_In Which I Decide on Extreme Measures_
Everyone in our house, which was now filled to overflowing--in fact,
there were Polydores on sofas and in beds on the floor--save Silvia
and myself, was on the alert for a response to the letter during the
succeeding few days. Knowing Uncle Issachar, we felt sure he would
make no response, or notice the matter in any way save to cash the
check promptly.
The monotony was somewhat relieved by the difficulties under which
Beth and Rob were pursuing their courtship. On the third evening
succeeding our return, Silvia and I started upstairs early to give
them a chance to have the exclusive use of the library, the Polydores
having all been sent to bed. As we were making some plausible excuse
for going to our room, Beth remarked with a smile:
"Your motive in retiring so early is commendable, but of no particular
benefit to Rob and me. The Polydores, like the poor, we always have
with us."
"I saw that every one of them except Ptolemy was in bed at eight
o'clock last night and the night before," said Silvia. "You don't mean
to tell me--"
"Yes, I do mean," laughed Beth. "Not Ptolemy, though. He has become
too dignified to spy on us, but last night as we sat here on the
settee, we heard a suppressed sneeze, and Rob pulled Emerald from
underneath."
"How in the world did he ever squeeze under there?" I asked, gazing at
the slight space between the floor and settee.
[Illustration: "We heard a suppressed sneeze, and Rob pulled Emerald from
underneath."]
"He did look a little flattened, as if he had been put in a letter
press," said Rob. "I gave him a dime to go to bed and stay there. Beth
and I had just resumed our conversation when a still, small voice
said: 'I'll go to bed for a dime, too.' I then hauled Demetrius from
behind the davenport."
"And the night before," said Beth, "when we were sitting on the porch,
Pythagoras rolled off the roof, where he had been listening to us, and
came down into the vines."
"Now I'll stop that," I declared. "I'll tie them in their beds and
lock the doors and windows."
"No," refused Rob. "I'd like to try to circumvent them by their own
weapons of wits. I have a little plan which I don't dare whisper to
you lest their long-range ears get in their work. We are just about to
start for a walk."
"In this pouring rain!" protested Silvia.
"We like the rain," he replied, "and we--are not going far."
Pythagoras entered the room just then and looked astounded and
disappointed when he saw Beth and Rob departing.
"We are going out to a small party," Rob remarked to me, casually.
It was after eleven when we heard them returning.
"Do you suppose they have been walking all this time?" said Silvia in
concern. "Beth wore no rubbers."
The next day was Sunday and Huldah put into execution a plan for
procuring one happy hour each week. This plan was the admission of the
Polydores, _en masse_, to one of the Sunday schools. She chose the
church most remote from home so they would be a long time going and
coming, which she said would "help some."
"Now," said Beth, as she watched them march away, "I can dare to tell
you where we spent last evening. We were at the Polydore house next
door. There is a little vine-screened porch on the other side of the
house. Rob managed to open one of the windows and brought out a couple
of chairs. It was as snug as could be."
"I'll corral them every night," I said, "until you make your getaway,
and I'll give you the key so you can go inside when it is cool or
stormy."
"We'll go around the block by way of precaution," said Rob.
Presently Huldah returned from the Sunday school with triumphant
mien.
"They made them all into one class and put a redheaded woman with
spectacles in for their teacher. I gave them street car tickets to
come home on."
When the Polydores returned, however, they were dragging Diogenes
along and he looked quite weary.
"Didn't you come home on the street car?" I asked Ptolemy.
"No; we sold our tickets and got ice cream sodas," he explained. "We
took turns carrying Diogenes on our backs."
"You only had one ticket for yourself, and two half fares for Thag and
Emmy," said Huldah suspiciously. "I thought Meetie and Di could ride
free. You couldn't have sold them tickets for enough for sodies."
"Rob gave us three nickels to put in the plate," said Pythagoras. "We
only put in one of them, seeing we were all in one family and one
class. That gave us four nickels for ice cream sodas and the clerk
gave Di half a glass some one had left."
