No Moss Part 10

Henry treated him.

There was a vacancy in the store, and it had been promised to Johnny, whose highest ambition was to become a business man. One morning he presented himself before the grocer, who was not a little surprised to see him. "Ah, yes," said he, when Johnny had made known his wants, "I'd like to have you here. I don't know any one in Newport I would rather have for a clerk in my store, if I was only sure you could be trusted.

But do you think you could put much faith in a boy who is continually running around of nights, and who is always in some kind of mischief?

When I promised you the situation I had no idea you were a Night-hawk, you know."

Johnny thrust his hands deep into his pockets, and walked thoughtfully out of the store. He had never taken that view of the case, but he could not keep seeing that the grocer was right. He was angry at himself when he thought how foolish he had been, and, consequently, when some of his friends called on him that night, to inquire why he had missed the last meeting of their new society, Johnny answered them rather abruptly.

"I won't have any thing more to do with it," said he.

"Why, Harding, what's the matter?"

"The matter is just this," replied Johnny. "I can see, now, that I would have been a great deal better off in the world, if I had never had any thing to do with secret societies that were organized for nothing but mischief. Experience is a hard school, fellows, but it is a thorough one and I'll never forget the lesson I have learned there. I am going to behave myself now."

"Well, this beats me, I never thought you would turn spooney."

"Say what you please, my mind is made up, and you can't turn me, any more than you can turn Tom Newcombe, when he has an idea. The society can get along without me."

Johnny was as good as his word, although it required the exercise of all his firmness to resist the pressure that was brought to bear upon him.

The society found it uphill work to get along without him, for he held a high position in the organization, and was the only one in it who could study up a plan for mischief at two minutes notice. Its members had often been sadly in need of the services of Tom Newcombe; and, now that Johnny was gone, the exploits were hardly worth boasting of. They tried to induce him to come back. They coaxed, praised, and ridiculed him, but it was in vain. Johnny had made up his mind after mature deliberation; he knew he was in the right, and for two months he held firmly to his purpose.

One night, as he was coming home from school, he met Mr. Henry, who began to laugh the moment he came in sight of Johnny. "Is this true that I hear about you?" he asked, as the boy came up. "Are you a spooney?"

"I don't know, sir," was the reply. "If trying to behave myself makes me a spooney, I suppose I am one."

"Don't you find it hard work?"

"Sometimes. They bother a fellow so. But I don't care for that. I'm bound to stick to it."

Johnny moved off, and so did Mr. Henry, but when the latter had made a few steps, he stopped and looked back. "Johnny," said he, "if you feel like walking around to-morrow, we'll talk the matter over."

Johnny did feel like "walking around," and he made his appearance at the store bright and early. It did not take long to arrange matters to his satisfaction, and he had now been in Mr. Henry's employ about two weeks, and he began to believe that he was in a fair way to redeem himself. Mr.

Henry was of the same opinion. He had faith in Johnny's good resolutions, and he never had occasion to regret that he had taken him into the store.

Johnny's employer stood at his desk putting away his books and papers, while the clerk leaned on the counter and watched the vessel in the harbor. At last Mr. Henry closed and locked his safe, and, turning to Johnny, said:

"I shall leave you to-night with a big responsibility."

"How much is it, sir?" asked the clerk, who knew that the grocer had reference to the money in the safe.

"Seven thousand dollars," answered Mr. Henry. "The greater portion of it belongs to my brother, who has come down from Boston to take up a note that falls due to-morrow. If he fails to pay it, his creditors will have something to say to me, for I indorsed the note. There are also two thousand dollars of my own money in the safe, with which I intend to pay some bills in the morning. If I lose it I am ruined. I shouldn't wonder if you had visitors to-night," added the grocer, as he picked up his hat and cane; "so keep your eyes open."

"All right, sir," replied Johnny. "I'll defend that safe against an army of burglars."

