CHAPTER XXXII
HELP
KNOCK! knock! knock! knock!
At the first knock of the four, a sparrow to whom Johnnie had, for thislong while, been giving good-turn crumbs, made a scrambling get-awayfrom the window sill, followed in the same instant by a neat, brown matewho was equally startled at such a noise from somewhere just within. Fordawn was only now coming upon the thousands of roofs that shelter thepeople of the Greatest City, the sun being still far down behind asea-covered bulge of the world. And this was an hour when, usually, onlyearly birds were abroad.
Rap! rap! rap! rap! rap! The summons was louder, more insistent, andquite unmistakably cross.
It roused Cis, and she lifted her head, and drew in a long, flutteringbreath; but she was too stiff and weary and sore even to realize that avisitor was at the hall door. Once more she laid a pale, tear-stainedcheek upon the table.
Bang! bang! bang! _BANG!_
Now she started up, understanding that help had come. And there was acreaking in the bedroom, where Barber was preparing to rise, while heswore and grumbled under his breath. Only Johnnie did not stir. Betweenhis outstretched arms his yellow head lay as still as if it were stone.Tied as he was, after all the long night hours his legs, held straightdown, had completely lost their feeling; and his arms were as dead ashis legs.
BANG! BANG! _BANG!_
"Aw, that'll do!" cried the longshoreman. He came slouching out of hisroom. He was fully dressed, not having taken off his clothes the nightbefore. For it had been his intention to leave Cis and Johnnie tied foran hour or two, then to get up and set them free. Now, seeing that itwas morning, he first gave a nervous glance at the clock, then hurriedlydug into a pocket, fetched out his jack-knife, opened a blade, and cutthe ropes holding Cis; next, and quickly, he severed those tighterstrands which bound the boy.
Another bang, followed by an imperious rattling of the doorknob. Then,"Tom Barber, are ye in? If ye are, open this second, or I'll break downyer door!" It was Father Pat's voice, lacking breath, but deep withanger.
It was plain to Big Tom that the priest knew of the trouble. "Now, who'sbeen runnin' t' _you_?" he snarled. "Never seen such a buildin' fortattle tales!--Here! Set up!" (This to Cis, who wavered dizzily in herchair as the longshoreman shoved her roughly against the back of it.)
"Let me in, I tell ye!" ordered the Father, "or I'll go out and find apoliceman!"
"All right! All right!"--impatiently. "Wait one minute!" Now Big Tomhastened to lift Johnnie off the table and stand the boy upon his feet.
But the moment the support of Barber's hand was taken away, Johnniecollapsed, going down to the floor in a soft, little heap, from the topof which his blue-marked face looked up sightlessly at Big Tom.
Frightened, the latter lifted the boy and laid him in the morris chair.The small, cold body, partially covered by the rags of Grandpa's oldundersuit, was so white and limp that it seemed lifeless. Hastily thelongshoreman threw his own coat over Johnnie, after which he swepttogether the several lengths of clothesline and flung them out of sightunder the stove.
"Barber!"
The admitting of the priest could be put off no longer. For even as hecalled, Father Pat had put his shoulder to the door, so that an oldpanel was bending inward; next, he fell to kicking at the bottom railwith a stout shoe.
Barber gave a quick glance round the kitchen, then went to pull asidethe bolt. "Hold on!" he ordered roughly; and as he swung the door open,"_Nice_ time t' be hammerin' a man out o' his bed!"
There was another in the hall besides the Father--Mrs. Kukor, in herstreet clothes, and wearing her best hat. Her face looked drawn, herblack eyes weary. Her hard breathing proved that she had just come upthree flights instead of descending one.
As Barber caught sight of her, he thrust his big frame into the doorway,blocking it. "There she is!" he declared hotly. "The tattler! Thebusybody! Hidin' books for a lazy kid! Helpin' him t' waste his time!She can't come in here!"
"Stand out o' me way!" cried the Father. "I'm comin' in, and this ladywith me!"
