CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE

Along the road and over the stone wall and straight across the bed of tiger-lilies sped Pee-wee, using his own particular mode of scout pace, patent not applied for. Across the side porch and into the kitchen he went, pell-mell, shouting in a voice to crack the heavens.

“It’s a monolopy—I mean a monopoly! We’ve got a monopoly! Where’s everybody? Hey, Aunt Jamsiah, where are you? Where’s Uncle Eb? Hurry up and make some doughnuts? There’s a detour! Cars—hundreds of cars—from the highway—they’re coming along the road. You ought to see. Where’s the ice-pick? Can I have some lemons? Are there any cookies left? I left two on the plate last night. Where’s the sugar so I can—”

He paused in his frenzy of haste and enthusiasm as Aunt Jamsiah opened the sitting room door, very quietly and seriously.

“Shh, come in here, Walter,” she said.

Her manner, kind, gentle, but serious, disconcerted Pee-wee and chilled his enthusiasm. The very fact that he was summoned into the sitting room seemed ominous for that holy of holies was never used; not more than once or twice in Pee-wee’s recollection had his own dusty shoes stood upon that sacred oval-shaped rag carpet. Never before had he found himself within reaching distance of that plush album that stood on its wire holder on the marble table.

This solemn apartment was the only room in the house that had a floor covering and the fact that Pee-wee could not hear his own foot-falls agitated him strangely. Uncle Eb sat in the corner near the melodeon looking strangely out of place in his ticking overalls.

“Is—is she—dead?” Pee-wee whispered fearfully.

“Sit down, Walter,” said Aunt Jamsiah; “no, she isn’t dead, she’s better.”

Uncle Eb said nothing, only watched Pee-wee keenly.

Pee-wee seated himself, feeling very uncomfortable.

“Walter,” said his aunt, “something very serious has happened and I’m going to ask one or two questions. You will tell me the truth, won’t you?”

“I’ll answer fer him doin’ that,” said Uncle Eb.

“Sure I will,” said Pee-wee proudly.

“Walter, do you know what Pepsy’s secret was? You remember she said she had a secret that would make lots and lots of people come and buy things from you?”

“Girls are—” Pee-wee began. He was going to say they were crazy, but remembering the one that lay upstairs he caught himself up and said, “they’re kind of—they think they have big ideas when they haven’t. I should worry about their secrets.”

“But some of Pepsy’s ideas and plans have been very big, Walter,” his aunt said ruefully. “You see we know her better than you do. She’s very, very queer; I’m afraid no one understands her.”

“I understand her,” said Pee-wee. “She believes in bad luck days.”

Aunt Jamsiah paused a moment, considering; then she went straight to the point. “Pepsy wants to do right, dear, but she will do wrong in order to do right—sometimes. We have always been a little fearful of her for that reason. She—she can’t argue in her own mind and consider things as—as you do.”

“I know lots of dandy arguments,” Pee-wee announced.

“You know, Walter, her father was a—he was a—not a very good man. And Pepsy is—queer. Last night she made a dreadful mess in the cellar. She was at the kerosene; oh, it makes me just sick to think of it. She had some rags soaked with kerosene. Some of them were found out by the well. The others—” Aunt Jamsiah lifted her handkerchief to her eyes and wept for a moment, silently.

“What others?” Pee-wee asked.

“The ones that were used to set fire to the bridge, dear. Oh, it’s terrible to think of it. Poor, poor Pepsy. That is what is bringing lots and lots of people along our road to-day, Walter. Pepsy was found lying unconscious near the bridge. She had kerosene all over her. One charred rag was found over there. It just makes me—it makes me—”

Pee-wee arose and laid one hand on the back of the hair-cloth chair. He, too, was concerned now.

“You—you didn’t tell her—you didn’t blame—accuse her—did you?” he asked.

“No, I didn’t,” his aunt breathed worriedly. “I asked her to tell me all about last night and she would tell me nothing. She said that the planks on the bridge tormented her. To almost everything I asked her she said, ‘I won’t tell.’ She is very, very stubborn; she was always so.”

“Because, anyway,” Pee-wee said, alluding to his former query, “if anybody says she burned down the bridge on purpose it’s a lie. I don’t care who says it, it’s a lie. She’s—she’s my partner—and it’s a lie. If—even—if the minister says it, it’s a lie!”

“Listen, my dear boy,” said his aunt kindly. “I’m not angry with Pepsy, poor child. I’m not accusing her, and you mustn’t talk about the Rev. Mr. Gloomer telling lies. Pepsy tried to burn down the orphan home once, for some trifling grievance. We can’t take the responsibility of the poor child any longer. I’m afraid that any minute Beriah Bungel will want to take her—arrest her. I know she’s your partner, dear, but it would be better for us to send her back to the state home where she will probably be kept than to let her be arrested. I don’t think she knew what she was doing, poor, poor child—”

Aunt Jamsiah broke down completely, crying in her handkerchief. So Uncle Eb finished what little there was to say.

“We had to send fer ’em, Walter,” said he. “She’ll be better off there fer a spell, I reckon. I ain’t so sure about her doin’ it, though it looks bad. Leastways, she didn’t know what she was doing. But don’t you worry—”

Pee-wee did not wait to hear more. He just could not stand there.

“When—when are they—coming?” he asked.

“I reckon to-morrow, boy. Now, you look here—”

But Pee-wee had gone.

Up the narrow, boxed-in stairs he went, never asking permission. He could see nothing but a big enclosed wagon, dark inside, with Pepsy inside it. He had no more idea what he was going to do that day than the man in the moon. But he knew what he was going to do that very minute. When a scout makes up his mind to do a thing....

Into the little room under the eaves he strode, his eyes glistening, but his heart staunch and his resolve indomitable. And she smiled when she saw him. She was sitting up and she looked ever so little in her nightclothes and ever so plain with her tightly braided red hair. But her eyes were clear and she smiled when she looked at him....

“I won’t tell anybody where I went,” she said, “because I was a smarty and I thought I could make somebody do a good turn ever so—ever so big. And they’d only laugh at me if I told them what it was. So I’m not going to be a tell-tale cat.”

“Pep,” he said, “it shows that you’re right because lots and lots of automobiles are coming along our road since the old bridge burned down and it’s a detour and that means hundreds and hundreds of them have to go past our refreshment place and we’re going to make lots of money. And I thought of a dandy idea, it’s what they call an inspiration. We’re going to name the place Pepsy Rest, because Pepsy will remind people to buy chewing gum, because that has pepsin in it and as soon as you’re all well we’ll start in and keep on being partners, because we have a monopoly. Do you know what that is? It’s when you can sell all you want of something and nobody else can sell it. See?

“Mr. Jensen, he put up a sign, and he said no one should sell things on his property and he owns all the property along the road, and you bet everybody is scared of him. So now we’re going to have a great big business and we began as poor boys, I mean girls, I mean a boy and a girl. So don’t you believe anything that anybody tells you, not even—not even Aunt Jamsiah. Because you know how I told you I was a good fixer and I’m always lucky, you have to admit that.”

“Can I be the one to count the money?” Pepsy asked.

“Sure, and I’ll be the one to eat what’s left of the things that won’t keep,” said Pee-wee. “Only don’t you worry no matter what you hear—”

She was on the point of telling him how Mr. Jensen had done his good turn after all, and all about what she remembered of the previous night. But she decided that she was not going to have a boy laughing at her and put it within his power to call her a tell-tale cat some day. So instead she threw her arms around him and said, “Oh goody, goody!”

You know how girls do.