FullReads

“It hits me hard enough,” she replied. “To think of my brother running a gambling-machine in a saloon is not especially reassuring. You say he went into it to carry him over a hard place. I’m afraid you were saving my feelings in saying that, Mr. Kelley. How long has he been in this business?”

“A little less than a year.”

“And you want me to go away without trying to get him out of this awful trade?”

“I don’t see how you could safely try it. I think he is going to quit it himself. Your coming has been a terrible jolt to him. Now I’ll tell you what you do. You take the old lady and pull out over the hill and I’ll undertake to get the boy out of this gambling myself.”

She was deeply affected by his quiet and earnest manner, and studied him with reflective glance before she said: “You’re right. Mother must never know of this. She was brought up to believe that saloons and gambling were the devil’s strongest lure for souls, and it would break her heart to know that Fred has become a gambler. I will do as you say, Mr. Kelley. I will take this train. But you must write me and tell me what you do. You will write, won’t you?”

“Yes,” replied Kelley, hesitatingly. “I’ll write–but I ain’t much of a fist at it. Of course, I may not make a go of my plan, but I think it will work out all right.”

She reached her hand to him, as if to seal a compact, and he took it. She said: “I don’t know who you are or what you are, Mr. Kelley. But you’ve been a loyal friend to my brother and very considerate of my mother and me, and I appreciate it deeply.”

Kelley flushed under the pressure of her small fingers, and replied as indifferently as he could: “That’s all right, miss. I’ve got a mother and a sister myself.”

“Well, they’d be proud of you if they could know what you have done to-day,” she said.

His face took on a look of sadness. “They might. But I’m glad they don’t know all I’ve been through in the last ten years.”

III

Morse was surprised, almost delighted, when his sister announced her decision to take the afternoon train. “That’s right,” he said. “You can stop on your way back in the spring. Perhaps Kelley and I will have our own house by that time.”

The train was on the siding, nearly ready to start, and there was not much chance for further private conference, but Florence succeeded in getting a few final words with Kelley.

“I wish you would tell me what your plan is,” she said. “You needn’t if you don’t want to.”

Kelley seemed embarrassed, but concluded to reply. “It is very simple,” said he. “I’m going to make him an actual partner in the mine. I’m going to deed him an interest, so that when you come back in the spring he won’t have to lie about it.”

Her glance increased his uneasiness. “I don’t understand you, Mr. Kelley. You must love my brother.”

He could not quite meet her glance as he answered. “Well, I wouldn’t use exactly that word,” he said, slowly, “but I’ve taken a great notion to him–and then, as I say, I have an old mother myself.”

The bell on the engine began to ring, and she caught his hand in both of hers and pressed it hard. “I leave him in your hands,” she said, and looked up at him with eyes that were wet with tears, and then in a low voice she added: “If I dared to I’d give you a good hug–but I daren’t. Good-by–and be sure and write.”

As they stood to watch the train climb the hill, Morse drew a deep sigh and said: “Gee! but Flo is keen! I thought one while she was going to get my goat. I wonder what made her change her mind all of a sudden?”

Kelley looked down at him somberly. “I did.”

“You did? How?”

“I told her what you had really been working at.”

The boy staggered under the force of this. “Holy smoke! Did you do that?”

“Sure I did. It was the only way to save that dear old mother of yours. I told your sister also that I was going to stop your white-marble exercise, and I’m going to do it if I have to break your back.”

There was no mistaking the sincerity and determination of Kelley’s tone, and the young man, so far from resenting these qualities, replied, meekly: “I want to get out of it, Ed. I’ve been saying all day that I must quit it. But what can I do?”

“I’ll tell you my plan,” said Kelley, with decision. “You’ve got to buy my interest in the mine.”

Morse laughed. “But I haven’t any money. I haven’t three hundred dollars in the world.”

“I’ll take your note, provided your sister will indorse it, and she will.”

The young fellow looked up at his tall friend in amazement which turned at last into amusement. He began to chuckle. “Good Lord! I knew you’d made a mash on Flo, but I didn’t know it was mutual. I heard her say, ‘be sure and write.'” He slapped Kelley on the back. “There’ll be something doing when she comes back in the spring, eh?”

Kelley remained unmoved. “There will be if she finds you rolling that white marble.”

“She won’t. I’ll take your offer. But what will you be doing?”

“Climbing some Alaska trail,” replied Kelley, with a remote glance.