Chapter 14

TO BEAR MEN AND TO SAVE THEM

In going I turned and looked back at him to see that he was standing looking after me with a very great weariness in the manner of the drooping of his shoulders and the sadness of his face.

"Roberta," I said to myself, "a woman who so reverences and regards a man as you do that Gouverneur Faulkner will find a way to help him so that he shall not suffer as he does in regard to not knowing with surety the reason of that Mr. Timms' making a murder upon his brother. What is it that you shall do?"

And to that question to myself I found an answer in only two short hours while partaking of the very famous custard pie at the table of that very lovely Madam Taylor.

All of those very gay and nice "babes and sucklings" which the Gouverneur Faulkner had mentioned, were with me at the table of Madam Taylor with very much laughter and merriment, also much conversation. And in that conversation were very many jokes upon my Buzz because he had been transported to the Capitol by my Uncle, the General Robert, and given hard labor until almost the time to arrive for that nice supper, which he was eating with much hunger. On account of lateness he had not been able to come to the house of lovely Sue to escort her with him to the home of Madam Taylor. That Sue with pretended haughtiness was looking very high above the head of the humble Buzz.

"Well, it's not my fault that Timms up and biffed his brother into eternity all for buzzing pretty Mary Brown, and I don't see why I had to be rung in to sort out of a million sheets of trial evidence the lies he told about it, for poor old Governor Bill to moil over all night. I say when a man wants to be hung as badly as that, he ought to get what he's crying for, and not butt in on a perfectly innocent man's afternoon fox trot," was that Mr. Buzz Clendenning's wailing to all of the company. "Look the other way, Sue, so as not to turn this muffin cold until I get it buttered."

"I told my washwoman, who is Mary's sister, that Mary ought to be made to tell just what did happen and then it could all be arranged so that the poor man could be saved to her. I think it is hard on Mary to lose both lovers," said that very intelligent Mildred Summers.

"They live just over beyond our back gate. Suppose we all go and put it up to the attractive Mary to speak up and keep Buzz from the danger of overwork a second time," said that nice young Mr. Taylor with what I considered a great intelligence but which caused much laughter.

And at that suggestion which caused the much merriment, that daredevil within Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, again arose and commanded me to attention.

"Go, Robert Carruthers, and obtain that paper of statement from that Mary, so that your chief, that good Gouverneur Faulkner, does not work in the night which is for rest, and that your beloved Buzz may not again have to work in his afternoon which is for dancing. Go and find that Mary as soon as this dinner is at an end."

And what was it possible for me to do but to answer the command of the daredevil person within me? All of which I did. I made excuse of myself on account of a lie which involved my attendance on my Uncle, the General Robert, and departed after I had had but one nice slide with the lovely Sue, but had obtained a promise of one from Mademoiselle Belle if I found it possible to return by the hour of ten o'clock.

After many inquiries at the back of the house of Madam Taylor in small streets I was at last led to the home of the Mary Brown. All was dark within the very small house, but upon the steps, in the light from the moon and also a street arc, sat the person that a man, of whom I had asked guidance, said to be the woman whom I sought. She rested her head in her hands as had done that poor human in the cage in that State Prison and from her I heard the sounds of slow weeping.

"What is it that I shall say to her?" I asked of myself. And then suddenly something answered from within me from the same place that had arisen that knowledge to spring in between my Gouverneur Faulkner and the bright knife I had not even seen. That place is located in the heart of Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, and not in that daredevil.

"Mary Brown," I said to her with all of the gentleness in my voice that was commanded by my sympathy for her, "if a person were going to kill with a rope the man I loved I would lay down my own life that he should live. If you write one little paper to say that he murdered in defense of you, the good Gouverneur Faulkner will save him to you. Give to me that paper."

"Go away," she moaned as she shook her head and cried into her arms.

"See, Mary: Here is the pencil and the paper to write the words of life for Timms to that Gouverneur Faulkner," I said as I seated myself beside her and extracted my notebook and pencil from the pocket of my overcoat where I had placed them on leaving my room as is always best, I deemed, for a secretary. "There are just two things that are the duty of women, Mary: to bear men and to save them. Save yours now, Mary. Much will happen, it may be; but that Timms is a good man and must live."

"I dassent. He told me not to, Timms did."

"If a knife was aimed at Timms' heart, would you not throw yourself between him and its cut, Mary, even though commanded by him not to so save him?"

"Yes!"

