The High School Boys' Training Hike Part 35

"Of course if you dislike to have us try, Mrs. Drake-----" d.i.c.k began.

"I don't dislike to have you try!" cried the woman, quickly.

"All I am thinking about is the hopelessness of your undertaking.

You simply can't get Tom out of Miller's to-night until the owner of that awful place turns him out at closing time. I know! This has happened before."

d.i.c.k stood in an uncertain att.i.tude, his cap in hand. The appealing face of the child, looking eagerly up at him, made him wish with all his heart to try to do a good act here, yet he couldn't think of going on such an errand without the young wife's permission.

"Let him go, mama," urged the child. "He'll bring papa back."

d.i.c.k looked questioningly at the woman.

"All right, then, go," she acquiesced. "Oh, I hope you have good luck, and that you don't make Tom ugly, either. I'll say, for him, that he has never been ugly yet."

"Mrs. Drake, we all four accept your commission---or permission, whichever it is," replied d.i.c.k, bowing. "We'll try to use tact and judgment, and we'll try to bring Mr. Drake back with us."

d.i.c.k asked a few questions as to where Miller's place might be found. Then he set off, he and his chums walking abreast.

"Bring him back!" Mollie said plaintively. "Then mama won't cry, and I won't, either."

"I feel like a fool!" muttered Tom Reade, when they were out of earshot of the waiting mother and child.

"If you don't like the undertaking, you might keep in the background,"

d.i.c.k suggested.

"It's likely I'd back out of anything that's moving, isn't it?"

Reade demanded, offended. "I don't mind any disagreeable business that we may run into. But I feel like a fool when I think of the message we'll have to take back to that poor woman and baby."

"Tom Drake will deliver the message to them," replied d.i.c.k, firmly.

"If he's sober even now," murmured Danny Grin, uneasily.

"I'm strong for the task!" declared Dave Darrin, with enthusiasm.

"So would I be," Tom defended himself, "if I thought that even a night of fighting would result in anything like success. But-----"

"Better stop right here, then," Prescott, suggested, smiling earnestly.

But neither of d.i.c.k's companions stopped.

They were walking briskly, now. As they had been told, Miller's was the first place on the right hand side, where the business street of Fenton began. It had been a tavern in the old days, and was still a big and roomy structure.

Yet there was no mistaking the room in which the object of their quest was to be found. The door of the saloon opened repeatedly while the boys stood regarding the place.

d.i.c.k stepped over to a man who had just come out.

"Is Tom Drake in there?" d.i.c.k asked.

"Yes."

"Is he sober?" d.i.c.k pressed.

"Yes; so far," answered the man.

"Will you do me a great favor? Just step inside and tell him that there is a man outside who wants to see him. Just tell him that, and nothing more."

"Are you from Drake's wife?" asked the man, looking d.i.c.k over shrewdly.

"Yes," d.i.c.k admitted, candidly.

"I'll do it," nodded the man. "Drake has been making a fool of himself. He'll go to pieces and find himself without a job before the year is out. You wait here. I'll find a way to coax him out for you."

Soon the door opened again, and there came out Prescott's messenger followed by a clean-cut, well-built young man of not more than twenty-eight years of age.

"There's the young man who says he wants to see you," the citizen explained, pointing to d.i.c.k.

Tom Drake walked steadily enough. He certainly was not yet much under the influence of liquor.

"You wanted to see me?" he asked, looking somewhat puzzled as he eyed young Prescott.

"Yes," d.i.c.k admitted.

"What about?"

"Will you take a short walk with me," d.i.c.k went on, "and I'll explain my business to you."

"I don't believe I can take a walk with you," Drake answered.

"I'm with some friends in there."

He nodded over his shoulder at the door through which he had just come.

"But my business is of a great deal of importance," d.i.c.k went on.

"Can't you see me to-morrow?" asked Drake, eager to get back to his companions.

"To-morrow will be altogether too late," d.i.c.k replied.

"Then state your business now."

"I'd much rather explain it you as you walk with me," Prescott urged, earnestly.

"Are---are you from the building loan people?" asked Tom Drake, suddenly.

"No, I am not from them," Prescott replied, then added, truthfully enough: "But it's partly about that building loan matter that I wish to talk with you."

"Who sent you here?" asked Drake, half-suspiciously.

"A child," d.i.c.k replied. "At least, it was a child's face that gave me the resolution to come here and have a few words with you."

"A child?" repeated Drake. "What child?"