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If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - - -Title: Billy To-morrow Stands the Test - - -Author: Sarah Pratt Carr - - - -Release Date: December 12, 2017 [eBook #56169] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BILLY TO-MORROW STANDS THE TEST*** - - -E-text prepared by Barry Abrahamsen and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made -available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) - - - -Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this - file which includes the original illustrations. - See 56169-h.htm or 56169-h.zip: - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/56169/56169-h/56169-h.htm) - or - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/56169/56169-h.zip) - - - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - https://archive.org/details/billytomorrowsta00carr - - -Transcriber’s note: - - Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_). - - Text in bold face is enclosed by “equal” signs (=bold=). - - - - - -BILLY TO-MORROW STANDS THE TEST - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - _By the Same Author_ - - ------- - - BILLY TO-MORROW. - - First volume of “Billy To-morrow Series.” - Illustrated by Charles M. Relyea. - 12mo $1.25 - - BILLY TO-MORROW IN CAMP. - - Illustrated by H. S. DeLay. - 12mo $1.25 - - ------- - - A. C. McCLURG & CO. - PUBLISHERS - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - -[Illustration: “Oh, Billy, it’s no use!” Erminie sobbed, as the boat -grew smaller and smaller on the gray water] - - -“Billy To-morrow” Series - -BILLY TO-MORROW STANDS THE TEST - -by - -SARAH PRATT CARR - -Author of “The Iron Way,” “Billy To-morrow,” etc. - -Illustrated by H. S. Delay - - - - - - -[Illustration: Decoration] - -Chicago -A. C. McClurg & Co. -1911 - -Copyright -A. C. Mcclurg & Co. -1911 - -Published November, 1911 - -The Publishers’ Press -Chicago - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - _To Katherine_ - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - CONTENTS - - ------- - - CHAPTER - - I EXCITEMENT IN THE FIFTH AVENUE HIGH - - II BILLY PUTS HIMSELF ON RECORD - - III “POP” STREETER’S PROPOSITION - - IV ERMINIE, THE UNCERTAIN - - V ERMINIE FUMBLES THE GAME - - VI THE REVEALING NIGHT - - VII DO YOUR BEST AND THEN—WHISTLE - - VIII THE POTATO ROAST - - IX FACE TO THE SKY - - X THE SCOUT - - XI “WHOSE GLORY WAS REDRESSING HUMAN - WRONG” - - XII THE FIGHT - - XIII ERMINIE TIES ANOTHER KNOT - - XIV THE BLACK HAND - - XV A GLEAM OF LIGHT - - XVI A NIGHT OF DISASTER - - XVII BILLY WINS - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - ------- - - “Oh, Billy, it’s no use!” Erminie sobbed, as the boat grew smaller - and smaller on the gray water (_Frontispiece_) - - Billy gazed down on her with tender eyes, his heart beating faster - with a manly, protecting feeling new to him - - “Weren’t you afraid?” Redtop asked when the first, busy part of the - meal was over - - “Stay where you are till I speak” - - “What do you mean, Billy Boy, by refusing to speak to me?” - - “Give her to me; I am fresh,” he said, attempting to take Mrs. Smith - from Billy’s arms - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - BILLY TO-MORROW STANDS THE TEST - - - CHAPTER I - - EXCITEMENT IN THE FIFTH AVENUE HIGH - - -IT was a gray afternoon, late in April and cold enough for March, when -Billy Bennett, going out of the building to the school grounds, detected -a new note in the usual hubbub. There were a hundred or more boys -gathered in one corner and listening to some one who was speaking. - -Feeling in the school was intense. For the first time in its history -there was an attempt to unite the student body under one head, thus -depriving the class presidents of some of their power. The project was -led by some of the best spirits, in the hope of gaining a better name -for the school, and many of the teachers were, without precedent, taking -a quiet part. - -As Billy neared, he could hear above other angry voices the raucous, -high-pitched tones of the _cultus_[1] Kid, otherwise Jim Barney. He was -a stickler for the “Jim.” “Just plain Jim; no handles to my name,” he -would say if offered the courtesy of “Mr. Barney.” He had been for years -the bully of his class, and now he aspired to be the boss of the school. -He was entreating and menacing by turns, a master of the baser sort of -eloquence. - -Footnote 1: - - _Cultus_ is a Chinook word, signifying _of little worth_, _bad_. - -“You cheap skates! Call yourselves men, do you? There’s not one of you -with enough backbone to bolster a twine string! Why, you chew gum -because you dass’n’t touch tobacco; and one soda pop ’ll make the whole -bunch of you dippy!” - -“Oh, cut it out!” mildly objected one of his own crowd. - -“Yes. And trot out your grouch, whatever it is,” another demanded. - -“It’s _our_ grouch! I put it up to you,” the speaker shouted above the -noise. “Has a bunch of teachers, or even the principal or -superintendent, a right to meddle with us, to say who we shall have for -presidents of our classes or of the whole student body, if this thing of -having a school president goes?” - -“Yes! Yes!” “They have!” “They ought to!” came from different quarters. - -“I’d like to know why,” the Kid blustered. - -“When students of this school, your own candidate even, follows girls -and women on stilts—” “Sis” Jones began. - -“Girls on stilts!” jeered some loud voice from the crowd, and the -speaker laughed and nodded. - -But Reginald Steele’s clear tones rose above the clamor. “You know what -Jones means, Jim Barney. Last week your man, Buckman, and two of his -fellows followed some ladies and girls for nearly a block, using -language that is a disgrace to any school.” - -“Rot! I suppose you think girls ought to run this high school. And -that’s what they’ll do if Hec Price gets elected.” He glared around on -them, and let his eyes rest on Reginald an instant before continuing. “I -put it up to you fellows, what sort of a president will that grandmother -prig make, that’s in with the girls and mollycoddles, in with the -teachers, in with everybody that’s for style, and against a square deal -for all. What sort of a fellow is Hec Price for president?” - -“A good one!” Billy called cheerily, coming forward from the rear of the -crowd, where he had been listening. - -Billy was good to look at these days. His freckles were gone; and his -skin, free from the blemish that mars so many growing boys, was -girlishly fair. His cheeks had the red of full health, and his form was -well knit and firm from plenty of work in the “gym”; and although the -dimple, much to his disgust still adorned his chin, it had broadened and -squared to match his strong shoulders. - -Since entering school he had been allied with those opposing “the Kid’s -crowd,” yet he had been able through sheer good-nature to avoid a clash -with the bully. But lately that had seemed inevitable, though Billy -himself could not understand why. - -The speaker sighted Billy and challenged him. “You, Billy To-morrow, or -Yesterday, or Billy Next Week, whatever you call yourself, what have you -got to say about the teachers butting into student affairs?” He looked -around over the boys, an angry gleam in his red-rimmed eyes. He was -stocky, red of hair and skin, red of hose and tie, blustering, blowsy, -yet powerful. The strong, uncontrolled passions of generations of -ancestors culminated in him in conscious power, plus a tenacity and -stratagem that were his own. His silent presence in the room would -attract any eye. A reader of men was likely to turn away with regret, as -when one sees a mighty stream capable of producing wealth and happiness -for mankind, instead tearing through the smiling valley, leaving -destruction in its way. - -He continued. “Have we, or have we not, a right to run our student -business ourselves? to elect our officers, whether class president or -school president, without interference? Answer me that. Are we all -sissies, to let the girls butt in, to let the high-brows whip us into -knuckling to the teachers like kindergarten kids? You, Bill Bennett, -what do you say to that?” - -“What’s the matter with the Kid?” asked Charley Harper, called “Redtop” -because of his hair. “I thought he rather liked Billy.” - -“Don’t you know? Billy’s copped his girl.” Sis Jones winked knowingly. - -“Gee! Not the Fish?” - -“Yep. Kid wouldn’t have cared if it had been Sally or Belle, they’re -both dead gone on him; but Fishie’s different.” - -“So that’s—” - -“Go on, Billy! Answer him!” cried several of Jim’s opponents. - -Billy stepped in front of the crowd, which shifted restlessly, and -waited a moment looking them over, trying to arrange his thoughts so -that they might carry weight. He had no liking for the fight his mates -were forcing on him. He knew the Kid’s “line-up” was against the best of -the school, including the girls; knew that his methods were, to say the -least, unpleasant, and important enough to cause anxiety to the -Principal. - -Yet Billy was no shirk. He could think on foot better than most of the -students; and when his enthusiasm was aroused no one better loved a -“scrap” of wits. - -He began slowly: “There are several questions we must each put up -squarely to ourselves before we can rightly answer Mr. Barney. First, -what’s a school for?” - -“Come off!” growled Jim. “Stick to—” - -“Shut up, you!” shouted Redtop, who had grown in size and muscle till he -was a force Jim respected. “Billy didn’t interrupt you. Be game!” - -The Kid subsided. He prided himself on allowing fair play to all. - -“Second, why do we hire superintendents and principals, to say nothing -of teachers, if they are to have no authority over us that we should -respect? And—” - -“We don’t hire ’em; our fathers do,” objected one of Jim’s admirers. - -“That brings me to my third question: Who pays for the schools?” Billy -stopped an instant to think out his argument, and the pause was more -effective than he knew. Some of the boys were considering a phase of the -school question not often presented to them. - -“Nobody’s talking about the cost of schools; it’s us—ourselves we’re -talking about. We want—” - -Redtop promptly “chucked” the turbulent one. - -Billy went on. “At least we don’t pay for them, nor hire the teachers. -But they are responsible to those who do hire them for the good name of -the schools. If students are lazy or lawless the teachers are called to -account.” - -“Well, what’s the matter with us? Aren’t we all right?” Jim loomed -formidably in front of Billy. - -“No! We’re not all right, Jim Barney. If you and your crowd, and the -sort of manners toward women and girls you stand for,—if that’s to be -the standard for this school, I’m ashamed of it, and ashamed of any -principal that will stand for it,—when he knows it.” Billy’s eyes -flashed and he shook his hand at Jim. - -“You’ll be the tell-tale, I suppose.” Barney lunged forward and reached -his long arm for Billy’s leg; but half a dozen hands pulled him back; -and more hisses than he had believed possible warned him that he was on -the wrong tack. - -“It’s because each year Jim Barney has put in his man for class -president, and each year his class has made a worse name for itself; and -now he wants to boss the whole school and run his man for the new -office,—it’s because of this condition that the teachers think it time -to interfere.” Billy leaned forward and looked fearlessly into the face -of the Kid. “If you’ve any remarks coming, you can make them later to me -personally.” - -“Gee!” Redtop whispered to Sis Jones; “I wish Hec Price was here to see -that! Billy’s called the Kid’s bluff.” - -“As to the last proposition,” Billy continued, “who does pay for the -schools? Do we kids put up the money or the brains or the anxiety, -or—the any other things it takes to put through a system? Did we build -this great institution of the city schools? It is mighty easy to knock -it, but I don’t see any school kids offering anything better. Do you? I -think as long as the State,—but it’s the fathers and mothers really,—as -long as they hand us a chance to get an education it’s up to us to -accept it decently or—” he glared at Jim defiantly; “or quit!” - -A burst of noisy applause warned Barney that his leadership was -imperilled. He looked angrily around and was about to speak, when Billy, -with a power new to his mates and startling to the bully, launched a -threat that electrified them all. “Kid Barney, your man for president is -a rowdy, and you know it. We are going to expose him and defeat him.” - -“Not on your life, you won’t!” Barney hurled back with a wicked gesture; -and his followers broke out noisily. - -But Billy’s voice rose above the din, the more impressive for dominating -it. “We’re going to have a man in this new office that represents the -whole school,—a man that’s honest and capable, and a gentleman besides.” - -“A kid-glove sneak—” - -“And if by any chance your man gets in, Jim Barney, all of us who stand -for the decent thing will cut the student body as an organization.” - -This threat met an instant’s silence. It was Billy’s own idea, born that -moment; but when its great import filtered through those surprised -brains, a storm broke that neither Billy nor Jim could master. - -“Rats! What good would that do?” Jim at last made himself heard. - -“It will be blazoned in every paper in the State,” Billy replied -quickly. “The names of the students that follow your man will be -published, as well as the names of those standing with the teachers for -decency. And you’ll find, Jim Barney, when it comes to a show-down, -there won’t be many fathers and mothers patting you on the back, even -among those who don’t wear kid gloves.” - -A roar drowned Billy, but at last they saw that he had more to say and -subsided into an expectant hush. - -“I propose we form a Good Citizens’ Club under Mr. Streeter’s system, -ask the girls to join, and help the Playground Progressives carry their -campaign for a clean playground, no improper language, and a larger -respect for the teachers and law.” - -“Well, I’ll be lead-dog to a blind man if that isn’t a little the rawest -dose yet!” Even that bit of choice English did not relieve the Kid, for -he stared silently around at the boys, evidently trying to grasp the -situation. - -“We got fool clubs enough, except for fun. I’m in for that any time, but -not for more work,” an overgrown, bulgy-looking boy yawned. - -“_More_ work?” jeered Sis Jones; “did you ever do any work, Lazyleg?” - -“Cut it! School’s rotten anyway,” the yawner returned; “a kid don’t need -it like the old folks let on.” - -“Any slob that goes to school after he’s out of the grades, if he don’t -have to, is dippy,” drawled another. - -Mumps stepped forward and faced them. Someway, when Sydney Bremmer, the -ex-newsboy,—called “Mumps” from his heavy jaw,—when he said anything, -people always listened in spite of his style of speech. - -“I lay you’re mistaken, you wise kids. Thirty years ago a kid could get -along in the world without much schooling; but now, if a man expects to -do more than dig some other man’s ditches, he’s got to kick in for -things he can’t learn in any grammar school. The chap that don’t know -enough to go to school to-day is the one that’s dippy.” - -“Hooray for Mumps!” Redtop bellowed with a grin of contempt at the bulgy -one. Then to Billy, “What’s your scheme, anyway?” - -“It’s Mr. Streeter’s idea, a corking good one. He’ll come up and tell us -about it if we ask him.” - -“We’ll do it!” shouted several at once. - -“No! We don’t want any swells running things here,” Jim struck in; but -even his partial ear heard fresh warning in the conflicting cries. Some -suspicion of a force beneath the surface that was growing in strength -angered him, but he did not reckon it at its full strength, and he -displayed an ill temper that he would better have controlled. “And say, -any kid that kicks in on this frame-up has to cut my crowd from this -on.” He started off, but at the edge of the crowd turned and called, -“Come on, kids!” - -There was a breathless moment. The dullest one there knew that this was -a crisis, knew that the smouldering rebellion against Jim Barney’s -tyranny had at last broken into open war. - -None understood the situation better than Billy. “Fellows, think before -you follow Jim Barney. His game is as _cultus_ as his name; and this -hour starts the open fight between rowdyism and decency. All that want -to line up for things we shall not be ashamed of, stay!” - -For a second no one stirred. - -“Come on!” Jim shouted, paused a second, then waved his hand toward -Billy. “Or stand in with lily-necked Bill and his Fish!” - -With this parting gibe that set Billy’s face blazing, he wheeled and -walked off the grounds with no backward glance. - -Slowly, one by one at first, then in groups as their courage rose, about -thirty boys followed him off. Down on the street they sent back one or -two loud shouts, and were soon out of hearing. - -“This is better than I thought it would be,” Billy said to those -remaining; “but Jim Barney can divide the school a good deal nearer even -than some of you think. How many here are in for an active fight for the -good name of the Fifth Avenue High?” - -Nearly every one shouted “I!” - -“How many like the idea of a Good Citizens’ Club?” - -Again the vote was largely in favor. - -“How many will stand for the girls joining?” - -Groans and objections warned him he was on thin ice. - -“Well, they can have their clubs separately, then, as they do in the -playground campaign. How many favor a preliminary talk from Mr. -Streeter?” - -This carried. - -“All right. I’ll put it up to the Principal, set a day, and post it on -the bulletin board.” - -“All the committee for the Price campaign meet at his house to-night,” -Redtop yelled. - -In the midst of the noise that followed, Mumps went up and slipped his -arm into Billy’s higher one. “Billy, you’re up against a tough job, and -I’ve got some pointers for you. Any time for me?” - -“Sure! Come up to dinner, can you?” - -“All right.” - -The two walked off together. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER II - - BILLY PUTS HIMSELF ON RECORD - - -NO student of the Fifth Avenue High was more a credit to it than Sydney -Bremmer. A motherless boy wholly orphaned by the great fire in San -Francisco, he had lived, tramp-like, as a newsboy, till adventuring into -the newer opportunities of the City of Green Hills. He had been Billy’s -fellow-traveller on the steamer that brought them both from California; -and his efforts to make good at each turn of his fortune’s wheel -enlisted every one in his favor. - -It was Mr. Streeter who, after watching the boy at Camp Going Some the -summer before, advised the lad as to night-school work, helped him with -his studies, and at length found a good home for him with a woman who -lived alone and wished a boy for errands. Here Sydney went, studied -early and late, and passed the examinations admitting him to the high -school at the beginning of the winter semester. He was a general -favorite with his class, and on account of his friendship with Billy and -Hector, was well known to the juniors. - -As the two boys walked along in the gray evening, an unusual silence -fell between them, caused on Billy’s part by a rush of plans for the -coming campaign. But Sydney was occupied with Billy’s personal affairs, -and puzzled to know how to say certain things he feared Billy would -resent. - -“Lost your buzzer?” At last Billy waked to the fact that they had walked -many blocks without speaking. - -“No; but you won’t like my buzz.” - -“Try it and see. You’ve a right to say what you please to me, Mumps. -Hand it over.” - -“It’s about Miss Fisher.” - -Billy turned and slapped him on the shoulder. “Good for you! I’m sick of -hearing her called ‘the Fish.’ It’s a positive disgrace, that nickname.” - -Sydney’s reply was halting, as if he were feeling his way. “Did you ever -reckon it might be partly her own fault?” - -“No. Why?” - -“Well, they call Miss Carter ‘the Queen’; does that make you sick?” - -“That’s different. I began that myself. We always called her that in -California,—the Queen of Sheba. But Fish—” He made a gesture of disgust. - -“Yet, if the boys called Miss Carter ‘the Cart’ would you feel the same -about it?” - -“Search me. I don’t get you.” - -“It’s this way: Miss Carter is the style of girl that makes any name you -give her—well, kind of fine and all right. But with Miss Fisher—” - -“Well?” - -“It’s up to the girl herself. She’s been in the school nearly four -years. She’s two years older than you, and—” - -“Two years is nothing,” Billy growled. He was sensitive on that point. - -“It’s a lot, Billy. She’s twice as old as you are in knowing -things,—some of ’em it would be a whole lot better if she didn’t know. -And others she knows—well, she knows ’em just because she’s a girl; and -you—you’re only a kid, Billy; not as old as I am in some ways.” - -Billy stopped and wheeled. “Say! You’re down on her too. Every one has a -black eye for her, it seems.” He walked on, his face averted. - -“No, I’m not; but I don’t want to see her get you in trouble, Billy; and -that’s what she will, without meaning it, too; because the Kid’s -hankering that way, and mighty mad at you.” - -“Oh!” With a rush Billy understood some things that had before been -enigmatic. “She never cared for Jim,” he said presently. - -“Maybe not, but she made him think so. See?” - -“I see that we have no business to be talking over any girl in this -way.” Billy spoke coldly, and Sydney felt it. - -“Billy Bennett, you know I ain’t the kind to harm any girl kid. I -wouldn’t talk this over with any living kid but you. But you’re the best -friend I got—except Mr. Streeter—and I’m not going to see you—her -too—get stung if I can help it. My advice is, go slow there; and you’ll -be sorry if you don’t take it.” - -They had arrived at the Wright home, where Billy’s sister and -brother-in-law, Hal, as well as Mrs. Bennett, always had a warm welcome -for Sydney. - -There was no time for further confidential speech, for as soon as the -new baby, Billy’s nephew, had been duly exhibited, dinner was served; -and afterwards both boys had appointments. - -Billy went out of his way to accompany Sydney, who was to attend a -meeting of his troop down town, the Chetwoots (black bears), the -newsboys’ troop of the Boy Scouts. Billy did not wish it known that he -was to call on Erminie Fisher, especially after their conversation -concerning her. - -Ever since a day in early winter when she had caught her foot in a car -track and fallen, and Billy that moment passing, had helped her up and -back to her home, his calls had grown more and more frequent. - -Conditions in his own home made these calls doubly pleasant. The advent -of his small nephew had robbed him largely of both his mother and his -freedom, for he was rather a noisy boy around the house, and the -youngster resented noise. And in place of his mother’s good-night talks, -now rare, Billy found a luring substitute in the flattering chatter of -the attractive young woman at 745 East Street. - -Erminie was beautiful and subtle; beautiful, because she could not help -being so; subtle, partly by nature and partly because all her life, by -means of wheedling and cajolery, she had adroitly managed—or evaded—her -coarse, drinking, but clever father. There were times, however, when no -art prevailed against his tyranny. Still she was not bad, but rather the -victim of her parentage and environment. She was brilliant, generous, -energetic; and when aroused to its need, sincere and faithful. - -Her mother was not wise. Her hopes for Erminie were all matrimonial; and -her oftenest repeated advice was, “Keep your eye peeled for the chap in -the automobile, Sis. It’s money that makes the woman go; and your face -is your fortune only when you’re young.” - -Into this girl’s sordid life came Billy, clean, young, with high -ambitions. Little he dreamed that Erminie’s foot, purposely stuck -between the tracks, was as well able as the other to bear her weight -during that limping walk home; and not for any bribe would she have -confessed; for if the acquaintance began merely as an escapade, it had -grown into a friendship which she cherished as the most beautiful thing -in her life. - -She was looking for him this evening and saw him when he entered the -block. Before he could ring she was at the door. “Let’s walk in the -park,” she said breathily, closing the door behind her. “Dad—dad and ma -are quarrelling, and I can’t bear you to hear them.” She sighed and -walked on rapidly, leaving Billy with no alternative but to follow. - -He noticed a tone of weariness he had never heard before, for she was -the embodiment of high spirits. Also he thought it strange that she -should not even greet him. “Is it—is it anything you could tell me -about?” - -“I ought not, Billy, but I’m going to—I can’t keep it to myself any -longer.” She looked up at him, and he saw both anger and defiance in her -dark, restless eyes. “My father wants me to quit school and marry an old -fellow—a man nearly forty, who’s got the goods—money—and is crazy about -me.” - -Billy gasped. “Gee!” For a minute he could say no more, and they stood -looking at each other till a passer jostled them into moving on. - -“But you don’t have to! Girls aren’t like—they aren’t property any -more.” - -“No; but some fathers think they are.” - -“Does your father?” - -“Dad wouldn’t put it that way; but you see, Billy, this man who—who -wants to marry me—is awfully strong with the city ring, and in some way -he has dad cinched. Dad thinks he could make it square by getting him -into the family.” Her little half-smile was quite without conceit. - -Billy looked at her a moment before replying. Any one seeing her then -could have forgiven her a little vanity. The low sun, piercing the -clouds for a good-night glance, brought out the rusty reds in her softly -waving dark hair, hair that at the roots melted into her creamy skin -through a lighter shading that was neither red nor brown, but seemed to -have been mixed on Nature’s palette for no other face than hers. Her -eyes, usually too shallow and brightly brown, were now deep and misty -with an emotion Billy could only guess; while all the loveliness of her -gracious face and figure was enhanced by a womanly dignity new to Billy, -new to herself, and unrealized. - -“I guess ’most any man’d like to get into your family that way.” All the -man in him had risen to her beauty; but he was not thinking of -himself—not seeing himself in that relation to her. His remark was -entirely impersonal. - -She smiled, but instantly it changed to a look of pain. She had no -measure but that of personality—herself. “Billy! Don’t! Don’t! That’s -the sort of thing they all say, and they don’t mean it. I’ve—I’ve liked -you awfully just because you never handed out that stuff. If I can’t -trust you, there’s—there’s nobody.” There was a little catch in her -voice, and she hastened on. - -Billy was astonished, puzzled. In their early acquaintance he had felt -and resented her coquetry, and very soon interested her in other ways; -had established the same sort of comradeship that existed in his earlier -boy and girl friendships; but as their acquaintance progressed he found -it rich with new experiences. - -This girl was no frank child, but a woman, full-grown, delightfully -attractive in her wonderful knowledge of things he had not even -considered; and alluring in her teasing, half tender, half patronizing -manner toward him. - -Billy’s own feeling was as perplexing to him. His mother had warned him -against the usual “puppy love,” so frank, so ludicrous, that, did not -most fathers and mothers have a blushing yet happy remembrance of -first-love affairs, they would promptly lock up the younger culprits -till the spell wore off. - -But Billy’s case was different. Erminie, preeminently the beauty of the -school, knew well how to steer an affair safely and in propriety, as -when she chose she knew how to make a fellow look “the silliest sort,” -in this last art making her largest success with the Kid. - -In the park they chose a seat slightly back from the main paths that -they might talk freely. Billy had intended to heed Sydney’s warning so -far as not to be seen out with Erminie for a few weeks. He knew that -turbulent days were coming, and if Jim really cared for her, Billy had -no desire to inflame him unnecessarily. - -Yet here and now that very thing happened. They were barely seated when -he passed them, halted a second, lifted his hat, but was not recognized -by Erminie, and passed on with a scowl that Billy understood. - -“How was it you didn’t bow to him?” - -“I never will, after what he said about you. I heard what happened this -afternoon.” - -Billy was uneasy. “It doesn’t matter about me, but he’ll get back at you -some way. I wish you’d speak to him next time, square it with him.” - -“No, I won’t. He can’t speak falsely of my best—of my friends and expect -to keep in with me.” - -“But—” - -“Billy, _don’t_ waste time on him. I’m up against the worst ever, and I -want your advice.” - -“My advice!” He laughed. Yet what boy is not flattered by such a request -from a lovely girl older than himself? “Are you banking on my wisdom? -Yours is much greater.” - -“Not for what I wish to know, Billy. Tell me about Mr. Alvin Short.” - -He faced her quickly. “Alvin Short! I don’t _know_ anything exactly, -except that his reputation is as bad as a man’s can be. I get it from my -brother Hal.” - -“A grafter?” - -“Yes, and worse.” - -“Worse?” - -“Yes. For one thing, he grafts within the law; but those he cinches get -it—” Billy lifted an eloquent finger to his neck. - -“I was afraid so. That’s where he’s got dad, I’m afraid.” - -“Gee! Then he’s—” Billy paused, a great disgust for the man rising, but -to be routed by a hot sympathy for the girl. “By gracious! You won’t -have anything to do with him, will you?” - -“No.” She looked at him earnestly for a moment. “No,” she said again -with a hint of fatality in her voice; “but that means that I must run -away from home.” - -“Run—away—from home?” - -“Yes.” She was touched to wistfulness by the thought of what his home -must be if no such possible contingent had occurred in his life. “If I -don’t, I’ll have to marry Alvin Short; daddy will make me.” - -“How can he?” - -“Oh, Billy, don’t ask me. Fathers have ways. If Cousin Will were here he -could help me.” - -“You never told me about him. Did I ever see him?” - -“No. He’s not a cousin really. Uncle Henry’s wife was married before, -and Will is her son. We were great chums till they moved to Oregon a few -years ago.” - -Billy looked at her, speculating on the reminiscent light that came into -her eyes as she gazed absently off into the west. - -“Will was as good as a brother,—better,—he didn’t tease. If he was here -he’d not let them make me marry if I didn’t want to.” - -“You aren’t old enough to marry!” Billy burst out vehemently. - -She smiled faintly. “I’m more than two years older than ma was, and she -thinks it would be fine because Alvin—Mr. Short—has so much money.” - -“Still she won’t—surely she won’t—” He hesitated, unable to picture a -mother who would sacrifice her daughter to such a man. He had seldom -seen the tired, frowzy woman who kept out of sight when Erminie had -callers. - -“Ma always does as dad says. It’s the easiest way to keep peace in the -family. Sometimes she spunks up a little, as to-day. Daddy’s generally -good to her, though; to me, too, if I do as he wants. But lately he -won’t stand for anything from us.” - -“What can you do for a living?” - -She sighed and drew in her lip. “Nothing well, Billy; but I can learn -housework, I suppose.” - -“Don’t you know that already?” He thought of his capable mother, of his -sister, who was a good housekeeper as well as an accomplished musician. - -“No. Ma has always made me save my hands and complexion, study, take -music, go to dancing school, and all that, because she was sure I’d -marry rich.” - -Billy thought hard. Wild notions of succoring this girl, of taking her -to his own home, of leaving school and going to work that he might -support her, of doing _something_, anything worthy of a man on whom -womanhood calls for help. A dozen equally impossible plans surged -through his excited brain; but he could not think of anything definite, -practical enough. - -“Don’t look so hurt—so angry, Billy. Something will turn up. You’ve told -me what I wanted to be sure about, the sort of man Alvin Short is, and—” - -“Perhaps some of it isn’t true. I’ll find out exactly.” - -“Enough is true to decide me. The man I marry must have a good name, if -he hasn’t a dollar.” - -“You won’t think about run—about any change right away?” - -“No. I guess I can coax dad off—and Mr. Short—till school closes. I want -my diploma.” - -“Couldn’t you teach?” - -“No, Billy, I’m not built that way; but I can scrub if necessary; and I -will, before I’ll marry Alvin Short.” - -Billy looked at her pretty hands, remembering what melodies they had -drawn from the piano on the many evenings he and Erminie had sung -together; and his anger rose again. - -“We must go back. If dad knows I’ve been out with any one but Mr. Short, -he’ll be mad.” - -“But I’m just a boy.” - -The bitterness in his tone did not escape her. “Don’t fret. You’re -plenty big enough and old enough to make dad mad, and Alvin Short -jealous.” - -She rose and looked into his face as he stood beside her, head and -shoulders taller. She could no more help saying and looking the -pleasant, flattering thing to those she cared for than she could help -breathing. It was part of her charm. She was always looking more than -she meant, too, and having to use all her art to escape the results. - -Billy gazed down on her with tender eyes, his heart beating faster with -a manly, protecting feeling new to him. “Anyway I’m big enough and old -enough to do just my level best to make things easy for you. Let me know -how I can, won’t you?” - -“Yes, Billy, I will. Oh, you’re such a comfort!” And because she was -worn out by a stormy interview with her father that she was too proud to -repeat, she could not restrain the sob that came with the last word. - -That was too much for impressionable Billy. He put his arms around her -and kissed her. - -Often in fun and frolic he had kissed girls more to tease them than to -please himself; but this was very different,—his first man’s kiss; and -with its sweetness mingled a quick-born sense of responsibility and the -acceptance of a man’s part. He had put himself on record with her; the -kiss was the compact. - -They walked for blocks in