Whispers at Dawn by Roy J. Snell

Author:Roy J. Snell
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781620138182
Publisher: Duke Classics

Chapter XIV - A Human Spider

*

It was a wonderful dinner they enjoyed in Madame LeClare's snug little home. And not the least of the joys for the Captain on that occasion—Johnny was sure of this—were the smiling eyes of the kindly hostess. As for Johnny, he had more than one smile from another pair of dark eyes.

Dinner over, they sat about the fire while Lucian, a slender boy of twelve, entertained them with quaint French melodies played upon an ancient violin that had been his grandfather's.

"You are to be a musician," Johnny said to Lucian.

"But what will you be?" He turned to Gluck, a sturdy boy of ten with flashing eyes.

"Tell him, Gluck." There was pride in the mother's tone.

"I am going to be an officer of the law, like my father." Gluck squared his shoulders.

"That's the boy!" his mother applauded.

"There's a woman for you!" the Captain murmured. His eyes glistened. "Gave her husband for our country's good. Now she offers her son. This country needs more mothers such as this."

It was mid-afternoon when they bade Madame LeClare and her fine family a hearty farewell.

"I wanted you to know them," the Captain rumbled as once more they entered the great city. "You are to be one of us. You may have an opportunity to be of great service. Danger and death may threaten you. It will help you to understand the war we are waging, and why we must win."

"Thank you," said Johnny humbly. "I am sure it will."

"This is a tough neighborhood," the Captain said a moment later as they rolled down a narrow street. "'Hell's Half Acre,' I guess you might call it.

"I wonder what those young hoodlums are looking at." He slowed down his car to a crawl. At the corner of a five story apartment building a dozen or more of flashily dressed youths stood staring upward. From time to time one or the other of them might have been heard shouting something.

Stopping his car, the Captain stepped out. Johnny followed.

To their astonishment, they saw clinging to the bricks of the corner, and near to the very top of the building, a huge youth with a thick crop of hair. He was tossing his mane, laughing and roaring like a gorilla, which he resembled slightly.

"Come down from there!" the Captain thundered.

"Come and get me," the youth roared back.

"Come down!" The Captain threw open his coat, revealing his star.

"Oh! All right, I'll come." The young giant's face sobered. The crowd of flashily dressed youths vanished. At the same time a square of paper came fluttering to the pavement. Apparently it had fallen from the climber's pocket.

Johnny picked it up and read:

"Gunderson Shotts,

22 Diversey Way.

Everybody's Business."

"Why that," he said with a start, "must be the young savage with a stout heart who helped us out of a jam last night. Don't be too hard on him, Captain." Hastily he outlined the night's adventure with the runaway balloon, and the part this youth had played.

"I'll not be too hard on him," the Captain promised.

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