第79章 CHAPTER XIX(1)

At twelve o'clock on a night late in the following week Captain Shadrach, snoring gloriously in his bed, was awakened by his partner's entering the room bearing a lighted lamp. The Captain blinked, raised himself on his elbow, looked at his watch which was on the chair by the bed's head, and then demanded in an outraged whisper:

"What in the nation are you prowlin' around this hour of the night for? You don't want to talk about those divilish bills and credits and things, I hope. What's the use? Talkin' don't help none!

Jumpin' fire! I went to bed so's to forget 'em and I was just beginnin' to do it. Now you--"

Zoeth held up his hand. "Sshh! sshh!" he whispered. "Hush, Shadrach! I didn't come to talk about those things. Shadrach, there's--there's somethin' queer goin' on. Get up!"

The Captain was out of bed in a moment.

"What's the matter?" he demanded, in a whisper. "What's queer?"

"I--I don't exactly know. I heard somebody movin' downstairs and--"

Shadrach grunted. "Isaiah!" he exclaimed. "Walkin' in his sleep again, I'll bet a dollar!"

"No, no! It ain't Isaiah. Isaiah ain't walked in his sleep since he was a child."

"Well, he's pretty nigh his second childhood now, judgin' by the way he acts sometimes. It was Isaiah of course! Who else would be walkin' around downstairs this time of night?"

"That's what I thought, so I went and looked. Shadrach, it was Mary-'Gusta. Hush! Let me tell you! She had her things on, hat and all, and she took the lantern and lit it and went out."

"Went OUT!"

"Yes, and--and up the road. Now, where--?"

Shadrach's answer was to stride to the window, pull aside the shade and look out. Along the lane in the direction of the village a fiery spark was bobbing.

"There she goes now," he muttered. "She's pretty nigh to the corner already. What in the world can she be up to? Where is she bound--at twelve o'clock?"

Zoeth did not answer. His partner turned and looked at him.

"Humph!" he exclaimed. "Why don't you tell me the whole of it while you're about it? You're keepin' somethin' back. Out with it! Do YOU know where she's bound?"

Zoeth looked troubled--and guilty. "Why, no, Shadrach," he faltered, "I don't know, but--but I kind of suspect. You see, she--she did the same thing last night."

"She DID! And you never said a word?"

"I didn't know what to say. I heard her go and I looked out of the window and saw her. She come back about three. I thought sure she'd speak of it this mornin', but she didn't and--and-- But tonight I watched again and--Shadrach, she's taken the store keys.

Anyhow, they're gone from the nail."

The Captain wiped his forehead. "She's gone to the store, then," he muttered. "Jumpin'! That's a relief, anyhow. I was afraid--I didn't know-- Whew! I don't know WHAT I didn't know! But what on earth has she gone to the store for? And last night too, you say?"

"Yes. Shadrach, I've been thinkin' and all I can think of is that--that--"

"Well--what?"

"That--that she suspicions how things are with us--somebody that does suspicion has dropped a hint and she has--has gone up to--"

"To do what? Chuck it overboard! Speak it out! To do what?"

"To look at the books or somethin'. She knows the combination of the safe, you recollect."

Captain Shadrach's eyes and mouth opened simultaneously. He made a dive for the hooks on the bedroom wall.

"Jumpin' fire of brimstone!" he roared. "Give me my clothes!"

A half-hour later an interested person--and, so far as that goes, at least every second person in South Harniss would have been interested had he or she been aware of what was going on--an interested and, of course, unscrupulous person peeping in under the shades of Hamilton and Company's window would have seen a curious sight. This person would have seen two elderly men sitting one upon a wooden chair and the other upon a wooden packing case and wearing guilty, not to say hang-dog, expressions, while a young woman standing in front of them delivered pointed and personal remarks.

Captain Shadrach and Zoeth, following their niece to the store, had peeped in and seen her sitting at the desk, the safe open, and account books and papers spread out before her. A board in the platform creaked beneath the Captain's weighty tread and Mary looked up and saw them. Before they could retreat or make up their minds what to do, she had run to the door, thrown it open, and ordered them to come in. Neither answered--they could not at the moment.

The certainty that she knew what they had tried so hard to conceal kept them tongue-tied.

"Come in!" repeated Mary. "Come in! And shut the door!"

They came in. Also Captain Shadrach shut the door. Just why he obeyed orders so meekly he could not have told. His niece gave him little time to think.

"I did not exactly expect you," she said, "but, on the whole, I am glad you came. Now sit down, both of you, and listen to me. What do you mean by it?"

Zoeth sat, without a word. Shadrach, however, made a feeble attempt to bluster.

"What do WE mean by it?" he repeated. "What do YOU mean, you mean!

Perusin' up here in the middle of the night without a word to your Uncle Zoeth and me, and--and haulin' open that safe--and--"

Again Mary interrupted.

"Be still, Uncle Shad!" she commanded. "Sit down! Sit down on that box and listen to me! That's right. Now tell me! Why have you been telling me fibs for almost a year? Answer me! Why have you?"

Zoeth looked at Shadrach and the latter looked at him.

"Fibs?" stammered Mr. Hamilton. "Fibs? Why--why, Mary-'Gusta!"

"Yes, fibs. I might use a stronger word and not exaggerate very much. You have led me to think that business was good, that you were doing as well or better than when I was here with you. I asked you over and over again and you invariably gave me that answer. And now I know that during all that time you have scarcely been able to make ends meet, that you have been worrying yourselves sick, that you--"

Captain Shad could stand it no longer.

"We ain't, neither!" he declared. "I never was better in my life.