silence, and separated at the end of her -street with but a word of good-bye; speech seemed superfluous. - -That night Billy went to bed having a secret his mother could not share, -for it was Erminie’s rather than his own. Life seemed very portentous, -big with duties and prospects that belonged to a new world. All his past -was but a flash, a gleam of childish nonsense. Now he was a man! - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER III - - “POP” STREETER’S PROPOSITION - - -FOR the first time he could remember, Billy was sleepless till the sun -rose. All night long he thought and thought. He had considered his life -rather complex—he was leader of one of the patrols of his troop, the -Olympics; he had a part in the school drama which he had believed very -important. And on waking came the sudden remembrance of the talk Mr. -Streeter was to give soon on the matter of Good Citizens’ Clubs. Billy -was sponsor for that, and must see it through. Also it looked still more -as if he would not be able to avoid the clash with the bully. - -But all this was trivial now, childish. He could no longer think of -himself alone,—there would be two. That kiss—that kiss was his pledge, a -consecration of his life to Erminie’s happiness. - -By the time the sun had struck through the window into his large attic -room he had mapped out his course. He would have to continue school till -vacation—his mother would insist on that; but by that time he would have -secured work of some sort. He regretted having sold the “ha’nt” in -California and invested his money with his mother’s—by Mr. Smith’s -advice—in the City of Green Hills; but it was too late to change that. -Yet he would work hard, attend night school, and prepare himself for his -real life-business, which was to be Journalism. He spelled it with a -capital, for he would be no small truckling reporter, but a faithful, -inspiring leader of the people. - -Resolutely he put aside the thought of marriage although it lay, coiled -and conscious like fate, at the back of all his plans. Other men married -young, why not one more? The conventions were ridiculous; a man was a -man when he was grown! He drew himself up and measured again before his -mirror. Almost six feet! - -Yet he must not subject Erminie to ridicule. The world must see that she -was marrying a man who could support and protect her. He would not have -to wait very long,—he looked twenty-one,—and his mother would consent -when she saw he was well prepared, saw how pitiful was Erminie’s -situation. Shyly—though there was none to see—he rubbed his rough chin -and wondered how he would look with mustache and imperial. - -The elation of the night still lifted him. His body was strangely light; -he felt as if he could move a mountain. The need for secrecy increased -the stimulation, and he looked on forest, lake, and Sound with new -vision. The yellow rose of sunrise touched Cascades and Olympics alike -with a splendor he had not before recognized, and lighted the vast -reaches between ranges with a clear thin radiance not seen in southern -lands. - -Billy’s heart ached with this new fulness of life. Visions undreamed -before opened his eyes to his own manhood; and the impulse came to put -this experience into rhythm,—the impulse that touches every normal young -creature. Some may not have the wit to fix it on paper, but all sing the -song. - -Billy sang it,—sang in a lilting, rather difficult metre, beginning -ambitiously with an apostrophe to his love, - - “Ermine-white soul of my Erminie,” - -and leaping immediately to the next rhyme which should be “burn in -me”—he was not acquainted with the exactions of prosody. However, his -Muse proceeded for a couple of verses; and if she limped at times, it -was no more than appears in the work of some real poets when they push -the lady too hard. - -He read the lines several times, softly whispering the passioned words. -They sounded rather good, though not by a tithe were they adequate. What -miserable, foolish little things were written words! Still he marvelled -that he could write even these. He would copy them on a typewriter and -gave them to Erminie. No one could then guess their authorship, not even -her father should he chance upon them. - -At breakfast he was silent, preoccupied; but his mother, being tired -from a night of watching with the baby, who had been fretful, did not -notice Billy, nor object when he said he would not be home at noon. - -[Illustration: Billy gazed down on her with tender eyes, his heart -beating faster with a manly, protecting feeling new to him] - -He hurried off, hoping to meet Erminie in the halls before she went to -her class-room; but she was barely prompt, passing him as the bell rang, -with a hasty nod. Billy thought it cool, till he saw that Walter Buckman -was right behind her. - -The hours droned by, seemingly interminable. Automatically he went from -class to class. Twice he had to be reminded that the bell had tapped. In -the midst of defining the powers of the Constitution of the United -States of America, he saw a picture of a little house with a vine over -it, and Erminie sitting in the tiny living-room. And while walking down -the hall to his German Class he built still other castles, followed -impossible adventures that involved Erminie, himself, and two other men -who wanted her; and vanquished them both just at the moment his teacher -said, “Guten Morgen, Herr Bennett.” - -Yet as the day proceeded, he had to wake to his many duties. At the noon -recess he was besieged by boys asking of the meeting to be addressed in -the assembly-room by Mr. Streeter, its importance, and if they could not -go would he tell them all about it later? And the girls appealed to him -to know if they were _really_ invited. A delayed English exercise _had_ -to be copied; and at the moment—hoped for, watched for—when Erminie went -down the main hall on her way back from luncheon, a teacher was -explaining to Billy some stubbornly hidden point in his geometry. - -Two o’clock came finally, and Billy, waiting till the last moment, -hoping vainly to see Erminie, went to the assembly-room, where a crowd -of noisy boys waited for Mr. Streeter’s coming. - -“Who is he, anyway?” asked a boy new to the city and the school. - -“He’s the best, jolliest ever,” Billy answered. “They say he’s never -grown up and never will. But the boys like him that way, and the fathers -and mothers trust him to the limit.” - -“What does he do?” - -“For a living? Nothing now. He’s had a fortune come to him, ten times as -much a year as he used to earn.” - -“That must beat the old game for fun.” - -“He gets his fun with the boys,—spends his time and money that way. You -see he’s had the university, Europe, and all that.” - -When Mr. Streeter tapped for order, it was instant, for he always had -some message the boys were eager to hear, though they knew as little of -the scope of his work as did their busy fathers. - -He had a round, jolly face; and near each end of his brown mustache a -dimple that was the envy of every girl who knew him. But in spite of -dimples, and kind eyes that grew dark and tender at a tale of suffering, -those eyes could compel, the dimples could disappear in a look that few -disregarded. - -After his greeting, and one of the funny stories that he told well, he -said, “I have a message more serious than usual for you to-day, a plan -that touches not only you but your city of the future, for which in five -years nearly every one of you before me will be responsible. - -“I wonder if you know, boys and girls, how different this city of ours -is from the older, Eastern cities? It has risen almost by magic. Your -fathers and mothers are still busy with their hard fight with nature, -cutting down trees and washing mountains into the sea, filling deep -valleys or making land where water was. They don’t have time to think of -the future. - -“But it’s coming, and it will have as hard nuts to crack as any we have -now. I wonder if you wish to learn a little about them now, before they -are dropped down on you? - -“Don’t we want a beautiful city? Want our city to look as well on post -cards as Paris looks, or any city on earth? No city in the world has -more beauty from nature; if we should do as well with our building as -Paris has with hers, all the people on earth would sell all their goods -and travel here to see us,—come any way they could, on foot if they -couldn’t fly,—to see the beautiful City of Green Hills. - -“Do you know how we could have it that way? By making out of every boy -and girl living here a good citizen, a patriotic citizen, who would no -more be wasteful of her wealth or beauty than he would strike himself. -You are beginning here in the right way. Your playground politics, your -attempt to make it a clean place, beautiful and pleasant for ear as well -as eye,—that is fine. But nothing of that sort amounts to much unless it -reaches out to all: that’s it, to _all_. No city is fine or lasting, or -ought to last, if the set of people that are making fine avenues and -boulevards let its poor folk live in holes and sow tin cans instead of -roses in the alleys.” - -He stopped a moment to get the temper of the meeting. They knew that his -hobby was hunting boys, to help them. He hunted them as other men hunt -game, or business opportunities. Only the recording angel knew how many -waifs he “rounded in for rations.” The street boys adored him for his -power as well as for his goodness. He was the champion all-round amateur -athlete of the town, and though slow to anger, in the language of the -“newsies,” when “he does let go his bunch o’ fives, skidoo the bunch!” - -There were plenty of cheers, and cries of, “Go on!” - -“Scouts and Sunday schools and school politics are all good; but we need -something that includes all in one larger work, as the schools and the -city include all. I have thought of a chain of Young Citizens’ Clubs -that should reach all. How many of you know about your city, her -population, income, resources, officers? Would you like to know? I am -willing to lead such a movement if you’d like it. - -“There isn’t time to tell you in detail all the different schemes I have -thought out! Bands—I will see that every boy that will learn is taught -to play some instrument; drills, scouting parties in the city to spy out -what we’d like to do to make it better; the best speakers in the city -and State, to tell us just what sort of a pie the politicians cook for -us each year; picnics and camping, to learn how much fun there is out -under the sky, and how a man can jolly along without much but a blanket -and a frying pan, and have the time of his life; and each year some -great celebration the young citizens would themselves manage that would -really mean things—all these ideas, our history, our future,—do you get -this, young people? Would it be great? Or am I just dreaming?” - -They caught the bigness of his idea and responded as heartily as boys -and girls always will when they are enlisted. - -Jim Barney and his followers were there in force, because it was -necessary for them to be in touch with all that was going on. They saw, -or their leader did, that this Good Citizens’ Club meant the end of -their influence and of his rule. - -“Of course you don’t mean girls,” Jim drawled in a slow, confident tone. - -“Can girls be loyal to the city? Isn’t your mother as good a citizen as -your father?” - -It was an unfortunate question. Jim’s mother had run off with a man his -father despised; while the father, a successful saloon-keeper, and good -to Jim according to his light, was the boy’s idol. - -“You bet she ain’t. Women and girls don’t count in politics.” - -The girls scowled, some boys hissed, but too many cheered. - -“If they don’t count, America is a lie,” Mr. Streeter said when the -noise had ceased. “Yet even that aspect of the case is futile. The -amendment to enfranchise the women of Washington will surely carry; your -mothers and sisters will be citizens whether you like it or not. What -will you do about it?” - -Cheering and laughing, good-natured jeers and one or two faint hisses -followed. But the majority were interested, and an organization on Mr. -Streeter’s basis followed, with Reginald Steele and Cicero Jones as -president and vice-president, Bess Carter secretary, and Billy -treasurer. As these four were of the strongest opposers of Jim Barney, -it was not surprising that he rose and rather boisterously led his gang -out. - -Mr. Streeter did not quite understand, but said rivalry was sometimes -wholesome, and perhaps Mr. Barney would organize something himself. - -“You may think it strange that I come with this proposition so near the -end of the school year. I wonder if you will like my further plans? How -do you think we can make this most effective? I had thought we could -have every member of this club, and those that are forming in the other -schools, start a little feeder in his own neighborhood. The Scouts are -already enthusiastic. And my biggest notion of all is to have a band in -each club; and when these bands are studying and playing about the city, -we’ll select the very best of them, and the ten best citizens,—that is, -those who, on the vote of all the rest have done most in this work,—and -we’ll go abroad with them. East, all over our own States, and then to -Europe. Well, it’s a pretty big jump, that is; I won’t propose Mars till -next time.” - -“But that would take a heap of money; we couldn’t—” The “doubting -Thomas” hesitated and subsided. - -“There is a city on this coast where they are doing just that thing. And -when, after a tour of six months, those thirty boys came home, having -earned their way by their splendid music, and won the applause and -goodwill of all the countries they visited, what do you suppose their -own city did? Gave them the freedom of the city, made one of them mayor -of the town for a week, and the entire city feted them.” - -“Well, what do you think of that?” one astonished person upspoke in -meeting. - -“That may be far away, but I have one idea coming that isn’t,—a flag for -the city. Do you like that idea? Would it be a good thing for a city to -have its own banner floating with the Stars and Stripes on every school -house, shop, ship, and home?” - -“Has any other city a flag?” - -“Not that I know of.” - -“Gee! Then we’ll be the first! Let’s have it!” - -They cheered this to the satisfaction of even Mr. Streeter. - -“I shall offer a prize of fifty dollars for the best design, to be -competed for by the members of the Good Citizens’ Clubs. The Chamber of -Commerce likes the idea, and will add another fifty. We’ll begin our -annual historic pageants this year, in September, and award the prize -then. How does that strike you?” - -It struck them happily, and they despatched a few more details of the -organization, arranged for the meeting hour, and for immediate -cooperation with the playground campaign,—for that was good citizens’ -work,—and adjourned. - -Billy had to remain with Bess after the rest to receive, and receipt -for, the money paid in for dues. A teacher gave them a drawer in one of -the desks in the library, and Billy had a key to it. On passing out of -the larger room he had managed to sign to Erminie, who had attended the -meeting, to wait for him. He and Bess finished their work together, -Billy remaining on some invented pretext till after she had gone; though -he had to follow her immediately, for the teacher was anxious to lock up -and get away. - -Very casually, Billy thought, he sauntered along to where Erminie was -standing, looking nowhere in particular as he came up, and, under -pretence of showing her his club accounts, handed her a folded paper. -But even a pair of thoughtless boys passing read his beaming face; and a -teacher going by smiled in spite of himself; smiled, and scowled at -Erminie without knowing it. - -She caught the look, read her own meaning into it, and turned away with -a casual, “Thank you, Billy,” that chilled him as no wind ever had. He -little dreamed she was saving him at her own expense, as she did again a -moment later, when the teacher repassed with Barney by his side, and she -gave the bully the brilliant smile Billy had expected for his own. - -“I didn’t mean you should kiss him with your eyes,” Billy growled, -jealousy flaming so ludicrously in his face that Erminie laughed when -she would better have been serious. - -“Don’t be foolish, Billy; you told me to square with him. Sh—! Here they -come again,” she added, and with a hasty good-bye left Billy to gloom -all the way home about that smile. - -Of course he himself had advised the recognition, but not like that. Oh, -that smile! - -He arrived at home to hear that his dear little comrade of earlier days, -May Nell Smith, had been hurt and was coming home. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - ERMINIE THE UNCERTAIN - - -A FEW days later May Nell came, and Billy went to see her. On the way, -and while waiting in the parlor of her imposing home, he recalled the -April evening she had come into Vina on the refugee train from San -Francisco, a homeless waif. Driven right into his arms he believed, by -the catastrophe, he had led her to his mother’s door; and the little -girl had walked into their hearts, never to be forgotten. - -Yet now she seemed remote,—very young, and out of Billy’s life, if not -out of memory. He had not seen her since they separated after the summer -together at Lallula; and that was far away, a part of another life. - -May Nell had never been robust since the terrifying days and nights of -the great fire; and her parents sent her to a girls’ school in a -neighboring town, where health was the first consideration. - -The maid came interrupting his memories, and he followed her. - -“Come up, Billy!” May Nell called in the well remembered melodious -voice. - -He was unprepared for the change in her. She had been only slightly hurt -in the foot in an automobile accident, and now showed almost no ill -effects from it. She seemed no older, no larger, yet different, in a way -that Billy could not explain to himself. As she rose impulsively to -greet him, leaning gracefully on her cane, he felt in full force once -more her charm, her otherworldliness. - -Her face had rounded and taken on richer tints; and the gold of her hair -and the blue of her eyes were almost ethereal. She was like a beautiful -dream, or like some little princess of bygone years stepped from the -canvas of an old master. - -“Oh, Billy, Billy! How good it is to see you! And how fine of you to -come this first day I’m at home.” - -Billy was only half at ease. He felt old and rude, and in some odd way -not good enough to touch her delicate hand, to help her reseat herself. -“I had to come, you know.” And though he smiled he remembered that he -had wished he were going to see Erminie instead. - -Yet now that he was here he felt widely separated from Erminie. A fancy -struck into his mind on the instant between sentences: Erminie was the -bright red rose, quickly blooming and quickly fading, that grows -luxuriantly in plain view in the valley; May Nell was a rare and -delicate yet unwithering orchid that hides on the far mountain side. - -“Mama says I am not to return to school till the autumn semester opens.” - -Again the daintiness, the foreign flavor that attached to all she said -or did came with the French “mama.” - -“That’s dandy!” and he gave her a boyish scrutiny. “You’re different, -older someway; but you’re—just as little.” A teasing mischief danced in -his eyes. - -“I _am_ older, Billy. Did you think I would always stay a little girl?” - -“Thirteen isn’t very old.” - -“It’s only three years younger than sixteen.” - -“I’m much more than sixteen,” he objected, and thought with dismay of -Erminie. Could she feel as much beyond him in age as he felt beyond May -Nell? - -“Well, no matter, Billy. You look twenty. But I’ll challenge you on the -score of studies, that is, if—if you’ll cut out mathematics,” she added -in a mock-plaintive tone. - -“Mathematics is—are?—the whole business,” he swaggered; and thus they -chaffed themselves back to childhood standing again, and talked on of -many matters, each telling of life during the separation. - -She was almost well, would soon be ready to join in their sports again. -Going home, Billy thought over his changed future. The gay days were -coming when May Nell and his cousins, Hector, Hugh, and little Miss -Snow, as they called their little sister, would all go chugging around -the Sound among the beautiful Thousand Islands, or startle the silences -of night and day at lovely Lallula. - -But he would not be there. He would be drudging at some sort of hard -work; making a beginning in his long, hurrying climb toward an income -that would warrant him in taking Erminie to a home of their own. -Suddenly the future looked bigger and darker, and he mentally drew back -from it; but instantly chid himself for a coward. - -He need not. He was only a boy. How was he to know that he was not yet -able to endure long mental strain; that this depression was the -inevitable reaction from exciting days, and nights with little or no -sleep? - -On his way he met Bess Carter. - -“Hello, Queen of Sheba!” he called as she was passing him, her head up, -eyes unheeding. - -“Oh! Billy! I’m glad you spoke. We’re so busy I’m totally absorbed and -don’t have time to see my friends.” - -“Evidently not. What is it? Politics?” - -“Yes. Though it doesn’t seem like that. I thought politics was something -tremendous and difficult and—rather bad. But since mother says women are -to be enfranchised and I must learn things, and since I heard Mr. -Streeter, it really appears merely a sort of housekeeping for the city, -or State, or whatever; easy, but lots of work.” - -“When you’ve heard more from Mr. Streeter you’ll see that any kind of -housekeeping that’s worth while isn’t so easy; though it’s simpler when -all the people have a pride in it.” - -“Yes. Do you know, Billy, I’d never have been allured by it if he hadn’t -said that one who forgot or abused his city was the same as one who -forgot home or demolished the furniture.” Bess retained her fondness for -long words. - -“That was rather striking.” - -“And now I’m in—deep in the girls’ reform party; and we are going to -participate in the Progressives’ playground rally to-night. Will you be -there?” - -“Sure. But what will the girls do?” - -“We wish to address the meeting. It’s especially to bring about better -conditions on the playground; and the student body will take some part -there if Hector is president.” - -“Yes.” - -“You know the boys of the Fifth Avenue High have an unconscionable name -there.” - -“Yes; and it’s only a few that have given it that reputation. You’re -going some for girls. How did you get the chance to butt in on the -rally?” - -“Oh, Billy, doesn’t the school and the playground belong to girls as -well as to boys? Have not we a right to be heard?” - -“Sure. But how is it the boys let you?” - -“Hector told the managers of the meeting that if they wanted him to -speak they’d have to let us in too.” - -“Good. I’ll be there.” - -“And—Billy—” Her hesitation was unprecedented. - -Billy’s eyes questioned. - -“It’s about the—Erminie Fisher.” - -“Well?” This time the eyes warned. - -“They’re talking about her—the girls don’t like her.” - -“Anything else?” There was a steel-like quality in his voice that Bess -Carter had never suspected. - -“Yes. She’s working for Jim Barney’s ticket, and you must make her—only -you can—make her stop, or Hector won’t win.” She was intensely in -earnest now, all her loyalty to Billy fighting for him. “Billy! That -girl is no good friend to you, and she’ll spoil everything if you don’t -stop her.” - -“I think you’re mistaken,” he said, after a silence that puzzled and -chilled her. - -“She won’t join the Girls’ Branch of the Progressives, nor register. And -she says if Hector Price is elected he will turn the student body into a -kindergarten; at least that’s what Walter Buckman said she said.” She -pumped out the words breathily. - -“Any more slams on her?” - -“Oh, Billy, I’m no tattler. It isn’t _what_ they say; it’s the looks and -sniggers that say more than words. No one would dare to tell _me_ -anything anyway; they know I’m your friend, Billy, your California -friend.” - -He caught the emotion in her voice, knew that in all the world he had -not a more devoted friend, a more fearless champion than Bess Carter. -“You’re to the good, Bess. I shall try to deserve your kindness.” He -lifted his cap and passed on, leaving her troubled and mystified. - -He found his mother busy over her window plants. After an anxious -inquiry as to dinner, which settled the fact that he would have to wait -ten minutes, he stood watching her in such an unusual silence that she -noticed it and rallied him. - -“What’s happening in Calcutta, Billy?” - -“Not in Calcutta; right here. What are you killing all those little -babies for?” - -Mrs. Bennett straightened up and looked at him, startled. “It does seem -almost like that, doesn’t it? But if I don’t pinch these buds the plants -will be less thrifty, perhaps die.” - -“Why?” - -“It’s warm here in this room, and the plant has hurried to put out buds -before the root has struck deep enough. It would be unwise to let it -come to flower now.” - -“Doesn’t Nature know best how to do things?” - -“Not always. Nature is very wasteful. Besides, I’ve robbed these plants -of Nature’s care, taken them into artificial conditions; so I must stand -in place of Nature to them.” - -“Suppose the plant gets discouraged and won’t bloom at all?” - -“It won’t do that; blooming is the law of its life.” - -He was silent a moment before asking, “I wonder if that is true in—in -other ways—that about blooming too soon?” - -“Yes, true of all Nature. Fruit grown or gathered prematurely is always -poor, tasteless; still more important, the seeds produce poorer stock.” - -“I don’t quite understand. I thought young flowers were finest. Didn’t -you say pansies wouldn’t have fine blooms the second or third year?” - -“Yes. That is because naturally the pansy is an annual. Only in warm -climates does it live through the winter; when it does, the second -season is merely a prolonged old age.” - -“How about animal life?” - -“The law is the same. In hot climates where boys and girls marry early -the races are not strong, dominant. And in our own latitude the children -of well-grown, well-trained men and women are stronger mentally and -physically than those whose parents marry in their teens.” - -Billy winced. “I should think that—that—well, when boys and girls are -old enough to care for each other that would mean they were old enough -to marry.” - -“In the dawn of the race when men were no wiser than the plants, when -they lived naturally, it did mean that. But as the race unfolds and we -make artificial conditions, man sees more fully perhaps the meaning of -God’s command to him to have dominion over every thing on the earth. -Man’s growing wisdom is in charge over Nature to mould her material -forms to higher, ever higher perfection.” - -“Then why is it that kids do marry? Why do they want to before they -ought?” - -“Why do you wish to eat before you are really hungry? Why do you wish to -run, leap, dance, be ever on the move, whether you have conscious need -for motion or not? Why does a baby try to walk before its legs will bear -it?” - -Billy grinned. “You’re too deep for me, marms.” - -“Because Nature is often blind. To preserve the race is her first -business. She sacrifices the one to the welfare of the many. Man, -exercising the power God gave him, sees that only as each one comes to -his best, will he contribute to the race the best possible stock. -Therefore our wisest thinkers say that all should wait till at least -well in the twenties before marriage.” - -Billy was thoughtful for a minute. “What of the fellow who likes a girl -so well that he can’t keep—well, keep from thinking of her?” He knew -very well that his mother cast a quick look at him, but he did not meet -her eye, and she went quietly on with her employment of snipping and -digging. - -“That is a very deep question, one to which you should give much study. -There are books prepared especially to answer such questions. For ages -man has been developing unevenly. The truth is that men and women are -nine-tenths alike; that is, human—eating, drinking, suffering, joying, -loving each other and mankind alike, and dying alike. Only in about -one-tenth of their natures are they different, this being the difference -of sex.” - -“Gee! That seems strange.” - -“But is it? Look at Bess Carter. She has been reared most wisely. Is she -not nearly as much of an athlete as you are? What is there that you can -do that she cannot?” - -Billy scowled. He remembered uncomfortably a day when a little child had -fallen into the edge of the lake, and Bess had outrun him and rescued -her just as he was arriving. Also he was more uncertain than he liked as -to their relative percentage for the year. - -“She’s an exception,” he evaded. - -“So are you. Few boys of your age are as well developed. Yet you could -not endure, except for a momentary spurt, perhaps, what, with no -accident or illness you will be able to endure at twenty-three. Mentally -the difference will be nearly the same.” - -“Why do people marry so young, then?” - -“For many reasons. Children are not taught these things as they should -be taught. Boys who leave school early and earn for themselves usually -have no aim beyond mere physical satisfaction, no large ideals to -follow, and become a prey to natural emotions they yield to but do not -understand.” - -“How about the others—and girls?” - -“The young man who takes a longer school course or a profession must put -his whole effort to succeeding in that. He cannot take the burden of a -family life, and he has his work, sports, various matters to occupy his -attention, and all his forces combine to the making of his higher -success. It is about the same with girls.” - -“But why shouldn’t they love each other, be engaged and wait?” - -He thought it a long time before she answered. When at last she turned -and looked deep in his eyes her voice took on the tender tone he knew, -and her words were grave. “Billy, think back to the time when you were a -little boy and the apples, full grown and gloriously tinted but hard as -wood, tempted you from their leafy nests. What would have happened if -you had fondled and pinched each one?” - -Billy’s eyes darkened. “I—I—see.” - -“Would it have been the fault of the apple if it had become later a -dented, spotted thing with decay setting in before it had really -ripened?” - -“No.” He writhed inwardly at the conclusions forced upon him. - -“Remember, Billy, every girl is like an apple slowly ripening toward -womanhood.” - -The room was very still, and they stood together, Billy’s arm close -about her waist, looking out upon the distant shimmering lake. At length -she lifted her head suddenly and spoke with a singular passion. - -“My boy, the love relation between a man and a woman is the holiest one -on earth. It may begin in passion, but if true, it ends in a constant -devotion that opens the door of heaven. Since this is God’s way of -keeping his race going it is blasphemy to speak or even think coarsely -of it, or to enter upon it except devoutly. If there is one relation in -life that should be given preparation, almost I would say that should be -entered upon with prayer and fasting, it is that by which you shall -become responsible for the welfare of future beings, your children.” - -She was trembling, and Billy knew now that she understood him; that even -if she did not know the one he loved, she knew the fact. He could not -deceive her, nor did he wish it. He felt relieved that she knew, though -he could not bring himself to speak of it. He thought it was because he -must not let any one intrude on Erminie’s privacy, but the reason lay -deeper than that, deeper than he could then know. - -The dinner was brought in. He had forgotten his hurry; but now it -returned, and he hastened his meal and excused himself to go to the -rally. - -He went round by Erminie’s home. He wished to ask her of the situation -Bess had described. He was sure she could clear up everything that -troubled him, sure she could defend her course no matter how it might -look to others. Perhaps she really disbelieved in politics for girls; if -so, she had a right to her opinion. - -Yet why had she openly assisted the school bully? That was as much a -political move as the other, and not so frank; more, it was exceedingly -unpopular. She could not be associated with Jim in any matter, and hold -the goodwill of the best girls in school. - -A hot wave swept over him. Whatever she did, he must stand by her now, -make life for her better, not worse. Yet how could he do it? Open -interference between her and Barney would be disastrous. - -Still questioning anxiously of himself he rang the bell; once, twice, -and a third time. No one answered, and after a wait and another ring he -went back to the playground, and found a noisy, chaotic scene. - -Redtop was manager. He had planned a rally in imitation of the campaign -meetings of real politics. There would be speeches, and the candidates -for the playground officers would be presented. There could be no rules, -of course, as if in a room, but three boys were appointed to keep order, -Billy being one. And everybody was welcome. - -Apparently the cityful had arrived before Billy. As he approached, -Redtop, perspiring and anxious, called, “Billy Next Week, come on! Get -busy! Hold down those kids, will you? This meeting’s got a football game -skinned silly on noise.” - -“All right,” Billy responded cheerfully. “Shall I scare ’em or run ’em -in?” - -“Oh, anything. Cop ’em or duck ’em. Here! Take this.” He pinned a badge -of authority on Billy’s coat. - -Billy started through the wriggling, shifting mass of boys of many -nationalities from fair-faced Swede to swarthy Italian and garrulous -Irish boy, with quiet, squat Japanese fringing the edges. - -“The cop’s coming!” ran derisively from lip to lip along the crowd, -which curved back at his approach, only to close in behind him with more -and more noise. - -“Say! Fellers!” Billy wheeled and called to the nearest, “What’s the -matter of helping here and getting the taffy a little later?” - -“Sure, Mike,” cried some. And others asked, “Where’s the taffy?” - -Billy laughed and touched his lip. “You’ll get as much as I will.” - -“What’s that?” - -“The fun. See? Now hike, and bring those benches over here.” He waved -his doubled fist at them as if it were a club; and thirty or more -hurried