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it, and you got my works ruined, and my family ruined; and if anybody'd 'a' told me this time last year I'd ever
say such a thing to you I'd called him a dang liar, but I DO say it: I say you've acted toward me like--like a--a
doggone mean--man!"
His voice, exhausted, like his body, was just able to do him this final service; then he sank, crumpled, into the
chair by the table, his chin down hard upon his chest.
"I tell you, you're crazy!" Lamb said again. "I never in the world----" But he checked himself, staring in
sudden perplexity at his accuser. "Look here!" he said. "What's the matter of you? Have you got another of
those----?" He put his hand upon Adams's shoulder, which jerked feebly under the touch.
The old man went to the door and called to the foreman.
"Here!" he said. "Run and tell my chauffeur to bring my car over here. Tell him to drive right up over the
sidewalk and across the lot. Tell him to hurry!"
So, it happened, the great J. A. Lamb a second time brought his former clerk home, stricken and almost
inanimate.
CHAPTER XXIV 161
CHAPTER XXIV
About five o'clock that afternoon, the old gentleman came back to Adams's house; and when Alice opened the
door, he nodded, walked into the "living-room" without speaking; then stood frowning as if he hesitated to
decide some perplexing question.
"Well, how is he now?" he asked, finally.
"The doctor was here again a little while ago; he thinks papa's coming through it. He's pretty sure he will."
"Something like the way it was last spring?"
"Yes."
"Not a bit of sense to it!" Lamb said, gruffly. "When he was getting well the other time the doctor told me it
wasn't a regular stroke, so to speak-- this 'cerebral effusion' thing. Said there wasn't any particular reason for
your father to expect he'd ever have another attack, if he'd take a little care of himself. Said he could consider
himself well as anybody else long as he did that."
"Yes. But he didn't do it!"
Lamb nodded, sighed aloud, and crossed the room to a chair. "I guess not," he said, as he sat down. "Bustin'
his health up over his glue-works, I expect."
"Yes."
"I guess so; I guess so." Then he looked up at her with a glimmer of anxiety in his eyes. "Has he came to yet?"
"Yes. He's talked a little. His mind's clear; he spoke to mama and me and to Miss Perry." Alice laughed sadly.
"We were lucky enough to get her back, but papa didn't seem to think it was lucky. When he recognized her
he said, 'Oh, my goodness, 'tisn't YOU, is it!'"
"Well, that's a good sign, if he's getting a little cross. Did he--did he happen to say anything-- for instance,
about me?"
This question, awkwardly delivered, had the effect of removing the girl's pallor; rosy tints came quickly upon
her cheeks. "He--yes, he did," she said. "Naturally, he's troubled about--about----" She stopped.
"About your brother, maybe?"
"Yes, about making up the----"
"Here, now," Lamb said, uncomfortably, as she stopped again. "Listen, young lady; let's don't talk about that
just yet. I want to ask you: you understand all about this glue business, I expect, don't you?"
"I'm not sure. I only know----"
"Let me tell you," he interrupted, impatiently. "I'll tell you all about it in two words. The process belonged to
me, and your father up and walked off with it; there's no getting around THAT much, anyhow."
"Isn't there?" Alice stared at him. "I think you're mistaken, Mr. Lamb. Didn't papa improve it so that it
virtually belonged to him?"
CHAPTER XXIV 162
There was a spark in the old blue eyes at this. "What?" he cried. "Is that the way he got around it? Why, in all
my life I never heard of such a----" But he left the sentence unfinished; the testiness went out of his husky
voice and the anger out of his eyes. "Well, I expect maybe that was the way of it," he said. "Anyhow, it's right
for you to stand up for your father; and if you think he had a right to it----"
"But he did!" she cried.
"I expect so," the old man returned, pacifically. "I expect so, probably. Anyhow, it's a question that's neither
here nor there, right now. What I was thinking of saying--well, did your father happen to let out that he and I
had words this morning?"
"No."
"Well, we did." He sighed and shook his head. "Your father--well, he used some pretty hard expressions
toward me, young lady. They weren't SO, I'm glad to say, but he used 'em to me, and the worst of it was he
believed 'em. Well, I been thinking it over, and I thought I'd just have a kind of little talk with you to set
matters straight, so to speak."
"Yes, Mr. Lamb."
"For instance," he said, "it's like this. Now, I hope you won't think I mean any indelicacy, but you take your
brother's case, since we got to mention it, why, your father had the whole thing worked out in his mind about
as wrong as anybody ever got anything. If I'd acted the way your father thought I did about that, why,
somebody just ought to take me out and shoot me! Do YOU know what that man thought?"
"I'm not sure."
He frowned at her, and asked, "Well, what do you think about it?"
"I don't know," she said. "I don't believe I think anything at all about anything to-day."
"Well, well," he returned; "I expect not; I expect not. You kind of look to me as if you ought to be in bed
yourself, young lady."
"Oh, no."
"I guess you mean 'Oh, yes'; and I won't kee you long, but there's something we got to get fixed up, and I'd [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]