SWEPT ON BY THE CURRENT
Janice picked up Trimmins on the road to town. The lanky Southerner,
who lived as a squatter with his ever-increasing family back in the
woods, was a soft-spoken man with much innate politeness and a great
distaste for regular work. He said the elder had just offered him a
job in the woods that he was going to take if he could get a man to
help him.
"I heard you talking about it, Mr. Trimmins," the young girl said, with
her eyes on the road ahead and her foot on the gas pedal. "I hope you
will make a good thing out of it."
"Not likely. The elder's too close for that," responded the man, with
a twinkle in his eye.
"Yes. I suppose that Elder Concannon considers a small profit
sufficient. He got his money that way--by 'littles and dribbles'--and
I fancy he thinks small pay is all right."
"My glo-_ree_! You bet he does!" said Trimmins. "But the elder never
had but one--leastways, two--chillen to raise. He wouldn't ha' got
rich very fast with _my_ family--no, sir!"
"Perhaps that is so," Janice admitted.
"Tell ye what, Miss," the woodsman went on to say, "a man ought to git
paid accordin' to the mouths there is to home to feed. I was readin'
in a paper t'other day that it took ten dollars a week to take proper
care of a man and his wife, and there ought to be added to them ten
dollars two dollars a week ev'ry time they got a baby."
"Why! wouldn't that be fine?" cried Janice, laughing.
"It sure would be a help," said Trimmins, the twinkle in his eye again.
"I reckon both me an' Narnay would 'preciate it."
"Oh! you mean Jim Narnay?" asked Janice, with sudden solemnity.
"Yes ma'am. I'm goin' to see him now. He's a grand feller with the
axe and I want him to help me."
Janice wondered how much work would really be done by the two men if
they were up in the woods together. Yet Mrs. Narnay and the children
might get along better without Jim. Janice had made some inquiries and
learned that Mrs. Narnay was an industrious woman, working steadily
over her washtub, and keeping the children in comparative comfort when
Jim was not at home to drink up a good share of her earnings.
"Are you going down to the cove to see Narnay now, Mr. Trimmins?"
Janice asked, as she turned the automobile into the head of High Street.
"Yes, ma'am. That is, if I don't find him at Lem Parraday's."
"Oh, Mr. Trimmins!" exclaimed Janice, earnestly. "Look for him at the
house first. And don't you go near Lem Parraday's, either."
"Wal!" drawled the man. "I s'pose you air right, Miss."
"I'll drive you right down to the cove," Janice said. "I want to see
little Sophie, and--and her mother."
"Whatever you say, Miss," agreed the woodsman.
They followed a rather rough street coveward, but arrived safely at the
small collection of cottages, in one of which the Narnays lived. Jim
Narnay was evidently without money, for he sat on the front stoop,
sober and rather neater than Janice was used to seeing him. He was
whittling a toy of some kind for the little boys, both of whom were
hanging upon him.
Their attitude, as well as what Sophie Narnay had told her, assured
Janice that the husband and father of the household was not a cruel man
when he was sober. The children still loved him, and he evidently
loved them.
"Got a job, Jim?" asked Trimmins, after thanking Janice for the ride,
and getting out of the automobile.
"Not a smitch of work since I come out of the woods," admitted the
bewhiskered man, rising quickly from the stoop to make way for Janice.
"Come on, old feller," said Trimmins. "I want to talk to you. If you
are favorable inclined, I reckon I got jest the job you've been lookin'
for."
The two went off behind the cottage. Janice did not know then that
there was a short cut to High Street and the Lake View Inn.
Sophie came running to the door to welcome the visitor, her thin little
arms red and soapy from dish-water.
"I knowed 'twas you," she said, smiling happily. "They told me you was
the only girl in town that owned one o' them cars. And I told mom that
you must be awful rich and kind. Course, you must be, or you couldn't
afford to give away ten cent pieces so easy."
Mrs. Narnay came to the door, too, her arms right out of the washtub;
but Janice begged her not to inconvenience herself. "Keep right on
with your work and I'll come around to the back and sit on that stoop,"
said the young girl.
"And you must see the baby," Sophie urged. "I can bring out the baby
if I wrap her up good, can't I, Marm?"
"Have a care with the poor child, Sophie," said Mrs. Narnay, wearily.
"Where's your pop gone?"
"He's walked out with Mr. Trimmins," said the little girl.
The woman sighed, and Janice, all through her visit, could see that she
was anxious about her absent husband. The baby was brought out--a
pitifully thin, but pretty child--and Sophie nursed her little sister
with much enjoyment.
"I wisht she was twins," confessed the little girl. "It must be awful
jolly to have twins in the family."
"My soul, child!" groaned Mrs. Narnay. "Don't talk so reckless. One
baby at a time is affliction enough--as ye'll find out for yourself
some day."
Janice, leaving a little gift to be hidden from Jim Narnay and divided
among the children, went away finally, with the determination that Dr.
Poole should see the baby again and try to do something for the poor,
little, weakly thing. Trimmins and Jim Narnay had disappeared, and
Janice feared that, after all, they had drifted over to the Inn, there
to celebrate the discovery of the job they both professed to need so
badly.
"That awful bar!" Janice told herself. "If it were not here in
Polktown those two ne'er-do-wells would have gone right about their
work without any celebration at all. I guess Mrs. Scattergood is
right--Mr. Lem Parraday ought to be tarred and feathered for ever
taking out that license! And how about the councilmen who voted to let
him have it?"
As she wheeled into High Street once more a tall, well groomed young
man, with rosy cheeks and the bluest of blue eyes, hailed her from the
sidewalk.
"Oh, Janice Day!" he cried. "How's the going?"
