The Young Auctioneers/Chapter 35
CHAPTER XXXV.
TOM INWOLD.
As soon as the boy saw Matt he stopped short, and then endeavored to retreat. But Matt was coming up the steps in a tremendous hurry, and in ten seconds he was close enough to the boy to catch him by the arm.
"Let go of me!" cried the boy, badly frightened.
"What have you done?" questioned Matt sternly, and without waiting for a reply, forced the boy to accompany him into the rooms.
A glance around revealed the cause of the flood below. In one of the rooms was a sink with city water. The water had been turned on full, and the sink-holes stopped up with putty. The sink had overflowed, and the water was running through several cracks in the floor.
As rapidly as he could Matt turned off the faucet. Then leaving the water still in the sink to the brim, he dashed downstairs.
"You come with me and help me save my stock!" he cried to the boy. "If you don't I'll hand you over to the first policeman I can find."
"Oh, please don't have me arrested!" howled the boy, almost scared out of his wits by the threat. "I—I—didn't mean any harm!"
"You didn't mean any harm? We'll see. Come down now."
The boy hesitated, and then followed Matt into the store. Here a portion of the stock had to be removed, and then the young auctioneer set the boy to work mopping up the water on the counter and the floor.
"Say, please don't have me arrested, will you?" asked the boy, almost in tears over what he considered a very serious predicament.
"You ought to be taught a lesson," returned Matt severely. "What put you up to the idea of letting the water overflow?"
"What Mr. Gissem said. He was awful mad after he was in here, and he told Mr. Fillow he wished that you would burn out or that the water pipes would burst and drown you out. Then he asked me if I couldn't worry you a bit, and I said I'd try, and that's the truth of it."
"Well, that man ought to be cowhided!" was Matt's vigorous exclamation. "Excuse me, but is he any relation to you?"
"Oh, no."
"Is Mr. Fillow?"
"No, neither of them."
"Then how do you come to be traveling with them?"
The boy's face took on a sober look, and he swallowed something like a lump in his throat.
"I—I got tired of going to school and I ran away from home."
"What do you mean—" Matt stopped short as a certain thought flashed over his mind. "Say, is your name Tom Inwold, and do you come from Plainfield?"
At this unexpected question the boy looked at Matt in amazement, his mouth wide open, and his eyes as big as they could well be.
"Who told you who I was?" he gasped.
"No one; I guessed it."
"But I don't know you."
"That's true. We stopped in Plainfield a number of weeks ago, and there I met your mother."
"And what did she say?" faltered Tom Inwold.
"She told me that you had run away with an auctioneer."
"And—and was that all?" went on the boy, his voice trembling with emotion.
"No; she was very anxious to have you come home again. She missed you very much, and she could not understand how you could have the heart to leave her."
At these words, which Matt delivered very seriously, the tears sprang into Tom Inwold's eyes. Evidently he was not hard-hearted, and had been led astray purely by bad associates.
"I—I wish I was back home again," he said in a low voice.
"You do not like being an auctioneer's helper, then?"
"No, I don't. I might like you, but Gissem and Fillow treat me awful."
"In what way!"
"Well, in the first place they don't half feed me, and then they don't pay me the wages they promised."
"What did they promise you?"
"Five dollars a week to start on, and ten dollars when I was worth it. I've been with them a long time, but I was never able to get a cent out of them."
"Supposing you had the money, would you go home?" asked Matt kindly, for he saw that the boy's better feelings had been touched.
"I don't know if I would dare. Ma might whip me and have me sent to the reform school, or something like that."
"I don't think she would—not if you promise to turn over a new leaf. I should think you would rather go home than remain where you have to work for nothing."
"I guess I would go home if I had a railroad ticket and some clothes fit to wear. You can see how this suit looks," and Tom Inwold showed up his ragged elbows and patched trousers.
"I'll see if I can do something for you," said Matt.
When Andy came back he told his partner Tom Inwold's story. To this the boy himself added the tale of his hardships while with the rival auctioneers, and added that he was very sorry he had endeavored to do any injury to the stock in the store.
"I believe he means it," said Matt, as he and Andy walked a little to one side. "And I would like to do something for the lad, for his mother's sake as much as his own."
"I think I can fix it," replied Andy. "I'll have a talk with this Gissem."
"He ought to pay the boy something for his work."
"I reckon he will—when I tell him that he is liable to arrest for enticing the boy from home."
Andy told Tom Inwold to accompany him to the store next door. At first the boy hung back, but when Andy promised that he would take the responsibility of the coming interview entirely upon his own shoulders, the lad consented to go along.
They were gone nearly an hour, and during that time Matt heard some pretty loud talking through the partition which separated the two stores. But when Andy and Tom Inwold came back he saw by their faces that they had triumphed.
"At first Gissem was in for facing me down," said Andy. "Said he had nothing to do with the boy, and all that. But I threatened him with immediate arrest, and promised to have the mother of the boy here to testify against him, and then he weakened, and at length gave Tom thirty dollars, with which to buy a new suit of clothes, a pair of shoes, a hat, and a railroad ticket, upon conditions that he would not be prosecuted. I reckon he was badly scared, too."
Matt was much pleased. Leaving Andy in charge of the store, he went out to dinner, taking Tom Inwold along with him. After the meal the wearing apparel was purchased and donned, and then they made their way to the depot. Here a ticket for Plainfield was procured, and the young auctioneer saw to it that the boy boarded the proper train.
"I'll never forget you, never," said Tom Inwold on parting, and he never has, nor has Mrs. Inwold, who was grateful to the last degree for what Matt had been instrumental in doing for her.
On the following morning, on going down to the store to open up, Andy and Matt saw that the entire stock of the store adjoining had been removed during the night. Gissem had been fearful of trouble, despite what Andy had promised, and had taken time by the forelock, and left for parts unknown. The young auctioneers never met him or his partner again.
By having the entire field to themselves the young auctioneers did a splendid business, and when they were ready to pack up and start for Scranton they found that they had cleared nearly ninety dollars by their stay in Wilkes-Barre.
In the meantime the weather had been growing steadily colder, and they found it necessary to invest in a second-hand robe to keep them warm when driving.
"It looks a bit like snow," remarked Andy, as they drove out of the city one morning. "I hope we don't catch it before we reach where we are going to. A snowstorm in the mountains is not a very pleasant thing to encounter."
"We must run our chances," returned Matt, and Billy was urged forward, and soon the city outskirts were left far behind.
The sun had shone for awhile, but about nine o'clock it went under a heavy cloud. Then it began to get slightly warmer, and Andy was certain that snow was coming.
His prediction was fulfilled. By ten o'clock it was snowing furiously, and by eleven the ground was covered to the depth of half a foot.
"That settles it; we can't make Scranton to-day, nor even Pittston," said Matt. "We had better hunt up some sort of a house with a barn attached, where we can put up."
But Andy was for continuing the journey, so onward they went, until at last, just before the noon hour, they found the road getting too heavy for Billy. They went down into a hollow which the falling snow had covered, and there the wagon remained, despite every effort to budge it.
They looked around in some dismay. Not even a house nor a building of any sort was in sight.
"This is a pretty pickle," muttered Andy. "I wish we had followed your advice and sought shelter."
"We've got to do something," returned Matt. "If we stay here we'll be completely snowed under. The snow is coming down thicker every minute. What's to be done?"
Ah! what was to be done? That was a question not easy to answer. Both of the young auctioneers were much disturbed.