More than four hundred miles away a freight train bumped and jerked
itself into the town of Marlborough, and lumberingly came to a halt.
With its final lurch of stopping a hasty figure rolled from under one
of the empty cars and hurried stiffly away into the shadows as if
pursued by a fear that the train upon which he had been riding without
a right might come after him and compel him to ride further.
The train was over an hour late. It was due at five. It had been held
up by a wreck ahead.
It was the first time that Murray Van Rensselaer had ever taken a
journey under a freight car, and he felt sure it would be the last.
Even though he might be hard pressed he would never resort to that
mode of travel again. That the breath of life was still in him was a
miracle, and he crawled into the shadow of a hedge to take his bearings.
There were others who had stolen rides in that manner, for thousands
of miles, and seemed to live through it. He had read about it in
his childhood and always wanted to try it, and when the opportunity
presented itself just in the time of his greatest need, with a cordon
of policemen in the next block and his last dollar from the ample roll
he started with spent, he had lost no time in availing himself of it.
But he felt sure now that if he had been obliged to stay on that truck
under that fearful rumbling car, and bump over that uneven roadbed for
another ten minutes, he would have died of horror, or else rolled off
beneath those grinding, crunching wheels. His head was aching as if
those wheels were going around inside his brain. His back ached with an
ache unspeakable, and his cramped legs ached as if they were being torn
from his aching body. He had never known before how many places there
were in a human body to ache.
He had eaten no breakfast nor dinner. There was no buffet in the
private berth he had chosen, and he had no money in his pocket to
purchase with if there had been. It was his first realization of what
money meant, of what it was to be utterly without it. For the moment
the fear that was driving him in his flight was obliterated by the
simple pangs of hunger and weariness. He had started for the far West,
where he hoped to strike some remote cattle ranch where men herded
whose pasts were shady, and where no questions were asked. He felt that
his experience in polo would stand him in good stead among horses, and
there he could live and be a new man. He had been planning all the way,
taking his furtive path across the country, half on foot and half by
suburban trolleys, until his money gave out and he was forced to try
the present mode of transportation. He had entertained great hopes of a
speedy arrival among other criminals, where he would be safe, when he
crawled on that dirty truck and settled himself for his journey. But
now, with his head whirling and that desperate faintness at the pit of
his stomach, he loathed the thought of going further. If there had been
a police court close at hand he would have walked in gratefully and
handed himself over to justice. This business of fleeing from justice
was no good, no good in the world.
He stood in the shelter of a great privet hedge that towered darkly
above him, and shivered in the raw November air, until the train had
jolted itself back and forth several times and finally grumbled on its
clattery way again. He had a strange fancy that the train was human and
had discovered his absence, was trying to find him perhaps, and might
still compel him to go on. He almost held his breath as car after car
passed his hiding-place. Each jolt and rumble of the train sent shivers
down his spine, and a wave of sickness over him, almost as if he had
been back underneath that dreadful car above those grinding wheels. It
was with relief unspeakable that he watched the ruby gleam of the tail
light disappear at last down the track around a curve. He drew a long
breath and tried to steady himself.
Down the road across the tracks some men were coming. He drew within
his shelter until they were passed, and then slid round the corner into
a street that apparently led up over the brow of a hill.
He had no aim, and he wondered why he went anywhere. There was nowhere
to go. No object in going. No money to buy bed or bread with, nothing
on him worth pawning. He had long ago pawned the little trinkets left
in his pockets when he started. Eventually this going must cease. One
had to eat to live. One couldn’t walk forever on sore feet and next to
no shoes. Flesh and bones would not keep going indefinitely at command
of the brain. Why should the brain bother them longer? Why not go up
there on the hill somewhere and crawl out of sight and sleep? That
would be an easy way to die, die while one slept. He must sleep. He was
overpowered with it like a drug. If he only had a cigarette it would
hearten him up. It was three days since he had smoked--he who used to
be always smoking, who smoked more cigarettes than any other fellow in
his set. It was deadly doing without! And to think that the son of his
father was reduced to this! Why even the servants at home had plenty to
eat and drink and _smoke_--!
He plodded on up the street, not knowing whither he was going, nor
caring, scarcely knew that he was going. Just going because he had to.
Some power beyond himself seemed driving him.
Suddenly a bright light shone out across the walk from a big stone
building set back from the street. A church, he saw, as he drew nearer,
yet it had a curious attachment of other buildings huddled around it,
a part of the church, yet not so churchly. He wondered vaguely if it
might not be a parochial school of some sort.
There were lights in low windows near the ground and tall shrubs making
shelter about, and from the open doorway there issued a most delectable
odor, the smell of roasting meat.
Straight to the brightness and appetizing odor his lagging feet led him
without his own conscious volition. It was something that he had to
do, to go to that smell and that comfort, even though it led him into
terrible danger. A moment more and he stood within the shelter of a
great syringa bush looking down into the open window of a long light
basement room, steadying himself with his trembling hand against the
rough stone wall of the building, and just below his eager hand was a
table with plates and plates full of the most delectable looking rolls,
and rows of wonderful chocolate cakes, and gleaming frosted nut cake.
