here to say, and I'll say one thing more. +Don't you worry about gittin' law practice. Mike says you're goin' to +git all you want--and if there ain't no other way, why, a few of us 'll +go out and MAKE some fer ye!" + +These prophecies and promises, over which Joe chuckled at first, with +his head cocked to one side, grew very soon, to his amazement, to wear +a supernatural similarity to actual fulfilment. His friends brought +him their own friends, such as had sinned against the laws of Canaan, +those under the ban of the sheriff, those who had struck in anger, +those who had stolen at night, those who owed and could not pay, those +who lived by the dice, and to his other titles to notoriety was added +that of defender of the poor and wicked. He found his hands full, +especially after winning his first important case--on which occasion +Canaan thought the jury mad, and was indignant with the puzzled Judge, +who could not see just how it had happened. + +Joe did not stop at that. He kept on winning cases, clearing the +innocent and lightening the burdens of the guilty; he became the most +dangerous attorney for the defence in Canaan; his honorable brethren, +accepting the popular view of him, held him in personal contempt but +feared him professionally; for he proved that he knew more law than +they thought existed; nor could any trick him--failing which, many +tempers were lost, but never Joe's. His practice was not all criminal, +as shown by the peevish outburst of the eminent Buckalew (the Squire's +nephew, esteemed the foremost lawyer in Canaan), "Before long, there +won't be any use trying to foreclose a mortgage or collect a +note--unless this shyster gets himself in jail!" + +The wrath of Judge Martin Pike was august--there was a kind of +sublimity in its immenseness--on a day when it befell that the shyster +stood betwixt him and money. + +That was a monstrous task--to stand between these two and separate +them, to hold back the hand of Martin Pike from what it had reached out +to grasp. It was in the matter of some tax-titles which the magnate +had acquired, and, in court, Joe treated the case with such horrifying +simplicity that it seemed almost credible that the great man had +counted upon the ignorance and besottedness of Joe's client--a +hard-drinking, disreputable old farmer--to get his land away from him +without paying for it. Now, as every one knew such a thing to be +ludicrously impossible, it was at once noised abroad in Canaan that Joe +had helped to swindle Judge Pike out of a large sum of money--it was +notorious that the shyster could bamboozle court and jury with his +tricks; and it was felt that Joe Louden was getting into very deep +waters indeed. THIS was serious: if the young man did not LOOK OUT, he +might find himself in the penitentiary. + +The Tocsin paragraphed him with a fine regularity after this, usually +opening with a Walrus-and-the-Carpenter gravity: "The time has come +when we must speak of a certain matter frankly," or, "At last the time +has arrived when the demoralization of the bar caused by a certain +criminal lawyer must be dealt with as it is and without gloves." Once +when Joe had saved a half-witted negro from "the extreme penalty" for +murder, the Tocsin had declared, with great originality: "This is just +the kind of thing that causes mobs and justifies them. If we are to +continue to permit the worst class of malefactors to escape the +consequences of their crimes through the unwholesome dexterities and +the shifty manipulations and technicalities of a certain criminal +lawyer, the time will come when an outraged citizenry may take the +enforcement of the law in its own hands. Let us call a spade a spade. +If Canaan's streets ever echo with the tread of a mob, the fault lies +upon the head of Joseph Louden, who has once more brought about a +miscarriage of justice...." + +Joe did not move into a larger office; he remained in the little room +with its one window and its fine view of the jail; his clients were +nearly all poor, and many of his fees quite literally nominal. Tatters +and rags came up the narrow stairway to his door--tatters and rags and +pitiful fineries: the bleared, the sodden, the flaunting and rouged, +the furtive and wary, some in rags, some in tags, and some--the +sorriest--in velvet gowns. With these, the distressed, the +wrong-doers, the drunken, the dirty, and the very poor, his work lay +and his days and nights were spent. + +Ariel had told Roger Tabor that in time Joe might come to be what the +town thought him, if it gave him no other chance. Only its dinginess +and evil surrounded him; no respectable house was open to him; the +barrooms--except that of the "National House"--welcomed him gratefully +and admiringly. Once he went to church, on a pleasant morning when +nice girls wear pretty spring dresses; it gave him a thrill of delight +to see them, to be near clean, good people once more. Inadvertently, he +took a seat by his step-mother, who rose with a slight rustle of silk +and moved to another pew; and it happened, additionally, that this was +the morning that the minister, fired by the Tocsin's warnings, had +chosen to preach on the subject of Joe himself. + +The outcast returned to his own kind. No lady spoke to him upon the +street. Mamie Pike had passed him with averted eyes since her first +meeting with him, but the shunning and snubbing of a young man by a +pretty girl have never yet, if done in a certain way, prevented him +from continuing to be in love with her. Mamie did it in the certain +way. Joe did not wince, therefore it hurt all the more, for blows from +which one cringes lose much of their force. + +The town dog had been given a bad name, painted solid black from head +to heel. He was a storm centre of scandal; the entrance to his dingy +stairway was in square view of the "National House," and the result is +imaginable. How many of Joe's clients, especially those sorriest of +the velvet gowns, were conjectured to ascend his stairs for reasons +more convivial than legal! Yes, he lived with his own kind, and, so +far as the rest of Canaan was concerned, might as well have worn the +scarlet letter on his breast or branded on his forehead. + +When he went about the streets he was made to feel his condition by the +elaborate avoidance, yet furtive attention, of every respectable person +he met; and when he came home to his small rooms and shut the door +behind him, he was as one who has been hissed and shamed in public and +runs to bury his hot face in his pillow. He petted his mongrel +extravagantly (well he might!), and would sit with him in his rooms at +night, holding long converse with him, the two alone together. The dog +was not his only confidant. There came to be another, a more and more +frequent partner to their conversations, at last a familiar spirit. +This third came from a brown jug which Joe kept on a shelf in his +bedroom, a vessel too frequently replenished. When the day's work was +done he shut himself up, drank alone and drank hard. Sometimes when the +jug ran low and the night was late he would go out for a walk with his +dog, and would awake in his room the next morning not remembering where +he had gone or how he had come home. Once, after such a lapse of +memory, he woke amazed to find himself at Beaver Beach, whither, he +learned from the red-bearded man, Happy Fear had brought him, having +found him wandering dazedly in a field near by. These lapses grew more +frequent, until there occurred that which was one of the strange things +of his life. + +It was a June night, a little more than two years after his return to +Canaan, and the Tocsin had that day announced the approaching marriage +of Eugene Bantry and his employer's daughter. Joe ate nothing during +the day, and went through his work clumsily, visiting the bedroom shelf +at intervals. At ten in the evening he went out to have the jug +refilled, but from the moment he left his door and the fresh air struck +his face, he had no clear knowledge of what he did or of what went on +about him until he woke in his bed the next morning. + +And yet, whatever little part of the soul of him remained, that night, +still undulled, not numbed, but alive, was in some strange manner +lifted out of its pain towards a strange delight. His body was an +automaton, his mind in bondage, yet there was a still, small +consciousness in him which knew that in his wandering something +incredible and unexpected was happening. What this was he did not +know, could not see, though his eyes were open, could not have told +himself any more than a baby could tell why it laughs, but it seemed +something so beautiful and wonderful that the night became a night of +perfume, its breezes bearing the music of harps and violins, while +nightingales sang from the maples that bordered the streets of Canaan. + + + +X + +THE TRYST + +He woke to the light of morning amazed and full of a strange wonder +because he did not know what had amazed him. For a little while after +his eyes opened, he lay quite motionless; then he lifted his head +slightly and shook it with some caution. This had come to be custom. +The operation assured him of the worst; the room swam round him, and, +with a faint groan, he let his head fall back upon the pillow. But he +could not sleep again; pain stung its way through his heart as memory +began to come back to him, not of the preceding night--that was all +blank,--but realization that the girl of whom he had dreamed so long +was to be married. That his dreams had been quite hopeless was no balm +to his hurt. + +A chime of bells sounded from a church steeple across the Square, +ringing out in assured righteousness, summoning the good people who +maintained them to come and sit beneath them or be taken to task; and +they fell so dismally upon Joe's ear that he bestirred himself and +rose, to the delight of his mongrel, who leaped upon him joyfully. An +hour later, or thereabout, the pair emerged from the narrow stairway +and stood for a moment, blinking in the fair sunshine, apparently +undecided which way to go. The church bells were silent; there was no +breeze; the air trembled a little with the deep pipings of the organ +across the Square, and, save for that, the town was very quiet. The +paths which crossed the Court-house yard were flecked with steady +shadow, the strong young foliage of the maples not moving, having the +air of observing the Sabbath with propriety. There were benches here +and there along the walks, and to one of these Joe crossed, and sat +down. The mongrel, at his master's feet, rolled on his back in morning +ecstasy, ceased abruptly to roll and began to scratch his ear with a +hind foot intently. A tiny hand stretched to pat his head, and the dog +licked it appreciatively. It belonged to a hard-washed young lady of +six (in starchy, white frills and new, pink ribbons), who had run ahead +of her mother, a belated church-goer; and the mongrel charmed her. + +"Will you give me this dog?" she asked, without any tedious formalities. + +Involuntarily, she departed before receiving a reply. The mother, a +red-faced matron whom Joe recognized as a sister of Mrs. Louden's, +consequently his step-aunt, swooped at the child with a rush and rustle +of silk, and bore her on violently to her duty. When they had gone a +little way the matron's voice was heard in sharp reproof; the child, +held by one wrist and hurried along on tiptoe, staring back over one +shoulder at Joe, her eyes wide, and her mouth the shape of the "O" she +was ejaculating. + +The dog looked up with wistful inquiry at his master, who cocked an +eyebrow at him in return, wearing much the same expression. The mother +and child disappeared within the church doors and left the Square to +the two. Even the hotel showed no signs of life, for the wise men were +not allowed to foregather on Sundays. The organ had ceased to stir the +air and all was in quiet, yet a quiet which, for Louden, was not peace. +He looked at his watch and, without intending it, spoke the hour aloud: +"A quarter past eleven." The sound of his own voice gave him a little +shock; he rose without knowing why, and, as he did so, it seemed to him +that he heard close to his ear another voice, a woman's, troubled and +insistent, but clear and sweet, saying: + +"REMEMBER! ACROSS MAIN STREET BRIDGE AT NOON!" + +It was so distinct that he started and looked round. Then he laughed. +"I'll be seeing circus parades next!" His laughter fled, for, louder +than the ringing in his ears, unmistakably came the strains of a +far-away brass band which had no existence on land or sea or in the +waters under the earth. + +"Here!" he said to the mongrel. "We need a walk, I think. Let's you +and me move on before the camels turn the corner!" + +The music followed him to the street, where he turned westward toward +the river, and presently, as he walked on, fanning himself with his +straw hat, it faded and was gone. But the voice he had heard returned. + +"REMEMBER! ACROSS MAIN STREET BRIDGE AT NOON!" it said again, close to +his ear. + +This time he did not start. "All right," he answered, wiping his +forehead; "if you'll let me alone, I'll be there." + +At a dingy saloon corner, near the river, a shabby little man greeted +him heartily and petted the mongrel. "I'm mighty glad you didn't go, +after all, Joe," he added, with a brightening face. + +"Go where, Happy?" + +Mr. Fear looked grave. "Don't you rec'lect meetin' me last night?" + +Louden shook his head. "No. Did I?" + +The other's jaw fell and his brow corrugated with self-reproach. +"Well, if that don't show what a thick-head I am! I thought ye was all +right er I'd gone on with ye. Nobody c'd 'a' walked straighter ner +talked straighter. Said ye was goin' to leave Canaan fer good and +didn't want nobody to know it. Said ye was goin' to take the +'leven-o'clock through train fer the West, and told me I couldn't come +to the deepo with ye. Said ye'd had enough o' Canaan, and of +everything! I follered ye part way to the deepo, but ye turned and +made a motion fer me to go back, and I done it, because ye seemed to be +kind of in trouble, and I thought ye'd ruther be by yerself. Well, +sir, it's one on me!" + +"Not at all," said Joe. "I was all right." + +"Was ye?" returned the other. "DO remember, do ye?" + +"Almost," Joe smiled, faintly. + +"ALMOST," echoed Happy, shaking his head seriously. "I tell ye, Joe, ef +I was YOU--" he began slowly, then paused and shook his head again. He +seemed on the point of delivering some advice, but evidently perceiving +the snobbishness of such a proceeding, or else convinced by his own +experience of the futility of it, he swerved to cheerfulness: + +"I hear the boys is all goin' to work hard fer the primaries. Mike +says ye got some chances ye don't know about; HE swears ye'll be the +next Mayor of Canaan." + +"Nonsense! Folly and nonsense, Happy! That's the kind of thing I used +to think when I was a boy. But now--pshaw!" Joe broke off with a tired +laugh. "Tell them not to waste their time. Are you going out to the +Beach this afternoon?" + +The little man lowered his eyes moodily. "I'll be near there," he +said, scraping his patched shoe up and down the curbstone. "That +feller's in town agin." + +"What fellow?" + +"'Nashville' they call him; Ed's the name he give the hospital: +Cory--him that I soaked the night you come back to Canaan. He's after +Claudine to git his evens with me. He's made a raise somewheres, and +plays the spender. And her--well, I reckon she's tired waitin' table +at the National House; tired o' me, too. I got a hint that they're +goin' out to the Beach together this afternoon." + +Joe passed his hand wearily over his aching forehead. "I understand," +he said, "and you'd better try to. Cory's laying for you, of course. +You say he's after your wife? He must have set about it pretty openly +if they're going to the Beach to-day, for there is always a crowd there +on Sundays. Is it hard for you to see why he's doing it? It's because +he wants to make you jealous. What for? So that you'll tackle him +again. And why does he want that? Because he's ready for you!" + +The other's eyes suddenly became bloodshot, his nostrils expanding +incredibly. "READY, is he? He BETTER be ready. I--" + +"That's enough!" Joe interrupted, swiftly. "We'll have no talk like +that. I'll settle this for you, myself. You send word to Claudine +that I want to see her at my office to-morrow morning, and you--you +stay away from the Beach to-day. Give me your word." + +Mr. Fear's expression softened. "All right, Joe," he said. "I'll do +whatever you tell me to. Any of us 'll do that; we sure know who's our +friend." + +"Keep out of trouble, Happy." Joe turned to go and they shook hands. +"Good day, and--keep out of trouble!" + +When he had gone, Mr. Fear's countenance again gloomed ominously, and, +shaking his head, he ruminatively entered an adjacent bar through the +alley door. + +The Main Street bridge was an old-fashioned, wooden, covered one, +dust-colored and very narrow, squarely framing the fair, open country +beyond; for the town had never crossed the river. Joe found the cool +shadow in the bridge gracious to his hot brow, and through the slender +chinks of the worn flooring he caught bright glimpses of running water. +When he came out of the other end he felt enough refreshed to light a +cigar. + +"Well, here I am," he said. "Across Main Street bridge--and it must be +getting on toward noon!" He spoke almost with the aspect of daring, +and immediately stood still, listening. "'REMEMBER,"' he ventured to +repeat, again daring, "'REMEMBER! ACROSS MAIN STREET BRIDGE AT NOON!'" +And again he listened. Then he chuckled faintly with relief, for the +voice did not return. "Thank God, I've got rid of that!" he whispered. +"And of the circus band too!" + +A dust road turned to the right, following the river and shaded by big +sycamores on the bank; the mongrel, intensely preoccupied with this +road, scampered away, his nose to the ground. "Good enough," said the +master. "Lead on and I'll come after you." + +But he had not far to follow. The chase led him to a half-hollow log +which lay on a low, grass-grown levee above the stream, where the dog's +interest in the pursuit became vivid; temporarily, however, for after a +few minutes of agitated investigation, he was seized with indifference +to the whole world; panted briefly; slept. Joe sat upon the log, which +was in the shade, and smoked. + +"'REMEMBER!'" He tried it once more. "'ACROSS MAIN STREET BRIDGE AT +NOON!'" Safety still; the voice came not. But the sound of his own +repetition of the words brought him an eerie tremor; for the mist of a +memory came with it; nothing tangible, nothing definite, but something +very far away and shadowy, yet just poignant enough to give him a queer +feeling that he was really keeping an appointment here. Was it with +some water-sprite that would rise from the river? Was it with a dryad +of the sycamores? He knew too well that he might expect strange +fancies to get hold of him this morning, and, as this one grew +uncannily stronger, he moved his head briskly as if to shake it off. +The result surprised him; the fancy remained, but his headache and +dizziness had left him. + +A breeze wandered up the river and touched the leaves and grass to +life. Sparrows hopped and chirped in the branches, absurdly surprised; +without doubt having concluded in the Sunday stillness that the world +would drowse forever; and the mongrel lifted his head, blinked at them, +hopelessly wishing they would alight near him, scratched his ear with +the manner of one who has neglected such matters overlong; reversed his +position; slept again. The young corn, deep green in the bottomland, +moved with a staccato flurry, and the dust ghost of a mad whirling +dervish sped up the main road to vanish at the bridge in a climax of +lunacy. The stirring air brought a smell of blossoms; the distance took +on faint lavender hazes which blended the outlines of the fields, lying +like square coverlets upon the long slope of rising ground beyond the +bottom-land, and empurpled the blue woodland shadows of the groves. + +For the first time, it struck Joe that it was a beautiful day, and it +came to him that a beautiful day was a thing which nothing except +death, sickness, or imprisonment could take from him--not even the ban +of Canaan! Unforewarned, music sounded in his ears again; but he did +not shrink from it now; this was not the circus band he had heard as he +left the Square, but a melody like a far-away serenade at night, as of +"the horns of elf-land faintly blowing"; and he closed his eyes with +the sweetness of it. + +"Go ahead!" he whispered. "Do that all you want to. If you'll keep it +up like this awhile, I'll follow with 'Little Brown Jug, How I Love +Thee!' It seems to pay, after all!" + +The welcome strains, however, were but the prelude to a harsher sound +which interrupted and annihilated them: the Court-house bell clanging +out twelve. "All right," said Joe. "It's noon and I'm 'across Main +Street bridge.'" + +He opened his eyes and looked about him whimsically. Then he shook his +head again. + +A lady had just emerged from the bridge and was coming toward him. + +It would be hard to get at Joe's first impressions of her. We can find +conveyance for only the broadest and heaviest. Ancient and modern +instances multiply the case of the sleeper who dreams out a long story +in accurate color and fine detail, a tale of years, in the opening and +shutting of a door. So with Joseph, in the brief space of the lady's +approach. And with him, as with the sleeper, it must have been--in +fact it was, in his recollections, later--a blur of emotion. + +At first sight of her, perhaps it was pre-eminently the shock of seeing +anything so exquisite where he had expected to see nothing at all. For +she was exquisite--horrid as have been the uses of the word, its best +and truest belong to her; she was that and much more, from the ivory +ferrule of the parasol she carried, to the light and slender footprint +she left in the dust of the road. Joe knew at once that nothing like +her had ever before been seen in Canaan. + +He had little knowledge of the millinery arts, and he needed none to +see the harmony--harmony like that of the day he had discovered a +little while ago. Her dress and hat and gloves and parasol showed a +pale lavender overtint like that which he had seen overspreading the +western slope. (Afterward, he discovered that the gloves she wore that +day were gray, and that her hat was for the most part white.) The +charm of fabric and tint belonging to what she wore was no shame to +her, not being of primal importance beyond herself; it was but the +expression of her daintiness and the adjunct of it. She was tall, but +if Joe could have spoken or thought of her as "slender," he would have +been capable of calling her lips "red," in which case he would not have +been Joe, and would have been as far from the truth as her lips were +from red, or as her supreme delicateness was from mere slenderness. + +Under the summer hat her very dark hair swept back over her temples +with something near trimness in the extent to which it was withheld +from being fluffy. It may be that this approach to trimness, which +was, after all, only a sort of coquetry with trimness, is the true key +to the mystery of the vision of the lady who appeared to Joe. Let us +say that she suppressed everything that went beyond grace; that the +hint of floridity was abhorrent to her. "Trim" is as clumsy as +"slender"; she had escaped from the trimness of girlhood as wholly as +she had gone through its coltishness. "Exquisite." Let us go back to +Joe's own blurred first thought of her and be content with that! + +She was to pass him--so he thought--and as she drew nearer, his breath +came faster. + +"REMEMBER! ACROSS MAIN STREET BRIDGE AT NOON!" Was THIS the fay of +whom the voice had warned him? With that, there befell him the mystery +of last night. He did not remember, but it was as if he lived again, +dimly, the highest hour of happiness in a life a thousand years ago; +perfume and music, roses, nightingales and plucked harp-strings. Yes; +something wonderful was happening to him. + +She had stopped directly in front of him; stopped and stood looking at +him with her clear eyes. He did not lift his own to hers; he had long +experience of the averted gaze of women; but it was not only that; a +great shyness beset him. He had risen and removed his hat, trying +(ineffectually) not to clear his throat; his every-day sense urging +upon him that she was a stranger in Canaan who had lost her way--the +preposterousness of any one's losing the way in Canaan not just now +appealing to his every--day sense. + +"Can I--can I--" he stammered, blushing miserably, meaning to finish +with "direct you," or "show you the way." + +Then he looked at her again and saw what seemed to him the strangest +sight of his life. The lady's eyes had filled with tears--filled and +overfilled. "I'll sit here on the log with you," she said. And her +voice was the voice which he had heard saying, "REMEMBER! ACROSS MAIN +STREET BRIDGE AT NOON!" + +"WHAT!" he gasped. + +"You don't need to dust it!" she went on, tremulously. And even then +he did not know who she was. + + + +XI + +WHEN HALF-GODS GO + +There was a silence, for if the dazzled young man could have spoken at +all, He could have found nothing to say; and, perhaps, the lady would +not trust her own voice just then. His eyes had fallen again; he was +too dazed, and, in truth, too panic-stricken, now, to look at her, +though if he had been quite sure that she was part of a wonderful dream +he might have dared. She was seated beside him, and had handed him her +parasol in a little way which seemed to imply that of course he had +reached for it, so that it was to be seen how used she was to have all +tiny things done for her, though this was not then of his tremulous +observing. He did perceive, however, that he was to furl the dainty +thing; he pressed the catch, and let down the top timidly, as if +fearing to break or tear it; and, as it closed, held near his face, he +caught a very faint, sweet, spicy emanation from it like wild roses and +cinnamon. + +He did not know her; but his timidity and a strange little choke in his +throat, the sudden fright which had seized upon him, were not caused by +embarrassment. He had no thought that she was one he had known but +could not, for the moment, recall; there was nothing of the awkwardness +of that; no, he was overpowered by the miracle of this meeting. And +yet, white with marvelling, he felt it to be so much more touchingly a +great happiness than he had ever known that at first it was +inexpressibly sad. + +At last he heard her voice again, shaking a little, as she said: + +"I am glad you remembered." + +"Remembered what?" he faltered. + +"Then you don't?" she cried. "And yet you came." + +"Came here, do you mean?" + +"Yes--now, at noon." + +"Ah!" he half whispered, unable to speak aloud. "Was it you who +said--who said, 'Remember! Across--across--"' + +"'Across Main Street bridge at noon!'" she finished for him, gently. +"Yes." + +He took a deep breath in the wonder of it. "Where was it you said +that?" he asked, slowly. "Was it last night?" + +"Don't you even know that you came to meet me?" + +"_I_--came to--to meet--you!" + +She gave a little pitying cry, very near a sob, seeing his utter +bewilderment. + +"It was like the strangest dream in the world," she said. "You were at +the station when I came, last night. You don't remember at all?" + +His eyes downcast, his face burning hotly, he could only shake his head. + +"Yes," she continued. "I thought no one would be there, for I had not +written to say what train I should take, but when I stepped down from +the platform, you were standing there; though you didn't see me at +first, not until I had called your name and ran to you. You said, +'I've come to meet you,' but you said it queerly, I thought. And then +you called a carriage for me; but you seemed so strange you couldn't +tell how you knew that I was coming, and--and then I--I understood you +weren't yourself. You were very quiet, but I knew, I knew! So I made +you get into the carriage--and--and--" + +She faltered to a stop, and with that, shame itself brought him +courage; he turned and faced her. She had lifted her handkerchief to +her eyes, but at his movement she dropped it, and it was not so much +the delicate loveliness of her face that he saw then as the tears upon +her cheeks. + +"Ah, poor boy!" she cried. "I knew! I knew!" + +"You--you took me home?" + +"You told me where you lived," she answered. "Yes, I took you home." + +"I don't understand," he stammered, huskily. "I don't understand!" + +She leaned toward him slightly, looking at him with great intentness. + +"You didn't know me last night," she said. "Do you know me now?" + +For answer he could only stare at her, dumfounded. He lifted an +unsteady hand toward her appealingly. But the manner of the lady, as +she saw the truth, underwent an April change. She drew back lightly; he +was favored with the most delicious, low laugh he had ever heard, and, +by some magic whisk which she accomplished, there was no sign of tears +about her. + +"Ah! I'm glad you're the same, Joe!" she said. "You never would or +could pretend very well. I'm glad you're the same, and I'm glad I've +changed, though that isn't why you have forgotten me. You've forgotten +me because you never thought of me. Perhaps I should not have known +you if you had changed a great deal--as I have!" + +He started, leaning back from her. + +"Ah!" she laughed. "That's it! That funny little twist of the head +you always had, like a--like a--well, you know I must have told you a +thousand times that it was like a nice friendly puppy; so why shouldn't +I say so now? And your eyebrows! When you look like that, nobody +could ever forget you, Joe!" + +He rose from the log, and the mongrel leaped upon him uproariously, +thinking they were to go home, belike to food. + +The lady laughed again. "Don't let him spoil my parasol. And I must +warn you now: Never, never TREAD ON MY SKIRT! I'm very irritable +about such things!" + +He had taken three or four uncertain backward steps from her. She sat +before him, radiant with laughter, the loveliest creature he had ever +seen; but between him and this charming vision there swept, through the +warm, scented June air, a veil of snow like a driven fog, and, half +obscured in the heart of it, a young girl stood, knee-deep in a drift +piled against an old picket gate, her black water-proof and shabby +skirt flapping in the blizzard like torn sails, one of her hands +out-stretched toward him, her startled eyes fixed on his. + +"And, oh, how like you," said the lady; "how like you and nobody else +in the world, Joe, to have a yellow dog!" + +"ARIEL TABOR!" + +His lips formed the words without sound. + +"Isn't it about time?" she said. "Are strange ladies in the HABIT of +descending from trains to take you home?" + + +Once, upon a white morning long ago, the sensational progress of a +certain youth up Main Street had stirred Canaan. But that day was as +nothing to this. Mr. Bantry had left temporary paralysis in his wake; +but in the case of the two young people who passed slowly along the +street to-day it was petrifaction, which seemingly threatened in +several instances (most notably that of Mr. Arp) to become permanent. + +The lower portion of the street, lined with three and four story +buildings of brick and stone, rather grim and hot facades under the +mid-day sun, afforded little shade to the church-comers, who were +working homeward in processional little groups and clumps, none walking +fast, though none with the appearance of great leisure, since neither +rate of progress would have been esteemed befitting the day. The +growth of Canaan, steady, though never startling, had left almost all +of the churches down-town, and Main Street the principal avenue of +communication between them and the "residence section." So, to-day, +the intermittent procession stretched along the new cement side-walks +from a little below the Square to Upper Main Street, where maples lined +the thoroughfare and the mansions of the affluent stood among pleasant +lawns and shrubberies. It was late; for this had been a communion +Sunday, and those far in advance, who had already reached the pretty +and shady part of the street, were members of the churches where +services had been shortest; though few in the long parade looked as if +they had been attending anything very short, and many heads of families +were crisp in their replies to the theological inquiries of their +offspring. The men imparted largely a gloom to the itinerant +concourse, most of them wearing hot, long black coats and having wilted +their collars; the ladies relieving this gloom somewhat by the lighter +tints of their garments; the spick-and-span little girls relieving it +greatly by their white dresses and their faces, the latter bright with +the hope of Sunday ice-cream; while the boys, experiencing some solace +in that they were finally out where a person could at least scratch +himself if he had to, yet oppressed by the decorous necessities of the +day, marched along, furtively planning, behind imperturbably secretive +countenances, various means for the later dispersal of an odious +monotony. + +Usually the conversation of this long string of the homeward-bound was +not too frivolous or worldly; nay, it properly inclined to discussion +of the sermon; that is, praise of the sermon, with here and there a +mild "I-didn't-like-his-saying" or so; and its lighter aspects were apt +to concern the next "Social," or various pleasurable schemes for the +raising of funds to help the heathen, the quite worthy poor, or the +church. + +This was the serious and seemly parade, the propriety of whose behavior +was to-day almost disintegrated when the lady of the bridge walked up +the street in the shadow of a lacy, lavender parasol carried by Joseph +Louden. The congregation of the church across the Square, that to +which Joe's step-aunt had been late, was just debouching, almost in +mass, upon Main Street, when these two went by. It is not quite the +truth to say that all except the children came to a dead halt, but it +is not very far from it. The air was thick with subdued exclamations +and whisperings. + +Here is no mystery. Joe was probably the only person of respectable +derivation in Canaan who had not known for weeks that Ariel Tabor was +on her way home. And the news that she had arrived the night before +had been widely disseminated on the way to church, entering church, IN +church (even so!), and coming out of church. An account of her house +in the Avenue Henri Martin, and of her portrait in the Salon--a +mysterious business to many, and not lacking in grandeur for that!--had +occupied two columns in the Tocsin, on a day, some months before, when +Joe had found himself inimically head-lined on the first page, and had +dropped the paper without reading further. Ariel's name had been in +the mouth of Canaan for a long time; unfortunately for Joe, however, +not in the mouth of that Canaan which held converse with him. + +Joe had not known her. The women recognized her, infallibly, at first +glance; even those who had quite forgotten her. And the women told +their men. Hence the un-Sunday-like demeanor of the procession, for +few towns hold it more unseemly to stand and stare at passers-by, +especially on the Sabbath.--BUT Ariel Tabor returned--and walking +with--WITH JOE LOUDEN! ... + +A low but increasing murmur followed the two as they proceeded. It ran +up the street ahead of them; people turned to look back and paused, so +that they had to walk round one or two groups. They had, also, to walk +round Norbert Flitcroft, which was very like walking round a group. He +was one of the few (he was waddling home alone) who did not identify +Miss Tabor, and her effect upon him was extraordinary. His mouth +opened and he gazed stodgily, his widening eyes like sun-dogs coming +out of a fog. He did not recognize her escort; did not see him at all +until they had passed, after which Mr. Flitcroft experienced a few +moments of trance; came out of it stricken through and through; felt +nervously of his tie; resolutely fell in behind the heeling mongrel and +followed, at a distance of some forty paces, determined to learn what +household this heavenly visitor honored, and thrilling with the +intention to please that same household with his own presence as soon +and as often as possible. + +Ariel flushed a little when she perceived the extent of their +conspicuousness; but it was not the blush that Joe remembered had +reddened the tanned skin of old; for her brownness had gone long ago, +though it had not left her merely pink and white. This was a delicate +rosiness rising from her cheeks to her temples as the earliest dawn +rises. If there had been many words left in Joe, he would have called +it a divine blush; it fascinated him, and if anything could have +deepened the glamour about her, it would have been this blush. He did +not understand it, but when he saw it he stumbled. + +Those who gaped and stared were for him only blurs in the background; +truly, he saw "men as trees walking"; and when it became necessary to +step out to the curb in passing some clump of people, it was to him as +if Ariel and he, enchantedly alone, were working their way through +underbrush in the woods. + +He kept trying to realize that this lady of wonder was Ariel Tabor, but +he could not; he could not connect the shabby Ariel, whom he had +treated as one boy treats another, with this young woman of the world. +He had always been embarrassed, himself, and ashamed of her, when +anything she did made him remember that, after all, she was a girl; as, +on the day he ran away, when she kissed a lock of his hair escaping +from the bandage. With that recollection, even his ears grew red: it +did not seem probable that it would ever happen again! The next +instant he heard himself calling her "Miss Tabor." + +At this she seemed amused. "You ought to have called me that, years +ago," she said, "for all you knew me!" + +"I did know her--YOU, I mean!" he answered. "I used to know nearly +everything you were going to say before you said it. It seems strange +now--" + +"Yes," she interrupted. "It does seem strange now!" + +"Somehow," he went on, "I doubt if now I'd know." + +"Somehow," she echoed, with fine gravity, "I doubt it, too." + +Although he had so dim a perception of the staring and whispering which +greeted and followed them, Ariel, of course, was thoroughly aware of +it, though the only sign she gave was the slight blush, which very soon +disappeared. That people turned to look at her may have been not +altogether a novelty: a girl who had learned to appear unconscious of +the Continental stare, the following gaze of the boulevards, the frank +glasses of the Costanza in Rome, was not ill equipped to face Main +Street, Canaan, even as it was to-day. + +Under the sycamores, before they started, they had not talked a great +deal; there had been long silences: almost all her questions concerning +the period of his runaway absence; she appeared to know and to +understand everything which had happened since his return to the town. +He had not, in his turn, reached the point where he would begin to +question her; he was too breathless in his consciousness of the +marvellous present hour. She had told him of the death of Roger Tabor, +the year before. "Poor man," she said, gently, "he lived to see 'how +the other fellows did it' at last, and everybody liked him. He was +very happy over there." + +After a little while she had said that it was growing close upon +lunch-time; she must be going back. + +"Then--then--good-bye," he replied, ruefully. + +"Why?" + +"I'm afraid you don't understand. It wouldn't do for you to be seen +with me. Perhaps, though, you do understand. Wasn't that why you +asked me to meet you out here beyond the bridge?" + +In answer she looked at him full and straight for three seconds, then +threw back her head and closed her eyes tight with laughter. Without a +word she took the parasol from him, opened it herself, placed the +smooth white coral handle of it in his hand, and lightly took his arm. +There was no further demur on the part of the young man. He did not +know where she was going; he did not ask. + +Soon after Norbert turned to follow them, they came to the shady part +of the street, where the town in summer was like a grove. Detachments +from the procession had already, here and there, turned in at the +various gates. Nobody, however, appeared to have gone in-doors, except +for fans, armed with which immediately to return to rockers upon the +shaded verandas. As Miss Tabor and Joe went by, the rocking-chairs +stopped; the fans poised, motionless; and perspiring old gentlemen, +wiping their necks, paused in arrested attitudes. + +Once Ariel smiled politely, not at Mr. Louden, and inclined her head +twice, with the result that the latter, after thinking for a time of +how gracefully she did it and how pretty the top of her hat was, became +gradually conscious of a meaning in her action: that she had bowed to +some one across the street. He lifted his hat, about four minutes +late, and discovered Mamie Pike and Eugene, upon the opposite pavement, +walking home from church together. Joe changed color. + +There, just over the way, was she who had been, in his first youth, the +fairy child, the little princess playing in the palace yard, and always +afterward his lady of dreams, his fair unreachable moon! And Joe, +seeing her to-day, changed color; that was all! He had passed Mamie in +the street only a week before, and she had seemed all that she had +always seemed; to-day an incomprehensible and subtle change had +befallen her--a change so mystifying to him that for a moment he almost +doubted that she was Mamie Pike. It came to him with a breath-taking +shock that her face lacked a certain vivacity of meaning; that its +sweetness was perhaps too placid; that there would have been a deeper +goodness in it had there been any hint of daring. Astonishing questions +assailed him, startled him: could it be true that, after all, there +might be some day too much of her? Was her amber hair a little +too--FLUFFY? Was something the matter with her dress? Everything she +wore had always seemed so beautiful. Where had the exquisiteness of it +gone? For there was surely no exquisiteness about it now! It was +incredible that any one could so greatly alter in the few days elapsed +since he had seen her. + +Strange matters! Mamie had never looked prettier. + +At the sound of Ariel's voice he emerged from the profundities of his +psychic enigma with a leap. + +"She is lovelier than ever, isn't she?" + +"Yes, indeed," he answered, blankly. + +"Would you still risk--" she began, smiling, but, apparently thinking +better of it, changed her question: "What is the name of your dog, Mr. +Louden? You haven't told me." + +"Oh, he's just a yellow dog," he evaded, unskilfully. + +"YOUNG MAN!" she said, sharply. + +"Well," he admitted, reluctantly, "I call him Speck for short." + +"And what for long? I want to know his real name." + +"It's mighty inappropriate, because we're fond of each other," said +Joe, "but when I picked him up he was so yellow, and so thin, and so +creeping, and so scared that I christened him 'Respectability.'" + +She broke into light laughter, stopped short in the midst of it, and +became grave. "Ah, you've grown bitter," she said, gently. + +"No, no," he protested. "I told you I liked him." + +She did not answer. + +They were now opposite the Pike Mansion, and to his surprise she +turned, indicating the way by a touch upon his sleeve, and crossed the +street toward the gate, which Mamie and Eugene had entered. Mamie, +after exchanging a word with Eugene upon the steps, was already +hurrying into the house. + +Ariel paused at the gate, as if waiting for Joe to open it. + +He cocked his head, his higher eyebrow rose, and the distorted smile +appeared. "I don't believe we'd better stop here," he said. "The last +time I tried it I was expunged from the face of the universe." + +"Don't you know?" she cried. "I'm staying here. Judge Pike has charge +of all my property; he was the administrator, or something." Then +seeing him chopfallen and aghast, she went on: "Of course you don't +know! You don't know anything about me. You haven't even asked!" + +"You're going to live HERE?" he gasped. + +"Will you come to see me?" she laughed. "Will you come this afternoon?" + +He grew white. "You know I can't," he said. + +"You came here once. You risked a good deal then, just to see Mamie +dance by a window. Don't you dare a little for an old friend?" + +"All right," he gulped. "I'll try." + +Mr. Bantry had come down to the gate and was holding it open, his eyes +fixed upon Ariel, within them a rising glow. An impression came to Joe +afterward that his step-brother had looked very handsome. + +"Possibly you remember me, Miss Tabor?" said Eugene, in a deep and +impressive voice, lifting his hat. "We were neighbors, I believe, in +the old days." + +She gave him her hand in a fashion somewhat mannerly, favoring him with +a bright, negligent smile. "Oh, quite," she answered, turning again to +Joe as she entered the gate. "Then I shall expect you?" + +"I'll try," said Joe. "I'll try." + +He stumbled away; Respectability and he, together, + interfering alarmingly with the comfort of +Mr. Flitcroft, who had stopped in the middle of the pavement to stare +glassily at Ariel. Eugene accompanied the latter into the house, and +Joe, looking back, understood: Mamie had sent his step-brother to +bring Ariel in--and to keep him from following. + +"This afternoon!" The thought took away his breath, and he became +paler. + +The Pike brougham rolled by him, and Sam Warden, from the box, favored +his old friend upon the pavement with a liberal display of the whites +of his eyes. The Judge, evidently, had been detained after +services--without doubt a meeting of the church officials. Mrs. Pike, +blinking and frightened, sat at her husband's side, agreeing feebly +with the bull-bass which rumbled out of the open window of the +brougham: "I want orthodox preaching in MY church, and, by God, madam, +I'll have it! That fellow has got to go!" Joe took off his hat and +wiped his brow. + + + +XII + +TO REMAIN ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE IS NOT ALWAYS A VICTORY + +Mamie, waiting just inside the door as Ariel and Eugene entered, gave +the visitor a pale greeting, and, a moment later, hearing the wheels of +the brougham crunch the gravel of the carriage-drive, hurried away, +down the broad hall, and disappeared. Ariel dropped her parasol upon a +marble-topped table near the door, and, removing her gloves, drifted +into a room at the left, where a grand piano found shelter beneath +crimson plush. After a moment of contemplation, she pushed back the +coverlet, and, seating herself upon the plush-covered piano-stool (to +match), let her fingers run up and down the key-board once and fall +listlessly in her lap, as she gazed with deep interest at three +life-sized colored photographs (in carved gilt frames) upon the wall +she was facing: Judge Pike, Mamie, and Mrs. Pike with her rubies. + +"Please don't stop playing, Miss Tabor," said a voice behind her. She +had not observed that Eugene had followed her into the room. + +"Very well, if you like," she answered, looking up to smile absently at +him. And she began to play a rakish little air which, composed by some +rattle-brain at a cafe table, had lately skipped out of the Moulin +Rouge to disport itself over Paris. She played it slowly, in the minor, +with elfish pathos; while he leaned upon the piano, his eyes fixed upon +her fingers, which bore few rings, none, he observed with an +unreasonable pleasure, upon the third finger of the left hand. + +"It's one of those simpler Grieg things, isn't it?" he said, sighing +gently. "I care for Grieg." + +"Would you mind its being Chaminade?" she returned, dropping her eyes +to cloak the sin. + +"Ah no; I recognize it now," replied Eugene. "He appeals to me even +more than Grieg." + +At this she glanced quickly up at him, but more quickly down again, and +hastened the time emphatically, swinging the little air into the major. + +"Do you play the 'Pilgrim's Chorus'?" + +She shook her head. + +"Vous name pas Wagner?" inquired Eugene, leaning toward her. + +"Oh yes," she answered, bending her head far over, so that her face was +concealed from him, except the chin, which, he saw with a thrill of +inexplicable emotion, was trembling slightly. There were some small +white flowers upon her hat, and these shook too. + +She stopped playing abruptly, rose from the stool and crossed the room +to a large mahogany chair, upholstered in red velvet and of hybrid +construction, possessing both rockers and legs. She had moved in a way +which prevented him from seeing her face, but he was certain of her +agitation, and strangely glad, while curious, tremulous half-thoughts, +edged with prophecy, bubbled to the surface of his consciousness. + +When she turned to him, he was surprised to see that she looked +astonishingly happy, almost as if she had been struggling with joy, +instead of pain. + +"This chair," she said, sinking into it, "makes me feel at home." + +Naturally he could not understand. + +"Because," she explained, "I once thought I was going to live in it. +It has been reupholstered, but I should know it if I met in anywhere in +the world!" + +"How very odd!" exclaimed Eugene, staring. + +"I settled here in pioneer days," she went on, tapping the arms lightly +with her finger-tips. "It was the last dance I went to in Canaan." + +"I fear the town was very provincial at that time," he returned, having +completely forgotten the occasion she mentioned, therefore wishing to +shift the subject. "I fear you may still find it so. There is not +much here that one is in sympathy with, intellectually--few people +really of the world." + +"Few people, I suppose you mean," she said, softly, with a look that +went deep enough into his eyes, "few people who really understand one?" + +Eugene had seated himself on the sill of an open window close by. +"There has been," he answered, with the ghost of a sigh, "no one." + +She turned her head slightly away from him, apparently occupied with a +loose thread in her sleeve. There were no loose threads; it was an old +habit of hers which she retained. "I suppose," she murmured, in a +voice as low as his had been, "that a man of your sort might find +Canaan rather lonely and sad." + +"It HAS been!" Whereupon she made him a laughing little bow. + +"You are sure you complain of Canaan?" + +"Yes!" he exclaimed. "You don't know what it is to live here--" + +"I think I do. I lived here seventeen years." + +"Oh yes," he began to object, "as a child, but--" + +"Have you any recollection," she interrupted, "of the day before your +brother ran away? Of coming home for vacation--I think it was your +first year in college--and intervening between your brother and me in a +snow-fight?" + +For a moment he was genuinely perplexed; then his face cleared. +"Certainly," he said: "I found him bullying you and gave him a good +punishing for it." + +"Is that all you remember?" + +"Yes," he replied, honestly. "Wasn't that all?" + +"Quite!" she smiled, her eyes half closed. "Except that I went home +immediately afterward." + +"Naturally," said Eugene. "My step-brother wasn't very much chevalier +sans peur et sans reproche! Ah, I should like to polish up my French a +little. Would you mind my asking you to read a bit with me, some +little thing of Daudet's if you care for him, in the original? An +hour, now and then, perhaps--" + +Mamie appeared in the doorway and Eugene rose swiftly. "I have been +trying to persuade Miss Tabor," he explained, with something too much +of laughter, "to play again. You heard that little thing of +Chaminade's--" + +Mamie did not appear to hear him; she entered breathlessly, and there +was no color in her cheeks. "Ariel," she exclaimed, "I don't want you +to think I'm a tale-bearer--" + +"Oh, my dear!" Ariel said, with a gesture of deprecation. + +"No," Miss Pike went on, all in one breath, "but I'm afraid you will +think it, because papa knows and he wants to see you." + +"What is it that he knows?" + +"That you were walking with Joseph Louden!" (This was as if she had +said, "That you poisoned your mother.") "I DIDN'T tell him, but when +we saw you with him I was troubled, and asked Eugene what I'd better +do, because Eugene always knows what is best." (Mr. Bantry's +expression, despite this tribute, was not happy.) "And he advised me +to tell mamma about it and leave it in her hands. But she always tells +papa everything--" + +"Certainly; that is understood," said Ariel, slowly, turning to smile +at Eugene. + +"And she told him this right away," Mamie finished. + +"Why shouldn't she, if it is of the slightest interest to him?" + +The daughter of the house exhibited signs of consternation. "He wants +to see you," she repeated, falteringly. "He's in the library." + +Having thus discharged her errand, she hastened to the front-door, +which had been left open, and out to the steps, evidently with the +intention of removing herself as soon and as far as possible from the +vicinity of the library. + +Eugene, visibly perturbed, followed her to the doorway of the room, and +paused. + +"Do you know the way?" he inquired, with a note of solemnity. + +"Where?" Ariel had not risen. + +"To the library." + +"Of course," she said, beaming upon him. "I was about to ask you if +you wouldn't speak to the Judge for me. This is such a comfortable old +friend, this chair." + +"Speak to him for you?" repeated the non-plussed Eugene. + +She nodded cheerfully. "If I may trouble you. Tell him, certainly, I +shall be glad to see him." + +He threw a piteous glance after Mamie, who was now, as he saw, through +the open door, out upon the lawn and beyond easy hailing distance. +When he turned again to look at Ariel he discovered that she had +shifted the position of her chair slightly, and was gazing out of the +window with every appearance of cheerful meditation. She assumed so +unmistakably that he had of course gone on her mission that, dismayed +and his soul quaking, he could find neither an alternative nor words to +explain to this dazzling lady that not he nor any other could bear such +a message to Martin Pike. + +Eugene went. There was nothing else to do; and he wished with every +step that the distance to the portals of the library might have been +greater. + +In whatever guise he delivered the summons, it was perfectly +efficacious. A door slammed, a heavy and rapid tread was heard in the +hall, and Ariel, without otherwise moving, turned her head and offered +a brilliant smile of greeting. + +"It was good of you," she said, as the doorway filled with red, +imperial wrath, "to wish to have a little chat with me. I'm anxious, +of course, to go over my affairs with you, and last night, after my +journey, I was too tired. But now we might begin; not in detail, of +course, just yet. That will do for later, when I've learned more about +business." + +The great one had stopped on the threshold. + +"Madam," he began, coldly, "when I say my library, I mean my--" + +"Oh yes," she interrupted, with amiable weariness. "I know. You mean +you keep all the papers and books of the estate in there, but I think +we'd better put them off for a few days--" + +"I'm not talking about the estate!" he exclaimed. "What I want to talk +to you about is being seen with Joseph Louden!" + +"Yes," she nodded, brightly. "That's along the line we must take up +first." + +"Yes, it is!" He hurled his bull-bass at her. "You knew everything +about him and his standing in this community! I know you did, because +Mrs. Pike told me you asked all about him from Mamie after you came +last night, and, see here, don't you--" + +"Oh, but I knew before that," she laughed. "I had a correspondent in +Canaan, one who has always taken a great interest in Mr. Louden. I +asked Miss Pike only to get her own point of view." + +"I want to tell you, madam," he shouted, coming toward her, "that no +member of my household--" + +"That's another point we must take up to-day. I'm glad you remind me of +it," she said, thoughtfully, yet with so magically compelling an +intonation that he stopped his shouting in the middle of a word; +stopped with an apoplectic splutter. "We must arrange to put the old +house in order at once." + +"We'll arrange nothing of the sort," he responded, after a moment of +angry silence. "You're going to stay right here." + +"Ah, I know your hospitality," she bowed, graciously. "But of course I +must not tax it too far. And about Mr. Louden? As I said, I want to +speak to you about him." + +"Yes," he intervened, harshly. "So do I, and I'm going to do it quick! +You'll find--" + +Again she mysteriously baffled him. "He's a dear old friend of mine, +you know, and I have made up my mind that we both need his help, you +and I." + +"What!" + +"Yes," she continued, calmly, "in a business way I mean. I know you +have great interests in a hundred directions, all more important than +mine; it isn't fair that you should bear the whole burden of my +affairs, and I think it will be best to retain Mr. Louden as my man of +business. He could take all the cares of the estate off your +shoulders." + +Martin Pike spoke no word, but he looked at her strangely; and she +watched him with sudden keenness, leaning forward in her chair, her +gaze alert but quiet, fixed on the dilating pupils of his eyes. He +seemed to become dizzy, and the choleric scarlet which had overspread +his broad face and big neck faded splotchily. + +Still keeping her eyes upon him, she went on: "I haven't asked him yet, +and so I don't know whether or not he'll consent, but I think it +possible that he may come to see me this afternoon, and if he does we +can propose it to him together and go over things a little." + +Judge Pike recovered his voice. "He'll get a warm welcome," he +promised, huskily, "if he sets foot on my premises!" + +"You mean you prefer I shouldn't receive him here?" She nodded +pleasantly. "Then certainly I shall not. Such things are much better +for offices; you are quite right." + +"You'll not see him at all!" + +"Ah, Judge Pike," she lifted her hand with gentle deprecation, "don't +you understand that we can't quite arrange that? You see, Mr. Louden +is even an older friend of mine than you are, and so I must trust his +advice about such things more than yours. Of course, if he too should +think it better for me not to see him--" + +The Judge advanced toward her. "I'm tired of this," he began, in a +loud voice. "I'm--" + +She moved as if to rise, but he had come very close, leaning above her, +one arm out-stretched and at the end of it a heavy forefinger which he +was shaking at her, so that it was difficult to get out of her chair +without pushing him away--a feat apparently impossible. Ariel Tabor, +in rising, placed her hand upon his out-stretched arm, quite as if he +had offered it to assist her; he fell back a step in complete +astonishment; she rose quickly, and released his arm. + +"Thank you," she said, beamingly. "It's quite all my fault that you're +tired. I've been thoughtless to keep you so long, and you have been +standing, too!" She swept lightly and quickly to the door, where she +paused, gathering her skirts. "I shall not detain you another instant! +And if Mr. Louden comes, this afternoon, I'll remember. I'll not let +him come in, of course. It will be perhaps pleasanter to talk over my +proposition as we walk!" + +There was a very faint, spicy odor like wild roses and cinnamon left in +the room where Martin Pike stood alone, staring whitely at the open +doorway. + + + +XIII + +THE WATCHER AND THE WARDEN + +There was a custom of Canaan, time-worn and seldom honored in the +breach, which put Ariel, that afternoon, in easy possession of a coign +of vantage commanding the front gate. The heavy Sunday dinner was +finished in silence (on the part of Judge Pike, deafening) about three +o'clock, and, soon after, Mamie tossed a number of cushions out upon +the stoop between the cast-iron dogs,--Sam Warden having previously +covered the steps with a rug and placed several garden chairs near by +on the grass. These simple preparations concluded, Eugene sprawled +comfortably upon the rug, and Mamie seated herself near him, while +Ariel wandered with apparent aimlessness about the lawn, followed by +the gaze of Mr. Bantry, until Miss Pike begged her, a little +petulantly, to join them. + +She came, looking about her dreamily, and touching to her lips, now and +then, with an absent air, a clover blossom she had found in the longer +grass against the fence. She stopped to pat the neck of one of the +cast-iron deer, and with grave eyes proffered the clover-top first for +inspection, then as food. There were those in the world who, seeing +her, might have wondered that the deer did not play Galatea and come to +life. + +"No?" she said, aloud, to the steadfast head. "You won't? What a +mistake to be made of cast-iron!" She smiled and nodded to a clump of +lilac-bushes near a cedar-tree, and to nothing else--so far as Eugene +and Mamie could see,--then walked thoughtfully to the steps. + +"Who in the world were you speaking to?" asked Mamie, curiously. + +"That deer." + +"But you bowed to some one." + +"Oh, that," Ariel lifted her eyebrows,--"that was your father. Didn't +you see him?" + +"No." + +"I believe you can't from here, after all," said Ariel, slowly. "He is +sitting upon a rustic bench between the bushes and the cedar-tree, +quite near the gate. No, you couldn't see him from here; you'd have to +go as far as the deer, at least, and even then you might not notice +him, unless you looked for him. He has a book--a Bible, I think--but I +don't think he is reading." + +"He usually takes a nap on Sunday afternoons," said Mamie. + +"I don't think he will, to-day." Ariel looked at Eugene, who avoided +her clear gaze. "He has the air of having settled himself to stay for +a long time, perhaps until evening." + +She had put on her hat after dinner, and Mamie now inquired if she +would not prefer to remove it, offering to carry it in-doors for her, +to Ariel's room, to insure its safety. "You look so sort of temporary, +wearing it," she urged, "as if you were only here for a little while. +It's the loveliest hat I ever saw, and so fragile, too, but I'll take +care--" + +Ariel laughed, leaned over, and touched the other's hand lightly. "It +isn't that, dear." + +"What is it, then?" Mamie beamed out into a joyful smile. She had +felt sure that she could not understand Ariel; was, indeed, afraid of +her; and she found herself astonishingly pleased to be called "dear," +and delighted with the little familiarity of the hand-tap. Her feeling +toward the visitor (who was, so her father had announced, to become a +permanent member of the household) had been, until now, undefined. She +had been on her guard, watching for some sign of conscious +"superiority" in this lady who had been so long over-seas, not knowing +what to make of her; though thrown, by the contents of her trunks, into +a wistfulness which would have had something of rapture in it had she +been sure that she was going to like Ariel. She had gone to the +latter's room before church, and had perceived uneasily that it had +become, even by the process of unpacking, the prettiest room she had +ever seen. Mrs. Warden, wife of Sam, and handmaiden of the mansion, +was assisting, alternately faint and vociferous with marvelling. Mamie +feared that Ariel might be a little overpowering. + +With the word "dear" (that is, of course, with the way it was spoken), +and with the touch upon the hand, it was all suddenly settled; she +would not understand Ariel always--that was clear--but they would like +each other. + +"I am wearing my hat," answered Ariel, "because at any moment I may +decide to go for a long walk!" + +"Oh, I hope not," said Mamie. "There are sure to be people: a few +still come, even though I'm an engaged girl. I expect that's just to +console me, though," she added, smiling over this worn quip of the +betrothed, and shaking her head at Eugene, who grew red and coughed. +"There'll be plenty to-day, but they won't be here to see me. It's +you, Ariel, and they'd be terribly disappointed if you weren't here. I +shouldn't wonder if the whole town came; it's curious enough about you!" + +Canaan (at least that part of it which Mamie meant when she said "the +whole town") already offered testimony to her truthfulness. Two +gentlemen, aged nine and eleven, and clad in white "sailor suits," were +at that moment grooving their cheeks between the round pickets of the +gate. They had come from the house across the street, evidently +stimulated by the conversation at their own recent dinner-table (they +wore a few deposits such as are left by chocolate-cake), and the motive +of their conduct became obvious when, upon being joined by a person +from next door (a starched and frilled person of the opposite sex but +sympathetic age), one of them waggled a forefinger through the gate at +Ariel, and a voice was heard in explanation: + +"THAT'S HER." + +There was a rustle in the lilac-bushes near the cedar-tree; the three +small heads turned simultaneously in that direction; something terrific +was evidently seen, and with a horrified "OOOH!" the trio skedaddled +headlong. + +They were but the gay vanguard of the life which the street, quite dead +through the Sunday dinner-hour, presently took on. Young couples with +their progeny began to appear, returning from the weekly reunion Sunday +dinner with relatives; young people meditative (until they reached the +Pike Mansion), the wives fanning themselves or shooing the +tots-able-to-walk ahead of them, while the husbands, wearing long +coats, satin ties, and showing dust upon their blazing shoes, +invariably pushed the perambulators. Most of these passers-by +exchanged greetings with Mamie and Eugene, and all of them looked hard +at Ariel as long as it was possible. + +And now the young men of the town, laboriously arranged as to apparel, +began to appear on the street in small squads, making their Sunday +rounds; the youngest working in phalanxes of threes and fours, those +somewhat older inclining to move in pairs; the eldest, such as were now +beginning to be considered middle-aged beaux, or (by the extremely +youthful) "old bachelors," evidently considered it advantageous to +travel alone. Of all these, there were few who did not, before evening +fell, turn in at the gate of the Pike Mansion. Consciously, shyly or +confidently, according to the condition of their souls, they made their +way between the cast-iron deer to be presented to the visitor. + +Ariel sat at the top of the steps, and, looking amiably over their +heads, talked with such as could get near her. There were many who +could not, and Mamie, occupying the bench below, was surrounded by the +overflow. The difficulty of reaching and maintaining a position near +Miss Tabor was increased by the attitude and behavior of Mr. Flitcroft, +who that day cooled the feeling of friendship which several of his +fellow-townsmen had hitherto entertained for him. He had been the +first to arrive, coming alone, though that was not his custom, and he +established himself at Ariel's right, upon the step just below her, so +disposing the great body and the ponderous arms and legs the gods had +given him, that no one could mount above him to sit beside her, or +approach her from that direction within conversational distance. Once +established, he was not to be dislodged, and the only satisfaction for +those in this manner debarred from the society of the beautiful +stranger was obtained when they were presented to her and when they +took their departure. On these occasions it was necessary by custom for +them to shake her hand, a ceremony they accomplished by leaning across +Mr. Flitcroft, which was a long way to lean, and the fat back and +shoulders were sore that night because of what had been surreptitiously +done to them by revengeful elbows and knees. + +Norbert, not ordinarily talkative, had nothing to say; he seemed to +find sufficient occupation in keeping the place he had gained; and from +this close vantage he fastened his small eyes immovably upon Ariel's +profile. Eugene, also apparently determined not to move, sat +throughout the afternoon at her left, but as he was thin, others, who +came and went, were able to approach upon that side and hold speech +with her. + +She was a stranger to these young people, most of whom had grown up +together in a nickname intimacy. Few of them had more than a very +imperfect recollection of her as she was before Roger Tabor and she had +departed out of Canaan. She had lived her girlhood only upon their +borderland, with no intimates save her grandfather and Joe; and she +returned to her native town "a revelation and a dream," as young Mr. +Bradbury told his incredulous grandmother that night. + +The conversation of the gallants consisted, for the greater part, of +witticisms at one another's expense, which, though evoked for Ariel's +benefit (all eyes furtively reverting to her as each shaft was loosed), +she found more or less enigmatical. The young men, however, laughed at +each other loudly, and seemed content if now and then she smiled. "You +must be frightfully ennuied with all this," Eugene said to her. "You +see how provincial we still are." + +She did not answer; she had not heard him. The shadows were stretching +themselves over the grass, long and attenuated; the sunlight upon the +trees and houses was like a thin, rosy pigment; black birds were +calling each other home to beech and elm; and Ariel's eyes were fixed +upon the western distance of the street where gold-dust was beginning +to quiver in the air. She did not hear Eugene, but she started, a +moment later, when the name "Joe Louden" was pronounced by a young man, +the poetic Bradbury, on the step below Eugene. Some one immediately +said "'SH!" But she leaned over and addressed Mr. Bradbury, who, shut +out, not only from the group about her, but from the other centring +upon Miss Pike, as well, was holding a private conversation with a +friend in like misfortune. + +"What were you saying of Mr. Louden?" she asked, smiling down upon the +young man. (It was this smile which inspired his description of her as +"a revelation and a dream.") + +"Oh, nothing particular," was his embarrassed reply. "I only mentioned +I'd heard there was some talk among the--" He paused awkwardly, +remembering that Ariel had walked with Joseph Louden in the face of +Canaan that very day. "That is, I mean to say, there's some talk of his +running for Mayor." + +"WHAT?" + +There was a general exclamation, followed by an uncomfortable moment or +two of silence. No one present was unaware of that noon walk, though +there was prevalent a pleasing notion that it would not happen again, +founded on the idea that Ariel, having only arrived the previous +evening, had probably met Joe on the street by accident, and, +remembering him as a playmate of her childhood and uninformed as to his +reputation, had, naturally enough, permitted him to walk home with her. + +Mr. Flitcroft broke the silence, rushing into words with a derisive +laugh: "Yes, he's 'talked of' for Mayor--by the saloon people and the +niggers! I expect the Beaver Beach crowd would be for him, and if +tramps could vote he might--" + +"What is Beaver Beach?" asked Ariel, not turning. + +"What is Beaver Beach?" he repeated, and cast his eyes to the sky, +shaking his head awesomely. "It's a Place," he said, with abysmal +solemnity,--"a Place I shouldn't have mentioned in your presence, Miss +Tabor." + +"What has it to do with Mr. Louden?" + +The predestined Norbert conceived the present to be a heaven-sent +opportunity to enlighten her concerning Joe's character, since the +Pikes appeared to have been derelict in the performance of this +kindness. + +"He goes there!" he proceeded heavily. "He lived there for a while +when he first came back from running away, and he's a friend of Mike +Sheehan's that runs it; he's a friend of all the riff-raff that hang +around there." + +"How do you know he goes there?" + +"Why, it was in the paper the day after he came back!" He appealed for +corroboration. "Wasn't it, Eugene?" + +"No, no!" she persisted. "Newspapers are sometimes mistaken, aren't +they?" Laughing a little, she swept across the bulbous face beside her +a swift regard that was like a search-light. "How do you KNOW, Mr. +Flitcroft," she went on very rapidly, raising her voice,--"how do you +KNOW that Mr. Louden is familiar with this place? The newspapers may +have been falsely informed; you must admit that? Then how do you KNOW? +Have you ever MET any one who has seen him there?" + +"I've seen him there myself!" The words skipped out of Norbert's mouth +like so many little devils, the instant he opened it. She had spoken +so quickly and with such vehemence, looking him full in the eye, that +he had forgotten everything in the world except making the point to +which her insistence had led him. + +Mamie looked horrified; there was a sound of smothered laughter, and +Norbert, overwhelmed by the treachery of his own mouth, sat gasping. + +"It can't be such a terrific place, then, after all," said Ariel, +gently, and turning to Eugene, "Have you ever been there, Mr. Bantry?" +she asked. + +He changed color, but answered with enough glibness: "No." + +Several of the young men rose; the wretched Flitcroft, however, evading +Mamie's eye--in which there was a distinct hint,--sat where he was +until all of them, except Eugene, had taken a reluctant departure, one +group after another, leaving in the order of their arrival. + +The rosy pigment which had colored the trees faded; the gold-dust of +the western distance danced itself pale and departed; dusk stalked into +the town from the east; and still the watcher upon the steps and the +warden of the gate (he of the lilac-bushes and the Bible) held their +places and waited--waited, alas! in vain.... Ah! Joe, is THIS the +mettle of your daring? Did you not say you would "try"? Was your +courage so frail a vessel that it could not carry you even to the gate +yonder? Surely you knew that if you had striven so far, there you would +have been met! Perhaps you foresaw that not one, but two, would meet +you at the gate, both the warden and the watcher. What of that? What +of that, O faint heart? What was there to fear? Listen! The gate +clicks. Ah, have you come at last? + +Ariel started to her feet, but the bent figure, coming up the walk in +the darkness, was that of Eskew Arp. He bowed gloomily to Mamie, and +in response to her inquiry if he wished to see her father, answered no; +he had come to talk with the granddaughter of his old friend Roger +Tabor. + +"Mr. Arp!" called Ariel. "I am so very glad!" She ran down to him and +gave him her hand. "We'll sit here on the bench, sha'n't we?" + +Mamie had risen, and skirting Norbert frostily, touched Eugene upon the +shoulder as she went up the steps. He understood that he was to follow +her in-doors, and, after a deep look at the bench where Ariel had +seated herself beside Mr. Arp, he obeyed. Norbert was left a lonely +ruin between the cold, twin dogs. He had wrought desolation this +afternoon, and that sweet verdure, his good name, so long in the +planting, so carefully tended, was now a dreary waste; yet he +contemplated this not so much as his present aspect of splendid +isolation. Frozen by the daughter of the house, forgotten by the +visitor, whose conversation with Mr. Arp was carried on in tones so low +that he could not understand it, the fat one, though heart-breakingly +loath to take himself away, began to comprehend that his hour had +struck. He rose, descended the steps to the bench, and seated himself +unexpectedly upon the cement walk at Ariel's feet. "Leg's gone to +sleep," he explained, in response to her startled exclamation; but, +like a great soul, ignoring the accident of his position as well as the +presence of Mr. Arp, he immediately proceeded: "Will you go riding with +me to-morrow afternoon?" + +"Aren't you very good-natured, Mr. Flitcroft?" she asked, with an odd +intonation. + +"I'm imposed on, often enough," he replied, rubbing his leg, "by people +who think I am! Why?" + +"It is only that your sitting so abruptly upon the ground reminded me +of something that happened long ago, before I left Canaan, the last +time I met you." + +"I don't think I knew you before you went away. You haven't said if +you'll go riding with me to-morrow. Please--" + +"Get up," interrupted Mr. Arp, acidly. "Somebody 'll fall over you if +you stay there." + +Such a catastrophe in truth loomed imminent. Judge Pike was rapidly +approaching on his way to the house, Bible in hand--far better in hand +than was his temper, for it is an enraging thing to wait five hours in +ambush for a man who does not come. In the darkness a desecration +occurred, and Norbert perfected to the last detail whatever had been +left incomplete of his own destruction. He began lumberingly to rise, +talking at the same time, urging upon Ariel the charms of the roadside; +wild flowers were in blossom, he said, recounting the benefits she +might derive through acceptance of his invitation; and having, thus +busily, risen to his knees, became aware that some one was passing near +him. This some one Mr. Flitcroft, absorbed in artful persuasions, may +have been betrayed by the darkness to mistake for Eugene. Reaching out +for assistance, he mechanically seized upon the skirts of a coat, which +he put to the uses of a rope, coming up hand-over-hand with such noble +weight and energy that he brought himself to his feet and the owner of +the coat to the ground simultaneously. The latter, hideously +astonished, went down with an objurgation so outrageous in venom that +Mr. Arp jumped with the shock. Judge Pike got to his feet quickly, but +not so quickly as the piteous Flitcroft betook himself into the deep +shadows of the street. Only a word, hoarse and horror-stricken, was +left quivering on the night breeze by this accursed, whom the gods, +intent upon his ruin, had early in the day, at his first sight of +Ariel, in good truth, made mad: "MURDER!" + +"Can I help you brush off, Judge?" asked Eskew, rising painfully. + +Either Martin Pike was beyond words, or the courtesy proposed by the +feeble old fellow (for Eskew was now very far along in years, and +looked his age) emphasized too bitterly the indignity which had been +put upon him: whatever the case, he went his way in-doors, leaving the +cynic's offer unacknowledged. Eskew sank back upon the bench, with the +little rusty sounds, suggestions of creaks and sighs, which accompany +the movement of antiques. "I've always thought," he said, "that the +Judge had spells when he was hard of hearing." + +Oblongs of light abruptly dropped from the windows confronting them, +one, falling across the bench, appropriately touching with lemon the +acrid, withered face and trembling hands of the veteran. "You are +younger than you were nine years ago, Mr. Arp," said Ariel, gayly. "I +caught a glimpse of you upon the street, to-day, and I thought so then. +Now I see that I was right." + +"Me--YOUNGER!" he groaned. "No, ma'am! I'm mighty near through with +this fool world--and I'd be glad of it, if I didn't expect that if +there IS another one afterwards, it would be jest as ornery!" + +She laughed, leaning forward, resting her elbows on her knee, and her +chin in her hand, so that the shadow of her hat shielded her eyes from +the light. "I thought you looked surprised when you saw me to day." + +"I reckon I did!" he exclaimed. "Who wouldn't of been?" + +"Why?" + +"Why?" he repeated, confounded by her simplicity. "Why?" + +"Yes," she laughed. "That's what I'm anxious to know." + +"Wasn't the whole town the same way?" he demanded. "Did you meet +anybody that didn't look surprised?" + +"But why should they?" + +"Good Lord Admighty!" he broke out. "Ain't you got any +lookin'-glasses?" + +"I think almost all I have are still in the customs warehouse." + +"Then use Mamie Pike's," responded the old man. "The town never +dreamed you were goin' to turn out pretty at all, let alone the WAY +you've turned out pretty! The Tocsin had a good deal about your looks +and so forth in it once, in a letter from Paris, but the folks that +remembered you kind of set that down to the way papers talk about +anybody with money, and nobody was prepared for it when they saw you. +You don't need to drop no curtseys to ME." He set his mouth grimly, in +response to the bow she made him. "_I_ think female beauty is like all +other human furbelows, and as holler as heaven will be if only the good +people are let in! But yet I did stop to look at you when you went +past me to-day, and I kept on lookin', long as you were in sight. I +reckon I always will, when I git the chance, too--only shows what human +nature IS! But that wasn't all that folks were starin' at to-day. It +was your walkin' with Joe Louden that really finished 'em, and I can +say it upset me more than anything I've seen for a good many years." + +"Upset you, Mr. Arp?" she cried. "I don't quite see." + +The old man shook his head deploringly. "After what I'd written you +about that boy--" + +"Ah," she said, softly, touching his sleeve with her fingers, "I +haven't thanked you for that." + +"You needn't," he returned, sharply. "It was a pleasure. Do you +remember how easy and quick I promised you?" + +"I remember that you were very kind." + +"Kind!" He gave forth an acid and chilling laugh. "It was about two +months after Louden ran away, and before you and Roger left Canaan, and +you asked me to promise to write to you whenever word of that outcast +came--" + +"I didn't put it so, Mr. Arp." + +"No, but you'd ought of! You asked me to write you whatever news of +him should come, and if he came back to tell you how and when and all +about it. And I did it, and kept you sharp on his record ever since he +landed here again. Do you know why I've done it? Do you know why I +promised so quick and easy I WOULD do it?" + +"Out of the kindness of your heart, I think." + +The acid laugh was repeated. "NO, ma 'am! You couldn't of guessed +colder. I promised, and I kept my promise, because I knew there would +never be anything good to tell! AND THERE NEVER WAS!" + +"Nothing at all?" she insisted, gravely. + +"Never! I leave it to you if I've written one good word of him." + +"You've written of the treatment he has received here," she began, "and +I've been able to see what he has borne--and bears!" + +"But have I written one word to show that he didn't deserve it all? +Haven't I told you everything, of his associates, his--" + +"Indeed you have!" + +"Then do you wonder that I was more surprised than most when I saw you +walking with him to-day? Because I knew you did it in cold blood and +knowledge aforethought! Other folks thought it was because you hadn't +been here long enough to hear his reputation, but I KNEW!" + +"Tell me," she said, "if you were disappointed when you saw me with +him." + +"Yes," he snapped. "I was!" + +"I thought so. I saw the consternation in your face! You APPROVED, +didn't you?" + +"I don't know what you're talking about!" + +"Yes, you do! I know it bothers you to have me read you between the +lines, but for this once you must let me. You are so consistent that +you are never disappointed when things turn out badly, or people are +wicked or foolish, are you?" + +"No, certainly not. I expect it." + +"And you were disappointed in me to-day. Therefore, it must be that I +was doing something you knew was right and good. You see?" She leaned +a little closer to him, smiling angelically. "Ah, Mr. Arp," she cried, +"I know your secret: you ADMIRE me!" + +He rose, confused and incoherent, as full of denial as a detected +pickpocket. "I DON'T! Me ADMIRE? WHAT? It's an ornery world," he +protested. "I don't admire any human that ever lived!" + +"Yes, you do," she persisted. "I've just proved it! But that is the +least of your secret; the great thing is this: YOU ADMIRE MR. LOUDEN!" + +"I never heard such nonsense," he continued to protest, at the same +time moving down the walk toward the gate, leaning heavily on his +stick. "Nothin' of the kind. There ain't any LOGIC to that kind of an +argument, nor no REASON!" + +"You see, I understand you," she called after him. "I'm sorry you go +away in the bitterness of being found out." + +"Found out!" His stick ceased for a moment to tap the cement. "Pooh!" +he ejaculated, uneasily. There was a pause, followed by a malevolent +chuckle. "At any rate," he said, with joy in the afterthought, "you'll +never go walkin' with him AGAIN!" + +He waited for the answer, which came, after a time, sadly. "Perhaps +you are right. Perhaps I shall not." + +"Ha, I thought so! Good-night." + +"Good-night, Mr. Arp." + + +She turned toward the lighted house. Through the windows nearest her +she could see Mamie, seated in the familiar chair, following with happy +and tender eyes the figure of Eugene, who was pacing up and down the +room. The town was deadly quiet: Ariel could hear the sound of +footsteps perhaps a block away. She went to the gate and gazed a long +time into the empty street, watching the yellow grains of light, sieved +through the maples from the arc lights on the corner, moving to and fro +in the deep shadow as the lamp swung slightly in the night air. +Somewhere, not far away, the peace was broken by the screams of a +"parlor organ," which honked and wailed in pious agonies (the intention +was hymnal), interminably protracting each spasm. Presently a woman's +voice outdid the organ, a voice which made vivid the picture of the +woman who owned it, and the ploughed forehead of her, above the +nose-glasses, when the "grace-notes" were proudly given birth. "Rescue +the Perishing" was the startlingly appropriate selection, rendered with +inconceivable lingering upon each syllable: "Roos-cyoo the +Poor-oosh-oong!" At unexpected intervals two male voices, evidently +belonging to men who had contracted the habit of holding tin in their +mouths, joined the lady in a thorough search for the Lost Chord. + +That was the last of silence in Canaan for an hour or so. The organ +was merely inaugural: across the street a piano sounded; firm, +emphatic, determined, vocal competition with the instrument here also; +"Rock of Ages" the incentive. Another piano presently followed suit, +in a neighboring house: "Precious Jewels." More distant, a second +organ was heard; other pianos, other organs, took up other themes; and +as a wakeful puppy's barking will go over a village at night, stirring +first the nearer dogs to give voice, these in turn stimulating those +farther away to join, one passing the excitement on to another, until +hounds in farm-yards far beyond the town contribute to the +long-distance conversation, even so did "Rescue the Perishing" enliven +the greater part of Canaan. + +It was this that made Ariel realize a thing of which hitherto she had +not been able to convince herself: that she was actually once more in +the town where she had spent her long-ago girlhood; now grown to seem +the girlhood of some other person. It was true: her foot was on her +native heath and her name was Ariel Tabor--the very name of the girl +who had shared the town's disapproval with Joe Louden! "Rescue the +Perishing" brought it all back to her; and she listened to these +sharply familiar rites of the Canaanite Sabbath evening with a shiver +of pain. + +She turned from the gate to go into the house, heard Eugene's voice at +the door, and paused. He was saying good-night to Mamie. + +"And please say 'au revoir' to Miss Tabor for me," he added, peering +out under his hand. "I don't know where she can have gone." + +"Probably she came in and went to her room," said Mamie. + +"Don't forget to tell her 'au revoir.'" + +"I won't, dear. Good-night." + +"Good-night." She lifted her face and he kissed her perfunctorily. +Then he came down the steps and went slowly toward the gate, looking +about him into the darkness as if searching for something; but Ariel +had fled away from the path of light that led from the open door. + +She skimmed noiselessly across the lawn and paused at the side of the +house, leaning against the veranda, where, on a night long past, a boy +had hid and a girl had wept. A small creaking sound fell upon her ear, +and she made out an ungainly figure approaching, wheeling something of +curious shape. + +"Is that you, Sam?" she said. + +Mr. Warden stopped, close by. "Yes'm," he replied. "I'm a-gittin' out +de hose to lay de dus' yonnah." He stretched an arm along the +cross-bar of the reel, relaxing himself, apparently, for conversation. +"Y'all done change consid'able, Miss Airil," he continued, with the +directness of one sure of privilege. + +"You think so, Sam?" + +"Yes'm. Ev'ybody think so, _I_ reckon. Be'n a tai'ble lot o' talkum +'bout you to-day. Dun'no' how all dem oth' young ladies goin' take +it!" He laughed with immoderate delight, yet, as to the volume of mere +sound, discreetly, with an eye to open windows. "You got 'em all beat, +Miss Airil! Dey ain' be'n no one 'roun' dis town evah got in a thousum +mile o' you! Fer looks, an' de way you walk an' ca'y yo'self; an' as +fer de clo'es--name o' de good lan', honey, dey ain' nevah SEE style +befo'! My ole woman say you got mo' fixin's in a minute dan de whole +res' of 'em got in a yeah. She say when she helpin' you onpack she +must 'a' see mo'n a hunerd paihs o' slippahs alone! An' de good Man +knows I 'membuh w'en you runnin' roun' back-yods an' up de alley +rompin' 'ith Joe Louden, same you's a boy!" + +"Do you ever see Mr. Louden, nowadays?" she asked. + +His laugh was repeated with the same discreet violence. "Ain' I seen +him dis ve'y day, fur up de street at de gate yonnah, stan'in' 'ith +you, w'en I drivin' de Judge?" + +"You--you didn't happen to see him anywhere this--this afternoon?" + +"No'm, I ain' SEE him." Sam's laughter vanished and his lowered voice +became serious. "I ain' SEE him, but I hearn about him." + +"What did you hear?" + +"Dey be'n consid'able stir on de aidge o' town, I reckon," he answered, +gravely, "an' dey be'n havin' some trouble out at de Beach--" + +"Beaver Beach, do you mean?" + +"Yes'm. Dey be'n some shootin' goin' on out dat way." + +She sprang forward and caught at his arm without speaking. + +"Joe Louden all right," he said, reassuringly. "Ain' nuffum happen to +him! Nigh as I kin mek out f'm de TALK, dat Happy Fear gone on de +ramPAGE ag'in, an' dey hatta sent fer Mist' Louden to come in a hurry." + + + +XIV + +WHITE ROSES IN A LAW-OFFICE + +As upon a world canopied with storm, hung with mourning purple and +habited in black, did Mr. Flitcroft turn his morning face at eight +o'clock antemeridian Monday, as he hied himself to his daily duty at +the Washington National Bank. Yet more than the merely funereal +gloomed out from the hillocky area of his countenance. Was there not, +i'faith, a glow, a Vesuvian shimmer, beneath the murk of that darkling +eye? Was here one, think you, to turn the other cheek? Little has he +learned of Norbert Flitcroft who conceives that this fiery spirit was +easily to be quenched! Look upon the jowl of him, and let him who +dares maintain that people--even the very Pikes themselves--were to +grind beneath their brougham wheels a prostrate Norbert and ride on +scatheless! In this his own metaphor is nearly touched "I guess not! +They don't run over ME! Martin Pike better look out how he tries it!" + +So Mother Nature at her kindly tasks, good Norbert, uses for her +unguent our own perfect inconsistency: and often when we are stabbed +deep in the breast she distracts us by thin scratches in other parts, +that in the itch of these we may forget the greater hurt till it be +healed. Thus, the remembrance of last night, when you undisguisedly +ran from the wrath of a Pike, with a pretty girl looking on (to say +nothing of the acrid Arp, who will fling the legend on a thousand +winds), might well agonize you now, as, in less hasty moments and at a +safe distance, you brood upon the piteous figure you cut. On the +contrary, behold: you see no blood crimsoning the edges of the horrid +gash in your panoply of self-esteem: you but smart and scratch the +scratches, forgetting your wound in the hot itch for vengeance. It is +an itch which will last (for in such matters your temper shall be +steadfast), and let the great Goliath in the mean time beware of you! +You ran, last night. You ran--of course you ran. Why not? You ran to +fight another day! + +A bank clerk sometimes has opportunities. + +The stricken fat one could not understand how it came about that he had +blurted out the damning confession that he had visited Beaver Beach. +When he tried to solve the puzzle, his mind refused the strain, became +foggy and the terrors of his position acute. Was he, like Joe Louden, +to endure the ban of Canaan, and like him stand excommunicate beyond +the pale because of Martin Pike's displeasure? For Norbert saw with +perfect clearness to-day what the Judge had done for Joe. Now that he +stood in danger of a fate identical, this came home to him. How many +others, he wondered, would do as Mamie had done and write notes such as +he had received by the hand of Sam Warden, late last night? + + +"DEAR SIR." (This from Mamie, who, in the Canaanitish way, had been +wont to address him as "Norb"!)