Partners (10 page)

Deftly Dale got rid of the rags, leaving them in a heap on a newspaper in the hall. Tenderly she lifted the trembling bit of humanity, crooning to it as the quivering baby mouthed the air and wailed hoarsely.

George Rand went anxiously around, preparing the bath, following Dale's directions, finding a clean towel and washcloth and a cake of soap.

He stood by wonderingly as Dale lowered the baby gently into the warm water, keeping her arm about the quivering shoulders, passing the water over his face and chest with her arm hand.

It was amazing how surprised even a young baby like that could look, as the warmth began to penetrate the cold, cold flesh and comfort began gradually to steal into the little body. The baby relaxed a little and rested against Dale's arm. Then he suddenly seized hold of Dale's wrist with his eager, weak, chilly lips and began to suck frantically.

"Why, he's
hungry
!" said Dale with quick motherly instinct.

"I have a bag of crackers in my room," suggested Rand anxiously.

"But babies can't eat crackers!" said Dale wisely.

"Oh, can't they?" said Rand in a troubled tone. "I thought perhaps----in an emergency--!"

"No, they can't. They haven't any teeth, you know." There was a gentleness about her voice that suggested tender amusement at his ignorance. "Babies need milk! I wonder if the drugstore is open yet. They always have milk."

"I'll go and see," said Rand eagerly. "Is there anything else I could get?"

"Yes, you might get a bottle and a nipple," said Dale, just as if she had always been looking after starved babies.

She put more warm water into the tub now, and the baby relaxed a little more and let his small head rest against her arm again. She lowered him down a little farther so the warmth would come around his shoulders, which were still very cold to the touch, but the baby started in fear, struggling weakly, and clutched at Dale's arm, blinking and gasping like a drowning kitten.

"There! There! There! Darling!" crooned Dale. "Don't be frightened! You'll soon be warm now! There, isn't that nice?"

Dale bent a Madonna smile upon the baby, and Rand, watching in the doorway felt something turn over in his heart. He bolted down the stairs in a hurry, the croon of Dale's voice following him like an unexpected joy.

As the heat began to penetrate the frozen little body, the shivering gradually ceased, the tiny limbs relaxed, and the baby blinked up at her with a small bleat like a wee lamb.

The storm raged without, the snow growing deeper inch by inch, the wind rioting outside the snow-draped windows. Dale's troubles were all there, slunk behind her chair waiting for her attention again, but Dale and the baby were having a lovely time with the soft rag and the sweet smelling soap and the nice warm water. The little body was slowly taking on a less ghastly color.

She drew him presently from the water and cuddled him in the big towel, patting him dry, and then wrapped him in an old flannel nightgown, soft and warm, and tucked a blanket close about him. The baby nestled in her arms for a moment with a comforted look, but suddenly the little mouth like a baby-bird's beak, was wide open again, snuffing and mouthing for deeper satisfaction.

When George came back Dale had the baby in her lap and was feeding him hot water with a bit of sugar in it, from a teaspoon, a drop at a time.

"Now," she said looking up brightly, "you hold him and give him more hot water, while I fix his bottle."

So George, greatly fearful but nevertheless eager, took off his wet coat and hung it on the stair rail out in the hall and then sat down and took the baby gingerly into his arms. It seemed to him a daring thing for him to handle that frail bit of humanity.

Dale watched him furtively as she went about washing the bottle and heating the milk, filling the bottle with her unaccustomed hands. How kind the young man was as he looked down at the little protesting face. His eyes were tender, and there were gentle lines around his mouth that made her feel he was a man one could trust. But the baby had set up a fierce wail once more with the cessation of the hot water.

"He wants more water," said Dale. "Give him a few drops at a time with the spoon until the milk is ready." And she put the glass and spoon on a chair beside him.

So George fed the baby hot water and sugar, and was filled with delight when he swallowed it.

"Why, the little beggar likes it!" he exclaimed, and Dale smiled assent.

They were like two children when the bottle was finally ready and Dale took the baby again to feed him. They hung over that meal, both of them, asked if they were hungry themselves, and they laughed aloud as the baby seized the nipple in his hungry lips and went to work, smacking and choking and gurgling over the first few mouthfuls.

