Chapter XXI. The Acid Test
Mrs. Johnny Sommers managed to preserve her dignity while she escortedthe visitor into the front room, and even while she asked him to sitdown and wait, but once she had closed the door behind her she castdignity far away and did two steps at a time going upstairs. The resultwas that she, reached the room of Betty Neal entirely out of breath; twohundred pounds of fat, good-natured widowhood do not go with speed. Shetossed open the door without any preliminary knock and stood there veryred with a clearly defined circle of white in the center of each check.For a moment there was no sound except her panting and Betty Neal staredwildly at her from above her book.
"He's come!" gasped Mrs. Sommers.
"Who?"
"Him!"
As if this odd explanation made everything clear, Betty Neal sprang fromher chair and she grew so pale that every freckle stood out.
"Him!" she echoed ungrammatically.
Then: "Where is he? Let me downstairs."
But the widow closed the door swiftly behind her and leaned hercomfortable bulk against it.
"You ain't goin'," she asserted. "You ain't goin', leastways not tillyou got time to think it over."
"I haven't time to think. I--he--"
"That was the way with me," nodded Mrs. Sommers, and her eyes weretragic. "I went ahead and married Johnny in spite of everything, andlook at me now--a widder! No, I ain't sorry for myself because I was afool."
"Mrs. Sommers," said Betty, "will you please step out of my way?"
"Honey, for heaven's sake think a minute before you go down and facethat man. He's dangerous. When I opened the door and seen him, I tellyou the shivers went up my back."
"Is he thin? Is he pale?" cried Betty Neal. "How did he get away? Did heescape? Did they parole him? Did they pardon him? Did he--"
"Let me get down!" she cried.
Mrs. Sommers flung away from the door.
"Then go and marry your man-killer!"
But Betty Neal was already clattering down the stairs. Half way to thebottom her strength and courage ebbed suddenly from her; she went onwith short steps, and when at last she closed the parlor door behindher, she was staring as if she looked at a ghost.
Yet Vic Gregg was not greatly changed--a little thinner perhaps, andjust now he certainly did not have his usual color. The moment sheappeared he jumped to his feet as if he had heard a shot, and now hestood with his feet braced a little to meet a shock, one hand twitchingand playing nervously with the embroidered cloth on the table. She didnot speak; merely stood with her fingers still gripping the handle ofthe door as if she were ready to dart away at the first alarm. A wave ofpain went over the face of Vic Gregg and remained looking at her outof his eyes, for all that his single-track, concentrated mind couldperceive in her was the thing he took for fear.
"Miss Neal," he said. His voice shook, straightened out again. He madeher think of one of her big school boys who had forgotten his lesson andnow stood cudgeling his memory and dreading that terrible nightmare of"staying after school." She had a wild desire to laugh.
"Miss Neal, I ain't here to try to take up things that can't be took upag'in." Apparently he had prepared the speech carefully, and now he wenton with more ease: "I'm leavin' these here parts for some place unknown.Before I go I jest want to say I know I was wrong from the beginnin'.All I want to say is that I was jest all sort of tied up in a knotinside and when I seen you with him--" He stopped. "I hope you marrysome gent that's worth you, only they ain't any such. An'--I want towish you good-luck, an' say good-by--"
He swept the perspiration from his forehead, and caught up his hat; hehad been through the seventh circle of torture.
"Oh, Vic, dear!" cried a voice he had never heard before. Then a flurryof skirts, then arms about him, then tears and laughter, and eyes whichwent hungrily over his face.
"I been a houn'-dog. My God, Betty, you don't mean--"
"That I love you, Vic. I never knew what it was to love you before."
"After I been a man-killin', lyin', sneakin'--"
"Don't you say another word. Vic, it was all my fault."
"It wasn't. It was mine. But if you'd only kind of held off a little andgone easy with me."
"You didn't give me a chance."
"When I looked back from the road you wasn't standin' in the door."
"I was. And you didn't look back."
"I did."
"Vic Gregg, are you trying to--"
But the anger fled from her as suddenly as it had come.
"I don't care. I'll take all the blame."
