And then he sighted the stranger!
Who was that guy! Some sissy, that was sure! Aw gee!
He slid into the shadow out of sight and flattened himself against the wall with an attentive ear to the door of the session room. He raised himself by chinning up to the window ledge and got a bird's eye view of the situation at a glance. Aw Gee! That old Hair-cut! He wished the bells would stop. That sissy in there with her, and all these here with Cart, and no telling what's up next? Aw gee! Life was jest one—! He slumped his back to the wall and faced the parsonage. Say, what were those two cars over there in front of the parsonage? Say! That must be the guy, the rich guy! Aw gee! In there with her! If he only hadn't put up that detour! Pat knew what he was about after all, a little sissy guy like that—! Aw, gee! But two cars! What did two cars mean?
And over on the parsonage piazza, at the far end in the shelter of the vines sat Aunt Saxon in the dark crying. Beside her was Mrs. Severn with her hand on the woman's shoulder talking in her gentle steady voice. Everybody loved the minister's wife just as much as they loved the minister:
“Yes, he went away on his wheel last night just after dark,” she sobbed. “Yes! he came home after the baseball game, and he made a great fuss gettin' some paint and brushes and contrapshions fixed on his old bicycle, and then he went off. Oh, he usually goes off awhile every night. I can't seem to stop him. I've tried everything short of lockin' him out. I reckon if I did he'd never come back, an' I can't seem to bring myself to lock out my sister's baby—!”
“Of course not!” said Mrs. Severn tenderly.
“Well, he stuck his head back in the door this time, an' he said mebbe he wouldn't be back till mornin', but he'd be back all right for Sunday School. That's one thing, Mrs. Severn,” she lifted her tear stained face, “That's one thing he does like—his Sunday School, Billy does, and I'm that glad! Sometimes I just sit down an' cry about it I'm so glad. You know awhile back when Miss Lynn was off to college that Mr. Harricutt had the boys' class, an' I couldn't get him to go anyhow. Why, once I offered to pay him so he could save fer a baseball bat if he'd go, but do you know he said he'd rather go without baseball bats fer ever than go listen to that old—Well, Mrs. Severn, I won't repeat what he said. It wasn't respectful, not to an elder you know. But Miss Lynn, why he just worships, an' anything she says he does. But that's one thing worries me, Mrs. Severn, he didn't come back for her even! He said he'd be back fer Sunday School, an' he hasn't come back yet!”
“Who does he go with most, Miss Saxon? Let's try to think where he might be. Perhaps we could call up some one and find out where he is.”
“Well, I tell you,” wailed the Aunt, “That's just it. There's just one person he likes as well, or mebbe better'n Miss Mary Lynn, an' that's Mark Carter! Mrs. Severn I'm just afraid he's gone off with Mark Carter!” she lowered her voice to a sepulchral whisper, “And Mrs. Severn, they do say that Mark is real wild!”
Mrs. Severn sat up a little straighter and put a trifle of assurance into her voice, or was it aloofness?