--"My father wishes me to state that +after your remark yesterday afternoon on the steps which was overheard +by my mother who happened to be standing in the hall behind you and +your BEHAVIOR to himself later on--he considers it impossible to allow +you to call any more or to speak to any member of his household. + + "Yours respectfully, + "MAMIE PIKE." + + +Erasures and restorations bore witness to a considerable doubt in +Mamie's mind concerning "Yours respectfully," but she had finally let +it stand, evidently convinced that the plain signature, without +preface, savored of an intimacy denied by the context. + +"'DEAR SIR'!" repeated Norbert, between set teeth. "'IMPOSSIBLE TO +ALLOW YOU TO CALL any more'!" These and other terms of his dismissal +recurred to him during the morning, and ever and anon he looked up from +his desk, his lips moving to the tune of those horrid phrases, and +stared out at the street. Basilisk glaring this, with no Christian +softness in it, not even when it fell upon his own grandfather, sitting +among the sages within easy eye-shot from the big window at Norbert's +elbow. However, Colonel Flitcroft was not disturbed by the gaze of his +descendant, being, in fact, quite unaware of it. The aged men were +having a busy morning. + +The conclave was not what it had been. [See Arp and all his works.] +There had come, as the years went by, a few recruits; but faces were +missing: the two Tabors had gone, and Uncle Joe Davey could no longer +lay claim to the patriarchship; he had laid it down with a half-sigh +and gone his way. Eskew himself was now the oldest of the conscript +fathers, the Colonel and Squire Buckalew pressing him closely, with +Peter Bradbury no great time behind. + +To-day they did not plant their feet upon the brass rail inside the +hotel windows, but courted the genial weather out-doors, and, as their +summer custom was, tilted back their chairs in the shade of the western +wall of the building. + +"And who could of dreamed," Mr. Bradbury was saying, with a side-glance +of expectancy at Eskew, "that Jonas Tabor would ever turn out to have a +niece like that!" + +Mr. Arp ceased to fan himself with his wide straw hat and said grimly: + +"I don't see as Jonas HAS 'turned out'--not in particular! If he's +turned at all, lately, I reckon it's in his grave, and I'll bet he HAS +if he had any way of hearin' how much she must of spent for clothes!" + +"I believe," Squire Buckalew began, "that young folks' memories are +short." + +"They're lucky!" interjected Eskew. "The shorter your memory the less +meanness you know." + +"I meant young folks don't remember as well as older people do," +continued the Squire. "I don't see what's so remarkable in her comin' +back and walkin' up-street with Joe Louden. She used to go kitin' +round with him all the time, before she left here. And yet everybody +talks as if they never HEARD of sech a thing!" + +"It seems to me," said Colonel Flitcroft, hesitatingly, "that she did +right. I know it sounds kind of a queer thing to say, and I stirred up +a good deal of opposition at home, yesterday evening, by sort of +mentioning something of the kind. Nobody seemed to agree with me, +except Norbert, and he didn't SAY much, but--" + +He was interrupted by an uncontrollable cackle which issued from the +mouth of Mr. Arp. The Colonel turned upon him with a frown, inquiring +the cause of his mirth. + +"It put me in mind," Mr. Arp began promptly, "of something that +happened last night." + +"What was it?" + +Eskew's mouth was open to tell, but he remembered, just in time, that +the grandfather of Norbert was not the audience properly to be selected +for this recital, choked a half-born word, coughed loudly, realizing +that he must withhold the story of the felling of Martin Pike until the +Colonel had taken his departure, and replied: + +"Nothin' to speak of. Go on with your argument." + +"I've finished," said the Colonel. "I only wanted to say that it seems +to me a good action for a young lady like that to come back here and +stick to her old friend and playmate." + +"STICK to him!" echoed Mr. Arp. "She walked up Main Street with him +yesterday. Do you call that stickin' to him? She's been away a good +while; she's forgotten what Canaan IS. You wait till she sees for +herself jest what his standing in this com--" + +"I agree with Eskew for once," interrupted Peter Bradbury. "I agree +because--" + +"Then you better wait," cried Eskew, allowing him to proceed no +farther, "till you hear what you're agreein' to! I say: you take a +young lady like that, pretty and rich and all cultured up, and it +stands to reason that she won't--" + +"No, it don't," exclaimed Buckalew, impatiently. "Nothing of the sort! +I tell you--" + +Eskew rose to his feet and pounded the pavement with his stick. "It +stands to reason that she won't stick to a man no other decent woman +will speak to, a feller that's been the mark for every stone throwed in +the town, ever since he was a boy, an outcast with a reputation as +black as a preacher's shoes on Sunday! I don't care if he's her oldest +friend on EARTH, she won't stick to him! She walked with him +yesterday, but you can mark my words: his goose is cooked!" The old +man's voice rose, shrill and high. "It ain't in human nature fer her +to do it! You hear what I say: you'll never see her with Joe Louden +again in this livin' world, and she as good as told me so, herself, +last night. You can take your oath she's quit him already! Don't--" + +Eskew paused abruptly, his eyes widening behind his spectacles; his jaw +fell; his stick, raised to hammer the pavement, remained suspended in +the air. A sudden color rushed over his face, and he dropped +speechless in his chair. The others, after staring at him in momentary +alarm, followed the direction of his gaze. + +Just across Main Street, and in plain view, was the entrance to the +stairway which led to Joe's office. Ariel Tabor, all in cool gray, +carrying a big bunch of white roses in her white-gloved hands, had just +crossed the sidewalk from a carriage and was ascending the dark +stairway. A moment later she came down again, empty-handed, got into +the carriage, and drove away. + +"She missed him," said Squire Buckalew. "I saw him go out half an hour +ago. BUT," he added, and, exercising a self-restraint close upon the +saintly, did not even glance toward the heap which was Mr. Arp, "I +notice she left her flowers!" + + +Ariel was not the only one who climbed the dingy stairs that day and +read the pencilled script upon Joe's door: "Will not return until +evening. J. Louden." Many others came, all exceedingly unlike the +first visitor: some were quick and watchful, dodging into the narrow +entrance furtively; some smiled contemptuously as long as they were in +view of the street, drooping wanly as they reached the stairs: some +were brazen and amused; and some were thin and troubled. Not all of +them read the message, for not all could read, but all looked curiously +through the half-opened door at the many roses which lifted their heads +delicately from a water-pitcher on Joe's desk to scent that dusty place +with their cool breath. + +Most of these clients, after a grunt of disappointment, turned and went +away; though there were a few, either unable to read the message or so +pressed by anxiety that they disregarded it, who entered the room and +sat down to wait for the absentee. [There were plenty of chairs in the +office now, bookcases also, and a big steel safe.] But when evening +came and the final gray of twilight had vanished from the window-panes, +all had gone except one, a woman who sat patiently, her eyes upon the +floor, and her hands folded in her lap, until the footsteps of the last +of the others to depart had ceased to sound upon the pavement below. +Then, with a wordless exclamation, she sprang to her feet, pulled the +window-shade carefully down to the sill, and, when she had done that, +struck a match on the heel of her shoe--a soiled white canvas shoe, not +a small one--and applied the flame to a gas jet. The yellow light +flared up; and she began to pace the room haggardly. + +The court-house bell rang nine, and as the tremors following the last +stroke pulsed themselves into silence, she heard a footfall on the +stairs and immediately relapsed into a chair, folding her hands again +in her lap, her expression composing itself to passivity, for the step +was very much lighter than Joe's. + +A lady beautifully dressed in white dimity appeared in the doorway. +She hesitated at the threshold, not, apparently, because of any +timidity (her expression being too thoughtfully assured for that), but +almost immediately she came in and seated herself near the desk, +acknowledging the other's presence by a slight inclination of the head. + +This grave courtesy caused a strong, deep flush to spread itself under +the rouge which unevenly covered the woman's cheeks, as she bowed +elaborately in return. Then, furtively, during a protracted silence, +she took stock of the new-comer, from the tip of her white suede shoes +to the filmy lace and pink roses upon her wide white hat; and the +sidelong gaze lingered marvellingly upon the quiet, delicate hands, +slender and finely expressive, in their white gloves. + +Her own hands, unlike the lady's, began to fidget confusedly, and, the +silence continuing, she coughed several times, to effect the preface +required by her sense of fitness, before she felt it proper to observe, +with a polite titter: + +"Mr. Louden seems to be a good while comin'." + +"Have you been waiting very long?" asked the lady. + +"Ever since six o'clock!" + +"Yes," said the other. "That is very long." + +"Yes, ma'am, it cert'nly is." The ice thus broken, she felt free to +use her eyes more directly, and, after a long, frank stare, exclaimed: + +"Why, you must be Miss Ariel Tabor, ain't you?" + +"Yes." Ariel touched one of the roses upon Joe's desk with her +finger-tips. "I am Miss Tabor." + +"Well, excuse me fer asking; I'm sure it ain't any business of mine," +said the other, remembering the manners due one lady from another. +"But I thought it must be. I expect," she added, with loud, +inconsequent laughter, "there's not many in Canaan ain't heard you've +come back." She paused, laughed again, nervously, and again, less +loudly, to take off the edge of her abruptness: gradually tittering +herself down to a pause, to fill which she put forth: "Right nice +weather we be'n havin'." + +"Yes," said Ariel. + +"It was rainy, first of last week, though. _I_ don't mind rain so +much"--this with more laughter,--"I stay in the house when it rains. +Some people don't know enough to, they say! You've heard that saying, +ain't you, Miss Tabor?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, I tell YOU," she exclaimed, noisily, "there's plenty ladies and +gen'lemen in this town that's like that!" + +Her laughter did not cease; it became louder and shriller. It had +been, until now, a mere lubrication of the conversation, helping to +make her easier in Miss Tabor's presence, but as it increased in +shrillness, she seemed to be losing control of herself, as if her +laughter were getting away with her; she was not far from hysteria, +when it stopped with a gasp, and she sat up straight in her chair, +white and rigid. + +"THERE!" she said, listening intently. "Ain't that him?" Steps +sounded upon the pavement below; paused for a second at the foot of the +stairs; there was the snap of a match; then the steps sounded again, +retreating. She sank back in her chair limply. "It was only some one +stoppin' to light his cigar in the entry. It wasn't Joe Louden's step, +anyway." + +"You know his step?" Ariel's eyes were bent upon the woman wonderingly. + +"I'd know it to-night," was the answer, delivered with a sharp and +painful giggle. "I got plenty reason to!" + +Ariel did not respond. She leaned a little closer to the roses upon +the desk, letting them touch her face, and breathing deeply of their +fragrance to neutralize a perfume which pervaded the room; an odor as +heavy and cheap-sweet as the face of the woman who had saturated her +handkerchief with it, a scent which went with her perfectly and made +her unhappily definite; suited to her clumsily dyed hair, to her soiled +white shoes, to the hot red hat smothered in plumage, to the restless +stub-fingered hands, to the fat, plated rings, of which she wore a +great quantity, though, surprisingly enough, the large diamonds in her +ears were pure, and of a very clear water. + +It was she who broke the silence once more. "Well," she drawled, +coughing genteelly at the same time, "better late than never, as the +saying is. I wonder who it is gits up all them comical sayings?" +Apparently she had no genuine desire for light upon this mystery, as +she continued, immediately: "I have a gen'leman friend that's always +gittin' 'em off. 'Well,' he says, 'the best of friends must part,' +and, 'Thou strikest me to the heart'--all kinds of cracks like that. +He's real comical. And yet," she went on in an altered voice, "I don't +like him much. I'd be glad if I'd never seen him." + +The change of tone was so marked that Ariel looked at her keenly, to +find herself surprised into pitying this strange client of Joe's; for +tears had sprung to the woman's eyes and slid along the lids, where she +tried vainly to restrain them. Her face had altered too, like her +voice, haggard lines suddenly appearing about the eyes and mouth as if +they had just been pencilled there: the truth issuing from beneath her +pinchbeck simulations, like a tragic mask revealed by the displacement +of a tawdry covering. + +"I expect you think I'm real foolish," she said, "but I be'n waitin' so +awful long--and I got a good deal of worry on my mind till I see Mr. +Louden." + +"I am sorry," Ariel turned from the roses, and faced her and the heavy +perfume. "I hope he will come soon." + +"I hope so," said the other. "It's something to do with me that keeps +him away, and the longer he is the more it scares me." She shivered +and set her teeth together. "It's kind of hard, waitin'. I cert'nly +got my share of troubles." + +"Don't you think that Mr. Louden will be able to take care of them for +you?" + +"Oh, I HOPE so, Miss Tabor! If he can't, nobody can." She was crying +openly now, wiping her eyes with her musk-soaked handkerchief. "We had +to send fer him yesterday afternoon--" + +"To come to Beaver Beach, do you mean?" asked Ariel, leaning forward. + +"Yes, ma'am. It all begun out there,--least-ways it begun before that +with me. It was all my fault. I deserve all that's comin' to me, I +guess. I done wrong--I done wrong! I'd oughtn't never to of went out +there yesterday." + +She checked herself sharply, but, after a moment's pause, continued, +encouraged by the grave kindliness of the delicate face in the shadow +of the wide white hat. "I'd oughtn't to of went," she repeated. "Oh, +I reckon I'll never, never learn enough to keep out o' trouble, even +when I see it comin'! But that gentleman friend of mine--Mr. Nashville +Cory's his name--he kind o' coaxed me into it, and he's right comical +when he's with ladies, and he's good company--and he says, 'Claudine, +we'll dance the light fantastic,' he says, and I kind o' wanted +something cheerful--I'd be'n workin' steady quite a spell, and it +looked like he wanted to show me a good time, so I went, and that's +what started it." Now that she had begun, she babbled on with her +story, at times incoherently; full of excuses, made to herself more +than to Ariel, pitifully endeavoring to convince herself that the +responsibility for the muddle she had made was not hers. + +"Mr. Cory told me my husband was drinkin' and wouldn't know about it, +and, 'Besides,' he says, 'what's the odds?' Of course I knowed there +was trouble between him and Mr. Fear--that's my husband--a good while +ago, when Mr. Fear up and laid him out. That was before me and Mr. +Fear got married; I hadn't even be'n to Canaan then; I was on the +stage. I was on the stage quite a while in Chicago before I got +acquainted with my husband." + +"You were on the stage?" Ariel exclaimed, involuntarily. + +"Yes, ma'am. Livin' pitchers at Goldberg's Rat'skeller, and amunchoor +nights I nearly always done a sketch with a gen'leman friend. That's +the way I met Mr. Fear; he seemed to be real struck with me right away, +and soon as I got through my turn he ast me to order whatever I wanted. +He's always gen'lemanlike when he ain't had too much, and even then he +vurry, vurry seldom acks rough unless he's jealous. That was the +trouble yesterday. I never would of gone to the Beach if I'd dreamed +what was comin'! When we got there I saw Mike--that's the gen'leman +that runs the Beach--lookin' at my company and me kind of anxious, and +pretty soon he got me away from Mr. Cory and told me what's what. +Seems this Cory only wanted me to go with him to make my husband mad, +and he'd took good care that Mr. Fear heard I'd be there with him! And +he'd be'n hangin' around me, every time he struck town, jest to make +Mr. Fear mad--the fresh thing! You see he wanted to make my husband +start something again, this Mr. Cory did, and he was fixed for it." + +"I don't understand," said Ariel. + +"It's this way: if Mr. Fear attacted Mr. Cory, why, Mr. Cory could +shoot him down and claim self-defence. You see, it would be easy for +Mr. Cory, because Mr Fear nearly killed him when they had their first +trouble, and that would give Mr. Cory a good excuse to shoot if Mr. +Fear jest only pushed him. That's the way it is with the law. Mr. +Cory could wipe out their old score and git off scot-free." + +"Surely not!" + +"Yes, ma'am, that's the way it would be. And when Mike told me that +Mr. Cory had got me out there jest to provoke my husband I went +straight up to him and begun to give him a piece of my mind. I didn't +talk loud, because I never was one to make a disturbance and start +trouble the way SOME do; and right while I was talkin' we both see my +husband pass the window. Mr. Cory give a kind of yelling laugh and put +his arm round me jest as Mr. Fear come in the door. And then it all +happened so quick that you could hardly tell what WAS goin' on. Mr. +Fear, we found afterwards, had promised Mr. Louden that he wouldn't +come out there, but he took too much--you could see that by the look of +him--and fergot his promise; fergot everything but me and Cory, I guess. + +"He come right up to us, where I was tryin' to git away from Cory's +arm--it was the left one he had around me, and the other behind his +back--and neither of 'em said a word. Cory kept on laughin' loud as he +could, and Mr. Fear struck him in the mouth. He's little, but he can +hit awful hard, and Mr. Cory let out a screech, and I see his gun go +off--right in Mr. Fear's face, I thought, but it wasn't; it only +scorched him. Most of the other gen'lemen had run, but Mike made a +dive and managed to knock the gun to one side, jest barely in time. +Then Mike and three or four others that come out from behind things +separated 'em--both of 'em fightin' to git at each other. They locked +Mr. Cory up in Mike's room, and took Mr. Fear over to where they hitch +the horses. Then Mike sent fer Mr. Louden to come out to talk to my +husband and take care of him--he's the only one can do anything with +him when he's like that--but before Mr. Louden could git there, Mr. +Fear broke loose and run through a corn-field and got away; at least +they couldn't find him. And Mr. Cory jumped through a window and slid +down into one of Mike's boats, so they'd both gone. When Mr. Louden +come, he only stayed long enough to hear what had happened and started +out to find Happy--that's my husband. He's bound to keep them apart, +but he hasn't found Mr. Fear yet or he'd be here." + +Ariel had sunk back in her chair. "Why should your husband hide?" she +asked, in a low voice. + +"Waitin' fer his chance at Cory," the woman answered, huskily. "I +expect he's afraid the cops are after him, too, on account of the +trouble, and he doesn't want to git locked up till he's met Cory again. +They ain't after him, but he may not know it. They haven't heard of +the trouble, I reckon, or they'd of run Cory in. HE'S around town +to-day, drinkin' heavy, and I guess he's lookin' fer Mr. Fear about as +hard as Mr. Louden is." She rose to her feet, lifted her coarse hands, +and dropped them despairingly. "Oh, I'm scared!" she said. "Mr. +Fear's be'n mighty good to me." + +A slow and tired footstep was heard upon the stairs, and Joe's dog ran +into the room droopingly, wagged his tail with no energy, and crept +under the desk. Mrs. Fear wheeled toward the door and stood, rigid, +her hands clenched tight, her whole body still, except her breast, +which rose and fell with her tumultuous breathing. She could not wait +till the laggard step reached the landing. + +"MR. LOUDEN!" she called, suddenly. + +Joe's voice came from the stairway. "It's all right, Claudine. It's +all fixed up. Don't worry." + +Mrs. Fear gave a thick cry of relief and sank back in her chair as Joe +entered the room. He came in shamblingly, with his hand over his eyes +as if they were very tired and the light hurt them, so that, for a +moment or two, he did not perceive the second visitor. Then he let his +hand fall, revealing a face very white and worn. + +"It's all right, Claudine," he repeated. "It's all right." + +He was moving to lay his hat on the desk when his eye caught first the +roses, then fell upon Ariel, and he stopped stock-still with one arm +outstretched, remaining for perhaps ten seconds in that attitude, while +she, her lips parted, her eyes lustrous, returned his gaze with a look +that was as inscrutable as it was kind. + +"Yes," she said, as if in answer to a question, "I have come here twice +to-day." She nodded slightly toward Mrs. Fear. "I can wait. I am +very glad you bring good news." + +Joe turned dazedly toward the other. "Claudine," he said, "you've been +telling Miss Tabor." + +"I cert'nly have!" Mrs. Fear's expression had cleared and her tone was +cheerful. "I don't see no harm in that! I'm sure she's a good friend +of YOURS, Mr. Louden." + +Joe glanced at Ariel with a faint, troubled smile, and turned again to +Mrs. Fear. "I've had a long talk with Happy." + +"I'm awful glad. Is he ready to listen to reason? she asked, with a +titter. + +"He's waiting for you." + +"Where?" She rose quickly. + +"Stop," said Joe, sharply. "You must be very careful with him--" + +"Don't you s'pose I'm goin' to be?" she interrupted, with a catch in +her voice. "Don't you s'pose I've had trouble enough?" + +"No," said Joe, deliberately and impersonally, "I don't. Unless you +keep remembering to be careful all the time, you'll follow the first +impulse you have, as you did yesterday, and your excuse will be that +you never thought any harm would come of it. He's in a queer mood; but +he will forgive you if you ask him--" + +"Well, ain't that what I WANT to do!" she exclaimed. + +"I know, I know," he said, dropping into the desk-chair and passing his +hand over his eyes with a gesture of infinite weariness. "But you must +be very careful. I hunted for him most of the night and all day. He +was trying to keep out of my way because he didn't want me to find him +until he had met this fellow Nashville. Happy is a hard man to come at +when he doesn't care to be found, and he kept shifting from place to +place until I ran him down. Then I got him in a corner and told him +that you hadn't meant any harm--which is always true of you, poor +woman!--and I didn't leave him till he had promised me to forgive you +if you would come and ask him. And you must keep him out of Cory's way +until I can arrange to have him--Cory, I mean--sent out of town. Will +you?" + +"Why, cert'nly," she answered, smiling. "That Nashville's the vurry +last person I ever want to see again--the fresh thing!" Mrs. Fear's +burden had fallen; her relief was perfect and she beamed vapidly; but +Joe marked her renewed irresponsibility with an anxious eye. + +"You mustn't make any mistakes," he said, rising stiffly with fatigue. + +"Not ME! _I_ don't take no more chances," she responded, tittering +happily. "Not after yesterday. MY! but it's a load off my shoulders! +I do hate it to have gen'lemen quarrelling over me, especially Mr. +Fear. I never DID like to START anything; I like to see people laugh +and be friendly, and I'm mighty glad it's all blown over. I kind o' +thought it would, all along. PSHO!" She burst into genuine, noisy +laughter. "I don't expect either of 'em meant no real harm to each +other, after they got cooled off a little! If they'd met to-day, +they'd probably both run! Now, Mr. Louden, where's Happy?" + +Joe went to the door with her. He waited a moment, perplexed, then his +brow cleared and he said in a low voice: "You know the alley beyond +Vent Miller's pool-room? Go down the alley till you come to the second +gate. Go in, and you'll see a basement door opening into a little room +under Miller's bar. The door won't be locked, and Happy's in there +waiting for you. But remember--" + +"Oh, don't you worry," she cut him off, loudly. "I know HIM! Inside of +an hour I'll have him LAUGHIN' over all this. You'll see!" + +When she had gone, he stood upon the landing looking thoughtfully after +her. "Perhaps, after all, that is the best mood to let her meet him +in," he murmured. + +Then, with a deep breath, he turned. The heavy perfume had gone; the +air was clear and sweet, and Ariel was pressing her face into the roses +again. As he saw how like them she was, he was shaken with a profound +and mysterious sigh, like that which moves in the breast of one who +listens in the dark to his dearest music. + + + +XV + +HAPPY FEAR GIVES HIMSELF UP + +"I know how tired you are," said Ariel, as he came back into the room. +"I shall not keep you long." + +"Ah, please do!" he returned, quickly, beginning to fumble with the +shade of a student-lamp at one end of the desk. + +"Let me do that," she said. "Sit down." He obeyed at once, and +watched her as she lit the lamp, and, stretching upon tiptoe, turned +out the gas. "No," she continued, seated again and looking across the +desk at him, "I wanted to see you at the first possible opportunity, +but what I have to say--" + +"Wait," he interrupted. "Let me tell you why I did not come yesterday." + +"You need not tell me. I know." She glanced at the chair which had +been occupied by Mrs. Fear. "I knew last night that they had sent for +you." + +"You did?" he exclaimed. "Ah, I understand. Sam Warden must have told +you." + +"Yes," she said. "It was he; and I have been wondering ever since how +he heard of it. He knew last night, but there was nothing in the +papers this morning; and until I came here I heard no one else speak of +it; yet Canaan is not large." + +Joe laughed. "It wouldn't seem strange if you lived with the Canaan +that I do. Sam had been down-town during the afternoon and had met +friends; the colored people are a good deal like a freemasonry, you +know. A great many knew last night all about what had happened, and +had their theories about what might happen to-day in case the two men +met. Still, you see, those who knew, also knew just what people not to +tell. The Tocsin is the only newspaper worth the name here; but even +if the Tocsin had known of the trouble, it wouldn't have been likely to +mention it. That's a thing I don't understand." He frowned and rubbed +the back of his head. "There's something underneath it. For more than +a year the Tocsin hasn't spoken of Beaver Beach. I'd like to know why." + +"Joe," she said, slowly, "tell me something truly. A man said to me +yesterday that he found life here insufferable. Do you find it so?" + +"Why, no!" he answered, surprised. + +"Do you hate Canaan?" + +"Certainly not." + +"You don't find it dull, provincial, unsympathetic?" + +He laughed cheerily. "Well, there's this," he explained: "I have an +advantage over your friend. I see a more interesting side of things +probably. The people I live among are pretty thorough cosmopolites in a +way, and the life I lead--" + +"I think I begin to understand a little about the life you lead," she +interrupted. "Then you don't complain of Canaan?" + +"Of course not." + +She threw him a quick, bright, happy look, then glanced again at the +chair in which Mrs. Fear had sat. "Joe," she said, "last night I heard +the people singing in the houses, the old Sunday-evening way. It 'took +me back so'!" + +"Yes, it would. And something else: there's one hymn they sing more +than any other; it's Canaan's favorite. Do you know what it is?" + +"Is it 'Rescue the Perishing'?" + +"That's it. 'Rescue the Perishing'!" he cried, and repeating the words +again, gave forth a peal of laughter so hearty that it brought tears to +his eyes. "'RESCUE THE PERISHING'!" + +At first she did not understand his laughter, but, after a moment, she +did, and joined her own to it, though with a certain tremulousness. + +"It IS funny, isn't it?" said Joe, wiping the moisture from his eyes. +Then all trace of mirth left him. "Is it really YOU, sitting here and +laughing with me, Ariel?" + +"It seems to be," she answered, in a low voice. "I'm not at all sure." + +"You didn't think, yesterday afternoon," he began, almost in a +whisper,--"you didn't think that I had failed to come because I--" He +grew very red, and shifted the sentence awkwardly: "I was afraid you +might think that I was--that I didn't come because I might have been +the same way again that I was when--when I met you at the station?" + +"Oh no!" she answered, gently. "No. I knew better." + +"And do you know," he faltered, "that that is all over? That it can +never happen again?" + +"Yes, I know it," she returned, quickly. + +"Then you know a little of what I owe you." + +"No, no," she protested. + +"Yes," he said. "You've made that change in me already. It wasn't +hard--it won't be--though it might have been if--if you hadn't come +soon." + +"Tell me something," she demanded. "If these people had not sent for +you yesterday, would you have come to Judge Pike's house to see me? +You said you would try." She laughed a little, and looked away from +him. "I want to know if you would have come." + +There was a silence, and in spite of her averted glance she knew that +he was looking at her steadily. Finally, "Don't you know?" he said. + +She shook her head and blushed faintly. + +"Don't you know?" he repeated. + +She looked up and met his eyes, and thereupon both became very grave. +"Yes, I do," she answered. "You would have come. When you left me at +the gate and went away, you were afraid. But you would have come." + +"Yes,--I'd have come. You are right. I was afraid at first; but I +knew," he went on, rapidly, "that you would have come to the gate to +meet me." + +"You understood that?" she cried, her eyes sparkling and her face +flushing happily. + +"Yes. I knew that you wouldn't have asked me to come," he said, with a +catch in his voice which was half chuckle, half groan, "if you hadn't +meant to take care of me! And it came to me that you would know how to +do it." + +She leaned back in her chair, and again they laughed together, but only +for a moment, becoming serious and very quiet almost instantly. + +"I haven't thanked you for the roses," he said. + +"Oh yes, you did. When you first looked at them!" + +"So I did," he whispered. "I'm glad you saw. To find them here took my +breath away--and to find you with them--" + +"I brought them this morning, you know." + +"Would you have come if you had not understood why I failed yesterday?" + +"Oh yes, I think so," she returned, the fine edge of a smile upon her +lips. "For a time last evening, before I heard what had happened, I +thought you were too frightened a friend to bother about." + +He made a little ejaculation, partly joyful, partly sad. + +"And yet," she went on, "I think that I should have come this morning, +after all, even if you had a poorer excuse for your absence, because, +you see, I came on business." + +"You did?" + +"That's why I've come again. That makes it respectable for me to be +here now, doesn't it?--for me to have come out alone after dark without +their knowing it? I'm here as your client, Joe." + +"Why?" he asked. + +She did not answer at once, but picked up a pen from beneath her hand +on the desk, and turning it, meditatively felt its point with her +forefinger before she said slowly, "Are most men careful of other +people's--well, of other people's money?" + +"You mean Martin Pike?" he asked. + +"Yes. I want you to take charge of everything I have for me." + +He bent a frowning regard upon the lamp-shade. "You ought to look after +your own property," he said. "You surely have plenty of time." + +"You mean--you mean you won't help me?" she returned, with intentional +pathos. + +"Ariel!" he laughed, shortly, in answer; then asked, "What makes you +think Judge Pike isn't trustworthy?" + +"Nothing very definite perhaps, unless it was his look when I told him +that I meant to ask you to take charge of things for me." + +"He's been rather hard pressed this year, I think," said Joe. "You +might be right--if he could have found a way. I hope he hasn't." + +"I'm afraid," she began, gayly, "that I know very little of my own +affairs. He sent me a draft every three months, with receipts and +other things to sign and return to him. I haven't the faintest notion +of what I own--except the old house and some money from the income that +I hadn't used and brought with me. Judge Pike has all the +papers--everything." + +Joe looked troubled. "And Roger Tabor, did he--" + +"The dear man!" She shook her head. "He was just the same. To him +poor Uncle Jonas's money seemed to come from heaven through the hands +of Judge Pike--" + +"And there's a handsome roundabout way!" said Joe. + +"Wasn't it!" she agreed, cheerfully. "And he trusted the Judge +absolutely. I don't, you see." + +He gave her a thoughtful look and nodded. "No, he isn't a good man," he +said, "not even according to his lights; but I doubt if he could have +managed to get away with anything of consequence after he became the +administrator. He wouldn't have tried it, probably, unless he was more +desperately pushed than I think he has been. It would have been too +dangerous. Suppose you wait a week or so and think it over." + +"But there's something I want you to do for me immediately, Joe." + +"What's that?" + +"I want the old house put in order. I'm going to live there." + +"Alone?" + +"I'm almost twenty-seven, and that's being enough of an old maid for me +to risk Canaan's thinking me eccentric, isn't it?" + +"It will think anything you do is all right." + +"And once," she cried, "it thought everything I did all wrong!" + +"Yes. That's the difference." + +"You mean it will commend me because I'm thought rich?" + +"No, no," he said, meditatively, "it isn't that. It's because everybody +will be in love with you." + +"Quite everybody!" she asked. + +"Certainly," he replied. "Anybody who didn't would be absurd." + +"Ah, Joe!" she laughed. "You always were the nicest boy in the world, +my dear!" + +At that he turned toward her with a sudden movement and his lips +parted, but not to speak. She had rested one arm upon the desk, and her +cheek upon her hand; the pen she had picked up, still absently held in +her fingers, touching her lips; and it was given to him to know that he +would always keep that pen, though he would never write with it again. +The soft lamplight fell across the lower part of her face, leaving her +eyes, which were lowered thoughtfully, in the shadow of her hat. The +room was blotted out in darkness behind her. Like the background of an +antique portrait, the office, with its dusty corners and shelves and +hideous safe, had vanished, leaving the charming and thoughtful face +revealed against an even, spacious brownness. Only Ariel and the roses +and the lamp were clear; and a strange, small pain moved from Joe's +heart to his throat, as he thought that this ugly office, always before +so harsh and grim and lonely--loneliest for him when it had been most +crowded,--was now transfigured into something very, very different from +an office; that this place where he sat, with a lamp and flowers on a +desk between him and a woman who called him "my dear," must be +like--like something that people called "home." + +And then he leaned across the desk toward her, as he said again what he +had said a little while before,--and his voice trembled: + +"Ariel, it IS you?" + +She looked at him and smiled. + +"You'll be here always, won't you? You're not going away from Canaan +again?" + +For a moment it seemed that she had not heard him. Then her bright +glance at him wavered and fell. She rose, turning slightly away from +him, but not so far that he could not see the sudden agitation in her +face. + +"Ah!" he cried, rising too, "I don't want you to think I don't +understand, or that I meant _I_ should ever ask you to stay here! I +couldn't mean that; you know I couldn't, don't you? You know I +understand that it's all just your beautiful friendliness, don't you?" + +"It isn't beautiful; it's just ME, Joe," she said. "It couldn't be any +other way." + +"It's enough that you should be here now," he went on, bravely, his +voice steady, though his hand shook. "Nothing so wonderful as your +staying could ever actually happen. It's just a light coming into a +dark room and out again. One day, long ago--I never forgot it--some +apple-blossoms blew by me as I passed an orchard; and it's like that, +too. But, oh, my dear, when you go you'll leave a fragrance in my +heart that will last!" + +She turned toward him, her face suffused with a rosy light. "You'd +rather have died than have said that to me once," she cried. "I'm glad +you're weak enough now to confess it!" + +He sank down again into his chair and his arms fell heavily on the +desk. "Confess it!" he cried, despairingly. "And you don't deny that +you're going away again--so it's true! I wish I hadn't realized it so +soon. I think I'd rather have tried to fool myself about it a little +longer!" + +"Joe," she cried, in a voice of great pain, "you mustn't feel like +that! How do you know I'm going away again? Why should I want the old +house put in order unless I mean to stay? And if I went, you know that +I could never change; you know how I've always cared for you--" + +"Yes," he said, "I do know how. It was always the same and it always +will be, won't it?" + +"I've shown that," she returned, quickly. + +"Yes. You say I know how you've cared for me--and I do. I know HOW. +It's just in one certain way--Jonathan and David--" + +"Isn't that a pretty good way, Joe?" + +"Never fear that I don't understand!" He got to his feet again and +looked at her steadily. + +"Thank you, Joe." She wiped sudden tears from her eyes. + +"Don't you be sorry for me," he said. "Do you think that 'passing the +love of women' isn't enough for me?" + +"No," she answered, humbly. + +"I'll have people at work on the old house to-morrow," he began. "And +for the--" + +"I've kept you so long!" she interrupted, helped to a meek sort of +gayety by his matter-of-fact tone. "Good-night, Joe." She gave him her +hand. "I don't want you to come with me. It isn't very late and this +is Canaan." + +"I want to come with you, however," he said, picking up his hat. "You +can't go alone." + +"But you are so tired, you--" + +She was interrupted. There were muffled, flying footsteps on the +stairs, and a shabby little man ran furtively into the room, shut the +door behind him, and set his back against it. His face was mottled +like a colored map, thick lines of perspiration shining across the +splotches. + +"Joe," he panted, "I've got Nashville good, and he's got me good, +too;--I got to clear out. He's fixed me good, damn him! but he won't +trouble nobody--" + +Joe was across the room like a flying shadow. + +"QUIET!" His voice rang like a shot, and on the instant his hand fell +sharply across the speaker's mouth. "In THERE, Happy!" + +He threw an arm across the little man's shoulders and swung him toward +the door of the other room. + +Happy Fear looked up from beneath the down-bent brim of his black +slouch hat; his eyes followed an imperious gesture toward Ariel, gave +her a brief, ghastly stare, and stumbled into the inner chamber. + +"Wait!" Joe said, cavalierly, to Ariel. He went in quickly after Mr. +Fear and closed the door. + +This was Joseph Louden, Attorney-at-Law; and to Ariel it was like a new +face seen in a flash-light--not at all the face of Joe. The sense of +his strangeness, his unfamiliarity in this electrical aspect, overcame +her. She was possessed by astonishment: Did she know him so well, +after all? The strange client had burst in, shaken beyond belief with +some passion unknown to her, but Joe, alert, and masterful beyond +denial, had controlled him instantly; had swept him into the other room +as with a broom. Could it be that Joe sometimes did other things in +the same sweeping fashion? + +She heard a match struck in the next room, and the voices of the two +men: Joe's, then the other's, the latter at first broken and +protestive, but soon rising shrilly. She could hear only fragments. +Once she heard the client cry, almost scream: "By God! Joe, I thought +Claudine had chased him around there to DO me!" And, instantly, +followed Louden's voice: + +"STEADY, HAPPY, STEADY!" + +The name "Claudine" startled her; and although she had had no +comprehension of the argot of Happy Fear, the sense of a mysterious +catastrophe oppressed her; she was sure that something horrible had +happened. She went to the window; touched the shade, which disappeared +upward immediately, and lifted the sash. The front of a square +building in the Court-house Square was bright with lights; and figures +were passing in and out of the Main Street doors. She remembered that +this was the jail. + +"Claudine!" The voice of the husband of Claudine was like the voice of +one lamenting over Jerusalem. + +"STEADY, HAPPY, STEADY!" + +"But, Joe, if they git me, what'll she do? She can't hold her job no +longer--not after this...." + +The door opened, and the two men came out, Joe with his hand on the +other's shoulder. The splotches had gone from Happy's face, leaving it +an even, deathly white. He did not glance toward Ariel; he gazed far +beyond all that was about him; and suddenly she was aware of a great +tragedy. The little man's chin trembled and he swallowed painfully; +nevertheless he bore himself upright and dauntlessly as the two walked +slowly to the door, like men taking part in some fateful ceremony. Joe +stopped upon the landing at the head of the stairs, but Happy Fear went +on, clumping heavily down the steps. + +"It's all right, Happy," said Joe. "It's better for you to go alone. +Don't you worry. I'll see you through. It will be all right." + +"Just as YOU say, Joe," a breaking voice came back from the foot of the +steps,--"just as YOU say!" + +The lawyer turned from the landing and went rapidly to the window +beside Ariel. Together they watched the shabby little figure cross the +street below; and she felt an infinite pathos gathering about it as it +paused for a moment, hesitating, underneath the arc-lamp at the corner. +They saw the white face lifted as Happy Fear gave one last look about +him; then he set his shoulders sturdily, and steadfastly entered the +door of the jail. + +Joe took a deep breath. "Now we'll go," he said. "I must be quick." + +"What was it?" she asked, tremulously, as they reached the street. +"Can you tell me?" + +"Nothing--just an old story." + +He had not offered her his arm, but walked on hurriedly, a pace ahead +of her, though she came as rapidly as she could. She put her hand +rather timidly on his sleeve, and without need of more words from her +he understood her insistence. + +"That was the husband of the woman who told you her story," he said. +"Perhaps it would shock you less if I tell you now than if you heard it +to-morrow, as you will. He's just shot the other man." + +"Killed him!" she gasped. + +"Yes," he answered. "He wanted to run away, but I wouldn't let him. +He has my word that I'll clear him, and I made him give himself up." + + + +XVI + +THE TWO CANAANS + +When Joe left Ariel at Judge Pike's gate she lingered there, her elbows +upon the uppermost cross-bar, like a village girl at twilight, watching +his thin figure vanish into the heavy shadow of the maples, then emerge +momentarily, ghost-gray and rapid, at the lighted crossing down the +street, to disappear again under the trees beyond, followed a second +later by a brownish streak as the mongrel heeled after him. When they +had passed the second corner she could no longer be certain of them, +although the street was straight, with flat, draughtsmanlike Western +directness: both figures and Joe's quick footsteps merging with the +night. Still she did not turn to go; did not alter her position, nor +cease to gaze down the dim street. Few lights shone; almost all the +windows of the houses were darkened, and, save for the summer murmurs, +the faint creak of upper branches, and the infinitesimal voices of +insects in the grass, there was silence: the pleasant and somnolent +hush, swathed in which that part of Canaan crosses to the far side of +the eleventh hour. + +But Ariel, not soothed by this balm, sought beyond it, to see that +unquiet Canaan whither her old friend bent his steps and found his +labor and his dwelling: that other Canaan where peace did not fall +comfortably with the coming of night; a place as alien in habit, in +thought, and almost in speech as if it had been upon another continent. +And yet--so strange is the duality of towns--it lay but a few blocks +distant. + +Here, about Ariel, as she stood at the gate of the Pike Mansion, the +houses of the good (secure of salvation and daily bread) were closed +and quiet, as safely shut and sound asleep as the churches; but deeper +in the town there was light and life and merry, evil +industry,--screened, but strong to last until morning; there were +haunts of haggard merriment in plenty: surreptitious chambers where +roulette-wheels swam beneath dizzied eyes; ill-favored bars, reached by +devious ways, where quavering voices offered song and were harshly +checked; and through the burdened air of this Canaan wandered heavy +smells of musk like that upon Happy Fear's wife, who must now be so +pale beneath her rouge. And above all this, and for all this, and +because of all this, was that one resort to which Joe now made his way; +that haven whose lights burn all night long, whose doors are never +closed, but are open from dawn until dawn--the jail. + +There, in that desolate refuge, lay Happy Fear, surrendered sturdily by +himself at Joe's word. The picture of the little man was clear and +fresh in Ariel's eyes, and though she had seen him when he was newly +come from a thing so terrible that she could not realize it as a fact, +she felt only an overwhelming pity for him. She was not even +horror-stricken, though she had shuddered. The pathos of the shabby +little figure crossing the street toward the lighted doors had touched +her. Something about him had appealed to her, for he had not seemed +wicked; his face was not cruel, though it was desperate. Perhaps it +was partly his very desperation which had moved her. She had +understood Joe, when he told her, that this man was his friend; and +comprehended his great fear when he said: "I've got to clear him! I +promised him." + +Over and over Joe had reiterated: "I've got to save him! I've got +to!" She had answered gently, "Yes, Joe," hurrying to keep up with +him. "He's a good man," he said. "I've known few better, given his +chances. And none of this would have happened except for his old-time +friendship for me. It was his loyalty--oh, the rarest and absurdest +loyalty!--that made the first trouble between him and the man he shot. +I've got to clear him!" + +"Will it be hard?" + +"They may make it so. I can only see part of it surely. When his wife +left the office, she met Cory on the street. You saw what a pitiful +kind of fool she was, irresponsible and helpless and feather-brained. +There are thousands of women like that everywhere--some of them are +'Court Beauties,' I dare say--and they always mix things up; but they +are most dangerous when they're like Claudine, because then they live +among men of action like Cory and Fear. Cory was artful: he spent the +day about town telling people that he had always liked Happy; that his +ill feeling of yesterday was all gone; he wanted to find him and shake +his hand, bury past troubles and be friends. I think he told Claudine +the same thing when they met, and convinced the tiny brainlet of his +sincerity. Cory was a man who 'had a way with him,' and I can see +Claudine flattered at the idea of being peace-maker between 'two such +nice gen'lemen as Mr. Cory and Mr. Fear.' Her commonest +asseveration--quite genuine, too--is that she doesn't like to have the +gen'lemen making trouble about her! So the poor imbecile led him to +where her husband was waiting. All that Happy knew of this was in her +cry afterwards. He was sitting alone, when Cory threw open the door +and said, 'I've got you this time, Happy!' His pistol was raised but +never fired. He waited too long, meaning to establish his case of +'self-defence,' and Fear is the quickest man I know. Cory fell just +inside the door. Claudine stumbled upon him as she came running after +him, crying out to her husband that she 'never meant no trouble,' that +Cory had sworn to her that he only wanted to shake hands and 'make up.' +Other people heard the shot and broke into the room, but they did not +try to stop Fear; he warned them off and walked out without hindrance, +and came to me. I've got to clear him." + +Ariel knew what he meant: she realized the actual thing as it was, and, +though possessed by a strange feeling that it must all be medieval and +not possibly of to-day, understood that he would have to fight to keep +his friend from being killed; that the unhappy creature who had run +into the office out of the dark stood in high danger of having his neck +broken, unless Joe could help him. He made it clear to her that the +State would kill Happy if it could; that it would be a point of pride +with certain deliberate men holding office to take the life of the +little man; that if they did secure his death it would be set down to +their efficiency, and was even competent as campaign material. "I wish +to point out," Joe had heard a candidate for re-election vehemently +orate, "that in addition to the other successful convictions I have +named, I and my assistants have achieved the sending of three men to +the gallows during my term of office!" + +"I can't tell yet," said Joe, at parting. "It may be hard. I'm so +sorry you saw all this. I--" + +"Oh NO!" she cried. "I want to UNDERSTAND!" + + +She was still there, at the gate, her elbows resting upon the +cross-bar, when, a long time after Joe had gone, there came from the +alley behind the big back yard the minor chordings of a quartette of +those dark strollers who never seem to go to bed, who play by night and +playfully pretend to work by day: + + "You know my soul is a-full o' them-a-trub-bils, + Ev-ry mawn! + I cain' a-walk withouten I stum-bils! + Then le'ss go on-- + Keep walkin' on! + These times is sow'owful, an' I am pow'owful + Sick an' fo'lawn!" + + +She heard a step upon the path behind her, and, turning, saw a +white-wrapped figure coming toward her. + +"Mamie?" she called. + +"Hush!" Mamie lifted a warning hand. "The windows are open," she +whispered. "They might hear you!" + +"Why haven't you gone to bed?" + +"Oh, don't you see?" Mamie answered, in deep distress,--"I've been +sitting up for you. We all thought you were writing letters in your +room, but after papa and mamma had gone to bed I went in to tell you +good night, and you weren't there, nor anywhere else; so I knew you +must have gone out. I've been sitting by the front window, waiting to +let you in, but I went to sleep until a little while ago, when the +telephone-bell rang and he got up and answered it. He kept talking a +long time; it was something about the Tocsin, and I'm afraid there's +been a murder down-town. When he went back to bed I fell asleep again, +and then those darkies woke me up. How on earth did you expect to get +in? Don't you know he always locks up the house?" + +"I could have rung," said Ariel. + +"Oh--oh!" gasped Miss Pike; and, after she had recovered somewhat, +asked: "Do you mind telling me where you've been? I won't tell +him--nor mamma, either. I think, after all, I was wrong yesterday to +follow Eugene's advice. He meant for the best, but I--" + +"Don't think that. You weren't wrong." Ariel put her arm round the +other's waist. "I went to talk over some things with Mr. Louden." + +"I think," whispered Mamie, trembling, "that you are the bravest girl I +ever knew--and--and--I could almost believe there's some good in him, +since you like him so. I know there is. And I--I think he's had a +hard time. I want you to know I won't even tell Eugene!" + +"You can tell everybody in the world," said Ariel, and kissed her. + + + +XVII + +MR. SHEEHAN'S HINTS + +"Never," said the Tocsin on the morrow, "has this community been +stirred to deeper indignation than by the cold-blooded and unmitigated +brutality of the deliberate murder committed almost under the very +shadow of the Court-house cupola last night. The victim was not a man +of good repute, it is true, but at the moment of his death he was in +the act of performing a noble and generous action which showed that he +might have become, if he lived, a good and law-fearing citizen. In +brief, he went to forgive his enemy and was stretching forth the hand +of fellowship when that enemy shot him down. Not half an hour before +his death, Cory had repeated within the hearing of a dozen men what he +had been saying all day, as many can testify: 'I want to find my old +friend Fear and shake hands with him. I want to tell him that I +forgive him and that I am ashamed of whatever has been my part in the +trouble between us.' He went with that intention to his death. The +wife of the murderer has confessed that this was the substance of what +he said to her, and that she was convinced of his peaceful intentions. +When they reached the room where her husband was waiting for her, Cory +entered first. The woman claims now that as they neared the vicinity +he hastened forward at a pace which she could not equal. Naturally, +her testimony on all points favoring her husband is practically +worthless. She followed and heard the murdered man speak, though what +his words were she declares she does not know, and of course the +murderer, after consultation with his lawyer, claims that their nature +was threatening. Such a statement, in determining the truth, is worse +than valueless. It is known and readily proved that Fear repeatedly +threatened the deceased's life yesterday, and there is no question in +the mind of any man, woman, or child, who reads these words, of the +cold blooded nature of the crime. The slayer, who had formerly made a +murderous attack upon his victim, lately quarrelled with him and +uttered threats, as we have stated, upon his life. The dead man came +to him with protestations of friendship and was struck down a corpse. +It is understood that the defence will in desperation set up the theory +of self-defence, based on an unsubstantiated claim that Cory entered +the room with a drawn pistol. No pistol was found in the room. The +weapon with which the deed was accomplished was found upon the person +of the murderer when he was seized by the police, one chamber +discharged. Another revolver was discovered upon the person of the +woman, when she was arrested on the scene of the crime. This, upon +being strictly interrogated, she said she had picked up from the floor +in the confusion, thinking it was her husband's and hoping to conceal +it. The chambers were full and undischarged, and we have heard it +surmised that the defence means to claim that it was Cory's. Cory +doubtless went on his errand of forgiveness unarmed, and beyond doubt +the second weapon belonged to the woman herself, who has an unenviable +record. + +"The point of it all is plainly this: here is an unquestionable murder +in the first degree, and the people of this city and county are +outraged and incensed that such a crime should have been committed in +their law-abiding and respectable community. With whom does the fault +lie? On whose head is this murder? Not with the authorities, for they +do not countenance crime. Has it come to the pass that, counting on +juggleries of the law, criminals believe that they may kill, maim, +burn, and slay as they list without punishment? Is this to be another +instance of the law's delays and immunity for a hideous crime, +compassed by a cunning and cynical trickster of legal technicalities? +The people of Canaan cry out for a speedy trial, speedy conviction, and +speedy punishment of this cold-blooded and murderous monster. If he is +not dealt with quickly according to his deserts, the climax is upon us +and the limit of Canaan's patience has been reached. + +"One last word, and we shall be glad to have its significance noted: J. +Louden, Esq., has been retained for the defence! The murderer, before +being apprehended by the authorities, WENT STRAIGHT FROM THE SCENE OF +HIS CRIME TO PLACE HIS RETAINER IN HIS ATTORNEY'S POCKET! HOW LONG IS +THIS TO LAST?" + + +The Tocsin was quoted on street corners that morning, in shop and store +and office, wherever people talked of the Cory murder; and that was +everywhere, for the people of Canaan and of the country roundabout +talked of nothing else. Women chattered of it in parlor and kitchen; +men gathered in small groups on the street and shook their heads +ominously over it; farmers, meeting on the road, halted their teams and +loudly damned the little man in the Canaan jail; milkmen lingered on +back porches over their cans to agree with cooks that it was an awful +thing, and that if ever any man deserved hanging, that there Fear +deserved it--his lawyer along with him! Tipsy men hammered bars with +fists and beer-glasses, inquiring if there was no rope to be had in the +town; and Joe Louden, returning to his office from the little +restaurant where he sometimes ate his breakfast, heard hisses following +him along Main Street. A clerk, a fat-shouldered, blue-aproned, +pimple-cheeked youth, stood in the open doors of a grocery, and as he +passed, stared him in the face and said "Yah!" with supreme disgust. + +Joe stopped. "Why?" he asked, mildly. + +The clerk put two fingers in his mouth and whistled shrilly in +derision. "You'd ort to be run out o' town!" he exclaimed. + +"I believe," said Joe, "that we have never met before." + +"Go on, you shyster!" + +Joe looked at him gravely. "My dear sir," he returned, "you speak to +me with the familiarity of an old friend." + +The clerk did not recover so far as to be capable of repartee until Joe +had entered his own stairway. Then, with a bitter sneer, he seized a +bad potato from an open barrel and threw it at the mongrel, who had +paused to examine the landscape. The missile failed, and +Respectability, after bestowing a slightly injured look upon the clerk, +followed his master. + +In the office the red-bearded man sat waiting. Not so red-bearded as of +yore, however, was Mr. Sheehan, but grizzled and gray, and, this +morning, gray of face, too, as he sat, perspiring and anxious, wiping a +troubled brow with a black silk handkerchief. + +"Here's the devil and all to pay at last, Joe," he said, uneasily, on +the other's entrance. "This is the worst I ever knew; and I hate to +say it, but I doubt yer pullin' it off." + +"I've got to, Mike." + +"I hope on my soul there's a chanst of it! I like the little man, Joe." + +"So do I." + +"I know ye do, my boy. But here's this Tocsin kickin' up the public +sentiment; and if there ever was a follerin' sheep on earth, it's that +same public sentiment!" + +"If it weren't for that"--Joe flung himself heavily in a +chair--"there'd not be so much trouble. It's a clear enough case." + +"But don't ye see," interrupted Sheehan, "the Tocsin's tried it and +convicted him aforehand? And that if things keep goin' the way they've +started to-day, the gran' jury's bound to indict him, and the trial +jury to convict him? They wouldn't dare not to! What's more, they'll +want to! And they'll rush the trial, summer or no summer, and--" + +"I know, I know." + +"I'll tell ye one thing," said the other, wiping his forehead with the +black handkerchief, "and that's this, my boy: last night's business has +just about put the cap on the Beach fer me. I'm sick of it and I'm +tired of it! I'm ready to quit, sir!" + +Joe looked at him sharply. "Don't you think my old notion of what +might be done could be made to pay?" + +Sheehan laughed. "Whoo! You and yer hints, Joe! How long past have +ye come around me with 'em! 'I b'lieve ye c'd make more money, +Mike'--that's the way ye'd put it,--'if ye altered the Beach a bit. +Make a little country-side restaurant of it,' ye'd say, 'and have good +cookin', and keep the boys and girls from raisin' so much hell out +there. Soon ye'd have other people comin' beside the regular crowd. +Make a little garden on the shore, and let 'em eat at tables under +trees an' grape-arbors--'" + +"Well, why not?" asked Joe. + +"Haven't I been tellin' ye I'm thinkin' of it? It's only yer way of +hintin' that's funny to me,--yer way of sayin' I'd make more money, +because ye're afraid of preachin' at any of us: partly because ye know +the little good it 'd be, and partly because ye have humor. Well, I'm +thinkin' ye'll git yer way. I'M willin' to go into the missionary +business with ye!" + +"Mike!" said Joe, angrily, but he grew very red and failed to meet the +other's eye, "I'm not--" + +"Yes, ye are!" cried Sheehan. "Yes, sir! It's a thing ye prob'ly +haven't had the nerve to say to yerself since a boy, but that's yer +notion inside: ye're little better than a missionary! It took me a +long while to understand what was drivin' ye, but I do now. And ye've +gone the right way about it, because we know ye'll stand fer us when +we're in trouble and fight fer us till we git a square deal, as ye're +goin' to fight for Happy now." + +Joe looked deeply troubled. "Never mind," he said, crossly, and with +visible embarrassment. "You think you couldn't make more at the Beach +if you ran it on my plan?" + +"I'm game to try," said Sheehan, slowly. "I'm too old to hold 'em down +out there the way I yoosta could, and I'm sick of it--sick of it into +the very bones of me!" He wiped his forehead. "Where's Claudine?" + +"Held as a witness." + +"I'm not sorry fer HER!" said the red-bearded man, emphatically. +"Women o' that kind are so light-headed it's a wonder they don't float. +Think of her pickin' up Cory's gun from the floor and hidin' it in her +clothes! Took it fer granted it was Happy's, and thought she'd help +him by hidin' it! There's a hard point fer ye, Joe: to prove the gun +belonged to Cory. There's nobody about here could swear to it. I +couldn't myself, though I forced him to stick it back in his pocket +yesterday. He was a wanderer, too; and ye'll have to send a keen one to +trace him, I'm thinkin', to find where he got it, so's ye can show it +in court." + +"I'm going myself. I've found out that he came here from Denver." + +"And from where before that?" + +"I don't know, but I'll keep on travelling till I get what I want." + +"That's right, my boy," exclaimed the other, heartily, "It may be a +long trip, but ye're all the little man has to depend on. Did ye +notice the Tocsin didn't even give him the credit fer givin' himself +up?" + +"Yes," said Joe. "It's part of their game." + +"Did it strike ye now," Mr. Sheehan asked, earnestly, leaning forward +in his chair,--"did it strike ye that the Tocsin was aimin' more to do +Happy harm because of you than himself?" + +"Yes." Joe looked sadly out of the window. "I've thought that over, +and it seemed possible that I might do Happy more good by giving his +case to some other lawyer." + +"No, sir!" exclaimed the proprietor of Beaver Beach, loudly. "They've +begun their attack; they're bound to keep it up, and they'd manage to +turn it to the discredit of both of ye. Besides, Happy wouldn't have +no other lawyer; he'd ruther be hung with you fightin' fer him than be +cleared by anybody else. I b'lieve it,--on my soul I do! But look +here," he went on, leaning still farther forward; "I want to know if it +struck ye that this morning the Tocsin attacked ye in a way that was +somehow vi'lenter than ever before?" + +"Yes," replied Joe, "because it was aimed to strike where it would most +count." + +"It ain't only that," said the other, excitedly. "It ain't only that! +I want ye to listen. Now see here: the Tocsin is Pike, and the town is +Pike--I mean the town ye naturally belonged to. Ain't it?" + +"In a way, I suppose--yes." + +"In a way!" echoed the other, scornfully. "Ye know it is! Even as a +boy Pike disliked ye and hated the kind of a boy ye was. Ye wasn't +respectable and he was! Ye wasn't rich and he was! Ye had a grin on +yer face when ye'd meet him on the street." The red-bearded man broke +off at a gesture from Joe and exclaimed sharply: "Don't deny it! _I_ +know what ye was like! Ye wasn't impudent, but ye looked at him as if +ye saw through him. Now listen and I'll lead ye somewhere! Ye run +with riffraff, naggers, and even"--Mr. Sheehan lifted a forefinger +solemnly and shook it at his auditor--"and even with the Irish! Now I +ask ye this: ye've had one part of Canaan with ye from the start, MY +part, that is; but the other's against ye; that part's PIKE, and it's +the rulin' part--" + +"Yes, Mike," said Joe, wearily. "In the spirit of things. I know." + +"No, sir," cried the other. "That's the trouble: ye don't know. +There's more in Canaan than ye've understood. Listen to this: Why was +the Tocsin's attack harder this morning than ever before? On yer soul +didn't it sound so bitter that it sounded desprit? Now why? It looked +to me as if it had started to ruin ye, this time fer good and all! Why? +What have ye had to do with Martin Pike lately? Has the old wolf GOT +to injure ye?" Mr. Sheehan's voice rose and his eyes gleamed under +bushy brows. "Think," he finished. "What's happened lately to make +him bite so hard?" + +There were some faded roses on the desk, and as Joe's haggard eyes fell +upon them the answer came. "What makes you think Judge Pike isn't +trustworthy?" he had asked Ariel, and her reply had been: "Nothing +very definite, unless it was his look when I told him that I meant to +ask you to take charge of things for me." + +He got slowly and amazedly to his feet. "You've got it!" he said. + +"Ye see?" cried Mike Sheehan, slapping his thigh with a big hand. "On +my soul I have the penetration! Ye don't need to tell me one thing +except this: I told ye I'd lead ye somewhere; haven't I kept me word?" + +"Yes," said Joe. + +"But I have the penetration!" exclaimed Mr. Sheehan. "Should I miss my +guess if I said that ye think Pike may be scared ye'll stumble on his +track in some queer performances? Should I miss it?" + +"No," said Joe. "You wouldn't miss it." + +"Just one thing more." The red-bearded man rose, mopping the inner +band of his straw hat. "In the matter of yer runnin' fer Mayor, now--" + +Joe, who had begun to pace up and down the room, made an impatient +gesture. "Pshaw!" he interrupted; but his friend stopped him with a +hand laid on his arm. + +"Don't be treatin' it as clean out of all possibility, Joe Louden. If +ye do, it shows ye haven't sense to know that nobody can say what way +the wind's blowin' week after next. All the boys want ye; Louie +Farbach wants ye, and Louie has a big say. Who is it that doesn't want +ye?" + +"Canaan," said Joe. + +"Hold up! It's Pike's Canaan ye mean. If ye git the nomination, ye'd +be elected, wouldn't ye?" + +"I couldn't be nominated." + +"I ain't claimin' ye'd git Martin Pike's vote," returned Mr. Sheehan, +sharply, "though I don't say it's impossible. Ye've got to beat him, +that's all. Ye've got to do to him what he's done to YOU, and what +he's tryin' to do now worse than ever before. Well--there may be ways +to do it; and if he tempts me enough, I may fergit my troth and honor +as a noble gentleman and help ye with a word ye'd never guess yerself." + +"You've hinted at such mysteries before, Mike," Joe smiled. "I'd be +glad to know what you mean, if there's anything in them." + +"It may come to that," said the other, with some embarrassment. "It +may come to that some day, if the old wolf presses me too hard in the +matter o' tryin' to git the little man across the street hanged by the +neck and yerself mobbed fer helpin' him! But to-day I'll say no more." + +"Very well, Mike." Joe turned wearily to his desk. "I don't want you +to break any promises." + +Mr. Sheehan had gone to the door, but he paused on the threshold, and +wiped his forehead again. + +"And I don't want to break any," he said, "but if ever the time should +come when I couldn't help it"--he lowered his voice to a hoarse but +piercing whisper--"that will be the devourin' angel's day fer Martin +Pike!" + + + +XVIII + +IN THE HEAT OF THE DAY + +It was a morning of the warmest week of mid-July, and Canaan lay inert +and helpless beneath a broiling sun. The few people who moved about the +streets went languidly, keeping close to the wall on the shady side; +the women in thin white fabrics; the men, often coatless, carrying +palm-leaf fans, and replacing collars with handkerchiefs. In the +Court-house yard the maple leaves, gray with blown dust and grown to +great breadth, drooped heavily, depressing the long, motionless +branches with their weight, so low that the four or five shabby idlers, +upon the benches beneath, now and then flicked them sleepily with +whittled sprigs. The doors and windows of the stores stood open, +displaying limp wares of trade, but few tokens of life; the clerks +hanging over dim counters as far as possible from the glare in front, +gossiping fragmentarily, usually about the Cory murder, and, anon, upon +a subject suggested by the sight of an occasional pedestrian passing +perspiring by with scrooged eyelids and purpling skin. From street and +sidewalk, transparent hot waves swam up and danced themselves into +nothing; while from the river bank, a half-mile away, came a sound +hotter than even the locust's midsummer rasp: the drone of a +planing-mill. A chance boy, lying prone in the grass of the +Court-house yard, was annoyed by the relentless chant and lifted his +head to mock it: "AWR-EER-AWR-EER! SHUT UP, CAN'T YOU?" The effort +was exhausting: he relapsed and suffered with increasing malice but in +silence. + +Abruptly there was a violent outbreak on the "National House" corner, +as when a quiet farmhouse is startled by some one's inadvertently +bringing down all the tin from a shelf in the pantry. The loafers on +the benches turned hopefully, saw what it was, then closed their eyes, +and slumped back into their former positions. The outbreak subsided as +suddenly as it had arisen: Colonel Flitcroft pulled Mr. Arp down into +his chair again, and it was all over. + +Greater heat than that of these blazing days could not have kept one of +the sages from attending the conclave now. For the battle was on in +Canaan: and here, upon the National House corner, under the shadow of +the west wall, it waxed even keener. Perhaps we may find full +justification for calling what was happening a battle in so far as we +restrict the figure to apply to this one spot; else where, in the +Canaan of the Tocsin, the conflict was too one-sided. The Tocsin had +indeed tried the case of Happy Fear in advance, had convicted and +condemned, and every day grew more bitter. Nor was the urgent vigor of +its attack without effect. Sleepy as Main Street seemed in the heat, +the town was incensed and roused to a tensity of feeling it had not +known since the civil war, when, on occasion, it had set out to hang +half a dozen "Knights of the Golden Circle." Joe had been hissed on +the street many times since the inimical clerk had whistled at him. +Probably demonstrations of that sort would have continued had he +remained in Canaan; but for almost a month he had been absent and his +office closed, its threshold gray with dust. There were people who +believed that he had run away again, this time never to return; among +those who held to this opinion being Mrs. Louden and her sister, Joe's +step-aunt. Upon only one point was everybody agreed: that twelve men +could not be found in the county who could be so far persuaded and +befuddled by Louden that they would dare to allow Happy Fear to escape. +The women of Canaan, incensed by the terrible circumstance of the case, +as the Tocsin colored it--a man shot down in the act of begging his +enemy's forgiveness--clamored as loudly as the men: there was only the +difference that the latter vociferated for the hanging of Happy; their +good ladies used the word "punishment." + +And yet, while the place rang with condemnation of the little man in +the jail and his attorney, there were voices, here and there, uplifted +on the other side. People existed, it astonishingly appeared, who +LIKED Happy Fear. These were for the greater part obscure and even +darkling in their lives, yet quite demonstrably human beings, able to +smile, suffer, leap, run, and to entertain fancies; even to have, +according to their degree, a certain rudimentary sense of right and +wrong, in spite of which they strongly favored the prisoner's +acquittal. Precisely on that account, it was argued, an acquittal would +outrage Canaan and lay it open to untold danger: such people needed a +lesson. + +The Tocsin interviewed the town's great ones, printing their opinions +of the heinousness of the crime and the character of the defendant's +lawyer.... "The Hon. P. J. Parrott, who so ably represented this county +in the Legislature some fourteen years ago, could scarcely restrain +himself when approached by a reporter as to his sentiments anent the +repulsive deed. 'I should like to know how long Canaan is going to put +up with this sort of business,' were his words. 'I am a law-abiding +citizen, and I have served faithfully, and with my full endeavor and +ability, to enact the laws and statutes of my State, but there is a +point in my patience, I would state, which lawbreakers and their +lawyers may not safely pass. Of what use are our most solemn +enactments, I may even ask of what use is the Legislature itself, +chosen by the will of the people, if they are to ruthlessly be set +aside by criminals and their shifty protectors? The blame should be put +upon the lawyers who by tricks enable such rascals to escape the rigors +of the carefully enacted laws, the fruits of the Solon's labor, more +than upon the criminals themselves. In this case, if there is any +miscarriage of justice, I will say here and now that in my opinion the +people of this county will be sorely tempted; and while I do not +believe in lynch-law, yet if that should be the result it is my +unalterable conviction that the vigilantes may well turn their +attention to the lawyers--OR LAWYER--who bring about such miscarriage. +I am sick of it.'" + +The Tocsin did not print the interview it obtained from Louie +Farbach--the same Louie Farbach who long ago had owned a beer-saloon +with a little room behind the bar, where a shabby boy sometimes played +dominoes and "seven-up" with loafers: not quite the same Louie Farbach, +however, in outward circumstance: for he was now the brewer of Farbach +Beer and making Canaan famous. His rise had been Teutonic and sure; +and he contributed one-twentieth of his income to the German Orphan +Asylum and one-tenth to his party's campaign fund. The twentieth saved +the orphans from the county, while the tithe gave the county to his +party. + +He occupied a kitchen chair, enjoying the society of some chickens in a +wired enclosure behind the new Italian villa he had erected in that +part of Canaan where he would be most uncomfortable, and he looked +woodenly at the reporter when the latter put his question. + +"Hef you any aguaintunce off Mitster Fear?" he inquired, in return, +with no expression decipherable either upon his Gargantuan face or in +his heavily enfolded eyes. + +"No, sir," replied the reporter, grinning. "I never ran across him." + +"Dot iss a goot t'ing fer you," said Mr. Farbach, stonily. "He iss not +a man peobles bedder try to run across. It iss what Gory tried. Now +Gory iss dead." + +The reporter, slightly puzzled, lit a cigarette. "See here, Mr. +Farbach," he urged, "I only want a word or two about this thing; and +you might give me a brief expression concerning that man Louden +besides: just a hint of what you think of his influence here, you know, +and of the kind of sharp work he practises. Something like that." + +"I see," said the brewer, slowly. "Happy Fear I hef knowt for a goot +many years. He iss a goot frient of mine." + +"What?" + +"Choe Louten iss a bedder one," continued Mr. Farbach, turning again to +stare at his chickens. + +"Git owit." + +"What?" + +"Git owit," repeated the other, without passion, without anger, without +any expression whatsoever. "Git owit." + +The reporter's prejudice against the German nation dated from that +moment. + +There were others, here and there, who were less self-contained than +the brewer. A farm-hand struck a fellow laborer in the harvest-field +for speaking ill of Joe; and the unravelling of a strange street fight, +one day, disclosed as its cause a like resentment, on the part of a +blind broom-maker, engendered by a like offence. The broom-maker's +companion, reading the Tocsin as the two walked together, had begun the +quarrel by remarking that Happy Fear ought to be hanged once for his +own sake and twice more "to show up that shyster Louden." Warm words +followed, leading to extremely material conflict, in which, in spite of +his blindness, the broom-maker had so much the best of it that he was +removed from the triumphant attitude he had assumed toward the person +of his adversary, which was an admirable imitation of the dismounted +St. George and the Dragon, and conveyed to the jail. Keenest +investigation failed to reveal anything oblique in the man's record; to +the astonishment of Canaan, there was nothing against him. He was +blind and moderately poor; but a respectable, hard-working artisan, and +a pride to the church in which he was what has been called an "active +worker." It was discovered that his sensitiveness to his companion's +attack on Joseph Louden arose from the fact that Joe had obtained the +acquittal of an imbecile sister of the blind man, a two-thirds-witted +woman who had been charged with bigamy. + +The Tocsin made what it could of this, and so dexterously that the +wrath of Canaan was one farther jot increased against the shyster. Ay, +the town was hot, inside and out. + +Let us consider the Forum. Was there ever before such a summer for the +"National House" corner? How voices first thundered there, then +cracked and piped, is not to be rendered in all the tales of the +fathers. One who would make vivid the great doings must indeed "dip +his brush in earthquake and eclipse"; even then he could but picture +the credible, and must despair of this: the silence of Eskew Arp. Not +that Eskew held his tongue, not that he was chary of speech--no! O +tempora, O mores! NO! But that he refused the subject in hand, that +he eschewed expression upon it and resolutely drove the argument in +other directions, that he achieved such superbly un-Arplike +inconsistency; and with such rich material for his sardonic humors, not +at arm's length, not even so far as his finger-tips, but beneath his +very palms, he rejected it: this was the impossible fact. + +Eskew--there is no option but to declare--was no longer Eskew. It is +the truth; since the morning when Ariel Tabor came down from Joe's +office, leaving her offering of white roses in that dingy, dusty, shady +place, Eskew had not been himself. His comrades observed it somewhat in +a physical difference, one of those alterations which may come upon men +of his years suddenly, like a "sea change": his face was whiter, his +walk slower, his voice filed thinner; he creaked louder when he rose or +sat. Old always, from his boyhood, he had, in the turn of a hand, +become aged. But such things come and such things go: after eighty +there are ups and downs; people fading away one week, bloom out +pleasantly the next, and resiliency is not at all a patent belonging to +youth alone. The material change in Mr. Arp might have been thought +little worth remarking. What caused Peter Bradbury, Squire Buckalew, +and the Colonel to shake their heads secretly to one another and wonder +if their good old friend's mind had not "begun to go" was something +very different. To come straight down to it: he not only abstained +from all argument upon the "Cory Murder" and the case of Happy Fear, +refusing to discuss either in any terms or under any circumstances, but +he also declined to speak of Ariel Tabor or of Joseph Louden; or of +their affairs, singular or plural, masculine, feminine, or neuter, or +in any declension. Not a word, committal or non-committal. None! + +And his face, when he was silent, fell into sorrowful and troubled +lines. + +At first they merely marvelled. Then Squire Buckalew dared to tempt +him. Eskew's faded eyes showed a blue gleam, but he withstood, +speaking of Babylon to the disparagement of Chicago. They sought to +lead him into what he evidently would not, employing many devices; but +the old man was wily and often carried them far afield by secret ways +of his own. This hot morning he had done that thing: they were close +upon him, pressing him hard, when he roused that outburst which had +stirred the idlers on the benches in the Court-house yard. Squire +Buckalew (sidelong at the others but squarely at Eskew) had volunteered +the information that Cory was a reformed priest. Stung by the mystery +of Eskew's silence, the Squire's imagination had become magically +gymnastic; and if anything under heaven could have lifted the veil, +this was the thing. Mr. Arp's reply may be reverenced. + +"I consider," he said, deliberately, "that James G. Blaine's furrin +policy was childish, and, what's more, I never thought much of HIM!" + +This outdefied Ajax, and every trace of the matter in hand went to the +four winds. Eskew, like Rome, was saved by a cackle, in which he +joined, and a few moments later, as the bench loafers saw, was pulled +down into his seat by the Colonel. + +The voices of the fathers fell to the pitch of ordinary discourse; the +drowsy town was quiet again; the whine of the planing-mill boring its +way through the sizzling air to every wakening ear. Far away, on a +quiet street, it sounded faintly, like the hum of a bee across a creek, +and was drowned in the noise of men at work on the old Tabor house. It +seemed the only busy place in Canaan that day: the shade of the big +beech-trees which surrounded it affording some shelter from the +destroying sun to the dripping laborers who were sawing, hammering, +painting, plumbing, papering, and ripping open old and new +packing-boxes. There were many changes in the old house pleasantly in +keeping with its simple character: airy enlargements now almost +completed so that some of the rooms were already finished, and stood, +furnished and immaculate, ready for tenancy. + +In that which had been Roger Tabor's studio sat Ariel, alone. She had +caused some chests and cases, stored there, to be opened, and had taken +out of them a few of Roger's canvases and set them along the wall. +Tears filled her eyes as she looked at them, seeing the tragedy of +labor the old man had expended upon them; but she felt the recompense: +hard, tight, literal as they were, he had had his moment of joy in each +of them before he saw them coldly and knew the truth. And he had been +given his years of Paris at last: and had seen "how the other fellows +did it." + +A heavy foot strode through the hall, coming abruptly to a halt in the +doorway, and turning, she discovered Martin Pike, his big +Henry-the-Eighth face flushed more with anger than with the heat. His +hat was upon his head, and remained there, nor did he offer any token +or word of greeting whatever, but demanded to know when the work upon +the house had been begun. + +"The second morning after my return," she answered. + +"I want to know," he pursued, "why it was kept secret from me, and I +want to know quick." + +"Secret?" she echoed, with a wave of her hand to indicate the noise +which the workmen were making. + +"Upon whose authority was it begun?" + +"Mine. Who else could give it?" + +"Look here," he said, advancing toward her, "don't you try to fool me! +You haven't done all this by yourself. Who hired these workmen?" + +Remembering her first interview with him, she rose quickly before he +could come near her. "Mr. Louden made most of the arrangements for +me," she replied, quietly, "before he went away. He will take charge +of everything when he returns. You haven't forgotten that I told you I +intended to place my affairs in his hands?" + +He had started forward, but at this he stopped and stared at her +inarticulately. + +"You remember?" she said, her hands resting negligently upon the back +of the chair. "Surely you remember?" + +She was not in the least afraid of him, but coolly watchful of him. +This had been her habit with him since her return. She had seen little +of him, except at table, when he was usually grimly laconic, though now +and then she would hear him joking heavily with Sam Warden in the yard, +or, with evidently humorous intent, groaning at Mamie over Eugene's +health; but it had not escaped Ariel that he was, on his part, watchful +of herself, and upon his guard with a wariness in which she was +sometimes surprised to believe that she saw an almost haggard +apprehension. + +He did not answer her question, and it seemed to her, as she continued +steadily to meet his hot eyes, that he was trying to hold himself under +some measure of control; and a vain effort it proved. + +"You go back to my house!" he burst out, shouting hoarsely. "You get +back there! You stay there!" + +"No," she said, moving between him and the door. "Mamie and I are +going for a drive." + +"You go back to my house!" He followed her, waving an arm fiercely at +her. "Don't you come around here trying to run over me! You talk +about your 'affairs'! All you've got on earth is this two-for-a-nickel +old shack over your head and a bushel-basket of distillery stock that +you can sell by the pound for old paper!" He threw the words in her +face, the bull-bass voice seamed and cracked with falsetto. "Old +paper, old rags, old iron, bottles, old clothes! You talk about your +affairs! Who are you? Rothschild? You haven't GOT any affairs!" + +Not a look, not a word, not a motion of his escaped her in all the fury +of sound and gesture in which he seemed fairly to envelop himself; +least of all did that shaking of his--the quivering of jaw and temple, +the tumultuous agitation of his hands--evade her watchfulness. + +"When did you find this out?" she said, very quickly. "After you +became administrator?" + +He struck the back of the chair she had vacated a vicious blow with his +open hand. "No, you spendthrift! All there was TO your grandfather +when you buried him was a basket full of distillery stock, I tell you! +Old paper! Can't you hear me? Old paper, old rags--" + +"You have sent me the same income," she lifted her voice to interrupt; +"you have made the same quarterly payments since his death that you +made before. If you knew, why did you do that?" + +He had been shouting at her with the frantic and incredulous +exasperation of an intolerant man utterly unused to opposition; his +face empurpled, his forehead dripping, and his hands ruthlessly +pounding the back of the chair; but this straight question stripped him +suddenly of gesture and left him standing limp and still before her, +pale splotches beginning to show on his hot cheeks. + +"If you knew, why did you do it?" she repeated. "You wrote me that my +income was from dividends, and I knew and thought nothing about it; but +if the stock which came to me was worthless, how could it pay +dividends?" + +"It did not," he answered, huskily. "That distillery stock, I tell +you, isn't worth the matches to burn it." + +"But there has been no difference in my income," she persisted, +steadily. "Why? Can you explain that to me?" + +"Yes, I can," he replied, and it seemed to her that he spoke with a +pallid and bitter desperation, like a man driven to the wall. "I can +if you think you want to know." + +"I do." + +"I sent it." + +"Do you mean from you own--" + +"I mean it was my own money." + +She had not taken her eyes from his, which met hers straightly and +angrily; and at this she leaned forward, gazing at him with profound +scrutiny. + +"Why did you send it?" she asked. + +"Charity," he answered, after palpable hesitation. + +Her eyes widened and she leaned back against the lintel of the door, +staring at him incredulously. "Charity!" she echoed, in a whisper. + +Perhaps he mistook her amazement at his performance for dismay caused +by the sense of her own position, for, as she seemed to weaken before +him, the strength of his own habit of dominance came back to him. +"Charity, madam!" he broke out, shouting intolerably. "Charity, d'ye +hear? I was a friend of the man that made the money you and your +grandfather squandered; I was a friend of Jonas Tabor, I say! That's +why I was willing to support you for a year and over, rather than let a +niece of his suffer." + +"'Suffer'!" she cried. "'Support'! You sent me a hundred thousand +francs!" + +The white splotches which had mottled Martin Pike's face disappeared as +if they had been suddenly splashed with hot red. "You go back to my +house," he said. "What I sent you only shows the extent of my--" + +"Effrontery!" The word rang through the whole house, so loudly and +clearly did she strike it, rang in his ears till it stung like a +castigation. It was ominous, portentous of justice and of disaster. +There was more than doubt of him in it: there was conviction. + +He fell back from this word; and when he again advanced, Ariel had left +the house. She had turned the next corner before he came out of the +gate; and as he passed his own home on his way down-town, he saw her +white dress mingling with his daughter's near the horse-block beside +the fire, where the two, with their arms about each other, stood +waiting for Sam Warden and the open summer carriage. + +Judge Pike walked on, the white splotches reappearing like a pale rash +upon his face. A yellow butterfly zigzagged before him, knee-high, +across the sidewalk. He raised his foot and half kicked at it. + + + +XIX + +ESKEW ARP + +As the Judge continued his walk down Main Street, he wished profoundly +that the butterfly (which exhibited no annoyance) had been of greater +bulk and more approachable; and it was the evil fortune of Joe's +mongrel to encounter him in the sinister humor of such a wish +unfulfilled. Respectability dwelt at Beaver Beach under the care of Mr. +Sheehan until his master should return; and Sheehan was kind; but the +small dog found the world lonely and time long without Joe. He had +grown more and more restless, and at last, this hot morning, having +managed to evade the eye of all concerned in his keeping, made off +unobtrusively, partly by swimming, and reaching the road, cantered into +town, his ears erect with anxiety. Bent upon reaching the familiar +office, he passed the grocery from the doorway of which the pimply +cheeked clerk had thrown a bad potato at him a month before. The same +clerk had just laid down the Tocsin as Respectability went by, and, +inspired to great deeds in behalf of justice and his native city, he +rushed to the door, lavishly seized, this time, a perfectly good +potato, and hurled it with a result which ecstasized him, for it took +the mongrel fairly aside the head, which it matched in size. + +The luckless Respectability's purpose to reach Joe's stairway had been +entirely definite, but upon this violence he forgot it momentarily. It +is not easy to keep things in mind when one is violently smitten on +mouth, nose, cheek, eye, and ear by a missile large enough to strike +them simultaneously. Yelping and half blinded, he deflected to cross +Main Street. Judge Pike had elected to cross in the opposite +direction, and the two met in the middle of the street. + +The encounter was miraculously fitted to the Judge's need: here was no +butterfly, but a solid body, light withal, a wet, muddy, and dusty +yellow dog, eminently kickable. The man was heavily built about the +legs, and the vigor of what he did may have been additionally inspired +by his recognition of the mongrel as Joe Louden's. The impact of his +toe upon the little runner's side was momentous, and the latter rose +into the air. The Judge hopped, as one hops who, unshod in the night, +discovers an unexpected chair. Let us be reconciled to his pain and +not reproach the gods with it,--for two of his unintending adversary's +ribs were cracked. + +The dog, thus again deflected, retraced his tracks, shrieking +distractedly, and, by one of those ironical twists which Karma reserves +for the tails of the fated, dived for blind safety into the store +commanded by the ecstatic and inimical clerk. There were shouts; the +sleepy Square beginning to wake up: the boy who had mocked the +planing-mill got to his feet, calling upon his fellows; the bench +loafers strolled to the street; the aged men stirred and rose from +their chairs; faces appeared in the open windows of offices; sales +ladies and gentlemen came to the doorways of the trading-places; so +that when Respectability emerged from the grocery he had a notable +audience for the scene he enacted with a brass dinner-bell tied to his +tail. + +Another potato, flung by the pimpled, uproarious, prodigal clerk, added +to the impetus of his flight. A shower of pebbles from the hands of +exhilarated boys dented the soft asphalt about him; the hideous clamor +of the pursuing bell increased as he turned the next corner, running +distractedly. The dead town had come to life, and its inhabitants +gladly risked the dangerous heat in the interests of sport, whereby it +was a merry chase the little dog led around the block, For thus some +destructive instinct drove him; he could not stop with the unappeasable +Terror clanging at his heels and the increasing crowd yelling in +pursuit; but he turned to the left at each corner, and thus came back +to pass Joe's stairway again, unable to pause there or anywhere, unable +to do anything except to continue his hapless flight, poor meteor. + +Round the block he went once more, and still no chance at that empty +stairway where, perhaps, he thought, there might be succor and safety. +Blood was upon his side where Martin Pike's boot had crashed, foam and +blood hung upon his jaws and lolling tongue. He ran desperately, +keeping to the middle of the street, and, not howling, set himself +despairingly to outstrip the Terror. The mob, disdaining the sun +superbly, pursued as closely as it could, throwing bricks and rocks at +him, striking at him with clubs and sticks. Happy Fear, playing +"tic-tac-toe," right hand against left, in his cell, heard the uproar, +made out something of what was happening, and, though unaware that it +was a friend whose life was sought, discovered a similarity to his own +case, and prayed to his dim gods that the quarry might get away. + +"MAD DOG!" they yelled. "MAD DOG!" And there were some who cried, +"JOE LOUDEN'S DOG!" that being equally as exciting and explanatory. + +Three times round, and still the little fugitive maintained a lead. A +gray-helmeted policeman, a big fellow, had joined the pursuit. He had +children at home who might be playing in the street, and the thought of +what might happen to them if the mad dog should head that way resolved +him to be cool and steady. He was falling behind, so he stopped on the +corner, trusting that Respectability would come round again. He was +right, and the flying brownish thing streaked along Main Street, +passing the beloved stairway for the fourth time. The policeman lifted +his revolver, fired twice, missed once, but caught him with the second +shot in a forepaw, clipping off a fifth toe, one of the small claws +that grow above the foot and are always in trouble. This did not stop +him; but the policeman, afraid to risk another shot because of the +crowd, waited for him to come again; and many others, seeing the +hopeless circuit the mongrel followed, did likewise, armed with bricks +and clubs. Among them was the pimply clerk, who had been inspired to +commandeer a pitchfork from a hardware store. + +When the fifth round came, Respectability's race was run. He turned +into Main Street at a broken speed, limping, parched, voiceless, +flecked with blood and foam, snapping feebly at the showering rocks, +but still indomitably a little ahead of the hunt. There was no yelp +left in him--he was too thoroughly winded for that,--but in his +brilliant and despairing eyes shone the agony of a cry louder than the +tongue of a dog could utter: "O master! O all the god I know! Where +are you in my mortal need?" + +Now indeed he had a gauntlet to run; for the street was lined with +those who awaited him, while the pursuit grew closer behind. A number +of the hardiest stood squarely in his path, and he hesitated for a +second, which gave the opportunity for a surer aim, and many missiles +struck him. "Let him have it now, officer," said Eugene Bantry, +standing with Judge Pike at the policeman's elbow. "There's your +chance." + +But before the revolver could be discharged, Respectability had begun +to run again, hobbling on three legs and dodging feebly. A heavy stone +struck him on the shoulder and he turned across the street, making for +the "National House" corner, where the joyful clerk brandished his +pitchfork. Going slowly, he almost touched the pimply one as he passed, +and the clerk, already rehearsing in his mind the honors which should +follow the brave stroke, raised the tines above the little dog's head +for the coup de grace. They did not descend, and the daring youth +failed of fame as the laurel almost embraced his brows. A hickory +walking-stick was thrust between his legs; and he, expecting to strike, +received a blow upon the temple sufficient for his present undoing and +bedazzlement. He went over backwards, and the pitchfork (not the thing +to hold poised on high when one is knocked down) fell with the force he +had intended for Respectability upon his own shin. + +A train had pulled into the station, and a tired, travel-worn young +man, descending from a sleeper, walked rapidly up the street to learn +the occasion of what appeared to be a riot. When he was close enough +to understand its nature, he dropped his bag and came on at top speed, +shouting loudly to the battered mongrel, who tried with his remaining +strength to leap toward him through a cordon of kicking legs, while +Eugene Bantry again called to the policeman to fire. + +"If he does, damn you, I'll kill him!" Joe saw the revolver raised; and +then, Eugene being in his way, he ran full-tilt into his stepbrother +with all his force, sending him to earth, and went on literally over +him as he lay prone upon the asphalt, that being the shortest way to +Respectability. The next instant the mongrel was in his master's arms +and weakly licking his hands. + +But it was Eskew Arp who had saved the little dog; for it was his stick +which had tripped