CHAPTER XVIII
NAT MEETS HIS UNCLE
"Nat, if you wish to do me a favor, do not mention this affair toanybody in New York," said John Garwell, when the pair were on thetrain, bound for the metropolis.
"I won't say a word, sir."
"There was nothing wrong about it, but I don't want my friends to make alaughing stock of me," added the bachelor.
"I shall never mention it to anybody," returned our hero, and it may beadded here that he never did. The matter was also hushed up in Trenton,so nothing more was heard of it.
Our hero was kept very busy for a day or two after his trip into NewJersey. Part of his time was spent over some books, and the balance wasused up in running errands, and delivering important papers anddocuments.
Once again he visited police headquarters, to learn if anything had beenheard of Nick Smithers.
"We have learned that he visited Jersey City not long ago," said anofficial. "But before we could get the authorities to lay their hands onhim, he disappeared. We rather think he is in New York again, and if so,we shall do all we can to round him up."
On the following day Nat was sent on an errand up to Forty-secondStreet. He had to deliver some real estate documents, and this done, hestopped for a moment to look at the Grand Central Depot.
"Thank fortune, I am not quite so green as I was when I landed," hemused.
He was just leaving the vicinity of the station, when, chancing to lookdown a side street, he saw a sight that filled him with astonishment.
"Uncle Abner, and the Widow Guff!" he murmured. "What are they doing,talking to that seedy-looking fellow?"
Our hero was right. There, near the entrance to a big building, stoodAbner Balberry and his bride, and a sharp-eyed but shabbily dressedstranger was talking to them very earnestly.
"Uncle Abner must have married the widow," thought Nat. "More thanlikely they are on their wedding tour. Wonder what that other fellowwants of uncle?"
Nat's first inclination was to leave the spot, so that his relativemight not discover him. But he did not like the looks of the stranger,and so drew closer, to learn, if possible, what the interview meant.
The man had just come past Abner and his wife, and had pretended to pickup a pocketbook.
"Say, did you drop your pocketbook?" he asked, of Abner.
"I--I guess not!" stammered the farmer, and felt to make certain thathis own wallet was safe.
"Queer, who did drop this," went on the stranger. "Pretty well filled,too," he added, opening the pocketbook and looking into it.
"Did you jest pick it up?" queried Abner, falling into the trap.
"Sure, right down there. Say, this is a find, ain't it?" and the mansmiled broadly.
"That's what it is," said the farmer.
"I wish I could find a pocketbook," sighed Mrs. Balberry.
"I'd like to return this to the owner," went on the stranger. "I don'twant to keep anybody's money."
"'Tain't everybody would say thet," was Abner's comment. He wished hehad made the find.
"I suppose not, but I believe in being honest." The stranger scratchedhis head. "Hang me, if I know what to do," he continued.
"What do you mean?"
"I've got to go out of town soon--train leaves in ten minutes. I don'twant to take this with me. It don't seem just right."
"I see."
"Can't you find the owner--I'm sure he would pay us a reward."
"Me find the owner?" stammered the farmer.
"Yes. You might advertise. The pocketbook has got at least a hundreddollars in it. The owner ought to give you twenty-five for returningit."
"Maybe he would."
"I'll tell you what I'll do," said the stranger, earnestly. "You takethe pocketbook, and give me ten dollars. If you can find the owner, youcan claim twenty-five dollars reward."
"An' supposin' I can't find the owner?"
"Then you can keep the pocketbook."
The temptation was strong, and Abner looked at his newly-made wife.
"Might as well take it, Abner," she said, promptly. "I guess we can findthe owner quick enough," and she pinched his arm suggestively.
The farmer drew forth his wallet, and began to count out ten dollars. Atthe same time the stranger gazed again into the other wallet.
"Must be about a hundred and fifty dollars in this," he said. "I'lltrust you to do the square thing by the owner."
"Oh, you kin trust me," said Abner, quickly.
He was about to pass over his ten dollars, when he felt somebody catchhim by the arm, and turning, he beheld Nat.
"Nat!" he gasped.
"Not so fast, Uncle Abner!" cried our hero. "You had better keep yourmoney."
"Wh--what?"
"Put your money away."
"See here, what do you mean by interfering?" said the stranger, roughly.
