To Sally it was all like a dream, a fantastic, lovely dream--except that
in dreams you are never permitted to eat the feast that your hunger
makes so real. And not even in a dream could she have imagined anything
so good as the thick, furry, dark-brown buckwheat cakes, plastered with
golden butter and swimming in maple syrup.
And Eddie Cobb's voice seemed real enough, although the things he was
telling her and David in the hastily erected cook tent certainly had
dream-like qualities. And David, sighing with satisfaction over his
third plateful of hot cakes, was gloriously real. So was the long,
rough-pine counter at which they ate, and behind which the big negro
cook sang songs as he worked before a huge smoky oil stove. Tables
scattered throughout the tent and covered with worn oilcloth reminded
her of the refectory of the orphanage which now seemed so far away in
the past of her childhood. She drew her wondering eyes from their
exploration of the cook tent, focussed them on Eddie Cobb's freckled,
good-natured face, listened to what he was telling them:
"This is a pretty good outfit. We carry our own show train, even for the
short jumps, and the star performers and the big boss and the
barkers--when they're flush--eat in the dining car. Got a special cook
for the big bugs, waiters and everything. 'Course sometimes we can't get
show grounds clost enough to the railroad to use the cars much, but in
this burg we're lucky enough to get a lot pretty clost to a siding. The
performers will sleep in their berths, less'n it gets too hot and they
want their tents pitched on the lot."
"What do you do in the carnival, Eddie?" Sally asked respectfully.
"Oh, I'm helpin' Lucky Looey on the wheels. Gamblin' concessions, you
know," he enlarged grandly. "Looey's got three kewpie dolls booths and
I'm in charge of one of 'em. Old Bybee--Winfield Bybee--owns the show
and travels with it--not like most owners. He owns the concessions and
lets concessionaires operate 'em on percentage. He owns the freaks and
the girlie show and the high-diver and all the ridin' rackets--ferris
wheels, merry-go-rounds, whips 'n everything. He'll be showin' up any
minute now and I'll give you a knockdown to him."
"You're so good to us, Eddie," Sally glowed at him. "David and I hadn't
an idea what we should do, and we were so hungry we could have eaten
field corn off the stalks."
"You looked all in," Eddie grinned at her. "So you run away, too, Sally.
Couldn't stand the racket any longer, eh? Is David here a buddy you
picked up on the road? Gosh! To think of little Sally Ford hoboing?"
"I'm afraid I've taken advantage of your friendship for Sally, Cobb,"
David said. "The truth is, Cobb--"
"Aw, make it Eddie. We're all buddies, ain't we?"
"Well, the truth is, Eddie, that I'm afraid I'm a fugitive from justice.
I wanted to take Sally back to the orphanage and give myself up for
murder--"
"Gawd!" Eddie ejaculated, paling. Then something like admiration
glittered in his little black eyes. "Put the soft pedal on, Dave. Don't
let nobody hear you--"
"It wasn't murder, Eddie," Sally interrupted eagerly, her hand going out
to close on David's reassuringly. "It was--an accident, in a way. Tell
him, David. Eddie will understand."
The cook tent was filling up, so David lowered his voice to a murmur as
he told Eddie Cobb, briefly but accurately, the story of his probably
fatal attack upon Clem Carson.
"Jees!" Eddie breathed, when the recital was finished. "I hope you
finished for him! If the old buzzard ain't dead--and I'll bet he
ain't--I'd like to take a crack at him myself. You two kids stick with
us. I'll tip off Bybee and I'm a son-of-a-gun if he don't give you both
jobs. The concessions are always short of help--"
"Oh, Eddie, if he only would!" Sally gasped. Then sudden doubt clouded
her bright face. "But Eddie, we'd be so conspicuous with the carnival.
The police would lay hands on us as soon as we showed our faces--"
"Not if the Big Boss took you under his wing," Eddie reassured her. "In
the carnival the Big Boss is the law. I'll speak to him myself."
The carnival roustabouts--big, rough-looking, powerful negroes in
undershirts and soiled, nondescript trousers--eyed the trio curiously as
they passed from one tent to another, Eddie gesticulating like a Cook's
Tour conductor.
