THE MISSING PAPERS
Cheered by his victory in this skirmish, Aaron Rushton went on:
"I tell you what it is, Mansfield, what the boys need is to go to some
good boarding school, where they'll be under strict discipline and have
to toe the mark. They've a soft snap here, and they know it. You let
them run the whole shooting match."
"Nothing of the kind, Aaron," protested Mansfield. "I don't believe in
the knock-down and drag-out system of bringing up children, but, all the
same, the boys always mind when I put my foot down."
"When you put your foot down!" sneered Aaron. "How often do you put it
down? Not very often, as far as I've been able to see. They twist you
and their mother around their little fingers.
"A boy's a good deal like a horse," he continued. "Any horse can tell
just from the feel of the reins how far he dares to go with his driver.
Now, what your boys need to feel is a tight rein over their backs
that'll make 'em feel that their driver isn't going to stand any
nonsense. They don't have that feeling at home, and it's up to you to
put them where they will feel it."
"It might be out of the frying pan into the fire," objected Mr. Rushton.
"There are many boarding schools where the boys do just about as they
like."
"Not at the one I'm thinking about," rejoined Aaron. "Not much, they
don't! When Hardach Rally tells a boy to do anything, that boy does it
on the jump."
"Hardach Rally," inquired his brother, "who is he?"
"He's a man after my own heart," answered Aaron. "He's one of the best
disciplinarians I've ever met. He has a large boarding school on Lake
Morora, about a mile from the town of Green Haven, the nearest railway
station. I reckon it's about a hundred miles or so from here. It's a
good school, one of the best I know of. Rally Hall, he calls it, and
under his management, it's made a big reputation. If I had boys of my
own--thank Heaven, I haven't--there's no place I'd sooner send them."
Mr. Rushton and his wife exchanged glances.
"Well, Aaron, we'll think it over," his brother said, "But there's no
special hurry about it, as they couldn't start in till next fall,
anyway. In the meantime, I'll write to Dr. Rally and get his catalogue
and terms."
"It'll be the best thing you ever did," remarked Aaron.
He yawned and looked at his watch.
A surprised look came into his eyes.
"Why!" he exclaimed, "it must be later than that."
He looked again, then put it up to his ear.
"Stopped," he said disgustedly. "I haven't let that watch run down for
five years past. And it hasn't run down now. That's some more of Teddy's
work. I must have jarred it or bent a wheel or something when I went
over into the river."
"Let me have it," said Mr. Rushton, holding out his hand. "I'm pretty
handy with watches and perhaps I can get it started."
Aaron handed the timepiece over. It was a heavy, double-cased gold
watch, of considerable value, and he set a great deal of store by it. It
was of English make, and on the inner case was an engraving of the Lion
and the Unicorn. Under this were Aaron's initials.
His brother shook the watch, opened it, and made several attempts to set
it going, but all to no purpose.
"I guess it's a job for a jeweler," he said at last regretfully. "Of
course, I'll pay whatever it costs to have it fixed."
"By the time you get through settling with Jed Muggs, you won't feel
much like paying anything else," retorted Aaron, "Give me the watch and
I'll take it down town in the morning and leave it to be mended. Chances
are it'll never be as good again.
"I'm dead tired now," and again he yawned. "If you folks don't mind, I
guess I'll be getting to bed."
They were only too glad to speed him on his way. Nobody ever attempted
to stop him, when he was ready to retire. It was the one thing he did
that met with everybody's approval.
His brother went up with him to see that everything had been made ready
for his comfort, and then, bidding him good-night, came back to his
wife.
He smiled at her whimsically, and she smiled back at him tearfully.
"Been a good deal of a siege," he commented.
"Hasn't it?" she agreed. "But, oh, Mansfield, whatever in the world are
we going to do about Teddy?"
He frowned and studied the points of his shoes.
"Blest if I know," he pondered. "The young rascal has been in a lot of
scrapes, but this is the limit. I don't wonder that Aaron feels
irritable. Of course, he rubs it in a little too much, but you'll have
to admit, my dear, that he has a good deal of justice on his side. It
was a mighty reckless thing for Teddy to do.
