Evans, walking home an hour later, took the path which led beneath the pines. The old trees showed thin and black against the moon-bright sky. Beyond the pines was the field with the scarecrow. Evans might have avoided it by following the road, but he was drawn to it by a sort of sinister attraction, and by the memory of the things he had said to Jane.
Under the moon the scarecrow took on more than ever the semblance of a man. Lightly clad in straw hat and pajamas, it seemed to shiver and shake in the bleak and bitter night.
Evans leaned on a fence post and surveyed his fantastic prototype. The air was very still—no sound but the faint whistle of the wind.
Then out of the stillness—clear as a bell—Jane’s husky voice. “The man of yesterday did not think dark thoughts.”
He seemed to answer her. “Why shouldn’t I think them? My dreams are dead. And oh, my dear, what have you to do with dead dreams?”
He had thought he would be satisfied just to have her near him. But he knew now that he would not be satisfied. He had known it from the moment he had seen her with Towne. Always hereafter there would be the fear that she might be taken from him. And it was Frederick Towne who might take her. He had everything to offer. Any girl’s head might be turned.
Towne’s infatuation was evident. And Jane was exquisite—in mind and soul as well as body. It wasn’t a thing for a man to miss.
He was chilled to the bone when at last he took leave of the ghostly figure in the straw hat. The old scarecrow seemed to lean towards him wistfully as he went away.... Oh, the thing was so human—he wanted to offer it shelter, a warm hearth.... He flung back at it as the best he could do, Jane’s words, “Cheer up, old chap, summer’s coming.”
When he reached home, Evans went at once to the library. Rusty was in his basket by the fire. He lifted himself stiffly and whined. Evans knelt beside the basket, and held up a saucer of milk that the old dog might drink. Then he took a book from the shelf and sat down to read. His mother had not returned. She had telephoned to him at Jane’s that she might be late.