THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 c-
 
 A KNIGHT IN DENIM
 
 A KNIGHT 
 IN DENIM 
 
 BY 
 
 RAMSEY BENSON 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS 
 NEW YORK:::::::::::::::::::: 1912
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS 
 
 Published March, 1912
 
 PS 
 
 3503 
 
 A KNIGHT IN DENIM 
 
 1523773
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 A PRO CITY is in Nebraska, though you may 
 not readily find it on an ordinary map. 
 Many years ago a party of pioneers, journeying 
 through those parts, were set upon and slaughtered 
 by redskins that is to say, an atrocity took place; 
 and the place, in the mysterious dispensation of 
 frontier usage, took thereupon the name of Atrocity. 
 After awhile the railway came through and built a 
 station and it was called Atrocity. But when a 
 town sprang up and flourished and began to put on 
 airs how about Atrocity then ? Of course the 
 implications were degrading, and it was accounted 
 a very happy thought when somebody pointed out 
 that by making two words of the name and ex 
 alting a small letter into a capital, not only would 
 all offence be done away with, but a designation 
 would be achieved having nowhere its like. 
 
 The Valley is a land of fatness, and fat lands are 
 apt to breed queer people. The men of the Valley 
 are not as other men are, nor the women, nor 
 the children. You meet with specimens of them 
 
 3
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 almost any day in Atro City. You are struck. 
 You wish to know more about them. 
 
 "Who are those singular persons?" you ask of 
 a convenient villager. 
 
 "Them? Them s Lilies of the Valley," the 
 villager makes answer, with amiable levity ami 
 able always, because the Valley, commercially, is 
 Atro City s milch cow. 
 
 Bill Harbaugh came an utter stranger drifted 
 down into the Valley like the veriest tramp. He 
 had been of that vast body of soldiery which 
 wonderfully melted back into civil life at the end 
 of the great war so much he could tell about 
 himself, and so much nobody doubted. Since 
 his mustering out he had seen, by his own vague 
 account, as many places as the fabulous Ulysses 
 he had every mark of the rolling stone, in short. 
 But here his rolling ceased. It was as if the 
 Valley were the very place he had been searching 
 for. He adopted it forthwith, and became the 
 oddest of its oddities. 
 
 Bill, by the way, was from Ohio originally. 
 "Ihier!" he called it.
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 " \\ 7Y ye ? Wy ye, anyhow ?" That was the 
 T T form in which Bill invariably greeted a 
 grown person, man or woman. 
 
 "Middlin , Bill, middlin . How s self?" rejoined 
 Arndt. Though born a Dane, Arndt had become 
 to all practical intents and purposes a Yankee. 
 Nobody was shrewder. 
 
 " Pooty fair, consid rin*. Ain t thinkin of sellin 
 yer place, be ye ?" 
 
 "Hadn t thought of it, Bill. Thinkin of buy- 
 in , be ye ?" 
 
 "F-m, yeah some! Whatcher take ?" 
 
 "What ll I take?" 
 
 "What ll ye take, anyhow?" 
 
 "How d about twenty-five hunderd strike ye?" 
 
 "Bout twenty-five hunderd ?" 
 
 "Say about twenty-five hunderd. Eighty acres, 
 an the buildin s." 
 
 That s some money, I reckon." 
 
 "I ain t anxious to sell, as I knows on." 
 
 "Dunno s I m so dodrotted anxious to buy, 
 nuther." 
 
 5
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "Tell ye what I ll do, though, seein it s you 
 I ll knock off an even five hunderd. That s rea- 
 s nable." 
 
 "Five hunderd even five hunderd?" 
 
 "Makin* the figger jest twenty hunderd. Come 
 now!" 
 
 Throw in hosses an tools, so s t I kin git right 
 to work ?" 
 
 " Hosses an tools tail goes with the hide. You 
 kin git to work to-day, if ye make up yer mind to 
 buy." 
 
 "It s ago!" 
 
 Arndt knew which side of his bread was but 
 tered, and from the moment that Bill Harbaugh 
 came proposing to purchase his little farm, there 
 wasn t a doubt about the outcome. Arndt would 
 have sold for a dollar had Bill held out to haggle 
 so far. 
 
 It was Bill s way of hiring himself out, and there 
 was nothing to the business further. "A man s a 
 fool to work for somebody else when he kin jes s 
 well work for himself," he was wont to declare, and 
 by way of conforming his practice to his precept, 
 he would never bestow his services until he had 
 gone through the form of bargain and sale. It 
 was only a form, except in Bill s own mind, where 
 it had peculiar validity. Never a penny of consid 
 eration passed between the parties, for money and 
 
 6
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 the value thereof lay altogether beyond the simple 
 fellow s ken; but he deemed the property his 
 henceforth, and always spoke of it as such. 
 
 The advantage to Arndt lay in the fact that Bill, 
 since he was working for himself, worked hard and 
 faithfully, and expected no wages. His keep he 
 had to have, of course, but that wasn t much. His 
 wants were few indeed. The clothes he wore were 
 of the cheapest and commonest description, and not 
 many there were days in summer, with the harvest 
 pressing heavily, when he would go without a 
 shirt even, bare to the waist, hairy as a cave man, 
 brawny as a bison, void as either of all conscious 
 ness of indecency; and if he had to have some 
 thing warmer in winter, almost any old coat would 
 serve. A very few dollars a year found him in 
 clothes. For the rest, he ate a good deal inordi 
 nately, in fact; but the plainest fare suited him best, 
 and he made but slight expense on that score. The 
 one luxury of which he had made a necessity was 
 tobacco he had to be chewing pretty much all the 
 time; but the cheapest plug captured his fancy as 
 entirely as the choicest fine-cut, so that his luxury 
 did not serve to swell his keep beyond a trifle. And 
 his keep was all he cost. Really it was no wonder 
 if Arndt, a shrewd man of affairs in his small way, 
 took care to be only so reluctant about selling his 
 place as to help rather than hinder the transac- 
 
 7
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 tion. No doubt it affected Bill for the better where 
 he was given to feel that he had beaten somebody 
 down. 
 
 But in any exhaustive discussion of the subject 
 of wages as it concerned Bill Harbaugh, there 
 need be distinction made between wages of the 
 material sort and wages which went more to the 
 emolument of the spirit. To Bill the former signi 
 fied very little he took it as a matter of course 
 that when he was hungry he should be given to eat, 
 and when nakedness proved inconvenient he should 
 be clothed; and that was about all. As for money, 
 the paper and metal counters whereby we pass 
 value from hand to hand, it was a thing apart, a 
 mystery he couldn t distinguish between a half- 
 dollar piece and a quarter and a matter of no 
 moment. But of the other kind of wages he was 
 not less than covetous, and unless they were pretty 
 lavishly forthcoming his discontent was instantly 
 manifest. 
 
 Flattery, in a word, was what Bill had mostly to 
 be paid off with. And there was no danger of over 
 doing it, so to turn his stomach by surfeit. Nor 
 had praise to be in anywise set off with the sauce 
 of delicacy in order to induce him to swallow it. 
 Like his tobacco and his meat, it need be plentifully 
 furnished, but it might be very coarse and common 
 withal. 
 
 8
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 Arndt understood about that, too, and was not 
 lacking to the occasion. He had at the moment a 
 field of barley white for the sickle, and during some 
 days now he had been weighed down to the point of 
 despair over it. The ground was too full of stumps 
 to admit of a reaper and so grown up with wild vine 
 that the tangled mass fairly defied a cradle to force 
 a way through it. You will bear in mind that an 
 enterprise had to be only moderately difficult in 
 order to get itself given up as impracticable down 
 there in the Valley, and Arndt s barley easily passed 
 the limit. It stood, in other words, to be left where 
 it was only for the new dispensation that is to say, 
 Bill. 
 
 And once he had effected a purchase of the place 
 to his satisfaction, Bill naturally looked about him 
 with more particularity, and his eye fell upon the 
 grain which already bowed down with its ripeness. 
 
 "Y gorry, have to git right into that there bar 
 ley!" quoth he, and bustled like the busy bee. 
 
 "I was thinkin of lettin it go, it s so tangled up," 
 rejoined Arndt artfully. " I don t believe no man 
 kin swing a cradle through it, not without he s an 
 almighty strong man." 
 
 That was only the first adroit instalment of Bill s 
 wages Arndt would never be stingy with what 
 cost him nothing and profited him so richly. He 
 brought out the cradle, all rusty with desuetude, 
 
 9
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 and blithely turned the grindstone while the new 
 proprietor sharpened the blade; and wheresoever 
 there offered the opportunity to pay a compliment, 
 paid it. 
 
 "Takes a mighty good eye to grind a scythe 
 right/* he remarked. 
 
 Bill swelled under the implication that his was 
 that kind of an eye, and handed the steel over for 
 inspection. Arndt ran his finger along it critically, 
 and was forthwith unable to restrain his enthusi 
 astic admiration. 
 
 "You ve hit it!" he loudly protested. "Skin me 
 if that edge ain t jest on the turn the hull length. 
 It s some fun bein a farmer where a man knows 
 how to keep his tools up in shape like that." 
 
 The dexterity with which Bill rigged the fingers 
 of the cradle brought down upon him a shower of 
 laudatory comment, but it was as the merest 
 sprinkling in comparison with the flood which 
 his manner of striking into the barley presently 
 evoked. And of a truth he did the thing remark 
 ably well, and he looked a splendid fellow doing 
 it, with his massive, shapely shoulders swinging 
 rythmically, graceful in the surpassing strength 
 which made little of the tough task. Perhaps his 
 motions were a trifle over-elaborate you would 
 suspect that it was hardly necessary so to toss the 
 cradle aloft in preparation for the sweep; but when 
 
 10
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 was merit, humanly speaking, ever wholly free from 
 affectation ? If Bill was showing off a bit, that 
 made him out no less than a man, and surely it 
 counted in no derogation of the lordliness of his 
 march to and fro across the field. He was a 
 species of conqueror, and a very good species, too, 
 since he left behind him no destruction, but a swath 
 of golden grain laid as straight as you could draw a 
 string and a stubble cut square as square could be. 
 
 "Always tell a bang-up good cradler by his stub 
 ble!" gushed Arndt. "Most of em leaves a ridge 
 twixt the swaths, but I don t see no ridges along 
 here." 
 
 That wasn t strictly flattery, since it was fact, but 
 it passed for wages none the less. Bill glowed as 
 much with exaltation and uplift of the spirit as 
 with the effort of his sinewy body. For the mo 
 ment his countenance wore a bright, alert look, till 
 you could almost forget the telltale angles which 
 all too plainly revealed his mental deficiency. 
 
 "Want me to bind up for ye, Bill ?" asked Arndt 
 after a little. 
 
 "No," replied Bill gravely. "I can t be hirin 
 help. Hired help s what eats up the profits." 
 
 And he bound up the barley himself, while Arndt 
 had nothing to do but stand by and spout praises. 
 
 Such were the unusual terms of Bill Harbaugh s 
 service. On the face of it he was a hewer of wood 
 
 ii
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 and a drawer of water of the most hopeless char 
 acter, but he made his lot luminous in his own view 
 by means of the harmless fiction unless it should 
 work harm to himself which he never suffered to 
 lapse. But if he regarded himself as the owner of 
 the property, he chose not to be exacting in no 
 narrow sense did he stand on his rights. Every 
 thing went on about as before, except that there was 
 another hand in the work, and a hand abundantly 
 strong and willing and loyal. Arndt made himself 
 as much at home as ever, and he sold off produce 
 quite as before, pocketing the proceeds without 
 a word of objection from Bill. So long as the toil 
 ing and moiling were left to him, to be managed in 
 his own way, Bill cared not a fig about the rest. 
 
 He was a sunny fellow, of a cheerfulness which 
 no stress could exhaust. Nobody ever heard a 
 crabbed word out of his mouth; never was he seen 
 sullen and out of sorts. Even the weather, let it 
 be howsoever sultry and sticky on the one hand, or 
 rough and blustery on the other, could not ruffle 
 Bill, for all that these details of material environ 
 ment mean so much in the economy of him who has 
 no intellectual resources to fall back on, and whose 
 sense of well-being is almost wholly a matter of 
 physical conditions. No doubt there were times 
 when Bill felt the discomfort, but he sang his song 
 notwithstanding. His song, by the way, was fa- 
 
 12
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 mous a tuneless thing with all the words lost to 
 him but a single line. His voice hadn t a trace of 
 musical quality, and his singing was no more than 
 a thickly aspirated, monotonous groan, until he 
 deemed it time for the refrain to be coming in, 
 whereupon he would burst forth tremendously and 
 bellow: 
 
 "And roam no more in proud despair!" 
 
 Apparently he had no inkling of what the words 
 signified, and if there lay any connection between 
 them and his former life, he remained unaware of it. 
 His health was magnificent. Others all about 
 him were forever falling ill, but there was none of 
 that for him. Of infection he was absolutely un 
 afraid, and to his lack of fear his immunity may 
 have been in a measure due certainly he was im 
 mune. And perhaps the strangest thing about him 
 was his aptitude for nursing the sick. He liked 
 nothing better than to be sent for to come and sit up 
 with somebody who needed to be administered to 
 during the night. He never fell asleep when such 
 a charge lay upon him, and though he couldn t tell 
 time by the clock, never a doctor who had experi 
 ence of his fidelity but would trust him to give 
 medicines at proper intervals. Among these scien 
 tific men, indeed, there had been broached and 
 discussed the possibility of Bill being gifted with
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 a sixth sense, a power of perception beyond that of 
 ordinary mortals. 
 
 Truly he was wise in unexpected ways. In sud 
 den emergencies especially he would display a re 
 sourcefulness that was very astonishing. A certain 
 butcherman in Atro City could testify to that, since 
 he owed his life to it. He had come down into the 
 Valley after hogs one day, and for the reason that 
 these beasts were likely to be wild he brought his 
 gun along to shoot them. But instead of shooting 
 hogs he managed by some mishap to shoot himself 
 straight through the leg, just above the knee, and 
 the torrent of red blood that came spurting out 
 was very terrifying indeed. The butcherman must 
 have bled to death in a few minutes if it hadn t been 
 for Bill, who alone of the considerable company 
 present knew what to do. 
 
 A new doctor, as it happened, was called to 
 dress the wound, and he regarded the rude but 
 effective tourniquet with curiosity. "Who taught 
 you to do that ?" he asked. 
 
 The inquiry plainly implied commendation, and 
 Bill did not fail to respond as usual, swelling greatly; 
 and when he was in that mood there wasn t much 
 but foolishness to be got out of him. He gibbered 
 some silly, inconsequential reply, with a look in 
 tended to be crafty, as if he didn t care to reveal all 
 he knew.
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 The doctor persisted, however. "Who told you 
 the thing had to be put on above the wound ?" 
 
 Somebody whispered that Bill wasn t supposed 
 to be altogether there with respect of his wits, 
 whereupon the doctor s interest was freshly moved. 
 " Does it argue an intuitive knowledge of the cir 
 culation of the blood ?" he mused aloud. 
 
 "That s it!" Bill broke out with a vacuous 
 laugh. "Cultivation of the blood I cal late that s 
 what s ailin of him." 
 
 At times it would almost seem as if Bill s fool 
 ishness were in some degree put on, so exceed 
 ingly foolish was it. 
 
 His strength was that of a giant. For instance, 
 he could take a moderately heavy man by the strap 
 of his trousers and hold him out at arm s-length. 
 Nor was he any of your stolid, clumsy titans on 
 the contrary, his agility was something to startle 
 you. When first he let it be known, by actual 
 demonstration, that he could turn a somersault, 
 slap and clean without touching his hands to the 
 ground, the belief sprang up that he had been a 
 performer in a circus. Plenty of young fellows 
 threw hand-spring and cart-wheels, but not an 
 other could achieve the somersault. 
 
 With all his exceeding prowess, he could be 
 drawn into no contest, not even by dint of flattery 
 he was a man of peace first, last, and all the time. 
 
 5
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 There were wrestlers about, and the evidences of 
 his strength and dexterity were a species of chal 
 lenge in their eyes, so that they were wishful to 
 have it out with him; but Bill always dodged. It 
 came to be thought of him that he was a coward. 
 That he couldn t be kicked into a fight grew to be 
 a common opinion. 
 
 It was an opinion not destined to endure, how 
 ever the day arrived when it had to modify itself 
 materially. No rural free delivery had come to 
 bless the farmers as yet, and one winter when work 
 was slack Bill took it upon himself to tramp off to 
 Atro City every day and fetch the letters for all the 
 neighbors. The task was not slight, but he derived 
 great satisfaction from it a letter was a sacred 
 thing to him, and to be allowed to constitute him 
 self a link in the chain whereby it was transmitted 
 made him very proud and happy. And he felt the 
 responsibility, as the prankish boys learned who 
 conceived a plot to waylay him, just for a joke, as 
 he came along with his precious charge. The joke 
 failed to develop. What developed was rather that 
 Bill could not only be kicked into a fight, but that 
 once in he could fight like a lion. Only that the 
 boys made haste to disclose their identity and the 
 innocence of their purpose, the results might have 
 been serious for them. 
 
 Kindness to dumb animals was another of his 
 16
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 traits his patience with them was a proverb. 
 Some slightingly attributed the quality to the 
 feebleness of his intellect simpletons were always 
 patient, and where one had trials to undergo there 
 was nothing so helpful as being an idiot. Others, 
 more considerately, put forward the theory of a 
 kind of instinctive free-masonry between the 
 beasts and the simple man, and in truth there was 
 much to bear out the view. Especially noteworthy 
 in that connection was Bill s success with balky 
 horses, probably the most finished specimen of 
 obstinacy afforded by animals not endowed with 
 reason. No horse ever balked with him, and no 
 horse which had balked with another refused to 
 start when he gave the word. Significantly, the 
 word was never harshly given, and with never a 
 blow even of the softest. 
 
 He had withal a notion of manners and amenities 
 and a taste for society. Often, as the spirit took 
 him, he would spend a Sunday making" short calls 
 up and down the Valley, and on these occasions 
 he conducted himself with considerable formality. 
 In spite of the hunger for compliments which pos 
 sessed him, you wouldn t catch him fishing for them 
 when he was making calls. He made a particular 
 point of steering the conversation to subjects most 
 likely to interest the other parties to it their ex 
 ploits rather than his own came in for attention if 
 
 1 7
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 he had his way; and what made him quite singu 
 lar among the men of those regions, he could meet 
 women-folks without blenching. Others might 
 hang their heads bashfully and stammer and shift 
 in fact, they usually did but not Bill. Yet 
 his ease was not the ease of indifference nobody 
 could be more deferential and truly courteous to 
 the sex. Women-folks were cast in a coarse mould 
 thereabouts, and they made plenty of fun of Bill, 
 even of his deference to themselves; yet they un 
 deniably liked to have him call, if only because the 
 young children were so pleased to see him. These 
 latter hailed with boisterous acclamations the com 
 ing of the only grown man they knew who would 
 cheerfully and without mockery unbend and play 
 with them at their own games. 
 
 But why had he chosen to go to Arndt s to work ? 
 Be it known that there wasn t a farmer from one 
 end of the Valley to the other who wouldn t jump 
 at the chance to sell out to him at his own figure; 
 and if it had been known that he was in the market, 
 he would have been offered no end of tempting 
 bargains. That was another peculiarity of his, the 
 manner in which he left one place to take up with 
 another, the sum of it being that he kept his own 
 counsel absolutely. Just now he had tarried for 
 upward of a year with Jenkins, the Welshman, 
 seemingly satisfied and full of the belief that every- 
 
 18
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 thing in sight was his, to have and to hold. But all 
 at once he was gone, without a word of warning; 
 his sense of proprietorship had broken down be 
 fore some stronger feeling, and he had abandoned 
 his property incontinently. 
 
 How came it about ? 
 
 You should be made aware that there existed at 
 Arndt s certain uncommon conditions of a domes 
 tic nature. Arndt was a man devoid of romance, 
 and when, some years previous, he had deemed it 
 meet to marry, he went about the business in an 
 unromantic way. A family in Atro City had a 
 sister back in Denmark, and the sister was so fallen 
 into misfortune that she stood ready to take any 
 body for a husband, and she it was who, after sun 
 dry negotiations of a purely financial character, be 
 came Mrs. Arndt. It was an inauspicious match, 
 and as the auspices were so the event proved 
 the wife was as wretched as a dull, spiritless 
 woman could be. She bore no children, and by 
 that deeply disappointed her husband, who wanted 
 boys io do the drudgery of the farm and girls who 
 might be sent out to service and thus afford a 
 revenue. Perhaps, on the whole, and in view of the 
 ideals which prevailed in their home, it was just as 
 well that their marriage had no issue; but babies 
 would have been a consolation to the woman, and 
 they would have made the man kinder.
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 When Bill came into the house for dinner, after 
 a strenuous forenoon in the barley field, he asked 
 Mrs. Arndt what her first name was. "I always 
 like to call folks by their first name, specially 
 women-folks," he explained. 
 
 It was long since any one had taken so much in 
 terest in her, and the poor drudge, neglected by her 
 husband and shunned by her neighbors, responded 
 as a dog hungry for affection might respond to a 
 caress. Her name was Olga, and when Bill spoke 
 it over after her, as to try its quality, her face 
 lighted up with an unwonted smile. Possibly in 
 the manner of the dumb beasts she caught the note 
 of kindness and fellowship in his voice. Anyway, 
 that was a day of happy augury for Olga, and she 
 and Bill became such friends that Arndt s jealousy 
 might have been moved only that he was too base 
 to be jealous. Henceforth the woman s heavy toil 
 was vastly lightened by the strong man s helpful 
 hand. Bill s duties out-of-doors were never so 
 pressing that he couldn t stop and give Olga 
 a lift. 
 
 Arndt had a fancy for coming home drunk at 
 no very infrequent intervals; and as often as he 
 came home drunk it was his further fancy to beat 
 his wife cruelly, so that she screamed in agony. 
 But there was no more of it after the advent of 
 the new proprietor. Arndt was going on with the 
 
 20
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 usual order one evening, and had his fist up to 
 strike, when Bill interposed. 
 
 "Now don t do that!" he coaxed, in soft accents, 
 but holding Arndt s arm the while in a grip that 
 there was no escaping from. " It don t do no good. 
 It don t do no more good to strike a woman than it 
 does to club a hoss, not a mite." 
 
 It was a curious situation intolerable, no doubt, 
 only that Arndt so well knew, when he was sober 
 at least, which side of his bread was buttered. 
 
 21
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 WHEN a republic more grateful than the prov 
 erb has called its kind enacted the Invalid 
 Pension Law, by the provisions of which every 
 veteran of the war who could show a disability 
 due to his service was entitled to pay from the day 
 of his discharge, not unnaturally there ensued an 
 overhauling of disabilities throughout the land. 
 
 Now Bill Harbaugh, as it happened, had not 
 about him a scrap of documentary proof that he 
 had been in the army. Furthermore, he couldn t 
 recall the number of his regiment or the letter of his 
 company, or the name of a single officer of either; 
 nor could he describe any engagement in which he 
 had participated in such wise as to identify it. As 
 for the leaders whom fame had made immortal, 
 he thought he had heard of Grant, though he 
 wasn t sure, and if hard pressed he recalled a Pap 
 Thompson who might have been Pap Thomas; 
 but Lincoln was no more to him than Leonidas, and 
 Sherman likewise, and all the rest none was so 
 illustrious as to have found even a precarious lodge 
 ment in his memory. Bill s memory, to tell the 
 truth, was far and away the weakest of his weak 
 
 22
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 faculties pretty much a blank under any test. 
 He could tell two war stories, and only two; ram- 
 blingly enough, yet with sufficient uniformity to 
 vouch for their substantial verity. One was about 
 his detachment having been loaded into cattle- 
 cars for transportation he couldn t say where, or 
 whither they were going whereby they were af 
 fronted and cut up, and by way of manifesting 
 their disapproval pulled out the coupling-pins so 
 that the train couldn t start. 
 
 "Cap n he was bilin mad, but jes s soon s he d 
 open his head we d all blat like cattle!" related 
 Bill, and that was the point and culmination of the 
 tale. Asked how the difficulty was adjusted, or 
 whether the train ever succeeded in starting, he 
 couldn t say, but the recollection of what they did 
 just as soon as the captain opened his head, that 
 remained vividly with him, and he found it so 
 amusing that he would almost strangle with laugh 
 ter marking in what a humorous light he beheld 
 the incident, you could understand why he remem 
 bered it. 
 
 The other story discovered him in a more mar 
 tial attitude, taking his place in the skirmish line 
 and firing what he described as the signal gun. 
 The palpable distinction had touched his vanity, 
 and once more you could understand why he had 
 remembered. How the skirmish had resulted, 
 
 23
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 whether in defeat or victory, was a detail wholly 
 forgotten. 
 
 In fine, Bill s war record, as he knew it himself, 
 was a hazy affair indeed. 
 
 To be sure, a veteran hadn t to be so very much 
 of an invalid in order to secure a pension. Take 
 Dan Linton, for instance a Lily of Lilies, by the 
 way. Though Dan served three years in the cav 
 alry arm and saw plenty of real fighting, he came 
 off without a scratch except for having the tip of his 
 ear clipped away by the sabre of a clumsy comrade 
 as the troop were drilling. The injury was of the 
 most trivial character, a laughing matter and no 
 more till the pension law went into effect, where 
 upon Dan had the front to go before the examiner 
 with an unheard-of tale of deafness; and whether 
 because he was so plausible or the authorities were 
 so complacent, he presently found himself in the 
 enjoyment of an assured income of four dollars a 
 month, with so pretty a lump of back pay that he 
 was forthwith rated a rich man in the Valley. 
 
 If Dan Linton might have a pension, why not 
 almost any one ? And particularly, why not Bill 
 Harbaugh ? 
 
 Not that the question was raised by Bill himself, 
 If the initiative had been left to him, there would 
 probably never have been a move in the business 
 certainly not so long as a pension meant nothing to 
 
 24
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 him but mere money, for which he had no use what 
 soever. But if he hadn t an atom of avarice in him, 
 Arndt could easily make up the deficiency out of 
 his plentiful supply. Arndt scented cash, and the 
 smell of it was sweet in his nostrils. If Bill didn t 
 care for the stuff, that circumstance made pretty 
 certain of his willingness to let it pass from him, 
 and Arndt clearly foresaw himself spending the 
 back pay and the monthly allowance as it came to 
 hand. Very shrewdly he laid his plans, and so 
 cleverly did he play his cards that Bill was shortly 
 made conscious of a wound to his pride he was 
 given to perceive that whoever got a pension was 
 thereby distinguished, that there was not only 
 money in it, but a vindication of his personal worth. 
 Should he stand by and let the world say that Dan 
 Linton was a better man than he ? Never Bill 
 could endure nothing so derogatory as that. 
 
 Arndt was well aware that at least some pretence 
 of a disability would have to be put forward the 
 machinery was pretty loose and accommodating, 
 no doubt, but it was apt to balk at the physical per 
 fection of a Hercules; and the physical perfection 
 of a Hercules was about what Bill presented for 
 inspection. Arndt was aware of this, and rose to 
 the occasion in his best style of craft. He coached 
 the candidate in the simulation of a delicacy of the 
 lungs, contracted by sleeping on the bare ground 
 
 2 5
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 in cold weather; he even taught Bill to cough a 
 little; and he went along to see the thing through. 
 
 The examiner was an old soldier himself, with 
 a strong prejudice of sympathy in favor of almost 
 any applicant. An eye less skilled than his could 
 see at a glance how it lay with Bill, and his heart 
 went out especially to the simple fellow. 
 
 "Well, comrade," said he, with a friendly nudge, 
 "what appears to be the trouble with you ?" 
 
 "One lung gone and the other partly!" vocifer 
 ated Bill, in tremendous tones, as if by the very 
 weight of sound to carry conviction. 
 
 Arndt was dumfounded and stared with dropped 
 jaw of course he was too shrewd ever to have 
 prompted Bill to claim so absurdly much. How 
 had that singular individual come by the concep 
 tion of symptoms so advanced and alarming ? 
 
 The doctor laughed outright. " That s rather 
 serious!" he chuckled, prodding the giant s mag 
 nificent chest. 
 
 "One lung gone and the other partly!" Bill re 
 peated, with an air of satisfaction, as having car 
 ried his point. 
 
 The more the doctor prodded and pried into the 
 conditions the more he chuckled it was a very 
 funny experience from his point of view and the 
 more the candidate swelled, paying no attention to 
 the chagrin of his sponsor, who beheld fond castles 
 
 26
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 tumbling. But when the examination had gone 
 so far as to develop the utter absence of aught that 
 could remotely pass for a disability, the kindly ex 
 aminer became grave all at once. As much as ever 
 he wished the titanic simpleton to have a pension. 
 
 "Hum! you find yourself unable, at times, to do 
 a full day s work, don t you?" quoth he sugges 
 tively. 
 
 "F m what s that?" Bill demanded sharply. 
 
 " You you tire easily when you undertake heavy 
 work, you know!" 
 
 The doctor, out of his abundant and not too 
 scrupulous sympathy, was going far to help trump 
 up a pretence which might pass muster, but Bill 
 declined the opening altogether and with disdain. 
 The intimation that he tired with heavy work 
 stabbed him to the marrow of his tenderest sensi 
 bilities, and he burst forth with such a torrent of 
 brag and bluster about what he could do in a day, 
 how vastly more than any other man, that there 
 was nothing more to be done the cause was abso 
 lutely closed. The examiner exploded in gales of 
 merriment, Arndt swallowed his chagrin as best 
 he might, and so the enterprise came to an end. 
 
 Not without effect on the course of history, how 
 ever. 
 
 In the moment of his overthrow, while smarting 
 yet under the sting of a bitter defeat, Arndt scrupled 
 
 27
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 not to heap reproaches, and particularly he had 
 much to say concerning ignorance, the sin and the 
 shame of it. Speaking generally, Bill wasn t the 
 sort of egotist to be much troubled by censure 
 ordinarily it would only set him to vaunting him 
 self, though sometimes he would shut his ears and 
 be as if he heard nothing. But now, for some 
 reason or no reason, it was different Arndt s re 
 proaches seemed actually to sink in, to accuse him 
 before his own conscience, so that he fell grave 
 and thoughtful. In a dim but not to be doubted 
 revelation it came over him that his behavior had 
 put him in an unfavorable light the avowals 
 whereby he had thought to exalt himself had 
 ended with degrading him. Where was he left 
 with reference to Dan Linton ? How was he to 
 look the world in the face after being so set down ? 
 
 In short, Bill was given to suspect that he had 
 fallen into a serious error, and the fact that he could 
 not, by groping in the twilight of his poor mind, ar 
 rive at any definite conception of how he had done 
 so rendered him only the uneasier. For a season 
 he was very uneasy indeed, and unlike himself. 
 
 But the fog of his indecision lifted at length 
 Bill formed a resolution and in it found consolation. 
 Never too late to mend the principle of the adage 
 had its part in his motives even though he should 
 not know the letter of it; Bill was no longer a 
 
 28
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 boy or even a young man, but he was going to 
 school. 
 
 "I ll show em I ain t so dodgasted ig n ant!" he 
 declared, and being restored in spirit, bragged of 
 the great things he was about to achieve. 
 
 The Valley was prolific in children and sup 
 ported several schools, such as they were. That 
 is to say, there had been built several rude and 
 comfortless buildings where boys and girls assem 
 bled daily during the winter months and submitted 
 themselves, more or less willingly, to discipline os 
 tensibly scholastic. The system bore no bounti 
 ful fruitage at its best. If by any chance a fairly 
 competent teacher was to be had for the meagre 
 pay offered, the pupils would make some progress 
 in their studies; but that was an exceptional con 
 tingency, and far more usual was it for the young 
 idea to leave off in the spring about where it had 
 begun in the fall, very near the foot of the ladder of 
 learning. Such of the people of the Valley as were 
 not past middle-age had mostly gone to those very 
 schools, and they were hardly better than illiterate 
 if you sought a testimony to the merit, or rather 
 demerit of the system, you had only to look about 
 you. 
 
 It created the biggest kind of a sensation when 
 Bill, dressed up in spick-and-span blue overalls 
 and a new jumper with a garish check in it, put in 
 
 29
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 an appearance at Miss Spicer s school to be en 
 rolled as a scholar. 
 
 "W y ye? W y ye, anyhow?" he thundered, 
 halting in the doorway, though not by reason of any 
 embarrassment. "Guess I m prob ly late some. 
 Sparked cow s calf ain t learnin to drink right 
 peart, an* it takes time to fuss with the critter. 
 Most prob ly you never learnt a calf to drink, least 
 ways ary calf with some Jersey mixed into it. 
 Them Jerseys is stubborn, now I say." 
 
 But if Bill found himself at ease in the situation 
 which he had created, Miss Spicer was not so fort 
 unate. She was taken entirely by surprise, and 
 knew not what to think, or what to say, and so 
 did nothing but gasp and grow very red in the face 
 while Bill went on to announce his purpose. The 
 teacher, as commonly happened, was young and 
 inexperienced, either technically or generally a 
 green girl and an apprentice, in short, and pretty 
 much helpless before the unexpected emergency. 
 The inextinguishable merriment of the restless chil 
 dren in nowise tended to help matters; they were 
 accustomed to laugh at Bill Harbaugh, and never, 
 perhaps, had he given them better reason. 
 
 It was an odd situation indeed, and hard for 
 Miss Spicer, particularly when Bill loudly enlarged 
 upon the circumstance of his having chosen to en 
 roll himself in her school in preference to any of 
 
 3
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 the others because he liked her style. "You re all 
 right!" quoth he, with an air of patronage, and 
 asked her what her first name was. That was 
 when Miss Spicer found her dignity, and along 
 with it a bit of tact and firmness, to the end that 
 she was able to usher her new pupil to a seat and 
 get him busied with a book. He was to the last 
 degree tractable and eager once he perceived the 
 pathway of learning open before him, and so the 
 difficulty passed in its first phase. 
 
 However, there were other phases awaiting de 
 velopment, and they developed all too soon. Bill 
 had scarcely a waking moment, unless when he 
 was at his meals, that his mouth didn t hold its 
 quid of tobacco, which meant that he need expec 
 torate at frequent intervals. The necessity took 
 him just as Miss Spicer, having commended to 
 his careful scrutiny sundry letters of the alphabet, 
 turned her attention elsewhere; and straightway 
 without ceremony he left his seat and went over 
 to the little stove and into the midst of it projected 
 such a quantity of tobacco juice that the fire was 
 staggered and seemed almost ready to expire. Of 
 course that gave rise to more laughter and con 
 fusion, and distraction for the teacher. 
 
 What was she to do ? Bill became no end of a 
 trial, in spite of his perfect docility. He would 
 study, as she bade him, but likewise he would re- 
 
 3 1
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 lax and make himself informally sociable with the 
 boys and girls, passing from one to another to ac 
 cost them familiarly and strike up an exchange of 
 small talk. He couldn t be made to see that he 
 was doing wrong in being sociable that way, and 
 the little teacher s troubles multiplied accordingly. 
 
 After some days of demoralization the strain be 
 came so great that she complained to the directors 
 of the district, and asked them wouldn t they please 
 have Bill kept from coming to school. It was do 
 ing him no good to come, she represented he had 
 shown himself incapable of remembering a single 
 letter from one day to the next, so why shouldn t he 
 be kept away ? Miss Spicer couldn t undertake to 
 answer for the outcome unless steps of some sort 
 were taken right soon, and the directors promised 
 to do what they could. It proved not to be much. 
 Bill had undoubtedly the right to go to school if he 
 wished; they were helpless to prevent him except 
 by moral suasion, and moral suasion, as they were 
 able to bring it to bear, availed nothing. They 
 made rather pointed allusions to his deficiencies, 
 but these affected him neither one way nor the 
 other; he remained, in short, absolutely unmoved. 
 
 "This here s a free kentry, I reckon!" he re 
 marked, and having planted himself upon the rock 
 of that incontrovertible truth, he refused to give 
 way. 
 
 32
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 Miss Spicer grew pretty desperate, and medi 
 tated giving up her school altogether, when all at 
 once the conditions changed for the better they 
 were mending themselves. Somehow Bill had 
 taken a notion to behave himself more suitably. 
 He was much quieter quite subdued, in fact; and 
 instead of visiting lawlessly about the room, he 
 would sit perfectly still hour after hour and stare 
 at the teacher. 
 
 In such wise was the order of the school restored, 
 but at the same time there was imported another 
 cross for the young woman to bear. It wasn t long 
 until Bill s steady, unremitting gaze got on her 
 nerves. The children detected nothing of the new 
 comedy which was unfolding, and that was a bless 
 ing, to be sure; but withal there was trial enough 
 for Miss Spicer. Furthermore, it was a trial which 
 she had to face alone of course she couldn t go to 
 the board of directors and complain that Bill was 
 falling in love with her. 
 
 She made no pretence at giving him lessons any 
 more. An instinct caused her to shrink from him; 
 and if he had been less than repulsive to her, she 
 would still have had to consider her duty not to 
 encourage his foolish passion. And he on his part 
 seemed entirely content if only he might have his 
 eyes on her even though she never spoke to him, 
 or so much as glanced in his direction, it was 
 
 33
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 enough merely to have her within the field of his 
 vision. 
 
 That is to say, at first. Lovesickness is com 
 monly classed among the progressive maladies, and 
 Bill presently discovered new symptoms. And not 
 ably there came over him a strange shyness 
 that had never in the world been like him. The 
 moods of men enamoured were as yet largely unex 
 plored by the hapless little teacher, and when she 
 found Bill shrinking from her, she misconstrued his 
 timidity and was made glad with the thought that 
 her deliverance was at hand. But she could not 
 forever beguile herself- her rudimentary intuitions 
 would inform her at length. Once, quite incident 
 ally and without thinking of him particularly, she 
 chanced to pass so near Bill that her garments 
 brushed against him, and in such a manner did he 
 tremble and cower before her that the wretched 
 truth was no longer to be blinked. 
 
 After that, for a while, she pitied him he suffered 
 visibly, and the sufferings of a simpleton were as 
 pathetic as those of a dumb beast; and she re 
 solved not to be harsh with him no matter what of 
 inconvenience it might cost her. Just a little she 
 speculated whether her cross would not be lighter 
 if she were to regard it less selfishly, and being by 
 these reflections softened she laid it upon herself 
 not to be impatient when, that very evening, im- 
 
 34
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 mediately after school was dismissed, Bill sidled 
 up to her desk. Plainly it was exacting of him 
 an effort almost greater than he could muster, 
 but there he was, nevertheless. Devoutly enough 
 she wished him elsewhere, but she wouldn t be 
 harsh. 
 
 "Well, William ?" quoth she, with a fair simu 
 lation of cordiality. 
 
 Bill was shaking as with a palsy. Twice he 
 tried to speak and twice his voice died on his 
 lips. But the third attempt was more successful. 
 "You re all right!" he blurted out, and blushed 
 furiously, and then, in utter affright, took to his 
 heels and fled. 
 
 She was made very definitely to feel that the 
 affair had grown too serious and urgent to be 
 trifled with, but somehow, though she thought of 
 scarcely anything else in the meanwhile, she hadn t 
 made up her mind what she ought to do when the 
 next evening duly arrived and Bill s romance cul 
 minated. 
 
 He went out with the other pupils, and by the 
 time Miss Spicer, having lingered to lock up, set 
 forth alone, he was nowhere in sight. She was 
 glad of that, not having been wholly free from ap 
 prehensions; but her joy was of brief duration, for 
 she had walked on only a little way beyond the 
 first bend in the road when she beheld him just 
 
 35
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 ahead, and evidently waiting. Miss Spicer s heart 
 sank, nor did it rise again very soon. 
 
 Bill didn t speak not a word escaped him from 
 first to last. He declared his love, but in another 
 style the style, as you might fancy, of the aborig 
 inal savage. Nor was his wooing, tested by the 
 general principles of psychology, especially at fault. 
 Certainly nothing is better established than that 
 it is fundamentally the strength of a man which 
 causes a woman to esteem him, and to show how 
 strong he was, Bill exhibited himself to Miss Spicer 
 in a series of curious antics. 
 
 When first she saw him he had taken his stand 
 beside a considerable oak sapling, and this, once 
 he knew he had her eyes, he laid hold of and up 
 rooted with his bare hands. It was a prodigious 
 feat, and his aspect was truly gigantic as he tore 
 the sapling from the ground, held it for an instant 
 aloft, and then dashed it contemptuously on the 
 ground. Nor was the one feat all with the help 
 of a rail fence, built in the ancient fashion, stout 
 and heavy, he gave another demonstration; that 
 is, he went at the fence like a frisky bull, and at 
 the first onset a whole panel of it went down, with 
 a loud crash. He broke down two panels, one 
 after the other, and that done, he frisked along till 
 a huge bowlder by the road-side afforded him fur 
 ther opportunity. The demonstration there was 
 
 36
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 less spectacular but more difficult he shouldered 
 the great rock and carried it a distance. And so 
 he went on for more than a mile. 
 
 And what of Miss Spicer, meanwhile ? Terror 
 had thrown her into a kind of walking trance; she 
 knew no impulse save habit, and so did not turn 
 back, but continued in that accustomed road till 
 she reached the place where she made her home. 
 There she forthwith collapsed, and remained in a 
 state of prostration for days afterward; and she 
 never went back to her school. 
 
 Something like a week later a burly big fellow 
 who introduced himself as Miss Spicer s brother 
 bustled fiercely down into the Valley avowing his 
 intention to horsewhip the miscreant who had in 
 sulted his sister. But he did no such thing. He 
 proceeded only so far as to see Bill where, his soul 
 possessed in perfect peace and showing no trace of 
 the recent storm, he was felling trees and working 
 them up into cord-wood and, having seen, was 
 somehow conquered. 
 
 "Of course I m not going to horsewhip an 
 idiot!" he remarked, and betook himself off, while 
 the world winked slyly behind his back, having its 
 own notion as to his reasons. 
 
 So much for the pursuit of an education. But 
 there was still another enterprise to which Bill was 
 prompted by his experience with the pension ex- 
 
 37
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 aminer, or rather by Arndt s acrid comments upon 
 it. 
 
 Under the general indictment of ignorance, 
 Arndt had specified at least one particular count. 
 
 "A man that don t even know how old he is!" 
 he exclaimed, with fine scorn, and the taunt, it 
 transpired in the event, struck home. 
 
 " Y gorry, I m goin back to Ihier an* git 
 my right age!" Bill suddenly announced. People 
 laughed, as they were used to do, and paid little 
 or no attention; but he was as good as his word, 
 and the next they knew he turned up missing. He 
 went afoot, without bag or baggage or provision 
 of any kind; but that was likewise the way he had 
 come he knew not how else to travel long dis 
 tances. He could drive to Atro City, but Ohio 
 was too far away for that manner of going. Rail 
 roads, if you speak of them, were something he 
 would have nothing to do with, further than that 
 when he caught sight of a train winding in the 
 distance he would stop and stare at it, if he was 
 not too busy, or perhaps make it the subject of 
 a sapient observation calculated to raise a doubt 
 as to whether so much civilization were really a 
 benefit. 
 
 So did Bill take his departure, and the Valley had 
 small expectation of having him back. But none 
 the less he returned, after about a year, all un- 
 
 38
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 heralded and causing a very considerable aston 
 ishment. In respect of its ostensible object, the 
 expedition was a failure if he had been to Ohio 
 and got his right age, the thing had eluded him 
 afresh, and he was as much in the dark as ever 
 concerning the number of his years; but at least 
 it had satisfied his hunger for tramping, and hence 
 forth he roamed no more, either in proud despair 
 or otherwise. 
 
 During his absence, events of some consequence 
 had come to pass. 
 
 39
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 IT was a dispensation of mercy which suffered 
 Mrs. Arndt to pass over early to the sombre 
 company of the shades. Only for her lack of 
 sensibility she might have been the woman in the 
 grim old verse who 
 
 "had led such a miserable life, 
 As unwelcome daughter and unloved wife, 
 That when Death called her to be his bride, 
 She hesitated, fancying that he lied." 
 
 In her dumb, stolid way she was no doubt glad to 
 die. People guessed as much and talked of sui 
 cide. She lived only a month or so after Bill s 
 departure, and out of that circumstance as well 
 some little scandal was tortured. But, after all, 
 the demise of such a person, under whatsoever 
 conditions, wasn t apt to make any great stir; 
 Mrs. Arndt was laid away in an unmarked grave, 
 and almost with the clods that fell on her cheap 
 coffin the waters of oblivion closed over the life 
 that had been hers. People were, at all events, not 
 too unkind to forget. 
 
 Arndt made no pretence at mourning. He was 
 sorry over the loss of that which had been at worst 
 
 40
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 a valuable asset, but he shed no tears. Instead 
 he promptly set himself to fill the vacancy by his 
 fireside, and tongues were highly prompted to wag 
 when, his bereavement less than a fortnight old, 
 he went among his neighbors proudly exhibiting 
 a metropolitan daily newspaper wherein he had 
 advertised for another wife. 
 
 " WANTED, by a comparatively young man, with 
 no children, owning, clear of encumbrance, a splendid 
 farm in the most fertile region of the United States, to 
 correspond with a lady of refinement and intelligence. 
 Object, matrimony." 
 
