He listened for perhaps an hour, and once a footstep grated on the
cement floor, and coals rattled down as if they were disturbed. Once
too a soft chirrup from up above like the call of a wood bird, only
strangely human and the sounds in the cellar ceased altogether, till
another weird note sounded and they began again.
When he was satisfied with his investigations he began slowly to back
away from his position, lifting each atom of muscle slowly one at a
time till his going must have been something like the motion picture of
a bud unfolding, and yet as silent as the flower grows he faded away
from that cellar window back into the green and no one was the wiser.
An hour later the watchful eye at the little half moon opening in the
shutter might have seen a little black speck like a spider whizzing
along on the Highroad and turning down toward Sabbath Valley, but it
never would have looked as if it came from Stark mountain, for it was
headed straight from Lone Valley. Billy was going home to get cleaned
up and make a visit to the parsonage. If that guy was still there he'd
see how quick he would leave! If there wasn't one way to make him go
there was another, and Billy felt that he held the trick.
But as fate would have it Billy did not have to get cleaned up, for
Miss Severn stood on the front porch looking off toward the mountains
with that wistful expression of hers that made him want to laugh and
cry and run errands for her anywhere just to serve her and make her
smile, and she waved her hand at Billy, and ran down to the gate to
speak to him.
"Billy, I want to ask you,--If you were to see Mark Carter--of course
you mightn't, but then you might--you'll let him know that we are of
course his friends, and that anything he wants done, if he'll just let
us know--"
"Sure!" said Billy lighting off his wheel with a downward glance at his
dirty self, all leaves and dust and grime, "Sure, he'd know that
anyhow."
"Well, Billy, I know he would, but I mean, I thought perhaps you might
find something we could do,--something maybe without letting him
know. He's very proud about asking any help you, know, and he wouldn't
want to bother us. You may discover something he--needs--or wants
done--while--he is away--and maybe we could help him out, Father or
Mother or I. You'll remember, won't you Billy?"