The Debtor Part 13

"But, Arthur," pleaded Mrs. Carroll, "what else is there left for us to worry about?"

Carroll's mouth twitched a little, but he looked and spoke quite gravely. "Well," he said, "I am going now, and I shall find the boy and bring him home safe and sound, and-- Amy, darling, have you eaten anything?"

"Oh, Arthur," cried his wife, reproachfully, "do you think I could eat when Eddy did not come home to dinner, and always something dreadful has happened other times when he has not come? Eddy has never stayed away just for mischief, and then come home as good as ever. Something has always happened which has been the reason."

"Well, perhaps he has stayed away for mischief alone, and that is what has happened now instead of the shooting," said Carroll.

"Arthur, if--if he has, you surely will not--"

"Arthur, you will not punish that boy if he does come home again safe and sound?" cried his sister.

Carroll laughed. "Have either of you eaten anything?" he asked.

"Of course not," replied his sister, indignantly.

"How could we, dear?" said his wife. "I had thought I was quite hungry, and when the butcher sent the roast, after all--"

"Perhaps I had better wait and not pay him until he does not send anything," murmured Anna Carroll, as if to herself. "And when the roast did come, I was glad, but, after all, I could not touch it."

"Well, you must both eat to-night to make up for it," said Carroll.

"I had thought you would as soon have it cold for dinner to-night,"

said Mrs. Carroll, in her soft, complaining voice. "We would not have planned it for our noon lunch, but we were afraid to ask the butcher for chops, too, and as long as there were no eggs for breakfast, we felt the need of something substantial; but, of course, when that darling boy did not come, and we had reason to think he was shot, we could not--" Mrs. Carroll leaned weepingly against her husband, but he put her from him gently.

"Now, Amy, dearest," said he, "I am going to find Eddy and bring him home, and--you say Marie has gone to hunt for him?"

"Yes, she went in one direction, and Ina and Charlotte in others,"

said Anna Carroll.

"Well," said Carroll, "I will send Marie home at once, and I wish you would see that she prepares an early dinner, and then we can go for a drive afterwards."

"Eddy can go, too," said Mrs. Carroll, quite joyously.

"No, Amy," said Carroll, "he will most certainly not go to drive with us. There are times when you girls must leave the boy to me, and this is one of them." He stopped and kissed his wife's appealing face, and went out. Then the carriage rolled swiftly round the curve of drive.

"He will whip him," said Anna to Mrs. Carroll, who looked at her with a certain defiance.

"Well," said she, "if he does, I suppose it will be for his good. A man, of course, knows how to manage a boy better than a woman, because he has been a boy himself. You know you and I never were boys, Anna."

"I know that, Amy," said Anna, quite seriously, "and I am willing to admit that a man may know better how to deal with a boy than a woman does, but I must confess that when I think of Arthur punis.h.i.+ng Eddy for the faults he may have--"

"May have what?" demanded Mrs. Carroll, quite sharply for her.

"May have inherited from Arthur," declared Anna, boldly, with soft eyes of challenge upon her sister-in-law.

"Eddy has no faults worth mentioning," responded Mrs. Carroll, seeming to enlarge with a sort of fluffy fury like an angry bird; "and the idea of your saying he inherits them from his father. You know as well as I do, Anna, what Arthur is."

"I knew Arthur before you ever did," said Anna, apologetically.

"Don't get excited, dear."

"I am not excited, but I do wonder at your speaking after such a fas.h.i.+on when we don't know what may have happened to the dear boy. Of course Arthur will not punish him if he is shot or anything."

"Of course not."

"And if he is not shot, and Arthur should punish him, of course it will be all right."

"Yes, I suppose it will, Amy," said Anna Carroll.

"Arthur feels so sure that nothing has happened to him that I begin to think so myself," said Mrs. Carroll, beginning to ascend the stairs with a languid grace.

"Yes, he has encouraged me," a.s.sented Anna. "I suppose we had better dress now."

