by Peggy Gaddis
“Oh, Mother—” It was a small wail from Lynn.
“Don’t ‘oh, Mother’ me, my girl,” Ruth said sternly. “There’ll be a long engagement.”
“There will not!”
“With time for a trousseau, and parties, and showers, all the fuss I’ve watched other mothers of daughters stage-manage!” Ruth insisted firmly. “Don’t think you’re going to short-change me out of that! We’ll announce the engagement, your father and I, but we’ll wait a few weeks until this ugly business has been forgotten.”
“You’re going to scare us into an elopement!” Lynn warned.
Ruth eyed her sternly.
“Speaking of unmaidenly behavior!” she scoffed. “Where’s the rush? If you two are in love with each other—”
“We are!”
“Then give yourselves time to get acquainted, something you haven’t had up to now,” Ruth insisted. “It hasn’t been more than a month since you were arrogantly certain that you hated the man!”
“I know,” Lynn admitted soberly. “It took you and Steve to point out how close love and hate were. I think Steve knew long before I did that I was in love with Wayde. Steve accused me of it on the way to the county seat the night Wayde was arrested.”
“So Steve’s fine Italian hand is showing up all over the place,” said Ruth, and there was a touch of grimness in her eyes. “Now I’m sure you will have to wait. You’re practically strangers.”
“I love him, Mother.”
“Oh, I know.” Ruth was growing a trifle impatient. “You love the man you think he is, but you don’t really know him well enough to be sure that he is that man. Give yourself a few weeks for a real courtship, to get to know each other. He may decide he doesn’t love you.”
“He doesn’t dare!” Lynn protested hotly, and colored beneath her mother’s glance. “Well, I mean — after all, he said right there in Sheriff Tait’s office—”
“Let’s wait until you get to know each other a bit better and give him a chance to say it in some more romantic spot,” Ruth counseled firmly.
“It seems an awful waste of time,” Lynn said rebelliously.
“Well, you can afford it,” Ruth pointed out reasonably. “You’re twenty-three; he’s probably twenty-eight or thirty. You can spare a few weeks, to be sure you don’t make a mess of your life. Now let’s not hear any more about it. I’ve got to get dinner started.”
Lynn watched her for a moment, and then she made a little gesture that acknowledged her defeat and said meekly, “Shall I set the table?”
Ruth glanced over her shoulder and smiled.
“Why, yes, dear, that would be nice,” she said placidly.
Lynn said quietly, “Sorry I blew up. We’ll wait, of course.”
“Of course you will,” said Ruth serenely, and they both laughed.
Nineteen
She knew, the moment Judge Carter stepped into the house, that all was well. He beamed happily at her and nodded.
“It’s all right, honey,” he answered her before she could put the question. “Chief Hudgins stopped by the office and asked me to go with him to see Larry. Said since I’d defended Larry in his previous scrapes, and since it was you that had found the evidence that seemed to indicate Larry had lied, he’d like to have me with him.”
Judge Carter sighed and rumpled his snowy hair with a tired hand.
“I confess I felt sorry for the boy,” he admitted, and went on before Lynn could speak, “At first he denied everything. Swore that it was as he had first said. But when Chief Hudgins showed him the gun, and that his fingerprints and no one else’s were on it, he broke down and told us the whole story. He stole the gun, of course, while the servants were having their lunch; and he shot himself accidentally. He was terrified that he would be sent to reform school for stealing the gun, and so he lied.”
“The filthy little creep!” Lynn flashed hotly.
“Now, Lynn,” her father protested gently, “he’s only a boy. Little more than a child, really.”
“But if Bert hadn’t been an eyewitness to the whole thing — if Larry had died—”
“I know. Wayde would probably have gone to the electric chair,” said Judge Carter solemnly, and Lynn shuddered. “But now that we know the truth, how it all happened — well, Wayde’s lawyers should be able to get him released in a matter of hours.”
He looked up at Lynn gravely.
“Chief Hudgins telephoned Sheriff Tait as soon as Larry’s confession was signed,” he went on.
