Then I'll Come Back to You

the step he had taken; but when the time came for him to employ one of them, he forgot the entire lot and had to reso

, Sarah had bundled the boy off upstairs to bed, for he had come in out of the rain as sleekly wet as a water-rat, and blue-f

ly tried to account for his conduct. "And this seems to me to be as big an opportunity as I'

once at least. It was hard to know what she was thinking when she sat like that

m," she assente

might amount to some

ure of it," his

ned along that tack, so Caleb gave up t

he murmured. "It is pretty sudden-but I don'

brother. Her eyes were unaccountably

you came sidling up to the veranda behind him. I was certain of it, even then. And if you hadn't decided

m one plan to another, eager, half-breathless, and more wildly prophetic than the man had dared to be, until the realization gradually dawned in her brother's brain that great as had been his desire to keep

e of the things you used to wear which look as though they hadn't been worn at all. I laid some of them out for him to put on when he gets u

nstead he blushed uncomfortably at the gurgle in her throat. And so, the next morning, when a little figure in velvet jacket and pantaloons-velvet of the same jet hue in w

. There were red-topped boots upon the slim feet which the day before had been encased in Old Tom's cast-off brogans; these were ruffed cuffs of sheerest white linen at brown and sinewy wr

m gave way to a newer wonder. For the boy, in spite of the fact that his small face above the pleated collar was burning hot with consciousness of self, wore them in a fashion unforgettable. Then

ther. For he knew, as completely as though he had heard it from the boy's own lips, that nothing in the world but the knowledge that "Miss S

she demanded of her brother. "Did you! Oh,

eflectively at

y: "What-did he say anything, last night, when y

for the longest time. He made me think somehow of a puppy that knows he's going to be scrubbed and-an

r to invite Dexter Allison to come and take a look at him. I was tel

he searched the house through without finding the boy. In his pe

Stephen?"

dded to

hen, when I thought you wouldn't be back for a whi

ed fairly

illage?" he echoed. "Did he

Sarah rounded o

s face alarmed her. "Cal," she exclaimed, "I hav

a wry face to

age, and it's a lumber town! He's gone, and if

fear instantly. She ste

," she whispered. "But y

fter placing a chair for her, drew one up for himself and, with an expan

t in the assurance, "that this will be we

llison, who had fondly looked forward to the worst, the little suit with the pretty ruffed cuffs was an unbelievable wreck. The coat had been ripped from hem to collar and dangled loose upon either side as the

as Steve marched across the lawn the dangerous whiteness of the boy's countenance half frightened the man. His lips were a thin streak across a jaw tight clamped and flecked with blood in one corner. And his eyes had the

falter

his head. Both men heard that breath, sh

n?" Caleb attempted agai

cognized the

ds. "I been daown to git Miss Sarah a dozen eggs-

've brought the eggs back with you, or most of them, I see

laughter which lasted until he was moaning for breath. And Steve,

othes," Caleb advised him then. "And I'll get you

y stood ri

, "will you give me

up quickly from

ched into his pocket and handed the coin to the boy

hing down the steps. He pause

e city," he grated out. "I'm goi

the paper bag which held his purchase were as

entered the house. "I am damned! You'll have to bring tha

ouldn't

you so!"

sister would have believed could be crammed into twenty times that duration. And Caleb spent most of his w

m-the Right Honorable Archie. But from the very first, Steve's lack of enthusiasm for their company impressed itself upon Caleb. As a matter of fact, the boy did cross over and join in their games the first day or two, but it was only after Caleb him

worship Barbara's treatment of him was truly feminine. He out-ran the other boys as a deer might outrun an ox; he out-leaped them without putting himself to an effort, but he won scant attention or visible admiration from the dark-eyed Barbara. She was far more likely to turn from his hungry eyes to compliment the H

uelty of a woman-child of ten-unless it is that of a woman of twenty or thirty, and on up the scale-when she first finds out that a ma

her own sex with much asperity; instead, the

startled Caleb. "That isn't the reason he doesn't want to play with them. They have been laughing at him, Cal; they

face h

u that?" he dem

one figure from the other, but his reading is truly marvelous. He can read as fluently, as expressively, as you or I can; and one day, after he had been

ht to talk in book

g, and after a time his blesse

ded over yonder, Cal, 'do

rocess which is habit with him." Sarah's face grew resentful. "I wish we'd never let him go over there, in the first place. We should have known!

