Sound of the Trumpet (25 page)

“Oh,
older
men, I suppose.”

“No, young men, as young as Victor. And they are solemnly glad to go and do their duty fighting. One of them told me that he felt as if he had heard a trumpet sounding in his soul calling him to go.”

“Why, how poetic! That sounds like quite a young boy! Such a boy as Victor used to be when he came here so often.”

“No,” said Lisle, “he is not so young. He’s finished college and been working for a year or more. And he’s not a bit like Victor. Mother, you seem quite sold on Victor again. I thought you had seen enough of his outrageous actions to disgust you. I’m afraid I see his mother’s fine artistic hand in this. She has been talking to you, hasn’t she?”

“Well, yes, I had a little talk with her yesterday. She came over to talk with me about you. She wanted me to coax you to ask Victor to come back here. She is very worried about him. She thinks you have cast him off, and she feels it is a great mistake. She says you are driving him into a life that isn’t his natural element.”

“Well, Mother, the next time you see Mrs. Vandingham, please tell her that I am not going to coax Victor over here. I’m entirely satisfied to have him stay away. I don’t want to see him anymore.

“And we did quarrel. I guess you could call it that. He wanted me to marry him right away, and I wouldn’t. I won’t
ever
marry him. I don’t want to go with him anymore either. I’m sorry for his mother, that she has such a son, but I don’t want him. I don’t love him, and I never could. He says love is all hooey, but I know better, and I don’t want any such marriage, ever. You wouldn’t want that for me, would you, Mother?”

“Why, of course not, dear. Love is the foundation of all true marriages. Without it, married life would be intolerable. But I thought you used to be very fond of Victor.”

“Why, yes,
fond
of him as a playmate. But when I began to grow up, I saw how very weak and full of faults and selfishness he is. And I never really
loved
him, even as a child, only in the sense that one is kind and pleasant to playmates. I don’t enjoy his kind of play. He’s drunk half the time, Mother. That’s no foundation for even friendship.”

“He
is
? Oh, my dear! I didn’t know that. Why, of course you couldn’t go around with one who did that. But I want you to be sure that there isn’t anything you could do to help him, that might bring him back to reason. For his mother’s sake, dear, if not for his own. Do forgive him.”

“Why, yes, of course I’ll forgive him. I just don’t want anything more to do with him. I can’t help rather despising him, either, a fellow who is downright
afraid
to go and enlist. I’m sure that is what is at the bottom of this ridiculous need for him to take over his father’s business. Do you know, I met Mr. Vandingham yesterday, and he looks as well as he ever did, and he said he was feeling fine. I think Victor and his mother cooked up all this keeping him at home, just because
she
was afraid to have him go to war, too, for fear he would get wounded.”

“Oh, my dear! Do you think anyone would do that in these terrible days when our country needs to keep the world free and safe and happy? Of course, I feel sorry for Mrs. Vandingham, but I don’t think she ought to do that, even if she did feel afraid. But, dearest, if you are going to feel so hard and bitter, I’m afraid you will do yourself out of having any friends at all. I wouldn’t like to have you grow up and feel alone, because just your father and mother aren’t enough for you. You’ll want friends.”

“I have friends, Mother. Wonderful friends. Though I’m sure my father and mother are better for me than getting tied up to a young man I would have to despise.”

“Oh, my dear, I don’t want to get you tied up, of course, not
yet
. Not to Victor, unless he changes, of course. But I don’t want you to be snobbish. Answer me honestly, Lisle. Do you know
anyone
that you admire as you used to admire Victor?”

Lisle’s cheeks grew rosy and she looked steadily at her mother and answered quietly with a lilt in her voice, “Yes, Mother dear. I
do
! But that’s very slight praise, for I never really admired Victor, except that I always knew he was good-looking. But Mother, Victor will
never
change unless he should someday yield himself to the Lord Jesus Christ, and then he wouldn’t be Victor anymore. He’d be God’s man.”

“Why, my dear! What a startling thing to say! I’m sure Victor always went to Sunday school as a child. I’m sure he has a good moral character, doesn’t he?”

