"You might find a pocketbook full of money."
"If I did I'd return it to the owner if I could locate him."
"Well, let us hope you will get the money somehow. Most people wouldn'tworry how money came to them as long as they got it."
Dick agreed with her, and then they began talking about other things.On Monday morning eleven o'clock a small, stylishly dressed lady, of ablonde complexion, came into the store and asked for Mr. Bacon. She wasshown into his office, where she introduced herself as Mrs. Patterson.She said she had been recommended to Mr. Bacon's store by the Rev. JohnDobbs, pastor of a certain church. The church in question was the onethat the merchant was connected with, and the pastor was a warm friendof his. She said that the Rev. Dobbs had given her a note to hand toMr. Bacon, but she had lost or mislaid it, for it was not in her bag.The merchant asked her what he could do for her, and she said she hadcalled to look at his stock of silver cups and a few other articles inthe silver line. Mr. Bacon said he would be very glad to give her everyopportunity to make a selection from among his latest samples, and heassigned Dick to wait on her, as the boy was very successful in dealingwith the lady customers of the house.
So Dick took her up to the sample room and let her see what was onexhibition in the lines she wanted. The boy had engaging ways thatalways took with the ladies, so he never had any difficulty in handlingthem to their own satisfaction and that of his employer. Mr. Baconhad given him a quiet tip that Mrs. Patterson was a special customerwho had been recommended to him, so Dick laid himself out to pleaseher. He appeared to have no trouble in doing so, for in a short timeshe made quite a number of purchases of the finest and most expensivearticles, and giving her address to Dick said that she wanted the waredelivered C. O. D. at her residence that afternoon at six o'clock. Herhusband would be home at that hour and would pay the bill in cash. Shethen left the store, after picking out an expensive diamond pin to besent with the other goods. Dick turned the order and the directions into his boss, who O. K.'d it and handed it over to his manager, throughwhom it proceeded to the packer, who got the articles from Dick, andthe ring from the diamond salesman. About closing time Mr. Bacon calledDick into his office.
"I wish you'd take that package up to Mrs. Patterson's house, if it isnot too heavy for you," the merchant said. "It is on your way home, andas the bill amounts to $700, I'd rather you would collect it than amessenger."
"All right, sir," answered Dick, who was always willing to oblige hisemployer.
He got the package, which weighed about twenty pounds, and left thestore with it at a quarter-past five, when the porter closed up. Theaddress Mrs. Patterson had given was on the West Side, in a districtwholly occupied by fine private houses, except in a few instances,where there were handsome apartment houses on the corners. Dick tookthe elevated at Cortlandt street station and at ten minutes of six gotout at the nearest station on Columbus avenue to the block he was boundfor. It still wanted a minute or two of six when he mounted the highstoop of the handsome house which bore Mrs. Patterson's number. He rangthe bell, and after the lapse of five minutes, during which intervalhe was, without his knowledge, inspected through the inside blinds onthe parlor floor, a tall man, in good clothes, with a dark complexion,opened the door and asked him what he wanted.
"Does Mrs. Henry Patterson live here?" he asked.
"She does," replied the man. "Are you from Mr. Bacon's store on Johnstreet?"
"I am."
"Walk in."
Dick entered and the heavy vestibule door was closed behind him.
"You have brought the bill for the goods with you?" said the man, insmooth tones, as he led the way inside the inner door.
"I have."
"Very well. I am Mr. Patterson. As soon as my wife has examined thearticles and checked them off I will pay you the money for them."
The interior of the house, so far as Dick could judge from the looks ofthe hall, was in keeping with its external indications.
"Follow me upstairs to the sitting room," said Mr. Patterson.
Dick was introduced into the front room on the second floor which washandsomely furnished. The gentleman took the package and the itemizedbill and pointed to a chair. Then he left the room. Ten minuteselapsed, during which Dick heard not a sound. The house was as silentas the grave. Then the door opened and Mr. Patterson reappeared.