"If he gives up the pocketbook take the ten dollars out of that," wenton Nat. "My idea is, there isn't a dollar in the pocketbook."
"Nat!"
"That's right, uncle. This is an old game. I heard all about it only afew days ago."
"Oh, you go to grass!" cried the stranger, with a malicious look at Nat,and then he hurried away with all speed.
"Where did you spring from, Nat?"
"I was in this neighborhood on an errand, Uncle Abner. How do you do,Mrs. Guff."
"I'm not Mrs. Guff any more," said the lady. "I'm Mrs. Balberry, yournew aunt."
"Oh, so you're married, Uncle Abner."
"Yes," was the answer. "But see here, Nat, I don't understand about thetpocketbook," said the farmer.
"It's simple enough. As I said before, the game is an old one. Thatfellow had the pocketbook all the time. It was stuffed with old paper,with a dollar bill wrapped on the outside. He wanted to get your money,and if he had gotten it he would have left you with a pocketbook worthabout a quarter, with nothing but old paper and a dollar bill in it, andmaybe he would have taken the dollar bill out, too."
"Well, I never!" cried Mrs. Balberry. "Did you ever hear of such aswindle!"
"They play all sorts of games in a big city like this. You've got tokeep your eyes open."
"I know it," groaned Abner Balberry. "Yesterday, a cabman cheated me outo' fifty cents, an' a boy got a quarter from me by a bogus telegram. Ithought something had happened to hum, and when I opened the telegram ithad nuthin but a sheet o' blank paper inside!"
"That was too bad."
There was an awkward pause. Now that the farmer had found Nat he hardlyknew what to say. He had expected to upbraid his nephew for runningaway, but the pocketbook episode rather flustered him.
"So you come to New York, didn't you?" he said, slowly.
"Yes."
"Are you working?"
"Yes, and I've got a pretty good job, too."
"What at?"
"I'm in an office downtown."
"How much do you git?"
"What do you think, Uncle Abner?"
"About two or three dollars a week."
"I get seven dollars a week."
"Seven dollars a week--fer a boy!"
"You have been very lucky," put in Mrs. Balberry. "I wish Fred couldstrike a job like that."
"I'm to have a raise later on," added Nat.
"It wasn't right fer you to run away, Nat," continued his uncle.
"There are two ways of looking at it."
"An' you had no right to set fire to the barn."
"I never did that, Uncle Abner. I wouldn't be so mean."
"And you sold thet cow."
"She was my cow."
"No, she wasn't!"
"I say she was, and I can prove it!"
"Well, we won't quarrel about the cow. What I want to know is, are youbehavin' yourself here in the city?"
"I am. I work every day, and I board with some very nice people."
"Ain't squanderin' your earnin's on theaters an' sech?"
"No, I have never seen the inside of a theater."
"Maybe you ain't seen the inside of a church either," came from Mrs.Balberry.
"Yes, I go to church every Sunday."
"Then you don't want to go back to the farm?" came from Abner Balberry.
"No, I am never going back there."
"Don't you know that I am your guardeen?"
"That may be so, Uncle Abner, but I am not going back to the farm."
"You'll go if I say so!"
"No, I won't!" and Nat's eyes flashed fire. "I'm going to supportmyself, and all I ask is to be let alone."
"Oh, leave him stay, Abner," broke in Mrs. Balberry. "You don't wanthim, now you have Fred."
The farmer was on the point of saying that Nat as a worker was worth twoFreds, but he thought it best to keep silent on that point.
"I'd like to make certain you are stopping with decent folks," said he,after another pause.
"And you won't bother me if I can prove that?" cried our hero, eagerly.
"I guess so, Nat. But you mustn't come down on me fer board an' clothes,later on."
"I won't."
The matter was talked over for a few minutes longer, and in the end Natled the way to his boarding house and introduced his uncle and Mrs.Balberry to Mrs. Talcott. The surroundings rather pleased AbnerBalberry, and he ended by arranging to stay with Mrs. Talcott forseveral days.
"It's better'n them hotels," said the farmer. "It's more like hum, ain'tit, Lucy?"
"Yes, but it ain't quite so high-toned," said the bride, who wasinclined to cut a dash whenever the opportunity afforded.