And while the long morning dragged itself away in Economy listening to
a tale of shame, over on the bright Jersey coast the waves washed lazily
on a silver strand reflecting the blueness of the September sky, and
soft breezes hovered around the classic little hospital building
that stood in a grove of imported palms, and lifted its white columns
picturesquely like some old Greek temple.
There was nothing in the life he was living now to remind Billy of
either hell or Sabbath Valley, yet for long days and weeks he had
struggled through flames in a deep dark pit lighted only by lurid glare
and his soul had well nigh gone out under the torture. Once the doctors
and nurses had stood around and waited for his last breath. This was
a marked case. The Shaftons were deeply interested in it. The boy had
mysteriously brought back all their valuable papers and jewels that
had been stolen from them, and they were anxious to put him on his feet
again. It went sadly against the comfortable self-complacent grain of a
Shafton to feel himself under such mortal obligation to any one.
But Billy was tougher than anyone knew, and one night after he had made
the usual climb through the hot coals on his bare knees to the top of
the pit, and come to the place where he always fell back, he held on a
little tighter and set his teeth a little harder, and suddenly, with
a long hard pull that took every atom of strength in his wasted young
body, he went over the top. Over the top and out into the clean open
country where he could feel the sea breeze on his hot forehead and know
that it was good. He was out of hell and he was cooling off. The first
step in the awful fight that began that night in the old haunted house
on the mountain had been won.
For three days he lay thus, cooling off and resting. He was fed and
cared for but he took no cognizance of it except to smile weakly.
Swallowing things was like breathing. You had to do it and you didn't
think about it. The fourth day he began to know the nurses apart, and to
realize he was feeling better. As yet the past lay like a blurr of pain
on his mind, and he hadn't a care about anything save just to lie and
know that it was good to smell the salt, and see the shimmer of blue
from the window. At times when he slept the sound of bells in old hymns
came to him like a dream and he smiled. But on the fifth morning he
lifted his light head uncertainly and looked out of the window. Gee!
That was pretty! And he dropped back and slept again. When he awoke
there was a real meal for him. No more slops. Soup, and potato and a
bit of bread and butter. Gee! It tasted good! He slept again and it was
morning, or was it the same morning? He didn't know. He tried to figure
back and decided he had been in that hospital about three days, but
when the next morning dawned and he felt the life creeping back into his
veins he began to be uncertain. He asked the nurse how soon he could
get up and get dressed. She smiled in a superior way and said the doctor
hadn't said. It would likely be sometime yet, he had been pretty sick.
He told her sharply he couldn't spare much more time, and asked her
where his clothes were.
She laughed and said:
“Oh, put away. You'll have some new clothes when you get well. I heard
Mrs. Shafton talking about it this morning when she was in the office.
She's coming to see you pretty soon, and they mean to do a lot for you.
You brought back her jewels didn't you? Well, I guess you'll get your
reward all right.”
Billy looked at her blankly. Reward! Gosh! Was that reward going to meet
him again?
“Say,” said he frowning, “I want my own clothes. I don't want any new
ones. I want my own! Say, I got some stuff in my pockets I don't wantta
have monkeyed with!”
“All right,” she said cheerily, “They're put away safe. You can have
them when you're well.” But when he asked her suddenly what day it was
she said vaguely “Tuesday,” and went away. He was so tired then he
went to sleep again and slept till they brought his dinner, a big one,
chicken and fixings and jelly, and a dish of ice cream! Oh, Gee! And
then he went to sleep again. But in the morning--how many days was it
then? He woke to sudden consciousness of what he had to do and to sudden
suspicion of the time. Billy was coming back to his own. His wilyness
had returned. He smiled at the nurse ravishingly and asked for a
newspaper, but when she brought it he pretended to be asleep, so she
laid it down and went away softly. But he nabbed that paper with a weak
hand as soon as her back was turned and read the date! His heart fell
down with a dull thud. The third! This was the day of the trial! It
couldn't be! He read again. Was it really the day of the trial? The
paper that had the court program had been in his trousers pocket. He
must have it at once. Perhaps he had made a mistake. Oh, gee! What it
was to be helpless! Why, he was weaker than Aunt Saxon!
