THE CLOUDS CLEAR
When, glowing with happiness, Paul turned into his gate late in the
afternoon, he was surprised to find Donald Hall impatiently pacing the
driveway before the house. The boy's bicycle was against the fence and
it was evident that he had been waiting some time, for a bunch of lilacs
tied to the handle-bar hung limp and faded in the sun.
"How are you, old man," Paul called jubilantly. "What are you doing
here?"
"Hanging around until you should heave into sight. I must say you take
your time. Your mother has been expecting you every minute since school
closed."
"I had to go to the _Echo_ office and so got delayed."
"Did you tell Carter about the meeting?"
"Yes."
"How did he take it?"
"He was great--corking!"
"Really? I thought he'd cut up pretty rough."
"So did I; but he didn't. He's more decent than I gave him credit for
being. I like Carter. He's all right."
"You're the first person I ever heard say so."
"Perhaps people don't know him," replied Paul warmly. "You can't judge a
man hot off the bat. You've got to try him out."
Donald broke into a laugh.
"Oh, he's been tried out all right. People know him too well; that's the
trouble."
Paul stiffened.
"Well, all I can say is that I've found Carter mighty kind. He's treated
me white. If you knew as much about him as I do you'd say so too. In the
meantime I'd thank you to remember he's my friend and not run him down."
There was an awkward pause. Donald dug the toe of his shoe into the
gravel walk and fidgeted uneasily.
Paul waited a moment, then, attributing his chum's silence to
resentment, he added in a gentler tone: "I didn't mean to pitch into you
so hard, old chap; it's only that Carter has been so mighty generous
that I couldn't bear to have you light into him that way."
Donald, however, despite the conciliatory tone, did not raise his head.
Instead he continued to bore holes in the walk, automatically hollowing
them out and filling them up again with the tip of his boot.
Paul endured the suspense until at last he could not endure it any
longer.
"I say, Don, what's fussing you?" he burst out.
The visitor crimsoned.
"What makes you think anything is?" he asked, hedging.
"Well, you wouldn't be loafing around here, digging up our whole
driveway, unless there was," persisted Paul good-humoredly. "Come, out
with it! You're the darndest kid for getting into messes. What's
happened to you now?"
There was an affectionate ring in the bantering words.
Donald smiled feebly. It was true that he was usually in some scrape or
other. It was not that he did mean or vicious things; Donald Hall was
far too fine a lad for that. But he never could resist playing a prank,
and whenever he played one he was invariably caught. Even though every
other member of the crowd got away, Donald never contrived to. The boys
declared this was because he was slow and clumsy. But the truth really
was that he was wont, in unselfish fashion, to let every one else go
first and was in consequence the unlucky victim whom the pursuers were
sure to capture. The fleeing culprits were generally in too great haste
to appreciate his altruism and he never enlightened them. He took his
punishment, loyally refusing to peach on his chums. That was one reason
Donald was such a favorite with his classmates. There was not a fellow
in the school who had more friends. To be sure they called him "slow
coach", "old tortoise", "fatty", and bestowed upon him many another
gibing epithet, frankly telling him to his face that he was a big idiot.
Nevertheless they did not conceal from him that he was the sort of idiot
they all loved.
Hence it followed that when Paul saw his chum in the present disturbed
frame of mind he was much distressed and immediately leaped to the
conclusion that for the hundredth--nay, the five hundredth--time Don had
been caught in the snares of justice.
"Come, come, Tortoise," he repeated; "tell a chap what's up with you."
"Kip," burst out Donald with sudden vehemence, "I've done a mighty mean
thing."
"You!"
"Yes, sir."
"Bosh! You never did a mean thing in your life, kid."
"But I have now," smiled the lad wanly. "They say there always has to be
a first time. I didn't start out to do it, though. Still, that doesn't
help matters much, for it's ended that way."
"Going to let me in on it?" asked Paul, hoping to make the confession
easier.
"Yes, I came over on purpose to tell you, Kip. It's the queerest mix-up
you ever heard of. It's worried me no end. Sometimes, it's seemed as
if I was going nutty."
"Fire ahead! Tell a man, can't you?"
"Well, you see a while ago my father sent me to deposit some money in
the bank for him--a hundred-dollar bill. I put the envelope in my
pocket, carefully as could be. I remember perfectly doing it. I didn't
go anywhere but straight down town, either. Well, anyhow, when I got to
the bank the money was gone! It wasn't in my pocket; it wasn't anywhere
about me."
He stopped an instant.
