The Jalna Saga – Deluxe Edition: All Sixteen Books of the Enduring Classic Series & The Biography of Mazo de la Roche

by de la Roche, Mazo

  “Sh,” she breathed. “Don’t tell!”

  He stood staring down at her. “what are you doing?” he demanded.

  She knelt, white and frightened but smiling now, pretending not to be afraid.

  “I am playing a game,” she whispered.

  “A nice place for a game! why, you’re wet as a rat. What sort of game?”

  She was fondling Roger. She drew him in front of her, trying to hide something with his bulk. “It’s too silly to tell. I’ve been playing it for years.”

  Finch, remembering his childhood, was sorry to have spied on her. He said, “Don’t tell me, if you don’t want to. But you’ll catch a cold here. Can’t you finish the game another time?”

  “We have only the weekend at home. Was it Uncle Renny who called Roger?”

  “Yes.”

  She looked still more frightened. “Please, Uncle Finch, don’t tell him I’m here. It’s — a secret.”

  Renny’s voice came back to them. “Finch! where are you? what’s the matter?”

  “Do go, Uncle Finch,” she implored. “I shall get into terrible trouble if you don’t.”

  Renny was coming back. He was whistling to Roger but Roma held him fast. He struggled, whining in his anxiety. She held him tightly by a handful of hair and when, in a panic, he tore himself away, a number of grey hairs were left in her grasp. He yelped in pain.

  Finch turned to intercept Renny. Whatever the child was up to he would not give her away. He could hear her scrabbling among the undergrowth as though she were hiding something. A sudden thought illuminated his mind. He wheeled, turned back toward where she hid, wheeled again, walking in a circle. Renny reached his side. He demanded, “what the dickens is going on?”

  “Nothing.” Finch felt dazed.

  “Well — you certainly look queer.” With a decisive sweep of the arm, Renny parted the bushes. Roma was crouching there, a mysterious smile on her pale upturned face.

  “Roma!” Renny bent forward to discover what she sought to conceal.

  But now she no longer tried to hide anything. She stood up straight and looked into his eyes, her hair, wet from the rain-soaked undergrowth, lay flat on her forehead. She said, in a low confidential voice:

  “I did it.”

  “Did what?”

  “Took the money from Mr. Clapperton and gave it to you.”

  Renny turned to Finch, as though to ask if he also had heard.

  “Yes?” said Finch. “You took the money?”

  Roma nodded, in a determined way. “I wanted Uncle Renny to have it. That old man had too much and Uncle Renny not enough. I knew that, because I’d heard talk. So when Archer told me about Robin Hood and how he had taken money from the rich and given it to people who needed it, I thought, why couldn’t I? So I did — and the rest of it’s here.”

  Renny crashed through the bushes to where she held up an old teakettle. He took it from her in frantic haste and lifted the lid. Inside there was a brown paper package tied with a piece of tape. With fingers visibly trembling he untied it and disclosed a roll of bank notes, all of the twenty-dollar denomination. He held them to his strong aquiline nose.

  “They smell of mould,” he said.

  He turned to Finch. “I’m glad you’re here, Finch. If you weren’t, I’d think I was dreaming.” Then he broke out. “The money! My God — I’ve found it! It’s in my hand! And my mind’s all right —” He struck himself on the forehead with his clenched hand. “I’m not demented! The money is found! Can you believe it? Oh, Roma, tell me all about it. Make it clear, for I feel dazed. How did you get hold of these bills?”

  Finch put his arm about him. He looked so wild that Finch was afraid for him. Roma’s face had lost the frightened look. It had an expression of secret pride.

  “I took them,” she said, “that morning you went to see Mr. Clapperton. I heard you tell Archer he couldn’t go with you. I was behind the big syringa bush. So I followed you and when you went into Mr. Clapperton’s house, I went onto the verandah and I heard you being angry with each other and then I saw him go into the room at the back and I went down the hall and peeped in at you.”

  “Go on — go on.” His eyes were avid on her face.

  “Are you angry, Uncle Renny?”

  “No, no, go on!”