"Jees, Sally, I never expected to see any of you kids again," Eddie
interrupted his monologue, which was like Greek to his guests.
"Have you ever been sorry you ran away, Eddie?" Sally asked, wistfully
desiring reassurance, for it was still impossible for her to picture
life independent of state charity.
Eddie snorted. "I've been seeing life, I have. New York and Chi and San
Looey and all the big towns. But I reckon it's easier for a boy. I never
did want to go back, but I've thought many a time I'd like to see some
of the kids." He blushed crimson under his big freckles. "How--how's
Ruby, Sally? You know--Ruby Presser? She still there? She must be
seventeen now. She was two years younger'n me. I sorta figger on
marryin' Ruby one of these days--say, what's the matter?" he broke off
abruptly.
"Ruby--Ruby's dead, Eddie. Didn't you read about it in the papers?"
"Ruby--dead? You--you ain't kiddin' me, Sally? Ruby--dead!"
Sally's distressed blue eyes fluttered to David's face as if for help.
"Ruby--fell--out of a fifth story window, Eddie--last September," Sally
admitted in a choked voice.
"After she had spent the summer on the Carson farm, Eddie," David broke
in quietly, significantly.
Sally closed her eyes so as not to see the conflict of rage and grief in
Eddie Cobb's boyish face.
"I hope to God you did kill him, David!" Eddie burst out at last. "If
you didn't, I'll finish him!"
"What's all this, Eddie?" a great bellow brought them all to startled
attention. "Old home week? Get to your work! Lucky's howling for you.
Who the hell do you think's going to set out the dolls?"
Eddie's importance was suddenly shattered. The big man, who seemed to
Sally to be as tall as the giant whom he advertised as a star
attraction, came striding across the stubby, dusty lot. His enormous
head, topped with a wide-brimmed black felt hat in defiance of the
torrid June weather, showed a fringe of long-curling white hair which
reached almost to the shoulders of his Prince Albert coat.
"I'd like to speak to you a minute, sir," Eddie urged.
After another frowning, considering up-and-down glance at David and
Sally, but particularly at Sally, the big man strode away with Eddie,
out of earshot.
"If the big man does take us, you won't be sorry, will you, David?"
Sally whispered, clinging to David's hand.
"Dear little Sally!" David drew her close against him for a moment. They
stood close to each other, Sally not caring if the interview between
Bybee and Eddie prolonged itself interminably, for David was there,
thinking--she could feel his thoughts--"Dear little Sally"--
But after only a few minutes Winfield Bybee and Eddie came across the
stubble toward them. Bybee spoke, gruffly:
"Eddie here has been telling me that you two kids have got yourselves
into a peck of trouble, and want to hide out a bit. Well, I reckon a
traveling carnival is about the best place in God's world to hide.
Anybody that wants to bother you will have to deal with Winfield Bybee,
and I ain't yet turned any of my family over to a village constable.
Now, Dave--that your name?--if you want to keep out of sight, reckon I'd
better let you help Buck, the cook on the privilege car.
"Sometimes Buck gets too chummy with a bootlegger and his K. P. has to
rustle the chow alone, but otherwise the boy's all right. And you,
Sally--" His keen eyes narrowed speculatively, took in the little
flushed face, the big eyes sparkling. Then one of his big hands reached
out and lifted the heavy braid of black hair that hung to her waist,
weighed it, studied it thoughtfully.
----
"Right this way, la-dees and gen-tle-men! Step right up and see Boffo,
the ostrich man, eat glass, nails, toothpicks, lead pipe, or what have
you! He chews 'em up and swallows 'em like a kid eats candy! Boffo
digests anything and everything from horseshoes to jack-knives! Any
gentlemen present got a jack-knife for Boffo's dinner? Come on, folks!
Don't be bashful! Don't let Boffo go hungry!"
The spieler's voice went on and on, challenging, commanding, exhorting,
bullying the gaping crowd of country people who surged after him like
sheep. Admission to "The Palace of Wonders," a tent which housed a score
of freaks and fakers, was 25 cents. It still seemed wonderful to Sally
that she was there without having paid admission, that she--she, Sally
Ford, runaway ward of the state!--was one of the many attractions which
the farmers and villagers had paid their hard-earned money to see.
