One evening shortly after this Henley was returning from the store about
an hour later than was his custom. He was nearing Dixie Hart's cottage,
when, in the clear moonlight, he saw the girl emerge from the little
apple-orchard behind her barn and come rapidly toward him. Her glance
was on the ground, and she had evidently not seen him. As she drew near
where he stood waiting, he noted that her head was bare, and that she
had a medicine-bottle in her hand. He noted, too, from her gait and
hurried manner, that she was greatly disturbed. She was about to pass
him when he called out, cheerily, "Where away, in such a hurry?"
"Oh!" She looked up and stopped. "You scared me, Alfred. I couldn't
imagine who it was. I'm going over to Sam Pitman's. Joe is
sick--powerful sick. If I am any judge, it is pneumonia, and a bad case
at that."
"Pneumonia!" he echoed, aghast. "I didn't know anything was wrong with
him."
"It's been coming on some time," she said. "He caught an awful cold. You
know the day it rained so hard and the creek got out of banks? I was
trying to cross the ford below Pitman's in my wagon. I thought I could
make it all right, but the current washed the wagon in a hole, and old
Bob couldn't touch bottom. The wagon was floating like a boat, and he
finally got stuck in the mud with just his head and neck out and
couldn't budge. Joe was digging sprouts in the field on the right-hand
side, and ran down to me. I yelled at him not to come in, but he struck
out toward me with his clothes on, swimming like a dog. He got to me and
helped me out in the water on a high place, and made me stand there
while he worked and tugged at the trace-chains for twenty minutes till
he finally unhitched Bob and pulled him out of the mire. Then he helped
me out and dragged the wagon ashore."
"Plucky little chap!" cried Henley.
"But he's getting paid for it," Dixie said, bitterly. "He got overheated
in the cold mountain-water, and he is in a bad fix, Alfred. I know when
a sick person is dangerous, and he is."
She was moving on toward Pitman's now, and Henley was keeping step by
her side. "You mustn't take it so hard," he said, in an effort to calm
her. "It will come out all right."
"It is a ticklish thing, pneumonia is," she said; "and he hasn't got a
doctor. Sam Pitman says it isn't anything but a cold, and he won't send
for one. I was over there twice to-day, but he don't even want me to
nurse him. I've got my things all done up at home and the folks in bed,
and I'm going to stay with him all night if I have to have a
knock-down-and-drag-out row to do it. I told Sam Pitman that I'd pay for
the doctor out of my own pocket, but that just made him madder. He says
I'm trying to come under his roof and run his affairs, and that I
sha'n't do it. He may not let me in now. I don't know, but he is one of
the devil's imps, if there ever was one. Mrs. Pitman is a little better,
but he's got her under his thumb. She won't raise her voice when he is
around."
"We must have a doctor, that's certain," declared Henley. "You walk on
and I'll run to town and bring Doctor Stone. He knows his business, and
he'll take charge of the case if I back him. If Pitman tries to hinder
us I'll jail him as sure as he's a foot high."
"Oh, Alfred, I wish you would get the doctor. I'm so glad I met you. I
was worried to death. I know how to nurse in ordinary cases, but
pneumonia is so treacherous. Hurry, please; I'll never forget you for
this."
Twenty minutes later Henley entered the gate of Sam Pitman's diminutive
farm-house. Three watch-dogs came from beneath the little front porch,
but, recognizing the visitor, they stood wagging their tails cordially
and uttering low whines of welcome. There was a broken harrow, with
rusty iron teeth, leaning against the house near the log steps; a
top-heavy ash-hopper and a lye-stained trough stood under the spreading
branches of a beechnut-tree beside a rotting cider-press and a huge pot
for heating water during hog-killing or for boiling lye and grease for
the making of soap.
As Henley approached the steps Pitman and his wife, hearing the click of
the gate-latch, came out on the porch, which was shaded by overhanging
vines, and stood staring blankly at him. Henley was a gallant man, for
his station in life, and he drew off his broad-brimmed hat and remained
uncovered while he spoke.
"I've run over to inquire how little Joe is," he said, conscious of the
grim opposition to his visit in the very air that hung around the
farmer. "I happened to meet Miss Dixie Hart just now on her way here,
and she was considerably upset."
"Nothin' wrong with the boy," Pitman muttered, surlily. "That gal, like
most of her meddlin' sort, is havin' a regular conniption-fit over
nothin'. I reckon she is afeard thar'll be one less on the marryin' list
a few years from now. He was a pesky fool, anyway, plungin' in cold
water to attend to her business. He's had croupy coughs before this, an'
wheezin'-spells, an' been hot like all childern will when they eat too
much, but we never went stark crazy over it."
