I"ve got to make a trip to Rigg"s Corners to sell some dry goods. Got a good buggy?"
"Yes, and a horse you can drive yourself, if you like. Be gone all day?"
"No, don"t want to fool with a horse--may want to stay and send the horse back--if I find a place where the grub is better than it is here. See?"
"You"ll be back after one meal at any place within a hundred miles of here." The proprietor laughed.
"Might as well drive yourself. You won"t want to send the horse back.
I"m short of drivers just now. Times are bad and travel light, so I let one go."
"I"ll take the Swede there."
"He"s my station hand. Maybe Jake can drive you. Nels, where"s Jake?"
"He"s dere in the stable. Shake!" he shouted, without glancing up, and Jake slouched out into the yard.
"Jake, here"s a gentleman wants you to drive him out into the country,--"
"I"ll take the Swede. Jake can drive your station wagon for once."
G. B. Stiles laughed good-humoredly and returned to the piazza and sat tilted back with his feet on the rail not far from Harry King, who was intently reading the _New York Tribune_. For a while he eyed the young man covertly, then dropped his feet to the floor and turned upon him with a question on the political situation, and deliberately engaged him in conversation, which Harry King entered into courteously yet reluctantly. Evidently he was preoccupied with affairs of his own.
In the stable yard a discussion was going on. "Dot horse no goot in buggy. Better you sell heem any vay. He yoomp by de cars all tam, und he no goot by buggy."
"Well, you"ve got to take him by the buggy, if he is no good. I won"t let Jake drive him around the trains, and he won"t let Jake go with him out to Rigg"s Corners, so you"ll have to take the gray and the buggy and go." The Swede began a sullen protest, but the proprietor shouted back to him, "You"ll do this or leave," and walked in.
Nels went then into the stable, smiling quietly. He was well satisfied with the arrangement. "Shake, you put dot big horse by de buggy. No.
Tak" d"oder bridle. I don"t drive heem mit ol" bridle; he yoomp too quvick yet. All tam yoomping, dot horse."
Presently Nels drove round to the front of the hotel with the gray horse and a high-top buggy. Harry King regarded him closely as he pa.s.sed, but Nels looked straight ahead. A boy came out carrying Stiles" heavy valise.
"Put that in behind here," said Stiles, as he climbed in and seated himself at Nels Nelson"s side. The gray leaped forward on the instant with so sudden a jump that he caught at his hat and missed it. Harry King stepped down and picked it up.
"What ails your horse?" he asked, as he restored it to its owner.
"Oh, not"in". He lak yoomp a little." And again the horse leaped forward, taking them off at a frantic pace, the high-topped buggy atilt as they turned the corner of the street into the country road.
Harry King returned to his seat. Surely it was the Scandinavian who had walked down from the bluff with him the evening before. There was no mistaking that soft, drawling voice.
"See here! You pull your beast down, I want to talk with you. Hi!
There goes my hat again. Can"t you control him better than that? Let me out." Nels pulled the animal down with a powerful arm, and he stood quietly enough while G. B. Stiles climbed down and walked back for his hat. "Look here! Can you manage the beast, or can"t you?" he asked as he stood beside the vehicle and wiped the dust from his soft black felt with his sleeve. "If you can"t, I"ll walk."
"Oh, yas, I feex heem. I leek heem goot ven ve coom to place n.o.body see me."
"I guess that"s what ails him now. You"ve done that before."
"Yas, bot if you no lak I leek heem, ust you yoomp in und I lat heem run goot for two, t"ree mile. Dot feex heem all right."
"I don"t know about that. Sure you can hold him?"
"Yas, I hol" heem so goot he break hee"s yaw off, if he don"t stop ven I tol" heem. Now, quvick. Whoa! Yoomp in."
G. B. Stiles scrambled in with unusual agility for him, and again they were off, the gray taking them along with leaps and bounds, but the road was smooth, and the dust laid by frequent showers was like velvet under the horse"s feet. Stiles drew himself up, clinging to the side of the buggy and to his hat.
