When with a last desperate spurt I ran into the clearing, I saw the
Professor sitting in the cabin door, smoking his pipe and basking in
the sunshine as though life held no trouble for him. I believed that I
was in time to warn him of the threatening danger, that I had outsped
the warrant, that I had outrun the redoubtable Lukens, and in the
luxury of that thought my overtaxed strength ebbed away and I sank down
on a stump, hot and panting. I had run a hard race for so small a boy.
At times it seemed as though the mountains drew back from me, that
every one of the five miles had stretched to ten, but I kept bravely
on, going at top speed over the level places, dragging wearily up the
steep hills, cutting through fields and woods where I could save
distance, following every brief rest with a spasmodic burst of energy,
and now I had come to the last stretch, the ragged patch of weeds,
exhausted. I tried to call my friend, but my throat was parched and I
could not raise my voice above a whisper, and as my head barely lifted
over the wild growth of his farm, he smoked on, unconscious of my
presence. Something in a distant tree-top engaged his attention,
something vastly interesting, it seemed to me, for he never turned my
way to see my waving hand. So I struggled to my feet and staggered on.
At last he heard me, sprang up, and came striding over the clearing.
Then my tired legs crumpled up; I sat down suddenly and, supported by
my sprawling hands, waited for him.
"Davy--Davy Malcolm," he cried, "who has been chasing you now?"
"A warrant!" I gasped. "Mr. Lukens, he is coming with a warrant to
arrest you!"
The tall form bent over me and I was raised to my feet. Supporting me
in his strong grasp, he held me off from him, and for a moment regarded
me with grave eyes.
"And you've come to warn me, eh, Davy?" he said.
"Yes, sir," I answered. "Mr. Pound he thinks you are a dangerous man.
Mr. Pound he wants to get you out of the valley. Mr. Pound he----"
The Professor seemed to have little fear of Mr. Pound and as little
interest in him. "Never mind the learned Doctor Pound," he exclaimed,
and his mouth twitched in a smile inspired by the mere thought of the
minister. "The point is, Davy, that you left home before daylight to
tell me, and you must have run nearly all the way--eh, boy?"
"I had to," I panted. "You see, Mr. Lukens he was to come here early
for you, and I thought if I was in time you might run away."
To run away seemed to me the only thing for the Professor to do, and I
expected that at the mere mention of the terrible Lukens he would
scurry to the mountain-top as fast as his legs would carry him. Yet he
held the constable in as little terror as he did Mr. Pound, for instead
of fleeing he drew me to him, and held me in an embrace so tight as to
make me struggle for breath and freedom.
"Davy, Davy!" he cried; "you understand me, boy. You are a friend, a
real friend--my only friend."
Again and again he said it--that I was his only friend--and not until I
cried out that I had had no breakfast and would he please not squeeze
me so tight did he release me, and then it was to keep fast hold on my
arm and lead me to the house. Penelope had heard us and met us
half-way, running, halting suddenly before us, and staring wide-eyed at
the bedraggled boy who lurched along at her father's side.
"Davy," she cried, "have you come fishin' again?"
My answer was to hold out my hand to her, and together we three went
into the house. There, with my breath regained, and my parched throat
relieved, and my tired legs dangling from the most luxurious of
rocking-chairs, my spirits rose with my returning strength. It nettled
me to see the Professor giving so little heed to my warning. I had
performed what was for me a herculean task, and yet the precious
moments which I had fought so hard to gain for him were being frittered
away in preparations for a breakfast for me. He was evidently grateful
for what I had done, but he was getting no good from it. Had I run all
those miles to tell him that the bogie man was coming he could not have
moved about his cooking with less concern. For a time I watched him
with growing indignation, yet I hesitated to mention the purpose of my
errand before Penelope, who had fixed herself before my chair and, with
her hands clasped behind her back and her head lifted high, was gazing
at me in admiring silence. My uneasiness increased as the minutes flew
by, and when the first sharp demands of appetite had been satisfied I
looked at the Professor, now seated at the other side of the table, and
nodded my head toward his daughter, and winked with a sageness beyond
my years.
