CHAPTER XXIX
THE BATTLE IN THE ATTIC
About ten minutes after Bill Benton left his little chamber anill-looking man, whose garb and general appearance made it clear that hewas a tramp, came strolling across the fields. He had made someinquiries about the farmers in the neighborhood, and his attention wasdrawn to Nathan Badger as a man who was likely to keep money in thehouse.
Some tramps are honest men, the victims of misfortune, not of vice, butTom Tapley belonged to a less creditable class. He had served two termsin a State penitentiary without deriving any particular moral benefitfrom his retired life therein. His ideas on the subject of honesty weredecidedly loose, and none who knew him well would have trusted him withthe value of a dollar.
Such was the man who approached the Badger homestead.
Now it happened that Mrs. Badger and Andrew Jackson had gone to make acall. Both intended to be back by nine o'clock, as neither wished tolose the gratification of being near by when Bill Benton received hisflogging. As for Mr. Badger, he was at the village as usual in theevening.
Thus it will be seen that as Bill also had left the house, no one wasleft in charge.
Tom Tapley made a careful examination of the house from the outside, andhis experienced eyes discovered that it was unprotected.
"Here's luck!" he said to himself. "Now what's to prevent my explorin'this here shanty and makin' off with any valuables I come across?"
Two objections, however, occurred to the enterprising tramp: First, itwas not likely at that time in the evening that he would be left alonelong enough to gather in his booty, and, secondly, the absent occupantsof the house might have money and articles of value on their personswhich at present it would be impossible to secure.
The front door was not locked. Mr. Tapley opened it, and, finding thecoast clear, went upstairs. Continuing his explorations, he made his wayto the little attic chamber usually occupied by the bound boy.
"Nobody sleeps here, I expect, though the bed is rumpled," he said tohimself. "There's two boys, I've heard, but it's likely they sleeptogether downstairs. I guess I'll slip into bed and get a little resttill it's time to attend to business."
The tramp, with a sigh of enjoyment, for he had not lately slept in abed, lay down on Bill's hard couch. It was not long before drowsinessovercame him and he fell asleep.
In the meantime the three absent members of the family came home. FirstMrs. Badger and Andrew Jackson returned from their visit.
"Your father isn't home yet, Andrew," said his mother.
"I hope he will come soon, for I'm sleepy," said Andrew.
"Then you had better go to bed, my darling."
"No, I won't. I ain't goin' to lose seein' Bill's flogging. I hopefather'll lay it on well."
"No doubt the boy deserves it."
"What do you think he had the impudence to say to me, mother?" askedAndrew.
"I shall not be surprised at any impudence from the young reprobate."
"He wanted me to beg his pardon for strikin' him with a whip, as he saidI did."
"Well, I never did!" ejaculated Mrs. Badger. "To think of my boyapologizing to a low, hired boy like him!"
"Oh, he's gettin' awful airy, ma! Shouldn't wonder if he thought he wasmy equal!"
"There's nothing but a flogging will subdue such a boy as that. I ain'tunmerciful, and if the boy showed a proper humility I wouldn't minddoin' all I could for him and overlookin' his faults, but when heinsults my Andrew, I can't excuse him. But there's one thing I can'tunderstand: He didn't use to be so bold."
"I know what has changed him, ma."
"What is it, Andrew?"
"It's that Dick Schmidt. Dick treats him as if he was his equal, andthat makes him put on airs."
"Then Dick lowers himself--though, to be sure, I don't hold him to beequal to you! The Badgers are a better family than the Schmidts, and soare the Coneys, which was my name before I was married."
"I wonder whether Bill's asleep?" said Andrew.
"You might go to the foot of the stairs and listen," said his mother.
Andrew followed his mother's advice, and, opening the door at the footof the attic stairs, was astonished to hear the deep breathing whichissued from Bill's chamber.
"Ma," he said, "Bill is snoring like a house afire."
"Reckless boy! Does he make so light of the flogging which your fatherhas promised him?"
"I don't know. He's gettin' awful sassy lately. I do wish father wouldcome home."
"I think I hear him now," said Mrs. Badger, listening intently.
