Rod of the Lone Patrol Part 18

Hearing the sound of footsteps, she turned suddenly and her eyes fell upon Miss Arabella's lank form and thin face. For an instant only she hesitated before reaching out her delicate white hand.

"Oh, you're Miss Arabella," she exclaimed. "I'm very glad to see you, and it's so good of you to come. Sit down, please."

"For pity's sake, how do you know who I am?" was the astonished reply.

"A little bird told me," and Whyn gave a merry laugh.

"H'm. I guess it was a bird without any feathers, and a little red head."

"Yes, that's who it was. You see, I know most of the people in this place, though I have met only a few. Rod told me that you were sick, and what you look like."

"He did, did he? And I suppose he told you that I had a long nose which was always poking into other people's business."

"Why, no!" and Whyn's face grew suddenly sober. "He never told me anything like that. He only said that you were thin, with a sad face, and that you were very lonely, with no one to love you."

"So he said that, did he?" and a softer expression came into the woman's grey eyes. "But I suppose he told you a whole lot more, though?"

"Only about how he put the key down your neck," and again Whyn smiled.

"Wasn't it a funny way to do a good turn?"

"Not very funny for me, Miss," and the visitor tossed her head. "But tell me, how old are you?"

"Just sixteen," was the reply.

"What's wrong with you, anyway? You don't look very sick."

"It's my back. I am not able to walk, and can sit up only for a little while each day."

"My, it must be hard for you to be that way. I know something about it myself," and Miss Arabella gave a deep sigh.

"I try to forget my troubles, though, by thinking of bright things,"

Whyn explained. "And now that I have so much to do with the scouts I have scarcely any time left to think about myself. Every night my back aches so much that I cannot sleep for several hours. But last night I was thinking about Rod, and didn't mind the pain hardly at all."

"Why, what's wrong with Rod?" the visitor inquired. "I don't see why you should lie awake thinking about him."

"No, perhaps you don't, and maybe it was foolish of me, but I couldn't help it. You see, it had to do with his scout suit. Each boy must earn the money to buy his own suit, and when the scouts were talking about it, they all told how they were going to raise the money except Rod. He didn't say anything, and I knew by the look on his face that he hadn't the least idea where he was going to get the money for his suit. I felt so sorry for him. When Rod is thinking hard he is very quiet. He was just like that yesterday, and he didn't even say a word to me when he left. Oh, I wish that I could think of some way to help him."

"Who are the other scouts?" Miss Arabella asked.

"Well, there's Jimmy Perkins. He's corporal, and----"

"Old Ezry Perkins' son, eh? I guess I know his pa, a mean old skinflint, if ever there was one. But he dotes on that boy of his, and he'll get him the suit all right. Who else?"

"Then, there's Tommy Bunker, the boy with a face like the full moon."

"Yes, I know the Bunkers only too well. Stuck up people, they are, who think they own the whole parish. You ought to see Mrs. Bunker come into church. She holds her head so high, and steps so big and mighty, that she thinks she's doing the Lord a great service by coming.

Tommy'll get his suit, never fear. Mrs. Bunker will see to that."

"Billy Potter comes next," Whyn hastened to explain, "and Joe Martin, and Phil Dexter, and----"

"There, that will do," and Miss Arabella sniffed in a most significant manner. "I know the whole tribe. Nothing but trash, every one of them. Queer scouts, I call them. Yes, they'll all have suits, and my, how they'll strut around."

"I'm afraid Rod will not get his for some time," and Whyn sighed.

"He's patrol leader, too, and I am sure he will feel very badly."

"No doubt he will. But, there, I must be off," and Miss Arabella rose suddenly to her feet. "Good-bye. I'll be over to see you again soon,"

and with that, she whisked out of the room.

CHAPTER XIV

UNEXPECTED a.s.sISTANCE

When Miss Arabella left the Anchorage she seemed like a different person from the one who had entered it but a short time before. Her step was quick and decisive, as if she had something important on hand.

"It was wonderful," Mrs. Britt told her husband, "the way Miss Arabella went out of that door. She had hardly time to say 'good-bye.' I wonder what has come over her."

"H'm," the captain grunted contemptuously, "most likely the hawk has been worryin' that poor little bird in there, and it was that which made her so happy. I don't know of anything on earth that would please that skinny creature as much as naggin' at some poor little innocent thing like Whyn, fer instance. Her long nose is gettin' more hooked every day."

"Hush, hush, Joshua," his wife remonstrated, "you mustn't say such things about a woman. Remember, Miss Arabella was greatly concerned about you this morning. She thought you had gone out of your mind when she saw you signalling in front of the house."

"She did, eh? Ho, ho! And I suppose she wished that I was crazy enough to be sent to the 'sylum. That's a good one, and I must go and tell Whyn."

Miss Arabella had almost reached her house when she met Rod walking slowly along, with his eyes fixed upon the ground. He was thinking deeply, and wondering how he was to earn the money to buy his scout suit. So far he could see no way out of his difficulty. He knew that if he spoke to Parson Dan and Mrs. Royal they would gladly give him the money. But he must earn it himself, for that was the scout rule.

"Well, what are you after now?" was Miss Arabella's sharp greeting.

"Grandmother sent me after the basket," Rod explained. "I couldn't get into the house, and so I thought maybe you were dead."

"Do I look like a dead person?" the woman asked, while a grim smile lurked about the corners of her mouth.

"No, not now, Miss Arabella. But yesterday you looked as if you might die at any moment."

"Well, yesterday is not to-day," she snapped. "I'm much better, so if you'll come back, I'll give you the basket you left here."

When they had reached the house and entered the kitchen, Miss Arabella, instead of getting the basket, sat down upon a splint-bottom chair, and began to take off her wraps. Rod stood in the middle of the room and watched her without saying a word. When the hat and shawl had been removed and laid carefully upon the table, the woman turned to the boy.

"You told me yesterday," she began, "that you are a scout. Is that so?"

"Yes, Miss Arabella."

"But where is your scout suit?"

"I haven't it yet, and I can't get it until I have the money."

"Well, that's just what I want to speak about. Look here, Rod, you're not such a bad boy after all, even though you did put a toad in my lap, and drop that key down my neck. Now, I've made up my mind to help you.

I'm going to give you your suit, see?"