The jailer was inclined to allow Harold more liberty after his trial, but the boy said: "I"m not asking any favors from you. I"m working out a sentence."
He continued his systematic exercise, eating regularly and with care in order that he should keep his health. He spent several hours each day leaping up the stairway which led from the lower cells to the upper, and his limbs were like bundles of steel rods. He could spring from the floor, catch the hand rail of the runway above, and swing himself with a single effort to the upper cells. Every possible combination of strength and agility which the slender variety of means allowed he used, and not one of all the prisoners cared to try muscular conclusions with him.
Occasionally a new prisoner would experiment, but those who held over knew better than to "bother the kid." When a rash and doubting man tried it, he repented it in cotton cloth and arnica.
The only way in which Harold could be enticed into the residence part of the jail was by sending Jack to call upon him.
At such times the jailer gave him plenty of time, and Harold poured forth his latest plans in a swift torrent. He talked of nothing but the West. "My sentence will be out in April," he said; "just the right time to go. You must make all arrangements for me, old man. You take my money and get these things for me. I want a six-shooter, the best you can find, the kind they use out on the plains, and a belt and ammunition. I want a valise--a good strong one; and I want you to put all my clothes in it--I mean my underclothes--I won"t need cuffs and collars and such knickknacks out there. I shall never enter father"s door again. Then I want you to be on the lookout for a chance to drive cattle for somebody going West. We"ll find chances enough, and we"ll strike for Abilene and your uncle"s place. I haven"t money enough to carry me out there on the train. Oh! won"t it be good fun when we have a good horse apiece and go riding across the plains herding the longhorns! That"s life, that is! If I"d only gone last year, out where the buffalo and the antelope are!"
At such times the eagle"s heart in the youth could scarcely endure the pale, cold light of the prison. For an hour after one of these talks with Jack he tore around his cell like a crazed wolf, till his weary muscles absorbed the ache in his heart.
During the winter the Young Men"s Christian a.s.sociation of the town organized what they called a Prison Rescue Band, which held services in the jail each Sunday afternoon. They were a great bore to Harold, who knew the members of the band and disliked most of them. He considered them "a little off their nut"--that is to say, fanatic. He kept his cell closely, and the devoted ones seldom caught a glimpse of him, though he was the chief object of their care. They sang Pull for the Sh.o.r.e, Trust it all with Jesus, and other well-worn Moody and Sankey hymns, and the leader prayed resoundingly, and then, one by one, the others made little talks to the prison walls. There was seldom a face to be seen.
Muttered curses occasionally rumbled from the cells where the prisoners were trying to sleep.
But the leader was a shrewd young man, and not many Sundays after his initial attempt the prisoners were amazed to hear female voices joining in the songs. Heads appeared at every door to see the girls, who stood timidly behind the men and sang (in quavering voices) the songs that persuaded to grace.
Some of these girlish messengers of mercy Harold knew, but others were strange to him. The seminary was in session again and new pupils had entered. For the most part they were colorless and plain, and the prisoners ceased to show themselves during the singing. Harold lay on his iron bed dreaming of the wild lands whose mountains he could see shining through his prison walls. Jack had purchased for him some photographs of the Rocky Mountains, and when he desired to forget his surroundings he had but to look on the seamless dome of Sierra Blanca or the San Francisco peaks, or at the image of the limpid waters of Trapper"s Lake, and like the conjurer"s magic crystal sphere, it cured him of all his mental maladies, set him free and a-horse.
But one Sabbath afternoon he heard a new voice, a girl"s voice, so sweet and tender and true he could not forbear to look out upon the singer.
She was small and looked very pale under the white light of the high windows. She was singing alone, a wonderful thing in itself, and in her eyes was neither fear nor maidenly shrinking; she was indeed thrillingly absorbed and self-forgetful. There was something singular and arresting in the poise of her head. Her eyes seemed to look through and beyond the prison walls, far into some finer, purer land than any earthly feet had trod, and her song had a touch of genuine poetry in it:
"If I were a voice, a persuasive voice, That could travel the whole earth through, I would fly on the wings of the morning light And speak to men with a gentle might And tell them to be true-- If I were a voice."
The heart of the boy expanded. Music and poetry and love were waked in him by the voice of this singing girl. To others she was merely simple and sweet; to him she was a messenger. The vibrant, wistful cadence of her voice when she uttered the words "And tell them to be true," dropped down into the boy"s sullen and lonely heart. He did not look at her, but all the week he wondered about her. He thought of her almost constantly, and the words she sang lay in his ears, soothing and healing like some subtle Oriental balm. "On the wings of the morning light" was one haunting phrase--the other was, "And tell them to be true."
