Читать книгу Woman in Ambush - Rex Beach - Страница 5

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DICK BANNING returned home that afternoon by way of the alley. He came in through the back door of the stable and was greeted by low whinnies from his father’s team of bays and from his own saddle horse. He spoke to the animals, stroked and caressed them, and laid his cheek against their silken muzzles. The coachman, he knew, was asleep upstairs.

Dick was a tall, pleasant-faced lad who looked several years older than his age. He had a disarming smile, there was a stubborn wave to his hair, his gray eyes were wide-set and intelligent, but there was nothing about him to challenge attention or to suggest the unusual.

A grape arbor, heavy with foliage, led from the stable and carriage house to the brick terrace at the rear of the residence. Dick passed through it. On one side of this arbor was a garden of old-fashioned flowers; on the other, a grass tennis court, croquet ground, and archery range. These spacious but secluded premises had been his playground and his mother’s favorite loitering place. In his mind’s eye he could see her now among her roses and columbines, her snapdragons and hollyhocks—a gentle, gracious, fragile creature, as miraculous in her way as the loveliest blooms in this smiling garden. Thank Heaven, Dick thought, it had been kept exactly as she left it.

Entering the house, the boy went quickly to his room, turned on the water in the bathtub, and shed his clothes. Not long after, Mrs. Gibbs knocked on the bathroom door and inquired,

“Can I come in?”

“Why, certainly not,” he said with a laugh. “Aren’t you ever going to grow up, Mother Gibbs? Or let me do so?”

“This growing up!” The housekeeper spoke scornfully. “To me you’re still a little boy and little boys never scrub between their shoulders.”

“I promise! How did you know I was here?”

“I heard the water running. I can always tell when you’re home. Did you have a good time?”

“Marvelous.”

“Hunh! The idea of going off to camp for a whole month without a word of warning.”

“Didn’t you get my note?”

“Yes. But you were gone by that time. You didn’t leave a word for your father. Was that nice? Was that considerate? No, I’m ashamed of you, Dick.”

“Hurrah!” Dick exclaimed. “I’ve always been such a model of infantile propriety, such an object lesson in perfect decorum that it’s nice to be scolded. Maturity is sneaking up on me.”

“Well, the Doctor didn’t like it. He wants to talk to you when he comes in and don’t blame him if he’s severe. You’re a bad boy to worry us so.”

“Gibbsy! A guest’s first obligation is to his host. Mine requested the pleasure of my company, then and there. To make quick decisions and act upon them is a sign of character.”

“That’s all very well, but you could have dropped me or him a line later on.”

“Written on what? A piece of birch bark? With a porcupine quill dipped in my own blood? Woman, have you ever been out in the wilderness armed only with your two bare hands? Out in the Great Silence where the only sound by day is the mournful sighing of the wind in the lofty treetops and the dreadful stillness of night is broken only by the howling of hungry wolves? Out where stealthy danger lurks and death lies in ambush? That’s real suburban life.”

The bathroom door opened and Dick emerged in robe and slippers. He was grinning and gave Mrs. Gibbs a bear hug, a hearty kiss, and then shook her playfully.

“Gibbsy-Wibbsy! It’s nice to be home again and mothered by you even if I have to fight for the privilege of scrubbing my own sacred person. Now scoot! I’m not even going to let you select my tie. See you at dinner.”

That evening, Dick dined alone as he often did. He was reading in the library when his father came home. The boy arose and the two greeted each other with restraint. Dr. Banning always showed more reserve with his son than with his patients and Dick had never been demonstrative.

“Have a busy time at camp?” the father asked.

“Very.”

“You left rather hurriedly, didn’t you?”

“Yes, sir, the invitation was unexpected. You were away at that medical convention. I didn’t think you’d mind.” The Doctor seated himself at his flat-topped desk before saying, “I’m getting accustomed to surprises from you. This was only one of many.”

“I’m sorry if I caused you any uneasiness but you’re so busy—”

“Uneasiness isn’t the word,” said the older man. “Amazement would be better. I can’t forget how young you are.”

With a faint smile, the boy said, “You’ve often told people I was born at the age of sixteen. That would make me thirty-three. . . . Gibbsy says you want to see me?”

“Yes. I knew you’d be out today.”

“Out?”

“You must have realized that I’d learn where you were.” There was a pause, and the Doctor went on, “A son of mine in jail! A boy of your standing, a boy with your advantages! It floored me.”

With a suggestion of resentment in his voice, Dick said, “If you felt it so keenly, may I ask why you allowed me to remain there?”

Sharply his father answered, “Because I hoped it would be a lesson to you.”