off laughing, and began to labor with the park benches which -they set in semi-circular rows on the grass around a central bench -between two torches, that was the speakers’ stand. - -Coming on Sis Jones a moment later, Billy asked him to look after the -bench brigade, which he did, crying out to Billy when he passed again, -“Gee! This is work! Where’s the reward?” - -“Where mine is,” Billy jeered. “Look at the girls; they’re doing half of -the work.” He nodded to a dozen or more struggling by with the heavy -seats, one bending alone under the weight of a short bench, and refusing -help. - -“Look at the strong Miss Kid!” shouted a small boy. - -“The mighty suffragette!” another fleered. - -The girls only laughed, straightened a little, and tugged on. - -Some of the Kid’s followers caught Sis Jones, stripped off his coat, -tied a girl’s hat on him with a scarf, threw a girl’s wrap over him, -pulled off his shoes and socks, and dragged him forward into the circle -of light, only to be themselves caught and lashed to trees farther back. - -Billy and his helpers rushed about frantically. Redtop mounted his bench -platform and tried to call the meeting to order; but the uproar -increased, and after a moment of vain gesticulating for quiet he stepped -down amid wildest cheers. - -Two large boys swung a little negro back and forth, head down, -commanding him to sing. Too frightened to emit a sound he finally -wriggled away from them and fled like a rabbit, with a dozen yelling -buffoons after him. - -A third group crowned a tiny girl with evergreen, lifted her to their -close-touching shoulders, and paraded with her around the open space, -shouting, “Madam President!” “I rise to a point of order!” “I have the -floor—” “No, no! It’s the ground!” and a lot more nonsense. - -The pranks went on while those in charge conferred apart upon the -question of handling the mob, each in turn bolstering the courage of the -rest. - -“Gee whiz! I didn’t expect any of the real thing—voters and mamas,” -Redtop panted as he lunged back after his inauspicious beginning. “What -are we to do?” - -“If we fizzle out, the girls will never stop guying us,” Sis Jones -groaned; “they toted almost as many benches as we did.” - -“Get a girl to start the meeting; they’re keen on it, and maybe the -fellows wouldn’t give it to a girl so—so in the neck.” - -“Where’s Hec? What does he say?” - -“I say we’ve got to beat that crowd into respect, or not only the -Progressives will lose their election, but we’ll lose ours.” - -“But this is no meeting for the student body,” Redtop urged. - -“No. But Barney and Buckman and their crowd know that nearly every one -who will vote for me is mixed up in this playground fight on the side of -the Progressives. The Good Citizens’ Club stands for the Progressives -too.” - -“You go speak to them now, Hec,” Redtop urged. - -“No, he can’t,” Billy objected. “He’s the principal speaker of the -evening; he must be introduced properly.” - -Behind them stood Bess Carter bursting with indignation. “You boys -haven’t the spunk of a flea!” she taunted, and before they could reply -she was standing on the bench gazing fearlessly but silently around on -the mob. Her advent, so sudden and unheralded, touched the most quieting -element of a crowd, its curiosity. - -Tall, erect, her dark eyes flashing in the light of the torches, her -beauty enhanced by her air of refinement and womanliness,—her power was -felt by every little hoodlum there as keenly as by the older people. - -“Gee! The Queen of Sheba’ll do the trick!” Billy ejaculated softly. - -For what seemed to be minutes she stood, motionless except for her -quick-glancing eyes, calmly waiting for perfect silence. It came at -length, and she bowed gracefully and smiled as if she had expected -nothing else. - -“Ladies and gentlemen and fellow students: I did not mount this rostrum -to make a speech, only to announce that the meeting is about to begin, -and that we shall expect quiet. For really good Americans this is an -unnecessary request. For any others who may possibly be here we have -behind us real American policemen who will take charge of them.” - -She bowed and in a moment was back among the anxious group again, while -the audience clapped and roared, and the high-school boys shouted, -“Hooray for the Queen!” “Bully for her!” and other elegant expressions -that nevertheless held only admiration. - -“Bess! What did you say that for? We have no police—” - -“Not now, but we’re going to! I never saw such barbarians! I’m going to -telephone for the police!” Before any could stop her she was flying -across the street to find a telephone. - -Taking advantage of the lull that followed her speech, Redtop mounted -the bench and in the briefest way announced the programme and introduced -the first speaker, who was Reginald Steele. Hector was to follow him, -and Billy was to be called on for an impromptu speech, when he would -introduce one or two of the girls. - -But this programme was never carried out. Before Reginald got to his -“secondly,” two boys sprang at the torches and extinguished them; half a -dozen bunches of firecrackers began to explode in different localities; -and a scream from the wading pool at the same moment completed the -panic. - -The long twilight had faded and the scattered park lamps shed only faint -gleams. - -“There’s no danger! Everyone go home quietly!” shouted one man. And -another called, “The little chap that screamed fell into the wading -pool. He isn’t hurt, and has gone home.” - -In five minutes the playground was deserted and silent under the quiet -stars. Billy remained to the last, searching in vain for Erminie. He had -seen her there, and expected her to wait for him. On a sudden impulse he -decided to go across to her home. - -As he neared the house he saw her standing under the porch light with -Jim Barney. Her face was in the shadow, and he could not hear their -words; but he knew from their low, tense tones and Jim’s eager, bending -attitude, that their conversation was important. - -Billy watched them an instant, dazed and uncertain, yet tormented by the -tender pleading in an occasional tone that floated out to him in -Erminie’s voice. But eavesdropping Billy despised; and as soon as he -could recover himself he turned away, his disappointment at the utter -failure of the meeting pushed to insignificance by this puzzling, -sinister, covert situation that included both Erminie and Jim. Billy was -utterly perplexed. What could she mean? - -Slowly, his feet weighing tons, he plodded home, and entered to find the -telephone ringing. - -He hurried to take down the receiver that the household might not be -disturbed. “Who is it?” - -“Erminie,” came back over the wire. “Oh, Billy, I’m so glad to get you!” - -“Yes?” Billy could not keep the coldness out of his voice. He was -hearing again the tender eagerness in her tone as the Kid bent over her -twenty minutes before. - -“Oh, I don’t wonder you speak in that Alaska voice, Billy; but you don’t -know everything. Billy, dear, won’t you trust me? Just for a few days?” - -“I—I’d like to,” he sent back huskily over the wire. Even at that -distance he could feel her power over him, hear the caress in each word. - -“You may, Billy. And you won’t be sorry. Good-night.” - -Without another word she hung up, leaving Billy a trifle comforted but -more perplexed than ever. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER V - - ERMINIE FUMBLES THE GAME - - -TWO weeks later came the annual Junior picnic. It was a variation this -year in being set for evening. They had chartered a steamer and were to -stop at one of the wildest points on A-mo-té Island. - -There was merely a little clearing, with one or two rustic pavilions for -shelter against rain, and the dancing platform. This last was rated the -best out-of-doors dancing floor anywhere around the city or its suburbs, -and was correspondingly popular with young people. - -Billy started off in fine spirits with a basket his mother had prepared, -and a proud feeling that he would not be ashamed to open it in the -presence of any girl. He had begged Erminie to let him bring the -luncheon for the two of them; and when he met her as agreed at the -trolley line transfer point, care-free, erect and strong, his eyes -shining with anticipation, it was little wonder that he saw an answering -look of pleasure and pride in her eyes. He was a young man any girl -might feel it a privilege to know; better still, older and deeper-seeing -ones, mothers, would turn to observe him and wish their own sons might -be like him. - -“On time, Erminie!” he greeted gayly as he helped her from the car -almost before it came to a stop. “Good girl!” - -“Isn’t it perfect?” She met his frank gaze cordially. “Just warm enough, -and the moon is full.” - -The week had been a hard one for her. She had struggled to hold the -goodwill of Jim Barney without allowing him the familiarities he had -once enjoyed; familiarities she would allow no boy after knowing Billy. -She was anxious that Billy’s side in both school and playground politics -should win, but she knew the only way she could help him was to remain -good friends with Jim. - -She used her utmost subtlety to exact from him a pledge of civility -toward Billy and Hector, and found this was the hardest bit of -management she had ever undertaken. The Kid was as keen as she was, and -had a half womanish intuition that matched her own. And Erminie could no -longer juggle with the truth as formerly; it hurt her. When taxed with -undue interest in Billy, her denials did not ring true; and her witty -sallies ridiculing Jim were half-hearted. Had he been less in love, or -Erminie less than altogether beautiful and charming, she would have made -no impression. - -Billy had looked forward to this day as one of reckoning. With this in -view he had insisted that Erminie go to the picnic with him openly. -“Don’t you frame up to go with Jim,” he had whispered days before, in a -moment of waiting in the rain for a car at the school corner; “I won’t -stand for it this time; I’ve things to say to you.” - -“Oh! It’s good to be with you once more, just us two,” she said, as they -went aboard, and forward to the very peak of the bow of the steamer. - -But there was too much hilarity for any two, however absorbed, to remain -unnoticed. - -“Oh, here you are, Fishie!” one jolly girl shouted, and bore down on -them, dragging in her train others with boys following. “We don’t need -spoons at this picnic! Come on, you—the boys are going to get the band -to play so we can dance.” She pulled Erminie to her feet; and shortly -two or three dozen couple were whirling around on the crowded deck. - -Erminie and Billy took a turn or two and dropped out, preferring to wait -for the ampler room and smoother floor of the pavilion. Yet when they -sought their places forward again, and the music and preoccupation of -the dancers isolated them almost as much as walls would have done, -neither of them could speak of what was uppermost in both minds. The -hour and the surroundings were not propitious. - -Billy fretted inwardly. There was much to say. She must know all his -plans; all he had thought and dreamed since that evening—was it only a -few days ago?—in the park, that evening that had changed all his life. -Still these were serious matters, even sacred. He could not bring -himself to mention them here, where unsympathetic eyes might read his -emotions in his face; he was not an adept at hiding them as Erminie was. - -When the hour’s trip was nearly over she gave him a quick nudge with her -arm. “There’s Jim!” She looked down the stairway. - -“Where? I thought you said he wasn’t coming.” - -“So I did. He said he had work to do.” - -“Work!” Billy’s tone held a fine scorn. “Did you think any one would -stay away for that? I wouldn’t. I’ve worked in our garden till nearly -ten o’clock some of the nights this week, so I might feel free for -to-day. I didn’t know till yesterday it was changed to an evening -affair.” - -But Erminie was not heeding. “Billy, you must not let Jim see—” - -“Jim be hanged! You’ve put me off for days with that plea. I’m not -afraid of the Kid, I—” - -“Oh, Billy! Won’t you listen—” - -“Not to one word. I brought you to this picnic; I have the lunch, and -you’re going to sit it out with me while we eat, and dance with me, and -go home—” - -While he spoke, Jim and Walter Buckman came up from the lower deck, in -animated discussion of some matter that pleased them both. The dancers -had stopped, and nearly all were standing in groups at the rail, -watching the shore come nearer as the puffing craft approached the -landing. - -“Oh, you Fishie!” Jim sang out on seeing her. “You’re going to feed with -Buck and me; we’ve got the grub and—” - -Billy rose, and every vestige of his light good humor faded; was -replaced by a sternness Jim had never seen. “Miss Fisher has consented -to be my partner for the evening; and I also have the—the grub.” Erminie -herself could not have edged a sarcasm with finer scorn than Billy threw -into his last word. - -Jim eyed him in surprise for a second, then broke out in a loud voice, -“Well, Miss Fisher belongs to—” His eyes burned red and his hands -clenched involuntarily. - -His companion though not as bright was more prudent than Jim; also he -was selfish; he wanted the presidency, and knew that open hostility in -any direction endangered his chances. “Come off, Kid! You always kick in -for fair play.” And ingratiatingly bowing to Erminie, “Probably Miss -Fisher was engaged to Mr. Bennett first.” - -“Mr. Bennett nothing! By jiminy!—” - -But Erminie interrupted glibly. “I’ve expected to come to this picnic -with Billy ever since I knew there was to be one.” - -“But I told you—” - -She laughed nervously. “Jim Barney, you’ve told me a good many things -lately; but if you are Boss of the Fifth Avenue High you’re not my -boss.” - -The words were not out of her mouth before she knew that all of her plot -and subterfuge of the past weeks was lost. Daily her repugnance to Jim -and his methods had been growing. She had tolerated, wheedled him, only -that it might be easier for Billy till the end of the term. Now, with -that day only two weeks off, she had in a moment undone all she had -gained. - -Yet even in that instant of dismay she was filled with relief. She need -dissemble no more. She could be straight with Billy and fight Jim in the -open. She would tell Bess Carter a little—what she needed to tell, join -the Progressives, and be with those she believed were doing well. - -Jim was angry through and through, and too astonished to speak -immediately; and in the moment of his hesitancy Walter Buckman led him -away. - -“Billy! Billy!” Erminie whispered as she started up. “You don’t know -what an awful thing I’ve done!” - -“You’ve done what I wished you would do long ago, and I’ll stand for -whatever happens.” A proud light shone in his eye that she saw others -besides herself could read. - -“I’m going to speak to Bess Carter,—tell her that I’ll work with her. -Anyway it will be better if I’m not seen with you till the Kid’s mad -cools off.” - -She started across the deck but he detained her. “Erminie! Did you -promise Jim you’d come—come here with—” - -“No, Billy, he took it for granted. I laughed and let it go so, for that -was my game then. But—oh, Billy! I’ve fumbled everything! And it’s going -to be hard for you when I was trying to make it—” - -“Never mind me. I can fight my own battles.” - -The steamer bumped the wharf, lurching the standing ones against one -another; and the merry confusion of disembarking drove all serious -matters to cover of silence. The few teachers, making as little as -possible of their duties as chaperones, let the young people manage -things for themselves. - -Dinner was the first consideration; and as no one there knew quite so -much about coffee as Reginald Steele and Billy, that was their job, -which occupied them wholly, together with Bess Carter, skilled in -cookery through use of the tiny rock fireplace on the bank of Runa Creek -in “good old California.” - -Erminie, who had no more idea of how to make coffee for three hundred -than she had concerning heavenly ambrosia, hovered close to the three, -anxious to tell Bess of her change of heart, yet more anxious to keep -away from Jim Barney, and most of all to be near Billy, who meant -strength and deliverance to her. - -It was early June and the sun still high at seven o’clock, when they -began dinner. In groups of several, with perhaps fifty sitting in -comfort at the long table in the bark-roofed pavilion, but oftenest in -couples seated apart in the many nooks of the small clearing, they -chattered and feasted, punctuating the meal with many noisy pranks and -repeated yells. - -Erminie had expected this to be the moment for the quiet talk with -Billy. No less had he looked forward to it; but the coffee pots were an -unanticipated tyranny. The making did not end the care. The pots were -not large enough, and more water had to be heated, and a second lot made -for the thirsty crowd. Billy had barely spread his cloth, with Erminie’s -help laid out the contents of his attractive basket, when the call came; -and his time till all the rest were satisfied, was spent in running back -and forth, bolting sandwiches on the way. - -And so it happened that dinner was over and the fiddlers already calling -eager feet, while Billy was finishing his meal. - -“It’s too bad, Billy! You let every one impose on you.” - -“No matter. You shall be next. Impose on me as much as you like. Is it -dancing?” - -“Nothing doing. You like that as well as I do.” - -“Let’s try it then. You can cook up something later in the imposition -line.” - -They piled the remnants of the dainty meal into the basket and went to -the pavilion. - -The music, the perfect evening, all conditions were auspicious for -restless young creatures who inevitably love the motion and harmony of -dancing; and Erminie and Billy enjoyed it more than most people do, for -they were both musical and danced well. - -It was an “informal” to-night, with no programmes, each making -engagements for but two or three dances ahead. Billy wished he did not -have to dance with any one but Erminie; indeed he did sit out most of -the dances he did not have with her; sat and watched her as she whirled -by him, scarcely touching the floor, it seemed. In the earlier evening -he thought he wanted nothing else but the chance to take her away by -herself and talk; but the music and the motion intoxicated both of them, -and when he held her in his arms, in their favorite dance, each movement -so attuned that they felt as one being, he wished they might glide on -and on, with no thought of time. - -But musicians tire if dancers do not; and when at last the best dance of -all stopped abruptly he drew her away. The boys had gone variously -dressed, and as the evening was warm many of them, among others Billy, -had laid aside their coats. - -“You must get your coat, Billy,” Erminie warned as they went out of the -pavilion. “Mine too. I hung them both on that big cedar. I’ll walk on.” - -When he went to find them he noticed some one start hastily away from -the tree and slip around the other side. He wondered a little why any -one should be there instead of dancing, but he was too absorbed with -Erminie to think long of anything else; and he ran back to her, putting -on his coat as he went. - -“Is it all right?” he asked as he helped her on with hers. - -“Yes. Did you think it had changed color?” - -“I might have taken the wrong one, you know.” - -“Billy, let’s go round by those trees to a place I know that’s -beautiful,—high above the water.” - -“That goes. Is it far? We mustn’t be late to the boat.” - -“Only a little way, a block or two. We can hear the whistle and run.” - -They followed a smooth trail to a jutting point where the underbrush had -been cut and a rustic seat placed to catch the full beauty of the view. - -The warm fragrance of the evening, the pulsing melodies that floated to -them softened by distance and foliage, the brilliant moon silvering the -broad lake that splashed softly at their feet, the ghostly mountain in -the south looming into the sky till it seemed a white pathway right into -heaven itself,—it is little wonder that they sat silent, entranced for a -moment, each thrilled by the spell of the night. - -Erminie was the first to speak. “Billy, I can’t tell you how sorry I am -for that break.” - -“I’m glad.” - -“It’s something terrible. Jim’ll make you pay for it,—me too, for he -isn’t above hurting a girl; but I deserve it, and—” - -Billy turned, quickly moving closer. “Erminie, you must not worry about -this thing any longer. He’ll have to reckon with me on more than one -count. I—hoped to get through the year without a clash, but I see it’s -bound to come; when it does I’ll get in your score too.” - -“No, no, Billy! You mustn’t fight him! He’ll say things, do things that -will lose Hector the vote because you are his cousin. He’ll—” She broke -off suddenly and covered her face with her hands. - -Billy reached over and drew one hand down in his own. “Erminie!” His -voice was tender. “I can’t let you worry about this. You must tell me -just why you are afraid of him, so I won’t be doing things in the dark.” - -She lifted her face to the moonlight and sighed; and Billy thought she -had never been so lovely, never so womanly. “Oh, Billy!” There was a -catch in her voice that made his hand close quickly on hers. “Before I -knew you I thought it great fun to be engaged to several boys at -once—Jim was one of them. It was like a game, and—” - -“Yes?” he prompted, and did not know that his grasp of her hand -loosened. - -“I’m ashamed to tell about it now, but I thought it all right then. I -used to like to see how the different ones did it, to see if I could -catch the difficult ones—” She stopped again, divining Billy’s -disapprobation; but when he did not speak she continued: - -“I thought it fun to watch them get jealous of each other; to plan to -keep them apart or let them meet, whichever I was in the mood for at the -time.” - -“What did your mother say? Did she know?” Billy asked after an instant -of silence. - -“Oh, yes. I used to tell her a lot. It was about all the pleasure she -had,—poor ma! Her life’s awfully dull. Hearing about my courting affairs -keeps her sort of waked up.” - -“Did she approve?” - -Erminie laughed at his solemn tone. “Sure. She said it was all good -practice; would teach me how to land big game when it came my way.” - -Another and a longer silence awed the girl. Billy had no idea that the -seconds were ticking by interminably to her; he was trying to place in -his mind the Erminie just revealed to him. Her measure of life was so -different from any he knew; her mother so—so impossible as a mother, -repelled him as a travesty on womanhood. Yet recalling her from his few -glimpses he could not help a feeling of pity mingling with his -condemnation. - -It was natural, though he could not have told why, that he should blame -Erminie’s mother, her father, any one and every one rather than herself. -She was near him. She was beautiful,—to-night with the calm moon -glorifying, etherealizing her face, more than ever beautiful,—and she -could not help doing things differently from—his sister, for instance, -who had been so differently reared. - -“Billy! Why don’t you talk to me? Don’t look off at nothing as if I were -not on earth! I’m not like that now. I know you, and—” - -He took her hand again in the closer clasp, and she saw a new look in -his face, the look his mother saw when they discussed together the deep -things of life. “Erminie, I have been trying to see your life as you see -it. You know my mother is—she talks things over with me—the things a -chap needs to know before he starts out for himself; and I have come to -see pretty deep into—into the sort of thing that’s between us, -engagements and that; what it means to one’s whole life, what it means -to the race.” - -“Why, Billy! Billy! Does your mother talk to you of such things?” - -He smiled innocently at her vehemence. “Why not? My father is dead; who -would tell me things if she didn’t?” - -She looked out over the shimmering moon-track on the water. “I—I never -heard of such a thing.” - -“Do you think the Creator makes anything bad?” - -“Why—why I suppose not,” she returned, wonderingly. - -“That’s the point; He doesn’t. It’s only us that make wrong out of his -creations.” - -A shrill whistle startled them. - -“Billy! It can’t be time to go!” She started up. - -“That must be the first whistle.” He looked at his watch and calmly -pulled her back to the seat. “It’s only ten; ten-thirty is leaving time. -If we start ten minutes before we’ll have scads of time.” He dropped his -watch back into his coat pocket. - -“That’s no place to carry a watch,” she chaffed as they readjusted -themselves. - -“Yes, it is, for I’m such a kid for dropping it when I bend over -anything, a fire for instance. And then my coat is always off.” - -They talked on, but of other matters. Both were relieved at the -interruption of the tense moment, yet Erminie had a regret she could not -understand. More than ever Billy attracted her because of his larger, -deeper knowledge. He knew the forbidden things, things she only -whispered about, yet on his lips they had a dignity, a purity unbounded. -He never made silly jokes where reverence was due, yet never went out of -his way to avoid anything that came in the natural course of -conversation. He was the only one she knew who did this; and she wished -she, too, might have such an open mind toward life. - -“Billy! The music has stopped!” She rose hastily and started down the -path. - -“Oh, I guess it’s only the wait between dances.” But he was suddenly -conscious that it had been long, and hurried after her. - -They turned the point where the pavilion came to view to see it looming -dark and deserted. From the wharf the noise of embarking came warningly. - -“Gee! They’re going!” Billy caught her hand and ran with her down the -steep hill. - -But they were too late. When first they started, the steamer was setting -off. Now she was well out in the lake, headed northward. - -Billy called at the top of his voice; and Erminie added her frantic -shriek to his; but the band was playing, the young people shouting and -“jollying,” and no one heard. The two could hear sudden gusts of -laughter rising above the music, and after that the steady rhythm and -beat of the instruments. - -“Oh, Billy, it’s no use!” Erminie sobbed, as the boat grew smaller and -smaller on the gray water. - -“I guess we’re in for a night of it on a desert island.” - -They faced each other there in the moonlight, silent, wondering, -perplexed. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - THE REVEALING NIGHT - - -FOR minutes they stood looking after the boat. They could not believe it -true. Left on the island, far from any habitation! It seemed as if some -one _must_ miss them, as if the steamer would surely come chugging back -after them. - -But instead it went farther and farther away, and presently out of -sight. - -As the last gleam of light disappeared around a far point of land, -Erminie turned in dismay. - -“Oh, Billy, do you know the way to the Beckets’?” - -“Who are they? I never heard of them.” - -“They live on this island, but I don’t know the direction.” - -“The island is five miles long and wooded like a jungle. We might wander -in a circle for hours and not get five hundred yards from where we -started.” Billy spoke calmly and rather absently. He was sizing up the -situation, trying to see the best way out of it. While they talked, -clouds that had been earlier hovering on the horizon, now joined and -veiled the moon. - -“Gee! If Luna goes back on us we’ll have to give up travel by land.” - -“Perhaps there’s a boat—canoe or rowboat.” - -“I’ll see. You stay here a minute—” - -She caught his hand. “Billy! If you leave me I’ll scream; and if I do -that I’ll faint, I know I will. There may be wild cats!” - -Billy laid an impressive hand on her arm. “Kid, there are no wild -animals about here. We’re just as safe here as anywhere. And whatever -comes, we’ve got to buck up and take it, haven’t we?” - -“Ye-es, I suppose so. Oh, I’ll try to be game if—if only you won’t leave -me, Billy.” - -“All right. It’s partnership, then. Come on.” - -They went to the wharf and skirted the lake up and down a few steps, but -found nothing. - -“Perhaps that path we took leads to some house,” Erminie suggested. - -They climbed the hill to the pavilions again, and followed the path; but -it ended in the little clearing where they had sat a few minutes -before—hours it seemed to Billy. - -“Possibly there’s some other trail leading off from the park; let’s -investigate.” - -They went back, and slowly, and with many scratches from blackberry -vines, Billy leading, they felt their way around it, diving into the -dense thickets at each promising bit of openness, only to be met after a -few steps with close-woven vines, breast-high ferns braided like a net, -or fallen logs covered with briers. - -Erminie stumbled and almost fell; rose pluckily before Billy could reach -her; tried again; fell prone the next time, and was not quite on her -feet when he came. - -“Erminie, you can’t stand this. We’ll have to give it up. It’s so dark -anyway with the moon hidden that if there was a path we’d likely miss -it.” - -“What then, Billy? We can’t give up trying.” - -“Suppose we try the shore again. Perhaps we can make it that way to some -house.” - -She agreed, and they went to the water’s edge and started north. But -their progress was stopped by the very promontory from which, high -above, they had looked out on the moonlit lake. The bank rose -perpendicularly from the water, which was deep here; and the only way to -proceed was to climb back to the cleared space and down on the other -side, a course they had already proved unfeasible. - -Next they tried the southern way. Unlike the shores of salt water, there -was no beach to be bared by lowering tides; and they could only pick -their way along shore at the edges of the same dense growth as above, a -growth that in spots even trespassed on the water. - -They succeeded in going some distance; and once were cheered by -discovering an unmistakable path; but when they had followed it a little -distance it grew less plain, and broke into half a dozen blind trails -which all ended in the blank wall of green. - -They tried one or two of these, their courage and Erminie’s strength -growing less with each effort. - -“What made trails like these, I wonder?” Billy asked, half to himself. - -“Could they be deer trails? There were ever so many on the island years -ago; dad used to come here to hunt.” - -“Whatever they are they aren’t for us.” Billy looked at his watch. -“Twelve o’clock! We’ve been thrashing round for nearly two hours, and -got nowhere; and you’re all in, Erminie. We must go back to the picnic -ground and think out some other scheme.” - -Erminie made no objection. She was too weary and frightened to do -anything but fall in with his suggestions. Billy himself, as perplexed -as she was, and with the added weight of responsibility for her safety, -felt the need of a little respite for fresh planning. - -In silence they climbed the hill again, each thankful for the broad -smooth path that led up from the steamer landing. - -“The first thing is a snack, Erminie. It’s a great thing for us that my -mother’s eyes are bigger than our appetites,—at least for a first -trial.” - -He left her in the pavilion and went to look for his basket, but it was -gone. Puzzled and more weary than he knew till this fresh disappointment -revealed it, he dropped to the ground for an instant in sheer -discouragement. What next? They would have to remain all night,—there -was no other way. And what would that mean? - -For himself it did not matter; he would tell his people just how it -happened, and they would believe him; they always did. But Erminie—would -other people—strangers—believe? Think as well of her as before? Would -her father——Her father! What would he say? Billy knew he was a violent -man; what would he do? - -She called him, and there was a pitiful note of distress in her voice -that warned Billy he must not leave her alone. “I’m coming!” he -answered, and sprang up, aroused by her need to fresh action and a -semblance of cheer. “You can’t shake me, you see.” He ran up the steps -toward her. - -“I’m so afraid when you are not near me, Billy.” Her voice trembled. - -“I couldn’t find our basket. I guess Mumps or some of them thought I had -forgotten it, and took it along.” - -A sudden gust shook the trees above them, and the noise coming so -unexpectedly on the dead quiet of the cloudy night, startled them. - -“It’s going to rain; and you’re shivering, too,” he added as he took her -outstretched hand at the top of the steps. “The first thing to do is to -make a fire.” - -“Can you? Have you any matches?” - -“No, but I guess there will be some coals under the ashes.” - -They went down and raked over the fireplace, but the boys had obeyed the -rules only too well; every vestige of live coal was gone. - -For a minute they stood speechless, looking out over the dark and angry -water. There seemed to Erminie absolutely nothing further to be done. -She was worn and faint, and with difficulty restrained her tears. - -“There’s nothing for it but to try to make a fire camp fashion. It will -be tough work, even if it doesn’t rain.” - -As if in answer to this last, another gust swept through the trees, -louder than the first. - -“Erminie, you’re just all right. You’ve never once hinted that I was the -boss slob to get you into this.” - -“Why, Billy, I wouldn’t think of such a thing. I saw as plain as you -that half-past ten was the leaving hour. It’s the fault of the steamer -people; or——Are you sure your watch is right?” - -“Yes. It’s never failed yet. My brother Hal said it was guaranteed. He -gave it to me. It hasn’t varied a minute in two months. But this isn’t -work. You go back and cuddle as close in that corner as you can, little -girl, and try to keep warm, while I see what I can do with my jack -knife. Here’s a time when a fellow that smokes has the advantage.” - -“I don’t see why he couldn’t carry matches if he didn’t smoke.” - -“I know one chump that will after this.” - -But Erminie did not settle to uselessness. - -“While you’re trying to make a fire I’ll see what was shaken out of the -tablecloth. I saw them hold it over this corner; and if we could find a -roll or a bit of meat,—you wouldn’t mind eating scraps just about now, -would you, Billy?” - -The cheer that came into her tone with the prospect