The Adventures of a Country Boy at a Country Fair Part 39

"How much business did you do to-day?" he asked.

Teddy delayed sufficiently long to count the receipts, and then replied:

"Forty-one dollars and fifteen cents. That gives Tim four-eleven, an' I get more than would have been the case but for the testimonial this afternoon. The folks crowded around to see me, rather than to get the canes, an' so business has picked up better than any one expected."

"It don't make any difference how the money came in so long as you have got it," Dan replied, philosophically, "an' now the question is what are we to do for supper, since we paid our bill at the boarding-house this afternoon?"

"Have you got any idea?"

"Of course, or else I wouldn't have asked the question. Let's invite Mr.

Sweet, the bouncer, and the clown to some restaurant down town, an' try to give them as good a time as we had last night."

This proposition met with Teddy's approval, and the party was made up as he suggested, the cost being divided between the two boys who had been the recipients of the public testimonial.

Not until a late hour in the evening did these festivities come to an end, and then the party retired to the museum tent, where they remained undisturbed until the present season of the Peach Bottom fair had come to an end.

It was an unusually late hour for fakirs to arise when Mr. Sweet awakened the boys as he said:

"Turn out now, lads, an' get your stuff ready for removal. I'm sorry to part company, but we can't stay here forever, an' the museum must be forty miles the other side of Waterville by Monday morning."

Dan had completed and been paid for his work with the Stevens Company, therefore he had nothing to do; Teddy no longer claimed any interest in the canes and knives left over from the week's work; consequently he was free to go where he pleased, and Tim had his goods in such a condition that they could be removed at any moment, which prevented him from feeling any anxiety regarding the future.

Thus it was that all three of the boys were at liberty to a.s.sist the proprietor of the museum, and this they did with a will until the arrival of Lawyer Harvey caused them to think of what had almost been forgotten in the bustle and confusion of breaking camp.

"We are due at the 'Squire's office at nine o'clock, and it is time you boys were getting over that way," he said, briskly; "our case won't come up to-day, but it has been decided to give Hazelton a hearing, and I am very much afraid he's going to get the worst of it."

"What do you mean?" Teddy asked, anxiously.

"Well, you see I have not been able to get any information in addition to what you boys furnished, and there seems little doubt that the 'Squire must perforce bind him over for trial. The fact that he has deliberately swindled so many people will work against him, and we can do very little to save him."

"What will be the result of his being bound over?" Teddy asked.

"He must remain in jail, unless he can get bail, until next fall."

"But that in itself will be a terrible punishment."

"True; yet it cannot be avoided. If he had worked honestly the case would be different; but now he will be fortunate even to get out in the fall."

"Yet Uncle Nathan says I am equally guilty."

"We can easily show you had nothing to do with the robbery, and that is our only care this morning."

"What about Long Jim?"

"He remains silent, refusing to answer the simplest questions, and unless he speaks Hazelton must be bound over; the 'Squire can pursue no other course."

Believing as they did that Hazelton was innocent of the charge upon which he had been arrested, both Teddy and Dan felt it was a great hards.h.i.+p for the fakir to remain so long in prison; but since it was beyond their power to give him any relief, neither expressed an opinion other than has been recorded.

Mr. Harvey had come for them to accompany him to the Squire's office, and since there was nothing to detain them they set out, after first bidding Mr. Sweet a cordial 'goodby, for he had announced his intention of leaving Peach Bottom on the noon train.

"I shall see one or both of you at some time in the future," he said, with considerable feeling, "an' there'll be no complaint to make if I never fall in with worse boys."

The bouncer and the clown also had something to say in the form of an adieu, and when the boys left the proprietor of the alleged wonderful museum it was like parting with an old friend, for he had shown himself to be a "very present help in time of trouble."

Tim did not propose to start for the Run until his companions had concluded their business; his goods were packed ready for removal, and there was nothing better for him to do than accompany them to the court-room where it seemed as if all they might say would result only in a long term of imprisonment for Hazelton before he could be tried on the baseless charge brought against him, simply because of the disreputable business in which he was engaged.

Mr. Harvey had little or nothing to say during the walk to the 'Squire's office, and arriving there the jewelry fakir was seen looking thoroughly despondent.

"Can I speak with him?" Teddy asked the lawyer. "What do you want to say?"

"Nothing in particular, except to tell him how bad I feel because we could do nothing to clear him."

"Very well; but do not talk long, for it may prejudice your own case.

The people whom he has swindled are here to see that some form of punishment is meted out to him, and it can do you no good to be seen acting as a consoler."

This possibility troubled Teddy very little since he was confident of his own innocence, and he approached the prisoner as he said:

"I wish I could do something, Mr. Hazelton, to prove you as innocent as I believe you to be."

"There's no need of that, my boy. I've put you in a hole already, and you've done more for me than some others who call themselves friends."

"I know it was Long Jim who committed the burglary; but how can it be proven now?"

"There was only one way, and that was to catch the real thieves with their plunder. Mr. Harvey tells me his attempt was a failure, an' it wouldn't surprise me if I was not only remanded for trial, but received a sentence for something of which I am absolutely innocent. I don't profess to be very good, my boy, as you may understand after seeing me work on the fair grounds; but I never yet descended to do such things as I am charged with now."

"I am certain of that," and Teddy pressed the prisoner's hand in token of friends.h.i.+p, "and only wish it was possible to aid you."

"You have already done more than my partners did," was the grateful reply, and then further conversation was prevented as the 'Squire called the a.s.sembly to order.

It was not a regular court of law; but one would have thought it the most dignified judicial body in the country had he seen the air with which the 'Squire took his seat at the head of the long table as he called the case.

"That settles Hazelton," Dan whispered as Teddy left the prisoner and rejoined his friends. "Somebody has got to suffer in order to make the law come out square, an' he's the feller what'll have to stand the brunt of everything."

CHAPTER x.x.xI.

_AN ARRIVAL._

Lawyer Harvey did not neglect anything which might work to the advantage of his client; but in the face of the evidence his efforts appeared to be in vain.

Uncle Nathan, who arrived just as the case was called, swore to the fact that Hazelton had been in his store on the Sunday afternoon prior to the robbery, and that he had told the prisoner of his keeping large amounts of money in the building, because of the difficulty and expense of sending the cash to the Waterville bank.

He also testified that Hazelton seemed unusually interested in everything pertaining to the store, and asked many questions relative to his (the witness') habits, such as the time when business usually began, how late he remained in the building at night, as well as several other things which now seemed as if the information had been sought simply for the purpose of knowing when would be the safest time to commit the crime.

"How much did you lose?" Mr. Harvey asked.