"Don't y' try t' tell _me_ what y're goin' t' do!" replied Big Tom. "Y'can't take the runnin' o' this flat out o' _my_ hands--neither one o'y'! I ain't goin' t' stand for it!"
"Ha-a-a-a!" retorted the priest. "And is the abusin' o' two childrenwhat ye call runnin' a flat? And we can't take _that_ out o' yer hands,can't we? Well, God be praised, there's police in this city, and there'ssocieties t' handle such hulkin' brutes as yerself, and--_and_--!" Wordsfailing him, he shook a warning finger in Barber's face.
Down the hall a door opened, and several heads appeared in it. This, aswell as the priest's words, decided Big Tom (more gossip in the housewould be a mistake). He stood aside and let his visitors enter,instantly slamming the door at their backs. "I won't have no girl out o'this flat settin' in a park with some stranger!" he declared. "Ipromised her ma I'd look after her!"
He got no answer. There being no movement in the morris chair, under BigTom's coat, the Father and Mrs. Kukor had rushed past it to Cis, for themoment seeing only her. Now they were bending over her, and "Girl, dear!Girl, dear!" murmured the priest anxiously; and "So! so! so!" comfortedthe little Jewish lady.
Cis seemed not to know who was beside her. "He's dead!" she wept. "Andit's my fault! _All_ my fault! O-o-o-oh!" A trembling seized her slenderbody. Once more she swayed, then toppled forward upon the table, all herbrown hair falling over her arms.
"Vot wass she sayink?" demanded Mrs. Kukor, frightened. Falling back tothe big chair, she sat upon one arm of it, stared in horror at Cis for amoment, then began to cry and rock, beating her hands.
"Barber, ye've a right t' be killed for this!" cried Father Pat. "Andwhere's the lad? What've ye done t' him? God help ye if ye've worked himrale harm!"
Cis turned her face, and spoke again. "Poor Johnnie died in the night!"she sobbed. "He couldn't talk to me! I tried! He couldn't get water! Oh,I want water! Give me a drink, Mrs. Kukor!"
Mrs. Kukor had risen as Cis talked, and Father Pat had come to her.There was horror in the faces of both. Standing, his back against thehall door, Barber began to laugh at them. "Aw, bosh!" he said,disgusted. "Dead nothin'! He's in the big chair there. Plenty o' kick inhim yet, and plenty o' meanness!"
His lips moving prayerfully, the priest turned and looked down, thenlifted the longshoreman's coat. As he caught sight of the rope-markedface and shut eyes of the boy, "Oh, little lad, dear!" he cried, heartstricken at the sight. "Oh, what's the crazy man done t' ye? Oh, Godhelp us!"
Together, Father Pat and Mrs. Kukor brought out Johnnie's square ofmattress, dropped it beside the morris chair, and laid thehalf-conscious boy upon it. Then kneeling beside him, one at each side,they began to rub the life back into his numbed limbs. "He's breathin',girl dear," the priest told Cis, who could not bring herself to look atJohnnie. Mrs. Kukor said not a word. But down the round, brown face thetears flowed steadily.
Having made a quick fire with kerosene and some kindling, Barber loungedat the stove, warming some milk for his father, setting his own coffeeto boil, having a pull at his pipe, and keeping a scornful silence.Grandpa's breakfast ready, he carried it into the bedroom and fed theold man. After that, shutting the bedroom door, he helped himself to aslice of bread and some dried-apple sauce. His manner said that a greatfuss was being made in the kitchen over nothing.
It was Cis who spoke next--when Mrs. Kukor, leaving Johnnie for alittle, came to bring the girl a drink, and bathe her face. "I'm nevergoing to lie down in this place again, Mrs. Kukor," she declared. "I'mgoing to leave here this morning, and I'm never coming back--never! Canyou brush my hair right now, please? Because I know Mr. Perkins will behere soon."
At that, Big Tom launched into a sneering laugh. "Oh, is that so?" hedemanded. "Fine! I'd like t' see Perkins, all right!" His greatshoulders shook, and a horrible leer distorted his hairy face.
