<h2 id="c7"><br/>CHAPTER VII <br/><span class="sc">Turning the Tables</span></h2>
<p>When Anthony Graham left his
home and started walking slowly
through the woods he had absolutely
no definite intention of any kind in his
mind. He was bored and a little ashamed
of harassing his sister. For if Anthony
had confessed the truth to himself down
in his heart he was really both glad and
proud of what Nan was trying to do and
had felt secretly more ashamed of himself
since she began her efforts. For the boy
had a better mind than his sister and had
more inheritances from his father’s family.
His idleness and weakness came more from
his unfortunate environment and from the
fact that nothing had as yet awakened
any ambition or better feeling in him.
He had not told Nan what he wanted with
the money asked of her, but for the past
ten days had been thinking that if only
he could get away somewhere out of Woodford,
where no one knew anything of him
or his family, and have a fair start, why
he too might amount to something in the
future so that Nan need not be shamed
by him.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_82">[82]</div>
<p>He walked for half a mile or so and then
sitting down on a log began to whittle.
There wasn’t any use trying to clear out
without money to buy food and he did
not wish to remain anywhere in the immediate
neighborhood. It had occurred
to Anthony in the past week that he might
work and earn sufficient money for his
escape, but having applied at three or four
places and been refused, his old shiftlessness
and lack of will power laid fresh hold
on him so that he gave up the effort. Now,
as he sat at his usual occupation of killing
time, he tried to banish all thought and
all desire.</p>
<p>He intended waiting until it was time to
walk back to the Sunrise cabin with Nan
and then go into the village and find his
equally idle friends.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_83">[83]</div>
<p>Suddenly Polly’s laugh sounded and then
Betty’s, as though in response to something
her companion had said. The girls were
driving along the road toward home and
a little farther on would come within a
dozen yards of the spot where Anthony was
seated, concealed from view of the road
by the grouping of trees.</p>
<p>The boy started, at first with surprise.
The winter woods had seemed so quiet
and so lonely, not even a teamster had
passed in all the time of his musing. And
then a curiosity seized hold on him to
see his sister’s much talked of friends
without being seen by them. Of course
he had probably passed both Betty and
Polly on the streets of Woodford a good
many times and that morning had caught
a distant glimpse of them from the window,
but he did not know one girl from the other,
and from his sister’s description he might
now be able to tell. Betty was the beautiful
one, and Polly, well Nan no more
than other people had ever been able to
decide whether Polly was beautiful or
whether she was so fascinating that you
had to think so while she was talking to
you. When she was quiet her face was apt
to be pale and a little too thin.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_84">[84]</div>
<p>Anthony found a hiding place behind
a tree bordering the road, until the sound
of the sleigh bells came nearer and nearer,
and Fire Star made her appearance. Then
an impulse stronger and more dangerous
than curiosity swept over him. For the
first time since leaving his sister in the
kitchen he remembered Nan’s information.
The two girls would be carrying back to
their cabin a box containing Betty’s jewelry.