He could hear voices in the distance, but no one was in sight, and he
reached down suddenly and swiftly and with both hands and gathered
two little round white frosted cakes and a great big buttered roll,
and sliding behind the syringa bush, began to eat them voraciously,
snatching a bite from one hand and then the other.
He had never stolen anything before, and he was not conscious of
stealing now. He ate because he was famished and must eat to live.
Down in the basement a church supper was in preparation.
Great roasts were in the parish oven, potatoes were boiling for the
masher. The water was on for lima beans, and a table stood filled with
rows of salad plates, on which one of the church mothers was carefully
placing crisp lettuce and red-ripe tomatoes stuffed with celery and
bits of nuts. Another church mother was ladling out mayonnaise from a
great yellow bowl in which she had just made it. A kettle of delicious
soup was keeping hot over the simmerer.
They never did things by halves in the Marlborough Presbyterian Church,
and this was a very special occasion. It was the annual dinner of the
Christian Endeavor Society, and they had always made a great deal of
it. In addition to this a new man was coming to town, a young man,
well heralded, notable among young church workers in the city where
he had spent his life, already known for his activity in Christian
Endeavor work and all forms of social and uplift labor. They felt
honored that he was coming to their midst. As teller in the bank he
would have a good financial and social standing as well, and moreover
his name was well remembered, as his father and mother used to live
in Marlborough years before. There had been a letter commendatory and
introductory from the city pastor to Rev. Mr. Harrison, the pastor of
the Marlborough church, and the annual church affair had been postponed
a week that it might be had on the night of his arrival, that he might
be the guest of honor and be welcomed into their midst properly. Not
a few of the girls in the Christian Endeavor had new dresses for the
occasion, and the contributions for the dinner had been many and
unusually generous. It seemed that all the girls were willing to make
cakes galore, and each vied with the other to have the best confection
of the culinary art that could be produced. Some of the mothers had
offered of their best linen and silver to make the table gorgeous, and
there had been much preparation for the program, music, speeches, and
even a monologue. The Vice-president, who was poetically inclined, had
written a poem which was intended as a sort of address of welcome to
the stranger, and an introduction to their members, and many a clever
hit and pun upon names embellished its verses. No one who had come to
town in years had had the welcome that was being prepared for Allan
Murray, the new teller in the Marlborough National Bank, and State
Secretary of the Christian Endeavor Society in his home State.
The big basement dining-room of the church was all in array with tables
set in a hollow square. Two girls were putting the finishing touches.
“Anita, oh, Anita! Has Hester May’s sponge cake come yet?” called the
taller of the two, a girl rather given to much beads.
“Yes, it’s here, Jane, real gummy chocolate frosting on top. Ummm!
Ummm! I could hardly keep from cutting it. It looks luscious. Is your
mother going to get here in time to make the coffee?”
“Oh yes, she’ll be here in half an hour. You ought to put an apron on,
Anita. You’ll get something on that lovely blue crêpe. My, but you look
scrumptious with that great white collar over the blue. Did you make
that collar yourself? It’s wonderful! Say, how did you embroider that?
Right through the lace border and all? Oh, I see! My, I wish I was
clever like you, Anita!”
“Oh, cut it, Jane! We haven’t time for flattery! I’ve got to finish
setting this table. Are the forks over there? Where’s Joseph? Go ask
him if we haven’t any more forks. He washed them after the Ladies’ Aid
luncheon. Perhaps he put them away.”
“They’re in the lower drawer. I saw them when I got out the napkins
to fold. Here they are. Wouldn’t it be dreadful if the guest of honor
didn’t get here after all, when everything is coming out so fine? Did
you know Mrs. Price was sending roses out of her conservatory? A great
armful. I brought down mother’s cut-glass bowl to put them in, and
we’ll put them at the speaker’s table, right in front of Mr. Harrison
and the guest. Oh, dear, I hope he gets here all right!”
“Why, why shouldn’t he, Jane? What an idea? Didn’t he write and say he
expected to arrive this afternoon? Mrs. Summers said she had his room
all ready, and his trunk came last night, so of course he’ll be here.”
“But there’s been an awful wreck on the road. Didn’t you hear about
it, Anita? Yes, it’s terrible, they say. Doctor Jarvis telephoned
he couldn’t come to lunch. He went on a special relief train. It’s
somewhere down around Smith’s Crossing. The rails spread, or something,
and the express telescoped the way train, or else it was the other way
round, and a lot of people got hurt, and some killed, or at least there
was a rumor they did.”
“Mercy!” said Anita, stopping in her work. “Why that’s awful! Allan
Murray might have been on the train you know.”
“No, I guess not,” said Jane. “He telegraphed last night he was
arriving here late in the afternoon. That would mean he would take the
train at Alton at noon. This wreck was the morning train. But then he
might have been delayed by it. You know it takes a long time to clear
the tracks. Oh, well, he’s likely at Mrs. Summers’ now unpacking, or we
would have heard. We ought to stop talking and get to work. The celery
has to be put in the glasses and the nuts in the dishes. One of those
nut dishes is broken, too. Isn’t there another dish up on that high
shelf that will do?”