"The articles are all right and my wife has O. K.'d the bill," hesaid. "Step this way and I will pay you."
Dick got up and followed him into the back room on the same floor. Achair was drawn up at the marble center table, and the boy was invitedto be seated. Mr. Patterson went to a closet behind the boy andpresently returned with a bunch of money, which he laid, with the bill,in front of him.
"Count it, please, and see that the sum is correct," said the gentleman.
Dick proceeded to do so. Mr. Patterson went back to the closet.In a moment or two he approached the boy so softly that Dick didnot hear his steps. Even if he had he would have paid no attentionto the gentleman's movements. Every one, it is said, is endowedwith an instinctive sense that seems to be awakened by the unseenor unsuspected presence of another person in the room with us,particularly when that person is standing close behind. We cannot gointo an explanation here of the phenomenon, but that it frequentlycomes to pass is an undoubted fact.
Certain it is Dick experienced it at that moment while he was countingthe bunch of bills which seemed to be all five-dollar ones, and withoutany intention on his part he mechanically raised his eyes and lookedstraight ahead. They rested on the surface of a mirror hanging againstthe wall facing him. In the fraction of time at his disposal he wasstartled to see the form of Mr. Patterson towering about him, his armuplifted in the act of bringing a slungshot down upon his head. Theweapon was actually descending when Dick caught sight of it, and hedodged his head aside. The round iron ball swept his ear like a shotand landed just beyond his collar-bone, the man's hand striking hisshoulder with considerable force. Dick slid off the chair on his handsand knees, and though much shaken up, was on his feet in a moment, forhe was as active as a cat. There was a terrible look in the man's eyesas they confronted each other, then he sprang at Dick with a hissingimprecation.
CHAPTER X.--Dick's Strenuous Experience.
Dick, alive to his danger, side-stepped and launched out his fist athis assailant, catching him in the jaw with a blow that staggered himand caused him to drop the weapon. Before Dick could get in anothereffective blow, the man had him in his grasp, and a desperate strugglefor the mastery took place between them. Over and over they rolledupon the rug, first one on top and then the other, but neither couldmaintain the temporary advantage. In the midst of it the door slowlyopened and a woman looked in--the short, blonde lady who had made thepurchases at the store. She gazed with dilated eyes on the strugglethat was going on. Neither of the combatants saw her at the momentso intent were they on their own exertions. Slowly she opened thedoor until her handsome form stood fully revealed. She appeared tobe nerving herself to go to the aid of the man who had representedhimself as her husband. Gradually she entered the room, with an almostimperceptible motion, until her gaze rested on the slungshot. Thesight of it brought animation into her movements. She swooped down onit with a rush, and then the man took notice of her presence.
"Grab him, Fanny; he's as strong as a young bear," he cried.
At that moment Dick managed to get on top of his man again. He saw thewoman's dress and looked up. She had the weapon raised to strike him.
"You--you here!" she cried, in startled tones, as she recognized theyoung clerk who had waited on her with such polite attention that shehad felt attracted to him.
The blow did not fall. She crouched in the act of delivering it as ifshe had suddenly been transformed into a nerveless thing.
"Hit him--hit him!" hissed her husband, making no move to upset theboy, but trying his best to hold him at the woman's mercy.
"No, no, I can't, Jim; I can't strike that boy. He ought n
ot to havecome here. I did not dream that he would. He must not be hurt," shearticulated, in an agitated voice.
"Are you mad, Fan? The boy has us in his power unless he is done up.Strike him and get it over with, do you hear me!"
"I can't," returned the woman, almost pathetically. "He reminds meof----"
"Blast your squeamishness! You will ruin us."
"We must adopt other means to silence him till we are safe," she said.