 In such alluring terms was Arndt s advertise 
 ment couched he had paid a sharp lawyer to draw 
 it up, and expected much of it. The Valley had its 
 misgivings, and freely voiced them, but Arndt was 
 confident. He had taken his first wife sight un 
 seen, and she had proved no bad bargain better 
 than most; she was a good worker, even though 
 she hadn t so much style about her as some. "Mar- 
 ryin ain t jest like swappin bosses!" he sagely 
 maintained. 
 
 The expedient proved effective at any rate he 
 got him a wife, and such a wife as left him no 
 grounds for complaining of the monotony of his 
 fate. The second Mrs. Arndt was about as un 
 like the first as she could be a flinty individual
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 with her eye-teeth fully cut, having enough of the 
 instinct of coquetry to be roguish and playful with 
 her man till she had him legally enmeshed, the 
 which done she hoisted her true colors and became 
 a domestic tyrant. Her notion of her husband s 
 proper place was under her thumb, and Arndt 
 early saw fit not to demur, so that it soon was said 
 of him that he dared not call his soul his own. 
 A single circumstance was enough to show how 
 unreservedly he bowed his neck to the yoke of ser 
 vitude never more did he indulge himself in the 
 luxury of coming home drunk. He was thought 
 in his heart to admire the woman she had a 
 swing and a swagger which sharply distinguished 
 her from the Lilies of the Valley, and he may have 
 relished being wedded at last to a wife with some 
 style about her; but whether or no, he chose to be 
 subject to her, contrary to the scriptural injunc 
 tion. The neighbors, meanwhile, took every oc 
 casion for the exercise of that neighborly unkind- 
 ness which knows no discrimination; they recalled 
 what a brute he had been, though his brutality had 
 touched them but little in the day of it, and said it 
 served him no more than right if he had got his 
 match and a little better. They likened him to a 
 toad under a harrow, and jeered at him. 
 
 To make her still more the antithesis of her 
 predecessor, and by the same token the nearer like- 
 
 42
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 ness of her lord, the present Mrs. Arndt was pro 
 nouncedly averse to labor, and especially household 
 labor. Though not in the strict sense a Lily among 
 Lilies, she toiled little and spun less. But at the 
 same time she was thrifty and sorely begrudged the 
 cost of hired help, and the upshot was that the pair 
 adopted a girl out of a public institution not a 
 baby, because a baby would be a long time grow 
 ing up, but a girl who was already a woman for 
 strength. The institution, to tell the truth, was 
 the place where waywards were restrained of their 
 liberty a virtual prison, in short; and the ma 
 jority of its inmates were not promising material 
 for assimilation into a virtuous household. But 
 here and there among the herd of incorrigibility 
 was to be found a stupid girl, whose stupidity had 
 made her the prey of designing villany, who, in 
 other words, had no positive predilection for mis 
 chief and resembled the firebrands about her in 
 nothing but her misfortune. Mrs. Arndt knew 
 what she was about no firebrand would serve her 
 purposes, and none of that sort did she choose, but 
 a passive, inert creature, big and stout, the fit can 
 didate for drudgery and oppression. She had a 
 past which was unwholesome enough, but she was 
 no polished mirror to take taint of a breath, and 
 Mrs. Arndt deemed that she had made a very happy 
 stroke. 
 
 43
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 The girl s name was Mabel. 
 
 When Bill Harbaugh drifted back into the Val 
 ley, thus to constitute himself the reigning sensation 
 of the hour, so little was any one expecting him, he 
 naturally headed for Arndt s it had been his home 
 last, and the homing instinct, to say nothing of 
 other considerations, was enough to bend his steps 
 thither. Some little time before he got there he 
 was apprised of the death of the first Mrs. Arndt 
 and the advent of the second, and was warned, 
 with many a jocund sally, of the alteration in the 
 face of things. But still he kept on, loiteringly, 
 calling in to greet this one and that one as he went, 
 yet holding to his way, and in due season arrived. 
 Arndt was overjoyed to see him, and made much 
 of his coming, even as the father made much of 
 the return of the prodigal, though of course, with 
 veal fetching ten cents a pound, no fatted calf was 
 killed; and what was more important, he man 
 aged so to communicate with his wife that she 
 understood what was to be gained, and added her 
 robust hospitality to her husband s. But Bill was 
 not in the highest degree responsive there lay 
 upon him a hesitancy which argued a bosom some 
 what vexed with uncertainty. He asked awkward 
 questions about the dead woman, showing that his 
 interest was with her; and particularly he wanted 
 to know, without circumlocution, if Arndt had beat 
 
 44
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 her any more. And when he could think of noth 
 ing further to ask on that head, he fell thoughtful. 
 
 "I don t see what Olgy wanted to be in such a 
 hurry for," he mused, with brows strangely knitted. 
 "She might a* knowd I was comin back, though 
 I didn t say so." 
 
 "No use cryin over spilt milk, Bill!" suggested 
 Arndt, with soothing philosophy. 
 
 Bill stood up as if to go. 
 
 "Won t you stop with us awhile, Mr. Har- 
 baugh ?" chirped the lady of the house in her 
 best manner. 
 
 Bill regarded her absently. "No, I guess I ll 
 be makin tracks," he replied. 
 
 And tracks he proceeded to make, speaking fig 
 uratively, but only as far as the door; there he met 
 Mabel, staggering in with a great armful of fire 
 wood, and halted. 
 
 "Who s this here?" he asked, eying the girl 
 narrowly. 
 
 Arndt s shrewdness did not desert him he in 
 stantly conceived that here was perhaps the means 
 of attaching Bill to the establishment once more. 
 "That s Mabel! Mabel s our girl we ve took 
 her," he explained affably. 
 
 Bill s demeanor betrayed his interest. " Wy ye ? 
 Wy ye, anyhow ?" he greeted blandly. 
 
 The girl had nothing to say, but she gave him a 
 45
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 shy, sheepish grin, and was evidently not averse. 
 When she passed on, to drop the wood in the box 
 by the stove, Bill followed after. 
 
 "Chop this yerself ?" he inquired, picking up a 
 stick and examining it critically. 
 
 Mabel nodded bashfully. 
 
 "Thought so," Bill observed. "Kin always tell 
 a woman s choppin ." He held the stick up for 
 Arndt s inspection, pointing with his finger at the 
 hacked and jagged end. "A woman," he ex 
 pounded, "always does things the hardest way 
 leastways, things that a man had ought to be 
 doinV 
 
 That was a palpable thrust at Arndt, but that 
 crafty personage bore in mind the advantage to 
 accrue from his complacency and affected to laugh. 
 Mrs. Arndt had caught the drift, and hastened to 
 be complacent, too. Mabel snickered foolishly, 
 because there was that in the air which favored 
 merriment rather than because she saw the point. 
 
 Bill confessed to no purpose of staying, but he 
 stayed nevertheless; and his first achievement, 
 whereby he signalized his resumption of a pro 
 prietor s functions, was to chop a towering pile of 
 wood. 
 
 His attitude toward Mabel, however, was quite 
 different from that which he had taken toward the 
 former Mrs. Arndt. Equally he made it the rule
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 of his life to save her from the burden and heat of 
 the day, totally neglecting the most pressing duties 
 out-of-doors so long as there was anything he could 
 do to help in the house; but he bore himself less in 
 the manner of a comrade and more in that of a 
 father. Now and then he was so fatherly, indeed, 
 as to scold Mabel, in gentle, indulgent fashion, 
 when she went wilfully wrong. That wasn t often, 
 though, for the girl was by nature affectionate and 
 true, and Bill s scolding hurt her as it might hurt 
 a dog conscious of only the best intentions. No 
 body else s scolding affected her so though Mrs. 
 Arndt was to the last degree unreasonable to heap 
 blame on the head of her helpless slave, and her 
 tongue, fearing no consequences, was like the lash 
 of a whip, Mabel in some way indued herself with 
 an insensibility pretty much proof against such dis 
 paragement; but Bill s reproof made her wretched. 
 So he reproved her little, and resorted rather to 
 admonitions, which she could understand but 
 hardly. That was the rub to make Mabel un 
 derstand. 
 
 In the nature of a stumbling-block and barrier 
 was a certain delicacy on his part; Mabel was 
 grown a great, buxom girl, and though she was as 
 unconscious in her relations with him as any child 
 could be, he was in a manner reserved with her, 
 as to take thought of the conventions. Perhaps, 
 
 47
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 in his fatherly character, he deemed it needful to 
 her proper education that he so conduct himself, 
 but whether or no he made a point of it. 
 
 After all, when it came to the trial, the fatherly 
 sentiment was stronger in him than any other 
 even the delicacy had to give way to it when the 
 two came in conflict. So much appeared when the 
 weather grew warm and Mabel, with none to re 
 strain her in the primal impulse which bade her 
 take her comfort, went about clad in nothing but a 
 cotton slip which belonged to a previous season and 
 was too short for her by several inches. Of course 
 the less she wore the less she cost, and that did away 
 with any interference on the part of the Arndts 
 no dispensation which saved money could easily 
 give them scandal, and they were the girl s lawful 
 guardians. But Bill s fatherliness waited upon 
 no legal sanctions, and once it had overcome his 
 delicacy took account of no other obstacle. One 
 evening, as these two bondpeople sat apart to en 
 joy together the very few minutes of leisure allowed 
 them, he spoke out. It cost him an effort, to the 
 end that his usually serene brow was furrowed with 
 anxiety, but he spoke out notwithstanding. 
 
 "F m you re gittin* too big a gal not to be 
 wearin more clo s, Mabel," he said. 
 
 She lifted up her eyes in, astonishment, not know 
 ing what he meant. 
 
 48
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "Sure, Mabel!" Bill went on. "Stockin s an 
 things!" 
 
 It was an obdurate glebe wherein he sought to 
 plant the seeds of modesty, and his was a clumsy 
 hand. Of the common decencies, as they are 
 termed, Mabel had no more conception than a 
 Hottentot, and what was even more in the way, the 
 natural feminine delight in apparel was dead in her, 
 if indeed it had ever been born. Bill made small 
 progress with his uphill task he succeeded in 
 mystifying the poor waif and spoiling her element 
 ary enjoyment for the time being, and that was 
 about all. When he had beaten about the bush 
 somewhat, without effect, he bluntly told her she 
 ought to be ashamed, but how was she to under 
 stand about that, especially as he scarcely under 
 stood himself? At best it was the blind leading 
 the blind unsophistication seeking to sophisticate 
 unsophistication. 
 
 But Bill s placid soul was thoroughly in revolt 
 over Mabel being so scantily clad he felt rather 
 than knew the wrong of it, and knew it none the 
 less for that. And at length he was carried on to 
 take the very unexpected course of complaining 
 to Mrs. Arndt in no uncertain terms by her own 
 account of what happened he went at her hammer 
 and tongs and talked to her as she had never in her 
 life been talked to. He had told Mabel that she 
 
 49
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 ought to be ashamed, but now, it seemed, he was 
 disposed to shift the responsibility to other shoul 
 ders, for he told Mrs. Arndt, with an eloquence 
 and fluency beyond anything she would look for 
 in a simpleton, that it was she who ought to be 
 ashamed. Will you think of it ? Such nerve- 
 to say to Mrs. Arndt, before her face, that she 
 ought to be ashamed. And what was even more 
 startling, he declared in so many words and very 
 emphatically that Mabel had got to have more 
 clothes she had got to have stockings and things. 
 
 Mrs. Arndt was made angry, have no doubt of 
 that so angry that she straightway directed her 
 husband to order Bill off the place. "The impu 
 dent puppy!" she fumed hotly. But anger or no 
 anger, thrift was still her ruling passion, and when 
 Arndt dared reason with her, though she did not 
 at once give up, she hesitated, and the woman who 
 hesitates is, as we all know, lost. 
 
 "Some cheap things for the gal won t kill no 
 body, an it ll keep Bill from sourin*. They ll both 
 work better if you let em go their own gait." It 
 was so Arndt argued, and he carried his point; 
 Mabel had her stockings and things, and the cloud 
 vanished from Bill s brow. Nor had the man of 
 the house miscalculated the profit, for henceforth 
 both his servants toiled to more effect than ever. 
 
 "They re sure a team!" chuckled Arndt, and 
 5
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 his better half, though her feelings were long re 
 covering from the ruffling Bill had given them, 
 could not gainsay the plain fact. 
 
 The Valley was a fairly healthful place except 
 toward the end of the summer when, by reason, 
 perhaps, of the very fatness of the indifferently 
 drained soil, there was likely to be more or less 
 fever about. It was commonly of the walking 
 variety, though, and almost never fatal the natives 
 were very likely in a manner inured to its ravages; 
 but when Mabel took it, she took it hard. 
 
 No doubt she was some little time coming down, 
 but it was no more like her to complain than it 
 would be like a sick cow. She went about her 
 work as usual, by her manner intimating noth 
 ing out of the way until all at once she broke out 
 whimpering, and sank down in a chair with her 
 hands to her head. 
 
 Mrs. Arndt was sharply on her guard against the 
 devices of indolence, and she at once conceived 
 that the girl was feigning. It was some sort of a 
 play designed to cover a purpose to shirk, thought 
 Mrs. Arndt, and acted accordingly. 
 
 "What s the matter?" she demanded harshly. 
 
 Mabel s only answer was to clutch at her temples 
 and moan. To the woman it looked like over 
 done pretence. 
 
 "Get up!" she snapped. 
 5 1
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "Oh, oh!" wailed Mabel, rocking to and fro. 
 
 Her eyes were wild and vacant, but it would 
 never do to be too easily fooled if there was 
 imposture here there was even worse, for impost 
 ure implied defiance, and defiance was intolerable. 
 Mrs. Arndt stood a moment undecided, and then 
 she struck the girl not gently, but a resounding 
 cufF over her ears. For a little it looked as if 
 she had done the needful thing Mabel staggered 
 to her feet and started off, as if to go on with her 
 work, but before she had taken more than a step 
 or two she stumbled, swayed weakly, and crumpled 
 down in a heap on the floor. 
 
 Was she really sick, then ? Mrs. Arndt began 
 to be seized with misgivings. She bent over the 
 prostrate figure, and her misgivings grew that 
 rattle in the throat, that spasmodic twitching of 
 the limbs, that rolling of the eyeballs, so swollen 
 all of a sudden that they seemed like to burst, these 
 were no part of a pretence, as even the unwilling 
 glance could not but discern. The woman was 
 frightened. 
 
 "Be you sick, Mabel?" she quavered, weakly 
 enough now that she had a real emergency to 
 face. 
 
 Just then Bill came in. Against him the lady of 
 the house had still her grudge, and it gratified her 
 to treat him with as much incivility as she could 
 
 5 2
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 indulge herself in with impunity a good deal, 
 by the way, since he was mostly indifferent to her 
 moods; but hereupon she was so fluttered that she 
 forgot her revenge. 
 
 "Oh, Mr. Harbaugh, I do believe Mabel s took 
 sick!" she cried. "I wonder if Mr. Arndt hadn t 
 ought to go for the doctor?" 
 
 Bill spake no word, but without the least hesita 
 tion or indecision gathered the great girl in his 
 arms as he might an infant, and bore her away to 
 her poor attic under the roof, where he undressed 
 her and put her to bed. Mrs. Arndt offered, not 
 without a sincere wish to be helpful, to attend to 
 those intimate offices which belonged more prop 
 erly, since the patient was a woman, to a woman, 
 but he paid no attention to her her belated solici 
 tude went all unacknowledged. Arndt was even 
 more frightened than his wife, and fetched a doc 
 tor in all haste, but by the time he arrived there 
 was nothing left for him to do. Bill had mean 
 while packed Mabel about with cloths which he 
 kept cold with water from the spring, and his 
 instinct had wrought so well that science could 
 propose nothing better. The doctor shook his 
 head it was a desperate case; but there was no 
 alternative to letting the fever run its course, since 
 it had got its start. 
 
 The siege lasted something near two weeks, and 
 53
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 during that time, whether by day or by night, Bill 
 never once remitted his watch. If he slept it was 
 only as Mabel slept, and by her bedside, ready to 
 spring up at her first manifestation of restlessness. 
 She was delirious most of the time, but never too 
 flighty to be reaching out for him with her hand and 
 calling to him not to leave her. Mrs. Arndt grew 
 more and more anxious, as the malady progressed, 
 to lend a hand, if only for the sake of appearances, 
 but the sick girl could not endure her presence 
 even, let alone her ministrations. But the way 
 things were going troubled the woman so that 
 once, when Mabel had a lucid interval, she took 
 the occasion to protest as kindly as she could. 
 
 "Come now!" she coaxed. "Ain t ye shamed, 
 such a big gal, havin a man liftin ye out an put- 
 tin ye back ?" 
 
 No, Mabel was not ashamed. On the contrary, 
 she would have none but a man, since that man 
 was Bill. She clung to him and made no more of 
 the impropriety than any dumb beast might have 
 done. Indeed, there could be no impropriety be 
 tween these two except as a sense more nice than 
 wise should gratituously import it even Mrs. 
 Arndt came at length into an understanding of 
 that, and held her peace. 
 
 Mabel died, and they gave her quite a brave 
 funeral considering who and what she had been. 
 
 54
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 The Arndts knew perfectly well what the gentle 
 gossip of the Valley would say it would say that 
 they had killed the girl by their neglect and abuse; 
 and the brave funeral was designed first of all to 
 forestall the scandal of the world it would be 
 something to point to in denial of injurious report. 
 But there was even more method in it Arndt s 
 shrewdness had rendered him justly apprehensive 
 of what Bill might take it into his head to do 
 now that Mabel w r as gone, and he estimated that 
 it would tickle the fellow s vanity to have out a 
 plumed hearse, and a minister, and a choir to 
 sing hymns. So great a display was not to be 
 provided for nothing, but if it should have the 
 effect of pleasing Bill and keeping him where he 
 was, the money would have been profitably in 
 vested. 
 
 Bill s demeanor was hardly what you would ex 
 pect. He remained perfectly cheerful during the 
 funeral services, never went near the coffin so far 
 as any one observed, and spent most of the time 
 outside the house talking with various persons 
 about all sorts of irrelevant subjects. The burial 
 was to be in Atro City, where the nearest ceme 
 tery was, and a place was reserved for him in the 
 carriage which conveyed the mourners; but he 
 declined it, saying he guessed he wouldn t pester 
 about going. 
 
 55
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 Whatever its effect on gossip, the funeral availed 
 nothing in respect of its other ulterior purpose 
 from that day forward Bill never set foot in Arndt s 
 house. The connection was definitely severed.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 IT was while Bill tarried away, in quest of his 
 right age, that the Haldeans came and took up 
 their residence in the Valley. They were exiles, as 
 any one could see, and a different sort altogether. 
 
 Tudor Haldean, the man, plainly accounted 
 himself better than his new neighbors, and these 
 were not too poor in spirit to respond by holding 
 aloof there would be no crawling on their part, 
 mind you that, showing that a soul could be shift 
 less yet proud. Esther Haldean, the wife, put on 
 no such airs as her husband, but the common 
 regard knew not how to separate her from him 
 whom God had joined neighbors might not easily 
 sunder, even to save a woman from the unpopu 
 larity which she perhaps did not deserve. So the 
 Haldeans had rather a lonesome life of it. 
 
 Neighbors, however, were not so aloof as to deny 
 themselves the luxury of making guesses about the 
 family s affairs. On the contrary, they guessed 
 endlessly, and while conjecture could not be so 
 definite as to put an end to all uncertainty, sundry 
 points of information about the Haldeans came to 
 be taken for granted. It was not in the least 
 
 57
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 doubted, for instance, that they had seen better 
 days, or that they were so far reduced as to have 
 little or nothing left beyond the farm where they 
 were now establishing themselves. That farm was 
 the Putnam place, which had notoriously lain 
 under a mortgage to Eastern parties these years. 
 In that mortgage the Valley discerned the cir 
 cumstance which had brought the Haldeans here 
 to live it was the only salvage left of what had 
 once been a proud fortune, now reduced to wreck 
 by a man s fatuous pig-headedness. Neighborly 
 guesses scrupled not to make Haldean out pig 
 headed he was just the sort to go on and break 
 himself by his obstinate folly. Most likely the 
 mortgage had survived only by reason of its being 
 in the wife s name, and therefore not liable for the 
 husband s debts. 
 
 The Haldeans were not envied of their freehold. 
 Among Lilies of the Valley there was none too poor 
 to look down with disdain upon the Putnam place 
 because in the midst of abounding fatness it was 
 so lean. Putnam, the original owner, long since 
 vanished from these scenes, had been possessed of 
 the grotesque delusion that sand was better than 
 loam it was prompter to catch the heat of spring 
 and by that yielded its fruits so much earlier as to 
 more than compensate for their relatively scanty 
 measure. In that view he had chosen his land, 
 
 58
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 but only to fall in with the prevailing fashion and 
 neglect it, to the end that his theory remained a 
 theory, practically untried, while the Putnam place 
 became the laughing-stock of the world, with no 
 achievement to its credit save the mortgage, and 
 that was proof of nothing but the gullibility of 
 Eastern capital. The spectacle of somebody try 
 ing to wring a living out of those meagre acres was 
 likely to be diverting, and the neighbors settled 
 back to enjoy it, with nothing further from their 
 hearts than envy. 
 
 The new lord of the manor hadn t been long in 
 possession until he caused it to be known that he 
 had christened his seat Throstlewood. That was 
 the occasion of Homeric laughter all up and down 
 the countryside, and the Valley mocked the pal 
 pable affection with open throat. 
 
 Haldean had some ready money to begin with, 
 or, if not money, credit sufficient to enable him 
 to make astonishing expenditures. The buildings 
 that went with the land were of the usual kind, 
 only uncommonly run down with the hard usage 
 a farm always gets at the hands of leaseholders. 
 There was a low house, with walls of butternut 
 logs and roof of shakes, and gathered about the 
 various hovels needful to the carrying on of a 
 primitive agriculture. But Haldean had forth 
 with brought in something like a car-load of sawed 
 
 59
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 lumber of the costliest grade; and it was no sooner 
 delivered on the premises than carpenters seemed 
 to spring out of the ground, so numerous were they. 
 The Valley rubbed its eyes incredulously. Who 
 had ever seen a real carpenter at work in those 
 regions, where every man builded with his own 
 hands as best he might, nor thought of any other 
 manner of doing ? And these astounding artisans 
 labored to some purpose, too, for almost as by 
 magic there emerged under their hands an unprec 
 edented structure, rising on the foundation of the 
 old house, but transforming it wholly a species of 
 palace sheathed in clapboards, roofed over with 
 shingles, and having for its front a porch with 
 pillars. The porch was the culminating wonder 
 contemplating it as it took form, the Valley fairly 
 gasped for breath. 
 
 In the course of these marvellous operations 
 somebody s children, abnormally sharp at eaves 
 dropping, made shift to overhear a conversation 
 between the man and his wife as they stood off at 
 a distance to view the work; whence it appeared 
 that the household was divided against itself. If 
 the children were to be believed, and none chose to 
 doubt them, the woman was opposed to so much 
 display. 
 
 "Oh, Tudor!" she protested. "It s so much 
 more than we can afford! Only think what the 
 
 60
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 porch is costing, and how little real use we shall 
 have for it!" 
 
 "Indeed!" Haldean rejoined, and people already 
 knew him well enough to imagine his irony. 
 "What would you have ?" 
 
 "The old house would have answered, don t 
 you think, with a little patching here and there ?" 
 
 "The old house was a pigsty. Have you no 
 pride?" 
 
 "We are too poor to be proud, Tudor!" 
 
 But here the man lost his patience. "Very 
 well!" he snarled. "If you consider the house too 
 good for you, I shall have one of the hotels left as 
 it is for your especial accommodation." 
 
 Of course he was saying, by that, the unkindest 
 thing he could lay his tongue to, and the woman 
 fell silent. Concerning her, neighbors, in the light 
 of the children s eavesdropping, entertained hence 
 forth a better notion. They were getting to dis 
 like Haldean more and more, and if he wasn t on 
 good terms with his wife, that was certainly a point 
 in her favor. 
 
 But the porch was destined never to be finished, 
 and the clapboards with their satin surfaces were 
 not to know the protection of paint. That was 
 the Valley s revenge, or part of it. Neighbors 
 would never forget the day when the carpenters, 
 in default of their pay, all at once knocked off 
 
 61
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 work and departed, not stopping even to take their 
 staging down. A portion of the staging still stands 
 as they left it, or did at last accounts. 
 
 Manifestly, it could mean only one thing the 
 new family were come to the end of their rope. 
 Nor was the abandoned porch the extent of the mel 
 ancholy testimony. The master of Throstlewood 
 had formed and suffered to be advertised ambitious 
 designs in the way of high farming, and their sud 
 den collapse served to swell the mournful tale of a 
 purse drained dry. From being the scene of amaz 
 ing activities the farm fell straightway under such 
 a neglect as was unknown, even in the Valley, where 
 neglect was the usual thing. Accustomed as they 
 were to thriftlessness, Lilies fairly stood aghast to 
 see how Haldean let his concerns go at sixes and 
 sevens. He stalked about the premises like an 
 uneasy ghost, or sat brooding on his unfinished 
 porch, but never was he seen to lift a finger to do 
 any of the work which cried out to be done. Once 
 some predatory cattle broke into the young corn, 
 and the master, though he saw them at their de 
 struction, did nothing to stop it. And when-, on 
 that occasion, Mrs. Haldean ran out to the field, 
 evidently bent on driving the cattle away, her hus 
 band roughly ordered her back. 
 
 "If you don t know what is becoming to one in 
 your station, you shall be instructed!" he called 
 
 62
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 out, so loudly that people passing in the road heard 
 him. 
 
 That was the fractious unreason of the man- 
 people well understood that he rebuked his wife 
 not so much in fear of her demeaning herself as 
 because he was sore and sour and ungenerous 
 enough withal to vent his spleen upon a helpless 
 and innocent woman. 
 
 Throstlewood presented a scene of desolation- 
 neighbors straggling back from Mabel s funeral 
 remarked as much, in passing; and they were fur 
 thermore interested to observe Bill Harbaugh sit 
 ting on the edge of the porch, his hands clasped 
 about his knees, talking with Haldean, who was 
 enthroned above him, in the stateliness of a huge 
 rocker.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 wy ye, cap ? Wy ye, anyhow ? " The 
 greeting was not exactly in Bill s usual 
 style, but neither was Haldean a usual character. 
 The man s bearing had something unusually pom 
 pous about it, such as almost to demand the mili 
 tary title. 
 
 His rejoinder was in keeping, cold and haughty. 
 "How do you do, sir?" 
 
 "Middlin , cap. Middlin , consid rin ." 
 
 Bill helped himself to a seat on the edge of the 
 porch, all unbidden, and took off his hat to catch 
 the cooling breeze. By that he let his mental de 
 ficiency be seen his face, owing to the light it held 
 of a definite purpose, was not more vacant, for the 
 moment, than many another, but there was no es 
 caping the significance of the low, sloping brow. 
 Bill had handsome hair, though, and it fell in be 
 coming disorder as he ran his fingers through it. 
 A great, genial, faithful ox has sometimes similar 
 hair, and is not less conscious of its beauty. 
 
 Haldean unbent a trifle. "Rather warm," he 
 observed. 
 
 " Tis so, for a fact," replied Bill. 
 64
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 " I can t profess to know much about those mat 
 ters, but I dare say such weather is favorable to 
 the crops, on the whole?" Haldean deigned to 
 make talk, even though, like his bearing, it smacked 
 of dress parade. 
 
 "That there depends, cap. It s good, pervided. 
 It s good for corn, but it s li ble to rust wheat." 
 Nothing gratified Bill s vanity more than the op 
 portunity to enlighten ignorance. "Wheat s just 
 about in the milk, cap, an if the weather don t 
 hold bout so cool, why, it s li ble to rust. It ll 
 rust mighty sudden, too. Mebbe you wouldn t 
 believe how quick it ll rust. Know the Dingley 
 boys ?" 
 
 Haldean shook his head. "I m very little ac 
 quainted hereabouts." 
 
 "Most likely you wouldn t be apt to know the 
 Dingley boys, bein as they was back in Ihier so. 
 But, anyhow, they had em a hunderd an sixty into 
 wheat, an it was some wheat, now I say. Nobody 
 never see no better wheat, I don t guess. The 
 boys, they was boys like, just sort of commencin 
 to begin, as ye might say, an so they nach ly cal - 
 lated they wouldn t be in no hurry bout buyin of 
 em a reaper till they was right down sure they was 
 goin* to have a crop just nach ly that way, cap. 
 So they held off bout the reaper, an they held off, 
 till the day afore they was ready to go to cuttin*. 
 
 65
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 They figgered that close just the day afore they 
 was a-goin to strike in an* begin cuttin they went 
 to town, bout fifteen mile off well, mebbe twa n t 
 fifteen, an* then ag in it might be more n fifteen 
 anyhow, they went, an the wheat was lookin fine 
 as silk, an when they come back with their reaper, 
 y gorry! what d ye s pose ? That there wheat 
 was clean gone, with the rust! Rust took it that 
 sudden. As I was sayin , mebbe you wouldn t 
 most likely be apt to believe how sudden rust ll 
 take wheat." 
 
 Haldean listened with polite attention. "I 
 should think that might be rather a discouraging 
 experience," he observed. 
 
 Scouragin ! Say, cap, I don t guess you know 
 what them there boys up an did ? Them there 
 Dingley boys Dick an Dan no, twas the Hank 
 boys that was Dick an Dan. Well, anyhow, they 
 bawled, cap both of em. They up an bawled. 
 Dunno s I blame em, though." 
 
 There ensued a silence of considerable duration. 
 Bill chewed the end of a spear of timothy and 
 gazed off over the desolate, neglected fields, while 
 Haldean, with visible restraint and unfailing dig 
 nity, rocked to and fro. 
 
 It was Bill who spoke first. "Havin the reaper 
 on their hands so," quoth he. 
 
 Haldean was at a loss he hadn t burdened his 
 66
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 memory with the thread of the former discourse. 
 "I beg your pardon ?" said he. 
 
 "Them there Dingley boys," Bill explained. 
 "You re right, cap, it s what ye might call might 
 call- 
 
 " Discouraging ?" 
 
 "That s it scouragin ! Don t blame em for 
 bawlin , not a mite. Don t know but I might 
 bawl myself if I was a couple o boys just com- 
 mencin to begin like." 
 
 Another interval of silence, and once more it was 
 broken by Bill. "What ll ye take fer yer farm, 
 cap ?" he asked, all of a sudden. 
 
 Haldean glanced down at the figure before him, 
 and his haughty face softened with a faint smile 
 of amusement. "I haven t thought of selling," he 
 said. "Do you wish to buy?" 
 
 "M yeah!" assented Bill guardedly, in the 
 manner of a shrewd bargainer. "I don t mind 
 sayin I ve thought some bout buyin , if I kin find 
 what suits me. Bout how much ll ye be askin ?" 
 
 "Oh, I haven t set a price, you know." 
 
 "I mean the hull shootin -match hosses an 
 tools an ev rything so s t I kin go right to work. 
 What s yer figger, cap? Come, now!" 
 
 Haldean laughed indulgently, as a grown person 
 might laugh at the vagaries of a child. "What is 
 your name, sir, if I may ask ?" 
 
 67
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "My name s Bill. Most ev rybody knows me. 
 Bill!" 
 
 " I dare say. I am much of a stranger in these 
 parts myself. To tell the truth, Mr. Bill, I 
 haven t an idea what would be a fair price for the 
 property. Not having seriously thought of sell- 
 ing- 
 
 "How d ten thousan strike ye?" 
 
 Now that was a surprising proposal in more 
 respects than one. Never in the world before had 
 Bill been known to offer more than twenty-five 
 hundred for a farm. How had his notions become 
 so enlarged ? It must be the effect of travel hav 
 ing been abroad, he had come back in such degree 
 broadened. 
 
 Haldean s reply signified nothing further than 
 that he was grown a little impatient of these nego 
 tiations with an obvious beggar and a probable 
 fool. He knew nothing, of course, of their esoteric 
 meaning, as it might be termed, and the prospect 
 of results satisfactory to Bill s purpose were not 
 particularly bright had not lucky chance come to 
 the rescue. 
 
 Some choice roses had been set out a little way 
 off from the porch the inception of an ambitious 
 scheme of landscape gardening which never got 
 any further. They were rather delicate plants, 
 and the rude native grasses had so sprung up to 
 
 68
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 choke them that they drooped under the unequal 
 and unaccustomed struggle. The most unprac 
 tised eye might perceive what they stood in need of, 
 and the dullest sensibility could hardly escape an 
 impulse to go to their relief; and so it happened 
 that Mrs. Haldean was down on her knees beside 
 them, rooting out the weeds with her hands. 
 
 She was not in sight at first, but she worked 
 about by little and little till presently she let her 
 self be seen from the porch. Whereupon, without 
 ceremony or ado, Bill rose up hurriedly and went 
 over to her. 
 
 "Lemme show ye!" said he. "You just sed- 
 down on the pi-azzer an lemme show ye. My 
 hands is tough taint fit for yourn to be pokin in 
 mongst all them there prickles." 
 
 "You shouldn t garden without gloves, Essie!" 
 remarked Haldean, in a tone of mild reproof. His 
 mood was less wolfish than it had been the day he 
 ordered her back from driving the cattle out of the 
 corn. 
 
 "Oh, gloves are so clumsy they spoil half the 
 fun!" she made answer. 
 
 Bill s sudden approach and abrupt manner of 
 address had startled her, but he confronted her 
 with a face so friendly and solicitous that she had 
 to smile back at him. His wasn t a bad face at all 
 when he smiled that way.
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "Come, now!" he coaxed brusquely. "You just 
 seddown there on the pi-azzer an watch me git 
 after them there weeds. I ll show em! An I d 
 like to see the prickles that d hurt me. My hands 
 is tough I don t guess luther ain t no tougher." 
 
 It was no idle vaunt. The choicest and most del 
 icate rose has its cruel thorns, but Bill s big, pow 
 erful hands were proof against them, as straight 
 way appeared. They were deft hands, too, and 
 they gave the weeds short shrift, even as he had 
 intimated they would. 
 
 Mrs. Haldean looked on admiringly. "I wish 
 I could make the ground look so fresh and clean 
 and light," said she. "Somehow the grass always 
 breaks off when I try to pull it up. It s nice to 
 know how to do things useful things." 
 
 "Not s posin you ve got somebody to do em 
 for ye," said Bill, with a radiant look. 
 
 "Oh, I so love to do the work myself I love to 
 dig in the dirt above all things!" 
 
 "You don t aim to tell me!" 
 
 "It s such a good medicine. When I ve any 
 thing on my mind, there s nothing will cure it like 
 digging in the dirt." 
 
 "Well, now! Don t know s I ever had nothin 
 ailin of me, still it s always handy to know what s 
 good for what. I always like to know what s good 
 for what, it comes in so handy like, first ye know. 
 
 7
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 Know what s good for when ye hain t feelin tall 
 good, sort of?" 
 
 Mrs. Haldean shook her head with a gravity 
 which carried with it some suggestion of effort. 
 
 "Smart-weed!" said Bill earnestly. "When I 
 hain t feelin tall good, sort of, I just set a can o 
 smart-weed on the stove to-night like, an in the 
 mornin* I ll feel a hull lot better. Set a can o 
 smart-weed on the stove the night before, an* in the 
 mornin you ll feel better." 
 
 "That s surely worth knowing!" said Mrs. Hal- 
 dean, with laughter not to be denied in her eyes. 
 
 Haldean had listened with a deprecatory air. 
 Considering who the parties to it were, the conver 
 sation was flowing rather too easily to comport 
 with the best ideals of social subordination. And 
 now he affected to stifle a yawn. 
 
 "Gardening is no doubt a proper pastime, but 
 one should think of one s hands," he observed 
 magisterially. 
 
 At the sound of his voice the laughter died out of 
 the woman s eyes. "Gloves are so hot!" she re 
 joined, without spirit. 
 
 Bill kept on grubbing at the weeds, but not too 
 busily to put in his oar. "You re right," he com 
 mented vociferously. "Gloves is hot. I ve wore 
 em afore now where the pizen ivory was into the 
 wheat, an , y gorry! they re hot. I don t blame 
 
 7 1
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 nobody for not wantin to wear no gloves, nohow. 
 They re hot you re right. She s right bout the 
 gloves bein hot, cap!" 
 
 A frown of displeasure furrowed the master s 
 brow distinctly admonitory in character and fit to 
 remind an inferior with any feeling not to be too 
 forward. But Bill, as it chanced, was not looking 
 that way, and the hint went for nothing. 
 
 " By the by," said Haldean, turning the subject, 
 as not to seem to be annoyed by what was after all 
 only a trifle, "remind me to see about a new maid 
 to-morrow." 
 
 His wife s brow had its shadow, too, hereupon. 
 "Really, Tudor, I would rather not have a maid 
 for the present, anyway," she said, after a mo 
 ment s hesitation. 
 
 "And why not, pray?" 
 
 "Because " She checked herself. "You 
 know why the other girl went away." 
 
 As a matter of fact, everybody knew. The girl 
 had gone away, as the carpenters had gone, for the 
 reason that wages were not forthcoming. And 
 while she had been patient, tarrying long until 
 but a few days since, indeed she proved at last 
 far from reticent, and the Valley was even now in 
 a delectable ferment of scandal over her revela 
 tions. Just as everybody had confidently believed, 
 Haldean was a species of Bluebeard in his home. 
 
 72
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 Mrs. Haldean was good and kind and sensible and 
 unassuming, and it was for her sake that the girl 
 had been patient; but Haldean was in the nature 
 of a Bluebeard. 
 
 And now he stood up with cold formality, letting 
 it be seen that he was offended. "Very well as 
 you like!" he said, and retired into the house. 
 
 The woman sat very still, watching Bill at the 
 roses. But if he had already astonished her, the 
 half in that respect was not told he was to aston 
 ish her still more. All at once he straightened up, 
 rested his hands on his hips, and regarded her with 
 a glance so glowing that she was disconcerted. 
 
 "Essie, eh?" he chuckled. "Don t know s I 
 ever know d nobody by the name of Essie afore, 
 but, y gorry! I like it. Essie! Y gorry! yes." 
 
 And with that most extraordinary series of re 
 flections he pounced on a fresh bush, tearing the 
 weeds out by the handful, and chuckling the while 
 in the utmost apparent satisfaction. Mrs. Hal- 
 dean s countenance betrayed varying emotions, but 
 though she wore something of an air of severity at 
 first, almost of resentment, in fact for unless you 
 understood Bill s familiarity there was a smack of 
 impudence about it indulgence shortly prevailed. 
 
 "Where do you live ?" she asked kindly. 
 
 "Mostly nowheres at the present time," he an 
 swered. 
 
 73
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "Wouldn t you won t you have supper with 
 us?" 
 
 "I was just a-goin to speak about supper. I 
 was just a-goin to say that I d prob ly most likely 
 be a-stoppin to supper. I always like to let the 
 women-folks know a leetle ahead when I m goin* to 
 stop like. I cal late they like it a hull lot better 
 than bein dropped in on all unbeknownst, when 
 they hain t spectin nobody." 
 
 Bill finished all the roses, and some hollyhocks 
 besides, so neglected hitherto that they shamed 
 their name, but looking up forthwith as in testi 
 mony of their gratitude. Then he went in to sup 
 per and gushed a stream of small talk so copious 
 and cheerful that even Haldean unbent and was 
 willing to be diverted in the manner of a feudal 
 lord by his clown. 
 
 As for the woman, this curious manner of man 
 who had come drifting in to her world so unbidden 
 yet so confident of his welcome interested her more 
 and more. No matter what he did, and in spite 
 of his uncouthness, there was something engaging 
 about him. How could a complete stranger man 
 age to take such liberties, yet divest them of all 
 color of impropriety ? Was it because of his being 
 a simpleton ? Any one could see that he lacked of 
 wit, and a witless wight might claim the privileges 
 and immunities of a child such might well be the 
 
 74
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 substance of his inoffensiveness. Yet not for a 
 moment was his deficiency a bid for pity his 
 demeanor positively forbade pity, in fact, he car 
 ried himself so upstandingly, failing in nothing of 
 assurance. 
 
 She hadn t learned his name yet, and while they 
 were at supper she asked about that. 
 
 "Bill!" he said simply. 
 
 "William " 
 
 She spoke it with a rising inflection, as to invite him 
 to supply the rest, but he was not pleased to do so. 
 
 "No Bill! Folks mostly calls me Bill. You 
 kin call me Bill. That there s my name Bill. 
 Just call me Bill like." 
 
 And she did so, henceforth, without misgiving 
 as to whether she ought. Any title of respect, such 
 as a woman is commonly expected to accord a 
 bearded man, was plainly out of place here. 
 Bill s beard made him out none the less a child 
 in respect of his immunities. 
 
 After supper he repaired to the barn and put 
 things to rights there with adroit and diligent hand. 
 Much sorely needed to be done, so much that he 
 couldn t do it all at once, though it was quite dark 
 when at length he gave over and returned to the 
 house. 
 
 "Where be I goin to bunk, Essie ?" he inquired, 
 with off-hand ease. 
 
 75
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 That was a touch of familiarity which went be 
 yond anything yet, and it made the woman gasp a 
 little, and wonder a little if she ought not to rebuke 
 it lest she encourage what should not be encour 
 aged. And she was heartily glad, moreover, that 
 her husband had not been by to hear it. Yet some 
 how Bill s implied avowal of an intention to stay 
 was pleasing to her. "I don t know I shall have 
 to speak to Mr. Haldean," she replied, without 
 a hint at a rebuke. 
 
 Mr. Haldean, it would seem, had been taking 
 counsel of prudence, perhaps with a touch of 
 Arndt s variety of shrewdness; and when the mat 
 ter was broached to him, instead of making dif 
 ficulties or entering a flat veto, as would have been 
 like him, he directed that the fellow be lodged. 
 "He promises to be a valuable hand," quoth the 
 master, and with that sanction Bill became a fixture. 
 
 "And roam no more in proud despair!" 
 
 they heard him singing, bright and early next 
 morning, as he milked the cows. 
 
 o 7 
 
 He explained his outburst on utilitarian grounds. 
 "Cows gives down their milk better when they re 
 sung to!" he declared. 
 
 In the light of recent experiences Essie could not 
 well help but be concerned about Bill s pay; and 
 so greatly troubled was she when she learned what 
 
 76
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 the terms of his service were that she had to speak 
 out. 
 
 " He s not very bright, and it s wrong to let him 
 work for nothing, just because he is willing," she 
 protested, with more spirit than she was used to 
 show. 
 
 But Haldean cherished no scruples. There are 
 bound to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, 
 your ridiculous democracy to the contrary not 
 withstanding!" he retorted. So far as he was 
 concerned, the arrangement couldn t be more sat 
 isfactory, and his satisfaction was paramount. 
 
 And still there turned out to be a fly in the oint 
 ment. The new hand, while undeniably valuable, 
 presently developed a quality or two not much to 
 the master s liking. Notably, he had no proper 
 respect for his betters, as such. He regarded the 
 farm as absolutely his own, although no purchase 
 had been consummated, even in form, and the 
 family as something between guests and depend 
 ents. If his attitude toward Essie, apart from its 
 uncouthness, was chivalrous and considerate, he 
 treated the head of the household with serene in 
 difference, minding his orders no more than he 
 would mind a boy s prattle, and deigning to con 
 sult him in nothing. In a word, he acknowledged 
 no authority superior to his own. 
 
 He let his position be known the very next day. 
 77
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 While all the crops were clamoring for help, the 
 corn seemed to clamor the loudest, and he went to 
 its rescue first; but though the need was urgent, 
 he spent almost the entire forenoon tinkering the 
 cultivator. To the uninformed eye it looked very 
 like dallying in the face of necessity, and Hal- 
 dean deemed it time to show who was in com 
 mand. 
 
 "Come, come, William!" he said sharply. 
 "You are losing too much valuable time." 
 
 Bill went placidly on with his tinkering. After 
 awhile he vouchsafed this rejoinder: "Keep yer 
 shirt on, cap keep yer shirt on! Got to git this 
 contraption xactly c rect." It proved how far he 
 was from being ruffled when, after a moment, he 
 indulgently explained : " Know when a cultivator s 
 xactly c rect ? It s when you kin hear her rippin 
 the roots on both sides. If you hear her rippin 
 the roots on both sides, then you kin know she s 
 xactly c rect." 
 
 Not till after dinner did he get started cultivating, 
 but once at it he pushed the horse almost to a trot 
 and worked as long as he could see; and though 
 the incident had given the master to put such a 
 curb on his tongue as he was not accustomed to, 
 he could be glad in the event that he had done so. 
 The profit was daily more obvious, and in virtue 
 thereof Haldean learned to forbear, so that the odd 
 
 78
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 relation presently adjusted itself. Bill wrought as 
 he would, and he wrought marvels. 
 