"Yes, if we are going to drive directly after dinner. I'll put on my cream foulard, it is so warm. I suppose we have, perhaps, worried a little more than was necessary."

"I dare say," said Anna, trailing her white frills and laces before her sister the length of the upper hall. "I think I'll wear my blue embroidered linen."

"You said the bill for that came yesterday?"

"No, six weeks ago; certainly six weeks ago. You know I had it made very early. Oh yes, the second or third bill did come yesterday. I have had so many, I get mixed over those bills."

"Well, it is a right pretty gown, and I would wear it if I were you,"

said Mrs. Carroll.

Chapter VIII

Shortly after Captain Carroll started upon his search for his missing son, Randolph Anderson, sitting peacefully in his back office, by the riverward window, was rudely interrupted. He was mounting some new specimens. Before him the great tiger cat lay blissfully on his red cus.h.i.+on. He was not asleep, but was purring loudly in what resembled a human day-dream. His claws luxuriously p.r.i.c.ked through the velvet of his paws, which were extended in such a way that he might have served as a model for a bas-relief of a cat running a race. Now and then the tip of his tail curled and uncurled with an indescribable effect of sensuousness. The green things in the window-box had grown luxuriantly, and now and then trailing vines tossed up past the window in the infrequent puffs of wind. The afternoon was very warm.

The temperature had risen rapidly since noon. Down below the wide window ran the river, unseen except for a subtle, scarcely perceptible glow of the brilliant sunlight upon the water. It was a rather muddy stream, but at certain times it caught the sunlight and tossed it back as from the facets of brown jewels.

The murmur of the river was plainly audible in the room. It was very loud, for the stream's current was still high with the spring rains.

The rustle of the trees which grew on the river-bank was also discernible, and might have been the rustle of the garments of nymphs tossed about their supple limbs by the warm breeze. In fact, a like fancy occurred to Anderson as he sat there mounting his b.u.t.terflies.

"I don't wonder those old Greeks had their tales about nymphs closeted in trees," he thought, for the rustle of the green boughs had suggested the rustle of women's draperies.

Then he remembered how Charlotte Carroll's skirts had rustled as she went out of the store that last afternoon when he had spoken to her.

There was a soft crispness of ruffling lawns and laces, a most delicate sound, a maidenly sound which had not been unlike the sound of the young leaves of the willows overfolding and interlacing with one another when the soft breeze swelled high. Now and then all the afternoon came a slow, soft wave of warm wind out of the west, and all sounds deepened before it, even the purring song of the cat seemed to increase, and possibly did, from the unconscious a.s.sertion of his own voice in the peaceful and somnolent chorus of nature. It was only spring as yet, but the effect was as of a long summer afternoon. Anderson, who was always keenly sensitive to all phases of nature and all atmospheric conditions, was affected by it. He realized himself sunken in drowsy, unspeculative contentment. Even the strange, emotional unrest and effervescence, which had been more or less over him since he had seen Charlotte Carroll, was in abeyance. After all, he was not a pa.s.sionate man, and he was not very young. The young girl seemed to become merely a part of the gracious harmony which was lulling his soul and his senses to content and peace. He was conscious of wondering what a man could want more than he had, as if he had suspected himself of guilt in that direction.

Then, suddenly, pell-mell into the office, starling the great cat to that extent that he sprang from his red cus.h.i.+on on the window-ledge, and slunk, flattening his long body against the floor, under the table, came the boy Eddy Carroll. The boy stood staring at him rather shamefacedly, though every muscle in his small body seemed on a twitch with the restrained impulse of flight.

"Well," said Anderson, finally, "what's the trouble, sir?"

Then the boy found his tongue. He came close to the man.

"Say," he said, in a hoa.r.s.e whisper, "jest let a feller stay in here a minute, will you?"

Anderson nodded readily. He understood, or thought he did. He immediately jumped to the conclusion that the teasing boys were at work again. He felt a little astonished at this headlong flight to cover of the boy who had so manfully stood at bay a few hours before.