CHAPTER XXIV
BOB IS CLEARED
"Betty, you stay out of this," commanded Bob sternly. "If there'sgoing to be a scene, two actors will be a-plenty. You go away andtake the girls with you."
The clerk who had been regarding them curiously over his ledger nowtook a hand.
"If this argument is likely to be prolonged," he suggestedsarcastically, "I'd advise you either to go up to your room, Mr.Peabody, or into that card room there. That's deserted in the daytime."
"Yes, come on in here," said Betty, anxious to get away from thegaze of the other guests. She led the way into the card room whichopened off the lobby and was preferable to making a public journey inthe elevator. "Close the door, Louise."
Mr. Peabody kept his hold on Bob's collar and from time to time heshook him vigorously, whether with the idea of shaking thestubbornness out of him or merely to indicate that he held the whiphand, Betty was undecided.
"You can let go of Bob," she said heatedly, as soon as they were inthe room with the door shut. "He isn't going to run away."
"I'll see that he doesn't," was the grim reply. "You hand over thatdeed, young man, or I'll call a policeman in two minutes."
"I tell you I haven't got it!" protested Bob desperately. "I neversaw the thing. What would I be doing with a paper of yours? I haven'tgot it, and that's all there is to it."
"Of course he hasn't!" For the life of her Betty could not keepstill, though perhaps caution dictated that she hold her tongue. "Iknow he hasn't that deed, Mr. Peabody. And having him arrested won'tgive you what he hasn't got."
"How do you know he hasn't got it?" demanded the farmer. "Deedsdon't walk off and hide themselves, young lady. Bob happens to knowwhy I want that deed. And if he doesn't produce it, and that mightyquick, he'll find himself where they can shake the truth out of himwith no fooling."
Bobby sprang to her feet from the leather chair where she had curledup to listen to the proceedings.
"I'll telephone my father," she cried. "He'll help Bob to sue youfor false arrest. If you have some one arrested and it is found hedidn't do what you said he did, he can sue you for damages. I'veheard my father say so. Don't you care, Bob, Daddy will find a way tobeat this horrid old man."
An unpleasant smile spread over the mean, shriveled face.
"Is that so?" queried Joseph Peabody. "Well, I don't know who youare, Miss, but you need a lesson on how to keep a civil tongue inyour head. All the fine friends Mister Bob has picked up inWashington won't stand by him long when they find out he's apoorhouse rat and a runaway at that. There'll be some explaining foryou to do before the almshouse authorities are satisfied, young man."
Betty's anger flamed as the familiar odious phrase fell from thefarmer's lips, and added to her anger was the crystallized fear thathad been haunting her for weeks. She did not know whether Bob couldreally be returned to the poor-house or whether it was another trickof Peabody's, but she feared the worst and dreaded it.
"You try to return Bob to the poorhouse!" she cried, her cheeksblazing, her hands clenched. She took a step toward Peabody and hefell back, dragging Bob with him so that a chair stood between themand the furious girl. "You try to return Bob to the poorhouse, andI'll tell every one what I know about that deed," flared Betty. "Iknow all about the Warren lots and the kind of sale you forcedthrough. You--you--" to her distress and amazement, Betty burst intotears.
"Don't cry, dear," whispered Bobby, putting her arm around her."Daddy won't let them do anything to Bob. You see if he does."
Joseph Peabody was apparently impervious to verbal assaults and tears.
"Once more I ask you," he shook Bob violently, "are you going tohand over that paper? Yes, or no?"
"I tell you I haven't got it," said Bob doggedly. "Shaking my teethout won't help me get a paper I never saw in my life. As for havingme arrested, you keep up this racket much longer and the hotelauthorities will send for the police on their own responsibility."
Peabody picked up his hat.
"All right, you come along with me," he said sourly. "You won't gobefore a soft-headed police recorder this time, either. You'll findout what it means to face a real judge."
He was marching Bob toward the door when a sharp rap sounded.Louise, nearest the door, had the presence of mind to open it. Abellboy stood there with a telegram on a tray.
"Telegram for Mr. Joseph Peabody," he announced impassively, hisalert eyes darting about the room from which such angry voices hadbeen coming for the last quarter of an hour.
