She took her knitting out of the bird-cage and began to knit at full speed.
"Danny me man, it is a good thing for ye that the shaddah of suspicion is on yer sister Pearlie this day, for it gives her a good chance to turn yer heel. "Sowin" in the sunshine, sowin" in the shaddah," only it"s knittin" I am instead of sewin", but it"s all wan, I guess. I mind how Paul and Silas were singin" in the prison at midnight. I know how they felt. "Do what Ye like, Lord," they wur thinkin". "If it"s in jail Ye want us to stay, we"re Yer men.""
Pearl knit a few minutes in silence. Then she knelt beside the bed.
"Dear Lord," she prayed, clasping her work-worn hands, "help her to find her money, but if anyone did steal it, give him the strength to confess it, dear Lord. Amen."
Mrs. Motherwell, downstairs, was having a worse time than Pearl. She could not make herself believe that Pearl had stolen the money, and yet no one had had a chance to take it except Pearl, or Tom, and that, of course, was absurd. She went again to have a look in every drawer in her room, and as she pa.s.sed through the hall she detected a strange odour. She soon traced it to Tom"s light overcoat which hung there.
What was the smell? It was tobacco, and something more. It was the smell of a bar-room!
She sat down upon the step with a nameless dread in her heart. Tom had gone to Millford several times since his father had gone to Winnipeg, and he had stayed longer than was necessary, too; but no, no. Tom would not spend good money that way. The habit of years was on her. It was the money she thought of first.
Then she thought of Pearl.
Going to the foot of the stairway she called:
"Pearl, you may come down now."
"Did ye find it?" Pearl asked eagerly.
"No."
"Do ye still think I took it?"
"No, I don"t, Pearl," she answered.
"All right then, I"ll come right down," Pearl said gladly.
CHAPTER XXIII
SAVED!
That night Arthur"s condition was, to Pearl"s sharp eyes, alarming.
He tried to quiet her fears. He would be well directly, it was nothing, nothing at all, a mere indisposition (Pearl didn"t know what that was); but when she went into the granary with a pitcher of water for him, and found him writing letters in the feeble light of a lantern, she took one look at him, laid down the pitcher and hurried out to tell Tom.
Tom was in the kitchen taking off his boots preparatory to going to bed.
"Tom," she said excitedly, "get back into yer boots, and go for the doctor. Arthur"s got the thing that Pa had, and it"ll have to be cut out of him or he"ll die."
"What?" Tom gasped, with one foot across his knee.
"I think he has it," Pearl said, "he"s actin" just like what Pa did, and he"s in awful pain, I know, only he won"t let on; and we must get the doctor or he might die before mornin", and then how"d we feel?"
Tom hesitated.
"Remember, Tom, he has a father and a mother and four brothers, and a girl called Thursa, and an uncle that is a bishop, and how"d we ever face them when we go to heaven if we just set around and let Arthur die?"
"What is it, Pearl?" Mrs. Motherwell said coming into the room, having heard Pearl"s excited tones.
"It"s Arthur, ma"am. Come out and see him. You"ll see he needs the doctor. Ginger tea and mustard plasters ain"t a flea-bite on a pain like what he has."
"Let"s give him a dose of aconite," Tom said with conviction; "that"ll fix him."
Mrs. Motherwell and Pearl went over to the granary.
"Don"t knock at the door," Pearl whispered to her as they went. "Ye can"t tell a thing about him if ye do. Arthur"d straighten up and be polite at his own funeral. Just look in the crack there and you"ll see if he ain"t sick."
Mrs. Motherwell did see. Arthur lay tossing and moaning across his bed, his letter pad and pencil beside him on the floor.
Mrs. Motherwell did not want Tom to go to Millford that night. One of the harvesters" excursions was expected--was probably in--then--there would be a wild time. Besides, the two-dollar bill still worried her.
If Tom had it he might spend it. No, Tom was safer at home.
"Oh, I don"t think he"s so very bad," she said. "We"ll get the doctor in the morning if he isn"t any better. Now you go to bed, Pearl, and don"t worry yourself."
But Pearl did not go to bed.
When Mrs. Motherwell and Tom had gone to their own rooms, she built up the kitchen fire, and heated a frying-pan full of salt, with which she filled a pair of her own stockings and brought them to Arthur. She remembered that her mother had done that when her father was sick, and that it had eased his pain. She drew a pail of fresh water from the well, and brought a basinful to him, and bathed his burning face and hands. Arthur received her attentions gratefully.
Pearl knew what she would do. She would run over and tell Jim, and Jim would go for the doctor. Jim would not be in bed yet, she knew, and even if he were, he would not mind getting up.
Jim would go to town any time she wanted anything. One time when she had said she just wished she knew whether Camilla had her new suit made yet, Jim jumped right up and said he"d go and see.
Mrs. Motherwell had gone to her room very much concerned with her own troubles. Why should Tom fall into evil ways? she asked herself--a boy who had been as economically brought up as he was. Other people"s boys had gone wrong, but she had alway thought that the parents were to blame some way. Then she thought of Arthur; perhaps he should have the doctor. She had been slow to believe that Polly was really sick--and had had cause for regret. She would send for the doctor, in the morning. But what was Pearl doing so long in the kitchen?--She could hear her moving around--Pearl must go to her bed, or she would not be able to get up in the morning.
Pearl was just going out of the kitchen with her hat and coat on when Mrs. Motherwell came in.
"Where are you going, Pearl," she asked.
"To git someone to go for the doctor," Pearl answered stoutly.
"Is he worse?" Mrs. Motherwell asked quickly.
"He can"t git worse," Pearl replied grimly. "If he gits worse he"ll be dead."
Mrs. Motherwell called Tom at once, and told him to bring the doctor as soon as he could.
"Where"s my overcoat mother?" Tom called from the hall.
"Take your father"s" she said, "he is going to get a new one while he is in Winnipeg, that one"s too small for him now. I put yours outside to air. It had a queer smell on it I thought, and now hurry, Tom. Bring Dr. Barner. I think he"s the best for a serious case. Dr. Clay is too young, Anyway, the old man knowns far more than he does, if you can only get him sober."
Pearl"s heart sank.
"Arthur"s as good as dead," she said as she went to the granary, crying softly to herself. "Dr. Clay is the only man who could save him, and they won"t have him."
The sun had gone down and heavy clouds filled the sky. Not a star was to be seen, and the night was growing darker and darker.