GIVING HIM ANOTHER CHANCE.
"HEY! what was that, Con!" Elmer heard the shorter man say, inside the
place.
"Oh, we're found out! It's all over, Phil!" gasped the other fellow, in
a sudden panic.
"Shut up, yuh fool! Reckon as how 'twar only the night wind. Here's the
can; take hold and we'll kerry her out! I jest gotter do it, now!"
That was enough for the boy outside. He understood that they must be at
the farther end of the little house, and evidently bending over the
object of their solicitude. His chance had come!
Elmer had already taken hold of the door, and laid out his plan of
campaign. He expected every act to dovetail with the others, so as to
form a complete whole. And not more than two seconds must elapse after
he once started to move, before he finished his work.
Slam went the door shut. A low cry from within told how the nervous Con
had given expression to his alarm. Utterly regardless of consequences,
now that he had made a start, Elmer slapped the hasp over the stout
staple, and then feeling for the hanging nail proceeded to drop it into
its place.
Things worked like a charm. The nail was shot into place in even less
time than Elmer had anticipated. He only hoped that the staples at
either end of the hasp were clinched. Then, if the imprisoned men threw
their weight against the door, it was not so apt to give.
Elmer did not wait to hear what happened after he had shot his bolt. He
expected a great commotion would begin immediately, and the determined
Phil start to using any tool upon which his groping hands might alight
in the endeavor to batter his way to freedom.
"Now for the house and the colonel!" was what Elmer thought, as,
turning, he made a bee line for the front door, out of which he had
passed not more than fifteen minutes before.
The first thing he knew he was pounding at the panel, after having
pressed the electric button. On either side of the door were long panes
of stained glass; and while the boy could not have recognized anyone
coming in answer to his summons, he did discover that there was a light
within the broad hall. This would tend to prove that the colonel could
not have gone up to his room.
Yes, now he could see some one issue from the library, and advance
toward the door. Oh, if he would only hurry! From the direction of the
tool house came sounds of heavy pounding. Doubtless the imprisoned
rascals, fearing that they had been caught in a trap, were trying to
smash their way out. What if they should strike a light, and that oil
catch on fire! Perhaps there was gasoline stored in the place as well as
kerosene!
Now the colonel was unlocking the door. It was something unusual to have
such a loud summons beaten upon the panels of his front door; but while
some men might have shown signs of timidity, this old traveler, seasoned
to adventure, was opening up without the first symptom of alarm.
As the door flew open he looked keenly at the figure before him.
"What, you, Elmer, my boy!" he exclaimed. "Why, what has happened? I
hope you did not take a nasty header off your wheel?"
"No, no, sir, it wasn't that!" cried the scout, hardly knowing what to
say first, so as to impress the gentleman with the seriousness of the
occasion. "Some men--they mean to burn your house--the two who escaped
from the lock-up, Phil Lally and Con!"
"What's that?" exclaimed the colonel, stiffening up instantly and
showing all the signs that mark the conduct of an old war horse at
scenting battle smoke. "How do you know this, my boy?"
"I heard them talking--my wheel was punctured, and I put it in the tool
house. Then I followed them. They were going to get kerosene to use.
They stepped into the tool house, and I slammed the door shut on them,
and fastened it! Listen, sir, that pounding you hear is them trying to
get out!"
"Well, well, did I ever!" ejaculated the astonished gentleman. "Wait
here just a minute till I can get something."
He turned and ran into his library as though he were nearer thirty years
of age than seventy. In the excitement of the moment he had forgotten
that time had silvered his head and given him twitches of rheumatism.
The colonel was young again, and ready to respond to the call of duty.
Elmer listened. He could hear that terrible pounding keeping up from the
back of the house, and understood what it meant. Oh, how he hoped that
in the darkness Phil could not see to wield his ax effectively, and
might thus fail to cut a way out! For it seemed as though part of the
victory would be lost if those two rascals secured their freedom.
Perhaps the colonel was gone a full minute. It seemed ten to the waiting
boy, who was wrongly figuring time by the rapid pulsations of his heart.
Then he became aware of the fact that once more the gentleman had joined
him, and that he was busily engaged pushing some cartridges into a
shotgun he carried.
"Here, Elmer, take this!" he exclaimed, thrusting the weapon into the
hands of the scout. "I know you are used to handling firearms, or I
wouldn't ask you to do it. Now, come with me, please, and we'll see if
we can't influence those two fire-makers to be good!"
Down the steps he ran, so that Elmer was even put to it to keep at his
heels. At least the prisoners of the tool house could not have as yet
managed to effect their escape, for the battering sounds still
continued, accompanied by loud excited cries.
Quickly the two hurried along, until they arrived on the scene of
action.
"Look, sir, there's another of them coming!" cried Elmer, pointing to a
skulking figure among the bushes, indistinctly seen.
"Here, you, come out of that; we've got you covered, and you can't
escape!" exclaimed the colonel, who was gripping something that shone
like steel in his right hand, and which Elmer guessed must be a pistol
of some sort.
"Don't shoot, kunnel!" cried a quivering voice; "'deed, an' I
surrenders, suh! I reckon I's pow'ful glad yuh kim. I's Sam, suh, yuh
man Sam! Please don' pull de triggah ob dat gun, Mars Kunnel!"