  In her quick child’s voice she continued, “I peeped in and I saw you go out by the french window and I saw all the money on the desk and I gathered it up and ran out without making a sound and I hid the bills under a big stone. All but one.” She gave a little peal of laughter.

  “Yes? Go on.”

  Finch wondered how Roma could talk, with those burning eyes fixed on hers. When he was a child he would have been hopelessly stammering, getting mixed up, not able to go on. But she continued, “I kept that in my hand and before we went in to lunch I crept up behind you — you were sitting on your heels taking a burr out of Roger — and I put my arms round you.”

  “I remember! My God, I remember!”

  She laughed again at the remembrance of her cunning.

  “I hugged you and I pushed the twenty-dollar bill into your pocket without you knowing. Wasn’t it a lovely surprise?”

  “A beautiful surprise. Oh, Roma, Roma — what you did to your poor uncle that day!”

  “That’s why I did it. I knew you were poor and Mr. Clapperton was rich. Even when I was listening I heard him talk that way. So I just took the money for you.”

  “And what then, Roma?” Renny held her with his eyes.

  “Then, after lunch, I went back and took the bills from under the stone. I’d almost forgotten where I’d hidden it. Wouldn’t it have been awful if I’d never found it? Because you’d never have had it.”

  “Yes. Go on.”

  “But I found it and I knew where there was an old teakettle and I put all the money in it. Then I brought it here and hid it in the bushes and every time I wanted to I came and took out a bill and put it some place where I knew you’d find it. Didn’t I think of a lot of funny places?”

  “You did indeed — God forgive you!”

  “I have a mysterious mind. Even when I was going to school I didn’t forget you. I hid some bills for you to find while I was away, and as soon as I came home I got out another to give you.”

  “The one that smelt musty!” he exclaimed.

  The full import of his release from dreadful apprehension now swept over him. He caught Roma beneath the armpits, lifted her so that her face was on a level with his, then kissed her rapturously.

  “Roma,” he exclaimed, “you’ve saved my reason by being here at this minute. If you knew what relief I feel! I’m a new man!” She kissed him back and he set her down and turned to Finch. “We must go straight home and tell Alayne. Poor girl — how happy she’ll be! But first I must count the bills.” He ran through them, counting aloud. “All here! Nothing more to worry about. What’s the matter, Finch? Haven’t you anything to say? Good God, if you’d been through what I have, you’d find plenty to say!”

  “Roma did a terrible thing. She is old enough to know better.”

  “She thought she was doing a beautiful thing, didn’t you, Roma? For my part, I can think of nothing but the relief. An iron band that was round my head has snapped. I am free. I am not headed for the madhouse.”

  “Very well,” answered Finch. “Let’s accept this as a blessing. The money’s found. I’ll try to forget what you’ve been through and be glad with you, Renny, but I could weep when I think of the past months.”

  “They’re gone. Done with! Let’s go back to Jalna. Won’t the uncles be glad? Poor old boys! I’m afraid they’ve been pretty miserable.” He plunged through the undergrowth and back to the path. In one hand he carried the teakettle. Roma clung to the other. He exclaimed:

  “what a triumph for Fennel! By George, I ought to go first to him and tell him. He’d say that prayer did the trick, and perhaps it did. What do you think, Finch?”

  “I don’t know, Renny. But it�
�s beginning to rain. If we go straight to Jalna you can phone the Rector from there.”

  “Very well, I’ll do that. Hello, there are Piers’ boys. Nooky — Philip — where are you going? Come here!”

  The small boys approached, each eating an apple. Rain was beginning to fall. They stood staring up at Renny, feeling something wild in him but whether of anger or some other emotion they could not tell. They were half afraid of him. He had returned the notes to the kettle. Now he extracted two of them and pressed them into the hands of the little boys.

  “Now,” he said, “here is a present for you. Twenty dollars apiece, to celebrate this lucky day.”

  “For Heaven’s sake, Renny —” broke in Finch.

  “No, but I want to! Boys, you are to run straight home, show your father what I have given you and tell him and your mother and Mooey to come to Jalna, as fast as they possibly can. Do you hear?”