The Father glanced up from where he was kneeling. "Ye itch t' maketrouble, don't ye?" he charged. "When ye ought t' be t
hankful that thisyoung woman has found such a good man for a husband. I've watched thePerkins lad pretty close. I've been t' see him, and he's called t' seeme. And by ev'ry way that a man who's a priest can judge another man, Ifind no fault in him."
"Well, s'pose y' don't," answered Big Tom. "It jus' happens that _I_do."
"Ye can't!" cried the other. "Not and be honest! Ye can't find faultwhere there isn't fault! Why, he served in France, and him far underage. And I'll ask ye, where was _yerself_ durin' the late War?Supportin' a pensioned father, eh? And a girl that was earnin' her ownlivin'! And a boy who's never cost ye a cent!--Ah, don't answer me!Don't stain yer soul with anny more falsehoods! Money's what's irkin'ye--the girl's earnin's. They're more t' ye than her happiness, and agood home, and a grand husband!" Then to Johnnie, "Wee poet, won't yewink a bright lash at the Father who loves ye?--or me heart'll split intwo pieces!"
Johnnie sighed, and winked two bright lashes, whereupon the priestlifted the boy's head and gave him a sip from Cis's cup of water. "Aw, adrink o' tea'll fix _him_ all right," asserted Barber. "He ain't half asbad off as he pretends."
"Don't talk t' me at all, Tom Barber!" commanded the priest. "For I'veno temper for it as I look at the face and shoulders o' this lad thatye've whipped so cruel! Or at the girl that ye've tied up this wholelong night!"
By now, Cis, wrapped in her own quilt, was combed and in the big chair,and was being plied with milk by Mrs. Kukor. She was out of pain now,and her concern was mostly for Johnnie. She watched him constantly,smiling down at him lovingly. And as he opened his eyes and looked backat her, she saw the stiff muscles of his face twist as if in a spasm,and at the sight of that twisting was frightened.
"Oh, Johnnie!" she faltered. "Oh, what's the matter?"
Johnnie's lips moved. "Noth--nothin'," he whispered back. "I--I'm jus'tryin' t' smile."
"Ah, there's a brave lad for ye!" exclaimed the Father, the tearsshining in the green eyes. "Not a whine! Not a whimper! Where'd ye findanother boy, Tom Barber, that'd take yer heavy hand in the spirit o'this one? Shure, there's not a look out o' him t' show that he's hatin'ye for what ye did t' him! Ha-a-a! It's a pearl, he is, cast under thefeet o' a pig!"
"Y' can cut that out!" said the longshoreman. Putting down his pipe, hecrossed the room to the priest.
Father Pat got to his feet, but he did not retract. "Ye old buzzard!" hestormed. "Do ye dare t' lift yer hand against the servant o' God?"
Big Tom fell back a step then, as if remembering who the man before himwas. "Jus' the same, y' better go," he returned. "From now on, y' betterkeep out o' this!"
"I'll go," answered the priest, calmly, "when I'm tossed out o' thewindy--or the door. But I'll not go by me own choosin'. I'm not lastin'long annyhow, so ye can drop me into the court if ye like. Then the lawwill take ye out o' the way o' these dear children."
Barber clenched and unclenched his fists, yearning to strike, yet notdaring. "Go home and mind y'r own affairs," he counseled.
"Me own affairs is exactly what I'm mindin'," retorted the Father. Then,mournfully, "Oh, if only I had me old strength! If me lungs wasn't asfull o' holes as a sieve! I'd say, 'Tom Barber, come ahead!' And asGod's me witness, I'd thrash ye within' a inch o' yer black life!" Andhe shook a finger before the longshoreman's nose.
Mrs. Kukor was giving Johnnie some milk. He whispered to her, fearingfrom the look in her dark eyes that she was blaming herself bitterly forwhat had happened to his books. "Don't y' worry," he pleaded; "itwasn't nobody's fault. And if y' hadn't kept 'em upstairs long as y'did, he'd 've burned em 'fore ever I learned 'em."
