Patty reached to the floor beside her.
"Have some pie."
The man ducked aside as it was poked at him.
"W-what"s that?" he gasped.
He was as nervous as a mouse in a cage.
"Lemon pie. It looks a little messy but it"s all right. The only thing the matter with it is that it has lost its meringue top. That"s mostly on your head. The rest of it is spread over me and the laundry floor and Evalina Smith"s bed and the clothes chute."
"Oh!" he murmured in evident relief, as he rubbed his hand over his hair for the fourth time. "I was wonderin" what the blame stuff was."
"But the lemon"s all here," she urged. "You"d better eat it. It"s quite nourishing, I believe."
He accepted the pie and fell to eating it with an eagerness that carried out the truth of his a.s.sertion as to yesterday"s breakfast.
Patty watched him, her natural curiosity struggling with her acquired politeness. The curiosity triumphed.
"Do you mind telling me how you came to be a burglar? You make such a remarkably bad one, that I should think you would have chosen almost any other profession."
He told his story between bites. To one more experienced in police records, it might have sounded a trifle fishy, but he had an honest face and blue eyes, and it never entered her head to doubt him. The burglar commenced it sullenly; no one had ever believed him yet and he wasn"t expecting her to. He would like to have invented something a little more plausible, but he lacked the imagination to tell a convincing lie. So, as usual, he lamely told the truth.
Patty listened with strained attention. His tale was somewhat m.u.f.fled by lemon pie, and his vocabulary did not always coincide with her own, but she managed to get the gist of it.
By rights he was a gardener. In the last place where he worked he used to sleep in the attic, because the gentleman he was away a lot, and the lady she was afraid not to have a man in the house. And a gas-fitter, that he had always thought was his friend, give him some beer one night and got him drunk, and took away the key of the back door. And while he (the gardener) was sound asleep on the children"s sand pile under the apple tree in the back yard, the gas-fitter entered the house and stole an overcoat and a silver coffee-pot and a box of cigars and a bottle of whisky and two umbrellas. And they proved it on him (the gardener) and he was sent up for two years. And when he come out, no one wouldn"t give him no work.
"An" ye can"t make me believe," he added bitterly, "that that beer wasn"t doped!"
"Oh, but it was terrible of you to get drunk!" said Patty, shocked.
""Twas an accident," he insisted.
"If you are _sure_ that you"ll never do it again," she said, "I"ll get you a job. But you must promise, on your word of honor as a gentleman.
You know I couldn"t recommend a drunkard."
The man grinned feebly.
"I guess ye"ll not be findin" anybody that will be wantin" a jailbird."
"Oh, yes, I will! I know exactly the man. He"s a friend of mine, and he likes jailbirds. He realizes that it"s only luck that made him a millionaire instead of a convict. He always gives a man a chance to start again. He used to have a murderer in charge of his greenhouses, and a cattle thief to milk the cows. I"m sure he"ll like you. Come with me, and I"ll write you a letter of introduction."
Patty gathered her sheets about her and prepared to crawl out.
"What are ye doin"?" he demanded quickly. "Y" aren"t goin" to hand me over?"
"Is it likely?" She regarded him with scorn. "How could I hand you over, without handing myself over at the same time?"
The logic of this appealed to him, and he followed meekly on hands and knees. She approached the laundry door and listened warily; the search had withdrawn to other quarters. She led the way along a pa.s.sage and up a flight of stairs and slipped into the deserted kindergarten room.
"We"re safe here," she whispered. "They"ve already searched it."
She cast about for writing materials. No ink was to be found, but she discovered a red crayon pencil, and tore a sheet of paper from a copy book. "Honesty is the best policy," was inscribed in flowing characters at the top.
She hesitated with her crayon poised.
"If I get you a nice job in charge of onions and orchids and things, will you promise never again to drink any beer?"
"Sure," he agreed, but without much enthusiasm.
There was a light of uneasiness in his eye. Nothing in his past experience tallied with to-night"s adventure; and he suspected an ambush.
"Because," said Patty, "it would be awfully embarra.s.sing for me if you did get drunk. I should never dare recommend another burglar."
She wrote her note on the window ledge, by moonlight, and read it aloud:
"_Dear Mr. Weatherby_,--
"Do you remember the conversation we had the day I ran away and dropped into your onion garden? You said you thought criminals were often quite as good as the rest of us, and that you would find a job for any convict friend I might present. This is to introduce a burglar of my acquaintance who would like to secure a position as gardener. He was trained to be a gardener and much prefers it to burglaring, but finds it difficult to find a place because he has been in prison. He is faithful, honest and industrious, and promises to be sober. I shall appreciate any favor you may show him.
"Sincerely yours, "PATTY WYATT."
"P. S.--Please excuse this red crayon. I am writing at midnight, by moonlight in the kindergarten room, and the ink"s all locked up.
The burglar will explain the circ.u.mstances, which are too complicated to write.
"Yours ever, "P. W."
She enclosed her note in a large manila envelope that had contained weaving mats, and addressed it to Silas Weatherby, Esq. The man received it gingerly. He seemed to think that it might go off.
"What"s the matter?" said Patty. "Are you afraid of it?"
"Ye"re sure," he asked suspiciously, "that Silas Weatherby ain"t a cop?"
"He"s a railroad president."
"Oh!" The burglar looked relieved.
Patty unlocked the window, then paused for a final moral lecture.
"I am giving you a chance to begin again. If you are game, and present this letter, you"ll get a job. If you"re a coward, and don"t dare present it, you can keep on being a burglar for the rest of your life for all I care--and a mighty poor one you"ll make!"
She opened the window and waved her hand invitingly toward the outside world.
"Good-by, Miss," he said.
"Good-by," said Patty cordially. "And good luck!"
He paused, half in, half out, for a last rea.s.surance.