  They were dazed. They stood with the bank notes in their hands just staring. The rain came down hard.

  “Do you understand? You are to tell the others to come straight to Jalna?”

  “And is all this money for us?” asked Nooky, helpless under the munificence of the gift.

  “Every bit of it. Tell your father so. He is to come at once to Jalna. Now run!”

  They scampered along the path. They were panting when they reached the road. They were winded when they tore into the dining room where Pheasant was setting out the tea things.

  “Boys, you are naughty,” she cried. “How often have I told you not to come rushing in without wiping your shoes? Now you’ve brought mud —”

  “where is Daddy?” they shouted.

  “Sharpening the lawn mower. Tell him to come to tea. Then change your shoes and —”

  They were off.

  “Oh, the rudeness of them!” mourned Pheasant to herself. “And only a little while ago they were so sweet. It’s the school. I know it’s the school.”

  Evidently the mower had been sharpened, for there was Mooey pushing it languidly across the lawn. The rain had ceased. What a pity Mooey always looked half-dead when he was made to do any work. It was so irritating to Piers. When Piers had a thing to do he went at it like a man. Mooey’s expression was so lugubrious it made him laugh. Still, it was no fun mowing wet grass.

  The little boys found Piers with three rats in a trap. Ordinarily this would have been a fascinating discovery but now they had no more than a glance for the captives.

  “Daddy,” they gasped, “look here what we’ve got!”

  Piers stared pensively at the rats. Two of them were young. They crept over the wires, passing and repassing each other, searching for that fatal entrance by which they had come into the trap. The other rat was older and almost twice as large. In his efforts to escape he had wounded himself and now he lay with a resigned look, one pink paw, like a little hand, pressed to his side where a trickle of blood ran down.

  “Daddy,” shouted Philip, brandishing the twenty-dollar note, “see what Uncle Renny gave me!”

  “I’ve got one too!” shouted Nook.

  Piers’ jaw dropped. He said, “Did he give you those?”

  “Yes. And we’re to keep it. And you’re to go to Jalna as fast as you can.”

  Nook added, “And Mummy and Mooey are to go too. Uncle Renny was awfully excited.”

  Piers groaned and placed the rat trap on a shelf.

  “Aren’t you glad?” asked Nook.

  “Glad!” he said. “Glad! Would you be glad, if your eldest brother was going haywire?”

  He strode to where Maurice was feebly pushing the mower. He held up his hand. Maurice stopped the mower and looked sulkily at him.

  “Mooey,” said Piers, “we’re going over to Jalna. Your Uncle Renny is completely off his head. He has been giving twenty-dollar bills to the kids. God help me, I don’t know what I should do.”

  Maurice leant on the handle of the lawn mower and stared at Piers in consternation. “Must I go?” he asked.

  “Yes. Get out the car while I go and tell your mother. No! I’d better not tell her the truth. I shall just say we have to go to Jalna. Get out the car.”

  XXVI

  ALAYNE HEARS THE GOOD NEWS

  STANDING IN THE hall they could hear voices from the drawing-room. Renny listened.

  “It’s Alayne,” he said, “and the uncles. Now you two wait here while I go in and tell the news.” He still held the kettle in his hand. His face was lighted by a smile, almost wild in its relief. His hair clung wet to his head. He flung open the door and went into the room. Finch and Roma hung back in the hall, he with a feeling rather of apprehension than joy; Roma’s small face inscrutable.

  Nicholas was chuckling over a copy of Punch, his gouty leg resting on an ottoman. Ernest was rearranging the articles in the cabinet of curios from India. Alayne was sewing a patch on the elbow of Archer’s pyjamas. All three turned to look at Renny.

  “Hullo,” said Nicholas. “I see you’ve come in out of the rain. Sensible man. Sit down and let me read you this sketch.”

  Ernest held a tiny jade monkey in his hand. “For some reason,” he observed, “I have always loved this little monkey. I remember how, when I was not more than three —”

  “whatever have you in the kettle?” interrupted Alayne, but broke off at the expression on Renny’s face.

  He held it up. “Here is the loot,” he said.

  They just looked at him, not knowing what he meant.