the clerk, and his hand which had struck him down. +All his bodily strength had departed in that effort, but he staggered +out into the street toward Joe. + +"Joe Louden!" called the veteran, in a loud voice. "Joe Louden!" and +suddenly reeled. The Colonel and Squire Buckalew were making their way +toward him, but Joe, holding the dog to his breast with one arm, threw +the other about Eskew. + +"It's a town--it's a town"--the old fellow flung himself free from the +supporting arm--"it's a town you couldn't even trust a yellow dog to!" + +He sank back upon Joe's shoulder, speechless. An open carriage had +driven through the crowd, the colored driver urged by two ladies upon +the back seat, and Martin Pike saw it stop by the group in the middle +of the street where Joe stood, the wounded dog held to his breast by +one arm, the old man, white and half fainting, supported by the other. +Martin Pike saw this and more; he saw Ariel Tabor and his own daughter +leaning from the carriage, the arms of both pityingly extended to Joe +Louden and his two burdens, while the stunned and silly crowd stood +round them staring, clouds of dust settling down upon them through the +hot air. + + + +XX + +THREE ARE ENLISTED + +Now in that blazing noon Canaan looked upon a strange sight: an open +carriage whirling through Main Street behind two galloping bays; upon +the back seat a ghostly white old man with closed eyes, supported by +two pale ladies, his head upon the shoulder of the taller; while beside +the driver, a young man whose coat and hands were bloody, worked over +the hurts of an injured dog. Sam Warden's whip sang across the horses; +lather gathered on their flanks, and Ariel's voice steadily urged on +the pace: "Quicker, Sam, if you can." For there was little breath +left in the body of Eskew Arp. + +Mamie, almost as white as the old man, was silent; but she had not +hesitated in her daring, now that she had been taught to dare; she had +not come to be Ariel's friend and honest follower for nothing; and it +was Mamie who had cried to Joe to lift Eskew into the carriage. "You +must come too," she said. "We will need you." And so it came to pass +that under the eyes of Canaan Joe Louden rode in Judge Pike's carriage +at the bidding of Judge Pike's daughter. + +Toward Ariel's own house they sped with the stricken octogenarian, for +he was "alone in the world," and she would not take him to the cottage +where he had lived for many years by himself, a bleak little house, a +derelict of the "early days" left stranded far down in the town between +a woollen-mill and the water-works. The workmen were beginning their +dinners under the big trees, but as Sam Warden drew in the lathered +horses at the gate, they set down their tin buckets hastily and ran to +help Joe lift the old man out. Carefully they bore him into the house +and laid him upon a bed in one of the finished rooms. He did not speak +or move and the workmen uncovered their heads as they went out, but Joe +knew that they were mistaken. "It's all right, Mr. Arp," he said, as +Ariel knelt by the bed with water and restoratives. "It's all right. +Don't you worry." + +Then the veteran's lips twitched, and though his eyes remained closed, +Joe saw that Eskew understood, for he gasped, feebly: +"Pos-i-tive-ly--no--free--seats!" + +To Mrs. Louden, sewing at an up-stairs window, the sight of her stepson +descending from Judge Pike's carriage was sufficiently startling, but +when she saw Mamie Pike take Respectability from his master's arms and +carry him tenderly indoors, while Joe and Ariel occupied themselves +with Mr. Arp, the good lady sprang to her feet as if she had been +stung, regardlessly sending her work-basket and its contents scattering +over the floor, and ran down the stairs three steps at a time. + +At the front door she met her husband, entering for his dinner, and she +leaped at him. Had he seen? What was it? What had happened? + +Mr. Louden rubbed his chin-beard, indulging himself in a pause which +was like to prove fatal to his companion, finally vouchsafing the +information that the doctor's buggy was just turning the corner; Eskew +Arp had suffered a "stroke," it was said, and, in Louden's opinion, was +a mighty sick man. His spouse replied in no uncertain terms that she +had seen quite that much for herself, urging him to continue, which he +did with a deliberation that caused her to recall their wedding-day +with a gust of passionate self-reproach. Presently he managed to +interrupt, reminding her that her dining-room windows commanded as +comprehensive a view of the next house as did the front steps, and +after a time her housewifely duty so far prevailed over her indignation +at the man's unwholesome stolidity that she followed him down the hall +to preside over the meal, not, however, to partake largely of it +herself. + +Mr. Louden had no information of Eugene's mishap, nor had Mrs. Louden +any suspicion that all was not well with the young man, and, hearing +him enter the front door, she called to him that his dinner was +waiting. Eugene, however, made no reply and went up-stairs to his own +apartment without coming into the dining-room. + +A small crowd, neighboring children, servants, and negroes, had +gathered about Ariel's gate, and Mrs. Louden watched the working-men +disperse this assembly, gather up their tools, and depart; then Mamie +came out of the house, and, bowing sadly to three old men who were +entering the gate as she left it, stepped into her carriage and drove +away. The new-comers, Colonel Flitcroft, Squire Buckalew, and Peter +Bradbury, glanced at the doctor's buggy, shook their heads at one +another, and slowly went up to the porch, where Joe met them. Mrs. +Louden uttered a sharp exclamation, for the Colonel shook hands with +her stepson. + +Perhaps Flitcroft himself was surprised; he had offered his hand almost +unconsciously, and the greeting was embarrassed and perfunctory; but +his two companions, each in turn, gravely followed his lead, and Joe's +set face flushed a little. It was the first time in many years that +men of their kind in Canaan had offered him this salutation. + +"He wouldn't let me send for you," he told them. "He said he knew +you'd be here soon without that." And he led the way to Eskew's +bedside. + +Joe and the doctor had undressed the old man, and had put him into +night-gear of Roger Tabor's, taken from an antique chest; it was soft +and yellow and much more like color than the face above it, for the +white hair on the pillow was not whiter than that. Yet there was a +strange youthfulness in the eyes of Eskew; an eerie, inexplicable, +luminous, LIVE look; the thin cheeks seemed fuller than they had been +for years; and though the heavier lines of age and sorrow could be +seen, they appeared to have been half erased. He lay not in sunshine, +but in clear light; the windows were open, the curtains restrained, for +he had asked them not to darken the room. + +The doctor was whispering in a doctor's way to Ariel at the end of the +room opposite the bed, when the three old fellows came in. None of +them spoke immediately, and though all three cleared their throats with +what they meant for casual cheerfulness, to indicate that the situation +was not at all extraordinary or depressing, it was to be seen that the +Colonel's chin trembled under his mustache, and his comrades showed +similar small and unwilling signs of emotion. + +Eskew spoke first. "Well, boys?" he said, and smiled. + +That seemed to make it more difficult for the others; the three white +heads bent silently over the fourth upon the pillow; and Ariel saw +waveringly, for her eyes suddenly filled, that the Colonel laid his +unsteady hand upon Eskew's, which was outside the coverlet. + +"It's--it's not," said the old soldier, gently--"it's not on--on both +sides, is it, Eskew?" + +Mr. Arp moved his hand slightly in answer. "It ain't paralysis," he +said. "They call it 'shock and exhaustion'; but it's more than that. +It's just my time. I've heard the call. We've all been slidin' on +thin ice this long time--and it's broke under me--" + +"Eskew, Eskew!" remonstrated Peter Bradbury. "You'd oughtn't to talk +that-a-way! You only kind of overdone a little--heat o' the day, too, +and--" + +"Peter," interrupted the sick man, with feeble asperity, "did you ever +manage to fool me in your life?" + +"No, Eskew." + +"Well, you're not doin' it now!" + +Two tears suddenly loosed themselves from Squire Buckalew's eyelids, +despite his hard endeavor to wink them away, and he turned from the bed +too late to conceal what had happened. "There ain't any call to feel +bad," said Eskew. "It might have happened any time--in the night, +maybe--at my house--and all alone--but here's Airie Tabor brought me to +her own home and takin' care of me. I couldn't ask any better way to +go, could I?" + +"I don't know what we'll do," stammered the Colonel, "if you--you talk +about goin' away from us, Eskew. We--we couldn't get along--" + +"Well, sir, I'm almost kind of glad to think," Mr. Arp murmured, +between short struggles for breath, "that it 'll be--quieter--on +the--"National House" corner!" + +A moment later he called the doctor faintly and asked for a +restorative. "There," he said, in a stronger voice and with a gleam of +satisfaction in the vindication of his belief that he was dying. "I +was almost gone then. _I_ know!" He lay panting for a moment, then +spoke the name of Joe Louden. + +Joe came quickly to the bedside. + +"I want you to shake hands with the Colonel and Peter and Buckalew." + +"We did," answered the Colonel, infinitely surprised and troubled. "We +shook hands outside before we came in." + + +"Do it again," said Eskew. "I want to see you." + +And Joe, making shift to smile, was suddenly blinded, so that he could +not see the wrinkled hands extended to him, and was fain to grope for +them. + +"God knows why we didn't all take his hand long ago," said Eskew Arp. +"I didn't because I was stubborn. I hated to admit that the argument +was against me. I acknowledge it now before him and before you--and I +want the word of it CARRIED!" + +"It's all right, Mr. Arp," began Joe, tremulously. "You mustn't--" + +"Hark to me"--the old man's voice lifted higher: "If you'd ever +whimpered, or give back-talk, or broke out the wrong way, it would of +been different. But you never did. I've watched you and I know; and +you've just gone your own way alone, with the town against you because +you got a bad name as a boy, and once we'd given you that, everything +you did or didn't do, we had to give you a blacker one. Now it's time +some one stood by you! Airie Tabor 'll do that with all her soul and +body. She told me once I thought a good deal of you. She knew! But I +want these three old friends of mine to do it, too. I was boys with +them and they'll do it, I think. They've even stood up fer you against +me, sometimes, but mostly fer the sake of the argument, I reckon; but +now they must do it when there's more to stand against than just my +talk. They saw it all to-day--the meanest thing I ever knew! I could +of stood it all except that!" Before they could prevent him he had +struggled half upright in bed, lifting a clinched fist at the town +beyond the windows. "But, by God! when they got so low down they tried +to kill your dog--" + +He fell back, choking, in Joe's arms, and the physician bent over him, +but Eskew was not gone, and Ariel, upon the other side of the room, +could hear him whispering again for the restorative. She brought it, +and when he had taken it, went quickly out-of-doors to the side yard. + +She sat upon a workman's bench under the big trees, hidden from the +street shrubbery, and breathing deeply of the shaded air, began to cry +quietly. Through the windows came the quavering voice of the old man, +lifted again, insistent, a little querulous, but determined. Responses +sounded, intermittently, from the Colonel, from Peter, and from +Buckalew, and now and then a sorrowful, yet almost humorous, protest +from Joe; and so she made out that the veteran swore his three comrades +to friendship with Joseph Louden, to lend him their countenance in all +matters, to stand by him in weal and woe, to speak only good of him and +defend him in the town of Canaan. Thus did Eskew Arp on the verge of +parting this life render justice. + + +The gate clicked, and Ariel saw Eugene approaching through the +shrubbery. One of his hands was bandaged, a thin strip of +court-plaster crossed his forehead from his left eyebrow to his hair, +and his thin and agitated face showed several light scratches. + +"I saw you come out," he said. "I've been waiting to speak to you." + +"The doctor told us to let him have his way in whatever he might ask." +Ariel wiped her eyes. "I'm afraid that means--" + +"I didn't come to talk about Eskew Arp," interrupted Eugene. "I'm not +laboring under any anxiety about him. You needn't be afraid; he's too +sour to accept his conge so readily." + +"Please lower your voice," she said, rising quickly and moving away +from him toward the house; but, as he followed, insisting sharply that +he must speak with her, she walked out of ear-shot of the windows, and +stopping, turned toward him. + +"Very well," she said. "Is it a message from Mamie?" + +At this he faltered and hung fire. + +"Have you been to see her?" she continued. + +"I am anxious to know if her goodness and bravery caused her any--any +discomfort at home." + +"You may set your mind at rest about that," returned Eugene. "I was +there when the Judge came home to dinner. I suppose you fear he may +have been rough with her for taking my step-brother into the carriage. +He was not. On the contrary, he spoke very quietly to her, and went on +out toward the stables. But I haven't come to you to talk of Judge +Pike, either!" + +"No," said Ariel. "I don't care particularly to hear of him, but of +Mamie." + +"Nor of her, either!" he broke out. "I want to talk of you!" + +There was not mistaking him; no possibility of misunderstanding the +real passion that shook him, and her startled eyes betrayed her +comprehension. + +"Yes, I see you understand," he cried, bitterly. "That's because you've +seen others the same way. God help me," he went on, striking his +forehead with his open hand, "that young fool of a Bradbury told me you +refused him only yesterday! He was proud of even rejection from you! +And there's Norbert--and half a dozen others, perhaps, already, since +you've been here." He flung out his arms in ludicrous, savage despair. +"And here am I--" + +"Ah yes," she cut him off, "it is of yourself that you want to speak, +after all--not of me!" + +"Look here," he vociferated; "are you going to marry that Joe Louden? +I want to know whether you are or not. He gave me this--and this +to-day!" He touched his bandaged hand and plastered forehead. "He ran +into me--over me--for nothing, when I was not on my guard; struck me +down--stamped on me--" + +She turned upon him, cheeks aflame, eyes sparkling and dry. + +"Mr. Bantry," she cried, "he did a good thing! And now I want you to go +home. I want you to go home and try if you can discover anything in +yourself that is worthy of Mamie and of what she showed herself to be +this morning! If you can, you will have found something that I could +like!" + +She went rapidly toward the house, and he was senseless enough to +follow, babbling: "What do you think I'm made of? You trample on +me--as he did! I can't bear everything; I tell you--" + +But she lifted her hand with such imperious will that he stopped short. +Then, through the window of the sick-room came clearly the querulous +voice: + +"I tell you it was; I heard him speak just now--out there in the yard, +that no-account step-brother of Joe's! What if he IS a hired hand on +the Tocsin? He'd better give up his job and quit, than do what he's +done to help make the town think hard of Joe. And what IS he? Why, +he's worse than Cory. When that Claudine Fear first came here, 'Gene +Bantry was hangin' around her himself. Joe knew it and he'd never tell, +but I will. I saw 'em buggy-ridin' out near Beaver Beach and she +slapped his face fer him. It ought to be TOLD!" + +"I didn't know that Joe knew--that!" Eugene stammered huskily. "It +was--it was--a long time ago--" + +"If you understood Joe," she said, in a low voice, "you would know that +before these men leave this house, he will have their promise never to +tell." + +His eyes fell miserably, then lifted again; but in her clear and +unbearable gaze there shone such a flame of scorn as he could not +endure to look upon. For the first time in his life he saw a true light +upon himself, and though the vision was darkling, the revelation was +complete. + +"Heaven pity you!" she whispered. + +Eugene found himself alone, and stumbled away, his glance not lifted. +He passed his own home without looking up, and did not see his mother +beckoning frantically from a window. She ran to the door and called +him. He did not hear her, but went on toward the Tocsin office with +his head still bent. + + + +XXI + +NORBERT WAITS FOR JOE + +There was meat for gossip a plenty in Canaan that afternoon and +evening; there were rumors that ran from kitchen to parlor, and rumors +that ran from parlor to kitchen; speculations that detained housewives +in talk across front gates; wonderings that held cooks in converse over +shadeless back fences in spite of the heat; and canards that brought +Main Street clerks running to the shop doors to stare up and down the +sidewalks. Out of the confusion of report, the judicious were able by +evenfall to extract a fair history of this day of revolution. There +remained no doubt that Joe Louden was in attendance at the death-bed of +Eskew Arp, and somehow it came to be known that Colonel Flitcroft, +Squire Buckalew, and Peter Bradbury had shaken hands with Joe and +declared themselves his friends. There were those (particularly among +the relatives of the hoary trio) who expressed the opinion that the +Colonel and his comrades were too old to be responsible and a +commission ought to sit on them; nevertheless, some echoes of Eskew's +last "argument" to the conclave had sounded in the town and were not +wholly without effect. + +Everywhere there was a nipping curiosity to learn how Judge Pike had +"taken" the strange performance of his daughter, and the eager were +much disappointed when it was truthfully reported that he had done and +said very little. He had merely discharged both Sam Warden and Sam's +wife from his service, the mild manner of the dismissal almost +unnerving Mr. Warden, although he was fully prepared for bird-shot; and +the couple had found immediate employment in the service of Ariel Tabor. + +Those who humanly felt the Judge's behavior to be a trifle flat and +unsensational were recompensed late in the afternoon when it became +known that Eugene Bantry had resigned his position on the Tocsin. His +reason for severing his connection was dumfounding; he had written a +formal letter to the Judge and repeated the gist of it to his +associates in the office and acquaintances upon the street. He +declared that he no longer sympathized with the attitude of the Tocsin +toward his step-brother, and regretted that he had previously assisted +in emphasizing the paper's hostility to Joe, particularly in the matter +of the approaching murder trial. This being the case, he felt that his +effectiveness in the service of the paper had ceased, and he must, in +justice to the owner, resign. + +"Well, I'm damned!" was the simple comment of the elder Louden when his +step-son sought him out at the factory and repeated this statement to +him. + +"So am I, I think," said Eugene, wanly. "Good-bye. I'm going now to +see mother, but I'll be gone before you come home." + +"Gone where?" + +"Just away. I don't know where," Eugene answered from the door. "I +couldn't live here any longer. I--" + +"You've been drinking," said Mr. Louden, inspired. "You'd better not +let Mamie Pike see you." + +Eugene laughed desolately. "I don't mean to. I shall write to her. +Good-bye," he said, and was gone before Mr. Louden could restore enough +order out of the chaos in his mind to stop him. + +Thus Mrs. Louden's long wait at the window was tragically rewarded, and +she became an unhappy actor in Canaan's drama of that day. Other +ladies attended at other windows, or near their front doors, throughout +the afternoon: the families of the three patriarchs awaiting their +return, as the time drew on, with something akin to frenzy. Mrs. +Flitcroft (a lady of temper), whose rheumatism confined her to a chair, +had her grandson wheel her out upon the porch, and, as the dusk fell +and she finally saw her husband coming at a laggard pace, leaning upon +his cane, his chin sunk on his breast, she frankly told Norbert that +although she had lived with that man more than fifty-seven years, she +would never be able to understand him. She repeated this with genuine +symptoms of hysteria when she discovered that the Colonel had not come +straight from the Tabor house, but had stopped two hours at Peter +Bradbury's to "talk it over." + +One item of his recital, while sufficiently startling to his wife, had +a remarkable effect upon his grandson. This was the information that +Ariel Tabor's fortune no longer existed. + +"What's that?" cried Norbert, starting to his feet. "What are you +talking about?" + +"It's true," said the Colonel, deliberately. "She told me so herself. +Eskew had dropped off into a sort of doze--more like a stupor, +perhaps,--and we all went into Roger's old studio, except Louden and +the doctor, and while we were there, talkin', one of Pike's clerks came +with a basket full of tin boxes and packages of papers and talked to +Miss Tabor at the door and went away. Then old Peter blundered out and +asked her point-blank what it was, and she said it was her estate, +almost everything she had, except the house. Buckalew, tryin' to make +a joke, said he'd be willin' to swap HIS house and lot for the basket, +and she laughed and told him she thought he'd be sorry; that all there +was, to speak of, was a pile of distillery stock--" "What?" repeated +Norbert, incredulously. + +"Yes. It was the truth," said the Colonel, solemnly. "I saw it +myself: blocks and blocks of stock in that distillery trust that went +up higher'n a kite last year. Roger had put all of Jonas's good +money--" + +"Not into that!" shouted Norbert, uncontrollably excited. + +"Yes, he did. I tell you I saw it!" + +"I tell you he didn't. He owned Granger Gas, worth more to-day than it +ever was! Pike was Roger's attorney-in-fact and bought it for him +before the old man died. The check went through my hands. You don't +think I'd forget as big a check as that, do you, even if it was more +than a year ago? Or how it was signed and who made out to? It was +Martin Pike that got caught with distillery stock. He speculated once +too often!" + +"No, you're wrong," persisted the Colonel. "I tell you I saw it +myself." + +"Then you're blind," returned his grandson, disrespectfully; "you're +blind or else--or else--" He paused, open-mouthed, a look of wonder +struggling its way to expression upon him, gradually conquering every +knobby outpost of his countenance. He struck his fat hands together. +"Where's Joe Louden?" he asked, sharply. "I want to see him. Did you +leave him at Miss Tabor's?" + +"He's goin' to sit up with Eskew. What do you want of him?" + +"I should say you better ask that!" Mrs. Flitcroft began, shrilly. +"It's enough, I guess, for one of this family to go runnin' after him +and shakin' hands with him and Heaven knows what not! NORBERT +FLITCROFT!" + +But Norbert jumped from the porch, ruthlessly crossed his grandmother's +geranium-bed, and, making off at as sharp a pace as his architecture +permitted, within ten minutes opened Ariel's gate. + +Sam Warden came forward to meet him. + +"Don't ring, please, suh," said Sam. "Dey sot me out heah to tell +inquirin' frien's dat po' ole Mist' Arp mighty low." + +"I want to see Mr. Louden," returned Norbert. "I want to see him +immediately." + +"I don' reckon he kin come out yit," Sam said, in a low tone. "But I +kin go in an' ast 'em." + +He stepped softly within, leaving Norbert waiting, and went to the door +of the sick-room. The door was open, the room brightly lighted, as +Eskew had commanded when, a little earlier, he awoke. + +Joe and Ariel were alone with him, leaning toward him with such white +anxiety that the colored man needed no warning to make him remain +silent in the hallway. The veteran was speaking and his voice was very +weak, seeming to come from a great distance. + +"It's mighty funny, but I feel like I used to when I was a little boy. +I reckon I'm kind of scared--after all. Airie Tabor,--are you--here?" + +"Yes, Mr. Arp." + +"I thought--so--but I--I don't see very well--lately. +I--wanted--to--know--to know--" + +"Yes--to know?" She knelt close beside him. + +"It's kind of--foolish," he whispered. "I just--wanted to know if you +was still here. It--don't seem so lonesome now that I know." + +She put her arm lightly about him and he smiled and was silent for a +time. Then he struggled to rise upon his elbow, and they lifted him a +little. + +"It's hard to breathe," gasped the old man. "I'm pretty near--the big +road. Joe Louden--" + +"Yes?" + +"You'd have been--willing--willing to change places with me--just +now--when Airie--" + +Joe laid his hand on his, and Eskew smiled again. "I thought so! And, +Joe--" + +"Yes?" + +"You always--always had the--the best of that joke between us. Do +you--you suppose they charge admission--up there?" His eyes were +lifted. "Do you suppose you've got to--to show your good deeds to git +in?" The answering whisper was almost as faint as the old man's. + +"No," panted Eskew, "nobody knows. But I hope--I do hope--they'll have +some free seats. It's a--mighty poor show--we'll--all have--if +they--don't!" + +He sighed peacefully, his head grew heavier on Joe's arm; and the young +man set his hand gently upon the unseeing eyes. Ariel did not rise +from where she knelt, but looked up at him when, a little later, he +lifted his hand. + +"Yes," said Joe, "you can cry now." + + + +XXII + +MR. SHEEHAN SPEAKS + +Joe helped to carry what was mortal of Eskew from Ariel's house to its +final abiding-place. With him, in that task, were Buckalew, Bradbury, +the Colonel, and the grandsons of the two latter, and Mrs. Louden drew +in her skirts grimly as her step-son passed her in the mournful +procession through the hall. Her eyes were red with weeping (not for +Eskew), but not so red as those of Mamie Pike, who stood beside her. + +On the way to the cemetery, Joe and Ariel were together in a carriage +with Buckalew and the minister who had read the service, a dark, +pleasant-eyed young man;--and the Squire, after being almost overcome +during the ceremony, experienced a natural reaction, talking cheerfully +throughout the long drive. He recounted many anecdotes of Eskew, +chuckling over most of them, though filled with wonder by a coincidence +which he and Flitcroft had discovered; the Colonel had recently been +made the custodian of his old friend's will, and it had been opened the +day before the funeral. Eskew had left everything he possessed--with +the regret that it was so little--to Joe. + +"But the queer thing about it," said the Squire, addressing himself to +Ariel, "was the date of it, the seventeenth of June. The Colonel and I +got to talkin' it over, out on his porch, last night, tryin' to +rec'lect what was goin' on about then, and we figgered it out that it +was the Monday after you come back, the very day he got so upset when +he saw you goin' up to Louden's law-office with your roses." + +Joe looked quickly at Ariel. She did not meet his glance, but, turning +instead to Ladew, the clergyman, began, with a barely perceptible +blush, to talk of something he had said in a sermon two weeks ago. The +two fell into a thoughtful and amiable discussion, during which there +stole into Joe's heart a strange and unreasonable pain. The young +minister had lived in Canaan only a few months, and Joe had never seen +him until that morning; but he liked the short, honest talk he had +made; liked his cadenceless voice and keen, dark face; and, recalling +what he had heard Martin Pike vociferating in his brougham one Sunday, +perceived that Ladew was the fellow who had "got to go" because his +sermons did not please the Judge. Yet Ariel remembered for more than a +fortnight a passage from one of these sermons. And as Joe looked at the +manly and intelligent face opposite him, it did not seem strange that +she should. + +He resolutely turned his eyes to the open window and saw that they had +entered the cemetery, were near the green knoll where Eskew was to lie +beside a brother who had died long ago. He let the minister help Ariel +out, going quickly forward himself with Buckalew; and then--after the +little while that the restoration of dust to dust mercifully needs--he +returned to the carriage only to get his hat. + +Ariel and Ladew and the Squire were already seated and waiting. +"Aren't you going to ride home with us?" she asked, surprised. + +"No," he explained, not looking at her. "I have to talk with Norbert +Flitcroft. I'm going back with him. Good-bye." + +His excuse was the mere truth, his conversation with Norbert, in the +carriage which they managed to secure to themselves, continuing +earnestly until Joe spoke to the driver and alighted at a corner, near +Mr. Farbach's Italian possessions. "Don't forget," he said, as he +closed the carriage door, "I've got to have both ends of the string in +my hands." + +"Forget!" Norbert looked at the cupola of the Pike Mansion, rising +above the maples down the street. "It isn't likely I'll forget!" + + +When Joe entered the "Louis Quinze room" which some decorator, drunk +with power, had mingled into the brewer's villa, he found the owner and +Mr. Sheehan, with five other men, engaged in a meritorious attempt to +tone down the apartment with smoke. Two of the five others were +prosperous owners of saloons; two were known to the public (whose +notion of what it meant when it used the term was something of the +vaguest) as politicians; the fifth was Mr. Farbach's closest friend, +one who (Joe had heard) was to be the next chairman of the city +committee of the party. They were seated about a table, enveloped in +blue clouds, and hushed to a grave and pertinent silence which +clarified immediately the circumstance that whatever debate had +preceded his arrival, it was now settled. + +Their greeting of him, however, though exceedingly quiet, indicated a +certain expectancy, as he accepted the chair which had been left for +him at the head of the table. He looked thinner and paler than usual, +which is saying a great deal; but presently, finding that the fateful +hush which his entrance had broken was immediately resumed, a twinkle +came into his eye, one of his eyebrows went up and a corner of his +mouth went down. + +"Well, gentlemen?" he said. + +The smokers continued to smoke and to do nothing else; the exception +being Mr. Sheehan, who, though he spoke not, exhibited tokens of +agitation and excitement which he curbed with difficulty; shifting +about in his chair, gnawing his cigar, crossing and uncrossing his +knees, rubbing and slapping his hands together, clearing his throat +with violence, his eyes fixed all the while, as were those of his +companions, upon Mr. Farbach; so that Joe was given to perceive that it +had been agreed that the brewer should be the spokesman. Mr. Farbach +was deliberate, that was all, which added to the effect of what he +finally did say. + +"Choe," he remarked, placidly, "you are der next Mayor off Canaan." + +"Why do you say that?" asked the young man, sharply. + +"Bickoss us here," he answered, interlocking the tips of his fingers +over his waistcoat, that being as near folding his hands as lay within +his power,--"bickoss us here shall try to fix it so, und so hef +ditcided." + +Joe took a deep breath. "Why do you want me?" + +"Dot," replied the brewer, "iss someding I shall tell you." He paused +to contemplate his cigar. "We want you bickoss you are der best man fer +dot positsion." + +"Louie, you mustn't make a mistake at the beginning," Joe said, +hurriedly. "I may not be the kind of man you're looking for. If I +went in--" He hesitated, stammering. "It seems an ungrateful thing to +say, but--but there wouldn't be any slackness--I couldn't be bound to +anybody--" + +"Holt up your hosses!" Mr. Farbach, once in his life, was so ready to +reply that he was able to interrupt. "Who hef you heert speak off +bounding? Hef I speakt off favors? Dit I say der shoult be slackness +in der city gofer'ment? Litsen to me, Choe." He renewed his +contemplation of his cigar, then proceeded: "I hef been t'inkin' it +ofer, now a couple years. I hef mate up my mind. If some peobles are +gombelt to keep der laws and oders are not, dot's a great atwantitch to +der oders. Dot iss what iss ruining der gountry und der peobles iss +commencement to take notice. Efer'veres in oder towns der iss +housecleaning; dey are reforming und indieding, und pooty soon dot +mofement comes here--shoo-er! If we intent to holt der parsly in +power, we shoult be a leetle ahead off dot mofement so, when it shoult +be here, we hef a goot 'minadstration to fall beck on. Now, dere iss +anoder brewery opened und trying to gombete mit me here in Canaan. If +dot brewery owns der Mayor, all der tsaloons buying my bier must shut +up at 'leven o'glock und Sundays, but der oders keep open. If I own +der Mayor, I make der same against dot oder brewery. Now I am pooty +sick off dot ways off bitsness und fighting all times. Also," Mr. +Farbach added, with magnificent calmness, "my trade iss larchly +owitside off Canaan, und it iss bedder dot here der laws shoult be +enforced der same fer all. Litsen, Choe; all us here beliefs der same +way. You are square. Der whole tsaloon element knows dot, und knows +dot all voult be treated der same. Mit you it voult be fairness fer +each one. Foolish peobles hef sait you are a law-tricker, but we know +dot you hef only mate der laws brotect as well as bunish. Und at such +times as dey het been broken, you hef made dem as mertsiful as you +coult. You are no tricker. We are willing to help you make it a glean +town. Odervise der fightin' voult go on until der mofement strikes here +und all der granks vake up und we git a fool reformer fer Mayor und der +town goes to der dogs. If I try to put in a man dot I own, der oder +brewery iss goin' to fight like hell, but if I work fer you it will not +fight so hart." + +"But the other people," Joe objected, "those outside of what is called +the saloon element--do you understand how many of them will be against +me?" + +"It iss der tsaloon element," Mr. Farbach returned, peacefully, "dot +does der fightin'." + +"And you have considered my standing with that part of Canaan which +considers itself the most respectable section?" He rose to his feet, +standing straight and quiet, facing the table, upon which, it chanced, +there lay a copy of the Tocsin. + +"Und yet," observed Mr. Farbach, with mildness, "we got some pooty +risbecdable men right here." + +"Except me," broke in Mr. Sheehan, grimly, "you have." + +"Have you thought of this?" Joe leaned forward and touched the paper +upon the table. + +"We hef," replied Mr. Farbach. "All of us. You shall beat it." + +There was a strong chorus of confirmation from the others, and Joe's +eyes flashed. + +"Have you considered," he continued, rapidly, while a warm color began +to conquer his pallor,--"have you considered the powerful influence +which will be against me, and more against me now, I should tell you, +than ever before? That influence, I mean, which is striving so hard to +discredit me that lynch-law has been hinted for poor Fear if I should +clear him! Have you thought of that? Have you thought--" + +"Have we thought o' Martin Pike?" exclaimed Mr. Sheehan, springing to +his feet, face aflame and beard bristling. "Ay, we've thought o' +Martin Pike, and our thinkin' of him is where he begins to git what's +comin' to him! What d'ye stand there pickin' straws fer? What's the +matter with ye?" he demanded, angrily, his violence tenfold increased +by the long repression he had put upon himself during the brewer's +deliberate utterances. "If Louie Farbach and his crowd says they're fer +ye, I guess ye've got a chanst, haven't ye?" + +"Wait," said Joe. "I think you underestimate Pike's influence--" + +"Underestimate the devil!" shouted Mr. Sheehan, uncontrollably excited. +"You talk about influence! He's been the worst influence this town's +ever had--and his tracks covered up in the dark wherever he set his +ugly foot down. These men know it, and you know some, but not the +worst of it, because none of ye live as deep down in it as I do! Ye +want to make a clean town of it, ye want to make a little heaven of the +Beach--" + +"And in the eyes of Judge Pike," Joe cut him off, "and of all who take +their opinions from him, I REPRESENT Beaver Beach!" + +Mike Sheehan gave a wild shout. "Whooroo! It's come! I knowed it +would! The day I couldn't hold my tongue, though I passed my word I +would when the coward showed the deed he didn't dare to git recorded! +Waugh!" He shouted again, with bitter laughter. "Ye do! In the eyes +o' them as follow Martin Pike ye stand fer the Beach and all its +wickedness, do ye? Whooroo! It's come! Ye're an offence in the eyes +o' Martin Pike and all his kind because ye stand fer the Beach, are ye?" + +"You know it!" Joe answered, sharply. "If they could wipe the Beach +off the map and me with it--" + +"Martin Pike would?" shouted Mr. Sheehan, while the others, +open-mouthed, stared at him. "Martin Pike would?" + +"I don't need to tell you that," said Joe. + +Mr. Sheehan's big fist rose high over the table and descended crashing +upon it. "It's a damn lie!" he roared. "Martin Pike owns Beaver +Beach!" + + + +XXIII + +JOE WALKS ACROSS THE COURT-HOUSE YARD + +From within the glossy old walnut bar that ran from wall to wall, the +eyes of the lawyers and reporters wandered often to Ariel as she sat in +the packed court-room watching Louden's fight for the life and liberty +of Happy Fear. She had always three escorts, and though she did not +miss a session, and the same three never failed to attend her, no +whisper of scandal arose. But not upon them did the glances of the +members of the bar and the journalists with tender frequency linger; +nor were the younger members of these two professions all who gazed +that way. Joe had fought out the selection of the jury with the +prosecutor at great length and with infinite pains; it was not a young +jury, and IT stared at her. The "Court" wore a gray beard with which a +flock of sparrows might have villaged a grove, and yet, in spite of the +vital necessity for watchfulness over this fighting case, IT once +needed to be stirred from a trancelike gaze in Miss Tabor's direction +and aroused to the realization that It was there to Sit and not to +dream. + +The August air was warm outside the windows, inviting to the open +country, to swimmin'-hole, to orchard reveries, or shaded pool wherein +to drop a meditative line; you would have thought no one could +willingly coop himself in this hot room for three hours, twice a day, +while lawyers wrangled, often unintelligibly, over the life of a dingy +little creature like Happy Fear, yet the struggle to swelter there was +almost like a riot, and the bailiffs were busy men. + +It was a fighting case throughout, fought to a finish on each tiny +point as it came up, dragging, in the mere matter of time, +interminably, yet the people of Canaan (not only those who succeeded in +penetrating to the court-room, but the others who hung about the +corridors, or outside the building, and the great mass of stay-at-homes +who read the story in the Tocsin) found each moment of it enthralling +enough. The State's attorney, fearful of losing so notorious a case, +and not underestimating his opponent, had modestly summoned others to +his aid; and the attorney for the defence, single-handed, faced "an +array of legal talent such as seldom indeed had hollered at this bar"; +faced it good-naturedly, an eyebrow crooked up and his head on one +side, most of the time, yet faced it indomitably. He had a certain +careless and disarming smile when he lost a point, which carried off +the defeat as of only humorous account and not at all part of the +serious business in hand; and in his treatment of witnesses, he was +plausible, kindly, knowing that in this case he had no intending +perjurer to entrap; brought into play the rare and delicate art of +which he was a master, employing in his questions subtle suggestions +and shadings of tone and manner, and avoiding words of debatable and +dangerous meanings;--a fine craft, often attempted by blunderers to +their own undoing, but which, practised by Joseph Louden, made +inarticulate witnesses articulate to the precise effects which he +desired. This he accomplished as much by the help of the continuous +fire of objections from the other side as in spite of them. He was +infinitely careful, asking never an ill-advised question for the other +side to use to his hurt, and, though exhibiting only a pleasant +easiness of manner, was electrically alert. + +A hundred things had shown Ariel that the feeling of the place, +influenced by "public sentiment" without, was subtly and profoundly +hostile to Joe and his client; she read this in the spectators, in the +jury, even in the Judge; but it seemed to her that day by day the +inimical spirit gradually failed, inside the railing, and also in those +spectators who, like herself, were enabled by special favor to be +present throughout the trial, and that now and then a kindlier +sentiment began to be manifested. She was unaware how strongly she +contributed to effect this herself, not only through the glow of +visible sympathy which radiated from her, but by a particular action. +Claudine was called by the State, and told as much of her story as the +law permitted her to tell, interlarding her replies with fervent +protestations (too quick to be prevented) that she "never meant to +bring no trouble to Mr. Fear" and that she "did hate to have gen'lemen +starting things on her account." When the defence took this perturbed +witness, her interpolations became less frequent, and she described +straightforwardly how she had found the pistol on the floor near the +prostrate figure of Cory, and hidden it in her own dress. The +attorneys for the State listened with a somewhat cynical amusement to +this portion of her testimony, believing it of no account, +uncorroborated, and that if necessary the State could impeach the +witness on the ground that it had been indispensable to produce her. +She came down weeping from the stand; and, the next witness not being +immediately called, the eyes of the jurymen naturally followed her as +she passed to her seat, and they saw Ariel Tabor bow gravely to her +across the railing. Now, a thousand things not set forth by +legislatures, law-men and judges affect a jury, and the slight +salutation caused the members of this one to glance at one another; for +it seemed to imply that the exquisite lady in white not only knew +Claudine, but knew that she had spoken the truth. It was after this, +that a feeling favorable to the defence now and then noticeably +manifested itself in the courtroom. Still, when the evidence for the +State was all in, the life of Happy Fear seemed to rest in a balance +precarious indeed, and the little man, swallowing pitifully, looked at +his attorney with the eyes of a sick dog. + +Then Joe gave the prosecutors an illuminating and stunning surprise, +and, having offered in evidence the revolver found upon Claudine, +produced as his first witness a pawnbroker of Denver, who identified +the weapon as one he had sold to Cory, whom he had known very well. +The second witness, also a stranger, had been even more intimately +acquainted with the dead man, and there began to be an uneasy +comprehension of what Joe had accomplished during that prolonged +absence of his which had so nearly cost the life of the little mongrel, +who was at present (most blissful Respectability!) a lively +convalescent in Ariel's back yard. The second witness also identified +the revolver, testifying that he had borrowed it from Cory in St. Louis +to settle a question of marksmanship, and that on his returning it to +the owner, the latter, then working his way eastward, had confided to +him his intention of stopping in Canaan for the purpose of exercising +its melancholy functions upon a man who had once "done him good" in +that city. + +By the time the witness had reached this point, the Prosecutor and his +assistants were on their feet, excitedly shouting objections, which +were promptly overruled. Taken unawares, they fought for time; thunder +was loosed, forensic bellowings; everybody lost his temper--except Joe; +and the examination of the witness proceeded. Cory, with that singular +inspiration to confide in some one, which is the characteristic and the +undoing of his kind, had outlined his plan of operations to the witness +with perfect clarity. He would first attempt, so he had declared, to +incite an attack upon himself by playing upon the jealousy of his +victim, having already made a tentative effort in that direction. +Failing in this, he would fall back upon one of a dozen schemes (for he +was ready in such matters, he bragged), the most likely of which would +be to play the peacemaker; he would talk of his good intentions toward +his enemy, speaking publicly of him in friendly and gentle ways; then, +getting at him secretly, destroy him in such a fashion as to leave open +for himself the kind gate of self-defence. In brief, here was the +whole tally of what had actually occurred, with the exception of the +last account in the sequence which had proved that demise for which +Cory had not arranged and it fell from the lips of a witness whom the +prosecution had no means of impeaching. When he left the stand, +unshaken and undiscredited, after a frantic cross-examination, Joe, +turning to resume his seat, let his hand fall lightly for a second upon +his client's shoulder. + +That was the occasion of a demonstration which indicated a sentiment +favorable to the defence (on the part of at least three of the +spectators); and it was in the nature of such a hammering of canes upon +the bare wooden floor as effectually stopped all other proceedings +instantly. The indignant Judge fixed the Colonel, Peter Bradbury, and +Squire Buckalew with his glittering eye, yet the hammering continued +unabated; and the offenders surely would have been conducted forth in +ignominy, had not gallantry prevailed, even in that formal place. The +Judge, reluctantly realizing that some latitude must be allowed to +these aged enthusiasts, since they somehow seemed to belong to Miss +Tabor, made his remarks general, with the time-worn threat to clear the +room, whereupon the loyal survivors of Eskew relapsed into unabashed +silence. + +It was now, as Joe had said, a clear-enough case. Only the case itself, +however, was clear, for, as he and his friends feared, the verdict +might possibly be neither in accordance with the law, the facts, nor +the convictions of the jury. Eugene's defection had not altered the +tone of the Tocsin. + +All day long a crowd of men and boys hung about the corridors of the +Court-house, about the Square and the neighboring streets, and from +these rose sombre murmurs, more and more ominous. The public sentiment +of a community like Canaan can make itself felt inside a court-room; +and it was strongly exerted against Happy Fear. The Tocsin had always +been a powerful agent; Judge Pike had increased its strength with a +staff which was thoroughly efficient, alert, and always able to strike +centre with the paper's readers; and in town and country it had +absorbed the circulation of the other local journals, which resisted +feebly at times, but in the matter of the Cory murder had not dared to +do anything except follow the Tocsin's lead. The Tocsin, having lit +the fire, fed it--fed it saltpetre and sulphur--for now Martin Pike was +fighting hard. + +The farmers and people of the less urban parts of the country were +accustomed to found their opinions upon the Tocsin. They regarded it +as the single immutable rock of journalistic righteousness and wisdom +in the world. Consequently, stirred by the outbursts of the paper, +they came into Canaan in great numbers, and though the pressure from +the town itself was so strong that only a few of them managed to crowd +into the court-room, the others joined their voices to those sombre +murmurs outdoors, which increased in loudness as the trial went on. + +The Tocsin, however, was not having everything its own way; the volume +of outcry against Happy Fear and his lawyer had diminished, it was +noticed, in "very respectable quarters." The information imparted by +Mike Sheehan to the politicians at Mr. Farbach's had been slowly +seeping through the various social strata of the town, and though at +first incredulously rejected, it began to find acceptance; Upper Main +Street cooling appreciably in its acceptance of the Tocsin as the law +and the prophets. There were even a few who dared to wonder in their +hearts if there had not been a mistake about Joe Louden; and although +Mrs. Flitcroft weakened not, the relatives of Squire Buckalew and of +Peter Bradbury began to hold up their heads a little, after having made +home horrible for those gentlemen and reproached them with their +conversion as the last word of senile shame. In addition, the +Colonel's grandson and Mr. Bradbury's grandson had both mystifyingly +lent countenance to Joe, consorting with him openly; the former for his +own purposes--the latter because he had cunningly discovered that it +was a way to Miss Tabor's regard, which, since her gentle rejection of +him, he had grown to believe (good youth!) might be the pleasantest +thing that could ever come to him. In short, the question had begun to +thrive: Was it possible that Eskew Arp had not been insane, after all? + +The best of those who gathered ominously about the Court-house and its +purlieus were the young farmers and field-hands, artisans and clerks; +one of the latter being a pimply faced young man (lately from the +doctor's hands), who limped, and would limp for the rest of his life, +he who, of all men, held the memory of Eskew Arp in least respect, and +was burningly desirous to revenge himself upon the living. + +The worst were of that mystifying, embryonic, semi-rowdy type, the +American voyou, in the production of which Canaan and her sister towns +everywhere over the country are prolific; the young man, youth, boy +perhaps, creature of nameless age, whose clothes are like those of a +brakeman out of work, but who is not a brakeman in or out of work; +wearing the black, soft hat tilted forward to shelter--as a counter +does the contempt of a clerk--that expression which the face does not +dare wear quite in the open, asserting the possession of supreme +capacity in wit, strength, dexterity, and amours; the dirty +handkerchief under the collar; the short black coat always +double-breasted; the eyelids sooty; one cheek always bulged; the +forehead speckled; the lips cracked; horrible teeth; and the +affectation of possessing secret information upon all matters of the +universe; above all, the instinct of finding the shortest way to any +scene of official interest to the policeman, fireman, or ambulance +surgeon,--a singular being, not professionally criminal; tough +histrionically rather than really; full of its own argot of brag; +hysterical when crossed, timid through great ignorance, and therefore +dangerous. It furnishes not the leaders but the mass of mobs; and it +springs up at times of crisis from Heaven knows where. You might have +driven through all the streets of Canaan, a week before the trial, and +have seen four or five such fellows; but from the day of its beginning +the Square was full of them, dingy shuttlecocks batted up into view by +the Tocsin. + +They kept the air whirring with their noise. The news of that sitting +which had caused the Squire, Flitcroft, and Peter Bradbury to risk the +Court's displeasure, was greeted outside with loud and vehement +disfavor; and when, at noon, the jurymen were marshalled out to cross +the yard to the "National House" for dinner, a large crowd followed and +surrounded them, until they reached the doors of the hotel. "Don't let +Lawyer Louden bamboozle you!" "Hang him!" "Tar and feathers fer ye ef +ye don't hang him!" These were the mildest threats, and Joe Louden, +watching from an upper window of the Court-house, observed with a +troubled eye how certain of the jury shrank from the pressure of the +throng, how the cheeks of others showed sudden pallor. Sometimes +"public sentiment" has done evil things to those who have not shared +it; and Joe knew how rare a thing is a jury which dares to stand square +against a town like Canaan aroused. + +The end of that afternoon's session saw another point marked for the +defence; Joe had put the defendant on the stand, and the little man had +proved an excellent witness. During his life he had been many +things--many things disreputable; high standards were not brightly +illumined for him in the beginning of the night-march which his life +had been. He had been a tramp, afterward a petty gambler; but his +great motive had finally come to be the intention to do what Joe told +him to do: that, and to keep Claudine as straight as he could. In a +measure, these were the two things that had brought him to the pass in +which he now stood, his loyalty to Joe and his resentment of whatever +tampered with Claudine's straightness. He was submissive to the +consequences: he was still loyal. And now Joe asked him to tell "just +what happened," and Happy obeyed with crystal clearness. Throughout +the long, tricky cross-examination he continued to tell "just what +happened" with a plaintive truthfulness not to be imitated, and +throughout it Joe guarded him from pitfalls (for lawyers in their +search after truth are compelled by the exigencies of their profession +to make pitfalls even for the honest), and gave him, by various +devices, time to remember, though not to think, and made the words +"come right" in his mouth. So that before the sitting was over, a +disquieting rumor ran through the waiting crowd in the corridors, +across the Square, and over the town, that the case was surely going +"Louden's way." This was also the opinion of a looker-on in Canaan--a +ferret-faced counsellor of corporations who, called to consultation +with the eminent Buckalew (nephew of the Squire), had afterward spent +an hour in his company at the trial. "It's going that young fellow +Louden's way," said the stranger. "You say he's a shyster, but--" + +"Well," admitted Buckalew, with some reluctance, "I don't mean that +exactly. I've got an old uncle who seems lately to think he's a great +man." + +"I'll take your uncle's word for it," returned the other, smiling. "I +think he'll go pretty far." + +They had come to the flight of steps which descended to the yard,--and +the visitor, looking down upon the angry crowd, added, "If they don't +kill him!" + +Joe himself was anxious concerning no such matter. He shook hands with +Happy at the end of the sitting, bidding him be of good cheer, and, +when the little man had marched away, under a strong guard, began to +gather and sort his papers at a desk inside the bar. This took him +perhaps five minutes, and when he had finished there were only three +people left in the room: a clerk, a negro janitor with a broom, and the +darky friend who always hopefully accompanies a colored man holding +high public office. These two approvingly greeted the young lawyer, +the janitor handing him a note from Norbert Flitcroft, and the friend +mechanically "borrowing" a quarter from him as he opened the envelope. + +"I'll be roun' yo' way to git a box o' SE-gahs," laughed the friend, +"soon ez de campaign open up good. Dey all goin' vote yo' way, down on +the levee bank, but dey sho' expecks to git to smoke a little 'fo' +leckshun-day! We knows who's OW frien'!" + +Norbert's missive was lengthy and absorbing; Joe went on his way, +perusing it with profound attention; but as he descended the stairway +to the floor below, a loud burst of angry shouting, outside the +building, caused him to hasten toward the big front doors which faced +Main Street. The doors opened upon an imposing vestibule, from which a +handsome flight of stone steps, protected by a marble balustrade, led +to the ground. + +Standing at the top of these steps and leaning over the balustrade, he +had a clear view of half the yard. No one was near him; everybody was +running in the opposite direction, toward that corner of the yard +occupied by the jail, the crowd centring upon an agitated whirlpool of +men which moved slowly toward a door in the high wall that enclosed the +building; and Joe saw that Happy Fear's guards, conducting the prisoner +back to his cell, were being jostled and rushed. The distance they had +made was short, but as they reached the door the pressure upon them +increased dangerously. Clubs rose in the air, hats flew, the whirlpool +heaved tumultuously, and the steel door clanged. + +Happy Fear was safe inside, but the jostlers were outside--baffled, +ugly, and stirred with the passion that changes a crowd into a mob. + +Then some of them caught sight of Joe as he stood alone at the top of +the steps, and a great shout of rage and exultation arose. + +For a moment or two he did not see his danger. At the clang of the +door, his eyes, caught by the gleam of a wide white hat, had turned +toward the street, and he was somewhat fixedly watching Mr. Ladew +extricate Ariel (and her aged and indignant escorts) from an overflow +of the crowd in which they had been caught. But a voice warned him: +the wild piping of a newsboy who had climbed into a tree near by. + +"JOE LOUDEN!" he screamed. "LOOK OUT!" + +With a muffled roar the crowd surged back from the jail and turned +toward the steps. "Tar and feather him!" "Take him over to the river +and throw him in!" "Drown him!" "Hang him!" + +Then a thing happened which was dramatic enough in its inception, but +almost ludicrous in its effect. Joe walked quietly down the steps and +toward the advancing mob with his head cocked to one side, one eyebrow +lifted, and one corner of his mouth drawn down in a faintly distorted +smile. + +He went straight toward the yelling forerunners, with only a small +bundle of papers in his hands, and then--while the non-partisan +spectators held their breath, expecting the shock of contact--straight +on through them. + +A number of the bulge-cheeked formed the scattering van of these +forerunners, charging with hoarse and cruel shrieks of triumph. The +first, apparently about to tear Joseph Louden to pieces, changed +countenance at arm's-length, swerved violently, and with the loud cry, +"HEAD HIM OFF!" dashed on up the stone steps. The man next behind him +followed his lead, with the same shout, strategy, and haste; then the +others of this advance attack, finding themselves confronting the quiet +man, who kept his even pace and showed no intention of turning aside +for them, turned suddenly aside for HIM, and, taking the cue from the +first, pursued their way, bellowing: "HEAD HIM OFF! HEAD HIM OFF!" +until there were a dozen and more rowdyish men and youths upon the +steps, their eyes blazing with fury, menacing Louden's back with +frightful gestures across the marble balustrade, as they hysterically +bleated the chorus, "HEAD HIM OFF!" + +Whether or not Joe could have walked through the entire mob as he had +walked through these is a matter for speculation; it was believed in +Canaan that he could. Already a gust of mirth began to sweep over the +sterner spirits as they paused to marvel no less at the disconcerting +advance of the lawyer than at the spectacle presented by the intrepid +dare-devils upon the steps; a kind of lane actually opening before the +young man as he walked steadily on. And when Mr. Sheehan, leading half +a dozen huge men from the Farbach brewery, unceremoniously shouldered a +way through the mob to Joe's side, reaching him where the press was +thickest, it is a question if the services of his detachment were +needed. + +The laughter increased. It became voluminous. Homeric salvos shook the +air. And never one of the fire-eaters upon the steps lived long enough +to live down the hateful cry of that day, "HEAD HIM OFF!" which was to +become a catch-word on the streets, a taunt more stinging than any +devised by deliberate invention, an insult bitterer than the ancestral +doubt, a fighting-word, and the great historical joke of Canaan, never +omitted in after-days when the tale was told how Joe Louden took that +short walk across the Court-house yard which made him Mayor of Canaan. + + + +XXIV + +MARTIN PIKE KEEPS AN ENGAGEMENT + +An hour later, Martin Pike, looking forth from the Mansion, saw a man +open the gate, and, passing between the unemotional deer, rapidly +approach the house. He was a thin young fellow, very well dressed in +dark gray, his hair prematurely somewhat silvered, his face prematurely +somewhat lined, and his hat covered a scar such as might have been +caused by a blow from a blunt instrument in the nature of a poker. + +He did not reach the door, nor was there necessity for him to ring, +for, before he had set foot on the lowest step, the Judge had hastened +to meet him. Not, however, with any fulsomely hospitable intent; his +hand and arm were raised to execute one of his Olympian gestures, of +the kind which had obliterated the young man upon a certain by-gone +morning. + +Louden looked up calmly at the big figure towering above him. + +"It won't do, Judge," he said; that was all, but there was a +significance in his manner and a certainty in his voice which caused +the uplifted hand to drop limply; while the look of apprehension which +of late had grown more and more to be Martin Pike's habitual expression +deepened into something close upon mortal anxiety. + +"Have you any business to set foot upon my property?" he demanded. + +"Yes," answered Joe. "That's why I came." + +"What business have you got with me?" + +"Enough to satisfy you, I think. But there's one thing I don't want to +do"--Joe glanced at the open door--"and that is to talk about it +here--for your own sake and because I think Miss Tabor should be +present. I called to ask you to come to her house at eight o'clock +to-night." + +"You did!" Martin Pike spoke angrily, but not in the bull-bass of yore; +and he kept his voice down, glancing about him nervously as though he +feared that his wife or Mamie might hear. "My accounts with her estate +are closed," he said, harshly. "If she wants anything, let her come +here." + +Joe shook his head. "No. You must be there at eight o'clock." + +The Judge's choler got the better of his uneasiness. "You're a pretty +one to come ordering me around!" he broke out. "You slanderer, do you +suppose I haven't heard how you're going about traducing me, +undermining my character in this community, spreading scandals that I +am the real owner of Beaver Beach--" + +"It can easily be proved, Judge," Joe interrupted, quietly, "though +you're wrong: I haven't been telling people. I haven't needed to--even +if I'd wished. Once a thing like that gets out you can't stop +it--ever! That isn't all: to my knowledge you own other property worse +than the Beach; I know that you own half of the worst dens in the town: +profitable investments, too. You bought them very gradually and +craftily, only showing the deeds to those in charge--as you did to Mike +Sheehan, and not recording them. Sheehan's betrayal of you gave me the +key; I know most of the poor creatures who are your tenants, too, you +see, and that gave me an advantage because they have some confidence in +me. My investigations have been almost as quiet and careful as your +purchases." + +"You damned blackmailer!" The Judge bent upon him a fierce, inquiring +scrutiny in which, oddly enough, there was a kind of haggard +hopefulness. "And out of such stories," he sneered, "you are going to +try to make political capital against the Tocsin, are you?" + +"No," said Joe. "It was necessary in the interests of my client for me +to know pretty thoroughly just what property you own, and I think I do. +These pieces I've mentioned are about all you have not mortgaged. You +couldn't do that without exposure, and you've kept a controlling +interest in the Tocsin clear, too--for the sake of its influence, I +suppose. Now, do you want to hear any more, or will you agree to meet +me at Miss Tabor's this evening?" + +Whatever the look of hopefulness had signified, it fled from Pike's +face during this speech, but he asked with some show of contempt, "Do +you think it likely?" + +"Very well," said Joe, "if you want me to speak here." And he came a +little closer to him. "You bought a big block of Granger Gas for Roger +Tabor," he began, in a low voice. "Before his death you sold +everything he had, except the old house, put it all into cash for him, +and bought that stock; you signed the check as his attorney-in-fact, +and it came back to you through the Washington National, where Norbert +Flitcroft handled it. He has a good memory, and when he told me what +he knew, I had him to do some tracing; did a little myself, also. +Judge Pike, I must tell you that you stand in danger of the law. You +were the custodian of that stock for Roger Tabor; it was transferred in +blank; though I think you meant to be 'legal' at that time, and that +was merely for convenience in case Roger had wished you to sell it for +him. But just after his death you found yourself saddled with +distillery stock, which was going bad on your hands. Other +speculations of yours were failing at the same time; you had to have +money--you filed your report as administrator, crediting Miss Tabor +with your own stock which you knew was going to the wall, and +transferred hers to yourself. Then you sold it because you needed +ready money. You used her fortune to save yourself--but you were +horribly afraid! No matter how rotten your transactions had been, you +had always kept inside the law; and now that you had gone outside of +it, you were frightened. You didn't dare come flat out to Miss Tabor +with the statement that her fortune had gone; it had been in your +charge all the time and things might look ugly. So you put it off, +perhaps from day to day. You didn't dare tell her until you were +forced to, and to avoid the confession you sent her the income which +was rightfully hers. That was your great weakness." + +Joe had spoken with great rapidity, though keeping his voice low, and +he lowered it again, as he continued: "Judge Pike, what chance have +you to be believed in court when you swear that you sent her twenty +thousand dollars out of the goodness of your heart? Do you think SHE +believed you? It was the very proof to her that you had robbed her. +For she knew you! Do you want to hear more now? Do you think this is +a good place for it? Do you wish me to go over the details of each +step I have taken against you, to land you at the bar where this poor +fellow your paper is hounding stands to-day?" + +The Judge essayed to answer, and could not. He lifted his hand +uncertainly and dropped it, while a thick dew gathered on his temples. +Inarticulate sounds came from between his teeth. + +"You will come?" said Joe. + +Martin Pike bent his head dazedly; and at that the other turned quickly +from him and went away without looking back. + + +Ariel was in the studio, half an hour later, when Joe was announced by +the smiling Mr. Warden. Ladew was with her, though upon the point of +taking his leave, and Joe marked (with a sinking heart) that the young +minister's cheeks were flushed and his eyes very bright. + +"It was a magnificent thing you did, Mr. Louden," he said, offering his +hand heartily; "I saw it, and it was even finer in one way than it was +plucky. It somehow straightened things out with such perfect good +nature; it made those people feel that what they were doing was +ridiculous." + +"So it was," said Joe. + +"Few, under the circumstances, could have acted as if they thought so! +And I hope you'll let me call upon you, Mr. Louden." + +"I hope you will," he answered; and then, when the minister had +departed, stood looking after him with sad eyes, in which there dwelt +obscure meditations. Ladew's word of farewell had covered a deep look +at Ariel, which was not to be mistaken by Joseph Louden for anything +other than what it was: the clergyman's secret was an open one, and Joe +saw that he was as frank and manly in love as in all other things. +"He's a good fellow," he said at last, sighing. "A good man." + +Ariel agreed. "And he said more to me than he did to you." + +"Yes, I think it probable," Joe smiled sorrowfully. + +"About YOU, I mean." He had time to fear that her look admitted +confusion before she proceeded: "He said he had never seen anything so +fine as your coming down those steps. Ah, he was right! But it was +harder for me to watch you, I think, than for you to do it, Joe. I was +so horribly afraid--and the crowd between us--if we could have got near +you--but we couldn't--we--" + +She faltered, and pressed her hand close upon her eyes. + +"We?" asked Joe, slowly. "You mean you and Mr. Ladew?" + +"Yes, he was there; but I mean"--her voice ran into a little laugh with +a beatific quaver in it--"I mean Colonel Flitcroft and Mr. Bradbury and +Mr. Buckalew, too--we were hemmed in together when Mr. Ladew found +us--and, oh, Joe, when that cowardly rush started toward you, those +three--I've heard wonderful things in Paris and Naples, cabmen +quarrelling and disappointed beggars--but never anything like them +to-day--" + +"You mean they were profane?" + +"Oh, magnificently--and with such inventiveness! All three begged my +pardon afterwards. I didn't grant it--I blessed them!" + +"Did they beg Mr. Ladew's pardon?" + +"Ah, Joe!" she reproached him. "He isn't a prig. And he's had to +fight some things that you of all men ought to understand. He's only +been here a few months, but he told me that Judge Pike has been against +him from the start. It seems that Mr. Ladew is too liberal in his +views. And he told me that if it were not for Judge Pike's losing +influence in the church on account of the Beaver Beach story, the Judge +would probably have been able to force him to resign; but now he will +stay." + +"He wishes to stay, doesn't he?" + +"Very much, I think. And, Joe," she continued, thoughtfully, "I want +you to do something for me. I want you to go to church with me next +Sunday." + +"To hear Mr. Ladew?" + +"Yes. I wouldn't ask except for that." + +"Very well," he consented, with averted eyes. "I'll go." + +Her face was radiant with the smile she gave him. "It will make me +very happy," she said. + +He bent his head and fumbled over some papers he had taken from his +pocket. "Will you listen to these memoranda? We have a great deal to +go over before eight o'clock." + + +Judge Pike stood for a long while where Joe had left him, staring out +at the street, apparently. Really he saw nothing. Undoubtedly an image +of blurring foliage, cast-iron, cement, and turf, with sunshine smeared +over all, flickered upon the retinas of his eyes; but the brain did not +accept the picture from the optic nerve. Martin Pike was busy with +other visions. Joe Louden had followed him back to his hidden deeds +and had read them aloud to him as Gabriel would read them on +Judgment-day. Perhaps THIS was the Judgment-day. + +Pike had taken charge of Roger Tabor's affairs because the commissions +as agent were not too inconsiderable to be neglected. To make the task +simpler, he had sold, as time went on, the various properties of the +estate, gradually converting all of them into cash. Then, the +opportunity offering, he bought a stock which paid excellent dividends, +had it transferred in blank, because if it should prove to Roger's +advantage to sell it, his agent could do so without any formal delays +between Paris and Canaan. At least, that is what the Judge had told +himself at the time, though it may be that some lurking whisperer in +his soul had hinted that it might be well to preserve the great amount +of cash in hand, and Roger's stock was practically that. Then came the +evil days. Laboriously, he had built up a name for conservatism which +most of the town accepted, but secretly he had always been a gambler: +Wall Street was his goal; to adventure there, as one of the great +single-eyed Cyclopean man-eaters, his fond ambition; and he had +conceived the distillery trust as a means to attain it; but the +structure tumbled about his ears; other edifices of his crumbled at the +same time; he found himself beset, his solvency endangered, and there +was the Tabor stock, quite as good as gold; Roger had just died, and it +was enough to save him.--Save? That was a strange way to be +remembering it to-day, when Fate grinned at him out of a dreadful mask +contorted like the face of Norbert Flitcroft. + +Martin Pike knew himself for a fool. What chance had he, though he +destroyed the check a thousand times over, to escape the records by +which the coil of modern trade duplicates and quadruplicates each slip +of scribbled paper? What chance had he against the memories of men? +Would the man of whom he had bought, forget that the check was signed +by Roger's agent? Had the bank-clerk forgotten? Thrice fool, Martin +Pike, to dream that in a town like Canaan, Norbert or any of his kind +could touch an order for so great a sum and forget it! But Martin Pike +had not dreamed that; had dreamed nothing. When failure confronted him +his mind refused to consider anything but his vital need at the time, +and he had supplied that need. And now he grew busy with the future: +he saw first the civil suit for restitution, pressed with the ferocity +and cunning of one who intended to satisfy a grudge of years; then, +perhaps, a criminal prosecution.... But he would fight it! Did they +think that such a man was to be overthrown by a breath of air? By a +girl, a bank-clerk, and a shyster lawyer? They would find their case +difficult to prove in court. He did not believe they COULD prove it. +They would be discredited for the attempt upon him and he would win +clear; these Beaver Beach scandals would die of inertia presently; +there would be a lucky trick in wheat, and Martin Pike would be Martin +Pike once more; reinstated, dictator of church, politics, business; all +those things which were the breath of his life restored. He would show +this pitiful pack what manner of man they hounded! Norbert +Flitcroft.... + +The Judge put his big hand up to his eyes and rubbed them. Curious +mechanisms the eyes.... That deer in line with the vision--not a zebra? +A zebra after all these years? And yet ... curious, indeed, the eyes! +... a zebra.... Who ever heard of a deer with stripes? The big hand +rose from the eyes and ran through the hair which he had always worn +rather long. It would seem strange to have it cut very short.... Did +they use clippers, perhaps? ... + +He started suddenly and realized that his next-door neighbor had passed +along the sidewalk with head averted, pretending not to see him. A few +weeks ago the man would not have missed the chance of looking in to +bow--with proper deference, too! Did he know? He could not know THIS! +It must be the Beaver Beach scandal. It must be. It could not be +THIS--not yet! But it MIGHT be. How many knew? Louden, Norbert, +Ariel--who else? And again the deer took on the strange zebra look. + +The Judge walked slowly down to the gate; spoke to the man he had +employed in Sam Warden's place, a Scotchman who had begun to refresh +the lawn with a garden hose; bowed affably in response to the +salutation of the elder Louden, who was passing, bound homeward from +the factory, and returned to the house with thoughtful steps. In the +hall he encountered his wife; stopped to speak with her upon various +household matters; then entered the library, which was his workroom. +He locked the door; tried it, and shook the handle. After satisfying +himself of its security, he pulled down the window-shades carefully, +and, lighting a gas drop-lamp upon his desk, began to fumble with +various documents, which he took from a small safe near by. But his +hands were not steady; he dropped the papers, scattering them over the +floor, and had great difficulty in picking them up. He perspired +heavily: whatever he touched became damp, and he continually mopped his +forehead with his sleeve. After a time he gave up the attempt to sort +the packets of papers; sank into a chair despairingly, leaving most of +them in disorder. A light tap sounded on the door. + +"Martin, it's supper-time." + +With a great effort he made shift to answer: "Yes, I know. You and +Mamie go ahead. I'm too busy to-night. I don't want anything." + +A moment before, he had been a pitiful figure, face distraught, hands +incoherent, the whole body incoordinate, but if eyes might have rested +upon him as he answered his wife they would have seen a strange thing; +he sat, apparently steady and collected, his expression cool, his body +quiet, poised exactly to the quality of his reply, for the same strange +reason that a young girl smiles archly and coquettes to a telephone. + +"But, Martin, you oughtn't to work so hard. You'll break down--" + +"No fear of that," he replied, cheerfully. "You can leave something on +the sideboard for me." + +After another fluttering remonstrance, she went away, and the room was +silent again. His arms rested upon the desk, and his head slowly sank +between his elbows. When he lifted it again the clock on the +mantel-piece had tinkled once. It was half-past seven. He took a +sheet of note-paper from a box before him and began to write, but when +he had finished the words, "My dear wife and Mamie," his fingers shook +so violently that he could go no further. He placed his left hand over +the back of his right to steady it, but found the device unavailing: +the pen left mere zigzags on the page, and he dropped it. + +He opened a lower drawer of the desk and took out of it a pistol; rose, +went to the door, tried it once more, and again was satisfied of his +seclusion. Then he took the weapon in both hands, the handle against +his fingers, one thumb against the trigger, and, shaking with nausea, +lifted it to the level of his eyes. His will betrayed him; he could +not contract his thumb upon the trigger, and, with a convulsive shiver, +he dropped the revolver upon the desk. + +He locked the door of the room behind him, crept down the stairs and +out of the front-door. He walked shamblingly, when he reached the +street, keeping close to the fences as he went on, now and then +touching the pickets with his hands like a feeble old man. + +He had always been prompt; it was one of the things of which he had +been proud: in all his life he had never failed to keep a business +engagement precisely upon the appointed time, and the Court-house bell +clanged eight when Sam Warden opened the door for his old employer +to-night. + +The two young people looked up gravely from the script-laden table +before them as Martin Pike came into the strong lamplight out of the +dimness of the hall, where only a taper burned. He shambled a few limp +steps into the room and came to a halt. Big as he was, his clothes +hung upon him loosely, like coverlets upon a collapsed bed; and he +seemed but a distorted image of himself, as if (save for the dull and +reddened eyes) he had been made of yellowish wax and had been left too +long in the sun. Abject, hopeless, his attitude a confession of ruin +and shame, he stood before his judges in such wretchedness that, in +comparison, the figure of Happy Fear, facing the court-room through his +darkest hour, was one to be envied. + +"Well," he said, brokenly, "what are you going to do?" + +Joe Louden looked at him with great intentness for several moments. +Then he rose and came forward. "Sit down, Judge," he said. "It's all +right. Don't worry." + + + +XXV + +THE JURY COMES IN + +Mrs. Flitcroft, at breakfast on the following morning, continued a +disquisition which had ceased, the previous night, only because of a +provoking human incapacity to exist without sleep. Her theme was one +which had exclusively occupied her since the passing of Eskew, and, her +rheumatism having improved so that she could leave her chair, she had +become a sort of walking serial; Norbert and his grandfather being well +assured that, whenever they left the house, the same story was to be +continued upon their reappearance. The Tocsin had been her great +comfort: she was but one helpless woman against two strong men; +therefore she sorely needed assistance in her attack upon them, and the +invaluable newspaper gave it in generous measure. + +"Yes, young man," she said, as she lifted her first spoonful of +oatmeal, "you BETTER read the Tocsin!" + +"I AM reading it," responded Norbert, who was almost concealed by the +paper. + +"And your grandfather better read it!" she continued, severely. + +"I already have," said the Colonel, promptly. "Have you?" + +"No, but you can be sure I will!" The good lady gave the effect of +tossing her head. "And you better take what it says to heart, you and +some others. It's a wonder to me that you and Buckalew and old Peter +don't go and hold that Happy Fear's hand durin' the trial! And as for +Joe Louden, his step-mother's own sister, Jane, says to me only +yesterday afternoon, 'Why, law! Mrs. Flitcroft,' she says, 'it's a +wonder to me,' she says, 'that your husband and those two other old +fools don't lay down in the gutter and let that Joe Louden walk over +'em.'" + +"Did Jane Quimby say 'those two other old fools'?" inquired the +Colonel, in a manner which indicated that he might see Mr. Quimby in +regard to the slander. + +"I can't say as I remember just precisely her exact words," admitted +Mrs. Flitcroft, "but that was the sense of 'em! You've made yourselves +the laughin'-stock of the whole town!" + +"Oh, we have?" + +"And I'd like to know"--her voice became shrill and goading--"I'd like +to know what Judge Pike thinks of you and Norbert! I should think +you'd be ashamed to have him pass you in the street." + +"I've quit speaking to him," said Norbert, coldly, "ever since I heard +he owned Beaver Beach." + +"That story ain't proved yet!" returned his grandmother, with much +irascibility. + +"Well, it will be; but that's not all." Norbert wagged his head. "You +may be a little surprised within the next few days." + +"I've been surprised for the PAST few!" she replied, with a bitterness +which overrode her satisfaction in the effectiveness of the retort. +"Surprised! I'd like to know who wouldn't be surprised when half the +town acts like it's gone crazy. People PRAISIN' that fellow, that +nobody in their sober minds and senses never in their lives had a good +word for before! Why, there was more talk yesterday about his doin's +at the Court-house--you'd of thought he was Phil Sheridan! It's 'Joe +Louden' here and 'Joe Louden' there, and 'Joe Louden' this and 'Joe +Louden' that, till I'm sick of the name!" + +"Then why don't you quit saying it?" asked the Colonel, reasonably. + +"Because it'd OUGHT to be said!" she exclaimed, with great heat. +"Because he'd ought to be held up to the community to be despised. You +let me have that paper a minute," she pursued, vehemently; "you just +let me have the Tocsin and I'll read you out some things about him that +'ll show him in his true light!" + +"All right," said Norbert, suddenly handing her the paper. "Go ahead." + +And after the exchange of a single glance the two gentlemen composed +themselves to listen. + +"Ha!" exclaimed Mrs. Flitcroft. "Here it is in head-lines on the first +page. 'Defence Scores Again and Again. Ridiculous Behavior of a +Would-Be Mob. Louden's--'" She paused, removed her spectacles, +examined them dubiously, restored them to place, and continued: +"'Louden's Masterly Conduct and Well-Deserved--'" she paused again, +incredulous--"'Well-Deserved Triumph--'" + +"Go on," said the Colonel, softly. + +"Indeed I will!" the old lady replied. "Do you think I don't know +sarcasm when I see it? Ha, ha!" She laughed with great heartiness. +"I reckon I WILL go on! You listen and try to LEARN something from +it!" She resumed the reading: + +"'It is generally admitted that after yesterday's sitting of the court, +the prosecution in the Fear-Cory murder trial has not a leg to stand +on. Louden's fight for his client has been, it must be confessed, of a +most splendid and talented order, and the bottom has fallen out of the +case for the State, while a verdict of Not Guilty, it is now conceded, +is the general wish of those who have attended and followed the trial. +But the most interesting event of the day took place after the session, +when some miscreants undertook to mob the attorney for the defence in +the Court-house yard. He met the attack with a coolness and nerve +which have won him a popularity that--'" Mrs. Flitcroft again faltered. + +"Go on," repeated the Colonel. "There's a great deal more." + +"Look at the editorials," suggested Norbert. "There's one on the same +subject." + +Mrs. Flitcroft, her theory of the Tocsin's sarcasm somewhat shaken, +turned the page. "We Confess a Mistake" was the rubric above the +leader, and she uttered a cry of triumph, for she thought the mistake +was what she had just been reading, and that the editorial would +apologize for the incomprehensible journalistic error upon the first +page. "'The best of us make mistakes, and it is well to have a change +of heart sometimes.'" (Thus Eugene's successor had written, and so +Mrs. Flitcroft read.) "'An open confession is good for the soul. The +Tocsin has changed its mind in regard to certain matters, and means to +say so freely and frankly. After yesterday's events in connection with +the murder trial before our public, the evidence being now all +presented, for we understand that neither side has more to offer, it is +generally conceded that all good citizens are hopeful of a verdict of +acquittal; and the Tocsin is a good citizen. No good citizen would +willingly see an innocent man punished, and that our city is not to be +disgraced by such a miscarriage of justice is due to the efforts of the +attorney for the defendant, who has gained credit not only by his +masterly management of this case, but by his splendid conduct in the +face of danger yesterday afternoon. He has distinguished himself so +greatly that we frankly assert that our citizens may point with pride +to--'" Mrs. Flitcroft's voice, at the beginning pitched to a high +exultation, had gradually lowered in key and dropped down the scale +till it disappeared altogether. + +"It's a wonder to me," the Colonel began, "that the Tocsin doesn't go +and hold Joe Louden's hand." + +"I'll read the rest of it for you," said Norbert, his heavy face +lighting up with cruelty. "Let's see--where were you? Oh yes--'point +with pride'? 'Our citizens may point with pride to ...'" + +Let us not linger to observe the unmanly behavior of an aged man and +his grandson left alone at the breakfast-table by a defenceless woman. + +The Tocsin's right-about-face undermined others besides Mrs. Flitcroft +that morning, and rejoiced greater (though not better) men than the +Colonel. Mr. Farbach and his lieutenants smiled, yet stared, amazed, +wondering what had happened. That was a thing which only three people +even certainly knew; yet it was very simple. + +The Tocsin was part of the Judge's restitution. + +"The controlling interest in the paper, together with the other +property I have listed," Joe had said, studying his memoranda under the +lamp in Roger's old studio, while Martin Pike listened with his head in +his hands, "make up what Miss Tabor is willing to accept. As I +estimate it, their total value is between a third and a half of that of +the stock which belonged to her." + +"But this boy--this Flitcroft," said Pike, feebly; "he might--" + +"He will do nothing," interrupted Joe. "The case is 'settled out of +court,' and even if he were disposed to harass you, he could hardly +hope to succeed, since Miss Tabor declines either to sue or to +prosecute." + +The Judge winced at the last word. "Yes--yes, I know; but he might--he +might--tell." + +"I think Miss Tabor's influence will prevent. If it should not--well, +you're not in a desperate case by any means; you're involved, but far +from stripped; in time you may be as sound as ever. And if Norbert +tells, there's nothing for you to do but to live it down." A faint +smile played upon Joe's lips as he lifted his head and looked at the +other. "It can be done, I think." + +It was then that Ariel, complaining of the warmth of the evening, +thought it possible that Joe might find her fan upon the porch, and as +he departed, whispered hurriedly: "Judge Pike, I'm not technically in +control of the Tocsin, but haven't I the right to control its policy?" + +"I understand," he muttered. "You mean about Louden--about this +trial--" + +"That is why I have taken the paper." + +"You want all that changed, you mean?" + +She nodded decisively. "From this instant. Before morning." + +"Oh, well, I'll go down there and give the word." He rubbed his eyes +wearily with big thumbs. "I'm through fighting. I'm done. Besides, +what's the use? There's nothing more to fight." + +"Now, Judge," Joe said, as he came in briskly, "we'll go over the list +of that unencumbered property, if you will." + +This unencumbered property consisted of Beaver Beach and those other +belongings of the Judge which he had not dared to mortgage. Joe had +somehow explained their nature to Ariel, and these with the Tocsin she +had elected to accept in restitution. + +"You told me once that I ought to look after my own property, and now I +will. Don't you see?" she cried to Joe, eagerly. "It's my work!" She +resolutely set aside every other proposition; and this was the quality +of mercy which Martin Pike found that night. + + +There was a great crowd to hear Joe's summing-up at the trial, and +those who succeeded in getting into the court-room declared that it was +worth the struggle. He did not orate, he did not "thunder at the +jury," nor did he slyly flatter them; he did not overdo the +confidential, nor seem so secure of understanding beforehand what their +verdict would be that they felt an instinctive desire to fool him. He +talked colloquially but clearly, without appeal to the pathetic and +without garnitures, not mentioning sunsets, birds, oceans, homes, the +glorious old State, or the happiness of liberty; but he made everybody +in the room quite sure that Happy Fear had fired the shot which killed +Cory to save his own life. And that, as Mr. Bradbury remarked to the +Colonel, was "what Joe was THERE for!" + +Ariel's escort was increased to four that day: Mr. Ladew sat beside +her, and there were times when Joe kept his mind entirely to the work +in hand only by an effort, but he always succeeded. The sight of the +pale and worshipping face of Happy Fear from the corner of his eye was +enough to insure that. And people who could not get near the doors, +asking those who could, "What's he doin' now?" were answered by +variations of the one formula, "Oh, jest walkin' away with it!" + +Once the court-room was disturbed and set in an uproar which even the +Judge's customary threat failed to subdue. Joe had been talking very +rapidly, and having turned the point he was making with perfect +dexterity, the jury listening eagerly, stopped for a moment to take a +swallow of water. A voice rose over the low hum of the crowd in a +delirious chuckle: "Why don't somebody 'HEAD HIM OFF!'" The room +instantly rocked with laughter, under cover of which the identity of +the sacrilegious chuckler was not discovered, but the voice was the +voice of Buckalew, who was incredibly surprised to find that he had +spoken aloud. + +The jury were "out," after the case had been given to them, seventeen +minutes and thirty seconds by the watch Claudine held in her hand. The +little man, whose fate was now on the knees of the gods, looked +pathetically at the foreman and then at the face of his lawyer and +began to shake violently, but not with fright. He had gone to the jail +on Joe's word, as a good dog goes where his master bids, trustfully; +and yet Happy had not been able to keep his mind from considering the +horrible chances. "Don't worry," Joe had said. "It's all right. I'll +see you through." And he had kept his word. + +The little man was cleared. + +It took Happy a long time to get through what he had to say to his +attorney in the anteroom, and even then, of course, he did not manage +to put it in words, for he had "broken down" with sheer gratitude. +"Why, damn ME, Joe," he sobbed, "if ever I--if ever you--well, by God! +if you ever--" This was the substance of his lingual accomplishment +under the circumstances. But Claudine threw her arms around poor Joe's +neck and kissed him. + +Many people were waiting to shake hands with Joe and congratulate him. +The trio, taking advantage of seats near the rail, had already done +that (somewhat uproariously) before he had followed Happy, and so had +Ariel and Ladew, both, necessarily, rather hurriedly. But in the +corridors he found, when he came out of the anteroom, clients, +acquaintances, friends: old friends, new friends, and friends he had +never seen before--everybody beaming upon him and wringing his hand, as +if they had been sure of it all from the start. + +"KNOW him?" said one to another. "Why, I've knowed him sence he was +that high! SMART little feller he was, too!" This was a total +stranger. + +"I said, years ago"--thus Mr. Brown, the "National House" clerk, +proving his prophetic vision--"that he'd turn out to be a big man some +day." + +They gathered round him if he stopped for an instant, and crowded after +him admiringly when he went on again, making his progress slow. When +he finally came out of the big doors into the sunshine, there were as +many people in the yard as there had been when he stood in the same +place and watched the mob rushing his client's guards. But to-day their +temper was different, and as he paused a moment, looking down on the +upturned, laughing faces, with a hundred jocular and congratulatory +salutations shouted up at him, somebody started a cheer, and it was +taken up with thunderous good-will. + +There followed the interrogation customary in such emergencies, and the +anxious inquirer was informed by four or five hundred people +simultaneously that Joe Louden was all right. + +"HEAD HIM OFF!" bellowed Mike Sheehan, suddenly darting up the steps. +The shout increased, and with good reason, for he stepped quickly back +within the doors; and, retreating through the building, made good his +escape by a basement door. + +He struck off into a long detour, but though he managed to evade the +crowd, he had to stop and shake hands with every third person he met. +As he came out upon Main Street again, he encountered his father. + +"Howdy do, Joe?" said this laconic person, and offered his hand. They +shook, briefly. "Well," he continued, rubbing his beard, "how are ye?" + +"All right, father, I think." + +"Satisfied with the verdict?" + +"I'd be pretty hard to please if I weren't," Joe laughed. + +Mr. Louden rubbed his beard again. "I was there," he said, without +emotion. + +"At the trial, you mean?" + +"Yes." He offered his hand once more, and again they shook. "Well, +come around and see us," he said. + +"Thank you. I will." + +"Well," said Mr. Louden, "good-day, Joe." + +"Good-day, father." + + +The young man stood looking after him with a curious smile. Then he +gave a slight start. Far up the street he saw two figures, one a +lady's, in white, with a wide white hat; the other a man's, wearing +recognizably clerical black. They seemed to be walking very slowly. + +It had been a day of triumph for Joe; but in all his life he never +slept worse than he did that night. + + + +XXVI + +ANCIENT OF DAYS + +He woke to the chiming of bells, and, as his eyes slowly opened, the +sorrowful people of a dream, who seemed to be bending over him, +weeping, swam back into the darkness of the night whence they had come, +and returned to the imperceptible, leaving their shadows in his heart. +Slowly he rose, stumbled into the outer room, and released the +fluttering shade; but the sunshine, springing like a golden lover +through the open window, only dazzled him, and found no answering +gladness to greet it, nor joy in the royal day it heralded. + +And yet, to the newly cleaned boys on their way to midsummer morning +Sunday-school, the breath of that cool August day was as sweet as +stolen apples. No doubt the stir of far, green thickets and the +twinkle of silver-slippered creeks shimmered in the longing vision of +their minds' eyes; even so, they were merry. But Joseph Louden, +sighing as he descended his narrow stairs, with the bitterness still +upon his lips of the frightful coffee he had made, heard the echo of +their laughter with wonder. + +It would be an hour at least before time to start to church, when Ariel +expected him; he stared absently up the street, then down, and, after +that, began slowly to walk in the latter direction, with no very active +consciousness, or care, of where he went. He had fallen into a +profound reverie, so deep that when he had crossed the bridge and +turned into a dusty road which ran along the river-bank, he stopped +mechanically beside the trunk of a fallen sycamore, and, lifting his +head, for the first time since he had set out, looked about him with a +melancholy perplexity, a little surprised to find himself there. + +For this was the spot where he had first seen the new Ariel, and on +that fallen sycamore they had sat together. "REMEMBER, ACROSS MAIN +STREET BRIDGE AT NOON!" And Joe's cheeks burned, as he recalled why he +had not understood the clear voice that had haunted him. But that +shame had fallen from him; she had changed all that, as she had changed +so many things. He sank down in the long grass, with his back against +the log, and stared out over the fields of tall corn, shaking in a +steady wind all the way to the horizon. + +"Changed so many things?" he said, half aloud. "Everything!" Ah, yes, +she had changed the whole world for Joseph Louden--at his first sight +of her! And now it seemed to him that he was to lose her, but not in +the way he had thought. + +Almost from the very first, he had the feeling that nothing so +beautiful as that she should stay in Canaan could happen to him. He +was sure that she was but for the little while, that her coming was +like the flying petals of which he had told her. + +He had lain upon the earth; and she had lifted him up. For a moment he +had felt the beatific wings enfolding him with gentle protection, and +then saw them lifted to bear the angel beyond his sight. For it was +incredible that the gods so loved Joe Louden that they would make +greater gifts to him than this little time with her which they had +granted him. + +"Changed so many things?" + +The bars that had been between him and half of his world were down, +shattered, never more to be replaced; and the ban of Canaan was lifted. +Could this have been, save for her? And upon that thought he got to +his feet, uttering an exclamation of bitter self-reproach, asking +himself angrily what he was doing. He knew how much she gave him, what +full measure of her affection! Was not that enough?