She looked feverishly about the room. Her eyes rested on a small bottleon the mantel. Flinging the slungshot down, she bounded over and seizedit. Tearing a lace handkerchief from her bosom, she dashed some of thecontents of the bottle on it. In the meantime the struggle between Dickand the man was renewed. Patterson succeeded in pulling the boy over onthe rug again. As he held him there, the woman slipped over, threw herweight on Dick's side and pressed the handkerchief over his face. Dickstruggled desperately, for he knew he was being drugged, but he had notthe ghost of a show.
"It is better this way, Jim," she said. "Oh, why did he come here? Whydid he come?"
"What's the matter with you?" growled Patterson, allowing matters totake their course. "What interest have you in that boy?"
"I don't know, indeed I don't; but he is a nice boy, and he looks solike my brother!" she faltered.
"Oh, hang your brother! What has your brother got to do with him?"
As Dick's struggles ceased the woman lifted the handkerchief. The boywas unconscious.
"Look at him, Jim; isn't he a handsome boy? And he treated me at thestore as if I were a real lady."
Jim Patterson, if his name really was Patterson, which seemed doubtfulafter what had happened, uttered an imprecation as he got up.
"Now, then, you soft-hearted thing, go and find a piece of line for meto tie him with," he said.
"You won't do anything to him while I'm gone, will you, Jim?" she saidanxiously.
"Why should I? He's down and out now for six or eight hours, which willgive us time to skip. There's nothing in the house, except our trunksand duds that belong to us, for we took the place furnished. When theservant returns in the morning she'll find the boy and liberate him.By that time we'll be a long way on our way West. We have cleaned upquite a stake since we've been here, and can live on Easy street fora while. I'm afraid I made a mistake in pulling off this last trick.There isn't enough in it for the risk we ran. You ought to have boughtmore diamonds while you were about it."
"I was afraid to buy too much lest it should have excited suspicion,"she said.
"We won't quarrel over it. Go and get the line."
The woman left the room, her dress rustling on the stairs. In a shorttime, during which Patterson took the money from the table and put itin his pocket and paced up and down the room, she came back with alength of clothes-line. Dick was carried into a small bedroom on thatfloor and his arms bound to his sides by half a dozen turns of therope, which was then knotted at his back. There he was left to lielike a dead one on the bed until well along in the evening, when thePattersons were ready to leave the house for good, when Jim intendedto carry him downstairs to the basement where the servant would findhim in the morning when she returned. After the woman had completed thebalance of the packing, she and Jim went out to their dinner. When theygot back the expressman Patterson had arranged with early in the dayto take their trunks to the Pennsylvania ferry was waiting for them.He took away all their baggage. Soon afterward Patterson carried theunconscious boy downstairs, placed him upright in a kitchen chair, withthe table for a support, and then the rascal locked up the house andplaced the key of the front door under the iron area gate where theservant would see it when she came in the morning, and with his wifestarted for the railroad station.
They had been gone about an hour when Dick recovered his senses. Hediscovered his bound condition at once, and wondered where he was, forthe room he was in was pitch dark. He pushed back the chair with hisfeet, which he saw were not tied, and got up. His eyes were accustomedto the darkness so he soon made out the outline of the stove and otherthings that showed him that he was in the kitchen, which he judgedwas in the basement of the house. Walking toward the door, which hefound standing open, he passed into the lower hall up which he wentto the door that opened on to the small space within the area gateand directly under the stoop and the stairs to the sidewalk. Bendingsideways a little, he seized the handle and turned, but it was, ashe supposed, locked. He bent lower and felt for the key, but it wasmissing, for the servant had taken it with her, along with the keyof the gate. He saw that he couldn't get out there, so he thought hewould venture to try the front door. He walked softly upstairs, for hesupposed the man and his wife were still in the house. There was nolight in the hall and the house was as silent as the grave, from whichfact Dick circulated that it was very late.
He went to the front door, the inner one, but again he was stumped,for that key was missing, too. That seemed to indicate that Pattersonand his wife had left the premises. This appeared to be a reasonableconclusion under the circumstances. They would hardly remain all nightafter what they had been guilty of. If they had fled the place, theyhad left a furnished house behind them, and the boy presumed that thefurnishings belonged to them. He wondered if the man had intended tokill him, and that the woman had saved his life.
