AN UNWELCOME CALLER
With rare wisdom Mike now gave an abrupt turn to the conversation.
Lowering his voice to a confidential tone, he asked:
"Does Mrs. McCaffry know anything of this?"
"If so, she hasn't given me any reason to suspect it," replied Noxon,
brightening up and seizing the straw held out to him. "I told her I had
met with an accident, and neither she nor her husband asked a question.
Their big hearts had no room for any feeling other than of pity for the
one who is not deserving of a particle of it."
"She told me her husband works in Beartown. He wint there airly this
morning; he'll hear of the throuble at the post office and the beefeater,
as ye call him, will let everybody know he winged the robber as he was
running off. Did ye spake any caution to the man before he lift this
morning?"
"By good luck I thought of that. I asked him to make no mention of my
being at his house and he promised me he would not."
"Arrah, now, but that's good, as me dad says whin he tips up the jug. All
that ye have to do is to sit here and let Mrs. McCaffry nurse that game
leg till ye're able to thravel."
"Ah, if that was _all_! But I have a father and mother whose hearts I am
breaking. I have two younger brothers and a sweet sister. What of
_them_!" demanded Noxon almost fiercely.
"Ye have read the blissed story of the Prodigal Son, haven't ye?"
"I am a thousandfold worse than that poor devil, who was simply foolish."
"Do yer dad and mither know where ye are?"
"No; the one decent thing I did when I turned rascal was to change my
name. Orestes Noxon is a _nom de plume_."
"I don't know the fellow, but that shows, me bye, ye ain't such a big
fool as ye look. I'm beginning to have hope for ye."
A strange impulse came to Mike. It was to sing in a low, inexpressibly
sweet voice a single stanza of a familiar hymn, just loud enough for the
one auditor to hear. But he restrained himself, fearing the effect upon
him. The "fountains of the deep" were already broken up, and the result
might be regrettable. At that moment a heavy tread sounded on the little
steps outside, the door was pushed inward, and the bulky form of the
red-faced Mrs. McCaffry filled the whole space. She now stepped awkwardly
and ponderously within.
"I begs that ye'll oxcoose me for not coming in wid this blarney and
inthrodoocing ye to aich ither. Have ye becoom acquainted?"
"It was an oversight which no Irish leddy should be guilty of," gravely
replied Mike, "espicially whin the same is the fourth cousin of me own
mither. But ye have been away from the owld counthry so long that ye have
forgot a good deal, Aunt Maggie."
"I haven't furgot to resint the insult of being accused of relationship
wid the family of a spalpeen that is proud of the belaif. Whin Tam coomes
home to-night I'll explain the insult to him and lave ye two to sittle
the same."
"I'm thankful ye give me due notice, Aunt Maggie, so that I'll have time
to slip outside and climb a tree. Which reminds me to ask how fur it is
to Beartown."
"It's a good half mile from our home, and nigh about the same distance
back. Ye can figger out the rist for yersilf. Now, me darlint," said she,
coming to Noxon's chair and bending over with her broad face radiating
sympathy, "it's toime I had a look at that leg, which would be a big
ornamint if bestowed on the spalpeen wid the freckles and rid hair."
"I don't think it can need any attention," said Noxon, pleased to listen
to the sparring of the two; "but you are the doctor."
Her hands were big and red, but no professional nurse could have handled
a patient with more gentle deftness. The linen was unwound, and Mike for
the first time inspected the wound inflicted by Gerald Buxton with his
shotgun. Little as the lad knew of such things, he saw the hurt was not
serious. With the removal of the leaden pellets went the cause of
irritation. The stumble in the woods had aggravated the wound
temporarily, but a rest for even a day would render it safe for the young
man to use the leg.
When the bandage had been repinned in place, Noxon felt that he was being
coddled more than was necessary. Dropping his foot to the floor, he asked
impatiently:
"What's the sense of my playing baby? I can walk as well as ever. All I
need is an ordinary cane. I think I'll stay with you till after dinner,
Aunt Maggie--I suppose I may call you that--and then I'll vamose the
ranch."
The woman stared wonderingly at Mike.
"Do ye know what he maanes by thim words? His mind I fear is afther
wandering."
"He wishes to say that ye and Tam have used him so well that he will take
delight in spinding siveral days wid ye."
"Ah, now his mind isn't afther wandering when he do spake that way. All
roight, me cherub, ye'll stay where you be till I give you liberty to
lave. Do ye mind that?"