How easy to frighten them and make them
surrender the box. Then he could get away
from this neighborhood he hated and have
a chance at a new life. He would do the
girls no harm and only take enough money
to cover his actual needs. The rest Betty
could have back again. Anthony did not
believe that either Betty or Polly knew him
on sight. Nevertheless, though he had little
time for reflection, with a quick movement
he pulled his ragged cap down well over
his forehead and eyes, turned up his coat
collar and stooping picked up from the
ground a heavy stick which was almost
a log in size.</p>
<p>An instant later Fire Star’s bridle was
seized with an ugly jerk and the pony
brought to a standstill.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_85">[85]</div>
<div class="fig"> id="pic2"> <ANTIMG src="images/p1.jpg" alt="“Turn That Box Over to Me”" width-obs="393" height-obs="616" /> <p class="center"><span class="sc">“<span class="sc">Turn That Box Over to Me</span>”</span></p> </div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_86">[86]</div>
<p>As Betty was driving, the tin box was
being held in Polly’s lap so that the highwayman’s
first words were addressed to her.</p>
<p>“Turn over that box to me,” he demanded,
trying to make his voice sound
older and more threatening than usual.</p>
<p>However, both girls were so entirely
overcome by amazement at the unexpected
appearance of a robber in their peaceful
New Hampshire woods, that for a moment
they could only stare. The next instant
Polly with a quick flare of her Irish temper,
leaned over and seizing hold of Betty’s
almost toy whip, slashed it in the face of
the intruder. “Get out of the way,” she
cried angrily. “I am sure you can’t know
what you are doing.”</p>
<p>But almost in the same instant the whip
was torn out of her hand and dropped on the
ground. When Betty attempted to rush
Fire Star forward the pony’s bridle was
caught the second time.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_87">[87]</div>
<p>“If you don’t do what I say I’ll break
your pony’s back with this stick,” the boy
muttered, and at this Betty winced, making
no further effort to drive on. Fire Star
had been her pony since she was a small
girl and the stick the young fellow held
was large enough to do her serious hurt,
also his manner was sufficiently ugly to
indicate that he meant what he said.</p>
<p>Polly was by this time so angry that she
could scarcely think, but, fortunately, Betty,
after the first moment of surprise and
natural fear, had held herself well in hand.</p>
<p>Now she looked so steadfastly at the
figure at her pony’s head that the young
man turned his face away.</p>
<p>“You are Nan Graham’s brother,” Betty
remarked quietly, “and I hope poor Nan
may never hear what you are trying to do.
You may not believe I have ever seen you
before, but I have. Then as we have told
only Nan the reason for our errand to town
only she could have told you. I am quite
sure though that she did not mean to
betray us.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_88">[88]</div>
<p>Betty said this so loyally and in such an
unafraid, yet accusing voice, that Anthony
Graham wished himself ten thousand miles
from the place where he stood and as many
leagues from the deed he was doing. However,
since he had already disgraced both
his sister and himself there was all the more
reason why he should go through with this
cowardly business and get himself away if he
possibly could.</p>
<p>“No matter who I am, you will hand
that box over just the same and be quick
about it,” he commanded with another
threatening wave of his stick.</p>
<p>“We will do no such thing but will have
you arrested as a thief,” Polly announced
defiantly, wishing with all her heart, in
spite of her Camp Fire training, that the
despised Billy Webster might appear at
this moment driving one of his father’s
wagons either to or away from town.
At other times she might look down upon
Billy for having only a farmer’s ideals,
just now, however, the splendid strength
that his outdoor life must have given him
would have been peculiarly desirable.</p>
<p>However, to Polly’s surprise and chagrin,
Betty, whom she had always considered
braver than herself, showed signs of
weakening.</p>
<p>“I will give you the key to my box if
you will let me have some papers that are
inside it which can be of no value to you.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_89">[89]</div>
<p>Betty said this with a nervous laugh,
her face suddenly turning pale when it had
formerly been flushed. Then she set her
lips to keep them from trembling. Without
waiting for an answer she afterwards leaned
forward and began searching under the
carriage rug on the bottom of her sleigh for
the purse bag in which Polly remembered
the key to have been concealed.</p>
<p>Anthony might at this instant have
seized the tin box from Polly and been off
with it before Betty could have driven
Fire Star on. But he was willing enough
to have the key to Betty’s box and even to
leave her papers behind some tree if she so
much desired them. He had never meant to
take all her foolish trinkets which were of no
value to any one except a girl. So for a
brief moment Anthony did not look toward
either Betty or Polly but kept his eyes
fastened on the pony’s head. In that
same moment, hearing a sudden whirr
through the air, before he was able to move
the boy found himself securely caught by
a rope and his arms drawn tight to his sides
so that his stick dropped with a clatter on
the frozen ground. While Betty Ashton
with another rapid movement wound the
other end of her rope about the cross bar of
her sleigh catching it with a clove hitch and
then, with a little gasp of astonishment at
her own prowess, dropped back into her seat,
only faintly hearing Polly’s cry of delighted
amazement.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_90">[90]</div>
<p>Not for nothing had Betty Ashton been
learning to acquire honors in camp craft
for the past six months, practicing different
kinds of knot tying with the other girls
in friendly rivalry hour after hour. In
the bottom of her sleigh along with the
purse bag which really did contain her key,
Betty had remembered that they had fifty
feet of new clothes line being taken back
to the cabin. In the moment of fumbling
under the rug she had quickly tied the
much practiced slip noose and then had
thrown it with better skill than she could
ever repeat.</p>
<p>Polly gave a characteristic laugh to
relieve the tension of the situation. “We
have caught the enemy and he is ours
now, Betty, dear, but whatever are we
going to do with him?”</p>
<p>But Betty had gathered up her reins
and was quietly urging Fire Star ahead.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_91">[91]</div>
<p>So there was nothing for their prisoner to
do but to run along by the side of the sleigh.
