Nevertheless Dolph was able to see into every corner, and could have easily told had there been others present besides the two who still sat there on the floor, Amos idly allowing his fingers to run over the strings of the old fiddle.
The boy was talking earnestly. From the manner in which he gazed into the face of Sallie, it was evident he was endeavoring to convince her that it was her duty to give up this nomadic life, traveling here and there with her good for nothing father, and let the boys take her to her grandmother’s house at the Sault Ste. Marie, known far and wide simply as the “Soo.”
She seemed to listen eagerly to what he said, and upon her thin little face there crept a very wistful look. But whenever he stopped talking she would shake her head sorrowfully, though with a determination that would have well become a little heroine.
Dolph caught some of the words she spoke. He could draw his own conclusion from them, to the effect that Sallie had given her word to her dying mother to stand by her father, no matter what befell until he either reformed his ways or met the fate that continually hovers over the heads of such evil men.
Somehow Dolph was thrilled with admiration for the pluck of this frail girl, who could resist all temptations, for which her heart must be longing, and endure this wretched existence, simply because she had promised the mother, who was gone; and the man she would try to shield and save was her “dad” though most unworthy to bear that name.
To others Crawley might appear only a drunken scoundrel, whose word was not worth considering as an asset; but perhaps Sallie could look back with gratitude to a few isolated instances when he had been “good to her.”
Dolph watched the two for a few minutes, and then, thinking that it might be only right to let Amos know his chums were around, was just in the act of making some sort of signal the other would surely recognize, when something occurred that caused him to change his mind.
The girl seemed to be pointing to the floor over in a corner. There was an expression of alarm upon her face. Amos was bending forward too, as if he too had caught the same thing that had attracted Sallie’s attention so suddenly. Indeed, he looked astonished beyond measure, and from his attitude one might believe Amos was not far from the border of actual fright.
Naturally Dolph was keenly interested.