Part 52 (2/2)

”Oh, call them, call them!”

”I don't think they will know you as I did, with that great beard on your face. We'll see.”

When Bertrand and Mary entered, they stood for a moment aghast, seeing little likeness to either of the young men in the developed and bronzed specimen of manhood before them. But they greeted him warmly, eager to find him Peter, and in their manner he missed nothing of their old-time kindliness.

”You are greatly changed, Peter Junior. You look more like Richard Kildene than you ever did before in your life,” said Mary.

”Yes, but when we see Richard, we may find that a change has taken place in him also, and they will stand in their own shoes hereafter.”

”Since the burden has been lifted from my soul and I know that he lives, I could sing and shout aloud here in this cell. Imprisonment--even death--means nothing to me now. All will come right before we know it.”

”That is just the way Richard would act and speak. No wonder you have been taken for him!” said Bertrand.

”Yes, he was always more buoyant than I. Maybe we have both changed, but I hope he has not. I loved my friend.”

As they walked home together Mary Ballard said, ”Now, Peter ought to be released right away.”

”Certainly he will be as soon as the Elder realizes the truth.”

”How he has changed, though! His face shows the mark of sorrow. Those drooping, sensitive lines about his mouth--they were never there before, and they are the lines of suffering. They touched my heart. I wish Hester were at home. She ought to be written to. I'll do it as soon as I get home.”

”Peter is handsomer than he was, in spite of the lines, and, as you say, he does look more like his cousin than he used to--because of them, I think. Richard always had a debonair way with him, but he had that little, sensitive droop to the lips--not so marked as Peter's is now--but you remember, Mary--like his mother's.”

”Oh, mother, don't you think Richard could be found?” Betty's voice trailed sorrowfully over the words. She was thinking how he had suffered all this time, and wis.h.i.+ng her heart could reach out to him and call him back to her.

”He must be, dear, if he lives.”

”Oh, yes. He'll be found. It can be published that Peter Junior has returned, and that will bring him after a while. Peter's physique seems to have changed as well as his face. Did you notice that backward swing of the shoulders, so like his cousin's, when he said, 'I could sing and shout here in this cell'? And the way he lifted his head and smiled? That beard is a horrible disguise. I must send a barber to him. He must be himself again.”

”Oh, yes, do. He stands so straight and steps so easily. His lameness seems to have quite gone,” said Mary, joyously,--but at that, Bertrand paused in his walk and looked at her, then glancing at Betty walking slowly on before, he laid his finger to his lips and took his wife's arm, and they said no more until they reached home and Betty was in her room.

”I simply can't think it, Bertrand. I see Peter in him. It is Peter.

Of course he's like Richard. They were always alike, and that makes him all the more Peter. No other man would have that likeness, and it goes to show that he is Peter.”

”My dear, unless the Elder sees him as we see him, the thing will have to be tried out in the courts.”

”Unless we can find Richard. Hester ought to be here. She could set them right in a moment. Trust a mother to know her own boy. I'll write her immediately. I'll--”

”But you have no authority, Mary.”

”No authority? She is my friend. I have a right to do my duty by her, and I can so put it that it will not be such a shock to her as it inevitably will be if matters go wrong, or Peter should be kept in prison for lack of evidence--or for too much evidence. She'll have to know sooner or later.”

Bertrand said no more against this, for was not Mary often quite right? ”I'll see to it that he has a barber, and try to persuade the Elder to see him. That may settle it without any trouble. If not, I must see that he has a good lawyer to help in his defense.”

”If that savage old man remains stubborn, Hester must be here.”

”If the thing goes to a trial, Betty will have to appear against him.”

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