The other prisoners had been touched. Only one or two ventured coa.r.s.e remarks about her, and they were speedily silenced by their neighbors.
Harold was eager to seek Jack in order to learn the girl"s name, but Jack was at home, sick of a cold, and did not visit him during the week.
On the following Sunday she did not come, and the singing seemed suddenly a bitter mockery to Harold, who sought to solace himself with his pictures. The second week wore away and Jack came, but by that time the image of the girl had taken such aloofness of position in Harold"s mind that he dared not ask about her, even of his loyal chum.
At last she came again, and when she had finished singing Not half has ever been told, some prisoner started hand clapping, and a volley of applause made the cells resound. The girl started in dismay, and then, as she understood the meaning of this noise, a beautiful flush swept over her face and she shrank swiftly into shadow.
But a man from an upper cell bawled: "Sing The Voice, miss! sing The Voice!"
The leader of the band said: "Sing for them, Miss Yardwell."
Again she sang If I were a Voice, and out of the cells the prisoners crept, one by one, and at last Harold. She did not see him till she had finished the last verse, and then he stood so close to her he could have touched her, and his solemn dark eyes burned so strangely into her face that she shrank away from him in awe and terror. She knew him--no one else but the minister"s son could be so handsome and so refined of feature.
"You"re that voice, miss," one of the men called out.
"That"s right," replied the others in chorus.
The girl was abashed, but the belief that she was leading these sinners to a merciful Saviour exalted her and she sang again. Harold crept as near as he could--so near he could see her large gray eyes, into which the light fell as into a mountain lake. Every man there perceived the girl"s divine purity of purpose. She was stainless as a summer cloud--a pa.s.sionless, serene child, with the religious impulse strong within her.
She could not have been more than seventeen years of age, and yet so dignified and composed was her att.i.tude she seemed a mature woman. She was not large, but she was by no means slight, and though colorless, her pallor was not that of ill health.
Her body resembled that of a st.u.r.dy child, straight in the back, wide in the waist, and meager of bosom.
Her voice and her eyes subdued the beast in the men. An indefinable personal quality ran through her utterance, a sadness, a sympathy, and an intuitive comprehension of the sin of the world unusual in one so young. She had been carefully reared: that was evident in every gesture and utterance. Her dress was a studiously plain gray gown, not without a little girlish ornament at the neck and bosom. Every detail of her lovely personality entered Harold"s mind and remained there. He had hardly reached the a.n.a.lytic stage in matters of this kind, but he knew very well that this girl was like her song; she could die but never deceive. He wondered what her first name could be; no girl like that would be called "Dot" or "Cad." It ought to be Lily or Marguerite. He was glad to hear one of the girls call her Mary.
He gazed at her almost without ceasing, but as the other convicts did the same he was not observably devoted, and whenever she raised her big, clear eyes toward him both shrank, he from a sense of unworthiness, she from the instinctive fear of men which a young girl of her type has deep-planted within her. She studied him shyly when she dared, and after the first song sang only for him. She prayed for him when the Band knelt on the stone floor, and at night in her room she plead for him before G.o.d.
The boy was smitten with a sudden sense of his crime, not in the way of a repentant sinner, but as one who loves a sweet and gentle woman. All that his father"s preaching and precept could not do, all that the judge, jury, and prison could not do, this slip of a girl did with a glance of her big gray eyes and the tremor of her voice in song. All his misdeeds arose up suddenly as a wall between him and the girl singer.
His hard heart melted. The ugly lines went out of his face and it grew boyish once more, but sadder than ever.
His was not a nature to rest inactive. He poured out a hundred questions to Jack who could not answer half a dozen of them. "Who is she? Where does she live? Do you know her? Is she a good scholar? Does she go to church? I hope she don"t talk religion. Does she go to parties? Does she dance?"
Jack replied as well as he was able. "She"s a queer kind of a girl. She don"t dance or go to parties at all. She"s an awful fine scholar. She sings in the choir. Most of the boys are afraid to speak to her, she"s so distant. She just says "Yes," or "No," when you ask her anything.
She"s religious--goes to prayer meeting and Sunday school. About a dozen boys go to prayer meeting just because she goes and sings. Her folks live in Waverly, but she boards with her aunt, Mrs. Brown. Now, that"s all I can tell you about her. She"s in some of my cla.s.ses, but I da.s.sent talk to her."
"Jack, she"s the best and grandest girl I ever saw. I"m going to write to her."