“When I came home from college last spring, I told you I was sick of lessons.”

“And I suggested that you ease up, play, enjoy yourself for a while. I never dreamed you would turn into a rowdy—a hoodlum—and start smashing greenhouse roofs. That was an act of pure vandalism and—”

“Pardon me, sir, I considered it an act of retribution. I was tempted to take the law into my own hands and I couldn’t resist doing so. You have no idea what a satisfaction it was to meet temptation and yield. It was a brand new experience and it went to my head. It was my first brainstorm and I enjoyed it.”

“May I ask what brought on this—this emotional typhoon?” the Doctor asked curiously.

“I bought some roses for a young woman and—”

“What young woman?”

“What’s the difference? Anyhow the florist overcharged me. I thought the box felt light and I opened it. I should have known that he’s a notorious old bandit. He was very insulting but unfortunately he was too old to lay hands upon.”

“A boy of your age has no business buying roses for young widows.”

“Indeed? Anyway, that man had no business calling me names and threatening to have me arrested. For that matter I don’t see that you have any business asking who I give flowers to. Well, I was pretty mad. That was nice, too, and convinced me that I’m not altogether abnormal and that I have split the seams of my velvet Fauntleroy suit. In the street I saw several bricks. I collected them into a pile. It made me madder when a stranger asked if I wasn’t rather old to play with blocks. He was in plainclothes and I didn’t dream he was an officer. When I began to heave those bricks, he tackled me and we had quite a tussle. I got hold of myself on the way to the station house and tried to explain that I was merely a thin-blooded intellectual who had been seized for the first time by a robust impulse but the fellow’s nose hurt him and he told me to shut up or else. And the magistrate later on was incapable of understanding the psychology of a juvenile delinquent.”

“Don’t strain yourself to be facetious,” the father said sourly.

“I didn’t feel facetious, at the time. I was pretty much ashamed of myself so, out of regard for you, I gave my name as Ronald Le Grand. Under that alias I did thirty days in the workhouse.”

“And a hard time I had keeping it out of the papers. I’m astonished at your consideration.” Dr. Banning spoke with some sarcasm.

“No more astonished than I am at your allowing me to blister these white hands,” the youth retorted. “That jail smelled pretty bad.”

“What a story!” the father exclaimed. “It would have preceded you to Oxford, ruined your career. Do you wonder that I did my utmost to smother it?”

“I’m not going to Oxford,” Dick said.

Dr. Banning was startled. “What’s this? I don’t know what’s the matter with you lately.”

“It’s something pills won’t cure.”

“Certainly it isn’t overwork. No normal, healthy boy can really overwork. However, he can overindulge himself. Now that I know the rough gang you are running around with, I’m not going to stand by and see your morals corrupted.” The boy looked a bit bewildered at this. “I don’t know just what you mean, sir, but I feel competent to select my own friends.”

“Indeed!”

“You see, I’m not interested in boys of my own age or in giggling girls, either. If I prefer older companions, it’s because we have something in common.”

“Exactly! Don’t let’s go into that. I can’t permit you to run wild. Aside from your own good, I have myself to think of.”

To this Dick nodded. “I understand perfectly. You wish to point with pride and you can’t bear to view with alarm. You have always made me feel like one of your specimens—a sort of two-headed boy that you keep in a jar. Well, I’m sick of being different from other people. I’m sick of all the things I have been doing. And Oxford—I just can’t bear the thought of it.”

“Why?”

“Maybe my mental mechanism has gone out of order like a watch with a weak spring or a broken jewel. I’ve lost my enthusiasm for study; in fact, the idea nauseates me and if I were to go to Oxford I’d be no credit to you or to myself. The whole thing has lost its glitter; I’m afraid the bookworm has turned.”

“And I don’t like the direction you have taken. You must want to do something. Precisely what is it that you have in mind?”

Faced with this query, the boy floundered for the very good reason that he himself didn’t know exactly what desires had taken possession of him. All he felt sure about was that he had rebelled against academic bondage and craved freedom to explore a new and exciting world. He very definitely desired the freedom to explore it in his own way. Unfamiliar yearnings plagued him, but in spite of his facility for self-expression he couldn’t put them into words. Actually they had not yet taken full shape. It was like the peculiar urge that drives an explorer to push into unknown country, making the desire to go, to look, to see into more than mere curiosity—a compulsion.

Dr. Banning listened for a while before saying finally, “All right. If you think you must see the world immediately, so be it. I think it’s unwise, foolish, but I will not stand in your way. I’ll attempt to find a suitable traveling companion, some older man who can look after you and serve as a tutor. There must be young professors who—”

“I wouldn’t care for that, sir.” Dick spoke with decision. “I wish to go alone and select my own traveling companions, if any. What’s more, I don’t want or need any further tutoring.”