By superior strength the young man could
have jerked away from Betty’s and Polly’s
hold, but not from the sleigh itself. Now
the more he pulled on the clothes line the
tighter it bound him. Besides it was
difficult to do even this when all his strength
was required keeping up with the pony’s
rapid gait.</p>
<p>“I have often wondered how it would
feel to be a conqueror driving through the
streets of Rome with one’s prisoners lashed
to their chariot wheels and this is deliciously
like it,” Polly sighed before her
companion had once spoken, enjoying with
all her vivid imagination the retribution
that had overtaken the evildoer.</p>
<p>But Betty’s expression was strangely
grave and every now and then she kept
glancing aside at the figure running along
beside them. For, except for a first oath
and a few violent threats, the young man
seemed to own himself beaten and had
since said nothing. There was a horrible
droop instead to his head and shoulders, and
indeed to his whole figure, and he looked so
ashamed that it made Betty sick to look at
him, Polly did not seem to have noticed
but Betty felt that she had never seen just
such an expression before.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_92">[92]</div>
<p>“Polly,” she whispered softly, “do you
think we ought to drive up to the cabin
taking this fellow with us like this? Of
course we can turn around and go back
to town and even drive up to the jail with
him but that is just as bad. After all, he
is poor little Nan’s brother, and if we do
the child can never hold up her head again!
I keep imagining how I should feel if I were
to be taken prisoner and carried before a
lot of strange boys to act as my judges.”
Then Betty shuddered as though her vision
were real, but Polly only laughed so scornfully
that the boy, overhearing her, cringed.</p>
<p>“It is an absurd supposition, Betty,
and I can’t well imagine your putting
yourself in this dreadful fellow’s place.
You can hardly expect me to conceive of
you, even in these advanced female days,
suddenly stopping a number of young
men and demanding their pocketbooks.”</p>
<p>Notwithstanding Betty appeared deaf
to her beloved Polly’s teasing, for instead
of answering she slowed her pony down.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_93">[93]</div>
<p>“Don’t you think we owe anything to
Nan as a member of our Camp Fire circle?”
she asked. “It seems to me that allegiance
is one of the first things boys learn and it is
because we girls don’t feel it toward one
another that women have the harder time.”</p>
<p>Instantly Polly sobered. “That is true,
Princess,” she agreed, “and I am desperately
sorry for Nan and would spare her
if we could, but do you think it right to
let an intended thief go free? Besides, if
we do cut him loose how do we know he
will not seize your box away from us?”</p>
<p>“Because I should drive up almost to
the Webster farm, where we could be heard
if we called for help before letting him go.