It was the coachman who had driven Elmer and Mark on the occasion of the
latter's being summoned to an interview with the old traveler.
"Here, go and get a lantern at once, Sam, and run for all you're worth!"
called the old gentleman. "Meanwhile, the rest of us will surround the
tool house, and be ready to give them a volley if they succeed in
breaking out!"
Sam had already turned and hurried away toward the stables, where he
must have been sitting in his room at the time the row broke out, that
drew him toward the scene of the disturbance.
Of course, the last remark of the colonel's had been made with the
intention of its being overheard by the men who were fastened inside the
outhouse. The sounds of pounding had suddenly ceased as the colored man
started to answer the command of the colonel, and those within could
easily hear every word uttered.
A silence followed that was only broken by low groans within. Doubtless
the more timid rascal was repenting of having been led into this
dangerous game of seeking revenge. The dreadful penalty meted out to
house burners loomed up before his horrified eyes. The only pity was
that he had not allowed himself to see this earlier, and resisted
temptation.
"Hello!"
That was Phil calling. His heavy voice seemed to express all the signs
of acknowledged defeat. Elmer waited to see what the colonel would do,
nor was he kept long in suspense.
"This time you're caught in a trap like a rat, Phil Lally," remarked the
old gentleman. "I'm sorry for you, more than sorry for your poor old
mother; but since you took to drink this was bound to be your end. It
came quicker than I thought, I admit, but you've got nobody to blame
save yourself."
An intense silence followed, broken only by occasional low whines from
the weaker rascal. Then Phil called out again.
"Well, I reckon yuh speaks only the truth, kunnel. I allers had a job up
tuh the time I took tuh drinkin'. Sense then hard luck has follered
clost tuh my heels. An' now I sure knows it's got me. I'd like one more
chanct tuh try an' do better; but I reckon it's too late, an' I'll have
tuh grin an' bear it."
Elmer heard him give a big sigh. Somehow the sound affected the boy more
than he would have believed possible. He had supposed that Phil must be
just naturally a bad man, wicked all the way through. Now he realized
that it all came through his one weakness, a love for strong drink.
The colonel moved up a step closer to the door. Elmer wondered whether
he meant to throw open the barrier and hold the two scoundrels up as
they came forth. But he mistook the action of the old gentleman.
"Phil!" he said, quietly.
"Yes, sir," answered the gruff tones from within, but no longer filled
with a savage brutality, for Elmer could detect a quaver as of strong
emotion. Perhaps it may have been the mention of that old mother whose
heart would be broken when her boy was sent to prison for a long term.
And somehow Elmer found himself hanging on the next words of the
gentleman with an eagerness which he could hardly understand--for it
seemed to him that a human soul was trembling in the balance.
"Listen to me, Phil," continued the colonel. "What if I gave you one
more chance to make good; do you think you could keep your pledge, if
you gave it to me, never to take a single drop again as long as you
live? Are you strong enough to do this for the sake of that old mother
of yours?"
There was an inarticulate sound from within. It might have been Phil
talking to himself; but Elmer was more inclined to believe something
else--that the strong man was almost overwhelmed by the magnanimity of
the gentleman whom he had once served, and whose kindness of the past he
had returned so meanly.
"How about it, Phil?" continued the colonel. "Shall I 'phone in to town
and have the police come out here to take you into custody, or are you
ready to put your signature to a pledge for me to hold?"
"I'll do it, kunnel, I'll do it, and thank yuh a thousand times for the
chanct!" broke out the man. "Oh, what a crazy fool I was to go agin the
best friend I ever had! I'll sign anything yuh arsks me tuh, an' I'll
keep it, too, or die atryin'!"
"I'm glad to hear you say that, Phil," went on the colonel, with a low
laugh. "You were a good gardener up to the time you began to booze and
neglect your work My new man proved a failure, and I've let him go. The
job's open, Phil!"
"For me?" cried the man, as though utterly unable to believe his ears.
"D'ye mean, kunnel, yu'd dar take me back agin, arter the way I been
actin'?"
"Oh, we'll try and forget all that, Phil. It wasn't you, but the devil
you took inside, that made you act that way. And since you're never
going to give way to the tempter again I guess I'll risk the chances."
He raised his hand and removed the big nail, just as Sam came running
up, bearing a lighted lantern in his ebony grip. As the door opened a
figure issued forth. It was the short man, and his head was bowed on his
chest, which seemed to be heaving convulsively, either because of his
recent exertions with the ax, or through some emotion.
"Is that straight, kunnel, an' do yuh mean to fergive me?" he asked,
humbly, as he stood there before the old gentleman.
"For the sake of your old mother, yes, I'm going to give you another
chance, Phil. And let's hope you can make good. I'm not one bit afraid,
if only you stick to your word. And to prove it, here's my hand!"
The man seized it eagerly. He was shaking with emotion now, and somehow
Elmer felt his own eyes grow moist; for he realized that he was looking
on one of the tragedies of life right then and there; and the thought
that he had had a hand in bringing this finish about, and making the
repentance of Phil possible, thrilled the Boy Scout strangely.
No one paid any attention to the skulking figure that slipped out from
the open door of the tool house, and ran hastily off. Of course it was
Phil's confederate, the timid Con Stebbins, who, seeing an opening for
escape, had hastened to avail himself of it.