Page 25 - Adventure Magazine, 1921, July 18th

Children of the Road 19

explosions rose and fell and then rose again There was a deep-alcoved entry and an
in the intolerable cosmic persistence of the old-fashioned pull bell. Far within the
downpour. Browbeaten and heedful at depths of the house the bell jangled re-
last of the Kid' s warning, the Gay-Cat put motely at the Kid's behest.
wet tail between legs, and cringed and was There was a long pause. The Frisco
silent as the two drew wearily onward. Kid and the Gay-Cat stood shivering with
Uncontested by any sound from the damp and cold, and nervously harkened.
cowed Gay-Cat, the barking pulsed de- The door opened in their face. Said a
jectedly away. Boy and dog lopped lhe small feminine voice from the darkness of
rise of hill. Before them, down the slope, the hallway-
they saw a scattering of red-roofed houses "You're not Jerrold, are you, naow?"
and whitewashed outbuildings squatting There was strangely wistful inquiry in
low to earth beneath the streaming curtains that thin, mut voice from out the gloom.
of rain. The Kid stepped back to the brink of the
From somewhere far off they could hear q, stairs, his spine tingling with unreasoned
kitchen screen-door banging and banging. fright, his whole being quiveringly_ dis-
Behind certain windows the first lights of quieted. The moment was suddenly dy-
evening were blinking up, one by one. namic.
Otherwise there was no show of life in the The Kid wet his lips and strove to an-
little community of Middletown. swer. He wanted to say that he wasn't
To their left and very close at hand the the Jerrold she seemed to be expecting;
dogs commenced chorusing again. There he was just a road-kid, only the Frisco Kid
was a whitewashed hoarding paralleling the and his dog, Gay-Cat. But the grip of the
road. · From behind, the uproar of barking unexpected and unexplained was upon
seemed to explode. him, and he could not speak.
They followed the line of fence. As they
did, the boarding shook and sagged and CHAPTER VI
resounded with the impact of leaping dogs,
as if behind that fence dogs padded along A SETDOWN AT MlSS HEFFERNAN'S
with them, an unseen but tumultuous es- -
cort. They came to a graveled driveway ''T AWS, no; you're sartainly not Jer-
above which hung a signboard, the golden L rold," broke out the small voice more
letters of which shimmered faintly in the freely. "I see that plain naow. You're
gloom: too little."
The Kid, his eyes become accustomed to
MIDDLETOWN POLICE-DOG AND the dark, could make her out in the gloom
AIREDALE KENNELS of the hallway. She was a little old ladv,
Rose Lydia Heffernan, Prop. her scanty white hair smoothed pri.miy
The Frisco Kid studied the sign. back from her forehead and tied in a com-
"Here's the place where our meal-ticket pact knot. He glimp ed gold-rimmed spec-
lives, Gay-Cat, old-timer." tacles and had the impre sion of rather
He proceeded down the driveway which bitter and challenging eye studying him
was palisaded by yew that was black as sharply through the coldly gleaming lense~.
ink in' the thickening dark. Through the The Frisco Kid was an expert moocher.
great rents in the disheveled hedges he There never wa a better hand at battering
could make out a succession of wire-meshed a back door and begging a handout. But he
fences walling in a row of sheds at either was wet to the skin, chilled to the marrow
hand. In those sheds many vague, agile with cold hungry and very tired. He wa,
shapes moved restlessly and barked. in no condition to give a song and dance--
At the end of the yew alley was a dimly that is, a go d begging story. He tried,
, white building with peaked roof and many but all he could ,ay wa : Id o, m m.
I . ' J erro .
'
" o, m am.
' "
tall, lean windows barred by heavy shut-
am t
ters. The house did not look like an old The truth wa he was too taken aback.
family mansion. What with its segue tra- Her greeting had nonplus d him; and no
tion from the road and semicircle of former her appearanc~those bitter and suspi i u
carriage sheds it had the appearance of an eyes behind gold-rimm d gla~ s-fill
obscur road-house long run to see<l. him with th h art-skk fe ling that h h