Dimly through the crowd came the voice of the barker and ticket seller
in his tall, red, scarred box outside the tent: "All right, all right!
Here you are! Only a quarter--25 cents--two bits--to see the big show!
Performance just started! Step right up! All right, boys, this way!
Don't let your girls call you a piker! Two bits pays for it all! See the
half-man half-woman! See the girl nobody can lift! Try and lift her,
boys! Little and pretty as a picture, but heavy as lead! All right, step
right in! Don't crowd! Room for everybody! See Princess Lalla, the Harem
Crystal Gazer! Sees all, knows all! See Pitty Sing, the smallest woman
in the world--"
Incredible! On Saturday, just two days ago, she had been peeling apples
to make pies for the Carson family. Today she was a member of a carnival
troupe, under the protection of Winfield Bybee, owner of all these weird
creatures about whom the spieler was chanting. It was too unreal to be
true.
There had been twelve solid hours of sleep. Then had come a marvelously
satisfying supper in the dining car, or "privilege" car, with Bybee
himself introducing her to those astonishing people whom the spieler was
now exhibiting to the curious country people. The giant, a Hollander
named Jan something-or-other, had bent from vast heights to take her
hand; the tiny male midget, a Hawaiian billed merely as Noko, had
gravely asked her, in a tiny, piping voice, if she would sew a button on
his miniature coat for him; the bearded "lady" was a man, after all, a
man with a naturally falsetto voice and tiny hands and feet. Boffo, the
human ostrich, had disappointed her by being satisfied with a very
ordinary diet of corned beef and cabbage. The fat girl, who had confided
to Sally that she only weighed 380 pounds, though she was billed as
"tipping the scales" at 620, had patiently drunk glass after glass of
milk, until a gallon had been consumed--all in the interest of keeping
her weight up and adding to it.
Then Bybee had taken her to his wife, a thin, hatchet-faced shrew of a
woman who seemed to suspect everything in petticoats of having designs
on her husband, and who in turn, seemed to feel equally sure that every
man must envy him the possession of such a wonderful woman as his wife.
His deference toward her touched Sally even as it amused her.
Mrs. Bybee was too good a business woman, however, to let jealousy
interfere with her judgment where the show was concerned. She had
demurred a little, then had abruptly agreed to Bybee's plans for Sally.
Hours of sharp-tongued instruction from Mrs. Bybee had resulted in
Sally's being on the platform now, nervously awaiting her turn.
The crowd surged nearer to Sally's platform. The spieler was introducing
the giant now, and Jan was rising slowly from his enormous chair,
unfolding his incredible length, standing erect at last, so that his
head touched and slightly raised the sloping canvas roof of the tent.
She wondered, as she gazed pityingly and a little fearfully at Jan, how
it felt to be three feet taller than even the tallest of ordinary men,
and as she wondered she gazed upward into Jan's face and caught
something of an answer to her question. For Jan's great, hollow eyes,
set in a skeleton of a face, were the saddest she had ever seen, but
patiently sad, as if the little-boy soul that hid somewhere in that
terribly abnormal body of his had resigned itself to eternal sorrow and
loneliness.
At the request of the spieler Jan stalked, like a seven-league-boots
creature of a fairy tale, up and down the little platform, then, still
sad-faced, patient, he folded up his amazing legs and relaxed in his
great chair with a sigh. He was silently and indifferently offering
postcard pictures of himself for sale when the barker turned toward
Sally, cajoling the crowd away from the giant:
"And here, la-dees and gen-tle-men, we have the most beautiful girl that
ever escaped from a Turkish harem--the Princess Lalla. Right here,
folks! Here's a real treat for you! They may come bigger but they don't
come prettier! I've saved the Princess Lalla for the last because she's
the best. I know all you sheiks will agree with me--" Embarrassed snorts
of laughter interrupted him. "That's right, boys. And if the Princess
Lalla don't show up tonight I'll know that some good-looking Stanton boy
has eloped with her.
"Stand up, Princess Lalla, and let these boys see what a Turkish
princess looks like! Don't crowd now, boys!"
Sally slipped from her chair and advanced a pace or two toward the edge
of the platform, her knees trembling so she could scarcely walk.