“Then Wayde should be free by now.”
“There are a few legal technicalities to be disposed of first,” said Judge Carter. “Wayde’s attorneys, I’m sure, will know what to do. You don’t happen to know who his attorneys are, do you, Lynnie?”
Lynn looked straight across the room at Steve, and her chin went up a little.
“The only thing I know, Dad, is that you would have been his attorney if Steve hadn’t forbidden it,” she said grimly.
Judge Carter frowned at her, startled, and then turned to Steve.
“You didn’t feel I was capable of handling a case like this, Steve?” he asked.
“It wasn’t that at all, sir,” Steve said sharply, and his look at Lynn was inimical. “It was that I didn’t feel you were physically able to endure the ordeal.”
Judge Carter looked from him to Lynn and back at Steve.
“And may I ask you, Steve, just what gave you the right to that opinion?” he asked thinly.
“Dr. Eaves said you must not be allowed to get excited or overwrought or involved in anything that would be a heavy strain,” Steve said defensively. “Stella and I have done everything we could to protect you from anything of that sort. I knew that with the whole community up in arms, violently siding with Jim and the boy, it could easily turn into a very nasty mess. I thought you should be spared, since McCullers had plenty of money to hire himself as many lawyers as he needed.”
Judge Carter studied him for a moment and then looked back at Lynn.
“And that’s the reason, the only reason, that Wayde didn’t ask for my help?” he addressed his question to her.
“The only one, Dad, of course.”
“It wasn’t, perhaps, because he doubted my legal ability?” Judge Carter asked hesitantly.
“Oh, what a completely cockeyed question. Of course he didn’t,” Lynn flashed swiftly. “Wayde wanted you, Dad. But I had to tell him that you couldn’t, because I’d promised Steve.”
“I see,” said Judge Carter. His bent shoulders straightened a little. “Well, it’s good to know that he would have trusted me.”
“I only did what I thought was best for you, Judge,” Steve insisted angrily.
Judge Carter turned grave, probing eyes on him and nodded.
“I’m sure you did, Steve,” he said quietly, and added, with a smile at Lynn, “Well, thanks to Lynn and poor Bert, everything is all right now.”
Lynn turned swiftly to her mother.
“Where are the car keys?” she demanded.
“Now, Lynn, what are you going to do?” asked Ruth worriedly.
“I’m going to see Wayde,” Lynn answered firmly, and her tone quite as much as her look at them all dared them to deny her.
“He may not be released until morning, honey,” Judge Carter pointed out.
“Well, I want to see him,” Lynn answered, and turned toward the door. “I’ll talk to him, anyway. And then tomorrow—”
“You mustn’t go over there alone, Lynn,” Ruth protested.
“I’ll drive you, Lynn,” Steve offered.
Lynn’s eyes flicked him with a disdainful glance.
“Thanks, Steve, but I wouldn’t want you to get involved in something that might make you unpopular with the townfolk,” she drawled in a tone that matched the disdain in her eyes.
“I’ll go with you, Lynn,” said the Judge. “There might be something I could suggest to Sheriff Tait that would expedite Wayde’s release.”
Lynn hugged him hard, and there were tears in her eyes when she said shakily, “Dad, you’re a dear!”
“Lynn, that’s no way to speak to your father,” protested Ruth.
“That’s where you’re wrong, my dear.” Judge Carter’s eyes were twinkling. “It’s exactly the way any proud parent would like to have his daughter speak to him.”
Laughing, her arm through his, Lynn went swiftly out of the room with him and to the family sedan.
As she slid beneath the wheel and set the car in motion, her father relaxed and looked up at the sky.
“A beautiful night.” He sighed happily.
“The most beautiful night that ever was,” Lynn agreed radiantly, and turned the car’s nose toward the county seat.
“It’s good to see you so happy, Lynn,” said the Judge gently. “I’ve worried about you these last few days.”
“Dad, did you ever believe Wayde was guilty?”
