"It"s because I"m young that I"m insisting, sir."
"And I suppose I"m so old that no husky robber would be afraid of me,"
returned Britt, dryly. "So you insist, do you?"
"I do."
"I must ask you to remember that you"re doing it only because you have volunteered."
"I"ll be glad to have you tell the directors that I volunteered and insisted."
"Very well! We"ll have the thing understood, Frank. I wouldn"t want to have "em think I was obliging you to do more than your work as cashier."
Therefore, Vaniman had a cot brought down from Squire Hexter"s house, and borrowed a double-barreled shotgun from the same source. He did not consider that his new duty entailed any hardship. He had his evenings for the pachisi games. Xoa insisted on making a visit to the bank and putting the back room in shape for the lodger. But she vowed that she was more than ever convinced that money was the root of all evil.
Frank"s slumbers were undisturbed; he found the temporary arrangement rather convenient than otherwise. He kindled his furnace fire before going to the Squire"s for breakfast and Britt Block was thoroughly warm when he returned.
There was only one break in this routine, one occasion for alarm, and the alarm was but temporary. Frank heard footsteps in the corridor one evening after he had come back to the bank from the Squire"s house.
Almost immediately Mr. Britt used his key and appeared to the young man.
"I waited till I was sure you were here," the president explained. "What Hexter doesn"t know won"t hurt him--and I thought I"d better not come to the house for you. I"m sorry it"s so late." Britt was anxiously apologetic.
"It isn"t very late, sir."
"But it"s late, considering what"s on my mind, Frank. And now that I"m here I hate to tell you what my errand is." He fumbled in his pocket and brought out a letter, tapped it with his forefinger, and replaced it. "I got it in the mail after you had gone to supper."
"If it"s any matter where I can be of help, sir, you needn"t be a bit afraid to speak out."
"You can help, but--" After his hesitation Britt plunged on. "I wrote to that broker that I was feeling a little under the weather and was postponing my trip to the city, and now that fool of a Barnes writes back that he"s starting right behind his letter to come up here to arrange about taking over the specie and closing the deal, because the market is just right to act. And the through train, the one he"ll be sure to take, hits Levant about two o"clock to-morrow morning. He asks me to send somebody down to meet him. That"s all one of those taxicab patronizers knows about traveling conditions in the country. Frank, unless you"ll volunteer to go I"ll have to go myself. I don"t want that man talking all the way up here with old Files"s gabby hostler, or with anybody else I send from the village."
Vaniman, even though he tried to make Britt"s reasons for the request seem convincing, could not help feeling that the financier"s natural secretiveness in matters of personal business was stretched somewhat in this instance. But he gulped back any hesitation and offered to go on the errand.
"Frank, when I was having my run of foolishness I was sorry that you are young. Now I"m mighty glad of it," declared Britt. "I can take your place in yonder on the cot for the night--and I"m going to do it. But I"ll be frank enough to say that I"d rather you"d ride to Levant and back in a sleigh to-night than do it myself. Go rout up Files"s hostler, borrow his fur coat, and bundle up warm. It"s good slipping along the road, and the trip may have a little pep for you, after all."
And, putting away his momentary doubts, Frank reflected on the matter and was honestly glad to vary the monotony of his close confinement to the bank.
So he went and roused Files"s hostler, bundled himself in the coat and the sleigh robes, and made a really joyous experience out of the trip to Levant, under the stars and over the snow that was crisped by the night"s chill.
He waited beside the station platform, standing up in the sleigh and peering eagerly after the train stopped. He called the name, "Mr.
Barnes," until the few sleepy, slouching, countrified pa.s.sengers who alighted had pa.s.sed on their way.
It was perfectly apparent that Broker Barnes was not present to answer roll call.
And after waiting, in whimsical delay, to make sure that Mr. Barnes had not come footing it behind the train, Frank whipped up and drove back to Egypt. He felt no pique; he had enjoyed the outing in the sparkling night.
In the gray dawn he again routed out Files"s yawning hostler and turned the equipage over to him.
"Hope you found it a starry night for a ramble," suggested the hostler, willing to be informed as to why a bank cashier had been gallivanting around over the country between days, turning in a sweating horse at break of dawn.
Vaniman allowed that it was a starry night, all right, and left the topic there, with a period set to it by the snap of his tone.
He went directly to the bank and admitted himself with his keys.
President Britt came from the back room, with yawns that matched those of the hostler.
"What time did Barnes say he"d be down here from the tavern in the morning?"
"Mr. Barnes did not come on that train, sir."
"Well, I"ll be--" rapped Britt, snapping shut his jaws.
"But I haven"t minded the trip--I really enjoyed the ride," insisted the messenger.
"Don"t tell that to Barnes when he shows up to-night on Ike Jones"s stage," commanded Britt. "I propose to have a few words to say about what it means in the country when a city fathead changes his mind about the train he"ll take." He was looking past the cashier while he talked.
He turned away and picked up his hat and coat from a chair. "I"ll be going along to my house, I reckon. You"d better catch a cat-nap on the cot. I found it comfortable. I"ve slept every minute since you"ve been gone."
Then Britt hurried out, locking the door behind him.
CHAPTER XII
SOMETHING TO BE EXPLAINED
By noon that day, in the lulls between customers at the wicket, Vaniman had had a succession of run-ins with the demon of drowsiness--a particularly mischievous elf, sometimes, in business hours. Whenever he caught himself snapping back into wakefulness he found Vona"s twinkle of amus.e.m.e.nt waiting for him.
Once she pointed to the big figures on the day-by-day calendar on the wall. The date was February 21st. "Console yourself, Frank, dear," she advised, teasing him. "The bank will be closed to-morrow and you can make Washington"s Birthday your sleep day! But I do hope you can stay awake at our play this evening."
"The man who invented sleep as a blessing didn"t take into account city brokers who change their minds about trains," he returned. "I hope old Ike Jones will sing that "Ring, ting! Foo loo larry, lo day" song of his all the way coming up from Levant. It"ll be about the sort of punishment that Behind-time Barnes deserves."
A few minutes later the cashier was jumped out of another incipient nap by the clamor of bells. The two horses that whisked past, pulling a double-seated sleigh, were belted with bells. A big man with a lambrequin mustache was filling the rear seat measurably well. Folks recognized the team as a "let-hitch" from Levant.
"Mr. Barnes comes late, but he comes in style and with all his bells,"
Vona suggested.
The equipage swung up beside the tavern porch and the big man threw off the robes and stamped in, leaving the driver to take the horses to the stable.
Landlord Files had furnished an accompaniment for the clangor of the bells; he was pounding his dinner gong.
The new arrival had a foghorn voice and used it in hearty volume in telling Mr. Files that his music was all right and mighty timely! "And that alligator seems to be calling for his grub, too," he remarked, on his way to hang up his coat. "But he doesn"t look any hungrier than I feel."
"Room?" inquired the landlord, hopefully, swinging the register book and pulling a pen out of a withered potato.
"No room! Just dinner. I expect to be out of here by night."
Mr. Files stabbed the potato with a vicious pen thrust. He knew food capacity when he viewed it; there would be some profit from a lodging, but none from a two-shilling meal served to a man who had compared himself with that open-mouthed saurian.
But the guest grabbed the penstock while it was still vibrating. He wrote across the book, with great flourishes: "Fremont Starr. State Bank Examiner. February 21st."
"A matter of record, landlord! Show"s I"m here. Tells the world I was here on date noted. Never can tell when the law will call for records.