But Billy stopped crying.
"Nothin," he said, "I just come out fer a walk!"
The doctor smiled.
"But I didn"t tell you you might, Billy boy!"
"Had to," said Billy.
"Well, you"ll find you"ll have to go back again, Billy. Come!" and the doctor stooped his broad strong shoulders to pick up the boy. But Billy beat him off weakly:
"Say, now, Doc, wait a minute," he pleaded, "It"s jus" this way. I simply _gotta_ get back home t"day. I"m a very "mportant witness in a murder case, See? My bes" friend in the world is bein" tried fer life, an" he ain"t guilty, an" I"m the only one that knows it fer sure, an"
can prove it, an" I gotta be there. Why, Doc, the trial"s _going on now_ an" I ain"t there! It ud drive me crazy to go back an" lay in that soft bed like a reg"lar sissy, an" know he"s going to be condemned. I put it to you, Doc, as man to man, would you stand fer a thing like that?"
"But Billy, suppose it should be the end of you!"
"I sh"d worry, Doc! Ef I c"n get there in time an" say what I want I ain"t carin" fer anythin" more in life I tell ye. Say, Doc, you wouldn"t stop me, would ya? Ef you did I"d get thar anyhow _someway!_"
The earnestness of the eager young face, wan in its illness, the light of love in the big gray eyes, went to the doctor"s heart. He gave the boy a troubled look.
"Where is it you want to go, Billy?"
"Economy, Doc. It ain"t far, only two or three hours" ride. I c"n get a jitney somewheres I guess ta take me. I"ll pay up ez soon as I get home.
I got thirty dollars in the bank my own self."
"Economy!" said the Doctor. "Impossible, Billy, it would kill you--!"
"Then I"m goin" anyhow. Good-by Doc!" and he darted away from the astonished doctor and ran a rod or so before the doctor caught up with him and seized him firmly by his well shoulder:
"Billy, look here!" said the Doctor, "If it"s as bad as that I"ll take you!"
"Oh, would ya, Doc? Would ya? I"ll never forget it Doc--!"
"There now, Billy, never mind, son, you save your strength and let me manage this thing the right way. Couldn"t I telephone and have them hold up things a few days? That can be done you know."
"Nothin" doing Doc, there"s them that would hurry it up all the more if they thought I was comin" back. You get in Doc and start her up. I c"n drive myself if you"ll lend me the m"chine. P"raps you ain"t got time to go off "ith me like this."
"That"s all right, Billy. You and I are going on a little excursion.
"But first I"ve got to tell the nurse, or there"ll be all kinds of a time. Here, you sit in the machine." The doctor picked him up and put him in and ran up the steps. Billy sat dizzily watching and wondering if he hadn"t better make his escape. Perhaps the Doc was just fooling him, but in a moment back he came again, with a nurse trailing behind with blankets and a bottle.
"We"re going to get another car, son, this one"s no good for such a trip. We"ll fix it so you can lie down and save your strength for when you get there. No,--son--I don"t mean the ambulance," as he saw the alarm in Billy"s face, "just a nice big car. That"s all right, here she comes!"
The big touring car came round from the back almost immediately, and the back seat was heaped with pillows and blankets and Billy tenderly placed among them where he was glad enough to lie down--and close his eyes. It had been rather strenuous. The nurse went back for his shoes, bringing a bottle of milk and his medicine. The Doctor got in the front seat and started.
"Now, son," he said, "You rest. You"ll need every bit of strength when you get there if we"re going to carry this thing through. You just leave this thing to me and I"ll get you there in plenty of time. Don"t you worry."
Billy with a smile of heavenly bliss over his newly bleached freckles settled back with dreamy eyes and watched the sea as they were pa.s.sing swiftly by it, his lashes drooping lower and lower over his thin young cheeks. The doctor glancing back anxiously caught that look the mothers see in the young imps when they are asleep, and a tenderness came into his heart for the staunch loyal little sinner.
Doctor Norris was a good scout. If he had got a soft snap of a job in that Shafton hospital, it was good practice of course, and a step to really big things where he wouldn"t be dependent upon rich people"s whims, but still he was a good scout. He had not forgotten the days of the gra.s.shopper, and Billy had made a great appeal to his heart. He looked at his watch, chose his roads, and put his machine at high speed.
The sea receded, the Jersey pines whirled monotonously by, and by and by the hills began to crop up. Off against the horizon Stark mountain loomed, veiled, with a purple haze, and around another curve Economy appeared, startlingly out of place with its smug red brick walks and its gingerbread porches and plastered tile bungalows. Then without warning Billy sat up. How long had that young scamp been awake? Had he slept at all? He was like a man, grave and stern with business before him. The doctor almost felt shy about giving him his medicine.
"Son, you must drink that milk," he said firmly. "Nothing doing unless you drink that!" Billy drank it.
"Now where?" asked the doctor as they entered the straggling dirty little town.
"That red brick building down the next block," pointed Billy, his face white with excitement, his eyes burning like two dark blue coals.
The big car drew up at the curb, and no one there to notice, for every body was inside. The place was jammed to the door.