--Out upon you, +Louden! Are you to sulk in your tent, dour in the gloom, or to play a +man's part, and if she be happy, turn a cheery face upon her joy? + +And thus this pilgrim recrossed the bridge, emerging to the street with +his head up, smiling, and his shoulders thrown back so that none might +see the burden he carried. + + +Ariel was waiting on the porch for him. She wore the same dress she +had worn that Sunday of their tryst; that exquisite dress, with the +faint lavender overtint, like the tender colors of the beautiful day he +made his own. She had not worn it since, and he was far distant when +he caught the first flickering glimpse of her through the lower +branches of the maples, but he remembered.... And again, as on that +day, he heard a far-away, ineffable music, the Elf-land horns, sounding +the mysterious reveille which had wakened his soul to her coming. + +She came to the gate to meet him, and gave him her hand in greeting, +without a word--or the need of one--from either. Then together they +set forth over the sun-flecked pavement, the maples swishing above +them, heavier branches crooning in the strong breeze, under a sky like +a Della Robbia background. And up against the glorious blue of it, +some laughing, invisible god was blowing small, rounded clouds of pure +cotton, as children blow thistledown. + +When he opened her parasol, as they came out into the broad sunshine +beyond Upper Main Street, there was the faintest mingling of wild roses +and cinnamon loosed on the air. + +"Joe," she said, "I'm very happy!" + +"That's right," he returned, heartily. "I think you always will be." + +"But, oh! I wish," she went on, "that Mr. Arp could have lived to see +you come down the Court-house steps." + +"God bless him!" said Joe. "I can hear the 'argument'!" + +"Those dear old men have been so loyal to you, Joe." + +"No," he returned; "loyal to Eskew." + +"To you both," she said. "I'm afraid the old circle is broken up; they +haven't met on the National House corner since he died. The Colonel +told me he couldn't bear to go there again." + +"I don't believe any of them ever will," he returned. "And yet I never +pass the place that I don't see Eskew in his old chair. I went there +last night to commune with him. I couldn't sleep, and I got up, and +went over there; they'd left the chairs out; the town was asleep, and +it was beautiful moonlight--" + +"To commune with him? What about?" + +"You." + +"Why?" she asked, plainly mystified. + +"I stood in need of good counsel," he answered, cheerfully, "or a +friendly word, perhaps, and--as I sat there--after a while it came." + +"What was it?" + +"To forget that I was sodden with selfishness; to pretend not to be as +full of meanness as I really was! Doesn't that seem to be Eskew's own +voice?" + +"Weren't you happy last night, Joe?" + +"Oh, it was all right," he said, quickly. "Don't you worry." + +And at this old speech of his she broke into a little laugh of which he +had no comprehension. + +"Mamie came to see me early this morning," she said, after they had +walked on in silence for a time. "Everything is all right with her +again; that is, I think it will be. Eugene is coming home. And," she +added, thoughtfully, "it will be best for him to have his old place on +the Tocsin again. She showed me his letter, and I liked it. I think +he's been through the fire--" + +Joe's distorted smile appeared. "And has come out gold?" he asked. + +"No," she laughed; "but nearer it! And I think he'll try to be more +worth her caring for. She has always thought that his leaving the +Tocsin in the way he did was heroic. That was her word for it. And it +WAS the finest thing he ever did." + +"I can't figure Eugene out." Joe shook his head. "There's something +behind his going away that I don't understand." This was altogether +the truth; nor was there ever to come a time when either he or Mamie +would understand what things had determined the departure of Eugene +Bantry; though Mamie never questioned, as Joe did, the reasons for it, +or doubted those Eugene had given her, which were the same he had given +her father. For she was content with his return. + + +Again the bells across the Square rang out their chime. The paths were +decorously enlivened with family and neighborhood groups, bound +churchward; and the rumble of the organ, playing the people into their +pews, shook on the air. And Joe knew that he must speak quickly, if he +was to say what he had planned to say, before he and Ariel went into +the church. + +"Ariel?" He tried to compel his voice to a casual cheerfulness, but it +would do nothing for him, except betray a desperate embarrassment. + +She looked at him quickly, and as quickly away. + +"Yes?" + +"I wanted to say something to you, and I'd better do it now, I +think--before I go to church for the first time in two years!" He +managed to laugh, though with some ruefulness, and continued +stammeringly: "I want to tell you how much I like him--how much I +admire him--" + +"Admire whom?" she asked, a little coldly, for she knew. + +"Mr. Ladew." + +"So do I," she answered, looking straight ahead. "That is one reason +why I wanted you to come with me to-day." + +"It isn't only that. I want to tell you--to tell you--" He broke off +for a second. "You remember that night in my office before Fear came +in?" + +"Yes; I remember." + +"And that I--that something I said troubled you because it--it sounded +as if I cared too much for you--" + +"No; not too much." She still looked straight ahead. They were +walking very slowly. "You didn't understand. You'd been in my mind, +you see, all those years, so much more than I in yours. I hadn't +forgotten YOU. But to you I was really a stranger--" + +"No, no!" he cried. + +"Yes, I was," she said, gently but very quickly. "And I--I didn't want +you to fall in love with me at first sight. And yet--perhaps I did! +But I hadn't thought of things in that way. I had just the same +feeling for you that I always had--always! I had never cared so much +for any one else, and it seemed to me the most necessary thing in my +life to come back to that old companionship-- Don't you remember--it +used to trouble you so when I would take your hand? I think I loved +your being a little rough with me. And once, when I saw how you had +been hurt, that day you ran away--" + +"Ariel!" he gasped, helplessly. + +"Have you forgotten?" + +He gathered himself together with all his will. "I want to prove to +you," he said, resolutely, "that the dear kindness of you isn't thrown +away on me; I want you to know what I began to say: that it's all right +with me; and I think Ladew--" He stopped again. "Ah! I've seen how +much he cares for you--" + +"Have you?" + +"Ariel," he said, "that isn't fair to me, if you trust me. You could +not have helped seeing--" + +"But I have not seen it," she interrupted, with great calmness. After +having said this, she finished truthfully: "If he did, I would never +let him tell me. I like him too much." + +"You mean you're not going to--" + +Suddenly she turned to him. "NO!" she said, with a depth of anger he +had not heard in her voice since that long-ago winter day when she +struck Eugene Bantry with her clenched fist. She swept over him a +blinding look of reproach. "How could I?" + +And there, upon the steps of the church, in the sudden, dazzling vision +of her love, fell the burden of him who had made his sorrowful +pilgrimage across Main Street bridge that morning. + + +A manifold rustling followed them as they went down the aisle, and the +sibilance of many whisperings; but Joe was not conscious of that, as he +took his place in Ariel's pew beside her. For him there was only the +presence of divinity; the church was filled with it. + + +They rose to sing: + + "Ancient of days, Who sittest, throned in glory, + To Thee all knees are bent, all voices pray; + Thy love has blest the wide world's wondrous story + With light and life since Eden's dawning day." + + +And then, as they knelt to pray, there were the white heads of the +three old friends of Eskew Arp; and beyond was the silver hair of +Martin Pike, who knelt beside his daughter. Joe felt that people +should be very kind to the Judge. + + +The sun, so eager without, came temperately through the windows, where +stood angels and saints in gentle colors, and the face of the young +minister in this quiet light was like the faces in the windows.... + +"Not only to confront your enemies," he said; "that is not enough; nor +is it that I would have you bluster at them, nor take arms against +them; you will not have to do that if, when they come at you, you do +not turn one inch aside, but with an assured heart, with good nature, +not noisily, and with steadfastness, you keep on your way. If you can +do that, I say that they will turn aside for you, and you shall walk +straight through them, and only laughter be left of their anger!" + +There was a stir among the people, and many faces turned toward Joe. +Two years ago he had sat in the same church, when his character and +actions had furnished the underlying theme of a sermon, and he had +recognized himself without difficulty: to-day he had not the shadow of +a dream that the same thing was happening. He thought the people were +turning to look at Ariel, and he was very far from wondering at that. + +She saw that he did not understand; she was glad to have it so. She +had taken off her gloves, and he was holding them lightly and +reverently in his hands, looking down upon them, his thin cheeks a +little flushed. And at that, and not knowing the glory that was in his +soul, something forlorn in his careful tenderness toward her gloves so +touched her that she felt the tears coming to her eyes with a sudden +rush. And to prevent them. + +"Not the empty gloves, Joe," she whispered. + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Conquest of Canaan, by Booth Tarkington + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN *** + +***** This file should be named 483.txt or 483.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/8/483/ + +Produced by Charles Keller. HTML version 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. 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A RESCUE +III. OLD HOPES +IV. THE DISASTER +V. BEAVER BEACH +VI. "YE'LL TAK' THE HIGH ROAD AND I'LL TAK' THE LOW ROAD" +VII. GIVE A DOG A BAD NAME +VIII. A BAD PENNY TURNS UP +IX. OUTER DARKNESS +X. THE TRYST +XI. WHEN HALF-GODS GO +XII. TO REMAIN ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE IS NOT ALWAYS A VICTORY +XIII. THE WATCHER AND THE WARDEN +XIV. WHITE ROSES IN A LAW-OFFICE +XV. HAPPY FEAR GIVES HIMSELF UP +XVI. THE TWO CANAANS +XVII. MR. SHEEHAN'S HINTS +XVIII. IN THE HEAT OF THE DAY +XIX. ESKEW ARP +XX. THREE ARE ENLISTED +XXI. NORBERT WAITS FOR JOE +XXII. MR. SHEEHAN SPEAKS +XXIII. JOE WALKS ACROSS THE COURT-HOUSE YARD +XXIV. MARTIN PIKE KEEPS AN ENGAGEMENT +XXV. THE JURY COMES IN +XXVI. "ANCIENT OF DAYS" + + + +THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN + + +ENTER CHORUS + +I + +A dry snow had fallen steadily +throughout the still night, so that +when a cold, upper wind cleared the +sky gloriously in the morning the +incongruous Indiana town shone in a +white harmony--roof, ledge, and earth as evenly +covered as by moonlight. There was no thaw; +only where the line of factories followed the big +bend of the frozen river, their distant chimneys like +exclamation points on a blank page, was there a +first threat against the supreme whiteness. The +wind passed quickly and on high; the shouting of +the school-children had ceased at nine o'clock with +pitiful suddenness; no sleigh-bells laughed out on +the air; and the muffling of the thoroughfares +wrought an unaccustomed peace like that of Sunday. +This was the phenomenon which afforded the +opening of the morning debate of the sages in the +wide windows of the "National House." + +Only such unfortunates as have so far failed +to visit Canaan do not know that the "National +House" is on the Main Street side of the Courthouse +Square, and has the advantage of being +within two minutes' walk of the railroad station, +which is in plain sight of the windows--an +inestimable benefit to the conversation of the aged +men who occupied these windows on this white +morning, even as they were wont in summer to hold +against all comers the cane-seated chairs on the +pavement outside. Thence, as trains came and +went, they commanded the city gates, and, seeking +motives and adding to the stock of history, narrowly +observed and examined into all who entered or +departed. Their habit was not singular. He who +would foolishly tax the sages of Canaan with a +bucolic light-mindedness must first walk in Piccadilly +in early June, stroll down the Corso in Rome +before Ash Wednesday, or regard those windows of +Fifth Avenue whose curtains are withdrawn of a +winter Sunday; for in each of these great streets, +wherever the windows, not of trade, are widest, his +eyes must behold wise men, like to those of Canaan, +executing always their same purpose. + +The difference is in favor of Canaan; the "National +House" was the club, but the perusal of +traveller or passer by was here only the spume +blown before a stately ship of thought; and you +might hear the sages comparing the Koran with the +speeches of Robert J. Ingersoll. + +In the days of board sidewalks, "mail-time" had +meant a precise moment for Canaan, and even now, +many years after the first postman, it remained +somewhat definite to the aged men; for, out of +deference to a pleasant, olden custom, and perhaps +partly for an excuse to "get down to the hotel" +(which was not altogether in favor with the elderly +ladies), most of them retained their antique boxes +in the post-office, happily in the next building. + +In this connection it may be written that a +subscription clerk in the office of the Chicago +Daily Standard, having noted a single subscriber +from Canaan, was, a fortnight later, pleased to +receive, by one mail, nine subscriptions from that +promising town. If one brought nine others in a +fortnight, thought he, what would nine bring in a +month? Amazingly, they brought nothing, and +the rest was silence. Here was a matter of intricate +diplomacy never to come within that youth his +ken. The morning voyage to the post-office, +long mocked as a fable and screen by the families +of the sages, had grown so difficult to accomplish +for one of them, Colonel Flitcroft (Colonel in the +war with Mexico), that he had been put to it, +indeed, to foot the firing-line against his wife (a lady +of celebrated determination and hale-voiced at +seventy), and to defend the rental of a box which +had sheltered but three missives in four years. +Desperation is often inspiration; the Colonel +brilliantly subscribed for the Standard, forgetting to +give his house address, and it took the others just +thirteen days to wring his secret from him. Then +the Standard served for all. + +Mail-time had come to mean that bright hour +when they all got their feet on the brass rod which +protected the sills of the two big windows, with the +steam-radiators sizzling like kettles against the +side wall. Mr. Jonas Tabor, who had sold his +hardware business magnificently (not magnificently +for his nephew, the purchaser) some ten years +before, was usually, in spite of the fact that he +remained a bachelor at seventy-nine, the last to settle +down with the others, though often the first to reach +the hotel, which he always entered by a side door, +because he did not believe in the treating system. +And it was Mr. Eskew Arp, only seventy-five, but +already a thoroughly capable cynic, who, almost +invariably "opened the argument," and it was he +who discovered the sinister intention behind the +weather of this particular morning. Mr. Arp had +not begun life so sourly: as a youth he had been +proud of his given name, which had come to him +through his mother's family, who had made it +honorable, but many years of explanations that +Eskew did not indicate his initials had lowered his +opinion of the intelligence and morality of the race. + +The malevolence of his voice and manner this +morning, therefore, when he shook his finger at +the town beyond the windows, and exclaimed, +with a bitter laugh, "Look at it!" was no surprise +to his companions. "Jest look at it! I tell you +the devil is mighty smart. Ha, ha! Mighty +smart!" + +Through custom it was the duty of Squire +Buckalew (Justice of the Peace in '59) to be the +first to take up Mr. Arp. The others looked to +him for it. Therefore, he asked, sharply: + +"What's the devil got to do with snow?" + +"Everything to do with it, sir," Mr. Arp +retorted. "It's plain as day to anybody with eyes +and sense." + +"Then I wish you'd p'int it out," said Buckalew, +"if you've got either." + +"By the Almighty, Squire"--Mr. Arp turned in +his chair with sudden heat--"if I'd lived as long +as you--" + +"You have," interrupted the other, stung. +"Twelve years ago!" + +"If I'd lived as long as you," Mr. Arp repeated, +unwincingly, in a louder voice, "and had follered +Satan's trail as long as you have, and yet couldn't +recognize it when I see it, I'd git converted and +vote Prohibitionist." + +"_I_ don't see it," interjected Uncle Joe Davey, +in his querulous voice. (He was the patriarch of +them all.) "_I_ can't find no cloven-hoof-prints in +the snow." + +"All over it, sir!" cried the cynic. "All over it! +Old Satan loves tricks like this. Here's a town +that's jest one squirmin' mass of lies and envy and +vice and wickedness and corruption--" + +"Hold on!" exclaimed Colonel Flitcroft. "That's +a slander upon our hearths and our government. +Why, when I was in the Council--" + +"It wasn't a bit worse then," Mr. Arp returned, +unreasonably. "Jest you look how the devil fools us. +He drops down this here virgin mantle on Canaan +and makes it look as good as you pretend you +think it is: as good as the Sunday-school room of a +country church--though THAT"--he went off on a +tangent, venomously--"is generally only another +whited sepulchre, and the superintendent's mighty +apt to have a bottle of whiskey hid behind the +organ, and--" + +"Look here, Eskew," said Jonas Tabor, "that's +got nothin' to do with--" + +"Why ain't it? Answer me!" cried Mr. Arp, +continuing, without pause: "Why ain't it? Can't +you wait till I git through? You listen to me, and +when I'm ready I'll listen to--" + +"See here," began the Colonel, making himself +heard over three others, "I want to ask you--" + +"No, sir!" Mr. Arp pounded the floor irascibly +with his hickory stick. "Don't you ask me anything! +How can you tell that I'm not going to +answer your question without your asking it, till +I've got through? You listen first. I say, here's +a town of nearly thirty thousand inhabitants, +every last one of 'em--men, women, and children-- +selfish and cowardly and sinful, if you could see +their innermost natures; a town of the ugliest and +worst built houses in the world, and governed by a +lot of saloon-keepers--though I hope it 'll never +git down to where the ministers can run it. And +the devil comes along, and in one night--why, all +you got to do is LOOK at it! You'd think we needn't +ever trouble to make it better. That's what the +devil wants us to do--wants us to rest easy about +it, and paints it up to look like a heaven of peace +and purity and sanctified spirits. Snowfall like +this would of made Lot turn the angel out-of-doors +and say that the old home was good enough for +him. Gomorrah would of looked like a Puritan +village--though I'll bet my last dollar that there +was a lot, and a WHOLE lot, that's never been told +about Puritan villages. A lot that--" + +"WHAT never was?" interrupted Mr. Peter +Bradbury, whose granddaughter had lately announced +her discovery that the Bradburys were descended +from Miles Standish. "What wasn't told about +Puritan villages?" + +"Can't you wait?" Mr. Arp's accents were those +of pain. "Haven't I got ANY right to present my +side of the case? Ain't we restrained enough to +allow of free speech here? How can we ever git +anywhere in an argument like this, unless we let +one man talk at a time? How--" + +"Go on with your statement," said Uncle Joe +Davey, impatiently. + +Mr. Arp's grievance was increased. "Now listen +to YOU! How many more interruptions are comin'? +I'll listen to the other side, but I've got to state +mine first, haven't I? If I don't make my point +clear, what's the use of the argument? +Argumentation is only the comparison of two sides of a +question, and you have to see what the first side +IS before you can compare it with the other one, +don't you? Are you all agreed to that?" + +"Yes, yes," said the Colonel. "Go ahead. We +won't interrupt until you're through." + +"Very well," resumed Mr. Arp, with a fleeting +expression of satisfaction, "as I said before, I +wish to--as I said--" He paused, in some +confusion. "As I said, argumentation is--that is, I +say--" He stopped again, utterly at sea, having +talked himself so far out of his course that he was +unable to recall either his sailing port or his +destination. Finally he said, feebly, to save the +confession, "Well, go on with your side of it." + +This generosity was for a moment disconcerting; +however, the quietest of the party took up the +opposition--Roger Tabor, a very thin, old man +with a clean-shaven face, almost as white as his +hair, and melancholy, gentle, gray eyes, very unlike +those of his brother Jonas, which were dark +and sharp and button-bright. (It was to Roger's +son that Jonas had so magnificently sold the hardware +business.) Roger was known in Canaan as +"the artist"; there had never been another of his +profession in the place, and the town knew not the +word "painter," except in application to the useful +artisan who is subject to lead-poisoning. There +was no indication of his profession in the attire of +Mr. Tabor, unless the too apparent age of his +black felt hat and a neat patch at the elbow of his +shiny, old brown overcoat might have been taken +as symbols of the sacrifice to his muse which his +life had been. He was not a constant attendant +of the conclave, and when he came it was usually +to listen; indeed, he spoke so seldom that at the +sound of his voice they all turned to him with +some surprise. + +"I suppose," he began, "that Eskew means the +devil is behind all beautiful things." + +"Ugly ones, too," said Mr. Arp, with a start of +recollection. "And I wish to state--" + +"Not now!" Colonel Flitcroft turned upon him +violently. "You've already stated it." + +"Then, if he is behind the ugly things, too," said +Roger, "we must take him either way, so let us be +glad of the beauty for its own sake. Eskew says +this is a wicked town. It may be--I don't know. +He says it's badly built; perhaps it is; but it doesn't +seem to me that it's ugly in itself. I don't know +what its real self is, because it wears so many +aspects. God keeps painting it all the time, and +never shows me twice the same picture; not even +two snowfalls are just alike, nor the days that +follow them; no more than two misty sunsets are +alike--for the color and even the form of the +town you call ugly are a matter of the season of +the year and of the time of day and of the light +and air. The ugly town is like an endless gallery +which you can walk through, from year-end to +year-end, never seeing the same canvas twice, no +matter how much you may want to--and there's +the pathos of it. Isn't it the same with people +with the characters of all of us, just as it is with +our faces? No face remains the same for two +successive days--" + +"It don't?" Colonel Flitcroft interrupted, with +an explosive and rueful incredulity. "Well, I'd +like to--" Second thoughts came to him almost +immediately, and, as much out of gallantry as +through discretion, fearing that he might be taken +as thinking of one at home, he relapsed into +silence. + +Not so with the others. It was as if a +firecracker had been dropped into a sleeping poultry- +yard. Least of all could Mr. Arp contain himself. +At the top of his voice, necessarily, he agreed +with Roger that faces changed, not only from day +to day, and not only because of light and air and +such things, but from hour to hour, and from +minute to minute, through the hideous stimulus +of hypocrisy. + +The "argument" grew heated; half a dozen tidy +quarrels arose; all the sages went at it fiercely, +except Roger Tabor, who stole quietly away. +The aged men were enjoying themselves thoroughly, +especially those who quarrelled. Naturally, the +frail bark of the topic which had been launched +was whirled about by too many side-currents to +remain long in sight, and soon became derelict, +while the intellectual dolphins dove and tumbled +in the depths. At the end of twenty minutes +Mr. Arp emerged upon the surface, and in his +mouth was this: + +"Tell me, why ain't the Church--why ain't the +Church and the rest of the believers in a future life +lookin' for immortality at the other end of life, +too? If we're immortal, we always have been; +then why don't they ever speculate on what we +were before we were born? It's because they're +too blame selfish--don't care a flapdoodle about +what WAS, all they want is to go on livin' forever." + +Mr. Arp's voice had risen to an acrid triumphancy, +when it suddenly faltered, relapsed to a +murmur, and then to a stricken silence, as a tall, fat +man of overpowering aspect threw open the outer +door near by and crossed the lobby to the clerk's +desk. An awe fell upon the sages with this advent. +They were hushed, and after a movement in their +chairs, with a strange effect of huddling, sat +disconcerted and attentive, like school-boys at the +entrance of the master. + +The personage had a big, fat, pink face and a +heavily undershot jaw, what whitish beard he wore +following his double chin somewhat after the manner +displayed in the portraits of Henry the Eighth. +His eyes, very bright under puffed upper lids, were +intolerant and insultingly penetrating despite +their small size. Their irritability held a kind of +hotness, and yet the personage exuded frost, not +of the weather, all about him. You could not +imagine man or angel daring to greet this being +genially--sooner throw a kiss to Mount Pilatus! + +"Mr. Brown," he said, with ponderous hostility, +in a bull bass, to the clerk--the kind of voice +which would have made an express train leave the +track and go round the other way--"do you hear +me?" + +"Oh yes, Judge," the clerk replied, swiftly, in +tones as unlike those which he used for strange +transients as a collector's voice in his ladylove's +ear is unlike that which he propels at delinquents. + +"Do you see that snow?" asked the personage, +threateningly. + +"Yes, Judge." Mr. Brown essayed a placating +smile. "Yes, indeed, Judge Pike." + +"Has your employer, the manager of this hotel, +seen that snow?" pursued the personage, with a +gesture of unspeakable solemn menace. + +"Yes, sir. I think so. Yes, sir." + +"Do you think he fully understands that I am +the proprietor of this building?" + +"Certainly, Judge, cer--" + +"You will inform him that I do not intend to +be discommoded by his negligence as I pass to +my offices. Tell him from me that unless he keeps +the sidewalks in front of this hotel clear of snow I +will cancel his lease. Their present condition is +outrageous. Do you understand me? Outrageous! +Do you hear?" + +"Yes, Judge, I do so," answered the clerk, +hoarse with respect. "I'll see to it this minute, +Judge Pike." + +"You had better." The personage turned +himself about and began a grim progress towards the +door by which he had entered, his eyes fixing +themselves angrily upon the conclave at the windows. + +Colonel Flitcroft essayed a smile, a faltering one. + +"Fine weather, Judge Pike," he said, hopefully. + +There was no response of any kind; the undershot +jaw became more intolerant. The personage +made his opinion of the group disconcertingly +plain, and the old boys understood that he knew +them for a worthless lot of senile loafers, as great a +nuisance in his building as was the snow without; +and much too evident was his unspoken threat +to see that the manager cleared them out of there +before long. + +He nodded curtly to the only man of substance +among them, Jonas Tabor, and shut the door +behind him with majestic insult. He was Canaan's +millionaire. + +He was one of those dynamic creatures who +leave the haunting impression of their wills +behind them, like the tails of Bo-Peep's sheep, like +the evil dead men have done; he left his intolerant +image in the ether for a long time after he had +gone, to confront and confound the aged men and +hold them in deferential and humiliated silence. +Each of them was mysteriously lowered in his own +estimation, and knew that he had been made to +seem futile and foolish in the eyes of his fellows. +They were all conscious, too, that the clerk had +been acutely receptive of Judge Pike's reading of +them; that he was reviving from his own squelchedness +through the later snubbing of the colonel; +also that he might further seek to recover his +poise by an attack on them for cluttering up the +office. + +Naturally, Jonas Tabor was the first to speak. +"Judge Pike's lookin' mighty well," he said, admiringly. + +"Yes, he is," ventured Squire Buckalew, with +deference; "mighty well." + +"Yes, sir," echoed Peter Bradbury; "mighty +well." + +"He's a great man," wheezed Uncle Joe Davey; +"a great man, Judge Martin Pike; a great man!" + +"I expect he has considerable on his mind," +said the Colonel, who had grown very red. "I +noticed that he hardly seemed to see us." + +"Yes, sir," Mr. Bradbury corroborated, with an +attempt at an amused laugh. "I noticed it, too. +Of course a man with all his cares and interests +must git absent-minded now and then." + +"Of course he does," said the colonel. "A +man with all his responsibilities--" + +"Yes, that's so," came a chorus of the brethren, +finding comfort and reassurance as their voices and +spirits began to recover from the blight. + +"There's a party at the Judge's to-night," said +Mr. Bradbury--"kind of a ball Mamie Pike's givin' +for the young folks. Quite a doin's, I hear." + +"That's another thing that's ruining Canaan," +Mr. Arp declared, morosely. "These entertainments +they have nowadays. Spend all the money +out of town--band from Indianapolis, chicken +salad and darkey waiters from Chicago! And +what I want to know is, What's this town goin' to +do about the nigger question?" + +"What about it?" asked Mr. Davey, belligerently. + +"What about it?" Mr. Arp mocked, fiercely. +"You better say, `What about it?' " + +"Well, what?" maintained Mr. Davey, steadfastly. + +"I'll bet there ain't any less than four thousand +niggers in Canaan to-day!" Mr. Arp hammered +the floor with his stick. "Every last one of 'em +criminals, and more comin' on every train." + +"No such a thing," said Squire Buckalew, living +up to his bounden duty. "You look down the +street. There's the ten-forty-five comin' in now. +I'll bet you a straight five-cent Peek-a-Boo cigar +there ain't ary nigger on the whole train, except +the sleepin'-car porters." + +"What kind of a way to argue is that?" +demanded Mr. Arp, hotly. "Bettin' ain't proof, is +it? Besides, that's the through express from the +East. I meant trains from the South." + +"You didn't say so," retorted Buckalew, +triumphantly. "Stick to your bet, Eskew, stick to +your bet." + +"My bet!" cried the outraged Eskew. "Who +offered to bet?" + +"You did," replied the Squire, with perfect +assurance and sincerity. The others supported +him in the heartiest spirit of on-with-the-dance, +and war and joy were unconfined. + +A decrepit hack or two, a couple of old-fashioned +surreys, and a few "cut-unders" drove by, bearing +the newly arrived and their valises, the hotel +omnibus depositing several commercial travellers +at the door. A solitary figure came from the +station on foot, and when it appeared within fair +range of the window, Uncle Joe Davey, who had +but hovered on the flanks of the combat, first +removed his spectacles and wiped them, as though +distrusting the vision they offered him, then, +replacing them, scanned anew the approaching figure +and uttered a smothered cry. + +"My Lord A'mighty!" he gasped. "What's +this? Look there!" + +They looked. A truce came involuntarily, and +they sat in paralytic silence as the figure made its +stately and sensational progress along Main Street. + +Not only the aged men were smitten. Men +shovelling snow from the pavements stopped suddenly +in their labors; two women, talking busily +on a doorstep, were stilled and remained in frozen +attitudes as it passed; a grocer's clerk, crossing +the pavement, carrying a heavily laden basket to +his delivery wagon, halted half-way as the figure +came near, and then, making a pivot of his heels +as it went by, behaved towards it as does the +magnetic needle to the pole. + +It was that of a tall gentleman, cheerfully, though +somewhat with ennui, enduring his nineteenth +winter. His long and slender face he wore smiling, +beneath an accurately cut plaster of dark hair +cornicing his forehead, a fashion followed by many +youths of that year. This perfect bang was shown +under a round black hat whose rim was so small as +almost not to be there at all; and the head was +supported by a waxy-white sea-wall of collar, +rising three inches above the blue billows of a puffed +cravat, upon which floated a large, hollow pearl. +His ulster, sporting a big cape at the shoulders, +and a tasselled hood over the cape, was of a rough +Scotch cloth, patterned in faint, gray-and-white +squares the size of baggage-checks, and it was so +long that the skirts trailed in the snow. His legs +were lost in the accurately creased, voluminous +garments that were the tailors' canny reaction +from the tight trousers with which the 'Eighties had +begun: they were, in color, a palish russet, broadly +striped with gray, and, in size, surpassed the milder +spirit of fashion so far as they permitted a liberal +knee action to take place almost without superficial +effect. Upon his feet glistened long shoes, +shaped, save for the heels, like sharp racing-shells; +these were partially protected by tan-colored low +gaiters with flat, shiny, brown buttons. In one +hand the youth swung a bone-handled walking- +stick, perhaps an inch and a half in diameter, the +other carried a yellow leather banjo-case, upon the +outer side of which glittered the embossed-silver +initials, "E. B." He was smoking, but walked +with his head up, making use, however, of a gait at +that time new to Canaan, a seeming superbly +irresponsible lounge, engendering much motion +of the shoulders, producing an effect of carelessness +combined with independence--an effect which the +innocent have been known to hail as an unconscious one. + +He looked about him as he came, smilingly, with +an expression of princely amusement--as an elderly +cabinet minister, say, strolling about a village +where he had spent some months in his youth, a +hamlet which he had then thought large and imposing, +but which, being revisited after years of +cosmopolitan glory, appeals to his whimsy and his +pity. The youth's glance at the court-house +unmistakably said: "Ah, I recall that odd little box. +I thought it quite large in the days before I +became what I am now, and I dare say the good +townsfolk still think it an imposing structure!" +With everything in sight he deigned to be amused, +especially with the old faces in the "National +House" windows. To these he waved his stick +with airy graciousness. + +"My soul!" said Mr. Davey. "It seems to +know some of us!" + +"Yes," agreed Mr. Arp, his voice recovered, +"and _I_ know IT." + +"You do?" exclaimed the Colonel. + +"I do, and so do you. It's Fanny Louden's boy, +'Gene, come home for his Christmas holidays." + +"By George! you're right," cried Flitcroft; "I +recognize him now." + +"But what's the matter with him?" asked Mr. +Bradbury, eagerly. "Has he joined some patent- +medicine troupe?" + +"Not a bit," replied Eskew. "He went East +to college last fall." + +"Do they MAKE the boys wear them clothes?" +persisted Bradbury. "Is it some kind of uniform?" + +"I don't care what it is," said Jonas Tabor. "If +I was Henry Louden I wouldn't let him wear 'em +around here." + +"Oh, you wouldn't, wouldn't you, Jonas?" Mr. +Arp employed the accents of sarcasm. "I'd like to +see Henry Louden try to interfere with 'Gene +Bantry. Fanny'd lock the old fool up in the +cellar." + +The lofty vision lurched out of view. + +"I reckon," said the Colonel, leaning forward to +see the last of it--"I reckon Henry Louden's about +the saddest case of abused step-father I ever saw." + +"It's his own fault," said Mr. Arp--"twice not +havin' sense enough not to marry. Him with a +son of his own, too!" + +"Yes," assented the Colonel, "marryin' a widow +with a son of her own, and that widow Fanny!" + +"Wasn't it just the same with her first husband +--Bantry?" Mr. Davey asked, not for information, +as he immediately answered himself. "You bet +it was! Didn't she always rule the roost? Yes, +she did. She made a god of 'Gene from the day +he was born. Bantry's house was run for him, like +Louden's is now." + +"And look," exclaimed Mr. Arp, with satisfaction, +"at the way he's turned out!" + +"He ain't turned out at all yet; he's too young," +said Buckalew. "Besides, clothes don't make the +man." + +"Wasn't he smokin' a cigareet!" cried Eskew, +triumphantly. This was final. + +"It's a pity Henry Louden can't do something +for his own son," said Mr. Bradbury. "Why don't +he send him away to college?" + +"Fanny won't let him," chuckled Mr. Arp, +malevolently. "Takes all their spare change to +keep 'Gene there in style. I don't blame her. +'Gene certainly acts the fool, but that Joe Louden +is the orneriest boy I ever saw in an ornery world- +full." + +"He always was kind of misCHEEvous," admitted +Buckalew. "I don't think he's mean, though, and +it does seem kind of not just right that Joe's father's +money--Bantry didn't leave anything to speak +of--has to go to keepin' 'Gene on the fat of the +land, with Joe gittin' up at half-past four to carry +papers, and him goin' on nineteen years old." + +"It's all he's fit for!" exclaimed Eskew. "He's +low down, I tell ye. Ain't it only last week Judge +Pike caught him shootin' craps with Pike's nigger +driver and some other nigger hired-men in the +alley back of Pike's barn." + +Mr. Schindlinger, the retired grocer, one of the +silent members, corroborated Eskew's information. +"I heert dot, too," he gave forth, in his fat voice. +"He blays dominoes pooty often in der room back +off Louie Farbach's tsaloon. I see him myself. +Pooty often. Blayin' fer a leedle money--mit +loafers! Loafers!" + +"Pretty outlook for the Loudens!" said Eskew +Arp, much pleased. "One boy a plum fool and +dressed like it, the other gone to the dogs already!" + +"What could you expect Joe to be?" retorted +Squire Buckalew. "What chance has he ever +had? Long as I can remember Fanny's made +him fetch and carry for 'Gene. 'Gene's had everything +--all the fancy clothes, all the pocket-money, +and now college!" + +"You ever hear that boy Joe talk politics?" +asked Uncle Joe Davey, crossing a cough with a +chuckle. "His head's so full of schemes fer running +this town, and state, too, it's a wonder it don't +bust. Henry Louden told me he's see Joe set +around and study by the hour how to save three +million dollars for the state in two years." + +"And the best he can do for himself," added +Eskew, "is deliverin' the Daily Tocsin on a second- +hand Star bicycle and gamblin' with niggers and +riff-raff! None of the nice young folks invite him +to their doin's any more." + +"That's because he's got so shabby he's quit +goin' with em," said Buckalew. + +"No, it ain't," snapped Mr. Arp. "It's +because he's so low down. He's no more 'n a town +outcast. There ain't ary one of the girls 'll have +a thing to do with him, except that rip-rarin' tom- +boy next door to Louden's; and the others don't +have much to do with HER, neither, I can tell ye. +That Arie Tabor--" + +Colonel Flitcroft caught him surreptitiously by +the arm. "SH, Eskew!" he whispered. "Look +out what you're sayin'!" + +"You needn't mind me," Jonas Tabor spoke up, +crisply. "I washed my hands of all responsibility +for Roger's branch of the family long ago. Never +was one of 'em had the energy or brains to make +a decent livin', beginning with Roger; not one +worth his salt! I set Roger's son up in business, +and all the return he ever made me was to go into +bankruptcy and take to drink, till he died a sot, +like his wife did of shame. I done all I could +when I handed him over my store, and I never +expect to lift a finger for 'em again. Ariel Tabor's +my grandniece, but she didn't act like it, and you +can say anything you like about her, for what I +care. The last time I spoke to her was a year +and a half ago, and I don't reckon I'll ever trouble +to again." + +"How was that, Jonas?" quickly inquired Mr. +Davey, who, being the eldest of the party, was the +most curious. "What happened?" + +"She was out in the street, up on that high +bicycle of Joe Louden's. He was teachin' her to +ride, and she was sittin' on it like a man does. I +stopped and told her she wasn't respectable. +Sixteen years old, goin' on seventeen!" + +"What did she say?" + +"Laughed," said Jonas, his voice becoming +louder as the recital of his wrongs renewed their +sting in his soul. "Laughed!" + +"What did you do?" + +"I went up to her and told her she wasn't a +decent girl, and shook the wheel." Mr. Tabor +illustrated by seizing the lapels of Joe Davey and +shaking him. "I told her if her grandfather had +any spunk she'd git an old-fashioned hidin' for +behavin' that way. And I shook the wheel again." +Here Mr. Tabor, forgetting in the wrath incited +by the recollection that he had not to do with an +inanimate object, swung the gasping and helpless +Mr. Davey rapidly back and forth in his chair. +"I shook it good and hard!" + +"What did she do then?" asked Peter Bradbury. + +"Fell off on me," replied Jonas, violently. "On +purpose!" + +"I wisht she'd killed ye," said Mr. Davey, in a +choking voice, as, released, he sank back in his +chair. + +"On purpose!" repeated Jonas. "And smashed +a straw hat I hadn't had three months! All to +pieces! So it couldn't be fixed!" + +"And what then?" pursued Bradbury. + +"SHE ran," replied Jonas, bitterly--" ran! And +Joe Louden--Joe Louden--" He paused and +gulped. + +"What did he do?" Peter leaned forward in +his chair eagerly. + +The narrator of the outrage gulped again, and +opened and shut his mouth before responding. + +"He said if I didn't pay for a broken spoke on +his wheel he'd have to sue me!" + +No one inquired if Jonas had paid, and Jonas +said no more. The recollection of his wrongs, +together with the illustrative violence offered to +Mr. Davey, had been too much for him. He sank +back, panting, in his chair, his hands fluttering +nervously over his heart, and closed his eyes. + +"I wonder why," ruminated Mr. Bradbury--"I +wonder why 'Gene Bantry walked up from the +deepo. Don't seem much like his style. Should +think he'd of rode up in a hack." + +"Sho!" said Uncle Joe Davey, his breath +recovered. "He wanted to walk up past Judge +Pike's, to see if there wasn't a show of Mamie's +bein' at the window, and give her a chance to look +at that college uniform and banjo-box and new +walk of his." + +Mr. Arp began to show signs of uneasiness. + +"I'd like mighty well to know," he said, +shifting round in his chair, "if there's anybody here +that's been able to answer the question I PUT, +yesterday, just before we went home. You all +tried to, but I didn't hear anything I could +consider anyways near even a fair argument." + +"Who tried to?" asked Buckalew, sharply, +sitting up straight. "What question?" + +"What proof can you bring me," began Mr. +Arp, deliberately, "that we folks, modernly, ain't +more degenerate than the ancient Romans?" + + + +II + +A RESCUE + +Main Street, already muffled by +the snow, added to its quietude a +frozen hush where the wonder-bearing +youth pursued his course along +its white, straight way. None was +there in whom impertinence overmastered +astonishment, or who recovered from the sight in time +to jeer with effect; no "Trab's boy" gathered +courage to enact in the thoroughfare a scene of +mockery and of joy. Leaving business at a +temporary stand-still behind him, Mr. Bantry swept +his long coat steadily over the snow and soon +emerged upon that part of the street where the +mart gave way to the home. The comfortable +houses stood pleasantly back from the street, with +plenty of lawn and shrubbery about them; and +often, along the picket-fences, the laden branches +of small cedars, bending low with their burden, +showered the young man's swinging shoulders +glitteringly as he brushed by. + +And now that expression he wore--the indulgent +amusement of a man of the world--began to +disintegrate and show signs of change. It became +finely grave, as of a high conventionality, lofty, +assured, and mannered, as he approached the Pike +mansion. (The remotest stranger must at once +perceive that the Canaan papers could not have +called it otherwise without pain.) + +It was a big, smooth-stone-faced house, +product of the 'Seventies, frowning under an +outrageously insistent mansard, capped by a cupola, +and staring out of long windows overtopped with +"ornamental" slabs. Two cast-iron deer, painted +death-gray, twins of the same mould, stood on +opposite sides of the front walk, their backs towards +it and each other, their bodies in profile to the +street, their necks bent, however, so that they +gazed upon the passer-by--yet gazed without +emotion. Two large, calm dogs guarded the top +of the steps leading to the front-door; they also +were twins and of the same interesting metal, +though honored beyond the deer by coats of black +paint and shellac. It was to be remarked that +these dogs were of no distinguishable species or +breed, yet they were unmistakably dogs; the +dullest must have recognized them as such at a +glance, which was, perhaps, enough. It was a +hideous house, important-looking, cold, yet harshly +aggressive, a house whose exterior provoked a +shuddering guess of the brass lambrequins and +plush fringes within; a solid house, obviously-- +nay, blatantly--the residence of the principal +citizen, whom it had grown to resemble, as is the +impish habit of houses; and it sat in the middle +of its flat acre of snowy lawn like a rich, fat man +enraged and sitting straight up in bed to swear. + +And yet there was one charming thing about this +ugly house. Some workmen were enclosing a large +side porch with heavy canvas, evidently for festal +purposes. Looking out from between two strips +of the canvas was the rosy and delicate face of a +pretty girl, smiling upon Eugene Bantry as he +passed. It was an obviously pretty face, all the +youth and prettiness there for your very first +glance; elaborately pretty, like the splendid +profusion of hair about and above it--amber-colored +hair, upon which so much time had been spent that +a circle of large, round curls rose above the mass of +it like golden bubbles tipping a coronet. + +The girl's fingers were pressed thoughtfully +against her chin as Eugene strode into view; +immediately her eyes widened and brightened. He +swung along the fence with the handsomest +appearance of unconsciousness, until he reached a +point nearly opposite her. Then he turned his +head, as if haphazardly, and met her eyes. At once +she threw out her hand towards him, waving him +a greeting--a gesture which, as her fingers had been +near her lips, was a little like throwing a kiss. He +crooked an elbow and with a one-two-three military +movement removed his small-brimmed hat, extended +it to full arm's-length at the shoulder-level, +returned it to his head with Life-Guard precision. +This was also new to Canaan. He was letting +Mamie Pike have it all at once. + +The impression was as large as he could have +desired. She remained at the opening in the +canvas and watched him until he wagged his shoulders +round the next corner and disappeared into a cross +street. As for Eugene, he was calm with a great +calm, and very red. + +He had not covered a great distance, however, +before his gravity was replaced by his former +smiling look of the landed gentleman amused by the +innocent pastimes of the peasants, though there +was no one in sight except a woman sweeping some +snow from the front steps of a cottage, and she, +not perceiving him, retired in-doors without knowing +her loss. He had come to a thinly built part +of the town, the perfect quiet of which made the +sound he heard as he opened the picket gate of +his own home all the more startling. It was a +scream--loud, frantic, and terror-stricken. + +Eugene stopped, with the gate half open. + +Out of the winter skeleton of a grape-arbor at +one side of the four-square brick house a brown- +faced girl of seventeen precipitated herself through +the air in the midst of a shower of torn card-board +which she threw before her as she leaped. She lit +upon her toes and headed for the gate at top speed, +pursued by a pale young man whose thin arms +strove spasmodically to reach her. Scattering +snow behind them, hair flying, the pair sped on +like two tattered branches before a high wind; for, +as they came nearer Eugene (of whom, in the +tensity of their flight, they took no note), it was +to be seen that both were so shabbily dressed as +to be almost ragged. There was a brown patch +upon the girl's faded skirt at the knee; the shortness +of the garment indicating its age to be something +over three years, as well as permitting the +knowledge to become more general than befitting +that her cotton stockings had been clumsily darned +in several places. Her pursuer was in as evil case; +his trousers displayed a tendency to fringedness at +pocket and heel; his coat, blowing open as he ran, +threw pennants of torn lining to the breeze, and +made it too plain that there were but three buttons +on his waistcoat. + +The girl ran beautifully, but a fleeter foot was +behind her, and though she dodged and evaded +like a creature of the woods, the reaching hand +fell upon the loose sleeve of her red blouse, nor fell +lightly. She gave a wrench of frenzy; the antique +fabric refused the strain; parted at the shoulder +seam so thoroughly that the whole sleeve came +away--but not to its owner's release, for she had +been brought round by the jerk, so that, agile as +she had shown herself, the pursuer threw an arm +about her neck, before she could twist away, and +held her. + +There was a sharp struggle, as short as it was +fierce. Neither of these extraordinary wrestlers +spoke. They fought. Victory hung in the balance +for perhaps four seconds; then the girl was +thrown heavily upon her back, in such a turmoil +of snow that she seemed to be the mere nucleus of a +white comet. She struggled to get up, plying knee +and elbow with a very anguish of determination; +but her opponent held her, pinioned both her +wrists with one hand, and with the other rubbed +great handfuls of snow into her face, sparing +neither mouth nor eyes. + +"You will!" he cried. "You will tear up my +pictures! A dirty trick, and you get washed for +it!" + +Half suffocated, choking, gasping, she still +fought on, squirming and kicking with such spirit +that the pair of them appeared to the beholder +like figures of mist writhing in a fountain of snow. + +More violence was to mar the peace of morning. +Unexpectedly attacked from the rear, the +conqueror was seized by the nape of the neck and one +wrist, and jerked to his feet, simultaneously +receiving a succession of kicks from his assailant. +Prompted by an entirely natural curiosity, he +essayed to turn his head to see who this might be, +but a twist of his forearm and the pressure of strong +fingers under his ear constrained him to remain +as he was; therefore, abandoning resistance, and, +oddly enough, accepting without comment the +indication that his captor desired to remain for +the moment incognito, he resorted calmly to +explanations. + +"She tore up a picture of mine," he said, +receiving the punishment without apparent emotion. +"She seemed to think because she'd drawn it herself +she had a right to." + +There was a slight whimsical droop at the corner +of his mouth as he spoke, which might have been +thought characteristic of him. He was an odd- +looking boy, not ill-made, though very thin and +not tall. His pallor was clear and even, as though +constitutional; the features were delicate, almost +childlike, but they were very slightly distorted, +through nervous habit, to an expression at once +wistful and humorous; one eyebrow was a shade +higher than the other, one side of the mouth slightly +drawn down; the eyelids twitched a little, habitually; +the fine, blue eyes themselves were almost +comically reproachful--the look of a puppy who +thinks you would not have beaten him if you had +known what was in his heart. All of this was in +the quality of his voice, too, as he said to his +invisible captor, with an air of detachment from any +personal feeling: + +"What peculiar shoes you wear! I don't think +I ever felt any so pointed before." + +The rescuing knight took no thought of offering to +help the persecuted damsel to arise; instead, he +tightened his grip upon the prisoner's neck until, +perforce, water--not tears--started from the latter's eyes. + +"You miserable little muff," said the conqueror, +"what the devil do you mean, making this scene +on our front lawn?" + +"Why, it's Eugene!" exclaimed the helpless one. +"They didn't expect you till to-night. When did +you get in?" + +"Just in time to give you a lesson, my buck," +replied Bantry, grimly. "In GOOD time for that, +my playful step-brother." + +He began to twist the other's wrist--a treatment +of bone and ligament in the application of which +school-boys and even freshmen are often adept. +Eugene made the torture acute, and was apparently +enjoying the work, when suddenly--without any +manner of warning--he received an astounding +blow upon the left ear, which half stunned him +for the moment, and sent his hat flying and himself +reeling, so great was the surprise and shock of it. +It was not a slap, not an open-handed push, nothing +like it, but a fierce, well-delivered blow from a +clinched fist with the shoulder behind it, and it +was the girl who had given it. + +"Don't you dare to touch Joe!" she cried, +passionately. "Don't you lay a finger on him." + +Furious and red, he staggered round to look at +her. + +"You wretched little wild-cat, what do you mean +by that?" he broke out. + +"Don't you touch Joe!" she panted. "Don't +you--" Her breath caught and there was a break +in her voice as she faced him. She could not finish +the repetition of that cry, "Don't you touch Joe!" + +But there was no break in the spirit, that passion +of protection which had dealt the blow. Both boys +looked at her, something aghast. + +She stood before them, trembling with rage and +shivering with cold in the sudden wind which had +come up. Her hair had fallen and blew across +her streaming face in brown witch-wisps; one of +the ill-darned stockings had come down and hung +about her shoe in folds full of snow; the arm which +had lost its sleeve was bare and wet; thin as the +arm of a growing boy, it shook convulsively, and +was red from shoulder to clinched fist. She was +covered with snow. Mists of white drift blew +across her, mercifully half veiling her. + +Eugene recovered himself. He swung round +upon his heel, restored his hat to his head with +precision, picked up his stick and touched his +banjo-case with it. + +"Carry that into the house," he said, indifferently, +to his step-brother. + +"Don't you do it!" said the girl, hotly, between +her chattering teeth. + +Eugene turned towards her, wearing the sharp +edge of a smile. Not removing his eyes from her +face, he produced with deliberation a flat silver +box from a pocket, took therefrom a cigarette, +replaced the box, extracted a smaller silver box from +another pocket, shook out of it a fusee, slowly lit +the cigarette--this in a splendid silence, which he +finally broke to say, languidly, but with particular +distinctness: + +"Ariel Tabor, go home!" + +The girl's teeth stopped chattering, her lips +remaining parted; she shook the hair out of her eyes +and stared at him as if she did not understand, but +Joe Louden, who had picked up the banjo-case +obediently, burst into cheerful laughter. + +"That's it, 'Gene," he cried, gayly. "That's the +way to talk to her!" + +"Stow it, you young cub," replied Eugene, not +turning to him. "Do you think I'm trying to be +amusing?" + +"I don't know what you mean by `stow it,' " Joe +began, "but if--" + +"I mean," interrupted the other, not relaxing +his faintly smiling stare at the girl--"I mean that +Ariel Tabor is to go home. Really, we can't have +this kind of thing occurring upon our front lawn!" + +The flush upon her wet cheeks deepened and +became dark; even her arm grew redder as she gazed +back at him. In his eyes was patent his complete +realization of the figure she cut, of this bare arm, +of the strewn hair, of the fallen stocking, of the +ragged shoulder of her blouse, of her patched short +skirt, of the whole dishevelled little figure. He +was the master of the house, and he was sending +her home as ill-behaved children are sent home by +neighbors. + +The immobile, amused superiority of this +proprietor of silver boxes, this wearer of strange and +brilliant garments, became slightly intensified as +he pointed to the fallen sleeve, a rag of red and +snow, lying near her feet. + +"You might take that with you?" he said, +interrogatively. + +Her gaze had not wavered in meeting his, but +at this her eyelashes began to wink uncontrollably, +her chin to tremble. She bent over the sleeve and +picked it up, before Joe Louden, who had started +towards her, could do it for her. Then turning, +her head still bent so that her face was hidden +from both of them, she ran out of the gate. + +"DO go!" Joe called after her, vehemently. "Go! +Just to show what a fool you are to think 'Gene's +in earnest." + +He would have followed, but his step-brother +caught him by the arm. "Don't stop her," said +Eugene. "Can't you tell when I AM in earnest, +you bally muff!" + +"I know you are," returned the other, in a low +voice. "I didn't want her to think so for your +sake." + +"Thousands of thanks," said Eugene, airily. +"You are a wise young judge. She couldn't stay-- +in THAT state, could she? I sent her for her own +good." + +"She could have gone in the house and your +mother might have loaned her a jacket," returned +Joe, swallowing. "You had no business to make +her go out in the street like that." + +Eugene laughed. "There isn't a soul in sight +--and there, she's all right now. She's home." + +Ariel had run along the fence until she came to +the next gate, which opened upon a walk leading +to a shabby, meandering old house of one story, +with a very long, low porch, once painted white, +running the full length of the front. Ariel sprang +upon the porch and disappeared within the house. + +Joe stood looking after her, his eyelashes winking +as had hers. "You oughtn't to have treated +her that way," he said, huskily. + +Eugene laughed again. "How were YOU treating +her when I came up? You bully her all you +want to yourself, but nobody else must say even +a fatherly word to her!" + +"That wasn't bullying," explained Joe. "We +fight all the time." + +"Mais oui!" assented Eugene. "I fancy!" + +"What?" said the other, blankly. + +"Pick up that banjo-case again and come on," +commanded Mr. Bantry, tartly. "Where's the +mater?" + +Joe stared at him. "Where's what?" + +"The mater!" was the frowning reply. + +"Oh yes, I know!" said Joe, looking at his step- +brother curiously. "I've seen it in stories. She's +up-stairs. You'll be a surprise. You're wearing +lots of clothes, 'Gene." + +"I suppose it will seem so to Canaan," returned +the other, weariedly. "Governor feeling fit?" + +"I never saw him," Joe replied; then caught +himself. "Oh, I see what you mean! Yes, he's +all right." + +They had come into the hall, and Eugene was +removing the long coat, while his step-brother looked +at him thoughtfully. + +"'Gene," asked the latter, in a softened voice, +"have you seen Mamie Pike yet?" + +"You will find, my young friend," responded +Mr. Bantry, "if you ever go about much outside +of Canaan, that ladies' names are not supposed +to be mentioned indiscriminately." + +"It's only," said Joe, "that I wanted to say that +there's a dance at their house to-night. I suppose +you'll be going?" + +"Certainly. Are you?" + +Both knew that the question was needless; but +Joe answered, gently: + +"Oh no, of course not." He leaned over and +fumbled with one foot as if to fasten a loose shoe- +string. "She wouldn't be very likely to ask me." + +"Well, what about it?" + +"Only that--that Arie Tabor's going." + +"Indeed!" Eugene paused on the stairs, which +he had begun to ascend. "Very interesting." + +"I thought," continued Joe, hopefully, straightening +up to look at him, "that maybe you'd dance +with her. I don't believe many will ask her--I'm +afraid they won't--and if you would, even only +once, it would kind of make up for"--he faltered +--"for out there," he finished, nodding his head +in the direction of the gate. + +If Eugene vouchsafed any reply, it was lost in +a loud, shrill cry from above, as a small, intensely +nervous-looking woman in blue silk ran half-way +down the stairs to meet him and caught him +tearfully in her arms. + +"Dear old mater!" said Eugene. + +Joe went out of the front-door quickly. + + + +III + +OLD HOPES + +The door which Ariel had entered +opened upon a narrow hall, and +down this she ran to her own room, +passing, with face averted, the entrance +to the broad, low-ceilinged +chamber that had served Roger Tabor as a studio +for almost fifty years. He was sitting there now, +in a hopeless and disconsolate attitude, with his +back towards the double doors, which were open, +and had been open since their hinges had begun +to give way, when Ariel was a child. Hearing her +step, he called her name, but did not turn; and, +receiving no answer, sighed faintly as he heard her +own door close upon her. + +Then, as his eyes wandered about the many +canvases which leaned against the dingy walls, he +sighed again. Usually they showed their brown +backs, but to-day he had turned them all to face +outward. Twilight, sunset, moonlight (the Courthouse +in moonlight), dawn, morning, noon (Main +Street at noon), high summer, first spring, red +autumn, midwinter, all were there--illimitably +detailed, worked to a smoothness like a glaze, and +all lovingly done with unthinkable labor. + +And there were "Italian Flower-Sellers," +damsels with careful hair, two figures together, one +blonde, the other as brunette as lampblack, the +blonde--in pink satin and blue slippers--leaning +against a pillar and smiling over the golden coins +for which she had exchanged her posies; the brunette +seated at her feet, weeping upon an unsold +bouquet. There were red-sashed "Fisher Lads" +wading with butterfly-nets on their shoulders; +there was a "Tying the Ribbon on Pussy's Neck"; +there were portraits in oil and petrifactions in +crayon, as hard and tight as the purses of those +who had refused to accept them, leaving them +upon their maker's hands because the likeness had +failed. + +After a time the old man got up, went to his +easel near a window, and, sighing again, began +patiently to work upon one of these failures--a +portrait, in oil, of a savage old lady, which he was +doing from a photograph. The expression of the +mouth and the shape of the nose had not pleased +her descendants and the beneficiaries under the +will, and it was upon the images of these features +that Roger labored. He leaned far forward, with +his face close to the canvas, holding his brushes +after the Spencerian fashion, working steadily +through the afternoon, and, when the light grew +dimmer, leaning closer to his canvas to see. When +it had become almost dark in the room, he lit a +student-lamp with a green-glass shade, and, placing +it upon a table beside him, continued to paint. +Ariel's voice interrupted him at last. + +"It's quitting-time, grandfather," she called, +gently, from the doorway behind him. + +He sank back in his chair, conscious, for the +first time, of how tired he had grown. "I suppose +so," he said, "though it seemed to me that +I was just getting my hand in." His eyes brightened +for a moment. "I declare, I believe I've +caught it a great deal better. Come and look, +Ariel. Doesn't it seem to you that I'm getting +it? Those pearly shadows in the flesh--" + +"I'm sure of it. Those people ought to be very +proud to have it." She came to him quietly, took +the palette and brushes from his hands and began +to clean them, standing in the shadow behind him. +"It's too good for them." + +"I wonder if it is," he said, slowly, leaning +forward and curving his hands about his eyes so as +to shut off everything from his view except the +canvas. "I wonder if it is!" he repeated. Then +his hands dropped sadly in his lap, and he sank +back again with a patient kind of revulsion. "No, +no, it isn't! I always think they're good when +I've just finished them. I've been fooled that +way all my life. They don't look the same afterwards." + +"They're always beautiful," she said, softly. + +"Ah, ah!" he sighed. + +"Now, Roger!" she cried, with cheerful sharpness, +continuing her work. + +"I know," he said, with a plaintive laugh,--"I +know. Sometimes I think that all my reward +has been in the few minutes I've had just after +finishing them. During those few minutes I seem +to see in them all that I wanted to put in them; +I see it because what I've been trying to express +is still so warm in my own eyes that I seem to have +got it on the canvas where I wanted it." + +"But you do," she said. "You do get it there." + +"No," he murmured, in return. "I never did. +I got out some of the old ones when I came in this +morning, some that I hadn't looked at for years, and +it's the same with them. You can do it much +better yourself--your sketches show it." + +"No, no!" she protested, quickly. + +"Yes, they do; and I wondered if it was only +because you were young. But those I did when +I was young are almost the same as the ones I +paint now. I haven't learned much. There hasn't +been any one to show me! And you can't learn +from print, never! Yet I've grown in what I SEE-- +grown so that the world is full of beauty to me +that I never dreamed of seeing when I began. +But I can't paint it--I can't get it on the canvas. +Ah, I think I might have known how to, if I +hadn't had to teach myself, if I could only have +seen how some of the other fellows did their work. +If I'd ever saved money to get away from Canaan +--if I could have gone away from it and come +back knowing how to paint it--if I could have got +to Paris for just one month! PARIS--for just one +month!" + +"Perhaps we will; you can't tell what MAY happen." +It was always her reply to this cry of his. + +"PARIS--for just one month!" he repeated, with +infinite wistfulness, and then realizing what an +old, old cry it was with him, he shook his head, +impatiently sniffing out a laugh at himself, rose +and went pottering about among the canvases, +returning their faces to the wall, and railing at +them mutteringly. + +"Whatever took me into it, I don't know. I +might have done something useful. But I couldn't +bring myself ever to consider doing anything else-- +I couldn't bear even to think of it! Lord forgive +me, I even tried to encourage your father to paint. +Perhaps he might as well, poor boy, as to have put +all he'd made into buying Jonas out. Ah me! +There you go, `Flower-Girls'! Turn your silly +faces to the wall and smile and cry there till I'm +gone and somebody throws you on a bonfire. I'LL +never look at you again." He paused, with the +canvas half turned. "And yet," he went on, +reflectively, "a man promised me thirty-five dollars +for that picture once. I painted it to order, +but he went away before I finished it, and never +answered the letters I wrote him about it. I wish +I had the money now--perhaps we could have +more than two meals a day." + +"We don't need more," said Ariel, scraping the +palette attentively. "It's healthier with only +breakfast and supper. I think I'd rather have a +new dress than dinner." + +"I dare say you would," the old man mused. +"You're young--you're young. What were you +doing all this afternoon, child?" + +"In my room, trying to make over mamma's +wedding-dress for to-night." + +"To-night?" + +"Mamie Pike invited me to a dance at their +house." + +"Very well; I'm glad you're going to be gay," +he said, not seeing the faintly bitter smile that +came to her face. + +"I don't think I'll be very gay," she answered. + +"I don't know why I go--nobody ever asks me to +dance." + +"Why not?" he asked, with an old man's astonishment. + +"I don't know. Perhaps it's because I don't +dress very well." Then, as he made a sorrowful +gesture, she cut him off before he could speak. +"Oh, it isn't altogether because we're poor; it's +more I don't know how to wear what I've got, the +way some girls do. I never cared much and-- +well, I'M not worrying, Roger! And I think I've +done a good deal with mamma's dress. It's a very +grand dress. I wonder I never thought of wearing it +until to-day. I may be"--she laughed and blushed +--"I may be the belle of the ball--who knows!" + +"You'll want me to walk over with you and +come for you afterwards, I expect." + +"Only to take me. It may be late when I +come away--if a good many SHOULD ask me to +dance, for once! Of course I could come home +alone. But Joe Louden is going to sort of hang +around outside, and he'll meet me at the gate and +see me safe home." + +"Oh!" he exclaimed, blankly. + +"Isn't it all right?" she asked. + +"I think I'd better come for you," he answered, +gently. "The truth is, I--I think you'd better not +be with Joe Louden a great deal." + +"Why?" + +"Well, he doesn't seem a vicious boy to me, but +I'm afraid he's getting rather a bad name, my +dear." + +"He's not getting one," she said, gravely. "He's +already got one. He's had a bad name in Canaan +for a long while. It grew in the first place out of +shabbiness and mischief, but it did grow; and if +people keep on giving him a bad name the time +will come when he'll live up to it. He's not any +worse than I am, and I guess my own name isn't +too good--for a girl. And yet, so far, there's nothing +against him except his bad name." + +"I'm afraid there is," said Roger. "It doesn't +look very well for a young man of his age to be +doing no better than delivering papers." + +"It gives him time to study law," she answered, +quickly. "If he clerked all day in a store, he +couldn't." + +"I didn't know he was studying now. I thought +I'd heard that he was in a lawyer's office for a few +weeks last year, and was turned out for setting fire +to it with a pipe--" + +"It was an accident," she interposed. + +"But some pretty important papers were burned, +and after that none of the other lawyers would +have him." + +"He's not in an office," she admitted. "I didn't +mean that. But he studies a great deal. He +goes to the courts all the time they're in session, +and he's bought some books of his own." + +"Well--perhaps," he assented; "but they say +he gambles and drinks, and that last week Judge +Pike threatened to have him arrested for throwing +dice with some negroes behind the Judge's stable." + +"What of it? I'm about the only nice person in +town that will have anything to do with him-- +and nobody except you thinks I'M very nice!" + +"Ariel! Ariel!" + +"I know all about his gambling with darkies," +she continued, excitedly, her voice rising, "and I +know that he goes to saloons, and that he's an +intimate friend of half the riffraff in town; and I know +the reason for it, too, because he's told me. He +wants to know them, to understand them; and he +says some day they'll make him a power, and then +he can help them!" + +The old man laughed helplessly. "But I can't +let him bring you home, my dear." + +She came to him slowly and laid her hands upon +his shoulders. Grandfather and granddaughter +were nearly of the same height, and she looked +squarely into his eyes. "Then you must say it is +because you want to come for me, not because I +mustn't come with Joe." + +"But I think it is a little because you mustn't +come with Joe," he answered, "especially from +the Pikes'. Don't you see that it mightn't be +well for Joe himself, if the Judge should happen to +see him? I understand he warned the boy to keep +away from the neighborhood entirely or he would +have him locked up for dice-throwing. The Judge +is a very influential man, you know, and as +determined in matters like this as he is irritable." + +"Oh, if you put it on that ground," the girl +replied, her eyes softening, "I think you'd better +come for me yourself." + +"Very well, I put it on that ground," he +returned, smiling upon her. + +"Then I'll send Joe word and get supper," she +said, kissing him. + +It was the supper-hour not only for them but +everywhere in Canaan, and the cold air of the +streets bore up and down and around corners the +smell of things frying. The dining-room windows +of all the houses threw bright patches on the snow +of the side-yards; the windows of other rooms, +except those of the kitchens, were dark, for the +rule of the place was Puritanical in thrift, as in all +things; and the good housekeepers disputed every +record of the meters with unhappy gas-collectors. + +There was no better housekeeper in town than +Mrs. Louden, nor a thriftier, but hers was one of +the few houses in Canaan, that evening, which +showed bright lights in the front rooms while the +family were at supper. It was proof of the agitation +caused by the arrival of Eugene that she forgot +to turn out the gas in her parlor, and in the +chamber she called a library, on her way to the +evening meal. + +That might not have been thought a cheerful +feast for Joe Louden. The fatted calf was upon the +board, but it had not been provided for the prodigal, +who, in this case, was the brother that stayed at +home: the fete rewarded the good brother, who had +been in strange lands, and the good one had found +much honor in his wanderings, as he carelessly let +it appear. Mrs. Louden brightened inexpressibly +whenever Eugene spoke of himself, and consequently +she glowed most of the time. Her husband-- +a heavy, melancholy, silent man with a grizzled +beard and no mustache--lowered at Joe throughout +the meal, but appeared to take a strange comfort +in his step-son's elegance and polish. Eugene +wore new evening clothes and was lustrous to eye +and ear. + +Joe escaped as soon as he could, though not +before the count of his later sins had been set before +Eugene in detail, in mass, and in all of their depth, +breadth, and thickness. His father spoke but +once, after nodding heavily to confirm all points of +Mrs. Louden's recital. + +"You better use any influence you've got with +your brother," he said to Eugene, "to make him +come to time. I can't do anything with him. If +he gets in trouble, he needn't come to me! I'll +never help him again. I'm TIRED of it!" + +Eugene glanced twinklingly at the outcast. "I +didn't know he was such a roarer as all that!" he +said, lightly, not taking Joe as of enough consequence +to be treated as a sinner. + +This encouraged Mrs. Louden to pathos upon +the subject of her shame before other women +when Joe happened to be mentioned, and the supper +was finished with the topic. Joe slipped away +through the kitchen, sneakingly, and climbed the +back fence. In the alley he lit a cheap cigarette, +and thrusting his hands into his pockets and shivering +violently--for he had no overcoat,--walked +away singing to himself, "A Spanish cavalier +stood in his retreat," his teeth affording an +appropriate though involuntary castanet accompaniment. + +His movements throughout the earlier part of +that evening are of uncertain report. It is known +that he made a partial payment of forty-five cents +at a second-hand book-store for a number of volumes-- +Grindstaff on Torts and some others--which +he had negotiated on the instalment system; it is +also believed that he won twenty-eight cents +playing seven-up in the little room behind Louie Farbach's +bar; but these things are of little import +compared to the established fact that at eleven +o'clock he was one of the ball guests at the Pike +Mansion. He took no active part in the festivities, +nor was he one of the dancers: his was, on the +contrary, the role of a quiet observer. He lay stretched +at full length upon the floor of the enclosed +porch (one of the strips of canvas was later found +to have been loosened), wedged between the outer +railing and a row of palms in green tubs. The +position he occupied was somewhat too draughty +to have been recommended by a physician, but he +commanded, between the leaves of the screening +palms, an excellent view of the room nearest the +porch. A long window, open, afforded communication +between this room, one of those used for +dancing, and the dim bower which had been made +of the veranda, whither flirtatious couples made +their way between the dances. + +It was not to play eavesdropper upon any of +these that the uninvited Joe had come. He was +not there to listen, and it is possible that, had the +curtains of other windows afforded him the chance +to behold the dance, he might not have risked the +dangers of his present position. He had not the +slightest interest in the whispered coquetries that +he heard; he watched only to catch now and then, +over the shoulders of the dancers, a fitful glimpse +of a pretty head that flitted across the window-- +the amber hair of Mamie Pike. He shivered in the +draughts; and the floor of the porch was cement, +painful to elbow and knee, the space where he lay +cramped and narrow; but the golden bubbles of +her hair, the shimmer of her dainty pink dress, +and the fluffy wave of her lace scarf as she crossed +and recrossed in a waltz, left him, apparently, in +no discontent. He watched with parted lips, his +pale cheeks reddening whenever those fair glimpses +were his. At last she came out to the veranda with +Eugene and sat upon a little divan, so close to Joe +that, daring wildly in the shadow, he reached out +a trembling hand and let his fingers rest upon the +end of her scarf, which had fallen from her shoulders +and touched the floor. She sat with her back +to him, as did Eugene. + +"You have changed, I think, since last summer," +he heard her say, reflectively. + +"For the worse, ma cherie?" Joe's expression +might have been worth seeing when Eugene said +"ma cherie," for it was known in the Louden +household that Mr. Bantry had failed to pass his +examination in the French language. + +"No," she answered. "But you have seen so +much and accomplished so much since then. You +have become so polished and so--" She paused, +and then continued, "But perhaps I'd better not +say it; you might be offended." + +"No. I want you to say it," he returned, +confidently, and his confidence was fully justified, for +she said: + +"Well, then, I mean that you have become so +thoroughly a man of the world. Now I've said it! +You ARE offended--aren't you?" + +"Not at all, not at all," replied Mr. Bantry, +preventing by a masterful effort his pleasure from +showing in his face. "Though I suppose you mean +to imply that I'm rather wicked." + +"Oh no," said Mamie, with profound admiration, +"not exactly wicked." + +"University life IS fast nowadays," Eugene +admitted. "It's difficult not to be drawn into it!" + +"And I suppose you look down on poor little +Canaan now, and everybody in it!" + +"Oh no," he laughed, indulgently. "Not at all, +not at all! I find it very amusing." + +"All of it?" + +"Not you," he answered, becoming very grave. + +"Honestly--DON'T you?" Her young voice trembled +a little. + +"Honestly--indeed--truly--" Eugene leaned +very close to her and the words were barely audible. + +"You KNOW I don't!" + +"Then I'm--glad," she whispered, and Joe saw +his step-brother touch her hand, but she rose quickly. +"There's the music," she cried, happily. "It's +a waltz, and it's YOURS!" + +Joe heard her little high heels tapping gayly +towards the window, followed by the heavier tread +of Eugene, but he did not watch them go. + +He lay on his back, with the hand that had +touched Mamie's scarf pressed across his closed +eyes. + +The music of that waltz was of the old-fashioned +swingingly sorrowful sort, and it would be hard to +say how long it was after that before the boy could +hear the air played without a recurrence of the +bitterness of that moment. The rhythmical pathos +of the violins was in such accord with a faint sound +of weeping which he heard near him, presently, +that for a little while he believed this sound to be +part of the music and part of himself. Then it +became more distinct, and he raised himself on one +elbow to look about. + +Very close to him, sitting upon the divan in the +shadow, was a girl wearing a dress of beautiful silk. +She was crying softly, her face in her hands. + + + +IV + +THE DISASTER + +Ariel had worked all the afternoon +over her mother's wedding-gown, +and two hours were required by her +toilet for the dance. She curled her +hair frizzily, burning it here and +there, with a slate-pencil heated over a lamp +chimney, and she placed above one ear three or +four large artificial roses, taken from an old hat +of her mother's, which she had found in a trunk +in the store-room. Possessing no slippers, she +carefully blacked and polished her shoes, which had +been clumsily resoled, and fastened into the strings +of each small rosettes of red ribbon; after which +she practised swinging the train of her skirt until +she was proud of her manipulation of it. She +had no powder, but found in her grandfather's +room a lump of magnesia, that he was in the habit +of taking for heart-burn, and passed it over and +over her brown face and hands. Then a lingering +gaze into her small mirror gave her joy at last: she +yearned so hard to see herself charming that she +did see herself so. Admiration came and she told +herself that she was more attractive to look at +than she had ever been in her life, and that, +perhaps, at last she might begin to be sought for like +other girls. The little glass showed a sort of +prettiness in her thin, unmatured young face; tripping +dance-tunes ran through her head, her feet keeping +the time,--ah, she did so hope to dance often +that night! Perhaps--perhaps she might be asked +for every number. And so, wrapping an old waterproof +cloak about her, she took her grandfather's +arm and sallied forth, high hopes in her beating +heart. + +It was in the dressing-room that the change began +to come. Alone, at home in her own ugly little +room, she had thought herself almost beautiful, +but here in the brightly lighted chamber crowded +with the other girls it was different. There was +a big cheval-glass at one end of the room, and she +faced it, when her turn came--for the mirror was +popular--with a sinking spirit. There was the +contrast, like a picture painted and framed. The +other girls all wore their hair after the fashion +introduced to Canaan by Mamie Pike the week before, +on her return from a visit to Chicago. None +of them had "crimped" and none had bedecked +their tresses with artificial flowers. Her alterations +of the wedding-dress had not been successful; the +skirt was too short in front and higher on one +side than on the other, showing too plainly the +heavy-soled shoes, which had lost most of their +polish in the walk through the snow. The ribbon +rosettes were fully revealed, and as she glanced at +their reflection she heard the words, "LOOK AT THAT +TRAIN AND THOSE ROSETTES!" whispered behind her, and +saw in the mirror two pretty young women turn +away with their handkerchiefs over their mouths +and retreat hurriedly to an alcove. All the feet +in the room except Ariel's were in dainty kid or +satin slippers of the color of the dresses from which +they glimmered out, and only Ariel wore a train. + +She went away from the mirror and pretended +to be busy with a hanging thread in her sleeve. + +She was singularly an alien in the chattering +room, although she had been born and lived all +her life in the town. Perhaps her position among +the young ladies may be best defined by the remark, +generally current among them, that evening, +to the effect that it was "very sweet of Mamie +to invite her." Ariel was not like the others; she +was not of them, and never had been. Indeed, she +did not know them very well. Some of them +nodded to her and gave her a word of greeting +pleasantly; all of them whispered about her with +wonder and suppressed amusement; but none +talked to her. They were not unkindly, but they +were young and eager and excited over their own +interests,--which were then in the "gentlemen's +dressing-room." + +Each of the other girls had been escorted by a +youth of the place, and, one by one, joining these +escorts in the hall outside the door, they descended +the stairs, until only Ariel was left. She came +down alone after the first dance had begun, and +greeted her young hostess's mother timidly. Mrs. +Pike--a small, frightened-looking woman with a +prominent ruby necklace--answered her absently, +and hurried away to see that the imported waiters +did not steal anything. + +Ariel sat in one of the chairs against the wall +and watched the dancers with a smile of eager and +benevolent interest. In Canaan no parents, no +guardians nor aunts, were haled forth o' nights to +duenna the junketings of youth; Mrs. Pike did not +reappear, and Ariel sat conspicuously alone; there +was nothing else for her to do. It was not an +easy matter. + +When the first dance reached an end, Mamie +Pike came to her for a moment with a cheery welcome, +and was immediately surrounded by a circle +of young men and women, flushed with dancing, +shouting as was their wont, laughing inexplicably +over words and phrases and unintelligible mono- +syllables, as if they all belonged to a secret society +and these cries were symbols of things exquisitely +humorous, which only they understood. Ariel +laughed with them more heartily than any other, +so that she might seem to be of them and as merry +as they were, but almost immediately she found +herself outside of the circle, and presently they all +whirled away into another dance, and she was left +alone again. + +So she sat, no one coming near her, through +several dances, trying to maintain the smile of +delighted interest upon her face, though she felt +the muscles of her face beginning to ache with their +fixedness, her eyes growing hot and glazed. All the +other girls were provided with partners for every +dance, with several young men left over, these latter +lounging hilariously together in the doorways. +Ariel was careful not to glance towards them, but +she could not help hating them. Once or twice +between the dances she saw Miss Pike speak appealingly +to one of the superfluous, glancing, at the +same time, in her own direction, and Ariel could +see, too, that the appeal proved unsuccessful, until +at last Mamie approached her, leading Norbert +Flitcroft, partly by the hand, partly by will-power. +Norbert was an excessively fat boy, and at the +present moment looked as patient as the blind. +But he asked Ariel if she was "engaged for the next +dance," and, Mamie having flitted away, stood +disconsolately beside her, waiting for the music to +begin. Ariel was grateful for him. + +"I think you must be very good-natured, Mr. +Flitcroft," she said, with an air of raillery. + +"No, I'm not," he replied, plaintively. "Everybody +thinks I am because I'm fat, and they expect +me to do things they never dream of asking +anybody else to do. I'd like to see 'em even ASK +'Gene Bantry to go and do some of the things they +get me to do! A person isn't good-natured just +because he's fat," he concluded, morbidly, "but +he might as well be!" + +"Oh, I meant good-natured," she returned, with +a sprightly laugh, "because you're willing to waltz +with me." + +"Oh, well," he returned, sighing, "that's all +right." + +The orchestra flourished into "La Paloma"; he +put his arm mournfully about her, and taking her +right hand with his left, carried her arm out to a +rigid right angle, beginning to pump and balance +for time. They made three false starts and then +got away. Ariel danced badly; she hopped and +lost the step, but they persevered, bumping against +other couples continually. Circling breathlessly +into the next room, they passed close to a long +mirror, in which Ariel saw herself, although in a +flash, more bitterly contrasted to the others than +in the cheval-glass of the dressing-room. The +clump of roses was flopping about her neck, her +crimped hair looked frowzy, and there was something +terribly wrong about her dress. Suddenly +she felt her train to be ominously grotesque, as a +thing following her in a nightmare. + +A moment later she caught her partner making a +burlesque face of suffering over her shoulder, and, +turning her head quickly, saw for whose benefit +he had constructed it. Eugene Bantry, flying +expertly by with Mamie, was bestowing upon Mr. +Flitcroft a condescendingly commiserative wink. +The next instant she tripped in her train and fell to +the floor at Eugene's feet, carrying her partner +with her. + +There was a shout of laughter. The young +hostess stopped Eugene, who would have gone on, +and he had no choice but to stoop to Ariel's assistance. + +"It seems to be a habit of mine," she said, +laughing loudly. + +She did not appear to see the hand he offered, +but got to her feet without help and walked quickly +away with Norbert, who proceeded to live up to the +character he had given himself. + +"Perhaps we had better not try it again," she +laughed. + +"Well, I should think not," he returned, with the +frankest gloom. With the air of conducting her +home he took her to the chair against the wall +whence he had brought her. There his responsibility +for her seemed to cease. "Will you excuse +me?" he asked, and there was no doubt that he +felt that he had been given more than his share +that evening, even though he was fat. + +"Yes, indeed." Her laughter was continuous. +"I should think you WOULD be glad to get rid of me +after that. Ha, ha, ha! Poor Mr. Flitcroft, you +know you are!" + +It was the deadly truth, and the fat one, saying, +"Well, if you'll just excuse me now," hurried +away with a step which grew lighter as the distance +from her increased. Arrived at the haven of a far +doorway, he mopped his brow and shook his head +grimly in response to frequent rallyings. + +Ariel sat through more dances, interminable +dances and intermissions, in that same chair, in +which, it began to seem, she was to live out the rest +of her life. Now and then, if she thought people +were looking at her as they passed, she broke into a +laugh and nodded slightly, as if still amused over +her mishap. + +After a long time she rose, and laughing cheerfully +to Mr. Flitcroft, who was standing in the +doorway and replied with a wan smile, stepped +out quickly into the hall, where she almost ran +into her great-uncle, Jonas Tabor. He was going +towards the big front doors with Judge Pike, having +just come out of the latter's library, down the +hall. + +Jonas was breathing heavily and was shockingly +pale, though his eyes were very bright. He turned +his back upon his grandniece sharply and went out +of the door. Ariel turned from him quite as abruptly +and re-entered the room whence she had come. +She laughed again to her fat friend as she passed +him, and, still laughing, went towards the fatal +chair, when her eyes caught sight of Eugene Bantry +and Mamie coming in through the window from +the porch. Still laughing, she went to the window +and looked out; the porch seemed deserted and +was faintly illuminated by a few Japanese lanterns. +She sprang out, dropped upon the divan, and burying +her face in her hands, cried heart-brokenly. +Presently she felt something alive touch her foot, +and, her breath catching with alarm, she started +to rise. A thin hand, issuing from a shabby sleeve, +had stolen out between two of the green tubs and +was pressing upon one of her shoes. + +"'SH!" said Joe. "Don't make a noise!" + +His warning was not needed; she had recognized +the hand and sleeve instantly. She dropped back +with a low sound which would have been hysterical +if it had been louder, while he raised himself on +his arm until she could see his face dimly, as he +peered at her between the palms. + +"What were you going on about?" he asked, +angrily. + +"Nothing," she answered. "I wasn't. You +must go away, and quick. It's too dangerous. If +the Judge found you--" + +"He won't!" + +"Ah, you'd risk anything to see Mamie Pike--" + +"What were you crying about?" he interrupted. + +"Nothing, I tell you!" she repeated, the tears +not ceasing to gather in her eyes. "I wasn't." + +"I want to know what it was," he insisted. +"Didn't the fools ask you to dance? Ah! You +needn't tell me. That's it. I've been here for +the last three dances and you weren't in sight till +you came to the window. Well, what do you care +about that for?" + +"I don't!" she answered. "I don't!" Then +suddenly, without being able to prevent it, she +sobbed. + +"No," he