The snow had ceased and the stars shone brightly on a white world as The Hopper made his way by various trolley lines to the house from which he had s.n.a.t.c.hed Shaver. On a New Haven car he debated the prospects of more snow with a policeman who seemed oblivious to the fact that a child had been stolen--shamelessly carried off by a man with a long police record.
Merry Christmas pa.s.sed from lip to lip as if all creation were attuned to the note of love and peace, and crime were an undreamed of thing.
For two years The Hopper had led an exemplary life and he was keenly alive now to the joy of adventure. His lapses of the day were unfortunate; he thought of them with regret and misgivings, but he was zestful for whatever the unknown held in store for him. Abroad again with a pistol in his pocket, he was a lawless being, but with the difference that he was intent now upon making rest.i.tution, though in such manner as would give him something akin to the old thrill that he experienced when he enjoyed the reputation of being one of the most skillful yeggs in the country. The successful thief is of necessity an imaginative person; he must be able to visualize the unseen and to deal with a thousand hidden contingencies. At best the chances are against him; with all his ingenuity the broad, heavy hand of the law is likely at any moment to close upon him from some unexpected quarter. The Hopper knew this, and knew, too, that in yielding to the exhilaration of the hour he was likely to come to grief. Justice has a long memory, and if he again made himself the object of police scrutiny that little forty-thousand dollar affair in Maine might still be fixed upon him.
When he reached the house from whose gate he had removed the roadster with Shaver attached, he studied it with the eye of an experienced strategist.
No gleam anywhere published the presence of frantic parents bewailing the loss of a baby. The cottage lay snugly behind its barrier of elms and shrubbery as though its young heir had not vanished into the void. The Hopper was a deliberating being and he gave careful weight to these circ.u.mstances as he crept round the walk, in which the snow lay undisturbed, and investigated the rear of the premises. The lattice door of the summer kitchen opened readily, and, after satisfying himself that no one was stirring in the lower part of the house, he pried up the sash of a window and stepped in. The larder was well stocked, as though in preparation for a Christmas feast, and he pa.s.sed on to the dining-room, whose appointments spoke for good taste and a degree of prosperity in the householder.
Cautious flashes of his lamp disclosed on the table a hamper, in which were packed a silver cup, plate, and bowl which at once awoke the Hopper"s interest. Here indubitably was proof that this was the home of Shaver, now sleeping sweetly in Humpy"s bed, and this was the porridge bowl for which Shaver"s soul had yearned. If Shaver did not belong to the house, he had at least been a visitor there, and it struck The Hopper as a reasonable a.s.sumption that Shaver had been deposited in the roadster while his lawful guardians returned to the cottage for the hamper preparatory to an excursion of some sort. But The Hopper groped in the dark for an explanation of the calmness with which the householders accepted the loss of the child. It was not in human nature for the parents of a youngster so handsome and in every way so delightful as Shaver to permit him to be stolen from under their very noses without making an outcry. The Hopper examined the silver pieces and found them engraved with the name borne by the locket. He crept through a living-room and came to a Christmas tree--the smallest of Christmas trees. Beside it lay a number of packages designed clearly for none other than young Roger Livingston Talbot.
Housebreaking is a very different business from the forcible entry of country post-offices, and The Hopper was nervous. This particular house seemed utterly deserted. He stole upstairs and found doors open and a disorder indicative of the occupants" hasty departure. His attention was arrested by a small room finished in white, with a white enameled bed, and other furniture to match. A generous litter of toys was the last proof needed to establish the house as Shaver"s true domicile. Indeed, there was every indication that Shaver was the central figure of this home of whose charm and atmosphere The Hopper was vaguely sensible. A frieze of dancing children and watercolor sketches of Shaver"s head, dabbed here and there in the most unlooked-for places, hinted at an artistic household. This impression was strengthened when The Hopper, bewildered and baffled, returned to the lower floor and found a studio opening off the living room. The Hopper had never visited a studio before, and satisfied now that he was the sole occupant of the house, he pa.s.sed pa.s.sed about shooting his light upon unfinished canvases, pausing finally before an easel supporting a portrait of Shaver--newly finished, he discovered, by poking his finger into the wet paint. Something fell to the floor and he picked up a large sheet of drawing paper on which this message was written in charcoal:--
_Six-thirty._ _Dear Sweetheart:_--
This is a fine trick you have played on me, you dear girl! I"ve been expecting you back all afternoon. At six I decided that you were going to spend the night with your infuriated parent and thought I"d try my luck with mine! I put Billie into the roadster and, leaving him there, ran over to the Flemings"s to say Merry Christmas and tell "em we were off for the night. They kept me just a minute to look at those new j.a.p prints Jim"s so crazy about, and while I was gone you came along and skipped with Billie and the car! I suppose this means that you"ve been making headway with your dad and want to try the effect of Billie"s blandishments. Good luck! But you might have stopped long enough to tell me about it! How fine it would be if everything could be straightened out for Christmas! Do you remember the first time I kissed you--it was on Christmas Eve four years ago at the Billings"s dance! I"m just trolleying out to father"s to see what an evening session will do. I"ll be back early in the morning.
