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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1924-04-11, Page 7k.k BRUISES WOW' TRIMP,Li; EY MARIE CONY OEM CROSSET" DITNLA Nelv oVk. (crsttig14 taw **mil.) • HYMI've bnd a in twistekin your nose for once, old snort!" said he, and led, mento the daa* We mov- ed land the same exquisite caution we had exercised upon entering, for couldn't afford to have loon Jackson's keen old ears detect footballs ovea- head at that hour of the Morning. Wow we were at the foot of the long stein, and Flint had soundlessly op- • ened and closed the last door be- tween us and freedom. And now we , were once more in the open air, un- der the blessed shadow of the Mc- Call trees, and walking close to their old weatherbeaten fence. The light was still shining in the bank led I knew that that redoubtable old rebel of a watchman was peacefully sleep- ing with his gray guerilla of a mar- auding cat beside him. He could af- ford to sleep in peace. He had not failed in his trust, for the intruders had no designs upon the bank's gold. Questioned, he could stoutly swear that nobody had entered the building. In proof, were. not all doors locked? Who should break into a man's of- fice and rob his safe just to get a paekage of love-letters—if Inglesby made complaint? I remember we stood leaning a- gainst the McCall fence for a few mieutes, for my strength had of a sudden failed, my head spun like a top, and iny legs wavered under me. "Buck up!" said Flint's voice in my ear. "It's all over, and. the baby's named for his Poppa!" His arm went about me, an arm like a steel bar. Half led, half carried, I went stag- gering on beside him like a drunken man, clutching a rosary and a packet of love letters. The streets were still dark end de- serted, the whole town slept. But over in the east, when one glimpsed the skies above the trees, a nebulous gray was stealing upon the datkness; and the morning star blazed magnifi- cently, in a space that seemed to have been cleared for it. Somewhere far off, an ambitious rooster crowed to make the sun rise. It took us a long time to reach home. It was all of a quarter past four when we turned into the Parish House gate, cut across the garden and reached Flint's rooms. Faint, trembl- ing in every limb, I fell into a chair, and through a mist saw him kneel and blow upon the coals of the ex- piring fire, upon which he dropped a lightwood knot. A ruddy glow went dancing up the chimney. Then he was beside me again. Very gently he removed hat and overcoat. And then I was sitting peacefully in the Morris chair, in my old cassock, and with my own old biretta on ray head; and there was rio longer that thin buzzing shrill and torturing as a mosquito's, singing in my ears. At my knee eteod Kerry, with his beau- tiful 'hazel eyes full of a grave con- cern; and beside bim, calm and kind and matter-of-fact, the Butterfly Man himself stood watching me with an equal regard. I rubbed my forehead. The incredible had happened, and like all incredible things it had been al- most ridiculously simple and easy of accomplishment Here we were, we two, priest and naturalist, in our own workroom, with an old dog wagging his tail beside me. Could anything be more commonplace? The last trace of nightmare vanished as smoke dispelled by the wind. If Mary Vir- ginia's letters had not been within reach of my hand I would have sworn I was just out of a dream of that past hour. "She has escaped from them, they cannot touch her, she is free!" I ex- ulted. "John, John, you have saved our girl! No matter what they do to Eustis they can't drag her into the quicksands now," But he went walking up and dow-n shoulders squared, face uplifted. One neg.& think that after such a night he would have been humanly tired, but he had clean forgotten his body. His eyes shone as with a flame lit from inward, and I think there was on him what the Irish people call the Aisling, the waking vision. For pres- eptly he began to speak, as to Some- body very neir 'o him. "Oh, Lord G ',1!" said the Butterfly Man, with a reterent and fierce joy, "she's going to have her happiness now, and it wasn't holy priest nor fine gentlemen you picked out to help her toward it—it was me, Slippy Mc- Gee, born in the streets and bred in the gutter, with the devil knows who for his daddy and a name that's none of his own! For that I'm Yours for keeps: You've got me. "You've done all even God mighty can do, given me more than ever could have asked You for—and nate it's up to me to make good—and 1'11 do it!" There came to listening me some- thing of the emotion I experienced • when I said my first Mass—as if I had been brought so close to our Fa- ther that I could have put out my hand and touched Him. Ali! I had 'had a very small part to play in this maa's redemption. I knew it now, and felt hunibled and abashed, and yet grateful that eyen so much had been allowed me. Not I, but Love, had transformed ainner and an out - OW b00% pude- t Trench's °vita) 'mato tft MIN& iaiffo otoJantes' Oliambers7(2-Akd • Toronto. cattalo golition*I4 aten *WI! `‘44t lionoritetaiOtewere tei tinees.Wka 114:v0141kl ary Virginie,4 $14 41Stitd ..0114Pely =AA .4.411d 1 am—what na: Yet apra*vow T feel sups can eVe tcoZ' fief; $bet eAo: t detit on caring ter chei.'1,0 ;the end of ;time wahouthurt tO. her or sorrow to And after pause, he added deliberately: 7 ,a . found acaneping better than a 4:iaekage, of lettep, to -night, parson. 