26. Wait And See
Excerpts from several brief Interviews which took place all within that siesta hour stipulated by Mrs. Bralnard's guardianship of her daughter's chief asset - her looks - will help to explain and condone much that follows.
Calvin Parker's statement to his "best friend" need not be detailed. While making their way up the middle of Trade Street, dodging the gathering holiday crowd, he had put It - and with strength. The joke which so diverted those who knew him best, he declared, had come to be too greatly at his expense. As he wished to gain the confidence of certain mountain neighbors, he hoped that Spencer would clear him of the charge of being In the government service before Sandyred Metcalf, whom he would Introduce during the afternoon.
The deputy collector, although candidly regretting the serious finis to an amusing situation, had agreed to do his official best. He had expressed a wish to stop at SImms's Emporium to look for some souvenir cards for Sylvia. They were undertaking the steps when Tobe RIker, having changed to gala attire that did not at all match the portentous expression of his wind-weathered visage, recalled his mysterious signals of the morning by asking a private word with Parker. Spencer obligingly dlsappeared Into the general store, while the artist followed the little whip to one end of the uncovered porch.
"I hope," began Riker, "you-all ain't holding no rancor again me for dumping you into the mud that first day?"
"Not at all. I was obliged, on the contrary, for the timely reminder of dust-to-dust, even though the road was a bit oozy for the application."
"Leastwise, you wasn't wet." The little man paused for the significance of this suggestion to sink In. After an upcast wink of solemn sort, he drew the "foreigner" further away from the window and continued. "I've been wizened since that the gover'ment sent you to snuff the liquor lights hereabouts."
Parker denied the reiterated charge Impatiently. "Well, you've been wizened, unwisely, Riker I The government did not send me, and I'm snuffing no liquor lights except my own."
Again and even more solemnly, Tobe winked. "Which or whether, what's going to be can't be stopped, nohow. I ain't taking no stand, mind, wet or dry, and If you look for'ard to being staged out of here safely, you'd best not tell who told you-all."
"Told me what?"
"What I'm meaning to." The whip's forbidding glare eased as he glanced around. Inviting the closer attention of the artist's ear by an arm-tug, he continued In guarded tones: "There's a party not so far from here what plans to make a safe getaway when the law snitches off them he's been working for. I ain't saying which one it Is, except that it ain't old Tom nor Sandy, and naturally it ain't Miss Emmy. Twenty-five dollars cash has been offered me for driving said party with bag and baggage outen here whatever night the fracas chances."
"You mean Currie - that he's hired you to drive him out if the Metcalfs get into trouble?"
"I ain't saying what nor who nor near all that I might if I'd a mind to. I ain't wet nor I ain't dry, I tell you, and I could do with the twenty-five. But I have a kind of slight at suspicioning folks I don't like. Ask yourself why this party can't set a date for going if he's going honest and has the price. Somebody's inside Simms's store, what I wouldn't want to see me confabbing with you, so I'd best be skiting. But you just keep an eye on my passenger and, especial, on the baggage he takes the night when the law grabs that ornery Metcalf bunch."
Parker felt real concern over this guardedly meted information, although he had been in some measure prepared for it by Aunt Hootie's exultation over the "reform" of Currie. The pointed questions which he put, however, were all blunted by mysterious replies.
For some minutes after the driver had disappeared, he stood trying to puzzle it out. Riker's incentive was patent - he wished to foil some plan of a man he hated on account of the lady whom, though ."ornery," he still loved. At the same time, he wished to take no chances with that twenty-five.
But If Currie foresaw the necessity of a sudden disappearance, why go by the coach, instead of on horseback? And why did he linger for trouble? His attempt to sell the mountain farm away from the Metcalfs, his rage at being tricked for their benefit, his attack on Parker's life, his overtures toward the dry faction, his attempted intimidation of Vernaluska that day at the clay-bank - all these facts borrowed significance from Tobe Riker's tip.
The only sure conclusion was that Currie had reason to stay in the region until after the Metcalf downfall. He seemed, more than hitherto, "a party" to be watched.
Meanwhile, a reunion of two had taken place inside the store, where Rex Currie was "tending" In the temporary absence of his friend, the Yankee proprietor. After a first glance of elaborate surprise, the hillbilly leaned over the counter to extend a welcome hand. This, Spencer Pope seized in a warm grasp.
"Glad to see you, Spence," said Currie. "Hoped my answer to your letter would bring you."
"It hurried my arrival. So Parker really isn't drinking, after all my trouble to locate him in the land where the corn-juice flows? I suppose his reform IS to please this mountain girl I hear he's fascinated with?"
Pope watched the hillbilly's face while putting the question. He was rewarded.
Currie's jaw set, his face flushed.
"What's that got to do with it?"
"A whole lot. Rex. You're Interested In this girl yourself; I'm interested in another - a case of girl all around. Parker has been boasting about his reform and I want to trip him up. Understand me? If you'll get him drunk at the fair this afternoon, I'll make It well worth your while."
Curriers smile of slow comprehension broadened into a grin. "I thought you claimed to be a friend of his?"
"He thinks I do, too. I was, until he got in my way. All's fair in love - you know that. What I ask is that you start him drinking."
