Turning the Tables
When Anthony Graham left his home and started walking slowly through the
woods he had absolutely no definite intention of any kind in his mind. He
was bored and a little ashamed of harassing his sister. For if Anthony
had confessed the truth to himself down in his heart he was really both
glad and proud of what Nan was trying to do and had felt secretly more
ashamed of himself since she began her efforts. For the boy had a better
mind than his sister and had more inheritances from his father's family.
His idleness and weakness came more from his unfortunate environment and
from the fact that nothing had as yet awakened any ambition or better
feeling in him. He had not told Nan what he wanted with the money asked
of her, but for the past ten days had been thinking that if only he could
get away somewhere out of Woodford, where no one knew anything of him or
his family, and have a fair start, why he too might amount to something
in the future so that Nan need not be shamed by him.
He walked for half a mile or so and then sitting down on a log began to
whittle. There wasn't any use trying to clear out without money to buy
food and he did not wish to remain anywhere in the immediate
neighborhood. It had occurred to Anthony in the past week that he might
work and earn sufficient money for his escape, but having applied at
three or four places and been refused, his old shiftlessness and lack of
will power laid fresh hold on him so that he gave up the effort. Now, as
he sat at his usual occupation of killing time, he tried to banish all
thought and all desire.
He intended waiting until it was time to walk back to the Sunrise cabin
with Nan and then go into the village and find his equally idle friends.
Suddenly Polly's laugh sounded and then Betty's, as though in response to
something her companion had said. The girls were driving along the road
toward home and a little farther on would come within a dozen yards of
the spot where Anthony was seated, concealed from view of the road by the
grouping of trees.
The boy started, at first with surprise. The winter woods had seemed so
quiet and so lonely, not even a teamster had passed in all the time of
his musing. And then a curiosity seized hold on him to see his sister's
much talked of friends without being seen by them. Of course he had
probably passed both Betty and Polly on the streets of Woodford a good
many times and that morning had caught a distant glimpse of them from the
window, but he did not know one girl from the other, and from his
sister's description he might now be able to tell. Betty was the
beautiful one, and Polly, well Nan no more than other people had ever
been able to decide whether Polly was beautiful or whether she was so
fascinating that you had to think so while she was talking to you. When
she was quiet her face was apt to be pale and a little too thin.
Anthony found a hiding place behind a tree bordering the road, until the
sound of the sleigh bells came nearer and nearer, and Fire Star made her
appearance. Then an impulse stronger and more dangerous than curiosity
swept over him. For the first time since leaving his sister in the
kitchen he remembered Nan's information. The two girls would be carrying
back to their cabin a box containing Betty's jewelry. How easy to
frighten them and make them surrender the box. Then he could get away
from this neighborhood he hated and have a chance at a new life. He would
do the girls no harm and only take enough money to cover his actual
needs. The rest Betty could have back again. Anthony did not believe that
either Betty or Polly knew him on sight. Nevertheless, though he had
little time for reflection, with a quick movement he pulled his ragged
cap down well over his forehead and eyes, turned up his coat collar and
stooping picked up from the ground a heavy stick which was almost a log
in size.
An instant later Fire Star's bridle was seized with an ugly jerk and the
pony brought to a standstill.
As Betty was driving, the tin box was being held in Polly's lap so that
the highwayman's first words were addressed to her.
"Turn over that box to me," he demanded, trying to make his voice sound
older and more threatening than usual.
However, both girls were so entirely overcome by amazement at the
unexpected appearance of a robber in their peaceful New Hampshire woods,
that for a moment they could only stare. The next instant Polly with a
quick flare of her Irish temper, leaned over and seizing hold of Betty's
almost toy whip, slashed it in the face of the intruder. "Get out of the
way," she cried angrily. "I am sure you can't know what you are doing."
But almost in the same instant the whip was torn out of her hand and
dropped on the ground. When Betty attempted to rush Fire Star forward the
pony's bridle was caught the second time.
"If you don't do what I say I'll break your pony's back with this stick,"
the boy muttered, and at this Betty winced, making no further effort to
drive on. Fire Star had been her pony since she was a small girl and the
stick the young fellow held was large enough to do her serious hurt, also
his manner was sufficiently ugly to indicate that he meant what he said.
Polly was by this time so angry that she could scarcely think, but,
fortunately, Betty, after the first moment of surprise and natural fear,
had held herself well in hand.
Now she looked so steadfastly at the figure at her pony's head that the
young man turned his face away.