 He could tell next to nothing of what he had seen 
 in Ohio, whither he had gone in quest of his right 
 age, but a few impressions had found some sort 
 of a lodgement in his feeble memory, and among 
 them, perhaps most vivid of all, was the way they 
 grew clover back there. He talked endlessly about 
 the clover, and he didn t stop with talking, but 
 procured seed, though it was very costly, and sowed 
 some acres of Throstlewood with it. The neigh 
 bors perceived what he was about and laughed. 
 The grain of clover is little and light, and Bill sowed 
 it by hand on a windy day, and neighbors were of 
 the opinion that he might better dig a hole and 
 dump all the seed down at once it would save 
 work and bring just as good results. But for once 
 the prophets of evil were wrong the clover came 
 up and made a wellnigh perfect stand, and when 
 it blossomed the field was like some rich red tapes 
 try, so thickly and evenly did the plants grow. The 
 prophets were not silenced, however they freely 
 predicted that there wasn t room on the ground to 
 cure so heavy a crop of grass; and once more they 
 spoke only to be confounded. Bill cut the clover 
 duly, let it lie in the swath overnight, next day 
 put it up in small bunches, after a day or two 
 doubled these into bigger bunches, in another day 
 
 79
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 or two repeated the process. To the vision nar 
 rowed by tradition he looked to be about a species 
 of foolery, yet when, at the end of a week, he hauled 
 the hay to the stack, it was perfectly bright and 
 sweet. 
 
 "That there s how they do it back in Ihier!" he 
 declared. 
 
 Brag ? Bill bragged without ceasing. All up 
 and down the Valley his boastful discoursings were 
 to be heard. 
 
 80
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THROSTLEWOOD S nearest neighbors were 
 the Dorseys, and they, too, were not in the 
 strictest sense of the term Lilies of the Valley. 
 Mrs. Dorsey especially was quite another kind of 
 person, and that circumstance led to an intimacy 
 not destined to the happiest ending. An odd as 
 sortment were the Dorseys. If the man was thor 
 oughly Irish, his wife, on the other hand, was as 
 thoroughly English, and there was, moreover, a 
 marked disparity of culture between them. Where 
 as Dorsey was frankly and without apology a rude 
 peasant, his wife had more than a little of refine 
 ment about her. Her refinement it was which 
 made her different from the other neighbors, and 
 you could guess how it came about when you 
 learned that she had been for many years a servant 
 in English families of the better class, where man 
 ners were so much the order of the day that even 
 the help acquired them. 
 
 The Haldeans in their prosperity exhibited that 
 which seemed to forbid neighborly advances, and 
 the Valley at large, easily touched in its pride, 
 made none. During those early days of ostenta- 
 
 81
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 tion the family formed no social connections what 
 ever; but when their calamity came upon them in 
 the sight of the world, and they looked so desolate 
 and forsaken, it was only natural that the neigh 
 bors, though gratified, should be softened withal. 
 Nor was curiosity likely to be lessened by what had 
 taken place, and now that circumstances gave the 
 color of Christian duty to its indulgence, women 
 folks wondered if they ought not to call. 
 
 And particularly Mrs. Dorsey, who was some 
 how so different. She not only wondered about 
 calling, but called. 
 
 Essie saw her coming with genuine pleasure, and 
 it cost her no effort to be gracious. She was Eng 
 lish herself, though she could not remember her 
 native land, and knew it only by hearsay. 
 
 "I was born in Somerset," she said. "Lorna 
 Doone s country, you know. Just over the line 
 from Devonshire, I believe." 
 
 "Devonshire, is it!" exclaimed Mrs. Dorsey, 
 glowing. "I lived long in sight of the seat of the 
 noble Duke of Devonshire, ma am. Chatsworth, it 
 was called. That would be in Derbyshire, ma am 
 near Addon All. Belike you ve heard accounts 
 of Addon All, and Dorothy Vernon, ma am?" 
 
 She had seen a good deal, for one in her station. 
 Her parents had lived in Bedford, and she could 
 speak interestingly of the relics of John Bunyan, 
 
 82
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 preserved proudly in the parish church, though the 
 learned tinker had been such a Baptist. Once she 
 had been attached to a family which summered in 
 Scotland, and took her along with them, so that she 
 had traversed the tight little island from end to end. 
 With but scant learning, wherefore she should con 
 cern herself with historic and literary associations, 
 a native gift of shrewd discrimination had never 
 theless stored her mind with a really unusual fund 
 of information; and she was ready with her tongue, 
 though never pert or forward. Essie was more and 
 more delighted; it seemed like finding a jewel in a 
 heap of rubbish to encounter a person with a soul 
 above beer and skittles and who could talk en 
 tertainingly about things worth while; and Essie 
 it was who introduced Mrs. Dorsey to the lord of 
 the manor. 
 
 "You two can talk about England, while I lis 
 ten," said she, and sincerely rejoiced in the meeting. 
 
 Haldean, on his part, chose to be entirely polite. 
 If his manner was condescending, that didn t so 
 much matter with an Englishwoman brought up 
 to service. "My home was in Hampshire," he 
 said. 
 
 Mrs. Dorsey glowed more than ever. "I was 
 always told as ow superior people lived in Amp- 
 shire!" she rejoined. 
 
 " I remember it as a very lovely country, indeed," 
 
 83
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 Haldean went on, unbending visibly. "In fact, 
 I cannot conceive of a lovelier. Of course one is 
 naturally partial to the scenes of one s youth. Only 
 to-day I was recalling to mind the deep roads, worn 
 into the chalk by the wagons and the rains you 
 will hardly imagine how pleasant they are of a 
 summer day. I have never seen anything like 
 them elsewhere." 
 
 "Dear, dear!" protested Mrs. Dorsey. "I 
 thought Derbyshire was fine, but Ampshire must 
 be finer." 
 
 "The battle-field of Hastings is only a few miles 
 from my birthplace, though in Sussex. And our 
 nearest river was the Avon. 
 
 "The Avon to the Severn flows, 
 
 The Severn to the sea, 
 But Wiclif s bones are scattered wide 
 And far as their waters be!" 
 
 quoted the master unctuously. 
 
 "What a thing it is to be learned!" chirped Mrs. 
 Dorsey, and her shaft of flattery by no means fell 
 short. 
 
 Essie did not fail to respond to these grateful and 
 neighborly advances. She felt herself not unlike 
 a pilgrim in a desert who, having no reason to ex 
 pect anything but brackish water and little of that, 
 discovers a living spring. Circumstances, in other
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 words, served to enhance Mrs. Dorsey s quality in 
 the exile s eyes, so that she was strongly attracted, 
 and genuinely desirous of keeping up the connec 
 tion. She made haste to return the call, and en 
 joyed herself no less than at their first meeting. 
 Mrs. Dorsey presented her numerous children, 
 with profuse apologies for their appearance, which 
 was not in the least discreditable, and for their 
 behavior, which she denounced as savage, whereas 
 it was anything but that. They appeared, indeed, 
 an uncommonly well-bred family, and Essie took 
 a decided fancy to them; especially Mildred, the 
 eight year old, with her saucy face and tangled 
 curls. She vowed she would give the world to 
 have a little girl of her own like Mildred. The 
 sentiment was no pretence. 
 
 "Anyway, you ll come and see me often, won t 
 you ?" coaxed Essie, having the child familiarly on 
 her lap. 
 
 Yes, Mildred would. She made the engagement 
 gravely, and she was as good as her word. She 
 presented herself the very next day, in fact. 
 
 "Please, Mrs. Haldean, me mither do send her 
 compliments, and have you a bit of flour you can 
 spare her for a few days, till she will have a sack 
 home from the village ?" she piped, and courtesied; 
 and Essie thought it wonderfully pretty, and gave 
 her the flour gladly, with a sweet cake for herself.
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 But the time came when that form of words 
 it proved to be a form acquired, by reason of 
 much repetition, an irksome sound. The grace of 
 good manners and the charm of intelligent conver 
 sation will go far, but even they will not atone for 
 everything. No more will the lisp of a sprightly 
 child, though it should be in the first instance 
 irresistible. The truth of the matter was that 
 these Dorseys were forever borrowing and never 
 returning; hardly the day passed that they did not 
 make requisition for some article of common use 
 a trifle in itself yet by multiplication becoming no 
 trifle while the day of repayment came not. 
 
 Essie found herself at length in a vexing predica 
 ment. She had a growing sense of being imposed 
 on, and the uneasy consciousness that it was a 
 guilty thing to permit so formidable a leak in the 
 household expenses when she was under every ob 
 ligation to be rigidly economical; yet it was not in 
 her to refuse those people. Partly a misgiving 
 made her hesitate a misgiving lest they should 
 be in real need and therefore not rightly to be 
 denied their dole, however ill she could afford it; 
 but more and more it was something else some 
 thing like fear, almost, though she knew not what 
 she was afraid of; anyway something such that 
 no matter what resolution she might take, she 
 nevertheless found herself yielding as often as 
 
 86
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 Mildred almost invariably it was Mildred with 
 her saucy eyes and lisping tongue came asking. 
 She could bid herself be harsh and peremptory, 
 but on trial it proved easier to endure, and so her 
 predicament waxed vexing. 
 
 Her deliverance was at hand, however. She had 
 not yet begun to think of Bill as her faithful re 
 tainer, but none the less he was ready booted and 
 spurred, as it were. 
 
 She scarcely knew what to think of him, for that 
 matter an unparalleled simpleton, strangely en 
 dowed with rare capabilities, forever confounding 
 the accepted notion of what witlessness should be 
 like. But at least she held him innocent, and by 
 that harmless so much an instinct told her; a 
 person, in other words, whom she dared be entirely 
 frank and confidential with, though he wore the 
 figure of that masculinity which womankind are 
 bidden by yet another instinct to be on their guard 
 against. In point of fact, she shortly learned to 
 fear him no more than she would fear a little boy 
 in his first trousers a little boy in trousers he over 
 and over reminded her of. Further she perceived, 
 though perhaps without identifying it precisely, 
 that there lay between them a sort of sympathy, 
 and thereby felt less and less of constraint with him. 
 Almost from the moment when, with genial as 
 sumption, he bade her sit down while he weeded 
 
 8?
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 out the roses, they were friends, and soon she felt 
 free to talk with him as she talked with none 
 other; and though by so doing she expected to de 
 rive no benefit beyond the relief of speaking out, 
 that relief was of itself worth while. Thus it 
 came to pass that she poured the first confession 
 of her predicament into Bill s ears. 
 
 "Are the Dorseys poor?" she asked him one 
 day. 
 
 Bill put on a mysterious air. "Not t anybody 
 knows of," he replied. He was silent a moment, 
 in deep thought, then added, cryptically: "Sixteen 
 hunderd dollars all in a bunch! Tain t everybody 
 knows how to keep money when he gits it. Easy 
 come, easy go. Just like findin of it, as ye might 
 say. Still, money s money, as the feller said." 
 
 Essie did not seek to trace what thought may 
 have underlaid his tangle of words sufficient unto 
 her was the evil she already knew of. "Well, if 
 they re not poor, I do wish they would stop coming 
 over here to borrow it s a real nuisance!" she 
 exclaimed. 
 
 Bill pricked up his ears at once. "Borry, eh ?" 
 
 "Borrow! Why, there appears to be no end to 
 it. I never heard of such people!" 
 
 The tale was grown long but, being started, 
 she told it she even enumerated the articles and 
 quantities owing; there was the satisfaction of un-
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 burdening her mind, at least. Bill listened atten 
 tively he always listened so to her, no matter 
 what she had to say. To Haldean s discourses, 
 however important, he was virtually deaf, but to 
 Essie s lightest word he gave instant heed. 
 
 " I wonder if her having been trained to service 
 in the old country may not have got Mrs. Dorsey 
 into the way of being well, so dependent ?" spec 
 ulated Essie, the telling finished. 
 
 "Might do!" assented Bill, stroking his beard 
 reflectively. 
 
 "Somehow I have an idea that English servants 
 haven t much pride about some things." 
 
 "English, eh?" 
 
 "Of course it would be the same with any race 
 of people in the same circumstances." 
 
 " Y gorry!" 
 
 Essie heaved a sigh and Bill looked profoundly 
 sorry, and that was all, for the present. 
 
 The next talk they had about the Dorseys was 
 in a different key the key of raillery, if you 
 please. 
 
 "Mrs. Dorsey s a real good-looking woman, 
 isn t she?" remarked Essie with a twinkle in her 
 eyes. 
 
 "Well, I reckon you kin meet her in a dark night 
 an not want to holler for help, anyhow," rejoined 
 Bill soberly.
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "Of course I don t blame you. The men are all 
 alike they can t keep away from a pretty face any 
 more than moths can keep away from a flame!" 
 
 Bill s beard came in for another stroking, in the 
 pensive fashion of a Hebrew philosopher. "Might 
 do!" he agreed with unruffled gravity. The apti 
 tude for making believe is rudimentary children 
 and fools and even the beasts have it. 
 
 "But isn t Mr. Dorsey rather jealous because of 
 your calling so often ? Every evening, you know! 
 Dear me, it certainly would seem to be serious." 
 
 "You don t aim to tell me!" Bill fell graver and 
 more pensive than ever, if such a thing were pos 
 sible. "Dorsey, eh? I reckon he prob ly knows 
 you kayn t git no blood outen a turnip. Sixteen 
 hunderd don t grow on ev ry bush, I say." 
 
 This time the mention of the sixteen hundred 
 didn t pass unheeded. "What a vast sum of 
 money!" commented Essie, still in the playful 
 mood. "What about it, anyway." 
 
 "Near s I kin make out, sixteen hunderd s 
 about sixteen hunderd," Bill made answer, sol 
 emnly. 
 
 Joking aside, however, he was paying Mrs. Dor 
 sey assiduous court and with a serious purpose, the 
 long and short of it being that he had set himself to 
 haunt the woman, in the style of the professional 
 collector of bad debts to dun her, in other words. 
 
 90
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 Every evening, rain or shine, with all the precision 
 and regularity of clock-work, for in that connection 
 precision and regularity are powerful aids, he went 
 over and asked her, quietly and without circum 
 locution, when she meant to pay back some certain 
 article which she had borrowed. That which en 
 sued was in effect a trial in patience. Nothing 
 could exceed the sweetness with which Mrs. Dor- 
 sey met these overtures, while as for what they 
 might impute, she took no more discredit to her 
 self than a duck might take of the water splashed 
 on its oily back. So for a season the duel promised 
 nothing better than a draw; but presently there were 
 indications that Bill s resources were the greater 
 though she still put him off with honeyed answers. 
 Mrs. Dorsey now and again betrayed a patience 
 wearing thin. After that the end was not much 
 delayed. The contest ended in a colloquy which, 
 though short, was sufficiently pointed to leave the 
 issue no longer doubtful. 
 
 Yet it began quite serenely and without par 
 ticular intimation of what was about to develop. 
 
 " D evenin , Mis Dorsey!" said Bill, and the 
 proverbial basket of chips could not be politer. 
 
 "And a good evening to you, Mr. Harbaugh!" 
 said the woman, not to be outdone in the externals 
 of courtesy. 
 
 "Fine evenin !" 
 
 9 1
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "Oh, is it not glorious!" 
 
 "Pretty weather we re havin right along!" 
 
 "Beautiful!" 
 
 "I see they s a bank o* clouds in the north, 
 though. Goin to fetch rain afore mornin , 
 s pose ?" 
 
 "Now what do you say, Mr. Harbaugh ? Every 
 body calls you weatherwise!" 
 
 She knew her weapons nobody could employ 
 flattery to more purpose, and nobody was ordinarily 
 so open to that manner of attack as Bill. But now 
 he had other fish to fry, of a character to make him 
 forget his customary bent; instead of grasping the 
 opportunity to plume himself, he plunged abruptly 
 off on a different tack. 
 
 "Thought I d nachly drap over an* see about 
 when ye aim to pay back that there coal-ile ye bor- 
 ried a spell ago ?" said he in the usual form, for a 
 tolerably settled form was a part of his procedure. 
 
 "Oh, in a day or two just as soon as we get 
 our can filled at the village," said Mrs. Dorsey. 
 That was in the usual form too. 
 
 But hereupon a trifle of departure was taken. 
 Instead of concentrating, as it were, on a single 
 article, Bill proceeded to rehearse a long list of de 
 linquencies to pile Pelion on Ossa, in a manner 
 of speaking; not only oil and flour, but sugar and 
 starch and salt and spice, and even potatoes 
 
 92
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 nothing had been too cheap and common to come 
 within the scope of Mrs. Dorsey s sinister enterprise. 
 Possibly it w.as being dunned about a few beggarly 
 potatoes that exhausted the last attenuated shred 
 of her patience; anyway, the curb was instantly off 
 and the mischief to pay. 
 
 "You re nothing but a natural-born idiot!" she 
 snapped in a high, harsh voice and with all the 
 aspect of a fury. 
 
 But her sudden change of front did not disturb 
 Bill in the least it was precisely what he had been 
 playing for. "Oh, come, now!" quoth he, affect 
 ing a soothing tone. "What if ev rybody was to be 
 called by their right name, slap out like that?" 
 
 The woman was boiling and reckless. "Mrs. 
 Haldean sent you she hasn t the face to come 
 herself." 
 
 "Never you mind bout Mis Haldean. Just 
 talk to me kinder straight an* square like. When 
 ye goin to pay them things back?" 
 
 "None of your business! I didn t borrow them 
 of you ! Tell your two-faced mistress to come over 
 herself, and I ll talk to her. I ll tell her something 
 she won t care to hear!" 
 
 " F m mebbe ye wouldn t mind tellin me when 
 ye aim to come over an borry some more ?" 
 
 By that Bill touched the substance of his victory. 
 There .was no possibility of the goods already bor- 
 
 93
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 rowed ever being repaid the best a knight might 
 achieve in the premises was to save his mistress 
 from being further imposed on; and that he had 
 done. Mrs. Dorsey was fit to burst, she was so 
 enraged, and she sent him away with the amplest 
 assurance that she would borrow no more. 
 
 And when, thereupon, Bill s Intimacy with the 
 Dorseys ceased, Essie could rally him about that. 
 That s the way with you men you re very de 
 voted for a little, but how quickly you cool ! Poor 
 Mrs. Dorsey!" 
 
 Bill looked pained, as if the shortcomings of his 
 sex were a tender point with him, whereat Essie 
 laughed gayly. 
 
 "And by the way," she said, "Mildred hasn t 
 been over to borrow anything for more than a 
 week!" 
 
 C Y gorry!" said Bill, and his air of astonish 
 ment was perfect. 
 
 94
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 A WOMAN moved to spite is by competent 
 testimony a vengeful creature and fertile in 
 devices of revenge, and that circumstance may 
 have had its part in determining the course of 
 events; but, whether or no, the fate of the Haldeans 
 was to be still further entangled with that of the 
 Dorseys, and in a fashion far from trivial. Indeed, 
 the situation which came to pass had in it the mak 
 ings of tragedy. 
 
 Essie was altogether unaware of the storm till it 
 burst upon her. Her habit had been, these quiet 
 warm evenings, to take some of her work out on 
 the porch, which faced the sunset, and watch from 
 there the changing light in the west. It was 
 one of her consolations, whereby she sought to 
 temper the loneliness of her exile something to 
 look forward to and to remember, and by that to 
 be a help in banishing profitless regrets and yearn 
 ings which could only sour her. Unaccustomed 
 shadows hung pretty thickly about her way, and any 
 means of fighting them off was mightily welcome. 
 
 To-night she was enjoying a show quite prodig 
 ious, shelling peas the while. The afternoon had 
 
 95
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 been dull and overcast, so that she debated with 
 herself whether it would be worth her while to go 
 out on the porch at all, deeming it certain that the 
 clouds were not intending to break away. Nor did 
 they, in the ordinary sense of the term; but they 
 lifted somewhat, forming a curiously straight edge 
 below, with the result that at the moment the sun 
 touched the horizon, it was cut squarely in two, 
 across from side to side, its upper half being entirely 
 out of sight under the cloud, while its lower half 
 revealed itself through a thin haze, glaring bale- 
 fully red. The effect was that of a gigantic gas 
 light where the burner is so constructed as to give 
 the flame the shape of a fan. It was a striking 
 and, in some sense, an uncanny spectacle, and of 
 course it could last but a moment. 
 
 Essie felt the natural impulse to share her inter 
 est with somebody. Down at the foot of the slope 
 her husband was hurrying along, in his character 
 istic nervous manner, and near by stood Bill, with 
 his hands in his pockets, surveying a patch of sweet 
 corn which some unheard-of species of caterpillar 
 had been ravaging. Essie had it on her lips to call 
 out to them, when the bolt fell, and she thought no 
 more of sunsets and celestial prodigies. 
 
 It began with Haldean stepping up behind Bill 
 and striking him. The blow was of small effect 
 it landed glancingly on Bill s brawny neck; but 
 
 96
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 it was palpably a blow struck in anger. Essie saw 
 it, and the lips which she had opened to testify 
 to her admiration and wonder, uttered instead a 
 scream of terror and dismay. 
 
 She did not stop with screaming, however, but 
 sprang to her feet, so hastily as to upset her pan and 
 scatter the peas in every direction, and ran down 
 the hill as fast as she could. Bill had faced about, 
 though without taking his hands out of his pockets, 
 and Haldean had his arm uplifted to strike again, 
 when she pushed in between them and arrested the 
 blow. 
 
 " Tudor! how can you! * she cried breathlessly. 
 
 Haldean was white with passion and gave her 
 a terrible look. :< That s right save your spy!" 
 he hissed. 
 
 Essie was well nigh dumfounded. "I don t 
 know what you mean I don t know why you be 
 have so!" she faltered, trembling visibly. 
 
 Of course Bill might better have kept still, but 
 equally of course that wasn t his way, particularly 
 where he beheld his mistress so plainly in distress. 
 That s all right, Essie he kayn t hurt me no 
 how!" he put in, making light of the blow. 
 
 Naturally, the effect was not pacifying Hal- 
 dean fairly swelled with fury. "Essie, forsooth!" 
 he mocked, and laughed harshly. "Madame, 
 you ve no right to be jealous, if I m not!" 
 
 97
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "Tudor! Pray be reasonable. Who is jealous, 
 or has any reason to be jealous ?" 
 
 " You or you wouldn t have set this cur to spy 
 on me!" 
 
 Essie clutched her hands tightly together. " Oh, 
 what new trial is this as if there were not enough 
 before! Tudor, are you mad?" 
 
 At any rate he was foaming. " I ought to shoot 
 him, only that would be treating him too honor 
 ably too much like a gentleman when he is no 
 better than a dog. What he should have is a sound 
 thrashing he should be thrashed within an inch 
 of his life; but I see you are determined to save 
 him from that. Of course that is a part of your 
 bargain with him." 
 
 He had raised his voice to a boisterous pitch, 
 and she besought him to speak lower. "Do you 
 want everybody to hear you going on so ?" 
 
 "It doesn t matter who hears me. I, at least, 
 have nothing to conceal. But I won t be spied on 
 mind you that!" 
 
 " Surely I ve no wish to spy on you. Why should 
 I?" 
 
 "God only knows! A jealous woman never has 
 a reason." 
 
 Essie bit her lip her own temper was beginning 
 to stir. "I can be patient, Tudor, as you ought 
 to know, but I cannot stand everything. I warn
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 you to be careful lest it be the worse for both of 
 us!" 
 
 Once more it was not in Bill s nature to avoid 
 doing the maladroit thing. "That s right, Essie 
 stand up to him! That s what ll bring him to 
 time, I reckon," he bawled. 
 
 For the first time the loyal knight was given, 
 hereupon, to feel his mistress s displeasure he had 
 taken a liberty beyond indulgence. "Be still, Bill!" 
 she commanded sharply. " You should have more 
 respect." 
 
 "Please don t, Bill!" sneered Haldean scorn 
 fully. "Dear Bill! Good, sweet Bill! Please 
 don t!" 
 
 His irony was as insulting as possible, and the 
 woman flushed under it. Tudor, I insist on 
 knowing what this means. I am wholly in the 
 dark; I- 
 
 Haldean broke in upon her with a loud, forced 
 guffaw. Tell that to the marines!" he taunted 
 coarsely. 
 
 It was too much. Essie s eyes flashed and she 
 drew herself up indignantly. " I shall not endure 
 to have my word doubted, even by my husband! 
 I repeat, I am wholly in the dark as to what you 
 mean by your conduct!" she said intensely. 
 
 There was a warning note in her manner so dis 
 tinct that Haldean fell sullenly silent in so far he 
 
 99
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 was cooled. When she demanded once more that 
 he explain himself, he vouchsafed no answer of any 
 sort not even to sneer. 
 
 She turned to Bill. "What is it?" she asked. 
 "Do you know what has happened ?" 
 
 Bill never looked more the simpleton; he gave 
 her back a grin which was to the last degree vacu 
 ous and foolish. "How should I know, as the fel 
 ler said ?" he rejoined. 
 
 "Why did my husband strike you a moment 
 ago?" 
 
 "F m you tell! I was wonderin* bout that 
 myself. What you s pose he up an hit me that 
 way for poor old man like me! He ll be old his- 
 self sometime, an then he ll see how tis." In his 
 kindlier way the simpleton was mocking her too 
 putting her off with clumsy evasions. 
 
 "Don t deceive me, Bill. What did he strike 
 you for ?" 
 
 "Y gorry, I guess hit muster been f r instance! 
 That s what twas f r instance! Y gorry, yes!" 
 
 As if on purpose to make his silly speech still 
 sillier, he topped it off, so to say, with his empty 
 cackling laugh. It was enough to annoy any 
 one even a casual by-stander. Haldean it sent 
 into a fit of fury beyond anything yet. He was 
 made so furious, indeed, that he forgot his discre 
 tion entirely. 
 
 100
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "You contemptible puppy!" he stormed. "You 
 followed me over to to that is " 
 
 The master s discretion came back to him, but 
 not quite soon enough. He tried to cover his 
 confusion with a cough, but it was too palpable. 
 Very evidently he found himself, thanks to the 
 blindness of his anger, on the brink of an awkward 
 confession even the simpleton could see, and be 
 prompted to rude raillery. 
 
 "Spit it out, cap spit it out!" chuckled Bill. 
 
 "When I went to call on my neighbors!" Hal- 
 dean finished his sentence with a poor assumption 
 of injured innocence. 
 
 "Did you follow him, Bill?" Essie inquired 
 severely. 
 
 "Cap says so. Ever know cap to tell what 
 wa n t so ?" 
 
 "Bill!" 
 
 "Mum!" 
 
 "This is no joking matter! Tell me what 
 possessed you to follow Mr. Haldean ? Don t you 
 know it is wrong to do that ?" 
 
 Bill plucked a long spear of timothy and picked 
 his teeth with it meditatively. "You kayn t most 
 always sometimes tell," he observed, and once 
 more topped off with the silly cackle. 
 
 Haldean s exasperation, freshly moved, plunged 
 him into another indiscretion. "It s none of your 
 
 101
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 business where I go!" he flared out at his wife. 
 "I m not tied to your apron-strings, I hope. I 
 won t have my conduct examined into by you!" 
 "Am I examining into your conduct ?" 
 "What else? You pursue this blithering idiot 
 with your impertinent questions. You make him 
 a witness against me. You ask him why he fol 
 lowed me, and press him for an answer. I m not 
 responsible for his idiotic suspicions." 
 
 A sudden light dawned in the woman s face, and 
 almost instantly gave way to a peculiar shadow of 
 disgust. She stood a moment undecided. But if 
 
 O 
 
 it was in her mind to end the incident thereupon, 
 she reckoned without Bill. 
 
 "I ll tell ye, Essie ! " he broke out, hurling the spear 
 of timothy to the ground with exaggerated energy. 
 "It s on count of cap here not bein Tracy!" 
 
 And who, in all conscience, was Tracy ? She 
 didn t speak, but her aspect asked the question. 
 
 "Tracy he s richer n all out-doors. Some say 
 he s richer n any man in these parts. Course he 
 could pay Dorsey that there sixteen hunderd an 
 not miss it to hurt. How long you s pose twould 
 take Tracy to git him another sixteen hunderd ? 
 All he s got to do is to go out an steal what he 
 wants from the Injuns, an he s just as well off as 
 ever he was. Tracy he could spare sixteen hun 
 derd, but cap here he can t. That s what I look 
 
 102
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 at. How d it be if cap was to have to put up six 
 teen hunderd to keep Dorsey from spaltin out an 
 makin trouble ? I tell ye, cap, if I was you I 
 wouldn t have nothin to do with that there woman, 
 y gorry! She s plum too smart for the likes of 
 you. Tracy thought he was foxy, an I don t 
 doubt mebbe he was. He was used to beatin 
 most ev rybody he had dealin s with, but when it 
 come to the woman, he got beat, an it cost him 
 sixteen hunderd to git out of the mess. Dorsey I 
 don t doubt s got it bout spent by now, an so Mis 
 Dorsey she ll nachly be lookin round for some 
 body else she kin wind on her finger." 
 
 The shadow of disgust deepened in Essie s face 
 as she listened, and before Bill could finish his dis 
 course, which was unprecedentedly long, she turned 
 on her heel and walked swiftly away. Haldean, 
 left thus to take such measures as suited his pleas 
 ure, was wellnigh impotent with passion. It was 
 not till after a considerable interval, during which 
 he swelled and puffed and clenched his fists in the 
 excess of his wrath, that he commanded himself 
 sufficiently to do something definite. 
 
 "Leave my premises this instant, and never dare 
 to set foot on them again!" he roared, and bristled 
 terrifically. 
 
 Bill gazed imperturbably out over the patch of 
 corn. That bristling front was wholly lost on him. 
 
 103
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "Cap," quoth he, "what be I a-goin to do with 
 them there caterpillars that s eatin* of that there 
 sweet corn, hey ? I never did see nothin go into 
 a piece of sweet corn the way them there critters 
 is a-goin in. Right down inside of the husks so. 
 Ever you see caterpillars dig right down inside the 
 husks that way?" 
 
 Haldean, seething, strode a step or two nearer 
 beyond a doubt his intentions were of the most seri 
 ous character; but that figure of unruffled calm 
 bulked gigantic in the deepening twilight, its very 
 serenity rendered it doubly formidable, and though 
 violence was in the master s heart, his hand did 
 none. 
 
 Half an hour later the Haldeans, man and wife, 
 were variously occupied about the evening lamp, 
 not without discernible constraint upon them, but 
 on the whole much as usual, when Bill came in, 
 yawning prodigiously, as his fashion was at the 
 close of day, to go to bed. 
 
 "Night, Essie!" he called out cheerfully. 
 
 "Good night, Bill!" she answered, glancing up 
 with a bright smile. 
 
 "Night, cap!" 
 
 No response. But that was nothing especially 
 out of the ordinary. Haldean often made it a 
 point to snub Bill s familiar advances, by way of 
 teaching him his place. 
 
 104
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 The affair, however, held still further oppor 
 tunities for knightly offices to take advantage of. 
 Shortly, within a day or two, Bill presented himself 
 at the threshold of the Dorsey home. Of course 
 not even a simpleton could be so dense as to fancy 
 that he would be welcome clearly it was the 
 fulfilment of no merely social obligation which 
 brought him there. He wasn t bidden to enter, 
 but the door stood open, and he went in without 
 ceremony. 
 
 "Evenin , Mis Dorsey!" he greeted, seating 
 himself comfortably. 
 
 The woman bent a withering gaze upon him. 
 "I wonder have fools always such nerve!" she 
 exclaimed with tremendous irony. 
 
 The thrust fell short, or, if it made a wound, Bill 
 bore up with the fortitude of a stoic. "How s all 
 your folks ?" he asked benignly. 
 
 The woman was in her kitchen, surrounded by 
 pots and pans, and she addressed herself to these 
 without a word of reply. 
 
 " I hear old man Tracy s laid up with neuraligy. 
 Tracy, ye know he lives up Two Forks way, but 
 most ev rybody round here knows him. Used to 
 see him down this way often, a spell back. Hain t 
 see him so much lately; I don t doubt it s count of 
 his bein troubled with neuraligy so. Gittin long 
 in years, Tracy is, but he s peart right peart, 
 
 105
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 some ways. Right peart old man, Tracy is, I say. 
 An rich! They claim he kin go right down in his 
 jeans an* fork over sixteen hunderd dollars an 
 never feel it. Y gorry, I wonder if that s so, 
 hey?" 
 
 Mrs. Dorsey faced about flamingly. "If you ve 
 anything to say to me, say it, and go your miserable 
 way! The sight of you is not pleasant, I assure 
 you." 
 
 "Mebbe you re right. Hadn t thought bout it, 
 but now you mention it, I reckon I hain t so all- 
 killin pooty to look at as some. Reckon I hain t 
 much likely to be hung for my beauty, as the feller 
 said." 
 
 "Hung! You would never get so much as a jail 
 sentence!" retorted Mrs. Dorsey. 
 
 Bill laughed and threw one leg carelessly over the 
 other, all with the air of being well entertained. 
 "Course I s pose you know there hain t no gittin 
 blood outen a turnip?" 
 
 "I dare say you ll be speaking of that head of 
 yours!" 
 
 "Well, not speshly. There s that, an there s 
 more. I was thinkin most likely you didn t know, 
 an so I d nachly drop over, neighborly like, an 
 tell ye bout Cap Haldean. Cap he s poorer n 
 Poo Dick! Hain t no sixteen hunderd in his 
 jeans." 
 
 1 06
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 Mrs. Dorsey s fine eyes shot fire. "You insult 
 ing fellow! I shall tell my husband, and he ll 
 knock your teeth down your throat, that s what 
 he ll do!" 
 
 "Dorsey ? Oh, not Dorsey, now! Dorsey he ll 
 thank me. I don t s pose Dorsey ll be much 
 pleased to have ye pesterin with somebody that s 
 poorer n Poo Dick, hey?" 
 
 That woman sent you to insult me!" 
 
 "What woman?" 
 
 "Mrs. Haldean, the proud, deceitful hussy!" 
 
 "Well, I don t know s I see that it makes much 
 matter who sent me, or whether I come on my 
 own hook, unbeknownst. That hain t the p int. 
 P int is there hain t nobody ever got no blood 
 outen ary turnip, yit, an I don t s pose there 
 hain t never nobody a-goin to. Think it over!" 
 
 After that the two families were reputed ene 
 mies. The Dorsey children committed small de 
 predations, and once, when Bill cuffed a brother 
 of Mildred s whom he caught in mischief, Mrs. 
 Dorsey flew out like a broody hen, and Dorsey 
 blustered, and there promised to be an out-and- 
 out feud, if only the Haldeans should consent to 
 hold up their end and give back a tooth for a tooth. 
 But they did not, and before another year the Dor- 
 seys, who were only renters anyway, saw fit to 
 remove themselves from the Valley. 
 
 107
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 BUT be the sunsets however glorious, it was a 
 dull life for a woman like Essie. 
 After the fashion of the wise man in the prov 
 erb who foresaw the evil and provided himself, 
 she reached out eagerly for every new interest that 
 offered. There lay a world of wonder and diver 
 sion in the fields and forests all about her, and it 
 was her first fond notion that she could never ex 
 haust resources so lavish she need never be dull 
 or lonesome. But the key to that world somehow 
 eluded her. Her acquaintance with natural his 
 tory had been gained in a distant region where 
 plants and animals were of other varieties, and the 
 scant remnants of her knowledge served but poorly 
 to put her in touch with these present forms; but 
 that was not the most serious obstacle she had to 
 encounter. In point of fact, as to her very con 
 siderable chagrin she soon discovered, her mind 
 was not of the scientific cast at all, to the end that, 
 try as she might, she could not lose herself in the 
 study of nature. She loved nature, intensely, but 
 in the manner of a child, or a poet, deriving broad 
 impressions which, while they lasted, were delicious 
 
 1 08
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 and absorbing; but as for that minute pursuit of 
 analytical details whereby she should forget her 
 desolation, that proved to be beyond her. 
 
 Essie was a cultivated woman, but she saw her 
 culture in a new light under the demand now put 
 upon it, and she blamed it heartily. It had made 
 her fastidious, so that she could not possibly fill 
 her life as the people of the Valley filled theirs, yet 
 it offered, in these circumstances, no substantial 
 consolation instead. How should it, for that 
 matter ? How were the schools to which wealthy 
 families were accustomed to send their daughters 
 to take it upon themselves to prepare those dainty 
 creatures for such a vicissitude of fortune; to fit 
 them, in other words, to lodge in a wilderness, 
 among neighbors who were hardly more in kind 
 than painted savages might be to be married, if 
 you speak of that, to a man destined to the sorri 
 est mishaps, and in whom mishap could breed no 
 nobler sentiment than pity for himself? After all, 
 the schools had done what they were paid for do 
 ing, and anyway it were useless, though not un 
 just, to blame them. 
 
 These Haldeans were poor, after that first out 
 burst of prodigality poorer even than the onlook- 
 ing world supposed; but poverty of itself, though 
 a thing hitherto unknown, was not the cross which 
 bore upon the woman so heavily. Under almost 
 
 109
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 any other conditions, she assured herself, she might 
 have been poor, yet very tolerably happy, and that 
 such conditions had not been vouchsafed her was 
 the part she took hard. Eagerly and in good faith, 
 as the sense of her need grew upon her, she reached 
 out for the wherewithal to fill her life and make it 
 somehow better than a living death, and when it 
 failed her, the courage which a high spirit had 
 given her to begin with, was damped like fire un 
 der a dash of water. She was shortly aware of a 
 current which drew her nearer and nearer to the 
 slough of despond. The sunsets, her roses, birds 
 nesting where she could watch them and form per 
 sonal acquaintances with them though she could 
 delight in these, they were not enough. Her soul 
 yearned for more for something more sponta 
 neously delightful, something which carried with 
 it less of the drawback of conscious effect; and 
 her yearning, since she was brought to consider 
 whether it was not doomed to be forever denied, 
 terrified her. 
 
 An empty life who should endure it ? If hers 
 was incurably so, how should she face the future ? 
 Were she not better dead ? Should she not go mad 
 at length ? 
 
 But these gloomy reflections marked the pitch 
 of darkness which is the harbinger of dawn. There 
 was a dawn at hand for Essie, and of a character 
 
 no
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 not contemptible, in view of the dread shadows it 
 served to dispel in a brighter day she would have 
 accounted it nothing of the sort, but not now. She 
 was getting to know herself, by virtue of her trials 
 subjecting herself to a search such as no trait 
 could well escape; and so it was that she found out 
 what a taste she had for literature, a taste hitherto 
 blunted by surfeit and therefore not suspected, 
 but hereupon developed into a sharp-set hunger. 
 It was no straining of the figure to call it the dawn 
 ing of day when first she felt within her a passion 
 such as promised interest without end the pas 
 sion for reading. 
 
 There was still, though, the difficulty of provid 
 ing the feast. Whereas a scientific taste might find 
 its gratification very cheaply without expense, 
 in fact a taste for literature demanded the out 
 lay of money, and there was no money to be had. 
 They had brought not so much as a single book 
 with them into the wilderness she recalled with a 
 pang how that of all the appurtenances of their 
 former magnificence she had seen the stately library 
 depart with least regret. There were Elzivirs and 
 Caxtons in that library, but likewise there were 
 volumes in poor binding yet of precious content, 
 and it was of these she thought with longing, per 
 suaded that if she only might have a dozen such, 
 or even fewer, she would ask no more of fortune. 
 
 in
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 They might have been held out without in the least 
 affecting the value of the collection at auction 
 why had she not chosen to save so much from the 
 wreck ? It was the sorry lack of foresight, the 
 sorrier failure to know herself. 
 
 Haldean had still his newspaper it was about 
 all he ever read, even in the days of his prosperity, 
 and he would have it, whatever the cost, if only in 
 consideration of the dignity proper to the master 
 of Throstlewood, who owed it to his position to keep 
 posted as to affairs. That was the only reading 
 in the house, and for Essie s regalement it furnished 
 forth nothing but husks politics and markets and 
 sports and crimes, all crude and common, ex 
 hibiting nowhere the play of the superior mind 
 whence literature derives its character. There was 
 the inevitable women s page, to be sure, but it was 
 less profitable than the others mere twaddle, 
 in fact; better politics and crimes than the wo 
 men s page. 
 
 It was through the paper, however, that her help 
 came; reading it as a dreadfully hungry man 
 might eat husks, because even the poorest food 
 was better than none, she happened upon the ad 
 vertisement of another paper. 
 
 That other paper was called the Home Journal, 
 and the title was not especially suggestive of possi 
 bilities it might be all about cookery, or fancy 
 
 112
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 sewing, or society, for aught the title indicated to 
 the contrary. But it had been founded and in his 
 lifetime conducted by N. P. Willis. Now Essie 
 had heard of N. P. Willis he was a conspicuous 
 figure in literature, a poet whose poetry she could 
 remember having read, and a critic whom her 
 teachers had spoken of with high respect. How 
 was it not likely that a paper founded and con 
 ducted by him should contain the things she should 
 enjoy reading ? The advertisement went on to say 
 that the Home Journal prided itself particularly 
 on its reviews of books it laid claim to review 
 ing important books in an important manner, and 
 certainly that augured encouragingly. Finally, it 
 would be sent, to any new subscriber, during two 
 months, for twenty-five cents. The price of a 
 year s subscription was two dollars, but by way of 
 inducing people to investigate the merits of the 
 publication it would be sent during two months for 
 twenty-five cents. 
 
 Twenty-five cents was not more than Essie could 
 still muster, and she posted it off to New York; 
 and the fever of impatience with which she sat 
 down to wait showed how hungry she was. 
 
 Looked at in any ordinary light it was a small 
 affair when the first copy came to hand, but here 
 was light which made it a truly great affair. Never, 
 perhaps, in all the history of the world, was there a
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 wrapper torn off more eagerly, or a paper scanned 
 more narrowly, to see what it was like. It stood 
 the inspection well. The very heading, in a pe 
 culiar style of letter formed by thin double outlines, 
 had a promising dignity about it, and the first 
 cursory glance over the pages, so solidly filled, so 
 devoid of froth, was enough to affect Essie most 
 agreeably. Of a truth it looked to be a feast 
 spread before her, and so it proved. 
 
 She read every word, and every word tasted good 
 to her. And soon she discovered a new need- 
 nobody likes to eat alone at a table of that kind. 
 The food wherewith she so fed her mind being 
 digested, there at once sprang up within her a mul 
 titude of ideas, all clamoring for expression. She 
 wanted somebody to talk to, and the want so grew 
 upon her that she was fain at length to take her 
 husband into these precious confidences. She had 
 no right to suppose that he would have the least 
 sympathy with her delight, but none the less she 
 had to speak out. 
 
 An instinct of prudence prompted her to some 
 what of strategy she began by directing Hal- 
 dean s attention to an article which she fancied 
 might touch him especially, since it had a po 
 litical color. But when he had run his eye 
 coldly over a few lines, he threw the paper down 
 disdainfully. 
 
 114
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 ; That s a blue-stocking sheet!" he sneered. 
 
 "I rather like it, though," she rejoined hurt, 
 but determined not to take offense. 
 
 " Nonsense! Nobody likes that sort of stuff. 
 Prigs pretend to like it, just for effect." 
 
 The experiment was a failure, just as she might 
 have foreseen it would be. She was sorry for hav 
 ing made the trial, but she would conceal her 
 chagrin in the interests of peace. "Tastes differ, 
 I suppose," she remarked, lightly, thinking by that 
 to end the unpleasant colloquy. 
 
 He was willing still further to wound her, how 
 ever, and gratuitously. "What s the use of put 
 ting on such airs out here in the backwoods ?" he 
 snarled, with a hateful laugh. 
 
 After such a rebuff, though her ideas multiplied 
 till they burst her literally, she would broach them 
 no more to her husband. And who else had she ? 
 Only Bill. A dog, perhaps, were more intelligent 
 touching these high affairs, but her exile afforded 
 her not so much as a dog only the simpleton. 
 
 Bill had his hour of leisure when, tired out with 
 the toil of the day, he sat in the kitchen after sup 
 per, and yawned noisily till he could keep awake 
 no longer, whereupon he stumbled off to bed. It 
 was then, no doubt, that his poor mind sunk to its 
 lowest level, and Essie, opening the Home Journal 
 for her evening s feast, marvelled at the impulse 
 
 "5
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 which set her on to make him the companion of her 
 intellectual walks. Possibly its very fantasticality 
 gave it added power over her at all events she 
 yielded to it. 
 
 " Bill," said she, "how would you like me to read 
 a story to you ?" 
 
 That was the last of Bill s yawning. On the 
 instant his stupor fell away from him and he was 
 all animation. : Y gorry, I d sure like that!" he 
 replied. 
 
 "Here s a story in my paper," Essie went on, 
 "about the earliest man a man who lived before 
 Adam, you know." 
 
 Undeniably and all too clearly he did not know 
 she had drawn him out beyond his depth the very 
 first thing. Here was the proof, if any were needed, 
 that there could be no valid communion in ideas 
 between her mind, so bright and alert, and his, so 
 dull and darkened. But by such a desire was she 
 possessed that she could beguile herself; she was 
 like a child playing that an illusion is not an illu 
 sion, so to gain the benefit, in some sort, of the 
 reality. As for Bill, he was acting a part, too, but 
 he acted it well and faithfully now, as ever, he 
 was the true knight, instinct with knightly feeling 
 and stopping at no sacrifice. He knew it some 
 how gratified her to believe he understood, and 
 that was enough for him to know; no art whereby 
 
 116
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 he might bolster the belief did he neglect. He 
 was the best of listeners, in form, holding himself 
 rigidly in the attitude of attention and with a truly 
 fine simulation thereof, sparing no pains if so be 
 by these he should the better carry off his amiable 
 deceit. 
 