“I’m not so sure of that even, Mother. And going to Sunday School doesn’t always ensure getting to know the Lord Jesus. I went, but I never knew Christ as I do now, and it’s wonderful! Of course, if Victor could get to know Christ, it surely would make a difference in him. But Mother, I’m afraid he’s so full of self, he never would be willing to yield and take Christ instead.”

The mother looked embarrassed.

“Well, dear, I never heard you talk this way before. Of course, religion does make a difference in some people’s lives, but I can’t understand why you don’t want to work on Victor and try to get him to understand this way of living you profess to have found.”

“Oh, I do. I don’t feel really well enough grounded yet to go out and teach people, but you know yourself, Mother, that Victor never would accept teaching from anybody. Living is all that would count with him. Certainly I want my life to be such that he can see Christ in me. But I’m afraid that would not include making Victor a constant companion anymore. Mother, I wish you’d come with me again down to that Bible class. I’m sure you would get to love it.”

“Well, perhaps,” said her mother doubtfully. “But child, why don’t you ask Victor to go down there sometime?”

“
Mother
!” said Lisle breathlessly. “You know perfectly well he
never
would go, and if he did, he would just sit and make fun of it all the time.”

“He might go with
you
, Lisle, if you asked him in the right way.”

“No, Mother, I don’t think he would. And besides, I can’t make advances to Victor to get him to go to a Bible class. You don’t want me to do that, Mother. And that is the
only
way I could get him to do
anything
. You know I can’t do that!”

“No, of course not, dear,” sighed her mother. “Well, I’m sorry I’ve troubled you, and I do hope sometime you’ll find someone who cares for you who is as good and true and perfect as your father has always been.”

“Yes,” said Lisle cheerfully, “that is what I want, too. And if I don’t get that kind of man, I don’t want any. I couldn’t really love and trust any other kind.”

“Of course not, dear. I only thought there might be a way to help Victor for his poor mother’s sake.”

“We can
pray
,” said Lisle softly.

“Yes, dear, of course,” said the mother again, embarrassedly. She was not used to talking freely about religious matters. It almost shocked her to hear Lisle speak frankly about them. She had reserved traditions and upbringing, but she was thoroughly glad her daughter had such high principles.

“And then, you know,” said her mother, “I don’t want you to go sorrowing all your days because you can’t find a man just like your father.”

There was a quiet wistfulness in the smile she gave her daughter, and Lisle bent and kissed her mother sweetly, her heart singing to herself.
But I’ve found one, dear mother, and someday I’ll tell you about it
. But she did not speak yet, only gave her mother a second precious kiss. And then said thoughtfully a moment later, “I’ll be praying for Victor, of course, Mother. We’ll be praying. I should have thought of that before.”

Then she went to her room to pray. First for Victor, that he might someday come to know the Lord and know how much he needed Him. And then with thanksgiving for the knowledge of another man who was right and true like her father. She might not even see him anymore, but she thanked God for him and let a song ring in her heart about it, giving a radiance of joy on her face that her mother could not quite understand, and yet rejoiced over.

T
here was a great consternation at the plant five minutes after Erda had stealthily departed with her booty. The sturdy manager had been proud indeed that the wonderful gadget had been completed at last, had passed its tests, and was ready to be reproduced. He felt as if his heaviest burden had rolled away and all things now were to be smooth and easy. And then he walked up to the place where he had left it five minutes before, with the foreman of the other half of the machine, and it was
gone
! He couldn’t believe his senses.

“What’s the matter, Montie, where is it? What’s happened?”

“It isn’t here,” said the big foreman, his swarthy face white with apprehension. “It couldn’t have gone far in that time! What—where—
who
has been here? Sam!” he called across the room. “Has anybody been in here? B. F.? Or Smalley? Or any of the crowd that had a right?”

“No, I didn’t see anybody,” called Sam.

“Have
you
been here all the time?”

“Sure I have. I wouldn’t go away till my shift was done. What’s eating you? What’s the matter? You don’t think I’d hide your precious old contraption, do you?” Sam grinned deridingly.