He called the nurse crossly. She bustled in and told him the doctor had
just said he might sit up to-morrow if he kept on without a temperature
for twenty-four hours longer. But he paid no heed to her. He demanded
his clothes with a young roar of a voice that made her open her eyes.
Billy had heretofore been the meekest of meek patients. She was getting
the voice and manner now that he generally retained for family use. He
told her there was something in the pocket he must see right away, and
he made such a fuss about it that she was afraid he would bring up his
temperature again and finally agreed to get the clothes if he would lie
real still and rest afterward. Billy dropped his head back on the pillow
and solemnly said: “Aw'wright!” He had visions of going to court in blue
and white striped pajamas. It could be done, but he didn't relish it.
Still, if he had to--!
The nurse brought his jacket and trousers. The sweater was awfully dirty
she said, but she was finally prevailed upon to bring that too, and
Billy obediently lay down with closed eyes and his arm stretched out
comfortingly over the bundles. The nurse hovered round till he seemed to
be asleep and then slipped out for a moment, and the instant her white
skirt had vanished from the doorway Billy was alert. He fumbled the
bundles open with nervous fingers and searched eagerly for the bit of
paper. Yes, there it was and the date the third of September. Aw Gee!
He flung back the neatly tucked sheets, poked a slim white foot that
didn't look like his at all into a trouser leg, paused for breath and
dove the other in, struggled into his jacket and lay down again quickly
under the sheet. Was that the nurse?
He had to admit that he felt queer, but it would soon pass off, and
anyhow if it killed him he had to go. Aw bah! What was a little sickness
anyhow? If he stayed in the hospital any longer they'd make a baby out
of him!
The nurse had not returned. He could hear the soft plunk, plunk of her
rubber heels on the marble steps. She was going down stairs. Now was
his time! Of course he had no shoes and stockings, but what was a little
thing like that? He grasped the bundle of sweater tightly and slid out
of bed. His feet felt quite inadequate. In fact he began to doubt their
identity. They didn't seem to be there at all when he stood on them, but
he was not to be foiled by feet. If they meant to stick by him they'd
gotta obey him.
Slowly, cautiously, with his head swimming lightly on ahead of him and a
queer gasp of emptiness in the region of his chest that seemed to need a
great deal of breath, he managed a passage to the door, looked down the
long white corridor with its open doors and cheerful voices, saw a pair
of stairs to the right quite near by, and with his steadying hands
on the cool white wall slid along the short space to the top step. It
seemed an undertaking to get down that first step, but when that was
accomplished he was out of sight and he sat down and slid slowly the
rest of the way, wondering why he felt so rotten.
At the foot of the long stairs there was a door, and strange it was made
so heavy! He wondered a nurse could swing it open, just a mere girl! But
he managed it at last, almost winded, and stumbled out on the portico
that gave to the sea, a wide blue stretch before him. He stopped,
startled, as if he had unexpectedly sighted the heavenly strand, and
gazed blinking at the stretch of blue with the wide white shore and the
boom of an organ following the lapping of each white crested wave. Those
palm trees certainly made it look queer like Saxy's Pilgrim's Progress
picture book. Then the panic for home and his business came upon him and
he slid weakly down the shallow white steps, and crunched his white feet
on the gravel wincing. He had just taken to the grass at the edge and
was managing better than he had hoped when a neat little coupe rounded
the curve of the drive, and his favorite doctor came swinging up to the
steps, eyeing him keenly. Billy started to run, and fell in a crumpled
heap, white and scared and crying real tears, weak, pink tears!
“Why Billy! What are you doing here?” The stern loving voice of his
favorite doctor hung over him like a knife that was going to cut him
off forever from life and light and forgiveness and all that he counted
dear.
But Billy stopped crying.
“Nothin,” he said, “I just come out fer a walk!”