"You can imagine how I felt. My father had cautioned me not to lose that
money on my life. I hadn't the nerve to tell him. Somehow I thought that
if I could just smooth the matter over for a little while the envelope
with the money in it would turn up. I was certain I couldn't have lost
it."
Again he paused.
"At first I thought I'll sell a Liberty bond I had and put my hundred in
the bank to dad's credit. Then I happened to think that my father had
the bond locked up in his safe-deposit box and that I couldn't get at it
without telling him. I didn't know what to do. I simply hadn't the
courage to go home and tell the truth. You wouldn't like to face your
father and tell him you'd lost a cool hundred of his cash for him.
Besides, I was sure it wasn't lost. I felt morally certain I had
somehow misplaced that envelope and that it would come to light. I
hunted all day, though, through my pockets and everywhere I could think
of and it didn't appear. I began to get scared. What was I going to do?
When the bank statement came in my father would see right off that the
money had not been deposited. And anyway, even if he didn't, it was only
square to tell him what I'd done. I was casting round for a way out when
that noon Mel called me and asked me if I'd do an errand for him on the
way home. He wanted me to stop at the bank as I passed and put in some
_March Hare_ money. It was a hundred dollars and it seemed to drop right
out of the sky into my hands. I decided to deposit it to my father's
credit and trust to finding the sum I'd lost to square up the school
accounts."
A light of understanding began to break in on Paul.
He waited.
"I guess you know what's coming," Donald murmured.
"No, I don't."
"Well, somebody does," declared the boy wretchedly. "That's what's got
me fussed. I chance to know how the _March Hare_ books stood. Somebody's
made good that money I took--made it good without saying a word about
it."
Donald, studying his friend's face, saw a gleam of satisfaction pass
over it.
"Kip!" he whispered, "was it you? Did you put the money back when you
found it gone from the treasury?"
"Mel and I divided it. We found the accounts short and of course we had
to do something. We thought we'd made a mistake in the books," explained
Paul. "So we turned in the sum and evened things up."
"Without telling anybody?"
"Yes; what was the use of blabbing it all over town?"
"Gee!"
Donald fumbled in his pocket.
"Well, I've found the hundred, Kip. Here it is safe and sound. The
envelope had slipped down through a hole in the lining of my pocket. The
other day when I was hunting for my fountain pen, I discovered the rip.
You bet I was glad. I'd have made that money good somehow. I wasn't
going to take it. I hope you'll believe I'm not such a cad as that. But
what I ought to have done was to tell my father in the first place. It's
been an awful lesson to me. I've worried myself thin--I have, Kip. You
needn't laugh."
Nevertheless, Paul did laugh. He couldn't help it when he looked at
Donald's conscience-smitten expression. Moreover he could now afford to
laugh.
But Donald was not so easily consoled.
"I'm almighty sorry, Kip," he said. "The whole thing has been rotten.
Think of you and Mel Carter turning in your cash to make the bank
accounts square. Where on earth did you each get your fifty?"
"Some of it was money I'd earned and put aside toward a typewriter; and
the rest I got by cashing in my war stamps."
"Oh, I say!"
Regret and mortification overwhelmed the culprit.
"It's no matter now, Don."
"But it is, old chap. I suppose that knocked you out of buying your
typewriter. It's a darn shame."
"I was pretty sore, Don--no mistake!" admitted Paul. "But it's all right
now. The accounts are O.K.; I shall get my money back; and I have a
typewriter into the bargain. Mr. Carter has just given me a second-hand
machine they weren't using."
"Did he know about this muddle?"
"Not a yip! He did know, though, that I wanted the typewriter."
"Well, I'll take back all I ever said about him," cried Donald. "He's a
trump! As for you, Kip--you deserve a hundred typewriters! It's
all-fired good of you not to rub this in. I know I've caused you a lot
of trouble and I'm sorry. That's all I can say."
"Shut up, Tortoise. It's all right now," repeated Paul. "Only don't go
appropriating any more funds that don't belong to you. We might jail you
next time. Taking other people's cash isn't much of a stunt."
"You bet it isn't!" cried Donald heartily. "When you do it you think
it's going to be easy as fiddle to slip it back again; but it doesn't
seem to turn out that way. Jove, but I'm glad I'm clear of this mess!"
"I guess we both will sleep better to-night than we have for one while,"
called Paul, moving toward the house. "So long, Don!"
"So long, Kipper. And don't you go losing that money. It's caused too
much worry already."
"I'll take care of it--don't you fuss about that. There are no rips in
my coat lining."
Thus they parted--the happiest pair of boys in all Burmingham.