SAFETY IN SILENCE
But there was a triumph, though it was not Hervey’s. The daredevil had
not even the doubtful glory suggested by that name. He was just a dupe.
The next afternoon the _Farrelton Call_ bore the following glaring
headline on its usually modest front page:
DARING ROBBERY AT FIRE HOUSE
THIEVES BREAK INTO SAFE AND TAKE CARNIVAL
FUND AMOUNTING TO FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS
False Fire-alarm Thought to Have Been Used
by Robbers. No Clew to Miscreants.
“Shortly after ten o’clock last night,” the article ran,
“the Farrelton Fire House was entered by one or more
burglars who forced the little, old-fashioned safe and stole
a sum slightly less than four hundred dollars. Most of this
money constituted the fund belonging partly to the exempt
firemen’s organization and partly to the active service men,
and was intended to be used to finance the Firemen’s
Carnival to be held in Stebbin’s Field. No one was in the
fire-house when the robbery occurred.
“A few minutes after ten last night, an alarm was sent in
from the fire-box in the outlying section of town where New
Street was lately extended. It was a false alarm and there
is no clew which affords any hope of identifying the sender.
“It is thought by the police that the alarm may have been
sent by a confederate of the burglars in order to empty the
fire-house of its occupants at a particular time. If this
was the case, it would argue that the crime was executed by
men familiar with facts about the fire-house.
“Charlie Winthrop, driver of the engine, is on vacation and
his place is being filled by one of the other men, Fred
Corway. Corway, who was injured in the McElroy fire last
year, usually remains in the fire-house when an alarm is
received.
“But last night, there being still another man absent
because of illness, Corway went out with the others. It is
believed that the robbery was planned by some one who knew
that the fire company was short-handed. The robbers may have
sent in the alarm in the hope of completely emptying the
building, or at the worst of having but one crippled
occupant to deal with.
“The police are following up several rather unpromising
clews which they refuse to divulge. Chief Bordman persists
in the belief that the job was done by local talent and
points to the fact that very little money is kept in
fire-houses and also that the projected carnival is not
known about outside of Farrelton.
“When seen this morning, County Detective Burr said, ‘It
looks to me like a home town affair. Burglars don’t ransack
fire headquarters, because there usually isn’t anything
worth stealing in such places. They must have known about
this money. And they probably had some hopes of clearing out
the place for a while with a false alarm. It looks to me as
if they had inside knowledge. They probably knew the safe
was an out-of-date affair, too. They had to work quick. And
the quicker _we_ work clearing a lot of young loafers away
from the neighborhood of the fire-houses and other hang-out
spots in this town, the better it will be.’”
The same issue of the newspaper carried an editorial hurling blame this
way and that. The police should watch the lunch wagons which were
infested with young loungers. The fire-fighting contingent was
“disgracefully inadequate.” The remote end of New Street had never been
policed. And so on, and so on. Presumably the _Farrelton Call_ was the
only thing properly conducted.
Hervey read this article with mounting interest--and agitation. His
blithesome, devil-may-care nature was for the first time surprised into
something like soberness, not to say apprehension. Spectacular stunts
and dares were all very well--except for the upkeep.
But the robbery, to which he seemed an accessory, did not entirely
obliterate another shock with which the gods had visited him. He had
intended to ask permission to dive from the top of the dizzy ladder
which would be held by sloping wires above a perilously small tank of
water at the carnival, and failing to obtain permission he had intended
to do it without permission. But now he could not do it. He had knocked
down the spectacular ladder on which he had intended to climb up; for
there probably would not be any carnival. Farrelton had always been too
tame for Hervey and now he had, it seemed, killed the most promising
diversion which the brief pre-school season offered.
Of course, he had no intention of telling the authorities about his
encounter with the young fellow of the Ford car. He could not give them
a clew without incriminating himself. He made sure of this by certain
questions casually propounded to his stepfather that evening at supper.
“Well, I hope they catch the whole crew of them,” said Mr. Walton.
“They’re potential murderers. If they had found the lame fireman there
they would have killed him if necessary. That kind stops at nothing.”
“Mr. Tonelson who was here about the apples this afternoon thinks there
was only one man,” said Mrs. Walton. “And he thinks _he_ was an
amateur.”
“There were two of them anyway,” said her husband. “There was the one
who sent in the alarm.”
Hervey, eating his dessert, was all ears. “Ringing an alarm box
isn’t--jiminies, a fellow that does that isn’t a criminal, is he?” he
ventured.
“He is if he’s working with a burglar,” said Mr. Walton. “He’s an
accessory. You know what that is, don’t you?”
“Like something you put on an automobile?” Hervey said.
Mr. and Mrs. Walton laughed heartily. “He’s a confederate,” said Mr.
Walton.
“Well, I certainly hope they’re caught and sent to jail,” said Mrs.
Walton, whose gentle voice and manner seemed to belie any unkind
thought, even toward robbers. “To think the carnival was to raise money
for the Children’s Home! It almost seems as if they had stolen the money
from little waifs and crippled children. Why, there are two little blind
tots in the Home.”
Hervey did not like the sound of that; it made him feel uncomfortable,
contemptible.
“They might better have turned over the four hundred dollars to the
Home,” said her practical husband.
“Oh, they didn’t know,” said Mrs. Walton. “But it’s unspeakable.”
“You never loiter around with any of that crowd down at Huyler’s or the
lunch wagon, do you, Herve?” Mr. Walton asked suddenly.
“Such a question!” his wife exclaimed in surprised reproof.
“Well, I’m glad he doesn’t.”
“Of course, he doesn’t,” said Mrs. Walton.
“Anyway,” said Hervey, feeling very uncomfortable, and fearful lest he
say too much, “I don’t see how a fel--a man that sends a false alarm is
a--like a murderer. How do they know the burglar had anything to do with
that?”
“Yes, how do they know that?” queried Mrs. Walton as a sort of
affectionate compliment to Hervey’s reasoning.
“Well,” said Mr. Walton, “they put two and two together. I guess they
know their business. I didn’t say a man who sends in a false alarm is a
murderer--necessarily. Considered by itself it’s just malicious
mischief. I suppose it’s a misdemeanor, if you want to be technical
about it,” he added.
“I bet you couldn’t go to jail for it,” Hervey ventured cautiously.
“I bet you could,” said Mr. Walton.
Of course, Hervey knew that what he had done was reprehensible. He had
not thought of it in that light, for that was just Hervey, but in the
light of the robbery, he thought about it a good deal. He had put out
this feeler to his stepfather in order to get Mr. Walton’s reaction.
He was not afraid that he would be implicated in the robbery, though he
felt mean to think that he had been an innocent participant in an affair
which his mother had branded as contemptible and unspeakable. Mrs.
Walton did not ordinarily use those terms. It seemed to Hervey that she
had called _him_ contemptible and unspeakable. And he knew he was not
that.
He had thought that if he could ascertain with certainty that his
“stunt” was quite innocent, he might tell the authorities or Mr. Walton
about his encounter with the young tough. But if he had been guilty of
malicious mischief (appalling phrase) and could go to jail for it, why
then he had better hold his peace. Here again fate baffled him for he
would have relished an opportunity to track a real robber. But, he
reassured himself, he was not concealing facts about the robbery. He was
just concealing the little episode of his stunt.
If you call it a stunt....