Sound of the Trumpet (15 page)

“Oh, you’re simply impossible!” snarled the young gentleman.

“Yes?” said Lisle. “Suppose we stop then.” And dropping her hand from his arm, she turned and quietly stepped out of the whirl, vanishing across the room and out a door. Swiftly, by a way that the years had made familiar to her as a child, she went to the room where she had left her cloak and her little white fur-edged shoes, hurriedly donned them, and slipped down the back stairs and out through the servants’ entrance unobserved, for the servants were all busy serving now. So she went across the snowy lawn to her home and happily up to her room. Her mother was out that evening, so there was no need to report her experiences, and she could get quiet and think everything over.

She undressed in the dark because she did not wish to afford any idle spectators over at the Vandinghams’ the satisfaction of knowing that she had gone home and gone to bed. Her room was on the side of the house toward the Vandingham house, and while it was not likely that the guests would think to look out across the lawns, notice her light, and call attention to it, it was altogether likely that Victor might take occasion to do so, and she did not care to give him the opportunity.

Victor had been drinking more or less all evening, and while he had not been quite so hilarious as when she arrived, he was still pretty well under the influence of liquor. To have his hot breath fan her face, heavy with the odor of liquor, had been unpleasant to her in the extreme. It wasn’t that she hadn’t been where these things went on, occasionally, but she had been a girl happy in her studies, fond of simple pleasures, and just hadn’t cared for this sort of gaiety. And now to find Victor like the others whom she had known and avoided stirred her to deep disappointment. She might not wish to marry him, but it
hurt
her to be so ashamed of him. She hadn’t thought Victor had taken to drinking. She was almost shocked. Yes, it must be true that she was old-fashioned. Dowdy in her ideas. Well, she was, and a conviction grew in her heart that she was right in being that way. And her Companion, her escort for the evening, was He pleased at the way she had conducted herself? Did He like all this dancing and drinking? Were places like these parties good for His children? She must look into that someday, that is, if she ever had occasion to feel the necessity of going to another one. Should this new Christ’s child put herself in such a place?

Well, there had been soldiers in uniform there this evening, the uniform of their beloved country. Suppose that the party had been given by the enemy, and that many present were in enemy uniform. Should a loyal American deliberately stay among them, except for state reasons under orders? Well, here again was something she must look into. But not tonight. She was tired and disappointed and had reached a place of parting where her old life and a new one separated. It made her sad, and yet there was a deep gladness beneath it all.

As she laid her head upon the pillow, she could hear the strains of music from the other house, far enough away now to lose some of its wild blare. But presently, as she remembered last evening, and her vision, a soft sweet memory brought other strains.

I have seen the face of Jesus,

Tell me not of aught beside …

And she dropped off to sleep with a smile on her lips.

T
hat very afternoon, as John Sargent left the shipyard and began his short walk to the trolley that would carry him to his grandmother’s apartment, an elderly man walked up to him and asked how to get to the center of the city. John told him clearly.

“If you get on this car I’m taking, it will take you within a block of where you say you want to go.”

John swung himself onto the car, found a seat, and settled down. He was annoyed when the man followed him and took the other half of his seat. It was the more annoying because there were plenty of other seats the man could have taken, but he followed John closely and indicated that he wanted to take the outside of the seat next to the aisle.

“I’ll just sit here with you,” he said cheerfully. “Then you can tell me where to get off.”

John drew a faint sigh and accepted the company of the stranger. This new patience was one of the many things he was learning at that Bible class, and not always did he remember it. But after an instant’s thought, he moved over and gave the man a little more room. Then he pulled out the morning paper from his overcoat pocket and absorbed himself in its pages, though he had already read as much as he cared to that morning on his way to work. But his companion was not abashed by the paper. He opened up a conversation and was not in the least troubled by John’s inattention.