"All right--give it here." The farmer snatched the yellow envelopeand shut the door in the boy's face without making a motion to tip him.
His back against the door, to prevent Bob's escape, Joseph Peabodyslit the envelope and read the message. The others saw his jaw dropand a slow, painful flush creep over his face and neck.
"I'm called back to Bramble Farm right away," he mumbled, refusingto meet their gaze. "Being hurried, and having so much to tend to,I'm willing to drop the matter of having you arrested, Bob. But letthis be a lesson to you, to hoe a straight row."
Bob stared at the man stupidly, frankly bewildered. But Betty'squick wit solved the sudden change of front. She had seen how quicklyPeabody folded up the telegram when he had read it.
"Isn't that a message from Mrs. Peabody?" she demanded crisply. "Anddoesn't she say she's found the deed? Where was it--in one of yourcoat pockets?"
The farmer was taken by surprise, and the truth was shocked out ofhim.
"She's found it under the seat in the old market wagon," he blurted."I recollect I put it there for safe-keeping, meaning to take it overto the deposit box the next day. Well, I've wasted more time an'money in Washington than I like to think of. Got to go home and makeup for it."
Without another word or glance, without the shadow of an apology toBob, he swung out of the room and strode over to the desk. In amoment they heard his harsh voice demanding the amount of his bill.
Bob looked at Betty, who stared back. Louise and Bobby were equallysilent. Then Betty snickered, and the tension was broken. Peal afterpeal of laughter rang out, and they dropped helplessly into chairsand laughed till they could laugh no longer.
"Oh, dear!" Betty sat up, wiping her eyes. "Did you ever seeanything like that? He never said good-by, or admitted that he'd madea mistake, or--or anything! What do you suppose people in the hotelmust think of him?"
That reminded Bobby of the girl they had come to see and who wasreally responsible for their visit to the hotel.
"The first kind thing Ruth Royal ever did for me," she declaredfrankly. "I wouldn't have missed seeing Mr. Peabody for worlds."
"How did you ever happen to come here, Bob?" asked Betty, who hadbeen wondering about this ever since she had seen Bob walk right intothe one man he most wished to avoid.
"I brought a letter from Mr. Derby for one of the guests stoppinghere," explained Bob. "That reminds me, I haven't delivered it yet.Peabody threw me off the track. I'll turn it in, and then I'll haveto hurry back to the office; they'll think I've been run over forsure."
He went off, promising again to see them on Saturday, and the girls,feeling too upset to settle down to the quietness of a motion picturehouse, went out to walk up and down in the sunshine of PennsylvaniaAvenue until it was time to meet Mr. Littell and Libbie and Esther.
Of course they had much to tell them, and Mr. Littell in particularwas a most appreciative listener. He was genuinely fond of Bob andinterested in him, and he got quite purple with wrath when he learnedof the indignity he had suffered at the hands of the ill-bred farmer.
"Then he went off and never had the grace to ask the lad's pardon!"sputtered the builder when Betty reached the end of her recital. "Iwish I had him by the collar--just for three minutes. Perhaps Iwouldn't drive a little of the fear of justice into his narrow mind!"
They had lingered over their ice-cream, and although Carter drove ata good speed, they found that unless they hurried they would be latefor dinner. It was one of Mrs.
Littell's few unbreakable rules thatthe girls must change into simple, light frocks for the evening meal,and they went directly upstairs to take off their street clothes.
When they came down dinner had been announced and they went directlyto the table. They had so much to tell Mrs. Littell and she was sointerested that it was not until they were leaving the table that sheremembered what she had meant to ask Betty as soon as the girl came in.
"Betty, darling," she said comfortably, "you found your letter onthe hall table all right, didn't you?"
"Why, I never thought to look for mail," returned Betty in surprise."No, Mrs. Littell, I didn't stop in the hall. Was there a letter forme?"
Mrs. Littell nodded and swept her family across the hall into theliving-room, saying something to her husband in a low voice. Bettyhurried to the console table where the mail was always laid on abeaten silver tray. The solitary letter lying there was addressed toher. And the postmark, she saw as she picked it up, was a town inOklahoma!