Her ears did not deceive her.
Soon the steps of the master of the house, as he considered himself,were heard upon the doorstep, and Mr. Nathan Badger entered.
"I'm glad you've come, pa. Are you goin' to flog Bill now?"
"Yes, my son. Get me a stout stick from the woodshed."
Andrew Jackson obeyed with alacrity.
Armed with the stick, Mr. Badger crept upstairs, rather astonished byhis bound boy's noisy breathing, and, entering the darkened chamber,brought the stick down smartly on the astonished sleeper.
In about two minutes Mrs. Badger and Andrew, standing at the foot of thestairs, were astonished by the noise of a terrible conflict in thelittle attic chamber, as if two men were wrestling.
There was the sound of a heavy body flung on the floor, and the voice ofMr. Badger was heard shouting:
"Help! help! murder!"
"The young villain's killing your father!" exclaimed the astonished Mrs.Badger. "Go up and help him!"
"I don't dare to," said Andrew, pale as a sheet.
"Then I will!" said his mother, and she hurried upstairs, only to be metby her husband, who was literally tumbled downstairs by the occupant ofthe attic chamber.
Husband and wife fell together in a heap, and Andrew Jackson uttered ayell of dismay.
In all the confidence of assured victory, Mr. Nathan Badger, seeing thedim outline of a figure upon the bed, had brought down his stick upon itwith emphasis.
"I'll l'arn you!" he muttered in audible accents.
It was a rude awakening for Tom Tapley, the tramp, who was sleeping aspeacefully as a child.
The first blow aroused him, but left him in a state of bewilderment, sothat he merely shrank from the descending stick without any particularidea of what had happened to him.
"Didn't feel it, did yer?" exclaimed Mr. Badger. "Well, I'll see if Ican't make yer feel it!" and he brought down the stick for the secondtime with considerably increased vigor.
By this time Tom Tapley was awake. By this time also he thoroughlyunderstood the situation or thought he did. He had been found out, andthe farmer had undertaken to give him a lesson.
"That depends on whether you're stronger than I am," thought Tom, and hesprang from the bed and threw himself upon the astonished farmer.
Nathan Badger was almost paralyzed by the thought that Bill Benton, hishired boy, was absolutely daring enough to resist his lawful master. Hewas even more astounded by Bill's extraordinary strength. Why, as theboy grappled with him, he actually felt powerless. He was crushed to thefloor, and, with the boy's knee upon his breast, struggled in vain toget up. It was so dark that he had not yet discovered that hisantagonist was a man and not a boy.
Nathan Badger had heard that insane persons are endowed withextraordinary strength, and it flashed upon him that the boy had becomesuddenly insane.
The horror of being in conflict with a crazy boy so impressed him thathe cried for help.
Then it was that Tom Tapley, gathering all his strength, lifted up theprostrate farmer and pitched him downstairs just as Mrs. Badger wasmounting them, so that she and her husband fell in a breathless heap onthe lower stairs, to the indescribable dismay of Andrew Jackson.
Mrs. Badger was the first to pick herself up.
"What does all this mean, Mr. Badger?" she asked.
"That's what I'd like to know," said Mr. Badger ruefully.
"You don't mean to say
you ain't a match for a boy?" she demandedsarcastically.
"Perhaps you'd like to try him yourself?" said her husband.
"This is very absurd, Mr. Badger. You know very well he's weak for a boyof sixteen, and he hasn't had anything to eat since morning."
"If you think he's weak, you'd better tackle him," retorted Nathan. "Itell you, wife, he's got the strength of a man and a strong man, too."
"I don't understand it. Tell me exactly what happened."
"Well, you saw me go upstairs with the stick Andrew Jackson gave me,"said Mr. Badger, assuming a sitting position. "I saw the boy lyin' onthe bed, snoring and I up with my stick and brought it down pretty hard.He quivered a little, but that was all. So I thought I'd try it again.He jumped out of bed and sprang on me like a tiger, grinding his teeth,but not saying a word. I tell you, wife, he seemed as strong as a horse.I couldn't get up, and he sat and pounded me."