"Mr. Blight, hadn't you otter be going?" I asked.
The Professor, in answer, laughed outright. He clasped his hands to
his sides and rocked on two legs of his chair in exuberance.
"Davy--Davy, you'll be the death of me yet!"
To me this seemed a very hard thing to say, as I had no wish to be the
death of the Professor; but, quite to the contrary, had made a great
effort and had risked much trouble at home in my desire to help him.
Now I was beginning to think that I had done as well to drop a
post-card in the mail to warn him of his danger. The disappointment
brought tears to my eyes. He saw them. His face turned very gentle
and he leaned across the table toward me.
"Davy, I can't thank you enough for what you have done. But don't
worry about me--I'm not afraid of Byron Lukens."
At the name of the constable Penelope broke into laughter, and placed a
hand on my arm to draw my eyes to her. "Mr. Lukens was here this
morning, Davy, just before you came. And, oh, you should have seen
father knock him down!"
My fork and knife clattered to the plate as I turned to the girl, and
she saw doubt and wonder in my eyes.
"He did!" she cried. "And oh, Davy, you'd have died laughing if you
had seen Mr. Lukens tumble over the wood-pile and hit his head against
the rain-barrel."
I stared at the Professor. I had liked him for his kindness to me and
had pitied him for his misfortune. Now I was filled with admiration
for the physical prowess of this man who could whip the intrepid
constable, for in Malcolmville there was no one whom I held in so much
awe as Byron Lukens. He was mighty in bulk; his voice was proportioned
to his size; his words fitted his voice. Often I had sat on the
store-porch and listened to his stories of his feats, and I believed
that to cross him in any way must be the height of daring. The tale of
the men whom he had whipped in the past and promised to whip in the
future if they raised a finger against him would almost have made a
census of the valley. That this frail man should have resisted him,
that those thin hands should have been raised against him, that the
intellectual Professor should have knocked down the Hercules of our
village, was beyond my comprehension. So my friend across the table
saw amazement welling up from my open mouth and eyes.
He shrugged his shoulders. "There was nothing else to do, Davy. He
beat you here after all. Probably you missed him in your short cuts
over the fields. Why, it was hardly light when I heard him pounding at
the door. He said he had come to arrest me." Rising and drawing
himself to his full height, the Professor began to tell me of the early
morning conflict, forgetting, in his indignation, how small were his
two auditors, and throwing out his voice as though to reach a
multitude. "He had come to arrest me--me; said that I was a vagrant;
spoke to me as you wouldn't speak to a dog, and told me to come
along--to come along with him, a hulking, boastful brute. Why, it was
all I could do to keep my temper, Davy. I answered him as politely as
I could, said that I had done no wrong, and certainly would not allow
myself to be arrested. And then----"
"Then father knocked him down," cried Penelope, clapping her hands.
"Oh, Davy, you'd otter seen it."
"Should have, Penelope, should have seen," said the Professor
reprovingly, and having done his duty as a father and a man of
education he drove his fist into the air to show with what quickness
and force he could use it. "Yes, that's the way I did it, David. He
applied an oath to me and laid a hand on my shoulder. What else could
I do? I appeal to you--what else could I do but knock him down?"
"And didn't he whip you for it, sir?" I cried, still doubting that the
giant could have fallen beneath such a blow.
"Whip me?" The Professor laughed. "Do you think that great bully could
whip me? Why, David, you quite hurt my feelings. By the time he had
gone over the wood-pile into the rain-barrel there wasn't any fight
left in him. He didn't even speak till he was safe across the
clearing. Then you should have seen him. He has gone down to the
village to get help; he is going to teach me what it means to assault
an officer of the law; he is going to send me to jail for life." The
Professor glared out of the open doorway as fiercely as though the
constable were standing there and he defying him. Then suddenly he
leaned over the table to me, and fixing his eyes on mine asked in a
hoarse voice: "David, did you ever hear of such injustice?"