"Why, the little beggar!" said George grinning. "That was what he wanted! Look out there, you little pig! Don't get your feet in the trough! That bottle isn't going to run away. There's more where that came from!"

The baby settled down finally to long pulls and little grunts of satisfaction rolling his eyes with ecstasy, and George and Dale, their heads close together watching him were no less happy.

The delicate blue-veined lids began to droop before the bottle was quite finished, and they enjoyed watching the process of going to sleep. They hadn't known before how interesting a baby was. They began to hope just a little that they had really saved the baby's life, although it seemed almost incredible that so young a child could survive such exposure.

But George saw more than the baby as he sat there watching. He saw again the Madonna look in Dale's eyes when she lifted them to give a whispered direction about getting the bed ready for her to lay the baby down. He saw the lovely droop of her head over the baby, the sweet curve of her shoulders, the little brown curl at the nape of her white neck, and he had a foolish desire to stoop and kiss it, although he'd never felt that way about any girl in his life before.

He turned away half ashamedly and let his cheeks go hot in the shadowed room. Dale's small electric bulb could not compete with the darkness of the whole room very successfully, and the oil stove only helped out a tiny bit. But then he turned back, not willing to miss the lovely sight of her sitting there with bent head holding the bottle to the baby's lips, his little fuzzy head nestled in the hollow of her arm.

"Why, the little beggar has hair!" he exclaimed suddenly as if it were a great discovery. "Yellow hair. I guess he was so filthy it didn't show before the bath!"

He watched the girl and the baby wistfully, almost hungrily.

"Yes, and it's curly, too!" murmured Dale happily. Then with sudden dread in her voice: "Did you call the police?"

"No," said George. "I thought it was more important to get him warmed and fed first. He couldn't go anywhere on a night like this anyway. Do you think I ought to call them tonight?"

"I don't see why morning won't do," said Dale. "Anybody who left him here likely knows where he is."

"He might be stolen, of course," hazarded George anxiously. "I wouldn't like to think anybody was worrying about him. Poor little chipmunk!"

"I don't think they are," said Dale thoughtfully. "He looks too undernourished to belong to anybody who would worry about him. Thought maybe that's the reason they had to give him up. But if he was stolen it would have been some time ago. Nobody would steal a poor child like that. He certainly was not attired in the garments of the rich."

"I should say not!" said George with satisfaction. Then after a pause, "He looks too awfully young to be stolen. People don't steal babies that young as a rule. It's too risky. They can't get their money out of the transaction. The kid might die on them, and they wouldn't realize it soon enough."

"Yes, I guess you're right," said Dale.

They were silent for a little, standing there beside the bed watching the child sleep.

"Then, you know," said George after a minute, "his mother might have been taken sick and just slipped him in this doorway because she couldn't navigate any longer. It was bitter cold outside, and I seem to remember hearing an ambulance. Saw them pick up somebody before I came in. I thought then it was some drunk, but it might have been a woman."

"Oh!" exclaimed Dale pitifully. "Then perhaps you ought to telephone tonight. We might be able to do something for the mother if we could find her!"

"I hadn't thought of that!" said George. "But I'd hate like the dickens to have the little sucker taken to the orphanage or the poor farm. I suppose that's what the police would do with him. And he oughtn't to go out in this storm."

"Oh!" said Dale. "The poor little darling!" Her eyes filled with sudden yearning. "How I wish I had a home!"

"Here, too!" said George fervently, his eyes devouring the picture Dale made as she bent over and tucked the hot-water bottle under the blanket close beside her. "He's not so blue as he was. I'd like to see the little sucker have a chance after he's weathered all this. But I suppose I ought to do something about him. What time do you have to leave in the morning?"

A sudden gray look swept over Dale's face.

"I don't!" she said in a sad little voice.

"You
don't
?" exclaimed George in glad surprise. "You mean you could look after him for a little while in the morning till I can rustle around and do something about it? Aren't you--employed?"

"Not anymore," said Dale, looking up with a brave little smile. "The company I was working for burned down last night."