"The knife is aimed and here's the paper by which you can throw your person on that knife. Is it of such moment that it cut into your own heart, that you stand and let it give death to him?"

"I give up! I give up, Mister! I can't let nobody murder him. Nobody ever put it that way to me. Give me that paper and let me git to him fer jest one minute to-morrow," she made answer to me as she seized the paper and pencil and began to write with the paper spread beside her upon the step.

"I will myself send you in my car with good black Kizzie to see Timms to-morrow, Mary," I promised her while she wrote.

"I got ter get my arms around his neck once more 'fore he kills me fer telling," she answered as she signed her name to the paper and handed it to me.

"Place those arms in that position, Mary, before telling him of your action and all will be well," I advised of her with much wisdom.

"Will that do, Mister?" she asked with anxiety as I began to fold the paper.

On that paper she had written:

"Hen Timms had locked me in the room and was forcing me when Gabe broke in and got me away from him. He had to bust his head with a flatiron to make him let go of me. I am a good woman. Mary Brown"

"Yes, good Mary, this will shield Timms from that knife, I feel a certainty, and I will send for you and see that you go to an interview with him at ten o'clock of the to-morrow morning. And now good night, with great respect to you for a brave woman," I said as I rose to my feet.

"Who are you, Mister, that have spoke to my heart like they ain't nobody spoke to its suffering yet, though you ain't said many words and them is curious like?" she asked of me as I prepared to take a hurried departure.

"I am the secretary of the Gouverneur Faulkner, Mary, and--and--I know--how women--love--men. I--"

"I bet a many of 'em have loved you, God bless your sweet eyes. Good night, sir!"

And with those kind words from the poor female, who was beginning again to sob but with another motive in her weeping, I took my departure down the street--or up--I did not know in just which direction. I had the intention of returning to the house of Madam Taylor to obtain the Cherry, which I had left standing before her door, and in it convey the message to my Gouverneur Faulkner that should bring relief to his anxiety, but I soon found that I had lost myself upon streets that I had never seen before.

What was it that I should do? My heart suffered that my Gouverneur Faulkner should not know the relief of that paper I had in the pocket of my dinner coat, but I could not find myself and I did not know exactly what questions I should ask. Then I bethought me of that telephone, which in America is so much used, but not in France. I entered into a store for medicines upon the corner of one of the streets in my wandering, looked diligently in a book to find the number for the Mansion of the Gouverneur, and after many tellings of my desire, at last my Gouverneur Faulkner made an answer in my ear that was as beautiful in voice as the words he spoke to me in his presence.

"Well?" he asked of me.

"This is Robert Carruthers who speaks."

"Oh, all right, youngster. How did the fatted pie go?"

"That was a very nice pie, Your Excellency, and I have a paper from that Mary Brown concerning the murder of the brother of good Timms for cruelty to Mary. I wish to give it to you."

"What do you mean, boy?"

"I have said it."

"Then bring it here to me at once and tell me how you got it."

"I cannot come to you."

"Then I'll come to you. Where are you?"

"I do not know. I am lost."

"God, boy, what do you mean?"

"I am in a store of medicine that is many streets from that house of good Mary Brown, and also from the house of Madam Taylor. I have the intention of calling on the telephone my faithful Bonbon and asking that he come and find me and deliver me to the home of Madam Taylor and from thence transport this paper to you that you go to sleep for a much needed rest."

"You helpless young idiot, call a taxi and come right here to me."

"I am promised to a dance with Mademoiselle Belle by the hour of ten, of which it lacks now only a quarter. Cannot I go in that taxicab, which it is of much intelligence of you to suggest to me, and send by that taxicab to you the paper from Mary Brown while I stay to dance that dance?"

"Well I'll be--no, I can't say it over the telephone."

"What is it, my Gouverneur Faulkner?"

"I'll say it in the morning to you in person. I'll just hold up the wheels of state until that dance is over. Go ahead, youngster; call the taxi and get back to Belle. I'll have Jenkins waiting at the Taylor's to get the paper and you can--can tell me all about it in the morning. Will nine o'clock be too early to call you from--your rosy dreams?"

"I do not have coffee until nine o'clock, my Gouverneur Faulkner, and I do not make a very hurried toilet, but I will come to you at the Capitol at that nine o'clock if you so command--very gladly."

"Oh, no, we'll all of us just--just cool our heels until you get your coffee and toilet. Don't hurry, I beg of you! Good night, and beat it to Belle, as Buzz would say. Good night, you--you--but I'll say it all in the morning if it takes a half day. Good night again." And with that parting salutation my Gouverneur Faulkner's voice died from the telephone with what I thought had the sound of a very nice laugh.