The doctor smiled.
“But I didn't tell you you might, Billy boy!”
“Had to,” said Billy.
“Well, you'll find you'll have to go back again, Billy. Come!” and the
doctor stooped his broad strong shoulders to pick up the boy. But Billy
beat him off weakly:
“Say, now, Doc, wait a minute,” he pleaded, “It's jus' this way. I
simply _gotta_ get back home t'day. I'm a very 'mportant witness in a
murder case, See? My bes' friend in the world is bein' tried fer life,
an' he ain't guilty, an' I'm the only one that knows it fer sure, an'
can prove it, an' I gotta be there. Why, Doc, the trial's _going on now_
an' I ain't there! It ud drive me crazy to go back an' lay in that soft
bed like a reg'lar sissy, an' know he's going to be condemned. I put it
to you, Doc, as man to man, would you stand fer a thing like that?”
“But Billy, suppose it should be the end of you!”
“I sh'd worry, Doc! Ef I c'n get there in time an' say what I want I
ain't carin' fer anythin' more in life I tell ye. Say, Doc, you wouldn't
stop me, would ya? Ef you did I'd get thar anyhow _someway!_”
The earnestness of the eager young face, wan in its illness, the light
of love in the big gray eyes, went to the doctor's heart. He gave the
boy a troubled look.
“Where is it you want to go, Billy?”
“Economy, Doc. It ain't far, only two or three hours' ride. I c'n get a
jitney somewheres I guess ta take me. I'll pay up ez soon as I get home.
I got thirty dollars in the bank my own self.”
“Economy!” said the Doctor. “Impossible, Billy, it would kill you--!”
“Then I'm goin' anyhow. Good-by Doc!” and he darted away from the
astonished doctor and ran a rod or so before the doctor caught up with
him and seized him firmly by his well shoulder:
“Billy, look here!” said the Doctor, “If it's as bad as that I'll take
you!”
“Oh, would ya, Doc? Would ya? I'll never forget it Doc--!”
“There now, Billy, never mind, son, you save your strength and let me
manage this thing the right way. Couldn't I telephone and have them hold
up things a few days? That can be done you know.”
“Nothin' doing Doc, there's them that would hurry it up all the more if
they thought I was comin' back. You get in Doc and start her up. I c'n
drive myself if you'll lend me the m'chine. P'raps you ain't got time to
go off 'ith me like this.”
“That's all right, Billy. You and I are going on a little excursion.
'But first I've got to tell the nurse, or there'll be all kinds of a
time. Here, you sit in the machine.” The doctor picked him up and put
him in and ran up the steps. Billy sat dizzily watching and wondering if
he hadn't better make his escape. Perhaps the Doc was just fooling him,
but in a moment back he came again, with a nurse trailing behind with
blankets and a bottle.
“We're going to get another car, son, this one's no good for such a
trip. We'll fix it so you can lie down and save your strength for when
you get there. No,--son--I don't mean the ambulance,” as he saw the
alarm in Billy's face, “just a nice big car. That's all right, here she
comes!”
The big touring car came round from the back almost immediately, and the
back seat was heaped with pillows and blankets and Billy tenderly placed
among them where he was glad enough to lie down--and close his eyes. It
had been rather strenuous. The nurse went back for his shoes, bringing
a bottle of milk and his medicine. The Doctor got in the front seat and
started.
“Now, son,” he said, “You rest. You'll need every bit of strength when
you get there if we're going to carry this thing through. You just leave
this thing to me and I'll get you there in plenty of time. Don't you
worry.”
Billy with a smile of heavenly bliss over his newly bleached freckles
settled back with dreamy eyes and watched the sea as they were passing
swiftly by it, his lashes drooping lower and lower over his thin young
cheeks. The doctor glancing back anxiously caught that look the mothers
see in the young imps when they are asleep, and a tenderness came into
his heart for the staunch loyal little sinner.