It did not seem possible to her that the glamorous, beautiful figure to
whom the spieler had made a deep and ironic salaam was Sally Ford. She
wondered if all those people staring at her with wide, curious eyes or
with envy really believed she was the Princess Lalla, an escaped member
of the harem of the Sultan of Turkey. She made herself see herself as
they saw her--a slim, rounded, young-girl figure in fantastic purple
satin trousers, wrapped close about her legs from knee to ankle with
ropes of imitation pearls; a green satin tunic-blouse, sleeveless and
embroidered with sequins and edged with gold fringe, half-revealing and
half-concealing her delicate young curves; a provocative lace veil
dimming and making mysterious the brilliance of her wide, childish eyes.
She wondered if any of the more skeptical would mutter that the
golden-olive tint of her face, neck and bare arms had come out of a can
of burnt-sienna powder, applied thickly and evenly over a film of cold
cream. The mock-jewel-wrapped ropes of her blue-black hair, however,
were real, and she felt their beauty as they lay against her slowly
rising and falling breast.
To her gravely expressed doubts of the authenticity of her Turkish
costume Mrs. Bybee had replied curtly, contemptuously: "My Gawd! Who
knows or cares whether Turkish dames dress like this? It's pretty, ain't
it? Them women may wear turbans and what-nots for all I know, but that
black hair of yours ain't going to be covered up with no towel around
your head."
And so, circling her brow and holding the scrap of black lace nose veil
in place, was a crudely fashioned but gaudily pretty crown studded with
imitation rubies and emeralds and diamonds as big as bird's eggs. Her
feet felt very tiny and strange in red sandals, whose pointed toes
turned sharply upward and ended roguishly in fluffy silk pompoms.
"I declare, you make a lot better Princess Lalla than Minnie Brooks
did," Mrs. Bybee had commented after out-fitting Sally. "She took down
with appendicitis in Sioux City and we ain't had a crystal gazer
since--one of the big hits of the show, too."
But the spieler was going on and on, giving her a fearful and wonderful
history, endowing her with weird gifts--"... Yes, sir, folks, the
Princess Lalla sees all, knows all--sees all in this magic crystal of
hers. She sees past, present and future, and will reveal all to anyone
who cares to step up on this platform and be convinced. Just 25 cents,
folks, one lonely little quarter, and you'll have past, present and
future revealed to you by the Turkish seeress, favorite fortune-teller
of the Sultan of Turkey. Who'll be first, boys and girls? Step right
up."
As he exhorted and harangued, the spieler, whom Sally had heard called
Gus, was busy arranging the little pine table, covered with black velvet
embroidered in gold thread with the signs of the Zodiac. On the table
stood a crystal ball, mounted on a tarnished gilt pedestal, and covered
over with a black square. Gus whisked off the square and revealed the
"magic crystal" to the gaping crowd. Then, with another deep salaam, he
conducted the "Princess Lalla" to her throne-like chair. She seated
herself and cupped her brown-painted hands with their gilded nails over
the large glass bowl.
A young man vaulted lightly upon the platform, followed by giggles and
slangy words of encouragement. Sally's eyes, mercifully shielded by the
black lace veil, widened with terror. Her hands trembled so as they
hovered over the crystal that she had an almost irresistible impulse to
cover her face with them. Then she remembered that the black lace veil
and the brown powder did that.
For the first to demand an exhibition of her powers as a seeress was
Ross Willis, Pearl Carson's "boy friend," Ross Willis who had not asked
her to dance because she was the Carsons' "hired girl" from the
orphanage.
While Ross Willis, awkward and embarrassed, shuffled to the canvas chair
which Gus, the spieler, whisked forward, Sally reflected that there was
no need for her to remember any of the multitudinous instructions which
Mrs. Bybee had primed her for her job of "seeress."