“I’m afraid, at first, I was too shocked to think straight,” he admitted cautiously. “But afterwards, I began to realize that you couldn’t possibly love a man who could be capable of anything so vicious and cold-blooded. So then I began to feel sure that the boy was lying. And yet — well, now that it’s all over—”
“It’s all right.” Lynn forgave him for his doubt, and her smile was radiant as she sent the car flying at its top speed of forty-five miles an hour toward the county seat.
She parked in front of the concrete-block building and looked at it without shrinking as she jumped out and went racing up the walk and up the steps, the Judge following her as fast as he could. Inside the building, she remembered where Sheriff Tait’s office was and went straight to it.
Sheriff Tait was just leaving his office as she crossed the room where two deputies were settling down to a checker game as their night duty began.
“Oh, Miss Carter,” Sheriff Tait recognized her with a smile. Then he saw Judge Carter and greeted him. “And Judge Carter — good evening. What can I do for you two nice people?”
“I want to see Mr. McCullers,” Lynn announced firmly in a tone that dared Sheriff Tait to deny the demand.
“Why, he’s not here, Miss Carter.” Sheriff Tait looked bewildered.
Lynn caught her breath and stood quite still.
“Not here?” she repeated. “Then where is he?”
“I imagine he must be home by now, back at that place of his in Oakville,” Sheriff Tait answered. “Didn’t you know he’d been freed by that boy’s confession? Chief Hudgins telephoned the news as soon as he was sure the boy was finally telling the truth.”
“And you released Wayde immediately?” Lynn demanded.
Sheriff Tait smiled. “Well, I suppose we should have held him overnight until his lawyers could have had a chance to complete certain legal technicalities. But I felt that could be attended to in the morning. He was released on his own recognizance, Judge. I’m sure he’ll be available if he should be needed.”
Lynn gave him a smile so radiant, so beaming, that he blinked a little, and then she turned to her father.
“Come on, Dad — let’s go!” She laughed and raced back out to the waiting car.
She shot out of the parking space recklessly, and Judge Carter tensed a little and said, “Now take it easy. We don’t want to get arrested for reckless driving!”
Lynn laughed joyously and sent the car back over the road as fast as it would go, which was still considerably under fifty miles an hour. They were well on their way when suddenly, ahead of them, the bright lights of a recklessly speeding car bored holes through the country darkness.
Lynn pulled the sedan as far as she could to the side of the road, and the big car swished by at its seventy-five-mile-an-hour speed and was lost in the darkness.
“Why, that driver’s a menace to the highway,” Judge Carter protested when he had recovered from his initial shock as the car whipped by.
“Dad, that was Wayde’s car,” Lynn told her father unsteadily. “Why is he going back to the county seat?”
“You’re sure it was Wayde?”
“Well, of course I’m sure! I saw him. We’ll have to drive back and meet him,” Lynn answered. And as soon as she could find a place to turn, she turned the sedan around and trundled once more toward the county seat.
Judge Carter eyed her and the flying landscape that rushed past them in the light of their head lamps. And then just as they were entering the limits of the county seat town, the powerful head lamps of the car they were pursuing blazed ahead of them, coming toward them at a terrific speed, and once more shot past them and down the Oakville Road.
Lynn stopped the sedan and leaned forward on the wheel, laughing with a touch of hysteria, while the Judge watched her anxiously and patted her shoulder.
“Now, now, honey,” he tried to soothe her. “We’ll catch up with him.”
“It’s so funny, Dad.” The Judge was deeply relieved to realize that she was laughing, not crying. “It’s like a merry-go-round. We keep racing away from each other. What shall we do now? Follow him back to Oakville? Or just wait here and set a trap for him when he comes back?”
The Judge began to smile in sympathy with her.
“He was released and immediately set out for home to see you,” he pin-pointed the various moves. “And your mother told him you’d come over here. So he rushes back here and passed us en route; and Sheriff Tait told him we’d already gone back. So he rushed past again. I think we’d better go on home and wait for him there. Otherwise, if he keeps hurtling that powerful car back and forth, a speed cop will set a trap for him. And that would be a terrible anticlimax after all he’s gone through,”
“I suppose so. The poor darling! He must be wild by now,” Lynn agreed as she turned the car and started back once more to Oakville.