said, gently, "I see you don't. And +you let yourself be a fool because there are a lot +of fools in there." + +She gave way, all at once, to a gust of sorrow +and bitterness; she bent far over and caught his +hand and laid it against her wet cheek. "Oh, +Joe," she whispered, brokenly, "I think we have +such hard lives, you and I! It doesn't seem right +--while we're so young! Why can't we be like +the others? Why can't we have some of the fun?" + +He withdrew his hand, with the embarrassment +and shame he would have felt had she been a boy. +"Get out!" he said, feebly. + +She did not seem to notice, but, still stooping, +rested her elbows on her knees and her face in her +hands. "I try so hard to have fun, to be like the +rest,--and it's always a mistake, always, always, +always!" She rocked herself, slightly, from side +to side. "I am a fool, it's the truth, or I wouldn't +have come to-night. I want to be attractive--I +want to be in things. I want to laugh like they +do--" + +"To laugh just to laugh, and not because there's +something funny?" + +"Yes, I do, I do! And to know how to dress +and to wear my hair--there must be some place +where you can learn those things. I've never had +any one to show me! Ah! Grandfather said +something like that this afternoon--poor man! +We're in the same case. If we only had some one +to show us! It all seems so BLIND, here in Canaan, +for him and me! I don't say it's not my own +fault as much as being poor. I've been a hoyden; +I don't feel as if I'd learned how to be a girl yet, +Joe. It's only lately I've cared, but I'm seventeen, +Joe, and--and to-day--to-day--I was sent +home--and to-night--" She faltered, came to a +stop, and her whole body was shaken with sobs. +"I hate myself so for crying--for everything!" + +"I'll tell you something," he whispered, +chuckling desperately. "'Gene made me unpack his trunk, +and I don't believe he's as great a man at college as +he is here. I opened one of his books, and some +one had written in it, `Prigamaloo Bantry, the Class +Try-To-Be'! He'd never noticed, and you ought +to have heard him go on! You'd have just died, +Ariel--I almost bust wide open! It was a mean +trick in me, but I couldn't help showing it to him." + +Joe's object was obtained. She stopped crying, +and, wiping her eyes, smiled faintly. Then she +became grave. "You're jealous of Eugene," she +said. + +He considered this for a moment. "Yes," he +answered, thoughtfully, "I am. But I wouldn't +think about him differently on that account. And +I wouldn't talk about him to any one but you." + +"Not even to--" She left the question unfinished. + +"No," he said, quietly. "Of course not." + +"No? Because it wouldn't be any use?" + +"I don't know. I never have a chance to talk +to her, anyway." + +"Of course you don't!" Her voice had grown +steady. "You say I'm a fool. What are you?" + +"You needn't worry about me," he began. "I +can take care--" + +"'SH!" she whispered, warningly. The music +had stopped, a loud clatter of voices and laughter +succeeding it. + +"What need to be careful," Joe assured her, +"with all that noise going on?" + +"You must go away," she said, anxiously. "Oh, +please, Joe!" + +"Not yet; I want--" + +She coughed loudly. Eugene and Mamie Pike +had come to the window, with the evident intention +of occupying the veranda, but perceiving Ariel +engaged with threads in her sleeve, they turned away +and disappeared. Other couples looked out from +time to time, and finding the solitary figure in +possession, retreated abruptly to seek stairways and +remote corners for the things they were impelled +to say. + +And so Ariel held the porch for three dances and +three intermissions, occupying a great part of the +time with entreaties that her obdurate and reckless +companion should go. When, for the fourth +time, the music sounded, her agitation had so +increased that she was visibly trembling. "I +can't stand it, Joe," she said, bending over him. + +"I don't know what would happen if they found +you. You've GOT to go!" + +"No, I haven't," he chuckled. "They haven't +even distributed the supper yet!" + +"And you take all the chances," she said, slowly, +"just to see her pass that window a few times." + +"What chances?" + +"Of what the Judge will do if any one sees +you." + +"Nothing; because if any one saw me I'd leave." + +"Please go." + +"Not till--" + +"'SH!" + +A colored waiter, smiling graciously, came out +upon the porch bearing a tray of salad, hot oysters, +and coffee. Ariel shook her head. + +"I don't want any," she murmured. + +The waiter turned away in pity and was re- +entering the window, when a passionate whisper +fell upon his ear as well as upon Ariel's. + +"TAKE IT!" + +"Ma'am?" said the waiter. + +"I've changed my mind," she replied, quickly. +The waiter, his elation restored, gave of his viands +with the superfluous bounty loved by his race when +distributing the product of the wealthy. + +When he had gone, "Give me everything that's +hot," said Joe. "You can keep the salad." + +"I couldn't eat it or anything else," she +answered, thrusting the plate between the palms. + +For a time there was silence. From within the +house came the continuous babble of voices and +laughter, the clink of cutlery on china. The young +people spent a long time over their supper. By- +and-by the waiter returned to the veranda, +deposited a plate of colored ices upon Ariel's knees +with a noble gesture, and departed. + +"No ice for me," said Joe. + +"Won't you please go now?" she entreated! + +"It wouldn't be good manners," he responded. +"They might think I only came for supper--" + +"Hand me back the things. The waiter might +come for them any minute." + +"Not yet. I haven't quite finished. I eat with +contemplation, Ariel, because there's more than +the mere food and the warmth of it to consider. +There's the pleasure of being entertained by the +great Martin Pike. Think what a real kindness +I'm doing him, too. I increase his good deeds and +his hospitality without his knowing it or being +able to help it. Don't you see how I boost his +standing with the Recording Angel? If Lazarus +had behaved the way I do, Dives needn't have +had those worries that came to him in the after- +life." + +"Give me the dish and coffee-cup," she +whispered, impatiently. "Suppose the waiter came +and had to look for them? Quick!" + +"Take them, then. You'll see that jealousy +hasn't spoiled my appetite--" + +A bottle-shaped figure appeared in the window +and she had no time to take the plate and cup +which were being pushed through the palm-leaves. +She whispered a syllable of warning, and the dishes +were hurriedly withdrawn as Norbert Flitcroft, +wearing a solemn expression of injury, came out +upon the veranda. + +He halted suddenly. "What's that?" he asked, +with suspicion. + +"Nothing," answered Ariel, sharply. "Where?" + +"Behind those palms." + +"Probably your own shadow," she laughed; "or +it might have been a draught moving the leaves." + +He did not seem satisfied, but stared hard at +the spot where the dishes had disappeared, meantime +edging back cautiously nearer the window. + +"They want you," he said, after a pause. "Some +one's come for you." + +"Oh, is grandfather waiting?" She rose, at +the same time letting her handkerchief fall. She +stooped to pick it up, with her face away from +Norbert and towards the palms, whispering +tremulously, but with passionate urgency, "Please GO!" + +"It isn't your grandfather that has come for +you," said the fat one, slowly. "It is old Eskew +Arp. Something's happened." + +She looked at him for a moment, beginning to +tremble violently, her eyes growing wide with +fright. + +"Is my grandfather--is he sick?" + +"You better go and see. Old Eskew's waiting +in the hall. He'll tell you." + +She was by him and through the window instantly. +Norbert did not follow her; he remained +for several moments looking earnestly at the palms; +then he stepped through the window and beckoned +to a youth who was lounging in the doorway across +the room. + +"There's somebody hiding behind those plants," +he whispered, when his friend reached him. "Go +and tell Judge Pike to send some of the niggers +to watch outside the porch, so that he doesn't get +away. Then tell him to get his revolver and come +here." + +Meanwhile Ariel had found Mr. Arp waiting in +the hall, talking in a low voice to Mrs. Pike. + +"Your grandfather's all right," he told the +frightened girl, quickly. "He sent me for you, +that's all. Just hurry and get your things." + +She was with him again in a moment, and seizing +the old man's arm, hurried him down the steps and +toward the street almost at a run. + +"You're not telling me the truth," she said. +"You're not telling me the truth!" + +"Nothing has happened to Roger," panted Mr. +Arp. "Nothing to mind, I mean. Here! We're +going this way, not that." They had come to the +gate, and as she turned to the right he pulled her +round sharply to the left. "We're not going to +your house." + +"Where are we going?" + +"We're going to your uncle Jonas's." + +"Why?" she cried, in supreme astonishment. +"What do you want to take me there for? Don't +you know that he's stopped speaking to me?" + +"Yes," said the old man, grimly, with something +of the look he wore when delivering a clincher at +the "National House,"--"he's stopped speaking to +everybody." + + + +V + +BEAVER BEACH + +The Canaan Daily Tocsin of the following +morning "ventured the assertion" +upon its front page that +"the scene at the Pike Mansion was +one of unalloyed festivity, music, +and mirth; a fairy bower of airy figures wafting +here and there to the throb of waltz-strains; a +veritable Temple of Terpsichore, shining forth with +a myriad of lights, which, together with the generous +profusion of floral decorations and the mingled +delights afforded by Minds's orchestra of Indianapolis +and Caterer Jones of Chicago, was in all +likelihood never heretofore surpassed in elegance +in our city. . . . Only one incident," the Tocsin +remarked, "marred an otherwise perfect occasion, +and out of regard for the culprit's family connections, +which are prominent in our social world, we +withhold his name. Suffice it to say that through +the vigilance of Mr. Norbert Flitcroft, grandson of +Colonel A. A. Flitcroft, who proved himself a +thorough Lecoq (the celebrated French detective), the +rascal was seized and recognized. Mr. Flitcroft, +having discovered him in hiding, had a cordon of +waiters drawn up around his hiding-place, which +was the charmingly decorated side piazza of the +Pike Mansion, and sent for Judge Pike, who came +upon the intruder by surprise. He evaded the +Judge's indignant grasp, but received a well- +merited blow over the head from a poker which +the Judge had concealed about his person while +pretending to approach the hiding-place casually. +Attracted to the scene by the cries of Mr. Flitcroft, +who, standing behind Judge Pike, accidentally +received a blow from the same weapon, all the guests +of the evening sprang to view the scene, only to +behold the culprit leap through a crevice between +the strips of canvas which enclosed the piazza. +He was seized by the colored coachman of the +Mansion, Sam Warden, and immediately pounced upon +by the cordon of Caterer Jones's dusky assistants +from Chicago, who were in ambush outside. +Unfortunately, after a brief struggle he managed to +trip Warden, and, the others stumbling upon the +prostrate body of the latter, to make his escape +in the darkness. + +"It is not believed by many that his intention +was burglary, though what his designs were can +only be left to conjecture, as he is far beyond the +age when boys perform such actions out of a sense +of mischief. He had evidently occupied his hiding- +place some time, and an idea of his coolness +may be obtained from his having procured and +eaten a full meal through an unknown source. +Judge Pike is justly incensed, and swears that he +will prosecute him on this and other charges as soon +as he can be found. Much sympathy is felt for +the culprit's family, who feel his shame most +keenly, but who, though sorrowing over the occurrence, +declare that they have put up with his +derelictions long enough, and will do nothing to +step between him and the Judge's righteous indignation." + +The Pike Mansion, "scene of festivity, music, +and mirth" (not quite so unalloyed, after all, the +stricken Flitcroft keeping his room for a week under +medical supervision), had not been the only bower +of the dance in Canaan that evening: another +Temple of Terpsichore had shone forth with lights, +though of these there were not quite a myriad. +The festivities they illumined obtained no mention +in the paper, nor did they who trod the measures +in this second temple exhibit any sense of injury +because of the Tocsin's omission. Nay, they were +of that class, shy without being bashful, exclusive +yet not proud, which shuns publicity with a single- +heartedness almost unique in our republic, courting +observation neither in the prosecution of their +professions nor in the pursuit of happiness. + +Not quite a mile above the northernmost of the +factories on the water-front, there projected into +the river, near the end of the crescent bend above +the town, a long pier, relic of steamboat days, +rotting now, and many years fallen from its maritime +uses. About midway of its length stood a +huge, crazy shed, long ago utilized as a freight +storeroom. This had been patched and propped, and +a dangerous-looking veranda attached to it, over- +hanging the water. Above the doorway was +placed a sign whereon might be read the words, +"Beaver Beach, Mike's Place." The shore end +of the pier was so ruinous that passage was offered +by a single row of planks, which presented an +appearance so temporary, as well as insecure, that +one might have guessed their office to be something +in the nature of a drawbridge. From these a +narrow path ran through a marsh, left by the +receding river, to a country road of desolate +appearance. Here there was a rough enclosure, or +corral, with some tumble-down sheds which afforded +shelter, on the night of Joseph Louden's disgrace, +for a number of shaggy teams attached to those +decrepit and musty vehicles known picturesquely +and accurately as Night-Hawks. The presence of +such questionable shapes in the corral indicated +that the dance was on at Beaver Beach, Mike's +Place, as surely as the short line of cabs and family +carriages on upper Main Street made it known +that gayety was the order of the night at the Pike +Mansion. But among other differences was this, +that at the hour when the guests of the latter were +leaving, those seeking the hospitalities of Beaver +Beach had just begun to arrive. + +By three o'clock, however, joy at Mike's Place +had become beyond question unconfined, and the +tokens of it were audible for a long distance in all +directions. If, however, there is no sound where +no ear hears, silence rested upon the country-side +until an hour later. Then a lonely figure came +shivering from the direction of the town, not by +the road, but slinking through the snow upon the +frozen river. It came slowly, as though very +tired, and cautiously, too, often turning its head +to look behind. Finally it reached the pier, and +stopped as if to listen. + +Within the house above, a piano of evil life was +being beaten to death for its sins and clamoring +its last cries horribly. The old shed rattled in every +part with the thud of many heavy feet, and trembled +with the shock of noise--an incessant roar of +men's voices, punctuated with women's screams. +Then the riot quieted somewhat; there was a +clapping of hands, and a violin began to squeak +measures intended to be Oriental. The next +moment the listener scrambled up one of the +rotting piles and stood upon the veranda. A shaft +of red light through a broken shutter struck across +the figure above the shoulders, revealing a bloody +handkerchief clumsily knotted about the head, +and, beneath it, the face of Joe Louden. + +He went to the broken shutter and looked in. +Around the blackened walls of the room stood a +bleared mob, applausively watching, through a fog +of smoke, the contortions of an old woman in a +red calico wrapper, who was dancing in the centre +of the floor. The fiddler--a rubicund person +evidently not suffering from any great depression +of spirit through the circumstance of being "out +on bail," as he was, to Joe's intimate knowledge-- +sat astride a barrel, resting his instrument upon the +foamy tap thereof, and playing somewhat after +the manner of a 'cellist; in no wise incommoded +by the fact that a tall man (known to a few friends +as an expert in the porch-climbing line) was sleeping +on his shoulder, while another gentleman (who +had prevented many cases of typhoid by removing +old plumbing from houses) lay on the floor at the +musician's feet and endeavored to assist him by +plucking the strings of the fiddle. + +Joe opened the door and went in. All of the +merry company (who were able) turned sharply +toward the door as it opened; then, recognizing +the new-comer, turned again to watch the old +woman. One or two nearest the door asked the +boy, without great curiosity, what had happened +to his head. He merely shook it faintly in reply, +and crossed the room to an open hallway beyond. +At the end of this he came to a frowzy bedroom, +the door of which stood ajar. Seated at a deal +table, and working by a dim lamp with a broken +chimney, a close-cropped, red-bearded, red-haired +man in his shirt-sleeves was jabbing gloomily +at a column of figures scrawled in a dirty +ledger. He looked up as Joe appeared in the +doorway, and his eyes showed a slight surprise. + +"I never thought ye had the temper to git +somebody to split yer head," said he. "Where'd ye +collect it?" + +"Nowhere," Joe answered, dropping weakly on +the bed. "It doesn't amount to anything." + +"Well, I'll take just a look fer myself," said the +red-bearded man, rising. "And I've no objection +to not knowin' how ye come by it. Ye've always +been the great one fer keepin' yer mysteries to +yerself." + +He unwound the handkerchief and removed it +from Joe's head gently. "WHEE!" he cried, as a +long gash was exposed over the forehead. "I +hope ye left a mark somewhere to pay a little on +the score o' this!" + +Joe chuckled and dropped dizzily back upon the +pillow. "There was another who got something +like it," he gasped, feebly; "and, oh, Mike, I wish +you could have heard him going on! Perhaps +you did--it was only three miles from here." + +"Nothing I'd liked better!" said the other, +bringing a basin of clear water from a stand in +the corner. "It's a beautiful thing to hear a man +holler when he gits a grand one like ye're wearing +to-night." + +He bathed the wound gently, and hurrying from +the room, returned immediately with a small jug +of vinegar. Wetting a rag with this tender fluid, +he applied it to Joe's head, speaking soothingly +the while. + +"Nothing in the world like a bit o' good cider +vinegar to keep off the festerin'. It may seem a +trifle scratchy fer the moment, but it assassinates +the blood-p'ison. There ye go! It's the fine thing +fer ye, Joe--what are ye squirmin' about?" + +"I'm only enjoying it," the boy answered, writhing +as the vinegar worked into the gash. "Don't +you mind my laughing to myself." + +"Ye're a good one, Joe!" said the other, continuing +his ministrations. "I wisht, after all, ye +felt like makin' me known to what's the trouble. +There's some of us would be glad to take it up fer +ye, and--" + +"No, no; it's all right. I was somewhere I had +no business to be, and I got caught." + +"Who caught ye?" + +"First, some nice white people"--Joe smiled +his distorted smile--"and then a low-down black +man helped me to get away as soon as he saw who +it was. He's a friend of mine, and he fell down +and tripped up the pursuit." + +"I always knew ye'd git into large trouble some +day." The red-bearded man tore a strip from +an old towel and began to bandage the boy's head +with an accustomed hand. "Yer taste fer excitement +has been growin' on ye every minute of the +four years I've known ye." + +"Excitement!" echoed Joe, painfully blinking +at his friend. "Do you think I'm hunting excitement?" + +"Be hanged to ye!" said the red-bearded man. +"Can't I say a teasing word without gittin' called +to order fer it? I know ye, my boy, as well as ye +know yerself. Ye're a queer one. Ye're one of +the few that must know all sides of the world-- +and can't content themselves with bein' respectable! +Ye haven't sunk to `low life' because ye're +low yourself, but ye'll never git a damned one o' +the respectable to believe it. There's a few others +like ye in the wide world, and I've seen one or +two of 'em. I've been all over, steeple-chasin', +sailorman, soldier, pedler, and in the PO-lice; I've +pulled the Grand National in Paris, and I've been +handcuffed in Hong-Kong; I've seen all the few +kinds of women there is on earth and the many +kinds of men. Yer own kind is the one I've seen +the fewest of, but I knew ye belonged to it the +first time I laid eyes on ye!" He paused, then +continued with conviction: "Ye'll come to no +good, either, fer yerself, yet no one can say ye +haven't the talents. Ye've helped many of the +boys out of a bad hole with a word of advice +around the courts and the jail. Who knows but +ye'd be a great lawyer if ye kept on?" + +Young people usually like to discuss themselves +under any conditions--hence the rewards of palmistry,-- +but Joe's comment on this harangue was +not so responsive as might have been expected. +"I've got seven dollars," he said, "and I'll leave +the clothes I've got on. Can you fix me up with +something different?" + +"Aha!" cried the red-bearded man. "Then ye +ARE in trouble! I thought it 'd come to ye some +day! Have ye been dinnymitin' Martin Pike?" + +"See what you can do," said Joe. "I want to +wait here until daybreak." + +"Lie down, then," interrupted the other. "And +fergit the hullabaloo in the throne-room beyond." + +"I can easily do that"--Joe stretched himself +upon the bed,--"I've got so many other things +to remember." + +"I'll have the things fer ye, and I'll let ye know +I have no use fer seven dollars," returned the red- +bearded man, crossly. "What are ye sniffin' fer?" + +"I'm thinking of the poor fellow that got the +mate to this," said Joe, touching the bandage. +"I can't help crying when I think they may have +used vinegar on his head, too." + +"Git to sleep if ye can!" exclaimed the Samaritan, +as a hideous burst of noise came from the dance- +room, where some one seemed to be breaking a +chair upon an acquaintance. "I'll go out and +regulate the boys a bit." He turned down the +lamp, fumbled in his hip-pocket, and went to the +door. + +"Don't forget," Joe called after him. + +"Go to sleep," said the red-bearded man, his +hand on the door-knob. "That is, go to thinkin', +fer ye won't sleep; ye're not the kind. But think +easy; I'll have the things fer ye. It's a matter of +pride with me that I always knew ye'd come to +trouble." + + + +VI + +YE'LL TAK' THE HIGH ROAD AND I'LL TAK' THE +LOW ROAD + +The day broke with a scream of wind +out of the prairies and such cloudbursts +of snow that Joe could see +neither bank of the river as he made +his way down the big bend of ice. +The wind struck so bitterly that now and then +he stopped and, panting and gasping, leaned his +weight against it. The snow on the ground was +caught up and flew like sea spume in a hurricane; +it swirled about him, joining the flakes in the air, +so that it seemed to be snowing from the ground +upward as much as from the sky downward. +Fierce as it was, hard as it was to fight through, +snow from the earth, snow from the sky, Joe was +grateful for it, feeling that it veiled him, making +him safer, though he trusted somewhat the change +of costume he had effected at Beaver Beach. A +rough, workman's cap was pulled down over his +ears and eyebrows; a knitted comforter was wound +about the lower part of his face; under a ragged +overcoat he wore blue overalls and rubber boots; +and in one of his red-mittened hands he swung a +tin dinner-bucket. + +When he reached the nearest of the factories he +heard the exhaust of its engines long before he +could see the building, so blinding was the drift. +Here he struck inland from the river, and, skirting +the edges of the town, made his way by unfrequented +streets and alleys, bearing in the general +direction of upper Main Street, to find himself at +last, almost exhausted, in the alley behind the +Pike Mansion. There he paused, leaning heavily +against a board fence and gazing at the vaguely +outlined gray plane which was all that could be +made of the house through the blizzard. He had +often, very often, stood in this same place at night, +and there was one window (Mrs. Pike's) which he +had guessed to be Mamie's. + +The storm was so thick that he could not see +this window now, but he looked a long time through +the thickness at that part of the gray plane where +he knew it was. Then his lips parted. + +"Good-bye, Mamie," he said, softly. +"Goodbye, Mamie." + +He bent his body against the wind and went on, +still keeping to the back ways, until he came to +the alley which passed behind his own home, +where, however, he paused only for a moment to +make a quick survey of the premises. A glance +satisfied him; he ran to the next fence, hoisted +himself wearily over it, and dropped into Roger +Tabor's back yard. + +He took shelter from the wind for a moment or +two, leaning against the fence, breathing heavily; +then he stumbled on across the obliterated paths +of a vegetable-garden until he reached the house, +and beginning with the kitchen, began to make +the circuit of the windows, peering cautiously into +each as he went, ready to tap on the pane should +he catch a glimpse of Ariel, and prepared to run if +he stumbled upon her grandfather. But the place +seemed empty: he had made his reconnaisance +apparently in vain, and was on the point of going +away, when he heard the click of the front gate +and saw Ariel coming towards him, her old water- +proof cloak about her head and shoulders, the +patched, scant, faded skirt, which he knew so +well, blowing about her tumultuously. At the +sound of the gate he had crouched close against +the side of the house, but she saw him at once. + +She stopped abruptly, and throwing the water- +proof back from her head, looked at him through +the driven fog of snow. One of her hands was +stretched towards him involuntarily, and it was +in that attitude that he long remembered her: +standing in the drift which had piled up against +the gate almost knee-deep, the shabby skirt and +the black water-proof flapping like torn sails, one +hand out-stretched like that of a figure in a +tableau, her brown face with its thin features mottled +with cold and unlovely, her startled eyes fixed +on him with a strange, wild tenderness that held +something of the laughter of whole companionship +in it mingling with a loyalty and championship +that was almost ferocious--she looked an Undine +of the snow. + +Suddenly she ran to him, still keeping her hand +out-stretched until it touched his own. + +"How did you know me?" he said. + +"Know you!" was all the answer she made to +that question. "Come into the house. I've got +some coffee on the stove for you. I've been up +and down the street waiting for you ever since it +began to get light." + +"Your grandfather won't--" + +"He's at Uncle Jonas's; he won't be back till +noon. There's no one here." + +She led him to the front-door, where he stamped +and shook himself; he was snow from head to foot. + +"I'm running away from the good Gomorrah," +he said, "but I've stopped to look back, and I'm a +pretty white pillar." + +"I know where you stopped to look back," she +answered, brushing him heartily with her red +hands. "You came in the alley way. It was +Mamie's window." + +He did not reply, and the only visible token +that he had any consciousness of this clairvoyance +of hers was a slight lift of his higher eyebrow. +She wasted no time in getting him to the kitchen, +where, when she had removed his overcoat, she +placed him in a chair, unwound the comforter, and, +as carefully as a nurse, lifted the cap from his +injured head. When the strip of towel was disclosed +she stood quite still for a moment with the cap in +her hand; then with a broken little cry she stooped +and kissed a lock of his hair, which escaped, discolored, +beneath the bandage. + +"Stop that!" he commanded, horribly embarrassed. + +"Oh, Joe," she cried, "I knew! I knew it was +there--but to SEE it! And it's my fault for leaving +you--I HAD to go or I wouldn't have--I--" + +"Where'd you hear about it?" he asked, shortly. + +"I haven't been to bed," she answered. "Grandfather +and I were up all night at Uncle Jonas's, and +Colonel Flitcroft came about two o'clock, and he +told us." + +"Did he tell you about Norbert?" + +"Yes--a great deal." She poured coffee into a +cup from a pot on the stove, brought it to him, +then placing some thin slices of bread upon a gridiron, +began to toast them over the hot coals. "The +Colonel said that Norbert thought he wouldn't get +well," she concluded; "and Mr. Arp said Norbert +was the kind that never die, and they had quite +an argument." + +"What were you doing at Jonas Tabor's?" asked +Joe, drinking his coffee with a brightening eye. + +"We were sent for," she answered. + +"What for?" + +She toasted the bread attentively without +replying, and when she decided that it was brown +enough, piled it on a warm plate. This she brought +to him, and kneeling in front of him, her elbow on +his knee, offered for his consideration, looking +steadfastly up at his eyes. He began to eat ravenously. + +"What for?" he repeated. "I didn't suppose +Jonas would let you come in his house. Was he +sick?" + +"Joe," she said, quietly, disregarding his +questions---"Joe, have you GOT to run away?" + +"Yes, I've got to," he answered. + +"Would you have to go to prison if you stayed?" +She asked this with a breathless tensity. + +"I'm not going to beg father to help me out," +he said, determinedly. "He said he wouldn't, +and he'll be spared the chance. He won't mind +that; nobody will care! Nobody! What does anybody +care what _I_ do!" + +"Now you're thinking of Mamie!" she cried. +"I can always tell. Whenever you don't talk +naturally you're thinking of her!" + +He poured down the last of the coffee, growing +red to the tips of his ears. "Ariel," he said, "if I +ever come back--" + +"Wait," she interrupted. "Would you have to +go to prison right away if they caught you?" + +"Oh, it isn't that," he laughed, sadly. "But +I'm going to clear out. I'm not going to take any +chances. I want to see other parts of the world, +other kinds of people. I might have gone, anyhow, +soon, even if it hadn't been for last night. Don't +you ever feel that way?" + +"You know I do," she said. "I've told you-- +how often! But, Joe, Joe,--you haven't any +MONEY! You've got to have money to LIVE!" + +"You needn't worry about that," returned the +master of seven dollars, genially. "I've saved +enough to take care of me for a LONG time." + +"Joe, PLEASE! I know it isn't so. If you could +wait just a little while--only a few weeks,--only a +FEW, Joe--" + +"What for?" + +"I could let you have all you want. It would +be such a beautiful thing for me, Joe. Oh, I know +how you'd feel; you wouldn't even let me give you +that dollar I found in the street last year; but this +would be only lending it to you, and you could pay +me back sometime--" + +"Ariel!" he exclaimed, and, setting his empty +cup upon the floor, took her by the shoulders and +shook her till the empty plate which had held the +toast dropped from her hand and broke into +fragments. "You've been reading the Arabian Nights!" + +"No, no," she cried, vehemently. "Grandfather +would give me anything. He'll give me all the +money I ask for!" + +"Money!" said Joe. "Which of us is wandering? +MONEY? Roger Tabor give you MONEY?" + +"Not for a while. A great many things have +to be settled first." + +"What things?" + +"Joe," she asked, earnestly, "do you think it's +bad of me not to feel things I OUGHT to feel?" + +"No." + +"Then I'm glad," she said, and something in +the way she spoke made him start with pain, +remembering the same words, spoken in the same +tone, by another voice, the night before on the +veranda. "I'm glad, Joe, because I seemed all +wrong to myself. Uncle Jonas died last night, +and I haven't been able to get sorry. Perhaps +it's because I've been so frightened about you, +but I think not, for I wasn't sorry even before +Colonel Flitcroft told me about you." + +"Jonas Tabor dead!" said Joe. "Why, I saw +him on the street yesterday!" + +"Yes, and I saw him just before I came out on +the porch where you were. He was there in the +hall; he and Judge Pike had been having a long +talk; they'd been in some speculations together, +and it had all turned out well. It's very strange, +but they say now that Uncle Jonas's heart was +weak--he was an old man, you know, almost +eighty,--and he'd been very anxious about his +money. The Judge had persuaded him to risk it; +and the shock of finding that he'd made a great +deal suddenly--" + +"I've heard he'd had that same shock before," +said Joe, "when he sold out to your father." + +"Yes, but this was different, grandfather says. +He told me it was in one of those big risky +businesses that Judge Pike likes to go into. And last +night it was all finished, the strain was over, and +Uncle Jonas started home. His house is only a +little way from the Pikes', you know; but he +dropped down in the snow at his own gate, and +some people who were going by saw him fall. He +was dead before grandfather got there." + +"I can't be sorry," said Joe, slowly. + +"Neither can I. That's the dreadful part of it! +They say he hadn't made a will, that though he +was sharper than anybody else in the whole world +about any other matter of business, that was the +one thing he put off. And we're all the kin he had +in the world, grandfather and I. And they say"-- +her voice sank to a whisper of excitement--"they +say he was richer than anybody knew, and that +this last business with Judge Pike, the very thing +that killed him--something about grain--made +him five times richer than before!" + +She put her hand on the boy's arm, and he let +it remain there. Her eyes still sought his with +a tremulous appeal. + +"God bless you, Ariel!" he said. "It's going +to be a great thing for you." + +"Yes. Yes, it is." The tears came suddenly +to her eyes. "I was foolish last night, but there +had been such a long time of WANTING things; and +now--and now grandfather and I can go--" + +"You're going, too!" Joe chuckled. + +"It's heartless, I suppose, but I've settled it! +We're going--" + +"_I_ know," he cried. "You've told me a thousand +times what HE'S said--ten times a thousand. +You're going to Paris!" + +"Paris! Yes, that's it. To Paris, where he +can see at last how the great ones have painted,-- +where the others can show him! To Paris, where +we can study together, where he can learn how to +put the pictures he sees upon canvas, and where +I--" + +"Go on," Joe encouraged her. "I want to hear +you say it. You don't mean that you're going to +study painting; you mean that you're going to +learn how to make such fellows as Eugene ask you +to dance. Go ahead and SAY it!" + +"Yes--to learn how to DRESS!" she said. + +Joe was silent for a moment. Then he rose and +took the ragged overcoat from the back of his +chair. "Where's that muffler?" he asked. + +She brought it from where she had placed it to +dry, behind the stove. + +"Joe," she said, huskily, "can't you wait till--" + +"Till the estate is settled and you can coax your +grandfather to--" + +"No, no! But you could go with us." + +"To Paris?" + +"He would take you as his secretary." + +"Aha!" Joe's voice rang out gayly as he rose, +refreshed by the coffee, toast, and warmth she had +given him. "You've been story-reading, Ariel, +like Eugene! `Secretary'!" + +"Please, Joe!" + +"Where's my tin dinner-pail?" He found it +himself upon the table where he had set it down. +"I'm going to earn a dishonest living," he went +on. "I have an engagement to take a freight at +a water-tank that's a friend of mine, half a mile +south of the yards. Thank God, I'm going to get +away from Canaan!" + +"Wait, Joe!" She caught at his sleeve. "I +want you to--" + +He had swung out of the room and was already +at the front-door. She followed him closely. + +"Good-bye, Ariel!" + +"No, no! WAIT, Joe!" + +He took her right hand in his own, and gave it +a manly shake. "It's all right," he said. + +He threw open the door and stepped out, but +she sought to detain him. "Oh, have you GOT to +go?" she cried. + +"Don't you ever worry about me." He bent +his head to the storm as he sprang down the steps, +and snow-wreaths swirled between them. + +He disappeared in a white whirlwind. + +She stood for several minutes shivering in the +doorway. Then it came to her that she would not +know where to write to him. She ran down to +the gate and through it. Already the blizzard +had covered his footprints. + + + +VII + +GIVE A DOG A BAD NAME + +The passing of Joseph from Canaan +was complete. It was an evanishment +for which there was neither +sackcloth nor surprise; and though +there came no news of him it cannot +be said that Canaan did not hear of him, for +surely it could hear itself talk. The death of +Jonas Tabor and young Louden's crime and flight +incited high doings in the "National House" +windows; many days the sages lingered with the +broken meats of morals left over from the banquet +of gossip. But, after all, it is with the ladies of a +community that reputations finally rest, and the +matrons of Canaan had long ago made Joe's +exceedingly uncertain. Now they made it certain. + +They did not fail of assistance. The most +powerful influence in the town was ponderously +corroborative: Martin Pike, who stood for all that +was respectable and financial, who passed the plate +o' Sundays, who held the fortunes of the town in +his left hand, who was trustee for the widow and +orphan,--Martin Pike, patron of all worthy charities, +courted by ministers, feared by the wicked +and idle, revered by the good,--Judge Martin Pike +never referred to the runaway save in the accents +of an august doomster. His testimony settled it. + +In time the precise nature of the fugitive's sins +was distorted in report and grew vague; it was +recalled that he had done dread things; he became +a tradition, a legend, and a warning to the young; +a Richard in the bush to frighten colts. He was +preached at boys caught playing marbles "for +keeps": "Do you want to grow up like Joe Louden?" +The very name became a darkling threat, +and children of the town would have run had one +called suddenly, "HERE COMES JOE LOUDEN!" Thus +does the evil men do live after them, and the ill- +fame of the unrighteous increase when they are +sped! + +Very little of Joseph's adventures and occupations +during the time of his wandering is revealed +to us; he always had an unwilling memory for pain +and was not afterwards wont to speak of those +years which cut the hard lines in his face. The +first account of him to reach Canaan came as +directly to the windows of the "National House" +as Mr. Arp, hastening thither from the station, +satchel in hand, could bring it. + +This was on a September morning, two years +after the flight, and Eskew, it appears, had been +to the State Fair and had beheld many things +strangely affirming his constant testimony that +this unhappy world increaseth in sin; strangest of +all, his meeting with our vagrant scalawag of +Canaan. "Not a BLAMEBIT of doubt about it," +declared Eskew to the incredulous conclave. "There +was that Joe, and nobody else, stuck up in a little +box outside a tent at the Fair Grounds, and sellin' +tickets to see the Spotted Wild Boy!" Yes, it was +Joe Louden! Think you, Mr. Arp could forget +that face, those crooked eyebrows? Had Eskew +tested the recognition? Had he spoken with the +outcast? Had he not! Ay, but with such +peculiar result that the battle of words among the +sages began with a true onset of the regulars; for, +according to Eskew's narrative, when he had +delivered grimly at the boy this charge, "I know you +--YOU'RE JOE LOUDEN!" the extraordinary reply had +been made promptly and without change of +countenance: "POSITIVELY NO FREE SEATS!" + +On this, the house divided, one party +maintaining that Joe had thus endeavored to evade +recognition, the other (to the embitterment of Mr. +Arp) that the reply was a distinct admission of +identity and at the same time a refusal to grant +any favors on the score of past acquaintanceship. + +Goaded by inquiries, Mr. Arp, who had little desire +to recall such waste of silver, admitted more than +he had intended: that he had purchased a ticket +and gone in to see the Spotted Wild Boy, halting +in his description of this marvel with the unsatisfactory +and acrid statement that the Wild Boy was +"simply SPOTTED,"--and the stung query, "I suppose +you know what a spot IS, Squire?" When he came +out of the tent he had narrowly examined the +ticket-seller,--who seemed unaware of his scrutiny, +and, when not engaged with his tickets, applied +himself to a dirty law-looking book. It was +Joseph Louden, reasserted Eskew, a little taller, a +little paler, incredibly shabby and miraculously +thin. If there were any doubt left, his forehead +was somewhat disfigured by the scar of an old +wound--such as might have been caused by a +blunt instrument in the nature of a poker. + +"What's the matter with YOU?" Mr. Arp +whirled upon Uncle Joe Davey, who was enjoying +himself by repeating at intervals the unreasonable +words, "Couldn't of be'n Joe," without any +explanation. "Why couldn't it?" shouted Eskew. +"It was! Do you think my eyes are as fur gone +as yours? I saw him, I tell you! The same ornery +Joe Louden, run away and sellin' tickets for a side- +show. He wasn't even the boss of it; the manager +was about the meanest-lookin' human I ever saw +--and most humans look mighty mean, accordin' +to my way of thinkin'! Riffraff of the riffraff are +his friends now, same as they were here. Weeds! +and HE'S a weed, always was and always will be! +Him and his kind ain't any more than jimpsons; +overrun everything if you give 'em a chance. +Devil-flowers! They have to be hoed out and +scattered--even then, like as not, they'll come +back next year and ruin your plantin' once more. +That boy Joe 'll turn up here again some day; +you'll see if he don't. He's a seed of trouble and +iniquity, and anything of that kind is sure to come +back to Canaan!" + +Mr. Arp stuck to his prediction for several +months; then he began to waver and evade. By +the end of the second year following its first utterance, +he had formed the habit of denying that he +had ever made it at all, and, finally having come +to believe with all his heart that the prophecy had +been deliberately foisted upon him and put in his +mouth by Squire Buckalew, became so sore upon +the subject that even the hardiest dared not refer +to it in his presence. + +Eskew's story of the ticket-seller was the only +news of Joe Louden that came to Canaan during +seven years. Another citizen of the town encountered +the wanderer, however, but under circumstances +so susceptible to misconception that, in a +moment of illumination, he decided to let the matter +rest in a golden silence. This was Mr. Bantry. + +Having elected an elaborate course in the Arts, +at the University which was of his possessions, +what more natural than that Eugene should seek +the Metropolis for the short Easter vacation of +his Senior year, in order that his perusal of the +Masters should be uninterrupted? But it was his +misfortune to find the Metropolitan Museum less +interesting than some intricate phases of the gayety +of New York--phases very difficult to understand +without elaborate study and a series of experiments +which the discreetly selfish permit others to make +for them. Briefly, Eugene found himself dancing, +one night, with a young person in a big hat, at the +"Straw-Cellar," a crowded hall, down very deep +in the town and not at all the place for Eugene. + +Acute crises are to be expected at the "Straw- +Cellar," and Eugene was the only one present who +was thoroughly surprised when that of this night +arrived, though all of the merrymakers were +frightened when they perceived its extent. There +is no need to detail the catastrophe. It came +suddenly, and the knife did not flash. Sick and thinking +of himself, Eugene stood staring at the figure +lying before him upon the reddening floor. A rabble +fought with the quick policemen at the doors, +and then the lights went out, extinguished by the +proprietor, living up to his reputation for always +being thoughtful of his patrons. The place had +been a nightmare; it became a black impossibility. +Eugene staggered to one of the open windows, from +the sill of which a man had just leaped. + +"Don't jump," said a voice close to his ear. +"That fellow broke his leg, I think, and they +caught him, anyway, as soon as he struck the +pavement. It's a big raid. Come this way." + +A light hand fell upon his arm and he followed +its leading, blindly, to find himself pushed through +a narrow doorway and down a flight of tricky, +wooden steps, at the foot of which, silhouetted +against a street light, a tall policeman was on guard. +He laid masterful hands on Eugene. + +"'SH, Mack!" whispered a cautious voice from +the stairway. "That's a friend of mine and not +one of those you need. He's only a student and +scared to death." + +"Hurry," said the policeman, under his breath, +twisting Eugene sharply by him into the street; +after which he stormed vehemently: "On yer way, +both of ye! Move on up the street! Don't be +tryin' to poke yer heads in here! Ye'd be more +anxious to git out, once ye got in, I tell ye!" + +A sob of relief came from Bantry as he gained +the next corner, the slight figure of his conductor +at his side. "You'd better not go to places like +the `Straw-Cellar,' " said the latter, gravely. "I'd +been watching you for an hour. You were dancing +with the girl who did the cutting." + +Eugene leaned against a wall, faint, one arm +across his face. He was too ill to see, or care, who +it was that had saved him. "I never saw her +before," he babbled, incoherently, "never, never, +never! I thought she looked handsome, and +asked her if she'd dance with me. Then I saw +she seemed queer--and wild, and she kept guiding +and pushing as we danced until we were near that +man--and then she--then it was all done--before--" + +"Yes," said the other; "she's been threatening +to do it for a long time. Jealous. Mighty good +sort of a girl, though, in lots of ways. Only yesterday +I talked with her and almost thought I'd +calmed her out of it. But you can't tell with some +women. They'll brighten up and talk straight +and seem sensible, one minute, and promise to behave, +and mean it too, and the next, there they go, +making a scene, cutting somebody or killing +themselves! You can't count on them. But that's +not to the point, exactly, I expect. You'd better +keep away from the `Straw-Cellar.' If you'd been +caught with the rest you'd have had a hard time, +and they'd have found out your real name, too, +because it's pretty serious on account of your +dancing with her when she did it, and the Canaan +papers would have got hold of it and you +wouldn't be invited to Judge Pike's any more, +Eugene." + +Eugene dropped his arm from his eyes and stared +into the face of his step-brother. + +"Joe Louden!" he gasped. + +"I'll never tell," said Joe. "You'd better keep +out of all this sort. You don't understand it, and +you don't--you don't do it because you care." +He smiled wanly, his odd distorted smile of +friendliness. "When you go back you might tell father +I'm all right. I'm working through a law-school +here--and remember me to Norbert Flitcroft," he +finished, with a chuckle. + +Eugene covered his eyes again and groaned. + +"It's all right," Joe assured him. "You're as +safe as if it had never happened. And I expect" +--he went on, thoughtfully--"I expect, maybe, +you'd prefer NOT to say you'd seen me, when you go +back to Canaan. Well, that's all right. I don't +suppose father will be asking after me--exactly." + +"No, he doesn't," said Eugene, still white and +shaking. "Don't stand talking. I'm sick." + +"Of course," returned Joe. "But there's one +thing I would like to ask you--" + +"Your father's health is perfect, I believe." + +"It--it--it was something else," Joe stammered, +pitifully. "Are they all--are they all--all right at +--at Judge Pike's?" + +"Quite!" Eugene replied, sharply. "Are you going +to get me away from here? I'm sick, I tell you!" + +"This street," said Joe, and cheerfully led the way. + +Five minutes later the two had parted, and Joe +leaned against a cheap restaurant sign-board, +drearily staring after the lamps of the gypsy night- +cab he had found for his step-brother. Eugene +had not offered to share the vehicle with him, had +not even replied to his good-night. + +And Joe himself had neglected to do something +he might well have done: he had not asked Eugene +for news of Ariel Tabor. It will not justify him +entirely to suppose that he assumed that her +grandfather and she had left Canaan never to +return, and therefore Eugene knew nothing of her; +no such explanation serves Joe for his neglect, for +the fair truth is that he had not thought of her. +She had been a sort of playmate, before his flight, +a friend taken for granted, about whom he had +consciously thought little more than he thought +about himself--and easily forgotten. Not forgotten +in the sense that she had passed out of his +memory, but forgotten none the less; she had +never had a place in his imaginings, and so it +befell that when he no longer saw her from day to +day, she had gone from his thoughts altogether. + + + +VIII + +A BAD PENNY TURNS UP + +Eugene did not inform Canaan, nor +any inhabitant, of his adventure of +"Straw-Cellar," nor did any hear +of his meeting with his step-brother; +and after Mr. Arp's adventure, five +years passed into the imperishable before the town +heard of the wanderer again, and then it heard at +first hand; Mr. Arp's prophecy fell true, and he +took it back to his bosom again, claimed it as his +own the morning of its fulfilment. Joe Louden +had come back to Canaan. + +The elder Louden was the first to know of his +prodigal's return. He was alone in the office of +the wooden-butter-dish factory, of which he was +the superintendent, when the young man came in +unannounced. He was still pale and thin; his +eyebrows had the same crook, one corner of his +mouth the same droop; he was only an inch or so +taller, not enough to be thought a tall man; and +yet, for a few moments the father did not recognize +his son, but stared at him, inquiring his business. +During those few seconds of unrecognition, Mr. +Louden was somewhat favorably impressed with +the stranger's appearance. + +"You don't know me," said Joe, smiling +cheerfully. "Perhaps I've changed in seven years." +And he held out his hand. + +Then Mr. Louden knew; he tilted back in his +desk-chair, his mouth falling open. "Good God!" +he said, not noticing the out-stretched hand. "Have +YOU come back?" + +Joe's hand fell. + +"Yes, I've come back to Canaan." + +Mr. Louden looked at him a long time without +replying; finally he remarked: + +"I see you've still got a scar on your forehead." + +"Oh, I've forgotten all about that," said the +other, twisting his hat in his hands. "Seven years +wipes out a good many grievances and wrongs." + +"You think so?" Mr Louden grunted. "I suppose +it might wipe out a good deal with some people. +How'd you happen to stop off at Canaan? +On your way somewhere, I suppose." + +"No, I've come back to stay." + +Mr. Louden plainly received this as no pleasant +surprise. "What for?" he asked, slowly. + +"To practise law, father." + +"What!" + +"Yes," said the young man. "There ought to +be an opening here for me. I'm a graduate of as +good a law-school as there is in the country--" + +"You are!" + +"Certainly," said Joe, quietly. "I've put +myself through, working in the summer--" + +"Working!" Mr. Louden snorted. "Side-shows?" + +"Oh, worse than that, sometimes," returned his +son, laughing. "Anything I could get. But I've +always wanted to come back home and work here." + +Mr. Louden leaned forward, a hand on each +knee, his brow deeply corrugated. "Do you think +you'll get much practice in Canaan?" + +"Why not? I've had a year in a good office in +New York since I left the school, and I think I +ought to get along all right." + +"Oh," said Mr. Louden, briefly. "You do?" + +"Yes. Don't you?" + +"Who do you think in Canaan would put a case +in your hands?" + +"Oh, I don't expect to get anything important +at the start. But after a while--" + +"With your reputation?" + +The smile which had faded from Joe's lips +returned to them. "Oh, I know they thought I +was a harum-scarum sort of boy," he answered +lightly, "and that it was a foolish thing to run +away for nothing; but you had said I mustn't come +to you for help--" + +"I meant it," said Mr. Louden. + +"But that's seven years ago, and I suppose the +town's forgotten all about it, and forgotten me, +too. So, you see, I can make a fresh start. That's +what I came back for." + +"You've made up your mind to stay here, then?" + +"Yes." + +"I don't believe," said Mr. Louden, with marked +uneasiness, "that Mrs. Louden would be willing to +let you live with us." + +"No," said Joe, gently. "I didn't expect it." +He turned to the window and looked out, averting +his face, yet scoring himself with the contempt +he had learned to feel for those who pity themselves. +His father had not even asked him to +sit down. There was a long silence, disturbed only +by Mr. Louden's breathing, which could be heard, +heavy and troubled. + +At last Joe turned again, smiling as before. +"Well, I won't keep you from your work," he said. +"I suppose you're pretty busy--" + +"Yes, I am," responded his father, promptly. +"But I'll see you again before you go. I want to +give you some advice." + +"I'm not going," said Joe. "Not going to +leave Canaan, I mean. Where will I find Eugene?" + +"At the Tocsin office; he's the assistant editor. +Judge Pike bought the Tocsin last year, and he +thinks a good deal of Eugene. Don't forget I said +to come to see me again before you go." + +Joe came over to the older man and held out +his hand. "Shake hands, father," he said. Mr. +Louden looked at him out of small implacable +eyes, the steady hostility of which only his wife +or the imperious Martin Pike, his employer, could +quell. He shook his head. + +"I don't see any use in it," he answered. "It +wouldn't mean anything. All my life I've been +a hard-working man and an abiding man. Before +you got in trouble you never did anything you +ought to; you ran with the lowest people in town, +and I and all your folks were ashamed of you. I +don't see that we've got a call to be any different +now." He swung round to his desk emphatically, +on the last word, and Joe turned away and went +out quietly. + +But it was a bright morning to which he emerged +from the outer doors of the factory, and he made +his way towards Main Street at a lively gait. As he +turned the corner opposite the "National House," +he walked into Mr. Eskew Arp. The old man +drew back angrily. + +"Lord 'a' mercy!" cried Joe, heartily. "It's +Mr. Arp! I almost ran you down!" Then, as +Mr. Arp made no response, but stood stock-still in +the way, staring at him fiercely, "Don't you know +me, Mr. Arp?" the young man asked. "I'm Joe +Louden." + +Eskew abruptly thrust his face close to the +other's. "NO FREE SEATS!" he hissed, savagely; and +swept across to the hotel to set his world afire. + +Joe looked after the irate, receding figure, and +watched it disappear into the Main Street door of +the "National House." As the door closed, he +became aware of a mighty shadow upon the pavement, +and turning, beheld a fat young man, wearing +upon his forehead a scar similar to his own, +waddling by with eyes fixed upon him. + +"How are you, Norbert?" Joe began. "Don't +you remember me? I--" He came to a full stop, +as the fat one, thrusting out an under lip as his +only token of recognition, passed balefully on. + +Joe proceeded slowly until he came to the Tocsin +building. At the foot of the stairway leading up +to the offices he hesitated for a few moments; then +he turned away and walked towards the quieter +part of Main Street. Most of the people he met +took no notice of him, only two or three giving him +second glances of half-cognizance, as though he +reminded them of some one they could not place, +and it was not until he had come near the Pike +Mansion that he saw a full recognition in the eyes +of one of the many whom he knew, and who had +known him in his boyhood in the town. A lady, +turning a corner, looked up carelessly, and then +half-stopped within a few feet of him, as if startled. +Joe's cheeks went a sudden crimson; for it was the +lady of his old dreams. + +Seven years had made Mamie Pike only prettier. +She had grown into her young womanhood with +an ampleness that had nothing of oversufficiency +in it, nor anywhere a threat that some day there +might be too much of her. Not quite seventeen +when he had last seen her, now, at twenty-four, her +amber hair elaborately becoming a plump and +regular face, all of her old charm came over him +once more, and it immediately seemed to him that +he saw clearly his real reason for coming back to +Canaan. She had been the Rich-Little-Girl of his +child days, the golden princess playing in the +Palace-Grounds, and in his early boyhood (until +he had grown wicked and shabby) he had been +sometimes invited to the Pike Mansion for the +games and ice-cream of the daughter of the house, +before her dancing days began. He had gone +timidly, not daring ever to "call" her in "Quaker +Meeting" or "Post-office," but watching her +reverently and surreptitiously and continually. She +had always seemed to him the one thing of all the +world most rare, most mysterious, most +unapproachable. She had not offered an apparition +less so in those days when he began to come under +the suspicion of Canaan, when the old people began +to look upon him hotly, the young people +coldly. His very exclusion wove for him a glamour +about her, and she was more than ever his moon, +far, lovely, unattainable, and brilliant, never to be +reached by his lifted arms, but only by his lifted +eyes. Nor had his long absence obliterated that +light; somewhere in his dreams it always had +place, shining, perhaps, with a fainter lustre as the +years grew to seven, but never gone altogether. +Now, at last, that he stood in her very presence +again, it sprang to the full flood of its old brilliance +--and more! + +As she came to her half-stop of surprise, startled, +he took his courage in two hands, and, lifting his +hat, stepped to her side. + +"You--you remember me?" he stammered. + +"Yes," she answered, a little breathlessly. + +"Ah, that's kind of you!" he cried, and began +to walk on with her, unconsciously. "I feel like a +returned ghost wandering about--invisible and +unrecognized. So few people seem to remember me!" + +"I think you are wrong. I think you'll find +everybody remembers you," she responded, uneasily. + +"No, I'm afraid not," he began. "I--" + +"I'm afraid they do!" + +Joe laughed a little. "My father was saying +something like that to me a while ago. He meant +that they used to think me a great scapegrace here. +Do you mean that?" + +"I'd scarcely like to say," she answered, her face +growing more troubled; for they were close on the +imperial domain. + +"But it's long ago--and I really didn't do anything +so outrageous, it seems to me." He laughed +again. "I know your father was angry with me +once or twice, especially the night I hid on your +porch to watch you--to watch you dance, I mean. +But, you see, I've come back to rehabilitate myself, to--" + +She interrupted him. They were not far from +her gate, and she saw her father standing in the +yard, directing a painter who was at work on one +of the cast-iron deer. The Judge was apparently +in good spirits, laughing with the workman over +some jest between them, but that did not lessen +Mamie's nervousness. + +"Mr. Louden," she said, in as kindly a tone as +she could, "I shall have to ask you not to walk +with me. My father would not like it." + +Joe stopped with a jerk. + +"Why, I--I thought I'd go in and shake hands +with him,--and tell him I--" + +Astonishment that partook of terror and of awe +spread itself instantly upon her face. + +"Good gracious!" she cried. "NO!" + +"Very well," said Joe, humbly. "Good-bye." + +He was too late to get away with any good grace. +Judge Pike had seen them, and, even as Joe turned +to go, rushed down to the gate, flung it open, and +motioned his daughter to enter. This he did with +one wide sweep of his arm, and, with another +sweep, forbade Joe to look upon either moon OR +sun. It was a magnificent gesture: it excluded the +young man from the street, Judge Pike's street, +and from the town, Judge Pike's town. It swept +him from the earth, abolished him, denied him +the right to breathe the common air, to be seen of +men; and, at once a headsman's stroke and an +excommunication, destroyed him, soul and body, +thus rebuking the silly Providence that had created +him, and repairing Its mistake by annihilating +him. This hurling Olympian gesture smote the +street; the rails of the car-track sprang and +quivered with the shock; it thundered, and, amid the +dumfounding uproar of the wrath of a god, the +Will of the Canaanite Jove wrote the words in +fiery letters upon the ether: + +"CEASE TO BE!" + +Joe did not go in to shake hands with Judge +Pike. + +He turned the next corner a moment later, and +went down the quiet street which led to the house +which had been his home. He did not glance at +that somewhat grim edifice, but passed it, his eyes +averted, and stopped in front of the long, +ramshackle cottage next door. The windows were +boarded; the picket-fence dropped even to the +ground in some sections; the chimneys sagged +and curved; the roof of the long porch sprinkled +shingles over the unkempt yard with every wind, +and seemed about to fall. The place was desolate +with long emptiness and decay: it looked like a +Haunted House; and nailed to the padlocked gate +was a sign, half obliterated with the winters it +had fronted, "For Sale or Rent." + +Joe gat him meditatively back to Main Street +and to the Tocsin building. This time he did not +hesitate, but mounted the stairs and knocked upon +the door of the assistant editor. + +"Oh," said Eugene. "YOU'VE turned up, +you?" + +Mr. Bantry of the Tocsin was not at all the +Eugene rescued from the "Straw-Cellar." The present +gentleman was more the electric Freshman than +the frightened adventurer whom Joe had encountered +in New York. It was to be seen immediately +that the assistant editor had nothing undaintily +business-like about him, nor was there the litter +on his desk which one might have expected. He +had the air of a gentleman dilettante who amused +himself slightly by spending an hour or two in the +room now and then. It was the evolution to the +perfect of his Freshman manner, and his lively +apparel, though somewhat chastened by an older +taste, might have been foretold from that which +had smitten Canaan seven years before. He sat +not at the orderly and handsome desk, but lay +stretched upon a divan of green leather, smoking a +cigar of purest ray and reading sleepily a small +verse-looking book in morocco. His occupation, +his general air, the furniture of the room, and his +title (doubtless equipped with a corresponding +salary) might have inspired in an observant cynic +the idea that here lay a pet of Fortune, whose +position had been the fruit of nepotism, or, +mayhap, a successful wooing of some daughter, +wife, or widow. Eugene looked competent for +that. + +"I've come back to stay, 'Gene," said Joe. + +Bantry had dropped his book and raised himself +on an elbow. "Exceedingly interesting," he said. +"I suppose you'll try to find something to do. I +don't think you could get a place here; Judge Pike +owns the Tocsin, and I greatly fear he has a prejudice +against you." + +"I expect he has," Joe chuckled, somewhat +sadly. "But I don't want newspaper work. I'm +going to practice law." + +"By Jove! you have courage, my festive prodigal. +VRAIMENT!" + +Joe cocked his head to one side with his old look +of the friendly puppy. "You always did like to +talk that noveletty way, 'Gene, didn't you?" he +said, impersonally. + +Eugene's color rose. "Have you saved up anything +to starve on?" he asked, crisply. + +"Oh, I'm not so badly off. I've had a salary in +an office for a year, and I had one pretty good day +at the races--" + +"You'd better go back and have another," said +his step-brother. "You don't seem to comprehend +your standing in Canaan." + +"I'm beginning to." Joe turned to the door. +"It's funny, too--in a way. Well--I won't keep +you any longer. I just stopped in to say good- +day--" He paused, faltering. + +"All right, all right," Eugene said, briskly. +"And, by-the-way, I haven't mentioned that I saw +you in New York." + +"Oh, I didn't suppose that you would." + +"And you needn't say anything about it, I +fancy." + +"I don't think," said Joe,--"I don't think that +you need be afraid I'll do that. Good-bye." + +"Be sure to shut the door, please; it's rather +noisy with it open. Good-bye." Eugene waved +his hand and sank back upon the divan. + +Joe went across the street to the "National +House." The sages fell as silent as if he had been +Martin Pike. They had just had the pleasure of +hearing a telephone monologue by Mr. Brown, the +clerk, to which they listened intently: "Yes. This +is Brown. Oh--oh, it's Judge Pike? Yes indeed, +Judge, yes indeed, I hear you--ha, ha! Of course, +I understand. Yes, Judge, I heard he was in +town. No, he hasn't been here. Not yet, that +is, Judge. Yes, I hear. No, I won't, of course. +Certainly not. I will, I will. I hear perfectly, I +understand. Yes, sir. Good-bye, Judge." + +Joe had begun to write his name in the register. +"My trunk is still at the station," he said. "I'll +give you my check to send down for it." + +"Excuse me," said the clerk. "We have no rooms." + +"What!" cried Joe, innocently. "Why, I never +knew more than eight people to stay here at the +same time in my life." + +"We have no rooms," repeated the clerk, curtly. + +"Is there a convention here?" + +"We have no rooms, I say!" + +Joe looked up into the condensed eyes of Mr. +Brown. "Oh," he said, "I see." + +Deathly silence followed him to the door, but, +as it closed behind him, he heard the outbreak of +the sages like a tidal wave striking a dump-heap +of tin cans. + +Two hours later he descended from an evil ark +of a cab at the corral attached to Beaver Beach, +and followed the path through the marsh to the +crumbling pier. A red-bearded man was seated +on a plank by the water edge, fishing. + +"Mike," said Joe, "have you got room for me? +Can you take me in for a few days until I find a +place in town where they'll let me stay?" + +The red-bearded man rose slowly, pushed back +his hat, and stared hard at the wanderer; then he +uttered a howl of joy and seized the other's hands +in his and shook them wildly. + +"Glory be on high!" he shouted. "It's Joe +Louden come back! We never knew how we +missed ye till ye'd gone! Place fer ye! Can I +find it? There ain't a imp o' perdition in town, +includin' myself, that wouldn't kill me if I couldn't! +Ye'll have old Maggie's room, my own aunt's; ye +remember how she used to dance! Ha, ha! She's +been burnin' below these four years! And we'll +have the celebration of yer return this night. +There'll be many of 'em will come when they hear +ye're back in Canaan! Praise God, we'll all hope +ye're goin' to stay a while!" + + + +IX + +"OUTER DARKNESS" + +If any echo of doubt concerning his +undesirable conspicuousness sounded +faintly in Joe's mind, it was silenced +eftsoons. Canaan had not forgotten +him--far from it!--so far that it began +pointing him out to strangers on the street +the very day of his return. His course of action, +likewise that of his friends, permitted him little +obscurity, and when the rumors of his finally +obtaining lodging at Beaver Beach, and of the +celebration of his installation there, were presently +confirmed, he stood in the lime-light indeed, as a +Mephistopheles upsprung through the trap-door. + +The welcoming festivities had not been so +discreetly conducted as to accord with the general +policy of Beaver Beach. An unfortunate incident +caused the arrest of one of the celebrators and the +ambulancing to the hospital of another on the +homeward way, the ensuing proceedings in court +bringing to the whole affair a publicity devoutly +unsought for. Mr. Happy Fear (such was the +habitual name of the imprisoned gentleman) had +to bear a great amount of harsh criticism for +injuring a companion within the city limits after +daylight, and for failing to observe that three +policemen were not too distant from the scene of +operations to engage therein. + +"Happy, if ye had it in mind to harm him," +said the red-bearded man to Mr. Fear, upon the +latter's return to society, "why didn't ye do it +out here at the Beach?" + +"Because," returned the indiscreet, "he didn't +say what he was goin' to say till we got in town." + +Extraordinary probing on the part of the +prosecutor had developed at the trial that the obnoxious +speech had referred to the guest of the evening. +The assaulted party, one "Nashville" Cory, was +not of Canaan, but a bit of drift-wood haply touching +shore for the moment at Beaver Beach; and-- +strange is this world--he had been introduced to +the coterie of Mike's Place by Happy Fear himself, +who had enjoyed a brief acquaintance with him on +a day when both had chanced to travel incognito +by the same freight. Naturally, Happy had felt +responsible for the proper behavior of his protege +--was, in fact, bound to enforce it; additionally, +Happy had once been saved from a term of +imprisonment (at a time when it would have been +more than ordinarily inconvenient) by help and +advice from Joe, and he was not one to forget. +Therefore he was grieved to observe that his +own guest seemed to be somewhat jealous of the +hero of the occasion and disposed to look coldly +upon him. The stranger, however, contented +himself with innuendo (mere expressions of the +face and other manner of things for which one +could not squarely lay hands upon him) until +such time as he and his sponsor had come to Main +Street in the clear dawn on their way to Happy's +apartment--a variable abode. It may be that +the stranger perceived what Happy did not; the +three bluecoats in the perspective; at all events, +he now put into words of simple strength the +unfavorable conception he had formed of Joe. The +result was mediaevally immediate, and the period +of Mr. Cory's convalescence in the hospital was +almost half that of his sponsor's detention in the +county jail. + +It needed nothing to finish Joe with the good +people of Canaan; had it needed anything, the +trial of Happy Fear would have overspilled the +necessity. An item of the testimony was that +Joseph Louden had helped to carry one of the +ladies present--a Miss Le Roy, who had fainted-- +to the open air, and had jostled the stranger in +passing. After this, the oldest woman in Canaan +would not have dared to speak to Joe on the street +(even if she wanted to), unless she happened to +be very poor or very wicked. The Tocsin printed +an adequate account (for there was "a large public +interest"), recording in conclusion that Mr. +Louden paid the culprit's fine which was the +largest in the power of the presiding judge in his +mercy to bestow. Editorially, the Tocsin leaned to +the facetious: "Mr. Louden has but recently +`returned to our midst.' We fervently hope that +the distinguished Happy Fear will appreciate his +patron's superb generosity. We say `his patron,' +but perhaps we err in this. Were it not better to +figure Mr. Louden as the lady in distress, Mr. Fear +as the champion in the lists? In the present case, +however, contrary to the rules of romance, the +champion falls in duress and passes to the dungeon. +We merely suggest, en passant, that some of our +best citizens might deem it a wonderful and beauteous +thing if, in addition to paying the fine, Mr. +Louden could serve for the loyal Happy his six +months in the Bastile!" + +"En passant," if nothing else, would have +revealed to Joe, in this imitation of a better trick, the +hand of Eugene. And, little doubt, he would have +agreed with Squire Buckalew in the Squire's answer +to the easily expected comment of Mr. Arp. + +"Sometimes," said Eskew, "I think that 'Gene +Bantry is jest a leetle bit spiderier than he is lazy. +That's the first thing he's written in the Tocsin this +month--one of the boys over there told me. He +wrote it out of spite against Joe; but he'd ought +to of done better. If his spite hadn't run away +with what mind he's got, he'd of said that both +Joe Louden and that tramp Fear ought to of had +ten years!" + +"'Gene Bantry didn't write that out of spite," +answered Buckalew. "He only thought he saw +a chance to be kind of funny and please Judge Pike. +The Judge has always thought Joe was a no-account--" + +"Ain't he right?" cried Mr. Arp. + +"_I_ don't say he ain't." Squire Buckalew cast a +glance at Mr. Brown, the clerk, and, perceiving that +he was listening, added, "The Judge always IS +right!" + +"Yes, sir!" said Colonel Flitcroft. + +"I can't stand up for Joe Louden to any extent, +but I don't think he done wrong," Buckalew went +on, recovering, "when he paid this man Fear's +fine." + +"You don't!" exclaimed Mr. Arp. "Why, +haven't you got gumption enough to see--" + +"Look here, Eskew," interposed his antagonist. +"How many friends have you got that hate to hear +folks talk bad about you?" + +"Not a one!" For once Eskew's guard was +down, and his consistency led him to destruction. +"Not a one! It ain't in human nature. They're +bound to enjoy it!" + +"Got any friends that would FIGHT for you?" + +Eskew walked straight into this hideous trap. +"No! There ain't a dozen men ever LIVED that +had! Caesar was a popular man, but he didn't +have a soul to help him when the crowd lit on him, +and I'll bet old Mark Antony was mighty glad +they got him out in the yard before it happened,-- +HE wouldn't have lifted a finger without a gang +behind him! Why, all Peter himself could do was +to cut off an ear that wasn't no use to anybody. +What are you tryin' to get AT?" + +The Squire had him; and paused, and stroked his +chin, to make the ruin complete. "Then I reckon +you'll have to admit," he murmured, "that, while +I ain't defendin' Joe Louden's character, it was +kind of proper for him to stand by a feller that +wouldn't hear nothin' against him, and fought for +him as soon as he DID hear it!" + +Eskew Arp rose from his chair and left the hotel. +It was the only morning in all the days of the +conclave when he was the first to leave. + +Squire Buckalew looked after the retreating +figure, total triumph shining brazenly from his +spectacles. "I expect," he explained, modestly, +to the others,--"I expect I don't think any more +of Joe Louden than he does, and I'll be glad when +Canaan sees the last of him for good; but sometimes +the temptation to argue with Eskew does +lead me on to kind of git the better of him." + +When Happy Fear had suffered--with a give- +and-take simplicity of patience--his allotment of +months in durance, and was released and sent into +the streets and sunshine once more, he knew that +his first duty lay in the direction of a general +apology to Joe. But the young man was no longer at +Beaver Beach; the red-bearded proprietor dwelt +alone there, and, receiving Happy with scorn and +pity, directed him to retrace his footsteps to the +town. + +"Ye must have been in the black hole of +incarceration indeed, if ye haven't heard that Mr. +Louden has his law-office on the Square, and his +livin'-room behind the office. It's in that little +brick buildin' straight acrost from the sheriff's +door o' the jail--ye've been neighbors this long +time! A hard time the boy had, persuadin' any +one to rent to him, but by payin' double the price +he got a place at last. He's a practisin' lawyer +now, praise the Lord! And all the boys and girls +of our acquaintance go to him with their troubles. +Ye'll see him with a murder case to try before +long, as sure as ye're not worth yer salt! But I +expect ye can still call him by his name of Joe, all +the same!" + +It was a bleak and meagre little office into +which Mr. Fear ushered himself to offer his amends. +The cracked plaster of the walls was bare (save +for dust); there were no shelves; the fat brown +volumes, most of them fairly new, were piled in +regular columns upon a cheap pine table; there +was but one window, small-paned and shadeless; an +inner door of this sad chamber stood half ajar, +permitting the visitor unreserved acquaintance with +the domestic economy of the tenant; for it disclosed +a second room, smaller than the office, and +dependent upon the window of the latter for air and +light. Behind a canvas camp-cot, dimly visible +in the obscurity of the inner apartment, stood a +small gas-stove, surmounted by a stew-pan, from +which projected the handle of a big tin spoon, so +that it needed no ghost from the dead to whisper +that Joseph Louden, attorney-at-law, did his own +cooking. Indeed, he looked it! + +Upon the threshold of the second room reposed a +small, worn, light-brown scrub-brush of a dog, so +cosmopolitan in ancestry that his species was +almost as undeterminable as the cast-iron dogs of +the Pike Mansion. He greeted Mr. Fear hospitably, +having been so lately an offcast of the streets +himself that his adoption had taught him to lose +only his old tremors, not his hopefulness. At +the same time Joe rose quickly from the deal +table, where he had been working with one hand +in his hair, the other splattering ink from a bad +pen. + +"Good for you, Happy!" he cried, cheerfully. +"I hoped you'd come to see me to-day. I've been +thinking about a job for you." + +"What kind of a job?" asked the visitor, as they +shook hands. "I need one bad enough, but you +know there ain't nobody in Canaan would gimme +one, Joe." + +Joe pushed him into one of the two chairs which +completed the furniture of his office. "Yes, there +is. I've got an idea--" + +"First," broke in Mr. Fear, fingering his shapeless +hat and fixing his eyes upon it with embarrassment,--" +first lemme say what I come here to say. +I--well--" His embarrassment increased and he +paused, rubbing the hat between his hands. + +"About this job," Joe began. "We can fix it +so--" + +"No," said Happy. "You lemme go on. I +didn't mean fer to cause you no trouble when I lit +on that loud-mouth, `Nashville'; I never thought +they'd git me, or you'd be dragged in. But I jest +couldn't stand him no longer. He had me all wore +out--all evening long a-hintin' and sniffin' and +wearin' that kind of a high-smile 'cause they made +so much fuss over you. And then when we got +clear in town he come out with it! Said you was +too quiet to suit HIM--said he couldn't see nothin' +TO you! `Well,' I says to myself, `jest let him go +on, jest one more,' I says, `then he gits it.' And +he did. Said you tromped on his foot on purpose, +said he knowed it,--when the Lord-a'mightiest fool +on earth knows you never tromped on no one! +Said you was one of the po'rest young sports he +ever see around a place like the Beach. You see, +he thought you was jest one of them fool `Bloods' +that come around raisin' a rumpus, and didn't know +you was our friend and belonged out there, the same +as me or Mike hisself. `Go on,' I says to myself, +`jest one more!' `HE better go home to his mamma,' +he says; `he'll git in trouble if he don't. Somebody +'ll soak him if he hangs around in MY company. +_I_ don't like his WAYS.' Then I HAD to do +it. There jest wasn't nothin' LEFT--but I wouldn't +of done you no harm by it--" + +"You didn't do me any harm, Happy." + +"I mean your repitation." + +"I didn't have one--so nothing in the world could +harm it. About your getting some work, now--" + +"I'll listen," said Happy, rather suspiciously. + +"You see," Joe went on, growing red, "I need +a sort of janitor here--" + +"What fer?" Mr. Fear interrupted, with some +shortness. + +"To look after the place." + +"You mean these two rooms?" + +"There's a stairway, too," Joe put forth, quickly. +"It wouldn't be any sinecure, Happy. You'd +earn your money; don't be afraid of that!" + +Mr. Fear straightened up, his burden of +embarrassment gone from him, transferred to the +other's shoulders. + +"There always was a yellow streak in you, Joe," +he said, firmly. "You're no good as a liar except +when you're jokin'. A lot you need a janitor! +You had no business to pay my fine; you'd ort of +let me worked it out. Do you think my eyes ain't +good enough to see how much you needed the +money, most of all right now when you're tryin' to +git started? If I ever take a cent from you, I hope +the hand I hold out fer it 'll rot off." + +"Now don't say that, Happy." + +"I don't want a job, nohow!" said Mr. Fear, +going to the door; "I don't want to work. There's +plenty ways fer me to git along without that. But +I've said what I come here to say, and I'll say one +thing more. Don't you worry about gittin' law +practice. Mike says you're goin' to git all you +want--and if there ain't no other way, why, a few +of us 'll go out and MAKE some fer ye!" + +These prophecies and promises, over which Joe +chuckled at first, with his head cocked to one +side, grew very soon, to his amazement, to wear a +supernatural similarity to actual fulfilment. His +friends brought him their own friends, such as +had sinned against the laws of Canaan, those under +the ban of the sheriff, those who had struck in +anger, those who had stolen at night, those who +owed and could not pay, those who lived by the +dice, and to his other titles to notoriety was added +that of defender of the poor and wicked. He found +his hands full, especially after winning his first +important case--on which occasion Canaan thought +the jury mad, and was indignant with the puzzled +Judge, who could not see just how it had happened. + +Joe did not stop at that. He kept on winning +cases, clearing the innocent and lightening the +burdens of the guilty; he became the most dangerous +attorney for the defence in Canaan; his honorable +brethren, accepting the popular view of him, held +him in personal contempt but feared him +professionally; for he proved that he knew more law +than they thought existed; nor could any trick him +--failing which, many tempers were lost, but never +Joe's. His practice was not all criminal, as shown +by the peevish outburst of the eminent Buckalew +(the Squire's nephew, esteemed the foremost lawyer +in Canaan), "Before long, there won't be any +use trying to foreclose a mortgage or collect a note +--unless this shyster gets himself in jail!" + +The wrath of Judge Martin Pike was august-- +there was a kind of sublimity in its immenseness-- +on a day when it befell that the shyster stood +betwixt him and money. + +That was a monstrous task--to stand between +these two and separate them, to hold back the +hand of Martin Pike from what it had reached out +to grasp. It was in the matter of some tax-titles +which the magnate had acquired, and, in court, +Joe treated the case with such horrifying +simplicity that it seemed almost credible that the +great man had counted upon the ignorance and +besottedness of Joe's client--a hard-drinking, +disreputable old farmer--to get his land away from +him without paying for it. Now, as every one +knew such a thing to be ludicrously impossible, +it was at once noised abroad in Canaan that Joe +had helped to swindle Judge Pike out of a large +sum of money--it was notorious that the shyster +could bamboozle court and jury with his tricks; +and it was felt that Joe Louden was getting into +very deep waters indeed. THIS was serious: if +the young man did not LOOK OUT, he might find +himself in the penitentiary. + +The Tocsin paragraphed him with a fine regularity +after this, usually opening with a Walrus-and-the-Carpenter +gravity: "The time has come when +we must speak of a certain matter frankly," or, "At +last the time has arrived when the demoralization +of the bar caused by a certain criminal lawyer must +be dealt with as it is and without gloves." Once +when Joe had saved a half-witted negro from "the +extreme penalty" for murder, the Tocsin had +declared, with great originality: "This is just the +kind of thing that causes mobs and justifies them. +If we are to continue to permit the worst class +of malefactors to escape the consequences of their +crimes through the unwholesome dexterities and the +shifty manipulations and technicalities of a +certain criminal lawyer, the time will come when an +outraged citizenry may take the enforcement of +the law in its own hands. Let us call a spade a +spade. If Canaan's streets ever echo with the +tread of a mob, the fault lies upon the head of +Joseph Louden, who has once more brought about +a miscarriage of justice. . . ." + +Joe did not move into a larger office; he remained +in the little room with its one window and its fine +view of the jail; his clients were nearly all poor, and +many of his fees quite literally nominal. Tatters +and rags came up the narrow stairway to his door +--tatters and rags and pitiful fineries: the bleared, +the sodden, the flaunting and rouged, the furtive +and wary, some in rags, some in tags, and some-- +the sorriest--in velvet gowns. With these, the +distressed, the wrong-doers, the drunken, the +dirty, and the very poor, his work lay and his days +and nights were spent. + +Ariel had told Roger Tabor that in time Joe +might come to be what the town thought him, if +it gave him no other chance. Only its dinginess +and evil surrounded him; no respectable house was +open to him; the barrooms--except that of the +"National House"--welcomed him gratefully and +admiringly. Once he went to church, on a pleasant +morning when nice girls wear pretty spring +dresses; it gave him a thrill of delight to see them, +to be near clean, good people once more. +Inadvertently, he took a seat by his step-mother, who +rose with a slight rustle of silk and moved to +another pew; and it happened, additionally, that +this was the morning that the minister, fired by +the Tocsin's warnings, had chosen to preach on +the subject of Joe himself. + +The outcast returned to his own kind. No lady +spoke to him upon the street. Mamie Pike had +passed him with averted eyes since her first meeting +with him, but the shunning and snubbing of a +young man by a pretty girl have never yet, if +done in a certain way, prevented him from +continuing to be in love with her. Mamie did it in +the certain way. Joe did not wince, therefore it +hurt all the more, for blows from which one cringes +lose much of their force. + +The town dog had been given a bad name, +painted solid black from head to heel. He was a +storm centre of scandal; the entrance to his dingy +stairway was in square view of the "National +House," and the result is imaginable. How many +of Joe's clients, especially those sorriest of the velvet +gowns, were conjectured to ascend his stairs for +reasons more convivial than legal! Yes, he lived with +his own kind, and, so far as the rest of Canaan was +concerned, might as well have worn the scarlet +letter on his breast or branded on his forehead. + +When he went about the streets he was made to +feel his condition by the elaborate avoidance, yet +furtive attention, of every respectable person he +met; and when he came home to his small rooms +and shut the door behind him, he was as one who +has been hissed and shamed in public and runs +to bury his hot face in his pillow. He petted +his mongrel extravagantly (well he might!), and +would sit with him in his rooms at night, holding +long converse with him, the two alone together. +The dog was not his only confidant. There came +to be another, a more and more frequent partner +to their conversations, at last a familiar spirit. +This third came from a brown jug which Joe kept +on a shelf in his bedroom, a vessel too frequently +replenished. When the day's work was done he +shut himself up, drank alone and drank hard. +Sometimes when the jug ran low and the night was +late he would go out for a walk with his dog, and +would awake in his room the next morning not +remembering where he had gone or how he had +come home. Once, after such a lapse of memory, +he woke amazed to find himself at Beaver Beach, +whither, he learned from the red-bearded man, +Happy Fear had brought him, having found him +wandering dazedly in a field near by. These lapses +grew more frequent, until there occurred that which +was one of the strange things of his life. + +It was a June night, a little more than two years +after his return to Canaan, and the Tocsin had that +day announced the approaching marriage of Eugene +Bantry and his employer's daughter. Joe ate +nothing during the day, and went through his work +clumsily, visiting the bedroom shelf at intervals. +At ten in the evening he went out to have the jug +refilled, but from the moment he left his door and +the fresh air struck his face, he had no clear knowledge +of what he did or of what went on about him +until he woke in his bed the next morning. + +And yet, whatever little part of the soul of him +remained, that night, still undulled, not numbed, +but alive, was in some strange manner lifted out of +its pain towards a strange delight. His body was +an automaton, his mind in bondage, yet there was +a still, small consciousness in him which knew that +in his wandering something incredible and unexpected +was happening. What this was he did not +know, could not see, though his eyes were open, +could not have told himself any more than a baby +could tell why it laughs, but it seemed something +so beautiful and wonderful that the night became +a night of perfume, its breezes bearing the music +of harps and violins, while nightingales sang from +the maples that bordered the streets of Canaan. + + + +X + +THE TRYST + +He woke to the light of morning amazed +and full of a strange wonder because +he did not know what had amazed +him. For a little while after his eyes +opened, he lay quite motionless; then +he lifted his head slightly and shook it with some +caution. This had come to be custom. The +operation assured him of the worst; the room swam +round him, and, with a faint groan, he let his head +fall back upon the pillow. But he could not sleep +again; pain stung its way through his heart as +memory began to come back to him, not of the +preceding night--that was all blank,--but realization +that the girl of whom he had dreamed so long +was to be married. That his dreams had been quite +hopeless was no balm to his hurt. + +A chime of bells sounded from a church steeple +across the Square, ringing out in assured righteousness, +summoning the good people who maintained +them to come and sit beneath them or be taken to +task; and they fell so dismally upon Joe's ear that +he bestirred himself and rose, to the delight of his +mongrel, who leaped upon him joyfully. An hour +later, or thereabout, the pair emerged from the narrow +stairway and stood for a moment, blinking in +the fair sunshine, apparently undecided which way +to go. The church bells were silent; there was no +breeze; the air trembled a little with the deep +pipings of the organ across the Square, and, save for +that, the town was very quiet. The paths which +crossed the Court-house yard were flecked with +steady shadow, the strong young foliage of the +maples not moving, having the air of observing the +Sabbath with propriety. There were benches here +and there along the walks, and to one of these Joe +crossed, and sat down. The mongrel, at his master's +feet, rolled on his back in morning ecstasy, ceased +abruptly to roll and began to scratch his ear with +a hind foot intently. A tiny hand stretched to pat +his head, and the dog licked it appreciatively. It +belonged to a hard-washed young lady of six (in +starchy, white frills and new, pink ribbons), who +had run ahead of her mother, a belated church-goer; +and the mongrel charmed her. + +"Will you give me this dog?" she asked, without +any tedious formalities. + +Involuntarily, she departed before receiving a +reply. The mother, a red-faced matron whom Joe +recognized as a sister of Mrs. Louden's, consequently +his step-aunt, swooped at the child with a rush +and rustle of silk, and bore her on violently to her +duty. When they had gone a little way the +matron's voice was heard in sharp reproof; the child, +held by one wrist and hurried along on tiptoe, +staring back over one shoulder at Joe, her eyes +wide, and her mouth the shape of the "O" she was +ejaculating. + +The dog looked up with wistful inquiry at his +master, who cocked an eyebrow at him in return, +wearing much the same expression. The mother +and child disappeared within the church doors and +left the Square to the two. Even the hotel showed +no signs of life, for the wise men were not allowed to +foregather on Sundays. The organ had ceased to +stir the air and all was in quiet, yet a quiet which, +for Louden, was not peace. He looked at his watch +and, without intending it, spoke the hour aloud: +"A quarter past eleven." The sound of his own +voice gave him a little shock; he rose without knowing +why, and, as he did so, it seemed to him that he +heard close to his ear another voice, a woman's, +troubled and insistent, but clear and sweet, saying: + +"REMEMBER! ACROSS MAIN STREET BRIDGE AT NOON!" + +It was so distinct that he started and looked +round. Then he laughed. "I'll be seeing circus +parades next!" His laughter fled, for, louder than +the ringing in his ears, unmistakably came the +strains of a far-away brass band which had no +existence on land or sea or in the waters under the +earth. + +"Here!" he said to the mongrel. "We need a +walk, I think. Let's you and me move on before +the camels turn the corner!" + +The music followed him to the street, where he +turned westward toward the river, and presently, +as he walked on, fanning himself with his straw hat, +it faded and was gone. But the voice he had heard +returned. + +"REMEMBER! ACROSS MAIN STREET BRIDGE AT NOON!" +it said again, close to his ear. + +This time he did not start. "All right," he +answered, wiping his forehead; "if you'll let me alone, +I'll be there." + +At a dingy saloon corner, near the river, a shabby +little man greeted him heartily and petted the +mongrel. "I'm mighty glad you didn't go, after +all, Joe," he added, with a brightening face. + +"Go where, Happy?" + +Mr. Fear looked grave. "Don't you rec'lect +meetin' me last night?" + +Louden shook his head. "No. Did I?" + +The other's jaw fell and his brow corrugated with +self-reproach. "Well, if that don't show what a +thick-head I am! I thought ye was all right er I'd +gone on with ye. Nobody c'd 'a' walked straighter +ner talked straighter. Said ye was goin' to leave +Canaan fer good and didn't want nobody to know it. +Said ye was goin' to take the 'leven-o'clock through +train fer the West, and told me I couldn't come +to the deepo with ye. Said ye'd had enough o' +Canaan, and of everything! I follered ye part way +to the deepo, but ye turned and made a motion fer +me to go back, and I done it, because ye seemed to +be kind of in trouble, and I thought ye'd ruther be +by yerself. Well, sir, it's one on me!" + +"Not at all," said Joe. "I was all right." + +"Was ye?" returned the other. "DO remember, +do ye?" + +"Almost," Joe smiled, faintly. + +"ALMOST," echoed Happy, shaking his head seriously. +"I tell ye, Joe, ef I was YOU--" he began +slowly, then paused and shook his head again. He +seemed on the point of delivering some advice, +but evidently perceiving the snobbishness of such +a proceeding, or else convinced by his own experience +of the futility of it, he swerved to cheerfulness: + +"I hear the boys is all goin' to work hard fer the +primaries. Mike says ye got some chances ye +don't know about; HE swears ye'll be the next +Mayor of Canaan." + +"Nonsense! Folly and nonsense, Happy! That's +the kind of thing I used to think when I