 The story was rather heavily didactic, being 
 designed to unfold some new theory of human 
 origins, yet it was not entirely without dramatic 
 appeal. There was a cave man in it, and a cave 
 woman, and they had an immense brood of 
 cave children, while all about them dwelt cave 
 neighbors, so that there was opportunity for a con 
 siderable play of passion of one kind and another. 
 And there were fearsome beasts, too, with which 
 the cave people were constantly at war; and a thrill 
 ing incident was where the particular cave man 
 of the tale had a tremendous fight with a bear, or 
 something in the nature of a bear, and slew it with 
 no weapon but a rough stone. The point was that 
 the man knew enough to pick up the stone, so to 
 augment his native prowess, whereas the bear did 
 not it was a demonstration, in short, of the essen 
 tial superiority of the humankind over the rest of 
 creation. 
 
 The point no doubt escaped Bill, but he fairly 
 held his breath over the incident. "A bar!" he 
 cried, when the narrative was finished. 
 
 117
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "An animal like a bear, only much larger and 
 more ferocious," Essie explained. 
 
 "With nothin , only a stun!" 
 
 "A stone was all he had. The bear was a good 
 deal stronger, but the stone gave the man the ad 
 vantage." 
 
 That feller must been tol ble strong, though!" 
 
 "Oh, very you see, he ate nothing but raw 
 meat." 
 
 "Raw?" 
 
 " Raw nobody knew how to start a fire in those 
 days." 
 
 Y gorry. Still, I dunno s I d just love to eat 
 meat an nothin only meat. I m what ye might 
 call consid ble of a bread an butter boy myself." 
 
 There was delicacy here, when you knew the 
 circumstances. The Haldean board had grown 
 very lean of late scarcely ever any meat appeared 
 upon it except for the master s plate; and it was 
 for that Bill depreciated the cave man s diet. 
 
 Henceforth, as often as the evening came, he 
 would ask her to read to him, and he let himself be 
 staggered by nothing. To share her pleasure with 
 even so uncouth a communicant at the shrine of 
 letters meant so much to Essie that she was at 
 length reading pretty much the whole paper aloud, 
 and Bill on his part listened as intently to the dry 
 reviews as he had listened to the story. Once 
 
 118
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 there was an article more than a column long about 
 a new translation of Sainte-Beuve, the Frenchman, 
 and it was very dry indeed. 
 
 "I believe I should like to read that book," com 
 mented Essie, when she was come to the end of the 
 review. 
 
 "Y gorry, so d I!" rejoined Bill, with the utmost 
 cordiality. 
 
 He knew the day of the week when the Home 
 Journal was due to arrive, and kept a sharp look 
 out for it. "Well, Essie, what s into your paper 
 this time ?" he never failed to inquire. 
 
 Such the feast, and such the partakers of it. 
 And before the two months were up, a way was 
 found to go on with it. 
 
 The estate comprised an extent of rocky pasture, 
 scattered over with red-oaks, some of them quite 
 large and imposing. Haldean had a fancy that 
 these trees were like the English oaks, and about 
 the first orders he gave out directed that the pas 
 ture be parked. However, the parking process 
 went no further than the clearing out of the under 
 brush, for at that the oaks, the roots being thus de 
 prived of the protection they were used to, straight 
 way died. Haldean characteristically flew into a 
 rage over the matter, and sold the timber for a 
 song to parties who came on and cut it up into fire 
 wood, leaving the stumps in the ground to rot at 
 
 119
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 their leisure. These rotting stumps, probably by 
 the enrichment of the ground which they brought 
 about, had the singular effect of causing a great 
 multitude of raspberry brambles to spring up 
 where nothing of the sort had ever grown before, 
 and to flourish in rare luxuriance and fruitfulness. 
 Essie found the berries and picked some of them 
 for the table. They were delicious, especially the 
 red variety even Haldean had to admit that he 
 had never tasted fruit more to his liking. She 
 picked more and, bethinking herself how easy the 
 picking was and how fine the berries were, she hit 
 upon a plan. She kept the table supplied though 
 her husband devoured the new delicacy in great 
 quantities, she looked well to it that he had all he 
 wished and furthermore she was able to accu 
 mulate a matter of five quarts of the choicest fruit 
 over and above what could be used at home. 
 These she packed daintily in fresh green leaves, 
 and when his work for the day was done, her faith 
 ful knight once more made proof of his devotion by 
 taking them to market for her to Atro City, a 
 pretty evening s tramp distant. It was altogether 
 uncertain what they would fetch perhaps noth 
 ing, since no doubt raspberries were common; but 
 when Bill came back he had a bright half-dollar 
 piece to hand over to his mistress. He had brought 
 it all the way clutched tight in his fist, and he was 
 
 120
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 so inordinately proud of his achievement that he 
 never thought of being tired. 
 
 "Y gorry, they want all they kin git!" he re 
 ported, and never a courier brought welcomer 
 tidings. In a few days more the money to pay for 
 a year s subscription was in hand. 
 
 It was to practise duplicity no question about 
 that; but Essie could justify it, before her con 
 science. Possibly her situation had affected her 
 conscience likewise, to render it easier to be ap 
 peased but whether or no she saw fit not to let her 
 husband know what she was about. She had not 
 the heart to ask him to take the berries to market 
 for her, for she was thoroughly well persuaded that 
 even if his aversion to huckstering should suffer 
 him to undertake the commission at all, the pro 
 ceeds would never come back to her. He would 
 appropriate the bit of money to his own uses, nor 
 ever think wrong of it, so far did a native selfish 
 ness fortified by British tradition lead him to take 
 a wife s subjection as a matter of course. In short, 
 she conceived that she had either to practise du 
 plicity or do without the paper which had become 
 the great consolation of her life, and she chose 
 what seemed the lesser evil. 
 
 Haldean s disdainful indifference to every-day 
 affairs favored the deception, too, and was in itself 
 a temptation. He was very particular never to 
 
 121
 
 A Knight in Denirri 
 
 show any concern with what Bill did, apart from 
 the servile work about the farm. Bill might go to 
 Atro City of an evening as often as he liked, and 
 the master of Throstlewood would not deign to 
 trouble himself about it. 
 
 122
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 HALDEAN was moreover occupied, in these 
 days, with affairs peculiarly his own. He, 
 too, had formed designs for eking out a scanty rev 
 enue, and his projects were of a lofty character. 
 He proposed, in short, to mend his fortunes with 
 the earnings of his pen. 
 
 He was prompted to the enterprise in the first 
 instance by the discovery of what he conceived to 
 be uncommonly fit material nothing less than the 
 legend of an Indian maiden who for love had cast 
 herself down from a high cliff into the swift river 
 below, so to perish in the highest style of genuine 
 romance. The cliff was still called Maiden Rock, 
 and its story, vaguely surviving in tradition, filled 
 the master with the notion to write. In order to 
 perfect his color he journeyed out, at no small ex 
 pense, to the reservation of the Brule Sioux, and 
 came back in a fine frenzy. 
 
 "I ve half a mind to do it in poetry!" he de 
 clared. 
 
 But he stuck to prose, and after infinite fretting 
 the work was done. 
 
 To be sure I ve taken liberties with the legend," 
 I2 3
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 he admitted, "but that is permissible in romance. 
 I am a romantic. I shall be so classed by the 
 critics." 
 
 He sent the manuscript off to a famous periodical 
 and counted on being paid at least a thousand dol 
 lars. He even planned what he should do with the 
 money. Part of it he would use to build an arbor 
 to which he might retire when the fever of com 
 position was upon him in the midst of the arbor 
 there should be a fountain, because the tinkling of 
 a fountain assisted the imagination in its flights. 
 And after all the manuscript came promptly back, 
 declined. It was a crushing humiliation, so much 
 so that the master thought no more of literature. 
 
 Hitherto the slings and arrows of outrageous 
 fortune, though they were neither few nor slight, 
 and though by his selfish broodings he much mag 
 nified them, had not been enough to divest Hal- 
 dean of a kind of dignity, in virtue of which he 
 deemed almost every one his inferior. Until now 
 the neighbors had known him chiefly for his aloof 
 ness. He had let it appear that he disdained them 
 in pretty much everything they did. But particu 
 larly scornful was he of their humble joys their 
 play. 
 
 They were a playful lot, too, relaxing until re 
 laxation would seem almost their chief business 
 in life. Nearly always, somewhere in the Valley, 
 
 124
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 there was a frolic up. And everybody, no matter 
 who he was or whence he came, whether stranger 
 or familiar, was welcome to play with them so 
 truly welcome that invitations were as unnecessary 
 as they were unknown. None stayed away be 
 cause he was not bidden. Whosoever got wind of 
 something doing, and wind was never hard to get, 
 provided only he cared to go, went, even though, 
 as not seldom happened, he should not be on speak 
 ing terms with the host. The Haldeans would not 
 have been denied the common freedom for all 
 that they were regarded from the first as aliens 
 and were at length generally and cordially disliked, 
 they might have participated in the Valley s frolics 
 without meeting the cold shoulder or anything re 
 motely resembling it. The master was well aware 
 of the law and the usage, and he only scorned the 
 neighbors the more. They offended, by their very 
 hospitality, his nice sense of propriety. He had 
 been heard to describe their joys as not only stupid, 
 but loose and licentious. 
 
 But hereupon, under the sting of a defeat which, 
 though essentially trifling in comparison with 
 others he had suffered, was peculiarly bitter and 
 humiliating, he became a changed man. His ex 
 altation was turned to reckless abandon. He threw 
 his dignity to the winds, and upon being informed, 
 by the common medium of hearsay, of a dance to 
 
 125
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 take place at Neighbor Jentsch s, he announced to 
 his astonished wife that they should attend and 
 bear a part in the festivities. 
 
 Essie was acquainted with the law and the usage, 
 too, but straightway misgivings so rose upon her 
 that she was fain to make a difficulty. " Did you 
 are we invited ?" she asked. 
 
 "Nobody is invited every one who chooses is 
 expected to come. That s the charm of it all no 
 confounded stiltedness." 
 
 "But, Tudor, I don t suppose 
 
 "Come, come!" he interrupted, brusquely. 
 "You say yourself that if we are to live among these 
 people, we ought to try to be of them. When you 
 are in Rome, do as Romans do that is very good 
 advice." 
 
 She could not deny her own sentiments, though 
 it was long since she had ventured to urge them. 
 They were her sentiments still; it was not because 
 she wished to shun the neighbors that she hesitated. 
 What gave the situation its doubtful aspect was 
 the ominous transformation which had come over 
 her husband. A strange excitement lay upon 
 him. The restraints which, however little they 
 might be due to real moral fiber, had at least given 
 his character a degree of stability, were visibly 
 broken down, and she saw him the ready prey of 
 whim. She was really alarmed, and the more she 
 
 126
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 thought about the dance the less she relished the 
 idea of going. Yet all the while it was harder and 
 harder to do otherwise to take the contrary stand. 
 To be sure the expedition, for all it looked so un 
 promising in advance, might nevertheless be the be 
 ginning of the better order of living, the seemlier 
 dispensation which she had longed for. Certainly 
 their isolation, in so far as it was of their own choice, 
 was very wrong, and there was the chance that 
 Haldean, in his abandon, had hit upon the right 
 way of correcting it. In the end Essie could not 
 set up her misgivings against what might prove to 
 be a providential intervention. 
 
 Jentsch s was a very favorite centre of neighbor 
 hood conviviality, as it happened. The host, a 
 broad Bohemian of the jovial type, seeing very 
 small good in life beyond the gratifications of the 
 material man, spared no pains in the entertain 
 ment of his guests, and his wife, not less broad and 
 jovial, was his loyal and tireless helpmeet in what 
 soever enterprise had good cheer for its aim. The 
 Haldeans could not have chosen a place likelier to 
 exhibit the social atmosphere of the Valley, where 
 by there came to pass much that was wholesome, 
 though crude, and much likewise, perhaps more, 
 that was degrading. Almost the first object their 
 eyes fell on as they entered there was a barrel of 
 beer duly broached and already yielding its liquor 
 
 127
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 freely to all who drew near. Nobody held off. 
 Though the evening was young and the fun scarcely 
 under way as yet, the signs of intoxication were 
 plentifully apparent, and not a breath in the house, 
 probably, was failing to contribute its share toward 
 the heavy stale reek which was a striking feature 
 of the occasion. The party, in short, were pro 
 ceeding blithely and expeditiously to get drunk, and 
 therein lay the head and front of their offending. 
 So long as they remained reasonably sober, there 
 was no danger of these people doing anything very 
 bad, but being drunken, there was hardly any in 
 iquity impossible. The possibilities of mischief 
 bound up in that barrel of beer were not to be 
 easily gauged. 
 
 Dancing had been in progress from an early 
 hour, and considering how very small the house 
 was and how many were the guests, it was some 
 thing of a performance. However, it was not like 
 any other dancing you ever saw; the exigencies of 
 environment had done their work, and the original 
 figures were become a curious miscellany of chaotic 
 caperings, unregardful of grace and the strict pro 
 prieties, but very hearty and always affording the 
 utmost of action in the least of space. If there was 
 endless bumping, that was part of the fun, and the 
 intimacy served to banish every vestige of con 
 straint, that haunting presence which is so apt to 
 
 128
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 spoil things. Provided people were not too drunk, 
 the kind of dancing made necessary by the condi 
 tions at Jentsch s wasn t so bad. The music could 
 not well be wretcheder the screeching of a vile 
 fiddle vilely played; but somehow a fair quality of 
 time was kept, and the dance being once under 
 way, it would stop for no trifle. 
 
 Of course there was a sensation when the Hal- 
 deans put in their appearance. It was a veritable 
 prodigy come to pass, and the company here as 
 sembled was not given to suppressing its natural 
 sentiments in favor of its manners. The word flew 
 audibly, everybody turned to stare, and the joyful 
 din was significantly hushed. Only the fiddler 
 kept on as if nothing had happened. 
 
 For Essie the position was very difficult she 
 knew not what to do, in fact; but Haldean took 
 his part better. By a lucky guess most of these 
 people were unknown to him, so apart had he kept 
 himself hitherto be picked out the hostess, and 
 proceeded to pay his duty to her with airy ease. 
 
 "Good evening, Mrs. Jentsch," he said. "I 
 am Mr. Haldean, and this is Mrs. Haldean. May 
 we dance with you ?" 
 
 He did the thing winsomely, and to the evident 
 admiration of the onlookers. Mrs. Jentsch was 
 quite won, and glowed in friendly fashion, but 
 likewise was she fluttered by being confronted with 
 
 129
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 an emergency which seemed to demand unaccus 
 tomed formalities of her. She put out her hand in 
 a dazed way, and smiled a vacant smile, and be 
 yond that waited helplessly, without speech. It 
 remained for Jentsch to come to the rescue, roar 
 ing a big-voiced welcome, and backing it up with 
 the universal solvent of all problems as they pre 
 sented themselves to him two foaming mugs of 
 beer, which he held aloft in either hand, like the 
 serving man out of some old picture. 
 
 Everybody s eyes were on them, and Essie could 
 not help but understand that if she were to decline 
 the proffered glass, she should thereby offer an 
 affront to the spirit of the occasion. Moreover, 
 she caught a swift look from her husband which 
 conveyed no doubtful meaning he was warning 
 her that nothing could be more untimely and out 
 of place than squeamishness. She was utterly in 
 capable of swallowing the liquor the mere smell 
 of the stuff turned her sick; but she might pretend. 
 And it was so she got out of the predicament 
 rather easily after all. Haldean drained his mug 
 with a great show of spirit, vowed he had never 
 tasted anything better, and altogether so distin 
 guished himself as to divert attention from her. 
 She raised the glass to her lips and held it there 
 for a little, but without taking a drop in her mouth; 
 and presently, as the dance was resumed and con- 
 
 130
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 fusion reigned afresh, she put it away from her 
 unobserved. 
 
 To sink out of sight and remain so was Essie s 
 dearest wish, and for awhile circumstances favored 
 her. 
 
 "You will dance? I bring you somebody!" 
 Mrs. Jentsch hastened to make offer of her offices. 
 
 "Oh, no, no! Please don t!" Essie fairly 
 begged. The company had ceased to stare, Haldean 
 had left her to plunge into the thick of the frolic, 
 and she felt freer to indulge her real preference. 
 
 The hostess was not too coarsely made to have 
 sympathy with evident distress, even though she 
 might not fathom it. "You care not for to dance, 
 then?" 
 
 "No, please I would much rather watch the 
 others." 
 
 And so, for the present, was she suffered to 
 efface herself almost she fancied that Mrs. 
 Jentsch was standing guard over her to keep her 
 from being molested; and she was profoundly 
 grateful. The thought of taking any part in the 
 orgy, for orgy it appeared to her, was intolerable. 
 The stamping and shouting, the faces evilly aflame, 
 the reek and the heat, the dust that hung like a 
 vapor in the air how, as she contemplated these 
 things, was she to believe them real ? How was she 
 not in the grip of a horrid nightmare ? But worst
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 of all and hardest to endure was the consciousness 
 that the revelry grew every minute grosser. What 
 manner of wrong should it not come to at length ? 
 
 She searched, with her eyes, for her husband, 
 and so heavy the dust and dense the crowd that she 
 did not soon find him. And when she found him 
 at last he was in the very forefront of the revelry. 
 She saw him drink repeatedly, and every sign in 
 formed her that he was intoxicated. He danced, 
 and of all the gross antics none were grosser than 
 his. She could not reach him without making her 
 self conspicuous, and should she reach him she 
 had no reason to expect him to do what she wished. 
 She wished to go home, and she thought of slipping 
 away all by herself. It wasn t so very far, but she 
 didn t know the road, further than that it was 
 lonely, and went through a very black ravine, and 
 so she couldn t make up her mind. 
 
 If she had known what was to come, or had 
 the least intimation of it, she would have fled that 
 place though a ravening lion waited without. 
 
 As she sat, in such wise debating with herself, 
 quaking with horror and utterly miserable, all at 
 once a heavy hand was laid on her shoulder from 
 behind, and with a scream of dismay she faced 
 about to confront a great, hulking, hairy, lurching 
 giant of a man, who regarded her in a manner to 
 make her heart stop beating. 
 
 132
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "Dance with me!" he bellowed, over the din, 
 brokenly, and with an accent different from any 
 she had ever heard. 
 
 Essie was overwhelmed. She wanted to shake 
 off the man s loathesome touch, to wither him by a 
 glance, to bid him begone, but could no more do 
 so than she could take wings and _fly from the 
 hateful spot. " I I don t know how!" she faltered 
 chokingly, and that was all. 
 
 "Ha, ha! I show you!" 
 
 The man hadn t let go his hold on her shoulder, 
 and the next she knew he had lifted her to her feet 
 and was actually dragging her with him through 
 the wretched dance. Had she swooned in the 
 meanwhile ? Anyway she was ready to swoon 
 now, or to die outright for that matter, of fright, 
 and shame. 
 
 But straightway she conceived a fear of losing her 
 wits in the midst of that turmoil, and among all her 
 fears it grew to be, for the moment, the greatest; 
 and so she strove to collect her thoughts and take 
 counsel of prudence to make the best of the situa 
 tion, in short, since the best was bad enough. And 
 not unsuccessfully. It was on her lips to shriek, 
 but she fought down the impulse, reflecting how 
 little shrieking would avail her among that drunken 
 crew, of whom none was in a mind to take her pro 
 test seriously, even supposing she could make her- 
 
 33
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 self heard over the uproar. In spite of her frantic- 
 aversion, she persuaded herself that there was noth 
 ing to be gained by resistance; the better part were 
 to bite her teeth together and submit to go through 
 the dance with what of grace she might. That 
 done she should consider further measures. If any 
 sort of chance opened she should run away. But 
 for the present she would submit lest it be the worse 
 for her. 
 
 She played her part resolutely, once her resolu 
 tion was taken. A man, not the original Caliban 
 who had dragged her into the dance, but another 
 into whose hands she fell, went so far in the mani 
 festation of his high spirits as to whirl her quite off 
 her feet, and the shout of laughter which greeted 
 her mishap and humiliation was like molten lead 
 poured into her ears, so did it mortify her; but she 
 held to her determination, looking forward to the 
 end of the dance and her deliverance. 
 
 The end of the dance came duly, but behold, 
 the deliverance of Essie was not yet. As if Caliban 
 divined her purpose to flee the place and were 
 particularly bent on thwarting it, he still held her 
 after all the figures were executed and the music 
 had ceased. There was a general movement to 
 ward the barrel dancers were disposed to refresh 
 themselves after their strenuous exertions and the 
 hairy giant lurched along with the others, prevail- 
 
 134
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 ing over them in the crowding and jostling in virtue 
 of his huge bulk, and pulling his reluctant partner 
 along with him. "Drink with me!" he hiccoughed. 
 "Maybe you no know how drink, too? Then I 
 show you! Ha, ha!" 
 
 Nothing could be more dreadful. Essie forgot 
 all about her prudent resolution, so pierced was she 
 with the sense of her new peril, coming upon her 
 suddenly and unforeseen just when she looked for 
 her release. She cried out, and struggled madly 
 to get away was quite the panic-stricken, despair 
 ing woman, in short. Of course she drew attention 
 to herself, and moved the drunken crew to more 
 laughter at her expense they saw nothing but a 
 huge practical joke in any one being forced to drink; 
 but she was beyond caring for that. Even the 
 definite thought of escape was no longer with her, 
 else she would not have done as she did. She had 
 no instinct left but to resist, like a bird taken cap 
 tive, and without in the least considering how use 
 less resistance would be. 
 
 She was saved from the menace of the beer, how 
 ever, even though her struggles went for nothing. 
 But it was only to fall into a plight yet more dismal. 
 
 The giant minded Essie s resistance no more 
 than she had indeed been a wild bird given into 
 his great, coarse hand; in fact, it pleased him rather 
 than otherwise, as his loud merriment bore testi- 
 
 35
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 mony. The affair was manifestly the keenest 
 kind of fun for him. But all at once there inter 
 vened a third party, and though that party was a 
 woman, too, and very little and frail to look at, 
 the giant s crest fell instantly at her approach. 
 The little woman had a tigerish glitter in her black 
 eyes; her face, lit up by about every passion that 
 goes to make faces hateful and fearsome, was that 
 of a fury, and when she flew at the man in the 
 fashion of an angry hawk, screaming and ruffling, 
 he made haste to draw off, without parley. That 
 was a wild bird of another color, decidedly. 
 
 He was not the fury s prey, though. Once he 
 had beaten his retreat in ignominious humility 
 and amidst the vociferous jeers and taunts of the 
 company she gave him not so much as a glance 
 further. Her wrath was directed against that un 
 happy sister of her own sex who was as innocent of 
 any intended offence as any baby could be, in 
 whose eyes all these proceedings were detestable 
 and her part in them against her own wish and will. 
 
 "Ha! Too pretty! I fix you!" screeched the 
 hawk, and flew at Essie literally tooth and nail. 
 
 What prompted her were not hard to guess, even 
 though you did not know her to be the giant s wife. 
 Jealousy has its peculiar stamp it does not trans 
 form the woman scorned into a creature like none 
 other even in hell itself, without leaving its visible 
 
 136
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 tracks. The woman was jealous to the point of 
 madness she was obviously of the temperament 
 most open to the control of the passion and bent 
 on disfiguring her fancied rival, on destroying the 
 beauty for which, as her distorted view led her to 
 believe, she had been passed by. Essie s innocence 
 of ill intent was no bar when did jealousy ever 
 stop for innocence ? 
 
 Of course the roysterers were missing nothing of 
 the show; made speedily aware that something 
 extraordinarily racy was in the wind, they paused 
 in their roystering and pressed forward about the 
 two women, forming a ring of pitiless, eager, leer 
 ing faces. Essie cast a beseeching glance about 
 her, and found no comfort nothing but mockery 
 on every hand. She saw her husband s face not 
 far away, and it leered like the others. She tried 
 to call out to him, but her voice died on her lips. 
 
 But she was not forsaken. Ere yet she was given 
 to feel the claws of the fury, a familiar form shoul 
 dered in before her a burly man in overalls, with 
 bare feet which the sun had burned red in a word, 
 Bill. 
 
 "Wy ye, Miss Oshro!" The hulking Caliban 
 was named Augirard, and the fury was the wife of 
 his bosom, and Bill was not especially adept in the 
 French tongue. "Wy ye, anyhow!" 
 
 No knight ever arrived more opportunely, and 
 37
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 no lady in distress was ever gladder. "Oh, Bill; 
 take me home!" cried Essie, and clung to him as a 
 child might cling to its parent, as trustfully. 
 
 They were an odd pair, to be sure, and they were 
 showered with drunken raillery as they made their 
 way out, but the lady rescued was not likely to be 
 much troubled thereby. Though her knight had 
 come to her clad in silver mail she could not have 
 been more grateful to him. 
 
 138
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THOUGH the name the Valley bore was never 
 good, its offending had been concededly in 
 the way of those lesser faults due to the weakness of 
 mankind easy failings, in short. Lilies were 
 esteemed, as a class, none too virtuous, perhaps, to 
 do the greater deeds of darkness rather were they 
 too shiftless. Distinguished crimes, though of 
 course they were a credit to nobody, nevertheless 
 demanded certain positive traits of strength and 
 courage which Lilies, in the common opinion of 
 them, could not muster. Accordingly when old 
 Gothard, the hermit who dwelt down by the creek 
 in the midst of the marshes, was set upon in the 
 boldest manner of highwaymanry, and robbed of 
 a great sum of money which nobody dreamed of his 
 having, and left insensible on the floor of his hut, 
 it was almost an instant verdict with those best in 
 formed that the wicked, wanton, insolent thing 
 had not been done by an inhabitant of the Valley. 
 "Tramps, most likely!" declared the world, or 
 at any rate, in virtue of the indefatigable activi 
 ties of the newspapers, a tolerably large fraction 
 thereof. 
 
 139
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 Certainly a larger fraction, if you speak of that, 
 than had ever heard of the Valley before. There 
 were papers printed more than a hundred miles 
 away which made mention, and no stingy mention 
 either, of the robbery. A certain paper, indeed, 
 went to the length of sending a skilled journalist 
 to look the matter up, and he came and saw and 
 was so far conquered that he wrote a whole column 
 in the best style, though it dealt, to be sure, less with 
 the robbery than with the curious social conditions 
 which he found, or fancied he found. And all the 
 papers were at one in the view that the crime had 
 been committed by somebody from abroad. The 
 grounds on which Lilies were so freely exculpated 
 could not be called flattering, but any sort of an 
 exculpation were better than none. 
 
 The law had likewise its legions early in the 
 field. There was the sheriff, whose badge of 
 office stamped him the particular arm of the law; 
 and there was moreover a considerable swarm of 
 detectives, with mixed motives. 
 
 Chiefly responsible for the activity of the detec 
 tives, no doubt, was the reward of five hundred 
 dollars offered by the county commissioners for in 
 formation leading to the conviction of the guilty 
 party or parties. It was more money than had 
 been stolen, but none too much, by general con 
 sent, to pay for a vindication of the law s majesty. 
 
 140
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 That was the main point, of course to get the 
 law s majesty properly vindicated, to put it de 
 finitely and for all time on record that the law 
 might not be so outrageously affronted with im 
 punity. So far from considering the deed any the 
 less atrocious because the victim happened to be a 
 person of small importance, the commissioners, 
 and public sentiment with them, deemed the of 
 fence all the greater for that not the least of the 
 law s majesty lay in its solicitude for just such 
 weak and unprotected members of society; and the 
 five hundred dollars, though a good deal of money, 
 was not begrudged. Not a few, in fact, thought 
 the reward insufficient in the premises and would 
 have one thousand dollars offered. 
 
 The smaller sum seemed to be serving the pur 
 pose, however. At any rate the sleuths and hawk- 
 shaws which it drew into the affair were not only 
 numerous but in several instances celebrated. 
 Especially there was a team of thief-takers known 
 far and wide by the style of Kenealy and Cripps. 
 It caused much of a stir when Kenealy and Cripps 
 were known to be on the ground; and when won 
 der arose as to how such famous men could be at 
 tracted by a paltry five hundred dollars, there were 
 those of deeper discernment ready to point out that 
 money wasn t everything that your true detective, 
 merely as a matter of professional pride and re- 
 
 141
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 gardless of the pay promised, wasn t going to let a 
 hard nut go by him uncracked. 
 
 And if here was a hard nut, straightway it ap 
 peared that Messrs. Kenealy and Cripps were the 
 lads to lay its true inwardness open to the light of 
 truth. They let no grass grow under their dis 
 tinguished feet, but got into the game without de 
 lay, and within an astonishingly few hours a war 
 rant had been sworn out and an arrest made, at 
 their instance. 
 
 It is a rare village, what with the emptiness of the 
 life afforded by villages, which hasn t its group of 
 bad boys, and Atro City could by no means claim 
 the exemption. In fact, it had not only the usual 
 run of bad boys, but among them a character so ex 
 ceedingly reprobate that when Kenealy and Cripps 
 fastened on him as the perpetrator of the robbery, 
 people looked at one another blankly and asked 
 why they hadn t suspected the fellow before. No 
 body had suspected him, for a moment, but none 
 the less his guilt seemed perfectly clear to all can 
 did minds once the accusing ringer was directed 
 to him his reputation was enough to damn him, 
 let alone the other evidence. 
 
 Kite Ostrander was the name he went by. His 
 mother was an inmate of the almshouse and so 
 slack of wit she couldn t say who his father might 
 be, and well, not to dwell on a painful subject, 
 
 142
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 Kite s antecedents were as little apt as the reputa 
 tion he had earned for himself to raise a presump 
 tion in his favor. By an odd coincidence he was a 
 hermit, too, living like a beast in a shack he had 
 thrown together of refuse boards, and that circum 
 stance, since it at least betokened an independent 
 spirit, might have counted to his credit, only that 
 nothing could be so counted in the face of the out 
 rageous conduct whereby he made himself a stench 
 in the nostrils of decency. And the worst of it was 
 the low cunning of the boy he was not yet twenty 
 which had enabled him always so to cover his 
 tracks that none of his deviltry could be legally 
 brought home to him. But now, it appeared, there 
 had come a turning in the long lane; thanks to the 
 fine work of Kenealy and Cripps, the young fox was 
 cleverly caught. 
 
 Direct testimony against him was confined, for 
 the present, to a scrap of paper found in his shack 
 by the sheriff who, at the instance of the detectives, 
 went down there and made a search during Kite s 
 absence. It was a torn fragment of the first page 
 of a German periodical, with the mailing label stuck 
 to it, and old Gothard s name on the label. It 
 wasn t much in itself, but its significance bulked 
 big, and when Kite came home he was pounced on 
 and clapped in jail. People called him foolhardy 
 for not staying away, but after all there was no ac- 
 
 H3
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 counting for the ways of criminals. Weren t they 
 forever betraying themselves, as a matter of fact ? 
 And anyway it was cause for general rejoicing that 
 the malefactor had been run down at last. 
 
 But the stir of stirs, so to say, was when word 
 went forth that they were going to put Kite through 
 the third degree. People had heard of the third 
 degree, that mighty engine whereby criminals were 
 convicted out of their own mouths, but hearing of 
 it was very different from standing within a few 
 feet of where it was actually being resorted to. 
 Kite, in close custody, had been brought over from 
 the lock-up to the justice s office, and the county 
 attorney was in there, and Kenealy and Cripps, 
 and of course great things were to be expected. It 
 wasn t to be doubted that Kenealy and Cripps were 
 in the highest sense experts in giving the third de 
 gree the boy s cunning would avail him very little 
 against their consummate skill. 
 
 The process lasted two hours, and the man in the 
 street, to say nothing of the woman and the child, 
 though all were there in force, was in a fever of 
 suspense when the door at length opened and Kite 
 emerged. A broken, snivelling, cowering wretch ? 
 That was about what you had a right to expect, 
 certainly, yet it was hardly what you beheld. If 
 you have ever seen a captive badger prodded with 
 a stick, you have some notion of Kite Ostrander s 
 
 144
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 general demeanor. He looked very sulky, very 
 resentful, but not at all beaten or broken. In fact, 
 being led back to jail with the crowd streaming 
 after, he carried himself about as usual. The 
 sheriff had a queer mysterious air about him, and 
 the county attorney likewise, and if anybody 
 seemed downright troubled it was Kenealy and 
 Cripps. And behold, these two chief actors in the 
 thrilling drama weren t going to stay to the end. 
 Instead of that they forthwith hired a rig and had 
 themselves driven across the country to another 
 branch of the railway, and it was announced, on 
 what authority none knew, that they were called 
 away by other business. 
 
 They never came back, but the waters which 
 they had stirred were destined to yield yet another 
 sensation. The county attorney and the sheriff 
 went out and had a talk with Gothard about the 
 scrap of paper, and he could tell them that the 
 publication of which it was a part had been intact 
 and in his hands the day after the robbery. The 
 day after the robbery, as he distinctly recalled, he 
 had read the part of the publication where the label 
 was. What did the hermit s direct and manifestly 
 sincere testimony suggest ? Well, not to beat about 
 the bush, that Kenealy and Cripps had themselves 
 put the scrap of paper in Kite Ostrander s shack, 
 where the searching party afterward found it. 
 
 H5
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "Planted evidence!" quoth the sheriff, assum 
 ing to speak in the technical style, and the great 
 heart of the public was assailed with horror over 
 the revelation of what famous detectives were will 
 ing to do for the sake of a reward, though it should 
 be but five hundred dollars. What might have 
 happened if there had been one thousand dol 
 lars up ? During many a vacuous hour to come 
 villagers would debate, inquiring whether the maj 
 esty of the law did not surfer more by such man 
 ner of vindication than by the original affront. 
 
 Of course Kite had to be set at large. And the 
 robbery was as much a mystery as ever. 
 
 Haldean had made himself conspicuous in the 
 pursuit from the first, all without giving particular 
 cause for comment, the occasion being what it was; 
 and from the first he had been quick and vigorous 
 to combat the prevailing belief that no inhabitant 
 of the Valley could have done the job. He could 
 point out circumstances, too, which appeared to 
 favor his contrary view. His theory was rather 
 fine-spun in spots, but people had to admit its 
 merit notwithstanding. 
 
 Especially significant, as Haldean construed it, 
 was the fact that old Gothard had none of the 
 marks of a miser about him. A serene old man, 
 happy in his solitude down there by the creek, 
 spending most of his time pottering about among 
 
 146
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 his flowers that could never bring him any money, 
 keeping a few mongrel chickens and a scrubby cow 
 and a pig or two, making, in short, but the barest 
 and simplest living for himself, with every sign of 
 caring to make no more who should guess that he 
 had a hoard of gold in his cabin ? Certainly no 
 casual tramp. 
 
 "That robber," argued Haldean, "knew Goth- 
 ard not only better than any tramp could know him, 
 but better than most of his neighbors. He had 
 studied the old man, have no doubt of that." 
 
 The sheriff was impressed. Others were im 
 pressed as well, but the sheriff most of all. Hal- 
 dean showed his superior culture in his discourse 
 talked like a book, indeed; and his theory was un 
 deniably ingenious and looked below the surface. 
 
 The obvious is often misleading!" he declared. 
 
 "You know hit!" assented the sheriff, flattered 
 at being addressed in scholarly terms and bravely 
 pretending to understand. 
 
 They two became very thick and were much seen 
 together. The sheriff was vastly disgusted with 
 the trick which Kenealy and Cripps had played, 
 and vowed he would put no more trust in detec 
 tives; he openly frowned on the activities of these 
 gentry, putting every obstacle in their way; and 
 when, before very long, the sleuths and hawk- 
 shaws having given up and withdrawn, he threw 
 
 H7
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 out dark hints as to sundry clews which he held in 
 his hand, he was understood to refer to something 
 Haldean had dug up. People were far from scoff 
 ing even people of the Valley. Since the frolic 
 at Jentsch s, where the master of Throstlewood 
 had proved himself about the sprightliest Roman 
 of them all, he was in better odor, and besides it 
 had to be conceded that a man might be very un- 
 neighborly and still have a faculty for seeing into 
 things. The sheriff s hints, in fine, gave rise to a 
 very general impression that genuine developments 
 were at hand. 
 
 Haldean, in these days, talked a great deal in 
 public, to anybody and everybody, with a courtesy 
 which people found as agreeable as it was new in 
 him; but it was the sheriff s attention, and his 
 alone, that he directed to the queer conduct of old 
 Gothard. 
 
 At any rate, Haldean s skilful manner of laying 
 it open to the light could make it seem queer, and if 
 nothing would have been thought of it only for his 
 keen discernment, why, all the more credit to him. 
 Here, speaking of Gothard, was a man stricken in 
 years and none too alert in his faculties, subjected 
 to a shock sufficient to leave him insensible, in 
 which condition he remained for some little time, 
 possibly half an hour. No claim was made that 
 a blow had rendered him unconscious, or any form 
 
 148
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 of bodily violence simply it was the shock of be 
 ing so outrageously intruded upon. Of course he 
 would naturally come off with confused impres 
 sions of what had taken place, but ought not these 
 impressions, under a conscientious and sincere 
 effort of the memory, to incline to clear up, as time 
 passed ? What should be thought when, instead 
 of that, they became only the more clouded and in 
 definite ? That was the queer part, as Haldean 
 made it appear day by day old Gothard recalled 
 less and less, till presently he recalled virtually 
 nothing. 
 
 During near a week after the robbery there was 
 incessant tramping about the hermit s cabin, till 
 his flowers were destroyed and the grass of his 
 meadow crushed in the mire. But Kite s arrest 
 served to turn the tide of interest in another direc 
 tion, and when Kenealy and Cripps s bubble burst, 
 the implications so occupied the popular imagina 
 tion that Gothard was left to himself, and then it 
 was that Haldean went quietly over and had a talk 
 with him. 
 
 He found the old man placidly busy, in the midst 
 of his ruins, trying to bind up some broken holly 
 hocks. 
 
 "Well, Mr. Gothard, no doubt you remember 
 better now, aboutwhat happened to you that night," 
 remarked the master, with a propitiatory air. 
 
 149
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "No, I remember me worse," replied the hermit, 
 looking very much troubled all at once. 
 
 Haldean assumed the inquisitorial manner. 
 "How long after you first saw the robber till you 
 became insensible?" he asked. 
 
 "Maybe half minute, maybe more, maybe not 
 so much that is just so good as I can tell you." 
 
 "Did he speak?" 
 
 "He do not speak." 
 
 "Had he a mask on ?" 
 
 "He put his face under a handkerchief." 
 
 "You could see how he was dressed ?" 
 
 "I have tell you just so well as I can." 
 
 "You thought at first that the man wore blue 
 overalls." 
 
 "Blue ? I have tell you just so well as I can." 
 
 Haldean shifted from the inquisitorial to the 
 hortatory manner. He strove to move Gothard s 
 resentment, enlarging on the grievous wrong it 
 was that an inoffensive old man should be stripped 
 of all he had. That, of course, was to take it for 
 granted that the hermit was keeping something 
 back. But there was nothing gained. Gothard s 
 distress was apparent. He would shrug his shoul 
 ders and mutter and otherwise betray inward dis 
 turbance. But he would say no more to the point. 
 
 The master reported the interview to the sheriff, 
 with the benefit of his discernment at its keenest, 
 
 150
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 and it was thereupon resolved to subject the hermit 
 to a little judicious pressure. 
 
 "He knows who robbed him, and he has made 
 up his mind not to tell," Haldean avowed, and the 
 sheriff believed. 
 
 And so they went out to the old man s place to 
 gether, of an evening, after dark. Gothard was 
 reading by his lamp, in the very paper from which 
 Kenealy and Cripps had torn the scrap to plant in 
 Kite Ostrander s shack; serenely, until he caught 
 sight of them, whereupon he was troubled enough. 
 
 This is the sheriff you know who he is!" 
 announced Haldean, very solemnly. 
 
 Yes, Gothard knew only too well for his own 
 peace of mind. 
 
 "He stands for the law, Mr. Gothard. You do 
 not wish to trifle with the law, I presume?" 
 
 Clearly the hermit had no such wish. 
 
 "Very well, Mr. Gothard. But if a person knows 
 who has done a crime, and does not tell what he 
 knows, he trifles with the law, and is himself a 
 criminal." 
 
 The old man gasped. Haldean punctuated with 
 an interval of silence and repeated: "He is himself 
 a criminal!" 
 
 The stratagem was entirely successful. A great 
 fear laid hold of old Gothard. He was a simple 
 soul withal, his notions of public authority derived
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 from a civilization where the reins were more ar 
 bitrarily drawn, and he dared no longer do as he 
 would. It speedily proved to be true that he was 
 holding something back, for now, in the stress of 
 his fear, he not only described what clothes the 
 robber had worn, but told whose clothes they were. 
 
 152
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 TO the ordinary unsophisticated fancy nothing 
 is more pleasing than an early spring; but 
 there are those who, made wise by experience and 
 perhaps bitter, will be sorry to see the world starting 
 out of its winter sleep too soon it were far better, 
 they insist, that the world overslept. There came, 
 in the dispensation of providence, an early spring 
 to the Valley, and straightway the voice of the 
 croaker let itself be heard. "We ll pay for it!" 
 quoth the prophet of evil, his meaning being that 
 every day of delight was borrowed of the future 
 at ruinous interest. He would not be surprised, in 
 fact, if the debt were to double before the account 
 should be squared up. "We ll pay for it!" he 
 croaked, ill-omenedly. 
 
 Haldean, mingling freely with his neighbors these 
 days, described it as an English spring, such as they 
 used to have in Hampshire when he was a boy. 
 In Hampshire, he testified, they looked for birds 
 back in February, and while that made it necessary 
 to strain the comparison a bit, it was a fact that 
 horned larks began to be seen in the Valley before 
 February had ended, while the first half of March
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 was made signal among all first halves of March 
 by the song of the bluebird and the robin. On St. 
 Patrick s Day the children gathered crocuses and 
 buttercups, and the expulsion of the snakes from 
 Ireland could itself be scarcely accounted a greater 
 miracle. Weeks sooner than usual the pastures 
 were so well grown that the cows grazed their fill 
 off them and contemned the dry fodder of the 
 barns; and the milk and butter were the rich and 
 golden butter of the average June. 
 
 There happened to be a comet lurking about 
 that year, and the prophets of evil made much of 
 the circumstance. "Comets," they expounded, 
 "mostly means war, anyhow some calamity. If 
 we don t have a war, it ll be something else, maybe 
 something worse. Injuns knows all about such like 
 matters, and you don t ketch no Injun a-plantin 
 no crops so long s there s a comet hangin round." 
 No Indian lived nearer than the reservation, and 
 unless report did the red brother injustice, it was 
 easy to catch him planting no crop, comet or no 
 comet, but none the less he and his practice con 
 stituted a sufficient peg to hang dismal forebodings 
 on. The nature of comets was much discussed, 
 and while it wasn t like the common man to fret 
 himself in the season of prosperity, there came to be 
 rather a general acceptance of the doctrine that a 
 comet just naturally sucked somewhat out of the 
 
 54
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 atmosphere. Prophets, assuming the lead and 
 pointing speculation its way, were boldly specific. 
 "The comet/ they declared, "has gone and sucked 
 out all the cold, and that s what makes the weather 
 so blamed warm. But just you wait till that there 
 comet lets go, and the cold comes back on us all of 
 a sudden!" 
 
 In effect, and saying nothing about causes, the 
 cold did come back, all of a sudden, and just when 
 it was least wanted, namely, in the first week of 
 May. There was a terrific frost, so that ice formed 
 thick on still water, and the ground was frozen 
 seemingly as hard as you ever saw it in the dead 
 of winter. In every direction you could hear the 
 wagons bumping over the ground, and a more des 
 olate sound were hard to imagine, when you knew 
 what it meant. 
 
 Crueller destruction never was. The trees had 
 leaved out completely, and even more thickly than 
 usual, and now every leaf hung black and dead. 
 But that was by no means the worst. The worst 
 was the blossoms, for whereas the leaves would 
 grow again presently, there could be no more blos 
 soms till another spring. The clusters of lilacs 
 were just on the point of breaking, and the frost 
 penetrated through and through their sappy stems 
 till they would snap off in your fingers like icicles. 
 The exquisite bloom of the linden, whence the bees 
 
 155
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 were just beginning to draw their choicest honey, 
 were swept away at a stroke, while the fruit blos 
 soms nothing could be sadder than their plight. 
 Did you ever chance to see a grand old apple-tree, 
 true and faithful to its part, filled in every branch 
 and twig and shoot with flowers and every flower 
 fit to become a big red apple did you ever see a 
 tree like that stricken with a killing frost ? Ani 
 mate suffering is hardly more pathetic. Almost 
 you can be persuaded that the plant has indeed a 
 soul, so dejected and forlorn does it look. 
 
