Mr. Harkutt coughed. It looks as if that blamed wind had blown suthin loose in the store, he said affectedly. I reckon Ill go and see. He hesitated a moment and then disappeared in the passage. Yet even here he stood irresolute, looking at the closed door behind him, and passing his hand over his still flushed face. Presently he slowly and abstractedly ascended the flight of steps, entered the smaller passage that led to the back door of the shop and opened it.
He was at first a little startled at the halo of light from the still glowing stove, which the greater obscurity of the long room had heightened rather than diminished. Then he passed behind the counter, but here the box of biscuits which occupied the centre and cast a shadow over it compelled him to grope vaguely for what he sought. Then he stopped suddenly, the paper he had just found dropping from his fingers, and said sharply,
Whos there?
Me, pop.
John Milton?
Yes, sir.
What the devil are you doin there, sir?
Readin.
It was true. The boy was half reclining in a most distorted posture on two chairs, his figure in deep shadow, but his book was raised above his head so as to catch the red glow of the stove on the printed page. Even then his fathers angry interruption scarcely diverted his preoccupation; he raised himself in his chair mechanically, with his eyes still fixed on his book. Seeing which his father quickly regained the paper, but continued his objurgation.
How dare you? Clear off to bed, will you! Do you hear me? Pretty goins on, he added as if to justify his indignation. Sneakin in here andand lyin round at this time o night! Why, if I hadnt come in here to
What? asked the boy mechanically, catching vaguely at the unfinished sentence and staring automatically at the paper in his fathers hand.
Nothin, sir! Go to bed, I tell you! Will you? What are you standin gawpin at? continued Harkutt furiously.
The boy regained his feet slowly and passed his father, but not without noticing with the same listless yet ineffaceable perception of childhood that he was hurriedly concealing the paper in his pocket. With the same youthful inconsequence, wondering at this more than at the interruption, which was no novel event, he went slowly out of the room.
Harkutt listened to the retreating tread of his bare feet in the passage and then carefully locked the door. Taking the paper from his pocket, and borrowing the idea he had just objurgated in his son, he turned it towards the dull glow of the stove and attempted to read it. But perhaps lacking the patience as well as the keener sight of youth, he was forced to relight the candle which he had left on the counter, and reperused the paper. Yes! there was certainly no mistake! Here was the actual description of the property which the surveyor had just indicated as the future terminus of the new railroad, and here it was conveyed to himDaniel Harkutt! What was that? Somebody knocking? What did this continual interruption mean? An odd superstitious fear now mingled with his irritation.
The sound appeared to come from the front shutters. It suddenly occurred to him that the light might be visible through the crevices. He hurriedly extinguished it, and went to the door.
Whos there?
Me,Peters. Want to speak to you.
Mr. Harkutt with evident reluctance drew the bolts. The wind, still boisterous and besieging, did the rest, and precipitately propelled Peters through the carefully guarded opening. But his surprise at finding himself in the darkness seemed to forestall any explanation of his visit.
Well, he said with an odd mingling of reproach and suspicion. I declare I saw a light here just this minit! Thats queer.
Yes, I put it out just now. I was goin away, replied Harkutt, with ill-disguised impatience.
What! been here ever since?
No, said Harkutt curtly.
Well, I want to speak to ye about Lige. Seein the candle shinin through the chinks I thought he might be still with ye. If he aint, it looks bad. Light up, cant ye! I want to show you something.
There was a peremptoriness in his tone that struck Harkutt disagreeably, but observing that he was carrying something in his hand, he somewhat nervously re-lit the candle and faced him. Peters had a hat in his hand. It was Liges!
Bout an hour after we fellers left here, said Peters, I heard the rattlin of hoofs on the road, and then it seemed to stop just by my house. I went out with a lantern, and, darn my skin! if there warnt Liges hoss, the saddle empty, and Lige nowhere! I looked round and called himbut nothing were to be seen. Thinkin he might have slipped offtho ez a general rule drunken men dont, and he is a good riderI followed down the road, lookin for him. I kept on follerin it down to your run, half a mile below.
But, began Harkutt, with a quick nervous laugh, you dont reckon that because of that he
Hold on! said Peters, grimly producing a revolver from his side-pocket with the stock and barrel clogged and streaked with mud. I found THAT too,and look! one barrel discharged! And, he added hurriedly, as approaching a climax, look ye,what I natrally took for wet from the raininside that hatwasblood!
Nonsense! said Harkutt, putting the hat aside with a new fastidiousness. You dont think
I think, said Peters, lowering his voice, I think, by God! HES BIN AND DONE IT!
No!
Sure! Oh, its all very well for Billings and the rest of that conceited crowd to sneer and sling their ideas of Lige genrally as they did jess now here,but Id like em to see THAT. It was difficult to tell if Mr. Peters triumphant delight in confuting his late companions theories had not even usurped in his mind the importance of the news he brought, as it had of any human sympathy with it.
Look here, returned Harkutt earnestly, yet with a singularly cleared brow and a more natural manner. You ought to take them things over to Squire Kerbys, right off, and show em to him. You kin tell him how you left Lige here, and say that I can prove by my daughter that he went away about ten minutes after,at least, not more than fifteen. Like all unprofessional humanity, Mr. Harkutt had an exaggerated conception of the majesty of unimportant detail in the eye of the law. Id go with you myself, he added quickly, but Ive got companystrangershere.
How did he look when he left,kinder wild? suggested Peters.
Harkutt had begun to feel the prudence of present reticence. Well, he said, cautiously, YOU saw how he looked.
You wasnt rough with him?that might have sent him off, you know, said Peters.
No, said Harkutt, forgetting himself in a quick indignation, no, I not only treated him to another drink, but gave himhe stopped suddenly and awkwardly.
Eh? said Peters.
Some good advice,you know, said Harkutt, hastily. But come, youd better hurry over to the squires. You know YOUVE made the discovery; YOUR evidence is important, and theres a law that obliges you to give information at once.
The excitement of discovery and the triumph over his disputants being spent, Peters, after the Sidon fashion, evidently did not relish activity as a duty. You know, he said dubiously, he mightnt be dead, after all.
Harkutt became a trifle distant. You know your own opinion of the thing, he replied after a pause. Youve circumstantial evidence enough to see the squire, and set others to work on it; and, he added significantly, youve done your share then, and can wipe your hands of it, eh?