Doctor Norris was a good scout. If he had got a soft snap of a job in
that Shafton hospital, it was good practice of course, and a step to
really big things where he wouldn't be dependent upon rich people's
whims, but still he was a good scout. He had not forgotten the days
of the grasshopper, and Billy had made a great appeal to his heart. He
looked at his watch, chose his roads, and put his machine at high speed.
The sea receded, the Jersey pines whirled monotonously by, and by and
by the hills began to crop up. Off against the horizon Stark mountain
loomed, veiled, with a purple haze, and around another curve Economy
appeared, startlingly out of place with its smug red brick walks and its
gingerbread porches and plastered tile bungalows. Then without warning
Billy sat up. How long had that young scamp been awake? Had he slept at
all? He was like a man, grave and stern with business before him. The
doctor almost felt shy about giving him his medicine.
“Son, you must drink that milk,” he said firmly. “Nothing doing unless
you drink that!” Billy drank it.
“Now where?” asked the doctor as they entered the straggling dirty
little town.
“That red brick building down the next block,” pointed Billy, his face
white with excitement, his eyes burning like two dark blue coals.
The big car drew up at the curb, and no one there to notice, for every
body was inside. The place was jammed to the door.
Cherry had come back late after lunch, her hat awry and signs of tears
on her painted face. Her eyes were more obviously frightened and she
whispered a message which was taken up to Mark. Mark lifted a haggard
face to hear it, asked a question, bowed his head, and continued
listening to the cross-examination of a man who said he had heard him
threaten to kill Dolph the week before the murder down at Hagg's Mills.
When the witness was dismissed Mark whispered a word to his lawyer,
the lawyer spoke to the judge and the judge announced that the prisoner
wished to speak. Every eye was turned toward Mark as he rose and gave a
sweeping glance around the room, his eyes lingering for just a shadow of
an instant wistfully on the faces of the minister and his wife, then on
again as if they had seen no one, and round to the judge's face.
It was just at this instant that Billy burst into the room and wedged
his way fiercely between elbows, using his old football methods, head
down and elbows out, and stood a moment breathless, taking it all in.
Then Mark spoke:
“Your Honor, I wish to plead guilty to the charge!”
A great sigh like a sob broke over the hush in the court room and many
people half rose to their feet as if in protest, but Billy made a dive
up the aisle, self and sickness forgotten, regardless of courts or law
or anything, and stood between the Judge and Mark:
“It ain't so, an' I can prove it!” he shouted at the top of his lungs.
The prosecuting attorney rose to a point of order like a bull dog
snapping at his prey, the sergeant-at-arms rushed around like corn
popping off in a corn popper, but Anthony Drew whispered a word to the
Judge, and after order was restored Billy was called to the witness
stand to tell his story.
Doctor Norris standing squeezed at the back of the room looking for
his quondam patient, recognized with a thrill the new Billy standing
unafraid before all these people and speaking out his story in a clear
direct way. Billy had etherealized during his illness. If Aunt Saxon had
been there--she was washing for Gibsons that day and having her troubles
with Mrs. Frost--she would scarcely have known him. His features had
grown delicate and there was something strong and sweet about his mouth
that surely never had been there before. But the same old forceful boy
speech wherewith he had subdued enemies on the athletic fields, bullied
Aunt Saxon, and put one over on Pat at the station, was still his own.
He told the truth briefly and to the point, not omitting his own wrong
doing in every particular, and he swayed that crowd as a great orator
might have been proud to sway a congregation. They laughed till they
cried and cried till they laughed again at Billy's quaint phrases, and
they enjoyed the detour--Oh how they enjoyed that detour! Even the Judge
had twinkles in his eyes.
For the first time since the trial began Mark was sitting up proudly,
a warm look of vivid interest in his face, the cold mask gone. His eyes
dwelt upon Billy with a look almost fatherly, at least brotherly. It was
a startling contrast to what he had been all day. This was a different
man.