She curved her small, brown painted, gilded-nailed hands over the
crystal and bent her veiled face low. In a seductive, sing-song voice
she began to chant, bringing some of the words out hesitantly, as if
English had been recently learned and came hard to her "Turkish" lips:
"I zee ze beeg fields--wheat fields, corn fields--ees it not zo?" She
raised her shaded eyes coyly to the face of the young farmer. The crowd
pressed close, breathing hard, the odors of their perspiration coming up
on hot waves of summer air to the gayly dressed little figure on the
platform. "Yes'm, I mean, sure, Princess," Ross Willis stuttered, and
the crowd laughed, pressed closer still. Two or three women waved
quarters to attract the attention of Gus, the spieler, who stood behind
her, to aid her if necessary.
"You are--what you call it?--a farmer," Sally went on in her seductively
deepened voice. Oh, it was fun to "play-act" and to be paid for it! "You
va-ry reach young man. Va-ry beeg farm. You have mother, father, li'l
seester." Thank heaven, her ears had been keen that night of Pearl's
party, even if she had been inarticulate with shyness! "You ar-re in
love. I zee a gir-rl, a beeg, pretty gir-rl with red hair an' blue eyes.
Ees it not zo?" Her little low laugh was a gurgle, which started a shout
of laughter in the crowd.
"Yeah, I reckon so," Ross Willis admitted, blushing more violently than
ever.
"Oh, you Pearl!" a girl's voice shrilled from the crowd.
"You mar-ry with thees gir-rl, have three va-ry nize childs," Sally went
on delightedly. After all, why shouldn't Pearl marry Ross Willis, since
she could not have David? "Zo! That ees all I zee," she concluded with
sweet gravity. "Zee creestal she go dark now."
Ross Willis thanked "Princess Lalla" awkwardly and dropped from the
platform to the grass-stubbled ground, entirely unaware that the
marvelous seeress was little Sally Ford.
Confidence and mirth welled up in Sally. She began to believe in herself
as "Princess Lalla," just as she had always more than half-believed that
she was the queen or the actress whom she had impersonated in the old
days so recently ended forever, when she had "play-acted" for the other
orphans.
The next seeker after knowledge of "past, present and future" was not so
easy, but not very hard either, for the applicant was a girl, a pretty,
very urban-looking girl, who wore a tiny solitaire ring on her
engagement finger and who had been clinging to the arm of an obviously
adoring young man. For the pretty girl Sally obligingly foretold a happy
marriage with a "dark, tall young man, va-ry handsome"; a long journey,
and two children. The girl sparkled with pleasure, utterly unconscious
of the fact that "Princess Lalla" had told her nothing of the past and
very little of the present.
Quarters were thrust upon her thick and fast. Because of the brisk
demand for her services, Sally gave only the briefest of "readings," and
only a few muttered angrily that it was a swindle. To a middle-aged
farmer she gave a bumper wheat crop, a new eight-cylinder car, a
prospective son-in-law for the girl whom Sally had unerringly picked out
as his unmarried daughter, and the promise of many splendid
grandchildren. To a freckled, open-faced, engaging youngster of ten,
thrust upon the platform by his adoring mother, she grandly promised
nothing less than the presidency of the United States, as well as riches
and a beautiful wife.
Some of her prophecies, such as twin babies for the newly married
couple, brought shouts of laughter from the crowd, and some of her vague
guesses as to the past went very wide of the mark, as the applicants did
not hesitate to tell her--the old maid, for instance, who looked so
motherly that Sally lavishly endowed her with a husband and three
children; but nearly everyone who paid a quarter for what "Princess
Lalla" could see in the magic crystal went away wondering and thrilled
and satisfied.
During the first lull between performances, Sally slipped out of the
"Palace of Wonders" and daringly mingled with the crowds outside. It was
all beautiful and wonderful to Sally, who had been to a circus only once
in her life and never to a carnival before.
Before the tent which housed the big glass tank into which "bathing
beauties" dived and in which they ate bananas and drank soda-pop under
water, she encountered Winfield Bybee, enormous, majestic, benign, for
it was a good crowd and a fine day, and money was pouring into his
pockets.
"Well, well," he grinned down at her, "I hear from Gus that you're
knocking 'em cold. Better run along in now, and you might see how many
of the rubes you can make follow you into the Palace of Wonders. We
don't want to give 'em too much of a free show. And remember, girlie,
for every quarter Princess Lalla earns as a fortune-teller, little Sally
Ford gets a nickel for herself. Don't take many nickels to make a
dollar."