"Mr. Bowman! I didn't know you had returned," Janice said, smiling and
stopping the car. "The going is pretty good."
"Have you been around by the Lower Road where my gang is working?"
"No," Janice replied. "But Marty says the turnout is being put in and
that the bridge over the creek is almost done."
"Good! I'll get over there by and by to see for myself." He had set
down a heavy suitcase and still held a traveling bag. "Just now," he
added, "I am hunting a lodging."
"Hunting a lodging? Why! I thought you were a fixture with Marm
Parraday," Janice said.
"I thought so, too. But it's got too strong for me down there.
Besides, it is a rule of the Railroad Company that we shall find board,
if possible, where no liquor is sold. I had a room over the bar and it
is too noisy for me at night."
"Marm Parraday will be sorry to lose you, Mr. Bowman," Janice said.
"Isn't it dreadful that they should have taken up the selling of liquor
there?"
"Bad thing," the young civil engineer replied, promptly. "I'm sorry
for Marm Parraday. Lem ought to be kicked for ever getting the
license," he added vigorously.
"Dear me, Mr. Bowman," sighed Janice. "I wish everybody thought as you
do. Polktown needs reforming."
"What! Again?" cried the young man, laughing suddenly. Then he added:
"I expect, if that is so, you will have to start the reform, Miss
Janice. And--and you'd better start it with your friend, Hopewell
Drugg. Really, they are making a fool of him around the Inn--and he
doesn't even know it."
"Oh, Mr. Bowman! what do you mean?" called Janice after him; but the
young man had picked up his bag and was marching away, so that he did
not hear her question. Before she could start her engine he had turned
into a side street.
She ran back up Hillside Avenue in good season for dinner. The potato
patch was plowed and Marty had gone downtown on an errand. Janice
backed the car into the garage and went upstairs to her room to change
her dress for dinner. She was there when Marty came boisterously into
the kitchen.
"My goodness! what's the matter with you, Marty Day?" asked his mother
shrilly. "What's happened?"
"It's Nelson Haley," the boy said, and Janice heard him plainly, for
the door at the foot of the stairs was ajar. "It's awful! They are
going to arrest him!"
"What do you mean, Marty Day? Be you crazy?" Mrs. Day demanded.
"What's this? One o' your cheap jokes?" asked the boy's father, who
chanced to be in the kitchen, too.
"Guess Nelson Haley don't think it's a joke," said the boy, his voice
still shaking. "I just heard all about it. There ain't many folks
know it yet----"
"Stop that!" cried his mother. "You tell us plain what Mr. Haley's
done."
"Ain't done nothin', of course. But they _say_ he has," Marty stoutly
maintained.
"Then what do they accuse him of?" queried Mr. Day.
"They accuse him of stealin'! Hi tunket! ain't that the meanest thing
ye ever heard?" cried the boy. "Nelson Haley, stealin'. It gets _me_
for fair!"
"Why--why I can't believe it!" Aunt 'Mira gasped, and she sat down with
a thud on one of the kitchen chairs.
"I got it straight," Marty went on to say. "The School Committee's all
in a row over it. Ye see, they had the coins----"
"_Who_ had _what_ coins?" cried his mother.
"The School Committee. That collection of gold coins some rich feller
lent the State Board of Education for exhibition at the lecture next
Friday. They only come over from Middletown last night and Mr. Massey
locked them in his safe."
"Wal!" murmured Uncle Jason.
"Massey brought 'em to the school this morning where the committee held
a meeting. I hear the committee left the trays of coins in their room
while they went downstairs to see something the matter with the heater.
When they come up the trays had been skinned clean--'for a fac'!"
exclaimed the excited Marty.
"What's that got to do with Mr. Haley?" demanded Uncle Jason, grimly.
"Why--he'd been in the room. I believe he don't deny he was there.
Nobody else was in the buildin' 'cept the janitor, and he was with
Massey and the others in the basement.
"Then coins jest disappeared--took wings and flewed away," declared
Marty with much earnestness.
"What was they wuth?" asked his father, practically.
"Dunno. A lot of money. Some says two thousand and some says five
thousand. Whichever it is, they'll put him under big bail if they
arrest him."
"Why, they wouldn't dare!" gasped Mrs. Day.
"Say! Massey and them others has got to save their own hides, ain't
they?" demanded the suspicious Marty.
"Wal. 'Tain't common sense that any of the School Committee should
have stolen the coins," Uncle Jason said slowly. "Mr. Massey, and
Cross Moore, and Mr. Middler----"
"Mr. Middler warn't there," said Marty, quickly. "He'd gone to
Middletown."
"Joe Pellet and Crawford there?" asked Uncle Jason.
"All the committee but the parson," his son admitted.
"And all good men," Uncle Jason said reflectively. "Schoolhouse
locked?"
"So they say," Marty declared. "That's what set them on Nelson. Only
him and the janitor carry keys to the building."
"Who's the janitor?" asked Uncle Jason.
"Benny Thread. You know, the little crooked-backed feller--lives on
Paige Street. And, anyway, there wasn't a chance for him to get at the
coins. He was with the committee all the time they was out of the
room."
"And are they sure Mr. Haley was in there?" asked Aunt 'Mira.
"He admits it," Marty said gloomily. "I don't know what's going to
come of it all----"
"Hush!" said Uncle Jason suddenly. "Shut that door."
But it was too late, Janice had heard all. She came down into the
kitchen, pale-faced and with eyes that blazed with indignation. She
had not removed her hat.
"Come, Uncle Jason," she said, brokenly. "I want you to go downtown
with me. If Nelson is in trouble we must help him."
"Drat that boy!" growled Uncle Jason, scowling at Marty. "He's a
reg'lar big mouth! He has to tell ev'rything he knows all over the
shop."