Sound of the Trumpet (7 page)

Lisle turned perplexed eyes toward her mother.

“Should I, Mother?” she asked.

Her mother gave a troubled glance toward the boy and then looked at her young daughter with worried eyes.

“I am sure whatever you decide to do will be right,” she said hesitantly, but there was question in her own voice.

The boy grew eager.

“Aw, now Lisle, be your old self. Stick to your old code! Be fair to me just once more!” he pleaded.

Lisle’s face, though it did not soften, grew decisive.

“Very well,” she said almost coldly, “I’ll go, this once!”

“But you can’t go in that dress,” said her mother, rousing. “You’ll have to dress, and it’s getting late.” She glanced at the clock. “Besides, it’s growing colder.”

“Take your time,” said Victor, settling back in his chair again, with a look of almost defiant triumph in his eyes.

“I’ll put on my fur coat,” said Lisle. “It’s right here in the hall closet. I won’t be a minute.”

“That old shabby coat,” complained her mother distressfully as Lisle made a dash across the hall and came back, sliding into her old beaver coat and a little brown felt hat.

“It’s all right,” said the girl, with a wry smile. “It really doesn’t matter what I wear. Come on, Victor! Let’s get this thing over!”

“Oh!” said the young man, with an offended grin. “Is that the way you’re taking it? Well, come on! I’ll see it through no matter what odds you give me!”

And so with unsmiling faces they went away to their test, and the mother went to the window and watched them with troubled eyes. Had she done right to assent to her daughter’s going? Would harm come from it, or would there come a possible reconciliation? And would that be good for her child or ill? She turned away from the window with a sigh after they were out of sight, and in her dignified, conservative way, did what she understood to be right in the way of making a troubled prayer to offset what harm might be done.

J
ohn Sargent walked a full block before he realized that there was someone walking in step with him. Long, loose steps, as if they were old friends. Then, as they crossed the next corner and a good many other pedestrians turned away down the side street, the man was still there. John turned and gave him a quick look, taking in the keen eyes, the slouching gait, the assured set of head and shoulders.

The stranger met his gaze with a steady look and then spoke. “Well, you’ve had a busy day, haven’t you? I been watching you quite a spell off and on. You’re a good worker. Seems like you ought to be able to hold down a better-paying job than the one you were at.”

“Thanks!” said John, giving him another quick searching glance, but saying no more.

“You been working for this company long?” asked the stranger, after waiting for a more comprehensive answer to his first remark.

John gave the man another sharp look.

“A while,” he answered shortly.

The man studied him a moment.

“They pay you pretty well?” he asked insinuatingly.

“What’s it to you?” John barked out.

“Oh, nothing. Nothing at all,” said Kurt Entry apologetically. “I was just thinking a man like you in these times would be worth a good deal of money to the company he worked for, that is, if you always worked as hard as you did today. It’s that reason I asked about wages. Some don’t appreciate how hard a man works and pay as little as possible. I happen to know about a job that pays real money. I wouldn’t wonder you might fit there if you care to apply.”

“Yes?” said John in a tone of unbelief. “I’ve heard people talk that way before. Then you come to inquire, and it doesn’t turn out to be so much. You hunting for a job?” He looked the man up and down with the air of a contractor searching for laborers.

“Me? Oh no. I got a job. Pays me good. I just happen to know about this other job. It’s just velvet!” He mentioned an incredibly large sum under his breath.

“Oh yeah?” said John and gave him another sharp look. “What’s wrong with it?”

“Eh?” said Entry, giving John a surprised look. “What’s wrong with what? The job or the pay?”

“Both,” said John crisply. “People don’t pay that much to anyone unless there’s something crooked about the work or the place where the money comes from.”

“Oh!” said Entry, lapsing into a noncommittal attitude. “Well, you see, it’s this way. There’s need, in a certain place I know, for a man who can be trusted. A man who knows how to keep his mouth shut and obey instructions. Being a pretty good judge of human nature, I took you for that kind of man, see?”

John’s brows drew together in a puzzled expression. He was thinking fast.