Jack wistfully replied: "I wish you was out o" here, old man."
Harold became suddenly optimistic. "Never you mind, Jack. It won"t be long till I am. I"m going to write to her to-day. You get a pencil and paper for me quick."
Jack"s admiration of Harold was too great to admit of any question of his design. He would have said no one else was worthy to tie Mary"s shoe, for he, too, worshiped her--but afar off. He was one of those whom women recognize only as gentle and useful beings, plain and un.o.btrusive.
He brought the pad and pencil and sat by while the letter was written.
Harold"s was not a nature of finedrawn distinctions; he wrote as he fought, swift and determined, and the letter was soon finished, read, and approved by Jack.
"Now, don"t you let anybody see you give that to her," Harold said in parting.
"Trust me," Jack stanchly replied, and both felt that here was business of greatest importance. Jack proceeded at once to walk on the street which led past Mary"s boarding place, and hung about the corner, in the hope of meeting Mary on her return from school. He knew very exactly her hours of recitation and at last she came, her arms filled with books, moving with such stately step she seemed a woman, tall and sedate. She perceived Jack waiting, but was not alarmed, for she comprehended something of his goodness and timidity.
He took off his cap with awkward formality. "Miss Yardwell, may I speak with you a moment?"
"Certainly, Mr. Burns," she replied, quite as formally as he.
He fell into step with her and walked on.
"You know--my chum--" he began, breathing hard, "my chum, Harry Excell, is in jail. You see, he had a fight with a great big chap, Clint Sloc.u.m, and Clint struck Harry with a whip. Of course Harry couldn"t stand that and he cut Clint with his knife; of course he had to do it, for you see Clint was big as two of him and he"d just badgered the life out of Harry for a month, and so they jugged Harry, and he"s there--in jail--and I suppose you"ve seen him; he"s a fine-looking chap, dark hair, well built. He"s a dandy ball player and skates bully; I wish you could see him shoot. We"re going out West together when he gets out o" jail. Well, he saw you and he liked you, and he wrote you a letter and wanted me to hand it to you when no one was looking. Here it is: hide it, quick."
She took the letter, mechanically moved to do so by his imperative voice and action, and slipped it into her algebra. When she turned to speak Jack was gone, and she walked on, flushed with excitement, her breath shortened and quickened. She had a fair share of woman"s love of romance and of letters, and she hurried a little in order that she might the sooner read the message of the dark-eyed, pale boy in the jail.
It was well she did not meet Mrs. Brown as she entered, for the limpid gray of her eyes was clouded with emotion. She climbed the stairs to her room and quickly opened the note. It began abruptly:
"DEAR FRIEND: It is mighty good of you to come and sing to us poor cusses in jail. I hope you"ll come every Sunday. I like you. You are the best girl I ever saw. Don"t go to my father"s church, he ain"t good enough to preach to you. I like you and I don"t want you to think I"m a hard case. I used up Clint Sloc.u.m because I had to. He had hectored me about enough. He said some mean things about me and some one else, and I soaked him once with my fist. He struck me with the whip and downed me, then a kind of a cloud came into my mind and I guess I soaked him with my knife, too. Anyhow they jugged me for it. I don"t care, I"d do it again. I"d cut his head off if he said anything about you. Well, now I"m in here and I"m sorry because I don"t want you to think I"m a tough. I"ve done a whole lot of things I had not ought to have done, but I never meant to do anyone any harm.
"Now, I"m going West when I get out. I"m going into the cattle business on the great plains, and I"m going to be a rich man, and then I"m going to come back. I hope you won"t get married before that time for I"ll have something to say to you. If you run across any pictures of the mountains or the plains I wisht you"d send them on to me. Next to you I like the life in the plains better than anything.
"I hope you"ll come every Sunday till I get out. Yours respec"fly,
"HAROLD EXCELL.
"Jack will give this to you. Jack is my chum; I"d trust him with my life. He"s all wool."
The girl sat a long time with the letter in her hand. She was but a child, after all, and the lad"s words alarmed and burdened her, for the meaning of the letter was plain. It was a message of love and admiration, and though it contained no subtleties, it came from one who was in jail, and she had been taught to regard people in jail as lost souls, aliens with whom it was dangerous to hold any intercourse, save in prayer and Scripture. The handsome boy with the sad face had appealed to her very deeply, and she bore him in her thoughts a great deal; but now he came in a new guise--as a lover, bold, outspoken, and persuasive.
"What shall I do? Shall I tell Aunt Lida?" she asked herself, and ended by kneeling down and praying to Jesus to give the young man a new heart.