was a boy. +But now--pshaw!" Joe broke off with a tired +laugh. "Tell them not to waste their time. Are +you going out to the Beach this afternoon?" + +The little man lowered his eyes moodily. "I'll +be near there," he said, scraping his patched shoe +up and down the curbstone. "That feller's in +town agin." + +"What fellow?" + +"`Nashville' they call him; Ed's the name he +give the hospital: Cory--him that I soaked the +night you come back to Canaan. He's after +Claudine to git his evens with me. He's made a +raise somewheres, and plays the spender. And +her--well, I reckon she's tired waitin' table at the +National House; tired o' me, too. I got a hint +that they're goin' out to the Beach together this +afternoon." + +Joe passed his hand wearily over his aching forehead. +"I understand," he said, "and you'd better +try to. Cory's laying for you, of course. You say +he's after your wife? He must have set about it +pretty openly if they're going to the Beach to-day, +for there is always a crowd there on Sundays. Is +it hard for you to see why he's doing it? It's +because he wants to make you jealous. What for? +So that you'll tackle him again. And why does he +want that? Because he's ready for you!" + +The other's eyes suddenly became bloodshot, his +nostrils expanding incredibly. "READY, is he? He +BETTER be ready. I--" + +"That's enough!" Joe interrupted, swiftly. +"We'll have no talk like that. I'll settle this for +you, myself. You send word to Claudine that I +want to see her at my office to-morrow morning, +and you--you stay away from the Beach to-day. +Give me your word." + +Mr. Fear's expression softened. "All right, Joe," +he said. "I'll do whatever you tell me to. Any +of us 'll do that; we sure know who's our friend." + +"Keep out of trouble, Happy." Joe turned to +go and they shook hands. "Good day, and--keep +out of trouble!" + +When he had gone, Mr. Fear's countenance +again gloomed ominously, and, shaking his head, +he ruminatively entered an adjacent bar through +the alley door. + +The Main Street bridge was an old-fashioned, +wooden, covered one, dust-colored and very narrow, +squarely framing the fair, open country beyond; +for the town had never crossed the river. +Joe found the cool shadow in the bridge gracious +to his hot brow, and through the slender chinks of +the worn flooring he caught bright glimpses of +running water. When he came out of the other +end he felt enough refreshed to light a cigar. + +"Well, here I am," he said. "Across Main +Street bridge--and it must be getting on toward +noon!" He spoke almost with the aspect of daring, +and immediately stood still, listening. +"`REMEMBER,"' he ventured to repeat, again daring, +"`REMEMBER! ACROSS MAIN STREET BRIDGE AT NOON!' " +And again he listened. Then he chuckled faintly +with relief, for the voice did not return. "Thank +God, I've got rid of that!" he whispered. "And +of the circus band too!" + +A dust road turned to the right, following the +river and shaded by big sycamores on the bank; +the mongrel, intensely preoccupied with this road, +scampered away, his nose to the ground. "Good +enough," said the master. "Lead on and I'll +come after you." + +But he had not far to follow. The chase led +him to a half-hollow log which lay on a low, grass- +grown levee above the stream, where the dog's +interest in the pursuit became vivid; temporarily, +however, for after a few minutes of agitated +investigation, he was seized with indifference to the +whole world; panted briefly; slept. Joe sat upon +the log, which was in the shade, and smoked. + +"`REMEMBER!' " He tried it once more. "`ACROSS +MAIN STREET BRIDGE AT NOON!' " Safety still; the +voice came not. But the sound of his own repetition +of the words brought him an eerie tremor; +for the mist of a memory came with it; nothing +tangible, nothing definite, but something very far +away and shadowy, yet just poignant enough to +give him a queer feeling that he was really keeping +an appointment here. Was it with some water- +sprite that would rise from the river? Was it +with a dryad of the sycamores? He knew too well +that he might expect strange fancies to get hold of +him this morning, and, as this one grew uncannily +stronger, he moved his head briskly as if to shake +it off. The result surprised him; the fancy +remained, but his headache and dizziness had left +him. + +A breeze wandered up the river and touched the +leaves and grass to life. Sparrows hopped and +chirped in the branches, absurdly surprised; without +doubt having concluded in the Sunday stillness +that the world would drowse forever; and the +mongrel lifted his head, blinked at them, hopelessly +wishing they would alight near him, scratched +his ear with the manner of one who has neglected +such matters overlong; reversed his position; slept +again. The young corn, deep green in the bottomland, +moved with a staccato flurry, and the dust +ghost of a mad whirling dervish sped up the main +road to vanish at the bridge in a climax of lunacy. +The stirring air brought a smell of blossoms; the +distance took on faint lavender hazes which blended +the outlines of the fields, lying like square +coverlets upon the long slope of rising ground +beyond the bottom-land, and empurpled the blue +woodland shadows of the groves. + +For the first time, it struck Joe that it was a +beautiful day, and it came to him that a beautiful +day was a thing which nothing except death, sickness, +or imprisonment could take from him--not +even the ban of Canaan! Unforewarned, music +sounded in his ears again; but he did not shrink +from it now; this was not the circus band he had +heard as he left the Square, but a melody like a +far-away serenade at night, as of "the horns of +elf-land faintly blowing"; and he closed his eyes +with the sweetness of it. + +"Go ahead!" he whispered. "Do that all you +want to. If you'll keep it up like this awhile, I'll +follow with `Little Brown Jug, How I Love Thee!' +It seems to pay, after all!" + +The welcome strains, however, were but the +prelude to a harsher sound which interrupted and +annihilated them: the Court-house bell clanging +out twelve. "All right," said Joe. "It's noon +and I'm `across Main Street bridge.' " + +He opened his eyes and looked about him +whimsically. Then he shook his head again. + +A lady had just emerged from the bridge and +was coming toward him. + +It would be hard to get at Joe's first impressions +of her. We can find conveyance for only the +broadest and heaviest. Ancient and modern +instances multiply the case of the sleeper who dreams +out a long story in accurate color and fine detail, +a tale of years, in the opening and shutting of a +door. So with Joseph, in the brief space of the +lady's approach. And with him, as with the sleeper, +it must have been--in fact it was, in his recollections, +later--a blur of emotion. + +At first sight of her, perhaps it was pre-eminently +the shock of seeing anything so exquisite where +he had expected to see nothing at all. For she +was exquisite--horrid as have been the uses of the +word, its best and truest belong to her; she was +that and much more, from the ivory ferrule of the +parasol she carried, to the light and slender footprint +she left in the dust of the road. Joe knew at +once that nothing like her had ever before been +seen in Canaan. + +He had little knowledge of the millinery arts, +and he needed none to see the harmony--harmony +like that of the day he had discovered a little +while ago. Her dress and hat and gloves and +parasol showed a pale lavender overtint like that +which he had seen overspreading the western +slope. (Afterward, he discovered that the gloves +she wore that day were gray, and that her hat was +for the most part white.) The charm of fabric +and tint belonging to what she wore was no shame +to her, not being of primal importance beyond +herself; it was but the expression of her daintiness and +the adjunct of it. She was tall, but if Joe could +have spoken or thought of her as "slender," he +would have been capable of calling her lips "red," +in which case he would not have been Joe, and +would have been as far from the truth as her lips +were from red, or as her supreme delicateness was +from mere slenderness. + +Under the summer hat her very dark hair swept +back over her temples with something near trimness +in the extent to which it was withheld from +being fluffy. It may be that this approach to +trimness, which was, after all, only a sort of +coquetry with trimness, is the true key to the +mystery of the vision of the lady who appeared to Joe. +Let us say that she suppressed everything that +went beyond grace; that the hint of floridity was +abhorrent to her. "Trim" is as clumsy as +"slender"; she had escaped from the trimness of +girlhood as wholly as she had gone through its +coltishness. "Exquisite." Let us go back to Joe's +own blurred first thought of her and be content +with that! + +She was to pass him--so he thought--and as +she drew nearer, his breath came faster. + +"REMEMBER! ACROSS MAIN STREET BRIDGE AT NOON!" +Was THIS the fay of whom the voice had warned +him? With that, there befell him the mystery +of last night. He did not remember, but it was +as if he lived again, dimly, the highest hour of +happiness in a life a thousand years ago; perfume +and music, roses, nightingales and plucked harp- +strings. Yes; something wonderful was happening +to him. + +She had stopped directly in front of him; +stopped and stood looking at him with her clear eyes. +He did not lift his own to hers; he had long +experience of the averted gaze of women; but it was +not only that; a great shyness beset him. He +had risen and removed his hat, trying (ineffectually) +not to clear his throat; his every-day sense urging +upon him that she was a stranger in Canaan +who had lost her way--the preposterousness of any +one's losing the way in Canaan not just now +appealing to his every--day sense. + +"Can I--can I--" he stammered, blushing +miserably, meaning to finish with "direct you," or +"show you the way." + +Then he looked at her again and saw what +seemed to him the strangest sight of his life. The +lady's eyes had filled with tears--filled and +overfilled. "I'll sit here on the log with +you," she said. And her voice was the voice which +he had heard saying, +"REMEMBER! ACROSS MAIN STREET BRIDGE AT NOON!" + +"WHAT!" he gasped. + +"You don't need to dust it!" she went on, +tremulously. And even then he did not know who +she was. + + + +XI + +WHEN HALF-GODS GO + +There was a silence, for if the dazzled +young man could have spoken at all, +He could have found nothing to say; +and, perhaps, the lady would not +trust her own voice just then. His +eyes had fallen again; he was too dazed, and, in +truth, too panic-stricken, now, to look at her, +though if he had been quite sure that she was part +of a wonderful dream he might have dared. She +was seated beside him, and had handed him her +parasol in a little way which seemed to imply that +of course he had reached for it, so that it was to +be seen how used she was to have all tiny things +done for her, though this was not then of his +tremulous observing. He did perceive, however, that +he was to furl the dainty thing; he pressed the +catch, and let down the top timidly, as if fearing to +break or tear it; and, as it closed, held near his face, +he caught a very faint, sweet, spicy emanation +from it like wild roses and cinnamon. + +He did not know her; but his timidity and a +strange little choke in his throat, the sudden fright +which had seized upon him, were not caused by +embarrassment. He had no thought that she +was one he had known but could not, for the +moment, recall; there was nothing of the awkwardness +of that; no, he was overpowered by the miracle of +this meeting. And yet, white with marvelling, +he felt it to be so much more touchingly a great +happiness than he had ever known that at first it +was inexpressibly sad. + +At last he heard her voice again, shaking a little, +as she said: + +"I am glad you remembered." + +"Remembered what?" he faltered. + +"Then you don't?" she cried. "And yet you came." + +"Came here, do you mean?" + +"Yes--now, at noon." + +"Ah!" he half whispered, unable to speak aloud. +"Was it you who said--who said, `Remember! +Across--across--"' + +"`Across Main Street bridge at noon!' " she +finished for him, gently. "Yes." + +He took a deep breath in the wonder of it. +"Where was it you said that?" he asked, slowly. +"Was it last night?" + +"Don't you even know that you came to meet me?" + +"_I_--came to--to meet--you!" + +She gave a little pitying cry, very near a sob, +seeing his utter bewilderment. + +"It was like the strangest dream in the world," +she said. "You were at the station when I came, +last night. You don't remember at all?" + +His eyes downcast, his face burning hotly, he +could only shake his head. + +"Yes," she continued. "I thought no one +would be there, for I had not written to say what +train I should take, but when I stepped down +from the platform, you were standing there; +though you didn't see me at first, not until I had +called your name and ran to you. You said, `I've +come to meet you,' but you said it queerly, I +thought. And then you called a carriage for me; +but you seemed so strange you couldn't tell how +you knew that I was coming, and--and then I--I +understood you weren't yourself. You were very +quiet, but I knew, I knew! So I made you get +into the carriage--and--and--" + +She faltered to a stop, and with that, shame +itself brought him courage; he turned and faced +her. She had lifted her handkerchief to her eyes, +but at his movement she dropped it, and it was not +so much the delicate loveliness of her face that he +saw then as the tears upon her cheeks. + +"Ah, poor boy!" she cried. "I knew! I knew!" + +"You--you took me home?" + +"You told me where you lived," she answered. +"Yes, I took you home." + +"I don't understand," he stammered, huskily. +"I don't understand!" + +She leaned toward him slightly, looking at him +with great intentness. + +"You didn't know me last night," she said. "Do +you know me now?" + +For answer he could only stare at her, +dumfounded. He lifted an unsteady hand toward +her appealingly. But the manner of the lady, as +she saw the truth, underwent an April change. +She drew back lightly; he was favored with the +most delicious, low laugh he had ever heard, and, +by some magic whisk which she accomplished, +there was no sign of tears about her. + +"Ah! I'm glad you're the same, Joe!" she said. +"You never would or could pretend very well. +I'm glad you're the same, and I'm glad I've +changed, though that isn't why you have forgotten +me. You've forgotten me because you +never thought of me. Perhaps I should not have +known you if you had changed a great deal--as I +have!" + +He started, leaning back from her. + +"Ah!" she laughed. "That's it! That funny +little twist of the head you always had, like a-- +like a--well, you know I must have told you a +thousand times that it was like a nice friendly +puppy; so why shouldn't I say so now? And your +eyebrows! When you look like that, nobody could +ever forget you, Joe!" + +He rose from the log, and the mongrel leaped +upon him uproariously, thinking they were to go +home, belike to food. + +The lady laughed again. "Don't let him spoil +my parasol. And I must warn you now: Never, +never TREAD ON MY SKIRT! I'm very irritable about +such things!" + +He had taken three or four uncertain backward +steps from her. She sat before him, radiant with +laughter, the loveliest creature he had ever seen; +but between him and this charming vision there +swept, through the warm, scented June air, a veil +of snow like a driven fog, and, half obscured in the +heart of it, a young girl stood, knee-deep in a drift +piled against an old picket gate, her black water- +proof and shabby skirt flapping in the blizzard +like torn sails, one of her hands out-stretched +toward him, her startled eyes fixed on his. + +"And, oh, how like you," said the lady; "how +like you and nobody else in the world, Joe, to have +a yellow dog!" + +"ARIEL TABOR!" + +His lips formed the words without sound. + +"Isn't it about time?" she said. "Are strange +ladies in the HABIT of descending from trains to +take you home?" + + +Once, upon a white morning long ago, the +sensational progress of a certain youth up Main Street +had stirred Canaan. But that day was as nothing +to this. Mr. Bantry had left temporary paralysis +in his wake; but in the case of the two young people +who passed slowly along the street to-day it +was petrifaction, which seemingly threatened in +several instances (most notably that of Mr. Arp) +to become permanent. + +The lower portion of the street, lined with three +and four story buildings of brick and stone, rather +grim and hot facades under the mid-day sun, +afforded little shade to the church-comers, who +were working homeward in processional little +groups and clumps, none walking fast, though +none with the appearance of great leisure, since +neither rate of progress would have been esteemed +befitting the day. The growth of Canaan, steady, +though never startling, had left almost all of the +churches down-town, and Main Street the principal +avenue of communication between them and the +"residence section." So, to-day, the intermittent +procession stretched along the new cement side- +walks from a little below the Square to Upper +Main Street, where maples lined the thoroughfare +and the mansions of the affluent stood among +pleasant lawns and shrubberies. It was late; for +this had been a communion Sunday, and those +far in advance, who had already reached the pretty +and shady part of the street, were members of the +churches where services had been shortest; though +few in the long parade looked as if they had been +attending anything very short, and many heads of +families were crisp in their replies to the theological +inquiries of their offspring. The men imparted +largely a gloom to the itinerant concourse, most +of them wearing hot, long black coats and having +wilted their collars; the ladies relieving this gloom +somewhat by the lighter tints of their garments; +the spick-and-span little girls relieving it greatly +by their white dresses and their faces, the latter +bright with the hope of Sunday ice-cream; while +the boys, experiencing some solace in that they +were finally out where a person could at least +scratch himself if he had to, yet oppressed by the +decorous necessities of the day, marched along, +furtively planning, behind imperturbably secretive +countenances, various means for the later dispersal +of an odious monotony. + +Usually the conversation of this long string of the +homeward-bound was not too frivolous or worldly; +nay, it properly inclined to discussion of the sermon; +that is, praise of the sermon, with here and there a +mild "I-didn't-like-his-saying" or so; and its lighter +aspects were apt to concern the next "Social," or +various pleasurable schemes for the raising of funds +to help the heathen, the quite worthy poor, or the +church. + +This was the serious and seemly parade, the +propriety of whose behavior was to-day almost +disintegrated when the lady of the bridge walked +up the street in the shadow of a lacy, lavender +parasol carried by Joseph Louden. The congregation +of the church across the Square, that to which +Joe's step-aunt had been late, was just debouching, +almost in mass, upon Main Street, when these two +went by. It is not quite the truth to say that all +except the children came to a dead halt, but it is not +very far from it. The air was thick with subdued +exclamations and whisperings. + +Here is no mystery. Joe was probably the only +person of respectable derivation in Canaan who had +not known for weeks that Ariel Tabor was on her +way home. And the news that she had arrived the +night before had been widely disseminated on the +way to church, entering church, IN church (even so!), +and coming out of church. An account of her house +in the Avenue Henri Martin, and of her portrait in +the Salon--a mysterious business to many, and not +lacking in grandeur for that!--had occupied two +columns in the Tocsin, on a day, some months +before, when Joe had found himself inimically head- +lined on the first page, and had dropped the paper +without reading further. Ariel's name had been +in the mouth of Canaan for a long time; unfortunately +for Joe, however, not in the mouth of that +Canaan which held converse with him. + +Joe had not known her. The women recognized +her, infallibly, at first glance; even those who had +quite forgotten her. And the women told their +men. Hence the un-Sunday-like demeanor of the +procession, for few towns hold it more unseemly to +stand and stare at passers-by, especially on the +Sabbath.--BUT Ariel Tabor returned--and walking +with--WITH JOE LOUDEN! . . . + +A low but increasing murmur followed the two +as they proceeded. It ran up the street ahead of +them; people turned to look back and paused, so +that they had to walk round one or two groups. +They had, also, to walk round Norbert Flitcroft, +which was very like walking round a group. He +was one of the few (he was waddling home alone) +who did not identify Miss Tabor, and her effect upon +him was extraordinary. His mouth opened and he +gazed stodgily, his widening eyes like sun-dogs +coming out of a fog. He did not recognize her +escort; did not see him at all until they had passed, +after which Mr. Flitcroft experienced a few +moments of trance; came out of it stricken through and +through; felt nervously of his tie; resolutely fell in +behind the heeling mongrel and followed, at a +distance of some forty paces, determined to learn +what household this heavenly visitor honored, and +thrilling with the intention to please that same +household with his own presence as soon and as +often as possible. + +Ariel flushed a little when she perceived the +extent of their conspicuousness; but it was not the +blush that Joe remembered had reddened the +tanned skin of old; for her brownness had gone +long ago, though it had not left her merely pink and +white. This was a delicate rosiness rising from her +cheeks to her temples as the earliest dawn rises. If +there had been many words left in Joe, he would +have called it a divine blush; it fascinated him, and +if anything could have deepened the glamour about +her, it would have been this blush. He did not +understand it, but when he saw it he stumbled. + +Those who gaped and stared were for him only +blurs in the background; truly, he saw "men as +trees walking"; and when it became necessary to +step out to the curb in passing some clump of +people, it was to him as if Ariel and he, enchantedly +alone, were working their way through underbrush +in the woods. + +He kept trying to realize that this lady of wonder +was Ariel Tabor, but he could not; he could not +connect the shabby Ariel, whom he had treated as +one boy treats another, with this young woman of +the world. He had always been embarrassed, himself, +and ashamed of her, when anything she did +made him remember that, after all, she was a girl; +as, on the day he ran away, when she kissed a lock +of his hair escaping from the bandage. With that +recollection, even his ears grew red: it did not seem +probable that it would ever happen again! The +next instant he heard himself calling her "Miss +Tabor." + +At this she seemed amused. "You ought to have +called me that, years ago," she said, "for all you +knew me!" + +"I did know her--YOU, I mean!" he answered. +"I used to know nearly everything you were going +to say before you said it. It seems strange now--" + +"Yes," she interrupted. "It does seem strange +now!" + +"Somehow," he went on, "I doubt if now I'd +know." + +"Somehow," she echoed, with fine gravity, "I +doubt it, too." + +Although he had so dim a perception of the staring +and whispering which greeted and followed them, +Ariel, of course, was thoroughly aware of it, though +the only sign she gave was the slight blush, which +very soon disappeared. That people turned to +look at her may have been not altogether a novelty: +a girl who had learned to appear unconscious of the +Continental stare, the following gaze of the boulevards, +the frank glasses of the Costanza in Rome, +was not ill equipped to face Main Street, Canaan, +even as it was to-day. + +Under the sycamores, before they started, they +had not talked a great deal; there had been long +silences: almost all her questions concerning the +period of his runaway absence; she appeared to +know and to understand everything which had happened +since his return to the town. He had not, +in his turn, reached the point where he would begin +to question her; he was too breathless in his +consciousness of the marvellous present hour. She +had told him of the death of Roger Tabor, the year +before. "Poor man," she said, gently, "he lived to +see `how the other fellows did it' at last, and +everybody liked him. He was very happy over there." + +After a little while she had said that it was +growing close upon lunch-time; she must be going back. + +"Then--then--good-bye," he replied, ruefully. + +"Why?" + +"I'm afraid you don't understand. It wouldn't +do for you to be seen with me. Perhaps, though, +you do understand. Wasn't that why you asked me +to meet you out here beyond the bridge?" + +In answer she looked at him full and straight for +three seconds, then threw back her head and closed +her eyes tight with laughter. Without a word she +took the parasol from him, opened it herself, placed +the smooth white coral handle of it in his hand, and +lightly took his arm. There was no further demur +on the part of the young man. He did not know +where she was going; he did not ask. + +Soon after Norbert turned to follow them, they +came to the shady part of the street, where the town +in summer was like a grove. Detachments from +the procession had already, here and there, turned +in at the various gates. Nobody, however, +appeared to have gone in-doors, except for fans, armed +with which immediately to return to rockers upon +the shaded verandas. As Miss Tabor and Joe +went by, the rocking-chairs stopped; the fans +poised, motionless; and perspiring old gentlemen, +wiping their necks, paused in arrested attitudes. + +Once Ariel smiled politely, not at Mr. Louden, +and inclined her head twice, with the result that the +latter, after thinking for a time of how gracefully +she did it and how pretty the top of her hat was, +became gradually conscious of a meaning in her +action: that she had bowed to some one across the +street. He lifted his hat, about four minutes late, +and discovered Mamie Pike and Eugene, upon the +opposite pavement, walking home from church +together. Joe changed color. + +There, just over the way, was she who had been, +in his first youth, the fairy child, the little princess +playing in the palace yard, and always afterward +his lady of dreams, his fair unreachable moon! And +Joe, seeing her to-day, changed color; that was all! +He had passed Mamie in the street only a week +before, and she had seemed all that she had always +seemed; to-day an incomprehensible and subtle +change had befallen her--a change so mystifying to +him that for a moment he almost doubted that she +was Mamie Pike. It came to him with a breath- +taking shock that her face lacked a certain vivacity +of meaning; that its sweetness was perhaps too +placid; that there would have been a deeper goodness +in it had there been any hint of daring. +Astonishing questions assailed him, startled him: +could it be true that, after all, there might be some +day too much of her? Was her amber hair a little +too--FLUFFY? Was something the matter with her +dress? Everything she wore had always seemed so +beautiful. Where had the exquisiteness of it gone? +For there was surely no exquisiteness about it now! +It was incredible that any one could so greatly alter +in the few days elapsed since he had seen her. + +Strange matters! Mamie had never looked +prettier. + +At the sound of Ariel's voice he emerged from +the profundities of his psychic enigma with a leap. + +"She is lovelier than ever, isn't she?" + +"Yes, indeed," he answered, blankly. + +"Would you still risk--" she began, smiling, +but, apparently thinking better of it, changed her +question: "What is the name of your dog, Mr. +Louden? You haven't told me." + +"Oh, he's just a yellow dog," he evaded, unskilfully. + +"YOUNG MAN!" she said, sharply. + +"Well," he admitted, reluctantly, "I call him +Speck for short." + +"And what for long? I want to know his real +name." + +"It's mighty inappropriate, because we're fond +of each other," said Joe, "but when I picked him +up he was so yellow, and so thin, and so creeping, +and so scared that I christened him `Respectability.' " + +She broke into light laughter, stopped short in +the midst of it, and became grave. "Ah, you've +grown bitter," she said, gently. + +"No, no," he protested. "I told you I liked +him." + +She did not answer. + +They were now opposite the Pike Mansion, and +to his surprise she turned, indicating the way by +a touch upon his sleeve, and crossed the street +toward the gate, which Mamie and Eugene had entered. +Mamie, after exchanging a word with Eugene +upon the steps, was already hurrying into the +house. + +Ariel paused at the gate, as if waiting for Joe +to open it. + +He cocked his head, his higher eyebrow rose, +and the distorted smile appeared. "I don't +believe we'd better stop here," he said. "The last +time I tried it I was expunged from the face of +the universe." + +"Don't you know?" she cried. "I'm staying +here. Judge Pike has charge of all my property; +he was the administrator, or something." Then +seeing him chopfallen and aghast, she went on: +"Of course you don't know! You don't know +anything about me. You haven't even asked!" + +"You're going to live HERE?" he gasped. + +"Will you come to see me?" she laughed. "Will +you come this afternoon?" + +He grew white. "You know I can't," he said. + +"You came here once. You risked a good deal +then, just to see Mamie dance by a window. Don't +you dare a little for an old friend?" + +"All right," he gulped. "I'll try." + +Mr. Bantry had come down to the gate and was +holding it open, his eyes fixed upon Ariel, within +them a rising glow. An impression came to Joe +afterward that his step-brother had looked very +handsome. + +"Possibly you remember me, Miss Tabor?" said +Eugene, in a deep and impressive voice, lifting his +hat. "We were neighbors, I believe, in the old +days." + +She gave him her hand in a fashion somewhat +mannerly, favoring him with a bright, negligent +smile. "Oh, quite," she answered, turning again +to Joe as she entered the gate. "Then I shall +expect you?" + +"I'll try," said Joe. "I'll try." + +He stumbled away; Respectability and he, together, + interfering alarmingly with the comfort of +Mr. Flitcroft, who had stopped in the middle of the +pavement to stare glassily at Ariel. Eugene +accompanied the latter into the house, and Joe, +looking back, understood: Mamie had sent his step- +brother to bring Ariel in--and to keep him from +following. + +"This afternoon!" The thought took away his +breath, and he became paler. + +The Pike brougham rolled by him, and Sam +Warden, from the box, favored his old friend upon +the pavement with a liberal display of the whites +of his eyes. The Judge, evidently, had been +detained after services--without doubt a meeting of +the church officials. Mrs. Pike, blinking and +frightened, sat at her husband's side, agreeing +feebly with the bull-bass which rumbled out of +the open window of the brougham: "I want +orthodox preaching in MY church, and, by God, +madam, I'll have it! That fellow has got to go!" +Joe took off his hat and wiped his brow. + + + +XII + +TO REMAIN ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE IS NOT ALWAYS A VICTORY + +Mamie, waiting just inside the door as Ariel and +Eugene entered, gave the visitor a pale greeting, +and, a moment later, hearing the wheels of the brougham +crunch the gravel of the carriage-drive, hurried away, +down the broad hall, and disappeared. Ariel dropped her +parasol upon a marble-topped table near the door, and, +removing her gloves, drifted into a room at the +left, where a grand piano found shelter beneath +crimson plush. After a moment of contemplation, +she pushed back the coverlet, and, seating herself +upon the plush-covered piano-stool (to match), +let her fingers run up and down the key-board once +and fall listlessly in her lap, as she gazed with deep +interest at three life-sized colored photographs (in +carved gilt frames) upon the wall she was facing: +Judge Pike, Mamie, and Mrs. Pike with her rubies. + +"Please don't stop playing, Miss Tabor," said a +voice behind her. She had not observed that +Eugene had followed her into the room. + +"Very well, if you like," she answered, looking +up to smile absently at him. And she began to +play a rakish little air which, composed by some +rattle-brain at a cafe table, had lately skipped out +of the Moulin Rouge to disport itself over Paris. +She played it slowly, in the minor, with elfish +pathos; while he leaned upon the piano, his eyes +fixed upon her fingers, which bore few rings, none, +he observed with an unreasonable pleasure, upon +the third finger of the left hand. + +"It's one of those simpler Grieg things, isn't +it?" he said, sighing gently. "I care for Grieg." + +"Would you mind its being Chaminade?" she +returned, dropping her eyes to cloak the sin. + +"Ah no; I recognize it now," replied Eugene. +"He appeals to me even more than Grieg." + +At this she glanced quickly up at him, but more +quickly down again, and hastened the time +emphatically, swinging the little air into the major. + +"Do you play the `Pilgrim's Chorus'?" + +She shook her head. + +"Vous name pas Wagner?" inquired Eugene, +leaning toward her. + +"Oh yes," she answered, bending her head far +over, so that her face was concealed from him, +except the chin, which, he saw with a thrill of +inexplicable emotion, was trembling slightly. +There were some small white flowers upon her hat, +and these shook too. + +She stopped playing abruptly, rose from the +stool and crossed the room to a large mahogany +chair, upholstered in red velvet and of hybrid +construction, possessing both rockers and legs. She +had moved in a way which prevented him from +seeing her face, but he was certain of her agitation, +and strangely glad, while curious, tremulous half- +thoughts, edged with prophecy, bubbled to the +surface of his consciousness. + +When she turned to him, he was surprised to +see that she looked astonishingly happy, almost +as if she had been struggling with joy, instead of +pain. + +"This chair," she said, sinking into it, "makes +me feel at home." + +Naturally he could not understand. + +"Because," she explained, "I once thought I +was going to live in it. It has been reupholstered, +but I should know it if I met in anywhere in the +world!" + +"How very odd!" exclaimed Eugene, staring. + +"I settled here in pioneer days," she went on, +tapping the arms lightly with her finger-tips. "It +was the last dance I went to in Canaan." + +"I fear the town was very provincial at that +time," he returned, having completely forgotten +the occasion she mentioned, therefore wishing to +shift the subject. "I fear you may still find it +so. There is not much here that one is in sympathy +with, intellectually--few people really of +the world." + +"Few people, I suppose you mean," she said, +softly, with a look that went deep enough into his +eyes, "few people who really understand one?" + +Eugene had seated himself on the sill of an open +window close by. "There has been," he answered, +with the ghost of a sigh, "no one." + +She turned her head slightly away from him, +apparently occupied with a loose thread in her sleeve. +There were no loose threads; it was an old habit of +hers which she retained. "I suppose," she +murmured, in a voice as low as his had been, "that a +man of your sort might find Canaan rather lonely +and sad." + +"It HAS been!" Whereupon she made him a +laughing little bow. + +"You are sure you complain of Canaan?" + +"Yes!" he exclaimed. "You don't know what +it is to live here--" + +"I think I do. I lived here seventeen years." + +"Oh yes," he began to object, "as a child, but--" + +"Have you any recollection," she interrupted, +"of the day before your brother ran away? Of +coming home for vacation--I think it was your first +year in college--and intervening between your +brother and me in a snow-fight?" + +For a moment he was genuinely perplexed; then +his face cleared. "Certainly," he said: "I found +him bullying you and gave him a good punishing +for it." + +"Is that all you remember?" + +"Yes," he replied, honestly. "Wasn't that all?" + +"Quite!" she smiled, her eyes half closed. +"Except that I went home immediately afterward." + +"Naturally," said Eugene. "My step-brother +wasn't very much chevalier sans peur et sans reproche! +Ah, I should like to polish up my French a +little. Would you mind my asking you to read a +bit with me, some little thing of Daudet's if you +care for him, in the original? An hour, now and +then, perhaps--" + +Mamie appeared in the doorway and Eugene rose +swiftly. "I have been trying to persuade Miss +Tabor," he explained, with something too much of +laughter, "to play again. You heard that little +thing of Chaminade's--" + +Mamie did not appear to hear him; she entered +breathlessly, and there was no color in her cheeks. +"Ariel," she exclaimed, "I don't want you to think +I'm a tale-bearer--" + +"Oh, my dear!" Ariel said, with a gesture of +deprecation. + +"No," Miss Pike went on, all in one breath, "but +I'm afraid you will think it, because papa knows and +he wants to see you." + +"What is it that he knows?" + +"That you were walking with Joseph Louden!" +(This was as if she had said, "That you poisoned +your mother.") "I DIDN'T tell him, but when we +saw you with him I was troubled, and asked +Eugene what I'd better do, because Eugene always +knows what is best." (Mr. Bantry's expression, +despite this tribute, was not happy.) "And he +advised me to tell mamma about it and leave it +in her hands. But she always tells papa everything--" + +"Certainly; that is understood," said Ariel, +slowly, turning to smile at Eugene. + +"And she told him this right away," Mamie +finished. + +"Why shouldn't she, if it is of the slightest +interest to him?" + +The daughter of the house exhibited signs of +consternation. "He wants to see you," she repeated, +falteringly. "He's in the library." + +Having thus discharged her errand, she hastened +to the front-door, which had been left open, and out +to the steps, evidently with the intention of +removing herself as soon and as far as possible from +the vicinity of the library. + +Eugene, visibly perturbed, followed her to the +doorway of the room, and paused. + +"Do you know the way?" he inquired, with a +note of solemnity. + +"Where?" Ariel had not risen. + +"To the library." + +"Of course," she said, beaming upon him. "I +was about to ask you if you wouldn't speak to +the Judge for me. This is such a comfortable old +friend, this chair." + +"Speak to him for you?" repeated the non- +plussed Eugene. + +She nodded cheerfully. "If I may trouble you. +Tell him, certainly, I shall be glad to see him." + +He threw a piteous glance after Mamie, who was +now, as he saw, through the open door, out upon the +lawn and beyond easy hailing distance. When he +turned again to look at Ariel he discovered that she +had shifted the position of her chair slightly, and +was gazing out of the window with every appearance +of cheerful meditation. She assumed so unmistakably +that he had of course gone on her mission +that, dismayed and his soul quaking, he could find +neither an alternative nor words to explain to this +dazzling lady that not he nor any other could bear +such a message to Martin Pike. + +Eugene went. There was nothing else to do; and +he wished with every step that the distance to the +portals of the library might have been greater. + +In whatever guise he delivered the summons, it +was perfectly efficacious. A door slammed, a heavy +and rapid tread was heard in the hall, and Ariel, +without otherwise moving, turned her head and +offered a brilliant smile of greeting. + +"It was good of you," she said, as the doorway +filled with red, imperial wrath, "to wish to have a +little chat with me. I'm anxious, of course, to go +over my affairs with you, and last night, after my +journey, I was too tired. But now we might begin; +not in detail, of course, just yet. That will do for +later, when I've learned more about business." + +The great one had stopped on the threshold. + +"Madam," he began, coldly, "when I say my +library, I mean my--" + +"Oh yes," she interrupted, with amiable weariness. +"I know. You mean you keep all the +papers and books of the estate in there, but I think +we'd better put them off for a few days--" + +"I'm not talking about the estate!" he exclaimed. +"What I want to talk to you about is being seen +with Joseph Louden!" + +"Yes," she nodded, brightly. "That's along the +line we must take up first." + +"Yes, it is!" He hurled his bull-bass at her. +"You knew everything about him and his standing +in this community! I know you did, because Mrs. +Pike told me you asked all about him from Mamie +after you came last night, and, see here, don't +you--" + +"Oh, but I knew before that," she laughed. "I +had a correspondent in Canaan, one who has always +taken a great interest in Mr. Louden. I asked Miss +Pike only to get her own point of view." + +"I want to tell you, madam," he shouted, +coming toward her, "that no member of my household--" + +"That's another point we must take up to-day. +I'm glad you remind me of it," she said, thoughtfully, +yet with so magically compelling an intonation +that he stopped his shouting in the middle of +a word; stopped with an apoplectic splutter. "We +must arrange to put the old house in order at once." + +"We'll arrange nothing of the sort," he responded, +after a moment of angry silence. "You're +going to stay right here." + +"Ah, I know your hospitality," she bowed, +graciously. "But of course I must not tax it too +far. And about Mr. Louden? As I said, I want +to speak to you about him." + +"Yes," he intervened, harshly. "So do I, and +I'm going to do it quick! You'll find--" + +Again she mysteriously baffled him. "He's a +dear old friend of mine, you know, and I have made +up my mind that we both need his help, you and I." + +"What!" + +"Yes," she continued, calmly, "in a business way +I mean. I know you have great interests in a hundred +directions, all more important than mine; it +isn't fair that you should bear the whole burden of +my affairs, and I think it will be best to retain Mr. +Louden as my man of business. He could take all +the cares of the estate off your shoulders." + +Martin Pike spoke no word, but he looked at her +strangely; and she watched him with sudden keenness, +leaning forward in her chair, her gaze alert but +quiet, fixed on the dilating pupils of his eyes. He +seemed to become dizzy, and the choleric scarlet +which had overspread his broad face and big neck +faded splotchily. + +Still keeping her eyes upon him, she went on: +"I haven't asked him yet, and so I don't know +whether or not he'll consent, but I think it possible +that he may come to see me this afternoon, and if +he does we can propose it to him together and go +over things a little." + +Judge Pike recovered his voice. "He'll get a +warm welcome," he promised, huskily, "if he sets +foot on my premises!" + +"You mean you prefer I shouldn't receive him +here?" She nodded pleasantly. "Then certainly +I shall not. Such things are much better for offices; +you are quite right." + +"You'll not see him at all!" + +"Ah, Judge Pike," she lifted her hand with +gentle deprecation, "don't you understand that we +can't quite arrange that? You see, Mr. Louden is +even an older friend of mine than you are, and so I +must trust his advice about such things more than +yours. Of course, if he too should think it better +for me not to see him--" + +The Judge advanced toward her. "I'm tired of +this," he began, in a loud voice. "I'm--" + +She moved as if to rise, but he had come very +close, leaning above her, one arm out-stretched and +at the end of it a heavy forefinger which he was +shaking at her, so that it was difficult to get out of +her chair without pushing him away--a feat +apparently impossible. Ariel Tabor, in rising, placed +her hand upon his out-stretched arm, quite as if +he had offered it to assist her; he fell back a step in +complete astonishment; she rose quickly, and +released his arm. + +"Thank you," she said, beamingly. "It's quite +all my fault that you're tired. I've been thoughtless +to keep you so long, and you have been standing, +too!" She swept lightly and quickly to the +door, where she paused, gathering her skirts. "I +shall not detain you another instant! And if Mr. +Louden comes, this afternoon, I'll remember. I'll +not let him come in, of course. It will be perhaps +pleasanter to talk over my proposition as we walk!" + +There was a very faint, spicy odor like wild roses +and cinnamon left in the room where Martin Pike +stood alone, staring whitely at the open doorway, + + + +XIII + +THE WATCHER AND THE WARDEN + +There was a custom of Canaan, +time-worn and seldom honored in +the breach, which put Ariel, that +afternoon, in easy possession of a +coign of vantage commanding the +front gate. The heavy Sunday dinner was finished +in silence (on the part of Judge Pike, deafening) +about three o'clock, and, soon after, Mamie tossed +a number of cushions out upon the stoop between +the cast-iron dogs,--Sam Warden having previously +covered the steps with a rug and placed several +garden chairs near by on the grass. These simple +preparations concluded, Eugene sprawled +comfortably upon the rug, and Mamie seated herself +near him, while Ariel wandered with apparent +aimlessness about the lawn, followed by the gaze +of Mr. Bantry, until Miss Pike begged her, a little +petulantly, to join them. + +She came, looking about her dreamily, and +touching to her lips, now and then, with an absent +air, a clover blossom she had found in the longer +grass against the fence. She stopped to pat the +neck of one of the cast-iron deer, and with grave +eyes proffered the clover-top first for inspection, +then as food. There were those in the world +who, seeing her, might have wondered that the +deer did not play Galatea and come to life. + +"No?" she said, aloud, to the steadfast head. +"You won't? What a mistake to be made of cast- +iron!" She smiled and nodded to a clump of lilac- +bushes near a cedar-tree, and to nothing else--so +far as Eugene and Mamie could see,--then walked +thoughtfully to the steps. + +"Who in the world were you speaking to?" asked +Mamie, curiously. + +"That deer." + +"But you bowed to some one." + +"Oh, that," Ariel lifted her eyebrows,--"that +was your father. Didn't you see him?" + +"No." + +"I believe you can't from here, after all," said +Ariel, slowly. "He is sitting upon a rustic bench +between the bushes and the cedar-tree, quite near +the gate. No, you couldn't see him from here; +you'd have to go as far as the deer, at least, and +even then you might not notice him, unless you +looked for him. He has a book--a Bible, I think-- +but I don't think he is reading." + +"He usually takes a nap on Sunday afternoons," +said Mamie. + +"I don't think he will, to-day." Ariel looked at +Eugene, who avoided her clear gaze. "He has the +air of having settled himself to stay for a long time, +perhaps until evening." + +She had put on her hat after dinner, and Mamie +now inquired if she would not prefer to remove it, +offering to carry it in-doors for her, to Ariel's +room, to insure its safety. "You look so sort of +temporary, wearing it," she urged, "as if you were +only here for a little while. It's the loveliest hat I +ever saw, and so fragile, too, but I'll take care--" + +Ariel laughed, leaned over, and touched the +other's hand lightly. "It isn't that, dear." + +"What is it, then?" Mamie beamed out into a +joyful smile. She had felt sure that she could not +understand Ariel; was, indeed, afraid of her; and +she found herself astonishingly pleased to be called +"dear," and delighted with the little familiarity +of the hand-tap. Her feeling toward the visitor +(who was, so her father had announced, to become +a permanent member of the household) had been, +until now, undefined. She had been on her guard, +watching for some sign of conscious "superiority" +in this lady who had been so long over-seas, not +knowing what to make of her; though thrown, +by the contents of her trunks, into a wistfulness +which would have had something of rapture in it +had she been sure that she was going to like Ariel. +She had gone to the latter's room before church, +and had perceived uneasily that it had become, +even by the process of unpacking, the prettiest +room she had ever seen. Mrs. Warden, wife of +Sam, and handmaiden of the mansion, was assisting, +alternately faint and vociferous with marvelling. +Mamie feared that Ariel might be a little +overpowering. + +With the word "dear" (that is, of course, with the +way it was spoken), and with the touch upon the +hand, it was all suddenly settled; she would not +understand Ariel always--that was clear--but they +would like each other. + +"I am wearing my hat," answered Ariel, +"because at any moment I may decide to go for a long +walk!" + +"Oh, I hope not," said Mamie. "There are sure +to be people: a few still come, even though I'm an +engaged girl. I expect that's just to console me, +though," she added, smiling over this worn quip +of the betrothed, and shaking her head at Eugene, +who grew red and coughed. "There'll be plenty +to-day, but they won't be here to see me. It's you, +Ariel, and they'd be terribly disappointed if you +weren't here. I shouldn't wonder if the whole +town came; it's curious enough about you!" + +Canaan (at least that part of it which Mamie +meant when she said "the whole town") already +offered testimony to her truthfulness. Two gentlemen, +aged nine and eleven, and clad in white +"sailor suits," were at that moment grooving their +cheeks between the round pickets of the gate. +They had come from the house across the street, +evidently stimulated by the conversation at their +own recent dinner-table (they wore a few deposits +such as are left by chocolate-cake), and the motive +of their conduct became obvious when, upon being +joined by a person from next door (a starched and +frilled person of the opposite sex but sympathetic +age), one of them waggled a forefinger through the +gate at Ariel, and a voice was heard in explanation: + +"THAT'S HER." + +There was a rustle in the lilac-bushes near the +cedar-tree; the three small heads turned simultaneously +in that direction; something terrific was +evidently seen, and with a horrified "OOOH!" the +trio skedaddled headlong. + +They were but the gay vanguard of the life +which the street, quite dead through the Sunday +dinner-hour, presently took on. Young couples +with their progeny began to appear, returning +from the weekly reunion Sunday dinner with +relatives; young people meditative (until they reached +the Pike Mansion), the wives fanning themselves +or shooing the tots-able-to-walk ahead of them, +while the husbands, wearing long coats, satin ties, +and showing dust upon their blazing shoes, +invariably pushed the perambulators. Most of these +passers-by exchanged greetings with Mamie and +Eugene, and all of them looked hard at Ariel as +long as it was possible. + +And now the young men of the town, laboriously +arranged as to apparel, began to appear on the +street in small squads, making their Sunday rounds; +the youngest working in phalanxes of threes and +fours, those somewhat older inclining to move in +pairs; the eldest, such as were now beginning to +be considered middle-aged beaux, or (by the +extremely youthful) "old bachelors," evidently +considered it advantageous to travel alone. Of all +these, there were few who did not, before evening +fell, turn in at the gate of the Pike Mansion. +Consciously, shyly or confidently, according to the +condition of their souls, they made their way +between the cast-iron deer to be presented to the +visitor. + +Ariel sat at the top of the steps, and, looking +amiably over their heads, talked with such as +could get near her. There were many who could +not, and Mamie, occupying the bench below, was +surrounded by the overflow. The difficulty of +reaching and maintaining a position near Miss +Tabor was increased by the attitude and behavior +of Mr. Flitcroft, who that day cooled the feeling +of friendship which several of his fellow-townsmen +had hitherto entertained for him. He had been +the first to arrive, coming alone, though that was +not his custom, and he established himself at +Ariel's right, upon the step just below her, so +disposing the great body and the ponderous arms and +legs the gods had given him, that no one could +mount above him to sit beside her, or approach +her from that direction within conversational +distance. Once established, he was not to be +dislodged, and the only satisfaction for those in +this manner debarred from the society of the +beautiful stranger was obtained when they were +presented to her and when they took their departure. +On these occasions it was necessary by custom for +them to shake her hand, a ceremony they accomplished +by leaning across Mr. Flitcroft, which was a +long way to lean, and the fat back and shoulders +were sore that night because of what had been +surreptitiously done to them by revengeful elbows +and knees. + +Norbert, not ordinarily talkative, had nothing +to say; he seemed to find sufficient occupation in +keeping the place he had gained; and from this +close vantage he fastened his small eyes immovably +upon Ariel's profile. Eugene, also apparently +determined not to move, sat throughout the +afternoon at her left, but as he was thin, others, +who came and went, were able to approach upon +that side and hold speech with her. + +She was a stranger to these young people, most +of whom had grown up together in a nickname +intimacy. Few of them had more than a very +imperfect recollection of her as she was before Roger +Tabor and she had departed out of Canaan. She +had lived her girlhood only upon their borderland, +with no intimates save her grandfather and +Joe; and she returned to her native town "a +revelation and a dream," as young Mr. Bradbury told +his incredulous grandmother that night. + +The conversation of the gallants consisted, for +the greater part, of witticisms at one another's +expense, which, though evoked for Ariel's benefit (all +eyes furtively reverting to her as each shaft was +loosed), she found more or less enigmatical. The +young men, however, laughed at each other loudly, +and seemed content if now and then she smiled. +"You must be frightfully ennuied with all this," +Eugene said to her. "You see how provincial we +still are." + +She did not answer; she had not heard him. The +shadows were stretching themselves over the grass, +long and attenuated; the sunlight upon the trees +and houses was like a thin, rosy pigment; black +birds were calling each other home to beech and +elm; and Ariel's eyes were fixed upon the western +distance of the street where gold-dust was beginning +to quiver in the air. She did not hear Eugene, +but she started, a moment later, when the name +"Joe Louden" was pronounced by a young man, +the poetic Bradbury, on the step below Eugene. +Some one immediately said "'SH!" But she leaned +over and addressed Mr. Bradbury, who, shut out, +not only from the group about her, but from the +other centring upon Miss Pike, as well, was holding +a private conversation with a friend in like misfortune. + +"What were you saying of Mr. Louden?" she +asked, smiling down upon the young man. (It +was this smile which inspired his description of her +as "a revelation and a dream.") + +"Oh, nothing particular," was his embarrassed +reply. "I only mentioned I'd heard there was +some talk among the--" He paused awkwardly, +remembering that Ariel had walked with Joseph +Louden in the face of Canaan that very day. +"That is, I mean to say, there's some talk of his +running for Mayor." + +"WHAT?" + +There was a general exclamation, followed by +an uncomfortable moment or two of silence. No +one present was unaware of that noon walk, though +there was prevalent a pleasing notion that it would +not happen again, founded on the idea that Ariel, +having only arrived the previous evening, had +probably met Joe on the street by accident, and, +remembering him as a playmate of her childhood +and uninformed as to his reputation, had, naturally +enough, permitted him to walk home with her. + +Mr. Flitcroft broke the silence, rushing into words +with a derisive laugh: "Yes, he's `talked of' for +Mayor--by the saloon people and the niggers! I +expect the Beaver Beach crowd would be for him, +and if tramps could vote he might--" + +"What is Beaver Beach?" asked Ariel, not turning. + +"What is Beaver Beach?" he repeated, and cast +his eyes to the sky, shaking his head awesomely. +"It's a Place," he said, with abysmal solemnity, +--"a Place I shouldn't have mentioned in your +presence, Miss Tabor." + +"What has it to do with Mr. Louden?" + +The predestined Norbert conceived the present +to be a heaven-sent opportunity to enlighten her +concerning Joe's character, since the Pikes +appeared to have been derelict in the performance of +this kindness. + +"He goes there!" he proceeded heavily. "He +lived there for a while when he first came back +from running away, and he's a friend of Mike +Sheehan's that runs it; he's a friend of all the riff- +raff that hang around there." + +"How do you know he goes there?" + +"Why, it was in the paper the day after he came +back!" He appealed for corroboration. "Wasn't +it, Eugene?" + +"No, no!" she persisted. "Newspapers are +sometimes mistaken, aren't they?" Laughing a +little, she swept across the bulbous face beside her +a swift regard that was like a search-light. "How +do you KNOW, Mr. Flitcroft," she went on very +rapidly, raising her voice,--"how do you KNOW +that Mr. Louden is familiar with this place? The +newspapers may have been falsely informed; you +must admit that? Then how do you KNOW? +Have you ever MET any one who has seen him there?" + +"I've seen him there myself!" The words +skipped out of Norbert's mouth like so many little +devils, the instant he opened it. She had spoken +so quickly and with such vehemence, looking him +full in the eye, that he had forgotten everything in +the world except making the point to which her +insistence had led him. + +Mamie looked horrified; there was a sound of +smothered laughter, and Norbert, overwhelmed by +the treachery of his own mouth, sat gasping. + +"It can't be such a terrific place, then, after all," +said Ariel, gently, and turning to Eugene, "Have +you ever been there, Mr. Bantry?" she asked. + +He changed color, but answered with enough +glibness: "No." + +Several of the young men rose; the wretched +Flitcroft, however, evading Mamie's eye--in which +there was a distinct hint,--sat where he was until +all of them, except Eugene, had taken a reluctant +departure, one group after another, leaving in the +order of their arrival. + +The rosy pigment which had colored the trees +faded; the gold-dust of the western distance danced +itself pale and departed; dusk stalked into the +town from the east; and still the watcher upon the +steps and the warden of the gate (he of the lilac- +bushes and the Bible) held their places and waited +--waited, alas! in vain. . . . Ah! Joe, is THIS the +mettle of your daring? Did you not say you would +"try"? Was your courage so frail a vessel that +it could not carry you even to the gate yonder? +Surely you knew that if you had striven so far, +there you would have been met! Perhaps you +foresaw that not one, but two, would meet you at +the gate, both the warden and the watcher. What +of that? What of that, O faint heart? What +was there to fear? Listen! The gate clicks. Ah, +have you come at last? + +Ariel started to her feet, but the bent figure, +coming up the walk in the darkness, was that of +Eskew Arp. He bowed gloomily to Mamie, and +in response to her inquiry if he wished to see her +father, answered no; he had come to talk with the +granddaughter of his old friend Roger Tabor. + +"Mr. Arp!" called Ariel. "I am so very glad!" +She ran down to him and gave him her hand. +"We'll sit here on the bench, sha'n't we?" + +Mamie had risen, and skirting Norbert frostily, +touched Eugene upon the shoulder as she went +up the steps. He understood that he was to follow +her in-doors, and, after a deep look at the +bench where Ariel had seated herself beside Mr. +Arp, he obeyed. Norbert was left a lonely ruin +between the cold, twin dogs. He had wrought +desolation this afternoon, and that sweet verdure, +his good name, so long in the planting, so carefully +tended, was now a dreary waste; yet he contemplated +this not so much as his present aspect of +splendid isolation. Frozen by the daughter of the +house, forgotten by the visitor, whose conversation +with Mr. Arp was carried on in tones so low that he +could not understand it, the fat one, though heart- +breakingly loath to take himself away, began to +comprehend that his hour had struck. He rose, +descended the steps to the bench, and seated himself +unexpectedly upon the cement walk at Ariel's feet. +"Leg's gone to sleep," he explained, in response +to her startled exclamation; but, like a great soul, +ignoring the accident of his position as well as the +presence of Mr. Arp, he immediately proceeded: +"Will you go riding with me to-morrow afternoon?" + +"Aren't you very good-natured, Mr. Flitcroft?" +she asked, with an odd intonation. + +"I'm imposed on, often enough," he replied, +rubbing his leg, "by people who think I am! Why?" + +"It is only that your sitting so abruptly upon +the ground reminded me of something that happened +long ago, before I left Canaan, the last time +I met you." + +"I don't think I knew you before you went +away. You haven't said if you'll go riding with +me to-morrow. Please--" + +"Get up," interrupted Mr. Arp, acidly. "Somebody +'ll fall over you if you stay there." + +Such a catastrophe in truth loomed imminent. +Judge Pike was rapidly approaching on his way to +the house, Bible in hand--far better in hand than +was his temper, for it is an enraging thing to +wait five hours in ambush for a man who does not +come. In the darkness a desecration occurred, +and Norbert perfected to the last detail whatever +had been left incomplete of his own destruction. +He began lumberingly to rise, talking at the same +time, urging upon Ariel the charms of the roadside; +wild flowers were in blossom, he said, +recounting the benefits she might derive through +acceptance of his invitation; and having, thus +busily, risen to his knees, became aware that some +one was passing near him. This some one Mr. +Flitcroft, absorbed in artful persuasions, may have +been betrayed by the darkness to mistake for +Eugene. Reaching out for assistance, he mechanically +seized upon the skirts of a coat, which he put +to the uses of a rope, coming up hand-over-hand +with such noble weight and energy that he brought +himself to his feet and the owner of the coat to the +ground simultaneously. The latter, hideously +astonished, went down with an objurgation so +outrageous in venom that Mr. Arp jumped with the +shock. Judge Pike got to his feet quickly, but not +so quickly as the piteous Flitcroft betook himself +into the deep shadows of the street. Only a word, +hoarse and horror-stricken, was left quivering on the +night breeze by this accursed, whom the gods, intent +upon his ruin, had early in the day, at his first sight +of Ariel, in good truth, made mad: "MURDER!" + +"Can I help you brush off, Judge?" asked Eskew, +rising painfully. + +Either Martin Pike was beyond words, or the +courtesy proposed by the feeble old fellow (for +Eskew was now very far along in years, and looked +his age) emphasized too bitterly the indignity +which had been put upon him: whatever the case, +he went his way in-doors, leaving the cynic's offer +unacknowledged. Eskew sank back upon the +bench, with the little rusty sounds, suggestions of +creaks and sighs, which accompany the movement +of antiques. "I've always thought," he said, "that +the Judge had spells when he was hard of hearing." + +Oblongs of light abruptly dropped from the +windows confronting them, one, falling across the +bench, appropriately touching with lemon the +acrid, withered face and trembling hands of the +veteran. "You are younger than you were nine +years ago, Mr. Arp," said Ariel, gayly. "I caught +a glimpse of you upon the street, to-day, and I +thought so then. Now I see that I was right." + +"Me--YOUNGER!" he groaned. "No, ma'am! I'm +mighty near through with this fool world--and I'd +be glad of it, if I didn't expect that if there IS +another one afterwards, it would be jest as ornery!" + +She laughed, leaning forward, resting her elbows +on her knee, and her chin in her hand, so that the +shadow of her hat shielded her eyes from the light. +"I thought you looked surprised when you saw +me to day." + +"I reckon I did!" he exclaimed. "Who wouldn't +of been?" + +"Why?" + +"Why?" he repeated, confounded by her +simplicity. "Why?" + +"Yes," she laughed. "That's what I'm anxious +to know." + +"Wasn't the whole town the same way?" he +demanded. "Did you meet anybody that didn't +look surprised?" + +"But why should they?" + +"Good Lord Admighty!" he broke out. "Ain't +you got any lookin'-glasses?" + +"I think almost all I have are still in the customs +warehouse." + +"Then use Mamie Pike's," responded the old +man. "The town never dreamed you were goin' +to turn out pretty at all, let alone the WAY you've +turned out pretty! The Tocsin had a good deal +about your looks and so forth in it once, in a letter +from Paris, but the folks that remembered you +kind of set that down to the way papers talk about +anybody with money, and nobody was prepared +for it when they saw you. You don't need to drop +no curtseys to ME." He set his mouth grimly, in +response to the bow she made him. "_I_ think +female beauty is like all other human furbelows, +and as holler as heaven will be if only the good +people are let in! But yet I did stop to look at +you when you went past me to-day, and I kept +on lookin', long as you were in sight. I reckon I +always will, when I git the chance, too--only +shows what human nature IS! But that wasn't +all that folks were starin' at to-day. It was your +walkin' with Joe Louden that really finished 'em, +and I can say it upset me more than anything I've +seen for a good many years." + +"Upset you, Mr. Arp?" she cried. "I don't +quite see." + +The old man shook his head deploringly. "After +what I'd written you about that boy--" + +"Ah," she said, softly, touching his sleeve with +her fingers, "I haven't thanked you for that." + +"You needn't," he returned, sharply. "It was +a pleasure. Do you remember how easy and +quick I promised you?" + +"I remember that you were very kind." + +"Kind!" He gave forth an acid and chilling +laugh. "It was about two months after Louden +ran away, and before you and Roger left Canaan, +and you asked me to promise to write to you whenever +word of that outcast came--" + +"I didn't put it so, Mr. Arp." + +"No, but you'd ought of! You asked me to +write you whatever news of him should come, and +if he came back to tell you how and when and all +about it. And I did it, and kept you sharp on his +record ever since he landed here again. Do you +know why I've done it? Do you know why I +promised so quick and easy I WOULD do it?" + +"Out of the kindness of your heart, I think." + +The acid laugh was repeated. "NO, ma 'am! +You couldn't of guessed colder. I promised, and +I kept my promise, because I knew there would +never be anything good to tell! AND THERE NEVER +WAS!" + +"Nothing at all?" she insisted, gravely. + +"Never! I leave it to you if I've written one +good word of him." + +"You've written of the treatment he has +received here," she began, "and I've been able to +see what he has borne--and bears!" + +"But have I written one word to show that he +didn't deserve it all? Haven't I told you everything, +of his associates, his--" + +"Indeed you have!" + +"Then do you wonder that I was more surprised +than most when I saw you walking with him to- +day? Because I knew you did it in cold blood +and knowledge aforethought! Other folks thought +it was because you hadn't been here long enough +to hear his reputation, but I KNEW!" + +"Tell me," she said, "if you were disappointed +when you saw me with him." + +"Yes," he snapped. "I was!" + +"I thought so. I saw the consternation in your +face! You APPROVED, didn't you?" + +"I don't know what you're talking about!" + +"Yes, you do! I know it bothers you to have +me read you between the lines, but for this once +you must let me. You are so consistent that you +are never disappointed when things turn out badly, +or people are wicked or foolish, are you?" + +"No, certainly not. I expect it." + +"And you were disappointed in me to-day. +Therefore, it must be that I was doing something +you knew was right and good. You see?" She +leaned a little closer to him, smiling angelically. +"Ah, Mr. Arp," she cried, "I know your secret: +you ADMIRE me!" + +He rose, confused and incoherent, as full of +denial as a detected pickpocket. "I DON'T! Me ADMIRE? +WHAT? It's an ornery world," he protested. +"I don't admire any human that ever lived!" + +"Yes, you do," she persisted. "I've just proved +it! But that is the least of your secret; the great +thing is this: YOU ADMIRE MR. LOUDEN!" + +"I never heard such nonsense," he continued to +protest, at the same time moving down the walk +toward the gate, leaning heavily on his stick. +"Nothin' of the kind. There ain't any LOGIC to +that kind of an argument, nor no REASON!" + +"You see, I understand you," she called after +him. "I'm sorry you go away in the bitterness +of being found out." + +"Found out!" His stick ceased for a moment +to tap the cement. "Pooh!" he ejaculated, +uneasily. There was a pause, followed by a malevolent +chuckle. "At any rate," he said, with joy +in the afterthought, "you'll never go walkin' with +him AGAIN!" + +He waited for the answer, which came, after a +time, sadly. "Perhaps you are right. Perhaps +I shall not." + +"Ha, I thought so! Good-night." + +"Good-night, Mr. Arp." + + +She turned toward the lighted house. Through +the windows nearest her she could see Mamie, +seated in the familiar chair, following with happy +and tender eyes the figure of Eugene, who was +pacing up and down the room. The town was +deadly quiet: Ariel could hear the sound of footsteps +perhaps a block away. She went to the gate +and gazed a long time into the empty street, +watching the yellow grains of light, sieved through +the maples from the arc lights on the corner, +moving to and fro in the deep shadow as the lamp +swung slightly in the night air. Somewhere, not +far away, the peace was broken by the screams of +a "parlor organ," which honked and wailed in +pious agonies (the intention was hymnal), +interminably protracting each spasm. Presently a +woman's voice outdid the organ, a voice which +made vivid the picture of the woman who owned +it, and the ploughed forehead of her, above the +nose-glasses, when the "grace-notes" were proudly +given birth. "Rescue the Perishing" was the +startlingly appropriate selection, rendered with +inconceivable lingering upon each syllable: "Roos- +cyoo the Poor-oosh-oong!" At unexpected intervals +two male voices, evidently belonging to +men who had contracted the habit of holding tin in +their mouths, joined the lady in a thorough search +for the Lost Chord. + +That was the last of silence in Canaan for an +hour or so. The organ was merely inaugural: +across the street a piano sounded; firm, emphatic, +determined, vocal competition with the instrument +here also; "Rock of Ages" the incentive. Another +piano presently followed suit, in a neighboring +house: "Precious Jewels." More distant, a second +organ was heard; other pianos, other organs, took +up other themes; and as a wakeful puppy's barking +will go over a village at night, stirring first the +nearer dogs to give voice, these in turn stimulating +those farther away to join, one passing the +excitement on to another, until hounds in farm- +yards far beyond the town contribute to the long- +distance conversation, even so did "Rescue the +Perishing" enliven the greater part of Canaan. + +It was this that made Ariel realize a thing of +which hitherto she had not been able to convince +herself: that she was actually once more in the +town where she had spent her long-ago girlhood; +now grown to seem the girlhood of some other +person. It was true: her foot was on her native +heath and her name was Ariel Tabor--the very +name of the girl who had shared the town's +disapproval with Joe Louden! "Rescue the Perishing" +brought it all back to her; and she listened to +these sharply familiar rites of the Canaanite +Sabbath evening with a shiver of pain. + +She turned from the gate to go into the house, +heard Eugene's voice at the door, and paused. He +was saying good-night to Mamie. + +"And please say `au revoir' to Miss Tabor for +me," he added, peering out under his hand. "I +don't know where she can have gone." + +"Probably she came in and went to her room," +said Mamie. + +"Don't forget to tell her `au revoir.' " + +"I won't, dear. Good-night." + +"Good-night." She lifted her face and he kissed +her perfunctorily. Then he came down the steps +and went slowly toward the gate, looking about +him into the darkness as if searching for something; +but Ariel had fled away from the path of light that +led from the open door. + +She skimmed noiselessly across the lawn and +paused at the side of the house, leaning against +the veranda, where, on a night long past, a boy +had hid and a girl had wept. A small creaking +sound fell upon her ear, and she made out an +ungainly figure approaching, wheeling something of +curious shape. + +"Is that you, Sam?" she said. + +Mr. Warden stopped, close by. "Yes'm," he +replied. "I'm a-gittin' out de hose to lay de dus' +yonnah." He stretched an arm along the cross- +bar of the reel, relaxing himself, apparently, for +conversation. "Y'all done change consid'able, +Miss Airil," he continued, with the directness of one +sure of privilege. + +"You think so, Sam?" + +"Yes'm. Ev'ybody think so, _I_ reckon. Be'n +a tai'ble lot o' talkum 'bout you to-day. Dun'no' +how all dem oth' young ladies goin' take it!" He +laughed with immoderate delight, yet, as to the +volume of mere sound, discreetly, with an eye to +open windows. "You got 'em all beat, Miss Airil! +Dey ain' be'n no one 'roun' dis town evah got in a +thousum mile o' you! Fer looks, an' de way you +walk an' ca'y yo'self; an' as fer de clo'es--name o' +de good lan', honey, dey ain' nevah SEE style befo'! +My ole woman say you got mo' fixin's in a minute +dan de whole res' of 'em got in a yeah. She say +when she helpin' you onpack she must 'a' see mo'n +a hunerd paihs o' slippahs alone! An' de good +Man knows I 'membuh w'en you runnin' roun' +back-yods an' up de alley rompin' 'ith Joe Louden, +same you's a boy!" + +"Do you ever see Mr. Louden, nowadays?" she +asked. + +His laugh was repeated with the same discreet +violence. "Ain' I seen him dis ve'y day, fur up +de street at de gate yonnah, stan'in' 'ith you, w'en +I drivin' de Judge?" + +"You--you didn't happen to see him anywhere +this--this afternoon?" + +"No'm, I ain' SEE him." Sam's laughter +vanished and his lowered voice became serious. "I +ain' SEE him, but I hearn about him." + +"What did you hear?" + +"Dey be'n consid'able stir on de aidge o' town, +I reckon," he answered, gravely, "an' dey be'n +havin' some trouble out at de Beach--" + +"Beaver Beach, do you mean?" + +"Yes'm. Dey be'n some shootin' goin' on out +dat way." + +She sprang forward and caught at his arm without +speaking. + +"Joe Louden all right," he said, reassuringly. +"Ain' nuffum happen to him! Nigh as I kin mek +out f'm de TALK, dat Happy Fear gone on de ramPAGE +ag'in, an' dey hatta sent fer Mist' Louden to +come in a hurry." + + + +XIV + +WHITE ROSES IN A LAW-OFFICE + +As upon a world canopied with storm, +hung with mourning purple and habited +in black, did Mr. Flitcroft turn +his morning face at eight o'clock +antemeridian Monday, as he hied +himself to his daily duty at the Washington +National Bank. Yet more than the merely funereal +gloomed out from the hillocky area of his +countenance. Was there not, i'faith, a glow, a Vesuvian +shimmer, beneath the murk of that darkling eye? +Was here one, think you, to turn the other cheek? +Little has he learned of Norbert Flitcroft who +conceives that this fiery spirit was easily to be +quenched! Look upon the jowl of him, and let him who +dares maintain that people--even the very Pikes +themselves--were to grind beneath their brougham +wheels a prostrate Norbert and ride on scatheless! +In this his own metaphor is nearly touched "I +guess not! They don't run over ME! Martin Pike +better look out how he tries it!" + +So Mother Nature at her kindly tasks, good +Norbert, uses for her unguent our own perfect +inconsistency: and often when we are stabbed deep +in the breast she distracts us by thin scratches in +other parts, that in the itch of these we may forget +the greater hurt till it be healed. Thus, the +remembrance of last night, when you undisguisedly +ran from the wrath of a Pike, with a pretty girl +looking on (to say nothing of the acrid Arp, who +will fling the legend on a thousand winds), might +well agonize you now, as, in less hasty moments +and at a safe distance, you brood upon the piteous +figure you cut. On the contrary, behold: you see +no blood crimsoning the edges of the horrid gash +in your panoply of self-esteem: you but smart and +scratch the scratches, forgetting your wound in +the hot itch for vengeance. It is an itch which +will last (for in such matters your temper shall be +steadfast), and let the great Goliath in the mean +time beware of you! You ran, last night. You +ran--of course you ran. Why not? You ran to +fight another day! + +A bank clerk sometimes has opportunities. + +The stricken fat one could not understand how +it came about that he had blurted out the damning +confession that he had visited Beaver Beach. +When he tried to solve the puzzle, his mind refused +the strain, became foggy and the terrors of his +position acute. Was he, like Joe Louden, to endure +the ban of Canaan, and like him stand excommunicate +beyond the pale because of Martin Pike's +displeasure? For Norbert saw with perfect +clearness to-day what the Judge had done for Joe. +Now that he stood in danger of a fate identical, +this came home to him. How many others, he +wondered, would do as Mamie had done and write +notes such as he had received by the hand of Sam +Warden, late last night? + + +"DEAR SIR." (This from Mamie, who, in the Canaanitish +way, had been wont to address him as "Norb"!)-- +"My father wishes me to state that after your remark +yesterday afternoon on the steps which was overheard by +my mother who happened to be standing in the hall behind +you and your BEHAVIOR to himself later on--he considers +it impossible to allow you to call any more or to speak to +any member of his household. + "Yours respectfully, + "MAMIE PIKE." + + +Erasures and restorations bore witness to a +considerable doubt in Mamie's mind concerning "Yours +respectfully," but she had finally let it stand, +evidently convinced that the plain signature, without +preface, savored of an intimacy denied by the context. + +"`DEAR SIR'!" repeated Norbert, between set +teeth. "`IMPOSSIBLE TO ALLOW YOU TO CALL any more'!" +These and other terms of his dismissal recurred to +him during the morning, and ever and anon he +looked up from his desk, his lips moving to the tune +of those horrid phrases, and stared out at the street. +Basilisk glaring this, with no Christian softness in it, +not even when it fell upon his own grandfather, +sitting among the sages within easy eye-shot from +the big window at Norbert's elbow. However, +Colonel Flitcroft was not disturbed by the gaze +of his descendant, being, in fact, quite unaware +of it. The aged men were having a busy morning. + +The conclave was not what it had been. [See Arp +and all his works.] There had come, as the years +went by, a few recruits; but faces were missing: +the two Tabors had gone, and Uncle Joe Davey +could no longer lay claim to the patriarchship; he +had laid it down with a half-sigh and gone his way. +Eskew himself was now the oldest of the conscript +fathers, the Colonel and Squire Buckalew pressing +him closely, with Peter Bradbury no great time +behind. + +To-day they did not plant their feet upon the +brass rail inside the hotel windows, but courted +the genial weather out-doors, and, as their summer +custom was, tilted back their chairs in the shade of +the western wall of the building. + +"And who could of dreamed," Mr. Bradbury was +saying, with a side-glance of expectancy at Eskew, +"that Jonas Tabor would ever turn out to have a +niece like that!" + +Mr. Arp ceased to fan himself with his wide straw +hat and said grimly: + +"I don't see as Jonas HAS `turned out'--not in +particular! If he's turned at all, lately, I reckon +it's in his grave, and I'll bet he HAS if he had any +way of hearin' how much she must of spent for +clothes!" + +"I believe," Squire Buckalew began, "that young +folks' memories are short." + +"They're lucky!" interjected Eskew. "The shorter +your memory the less meanness you know." + +"I meant young folks don't remember as well as +older people do," continued the Squire. "I don't +see what's so remarkable in her comin' back and +walkin' up-street with Joe Louden. She used to go +kitin' round with him all the time, before she left +here. And yet everybody talks as if they never +HEARD of sech a thing!" + +"It seems to me," said Colonel Flitcroft, hesitatingly, +"that she did right. I know it sounds kind +of a queer thing to say, and I stirred up a good deal +of opposition at home, yesterday evening, by sort +of mentioning something of the kind. Nobody +seemed to agree with me, except Norbert, and he +didn't SAY much, but--" + +He was interrupted by an uncontrollable cackle +which issued from the mouth of Mr. Arp. The +Colonel turned upon him with a frown, inquiring the +cause of his mirth. + +"It put me in mind," Mr. Arp began promptly, +"of something that happened last night." + +"What was it?" + +Eskew's mouth was open to tell, but he remembered, +just in time, that the grandfather of Norbert +was not the audience properly to be selected for this +recital, choked a half-born word, coughed loudly, +realizing that he must withhold the story of the +felling of Martin Pike until the Colonel had taken +his departure, and replied: + +"Nothin' to speak of. Go on with your argument." + +"I've finished," said the Colonel. "I only +wanted to say that it seems to me a good action for a +young lady like that to come back here and stick +to her old friend and playmate." + +"STICK to him!" echoed Mr. Arp. "She walked +up Main Street with him yesterday. Do you call +that stickin' to him? She's been away a good +while; she's forgotten what Canaan IS. You wait +till she sees for herself jest what his standing in this +com--" + +"I agree with Eskew for once," interrupted Peter +Bradbury. "I agree because--" + +"Then you better wait," cried Eskew, allowing +him to proceed no farther, "till you hear what you're +agreein' to! I say: you take a young lady like that, +pretty and rich and all cultured up, and it stands +to reason that she won't--" + +"No, it don't," exclaimed Buckalew, impatiently. +"Nothing of the sort! I tell you--" + +Eskew rose to his feet and pounded the pavement +with his stick. "It stands to reason that she won't +stick to a man no other decent woman will speak to, +a feller that's been the mark for every stone throwed +in the town, ever since he was a boy, an outcast +with a reputation as black as a preacher's shoes on +Sunday! I don't care if he's her oldest friend on +EARTH, she won't stick to him! She walked with him +yesterday, but you can mark my words: his goose +is cooked!" The old man's voice rose, shrill and +high. "It ain't in human nature fer her to do it! +You hear what I say: you'll never see her with Joe +Louden again in this livin' world, and she as good +as told me so, herself, last night. You can take +your oath she's quit him already! Don't--" + +Eskew paused abruptly, his eyes widening +behind his spectacles; his jaw fell; his stick, raised to +hammer the pavement, remained suspended in the +air. A sudden color rushed over his face, and he +dropped speechless in his chair. The others, after +staring at him in momentary alarm, followed the +direction of his gaze. + +Just across Main Street, and in plain view, was the +entrance to the stairway which led to Joe's office. +Ariel Tabor, all in cool gray, carrying a big bunch of +white roses in her white-gloved hands, had just +crossed the sidewalk from a carriage and was +ascending the dark stairway. A moment later she +came down again, empty-handed, got into the carriage, +and drove away. + +"She missed him," said Squire Buckalew. "I +saw him go out half an hour ago. BUT," he +added, and, exercising a self-restraint close upon +the saintly, did not even glance toward the +heap which was Mr. Arp, "I notice she left her +flowers!" + + +Ariel was not the only one who climbed the dingy +stairs that day and read the pencilled script upon +Joe's door: "Will not return until evening. J. +Louden." Many others came, all exceedingly unlike +the first visitor: some were quick and watchful, +dodging into the narrow entrance furtively; some +smiled contemptuously as long as they were in view +of the street, drooping wanly as they reached the +stairs: some were brazen and amused; and some +were thin and troubled. Not all of them read the +message, for not all could read, but all looked +curiously through the half-opened door at the many +roses which lifted their heads delicately from a +water-pitcher on Joe's desk to scent that dusty +place with their cool breath. + +Most of these clients, after a grunt of +disappointment, turned and went away; though there +were a few, either unable to read the message or +so pressed by anxiety that they disregarded it, +who entered the room and sat down to wait for +the absentee. [There were plenty of chairs in the +office now, bookcases also, and a big steel safe.] +But when evening came and the final gray of twilight +had vanished from the window-panes, all +had gone except one, a woman who sat patiently, +her eyes upon the floor, and her hands folded in +her lap, until the footsteps of the last of the others +to depart had ceased to sound upon the pavement +below. Then, with a wordless exclamation, she +sprang to her feet, pulled the window-shade carefully +down to the sill, and, when she had done +that, struck a match on the heel of her shoe--a +soiled white canvas shoe, not a small one--and +applied the flame to a gas jet. The yellow light +flared up; and she began to pace the room haggardly. + +The court-house bell rang nine, and as the +tremors following the last stroke pulsed themselves +into silence, she heard a footfall on the +stairs and immediately relapsed into a chair, +folding her hands again in her lap, her expression +composing itself to passivity, for the step was very +much lighter than Joe's. + +A lady beautifully dressed in white dimity +appeared in the doorway. She hesitated at the threshold, +not, apparently, because of any timidity (her +expression being too thoughtfully assured for that), +but almost immediately she came in and seated +herself near the desk, acknowledging the other's +presence by a slight inclination of the head. + +This grave courtesy caused a strong, deep flush +to spread itself under the rouge which unevenly +covered the woman's cheeks, as she bowed elaborately +in return. Then, furtively, during a protracted +silence, she took stock of the new-comer, +from the tip of her white suede shoes to the filmy +lace and pink roses upon her wide white hat; and +the sidelong gaze lingered marvellingly upon the +quiet, delicate hands, slender and finely expressive, +in their white gloves. + +Her own hands, unlike the lady's, began to +fidget confusedly, and, the silence continuing, she +coughed several times, to effect the preface required +by her sense of fitness, before she felt it proper to +observe, with a polite titter: + +"Mr. Louden seems to be a good while comin'." + +"Have you been waiting very long?" asked the +lady. + +"Ever since six o'clock!" + +"Yes," said the other. "That is very long." + +"Yes, ma'am, it cert'nly is." The ice thus +broken, she felt free to use her eyes more directly, +and, after a long, frank stare, exclaimed: + +"Why, you must be Miss Ariel Tabor, ain't you?" + +"Yes." Ariel touched one of the roses upon +Joe's desk with her finger-tips. "I am Miss +Tabor." + +"Well, excuse me fer asking; I'm sure it ain't +any business of mine," said the other, remembering +the manners due one lady from another. "But +I thought it must be. I expect," she added, with +loud, inconsequent laughter, "there's not many +in Canaan ain't heard you've come back." She +paused, laughed again, nervously, and again, less +loudly, to take off the edge of her abruptness: +gradually tittering herself down to a pause, to +fill which she put forth: "Right nice weather we +be'n havin'." + +"Yes," said Ariel. + +"It was rainy, first of last week, though. _I_ don't +mind rain so much"--this with more laughter,-- +"I stay in the house when it rains. Some people +don't know enough to, they say! You've heard +that saying, ain't you, Miss Tabor?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, I tell YOU," she exclaimed, noisily, +"there's plenty ladies and gen'lemen in this town +that's like that!" + +Her laughter did not cease; it became louder and +shriller. It had been, until now, a mere lubrication +of the conversation, helping to make her easier +in Miss Tabor's presence, but as it increased in +shrillness, she seemed to be losing control of herself, +as if her laughter were getting away with her; +she was not far from hysteria, when it stopped with +a gasp, and she sat up straight in her chair, white +and rigid. + +"THERE!" she said, listening intently. "Ain't +that him?" Steps sounded upon the pavement +below; paused for a second at the foot of the stairs; +there was the snap of a match; then the steps +sounded again, retreating. She sank back in her +chair limply. "It was only some one stoppin' to +light his cigar in the entry. It wasn't Joe Louden's +step, anyway." + +"You know his step?" Ariel's eyes were bent +upon the woman wonderingly. + +"I'd know it to-night," was the answer, delivered +with a sharp and painful giggle. "I got plenty +reason to!" + +Ariel did not respond. She leaned a little closer +to the roses upon the desk, letting them touch her +face, and breathing deeply of their fragrance to +neutralize a perfume which pervaded the room; +an odor as heavy and cheap-sweet as the face of +the woman who had saturated her handkerchief +with it, a scent which went with her perfectly and +made her unhappily definite; suited to her clumsily +dyed hair, to her soiled white shoes, to the hot red +hat smothered in plumage, to the restless stub- +fingered hands, to the fat, plated rings, of which +she wore a great quantity, though, surprisingly +enough, the large diamonds in her ears were pure, +and of a very clear water. + +It was she who broke the silence once more. +"Well," she drawled, coughing genteelly at the +same time, "better late than never, as the saying +is. I wonder who it is gits up all them comical +sayings?" Apparently she had no genuine desire +for light upon this mystery, as she continued, +immediately: "I have a gen'leman friend that's +always gittin' 'em off. `Well,' he says, `the best of +friends must part,' and, `Thou strikest me to the +heart'--all kinds of cracks like that. He's real +comical. And yet," she went on in an altered +voice, "I don't like him much. I'd be glad if I'd +never seen him." + +The change of tone was so marked that Ariel +looked at her keenly, to find herself surprised into +pitying this strange client of Joe's; for tears had +sprung to the woman's eyes and slid along the lids, +where she tried vainly to restrain them. Her face +had altered too, like her voice, haggard lines +suddenly appearing about the eyes and mouth as if +they had just been pencilled there: the truth +issuing from beneath her pinchbeck simulations, like +a tragic mask revealed by the displacement of a +tawdry covering. + +"I expect you think I'm real foolish," she said, +"but I be'n waitin' so awful long--and I got a good +deal of worry on my mind till I see Mr. Louden." + +"I am sorry," Ariel turned from the roses, and +faced her and the heavy perfume. "I hope he +will come soon." + +"I hope so," said the other. "It's something to +do with me that keeps him away, and the longer he +is the more it scares me." She shivered and set her +teeth together. "It's kind of hard, waitin'. I +cert'nly got my share of troubles." + +"Don't you think that Mr. Louden will be able +to take care of them for you?" + +"Oh, I HOPE so, Miss Tabor! If he can't, +nobody can." She was crying openly now, wiping +her eyes with her musk-soaked handkerchief. "We +had to send fer him yesterday afternoon--" + +"To come to Beaver Beach, do you mean?" +asked Ariel, leaning forward. + +"Yes, ma'am. It all begun out there,--least- +ways it begun before that with me. It was all +my fault. I deserve all that's comin' to me, I +guess. I done wrong--I done wrong! I'd oughtn't +never to of went out there yesterday." + +She checked herself sharply, but, after a +moment's pause, continued, encouraged by the grave +kindliness of the delicate face in the shadow of the +wide white hat. "I'd oughtn't to of went," she +repeated. "Oh, I reckon I'll never, never learn +enough to keep out o' trouble, even when I see it +comin'! But that gentleman friend of mine--Mr. +Nashville Cory's his name--he kind o' coaxed me +into it, and he's right comical when he's with ladies, +and he's good company--and he says, `Claudine, +we'll dance the light fantastic,' he says, and I kind +o' wanted something cheerful--I'd be'n workin' +steady quite a spell, and it looked like he wanted +to show me a good time, so I went, and that's what +started it." Now that she had begun, she babbled +on with her story, at times incoherently; full of +excuses, made to herself more than to Ariel, pitifully +endeavoring to convince herself that the responsibility +for the muddle she had made was not hers. + +"Mr. Cory told me my husband was drinkin' and +wouldn't know about it, and, `Besides,' he says, +`what's the odds?' Of course I knowed there was +trouble between him and Mr. Fear--that's my husband +--a good while ago, when Mr. Fear up and +laid him out. That was before me and Mr. Fear +got married; I hadn't even be'n to Canaan then; +I was on the stage. I was on the stage quite a +while in Chicago before I got acquainted with my +husband." + +"You were on the stage?" Ariel exclaimed, +involuntarily. + +"Yes, ma'am. Livin' pitchers at Goldberg's +Rat'skeller, and amunchoor nights I nearly always +done a sketch with a gen'leman friend. That's the +way I met Mr. Fear; he seemed to be real struck +with me right away, and soon as I got through my +turn he ast me to order whatever I wanted. He's +always gen'lemanlike when he ain't had too much, +and even then he vurry, vurry seldom acks rough +unless he's jealous. That was the trouble yesterday. +I never would of gone to the Beach if I'd +dreamed what was comin'! When we got there I +saw Mike--that's the gen'leman that runs the +Beach--lookin' at my company and me kind of +anxious, and pretty soon he got me away from Mr. +Cory and told me what's what. Seems this Cory +only wanted me to go with him to make my husband +mad, and he'd took good care that Mr. Fear +heard I'd be there with him! And he'd be'n hangin' +around me, every time he struck town, jest to +make Mr. Fear mad--the fresh thing! You see he +wanted to make my husband start something again, +this Mr. Cory did, and he was fixed for it." + +"I don't understand," said Ariel. + +"It's this way: if Mr. Fear attacted Mr. Cory, +why, Mr. Cory could shoot him down and claim self- +defence. You see, it would be easy for Mr. Cory, +because Mr Fear nearly killed him when they had +their first trouble, and that would give Mr. Cory a +good excuse to shoot if Mr. Fear jest only pushed +him. That's the way it is with the law. Mr. Cory +could wipe out their old score and git off scot-free." + +"Surely not!" + +"Yes, ma'am, that's the way it would be. And +when Mike told me that Mr. Cory had got me out +there jest to provoke my husband I went straight +up to him and begun to give him a piece of my mind. +I didn't talk loud, because I never was one to make +a disturbance and start trouble the way SOME do; +and right while I was talkin' we both see my husband +pass the window. Mr. Cory give a kind of +yelling laugh and put his arm round me jest as Mr. +Fear come in the door. And then it all happened +so quick that you could hardly tell what WAS goin' +on. Mr. Fear, we found afterwards, had promised +Mr. Louden that he wouldn't come out there, but he +took too much--you could see that by the look of +him--and fergot his promise; fergot everything but +me and Cory, I guess. + +"He come right up to us, where I was tryin' to +git away from Cory's arm--it was the left one he +had around me, and the other behind his back--and +neither of 'em said a word. Cory kept on laughin' +loud as he could, and Mr. Fear struck him in the +mouth. He's little, but he can hit awful hard, and +Mr. Cory let out a screech, and I see his gun go off-- +right in Mr. Fear's face, I thought, but it wasn't; it +only scorched him. Most of the other gen'lemen +had run, but Mike made a dive and managed to +knock the gun to one side, jest barely in time. +Then Mike and three or four others that come out +from behind things separated 'em--both of 'em +fightin' to git at each other. They locked Mr. Cory +up in Mike's room, and took Mr. Fear over to where +they hitch the horses. Then Mike sent fer Mr. +Louden to come out to talk to my husband and take +care of him--he's the only one can do anything with +him when he's like that--but before Mr. Louden +could git there, Mr. Fear broke loose and run +through a corn-field and got away; at least they +couldn't find him. And Mr. Cory jumped through +a window and slid down into one of Mike's boats, +so they'd both gone. When Mr. Louden come, he +only stayed long enough to hear what had happened +and started out to find Happy--that's my husband. +He's bound to keep them apart, but he hasn't found +Mr. Fear yet or he'd be here." + +Ariel had sunk back in her chair. "Why should +your husband hide?" she asked, in a low voice. + +"Waitin' fer his chance at Cory," the woman +answered, huskily. "I expect he's afraid the cops +are after him, too, on account of the trouble, and he +doesn't want to git locked up till he's met Cory +again. They ain't after him, but he may not know +it. They haven't heard of the trouble, I reckon, or +they'd of run Cory in. HE'S around town to-day, +drinkin' heavy, and I guess he's lookin' fer Mr. Fear +about as hard as Mr. Louden is." She rose to her +feet, lifted her coarse hands, and dropped them +despairingly. "Oh, I'm scared!" she said. "Mr. +Fear's be'n mighty good to me." + +A slow and tired footstep was heard upon the +stairs, and Joe's dog ran into the room droopingly, +wagged his tail with no energy, and crept under +the desk. Mrs. Fear wheeled toward the door and +stood, rigid, her hands clenched tight, her whole +body still, except her breast, which rose and +fell with her tumultuous breathing. She could +not wait till the laggard step reached the landing. + +"MR. LOUDEN!" she called, suddenly. + +Joe's voice came from the stairway. "It's all +right, Claudine. It's all fixed up. Don't worry." + +Mrs. Fear gave a thick cry of relief and sank back +in her chair as Joe entered the room. He came in +shamblingly, with his hand over his eyes as if they +were very tired and the light hurt them, so that, +for a moment or two, he did not perceive the second +visitor. Then he let his hand fall, revealing a face +very white and worn. + +"It's all right, Claudine," he repeated. "It's all +right." + +He was moving to lay his hat on the desk when +his eye caught first the roses, then fell upon Ariel, +and he stopped stock-still with one arm outstretched, +remaining for perhaps ten seconds in that attitude, +while she, her lips parted, her eyes lustrous, +returned his gaze with a look that was as +inscrutable as it was kind. + +"Yes," she said, as if in answer to a question, "I +have come here twice to-day." She nodded slightly +toward Mrs. Fear. "I can wait. I am very +glad you bring good news." + +Joe turned dazedly toward the other. "Claudine," +he said, "you've been telling Miss Tabor." + +"I cert'nly have!" Mrs. Fear's expression had +cleared and her tone was cheerful. "I don't see no +harm in that! I'm sure she's a good friend of YOURS, +Mr. Louden." + +Joe glanced at Ariel with a faint, troubled smile, +and turned again to Mrs. Fear. "I've had a long +talk with Happy." + +"I'm awful glad. Is he ready to listen to reason? +she asked, with a titter. + +"He's waiting for you." + +"Where?" She rose quickly. + +"Stop," said Joe, sharply. "You must be very +careful with him--" + +"Don't you s'pose I'm goin' to be?" she +interrupted, with a catch in her voice. "Don't you +s'pose I've had trouble enough?" + +"No," said Joe, deliberately and impersonally, +"I don't. Unless you keep remembering to be +careful all the time, you'll follow the first impulse +you have, as you did yesterday, and your excuse +will be that you never thought any harm would +come of it. He's in a queer mood; but he will forgive +you if you ask him--" + +"Well, ain't that what I WANT to do!" she exclaimed. + +"I know, I know," he said, dropping into the +desk-chair and passing his hand over his eyes with +a gesture of infinite weariness. "But you must be +very careful. I hunted for him most of the night +and all day. He was trying to keep out of my way +because he didn't want me to find him until he had +met this fellow Nashville. Happy is a hard man +to come at when he doesn't care to be found, and +he kept shifting from place to place until I ran him +down. Then I got him in a corner and told him +that you hadn't meant any harm--which is always +true of you, poor woman!