PATRON AND CLIENT
The spring term was but a few days old when Salter received a summons to
present himself at the Principal’s office immediately after his morning
recitation. Such invitations were not frequent with Salter, who, as we
have seen, led a particularly inoffensive life, gave scrupulous heed to
the rules, and did his work with exemplary regularity. His record was
clear of all sins of omission and of commission; but on the score of
permission he was not so innocent. He had a gloomy presentiment, as he
dragged himself up the walk to his destination, that the long-deferred
reckoning for the trap-door and the nocturnal exits through his window
was now at hand. He went hopeless and helpless in the horns of his
dilemma, forbidden by the perverse principle of school honor to confess
the truth, yet bound to be credited with deception and wrong-doing if he
did not.
“Salter,” began the Principal, with the cautious deliberateness which he
habitually used in his interviews with suspected boys, “you were allowed
to occupy Mrs. Winter’s lower room because you were considered
trustworthy, were you not?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And in taking that room you were put on your honor to conform to the
school rules.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Explain, then, your absence from your room last night and your return
through the window at half-past twelve.”
“I wasn’t out last night at all, sir,” replied Salter in a low voice,
but without raising his eyes to meet Mr. Graham’s searching gaze.
“When did you go to bed?”
“About ten.”
“You did not go out or come in by your window last night?”
“No, sir.”
“Or this morning early?”
“No, Sir.”
“And no one else did?”
“I didn’t see any one, sir.”
“Did you lock your door when you went to bed?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Was it locked when you woke this morning?”
“Yes, sir.”
Mr. Graham rested his forehead on his finger tips and gazed for a few
moments into the fire. He was a wise man, exceptionally successful in
ruling boys, largely because he treated them with common sense and
justice, neither suspecting them unnecessarily nor by guileless
benevolence inviting deceit. As he always made it a point whenever he
dealt personally with the boys to state his views with a clearness
impossible to misunderstand, and never to act until he was sure of his
premises, he was never charged with underhand dealing, and made few
mistakes.
In the present case the Principal’s caution served him well. He had
already visited Mrs. Winter and learned that she herself tried
Marchmont’s door at 10 P.M., and found it bolted within—it had no key.
Marchmont, therefore, was beyond suspicion. It followed, then, that
Salter was lying, or that John Drown, the man who had reported the entry
by the window, was mistaken, or that all the facts in the case were not
yet known. From his knowledge of Salter and Drown, Mr. Graham inclined
to the last supposition.
“Salter,” he said, looking fixedly at the boy’s confused face, “you are
keeping something back that I ought to know. What is it?”
Salter made no reply,—what reply could he make without telling the whole
truth or lying?—but stared at the floor while his face burned hotter and
his eyes swam, and a lump formed in his throat.
“I won’t press you,” said the Principal at last, breaking the terrible
silence; “but this I want you to promise me to do: choose the best boy
in school, the strongest, manliest, most honorable fellow you know;
confide to him all that you won’t confide to me, and act on his advice.
Will you do it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“That is all, then.”
With the feeling that he had escaped a great peril, Salter sat down in
his room and meditated on the interview. He had told no lies; he had
made no confession; he had given no hint that could be so twisted as to
suggest Marchmont. But how was he to fulfil his promise to seek out an
adviser and follow his advice? And who was “the strongest, manliest,
most honorable fellow you know”? Certain names occurred to him
immediately,—names with which we are already acquainted: Poole,
Laughlin, Ware, Planter. No one of these fellows had ever taken much
notice of him. They had been polite to him,—all but Planter the senior,
who probably didn’t know him by sight,—but in his timid soul he shrank
from imposing on any of them his private troubles. Who, then, was this
adviser to be? If he consulted his inclination, it would be Lindsay,
with whom he had already discussed the affair of the closet, and whose
later treatment of him invited confidence. And why not Lindsay, indeed?
Lindsay was a gentleman, and strong and kind-hearted; had in three
months won a position in the social life of the school which Salter
himself could never hope to reach; knew Marchmont well, and yet was not
of his sort. Lindsay it should be.
In response to a knock Wolcott looked up from his books that afternoon
to see Salter standing before him.
“I want to talk with you about something,” said the visitor, timidly.
“May I?”
“Sure!” returned Wolcott, encouragingly. “Sit down, won’t you? What’s
up?”
“You remember what I said to you about that trap-door in my closet, that
sooner or later I should be pulled up for it? Well, it came to-day.”
“Tell me about it!” cried Wolcott, interested at once.
And Salter, whose memory never failed him, went over the conversation
with Mr. Graham verbatim. “He told me to choose an adviser, and to
follow his advice,” Salter remarked in conclusion, “so I’ve chosen
you—that is, if you don’t object,” he added immediately, as he saw the
color rush into Lindsay’s face.
He need have felt no uncertainty. Wolcott’s cheeks flushed, not from
anger, but with pride that, with all the school to choose from, this
fellow had come to him, a new boy, for advice and help; and instantly,
under the generous impulse that animates every true man when a weaker
cries for protection, he had adopted Salter’s cause as his own. If he
hesitated, it was only for effect; he knew immediately what he wished to
say.
“If you want my advice, here it is: go to Marchmont and tell him the
thing has got to end, and end now; that if he goes through your room
again, you won’t be responsible for what happens.”
“But what can happen?”
“You could lock him out, if you wanted to, and let him shift for
himself. But it won’t come to that. Tell him you won’t have it! Put up a
stiff front, and he’ll back down. I’ve seen him do it before now.”