“Why, no, of course not, but where has it gone?”

“Where did you put it?” asked Peters, coming over to join the crowd. “You’re
dreaming
, Jim. You’ve been up too many nights and got it on the brain. You’re going nuts. Take it easy, man, and stop and think. Just
where
did you leave it when you went to your morning lunch?”

“I
didn’t
go to lunch. That’s just it! I brought my lunch here in my lunchbox, and then didn’t take time to eat it. I just went across the corridor to bring Belden here. He wanted to see what it looked like before he got ready to set it up.”

“Well, where did you leave it? Now think! Did you hide it somewhere? It isn’t very large, you know.”

“No, I didn’t hide it anywhere,” said the foreman. “I left it sitting right on top of the metal cabinet there, just where I put it when I finished. And it isn’t there! Say, if you fellows are trying to make a practical joke out of this, it isn’t funny! Hear that? It means too much to me and the plant and the government. If any of you fellows have hidden it, bring it out
quick
or I’ll report you responsible, every one of you. And you all know the oath of secrecy you’re under.”

The men looked soberly at one another, weird suspicions creeping unaware into their eyes, but they all shook their heads. No, they hadn’t touched it. And one of the older men spoke for them.

“I give you my word, Montie, these fellows were all at their machines working like men. Not one of them stepped over there. I know that, for I was waiting for a hot bearing to cool off and looking around the room.
Nobody
went over by your location.”

“And no outsider came into that room?” asked the foreman.

“Not a one,” said they all, and looked at one another with troubled glances.

“Who would come?” asked the old man, Hardy by name.

“That young scallywag of a Victor didn’t come? You’re
sure
? He’s liable to do anything, you know, but I’d be responsible.”

“You bet you would,” said Sam under his breath. Victor was not popular among the men. They knew his comings and goings all too well.

“Not he!” said Butch derisively. “He’s off to a nightclub getting drunk as a lord with that little smarty secretary of his. If you ask me, I think
she’s
a snake in the grass, and if I was running this plant, I’d get rid of her first off.”

“Try and do it!” said Sam.

“Shut up, all of you! This is a serious thing. We’ve got to give the alarm at once,” shouted the foreman. “We’ll have to call our guards and see if there have been any questionable characters about. Call the inspector, Butch. Tell him what’s happened. But first, lock the doors and search this room. Don’t miss a corner. Look everywhere.”

“Is anything else gone, Jim?” asked Sam.

A look of fear passed over the face of the foreman. He dashed to the cabinet and pulled open the drawers.

“Yes,” he gasped, “the blueprints are gone!” He said it in a terrible tone. “They were here ten minutes ago. I was just looking at them.” He gave another desperate look about the room and then dashed to the telephone. This was something the master must know. It was awful to have to awaken old Vandingham, but he had the right to know at once, and he was the only one who had a level head anyway.

From then on the plant became frantic.

The streets were deserted, stillness and darkness everywhere, broken only by searchlights turning steadily back and forth over the neighborhood. But there in the quiet night, the plant went on the alert, searching for that small, important gadget that meant so much to the war and the country and the trusted plant. And so very much to the enemy! What would happen if this went on and the government had to find out about it? What would happen to the foreman, who had been so proud of the trust put upon him? What would happen to the dependable old plant, with its enviable reputation that had weathered already two wars and been trusted through them both? Some of the great machines had been working night and day to produce as fast as the government needed their work. What would happen when many of them stopped now, while the men who ran them went searching everywhere, leaving no cranny unscanned?

But from the first discovery that the blueprints were gone, those in charge lost hope. The enemy had done this, this was certain! Who else would want blueprints? This was no practical joke. It had assumed the proportions of a disaster.

More soldiers arrived and were marched into the plant before day had scarcely dawned, so that the general public was not yet aware of the calamity. Policemen and plainclothesmen and detectives were called upon, and a system of tense guard was planned, locking the barn after the horse was stolen. The personnel of the plant was put through a severe grilling to discover if anyone knew anything that might help in the investigation, but the heart of the head of the house of Vandingham was heavy.