“It feels good to sit down,” he said. “I’ve been all day long hunting for a job. Strange, isn’t it, just because I have a few gray hairs and no bunch of references? You see, my references were burned in a little rooming house where I was staying. It caught on fire, and I barely got out alive with the few clothes I could manage to scramble on as I climbed out the window to the ladder the firemen had brought. And while I wouldn’t have any trouble in getting more, the place I was working wouldn’t keep me for the time it would have taken to get them. Of course, if I hadn’t lost my money, too, I could have called people on the phone, long distance, but you can easily see what a time I’ve been having.”

“Yes,” said John, giving the man a quick glance.

It was a fantastic story. Was the man a superior kind of crook, or what? He certainly wouldn’t be expecting to get anything out of a working man on his way home from work, would he? Or would he? Sometimes workmen had soft hearts and were gullible. He knew he was himself occasionally.

“Well, how did it come out?” he asked as he turned over another leaf of his paper.

“Well, it hasn’t come out yet,” said the man with a sigh and a good-natured grin, “but I guess it will in the end. I heard of a job this morning, and I went without lunch and spent the nickel to phone. I took a chance. The man I had to call had the same name as an old fellow workman of mine, and it turned out to be the same man. He’s the head of personnel in this big Vandingham plant. Do you know it? I hear they’re making some new kind of secret weapon that is going to do big things in this war and hustle it up in great shape, and they’re crazy to have reliable men that they can trust to keep their mouths shut, and that’s where I had the advantage. This man knew me, and I tell you, he was glad to hear my voice. They want me to begin work right away, and they need more men badly, only so many are gone to war, and so many haven’t had the training, and so many are strangers, that it is hard to get the right ones. The only thing was, he wanted me to hunt up another man to spell me, half-time. He said they always got along better if they knew each other, or were sort of buddies. He said it would be to my advantage if I could find some old friend in the city, or somebody I knew and thought I could sort of go partners with. But I can’t find any old friends. I called up several men I know—one had a son who used to be a buddy of my son, and I knew if I could get hold of him I’d be in luck, because my son used to say he was as bright as they make ’em, and the work was right along his line, welding. If I could just get him for my assistant, I’d be sitting pretty. But when I called, I found he had joined the army same as my son did and was already overseas. So that was that! And then I unearthed another name, but the whole family had moved west, and I found I’d have to go on my own. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt maybe I could find somebody, just anybody, who was looking for a job and take him along with me. And when I saw you, I took a notion to you. I liked the way you walked and the way you held your head, and I knew I’d never be ashamed of you if I buddied up to you, so here, I’m telling you. Would you like a chance to rake in a whole bunch of money? I know the shipyard pays well, but nothing like this job. You could be a rich man if you kept at this long. How about it, buddy, would you be willing to go along with me and take on this job? You know the Vandinghams are good people to be with. You can’t find much better. And now the government’s behind it, so there isn’t a question. How about it, man? Will you come with me and get the chance of a lifetime making your pile? It’s a job you can’t match anywhere else that I know of. Want to go with me and try for it?”

“Thanks,” said John indifferently. “I have a job that I’m very well satisfied with, and I don’t care to make a change at present.”

“But wait, young man, till I tell you what these people pay,” said the stranger, putting out a detaining hand as John rose and signaled that he wanted to get out.

“That wouldn’t be a consideration for me at present,” said John determinedly. “I’m perfectly satisfied with my job, but thanks for thinking of me. I hope you succeed in getting what you want. Good-bye.” And John swung off, made for the nearest drugstore, which wasn’t far away, and called up his officer friend.

The man on the bus rode a few blocks and was lost in the dusk of the evening. His name was Lacey.

Later that evening he called Weaver.

“Nothing doing!” he said with a half-triumphant note in his voice. “He says he’s not interested.”

“We’ll keep at him,” said Weaver. “He may come around yet. It sounds as if he is just the man we want, in spite of his reluctance. They say he has a lot of character. What’s that? The girl? Oh, yes, I liked her all right, but I still think the young man is our best bet for the Vandingham outfit. The old boss has some very decided notions, and one of them is that he doesn’t like women around business. You can’t go against that.”