"You are Nan Graham's brother," Betty remarked quietly, "and I hope poor
Nan may never hear what you are trying to do. You may not believe I have
ever seen you before, but I have. Then as we have told only Nan the
reason for our errand to town only she could have told you. I am quite
sure though that she did not mean to betray us."
Betty said this so loyally and in such an unafraid, yet accusing voice,
that Anthony Graham wished himself ten thousand miles from the place
where he stood and as many leagues from the deed he was doing. However,
since he had already disgraced both his sister and himself there was all
the more reason why he should go through with this cowardly business and
get himself away if he possibly could.
"No matter who I am, you will hand that box over just the same and be
quick about it," he commanded with another threatening wave of his stick.
"We will do no such thing but will have you arrested as a thief," Polly
announced defiantly, wishing with all her heart, in spite of her Camp
Fire training, that the despised Billy Webster might appear at this
moment driving one of his father's wagons either to or away from town. At
other times she might look down upon Billy for having only a farmer's
ideals, just now, however, the splendid strength that his outdoor life
must have given him would have been peculiarly desirable.
However, to Polly's surprise and chagrin, Betty, whom she had always
considered braver than herself, showed signs of weakening.
"I will give you the key to my box if you will let me have some papers
that are inside it which can be of no value to you."
Betty said this with a nervous laugh, her face suddenly turning pale when
it had formerly been flushed. Then she set her lips to keep them from
trembling. Without waiting for an answer she afterwards leaned forward
and began searching under the carriage rug on the bottom of her sleigh
for the purse bag in which Polly remembered the key to have been
concealed.
Anthony might at this instant have seized the tin box from Polly and been
off with it before Betty could have driven Fire Star on. But he was
willing enough to have the key to Betty's box and even to leave her
papers behind some tree if she so much desired them. He had never meant
to take all her foolish trinkets which were of no value to any one except
a girl. So for a brief moment Anthony did not look toward either Betty or
Polly but kept his eyes fastened on the pony's head. In that same moment,
hearing a sudden whirr through the air, before he was able to move the
boy found himself securely caught by a rope and his arms drawn tight to
his sides so that his stick dropped with a clatter on the frozen ground.
While Betty Ashton with another rapid movement wound the other end of her
rope about the cross bar of her sleigh catching it with a clove hitch and
then, with a little gasp of astonishment at her own prowess, dropped back
into her seat, only faintly hearing Polly's cry of delighted amazement.
Not for nothing had Betty Ashton been learning to acquire honors in camp
craft for the past six months, practicing different kinds of knot tying
with the other girls in friendly rivalry hour after hour. In the bottom
of her sleigh along with the purse bag which really did contain her key,
Betty had remembered that they had fifty feet of new clothes line being
taken back to the cabin. In the moment of fumbling under the rug she had
quickly tied the much practiced slip noose and then had thrown it with
better skill than she could ever repeat.
Polly gave a characteristic laugh to relieve the tension of the
situation. "We have caught the enemy and he is ours now, Betty, dear, but
whatever are we going to do with him?"
But Betty had gathered up her reins and was quietly urging Fire Star
ahead.
So there was nothing for their prisoner to do but to run along by the
side of the sleigh. By superior strength the young man could have jerked
away from Betty's and Polly's hold, but not from the sleigh itself. Now
the more he pulled on the clothes line the tighter it bound him. Besides
it was difficult to do even this when all his strength was required
keeping up with the pony's rapid gait.
"I have often wondered how it would feel to be a conqueror driving
through the streets of Rome with one's prisoners lashed to their chariot
wheels and this is deliciously like it," Polly sighed before her
companion had once spoken, enjoying with all her vivid imagination the
retribution that had overtaken the evildoer.
But Betty's expression was strangely grave and every now and then she
kept glancing aside at the figure running along beside them. For, except
for a first oath and a few violent threats, the young man seemed to own
himself beaten and had since said nothing. There was a horrible droop
instead to his head and shoulders, and indeed to his whole figure, and he
looked so ashamed that it made Betty sick to look at him, Polly did not
seem to have noticed but Betty felt that she had never seen just such an
expression before.
"Polly," she whispered softly, "do you think we ought to drive up to the
cabin taking this fellow with us like this? Of course we can turn around
and go back to town and even drive up to the jail with him but that is
just as bad. After all, he is poor little Nan's brother, and if we do the
child can never hold up her head again! I keep imagining how I should
feel if I were to be taken prisoner and carried before a lot of strange
boys to act as my judges." Then Betty shuddered as though her vision were
real, but Polly only laughed so scornfully that the boy, overhearing her,
cringed.