They watched the road as she drove. As they reached the entrance to the drive leading up to the Hill, she saw headlights coming at a terrific pace down the drive, and speeded up to be well past the entrance before the car reached the highway.
She had brought the car to a halt in the family driveway when there was the scream of too hastily applied brakes and the convertible slid to a racketing halt.
Wayde was out of the car and running toward her even as she jumped out of the sedan and ran to meet him. His arms gathered her close, and he barked at her sharply, “Where the devil have you been? I nearly went out of my mind when I couldn’t find you!”
“Oh, darling!” Lynn’s adoring voice was laced with laughter. “You nearly ran over us a couple of times. You’re the most reckless driver. I don’t see how you happened to escape being arrested again!”
“I had to find you,” Wayde told her simply. “When Sheriff Tait said I was free to leave, one of his deputies brought me home. I had to get out of my jail clothes that I’ve been wearing for at least a century and get into something that didn’t have the jail smell on it. And then I grabbed the car and raced down here. And your mother said you’d gone to the county seat, so I drove over there, and they said you’d gone—”
“And you broke all existing speed records coming back,” Judge Carter told him sternly.
“Well, in my place, sir, wouldn’t you have done the same?” Wayde held Lynn very close against him and offered his hand to the Judge,
“In your place and at your age, I suppose I would,” Judge Carter agreed as he accepted the outthrust hand and gave it a firm grip. “But at my age …” He sighed humorously and shook his head.
“Judge Carter,” asked Wayde anxiously, and the arm that was holding Lynn so close tightened still more, “you are going to let me marry her, aren’t you?”
Judge Carter grinned boyishly as he looked from one to the other.
“I wouldn’t dare refuse,” he admitted. “My girl has a mind of her own, and it’s very obvious on what she has set her mind. In fact, if you don’t marry her, I’ll have to arm myself with the traditional horsewhip and come hunting you.”
“Well, that’s something y
ou won’t have to worry about,” Wayde laughed in eager relief, and looked down at Lynn, held close in his arm.
Behind them, the lights of the convertible picked them out against the summer night, and he could see the dancing twinkle in her eyes, the vagrant dimple that lurked beside her mouth.
“I think I’m insulted,” she announced, and both men stared at her, startled. “I took it for granted that you wouldn’t be released until the morning. But I wanted to see you tonight. And you rushed out and went home to change clothes before you came to see me.”
“Oh, that,” Wayde laughed and put his free arm about her. “Darling, I’d worn the same suit and the same linen ever since I accepted Sheriff Tait’s hospitality. You should have seen Fitch’s face when I walked in. I think he’d have taken a club to me if I hadn’t let him lay out a fresh suit and fresh linen and run a bath. And I didn’t know that you had been told I was free.”
“I hadn’t,” Lynn told him, and turned her head to see the Judge going up the steps and into the house. “Dad said there’d be some legal red tape to unravel and you wouldn’t be free until morning. But I wanted to see you tonight!”
His murmured endearments were sweet in her ears, and neither of them cared in the least that, standing there in the light of the convertible’s powerful lamps, they were visible to all the neighbors and any passersby.
Finally Ruth came out of the house and down to them, her face scandalized.
“You two come right straight into the house this minute,” she ordered sternly. “Or at least turn out those car lights! The idea!”
And Wayde, laughing, said meekly, “Yessum! Are there other people around? I’d never have suspected it”
Twenty
A few days later, Wayde and Lynn walked down the path through the woods to the spot where Bert had displayed the gun to Lynn and had told the story that had set Wayde free.
He walked with his arm about her, and they moved slowly, their heads bent. It was as though they walked in a world, new-minted of summer gold, that was all their own.
A faint rustling in the bushes finally penetrated the lovely haze of Lynn’s senses, and she stopped so suddenly that Wayde’s arm tightened about her and he looked down at her anxiously.