Salter looked discouraged. “I’m not good at stiff fronts. He’d know it
was a bluff, and talk me out of it before I’d been there two minutes.
When it comes to talking, I’m no match for the fellow at all.”
“I’ll go with you,” cried Wolcott, springing up. “You’ve got to make a
stand, or he’ll run over you completely. Spunk up and take your
medicine; it’s the only way.”
Marchmont was at home, and obviously puzzled as the pair filed into his
room, the shrinking Salter pushed forward by the more aggressive
Lindsay. As Salter never had ventured to visit his classmate of the
second story, while Lindsay until recently had been a frequent visitor,
Marchmont naturally looked to the latter for an explanation of the call.
“I’m here only as a friend of Salter’s,” said Wolcott, significantly.
“He has something to say to you.”
“I just wanted to say that I was called up to-day to explain how some
one came through my window at half-past twelve last night; and it seems
to me high time for the closet business to stop.” Salter got through
with this very well.
“But you got off easily enough, didn’t you? Of course the man who
thought he saw you was mistaken.” Marchmont’s tones were smooth and
persuasive.
Salter rallied his courage and went blindly forward. “It doesn’t make
any difference how I got off. The thing must end or I’ll not be
responsible for the consequences.”
Marchmont laughed. “There won’t be any consequences. You aren’t mean
enough to squeal.”
“I’ve advised him to give you warning, and when you go through again,
lock you out,” said Wolcott, coming to the rescue. “He’s put up with it
long enough.”
Marchmont turned coldly: “So you’re butting in again, are you? I don’t
see that this concerns you in the slightest.”
“As Salter’s backer in case he needs my help it may concern me a good
deal,” retorted Wolcott. “Shall we go now?”
Salter eagerly assented, and the pair retired with the honors of battle.
The next day Salter again appeared to consult his adviser.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about that hole. It ought to be closed up. He
may keep out for a time, but I never shall feel safe as long as it’s
there.”
“Get a carpenter to close it up,” Wolcott answered promptly.
“It would be all over town in a day. I’d like to do it on the quiet.”
“Can’t you do it yourself?” asked Wolcott.
“I don’t know a thing about tools,” lamented Salter.
“Neither do I,” confessed Lindsay in turn. “I’ll tell you who can help
us,” he added after a pause, as the incident of the trip to Eastham
suddenly occurred to him. “Laughlin! He’s a corker with tools—almost as
good as a carpenter.”
“Will you ask him?” suggested Salter, dubiously.
“Certainly! I’ll send him round to you.”
Laughlin presented himself that very afternoon at Salter’s room, and
made his examination.
“It’ll be dead easy,” he said in a reassuring tone.
“Must you go into Marchmont’s room in order to fix it?” Salter asked
uneasily.
“No, I can do everything from here. All you have to do is to put two
long strips across the opening underneath the trap-door and screw them
tight to the door. That’ll prevent his lifting it up. Then we’ll nail
some cleats on the sides of the joists and tack boards to the cleats so
as to fill up the hole in the ceiling of the closet.”
Salter pretended to understand. “Can you come Thursday afternoon? Mrs.
Winter and her niece who helps with the housework are going to a church
club meeting at three o’clock, and the house will be clear.”
“All right,” replied Laughlin, cheerfully. “I have the measurements, the
school carpenter will give me boards, and I’ll get them ready beforehand
so that we can whack them right up. You can smuggle the things in
Wednesday evening, can’t you?”
“Sure!” cried the boy, delighted at the apparently easy solution of the
difficulty.
On Thursday afternoon Laughlin and Lindsay sauntered in, the former
bearing nails and screws, the latter with hammer and screwdriver bulging
his hip pocket.
“Coast clear?” asked the architect.
“They’re both gone, but Marchmont’s up there,” said Salter, nervously.
“Don’t care if he is,” responded Wolcott. “Go out on the steps and watch
for Mrs. Winter. We’ll attend to this end.”
The first part of the work went forward noiselessly, as the screws,
driven by Laughlin’s powerful wrist, drew tight together the trap-door
and the bars which locked it beneath the floor. When he came to the
cleats, however, and the boards which were to cover the hole in the
closet ceiling, the house resounded with the blows of the hammer.
Laughlin was just fitting in his last board when Wolcott, turning round,
saw Marchmont peering over his shoulder into the closet.
“What’s going on here?” demanded the newcomer, in the tone which might
be used by a householder who had suddenly come upon unauthorized workmen
busy on his premises.
Laughlin threw a single look at the questioner and returned to his
hammering. Wolcott was silent.
“I could cut through that in ten minutes,” said Marchmont,
contemptuously.
“You won’t, though, if you know what’s good for you,” replied Laughlin,
preparing to nail down the shelf. “You’re not dealing with Salter now.”
Marchmont muttered something under his breath, of which Wolcott caught
but the single word “mucker.” That one word, however, was sufficient to
swing him suddenly around and bring him one threatening step nearer the
sneering face. “Repeat that, will you!” he called, his fists
instinctively doubled.
“I said that your friend was a very excellent workman,” replied
Marchmont, smiling mockingly, as he edged away. “I was wondering what
union he belongs to.”
Again Wolcott found the polished man and the backwoodsman contrasted,
and the comparison was not to the advantage of the “gentleman.” As the
spring days went by, he saw more and more of Laughlin, and gradually
came to appreciate better the spirit of the independent, determined, yet
wholly sweet-souled giant. If to be a gentleman was to be gentle and
kindly at heart and every inch a man, Laughlin’s claim to the title was
clear.