"I gave you a penny for Di to put in," said Huldah. "What did you do
with that?"
"We wanted him to put it in, and when they took up the collection, he
wouldn't give it," said Emerald. "I tried to take it away from him
and he swallowed it. The redhead teacher was awful scared, but I told
her he was used to swallowing things and that you said he carried a
whole department store in his insides."
"Poor little Di," said Silvia; "it's the only way he has of keeping
things away from you all."
That night I saw to it personally that each and every Polydore was in
his little bed. It should have aroused my suspicions that none of them
rebelled, or had evinced the slightest degree of interest or curiosity
when Beth and Rob announced their intention of going out for the
evening.
At ten-thirty the lovers returned, bringing in Pythagoras, who was
clad in his pajamas.
"Where did you pick him up?" I asked in astonishment.
"He picked us up," said Beth.
"He was wise, maybe, in discovering where we were," said Rob, "but he
fell down when he tried to work off the ghost screeches on us. We
recognized them at once, and ran him down inside, so our party broke
up."
"Come here, Pythagoras," I commanded.
He obeyed promptly and fearlessly.
"How did you know they were there, and when did you go over there?"
"I was playing over in our house today," he replied, "and I found one
of Beth's hairpins with the little stones in, in the big chair, so I
knew that was where they hid last night. As soon as you went down
stairs tonight, I got out the window and slid down the roof and came
over to scare them."
"You've missed a lot of sleep the last few nights," I said quietly,
"so you will have to make it up. You can stay in bed all day
tomorrow."
"Hold on, Lucien!" exclaimed Rob. "Tomorrow's the big baseball game of
the season, and I promised to take them all."
"So much the better," I said. "He will learn to mind."
Pythagoras looked as if he had been struck, and quickly put his arms
across his eyes. In a moment his shoulders were heaving. At last I had
found a vulnerable spot in the stoic, and I began to relent.
"See here, Pythagoras," I said, "if I let you up in time to go to the
game, will you promise me something?"
"Anything," came in a muffled voice.
"Will you promise not to spy on Beth and Rob and keep Emerald and
Demetrius from doing it?"
"Yes," he promised quickly, his arm coming down and his face
brightening. "Sure I will, but I did want to hear what they said."
"Why?" asked Rob interestedly.
"We're getting up a show, and Em is going to take the part of a girl
and he spoons with Tolly, and we didn't know what to have them say to
each other."
"I'll rehearse you on the play, and prompt you," said Beth with a
little giggle.
"Come on upstairs with me now," I said to Pythagoras.
When I landed him at his door, he leaned up against me, and rubbed his
cheek against my arm.
"Thank you for letting me go to the game," he said.
I found myself responding to his affectionate advance. This would
clearly never do. I couldn't let another Polydore squeeze himself into
my regard.
"Silvia," I said abruptly, as I came into our room, "we must really
make some immediate plan for disposing of the Polydores, or, at
least, of 'Them Three.'"
"Huldah is managing them tolerably well," demurred Silvia. "Since they
depreciated in market value from five thousand per to nothing, she has
resumed her former harsh treatment of them."
"Well, we are not going to keep them," I replied with finality. "We
are under no obligations to do so. I am going to put them in a school
for boys and use the blank check Felix Polydore left to pay for their
tuition."
"I suppose that is what we will have to do," she admitted with a
little sigh. "Yet, Lucien, it doesn't seem quite right. If they are in
a boys' school, they will keep on right along the same lines. They
need home influence and contact with women. Demetrius is fond of music
and will sit still and listen when I play. Emerald obeyed me today the
first time I spoke, and I even thought I saw a glimmer of good in
Pythagoras."
I didn't tell her that this glimmer was what had decided me to dispose
of him.
"It would, doubtless, be better for them to stay," I admitted, "but I
am not going to be a martyr to the cause. They are going."
The next morning I wrote for catalogues and prospectus to the
different schools, and I felt as if three old men of the sea had been
lifted from my shoulders.