23. Particeps Criminis
This time the hounds recognized him. Instead of the bristles and growls with which they had tried to discourage his previous visit to the Metcalf home, they greeted him with yaps and whines of canine hospitality, then formed themselves Into an advance guard of honor up the avenue of oaks. They and the heartsome good-night glance of the sun strengthened Parker's hope that the resentment of her who had forbidden him to come a second time might be diverted by the urgent nature of his mission.
His trip that day to Dismal Gap had been successful in the obtainment, from the hamlet's only member of the bar, two documents which, when signed and witnessed, would have a decidedly legal look. There had occurred also an unsought interview wath that fluttering tidbit of humanity. Aunt Hootie Plott, which had filled him with apprehension for those he was trying to befriend.
It was after she had secured his promise to be present at the forthcoming annual carnival, which the drys meant should be a consecration service honoring the all-wise vote of the State, that she had put a second and more difficult request. Her words hooted in his mind:
"You must make a friend of Rex Currle. I hope - I think he will soon become a declared convert of the drys. To be sure, he has been bootlegging for Old Tom, but not for love of the pernicious calling Itself. Although he's been setting up to Verney Metcalf for years, he admitted to me the other night that he was about ready to give up all, even her. Verney's a likely favored girl, as I told him, but no female is worth going against your conscience for. Rex has sold out his property and is about to move away. But before he goes - well, he knows the exact location of Old Tom's lighthouse, so m.ake friends with him at any cost to your feelings. Oh, I know it will come hard for you to forgive his trying to bundle you out of Dismal that first day, but with grace you can do it!"
All the way home he had mulled over this evidence that the safety of the ''cantankerous" was threatened from within and clear had become his obligation to Inform them. Behind the Indolent manner which had come of his excesses was hidden - and In no wise Injured - the dynamo with which he had been equipped at birth. The mechanics of this, set going, had started him at once.
The main door of the Metcalf house stood open. Smoke spiraled skyward from the second of the stone chimneys, which Parker assumed to be located In the culinary regions. Scarcely had he lifted his foot to the first step when Old Tom and Sandyred appeared In the doorway, both In shirtsleeves. During the brief exchange of conventional greetings a large question mark formed around the two.
"Mr. Metcalf" - Parker crossed the porch and faced them squarely - "your daughter asked me not to repeat my call of the other day. I promised her I would not and intended to oblige her. I hope, however, that she and you will excuse the breach when you know why I have come."
From his breast-pocket he produced the two legallooking documents procured in Dismal. The appearance of Vernaluska In the lighted doorway that gave from one side of the living-room had caused him to make his words deliberate, distinct.
She looked startled and very lovely, her sleeves rolled to the elbows, the flush on her face probably from the kitchen fire.
He returned In kind the grave nod she gave him through the shielding shoulders of her men-folk. He could not decide whether she was frightened or angry.
"While in Dismal Gap this morning I had the local lawyer draw up certain papers transferring the mountain known as Grumbly Bald from Rex Currie to me and from me to you. Not until these are signed before witnesses will the transaction be legally binding."
"It won't eh?" Tom's gnarled hands outstretched, shook as they seized and unfolded the blank deeds.
The attention of the three was diverted from the caller; the old man's to a mumbling perusal, his children's to an anxious regard of him.
"Once I could get right and title," he muttered between phrases. "H-m, that sounds business-like - to have and to hold.' ... If I actually owned the Bald I needn't never fear the law no more - never no more."
The girl and Sandyred glanced at each other. Both copper-colored heads wagged with the observatlon - unspoken - that their father was forgetting to protect the liquid flames of his illicit calling in babble over the imaginary ones that seemed to be consuming his sanity.
"There's no hindrance now to your owning the mountain, sir, except Currie's signature to the first of those papers - which he Is under contract to give me." Parker's interruption was in as brisk a tone as he could command.
"So Verney's done told us. She allows you ain't what folks think you."
"Nor am L Is he around - Currie?"
"Rex'U be nagging In presently - he don't exactly like to miss a meal." Still clutching the unsigned deeds, the old fellow peered a moment straight Into the dark eyes of the younger man. "Stranger," he said, after an Interval that was taxing to all concerned, "we-all be just sitting down to table. Likely you'd best break biscuits with us."
"I should be glad to do so for several reasons," Parker accepted, "one, that It will give me opportunity to share some Information with you which I think you will consider Important."
"Nowise as Important as getting these here papers signed. Biscuits first, then Rex, then your | information - that's my program."