“But I think there may be a way for the girl to work, too. She’s got ways of her own. She’s been scraping acquaintance with young Vandingham and got a bid to his party. She might work it through him.”

“You don’t say! Well, that shows enterprise, and if she can work it, it’s okay with me. But I’d still like to try for the young man. A man’s invaluable where machinery is concerned. A girl doesn’t always understand some important points that a man would know intuitively. So keep on trying for the young fellow. See if you can’t get in with him. Tell him you failed in your attempt to get into the plant and ask him to help you. Maybe that will work.”

“Okay!” said Lacey. “But I still don’t believe it will work. The boy’s got something in his mind that makes him allergic to the idea.”

“That so? Well, perhaps there’s something in that. He and young Vandingham might not have been good friends in college. Look up the records. Find some other student who knows them. See what he says. If there was rivalry between them, you might work it on the line of revenge. Sometimes a strong-minded guy like Sargent will yield if you told him there was a chance to get back at Vandingham. But you’d have to buddy up to him before you could do anything about it.”

“There’s another thing, too. This man Sargent has a pretty good reputation around town wherever he’s been. He’s known to be honest. Goes to some weird kind of Sunday school, is thoroughly trustworthy. And that’s a good reputation to have in a business like this. Nobody would suspect a fellow like that if it ever came to a showdown.”

“Yes, that’s all right,” said Lacey, “once you get him going and into the job too deep to get out and tell. But the trouble with the conscientious kind is they’re too honest to start in something that seems a bit shady. I doubt if you can ever win this guy over. He’s too genuine to fall for it, no matter how much money he can make.”

“Is anybody really that honest and conscientious if he gets a chance to get away with a big thing like that, and no strings to it?”

“Could be,” said Lacey. “I’ve seen ’em occasionally.”

“Well, keep at it. You can’t do more than fail! And remember, we don’t fail in our business. We’ve got too much to lose. Of course, if worst come to worst, there are ways to
make
anybody do what we say. You understand?”

“Yes, I understand. But this is not the old country. These people will not fall for everything. They have courage. They are proud. They have a sense of right and wrong, which we over there have renounced. We have a different standard of life.”

“Lacey, you need to go back and take another course if you don’t know how to win over a needed fellow. This one has all the qualifications we need, and there are not so many anymore who have them, since the men are going into the army. In the old country we have ways to train the stubbornest of them to do what they are told, but not here, not
yet
. Say, how about turning your girl loose on the lad? She looked to me as if she were better fitted for that sort of work than the actual spying in a plant where they are all men and where she would not have the mechanical knowledge to understand what she was doing. But she might persuade your young man to undertake the job. She’s pretty enough. Get her to work on young Sargent.”

Lacey shook his head.

“Not his type. He doesn’t have much to do with girls. I’ve never seen him with a girl but once, and that was to help her find shelter during a blackout and then take her home afterward.”

“Who was she? Did you find out?”

“Yes, naturally. She is the daughter of the millionaire, Kingsley. He steps high when he does fall for a girl.”

“Hmmm! Is she a good looker?”

“Yes, but in a different way. More refined. More old-fashioned. You wouldn’t get her stooping to win a young man. Besides, I’ve heard she is engaged to young Vandingham.”

“The very thing, Lacey! You can get around her. Get her to make Vandingham take her into the plant, and then approach her wisely about the great job offer there is for the right young man. Perhaps she will induce him to go into this, talk to him about how much good he could do with the money.”

Lacey shook his head decidedly.

“You don’t get me,” he said contemptuously. “They are neither of them that type. The girl would never stoop to coax a young man to do anything, not even to get him to give money to some cause for which she was working, war work or defense or something of that sort. She is reserved and dignified and lovely. And he is reserved also.”