Love always, ROGER.
Billie was undoubtedly Shaver"s nickname. This delighted The Hopper. That they should possess the same name appeared to create a strong bond of comradeship. The writer of the note was presumably the child"s father and the "Dear Sweetheart" the youngster"s mother. The Hopper was not rea.s.sured by these disclosures. The return of Shaver to his parents was far from being the pleasant little Christmas Eve adventure he had imagined. He had only the lowest opinion of a father who would, on a winter evening, carelessly leave his baby in a motor-car while he looked at pictures, and who, finding both motor and baby gone, would take it for granted that the baby"s mother had run off with them. But these people were artists, and artists, The Hopper had heard, were a queer breed, sadly lacking in common sense. He tore the note into strips which he stuffed into his pocket.
Depressed by the impenetrable wall of mystery along which he was groping, he returned to the living-room, raised one of the windows and unbolted the front door to make sure of an exit in case these strange, foolish Talbots should unexpectedly return. The shades were up and he shielded his light carefully with his cap as he pa.s.sed rapidly about the room. It began to look very much as though Shaver would spend Christmas at Happy Hill Farm--a possibility that had not figured in The Hopper"s calculations.
Flashing his lamp for a last survey a letter propped against a lamp on the table arrested his eye. He dropped to the floor and crawled into a corner where he turned his light upon the note and read, not without difficulty, the following:--
_Seven o"clock._ _Dear Roger:--_
I"ve just got back from father"s where I spent the last three hours talking over our troubles. I didn"t tell you I was going, knowing you would think it foolish, but it seemed best, dear, and I hope you"ll forgive me. And now I find that you"ve gone off with Billie, and I"m guessing that you"ve gone to _your_ father"s to see what you can do. I"m taking the trolley into New Haven to ask Mamie Palmer about that cook she thought we might get, and if possible I"ll bring the girl home with me. Don"t trouble about me, as I"ll be perfectly safe, and, as you know, I rather enjoy prowling around at night. You"ll certainly get back before I do, but if I"m not here don"t be alarmed.
We are so happy in each other, dear, and if only we could get our foolish fathers to stop hating each other, how beautiful everything would be! And we could all have such a merry, merry Christmas!
MURIEL.
The Hopper"s acquaintance with the epistolary art was the slightest, but even to a mind unfamiliar with this branch of literature it was plain that Shaver"s parents were involved in some difficulty that was attributable, not to any lessening of affection between them, but to a row of some sort between their respective fathers. Muriel, running into the house to write her note, had failed to see Roger"s letter in the studio, and this was very fortunate for The Hopper; but Muriel might return at any moment, and it would add nothing to the plausibility of the story he meant to tell if he were found in the house.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
[Ill.u.s.tration]
VI
Anxious and dejected at the increasing difficulties that confronted him, he was moving toward the door when a light, buoyant step sounded on the veranda. In a moment the living-room lights were switched on from the entry and a woman called out sharply:--
"Stop right where you are or I"ll shoot!"
The authoritative voice of the speaker, the quickness with which she had grasped the situation and leveled her revolver, brought The Hopper to an abrupt halt in the middle of the room, where he fell with a discordant crash across the keyboard of a grand piano. He turned, cowering, to confront a tall, young woman in a long ulster who advanced toward him slowly, but with every mark of determination upon her face. The Hopper stared beyond the gun, held in a very steady hand, into a pair of fearless dark eyes. In all his experiences he had never been cornered by a woman, and he stood gaping at his captor in astonishment. She was a very pretty young woman, with cheeks that still had the curve of youth, but with a chin that spoke for much firmness of character. A fur toque perched a little to one side gave her a boyish air.
