"OUTER DARKNESS"
If any echo of doubt concerning his undesirable conspicuousness sounded faintly in Joe's mind, it was silenced eftsoons.Canaan had not forgotten him--far from it!--so far that it began pointing him out to strangers on the street the very day of his return.His course of action, likewise that of his friends, permitted him little obscurity, and when the rumors of his finally obtaining lodging at Beaver Beach, and of the celebration of his installation there, were presently confirmed, he stood in the lime-light indeed, as a Mephistopheles upsprung through the trap-door.
The welcoming festivities had not been so discreetly conducted as to accord with the general policy of Beaver Beach.An unfortunate incident caused the arrest of one of the celebrators and the ambulancing to the hospital of another on the homeward way, the ensuing proceedings in court bringing to the whole affair a publicity devoutly unsought for.Mr.Happy Fear (such was the habitual name of the imprisoned gentleman) had to bear a great amount of harsh criticism for injuring a companion within the city limits after daylight, and for failing to observe that three policemen were not too distant from the scene of operations to engage therein.
"Happy, if ye had it in mind to harm him,"said the red-bearded man to Mr.Fear, upon the latter's return to society, "why didn't ye do it out here at the Beach?""Because," returned the indiscreet, "he didn't say what he was goin' to say till we got in town."Extraordinary probing on the part of the prosecutor had developed at the trial that the obnoxious speech had referred to the guest of the evening.
The assaulted party, one "Nashville" Cory, was not of Canaan, but a bit of drift-wood haply touching shore for the moment at Beaver Beach; and--strange is this world--he had been introduced to the coterie of Mike's Place by Happy Fear himself, who had enjoyed a brief acquaintance with him on a day when both had chanced to travel incognito by the same freight.Naturally, Happy had felt responsible for the proper behavior of his protege --was, in fact, bound to enforce it; additionally, Happy had once been saved from a term of imprisonment (at a time when it would have been more than ordinarily inconvenient) by help and advice from Joe, and he was not one to forget.
Therefore he was grieved to observe that his own guest seemed to be somewhat jealous of the hero of the occasion and disposed to look coldly upon him.The stranger, however, contented himself with innuendo (mere expressions of the face and other manner of things for which one could not squarely lay hands upon him) until such time as he and his sponsor had come to Main Street in the clear dawn on their way to Happy's apartment--a variable abode.It may be that the stranger perceived what Happy did not; the three bluecoats in the perspective; at all events, he now put into words of simple strength the unfavorable conception he had formed of Joe.The result was mediaevally immediate, and the period of Mr.Cory's convalescence in the hospital was almost half that of his sponsor's detention in the county jail.
It needed nothing to finish Joe with the good people of Canaan; had it needed anything, the trial of Happy Fear would have overspilled the necessity.An item of the testimony was that Joseph Louden had helped to carry one of the ladies present--a Miss Le Roy, who had fainted--to the open air, and had jostled the stranger in passing.After this, the oldest woman in Canaan would not have dared to speak to Joe on the street (even if she wanted to), unless she happened to be very poor or very wicked.The Tocsin printed an adequate account (for there was "a large public interest"), recording in conclusion that Mr.
Louden paid the culprit's fine which was the largest in the power of the presiding judge in his mercy to bestow.Editorially, the Tocsin leaned to the facetious: "Mr.Louden has but recently `returned to our midst.' We fervently hope that the distinguished Happy Fear will appreciate his patron's superb generosity.We say `his patron,'
but perhaps we err in this.Were it not better to figure Mr.Louden as the lady in distress, Mr.Fear as the champion in the lists? In the present case, however, contrary to the rules of romance, the champion falls in duress and passes to the dungeon.
We merely suggest, en passant, that some of our best citizens might deem it a wonderful and beauteous thing if, in addition to paying the fine, Mr.
Louden could serve for the loyal Happy his six months in the Bastile!""En passant," if nothing else, would have revealed to Joe, in this imitation of a better trick, the hand of Eugene.And, little doubt, he would have agreed with Squire Buckalew in the Squire's answer to the easily expected comment of Mr.Arp.
"Sometimes," said Eskew, "I think that 'Gene Bantry is jest a leetle bit spiderier than he is lazy.
That's the first thing he's written in the Tocsin this month--one of the boys over there told me.He wrote it out of spite against Joe; but he'd ought to of done better.If his spite hadn't run away with what mind he's got, he'd of said that both Joe Louden and that tramp Fear ought to of had ten years!""'Gene Bantry didn't write that out of spite,"answered Buckalew."He only thought he saw a chance to be kind of funny and please Judge Pike.
The Judge has always thought Joe was a no-account--""Ain't he right?" cried Mr.Arp.
"_I_ don't say he ain't." Squire Buckalew cast a glance at Mr.Brown, the clerk, and, perceiving that he was listening, added, "The Judge always ISright!""Yes, sir!" said Colonel Flitcroft.
"I can't stand up for Joe Louden to any extent, but I don't think he done wrong," Buckalew went on, recovering, "when he paid this man Fear's fine.""You don't!" exclaimed Mr.Arp."Why, haven't you got gumption enough to see--""Look here, Eskew," interposed his antagonist.