"No, sir," I answered. "But Mr. Pound said----"
At the mention of Mr. Pound the Professor sat down and the table reeled
under his fist. "Pound--he is at the bottom of it all. He has said
that I am a good-for-nothing loafer and the county should be rid of me.
Maybe he is right. But he won't have his way. I have done nothing and
I will not go--do you hear that, Davy, I will not go. Now tell me what
Mr. Pound said."
In a faltering voice I began my story with that fateful home ride with
James. As I went on I lost my diffidence in my interest in the tale,
and spoke rapidly till the need of breath slowed me down. There were
retrogressions to speak of things which I had forgotten, and many
corrections where I had slightly misquoted Miss Spinner, Mr. Smiley, or
some other equally unimportant person. I told the story as a small boy
recites to his elders the details of some book which he has read; so
the Professor had to check me frequently with admonitions not to mind
what Mrs. Crumple said about my mother's ice-cream and such matters,
but to tell him exactly what my father said of him. Still I persisted
in my own way, bound that whatever I did should be done thoroughly,
even though he might hold in contempt my effort to be of service to
him. When at last there was not a word left untold, he leaned back in
his chair and gazed at me with a look of utter helplessness.
"Well, what am I to do now?" he cried. His head shot toward me and his
hands were held out in appeal. "Davy, can't you suggest something?"
In my pride at being asked for advice by one so old, I sat up very
straight as I had seen my father do and allowed a proper interval of
silence before I spoke.
"Yes," I replied slowly. "If you were me I'd run away before Mr.
Lukens got back."
This excellent suggestion was met by a frown so fierce that I pushed
back from the table in alarm.
"Run away?" he exclaimed. "Why, that's just what they want me to do.
What have I done that I should run away? And if I did, what would
become of Penelope?"
He drew his little daughter close to his side, while he looked out of
the door into the patch of blue sky, seeking there some inspiration.
His lips moved, and I knew that he was asking again and again of that
little patch of sky what he should do. Then suddenly he rose, as
though the answer had been given, for he clapped on his hat, stood
erect with shoulders squared and hands clasped behind him, facing the
open door with the demeanor of a man whose mind was made up, who was
ready to meet the world and defy it. This, to me, was the hero who had
knocked down the constable, and I imagined him confronting a dozen like
Byron Lukens and piling them one on top of the other, for surely things
had come to pass that the man would have to hold the clearing against
an army. But as suddenly the shoulders drooped, the back bowed, the
head sank, and he turned to me.
"Davy, Davy, what shall I do?" he asked in a hoarse whisper.
As I was silent, he addressed the same appeal to Penelope, and she, in
answer, ran to the door and pointed across the clearing.
"Look, father," she shouted; "he has come back."
Byron Lukens had indeed returned and with a heavy reinforcement. Five
men climbed out of the wagon which had appeared from the road, and now
they began a careful reconnoissance of the house. As they stood on the
edge of the woods looking toward us I marked each one of them, and the
problem uppermost in my mind concerned what I should do myself, for I
was fairly cornered. I could not run away, for they were watching
every exit from the cabin, and there was not one of them who would not
recognize me did I flee over the open. The presence of James alone
meant my undoing, and there he was, standing by the constable, eying
the place with a lowering glare which threatened a storm, for here he
had fallen and here he would redeem himself by some act of exceptional
daring. Caught in this net, I hid behind the door-post and peered
around it through a protecting shield made by the Professor's
coat-tails. In the silence I could hear my heart beat.
There was one thing for the Professor to do now, and he did that well.
He gathered his scattered senses and stood quietly in the doorway,
smoking, leaving to the invaders the burden of action. Their
indecision gave him strength.
"The idea of my giving in to a crew like that," he said to me in a
steady voice. "It's a pity Mr. Pound didn't come, and your father too,
David, that they might see how little I cared for their warrants."
Then, to show how undisturbed he was by their presence, he called to
them pleasantly: "Good morning, gentlemen."
This mild greeting gave courage to our foes and Stacy Shunk advanced.
