第167章

"You know what servants at big houses are--how they hear bits of talk and make much of it," she explained."They've been curious and chattering among themselves about Mr.Strangeways from the first.It was Burrill that said he believed he was some relation that was being hid away for some good reason.One night Mr.Temple Barholm and Captain Palliser were having a long talk together, and Burrill was about--""Aye, he'd be about if he thought there was a chance of him hearing summat as was none of his business," jerked out Hutchinson, irately.

"They were talking about Mr.Strangeways, and Burrill heard Captain Palliser getting angry; and as he stepped near the door he heard him say out loud that he could swear in any court of justice that the man he had seen at the west room window--it's a startling thing, Father--was Mr.James Temple Barholm." For the moment her face was pale.

Hereupon Hutchinson sprang up.

"What!" His second shout was louder than his first."Th' liar! Th'

chap's dead, an' he knows it.Th' dommed mischief-makin' liar!"Her eyes were clear and speculatively thoughtful, notwithstanding her lack of color.

"There have been people that have been thought dead that have come back to their friends alive.It's happened many a time," she said."It wouldn't be so strange for a man that had no friends to be lost in a wild, far-off place where there was neither law nor order, and where every man was fighting for his own life and the gold he was mad after.

Particularly a man that was shamed and desperate and wanted to hide himself.And, most of all, it would be easy, if he was like Mr.

Strangeways, and couldn't remember, and had lost himself."As her father listened, the angry redness of his countenance moderated its hue.His eyes gradually began to question and his under jaw fell slightly.

"Si' thee, lass," he broke out huskily, "does that mean to say tha believes it?""It's not often you can believe what you don't know," she answered."Idon't know anything about it.There's just one thing I believe, because I know it.I believe what grandmother does.Read that."She handed him the final sheet of old Mrs.Hutchinson's letter.It was written with very black ink and in an astonishingly bold and clear hand.It was easy to read the sentences with which she ended.

There's a lot said.There's always more saying than doing.But it's right-down funny to see how the lad has made hard and fast friends just going about in his queer way, and no one knowing how he did it.Ilike him myself.He's one of those you needn't ask questions about.If there's anything said that isn't to his credit, it's not true.There's no ifs, buts, or ands about that, Ann.

Little Ann herself read the words as her father read them.

"That's the thing I believe, because I know it," was all she said.

"It's the thing I'd swear to mysel'," her father answered bluffly.

"But, by Judd--"

She gave him a little push and spoke to him in homely Lancashire phrasing, and with some soft unsteadiness of voice.

"Sit thee down, Father love," she said, "and let me sit on thy knee."He sat down with emotional readiness, and she sat on his stout knee like a child.It was a thing she did in tender or troubled moments as much in these days as she had done when she was six or seven.Her little lightness and soft young ways made it the most natural thing in the world, as well as the prettiest.She had always sat on his knee in the hours when he had been most discouraged over the invention.She had known it made him feel as though he were taking care of her, and as though she depended utterly on him to steady the foundations of her world.What could such a little bit of a lass do without "a father"?

"It's upset thee, lass," he said."It's upset thee."He saw her slim hands curl themselves into small, firm fists as they rested on her lap.

"I can't bear to think that ill can be said of him, even by a wastrel like Captain Palliser," she said."He's MINE."It made him fumble caressingly at her big knot of soft red hair.

"Thine, is he?" he said."Thine! Eh, but tha did say that just like thy mother would ha' said it; tha brings the heart i' my throat now and again.That chap's i' luck, I can tell him--same as I was once.""He's mine now, whatever happens," she went on, with a firmness which no skeptic would have squandered time in the folly of hoping to shake.

"He's done what I told him to do, and it's ME he wants.He's found out for himself, and so have I.He can have me the minute he wants me--the very minute.""He can?" said Hutchinson."That settles it.I believe tha'd rather take him when he was i' trouble than when he was out of it.Same as tha'd rather take him i' a flat in Harlem on fifteen dollar a week than on fifteen hundred.""Yes, Father, I would.It'd give me more to do for him.""Eh, eh," he grunted tenderly, "thy mother again.I used to tell her as the only thing she had agen me was that I never got i' jail so she could get me out an' stand up for me after it.There's only one thing worrits me a bit: I wish the lad hadn't gone away.""I've thought that out, though I've not had much time to reason about things," said Little Ann."If he's gone away, he's gone to get something; and whatever it happens to be, he'll be likely to bring it back with him, Father."