Mr. Henry was jesting, and so was Johnny; not about the money, or the trouble its loss would occasion, but about the robbers. There was certainly that amount in the safe, and it was equally certain that it was needed for just the purposes that Mr. Henry had indicated, but he was not in earnest when he told his clerk to look out for visitors. No one ever dreamed of such a thing as a burglary in Newport. Johnny had never heard of one, except through the papers, but this night was to add a new chapter to his experience.

"Seven thousand dollars!" said he to himself, as he walked out of the store, and began putting up the shutters. "That's a nice little sum of money. I wonder if I shall ever own as much! I should say not, unless I get a big increase on my present salary. People don't live long enough nowadays to grow rich on four dollars and a half a week. Never mind, every dog has his day, and who knows but there is one coming for Jack Harding? What can I do for you this evening, gentlemen?"

This question was addressed to a couple of rough-looking men, who just then entered the store. Johnny tried to obtain a glimpse of their faces as he spoke to them, but he did not succeed, for their features were concealed by the collars of their pea-jackets, which were pulled up around their ears, and by their slouch hats, which were drawn down over their eyes.

"A couple of sailors, with the ague," soliloquized the clerk, s.n.a.t.c.hing up his hat and fanning himself vigorously, when he thought how near sweltering he would be if he was bundled up like that.

The customers stood in the middle of the floor, looking about them with every expression of curiosity, like country fellows who had just come out of their native woods, while Johnny leaned one elbow on the counter and waited for them to make known their wants.

"Where's the boss?" inquired one of them at length.

"Do you mean Mr. Henry? He has gone home."

"Will he be back to-night?"

Johnny replied that he would not.

There was another long pause, during which the men gazed about the store, and appeared to be examining every article of merchandise in it, and finally one of them walked up to the counter, while his companion strolled toward the little office where Johnny slept. He first looked at the clerk, as if trying to recognize an old acquaintance in him, and asked: "Got any pipes?"

"Plenty of them, sir," was the prompt reply. "We have a fine a.s.sortment, that was just received from Boston this morning."

Johnny thought he had by this time become well enough posted in his business to tell, by the appearance of his customers, what quality of goods they wanted. He thought this man was a common sailor, and he put out for his inspection a box of cheap clay pipes. The man took his hands out of his pockets to examine the pipes, and Johnny saw that they were fair and white, looking very unlike the brown, toil-hardened hands of a sailor.

"He must be a captain," thought the clerk. "If he is, he wants something better than a clay pipe. Here are some genuine imported meerschaums, in the showcase, sir," said he.

The customer was a long time making up his mind which he wanted. He looked first at the clay pipes, then at the meerschaums, weighed several of the latter in his hand, and finally he pulled out his pocket-book.

Then it took him some time longer to find a five cent piece; and when he had paid for one of the clay pipes he rested his hands on the counter, and looked up at the articles on the shelves, as if wondering if he did not want something else. Johnny waited patiently for him to come to some conclusion on this point, and, at the same time, kept close watch of the other customer, whose movements were somewhat singular. He first produced a pipe from the pocket of his pea-jacket, and, walking around the end of the counter to the match-box, prepared to indulge in a smoke.

Johnny, out of the corner of his eye, saw that, while he was filling his pipe, his gaze wandered up the s.p.a.ce behind the counter, until it rested on the safe, which he regarded long and earnestly. If Johnny could have read the thoughts that were pa.s.sing through his mind, they might have caused him some uneasiness; but, believing that the man had found an object of curiosity in the strong box, he felt disposed to laugh at him.

"Where could he have pa.s.sed all his life, anyhow?" thought the clerk.

"He never saw a fire-proof safe before. What would he say, I wonder, if he could look at the combination lock inside, that can't be opened, even by a man who understands it, in less than ten minutes!"

After burning half a dozen matches, the customer got his pipe lighted to his satisfaction, and began walking about the store again. He glanced into the little office where Johnny slept, went to the front door and gazed up and down the street, thence to the side door, which he opened, and looked out into the pa.s.sage-way that ran between the store and Mr.