of something to do -heartened Billy as much as herself. “Mind? I could eat the shell right -off the eggs. You’re a bright kid, you are, all right.” - -“Oh, I’m sure it will be something better than egg-shells.” - -“Go to it. You may find a course dinner there in the grass, or at least -the nice brown tint on one of Bess Carter’s biscuits.” - -She laughed, which pleased him; and he went to a spot in the path where -he remembered to have stubbed his toe on a projecting rock, intending to -get it for a flint. But he had barely found it when she called to him. - -“Billy! Billy! I’ve found a match-box with one match in it.” - -“Bully! We’re saved!” He was by her side in a second. - -“But _one_ match,—it’s—” - -“It’s as good as ten.” - -He was woodsman enough to succeed with his fire very quickly. - -“How did you come to be so clever, Billy?” - -She watched him intently as he prepared his gathered paper, twigs, bits -of bark, and boughs; and struck his precious match within the shelter of -his coat. - -Soon a crackling blaze cheered and warmed them. And when Erminie found -some sandwiches and a few bits of ham thrown away in its wrappings of -oiled paper, they felt as if a second feast had been like manna dropped -from heaven to save them. The moon broke through the clouds for a -minute, and Billy, rummaging in the grass, found the discarded coffee -sack. - -“Good enough! Hot coffee in five minutes!” he called softly. Without -realizing it they had not spoken really aloud. Unconsciously they felt -and acted as if a thousand sentient, invisible beings surrounded them, -hearing and seeing their every word and move. - -Billy found a lard pail, one among the many thrown away, washed it, saw -it did not leak, and put the coffee to boil a second time. When a few -minutes later they drank it, without sugar or cream, they thought it -better than any coffee they had ever tasted before. - -With hunger banished and the cheer of the warm fire, the situation -seemed less direful; and they sat with feet to the embers and talked -more calmly. - -“Don’t you think a steamer will be along early in the morning, Billy?” - -“I don’t know the Sunday schedule very well. I think they stop here only -for picnic parties; but I shall tie my handkerchief to the signal pole; -maybe she’ll see it out there if she has a regular run to town.” - -“There’ll be the Sunday picnics! But we don’t want—we must not be seen -by—by anybody here.” - -The tone of desperation told him that she had waked to the fact that had -troubled him ever since he knew they were left,—what might be said when -their plight became known. - -“It’s lucky to-morrow’s Sunday; it needn’t be known at school,” he -comforted. - -“How can it be helped?” - -“If we can’t get a steamer in the early morning you can hide in the -brush by the wharf till the boat discharges her passengers; and when -they are climbing the hill, you step into the path and head for the -steamer. No one will know that you are not one of them, and the steamer -people will think you came only for the boat ride, or—oh, they won’t -notice you any way.” - -“But the picnickers, Billy; they’ll know I don’t belong—” - -“Sure they won’t. At those promiscuous public picnics half are strangers -to the rest.” - -“But you, Billy? When—?” - -“Don’t worry about this kid. If we’re not seen together, no one will be -able to say certainly that we were here. You just ’phone my mother that -I’m safe—” He stopped suddenly, his face pale with another thought which -he did not voice,—her people might be seeking her, telephoning to the -pupils, the police. That would mean certain disclosure of the whole -situation. “Your mother will be having a bad time, I’m afraid,” he said -calmly. - -To his consternation Erminie showed no concern. “Oh, no; ma won’t worry. -She’ll think I’ve gone home with one of the girls.” - -“Is it—is it often—that way? Doesn’t she know where you go?” - -“Not to which house. I’ve a lot of chums, most of them out of school; -and their young men—when I don’t have one of my own—take us to the -theatre, and to supper afterwards; and it’s late then; and if I stay -with the girl the young fellow doesn’t have to make another trip taking -me home.” - -Billy was silent, wondering what his mother would think of a girl who -went about thus. It revealed to him a new sort of girl-life. In his -boyhood town of Vina such a situation as this could not have happened; -and in his city life he had known intimately only the cherished and -protected daughters of careful parents. - -His own evenings were full of boyish things, meetings, study, decorous -calls, and work or play at home. His attendance at the theatre was rare, -either in school groups or with his mother, or alone, high among the -“gallery gods.” He tried to put out of mind the feeling of “commonness” -that Erminie’s story gave him. - -As if she divined his thought, she said a little plaintively, “I know -lots of mothers don’t think it nice for girls to run about so; but mine -always told me to go ahead and have a good time while I could. When I am -married, she says, all such fun will be over.” - -“Well, it won’t be!” Billy’s vehemence startled her. “But it will be a -long time before we can be married; I’ve got to learn how to earn a -living first. But it shall be a good enough living to include a little -fun.” - -“Billy!” Surprise, gratitude, and besides these a more genuine and -womanly emotion than she had ever experienced, came out in the single -word. “Billy, what do you mean?” - -“Mean? Why, our marriage of course. At first I felt badly because you -would have to wait so long; but I don’t any more. I had a good chin with -my mother. You and I—we’ll both of us be all the better for waiting -and—learning things.” - -For a time Erminie sat quite still save for absently stirring the ashes -with a twig. When she did speak her voice was low, with a half timid -note in it that touched Billy. “How splendid you are, Billy! Too good -for me. I didn’t dream you thought that—that we were engaged.” - -“Gee! How else could I save you from Alvin Short?” - -“But, Billy, that—that is not exactly a reason for—for—” - -“Don’t you care for me? Wasn’t that what you meant that night I—I kissed -you?” - -“Oh, yes, I care for you, Billy; ever so much; but I never got as far as -an engagement. I—” - -“But that kiss—” - -“Oh, I just thought you kissed me because—well—because—Oh, Billy, do you -tell your mother everything?” - -He caught the anxiety in her speech, and wondered if kisses of the sort -he had given her were so common in her life that she could dismiss them -with merely a “because.” But his reply was to her question only. - -“’Most everything. You see I’m just the common transparent sort,—she -reads me anyway. But of course I didn’t tell her about you; that’s your -secret. I shall not tell that till you give me leave.” - -She caught up his hand in both her own. “I believe you’re the best boy -that ever lived.” - -“Boy! That’s just what I am! And you need a man, right now, to protect -you.” - -“You are doing it,—doing it better than any man I ever knew.” - -He threw on some more wood. “I’ll have to hunt fuel in a minute,” he -said, and stirred the fire to a blaze. - -“What did your mother say that changed your mind about—about—” - -“About waiting to get married?” he finished as she hesitated, and -repeated much of the conversation prompted by the pinching of the -geranium buds. - -Erminie was silent again, and Billy waited on her mood. When she did -speak her words were plaintive and halting. “Billy,—Billy, dear, it -would be a very wrong thing for you to marry me. I am older, anyway, and -it would wreck your life to be hampered with a—a wife when you’re so -young. Perhaps—perhaps there’ll be—” - -“Perhaps children,” he finished fearlessly. “I’ve thought that all out; -but you need me to take care of you; and after—this—this night, it’s got -to be.” - -“Oh! oh!” She cowered a little closer. “People won’t know of—of this—” -She put her hand over her eyes and shivered. - -“They may; and—” - -“It’s awful!” she burst out. “Just because an accident happens, for -people to talk—say bad things about us.” - -“They won’t think it an accident, Erminie. Don’t you see? I have a -watch—all our set know how foolishly I’ve bragged about it. We had our -strict orders not to go out of sight—” - -“We weren’t out of sight,—not in the day-time anyway.” - -“And to be on hand at the ten-thirty whistle.” - -“But it wasn’t ten-thirty; it was ten.” - -“We can’t make folks believe that.” - -A sudden dash of rain fell upon them and made the fire sputter. - -“Gee!” Billy sprang up and threw on the last of the wood, arranging it -to cover the heart of the fire from the rain. “Get under shelter, quick! -We’re in for a heavy shower.” - -She stood, but did not move away. “Aren’t you coming too?” - -“No. I must keep up the fire. Go and get under the table; that will be -more sheltered. Here! Tie my handkerchief around your neck.” - -There was a new insistence in his words. She obeyed as a little child, -and he hastened to the fringing woods. He remembered where he had seen a -fallen tree, and a lot of loose bark, and chips that might have been -hewn from the rough beams that supported the floor of the pavilion. - -But he did not touch any of these. Instead he whipped out his knife and -began to slash at a fir that was thrashing in the rising wind. He worked -fast, piling branches till he had all he could carry, when he took them -to the pavilion where Erminie sat huddled on a seat. - -“That won’t go, kid! You’ve got to obey orders. Here!” - -He threw down the branches and began to strip off the soft tips. - -“Let me help you, Billy.” She set at it, glad of action. - -“There!” He piled them under the table, spread them smoothly, and stood -back. “In with you! I’ll have to spread the covers. You can’t do it for -yourself,—not in this boarding-house.” - -She was not deceived by his jocularity, but something compelled her to -submit without words. She lay down in the sweet-smelling litter, and he -covered her thick with the boughs. - -“Sorry my blankets are so heavy, but they’re the best the house -affords.” - -“But where is your—what will you do, Billy? You must be awfully tired.” - -“I’d be a nice lad to go to sleep now, wouldn’t I? The fire must be kept -up, the wolves scared away; bears, too, and—” - -“Oh, Billy, don’t!” Her self-control broke, and she began to cry. - -“Say! Kid! If you do that I’ll run away! I’ll jump into the drink! I can -fight a bear, but I can’t stand salt water—not that sort!” - -He reached down, felt for her face, and patted her cheek. “You’ve been -as plucky as— Do you know, I really can’t—” - -What in Cain was the matter with him? Would he snivel too? Right there! -Before her? He scorned himself silently, not knowing that the situation -and her pitiful tears were enough to break an older and calmer fellow -than he was. - -“There, Billy! Good boy! I’m all right now. I won’t cry another tear. -Why should I? I have the best, the bravest—” - -“Cut it out! I’m the fool that got you left.” - -He ran off with her half laughing challenge to fate ringing in his ears. -“Billy, I almost don’t care. It’s awfully grand to see any one prove all -to the good the way you do.” - -Back to the chips and the bark he hurried, and had hard work to nurse -his fire in the rain. Only by a constant piling of the dried fir -branches that he found around the prostrate tree did he defy the -shower,—which was harder now,—and keep the blaze going till it passed. -When at last the clouds broke and the moon appeared it was behind the -hill, leaving the little clearing in the shadow; but a faint tinge of -lighter gray in the east heralded the dawn. - -Worn with anxiety more than with effort, Billy dragged some dryer limbs -from under the tree, finding them by feeling rather than by sight, as -indeed he had done nearly everything that night. After banking his fire -high with bark, he shook his wet cap and put it to dry, threw open his -wet coat to the heat, and prepared to watch out the rest of the short -night. - -Soon an irresistible drowsiness overtook him. He fought desperately, not -wishing to stir about lest he should keep Erminie awake. In the midst of -a moment that was perilously near unconsciousness, she called: - -“The signal, Billy! You forgot it. Here’s the handkerchief.” - -“Gee whiz!” He sprang up and went to her. “My forgettery deserves a -medal. You should be proud to—” - -“Stop calling yourself names, my—” - -“It’s mean to take it,” he interrupted, “but I have nothing else.” - -“I don’t need it. I am as warm as a kitten in a feather pillow. It was a -shame to wake you.” - -“Wake! Do you think I’d sleep when—” He stopped, recalling how near he -had come to the Land of Nod. - -“But you must,—a little anyway. I’m not afraid any more.” She reached -the handkerchief up to him, and he took it, holding and patting her hand -a second before he went on. “Good girl! You make a jolly fine pal all -right. I’ll bank on you.” - -With those words still on his lips as he ran down the path to the wharf, -suddenly before him rose the face of May Nell. Something tugged at him, -gave him a queer feeling that he could not understand. He wished -Erminie’s mother had been like Mrs. Smith, that Erminie might know all -the beautiful things May Nell knew, might look out on life with May -Nell’s clear, loving vision of the soul of things. - -Even as he thought, and chided himself for it, while he fixed the tiny, -fluttering signal, a rosy light in the east told him the night was -going, and deliverance near. - -Another dilemma presented itself—suppose a steamer should answer his -signal, what would the crew, the scattering passengers, think if Erminie -came aboard alone at that early hour? Could she do it and not cause -comment? A story for the papers perhaps? - -With this in mind he ran back, thinking to ask her; but no words greeted -his noisy steps, and he knew she must be asleep at last. He threw -himself on the ground before the ash-covered embers and in five minutes -he also was lost to his troubles. - -He had taken the precaution to face the east in such away that the sun, -surmounting some tall firs, would waken him as nearly as he could guess -at about six o’clock. As the first ray struck into his eye he started up -to find it nearer seven, though but for his watch and the dancing, -diamond-tipped ripples in the track of the morning sun, he would have -declared he had not slept five minutes. - -“Half an hour for breakfast!” he called cheerily. Erminie answered, and -soon came down to him. - -At once Billy told her his latest worry, and asked her opinion. - -“I believe I’d better risk it. If the captain says anything, I’ll tell -him I got left. It will be about nine when I get home, and people I know -won’t be out so early.” - -“Then we’ll have another dish of manna, and—” - -A whistle interrupted Billy. - -“There she is now! What’s got into my watch? That’s been the joker all -the time.” - -“Do you suppose she’ll stop, Billy?” Erminie had already started down -the hill. - -“You’ll have to run for it. Got any money?” While he spoke he thrust a -dollar in her hand and she flew down the path out of his sight. - -He heard the signal to stop, heard the mate cry “All aboard!” as usual -before the gang plank was lowered, and after a moment heard the vessel -puff her way out on her course again. - -When he was certain that Erminie was off he realized, as not before, his -great fatigue. A search by morning light revealed many toothsome bits of -picnic dainties in the high, clean grass, which he gathered, an egg in -an unbroken shell, some butter in a covered jelly glass, and a bun which -he toasted by the coals. - -They did not taste very good. In spite of sunshine he was depressed. The -night had revealed Erminie in a way that almost repelled him at the -time; but now that she was gone she seemed nearer and dearer than ever -before. - -After eating, and raking out the fire, he carefully removed all traces -of Erminie’s bed to a nook well hidden in the brush, and threw himself -down on it to rest. He did not expect to sleep,—he had too much that was -exciting to think of; but hardly had he touched his bed of fir when -Morpheus claimed him. He heard nothing till the advent of noisy -picnickers arriving on the four o’clock steamer, when he jumped up, -drowsy still, skirted the park carefully, and barely made the steamer in -time. - -At half-past five, dishevelled and haggard, he walked into his mother’s -room. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - “DO YOUR BEST AND THEN——WHISTLE” - - -“BILLY! My son!” Mrs. Bennett started forward as he opened her door, and -threw her arms around his neck. - -“Did she—did a girl telephone you that I was all right, mother?” - -“Yes. This morning. She said you were detained, but did not tell me -where or why.” - -“What else did she say?” - -“Nothing, but hung up the receiver before I could ask any questions. -Very odd, I thought; certainly not courteous.” - -“Mother, don’t judge her too quickly. A girl who has to stay all night -out in the woods with a chap like me, is not likely to be very proud of -telling it around.” - -“Why, William Bennett!” - -Billy was as much astonished to see his mother turn pale as he was to -hear in that stern tone his full name. “Sit down, marms. It’s all right -for me, but pretty rocky for her.” - -Then he told her the whole story, except that he did not divulge -Erminie’s name, nor their relation to each other. - -For a long time they were silent, his mother strangely serious and sad, -it seemed to Billy. At length she turned to him, took both his hands in -hers, and looked steadily in his eyes, but still did not speak. - -He bore the scrutiny well though it made him uncomfortable. “Don’t look -like that, mother. What could we have done different or better than we -did?” - -She kissed him on the cheek and he felt her closer clasp. “Nothing, my -boy. It was one of those trying situations one cannot foresee. But it is -serious. Do you realize what it will entail upon this girl if -evil-speaking people learn the story?” - -“Gee! That’s what I’ve been thinking of all night. But I don’t see how -any one is to know about it.” - -“If she is questioned she will have to tell more than one falsehood to -keep people from knowing some one was with her; and lies always defeat -themselves.” - -“Well, mother, if it comes to the worst I shall stand by her.” - -“Of course, if you can; but whatever you say will only harm her. Your -silence is the best thing you can give her.” - -“I can marry her.” - -If Billy had shot at his mother he could have astonished her hardly -more. - -“Billy! You’re only a little boy!” she gasped with her first recovered -breath. - -“Oh, not to-day, but after a while. And meantime, while I’m growing old -enough and earning something, I can lick any fool that speaks against -her.” - -In a long life of many trials Mrs. Bennett had learned self-control; -also that many worries are best left alone for a time before attacking -them. She rose and stood behind Billy’s chair, stroking his soft, -abundant hair. “Boy, put such thoughts out of your mind. They are -unsuited to you. Whatever is just and right, whatever is manly and -needed by this girl from you, that of course you must do. But time will -show what that may be. In the meantime you must go on as usual, doing -the duty of each day. Just now that means a bath, supper, your lessons, -and bed.” - -Again she kissed him, drew her hand caressingly across his forehead, and -left the room. And to Billy’s keen ear it seemed as if her step in a -moment had become the slow, shuffling tread of an old woman. - -As the evening passed, his depression grew. He found it difficult to -study. The pages were meaningless. Or if he roused himself to some -attention suddenly the print blurred, and he heard again the quick -tempest of the night before surging through the trees, or Erminie’s -pitiful, “I’m so afraid, Billy!” - -And his mother’s step, as she left the room, haunted him. What had made -her walk like that? He began to suspect the case was worse than he had -thought if it could hurt her so. “Betsey, Betsey! Why didn’t you get a -move on?” he whispered whimsically. It was years since he had thought of -his boyish name for his conscience. Yet reviewing the night’s experience -he could find little blame for himself. - -His large attic room, usually so cheery and so much to his wish, was -full of sounds that to his overwrought mind seemed to come from unseen -beings. He listened for a time, then switched on the light; and seeing -only the familiar scene, turned it off again, impatient with himself, -ashamed. He need not have been so. He was neither a coward nor a -hyper-sensitive; it was his own high-strung imagination that peopled the -darkness with jeering shapes. - -But finally he slept. And with the morning youth asserted itself, and he -went off to school with new courage to meet whatever might come. - -That proved to be nothing unusual. Erminie was there, pale and quiet, -but otherwise quite herself. By a subtle understanding that needed no -explaining they kept apart. No one seemed to notice them except Jim; at -noon he watched Erminie’s every move. At first Billy thought himself -over-suspicious; but once when he caught a gleam in Jim’s eye, saw the -covert smile on his lips, Billy knew something malicious was brewing; -believed that the Kid possessed their secret and only waited his own -time to use it—no one could foretell how. - -Billy was not very light of heart when he went around after school to -Mr. Smith’s town office, and found Dr. Carter there. He wished to talk -with Mr. Smith alone, to ask him for employment, for something to do -that would be worth good wages at once. He was not skilled of course, -but he was strong and quick, able to do a man’s work at hard labor; and -with a boy’s optimism he knew he could learn, “Make good from the -start.” - -Dr. Carter’s genial face and excellent stories, even though Billy knew -he had no better friend anywhere, were not welcome to him now. He did -not know just how to proceed. He wondered if the two were considering -business; though it must be so, since Mr. Smith was a very busy man, and -it was still in business hours. And yet they were laughing heartily and -had admitted Billy at once. - -“Well, what can I do for you, Billy?” Mr. Smith asked cordially. “Jove! -It’s time we called you ‘Mr. Bennett,’ you’re such a giant.” Mr. Smith -was a short, stout man, and when he stood beside Billy he had to lift -his face to look into the boy’s eyes. - -The doctor greeted Billy in his quiet, friendly way; and with his firm -hand-clasp a quick memory came to Billy of the day, so long ago, when he -had found the counterfeiters, and raced to town on his wheel with his -secret, not knowing how to tell it till he met the doctor. Again he saw -himself, coatless, torn, dusty, freckled, his hair wet and “plastered,” -following the immaculate doctor into the grand dining room of the new -hotel. After that came the memory of telling his story to the sheriff, -and of that awful trip when he led the sheriff and posse up the -mountain, through the edge of the forest fire to the counterfeiters’ -den. And after that, the rescue of May Nell— - -These pictures flashed through his mind during the instant he was -returning the doctor’s greeting; and on recalling himself he felt as if -he were coming back from a long journey, felt unpardonably abrupt when -he tried to state his business to Mr. Smith. - -“I came to—I’d like—” - -“You’d like a private interview? Is that it?” Mr. Smith prompted. - -“The boy’s after a job. Don’t give it to him, Mr. Smith. He’d better -play through his vacation; he works hard enough at school to deserve -it.” The doctor smiled and rose to go; and Billy wondered how it was -that the doctor could “beat a chap’s own thinker to it.” He did not know -that the keen, trained sense that enables a skilled physician to read -the hidden meaning of every line and tint and pulse of the body, could -also reveal to him the meanings the mind writes into voice and eye. - -As soon as he had gone Mr. Smith motioned Billy to a seat and listened -with no interruption, while the boy told his errand. For a time after he -had finished, the man of affairs continued to draw meaningless designs -on the blotter, till Billy grew first hot, then cold, and wished himself -away. - -“What can you do?” - -“I—I don’t know. Isn’t there a lot of just common work to do on your -railroad that you’re building over to Tum-wah? I surely can do digging; -I am strong.” - -“Yes, there is plenty of digging,” Mr. Smith said absently, and again -lapsed into silence. - -“Does your mother know you’re doing this?” he questioned so suddenly at -last that Billy jumped. - -“She doesn’t know I’m here to-day, but she knows that I intend to work -this summer,—perhaps right along.” - -“Do you intend to dig in the dirt for a living?” - -The stern words stung Billy as a whiplash. “No, sir. I hope to do -something better—I _shall_ do something better after a while,” he added -with an energy that pleased Mr. Smith. - -“Have you decided what you will make your life work?” - -“I’ve thought of—” He was about to say journalism but something about -this fearless, successful man made the boy feel young and very ignorant. -“I had thought of trying to get on a newspaper.” - -“Nothing in it! You’ll smell of a grindstone all your life, and be a -slave besides.” - -“Slave?” Billy repeated anxiously. - -“Yes. The newspaper business is no longer an outlet for individual -character. It’s just a machine where each man is a cog, and writes what -he is told, no matter what he believes. If his stuff is good the paper -gets the credit; if it isn’t he is fired.” - -Billy made no reply to this, but after a moment asked, “Would not that -be the way with anything I tried at first?” - -“Yes, boy, it would.” There was an unexpected kindness in his tone. He -rose and walked once or twice across the richly furnished office, when -he stopped and looked down upon Billy, who sat with every muscle tense, -his hands unconsciously gripping the chair arms. - -“Billy, ever since the day you prevented that devil from kidnapping May -Nell, I’ve had you in mind. I’ve no son of my own; but if I had, I’d be -glad if he was as much of a man as you’ve always shown yourself.” - -Again he walked the length of the room and back. “You know I wanted to -educate you; but your mother was right, wiser than I. Now I’m not so -sure I’m going to do this thing you’ve asked of me. If you need money to -tide you through your school, Billy, I shall be more than glad to -advance it. No amount of money will square what your family has done for -mine. But—I’m blamed if I’m going to help you ruin your future. What you -need now is school, and the university; a year or two of running about -the country to see what sort of a nation you belong to; and then you’ll -be fit to settle in some business where you’ll have men digging for you. -That’s what I want you to do, Billy.” - -The boy could not speak. This was what he had looked forward to, had -planned to do, even if he had to earn his way and take years in doing -it. But Erminie’s coming into his life had changed everything. Such -dreams must be abandoned for a different and harder future. - -At last he stood, and looked into Mr. Smith’s face steadily, but with a -disappointment in his determined eyes that touched the man. “There are -reasons,—reasons that I am not at liberty to mention, Mr. Smith, why I -must go to work as soon as school closes; and probably I shall not be -able to go back. If you had anything I could do I would rather work for -you than for any one else. I’d try very hard, sir.” He hesitated an -instant, but not long enough for the other to speak. “But since you -don’t approve I must look farther.” He stepped toward the door. - -“Here! Sit down! If you’re bound to make a fool of yourself about work -it might as well be where I can hold you down to it till you’re sick of -it, and come to your senses.” Mr. Smith’s eyes twinkled, and his voice -was softer than his words. “You needn’t hunt any other boss. I’ll have a -job for you when you come for it. How soon will that be?” - -“School closes on the twenty-third of June; I’ll be ready the morning of -the twenty-fourth.” - -“That’s Saturday. I won’t take any fellow from school till he’s had a -vacation; come Monday, the twenty-sixth.” He laughed at his own joke, -and opened the door, and Billy knew the interview was ended, yet he -tried to stammer his thanks. - -“I’m very—I’m—” - -“Get out with you! I won’t be thanked for helping you to ruin yourself!” -Mr. Smith blustered, and shut the door on Billy. - -Ruin himself! The words roused a sudden anger. He’d show them! This -course that he was taking was not his own choice; circumstances forced -it on him. It was the right thing to do, and right never ruined any one. -Or if it did—He looked up as he walked and saw a lineman high among the -deadly light wires, held only by belt and spurs, busily splicing wires -and whistling at his work. - -“That’s it,” Billy thought. “Do what I have to do as well and carefully -as I can, and then—whistle.” - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - THE POTATO ROAST - - -A FEW nights later came the rally of the Progressives before their -election for playground officers. Since the episode of the stilts Hector -had taken a prominent part in playground affairs, and some thought it -was hurting his candidacy for president of the student body,—that it was -too small a matter for high-school students to consider. But he held to -his course. - -The election for president was due the next week. Jim had decided on the -next afternoon, Friday, for Walter Buckman’s last demonstration. -Hector’s party had held their preëlection meeting also; but this -playground rally would be one more opportunity to test Hector’s -strength. - -The benches were arranged on the ball ground this time, and Billy, who -was manager, saw that everything was ready before he went home for -dinner. When he came again he found Mumps, Redtop, and the squad of -freshmen left on guard, looking as if there had been things doing. - -“It’s good the cop’s coming to-night; the Kid’s crowd intend to act up,” -Mumps said as Billy came up. - -“What makes you think so?” - -“They tried to beat us out of the benches.” - -“How did you stop it? I see they haven’t been touched.” - -“Mumps is the keen kid,” Redtop commended; “he told ’em we had those -benches from the supervisor and could keep them here till to-morrow -morning; and that we had a cop to see that no one interfered with them.” - -“Bully for you, Mumps!” - -“Redtop told the Kid that if they get busy hoodooing the Progressives -that’s all we ask; it will be the prettiest sort of a finish for the Kid -and Buckman.” - -“Do you think that fixes them?” - -“Yes, unless—They have some plan hatching to beat Hector that we can’t -find out. The election’s no walk-over for Hector; I can tell you that.” - -Billy noticed that the Buckman boys were rather quiet, standing about in -small groups on the edge of the crowd; and also that whenever he went -near them the talking suddenly stopped; and once he caught a significant -lifting of the brow and a sneering smile. - -There were many people already on the ground besides school children, -some walking about in the waning sunlight. Even at half-past eight the -torches seemed a joke this late May evening. - -But the band was no joke. It was the band of the Chetwoot (black bear) -Troop of Scouts, the newsboys’ troop, and Mr. Streeter’s pride. Their -uniform was handsome, their marching excellent, and their music -remarkable considering they had been playing together less than a year. -Under the guidance of the best teacher Mr. Streeter could hire for them, -and with an enthusiasm that warmed his heart, the little chaps worked -together night after night; and now, when they came up the street, and -filed into their places, proud of being invited to play before such a -large audience, he led the clapping, which lasted till long after the -boys were seated. - -Billy made a good chairman. Everything went off in orderly fashion. The -girls were represented by two short speeches in which the importance of -good manners on the playground was emphasized; the band played several -selections; Hector spoke convincingly of the responsibility of the Fifth -Avenue High for the good name of the playground, and Reginald Steele won -the fathers and mothers present by telling of Mr. Streeter’s Good -Citizens’ Clubs, and how their work should dovetail with all that the -Progressives were working for in their proposed playground government. - -Billy expected some demonstration from Jim and his followers, but none -came; and the meeting was dismissed after band and audience had joined -in “America.” - -The crowning triumph was a surprise; and provided by the girls. It was a -potato roast on a vacant lot across the street from the playground. -Every one present was invited, the parents being especially urged to -join the feast. - -The bonfire made both light and cheer that were welcome in the cool -evening; and the girls with very rosy faces poked the ashes with long -sticks and rolled out bushels and bushels of hot potatoes. They had -thoughtfully graded them as to size, so that the smaller ones were -served first, though all had as many as they could eat. Salt, butter, -and sliced ham, with pickles for a relish, made a high mark for evening -outdoor fun. - -The surprise was complete. Even the opposition could find no chance to -gibe. - -“The girls take the cake but we get the potato!” shouted Walter Buckman. -“Three cheers for the potato roast!” he proposed with a heartiness that -showed him an adroit politician. They were given with vigor. And the -band played again, and they dispersed. - -Billy felt well pleased with the evening, till at the very last of the -frolic, when he stepped into the edge of the crowd, he caught a low -sentence spoken with incautious clearness. “Oh, yes, they are hollering -to-night, but we’ve got the jump on them. The Kid is laying low.” - -The words troubled him all the way home. And Erminie had not been there -as he had hoped. He did not agree with her that she should keep aloof -from the school activities; it was like acknowledging a wrong that did -not exist. - -But he was tired, and too young and normal to lie awake long over any -anxieties—save those “Betsey kicked in for,” and he “hit the hay with -eyes already shut,” he told his mother the next morning. