Chapter XIX: Homes for the Homeless

“I won’t think of Danny’s father as a thief,” Judy resolved to herself.

With this resolution in her mind, she found it easier to pass on the suggestion she had made to Peter. She didn’t look at Danny’s father, but spoke directly to Meta Hanley.

“The Jewell sisters took six of the boys home with them. We’ll help, too. We’ll do anything we can, and I’m sure Holly will, too. We have lots of room in our house, but not quite enough beds,” Judy admitted, looking around at the many orphans wandering about.

Soon she discovered that she and Peter were not the only ones to volunteer their homes to shelter the children. Hearing that the Jewell sisters had taken some of the boys, several more women pressed forward.

“We have room for two.”

“We’ll take one of the little tots. We have a crib upstairs. I suppose you’ll need clothing—”

“We’ll take care of that,” another woman put in. “Our church was planning a rummage sale. We’ve collected a lot of children’s clothing. It’s all yours for the asking.”

Miss Hanley thanked all those who were willing to help and told them she would be glad to have them keep the children overnight. She didn’t know what would be decided after that, but she said she hoped she could keep her family together.

“They are my family, you know,” she explained to the people gathered around her. “Some of them have been with me for years and treat each other like brothers and sisters. I hope a way will be found so they don’t have to be apart for more than a night or two. I don’t like to see them separated—”

“Where’s my son?” Danny’s father broke in.

He had been expecting Judy to return with Danny. The moment he saw that the boy wasn’t with her he started firing questions at her.

“Where’s Danny? What have you done with him? I don’t know who you—”

“Wait, George!” Meta Hanley interrupted. “Judy, didn’t you just tell me the Jewell sisters had taken six boys home with them? Was Danny one of them?”

“Yes, but—”

Judy was not allowed to finish.

“They had no right!” stormed the boy’s father. “A couple of blundering old ladies drive over and kidnap six of your boys, Meta, and you stand there and let them.”

“It was a kindness!” she retorted, angry now. “The children have to have a place to sleep.”

“A kindness? Taking my boy away when I haven’t seen him for six long years?” George Anderson spoke in such a loud voice that some of the women who had offered help backed away. “That’s no kindness! That’s kidnapping!”

“Hold on a minute!” Peter stopped him, “before you make any more charges. Your son wasn’t kidnapped by the Jewell sisters. And I suspect you had plenty of opportunity to see him before the fire. He’s been trailing you around for days. I’m afraid, after what he saw and heard, he doesn’t want to meet you.”

“That’s a lie!” Danny’s father charged. “He couldn’t have been trailing me around for days. I only got in from Canada this morning. I was on my way to the old house. I was going to open it up and make a home for Danny. Then I saw the fire—”

“You mean you haven’t been over there to that house with the boarded-up windows?” Judy interrupted in surprise.

“No, and I haven’t seen Danny. He couldn’t have been trailing me.”

“Well, he was trailing somebody who had a key to the house,” Peter insisted. “We found your son at the beaver dam, and he told us all about it. He’d missed his lunch at the orphanage, and so we stopped at the Beverly—”

“Where you and I used to go for dinner, George,” Meta Hanley put in.

“I know where it is,” George Anderson snapped. “I thought _you_ had forgotten. Maybe they’ll make room for these children. Or maybe I will. It’s time I kept my promise and took Danny home.”

“You aren’t very good at keeping promises, are you, George?” Miss Hanley said quietly.

“What about you?” he retorted. “You speak of the Beverly as if it were just any restaurant and not—You’re the one who didn’t keep your promise. I had the ring—”

“This one?” Peter questioned, showing him the ring Blackberry had been rolling on the floor in the boarded-up house.

“Let me see that!” George Anderson demanded.

After scrutinizing it with a puzzled look on his face, he hurled back another question.

“Where did you find this ring?”

“Our cat found it,” Judy spoke up. “He rolled it out of a hole the beavers had gnawed in your house. We left him still in there, and we’d like to drive over there with you and get him out—”

“We’ll get him out all right!”

Judy didn’t like the way Danny’s father said that. He glared at her a moment, reminding her of Danny. “I trapped him,” the boy had said in evident satisfaction. Was there a streak of cruelty in both of them?

“The ring is yours, isn’t it?” Peter asked quietly.

“It is,” he replied, “but I can’t believe a cat found it. I put it away with my other valuables. It’s the wedding ring I bought for Meta—”

“George! You did buy it?” she gasped.

“Of course I bought it. You were with me when I picked it out. I had to wait for it to be engraved, didn’t I?” Puzzlement was rapidly taking the place of anger on the man’s face. “But what is it, Meta? Why are you suddenly so pale?”

“I can’t believe it, that’s all. If you bought the ring, why didn’t you meet me the way you said you would?”

“I was there,” he retorted. “Where were you?”

“Oh dear! I was there, too. I waited and waited.” She paused, passing her hand across her forehead as if the gesture might clear her confused thoughts. “It’s been such a terrible day with the fire and all these poor children left homeless. I don’t understand how such things happen,” she admitted. “I’m not even sure they _are_ happening. Things do get mixed up like this in dreams. First a nightmare with people screaming at each other and running into burning buildings and then an impossible ending—”

“But Meta, you aren’t dreaming. This impossible ending is real.” George Anderson’s voice was husky. “You’ve been the mother my boy needed. I knew you would be when I left him at the orphanage. But now he’s old enough to need a father, too.”

He sounded sincere, but Judy couldn’t help thinking, “You need him, too, to help you with your business.” She couldn’t forget the note.

“What has happened?” Danny’s father was asking. “Why has he turned against me?”

Meta sighed. “I can’t explain that, George, but Peter Dobbs is with the FBI. I called them the other night when Danny didn’t come home. He was at the beaver dam. Beaver dam,” she repeated as if trying the sound of the word. “I was so sure you said you’d meet me at the beaver dam. It was our old meeting place. Remember?”

“_I_ remember,” he replied, looking more bewildered by the minute, “but how would Danny know about it? You didn’t tell him, did you?”

She shook her head. “I never said a word. Naturally I knew he was your boy, but I loved him for himself. I trusted him, too. When he said he was going over to watch the beavers, I believed him.”

“But why would he spend the night there?”

“I’m afraid you’ll have to ask him that question, George,” Meta replied quietly. “I’ve never spoken a word against you. If you’re worthy of your son’s love I’m sure you can win it back—”

“Yours, too?” he asked.

Meta turned away then. Her face was so white that Judy knew she must be near collapse. A neighbor suggested that she lie down for a little while in her house, but Meta protested.

“What will happen to the children?”

“We’ll see that they have places to stay for the night.” Judy turned to Danny’s father. “Did you mean it when you offered your house?”

“I never meant anything more sincerely in my whole life,” he declared, and Judy wouldn’t have doubted him if she hadn’t caught Peter looking as if he didn’t know what to believe. Was George Anderson a generous father offering his own home to the homeless children, or was this a trick?