CHAPTER XVI
A MIDNIGHT CALL
BETTY'S first thought was of Bob. Was he really sick? Then sheremembered that the boy slept in the attic and that she probably couldnot have heard him if he had made the noise that woke her.
Then the sound began again, deep guttural groans that sent a shudderthrough the girl listening in the dark, and Betty knew that Mrs.Peabody must be ill. She lit her lamp and looked at her watch.Half-past one! She had been asleep several hours. Slipping on herdressing gown and slippers, Betty opened her door, intending to godown the hall to the Peabodys' room and see what she could do. To herrelief, she saw Mr. Peabody, fully dressed except for his shoes, whichhe carried in his hand, coming shuffling down the hall.
"You're going for the doctor?" said Betty eagerly. "Is Mrs. Peabodyvery ill? Shall I go down and heat some water?"
"I don't know how sick she is," answered the man sourly. "But I do knowI ain't going for that miserable, no-account doctor I ordered off thisfarm once. If you're going to die, you're going to die, is the way Ilook at it, and all the groaning in the world ain't going to help you.And a doctor to kill you off quicker ain't necessary, either. I'm goingout to the barn to get a little sleep. Here I've got a heavy day's workon to-morrow, and she's been carrying on like this for the better partof an hour."
Betty stared at Mr. Peabody in horror. Something very like loathing,and an amazement not unmixed with terror, seized her. It wasinconceivable that any one should talk as he did.
"She must have a doctor!" she flung at him. "Send Bob--or one of themen, Bob's half sick himself. If you won't call them, I will. I won'tstay here and let any one suffer like that. Listen! Oh, listen!"
Betty put her hands over her ears, as a shrill scream of pain came fromMrs. Peabody's room.
"Send the men on a wild goose chase at this time of night?" snarledMr. Peabody. "Not if I know it. Morning will do just as well if she'sreally sick. You will, will you?" He lunged heavily before Betty,divining her intention to reach the stairway that led to the attic.A heavy door stood open for the freer circulation of air, and thisPeabody slammed and locked, dropping the key triumphantly in hispocket.
"You take my advice and go back to bed," he said. "One woman raisingCain at a time's enough. Go to bed and keep still before I make you."
Betty scarcely heard the implied threat. She heard little but theheart-breaking groans that seemed to fill the whole house. Her mind wasmade up.
"I'm going myself!" she blazed, wrapping her gown about her. "Don't youdare stop me! You've killed your wife, but at least the neighbors aregoing to know about it. I'm going to telephone to Doctor Guerin!"
With a quick breath Betty blew out the lamp, which bewildered Peabodyfor a moment. She dashed past him as he fumbled and mumbled in thedark and slid down the banisters and jerked open the front door, whichluckily for her was seldom locked at night. She ran down the steps,across the yard and into the field, her heart pounding like a triphammer. On and on she ran, not daring to stop to look behind her. Whenshe heard steps gaining on her, her feet dragged with despair, but herspirit flogged her on.
"I won't give up, I won't give up!" she was crying aloud throughclenched teeth when the voice of Bob Henderson calling, "Betty! Betty!it's all right!" sounded close to her shoulder.
"You dear, darling Bob!" Betty turned radiantly to face the boy. "Howdid you get out? Hurry! We must hurry! Mrs. Peabody is so sick!"
"Easy there!" Bob caught her elbow as she stumbled over a bit of roughground. "The noise woke me up, and when we heard you and Peabody,Lieson lowered me out of the window by the bedsheet. We weren'tsure what he'd do to you. Say, Betty, you'd better let me go in andtelephone unless you're afraid to go back. If the Kepplers see youlike that, they'll know there's been a row, and they'll insist on yourstaying with them."
"Oh, I have to go back," said Betty in a panic. "Mrs. Peabody needs me.And I'm not afraid, if Doctor Guerin comes. I'll wait under this treefor you, Bob. Only please hurry." And the boy hurried off.
"Doctor'll be right out," reported Bob, coming back after what seemed along wait but was in reality a scant ten minutes. "I had a great timewaking the Kepplers up and a worse time getting hold of Central. Andof course Mrs. Keppler wanted all the details--just like a woman. Butdoc answered right away after I gave his number and said he'd be herein twenty minutes. He sure can run his car when he has a clear road atnight."
"Bob," whispered Betty, beginning to tremble, "I--I guess maybe I amafraid to go back to the house. Let's sit on the bank at the head ofthe lane and wait for Doctor Guerin. He'll take us in the car. Mr.Peabody won't dare do anything with a third person around."
"Sure we will," agreed Bob. "It's fine and cool out here, isn't it?Wonder why it can't be like this in the daytime."
They walked back to the lane, cross-lots, and sat down under athorn-apple tree. Betty tucked her gown cosily around her feet andsat close to Bob, prepared to watch the stars and await quietlythe doctor's coming. Then, to her astonishment as much as to Bob'sconsternation, she began to cry. She could not stop crying. And aftershe had cried a few minutes she began to laugh. She laughed and sobbedand could not stop herself, and in short, for the first time in herlife, Betty had a case of hysterics.