That Mademoiselle Belle Keith is a dancer of the greatest beauty, and also is the homely Mildred Summers. The two hours until midnight at the home of my lovely Madam Taylor seemed as one short half of an hour to me. I also had the pleasure of conducting the nice Belle home in the Cherry so that I could make a fine display to her of my skill with a motor. In France it would be of a great scandal to allow a beautiful _jeune fille_, as is that Belle, and a nice gentleman, such as I declare Mr. Robert Carruthers to be, to go out into the midnight alone and unattended; but is it that in America the gentlemen are of a greater virtue than in France, or is it that the ladies have that great virtue? I do not know, but I declare it to be of much interest to remark.

"You'll find old Forty-Two Centimeter firing off overtime, L'Aiglon, because when the Whitworth gang got caught up on those specifications they side-stepped with another proposition and he's scouting for holes in it. Better climb the grapevine into bed and side-step him," advised Buzz to me while we waited beside our cars for the beautiful Belle and beautiful Sue.

"Much gratitude for your advice, and good night," I called to him as we separated the Cherry and the Gray and went in diverse directions.

I understood that "climb the grapevine into bed" to mean entering my home and that of my Uncle, the General Robert, with much stealth and that thing I did, dropping into a deep sleep in the moment of inserting myself between the sheets of that bed.

And when I awakened, because of that much dancing, behold, it was ten of the clock and eleven thereto before I arrived in a very great hurry with much pinkness of cheeks in the office of the Gouverneur Faulkner at the Capitol of the State of Harpeth.

And in that office I also discovered my Uncle, the General Robert, performing the action of the forty-two centimeter gun with words about my extreme lateness.

"You young fox trotter, you, I'd break every bone in your body if I wasn't so damned proud of you," he exploded directly in front of me.

"General, if you'll let me take Robert into his office for five minutes alone I'll help you take the hide off of him later," said that Gouverneur Faulkner as he beamed the great kindness to me. "Just stay here and get that Timms pardon crowd ready to hear the news of Mary's confession and I'll tell you all about it when I've settled with Robert."

"Very well, sir, very well," answered my Uncle, the General Robert, with a further explosion of words. "I'll also expect you to give him commands about this dance the young females in this town are leading him." With which my Uncle, the General Robert, himself went into the anteroom and left me alone with the beloved Gouverneur Faulkner.

"Good morning, Robert," he said to me with a laugh as he came and stood close beside me. That Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, will blush within me, when that beloved Gouverneur comes very close beside her, in a way that is an embarrassment to Robert Carruthers, his secretary. "And now tell me what you said to that stupid Mary Brown that made her see the light," he asked me with his fine eyes looking into mine with a great interest and something of admiration.

"I asked of her if she would not throw herself before that beloved good Timms if a knife was aimed at his heart; and she perceived from that question that she must give to me the paper. A heart that has felt a great tragedy draw near a beloved one can speak without words to another who sees also a beloved in danger. Is it that you slept in ease, my Gouverneur Faulkner, after you had received that paper? It grieved me that you should sit at work while I was at dancing," I answered to him as I drew nearer and laid my hand with timidity upon the sleeve of his coat.

"My God, boy, do they grow many like you in France?" was the answer that the great Gouverneur Faulkner made to me as he looked down into the adoration of my eyes raised to his, with a question that was of deep bewilderment.

"France has grown many young and fine men who--who die, my Gouverneur Faulkner for her in the trenches, where I must soon go," I answered him with my head drawn to its entire height in the likeness of the old Marquis of Grez and Flanders.

"When you go into the trenches of France, youngster, the State of Harpeth will have a Governor on leave in the same trench," answered me that Gouverneur Faulkner with a very gentle hand laid on the sleeve of my coat above the bandages of my wound, and a glow of the star in his eyes. "Brothers by bloodshed, Marquis of Grez and Bye."

"Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, how will you even gain the refuge of your petticoats and get away from these lies of dishonor if you are to be so pursued by--" I was asking of myself when my Uncle, the General Robert, opened the door and said:

"Better see this pardon delegation now, Governor. That other matter is going to go to hell as fast as it can if we don't scotch it. Robert, get those letters on your desk into United States as quickly as possible. That French deluge is upon us. Come back as soon as you can." With which I was dismissed into my own small anteroom.

And what did I find in those letters?