 The day after the frost was cold and cheerless, 
 with a biting wind blowing and never a gleam of 
 sunshine through the steely blue clouds. The 
 weather sharps accounted it a fortunate turn, 
 pointing out that a warm sun striking down on the 
 nipped vegetation would make a bad matter worse; 
 and though you might wonder how that could be, 
 they were doubtless right. But none the less it was 
 a dreary, comfortless day. Essie thought of her 
 brambles, and as soon as she might she slipped out, 
 wrapped in her heaviest coat and none too warm 
 at that, to see how they had fared. Her heart was 
 heavy, but not utterly unhopeful. It was impossi 
 ble not to hope, even had there been no ground, 
 and there was ground, since undeniably the blos 
 soms of the raspberry were under the thick leaves, 
 and her brambles, moreover, were in a degree pro-
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 tected by here and there a tree spreading its shelter 
 ing arms over them. 
 
 Nothing had been enough to save them, how 
 ever. They were gone, utterly. She searched 
 among the thorns if perchance an occasional blos 
 som had survived, and there was none. Essie 
 fought for her hope till it was as dead as the leaves 
 and the flowers, and then she sank down on the 
 hard, cold ground, and wept. 
 
 "Am I to have no joy in life whatever?" she 
 moaned, and truly it seemed to her that she was 
 drinking the cup of trial to its last bitter dregs. 
 
 The subscription to the Home Journal had some 
 weeks yet to run, and those weeks were to her 
 like the last hours of a condemned man. She was 
 amazed at the reality of her tragedy, as often as she 
 considered its elements, how trivial they were of 
 themselves; but real it was notwithstanding, and 
 poignant. To such extremity had she been re 
 duced, so desperately starved was she, that to lose 
 her paper were to lose everything worth while no 
 cheerful outlook, to be sure. Perhaps it argued 
 something morbid in her, but whether or no, she 
 could not shake off the sense of bereavement, or 
 keep it, for the moment, from overwhelming her. 
 As her grief spent its violence she thought of the 
 future more calmly, and even then the best com 
 fort she could foresee lay in those old copies which 
 
 157
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 she had religiously preserved, not so much with the 
 idea that she might read them again as out of re 
 spect for that which had been so precious. 
 
 Presently, too, she thought of Bill, and conceived 
 a purpose to withhold the truth from him. It 
 would not be easy, though. Not but what she 
 might read old copies to him over and over indefi 
 nitely, without his ever detecting the difference 
 in her heart she had known all along that he was 
 only pretending to understand, and what he did 
 not understand he could not remember. No, the 
 difficulty she anticipated was not in fooling Bill, 
 but in denying herself the relief of confiding her 
 trouble to him. Perhaps that was morbid, like 
 wise, when she should find it so hard to forego a 
 gratification obviously selfish and rather silly 
 withal, but none the less it was hard. And still she 
 held to her purpose stoutly, deeming it the rightful 
 part to bear her cross in silence. 
 
 The subscription duly expired, and another week 
 passed by, and though no Home Journal came to 
 hand, Bill was steadfast in the old habit. 
 
 "Well, what s into the paper this time, Essie ?" 
 he inquired, settling himself for an evening of 
 knightly listening, as usual. 
 
 Her heart was in her throat, so that she had much 
 ado to repress the sudden rush of emotions which 
 answered to the appeal of his simple faith. Only
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 by dint of the utmost effort did she maintain the 
 front of cheerfulness as she brought out the old 
 paper to read. A sharp eye might have found a 
 number of reasons wherefore to suspect it wasn t 
 a fresh copy, but who should suppose Bill, the 
 simpleton, to be gifted with an eye of that kind ? 
 
 She answered him with literal truth. "I don t 
 know, Bill I haven t had a chance to look, yet." 
 
 She opened the paper and the familiar aspect of 
 everything in it gave her a sick turn. All too surely 
 there was to be but the faintest shadow of satisfac 
 tion in it for her, when she could find scarcely a line 
 which she did not know by heart with so hungry 
 a mind had she devoured the feast in the first place 
 that her memory would hold it long. But at least 
 it would be all one to Bill. She glanced at him 
 furtively and observed that he couldn t possibly be 
 more attentive it was all one to him, the old as 
 entertaining as the new. A singular position it 
 was, truly, with Bill pretending to understand and 
 herself pretending to read something new almost 
 it was funny, in spite of the tragedy. 
 
 Her revelation came with quite a shock. So far 
 as she could perceive, Bill suspected the deceit as 
 little as she had expected, and when he made mani 
 fest the contrary all at once, he startled her. 
 
 "F m wasn t they no paper come this week ?" 
 he asked, bluntly. 
 
 159
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 And Essie gave up the wish to tell, thus en 
 couraged, rose too strong to be resisted, and she 
 told him. No paper had come that week, and none 
 would come next week, or the week after, or ever 
 again. She needed to gulp considerably to keep 
 down her feelings, and even with all her gulping 
 there were tears in her eyes. 
 
 "Don t cry, Essie!" coaxed Bill, as he might 
 coax a child, and she was strangely pleased to be 
 treated so. 
 
 "It s such a little thing to wish for!" she cried, 
 dolefully. They would send the paper three 
 months for fifty cents. If I had only fifty cents, 
 that would do for the present." 
 
 Bill puckered his brows thoughtfully. "I reckon 
 fifty cents don t grow on ev ry bush!" 
 
 "Oh, it s such a trifle no more than I would 
 have spent for candy, once!" She checked herself, 
 without saying all that was on her lips. What use 
 to complain ? 
 
 f Y gorry! For candy, now! Fifty cents for 
 candy!" 
 
 Of course he was pretending once more the 
 sum of money conveyed no notion to his mind. 
 And what was almost provoking, his thoughts 
 seemed hereupon to shy away from the cause of all 
 her woe. He stared at her so vacuously, so seem 
 ingly without grasping the situation, that she began 
 
 1 60
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 to be vexed with him, and with herself for having 
 made a confidant of him. She fell silent, fearing 
 to speak lest she say something unkind. 
 
 Shortly he took himself off to bed, saying no more, 
 apparently as little concerned with her grief as if 
 he knew nothing of it. She conceived that he was 
 virtually ignorant of it she had told him and he 
 had pretended to understand and that was all. 
 And who but herself had taught him to pretend ? 
 By the next evening he had forgotten all about the 
 paper, forgotten his steadfast habit, even; he never 
 mentioned it, and he whiled away his idle hour 
 blinking and yawning vociferously, as in days of 
 yore, ere yet the Home Journal had come into his 
 life. Essie was hurt, and afflicted with a deeper 
 sense of loneliness. 
 
 "He s glad to be rid of it now he won t have to 
 make believe any more!" she reflected, blaming 
 him, though she held herself to blame. Undeni 
 ably she was near, in her wretchedness, to doing 
 Bill less than justice. 
 
 The comet, as presently transpired, wasn t done 
 with the world. For from resting content with hav 
 ing sucked up the cold and let it loose all at once, 
 the celestial wanderer, by the testimony of those 
 who professed to know its devious ways, was 
 straightway up to new tricks. 
 
 "It s suckin up all the rain every blamed 
 161
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 thing s goin to be burnt right out of the ground!" 
 announced the prophets, and a second time were 
 their prophecies borne out by the event. 
 
 From May till October no rain fell beyond a 
 few scattering drops now and then the veriest 
 mockery. Scarcely was there vouchsafed so much 
 as an occasional cloud to temper the fierce heat of 
 the sun. Not only sandy Throstlewood suffered, 
 but the Valley at large as well, even the lowest and 
 moistest tracts where neither the memory of liv 
 ing men nor yet tradition rendered any account of 
 drouth having made itself felt before. That thing 
 most unlooked-for in those fat regions, a real scarc 
 ity of the fruits of the earth, was threatened. And 
 great was the moan and mourning in consequence. 
 It would seem that men had never failed to do their 
 part, so roundly did they blame nature for failing, 
 just the once, to do hers. 
 
 Everybody was pinched, but none, probably, like 
 Essie. Her burden was indeed grown heavy. 
 The family s poverty was intensified, as a matter 
 of course, but they had been so poor already that 
 privations merely material could impose, on the 
 woman at least, no new hardship to speak of. In 
 point of fact, she minded such privations very little. 
 Whereas the people all about her fretted because 
 there was no corn to sell, and no hogs, and so noth 
 ing to buy tobacco and beer with, the two staples 
 
 162
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 of happiness as the Valley knew it, Essie would be 
 very willing indeed to forego not only such mere 
 luxuries, but meat and drink as well, if so be by 
 that she could come by the food of the mind which 
 in her loneliness she so craved. Therein lay all 
 the pinch of poverty for her, and when the scarcity 
 came on she saw her situation only the more hope 
 less. She was cruelly preyed upon by her hunger, 
 so cruelly that at length, in a species of despera 
 tion, she could bring herself to confess her misery 
 to her husband and implore his pity. She knew 
 not what he could do for her, even if he would, but 
 none the less she felt herself forced to confess and 
 implore. 
 
 "Oh, Tudor!" she pleaded, throwing away all 
 reserve and all but kneeling to him. "Only let me 
 have something to read something to think about, 
 and I will live on bread and water!" 
 
 He heard her entreaties unmoved, just as she 
 might have foreseen he would. "You may yet 
 see the time when you ll be glad to get bread and 
 water!" he coldly rejoined. 
 
 "Cannot you have a little sympathy with me, 
 Tudor?" 
 
 "What do you wish, then ?" 
 
 "Fifty cents! Only fifty cents to pay for my 
 paper for three months!" 
 
 And the man mocked her. 
 
 63
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 " Only three kernels of corn, mother, only three kernels 
 
 of corn, 
 
 To keep the little life I have till the coming of the 
 morn! " 
 
 he quoted, and laughed brutally. "Of course 
 your paper is the merest luxury, and who can have 
 luxuries now ? I can point you to a man who is 
 wretched because he can t have the rum he loves. 
 He, too, fancies he is being deprived of something 
 necessary. For aught I can see he has as good a 
 right to say that his rum isn t a luxury as you have 
 to say that your paper isn t a luxury. Come, tell 
 me, what is the difference ?" 
 
 "Oh, Tudor, are you determined not to under 
 stand ?" 
 
 "We all have to forego something at such a time. 
 Why should you claim exemption, pray ? Can you 
 not consider that there are others in the world be 
 side yourself?" 
 
 The harsh taunt cut her to the quick, and she 
 burst into tears. "Oh, Tudor, how can you, after 
 all that has happened ?" she sobbed, and never, 
 perhaps, had felt herself so unkindly dealt with. 
 
 There was left of the store of fine linen which 
 had once been hers a dozen handkerchiefs, plain, 
 but of the best quality, and never used. She had 
 never shown much aptitude for needlework, but 
 there is in every one, and especially every woman, 
 
 164
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 a faculty which develops only under the press of 
 hard necessity, and so Essie made out, by dint of 
 infinite pains, to hemstitch these handkerchiefs 
 and to embellish each with a tasteful initial in the 
 corner; all with a view to selling them to the mer 
 chant in the village. It was her last resort. 
 
 She debated much, while she labored, as to 
 the price she should ask. The handkerchiefs were 
 easily worth five dollars, on the score of the material 
 alone, let alone the work. But five dollars seemed 
 too great a sum it were tempting fate to ask so 
 much. Fearful of spoiling her market by holding 
 her goods too dear, she thought of four dollars, 
 then of three dollars, then of two dollars. Could 
 she consent to drop below two dollars, the cost of 
 a year s subscription to the Home Journal ? Yes, 
 she could anything rather than run the risk of 
 having her offering rejected; and the upshot was 
 that when Bill took the handkerchiefs to Atro City, 
 as he had taken the berries, he carried a note to the 
 merchant, asking only fifty cents. 
 
 "One handkerchief is worth more!" sighed 
 Essie, and bit her lip to keep from crying over the 
 sorry sacrifice. 
 
 And after all was her offering rejected. The 
 merchant wrote back to express his regret, but 
 withal he could not alter the fact that there was 
 no demand whatever, in these hard times, for
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 articles of that sort his customers were driven 
 to provide themselves with bread and butter, and 
 had nothing wherewith to pay for embroidered 
 handkerchiefs. 
 
 And Bill, meanwhile ? Of him she thought no 
 better than that he had forgotten all about her great 
 need; she sent him to do her errands in the village, 
 and regarded him as she might a big, faithful dog, 
 expecting of him no more service than a dog might 
 render. But he had not forgotten, as it chanced. 
 In a flush of excitement he came to her, one mem 
 orable day, with his hands clasped tight behind 
 him in the manner of a child who has some great 
 thing to disclose and aims to make it the greater 
 by suspense. 
 
 "How much did ye say that there paper was to 
 cost, Essie?" he asked, eagerly. 
 
 Her heart gave a bound. "Oh, Bill, you don t 
 mean that you ve got the money!" she cried. 
 
 He held out his hand and in it lay a two-dollar 
 bill, a silver dollar, and some smaller coins. " Meb- 
 be taint nough, though!" 
 
 "Oh, plenty, Bill for a whole year! And you 
 wish me to take it?" 
 
 "Help self! Help self, Essie!" 
 
 She was too overjoyed, for the moment, to think 
 of much of anything beyond her good fortune, and 
 least of all did it occur to her that she ought to make 
 
 166
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 inquiry as to where the money had come from. 
 Not until the two-dollar bill had been folded in a 
 letter and sent off to New York was she troubled 
 with misgivings on that head. And even then they 
 were not very serious. She wondered, and that 
 was about all. When she put the question to Bill 
 direct, and he only chuckled and looked mysterious, 
 she deemed that rather like him he was the child 
 once more, making much of a secret; and she was 
 content to reflect that there were ways in which he 
 might have earned the money. It was a fact that 
 the drought had so lessened the work about the 
 farm as to leave him with fully half his time on his 
 hands, and though it would be strange if any 
 body thereabouts was in a position to pay wages 
 in cash, nothing was impossible. 
 
 Now, old Gothard had been robbed the night 
 before, and Essie was mightily shocked by that 
 untoward incident. But never in the remotest 
 way did it connect itself, in her mind, with her own 
 good fortune. 
 
 167
 
 CHAPTER XII, 
 
 BILL chose to do his own mending, for the most 
 part, and that accounted for the very peculiar 
 patch there was on the left knee of his overalls. If 
 you had any eye at all for peculiarities you could 
 hardly help but observe that patch, and remem 
 ber it. Old Gothard remembered it all too well. 
 Furthermore, down near the bottom of the other 
 leg, was a row of rents, too small to need mending 
 in clothing destined to rough usage, but entirely 
 noticeable, provided you had the eye for such things. 
 Old Gothard had the eye and remembered the row 
 of small rents likewise. In short, being persuaded 
 at last to open his heart freely, he could testify 
 that the overalls which the robber had worn were 
 Bill s and none other. They brought the garment 
 and laid it before him and he identified it, with 
 much sorrow, but positively. 
 
 It was a sad business for the hermit, and the 
 least of his mourning was for the loss of his money. 
 "I forgeef him!" he protested, and begged that 
 nothing be done. 
 
 "The law cannot forgive there is too much at 
 stake!" Haldean solemnly rejoined, and Gothard 
 submitted with a groan. 
 
 168
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 A warrant having been duly sworn out, the sheriff 
 saw fit to muster rather a strong party to help him 
 serve it. Haldean went along, of course it had 
 come to the pass that the arm of the law was loath 
 to move without his present support and concur 
 rence; but inasmuch as scuffling was not his part, 
 and the sheriff himself was a lightweight and no 
 fighter, and there was no telling what Bill might not 
 take it into his muddled head to do in considera 
 tion of all these circumstances, two stout deputies 
 were prudently sworn in. Bill had a streak of the 
 savage in him Haldean could vouch for that 
 he was moreover strong as a bull by common re 
 port, and the law, setting out to prevail, could ill 
 afford to run the risk of being prevailed over. The 
 deputies were warned that there might be brisk 
 work for them, and on those terms they took ser 
 vice, a bit nervous but withal resolute. 
 
 They found their man down on his knees weed 
 ing out some weather-worn mangel-wurzels. He 
 saw them coming, and though his usual fashion 
 would be to stop and stare, he bent to his work only 
 the more assiduously. Quite likely, since his mas 
 ter was with the party, he took them for company 
 who were being shown about the estate. At any rate 
 he barely glanced up at them, saying never a word. 
 
 It fell naturally to Haldean to do the talking 
 that was the function particularly suited to his 
 
 169
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 talents. "Harbaugh," said he, curtly, "these gen 
 tlemen wish you to go along with them. * 
 
 "Kayn t do it, cap!" Bill promptly replied. 
 "Leastways not to-day, an most likely not to-mor- 
 rer nuther. Cal late it s goin to take me plum 
 two days to git over these here mangolds the way 
 they d otter be got over." 
 
 "Come, come, sir no nonsense! These gentle 
 men can t wait their time is valuable." 
 
 "Kayn t help it, cap! I low somebody s got 
 to look sharp if them there cows is goin to have em 
 anything much to eat next winter. Maybe you 
 don t know how tis with mangolds. Mangolds is 
 durn pa tic lar, sort of. If they hain t kep wed 
 out, why they just nachly don t mount to nothin 
 much, specially where it s tall dry, like tis this year. 
 An they hain t no way they kin be kep wed out 
 not unless ye git down an do bout so much finger- 
 work, like. Ye kayn t work em out with a hoss, 
 an then agin ye kayn t work em out with a 
 hoe." 
 
 The sheriff scratched his head in perplexity. 
 Here was constructive resistance to the law, but 
 just how was it to be met ? Failing overt violence, 
 how was force to be brought to bear ? Bill, edging 
 along on all fours and busy with the weeds, was no 
 such figure of flagrant defiance as should put the 
 law to its resources, even though he should leave 
 
 170
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 no room to doubt that he meant to stay where he 
 was; his attitude, in fine, constituted, for the mo 
 ment, a problem. Haldean, in his capacity of coun 
 sellor to the expedition, was called on for advice, 
 and the emergency found him not unready; and 
 his whispered suggestion that the deputies step 
 stealthily up and seize Bill by either arm before he 
 could have time to strike out, was straightway acted 
 upon. Measures so harsh might not be necessary, 
 and yet they might; and they were easiest taken if 
 taken at once, without parley. 
 
 Bill was vastly astonished at being laid hold of 
 in such unceremonious style. "What in tarnation 
 jinks!" he cried, in a voice of thunder. "Look 
 where yer steppin ! You ll tromp them there 
 mangolds if ye hain t more keerful!" 
 
 The sheriff, having as he fancied the whip-hand, 
 would waste no more time beating about the bush. 
 "Come along, my man!" said he, assuming an 
 authoritative air. 
 
 "Not by a jugful!" said Bill, and stood up, and 
 shook himself free, as a great mastiff might shake 
 off a couple of terriers. "You gents quit yer 
 foolin , now!" he added, earnestly, though still 
 without a touch of temper. 
 
 The gents had discreetly fallen back it was 
 their turn to be astonished, especially the deputies 
 who had felt the giant s strength. The sheriff was 
 
 171
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 for summoning more help. " We ll have to have a 
 possy commytakus!" he declared, excitedly. 
 
 "Perhaps it would be well to read the warrant!" 
 Haldean called out, from a safe distance. 
 
 Just how the reading of the warrant was to help 
 matters did not at once appear, but at any rate it 
 was a thoroughly proper formality, and could do 
 no harm. The document carried a seal or two, 
 which flashed showily in the sun as it was opened 
 out, and these no doubt heightened the effect. 
 But let the why and wherefore be as they might, 
 Bill was very visibly impressed, and listened with 
 his mouth dropped open. 
 
 "What mout that there be?" he demanded, 
 when the reading was at length finished. 
 
 That is the warrant of the court, charging me, 
 on my oath and bounden duty, to arrest your per 
 son," answered the sheriff, with a pompous flourish. 
 
 "My what?" 
 
 "Your person that is, you yourself!" 
 
 Bill s face glowed. "You ve kem out here on 
 puppose to rest me ?" he exclaimed, incredulously. 
 
 "Yes, sir that s what we re here for." 
 
 "Well, y gorry, why didn t ye say so? Why 
 didn t ye say so afore ye spoke, as the feller said ? 
 So ye want to rest me, do ye ? Y gorry, I never 
 s posed I d be rested! With all the papers, too! 
 Y gorry!" 
 
 172
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 The amount of it was plain to be seen Bill s 
 vanity had been touched, and touched profoundly. 
 The vision of the egotist magnified the distinction 
 till the disgrace was lost to sight. What to the 
 ordinary man would be a bitter draught was to him 
 a cup charged to the brim with the high wine of 
 flattery, and he quaffed so deeply of it that he be 
 came as it were intoxicated. Once the sheriff s 
 intention was made clear to him, so far from resist 
 ing, he was chiefly anxious to further the business 
 if aught disturbed him it was the fear lest the wine 
 be snatched away from his lips. At Haldean s 
 instance, manacles were snapped on his wrists, 
 and that proved a most particular gratification. 
 
 "Y gorry, I ve heerd tell of them there things, 
 but, y gorry, I never did think I d have em put on 
 me, some day!" he said, and swelled proudly. 
 
 The mangel-wurzels, but a moment since the ob 
 jects of his very great solicitude, lest they be tram 
 pled, he forgot completely and trod them himself, 
 with ruthless foot. In a real sense he was lifted 
 out of the world that had been his it existed no 
 more for him. True, he thought of Essie, but in a 
 curious, transported way. 
 
 "Cap, you tell Essie to step out an see me with 
 these here gimcracks on me!" he bawled back to 
 Haldean, who, the arrest having been duly effected, 
 chose to separate himself from the party. 
 
 73
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 In all probability the word was not conveyed 
 to Essie anyway she did not step out, and Bill s 
 disappointment was very apparent thereupon; but 
 other opportunities for showing off speedily pre 
 sented themselves, and in embracing them he 
 seemed to find entire consolation. The forces of 
 the law had conveyed themselves out by wagon, 
 and as they rattled briskly back with their prisoner 
 neighbors swarmed out of their houses to see the 
 sight. Nothing could be more to Bill s liking, 
 He shouted to every one he saw, in loud, exultant 
 tones, saying that he was arrested, and he held his 
 shackled wrists up to view that no portion of his 
 glory might be overlooked. 
 
 Once they met a man driving the other way 
 Abner Elkins, in fact. Abner pulled up in aston 
 ishment, and was minded to make inquiry. Par 
 ticularly, what was Bill arrested for ? 
 
 And Bill hadn t the remotest notion. 
 
 "Is it for robbin* old Gothard ?" asked Abner, 
 bluntly. 
 
 " Y gorry, you ll have to ask the boss here!" 
 Bill replied, lightly, as if that were a detail of no 
 concern to him. 
 
 The sheriff had kept his own counsel pretty 
 strictly, and nobody in Atro City was expecting 
 them when they rattled in and drew up at the 
 county jail; but the first sight of the party set the
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 word flying, and it flew like fire in flax, so that a 
 considerable crowd gathered and saw Bill alight. 
 He was in ecstasies. These villagers he was used 
 to consider a different race of beings, with interests 
 apart, and to behold them jostling one another in 
 order to have a look at him was enough to fill his 
 bosom with that whereby he fairly reeled. Never, 
 perhaps, had his vanity been so inordinately 
 heightened. 
 
 "Y gorry, who d V thunk it!" he cried out, 
 again and again, and was radiant. 
 
 They gave him his arraignment at once, and that 
 constituted a fresh triumph. All about him in the 
 stuffy little offices of the justice of the peace were 
 people bent on seeing him and hearing him faces 
 everywhere, and not a face which wasn t regarding 
 him in wonder. How should not the egotist as 
 sume a lordly air and hold up his head like a con 
 queror ? He hearkened to the reading of the infor 
 mation, and while its import might well be lost on 
 him, that did not much matter in his view; at least 
 he could catch the sound of his own name not Bill 
 Harbaugh, mind you, but William Harbaugh and 
 conceive himself exalted among the great of earth. 
 
 It was part of his exaltation to fancy he had to be 
 very much on his guard. 
 
 "Do you plead guilty or not guilty?" inquired 
 the justice.
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 Bill eyed him craftily. "Now, who mout you 
 be ?" he demanded, and the room tittered. 
 
 The justice, doubtless divining in some measure 
 what manner of man he had to deal with, was 
 patient and explained the part which devolved 
 upon him; and that done he repeated his question: 
 "Do you plead guilty or not guilty ?" 
 
 "Not much, Mary Ann!" roared Bill, and the 
 tittering grew to laughter not easily checked. 
 
 The crowd s merriment gave his conceit a new 
 turn; he was prompted to play the clown and make 
 a farce of the solemn proceedings. Have you not 
 seen a child so affected by laughter ? 
 
 "Do you wish bail ?" the justice asked. 
 
 Bill broke into a coarse guffaw. "What good s 
 a pail thout ary bail ?" 
 
 "I must warn you that you gain nothing by such 
 antics," said the justice, severely. 
 
 "We hear ducks!" chuckled Bill. 
 
 "Have you an attorney?" 
 
 "S pose you give a guess. Come, now!" 
 
 The justice put an end to the unseemly show by 
 entering a plea of not guilty in the defendant s 
 behalf, and remanding him to the custody of the 
 sheriff. But Bill s cup of flattery was by no means 
 drained. 
 
 The jail was as much of the basement of the court 
 house as the sheriff s residence did not occupy, 
 
 176
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 which for the time being was not a great deal. 
 Accommodations for an ordinary family were fin 
 ished off in the style of a fair to middling dwelling, 
 but the sheriff was blessed with a family more than 
 ordinary, at least in respect of numbers, so that 
 three of the four cells designed for the incarceration 
 of malefactors were used to stow children in by 
 night and by day for various domestic purposes. 
 Bill, the first prisoner to enter those precincts in 
 long, was given the odd cell, and he entered it as 
 if he were taking possession in fee simple. From 
 that moment, in fact, the entire jail was his, not to 
 speak of the court-house and other appurtenances. 
 During some hours he did nothing but strut up 
 and down, offering himself to the public gaze, 
 through the grill of the door to the favored few 
 who were suffered to enter the corridor, but for the 
 most part at the window which opened out on the 
 world and might be approached by any one and 
 every one. Unlike the Roman actress who was 
 content if only a knight applauded her, Bill was 
 democratic enough to prefer the staring of the com 
 mon crowd to the staring of the select. And what 
 with one thing and another, he was the picture of 
 perfect enjoyment a soul more thoroughly pleased 
 with itself perhaps never breathed. 
 
 Of course that manner of thing could not last 
 long; before evening of the first day the curiosity 
 
 177
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 of the villagers was so far sated that only now and 
 then a belated straggler came and peered in at the 
 grated window. The strain of the heroic pose be 
 ing at length broken, Bill found himself most un 
 commonly fagged out, gladly retired with the sun, 
 and sank at once into slumber so deep that the 
 sound thereof frightened the little children in the 
 next cell. But he was out of bed bright and early 
 next morning, and clamoring for something to do 
 *y gorry, he couldn t set round doin nothin , not 
 nohow. 
 
 "Hain t ye got ary crops ?" he asked the sheriff, 
 anxiously. 
 
 No crops. But there was a pile of cordwood 
 needing to be sawed, and though Bill loudly pro 
 tested that it was no way to be working up wood in 
 summer, the alternative did not present itself, and 
 so he fell on, with prodigious energy and good 
 spirits. By that he touched the public curiosity 
 anew, to the end that numbers came out for to see 
 him work. Nothing could stimulate him more. 
 He bragged incessantly, but never to the neglect 
 of performance, and the pile of cordwood dwindled 
 fast, with the pile of stovewood growing accord 
 ingly. 
 
 The sheriff stood guard, in easy, lounging fash 
 ion. He was himself a villager, as indifferent to 
 formalities as his kind are apt to be, more than 
 
 178
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 ready to permit Bill every liberty which by any 
 stretch should be compatible with his position. 
 And it became steadily more apparent, as the fore 
 noon wore on, that watch and ward were not much 
 called for escape was about the last thing the 
 prisoner was apt to meditate. What condition 
 should the egotist prefer to the imprisonment which 
 made him a marked man and enlarged his sense of 
 his own importance beyond any experience he had 
 ever met with ? The sheriff saw how the land lay, 
 it was easy for him to be kind, and by mid-day he 
 was so far softened as to ask Bill to sit down and 
 take dinner with the family. 
 
 And Bill declined, not in any scorn of the hos 
 pitality, but as a matter of dignity. " I d otter be 
 behind them there bars when I eat my victuals!" 
 quoth he. " Twouldn t look right if I wasn t to 
 be." 
 
 It was so ordered. Nor was that all. When the 
 sheriff, having fetched him his dinner in the cell, 
 went away without locking the door, deeming the 
 precaution needless, Bill s dignity asserted itself 
 once more. 
 
 "Here, d ye lock that there door ?" he called out, 
 something sharply. 
 
 "No," said the sheriff, turning back, "I didn t." 
 
 "Better lock it! Twouldn t look right if twas 
 to be left onlocked!" said Bill. 
 
 179
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 The sheriff s children were a swarm, and of 
 course the coming into their very midst of so rare a 
 bird as a prisoner could not help but appeal to their 
 imaginations most powerfully. And equally of 
 course their first sentiment was profound awe, so 
 that they kept at a distance, and only peeped out 
 from behind some solid barrier by way of protec 
 tion. As often as Bill caught sight of them, he 
 spoke to them with coaxing friendliness, and while 
 at first his advances served but to turn their awe to 
 terror and send them fleeing headlong, his kind 
 interest was too genuine not to win them over at 
 length. They made but small acquaintance with 
 him that first day when he was so busy with the 
 public, but the day after, as he worked at the wood, 
 they lingered about, and instead of running away 
 when he accosted them stood their ground, and 
 even rejoined, bashfully. Presently, by easy stages, 
 they got on so good a footing that the eldest boy 
 fetched out his book of colored pictures to exhibit. 
 And when Bill sat down on the sawbuck to look 
 at the pictures, they pressed about him in a buzzing, 
 eager group. A very little girl was especially anx 
 ious to give him the benefit of her comments, so 
 much so that she clutched his great, hairy hand in 
 her excitement, and was not greatly put out when 
 he lifted her on his knee. He knocked off work 
 long enough to construct a jumping-jack with 
 
 1 80
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 marvellous loose joints, which he caused to dance 
 and kick up its heels by means of a springy barrel- 
 stave, and after that there was nobody quite equal 
 to Bill, in the eyes of the sheriff s children. 
 
 The sheriff s wife, meanwhile, was coming and 
 going about her domestic duties a frail woman 
 manifestly overdriven. To her Bill addressed him 
 self, waiting for no introduction. 
 
 "Be you alone?" he asked. 
 
 That was an expression well understood house 
 wives who had no servants to help them were 
 spoken of as being alone. 
 
 "Yes we can t afford to keep a girl," the wo 
 man replied, with an appealing sigh. 
 
 They had quite a little talk about the matter, the 
 sheriff joining in to explain how it happened they 
 were so poor. 
 
 "The new tax law cuts me down about half," he 
 said. "Used to be good money in back taxes, but 
 not any more." 
 
 When the wood was cut and properly stacked, 
 Bill bore the sheriff s wife in mind and busied him 
 self helping her, taking over all the lifting and carry 
 ing, and whatsoever was rough and heavy. Fur 
 thermore, he tended the babies, in famous style. 
 At least three of the children were too young to help 
 themselves much, and these Bill made his especial 
 charge. Every night he sang them to sleep, his 
 
 181
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 egregious discords sending them off to dreamland 
 as by magic. 
 
 The sheriff, though it was beyond his province, 
 did not scruple to advertise his views concerning 
 his prisoner s guilt. 
 
 "Maybe that chap took the money," he was more 
 than once heard to say, "but he ain t no thief, no 
 more n my two-year-old would be if she was to go 
 into the butt ry an help herself to jell!" 
 
 182
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 ESSIE S apple of delight turned to bitter ashes 
 when it was borne in upon her that the money 
 Bill gave her had been stolen. Her first intimation 
 came from her husband he informed her, curtly, 
 that Bill was already under arrest and on his way 
 to jail, and that the evidence against him was ab 
 solutely final, leaving no doubt whatever of his 
 guilt; and the thought which remained with her 
 thereupon was almost more than she could bear. 
 She did cry out, in spite of herself, and for that 
 got a hard, accusing look from Haldean. Did he 
 suspect that she had received some of the stolen 
 money ? 
 
 But there was worse to come in a moment her 
 conscience wakened with a wrench and fairly threw 
 it in her face that she had caused Bill to do the 
 dreadful deed for which he was now to pay the price. 
 It had been on her lips to protest that the simple, 
 inoffensive fellow was incapable of doing so vio 
 lent and cruel and lawless a thing, and then there 
 flashed on her the most distressing thought of all. 
 She had not the ground, seek it as frantically as 
 she might, whereon to question his guilt; and why 
 
 183
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 was he guilty ? Because of his wish to be useful 
 to herself because he was devoted to her service. 
 She had made him believe that she stood in sore 
 need of money, and for her behoof he had robbed 
 old Gothard. That was the charge her conscience 
 laid upon her, to wring her heart unto bursting and 
 to cause all the pain that had gone before to seem 
 cheap and of no account. She recalled the mas 
 ter s sneering admonition that she learn to consider 
 others and not herself altogether, and how it had 
 cut her; yet here was her conduct proving the jus 
 tice of it. She had been selfish. She had moped 
 and mourned because she could not have what she 
 fancied, and by her moping and mourning she had 
 set good, faithful, harmless Bill on to be a thief. 
 
 It was a doleful day for Essie. That evening 
 the Home Journal came to hand, the first copy 
 under the new dispensation; she left it in its 
 wrapper unread, so was the apple turned to ashes. 
 
 Her conscience clamored for the easement of 
 confession. Kept to herself, her sin were an in 
 tolerable, rending thing, fit to drive her mad; freely 
 discovered, there was the promise that it might be 
 easier to bear at worst it could not be harder. 
 The law was as much a mystery to her as it is to 
 most women, and so, arguing from her rudimentary 
 conceptions of justice, she came into the notion that 
 if she were to tell the truth as the truth appeared to 
 
 184
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 her, the effect must be to clear Bill from blame. 
 How should a simpleton, guileless in his heart and 
 meaning nobody harm, be held responsible, once 
 it was known that the impulse to his wrongful deed 
 had been supplied by another ? She took all the 
 blame to herself absolutely all, to the last feather s 
 weight of it. She even pictured herself going to 
 jail, and she did not shrink from the prospect. 
 Rather did she derive a sombre joy in its contem 
 plation the joy of a tender conscience finding ease 
 in penance. 
 
 And to whom was she to confess unless her hus 
 band ? 
 
 Tudor," she said humbly, "I am to blame for 
 what Bill has done. I prompted him to take the 
 money." 
 
 She spared herself in nothing, but having opened 
 her lips told all: how she had sold berries to pay 
 for the Home Journal; how the berries had failed 
 by reason of the frost; how she had let herself be 
 cast down so visibly that Bill, in the wish to serve 
 her and save her, was wrought upon to steal 
 everything, in short. Haldean heard her out, but 
 he took her disclosure in no such way as she had 
 expected. She had expected him to reproach her, 
 and he did not. She believed he would be shocked 
 and troubled, and instead he was glad, so that he 
 chuckled and beamed with pleasure.
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "Your testimony will add another important 
 link to the chain," he remarked, and all but 
 laughed outright. 
 
 A terror seized her. "Do you mean 
 
 "I mean that if you saw money in the fellow s 
 possession on the day following the robbery, that 
 is very good evidence against him very good evi 
 dence indeed!" 
 
 "And I shall be called on to testify against him ?" 
 
 "Undoubtedly!" 
 
 "I will not!" exclaimed Essie vehemently. 
 "Sooner would I have my tongue torn out by the 
 roots!" 
 
 Whereupon he laughed his brutalest. "Courts 
 of justice are not affected by melodrama, fort 
 unately. They very well know how to deal with 
 persons who would sooner have their tongues torn 
 out than tell the simple truth." 
 
 She felt her helplessness, and sank down under 
 the sense of it. Was she doomed, no matter which 
 way she turned, no matter how upright her inten 
 tions, always to add to her misery and never to 
 lessen it ? Verily, it would appear so, when her 
 confession had come to naught but to make her 
 the means of furthering a great wrong. 
 
 However, there was light ahead, and presently 
 she caught the cheering gleam of it through the 
 darkness that encompassed her. Not suddenly, 
 
 1 86
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 though, but rather by the slow process of putting 
 two and two together; and the effect was to re 
 veal the robbery of old Gothard in a very different 
 aspect. 
 
 Haldean, to begin back at the beginning, was 
 in all things fastidious. In respect of his clothing, 
 particularly, he was so nice as to make himself 
 quite the fop he would have nothing but the best 
 for his own apparel. Their poverty imposed no 
 heavier cross upon him than when it deprived him 
 of fine raiment; nothing in his lot was harder than 
 the necessity to array himself in a garment either 
 worn or of humble quality, though as between these 
 two evils the former was the less, in his estimation. 
 And there was that, moreover, which the direst 
 poverty could not force him to do he would not 
 wear a hickory shirt. 
 
 "I ll go naked first!" he vowed, with a great 
 oath, and almost he had done so, for the shirts left 
 over from the season of prosperity were presently 
 worn to shreds and barely held together by dint of 
 unremitting mending. 
 
 It was upward of a fortnight after the robbery 
 that Essie saw the first of the light. She had been 
 too much cast down during these days to have 
 much interest in her husband s comings and goings, 
 but even so she could not well help but be aware 
 when he appeared garbed in a new shirt of the 
 
 187
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 finest linen, and made up in the best style of tai 
 loring. Though he was visibly cautious, and kept 
 his coat more buttoned than usual, she saw, and 
 having seen, was given a shock. She detested 
 prying, but the suggestion was such, and it struck 
 her so forcibly, that she instituted a quiet search, 
 and at the bottom of a drawer which she was not 
 much used to looking into she found eleven more 
 shirts, likewise new, of fine linen, and in the best 
 style. Whereupon her shock was very like the 
 shock of conviction. 
 
 Furthermore, sundry matters of memory, lightly 
 passed over hitherto, took on a new significance 
 now. And chiefly there was the matter of Bill s 
 overalls in the wash. How could she ever have 
 passed that over so lightly and unsuspectingly ? 
 
 Bill s wardrobe was of the simplest description, 
 his overalls were but two pairs in number, and they 
 were in the wash alternately, week by week. The 
 washing was done of a Monday and the ironing of 
 a Wednesday, in the regular order, weather per 
 mitting, and Essie had washed and ironed as usual 
 the week of the robbery. And she had missed no 
 article, so that she was puzzled when, on going to 
 give the things their final sorting over on Thursday 
 morning, she found Bill s overalls to have been 
 washed but not ironed. They were folded up and 
 bestowed with evident care among the other arti- 
 
 188
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 cles but, as any practised eye could see, without 
 having been ironed. 
 
 And these overalls, in the wash that week, yet 
 not in the ironing, were the overalls with the queer 
 patch on the knee and the row of small rents 
 snagged out by a barbed wire. 
 
 OO J 
 
 And that particular Wednesday night was the 
 night of the robbery. 
 
 Still more did Essie recall the light having bro 
 ken, it grew brighter and brighter. The wash 
 room was a remote apartment, beyond the kitchen 
 from the living-rooms, and one of the very few 
 occasions when she had seen her husband there 
 or thereabouts was that very Thursday morning, 
 early, before she made the discovery of the unironed 
 overalls. He was coming out of the wash-room, 
 and when he met her face to face he saw fit to offer 
 a word of explanation. 
 
 "I was looking at the floor it certainly ought 
 to be laid new, and that soon," he remarked. 
 
 Essie could remember wondering what had put 
 him in mind of the floor all at once. Standing in 
 the midst of her new light, it seemed to her incredi 
 ble that she had found no more to wonder about. 
 How could such transactions go on under a per 
 son s very nose yet be not suspected ? 
 
 Nor was even so much all Essie s memory, be 
 ing ransacked, yielded yet other matter which she 
 
 189
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 doubted not had its bearing, though for the present 
 she could not altogether make out how. It was a 
 conversation, which chance had put her in the way 
 of overhearing, between her husband and Bill. 
 The master s custom had long been to speak to his 
 man very seldom, and never otherwise than crustily; 
 he could give his dignity at least that satisfaction, 
 and though Bill, apart from his inclination to do as 
 he chose regardless of orders, was affability itself, 
 Haldean made point of being haughty and distant. 
 
 Which made his demeanor on the present occa 
 sion noteworthy, and caused Essie to prick up her 
 ears, so to say. He was so downright suave that 
 she was fairly startled, and could not help listen 
 ing, and so her memory was charged, though not 
 burdensomely, with the conversation. 
 
 "Bill," said the master ingratiatingly, have 
 you ever caught an otter?" 
 
 f> Y gorry, no, cap!" said Bill, showing by his 
 manner that he was flattered by the kindly ad 
 dresses from an unwonted quarter. 
 
 "I find," Haldean went on, "that there s an 
 otter s den in the bank of the creek just beyond 
 where the cold spring comes in." 
 
 "Ye don t aim to tell me, cap!" exclaimed Bill 
 animatedly. 
 
 "Directly under a clump of golden willows." 
 "Y gorry, I know them willers!" 
 190
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "If you watch there as it grows dark, I dare say 
 the animal might be killed with a club." 
 
 " Y gorry!" 
 
 "An otter s pelt, you know, is never worth less 
 than one hundred dollars, and usually more. A 
 choice pelt will fetch five hundred dollars." 
 
 "Five hunderd! Y gorry, I ll go down there 
 to-night! I ll go down an* see bout Mister Otter 
 to-night, y gorry!" 
 
 Bait for gudgeons, evidently as little informed 
 as was Essie, in the premises, she perceived that 
 here was bait thrown out for some ulterior purpose. 
 And Bill, in his simplicity, had swallowed it, his 
 guileless heart completely won by a few pleasant 
 words. Essie distrusted the transparent contriv 
 ance and the purpose which her husband might 
 have in it, even though she did not understand how 
 very clumsy a contrivance it was, how absurdly 
 incompatible his proposals were with the habits of 
 an otter, the shyest and for many years the rarest 
 of animals. But the worst she could make of it at 
 the moment was that Haldean intended playing 
 off some sort of a joke on Bill to humiliate him; 
 and while she resented anything so graceless, she 
 felt no call to thrust herself into the business, espe 
 cially in the view that her interference might easily 
 do more harm than good. She considered, with a 
 pang of pity, that Bill was not too wise to be sent in 
 
 191
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 hot pursuit of a gargoyle s burrow or a unicorn s 
 nest, and she keenly felt the wrong of making game 
 of his deficiencies, but on the whole it seemed the 
 better part to do nothing about it. 
 
 Once more it was the day of the robbery the 
 conversation took place in the afternoon and the 
 robbery after nightfall; but she did not straight 
 way connect the two. In point of fact, what with 
 the robbery itself and the turmoil it created, and 
 the windfall of particular appeal to herself whereby 
 she was permitted to have her paper once more, 
 there was plenty which should serve, if not to drive 
 the lesser incident out of her mind, at all events 
 to crowd it back and get it overlooked. Not till 
 a fortnight had passed, and the dozen fine linen 
 shirts had put her in the way of searching her 
 memory, did she recollect the singular colloquy. 
 
 What did it signify ? 
 
 She saw only as through a glass darkly, but at 
 least there stood, plainly and not to be blinked, the 
 fact that the clump of willows beyond the cold 
 spring was in the near vicinity of Gothard s cabin. 
 Had Haldean cooked up the yarn about the otter 
 to inveigle Bill down into that quarter, in order that 
 he might, perchance, be seen going or coming, and 
 so be the more open to suspicion ? 
 
 Essie had no doubt of her duty; it pointed her to 
 a thorny path, but it pointed her unequivocally, and 
 
 192
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 she did not shrink. Justice, in so far as it waited 
 upon her, should be done, though the heavens fell 
 and buried her in their wreck. "God help me!" 
 she prayed. 
 
 What she had to do was hardly to be done se 
 cretly, and to tell the truth she had no stomach for 
 concealment any more. And accordingly, having 
 changed her workaday dress for something a little 
 better, she set forth, in broad day, and before her 
 husband s face. 
 
 "Where now?" he demanded, in the tone of 
 challenge, as if he were a sentry set over her. 
 
 His manner, with all it implied, touched her 
 temper and so lessened her stomach for conceal 
 ment that she was near to avowing her whole pur 
 pose and everything that lay behind it. But had 
 she the right to make so free with the information 
 that had come to her ? She bethought herself be 
 fore she spoke and decided that she had not. "I 
 am going to Atro City I shall be back in time to 
 prepare supper," she replied. 
 
 But even with all her reservations, she was let 
 ting herself be seen in an aspect quite new to 
 him, and his bearing showed that his consciousness 
 thereof was mingled with resentment. How dared 
 she ? 
 
 That is far to walk!" he remarked, and his 
 voice was not the voice of solicitude. 
 
 193
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "Oh, no! I ve walked much farther and called 
 it fun." 
 
 Her coolness stung him and his face hardened. 
 "I dare say I have no right to ask what may be 
 taking you to Atro City?" 
 
 She kept silence. 
 
 "What if I were to forbid you ?" he snarled, with 
 sudden fierceness. 
 
