Supporting their charge between them, and wading through the snow, they proceeded up the street. The "tramp" half shambled, half slid; darkness had gathered, stars were peeping out in the blue-black sky, the way seemed hard and lonesome, and Charley was glad indeed that they were bound to a place of warmth and shelter: home.
"It"s right in the middle of this next block," panted Charley to the long-nosed man. "Where that horse-step is, under the big old oak."
The gate was ajar, and they turned through, dragging their awkwardly shambling burden. As they gained the front porch the front door was flung wide, and Mrs. Adams stood there, peering out, to find what was the meaning of this scuffling and grunting. Charley was glad to see her, framed in the lamp-light.
"Why, Charley!" she exclaimed. "What"s the matter?"
"Please, mother, let us in," answered Charley. "We"ve got a man who was freezing in a stairway. Where"ll we put him?"
"Gracious goodness! Take him right through and put him on the sofa.
Oh, George!" and she called to Mr. Adams. "Is he badly frozen, Charley?" she asked, as Charley, tugging away, pa.s.sed her.
"I don"t think so, ma"am," replied the long-nosed man, speaking up.
"No, ma"am. Not yet. He"s fairly limber." And he scolded, to the "tramp": "Come on, now! You weigh a ton, with all your ballast."
Carrying and guiding the man, both, they continued on through the hall, into the pleasant sitting-room lighted by a whale-oil lamp and heated by a large wood-stove. At the call of his wife, Mr. Adams had hastily come from the back part of the house.
"h.e.l.lo," he greeted. "What"s here? Who is he, Charley?"
Charley"s father was a tall man (he stood six feet one inch in his stockinged feet), and before the war he had been powerfully muscled.
Now he was worn thin, and was a little stooped; and because of the wound in his knee, from a copper bullet, he limped. His full beard, trimmed around, was brown, but his eyes were a bright keen blue.
Charley thought him the handsomest man in the world--and about the biggest.
"Somebody they"ve taken out of a stairway," explained Mrs. Adams, to him. "He was freezing. I told them to put him on the sofa."
"I should say so!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mr. Adams, and limped forward to help.
Mrs. Adams quickly rearranged the knitted spread and the pillow; and with Mr. Adams attending to the feet end of the rescued stranger and Charley and the long-nosed man attending to the body and head, on the sofa the unknown was deposited.
"He"s so thinly clothed!" cried Mrs. Adams, hovering over. "I"ll get some hot milk." And away she bustled, for the kitchen.
"Let"s take off his coat and boots," directed Mr. Adams, with soldierly decision. "Hope his feet aren"t frozen." And he worked at the boots, to haul them from the cold, stiff feet.
Charley and the long-nosed man had a harder time with the coat. The unknown resisted, as before. He had opened his eyes (they were vacant and frightened) and had roused a little more strength. He even shoved the long-nosed man back.
"You," he appealed, huskily, to Charley, whom he seemed to accept as his friend. "You--take it."
"Well, I"ll be jiggered!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the long-nosed man. "There"s grat.i.tude for you!"
But he stood back, while Charley went ahead removing the coat. The unknown grasped the pockets, for the last time, and tried to hand them on to Charley.
"Keep it. You----" and he fell back, exhausted.
"We don"t want your coat, my man," a.s.sured Mr. Adams, briskly rubbing the feet.
"He"s got something in the pockets, dad," explained Charley.
"Something heavy."
"Look and see, then," bade the long-nosed man. "Now"s your chance."
"Shall I?" queried Charley, of his father, doubtfully, holding the coat.
"Why, yes, if you want to. Perhaps we ought to know."
"Here"s the milk," announced Mrs. Adams, hurrying in bearing gla.s.s and steaming pitcher.
Charley, with the long-nosed man peering curiously, and Mr. and Mrs.
Adams looking, as well, fished out the weight from the right-hand coat pocket. It was a little buckskin sack, round and heavy with its contents.
"By thunder!" exclaimed the long-nosed man. "Hooray! I suspicioned it. This fellow"s from the Californy gold mines, and that sack"s stuffed with gold dust, as they call it. Open her up and see. Where"s the other one? He"s got the mate in t"other pocket, I"ll bet you."
"Hold on, Charley. Don"t open it," ordered Mr. Adams, as Charley fumbled with the string tied tightly around the puckered mouth of the little sack. "It isn"t yours."
"Pa.s.s it to me and I"ll open it," invited the long-nosed man. "Let me feel. Yes, sirs; that"s gold dust, all right; several hundred dollars"
worth."
"We"ll not open it, just the same," insisted Mr. Adams, firmly. "Put the sack back in the pocket, Charley, and hang coat and all away.
Wait, though. Look through the other pockets and see if there are any letters or such things to tell who he is."
Charley sought. In the other side pocket he felt another buckskin sack, round and heavy (just as the long-nosed man, who was watching closely, had predicted), but the inside pockets contained nothing at all.
The unknown murmured weakly.
"I"d better give him a little hot milk, if he can drink it, hadn"t I?"
proffered Mrs. Adams; she poured a few inches into the gla.s.s and held it to his bearded lips. He tried to sip--did sip, greedily, and sank back.
Charley started off with the coat, to hang it over a chair.
"Here, you!" objected the long-nosed man. "What are you going to do?
Half that coat"s mine, remember. I helped fetch him in. Half the plunder comes to me."
"That"s no way to talk, sir," reproved Mr. Adams, sternly. "Would you rob a helpless stranger? Not in this house, sir!"
"He"s not dead. He"s only fainted," informed Mrs. Adams, indignant.
"But he gave the stuff away, didn"t he?" demanded the long-nosed man.
"Sure he did. Supposing he dies on your hands, you count on getting all he has, I reckon! But you won"t."
"He told me to keep it, anyway, didn"t he?" retorted Charley.
"He didn"t mean you to keep it for yourself, Charley," corrected Mr.
Adams. "That"s foolishness. He meant that you should keep it safe until he could use it."
"Of course," nodded Mrs. Adams. "What had we better do with him, George?"
"Let him sleep, if he wants to. His feet are getting warm. He"ll be all right."
"Lookee here," bl.u.s.tered the long-nosed man. "I come in for half, remember. I helped fetch him in. If it hadn"t been for my help he"d have frozen solid where he was, or else the watchman would have picked him up and taken him off. I"m going, now. I"ve got business to tend to--same as before I was interrupted. I left a business errand, to help fetch him here. Understand? My time"s worth money. I know where this house is, and I know your names; and I"m coming "round again, to see what"s what. Half that dust is mine, or I"ll make you trouble."
"If he doesn"t use it, himself, it will go to his kin, sir," returned Mr. Adams.