ROWELED BY CIRCUMSTANCES
For the first time since, long before, Janice had accused Nelson Haley
of taking his duties non-seriously, the Polktown School Committee was
not getting full measure of the young master's attention.
The school work slipped along in its usual groove; but Nelson's mind was
not fixed upon it. Indeed, his waking thoughts--even his dream
fancies--were flying across the continent with Janice Day toward the
Mexican Border.
The shock of learning of Janice's departure on her mission thoroughly
awoke Nelson. He blamed himself for not accompanying the girl. What must
she think of him? And he had not even believed her courageous enough to
start alone when she had warned him of her intention!
"I was a dunce," he repeated over and over again. "_I_ should know that
Janice always says just what she means, means what she says, and, as
Walky Dexter puts it, has more fighting pluck than a barrel of bobcats!"
Walky's tongue was the busiest of any in Polktown during the first few
days following the departure of Janice and Marty Day. He was not above
saying "I told you so!" to any and all who would listen to him.
He claimed to have foreseen all along Janice's intention of going to her
wounded father; but he admitted that Marty had fooled him.
"Jefers-pelters! who'd ha' thought that freckled-faced kid would have
sneaked out after his cousin and got the reach on all us older fellers
that 'ud ha' been only too glad ter go in his stead? Sure, you'd ha'
gone with Janice. I'd ha' gone myself--if my wife would ha' let me. Haw!
haw! haw! But there warn't no wife ter stop _you_ from goin', Frank."
This was addressed to Frank Bowman, who had been out of town for some
days and had returned to find all the neighbors vastly excited over the
runaways.
"No; I have no wife. But I suppose objections might be filed if I had
undertaken to go with Janice," the civil engineer said grimly. "But
Marty's with her."
"Jefers-pelters! ain't he jest the greatest kid? But he's _only_ a kid,"
added Mr. Dexter.
"Who has gone after them?" demanded Frank.
"Huh? What ye talkin' 'beout? You expect anybody could bring 'em back
once they got free and foot-loose?"
"But isn't Mr. Day going on to be with them at the Border?"
"Jase? Great jumpin' bobcats! how you talk!"
"Why not?"
"I calculate Jase has got about all he can 'tend to financially lookin'
out for them notes he indorsed for Tom Hotchkiss. Tom left him holdin'
the bag, ye know--er--haw! haw! haw!"
"I see. No money to go with, eh?"
"That's it--if nothin' more," agreed Walky.
Frank said nothing to the town expressman about having lent Marty Day
the money that the boy had evidently needed to pay his traveling
expenses. Marty certainly could not be blamed. He had shown himself
wiser regarding Janice and her intentions than the older folk. Marty may
have handled the matter in a boyish way; but Frank Bowman did not feel
like blaming his young friend.
He went up Hillside Avenue to the Day house that evening and found
Nelson Haley there before him. The schoolmaster showed a surface
placidity which was really no criterion of his inner feelings.
"Well, what's going to be done about it?" demanded Frank, as soon as he
had pulled off his coat.
Uncle Jason passed him a yellow sheet of paper--a telegram. It had been
brought over on the _Constance Colfax_ that afternoon from the Landing.
It was the night letter Marty had sent soon after leaving Chicago--a
short night letter at that:
"I got my eye on Janice. She is all right so far."
"Why, he isn't really with her, after all!" said Frank.
"Oh, but they air together, Mr. Bowman," cried Aunt 'Mira. "My min's
much relieved. I didn't know but Marty had run away to kill Indians, or
be a pirate, or sich, like they do in books."
"Boys don't do that even in books, nowadays, Mrs. Day," Nelson told her.
"They run away from home to become jitney bus drivers, or movie actors.
Indians and pirates are out of date."
"You can poke fun," smiled the woman; "but if he's with Janice he's all
right."
Frank Bowman had read the telegram a second time.
"It's not altogether sure in my mind," he said in a voice too low for
Mrs. Day to hear as she bustled about the kitchen, "that Marty is really
with Janice. He wasn't when he sent this message at least."
"Ain't that a fac'?" exclaimed Mr. Day. "Seems like he is jest
a-watchin' of her."
"For fear she'd try to send him home if he revealed his presence," was
Nelson's shrewd observation.
"You're mighty right, Haley," the civil engineer agreed. "That's what
he's doing."
