Part 71 (1/2)

”And it will be impossible for her not to love you, Deary,” exclaimed Ann, wiping her eyes. ”But now you must dress. Have you still the clothes you wore away from home?”

”Yes, I have them; but they're all mussed. I fell in the lake, and got them all wet, and they're wrinkled now. They're up in the loft.

Wait--I'll get them.” She was scrambling up the ladder as she spoke, and her last words were uttered in the darkness of the loft.

Ann could hear the girl moving about overhead, and heard the dragging of a box across the floor. Then another sound broke upon her ears, and before she could move toward the door it opened, and a shabby, one-armed man shuffled in, followed by Everett Brimbecomb.

After Everett had disappeared across the little bridge, Scraggy closed the rickety door of her hut and went fidgeting about in the littered room. Long she brooded, sniveling in her bewilderment. Something hazy, something out of the past, knocked incessantly upon her demented brain.

This something touched her heart; for she whimpered as does a hurt child when the hurt is deep and the child's mother is not near. She still missed Black p.u.s.s.y, and when she thought of the loss of her only friend wilder paroxysms of frenzied grief filled the shanty.

After one of her raving fits of crying more vehement than those preceding, Black p.u.s.s.y again came to her mind, and suddenly she was taken back to the wintry night she had lost him. Feebly she put the events of that evening together, one by one, until like a burst of light the memory of her boy came to her. Not once hitherto had she remembered him since his blow had sent her into unconsciousness. Now she recalled how roughly her son had handled her, and she did not forget his threat to kill her if she ever mentioned to anyone that she was his mother. She recognized, too, the ident.i.ty of the stranger who had asked her the way to the scow but a little while before.

A sane expression came into her eyes, and she settled herself back to think. With her pondering came a clear thought--her boy was seeking his father! Still somewhat dazed, she tottered to one corner of the hut and fumbled for her shawl.

”He axed for Lon!” she whispered. ”Nope, he axed for Lem, his own daddy.

Now, Lemmy'll take me with 'em--oh, how I love 'em both! And the boy'll eat all he wants, and his little hand'll smooth my face when my head aches!”

Muttering fond words, she opened the door and slid out into the night.

She paused on the rustic bridge, the sound of footsteps in the lane that led to the tracks bringing her to a standstill. Several persons were approaching her. They came steadily nearer, pa.s.sed the footpath that led to her hut, and she crept out. Two men and a woman were near enough for Screech Owl to touch them, if she had put out her hand. She remained perfectly quiet, and Lon Cronk's voice, muttering words she did not understand, came to her through the underbrush. Then, in her joy, Scraggy speedily forgot them, and, as she hurried down the hill sent out cry after cry into the clear night.

For a long time Miss Sh.e.l.lington stood staring at Everett, and the man as fixedly at her. The movements were still going on in the loft.

”How came you here?” cried Ann sharply, when she had at last gathered her senses.

”I might ask you the same thing,” replied Everett suavely. ”This is scarcely a place for a girl like you.”

”I came after Fledra,” she said slowly. ”I didn't know--”

Everett came forward and crowded back her words with:

”And I came for the same person!”

Brimbecomb reasoned quickly that he dared not tell Ann the truth, and that so long as she thought his actions were for Fledra's welfare she would stand by him.

”I found out that these ruffians had taken her, and I came after her. I thought a good school would be better than this.” He swept his hand over the hut, and did not notice the expression that flitted across Ann's face.

Lem uttered an unintelligible grunt, and growled:

”He's a d.a.m.ned liar, Miss! He wanted to buy the gal from me and Lon.”

Everett laughed sneeringly.

”Miss Sh.e.l.lington would not believe such a tale as that,” said he; ”she knows me too well.”

”I do believe him,” said Ann. ”I saw the letter you lost, which Fledra wrote you. You dropped it in our drawing-room. Horace found it.”

Everett saw his fall coming. He would not be worsted by this woman, who had believed once that he was the soul of truth. To lose her and the prestige of her family, and to lose also Fledra, was more than he would endure. He bounded forward and grasped her arm fiercely.