The Merry Anne 32
"Can I smoke? Well, I should say I can. You just watch me." He accepted
a cigar, his first, and lighted it. "Don't let on to Pa, will you? He'd
give me--" Unable to call up a strong enough word, the boy concluded
with a grin.
"That's all right. We know how it is ourselves. Your father has enough
to worry him just about now, anyhow. Didn't he have but the one suit of
clothes?"
"Well, there was his old everyday suit, but that got tore so bad Ma said
she couldn't mend it, and there wasn't only his Sunday suit and his work
clothes left."
"You don't mean that he had to fight with those fellows?"
"Oh, no,--that was a long time ago. Say, this cigar is the real thing."
"It ought to be good. It's a fifteen-cent-straight."
"_You_ don't say so!"
"I 'll tell you one thing, Alex."
"My name's Axel."
"I 'll tell you one thing. Your father has made a bad mistake in allowing
himself to get mixed up with these people. He is with the wrong crowd.
I'm the only one that could help him out."
The boy began to be frightened. "Oh, he ain't mixed up in it!"
"He isn't?"
"No. He never seen 'em before."
"What does he want to act this way for, then?"
"Well, you see--"
"Now look here, my boy. The sooner we understand each other, the better.
Your father has got himself into a dangerous situation. He can't deceive
me. I know all about it. Does he think he could keep me in here any
longer than I want to stay by locking the door? I'm half minded to
arrest him for this. He can't do that sort o' thing to me!"
Axel was downright frightened now. He held his cigar so long that it
went out. Wilson struck a match, and lighted it for him.
"I suppose you would like me to believe that he was forced to give up
his clothes?"
"Oh, he was! The fellow with the black hair--"
"McGlory?"
"Seems to me they called him Joe."
"That's the same man. Go on."
"Why, he pulled a gun, and marched Pa out here to the barn. Ma ran
upstairs crying. And the lady, she was crying, too. And the dark fellow,
he made the lady climb up where you was, on the hay--"
"Yes, I know," Beveridge interrupted, indicating the dress.
"And then he held the gun while Pa took off his Sunday suit that he'd
put on because he thought they was going to be visitors, and he threw it
up to the lady, and she put it on. One of the suspenders was busted, and
she didn't know how it worked, and she cried, and then Pa had to holler
up how he'd fixed it with a string and you twisted the string around
twice and then tied it. And then the dark fellow, he made me run in and
get Pa his overhauls."
"So they changed clothes right here, eh?"
"Yes, and the lady cried, and when she'd got all dressed in Pa's
clothes, why, she just said she wouldn't come down. And Joe, he said she
would, or he'd know the reason why. Then the others laughed some--"
"_The others!_"
"Yes, and they--"
"Hold on! How many were there in this party?"
"Why, three or four, counting in the lady."
"Three or four! Don't you know?"
"Well, you see, I didn't think about counting 'em then. What was I
saying?"
"You said the others laughed."
"Oh, yes. Not very much, you know,--just a little. Then the boss, he
said--"
"What sort of a looking man was this boss?"
"I dunno."
"Didn't you see him?"
"Oh, well, I--"
"What was it he said this time?"
"Oh,--he said something to Joe about not getting excited. I guess he
thought he was kind o' mean to the lady. Anyhow, she come down after a
little and kind o' stood around behind things. She was frightened some,
I guess. And then they all went off."
"Which way?"
"I dunno. They told us we hadn't better watch 'em, and so I thought
maybe I wouldn't."
"Was that the last you saw of them?"
"Well--not quite."
"Not quite! What else?"
"Before they'd gone very far, the boss came back."
"Oh, he did?"
"And he told Pa he guessed Joe was a little excited, and they hadn't
meant to be hard on him. And so he gave Pa a little money for his
trouble."
"I thought you said your father wasn't mixed up with them."
"He ain't. Not a bit."
"But you say he took their money?"
"What else could he do? They ain't the sort o' men you'd want to argue
with."
"There is something in that. But why did he try to lock us in here?"
"I dunno."
"Oh, you don't."
"No, but--I 'll tell you. Pa's rattled."
"I shouldn't wonder."
"He come up to my room just after he'd been out here with you, and
says if I ever said a word about it, it would land the whole family in
state's prison. That ain't so, is it?"
"Well, I'm not prepared to say."
The cigar was out again. "Oh, say, now, it wasn't his fault. He didn't
do nothing but what they made him do."
"Of course, the fact that he helped them under compulsion might be
considered in a court of law, but I'm not prepared to say that it
mightn't go hard with you all. I 'll do what I can to get you out of it,
but it's a bad scrape. What direction is Hewittson from here?"
"Off that way. There's a road 'most all the way."
"That's first-rate. I want you to go with us."
"When?"
"Now."
"Oh, Pa--he wouldn't let me--"
"But I tell you to come."
"Would it help us any in getting off?"
"I might be able to make it easier if you really give me valuable
assistance."
"We 'll have to get away pretty quiet."
"Very well." Beveridge was rolling up the blue dress into a small
bundle. "All ready, Bert--Smiley?"
"All right here."
"Put out your light, Axel."
They stepped cautiously outside, and the boy locked the door behind
them. "Hold on," he whispered; "don't go around that way. Pa ain't
asleep, never in the world!"
"Which way shall we go?"
"Here--after me--through the cow-yard." They slipped around behind the
barn, made a short detour through the edge of the forest, and reached
the road beyond the house.
"Does this road run both ways, Axel?" Beveridge asked.
"Yes, from Hewittson to Ramsey."
"Do you hear that, Smiley? We must have been within a few hundred yards
of it most of the way."
"Never mind, we 'll make better time now, anyhow."
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