“Is this a government job?” he asked sharply.

“Well, yes, in a
way
it is. It’s very important, and that’s the reason they can’t trust every Tom, Dick, and Harry.”

“I see,” said John, “but the government doesn’t send men out to contact strangers on the street with a proposition like yours. What kind of sucker do you think I am?”

“You don’t understand me, kid! I just took a liking to you, and I thought you would fall for such a lot of money.”

“What made you think I would?” said John, his eyes narrowing.

“Well, I heard you had a grandmother you were taking care of, and I thought you would enjoy having a little real velvet to help with your job.”

“But you haven’t answered my question yet,” said the boy. “What’s the catch? I know there’s a catch somewhere. I’m not great enough for some man in the government to come after me. Answer the question, and I’ll answer you. What is it they want done that anybody couldn’t do?”

“Well it isn’t anything great, kid,” said Entry. “Just a little matter of observation and of being able to report on certain things as soon as they’re planned so that other people can keep up with the times. Nothing out of the way at all.”

“Like what?” asked John, now watching the other man keenly.

“Oh, just keeping ears and eyes open. Finding dates of shipments, formulas, getting descriptions and measurements. Know anything about photography?”

John lifted his head.

“What if I do?” he asked.

“Well, there’s plenty of dough in knowing how to get a good picture of important things. I know that fer a fact.”

“Meaning what?”

“Well, I’m not just saying what I mean. Not till you say you’re ready to deal with me. And you don’t need to worry about my commission. All I ask will be a measly little ten percent on what you make.”

“Oh, so that’s the catch, is it?” said John with a grin.

“What do you mean? There ain’t any catch. This is straight business.”

John continued to grin.

“Ten percent!” he sneered. “Paid in advance, I suppose?”

“No sir, you don’t pay till you get yours, and that’ll be plenty soon after you deliver the goods, see?”

“Yes, I see,” said John. “I see your trick, but I’m from Missouri, and I don’t snap at the first drop of the hook. Besides, it was you that brought this up, not I. It sounds fishy to me.”

“Nothing fishy about it, son. It’s genuine business, if you’re interested.”

“Well, I’m not interested,” said the lad. “I’m not interested in any rackets of any kind, and this sounds to me about the worst racket I’ve heard yet.”

“No racket about it, young fella! Just an honest-to-goodness way to make a little easy dough. I thought you looked like a man that could put a thing across in great shape if you just once got it into your head to do it. I sort of took a liking to you when I heard how respectful you spoke to that sour lady that was trying to get a rise out of you, and you wouldn’t rise. I liked that in you, and I says to myself, ‘That’s just the man for that job I heard of, and I’d like to be the one to connect him up with it.’ I sure would. It’s a job I would have taken on myself if I hadn’t been so well suited to the job I’ve already got.”

Entry gave a sidewise glance toward his victim and smiled his oily smile.

John turned and faced the man by his side.

“What is all this about anyway, stranger? Are you an agent for some group or something? And what would this work be I’m supposed to do? Answer me straight! I won’t listen to any more of this hedging business.”

“Sure, I’ll answer you straight. You wouldn’t have so much to do beyond the ordinary mechanical work in the plant. Just keep your eyes and ears open for what is needed and know how to report it. Just mebbe a picture now and then of something important. Plenty of pay and very little extra work.”

John suddenly turned on the man and glared at him.

“You mean that you want me to be a miserable spy against my own country and what they are doing to defend our country and what they are doing to defend our freedom? Is that it? Well you can get out, you louse! And take this answer back.
NO! Never
will I lend myself to such treason, not for all the money in the world! That’s flat and final! Good-bye!”

John swung himself aboard the bus which had just stopped to let a passenger off and was now about to start. But Entry’s voice pursued him as the door was closing. “Well, kid, think it over. I’ll be seeing you.” When John looked back at the corner, the man had vanished.

