"I was jess gwine to look at yo" stock. How much is dem chains worth?"
"I am not selling chains to you to-night," returned Matt.
He had hardly spoken when Andy leaned over his shoulder and whispered into his ear:
"Talk to them for a few minutes, and I"ll slip out and notify the police. Treat them well until I get back."
And the next instant Matt"s partner had disappeared into the crowd, without any of the colored men noticing his departure.
"Yo" don"t want to sell me any chain?" repeated the colored man.
"Not to-night."
"Why not?"
"This isn"t chain night. I"m selling harmonicas and banjos."
"Well, let"s see some banjos den," put in another of the negroes, and he winked at his companions, thinking that Matt had become too scared to refer to the broken show-case again.
"All right, but I don"t want any more show-cases broken," returned the young auctioneer.
He took a banjo from one of the cases and began to tune it up slowly.
"Kin yo" play us a jig?" asked one of the colored men, while the white people in the place looked on in wonder at the turn affairs had taken.
"Oh, yes, I can play a jig," returned Matt coolly.
"Den give us one now."
"You will have to wait until I am done tuning up, gentlemen."
"All right, we"ll wait."
Matt tuned up more slowly than ever, and even allowed one of the strings to break that he might gain an extra minute in repairing the damage. At last, after fully five minutes had pa.s.sed, the banjo was in order for use, and the young auctioneer struck off a few chords.
"Now give us dat jig if yo" kin play it," said the colored man impatiently. He was the same who had tried to steal the box of chains.
"I won"t play a jig until you and your companion pay for the gla.s.s you broke," returned Matt shortly, and he laid down the instrument abruptly, and folded his arms.
"Wot?" roared the colored men in concert.
"You heard what I said."
"See here; do yo" want us to smash de hull place?" demanded the ringleader of the disturbers.
"I don"t think you"ll smash anything more," replied Matt.
"I won"t, hey? We"ll see!"
The colored man made a movement as if to strike the young auctioneer in the face. But before the blow could land he was hauled back by a strong arm. He and his companions looked around and found themselves confronted by two policemen whom Andy had fortunately met upon the corner below.
The two colored men who had kept somewhat in the background at once sneaked through the crowd and escaped through the open doorway. The other two, the ones who had done the damage, were held by the policemen, much to their discomfiture.
A lively talk followed, and then upon payment for the damage done, the colored men were allowed to go, first being warned by Matt and Andy not to show themselves in the store again. Had they not paid up they would have been arrested.
After this scene was ended one of the policemen remained in the vicinity of the place for all the while the store remained open. But nothing more occurred to disturb the auction sales.
Business in Easton was so good that they remained there until Tuesday of the following week. During that time they took in nearly two hundred dollars, leaving them a profit, after all expenses were met, of forty-five dollars.
On Sat.u.r.day morning Matt and Andy were called to Belvidere, the county seat, to testify against Barberry for the robbery at Phillipsburg.
Strange to say, Barberry pleaded guilty, so the two boys had no trouble in the way of being detained as witnesses against him. The corn salve doctor was held for sentence.
After leaving Easton Matt and Andy struck out for Bethlehem and Allentown. The weather was now growing gradually colder, but they calculated that they would have at least a month of weather which would be fit to travel in, even in this mountainous country.
"At Allentown we can stop long enough for me to take a trip to Philadelphia and buy goods," remarked Andy as they were driving out of Easton.
"Just as you say," returned Matt. "I am glad we have to stock up so often, and I am looking forward to the time when it will be necessary for us to buy a larger wagon and get another horse to put beside Billy."
"It will hardly pay us to buy another horse this fall. You must remember that we are to locate in some place during the winter. I have no desire to move around much when the thermometer is below the freezing point."
They were soon on the outskirts of Easton, and then they struck a rather rough road leading over numerous hills and around jagged rocks.
"By jinks! I believe we have missed the way," remarked Matt, as at last he brought Billy to a standstill. "That stable-keeper said the road was a good one, and I fail to find this so."
"We"ll stop at the next house and find out," returned Andy. "Do you see any place in sight?"
"There is a cottage down in the hollow yonder. Stay here with Billy, and I"ll ask the way there."
Matt sprang from the wagon and was soon hurrying across a barren bit of pasture land that led down to a brook which was all but dried up.
The cottage stood upon the bank of the brook, and walking up to it, the young auctioneer rapped upon the door.
There was an exclamation of surprise from within, and then he was asked to enter. He did so, and was greatly vexed to find himself in the presence of three of the colored men who had created the disturbance in the store but a few nights before!
CHAPTER x.x.x.
A DASH FROM DANGER.
Had Matt known that he would meet three of the colored men in the cottage in the hollow, it is more than likely that he would not have gone near the place.
When he and Andy had had the trouble at the store, the two men who had been compelled to pay for the broken gla.s.s had gone off in anything but a happy frame of mind, and the young auctioneer had then remarked to his partner that they might have trouble with the men should they chance to meet them away from police protection.
Matt saw at once that the negroes recognized him, and that his reception would be far from agreeable. Had he been less courageous he would have turned and fled, but as it was, he stood his ground.
All three of the colored men had been seated around a kitchen table playing cards, but at his entrance the two who had been the primary cause of the former trouble sprang to their feet and came toward him.