Sube Cane Part 20

Gizzard skirted the rear end of the freight train and went directly home, where he was sent to bed and no questions asked. But Sube cut in between two houses, fell over a flower bed, caught his chin on a clothesline, tore his pants on a barbed-wire fence, and skinned his knee against a woodpile. Then he found himself in his own back yard with no place to go. He tarried in the dark shadows recovering his wind and feeling, no doubt, quite like the prodigal son. But he did not tarry long. There were too many mysterious sounds on all sides to suit him. He must go somewhere. Only one place presented itself; so he clambered up a post of the back porch, and slipping through the window was soon cuddled up spoon-fashion to his sleeping brother, Cathead.

And there his mother found him an hour later, sound asleep. She called his father. "Look in the bed," she said. "Here we've been worrying about Sube and all the time he was right where he belonged. He must have come in while you were talking to Mr. Lannon."

"That's very likely," his father agreed; "but I wonder what he's been up to. I'm always suspicious of Sube when he does anything he ought to."

"Don't you think you'd better call up Mr. Lannon and tell him that Sube has come home? He might go all around looking for him."

"Don't you worry about Dan Lannon! He won't bother himself to look for anybody unless he has received his mileage in advance. I didn't ask him to look for Sube, anyway; I simply told him to send the boy home if he happened to see him."

When Sube woke up the bright sunlight was streaming in the window. He was inclined to believe that the whole affair had been a nightmare. But a lump on his knee and a ragged rent in his trousers seemed to indicate that parts of it, at least, were real. It was soon apparent that Cathead knew nothing of his brother's criminal offense, for immediately on waking up he asked:

"Where were you so late last night?"

"Nowheres much. Just round here everyplace."

"Who was with you?"

"Giz."

"Jus' the two of you?"

"Yes, the two of us! Say, what you think this is? A game of truth?"

"You better go to bed earlier," replied Cathead, "if it makes you so dern' cross to stay up late."

"Boys!" called their mother from the foot of the stairs. "Breakfast is ready! Come right down!"

When Sube reached the breakfast table and observed that his father had already gone he breathed a sigh of relief. Then it struck him that it might be an unfavorable sign. To his guilty conscience everything seemed suspicious. He glanced furtively at his mother and was not rea.s.sured.

Something about her reminded him of the way she looked the day she took him to the dentist to have a tooth pulled.

"I didn't hear you come in last night, Sube," she remarked at length.

Sube started. "Ma'am?" he said defensively; then it occurred to him that he did not care to have the question repeated, and he added quickly, "No, ma'am."

"You must have come in while Mr. Lannon was here."

Sube swallowed hard. "Yes, ma'am," he almost whispered.

"n.o.body heard you come in. When you slip in so quietly you ought to let me know. There's no telling how long Mr. Lannon may have hunted for you--"

The telephone rang. Mrs. Cane answered. It was Mr. Cane inquiring whether the carpenter had come to do some work on the barn. Sube heard his mother say:

"Yes, he's here now."

A moment later he heard her say in a low tone: "No, I won't let him get away before you come--"

Sube did not wait to hear more. He quietly rose from his chair and slipped out of the front door. The back door would have been better, but it was directly in line with his mother's vision. As he leaped down the front steps he found himself face to face with Mrs. Rude, and before he could begin the retreat he instantly planned she opened fire on him.

"Good morning, Sube!" she called pleasantly. "I've found my kittie! She came back last night!"

Out of a whirling brain Sube tried to direct a suitable reply. The best he could do was:

"Yes'm."

For a moment his burden seemed to slip from him. Mrs. Rude wasn't after him at all! But when it began to dawn on him that it must have been Nancy after all who had put the police on his trail, his last state was worse than his first. His senses were paralyzed. He became deaf, dumb and blind. A young lady pa.s.sing along the street found it necessary to speak to him twice before she was able to attract his attention.

At the second "h.e.l.lo, Sube!" he turned, outrage written on every feature. But Nancy seemed to concede to him the right to be peevish, for she spoke again even more sweetly than before.

"See what _I've_ got!"

[Ill.u.s.tration]

And for the first time Sube saw in her arms a fluffy ma.s.s of white fur adorned by a huge pink bow.

It was her kitten!

Again Sube had the empty feeling; but this time it was, no doubt, because he had slighted his breakfast. Nancy pa.s.sed on. And as he stood gazing after her he was dimly conscious of the stopping of an automobile; but he did not turn his eyes. He was too much engrossed in loving or hating; he didn't know which.

"Good morning, young man!"

Sube reluctantly turned his gaze to the speaker. It was Professor Silver--the one person in all the world (next to Dan Lannon) that Sube did not care to see. As the desperate boy battled with the temptation to turn and run, the professor began aggressively:

"Now, young man, I had an opportunity to motor to Geneva last evening with a friend of mine; and when I found there was plenty of room, I thought it an excellent opportunity to deliver the cats you had on hand.

I was unable to find you about, so I took the liberty of appropriating some gunnysacks that were hanging in the barn."

Sube tried to speak, but before he was able to produce an intelligible sound, the professor began again.

"Now, young man, there were two of those cats that I could not use on account of their long fur. Persian cats are of absolutely no use to our biological department. So I let the two go. That leaves ten merchantable cats to be accounted for at fifty cents a head." He held out to Sube a five dollar bill as he added: "I trust this will be satisfactory, young man. I want to be perfectly fair; but I do not feel that I should be required to pay for something that I could not use."

Sube gazed at the banknote in his hand and wondered if he was in the midst of another dream as he gulped out something that the professor took to be an acceptance of his offer, and retired. Sube was still gazing at the banknote when Cathead came out of the house.

"Oh, where'd you get that!" cried Cathead as he spied the greenback.

The sound of Cathead's voice brought Sube back to his senses. He folded up the bill with a pleasant crackling sound and thrust it into his pocket, and turning to Cathead said loftily:

"I owe a feller two dollars and a half; but that is neither here nor there. Want to go 'long and see me pay it to him?"

CHAPTER XIII

THE EVER-GLORIOUS FOURTH

Probably the longest period of time that a boy is capable of comprehending is that which drags itself out between one Fourth of July and the next. From Christmas to Christmas is not nearly so long. This is a question that modern calendar makers should investigate, as Julius Caesar seems to have overlooked it.

But in spite of everything the Fourth of July was actually approaching.

It was only days away. Sube viewed the advent of the festival with more than ordinary equanimity. He still had two dollars left from the flyer in cats, and the authorities had apparently relaxed their efforts to get him. His continued pa.s.sing of Dan Lannon on the other side of the street was simply the survival of an inborn prejudice against the conservators of law and order. It couldn't have been timidity.