"Chonnie!" she gasped. Concerned for the safety, yes, even the lives, ofthe two she loved, she had forgotten to inquire the fate of thatbasketful. Now she knew it! "Oy! oy! oy! oy!"
"Aw, shut up y'r oy-oy's," scolded Big Tom.
Father Pat had heard Johnnie, and understood him. "But we'll not becarin' about anny crazy destruction," he announced cheerfully; "for,shure, and there's plenty more o' 'em on sale in this town."
Johnnie stared up, trying to comprehend the good news. "The _'xact_ sameones?" he asked.
"Little book lover, I'll warrant there's a thousand o' each story--if aman was t' take count."
"Oh!"
The Father knelt. "Lad, dear!" he exclaimed tenderly. "Faith, and did yethink that ye owned the only copies in the _world_ o' them classics?"
Now Johnnie fully realized the truth. "Oh, Father Pat!" he cried, andfell to laughing aloud in sheer joy.
"God love the lad!" breathed the priest, ready to weep with happiness atrestoring that joy. "Was there ever such another? Why, in one hour, andwithout spendin' a penny, I could be readin' all seven o' yer books!Yes, yes! In that grand book temple I told ye about--the one with thesteps that lead up (oh, but they're elegant), and the lions big ashorses."
"I know," said Johnnie. "I remember. I--I was there 'way late lastnight--in a think."
"Why, little reader dear, in that temple, and out o' it, shure andthere's enough Aladdins t' pave half a mile o' Fifth Avenue! and it'slikely ye could put up a Woolworth Building with nothin' but Crusoes andMohicans!"
"I'm so glad! So glad! _My!_"
"And Father Pat's glad," added the priest. As he stood once more, helifted a smiling face to the ceiling; and up past the kitchen of thelittle Jewish lady he sent a prayer of gratitude to his Maker for theblessing of that instrument of man's genius, the printing press.
Then he fell to pacing the floor, now glancing at the clock, againtaking out his watch and clicking its cover. Between these silentinquiries regarding the time, he played impatiently with the cross whichhung against his coat on a black ribbon. It was plain that he wasexpecting some one.
Big Tom understood as much, and finally was moved to speech. "Y' won'tbring no doctor in here," he announced. "I won't have no foolishness o'that kind."
Father Pat ignored him. But to Mrs. Kukor, "Shure, and ye could boil aleg o' mutton while ye wait for that gentleman," he observed.
After that, for a while, the kitchen was quiet. Mrs. Kukor left on anerrand to her own flat, coming back almost at once with two eggsdeliciously scrambled on toast, and some stewed berries, tart and tasty.These delicacies had a wonderfully reviving effect upon both Cis andJohnnie, and the latter even found himself able to sit up to eat.
"Now I'm so weak," he told Father Pat, "wouldn't this be a' awful finetime t' play shipwreck with Crusoe, and git washed on shore more dead'nalive?"
"Now, then, it just would!" agreed the priest. "But as ye've been neardead once this day, shure, ye'd best think o' stayin' alive for achange."
The last bit of egg was eaten, the last nibble of toast, too, and thefruit. "Oh, yes, I'm too tired t' think 'bout a wreck," admittedJohnnie.
"Rest, lad dear! Rest!" The quilt was tucked round the weary limbs.
One of those big-girl hands reached up and drew the priest's head lower."I guess where I been is on the danger line, all right," Johnniewhispered. "And the Handbook said a scout don't flinch in the face o'danger, and this time, gee, I didn't!"
A rest and some good food had made Cis feel like her former self by now.Presently she walked into the little room, lit a nubbin of candle, andchanged into her best clothes. While she was gone, Johnnie drew on hisold, big trousers, and donned Barber's shirt, then moved to the morrischair. As for Mrs. Kukor, she was gone again, her face very sober, andthe line of her mouth tight and straight. As she teetered out, it wasplain that she was all but in a panic to get away.
For evidently things were to happen in the flat before long. The air ofthe room proclaimed this fact. And plainly Barber was uneasy, for hestalked about, starting nervously whenever Father Pat shut the watch, orwhen a footfall sounded beyond the hall door.