"It is an absurd supposition, Betty, and I can't well imagine your
putting yourself in this dreadful fellow's place. You can hardly expect
me to conceive of you, even in these advanced female days, suddenly
stopping a number of young men and demanding their pocketbooks."
Notwithstanding Betty appeared deaf to her beloved Polly's teasing, for
instead of answering she slowed her pony down.
"Don't you think we owe anything to Nan as a member of our Camp Fire
circle?" she asked. "It seems to me that allegiance is one of the first
things boys learn and it is because we girls don't feel it toward one
another that women have the harder time."
Instantly Polly sobered. "That is true, Princess," she agreed, "and I am
desperately sorry for Nan and would spare her if we could, but do you
think it right to let an intended thief go free? Besides, if we do cut
him loose how do we know he will not seize your box away from us?"
"Because I should drive up almost to the Webster farm, where we could be
heard if we called for help before letting him go. And anyhow even if we
don't let him go free I should like to talk to him."
Polly shook her head. "Don't try reformation at the eleventh hour, I
don't believe in it," she declared.
Notwithstanding this Betty drove on until within hailing distance of the
Webster farm house and then, without asking further advice from Polly,
calmly brought her pony to a standstill.
The young fellow made no effort to come nearer the sleigh or even to tear
himself away, but kept gazing in astonishment at Betty as she dismounted
and walked fearlessly up to him.
"What made you want to take my jewelry, Anthony?" she inquired. "I know
your name because I have heard Nan speak so often of you. I wonder if you
have ever tried to steal anything before?" She said this apparently to
herself since the boy did not seem inclined to answer. And then Betty
shook her lovely head softly. "I wonder what it feels like to want to
steal?" she questioned. "It must be some very dreadful reason that tempts
one. You see I have never been poor myself or known what it was to want
terribly anything I could not have." And then very swiftly and without
allowing time for Polly to stop her, Betty drew out her Camp Fire knife
and cut the rope that bound the young fellow's arms to his sides. "I
don't know whether it is right or wrong for me to do this," she
confessed, "but for Nan's sake I cannot bear to hold you a prisoner."
Then both to her surprise and Polly's, Anthony made no movement and at
the same instant the girls to their embarrassment saw that he was crying.
Not weeping like some girls to whom tears come easily, but shaken by dry
painful sobs, as though his shame and self-abasement were too great to be
borne.
"It was for Nan's sake that I wanted to get away," he confessed finally,
pulling himself together by a tremendous effort. "I thought maybe if I
could get a chance like she is having, somewhere away from here where no
one knew me, that I might be able to do something for myself. It was
nearly killing me thinking I had ruined everything for her."
"So you were intending to steal in order to begin leading a better life,"
Betty repeated thoughtfully, and the young man flashed an angry look at
her. But she was not trying to be sarcastic and the expression on her
face at that moment he never afterwards forgot.
"I should hate you to stop trying to make things right for yourself and
Nan because you began the wrong way," she continued after a little
thoughtful pause. Then with a blush and an humble look very
characteristic of Betty when wishing to be allowed to do another person a
favor, she picked up her purse bag from the bottom of the sleigh and
slipping her hand in it drew out a crumpled bill.
"Won't you let me lend you the money for your chance?" she asked, as
though speaking to a friend and utterly ignoring the ugly scene that had
just passed. "I haven't much money with me, so you must not mind. You can
pay it back to me when you get to the new place and have good luck."
And then, before the dazed boy had time to understand what she was trying
to do, Betty had thrust ten dollars into his partially clenched hand and
jumping back into her sleigh had driven rapidly away. Fire Star was
rather bored with so much unnecessary delay on his journey home and
wanted to get back to shelter.
A little later Billy Webster, who had been cutting down trees in a
portion of his father's woods, took off his fur cap to wave to the girls
just as Polly in her dramatic fashion dropped down on one knee in their
sleigh attempting to kiss Betty's hand.
"Betty dear, if ever I saw you do a Princess-like act in a Princess-like
fashion it was when you gave that abominable boy that money," she said
admiringly. "It is my opinion that either he is absolutely no good or
else he will reform from this moment and be your faithful knight to the
end of the chapter."
But Betty only smiled a little uncertainly. "Perhaps it wasn't honest of
me, Polly, to be giving away money when I owe so much to other people."
And then, touching the tin box in her friend's lap, she said half joking
and half serious, "but since I am having to give up my kingdom I am glad
to be able to help some one else to come into theirs."