"Wal," Mr. Day sighed, "he's near her if anything should happen so's he
could be useful. But I ain't easy in my mind. A gal like her dependin'
on a boy like him----"
"I don't suppose you could find it possible to go down there yourself,
Mr. Day?" suggested Frank. "Even if we could find out just where they
were heading for?"
"I snum! I dunno how I could," groaned Mr. Day. "It'd seem fair
impossible. I tell you frankly, boys, Tom Hotchkiss has left me flat.
The elder--bless his hide, for he was never knowed to do sech a thing
afore--has offered to take up the fust note I indorsed for Tom, and
which is now due. Otherwise I should be holdin' a auction, I guess. I'm
in bad shape."
"It's too bad, Mr. Day," sighed Nelson. "Is the bank going to press you
for every cent?"
"They ain't feeling so friendly as they did at fust," Uncle Jason
admitted. "At fust it was hoped that something might be recovered from
the stock in the store and the fixtures. But Tom Hotchkiss was thorough;
ye gotter give him credit for that. He'd what they call hypothecated
every stitch, and we couldn't even tetch the money in the till--no,
sir!"
"Too bad," mused Nelson.
"He _was_ a rascal!" exclaimed Frank.
"He was shrewd," admitted Uncle Jason. "An' as nice spoken an'
palaverin' a cuss as ever I see."
"Sh! Jason! don't swear that-a-way--an' you a perfessin' member."
"Wal, no use cryin' over the cream the cat licked off'n the top of the
pan--it's gone," groaned Uncle Jason. "And _he's_ gone. They tell me the
detecatifs the Bankers' Association put on his track can't find hide nor
hair of him up toward Canady.
"An' then," Uncle Jason went on to say, "the bank people hev l'arned a
thing or two that didn't please 'em. Of course, 'tain't none o' their
business, but they'd seen Janice scurryin' around Middletown in that
little car o' hern and they got it fixed in their heads we Days must be
mighty well off."
"Reflected glory, eh?" suggested Nelson.
"Dunno about the glory part," sniffed Uncle Jason. "But I have an idee
they thought I had so much money I could put my hand right in my pocket
and pay these notes of Tom's in a bunch. They are all call notes, of
course. And the bank is tryin' to make the court order me to take 'em up
at once."
"That is not a very neighborly thing to do," said Frank.
"They seem to be afraid if I'm given time I'll try to cover up some o'
my assets. I snum! when a man's in difficulties with one o' these banks
his past repertation for honesty don't amount to shucks--no, sir!"
But the main topic of conversation on this evening was the journey of
Janice and Marty. What were they doing at this very moment? Where were
they on the railroad train? For what point on the Border were they
aiming?
Frank figured out, from the date and sending point of the telegram, the
probable route of the absent ones to the Mexican line. Yet they could
not be sure of even this. Not knowing on what train Janice and Marty
traveled, it was impossible to send an answer to Marty's telegram.
"In all probability, however," Frank explained, "El Paso is their
ultimate destination, or some town of that string along the Rio Grande
touched by the Texas-Pacific. San Cristoval is to be reached more
directly from that locality than in any other way, now that the Mexican
International is out of commission."
"Oh! don't say they'll really get into Mexico, Mr. Bowman!" cried Aunt
'Mira, who had come into the sitting room now. "They won't be let, will
they?"
"Almiry's got the idee," said Mr. Day, "that there's a file of sojers
with fixed bayonets standin' all along the aidge of that Rio Grande
River, keepin' folks from crossin' over."
"You'd find such a guard at El Paso bridge, all right," Frank said. "But
there are plenty of places where the river can be forded, unless raised
by infrequent floods. Those who wish to, go back and forth into Mexican
territory as they please--no doubt of that."
"But Janice and Marty won't know nothing about _that_!" cried Mrs. Day.
"Trust Marty for finding out anything he needs to know," put in Nelson,
yet with a gloomy air.
"You're right there," Frank added. "He isn't tongue-tied."
"Oh, dear!" sighed Aunt 'Mira. "I don't know as shooting Indians or
turning pirate would be much worse. They say them Mexicaners _do_ shoot
people."
"I snum, yes!" ejaculated Mr. Day. "They shot Broxton, didn't they?"
"Oh! you don't s'pose they've got a grudge against the Days, do ye?"
cried the anxious woman. "Maybe they'll act jest as mean as they kin
toward any of our fambly."
"No, I do not believe that, Mrs. Day," Nelson hastened to assure her.
"Janice and Marty will be in no more danger down there than any other
Americans. Only----"
"Only what, Mr. Haley?" asked Aunt 'Mira.