Newcombe's elevator, and finally he examined the shutters that Johnny had just put up. Having completed the rounds of the store, he began to whistle, whereupon the man at the counter picked up his pocket-book and followed his companion, who walked out on the wharf.

"Does any body suppose they ever saw a grocery-store before?" said Johnny, to himself, as he stood in the door and watched his customers until they disappeared in the darkness. "I've seen some green men in my time, but these carry off the palm. The one that bought the pipe is not a sailor, for, if he was, he would not have been so particular. He would have taken whatever was offered him, and paid double its value, if I had seen fit to demand it, and without a moment's hesitation. They are hard-looking fellows, anyhow."

Having thus expressed his opinion of his customers, Johnny struck up a cheerful whistle, and resumed the work of putting up the shutters. When this had been done, he locked the door, and put out all the lamps except one, which he carried into his bed-room, and sat down to read until he should become sleepy. The book was so interesting that Johnny forgot that he had worked hard all day and was very sleepy, and it was half-past ten o'clock before he knew it. Finding that his eye-lids were growing heavy, he went the rounds of the store once more, tried all the doors and windows, to make sure that he had fastened them securely, and then tumbled into bed. He always slept the sleep of the healthy, and, on this particular evening, he slept so soundly that he did not hear what was going on at the side door, which opened into the pa.s.sage-way. About midnight, however, he awoke with a start, and with a presentment that there was something wrong. He was not mistaken, for when his eyes were fairly open, he found that his bed-room was flooded with light. He was not alone, either; there were two persons in his room who had no business there. One was standing in the door-way, holding a sledge-hammer and an iron punch in one hand, and a short piece of rope in the other; and the one who stood at the head of his bed carried something the clerk did not like the looks of--a revolver, the muzzle of which was pointed straight at his head. A single glance was enough to establish the ident.i.ty of these unwelcome visitors. They were his customers of the previous evening.

"What are you doing in here?" exclaimed Johnny, starting up on his elbow. "Get out o' this!"

"Silence!" whispered the man with the revolver, seizing Johnny by the shoulder and placing the muzzle of the weapon against his forehead. "If you utter another word you are a dead man."

The bare thought of being awakened out of a sound sleep, to find a couple of burglars in one's bed-room, is enough to send a thrill through the strongest nerves; and Johnny, although he was far from being a coward, was thoroughly frightened. He knew, however, that he was in no danger of bodily harm as long as he obeyed the robbers' injunction and kept quiet. They were not there to injure him--they were after the seven thousand dollars in the safe; and Johnny was powerless to prevent them from taking it.

"Come in here and tie him, Ned," said the man with the revolver.

Ned, after depositing his hammer and punch on the floor, advanced into the room, and almost before Johnny could tell what had happened to him, he was lying on his face in the bed, with his arms fastened behind his back, his feet tied to the bed-post, and a towel bound tightly over his mouth.

"Now, then, my hearty, you're safe, and the best thing you can do is to keep perfectly still. We don't want to hurt you, but if you begin any fuss, we'll settle you in a hurry."

So saying, the robbers left him, and began their work in the store.

From the position in which he lay, the clerk could witness all their operations, and he could not help thinking that the burglars were very expert in their business. They moved quickly, but so noiselessly that Johnny, if he had not seen them, would not have known that they were there. They first pulled the counter from its place, and wheeled the safe into the middle of the store; after which one of them laid a coil of rope upon the floor, and by their united efforts, the safe was tipped over on its back and placed upon it. Their next move was to strip the blankets and quilts from Johnny's bed, and wrap them around the safe, leaving a small opening in them directly over the lock. Then one of the robbers picked up the punch, and held it close to the handle of the lock, and the other, with one swift blow of the sledge-hammer, drove its sharp point through the thin sheet of iron that formed the outside of the safe. Into the hole thus made they poured a quant.i.ty of powder, adjusted a slow match, which one of them touched off with the cigar he had been tranquilly smoking all the while, and then the robbers, hastily closing the slide of the dark lantern, retreated outside the building to await the result. The clerk was sure they had gone out, for he heard the side door open and close very carefully.