Chris took her home but insisted that he was coming right back.
“I was put in charge. I think I’ll just come back and stay here till I can get the manager on the telephone. He won’t likely be back to his house till late this evening, but I’d feel better just to stay here till I get word from him.”
He was holding his handkerchief to his bruised cheek now, but he was happy. Boy! he was happy, he told himself, looking across from Natalie, who had her hat and coat on now.
“I think I ought to stay, too,” she protested. “Mr. Foster left me here, too, and told me what to do about the money.”
“No, Miss Halsey. You gotta get some rest after that bout. You been some brave lady, but it ain’t fer a woman to go through them things like you done and then try ta sit up on a stiff, hard stool all evenin’ till yer boss comes. You go home an’ get some rest or you won’t be on hand tamorra, and you’ll be needed then, see?” said the natty young policeman who had ordered the taxi.
“Yes, you two done good work,” said another policeman, coming up. “We been watchin’ that there guy fer about three weeks. He’s been hangin’ around o’ suspicious like, but we couldn’t get nothin’ on him, an’ now we caught him in the act, with plenty o’ witnesses. ‘Course I ain’t sure, but he looks ta me like one o’ them guys that’s got his mug in the rogue’s gallery. If so, you two done even better than you expected. Don’t you worry, lady. We’ll stick around an’ guard this little old store right careful tanight. You just take yer rest till tamorra.”
So Chris put Natalie carefully into the taxi, as if she had been a glass vase of priceless value, and climbed joyously in after her.
Chapter 15
For an instant they looked at one another in the darkness, then his hand sought hers and clasped it close.
“Oh, you were wonderful!” said Natalie softly, letting her hand lie happily in his. “I stayed conscious long enough to see the first two apples go straight to the mark, and then I felt myself going down and had just sense enough to grab the telephone and take it with me.”
“Thank the great God you are safe!” said Chris. “Safe! Oh, I’ll never doubt Him again! I prayed, Natalie! All the time I was firing apples at that sucker, I prayed to God to help me!”
“Oh, Chris!” said Natalie, bringing her other hand around and putting it over their clasped ones with a caressing motion, and never realizing at all what she did, “that’s the dearest thing of all. I’ve prayed so much that you might believe.”
“You prayed for me, Natalie?” he asked wonderingly.
“Oh, yes. I’ve been praying for you ever since the day you talked to me about getting a raw deal. I’m so glad, so glad, that you’ve found Him. Why, I’d have been willing to go through much more terrible things to have you come to see that. It’s been the dearest wish of my heart.”
“Natalie, darling—” Chris reached over and drew her close to his heart, folding his arms about her reverently. “Oh, you wonderful, beautiful little girl. I love you. I thank God that He has saved you from that devil’s gun. Oh, Natalie, I thought he had killed you!” He buried his face on her shoulder, and when she put her hands up caressingly, she found there were tears on his cheek.
Natalie laid her face against his then and touched his wet eyelids softly with her lips. And then Chris lifted his head and put his own lips on hers, and such joy went over him as he had never thought to know on earth. Was love like this?
Then suddenly he sat upright again, his arms still about her, and spoke, eagerly, earnestly.
“Natalie, dear … I suppose I haven’t any business to be talking about love—in my position. A mere clerk in a grocery store on a starvation salary, with family responsibilities and a burden of debt to help out with, but oh, my darling! If you’ll just say that you think you might sometime in the future care for me, I’ll work like a fiend. And I’ll get somewhere just as soon as I can, where I can discharge all the responsibility and take care of you, too. Do you think you could ever care?”
He held her off anxiously and searched her face in the semidarkness as the taxi whirled around the corner into Cromar Street.
“Oh,” said Natalie softly, catching her breath, “I care now. I care with all my heart! It may sound dreadful, but I think I’ve cared ever since you were a boy in school, and I used to love listening to you reciting.”
Then she hid her confusion against his coat, and they clung together.
It was only the taxi stopping in front of Natalie’s home that brought them back to earth again.
Chris helped her out, and they made quite a promenade of the walk from the street to the porch, twelve feet by actual measurement.
“But I’ve got a family, too, and responsibilities,” said Natalie, coming to her senses. “I couldn’t—”
“Well, of course we couldn’t now,” said Chris, slipping his arm around her and holding her close to his side. “But with God’s help, we’ll get where we can. I’ll get where I can take care of my responsibilities and yours, too, and then you won’t have to stay in a store and work any longer. A store—our store is all right, of course,” he added loyally, “but it isn’t the place for the woman I love, you know, and I want you taken care of, my darling! And now, you ought to get right in and go to bed. I can feel you are trembling. Should I go in and tell your mother what’s happened?”
“No,” said Natalie, “not tonight. It isn’t necessary for her to know about that man—at all—maybe. She doesn’t go out much. She wouldn’t be likely to hear it, I hope. Because I’m afraid if she knew, she would be frightened every time I went to the store. And—about—us—well, perhaps we’d better wait a little for that. She likes you a lot, but—it might seem sudden to her. We’ll wait and talk it over a few days first, shall we?”