"Miss Dixie is a purty good judge, Sam," Henley answered, incisively.
"She'd be hard to fool if danger was lurkin' around. When she described
Joe's condition to me just now I saw she had plenty cause to worry, and
so I went straight back to town and left word for Doctor Stone to hurry
here as soon as he got home. They was looking for him every minute."
"You say you did!" Pitman came to the edge of the porch, and, with his
arm around one of the posts which upheld the roof, he leaned over till
his face was close to Henley's. "Huh! you are some pumpkins, ain't you?
You can keep me from runnin' an account at your dirty shebang, Alf
Henley, but you can't walk dry-shod over me in my own house. A man's
domicyle is his castle in law, and I'm goin' to manage mine an' defend
it, ef I have to."
"Don't get excited, Sam; keep your shirt on," Henley said, calmly. There
was an oblong spot of light thrown on the grass between him and the
gate. It was from the attic window above the porch, and across it now
and then moved a shadow. He knew that the little room under the roof was
occupied by the sick child, and that the shadow was Dixie's. The shadow
was now still and bowed at the window in an attitude of attention to
what was going on below.
"I ain't excited any to hurt," Pitman went on, his voice rising higher.
"You say you've ordered Stone to come, an' I say if he does he won't put
his foot across my threshold."
"You've got it in for me, Sam, I see," Henley said, still unruffled,
"but this is no time for you and me to settle old scores. The boy is no
blood kin to either of us."
"The law gives me full an' complete charge of 'im till he's of age,"
Pitman snarled, "an' I hain't invited you to put in, an' until I do
you'll be a sight safer on t'other side of that fence. I mean the one
right thar behind you."
The window-sash was raised above, and Dixie looked out.
"He's just dropped to sleep," she announced in a guarded tone. "Please,
Alfred, don't let them talk so loud, and send the doctor up the minute
he comes."
"Very well," Henley answered, softly and reassuringly. Then going close
to the farmer he said in a low voice, "I want to talk to you a minute;
let's walk round the house."
Pitman hesitated, staring doggedly at the speaker, and then shifted his
sullen gaze to the face of his wife.
"Go on with 'im," she said, and turned stiffly into the lark doorway
behind her.
Silently Henley led Pitman round the house to the little barn-yard in
the rear. There was a red-painted road-wagon near the wagon-shed and
Henley sat down easily on the strong pole and began to search through
his pockets for a cigar and matches. He grunted in disappointment when
he found his pockets empty, and then deliberately applied himself to the
matter in hand.
"Looky here, Sam Pitman," he began, "for a long-headed, sensible
mountain-man you are plunging into more serious trouble than any chap of
your size ever got into. I'm going to let you on to a thing that a
fellow usually keeps quiet--I'm going to do it because I feel that it is
my Christian duty not to be a party to the great disaster you are on the
brink of."
"I don't know what you mean, an' I don't care a damn," growled Pitman.
"I know what my rights are, an' that's all I'm talkin' about."
"I started to tell you, when you busted in," said Henley, swinging his
feet beneath him, "that I'm a member of the grand jury, and you may or
may not know that when a fellow is impaneled in that body he's got a
sworn job on his hands that is powerful exacting. He is on his oath to
report to the authorities any criminal irregularity that comes under his
notice. Now! I have had the word and the judgment of a respectable and
truthful lady that the boy bound to you by law is dangerously and
critically sick, and, calling here in my lawful capacity to look into
the matter, I hear you say with my own ears that no doctor shall put
foot across your threshold. Now, look at it straight, Sam. Even if Joe
was to get well a big, serious case may come up against you--I don't
promise that you'll come off free even as it is, but if the child was to
_die_--I say if he was to happen to pass away, and I've seen little ones
die when half a dozen skilled doctors was standing by--Sam Pitman, in
that case, no lawyer on earth could keep you out of limbo. I tell you,
you don't know it, but right this minute you are in the tightest hole
you ever slid into. A jury in your case wouldn't leave their seats. Men
pity helpless children in this life more'n they do big hulking men of
your stripe, and they'd sock it to you to the full extent of the law.
Even if it wasn't tried at court, take it as a hint from me, the men of
these mountains would get together in a body and lynch you. Reports have
already been going round to your eternal discredit about this child, and
one more act of yours will simply settle your hash. This is me talking,
Sam."
"You--you dare to come here--" But Pitman's rage was tinctured with
actual fear of the man before him, and his intended threat was not
uttered. He was white and quivering, but he was helpless. A sound broke
the stillness that now fell between the two men. It was the steady
trotting of a horse on the road.
