Billy"s gray eyes opened as the man mounted to the witness stand. He was lying on the cot at one side and his gaze rested on the new witness, dazedly at first, and then with growing comprehension. Old Ike Fenner, the tailor, Cherry Fenner"s father!
Mark was looking at Billy and had not noticed:
But the man began to speak in a high shrill voice:
"I came to say that I"m the man that killed Dolph Haskins! Mark Carter had nothin" to do with it. I done it! I _meant_ to kill him because he ruined the life of my little girl! _My baby!_"
There was a sudden catch in his voice like a great sob, and he clutched at the rail as if he were going to fall, but he went on, his eyes burning like coals:
"I shot him with Tom Petrie"s gun that I found atop o" the door, an" I put it back where I found it. You take my finger prints and compare "em with the marks on the gun an" the winder sill. You ask Sandy Robison!
He seen me do it. You ask Cherry! She seen me too. She was facin" the winder eatin" her supper with that devil, and I shot him and she seen me! _I_ did it--"
His voice trailed off. He swayed and got down from the stand, groping his way as if he could not see. The crowd gave way with a curious shudder looking into his wild burning eyes as he pa.s.sed. A girl"s scream back by the door rang through the court. The man moaned, put out his hands and fell forward. Kindly hands reached to catch him. The doctor left Billy and came to help.
They carried him outside and laid him on the gra.s.s in front of the court house. The doctor used every restorative he had with him. Men hurried to the drug store. They tried everything, but all to no avail. Ike Fenner the tailor was dead! He had gone to stand before a higher court!
When it was all over, the finger prints and the red tape, and the case had been dismissed, Mark came to Billy where he was lying in the big car waiting, with his eyes closed to keep back weak tears that would slip out now and then. He knelt beside the boy and touched his hand, the hand that looked so thin and weak and so little like Billy"s:
"Kid," he said gently, "Kid, you"ve been a wonder! It was really you that saved me, Buddy! _My Buddy!"_
Billy"s tears welled over at the tone, the words, the proud intimate name, but he shook his head slowly, sadly.
"No," he said, "No, it wasn"t me. I tried, but I wasn"t fit! It had to be _Him_. I didn"t understand! They wouldn"t believe me. But _He_ came as soon as I ast!"
Mark looked at the doctor.
"Is he wandering a little?" he asked in a low tone:
"I shouldn"t wonder. He"s been through enough to make anyone wander.
Here, son, take this."
Billy smiled and obediently accepted his medicine. Mark held his hand all the way home. He knew that Mark didn"t understand but he was too tired to tell him now. Sometime he would explain. Or perhaps Miss Lynn would explain it for him. He was going home, home to Saxy and Sabbath Valley and the bells, and Mark was free! He hadn"t saved him, but Mark was free!
It was like a royal pa.s.sage through the village as they came into Sabbath Valley, for everybody came out to wave at Mark and Billy. Even Mrs. Harricutt watched grimly from behind her Holland shades. But Billy was too weak to notice much, except to sense it distantly, and Mark would only lift his hat and bow, gravely, quietly as if it didn"t matter, just as he used to do when they carried him round on their shoulders after a football game, and he tried to get down and hide. Why did Mark still have that sad look in his eyes? Billy was too tired to think it out. He was glad when they reached Aunt Saxon"s door and Mark picked him up as he used to do when he was just a little kid, and carried him up to his room. Carried him up and undressed him, while Saxy heard the story from the doctor"s lips, and laughed and cried and laughed again. The nervy little kid! He would always be a "little kid"
to Saxy, no matter what he did.
He turned over in his own bed, _his bed_, and smelt the sweet breath of the honeysuckle coming in at the window, heard the thrushes singing their evening song up the street. The sea had been great, but Oh, you Sabbath Valley! Out there was the water spout, and some day he would be strong enough to shin down it, and up it again. He would play football this Fall, and run Mark"s car! Mark, grave, gentle, quiet, sitting beside him till he got asleep, and his mother not knowing, down the street, and Miss Lynn--!
"Mark--you"ll tell Miss Marilyn about it all?" He opened his eyes to murmur lazily, and Mark promised still gravely.