him away from them." And under his breath he added some

step of the veranda, staring in the direction of the stucco lodge and listening to the voices behind the high hedge. More and more often Garry Devereau came over and joined him instead, and togethe

icent boy into a moody and cynical skeptic who, at the age of thirty, had put the muzzle of his own revolver against his temple and pulled the trigger, because as he phrased it, "he was tired of the game." The skepticism was already there in Garry Devereau's slow smile. An

It seemed to him then that he should have foreseen it from the very first. But as it was, when the denouement of

the floor, his eyes glued to the pages. And one day, two weeks after the occurrence of the eggs, he came to Sarah with a shy question, a book in one hand. After she had caught the drift of his query, Sarah took the volume and found that he had been reading of the fabulous deeds of King Arthur and his Knights of the Rou

nished when the boy explained, a little awkwardly, that he was going over to Allison's grounds for a while. Allison himself passed Steve in the hedge gap and, with a word of greeting, stopped to shake hands with him gravely. So it came about that they were sitting together, Dexter and Caleb, sm

ed the Honorable Archibald Wickersham with true riverman thoroughness, which meant the infliction of the greatest possible damage in the least possible time. An inscrutable sort of contempt curled his lips when Barbara Allison frantically begged him to resc

training bodies and began to beat with tight-clenched little hands upon Steve's tousled head, that the power of action returned to him. He fairly leaped forward then, scattering the circle before his weighty rush and, lea

and stood peering sternly down into his battle-streak

in, but his voice was cold. "Well, young

raiment-fell to dabbling at a bruised and swollen nose. When he found that there was blood upon h

ised as he was at Steve's reception of his question. The latter looked up, just pushed his

ted the Honorable Archie-"and-and so did I." This time his eyes went to Barbara, who was listening, her teeth sunk in her lip. "He wanted to be her knight-an'-an' he ain't got no call to

tter-of-fact exp

he realized that he had walked into a situation bigger than any with which he was prepared to cope. Already it had become veritable comedy to the broadly grinning Allis

teve," he explained ponderously, "the-the fair la

cking the turf with the toe of his new boot; then his head came up and, flaming red, he squared his shoulders and faced Barbara full. The move was unmistakable-he was just waiting for

u!" And she turned her back and went, solici

th that answer which she flung at him. The boy fell away a step before her fierce little visage; he crooked one arm, over the

owed and overtook his friend. He did not speak to him; he merely dropped one hand upon his drooping shoulders. And yet the men, had they talked for an hour, could not have conveyed all that there was in that s

n't know enough, ner I can't talk good enough, to be your knight. I ain't good enough fer you! But I'm

from sight. Caleb stood staring at the gro

turned and followed his boy home. It was the first time in his memory that he and Dexter Allison

dless face had told Sarah too much and too little. After her bro

could we have stopped it, Cal? And you won't believe me, but it's because Barbara Allison cares more for our boy's little finger than she c

is room, fear in their hearts. The bed had not been slept in; the sheets were not even disarranged, but there was a scrap of paper pinned

' my new clothes with me because I knowed you would a-wanted me to-and the shoes, too. I'm askin' you to take keer o

ned "Steph

d read it through. Her knees weaken

al, he's-he's go

d down into her

's gone,"

t from under her eyelids and went coursing down her

numb from the shock, went back downstairs. She came up to him and stoo

hen, please, Uncle

deep and un

Barbara," he said a

didn't u

ll him that I'm sorry. But I-I want to tell him, too, that if I coul

g at his throat which

gone away," he

o the big dark ey

reakfast, won't he?"

I'm afraid now that he m

isper there was no further need of explanation. She ran then and threw herself in a passion of tears upon a window-seat in the co

ra sobbed. "Please-please! Because he is coming back