Part 37 (1/2)
”Sam has the roadster,” Rupert said. ”There's something wrong with the brakes and I told him to take it to town and have it looked over.
Goodness only knows what time he'll be back.”
”See here, Ralestone,” Holmes looked at his wrist-watch, ”I've the car I hired here with me. Let me drive you in. Charity has to go, anyway, and see about sending off those sketches of hers.”
”Oh, but we were going together,” protested Ricky. ”I have some shopping to do.”
”Very simple,” Val suggested. ”Why don't you all go?”
”But that would leave you alone.” Rupert shook his head.
”No. There's Jeems.”
”I don't know,” Rupert hesitated doubtfully.
”It doesn't require more than one person to wait on me at present,” Val said firmly. ”Now all of you go. But remember, I shall expect the Greeks to return bearing gifts.”
Holmes saluted. ”Right you are, my hearty. Well, ladies, the chariot awaits without.”
In spite of their protests, Val at last got rid of them. Since he had a project of his own, he was only too glad to see the last of his oversolicitous family for awhile.
Val had never been able to understand why broken ribs or a fractured collar-bone should chain one to the bed. And since he had recovered from his wrenched back he was eager to be up and around. In private, with the protesting a.s.sistance of Sam Two, he had made a pilgrimage across the room and back. And now it was his full intention to be seated on the terrace when the family came home.
It was Lucy of all people who aided fortune to give him his opportunity.
”Mistuh Val,” she announced from the doorway as the sound of the car pulling out of the drive signaled the departure of the city-bound party, ”dem lights is out agin.”
”Another fuse gone? That's the second this week. Who's been playing games?” he asked.
”Dis heah no-'count!” She dragged out of hiding from behind her voluminous skirts her second son, a chocolate-brown infant who rejoiced in the name of Gustavus Adolphus and was generally called ”Doff.” At that moment he was sobbing noisily and eyeing Val as if the boy were the Grand High Executioner of Tartary. ”Yo'all tell Mistuh Val whats yo' bin a-doin'!” commanded his mother, emphasizing her order with a shake.
”Ain't done nothin',” wailed Doff. ”Sam, he give me de penny an' say, 'Le's hab fun.' Den Ah puts de penny in de lil' hole an' den Mammy cotch me.”
”Doff seems to be the victim, Lucy,” Val observed. ”Where's Sam?”
”Ah don' know. But I'se a-goin' to fin' out!” she stated with ominous determination. ”How's Ah a-goin' to git mah ironin' done when dere ain't no heat fo' de iron? Ah asks yo' dat!”
”There are some fuses in the pantry and Jeems will put one in for you,”
Val promised.
With a sniff Lucy withdrew, her fingers still hooked in the collar of her tearful son. Jeems glanced at Val as he went by the boy's cot. And Val didn't care for what he read into that glance. Had the swamper by any foul chance come to suspect Val's little plan?
But it all turned out just as he had hoped. Val made that most momentous trip in four easy stages, resting on the big chair where Rupert had spent so many hours, on the bench by the window, in the first of the deck-chairs by the side of the French doors leading to the terrace, and then he reached the haven of the last deck-chair and settled down just where he had intended. And when Jeems returned there was nothing he could do but accept the fact that Val had fled the cot.
”Miss Ricky won't like this,” he prophesied darkly. ”Nor Mr. Rupert neither. Yo' wouldn't've tried it if they'd been heah.”
”Oh, stop worrying. If you'd been tied to that cot the way I've been, you'd be glad to get out here, too. It's great!”
The sun was warm but the afternoon shadow of an oak overhung his seat so that Val escaped the direct force of the rays. A few feet away Satan sprawled full length, giving a fine imitation of a cat that had rid himself of all nine lives, or at least of eight and a half.
Never had the garden shown so rich a green. Ricky's care had sharpened the lines of the flower-beds and had set shrubs in their proper places.