"They"ve shot him! They"ve killed him!" howled the retreating crowd.
"Down with the deputies! Kill "em! hang "em!" were the furious yells.
Three or four policemen came running up to a.s.sist the fallen. An old gray-haired man dropped the lever of the switch engine, calling to his a.s.sistant to watch it, and ran forward along the tracks, wild anxiety in his eyes, and in another moment, brushing aside the bluecoats, old Wallace threw himself upon his knees and raised the blood-stained face of his boy to his heaving breast. "In G.o.d"s name," he cried, his lips piteously quivering, "how came he here? Why is he not at the office?"
There was a moment of silence. Covering his face in his hands, big burly Jim turned almost sobbing away. A young man leaping across the tracks caught the last question as he joined them, and it was his voice that was heard in answer. "Because they"ve discharged him, Mr. Wallace, as they have me, for obeying orders to join our regiment at once."
And as though recalled to his senses by a comrade"s words, Corporal Fred faintly opened his eyes and looked up and saw his father"s face. "Don"t let mother know," he murmured. "It might frighten her for nothing. Help me over to the cable road, Charley; we"ve got to hurry to the armory."
And then the crowd came swarming back even as a little boy, escaped for the moment from watchful eyes at home and drawn by eager curiosity to the gates, now ran sobbing back to tell the dreadful news he had heard among the women in the crowd--that brother Fred was shot and killed.
[TO BE CONTINUED.]
OAKLEIGH.
BY ELLEN DOUGLAS DELAND.
CHAPTER VII.
Neal dropped into the hammock that was hung across the corner of the porch, and waited for Edith to come. This was where she was apt to sit in the morning, with her work or a book.
Bob lay on the gra.s.s near, panting with the heat. He had just had an exciting chase after a bird that would perch occasionally on a low bush, then flap its wings triumphantly, and fly away just as naughty Bob drew near. He thought it a most mistaken arrangement of affairs that birds were able to fly. Now, disgusted, he had apparently given up the game, but lay with one eye open, awaiting further developments. Presently Edith came out, followed by the children with their toys. She had her work-basket, for she continued to take care of their clothes, notwithstanding Mrs. Franklin"s remonstrances.
She was not particularly pleased to see Neal in her favorite corner. She said to herself that she would like to have one day at least free from the Gordons. Edith felt cross with herself and every one else this morning.
Neal rolled out of the hammock when he saw her, and sprang to draw up her chair with extreme politeness and courtesy.
"And you would like this little table for your basket, wouldn"t you?" he said, lifting it across the porch.
"Thank you," said Edith, mollified in spite of herself. Then she stiffened again.
"Where are Ben and Chester?" she asked, with a severe glance at Bob.
"I saw them around at the side door."
"It does seem a shame that they should be banished from the front of the house. For years they have had the use of this piazza; and now, just because Bob chooses to monopolize the place, they feel that they must go."
"Very foolish feelings," said Neal, who had returned to his hammock. "If they only had a little spirit they would soon show Bob his proper place.
Why don"t they give him a good shaking when he nips their legs?"
"Because they are larger than he, and because they are too polite to do it in their own home."
Neal laughed. He had a hearty, contagious laugh, and Edith could not refrain from joining in it.
"They set you a very good example," he said. "Come, Edith, confess that you hate the Gordons, from Bob up."
Edith colored. "How silly you are!" she said, with supreme dignity. "Why should I trouble myself to dislike you?"
"Why, indeed? There"s no accounting for tastes. Then, "love me, love my dog." But I say, Edith, it rather pays to make you mad. You grow two inches visibly, while I shrink in proportion. It is just as if you had some of that cake in your pocket, that Alice came across in Wonderland, don"t you know?"
"Oh, Neal, tell us about it!" cried Janet, dropping her dolls and flinging herself on the end of the hammock. "I just love your stories."
"It is more than can be said of your big sister, Janet, my child. Bob and I are in disgrace."
"Bob"s no good," said w.i.l.l.y; "he won"t play."
"His coat is too thick," remarked Neal. "Bob wishes it were the fashion to wear short hair in summer. I say, Edith, where are you going?" for she had put up her work.
"I think I shall take the buggy and go down to see Gertrude Morgan. I"m tired of it here."
"Thank you," said Neal, meekly.
"Children, you can stay here," she continued. "I sha"n"t be gone more than an hour or two."
The children did not object. They counted upon having Neal for a companion, and he was all-sufficient.
But when the old buggy rounded the corner, and, instead of coming up to the house, rattled down the drive on the farther side of the "heater-piece," Neal sprang out of the hammock with a bounce and ran across the gra.s.s. Bob wanted to follow, but he ordered him back. He reached the fork in the avenue before Edith did.
"You"re pretty cool, to go off this way when I"m going with you."
"And you are _very_ cool, to come when you are not invited," said Edith, wrathfully, as Neal climbed into the carriage without waiting for her to stop.
"I know. It"s pleasant to be cool on such a hot day as this."
"Where is your hat?"
"I"m under the impression it is on the hall table; but no, it may be in my room. On second thoughts, it is probably in the cellar. In fact--"
"Oh, hush!" said Edith, laughing involuntarily. "Where are you going in this plight?"
"To see Miss Gertrude Morgan."
"Indeed you are not. I have no intention of driving to Brenton with a hatless boy."
""Then we"ll go to the woods," says this pig"; and seizing the reins, he turned, abruptly, as they reached the gate of Oakleigh, into a rocky, hilly lane that led up through the woods.
"Now, isn"t this jolly?" said he, leaning back in his corner of the buggy. "Just the place for a hot day."
"Oh, I must go back!" exclaimed Edith, suddenly. "It has just occurred to me you have left the children."
"They"re all right. They"ve got Bob, and we sha"n"t be gone long. Great Scott! what a road this is! I don"t believe these wheels will stay on long. Why don"t you use the surrey?"
"Because the surrey is not mine, and this is."
"So that"s your line of march, is it? I suspected as much. But I think you are pretty hard on Hessie. She means well, and she"s not a bad sort, though I say it as shouldn"t."
Edith made no answer.