She came hopefully out to the piazza, to Miss Saxon. But just at that
instant Billy's aunt jumped to her feet, her eyes large with
excitement, and pointed toward the open session door, where framed
against the light stood Mark Carter, straight and tall facing the
circle of men, and behind him, out in the dark, with only his swaggy
old sweater shoulder and the visor of his floppy old cap showing around
the door jamb lurked Billy.
"There! There!" Whispered Mrs. Severn, patting her shoulder. "I told
you he'd come back all right. Now, don't you worry about it, and don't
you scold him. Just go home and get him some supper. He'll be likely
very hungry, and then get him to go right to bed. Wait till to-morrow
to settle up. Miss Saxon, it's always better, then we have clearer
judgment and are not nearly so likely to lose our tempers and say the
wrong thing."
The bells had stopped ringing, and Marilyn had closed the organ and
drawn the window shut. The two strangers were trailing slowly across
the lawn, the lady laughing loudly. Miss Saxon eyed them with the kind
of fascination a wild rabbit has for a strange dog, pressed the hand of
the minister's wife with a fervent little squeeze, and scurried away
into the dark street. Marilyn lingered silently on the front steps
after the janitor had locked the door inside and gone back to the
session room.
In the session room Mark Carter, white with the experiences of the
night and day, yet alert, stern, questioning, stood looking from one
man to another, keenly, uncompromisingly. This was a man whom any would
notice in a crowd. Character, physical perfection, strength of will all
combined to make him stand out from other men. And over it all, like a
fire from within there played an overwhelming sadness that had a
transparent kind of refining effect, as if a spirit dwelt there who by
sheer force of will went on in the face of utter hopelessness.
The stillness in the session room was tense as the self appointed jury
faced their victim and tried to look him down; then slowly recognized
something that made them uneasy, and one by one each pair of eyes save
two, were vanquished and turned embarrassedly away, or sought the
pattern of the mossy carpet.
Those two pairs of eyes that were friendly Mark found out at once, and
it was as if he embraced them with his own. His friends--Duncannon and
the minister! He shot a grateful glance at them and faced the others
down, but opened not his lips.