His coming was a sign that reason was to be used before force, and with
his first step he began to gesticulate and to protest his friendly
purpose. But he could not argue with any acumen while his bare feet
were traversing a carpet of briers, and a silence followed, broken by
exclamations as he came on slowly but resolutely as though he walked on
eggs. Half-way over the clearing he stopped with a cry of pain, and
the herald's mission was forgotten in the search for a thorn. The
picture of Stacy Shunk balancing on one foot while he nursed the other
in his hands made the Professor laugh hilariously and he called to him
to hurry.
But Stacy would come no farther. He planted himself firmly on his
bleeding feet; his great black hat-brim hid his face, but the voice
which came from under it was soft, and he held out his hands as though
he offered his dear friend the protection of his arms.
"You know what these other fellows want, Professor, and you know I'd
only come along to help you. The whole thing was only a joke first
off, but you've gone and assaulted the constable, and there'll be
trouble if you don't settle it and be reasonable. Now, my advice
is----"
"Thank you for your advice, Stacy Shunk," exclaimed the Professor.
"But you know as well as I do that I have done nothing that I can be
arrested for."
"Of course I do," returned the herald. "But you hadn't otter upset the
preacher so. You'd otter believe what he says, and when he preaches
about Noah and the like you hadn't otter produce figures in public to
show that Noah and his boys couldn't have matched up all the animals
and insects in the time they was allowed, let alone stabling 'em in a
building three hundred cupids long and thirty cupids wide and three
stories high. Now I allus held----"
"I don't care what you held," said the Professor sharply. "You can't
get me into an argument now. I suppose it was unwise of me to try to
make you people think, but you can't arrest a man for simply being
unpopular. This is my home, and no law of your twopenny village can
make me leave it."
"I'm not going to argue about Noah," protested Stacy Shunk. "As your
friend, I'm trying----"
"As my friend, you had best go home and take your other friends with
you." The Professor's voice was dry and crackling.
He reached behind the door and took up the long rifle which leaned
against the wall. There was no threat in his action, for he held it
under his arm and looked off to the mountain-top as though he were
trying to make up his mind whether or not it was a good day for
hunting. Stacy Shunk saw another purpose beneath this careless air,
and he abandoned argument. Without heeding the briers, he fled to his
friends; he did not even stop there, but plunged into the bushes, and
above them I saw his head and hands moving together in an excited
colloquy. The ludicrous figure which he cut in his retreat excited the
Professor to laughter, in which Penelope joined, clapping her hands
with mirth. I, wiser than she as to the danger of firearms, and
trusting less to her father's mild intentions, broke into tearful
pleading.
"Please don't shoot, Professor," I whimpered, tugging at his coat-tails
to drag him back. "They won't hurt you, I know they won't."
"Don't worry, Davy," the Professor said with a reassuring smile. "They
wouldn't hurt any one, nor would I. Didn't Shunk run at the mere sight
of a gun? Why, if I pointed it at the rest of them they would fly like
birds."
It was not fair to judge the courage of the others by the cowardice of
Stacy Shunk. The constable's boasts came out of the past to goad him
into action, and while Joe Holmes, the blacksmith, might have been very
weak in the knees, he was not ready to retreat so early in the action
when his helper, Thaddeus Miller, was watching him. As for James,
despite the fall his moral qualities had taken in my estimation, I
believed him to be a man of unflinching bravery, and he it was that I
feared most when at last the advance began across the clearing, the
four moving abreast with military precision, while Stacy Shunk hurled
at them many admonitions to be cautious. I knew that nothing would
stop James; that while his comrades might scatter like birds, he would
come on to a deadly hand-to-hand conflict, and I pictured the Professor
and him swallowing each other like the two snakes of tradition. I
forgot my own safety, and threw both arms about one of the Professor's
legs and tried to pull him into the house. Penelope, too, lost her
courage when she saw the numbers of the enemy and their bold advance,
and she clung, wailing, to her father's waist. He shook us off, and
for the first time spoke to us sharply, and so sharply that the child
reached her hand to mine and together we slunk into a dark corner.