It was all very foolish, of course, and when Doctor Guerin found themthere in the road at half-past two in the morning, he scolded them bothsoundly.
"I gave you credit for more sense, Bob," said the doctor curtly, as hehelped Betty into the machine. "You should have left Betty with Mrs.Keppler over night, or at least taken her straight home. If she hasn'ta heavy cold to pay for this it won't be your fault. I never heard ofanything quite so senseless!"
"I wasn't going to stay with the Kepplers!" retorted Betty with vigor."I don't know them at all, and I hadn't anything to wear down tobreakfast! 'Sides there is Mrs. Peabody dreadfully sick with no one tohelp her and Bob has a festered finger. He had a high temperature thisafternoon."
"I'll look at the finger," promised Doctor Guerin grimly. "Don't letme have to hunt for you, either, young man; no hiding out of sightwhen you're wanted. And, Betty, you go to bed. I'll get Mrs. Peabodycomfortable and give her something so that she'll sleep till I cansend some one out from town. You can't nurse her and run the house,you know. Your Uncle Dick would come up and shoot us all. Go to bedimmediately, and you'll be ready to help us in the morning."
They had reached the house and Betty followed the doctor's orders.Every one obeyed Doctor Guerin. Even Mr. Peabody, summoned from thebarn, though he was surly and far from pleasant, brought hot water anda teaspoon and a tumbler at his bidding. Mrs. Peabody had had theseattacks before, and when she had taken the medicine was soon relieved.Doctor Guerin stayed with her till she fell asleep and then went downto the kitchen, taking the unwilling Bob with him. The cut finger waslanced and dressed and strict instructions issued that in two days Bobwas to present himself at the doctor's office to have the dressingchanged.
"And you needn't assume that obstinate look," said the doctor, whowatched him closely. "If you're so afraid you won't be able to pay me,we'll drive a bargain. You recollect that odd little wooden charm youmade for Norma last summer? Well, the girls at boarding school have'gone crazy,' to quote my daughter, over the trinket, and one of themoffered her a dollar for it. Carve me a couple more, when you havetime, and that will make us square. The girls were wondering the otherday if you could do more."
"I'll make six----" Bob was beginning radiantly, when the doctorstopped him.
"You will not," he said positively. "One dollar is your price, and twoof them will fully meet your obligations to me. If you can be dog-gonebusinesslike, so can I."
Doctor Guerin drove over again in the morning, bringing a tallraw-boned red-haired Irish-woman who looked as though she were able toprotect herself from any insult or injury, real or fancied. Wapley andLieson were pitiably in awe of her, and Mr. Peabody simply shriveledbefore her belligerent eye. She was to stay, said the doctor, for aweek at least and as much longer a
s Mrs. Peabody needed her.
"Did you see her spreading the butter on her bread?" demanded Bob in awhisper, meeting Betty on the kitchen doorstep after the first dinnerMrs. O'Hara had prepared.
"Did you see Mr. Peabody?" returned Betty, in a twitter of delight. "Iwas afraid to look at him, or I should have laughed. She tells me to'run off, child, and play; young things should be outdoors all day,'and she does a barrel of work. Mrs. Peabody declares she is living likea queen, with her meals served up to her. Poor soul, she doesn't knowwhat it means to have some one wait on her."
Bob dared not stay away from Doctor Guerin's office; and indeed, afterreceiving the order for the wooden charms, he was willing to go. It wasunderstood that he was to begin his carving as soon as the finger hadhealed, and Betty was interested in the little trinket he brought backwith him to serve as a guide.
"Did you really make that, Bob?" she cried in surprise. "Why, it'sbeautiful--such an odd shape and so beautifully stained. You must beever so clever with your fingers. I believe, if you had some paints,you could paint designs and perhaps sell a lot of them to a city shop.Girls would just love to have them to wear on chains and cords."
Bob was immediately fired with ambition to make some money, and indeedhe could evolve marvelous and quaint little charms with no moreelaborate tools than an old knife and a bit of sandpaper. He had aninstinctive knowledge of the different grains, and the wood he pickedup in the woodshed, carefully selecting smooth satiny bits.
So all unknown to the Peabodys, Bob in his leisure time began tocarve curious treasures, and with his carving to dream boyish dreamsthat lifted him out of the dreary present and carried him far awayfrom Bramble Farm to big cities and open prairies, to freedom andopportunity.
And Betty, who sometimes read aloud to him as he carved and sometimessewed, sitting beside him, began to dream dreams too. Always of ahome somewhere with Uncle Dick, a real home in which there should bea fireplace and an extra chair for Bob. For your girl dreamer alwaysplans for her friends and for their happiness, and she seldom dreamsfor herself alone.
So July with its heat and thunderstorms ran into August.