Little J. W. crawled out from under Bill's case, his brown eyes wide
with surprise at this vagrant who called Jap "son."
"Run like sin," counselled Bill, in a whisper, "and bring your mother.
She will know what to do."
While the boy went to do his bidding, Bill slipped out of the rear door
of the office and was waiting in front of the bank when Flossy came
hurrying along.
"Oh, Bill, what has Jap said?" she asked breathlessly. From J. W.'s
lisping description--he always lisped when he was excited--she had come
to fear the worst.
"Nothing," said Bill bluntly. "He's sitting at his case, sticking type
as if he was hired by the minute."
"And she--that awful woman?"
"Gee!" Bill spat the word. "You don't know anything yet. Wait till
you lamp her over."
"That bad, Bill?"
"Worse," muttered Bill. And when Flossy came inside and looked into
the little inner office where the woman sprawled, half asleep and
muttering incoherently, the fumes of liquor and the presence of filth
all too evident, her stomach rebelled and she retreated swiftly.
Softly she slipped into the composing room through the wide-open door.
Timidly she approached Jap and touched his arm. He looked at her with
eyes utterly hopeless.
"Oh, Jap, what can I do!"
"You cannot do anything," his voice flat and emotionless. "No one can.
Could you take her in? No! She is impossible, and yet--she is my
mother. Perhaps if I had stayed with her it would have been different,
so I must make up for it."
Flossy looked into his set face in affright.
"I am going away--with her." Jap's tones were calm. "You can see,
Flossy, that it is the only way. I cannot be Mayor of Ellis's town
with such a disgrace to shame me. I must give up Isabel and--and the
_Herald_."
Flossy clung to his arm.
"Listen to me, Jap Herron," she cried shrilly. "You shall not do it!
You shall not let this horrible old woman drag you down in the dirt."
Jap smiled sadly.
"What could I do, Flossy? She must be cared for. She has been all
over town. Everybody has seen her. They know the truth, that my
mother is--what she is."
Suddenly he threw himself forward on the case and began to sob, such
hard, racking sobs as might tear his very breast. Flossy threw her
arms around him and cried aloud. Bill stood in the little private
office, looking down upon the snoring woman with a murderous glare. He
turned as Tom Granger came noiselessly from the outer office and stood
beside him. Grief was in Granger's face.
"I heard what Jap said just now," he whispered, "and he is right. It
would be impossible for him to stay with her in the town. She has
ruined Jap."
"You're a gol-dinged fool," shouted Bill, dragging him across the big
office and out of the front door. "Pretty sort of friend you are,
anyway. I'll fight you, or a half-dozen like you, if you murmur a word
like that to Jap."
He whirled as his father ambled up the street, his round face wearing a
grin.
"What is that greasy smirk for?" demanded Bill. "If you have any
business in the _Herald_ office, spit it out."
"I knowed it would come out sooner or later," spluttered Bowers,
shifting his position to avoid a pool in the pavement, left by the
recent rain. "With half an eye, anybody could see the mongrel streak
in----"
He stopped as his son advanced swiftly toward him.
"What kind of a streak?" he threatened. "I dare you to say that again,
and hitch anybody's name to it."
"Why, William," expostulated his father, "you shorely ain't goin' to
have Jap and his mammy hitched up to the _Herald_? Barton 'll ride
Bloomtown proper."
"It will give Jones a whack at the _Herald_," suggested Granger mildly.
"And it will be his last whack!" foamed Bill. "For I'll finish him and
his filthy paper before I go to the pen for burning down the _Herald_
office. The day that Jap Herron leaves the _Herald_, there will be the
hell-firedest bonfire that Bloomtown ever saw!" His eyes were blazing.
"Get away from here," he cried fiercely, "you--you milksop friends!"
He stopped as Isabel, her eyes swollen from crying, crossed the street.
She had come across the corner of the park, and her face was white and
drawn. Bill stepped up into the doorway and awaited her.
"I want to speak to Jap," she said, as he barred the passage.
"What do you want with him?" Bill demanded truculently. "Because he is
packing all the load now that he can stand, and you ain't going to add
another chip to it. Give me your old engagement ring, and I'll pitch
it in the hell-box. I reckon that's what you came for."
She pushed him aside, her eyes blazing with wrath.
"Get out of my way, Bill Bowers. You never did have any sense. Let me
by!"