“I brought over some silver nut dishes. They will do for the middle
table. Did they say any Marlborough people were on that train?”
“Yes, Dick Foster and some college friend coming home for the week-end,
but they phoned they were all right. They were in the last car and only
a little shaken up. Mr. Foster took the car and ran down to Smith’s
Crossing after them. Then there was that lame shoemaker from under the
drug-store, that little shop, you know, and Mrs. Bly, the seamstress.
Nobody knows anything about them. At least I didn’t hear.”
“Oh, Mrs. Bly,” said Anita sympathetically. “I hope no harm came to
her, poor thing. She’s sewed for us ever since I was a child. Say,
Jane, does your brother know this Mr. Murray? He went to the same
college, didn’t he?”
“Yes, but it was after Allan Murray left. He saw him once though. He
was just adored in college. He was a great athlete, though very slender
and wiry, Bob says; and he was awfully clever. Made Phi Beta Kappa and
all that, and was president of the Y. M., and head of the Student Gov.,
and stunningly handsome. Bob didn’t say that though. Bob is ashamed
of a man being good-looking. It was Marietta’s cousin said that. Her
brother was in Allan Murray’s class, and brought him home once, and
she thought him just a perfect Greek god, to hear her talk; but when
I asked Bob about it he said, oh yes, he was a looker he guessed. He
never took particular notice. And I simply couldn’t get a description,
though I tried hard enough. He couldn’t even remember the color of his
eyes, said they were just eyes, and what difference did it make. But
Marietta said he was dark, and had very large dark eyes, slender--no,
_lean_, that was the word she used, and awfully tanned and fit. She
said he had a smile, too, that you never could forget, and fine white
teeth, and was careful about his appearance, but not much of a dresser.
She said he had worked his way through college. His father had lost
money and he was going in for thrift, and didn’t give much time to
social things, but was awfully good company.”
“H’m! That’s just about what the minister said when he told us he
wanted us to make him feel at home. I don’t really approve of it
myself, this taking a stranger and carrying him around on a little
throne before you’ve tried him out, but when Mr. Harrison asked us to
arrange this Christian Endeavor banquet on the night of his arrival
to give him a kind of welcome to our town, why of course it had to be
done. And of course Mr. Harrison knows what he’s talking about, or he
wouldn’t suggest it. But it makes it just a little embarrassing for us
girls to seem to be so very eager to welcome another young man into our
midst that we fall all over ourselves to let him know it right off the
first night.”
“Now, Anita! You’re always so fussy and prudish! As if he would think
anything about it at all. Besides, his having been an active Christian
Endeavorer in his home church, and his father having been a member of
our church years ago when he was a boy, makes it kind of different,
don’t you think?”
“Oh, I suppose so,” said Anita thoughtfully, “only I do hope he won’t
be stuck on himself. The young men are all so sure of their welcome
anyhow these days, it doesn’t seem as if it was hardly necessary. And
it’s enough to turn a young man’s head anyway to have the whole town
bowing down to him this way. Teller in the town bank, taken in to board
at one of the best houses in town just because Mrs. Summers knew his
mother when she was a girl, and given a church supper on the night
of his arrival. I’m sure I hope he will be worth it all, and that we
sha’n’t spoil him right at the start.”
“Oh, Anita! You’re so funny! What do you care if he is spoiled anyway
if we have a good time out of it? I’m sure I don’t. And it’ll be nice
to have another fellow around, so many of our boys have gone off to
college or to work in the city. And those that are left don’t care a
picayune for the church affairs. I have to fairly hire Bob and Ben to
come to anything we have here, and this Murray man, they say, is crazy
about church work. If it proves true, I think the society will grow by
leaps and bounds.”
“Well, what kind of a growth is that? Just following after a new man!
That’s not healthy growth. When he goes they’ll go with him if that’s
what they come for. Who is that outside? Perhaps it’s the man with the
ice-cream. It ought to be here by this time. Go out and look. It may
be some of those tormenting boys that live across the street. And the
cakes and rolls are all under that window. I declare, I should think
church members would teach their children better than to _steal_! Go
quick, Jane. I don’t want to leave this butter now till I get it all
cut in squares. But for pity’s sake, forget that new man, or you’ll be
bowing down to him just like everybody else!”
“Oh, Anita! You’re perfectly hopeless,” giggled Jane as she fled up the
basement stairs to the outside door to reconnoitre.
A moment more and Anita heard her friend’s voice ring out clearly in an
eagerly hospitable voice among the syringa bushes outside the chapel
window:
“Isn’t this Mr. Murray? Mr. Allan Murray? Won’t you come right in,
we’re all expecting you--?”
Anita, cutting butter into squares in the pantry window in the
basement, turned away with a curl of her pretty lip and slammed
down the window. If Jane wanted to make a fool of herself with this
stranger, she, Anita, was not going to be a party to it. And she
carried the cakes to be cut to the far table in the kitchen quite away
from the dining-room and went to work with set lips and haughty chin.
The new man should not think _she_ was after him, anyway.