"I wonder," he went on thoughtfully, "if perhaps we haven't been a bit
too lax in our discipline, Agnes. Too much of the 'velvet glove' and too
little of the 'iron hand,' eh? What do you think?"
"Perhaps--a little," she assented dubiously. Then, defensively, she
added: "But, after all, where do you find better boys anywhere than
ours? Fred scarcely gives us a particle of trouble, and as for
Teddy"--here she floundered a little--"of course, he gets into mischief
at times, but he has a good heart and he's just the dearest boy," she
ended, in a burst of maternal affection.
"How about that boarding school idea?" suggested Mr. Rushton.
"I don't like it at all," said Mrs. Rushton. "I simply can't bear to
think of our boys a hundred miles away from home. I'd be worrying all
the time for fear that something had happened to them or was going to
happen. And think how quiet the house would be with them out of it."
"I know," agreed her husband, "I'd feel a good deal that way myself.
Still, if it's for the boys' good----"
But here they were interrupted by a commotion on the stairs, and as they
rose to their feet, Aaron came bouncing into the room. His coat and vest
and collar and tie were off, but he was too stirred up to bother about
his appearance. He was in a state of great agitation.
"What's the matter?" they asked in chorus.
"Matter enough," snarled Aaron. "I was just getting ready for bed, when
I thought of some papers in the breast pocket of my coat. I just thought
I'd take a last look to make sure they were all right, but when I put my
hand in the pocket, the papers weren't there. What do you make of that
now?" and he glared at them as though they had a guilty knowledge of the
papers and had better hand them over forthwith.
"Papers!" exclaimed Mrs. Rushton, her heart sinking at this new
complaint. "What papers were they?"
"I hope they weren't very valuable?" said Mr. Rushton.
"Valuable!" almost shrieked Aaron Rushton. "I should say they were
valuable. There was a mortgage and there were three notes of hand and
the transcript of a judgment that I got in a court action a little while
ago. I can't collect on any of them, unless I have the papers to show.
I'm in a pretty mess!" he groaned, as he went around the room like a
wild man.
"We'll make a careful search for them everywhere," said Mrs. Rushton.
"They must be somewhere around the house."
"House, nothing!" ejaculated Aaron. "I know well enough where they are.
They're down in the river somewhere, and I'll never clap eyes on them
again. They must have fallen out of my pocket when I jumped. Oh, if I
just had the handling of that imp"--and his fingers writhed in a way
that boded no good to Teddy, if that lively youth were luckless enough
to be turned over to his uncle for punishment.
"I can't tell you how sorry I am, Aaron," his brother assured him.
"We'll have a most careful search made at the place where the accident
happened, the first thing to-morrow morning. I'll also put up the offer
of a reward in the post office. The papers are not of much value to any
one except you, and if somebody has found them, they'll be glad enough
to bring them to you. In the meantime, we'll take one more look about
the house."
But the search was fruitless, and, at last, Aaron, still growling like a
grizzly bear, went reluctantly to his room to await developments on the
morrow.
In the meantime, Teddy, the cause of it all, although cut off from the
rest of the household, had shared in the general gloom. He was devotedly
attached to his father and mother, and was sincerely sorry that he had
so distressed them. He would have given a good deal if he had never
yielded to his sudden impulse of the afternoon.
Fred had spent most of the evening with him, and had done his level best
to cheer him up. He had succeeded to some extent, but, after he had left
him and gone to his own room, Teddy again felt the weight of a heavy
depression.
It must be admitted that not all of this came from conscience. Some of
it was due to hunger.
He had never felt so hungry in his life. And it seemed an endless time
from then till breakfast the next morning.
He had just turned out his light, and was about to slip into bed when he
heard a soft knock on his door. He opened it and peered out into the
dark hall.
"It's me, honey," came a low voice. "Take dis an' don't say nuffin'."
The "dis" was a leg of chicken and a big cut of peach pie!
The door closed, and old Martha went puffing slowly to her room in the
attic.
"Ah doan't care," she said to herself defiantly. "Ef it wus right fer de
ravuns ter take food ter de prophet 'Lijuh in der wil'erness, et's right
fer me ter keep mah po' lam' frum starvin'. So, dere, now!"