"There's Doc now," Henley announced, and his eyes met Pitman's, which
were kindling again.
"Well, I've said he sha'n't--an', by God--" Pitman started toward the
house, but Henley sprang up and faced him. Laying his hand heavily on
the farmer's shoulder he cried almost with a hiss of fury: "Let that
doctor alone, you dirty whelp! He's going to crawl up that ladder to
that hole under the roof to see that boy. You and me are nigh the same
size, and we can settle right here. You tried me once before, maybe you
want another dose. Stir a peg to prevent this thing and I'll drive your
head into your shoulders same as I would a wedge in a split log."
Pitman glared helplessly, and then he showed defeat. With his eyes on
the ground, and writhing from beneath Henley's hand, he said:
"The boy hain't bad off, nohow!"
"Well, we'll see what Doc Stone has to say about it," Henley retorted.
"He's authority, an' you hain't."
Pitman had no reply ready. They heard the gate open and close, and then
on the still air came the gentle voice of Dixie speaking from the attic
window. "Come right in, Doctor, and up the ladder. Be careful and don't
stumble. I'll hold the candle for you."
Pitman sullenly turned away. Henley watched him as he went into the
stall of a stable and struck a match to light his pipe. Leaving him,
Henley went back to the farm-house and sat down on the steps of the
porch. The light from the attic window lay on the lush green grass
before him, and he kept his eyes upon it. There was a tread on the floor
behind him as soft as that of a cat. It was Mrs. Pitman in her bare
feet. She held her tattered shoes in her hand. She touched him on the
shoulder.
"I hope you an' Sam didn't--come to licks," she whispered.
"No, he's all right," was the gentle reply. "I had to talk sharp, Mrs.
Pitman, an' I'm sorry it was here at his own house."
"Well, I'm glad the doctor come," she conceded, slowly. "I was afeard to
put in while Sam was talkin'. He gits madder at me 'n he does to all the
rest combined. I'm sort o' feard the boy is bad off, myself."
"Yes, he's bad off," Henley nodded, grimly. "If it was a light case Doc
Stone would have been down before this. You may depend on it, it's
serious."
Muttering inarticulately, the woman crept away. Henley remained bent
forward, his eyes on the shifting shadows before him. He looked at his
watch; two hours had passed. The closing of a rear door and the
resounding tread of a pair of hobnailed boots on the lower floor told
him that Pitman had entered the house and was going to bed. He saw
Dixie's shadow in its frame on the grass, and went out to the fence and
looked up. She was there, and she leaned over the little sill and
nodded. "I only wanted to know if you was still there," she said, in a
low tone. "Joe--" But the doctor evidently had called her, for she
looked back into the room and vanished. Henley saw two shadows bending
forward, and he strode back and forth along the fence, a fierce suspense
clutching his heart. Presently the doctor, a middle-aged, full-bearded
man, with a gentle manner, crept down the ladder and walked softly
across the porch. Henley joined him at his buggy in the road.
"How is he, Doc?" he inquired, his fears deepened by the physician's
silence, as he stood between the wheels of the buggy and fumbled with
the reins wrapped around the whip-holder.
"Awful, awful!" Stone said, grimly. "Not one chance in five hundred.
Malignant pneumonia. Neglected case. I've left medicine and
instructions. I can't stay--would if I could--case of child-labor down
the road--nobody else to attend to it. I'll be back before morning.
That will be the crisis. He's in splendid hands; a trained nurse
couldn't be better."
"Anything I can do, Doc?" Henley swallowed a lump of emotion that had
risen in his throat.
"Not a thing; but you might stay right here. Miss Dixie might--if
anything happened--she might need you. She's a plucky little woman, and
it might be best for her to have some sort of company. She is wrought
up. She loves the boy as a mother would her own child, and yet she is
calm and steady."
Henley leaned on the fence and watched the vehicle disappear in the
misty moonlight which seemed to fall like a mantle from the mountain. He
was resting his head on the fence when he felt a light touch on his arm.
It was Dixie.
"He is sleeping," she whispered. "The doctor said it would be good for
him. Oh, Alfred, it's pitiful, pitiful! I'm glad to see that you feel
like you do. He loves you; he has spoken of you scores of times, and,
when I told him just now that you was down here watching, he was glad. I
wonder why God tears a human soul to pieces like this. If Joe is taken
to-night I don't think I could ever get over it. Oh, Alfred, my heart
yearns over him. At this minute I could ask for nothing better than to
be allowed to work for that child all the rest of my life." Tears stood
in her wonderful eyes, and her breast, under its thin covering, rose and
fell tumultuously.