"Oh, Mr. Bybee, I'm so happy I'm about to burst," Sally confided to him
in a rush of gratitude. "But--do you think it's very wrong of me to
pretend to be a crystal gazer when really I can't see a thing in it to
save my life?"
Bybee bellowed with laughter, so that the crowd veered suddenly toward
them. He stooped to whisper closer to her little brown-stained ear:
"Don't you worry, sister. As old P. T. Barnum used to say, 'There's a
sucker born every minute,' and old Winfield Bybee knows that they like
to be fooled. You just kid 'em along and send 'em away happy and I
reckon the good Lord ain't going to waste any black ink on your record
tonight. It's worth a quarter to be told a lot of nice things about
yourself, ain't it?"
As she tripped swiftly across the dusty lot toward the Palace of
Wonders, the crowd following her grew larger and larger. Becoming bolder
because she felt that she was really "Princess Lalla" and not timid
little Sally Ford, she deliberately flirted with the men who pressed
close upon her, even waved a little brown hand invitingly toward the big
tent.
When she reached the tent door, the barker leaned down from his booth,
behind which was set a small platform, and beckoned her to mount the
narrow steps. Smilingly she did so, and the barker introduced her:
"Here she is, boys--the Princess Lalla of Con-stan-ti-no-ple, the
prettiest girl that ever escaped from the Sultan's harem! Princess
Lalla, favorite crystal-gazer to the Sultan of Turkey before she escaped
from his harem, will tell your fortunes, la-dees and gen-tle-men!
Princess Lalla sees all, knows all! Just one of the scores of
attractions in the Palace of Wonders! Admission 25 cents, one quarter of
a dollar, two bits!"
Sally bowed, her little brown hands spreading in an enchanting gesture;
then she skipped down the steps, the great ropes of black hair, wound
with strands of imitation pearls, flapping against the vivid green satin
tunic.
She was very tired when the supper hour came, but the thought that she
would soon see David again lent wings to her sandaled feet. She was
about to hurry out of the Palace of Wonders, released at last by the
apparently indefatigable spieler, Gus, when a tiny, treble voice called
to her:
"Princess Lalla! Princess Lalla! Would you mind carrying me to the
cars?"
Sally, startled, looked everywhere about the tent that was almost
emptied of spectators before it dawned on her that the tiny voice had
come from "Pitty Sing," "the smallest woman in the world," sitting in a
child's little red rocking chair on the platform.
All of Sally's passionate love for little things--especially small
children--surged up in her heart. She skipped down the steps of her own
particular little platform and ran, with outstretched hands, to the
midget. "Pitty Sing" was indeed a pretty thing, a very doll of a woman,
the flaxen hair on her small head marcelled meticulously, her little
plump cheeks and pouting, babyish lips tinted with rouge. In her
miniature hands she was holding a newspaper, which was so big in
comparison with her midget size that it served as a complete screen.
"Of course I'll carry you. I'm so glad you'll let me," Sally glowed and
dimpled. "You little darling, you!"
"Please don't baby me!" Pitty Sing admonished her in a severe little
voice. "I'm old enough to be your mother, even if I'm not big enough."
And the tiny, plump hands began to fold the newspapers with great
definiteness.
Sally's eyes, abashed, fluttered from the disapproving little face to
the paper. Odd that so tiny a thing could read--but of course she was
grown up, even if she was only 29 inches tall--
"Oh, please!" Sally gasped, going very pale under the brown powder. "May
I see your paper for just a minute?"
For her eyes had caught sight of a name which had been burned into her
memory, forever indelible--the name of Carson.
When Sally had carefully deposited the dignified little midget, "Pitty
Sing," in the infant-sided high-chair drawn up to a corner table in the
dining car, she hurried to the box of a kitchen which took up the other
end of the car, the newspaper trembling in her hand. She found David
alone in the kitchen, slicing onions into a great pan of frying Swiss
steak. Onion-induced tears streamed down his cheeks, but at the sound of
Sally's urgent voice, he turned.
"Oh, David, he wasn't killed!" she cried, taking care to keep her voice
low. "It's in the paper--look! But he says the most terrible things
about us, and the police are looking for us--"
"Hey, there, honey! Steady!" David commanded gently, as he groped for a
handkerchief to wipe his streaming eyes. "Now, let's see the paper.
