Partners (6 page)

And anyway, why was she of more importance than the white-faced girl in the hospital room he had been sent to look after?

And why should he have to explain to her anyway? Just tell her that some matters of personal interest were preventing him from giving attention to other things for the time being.

And then there was that Western trip he had thought about and written about several times in his letters to two old college friends, Ted Whitney and Gart Medford. He had asked them if they would care to go along in case he decided for it but had as yet no word from them. As he drifted off to sleep, his mind was busy with the thought of airplanes and transcontinental trains. Tomorrow morning he must definitely either put this matter out of his plan or decide whether he cared to go west alone.

When he awoke in the morning, however, it was all hazy in his mind. He was bewildered for an instant over being in a strange room, and looking over to the other bed, where the beautiful boy lay with his soft curls tumbled away from his fine brow and the long curly lashes shading the white cheek, it all came back to him how he happened to be here taking care of a little stranger waif, with complications blocking his path in every direction against his greatly anticipated vacation.

Then suddenly he heard a soft, little quivering sigh, almost like a sob, and looking quickly across to the other bed, he saw that the young face was wet with tears, and more were slowly stealing out from under those dark lashes and flowing silently down, until his face was fairly drenched. His lips were quivering and the small hands outside the coverlet were clenched with the effort to keep back the sobs that were all too evidently getting the better of the child.

"Oh, I say, fella, are you awake?" he asked engagingly.

The small figure tightened alertly, the young throat worked convulsively, swallowing down the tears, the face turned for an instant away from him, and a small hand came up quickly and mopped away the tears onto the pillowcase.

"Yes--sir!" he gulped. "I'm awake!" The words trembled out dejectedly.

"Well--say, old top, what's the trouble? Why the tears? Feel bad anywhere?"

"N–n–o–ss––ir!" A forced cheerfulness came to the front.

"Well then, what's the idea? Why the depression?"

There was a silence for an instant while the young soldier got control again.

"Oh, nothing!" he said with an attempt at nonchalance. "I--I j––j–just had a b–b–bad dream!" And his lip quivered again. "I dreamed--my Gillian--was g–g––gone! And--w–w–when I w–w–waked up, this was a s–strange room!" The boy buried his head in the pillow, and his small shoulders shook convulsively.

Reuben swung himself out of bed and went and sat on the side of the other bed beside the boy, gathering him into a strong, comforting embrace.

"Yes, I see, old fellow," he said soothingly. "I've had dreams like that sometimes, too. It's tough! But, you see, fella, you just forgot for a minute and were kind of startled. It wasn't real at all. I wouldn't waste any suffering over that. You know your sister is over at the hospital, and we are going to call up pretty soon and see how she is. Remember that?"

The boy looked at him with troubled, sober eyes and finally nodded.

"Well," said Reuben, "suppose we call right now and see if that nurse is awake yet. Would you like that?"

The boy nodded solemnly as if he was almost afraid of that phone call, but he rolled over and sat up alertly. Reuben, as he walked over to the telephone, found he had much the same feeling of fear in his heart that the boy evidently had.

"All right, here goes!" he said with a kindly wink at the child, who smiled gravely back through his shadow of anxiety.

Reuben got the hospital, and the little boy lay trembling and waited while he went through the formalities of getting the nurse.

Then came the nurse's voice, clear, almost cheerful. Noel could hear it even across the room. "Yes, Mr. Remington. Yes, this is Miss Guthrie's nurse. Yes, she's had a fairly comfortable night. Yes, the doctor came in a little after midnight again. He said her pulse was a trifle steadier."

"Then she's no worse?" questioned Remington almost sharply.

"N–no! I wouldn't say she was worse," said the nurse in her formal tone. Of course, the nurse was not supposed to give out information.

"What time will the doctor be there?"

"He usually comes in about eleven o'clock."

"Very well, I'll try to be over there at the time," said Reuben and hung up.

So! The problems were no nearer an immediate solution than they had been. His way was simply blocked!

