Part 26 (1/2)
”I'll find something to do, I fancy. But whether or no, it shall not be said of me that I was afraid to face this business. I won't run away from it.”
Janice squeezed his hand privately in approval. She had been afraid that he might wish to flee. And who could blame him? During this week of trial, however, Nelson Haley had recovered his self-control, and had deliberately made up his mind to the manly course.
Nevertheless, he did not appear in his accustomed place in church on the morrow. It was not possible for him to walk boldly up the church aisle among the people who doubted his honesty, or would sneer at him, either openly or behind his back. And it was known all over the town by church time that Sunday that he had been arrested, bailed, and had asked the school committee for a vacation of indefinite length and without pay, and that this had been granted.
Miss Pearly Breeze and her contingent of trends were not happy for long. The School Committee knew that a return to old methods in school matters would never satisfy Polktown again.
They telegraphed the State Superintendent of Schools and a proper and capable subst.i.tute for Mr. Haley was expected to arrive on Monday.
It was on Monday morning, too, that Nelson's partisans and the enemy came to open warfare. That is, the junior portion of the community began belligerent action.
Janice was rather belated that morning in starting for Middletown in the Kremlin car. Marty jumped on the running board with his school books in a strap, to ride down the hill to the corner of School Street.
Just as they came in sight of Polktown's handsome brick schoolhouse, there was Nelson Haley briskly approaching.
He had given up his key to the committee on Sat.u.r.day night; but there were books and private papers in his desk that he desired to remove before his successor arrived. The front door was locked and he had to wait for Benny Thread to hobble up from the bas.e.m.e.nt to open it.
This delay brought every woman on the block to her front windows. Some peeped from behind the blinds; some boldly came out on their ”stoops”
to eye the unfortunate schoolmaster askance. A group of boys were gathered on the corner within plain earshot of the schoolmaster. As Janice turned the car carefully into School Street Sim Howell, one of these young loungers, uttered a loud bray.
”What d'ye s'pose he's after now?” he then demanded of n.o.body in particular, but loud enough for all the neighbors to hear. ”S'pose he thinks there's any more money in there ter steal?”
”Stop, Janice!” yelped Marty. ”I knew I'd got ter do it. That feller's been spoilin' for it for a week! Lemme down, I say!”
He did not wait for his cousin to obey his command. Before she could stop the car he took a flying leap from the running-board of the automobile. His books flew one way, his cap another; and with a wild shout of rage, Marty fell upon Sim Howell!
CHAPTER XVII
THE OPENING OF THE CAMPAIGN
Janice ran the car on for half a block before she stopped. She looked back. She had never approved of fisticuffs--and Marty was p.r.o.ne to such disgraceful activities. Nevertheless, when she saw Sim Howell's blood-besmeared countenance, his wide-open mouth, his clumsy fists pawing the air almost blindly, something primal--instinctive--made her heart leap in her bosom.
She delighted in Marty's clean blows, in his quick ”duck” and ”side-step;” and when her cousin's freckled fist impinged upon the fatuous countenance of Sim Howell, Janice Day uttered an unholy gasp of delight.
She saw Nelson striding to separate the combatants. She hoped he would not be harsh with Marty.
Then, seeing the neighbors gathering, she pressed the starter b.u.t.ton and the Kremlin glided on again. The tall young schoolmaster was between the two boys, holding each off at arm's length, when Janice wheeled around the far corner and gave a last glance at the field of combat.
”I am getting to be a wicked, wicked girl!” she accused herself, when she was well out of town and wheeling cheerfully over the Lower Road toward Middletown. ”I have just longed to see that Simeon Howell properly punished ever since I caught him that day mocking Jim Narnay.
And _that_ arises from the influence of Lem Parraday's bar. Oh, dear me! _I_ am affected by the general epidemic, I believe.
”If the Inn did not sell liquor, in all human probability, Narnay would not have been drunk that day; at least, not where I could see him. And so Sim and those other young rascals would not have chased and mocked him. I would not have felt so angry with Sim--Dear me! everything dovetails together, Nelson's trouble and all. I wonder if, after all, the selling of liquor at the Inn isn't at the bottom of Nelson's trouble.
”It sounds foolish--or at least, far-fetched. But it may be so.
Perhaps the person who stole those coins was inspired to do the wicked deed because he was under the influence of liquor. And, of course, the Lake View Inn was the nearest place where liquor was to be bought.
”Dear me! Am I foolish? Who knows?” Janice concluded, with a sigh.