“I’d like that,” said Chris. “It’s like having our own secret a few minutes longer. But I mean everyone will know it the first minute I’m in a position to take care of you. And I think we ought to tell your mother very soon.”
Then suddenly he stooped and kissed her softly again.
“I’ve been a poor girl, you know,” she reminded him softly again. “I’ve been in another class from yours almost all my life.”
“Thank God for that!” said Chris fervently. “If you hadn’t been, you might not have been willing to love me now. Oh, darling, I’m the happiest person alive I believe.
“And to think God had this in store for me. Why, Natalie, I’m glad, glad of every hard thing that’s happened to me, when it brought me this beautiful love out of the darkness. Just think, if I’d gone back to college this last year, I might never have known you at all, except as a quiet girl in my high school class And I was angry as could be that I had to give up my college. What’s college beside a love like this?”
They might have talked all night, if Janice hadn’t come with brisk steps down the little hall inside and flung the door open wide.
“What are you two doing out there in the cold?” she asked keenly. “Nice night for a tête à tête, isn’t it, northeaster blowing forty knots an hour, and you two aren’t aware of it. There’ll be snow before morning, and Natalie took the old ratty fur off the neck of her coat this morning, too. Come on in here, where it’s warm. If you two want to talk secrets, Mother and I will stay in the kitchen and you can have the front room.”
Chris and Natalie looked up shamefacedly.
“Thank you, I’m just going,” said Chris. “I have to get back to the store for a little while. I brought Natalie home. She was—a little tired—at least—she ought to be! She’s—worked hard today.”
“What was that car I heard stopping out here at the door a few minutes ago?” asked Janice sharply, looking from one to the other of the two curiously.
“Oh why, that was a taxi,” explained Chris. “You see, I thought your sister was pretty tired, and there was a taxi—and so—” he finished lamely.
“Is my sister sick?” asked Janice, promptly lowering her voice so that it
would not reach the kitchen.
“Not in the least,” said Natalie, promptly and briskly. “It was just a notion. I’ll tell you about it, Jan, when we get up to bed. It was just—nothing.”
“Is she sick?” asked Janice, looking straight through Chris.
“No,” said Chris, smiling and facing her clear glaze. “Not a bit, only I think she’s had a hard day and she ought to get to bed soon. That’s honest, little sister, so run along and don’t worry. I must go at once.”
Janice grinned at him amicably.
“All right, big brother, I’ll see that she gets to bed at once. Any tonic or anything needed?”
“No, just a glass of good milk and something hot to eat, and—I wouldn’t worry Mother, if I were you. She’ll be all right.” He smiled a wonderful radiance at Natalie, and Janice lost none of the radiance as she watched him.
“I still have my senses,” said Janice caustically.
Chris took a reluctant leave, and Janice swung the door shut.
“He’s getting very chummy! ‘Little sister’ and ‘Mother,’ indeed! Sounds almost like one of the family.” And she grinned at Natalie. “Come on in, duck-of-a-sister, and eat supper. We thought you were never coming. There’s only creamed codfish, but its delickety, if I do say so as-who-made-it. And there are plenty of fluffy boiled potatoes to eat with it, and cranberry sauce for dessert. Mother made that, so you know it’s all right. And Mother’s interest money has come, and it’s five whole dollars more than it was last time, so there! Now, will you be good!”
Janice’s manner was gaiety itself, but she gave her sister a keen glance and decided that she must go early to bed.
Chris went back to the store so happy that he scarcely knew what he was about. And found himself quite a hero in the eyes of the whole police force, who hung around the store, kept him company, and talked the attempted burglary over so many times it almost seemed like a great robbery by the time they had got done.
About half past eleven there came a wild ringing of the telephone. The manager had just got home and found the police chief’s message that something had happened at the store. He was wild with anxiety at once.
The chief happened still to be in the store and lounged over to answer the call. The story had lost none of its spice in its many times telling, and Foster got a vivid description of the whole attempted robbery with full details and plenty of credit for Chris and Natalie.
Then the manager wanted to speak to Chris and was thankful almost to tears for what Chris had done. He said he knew if anything had really been pulled off when he left the store in charge of someone else, that he would be blamed for it, and his managership probably taken from him. And it would mean losing all he had gained in five years of work in the store, from under-helper up. He declared he was coming right up even though it was late. He wanted to take Chris by the hand. He wanted to be on the spot and hear the whole account over again. No, he wouldn’t wait till morning; he was coming right away. Would Chris wait? It wouldn’t take him long to get there in his car.
They had quite a session in the store at midnight. All the police force that could be spared for a few minutes, from preventing other incidents that come under the law, were assembled. In fact they had spent most of the evening hovering about and trying to make a hero out of Chris. By the time the manager arrived, Chris was getting bored with it.
“I didn’t do anything much,” he growled. “There wasn’t anything else I could do, was there? It was just a matter of—” he was going to say “luck,” but he hesitated and finished—“it was just a little old miracle that I hit that gun and that it didn’t go off in Miss Halsey’s face instead of on the floor. I was scared still as soon as I’d done it, lest that was what had happened, and I could see the thing I ought to have done was send a big alarm and scare the fellow away. Only—well, somehow, I couldn’t see having the bum get away and try it on us again, sometime. He wasn’t safe to have around, that guy.”