And anyhow even if we don’t let him go free
I should like to talk to him.”</p>
<p>Polly shook her head. “Don’t try
reformation at the eleventh hour, I don’t
believe in it,” she declared.</p>
<p>Notwithstanding this Betty drove on
until within hailing distance of the Webster
farm house and then, without asking further
advice from Polly, calmly brought her pony
to a standstill.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_94">[94]</div>
<p>The young fellow made no effort to
come nearer the sleigh or even to tear
himself away, but kept gazing in astonishment
at Betty as she dismounted and walked
fearlessly up to him.</p>
<p>“What made you want to take my
jewelry, Anthony?” she inquired. “I know
your name because I have heard Nan speak
so often of you. I wonder if you have ever
tried to steal anything before?” She said
this apparently to herself since the boy did
not seem inclined to answer. And then
Betty shook her lovely head softly. “I
wonder what it feels like to want to steal?”
she questioned. “It must be some very
dreadful reason that tempts one. You see
I have never been poor myself or known
what it was to want terribly anything I
could not have.” And then very swiftly
and without allowing time for Polly to stop
her, Betty drew out her Camp Fire knife
and cut the rope that bound the young
fellow’s arms to his sides. “I don’t know
whether it is right or wrong for me to do
this,” she confessed, “but for Nan’s sake
I cannot bear to hold you a prisoner.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_95">[95]</div>
<p>Then both to her surprise and Polly’s,
Anthony made no movement and at the
same instant the girls to their embarrassment
saw that he was crying. Not weeping
like some girls to whom tears come easily,
but shaken by dry painful sobs, as though
his shame and self-abasement were too
great to be borne.</p>
<p>“It was for Nan’s sake that I wanted to
get away,” he confessed finally, pulling
himself together by a tremendous effort.
“I thought maybe if I could get a chance
like she is having, somewhere away from
here where no one knew me, that I might
be able to do something for myself. It
was nearly killing me thinking I had
ruined everything for her.”</p>
<p>“So you were intending to steal in order
to begin leading a better life,” Betty repeated
thoughtfully, and the young man
flashed an angry look at her. But she was
not trying to be sarcastic and the expression
on her face at that moment he never afterwards
forgot.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_96">[96]</div>
<p>“I should hate you to stop trying to
make things right for yourself and Nan
because you began the wrong way,” she
continued after a little thoughtful pause.
Then with a blush and an humble look very
characteristic of Betty when wishing to be
allowed to do another person a favor, she
picked up her purse bag from the bottom
of the sleigh and slipping her hand in it
drew out a crumpled bill.</p>
<p>“Won’t you let me lend you the money
for your chance?” she asked, as though
speaking to a friend and utterly ignoring
the ugly scene that had just passed. “I
haven’t much money with me, so you
must not mind. You can pay it back to
me when you get to the new place and have
good luck.”</p>
<p>And then, before the dazed boy had time
to understand what she was trying to do,
Betty had thrust ten dollars into his
partially clenched hand and jumping back
into her sleigh had driven rapidly away.
Fire Star was rather bored with so much
unnecessary delay on his journey home and
wanted to get back to shelter.</p>
<p>A little later Billy Webster, who had
been cutting down trees in a portion of his
father’s woods, took off his fur cap to wave
to the girls just as Polly in her dramatic
fashion dropped down on one knee in their
sleigh attempting to kiss Betty’s hand.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_97">[97]</div>
<p>“Betty dear, if ever I saw you do a
Princess-like act in a Princess-like fashion
it was when you gave that abominable
boy that money,” she said admiringly.
“It is my opinion that either he is absolutely
no good or else he will reform from
this moment and be your faithful knight
to the end of the chapter.”</p>
<p>But Betty only smiled a little uncertainly.
“Perhaps it wasn’t honest of me, Polly,
to be giving away money when I owe so
much to other people.” And then, touching
the tin box in her friend’s lap, she said
half joking and half serious, “but since I am
having to give up my kingdom I am glad
to be able to help some one else to come into
theirs.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_98">[98]</div>
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