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IX - - FACE TO THE SKY - - -THE next evening Billy was busy with preparations for starting at six -o’clock in the morning on the scout for which he was patrol leader. -Although it would last only two days he had been a little uncertain -about going, since the end of the school year with its many duties and -activities was so near; but the day before he had learned that he would -have to take but one examination, his high standing excusing him from -the other “exams.” And now that he would not be able to take any of the -long, summer scouts, he could not resist this last chance for the tramps -he loved. - -A little before nine over the telephone came Bess’s voice. - -“Hello, Queen of Sheba! That was a great gift you brought us last night -from your domain in the south.” - -“I only planned it; and like the queen of old, I didn’t do it for -nothing; I crave a boon.” - -“Say on. I’m no Solomon, but you shall have your desire if I can grant -it.” Billy laughed and waved an imaginary sceptre, forgetting that Bess -could not see him. - -“It’s not so difficult. May Nell has just telephoned that two of her -classmates arrived before dinner time on their way East, and she wants -you and me to come over.” - -“Gee whiz! It’s late to spring your command.” - -“Not five seconds since I received mine. They’ve been motoring all the -evening.” - -“And I’m—not—dressed to meet—” - -“Billy To-morrow! When did you begin to cogitate about apparel?” - -“It’s different—” - -“No more. The Queen commands. Come over right away, and father will set -us down,—the machine is at the door. I won’t be a minute.” - -Bess’s home was only a block away, and her “minute” only five, yet in -that short time Dr. Carter had a call in another direction, and the two -young people had to take a trolley car. This was an opportunity Bess had -desired, and she improved it at once. - -“Billy, I want you to tell me why you didn’t ask May Nell to go with you -to the picnic instead of Erminie.” - -“May Nell isn’t a pupil of Fifth Avenue High.” - -“That makes no difference. A lot of the Juniors brought friends. For -that matter what was Mumps doing there? If I had known you wouldn’t ask -her, I should have taken her.” - -Billy did not reply. For once Bess could not understand him, and was -distressed. He was the playmate of her lifetime, the one boy comrade she -had treated as frankly as a brother. But now she realized he had -interests apart from hers, cared no longer for things she could share; -and the knowledge hurt her. - -“And then that Erminie Fisher! She’s no more to be compared with May -Nell than—” - -“Go easy, Bess. You saw that Miss Fisher went with me, didn’t you?” -There was a look in his eye, a tone in his voice that chilled her, that -added to her feeling of distance from him. - -She glanced up almost shyly. “Then do you wish it to be ‘Mr. Bennett’ -and ‘Miss Carter’ after this?” - -“Oh, piffles, Bess! You’re always to the good. The reason I said that is -because it makes me mad to hear every one say mean things of Erminie. -She’s a lot better than—” He did not finish. An uncomfortable memory of -her self-revelation during the night on the island told him why girls -like Bess shunned her. But what she had said of her mother also came to -him, and what he knew of her father. How could she be the sort of girl -Bess was, whose parents were not only loving, but wise? - -“Well, there must be something good about her, Billy, when you like her. -But I can’t see how you can neglect May Nell for her.” - -“I don’t neglect May Nell. But I am no J. Pierpont; I’ve got my living -to earn. Do you suppose May Nell will want me ringing her door-bell -after I don overalls and grease?” - -“Will Erminie?” - -“Yes.” - -“Then she’s different from what I think. But anyway you won’t do that. -You’ll do something splendid; something with your brains; or you’ll go -out into the mountains or desert and juggle old lady Nature, and—” - -“And she’ll beat me to it—juggling. Bess, you’ll soon be going by shy of -a nod to me yourself. I’m going to work, just plain digging with no -frills on it.” - -“Billy!” - -They were at their destination with no chance for pursuing the subject. - -Billy was not usually self-conscious. Before his experience with Erminie -he would have entered Mr. Smith’s elegant parlor as easily, would have -met the strange girls who were larger and older than May Nell, as -unabashed as if he had been reared in luxury. But now he felt out of -place. He was beginning to note social differences; to realize that -daughters of very rich men are reared to a luxurious scale of life; that -they cannot understand poverty, or even simple comfort. He was seeing -that no matter how willing they may think themselves to endure poverty -with the loved man, they are totally unfit; and their failure is not -their blame. - -Something of this made him awkward and silent, while the four girls -together with Reginald Steele, Redtop, and Sis Jones, chattered and -laughed and joked, till Billy began to wish he had not come. - -May Nell did not know of the changes coming to him. She attributed his -different attitude toward her entirely to the fact that she was too -small and young to interest him. But he was her guest, and courtesy as -well as pride determined her to compel him to unbend. She left the -others, and on a quickly invented pretext drew him to the farther end of -the large room. - -“Billy, is it true, as Bess says, that you have given up your part in -the Fifth Avenue High play?” - -“Yes.” - -“Oh, Billy, why? When you wrote it, too.” - -“No, no! Who told you that? Three of us wrote it; that is, we thought -out the stuff, and Mr. Streeter helped us put it in shape.” - -“But he told father the ideas were all yours, and that you were very -clever.” - -“I guess I’ll have to hand ‘Pop’ Streeter a nickel.” - -The half cynical note in Billy’s laugh did not escape her keen ear; and -though she could not have told why, it hurt her. “You bad boy! He meant -every word of it. Tell me about it.” - -“It isn’t much. Just a picture of Washington life as I thought it would -be if we did all the things with Nature we might do. Just imagination.” - -“_Just_ imagination makes the whole world, Billy.” - -“That’s what we think when we’re children, but I guess when we get out -with the cold facts we’ll find imagination doesn’t fill the dinner -pail.” - -“Billy, imagination makes everything! It builds the world. Why, when God -himself looked into the void didn’t He have to imagine a world before He -could speak the fiery word that created it?” - -“That’s—that’s a pretty big thought, isn’t it?” Billy answered slowly, -overmastered by her eagerness. - -“And, Billy, you used to believe in it so thoroughly. Don’t you any -more?” - -“Do you?” - -“Yes, yes! I’ll have to die when I don’t believe in it.” - -“Don’t say that.” - -“But it’s true, Billy Boy!” She had not called him so since the days in -Vina when she was a waif and the Bennett home her refuge. The -affectionate child-name touched him, bridged the distance between them. - -“Oh, I don’t know,” he hesitated, “imagination may be a divine -privilege; but for mere man,—too much dreaming makes him discontented. I -think when one must earn one’s bread and butter the straight fact is -better.” - -“Boy, boy! Nothing but slavery and plodding comes of such a feeling. -You’re holding your head down when you should look up, face to the sky.” - -“I guess if one were making chairs for a living, he’d have to look -down.” - -“I guess if he hadn’t looked up he’d never have had the idea of a chair -for a pattern. Oh, you’re no sheep, Billy. You couldn’t hold your nose -to the ground! You’ve got to look up, or you’ll die.” - -The others interrupted, calling for songs, little French songs that May -Nell sang captivatingly. And after that they had college songs, and a -rollicking time. Billy joined, yet with his voice only; his thoughts -were lifted to the realm his soul always reached when with May Nell. - -Mr. Smith came in, bringing with him a gust of the big out-of-doors; as -if his swift flight in his great motor did not stop at the door. He was -a man who drew all to him. Children and dogs, men and women, rich and -poor. He seemed to have a wealth of power and substance that sufficed -for a cityful. And he was a providence to more of the needy than any but -himself knew. - -He greeted the young people breezily, unconsciously giving the feeling -for the moment that their presence was the one thing needful to make him -happy, and left the room taking Billy with him. - -“Sorry to interrupt pleasure, my boy; but since you’re determined to -become a business man, you will find that pleasure has no rights that -business is bound to respect. I want to speak to you.” - -After preliminary explanations Mr. Smith took Billy into his confidence -in a remarkable way. “I have a piece of work that you may be able to do -for me, that’s beyond your years. If you fail I shall not blame -you,—others have failed before you. Here is the situation: That -interurban line I’m building, the Washington Railway line between the -city front and Tum-wah, is a small matter in itself, but it is the key -to a big situation. - -“We have pushed our bill through the Legislature, allowing the canal -between the two big lakes, and we are going to change that little -Tum-wah Valley into a great city with a payroll of thousands of men. -We’ll dredge the small river right to the falls, make our own power, and -load our own ships,—while they clean off the barnacles in fresh -water,—load them for the world’s ports. In a few years the plant will be -worth ten or fifteen millions.” - -Billy gasped in astonishment. The narrow little valley along the Tum-wah -Creek was within the city limits, yet it showed nothing now but the -vegetable gardens of the Italian colony, sordid little huts, dirty -children, and the rickety old electric line where dirty cars went -bumping along on an elastic schedule that got people to town along in -the forenoon, and home some time in the evening. This seemed as distant -from Mr. Smith’s fifteen-million dollar dream as is heaven from a very -dirty earth. - -Something of this Billy ventured to express. - -“The only heaven we have is right here. If it isn’t clean, it’s up to us -to make it so. And one thing sure: it will never be any bigger or any -cleaner than we imagine it to be.” - -The boy thought of May Nell. This was off the same pattern of life as -hers. As if in answer to his thought, Mr. Smith went on. - -“Business is merely realized dreams; preferred stock in imagination. But -it takes sweat to realize on them. And it’s your sweat, boy, that I am -asking. The people who own that old teetering string they call the -Tum-wah Railroad are down on me because I’m paralleling them. They will -give me all the trouble they can,—they’ve served one injunction, but it -didn’t stick. I have men watching them, but they suspect these men. You -see they are stirring up those Italians to believe that as soon as I get -my business started I will take their lands from them.” - -“You’ll have to have them, won’t you?” Billy questioned as the other -paused; Billy’s vision had run forward to the teeming city Mr. Smith had -prophesied. - -“Surely. And those Italians will get more for their land than they can -make in raising vegetables all their lives. But of course I’m not -advertising that now; and the other concern is, I have reason to -believe, making the Dagos think I shall steal them out of their homes. -What I want of you is to keep on the lookout, let me know things before -they happen. Go to work with the other laborers, run errands, keep your -ears open, your mouth shut, and look as stupid as you can. Will you do -it?” - -“I’ll try, sir. It won’t be very hard, that last.” - -“Say! Stop that! And that ‘sir’ business. Who taught you that?” - -“That’s the way we address the Scoutmaster; and—and my father was a -soldier of the Civil War.” - -Mr. Smith softened. “And made a record to be proud of; I’ve heard it -from your mother. But here’s the situation, Billy: You’re beginning at -the bottom; but if you are to be useful to me you must have a definite -power of your own; you must compel. It’s in you; and while you must -adopt a stolid exterior in this first job, when you come in contact with -my men, when you are delivering my orders, you must charge them with -enough powder of your own to make them carry. See?” - -Billy thrilled with the prescience of future force. “I think I see what -you mean, Mr. Smith. I shall try not to disappoint you; though—” A -sudden thought of Erminie intruded itself,—what would this man of great -affairs say if he knew that a wife, and the support of a home, would -soon be the burden that he, a mere boy, would have to add to the -difficult service Mr. Smith was asking. - -“Out with it! Better thrash out all the ‘ifs,’ and ‘thoughs’ right now. -But I don’t allow those words a place in my vocabulary.” - -“Then I won’t!” Billy brought out the words with a snap. - -“Well said, my boy! That’s the soldier’s way. But remember this: While I -get my business done, done at any cost,—if one man can’t do it another -must; yet I know when a thing proves impossible. I don’t expect the -impossible.” - -He gave Billy a reassuring clasp of the hand, and a look that determined -the boy to “make good if any chap going could,” and bade him good-night. - -Billy did not know how long he had been away from the drawing-room till -he went in and found the others going, and Bess already hatted. - -“I began to think it all a dream that one Billy To-morrow brought me -here this evening,” she chaffed. - -“No dream; he’s arrived.” - -“Yes? So has to-morrow—almost.” - -Billy glanced at the clock. The chimes for eleven-thirty had already -rung. - -They laughed and “jollied,” delaying their departure with joyous -nothings. Both Bess and May Nell felt a subtle change in Billy; he was -not the same boy that had entered there so shortly before. - -Thus did Mr. Smith galvanize to unsuspected power all who came into his -presence. Billy went home lifted, ready to meet any future. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER X - - THE SCOUT - - -LONG before the alarm clock buzzed the rising hour, Billy was awake. He -hopped out and hurried with his dressing, watching the sunrise meanwhile -with some anxiety. It seemed more golden and opalescent than usual; or -was it only because it was some time since he had seen it? Such a fine -beginning was apt to end in rain, he remembered a little impatiently. - -He was at the meeting-place before time, as were the five other eager -ones. Two days! So short a time in which to win honors! Three patrols -had failed to find the flag so cunningly hidden by Scoutmaster Streeter -to test the troops. The Skwis-kwises (squirrels) had tried, the -Chetwoots, and Billy’s troop, the Olympics. This was a joint patrol, and -the honor of being its leader Billy had long coveted. - -They looked quite smart when they started off, in their khaki uniforms -and their scouts’ hats all at precisely the same angle with chin-straps -resting jauntily on the tip of the chin. Billy carried the banner of his -own troop, the design being a snowy mountain with a jagged crest, a -picture of old Olympus himself; not the classic mountain, but the -Sentinel of the Pacific. - -Their work was definite. They were to take the trolley line to the -northeast city terminal, going and coming; from there cover at least -fifteen miles on foot in the two days, whether they found the flag or -not. Mr. Streeter said if they could only read his plain signs they -could not miss it; but so far the patrols had failed. - -Besides finding the flag each was to fulfil the rule of one kind act -each day; to report some fact of the woods-life not before recorded in -the annals of the city troops, or some new deed; and to stop one hour on -Sunday for exercises of their own devising that should take the place of -church. To accomplish this most of the circumstances would have to be in -their favor. Billy hoped the weather would be one. - -The start included breakfast which they took at an early restaurant, -that their knapsacks might not weigh an unnecessary ounce. They set off -northward from the railroad terminus, following the beautiful boulevard -as long as its direction was right, then a country road for a mile or -so, which they left at a given point for the trails where their real -hunt began. - -Billy divided the patrol into three squads, Hugh of the Skwis-kwises had -Mumps from the Chetwoots for his partner; Redtop was assigned with -“Bump” Parker; and Billy took Bob Brown. He was a tenderfoot. So was -Hugh, though one of the cleverest and most observant of all the scouts; -but he was doomed to his class till time should bring around his twelfth -birthday, when he would be eligible to all the scout honors he could -win. - -“We’ll search the trails for three hours,” Billy decided, “and meet at -the south end of Lake Mow-itsh on the main road.” He studied his map, a -copy of which each one carried. “Ten points for the first squad to -arrive, and ten points for any new bird seen in the forest and rightly -named.” - -“That’s easy!” Bob exclaimed. He was a recent arrival from the Middle -States. - -“You won’t think so after you’ve hiked a while; the forest is too dense -for many birds,—not enough food for them.” - -“And now for the routes; draw straws.” - -Billy and Bob drew the longest route, which pleased the patrol leader. -“Now’s your chance to show your grit, kid; your legs are not as long as -mine.” - -“But they’re as good, I bet,” Bob returned spunkily. And they separated. - -The woods here were dense and heavy with rain of the night before. The -fickle sun disappeared, and the stillness of the forest settled upon -them. Unconsciously Billy and Bob lowered their voices, doing very -little talking, for Billy’s eyes and mind were on the trail intently -watching for the slightest sign. At each division of the trail he -searched so long and carefully that Bob was impatient. - -“We’ll lose all chance of winning in at the lake.” - -“If we find the flag that will be the biggest win of all, and I’m not -going to lose one pointer if I can help it.” Billy went down on his -knees to look at a track. - -“What did you expect to find?” - -“I didn’t know; but it’s up to a scout to pass nothing by in the woods. -Look for the arrow that points the way, you tenderfoot. It may be only a -straight shaft or it may have a square at the feathered end.” - -“What does that mean?” - -“A letter three paces from the arrow.” - -“What color will the arrow be?” - -“Gee whiz! Did you think it would be bought from a store? -Diamond-tipped, maybe? It’ll be any old stick touched up with a jack -knife perhaps. You’ve got a lot to learn, kid.” - -“What direction from the arrow would the letter be?” - -“What do you think?” - -“The way the arrow points?” - -“Right—What have you found?” Billy crossed a small open spot to where -the other boy was bending over two crossed sticks at the foot of a tree. -“Good! You’re not blind as you might be. That’s luck—finding that. We’re -on the wrong lead.” - -“How do you know? Two sticks might fall that way.” - -“But look here! See that crooked line made of pieces of bark?” - -“Yes, but that’s nothing—Why, it’s the letter ‘S.’” - -“That means Mr. Streeter. Around here somewhere we’ll find more signs.” - -They hunted carefully along, leaving their own records on tree or -ground. Billy explained the many ways of marking the way,—smokes, -wigwagging, shaking the blanket, the semaphore code, all of which are -practically useless in the dense forest, where trees reach higher than -could any smoke that would be safe. - -“I’ve got it!” Billy shouted presently, and blew three blasts on his -whistle three times repeated, to herald the finding of an arrow. - -No answer. - -“We’ll have to write our message in bark chips, I guess.” Billy selected -one large smooth piece, placing it directly beside the path, with -another small round piece on top. - -“What does that say?” - -“This is the trail,” Billy answered. “And this means ‘Go to the right,’” -he continued, making a similar sign except that he put the small piece -at the right of the larger one, and scratched a rough “B” in the soft -forest debris. - -A drizzling rain had begun, and the summer forest was dark and very -dreary to the plains-bred boy. “Golly! I’m glad I’m not alone. I’d be -dippy in an hour.” - -“Why?” - -“Oh, you can’t tell it in words. It’s like hearing and feeling things in -the dark; you could swear they were there just where they could touch -you; but light a match and you find every one of ’em on the hike.” - -“Yes, I know the feeling. You almost think these ferns will rise and -strangle you. In California the forests are more open—” He stopped -suddenly. “Here’s a blaze!” He pushed away the ferns that almost -concealed a square cut in the bark of a tree, in the centre of the bared -space was a pencilled “S.” “These ferns have done a good job of growing -since Pop Streeter hid the flag two weeks ago. But it’s his mark all -right. No wonder the other boys missed it.” - -They pressed on, not minding the rain now that the goal seemed near; -Billy’s enthusiasm warmed the other boy. - -“It’s funny, ain’t it, how a fool bit of cloth can make a fellow work? -When we get it, it’s worth nothing.” - -“Bob, I guess some of the things that seem useless are really worth the -most.” - -“But we can’t sell it for anything, we can’t eat it, and it won’t pay -debts.” - -“Well, how many debts would greenbacks pay if the American flag was -wiped out? And anyway those that do the biggest things seldom do get -paid in money.” - -“Who, for instance?” - -“The great artists; many of them starved in their own day, and now we -pay a fortune for one piece of their work. And who pays the mothers? -They do most of anybody.” - -Bob was thoughtful. “Ye-s; I reckon lots of mothers get slim pay.” - -The signs became more frequent now. They were written in broken twigs, -in bunched and tied grass, and once in a more open place in piled -stones. Presently the boys found themselves on the shore of Mow-itsh -Lake about two miles from the rendezvous. There, in front of a great -cedar, stood the notched and numbered staff with its well-known device -etched with knife and ink,—a mountain with a scout and a flag on its -summit. But the flag they had searched for was gone! - -“I wonder what that means!” Billy shook the water from his hat and gazed -in all directions for an answer. - -“Search me. I’m no more good at knowin’ things of this country than if -we were in Sahara.” - -Billy looked at his watch. “Half an hour to get back to the rendezvous; -and then dinner.” - -“Well, filling the hole in my stomach will be real pay for this hike; -enough for me, whether we get any glory or not.” - -Back over their way they went to the main trail, with no delays, for -Billy had blazed the way carefully. - -“Use your eyes, kid,” he admonished. “There are things in the woods -besides trees; and to-night we’ll have a gab to see how much six pairs -of eyes have been able to discover.” - -They arrived to find Hugh alone, preparing to make a fire. - -“Billy, I’m glad you’ve come. Now you can watch me,—see if I work -right.” - -“You’re not going to try it by friction, are you? It will take too -long.” - -“No, it won’t. I got fire in six minutes the other day by following Mr. -Seton’s directions.” - -“That’s all right if you have dry wood and the right kind; but it’s been -raining.” - -“Just the same I’ve found some fine cedar. You watch me.” - -While he drilled out the fine wood-dust Billy was busy finding dry bark -fibre for tinder; and soon a tiny spark appeared, then a little glowing -coal upon which they placed the bunch of fibre, fanning it with their -hats till a flame answered, and soon they had a blazing fire with its -cheering warmth. - -“Gee! I didn’t know it was easy as that.” Bob was a trifle contemptuous. - -“Easy!” The Fairy rose, rather quickly for a fat boy. “If you think it’s -easy you just try it: I’ve been three months learning.” - -“Three months?” - -“Not all the time of course; but every time I could get the chance to -practise. The directions in books are as good as words can tell, but -there’s a lot you have to see with your eyes that can’t be told.” - -“Six minutes—that’s fair time. Oh, Billy! The flag-staff! Where did you -find it? Where’s the rest of it?” - -“That’s what we want to know; this is all we found. Did you get -anything?” - -“This.” Hugh took from his pocket a much worn shoe the size to fit a -child of seven or eight. - -“Heavens! A lost kid!” - -“A little girl, too.” - -“How do you know that, Fairy?” - -“See the little buckle business? Boys don’t wear that sort.” - -“Where is Mumps?” - -Billy scowled. “That’s against the rules, you two being separated.” - -“We aren’t. He’s in earshot.” Hugh sent a musical “hoo-hoo” into the -distance, which was immediately answered. - -“Is there water so near?” Bob questioned incredulously, while Hugh went -on with his calls, singly, in groups, and by spaces. - -“Mumps has four fish,—bass.” - -“Well, how in jiminy do you know that?” - -“Oh, it’s a little set of signals we decided before he set off.” - -“Trust the Fairy for talking by signal; he’s a cracker-jack at that,” -Billy explained. - -Sydney came up with the fish cleaned for broiling; and presently the -others came in. It had stopped raining, and the sun though not shining -still warmed and brightened the air. - -Their luncheon was a quick affair of coffee, fish, and bread and butter; -for they were too excited over the “finds” to take much time for eating. -If there was a child lost what better “kind act” could they do than to -search for her? Redtop and Bump had passed a farmhouse some distance -back, which was the only hint of human life any of them had seen. - -Billy decided to start immediately, and keep together till they came to -the house. They would make that headquarters, to which any one finding -any trace of the child should report. - -“Perhaps there is no lost child; maybe the shoe was just thrown away,” -Bump ventured. - -“Who would carry a shoe into a forest to throw it away?” Redtop jeered. - -“A dog might,” Billy returned, and the others laughed at Redtop. - -They broke camp and hurried on, spurred by the apparent seriousness of -the situation. The quest of the flag lost all zest beside the mere -possibility of human life in danger. - -Half a mile on, or more, they came to a comfortable-looking house where -a woman was washing on the back porch. To their question she shook her -head. No child was missing. She had one, and she had gone home from -school the night before with her cousin to stay over Sunday. But when -Hugh showed her the little shoe she caught at it and turned pale. - -“That’s hers. Where did you find it?” - -Hugh told her, and she became hysterical with fear. The men of the place -were away on business, and the boys had to plan their search without -help. Billy managed to learn from the excited mother the name of the -cousin’s family and the direction of their ranch, where he sent Redtop -and Bump to find out if the little girl had left, and when; and to -arouse the few neighbors to the hunt. - -Billy took the other three with him and set out to the spot where Fairy -had found the shoe. This was near the lake shore; and as they noted the -steep banks and how the green things grew close down and hung into the -water, they chilled with apprehension. - -Carefully they worked through the afternoon, peering into every opening, -following every slightest path, calling every few minutes that they -might not lose one another, and with the added hope that a little voice -might answer. - -Later they came upon the neighbors and learned that the child had left -the cousin’s home early that morning unseen by any one. There were not -many hunters, less than a dozen, including two or three school-boys. -Three or four small ranches were all the settlements on that side of the -lake; the few children rowed across the narrow inlet to the school on -the other side. - -A fear that the scouts had not voiced was yet present in every -heart,—the wild creatures, cats and bears. Billy asked of this, under -his breath that the smaller boys might not hear. The answer was -reassuring. There was such a fulness of wild young growth that animals -would not be hungry, and a little thing that did not attack them was -comparatively safe. - -The men had taken out several dogs; but they were untrained, and the -rain had washed away what scent there might have been. They did nothing -but start up small game and go baying off on their own quest. - -Till nearly dark they all beat the woods but with no success. The boys -were worn. The men believed the search useless and discussed among -themselves the advisability of dragging the lake. However when dark fell -they ate hastily of food brought to them by some of the women, and set -out again with lanterns into the woods. - -Billy was anxious. He was responsible for getting his scouts home not -only safe but in good order; and he believed that to continue the hunt -without rest would utterly exhaust them. Though his own desire was to -push on, and on, through the night and the awful forest till it was -compelled to give up its secret, he ordered them to make camp. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XI - - “WHOSE GLORY WAS REDRESSING HUMAN WRONG” - - -BILLY kept every one busy till an excellent meal was ready. It would -surprise those unaccustomed to camping to know that they had hot -potatoes, broiled bacon, coffee, and hot bannocks—“sinkers,” the boys -called them. Yet they had neither kettles nor dishes, except one -aluminum pail, and each scout had his collapsible cup. - -The potatoes were roasted in the ashes, the bannocks were mixed in the -pail, patted into thin, wafer-like biscuits, spread on a clean board -Billy had begged at the farmhouse, and put to bake before the fire. The -pail was then washed and used for the coffee. The bacon was toasted, -each man for himself, his slice pinched in the split end of a green -stick. - -Butter, jam, crackers, and canned milk added the “class” to the meal, -for which Billy carefully measured out the rations, that they might not -encroach upon to-morrow’s supplies, for there would be no time for -fishing: a more serious business claimed them. - -Around the camp-fire they sat a while, toasting and drying, for the -night was damp and chilly. Billy insisted on some speech, song, or story -from each one, knowing that would help to banish the gloom. He called -for opinions or stories regarding the Scouts’ motto, “Be prepared,” -showing how it might become more of a talisman to them, how it could -become a continual incentive to effort. - -“You never know when knowledge is going to come handy,” Redtop said. -“That reminds me of a story of the desert country over east of the -mountains, where the ranches are fenced with barbed wire. They run their -telephones by means of them now; but some years back before any one had -thought of that, some miscreants planned to rob a place, and cut the -telephone wires that their escape might be easy. A bright boy discovered -the cut, suspected some deviltry was up, and connected up the wires by -tying the cut ends to the fence. The robbers did not discover the trap, -and when they went to loot the house they met the police, and were -caught.” - -“A good story,” Billy declared; “I wonder how that boy saved himself a -shock?” - -“Rubber would do it,” Redtop answered; “and glass, though that would be -hard to manage.” - -“The shock from telephone wires wouldn’t be much,” Mumps said. - -Billy called for a count of things each had noticed in the woods that -day, Redtop to keep the count, and was pleased when Hugh outdid all in -original observation. - -“Some of those things have never been reported in any book that I ever -read,” Bump declared. “You’ll make a boss scout, Fairy. I never can get -the hang of making fire the way you do.” - -“If I live long enough,” Hugh gloomed; “I’m big as sixteen and not -twelve yet; just a baby.” - -“No matter, kid. Put your thinker to something else. Who’s trying for -the city flag design? September will be here before you know it.” - -“Have you done anything, Billy?” - -“I’ve an idea coming, but I haven’t chased it down to paper yet.” - -“Are you going to try, Redtop?” Hugh’s thin little voice finished in a -low rumble that made the rest laugh. - -“Me? I couldn’t draw a flag-pole that anybody’d recognize unless it was -labelled.” - -Billy tried hard to keep the talk brisk, yet his own mind wandered. He -was thinking unusual thoughts. Something in the lush fragrant woods, in -the silence and the leaping flames,—or was it the feeling that other -denizens might be prowling near?