"Whenever you're ready to listen, sir."
At the amicable trend of affairs, the girl rer tumed through the lighted doorway. Her brother, with a non-committal nod, followed her. Parker was about to step for the first time over the Metcalf door-sill, when the patriarch stopped him.
"Best outen your coat; you might as well be comfortable."
Instantly the scion of born-and-bred Parkers was about to refuse the suggestion, when he intercepted a glance toward his hip. Of course, he advised himself, the removal of his coat would show whether or not he had anything "on him" to hang upon one of those neutrality nails that decorated the door-frame. Amused by the old fellow's protectorate over his hospitality, he slipped the much criticized Norfolk off his silk shirt and hung it upon the nail which he might have appropriated had he been "wearing" a gun.
In the dining-room a table was placed so near the wall that a bench served for all except Tom, who had a chair at one end, and Vernaluska, who "fetched and carried." Opposite, a cheerful fire crackled in the grate.
Here Parker was presented to Miss Emmy, whose buxom figure and pink-cheeked face Impressed him as in grateful contrast to the pallor and gangliness of such middle-aged women as he had met in the "sticks."
They settled in place, with the exception of Vernaluska, who could be heard in the kitchen. When she reappeared her sleeves were rolled down. She placed a spitted roast before the head of the clan. While he carved with able strokes, she added a dish of beans boiled In their pods, which they called "leather breeches," a pyramid of meal bread gritted and dried Into pones, and some crisp slices of bacon. A plate of fresh-churned butter and Individual dishes of berries, which Miss Emmy deplored as being home-canned with "drug-store powders," because of the late sugar shortage, completed the menu, except for coffee.
The beef conquered In combat, old Tom helped himself, then pushed the platter toward Parker, next In line.
"Light Into things," he advised. "HIm with the longest reach Is always the best fed."
"Tom," Vernaluska broached when the meal was under way, "Sandy and I are agreed that It's right pretty of Mr. Parker to buy the title to Crumbly Bald from Rex, just to sell It over to us-all. Ain't we, Sandy?"
"We sure are." The younger Metcalf nodded, although there was qualification In his grudging tone. "What I can't see Is why he's done gone and done It."
No opportunity was allowed Parker to explain.
"He had two reasons, as I see It," the girl continued In the manner of one making a foreplanned speech. "One was to give us practical proof that he ain't - isn't the revenuer he's considered hereabouts. The other " She paused, drew a deep breath, then plunged. "Mr. Parker and I are good enough friends that I told him you had promised to quit stilling once you owned the Bald. Tommie, are you going to quit? Are you meaning to keep that promise?"
Emphatically the leonine head nodded.
"Once I get this signing done good and proper, once I have the cash In hand for what's stilling now, I'll never make no more. You know, Verney, that my word's bed-rock."
"Oh, Tommie - oh, Tom!" There was a clutch In her voice, but her eyes gleamed In the lamp-light like topaz. "How long will It take with all of us working?"
Her question brought Parker an Idea - one that appealed at the moment as the superlative idea of his life.
"Wouldn't an extra hand facilitate things?" he asked generally, then faced the old man in particular. "Mr. Metcalf, what would you think of hiring me?"
"You?" Sandy snorted.
"Hiring you!" Tom echoed his amaze.
The question was italicized in the look of the girl, which shifted to meet his.
"Yes. Why not?" Parker answered all of them. His hand lifted to the little brooch of amethyst which was fastened In his tie and remained there as he continued: "Oh, you mustn't think I want to get my hands on the stuff; drinking Pve given up, once and for all. For me to help you with your last output would serve three purposes. It would train me Into the habit of resistance and give me the best possible start. It would show you absolutely that I am not a revenuer, and that "
"Might show that you are," Sandy interrupted.
"It couldn't do that, because I'm not. Anyhow, you can see at a glance that if you employ me to help get out this last batch of bumbllngs "
"Best wag your tongue tothcr way!" Again the son attempted his rather futile denial. "We don't get out nothing up here that we're scared of, I tell you."
"You would make me," Parker continued, regardless, "particeps criminis - an accessory to the fact. Don't bother contradicting me, Sandy, for everybody knows. If you people would take me in, the same jail sentence would await me as the rest of you In case of trouble."
"Heirs banjerl" Tom was staring fixedly at his emptied plate.
