Thankful's Inheritance Part 68

"No, I suppose you don't. You--you," with withering contempt, "you haven't got the self-respect of--of a woodtick. I'm--I declare I'm perfectly prospected with shame at havin' such a brother in my family.

And after cruisin' around with her and takin' her to the Cattle Show--"

"You went to the Cattle Show yourself."

"I don't care if I did. Now you march yourself upstairs and change your clothes."

"Aw, now, Hannah. These clothes are good enough."

"Good enough! For Christmas Day! I should think you'd be ashamed. Oh, you make me so provoked! If folks knew what I know about you--"

Kenelm interrupted, a most unusual thing for him.

"S'posin' they knew what I know about you," he observed.

"What? What do you mean by that? What have I done to be ashamed of?"

"I don't know. I don't know what you did. I don't even know where you went. But when a person crawls down a ladder in the middle of the night and goes off somewhere with--with somebody else and don't get home until 'most mornin', then--well, then I cal'late folks might be interested if they knew, that's all."

Hannah's face was a picture, a picture to be studied. For the first time in her life she was at a loss for words.

"I ain't askin' no questions," went on Kenelm calmly. "I ain't told n.o.body and I shan't unless--unless somebody keeps naggin' and makes me mad. But I shan't change my clothes this day; and I shan't do nothin'

else unless I feel like it, either."

His sister stared at him blankly for a moment. Then she fled from the room. Kenelm took his pipe from his pocket, filled and lighted it, and smoked, smiling between puffs at the ceiling. The future looked serene and rosy--to Kenelm.

Christmas dinner at the High Cliff House was a joyful affair, notwithstanding that the promise of fair weather had come to naught and it was raining once more. John stayed for that dinner, so did Captain Obed. The former and Miss Emily said very little and their appet.i.tes were not robust, but they appeared to be very happy indeed. Georgie certainly was happy and Jedediah's appet.i.te was all that might have been expected of an appet.i.te fed upon the cheapest of cheap food for days and compelled to go without any food for others. Thankful was happy, too, or pretended to be, and Captain Obed laughed and joked with everyone. Yet he seemed to have something on his mind, and his happiness was not as complete as it might have been.

Everyone helped Imogene wash the dishes; then John and Emily left the kitchen bound upon some mysterious errand. Captain Obed and Georgie donned what the captain called "dirty weather rigs" and went out to give George Was.h.i.+ngton and Patrick Henry and the poultry their Christmas dinner.

The storm had flooded the low land behind the barn. The hen yard was in the center of a miniature island. The walls of the pigsty which Thankful had had built rose from a lake.

"It's a mercy Pat moved to drier quarters, eh, second mate!" chuckled the captain. "He'd have had to sleep with a life-preserver on if he stayed here."

They fed the hens and gave George Was.h.i.+ngton a liberal measure of oats and a big forkful of hay.

"Don't want him to go hungry Christmas Day," said Captain Obed. "Now let's cruise around and see if Patrick Henry is singin' out for liberty or death."

The pig was not, apparently, "singing out" for anything. When they reached the wall of the pen by the washshed he was not in sight.

But they heard him, somewhere back in the darkness beneath the shed, breathing stertorously, apparently sound asleep.

Georgie laughed. "Hear him," he said. "He's so fat he always makes that noise when he's asleep. And he's awful smart. When it's warm and nice weather he sleeps out here in the sun. When it rains and is cold, same as now, he always goes way back in there. Hear him! Don't he make a funny noise."

Emily came hurrying around the corner of the house.

"Captain Bangs," she whispered. "Captain Bangs!"

The captain looked at her. He was about to ask why she whispered instead of speaking aloud, but the expression on her face caused him to change his question to "What's the matter?"

Emily looked at Georgie before replying.

"I--I want to see you," she answered. "I want you to come with me. Come quick. Georgie, you must stay in the kitchen with Imogene."

Georgie did not want to stay in the kitchen, but when he found Jedediah there he was more complacent. The ex-gold seeker and his tales of adventure had a tremendous fascination for Georgie.

Emily led the way toward the front stairs and Captain Obed followed.

"What's up?" he whispered. "What's all the mystery about?"

"We don't know--yet. But we want you to help us find out. John and I have been up to look at the haunted room and--and IT'S THERE."

"There! What?"

"The--the ghost, or whatever it is. We heard it. Come!"

At the door of the rooms which were the scene of Mr. Cobb's recent supernatural experience and of Miss Timpson's "warning" they found Thankful and John standing, listening. Thankful looked rather frightened. John was eager and interested.

"You found him, Emily," he whispered. "Good. Captain, you and I are commissioned to lay the ghost. And the ghost is in. Listen!"

They listened. Above the patter and rattle of the rain on the roof they heard a sound, the sound which two or three members had heard the previous night, the sound of snoring.

"I should have gone in before," whispered John, "but they wanted me to wait for you. Come on, Captain."

They opened the door of the larger room and entered on tiptoe. The snoring was plainly heard now and it seemed, as they expected, to come from the little room adjoining. Into that room the party proceeded, the men in the lead. There was no one there save themselves and nothing out of the ordinary to be seen. But the snoring kept on, plainer than ever.

John looked behind the furniture and under the bed.

"It's no use doin' that," whispered Thankful. "I've done that myself fifty times."

Captain Obed was walking about the room, his ear close to the wall, listening. At a point in the center of the rear wall, that at the back of the house, he stopped and listened more intently than ever.

"John," he whispered eagerly, "come here."

John came.

"Listen," whispered the captain. "It's plainer here than anywhere else, ain't it?"

"Yes. Yes, I think it is. But where does it come from?"

"Somewhere overhead, seems to me. Give me that chair."

Cautiously and silently he placed the chair close to the wall, stood upon it, and, with his ear against the wallpaper, moved his head backward and forward and up and down. Then he stopped moving and reaching up felt along the wall with his hands.

"I've got it," he whispered. "Here's the place."

His fingers described a circle on the wall. He tapped gently in the middle of the circle.

"Hark!" he said. "All solid out here, but here--hollow as a drum.