This undoubtedly was Shaver"s mother who had caught him prowling in her house, and all The Hopper"s plans for explaining her son"s disappearance and returning him in a manner to win praise and grat.i.tude went glimmering.
There was nothing in the appearance of this Muriel to encourage a hope that she was either embarra.s.sed or alarmed by his presence. He had been captured many times, but the trick had never been turned by any one so cool as this young woman. She seemed to be pondering with the greatest calmness what disposition she should make of him. In the intentness of her thought the revolver wavered for an instant, and The Hopper, without taking his eyes from her, made a cat-like spring that brought him to the window he had raised against just such an emergency.
"None of that!" she cried, walking slowly toward him without lowering the pistol. "If you attempt to jump from that window I"ll shoot! But it"s cold in here and you may lower it."
The Hopper, weighing the chances, decided that the odds were heavily against escape, and lowered the window.
"Now," said Muriel, "step into that corner and keep your hands up where I can watch them."
The Hopper obeyed her instructions strictly. There was a telephone on the table near her and he expected her to summon help; but to his surprise she calmly seated herself, resting her right elbow on the arm of the chair, her head slightly tilted to one side, as she inspected him with greater attention along the blueblack barrel of her automatic. Unless he made a dash for liberty this extraordinary woman would, at her leisure, turn him over to the police as a housebreaker and his peaceful life as a chicken farmer would be at an end. Her prolonged silence troubled The Hopper. He had not been more nervous when waiting for the report of the juries which at times had pa.s.sed upon his conduct, or for judges to fix his term of imprisonment.
"Yes"m," he muttered, with a view to ending a silence that had become intolerable.
Her eyes danced to the accompaniment of her thoughts, but in no way did she betray the slightest perturbation.
"I ain"t done nothin"; hones" to G.o.d, I ain"t!" he protested brokenly.
"I saw you through the window when you entered this room and I was watching while you read that note," said his captor. "I thought it funny that you should do that instead of packing up the silver. Do you mind telling me just why you read that note?"
"Well, miss, I jes" thought it kind o" funny there wuzn"t n.o.body round an"
the letter was layin" there all open, an" I didn"t see no harm in lookin"."
"It was awfully clever of you to crawl into the corner so n.o.body could see your light from the windows," she said with a tinge of admiration. "I suppose you thought you might find out how long the people of the house were likely to be gone and how much time you could spend here. Was that it?"
"I reckon ut wuz some thin" like that," he agreed.
This was received with the noncommittal "Um" of a person whose thoughts are elsewhere. Then, as though she were eliciting from an artist or man of letters a frank opinion as to his own ideas of his attainments and professional standing, she asked, with a meditative air that puzzled him as much as her question:--
"Just how good a burglar are you? Can you do a job neatly and safely?"
The Hopper, staggered by her inquiry and overcome by modesty, shrugged his shoulders and twisted about uncomfortably.
"I reckon as how you"ve pinched me I ain"t much good," he replied, and was rewarded with a smile followed by a light little laugh. He was beginning to feel pleased that she manifested no fear of him. In fact, he had decided that Shaver"s mother was the most remarkable woman he had ever encountered, and by all odds the handsomest. He began to take heart.
Perhaps after all he might hit upon some way of restoring Shaver to his proper place in the house of Talbot without making himself liable to a long term for kidnaping.
"If you"re really a successful burglar--one who doesn"t just poke abound in empty houses as you were doing here, but clever and brave enough to break into houses where people are living and steal things without making a mess of it; and if you can play fair about it--then I think--I think--maybe--we can come to terms!"
"Yes"m!" faltered The Hopper, beginning to wonder if Mary and Humpy had been right in saying that he had lost his mind. He was so astonished that his arms wavered, but she was instantly on her feet and the little automatic was again on a level with his eyes.
"Excuse me, miss, I didn"t mean to drop "em. I weren"t goin" to do nothin". Hones" I wuzn"t!" he pleaded with real contrition. "It jes"
seemed kind o" funny what ye said."
He grinned sheepishly. If she knew that her Billie, _alias_ Shaver, was not with her husband at his father"s house, she would not be dallying in this fashion. And if the young father, who painted pictures, and left notes in his studio in a blind faith that his wife would find them,--if that trusting soul knew that Billie was asleep in a house all of whose inmates had done penance behind prison bars, he would very quickly become a man of action. The Hopper had never heard of such careless parenthood!
These people were children! His heart warmed to them in pity and admiration, as it had to little Billie.