"Do you think,Mr.Stanton,"she said,"that the man who took the money would burden himself with a gun?Isn't a rifle heavy for one in flight to carry?""It is,"said father."Your mother saw nothing of two men?""Only one,and she knows he didn't carry a gun.Except the man you took in,no stranger has been noticed around here lately?""No one.We are quite careful.Even the gun was not loaded as it stood;whoever took it carried the ammunition also,but he couldn't fire until he loaded."Father turned to the corner where the gun always stood and then he stooped and picked up two little white squares from the floor.
They were bits of unbleached muslin in which he wrapped the bullets he made.
"The rifle was loaded before starting,and in a hurry,"he said,as he held up the squares of muslin.Then he scratched a match,bent,and ran it back and forth over the floor,and at one place there was a flash,and the flame went around in funny little fizzes as it caught a grain of powder here and there."You see the measure was overrun.""Wouldn't the man naturally think the gun was loaded,and take it as it stood?""That would be a reasonable conclusion,"said father.
"But he looked!"I cried."That first night when you and the boys went to the barn,and the girls were getting supper,he looked at the gun,and he LIKED it when he saw it wasn't loaded.
He smiled.And he didn't limp a mite when I was the only one in the room.He and Leon knew it wasn't loaded,and I guess he didn't load it,for he liked having it empty so well.""Ummmm!"said father."What it would save in this world if a child only knew when to talk and when to keep still.Little Sister,the next time you see a stranger examine my gun when I'm not in the room,suppose you take father out alone and whisper to him about it.""Yes,sir,"I said.
The way I wished I had told that at the right time made me dizzy,but then there were several good switchings I'd had for telling things,besides what Sally did to me about her and Peter.I would have enjoyed knowing how one could be sure.Hereafter,it will be all right about the gun,anyway.
"Could I take my horse and carry a message anywhere for you?Are both your sons riding to tell the neighbours?"Father hesitated,but it seemed as if he stopped to think,so I just told her:"Laddie is riding.Leon didn't take a horse."Father said there was nothing she could do,so she took my hand and we started for the gate.
"I do hope they will find him,and get back the money,and give him what he deserves!"she cried.
"Yes,father and mother are praying that they'll find him,"I said."It doesn't seem to make the least difference to them about the money.Father didn't even look at a big paper piece I found where it was hidden.But they are anxious about the man.
Mother says he is so young,we just must find him,and keep this a secret,and give him another chance.You won't tell,will you?"The Princess stood still on our walk,and then of all things!if she didn't begin to go Sabethany-like.The colour left her cheeks and lips and she shivered and shook and never said one word.I caught her arm."Say,what ails you?"I cried."You haven't gone and got heart trouble too,have you?"She stood there trembling,and then,wheeling suddenly,ran back into the house,and went to my mother.On her knees,the Princess buried her face in mother's breast and said:"Oh Mrs.
Stanton!Oh,if I only could help you!"
She began to cry as if something inside her had broken,and she'd shake to pieces.
Mother stared above her head at father,with her eyebrows raised high,and he waved his hand toward me.Mother turned to me,but already she had put her arms around the Princess,and was trying to hold her together.
"What did you tell her that made her come back?"she asked sternlike.
"You forgot to explain that the man was so young,and you wanted to keep it a secret and give him another chance,"I said."I just asked her not to tell."
Mother looked at father and all the colour went from her face,and she began to shake.He stared at her,then he opened her door and lifted the Princess with one arm,and mother with the other,and helped them into mother's room,stepped back and closed the door.After a while it opened and they came out together,with both mother's arms around the Princess,and she had cried until she staggered.Mother lifted her face and kissed her,when they reached the door and said:"Tell your mother I understand enough to sympathize.Carry her my love.I do wish she would give herself the comfort of asking God to help her.""She does!Oh,I'm sure she does!"said the Princess."It's father who has lost all judgment and reason."Father went with her to the gate,and this time she needed help to mount her horse,and she left it to choose its way and go where it pleased on the road.When father came in he looked at mother,and she said:"I haven't the details,but she understands too well.The Pryor mystery isn't much of a mystery any more.God help their poor souls,and save us from suffering like that!"She said so little and meant so much,I couldn't figure out exactly what she did mean,but father seemed to understand.
"I've often wondered,"he said,but he didn't say what he wondered,and he hurried to the barn and saddled our best horse and came in and began getting ready to ride,and we knew he would go northwest.I went back to the catalpa tree and wondered myself;but it was too much for me to straighten out:just why my mother wanting to give the traveller man another chance would make the Princess feel like that.If she had known my mother as I did,she'd have known that she ALWAYS wanted to give every man a second chance,no matter whether he was young or old.
Then I saw Laddie coming down the Big Hill beside the church,but he was riding so fast I thought he wouldn't want to bother with me,so I slid from the tree,and ran to tell mother.She went to the door and watched as he rode up,but you could see by his face he had not heard of them.