Suddenly from the corner of the prosecution the low growl which had been
gradually rising like a young storm, broke, and the prosecuting attorney
arose and lifted his voice above all others:
“I protest your Honor, against this witness. He has mentioned no less
than five different lies which he has told, and has narrated a number
of episodes in which he deliberately broke the law. Is it or is it not
a misdemeanor for anyone to meddle with our Highroads in the manner
that has just been described? By his own confession this young man is
disqualified for a witness! By his own confession he is a law breaker
and a liar!”
“Aw Gee!” broke forth Billy furiously, “Didn't I tell ya I come here to
tell the truth n' get it off'n my chest?”
Someone put a strong hand on Billy and silenced him, and some one else
rose to protest against the protestor, and the air grew tense with
excitement once more.
The prosecution declared that Billy was in league with Mark, that
everybody knew he trailed him everywhere, therefore his testimony was
worthless. He was probably bribed; there was nothing, absolutely nothing
in the story the boy had told to prove anything.
Billy was growing whiter and angrier, his eyes flashing, his fists
clenched. His testimony was not going to be accepted after all! It had
been vain to bear the shame himself. Nothing, _nothing_ that he could
do would blot out the trouble because he had unfitted himself to blot it
out. It had to be a witness who told the truth who would be believed.
It had to be one with a good record to take away the shame! That was
something like what Miss Marilyn said in Sunday School once, that only
Jesus Christ could take the place of a sinner and make it right about
our sinning because He had never sinned. It had sounded like rot when
she said it, but he began to understand what she meant now. Yes, that
was it. Only God's Son could do that and he, Billy Gaston, had tried to
do it himself!
The court room seemed to be very dark now. His head was whirling away
and getting beyond his control. When he looked up he seemed to see it
on the other side of the room. He did not recognize the two men in
handcuffs that the Chief was bringing into the room. He did not hear
what the Judge was saying. He had slumped in a little heap on the
witness stand with his eyes closed, and his hands groping together. He
thought that he was praying to God's Son to come and help Mark because
he had failed. _He_ wasn't good enough and he _had failed!_
The doctor had come with a bound up the aisle and was kneeling with
Billy in his arms. Mark was leaning over the rail with a white anxious
face. The minister was trying to make a way through the crowd, and the
sergeant-at-arms was pushing the crowd back, and making a space about
the unconscious boy. Some-one opened a window. The Chief and one of his
men brought a cot. There was a pillow from the car, and there was that
medicine again--bringing him back--just as he thought he had made God
hear--! Oh, _why_ did they bother him?
Suddenly down by the door a diversion occurred. Someone had entered with
wild burning eyes dressed in a curious assortment of garments. They were
trying to put him out, but he persisted.
The word was brought up: “Someone has a very important piece of evidence
which he wishes to present.”
Billy's gray eyes opened as the man mounted to the witness stand. He
was lying on the cot at one side and his gaze rested on the new witness,
dazedly at first, and then with growing comprehension. Old Ike Fenner,
the tailor, Cherry Fenner's father!
Mark was looking at Billy and had not noticed:
But the man began to speak in a high shrill voice:
“I came to say that I'm the man that killed Dolph Haskins! Mark Carter
had nothin' to do with it. I done it! I _meant_ to kill him because he
ruined the life of my little girl! _My baby!_”
There was a sudden catch in his voice like a great sob, and he clutched
at the rail as if he were going to fall, but he went on, his eyes
burning like coals:
“I shot him with Tom Petrie's gun that I found atop o' the door, an' I
put it back where I found it. You take my finger prints and compare 'em
with the marks on the gun an' the winder sill. You ask Sandy Robison!
He seen me do it. You ask Cherry! She seen me too. She was facin' the
winder eatin' her supper with that devil, and I shot him and she seen
me! _I_ did it--”
His voice trailed off. He swayed and got down from the stand, groping
his way as if he could not see. The crowd gave way with a curious
shudder looking into his wild burning eyes as he passed. A girl's scream
back by the door rang through the court. The man moaned, put out his
hands and fell forward. Kindly hands reached to catch him. The doctor
left Billy and came to help.