1 found—Mp." For awhile neither of us spoke. Then he said, speculatively: give all sorts of things to the church-a-dedioate them, in grati- tude for favors they fancy they've re- ceived, don't they?.. Lamps, and mod- els of .ships, and glass eyes and wax toes and leather hands, and crutches and braces, and that sort of plunder? Well, 'Pm moved to make a free-will offering myself. I'm going" to give the church my kit, and you can take it from me the old Lady will never get her clamps on another set like 'hat until Gabriel blows his trinnpet in the morning. Parson, I want You to put those tools back where, you had them, for I shall never touch them again. I couldn't. They—well, they are sort of holy from now on. They are my I 0 U. Will you do it for me?" "Yes!" said I. "I might have known you would!" said; he, smiling. "Just One more favor, parson—may. I put her letters in her hands, myself?" "My son, my son, who but you should do that?" I pushed the pack- age •across the table. "Great Scott, parson, here it is .striking five o'clock, and you've been up all night!" he exclaimed anxiously. "Here—no more gassing. You come lie down on my bed and snooze a bit. I'll 'call you in plenty of time for mass." I was far too spent and tired to move across the garden to the Parish House. I suffered myself to be put to bed like a child, and had my re - weed by falling almost immediately into a dreamless sleep, nor did I stir until he called me, a couple of hours later. He himself had not slept, but had employed the time in going through the letters open in his table. He pointed to them, now, with a grim smile. "Parson!" said he, and his eyes glittered. "Do you know what we've stumbled upon? Dynamite! Man, anybody holding that bunch of mail could blow this state wide open! So much for a hunch, you see!" "You mean--" "I mean I've got the cream qff In- glesby's most private deals, that is what I mean! I mean I could send him and plenty of his pals to the pen. Everybody's been saying for years that there hasn't been a rotten deal pulled off that he didn't boss and get away with it. But nobody could proye it. Ile's had the men higher- up eating out of his hand—sort of you pat my head and I'll pat yours arrangement—and here's the proof, in black and white. Don't you un- derstand? Here's the proof: these get him with the goods! "These," he slapped a letter, "would make any Grand Jury ;throw fits, make every newspaper in the state break out into headlines like a kid with measles, and blow the lid off things in general—if they got out. "Inglesby's going to shove Eustis under, is he? Not by a jugfull. He's going to play he's a patent life -pre- server. He's going to be that good Samaritan he's been shamming. Talk about poetic justice—this will be like wearing shoes three sizes tod small for him, with a bunion on every toe!" And when I looked at him doubtfully, he laughed. ' "Yoke can't see how it's going to be managed? Didn't you ever hear of the grapevine telegraph?Well then, dear George receives a grapevine wireless bright and early to-tnorrow morning. A word to the wise is suf- ficient." • "He will employ detectives," said I, uneasily. The Butterfly Man looked at me quizzically. "With an eagle eye and a walrus mustache," said he, grinning. "Sure. But if the plainclothes nose around, are they going to sherlock the parish priest and the town bughunter? We haven't got any interest in Mr. In- glesby's private correspondende, have we? Suppose Miss Eustis's letters are returned to her, what does that prove? Why, nothing at all,—ex- cept that it wasn't her correspond- ence the fellows that cracked that safe were after. We should worry! "Say, thoegh, don't you wish you could see them when they stroll to those beautiful offices and go for to open that nice burglar-proof safe with the little brass flower pot on top of it? What a joke! Holy whis- kered Meek cat, what a joke!" "I'm afrnid Mr. Inglesby's sense of humor isn't his strong point," said I. "Not that I have any sympathy for him. 1 think he is getting only what he deserves." "Alexander the coppersmith