Of what followed we saw nothing. We heard the voices, nearer and
nearer. Then the men seemed to halt and to address the Professor in
tones of argument. We are a peaceable folk in our valley and little
given to the use of firearms, and I suspect that the constable and his
aids really knew the Professor to be a peaceable man or they would not
have come thus far with such boldness. To come farther they hesitated
until they had made it perfectly clear that they acted in his best
interests. Even Byron Lukens was willing to let "bygones be bygones."
"I'm just doing of my duty, Mr. Blight," he said in a wheedling tone,
"and if you'll come along quiet-like I'll say nothing about it to the
squire."
"You can fix it all up with the squire," I heard Joe Holmes say.
"There's really nothing again you, only you must comply with the law."
Then James spoke--to my astonishment not in a bold demand that the
Professor surrender, but softly, asking him to be careful with the gun.
"Nobody has nothing again you, Professor," he said as gently as he
would have spoken to me, and hearing this I took heart, for with James
in such a temper there seemed no danger of a serious clash.
"No one has nothing against me," the Professor repeated in a tone of
irony. "You only want to drag me through the village before the
squire. Tell the squire to come here to me and explain."
There was a moment of silence. It was so quiet outside that even the
birds seemed to be listening and watching; then came the swish of weeds
trampled under foot.
"Be off, the whole crew of you," cried the man in the doorway, and I
saw the butt of the gun rise to his shoulder.
I wanted to cry out, but my throat was parched with fright, and
Penelope was clinging to my neck in silent terror.
There was another moment of silence. Then James began to laugh in that
vast ebullient way of his, and a bit of dry brush snapped sharply under
some foot. The report of the rifle shook the cabin. It must have
shaken the mountains too, it seemed to me, for the floor beneath me
rocked in time to the echoes of it rattling among the hills, and I
heard a wild scream, the cry of a man hurt to death, and the shrill
cries of startled birds fleeing to the hiding of the trees. A puff of
wind swept a thin veil of smoke into the room, but for me the air was
filled with sickening fumes, and I sank to my knees and closed my eyes
as a child does at night to shut out the perils of the darkness. I
felt Penelope's arms gripped tightly about my neck, her dead weight
dragging me down. I heard the last echoes of the shot, faintly, down
the narrow valley, and outside the incoherent shouts of men. Then
there was a silence, broken only by Penelope's sobs. It seemed to me
long hours I was there on my knees before I dared to open my eyes and
bring myself into the world again. And when I did it was to see the
room darkened and the Professor leaning against the closed door with
his hands wide-spread, as though with every muscle braced to hold it
against an onslaught. Yet he trembled so that a child might have
brushed him aside.
There was no onslaught. I waited the moment when the door would be
crashed in. I heard the clock ticking monotonously on the cupboard and
the wood crackling in the stove. The birds were singing again, and
outside in the clearing it was as peaceful as on that day when I first
came upon it, wet and shivering, to find joy in its cheerful sunniness.
I broke from Penelope's embrace and got to my feet. The Professor,
hearing me, raised his head from the door and turned to me a face
chalky-white, whiter for the dishevelled hair that hung about it.
"Davy," he whispered, "look out of the window and tell me what you see."
I had no care for any trouble that might lie ahead for me. I wanted to
be seen. I wanted to be taken from this stifling cabin with its
deafening noises and sickening fumes and above all from this mad fellow
who looked as I had seen a rat look when cornered in a garner. I ran
to the window and peered through the smutted panes, but there was no
one outside to see or to help me. The clearing was as quiet as in the
earlier morning when I had looked over it at the Professor studying the
distant tree-top.
"What do you see, Davy?" he asked in a hoarse voice.
"Nothing," I answered. "They've gone away."
"And isn't Lukens there--out there in the weeds?"
I rubbed the smutted glass and peered through it again into every
corner of the clearing. "No," I said, "there's nothing there."
The Professor drew back from the door and stood before me brushing his
matted hair from his face.
"I didn't mean it, Davy," he said. "It was all a mistake. They were
going away and I was dropping the gun, and somehow I touched the
trigger and Lukens fell. They've taken him home, but they'll come
back--a hundred of them this time. Oh, Davy, Davy, help me!"
