Jessica, the Heiress Part 17

NED'S STORY

"Eels couldn't have done that slicker!" commented Ephraim, in surprise. For, behold! his arms were empty and the flash of twinkling legs along the garden path pointed whither his charges had fled. "Here they were and here they aren't, and whatever scared them that way is more than I can see."

Indeed, though he shaded his eyes with his hand and made a prolonged examination of the outlook, nothing different from ordinary was visible; and, after a moment's reflection, he sought Aunt Sally and reported:

"Well, Mrs. Benton, I 'low I'm doomed to that dose of picra, for I--I---- You see----"

"Ephraim Ma'sh, where's them children?"

"That's just exactly what I'd like to know myself, neighbor."

"Huh! You needn't go 'neighborin'' me, if that's all you're worth.

Tryin' fool capers like a boy, ain't you? Think it was terr'ble clever to cut strings that I'd took the trouble to tie and then settin' them youngsters free. Well, all I have to say is that you've done more harm than you can undo in a hurry, and that's the true word," retorted the indignant matron, beating a bowlful of eggs as she would have enjoyed beating him just then.

Ephraim crossed the kitchen and laid one hand on her shoulder, saying:

"Come, Sally, let's quit chasing about the bush. There's something more in this nonsense than appears, and if you're a true and loyal friend to this family I'm another as good. Two heads are better than one, you know----"

"Even if one belongs to a silly old feller like you? H'm Ephraim, you're right! There is somethin' more'n shows outside. That candy was a bait, a trap, a lure, a--anything you choose; and I do hope the little fellers are safer'n I fear they be. If I catch 'em again, for their good----My suz! Here they're comin' back of their own free will and wonder ain't ceased!"

Indeed, as swiftly as they had scampered away, the lads were returning and burst into the kitchen, crying with what little breath they had left:

"Aunt Sally, lock me up! Lock us up tight! Quick--quick! I seen him!

He'll do it! My mother says Antonio always does do things, he does!

Quick, quick!"

"Lock up, quick!"

Ned and the echo swung round behind the matron's capacious person and rolled themselves in the folds of her full skirt, which performance hid them from the view of anyone outside and as effectually interfered with her movements.

But she had now caught something of their excitement, and their appeal to her protection had promptly banished her last trace of anger against them.

"So I will, lambies, so I will. You just keep on a steppin' backwards and I'll do it, too, and first we know we'll get to that nice pantry where we stayed last night. I've got the key to that, even if 'tis rusty from not bein' often used, and I'll defy anybody to get it away from me."

Still beating her eggs as if nothing uncommon were happening, the housewife retreated toward the door in question, and slipping one hand behind her opened it without turning her head. She was instantly relieved of the drag upon her skirts, and quietly shut the door again upon her self-imprisoned charges. Then she drew a long breath, and exclaimed:

"Well, sharpshooter, what do you think of that?"

"Looks as if you couldn't have been so very hard on them, else they'd never come back."

"I ain't a-flatterin' myself. That was a 'Hobson's choice.' But----"

"But they must have been badly frightened to have done it."

"Yes, Ephraim, they are, and I am. I'm so stirred up I don't know whether I've beat these eggs all one way, like I ought, or forty-'leven different ones, like I ought not. I'm fl.u.s.tered. I'm completely fl.u.s.tered, and that ain't often my case."

"Picra!" sympathetically suggested the old man.

Aunt Sally's eyes snapped, and she smiled grimly, as she retorted:

"Picra's good for them 'at need it. That's you, not me. It ain't a medicine for in'ards so much as 'tis for out'ards. I mean, it's better for the body than 'tis for the mind, and it's my mind that's ailin'

me! Besides, doctors never take their own doses."

"You know it yourself! I thought your mind was failing you, but----"

"No such thing. I said, or I meant to say, I was troubled in it.

That's all; and if you're a mite of a man you'll try and help me unravel this tangle and quit foolin'. Just step into that closet with me and maybe the tackers'll tell you themselves. I'd rather you heard it first hand, anyway."

Wun Lung, sifting flour in one part of the kitchen, and Pasqual scrubbing a kneading board at the sink, both paused and eyed the strange proceedings with curiosity if not displeasure; for not only had the children been bestowed within the "cold closet," but Aunt Sally and Ephraim had, also, followed and locked themselves out of sight and hearing.

The pantry was absolutely dark, until Mrs. Benton found a candle and lighted it; then she pointed to the chair she had occupied during the night, mutely inviting "Forty-niner" to be seated. He declined the proffered courtesy, so she sat down herself, and it amused him that she had not once stopped that monotonous whisking of the eggs, though by this time the dish was heaped with their frothy substance.

"The cake you make of them should be light enough," he remarked, with a smile.

"You're right. There's such a thing as overbeatin'--everything. Well, laddies, we're all back in here together again, and auntie wants you to tell Mr. Ma'sh where you got that candy; who give it to you; what for; where you saw that sneaky snake, Antonio Bernal; what you've done with the staff wand; and all the rest of it? 'Forty-niner' is a man and a gentleman----"

"Here the sharpshooter bowed profoundly, acknowledging the compliment with a humorous expression; but the matron continued as if she had not observed him:

"You see, I know all about it, even if you wouldn't tell. I'm one has eyes on the back of my head and on its top, too, I tell you, so you needn't try to think I don't see what's going on, for I do."

The faces of her small listeners showed utter amazement; then with one of his flashlike movements Ned sprang to the back of her chair and pa.s.sed his hand rapidly all over her gray curls.

"Where are they, Aunt Sally? I can't find 'em. I never saw 'em in all my life, and do--do, please, show them to me!" he implored.

Luis scrambled up the other side, and echoed:

"Never show 'em in m'life!"

"That's all right. I don't keep 'em in exhibition, but they're there all the same."

"Sally Benton!" expostulated Ephraim. "Don't tell them wrong stories."

"But it isn't a wrong story; it's a right one. If they're not real, actual eyes, there's something in my head takes their place. Might as well say 'eyes' as 'brains,' I judge. But, be you going to answer, Edward Trent? I've got a prime lot of cookin' to do again, and no time to waste. 'Cause if you ain't I'll just take Mr. Ma'sh with me and lock you shavers in here alone, where you'll be safe, but sort of homesick. I shan't leave no candle burnin', for you to set the house afire with. So you best tell, right away, and then be let out to have a good time."

Luis began to whisper, and beg:

"Tell her, Ned. Tell her. I hate the dark--I do, I do!"

Ned hesitated but a moment longer. He loved his playmate as his own soul, and it altered nothing of this childish David-and-Jonathan friendship that it was as full of fight as of affection. Patting Luis'

shoulder, he cried:

"'Course I'll tell, though if she knows it all a'ready----"

"But I don't know it, Ned. She wants you to tell me. I'm one of us, you see--just we four," interposed the sharpshooter, hastily.

"Well--well--well, 'tisn't anyhow. Only I saw--I--saw----"

Here the child paused and peered cautiously about.