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"Dodge in here and wait a minute," says I. "There's some word been left for you." With that I sneaks down the side aisle and into the little cloakroom, where Mr. Robert was keepin' Benny's mind off'n what was comin' to him by makin' him count the geranium leaves in the carpet. "Mr. Robert," says I, luggin' him off to one side, "you want to give up predictin' the future. Bill's come!"
He did know that it was necessary for some one to watch the boat and keep her off the rocks while the others were ashore, but Benny's elders have been known thus to fence with facts. Edna caught his roving glance at last and raised her brows questioningly. "Well," said the boy reluctantly, "I s'pose Mr. Dunham can sail now if he wants to."
Benny's eyes widened a little. "Why, of course! Everybody's fond of Aunt Maggie. Why, I don't know anybody that don't like Aunt Maggie." "I'm sure that speaks well for Aunt Maggie," smiled Mr. Smith. "Yep! A feller can take some comfort at Aunt Maggie's," continued Benny, trudging along at Mr. Smith's side.
From the engineer's white lips he listened to the history of Benny's "signal code." Then for a long time the great man stood looking at the burning trestle. Once he muttered aloud, "All our lives, a priceless engine, valuable freight, rolling stock, all saved!" Then, whirling rapidly on his heel, he said, "Ellis, we want your boy on the road when he's bigger.
All this while, of course, Joe was under water and could not breathe. But he had first deflated and then inflated his lungs to their fullest capacity, and he felt sure he could remain at least three minutes, possibly longer, without coming to the surface. The glass tank in which Joe was performing Benny's tank, to be exact, for the "human fish" owned it was practically a big glass box.
Bates stole it; he was going to try to double-cross us and beat it out of here. Now he's dead, and good riddance." He spat into the snow when he had done. Benny, chattering wildly to himself now, began a hasty reloading of his revolver. The man whom he had shot, whom Brodie named Bates, lay not five steps from Benny's feet, his blood already congealing where it flushed the snow.
"Make a auction out'n it!" was Benny's mirthful suggestion. "Why just you two guys, anyway? Where do you get that stuff? Free for all, that's what I say!" He waved his bottle. "Auction her off, that's what I say! I'll give a bottle of whiskey for her; hey, Brodie?" Brodie had laughed when Jarrold spoke; he laughed now.
Anyway, it ain't nothing to me, for I'm off to Margate to-morrow." He waited for me to speak, but seeing that I was bent on reading my paper, made no further remark until his job was done. When next I saw him it was at eleven o'clock on the following day, just as I was driving the car round to "Benny's" to take the old boy down to Watford as he wished.
It comes out too that she's sore on Benny's bein' married because she sees the finish of her steady job as boss of the house on the avenue. She can't queer Mr. Robert though. "Benny seems to have a clear idea as to just whom he wants to marry," says he, "and that's enough for me. If Miss Morgan has a brother in the penitentiary, and Benny doesn't mind, I'm sure I don't.
And, sadly enough, I cannot recover a phrase from Benny's lips, nor an action, nor a gesture, although I remember quite clearly how some grown-up people of that time looked, and the very words they said. For example, I recollect Miss Wilkes very distinctly, since I studied her with great deliberation, and with a suspicious watchfulness that was above my years.
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