wrought me much evil. May Gocl re- quite him according to his works!" murmured the Butterfly Man, piously and chuckled. "Don't worry, parson —Alexander's flue to fall sick with the pip to -day or 'to -morrow. What do you bet he don't get it so bad he'll have to pull up all his pretty plane by the roots, leave Mr. Hunter in eharge, and go off somewhere to take rnudbaths for his liver? Believe me, he'll need them! Why, the man won't be able to breathe easy any more— he'll be expecting one in the solar "lexus any minute, net knovring any more., titan Adam's cat who's to hand to him. Pro axial tell who to tiust nd-tho t stumeet. If rob want ta 6" jilet how hard Alexander's go- hapqnited according to hie 4 ,was .semn, ,rn rtigillx.-unWizvfor., Plebe fellte, is to know *tette thiegs 004 sai peos Pie, I Was aemzed te the Vel'int stepefaetiOn at the Pe -Melt -len those eeeeteclenUatione hetraeeile the.same- les e and sordid disregard of lew end decency, tbe bretal and 43elietal iadlf ference to publicWelfare, At ,eiglet of some of the signatures my heed swam -1 felt saddened, disillusioned, almost in despair for humanity. I suppose Ifiglesby had thought it wis- er to preserve these letters—possibly for his own safety; but no wonder he had locked them up! I looked at the Butterfly Man openmouthed. "You- wouldn't think folks wearing such names could be that rotten, would yeti? Some of them pillars of the church, too, and married to good wo- men, and the fathers of nice kids! Why, I have known crooks that the police of a dozen states were after, that wouldn't have been caught dead on jobs like some of these. Inglesby won't know it, but he ought to thank his stars we've got his letters instead of the State Attorney, for I shan't use them unless e have to . . . Par- son, you remember a bluejay break- ing up a nest on me once, and what Laueeece said when I wanted to wring the little crook's neck? That the thing isn't to reform the jay but to keep him from doing it again? That's the cue." He gathered up the scattered let- ters, made a neat package of them, and put it in a table drawer behind a stack of note -books. And then he reached over and touched the other, package, the letters written in 11/Lary Virginia's girlish hand. "Here's her happiness—long, long years of it ahead of her," he said sob- erly. "As for you, you take •back those tools, and go say mass." Outside it was broad bright day, a new beautiful day, and the breath of the morning blew sweetly over the world. The Church was full of a clear and early light, the young pale gold of the new Spring sun. None of the congregation had as yet arrived. Before I went into the sacristy to put on my vestments, I gage back into St. Stanislaus' hands the I 0 U of Slippy McGee. CHAPTER XX BETWEEN A BUTTERFLY'S WINGS There was a glamour upon it. One knew it was going to grow into one of those wonderful and shining days in whose enchanted hours any ex- quisite miracle might happen. I am perfectly sure that the Lord God -walked in the garden in the cool of an April day, and that it was a morn- ing in spring when the angels visited Abraham, sitting watchful in the door of his tent. There was in the air itself some- thing long -missed and come back, a heady and heart -moving delight, a promise, a thrill, a whisper of "April! April!" thet the Green Things and the hosts of the Little People had heard overnight. In the dark the sleeping souls of the golden butter- flies had dreamed it, known it was a true Word, and now they were out, "Little flaraes of God" dancing in the Sunday sunlight. The Red Gulf Fri- tillary had heard it, and here she was, all in her fine fulvous frock besmoked with black velvet, and her farthin- gale spangled with silver. And the gallant Red Admiral, the brave beau- tiful Red Admiral that had dared un- friendlier gales, trimmed his painted sails to a wind that was the breath of spring. Over by the gate the spires had ventured into showering sprays ex- haling a shy and fugitive fragrance and ewhat had been a blur of gray cabltes- strung upon the oaks had be- gun to bud with emerald and blossom with amethyst—the wistaria was a - horning. And one ktew there was Cherokee rose to follow, that the dog- wood was in white, and the year's new mintage of gold dandelions was being coined in the fresh grass. There wasn't a bird that wasn't caroling April! at the top of his voice from the full of his heart; for wasn't the world alive again, wasn't it love -time and nest -time, wasn't it Spring? Even to the tired faces of my work folks ,that shining morning ;lent a light that was hope. Without know- ing it, they felt themselves a vital part of the reborn world, sharers in its joy because they were the children of the common lot, the common peo- ple for whom the world