WHERE WAS PEGGY?
When told to go home to his sick wife, Jerry obeyed. But what was his
surprise, on reaching his tiny cottage, to find the shutters all closed,
though it was early afternoon, and the front door held fast on the
outside by two great tenpenny nails.
Where was Peggy? For the nailed door showed that she was not inside.
To be sure, smoke was still coming out of the chimney, but this was
accounted for when he remembered the big fire he had built before he
left. Where, where was Peggy?
Perhaps one of the neighbours had been kind enough to come over and,
finding her frightened and alone, had wheeled her away. But reflection
told him that not one of the neighbours had ever been near her except
the Outcasts, and the discovery of the plot was an absolute secret.
There would be no occasion for such sudden neighbourliness.
Then Jerry's heart stood still, for he heard a sound like a muffled cry.
It seemed to come from behind the convent wall; so he crept softly into
the narrow passageway just as the burglars had done. Here he could see
without being seen.
At first everything was so still that he thought he must have imagined
the cry, but soon heard the murmuring sound of voices so low that he
could not tell whether of men or women.
Jerry was frightened to death. If he alone had been in danger he would
have been brave, but with his delicate wife away, he knew not where, and
more conspiracies going on behind the convent wall, he found it hard to
decide just what he ought to do. Conflicting feelings put him in a sort
of panic, but he had sense enough left to keep absolutely still.
Before going in search of his wife he must find out what new plan the
rascals were hatching, so he stood, hardly daring to breathe.
The wind was sharp and keen. It swept across the wide common, whirling
up the dust, lifting the paper and rags and making them waltz. Ashes
fell like rain in the narrow passage where Jerry stood. Then a whooping
gust caught a lot of stuff, and forming a miniature cyclone, headed
straight for Jerry. Before the poor fellow knew what he was doing, he
had sneezed three times. The sound reverberated through the close
passage as if he had blown through a gigantic horn.
Now he was lost! The men must do either one of two things; they might
think they had been discovered, and run away, but the probability was
that they would first look over the convent wall to find out who had
sneezed. And then what?
Jerry seized a large boulder that lay at his feet. Though little and
old, he had good strength, and the first head that rose over the wall
meant a cracked skull.
"Jerry, Jerry?" He heard his name whispered by a strange voice. Where
did the sound come from? Under his very feet.
"Jerry, Jer-ry," a little louder, "where are you?"
"Here behind the wall," whispered Jerry. "Who are you?"
Then there came a sound of steps, a window was raised, a shutter flung
back.
At this Jerry could stand no more. He left his hiding-place, and strode
boldly, the big stone in his hand, to the front of his cottage in time
to see a sturdy leg emerging from his front window.
When the rest of the body followed, the mother of the little Outcasts
stood before Jerry's astonished eyes.
"For the land's sake! Are you the burglar?" says Jerry.
"For the land's sake, are you?" asked Mrs. Outcast, and both began to
laugh.
"And where's Peggy?" says Jerry.
"Inside with chattering teeth for fear of the men hid between the
walls."
"How, when, what!" exclaimed the bewildered man.
"Stop talking, man, and come to your scared wife."
"I'm not scared now that I know who's there," piped a weak voice. "Come
in right away out of the cold."
"And is it by the door or by the window ye'll have me enter, Missis
Myer?" asked Jerry. And with that he took out the two tenpenny nails
with his fingers just as easy as if they had been put in by women.
[Illustration: "A STURDY LEG EMERGING FROM HIS FRONT WINDOW."]
"Wait till I unlock," said Mrs. Outcast, as she climbed back, and
presently the key turned, and Jerry was allowed to enter.
"And now, perhaps," said he, after he had kissed his wife, "ye'll be
kind enough to tell me what it all means, for I'll be switched if I
understand a word of it!"
Mrs. Outcast explained: "When Mimy came home with her story I felt in my
bones that something was wrong, so I came as fast as I could to help. I
found this little body scared to death, and you gone for no knowing how
long. When she told her story I felt real uneasy myself, and wanted to
take her home with me where she'd be safe. But she was faint-like, and
besides she said she did not want you to come back and find her gone.
Heaven knows where."
Jerry pretended to cough behind his hand.
"But two women alone," continued Mrs. Outcast, "are not apt to be
exactly quiet in their minds when burglars are about, so I suggested
that we shut up the house as if no one were living here, and to make it
seem more natural like, I put two nails in the door, and climbed in by
the window."
"Wasn't it a smart trick?" asked Peggy, admiringly.
"The smartest I ever knew," answered Jerry, promptly. "But how was I to
get in?"
"Oh, we were listening," said Peggy. "Don't you fear. We thought you
would try the door and call, when we would know your voice and let you
in."
"Instead of which, you hid, and made us think them burglars had come
back sure enough," said Mrs. Outcast.
"And you screamed and whispered, and made me think them burglars were
hurting Peggy."
And at this all three laughed until the tears rolled down their cheeks.
Peggy was the first to quiet down. "But tell us, love, what Mr. Morton
said?"
And Jerry unfolded all the plan--not without first going out-doors,
and looking carefully all around his little cottage to see if any
eavesdroppers were in hiding. When he concluded by repeating Mr.
Morton's order to go home and stay with his sick wife, both women
exclaimed in a breath:
"What a nice, sensible gentleman Mr. Morton is!"