Miss Emmy's pink cheeks were cupped in her hands as she watched for signs in the faces of her own. Vernaluska had crossed to the fire, a glow, as from its heart of coals, in her face. Noisily, Sandy began to pile the dishes he had used.
"Why do you make such a soon stack, boy?" the older blockader objected.
*T'm nagging it down to the Gap. Want to wrastle with the carnival committee about getting a good place for my refreshment tent."
"First, leave us argue out this particeps business. Like Verney's done said, we're obliged to trust somebody, and her selection might be just as good as ourn."
"That's sensible," Parker urged. "There's nothing gained by denying facts which I know as well as you. The Federal law says, Mr. Metcalf, that you cannot distil liquor without paying certain revenue taxes. The new State law forbids you making it or selling it. You, believing these laws unjust, proceed to violate them, matching your cunning with that of the authorities. So far you have succeeded, but if you delay too long, you are due for a stumble. The law's penalty wouldn't hurt you men so much as these women of your family whom you undoubtedly love and should save from disgrace. It was in the hope of relieving the strain upon Miss Vernaluska at once that I bought that mountain. According to her, it will give you a chance at another sort of living - a safer one - and you have promised to take it. Why refuse an offer of help that may hurry things?"
Old Tom had straightened from his lounging position. He was leaning over, peering at the unexpected supper guest as if dumbfounded by his temerity.
A laugh from the youngest Metcalf proclaimed him proof against such appeal.
"Slick as they come !" he pointed the counter argument. "Revenuer or no, Parker, you've got a prancy chance to catch us-all thataway. We're within every law that we cotton to and our women folk don't look as if they were suffering none."
But Parker persisted:
"I carry no preachment for reform, any more than I am personally interested in the collection of revenue. I do not assail the traffic because I am no longer a customer. My only interest is to see you folks out of it before things happen which I know are going to happen."
"You know, eh?" jeered Sandy. "And how do you know?"
"That is partly what I came to-night to tell you. You are in imminent danger from a source "
"We Metcalfs are bred to danger, so best have done with this child's-talk!" The old man broke in impatiently. "Allowing you-all are playing square, Parker-man, we're obliged to you and beholden for the advance on the Bald. But we won't owe It for long. I got a hundred dollars ready, besides Verney's ten, and I calculate on adding a considerable sum after - leastwise, right soon. Once I get Grumbly Bald bought and paid for "
He clutched the cloth and peered around the group, a doting smile softening his rugged face. His voice thrilled with the tenderness of a young man for his love as he lapsed into what seemed his one aberration.
"Blue flames Is what we-all are going to live and wax fat on, not goats, not wheat, not corn; blue flames that are burning the heart of the Bald. I ain't been chasing 'em my lifetime for naught. Come a day, and they'll blaze up at my feet. Come a day, I'm telling you-all, and folks will know why Tom Metcalf has done stuck around Roaring Fork. So long I've hunted and hoped - so tarnal long I"
The finish of his intense digression was stifled in a groan. His face fell into his hands. Through his whole powerful body he shuddered, as from repressed desire.
Miss Emmy dabbed at a tear that had started, staggering, down her cheek. Sandyred shifted position, his young face glooming. The girl Vernaluska it was who broke the uncomfortable pause.
"You can't blame us-all for wondering why you'd ask Tom for a job of helping." For the first time during the meal, she turned directly to the outsider. "Why should a man with the money you claim to have hire out to us? You allowed a while back you had three reasons, and you've named us two."
"My third reason, or, rather, the third purpose you'd serve by taking me on," Parker stated, "is what I'm trying to tell you - the chief cause of my presence here this evening."
All eyes, even those of the patriarch, focused upon him, compelled by his gravity. The yapping of the hounds without and the loudening, then diminishing pound of horses' hoofs further urged him.
"By hiring me, Metcalf, you would be able to dispense with the services of Rex Currie who, I have excellent reason to believe, is no friend of you or yours. To-day in Dismal Gap, I was authoritatively informed that he was ingratiating himself with the drys. He wants to clear himself of the charge of bootlegging for you and has planned his getaway. Just what he is lingering for, I don't know; but I expect trouble from him and so may you."
A scornful laugh from the doorway sounded startlingly.
Rex Currie stood just outside, the look of him suggesting that he had slipped through the livingroom in time to overhear the denunciation of himself.
"So-ho, you expect trouble from me?" he demanded of Parker. "Well, for once you're right, you revenue sneak! Looks like I've come in good time to start it here and now."
With every appearance of preparedness, he strode into the room.