--and I didn't leave him +till he had promised me to forgive you if you would +come and ask him. And you must keep him out of +Cory's way until I can arrange to have him--Cory, +I mean--sent out of town. Will you?" + +"Why, cert'nly," she answered, smiling. "That +Nashville's the vurry last person I ever want to +see again--the fresh thing!" Mrs. Fear's burden +had fallen; her relief was perfect and she beamed +vapidly; but Joe marked her renewed irresponsibility +with an anxious eye. + +"You mustn't make any mistakes," he said, +rising stiffly with fatigue. + +"Not ME! _I_ don't take no more chances," she +responded, tittering happily. "Not after yesterday. +MY! but it's a load off my shoulders! I do +hate it to have gen'lemen quarrelling over me, +especially Mr. Fear. I never DID like to START +anything; I like to see people laugh and be friendly, and +I'm mighty glad it's all blown over. I kind o' +thought it would, all along. PSHO!" She burst +into genuine, noisy laughter. "I don't expect +either of 'em meant no real harm to each other, +after they got cooled off a little! If they'd met +to-day, they'd probably both run! Now, Mr. +Louden, where's Happy?" + +Joe went to the door with her. He waited a +moment, perplexed, then his brow cleared and he +said in a low voice: "You know the alley beyond +Vent Miller's pool-room? Go down the alley till +you come to the second gate. Go in, and you'll see +a basement door opening into a little room under +Miller's bar. The door won't be locked, and Happy's +in there waiting for you. But remember--" + +"Oh, don't you worry," she cut him off, loudly. +"I know HIM! Inside of an hour I'll have him +LAUGHIN' over all this. You'll see!" + +When she had gone, he stood upon the landing +looking thoughtfully after her. "Perhaps, after +all, that is the best mood to let her meet him in," +he murmured. + +Then, with a deep breath, he turned. The +heavy perfume had gone; the air was clear and +sweet, and Ariel was pressing her face into the +roses again. As he saw how like them she was, +he was shaken with a profound and mysterious +sigh, like that which moves in the breast of one +who listens in the dark to his dearest music. + + + +XV + +HAPPY FEAR GIVES HIMSELF UP + +"I know how tired you are," said Ariel, +as he came back into the room. "I +shall not keep you long." + +"Ah, please do!" he returned, +quickly, beginning to fumble with +the shade of a student-lamp at one end of the +desk. + +"Let me do that," she said. "Sit down." He +obeyed at once, and watched her as she lit the lamp, +and, stretching upon tiptoe, turned out the gas. +"No," she continued, seated again and looking +across the desk at him, "I wanted to see you at the +first possible opportunity, but what I have to say--" + +"Wait," he interrupted. "Let me tell you why +I did not come yesterday." + +"You need not tell me. I know." She glanced +at the chair which had been occupied by Mrs. Fear. +"I knew last night that they had sent for you." + +"You did?" he exclaimed. "Ah, I understand. +Sam Warden must have told you." + +"Yes," she said. "It was he; and I have been +wondering ever since how he heard of it. He +knew last night, but there was nothing in the +papers this morning; and until I came here I +heard no one else speak of it; yet Canaan is not +large." + +Joe laughed. "It wouldn't seem strange if +you lived with the Canaan that I do. Sam had +been down-town during the afternoon and had met +friends; the colored people are a good deal like a +freemasonry, you know. A great many knew last +night all about what had happened, and had their +theories about what might happen to-day in case +the two men met. Still, you see, those who knew, +also knew just what people not to tell. The Tocsin +is the only newspaper worth the name here; but +even if the Tocsin had known of the trouble, it +wouldn't have been likely to mention it. That's +a thing I don't understand." He frowned and +rubbed the back of his head. "There's something +underneath it. For more than a year the Tocsin +hasn't spoken of Beaver Beach. I'd like to know +why." + +"Joe," she said, slowly, "tell me something +truly. A man said to me yesterday that he found +life here insufferable. Do you find it so?" + +"Why, no!" he answered, surprised. + +"Do you hate Canaan?" + +"Certainly not." + +"You don't find it dull, provincial, unsympathetic?" + +He laughed cheerily. "Well, there's this," he +explained: "I have an advantage over your friend. +I see a more interesting side of things probably. +The people I live among are pretty thorough +cosmopolites in a way, and the life I lead--" + +"I think I begin to understand a little about the +life you lead," she interrupted. "Then you don't +complain of Canaan?" + +"Of course not." + +She threw him a quick, bright, happy look, then +glanced again at the chair in which Mrs. Fear had +sat. "Joe," she said, "last night I heard the people +singing in the houses, the old Sunday-evening +way. It `took me back so'!" + +"Yes, it would. And something else: there's +one hymn they sing more than any other; it's Canaan's +favorite. Do you know what it is?" + +"Is it `Rescue the Perishing'?" + +"That's it. `Rescue the Perishing'!" he cried, +and repeating the words again, gave forth a peal +of laughter so hearty that it brought tears to his +eyes. "`RESCUE THE PERISHING'!" + +At first she did not understand his laughter, +but, after a moment, she did, and joined her own +to it, though with a certain tremulousness. + +"It IS funny, isn't it?" said Joe, wiping the +moisture from his eyes. Then all trace of mirth +left him. "Is it really YOU, sitting here and laughing +with me, Ariel?" + +"It seems to be," she answered, in a low voice. +"I'm not at all sure." + +"You didn't think, yesterday afternoon," he +began, almost in a whisper,--" you didn't think that +I had failed to come because I--" He grew very +red, and shifted the sentence awkwardly: "I was +afraid you might think that I was--that I didn't +come because I might have been the same way +again that I was when--when I met you at the +station?" + +"Oh no!" she answered, gently. "No. I knew +better." + +"And do you know," he faltered, "that that is +all over? That it can never happen again?" + +"Yes, I know it," she returned, quickly. + +"Then you know a little of what I owe you." + +"No, no," she protested. + +"Yes," he said. "You've made that change in +me already. It wasn't hard--it won't be--though +it might have been if--if you hadn't come soon." + +"Tell me something," she demanded. "If these +people had not sent for you yesterday, would you +have come to Judge Pike's house to see me? You +said you would try." She laughed a little, and +looked away from him. "I want to know if you +would have come." + +There was a silence, and in spite of her averted +glance she knew that he was looking at her steadily. +Finally, "Don't you know?" he said. + +She shook her head and blushed faintly. + +"Don't you know?" he repeated. + +She looked up and met his eyes, and thereupon +both became very grave. "Yes, I do," she +answered. "You would have come. When you left +me at the gate and went away, you were afraid. +But you would have come." + +"Yes,--I'd have come. You are right. I was +afraid at first; but I knew," he went on, rapidly, +"that you would have come to the gate to meet me." + +"You understood that?" she cried, her eyes +sparkling and her face flushing happily. + +"Yes. I knew that you wouldn't have asked +me to come," he said, with a catch in his voice +which was half chuckle, half groan, "if you hadn't +meant to take care of me! And it came to me that +you would know how to do it." + +She leaned back in her chair, and again they +laughed together, but only for a moment, becoming +serious and very quiet almost instantly. + +"I haven't thanked you for the roses," he said. + +"Oh yes, you did. When you first looked at them!" + +"So I did," he whispered. "I'm glad you saw. +To find them here took my breath away--and to +find you with them--" + +"I brought them this morning, you know." + +"Would you have come if you had not understood +why I failed yesterday?" + +"Oh yes, I think so," she returned, the fine edge +of a smile upon her lips. "For a time last evening, +before I heard what had happened, I thought +you were too frightened a friend to bother about." + +He made a little ejaculation, partly joyful, partly sad. + +"And yet," she went on, "I think that I should +have come this morning, after all, even if you had +a poorer excuse for your absence, because, you +see, I came on business." + +"You did?" + +"That's why I've come again. That makes it +respectable for me to be here now, doesn't it?--for +me to have come out alone after dark without their +knowing it? I'm here as your client, Joe." + +"Why?" he asked. + +She did not answer at once, but picked up a pen +from beneath her hand on the desk, and turning it, +meditatively felt its point with her forefinger +before she said slowly, "Are most men careful of +other people's--well, of other people's money?" + +"You mean Martin Pike?" he asked. + +"Yes. I want you to take charge of everything +I have for me." + +He bent a frowning regard upon the lamp- +shade. "You ought to look after your own +property," he said. "You surely have plenty of +time." + +"You mean--you mean you won't help me?" +she returned, with intentional pathos. + +"Ariel!" he laughed, shortly, in answer; then +asked, "What makes you think Judge Pike isn't +trustworthy?" + +"Nothing very definite perhaps, unless it was +his look when I told him that I meant to ask you +to take charge of things for me." + +"He's been rather hard pressed this year, I +think," said Joe. "You might be right--if he +could have found a way. I hope he hasn't." + +"I'm afraid," she began, gayly, "that I know +very little of my own affairs. He sent me a draft +every three months, with receipts and other things +to sign and return to him. I haven't the faintest +notion of what I own--except the old house and +some money from the income that I hadn't used +and brought with me. Judge Pike has all the +papers--everything." + +Joe looked troubled. "And Roger Tabor, did +he--" + +"The dear man!" She shook her head. "He +was just the same. To him poor Uncle Jonas's +money seemed to come from heaven through the +hands of Judge Pike--" + +"And there's a handsome roundabout way!" +said Joe. + +"Wasn't it!" she agreed, cheerfully. "And he +trusted the Judge absolutely. I don't, you see." + +He gave her a thoughtful look and nodded. +"No, he isn't a good man," he said, "not even +according to his lights; but I doubt if he could have +managed to get away with anything of consequence +after he became the administrator. He +wouldn't have tried it, probably, unless he was +more desperately pushed than I think he has been. +It would have been too dangerous. Suppose you +wait a week or so and think it over." + +"But there's something I want you to do for me +immediately, Joe." + +"What's that?" + +"I want the old house put in order. I'm going +to live there." + +"Alone?" + +"I'm almost twenty-seven, and that's being +enough of an old maid for me to risk Canaan's +thinking me eccentric, isn't it?" + +"It will think anything you do is all right." + +"And once," she cried, "it thought everything +I did all wrong!" + +"Yes. That's the difference." + +"You mean it will commend me because I'm +thought rich?" + +"No, no," he said, meditatively, "it isn't that. +It's because everybody will be in love with you." + +"Quite everybody!" she asked. + +"Certainly," he replied. "Anybody who didn't +would be absurd." + +"Ah, Joe!" she laughed. "You always were the +nicest boy in the world, my dear!" + +At that he turned toward her with a sudden +movement and his lips parted, but not to speak. +She had rested one arm upon the desk, and her +cheek upon her hand; the pen she had picked up, +still absently held in her fingers, touching her lips; +and it was given to him to know that he would +always keep that pen, though he would never +write with it again. The soft lamplight fell across +the lower part of her face, leaving her eyes, which +were lowered thoughtfully, in the shadow of her +hat. The room was blotted out in darkness behind +her. Like the background of an antique portrait, +the office, with its dusty corners and shelves and +hideous safe, had vanished, leaving the charming +and thoughtful face revealed against an even, +spacious brownness. Only Ariel and the roses and +the lamp were clear; and a strange, small pain +moved from Joe's heart to his throat, as he thought +that this ugly office, always before so harsh and +grim and lonely--loneliest for him when it had +been most crowded,--was now transfigured into +something very, very different from an office; that +this place where he sat, with a lamp and flowers +on a desk between him and a woman who called +him "my dear," must be like--like something that +people called "home." + +And then he leaned across the desk toward her, +as he said again what he had said a little while +before,--and his voice trembled: + +"Ariel, it IS you?" + +She looked at him and smiled. + +"You'll be here always, won't you? You're not +going away from Canaan again?" + +For a moment it seemed that she had not heard +him. Then her bright glance at him wavered and +fell. She rose, turning slightly away from him, +but not so far that he could not see the sudden +agitation in her face. + +"Ah!" he cried, rising too, "I don't want you to +think I don't understand, or that I meant _I_ should +ever ask you to stay here! I couldn't mean that; +you know I couldn't, don't you? You know I +understand that it's all just your beautiful friendliness, +don't you?" + +"It isn't beautiful; it's just ME, Joe," she said. +"It couldn't be any other way." + +"It's enough that you should be here now," he +went on, bravely, his voice steady, though his hand +shook. "Nothing so wonderful as your staying +could ever actually happen. It's just a light +coming into a dark room and out again. One day, +long ago--I never forgot it--some apple-blossoms +blew by me as I passed an orchard; and it's +like that, too. But, oh, my dear, when you go +you'll leave a fragrance in my heart that will +last!" + +She turned toward him, her face suffused with +a rosy light. "You'd rather have died than have +said that to me once," she cried. "I'm glad you're +weak enough now to confess it!" + +He sank down again into his chair and his arms +fell heavily on the desk. "Confess it!" he cried, +despairingly. "And you don't deny that you're +going away again--so it's true! I wish I hadn't +realized it so soon. I think I'd rather have tried +to fool myself about it a little longer!" + +"Joe," she cried, in a voice of great pain, "you +mustn't feel like that! How do you know I'm +going away again? Why should I want the old +house put in order unless I mean to stay? And if +I went, you know that I could never change; you +know how I've always cared for you--" + +"Yes," he said, "I do know how. It was always +the same and it always will be, won't it?" + +"I've shown that," she returned, quickly. + +"Yes. You say I know how you've cared for +me--and I do. I know HOW. It's just in one certain +way--Jonathan and David--" + +"Isn't that a pretty good way, Joe?" + +"Never fear that I don't understand!" He got +to his feet again and looked at her steadily. + +"Thank you, Joe." She wiped sudden tears +from her eyes. + +"Don't you be sorry for me," he said. "Do +you think that `passing the love of women' isn't +enough for me?" + +"No," she answered, humbly. + +"I'll have people at work on the old house to- +morrow," he began. "And for the--" + +"I've kept you so long!" she interrupted, helped +to a meek sort of gayety by his matter-of-fact tone. +"Good-night, Joe." She gave him her hand. "I +don't want you to come with me. It isn't very +late and this is Canaan." + +"I want to come with you, however," he said, +picking up his hat. "You can't go alone." + +"But you are so tired, you--" + +She was interrupted. There were muffled, +flying footsteps on the stairs, and a shabby little man +ran furtively into the room, shut the door behind +him, and set his back against it. His face was +mottled like a colored map, thick lines of +perspiration shining across the splotches. + +"Joe," he panted, "I've got Nashville good, and +he's got me good, too;--I got to clear out. He's +fixed me good, damn him! but he won't trouble +nobody--" + +Joe was across the room like a flying shadow. + +"QUIET!" His voice rang like a shot, and on the +instant his hand fell sharply across the speaker's +mouth. "In THERE, Happy!" + +He threw an arm across the little man's shoulders +and swung him toward the door of the other room. + +Happy Fear looked up from beneath the down- +bent brim of his black slouch hat; his eyes followed +an imperious gesture toward Ariel, gave her a +brief, ghastly stare, and stumbled into the inner +chamber. + +"Wait!" Joe said, cavalierly, to Ariel. He went +in quickly after Mr. Fear and closed the door. + +This was Joseph Louden, Attorney-at-Law; and +to Ariel it was like a new face seen in a flash-light +--not at all the face of Joe. The sense of his +strangeness, his unfamiliarity in this electrical +aspect, overcame her. She was possessed by +astonishment: Did she know him so well, after +all? The strange client had burst in, shaken +beyond belief with some passion unknown to her, +but Joe, alert, and masterful beyond denial, had +controlled him instantly; had swept him into the +other room as with a broom. Could it be that +Joe sometimes did other things in the same sweeping +fashion? + +She heard a match struck in the next room, and +the voices of the two men: Joe's, then the other's, +the latter at first broken and protestive, but soon +rising shrilly. She could hear only fragments. +Once she heard the client cry, almost scream: +"By God! Joe, I thought Claudine had chased him +around there to DO me!" And, instantly, followed +Louden's voice: + +"STEADY, HAPPY, STEADY!" + +The name "Claudine" startled her; and although +she had had no comprehension of the argot of +Happy Fear, the sense of a mysterious catastrophe +oppressed her; she was sure that something horrible +had happened. She went to the window; +touched the shade, which disappeared upward +immediately, and lifted the sash. The front of a +square building in the Court-house Square was +bright with lights; and figures were passing in and +out of the Main Street doors. She remembered +that this was the jail. + +"Claudine!" The voice of the husband of +Claudine was like the voice of one lamenting over +Jerusalem. + +"STEADY, HAPPY, STEADY!" + +"But, Joe, if they git me, what'll she do? She +can't hold her job no longer--not after this. . . ." + +The door opened, and the two men came out, +Joe with his hand on the other's shoulder. The +splotches had gone from Happy's face, leaving it +an even, deathly white. He did not glance toward +Ariel; he gazed far beyond all that was about +him; and suddenly she was aware of a great tragedy. +The little man's chin trembled and he swallowed +painfully; nevertheless he bore himself upright +and dauntlessly as the two walked slowly to +the door, like men taking part in some fateful +ceremony. Joe stopped upon the landing at the +head of the stairs, but Happy Fear went on, clumping +heavily down the steps. + +"It's all right, Happy," said Joe. "It's better +for you to go alone. Don't you worry. I'll see +you through. It will be all right." + +"Just as YOU say, Joe," a breaking voice came +back from the foot of the steps,--"just as YOU say!" + +The lawyer turned from the landing and went +rapidly to the window beside Ariel. Together they +watched the shabby little figure cross the street +below; and she felt an infinite pathos gathering +about it as it paused for a moment, hesitating, +underneath the arc-lamp at the corner. They saw +the white face lifted as Happy Fear gave one last +look about him; then he set his shoulders sturdily, +and steadfastly entered the door of the jail. + +Joe took a deep breath. "Now we'll go," he +said. "I must be quick." + +"What was it?" she asked, tremulously, as they +reached the street. "Can you tell me?" + +"Nothing--just an old story." + +He had not offered her his arm, but walked on +hurriedly, a pace ahead of her, though she came +as rapidly as she could. She put her hand rather +timidly on his sleeve, and without need of more +words from her he understood her insistence. + +"That was the husband of the woman who told +you her story," he said. "Perhaps it would shock +you less if I tell you now than if you heard it to- +morrow, as you will. He's just shot the other +man." + +"Killed him!" she gasped. + +"Yes," he answered. "He wanted to run away, +but I wouldn't let him. He has my word that +I'll clear him, and I made him give himself up." + + + +XVI + +THE TWO CANAANS + +When Joe left Ariel at Judge Pike's +gate she lingered there, her elbows +upon the uppermost cross-bar, like +a village girl at twilight, watching +his thin figure vanish into the heavy +shadow of the maples, then emerge momentarily, +ghost-gray and rapid, at the lighted crossing down +the street, to disappear again under the trees +beyond, followed a second later by a brownish streak +as the mongrel heeled after him. When they had +passed the second corner she could no longer be +certain of them, although the street was straight, +with flat, draughtsmanlike Western directness: +both figures and Joe's quick footsteps merging +with the night. Still she did not turn to go; did +not alter her position, nor cease to gaze down the +dim street. Few lights shone; almost all the windows +of the houses were darkened, and, save for +the summer murmurs, the faint creak of upper +branches, and the infinitesimal voices of insects in +the grass, there was silence: the pleasant and +somnolent hush, swathed in which that part of Canaan +crosses to the far side of the eleventh hour. + +But Ariel, not soothed by this balm, sought +beyond it, to see that unquiet Canaan whither her +old friend bent his steps and found his labor and +his dwelling: that other Canaan where peace did +not fall comfortably with the coming of night; a +place as alien in habit, in thought, and almost in +speech as if it had been upon another continent. +And yet--so strange is the duality of towns--it lay +but a few blocks distant. + +Here, about Ariel, as she stood at the gate of the +Pike Mansion, the houses of the good (secure of +salvation and daily bread) were closed and quiet, +as safely shut and sound asleep as the churches; +but deeper in the town there was light and life +and merry, evil industry,--screened, but strong to +last until morning; there were haunts of haggard +merriment in plenty: surreptitious chambers where +roulette-wheels swam beneath dizzied eyes; ill- +favored bars, reached by devious ways, where +quavering voices offered song and were harshly +checked; and through the burdened air of this +Canaan wandered heavy smells of musk like that +upon Happy Fear's wife, who must now be so pale +beneath her rouge. And above all this, and for +all this, and because of all this, was that one re- +sort to which Joe now made his way; that haven +whose lights burn all night long, whose doors are +never closed, but are open from dawn until dawn +--the jail. + +There, in that desolate refuge, lay Happy Fear, +surrendered sturdily by himself at Joe's word. +The picture of the little man was clear and fresh +in Ariel's eyes, and though she had seen him when +he was newly come from a thing so terrible that +she could not realize it as a fact, she felt only an +overwhelming pity for him. She was not even +horror-stricken, though she had shuddered. The +pathos of the shabby little figure crossing the street +toward the lighted doors had touched her. Something +about him had appealed to her, for he had +not seemed wicked; his face was not cruel, though +it was desperate. Perhaps it was partly his very +desperation which had moved her. She had +understood Joe, when he told her, that this man was +his friend; and comprehended his great fear when +he said: "I've got to clear him! I promised him." + +Over and over Joe had reiterated: "I've got to +save him! I've got to!" She had answered +gently, "Yes, Joe," hurrying to keep up with him. +"He's a good man," he said. "I've known few +better, given his chances. And none of this would +have happened except for his old-time friendship +for me. It was his loyalty--oh, the rarest and +absurdest loyalty!--that made the first trouble +between him and the man he shot. I've got to clear +him!" + +"Will it be hard?" + +"They may make it so. I can only see part of +it surely. When his wife left the office, she met +Cory on the street. You saw what a pitiful kind of +fool she was, irresponsible and helpless and feather- +brained. There are thousands of women like that +everywhere--some of them are `Court Beauties,' +I dare say--and they always mix things up; but +they are most dangerous when they're like Claudine, +because then they live among men of action +like Cory and Fear. Cory was artful: he spent the +day about town telling people that he had always +liked Happy; that his ill feeling of yesterday was +all gone; he wanted to find him and shake his hand, +bury past troubles and be friends. I think he +told Claudine the same thing when they met, and +convinced the tiny brainlet of his sincerity. Cory +was a man who `had a way with him,' and I can +see Claudine flattered at the idea of being peace- +maker between `two such nice gen'lemen as Mr. +Cory and Mr. Fear.' Her commonest asseveration-- +quite genuine, too--is that she doesn't like to have +the gen'lemen making trouble about her! So the +poor imbecile led him to where her husband was +waiting. All that Happy knew of this was in her +cry afterwards. He was sitting alone, when Cory +threw open the door and said, `I've got you this +time, Happy!' His pistol was raised but never +fired. He waited too long, meaning to establish +his case of `self-defence,' and Fear is the quickest +man I know. Cory fell just inside the door. Claudine +stumbled upon him as she came running after +him, crying out to her husband that she `never +meant no trouble,' that Cory had sworn to her that +he only wanted to shake hands and `make up.' +Other people heard the shot and broke into the +room, but they did not try to stop Fear; he warned +them off and walked out without hindrance, and +came to me. I've got to clear him." + +Ariel knew what he meant: she realized the +actual thing as it was, and, though possessed by a +strange feeling that it must all be medieval and +not possibly of to-day, understood that he would +have to fight to keep his friend from being killed; +that the unhappy creature who had run into the +office out of the dark stood in high danger of having +his neck broken, unless Joe could help him. +He made it clear to her that the State would kill +Happy if it could; that it would be a point of pride +with certain deliberate men holding office to take +the life of the little man; that if they did secure his +death it would be set down to their efficiency, and +was even competent as campaign material. "I +wish to point out," Joe had heard a candidate for +re-election vehemently orate, "that in addition to +the other successful convictions I have named, I +and my assistants have achieved the sending of +three men to the gallows during my term of office!" + +"I can't tell yet," said Joe, at parting. "It +may be hard. I'm so sorry you saw all this. I--" + +"Oh NO!" she cried. "I want to UNDERSTAND!" + + +She was still there, at the gate, her elbows resting +upon the cross-bar, when, a long time after Joe +had gone, there came from the alley behind the +big back yard the minor chordings of a quartette +of those dark strollers who never seem to go to +bed, who play by night and playfully pretend to +work by day: + + "You know my soul is a-full o' them-a-trub-bils, + Ev-ry mawn! + I cain' a-walk withouten I stum-bils! + Then le'ss go on-- + Keep walkin' on! + These times is sow'owful, an' I am pow'owful + Sick an' fo'lawn!" + + +She heard a step upon the path behind her, and, +turning, saw a white-wrapped figure coming toward her. + +"Mamie?" she called. + +"Hush!" Mamie lifted a warning hand. "The +windows are open," she whispered. "They might +hear you!" + +"Why haven't you gone to bed?" + +"Oh, don't you see?" Mamie answered, in deep +distress,--"I've been sitting up for you. We all +thought you were writing letters in your room, +but after papa and mamma had gone to bed I +went in to tell you good night, and you weren't +there, nor anywhere else; so I knew you must have +gone out. I've been sitting by the front window, +waiting to let you in, but I went to sleep until a +little while ago, when the telephone-bell rang and +he got up and answered it. He kept talking a long +time; it was something about the Tocsin, and I'm +afraid there's been a murder down-town. When +he went back to bed I fell asleep again, and then +those darkies woke me up. How on earth did +you expect to get in? Don't you know he always +locks up the house?" + +"I could have rung," said Ariel. + +"Oh--oh!" gasped Miss Pike; and, after she had +recovered somewhat, asked: "Do you mind telling +me where you've been? I won't tell him--nor +mamma, either. I think, after all, I was wrong +yesterday to follow Eugene's advice. He meant +for the best, but I--" + +"Don't think that. You weren't wrong." Ariel +put her arm round the other's waist. "I went to +talk over some things with Mr. Louden." + +"I think," whispered Mamie, trembling, "that +you are the bravest girl I ever knew--and--and--I +could almost believe there's some good in him, +since you like him so. I know there is. And I--I +think he's had a hard time. I want you to know +I won't even tell Eugene!" + +"You can tell everybody in the world," said +Ariel, and kissed her. + + + +XVII + +MR. SHEEHAN'S HINTS + +"Never," said the Tocsin on the morrow, +"has this community been stirred +to deeper indignation than by the +cold-blooded and unmitigated brutality +of the deliberate murder committed +almost under the very shadow of the Court- +house cupola last night. The victim was not a +man of good repute, it is true, but at the moment +of his death he was in the act of performing a noble +and generous action which showed that he might +have become, if he lived, a good and law-fearing +citizen. In brief, he went to forgive his enemy +and was stretching forth the hand of fellowship +when that enemy shot him down. Not half an +hour before his death, Cory had repeated within +the hearing of a dozen men what he had been saying +all day, as many can testify: `I want to find +my old friend Fear and shake hands with him. I +want to tell him that I forgive him and that I am +ashamed of whatever has been my part in the +trouble between us.' He went with that intention +to his death. The wife of the murderer has +confessed that this was the substance of what he said +to her, and that she was convinced of his peaceful +intentions. When they reached the room where +her husband was waiting for her, Cory entered +first. The woman claims now that as they neared +the vicinity he hastened forward at a pace which +she could not equal. Naturally, her testimony on +all points favoring her husband is practically +worthless. She followed and heard the murdered man +speak, though what his words were she declares +she does not know, and of course the murderer, +after consultation with his lawyer, claims that their +nature was threatening. Such a statement, in +determining the truth, is worse than valueless. It is +known and readily proved that Fear repeatedly +threatened the deceased's life yesterday, and there +is no question in the mind of any man, woman, or +child, who reads these words, of the cold blooded +nature of the crime. The slayer, who had formerly +made a murderous attack upon his victim, lately +quarrelled with him and uttered threats, as we +have stated, upon his life. The dead man came +to him with protestations of friendship and was +struck down a corpse. It is understood that the +defence will in desperation set up the theory of +self-defence, based on an unsubstantiated claim that +Cory entered the room with a drawn pistol. No +pistol was found in the room. The weapon with +which the deed was accomplished was found upon +the person of the murderer when he was seized by +the police, one chamber discharged. Another +revolver was discovered upon the person of the +woman, when she was arrested on the scene of the +crime. This, upon being strictly interrogated, she +said she had picked up from the floor in the +confusion, thinking it was her husband's and hoping +to conceal it. The chambers were full and undischarged, +and we have heard it surmised that the +defence means to claim that it was Cory's. Cory +doubtless went on his errand of forgiveness +unarmed, and beyond doubt the second weapon +belonged to the woman herself, who has an unenviable +record. + +"The point of it all is plainly this: here is an +unquestionable murder in the first degree, and the +people of this city and county are outraged and +incensed that such a crime should have been committed +in their law-abiding and respectable community. +With whom does the fault lie? On +whose head is this murder? Not with the +authorities, for they do not countenance crime. Has +it come to the pass that, counting on juggleries of +the law, criminals believe that they may kill, +maim, burn, and slay as they list without +punishment? Is this to be another instance of the law's +delays and immunity for a hideous crime, +compassed by a cunning and cynical trickster of legal +technicalities? The people of Canaan cry out for +a speedy trial, speedy conviction, and speedy +punishment of this cold-blooded and murderous +monster. If he is not dealt with quickly according +to his deserts, the climax is upon us and the limit +of Canaan's patience has been reached. + +"One last word, and we shall be glad to have +its significance noted: J. Louden, Esq., has been +retained for the defence! The murderer, before +being apprehended by the authorities, WENT STRAIGHT +FROM THE SCENE OF HIS CRIME TO PLACE HIS RETAINER +IN HIS ATTORNEY'S POCKET! HOW LONG IS THIS TO +LAST?" + + +The Tocsin was quoted on street corners that +morning, in shop and store and office, wherever +people talked of the Cory murder; and that was +everywhere, for the people of Canaan and of the +country roundabout talked of nothing else. Women +chattered of it in parlor and kitchen; men gathered +in small groups on the street and shook their +heads ominously over it; farmers, meeting on the +road, halted their teams and loudly damned the +little man in the Canaan jail; milkmen lingered on +back porches over their cans to agree with cooks +that it was an awful thing, and that if ever any +man deserved hanging, that there Fear deserved it +--his lawyer along with him! Tipsy men hammered +bars with fists and beer-glasses, inquiring +if there was no rope to be had in the town; and +Joe Louden, returning to his office from the little +restaurant where he sometimes ate his breakfast, +heard hisses following him along Main Street. A +clerk, a fat-shouldered, blue-aproned, pimple- +cheeked youth, stood in the open doors of a grocery, +and as he passed, stared him in the face and said +"Yah!" with supreme disgust. + +Joe stopped. "Why?" he asked, mildly. + +The clerk put two fingers in his mouth and +whistled shrilly in derision. "You'd ort to be +run out o' town!" he exclaimed. + +"I believe," said Joe, "that we have never met +before." + +"Go on, you shyster!" + +Joe looked at him gravely. "My dear sir," he +returned, "you speak to me with the familiarity +of an old friend." + +The clerk did not recover so far as to be capable +of repartee until Joe had entered his own stairway. +Then, with a bitter sneer, he seized a bad potato +from an open barrel and threw it at the mongrel, +who had paused to examine the landscape. The +missile failed, and Respectability, after bestowing a +slightly injured look upon the clerk, followed his +master. + +In the office the red-bearded man sat waiting. +Not so red-bearded as of yore, however, was Mr. +Sheehan, but grizzled and gray, and, this morning, +gray of face, too, as he sat, perspiring and anxious, +wiping a troubled brow with a black silk handkerchief. + +"Here's the devil and all to pay at last, Joe," +he said, uneasily, on the other's entrance. "This +is the worst I ever knew; and I hate to say it, but I +doubt yer pullin' it off." + +"I've got to, Mike." + +"I hope on my soul there's a chanst of it! I +like the little man, Joe." + +"So do I." + +"I know ye do, my boy. But here's this Tocsin +kickin' up the public sentiment; and if there ever +was a follerin' sheep on earth, it's that same public +sentiment!" + +"If it weren't for that"--Joe flung himself +heavily in a chair--"there'd not be so much +trouble. It's a clear enough case." + +"But don't ye see," interrupted Sheehan, "the +Tocsin's tried it and convicted him aforehand? +And that if things keep goin' the way they've +started to-day, the gran' jury's bound to indict +him, and the trial jury to convict him? They +wouldn't dare not to! What's more, they'll want +to! And they'll rush the trial, summer or no +summer, and--" + +"I know, I know." + +"I'll tell ye one thing," said the other, wiping his +forehead with the black handkerchief, "and that's +this, my boy: last night's business has just about +put the cap on the Beach fer me. I'm sick of it +and I'm tired of it! I'm ready to quit, sir!" + +Joe looked at him sharply. "Don't you think +my old notion of what might be done could be +made to pay?" + +Sheehan laughed. "Whoo! You and yer hints, +Joe! How long past have ye come around me +with 'em! `I b'lieve ye c'd make more money, +Mike'--that's the way ye'd put it,--`if ye altered +the Beach a bit. Make a little country-side +restaurant of it,' ye'd say, `and have good cookin', +and keep the boys and girls from raisin' so much +hell out there. Soon ye'd have other people +comin' beside the regular crowd. Make a little +garden on the shore, and let 'em eat at tables +under trees an' grape-arbors--' " + +"Well, why not?" asked Joe. + +"Haven't I been tellin' ye I'm thinkin' of it? +It's only yer way of hintin' that's funny to me,--yer +way of sayin' I'd make more money, because ye're +afraid of preachin' at any of us: partly because ye +know the little good it 'd be, and partly because +ye have humor. Well, I'm thinkin' ye'll git yer +way. I'M willin' to go into the missionary business +with ye!" + +"Mike!" said Joe, angrily, but he grew very red +and failed to meet the other's eye, "I'm not--" + +"Yes, ye are!" cried Sheehan. "Yes, sir! It's +a thing ye prob'ly haven't had the nerve to say +to yerself since a boy, but that's yer notion inside: +ye're little better than a missionary! It took me a +long while to understand what was drivin' ye, but +I do now. And ye've gone the right way about it, +because we know ye'll stand fer us when we're in +trouble and fight fer us till we git a square deal, as +ye're goin' to fight for Happy now." + +Joe looked deeply troubled. "Never mind," +he said, crossly, and with visible embarrassment. +"You think you couldn't make more at the Beach +if you ran it on my plan?" + +"I'm game to try," said Sheehan, slowly. "I'm +too old to hold 'em down out there the way I yoosta +could, and I'm sick of it--sick of it into the very +bones of me!" He wiped his forehead. "Where's +Claudine?" + +"Held as a witness." + +"I'm not sorry fer HER!" said the red-bearded +man, emphatically. "Women o' that kind are so +light-headed it's a wonder they don't float. Think +of her pickin' up Cory's gun from the floor and +hidin' it in her clothes! Took it fer granted it was +Happy's, and thought she'd help him by hidin' it! +There's a hard point fer ye, Joe: to prove the gun +belonged to Cory. There's nobody about here +could swear to it. I couldn't myself, though I +forced him to stick it back in his pocket yesterday. +He was a wanderer, too; and ye'll have +to send a keen one to trace him, I'm thinkin', +to find where he got it, so's ye can show it in +court." + +"I'm going myself. I've found out that he came +here from Denver." + +"And from where before that?" + +"I don't know, but I'll keep on travelling till I +get what I want." + +"That's right, my boy," exclaimed the other, +heartily, "It may be a long trip, but ye're all the +little man has to depend on. Did ye notice the +Tocsin didn't even give him the credit fer givin' +himself up?" + +"Yes," said Joe. "It's part of their game." + +"Did it strike ye now," Mr. Sheehan asked, +earnestly, leaning forward in his chair,--"did it +strike ye that the Tocsin was aimin' more to do +Happy harm because of you than himself?" + +"Yes." Joe looked sadly out of the window. +"I've thought that over, and it seemed possible +that I might do Happy more good by giving his +case to some other lawyer." + +"No, sir!" exclaimed the proprietor of Beaver +Beach, loudly. "They've begun their attack; +they're bound to keep it up, and they'd manage to +turn it to the discredit of both of ye. Besides, +Happy wouldn't have no other lawyer; he'd ruther +be hung with you fightin' fer him than be cleared +by anybody else. I b'lieve it,--on my soul I do! +But look here," he went on, leaning still farther +forward; "I want to know if it struck ye that this +morning the Tocsin attacked ye in a way that was +somehow vi'lenter than ever before?" + +"Yes," replied Joe, "because it was aimed to +strike where it would most count." + +"It ain't only that," said the other, excitedly. +"It ain't only that! I want ye to listen. Now +see here: the Tocsin is Pike, and the town is Pike-- +I mean the town ye naturally belonged to. Ain't +it?" + +"In a way, I suppose--yes." + +"In a way!" echoed the other, scornfully. "Ye +know it is! Even as a boy Pike disliked ye and +hated the kind of a boy ye was. Ye wasn't +respectable and he was! Ye wasn't rich and he was! +Ye had a grin on yer face when ye'd meet him on +the street." The red-bearded man broke off at a +gesture from Joe and exclaimed sharply: "Don't +deny it! _I_ know what ye was like! Ye wasn't +impudent, but ye looked at him as if ye saw through +him. Now listen and I'll lead ye somewhere! Ye +run with riffraff, naggers, and even"--Mr. Sheehan +lifted a forefinger solemnly and shook it at his +auditor--"and even with the Irish! Now I ask +ye this: ye've had one part of Canaan with ye from +the start, MY part, that is; but the other's against +ye; that part's PIKE, and it's the rulin' part--" + +"Yes, Mike," said Joe, wearily. "In the spirit +of things. I know." + +"No, sir," cried the other. "That's the trouble: +ye don't know. There's more in Canaan than ye've +understood. Listen to this: Why was the Tocsin's +attack harder this morning than ever before? On +yer soul didn't it sound so bitter that it sounded +desprit? Now why? It looked to me as if it +had started to ruin ye, this time fer good and all! +Why? What have ye had to do with Martin Pike +lately? Has the old wolf GOT to injure ye?" Mr. +Sheehan's voice rose and his eyes gleamed under +bushy brows. "Think," he finished. "What's +happened lately to make him bite so hard?" + +There were some faded roses on the desk, and as +Joe's haggard eyes fell upon them the answer +came. "What makes you think Judge Pike isn't +trustworthy?" he had asked Ariel, and her reply +had been: "Nothing very definite, unless it was his +look when I told him that I meant to ask you to +take charge of things for me." + +He got slowly and amazedly to his feet. "You've +got it!" he said. + +"Ye see?" cried Mike Sheehan, slapping his +thigh with a big hand. "On my soul I have the +penetration! Ye don't need to tell me one thing +except this: I told ye I'd lead ye somewhere; +haven't I kept me word?" + +"Yes," said Joe. + +"But I have the penetration!" exclaimed Mr. +Sheehan. "Should I miss my guess if I said that +ye think Pike may be scared ye'll stumble on his +track in some queer performances? Should I +miss it?" + +"No," said Joe. "You wouldn't miss it." + +"Just one thing more." The red-bearded man +rose, mopping the inner band of his straw hat. +"In the matter of yer runnin' fer Mayor, now--" + +Joe, who had begun to pace up and down the +room, made an impatient gesture. "Pshaw!" he +interrupted; but his friend stopped him with a +hand laid on his arm. + +"Don't be treatin' it as clean out of all possibility, +Joe Louden. If ye do, it shows ye haven't sense +to know that nobody can say what way the wind's +blowin' week after next. All the boys want ye; +Louie Farbach wants ye, and Louie has a big say. +Who is it that doesn't want ye?" + +"Canaan," said Joe. + +"Hold up! It's Pike's Canaan ye mean. If ye +git the nomination, ye'd be elected, wouldn't ye?" + +"I couldn't be nominated." + +"I ain't claimin' ye'd git Martin Pike's vote," +returned Mr. Sheehan, sharply, "though I don't +say it's impossible. Ye've got to beat him, that's +all. Ye've got to do to him what he's done to YOU, +and what he's tryin' to do now worse than ever +before. Well--there may be ways to do it; and +if he tempts me enough, I may fergit my troth and +honor as a noble gentleman and help ye with a +word ye'd never guess yerself." + +"You've hinted at such mysteries before, Mike," +Joe smiled. "I'd be glad to know what you mean, +if there's anything in them." + +"It may come to that," said the other, with +some embarrassment. "It may come to that some +day, if the old wolf presses me too hard in the +matter o' tryin' to git the little man across the +street hanged by the neck and yerself mobbed fer +helpin' him! But to-day I'll say no more." + +"Very well, Mike." Joe turned wearily to his +desk. "I don't want you to break any promises." + +Mr. Sheehan had gone to the door, but he paused +on the threshold, and wiped his forehead again. + +"And I don't want to break any," he said, "but if +ever the time should come when I couldn't help +it"--he lowered his voice to a hoarse but piercing +whisper--"that will be the devourin' angel's day +fer Martin Pike!" + + + +XVIII + +IN THE HEAT OF THE DAY + +It was a morning of the warmest week +of mid-July, and Canaan lay inert +and helpless beneath a broiling sun. +The few people who moved about +the streets went languidly, keeping +close to the wall on the shady side; the women in +thin white fabrics; the men, often coatless, carrying +palm-leaf fans, and replacing collars with +handkerchiefs. In the Court-house yard the maple +leaves, gray with blown dust and grown to great +breadth, drooped heavily, depressing the long, +motionless branches with their weight, so low that +the four or five shabby idlers, upon the benches +beneath, now and then flicked them sleepily with +whittled sprigs. The doors and windows of the +stores stood open, displaying limp wares of trade, +but few tokens of life; the clerks hanging over dim +counters as far as possible from the glare in front, +gossiping fragmentarily, usually about the Cory +murder, and, anon, upon a subject suggested by +the sight of an occasional pedestrian passing +perspiring by with scrooged eyelids and purpling skin. +From street and sidewalk, transparent hot waves +swam up and danced themselves into nothing; +while from the river bank, a half-mile away, came +a sound hotter than even the locust's midsummer +rasp: the drone of a planing-mill. A chance boy, +lying prone in the grass of the Court-house yard, +was annoyed by the relentless chant and lifted his +head to mock it: "AWR-EER-AWR-EER! SHUT UP, +CAN'T YOU?" The effort was exhausting: he +relapsed and suffered with increasing malice but in +silence. + +Abruptly there was a violent outbreak on the +"National House" corner, as when a quiet farm- +house is startled by some one's inadvertently bringing +down all the tin from a shelf in the pantry. The +loafers on the benches turned hopefully, saw what +it was, then closed their eyes, and slumped back +into their former positions. The outbreak subsided +as suddenly as it had arisen: Colonel Flitcroft +pulled Mr. Arp down into his chair again, and it +was all over. + +Greater heat than that of these blazing days +could not have kept one of the sages from attending +the conclave now. For the battle was on in +Canaan: and here, upon the National House corner, +under the shadow of the west wall, it waxed even +keener. Perhaps we may find full justification for +calling what was happening a battle in so far as we +restrict the figure to apply to this one spot; else +where, in the Canaan of the Tocsin, the conflict +was too one-sided. The Tocsin had indeed tried +the case of Happy Fear in advance, had convicted +and condemned, and every day grew more bitter. +Nor was the urgent vigor of its attack without +effect. Sleepy as Main Street seemed in the heat, +the town was incensed and roused to a tensity of +feeling it had not known since the civil war, when, +on occasion, it had set out to hang half a dozen +"Knights of the Golden Circle." Joe had been +hissed on the street many times since the inimical +clerk had whistled at him. Probably demonstrations +of that sort would have continued had he +remained in Canaan; but for almost a month he +had been absent and his office closed, its threshold +gray with dust. There were people who believed +that he had run away again, this time never to +return; among those who held to this opinion being +Mrs. Louden and her sister, Joe's step-aunt. Upon +only one point was everybody agreed: that twelve +men could not be found in the county who could +be so far persuaded and befuddled by Louden +that they would dare to allow Happy Fear to +escape. The women of Canaan, incensed by the +terrible circumstance of the case, as the Tocsin +colored it--a man shot down in the act of begging +his enemy's forgiveness--clamored as loudly as +the men: there was only the difference that the +latter vociferated for the hanging of Happy; their +good ladies used the word "punishment." + +And yet, while the place rang with condemnation +of the little man in the jail and his attorney, +there were voices, here and there, uplifted on the +other side. People existed, it astonishingly +appeared, who LIKED Happy Fear. These were for the +greater part obscure and even darkling in their +lives, yet quite demonstrably human beings, able +to smile, suffer, leap, run, and to entertain fancies; +even to have, according to their degree, a certain +rudimentary sense of right and wrong, in spite of +which they strongly favored the prisoner's acquittal. +Precisely on that account, it was argued, an +acquittal would outrage Canaan and lay it open +to untold danger: such people needed a lesson. + +The Tocsin interviewed the town's great ones, +printing their opinions of the heinousness of the +crime and the character of the defendant's lawyer. +. . . "The Hon. P. J. Parrott, who so ably represented +this county in the Legislature some fourteen +years ago, could scarcely restrain himself when +approached by a reporter as to his sentiments anent +the repulsive deed. `I should like to know how +long Canaan is going to put up with this sort of +business,' were his words. `I am a law-abiding +citizen, and I have served faithfully, and with my +full endeavor and ability, to enact the laws and +statutes of my State, but there is a point in my +patience, I would state, which lawbreakers and +their lawyers may not safely pass. Of what use +are our most solemn enactments, I may even ask +of what use is the Legislature itself, chosen by the +will of the people, if they are to ruthlessly be set +aside by criminals and their shifty protectors? +The blame should be put upon the lawyers who by +tricks enable such rascals to escape the rigors of +the carefully enacted laws, the fruits of the Solon's +labor, more than upon the criminals themselves. +In this case, if there is any miscarriage of justice, I +will say here and now that in my opinion the +people of this county will be sorely tempted; and +while I do not believe in lynch-law, yet if that +should be the result it is my unalterable conviction +that the vigilantes may well turn their attention +to the lawyers--OR LAWYER--who bring about +such miscarriage. I am sick of it.' " + +The Tocsin did not print the interview it obtained +from Louie Farbach--the same Louie Farbach who +long ago had owned a beer-saloon with a little room +behind the bar, where a shabby boy sometimes +played dominoes and "seven-up" with loafers: +not quite the same Louie Farbach, however, in +outward circumstance: for he was now the brewer +of Farbach Beer and making Canaan famous. His +rise had been Teutonic and sure; and he +contributed one-twentieth of his income to the +German Orphan Asylum and one-tenth to his party's +campaign fund. The twentieth saved the orphans +from the county, while the tithe gave the county +to his party. + +He occupied a kitchen chair, enjoying the society +of some chickens in a wired enclosure behind the +new Italian villa he had erected in that part of +Canaan where he would be most uncomfortable, +and he looked woodenly at the reporter when the +latter put his question. + +"Hef you any aguaintunce off Mitster Fear?" +he inquired, in return, with no expression +decipherable either upon his Gargantuan face or in +his heavily enfolded eyes. + +"No, sir," replied the reporter, grinning. "I +never ran across him." + +"Dot iss a goot t'ing fer you," said Mr. Farbach, +stonily. "He iss not a man peobles bedder try to +run across. It iss what Gory tried. Now Gory iss +dead." + +The reporter, slightly puzzled, lit a cigarette. +"See here, Mr. Farbach," he urged, "I only want +a word or two about this thing; and you might +give me a brief expression concerning that man +Louden besides: just a hint of what you think of +his influence here, you know, and of the kind of +sharp work he practises. Something like that." + +"I see," said the brewer, slowly. "Happy Fear +I hef knowt for a goot many years. He iss a goot +frient of mine." + +"What?" + +"Choe Louten iss a bedder one," continued Mr. +Farbach, turning again to stare at his chickens. + +"Git owit." + +"What?" + +"Git owit," repeated the other, without passion, +without anger, without any expression whatsoever. +"Git owit." + +The reporter's prejudice against the German +nation dated from that moment. + +There were others, here and there, who were less +self-contained than the brewer. A farm-hand +struck a fellow laborer in the harvest-field for +speaking ill of Joe; and the unravelling of a strange +street fight, one day, disclosed as its cause a like +resentment, on the part of a blind broom-maker, +engendered by a like offence. The broom-maker's +companion, reading the Tocsin as the two walked +together, had begun the quarrel by remarking that +Happy Fear ought to be hanged once for his own +sake and twice more "to show up that shyster +Louden." Warm words followed, leading to +extremely material conflict, in which, in spite of +his blindness, the broom-maker had so much the +best of it that he was removed from the triumphant +attitude he had assumed toward the person of +his adversary, which was an admirable imitation +of the dismounted St. George and the Dragon, and +conveyed to the jail. Keenest investigation failed +to reveal anything oblique in the man's record; to +the astonishment of Canaan, there was nothing +against him. He was blind and moderately poor; +but a respectable, hard-working artisan, and a +pride to the church in which he was what has +been called an "active worker." It was discovered +that his sensitiveness to his companion's +attack on Joseph Louden arose from the fact that +Joe had obtained the acquittal of an imbecile sister +of the blind man, a two-thirds-witted woman who +had been charged with bigamy. + +The Tocsin made what it could of this, and so +dexterously that the wrath of Canaan was one +farther jot increased against the shyster. Ay, the +town was hot, inside and out. + +Let us consider the Forum. Was there ever +before such a summer for the "National House" +corner? How voices first thundered there, then +cracked and piped, is not to be rendered in all the +tales of the fathers. One who would make vivid +the great doings must indeed "dip his brush in +earthquake and eclipse"; even then he could but +picture the credible, and must despair of this: the +silence of Eskew Arp. Not that Eskew held his +tongue, not that he was chary of speech--no! +O tempora, O mores! NO! But that he refused the +subject in hand, that he eschewed expression upon +it and resolutely drove the argument in other +directions, that he achieved such superbly un-Arplike +inconsistency; and with such rich material for his +sardonic humors, not at arm's length, not even so +far as his finger-tips, but beneath his very palms, +he rejected it: this was the impossible fact. + +Eskew--there is no option but to declare--was +no longer Eskew. It is the truth; since the morning +when Ariel Tabor came down from Joe's office, +leaving her offering of white roses in that dingy, +dusty, shady place, Eskew had not been himself. +His comrades observed it somewhat in a physical +difference, one of those alterations which may +come upon men of his years suddenly, like a "sea +change": his face was whiter, his walk slower, his +voice filed thinner; he creaked louder when he rose +or sat. Old always, from his boyhood, he had, +in the turn of a hand, become aged. But such +things come and such things go: after eighty there +are ups and downs; people fading away one week, +bloom out pleasantly the next, and resiliency is +not at all a patent belonging to youth alone. The +material change in Mr. Arp might have been +thought little worth remarking. What caused +Peter Bradbury, Squire Buckalew, and the Colonel +to shake their heads secretly to one another and +wonder if their good old friend's mind had not +"begun to go" was something very different. To +come straight down to it: he not only abstained +from all argument upon the "Cory Murder" and +the case of Happy Fear, refusing to discuss either +in any terms or under any circumstances, but he +also declined to speak of Ariel Tabor or of Joseph +Louden; or of their affairs, singular or plural, +masculine, feminine, or neuter, or in any declension. +Not a word, committal or non-committal. None! + +And his face, when he was silent, fell into +sorrowful and troubled lines. + +At first they merely marvelled. Then Squire +Buckalew dared to tempt him. Eskew's faded +eyes showed a blue gleam, but he withstood, speaking +of Babylon to the disparagement of Chicago. +They sought to lead him into what he evidently +would not, employing many devices; but the old +man was wily and often carried them far afield by +secret ways of his own. This hot morning he had +done that thing: they were close upon him, pressing +him hard, when he roused that outburst which +had stirred the idlers on the benches in the Court- +house yard. Squire Buckalew (sidelong at the +others but squarely at Eskew) had volunteered +the information that Cory was a reformed priest. +Stung by the mystery of Eskew's silence, the +Squire's imagination had become magically +gymnastic; and if anything under heaven could have +lifted the veil, this was the thing. Mr. Arp's reply +may be reverenced. + +"I consider," he said, deliberately, "that James +G. Blaine's furrin policy was childish, and, what's +more, I never thought much of HIM!" + +This outdefied Ajax, and every trace of the matter +in hand went to the four winds. Eskew, like +Rome, was saved by a cackle, in which he joined, +and a few moments later, as the bench loafers saw, +was pulled down into his seat by the Colonel. + +The voices of the fathers fell to the pitch of +ordinary discourse; the drowsy town was quiet +again; the whine of the planing-mill boring its way +through the sizzling air to every wakening ear. +Far away, on a quiet street, it sounded faintly, +like the hum of a bee across a creek, and was drowned +in the noise of men at work on the old Tabor +house. It seemed the only busy place in Canaan +that day: the shade of the big beech-trees which +surrounded it affording some shelter from the +destroying sun to the dripping laborers who were +sawing, hammering, painting, plumbing, papering, +and ripping open old and new packing-boxes. +There were many changes in the old house +pleasantly in keeping with its simple character: +airy enlargements now almost completed so that +some of the rooms were already finished, and +stood, furnished and immaculate, ready for tenancy. + +In that which had been Roger Tabor's studio +sat Ariel, alone. She had caused some chests and +cases, stored there, to be opened, and had taken +out of them a few of Roger's canvases and set them +along the wall. Tears filled her eyes as she looked +at them, seeing the tragedy of labor the old man +had expended upon them; but she felt the recompense: +hard, tight, literal as they were, he had had +his moment of joy in each of them before he saw +them coldly and knew the truth. And he had +been given his years of Paris at last: and had seen +"how the other fellows did it." + +A heavy foot strode through the hall, coming +abruptly to a halt in the doorway, and turning, she +discovered Martin Pike, his big Henry-the-Eighth +face flushed more with anger than with the heat. +His hat was upon his head, and remained there, +nor did he offer any token or word of greeting +whatever, but demanded to know when the work +upon the house had been begun. + +"The second morning after my return," she +answered. + +"I want to know," he pursued, "why it was +kept secret from me, and I want to know quick." + +"Secret?" she echoed, with a wave of her hand +to indicate the noise which the workmen were +making. + +"Upon whose authority was it begun?" + +"Mine. Who else could give it?" + +"Look here," he said, advancing toward her, +"don't you try to fool me! You haven't done all +this by yourself. Who hired these workmen?" + +Remembering her first interview with him, she +rose quickly before he could come near her. "Mr. +Louden made most of the arrangements for me," +she replied, quietly, "before he went away. He +will take charge of everything when he returns. +You haven't forgotten that I told you I intended +to place my affairs in his hands?" + +He had started forward, but at this he stopped +and stared at her inarticulately. + +"You remember?" she said, her hands resting +negligently upon the back of the chair. "Surely +you remember?" + +She was not in the least afraid of him, but coolly +watchful of him. This had been her habit with +him since her return. She had seen little of him, +except at table, when he was usually grimly +laconic, though now and then she would hear him +joking heavily with Sam Warden in the yard, or, +with evidently humorous intent, groaning at Mamie +over Eugene's health; but it had not escaped Ariel +that he was, on his part, watchful of herself, and +upon his guard with a wariness in which she was +sometimes surprised to believe that she saw an +almost haggard apprehension. + +He did not answer her question, and it seemed +to her, as she continued steadily to meet his hot +eyes, that he was trying to hold himself under some +measure of control; and a vain effort it proved. + +"You go back to my house!" he burst out, +shouting hoarsely. "You get back there! You +stay there!" + +"No," she said, moving between him and the +door. "Mamie and I are going for a drive." + +"You go back to my house!" He followed her, +waving an arm fiercely at her. "Don't you come +around here trying to run over me! You talk +about your `affairs'! All you've got on earth +is this two-for-a-nickel old shack over your head +and a bushel-basket of distillery stock that you +can sell by the pound for old paper!" He threw +the words in her face, the bull-bass voice seamed +and cracked with falsetto. "Old paper, old rags, +old iron, bottles, old clothes! You talk about +your affairs! Who are you? Rothschild? You +haven't GOT any affairs!" + +Not a look, not a word, not a motion of his +escaped her in all the fury of sound and gesture in +which he seemed fairly to envelop himself; least of +all did that shaking of his--the quivering of jaw +and temple, the tumultuous agitation of his hands +--evade her watchfulness. + +"When did you find this out?" she said, very +quickly. "After you became administrator?" + +He struck the back of the chair she had vacated +a vicious blow with his open hand. "No, you +spendthrift! All there was TO your grandfather +when you buried him was a basket full of distillery +stock, I tell you! Old paper! Can't you hear me? +Old paper, old rags--" + +"You have sent me the same income," she +lifted her voice to interrupt; "you have made the +same quarterly payments since his death that you +made before. If you knew, why did you do that?" + +He had been shouting at her with the frantic and +incredulous exasperation of an intolerant man +utterly unused to opposition; his face empurpled, his +forehead dripping, and his hands ruthlessly pounding +the back of the chair; but this straight question +stripped him suddenly of gesture and left him +standing limp and still before her, pale splotches +beginning to show on his hot cheeks. + +"If you knew, why did you do it?" she repeated. +"You wrote me that my income was from dividends, +and I knew and thought nothing about it; +but if the stock which came to me was worthless, +how could it pay dividends?" + +"It did not," he answered, huskily. "That +distillery stock, I tell you, isn't worth the matches to +burn it." + +"But there has been no difference in my income," +she persisted, steadily. "Why? Can you explain +that to me?" + +"Yes, I can," he replied, and it seemed to her +that he spoke with a pallid and bitter desperation, +like a man driven to the wall. "I can if you +think you want to know." + +"I do." + +"I sent it." + +"Do you mean from you own--" + +"I mean it was my own money." + +She had not taken her eyes from his, which met +hers straightly and angrily; and at this she leaned +forward, gazing at him with profound scrutiny. + +"Why did you send it?" she asked. + +"Charity," he answered, after palpable hesitation. + +Her eyes widened and she leaned back against +the lintel of the door, staring at him incredulously. +"Charity!" she echoed, in a whisper. + +Perhaps he mistook her amazement at his +performance for dismay caused by the sense of her +own position, for, as she seemed to weaken before +him, the strength of his own habit of dominance +came back to him. "Charity, madam!" he broke +out, shouting intolerably. "Charity, d'ye hear? +I was a friend of the man that made the money you +and your grandfather squandered; I was a friend +of Jonas Tabor, I say! That's why I was willing +to support you for a year and over, rather than let +a niece of his suffer." + +"`Suffer'!" she cried. "`Support'! You sent +me a hundred thousand francs!" + +The white splotches which had mottled Martin +Pike's face disappeared as if they had been suddenly +splashed with hot red. "You go back to +my house," he said. "What I sent you only +shows the extent of my--" + +"Effrontery!" The word rang through the +whole house, so loudly and clearly did she strike +it, rang in his ears till it stung like a castigation. +It was ominous, portentous of justice and of +disaster. There was more than doubt of him in it: +there was conviction. + +He fell back from this word; and when he again +advanced, Ariel had left the house. She had +turned the next corner before he came out of the +gate; and as he passed his own home on his way +down-town, he saw her white dress mingling with +his daughter's near the horse-block beside the fire, +where the two, with their arms about each other, +stood waiting for Sam Warden and the open +summer carriage. + +Judge Pike walked on, the white splotches +reappearing like a pale rash upon his face. A yellow +butterfly zigzagged before him, knee-high, across +the sidewalk. He raised his foot and half kicked +at it. + + + +XIX + +ESKEW ARP + +As the Judge continued his walk down +Main Street, he wished profoundly +that the butterfly (which exhibited +no annoyance) had been of greater +bulk and more approachable; and it +was the evil fortune of Joe's mongrel to encounter +him in the sinister humor of such a wish unfulfilled. +Respectability dwelt at Beaver Beach under the +care of Mr. Sheehan until his master should return; +and Sheehan was kind; but the small dog found +the world lonely and time long without Joe. He +had grown more and more restless, and at last, this +hot morning, having managed to evade the eye of +all concerned in his keeping, made off unobtrusively, +partly by swimming, and reaching the road, +cantered into town, his ears erect with anxiety. +Bent upon reaching the familiar office, he passed +the grocery from the doorway of which the pimply +cheeked clerk had thrown a bad potato at him a +month before. The same clerk had just laid down +the Tocsin as Respectability went by, and, +inspired to great deeds in behalf of justice and his +native city, he rushed to the door, lavishly seized, +this time, a perfectly good potato, and hurled it +with a result which ecstasized him, for it took the +mongrel fairly aside the head, which it matched in +size. + +The luckless Respectability's purpose to reach +Joe's stairway had been entirely definite, but upon +this violence he forgot it momentarily. It is not +easy to keep things in mind when one is violently +smitten on mouth, nose, cheek, eye, and ear by a +missile large enough to strike them simultaneously. +Yelping and half blinded, he deflected to cross +Main Street. Judge Pike had elected to cross in +the opposite direction, and the two met in the +middle of the street. + +The encounter was miraculously fitted to the +Judge's need: here was no butterfly, but a solid +body, light withal, a wet, muddy, and dusty yellow +dog, eminently kickable. The man was heavily +built about the legs, and the vigor of what he did +may have been additionally inspired by his recognition +of the mongrel as Joe Louden's. The impact +of his toe upon the little runner's side was +momentous, and the latter rose into the air. The +Judge hopped, as one hops who, unshod in the +night, discovers an unexpected chair. Let us be +reconciled to his pain and not reproach the gods +with it,--for two of his unintending adversary's +ribs were cracked. + +The dog, thus again deflected, retraced his +tracks, shrieking distractedly, and, by one of those +ironical twists which Karma reserves for the tails +of the fated, dived for blind safety into the store +commanded by the ecstatic and inimical clerk. +There were shouts; the sleepy Square beginning to +wake up: the boy who had mocked the planing-mill +got to his feet, calling upon his fellows; the bench +loafers strolled to the street; the aged men stirred +and rose from their chairs; faces appeared in the +open windows of offices; sales ladies and gentlemen +came to the doorways of the trading-places; so +that when Respectability emerged from the grocery +he had a notable audience for the scene he +enacted with a brass dinner-bell tied to his tail. + +Another potato, flung by the pimpled, uproarious, +prodigal clerk, added to the impetus of his +flight. A shower of pebbles from the hands of +exhilarated boys dented the soft asphalt about +him; the hideous clamor of the pursuing bell +increased as he turned the next corner, running +distractedly. The dead town had come to life, and +its inhabitants gladly risked the dangerous heat in +the interests of sport, whereby it was a merry +chase the little dog led around the block, For thus +some destructive instinct drove him; he could not +stop with the unappeasable Terror clanging at his +heels and the increasing crowd yelling in pursuit; +but he turned to the left at each corner, and thus +came back to pass Joe's stairway again, unable to +pause there or anywhere, unable to do anything +except to continue his hapless flight, poor meteor. + +Round the block he went once more, and still no +chance at that empty stairway where, perhaps, he +thought, there might be succor and safety. Blood +was upon his side where Martin Pike's boot had +crashed, foam and blood hung upon his jaws and +lolling tongue. He ran desperately, keeping to +the middle of the street, and, not howling, set +himself despairingly to outstrip the Terror. The mob, +disdaining the sun superbly, pursued as closely as +it could, throwing bricks and rocks at him, striking +at him with clubs and sticks. Happy Fear, +playing "tic-tac-toe," right hand against left, in +his cell, heard the uproar, made out something of +what was happening, and, though unaware that +it was a friend whose life was sought, discovered a +similarity to his own case, and prayed to his dim +gods that the quarry might get away. + +"MAD DOG!" they yelled. "MAD DOG!" And +there were some who cried, "JOE LOUDEN'S DOG!" +that being equally as exciting and explanatory. + +Three times round, and still the little fugitive +maintained a lead. A gray-helmeted policeman, +a big fellow, had joined the pursuit. He had +children at home who might be playing in the street, +and the thought of what might happen to them +if the mad dog should head that way resolved him +to be cool and steady. He was falling behind, so +he stopped on the corner, trusting that Respectability +would come round again. He was right, +and the flying brownish thing streaked along Main +Street, passing the beloved stairway for the fourth +time. The policeman lifted his revolver, fired +twice, missed once, but caught him with the second +shot in a forepaw, clipping off a fifth toe, one of +the small claws that grow above the foot and are +always in trouble. This did not stop him; but the +policeman, afraid to risk another shot because of +the crowd, waited for him to come again; and +many others, seeing the hopeless circuit the mongrel +followed, did likewise, armed with bricks and +clubs. Among them was the pimply clerk, who +had been inspired to commandeer a pitchfork from +a hardware store. + +When the fifth round came, Respectability's +race was run. He turned into Main Street at a +broken speed, limping, parched, voiceless, flecked +with blood and foam, snapping feebly at the showering +rocks, but still indomitably a little ahead of +the hunt. There was no yelp left in him--he was +too thoroughly winded for that,--but in his brilliant +and despairing eyes shone the agony of a cry +louder than the tongue of a dog could utter: "O +master! O all the god I know! Where are you in +my mortal need?" + +Now indeed he had a gauntlet to run; for the +street was lined with those who awaited him, while +the pursuit grew closer behind. A number of the +hardiest stood squarely in his path, and he hesitated +for a second, which gave the opportunity for +a surer aim, and many missiles struck him. "Let +him have it now, officer," said Eugene Bantry, +standing with Judge Pike at the policeman's elbow. +"There's your chance." + +But before the revolver could be discharged, +Respectability had begun to run again, hobbling +on three legs and dodging feebly. A heavy stone +struck him on the shoulder and he turned across +the street, making for the "National House" corner, +where the joyful clerk brandished his pitchfork. +Going slowly, he almost touched the pimply one +as he passed, and the clerk, already rehearsing in +his mind the honors which should follow the brave +stroke, raised the tines above the little dog's head +for the coup de grace. They did not descend, and +the daring youth failed of fame as the laurel +almost embraced his brows. A hickory walking- +stick was thrust between his legs; and he, +expecting to strike, received a blow upon the temple +sufficient for his present undoing and bedazzlement. +He went over backwards, and the pitchfork +(not the thing to hold poised on high when +one is knocked down) fell with the force he +had intended for Respectability upon his own +shin. + +A train had pulled into the station, and a tired, +travel-worn young man, descending from a sleeper, +walked rapidly up the street to learn the occasion +of what appeared to be a riot. When he was close +enough to understand its nature, he dropped his +bag and came on at top speed, shouting loudly to +the battered mongrel, who tried with his remaining +strength to leap toward him through a cordon +of kicking legs, while Eugene Bantry again called +to the policeman to fire. + +"If he does, damn you, I'll kill him!" Joe saw +the revolver raised; and then, Eugene being in his +way, he ran full-tilt into his stepbrother with all +his force, sending him to earth, and went on +literally over him as he lay prone upon the asphalt, +that being the shortest way to Respectability. +The next instant the mongrel was in his master's +arms and weakly licking his hands. + +But it was Eskew Arp who had saved the little +dog; for it was his stick which had tripped the clerk, +and his hand which had struck him down. All his +bodily strength had departed in that effort, but he +staggered out into the street toward Joe. + +"Joe Louden!" called the veteran, in a loud +voice. "Joe Louden!" and suddenly reeled. The +Colonel and Squire Buckalew were making their +way toward him, but Joe, holding the dog to his +breast with one arm, threw the other about Eskew. + +"It's a town--it's a town"--the old fellow flung +himself free from the supporting arm--"it's a +town you couldn't even trust a yellow dog to!" + +He sank back upon Joe's shoulder, speechless. +An open carriage had driven through the crowd, +the colored driver urged by two ladies upon the +back seat, and Martin Pike saw it stop by the +group in the middle of the street where Joe stood, +the wounded dog held to his breast by one arm, the +old man, white and half fainting, supported by the +other. Martin Pike saw this and more; he saw +Ariel Tabor and his own daughter leaning from the +carriage, the arms of both pityingly extended to +Joe Louden and his two burdens, while the stunned +and silly crowd stood round them staring, clouds +of dust settling down upon them through the hot +air. + + + +XX + +THREE ARE ENLISTED + +Now in that blazing noon Canaan looked +upon a strange sight: an open carriage +whirling through Main Street +behind two galloping bays; upon the +back seat a ghostly white old man +with closed eyes, supported by two pale ladies, his +head upon the shoulder of the taller; while beside +the driver, a young man whose coat and hands +were bloody, worked over the hurts of an injured +dog. Sam Warden's whip sang across the horses; +lather gathered on their flanks, and Ariel's voice +steadily urged on the pace: "Quicker, Sam, if +you can." For there was little breath left in the +body of Eskew Arp. + +Mamie, almost as white as the old man, was +silent; but she had not hesitated in her daring, +now that she had been taught to dare; she had not +come to be Ariel's friend and honest follower for +nothing; and it was Mamie who had cried to Joe +to lift Eskew into the carriage. "You must come +too," she said. "We will need you." And so it +came to pass that under the eyes of Canaan Joe +Louden rode in Judge Pike's carriage at the bidding +of Judge Pike's daughter. + +Toward Ariel's own house they sped with the +stricken octogenarian, for he was "alone in the +world," and she would not take him to the cottage +where he had lived for many years by himself, a +bleak little house, a derelict of the "early days" +left stranded far down in the town between a +woollen-mill and the water-works. The workmen +were beginning their dinners under the big +trees, but as Sam Warden drew in the lathered +horses at the gate, they set down their tin buckets +hastily and ran to help Joe lift the old man out. +Carefully they bore him into the house and laid +him upon a bed in one of the finished rooms. He +did not speak or move and the workmen uncovered +their heads as they went out, but Joe knew that +they were mistaken. "It's all right, Mr. Arp," +he said, as Ariel knelt by the bed with water and +restoratives. "It's all right. Don't you worry." + +Then the veteran's lips twitched, and though his +eyes remained closed, Joe saw that Eskew understood, +for he gasped, feebly: "Pos-i-tive-ly--no-- +free--seats!" + +To Mrs. Louden, sewing at an up-stairs window, +the sight of her stepson descending from Judge +Pike's carriage was sufficiently startling, but when +she saw Mamie Pike take Respectability from his +master's arms and carry him tenderly indoors, +while Joe and Ariel occupied themselves with Mr. +Arp, the good lady sprang to her feet as if she had +been stung, regardlessly sending her work-basket +and its contents scattering over the floor, and ran +down the stairs three steps at a time. + +At the front door she met her husband, entering +for his dinner, and she leaped at him. Had he +seen? What was it? What had happened? + +Mr. Louden rubbed his chin-beard, indulging himself +in a pause which was like to prove fatal to his +companion, finally vouchsafing the information that +the doctor's buggy was just turning the corner; +Eskew Arp had suffered a "stroke," it was said, +and, in Louden's opinion, was a mighty sick man. +His spouse replied in no uncertain terms that she +had seen quite that much for herself, urging him +to continue, which he did with a deliberation that +caused her to recall their wedding-day with a gust +of passionate self-reproach. Presently he managed +to interrupt, reminding her that her dining- +room windows commanded as comprehensive a +view of the next house as did the front steps, and +after a time her housewifely duty so far prevailed +over her indignation at the man's unwholesome +stolidity that she followed him down the hall to +preside over the meal, not, however, to partake +largely of it herself. + +Mr. Louden had no information of Eugene's +mishap, nor had Mrs. Louden any suspicion that +all was not well with the young man, and, hearing +him enter the front door, she called to him that his +dinner was waiting. Eugene, however, made no +reply and went up-stairs to his own apartment +without coming into the dining-room. + +A small crowd, neighboring children, servants, +and negroes, had gathered about Ariel's gate, and +Mrs. Louden watched the working-men disperse +this assembly, gather up their tools, and depart; +then Mamie came out of the house, and, bowing +sadly to three old men who were entering the gate +as she left it, stepped into her carriage and drove +away. The new-comers, Colonel Flitcroft, Squire +Buckalew, and Peter Bradbury, glanced at the +doctor's buggy, shook their heads at one another, +and slowly went up to the porch, where Joe met +them. Mrs. Louden uttered a sharp exclamation, +for the Colonel shook hands with her stepson. + +Perhaps Flitcroft himself was surprised; he had +offered his hand almost unconsciously, and the +greeting was embarrassed and perfunctory; but +his two companions, each in turn, gravely followed +his lead, and Joe's set face flushed a little. It +was the first time in many years that men of +their kind in Canaan had offered him this salutation. + +"He wouldn't let me send for you," he told +them. "He said he knew you'd be here soon +without that." And he led the way to Eskew's +bedside. + +Joe and the doctor had undressed the old man, +and had put him into night-gear of Roger Tabor's, +taken from an antique chest; it was soft and yellow +and much more like color than the face above it, +for the white hair on the pillow was not whiter +than that. Yet there was a strange youthfulness +in the eyes of Eskew; an eerie, inexplicable, +luminous, LIVE look; the thin cheeks seemed fuller than +they had been for years; and though the heavier +lines of age and sorrow could be seen, they appeared +to have been half erased. He lay not in sunshine, +but in clear light; the windows were open, the +curtains restrained, for he had asked them not to +darken the room. + +The doctor was whispering in a doctor's way to +Ariel at the end of the room opposite the bed, when +the three old fellows came in. None of them spoke +immediately, and though all three cleared their +throats with what they meant for casual cheerfulness, +to indicate that the situation was not at all +extraordinary or depressing, it was to be seen that +the Colonel's chin trembled under his mustache, +and his comrades showed similar small and unwilling +signs of emotion. + +Eskew spoke first. "Well, boys?" he said, and +smiled. + +That seemed to make it more difficult for the +others; the three white heads bent silently over the +fourth upon the pillow; and Ariel saw waveringly, +for her eyes suddenly filled, that the Colonel laid +his unsteady hand upon Eskew's, which was outside +the coverlet. + +"It's--it's not," said the old soldier, gently-- +"it's not on--on both sides, is it, Eskew?" + +Mr. Arp moved his hand slightly in answer. "It +ain't paralysis," he said. "They call it `shock +and exhaustion'; but it's more than that. It's +just my time. I've heard the call. We've all +been slidin' on thin ice this long time--and it's +broke under me--" + +"Eskew, Eskew!" remonstrated Peter Bradbury. +"You'd oughtn't to talk that-a-way! You +only kind of overdone a little--heat o' the day, +too, and--" + +"Peter," interrupted the sick man, with feeble +asperity, "did you ever manage to fool me in your +life?" + +"No, Eskew." + +"Well, you're not doin' it now!" + +Two tears suddenly loosed themselves from +Squire Buckalew's eyelids, despite his hard +endeavor to wink them away, and he turned from the +bed too late to conceal what had happened. +"There ain't any call to feel bad," said Eskew. +"It might have happened any time--in the night, +maybe--at my house--and all alone--but here's +Airie Tabor brought me to her own home and +takin' care of me. I couldn't ask any better way +to go, could I?" + +"I don't know what we'll do," stammered the +Colonel, "if you--you talk about goin' away from +us, Eskew. We--we couldn't get along--" + +"Well, sir, I'm almost kind of glad to think," +Mr. Arp murmured, between short struggles for +breath, "that it 'll be--quieter--on the--"National +House" corner!" + +A moment later he called the doctor faintly and +asked for a restorative. "There," he said, in a +stronger voice and with a gleam of satisfaction in +the vindication of his belief that he was dying. "I +was almost gone then. _I_ know!" He lay panting +for a moment, then spoke the name of Joe Louden. + +Joe came quickly to the bedside. + +"I want you to shake hands with the Colonel +and Peter and Buckalew." + +"We did," answered the Colonel, infinitely +surprised and troubled. "We shook hands outside +before we came in." + + +"Do it again," said Eskew. "I want to see you." + +And Joe, making shift to smile, was suddenly +blinded, so that he could not see the wrinkled hands +extended to him, and was fain to grope for them. + +"God knows why we didn't all take his hand +long ago," said Eskew Arp. "I didn't because I +was stubborn. I hated to admit that the argument +was against me. I acknowledge it now before +him and before you--and I want the word of +it CARRIED!" + +"It's all right, Mr. Arp," began Joe, tremulously. +"You mustn't--" + +"Hark to me"--the old man's voice lifted +higher: "If you'd ever whimpered, or give back- +talk, or broke out the wrong way, it would of been +different. But you never did. I've watched you +and I know; and you've just gone your own way +alone, with the town against you because you got +a bad name as a boy, and once we'd given you that, +everything you did or didn't do, we had to give +you a blacker one. Now it's time some one stood +by you! Airie Tabor 'll do that with all her soul +and body. She told me once I thought a good +deal of you. She knew! But I want these three +old friends of mine to do it, too. I was boys with +them and they'll do it, I think. They've even +stood up fer you against me, sometimes, but mostly +fer the sake of the argument, I reckon; but now +they must do it when there's more to stand against +than just my talk. They saw it all to-day--the +meanest thing I ever knew! I could of stood it +all except that!" Before they could prevent him +he had struggled half upright in bed, lifting a +clinched fist at the town beyond the windows. +"But, by God! when they got so low down they +tried to kill your dog--" + +He fell back, choking, in Joe's arms, and the +physician bent over him, but Eskew was not gone, +and Ariel, upon the other side of the room, could +hear him whispering again for the restorative. +She brought it, and when he had taken it, went +quickly out-of-doors to the side yard. + +She sat upon a workman's bench under the big +trees, hidden from the street shrubbery, and +breathing deeply of the shaded air, began to cry +quietly. Through the windows came the quavering +voice of the old man, lifted again, insistent, a +little querulous, but determined. Responses sounded, +intermittently, from the Colonel, from Peter, +and from Buckalew, and now and then a sorrowful, +yet almost humorous, protest from Joe; and +so she made out that the veteran swore his three +comrades to friendship with Joseph Louden, to lend +him their countenance in all matters, to stand by +him in weal and woe, to speak only good of him +and defend him in the town of Canaan. Thus did +Eskew Arp on the verge of parting this life render +justice. + + +The gate clicked, and Ariel saw Eugene +approaching through the shrubbery. One of his +hands was bandaged, a thin strip of court-plaster +crossed his forehead from his left eyebrow to his +hair, and his thin and agitated face showed several +light scratches. + +"I saw you come out," he said. "I've been +waiting to speak to you." + +"The doctor told us to let him have his way in +whatever he might ask." Ariel wiped her eyes. +"I'm afraid that means--" + +"I didn't come to talk about Eskew Arp," +interrupted Eugene. "I'm not laboring under any +anxiety about him. You needn't be afraid; he's +too sour to accept his conge so readily." + +"Please lower your voice," she said, rising +quickly and moving away from him toward the house; +but, as he followed, insisting sharply that he must +speak with her, she walked out of ear-shot of the +windows, and stopping, turned toward him. + +"Very well," she said. "Is it a message from +Mamie?" + +At this he faltered and hung fire. + +"Have you been to see her?" she continued. + +"I am anxious to know if her goodness and bravery +caused her any--any discomfort at home." + +"You may set your mind at rest about that," +returned Eugene. "I was there when the Judge +came home to dinner. I suppose you fear he may +have been rough with her for taking my step- +brother into the carriage. He was not. On the +contrary, he spoke very quietly to her, and went +on