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Page 11
The strain was relieved when Bertha Stirling came home about eleven
o'clock.
She was in tears, but subdued any active exhibition of emotion until
Alice, on the assurance that her father was resting comfortably at the
hospital, was induced to retire.
Then she broke down utterly, and Bart had a hard time keeping her from
being hysterical.
She said that her mother intended staying all night at the side of her
suffering husband and had tried to send some reassuring word to her son.
"You must tell me the worst, you know, Bertha," said Bart. "What do
they say at the hospital? Is father in serious danger? Will he die?"
"No," answered the sobbing girl, "he will not die, but oh! Bart--the
doctor says he may be blind for life!"
CHAPTER V
READY FOR BUSINESS
Bart Stirling stood ruefully regarding the ruins of the burned express
shed. It was the Fourth of July, and early as it was, the air was
resonant with the usual echoes of Independance Day.
Bart, however, was little in harmony with the jollity and excitement of
the occasion. He had spent a sleepless night, tossing and rolling in bed
until daybreak, when his mother returned from the hospital.
Mr. Stirling was resting easily, she reported, in very little pain or
discomfort, but his career of usefulness and work was over--the doctors
expressed an opinion that he would never regain his eyesight.
Mrs. Stirling was pale and sorrowed. She had grown older in a single
night, but the calm resignation in her gentle face assured Bart that
they would be of one mind in taking up their new burdens of life in a
practical, philosophical way.
"Poor father!" he murmured brokenly. Then he added: "Mother, I want you
to go in and get some rest, and try not to take this too hard. I will
attend to everything there is to do about the express office."
"I don't see what there can be to do," she responded in surprise.
"Everything is burned up, your father will never be able to resume his
position. We are through with all that, I fancy."
"There is considerable to do," asserted Bart in a definite tone that
instantly attracted his mother's attention because of its seriousness.
"Father is a bonded employee of the express service. Their business
doesn't stop because of an accidental fire, and they have a system to
look after here that must not be neglected. I know the ropes pretty
well, thanks to father, and I think it a matter of duty to act just as
he would were he able to be about, and further and protect the company's
interests. Outside of that, mother," continued the boy, earnestly, "you
don't suppose I am going to sit down idly and let things drift at
haphazard, with the family to take care of and everything to be done to
make it easy and comfortable for father."
A look of pride came into the mother's face. She completely recognized
the fidelity and sense of her loyal son, allowed Bart to lead her into
the house, and tried to be calm and cheerful when he bade her good-bye,
and, evading celebrating groups of his boy friends, made his way down to
the ruined express shed.
A heap of still smouldering cinders and ashes marked the site. Bart
stood silently ruminating for some minutes. He tried to think things out
clearly, to decide how far he was warranted in acting for his father.
"I don't exactly know what action the express people usually take in a
case of this kind," he reflected, "nor how soon they get about it. I can
only wait for some official information. In the meantime, though,
somebody has got to keep the ball rolling here. I seem to be the only
one about, and I am going to put the system in some temporary order at
least. If I'm called down later for being too officious, they can't say
I didn't try to do my duty."
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