"Yes," I said, taking my cue from her manner. "I have the happiness to share the honor with three other dummies. Your father makes the fifth."
"How absurd!" laughed Luella. "Do you want to provoke me?"
"Oh, of course, I mean that your father does the thinking, and--"
"And you punch the head he points out to you, I suppose," said Luella sarcastically.
"Exactly," I said. "And--"
"Don"t mind me, Henry," interrupted the voice of Mrs. Knapp.
"But I must," said I, giving her greeting. "What service do you require?"
"Tell me what you have been doing."
"I have just been telling Miss Luella."
"And what, may I ask?"
"I was explaining this morning"s troubles."
"Oh, I heard a little of them from Mr. Knapp. Have you had any more of your adventures at Borton"s and other dreadful places?"
I glanced at Luella. She was leaning forward, her chin resting on her hand, and her eyes were fixed on me with close attention. "I should like to hear of them, too," she said.
I considered a moment, and then, as I could see no reason for keeping silent, I gave a somewhat abridged account of my Livermore trip, omitting reference to the strange vagaries of the Doddridge Knapp who traveled by night.
I had reason to be flattered by the attention of my audience. Both women leaned forward with wide-open eyes, and followed every word with eager interest.
"That was a dreadful danger you escaped," said Mrs. Knapp with a shudder. "I am thankful, indeed, to see you with us with no greater hurt."
Luella said nothing, but the look she gave me set my heart dancing in a way that all Mrs. Knapp"s praise could not.
"I do hope this dreadful business will end soon," said Mrs. Knapp. "Do you think this might be the last of it?"
"No," said I, remembering the note I had received from the Unknown on my return, "there"s much more to be done."
"I hope you are ready for it," said Mrs. Knapp, with a troubled look upon her face.
"As ready as I ever shall be, I suppose," I replied. "If the guardian angel who has pulled me through this far will hold on to his job, I"ll do my part."
Mrs. Knapp raised a melancholy smile, but it disappeared at once, and she seemed to muse in silence, with no very pleasant thought on her mind. Twice or thrice I thought she wished to speak to me, but if so she changed her mind.
I ventured a few observations that were intended to be jocose, but she answered in the monosyllables of preoccupation, and I turned to Luella.
She gave back flashes of brightness, but I saw on her face the shadow of her mother"s melancholy, and I rose at an early hour to take my leave.
"I wonder at you," said Luella softly, as we stood alone for a moment.
"You have little cause."
"What you have done is much. You have conquered difficulties."
I looked in her calm eyes, and my soul came to the surface.
"I wish you might be proud of me," I said.
"I--I am proud of such a friend--except--" She hesitated.
"Always an "except,"" I said half-bitterly.
"But you have promised to tell me--"
"Some day. As soon as I may." Under her magnetic influence, I should have told her then had she urged me. And not until I was once more outside the house did I recall how impossible it was that I could ever tell her.
"What shall I do? What shall I do?" was the refrain that ran through my brain insistently, as the battle between love and duty rose and swelled.
And I was sorely tempted to tell the Unknown to look elsewhere for a.s.sistance, and to bury the memory of my dead friend and the feud with Doddridge Knapp in a common grave.
"Here"s some one to see you, sir," said Owens, as I reached the walk, and joined the guards I had left to wait for me. The rain had ceased, but the wind, which had fallen during the day, was freshening once more from the south.
"Yes, sor, you"re wanted at Mother Borton"s in a hurry," said another voice, and a man stepped forward. "There"s the divil to pay!"
I recognized the one-eyed man who had done me the service that enabled me to escape from Livermore.
"Ah, Broderick, what"s the matter?"
"I didn"t get no orders, sor, so I don"t know, but there was the divil"s own shindy in the height of progression when I left. And Mother Borton says I was to come hot-foot for you, and tell you to come with your men if ye valued your sowl."
"Is she in danger?"
"I reckon the thought was heavy on her mind, for her face was white with the terror of it."
We hastened forward, but at the next corner a pa.s.sing hack stood ready for pa.s.sengers, and we rolled down the street, the horses" hoofs outstripped by my anxiety and apprehensions.
One of the men was sent to bring out such of my force as had returned, and I, with the two others, hurried on to Borton"s.
There was none of the sounds of riot I had expected to hear as we drew up before it. The lantern blinked outside with its invitation to manifold cheer within. Lights streamed through the window and the half-opened door, and quiet and order reigned.
As I stepped to the walk, I found the explanation of the change in the person of a policeman, who stood at the door.
"Holy St. Peter! the cops is on!" whispered Broderick.
I failed to share his trepidation in the presence of the representative of law and order, and stepped up to the policeman.
"Has there been trouble here, officer?" I asked.
"Oh, is it you, sor?" said Corson"s hearty voice. "I was wondering about ye. Well, there has been a bit of a row here, and there"s a power of broken heads to be mended. There"s wan man cut to pieces, and good riddance, for it"s Black d.i.c.k. I"m thinking it"s the morgue they"ll be taking him to, though it was for the receiving hospital they started with him. It was a dandy row, and it was siventeen arrists we made."