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Updated: June 5, 2025
"None here," replied one of the boys. But the other said, "Coates? That's the name of Tommy Hackett's grandmother." The tramp drew and expelled a quick, audible breath. "Then," he said, "this Mrs. Coates must be the mother of Tommy's mother. Do you know what Tommy's mother's first name is?" "I heard Tom call her Alice once." The tramp's eyes glistened. "And Mr. Coates?" he inquired.
She saw the little dog wake and make what seemed one flying spring to the tramp's throat, and sink his teeth in it and Allan, at her scream, spring from his chair! Phyllis forgot everything at the sight of Allan, standing. Wallis and the outdoor man, who had run to the spot at Phyllis's screams, were dealing with the tramp, who was writhing on the grass, choking and striking out wildly.
She was decent, the poor creature, he thought. Her poor rags were clean and mended. She had a shrinking, suffering air. The boy, who was about nine years old, seemed to cling to her as though in terror of the burly ruffian. He was pale and thin and even on this beautiful June day he looked cold. Patsy was suddenly gentle. He saw the glare in the tramp's eyes. "Here's a shillin' for you," he said.
Later in the evening Jasper finds Durdles more or less drunk, and being stoned by a gamin, "Deputy," a retainer of a tramp's lodging-house. Durdles fees Deputy, in fact, to drive him home every night after ten. Jasper and Deputy fall into feud, and Jasper has thus a new, keen, and omnipresent enemy. Old 'un crumbled away in stone coffin, in vault."
She had great eyes, with shadows beneath, and her lips were half opened. By her side lay a regular tramp's bundle. Frank looked at her steadily a moment, then he looked back at the man, who still had not moved or spoken. The draught from the door behind blew in and shook the flame of his lantern, and the horse sighed long and loud in the shadows behind.
The good Vicar would accept no burial fee, and all who knew the story of the old "tramp's" rescue from the storm by Mary Deane, and her gentle care of him afterwards, were anxious to prove that they too were not destitute of that pure and true charity which "suffereth long and is kind."
"Oh, dear, I wish he'd let us sleep an hour longer," grumbled the doctor's son. "Remember, we are to take that tramp to the lock-up this morning," answered Snap. "Boys, are you awake?" went on the farmer. "I've got news for you! Thet tramp's got away!" "ESCAPED!" ejaculated Shep. "How in the world did he manage it?" queried Snap.
What he had heard regarding that mysterious house came freshly to his mind. "Why, I didn't know there was any business being done there, Mr. er Mr. ah " He paused, for it just occurred to him that he did not know the tramp's name. The tramp no, we shall call him that no more, for he was no longer of that class the man, then, smiled. "Decker is my name," he said.
Several days after that Malcolm found the tramp's picture in the Courier-Journal. He was a noted criminal who had escaped from a Northern penitentiary some two months before, and had been arrested by the Louisville police. There was no mistaking him. That big, ugly scar branded him on cheek and forehead like another Cain.
In the same absent-minded way he drew out one of the trunks, unlocked it, paused now and then with some garment in his hand only to awake again to consciousness and resume his task, pushing the trunk back at last under the bed and continuing his walk about the narrow room, always haunted by the tramp's haggard, hopeless look.
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