“You had another reason, didn’t you? A better reason?”
I confessed that I had. But I wouldn’t tell him what it was, even when
he raised his voice to me and pounded on the table with his fist. If he
had been the right kind of a man I would have told him, for a proper man
would have been proud of his daughter under those circumstances. But I
knew that Judge Kingsley would consider that she had disgraced herself
by talking to me.
“You can’t tell the truth--you won’t tell the truth--for the truth isn’t
in you,” he stormed. “You are convicted by the tongues of the boys who
have owned up.”
“I knew there were sneaks in the crowd--that’s another reason I had for
getting out, Judge Kingsley.”
“If anything else happens in this village we shall know where to place
the blame.”
“It isn’t fair, Judge Kingsley!” I remonstrated. “I’m not getting a
square deal in this thing. I know that old Nute has been talking to you
the way he calked to me last night. They are all bound to put the blame
on to me.”
“I know for myself.”
“No, sir! You don’t know for yourself. You say I can’t tell the truth!
I’ll show you that I can, even when it’s to my own hurt--yes, sir, to my
awful hurt! You have advertised for a horse, haven’t you?”
“Yes.”
“My uncle is going to send around a man dressed in woman’s clothes--this
very evening--so as to fool you in the dusk with the worst fraud ever
propped on four legs.”
That confession didn’t help me a bit and I ought to have had sense
enough to know it before I opened my mouth. I had made the judge
more thoroughly angry than ever; I had offended his pride as a shrewd
business man.
“What cock-and-bull yam is this? Do you think I can be fooled by cheap
horse-jockey tricks? You young fool, what do you mean by insulting me?”
“You just wait till you see the horse,” I retorted. “I helped fix him
and I didn’t know him, myself, after the job was done. But I don’t want
to see you gulled, Judge Kingsley. I am following new ways from now on.
You know my uncle and how I am beholden to him! When I open up to you
about him it ought to show you that I want to be honest, no matter how
much the truth is going to harm me.”
“There’s no decency in this town--not even honor among thieves,” snarled
the judge. He pointed to the door. “That’s all for now, young Sidney!
Remember for yourself--and tell others--that the grand jury sits in this
county within a fortnight! Upon actions from now on depends what the
county prosecutor will be inclined to do.”
Judge Kingsley’s office was a sort of ell affair built out from the side
of his mansion. When I left it I ducked around to the rear of the house
and made off down through the orchard, having no relish to show my
clawed face to the public. I had my day to myself and I did not hurry; I
had many things to ponder on.
All at once I heard the sound of somebody running on the turf behind me.
I turned and faced Celene. I curved my forearm across my countenance,
ashamed of my appearance, her own flushed cheeks were so radiantly
beautiful!
“I know how it happened. I’m sure it wasn’t your fault,” she said,
graciously.
“They ste’boyed him on to me!” I told her. “I have tried to make ’em
stop their tricks, just as I promised you. So they did this to put me
in wrong. Your father is hard on me! I tried to make him understand that
I----well, I wanted--”
“I overheard--I couldn’t help overhearing.” Then her cheeks grew rosier.
“I’ll own up. I listened at the door. I wanted to know. And that’s why I
came after you. You have kept our little secret and I know you have done
your best in other ways. So that’s why I’m here. I want to thank you.
And--I--Well, I think that’s all!”
It seemed to finish it as far as I was concerned, too; I couldn’t pump a
word up out of myself. So we stood there and looked up into the trees.
“Father has been talking to them to-day,” she said, after a time.
“Perhaps they are warned now and won’t be up to any more mischief. And
they ought to be sorry for what they have done to you. I think you can
have a lot of influence over them after this.”
“I don’t know about that. I’m going away from here.”
That statement astonished her just as much as it astonished me. I had
not thought of announcing my departure ten seconds before; it had not
been in my mind that I was going away. But all of a sudden the memory
of what I had told the judge about the horse popped into my thoughts.
Considering what would be my uncle’s state of mind after the exposure, I
reckon the going-away idea followed as naturally as the right answer in
a sum of addition.
“I had supposed that your outlook--your position with your uncle--was
very promising,” she said. “The town needs smart men.”
The fact that she had spent one thought upon my condition interested me
more than the implied compliment.
“If I stay with him I’ll only be a country cheat and horse-dickerer.
I want to be something else,” I told her. “This very day my uncle is
trying to put up a job on your father. I have told the judge about it.”
“I heard you. It was another reason why I wanted to speak to you--to
encourage you in being honest. There’s no need of father bringing you
into the matter at all. It would only make trouble between your uncle
and you. I’ll speak to father.”
“You’d better not, for then you’d be making trouble for yourself. I’d
rather take all the blame of it.”
We stood and looked at each other for a long time.
“I’m not a coward,” she said.
“But it will come out about me blabbing--some way it will come out.
There’s no need of you being in the scrape. I’m going away, and I may as
well go flying while I’m about it!”
“I hope--” she said, and that was as far as she got. I know how I
was feeling inside and perhaps my feelings showed too plainly on that
striped face of mine. She looked scared and turned and hurried away. I
didn’t know whether she hoped I’d stay in Levant or hoped I’d do well
wherever I might roam. I watched her out of sight and she did not turn
to look at me. I couldn’t exactly figure that out--whether she didn’t
want to give me a last glance or didn’t dare to.
I fingered in my vest pocket while she was running away; when she
disappeared I pulled out a packet and opened it. There were three rings
in it. One was a coral ring; I bought it when I was fifteen and paid
thirty cents for it. I never had the courage to give it to her when we
were at school. There was a silver ring which I bought a year later when
my circumstances were a little better--better than my courage. Lastly,
there was a gold ring which I had secured in a dicker soon after our
meeting on Purgatory Hill. I am not going to discourse on the fool
impulse which prompted me to buy those rings and stick them in my vest
pocket. Nor will I say anything concerning another impulse which made
me wrap the rings up and drop them into a cleft in the trunk of an
apple-tree. If I did not dare to give them to her, at least I could
leave them on her premises. Then I went by back ways to my uncle’s
house.
Before I was out of sight of Judge Kingsley’s mansion I looked behind me
several times. I didn’t know but I might see a flutter of a handkerchief
from some window, for a vague and queer kind of hope was still in me. I
saw no flutter, but I did see a strange man who was strolling along my
trail. I was too busy with other thoughts to wonder who he might be.