“Yes, sir.” The boy felt for the two dollars he had earned weeding a neighbor’s garden. “I’ll have fourteen dollars saved,” he boasted.
“Wealth,” the doctor chuckled, and snapped open his watch and touched the exposed hands with a finger. “We’ll be back in time for dinner.”
But that was a dinner they were destined never to eat.
Roses bloomed in the summer heat, fields of corn tasseled in the sun, and a dog ran out of a yard and barked at them furiously. Lady, intent only on the blind man in her keeping, pricked up her ears but did not change her rapid pace. The village was busy with its Saturday morning trade, and the tawny brute carefully maneuvered the doctor through the crowds. Joe clutched his two dollars and his bank-book. They left the gray suit at the tailor’s and came out to the street. And at that moment a man, coatless and hatless, ran out of the Pelle Canning Company building and went past them, panting.
Dr. Stone said: “Did you hear that man’s breathing, Joe? He’s frightened. Who is he?”
“Mr. Pelle,” the boy told him.
“Where did he go?”
“Into the bank.”
The doctor said: “Lady, right,” and followed the dog across the roadway to the bank side of the street. A small door in one of the two-story brick buildings opened suddenly, and a girl hurried out. The door was marked: “OFFICE, MIDSTATE TEL. CO. UPSTAIRS,” and the girl was Tessie Rich, one of the telephone operators. In her haste she almost ran into the blind man.
“Oh! I’m sorry, Doctor.”