Mrs. Ismond scanned the legal doc.u.ment with a pale and troubled face.
Frank affected unconcern and indifference.
"Don"t let that worry you, mother," he said, leading her back into the house.
"But, Frank, he can put us out!"
"If we stay to let him, probably. The law he has invoked to rob us, may also enable him to evict us, mother, but he won"t win in the end. You say you dislike the place. Very well, we will move."
"But where to, Frank?"
"This isn"t the only house in Greenville, is it, mother?" asked Frank, smiling rea.s.suringly. "What"s more, Greenville isn"t the only town in creation. Stop your fretting, now. I"ve got a grand plan, and I am sure to carry it out. Just leave everything to me. My head is just bursting with all the ideas that interesting balloonist has put into it. Why, mother, if I can only get a start, if I can get hold of a few novelties and do a little advertising--"
"Oh, Frank, it takes money to do all that!"
"And brains. Mostly brains and industry, Mr. Gregson says. Mother, now or soon, here, at Greenville or somewhere else, I am determined to give the mail order idea a trial."
"Mail order, Frank?"
"Capital! excellent!" cried Frank with enthusiasm. "Why, mother, you have suggested the very catchy name. I will use to advertise by--"Mail Order Frank"!"
CHAPTER VII
STRICTLY BUSINESS
The balloonist, Park Gregson, needed rest after his strenuous experience of the previous day, so Frank did not disturb him. He and his mother had their breakfast together, then Frank started out on his usual daily round of duties.
He did his ch.o.r.es about the house. Then he went down to the eight o"clock train to get a bundle of daily newspapers from the city. These he delivered to his regular customers. At nine o"clock he went to the office of Mr. Beach, the lawyer.
Frank was informed by the attorney"s clerk that Mr. Beach had left Greenville to see a distant client. He would not be back for two days.
"I need somebody"s advice about this five-day notice of Mr. Dorsett,"
reflected Frank, and proceeded to visit the insurance man, Mr. Buckner.
"Good!" exclaimed the latter briskly, as Frank put in an appearance, "I was just about to send for you."
"To send for me?" repeated Frank.
"Yes, I told you that you might expect some further business commissions from me, you remember?"
"Yes, Mr. Buckner."
"Well, they have materialized. Can you give me your time unrestrictedly for a week or ten days?"
"Why--yes, I think so," answered Frank, but somewhat slowly, for he thought of their family complications.
Mr. Buckner was a keen-witted man. He read something under the surface in Frank"s hesitancy.
"Something troubling you, Frank?" he suggested.
"Oh, nothing serious, Mr. Buckner. It seems we have offended Mr. Dorsett.
He is our landlord. He has ordered us to leave the house we rent from him within five days."
"Hum, the old curmudgeon! His house! I wonder whose it would be if some of his clever rascality was investigated?"
"Well, I suppose we have got to go," said Frank. "He is ugly and determined."
"Oh, that difficulty can be easily solved," declared Mr. Buckner, lightly. "You know the vacant store front on Cedar street? I am agent for that property, owner a non-resident. There are five nice, comfortable living rooms upstairs. It"s only two blocks" move for you.
If it suits you, make the move. You need pay no rent until you decide where you wish to locate permanently."
"You are very kind," said Frank.
"Why--never thought of it!" exclaimed Mr. Buckner, with new animation of manner and voice. "The very thing, it exactly fits!"
"What do you mean?" inquired Frank.
"Sit down, and I"ll explain. You took a check yesterday to pay for some salvage at a fire at Riverton."
"Yes, sir," nodded Frank.
"I notified my client last night by telegraph of our success. He"s a Lancaster man, in the hardware line. He ran up to Greenville last evening to see me. It seems that Morton, the man burned out at Riverton, was also in the hardware line. Everything he had was burned up in the fire. When they came to clear the wreck, they found all the metal stock he carried ma.s.sed in among the ashes in the cellar. The insurance company had it put in big packing cases. It was all mixed up, some of the stock damaged entirely. My client, however, decided that it might net him a profit on the two hundred dollars he paid for it."
"I see," said Frank.
"What he has engaged me to do, is to go or send to Riverton and get the stuff carted over here. Then he wants the rubbish gone over, and the good stuff selected and sorted out. It seems that Morton had been neglecting his regular hardware business for some time. He invented an apple corer that wouldn"t core very well. He bought a lot of little stuff, such as initial b.u.t.tons, needles and the like, and was trying to get into the mail order business, when the fire came along."
"The mail order business?" said Frank in a quick breath.
"Yes. Now he"s going to take his insurance money and buy an interest in some publishing business in the city. Well, you can see that a little time and care may result in picking out quite a lot of really valuable stuff from the ma.s.s, brushing it up and all that."
"Yes, indeed," murmured Frank.
"We can store the plunder in the Cedar Street building. You take charge of it, hire what help you need, and I"ll divide with you what I charge my client for my services. Pretty liberal, ain"t I now, Frank?" asked Mr. Buckner, with a smile. "You doing all the work, and me getting a full half of the pay."
"Yes, but you are the directing genius of the affair, you know,"
suggested Frank pleasantly.
"Oh, I can direct all right, if you will do the hustling," laughed the insurance man. "Settled, is it? All right. My client thinks it will take a week or ten days to sort the stuff into some kind of shape. He"ll be here to inspect progress next Sat.u.r.day. You make your arrangements, and draw five dollars a day."
Frank was quite stunned at the munificent offer.
"I trust you implicitly, Frank," went on his kind friend. "Here is a letter to the custodian of the property at Riverton, and here is twenty dollars to carry around with you to meet any expense that may come up.
Hire the moving teams as cheaply as you can, store the boxes at the Cedar Street place. I leave the details entirely to you. When can you start in?"
"Right now," replied Frank promptly.