"You are a sweet, good girl, Dixie." Henley's voice sounded new to
himself. "You are the noblest woman that ever drew the breath of life.
As the Lord is my Redeemer, I'd give all I possess on earth to help you
to-night."
Their eyes met in a strange gaze of wonderment. "I believe it," she
said, simply, while a sad smile touched her pulsing lips. "Yes, I
believe it. But I must go back."
He sat under the beechnut-tree watching the attic window till the
eastern sky above the mountains began to take on a grayish cast. Now and
then through the long vigil Dixie would come to the window and look down
on him, only to nod knowingly and retire, as if content with his mute
companionship.
It was almost dawn when the doctor came.
"I was delayed," he explained as he sprang out of his buggy; "bad case
of labor--had to use instruments, but successful." He hurried to the
gate without hitching his horse. "How is he?"
"I can't say, Doc--you'd better see for yourself."
The yellow light was filling all the sky with resplendent glory when
Dixie, her face wan and wearied, came down the ladder. Henley's heart
sank at the first sight of her, but it bounded when she had seen him,
for the rarest of smiles broke about her mouth and eyes.
"He's going to get well, Alfred!" she cried, and she extended her hand
with the warm confidence of a child toward a trusted friend. He let it
rest in his as he walked with her to the gate, wondering over the good
news, wondering over the delight with which her touch was firing his
being.
"Yes, the worst is over," she went on. "The doctor says with good
nursing and watching he'll pull through. He is going to stay with him
while I run home and do up the things, then I'll come back and relieve
him. He is going to give Pitman a tongue-lashing, and says he'll appear
against him in court if he doesn't act different. As soon as Joe can be
moved we are going to bring him to my house. Oh, Alfred, won't that be
glorious? There I can give him everything he needs, and a clean, cool,
airy room to get well in. Weak as he was, he cried with actual joy when
he heard the doctor say he could come. Alfred, do you know we all ought
to be ashamed of ourselves for complaining in this life, and wanting
more and more of the trashy baubles. Right now I'm so happy I feel like
flying. Look at that sunrise! We couldn't have seen it like that if we'd
been in our beds with our eyes shut; we couldn't feel this way if we
hadn't dragged through all that pain and anxiety last night. I've got to
write a letter and mail it before I come back. Jasper Long was to come
over Sunday, you know, but I can't give the time to him. I'll ask him to
come Sunday after next."
"It will disappoint him mightily," Henley said, a sudden feeling of
aversion to the subject on him. "It will break the fellow all up. He's
been counting the days and hours."
"I can't help it." Dixie shrugged her shoulders indifferently, her head
down. They were now in the little wood that lay between Pitman's farm
and her cottage. To the leaves and branches of the chestnut and
sassafras bushes that bordered the little-used road the night mists and
silvery cobwebs clung, magnified by their coating of dew and the yellow
light.
"I don't know as I ever saw a fellow quite so much concerned and
anxious," Henley's strangely tentative voice produced. "I saw him over
there the other day, and he had lots to say. He means to--to get you if
he possibly can. He's planning a fine house, and said he was going to
tell you about it when he come over. He says women know better about
such things than men, and is going to offer you full sway. To do him
credit, there ain't nothing little about Long. He'll do right, I reckon,
by any woman he pledges his word to. I'd hate to--to think I'd fetched
you together if--if he wasn't all right--that is, honest and upright."
"I know that," Dixie said. "But let's not talk about him, or his fine
house, or his money, or his good intentions. He don't seem, somehow, to
fit one bit into my feelings this morning. He's a cold-blooded business
proposition, and last night's terror and this morning's joy has filled
me to here"--she held her tapering hand under her plump chin and
laughed--"well, with some'n different from him. The truth is, I don't
care if I never see him again. That's a fact, Alfred. I feel like I'm on
the up-hill road in single harness, anyway, since I am out of debt to
Welborne, and owe you, instead. When are you going to send that note
over for me to sign?"
"Never, if I can help it," he said. "I've let men owe me without note or
security, why should I make you sign up for a trifle like that?"
"Well, to tell the truth, I like it as it is," she answered, with a fine
smile and a rippling laugh that woke the echoes in the quiet spot. "It
is such a sweet proof of your friendship. Ain't it funny how me 'n you
have been mixed up in things? You know me as well as I know myself,
Alfred. You've helped me, and I hope I have you--some. I don't know; I
hope I have."
"More than anybody else in the world," he said, fervently.
They had come to where their ways separated, and, with his hat in his
hand, and his heart full of an inexplicable, transcendental something,
he stood under the trees and watched her move away.