"Say, now, that's tough luck!" said George sympathetically. "That must have been the fire I was covering."

"Yes, I suppose it was," said Dale with downcast eyes. "I was feeling pretty badly about it till you brought in this dear baby, who was so much worse off than I was. But I guess we'll weather it. The worst of it is there isn't any chance to get a new job until after Christmas now anyway, so I can easily look after the baby tomorrow. I'd be so glad to keep the baby myself if I had any home, or money enough to make one for him without having to leave him to go to work. But I can easily look after the baby tomorrow."

"Good!" said George brightening. "That'll be a help. Can you beat that to have things work out and fit in so neatly? But say, I've just got a raise. A big one! Been hoping for it a long time now and had given up expecting it. And now it's come, I haven't a soul in the world to spend it on. So if you don't get something good right away, you'll accept a loan from me for a while till things brighten up for you. There's no need in the world for you to get worried. Take it easy till you can really better yourself. That's all right. You helped me out, and now I'll help you out."

"Oh, I couldn't possibly do that," said Dale firmly. "I
couldn't
, you know. But you are very kind."

"Now look here--" began George eagerly, "in a way this is
my
baby.
I
found him; you might let me pay for his care--"

"Did I understand you to say it was
your
baby, Mr. Rand?" challenged the hard voice of Mrs. Beck from the doorway.

The two young people swung around startled, for even though the door had been wide open into the hall they had not heard the approach of their landlady. Her rubber-shod feet had acquired a habit of silence. She liked to come upon her roomers unawares. There she stood in the doorway and fixed them with a steely glance.

"Gosh!" said George, under his breath.

Then the woman spoke:

"Miss Hathaway, I
am
surprised at you, letting a
man
come into your room! And at this time of night! I
thought
you were
respectable
! I remember mentioning that to you, that I had always had a respectable class of roomers. This house has always had a good name. If I think there is any doubt about people I always ask for recommendations. And, Mr. Rand, I wouldn't have thought it of
you
! You was always a nice, quiet young man! But I suppose men are all alike, they'll go anywhere when a girl has a 'come-hither' in her eye. And now after what I've just heard you say! My! I never would have thought it! You never can tell about anybody! As for this girl! Miss Hathaway, you can get
right out
! It was probably all your fault. I can't have any young woman of questionable character in
my
house. I've always kept a
respectable
establishment. I ought to have sent you away long ago. I've been worried ever since I found out how you tore that bag on purpose and flung all those oranges out on the sidewalk right in front of him to make him pick them up for you and carry them upstairs."

She turned to Rand.

"She just did that, of course, to get acquainted with you. And now see what it's led to! But this settles the matter. I can't have a girl like that around, not a girl that lets strange men come into her room. It isn't
decent
!"

Dale gasped at the appalling words.

"Mrs. Beck," she said in a clear voice, "you can't talk that way! Neither Mr. Rand nor I had one thought of ourselves or of what room we were in. We were trying to save that little baby's life. It was starving and freezing and nothing else was of any importance then."

"Well, you'll find it
is
of importance
now
," said the furious woman grimly. "You've got
me
to reckon with. I guess you knew good and well where you were, too! You can't pull the wool over my eyes! And as for you, Mr. Rand, men always know what they're doing, and if he hadn't he was told. Gramma says she advised him to put the baby on the doorstep and call the police! That's what he should have done of course, instead of making it an excuse to go and hob-nob in a girl's room. But, of course--if it's
his baby
, that explains--"

Rand was white with fury now. He strode forward and seized the irate Beck's arm in a firm grip.

"Look here!" he roared. "You old white sepulcher, you! You can't get away with saying things like that. I never saw nor even heard of that baby till I fell over it in your vestibule. It was practically naked, with snow blowing in over it, and it was the most pitiful sight I ever saw, shivering like a leaf and giving hoarse, weak little cries. I don't know who put it in your house and I don't care. I only know it would have been murder to leave it there. Your tenderhearted grandmother wouldn't do a thing to help me, and I couldn't find anybody else at home, so I saw a light in the crack under this door and I asked Miss Hathaway to help me. Now, if you dare to say a word against her you've got me to deal with, see?"