The recollection of that awful sight of the descending slungshot he hadcaught sight of in the mirror, and which he shuddered to recall, andwould never forget as long as he lived, made him think so. Believingthat he was probably alone in the house, after all, he became lesscautious in moving about. He turned the knob of the parlor door andwalked into that big room. He could see the ghostly-looking pieces offurniture standing about, an upright piano, and the dim effect of wallscovered with pictures. He went through into the back room, the foldingdoors of which stood open.
Here for the first time he heard a sound--the ticking of the giltormulo clock on a fancy shelf. The room was furnished as a library.There were bookcases filled with books, and a desk by the back window,the shades of which were down. Suddenly the thought occurred to him tosee if there was a telephone in the room. He believed that houses ofthat class were nearly always equipped with one. Whether Patterson haduse for such a convenience or not he could not say. When the man rentedthe house there was a telephone in it, and though he had little usefor it, and as he did not intend to occupy the place long, he let itremain, and Dick discovered it attached to the wall beside the desk. Hehumped his shoulder and knocked the receiver off the hook. It fell uponhis shoulder and lay close to his ear.
As soon as he heard the voice of the girl ask for the number wanted heput his mouth near the mouthpiece and said:
"Give me police headquarters--very urgent!"
Then he tilted his ear toward the receiver again. Presently he heard aman's voice call, "Hello!"
"Is this police headquarters?"
"Yes," came back the answer.
"Send a policeman to No. 164 West ---- street at once. I am lockedin the house and my arms are bound to my sides. I am the victim of apair of crooks, a man and a woman. The doors are locked so the officerwill have to come prepared to force his entrance through the area gateor one of the windows. I am telephoning under great difficulties, soplease don't ask questions, but act at once."
"All right," was the answer returned, and the officer closed hiscircuit.
As Dick couldn't replace the receiver, he had to let it drop the lengthof its covered wire, and the telephone girl soon saw that something waswrong, and she began ringing.
"Hello!" said Dick, returning to the phone. "The receiver is hangingand I can't replace it because my arms are bound. The circuit willhave to remain open till the police get here. That's all," said Dick,judging that the call came from the girl at the central office.
She evidently understood and reported the situation, for the bell didnot ring any more. Dick left the library and made his way down to thedining room in the front of the basement to watch for the coming ofthe policem
an. In a short time he saw an officer come in sight andstop in front of the house next door. A second policeman joined him amoment later and pointed to the right house. They started down into theareaway.
Dick at once pounded on the window with his forehead, the best he coulddo. The policeman heard the sounds and came up to the window, which wasprotected by diamond-shaped iron-work. Through this they peered andcould just make out the boy's face pressed against the pane. One ofthem took an electric flashlight cylinder from his pocket and turnedthe light on Dick's form. They saw at once how his arms were boundalongside his body.
Then the officer turned the light on the iron area gate. As he lookedit over, he saw the key on the floor just inside. He reached for it andtried it on the gate, but saw right away that it wouldn't fit. Theyconversed a minute, then leaving the area, they went up to the frontdoor and found no trouble in opening the outer portal. Flashing thelight on the inside door, they saw the key standing in the lock. Inanother moment they were in the house and Dick heard their heavy treadon the stairs, coming down. Within a minute he stood in the full glareof the flashlight, while the policemen were sizing him up.
CHAPTER XI.--Guilt Sees Its Finish.
"My, but I'm glad you've come!" said Dick, in a tone of relief. "Cut mefree, please."
"How came you to be in this shape?" asked the officer with theflashlight, while the other produced his knife and began severing theclothes line.
Dick told his story in as few words as possible, beginning with theappearance of the richly dressed blonde woman at his store thatmorning. The policeman listened with attention.