Two blocks farther on, John swung off the bus and made his way to a police station where he reported what had been said to him, and then hurried to his grandmother’s comfortable little apartment. She welcomed him with her eyes and she flashed for him her poor twisted smile. John prepared a delicate meal for her and fed it to her, and then made her comfortable for the night in a gentle way he had. As she slept he sat and brooded over the state of things that had been opened up to him that afternoon, and his very blood boiled with indignation. Was it possible that such traffic as this was really going on in his beloved land? Hiring spies and treachery? He had read of such things, of course, but had never half believed them until now. And couldn’t that guy tell from looking at him that he wasn’t that kind of fellow? Well, he’d show them. If that stinking sneak came around again, he wouldn’t even look at him—but he’d see that the police got the high sign before it was too late to catch him.

A long time John sat beside that simple bed and watched the sleeper, his thoughts growing more and more tempestuous. How his very soul ached to be in the great struggle to set his world free from such horror. He had heard men talk where he used to work, even if he hadn’t had time to read the papers or listen to the radio. The war news traveled fast around the gang as they worked, sometimes even anticipating the things that were happening, so that the men almost talked about things before they had really occurred. He knew that every able-bodied man ought to be out defending righteousness. And yet he knew for the present his duty lay here with this dear invalid. She had spent years working for him, helping him until he got his education. And now she was laid low and didn’t even know what dire distress had come upon the world.

Or did she? How much had she seen from her small world in the library before the blow had fallen upon her? She was a reader, quick to know the signs of the times. Once when he had been home for a few days during vacation time she had spoken of the possibility that the war-torn world across the sea might even send the struggle to America.

“Oh, I hope you won’t have to go away and be a soldier, John.” she had said with a sigh.

There had been a prolonged silence, and then the boy had replied, “But Grandmother, if war should come here to defend a righteous cause, you wouldn’t want me to be a slacker?”

And she had given him one yearning, distressful look and said with a deep sigh, “No, of course not, John.”

And so he knew in his heart that if even now he could tell her all that was going on in the world and how America, their own dear land, had been called to do its duty and fight for victory and freedom, Grandmother’s tired eyes would flash with their old fire, and her locked lips would try to form words which would bid him go and fight with the rest. She would not want her necessity to be a hindrance to his doing his duty.

But he would not leave her now. She was all he had left, and she had worn her own life out trying to help him. It wasn’t as if she were unconscious and wouldn’t know the difference if he were gone. He knew that his presence was a great joy to her. Her eyes told him that. But he had a strong belief that real duties never conflicted. There would be a way out, somehow, if circumstances changed.

But whatever came, while he was at home at least, there would be things he could do for the cause of defense. He had a fairly good promise of a job he would be likely to get in a few days. It would not only enable him to make his grandmother more comfortable, but he would be definitely doing work that was needed in the war.

At present he was hiring a pleasant elderly lady to care for his grandmother during the day. She wasn’t a regular nurse, and he wanted very much to be able to afford a professional nurse. Perhaps that would come pretty soon. But Mrs. Burke was doing her best, between looking after two little grandchildren when their mother was out working. It wasn’t an ideal arrangement, but it was the best he could afford now. Perhaps something better would come along pretty soon. It was for these reasons that the man’s suggestion of more money had at first caught and made him listen briefly in spite of his better judgment. But now as he thought it over, his lip curled at himself to think he had even
seemed
interested in the stranger.

And then came the thought that perhaps here was something he could do for the war interest. He might be able to trace down some of these treacheries that were going on in the country. He would keep that in mind and be on the watch for suspicious characters. He wasn’t a trained detective, of course, but these days everyone must be on alert, ready to help in every way.

Then he began to think about the man that had accosted him. Perhaps he should have found out where this work was going on that they wanted him to spy on and then warn the owner. But, on the other hand, would that mean there was danger of getting himself involved and suspected of something unlawful? He should be careful of that, of course, not for his own sake, but because of his grandmother. He must not do anything that would involve his staying away from her while she was in this critical condition, liable to have another stroke at any time, the doctor said. She depended on him. He could not bear to think of her anguished eyes searching the room in vain to find him. No, he must be cautious about whatever he did.