They carried him outside and laid him on the grass in front of the court
house. The doctor used every restorative he had with him. Men hurried to
the drug store. They tried everything, but all to no avail. Ike Fenner
the tailor was dead! He had gone to stand before a higher court!
When it was all over, the finger prints and the red tape, and the case
had been dismissed, Mark came to Billy where he was lying in the big car
waiting, with his eyes closed to keep back weak tears that would slip
out now and then. He knelt beside the boy and touched his hand, the hand
that looked so thin and weak and so little like Billy's:
“Kid,” he said gently, “Kid, you've been a wonder! It was really you
that saved me, Buddy! _My Buddy!”_
Billy's tears welled over at the tone, the words, the proud intimate
name, but he shook his head slowly, sadly.
“No,” he said, “No, it wasn't me. I tried, but I wasn't fit! It had to
be _Him_. I didn't understand! They wouldn't believe me. But _He_ came
as soon as I ast!”
Mark looked at the doctor.
“Is he wandering a little?” he asked in a low tone:
“I shouldn't wonder. He's been through enough to make anyone wander.
Here, son, take this.”
Billy smiled and obediently accepted his medicine. Mark held his hand
all the way home. He knew that Mark didn't understand but he was too
tired to tell him now. Sometime he would explain. Or perhaps Miss Lynn
would explain it for him. He was going home, home to Saxy and Sabbath
Valley and the bells, and Mark was free! He hadn't saved him, but Mark
was free!
It was like a royal passage through the village as they came into
Sabbath Valley, for everybody came out to wave at Mark and Billy. Even
Mrs. Harricutt watched grimly from behind her Holland shades. But Billy
was too weak to notice much, except to sense it distantly, and Mark
would only lift his hat and bow, gravely, quietly as if it didn't
matter, just as he used to do when they carried him round on their
shoulders after a football game, and he tried to get down and hide. Why
did Mark still have that sad look in his eyes? Billy was too tired to
think it out. He was glad when they reached Aunt Saxon's door and
Mark picked him up as he used to do when he was just a little kid, and
carried him up to his room. Carried him up and undressed him, while
Saxy heard the story from the doctor's lips, and laughed and cried and
laughed again. The nervy little kid! He would always be a “little kid”
to Saxy, no matter what he did.
He turned over in his own bed, _his bed_, and smelt the sweet breath
of the honeysuckle coming in at the window, heard the thrushes singing
their evening song up the street. The sea had been great, but Oh, you
Sabbath Valley! Out there was the water spout, and some day he would be
strong enough to shin down it, and up it again. He would play football
this Fall, and run Mark's car! Mark, grave, gentle, quiet, sitting
beside him till he got asleep, and his mother not knowing, down the
street, and Miss Lynn--!
“Mark--you'll tell Miss Marilyn about it all?” He opened his eyes to
murmur lazily, and Mark promised still gravely.
He shut his eyes and drifted away. What was that the Chief had told him
down at Economy in the car? Something about three strange detectives
stepping off the train one day and nabbing Pat? And Pat was up at Sing
Sing finishing his term after A.W.O.L. Was that straight or only
a dream? And anyhow he didn't care. He was home again, Home--_and
forgiven!_
Night settled sweetly down upon Sabbath Valley, hiding the brilliant
autumn tinting of the street. Lynn had made a maple nut cake and set the
table for two before she left the Carters, for her mother had slipped
out of the court room and telephoned her, and a fire was blazing in the
little parlor with the lace curtains and asters in every vase all gala
for the returning son. The mother and son sat long before the fire,
talking, pleasant converse, about the time when Mark would send for her
to come and live with him, but not a word was said about the day. He
saw that his friends had helped to save his mother this one great sorrow
that she could not have borne, and he was grateful.
Marilyn, up at the parsonage, with a great thankfulness upon her, went
about with smiling face. The burden seemed to have lifted and she was
glad.
But that night at midnight there came the doctor from Economy driving
hard and stopping at the parsonage. Cherry Fenner was dying and wanted
to see Miss Marilyn. Would she come?