Part 22 (1/2)
Mrs. Smith bent confidentially toward him, and laid one hand on the copy of Jarby's, which he had placed across his knees. In quick, crowding words she bade him hope--which wasn't necessary--and told him of the coming of Guthrie and Skinner, and of their demands. She laid before him all she knew of the affair of the fire-extinguishers, of the horror of the threatened legal attack on Miss Sally, and the disgrace that would overwhelm her should T. J. Jones publish an article mentioning her name.
Eliph' Hewlitt must prevent the publication of the article; he must save Miss Sally.
The book agent was willing. As the appeal was spoken his eyes brightened and the book agent instinct--the instinct that knows no defeat, but will talk a book into any man's library, or die in the attempt--flowed full and free through his soul. Mrs. Smith saw him take fire, and she ventured the question she had been leading up to.
”Now, Mr. Hewlitt,” she said, ”I have sent for Mr. Jones, and I will do what I can to persuade him not to publish the article. I depend on you to do what you can in that, too, but I am going to trespa.s.s on your good nature in another thing also. It is something I know Miss Sally would never allow me to ask, and I myself would not ask it but that I happen to be waiting for a check from my publisher, and am quite out of funds at the moment. I am going to ask you to lend me sixty dollars! Not for myself, but to me. I believe Miss Sally would be willing to borrow it of me, and I know, dear Mr. Hewlitt, you will be willing to lend it to me.”
Eliph' coughed softly behind his hand.
”Gladly!” he said. ”Gladly any amount. I have quite a little money laid away, quite a little; some thousands, in fact; I might be called a wealthy man--in Kilo. And it would be a pleasure, a real pleasure, to spend all for Miss Sally. She is a fine woman, Mrs. Smith. I admire her.”
”I knew I could depend on YOU,” said Mrs. Smith, putting her white hand on his scarcely less white one.
”But I can appreciate Miss Sally's-ah-maidenly dislike, in fact, her quite proper dislike of a loan from-ah-one who aspires---- In fact,” he said, boldly breaking away from all attempt to speak bookishly, ”from me. She don't want to borrow from me, and it would be the same thing if you borrowed for her from me. The same thing. I am courting Miss Sally, and such a loan would be irregular. There is nothing, Mrs. Smith, in the chapter on 'Courts.h.i.+p--How to Win the Affections,' et cetery, about loaning money to the lady. It would derange the directions given in this book, which is----”
”I don't want to hear about the book,” said Mrs. Smith with annoyance.
”I know all about the book. So you refuse to lend me sixty dollars? You, like these other men, are willing to desert Miss Sally at a time like this?”
”No,” said the book agent. ”Not desert. Rescue. Rescue her from the hands of these--these men. Jarby's Encyclopedia of Knowledge and Compendium of Literature, Science and Art should be in every home, in every store, in every office. To be without it is to be like a rudderless air s.h.i.+p tossed by the waves of the relentless ocean. It contains a fact for every day in the year, for every moment of life, any one of which is worth the price of the book many times over. This book,”
he said--and then his eyes, which had been gazing far into the sky over Miss Sally's house, returned to the eyes of Mrs. Smith--”I am going to sell Mr. Skinner a copy of this book.”
In spite of her disappointment in him, Mrs. Smith, the auth.o.r.ess, felt a thrill of pleasure in the discovery of such an admirable type--a book agent who could see in the midst of love, courts.h.i.+p, conspiracy and trouble only his book and a chance to sell it. But she was deeply disappointed.
”Then you desert Miss Sally,” she repeated sadly.
”Mrs. Smith.” Said Eliph', reaching into his pocket and laying a handful of thick greasy manila envelopes in her lap, ”these are my bank books. Six, containing the sum of seventeen thousand four hundred and eighty-two dollars and forty-six cents, and all this I lay at Miss Sally's feet if I do not succeed in selling a copy of Jarby's Encyclopedia this afternoon. If sold, the matter is settled.”
When Eliph' reached the business part of Main Street he turned into Skinner's butcher shop and halted at the counter. The butcher was at work in the back room, and he put his head out and, seeing who had called, shook it.
”No books,” he said shortly. ”I never buy books. I didn't buy them Sir Walter Scotts even. No books.”
Eliph' coughed his deprecatory little cough and walked behind the counter and to the door of the back room.
”So I understood,” he said. ”I heard at Franklin that you didn't buy books; it was mentioned to me that I would be wasting my time in calling on you. They said you was known all over the State as not buying books, and many admired your self-restraint in not buying. They said it was wonderful. That's why I never called on you to buy. But I didn't come to sell you a book. I wanted to ask if you knew William Rossiter?”
”William Rossiter?” asked Skinner, perplexed, coming out of the back room. ”Who's William Rossiter?”
Eliph' laid his book on the chopping block.
”William Rossiter, agent,” he said. ”He was here once. He was the man that stopped with Miss Sally Briggs a while. I thought maybe you knew him. He's dead. I thought maybe you'd be interested to know it.”
A light dawned on the butcher. William Rossiter must have been the man that left the lung-testers at Miss Sally's.
”I'm glad he's dead,” he said. ”I don't know anybody I'd sooner have it happen to.”
”Don't say that!” exclaimed Eliph'. ”If you only knew how he died, poor young man, you wouldn't say it. He burned to death.”
”Well,” said the butcher, ”I don't know as I care how he died. I can't say I'm sorry. I guess he cost me a hundred dollars. I've got to go to law for it if I ever want to see it again. I guess he deserved to die, for the trouble he has made in this town.”
Eliph' placed his hand on the sample copy of Jarby's.
”I will tell you how he died,” he said briskly.