Читать книгу Lefty Leighton - Percy Keese Fitzhugh - Страница 4

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Mapletown settled down in the peace and quiet of early summer and soon forgot that there were two of her native sons missing from her shady streets and flowering byways. A whole month had already passed since Chilton Cole and Kenneth Leighton left for parts unknown.

But the families of the missing boys had not forgotten. To be sure, they went about their tasks just as usual but the gap in their households was always in evidence. In the palatial home of the Coles on High Street a bitter father paced the floor night after night telling his family over and over of the double disgrace that his runaway son had brought upon him. It was only to be expected, therefore, that in the course of events this knowledge should find its way into the simple little bungalow across the street.

The knowledge got to Mr. Hulbert’s greedy ears the night before Lefty was scheduled to leave for Donellen Camp, a scout camp in the Adirondack Mountains. It was to be the boy’s first summer at a camp and as he was still a scout of the second class, one may readily understand with what joy and high hopes he was looking forward to it. There had not been a cloud on his horizon until he sat down to supper and it was his querulous uncle who unsheathed the first storm warning.

“Well,” said he after consuming a spoonful of soup, “I got talking to Mr. Cole ’s afternoon down at the works. He asked me if it was true that Kenneth had been threatenin’ to go ’way to sea for a long time back.”

Lefty’s tanned cheeks revealed a trace of red but he devoted himself sedulously to his food and said nothing. Mrs. Hulbert, however, laid down her soup spoon and looked up inquiringly.

“Well, I never!” said she. “How absurd!”

“Nothing of the kind,” said Mr. Hulbert. “Mr. Cole seemed to know pretty well what he was talking about. Said Fenton told him last night for the first time after he’s been questionin’ him for this month or more. He wants to get at the bottom of the whole thing, he says, and now that he’s heard how Kenneth’s been premeditatin’ this thing for so long he’s goin’ to hire detectives and get them on a different track from what he planned first off. I was never so ashamed in my life, to have a man like Mr. Cole—the big boss of the works, question me in front of everybody.”

“And why should you be ashamed?” asked Mrs. Hulbert, taking up her spoon again.

“Hmph,” Mr. Hulbert growled into his food. “Why should I be anything else when he almost accuses the nephew I’ve brought up from an infant (and who turns out to be an ingrate) of having a hand in making his son a thief and luring him away from his home!”

“How does he dare!” exclaimed Mrs. Hulbert. “What . . .”

“He dares because Kenneth was pretty thick with the young scoundrel and he dares because it’s the first time his son ever did anything dishonest!” Mr. Hulbert flung his words across the table with a triumphant sneer.

Lefty dropped his knife on the floor and it had a most startling effect on all of them; almost as if that were the bombshell exploding instead of Mr. Hulbert’s statement. For a moment the good woman and her nephew sat tense and silent.

“Let’s not have any more insinuations about Kenneth, Charles,” said Mrs. Hulbert at length. “What is this about Chilton—what did he do?”

“Stole somethin’,” said Mr. Hulbert. “Cole wouldn’t say what exactly—he said it was a valuable article that Chilton could turn into money any time. There wasn’t any money lying around in the house that night and I s’pose that was the next best thing he could think of. Those are the boss’s words exactly. And what I was most ashamed of was, that he seems to think that it wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for Kenneth.”

“Too bad about Mr. Cole!” said Mrs. Hulbert, stoutly. “What influence would our Kenneth have over a boy like Chilton? They are the same age, they have the same romantic natures. . . .”

“Bosh!” interpolated Mr. Hulbert. “It’s just pure devilishness, that’s what I call it. And you can bet that Cole thinks so too, that’s why he figured it out if Kenneth’s been braggin’ about going away this long time that the two scoundrels have been hashin’ it out.”

“They weren’t hashing anything,” said Lefty quietly. “I ought to know.”

“Yeh, well if you knew so much that was going on why didn’t you say something before?” questioned the angered man.

“Because Kenneth is ambitious and wanted to go away to make something of himself so’s he wouldn’t be a burden to you and aunt any longer,” said Lefty vociferously.

“Oh, the poor, poor child,” said Mrs. Hulbert.

“Poor, nothing,” growled Mr. Hulbert. “I’m the one to be pitied after raising him and gettin’ no more thanks than . . .”

“Charles, that’s quite enough,” said the good woman in a patient voice. “Kenneth is impulsive and you can’t expect him to stop and think which would have been the better way. He simply grasped the first opportunity that presented itself, poor boy. To think he ever had the idea that he was a burden—oh, my!”

“Yeh, and to think he ever had the idea of plannin’ with Chilton Cole to be a thief so’s I can be under suspicion by Cole himself and maybe lose my job,” Mr. Hulbert whined.

Lefty rose to his full height of five feet and five and a half inches. His clear blue eyes looked steadily across the table at his grumbling uncle and he shook his head decisively, bringing a thick lock of unruly hair down upon his forehead.

“Maybe Ken didn’t do right by running away the way he did,” said he, with a quivering voice bespeaking his fourteen years. “But one thing, he thought he was doing right, so that makes things different and besides he isn’t hurting anyone exactly (excepting make aunt feel bad), and he took his own money.” His voice wavered for an instant, and then he said, “Not even will I stand for my own uncle saying that Ken’s had anything to do with whatever Chilton’s supposed to have done or the planning of it—I won’t stand for it! You can’t say it again and get away with it, you can’t!”

With tears streaming from his eyes, this usually easy-going, good-natured boy ran from the room and up the stairs. He tumbled into his bedroom and picked his way through several small heaps of clothing that had been gathered together in preparation for his departure on the morrow. The joy with which he had anticipated that departure had suddenly dissolved into thin air, as it were. No matter how delightful the summer might prove to be, he knew that it would not be quite as delightful as he had dreamed and planned it would, now that the scene downstairs had transpired. It had simply stripped this new adventure, on which he would start tomorrow, of all its glamour and thrill.

He groped his way in the gathering dusk of the room, sought out the chair alongside his bed and sat down. The tears gradually ceased, leaving small dry shining patches on either cheekbone. After a time he reached out and pulled the cord of his bed lamp, flooding the room with light.

That little gesture brought him out of the despair into which he had fallen and he set about folding up his clothing and packing it into the steamer trunk that stood in the far corner of the room. As he progressed with his task there became evident a certain grim resolve in the tilt of his strong chin.

“Well, there’s this much about it,” he said a little later, “I won’t hear any more of it for two months. And when I come back from Donellen, uncle will have most forgotten it. But I’m glad I got in my say tonight, that’s one good thing. Gosh, I know what Ken is and what he isn’t! Anyway, he isn’t a—a—well, I’ll show uncle and Mr. Cole too that he wouldn’t even help Chilton to be one!”

Lefty was as good as his word. Indeed, he almost sacrificed his own good name in carrying out that resolve.