He reached the front door, deposited the May-basket with a force that further demolished it, and took to his heels. After another breathless wait the procession formed behind him and trailed after him up the road, hilly here, so that the market basket grew heavier.
"Some evening," Willard murmured to himself, not the rest of the world, but he sounded amiable.
"Willard."
"Well, kid."
"There wasn"t anybody in that house. Ed knew it."
"There might have been. They might have come home."
"But they didn"t ... Willard, is this all there is to it?"
"What?"
"Hanging May-baskets. Throwing them down that way. I thought maybe they really hung them, on the doork.n.o.b--I thought----"
"Silly! Ed"s going cross lots, and up the wood road to Larribees". Good work. That will throw them off the track."
"Throw who off the track?"
"You scared? Want to go home?"
"Oh, no! But who? There"s n.o.body chasing us. n.o.body."
"No. We"ve got them fooled. It"s some evening."
"Willard, where are the paddies?"
That was the question Judith had been wanting to ask more and more, for an hour, but it came in a choked voice, and n.o.body heard. They were plunging into a rough and stubbly wood lot, and hushing each other excitedly. Twigs caught at Judith"s skirt, and it was hard to see your way, with the moon, small and high above the trees in Larribee"s woods, only making the trees look darker. The wood road was little used and overgrown.
"If they get us in here!"
"They won"t, Willard." Judith"s voice trembled.
"Cry-baby!"
"I am not."
"Here, buck up. We"re coming out right here, back of the carriage house.
If Ed catches you crying he"ll send you home."
But Ed had his mind upon higher things. "You girls stay here with the baskets. Don"t move. Willard, you go right and I"ll go left, and we"ll meet at the carriage-house steps, if the coast is clear."
"If they get us----"
If! The boys crunched out of hearing on the gravel, awesome silence set in, and Rena and Natalie whispered; Judith was not to be awed. Four May-baskets hung, and n.o.body objecting; dark cross-streets chosen instead of Main Street and no danger pursuing them there. If there was no danger in the whole town, why should there be in one little strip of woods, though it was dark and strange, and full of whispering noises?
Judith had clung to Willard"s hand in terror, turning into the cross-streets, and nothing came of it. She was not to be fooled any longer. There was no danger.
Not that she wanted to be chased. She did not know what she wanted. But she had come out into the dark to find something that was not there. She had been happier on the doorsteps thinking about it. This, then, was hanging May-baskets--all there was to it. But it was pleasant here in the dark, pleasanter than walking through mud, and quarrelling. Now Rena and Nat were quarrelling again.
"Get back there! Ed said not to move."
"They"ve been gone too long. Something"s the matter."
"There they come. I hear them. Get back!"
They were coming, but something else was happening. Willard"s three whistles sounded, then Ed"s voice, and a noise of scuffling on the gravel--and a new boy"s voice.
Rena and Natalie, upsetting their basket as they started, and not noticing it, pushed through the trees and ran. Judith stood still and listened. She did not know the voice. It was shrill and clear. She could hear the words it said above the others" voices, all clamouring, now, at once. She held her breath and listened. She could not move.
"I don"t want your d.a.m.n May-baskets."
"Liar! Get back of him, Rena. Come on, Nat."
"You"ll get hurt. Let me go."
"Liar--Paddy!"
The magic word fell unheeded. The boy was laughing, and the laugh filled her ears, a splendid laugh, fearless and clear.
"Paddy!"
"I don"t want your d.a.m.n May-baskets."
"Paddy--Paddy!"
This time there was no answer. Judith, tearing at the hooks of her cape, and throwing it off as she ran, broke through the circling trees. Then she stopped and looked.
Rena stood high on the carriage-house steps and held the lantern. It wavered and swung in her hand, and threw a flickering circle of light round the group by the steps.
The sprawled shadows at their feet seemed to have an undue number of arms and legs, and the children were a struggling, uncertain ma.s.s of motion, hard to make out, like the shadows, but they were only four: Willard, grunting and groaning; Natalie attacking spasmodically in the rear, and the strange little boy, the enemy. He was the heart of the struggling group, and Judith looked only at him. She could do nothing but look, for Judith had never seen a little boy like this.
They were three against one, and the one was a match for them. He was slender and strong, holding his ground and making no noise. He was coatless and ragged shirted, and one sleeve of his shirt was torn, so that you could see how thin his shoulder was. He held his head high, and smiled as he fought. A shock of blond hair was tossed high above his forehead. He had a thin, white face, and dark jewels of flashing eyes.
As she stood and looked, they met Judith"s eyes, and Judith knew that she had never seen a boy like this, because there was no boy like this--no little boy so wild and strange and free, so ragged and brave.
If he could come out of the dark, it was full of unguessable things, splendid and strange and new. Judith"s heart beat hard, a hot feeling swept over her, and a queer mist came before her eyes. A wonderful boy; a fairy boy! What would they do to him? What did they do to paddies?
There was no little boy like this in the world.
"Judy!" The others had seen her and were calling her. "Come on. Help get him down."
"He chased Willard round here."
"He led the gang last year."
"It"s Neil Donovan."
"Get him down!"
Judith did not answer then. Her cheeks flamed red, and her eyes looked as big and dark as the stranger"s, and her small hands clenched tight.