Jerrys Reward | Page 5

"but,
unfortunately, people don't often leave their visiting cards on their ash
heaps."
This was not all. The very day after he found the dollar, Peggy, from
her window, saw more frantic waving.
This time it was a silver spoon!
"I can find the owner of that, I'm sure," says Paddy. And he made the
rounds of all the houses in the neighbourhood to see if they were
missing any spoons, but nobody claimed it.
Peggy cleaned it and made it shine like new. At first she didn't like to
use it--it was so beautiful--but her husband persuaded her that as long
as they couldn't sell it, seeing that the owner might be found some day,
she had better get the good of it. So she yielded, and declared that the
soup had an extra richness all on account of the silver.
"It's luck coming our way, dear," says Paddy. "Money in our pockets
and a silver spoon in our mouths--you'll see."
And it was so; though at first it took such a round-about path--- a little
way luck has--that they quite mistook it for something else.
CHAPTER V.
PEGGY OVERHEARS A STARTLING CONVERSATION
One cold morning in January Paddy built up a good fire, and, putting
Peggy in her wheel chair, he placed everything in reach that she could
possibly need.

"I'll not be back before dark, dearie," he said, "for outside of my
convent work I have a job at the wharf that will keep me all the day."
With this he kissed her on each pale cheek and on her sweet, patient
mouth, and left.
The little cottage in which the Paddys lived, you will remember, was on
the far side of the common. Behind it ran an alley where all sorts of
people lived,--negroes, beggars, tramps, all of them poor and some of
them desperate.
Peggy's cottage was at one end of the row, and the convent wall was
built up close to the side of it, leaving a space just wide enough for one
person to squeeze through. The walls of the cottage were so thin that
whenever the children hid in the narrow passage during their play, the
sick woman inside could hear every word they said--could almost hear
them breathe.
On the morning in question Peggy was sitting by her fire knitting so
fast that you could not tell needles from fingers nor fingers from
needles, when she heard the sound of talking between the cottage and
the convent wall. She could tell that the speakers were men.
"Now, why have they crept in that narrow crack to talk?" she mused.
A low voice said:
"Are you sure she'll not go back on us?"
Another answered:
"She's safe enough; I've fixed her."
"Listen to me," said the first voice; "you are to bring a bundle to the
side door at five o'clock. The nurse will let you in, and show you the
closet under the staircase. There you'll stay until the house is locked up
and everything settled for the night. After the children are asleep and
the grown people quieted by the drugged coffee--say when the convent
bell strikes ten--you will slip out and, unlocking the side door, let me in.

I have a plan of the house, and know where everything of value is kept.
We'll get a good, rich pull, and skip."
"You're certain no harm will come from spiking the drink?"
"Not if she obeys orders; it'll give 'em a bully night's rest; that's all."
"How'll I know when it's safe to come out?"
"She says if anything happens not down on the books she'll come past
your hiding-place, and give two taps like this" (tapping). "In that case
you'll wait till you hear further."
"You'll be there to help, if I get caught? You won't slump?"
"Me? Never! Ain't I always been a man of honour?"
"They say old Morton's mighty game when once roused."
"But he won't be if we can help it; in case he is, and shows fight, why
then we'll have to----"
The rest of the sentence was lost, and the two men departed.
Poor Mrs. Peggy sat frozen to her chair in terror. What on earth could
she do! Her husband was gone for the day. There was no chance for his
return before six o'clock at least.
"Poor, useless body!" she exclaimed, "the neighbours' property in
danger, their very lives threatened, a traitor in their midst, and me
sitting here knowing it all, and not able to do anything!"
She was so distressed at her helplessness that tears rolled down her thin
cheeks. But soon she dried them and said, emphatically:
"There's no avoiding it; I must get word to Mrs. Morton!"
She thought harder than she had ever done before in all her