Then the anxious little face caught his eye, and he smiled.

"Cheerio!" he said. "At least she is no worse. Let's get in shape to go out and get some work done before it's time to go to the hospital again."

"Work?" said Noel with quick interest. "I didn't know we had work to do. What do we do? Get our breakfast? But there isn't any stove in this room, is there? And we didn't buy anything to cook. Sometimes my sister cooks an egg over the gas burner. But we haven't got any gas burner. And if we had, we haven't got any egg."

Reuben's eyes smarted at the thought of all the makeshifts poverty had brought to the life of this child and his brave young sister, but he only laughed.

"No, we don't have to cook breakfast. We'll go down to the restaurant for that. But afterward I've got to go to the office for a few minutes to look after some mail and be sure the man who is taking my place while I am away understands just what he has to do. We'll have to hurry, for I may find more to be done than I thought, and I must allow enough time."

"Oh!" said the child in a small, lonesome voice. "And will I stay here, or do I have to go to the day nursery?"

"No," said Reuben cheerily, "no more of that day nursery for you, lad, not if the court knows herself, and she thinks she does."

"What you mean, 'the court knows'?" said the child with a look of terror in his eyes. "Do I have to go to court? I haven't done anything naughty, have I?" His lips were trembling again.

Poor baby! What experience he must have been through to have ideas about such sinister matters.

"Oh, no!" laughed Reuben. "I meant 'not if I know what I'm doing.' I was referring to myself as a court that was going to keep you safely away from such places now. And no, you don't have to stay here alone. Of course, it would be an all right place for you to stay if you
had
to, for a little while, but I wouldn't want you to be lonesome, especially just now while you are worried about your sister. No, sir! We're going to do things together, old man. I thought perhaps you'd like to go down to my office and see how it looks there, and you could sit in a big leather chair and look at a picture book while I'm busy. We'll stop at a bookstore and get one on the way. Will you like that?"

"Oh, yes!" said the child, with a relieved smile and a sigh of content.

"Well, into the shower, then, and see how quickly you can get dressed!" said the young man.

And soon the two were on their way into a new day.

 

 

 

 

 

There was orange juice, oatmeal with sugar and real cream on it, bacon and two eggs apiece, and a glass of milk for breakfast. It was unheard of in Noel's small life. At least, if it had ever been, it was so long ago he had almost forgotten such affluence.

When he was half through his oatmeal, he paused and looked at Reuben.

"Will my sister have some of this?" he asked anxiously. "Because if she wouldn't, I would like to divide with her."

"Oh, yes," Reuben assured him, "she will have a nice breakfast. Everything that the doctor thinks she ought to eat. And she will be so glad that you are having a nice breakfast, too."

The boy looked at him thoughtfully as if he understood more than his years warranted.

"Yes," he said pensively with a sigh. "She's always that way."

They bought the picture book, which also had stories in large-print three-letter words, and Noel sat in a great green leather chair in the office by a window and enjoyed it while Reuben went at the pile of mail that was lying on his desk, and talked things over with his new assistant. It was very still in the room, till all at once the door opened briskly and Anise Glinden walked in.

"Well, upon my word!" she said haughtily. "So you're here, are you? Is this where you have hidden yourself all night?"

"Oh, good morning!" said Reuben, looking up with a hastily summoned smile. "No, I haven't been here all night. I just arrived, and I'm trying to beat time with this mail before I have to go to an appointment. I meant to telephone you later and explain my absence last night. I didn't want to disturb you so early this morning. Sorry I wasn't able to come, but I hoped you would understand that something unforeseen had prevented me."

"Yes," said Anise disagreeably, "I understood. I understood perfectly that you did not
mean
to come. After practically promising me you would be there, and after I took the trouble to secure a fine actor to take that part, that you might understand fully what it was I wanted you to do, you failed me! Miserably failed me! I--you--" Her eyes swept the room and rested with startled dislike on the astonished young face that watched her.