"The idea of being pounded by a small boy!" ejaculated Mrs. Badger.
"Just what I'd have said a quarter of an hour ago!"
"It seems impossible!"
"Perhaps it does, but it's so."
"He never acted so before."
"No, and he never hit Andrew Jackson before, but yesterday he did it. Itell you what, wife, I believe the boy's gone crazy."
"Crazy!" ejaculated Mrs. Badger and Andrew in a breath.
"Just so! When folks are crazy they're a good deal stronger than it'snateral for them to be, and that's the way with Bill Benton."
"But what could possibly make him crazy?" demanded Mrs. Badgerincredulously.
"It may be the want of vittles. I don't know as we'd orter have kept himwithout his dinner and supper."
"I don't believe a bit in such rubbish," said Mrs. Badger, whose couragehad come back with the absolute silence in the attic chamber. "I believeyou're a coward, Nathan Badger. I'll go upstairs myself and see if Ican't succeed better than you did."
"You'd better not, wife."
"Oh, don't go, ma!" said Andrew Jackson, pale with terror.
"I'm going!" said the intrepid woman. "It shan't be said of me that I'mafraid of a little bound boy who's as weak as a rat."
"You'll find out how weak he is," said Mr. Badger. "I warn you not togo."
"I'm goin', all the same," said Mrs. Badger. "You'll see how I'll tamehim down. Give me the stick."
"Then go if you're so plaguy obstinate," said her husband, and it mustbe confessed that he rather hoped his wife, who had ventured to ridiculehim, might herself meet with a reception that would make her change hertune somewhat.
Mrs. Badger, stick in hand, marched up to the door of the attic andcalled out boldly:
"Open the door, you young villain!"
"How does she know I'm young?" thought Tom Tapley, who was on guard inthe room. "Well, now, if she wasn't such an old woman I should feelflattered. I guess I'll have to scare her a little. It wouldn't bepolite to tumble her downstairs as I did her husband."
"Have you gone crazy?" demanded Mrs. Badger behind the door.
"Not that I know of," muttered the tramp.
"Perhaps you think you can manage me as well as Mr. Badger?" shecontinued.
"I should smile if I couldn't," commented Tom Tapley. "That woman mustthink she's extra strong to be a match for me!"
"I'm coming in to whip you till you cry for mercy!"
"Really, she's a pretty spunky old woman!" thought the tramp. "If Ican't hold my own against her, I'll sell myself for old rags!"
Mrs. Badger pushed open the door, saw dimly the outline of the tramp andstruck at it with the stick.
But alas! the stick was wrenched from her hand, a pistol, loaded onlywith powder, was discharged, and the intrepid lady, in a panic, flew outof the room and downstairs, tumbling into her husband's arms.
Nathan Badger was delighted at his wife's discomfiture. She couldn'ttaunt him any longer.
"I told you so!" he chuckled. "How do you like tacklin' him yourself, mydear? Wouldn't you like to try it again? Ho! ho!"
"Mr. Badger, you're a fool!" exclaimed his wife sharply.
"It strikes me you're a little in that way yourself, Mrs. Badger. Didyou give him a floggin'? Ho, ho! you were in a great hurry to comeaway!"
"Mr. Badger, he fired at me with a pistol. I tell you he's a dangerousboy to have in the house."
"Oh, no, Mrs. Badger, you can manage him just as easy!"
"Shut up, Mr. Badger! How did I know he had a pistol? I tell you it's aserious thing! Before morning, you, and Andrew Jackson, and me may bedead corpses!"
At this awful statement Andrew Jackson burst into a terrified howl.
"I'll tell you what we'd better do, Mr. Badger. We'll go into our roomand lock ourselves in."
"Let me come in, too," said Andrew. "He'll kill me! He hates me!"
"Yes, my darling, you may come, too!" said his mother.
So the valiant three locked themselves up in a chamber and listenednervously.
But Tom Tapley was already out of the house. He made his escape over theroof, fearing that the neighborhood would be roused and his safetyendangered.
So passed a night of unparalleled excitement in the Badger homestead.