Rose O'Paradise

  CHAPTER XXXV

  ALONE IN THE SHOP

  Later in the day Jordan Morse and Molly Merriweather met at thehospital. They looked into each other's eyes, not daring to mentionthe terrible consternation that possessed them.

  "Have you heard anything?" murmured Molly, glancing about beforespeaking.

  Jordan nodded his head.

  "It's awful," he said. "Bates is dead--if you say a word, I'm lost."

  "Depend on me," Molly assured him. "Oh, how dreadful it all is!Theodore must get well," she continued in agitation.

  "Well, he won't!" snarled Morse. Then he went on passionately. "Molly,I swear I didn't intend to shoot _him_. I was mad clear through andaimed at the cobbler."

  "Hush!" warned Molly. "Some one's coming."

  A young doctor approached them with gravity.

  "Mr. King?" murmured Molly.

  "Is slowly failing. The bullet found a vital spot----"

  "And the other man--Bates? Is it true he's dead?" interjected Morseeagerly.

  "Yes, he died shortly after the tragedy. It's all a mystery, but Ithink they've arrested the guilty man."

  Both listeners stared at the speaker as if he'd told them the worldhad come to an end. It was Morse who managed to mutter:

  "What man?"

  "Haven't you heard? They've arrested Lafe Grandoken. The shootingoccurred in his cobbling shop, and the gun was found as proof of hiscrime. Of course, like all Jews, he's trying to invent a story in hisown favor.... He's undoubtedly the criminal."

  Not until they were in the street did Jordan express himself toMolly.

  "What heavenly luck! So they've arrested Grandoken. If Theodorelives----"

  Molly clutched his arm.

  "Oh, he must! He must! Jordan! I shall die myself if he doesn't."

  Jordan Morse turned sharply upon her.

  "Don't throw a fit right here. You're not the only one suffering. Myatmosphere is cleared a little with Grandoken's arrest, though."

  "But you've still to reckon with Jinnie," ventured Molly.

  "Easy now," returned the man. "I'll get her before Theodore is well."

  "Take me home," pleaded Molly wearily. "Such a day as this is enoughto ruin all the good looks a woman ever had."

  Disgustedly, Jordan flung open the motor door.

  "Well, my God, you've got about as much brains and heart as achipmunk. Climb in!"

  Later, as the two separated, Morse said, with low-pitched voice:

  "Now, then, I'm going to plan to get Jinnie. Might's well be hung fora sheep's a lamb----I'm just as well satisfied that Bates is dead.After I secure Jinnie--then for my boy. God! I can scarcely wait untilI have him."

  Miss Merriweather went into the house in utter exhaustion, nor didshe pause to take off her hat before telling Theodore's mother thelittle she could to encourage her.

  If Molly was suffering over the crime which had sent the man she lovedto the hospital, Jinnie was going through thrice that agony for thesame man. He had almost met his death in coming to tell Lafe of theirlove, and had been struck down in his mission by an unknown hand.Jinnie knew it was an unknown hand, because just as sure as she lived,so sure was she that Lafe had not committed the crime. The cobbler hadexplained it all to her, and she believed him. Peggy was dreadfullyill! After her fainting spell, the girl put Mrs. Grandoken to bed, andthen went to comfort Bobbie. She found him huddled on his pillow,clasping Happy Pete in his arms. The small face was streaked withtears and half buried from sight.

  "Bobbie," called Jinnie softly.

  The yellow head came up with a jerk, the flashing grey eyes begging inmute helplessness an explanation for these unusual happenings.

  "I'm here, Jinnie. What's the matter with everybody?"

  Jinnie lay down beside him.

  "Peggy's sick," she said, not daring to say more.

  "Where's Lafe?"

  An impulsive arm went across the child's body.

  "He's gone away for a little while, dear, just for a few days!"

  Something in her tones made Bobbie writhe. With the acuteness of onewith his affliction, his ears had caught the commotion in the shop.

  "But he can't walk, Jinnie. Did he walk?" he demanded.

  "No."

  "How'd he go, in a motor car?"

  "No," repeated the girl.

  "Some one took him, then?" demanded Bobbie.

  "Yes."

  "In a wagon?"

  By this time she could feel the tip-tap of his anguished heart againsthers.

  "Yes," she admitted, but that was all. She felt that to tell the truththen would be fatal to the throbbing young life in her arms.

  "Bobbie," she whispered, cuddling him. "Lafe's coming home soon. Be agood boy and lie still and rest. Jinnie'll come back in a fewminutes."

  She crawled off the bed, and went to the shop door. By main force shehad to drag her unwilling feet over the threshold. She stood for twotense minutes scanning the room with pathetic keenness. Then shewalked forward and stood beside the bench. It seemed to be sentientlyalive with the magnetism of the man who had lately occupied it. Jinniesat on it, a cry bursting from her white lips. She wanted to be withhim, but she had promised to take care of Peggy, and she would ratherdie than betray that trust. Her eyes fell upon two dark spots upon thefloor, one near the door and one almost under her feet. She shudderedas she realized it was blood. Then she went to the kitchen for waterand washed it away. This done, she gathered up Lafe's tools,reverently kissing each one as she laid it in the box under the bench.How lonely the shop looked in the gathering gloom! To dissipate thelengthening shadows in the corners, she lighted the lamp. Theflickering flame brought back keenly the hours she had spent withLafe--hours in which she had learned so much. The whole horror thathad fallen on the household rushed over her being like a tidal waveover a city. Misery of the most exquisite kind was tearing her heartin pieces, stabbing her throat with long, forklike pains. Tense throatmuscles caught and clung together, choking back her breath until shelay down, full length, upon the cobbler's bench.

  In poignant grief she thought of the expression of Lafe's face when hehad been wheeled from the room. His voice came back through the faintlight.

  "He has given His angels charge over thee, lassie."

  But how could she believe in the angels, with Lafe in prison andTheodore dying? She got up, spent and worn with weeping, and went into Peggy, sitting for a few minutes beside the agonized woman, but shecould not say one word to make that agony less. In losing the twostrong friends, she had lost her faith too. Peg's face was turned tothe wall, and as she didn't answer when the girl laid her hand on hershoulder, Jinnie tiptoed out. In her own room she lay for seeminglycentury-long hours with Bobbie pressed tightly to her breast.