All at once a loud tramping was heard on the stairs--a determinedtramping, as if half a dozen angry men were setting down their feet asone. Doors flew open, voices hailed one another up and down thebuilding, and Mrs. Kukor could be heard pattering in a wide circlebeyond the ceiling.
All of this disturbance brought Cis out of her tinyroom, pink-faced once more, and eager-eyed.
The next moment, with a stomp and a slam, and without knocking, One-Eyemade a whirlwind entrance into the kitchen, and halted, his wide hatgrotesquely over one ear, a quid of tobacco distending that cheek whichthe hat brim touched, a score of questions looking from that single eye,and every hair on the front of those shaggy breeches fairly standing outstraight.
"Wal?" he demanded, banging the door so hard behind him that all thedishes in the cupboard rattled. He had on gauntlets. Their cuffs reachedhalf-way to his elbows. These added mightily to his warlike appearance.
"A-a-a-a-h!" greeted Father Pat, joyously.
So this was the person whose arrival had been awaited! Nonchalantly BigTom shifted his weight from foot to foot, and chuckled through thestubble of his beard.
"One-Eye!" cried Cis. "Oh, I'm so glad you've come! Oh, One-Eye, he tiedus to the table all night! And he whipped Johnnie with the rope!"
That lone green eye began to roll--to Cis's face, seeing the truthwritten there, and the story of her long hours of suffering; to thecountenance of the priest, to ask, dumbly, if any living man had everheard anything more outrageous than this; then, "By the Great HornSpoon!" he breathed, and again stomped one foot, like an angry steer.
Big Tom's smile widened.
Now, the Westerner crossed to Johnnie, bent, and with gentle fingersheld under the boy's chin, studied those welts across the pale cheeks."Crimini!" he murmured. "Crimini! _Crimini!_"
"Look at his chest, and his back!" Cis advised.
The cowboy lifted Johnnie forward in the morris chair, and held away thebig shirt from breast and shoulders. What he saw brought him uprightlike a pistol shot, his face suddenly scarlet, his mustache whipping upand down, and that eye of his glowering at the longshoreman ferociously."Caesar Augustus, Philobustus, Hennery Clay!" he burst out. "Bla-a-acka-a-and _blu-u-ue_!"
"And, oh, listen what _else_ he did!" Cis went on. "The uniform you gaveto Johnnie----"
"Yas?"
"_He put it in the stove!_"
One-Eye stared. "He put it in the _stove_?" he repeated, but as if thisreally was quite beyond belief.
"My--my scout suit," added Johnnie, who was too worn out to weep.
"The priceless brute!" announced Father Pat.
"Yes, and all of Johnnie's books, he burned them, too," Cis added.
But One-Eye's mind dwelt upon the uniform. "He put it in the stove!" hedrawled. "That khaki outfit I give t' the boy! He burned it! And itfresh outen the store!"
"The medal, too, One-Eye! Johnnie's father's medal! It was in the coat.So all that's left is the shoes!"
"All that's left is the shoes," growled One-Eye. "He burned the hat, andthe coat, and--and all. After I'd paid good money fer 'em! The _gall_!The _cheek_! The _impydence_!" He drew a prodigious breath.
"Go ahead! Sing about it!" taunted Barber.
One-Eye was in anything but a singing mood. Spurred by that taunt, of asudden he began to do several startling things: with a gurgle of rage,he snatched off the wide hat, flung it to the floor with all his might,sprang upon it, ground it into the boards with both heels; jerked offhis gauntlets and hurled them down with the hat; next wriggled out ofhis coat and added it to the pile under his boots; then ran his handswildly through his hair, so that it stood up as straight as the hair onhis breeches stood out; and, last of all, fell to pushing back hissleeves.
Fascinated the others watched him. Was this the good-natured, shy,bashful, quiet One-Eye, this red-faced, ramping, stamping madman?