She flung herself past him and ran into the composing room. At sight
of Flossy, she paused. Flossy raised her head from Jap's shoulder and
looked defiantly at the girl, but only for a second. She knew, in that
glance. Softly she crept out as Isabel, with a heart-shaking cry, ran
to Jap and threw herself against him.
"Take me in your arms, Jap," she cried stormily, "for I love you."
Jap stared up, dully, for an instant. Then, forgetting all but love,
he opened his arms and clasped her to his heart. Bill rushed outside
after Flossy.
"I never knew that she was the real goods," he said remorsefully,
wiping his eyes.
"Get a wagon from the grocer," Flossy said, decisive again. "I am
going to take her home with me."
"Meaning that?" Bill flipped his thumb toward Jap's mother.
"Send her up to the house, and I will have a doctor, and some one to
bathe her and clean her up. Maybe after she is clean and sober, she
won't be so dreadful."
When Jap came out of his stupor enough to try to put Isabel away, he
discovered what Flossy had done. With Isabel clinging to him, he
walked with downcast head through the streets that lay between the
_Herald_ office and Flossy's cottage.
His mother was in bed, clean and yet disgusting in her drunken sleep.
He forgot Isabel, silent by his side, as he stood looking down upon the
blotched and sunken face, thinking what thoughts God only knew. He
seemed years older as he walked out again, after the doctor had told
him that nothing could be determined until she had slept the liquor
off. Slowly and silently he and Isabel walked past the row of neat
cottages until they reached Main street. On the corner Jap paused.
"You must go home, Isabel," he said brokenly. "Sweetheart, I
understand, and I know that you are the bravest girl in the world. But
you must leave me now."
"I will not," she declared. "I want you to take me right down to the
office and send for a license. I am going to marry you, and show this
town what I think of you!"
"But I cannot let you," Jap said simply. "I know--you don't."
"Then," said Isabel defiantly, "I will go back to Flossy's and take
care of your mother until you are ready to talk sense."
Jap looked at her helplessly. They were in front of Blanke's drug
store. Jim Blanke stepped outside and grasped Jap's hand. Isabel
looked proudly up at him, her arm drawn tightly through Jap's. As they
passed down the street, citizens sprang up, apparently from nowhere,
and clasped Jap's hand in a fraternal grip. Isabel peered into his
silent face. The tears were streaming unheeded down his cheeks. Her
father frowned as they appeared at the door of the bank.
"Papa," she called resolutely, "you coming with us?"
He stood gnawing at his lips, his face overcast. An instant he battled
with his pride and his love for the boy. Then, with his old
heartiness, he clapped Jap on the shoulder.
"Straighten your shoulders, lad. We're all your friends!" And the
storm cloud lightened.
All that night Jap paced the floor of the office, while Bill, too
sympathetic for sleep, tossed in the room above and swore at fate. It
was noon the next day when little J. W. came in to say that Mrs. Herron
was awake and wanted to see her son.
She was half sitting among the pillows when Jap entered. Flossy had
drawn the muslin curtains, to soften the garish light as it fell on her
seamed and shame-scarred face. She peered up at him from blood-shot,
sunken eyes.
"You look like your pappy's folks, Jasper," she croaked. "And they
tell me you air a fine, likely boy, and follerin' in the trade of your
gran'pap. I wisht that I had a known where you was, long ago. I have
had a hard life, Jasper. Your step-pa beat me, and that's more'n your
pappy ever done. He died of the trimmins, three year ago, and I have
been wanderin' every since, huntin' my childurn. But Aggie's a bigbug
now, and she drove me off. And Fanny's goin' to a fine music school,
and sent me word that she'd have me put in a sanitary if I bothered
her. She saw a piece about you in the paper, and sent it to me. So I
tramped thirty mile to come."
Her face was pathetic in its misery. She sank back in the pillows and
closed her eyes. Jap leaned down and drew the covers tenderly over her
arms. She opened her eyes, at the touch, and looked up at him sadly.
"Thanky, Jasper," she mumbled, "You be-ant mad?"
He patted her cheek softly, and the sunken eyes lighted with a smile of
weary contentment. Then the lids fluttered, like the last effort of a
spent candle, and she slept. Like one in the maze of a vague,
uncertain dream, Jap went back to the office. Unconsciously he took
the familiar way, through the alley. Automatically he climbed to his
stool and began setting up the editorial that had been interrupted by
his mother's coming the previous day.
At sunset Bill touched his shoulder softly. Jap raised his head from
his hands.
"Your--your mother never woke up after you left her, Jap," he said
huskily.