Thank God I didn't commit murder--what the devil!" he interrupted
himself, as his eyes traveled hurriedly down the front page. "By heaven,
I almost wish I had killed him! The dirty, lying skunk!"
"FARMER ACCUSES HIRED MAN OF ASSAULT TO KILL" was the streamer head-line
across the entire page. Below, two streamer lines of heavy italic type
informed the reader: "CLEM CARSON SUFFERS BROKEN LEG FOR ATTEMPTING TO
PROTECT ORPHANED GIRL FROM UNIVERSITY STUDENT WORKING ON FARM."
The "story," in small type, followed: "Clem Carson, prosperous farmer,
living eighteen miles from the capital city, is suffering from a broken
leg, a broken nose and numerous cuts and bruises, sustained late
Saturday afternoon when, Carson alleges, he broke into the garret
bedroom of Miss Sally Ford, sixteen-year-old girl from the state
orphanage, who was working on the Carson farm for her board during the
summer vacation. According to Carson's story, told to reporters Sunday
night after a warrant for the arrest of Sally Ford and David Nash had
been issued by the sheriff's office, the farmer had been suspicious for
several days that one of his hired men, David Nash, A. & M. student
during the school year, was paying too marked attention to the young
girl, for whose safety Carson had pledged himself to the state.
"On Saturday afternoon early the members of Mr. Carson's family,
including his wife, brother, mother and daughter, had come to town for
shopping, leaving Miss Ford alone in the house. The two other hired men
had also gone to the city, leaving Carson and young Nash at work on the
farm. Carson alleges that he saw Nash enter the house late Saturday
afternoon and that when the young man did not return to his work in the
barn within a reasonable time, Carson left his own work to investigate,
fearing for the safety of the girl under his protection.
"After unsuccessfully searching the main floor of the house, Carson
alleges, he went to the garret, heard voices coming from Miss Ford's
room, tried the door and found it locked. He knocked, was refused
admittance, according to the story told the sheriff, then, determined to
save the girl from the man, he climbed to the roof of the porch and made
his way to the small window of the great room, from which he saw Miss
Ford and the Nash boy in a compromising position. When he tried to enter
the room through the window Carson alleges that he was brutally
assaulted by young Nash, who, by the way, was boxing champion of the
sophomore class at the A. & M. A smashing blow from young Nash's fist
sent the farmer crashing through the window, and down the sloping roof
to the ground.
"In the fall, Carson's left leg was broken above the knee. He was still
unconscious when Dr. John E. Salter, a physician living ten miles from
the Carson farm on the road to the capital, arrived at the deserted
farm, summoned by a mysterious male voice by telephone. The sheriff's
theory, as well as the doctor's, is that young Nash, fearful that he had
seriously injured the farmer, summoned medical help before leaving with
the girl.
"A warrant for the arrest of David Nash has been issued by the sheriff,
charging the young student with assault with intent to kill and with
contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The warrant for Miss Ford's
arrest charges moral delinquency. Since she is a ward of the state until
her eighteenth birthday, she is also liable to arrest on the simple
charge of running away from the farm on which the state orphanage
authorities had placed her for the summer."
Sally, trembling so that her teeth chattered, watched David as he read
the entire story. His young face became more and more grim as he read.
When he had finished the shameful, hideously untrue account of what had
really been a piece of superb gallantry on his part, he crumpled the
paper slowly between the fingers of his big hand as if that hand were
crushing out the life of the man who had lied so monstrously. Then,
lifting a lid of the big coal range, he thrust the crumpled mass of
paper into the flames.
"But--what are we going to do, David?" Sally whispered, her eyes
searching his grim face piteously. "They'll send me to the reformatory
if they catch me, and you--you--oh, David! They'll send you to prison
for years and years! I wish you'd never laid eyes on me! I'd rather die
than have you come to harm through me."
She sagged against the narrow shelf which served as a kitchen table,
weeping forlornly.
"Don't cry, Sally," David pleaded gently. "It's not your fault. I'd do
it all over again if anyone else dared insult you. Oh, the devil! These
onions are burning up! Skip along now and don't worry. I'm cook tonight.
