A Master's Degree Part 7

"I brought her home. She is a good girl, too."

In spite of himself, Burgess resented the shame of such a father for the capable, happy-spirited daughter.

"Yesh, Dennie's good girl, all right."

Then a silence fell.

Presently, the old man spoke again.

"Shay, Prof esh, 'd ye mind doin' somethin' for me?"

"What is it?" Burgess was by nature courteous.

"If anything sh'd ever happen to me, 'd you take care of Dennie? Shay, would you?"

"If I could do anything for her, I would do it," the young man replied.

"Somethin' gonna happen to me. I ain't shafe. I know I'll go that way.

But you'll be good to Dennie. Now, wouldn't you? I'd ask Funnybone, but he's no shafer 'n I am. No shafer! You'll be good to Dennie, you said so. Shay it again!"

Bond was standing now bending threateningly toward Burgess, who had also risen.

"I'll do all that a gentleman ought to do." He had only one thought--to pacify the drunken man and get away. And the old man understood.

"Shwear it, I tell you! Lif' up your right hand an'--an' shwear to take care of Dennie, or I'll kill you!" Bond insisted.

He was a large, muscular man, towering over the slender young professor like a very giant, and in his eyes there was a cruel gleam. Vincent Burgess was at the limit of mental resistance. Lifting his shapely right hand in the shadowy light, he said wearily:

"I swear it!"

"One more question, and you may go. You know that little boy Vic Burleigh takes care of here?"

The Professor had heard of him.

"Vic keeps that little boy all right. He don't complain none. S'pose you help me watch um, Profesh." Then as an afterthought, Saxon added: "Young woman livin' out north of town. Pretty woman. She don't know nothing 'bout that little boy. Now, honest, she don't. Lives all by herself with a big dog."

Jealousy is an ugly, suspicious beast. Vincent Burgess was no worse than many other men would have been, because his mind leaped to the meaning old Saxon's words might carry. And this was the man with Elinor in the darkness and the storm. Before Burgess could think clearly, Saxon came a step nearer.

"Shay, where's Vic tonight?"

"Across the river with Miss Wream. They were cut off by the deep water,"

Vincent answered.

A quick change from drunkenness to sober sense leaped into Bond Saxon's eyes.

"Across the river! Great G.o.d!" Then sternly, with a grim set of jaw, he commanded: "You go home! If you dare to say a word, I'll kill you. If you try to follow me, he'll kill you. Go home! I 'm going over there, if I die for it." And the darkness and rain swallowed him as he leaped away to the westward!

Burgess gazed into the blackness into which Bond Saxon had gone until a soft hand touched his, and he looked down to see little Bug Buler, clad in his nightgown, standing barefoot beside him.

"Where's Vic?" Bug demanded.

"I don't know," Burgess answered.

"Take me up, I'se told." Bug stretched up his arms appealingly, and Burgess, who knew nothing of babies, awkwardly lifted him up.

"Tuddle me tlose like Vic do," and the little one snuggled lovingly in the Professor's embrace. "Your toat's wet. Is Vic wet, too?"

"Yes, little boy. We are all in trouble tonight." Burgess had to say something.

"In twouble? Umph--humph!" Bug shut his lips tightly, puffing out his cheeks, as was his habit. "I was in twouble, and I ist wented to Don Fonnybone. He's dood for twouble-ness. You go see him. Poor man!" and the little hand stroked Professor Burgess' feverish cheek.

"If you'll run right back to bed, I'll do it," Burgess declared. "We can learn even from children sometimes," he thought, as Bug climbed down obediently and toddled away.

Vincent Burgess went directly to Dr. Lloyd Fenneben, to whom he told the story of the day's events, including the interview with Bond Saxon.

He did not repeat Bond's words regarding Vic, but only hinted at the suspicion that there was something questionable in the situation in which Vic was placed. Nor did he refer to the old man's maudlin demand that he should take care of Dennie if she were left fatherless, and of his sworn promise to do so.

Burgess felt as, if the Dean's black eyes would burn through him, so steady was their gaze while the story was being told. When he had finished, Lloyd Fenneben said quietly:

"You are worn out with the excitement of the day and night. Go home and rest now. I've learned through many a struggle, that what I cannot fight to a finish in the darkness, I can safely leave with G.o.d till the daylight comes."

The smile that lighted up the stern face and the firm handclasp with which Lloyd Fenneben dismissed the young man were things he remembered long afterward. And above all, he recalled many times a sense of secret shame that he should have felt degraded because of his a.s.sociation with Dennie Saxon on this day. But of this last, the memory was stronger than the present realization.

Meanwhile, as the mad waters surged around the bend in the river, and swept over the shallows, Victor Burleigh flung his arm around Elinor Wream and leaped back from the very edge of doom.

"We must climb the bluff again. Be a good Indian!" he cried, groping for a footing.

Climbing the west bluff by daylight for the sake of adventure was very unlike this struggle in the darkness to escape the widening river, with a wind-driven torrent of rain sweeping down the land behind the first storm-fury, and Elinor Wream clung to her companion's arm almost helpless with fear.

"Do you think you can ever get us out? she asked, as the limestone ledge blocked the way.

"Do you know what my mother named me?" The carelessness of the tone was surprising.

"Victor!" she replied.

"Then don't forget it," Burleigh said. "It's a dreadfully rough way before us, little girl, but we'll soon be safe from the river. Don't mind this little bit of a storm, and you'll get personally conducted into Lagonda Ledge before midnight."

In her sheltered life, Elinor had never known anything half so dreadful as this storm and darkness and booming flood, but the fearlessness of the strong man beside her inspired her to do her best. It was only two hours since they were here before. How could she know that these two hours had marked the crisis of a lifetime for Victor Burleigh. With a friendly little pressure on his arm, she said bravely:

"I'd rather be here with you than over the river with anybody else. I feel safer here."

Vic knew she meant only to be courteous, but the words were comforting.

On the crest of the ledge the fierceness of the storm was revealed.

Great sheets of wind-blown rain were flung athwart the landscape, and the utter blackness that followed the lightning's glare, and the roaring of the wind and river were appalling.

In all this tumult, away to the northeast, the beacon light above the Sunrise dome was cutting the darkness with a steady beam.

"See that light, Elinor? We are not lost. We must get up stream a little way. Then we'll find the bridge, all right. The crowd will get home ahead of us, because this is the rough side of the river."