 "It were better you did not!" she made answer 
 quietly. 
 
 "You make yourself ridiculous, running after 
 that drivelling idiot!" he flung out. 
 
 Again she kept silence. He was angry enough 
 for almost anything, and she quaked for a little 
 with the fear lest he lay violent restraint upon her; 
 but he refrained from measures so desperate, and 
 she went as she would. 
 
 Her errand at Atro City was not, as the master 
 supposed, with Bill, in jail, but with the justice of 
 the peace, whom she found alone in his office and 
 who with brisk gallantry put himself at her service. 
 To him she communicated, without reserve, the 
 light which had come to her relative to the robbery 
 of the hermit. It was no easy task Essie was fully 
 alive to the obligations of conjugal loyalty, even 
 where love has ceased to sanctify them, and it cost 
 her a great effort to testify as she was testifying; 
 but she held back nothing and glossed nothing over. 
 
 194
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 The justice heard her out and shook his head. 
 "The evidence against the man under arrest is very 
 strong very strong indeed!" he observed. 
 
 "But don t you see! It is made up there is no 
 truth in it!" she protested, dismayed to find him 
 so sceptical. 
 
 Only the more did the magistrate shake his head. 
 "If I understand you, madam," said he, "it would 
 not be possible to bring the circumstances which 
 you have related to the attention of a jury. I 
 have to advise you that they would not be legally 
 admissible as evidence." 
 
 "Oh, sir " 
 
 "The only proof of them is your own word ?" 
 
 "Doyoudoubt- 
 
 "Not at all, madam! But the law expressly 
 provides that a wife may not testify against her 
 husband unless he permits her to do so." 
 
 Essie crept back home with a guilty sense of 
 being almost glad that she was not suffered to play 
 the tremendous part which she had marked out 
 for herself guilty, because she saw not how else a 
 cruel injustice was to be prevented. 
 
 195
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 BILL had no means wherewith to hire a lawyer, 
 and so the court, in accordance with the 
 statute made and provided, designated counsel to 
 plead his cause. The defendant could not justly 
 complain that his poverty put him at a disadvan 
 tage in that respect far from it. On the contrary, 
 it was a tradition of the bar that any member, 
 though he should be the ablest, was to take it as a 
 compliment when he was designated to such ser 
 vice, and was in an especial sense bound to do his 
 best. A fixed fee of ten dollars measured the ex 
 tent of the material compensation, and of course 
 that was the merest trifle, as fees went; but in 
 view of what tradition and the honor of the profes 
 sion demanded, no defendant was the worse off for 
 having his lawyer appointed unto him by the court. 
 But here and now peculiar obstacles presented 
 themselves, and not least among them Bill s own 
 attitude toward the prosecution. The amount of 
 it was that he liked being prosecuted, whereas the 
 notion of being acquitted, as it presented itself to 
 his mind, was distasteful. It suited him very well 
 to be looked upon as a malefactor his vanity had 
 
 196
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 never been so opulently fed. The law s stern dis 
 pleasure appealed to him, for the present, as a very 
 good thing, and the pains and penalties which the 
 future held over his head were as nothing. What 
 cared he for the threat of hard labor in the peniten 
 tiary, even though it should endure for five years, 
 or ten throughout the rest of his life, for that 
 matter ? He formed no conception of the peniten 
 tiary further than that it was certain to bestow 
 more distinction, and the egotist in him, unfet 
 tered by prudence, would esteem no price too great 
 to pay for distinction. 
 
 The lawyer s most formidable task was to win 
 the sympathy of his client a curious situation; 
 and what was most curious, with all his arts he 
 never won it. Indeed, the more he labored to that 
 end the more he got himself distrusted Bill would 
 have none of him and his kindly purpose. By 
 way of last resort, having tried every other expedi 
 ent he could think of, he held up the disgrace of 
 having to wear the prison garb, how like a brand 
 on the forehead it was. 
 
 "See here, Bill!" he argued. "You don t want 
 them putting stripes on you!" 
 
 "Stripes!" repeated Bill interestedly. "What s 
 them?" 
 
 The lawyer had brought along a picture to give 
 force to his representations it showed exactly what 
 
 197
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 the prison garb was like. And Bill was quite fas 
 cinated gazed upon the badge of infamy with 
 dancing eyes. 
 
 Y gorry, I d like to wear them there!" he pro 
 tested, ardently, and was more than ever opposed 
 to being acquitted. 
 
 Naturally enough, what with all his obstinacy 
 in resisting measures plainly taken in his behoof, 
 his sanity was presently called in question, and he 
 came rather near getting himself adjudged a luna 
 tic not responsible for what he did. A commission 
 of experts gave him a thorough overhauling and 
 they discovered plenty which made him out to be 
 not as other men are; but a person might be much 
 of a freak and still be answerable. Moreover, a 
 mysterious instinct seemed once more to put Bill 
 on his guard, to warn him that they were seeking 
 to do with him something which he did not wish 
 done, and the commission were astonished at the 
 shrewdness he displayed on occasion plenty of 
 men accounted entirely sound of mind would have 
 been less shrewd under similar tests. And finally, 
 letting a robber off on the plea that he knew not 
 what he did was a proceeding to think twice about, 
 so nearly did it touch the very fundaments of pub 
 lic order. In short, Bill was officially pronounced 
 sane, which meant that he would have to stand trial. 
 
 Nothing could be more to his liking. The trial 
 198
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 marked the culmination of his glory, when his head 
 smote the stars. 
 
 It was replete with singularities, beginning with 
 the very entrance of the prisoner, for he came up 
 to the bar in irons, and as if that were not enough, 
 the sheriff marched behind with a drawn pistol. 
 Of course all such precaution was wholly uncalled 
 for, but it pleased Bill because it made the world 
 gasp and stare and even shiver at the suggestion 
 that a very desperate character was being dealt 
 with. The sheriff looked a bit foolish, to tell the 
 truth boyish make-believe was foreign to his 
 temper; but Bill was vastly puffed up. It was a 
 coarse sort of food wherewith to feed an ordinary 
 vanity, but Bill s vanity was not ordinary it was 
 the vanity of an elemental egotist, and never dainty. 
 And the sheriff, on his part, had conceived a great 
 liking for his uncommon prisoner, and a wish to 
 gratify him even at the cost of playing a part which 
 should cause himself embarrassment. The irons 
 had been put on at Bill s instance he pointed out 
 the impropriety of a man in his position being 
 taken out in public without them; but the pistol 
 was the sheriff s own touch, a free will offering, as 
 it were. Y gorry!" cried Bill, at sight of the 
 weapon, and for the rest was speechless with pride. 
 
 And inevitably there was further singularity 
 growing out of the lack of sympathy between the 
 
 199
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 prisoner and his counsel. Bill s distrust of the law 
 yer s purposes had grown until it wasn t far short 
 of open hostility. It was usual for attorney and 
 client to consult together, in whispers, as the trial 
 proceeded, but Bill simply would not be whispered 
 to in that connection, drawing off suspiciously as 
 often as the attempt was made. Certainly that 
 was far from what counsel had a right to expect, 
 and before long his patience was so exhausted that 
 he rose and asked the court for leave to withdraw 
 from the case. 
 
 "I don t see how I can go on, your honor!" he 
 protested, pretty red in the face. "My client per 
 sistently withholds his confidence from me, and 
 whether that is his fault or mine, the fact equally 
 unfits me to represent him properly." 
 
 The judge asked Bill if he desired a different 
 attorney. 
 
 "You re the doctor, I reckon suit yourself!" 
 was the defendant s reply, delivered with a ridicu 
 lous air of condescension. 
 
 "Your honor," put in the lawyer, "strange as 
 it may seem, I get the impression that the man 
 doesn t wish to be cleared." 
 
 The remark offered too good an opening for 
 the prosecutor, across the table, to miss. "Your 
 honor," observed that functionary, with mock 
 gravity, "if the defendant doesn t wish to be cleared 
 
 200
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 I suggest that he cannot possibly make more satis 
 factory arrangements as to counsel. * 
 
 The sally provoked a great laugh, and no laugh 
 ter was so loud as Bill s. The point of wit was 
 utterly beyond him, but none the less he guffawed 
 boisterously, winked at the prosecutor, nodded to 
 the jury, and altogether showed himself hugely 
 pleased. There was no further discussion of the 
 situation openly, only a short conference, in a low 
 voice, among the judge and the two lawyers, after 
 which counsel for the defence resumed his place. 
 But if he did not withdraw from the case, his per 
 sonal relations with the prisoner were at an end. 
 
 The trial was short; the first day saw a jury 
 empanelled and the prosecution s evidence all 
 submitted; and when adjournment came and the 
 crowd poured out, the end was thought to be very 
 near. So far as animated discussion could dis 
 cover, though it engaged the whole community and 
 was prolonged half through the night, the defence 
 hadn t a leg left to stand on, and if there wasn t 
 a verdict before another noon it would be surpris 
 ing. What the verdict would be, no man doubted 
 Bill was already as good as convicted. 
 
 "Saltpetre won t save him!" declared the com 
 mon sentiment, meaning by such homely imagery 
 to describe a plight quite hopeless. 
 
 Old Gothard was the main witness for the pros- 
 
 2OI
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 ecution unwilling to the last degree, struggling 
 pathetically to soften his testimony, but carrying 
 withal a power of conviction not to be resisted. 
 His very reluctance contributed to the force of 
 the evidence which, drawn from him bit by bit, 
 amounted at last to confirmation strong as the pro 
 verbial proofs of Holy Writ. A glib and willing 
 witness could not have had half the effect. 
 
 The hermit, it appeared from his disjointed 
 story, had been sitting by his candle the evening 
 of the robbery, absorbed in reading and thinking 
 no harm, when all of a sudden, and without a rustle 
 of warning, a pistol was thrust in his face and a 
 voice at his very ear commanded him to give up 
 his money. He did not in the least demur old 
 Gothard raised a laugh by his quaint avowal of 
 how ready the pistol rendered him to do as he was 
 bid; the money was in an old battered teapot, and 
 the teapot, so far from being hidden, stood in plain 
 sight on the shelf, where he promptly pointed it 
 out, and thereupon fainted away. 
 
 Why had he fainted ? 
 
 The hermit did not know, unless it should be for 
 fright. He was badly scared. "Mine heart he 
 vas yoomp up here!" he sputtered, clutching at his 
 throat, and raised another laugh. 
 
 It wasn t a blow which rendered him insensible, 
 then ? 
 
 202
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 There was no blow it pleased old Gothard to 
 swear that there had been no blow, as if by that he 
 should lessen the offence. Since the implacable 
 law would not suffer him to forgive the trespass, 
 there was the more joy in extenuating it. 
 
 Was the robber s voice like any voice he knew 
 or was much accustomed to hear ? 
 
 No, it was a strange voice very low, like a growl. 
 
 Purposely disguised ? 
 
 Very likely as soon as the hermit was made to 
 understand what these words of the lawyer s meant, 
 he readily assented to the suggestion that the voice 
 had been purposely disguised. 
 
 But the hardest part for him was when they held 
 up Bill s overalls for him to identify. Fairly he 
 broke down. "I forgeef him!" he cried, with a 
 beseeching look at the judge. But they insisted 
 that he tell the truth notwithstanding, and so he 
 faltered out that those were the overalls the robber 
 had worn he knew them well and could not be 
 mistaken. "I vish I should be mistooken!" he 
 groaned dolefully. 
 
 He was asked about the pistol, too. What had 
 it been like ? 
 
 Very bright, and the handle was white. 
 
 They held up the sheriff s pistol was it like 
 that? 
 
 No, different more bright, and the handle was 
 more white. 
 
 203
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 They had another pistol, and the prosecutor 
 stepped forward and thrust it as close to old Goth- 
 ard s face as the robber had been described as do 
 ing. There was no doubt about it. "Dose vas 
 de rewolwer!" declared the witness positively, and 
 with visibly less of reluctance, perhaps in the view 
 that fire-arms, and especially fire-arms of so ele 
 gant a character, were something totally foreign 
 to Bill. 
 
 The pistol, as transpired directly, was Hal- 
 dean s. The master of Throstlewood took the 
 stand and made oath not only that the pistol was 
 his, but that he had missed it from its usual place 
 the night of the robbery. 
 
 How had he come to miss it ? 
 
 His custom was to sleep with the weapon under 
 his pillow, and when he went to get it from the 
 drawer, where it was kept by day, it was gone from 
 there. 
 
 Had he made a search for it ? 
 
 He had, but without finding it that night. 
 
 When had he found it ? 
 
 Next day. 
 
 And where ? 
 
 In the drawer where it belonged. 
 
 Had the defendant knowledge of the pistol s ex 
 istence and of where it was kept ? 
 
 Of its existence, yes the witness had himself 
 shown the pistol to the defendant; as to whether 
 
 204
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 the defendant knew where the pistol was kept, the 
 witness could not say. 
 
 To Haldean s testimony Bill had given particular 
 attention listening with dropped jaw, in fact; and 
 just here he burst out in a way that startled the 
 room. 
 
 "Go it, cap!" he bawled, and slapped his knee 
 jubilantly. 
 
 Nor did he immediately subside, though sternly 
 commanded by the judge, but kept chuckling to 
 himself as long as the master remained on the 
 stand, with nods and winks interspersed. Hal- 
 dean, on his part, betrayed no feeling, but bore him 
 self with all the dignity of conscious superiority. 
 
 Old Gothard was not the least willing witness. 
 Essie had been summoned by writ to come and 
 testify, and she was awaiting her turn with a sick 
 heart. They called her next after her husband, 
 and she was so wrought upon by her emotions that 
 she could barely totter forward to the desk, while 
 her assent to the oath was no more than an inartic 
 ulate gasp. "Do you solemnly swear to tell the 
 whole truth and nothing but the truth ?" they 
 demanded of her, and how should it not seem a 
 mockery when the little of truth the law would let 
 her tell was to be employed in support and fur 
 therance of a cruel injustice. 
 
 There fell a stillness unlike anything yet when 
 205
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 she took the stand. People leaned forward and 
 stretched their necks, wishful to miss no word of 
 what the woman had to say. They could see how 
 profoundly reluctant she was, so that she trembled 
 and went white as a sheet, and her evident distress 
 was not likely to make them less eager. Quite 
 conceivably they scented a scandal, and awaited 
 revelations which should give them another glimpse 
 of the family skeleton already more than once dis 
 cerned. Anyway, they stretched their necks and 
 were very still. 
 
 Did the witness (it was the prosecutor asking) 
 know the defendant, William Harbaugh ? 
 
 She knew him. 
 
 Could she recall having seen him on the day after 
 the robbery ? 
 
 She could. 
 
 Had she observed anything unusual about the 
 defendant that day ? 
 
 She had. 
 
 Would the witness tell the court and the jury, in 
 her own words, what it was that she had observed ? 
 
 Simply that the defendant had a sum of money 
 in his possession. 
 
 He was not used to have money, then ? 
 
 No very unused. 
 
 Had she never seen him with money before ? 
 
 Very seldom; never except now and then when 
 206
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 he had sold something for her and was bringing 
 her the proceeds. 
 
 Essie was frank wishing to be done quickly 
 with that which she had to do, she forced herself 
 to be frank; but the effort cost her something. 
 That was shown by the way she pressed her hands 
 together, as if by the straining of her muscles she 
 would control her feelings. And, after all, her feel 
 ings were at length too much for her. "Oh, oh! 
 It s such a monstrous wrong!" she whimpered, 
 and the tears splashed down her cheeks. She was 
 very near to breaking down utterly. 
 
 Bill straightway let his voice be heard, and now 
 it wasn t lifted up in merriment. "Don t cry, 
 Essie!" he called to her, as if it were the grief of a 
 child he sought to soothe. 
 
 It was a tense moment, and people scarcely 
 breathed as they waited for what might be next. 
 Were they glimpsing the skeleton ? And was it to 
 be yet more plainly visible ? They glanced at Hal- 
 dean and beheld an ominous cloud of blackness on 
 his brow for once the dignity of conscious superi 
 ority failed him. But that was all. The sheriff 
 broke the spell, banging with his gavel to call Bill 
 to order. Essie mastered herself and shortly left the 
 stand, and a little later court adjourned for the day. 
 
 Amply enough had appeared, however, to indi 
 cate something seething beneath the surface, some- 
 
 207
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 thing that pressed hard to come up, and people 
 could indulge the hope that the show was not at 
 an end, even though the outcome of the trial, so 
 far as the verdict was concerned, should be in no 
 doubt whatever. In that view they came flocking 
 back next morning, and packed the court-room full 
 to the point of suffocation, putting themselves to 
 no end of inconvenience. And they were well 
 repaid, for affairs had taken an astonishing turn 
 over-night. 
 
 It was the defendant s day, though destined to 
 be less glorious, and the first thing his counsel did 
 was to recall old Gothard and fix the time of the 
 robbery. The hermit was in a position to be ex 
 act as to that point, for it happened that he had sat 
 facing the clock as he was negotiating with the rob 
 ber about the money, and in spite of the distrac 
 tion he was made aware, perhaps by the operation 
 of an independent faculty born of habit, that the 
 hands indicated five minutes past eight: a picture 
 of the face of the clock at that instant was stamped 
 on his memory, in fact. Could the hour by any 
 chance have been as early as seven ? No impos 
 sible! Could it have been as late as nine? No, 
 no never! Asked if his clock might not have 
 been an hour fast or an hour slow, Gothard lost 
 his temper and delivered himself roundly, albeit 
 incoherently, in defence of the accuracy of his 
 
 208
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 timepiece; he had brought it from the old country 
 with him, and who did not know that Swiss clocks 
 were true as the sun ? 
 
 But the sensation came with the testimony of 
 another old German a certain PfafF, heavy and 
 stupid, but thoroughly honest, and once started in 
 the path of duty no more to be deflected than an 
 avalanche. He was very near never getting started, 
 for so exceedingly heavy and stupid was he that he 
 had attended the proceedings of the previous day 
 without its dawning on him, till near night, that 
 he knew anything pertinent to the issue. A miss 
 is as good as a mile, however the avalanche was 
 seasonably in motion, in spite of the delay, and 
 carrying all before it. 
 
 Did he remember the evening of the robbery ? 
 
 He did. 
 
 Had he seen the defendant that evening ? 
 
 He had. 
 
 Would he tell the court and the jury the circum 
 stances, where and when he saw the defendant ? 
 
 He would, and did, in such wise as incidentally 
 to contribute to the gayety of nations. "I lose 
 mine cow, and I go look for him by the creek 
 around. I find Bill by the creek around, too. 
 Vat you do? I say to him once. I hunt for a 
 otter, he say. A otter ? I say. A otter," he say. 
 I laugh on him and I tell him dere iss no otter. He 
 
 209
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 tell me dere iss a otter and he vill get his skin and 
 sell him maybe for fife hund tollar. Yoost like 
 dot he say. I laugh on him some more. Dere 
 iss no otter and his skin in summer iss not fife cents 
 vort/ I tell him. I say to him he should come mit 
 me home, mein frau haf make pumpernickel, and 
 Bill he come mit me home." So much speaking 
 in English all at once was toilsome business for 
 Pfaff, and he mopped his face ludicrously with a 
 big red handkerchief. 
 
 Could he remember how long the defendant was 
 at his house on that occasion ? 
 
 That he could it was two hours, anyway. 
 
 From about when till about when ? 
 
 It couldn t have been much after seven when 
 they arrived it wasn t fairly dark yet. 
 
 Could he swear, bearing in mind the solemnity 
 of the oath, that the defendant was at his house at 
 five minutes past eight ? 
 
 He could, and did, vehemently. "So hellup me, 
 Gott!" he exclaimed, and held up his hand. 
 
 PfafF was borne out, moreover, by the testimony 
 of his wife, a rosy little dumpling of a woman, who 
 couldn t open her lips, but they broke away from 
 her, so to speak, and formed themselves into a 
 smile so gorgeous and melting that no solemnity 
 was proof against it. Mrs. PfafF laughed as she 
 testified, and had everybody laughing with her; 
 
 210
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 but she was just as sure as her husband that Bill 
 had been at their house at five minutes past eight 
 of the evening of the robbery. 
 
 "It vas for the pumpernickel he vas like to come 
 all the time!" she declared proudly. 
 
 So Bill had to be acquitted after all. The 
 prosecutor did his utmost to impugn the alibi by 
 intimating a possible confusion of sun time with 
 standard time; but inasmuch as the two differed 
 by less than fifteen minutes, and the alibi had a 
 leeway of nearly an hour in either direction, his 
 showing came to nothing. 
 
 People generally were dazed, but nobody quite 
 so much so, it would appear, as Bill himself. He 
 was incredulous, in fact, and had to be told several 
 times over that he was not guilty. And what was 
 perhaps the crowning singularity of all these sin 
 gular proceedings, he manifested every sign of being 
 disappointed and aggrieved. Mrs. Pfaff, all glow 
 ing with smiles, was prompt to descend upon him 
 with her felicitations, and he fairly waved her off. 
 
 "Ye don t ketch me to your house ag in very 
 soon!" he sniffed, with a sullen frown. 
 
 "Ach, Bill, the pumpernickel!" she exclaimed, 
 with benignity all unruffled. 
 
 "Pumpernickel or no pumpernickel!" growled 
 Bill, and his disgruntlement, for the moment at 
 least, was very real. 
 
 211
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 HALDEAN, likewise, was disappointed. Es 
 sie had come away when her testimony was 
 given, fearing the worst and unspeakably wretched, 
 her mind a whirl of conflicting impulses; and it was 
 from her husband that she first learned about the 
 verdict. Because Haldean, coming home after the 
 trial was over, let his chagrin be seen, she knew 
 that Bill had been acquitted. 
 
 But the master was not altogether silent. "I 
 dare say we shall have that booby back here di 
 rectly!" he snarled. 
 
 And by that she was given a fresh pang in the 
 midst of her uplift. Should they indeed have him 
 back ? She was doubtful after all that had come 
 to pass she could not do otherwise than doubt. 
 Perhaps she credited the booby with too much sen 
 sibility when she conceived that he must know, in 
 some degree, how ill he had been dealt with, but 
 so she conceived, nevertheless, and found small 
 ground for indulging the hope that he would come 
 back and be to her what he had been. 
 
 Haldean read her thoughts they were never 
 
 212
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 hard to read when they ran so strongly. "You are 
 lonely without him!" he sneered. 
 
 She was. She chose not to reply to her hus 
 band s taunt, and she shut her thoughts more 
 strictly within her bosom, commanding her 
 countenance; but she was lonely without Bill. 
 And when she looked forward, as in candor she 
 needs must, to being without him henceforth, her 
 heart was heavy indeed. A little while ago and 
 she had asked for nothing more than that he be 
 not visited with the crime of which another was 
 guilty; but now, with that peril averted, she was 
 far enough from being content it might be un 
 reasonable, but whether or no she was not content. 
 
 And Bill, meanwhile ? 
 
 His arrest, with all its tumult of unwonted emo 
 tions, had torn him quite loose from his moorings, 
 and when he tied up again it was at a different 
 wharf altogether. The jail, in other words, was 
 hereupon as thoroughly his jail as Throstlewood 
 had ever been his farm, and as between a jail and 
 a farm the advantage of novelty was all in favor 
 of the former. The sheriff s overworked wife and 
 her brood of helpless babies afforded him the suf 
 ficient exercise of his knightliness in short, Bill 
 had never in his life been better suited. The 
 sight of Essie called to testify against him and 
 struggling pitifully with her feelings may well have 
 
 213
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 given him, in his vague, indeterminate way, a 
 divided sense of duty; yet when the trial was over, 
 and court adjourned, and the crowd departed, he 
 still lingered with the sheriff. To that wharf was 
 he moored how was he to cast off and put to sea 
 of his own motion ? 
 
 It is not often, probably, that an officer of the 
 law is embarrassed by the unwillingness of a pris 
 oner to be let go. 
 
 "Better snap on them there cuffs, boss!" Bill 
 remarked, holding out his wrists. Twouldn t 
 look right, me goin* back thout em. * 
 
 There was anxiety in his eyes a lurking fear; 
 he was dimly aware that something had happened 
 to rob him of his distinction, otherwise he would not 
 have reproached the Pfaffs so; but he would fight 
 his fear, and stand out for the better part for that 
 he was holding out his wrists for the shackles. 
 
 "No, Bill," answered the sheriff gently, for he 
 understood how it was and he would not be harsh 
 for the world. "I can t put the cuffs on you any 
 more. You re not guilty, you know the jury says 
 you re not guilty, and you re a free man." 
 
 He tried to affect a joyfulness, but it was uphill 
 business, with Bill so utterly crestfallen all at once; 
 and he hadn t the heart to say further that a de 
 fendant who had been acquitted in due form could 
 not longer be kept in jail. Instead of that the 
 
 214
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 kindly sheriff invited his whilom prisoner to take 
 dinner with the family. 
 
 " Sit down to the table with the folks, just for this 
 once!" he urged, when Bill wanted to be locked in 
 his cell as usual, and Bill consented, uneasily, with 
 the fear hard pressing him. 
 
 The youngest of the babies was uncommonly 
 fretful that day, and Bill took him from the dis 
 traught mother and soothed him to sleep in his 
 great, brawny bosom, singing discordantly. He 
 didn t much enjoy his dinner, but he was tolerably 
 happy getting the baby to sleep it took his atten 
 tion off his own uneasiness. The sheriff and his 
 wife exchanged glances over the head of their queer 
 guest, and the woman s lips quivered. She, too, 
 would be lonely without Bill. 
 
 And if his had been a lesser mouth to feed, they 
 might have kept him, for all it might be irregular 
 perhaps to maintain the fiction of locking him 
 up during an indefinite time to come. But the 
 acquittal meant that his meals were no longer a 
 charge on the public purse, and with the new tax 
 law cutting fees in two or worse, the sheriff had to 
 look narrowly at his expenses. 
 
 "Come, Bill!" said he. "Let s take a ride out 
 in the country it ll do you good after being cooped 
 up so long." 
 
 "What fer ?" said Bill, his anxiety all awake. 
 215
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "Well, for instance!" laughed the sheriff. 
 "Don t you want to see how the crops come on ? 
 They re fine, I tell you!" 
 
 Bill let himself be persuaded less by the sher 
 iff s representations, perhaps, than by the growing 
 realization of his own position. The children were 
 somehow apprehensive that their great and good 
 friend was to be taken from them, and raised 
 difficulties, and were not to be reconciled until told, 
 in so many words, that he would return presently; 
 and it may be that he expected nothing less himself. 
 But the jail had sheltered him for the last time; 
 he went and returned no more, nor cared to return, 
 for that matter. 
 
 The sheriff, in point of fact, had cooked up a 
 strategy, and it proved entirely successful. They 
 drove out past Throstlewood, and at the first sight 
 of the neglected fields Bill forgot everything else. 
 Neglected they truly were, for not a tap of work 
 had been done in them since the day of his arrest. 
 Yonder were those very mangel-wurzels which he 
 had been so busy with, grown up with weeds until 
 there was nothing but weeds to be seen; and they 
 were no worse off than the other crops. Bill was 
 instantly in a great taking. Without a word or a 
 gesture by way of farewell, he sprang out of the 
 wagon and started up the slope at a dog-trot. 
 
 Haldean, as it chanced, was sitting on the porch 
 216
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 in dignified state, much as he had sat the day of 
 Mabel s funeral long ago when Bill first came that 
 way. But no such serenity adorned the master s 
 brow now. On the contrary, he looked very black 
 indeed. 
 
 "Stop!" he called out peremptorily. 
 
 Bill never so much as glanced in his direction, 
 while as for stopping he only hurried the faster. It 
 was rather a stiff climb, at the rate he was going, 
 and it made him puff for breath. 
 
 "That there corn! Hit hed orter been gone 
 through two weeks back!" he grumbled to himself. 
 
 "Stop, I say!" thundered Haldean, rising to his 
 feet. "No thief is wanted here!" 
 
 But Bill was already out of earshot, in the stable, 
 rummaging among the harness, muttering inco 
 herently but always in the tone of profound dis 
 content. After the lapse of a quarter of an hour or 
 such a matter, he emerged with one of the horses 
 attached to the cultivator, and forthwith struck into 
 the corn in feverish haste. During all the rest of 
 the day he went up and down row after row, paus 
 ing only when the horse was exhausted and had 
 to be let to breathe. And even then he allowed 
 himself no interval while the horse stood still he 
 pulled weeds with his hands, down on all-fours and 
 working like a beaver. 
 
 Essie had been engaged at the back of the house, 
 217
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 and she remained in ignorance of Bill s arrival until 
 her husband carne with his black brow and told 
 her, not with a view to enlightening her merely, but 
 for a purpose of his own. 
 
 "I wish," he said harshly, "to have no com 
 munication of any sort with the fellow I would 
 not so degrade myself. But at the same time I 
 insist on his being sent away. You will accord 
 ingly send him away, without delay you seem to 
 regard it as no disgrace to have dealings with a 
 common felon!" 
 
 "But why ?" The words were out of her mouth 
 before she thought how uncompliant they would 
 sound. She could overlook the taunt which was 
 meant for herself, but the protest in Bill s behalf 
 would find utterance. 
 
 Haldean answered her in the austere and omi 
 nous manner of a prophet. "Lest a worse thing 
 befall!" said he, and having so spoken he turned 
 on his heel and left her. 
 
 Her first impulse was rebellious enough, but as 
 she considered the situation perplexities multiplied 
 she saw her way less and less clearly. She went 
 to the front window whence she could see the corn 
 field, and as she watched Bill laboring so faithfully 
 her very soul revolted against being hard with him. 
 And yet, all things being taken due account of, 
 was it not wisest to send him away ? How should 
 
 218
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 she reflect upon the elements of tragedy here 
 gathering and not fear the worst or wish to antici 
 pate it ? Essie tried to be reasonable and choose 
 the lesser evil. 
 
 Bill toiled away in the field as long as he could 
 see, and it was late when at length he entered the 
 house. He came in as if he had never been absent 
 without especial greeting. 
 
 " Beats all how soft I be ! " he remarked. " Like 
 a fat hoss in the spring-time/ 
 
 "You ve been out of the work awhile," Essie re 
 joined, with a wan smile. 
 
 He regarded her blankly. Could it be that he 
 had forgotten the experience which in the day of it 
 had affected him so strongly ? For the time being, 
 yes so curiously does memory, the weakest fac 
 ulty of weak minds, record its failure. The arrest, 
 the trial, the jail, even the needy sheriff s wife and 
 her many babies all had fallen away from him 
 as the figures of a dream will fall away. 
 
 There was something very pathetic about it, so 
 that it wrung Essie s heart. That which she had 
 to do was hard, and yet again hard, but she saw 
 no alternative. 
 
 "Bill!" 
 
 "Eh?" 
 
 You must leave us you must not stay here!" 
 
 "What s that, now?" 
 
 219
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "You must go and live somewhere else there s 
 no place for you here. It will be better for you. 
 We are so poor you won t have enough to eat 
 if you stay here." 
 
 She was groping desperately for arguments, for 
 pretexts, and it shamed her to think how she in 
 sulted his devotion by urging considerations so 
 sordid. 
 
 And Bill, did he feel the insult ? Apparently 
 not. After the blank look he gave her after she 
 spoke about his having been out of the work, he 
 fell into the old order of proceeding: washed him 
 self at the sink with a great blowing of water; gave 
 his face such a rubbing with the towel that it glowed 
 ruddy after the similitude of the moon in a fog; 
 combed his wet hair up into wonderful fantasies 
 before the glass; and at last sat himself down, all 
 unruffled. 
 
 "You don t aim to tell me!" quoth he, with polite 
 incredulity, and gazed upon her benevolently. 
 
 It was to intimate no disrespect. On the con 
 trary, it was in effect to renew his knightly vows, 
 and so she understood it; understood that in 
 all things would he obey her, save only that one 
 thing he would not leave her. She was deeply 
 touched. She let him see no tears in her eyes, 
 but they were there, nevertheless. As for send 
 ing him away, she could do no more about it. 
 
 220
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 She told her husband so. She desired nothing 
 so little as to seem defiant, and gladly she would 
 have told him that, too; but he wouldn t hear her. 
 
 "Of course you can t send him away! Why? 
 Because he is more to you than he ought to be!" 
 Haldean exclaimed fiercely, turning on her. 
 
 That was quite the unkindest cut of all, so un 
 locked for, so monstrous, that she could scarce be 
 lieve she heard aright. " Tudor! Consider what 
 you are saying!" 
 
 "I am not blind, madam, though my silence 
 hitherto may have led you to believe me so. If you 
 are so fond of the fellow that you cannot send him 
 away, that is all the more reason why he should go. 
 I will attend to the matter myself. It is high time 
 I asserted the common rights of a husband!" 
 
 Stung almost beyond endurance though she was, 
 she made no reply. It was like being struck in the 
 face, and a hot resentment rushed over her, but 
 after all the instinct of prudence prevailed. She 
 was convinced almost at once that her husband s 
 jealousy was a pretence a pretext merely; and 
 that being so she should gain nothing by taking him 
 seriously except to further whatever ulterior pur 
 pose he might have. No doubt he wished her to 
 flare up angrily his intimations were too absurd 
 to be accounted for otherwise. She kept silence, 
 but it made her shiver when she asked herself what 
 
 221
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 the master s purpose could be, for it could be some 
 thing very dreadful indeed. On the plea of defend 
 ing the sanctity of his home, what might not such 
 a man venture to do with a fair warrant of im 
 punity ? 
 
 But presently, in the midst of her apprehensions, 
 she bethought herself of her power. She perceived 
 that the course of events had given her the whip 
 hand, so to term it, and she sternly resolved, let 
 come what would, to make use of the advantage. 
 
 She had not long to wait for the issue. The 
 very next morning, as Bill was leaving the house 
 after breakfast, Haldean met him at the door. 
 
 "What are you doing here, sir ?" demanded the 
 master roughly, as he might address a disobedient 
 dog. 
 
 Bill was gnawing a chew of tobacco off a great 
 plug (it was a plug, by the way, which the sheriff 
 had given him; the revenues of Throstlewood had 
 long since ceased to permit the indulgence, and it 
 was not the least of the many testimonies to Bill s 
 devotion that he had cheerfully submitted to deny 
 himself), and he did not find it convenient to re 
 join at once. 
 
 "Did you hear what I told you?" fumed Hal- 
 dean. 
 
 "Seems so it muster slipped my mind, cap," Bill 
 calmly replied, stowing the plug away in his pocket. 
 
 222
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "I told you, sir, that no thief is wanted here, and 
 by that I meant you you, sir!" 
 
 Essie, standing by, saw it all. To pick a quar 
 rel, to goad Bill to violence, if so he might that 
 was evidently the master s intent; and she doubted 
 not that he was armed. The moment had come 
 for her to act. 
 
 "Bill," she said quietly, "I wish you would go 
 on about your work. I have something to say to 
 Mr. Haldean." 
 
 There was a quality in her tone and bearing al 
 together new, and on neither of the men was it lost, 
 Bill s countenance, till now as placid as a summer 
 morning, took on a look of vague alarm, but he did 
 as he was bidden, without parley, and promptly 
 vanished. Haldean strove to be very haughty and 
 ominous, but he was far from hiding his uneasiness. 
 
 "Tudor," said Essie, as soon as they were alone, 
 "we two should understand each other." 
 
 "By all means!" said Haldean, bowing stiffly. 
 
 "It is my request that you molest Bill no fur 
 ther!" 
 
 "Indeed!" 
 
 "I must insist upon it!" 
 
 "Ah ? Have you any other requests which you 
 insist on ?" 
 
 "It isn t because you believe there has been 
 impropriety between him and me that you are so 
 anxious to be rid of him." 
 
 223
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "It is kind of you to inform me as to my own 
 motives of course I should never know about them 
 otherwise." 
 
 "You are sarcastic! I warn you that you would 
 better be honest, if it lies in you to be so." 
 
 "Ha, ha! Pardon me for laughing, but you are 
 so amusing I really cannot help it." 
 
 "Tudor, you have done that man wrong 
 enough ! " 
 
 "What man, if I may ask ?" 
 
 "You very well know what man!" 
 
 "That idiot?" 
 
 "Call him what you will, he is the soul of good 
 ness!" 
 
 "Love is blind, and the guiltier the blinder, I 
 dare say. Your rhapsody does not surprise me, 
 madam!" 
 
 "That will do, Tudor!" 
 
 "Thank you for apprising me!" 
 
 "I have endured much at your hands, and I 
 am prepared to endure still more. But there are 
 things which are beyond endurance. I cannot per 
 mit you to do Bill further wrong." 
 
 "I don t know what you mean by further wrong. 
 Do I wrong him in trying to break up his wretched, 
 disgusting intrigue with my wife ?" 
 
 "I will tell you what I mean, Tudor. I mean 
 that I know who gave Bill the money which I saw 
 in his possession. And I know why it was given 
 
 224
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 to him. The real thief wished to divert suspicion 
 from himself, and so he handed over a few dollars 
 of his plunder to the simpleton, who knew no better 
 than thrust his neck in the noose. I mean further 
 that Gothard was not mistaken when he identified 
 Bill s overalls. They were Bill s overalls, but Bill 
 did not wear them. They were the pair that were 
 in the wash that week! Now do you know what 
 I mean?" 
 
 The shaft struck home. Haldean turned the 
 color of ashes. He essayed to speak, but his voice, 
 except for an inarticulate gurgle in his throat, quite 
 failed him. Nor was Essie done. 
 
 "It is long, Tudor, since I entertained any illu 
 sions as to your character. I know how useless it 
 is to appeal to your sense of shame. Nevertheless, 
 you ought to be ashamed. Bill is a noble fellow; 
 while as for his simplicity, I believe he is not too 
 simple to know who robbed Gothard. I believe 
 he knows as well as I do, or as you do yourself; 
 and what is more, I believe he was willing to go to 
 prison in the guilty man s place rather than bring 
 disgrace on those he has chosen to serve." 
 
 Haldean walked away without a word, but the 
 look he gave her was the look of a wolf brought 
 to bay almost he seemed to show his teeth. She 
 was chilled, and pretty miserably wondered if her 
 whip hand had gained her aught after all. 
 
 225
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE tinker amply looked the part, as the say 
 ing goes, for not only were his hair and 
 beard conformably unkempt and his clothes rough 
 and ragged and stained with various soils, but he 
 had furthermore the slouching, shuffling gait of the 
 habitual nomad. Whoever sets out to disguise 
 himself as a wandering tinker will find that the 
 gait presents especial difficulties, and where you 
 encounter a tinker who walks like a tinker, you 
 may well believe him a tinker indeed. 
 
 But even at that you may be mistaken. 
 
 Throstlewood manor stood open to the evening 
 air, and the first any one knew of him he was al 
 ready inside and knocking on the jamb with the 
 knobby end of his rude stick. "Any umbrellas to 
 mend ?" he asked, and his tone was sufficiently 
 professional to pass muster. 
 
 Essie glanced up from her work, and instantly 
 the color fled her face. 
 
 "Umbrellas to mend?" the tinker repeated, in 
 a steady voice. 
 
 "No not to-day," she answered faintly and 
 shakily, her voice in marked contrast to his. 
 
 226
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 He had the customary brisk patter, or something 
 of the sort. " I can re-cover a worn-out umbrella, 
 but I don t pretend to be able to recover a borrowed 
 one!" he rattled off. "New ribs, new springs, new 
 handles new umbrellas, in short, for half what the 
 shopkeeper will ask you. Like the old squaw s 
 apron, you know. The old squaw came for a patch 
 to mend her apron with, and when they asked her 
 how big a patch, she wanted it big enough to go 
 all over. Umbresols, bumbershoots any, any um 
 brellas to mend ?" he wound up, quite in the gen 
 uine manner. Whoever should set out to disguise 
 himself as a tinker would have to practise some 
 what before he might hope to attain to such per 
 fection. 
 
 Essie trembled so that the dishes rattled together 
 under her hands. And instead of looking at the 
 tinker, after that first startled glance, she kept her 
 eyes averted. "Not not to-day!" she faltered, 
 and now her voice was dry and husky and alto 
 gether strange. 
 
 "Pleasant evening, ma am!" 
 
 No reply. 
 
 "I bid you good-night, ma am!" 
 
 No reply. 
 
 By chance, if chance it could be deemed, he had 
 found Essie alone; but as he turned to go, he met 
 Bill coming in. They gave each other some sort 
 
 227
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 of a perfunctory greeting, and the tinker slouched 
 off down the slope to the road. 
 
 Pears to be right smart of them hoboes round," 
 Bill remarked as he came on into the kitchen. 
 "Still, I dunno s I m mostly hostile to hoboes. 
 Anyway, not like some. Some thinks hoboes is 
 wuss n anything, but I druther a heap have ho 
 boes than grasshoppers." 
 
 "He wanted to mend umbrellas," Essie rejoined, 
 with an effort at indifference. 
 
 Tolerably easy she made out to appear her 
 effort was not such as to advertise her agitation. 
 Unless you had seen the first of the business, you 
 would hardly be given to suspect anything out of 
 the way hereupon, and of the first of it Bill was in 
 nowise aware. Quite as if the incident were as 
 trivial as she would have it seem, he bore himself, 
 for the present; but when, a little later, she drew 
 a shawl over her head and went forth into the cool 
 evening, he went forth too. 
 
 It was no unusual thing for her to do often of 
 an evening would she stroll out alone that way. 
 Bill understood wherefore understood, at least, 
 that it was solitude which she particularly sought; 
 and for all that he was a simpleton, he had far too 
 much delicacy to intrude upon her, while as for 
 dogging her footsteps, he were wholly incapable of 
 that, unless, perchance, he deemed it needful for 
 
 228
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 her safety. And how should it ever be needful for 
 her safety in those unfrequented regions ? Never 
 once, until now, had Bill seen fit to go creeping af 
 ter her furtively, at a distance, but never letting her 
 out of his sight. Of a truth, something must have 
 moved his apprehensions pretty strongly else he 
 would never be doing what was so downright in 
 delicate. 
 
 Hitherto, on these occasions, it had been the most 
 unfrequented regions of all to which she resorted 
 invariably she would strike across the pasture 
 and climb up through the lonely gorge to the high 
 land where the rocks were, some of them big as a 
 house. The rocks were in a way her friends, and 
 often she would linger with them till it was pretty 
 dark so dark that a timid woman would be fright 
 ened to find herself abroad alone. Of course Bill 
 knew what her way had been, all without spying, 
 and as he crept stealthily after her to-night he 
 would not fail to observe how markedly she was 
 departing from it, taking the contrary direction, in 
 fact, so as to keep to the public highway, which she 
 had always avoided before. Nor would it escape 
 him that she carried herself differently, no longer 
 in the aimless, meditative, strolling manner, but 
 rather as if she had a definite destination in mind 
 and were in more than a little hurry to reach it. 
 
 She hadn t gone so very far, in such fashion, till 
 229
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 the tinker, looking altogether another chap in spite 
 of having thrown off nothing but the tinkerly air, 
 emerged from a clump of hazel just in front of her. 
 "Oh, Esther, my Esther!" he cried, in a kind of 
 transport. 
 
 She halted at sight of him, and was like a 
 reed shaken by the wind. "Edgar, how could 
 you!" she wailed, and covered her face with her 
 hands. 
 
 "I knew you would come out!" he exclaimed, 
 with emotion. "I knew you would come out! 
 After all after all!" 
 
 A storm of weeping broke over her. "You 
 are cruel!" she sobbed hysterically. "It will be 
 so much harder now! Almost it was becoming 
 easy 
 
 "Esther! You cannot say that it cannot be 
 true! Easy? Never!" 
 
 "It will be harder!" 
 
 He drew near to her, with arms out-stretched, 
 but she shrank away from him. "No, no!" she 
 protested vehemently. "It is wrong wrong for 
 me to be here at all. Oh, why did I come out ?" 
 
 "Shall I tell you why?" 
 
 "Oh, Edgar! will you have no pity for me?" 
 
 "You have come out because you love me, 
 Esther. Many waters cannot quench love not 
 even the tears of wretchedness." 
 
 230
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "Don t oh, please don t! I pray you to have 
 pity." 
 
 There came a fierceness upon him the suave 
 and shuffling tinker had altogether vanished; and 
 she cowered before him. "You loved me when 
 you married this villain, and you love me still! 
 Don t deny it!" he exclaimed almost roughly. 
 
 "We are in the public highway!" 
 
 "It doesn t matter where we are you are mine 
 anywhere, everywhere, before all the world, and 
 heaven, and hell itself!" 
 
 "Somebody will see us. Do you wish me to be 
 disgraced ?" 
 
 "What folly to speak of disgrace after all that 
 has happened!" 
 
 "My husband he is from home perhaps he 
 will return this way! Oh, Edgar!" 
 
 The man laughed scornfully. "Do you expect 
 me to be frightened by the prospect?" 
 
 "At least you should have some consideration 
 for me." 
 
 "Very well, then. What would you have me 
 do?" 
 
 "Leave me go away and never come back!" 
 Her voice went thin with the stress upon it. 
 
 "And that is what you came out to say to me ?" 
 
 "I don t know why I came out, God help me! 
 There is nothing else to say!" 
 
 231
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "I am to believe you content?" 
 
