Battling the Clouds; or, For a Comrade's Honor

by Frank Cobb

  CHAPTER XV

  "How did you know I was coming, mother dear?" asked Bill, clingingrather crazily to her as he tried to steady himself.

  "I just _felt_ it," she answered, "and once I was so frightened aboutyou, but that passed away."

  "What time was it, do you remember?" asked Bill.

  "Nine o'clock," she said. "I was waiting for dad to come home from aboard meeting."

  "Yes, it was just nine," said Bill with a strange look on his face. "Iheard you when you spoke to me, mother, and I think it saved my life,and the lives of the other fellows.

  "How very strange!" exclaimed Mrs. Sherman. "Who came with you, Bill,and who piloted the plane?"

  "I did," replied the boy. "It is a very long story, mother. It was theonly way we could come. We _had_ to get here, and a storm had torn allthe wires down, and the school was in quarantine, and oh, mother, Lee is_saved_! We have the envelope and the money and it is all going to beright again. They have not taken him away, have they?"

  "They were going at noon to-day," answered Mrs. Sherman. "I don'tunderstand at all, Bill. How do you happen to have the money, and allthat?"

  "I will tell you everything about it presently, mother," said Bill. "Iwant you to take care of Ernest Breeze, if you will. It is his plane,and he has a broken arm and could not manage to drive, so I had to doit. We flew all night and all day yesterday. Gosh, we are about all in!"

  "Don't say another word then!" cried Mrs. Sherman. "Dad isn't out yet,but go get Ernest and I will make some coffee."

  Bill took a quick step to her side.

  "Coffee for three, please, mother," he said. "There is someone else withus. Frank Anderson is here. He knows something about the theft."

  Bill stumbled over his statement. Somehow he hated to tell his motherthe bald and awful truth about the boy who had been his friend and hers.

  She did not wait for further explanations. Already she was movingrapidly about the tiny kitchen, regulating the roaring fire that hadalready been started by the janitor, and getting out the canister ofcoffee.

  Bill went back to the airplane. With the aid of the soldiers groupedabout, he assisted Ernest over to the quarters, and laid him down on theMajor's bed. That gentleman called a lathery greeting from the bathroomwhere he was shaving.

  Ernest was in bad condition. The exposure and the lack of proper carehad caused his arm to become terribly inflamed. Mrs. Sherman sent anorderly with a side car over to the Hospital on a hurry call for thedoctor.

  Then she braced the boy carefully with pillows and covered him with awarm blanket. As soon as it was ready, she brought him a cup of hotcoffee and an egg, leaving Bill to care for himself and attend to Frank.

  Frank had reached a state where he seemed numb. He was past caring whathappened. After a hot drink, however, he braced up a little and preparedto face his ordeal. He did not know what it was to be. For all he knew,he would be taken to Leavenworth. It was agony to think that soonsomeone would go to his father and mother and tell them that their sonon whom they had built such hopes was a thief. He sat silent anddowncast and only answered in brief sentences when they addressed him.Of course Major and Mrs. Sherman sensed something dreadful, but theywere too wise to press their questions until such time as the boys werefed and rested.

  A little color had already crept back in Ernest's face, and Bill wasseemingly quite himself.

  Then he asked Major Sherman to come into the den, and beckoned Frank tofollow. The boy did so with the air of a condemned man.

  No one ever knew what went on at that solemn meeting. One hour, twopassed and still they sat behind the closed door. Then Major Sherman,with a grave and troubled face, came out, kissed his wife, mounted thehorse the orderly had been holding for the past hour, and rode away inthe direction of the General's quarters. Bill and Frank remained seatedin the den.

  Bill, almost as shaken as the culprit, stared out of the window at thequarters across the court. Frank, broken at last, lay on the hardquartermaster cot and shook with dry and racking sobs. Neither boy knewwhat the outcome would be. It seemed days before the jingle of spurs inthe tiny passageway told of the approach of officers, and the dooropened to admit General Marcom, his aide, and the Major. Bill rose andstood at attention. Frank too struggled to his feet and stood droopingbefore his judges.

  Once more the story was told, this time Frank adding a broken sentencehere and there. He told how Jardin had filled him with the longing formoney, and how he had seen the amounts that Jardin spent and wickedlywanted to do likewise. It was on the impulse of the moment that he hadtaken the envelope filled with bills to pay the Battery. Once in hispossession, he was panicstricken. The terror of being found out andpunished had driven him onward; that was all.

  The General, an old and kindly man, listened with a grave face. He saidnothing. Writing an order on a slip of paper, he gave it to his orderly,who galloped off toward Old Post where the jail is situated. In thisgrim building with its small, grated windows and thick stone walls, Leewas awaiting the hour of his departure for prison. There was much redtape to go through with, but at last the orderly went clattering back tothe General with his answer, and close behind him followed an ambulancewith Lee and a couple of guards, armed with short carbines and heavypistols.

  As they entered the quarters through the kitchen, Mrs. Sherman placedboth hands on Lee's shoulders--shoulders as straight and proud as ever.

  "Oh, my dear boy, it is _all right_!" she whispered so the guard wouldnot hear. "It is all right, just as I knew it would be! Be generous, beforgiving, won't you, Lee?"

  He smiled down tenderly at the little lady he loved so well and nodded.Then he too passed into the den. For a long while the rumble of theGeneral's deep voice rattled the ornaments on the thin walls, and oncemore the wild sobbing of a boy was heard. The orderly, standing justoutside the door, saluted as the door opened and the General gave himanother order to deliver. He came out in person a moment later anddismissed the ambulance and the guards, who went away wondering.