And she shook her stubby finger in his face.
"Ah, what a tyrant you are, Aunt Maggie!"
"Phwat's that?" she demanded, straightening up. "Are ye calling me out of
me name?"
"You are the sweetest, kindest, most motherly woman and best wife in the
State of Maine."
She sprang to her feet and lumbered to the door.
"I haven't finished hanging me duds; whin I have I'll come back and wipe
out the insoolt ye have put upon me."
Noxon looked at Mike, who for the first time heard him laugh with real
jollity in his voice.
"What a big heart! How unutterably ashamed she makes me feel! What can I
weigh in the balance against her? She is pure gold and I am base dross."
"Don't forgit to include mesilf wid the dross, me bye. Ye won't be able
to get away from this here place for a few days, I guess."
"Glad should I be if I could believe it safe to stay here."
"And why not?"
"Her husband has already heard all about last night's business."
"He promised ye to say nothing."
"When he did that, he had no suspicion of who I am. He will know that I
was one of the gang and his disposition will be far different when he
comes home to-night. In fact, he is likely to feel freed of any promise
he made me."
"Ye don't know a real Irishman. I can't say how he will be disposed, but
I know he'll kaap that pledge. Have no fear of that."
Noxon sitting back in his chair and apparently without any thought of his
injured leg, pondered earnestly over the situation.
"I am disposed to believe as you do, but that isn't my only danger."
"Phwat have ye in mind now?"
"There will be lots of people scouring the country for the three persons
who were in this business. We are so near Beartown that some of them are
likely to call here before the day is over."
"This house stands well back from the road wid only a path betwaan the
two. Why should anyone sarch here fur ye?"
"And why should they not? I shouldn't dare to stay here while this is
going on. However, you have shown such goodwill toward me, I am willing
to compromise. I'll stay till to-night and then must make a change of
base."
"Whither will ye go?"
"I haven't thought of that. My aim will be simply to get out of the zone
of danger, and what follows must depend upon circumstances."
"Noxy, will ye answer me one question?"
"I will."
[Illustration: "GIVE ME YOUR HAND ON THAT."]
"When ye lave here will ye be going back to Kit Woodford and Graff
Miller?"
The eyes of the young man flashed and, with an earnestness that seemed
deadly in its intensity, he said hoarsely:
"No! never! I'll die first!"
"Give me yer hand on that!"
It seemed as if the grip would crush the clasping fingers. The pressure
continued for nearly a minute, while the two looked fixedly into each
other's eyes. The pledge had been made and into each heart stole the
warm, irradiating glow that God gives to all the children of men when
they break loose from evil and cling to that which is good.
And then the young man gave Mike his confidence. Aunt Maggie, with a tact
that was creditable to her, left them together most of the forenoon and
their talk was comparatively free from interruption.
As Noxon had hinted, he was the eldest son of parents who were in
prosperous circumstances. He did not give their name nor place of
residence, for it was unnecessary, but he admitted he had been wayward
from early boyhood. He longed for wild adventure, and caused his family
grief and anguish by his persistent wrongdoing. Finally, when he had
matriculated at Yale, he ran away from home, taking what funds he could
steal and fully resolved upon a life of sin.
"If there were pirates to-day, as there used to be, I should have striven
to become the chief of a crew that flew the black flag, but I had to give
that up. Some humorist has said that when a man starts to go to the devil
he finds everything greased. So it proved with me. I fell in with Graff
Miller, who, though he is about my age, has been a burglar for several
years. I never suspected it until he found I was hunting for such a
companion, when he told me of his partnership with Kit Woodford. In my
vanity, I had shown how easy it was for me to open one of the
old-fashioned combination safes, by detecting the working of the
mechanism inside. This made me invaluable to them, and they proposed that
I should become the third member of the gang. I jumped at the chance.
Since Miller told me they used aliases instead of their right names, I
took the one by which you know me.
"Their plan was to visit different points in the south of Maine, where
there had been a number of post office robberies, and use me to open the
safes. I was delighted with the scheme, and we started in a few weeks
ago. The Beartown post office was the third visited----"
Just then a knock sounded on the door. Both were startled and Mike
called:
"Come in!"
The door was pushed inward and Stockham Calvert entered the room.
"Holy smoke!" exclaimed Mike, "as Father Malone said when he saw his
church burning."