—recalled “The Idyls of the King,” that -king - - “Whose glory was redressing human wrong.” - -All his boyhood Billy had wished he might have lived in the olden days -of chivalry, when men gave their lives for the succor of the weak and -wronged. The glitter and splendor of court and tournament described in -Tennyson’s ringing, singing lines, thrilled him; stirred a passion that -he hid within the silence of his own heart, since he found few that -understood the feeling. Hugh and May Nell were the only ones of his -friends who felt as he did about the ideals of chivalry. Erminie either -looked at him in wonder or laughed at him for a visionary. - -But to-night the world-old stories of high adventure, where all was -risked for love of humanity, came to him with new force, culminating in -a sudden vision of what the tragedy on Calvary meant. There could have -been no good deed done in the past that was not possible to-day; and -perhaps this very quest for the little child was as worthy as the -romantic deeds of Arthur’s knights. - -Suddenly Billy straightened, and began to tell the story of that famed -Round Table where sat the knights of the king, Launcelot, Sir Percivale; -Merlin, the Magician, and his evil fate, Vivien. He told of the pitiful -Elaine, the beautiful queen, and how she wrecked Arthur’s court, and of -Sir Galahad and his search for the Holy Grail. - -At first the boys were not interested; but Billy’s voice deepened with -earnestness; and the fire declined, leaving only its glowing heart -changing, gleaming, and paling like a monster opal, while the silent -forest drew closer, seemed to reach down and clasp them, till almost -they felt themselves transported to those - - “Great tracts of wilderness - Wherein the beast was ever more and more, - But man was less and less till Arthur came.” - -“Fellows, every age needs its King Arthur and a Round Table of knights -who think more of redressing human wrong and abating human suffering -than they think of their own bodies and meat and drink. That is what our -Congress at Washington should be. I wish it might become the fashion to -go to Congress for what men could put into the nation, not for what they -can get out of it.” - -He rose and reached his hand up toward the stars, showing bright in the -small open space above the tall trees. “Think of it! Just to do nothing -but feed oneself, earn, spend, sleep, and die,—an ox does that. Yet most -of us think that if we do that and keep out of jail we do enough; we are -men.” - -“Just what are you driving at, Billy?” Bump yawned. - -Billy, out of patience, went over and shook him. “Driving at? I’m -thinking of the chances I waste every day while I moon over the great -things men _used_ to do: that if we can only find that child and I can -get back to work, I’ll dig! I’ll ‘be prepared’ even if my sword is a -shovel instead of Excalibur. I’m going to—” - -He stopped abruptly. “It’s time to turn in, boys,” he said quietly, -turning away, ashamed of having shown his emotion. - -Rubber blankets over boughs were all “to the good.” They spent little -time in chaff or “rough-house,” and in a few minutes all but Billy were -asleep. He could not rest. The day had been too exciting to give room to -any of his own affairs; but now Erminie intruded. - -Why had she not come out the night of the playground rally? He knew her -contention that she should keep out of sight, yet she had almost -promised. Had her father learned of their night on the island? He had -thrashed this over before, but in each quiet moment the question came -again insistently. He tossed and turned wondering that he should notice -that the bed was hard, that his blanket was short, that the others -snored; usually these things were as nothing. - -But at last he slept. - -They were astir at five o’clock, and breakfast was soon over, when they -were off again. They stopped first at the farmhouse to hear the latest -word, which was not encouraging. The men had been out all night and -found no trace; now they were starting for the lake where nearly all -felt the search would end. - -Not Billy. He decided that, if the lake proved the child’s fate, it -mattered little when she was found. Yet she might be in the forest; and -with the endorsement of the others he set about a still more careful -hunt in the woods. - -Through the forenoon, which was clear and warm, they travelled by twos, -taking many by-paths they had neglected the day before. The going was -hard, and their faces were scratched by thorn and brier. They climbed -logs and delved into many a hidden hole where the child never would have -thought of going, unless she had crept there in fear. Billy kept the -details well abreast of one another by whistles and calls, and as fast -as possible made their general direction toward home, for soon they must -give up the search and be on their way. - -Near noon a shout from Bob who was following up one side of a huge -fallen tree halted Billy on the other side. “I’ve found the flag!” - -Billy ran around the towering root of the trunk. It was true, but such a -flag! Creased, torn, and soiled, it was hardly recognizable. Where it -lay, the ferns and wild grasses were trampled as if some light thing had -walked about, perhaps lain there. - -A whistle said imperatively “Come!” and Billy, marking the spot and the -way, followed the call to find Mumps and Hugh excited over a little -black stocking. That, too, was torn; and a dark spot on it showed where -briers had pierced the tender skin. - -“We’re warm!” Billy exclaimed. “We’ll find her near here, or—” He did -not finish; but each knew what Billy did not voice. They forgot their -own fatigue; their scratched hands and weary feet. A fresh strength -invaded them as a tide from some unknown sea of life. They divided -again, travelling faster and in parallel lines following the direction -pointed by flag and stocking. - -It was perhaps half an hour later when Billy’s quick eye detected a -splotch of white protruding from under a fallen log ahead. He called to -Robert and ran forward, his heart beating with mingled fear and hope of -what he should see. His feet were lead and would not move, he thought; -yet he was running fast, catching in tangles, recovering, jumping logs, -fighting each clinging, hindering vine and shrub. - -When he reached the place he saw what he sought—the child. One small -scratched bare foot lay out from under the torn white frock, beside the -other, hardly more protected by its torn shoe and stocking. With a sick -fear Billy bent to look upon the face hidden by the drooping ferns. - -But when he looked, he saw a sweet little face, stained with tears but -unmarred by claw or tooth, the lips red with life, her breath coming -evenly. - -At once he turned and gave a great shout which Robert echoed; and both -blew their whistles. Instantly came replies. The sudden noise woke the -child in fright, and she screamed and cowered closer; yet in a second -she hushed, and peered cautiously out from her leafy nook. - -“Don’t be afraid, little kid,” Billy said softly, not touching her lest -that might add to her fear. “You’re lost and we’ve been hunting you a -long time. Come out. Are you hungry?” - -Between each sentence he paused, thinking she might be dazed with -wandering, loneliness, and sleep, and could not at once realize that -they meant her no harm. “Don’t be afraid, little girl,” he said again. -“We’ve come to take you home.” - -She sat up and looked the boys over with calm, questioning eyes that -measured them well before she spoke. “Are you a gypsy man? Because if -you are, you won’t take me home, but to your gypsy country.” - -“Not so bad as that, baby; just American boys going to take you to your -mama.” - -“I’m not a baby,” she gravely replied, creeping out of her nest, -surprisingly free from stiffness. “I’m seven, and my name is Signa.” But -when she put her weight on her brier-torn foot she winced and cried out -with pain. - -Billy opened his knapsack and offered her some crackers and cheese. -“Here! Eat this. You must be awfully hungry.” - -She took the food, but ate slowly, at which the boys marvelled; they had -expected to see her bolt it. - -“Have you had anything to eat since you ran away?” - -“I didn’t run away, I walked. And I had my dinner pail, and in it was -some lunch I didn’t eat at school. I tooked some cookies from my Aunt -Felda’s pantry too.” - -The others came tearing up, expectant, excited, puffing with their -speed. After so much walking an extra run told on them; but the relief -of finding the little girl safe and well was as good as rest. - -Billy ordered them back to a more open space to make camp, carrying the -little girl himself. In a jiffy they prepared their light meal, -dispensing with coffee for no one felt like taking time to hunt for -water. - -While Billy was carrying the child to a place of honor at their luncheon -she spoke up shyly. “I ’spect my face is dirty—I didn’t wash this -morning; I couldn’t find any water.” - -“I’ll fix you, kid.” He put her down, took from one of his pockets a -clean handkerchief, searched a moment till he found a wide, cup-shaped -leaf full of rain water in which he wet a part of the handkerchief, and -went back to her. “Here you are, a whole toilet outfit, little kid.” - -“No, I can do it myself,” she said as he began gently to wipe the -smudged little face. She caught the cloth and used it vigorously. - -“Weren’t you afraid?” Redtop asked when the first, busy part of the meal -was over. - -“Of what?” she asked nonchalantly. - -“Of everything: bears, the dark, and—” - -“Dark doesn’t hurt; it isn’t anything. And bears—we don’t have much of -them. For a minute I was afraid of—of him.” She pointed to Billy. “I -thought he was a gypsy man, and they are the baddest, they are.” - -“She’s plucky for a girl kid,” Bump volunteered. - -“She’s plucky for anybody, boy or man. It’s no sociable experience to be -lost overnight in these woods, I bet.” Mumps looked gloomily into the -dark depths in front of them. - -Some laughed, and the reaction from the long strain brought relief; but -Billy interrupted it. - -“Fellows, our scout has been different from the plan, but we have found -what we came after, the flag and—the good deed.” - -“Oh, is that a flag? Where’s the red, white, and blue? I was cold and I -wore it.” The child reached up where it hung and traced the design with -her finger, the while rubbing one brier-scratched leg with her calloused -little bare foot. - -Billy explained the flag to her, and then to the others said, “We must -start if we are to reach home to-night. There’s no time for Sunday -exercises, but what do you say to a song?” - -“All right! Good enough!” they shouted. - -“What shall it be?” - -They answered one thing and another, but the girl piped, “‘My Country, -’tis of Thee’; I can sing that.” - -So there in the woods they sang the hymn, not so inappropriate as it -might seem, since a country is its people, and these young citizens had -performed a noble service. There was a note of thanksgiving in the -voices swelling there in the forest stillness, the child’s thin treble -standing out clear from the rest. - -The mother was beyond speech when they brought her baby to her; but the -father, who had been summoned from the city and had spent the night in -vain search, coming now from his dismal task on the lake, had more than -words for two. He praised the boys, begged them to stop all night, tried -to reward them, and failing that, ordered his wife to cook the best -dinner “ever spread in the shack.” - -With difficulty Billy explained that they had no time to wait for -dinners, that they must get back to the city by sunset. - -The Swedish farmer frowned at this speech, and tried to dissuade them. -Failing that, he made a welcome proposition. “I have a good team and -carriage, my neighbor also; we’ll drive you to town in two hours. To -that you shall not say no.” - -They were glad to accept this offer, and none knew how tired they were -till they were jogging on their way home. Billy’s pedometer recorded -forty-one miles. - -They arrived in town with no adventure; and after reporting by telephone -to Mr. Streeter, Billy went home to find his mother keeping dinner warm -for him. - -Mrs. Bennett waited on him, and listened to as much of his story as he -felt like telling; he found it hard to repeat from sheer fatigue. When -he had left the table she handed him a note. - -“Bess brought that to-day, and said you were to read it the minute you -arrived; but I thought something to eat might prepare you. She seemed to -think it of great importance.” Mrs. Bennett smiled and began to clear -the table; but Billy, with a prompting he could not understand, took it -to his room to read. - -What he saw in the printed slip, a circular in form, banished sleep, -fatigue, every emotion but anger. - - [Illustration: “Weren’t you afraid?” Redtop asked when the first - busy part of the meal was over] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XII - - THE FIGHT - - -BILLY did not suppose he would sleep that night, so disturbing was the -matter of the little circular; but nature protects youth. In a few -minutes the words jumbled incoherently and lost themselves; and a night -of dreamless sleep prepared him to meet the day. - -His first waking thought was the circular. He caught it up and read it -over, growing angrier with each line. - - “A certain lily-necked, high-browed junior found the picnic plus one - Dark-Eyed Beauty so enthralling that he forgot the call of the - whistle, and they had a forced sample of the simple life for one - night in the open. - - “This is what may be expected from the kid-gloved, Sunday-school - contingent represented by the haughty H. They’re all handy with the - moral tacked on fore and aft to—the other fellow’s story. But when - it comes to getting away with any little plum, _viz._, the D. E. B., - they’re there with both feet, and the goods. See? - - “N. B. All who favor muck-raking the other man in public, and the - primrose path on the sly, vote the High-brow ticket. - - “N. B. No. 2. Every man who handles money for clubs or societies - should be under bond. This means the Fifth Avenue High. A word to - the wise is sufficient.” - -Billy was so disturbed by the first item that he took little note of the -third, though he knew it was intended for him. But his conscience was -clear; he had— A quick fear assailed him. He had not banked the money on -Friday! It had been too late. School duties pressed that day, and he -thought it would be perfectly safe in Miss Hartell’s desk in the -high-school library. How could it be otherwise? - -Yet when he put on his school clothes the key to his drawer was missing! -In a fever of worry he hunted through his belongings, knowing all the -time that he could not have taken the key from his ring. He tried to -think back over his every movement on Friday afternoon; first, his -interview after the session closed with Miss Hartell about his essay; -next, the meeting of the Good Citizens’ Club when they had taken many -initiation fees. He and Bess had counted the money and he had receipted -to her for it; and last, he had locked it in the drawer, but this was -after Bess had gone. - -Nothing illuminating came to him. A suspicion instead filled him with -indignation: Who could write such a paragraph unless he knew something -to warrant it? Whoever knew that was the one who had tampered with the -drawer, the lock. - -Hardly able to concentrate his mind, Billy wrote out his report of the -scout for filing, brushed and cleaned the flag as well as he could, and -tried to settle down to study; but the lessons dragged. The words meant -nothing; his mind was held by the disquieting slip, that had neither -signature, nor slightest mark to show who wrote it or who printed it. -That was evidence of evil intent; and if the school authorities could -find out its source, they would expel the student responsible for it. - -He went to the dining-room, impatient for breakfast, and while waiting -his sister Edith came down with the baby. “Good-morning Billy. Baby is -glad you’re at home again.” - -Billy touched the pink cheek, and put his finger in the tiny hand that -closed softly around it. He thought his sister very lovely in her sweet -dignity of motherhood. - -“William Bennett! Your grandfather made your name worth while, my baby, -and now Uncle Billy is adding honor to it.” She caressed the soft cheek. - -“Don’t count on me; I may not add lustre even if I do the best I can.” -The future loomed rather dark to him just then. - -“Billy, that is all any one can do,” his mother said, coming in with Mr. -Wright at the moment. - -Breakfast followed, and while they ate, Billy recounted the happenings -of the scout. - -He went early to school, and barely greeting the first comers, hastened -to the library. The drawer was locked, and no trace of meddling -appeared. - -Puzzled and worried he went to the west entrance to wait for Erminie. -Instead of seeing her he was surrounded by friends with voluble -congratulations; for the morning paper, in large type and pictures, -featured the adventure of little Signa and the part the Scouts had -played in her rescue. - -Billy wondered how such an account, fairly accurate, had been managed, -and again his desire to do that work burned in him. Yet on inquiry it -was simple. The Morning News Company kept photographs on hand of every -important and picturesque spot in the State, and the lake was among -them. - -Through Mr. Streeter they learned the main facts that concerned the -boys, and also through him obtained pictures of the boys, Billy and -Redtop; for the Scoutmaster’s den was littered with pictures of his -admiring boys. - -With all the effusiveness of the greetings, Billy divined a reticence, -an aloofness, even on the part of some who had been his most -demonstrative friends; and on the appearance of Hector he broke away -from them to tell his cousin of his difficulty. - -“Perhaps I have a key that will fit the lock; those desks are nearly all -alike.” Together they went to the library, locking the door behind them. - -The lock yielded to one of Hector’s keys. - -“There should be over forty dollars there,” Billy said, his voice a -little shaky. - -“Why, didn’t you bank—” - -“It’s gone!” Billy threw up his head and looked blankly at Hector. - -“When did you put it there?” - -“Last Friday. It was after banking hours when the meeting closed.” - -“And Saturday morning you left town. Nearly three days the start of you -that thief has, Billy. I guess you’re in for making good. Can I help -you?” Hector’s voice was sympathetic. - -“I may need your help. Did you see that dodger?” - -“Yes.” - -“When did it come out? Are there many?” - -“At Buckman’s meeting. It was circulated so adroitly that not one of us -can tell where it came from. It just appeared. Everybody has one.” - -“Of course it’s the Kid’s game.” - -“Probably; but it will not be safe to say so. He’s too sharp to leave an -opening for proof.” - -“Whoever wrote that circular knows where that money went to.” - -“Yes. I wondered what that ‘treasurer’ squib meant.” - -“That key was stolen in this building.” - -“What did you do after the meeting Friday before you went home?” - -Billy thought. “I threw my coat over a bench while I straightened up the -drawer and locked, and then went to the lavatory to wash my hands. A lot -of kids were there, joshing, and I may have been gone ten or fifteen -minutes.” - -“Whom did you see, coming or going?” - -“Gee! I can’t tell, fifty, I guess.” - -“And you were the last to leave the library?” - -“Yes, before it was locked.” - -“It’s a mystery surely. But I must go. See you later.” - -The loss troubled Billy sorely, and the morning wore on dully, his books -a burden, his recitations poor. At noon he waited again for Erminie. -When he did not see her go out of the building as usual, he went -upstairs, and watching his opportunity at a telephone when no one was -near, called her up at her home. - -Her mother answered. Erminie was gone, Billy could not learn where. -Indeed the tremulous voice at the other end of the wire sounded as if -the mother herself did not know. Above her words and his own he heard -her husband’s voice swearing, and the curses were coupled with Erminie’s -name. But of the scraps he heard, the one that electrified him was this: -“Al Short showed me that paper—” - -Instantly Billy divined that he meant the circular. He was speaking with -a third person in the next room. “Don’t you have an idea where Erminie—” - -“Billy Bennett, Erminie’s whereabouts is none of your business. You’ve -made her and us enough trouble.” - -He dropped the receiver. It was true. He was the cause of their trouble; -he had gotten Erminie left at the picnic; he had angered Jim Barney, -whose threats, Billy believed, had frightened Erminie into running away. -And Billy could not say a word in her defence. She had to bear the cruel -slur alone. How shameful that an innocent accident should be the scourge -of a girl, perhaps for the whole of her life! - -The afternoon was duller than the morning. It was near the end of the -year, when the routine was somewhat relaxed, and the coming election on -the morrow caused a buzz and stir, an undercurrent of restlessness that -swept around and past Billy unheeded. He sat with his eyes glued to his -books, trying to think, and failing. - -At the close of the session he met the officers of the Good Citizens’ -Club and told them of the loss of the money. - -Bess, girl-like, jumped to her conclusion. “That Jim Barney has -something to do with it!” - -“Bess! Bess!” Reginald chided; “it’s serious—accusing one of stealing -with no proof against him.” - -“Just the same, I’m sure I’m right.” - -“It makes no difference who took the money, I must make it up.” Billy -faced them fearlessly. “Boys, and Bess, I know you’ll believe me when I -say I don’t know a thing about where that money is. Yet I’m all to the -bad for being so careless about it. I want to do the right thing, but I -can’t refund it all at once, not—not to—” - -“Of course you can’t, Billy! We’ll make it up, and the club need never -know. I’ll lend you thirty myself, and I’m sure—” - -“Here, Queen, you can’t have all the glory; the rest of us want to prove -good too,” Reginald shook first her hand and then Billy’s. - -His throat began to ache and he could not speak, but gave each a racking -hand-squeeze and turned away, his eyes burning, his heart beating, yet -feeling lighter than since his first glimpse of the venomous circular. - -On the steps outside he met Jim Barney face to face. He had hoped this -would not happen., Since the day when, a little boy, he had fought Jimmy -Dorr for whipping the twins, Vilette and Evelyn, fought with every -muscle in his body a twisted whip-cord of indignation, he had had no -such “bloody hate” for anything living as he now felt for Jim. It took -all the self-control he possessed to answer the Kid’s sneering greeting -calmly and pass on. - -“Where have you cached the D. E. B? Money comes in handy when one has—” -Jim never finished. - -The double-barrelled shot was barely sped when Billy sprang upon him. -Fortunately for Jim he was on the last step and had not far to fall. He -had not expected Billy to retaliate. He knew that Billy prized the -honors he expected to win, and did not believe he would forfeit them by -fighting, no matter how great the provocation. Neither did he reckon on -the reversal of his own maxim in life, “Might makes right.” - -Billy was proverbially good-natured. His quick wit could turn most of -the “joshing” back on the “josher,” and he had learned that fighting is -usually an indulgence to the blood of the beast in us, rather than an -act of devotion to right. But when the man slow to fight does become -enraged, especially if it is in the just cause of others, he is twice an -adversary; the blood of the beast joins with the spirit of man. Right -then makes might. - -Billy was younger, slenderer, less skilled; for the Kid valued his “good -right arm” as his chief glory in life. But right arm and skill, any -force that mere physical exercise had developed, met its Waterloo in -such a tide of outraged spirit as enables a little woman with a carving -fork, to put to flight desperadoes, or such as now nerved Billy’s arms. - -In that grapple his fingers were pincers of steel. His doubled fists -were derrick hammers, and every blow brought blood. The Kid did not have -time even to think of his vaunted “strangle-hold,” his pet “trip-trick.” -He was down and under—not under a man, but a fury all legs, arms, -weight, crushing knee, strangling fingers powerful beyond belief. - -So fast rained the blows that the by-standers, silenced by what they -read in Billy’s face, hardly believed the fight begun before they saw -the Kid’s resistance weaken, his body grow limp. Billy realized it, and -ceased his onslaught. - -“Say ‘enough,’ or I’ll kill you!” Billy’s words were not loud, but they -carried a white-hot power to the half-conscious fellow under him. - -“Enough,” came in a thick voice. - -Billy got to his feet, bent and turned the Kid’s face up,—a bloody, -bruised face,—and set his foot on the heaving breast. “Stay where you -are till I speak.” His words hit like bullets. “Within a week you get -out another dodger and take back the slam you gave that girl. You find -the key to that desk, and return the money you stole from me—” - -[Illustration: “Stay where you are till I speak.”] - -Billy, blinded by his passion and sure of his ground, flung out his -accusations, forgetting that money is visible, ponderable; that evidence -to its theft must be equally convincing. - -But the Kid did not forget. He was cowed but not beaten. He reached out -a thick, dirty forefinger and interrupted. “Go to the man who printed -that dodger if you want retraction, not to me. You’ve called me a thief, -you son of a gun! You’re the thief, and I’ll prove it! I’ll have you in -the pen—” - -Reginald and Sis Jones, who had stayed to discuss Billy’s plight, now -came on the scene in company with Redtop in time to see Billy spring -again on the prostrate Jim. - -“Hold on, Billy! Do you strike a man when he’s down?” - -Reginald’s cool voice checked Billy’s wild fury, that had leaped again -at the Kid’s accusation. He looked up fiercely. “He called me a thief, -Reg,—a thief!” - -“What evidence have you for saying that, Jim?” Reginald asked sternly -while helping him to his feet. - -“I’m not giving my case away.” - -“You’ll have to, or be arrested for libel.” - -This was a bold stroke, but Jim thought he knew more than any of them -when it came to accusation, law, and trickery. “Arrest nothing! You -didn’t hear me. You can’t swear—” - -“But these others did.” Reginald glanced about at the five or six boys -looking silently on at the quarrel. - -“Then they’ll have to bring suit, not you.” - -“What rot is this?” Redtop lunged forward and leaned threateningly near -Jim. “I don’t give a dead dog for law, but if you call Billy Bennett a -thief, you loafer, I’ll mop this town with you!” - -It looked to Jim as if he would have two furies to fight. “I’ll explain. -Bill won’t even try to deny that he stayed out all night after the -picnic with—” - -“If you bring a girl’s name into this I’ll kill you! I’ll—” - -“That’s right! No girl’s name may be mentioned here.” - -The cool, authoritative voice was the Principal’s, Professor Teal’s. He -ordered the boys to his office, and there the story of the fight and the -causes producing it were retold, save by common consent the episode of -the picnic was not touched. - -“I’ll take this under advisement,” the Principal said quietly, when the -matter had been thrashed out with no definite result. He saw it was a -tangle none could unravel except those who would not. Jim had been so -adroit that no gap in his story left an opening for attack. - -Billy remained after the others were dismissed. - -The Principal returned from closing the door, and did not speak for a -moment, but stood with his back to Billy fumbling with some books on his -desk. When he wheeled Billy saw a different Principal from the one he -knew, calm, cheerful yet powerful and a little stern. Instead, he saw a -sorrowful face. - -“Bennett, I can’t tell you how I regret this. I—I suppose you know that -if you have not a more convincing explanation you’ll lose your -honors?—perhaps have to leave the school?” - -“Yes, Professor Teal.” - -“Can you tell me privately anything more than I heard? As it is, you are -charged with theft, and have been fighting.” - -Billy hesitated. “I—I think I can say no more.” - -After another silence the man asked suddenly, “Did the picnic episode -noted in that circular refer to you?” - -Billy’s eyes blazed. “It did.” - -“You are the last one I should have suspected had I not heard Barney’s -remark. How did it happen?” - -“It was an accident. My watch went wrong.” - -“That was unfortunate.” - -“Professor Teal,” Billy burst out suddenly, “I believe my watch was -purposely set back, for it has never varied before nor since. Some one -planned the whole thing for spite. How else could any one have known -about it? We came home separately and—and—Not one moment of that night -is one we need be ashamed of.” - -“Then I shall have two or three of the teachers hear your report and the -young woman’s—” - -“Pardon me, Mr. Teal, I would never give her name.” - -“Will she not wish to do this herself?” - -“I think not. My silence will protect her. That’s what I fought Jim -Barney for.” And when the man did not reply at once, Billy added -impulsively, “Mr. Teal, in my place would you give away a girl?” - -The man turned, laid a kindly hand on Billy’s shoulder, and smiled. -“Billy, if I had the pluck I wouldn’t. But go home and tell your -mother.” - -“I—I had hoped not to worry her.” - -“I’ve met your mother; and from what I know of her I think she’s -worrying already. Moreover, she will have to know why you lose your -honors, won’t she?” - -“I—I guess you’re right. I’ll tell her.” - -He bade the Principal good-bye and started off with a buoyance that -surprised him, for he was stiff and sore, and he knew his standing among -his mates was lost. - -Not till he was nearly home did he think of his troop. Would the -Scoutmaster take away his badges? He must, if the theft of funds was -known. For Mr. Streeter the return of the money would not be enough; he -must know that Billy did not commit the theft. - -“He need never know; they have made up the sum,” Billy thought. Yet -instantly he knew that was neither justification nor proof of his -innocence. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XIII - - ERMINIE TIES ANOTHER KNOT - - -BILLY told his mother all except Erminie’s connection with the -situation, which his stubborn loyalty withheld. But Mrs. Bennett had -seen the circular and drawn her own conclusions, which were the same as -Bess’s, though the older woman saw there was no way of reaching Jim -Barney. She resented the heartlessness of the girl who could allow Billy -to bear the blame alone, though of course she did not connect her in any -way with the theft. - -“Billy, Billy! I thought you had at least learned to keep your money in -a bank.” - -“I told you the bank was closed.” - -“I could have banked it for you.” - -“I never thought of that.” - -“‘Never thought’ doesn’t lock the door, nor rebuild the burned house. Of -course I shall advance the money, but that does not clear you. Your -brother Hal is too busy to be troubled just now, but before school opens -in the Autumn everything must be straightened out. Perhaps before that -the girl will see fit to speak—” - -“She can’t tell anything about the money.” - -“But she can clear up the picnic matter.” - -“But I shall not return to school, mother; I am going to work for Mr. -Smith the Monday after school closes.” - -Mrs. Bennett looked at him sternly a moment. “Billy, don’t you know that -you are still my little boy in the eyes of the law? You will have to go -to school if I require it.” - -Billy put his arm around her. “Yes, mother; but you won’t require it if -a woman’s good name depends on my doing what I think right.” - -She returned his earnest look and sighed. “Perhaps you’re right, Billy. -At least I cannot live your life for you. Take your position for the -Summer, and afterward—we’ll see.” Mrs. Bennett had learned that patient -waiting, more often than opposition, adjusts tangled matters wisely. - -The election for president of the student body took place the next day, -at the close of the afternoon session. All day groups of students at -every opportunity had discussed the situation in low tones. It was known -to both factions that the teachers were watching carefully, and that on -the slightest indication of disorder or chicanery they would interfere. - -The Kid was openly jubilant, and his forces full of brag, though Walter -Buckman did not quite conceal his anxiety. But Hector’s friends were -serious, extraordinarily quiet, yet mysteriously busy. - -Several of the leading boys wore badges bearing an inscription none but -the initiated could read. These were seen to be in close conversation -for a moment at a time with student after student; and after each such -conversation the badge-wearer was seen to pass a card. He was especially -busy among the girls. - -Observing these groups, sensitive Billy thought they often glanced his -way; and he noticed that the active ones were all his friends. But none -of them came to him. It was the first mark of disapproval they had shown -him. Among the workers were Redtop, Sis Jones, Reginald, and Mumps, his -four best friends except Hector. - -He watched them pass and repass during the noon hour, always with a -pleasant nod but too busy to stop. In the halls he met them as groups -passed to the recitation rooms, and outside it was the same. And even -Bess, who always had time for a word, now waved to him and actually -hurried away. - -At last he could endure inaction no longer. He wanted to be in the -fight, to be doing things for Hector. The truth did not occur to him -till he finally appealed to his cousin at the close of the session. -“Say, Hec, what do the fellows mean, leaving me out of your fight? I’ve -chewed the rag with myself all day, expecting I’d be asked to kick in -for something; but they’ve passed me by as if I were a stone dog or a -skunk cabbage.” - -“Don’t get peeved, Billy. You don’t know the whole game. Our boys are -secretly fixing the lie on the circular. We’ve found out the whole -business, name of the printer, and how much he got for concealing the -name of his press; but we’re not talking out loud, because that would -queer things.” - -“Gee! That’s great!” - -“Every one in the school who holds club or society funds has been -investigated and found to the good.” - -“That—that—” - -“Fixes you. Of course I’m not supposed to be busy on any of this, -neither are you supposed to be interested. See?” - -Billy looked down and scraped the floor absently with his toe. “I see -I’m a heavy drag on you, Hec. I’ve about knocked you silly.” - -Redtop, hurrying by, heard this. “Stop running off at the mouth, Billy -To-morrow! We’ve got them shot all to pieces; only it’s on the q. t. -till after the trick is turned. It’s your cue—ours, all of us—to look -all in, meachin’ like. We’ll hit the cheers later.” - -And so it transpired. The contest was quickly over. Hector won by a -clear majority of thirty-seven. The jollification followed; and several -of the teachers, waiting in the building conveniently in case of -difficulty, came into the assembly-room and listened to the riot of -exultation. - -The other party was dazed. They had counted so confidently on Jim -Barney’s contention that “queering Billy meant queering Hec Price,” that -they could not at once realize their defeat. Their leader was a master -at vilifying; but had not lived long enough to know that reputation is -cumulative and powerful for better or for worse. Billy had built his -good name in the school too surely to be downed by one blow; and the -students who didn’t know Billy proved their good sense by voting for -Hector on his merits instead of his connections. - -But the leader “played his game” to the end. After Hector had closed his -speech of appreciation, the Kid claimed the floor and delivered a -scathing speech, full of innuendo, and interrupted by hisses and -cat-calls, and ending with a startling threat. - -“I leave school in a few days. I know the schools are run in the -interest of certain political factions, in the interest of the classes. -I’ll be a voter pretty soon; and when I am, I’ll have my father and his -bunch behind me, and we’ll make school matters sizzle. We’ll see that -student rights are not invaded by teachers, and that the smooth-tongued -element