 "I am helpless you cannot help me nobody 
 can help me! Leave me to live my life out as best 
 I can. Oh, how can you have the heart to make 
 harder what was so hard before!" 
 
 "You are not helpless! I am here to prove that 
 there is help for you if only you will accept of it." 
 
 "Edgar! do not mock me." 
 
 "Nothing can sanctify a fraud." 
 
 "There was no fraud I made my choice de 
 liberately and with knowledge." 
 
 "With knowledge! That you would be a 
 drudge?" 
 
 "Nobody foresees misfortune it is not for me 
 to complain." 
 
 "You were misled. Your uncle and aunt were 
 misled. They believed the miscreant would be 
 kind to you. It was nothing but a bargain and 
 sale, and when he was false to the terms of the 
 contract it became void you were absolved. You 
 are not bound either in conscience, in morals, or 
 in the lesser law of men." 
 
 "I am bound. I made my choice. I must 
 abide by it I must keep the faith!" 
 
 "Never! Do you fancy I have come all these 
 hundreds of miles and put myself in this absurd 
 disguise simply to talk romantic rubbish ? I ve 
 come to take you away with me!" 
 
 232
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "Edgar! Are you mad ?" 
 
 "No, I am not mad, but I am determined. I 
 am determined that you shall not again step across 
 that monster s threshold just as you are you will 
 go with me! Come, Esther, my own!" 
 
 " Stop! Do you forget that I am the lawful wife 
 of another ?" 
 
 "Lawful! By what law, pray? No law can 
 bind you to a criminal. Say but the word and you 
 are divorced by the law of man. By the law of 
 God you were never married!" 
 
 "Whom God hath joined " 
 
 "Blasphemy! Nobody says so but a mumbling 
 priest, and he only because he finds the words 
 printed in his liturgy. Who dare accuse God of 
 joining you to that creature?" 
 
 "For His own purpose He has so joined me. 
 In the providence of God not all marriages are 
 meant to be happy." 
 
 "You have nothing to regret, then ?" 
 
 "I regret and repent of a hundred misdeeds, and 
 by repentance hope to win forgiveness. There is 
 no forgiveness for me if I shirk the consequences 
 of my own free-will acts." 
 
 "And you think no better of holy matrimony 
 than that it should be a purgatory?" 
 
 "It might be worse. You are not generous, or 
 you would let me learn resignation. Oh, the utter 
 selfishness of that which men call love!" 
 
 233
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 A resentment flamed up in her all at once, and 
 for a moment she flashed upon him angrily. But 
 when he winced under her reproaches, and betrayed 
 in his face the wound her words gave him, she 
 broke down afresh and lost all her composure. 
 "Oh, Edgar!" she moaned. "If you love me, you 
 will be kind- 
 
 "Come, Esther! Come with me!" 
 
 He seized her hand. She struggled to free her 
 self, but only feebly, and directly gave over and be 
 came quite inert. There was a dumb terror upon 
 her, like that of a bird about to sink into the em 
 braces of a serpent the terror of a will prostrate. 
 It may happen to a woman that no prudence, no 
 power of reason, nothing, in short, that she can call 
 to her assistance, is sufficient to fortify her against 
 that instinct to yield which is the very principle of 
 womanhood; and it had happened to Essie. 
 
 But now, of a sudden, there was a great stir in 
 the thicket a trampling of heavy feet and a crack 
 ing of twigs; and in the next instant Bill burst 
 forth. The tinker, in sheer astonishment, let go 
 of Essie s hand and started back a step or two. 
 Involuntarily, he put himself in the posture of de 
 fence, but he had nothing to fear. Bill acted pre 
 cisely as if there had been no third person present 
 as if he had come upon his mistress alone and 
 quite unexpectedly. 
 
 "I was a-lookin for Daisy!" quoth he, in all 
 234
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 seeming innocence, and with the proper simulation 
 of mild anxiety. 
 
 Now Daisy was an old turkey which had her nest, 
 after the fashion of her kind, hidden away in the 
 wild-wood right there was the weak point in Bill s 
 pretence, because nobody who was at all informed 
 in the premises ever thought of prying into a tur 
 key s privacy when she was nesting, lest she be 
 prompted to abandon the enterprise in disgust. 
 But he hadn t much time in which to perfect his 
 invention, to say nothing of his little wit for im 
 posture, and so the turkey had to serve. 
 
 "Hain t happened to see Daisy, have ye?" he 
 asked, as if nothing else concerned him. 
 
 The tinker, quickly rallying from his astonish 
 ment, was not likely, the position being what it was, 
 to take kindly to the interruption. "What do you 
 want?" he demanded sharply. 
 
 Bill was as if nobody had spoken. 
 
 "Go back and tell the beast who sent you to 
 sneak out here go tell him to be a man for once in 
 his life and come out himself! Tell him there is 
 some one waiting for him who has known him long 
 without ever knowing good of him, and who would 
 be very pleased to settle two or three old scores! 
 Tell him that, and begone!" 
 
 So hissed the tinker, thoroughly incensed. Bill 
 pulled a leaf off a poplar sapling and crumpled it 
 
 235
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 to powder between his great thumb and finger. 
 "Beats all how dry ev rything s a-gittin , Essie!" 
 he observed regretfully. 
 
 Essie, on her part, stood as in a trance, with lips 
 stiffly parted and a delirious light in her eyes. 
 
 "Come, Esther!" urged the tinker, all tenderness 
 in addressing her, and took a step nearer. 
 
 But now an obstacle intervened, nothing less 
 than the gigantic bulk of a certain knight in denim 
 come to the rescue of a dame in dismay, if ever 
 such dame was. In no warlike fashion, gently, 
 but with effect, he took his stand. 
 
 "Hain t agoin home, be ye, Essie ?" he queried. 
 
 Yes, she was going home. In that instant was 
 the spell broken and she found herself. She faced 
 the tinker composedly. "Good-night, Edgar 
 good-night and good-by!" she said, and held out 
 her hand. 
 
 There was finality in her manner not to be 
 mistaken no fluttering uncertainty any more, but 
 steadfast decision. Bill drew off and gave himself 
 to the contemplation of the sky. 
 
 " Pears to be a bank in the west, but they do 
 say all signs fail in a dry time!" he remarked 
 weather-wisely. 
 
 The tinker was altogether subdued. "And I 
 am to go away and leave you here, after all ?" 
 
 "It is best, Edgar!" 
 
 236
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 This is to be the end of all my all my 
 
 "Be brave, Edgar! In another world 
 
 "Oh, God!" 
 
 Neither could speak further, but of the two the 
 woman was the calmer. She gave him her hand, 
 he raised it to his lips and kissed it, and that was 
 their parting. A moment more and Essie was 
 walking away with Bill. 
 
 And Bill was innocence personified. There was 
 a place where the raspberry brambles bordered the 
 road, and these furnished him a text to discourse 
 on at length. 
 
 "Maybe ye didn t notice," said he, "there s 
 somehow consid ble many rosberries, spite of the 
 freeze. Dunno s they s nough to be anyways 
 wuth pickin , prob Iy they hain t, prob ly they re 
 too scat rin , but they s rosberries all the same, 
 consid ly many of em. Beats all how ary rosberry 
 could go through that there big freeze an not 
 be teetotally bumsquatulated, as the feller said. 
 Still, I dunno but that s mostly the way it goes 
 with them there calamities, as ye might say. 
 Somehow they don t never turn out so goshfired 
 bad as we think. There ll most gen ly be suthin 
 saved, even if tain t nothin but a broomstick. 
 Even hail! Y gorry, hain t nothin so bad s hail, 
 I cal late, a-poundin* an a-slammin ev rything 
 down into the ground. Ever see corn hailed in ? 
 
 237
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 Now, there s calamity for ye, I say! An still it 
 don t never turn out so bad s ye d think, not 
 nohow." 
 
 Once she faltered. At the first turning of the 
 way she paused and looked back. But the tinker 
 was gone, and the road was empty, and night was 
 settling fast, and she heaved a rending sigh and 
 went on. 
 
 The house was lighted up as they drew near, 
 showing that Haldean had returned; and Bill, with 
 knightly delicacy, left her to go in alone. When 
 he had tarried outside awhile he went in, too. 
 
 All was pretty much as if nothing had happened. 
 The woman sat by the lamp with the Home Jour 
 nal opened out on her lap. 
 
 "What s into the paper this week, Essie?" in 
 quired Bill, and listened intently while she read 
 aloud about books and art.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE deadliness of wild parsnip is a tradition. 
 The weed may spring up almost anywhere, 
 and some declare that if garden parsnip chance to 
 be left in the ground to go its way, it will hearken 
 to the call of the wild and revert to its ancestral 
 traits and be as poisonous as any. But whether 
 that be so or not, tradition will quote you instances 
 not a few of husbandmen who have turned up the 
 tempting root with their ploughs, have eaten of it, 
 and have shortly died. 
 
 Bill had been ploughing that day, and when Es 
 sie heard him moaning in the night she thought 
 of wild parsnip, being acquainted with the tradi 
 tion. 
 
 Undeniably, he was foolhardy in respect of the 
 things he would eat she thought of that, too. His 
 custom was, if he found a strange berry in the. 
 woods straightway to put it in his mouth to try its 
 taste, and if he fancied it, he ate of it freely, never 
 stopping to ask if it might be injurious. Like 
 wise with barks and roots and leaves whatsoever 
 caught his eye. It would be very like him to eat 
 the wild parsnip his plough turned up. 
 
 239
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 He could boast, with good right, that nothing he 
 ate ever hurt him. It was a common exploit of 
 his to chew poison-ivy. Taint sasphrilly, but 
 it s some the same," he would aver, and profess to 
 like the perilous stuff. He was never known to 
 experience the least inconvenience from his fool- 
 hardiness. The truth was, no doubt, that he had 
 the constitution of an ox, too robust to be affected 
 by any trifle. Essie had never seen him sick, even 
 slightly. How should she not be especially star 
 tled, then, to hear him making moans in the night ? 
 
 No low moan, either. His room was a far at 
 tic, yet Essie, though she was distant almost the 
 length of the house and slept by no means lightly, 
 was awakened by the sound. 
 
 Her husband had not been disturbed, and she 
 let him lie. There were reasons why she should 
 hesitate to arouse him on such occasion, but she 
 did not debate the matter she was so seized with 
 alarm that the idea never entered her head. Bill 
 was in some great and unwonted distress, and the 
 impulse to go and find what ailed him possessed her 
 wholly. She was conscious of nothing else, and 
 least of all of any misgivings, as she slipped quickly 
 out of bed and, without so much as throwing a 
 wrap about herself, barefoot and clad only in her 
 night-gown, hurried to the stairway. She might 
 have been even less troubled, even less urged by 
 
 240
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 her solicitude, and yet have taken no more thought 
 of impropriety than if she were going to the relief 
 of a suffering child. 
 
 At the bottom of the stairs she paused and lis 
 tened, and in a moment heard the moan repeated. 
 
 "Bill!" she called. 
 
 No answer. Was he insensible, then ? If he 
 was poisoned, and already insensible, it meant that 
 he was far gone so much she knew, or believed 
 she knew. 
 
 " Bill, are you sick ?" she called again, and when 
 once more no answer came out of the darkness her 
 heart fairly stood still. 
 
 But if her heart stood still her feet did not. 
 Altogether heedless of the situation she was placing 
 herself in, foreseeing nothing of evil, considering 
 nothing unless it should be that she confronted a 
 desperate emergency such as dispensed her from 
 all conventionality and probably not that, since 
 she acted so entirely upon the impulse of her great 
 concern she flew up the stairway. 
 
 It was densely dark up there, and because she 
 quite forgot, in her agitation, that under the rigid 
 dispensation of economy Bill was used to retire 
 without a light, she had to fly back and get a lamp. 
 She felt the strain most in that moment, perhaps, 
 so that she trembled, and stumbled somewhat, and 
 groped wretchedly to find the matches, though she 
 
 241
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 knew precisely where they were. The wick, too, 
 was slow to take fire, and by its feeble, reluctant 
 fashion of burning at last forbade her to make too 
 much haste in carrying it up the draughty stairway. 
 The thought of the time she was losing greatly dis 
 tracted her, even though she had no definite notion 
 of what measures she should take, or if, indeed, 
 she should know how to take any. 
 
 That Bill was in a serious manner afflicted, a 
 glance sufficed to show. He lay in a cramped post 
 ure, suggesting nothing so much as that pain had 
 doubled him up, yet without motion, as senseless as 
 a log. Something in his aspect, though she could 
 not tell what, intimated that he had been taken with 
 a fit. Was he subject to fits ? Certainly she knew 
 nothing of it if he was, and yet she found herself 
 grasping hopefully at the possibility that a fit was 
 what ailed him hopefully, since anything were 
 better than to believe him poisoned. 
 
 She had time to form the purpose of fetching cold 
 water, that first of all first aids, and had set the 
 lamp on the rude stand by the bed, when a slight 
 noise behind her caused her to face about, and 
 there, in the doorway, stood her husband. He, too, 
 was clad only in his night-dress, and he had his 
 pistol in his hand. 
 
 He was a fearsome apparition, and not least so 
 by reason of the grin that made hideous his face. 
 
 242
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "To your knees!" he cried, in a terrible voice. 
 
 A sickening sense of some dreadful thing im 
 pending struck Essie dumb. She could only stare, 
 with starting eyes, and quake miserably. 
 
 To your knees, and ask pardon of the just God 
 whom you are about to meet!" shouted Haldean 
 violently. 
 
 What he threatened was all too apparent. Was 
 he capable of such a deed ? At all events she had 
 never known him wear so dire a look there was 
 the glare of insanity in his eyes, and she felt that 
 he might do anything. Probably she was very near 
 to believing that she had indeed but a short time 
 to live. 
 
 He wasn t done talking, however. " I will make 
 an end of these vile doings!" he raged. "Your 
 paramour I will attend to later quite possibly I 
 shall spare him, since he is a fool, and a fool is not 
 to blame for what a bad woman leads him to do. 
 But you shall pay the penalty here and now. I 
 have only waited till I might catch you in the midst 
 of your iniquity, and here you are. Am I to under 
 stand that you don t wish to say your prayers ? 
 Ah, I dare say it would be useless there is guilt 
 too black for even the Lord of Mercy to forgive!" 
 
 At last her lips could form speech. "Whom do 
 you refer to as my paramour?" 
 
 Haldean broke into a wild laugh. "Behold 
 243
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 him!" he exclaimed, waving his pistol toward Bill. 
 " Isn t he a lovely lover, though a very Hyperion 
 Antinous! I question if ever was a mortal fit 
 to compare with him. I commend your taste, 
 madam it does you great honor. Titania and 
 Bottom over again with apologies to Titania, 
 however!" 
 
 "He is sick, and I came to see what I might do 
 for him!" protested Essie, with a great effort to 
 meet the situation quietly lest otherwise she stir 
 a madman to greater madness. "Look, you can 
 see for yourself how sick he is." 
 
 To be sure, to be sure!" sneered Haldean. 
 
 "He may be dying!" 
 
 "Quite likely! Still, I will wager you something 
 that he outlives his ladylove." 
 
 "Tudor!" 
 
 Tudor! Oh, certainly by all means. There 
 was once another Tudor who knew what to do with 
 a faithless wife. And, by the way!" 
 
 He fell to chuckling, and the malign grin broad 
 ened till his teeth showed most strangely and horri 
 bly. Essie s fortitude was not proof against so 
 unnerving a sight, and involuntarily she shrank 
 back and put her hands over her face. 
 
 "I ve a fancy for picturesque effects," he an 
 nounced, with a flourish of grewsome jocularity. 
 "On second thought, I think I will dispose of you 
 
 244
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 both at once. In life united, in death why divided ? 
 But I desire to have you properly posed. Get into 
 the bed, strumpet!" 
 
 His eyes blazed like torches. 
 
 "Get into the bed/ he snarled, "and clasp your 
 arms about your paramour, and die as you have 
 lived. Take the fool s soul along with you to judg 
 ment, and let it be what apology for you it may. 
 You can argue with God that having misbehaved 
 with a fool, the fact ought to count in your favor. 
 Ha, ha! Do you hear me?" 
 
 He advanced with his free hand out-stretched, 
 as if he would lay hold of her. The attic was close 
 up under the sloping roof, and the ceiling, nowhere 
 high, came down to within three feet of the floor 
 at the sides it was there that Essie crouched and 
 cowered, too affrighted to try to escape. Haldean 
 came on as far as he could without stooping, and 
 halted, glowering. 
 
 "Get up and come here!" he commanded 
 harshly. 
 
 She obeyed that is, she crept toward him. For 
 now the great first law of nature asserted itself, and 
 Essie was minded to implore her husband s mercy. 
 
 "Don t kill me, Tudor!" she begged passion 
 ately. "What have I done that you should wish 
 to kill me ? Haven t I left everything, sacrificed 
 everything, to cleave unto you? Don t don t!" 
 
 245
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 Her humility amused him, if amusement could 
 be anything so savage. But for the rest he was 
 unmoved by her piteous entreaties. "Get into the 
 bed, I tell you!" he roared, and gripped her by the 
 arm. 
 
 At that she shrieked. It was the outcry of 
 a soul in utter terror, confronted with a fearful 
 doom, and it was superlatively piercing. It pene 
 trated Bill s lethargy, hitherto unbroken, so that he 
 started up. 
 
 Essie saw him, and clutched at the chance of 
 deliverance. "Oh, Bill, don t let him kill me!" 
 she cried frantically. 
 
 Bill s instinct, if not his faculties, took instant 
 alarm. Whatever the spell that had been upon 
 him, it passed like a breath at the sound of his 
 mistress s voice, so eloquent of distress. With the 
 quickness of a panther he was up and to the rescue. 
 Essie felt her husband s grip relax, and shut her 
 eyes, having no thought but that the death-dealing 
 pistol was about to do its work. 
 
 That was not to be, however. Instead, there 
 ensued a brief interval of dead silence, and it was 
 broken by Bill. 
 
 "Hain t ye feelin right well, cap?" she heard 
 him ask, and his tone of kindly anxiety admonished 
 her that events were taking no such turn as she 
 had expected. 
 
 246
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 Indeed they were not. Even as Bill spoke, the 
 pistol slipped from Haldean s fingers and dropped, 
 with a loud rattle, to the floor. The master was 
 being strangely overpowered. He labored hard 
 for breath all at once, and tore with both hands at 
 the collar of his night-dress, to loosen it. In a 
 moment s time his face lost all its flush and grew 
 ghastly and sunken, like the face of death. He 
 opened his lips with a low, frightened cry, and a 
 thick stream of blood gushed forth. He swayed, 
 plunged forward, and would have fallen prone only 
 that Bill caught him in his arms and laid him gently 
 on the bed. 
 
 Though shocked to the very marrow, Essie was 
 not prostrated. On the contrary, the effect was to 
 restore her to herself. "Go for a doctor, Bill!" 
 she directed calmly. And when Bill, all eagerness 
 to be of service and all forgetful of his own illness, 
 had set forth, on foot but at a faster pace than many 
 a horse could keep up with, she busied herself with 
 various homely measures of relief. 
 
 The flow of blood greatly abated after the first 
 outburst, and presently ceased altogether. But 
 the loss had been great, as the drenched bedding 
 and the spattered floor testified, and Haldean lay 
 for a long while unconscious. Part of the time he 
 breathed so faintly that she almost believed he 
 breathed no more, but she kept steadily at work, 
 
 247
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 with cooling cloths at the temples and brandy 
 dropped between the colorless lips, and at length 
 she was rewarded by seeing him revive somewhat. 
 But still he was very, very weak too weak even 
 to lift his eyelids. 
 
 At the first sign of returning life she spoke to 
 him. Tudor, you are better ?" 
 
 He heard her that was apparent; and he tried 
 to answer, but for the present his tongue refused 
 its office. 
 
 "Don t try to talk lie quiet till you are 
 stronger!" she cautioned him gently. 
 
 But he only renewed the effort, and shortly to 
 some avail. "I shall never be better," he gasped 
 hoarsely. "You will have the satisfaction of know 
 ing that you killed me!" 
 
 That bitter, spiteful speech was a foretaste of 
 what was to come. To the last he remained as 
 ungracious as possible, always sorry for himself, 
 but with no consideration for any one else, railing 
 and complaining continually. 
 
 It was well on toward morning when the doctor 
 arrived. He found the sick man asleep, and for 
 fear of waking him made only a cursory search 
 for symptoms. But, for that matter, no more was 
 necessary to discover what a desperately sick man 
 he had to deal with the symptoms that lay on the 
 surface told the story. 
 
 248
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 "Will he live?" Essie asked, and the anxiety 
 which wrung her heart was void of ungenerous 
 reservation. 
 
 "He will live," the doctor replied, but when she 
 asked how long, she perceived that he had equivo 
 cated. 
 
 "He cannot recover ? Please be frank with me, 
 sir!" 
 
 "I am not aware of any authentic instance of 
 recovery from consumption so far advanced you 
 should not deceive yourself as to that. At the 
 same time nothing is impossible, and always while 
 there s life there is hope." 
 
 They fought a valiant fight against the destroyer, 
 Essie and Bill, and when it was over the doctor 
 took occasion to say so. And if, out of proper del 
 icacy, he refrained from complimenting the wife s 
 devotion too freely, as if that were a thing not to 
 be expected, he did not in the least stint his praise 
 of Bill s part. "A trained nurse could have done 
 no better, and probably wouldn t have done so 
 well!" he declared, a little extravagantly, perhaps, 
 but in all sincerity. 
 
 Certainly Bill deserved to be praised. He was 
 assiduous and gentle and deft, and his patience 
 was a marvel. Had Haldean deliberately set out 
 to be troublesome that he actually did so was 
 altogether probable he could not well have made 
 
 249
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 a greater trial of his illness. His petulance and 
 unreason with respect of lesser things were only 
 what might be expected, considering how weak 
 and feverish he was; but it was more than that 
 when he openly and repeatedly accused the rela 
 tions of Bill and Essie and in the doctor s presence 
 charged them with conspiring to put him out of 
 the way. He professed to believe that he had been 
 laid low by a slow poison which his wife was ad 
 ministering secretly, and when the doctor, taking 
 him at his word, tried to shame him out of so 
 monstrous a suspicion, he showed plainly that he 
 suspected nothing of the sort and only wished to 
 be as unkind and insulting as possible. That was 
 the worst if he had been delirious, even in the 
 least degree, his behavior would signify nothing; 
 but these outbursts, so full of deliberate and cal 
 culating malignancy, were almost more than Essie 
 could bear. For all her anxiety, so generous and 
 free from unworthy sentiment, there were times 
 when she was fain to run away for a little to avoid 
 being drawn into a display of just resentment. 
 And those were the times when Bill s quality shone 
 forth especially, for he never flinched. No doubt 
 he had less sensibility and could not be so easily 
 wounded, but that would scarcely account for all 
 his prodigious patience. He was as cheerfully 
 ready to endure all things as a tender mother with 
 
 250
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 a sick child. And the things to be endured, wholly 
 apart from the peculiar temper of the patient, were 
 not trifling, as every one knows who has had to do 
 with the care of a consumptive at the last. 
 
 Essie was concerned for him in that connection. 
 "Is there not danger of infection ?" she asked the 
 doctor. 
 
 The man of medicine looked at Bill and smiled. 
 "I d as soon think of a buffalo catching measles!" 
 quoth he. 
 
 The end came in about two months, and, as often 
 happens in such cases, suddenly. There was no 
 body with the master but Essie, and he passed away 
 so quietly that she was not aware, till some minutes 
 later, that he had breathed his last. There was 
 no final scene between them. She at once called 
 Bill, asleep in another room. 
 
 "Mr. Haldean is dead," she said. 
 
 "You don t aim to tell me!" said Bill. 
 
 Thereupon Essie broke down. "Oh, Bill, was 
 I as good to him as I should have been?" she 
 sobbed. 
 
 Bill wept, too, boisterously. "If you wasn t, 
 nuther was I!" he bawled. 
 
 251
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 FROM the moment when Essie became a 
 widow, it suited Bill to regard Throstlewood 
 as no longer his, but hers. By what process he 
 brought about the transfer in nowise appeared 
 mere details of that sort were not likely to concern 
 him anyway; but the visible amount of it was that 
 he descended, voluntarily and with good grace, to 
 the estate of a hired man. The farm was Essie s 
 henceforth, and while he had never deemed it good 
 business to work for others, he would work for her. 
 Whatever his arrangements were, he made them 
 all by himself, without consulting a soul, and when 
 he had them to his satisfaction he notified his mis 
 tress, the chief party in interest. 
 
 "Dunno s I care bout ownin prop ty, some 
 how!" quoth he, by way of making his position 
 clear. 
 
 Essie was thereupon as grave as she looked, for 
 it was ground for apprehension when Bill should 
 set forth on a departure so radical. "Why not, 
 pray ?" she asked. 
 
 "Spons bility!" he replied, marshalling the big 
 word with a pompous flourish. 
 
 252
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 It was a great relief to her when he went on to 
 say that he somehow druther be a hired man for a 
 spell her hired man. She understood, and the 
 understanding brought tears to her eyes. Not 
 in the least did he ask her consent, but she was 
 very glad, indeed, to overlook that formality once 
 more she understood and was profoundly touched. 
 Was ever knight more faithful ? 
 
 "Very well, Bill, * she said. "But if you are go 
 ing to be my hired man, you will have to be paid 
 wages. What about wages ?" 
 
 At that he assumed an air of deep subtlety. 
 "I m cornsid rin ," said he, and that was as far as 
 he would ever go with the discussion of the subject. 
 As often as she broached it, he was still considering, 
 and his air grew subtler and subtler, if that were 
 possible. 
 
 Not so very long after the master s passing, the 
 financial skies altered their complexion materially. 
 Bill got his pension. It was a small pension, only 
 the four dollars a month prescribed by law for the 
 least disability; but the accumulation of back pay 
 amounted to no mean sum several hundred dol 
 lars, in fact, quite enough to make a different out 
 look at Throstlewood. 
 
 It was all very astonishing, and nobody could 
 be more astonished than Bill himself, though he 
 affected to carry the matter off loftily, as if it were a 
 matter of course and only what he had been looking 
 
 253
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 for right along. For once the mills of the gods had 
 been grinding out favor without prompting on the 
 part of their beneficiary, and their motive, pri 
 marily at least, seemed to lie in the interest of the 
 agent who had examined Bill and tried so hard and 
 so vainly to find him in some respect entitled to be 
 rated as an invalid. A toilsome search of the 
 military records had discovered a Private William 
 Harbaugh, who was in all probability none other 
 than Bill, and who beyond the shadow of a doubt 
 had been a most excellent soldier. How a man 
 capable of serving with credit through the tremen 
 dous battles of Chancellorsville and Antietam, to 
 say nothing of a score of engagements only lesser, 
 and still remember nothing of it beyond a few 
 vague particulars of some insignificant skirmish 
 that was something for psychologists to puzzle 
 their heads over. The pension authorities were 
 not psychologists, but they wondered greatly and 
 deemed the case as strange as any they had ever 
 encountered, and what was more to the point the 
 wish grew with them, as they proceeded with their 
 investigation, to see Private William Harbaugh 
 visited with the substantial testimony to his coun 
 try s gratitude. In short, his merit so appealed to 
 them that they cut through the red tape, made 
 nothing of the technical difficulties, and caused the 
 pension to be granted. 
 
 But though the financial skies were markedly 
 254
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 affected, it is not to be taken for granted that they 
 were particularly less overcast. Clouds are capa 
 ble of presenting a variety of aspects without ceas 
 ing to be clouds. 
 
 The agent, personally, and in a high glow of sat 
 isfaction, journeyed out to the Valley bringing the 
 news and the great lump of money all at once. 
 Essie s first intimation of anything in the wind was 
 when he drove up. She was all alone at the house, 
 and when he asked for William Harbaugh she 
 directed him to the field where Bill was at work. 
 Not without apprehensions she was glad to see 
 the stranger go as he had come, by himself; and 
 that was the extent of her intimation until noon 
 brought Bill to his dinner. 
 
 He demeaned himself about as usual nearly 
 through the meal, when all at once, as if bethinking 
 himself of lesser affairs as the satisfaction of his 
 hunger permitted, he plunged into his pocket and 
 pulled out three rather thick packets of bills, and 
 in a light, airy manner, as to make so much paper 
 of them, proceeded to strew them about his plate. 
 They formed something of a drift disposed in such- 
 wise. In fine, it was a spectacle most unwonted 
 in those precincts, and a spectacle, too, well cal 
 culated to give Essie uneasiness. 
 
 "Bill!" she exclaimed aghast. "Where did you 
 get that money ?" 
 
 255
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 The thought which flashed into her mind went 
 back to the robbery of old Gothard and the mis 
 fortune that had come of it. Had Bill, though in 
 nocent then, been started in the way of the trans 
 gressor by having transgression laid at his door ? 
 Having found it glorious to be accused and brought 
 to judgment, had he, with whom glory acted like 
 a high wine, been prompted to rob that he might 
 be freshly called to account ? Not improbably 
 Essie had to confess that it would be like him so to 
 go astray. 
 
 But that wasn t the way of it at all. Tell me, 
 Bill!" she insisted, mindful still of the other occa 
 sion when he had come to her with money in his 
 hands. 
 
 "Feller give it to me!" he answered coolly. 
 
 "What fellow?" 
 
 "Short-complected feller like. Had a sorrel 
 mare with three white feet an a leetle sprung in 
 the off knee. Not so s t you d scurcely notice it, 
 an* still a leetle sprung. Maybe you seen the 
 mare ?" 
 
 "Do you mean the man who came out to the 
 field to find you this morning?" 
 
 "That s the critter!" 
 
 "And he gave you all that money ?" 
 
 "Yep! Had a new-fangled do-funny sort of a 
 pen like. There was ink to it but no ink-bottle, 
 
 256
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 nears I could make it out. He brung some papers, 
 an* he handed me his do-funny an told me to make 
 my mark. I done so, as the Dutchman said, an 
 then he forked over this here. Forked it right over 
 slick an clean!" 
 
 "But, Bill! why should the man be paying you 
 so much money ? Did he owe it to you ?" 
 
 "I reckon it s mine, all right. Feller claimed it 
 was my pension, an I s pose he d oughter know." 
 
 And just here his memory played a character 
 istic prank. If it was no better than a sieve for 
 holding what really mattered, he could none the 
 less bethink him of Dan Linton, whose enjoyment 
 of a pension he had once been made to regard as 
 a reproach to himself. Now, at length, it lay in 
 his mouth to crow over Dan Linton. "Dan, he ll 
 diskiver he hain t no cuter maybe n some others!" 
 he chuckled. It was a new reflection, and it caused 
 him to brighten visibly and to take distinctly more 
 interest in his money. In short, he began to scent 
 distinction, though it should be of a tame variety. 
 
 Essie was to the last degree mystified. She was 
 not aware, as it happened, that Bill had been a 
 soldier even, to say nothing of his being an appli 
 cant for a pension. Moreover, what kind of a bus 
 iness was it which would send money showering 
 down upon a simpleton at work in a cornfield, 
 in utter disregard of his simplicity ? If the agent 
 
 257
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 had been a fairy godmother in disguise he could 
 hardly have gone about his operations more ro 
 mantically, with less heed to the natural conse 
 quences. How largely the pension system was 
 founded on sentiment and by sentiment adminis 
 tered Essie had never been in a position to learn, 
 and so the fashion of its bounty gave her first of all 
 a sense of unreality. But it was real enough, and 
 fraught enough with embarrassments, as very pres- 
 sently developed. 
 
 Bill finished his dinner and rose to go, leaving 
 his funds spread out on the table. 
 
 "Aren t you going to take your money with 
 you?" asked Essie, whom the briefest considera 
 tion had apprised of the uncomfortable position 
 she was likely to be placed in by Bill s stroke of 
 fortune. 
 
 He glanced at her uncertainly. "Guess maybe 
 I d better," he said, and gathered up the bills with 
 as little ceremony as if they had been corn husks, 
 crushing them back into his pocket. 
 
 "You ll lose some of it if you re not careful!" 
 she warned him. 
 
 "That s all right! That s all right!" he rejoined, 
 and swaggered out with the port of the veriest 
 prodigal. 
 
 It was an afternoon of sober debating for Essie. 
 In a few hours, accidents apart, the problem would 
 
 258
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 present itself again, and it would have to be met. 
 Bluntly, how could she bring herself to take the 
 money into her own keeping ? But all things con 
 sidered, how could she do otherwise ? She knew 
 perfectly well what Bill s wish was beyond a 
 doubt, he had intended, in his vague way, to leave 
 the bills with her when he threw them out on the 
 table, and had put them back in his pocket only 
 because her manner suggested unwillingness. What 
 would suit him best, and be best for him, was that 
 she assume charge of the money and use it pre 
 cisely as if it were her own by no other disposition 
 could he derive so much benefit of it or so much 
 satisfaction. Yet she had only to reflect on what 
 the world would say of such a course to feel herself 
 forbidden. Of course she could not use the money 
 without the world getting to know, nor could the 
 source of her means be kept a secret. And equally, 
 of course, the world would accuse her of having 
 taken advantage of Bill. She would gain an odi 
 ous reputation, and to her reputation what good 
 woman may be indifferent ? It is she if any one 
 who has to avoid the appearance of evil. 
 
 But there was another side, not to be overlooked. 
 To let him keep the money, to be carried about with 
 him like some small boy s moderately esteemed toy 
 that of itself were a wrong which grew fast in 
 contemplation. The best to be hoped of so doing 
 
 259
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 was that he might speedily lose the stuff and so be 
 rid of it, for until he should be rid of it somehow 
 he was liable to be the prey of all sorts of unscrupu 
 lous designs. You need not go far from Throstle- 
 wood to find persons who, in Essie s estimation at 
 least, would not hesitate to murder if by murder 
 they might possess themselves of so large a sum. 
 Nor was that to conjure up a remote contingency 
 to borrow trouble gratuitously. Bill was alto 
 gether likely to parade his windfall in season and 
 out, and there lurked in his nature a quality of ob 
 stinacy which, refusing to be wheedled out of the 
 plunder, would have the effect of putting villany 
 to its resources. No, murder was by no means 
 out of the question; she had to ask herself very 
 seriously if she had the right to save her reputa 
 tion at the risk of her faithful retainer s life. 
 
 How could she take over the money ? How 
 could she not ? 
 
 Of Bill s quality of obstinacy she was soon to 
 have a demonstration. Toward evening, as she 
 debated, an inspiration came to her so simple, 
 all in the usual style of inspirations, that she won 
 dered how it had not been her first thought. Why 
 not persuade Bill to deposit his funds in the village 
 bank in his own name ? 
 
 As soon as he came in she laid the proposal be 
 fore him not baldly and bluntly, but with all cau- 
 
 260
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 tion and such various representations as she could 
 think of calculated to make him aware of the exi 
 gencies; and point-blank it was rejected. 
 
 "Please, Bill!" she begged, for she had grown so 
 anxious that it wasn t easy to give up. 
 
 "Not much, Mary Ann!" he blustered, and 
 would listen neither to reason nor entreaty. 
 
 What possessed the fellow ? She was ready to 
 cry with vexation, and yet, though she conceived 
 that she had never known him to show so unami- 
 able an aspect, she could see through it, after a 
 little, and beneath it discern his old fidelity. Of 
 course he knew nothing of banks, either for or 
 against them; he wished her to have the money 
 that was the whole sum of his aversion to any other 
 plan. Having been made conscious of her reluc 
 tance, for his simplicity did not hinder him from 
 taking impressions very, very readily, he was loath 
 to say what he wanted, but the desire of his faith 
 ful heart was to give the money into her keeping. 
 How should she be vexed with him long, even 
 though she was no nearer seeing her way clear to 
 do as he would have her ? 
 
 He went off to bed with a bill sticking so far out 
 of his pocket that she easily read the denomination. 
 It was a one-hundred-dollar bill. 
 
 If it had been an afternoon of sober argument, 
 the night was a night of worry. Essie scarcely 
 
 261
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 slept at all, and then but fitfully, her slumber 
 haunted with ugly dreams; and now it was the 
 thought of having so much ready money in the 
 house that troubled her terrified her at last, so 
 that she got up and prowled about like a sentinel 
 on guard. In all likelihood Bill had not failed to 
 display his windfall the only chance to the 
 contrary was the remote chance that nobody had 
 come his way and how did she know but de 
 signs were already hatched to break in and steal ? 
 More than once, so wrought upon was she by her 
 forebodings, she fancied she heard hands trying 
 the windows. 
 
 But no such evil came to pass, and in the morning 
 affairs took a new turn. It appeared that Bill had 
 been thinking, too, if the nebulous process whereby 
 he framed his purposes were rightly to be so des 
 ignated. He didn t go into the field that day, but 
 with his subtlest air, and giving no hint of what he 
 intended, he betook himself off in the direction of 
 Atro City. 
 
 That was worrisome, likewise, though not so 
 acutely so. Where was the untoward business to 
 end ? 
 
 Bill was gone till about noon. And the manner 
 of his return was astonishing enough. 
 
 He had caused himself to be tricked out in a cos 
 tume truly marvellous. The most striking detail 
 
 262
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 of it was a flaming red mackinaw blouse, and you 
 doubtless know what mackinaw is the heaviest 
 and densest sort of flannel, designed to be worn only 
 in exceedingly cold weather, whereas to-day was 
 an uncommonly hot day in summer. Bill had the 
 unseasonable garment buttoned up to his chin and 
 belted tightly about him, and it made him sweat 
 prodigiously; but in spite of the manifest discom 
 fort, he came on with his head erect, as proudly as 
 any soldier on parade. Along with his blouse he 
 wore buckskin gloves having a gilt star stamped 
 on the cuffs, and a broad cowboy hat not less radi 
 antly adorned. But the crowning touch, though 
 at a distance you did not catch it, was the strong 
 perfume with which he had sprinkled himself 
 drenched, rather, to judge by results. 
 
 Very evidently he expected to make a sensation. 
 It were cruel not to applaud, and Essie could not 
 be cruel to Bill. 
 
 "Isn t it pretty warm, though ?" she asked, fin 
 gering the skirt of the mackinaw to test its quality. 
 
 "I reckon what ll keep out the cold had oughter 
 keep out the warmth!" he replied, with a finality 
 which bespoke the philosopher confident of his 
 deductions. 
 
 And still the field and the crops had no charms 
 for him. He spent the remainder of the day strut 
 ting about in his finery. Especially he lingered 
 
 263
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 near the road, and as often as any one passed he 
 could be heard insisting that whatever kept out the 
 cold ought logically to keep out the heat in a like 
 manner. 
 
 He was entirely and intensely happy so long as 
 he could be making his sensation, but when night 
 had fallen, and he sat in the kitchen with his mis 
 tress, a dejection came upon him. He took out 
 the money and handled it over, and she heard him 
 talking to himself. 
 
 "Seems so hit s bout as much as twas!" he 
 muttered discontentedly. 
 
 She knew what he meant the windfall had 
 grown a sore burden to him, so that he was minded 
 to throw it off in any way he might; he had gone 
 to town in the instinctive understanding that 
 money might there be spent, and now the result 
 was disappointment, since he had seemingly, so 
 far as he could see, as much money as ever. So 
 much she knew, but even at that she wasn t ready 
 to come to his relief, though she caught him stealing 
 timid and furtive glances at her which had in them 
 a mighty power of appeal. And so, next day, he 
 had another fling. Morning found him much re 
 stored in spirits, and all in his brave array he set 
 forth once more. 
 
 Atro City was just then in the midst of one of 
 those curious compromises between the dominant 
 
 264
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 commercialism of the present and the old-time 
 carnival spirit they call them street fairs. The 
 village was all fluttering with cheap and tawdry 
 decorations in outlandish style, the thoroughfares 
 were blocked with show-tents and booths, and the 
 barker in his multiformity was vociferously abroad 
 in the land. There was uproar everywhere, in fact 
 it was the particular character of the thing. 
 
 Noisiest of all, no doubt, was the merry-go- 
 round, in virtue of its hideous hurdy-gurdy grind 
 ing out popular tunes. It was at the merry-go- 
 round that Bill, marching into town that morning, 
 fetched up first. The affair caught his fancy. 
 
 "Lemme ride hind that there big cat with the 
 side whiskers!" he demanded, to the great amuse 
 ment of the crowd. 
 
 The big cat with the side whiskers professed to 
 be the figure of a royal Bengal tiger, but the pro 
 prietor of the concern, scenting profit, did not in 
 the least mind having his animals called out of 
 their right name. Bill was duly taken aboard, and 
 rode delightedly, as his unrestrained whoops and 
 wild wavings of the cowboy hat well attested. In 
 fact, he was quite beside himself with joy, in testi 
 mony thereof made only less noise than the hurdy- 
 gurdy, and served vastly more to promote the 
 general gayety. Nor was he selfish in his pleasure; 
 a closely packed fringe of children looked on dis- 
 
 265
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 consolately, in default of the price, and these he 
 caused to be taken aboard, too. 
 
 "Have you the money to pay?" the proprietor 
 inquired, suspicious of such a wholesale order. 
 
 Bill snatched out his windfall and flourished it 
 aloft. "That nough ?" he demanded, with the 
 genuine spendthrift air. 
 
 It was enough, and the children had their treat. 
 Their host stayed with them awhile, but his enjoy 
 ment was too intense to last it effervesced like 
 wine, and he passed on to explore other diversions. 
 
 The guild of swindlers were not likely to remain 
 long ignorant that the queer chap in a red macki- 
 naw blouse had his pockets full of real money, and 
 Bill was straightway the object of their assiduous 
 attention. Not fifty feet away from the merry- 
 go-round he was deftly steered up to a wheel of 
 fortune. 
 
 "No blanks no matter where the needle stops, 
 you ll get something!" the barker barked entic- 
 ingly. 
 
 A chance cost a dollar, and that was a good deal 
 to pay for the cigar which was the least valuable 
 article you could win, or for the trinkets which 
 made up most of the remaining offerings. But 
 here and there in the circle which the point of the 
 needle traversed were gold coins several five-dol 
 lar pieces and at least one ten-dollar piece. It is 
 
 266
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 possible, you perceive, if you are not too sophisti 
 cated, to pay in a dollar and get it back increased 
 tenfold. 
 
 Bill wasn t a bit backward about being steered 
 up no child could be keener for novelty than he. 
 The polished needle fascinated him at once, and 
 he watched it absorbedly while it slowed down, 
 stopped, swung back, hovered to and fro unde 
 cidedly, and finally came to a perfect stand-still. 
 And when the barker, instantly discerning a victim 
 to be plucked, besought him to try his luck, he 
 laid down his dollar unhesitatingly, incidentally 
 discovering to the world that he did not know a 
 dollar from a half and by that intensifying the 
 swindler s interest in him. 
 
 "Whirl it yourself, neighbor, so you ll know 
 there s no trick about it!" directed the latter gra 
 ciously, and Bill, laughing for glee, set the needle 
 in motion. 
 
 It was an uncommonly long time coming to a 
 decision, hovering and hovering, while the crowd 
 gaped in suspense; and when it stopped, it stood 
 over a five-dollar gold piece. "Easy, easy, easy!" 
 sang out the barker, and tossed the coin to Bill. 
 
 There were stool-pigeons at hand to do their 
 part, and they employed the usual devices to in 
 duce Bill to try another throw. He needed little 
 urging, for the present the fun of whirling the 
 
 267
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 needle was too great and too new to be abandoned 
 so soon. The swindlers were playing him with a 
 view to awaking the gambling insl -nct in him, and 
 they augured too well, no doubt, of the light they 
 saw in his eyes. Yet they played him carefully, too, 
 for he was a big fish, and so, when he whirled a 
 second time, the needle stopped over the ten-dollar 
 piece. 
 
 But right there the wine effervesced once more. 
 For once the swindlers had mistaken their prey 
 they were used to deal with simpletons, but not 
 such a simpleton. Bill s elation was spent all at 
 once. Mechanically, since they were thrust toward 
 him, he gathered his winnings into his pocket and 
 turned wearily away. Even the glittering needle, 
 fascinating plaything though it was, could tempt 
 him no further. 
 
 "Come, come, man! Ain t you goin to be a 
 sport and try again ?" the barker, in very real dis 
 may, called after him. 
 
 "Nope!" answered Bill doggedly, and the crowd 
 jeered at the sharper s patent discomfiture. 
 
 He was a drooping, downcast retainer who re 
 turned to the mistress at Throstlewood that even 
 ing. He came plodding heavily, his gorgeous 
 blouse ignominiously rolled up under his arm, his 
 cowboy hat crushed out of shape, his gloves gone 
 altogether. But he had his bunch of bills still, 
 
 268
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 and the gold coins besides, and he threw them all 
 down on the kitchen table cast them from him 
 in utter disgust -and dropped into a chair. 
 
 "I m a poor, ign ant feller!" he exclaimed, with 
 infinite pathos. When was it like Bill to distrust 
 himself, and, distrusting himself, what was there 
 left in life for him ? 
 
 Essie could hold out no longer. " Do you wish 
 me to take care of the money for you, Bill ?" she 
 asked. 
 
 Y gorry, yes!" he replied, brightening as the 
 sky when the clouds part. 
 