He addressed Barber: "Oh, y' ornery, mean, low-down, sneakin' coyote!"He took a long, leaping step over the things on the floor--a step in thedirection of the longshoreman. As he sprang, he shifted his tobacco quidfrom one cheek to the other. "Say! I'm plumb chuck-full o' y'rgoin's-on! I'm stuffed with y'r fool pre-_form_-ances! I'm fed up t' theneck with 'em! and _sick_ o' 'em! and right here, _and_ now, you and meis a-goin' t' have this business O-U-T!"
"He knows how t' spell it," remarked Barber, facetiously.
"Heaven strengthen the arm o' ye!" cried the Father.
Head ducked, hands out like a boxer, One-Eye again began an advancetoward Big Tom, doing a sort of a skating step--a glide. And as he cameon, Barber threw back his head and guffawed. "Oh, haw! haw! haw! haw!haw!" he shouted. "Y' don't mean y're goin' t' _finish_ me! Oh, haw!haw! haw!"
"A haw-haw's aig in a hee-hee's nest!" returned One-Eye, and spat on hishands. "Finish y' is what I aim t' do! I been waitin' _and_ waitin'!"(The cowboy was saying more in these few minutes, almost, than he hadduring all of his former visits to the flat!) "I've waited since thefirst time I clapped my eye on y'! I'm the mule that waited seven years!I been storin' up my kick! And now it's growed to a humdinger! Y'vewhaled this here boy, and tied up this here girl! His face is cut, andhis back is black, and raw, and bleedin'! Wal, it's Tom Barber's turn t'git a hidin'!--the worst hidin' a polecat ever did git! So! Where'll y'take it? In this house, 'r outside?" The question was asked with afinal, emphatic stomp, an up-throw of the disheveled head, a spreadingoutward of both gartered arms.
"That's the way t' talk!" vowed the Father. "Shure, a coward needs hisown punishment handed t' him!--Take yer whippin', Tom Barber, and takeit like a man! For it's a whippin' that's justly comin' t' ye thismornin', as all the neighborhood'll agree!"
"Where?" One-Eye insisted, for the longshoreman had not replied to thequestion. "Let's don't lose no time! I'm a-goin' t' hand y' acon-vul-sion! That's it! A con-vul-sion! I'm goin' t' pull the last,livin' kink outen y'! Two shakes o' a lamb's tail, and I'll show y' acivy-lized massacree! Yip-yip-yip-_yee-ow_!"
"Goin' t' wipe me out, eh? Goin' t' put me t' bed?" Barber laid down hispipe.
"Goin' t' ship y' t' the Hospital!" Side gliding to the stove, thecowboy delivered up his quid.
"Hee! hee!" giggled the longshoreman. "Guess I'll jus' knock that othereye out!"
One-Eye was waltzing back. "Don't count y'r chickens 'fore they'rehatched!" he warned. "'Cause here y're gittin' a man o' y'r own size, y'great, big, overbearin' lummox!"
Barber held up a hand. "This ain't no place t' fight," he protested."The old man'd hear."
"Y' can't git outen it that-a-way!" shouted One-Eye, arms in the air."They's miles o' room outside! Come down into the yard! Mosey! Breaktrail! Vamose!" He waved the other out.
Buoyed up by so much excitement, Johnnie managed to stand for a moment."One-Eye!" he cried, all gratitude and pride; and, "One-Eye!" Cisechoed, her palms together in a dumb plea for him to do his best.
The Westerner gave her a look which promised every result that lay inhis power. Then with a jerk of the head at Father Pat, and again"Yip-yipping" lustily, he bore down upon the grinning longshoreman, whowas filling the hall doorway.
They met, and seized each other. Big Tom took One-Eye by eithershoulder, those great baboon hands clamping themselves over the topjoints of the Westerner's arms. The latter had Barber by the front ofhis coat and by an elbow. For a moment they hung upon the sill. Then,pivoting, they swung beyond it. As Father Pat closed the door upon them,at once there came to the ears of the trio in the kitchen, the sounds ofa rough-and-tumble battle.