"I don't want you to. I won't let you."
She laughed hysterically.
"Vic, tell me that you're free?"
"I'm paroled."
"Thank God! Oh, I've prayed and prayed--Vic, don't talk. Sit downthere--so! I just want to look and look at you. There's a hollow, hungryplace in me that's filling up again."
"It was Pete Glass," said Gregg brokenly. "He--he trusted me cleanthrough when the rest was lookin' at me like I was a snake. Pete gotword to the governor, an'--"
There followed a long interval of talk that meant nothing, and then,as the afternoon waned towards evening, and the evening toward dark, hetold her the whole story of the long adventure. He left out nothing, nota detail that might tell against him. When he came to the moment whenGlass persuaded him to go back and betray Barry he winced, but set hisjaw and plunged ahead. She, too, paled when she heard that, and for amoment she had to cover her eyes, but she was older by half a life-timethan she had been when he was last with her, and now she read below thesurface. Besides, Vic had offered to undo what he had done, had offeredto stay and fight for Barry, and surely that evened the score!
There was a light rap on the door, and then Mrs. Sommers came in with atray.
"Maybe you young folks forgot about supper," she said. "I just thoughtI'd bring in a bite for you."
She placed it on the table, and then lingered, delighted, while her eyeswent over them together and one by one. Perhaps Betty Neal was a foolfor throwing herself away on a gun-fighter, but at least Mrs. Sommerswas furnished with a story which half Alder would know by tomorrow.The walls of her house were not sound proof. Besides, Mrs. Sommers hadremarkably keen ears.
"They's been a gentleman here ask for you, Vic," she said, "but Ithought maybe you wouldn't like it much to be disturbed. So I told himyou wasn't here."
Her smile fairly glowed with triumph.
"Thanks," said Gregg, "but who was he?"
"I never seen him before. Anyway, it didn't much matter. He wanted tosee some of the rest of the boys quite bad: Pete Glass and Ronicky Joe,and Sliver Waldron, and Gus Reeve. He seemed to want to see 'em allparticular bad."
"Pete Glass and Ronicky and--the posse!" murmured Vic. He grewthoughtful. "He wanted to see me, too?"
"Very particular, and he seemed kind of down-hearted when he found thatPete was out of town. Wanted to know when he might be back."
"What sort of a lookin' gent was he?" asked Vic, and his voice wassharp.
"Him? Oh, he looked like a tenderfoot to me. Terrible polite, though,and he had a voice that wasn't hardly rougher'n a girl's. Seemed like hewas sort of embarrassed jest talkin' to me." She smiled at the thought,but Gregg was on his feet now, his hands on the shoulders of Mrs.Sommers as though he would try to shake information from her loose bulk.
"Look quick, now," he said. "Where did you send him?"
"How you talk! Why, where should I send him? I told him like as notRonicky and Sliver and Gus would be down to Lorrimer's--"
The groan of Vic made her stop with a gasp.
"What did he look like?"
Mrs. Sommers was very sober. Her smile congealed.
"Black hair, and young, and good-lookin', and b-b-brown eyes, and--"
"God!"
"Vic," cried Betty Neal, "what is it!" She looked around her in terror.
"It's Barry."
He turned towards the door, and then stopped, in an agon
y of indecision.Betty Neal was before him, blocking the way with her arms outstretched.
"Vic, you shan't go. You shan't go. You've told me yourself that he'ssure death."
"God knows he is."
"You won't go, Vic?"
"But the others! Ronicky--Gus--"
She stammered in her fear.
"That's their lookout! They're three to one. Let them kill--"
"But they don't know him. They've never been close enough to see hisface. Besides, no three men I--he--for God's sake tell me what to do!"
"Stay here--if you love me. I won't let you go. I won't!"
"I got to warn them."
"You'll be killed!"
He tore away her hands.
"I got to warn them--but who'll I help? Them three against Dan? He savedme--twice! But--I got. I got to go."
"If you fight for him first he'll only turn on you afterwards. Vic, stayhere."
"What good's my life? What good's it if I'm a yaller dog ag'in? I'mgoin' out--and be a man!"