I knew that I could not help him. My thought then was for myself, and
I did not answer, but measured the distance to the door and waited my
chance to dart to it and get away, for in him before me, driving his
long fingers through his hair and staring at me with frightened eyes, I
saw the man whom I had pictured in fear that first morning when I came
to the mountains. This was the real Professor and I was caught.
"Oh, let me go!" I cried.
"Why, Davy!" He gave a start of surprise. The frightened look passed
and he reached out his hands to my shoulders. I shrank back. The
scream of Byron Lukens still rang in my ears, and to me there was
something very terrible in this man who had dared to kill, this man for
whom all the valley would soon be hunting, this man who even now might
be standing in the shadow of the gallows. He saw the terror in my
face; to his eyes came that same look my dog would give me when I
struck him.
"Why, Davy," he said, holding out two trembling hands. "Boy, I thought
you were my only friend."
This was the cry of a man worse hurt than Byron Lukens, and in a rush
of boyish pity for him I forgot my dread and running to him threw my
arms about him, hugged him as I should have hugged my dog in a mute
appeal for pardon. So we three stood there in silence, the Professor,
Penelope, and I, with arms intertwined and our heads close together.
Then after a moment he raised himself and shook us off gently.
"I've been a fool, Davy," he said, speaking quietly. "I've been an
idle, worthless fool and now I must pay for it. Soon they'll be coming
for me and I must run. But I'll come back; I'll make it all up--some
day Penelope will be proud of me. Until then, Davy, my friend, you'll
take care of Penelope, won't you--till I come back?"
Hearing this, Penelope dragged his face down to hers imploring him to
take her with him. He kissed her. Then he lifted her high in his arms
as though in play and held her off that she might see how gayly he was
smiling and take heart from it.
"I don't know where I am going, child," he said, "but I am coming back
for you very soon, and you will see what a man your father really is.
I haven't been fair to you, Penelope--but wait--wait till I come back.
And Davy will take care of you--won't you, Davy?"
"Yes, sir," I said boldly.
What else could a boy have said in such a case, when every passing
moment meant danger to his friend? I had no thought of the full
meaning of my promise, for I did not look beyond that day, and that day
my goal was home. Home there was safety for me and for Penelope as
well. Home all perplexing problems solved themselves. Home was a
place of great peace, and my father and mother benign genii who lived
only to make others happy. It was easy to lead Penelope home, and I
was sure that if I told my father and mother of my promise to take care
of her, they would make the way easy for me. So when the Professor had
kissed the child and lowered her to the floor, I put out my hand and
took hers in a self-reliant grasp.
The Professor picked up the fallen rifle and put it away in its corner;
he pushed the kettle to the back of the stove; he seemed to be tidying
up the house. He blew the dust from his hat and crushed it down on his
head. Then standing in the open doorway, he surveyed the room
critically as if to make sure that all was in order before he strolled
down to the village.
"Good-by, Penelope," he said in a quiet voice. "Stay with Davy till I
come back--I'll come back soon."
For a moment Penelope believed him. "Good-by, father," she called as
he turned and walked away.
He had passed the door. Hearing her voice, he gave a start, then broke
into a run. He ran as never I had seen a man run. He was not alone a
man in flight. Every limb was filled with fear and moving for its
life. Even his hat and coat were sensate things, struggling madly to
get away to a safe refuge. Seeing him flying thus across the clearing
toward the mountains, Penelope broke from me with a cry, but I caught
her and held her in my arms. She called to him wildly, yet he did not
turn, and in a moment had plunged into the bush.
Long after he had gone we two stood in the cabin door searching the
silent wall of green for some sign of him. None was given. The shadow
of the ridge crept away as the sun climbed higher and the clearing was
bathed in its brightness. A crow called pleasantly from a tall pine.
The birds, back from their hiding, sang as though on such a day there
could be no trouble.
I felt the blue ribbon brush my cheek, and two small bare arms about my
neck.
I turned to Penelope and said: "Don't cry, little 'un. I'll take care
of you."