The Haunted Pajamas Part 56

And over he'd double again.

Oddest thing, isn't it, how your jolly active mind _will_ wander at the rummest times; and I had a thought then of how, when I was a delicate boy, bully old Doctor Dake and Doctor Madden had prescribed a punching-bag, and later boxing-gloves. And I thought with a pang of what ripping times the governor and I had, sc.r.a.pping, and of what knocks he gradually began to give me until he forced me to learn to come back harder. Jove, what corking hours we had! And then when Chugsey, the retired English light-weight champion, came to butler--_oh_, what smas.h.i.+ng three-handed rounds we used to have! Bully old governor, who was never so busy on his sermons but what he could take a walk or a ride with me; or talk with me, or _fight_ with me! Why, he--

By Jove, my dashed monocle got so cloudy of a sudden, I almost missed the chauffeur's move--_almost_, don't you know!

And then--

"I say, you know!" I said disgustedly, as I screwed my monocle at him there, his big yellow mat sticking out of sight through the jolly vines.

"Awfully raw thing to strike at a man and leave your guard open like that--I _could_ have put it over your heart, don't you know!"

I heard a little sound behind me and there was she!

"Oh!" I gasped as I slipped into my coat. And now I _was_ miserable, for I remembered how kind this chauffeur, Scoggins, had been to her. And for her to have seen me in this vulgar row!

"Yes, I saw it all," she said, as I moved toward her, murmuring some jolly effort at apology. Her eyes were s.h.i.+ning. "I saw it all, sir--and _heard_. And just when I had hunted you up with _these_!"--and then I saw that her arms were burgeoning with roses. "See what I've been doing for you, sir!"

"For me?" By Jove, it was all I could say as I took them!

"And you ran off!" She pouted adorably--naturally, too, dash it. I've seen them put it on when they looked like they had toothache. "How am I ever going to thank you about the pajamas?" By Jove, her big blue eyes looked me frankly in the face. There was never a quiver of embarra.s.sment. "It's wonderful--and to find them _here_!"

"I'd--I'd have got 'em to you sooner," I faltered, swallowing, "but they've been lost a day or two--thief stole them from my rooms, you know."

"How on earth _did_ you ever get hold of them? I never expected to see those pajamas again. Oh, you must tell me all about how you managed it!"--and we moved away--"I just _wish_ father were here!"

_I_ didn't! Dash it, it made me squirm to think of his return.

As we left the pergola behind, I looked backward through its arch, and there was the chauffeur, standing in the shadows, looking after us. And long after, as we turned from the straight avenue leading through the pergola, I descried his figure, still looking after us, unchanged, immovable.

It was rum!

But I had other things to think of as we sat out in the loggia--chiefly of her, herself; withal, wondering gloomily what her father would say when he found I had disobeyed his injunction about not speaking to her.

Presently the summons to luncheon came, and we went in.

From up-stairs came sounds indicating great hilarity on Billings' part.

In fact, we could hear him slapping his knee and screaming. The frump looked at me anxiously.

"Why, I understood he was all right again," she said aside.

I shook my head dubiously. I had seen in the past day or two how rapidly Billings' moods s.h.i.+fted. Twenty minutes since he had looked enraged.

"Oh, this is too good--but keep it mum!" we heard. "Come on, Professor!"

"Professor?" The frump looked at Frances, then at Wilkes inquiringly.

"I didn't know, miss," he murmured contritely. "'S why I didn't mention it."

We were crossing the great hall in the direction of the beautiful dining-room beyond--Elizabethan, I think Frances said it was. We all paused expectantly as Billings rolled down the stairs in his usual jolly, elephantine way. And then on the landing appeared an apparition--not only an apparition, but, by Jove, a scarecrow, as well!

Professor Doozenberry, blandly smiling--his rail-like figure shrouded flabbily in one of Billings' largest and loudest suits! Billings went through the form of introductions, chuckling idiotically the while. But the professor scarcely noticed any one but the frump.

"Don't wait, Wilkes," Billings directed. His nod beckoned me aside.

"Gentleman sulking in his tent over here I want you to meet," he said.

And I followed him to the library. A figure pacing the floor turned sharply. By Jove, it was the chauffeur, and how he did scowl at me!

"Now, young man," said Billings sternly, "perhaps you'll have the nerve to tell me before Mr. Lightnut himself that you were his guest on your way home from Harvard."

"I certainly was!" He made the statement, chin up and eyes blazing. "I was his guest at the Kahoka Wednesday night, and he knows it."

Billings looked at me and shrugged his shoulders.

"Don't bother denying it, old man," he said. "It's all right."

"Oh, but I say--it isn't!" I exclaimed in disgusted amaze. "Dashed impertinence, you know--never saw this fellow before the morning at the--er--boat, and day before yesterday when I--" I halted, remembering.

But the fellow was shaking his finger at me.

"A-a-a!" he jeered like a school-boy. "Why don't you finish? Bet you don't know, Jack, that this paragon friend of yours was up here on the train day before yesterday." Billings stared, for he did not know.

The chap grew more impudent. "Yah, see him turn red!"

"By Jove!" I exclaimed, warming up, you know. "Say, Billings, who the devil is this fellow?" And I advanced angrily--dashed annoyed, you know.

Billings interposed. "My brother," he said quietly.

"Yes, his brother," almost shouted the other. Then he lowered his voice at Billings' command: "And I say, you didn't tell Jack you were on the train yesterday, posing as a 'Mr. Smith,' and that you insulted Frances." He shook off his brother's hand angrily. "Oh, yes he did--sister told me about it! I knew it was you when I got to thinking about it this morning!" He panted for breath. "I can't call you a liar, Lightnut, when you say I wasn't at your rooms, because you're a quicker hitter than I am, and--" He looked around and shrugged. "And because we are in this house. But you're an infernal hypocrite, and I want Jack to know it." He laughed mockingly and faced his brother. "Ask your friend, Mr. Lightnut, about that girl in black pajamas in his rooms!"

And he flung himself from the room with a Parthian shot: "Ask him to tell you about her as he did me. Ask him who it _was_!"

Billings seemed to groan. "More black pajamas!" he muttered.

I faced him eagerly. "I never told him about her--I'll swear I didn't,"

I pleaded miserably. "You know all there is to know, Jack. I wouldn't tell anybody in the world a thing like that. I--love her too well. Much less would I go and tell her own brother."

"Wha-a-a-t?" Billings' fat body almost leaped into the air. "What the devil--say, old chap, _what_ are you talking about?"

"And, besides, she's forgiven me," I persisted gloomily. "And I love her--and--and we're going to be married--or I hope so, dash it!"

Billings stared at me with popping eyes for an instant. Then he lifted my chin and looked at me anxiously. "Are you quite well, old man?" he asked. "Headache, or anything like that? By George, it's from sitting out in that sun without a hat. Marry my sister?" He wagged his head lugubriously. "What--Elizabeth? Oh, good heavens!"

"No--Frances," I explained anxiously.

He stared. "Francis?" Then his arm led me out. "Come along, old chap,"

he said with an air of concern. "We'll get a little ice--"

There was a bustle near the hall entrance, and I heard a commanding voice I recognized as that of Judge Billings:

"Come right in, Colonel, and we will try to make you forget that little exasperation--do you know I just can't get over the idea that I've seen you somewhere and _recently_--h.e.l.lo, Jack! Colonel Kirkland, my eldest boy, Jack--named after his mother, Johanna. Look here, Jack, has everybody on the blithering police force gone crazy about _pajamas_?