  At arm’s length he displayed the kettle. “I have found the lost money,” he said. “In this old teakettle — look!”

  He thrust his hand inside and brought out the roll of bank notes. He strode to Alayne and tossed them in her lap. “There they are!” he exclaimed. “Now you can breathe free. Your husband is neither a thief nor a lunatic. Neither is he a sort of Jekyll and Hyde. He’s a sane man and the happiest in this Dominion.”

  “what’s he say?” demanded Nicholas. “what’s this all about?”

  “He says,” Ernest spoke tremblingly, “that he has found the money — the bank notes that were taken from Mr. Clapperton.” He replaced the jade monkey in the cabinet and advanced toward Renny with his hands held out. “I’m so glad, dear boy. I’m so glad. I’m so —” tears began to run down his cheeks. He was afraid he was going to break down. He grasped the back of a chair for support and made gulping noises.

  “Good!” Nicholas almost shouted in his joy. “Good! Now we have the laugh on that horrid old fellow. You say you found the money in that kettle. And where was the kettle? Sit here, beside me, and tell me everything. Well, well — if ever I was glad of anything, I’m glad of this. In a kettle, you say?”

  Alayne stood up. She moved almost stiffly to Renny’s side, letting the roll of bank notes fall to the floor. She looked into his face, her own white and drawn. “Is it true?” she whispered. “Do you remember everything now?”

  “There’s nothing to remember. I had absolutely nothing to do with taking the money. It was all a child’s prank. No — not exactly a prank — the poor little thing wanted to be like Robin Hood — take from the rich — give to the poor.”

  “Not Archer!” gasped Alayne. “Don’t tell me it was Archer who stole the money!”

  “Do you say one of the children took the money?” demanded Ernest.

  “Yes. And hid it in this old kettle and doled it out — a note at a time. But the poor little thing thought she was being a kind of fairy godmother.”

  Alayne’s face was rigid. “Then it was Adeline who did this horrible thing to us.” She could scarcely articulate, her throat was so constricted. “It was Adeline.”

  Nicholas kicked the ottoman from him. Without assistance he got to his feet. He brought one fist into the palm of the other hand. “I want this explained so I can understand it!” he thundered.

  “where is Adeline?” came from Alayne’s white lips.

  Renny smiled at her. “Adeline had nothing to do with it. I don’t believe she has the imagin
ation to invent such a scheme. It was Roma.”

  Alayne put her hand to her throat. “How did you find out?”

  “She told me — herself. You mustn’t be angry with her.”

  “Not angry!” Alayne gave an hysterical laugh. “Oh, no, I’m not angry.”

  The door opened. Piers and Maurice, Meg and Patience, entered, with Finch and Roma close behind.

  Probably on the battlefield Piers’ face had shown no greater excitement, no greater apprehension, than it now did. With his new, stiff gait he came into the room, his eyes fixed on Renny. When he saw him smiling he was not relieved but stood, watching him warily, ready to humour him, to control him if necessary. Meg advanced fearlessly to Renny’s side.

  “Piers brought me with him,” she said, “to hear the good news from your own lips. Renny, dear — I’m so glad.” She laid her hand on his arm.

  “Yes,” said Piers. “Wonderful news!”

  “Think what it means to me,” Renny exclaimed. “I’m a new man.”

  “Are you sure you know just what you have been doing all this afternoon?” Piers looked keenly into Renny’s eyes. They were glittering from excitement.

  “Know what I’ve been doing! My God — I’ve seen every move under a magnifying glass. Don’t look at me like that, Piers. It shows what you’ve had in your mind. But don’t worry, I’m as normal as any of you.”

  Again Nicholas struck his hands together. “I’m an old man,” he said, “and I think some consideration should be shown me. You all are talking, talking, talking, and no one has made things clear to me.”

  Ernest said, “You know that the lost money has been found, don’t you? There it is — lying on the floor where Alayne dropped it.”

  Meg bent and picked up the roll of bank notes. “To think of it!” she exclaimed. “And are they all here?”

  “Every single one of them,” answered Renny. “I’ve counted them.”