Buck's on a spree. Keep a stiff upper lip, honey. In all that brown
paint and that rig, you could walk into the sheriff's office and he'd do
nothing worse than ask you to read his palm."
"But you, David, you!" she protested, trying to choke off her sobs.
"You're not disguised--"
"I'll stick to the kitchen. Nobody'll think of looking for me here." He
grinned at her cheerfully. "Remember, Pop Bybee's on our side. He took
us in when he thought I'd killed a man. I don't suppose he'll turn on us
now, particularly since you're such a riot as Princess Lalla. I've been
hearing how big you're going over in the Palace of Wonders."
"Honestly, David?" she brightened. "Do you like me dressed up like
this?" and she made him a little curtsey.
"You sweet, sweet kid!" he laughed at her tenderly. "Like you like that?
You're adorable! But I like your own wild-rose complexion better. Now
scoot or I'll be put in irons for spoiling the supper."
Sally fled, but not before she had blown him an audacious kiss from the
tips of her gilded-nailed fingers.
Winfield Bybee had entered the dining car during her talk with David and
was seated at his own table, his thin, hatchet-faced wife opposite him.
When he saw his new "Princess Lalla" almost skipping down the aisle, her
eyes sparkling with joy at David's unexpected praise and tenderness, he
muttered something to Mrs. Bybee, then beckoned the fantastically clad
little figure to his table.
"Would her royal highness honor me and Mrs. Bybee with her presence at
dinner this evening?" he boomed, his blue eyes twinkling.
When she had seated herself, after a little flurry of thanks, Bybee
leaned toward her and spoke in a confidential undertone: "Me and the
wife have seen that piece in the papers about you and Dave, Sally. What
about it? Who's lying? You and the boy--or Carson?"
Sally had turned the little black lace veil back upon the jeweled-gilt
crown, so that her big eyes showed like two round, polished sapphires
set in bronze. Bybee, searching them with his keen, pale blue eyes,
could find in them no guile, no cloud of guilt.
"David and I told you the truth, Mr. Bybee," she said steadily, but her
lips trembled childishly. "You believe us, don't you? David is good,
good!"
"All right," Bybee nodded his acceptance of her truthfulness. "Now what
was that you was telling me and the wife about your mother?"
Sally's heart leaped with hope. "She--my mother--lived here in Stanton,
Mr. Bybee. I have her address, the one she gave the orphanage twelve
years ago when she put me there. But Miss Pond, who works in the office
at the Home, said they had investigated and found she had moved away
right after she put me in the orphanage. But I thought--I hoped--I could
find out something while I'm here. But I suppose it would be too
dangerous--I might get caught--and they'd send me to the reformatory--"
"Haven't I told you I'm not going to let 'em bother you?" Bybee chided
her, beetling his brows in a terrific frown. "Now, my idea is this--"
"_My_ idea, Winfield Bybee!" his wife interrupted tartly. "Always taking
credit! That's you all over! _My_ idea, Sally, is for _me_ to scout
around the neighborhood where your mother used to live and see if I can
pick up any information for you. Land knows a girl alone like you needs
some folks of her own to look after her. Wouldn't do for you to go
around asking questions, but I'll make out like I'm trying to find out
where my long-lost sister, Mrs. Ford, is. What was her first name? Got
that, too?"
"Her name was Nora," Sally said softly. "Mrs. Nora Ford, aged
twenty-eight then--twelve years ago. Oh, Mrs. Bybee, you're both so good
to me! Why are you so good to me?" she added ingenuously.
"Maybe," Mrs. Bybee answered brusquely, "it's because you're a sweet
kid, without any dirty nonsense about you. That is," she added severely,
her sharp grey eyes flicking from Sally's eager face to Bybee's, "you'd
better not let me catch you making eyes at this old Tom Cat of mine!"
"Now, Ma," Bybee flushed and squirmed, "don't tease the poor kid. Can't
you see she's clear gone on this Dave chap of her's? She wouldn't even
know I was a man if I didn't wear pants. Don't mind her, Sally. She's
your friend, too, and she'll try to get on your ma's tracks tomorrow
morning before show time."