"Where is he?"
"I"ll call him."
The young man behind the desk rang the bell for one of the waiters, and sent that individual upstairs for the proprietor. The waiter was gone nearly five minutes before he returned, accompanied by a short, stout man, with bushy black hair and a heavy beard.
"Well, sir, what can I do for you?" asked the man of Matt.
"If you are not too busy I would like to show you some goods which are both good and very cheap," returned Matt, as easily as he could, and without waiting for a reply he unrolled his package of samples, and placed them upon the desk.
"And is that what you called me downstairs for?" cried the proprietor of the restaurant, in a rage. "Make me throw down a good hand at cards just to look at a lot of tin knives and forks! You peddlers are getting more bold every day. The police ought to sit down on every one of you!"
"I am sorry if I disturbed your leisure," returned Matt, as mildly as he could. "But, I thought----"
"You thought you would just like to cheat me into buying a lot of your trash," finished the restaurant proprietor. "Well, you can"t do anything of the kind, and you can take that for your impudence!"
And hastily gathering up the package of samples, the restaurant keeper walked to the open doorway and flung knives, forks and spoons into the muddy gutter!
CHAPTER XII.
MATT STANDS UP FOR HIMSELF.
It was evident, by the self-satisfied look upon the restaurant-keeper"s face, that the hot-tempered man supposed that he had done a very smart thing in thus disposing of Matt"s wares by throwing the bundle into the muddy gutter of the street.
"Now pick up your goods and skip out!" he cried, as he turned to the boy. "And the next time you be careful how you disturb folks when they are trying to take it a little easy!"
For the instant Matt was stupefied, and stood still, hardly moving a muscle.
Then the boy"s natural temper arose to the surface, and for the moment he felt as if he must fly at the man and pound him in the face just as hard as he could. His face grew first red and then deadly pale. The man saw the change in his countenance, saw the fire flash in the boy"s eyes, and stopped short just as he was about to repeat his injunction to leave the establishment.
"You are a--a brute!" exclaimed Matt, stepping forward with clinched fists.
"What"s that?" cried the restaurant-keeper, so loudly that several customers and a number of the waiters gathered round to learn the cause of the trouble.
"I say you are a brute!" repeated Matt, undaunted by the fierce look the restaurant-keeper had a.s.sumed. "If you did not wish to buy from me you could have said so. There was no need for you to throw my goods in the gutter."
"Shut up and clear out!" growled the man. "I want no back talk from the likes of you. Do you suppose I buy from beggars and thieves?"
"I am neither a beggar nor a thief!" returned Matt striding still closer. "And I won"t allow you nor any one else to say so."
"Oh, you won"t?" sneered the man.
"No, I won"t," answered Matt firmly. "My business is just as honest and honorable as yours, even though I may not make such enormous profits," he added, bound in some way to "get square."
"See here, are you going to get out, or must I pitch you out?" howled the man more savagely than ever.
For the moment Matt did not reply. He was very angry, but knew it would do him more harm than good to lose his temper. Yet he was not the person to allow the insults he had received to pa.s.s unnoticed.
"I will get out just as soon as you restore my goods to me," he said.
"You had no right whatever to throw them into the gutter and soil them."
"What?"
"And let me say, too, that I expect my goods to come back to me just as clean as they were when you took them."
"You say another word and I"ll stand you on your head!" fumed the proprietor of the restaurant, but the look in Matt"s eyes kept him from laying hands upon the boy.
"If you dare to touch me I"ll call in the police," replied Matt, more sharply than ever. "I have a license, and by that license the police are bound to protect me. Now, you get my goods back for me and I"ll leave."
"I"ll see you in Jericho first!"
"Very well; but remember, if anything is lost or damaged, you"ll pay the bill."
"Good for the boy!" exclaimed one of the men who had just been lunching in the place. "I like to see a fellow stick up for his rights."
"See here, I want no outside interference here!" bl.u.s.tered the restaurant-keeper. "I am fully capable of attending to this affair myself."
"Well, I"m going to see that the boy gets a show," returned the other coolly, as he paid the amount of his check and lit a cigar taken from his pocket. "I don"t think it was a fair deal to throw his stuff in the gutter."
"It wasn"t," put in another customer. "He"s got to make a living, just the same as all of us."
"Oh, don"t talk!" cried the restaurant-keeper, waving them away with his hand. "Come, now, no more talk!" he went on to Matt. "Go, before I have you thrown out."
"I won"t budge a step, excepting it is to call the police," returned Matt, more firmly than ever, now that he saw he had friends in the crowd. "I"ll give you just five minutes to give me back my goods."
The restaurant-keeper began to bl.u.s.ter and threaten, and even sent a waiter out, ostensibly to call in a policeman. But Matt was not frightened, and in the end another waiter was sent to gather up the sample goods, wipe them off and restore them to the boy.
"Good for you, boy!" said one of the customers, as he followed Matt out upon the sidewalk. "Always stick up for your rights," and he nodded pleasantly and pa.s.sed on.
When Matt reached the wagon he found Andy had not yet come back. He accordingly looked around, and seeing another restaurant about half a block further down the street entered it.
He found the proprietor behind the desk, laughing quietly to himself.
He had heard of what had happened in his neighbor"s place, and was immensely tickled thereby.
"Hullo! ain"t you the boy that had the row with Mattison?" he exclaimed in surprise.
"I had some trouble with that man," said Matt. "But it was not my fault, I can a.s.sure you."
"You came out ahead, didn"t you? Ha! ha! ha! It does me good to hear it. Tell me how the row started."
Matt did so, and was compelled to go into all the details, to which the man listened with keen interest.
"Served him right! He can get along with n.o.body. But you are a clever one, too."
"Thank you," replied Matt.