He shut his eyes and drifted away. What was that the Chief had told him down at Economy in the car? Something about three strange detectives stepping off the train one day and nabbing Pat? And Pat was up at Sing Sing finishing his term after A.W.O.L. Was that straight or only a dream? And anyhow he didn"t care. He was home again, Home--_and forgiven!_
Night settled sweetly down upon Sabbath Valley, hiding the brilliant autumn tinting of the street. Lynn had made a maple nut cake and set the table for two before she left the Carters, for her mother had slipped out of the court room and telephoned her, and a fire was blazing in the little parlor with the lace curtains and asters in every vase all gala for the returning son. The mother and son sat long before the fire, talking, pleasant converse, about the time when Mark would send for her to come and live with him, but not a word was said about the day. He saw that his friends had helped to save his mother this one great sorrow that she could not have borne, and he was grateful.
Marilyn, up at the parsonage, with a great thankfulness upon her, went about with smiling face. The burden seemed to have lifted and she was glad.
But that night at midnight there came the doctor from Economy driving hard and stopping at the parsonage. Cherry Fenner was dying and wanted to see Miss Marilyn. Would she come?
XXVII
Cherry"s little bedroom under the roof was bright with the confusion of cheap finery scattered everywhere and swept aside at the sudden entrance of the death angel. A neighbor had done her best to push away the crude implements of complexion that were littering the cheap oak bureau top, and the doctor"s case and bottles and gla.s.ses crowded out the giddy little accessories of beauty that Cherry had collected. Two chairs piled high with draggled finery, soiled work ap.r.o.ns and dresses made a forlorn and miscellaneous disorder in one corner, and the closet door sagged open with visions of more clothing hung many deep upon the few hooks.
Mrs. Fenner stood at the head of the bed wringing her hands and moaning uncontrolledly, and Cherry, little Cherry, lay whitely against the pillow, the color all gone from her ghastly pretty little face, that had lately hid its ravished health and beauty behind a camouflage of paint.
There were deep dark circles under the limpid eyes that now were full of mortal pain, and pitiful lines around the cherry mouth that had been wont to laugh so saucily.
The doctor stood by the window with the att.i.tude of grave waiting. The helpful neighbor lingered in the doorway, holding her elbows and taking minute note of Marilyn"s dress. This might be a sad time, but one had to live afterward, and it wasn"t every day you got to see a simple little frock with an air like the one the minister"s daughter wore. She studied it from neck to hem and couldn"t see what in the world there was about it anyway to make her look so dressed up. Not a scratch of tr.i.m.m.i.n.g, not even a collar, and yet she could look like that!
Mercy! Was that what education and going to college did for folks?
The light of a single unshaded electric bulb shone startlingly down to the bed, making plain the shadow of death even to an inexperienced eye.
Marilyn knelt beside the bed and took Cherry"s cold little hand in her own warm one. The waxen eyelids fluttered open, and a dart of something between fright and pain went over her weird little face.
"Can I do anything for you Cherry?" Marilyn"s voice was tender, pitiful.
"It"s _too late_," whispered the girl in a fierce little whisper, "Send "em out--I--wantta--tell--you--someth--!" The voice trailed away weakly.
The doctor stepped over and gave her a spoonful of something, motioned her mother and the neighbor away, tiptoeing out himself and closing the door. The mother was sobbing wildly. The doctor"s voice could be heard quieting her coldly:
The girl on the bed frowned and gathered effort to speak:
"Mark Carter--didn"t mean no harm--goin"--with me--!" she broke out, her breath coming in gasps, "He was tryin"--to stop me--goin"--with--_Dolph--!_" The eyes closed wearily. The lips were white as chalk. She seemed to have stopped breathing!
"It"s all right--Cherry--" Marilyn breathed softly, "It"s all right--I understand! Don"t think any more about it!"
The eyes opened fiercely again, a faint determination shadowed round the little mouth:
"You gotta know--!" she broke forth again with effort. "He was good to me--when I was a little kid, and when he found I was in trouble--" the breath came pitifully in gasps--"he--offered--to--_marry me!_"
Marilyn"s fingers trembled but she held the little cold hand warmly and tried to keep back the tears that trembled in her eyes.
"He--didn"t--_want to_--! He--just--_done it to be kind!_ But I--couldn"t--see--it--! That"s--what--we--_argued--!_" Her voice grew fainter again. Marilyn with gentle controlled voice pressed the little cold hand again:
"Never mind, Cherry dear--it"s all right!"
Cherry"s eyes opened with renewed effort, anxiously:
"You won"t--blame--Mark--? He never--did--nothin"--wrong--!
He"s--_your_--friend!"
"No, Cherry! It"s all right!"
The girl seemed to have lost consciousness again, and Marilyn wondered if she ought not to call the doctor, but suddenly Cherry screamed out:
"There he is again! He"s _come for me!_ Oh--I"m--a--gon" ta--_die!_ An"