“I cannot permit you to go globe-trotting alone,” the father said firmly. “The very idea is—well, shocking. No! Impossible!”

“Then I’m afraid the well-known irresistible force has met the immovable body. The truth is, sir, I feel that I must do what I want to do instead of what I’m told to do.”

In this attitude of mind the father recognized not the vague yearnings, the acute dissatisfactions of youth, but dangerous and unruly juvenile sex impulses which were the more abhorrent to him because of his professional training and experience. Sex was a subject he had never discussed with Dick and now he could not bring himself to broach it.

With increasing heat the two continued to argue. Abruptly Dr. Banning, white with anger, jerked open a drawer of his desk, removed his checkbook and swiftly wrote in it.

“For some reason beyond my comprehension,” he said, “you have seen fit to ignore my wishes, scorn my advice, and change all the careful plans that have been made for you. Without any reason whatever, you have committed an act of vandalism and got yourself into trouble which could have done both of us irreparable injury. Now—”

Dick broke in to say, “We’ve never understood each other; we’ve never been able to talk things out without a clash. Perhaps I did make a fool of myself but the whole thing strikes me as rather trivial. It isn’t worth a real quarrel. I’ve always hoped we’d never come to that.”

His father was silent a moment before he answered. “Most boys at one time or another play at running away from home. I thought you had more common sense. I cannot believe that you are still so immature as to yield to so foolish an impulse. No, it seems you have suddenly rebelled against authority and I can see nothing back of it except a desire to indulge those animal appetites which any person of good breeding must have the strength of character to control.”

Dick opened his mouth to protest but his father motioned him to be silent. “I dare say I could find a way to restrain you from making a fool of yourself but it would only complicate matters and lead to more misunderstandings. I’d be set down as a harsh and unfeeling father, which I’m not. Evidently your mind is so firmly fixed that I can’t change it. Well, I’m slow to take offense and slower still to forgive. Before you decide to have your fling, I want you to weigh what it is that you’re flinging aside: a good home, my help in achieving a brilliant career, success, security, comfort, ease of mind. Those things are all yours if you want them, but you must take them now or not at all.”

“You have done a great deal for me and I thank you,” Dick said seriously. “I can’t make my feelings clearer than I have already, but I can’t accept your further help under false pretenses.”

“So. There’s no moving you. . . . You insist on being a tramp. . . . Well, I don’t want you to be forced into the company of other tramps before you have had time to find yourself. No doubt you will descend to their level sooner or later but meanwhile this will permit you to preserve your self-respect. At least you won’t have to turn to crime.” He extended a check he had torn from his book. Dick eyed it with surprise.

“Five thousand dollars! This is very generous of you,” he said. “I have never seen so much money. Nor have many other boys of my age. Do you think I can spend it wisely?”

“No,” said Dr. Banning, “but I don’t want you writing home for money. You’ll notice the check is dated one week hence. You have seven days to come to your senses. If you cash it, don’t look forward to further help. If you change your mind and decide to stay here, which I hope you will do, call it a reward for your good sense.”

Dick handed the check back and arose from his chair. “Thanks for your generosity and for your blessing,” he said quietly. “My grandfather was a poor farmer. You made your own way, I think I can do the same. I wouldn’t like to be handicapped by the possession of such a sum. Furthermore, if I took your money, I’d feel obligated to spend it wisely. I don’t want to be tied down in that manner or in any other. I want to be foolish and impulsive and unwise, but only at my own expense. I want to be free!”

“You can’t leave home like this,” his father exclaimed. “You can’t leave at such an hour. Where will you go?”

“I have a friend who is leaving town in the morning. He’ll probably leave early.”

“A friend? Who is he? What is he?”

“He’s known professionally as Jimmy the Lark. He was my cellmate in jail. He’s clever with cards.”

“My God!” the Doctor groaned.

“I like him. He says he’ll make a man of me. Don’t worry, sir. I’ll bring no discredit to the family name and I won’t come back until I can write you a check to match the size of this one.” Dick smiled cheerfully and let his eyes rove over the impressive and handsomely furnished library. “No, when I do come home, I want to be able to look around and say, ‘Hello, father! Well, I see you are still living in the same old place. Really, it isn’t good enough for you. Better let me set you up in suitable style!” Still smiling the boy left the room.

After what seemed a long time. Dr. Banning heard his son come downstairs; he was on the point of calling his name or of going out to intercept him, but he was too deeply hurt and too angry to do so. The front door opened and closed.

For a long while, the Doctor sat with his face in his hands.