 As soon thereafter as possible she made a de 
 posit in the Bank of Atro City, in the name of 
 Esther Haldean, Trustee. The cashier suggested 
 that style when she told him something of the cir 
 cumstances. She liked it, because it seemed in a 
 sense to take the curse off. 
 
 And Bill was forthwith himself again, blithe and 
 buoyant, with all his interest in his fields restored. 
 
 269
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THOUGH the money was safely out of the 
 house, and where no thief was likely to break 
 in and steal, Essie did not cease to be haunted 
 it still weighed on her mind, and not lightly. 
 Whereas Bill was troubled no more, his mistress 
 could by no means count herself so fortunate. 
 
 There is a phrase about starving in the midst of 
 plenty in these plenteous days only a phrase, with 
 almost nobody pausing to consider what it might 
 mean in other circumstances. But Essie s poverty 
 was a distressful fact, and unremittingly so. The 
 acres of soil which had fallen to her seemed almost 
 to grow in sterility from season to season, for all 
 that they had never before known such faithful till 
 age contrive as she would, it was bitterly difficult, 
 even after the hard times had passed for the rest of 
 the world, to wring the barest livelihood out of them. 
 She did not starve, literally, but often and often 
 she fancied that literal starvation couldn t be much 
 worse. And here, in the form of Bill s pension, 
 was plenty rained down within reach of her hand. 
 Can you not believe that the courses of her thought 
 were affected by the position in which she found 
 herself? 
 
 270
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 Moreover, she held herself the trustee of Bill s 
 funds in more than a nominal sense when she had 
 herself so styled on the books of the bank, it meant 
 more than a quibbling evasion to her. In point 
 of fact, she very solemnly, though all within her own 
 bosom, consecrated herself to the duty which the 
 trust implied. To begin with, she had no very dis 
 tinct idea of what that duty amounted to, but at any 
 rate her consecration was very real, and entirely 
 sincere, and so an idea took form, and the amount 
 of it was that she ought to be administering the 
 funds to some advantage. The word investment 
 suggested itself it was no unfamiliar word, nor 
 was she without experience of its meaning. Should 
 not the money be invested ? Unless something of 
 the kind were done, should she not write herself 
 down an unfaithful stew r ard ? 
 
 If Essie had been in easy circumstances, no doubt 
 she would willingly have left the pension money 
 idle in the bank let well enough alone, in other 
 words. But now, even sooner than she knew, she 
 was possessed of a wish to make the money yield a 
 profit, and if a profit to its owner, then why not 
 properly to its steward as well ? That was the 
 thought to which she was led by the several influ 
 ences at work the thought of such an administra 
 tion of Bill s estate as should justly entitle her to 
 compensation. Not a penny of gratuity would she 
 
 271
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 take, though she died for it, but fair pay for valua 
 ble service was another matter anyhow, she was 
 brought to see it a different matter. She under 
 stood vaguely, as women are apt to understand in 
 such connections, about brokerage; and her pur 
 pose, gradually forming, contemplated more and 
 more definitely some advantageous investment of 
 the funds, with a fair percentage of the profits to 
 accrue to her. It was a purpose to alarm her at 
 first, but its attractions were not to be denied, 
 especially since they had acted upon her in so large 
 part unconsciously. Not least of its charms, it 
 put her in the light of a business woman, and how 
 should she not be pleased by that ? Building 
 castles which had the merit of being solidly com 
 mercial in character, with no infusion of romance, 
 that in strictness were not building castles at all, 
 but the beginning of enterprise. 
 
 In fine, Essie s predicament was such as to 
 render her the easy and unwitting prey of mislead 
 ing fancies, and a visionary scheme was the natu 
 ral result. 
 
 She was put in mind of rubber, in the first in 
 stance, by a circular which came floating to her, 
 through the mails, by the merest chance it was 
 so the monster speculation reached out and touched 
 her with its tentacles. The circular was addressed 
 to Mr. Esau Howden, but nobody was to be found 
 
 272
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 of that name, and so the post-office turned it over 
 to Mrs. Essie Haldean as being in a manner next of 
 kin. She hadn t the slightest reason to believe it 
 was meant for her, but it was unsealed and she 
 took a look at it. And having taken a look she 
 found that which interested her, and so read it 
 through, every word. 
 
 It was all about rubber and the profits to be 
 derived from the cultivation thereof, and to Essie, 
 in her predicament, the promise it held out was 
 alluring and plausible, too. Here was none of 
 your extravagant documents, claiming everything. 
 The most striking point about it, indeed, was its 
 moderation. Essie couldn t help but observe how 
 admirably moderate the circular was in its showing. 
 
 Rubber, it informed her, had become a very im 
 portant material in the industrial arts. A great 
 many articles were made of it which could be made 
 of nothing else, and they were articles of prime 
 necessity, too. The demand for rubber, in a word, 
 was already enormous, and growing by leaps and 
 bounds. 
 
 Now to meet that demand there was for the pres 
 ent no raw rubber except that which was labori 
 ously and expensively and wastefully drawn from 
 the wild gum-trees; and precisely as might be ex 
 pected, these wild gum-trees were vanishing before 
 the onslaught. Within a comparatively few years,
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 the circular was free to predict, there would be no 
 wild gum-trees left, and then what ? 
 
 The question answered itself gum-trees would 
 have to be cultivated. 
 
 The concern back of the circular, styled the 
 Consolidated Rubber Corporation of Yucatan, pro 
 posed taking time by the forelock by planting out 
 some hundreds of thousands of acres of gum-trees 
 forthwith. In fact, something had already been 
 done in that way, to the end that rubber from 
 cultivated trees was expected to be on the market 
 within six months, which meant, as need scarcely 
 be pointed out, that in about six months the stock 
 of the concern would begin to pay dividends. 
 
 Just here the circular was particularly plausible. 
 It enlarged on the wicked wastefulness of the pre 
 vailing method of drawing gum from the wild trees, 
 whereby the trees were killed and a great part of 
 the precious sap allowed to run out on the ground; 
 and with that displayed, in pictures which even a 
 woman could fathom, a patented device by means 
 of which the cultivated trees were to be tapped 
 without loss or injury. It was such a clever de 
 vice, and so lucidly set forth, that you couldn t very 
 well help but have your confidence strengthened. 
 Certainly it augured well where difficulties were 
 met in so thoroughly scientific a fashion. 
 
 Most tempting of all, however, was a pretty little 
 274
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 demonstration, in the plainest of plain figures, of 
 what five hundred dollars invested in the Con 
 solidated Rubber Corporation s stock might fairly 
 be expected to yield in the way of profit. It was 
 made arrestingly to appear that a sum no larger 
 than that would give assurance of an income equal, 
 each year, to more than the principal sunk. That 
 looked big, to be sure, but if you went over the 
 computation step by step you found no point where 
 the circular exceeded the bounds of moderation 
 the various elements of the problem were estimated 
 most conservatively. 
 
 Bill s funds amounted, in even money, to five 
 hundred dollars. 
 
 "Do you want to stay poor ?" asked the circular, 
 winding up, and quoted the poet relative to the 
 tide in the affairs of men. 
 
 Who should not be persuaded ? Of a certainty 
 the monster s tentacles had laid hold of Essie, and 
 with no weak and wavering grip. Yet she held 
 back there was a native prudence in her which 
 demanded assurance and yet again assurance. And 
 it was not lacking. What the circular began the 
 staid old Home Journal finished. Why should the 
 Home Journal, whose word with her was final, have 
 seen fit, just at that juncture, to publish a learned, 
 authoritative article about rubber ? 
 
 And the article went far, too, in giving counte- 
 275
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 nance and support to the circular. Here was the 
 Home Journal s word for it that the demand for 
 rubber was, indeed, enormously on the increase, 
 and that wasteful and reckless methods were fast 
 exterminating the wild gum-tree, at present the 
 only source of supply. It was true there were 
 known to be gum-trees in the Amazon region, but 
 they were inaccessible and likely long to remain 
 so, owing to the character of the country. But 
 science and that was where the article served to 
 clinch the matter and do away with the last doubt 
 was coming to the rescue; experiments in cul 
 tivating the gum-tree had already brought gratify 
 ing results, and capital was being interested. 
 
 Yet even that wasn t all the Home Journal did. 
 In another part of that very paper Commodore 
 Vanderbilt was quoted, in a different connection, 
 but pertinently. 
 
 The time to get into an enterprise," remarked 
 the commodore, "is when it looks risky to most 
 people!" 
 
 And so the monster took Essie captive. She 
 was conscious of the fever, and strove not to be 
 carried away by it believed she was not; but she 
 was captive none the less. 
 
 It stood as something of a testimony to her in 
 fatuation that she should deem Bill s approval a 
 safeguard. Of course his approval was to be had 
 
 276
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 always, in whatsoever she chose to do, but she took 
 no account of that it suited her purpose better to 
 find comfort and encouragement in his enthusiastic 
 consent. She told him everything as it developed, 
 and when she had her mind made up at last she told 
 him that, too, all for the sake of having him ex 
 pressly with her. Where a responsibility weighed 
 so heavily, even a simpleton s sharing in it might 
 bring some measure of relief. 
 
 "Bill," said she, "I m going to buy some of that 
 rubber stock with your money." 
 
 "You don t aim to tell me!" said he, beaming 
 acquiescence if not intelligence. 
 
 "Stock in the Consolidated Rubber Corporation 
 of Yucatan! Only think, Bill you ll be a stock 
 holder in a corporation!" 
 
 " Ygorry!" 
 
 "And a rich man!" 
 
 "You don t aim- 
 
 " So that when you re old you won t have to work 
 any more!" 
 
 The strain of professing to understand so much 
 all at once was rather more than Bill could bear 
 up under, and he staggered visibly. "I kin git my 
 right age any time by goin back to Ihier!" he 
 protested uncertainly, as with an inkling that he 
 wasn t saying just the appropriate thing. 
 
 Essie laughed gayly, not in the least to make fun 
 277
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 of her knight, but because, the decision made, her 
 heart was for the moment light, and hope ran full 
 and strong too full and strong to be easily dashed. 
 And the next day the money went forward, in the 
 form of a draft, to the secretary of the great con 
 cern. 
 
 Hereupon hope began to encounter new worry, 
 and the very first of it was the foreboding that the 
 money might go astray, or, if it should safely arrive, 
 that the secretary might pocket it and say nothing. 
 What had she to show for it if he should ? In her 
 unfamiliarity with the machinery .of commercial 
 exchange, she imagined she had no protection and 
 was wholly at the secretary s mercy. 
 
 But her worry, so far, was without grounds. 
 The Consolidated Rubber Corporation, by its 
 proper officer, duly wrote in acknowledgment of 
 her favor, and on the heels of that grateful message 
 came a separate cover containing the certificates of 
 stock. These were in themselves an earnest that 
 all was well, so imposingly had they been got up. 
 The paper they were printed on crackled aris 
 tocratically, like parchment, and they were pro 
 fusely signed and countersigned and sealed and 
 stamped, so as to wear a very particular aspect 
 of importance. An effective detail, too, was the 
 finely engraved picture they bore, of some hand 
 some savages gracefully and with the utmost seem- 
 
 278
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 ing felicity at work in a species of paradise, where 
 the trees were doubtless gum-trees. Bill was over 
 joyed with the picture, and the showy seals im 
 pressed him very much, but the conception of the 
 certificates as being his was something not to be 
 readily grappled with. Shyly he took the papers in 
 his hands, and when Essie pointed to his name, 
 written in fancy script, he was incredulous. 
 
 "That there my name?" There was an awe 
 upon him, and he stared at the mysterious letters as 
 he might at some solemn miracle wrought before 
 his eyes. 
 
 "Yes, that s your name William Harbaugh." 
 " You don t aim to tell me ! " 
 Along with its other engagements, the Consol 
 idated Rubber Corporation had promised to keep 
 its stockholders posted as to the progress of the 
 enterprise, and Essie was thrown into a great flut 
 ter when there came, some weeks later, a letter for 
 Bill, with the name of the great concern posted up 
 in the corner of the envelope. Visions of dividends 
 danced before her eyes, and she burned with im 
 patience. Bill had fetched the letter from the 
 village without once suspecting that it was ad 
 dressed to himself, and there came a startled look 
 in his face when he was informed of the fact a 
 look betokening something not far removed from 
 consternation. To tell the truth, his contact with 
 
 279
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 affairs, less than intimate though it should be, was 
 getting on Bill s nerves, and he regarded the letter 
 doubtfully, turning it over and over, staring first 
 at one side and then at the other. 
 
 "That there letter for me, hey?" 
 
 "For you, Bill from the rubber corporation, 
 you know. See there is their name in the cor 
 ner, and directions to the postmaster to return it 
 to them if it isn t called for in five days. Shall I 
 open it for you ?" 
 
 He gave it to her in gingerly fashion, as if he were 
 right glad to be rid of it but still uncertain whether 
 he might not better destroy it, and have it out of 
 everybody s way. She tore it open with trembling 
 haste, and there was nothing in it but the printed 
 announcement that the board of directors had met 
 and elected a new secretary. A discernment in 
 formed by a larger acquaintance with the way some 
 kinds of business are done would perhaps have de 
 tected a sinister significance in the news, but to 
 Essie it meant as little as to William Harbaugh 
 himself. She was disappointed in the contents 
 of the letter, but for that she had only herself to 
 blame dividends had not been promised before 
 six months. 
 
 It was a long six months, full of worry and fore 
 bodings. The corporation wrote no more, and it 
 was hard to ascribe that to the lack of occasion 
 
 280
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 almost certainly there was that going on which 
 stockholders ought by right to be told about; and 
 when week followed week and month followed 
 month without another letter, Essie s heart grew 
 sick. She let Bill know nothing of her misgivings. 
 For awhile she talked with him about the invest 
 ment, its cheerful prospects, but as these wore away 
 under the constant worry, she came by degrees to 
 avoid the subject. He, on his part, never brought 
 it up of his own motion, and was seemingly en 
 tirely willing to forget it. His complacency smote 
 her, for it forced her to perceive how she had taken 
 advantage of his simplicity. How could she ever 
 have done so ? A thousand times she asked her 
 self, and wofully wondered, and was every day 
 sicker at heart. Now that it was too late she could 
 see what worse than folly she had been guilty of. 
 To take a poor simpleton s money and risk it on 
 the cast of a die, to reward his perfect fidelity 
 by stripping him of his all how should her con 
 science, being awake at last, let her call it other 
 than the wickedness of a wicked woman ? 
 
 At the end of six months, believing the truth 
 could not possibly be so hard to hear as the sus 
 pense, she wrote to the Consolidated Rubber Cor 
 poration. There was no answer. 
 
 She waited two months longer and wrote again, 
 and now a letter came: 
 
 281
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 DEAR SIR: 
 
 Yours of the aoth inst. received. Also yours of earlier 
 date, which has been mislaid. The latter would have 
 been answered at once only for lack of adequate office 
 force. 
 
 I regret to inform you that the Consolidated Rubber 
 Corporation of Yucatan has been adjudged insolvent, 
 and its affairs are now being wound up under the direc 
 tion of the court. I regret further to have to inform you 
 that the assets at present in sight will hardly suffice to pay 
 the cost of the legal proceedings, and that in all probabil 
 ity there will be nothing for the creditors. 
 
 You are duly listed among the creditors and will re 
 ceive your pro rata share of whatever assets are found 
 available. Respectfully, 
 
 JEFFREYS DEANE, Receiver. 
 
 282
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 IN Atro City and its environs there had his field 
 of activity a certain Captain Tryon. Some, 
 meaning disrespect, called him a professional old 
 soldier, and it was true that he found his chief in 
 terest in life in the relations which had grown out 
 of his military service. Voices not a few were 
 ready to impugn those services, but at all events it 
 was not to be denied that he had lost his right arm 
 somehow, or that the records of the Pension Bureau 
 credited him with having lost it while fighting in 
 defence of his country. Let the tongue of oblo 
 quy utter what aspersions it might, Captain Tryon 
 was, nevertheless, in quarterly receipt of a grateful 
 republic s check for one hundred and fifty dollars, 
 which constituted a snug little fortune in those 
 parts, and left him free to spend his days and his 
 energies in old-soldiering, as the phrase went. You 
 have, perhaps, met with one or another of the cap 
 tain s species a natural busybody with no neces 
 sity to be busy about aught but the affairs of 
 others. 
 
 He made it his very especial concern to look after 
 the affairs of other veterans, all in a fatherly way. 
 
 283
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 It was his gospel, for which he would stand up 
 in season and out of season, that these men had 
 saved the country, and therefore by good rights 
 owned it, if not in fee simple, by a moral title still 
 higher; and it was something of a wonder that he 
 had never discovered Bill until the granting of the 
 latter s pension brought him, as it were, into the 
 lime-light. Tryon was considerably shocked, to 
 tell the truth, to come upon an old soldier who 
 hadn t hastened to affiliate himself with the Grand 
 Army of the Republic, and who scarcely ever men 
 tioned his martial exploits, as to intimate a de 
 plorable lack of pride in them; and not only that, 
 his suspicions were moved. 
 
 "I mistrust there s something wrong!" the cap 
 tain declared, and charged himself with the burden 
 of looking after Bill and his welfare. 
 
 At any rate, there was plenty that might be 
 wrongly construed, and even before Captain Tryon 
 dipped in the wrong construction had begun to get 
 itself made. People who knew Bill at all were 
 aware of his mental limitations, particularly with 
 regard to his conception of money matters; they 
 were easily such as to give rise, in connection with 
 the windfall of several hundred dollars of back pay, 
 to what the neighbors were pleased to deem a grave 
 situation. At first they professed to have nothing 
 against Mrs. Haldean, but saying the best of her 
 
 284
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 she was yet an unknown quantity, and had held 
 aloof with somewhat of the appearance of consid 
 ering herself better than common folks, with the 
 natural result that common folks felt under no 
 heavy obligation to think well of her. In short, the 
 gallant captain had only to institute a few inquiries 
 in order to be amply confirmed in his suspicions. 
 He saw his duty, and he shrank not. 
 
 "Near s I can ascertain, he s a non compos 
 mentis," quoth he learnedly, "and if he is, there ll 
 have to be judicial cognizance!" 
 
 But before he took any steps of a decisive char 
 acter, Tryon resolved to have a talk with Bill, and 
 conceiving reasons why he should not present him 
 self at Throstlewood, he lay in wait until the new 
 pensioner should chance to come to Atro City. 
 That was an uncertain event, but Bill shortly made 
 his appearance, all unwitting of the character of 
 importance which his windfall had given him, and 
 as shy as ever of strangers except as he approached 
 them of his own accord. 
 
 Captain Tryon was not a cultivated man, in the 
 usual sense, but a native dignity, refined on by 
 ample leisure, had given him a courtly manner. 
 He could be blunt, as became a military man, but 
 he could be diplomatic, too. The pompous phrase 
 whereby he had first described Bill was by no means 
 all the Latin he could muster. He had likewise 
 
 285
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 Lord Chesterfield s famous maxim quite at the 
 end of his tongue. "Suaviter in modo, fortiter in 
 re!" he would quote you on occasion, and even 
 though there were no occasion, and his practice 
 was tolerably conformable. 
 
 At all events nothing could exceed the affability 
 with which he approached Bill. "How do you do, 
 comrade ?" he greeted, and held out his hand. 
 
 It was a new form of address in Bill s experience 
 he had been variously called in his time, but 
 never so. "What s that?" he rejoined, and held 
 off dubiously. 
 
 "How do you do, sir?" The captain substi 
 tuted the more formal title without sacrifice of cor 
 diality. 
 
 "Fair, consid rin ," answered Bill indifferently. 
 
 "I see you ve been granted your pension. I 
 congratulate you, sir! It is a sad commentary on 
 our age that a patriot being given what is due him 
 renders him properly subject to congratulation, but 
 so it stands." 
 
 "Hey?" ejaculated Bill densely. 
 
 "I say, I congratulate you on being granted your 
 pension, Mr. Harbaugh!" 
 
 "Mr. Harbaugh?" 
 
 "Yes that is your name, is it not?" 
 
 "F-m Bill Bill Harbaugh that s right." 
 
 The conversation did not prosper. Bill could 
 286
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 be obstinately if not craftily reticent if he chose, 
 and that such was his present choice was made 
 plainly to appear. But likewise it was made to 
 appear that he needed looking after, and if Tryon 
 had been in any degree undecided as to his duty, 
 he was so no more. 
 
 Not the slightest intimation of the mine under 
 her feet did Essie receive until it exploded. Bill s 
 memory was wholly unequal to the retention of an 
 incident which impressed him so slightly as the 
 captain s advances, and when he returned home, 
 though he prattled endlessly about the trip, like a 
 child, his prattle was all of something else how 
 the horses had shied at a rabbit, or how he had 
 shaved a tree with his hub going at a furious trot. 
 Bill had given his money over to his mistress, and 
 there was nothing in the world that concerned him 
 less, while as for Essie, hope was still running high 
 with her, and she, too, could talk of trifles and fore 
 bode nothing. Very likely she would have fore 
 boded nothing even had she known all the details 
 of Captain Tryon s conversation with Bill there 
 was nothing about it especially to alarm a hopeful 
 soul. And though hope was destined presently to 
 die, there was no intimation of the mine. When 
 the receiver s letter shattered her dream utterly, 
 she fancied that her cup of misery was full she 
 could conceive of no mishap capable of augmenting 
 the wretchedness of her plight. 
 
 287
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 The blow fell in the form of a summons to Bill, 
 and another to herself, out of the Probate Court. 
 They two were ordered to appear at a day specified, 
 and show cause why Bill should not be adjudged 
 an incompetent and placed under the care of a 
 guardian. A copy of the petition in response to 
 which the proceedings had been set on foot was 
 appended, and in it Essie found, in spite of the 
 blind verbiage, that which she could understand 
 all too well. As if they had been written in letters 
 of fire and were burning into her flesh, she read 
 the words wherein it was given as the main reason 
 why Bill should have a guardian, that he had lately 
 come into a valuable estate. 
 
 To give an account of her stewardship publicly, 
 with all the world listening no less than that, she 
 perceived, was to be required of her. 
 
 Essie learned, in those days, what it was to de 
 spair; and because she despaired, truly and with 
 out a reservation in hope s favor, she could be calm. 
 She knew she had done what the world would in 
 stantly pronounce dishonest, nay, criminal, and 
 deserving of grave penalties, and she foresaw the 
 most hideous consequences; but these she could 
 confront without shrinking, without a pang almost, 
 at length with something like relief. Does not 
 the stricken conscience thirst for penance ? She 
 doubted not that she should be sent to prison as a 
 common thief, but she felt no great concern, what 
 
 288
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 with her conscience so stricken and athirst for 
 penance and her sensibilities so deadened by de 
 spair. 
 
 She could be calm and reflect on what she had to 
 do despair did not render her too indifferent for 
 that. Calmly she reflected, and resolutely set her 
 self a task, and the sum of it was that she should tell 
 everything frankly, without extenuation, simply 
 and straightforwardly. In much, of course, she 
 should be disbelieved, but no matter she would 
 tell the truth notwithstanding, let come what might. 
 She wished no favor for herself let them do with 
 her as they saw fit; but at least it should never be 
 marked up against her that she had sought escape 
 in falsehood. There was comfort for her con 
 science, too, in the resolution she took; her testi 
 mony would amount to a confession, and confession 
 was good for the soul. Though from first to last 
 she had meditated no wrong, though the great 
 wrong she had done was not in the least intended, 
 still her soul lay under a grievous burden, and con 
 fession would be good for it, even as penance would 
 be good for it. 
 
 Bill promptly washed his hands of the papers 
 that had been served on him, and went buoyantly 
 about his work, troubling himself as little as the 
 birds which sang over his head. Very briefly, just 
 at first, did a species of anxiety penetrate him 
 
 289
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 he seemed, by the circumstance of having docu 
 ments handed to him, to be reminded of the pen 
 sion agent s visit and the embarrassments ensuing; 
 but there was no money accompanying them, and 
 besides, Essie took them over at once, without a 
 word of parley, and after considerably less than 
 the proverbial bad quarter of an hour Bill suffered 
 no inconvenience. 
 
 His mistress annoyed him with no further men 
 tion of the matter. Nor did she permit him to see 
 any difference in her. That was part of the task she 
 had set herself, to save Bill from inconvenience in 
 so far as she might, and accordingly she held her 
 self rigidly to the accustomed way, as if nothing 
 had happened. But when the day set for the hear 
 ing arrived, she could keep silence no longer. 
 
 "Come, Bill," said she, striving by her manner 
 to make little of the occasion, though it meant so 
 much to her. "You and I will have to go to the 
 village to-day." 
 
 Bill s reply was eminently like him. "Don t 
 see how I kin, Essie. That there barley in the 
 south patch ain t agoin to do nuthin , an if I git 
 it ploughed up an into millet, I hain t got no time 
 to spare, sure s you re a foot high. It s dum dry 
 to plough a ready, an gittin drier ev ry day." 
 
 "But you ll go with me if I ask you, won t you, 
 Bill?" 
 
 290
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 In spite of her best effort to be quite herself in 
 all respects, there was a wistfulness in her tone 
 and look, and Bill caught their force where an 
 other might not. 
 
 "Yes," he said at once. "I ll go if you ask me. 
 Course, if you ask me, I ll go." 
 
 The Probate Court, since it dealt mostly with 
 dead men s relics, was not apt to be thronged, and 
 so it was provided with but a small room wherein 
 to transact its business so small that the con 
 course drawn by the present unusual proceedings 
 was wholly unable to crowd in and had in large 
 part to content itself with standing in the corridor 
 outside the door. The neighbors were there in 
 force men and women and even small children; 
 and villagers, stimulated by Captain Tryon s dark 
 hints, were by no means wanting. Altogether 
 there was such a press about the door that Bill 
 and his mistress saw not how they were to enter, 
 until the sheriff in the vicissitudes of politics, 
 another sheriff, by the way had forced a passage 
 for them. 
 
 The judge, a mild little old man with a benevo 
 lent fringe of gray beard circling his throat from 
 ear to ear, sat informally at a table, and he had 
 Essie and Bill given chairs near him. He spoke 
 to the woman kindly, too, about the weather and 
 such like commonplaces, thus to dispel the sense 
 
 291
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 of solemnity and make her more at ease. She was 
 thankful to the judge at once, and more and more 
 thankful as the trial proceeded. Captain Tryon 
 was there, full of importance and portentous grav 
 ity he was the petitioner, in fact, and brought 
 along a lawyer to represent him and uphold the 
 cause he had espoused. Essie s heart misgave her 
 when the lawyer announced himself. Ought not 
 she to have a lawyer as well ? 
 
 She asked the judge about that. "But then," 
 she hastily added, with a quiver of the lip, " I ve 
 nothing to pay a lawyer with." 
 
 The judge beamed on her over his glasses in a 
 cheerful manner. "Oh, I guess we can manage 
 to get along by ourselves, if we try real hard!" 
 quoth he, and his words were very comforting for 
 their intimation that he was in some sense with 
 her and would look out for her. 
 
 Bill was given his examination first of all, and 
 conducted himself in characteristic fashion. And 
 most especially he parried every inquiry as if the 
 fate of his soul depended on his never committing 
 himself. He would not so much as admit that 
 there had been a pension granted him. 
 
 "Maybe they was an maybe they wasn t!" he 
 said, and was never craftier. 
 
 "Do you mean to deny," the lawyer asked 
 sharply, "that the pension agent paid into your 
 
 292
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 hands the sum of five hundred dollars, in round 
 figures ?" 
 
 "In round figures ?" repeated Bill. 
 
 "In round figures five hundred dollars, more 
 or less!" 
 
 " Y gorry, I never looked to see if they was round 
 or square!" To which impertinent response he 
 added a vacuous laugh. The lawyer, losing his 
 patience, assumed a browbeating air, but it gained 
 him nothing. "You keep on your side of the fence 
 an I ll keep on mine!" said Bill. 
 
 They essayed to test him with coins, to show that 
 he couldn t distinguish one from another. 
 
 "I hold before you a dollar and a fifty-cent piece," 
 said the lawyer. "Please tell me which is which, 
 if you know." 
 
 "S pose I m tellin ev rybody all I know? Not 
 much, Mary Ann," retorted Bill. 
 
 Once, when the lawyer took a moment or two 
 to whisper aside with Captain Tryon, Bill s temper 
 was touched perhaps he bethought himself, just 
 then, of his barley field atThrostlewood. "What s 
 all this golblimmed tomfoolery about, anyhow?" 
 he demanded irritably. But when his outburst 
 set the spectators tittering, it flattered him, and his 
 equanimity was quite restored. 
 
 Essie came in for an examination, too. It was 
 an ordeal, but she went through it calmly, mani 
 festing, except for a degree of pallor, no uncommon 
 
 293
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 emotion. Her responses were prompt and given 
 in a firm voice. And on her part there was no 
 evasion. 
 
 "You know, Mrs. Haldean, of the five hundred 
 dollars, more or less, paid over to William Har- 
 baugh by the pension agent?" 
 
 She knew. 
 
 "As a matter of fact, the money passed into your 
 possession, did it not?" 
 
 "It did." 
 
 "And is in your possession at the present time ?" 
 
 (( "\T " 
 
 No, sir. 
 
 "What have you done with it?" 
 
 But here, in contrast with the lawyer s rasping 
 unfriendliness, the judge spoke up. "Tell us," he 
 directed, in an easy, comfortable tone, "all about 
 the money, in your own words. Don t hurry 
 there s plenty of time." 
 
 And she did as he bade her. 
 
 Her testimony made a sensation. Nobody, not 
 even the mistrustful Captain Tryon himself, had 
 an inkling of the truth, and when she had finished 
 her story, keeping nothing back, a hush of amaze 
 ment reigned. The lawyer, quick to seize an ad 
 vantage, was the first to find his tongue. 
 
 "You tell us, Mrs. Haldean, that you kept Mr. 
 Harbaugh fully informed as to what you were doing 
 with his money ?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 294
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 " Do you pretend that he understood what you 
 were about?" 
 
 "No, sir. I can see now that I imposed upon 
 his simplicity. All I can say for myself is that I 
 didn t see it so at the time." 
 
 Thereupon she was hard pressed to control her 
 self, and might not have succeeded only that the 
 gentle old judge spoke up once more and relieved 
 the strain. "I should like," said he, "to have a 
 bit of a talk with Mrs. Haldean and Mr. Harbaugh 
 by themselves. Will all others be pleased to retire 
 for a little while ?" 
 
 "Does that include the petitioner and his coun 
 sel?" asked the lawyer, evidently not pleased. 
 
 "If you will be so good!" rejoined the judge 
 blandly. 
 
 So they three were left alone. Their conference 
 lasted half an hour or such a matter, and when the 
 public were again admitted, Essie s eyes were red 
 with weeping, and Bill looked as if he wanted most 
 of all to fight somebody and was only undecided as 
 to who it should be. 
 
 The judge had his decision ready, and gave it 
 out at once, with his glasses pushed carelessly up 
 on his forehead and his glance wandering benignly 
 about the room. 
 
 "You and I are both old soldiers, Comrade 
 Tryon," he remarked, to begin with. 
 
 295
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 Comrade Tryon vouchsafed no comment, but 
 frowned heavily. 
 
 "When," the judge went on, "we see a comrade 
 living comfortably and enjoying himself, we are 
 glad, and wouldn t disturb him for the world. 
 Now, would we, Comrade Tryon ?" 
 
 "I don t know what you re driving at," Com 
 rade Tryon answered sullenly. 
 
 The judge s benignity remained unruffled. "A 
 court," said he, as kindly as ever, though more in 
 the judicial style, "will always, being called upon to 
 regulate human relations, hesitate to substitute an 
 artificial and arbitrary relation for a relation which 
 has grown up naturally and spontaneously. Very 
 evidently the respondent here is not like other men, 
 but it by no means follows that he should there 
 fore have a guardian. I am of the opinion that 
 we can best serve his happiness by letting him alone 
 for the present, at least. I only wish every old 
 soldier were as happily situated. The loss of his 
 money is in some respects unfortunate, but to such 
 a man worse things might happen. At all events, 
 it seems to be finally lost, and for that it need con 
 cern us no more; being lost, it ceases to afford the 
 occasion for the appointment of a guardian. As 
 for Mrs. Haldean, I am satisfied that she is blame 
 less. She acted conscientiously in the matter. 
 No doubt she did what was not wise, but if all un- 
 
 296
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 wisdom is to be punished, Lord, Lord, who shall 
 stand ? 
 
 "The petition is denied and the proceedings 
 dismissed." 
 
 Captain Tryon was not the warrior to surrender 
 at the first repulse, however his blood was up and 
 he presently renewed the attack. That is to say, 
 he laid the evidence before the county attorney, 
 with a view to having Mrs. Haldean indicted for 
 embezzlement or something. But nothing came 
 of it. The county attorney was thought to have 
 consulted with the judge of probate anyway, he 
 declined to act. He professed to believe, much to 
 the captain s disgust, that an indictment wouldn t 
 stick. 
 
 297
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 HAD Bill caught a glimpse of the fellow, he 
 might possibly have been given suspicions. 
 The tinker would hardly have been forgotten, for 
 all that Bill s memory was so treacherous, and here 
 was a man not unlike certainly about as tall and 
 thick, and if he walked differently, with a springy 
 step and no shuffling, and dressed differently, in 
 good style, these were not traits to beguile a dis 
 cernment highly touched with knightly devotion. 
 Bill wasn t easily fooled where the interest of his 
 mistress bade him look sharp. 
 
 She had an interest here no doubt of that. 
 What else, when the fellow could march boldly out 
 to Throstlewood, and go in, and tarry there for 
 upward of an hour, and make off at last with his 
 head up in lofty fashion and the air of elation upon 
 him ? If Bill had chanced to see so much, be well 
 assured that there would be more to tell. 
 
 But Bill saw nothing, as it happened. Or did it 
 happen so ? Taking it for granted that the man 
 was the tinker, he had good cause to bear Bill in 
 mind and to make it a point to shun him. That 
 were no hard matter, of course. A knight in these 
 
 298
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 modern degenerate days might not spend all his 
 time incessantly patrolling the ramparts. There 
 were fields to be tilled, and knightly service had a 
 care for these, and so the tinker, if it was he, might 
 easily avoid Bill merely by coming up the other 
 way. 
 
 He was not observed by any one, in fact, until 
 he took his departure even the neighbors, alert 
 to suffer no passer-by to go unstared at, somehow 
 missed him. Inasmuch as he was going out, as a 
 logical necessity he must have come in, but about 
 the first the neighbors saw of him was as he made 
 off. If his approach had been covert, his depart 
 ure was anything but that. On the contrary, he 
 swung along with an easy, satisfied, confident, un 
 abashed bearing. He did not act in the least like 
 a man flouted. 
 
 As you will believe, he was not to go unstared 
 at any longer. Women and children swarmed out 
 of the houses along the way, shading their eyes 
 ostentatiously with their hands, and subjected him 
 to a most uncommon scrutiny. That was a testi 
 mony to his unusual character. Clearly, he was 
 no ordinary person. Some who claimed experi 
 ence entitling them to an opinion gave it out that 
 he must have been a soldier in his day, he was so 
 well set up, and trod so firmly, with measured 
 steps. Not a soul guessed that he was a tinker. 
 
 299
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 When Bill came in and sat down to his dinner, 
 Essie occupied herself for the most part in regard 
 ing him wistfully. To be sure she had his food 
 ready, neglecting nothing, and she served it with 
 all the loving attention that a good mistress is wont 
 to bestow upon her faithful retainer; but all the 
 while she was for the most part engaged in regard 
 ing him wistfully. He did not catch her at it, 
 though. Doubtless she had a wish that he should 
 not, and chance favored her concealment. For it 
 happened that he had broken in a new scythe that 
 morning a new rig entirely, snath and blade and 
 whetstone and he was full of his characteristic 
 vauntings and vaporings over the achievement, 
 which he rehearsed down to the minutest detail. 
 Moreover, he would have his joke. 
 
 "Ever hear tell bout the feller that couldn t 
 git a scythe to hang to suit him nohow?" he 
 chuckled. 
 
 She had heard often and often, since Bill s jokes 
 were of ancient vintage always, but she answered 
 that she had not, because she knew he would be 
 pleased to have her say so. 
 
 " He was consid ble finicky, the feller was. Hired 
 out to help in hayin , but wa n t a scythe on the 
 place that hung to suit him. Fin ly, the boss he 
 bu st out an* he says, says he: I don t b lieve no 
 scythe kin be fixed so s Yll hang to suit you, says 
 
 300
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 he. Yes it kin, says the feller, says he. I kin 
 take any scythe an make it hang to suit me. says 
 he. Go ahead, says the boss, an* so the feller 
 he took a scythe an hung it up in a tree y gorry, 
 up in a tree. That there scythe hangs jest to suit 
 me, says he." 
 
 Bill laughed his silliest cackling laugh never, 
 perhaps, had he seemed more the simpleton. 
 Though she pretended to laugh with him, Essie 
 still kept the wistful regard, and when he was gone 
 back to his knightly service in the field, she cried 
 softly. 
 
 "Dear, dear Bill!" she sighed, and sighed again. 
 
 Something near a week after that, women and 
 children were given most distinguished occasion to 
 swarm out and stare with shaded eyes. And once 
 more the soldierly chap was at the bottom of it 
 he whom none of them ever suspected of being a 
 tinker. But he was not on foot any more; instead 
 of that he drove by, not hurriedly, in a cloud of 
 dust, but with lordly dignity, letting the splendor of 
 his equipage he seen. It was a splendid equipage 
 indeed, such as the Valley scarcely ever beheld 
 the richest the liveries of Atro City afforded. As 
 for the man himself, his attire was not less than 
 regal, by the ordinary test, what with the silk hat 
 on his head and the rare flower at his button-hole, 
 not to mention other touches only less convincing. 
 
 301
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 A woman is a woman, and even the women of the 
 Valley Lilies of the Valley, if you please knew 
 a bridegroom when they beheld him, though his 
 finery should be altogether unlike any they had 
 ever met with. 
 
 Wonders never cease. The regal equipage drove 
 up to Throstlewood, tarried there but a few brief 
 moments, and then came sweeping back, the horses 
 at a quick trot. And now the neighbors saw a 
 sight indeed nothing less than the Widow Hal- 
 dean seated in stately grandeur beside the bride 
 groom in his brave array. She looked very pretty 
 prettier than they had ever thought her hitherto 
 though she was pale and her eyes were red with 
 weeping. 
 
 Were ever gaping rustics treated to so prodigious 
 a sensation ? Perhaps not. Certainly it was all 
 very overwhelming, and the mistress of Throstle- 
 wood passed out of the sight of these her neighbors 
 amid a profound hush almost, you might say, 
 a breathless hush. Quite likely they had an ink 
 ling that when the stately equipage vanished in the 
 distance the Valley should know Essie no more 
 forever, and were sobered by it. 
 
 Bill was away from home during all that day, 
 for now he was working out the road tax and need 
 be gone from early morn till evening, taking with 
 him a noontide bait for himself and his horses. It 
 
 302
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 was famous bait which he found in the basket Essie 
 put up for him chicken and tongue, and cake all 
 frosted over, and, by way of finishing touch, to 
 make of mere bait a riot of delight, half a dozen of 
 those wonderful tarts whereof the composition was 
 a mystery but which Bill loved beyond anything in 
 the way of creature comfort except tobacco. And 
 there was tobacco, too. What extraordinary im 
 pulse had possessed Essie that she should have in 
 cluded that big, black, pungent plug of the brand 
 he esteemed highest ? Had she fancied he might 
 chew so much in a day, or did she choose that way 
 to surprise him ? Anyhow, he was glad of the 
 rich treat, and he would let no perplexity impair his 
 satisfaction. His bait had the effect of lifting him 
 up greatly, not only in virtue of its material sub 
 stance, but by the cheer of the spirit that proceeded 
 from it. The overseer of highways, keeping a 
 sharp eye on his forces to see that everybody gave 
 the worth of his tax in work, had no occasion to 
 complain of Bill, who worked like the proverbial 
 Trojan, out of sheer uplift. 
 
 He was late getting home, and hungry, for all 
 that he had fared so sumptuously. And behold, 
 another feast awaited him, profusely set forth with 
 viands to his liking. But his mistress, to whom 
 he was beholden for these favors, was not there to 
 be a witness of his enjoyment. 
 
 33
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 He did not call after her or go searching high 
 and low to find her. The house was dark, and that 
 circumstance may have admonished him of the 
 truth in his simple, instinctive fashion, Bill could 
 see as far into a millstone, on occasion, as the next 
 man, though the next man s faculty should be ac 
 counted higher than his. He struck a light, and 
 beheld the feast, and forthwith sat him down to it, 
 making no ado over Essie s absence. On his plate 
 lay two papers, and he picked them up and turned 
 them over and looked at them hard. Papers, as 
 such, were beyond him, to be sure. They meant 
 nothing to him in the ordinary sense not a word 
 or a letter of them could he read. But the fact of 
 their being there on his plate, waiting for him along 
 with the viands, that meant something, and so he 
 held them in his hand for a little and looked at them 
 hard; and when he put them down gently there 
 was a different light in his eyes. 
 
 What with the house all dark and the papers on 
 his plate, was it not for Bill to know that Essie had 
 gone from him ? 
 
 He fell to and ate his supper heartily, with no 
 abatement of appetite. Neither the great meal 
 which he had eaten at noonday, nor the conscious 
 ness of what had befallen him, was sufficient to still 
 the clamor of the perfect animal which stood with 
 him in the relation of the inner man. It was a 
 
 34
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 glorious good supper, and he swept the plates clean, 
 and when he rose at length he was radiant with 
 contentment. He lighted his pipe, and thereupon, 
 having nothing else for his hands to be busy with, 
 he took up the papers once more, turning them over 
 and over and regarding them pensively. He gave 
 no sign of being troubled. His pipe smoked out, 
 he yawned noisily, and presently crept away to bed, 
 where he slept at once in the peace of unconcern. 
 
 Next morning, all serenity, he repaired to Atro 
 City with his papers. "I d love to know what s 
 into em," he remarked to the good old judge of 
 probate, whom his instinct bade him trust. "Very 
 well, my son," replied the judge, in his comfort 
 able, fatherly fashion, and so, at last, the papers 
 were opened to the light. 
 
 One of them, the larger of the two, and the more 
 important if you estimated importance by colored 
 seals such as it plentifully displayed, was a warranty 
 deed, running from Esther Haldean, widow, party 
 of the first part, to William Harbaugh, party of the 
 second part, and conveying to the aforesaid party of 
 the second part, his heirs and assigns forever, to 
 have and to hold, in fee simple, certain parcels of 
 landed property, their appurtenances and heredita 
 ments, to wit: Throstlewood. Throstlewood was 
 Bill s that was the amount of the document with 
 the colored seals all over it. 
 
 305
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 The other was a letter: 
 
 DEAR, DEAR BILL: 
 
 You will forgive me, won t you, for leaving you so ? 
 I know you will, because you have never failed to do what 
 was noblest and best and kindest. My heart is so full, 
 dear Bill, I cannot begin to tell you what I feel. Good- 
 by, and God bless you and reward you as you deserve. 
 I shall never forget you, but think of you every day of my 
 life, and pray for you as I pray for nobody else in all the 
 world. 
 
 Dear Bill, I am about to be married to the man I 
 should have married in the first place. My troubles, 
 please God, are over, and you, I know, will find some 
 other unfortunate woman to befriend, and in befriending 
 her be happy. 
 
 Best of men, the kindest friend a woman ever had, all 
 good attend you. Gratefully, lovingly, I sign myself, 
 
 ESTHER HALDEAN. 
 
 Bill listened closely, though it was plain he 
 understood only in part. He made no demonstra 
 tion of emotion, but sat awhile in perfect silence; 
 and when at length he spoke, he was quite calm. 
 
 "Don t see what Essie wanted to be in such an 
 all-fired hurry for. I was goin* to marry her my 
 self soon s the fall work was done, or anyhow come 
 spring!" said he, and that was his sole comment. 
 
 Yet he seemed in some sense lost as to his bear 
 ings. Instead of hastening back to his fields, as 
 his ordinary way would be, he loitered about the 
 village all day, rather aimlessly. Much of the time 
 
 306
 
 A Knight in Denim 
 
 he spent on the market-place, chaffering with 
 farmers. Once he got into a pretty hot dispute 
 over the weight of a pig, money was bet, and he 
 won, to his immense gratification though the sum 
 was but ten cents, it was money, and all money 
 looked alike to him. After that he strutted up 
 and down before the shops, pricing things with 
 an air of abandon, as if his purpose were to make 
 extensive purchases, though in fact he bought 
 nothing. 
 
 But at night and it was a lovely, peaceful night 
 with a soft summer moon making an entrancing 
 picture of the Valley as you looked down upon it 
 from Atro City the echoes woke in answer to a 
 great voice, lifted unmusically in song. 
 
 " And roam no more in proud despair!" 
 
 it roared, and roared again. 
 
 There was no mistaking it. Neighbors, though 
 roused out of their first sleep and by that none too 
 clear in their minds, identified it at once, and won 
 dered what Bill was going to do with himself now. 
 But, at all events, it would appear that he had 
 found his bearings. 
 
 307
 
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