The Apple of Discord. Earle Ashley Walcott

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ yet of midnight."

      "Oh, it must be done right away," said Miss Kendrick.

      "Well," I said, "Mr. Baldwin should be enlightened as to the chief difficulty. There's no trouble in getting the lady in the case. The principal thing is to know what to do with her after she's rescued." I began to hope that Mr. Baldwin might know of some proper custodian for the Chinese girl.

      "Why, Mr. Hampden is to marry her out of hand, I suppose," said he. "That's the way it used to run in the old story-books."

      "Thank you, no," I laughed. "I resign my claim to Mr. Baldwin in advance."

      "I don't think it would do," said Miss Kendrick, shaking her head sagely. "Besides, there are other conditions to be fulfilled. But I truly want your counsel, Mr. Baldwin."

      "At your service. Let me hear the case."

      Thereupon Miss Kendrick stated the problem of the Chinese girl.

      "Now," she continued, "unless you can suggest some better way, I want her brought here."

      "Well, my advice, since you have asked it, is to have nothing to do with the affair," said Mr. Baldwin.

      "Oh, that wasn't the part I wanted to ask you about," said Miss Kendrick composedly. "I want to find if you know anybody better fitted than I am to take charge of her under the conditions–some older person, you know, for I'm not so venerable as I'm afraid I shall be some day."

      Mr. Baldwin appeared to be no better pleased than I with the idea of having Miss Kendrick take charge of the girl.

      "These are not the sort of people you should have to do with," he began, when she stopped him.

      "Were you going to say that you knew of somebody who can do it better than I? Because if you weren't, the sooner you and Mr. Hampden start on your expedition the sooner you'll be coming back."

      I was not so sure that I cared for the company of Mr. Baldwin in my visit to Big Sam, but I could see no way to decline it.

      "I think," said Mr. Baldwin with sudden brightening, "that we want Mercy Fillmore. She isn't so old a person as you might like, Miss Kendrick, but she has taken to charity work and is used to dealing with this sort of people. Except for her liking for that kind of work, she's a reasonable creature and doesn't make conversion to a church the sole object of her life. I don't see why she has gone in for it, but as she has decided to waste her life in that way she might as well waste it on this young person as on any other."

      "I remember her," said Miss Kendrick, nodding her shapely head. "She was one of the 'big girls' when I started to school. She was very good to us youngsters and I believe the other big girls used to call her 'a little queer.' I used to think her quite grown up, for she was fifteen when I was ten. But I dare say she wouldn't seem so venerable now. I'm sure she would be just the one–if she'll do it."

      "I can answer for her, I think," said Mr. Baldwin.

      "Well, you can't see her to-night," said Miss Kendrick, "so you had better go with Mr. Hampden and bring the girl here. Then you can arrange with Miss Fillmore to-morrow."

      Mr. Baldwin looked appealingly at me.

      "Why wouldn't it be better," I said, "to leave the girl where she is till to-morrow? I shall tell Big Sam what we have decided and he can keep her safe."

      Mr. Baldwin nodded approval.

      "I see," said Miss Kendrick, "that you have oceans of confidence in Big Sam and those murderous highbinders. But I'm not a man, and I haven't. I don't know what will happen before morning. Now, if you'll put on your hats and coats and go, you'll relieve my mind."

      I rose reluctantly.

      "If you don't like to go alone," said Miss Kendrick, with a saucy shake of the head and a very determined look about the mouth, "I'll ask you to be my escort."

      "But, I was about to ask–what will your uncle say?"

      "Say?" cried the hearty voice of Wharton Kendrick, as his big frame filled the doorway and his ruddy face shone in the light. "Why, shovels and scissors, gentlemen, he would say just what she told him to. What's it about?"

      Miss Kendrick had risen, and with an emphatic nod of the head at this indorsement of a blank check in her favor, looked at us steadily.

      "In that case, we'd best be going," said Mr. Baldwin. "Miss Kendrick can explain the case better than we."

      "I shall expect you back in an hour," she said.

      CHAPTER VI

      BIG SAM'S DIPLOMACY

      We walked down the street in silence, and I could feel Mr. Baldwin's chilling disapproval of our errand radiating from him at every step.

      "We had better take the Clay Street car down to the City Hall, and get a hack at the Plaza," I said at last.

      "I suppose that will be the best way," he assented coldly. "Since we are in for this unfortunate business, the less notice we attract, the better."

      His tone roused a flash of temper in me, and I replied tartly:

      "If the business is so distasteful to you, there are plenty of streets that lead in the other direction."

      "Very true," he said with a shrug. But his steady footstep told me that he had no thought of turning back. We fell into silence, and so continued until we reached the Plaza.

      "What's this?" I exclaimed, for at the corner of Clay and Kearny Streets a crowd was gathered, and a cheer, or rather a confusion of vocal applause, broke out as we approached.

      A man mounted on a cart was shouting fiercely to several hundred men who had gathered about him, and I could hear such words as "leprous heathen," "cursed Mongols," and other phrases of denunciation roll from his lips.

      I looked at him more closely. He was tall and broad-shouldered, and his coarse, florid features brought in a flash of memory the scene in the House of Blazes when the bleeding policeman had been rescued from his hoodlum assailants.

      "Why, that's Kearney!" I cried.

      "A friend of yours?" asked Mr. Baldwin sarcastically.

      "I met him once."

      "Perhaps you'd like to renew your acquaintance," said Mr. Baldwin, as we paused in curiosity on the edge of the crowd. "He seems to have an education in classical history."

      We caught some reference to the labor troubles of Rome, and the fate of the freeman under the slave system that destroyed the ancient republic.

      "I hadn't suspected it from a moment's speech with him," I said. "He has a good voice for this sort of work."

      The crowd again broke out into tumultuous shouts at some bit of pleasing denunciation.

      "Where are the police?" said Mr. Baldwin. "They ought to stop this."

      I pointed to three or four members of the force who were standing near the speaker, apparently indifferent to his language.

      "That's a scandalous neglect of duty," said Mr. Baldwin. "But we had better go about our unfortunate errand."

      We СКАЧАТЬ