is, and with- out whom the world could be. Class- es, creeds, nations, gods, all these pass and are gone; God, and the common people, and the spring remain. When I was young I liked as well as another to dwell overmuch upon the sinfulness of sin, the sorrow of serrow, the despair of death. Now that these three terrible teachers have taught me a truer wisdom and a larger faith, I like better to turn to the glory of hope, the wisdom of love, and the simple truth that death is just a passing phase of life. So I sent my workers home that morning rejoicing With the truth, and was all the happier and hopefuller myself be - ,110.61116.9 It (DS TilomAs• tECLECT DC CD II FL, 14) Anwvosp_LviDE eatibey ti lt SFIPIADALWIVATA teEKEPPET 8 • 11)-IRID. AS RE SER. EARL PREPAR-- tTSIE FORiNISNWD • QT 41) R5 FOUND. DE AVE IT R DY FQ TTLE TO-OAy Nb) THE TIME EN YO VVILL NE D IT. Twee can. tbeY lonlieef giant* at tbe1Sudayeetelteale ought to eirove to. aiy eight tibtrO:R/ Man that Wee tie South Carollee , live in New eerier fp' Mt in I think OW ./534#441 Man and Nee jor Cartwright huy^t osts papers be.. cause they therdelhee are futons! After they have ,ped and sniggeged, they donate "eletiea to Cielie and Deelde, January. And Presently Clelie dls- jtributes them to a waiting colored' countryside, which 'wallpapers its houses with them. I have had to counsel the erring ,and bolster the faith of the backsliding under the goggle eyes of inliantan creations whose unholy capers have made fu- tile many a per. And yet the E° txtveoinfidYerlan lfices them! Is it met tce He laid them tendeely upon the te- ble now, and smiled slyly to see my eye them askance. "Did you knew," said he, over his coffee, "that Launrence came in this morning on the six o'clock? Janu- ary had him out in the garden show- ing off the judge's new patent .hives, And I stopped on my way to church and shook hands over the fence. It was all I could do to keep from shout- ing that all's right with the world, and all he had to do was to be glad. I didn't know how much I cared for that boy until this morning. Parson, it's a—a terrible thing to love people when you come to think about it, isn't it? I told him you were honing to see him: and that we'd be looking for him along about eleven. And I inti- mated that if he didn't show up then I'd go after him with a gun. He said he'd be here on the stroke." Af- ter ap moment, he added gently; "I figured they'd be here by then—Ma- dame and Mary Virginia." "What! You have induced Laur- ence to come while she is here—with- out giving him any intimation that he is likely to meet her?" I said, a- ghast. "You are a bold man, John Flint!" The study windows were open and the sweet wind and the warm sun poured in unchecked. The stir of bees, the scent of honey -locust just opening, drifted in, and the slow sol- emn clangor of church bells, and lilts and flutings and calls and whistlings from the tree tops. We could see passing groups of our neighbors, fa- thers and mothers shepherding little flocks of children in their Sunday best, trotting along with demure Sabbath faces on their way to church. The Butterfly Man looked out, waved gaily to the passing children, who waved back a joyous response, nod- ded to their smiling parents, followed the flight of a tanager's sober spouse, and sniffed the air luxuriously. "Oh, somebody's got to stage man- age, parson," he said at last, lightly enough, but with a hint of tiredness in his eyes. "And 'then vanish behind the scenes, leaving the hero and hero- ine in the middle of the spotlight, with the orchestra tuning up 'The Voice that Breathed o'er Eden,'" he finished without a trace of bitterness. "So I sent Madame a note by a little nig- ger newsie." His eyes crinkled, and he quoted the favorite aphorism of the colored people, when they seem to exercise a meiculous care: "Brer Rabbit say, '1 tru' no mistake.'" "You are a bold man," said I again, with a respect that made him laugh. Then we went over to his rooms to wait, and while we waited / tried to read a chapter of a book / was anx- ious to finish, but couldn't, my eyes being tempted by the greener and fresher page opening before them. Flint smoked a virulent pipe and read his papers. Presently he laid his finger upon a paragraph and handed me the paper . . . And 1 read where one `Sprike' Frazer had been shot to death in a hand-to-hand fight with the police who were raiding a dive suspected of being the rendezvous of drug -fiends. Long wanted and at last cornered, Frazer had fought tigerishly and died in his tracks, preferring death to capture. A sly and secretive crea- ture, he had had a checkered career in the depths. It was his one boast that more than anybody else he had known and been a sort of protege of the once notorious Slippy