gets what’s coming—” - -Because Hector had been the speaker’s opponent he felt that his first -act in the newly created chair could not be one of repression; but now -the speech was becoming so incendiary that riot threatened. The factions -vied with each other in demonstration, each going as far as it dared in -the presence of teachers. - -At this point Hector rapped for order, ineffectually at first but -insistently; and two or three of Barney’s followers who had another year -in the school to forfeit if they overstepped discipline, plucked at him -and audibly warned him that he was likely to lose his diploma. - -He glared at them and went on. “They can’t do it. They can’t refuse me -my diploma because I exercise the right of free speech. I can call the -President of the United States any name I please, and the president of a -school-board or a principal is no better, because my taxes support all -of ’em. I—” - -He got no farther. Redtop whispered something in Walter Buckman’s ear -that made him start up in his seat. He reached over and pulled the Kid -down, and three or four boys hustled him from the room. And Hector -adjourned the most threatening meeting in the history of the school. - -Affairs moved on to the end of the term in outward quiet; yet the -Principal, aided by a few of the teachers, carried on a thorough search -for the author of the circular, that proved little. The small firm that -printed the circulars told what they knew, but said the business was -carried on entirely through correspondence. The copy being private -matter required no signature, and the payment was by coin brought by a -small boy whom they could not identify, and to whom they delivered the -order. - -Thus when graduation came, Jim Barney stepped arrogantly forward and, as -the others, received his diploma. Billy’s anger swelled again, but he -could not indulge it for long. There was Reginald who had won first -place, delivering his oration with a power that cheered; and many others -Billy knew, receiving well earned rewards. Only Erminie’s name was not -called, and Billy felt anew his remorse as he remembered that but for -him she would have been there, more beautiful than any of them. - -Next year it would be Hec and Redtop, Bess, Sis Jones, and all the -“gang”; and he would not be with them. This was the last day of school -for him. But soon he forgot regret in the midst of good-byes, bustle, -and joyous confusion, that presently subsided and left the gray building -silent and ghostly for the long summer vacation. - -Saturday was a busy day, spent at home in preparation for work, in -“squaring up” troop duties, a bit of shopping, and other matters that -had been put off till the end of school. He was to sleep at home, but -would leave early for his work and return late. There would be little -time for other matters. - -For weeks, beneath the push of increasing duties, he vainly had tried to -down the ache that came with thought of Erminie. She had not written. He -missed her, and was hurt, sore because she had gone without a word to -him, and had not let him know her hiding-place. He tried to excuse her. -He invented a dozen ways in which a note she might have left for him -could have gone astray. But the ache still lingered. - -The Sunday before he left home was the hardest day of all. He was tired. -His bridges were burned behind him, and his march ahead, not begun, was -portentous with unknown trials. He worried himself with visions of -Erminie ill, in trouble, alone, or perhaps worse, with people who -mistreated her. Might the struggle be too much for her? Might she end -it? - -But he did not dwell long on that thought. Erminie was too cheerful, -stout of heart, too bright and winning, and life meant too much to her; -she would not fail. One thing, however, haunted him persistently: she -would need money, and he could not send it to her. - -The day wore on. In the evening they gathered around the piano and sang -the songs they loved, Billy’s smooth, rich bass making the family -quartette complete. It was nine o’clock, and Billy was saying good-night -because he must be up and off by six in the morning, when a messenger -came with an “immediate delivery” letter for Billy. - -At last! He felt sure that it was from Erminie and his heart jumped, -though he held his face calm. He was glad the address was -typewritten,—they would think it was from the troop, or from some of the -boys on important business. With a hasty excuse he took it to his room -to read. There he tore it open, surprised that his hand was trembling, -his breath coming in gusts. - - “DEAREST BILLY: - - “You must have worried about me something awful. I did not write - before because you told me not to. At first I didn’t know what to - do, but now I’m going to stay right here. They want me to. It was - perfectly darling of you to let me have that money, so much too. And - I know you’ll need it. But what a funny way to send it! I’m sending - two dollars. I can’t spare more yet. - - “I had an awful chin with the Kid the night before I went away, the - night you were on the scout. As soon as I saw that dodger I called - him up over the phone and told him to come over; and he did, and we - walked and talked and talked. He wanted to go and sit in the park, - but I wouldn’t. I told him he’d have to take back all he said, but - he was nasty. He said he had both of us right where he wanted us; - that I had lied to him, and a few more like that; and he wasn’t even - yet,—he’d only begun. There was more coming. - - “Billy, I hated to run away and leave you to bear everything alone; - and I hate it when I can’t even tell you where I am; but as long as - you told me to do it, and wait four weeks before writing, I’ve done - just as you said, though it’s been hard. I’m sure you know best. But - why did you typewrite it? - - “Don’t worry about me. I’m at my cousin’s,—my uncle’s house, and - they treat me fine. I don’t have to do anything that I don’t wish - to, and Cousin Will is dandy. Tell ma this; though I suppose you - won’t since you fixed everything safe for me. Poor ma! I’m sorry for - her. - - “I’m sending you a thousand kisses and a heartful of love. I’ll send - more money as soon as I can earn it. - - “Your loving, troublesome Erminie.” - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XIV - - THE BLACK HAND - - -THE Summer was well on toward September. Billy’s first business that -Monday morning in June when he made his final break with boyhood was to -go to Mr. Smith’s Tum-wah Valley office for instructions. Here Mr. Smith -came every morning to see how his big concerns were going in earth and -rock, before he took them up in his town offices in the mystic symbolism -of paper and figures, and business policy and confidence,—all that vast -idealism which is so much more really the business of the world than are -the products of the earth we live on. - -From the open door of the artistic, vine-covered log building Billy -could look up the steep hill to Tuk-wil-la (hazel-nuts), Mr. Smith’s -summer home, set in the edge of the forest overlooking the little valley -and the broad Lake Kal-lak-a-la-chuck. - -Mr. Smith’s instructions were brief. “I told you it would be no picnic, -Billy. This is your stunt: take your shovel and go to work with those -Dagos on the grade. Learn all of ’em, the look of the face, walk, and -whatever you can pick up of their talk. You’ll have to slouch along and -be a Dago yourself. Mind, I don’t want any tattling,—just to know if -they are plotting any mischief, that’s all. And don’t come near me -unless you’re called. Treat me as you see them treat me. See?” - -“I’ll try,” Billy answered. He went to the foreman for his tools, and -set to work. - -The hard work, the long hours, and Billy’s youth unaccustomed to labor -left him at night little more than a log to roll into bed, sleep -heavily, and go dully off in the morning to another day of digging. It -was no wonder that the strange situation of being engaged to marry a -young woman and already entered upon his life obligation of providing -her home, and yet not knowing where she was, did not weigh upon him as -much as he had thought it would. - -But as he became hardened to his labor, her problem grew more obtrusive, -and he longed to hear from her. He puzzled over the one, the only letter -he had received, trying by many readings to understand it, but it -revealed less and less meaning. That she had received a letter -purporting to be from him instructing her to take the money from his -club fund, go away, and not write for four weeks, and even then not -reveal her location,—this he gathered. But how she came by such a letter -which he had never written, how she could be deceived in the writing, -how she got the desk drawer open,—these and many other questions would -have become unendurable had he not been so engrossed with his new life. - -Through the papers he had seen that her father had failed in business, -that Mr. Alvin Short was the chief creditor, and that the home had been -sold. It also transpired that Mr. Fisher’s business record was not one -of which any son-in-law could be proud. - -Billy could never recover from his disgust at the camp feeding where the -dirty crew bolted better food than they were accustomed to in silent -haste, and yet complained. It was some time before the well-bred boy -could mentally detach himself and imagine he was in his own home; but he -partly accomplished this feat at last, and ate with better appetite. - -He found one among them, an American whose better upbringing had -somewhat survived the tramping that had gone with the bottle. He was now -“doing his yearly stunt” at work, he said, putting by enough to keep him -out of “the poor house, or the chain gang, or whatever is the fashion -for the gentry of the road in the town I strike next Winter.” - -At one corner of the table they ate together, and sometimes talked a -little, while the rest fed. But he was a philosopher, and Billy learned -from him many things that set him thinking. “Billy, a man must fight and -wait,” the man broke out suddenly one day, “before he can fight and -win.” They were lying under a _madroño_ tree, resting after the midday -meal. - -“You’ll have to switch on the light; I don’t get a glimmer,” Billy -replied lazily. - -“Anybody can fight, when he has to; even a dog does; but few of us have -the grit to fight and hold on. You’re just beginning life, my boy; hold -on.” - -“I mean to do that.” - -“Not to this! It is a dog’s life—to slave for another man, feed, sleep, -wake, and do it all over again. I shall not do it much longer. But -you—don’t form the quitting habit; hold, and all the time search for -something better. Then your fight tells. See?” - -“Yes. But what’s the matter with you? Why don’t you do a little holding -yourself?” - -The man’s eyes darkened and he frowned. “Too late.” - -“It’s never too late.” - -The man jerked himself up, and energy flashed in the weak face. “Not too -late for you. Opportunity will pass your way many times. Catch her every -time—hold her. By Heaven! With your face and body, your clean mind and -good brain, you can do anything,—be a young god. Billy, a fellow at the -open door of life doesn’t suspect his power, doesn’t use a fraction of -it.” He reached his hand up to the summer sky. “Up there, down here,” he -dug his foot into the fecund earth, “a thousand million possibilities -wait for us to draw them forth with our minds.” - -“And you?” Billy asked as the other looked off gloomily. - -He wheeled almost angrily. “I? I have ruined my chances. It takes a -clear eye, a steady hand, and a clean heart—mind you, a clean heart—to -see and hear the secrets up there, down here.” Again he indicated earth -and sky. “Under desert skies, miles from any human habitation, I’ve -watched the stars march from purple twilight to golden morning, and -heard things—whispers right out of heaven that would have been triumph -for me if—if I had been fit.” - -The foreman called, and they took up their shovels; and Billy’s was no -longer heavy. But the man settled into his habitual silent, uneven -effort. - -Side by side they worked till mid-afternoon, when the Smiths’ machine -appeared in the distance, May Nell alone in the tonneau. Billy’s first -impulse was to straighten and greet her, but it flashed across him that -the men must not know of his acquaintance with the daughter of the -“boss.” “Stand in front of me, will you?” he asked of the man, and bent -to re-tie his shoe. - -“What did you do that for?” the tramp inquired as the machine flew by. -“Do you know her? If you do, don’t let any devilish pride keep you from -standing in her presence, a man, clean-faced or dirty.” - -Billy grinned. “That’s all right; it’s part of my game.” - -“I don’t get you.” - -“It’s not because my face is dirty, or that she would care—she’s pure -gold—but because it’s part of my job to do that.” - -“All right; you know your cards; I don’t.” - -Billy’s eyes twinkled. “This is the fight,” he waved his hand around -toward the sweating, bending crew; “and not letting her see me is the -holding on. See?” - -The philosopher smiled. “You’ve caught on, all right.” - -That night after work, and supper, and when Billy was trudging down the -hill to get the car for home, he met the machine again. He tried to -dodge it for workmen were passing, some lounging along the dusty road in -groups. - - [Illustration: “What do you mean, Billy Boy, by refusing to speak to - me?”] - -May Nell saw him and ordered the driver to stop. “What do you mean, -Billy Boy, by refusing to speak to me? I saw you this afternoon. Your -shoe didn’t need—” - -“Miss Smith, I—” - -She stiffened as if struck. - -“Miss Smith, circumstances alter cases,” Billy added quietly. - -She was conscious of the slower gait of the dark passers, their smiles -and frank curiosity. - -“I’m sorry I can’t tell you any more, lady,” he finished with a comical -imitation of the obsequious attitude of the foreign workman to his -employers. “I tell-a the Big-a Boss.” - -She laughed and ordered the machine on, but he saw the perplexity in her -face as she sped away. - -Billy turned to meet a leering, grinning Italian face. “Boss-a girl vera -good look-a.” He gave Billy a nudge that permitted no resentment, since -Billy had encouraged familiarity from the workmen. “You lika?” - -Billy ached to “spoil his face.” Instead, “Be prepared” came instantly -to his mind. He pointed to the palatial home on the hill, Tuk-wil-la. -“Queens! Understand?” - -The man nodded. - -Billy stooped and gathered a handful of the dust at his feet and pointed -to himself. “Me. Understand?” - -Again the man nodded, but with a queer look, half credulity, half -suspicion, and trudged on. - -Billy had not grown up in the vineyard country of California without -learning something of Italian peasantry, and he had not worked a week -before he knew the men had a grievance. He got an Italian primer and a -phrase book, and utilized his time on the car, which was nearly two -hours each day, for studying, with the result of being shortly able to -catch the drift of most that was said around him. So it was that as the -Summer passed he learned and reported enough of their crude plottings to -keep Mr. Smith on his guard. - -When Billy arrived home a second letter from Erminie awaited him, and -again behind his locked door he read it, wondering as he tore it open, -that he did not feel the same excited hurry as over the first one. It -was the unsatisfactory letter of one unaccustomed to correspondence and -without the natural gift for it, yet it was surprising enough. - - “DEAREST BILLY: - - “Here is five dollars more. I’ll be able to pay up soon now, for - Cousin Will got me a job. It has seemed a long time to wait, six - weeks; but I’m doing just as you said in that letter of instruction, - Billy. - - “I want to tell you again, Billy, that I would rather have faced it - out with you, because I wasn’t afraid to stand up to anybody about - that night, with you so splendid to me. It’s all right. Whatever you - say goes about that business. - - “I can’t understand yet how it was you knew all about the circular, - and had it all planned out—what I was to do—before you went on the - scout. None of us knew about it, the dodger I mean, till Saturday - night. And how was it, Billy, that you had me send the key to a - place away over in North City? I didn’t know any of your friends - lived over there. The way I put it up is that some one there is to - act in the club _pro tem_, for you this Summer, while you are - working. - - “I like my work just fine. Such a jolly bunch, hayseeds of course, - but I’m getting so I don’t mind that. And they’re all so nice to me, - especially the boys. But Cousin Will don’t let any of ’em get funny. - They all think I’m his steady. - - “I’m sending a letter to ma in this. Please mail it. I expect she’s - about crazy. I sent one to the home number. I had to do that, Billy, - if you did tell me not to. That wasn’t a bit like you, Billy. But - the letter came back. If this goes to the general delivery maybe - she’ll get it. You’ll send it, won’t you, Billy? She’s lost her - home, you know; I saw it in the paper. Or Will did. - - “So long, dear Billy. Don’t forget me, though I’m not worth - remembering. I think a lot of you. If I amount to anything it’ll be - a lot because of you. - - “Cousin Will is dandy to me, so thoughtful,—lots like you, only he’s - a hayseed too; but I don’t mind that; I’m getting used to it. He’s - twenty-four. - - “Your loving Erminie.” - -Billy stared at the sheet a long time, turning it over and over, and -scrutinizing the envelope as if he might make it tell him something -more. What could it all mean? Who had sent her that letter? Planned her -movements so carefully and forged his name? And the money? He didn’t see -yet how she could have got it out of the drawer at school even if she -did have a key. - -Twenty-four! An old fellow that Will was. He wasn’t really her cousin -either. Billy set his teeth and wished he were free to set out on a -search for her. The letter was postmarked Portland, Oregon. The other -had been the same. But of course the place where she was must be the -country, and some distance too, or she would not call the people -hayseeds. - -Suddenly the task of finding a girl somewhere in the State of Oregon -with nothing but that postmark to guide him revealed to him its -hopelessness; and too restless to sleep he went out and walked,—faster -and faster, without realizing it, going south. - -With every step the puzzle grew worse. Only one grain of comfort showed: -Erminie’s letter would prove him no thief. Why, yes! that really -fastened the proof on him, and worse, showed that he was taking care of -her. That was no way out of the tangle. - -Who could be using his name for this business? Of course, no one but the -Kid, and he was too cunning to be caught. And where was that key? Would -some of the boys get it, and never know where it came from? And the desk -drawer—whose would it be when September found that silent old pile -ringing again with a thousand student voices? - -At length he found himself in the southernmost park of the city, not so -very far from Tum-wah. Exhausted, he threw himself on one of the -benches, drawing well within the shadows that he might, unmolested, go -over again all the matters that troubled him. - -While he mused, he became gradually conscious of voices approaching, and -he was sensible of some ominous import in them. He knew they were -Italians. Instantly he dropped to the grass and crept behind the bench, -intending to go on as soon as they passed. - -They were quarrelling, but speaking in guarded tones, vehemently. Billy -heard broken bits, “More, more,” and “Thousand dollars,” in English; and -in Italian, names of places he knew were in Italy. But nothing excited -him till he heard, “the boss,” and “in the lake!” - -The Black Hand! That had put its mark on Mr. Smith! Well, even the Black -Hand might find its mate in a white one! - -Billy was not so frightened as he might have been, had he known less of -their ways, these hotheaded Latins that live in America, but not _of_ it -till a second generation binds them to the soil. He knew their -allegiance to hates and friendships rooted in the land they had left; -and perhaps what he had heard was only a scheme to “even up” somewhere, -and concerned Mr. Smith only so far as the fact that the money they -earned came from him. - -The men went by slowly, halting once or twice, and Billy crept -cautiously out and followed them at a distance till they came under one -of the park lamps that revealed them perfectly. Billy knew them; one was -the man who had chaffed him about May Nell. - -He hurried around by the gate on the other side and took a car for home, -where he called up Mr. Smith at Tuk-wil-la. - -“It sounds important, Billy. Out with it.” - -“It’s not to be told over the wire. But please don’t leave your house -to-night—” - -“To-night? It’s twelve o’clock. You’ve got me out of bed.” - -“Well, let me see you in the morning before you leave the house, then; -it may be nothing,—what I have to tell,—and it may be a good deal.” - -“All right, boy. Don’t worry yourself. Nothing is as bad in the morning -as it seems at night. Good-night.” - -But in spite of that bit of truth Billy went to bed to dream of swarthy -banditti, Italian caves, beautiful maids held for ransom, and -hair-breadth escapes known only to dreams. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XV - - A GLEAM OF LIGHT - - -WHEN Billy rang at Tuk-wil-la the next morning Mr. Smith was waiting for -him; and safely in the den Billy told his story. At the close he was -astonished to hear Mr. Smith chuckle softly. - -“Look at that curiosity.” He handed the boy a smudged and rumpled -letter. - -It was a threat common enough to men of large concerns, ill-spelled, -blotted, and signed with a black hand. It demanded ten thousand dollars, -to be delivered by Mr. Smith in person and alone, the next night at a -certain designated hour and place; and failure to comply meant certain -death to one of his family. - -“Sounds creepy, doesn’t it, Billy?” - -“What will you do?” - -“What they tell me to do,—with a difference.” - -“You—surely you won’t go, Mr. Smith!” - -“Surely I will. But three or four good men will be hidden out there in -the bushes.” - -“Gee! I’d like to be one; I can shoot.” - -Mr. Smith shook his head, and his smile died. “This is probably comic -opera, yet—you’re your mother’s only son, and there might be a bit of a -scrimmage. Besides I have other work for you.” - -“All right.” - -Mr. Smith smiled, for Billy’s tone was not hearty. “The Tum-wah people’s -second injunction is out; but I can take care of that well enough, if I -can beat daylight on another proposition.” He rose and took a turn or -two around the room, one hand in his pocket, the other pulling roughly -at his mustache. “Do you know what our real trouble is?” - -“The city won’t let you have the right of way over the boulevard? Is -that it?” - -“Yes. Do you know why?” - -Billy looked up shrewdly. “You won’t pay the price?” - -“Right, the first guess. Alvin Short wants to cinch us. And the worst of -it is, if he gets what he asks, he’ll bleed us every time we cross a -street or cut an alley. Now your job is this: to watch this property -while the Smith family go on an excursion.” - -Billy could not help showing his surprise. Usually the force of servants -was trusted to do that. - -Mr. Smith laughed and nodded through the window to where thick green -woods swept an impenetrable curtain past the singing falls, past the -private grounds, and down the hill. “The boulevard lies through there. -It won’t be built for two years, yet I may not go over it nor under nor -across it till they get their price. Billy, there’s—how many points of -law in possession?” - -Billy smiled but was discreetly silent. - -“I want six of the Italian bunch down there,” he nodded toward the -valley below, where men were already gathering for the day’s work. “I -want six that work, and don’t talk. Can you pick ’em out?” - -Billy named six, but recommended the tramp-philosopher. - -“No, not any Americans; not on this job. Now I must go down to the -grade, stop the work, and pay off the men. I guess that’s all, Billy. -Your work here begins to-morrow night. Sorry it’s not to be at our -picnic.” - -When Billy left him and started down the steps, May Nell came running -out to meet him. “Billy! Wait a minute!” - -The sun touched her hair to brighter gold. She was rosier, fuller of -cheek than formerly, and rounder of neck and arm, with an indescribable -dignity that was not quite a woman’s, yet more than girlish. - -“I heard you and hurried out to catch you. I never see you any more.” - -“I’m pretty busy these days.” - -“Tell me why you called me ‘Miss Smith’ the other day.” - -“I’m only your father’s hired workman down there—as I am anywhere for -that matter—and those fellows mustn’t see me presume to speak to you.” - -She laughed merrily. “That seems positively funny, Billy, when I think -of the day you led me into your mother’s house with a sheet pinned round -me, a woman’s skirt torn and trailing, and my toes showing through my -shoes.” - -“But now your father is worth a million and—and my face is dirty.” They -had stopped near the conservatory, and he saw himself in a window that -greenery behind had turned into a mirror, and laughed not quite -mirthfully. - -She caught his hand—hard and grimy—in her soft ones. “Your heart isn’t -dirty, Billy. And I want you to remember always that I think you are the -very best boy in the world.” - -They laughed lightly, and Billy ran off, and that day the shovel was -light. - -May Nell and her mother went away, the servants were given a vacation, -and the house closed. It looked rather lonely when Billy came in the -early evening. He had a room in the garage, and was to be on duty -practically all of the time. This was not arduous, for the entire place -was enclosed in a high barbed-wire fence, as effective as if not hidden -by honeysuckle, wild rose, and clematis; and at night the gates were -locked and two Great Danes policed the grounds. - -The first evening was a test of Billy’s courage, not because anything -happened, but because it was the first night of his life absolutely away -from human beings. And also because his mind was with Mr. Smith, -wondering what was happening, and magnifying the danger. - -Morning came, and a telephone message saying, “Nothing doing; the -blackmailers caught on.” And Billy almost forgot to be glad, so -disappointed was he at the tame ending of his adventure. - -As the day passed, he knew something was going on in the forest. Soft -voices came occasionally above the roar of the falls and the clink of -iron; and in the evening he detected the odor of fresh coffee and -toasting bacon. And Billy knew—Mr. Smith was crossing the boulevard! - -Visitors and men on business, applying at the gate or by telephone, soon -lessened; and the rest and time for reading stimulated Billy to thought -of things unremembered during the months of hard work. Each day he -opened and aired the house, and found in the library books that made the -hours short. - -Vague ideas he had hardly glimpsed for the flag design now took shape. -The banner of the city! It must be a noble idea, yet simple, one that -all would love; and it must be like the city,—the City of Green Hills. -It was also a city of blue waters and bluer skies. - -Each day he dreamed over it till at last the idea bodied itself in a -spire-crowned, forest-enfolded hill, with a sea at its base and the -declining sun on the far horizon. A shallop in full sail was setting -forth toward the sun. - -There it was, the green hill, the city, the sea and its commerce. But -this was present and future; something must show what had been -vanquished. Rather sadly Billy put in an Indian and a bear at the edge -of the forest, both looking backward. - -A sudden reminder came to him,—he was no longer a school-boy. With the -resignation of his office of treasurer of the Good Citizens’ Club of the -Fifth Avenue High he had severed every link between him and school. Yet -he was still a club member,—that admitted him to the competition. He -felt out of it all, old,—was he old before his time? He thought of his -mother’s words, and then of Erminie, and—of May Nell. - -After about twelve days Mr. Smith appeared suddenly. His shoes were -dusty and his hands and cuffs soiled; but he was oddly jaunty, as if -some great load had been lifted. - -“Didn’t expect to see me, did you, Billy?” - -Billy returned the greeting, and waited, wondering where his employer -could have been. - -“Great job, Billy! All done. As good a viaduct over that boulevard site -as there is in the city. I’ve just been looking it over. Did you know it -was building?” - -Billy smiled. “I only suspected.” - -“Good boy! You may see it now, any time you wish; but the men who built -it won’t be there.” - -Billy looked inquiringly but did not speak. - -“It’s all right, boy; everything’s right. We’ll be riding on our own -railroad in a week.” - -“Knock on wood.” Billy laughed. - -“That’s right. There’s many a slip betwixt rail and tie. Run into town -for a couple of days, boy, and see your mother. I’ll look after the -house now.” - -“Thank you. I—” - -“Oh, and you needn’t say I am here.” - -Billy was glad of the two days’ visit at home. It had never seemed so -pleasantly dainty and quiet; and it was good to spend some time with his -family when he was neither sleepy nor in a hurry. He called up some of -“the kids” over the wire and began to feel young again. Sydney answered -excitedly, and what he said took Billy flying across the town to see -him, when he caught a glimmer of a clue to the mystery that had -enveloped him all Summer. - -“A Postal Telegraph kid I know saw Jim Barney go by one day,” Mumps -began, “and that set the boy talking. ‘That’s a crooked one,’ he said, -and then he told this story. He said that he took a letter for Kid -Barney once late at night to a girl,—a mighty good-looker, he called -her,—and the next morning he went to the same place to get another -letter; and in both was something hard, a key he thought it was. This -made me sit up, and I asked him where the girl lived, and he said East -Street, somewhere in the seven hundred block.” - -“That’s Erminie!” Billy burst out. - -“Sure. And that letter had—” - -“That letter was a forged one from me, and it ordered her to take the -money and run away, and not let any one know where she was.” - -“Jiminy! How do you know that much?” - -Billy told briefly of receiving the two letters. “Where can I find that -telegraph boy?” - -“He’s gone to the country for a few days, but he’ll be back.” - -“Then we can clean it all up, and—” Suddenly all the hope died out of -his face, and he turned away dejectedly. “No use, Mumps; there’s nothing -doing.” - -“You bet there is! Now that I know so much, I’ll have it out myself -with—” - -“Mumps, it’s just where it was before. Nothing can be done in the matter -without bringing in the girl, and that we can’t do.” - -“Then it’s straight, what all the fellers are saying, that you two -stayed out all night at the picnic?” - -“I’m not acknowledging that,” Billy said sternly; and then wheeled -quickly. “Nothing happened that night that the whole world might not -have seen.” - -Sydney looked his sympathy and his entire understanding. “I see.” - -“My watch was set back that night.” - -Sydney jumped to his feet. “Gee whack! Did your coat hang on a tree back -of the dancing place?” - -“Yes, for a time.” - -“I saw the Kid fooling with something there, saw him hurry away just as -I turned the corner. And that minute you passed me; but it wasn’t very -light, and you didn’t notice me.” - -Billy was silent for a time. “Mumps, all this may help me some day, but -not now. Will you keep track of that messenger?” - -Mumps promised, and after some further discussion that was barren, they -separated. - -The second day Billy spent with the Scouts, visiting each troop, hearing -of their scouting trips, watching the practice work, and with Mr. -Streeter going over the plans for the great civic review of the Scouts, -the Good Citizens’ Clubs, and the ceremony of accepting the successful -flag design and awarding the prize. - -The evening of the second day Billy went back to Tum-wah. He was not due -till morning, but he had become already a part of the great activities -incipient there, which his imagination could see perfected and powerful. -He felt by proxy the responsibility and the joy of it. - -Mr. Smith in his machine overtook Billy trudging up the hill, and took -him in. - -“Ought I to ride—be seen riding with—” - -“Jump in! You should not have come back before time, but I’m glad you -did. After to-night your job is over, and you’ll have a better one.” - -“Why, what—what’s doing?” Billy began, too astonished even to realize -the import of Mr. Smith’s remark. - -“Yes; find things changed, don’t you? We’ve been busy.” - -When Billy left, the grade had stretched bare and brown for miles -without tie or rail. Now, except a short gap at the station and the -half-mile of contested right of way the track was completed up the hill -and into the forest. - -“The girls took a notion to come home ahead of time—surprise.” Mr. Smith -looked toward the villa. “I hate surprises! Bad enough in business; but -this—Well, now they’re here, we’ll have to take care of ’em, Billy.” - -The boy thrilled at being included as a defender of the two in the house -they were approaching. - -“Get down in the tonneau,” Mr. Smith commanded. “They must not know -you’re here—and to watch; they’ll be uneasy.” - -Billy obeyed. - -“Stay here—out of sight—till I come again; I won’t be gone long.” Mr. -Smith drove to the garage, but not in, and Billy got out and went to an -inner room, his sleeping apartment. - -As he had feared he heard May Nell’s voice when her father returned to -the machine. But he got rid of her. - -“Run back, kiddie. I have some figuring to do, and then I must see a man -at Tum-wah, and some other things—it may be very late before I get -back.” - -“It’s your birthday, papa. We came home to celebrate—” - -“To-morrow night will do as well; make the old house hum if you like -to-morrow.” - -“I suppose I’ll have to be satisfied,” May Nell said, and Billy heard -the crunch of her slippers in the gravel. - -“Come out, Billy. I have time to burn,” Mr. Smith called; and as Billy -entered he saw the anxiety the man could not conceal. “If anything -suspicious occurs don’t wait to investigate but call up South 265, and -tell ’em to come at once; then me at Tum-wah.” - -“Why don’t you have—the police, is it?