"Start him drinking? You, if any one, ought to know, Spence, that North Carolina is dry as - as the morning after."
Pope drew down one eyelid. "And the cure for the morning after used to be some of the hair of the dog that did the biting, didn't it?"
"But it won't help my game to set him off." Currie scowled. "That would go to prove he ain't no revenuer, after all, and likely get him back into favor where I've just got him out."
The "best friend" laughed. "You needn't have any fear on that score. The smash-up mentioned in your letter can come as quickly as you like after this show-up, which, between ourselves, is the sole object of my visit. A revenuer might be drinking to get evidence, mightn't he?"
"But Parker wouldn't take a drink from me - we hate each other like snakes!"
"Why not get him through this young Metcalf then, whom he's so anxious to make up with on account of the girl?"
At this adroit suggestion, Currle flared. "So-ho, he's aiming to set up to Sandy?"
"He sure is. Asked my aid to convince the brother that he had no designs on the family still. Come, Rex, you've nothing to lose by doing this, and a whole lot to gain if Miss Metcalf is as goodlooking as she's said to be. Besides, Cal Parker running on high is a spectacle that Is Its own reward. Here, stick this in your pocket and go to it !"
Pope handed over a bank note of generous size. After a brief pause at the post-card rack for a random selection of souvenirs, he sauntered out of the store. To his further gratification, he found Parker on the steps outside, apparently absorbed in meditation and quite unsuspicious of the lowvoiced indoor exchange.
Currie, starting some minutes later In the general direction of the pasture-lot, which held the scattered booths, refreshment tents, and rough-board barbecue tables of the ''fair," received a disappointing report, as well as some startling information, from a tool of his own. He had fallen Into the shambling step of Abide-with-me Shortoff, who, as It chanced, had been dismissed by the liege-lady of the family purse while she visited the "Emporium" to price petticoatlng.
"How you coming on, Bide, with that scheme of ours r
Dismally sagged the hen-pecked chin, droned the voice. "How can I be coming along with It when Old Tom's bumbling still ain't where you said It'd be?"
"Ain't where I said?" demanded Currie. "If It ain't there, where Is It?"
"I dunno ! Tom must a-moved along. Likely he's livened up by now and will be extra careless with the lead. 'Twa'n't no use, nohow, offering to guide the slick to It if I'd lost track of where It was. This here State has done come to be a right oncertain place, If you'd ask me."
"And going to be more uncertain for some folks," the bootlegger glowered, "once we find where that hell-fox has moved to. You come along with me, Bide. Reckon I can find a drop or two to wet your whistle before Sally catches up with you. I'd worked It out that for you to lead along Parker was a neat way of doing for him with both drys and wets, leaving me out of It. Now we'll be obhged to hold back until we £nd that still!"
In Aunt Hootie's best room, the havoc of road travel had been somewhat effaced from the faces of the fair guests. In so far as concerns Sylvia's parent, the process had consisted of a smudging on and wiping off of safe-and-sane sanitary creams. The girl had pinned back the cloud of hair whose ash-gray was the glory of youth, rather than, as In her mother's case, the doom of middle age. She had dipped her face fearlessly Into the water of the hand wash-basin.
"He looks as If he really had quit - Cal," she observed. "I hope - oh, I hope he has!"
Mrs. Bralnard noted the access of sentiment disapprovingly.
"Maybe he has while here, childie. It seems strange that Spencer should have selected this particular place for him, doesn't It, when he must have known there was whisky In the mountains? I thought the whole Idea was based on the fact that North Carolina Is dry. Cal Parker's real test will come when he gets back to the convivial temptations of New York. I've a notion to ask him to return with us and have it over."
"Let's do It, momsy! I feel sure he's quite reconstructed."
"What I don't see, dear, is why you consider a reconstructed man when you could take your choice of so many strong since birth."
The lightish color of the matron's eyes deepened as she contemplated her lovely offspring, even as the line of the lips she had just rouged thickened with determination.
"You're not going to marry a mistake, Sylvia - not If I can help it. The best man alive is none too good for my darling, and all the Parker money would never make up to your mother for Cal as he was."
"I don't want Cal as he was." Sylvia made a shy, delightful moue. "But he looks so different and he is so attractive. I'm sure he's going to fulfill all my hopes of him. You want your darling to marry the man she likes the best, don't you?"
Mrs. Bralnard was quick to acknowledge this wish as her very own.
"I'vq been thinking," continued the daughter, "that a reconstructed man just might be safer than one, as you put It, strong since birth. Spencer, for instance. Is so strong that sometimes I - I hate him. And I don't think It's honorable of him to have been making love to me all along, right under Cal's nose."
"You shouldn't blame him for that, wheji he adores you."
"I know - as a master flier adores the machine under his control. I wonder whether an airplane doesn't ever want to fly the other way, to go up when the steering hand says down?"
With unwonted spirit, the girl crossed to where her mother was resting on the bed.
"It's against your convictions for me to marry Cal Parker. Yet when I think of marrying Spencer, my chief conviction is that the domination of the bird-man would arouse in the little human bird a will of her own. All I can say is, he'd start a whole lot of trouble for himself. However, keep that fair mind of yours open; we'll watch Cal and see."
They settled it that way. They would watch Cal ; would see.