"Where _ain"t_ I been, you better ask, boss," he said. "I seen more rotten cities and more rotten towns and more rotten country than you can shake a stick at; G.o.d A"mighty knows what"s the good of it--I dunno!
Everybody I seen was strangers to me, never a face I knowed anywhere; Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis, Denver--to h.e.l.l with "em all, boss; old Mount Hope"s good enough for me!" And the handy-man shrugged his huge slanting shoulders.
"Don"t go so fast, Joe!" Langham cautioned, and his eyes searched the darkness ahead of them.
"It"s a risky business for you, boss," said the handy-man. "You ain"t used to this bridge like me."
"Do you always come this way?" asked Langham.
"Always, in all seasons and all shapes, drunk or sober, winter or summer," said the handy-man.
"One wouldn"t have much chance if he slipped off here to-night," said Langham with a shudder.
"Mighty little," agreed Montgomery. "Say, step over, boss--we want to keep in the middle! There--that"s better, I was clean outside the rail."
"Can you swim?" asked Langham.
"Never swum a stroke. The dirt"s good enough for me; I got a notion that these here people who are always dippin" themselves are just naturally filthy. Look at me, a handy-man doing all kinds of odd jobs, who"s got a better right to get dirty--but I leave it alone and it wears off. I"m blame certain you won"t find many people that fool away less money on soap than just me!" said Joe with evident satisfaction. "The old woman"s up!" he cried, as he caught the glimmer of a light on the sh.o.r.e beyond.
Perhaps unconsciously he quickened his pace.
"Not so fast, Joe!" gasped Langham.
"Oh, all right, boss!" responded Montgomery.
Langham turned to him quickly, but as he did so his foot struck the cinder ballast of the road-bed.
"Good night, boss!" said Joe, his eyes fixed on the distant light.
"Wait!" said Langham imperiously.
"What for?" demanded Montgomery.
"The water made such a noise I couldn"t talk to you out on the bridge,"
began Langham.
"Well, I can"t stop now, boss," said the handy-man, turning impatiently from him.
"Yes, d.a.m.n you--you can--and will!" and Langham raised his voice to give weight to his words.
Montgomery rounded up his shoulders.
"Don"t you try that, boss! Andy Gilmore could shout me down and cuss me out, but you can"t; and I"ll peel the face off you if you lay hands on me!" He thrust out a grimy fist and menaced Langham with it. There was a brief silence and the handy-man swung about on his heel.
"Good night, boss!" he said over his shoulder, as he moved off.
Langham made no answer, but long after Joe"s shuffling steps had died away in the distance he was still standing there irresolute and undecided, staring fixedly off into the darkness that had swallowed up the handy-man"s hulking figure.
Mr. Montgomery, muttering somewhat and wagging his head, continued along the track for a matter of a hundred yards, when his feet found a narrow path which led off in the direction of the light he had so confidently declared was his old woman"s. Then presently as he shuffled forward, the other seven houses of the row of which his was the eighth, cloaked in utter darkness, took shadowy form against the sky. The handy-man stumbled into his unkempt front yard, its metes and bounds but indifferently defined by the remnants of what had been a picket fence; he made his way to the side door, which he threw open without ceremony.
As he had surmised, his old woman was up. She was seated by the table in the corner, engaged in mending the ragged trousers belonging to Joseph Montgomery, junior.
At sight of Joe, senior, she screamed and flung them aside; then white and shaking she came weakly to her feet. The handy-man grinned genially.
He was not of demonstrative temperament.
"Joe!" cried Nellie, as she sprang toward him. "Dear Joe!" and she threw her arms about him.
"Oh, h.e.l.l!" said the handy-man.
Nellie was hanging limply about his neck and he was aware that she had kissed him; he could not remember when before she had taken such a liberty. Mr. Montgomery believed in a reasonable display of affection, but kissing seemed to him a singularly frivolous practice.
"Oh, my man!" sobbed Nellie.
"Oh, cheese it, and let me loose--I don"t like this to-do! Can"t a married man come home without all this fuss?"
"Dear Joe, you"ve come back to me and your babies!" And the tears streamed down her cheeks.
"I don"t need you to tell me that--I got plenty sense enough to know when I"m home!" said Montgomery, not without bitterness.
"I mourned you like you was pa.s.sed away, until your letter come!" said Nellie, and the memory of her sufferings set her sobbing afresh.
"Oh, great h.e.l.l!" exclaimed Joe dejectedly. "Why can"t you act cheerful? What"s the good of takin" on, anyhow--I don"t like tombstone talk."
"It was just the shock of seein" you standin" there in the door like I seen you so often!" said Nellie weakly.
"If that ain"t a woman for you, miserable because she"s happy. Say, stop chokin" me; I won"t stand for much more of this nonsense, you might know I don"t like these to-dos!"
"You don"t know what I"ve suffered, Joe!"
"That"s a woman for you every time--always thinkin" of herself! To hear you talk any one would think I"d been to a church picnic; I look like I"d been to a picnic, don"t I? Yes, I do--like h.e.l.l!"
"They said you would never come back to me," moaned Nellie.
"Who said that?" asked Mr. Montgomery aggressively.
"Everybody--the neighbors--Shrimplin--they all said it!"
"Ain"t I told you never to listen to gossip, and ain"t I always done what"s right?" interrogated the handy-man severely.
"Yes, always, Joe," said Nellie.
"Then you might know"d I"d come back when I got plenty good and ready. I fooled "em all, and I"m here to stay--that is if you keep your hands off me!"
"You mean it, Joe?" asked Nellie.
"What? About your keepin" your hands off me? Yes, you bet I do!"
And Montgomery by a not ungentle effort released himself from his wife"s embrace. This act so restored his self-respect that he grinned pleasantly at her.
"I don"t know when I been so happy, Joe--it"s awful nice to have you back!" said Nellie, wiping her eyes on the corner of her ap.r.o.n.