So they praised him and slapped him on the back, and called him “Chris” adoringly and familiarly, and rallied around him till far after midnight.
He had telephoned early in the evening that he was detained at the store. But his mother had not been able to sleep till he came. She called to him softly as he came up the stairs.
“All right, Chris?”
“Sure, Mother!” he said, pushing open her door and stepping in to put a kiss on her lips. Then he slipped out again with never a word about the excitement that had detained him.
When Chris finally got to his own room, he was so excited it seemed to him he would never be able to sleep. He was so happy he did not know himself. After the months of sadness and doubts and darkness, the hard work and bitterness, here was so much joy handed out to him at once that he couldn’t take it all in, yet.
But above the kindly words of his manager, the praise of the whole police force, and the glow of pleasure in his heart that he had been able to save the store from loss, rang the sweetness of the thought that Natalie loved him, and the glad thanksgiving to God for letting him save her life.
And she loves me, she loves me! his heart sang as he prepared to turn in. I know everybody would think I was a fool and all kinds of a cad to tell a girl I loved her when I haven’t a cent to offer her, but please, God, I will have, and she understands. We’ll just keep our own counsel and talk to God about it, and I’m sure the time won’t be far away when I can have the privilege of taking care of my dear girl.
Then, for the first time in several years, he knelt down and really prayed, thanking God for the way He had led him, and even for all the sorrow He had sent, with which He had brought such glory and joy into his life.
After that he lay down to his rest, but lay awake to think how sweet and shy Natalie had looked when she told him how she had cared for him even when he was a boy in high school. And he thrilled to the memory of the touch of her soft lips on his eyelids. Oh, Natalie was a wonderful girl! And she was going to be his someday! Life had suddenly taken on glory. Even hard work was glorious.
Chapter 16
The family read about it the next morning in the paper as they sat at breakfast, just as Chris had swallowed a bite or two and rushed away, and before Elise went off to school. Chris hadn’t stopped to wait for the rest to come down. He said he had to be early at the store.
His fellow workmen met him with marked deference and respect, going out of their way to be nice to him. It made him feel like laughing. A hero he was, all for throwing a few green apples at a man’s head instead of aiming a baseball at a mark. He laughed to himself as he went about his work of setting out the fresh vegetables that came in. What a little thing it took to make a hero, after all, and why had he ever cared so much about it?
About ten o’clock the district manager arrived, and then it was all to do over again, the hero-worship business. The district manager had some stately words to say concerning the company’s indebtedness to him. It was quite public, for there were even customers going around picking out heads of lettuce and oranges. They paused, all of them, and looked at Chris, and had to hear the story again from the quiet, respectful salesmen who yearned to have been in Chris’s boots last night. Albeit, none of them had the reputation as a baseball pitcher that Chris had enjoyed in school, and each knew, in his secret soul, that he wouldn’t have made half as good a showing as Chris had done in nabbing and saving the cashier’s life.
Then the district manager and the manager called Chris and Natalie into the back room and shut the door. And the district manager told Natalie that the company was greatly pleased with her service in saving the company money and having presence of mind, and they were raising her salary and giving her a little platinum wristwatch, with a suitable engraving to commemorate the event. He then turned to Chris and told him that the company had been watching him with interest during his stay with them and had decided to give him a promotion with a raise of salary in the near future, but that last night’s good work had decided them to
make the move at once. The assistant manager was moving to the coast, and the company had decided to put Chris in his place. They wanted him to be in position to learn as much as possible from Mr. Foster, with a view to taking a managership himself, someday. And, of course, there would be a substantial raise in his salary also.
Chris was overwhelmed. He tried to thank the manager and the district manager, and he broke down huskily. Then he and Natalie stood, just like two children, with their eyes full of gratitude. Chris’s heart was swelling with pride.
That noon he took Natalie over to the tea room for lunch to celebrate. It was their first real chance to talk it all over alone, for last night they had been too engrossed with each other. But they could only sit and exclaim and beam at one another.
“You were wonderful!” said Natalie, her eyes filling with tears in spite of her effort to keep them back. “You saved my life! He was going to shoot me! I could see it in his eyes. He was furious!”
“Oh, my dear!” said Chris, looking at her with something in his eyes that brought the color to her cheeks. “Oh, God was good! Oh, I’m glad, glad, now, that I didn’t get to go to college and that I was put here to help save you. I suppose, perhaps, someone else would have saved you, if I hadn’t been there, but I’m glad it was I instead of someone else. And come to think of it, Natalie, if the bank hadn’t closed and Dad hadn’t lost his money, I might never have known you.”
They did not do much eating in that half hour of lunchtime, but they went back to their duties radiantly happy.
That night when Chris came in, his family met him with open arms.
“So, Son,” said his father, rising to meet him. “You’ve been making a hero of yourself. Got your picture in the paper and everybody calling up to tell me how fine you are.”
“Picture in the paper!” said Chris, disgusted. “How did they do that?”