—on hand before—” - -“I didn’t expect to have women in on this deal. And—there are times when -one must have the trouble _before_ he calls for the cure. Sometimes that -makes a point in law.” - -He was silent a long time. And the night, too, seemed stiller to Billy -than usual. Not a breath of wind was stirring, and nothing was moving -out on the road, though the hum of the distant electric car was making -itself heard. - -“By George, Billy! I don’t want trouble,” the man broke out suddenly. -“If those Tum-wah fellows had let me alone I’d have been willing to -divvy even, and they’d have had twice as much as they have now. But -they’ve hogged the game. They’ve pushed their injunction suits, and -fixed these Dago gardeners. Last night they tried to blow up my grade.” - -“They did?” Billy began to realize that there might be a shadow of the -Black Hand after all. - -“But I’ve got the jump on ’em, Billy; got ’em in the neck, by George! -They’ve violated their franchise,—I have the evidence in black and -white; and if this night’s work meets any interference I’ll put their -old once-a-some-time-in-the-day cattle cars out of business.” - -He lit a cigar and puffed at it nervously. Billy had never seen him in -this mood before. - -“They think I want to get the land round here for nothing. Boy, when a -_real_ man wants to make money, he takes something out of Nature that’s -worthless, or worth little—or perhaps it’s man’s waste—and makes that -thing, after a dose of brains and a civilized dress, worth good money. -But a lazy man jumps a lot of land and sits down to listen to his -neighbors holler for it. In your time, my son, the people will have -their eyes open, and there’ll be no land going that way. Then you’ll -have to use your brains to think up new things.” - -“Sometimes it seems as if all the new things had been thought up.” - -“New things! Why, Billy, if every man should invent a new job there’d -still be as many coming. Look about you and see how many little things -need fixing. And who has made use of sawdust? We burn millions of -dollars’ worth every day. They’ll be making hot cross buns out of it -some day. Look at the thistles, nettles, base ores, the millions burned -up in sewage. Think of the untended, burned, and rotting -forests,—billions go that way. Think of the deserts even along foggy sea -coasts,—why, when we really use our brains we’ll condense that fog, -irrigate with it, and raise pineapples where the horned toad now -preëmpts all the real estate.” - -He stopped a moment, rolled his cigar in his fingers, and looked out of -the open door; while Billy, breathless, waited for him to go on. - -“Think of the tide. Billy, men of the twenty-first century will run -nearly everything in the world that calls for power by the force of the -tide. They’ll turn it into acres of light, and heat, and force their -garden truck with it. They’ll cook with it, grind with it, carry it up -mountains and down into mines; drive with it, fly with it, and laugh at -us for troglodytes.” - -Both laughed softly, and Mr. Smith presently rose. “I guess I’ll go down -to the grade and kill time there. May Nell might come again; she doesn’t -have as much respect for business as you do, Billy.” - -“Perhaps it would be the same with me if you were my father, though I -don’t see—how—” He hesitated, wondering what life would mean with such a -man for father. - -“Perhaps so. Well, lie low. And don’t let the girls know you’re here.” - -With that Mr. Smith got into the machine and chugged off down the hill. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XVI - - A NIGHT OF DISASTER - - -BILLY looked after him a moment thinking it rather a pleasant fancy to -call mother and daughter “the girls,” but the situation quickly claimed -his attention. It was still light, and May Nell might come to the garage -and discover him; he would go to see the viaduct. - -He went by the lower gate and skirted the river, a river in volume, -though called Tum-wah Creek. As he walked he mentally constructed the -scene as it would look when Mr. Smith’s enterprises possessed the -valley,—he heard the hum of mills and factories; on the peaceful lake -below saw ships entering the canal from the Sound to load for ports, for -the world’s far ports. - -He looked back at the beautiful mansion; it would be a pity to see it -desecrated, made into a boarding-house, perhaps. Yet Mr. Smith would -move his summer home farther on. It was the way of this vast growing -city,—to-day’s lovely suburb was to-morrow’s mart of business. - -Billy had barely walked around the viaduct, marvelling at the swiftness -and secrecy of its building, when a low whistle halted him, and the -tramp-philosopher came from the woods. - -“Hello, Billy! Back in time for the rumpus, are you?” - -“What rumpus?” - -“Hasn’t the boss put you wise? It’s coming sure.” - -“What’s coming?” - -“There’ll be a row down there to-night when the old man starts to close -that gap in the rails.” - -“Oh, I guess not.” Billy turned away with more jauntiness than he felt. - -“See here, boy!” Billy could see that the man was serious and sober. “I -know—those hounds have it in for Mr. Smith.” - -“But surely he is prepared.” - -“For what will happen down there,” he pointed to the valley, “but not -here. The ladies—they came home.” - -“Mr. Smith didn’t expect them. It can’t be helped now.” - -“Not helped? Why doesn’t he send them to town?” - -Billy thought hard. Why didn’t he, to be sure? There must be some -reason,—perhaps it must not be known that Mr. Smith expected -trouble,—but whatever his motive Billy must stand by him, stand by May -Nell and her mother. “He had his reasons; it’s not for you or me to -question them.” - -“Perhaps not.” - -“Are you going down there?” Billy nodded toward the railroad. - -“No. He needs help here. They’d like to see this viaduct go up in smoke, -those Tum-wah rascals.” - -“Gee! Will they do that?” Billy thought a minute. “Say! If you should -need me, blow this whistle twice; but don’t do anything that will let -the two at the house know I’m there. See?” Billy handed over his -whistle. - -“I’m on. If you hear shots don’t be scared. I’m heeled.” He showed a new -revolver. - -They separated, and Billy hurried back to his place. So far there was -nothing unusual in the quiet evening scene. Through the foliage he could -see May Nell and her mother in their summer white, sitting on the -veranda; could hear the soft murmur of their intermittent conversation, -though no words. The evening was warm, and the fragrance of honeysuckle -and mignonette heavy on the air. For years afterwards Billy never -smelled them that he did not live over again the events of that awful -night. - -Many times he made the rounds, stealthily, keeping most of the time near -the garage lest he should be called. When he went in once for something, -the clock said eleven; and the next time he looked toward the veranda, -they were gone. The lower house was dark, but upstairs lights twinkled -from two of the rooms; shortly they, too, were dark. - -Two men entered the radiance of the gateway lamps. Billy hastened down -the drive to see if they went toward the viaduct; but they kept on up -the road that led through the woods to some small ranches. - -For more than an hour all was quiet. Billy hoped the two in the house -were sleeping calmly; hoped no hint of this night’s anxieties would ever -come to them. Suddenly, unbidden, came the thought of fire! He knew how -the stairways ran, how he could reach those rooms unless both stairways -were cut off. In that case—was there a ladder? He measured with his eye -the more than twenty feet between those windows and the sloping ground. - -He remembered seeing a ladder at the back of the garage, and went to -look for it, but it was gone; and he wondered if it could have been -placed in the basement for safe keeping while the servants were away. - -As he returned to his beat again, a ringing of metal struck through the -darkness. It was the hammers! They had begun to lay the rails! -Regularly, beat on beat, came the blows. Dozens of lanterns were bunched -each side of the track, shedding a dim light. Billy wondered why Mr. -Smith had not strung electric lamps on a sliding wire. Perhaps he did -not want the Green Hills Power Company to know,—since he must buy power -of them until his own plant was completed. - -Billy crept quickly back to his post near the garage, thinking Mr. Smith -might call him. Again he saw the two men in the lamplight going by on -the road, this time headed for Tum-wah. An uneasy suspicion came to him: -What business had taken those men to the isolated ranches and back so -late at night? - -A dozen answers,—business, illness, a telegram,—many legitimate errands -might be theirs for this midnight trip. Yet Billy could not rid himself -of his suspicion. - -The sounds from below came regularly, but more rapidly, as if some force -were hurrying the workers. He could see the bent backs, and occasionally -the glint of metal in the lantern light; could see the helpers move the -stacked lights on, and hear the ring of the rails as they were dropped -on the ties. - -The moon, red, lop-sided, and ragged, appeared over the Cascades. That -meant it was past twelve o’clock. Billy was creeping carefully by the -house to patrol the farther line of fence, when the hammering below -suddenly ceased; some of the lanterns went out, and noises of another -sort drifted up to him,—angry voices, the whack of sticks and clubs, and -then a shot. - -It had come,—the protest of blows! He could see the confused commingling -of forms, hear louder voices, and again the dull crash as of wooden -weapons; and in a moment a detonation—a blast. - -The road-bed—they must be blowing it up! Yet while Billy strained his -eyes to catch the location of the blast, and the meaning of the turmoil -that seemed a tragedy, he noticed a sudden stilling of the commotion, -and the shifting of the forms. One by one the lanterns were lighted -again, and soon the hammers rang, now more rapidly than before. - -Billy understood. Mr. Smith had been prepared. He had seen that the law -should be ready to aid him as soon as assistance was needed. The work -would go right on, and Billy felt sure Mr. Smith would find a speedy way -to repair whatever damage might have been done. This outrage so promptly -met would surely stop any others that might have been contemplated. - -Relieved, he ran into the garage and picked up the sandwich and bottle -of milk that were to be his lunch, and went out again where eye and ear -might still be on duty. - -He did not eat. As he stepped out, a flame shot up at the side of the -house. He rushed into the garage to call up the fire department; but the -moment he took down the receiver he knew the wires had been cut,—the -telephone was “dead.” - -A cold horror swept him. Whatever was done he must do himself. He ran to -find the garden hose and soon had a stream of water playing. The force -was good, and he could see that he made headway against the flame. Ought -he to cry out? Wake the sleepers? If he did, they would see—hear—No one -could tell what might happen down there in the valley before the coming -of the sun. He was gaining—the fire would soon be out. He would let them -sleep. - -But this might not be the end. Those wires—where would the cut be? Near -the grounds surely, for anywhere else they were in plain sight of all -passers following the road. - -He was looking for the last hidden sparks and considering it safe to -leave when a shot from the direction of the viaduct proclaimed that -malevolence that night was missing no property belonging to Mr. Smith. A -second shot rang out, and a third; and presently two men emerged from -the forest running, the forward one stumbling and recovering only to -fall again and rise no more. The second came toward the garage drive, -and Billy knew him to be the tramp. - -He ran to open to him, explaining breathlessly about the fire and the -wires as they hurried up the walk. - -“You take the hose and watch while I hunt where those wires are cut. I -believe we shall need the fire engine.” - -“It won’t do any good; you can’t mend the cut if you find it. Better -break into the house and bring out the women now.” - -“Wake them to all this turmoil, when it may not be necessary? No. I’ll -find and splice those wires someway.” - -“You’ll get shocked, crippled, if not killed.” - -“Telephone wires don’t shock to hurt.” - -Without more parley Billy hurried out of the enclosure and around to -where the line entered the grounds, finding what he expected. The wire -had been cut near the pole. It was easy to tie the long end to the -fence, but he was puzzled how to manage the other. - -The man—how had he reached the wire so high? He must have had a -ladder—that was where the ladder went! Or—could he have brought one? -Climbers! Of course. Billy’s heart sank, but rose again when he -remembered that all poles at Tuk-wil-la were of iron. - -While thinking, he was hunting, slowly he thought, yet actually flying -from place to place, diving into the greenery along the fence and -leaving more than one drop of blood as tribute to the barbs. He found -the ladder at last, a flimsy thing, and placed it against the pole. - -Wire! He must have wire. Like lightning his mind flashed from point to -point of his difficulty. The clothes-line,—that was copper! He started -back, running and thinking. How could he cut it? Must he take time to -twist it in two, even supposing he could? It was such heavy wire. Tools -in the garage? Yes, perhaps, and the chest locked; and while he hunted, -precious moments would be going. - -The lawn-mower! Perhaps that would do the trick. He knew right where it -was, and ran for it. Now he was at the line, pulling the end loose from -its staple, and wishing all the time the moon would get a move on and -shine up brighter. Length by length he tore the wire from the arms of -the clothes tree, each staple “in harder than the last,” it seemed. He -thought he had never been so weak, so slow. - -At last he had enough, and made a bight in it. Would the lawn-mower -“play up”? Yes! It cut the line in two, and Billy ran up the ladder, -soon making the connection. He got several light shocks and for a -panic-stricken moment trembled lest he could not let go, and should be -marooned in the air. Yet he came safely through his task, and ran with -his ladder to the garage to try the wire. - -Before he arrived he heard the bell ringing. The ’phone was alive! - -He went in and took the message. It was to say that Mr. Smith had gone -to town and would be back in an hour. Billy knew this was from the -Tum-wah office; and he told them there what had happened. He wondered if -he should call the fire department on the chance of what might occur, -but decided against it. - -Fatal mistake. He started toward the house to tell the other what he had -done, beginning to speak at some distance, when a boom shattered the -very air around them, lifting and enveloping them. It came from beneath, -almost at their feet it seemed, and both men staggered back half -blinded. - -For an instant neither could understand what had happened. But for an -instant only—less than a breath. The whole interior of the house flashed -into light. Each window was a red and angry eye. - -“The fire department—South 687—call them up!” Billy commanded, grasping -at the hand of the man and running with him,—he was going for the -ladder. - -But the other pulled away. “The fire department can’t manage this! We -must get the women out! Come, quick! They’ll be burned!” - -“Do as I tell you!” thundered Billy, breaking loose. “I’ll get the -ladder. Come to me as soon as you ’phone.” - -While he was shouting he had found the ladder and was hurrying back. -Both knew that a mine had been laid into the house, into the basement. -The fire outside had been but a “flash in the pan.” They knew the house -must go; and such a large fire at that season would endanger the forest, -and many homes near. Tuk-wil-la was just within the city limits, and -entitled to the services of the department; they must stop the fire -there. - -It was but a few seconds from the time of the explosion before Billy was -placing his ladder at one of the windows where the lights had twinkled -so shortly before, calling May Nell’s name in tones that rang through -the night. - -He knew that both stairways were cut off; whoever had prepared the mine -had seen to that. “May Nell! Come to the east window!” Billy called -again and again as he climbed nimbly, and plunged into the smoke and -heat. - -“Yes, I’m here—in mama’s room—she’s fallen—I can’t lift her.” - -Billy heard the suffocation in her voice, the weakness. He knew the -room, and groped his way on, calling, “Come this way! The ladder is at -the other window! Come quick! I’ll bring your mother!” - -Billy’s own words were choking, sputtering even though he was holding -his head down. Where was he? Surely he had made no mistake, was going -the right way. “May Nell! Where’s the door? Where are you?” But no voice -answered, and for a breath Billy believed he could not go on. They were -caught, lost! - -Yet that thought nerved him. Those two suffocating—burning—The little -girl he had succored once before, the brightest, loveliest—Yes, in that -instant his soul flashed a clear vision! She was the one. She had been -the inspiration to the noblest deeds he had ever thought or hoped. She -was the star of his life! - -Some instinct guided him,—or was it his own soul? Something besides -conscious volition led him through an open door, kept him calling, -calling frantically, and crouching around the room to find the prostrate -woman. “May Nell! May Nell! Speak! Where are you?” - -It was enough. Some shock from his soul to hers galvanized her to -consciousness. She roused, answered feebly, and moved toward the bed -where her mother had fallen. - - [Illustration: “Give her to me; I am fresh,” he said, attempting to - take Mrs. Smith from Billy’s arms.] - -Billy lifted the insensible woman, turned swiftly back, and called -encouragingly to May Nell. “Hold fast to me, girlie!” And when he felt -her grasp relax from his arm, “Brace up! Be game, Nell! We’re getting -there!” - -Then he lost sense of time, of rational movement. Even the dead weight -of his burden did not signify. He felt no emotion. He seemed only to be -plodding on stolidly, while behind him flames roared and floors crashed. -He felt the timbers sag suddenly, knew the fire was close upon them, yet -he could not hurry. - -But while smoke and heavy burden and heat dulled his mind, he was -actually making incredible haste. He felt the clearer air before he saw -the open window, and arrived there to find the tramp waiting, the only -one who had dared to enter the furnace. He had broken out the window for -them, sash and glass. - -“Give her to me; I am fresh,” he said, attempting to take Mrs. Smith -from Billy’s arms. - -He was a small, slender man, and Billy dared not trust him. “Not her; -here!” He pushed May Nell forward. - -But the little girl shrank back. “No, no! Mama first.” - -“Go!” Billy commanded, and thrust her into the awaiting arms. His brain -was clear enough now. The lighter pair must go first; the ladder would -certainly bear them, if not the heavier two. Well, he must see that his -own charge was somehow safely landed. - -They obeyed. People did obey Billy when he used that tone. Those who had -gathered from the nearest houses steadied the ladder while the first two -came down, and held out glad hands to receive them. - -But to Billy the rescuer below him seemed to creep. Would he never reach -the ground? The floor trembled with a new shock. Billy heard the crash -of another wall, saw the fire leap through the gap behind him, and -daring the lesser danger he climbed out on the ladder. Even as he passed -to the first rung a sheet of flame burst upon them shrouding them, -reaching for them like some red, cosmic tongue that would lap them into -the mouth of destruction. - -But they emerged. Billy felt the spring of the wood that announced its -release from the weight of the other two, and hurried on with his -precious freight, knowing the danger, yet hoping the ladder would hold. -Midway between fire and earth he heard a crack, a splintering, and felt -the sag. - -“Catch her!” he shouted hoarsely, and reached her down. - -His cry fixed attention on the descending woman, and she was safely -caught and carefully borne to coolness and friends. But for Billy they -were too late. Relieved of responsibility for others, he made no attempt -to direct his fall—perhaps he could not have done so—but landed heavily -in an inert heap. - -They lifted him tenderly. Almost at once he regained consciousness, and -asked anxiously of May Nell and her mother. It was not till he was -assured by his own eyes that both were safe, and that Mrs. Smith’s hurt -was from a light fall that temporarily had stunned but had not harmed -her, that he realized the meaning of the limp arm at his side. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER XVII - - BILLY WINS - - -THE beautiful house and its contents vanished before their eyes. The -fire department arrived only in time to prevent the fire from spreading. -Yet Mr. Smith said that the timber that would otherwise have gone was -worth twenty times the value of the house, save for its sentiment. And -even that was not what it would have been for an older home; the family -treasures were at the town house. - -It was enough, the magnate said, to receive into his arms when he raced -out from town, his loved ones safe, and except for shaken nerves, -unhurt. - -It was not possible in the long trial that followed to find the “man at -the top.” The poor ignorant foreigners who had been inflamed against Mr. -Smith, and, while he slept, had entered his house and laid the train to -its destruction, paid the penalty; while the one who tried to blow up -the viaduct died from the tramp’s bullet. Billy’s evidence decided the -coroner’s jury, for none of them ever saw the tramp after that night. - -The Tum-wah people could not be directly identified with the outrages, -but investigation proved enough to cause the revocation of their -franchise, and incidentally Alvin Short finished his career in stripes. - -Billy was taken to the hospital where his injuries—except the broken -arm—were soon healed. Here Mr. Smith came and more than once poured out -his gratitude. - -“This ends it, Billy. We’ll have no more nonsense about working till -you’ve taken aboard your tools, your equipment of education and travel. -It’s school now; you begin with the term. Hear?” - -Billy smiled his thanks. Later, when he was on his feet, would be time -enough to explain that his life must be lived according to his own idea -of duty. - - --------------------- - -A few days after the fire Mrs. Bennett was surprised to receive an -urgent call at the telephone in an unknown voice begging for an -immediate interview; and a little later an excited young woman was at -her door. - -“I’m Erminie Fisher,” she explained. “I’ve come about Billy. How is he?” - -“He’s doing well; will soon be out of the hospital.” - -“And he won’t be crippled, scarred?” - -“No. In a few weeks he will be quite recovered.” Mrs. Bennett could not -throw cordiality into her tone. Loyal as Billy had been to Erminie his -mother divined far more than he suspected of the part this girl had -played in his life. - -“Oh, Mrs. Bennett, he’s the best boy in the world. He’s done so much for -me. I saw in the paper what a hero he was at the fire, and I came right -home. I—I—was so afraid I couldn’t clear up everything, but now that -I’ve seen Mumps—Sydney Bremmer—and heard a lot from him, I think I can.” - -“Sit here, where it is cooler,” Mrs. Bennett invited, pushing a chair to -the open window. “Now tell me what you wish,—only that don’t distress -yourself.” - -The kinder words and tone cheered Erminie. She told the story of her -acquaintance with Billy, of the picnic, of the attitude of the school -bully, of the letter, the money, and of her growing conviction that the -letter was a forgery, and the taking of the money a theft. - -“And I came back to tell you, Mr. Wright, Professor Teal,—anybody who -can help tell the truth for Billy. I’ve been a fool, I know it now; but -Billy sha’n’t suffer another day for that.” - -Mrs. Bennett took Erminie’s hands in her own. “You are a brave girl. It -has not been easy for you to do this, nor has it been easy for me to -look on helpless, and see Billy’s life so early burdened.” - -“He could have put himself right any day if he had told on me.” - -“How is it you dared come home, since your father was so—so angry—” Mrs. -Bennett hesitated. - -“I would have dared anything. I had made up my mind to set Billy right, -no matter what happened to me. But my Uncle Henry fixed it. Anyway, -after what Mr. Short did to dad, he was glad I didn’t marry the man, and -dad’s as pleased as ma to have me home again.” - -“You—wish Mr. Wright to know—what you’ve told me?” - -“Yes, yes! I want Billy to be cleared of everything, to go back to Fifth -Avenue High respected as he deserves to be.” - -“Yet if—if you do this it will be hard for you. It’s past, and a pity -for you to be exposed to censure when you were only the victim of -circumstances.” - -“Mrs. Bennett, Billy never hesitated to bear censure for me; now it’s my -turn. Besides—” She stopped and for the first time showed embarrassment. -“I want you to know this,—Billy taught me some of the best things I -know; and I loved him—I love him still. But now I know that it is not -the kind of love a girl—a girl should have for the man she marries. -I—I’m not going back on Billy, Mrs. Bennett. It’s—it’s—” - -Mrs. Bennett reached over and gently stroked her hair. “You need not -hesitate. I quite comprehend.” - -Erminie caught her hand. “It’s perfectly lovely of you to say that. I’ve -been feeling so mean—untrue to Billy—even while I’ve been loving him all -the time. But I’ve met a—a man, a good man, much older than Billy, -and—and—” - -“Yes, a man. Billy’s only a boy, but you are a woman.” - -“It was Billy who set me to thinking. He told me many things you have -said, and I began to see that even if I had loved Billy as—in the right -way, it would have been wrong for us to marry.” - -“That is over now. Look to the future, and—I hope you will be very -happy.” - -“And may I bring Will—Mr. Harrington, to see you? He’s anxious to meet -you, and Billy—all the family. And I want him to before—before I change -my name.” - -Mrs. Bennett made the girl happy by her sympathy. Erminie summoned -Sydney by telephone to meet them at Mr. Wright’s office, and there the -two told their story. Mr. Wright sent a command to Jim Barney that -brought him while they waited. He soon found his small knowledge of law -and trickery no match for the astute lawyer, and he was very glad to -accept immunity from prosecution on more than one charge by a full -confession of his misdeeds, and the payment to Billy of the money he had -induced Erminie to take. - -When the interview was over Erminie and her lover went to the hospital, -where she saw Billy first alone. - -Never had she seemed so dear and sweet to him as when she stood beside -him telling the story of what she had done for him. And when, after a -moment’s absence she brought her Cousin Will, looking so happy, and -proud of him, Billy felt his heart bound with a great joy, the joy of -freedom. - -“Here’s the dearest man in the world, Billy, and the best, next to you.” -She looked sidewise at the well-made but rather short man beside her, -with a trace of her old coquetry lurking in voice and manner. - -Billy shook the firm hand with his left one. “She has it twisted, Mr. -Harrington. You’re the best man; I’m—I’m just a kid.” - -“I wonder she ever looked at a man, then,” the other returned -generously, waving his hands apart in recognition of the six feet of -muscle and vigor that surmounted even the background of a hospital cot. - -Two weeks later the great day came; the day when the City of Green Hills -paid court to her young citizens; when the Scouts marched by the -reviewing stand, twelve hundred strong, and later performed their feats -of skill in the competition for honors; when the Young Citizens’ Clubs, -boys and girls, each club led by its own band, in song and speech -celebrated some great event in the history of their city, or prophesied -her future greatness. - -Mr. Streeter told the multitude that this was but the beginning of a -campaign for the promotion of civic pride, a pride that should foster -art and beauty and civic honor, to the end that the City of Green Hills -should be known throughout the land as the best as well as the most -beautiful city in the world. - -“These things will make it the greatest. Do you think when it is known -that this is the cleanest, the most beautiful, and the best governed -city in America, that any power can withhold people from coming here? -The American city that makes commercialism second to these three things -will in ten years outgrow all others. Humanity hungers for such civic -ideals and doesn’t know it.” - -Then came the explanation of the flag competition and the announcement -of the winner. Billy thought the highest possible note of joy had been -sounded,—for his design had won. - -There above them all, at the moment of Mr. Streeter’s announcement, the -banner was run up the tall pole and beneath the Stars and Stripes flung -out to the breeze, the official flag of the City of Green Hills. - -Cheers upon cheers! And Billy was called. When he stepped to the -platform, his arm still in the sling, but otherwise rosy with health and -joy, the audience rose, and cheers from the men, and fluttering -handkerchiefs from the women, made Billy wonder if this was just plain -earth or some other more glorious planet. - -After an almost imperceptible silence came the yell of his school, given -with a gusto that told him he had been reinstated in their favor. - -He made his bow and a modest speech. In the crowd near the platform were -May Nell and Erminie. And as he finished, it was into May Nell’s eyes he -looked, and knew who held his heart. - -The exercises were over, the crowd began to move. He went down and took -her hand. And at that moment came again a ringing cry, “What’s the -matter with Billy To-morrow? Billy To-morrow’s Billy To-day! He’s all -right! Rah, rah, rah, Billy!” - - - - - THE END - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - SOME OPINIONS OF MRS. CARR’S FIRST SUCCESS - - ------- - - BILLY TO-MORROW - - ------- - -“It is a powerful story, the scene of which is laid in California after -the great earthquake. It is admirably told, and makes a strong appeal to -all that is best in a young person’s nature.”—_Philadelphia Public -Ledger._ - -“A splendid story of a boy’s love and courage.”—_Hartford Courant._ - -“This is a good story of a California boy who learned lessons of -manliness and chivalry from a little refugee girl received by his mother -after the great fire. The boy reader may be trusted to enjoy it and -without having his pleasure spoiled by the suspicion of a moral.”—_The -Argonaut._ - -“All in all it is a splendid story for boys.”—_Education._ - -“Sarah Pratt Carr has invented a lovable young hero in her bright story, -‘Billy To-Morrow.’ So full of incident is the story that it will hold -the interest of boy and girl readers from the first chapter to the -last.”—_Des Moines Capital._ - -“The story is full of life and action and good sense.”—_Spokane -Spokesman-Review._ - -“Should appeal to every full-blooded youngster.”—_San Francisco -Bulletin._ - - ------- - - A. C. McCLURG & CO., PUBLISHERS - - CHICAGO - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - PRESS OPINIONS REGARDING MRS. CARR’S - - Billy To-Morrow in Camp - -“Here are a crowd of real boys in a delightful vacation camp. The -interest is sustained from the beginning to the end. The publishers -have done their part to make the book attractive, paper, type, binding -and illustrations are all of the best, and the picture of Billy on the -cover almost equals our ideal of him. Mrs. Carr is to be congratulated -on having given to American young people one of the best books which has -been written for them since the death of Miss Alcott and one which -places her in the very front rank of writers of juvenile fiction.”—_The -Week-End (Seattle)._ - -“A good, exciting, and wholesome story of a group of boys who ‘camp out’ -on the shores of Puget Sound, and have lots of fun and some -troubles.”—_Cincinnati Times Star._ - -“It gives in an interesting style the adventures of a boy with a big -heart and unusual courage. The fascinations of camp life are well -portrayed. A good wholesome story for boys.”—_The United Presbyterian._ - -“A boy’s book, full of all the exciting incidents that belong to a -camping-out life by a group of bright lads who are bent on enjoyment of -the freedom of the woods. There are many things which would naturally -happen to a bright young lad in camp and which many bright young lads -not in camp will delight to read.”—_Journal of Education._ - -“A lively and vivacious story which will gladden any sort of boy.”—_The -Post Intelligencer (Seattle)._ - -“Here is a new hero in boy literature, though not entirely new, as this -is his second appearance between book covers. The popularity and success -of the earlier book, ‘Billy To-morrow,’ and its adoption as the title of -a series indicates that this manly, full-blooded, lovable young -character is to be with us some time. The story has much life, action, -and withal, good sense, and it carries the best sort of moral along with -an enjoyable story without the reader the least expecting it. ‘Billy’ -has a promising career ahead of him.”—_The Normal Instructor._ - -“The story is a jolly one of outdoor camping experiences, with the boy’s -practical devices for comfort which young readers may find helpful for -similar occasions.”—_The Continent._ - - A. C. McCLURG & CO., PUBLISHERS - - CHICAGO - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - -● Transcriber’s note: - - ○ Missing or obscured punctuation was corrected. - - ○ Unpaired quotation marks were left as the author intended. - - ○ Typographical errors were silently corrected. - - ○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only - when a predominant form was found in this book. - - - -***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BILLY TO-MORROW STANDS THE TEST*** - - -******* This file should be named 56169-0.txt or 56169-0.zip ******* - - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/5/6/1/6/56169 - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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