"Who is that child? Can't you send him out of here? I want to talk to you. What right has he in an office? Run away, little boy. We're busy here now!"

"No!" said Reuben firmly, gravely. "He is waiting for me. Sit still, Noel!" he said to the boy with a reassuring smile. Then turning back to the girl, he said, "I'm sorry, but I really won't have time to talk now. I must get these letters ready for the morning mail before I leave. I certainly regret that I inconvenienced you, but I thought I had made it quite plain from the first that even if I came, I could not possibly act in a play, no matter how many perfect actors I had the privilege of watching. I am not an actor, and I do not want to be one. Couldn't you induce the actor to take the part permanently? And then perhaps I can find time to run down some evening and see the play. I can't promise just how soon that will be, for some matters have come up that demand my attention at once, and I cannot tell how long they are going to take."

"But I thought they said this was your vacation!" pouted the angry girl. "Why are you bothering with letters now?"

"Yes, but these letters did not arrive yesterday as they were expected to do, and they must be answered by return mail. It happens that I am the only one who knows the answers to some of the questions they ask, so before I go I must see that they are on their way."

He reached out and touched a button on his desk, calling his secretary.

"The other matter that may detain me for some time even in my vacation time is personal and unavoidable. Now, I do hope you will pardon me. My secretary has come to take the dictation, and I don't suppose you will particularly enjoy listening to that. But I shall let you know if things adjust themselves so that I can take the pleasure of accepting your invitation."

Anise looked up and glared at the quiet, elderly woman who entered with her notebook and pencil, and then with her head held up haughtily, fairly flounced out of the room, much to the relief of the small boy who was greatly shaken by the conversation that had just been going on.

Mr. Rand came in just as Reuben finished dictating and was getting ready to leave.

"Good morning, Reuben. I'm glad I caught you. I thought you would like to see this letter from Avison Brothers before you left. Thought you would enjoy having your mind at rest about them. After all the hard work you did on that case, it's nice to know it has come out as we hoped and everything is ready to go forward now."

"Oh!" said Reuben with relief. "That's good. I was wondering about that this morning. Yes, I'm glad to know about it. Thank you."

He glanced through the letter, while the manager watched him, thinking again as he had thought a number of times before how fortunate they were to have found such a young man. He seemed to be working right into the plans of the company wonderfully. He personally was going to miss him while he was away. But he certainly deserved a vacation, for he was about the hardest worker they had.

Reuben handed back the letter, and Rand started toward the door then suddenly turned back.

"Oh, by the way, how is that girl that you took to the hospital? Is she all right? Was it just a simple faint? Thought I noticed she wasn't in her place at her desk this morning. I hope you assured her that she could take a good rest if she needed it."

"Oh, yes," said Reuben. "I was planning to stop in your office and speak to you about it. She's still in the hospital. I am due there now in a few minutes to meet the doctor and see what he has to say about her. No, I don't think it was just a simple faint. I'm afraid it's a case of undernourishment and living on simple nerve, though I can tell you better after I've had a talk with the doctor. I'll call you up around noon and let you know just how things are. But I'm afraid it's not just a simple case."

Rand puckered his brows with a worried air.

"I'm afraid she's been working too hard," he said. "She's that type. She's been asking for overtime work, just seems to eat it up. She's done a lot of extra work for me, too; and that reminds me, I have a check for her for some extra work she's been doing for me evenings. I meant to give it to her this morning. I wonder if you would take it to her. She might need it for something. Of course, you'll explain that we will look after the doctor and hospital expenses. That's all provided for in her hospitalization, you know. But there might be other needs, and I'd like her to get this right away if possible. I have an idea she has somebody dependent upon her, and that may worry her."

"She has," said Reuben. "Her small brother. Here he is. I'm taking him to the hospital to see her."

Mr. Rand looked at Noel in surprise.

"You mean this little fellow? Why, he's a mere child. That must be a heavy responsibility."

"Yes, I think it must have been. Noel, this is Mr. Rand. I expect you've heard your sister speak about him, haven't you?"