A FAIRY IN THE BADGER HOME
"Let's watch and see what it all means?" suggested Steve, quickly.
Even Jack did not seem averse to doing that same thing. In fact, his
curiosity had been aroused to fever pitch by so unexpectedly discovering
the very man of whom they had been lately talking hovering around poor
Fred's home in such a suspicious fashion.
Peeping around the high bushes again, they saw him leaning idly on the
picket fence. He seemed to have a stout cane, and was smoking a cigar,
though in his undoubted eagerness to keep "tabs" on the humble house he
forgot to draw smoke from the weed between his teeth.
"I must say this is going it pretty strong," grumbled Toby, half under
his breath; "to have that chap prowling around Fred's home, just like he
was afraid the boy'd get out of his grip, and so meant to find a
stronger hold on him."
"That's it," assented Steve; "he wants to learn why Fred seems to hold
back. He means to meet the little mother, and the two small girls, one
of 'em a cripple in the bargain. It's a shame that he should push
himself in on that family, and he a city sport in the bargain. We ought
to find a way to chase him out of town, don't you think, Jack?"
"Hold up, and perhaps we may learn something right now," whispered the
other, after a hasty look; "because there's Fred's mother coming out of
the door."
"Gee whiz! can she be meaning to meet this man?" ventured Toby,
apparently appalled by his own suspicion.
"Well, hardly likely," Jack told him, "because the man has ducked down
as if he didn't want to be seen by her, though he's looking like
everything all the while."
"That's little Barbara Badger, the five-year-old sister of Fred," Steve
was saying. "She's got a basket on her arm, too, and I reckon her ma is
sending her to the store down the street for a loaf of bread, or
something like that. Everybody seems to agree that Barbara is the most
winsome little girl in the whole of Chester."
"Barring none," admitted Toby, immediately. "Why, she's just like a
little golden-haired fairy, my dad says, and since he's something of an
artist he ought to know when he sees one. Yep, you were right, Steve,
the child is going after something at the store. I wonder now would that
wretch have the nerve to stop Barbara, and try to get some information
from the little thing?"
"What if he tries to kidnap her?" suggested Steve, suddenly, doubling up
his sturdy looking fist aggressively, as though to indicate that it
would not be safe for the stranger to attempt such a terrible thing
while he was within hearing distance.
"Oh! I hardly think there's any fear of that happening," Jack assured
the aggressive member of the trio. "But he acts now as if he meant to
drop back here out of sight, so perhaps we'd better slip around this
bunch of bushes so he won't learn how we've been watching him."
Suiting their actions to Jack's words, the three boys quickly "made
themselves scarce," which was no great task when such an admirable
hiding-place as that stack of bushes lay conveniently near by. Sure
enough, the stranger almost immediately came around the clump and made
sure that it hid him from the small cottage lying beyond. Jack, taking a
look on his own account from behind the bushes, saw that Mrs. Badger had
started to reenter the house; while pretty little Barbara was
contentedly trudging along the cinder pavement.
Evidently the child was quite accustomed to doing errands of this nature
for her mother, when Fred did not happen to be around; nor was it likely
that Mrs. Badger once dreamed Barbara might get into any sort of
trouble, for the neighborhood, while not fashionable, was at least said
to be safe, and honest people dwelt there.
"He's staring as hard as anything at Barbara," whispered Toby, who had
been peeping. "Why, he acts for all the world like he could fairly eat
the sweet little thing up. Perhaps it's a good job we chance to be
around here after all," but Jack shook his head as though he did not
dream any harm was going to come to little Barbara.
"If he's so much taken up watching her," he remarked, "we can spy on him
without his being any the wiser. But take care not to move too quickly
at any time; and a sneeze or a cough would spoil everything for us."
Accordingly, they crept forward. Looking cautiously around their covert,
the boys could easily see that Barbara Badger had by now turned the
bushes and reached the spot where the stranger stood.
Now he was speaking to her, bending low, and using what struck the
suspicious Steve as a wheedling tone; though to Jack it was just what
any gentleman might use in seeking to gain the confidence of a child who
had never seen him before.
Apparently the little girl did not seem to be afraid. Perhaps she was
accustomed to having people speak kindly to her on the street, just to
see that winsome smile break over her wonderfully pretty face. At any
rate, she had answered him, and as he started to walk slowly at her
side, it seemed as though they had entered into quite an animated
conversation, the stranger asking questions, and the little girl giving
such information as lay in her power.
"He's just trying to find out how the land lies in Fred's house, that's
what he's doing, the sneak!" gritted Steve.