  _Lee was a free man._

  When the General returned to the den he looked long at Frank, and theMajor was inspired to ask permission to leave for a few moments.

  "Please call if you want us," he said, and nodding to Lee and Bill tofollow, he took them across into his wife's room where they awaited asignal from the General. The wise Major knew that anything the Generalmight say to Frank would be burned forever on his memory. For theGeneral was not only a very great man but a wise one as well, and hiswords were always words of wisdom, and they were often words of mercyand forgiveness as well.

  So the deep old voice rumbled on in the den, with only a brief word inFrank's boyish tones once in awhile.

  Presently the door was opened and the General called.

  The group advanced.

  "Lee," said the General, "have you anything to say to this boy?"

  There was a silence. Lee stiffened. Then Mrs. Sherman's tiny hand closedaround Lee's great horny fingers and pressed them in the warmest,tenderest clasp. It was very unmilitary, but the General said nothing.

  Lee looked down at the little lady and smiled; the first smile for manyweeks.

  Then he stepped forward a pace, still holding Mrs. Sherman's littlehand. Lee raised it, looked at the General, at Mrs. Sherman and last atFrank. With a gesture of reverence he let the little hand drop.

  "I forgive you!" he said, "Let's begin new." He held out his hand tothe boy, but with a cry Frank turned away.

  "Not yet, not yet! I can't take it!" he cried.

  "You can if I can," said Lee.

  "No, no, I can't; not yet!"

  "He is right," said the General. "Let _me_ shake your hand instead,young man, and thank you as one man to another for your forgiveness."

  "My car is outside," said Major Sherman meaningly.

  "Thank you," said the General. "Anderson, the hardest part is beforeyou. Go home and make a straight confession to your father and mother,and then close this black chapter. Somehow or other I
will see that ourpart of it is taken from the records. It remains for you to turn over aclean page."

  Looking at no one, Frank left the room. He entered the Major's car, alonely, frightened, despairing culprit.

  "General," cried Lee suddenly, "if you please, sir, let me go with him!Major Anderson is a hard man, sir. Please let me go!"

  "Go!" said the General, and in a moment the boy who had caused suchbitter trouble and so much pain and his innocent and forgiving victimwere on their way to the Anderson quarters at Aviation Field. TheGeneral fussed for a moment, then went outside to the fateful telephoneand called Major Anderson.

  The others could hear what he said.

  "Anderson," he commenced, "this is unofficial. General Marcom speaking.You have a hard and trying interview before you. I want you to meet itwith _mercy_, Anderson; _mercy_ rather than justice. Justice has alreadybeen done. I could recall something in your past, Anderson, that metwith mercy, and which saved your whole career. I ask you to rememberthis. What? No, I won't explain--the explanation will reach youshortly--You will do as I suggest? Thank you, Anderson. Tell your wifewhat I have said. Good-morning!"

  He hung up the receiver and returned to the house. A round wicker tablestood in the center of the living-room near Ernest's couch. A snowycloth covered it, and it was spread with the most delicious breakfast.

  Notwithstanding the General's assurances that he had eaten hours ago hesat down, unable to withstand the delicious whiffs rising from thecoffee urn, and the smell of crispy toast browning in the electrictoaster.

  Grapefruit and eggs and commissary bacon (which is by all odds the beston earth) and that same before-mentioned toast, and coffee, and orangemarmalade.

  Bill, who had never imagined the time would come when he would be takingbreakfast with a real General, was nevertheless so hungry and so happythat he forgot rank and everything else. The General did too, itseemed, because he sat and sipped, and ate, and ate, and questioned theboys and finally wanted the story of the flight from the very firstinstead of getting it tail-end first in little pieces.

  Bill told his side of the flight, and Ernest told his, and together theytold about the landing in the farmer's field, and the amusing people andabout Webby, the "pig-headed" and trustworthy one.

  And then the General and Major smoked as though there were no dispatchesfor the General to read and no classes waiting for the Major--in fact,as though there was no military discipline at all. But as the Generalsaid, what was the use of being a General, anyway, if it didn't give yousome privileges?

  But at last the General jingled away, happy and quite full up withdelicious coffee and things, and thinking Major Sherman was a lucky doganyhow to have that little wife and fine boy. Before he left he gave anorder for a guard for the airplane standing so calmly in the smallfield.

  Close on his departure came the ambulance, and Major Sherman went offwith Ernest to the Hospital for an X-ray of his broken arm.

  Bill and his mother were alone.

  Together they hustled the dishes into the kitchen and cleared up theliving-room. Then Mrs. Sherman sat down in her favorite corner on thecouch and Bill threw himself beside her with his tousled head in herlap.

  "Goodness, Billy, you certainly _have_ grown!" she said. "Your legstrail way off the end, and when you went to school you didn't reach tothe edge."

  "Oh, come now, mother," said Bill, "quit fooling! I have grown about aninch."

  "More than that," insisted Mrs. Sherman. "You are taller than I am now.What an awful time I am going to have bossing you around now that youare so big."

  "You never _did_ boss me," boasted Bill. "You just twisted me aroundyour little finger."

  "I won't be slandered!" said Mrs. Sherman, pulling his hair. "You aretired now and I should think you would like a nice hot bath and a goodlong sleep."

  "That does sound good, Mummy. We will have to stay here for awhile, youknow, because of the quarantine. But we will get rested up in, a fewhours."

  "Yes, you _must_ get rested," said Mrs. Sherman, "because as soon as youfeel right, I want you to take me for a ride in that nice, lovelyairplane."

  Bill sat up. "_What!_" he cried. "You--fly!"

  Mrs. Sherman nodded, smiling. "Yes, _me_--fly!" she mimicked. "Bill, Iam converted!"

  THE END