"How long will he keep this up?" he asked.
"Oh, he stop putty quvick. He lak it leetle run. T"ree, four mile he run--das all." And the Swede was right. After a while the horse settled down to a long, swinging trot. "Look at heem now. I make heem go all tam lak dis. Ven I get my money I haf stable of my own und den I buy heem. I know heem. I all tam tol" Meester Decker dot horse no goot--I buy heem sheep. You go"n gif me dot money, eh?"
"I see. You"re sharp, but you"re asking too much. If it were not for me, you wouldn"t get a cent, or me either. See? I"ve spent a thousand hunting that man up, and you haven"t spent a cent. All you"ve done is to stick here at the hotel and watch. I"ve been all over the country.
Even went to Europe and down in Mexico--everywhere. You haven"t really earned a cent of it."
"Vat for you goin" all offer de vorld? Vat you got by dot? Spen"
money--dot vot you got. Me, I stay here. I fin" heem; you not got heem all offer de vorld. I tol" you, of a man he keel somebody, he run vay, bot he goin" coom back where he done it. He not know it vot for he do it, bot he do it all right."
"Look here, Nelson; it"s outrageous! You can"t lay claim to that money. I told you if he was found and you were willing to give in your evidence just as you gave it to me that day, I"d give you your fair share of the reward, as you asked for it, but I never gave you any reason to think you were to take half. I"ve spent all the money working up this matter, and if I were to go back now and do nothing, as I"m half a mind to do, you"d never get a cent of it. There"s no proof that he"s the man."
"You no need spen" dot money."
"Can"t I get reason into your head? When I set out to get hold of a criminal, do you think I sit down in one place and wait? You didn"t find him; he came here, and it"s only by an accident you have him, and he may clear out yet, and neither of us be the better off because of your pig-headedness. Here, drive into that grove and tie your horse a minute and we"ll come to an understanding. I can"t write you out a paper while we"re moving along like this."
Then Nels turned into the grove and took the horse from the shafts and tied him some distance away, while G. B. Stiles took writing materials from his valise, and, sitting in the buggy, made a show of drawing up a legal paper.
"I"m going to draw you up a paper as you asked me to. Now how do you know you have the man?"
"It iss ten t"ousand tallers. You make me out dot paper you gif me half yet."
"d.a.m.n it! You answer my question. I can"t make this out unless I know you"re going to come up to the scratch." He made a show of writing, and talked at the same time. "I, G. B. Stiles, detective, in the employ of Peter Craigmile, of the town of Leauvite, for the capture of the murderer of his son, Peter Craigmile, Jr., do hereby promise one Nels Nelson, Swede,--in the employ of Mr Decker, hotel proprietor, as stable man,--for services rendered in the identification of said criminal at such time as he should be found,----Now, what service have you rendered? How much money have you spent in the search?"
"Not"ing. I got heem."
"Nothing. That"s just it."
"I got heem."
"No, you haven"t got him, and you can"t get him without me. Don"t you think it. I am the one to get him. You have no warrant and no license.
I"m the one to put in the claim and get the reward for you, and you"ll have to take what I choose to give, and no more. By rights you would only have your fee as witness, and that"s all. That"s all the state gives. Whatever else you get is by my kindness in sharing with you.
Hear?"
A dangerous light gleamed in the Swede"s eyes, and Stiles, by a slight disarrangement of his coat in the search for his handkerchief, displayed a revolver in his hip pocket. Nels" eyes shifted, and he looked away.
"You"d better quit this d.a.m.ned nonsense and say what you"ll take and what you"ll swear to."
"I"ll take half dot money," said Nels, softly and stubbornly.
"I"ll take out all I"ve spent on this case before we divide it in any way, shape, or manner." Stiles figured a moment on the margin of his paper. "Now, what are you going to swear to? You needn"t shift round.
You"ll tell me here just what you"re prepared to give in as evidence before I put down a single figure to your name on this paper. See?"
"I done tol" you all dot in Chicago dot time."
"Very well. You"ll give that in as evidence, every word of it, and swear to it?"