"They shouldn't be there alone. Somebody should be with them," said the
schoolmaster desperately.
"Ain't that the trewth?" cried Aunt 'Mira. "I wish I was with 'em
myself. I read in the _Fireside Fav'rite_ that 'tain't considered a
proper caper, anyway, for a young gal to go anywhere much alone without
a chaperon."
At this moment there came a rap upon the side porch door. Aunt 'Mira
rose to respond, and as she went into the little boxlike hall she failed
to quite close the sitting room door. Therefore the trio left behind
heard plainly the following dialogue:
"Miz' Scattergood! I declare, how flustered you look. Come in--do."
"No wonder I'm flustered. I--I---- No, I won't come no farther than the
hall, Miz' Day. I'll tell ye here."
"Oh! what is it?" gasped Aunt 'Mira. "Nothin's happened to 'Rill?"
"That's jest what it is. Oh, Miz' Day, I'm an ol' fool!"
The fact that Mrs. Scattergood was frankly weeping was what held the
trio of men in the sitting room silent.
"What you done now?" demanded Aunt 'Mira with a grimness that seemed to
point to her special knowledge of her visitor's foolishness on previous
occasions. "I told her the trewth----"
"My soul an' body, Miz' Scattergood, the trewth in your hands is jest as
dangerous as a loaded gun. What did you tell her?"
"'Bout Janice. Hopewell had been keeping it from her--that Janice had
gone away, ye know. Gone away to Mexico, I mean. And when I told her it
scart her so---- I come right over for you, Miz' Day. You're sech a
master-hand when a body's sick."
"Dr. Poole been there?"
"Yes. An' he's afeard----"
"You wait jest a minute," said Mrs. Day. "I'll put on somethin' an' go
with ye. But 'tis my opinion, Sarah Scattergood, that you oughter wear a
muzzle!"
The heavy woman bustled about for her things without saying a word to
her husband and the young men until she was ready for departure.
"I'm going over to Hopewell Drugg's, Jase. You'll hafter git along as
best you kin till I come back. There's bread in the breadbox an' a whole
jar of doughnuts. Be sure an' keep the butt'ry door shut and put out the
cat. There's suet tryin' out in the oven--don't fergit it when ye make
the fire in the mornin'. Maybe I'll be back by mornin'; but Rill's took
a bad turn an' I shell stay if I'm needed. Goo' night, Mr. Haley. Goo'
night, Mr. Bowman."
She went out, following the birdlike Mrs. Scattergood. Soon after Nelson
and Frank strolled down Hillside Avenue together. Frank had been as
silent as the schoolmaster for some time. At last he said:
"When will you start?"
Nelson jumped. His face flushed and then paled and he stared with
darkening eyes into his companion's countenance.
"You--you're a mind reader," he said at last, trying to laugh.
"I only know what _I'd_ do if I were in your shoes," the civil engineer
said. "I know how you feel. I couldn't bear it as well as you have if
my---- Well, if anybody belonging to me as Janice does to you, Haley,
were taking such a trip."
Nelson groaned. "I don't know what to do. The School Committee will
raise a row----"
"Let 'em," Frank said briskly. "You're making it harder for yourself to
go by thinking of your duties here. Cut loose! If you went to the
hospital with a broken leg they'd have to get along without you. This is
a whole lot more important than a broken leg."
"You're right!" groaned Nelson, who felt himself roweled by
circumstances. "I must go."
"When?"
"It will have to be after the bank opens to-morrow."
"You'll go from Middletown, then? I'll see if I can get you
transportation for part of the way to Chicago at least. You're a member
of my family," and Frank grinned.
"That's awfully good of you," responded Nelson.
"And say!"
"What is it?" asked the schoolmaster.
"How are you fixed financially? I can put my hands on a little more
money. You see, I expect it is on some of my money that Marty got away."
"What do you mean?"
"I lent him most of the money I had about me," confessed Frank. "I
didn't know what he wanted it for--the young rascal! But if you need
more than you have handy----"
"Thanks ever so much, Bowman; but I've quite a little saved up now. I
sha'n't need such help as _that_."
They parted on the corner and Nelson went home to Mrs. Beaseley's to
write his resignation from the situation of principal of the Polktown
school. He was very sure that to leave the school board in the lurch in
this way, with less than twenty-four hours' notice, would terminate his
engagement in this school for all time.
"But I must go after Janice--I _must_!" he thought, tossing wakefully in
his bed. "I can wait no longer."