"Oh! how do we know but what the man has a small girl of his own
somewhere?" Jack interposed; "and Barbara somehow reminds him of her.
Besides, can you blame anybody for trying to get acquainted with Fred's
sweet little sister?"
Steve subsided after that. Apparently he could find no answer to the
logic Jack was able to bring against his suspicions. By skirting the
inside of a fence it would be possible for them to follow after the man
and the child without disclosing their presence.
"Let's do it!" suggested Steve, after Toby had made mention of this
fact.
Accordingly they started to steal along. As the others were walking very
slowly the three boys found no great difficulty in keeping close behind
them. They could even pick up something of what passed between the pair
on the cinder pavement. The man was asking Barbara about her home folks,
and seemed particularly interested in hearing about mother's pale looks
and many sighs; and also how sister Lucy seemed to be able to walk
better lately than at any time in the past; though she did have to use a
crutch; but she hoped to be able to go to school in the fall if she
continued to improve.
Fred's name did not seem to be mentioned once by the man. Even when
Barbara told some little thing in which the boy figured, the man failed
to ask about him. His whole interest was centered in the mother, the
crippled child, and this wonderfully attractive little angel at his
side.
Jack also noticed that he had hold of Barbara's small hand, which he
seemed to be clutching eagerly. Yes, it must be the man had a daughter
of his own far away, and memories of her might be making him sorry that
he had engaged in such a disreputable business as tempting Barbara's
brother to betray his mates of the baseball team.
Then the man stopped short. He had looked around and discovered that if
he went any further he might be noticed from the side windows of the
Badger cottage. Apparently he did not wish that the child's mother
should discover him walking with her. Jack somehow felt an odd thrill
shoot through him when he saw the man suddenly bend his head and press
several kisses on the little hand that had been nestling so confidingly
in his own palm. That one act seemed to settle it in the boy's mind that
there was more or less truth in his conjecture in connection with
another Barbara in some distant city waiting for her father to come back
home.
"Say, he's acting real spoony, isn't he, Jack?" gasped Toby, taken aback
as he saw the man do this. "I reckon now, Steve, your ogre isn't
_quite_ as tough a character as you imagined. He's got a spark of
human about him, seems like, and like most Chester folks has to knuckle
down before that pretty kid."
"Oh! he may be acting that way for a purpose," grumbled the unconvinced
Steve, still unwilling to give up. "Such fellows generally have a deep
game up their sleeve, you understand. Just wait and see, that's all,
Toby Hopkins. I don't like his actions one little bit, if you want to
know how I feel about it."
Almost immediately afterwards Toby spoke again in a guarded tone.
"Look at her picking something up from among the cinders, and holding it
out! Why, it looks like a shining new fifty-cent bit, which is just what
it is. And to think we walked right over it when we came along, and not
one of us glimpsed what the sharp eyes of that child have found."
"Huh! mebbe it wasn't there when we came along, Toby!" suggested Steve.
"Just as like as not that chap he dropped the coin, and ground it
part-way into the cinders with his toe, then managed so little Barbara
should pick it up. There, listen to him now telling her that findings is
keepings, and that the money belongs to her by right of discovery. That
was a smart dodge, wasn't it? I wonder what his game is. Can you guess
it, Jack?"
"I decline to commit myself to an answer," came the reply.
"That means you've got some sort of hazy suspicion, which may and again
may not pan out later on," hinted Steve. "Oh! well, it seems as if we've
run smack up against a great puzzle, and I never was a good hand at
figuring such things out--never guessed a rebus or an acrostic in my
whole life. Tell us when you strike pay dirt, that's a good fellow,
Jack."
"Perhaps I will," chuckled the other, still keeping his eyes glued on
the figures of little Barbara and the stranger, not far distant.
Now the man had evidently said good-bye, for, as she tripped along the
walk, she turned to wave her chubby hand to him, and even kiss the tips
of her fingers to her scarlet rosebud lips as if sending a kiss back.
He stood there staring after her. Jack watching saw him take out a
handkerchief and wipe his eyes several times. Apparently that meeting
with Barbara Badger had affected the man considerably. Jack hoped it
would be for his good, and also for the benefit of Fred Badger, who
seemed to be struggling with some secret that was weighing his young
spirit down.
Then the man turned and looked long and earnestly back toward the humble
cottage home of the widow. He was shaking his head and muttering
something half under his breath; but somehow Jack thought he did not
look very ferocious just then. In fact, after the man strode away and
they were free to once more come out on the walk, Jack had a feeling
that the stranger did not appear quite so much like a desperate city
sport as he had formerly believed.