"Why, it"s your old boy!" he said.
Mullins smiled a little maliciously. He had not heard that Chester had a place.
"I suppose you are boarding here," he said, with a little sarcasm.
"No, Mr. Mullins, but I have just dined here--with my friend, Mr.
Perkins."
Mullins inclined his head slightly.
"Has he adopted you?" he asked, in a tone bordering on impertinence.
"No, sir," answered Mr. Perkins; "but if Chester ever wants me to, I will. At present he is prosperous, and requires no help or adoption."
"Oh! Have you got a place?" asked Mullins, turning to Chester.
"Yes."
"In the same business?"
"No; I am in the office of a weekly paper."
"Oh!" said the bookkeeper, disdainfully. "They pay beggarly salaries at such places."
"Then I am favored. I receive more than twice as much as I did in your office."
Chester did not care to just state how much he received.
"That can"t be possible!"
"It is a fact, however. Has Mr. Fairchild returned?"
"No. Why do you want to know?"
"I have no wish to go back, Mr. Mullins. Don"t be apprehensive of that.
I don"t wish to disturb Felix."
d.i.c.k Ralston listened with some interest to the conversation.
"It strikes me the kid has come to no harm from being discharged," he said.
"I believe this is Mr. Perkins, of Minneapolis?"
"Yes, sir," answered the Westerner, eying the gambler with a penetrating glance.
"I shall be glad to be your guide if you wish to see something of New York. Will you join us this evening?"
"You are very polite, but I have an engagement with Chester."
"A mere boy! He knows nothing about the city."
"Still I am satisfied with him."
The two pa.s.sed on and went into the bar-room, where they sat down at a table and ordered some liquid refreshment.
"Well, Mullins," said the gambler, "I am getting impatient. The days are slipping by, and you have done nothing."
"You know what I am waiting for. Yesterday a check for a thousand dollars was paid in at the office, and deposited in the bank to-day."
"Good! And then?"
"I will send Felix to the bank and draw out sixteen hundred. Will that satisfy you?"
"I see, and, according to our arrangement, Felix will hand it to me on his way back to the office, and then swear that it was taken from him by some unknown party. You have coached him, have you?"
"Yes. Of course, I had to let him into the secret partially, promising him twenty-five dollars for himself."
"Ten would have been sufficient."
"He would not have been satisfied. We can spare that."
"How soon do you expect Fairchild back?"
"In three days."
But on the morrow Mullins was disconcerted by receiving the following telegram:
"Expect me back sometime to-day. FAIRCHILD."
CHAPTER x.x.x.
THE ATTEMPTED ROBBERY.
d.i.c.k Ralston was in the real estate office when the telegram was received. Indeed, he spent a good deal of his time there, so that it was supposed by some that he had a share in the business.
"Look at that, d.i.c.k!" said the bookkeeper, pa.s.sing the telegram to his confederate.
"Confusion! What sends him home so soon?" said Ralston. "Do you suppose he suspects anything?"
"No. How can he? Perhaps," said Mullins, nervously, "we had better give up the whole thing. You see how I will be placed. I"m afraid I shall be suspected."
"Look here!" growled Ralston, "I don"t want to hear any such weak, puerile talk. How do you propose to pay me the nine hundred and sixty-odd dollars you owe me? Do you expect to save it out of your salary?" he concluded, with a sneer.
"I wish we had never met," said the bookkeeper, in a troubled tone.