McGee, that King of Crooks whose body had been found in the East River some years since, and whose daring and mysteri- ous exploits were not yet, altogether forgotten by the police or the under- world. "Sic transit gloria mundir said the Butterfly Man in his gentle voice and looked out over th, peaceful gar- den and the Sunday calm with in- scrutable eyes. I returned the paper with a hand that slmok. It seemed to me that a deep ned solemn hush fell for a moment upon the glory of the day, while the -pecter of what might have been gibbered at us for; the last time. Out of the heart of that hush walk- ed two women—one little and rosy and white-haired; one tall and pale and beautiful with the beauty upon which sorrow has placed its haunting imprint. Her black hair framed her face as in ebony, and her blue eyes were shadowed. By an odd coinci- dence she was dressed this morning just as she had been When the But- terfly Man firste-saw her—in white, and over it a scarlet jacket. Kerry and little Pitache rose, met them at the gate, and escorted them With grave politeness. Th P Butterfly Man hastily emptied his pipe and laid a- side his newspapers. "Your note said we were th, come, that everything was all right," said my mother, looking up at him with bright and trustful eyes., "Stich a relief! Because I know you never say anything you don't aslant, joint." He smiled, and with a Wave of the hand beckoned as into the workroom. Madame followed him eagerly, a expeetarrbly--alte knew her johin pg040 .iii5.tjL_.-th,9100,10 he gloged.„4'kcei',•44k1 the riapita0,#, lettfeni #10 meiit so liatiah .te • .Uy mother ',‘Artnand!" she said, earfuliy. 4f' has told me all. Mee.-Dieuho haveyou two managed this "bet e , w e midnight and rapraine Ny' ,o0n 31,01,1 are a De Ranee': look me in rhe eyes and tell me there is nothing wrong, that there twill he no ill consequences.", "There won't be any comebacks," said John Flint, with engaging confi- dence. "As for you, Mary Virginia, you don't have to worry for °Remains ute about what those fellows can do —because they can't do anything. They're double-crossed. Now listen: -wlaen you see Hutitee, you are to say to him, `Thank you for returning my letters.' Just that and no more. If there's any questioning, stare. Stare hard. If there's any threatening a- bout eour father, smile. You can afford to smile. They. can't touch him. But how those letters came in- to your hands you are never to tell, you understand? They did come and that's all that interests you." He began to laugh, softly. "All Hunter will want to know is that you've re- ceived teem. He's too game not to lose without noise, and he'll make Inglesby swallow his dose without squealing, too. So—you're finished and done with Mr. Hunter and Mr. Inglesby!" His voice deepened again C4.ed at the:i'et. tots 53i' en 'at, ma, and tamable f wili"arnistOtrotubulse'dm. YgebAuldid/Po'beYadJa4;0%:63'ri:14.4. iinplicitly. Do just what he tells you to doa,saywhathe;totd from one syou say.:" Mary Virginia looked to, the other; thrust the package Upon nee, walked swiftly up to him, and, laying her hands upon his arms star- ed with passionate earnestness into his face: tihe kind, wise, lovable face that every child in. Appleboro County adores, every woman trusts, every man respects. Her eyes'clang to his and he met that searching gaze out faltering, though it seemed to probe for the root of his soul. It was well for Mary Virginia that those brave eyes had caught something from the great faces that hung upon his walls and kept company and coun- sel with 'him day and night, they that 'conquered life and death and, turned defeat into victory because they had first conquered themselves! "Yes!" said she, with a deep sigh of relief. "I trust you! Thank God for just how much I an believe and Women you envy have only this secret nerous tta proa; the "eeternMet - eft. iler':taroa; her scsi her happiness, the hetnee coming years tvete; to ,tA,74 14t11104 to Mary Virginia /paw' all this; those lightningaliashee of", insight that reveal More than, Slower years; I like to tlaizAt 4 it given her freely, noble', wi a glorious love -gift from the man into whose empty hand *OM e day put a little gray yandlor*Pof I glanced eit my mother, and Or* by her most expressive face that she , knew and understood. She had. known and understood, long hafeee. any of us. "If I might offer a suggestion"' said in as matter-of-fact a voice as 1 could comm -and, "it would) be, that the sooner those letters are destroy-. ed, the better." (Continued next week.) You, too, mai, employ it to keep the radiance and bloom of youthful skin Radiant, with the charm of youth still theirs, millions of clever women are admired—and enviedl—today. 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