out toward the stables. But I haven't come +to you to talk of Judge Pike, either!" + +"No," said Ariel. "I don't care particularly to +hear of him, but of Mamie." + +"Nor of her, either!" he broke out. "I want to +talk of you!" + +There was not mistaking him; no possibility of +misunderstanding the real passion that shook him, +and her startled eyes betrayed her comprehension. + +"Yes, I see you understand," he cried, bitterly. +"That's because you've seen others the same way. +God help me," he went on, striking his forehead +with his open hand, "that young fool of a Bradbury +told me you refused him only yesterday! He +was proud of even rejection from you! And there's +Norbert--and half a dozen others, perhaps, already, +since you've been here." He flung out his arms +in ludicrous, savage despair. "And here am I--" + +"Ah yes," she cut him off, "it is of yourself that +you want to speak, after all--not of me!" + +"Look here," he vociferated; "are you going to +marry that Joe Louden? I want to know whether +you are or not. He gave me this--and this to- +day!" He touched his bandaged hand and plastered +forehead. "He ran into me--over me--for +nothing, when I was not on my guard; struck me +down--stamped on me--" + +She turned upon him, cheeks aflame, eyes +sparkling and dry. + +"Mr. Bantry," she cried, "he did a good thing! +And now I want you to go home. I want you to +go home and try if you can discover anything in +yourself that is worthy of Mamie and of what she +showed herself to be this morning! If you can, +you will have found something that I could like!" + +She went rapidly toward the house, and he was +senseless enough to follow, babbling: "What do +you think I'm made of? You trample on me--as +he did! I can't bear everything; I tell you--" + +But she lifted her hand with such imperious will +that he stopped short. Then, through the window +of the sick-room came clearly the querulous voice: + +"I tell you it was; I heard him speak just now-- +out there in the yard, that no-account step-brother +of Joe's! What if he IS a hired hand on the Tocsin? +He'd better give up his job and quit, than +do what he's done to help make the town think +hard of Joe. And what IS he? Why, he's worse +than Cory. When that Claudine Fear first came +here, 'Gene Bantry was hangin' around her himself. +Joe knew it and he'd never tell, but I will. +I saw 'em buggy-ridin' out near Beaver Beach +and she slapped his face fer him. It ought to be +TOLD!" + +"I didn't know that Joe knew--that!" Eugene +stammered huskily. "It was--it was--a long time +ago--" + +"If you understood Joe," she said, in a low +voice, "you would know that before these men +leave this house, he will have their promise never +to tell." + +His eyes fell miserably, then lifted again; but in +her clear and unbearable gaze there shone such a +flame of scorn as he could not endure to look upon. +For the first time in his life he saw a true light +upon himself, and though the vision was darkling, +the revelation was complete. + +"Heaven pity you!" she whispered. + +Eugene found himself alone, and stumbled away, +his glance not lifted. He passed his own home +without looking up, and did not see his mother +beckoning frantically from a window. She ran +to the door and called him. He did not hear her, +but went on toward the Tocsin office with his head +still bent. + + + +XXI + +NORBERT WAITS FOR JOE: + +There was meat for gossip a plenty +in Canaan that afternoon and evening; +there were rumors that ran +from kitchen to parlor, and rumors +that ran from parlor to kitchen; speculations +that detained housewives in talk across +front gates; wonderings that held cooks in converse +over shadeless back fences in spite of the heat; +and canards that brought Main Street clerks +running to the shop doors to stare up and down the +sidewalks. Out of the confusion of report, the +judicious were able by evenfall to extract a fair +history of this day of revolution. There remained +no doubt that Joe Louden was in attendance at +the death-bed of Eskew Arp, and somehow it +came to be known that Colonel Flitcroft, Squire +Buckalew, and Peter Bradbury had shaken hands +with Joe and declared themselves his friends. +There were those (particularly among the relatives +of the hoary trio) who expressed the opinion that +the Colonel and his comrades were too old to be +responsible and a commission ought to sit on them; +nevertheless, some echoes of Eskew's last "argument" +to the conclave had sounded in the town +and were not wholly without effect. + +Everywhere there was a nipping curiosity to +learn how Judge Pike had "taken" the strange +performance of his daughter, and the eager were +much disappointed when it was truthfully +reported that he had done and said very little. He +had merely discharged both Sam Warden and +Sam's wife from his service, the mild manner of +the dismissal almost unnerving Mr. Warden, +although he was fully prepared for bird-shot; and +the couple had found immediate employment in +the service of Ariel Tabor. + +Those who humanly felt the Judge's behavior +to be a trifle flat and unsensational were +recompensed late in the afternoon when it became known +that Eugene Bantry had resigned his position on +the Tocsin. His reason for severing his connection +was dumfounding; he had written a formal letter +to the Judge and repeated the gist of it to his +associates in the office and acquaintances upon the +street. He declared that he no longer sympathized +with the attitude of the Tocsin toward his step- +brother, and regretted that he had previously +assisted in emphasizing the paper's hostility to Joe, +particularly in the matter of the approaching murder +trial. This being the case, he felt that his +effectiveness in the service of the paper had ceased, +and he must, in justice to the owner, resign. + +"Well, I'm damned!" was the simple comment +of the elder Louden when his step-son sought him +out at the factory and repeated this statement to +him. + +"So am I, I think," said Eugene, wanly. "Good- +bye. I'm going now to see mother, but I'll be gone +before you come home." + +"Gone where?" + +"Just away. I don't know where," Eugene +answered from the door. "I couldn't live here any +longer. I--" + +"You've been drinking," said Mr. Louden, +inspired. "You'd better not let Mamie Pike see +you." + +Eugene laughed desolately. "I don't mean to. +I shall write to her. Good-bye," he said, and was +gone before Mr. Louden could restore enough +order out of the chaos in his mind to stop him. + +Thus Mrs. Louden's long wait at the window +was tragically rewarded, and she became an +unhappy actor in Canaan's drama of that day. Other +ladies attended at other windows, or near their +front doors, throughout the afternoon: the families +of the three patriarchs awaiting their return, as +the time drew on, with something akin to frenzy. +Mrs. Flitcroft (a lady of temper), whose rheumatism +confined her to a chair, had her grandson +wheel her out upon the porch, and, as the dusk +fell and she finally saw her husband coming at a +laggard pace, leaning upon his cane, his chin sunk +on his breast, she frankly told Norbert that +although she had lived with that man more than +fifty-seven years, she would never be able to +understand him. She repeated this with genuine +symptoms of hysteria when she discovered that the +Colonel had not come straight from the Tabor +house, but had stopped two hours at Peter Bradbury's +to "talk it over." + +One item of his recital, while sufficiently +startling to his wife, had a remarkable effect upon his +grandson. This was the information that Ariel +Tabor's fortune no longer existed. + +"What's that?" cried Norbert, starting to his +feet. "What are you talking about?" + +"It's true," said the Colonel, deliberately. "She +told me so herself. Eskew had dropped off into +a sort of doze--more like a stupor, perhaps,--and +we all went into Roger's old studio, except Louden +and the doctor, and while we were there, talkin', +one of Pike's clerks came with a basket full of tin +boxes and packages of papers and talked to Miss +Tabor at the door and went away. Then old Peter +blundered out and asked her point-blank what it +was, and she said it was her estate, almost everything +she had, except the house. Buckalew, tryin' +to make a joke, said he'd be willin' to swap HIS +house and lot for the basket, and she laughed and +told him she thought he'd be sorry; that all there +was, to speak of, was a pile of distillery stock--" +"What?" repeated Norbert, incredulously. + +"Yes. It was the truth," said the Colonel, +solemnly. "I saw it myself: blocks and blocks of +stock in that distillery trust that went up higher'n +a kite last year. Roger had put all of Jonas's good +money--" + +"Not into that!" shouted Norbert, uncontrollably +excited. + +"Yes, he did. I tell you I saw it!" + +"I tell you he didn't. He owned Granger Gas, +worth more to-day than it ever was! Pike was +Roger's attorney-in-fact and bought it for him +before the old man died. The check went through +my hands. You don't think I'd forget as big a +check as that, do you, even if it was more than a +year ago? Or how it was signed and who made +out to? It was Martin Pike that got caught with +distillery stock. He speculated once too often!" + +"No, you're wrong," persisted the Colonel. "I +tell you I saw it myself." + +"Then you're blind," returned his grandson, +disrespectfully; "you're blind or else--or else--" +He paused, open-mouthed, a look of wonder struggling +its way to expression upon him, gradually +conquering every knobby outpost of his countenance. +He struck his fat hands together. "Where's +Joe Louden?" he asked, sharply. "I want to see +him. Did you leave him at Miss Tabor's?" + +"He's goin' to sit up with Eskew. What do you +want of him?" + +"I should say you better ask that!" Mrs. +Flitcroft began, shrilly. "It's enough, I guess, for one +of this family to go runnin' after him and shakin' +hands with him and Heaven knows what not! NORBERT +FLITCROFT!" + +But Norbert jumped from the porch, ruthlessly +crossed his grandmother's geranium-bed, and, making +off at as sharp a pace as his architecture permitted, +within ten minutes opened Ariel's gate. + +Sam Warden came forward to meet him. + +"Don't ring, please, suh," said Sam. "Dey sot +me out heah to tell inquirin' frien's dat po' ole Mist' +Arp mighty low." + +"I want to see Mr. Louden," returned Norbert. +"I want to see him immediately." + +"I don' reckon he kin come out yit," Sam said, +in a low tone. "But I kin go in an' ast 'em." + +He stepped softly within, leaving Norbert waiting, +and went to the door of the sick-room. The +door was open, the room brightly lighted, as +Eskew had commanded when, a little earlier, he +awoke. + +Joe and Ariel were alone with him, leaning +toward him with such white anxiety that the colored +man needed no warning to make him remain silent +in the hallway. The veteran was speaking and +his voice was very weak, seeming to come from a +great distance. + +"It's mighty funny, but I feel like I used to +when I was a little boy. I reckon I'm kind of +scared--after all. Airie Tabor,--are you--here?" + +"Yes, Mr. Arp." + +"I thought--so--but I--I don't see very well-- +lately. I--wanted--to--know--to know--" + +"Yes--to know?" She knelt close beside him. + +"It's kind of--foolish," he whispered. "I just +--wanted to know if you was still here. It--don't +seem so lonesome now that I know." + +She put her arm lightly about him and he smiled +and was silent for a time. Then he struggled +to rise upon his elbow, and they lifted him a +little. + +"It's hard to breathe," gasped the old man. +"I'm pretty near--the big road. Joe Louden--" + +"Yes?" + +"You'd have been--willing--willing to change +places with me--just now--when Airie--" + +Joe laid his hand on his, and Eskew smiled again. +"I thought so! And, Joe--" + +"Yes?" + +"You always--always had the--the best of that +joke between us. Do you--you suppose they +charge admission--up there?" His eyes were +lifted. "Do you suppose you've got to--to show +your good deeds to git in?" The answering +whisper was almost as faint as the old man's. + +"No," panted Eskew, "nobody knows. But I +hope--I do hope--they'll have some free seats. +It's a--mighty poor show--we'll--all have--if +they--don't!" + +He sighed peacefully, his head grew heavier on +Joe's arm; and the young man set his hand gently +upon the unseeing eyes. Ariel did not rise from +where she knelt, but looked up at him when, a little +later, he lifted his hand. + +"Yes," said Joe, "you can cry now." + + + +XXII + +MR. SHEEHAN SPEAKS + +Joe helped to carry what was mortal +of Eskew from Ariel's house to its +final abiding-place. With him, in +that task, were Buckalew, Bradbury, +the Colonel, and the grandsons of the +two latter, and Mrs. Louden drew in her skirts +grimly as her step-son passed her in the mournful +procession through the hall. Her eyes were red +with weeping (not for Eskew), but not so red as +those of Mamie Pike, who stood beside her. + +On the way to the cemetery, Joe and Ariel were +together in a carriage with Buckalew and the +minister who had read the service, a dark, pleasant- +eyed young man;--and the Squire, after being almost +overcome during the ceremony, experienced +a natural reaction, talking cheerfully throughout +the long drive. He recounted many anecdotes of +Eskew, chuckling over most of them, though filled +with wonder by a coincidence which he and Flitcroft +had discovered; the Colonel had recently been +made the custodian of his old friend's will, and it +had been opened the day before the funeral. Eskew +had left everything he possessed--with the +regret that it was so little--to Joe. + +"But the queer thing about it," said the Squire, +addressing himself to Ariel, "was the date of it, +the seventeenth of June. The Colonel and I got +to talkin' it over, out on his porch, last night, +tryin' to rec'lect what was goin' on about then, +and we figgered it out that it was the Monday +after you come back, the very day he got so upset +when he saw you goin' up to Louden's law-office +with your roses." + +Joe looked quickly at Ariel. She did not meet +his glance, but, turning instead to Ladew, the +clergyman, began, with a barely perceptible blush, +to talk of something he had said in a sermon two +weeks ago. The two fell into a thoughtful and +amiable discussion, during which there stole into +Joe's heart a strange and unreasonable pain. The +young minister had lived in Canaan only a few +months, and Joe had never seen him until that +morning; but he liked the short, honest talk he had +made; liked his cadenceless voice and keen, dark +face; and, recalling what he had heard Martin +Pike vociferating in his brougham one Sunday, +perceived that Ladew was the fellow who had +"got to go" because his sermons did not please +the Judge. Yet Ariel remembered for more than +a fortnight a passage from one of these sermons. +And as Joe looked at the manly and intelligent face +opposite him, it did not seem strange that she +should. + +He resolutely turned his eyes to the open window +and saw that they had entered the cemetery, were +near the green knoll where Eskew was to lie beside +a brother who had died long ago. He let the minister +help Ariel out, going quickly forward himself +with Buckalew; and then--after the little +while that the restoration of dust to dust +mercifully needs--he returned to the carriage only to +get his hat. + +Ariel and Ladew and the Squire were already +seated and waiting. "Aren't you going to ride +home with us?" she asked, surprised. + +"No," he explained, not looking at her. "I +have to talk with Norbert Flitcroft. I'm going +back with him. Good-bye." + +His excuse was the mere truth, his conversation +with Norbert, in the carriage which they managed +to secure to themselves, continuing earnestly until +Joe spoke to the driver and alighted at a corner, +near Mr. Farbach's Italian possessions. "Don't +forget," he said, as he closed the carriage door, +"I've got to have both ends of the string in my +hands." + +"Forget!" Norbert looked at the cupola of +the Pike Mansion, rising above the maples down +the street. "It isn't likely I'll forget!" + + +When Joe entered the "Louis Quinze room" +which some decorator, drunk with power, had +mingled into the brewer's villa, he found the owner +and Mr. Sheehan, with five other men, engaged in +a meritorious attempt to tone down the apartment +with smoke. Two of the five others were prosperous +owners of saloons; two were known to the +public (whose notion of what it meant when it +used the term was something of the vaguest) as +politicians; the fifth was Mr. Farbach's closest +friend, one who (Joe had heard) was to be the next +chairman of the city committee of the party. +They were seated about a table, enveloped in blue +clouds, and hushed to a grave and pertinent silence +which clarified immediately the circumstance that +whatever debate had preceded his arrival, it was +now settled. + +Their greeting of him, however, though exceedingly +quiet, indicated a certain expectancy, as he +accepted the chair which had been left for him at +the head of the table. He looked thinner and +paler than usual, which is saying a great deal; but +presently, finding that the fateful hush which his +entrance had broken was immediately resumed, +a twinkle came into his eye, one of his eyebrows +went up and a corner of his mouth went down. + +"Well, gentlemen?" he said. + +The smokers continued to smoke and to do +nothing else; the exception being Mr. Sheehan, +who, though he spoke not, exhibited tokens of +agitation and excitement which he curbed with +difficulty; shifting about in his chair, gnawing his +cigar, crossing and uncrossing his knees, rubbing +and slapping his hands together, clearing his throat +with violence, his eyes fixed all the while, as were +those of his companions, upon Mr. Farbach; so +that Joe was given to perceive that it had been +agreed that the brewer should be the spokesman. +Mr. Farbach was deliberate, that was all, which +added to the effect of what he finally did say. + +"Choe," he remarked, placidly, "you are der +next Mayor off Canaan." + +"Why do you say that?" asked the young man, +sharply. + +"Bickoss us here," he answered, interlocking the +tips of his fingers over his waistcoat, that being as +near folding his hands as lay within his power,-- +"bickoss us here shall try to fix it so, und so hef +ditcided." + +Joe took a deep breath. "Why do you want me?" + +"Dot," replied the brewer, "iss someding I shall +tell you." He paused to contemplate his cigar. +"We want you bickoss you are der best man fer +dot positsion." + +"Louie, you mustn't make a mistake at the +beginning," Joe said, hurriedly. "I may not be the +kind of man you're looking for. If I went in--" +He hesitated, stammering. "It seems an ungrateful +thing to say, but--but there wouldn't be any +slackness--I couldn't be bound to anybody--" + +"Holt up your hosses!" Mr. Farbach, once in +his life, was so ready to reply that he was able to +interrupt. "Who hef you heert speak off bounding? +Hef I speakt off favors? Dit I say der shoult +be slackness in der city gofer'ment? Litsen to me, +Choe." He renewed his contemplation of his +cigar, then proceeded: "I hef been t'inkin' it ofer, +now a couple years. I hef mate up my mind. If +some peobles are gombelt to keep der laws and +oders are not, dot's a great atwantitch to der oders. +Dot iss what iss ruining der gountry und der peobles +iss commencement to take notice. Efer'veres +in oder towns der iss housecleaning; dey are +reforming und indieding, und pooty soon dot mofement +comes here--shoo-er! If we intent to holt +der parsly in power, we shoult be a leetle ahead off +dot mofement so, when it shoult be here, we hef +a goot 'minadstration to fall beck on. Now, dere +iss anoder brewery opened und trying to gombete +mit me here in Canaan. If dot brewery owns der +Mayor, all der tsaloons buying my bier must shut +up at 'leven o'glock und Sundays, but der oders +keep open. If I own der Mayor, I make der same +against dot oder brewery. Now I am pooty sick +off dot ways off bitsness und fighting all times. +Also," Mr. Farbach added, with magnificent calmness, +"my trade iss larchly owitside off Canaan, +und it iss bedder dot here der laws shoult be +enforced der same fer all. Litsen, Choe; all us here +beliefs der same way. You are square. Der +whole tsaloon element knows dot, und knows dot +all voult be treated der same. Mit you it voult be +fairness fer each one. Foolish peobles hef sait you +are a law-tricker, but we know dot you hef only +mate der laws brotect as well as bunish. Und at +such times as dey het been broken, you hef made +dem as mertsiful as you coult. You are no tricker. +We are willing to help you make it a glean town. +Odervise der fightin' voult go on until der mofement +strikes here und all der granks vake up und +we git a fool reformer fer Mayor und der town goes +to der dogs. If I try to put in a man dot I own, +der oder brewery iss goin' to fight like hell, but if +I work fer you it will not fight so hart." + +"But the other people," Joe objected, "those +outside of what is called the saloon element--do you +understand how many of them will be against me?" + +"It iss der tsaloon element," Mr. Farbach +returned, peacefully, "dot does der fightin'." + +"And you have considered my standing with +that part of Canaan which considers itself the most +respectable section?" He rose to his feet, standing +straight and quiet, facing the table, upon +which, it chanced, there lay a copy of the Tocsin. + +"Und yet," observed Mr. Farbach, with mildness, +"we got some pooty risbecdable men right +here." + +"Except me," broke in Mr. Sheehan, grimly, +"you have." + +"Have you thought of this?" Joe leaned +forward and touched the paper upon the table. + +"We hef," replied Mr. Farbach. "All of us. +You shall beat it." + +There was a strong chorus of confirmation from +the others, and Joe's eyes flashed. + +"Have you considered," he continued, rapidly, +while a warm color began to conquer his pallor,-- +"have you considered the powerful influence which +will be against me, and more against me now, I +should tell you, than ever before? That influence, +I mean, which is striving so hard to discredit me +that lynch-law has been hinted for poor Fear if I +should clear him! Have you thought of that? +Have you thought--" + +"Have we thought o' Martin Pike?" exclaimed +Mr. Sheehan, springing to his feet, face aflame and +beard bristling. "Ay, we've thought o' Martin +Pike, and our thinkin' of him is where he begins +to git what's comin' to him! What d'ye stand +there pickin' straws fer? What's the matter with +ye?" he demanded, angrily, his violence tenfold +increased by the long repression he had put upon +himself during the brewer's deliberate utterances. +"If Louie Farbach and his crowd says they're fer +ye, I guess ye've got a chanst, haven't ye?" + +"Wait," said Joe. "I think you underestimate +Pike's influence--" + +"Underestimate the devil!" shouted Mr. Sheehan, +uncontrollably excited. "You talk about +influence! He's been the worst influence this town's +ever had--and his tracks covered up in the dark +wherever he set his ugly foot down. These men +know it, and you know some, but not the worst of +it, because none of ye live as deep down in it as I +do! Ye want to make a clean town of it, ye want +to make a little heaven of the Beach--" + +"And in the eyes of Judge Pike," Joe cut him +off, "and of all who take their opinions from him, +I REPRESENT Beaver Beach!" + +Mike Sheehan gave a wild shout. "Whooroo! +It's come! I knowed it would! The day I couldn't +hold my tongue, though I passed my word I would +when the coward showed the deed he didn't dare +to git recorded! Waugh!" He shouted again, +with bitter laughter. "Ye do! In the eyes o' +them as follow Martin Pike ye stand fer the Beach +and all its wickedness, do ye? Whooroo! It's +come! Ye're an offence in the eyes o' Martin Pike +and all his kind because ye stand fer the Beach, +are ye?" + +"You know it!" Joe answered, sharply. "If +they could wipe the Beach off the map and me +with it--" + +"Martin Pike would?" shouted Mr. Sheehan, +while the others, open-mouthed, stared at him. +"Martin Pike would?" + +"I don't need to tell you that," said Joe. + +Mr. Sheehan's big fist rose high over the table +and descended crashing upon it. "It's a damn +lie!" he roared. "Martin Pike owns Beaver +Beach!" + + + +XXIII + +JOE WALKS ACROSS THE COURT-HOUSE YARD + +From within the glossy old walnut +bar that ran from wall to wall, the +eyes of the lawyers and reporters +wandered often to Ariel as she sat in +the packed court-room watching Louden's +fight for the life and liberty of Happy Fear. +She had always three escorts, and though she did +not miss a session, and the same three never failed +to attend her, no whisper of scandal arose. But +not upon them did the glances of the members of +the bar and the journalists with tender frequency +linger; nor were the younger members of these +two professions all who gazed that way. Joe had +fought out the selection of the jury with the +prosecutor at great length and with infinite pains; +it was not a young jury, and IT stared at her. The +"Court" wore a gray beard with which a flock +of sparrows might have villaged a grove, and yet, +in spite of the vital necessity for watchfulness over +this fighting case, IT once needed to be stirred from +a trancelike gaze in Miss Tabor's direction and +aroused to the realization that It was there to Sit +and not to dream. + +The August air was warm outside the windows, +inviting to the open country, to swimmin'-hole, +to orchard reveries, or shaded pool wherein to +drop a meditative line; you would have thought no +one could willingly coop himself in this hot room +for three hours, twice a day, while lawyers wrangled, +often unintelligibly, over the life of a dingy little +creature like Happy Fear, yet the struggle to +swelter there was almost like a riot, and the bailiffs +were busy men. + +It was a fighting case throughout, fought to a +finish on each tiny point as it came up, dragging, +in the mere matter of time, interminably, yet the +people of Canaan (not only those who succeeded +in penetrating to the court-room, but the others +who hung about the corridors, or outside the building, +and the great mass of stay-at-homes who read +the story in the Tocsin) found each moment of it +enthralling enough. The State's attorney, fearful of +losing so notorious a case, and not underestimating +his opponent, had modestly summoned others +to his aid; and the attorney for the defence, single- +handed, faced "an array of legal talent such as +seldom indeed had hollered at this bar"; faced it +good-naturedly, an eyebrow crooked up and his +head on one side, most of the time, yet faced it +indomitably. He had a certain careless and +disarming smile when he lost a point, which carried +off the defeat as of only humorous account and +not at all part of the serious business in hand; and +in his treatment of witnesses, he was plausible, +kindly, knowing that in this case he had no +intending perjurer to entrap; brought into play the +rare and delicate art of which he was a master, +employing in his questions subtle suggestions and +shadings of tone and manner, and avoiding words +of debatable and dangerous meanings;--a fine craft, +often attempted by blunderers to their own undoing, +but which, practised by Joseph Louden, +made inarticulate witnesses articulate to the +precise effects which he desired. This he accomplished +as much by the help of the continuous fire +of objections from the other side as in spite of +them. He was infinitely careful, asking never an +ill-advised question for the other side to use to +his hurt, and, though exhibiting only a pleasant +easiness of manner, was electrically alert. + +A hundred things had shown Ariel that the feeling +of the place, influenced by "public sentiment" +without, was subtly and profoundly hostile to Joe +and his client; she read this in the spectators, in +the jury, even in the Judge; but it seemed to her +that day by day the inimical spirit gradually failed, +inside the railing, and also in those spectators who, +like herself, were enabled by special favor to be +present throughout the trial, and that now and +then a kindlier sentiment began to be manifested. +She was unaware how strongly she contributed to +effect this herself, not only through the glow of +visible sympathy which radiated from her, but +by a particular action. Claudine was called by +the State, and told as much of her story as the +law permitted her to tell, interlarding her replies +with fervent protestations (too quick to be prevented) +that she "never meant to bring no trouble +to Mr. Fear" and that she "did hate to have gen'lemen +starting things on her account." When the +defence took this perturbed witness, her +interpolations became less frequent, and she described +straightforwardly how she had found the pistol on +the floor near the prostrate figure of Cory, and +hidden it in her own dress. The attorneys for the +State listened with a somewhat cynical amusement +to this portion of her testimony, believing it of no +account, uncorroborated, and that if necessary the +State could impeach the witness on the ground +that it had been indispensable to produce her. +She came down weeping from the stand; and, the +next witness not being immediately called, the +eyes of the jurymen naturally followed her as she +passed to her seat, and they saw Ariel Tabor bow +gravely to her across the railing. Now, a thousand +things not set forth by legislatures, law-men +and judges affect a jury, and the slight salutation +caused the members of this one to glance at one +another; for it seemed to imply that the exquisite +lady in white not only knew Claudine, but knew +that she had spoken the truth. It was after this, +that a feeling favorable to the defence now and +then noticeably manifested itself in the court- +room. Still, when the evidence for the State was +all in, the life of Happy Fear seemed to rest in a +balance precarious indeed, and the little man, +swallowing pitifully, looked at his attorney with +the eyes of a sick dog. + +Then Joe gave the prosecutors an illuminating +and stunning surprise, and, having offered in +evidence the revolver found upon Claudine, produced +as his first witness a pawnbroker of Denver, who +identified the weapon as one he had sold to Cory, +whom he had known very well. The second witness, +also a stranger, had been even more intimately +acquainted with the dead man, and there began to +be an uneasy comprehension of what Joe had +accomplished during that prolonged absence of his +which had so nearly cost the life of the little mongrel, +who was at present (most blissful Respectability!) +a lively convalescent in Ariel's back yard. The +second witness also identified the revolver, +testifying that he had borrowed it from Cory in St. +Louis to settle a question of marksmanship, and +that on his returning it to the owner, the latter, +then working his way eastward, had confided to +him his intention of stopping in Canaan for the +purpose of exercising its melancholy functions upon +a man who had once "done him good" in that +city. + +By the time the witness had reached this point, +the Prosecutor and his assistants were on their +feet, excitedly shouting objections, which were +promptly overruled. Taken unawares, they fought +for time; thunder was loosed, forensic bellowings; +everybody lost his temper--except Joe; and +the examination of the witness proceeded. Cory, +with that singular inspiration to confide in some +one, which is the characteristic and the undoing +of his kind, had outlined his plan of operations to +the witness with perfect clarity. He would first +attempt, so he had declared, to incite an attack +upon himself by playing upon the jealousy of his +victim, having already made a tentative effort in +that direction. Failing in this, he would fall back +upon one of a dozen schemes (for he was ready in +such matters, he bragged), the most likely of which +would be to play the peacemaker; he would talk +of his good intentions toward his enemy, speaking +publicly of him in friendly and gentle ways; then, +getting at him secretly, destroy him in such a +fashion as to leave open for himself the kind gate +of self-defence. In brief, here was the whole tally +of what had actually occurred, with the exception +of the last account in the sequence which had +proved that demise for which Cory had not +arranged and it fell from the lips of a witness whom +the prosecution had no means of impeaching. +When he left the stand, unshaken and undiscredited, +after a frantic cross-examination, Joe, +turning to resume his seat, let his hand fall lightly +for a second upon his client's shoulder. + +That was the occasion of a demonstration which +indicated a sentiment favorable to the defence (on +the part of at least three of the spectators); and it +was in the nature of such a hammering of canes +upon the bare wooden floor as effectually stopped +all other proceedings instantly. The indignant +Judge fixed the Colonel, Peter Bradbury, and +Squire Buckalew with his glittering eye, yet the +hammering continued unabated; and the offenders +surely would have been conducted forth in +ignominy, had not gallantry prevailed, even in +that formal place. The Judge, reluctantly realizing +that some latitude must be allowed to these +aged enthusiasts, since they somehow seemed to +belong to Miss Tabor, made his remarks general, +with the time-worn threat to clear the room, +whereupon the loyal survivors of Eskew relapsed +into unabashed silence. + +It was now, as Joe had said, a clear-enough case. +Only the case itself, however, was clear, for, as +he and his friends feared, the verdict might possibly +be neither in accordance with the law, the +facts, nor the convictions of the jury. Eugene's +defection had not altered the tone of the Tocsin. + +All day long a crowd of men and boys hung +about the corridors of the Court-house, about +the Square and the neighboring streets, and from +these rose sombre murmurs, more and more ominous. +The public sentiment of a community like +Canaan can make itself felt inside a court-room; +and it was strongly exerted against Happy Fear. +The Tocsin had always been a powerful agent; +Judge Pike had increased its strength with a +staff which was thoroughly efficient, alert, and +always able to strike centre with the paper's +readers; and in town and country it had absorbed +the circulation of the other local journals, which +resisted feebly at times, but in the matter of the +Cory murder had not dared to do anything except +follow the Tocsin's lead. The Tocsin, having lit +the fire, fed it--fed it saltpetre and sulphur--for +now Martin Pike was fighting hard. + +The farmers and people of the less urban parts +of the country were accustomed to found their +opinions upon the Tocsin. They regarded it as +the single immutable rock of journalistic +righteousness and wisdom in the world. Consequently, +stirred by the outbursts of the paper, they came +into Canaan in great numbers, and though the +pressure from the town itself was so strong that +only a few of them managed to crowd into the +court-room, the others joined their voices to those +sombre murmurs outdoors, which increased in +loudness as the trial went on. + +The Tocsin, however, was not having everything +its own way; the volume of outcry against +Happy Fear and his lawyer had diminished, it was +noticed, in "very respectable quarters." The +information imparted by Mike Sheehan to the politicians +at Mr. Farbach's had been slowly seeping +through the various social strata of the town, and +though at first incredulously rejected, it began to +find acceptance; Upper Main Street cooling appreciably +in its acceptance of the Tocsin as the law +and the prophets. There were even a few who +dared to wonder in their hearts if there had not +been a mistake about Joe Louden; and although +Mrs. Flitcroft weakened not, the relatives of +Squire Buckalew and of Peter Bradbury began to +hold up their heads a little, after having made +home horrible for those gentlemen and reproached +them with their conversion as the last word of +senile shame. In addition, the Colonel's grandson +and Mr. Bradbury's grandson had both mystifyingly +lent countenance to Joe, consorting with +him openly; the former for his own purposes--the +latter because he had cunningly discovered that +it was a way to Miss Tabor's regard, which, since +her gentle rejection of him, he had grown to +believe (good youth!) might be the pleasantest thing +that could ever come to him. In short, the question +had begun to thrive: Was it possible that Eskew +Arp had not been insane, after all? + +The best of those who gathered ominously about +the Court-house and its purlieus were the young +farmers and field-hands, artisans and clerks; one +of the latter being a pimply faced young man +(lately from the doctor's hands), who limped, and +would limp for the rest of his life, he who, of all +men, held the memory of Eskew Arp in least respect, +and was burningly desirous to revenge himself +upon the living. + +The worst were of that mystifying, embryonic, +semi-rowdy type, the American voyou, in the +production of which Canaan and her sister towns +everywhere over the country are prolific; the +young man, youth, boy perhaps, creature of nameless +age, whose clothes are like those of a brakeman +out of work, but who is not a brakeman in +or out of work; wearing the black, soft hat tilted +forward to shelter--as a counter does the contempt +of a clerk--that expression which the face does not +dare wear quite in the open, asserting the possession +of supreme capacity in wit, strength, dexterity, +and amours; the dirty handkerchief under the collar; +the short black coat always double-breasted; +the eyelids sooty; one cheek always bulged; the +forehead speckled; the lips cracked; horrible teeth; +and the affectation of possessing secret information +upon all matters of the universe; above all, +the instinct of finding the shortest way to any +scene of official interest to the policeman, fireman, +or ambulance surgeon,--a singular being, not +professionally criminal; tough histrionically rather than +really; full of its own argot of brag; hysterical when +crossed, timid through great ignorance, and therefore +dangerous. It furnishes not the leaders but +the mass of mobs; and it springs up at times of +crisis from Heaven knows where. You might have +driven through all the streets of Canaan, a week +before the trial, and have seen four or five such +fellows; but from the day of its beginning the +Square was full of them, dingy shuttlecocks batted +up into view by the Tocsin. + +They kept the air whirring with their noise. +The news of that sitting which had caused the +Squire, Flitcroft, and Peter Bradbury to risk the +Court's displeasure, was greeted outside with loud +and vehement disfavor; and when, at noon, the +jurymen were marshalled out to cross the yard +to the "National House" for dinner, a large crowd +followed and surrounded them, until they reached +the doors of the hotel. "Don't let Lawyer Louden +bamboozle you!" "Hang him!" "Tar and feathers +fer ye ef ye don't hang him!" These were the +mildest threats, and Joe Louden, watching from +an upper window of the Court-house, observed +with a troubled eye how certain of the jury shrank +from the pressure of the throng, how the cheeks +of others showed sudden pallor. Sometimes "public +sentiment" has done evil things to those who +have not shared it; and Joe knew how rare a thing +is a jury which dares to stand square against a +town like Canaan aroused. + +The end of that afternoon's session saw another +point marked for the defence; Joe had put the +defendant on the stand, and the little man had proved +an excellent witness. During his life he had been +many things--many things disreputable; high +standards were not brightly illumined for him in +the beginning of the night-march which his life +had been. He had been a tramp, afterward a +petty gambler; but his great motive had finally +come to be the intention to do what Joe told him +to do: that, and to keep Claudine as straight as he +could. In a measure, these were the two things +that had brought him to the pass in which he now +stood, his loyalty to Joe and his resentment of +whatever tampered with Claudine's straightness. +He was submissive to the consequences: he was +still loyal. And now Joe asked him to tell "just +what happened," and Happy obeyed with crystal +clearness. Throughout the long, tricky cross- +examination he continued to tell "just what +happened" with a plaintive truthfulness not to +be imitated, and throughout it Joe guarded him +from pitfalls (for lawyers in their search after +truth are compelled by the exigencies of their +profession to make pitfalls even for the honest), and +gave him, by various devices, time to remember, +though not to think, and made the words "come +right" in his mouth. So that before the sitting +was over, a disquieting rumor ran through the +waiting crowd in the corridors, across the Square, +and over the town, that the case was surely going +"Louden's way." This was also the opinion of +a looker-on in Canaan--a ferret-faced counsellor +of corporations who, called to consultation with +the eminent Buckalew (nephew of the Squire), +had afterward spent an hour in his company at +the trial. "It's going that young fellow Louden's +way," said the stranger. "You say he's a shyster, +but--" + +"Well," admitted Buckalew, with some +reluctance, "I don't mean that exactly. I've got an +old uncle who seems lately to think he's a great man." + +"I'll take your uncle's word for it," returned +the other, smiling. "I think he'll go pretty far." + +They had come to the flight of steps which +descended to the yard,--and the visitor, looking down +upon the angry crowd, added, "If they don't kill him!" + +Joe himself was anxious concerning no such +matter. He shook hands with Happy at the end +of the sitting, bidding him be of good cheer, and, +when the little man had marched away, under a +strong guard, began to gather and sort his papers +at a desk inside the bar. This took him perhaps +five minutes, and when he had finished there were +only three people left in the room: a clerk, a negro +janitor with a broom, and the darky friend who +always hopefully accompanies a colored man holding +high public office. These two approvingly +greeted the young lawyer, the janitor handing him +a note from Norbert Flitcroft, and the friend +mechanically "borrowing" a quarter from him as he +opened the envelope. + +"I'll be roun' yo' way to git a box o' SE-gahs," +laughed the friend, "soon ez de campaign open up +good. Dey all goin' vote yo' way, down on the +levee bank, but dey sho' expecks to git to smoke +a little 'fo' leckshun-day! We knows who's OW +frien'!" + +Norbert's missive was lengthy and absorbing; +Joe went on his way, perusing it with profound +attention; but as he descended the stairway to the +floor below, a loud burst of angry shouting, outside +the building, caused him to hasten toward +the big front doors which faced Main Street. The +doors opened upon an imposing vestibule, from +which a handsome flight of stone steps, protected +by a marble balustrade, led to the ground. + +Standing at the top of these steps and leaning +over the balustrade, he had a clear view of half the +yard. No one was near him; everybody was running +in the opposite direction, toward that corner +of the yard occupied by the jail, the crowd centring +upon an agitated whirlpool of men which +moved slowly toward a door in the high wall that +enclosed the building; and Joe saw that Happy +Fear's guards, conducting the prisoner back to his +cell, were being jostled and rushed. The distance +they had made was short, but as they reached the +door the pressure upon them increased dangerously. +Clubs rose in the air, hats flew, the whirlpool +heaved tumultuously, and the steel door clanged. + +Happy Fear was safe inside, but the jostlers were +outside--baffled, ugly, and stirred with the passion +that changes a crowd into a mob. + +Then some of them caught sight of Joe as he +stood alone at the top of the steps, and a great +shout of rage and exultation arose. + +For a moment or two he did not see his danger. +At the clang of the door, his eyes, caught by the +gleam of a wide white hat, had turned toward the +street, and he was somewhat fixedly watching Mr. +Ladew extricate Ariel (and her aged and indignant +escorts) from an overflow of the crowd in which +they had been caught. But a voice warned him: +the wild piping of a newsboy who had climbed into +a tree near by. + +"JOE LOUDEN!" he screamed. "LOOK OUT!" + +With a muffled roar the crowd surged back from +the jail and turned toward the steps. "Tar and +feather him!" "Take him over to the river and +throw him in!" "Drown him!" "Hang him!" + +Then a thing happened which was dramatic +enough in its inception, but almost ludicrous in its +effect. Joe walked quietly down the steps and +toward the advancing mob with his head cocked +to one side, one eyebrow lifted, and one corner of +his mouth drawn down in a faintly distorted smile. + +He went straight toward the yelling forerunners, +with only a small bundle of papers in his hands, +and then--while the non-partisan spectators held +their breath, expecting the shock of contact-- +straight on through them. + +A number of the bulge-cheeked formed the +scattering van of these forerunners, charging with +hoarse and cruel shrieks of triumph. The first, +apparently about to tear Joseph Louden to pieces, +changed countenance at arm's-length, swerved +violently, and with the loud cry, "HEAD HIM OFF!" +dashed on up the stone steps. The man next +behind him followed his lead, with the same shout, +strategy, and haste; then the others of this advance +attack, finding themselves confronting the quiet +man, who kept his even pace and showed no +intention of turning aside for them, turned suddenly +aside for HIM, and, taking the cue from the first, +pursued their way, bellowing: "HEAD HIM OFF! +HEAD HIM OFF!" until there were a dozen and more +rowdyish men and youths upon the steps, their +eyes blazing with fury, menacing Louden's back +with frightful gestures across the marble balustrade, +as they hysterically bleated the chorus, +"HEAD HIM OFF!" + +Whether or not Joe could have walked through +the entire mob as he had walked through these is +a matter for speculation; it was believed in Canaan +that he could. Already a gust of mirth began to +sweep over the sterner spirits as they paused to +marvel no less at the disconcerting advance of +the lawyer than at the spectacle presented by the +intrepid dare-devils upon the steps; a kind of lane +actually opening before the young man as he walked +steadily on. And when Mr. Sheehan, leading half +a dozen huge men from the Farbach brewery, +unceremoniously shouldered a way through the mob to +Joe's side, reaching him where the press was thickest, +it is a question if the services of his detachment +were needed. + +The laughter increased. It became voluminous. +Homeric salvos shook the air. And never one of +the fire-eaters upon the steps lived long enough +to live down the hateful cry of that day, "HEAD +HIM OFF!" which was to become a catch-word on +the streets, a taunt more stinging than any devised +by deliberate invention, an insult bitterer than the +ancestral doubt, a fighting-word, and the great +historical joke of Canaan, never omitted in after- +days when the tale was told how Joe Louden took +that short walk across the Court-house yard which +made him Mayor of Canaan. + + + +XXIV + +MARTIN PIKE KEEPS AN ENGAGEMENT + +An hour later, Martin Pike, looking +forth from the Mansion, saw a man +open the gate, and, passing between +the unemotional deer, rapidly +approach the house. He was a thin +young fellow, very well dressed in dark gray, his +hair prematurely somewhat silvered, his face +prematurely somewhat lined, and his hat covered a +scar such as might have been caused by a blow +from a blunt instrument in the nature of a poker. + +He did not reach the door, nor was there necessity +for him to ring, for, before he had set foot on +the lowest step, the Judge had hastened to meet +him. Not, however, with any fulsomely hospitable +intent; his hand and arm were raised to execute +one of his Olympian gestures, of the kind which +had obliterated the young man upon a certain by- +gone morning. + +Louden looked up calmly at the big figure +towering above him. + +"It won't do, Judge," he said; that was all, but +there was a significance in his manner and a certainty +in his voice which caused the uplifted hand +to drop limply; while the look of apprehension +which of late had grown more and more to be +Martin Pike's habitual expression deepened into +something close upon mortal anxiety. + +"Have you any business to set foot upon my +property?" he demanded. + +"Yes," answered Joe. "That's why I came." + +"What business have you got with me?" + +"Enough to satisfy you, I think. But there's +one thing I don't want to do"--Joe glanced at the +open door--"and that is to talk about it here--for +your own sake and because I think Miss Tabor +should be present. I called to ask you to come +to her house at eight o'clock to-night." + +"You did!" Martin Pike spoke angrily, but +not in the bull-bass of yore; and he kept his voice +down, glancing about him nervously as though +he feared that his wife or Mamie might hear. +"My accounts with her estate are closed," he said, +harshly. "If she wants anything, let her come here." + +Joe shook his head. "No. You must be there +at eight o'clock." + +The Judge's choler got the better of his uneasiness. +"You're a pretty one to come ordering me +around!" he broke out. "You slanderer, do you +suppose I haven't heard how you're going about +traducing me, undermining my character in this +community, spreading scandals that I am the real +owner of Beaver Beach--" + +"It can easily be proved, Judge," Joe interrupted, +quietly, "though you're wrong: I haven't +been telling people. I haven't needed to--even +if I'd wished. Once a thing like that gets out you +can't stop it--ever! That isn't all: to my knowledge +you own other property worse than the Beach; +I know that you own half of the worst dens in +the town: profitable investments, too. You bought +them very gradually and craftily, only showing +the deeds to those in charge--as you did to Mike +Sheehan, and not recording them. Sheehan's +betrayal of you gave me the key; I know most of the +poor creatures who are your tenants, too, you +see, and that gave me an advantage because they +have some confidence in me. My investigations +have been almost as quiet and careful as your purchases." + +"You damned blackmailer!" The Judge bent +upon him a fierce, inquiring scrutiny in which, oddly +enough, there was a kind of haggard hopefulness. +"And out of such stories," he sneered, +"you are going to try to make political capital +against the Tocsin, are you?" + +"No," said Joe. "It was necessary in the +interests of my client for me to know pretty thoroughly +just what property you own, and I think I do. +These pieces I've mentioned are about all you +have not mortgaged. You couldn't do that without +exposure, and you've kept a controlling interest +in the Tocsin clear, too--for the sake of its +influence, I suppose. Now, do you want to hear +any more, or will you agree to meet me at Miss +Tabor's this evening?" + +Whatever the look of hopefulness had signified, +it fled from Pike's face during this speech, but he +asked with some show of contempt, "Do you +think it likely?" + +"Very well," said Joe, "if you want me to +speak here." And he came a little closer to him. +"You bought a big block of Granger Gas for Roger +Tabor," he began, in a low voice. "Before his +death you sold everything he had, except the old +house, put it all into cash for him, and bought that +stock; you signed the check as his attorney-in-fact, +and it came back to you through the Washington +National, where Norbert Flitcroft handled it. He +has a good memory, and when he told me what he +knew, I had him to do some tracing; did a little +myself, also. Judge Pike, I must tell you that +you stand in danger of the law. You were the +custodian of that stock for Roger Tabor; it was +transferred in blank; though I think you meant +to be `legal' at that time, and that was merely for +convenience in case Roger had wished you to sell +it for him. But just after his death you found +yourself saddled with distillery stock, which was +going bad on your hands. Other speculations of +yours were failing at the same time; you had to +have money--you filed your report as administrator, +crediting Miss Tabor with your own stock +which you knew was going to the wall, and transferred +hers to yourself. Then you sold it because +you needed ready money. You used her fortune +to save yourself--but you were horribly afraid! +No matter how rotten your transactions had been, +you had always kept inside the law; and now that +you had gone outside of it, you were frightened. +You didn't dare come flat out to Miss Tabor with +the statement that her fortune had gone; it had +been in your charge all the time and things might +look ugly. So you put it off, perhaps from day +to day. You didn't dare tell her until you were +forced to, and to avoid the confession you sent her +the income which was rightfully hers. That was +your great weakness." + +Joe had spoken with great rapidity, though keeping +his voice low, and he lowered it again, as he +continued: "Judge Pike, what chance have you +to be believed in court when you swear that you +sent her twenty thousand dollars out of the goodness +of your heart? Do you think SHE believed +you? It was the very proof to her that you had +robbed her. For she knew you! Do you want +to hear more now? Do you think this is a good +place for it? Do you wish me to go over the +details of each step I have taken against you, to land +you at the bar where this poor fellow your paper +is hounding stands to-day?" + +The Judge essayed to answer, and could not. +He lifted his hand uncertainly and dropped it, +while a thick dew gathered on his temples. +Inarticulate sounds came from between his teeth. + +"You will come?" said Joe. + +Martin Pike bent his head dazedly; and at that +the other turned quickly from him and went away +without looking back. + + +Ariel was in the studio, half an hour later, when +Joe was announced by the smiling Mr. Warden. +Ladew was with her, though upon the point of +taking his leave, and Joe marked (with a sinking +heart) that the young minister's cheeks were +flushed and his eyes very bright. + +"It was a magnificent thing you did, Mr. Louden," +he said, offering his hand heartily; "I saw +it, and it was even finer in one way than it was +plucky. It somehow straightened things out with +such perfect good nature; it made those people feel +that what they were doing was ridiculous." + +"So it was," said Joe. + +"Few, under the circumstances, could have +acted as if they thought so! And I hope you'll +let me call upon you, Mr. Louden." + +"I hope you will," he answered; and then, when +the minister had departed, stood looking after him +with sad eyes, in which there dwelt obscure meditations. +Ladew's word of farewell had covered a +deep look at Ariel, which was not to be mistaken +by Joseph Louden for anything other than what +it was: the clergyman's secret was an open one, +and Joe saw that he was as frank and manly in +love as in all other things. "He's a good fellow," +he said at last, sighing. "A good man." + +Ariel agreed. "And he said more to me than +he did to you." + +"Yes, I think it probable," Joe smiled sorrowfully. + +"About YOU, I mean." He had time to fear +that her look admitted confusion before she +proceeded: "He said he had never seen anything so +fine as your coming down those steps. Ah, he +was right! But it was harder for me to watch +you, I think, than for you to do it, Joe. I was so +horribly afraid--and the crowd between us--if we +could have got near you--but we couldn't--we--" + +She faltered, and pressed her hand close upon +her eyes. + +"We?" asked Joe, slowly. "You mean you +and Mr. Ladew?" + +"Yes, he was there; but I mean"--her voice +ran into a little laugh with a beatific quaver in it +--"I mean Colonel Flitcroft and Mr. Bradbury +and Mr. Buckalew, too--we were hemmed in together +when Mr. Ladew found us--and, oh, Joe, +when that cowardly rush started toward you, +those three--I've heard wonderful things in Paris +and Naples, cabmen quarrelling and disappointed +beggars--but never anything like them to-day--" + +"You mean they were profane?" + +"Oh, magnificently--and with such inventiveness! +All three begged my pardon afterwards. I +didn't grant it--I blessed them!" + +"Did they beg Mr. Ladew's pardon?" + +"Ah, Joe!" she reproached him. "He isn't a +prig. And he's had to fight some things that you +of all men ought to understand. He's only been +here a few months, but he told me that Judge Pike +has been against him from the start. It seems that +Mr. Ladew is too liberal in his views. And he told +me that if it were not for Judge Pike's losing +influence in the church on account of the Beaver +Beach story, the Judge would probably have been +able to force him to resign; but now he will stay." + +"He wishes to stay, doesn't he?" + +"Very much, I think. And, Joe," she continued, +thoughtfully, "I want you to do something for me. +I want you to go to church with me next Sunday." + +"To hear Mr. Ladew?" + +"Yes. I wouldn't ask except for that." + +"Very well," he consented, with averted eyes. +"I'll go." + +Her face was radiant with the smile she gave +him. "It will make me very happy," she said. + +He bent his head and fumbled over some papers +he had taken from his pocket. "Will you listen to +these memoranda? We have a great deal to go +over before eight o'clock." + + +Judge Pike stood for a long while where Joe had +left him, staring out at the street, apparently. +Really he saw nothing. Undoubtedly an image +of blurring foliage, cast-iron, cement, and turf, +with sunshine smeared over all, flickered upon the +retinas of his eyes; but the brain did not accept the +picture from the optic nerve. Martin Pike was +busy with other visions. Joe Louden had followed +him back to his hidden deeds and had read them +aloud to him as Gabriel would read them on Judgment- +day. Perhaps THIS was the Judgment-day. + +Pike had taken charge of Roger Tabor's affairs +because the commissions as agent were not too +inconsiderable to be neglected. To make the +task simpler, he had sold, as time went on, the +various properties of the estate, gradually +converting all of them into cash. Then, the +opportunity offering, he bought a stock which paid +excellent dividends, had it transferred in blank, +because if it should prove to Roger's advantage to +sell it, his agent could do so without any formal +delays between Paris and Canaan. At least, that +is what the Judge had told himself at the time, +though it may be that some lurking whisperer in +his soul had hinted that it might be well to preserve +the great amount of cash in hand, and Roger's +stock was practically that. Then came the evil +days. Laboriously, he had built up a name for +conservatism which most of the town accepted, +but secretly he had always been a gambler: Wall +Street was his goal; to adventure there, as one of +the great single-eyed Cyclopean man-eaters, his +fond ambition; and he had conceived the distillery +trust as a means to attain it; but the structure +tumbled about his ears; other edifices of his +crumbled at the same time; he found himself beset, his +solvency endangered, and there was the Tabor +stock, quite as good as gold; Roger had just died, +and it was enough to save him.--Save? That was +a strange way to be remembering it to-day, when +Fate grinned at him out of a dreadful mask contorted +like the face of Norbert Flitcroft. + +Martin Pike knew himself for a fool. What +chance had he, though he destroyed the check a +thousand times over, to escape the records by +which the coil of modern trade duplicates and +quadruplicates each slip of scribbled paper? What +chance had he against the memories of men? +Would the man of whom he had bought, forget +that the check was signed by Roger's agent? Had +the bank-clerk forgotten? Thrice fool, Martin Pike, +to dream that in a town like Canaan, Norbert or +any of his kind could touch an order for so great +a sum and forget it! But Martin Pike had not +dreamed that; had dreamed nothing. When failure +confronted him his mind refused to consider +anything but his vital need at the time, and he +had supplied that need. And now he grew busy +with the future: he saw first the civil suit for +restitution, pressed with the ferocity and cunning of +one who intended to satisfy a grudge of years; +then, perhaps, a criminal prosecution. . . . But he +would fight it! Did they think that such a man +was to be overthrown by a breath of air? By a +girl, a bank-clerk, and a shyster lawyer? They +would find their case difficult to prove in court. +He did not believe they COULD prove it. They +would be discredited for the attempt upon him +and he would win clear; these Beaver Beach scandals +would die of inertia presently; there would be +a lucky trick in wheat, and Martin Pike would be +Martin Pike once more; reinstated, dictator of +church, politics, business; all those things which +were the breath of his life restored. He would +show this pitiful pack what manner of man they +hounded! Norbert Flitcroft. . . . + +The Judge put his big hand up to his eyes and +rubbed them. Curious mechanisms the eyes. . . . +That deer in line with the vision--not a zebra? +A zebra after all these years? And yet . . . curious, +indeed, the eyes! . . . a zebra. . . . Who ever heard +of a deer with stripes? The big hand rose from +the eyes and ran through the hair which he had +always worn rather long. It would seem strange +to have it cut very short. . . . Did they use clippers, +perhaps? . . . + +He started suddenly and realized that his next- +door neighbor had passed along the sidewalk with +head averted, pretending not to see him. A few +weeks ago the man would not have missed the +chance of looking in to bow--with proper deference, +too! Did he know? He could not know THIS! +It must be the Beaver Beach scandal. It must be. +It could not be THIS--not yet! But it MIGHT be. +How many knew? Louden, Norbert, Ariel--who else? +And again the deer took on the strange zebra look. + +The Judge walked slowly down to the gate; spoke +to the man he had employed in Sam Warden's +place, a Scotchman who had begun to refresh the +lawn with a garden hose; bowed affably in response +to the salutation of the elder Louden, who was +passing, bound homeward from the factory, and +returned to the house with thoughtful steps. In +the hall he encountered his wife; stopped to speak +with her upon various household matters; then +entered the library, which was his workroom. He +locked the door; tried it, and shook the handle. +After satisfying himself of its security, he pulled +down the window-shades carefully, and, lighting +a gas drop-lamp upon his desk, began to fumble +with various documents, which he took from a +small safe near by. But his hands were not steady; +he dropped the papers, scattering them over the +floor, and had great difficulty in picking them up. +He perspired heavily: whatever he touched became +damp, and he continually mopped his forehead +with his sleeve. After a time he gave up the +attempt to sort the packets of papers; sank into a +chair despairingly, leaving most of them in disorder. +A light tap sounded on the door. + +"Martin, it's supper-time." + +With a great effort he made shift to answer: +"Yes, I know. You and Mamie go ahead. I'm +too busy to-night. I don't want anything." + +A moment before, he had been a pitiful figure, +face distraught, hands incoherent, the whole body +incoordinate, but if eyes might have rested upon +him as he answered his wife they would have seen +a strange thing; he sat, apparently steady and +collected, his expression cool, his body quiet, poised +exactly to the quality of his reply, for the same +strange reason that a young girl smiles archly and +coquettes to a telephone. + +"But, Martin, you oughtn't to work so hard. +You'll break down--" + +"No fear of that," he replied, cheerfully. "You +can leave something on the sideboard for me." + +After another fluttering remonstrance, she went +away, and the room was silent again. His arms +rested upon the desk, and his head slowly sank +between his elbows. When he lifted it again the +clock on the mantel-piece had tinkled once. It +was half-past seven. He took a sheet of note- +paper from a box before him and began to write, +but when he had finished the words, "My dear +wife and Mamie," his fingers shook so violently +that he could go no further. He placed his left +hand over the back of his right to steady it, but +found the device unavailing: the pen left mere +zigzags on the page, and he dropped it. + +He opened a lower drawer of the desk and took +out of it a pistol; rose, went to the door, tried it +once more, and again was satisfied of his seclusion. +Then he took the weapon in both hands, the +handle against his fingers, one thumb against the +trigger, and, shaking with nausea, lifted it to the +level of his eyes. His will betrayed him; he could +not contract his thumb upon the trigger, and, +with a convulsive shiver, he dropped the revolver +upon the desk. + +He locked the door of the room behind him, +crept down the stairs and out of the front-door. +He walked shamblingly, when he reached the +street, keeping close to the fences as he went on, +now and then touching the pickets with his hands +like a feeble old man. + +He had always been prompt; it was one of the +things of which he had been proud: in all his life +he had never failed to keep a business engagement +precisely upon the appointed time, and the Court- +house bell clanged eight when Sam Warden opened +the door for his old employer to-night. + +The two young people looked up gravely from +the script-laden table before them as Martin Pike +came into the strong lamplight out of the dimness +of the hall, where only a taper burned. He shambled +a few limp steps into the room and came to +a halt. Big as he was, his clothes hung upon him +loosely, like coverlets upon a collapsed bed; and +he seemed but a distorted image of himself, as if +(save for the dull and reddened eyes) he had been +made of yellowish wax and had been left too long +in the sun. Abject, hopeless, his attitude a +confession of ruin and shame, he stood before his +judges in such wretchedness that, in comparison, +the figure of Happy Fear, facing the court-room +through his darkest hour, was one to be envied. + +"Well," he said, brokenly, "what are you going +to do?" + +Joe Louden looked at him with great intentness +for several moments. Then he rose and came +forward. "Sit down, Judge," he said. "It's all +right. Don't worry." + + + +XXV + +THE JURY COMES IN + +Mrs. Flitcroft, at breakfast on +the following morning, continued a +disquisition which had ceased, the +previous night, only because of a +provoking human incapacity to exist +without sleep. Her theme was one which had +exclusively occupied her since the passing of +Eskew, and, her rheumatism having improved so +that she could leave her chair, she had become a +sort of walking serial; Norbert and his grandfather +being well assured that, whenever they left the +house, the same story was to be continued upon +their reappearance. The Tocsin had been her great +comfort: she was but one helpless woman against +two strong men; therefore she sorely needed assistance +in her attack upon them, and the invaluable +newspaper gave it in generous measure. + +"Yes, young man," she said, as she lifted her +first spoonful of oatmeal, "you BETTER read the +Tocsin!" + +"I AM reading it," responded Norbert, who was +almost concealed by the paper. + +"And your grandfather better read it!" she +continued, severely. + +"I already have," said the Colonel, promptly. +"Have you?" + +"No, but you can be sure I will!" The good +lady gave the effect of tossing her head. "And +you better take what it says to heart, you and +some others. It's a wonder to me that you and +Buckalew and old Peter don't go and hold that +Happy Fear's hand durin' the trial! And as for +Joe Louden, his step-mother's own sister, Jane, +says to me only yesterday afternoon, `Why, law! +Mrs. Flitcroft,' she says, `it's a wonder to me,' +she says, `that your husband and those two other +old fools don't lay down in the gutter and let that +Joe Louden walk over 'em.' " + +"Did Jane Quimby say `those two other old +fools'?" inquired the Colonel, in a manner which +indicated that he might see Mr. Quimby in regard +to the slander. + +"I can't say as I remember just precisely her +exact words," admitted Mrs. Flitcroft, "but that +was the sense of 'em! You've made yourselves +the laughin'-stock of the whole town!" + +"Oh, we have?" + +"And I'd like to know"--her voice became shrill +and goading--"I'd like to know what Judge Pike +thinks of you and Norbert! I should think you'd +be ashamed to have him pass you in the street." + +"I've quit speaking to him," said Norbert, coldly, +"ever since I heard he owned Beaver Beach." + +"That story ain't proved yet!" returned his +grandmother, with much irascibility. + +"Well, it will be; but that's not all." Norbert +wagged his head. "You may be a little surprised +within the next few days." + +"I've been surprised for the PAST few!" she +replied, with a bitterness which overrode her +satisfaction in the effectiveness of the retort. +"Surprised! I'd like to know who wouldn't be +surprised when half the town acts like it's gone crazy. +People PRAISIN' that fellow, that nobody in their +sober minds and senses never in their lives had a +good word for before! Why, there was more talk +yesterday about his doin's at the Court-house-- +you'd of thought he was Phil Sheridan! It's `Joe +Louden' here and `Joe Louden' there, and `Joe +Louden' this and `Joe Louden' that, till I'm sick +of the name!" + +"Then why don't you quit saying it?" asked the +Colonel, reasonably. + +"Because it'd OUGHT to be said!" she exclaimed, +with great heat. "Because he'd ought to be held +up to the community to be despised. You let me +have that paper a minute," she pursued, vehemently; +"you just let me have the Tocsin and I'll read +you out some things about him that 'll show him +in his true light!" + +"All right," said Norbert, suddenly handing her +the paper. "Go ahead." + +And after the exchange of a single glance the +two gentlemen composed themselves to listen. + +"Ha!" exclaimed Mrs. Flitcroft. "Here it is in +head-lines on the first page. `Defence Scores +Again and Again. Ridiculous Behavior of a +Would-Be Mob. Louden's--'" She paused, +removed her spectacles, examined them dubiously, +restored them to place, and continued: "`Louden's +Masterly Conduct and Well-Deserved--' " she +paused again, incredulous--"`Well-Deserved Triumph--' " + +"Go on," said the Colonel, softly. + +"Indeed I will!" the old lady replied. "Do you +think I don't know sarcasm when I see it? Ha, +ha!" She laughed with great heartiness. "I +reckon I WILL go on! You listen and try to LEARN +something from it!" She resumed the reading: + +"`It is generally admitted that after yesterday's +sitting of the court, the prosecution in the Fear- +Cory murder trial has not a leg to stand on. Louden's +fight for his client has been, it must be confessed, +of a most splendid and talented order, and +the bottom has fallen out of the case for the State, +while a verdict of Not Guilty, it is now conceded, +is the general wish of those who have attended and +followed the trial. But the most interesting event +of the day took place after the session, when some +miscreants undertook to mob the attorney for the +defence in the Court-house yard. He met the +attack with a coolness and nerve which have won +him a popularity that--' " Mrs. Flitcroft again +faltered. + +"Go on," repeated the Colonel. "There's a +great deal more." + +"Look at the editorials," suggested Norbert. +"There's one on the same subject." + +Mrs. Flitcroft, her theory of the Tocsin's sarcasm +somewhat shaken, turned the page. "We Confess +a Mistake" was the rubric above the leader, and +she uttered a cry of triumph, for she thought the +mistake was what she had just been reading, and +that the editorial would apologize for the +incomprehensible journalistic error upon the first page. +"`The best of us make mistakes, and it is well +to have a change of heart sometimes.' " (Thus +Eugene's successor had written, and so Mrs. Flitcroft +read.) "`An open confession is good for the +soul. The Tocsin has changed its mind in regard +to certain matters, and means to say so freely and +frankly. After yesterday's events in connection +with the murder trial before our public, the evidence +being now all presented, for we understand +that neither side has more to offer, it is generally +conceded that all good citizens are hopeful of a +verdict of acquittal; and the Tocsin is a good +citizen. No good citizen would willingly see an +innocent man punished, and that our city is not +to be disgraced by such a miscarriage of justice is +due to the efforts of the attorney for the defendant, +who has gained credit not only by his masterly +management of this case, but by his splendid conduct +in the face of danger yesterday afternoon. +He has distinguished himself so greatly that we +frankly assert that our citizens may point with +pride to--' " Mrs. Flitcroft's voice, at the beginning +pitched to a high exultation, had gradually +lowered in key and dropped down the scale till +it disappeared altogether. + +"It's a wonder to me," the Colonel began, "that +the Tocsin doesn't go and hold Joe Louden's hand." + +"I'll read the rest of it for you," said Norbert, +his heavy face lighting up with cruelty. "Let's +see--where were you? Oh yes--`point with +pride'? `Our citizens may point with pride to . . .' " + +Let us not linger to observe the unmanly +behavior of an aged man and his grandson left alone +at the breakfast-table by a defenceless woman. + +The Tocsin's right-about-face undermined others +besides Mrs. Flitcroft that morning, and rejoiced +greater (though not better) men than the Colonel. +Mr. Farbach and his lieutenants smiled, yet stared, +amazed, wondering what had happened. That +was a thing which only three people even certainly +knew; yet it was very simple. + +The Tocsin was part of the Judge's restitution. + +"The controlling interest in the paper, together +with the other property I have listed," Joe had +said, studying his memoranda under the lamp in +Roger's old studio, while Martin Pike listened with +his head in his hands, "make up what Miss Tabor +is willing to accept. As I estimate it, their total +value is between a third and a half of that of the +stock which belonged to her." + +"But this boy--this Flitcroft," said Pike, feebly; +"he might--" + +"He will do nothing," interrupted Joe. "The +case is `settled out of court,' and even if he were +disposed to harass you, he could hardly hope to +succeed, since Miss Tabor declines either to sue +or to prosecute." + +The Judge winced at the last word. "Yes--yes, +I know; but he might--he might--tell." + +"I think Miss Tabor's influence will prevent. +If it should not--well, you're not in a desperate +case by any means; you're involved, but far from +stripped; in time you may be as sound as ever. +And if Norbert tells, there's nothing for you to do +but to live it down." A faint smile played upon +Joe's lips as he lifted his head and looked at the +other. "It can be done, I think." + +It was then that Ariel, complaining of the warmth +of the evening, thought it possible that Joe might +find her fan upon the porch, and as he departed, +whispered hurriedly: "Judge Pike, I'm not +technically in control of the Tocsin, but haven't I the +right to control its policy?" + +"I understand," he muttered. "You mean +about Louden--about this trial--" + +"That is why I have taken the paper." + +"You want all that changed, you mean?" + +She nodded decisively. "From this instant. +Before morning." + +"Oh, well, I'll go down there and give the word." +He rubbed his eyes wearily with big thumbs. +"I'm through fighting. I'm done. Besides, what's +the use? There's nothing more to fight." + +"Now, Judge," Joe said, as he came in briskly, +"we'll go over the list of that unencumbered property, +if you will." + +This unencumbered property consisted of Beaver +Beach and those other belongings of the Judge +which he had not dared to mortgage. Joe had +somehow explained their nature to Ariel, and +these with the Tocsin she had elected to accept +in restitution. + +"You told me once that I ought to look after +my own property, and now I will. Don't you see?" +she cried to Joe, eagerly. "It's my work!" She +resolutely set aside every other proposition; and +this was the quality of mercy which Martin Pike +found that night. + + +There was a great crowd to hear Joe's summing- +up at the trial, and those who succeeded in getting +into the court-room declared that it was worth the +struggle. He did not orate, he did not "thunder +at the jury," nor did he slyly flatter them; he did +not overdo the confidential, nor seem so secure +of understanding beforehand what their verdict +would be that they felt an instinctive desire to +fool him. He talked colloquially but clearly, +without appeal to the pathetic and without +garnitures, not mentioning sunsets, birds, oceans, +homes, the glorious old State, or the happiness of +liberty; but he made everybody in the room quite +sure that Happy Fear had fired the shot which +killed Cory to save his own life. And that, as Mr. +Bradbury remarked to the Colonel, was "what Joe +was THERE for!" + +Ariel's escort was increased to four that day: +Mr. Ladew sat beside her, and there were times +when Joe kept his mind entirely to the work in +hand only by an effort, but he always succeeded. +The sight of the pale and worshipping face of +Happy Fear from the corner of his eye was enough +to insure that. And people who could not get +near the doors, asking those who could, "What's +he doin' now?" were answered by variations of the +one formula, "Oh, jest walkin' away with it!" + +Once the court-room was disturbed and set in +an uproar which even the Judge's customary +threat failed to subdue. Joe had been talking very +rapidly, and having turned the point he was making +with perfect dexterity, the jury listening eagerly, +stopped for a moment to take a swallow of +water. A voice rose over the low hum of the +crowd in a delirious chuckle: "Why don't somebody +`HEAD HIM OFF!' " The room instantly rocked +with laughter, under cover of which the identity +of the sacrilegious chuckler was not discovered, +but the voice was the voice of Buckalew, who was +incredibly surprised to find that he had spoken +aloud. + +The jury were "out," after the case had been +given to them, seventeen minutes and thirty seconds +by the watch Claudine held in her hand. The +little man, whose fate was now on the knees of the +gods, looked pathetically at the foreman and +then at the face of his lawyer and began to shake +violently, but not with fright. He had gone to +the jail on Joe's word, as a good dog goes where +his master bids, trustfully; and yet Happy had +not been able to keep his mind from considering +the horrible chances. "Don't worry," Joe had +said. "It's all right. I'll see you through." +And he had kept his word. + +The little man was cleared. + +It took Happy a long time to get through what +he had to say to his attorney in the anteroom, +and even then, of course, he did not manage to put +it in words, for he had "broken down" with sheer +gratitude. "Why, damn ME, Joe," he sobbed, +"if ever I--if ever you--well, by God! if you +ever--" This was the substance of his lingual +accomplishment under the circumstances. But +Claudine threw her arms around poor Joe's neck +and kissed him. + +Many people were waiting to shake hands with +Joe and congratulate him. The trio, taking +advantage of seats near the rail, had already done +that (somewhat uproariously) before he had followed +Happy, and so had Ariel and Ladew, both, +necessarily, rather hurriedly. But in the +corridors he found, when he came out of the anteroom, +clients, acquaintances, friends: old friends, +new friends, and friends he had never seen before +--everybody beaming upon him and wringing his +hand, as if they had been sure of it all from the +start. + +"KNOW him?" said one to another. "Why, I've +knowed him sence he was that high! SMART little +feller he was, too!" This was a total stranger. + +"I said, years ago"--thus Mr. Brown, the +"National House" clerk, proving his prophetic vision +--"that he'd turn out to be a big man some day." + +They gathered round him if he stopped for an +instant, and crowded after him admiringly when +he went on again, making his progress slow. When +he finally came out of the big doors into the +sunshine, there were as many people in the yard as +there had been when he stood in the same place +and watched the mob rushing his client's guards. +But to-day their temper was different, and as he +paused a moment, looking down on the upturned, +laughing faces, with a hundred jocular and +congratulatory salutations shouted up at him, +somebody started a cheer, and it was taken up with +thunderous good-will. + +There followed the interrogation customary in +such emergencies, and the anxious inquirer was +informed by four or five hundred people simultaneously +that Joe Louden was all right. + +"HEAD HIM OFF!" bellowed Mike Sheehan, +suddenly darting up the steps. The shout increased, +and with good reason, for he stepped quickly back +within the doors; and, retreating through the building, +made good his escape by a basement door. + +He struck off into a long detour, but though he +managed to evade the crowd, he had to stop and +shake hands with every third person he met. As +he came out upon Main Street again, he encountered +his father. + +"Howdy do, Joe?" said this laconic person, and +offered his hand. They shook, briefly. "Well," +he continued, rubbing his beard, "how are ye?" + +"All right, father, I think." + +"Satisfied with the verdict?" + +"I'd be pretty hard to please if I weren't," Joe +laughed. + +Mr. Louden rubbed his beard again. "I was +there," he said, without emotion. + +"At the trial, you mean?" + +"Yes." He offered his hand once more, and +again they shook. "Well, come around and see +us," he said. + +"Thank you. I will." + +"Well," said Mr. Louden, "good-day, Joe." + +"Good-day, father." + + +The young man stood looking after him with a +curious smile. Then he gave a slight start. Far +up the street he saw two figures, one a lady's, in +white, with a wide white hat; the other a man's, +wearing recognizably clerical black. They seemed +to be walking very slowly. + +It had been a day of triumph for Joe; but in +all his life he never slept worse than he did that +night. + + + +XXVI + +ANCIENT OF DAYS + +He woke to the chiming of bells, and, +as his eyes slowly opened, the sorrowful +people of a dream, who seemed +to be bending over him, weeping, +swam back into the darkness of the +night whence they had come, and returned to the +imperceptible, leaving their shadows in his heart. +Slowly he rose, stumbled into the outer room, and +released the fluttering shade; but the sunshine, +springing like a golden lover through the open +window, only dazzled him, and found no answering +gladness to greet it, nor joy in the royal day it +heralded. + +And yet, to the newly cleaned boys on their +way to midsummer morning Sunday-school, the +breath of that cool August day was as sweet as +stolen apples. No doubt the stir of far, green +thickets and the twinkle of silver-slippered creeks +shimmered in the longing vision of their minds' +eyes; even so, they were merry. But Joseph +Louden, sighing as he descended his narrow stairs, +with the bitterness still upon his lips of the frightful +coffee he had made, heard the echo of their +laughter with wonder. + +It would be an hour at least before time to start +to church, when Ariel expected him; he stared +absently up the street, then down, and, after that, +began slowly to walk in the latter direction, with +no very active consciousness, or care, of where he +went. He had fallen into a profound reverie, so +deep that when he had crossed the bridge and +turned into a dusty road which ran along the +river-bank, he stopped mechanically beside the +trunk of a fallen sycamore, and, lifting his head, +for the first time since he had set out, looked +about him with a melancholy perplexity, a little +surprised to find himself there. + +For this was the spot where he had first seen the +new Ariel, and on that fallen sycamore they had +sat together. "REMEMBER, ACROSS MAIN STREET +BRIDGE AT NOON!" And Joe's cheeks burned, as he +recalled why he had not understood the clear +voice that had haunted him. But that shame had +fallen from him; she had changed all that, as she +had changed so many things. He sank down in +the long grass, with his back against the log, and +stared out over the fields of tall corn, shaking in +a steady wind all the way to the horizon. + +"Changed so many things?" he said, half aloud. +"Everything!" Ah, yes, she had changed the +whole world for Joseph Louden--at his first sight +of her! And now it seemed to him that he was to +lose her, but not in the way he had thought. + +Almost from the very first, he had the feeling +that nothing so beautiful as that she should stay +in Canaan could happen to him. He was sure that +she was but for the little while, that her coming +was like the flying petals of which he had told her. + +He had lain upon the earth; and she had lifted +him up. For a moment he had felt the beatific +wings enfolding him with gentle protection, and +then saw them lifted to bear the angel beyond his +sight. For it was incredible that the gods so +loved Joe Louden that they would make greater +gifts to him than this little time with her which +they had granted him. + +"Changed so many things?" + +The bars that had been between him and half +of his world were down, shattered, never more to +be replaced; and the ban of Canaan was lifted. +Could this have been, save for her? And upon +that thought he got to his feet, uttering an +exclamation of bitter self-reproach, asking himself +angrily what he was doing. He knew how much +she gave him, what full measure of her affection! +Was not that enough?--Out upon you, Louden! +Are you to sulk in your tent, dour in the gloom, +or to play a man's part, and if she be happy, turn +a cheery face upon her joy? + +And thus this pilgrim recrossed the bridge, +emerging to the street with his head up, smiling, +and his shoulders thrown back so that none might +see the burden he carried. + + +Ariel was waiting on the porch for him. She +wore the same dress she had worn that Sunday of +their tryst; that exquisite dress, with the faint +lavender overtint, like the tender colors of the +beautiful day he made his own. She had not worn +it since, and he was far distant when he caught the +first flickering glimpse of her through the lower +branches of the maples, but he remembered. . . . +And again, as on that day, he heard a far-away, +ineffable music, the Elf-land horns, sounding the +mysterious reveille which had wakened his soul to +her coming. + +She came to the gate to meet him, and gave him +her hand in greeting, without a word--or the need +of one--from either. Then together they set forth +over the sun-flecked pavement, the maples swishing +above them, heavier branches crooning in the +strong breeze, under a sky like a Della Robbia +background. And up against the glorious blue of +it, some laughing, invisible god was blowing small, +rounded clouds of pure cotton, as children blow +thistledown. + +When he opened her parasol, as they came out +into the broad sunshine beyond Upper Main Street, +there was the faintest mingling of wild roses and +cinnamon loosed on the air. + +"Joe," she said, "I'm very happy!" + +"That's right," he returned, heartily. "I think +you always will be." + +"But, oh! I wish," she went on, "that Mr. Arp +could have lived to see you come down the Court- +house steps." + +"God bless him!" said Joe. "I can hear the +`argument'!" + +"Those dear old men have been so loyal to you, Joe." + +"No," he returned; "loyal to Eskew." + +"To you both," she said. "I'm afraid the old +circle is broken up; they haven't met on the National +House corner since he died. The Colonel told +me he couldn't bear to go there again." + +"I don't believe any of them ever will," he +returned. "And yet I never pass the place that I +don't see Eskew in his old chair. I went there last +night to commune with him. I couldn't sleep, +and I got up, and went over there; they'd left the +chairs out; the town was asleep, and it was beautiful +moonlight--" + +"To commune with him? What about?" + +"You." + +"Why?" she asked, plainly mystified. + +"I stood in need of good counsel," he answered, +cheerfully, "or a friendly word, perhaps, and--as +I sat there--after a while it came." + +"What was it?" + +"To forget that I was sodden with selfishness; +to pretend not to be as full of meanness as I really +was! Doesn't that seem to be Eskew's own voice?" + +"Weren't you happy last night, Joe?" + +"Oh, it was all right," he said, quickly. "Don't +you worry." + +And at this old speech of his she broke into a +little laugh of which he had no comprehension. + +"Mamie came to see me early this morning," +she said, after they had walked on in silence for +a time. "Everything is all right with her again; +that is, I think it will be. Eugene is coming home. +And," she added, thoughtfully, "it will be best +for him to have his old place on the Tocsin again. +She showed me his letter, and I liked it. I think +he's been through the fire--" + +Joe's distorted smile appeared. "And has come +out gold?" he asked. + +"No," she laughed; "but nearer it! And I +think he'll try to be more worth her caring for. +She has always thought that his leaving the Tocsin +in the way he did was heroic. That was her word +for it. And it WAS the finest thing he ever did." + +"I can't figure Eugene out." Joe shook his +head. "There's something behind his going away +that I don't understand." This was altogether +the truth; nor was there ever to come a time when +either he or Mamie would understand what things +had determined the departure of Eugene Bantry; +though Mamie never questioned, as Joe did, the +reasons for it, or doubted those Eugene had given +her, which were the same he had given her father. +For she was content with his return. + + +Again the bells across the Square rang out their +chime. The paths were decorously enlivened with +family and neighborhood groups, bound churchward; +and the rumble of the organ, playing the +people into their pews, shook on the air. And +Joe knew that he must speak quickly, if he was +to say what he had planned to say, before he and +Ariel went into the church. + +"Ariel?" He tried to compel his voice to a +casual cheerfulness, but it would do nothing for +him, except betray a desperate embarrassment. + +She looked at him quickly, and as quickly away. + +"Yes?" + +"I wanted to say something to you, and I'd +better do it now, I think--before I go to church +for the first time in two years!" He managed to +laugh, though with some ruefulness, and continued +stammeringly: "I want to tell you how much I +like him--how much I admire him--" + +"Admire whom?" she asked, a little coldly, for +she knew. + +"Mr. Ladew." + +"So do I," she answered, looking straight ahead. +"That is one reason why I wanted you to come +with me to-day." + +"It isn't only that. I want to tell you--to tell +you--" He broke off for a second. "You +remember that night in my office before Fear came +in?" + +"Yes; I remember." + +"And that I--that something I said troubled +you because it--it sounded as if I cared too much +for you--" + +"No; not too much." She still looked straight +ahead. They were walking very slowly. "You +didn't understand. You'd been in my mind, you +see, all those years, so much more than I in yours. +I hadn't forgotten YOU. But to you I was really +a stranger--" + +"No, no!" he cried. + +"Yes, I was," she said, gently but very quickly. +"And I--I didn't want you to fall in love with me +at first sight. And yet--perhaps I did! But I +hadn't thought of things in that way. I had just +the same feeling for you that I always had-- +always! I had never cared so much for any one else, +and it seemed to me the most necessary thing in +my life to come back to that old companionship-- +Don't you remember--it used to trouble you so +when I would take your hand? I think I loved +your being a little rough with me. And once, +when I saw how you had been hurt, that day you +ran away--" + +"Ariel!" he gasped, helplessly. + +"Have you forgotten?" + +He gathered himself together with all his will. +"I want to prove to you," he said, resolutely, +"that the dear kindness of you isn't thrown away +on me; I want you to know what I began to say: +that it's all right with me; and I think Ladew--" +He stopped again. "Ah! I've seen how much he +cares for you--" + +"Have you?" + +"Ariel," he said, "that isn't fair to me, if you +trust me. You could not have helped seeing--" + +"But I have not seen it," she interrupted, with +great calmness. After having said this, she finished +truthfully: "If he did, I would never let him +tell me. I like him too much." + +"You mean you're not going to--" + +Suddenly she turned to him. "NO!" she said, +with a depth of anger he had not heard in her +voice since that long-ago winter day when she +struck Eugene Bantry with her clenched fist. +She swept over him a blinding look of reproach. +"How could I?" + +And there, upon the steps of the church, in the +sudden, dazzling vision of her love, fell the burden +of him who had made his sorrowful pilgrimage +across Main Street bridge that morning. + + +A manifold rustling followed them as they went +down the aisle, and the sibilance of many whisperings; +but Joe was not conscious of that, as he +took his place in Ariel's pew beside her. For him +there was only the presence of divinity; the church +was filled with it. + + +They rose to sing: + + "Ancient of days, Who sittest, throned in glory, + To Thee all knees are bent, all voices pray; + Thy love has blest the wide world's wondrous story + With light and life since Eden's dawning day." + + +And then, as they knelt to pray, there were the +white heads of the three old friends of Eskew Arp; +and beyond was the silver hair of Martin Pike, +who knelt beside his daughter. Joe felt that people +should be very kind to the Judge. + + +The sun, so eager without, came temperately +through the windows, where stood angels and +saints in gentle colors, and the face of the young +minister in this quiet light was like the faces in +the windows. . . . + +"Not only to confront your enemies," he said; +"that is not enough; nor is it that I would have you +bluster at them, nor take arms against them; you +will not have to do that if, when they come at +you, you do not turn one inch aside, but with an +assured heart, with good nature, not noisily, and +with steadfastness, you keep on your way. If +you can do that, I say that they will turn aside +for you, and you shall walk straight through them, +and only laughter be left of their anger!" + +There was a stir among the people, and many +faces turned toward Joe. Two years ago he had +sat in the same church, when his character and +actions had furnished the underlying theme of a +sermon, and he had recognized himself without +difficulty: to-day he had not the shadow of a +dream that the same thing was happening. He +thought the people were turning to look at Ariel, +and he was very far from wondering at that. + +She saw that he did not understand; she was +glad to have it so. She had taken off her gloves, +and he was holding them lightly and reverently in +his hands, looking down upon them, his thin cheeks +a little flushed. And at that, and not knowing +the glory that was in his soul, something forlorn +in his careful tenderness toward her gloves so +touched her that she felt the tears coming to her +eyes with a sudden rush. And to prevent them. + +"Not the empty gloves, Joe," she whispered. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Conquest of Canaan + diff --git a/old/ccnan10.zip b/old/ccnan10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c558ce1 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/ccnan10.zip |