Part 11 (1/2)
”Slow!” repeated Janice.
”I guess you wouldn't talk about bein' slow, Jason Day, if _you_ was arrested,” Aunt 'Mira interjected.
”Ma's right,” said Marty. ”Mebbe they'll put him in the cell under the Town Hall 'fore you kin get downtown.”
”There ain't no sech haste as all that,” stated Uncle Jason. ”What's the matter of you folks?”
He spoke rather testily, and Janice looked at him in surprise. ”Why, Uncle!” she cried, ”what do you mean? It's Nelson Haley who is in trouble.”
”I mean to eat my dinner fust of all,” said her uncle firmly. ”And so had you better, my gal. A man can't be expected to go right away to court an' put up every dollar he's got in the world for bail, until he's thought it over a little, and knows something more about the trouble.”
”Why, Jason!” exploded Aunt 'Mira. ”Of course Mr. Haley is innocent and you will help him.”
”Hi tunket, Dad!” cried Marty. ”You ain't goin' back on Nelson?”
Janice was silent. Her uncle did not look at her, but drew his chair to the table. ”I ain't goin' back on n.o.body,” he said steadily. ”But I can't do nothing to harm my own folks. If, as you say, Marty, them coins is so vallible, his bail'll be consider'ble--for a fac'. If I put up this here property that we got, an'--an' anything happens--not that I say anythin' will happen--where'd we be?”
”What ever do ye mean, Jason Day?” demanded his wife. ”That Nelson Haley would run away?”
”Ahem! We don't know how strongly the young man's been tempted,” said Mr. Day doggedly.
”Uncle!” cried Janice, aghast.
”Dad!” exclaimed Marty.
”Jase Day! For the land's sake!” concluded Aunt 'Mira.
”Sit down and eat your dinner, Janice,” said Uncle Jason a second time, ignoring his wife and son. ”Remember, I got a duty to perform to your father as well as to you. What would Broxton Day do in this case?”
”I--I don't know, Uncle Jason,” Janice said faintly.
”Fust of all, he wouldn't let you git mixed up in nothin' that would make the neighbors talk about ye,” Mr. Day said promptly. ”Now, whether Nelson Haley is innercent or guilty, there is bound ter be slathers of talk about this thing and about ev'rybody connected with it.”
”He is not guilty, Uncle,” said Janice, quietly.
”That's my opinion, too,” said Mr. Day, bluntly. ”But I want the pertic'lars, jest the same. I want to know all about it. Where there's so much smoke there must be some fire.”
”Not allus, Dad,” growled Marty, in disgust. ”Smoke comes from an oak-ball, but there ain't no fire.”
”You air a smart young man,” returned his father, coolly. ”You'll grow up to be the town smartie, like Walky Dexter, I shouldn't wonder.
Nelson must ha' done somethin' to put himself in bad in this thing, and I want to know what it is he done.”
”He went into the schoolhouse,” grumbled Marty.
”Howsomever,” pursued Mr. Day, ”if they shut Nelson Haley up on this charge and he ain't guilty, we who know him best will git together and bail him out, if that seems best.”
”'If that seems best!'” repeated Aunt 'Mira. ”Jason Day! I'm glad the Lord didn't make me such a moderate critter as you be.”
”You're a great friend of Nelse Haley--I don't think!” muttered Marty.
But Janice said nothing more. That Uncle Jason did not rush to Nelson's relief as she would have done had it been in her power, was not so strange. Janice was a singularly just girl.