Cherry had come back late after lunch, her hat awry and signs of tears on her painted face. Her eyes were more obviously frightened and she whispered a message which was taken up to Mark. Mark lifted a haggard face to hear it, asked a question, bowed his head, and continued listening to the cross-examination of a man who said he had heard him threaten to kill Dolph the week before the murder down at Hagg"s Mills.
When the witness was dismissed Mark whispered a word to his lawyer, the lawyer spoke to the judge and the judge announced that the prisoner wished to speak. Every eye was turned toward Mark as he rose and gave a sweeping glance around the room, his eyes lingering for just a shadow of an instant wistfully on the faces of the minister and his wife, then on again as if they had seen no one, and round to the judge"s face.
It was just at this instant that Billy burst into the room and wedged his way fiercely between elbows, using his old football methods, head down and elbows out, and stood a moment breathless, taking it all in.
Then Mark spoke:
"Your Honor, I wish to plead guilty to the charge!"
A great sigh like a sob broke over the hush in the court room and many people half rose to their feet as if in protest, but Billy made a dive up the aisle, self and sickness forgotten, regardless of courts or law or anything, and stood between the Judge and Mark:
"It ain"t so, an" I can prove it!" he shouted at the top of his lungs.
The prosecuting attorney rose to a point of order like a bull dog snapping at his prey, the sergeant-at-arms rushed around like corn popping off in a corn popper, but Anthony Drew whispered a word to the Judge, and after order was restored Billy was called to the witness stand to tell his story.
Doctor Norris standing squeezed at the back of the room looking for his quondam patient, recognized with a thrill the new Billy standing unafraid before all these people and speaking out his story in a clear direct way. Billy had etherealized during his illness. If Aunt Saxon had been there--she was washing for Gibsons that day and having her troubles with Mrs. Frost--she would scarcely have known him. His features had grown delicate and there was something strong and sweet about his mouth that surely never had been there before. But the same old forceful boy speech wherewith he had subdued enemies on the athletic fields, bullied Aunt Saxon, and put one over on Pat at the station, was still his own.
He told the truth briefly and to the point, not omitting his own wrong doing in every particular, and he swayed that crowd as a great orator might have been proud to sway a congregation. They laughed till they cried and cried till they laughed again at Billy"s quaint phrases, and they enjoyed the detour--Oh how they enjoyed that detour! Even the Judge had twinkles in his eyes.
For the first time since the trial began Mark was sitting up proudly, a warm look of vivid interest in his face, the cold mask gone. His eyes dwelt upon Billy with a look almost fatherly, at least brotherly. It was a startling contrast to what he had been all day. This was a different man.
Suddenly from the corner of the prosecution the low growl which had been gradually rising like a young storm, broke, and the prosecuting attorney arose and lifted his voice above all others:
"I protest your Honor, against this witness. He has mentioned no less than five different lies which he has told, and has narrated a number of episodes in which he deliberately broke the law. Is it or is it not a misdemeanor for anyone to meddle with our Highroads in the manner that has just been described? By his own confession this young man is disqualified for a witness! By his own confession he is a law breaker and a liar!"
"Aw Gee!" broke forth Billy furiously, "Didn"t I tell ya I come here to tell the truth n" get it off"n my chest?"
Someone put a strong hand on Billy and silenced him, and some one else rose to protest against the protestor, and the air grew tense with excitement once more.
The prosecution declared that Billy was in league with Mark, that everybody knew he trailed him everywhere, therefore his testimony was worthless. He was probably bribed; there was nothing, absolutely nothing in the story the boy had told to prove anything.
Billy was growing whiter and angrier, his eyes flashing, his fists clenched. His testimony was not going to be accepted after all! It had been vain to bear the shame himself. Nothing, _nothing_ that he could do would blot out the trouble because he had unfitted himself to blot it out. It had to be a witness who told the truth who would be believed.
It had to be one with a good record to take away the shame! That was something like what Miss Marilyn said in Sunday School once, that only Jesus Christ could take the place of a sinner and make it right about our sinning because He had never sinned. It had sounded like rot when she said it, but he began to understand what she meant now. Yes, that was it. Only G.o.d"s Son could do that and he, Billy Gaston, had tried to do it himself!
The court room seemed to be very dark now. His head was whirling away and getting beyond his control. When he looked up he seemed to see it on the other side of the room. He did not recognize the two men in handcuffs that the Chief was bringing into the room. He did not hear what the Judge was saying. He had slumped in a little heap on the witness stand with his eyes closed, and his hands groping together. He thought that he was praying to G.o.d"s Son to come and help Mark because he had failed. _He_ wasn"t good enough and he _had failed!_
The doctor had come with a bound up the aisle and was kneeling with Billy in his arms. Mark was leaning over the rail with a white anxious face. The minister was trying to make a way through the crowd, and the sergeant-at-arms was pushing the crowd back, and making a s.p.a.ce about the unconscious boy. Some-one opened a window. The Chief and one of his men brought a cot. There was a pillow from the car, and there was that medicine again--bringing him back--just as he thought he had made G.o.d hear--! Oh, _why_ did they bother him?
Suddenly down by the door a diversion occurred. Someone had entered with wild burning eyes dressed in a curious a.s.sortment of garments. They were trying to put him out, but he persisted.
The word was brought up: "Someone has a very important piece of evidence which he wishes to present."