The Banner Boy Scouts Snowbound Part 8

Suspicious by nature, he always watched when boys came into his store as though he weighed them all in the same balance with Hank Lawson, and considered that none of Stanhope's rising generation could be trusted out of sight.

Long ago he had taken to covering every apple and sugar barrel with wire screens to prevent pilfering. Neither Jack nor Bobolink had ever had hot words with the storekeeper, but for all that they felt that his manner was openly aggressive at the time they entered the door.

"If you want to buy anything, boys," said Mr. Briggs curtly, "I'll wait on you; but if you've only come in here to stand around my store and get warm I'll have to ask you to move on. My time is too valuable to waste just now."

Jack laughed on hearing that.

"Oh! we mean business this morning, Mr. Briggs," he remarked pleasantly, while Bobolink scowled, and muttered something under his breath. "The fact is a party of us scouts are planning to spend a couple of weeks up in the snow woods," continued Jack. "We have a list here of some things we want to take along, and will pay cash for them.

We want them delivered to-day at our meeting room under the church."

"Let Mr. Briggs have the list, Jack," suggested Bobolink. "He can mark the prices he'll let us have the articles for. Of course, sir, we mean to buy where we can get the best terms for cash."

Bobolink knew the grasping nature of the old storekeeper, and perhaps this was intended for a little trap to trip him up. Mr. Briggs glanced over the list and promptly did some figuring, after which he handed the paper back.

"Seems to me your prices are pretty steep, sir!" remarked Jack.

"I should say they were," added Bobolink, with a gleam in his eyes.

"Why, you are two cents a pound on hams above the other stores. Yes, and even on coffee and rice you are asking more than we can get the same article for somewhere else."

"Those are my regular prices," said the old man, shortly. "If they are not satisfactory to you, of course, you are at liberty to trade elsewhere. In fact, I do not believe you meant to buy these goods of me, but have only come in to annoy me as those other good-for-nothing boys always do."

"Indeed, you are mistaken, Mr. Briggs," expostulated Jack, who did not like to be falsely accused when innocent. "We are starting out to see where we can get our provisions at the most reasonable rates. Some of the storekeepers are only too glad to give the scouts a reduction."

"Well, you'll get nothing of the sort here, let me tell you," snapped the unreasonable old man. "I can't afford to do business at cost just to please a lot of harum-scarum boys, who want to spend days loafing in the woods when they ought to be earning an honest penny at work."

"Come on, Jack, let's get out of here before I say something I'll be sorry for," remarked Bobolink, who was fiery red with suppressed anger.

"There's the door, and your room will be better appreciated than your company," Mr. Briggs told them. "And as for your trade, take it where you please. Your people have left me for other stores long ago, so why should I care?"

"Oh! that's where the shoe pinches, is it?" chuckled Bobolink; and after that he and Jack left the place, to do their shopping in more congenial quarters, while Mr. Briggs stood on his doorsteps and glared angrily after them.

CHAPTER IX

"FIRE!"

"Sat.u.r.day, eleven-thirty P.M., the night before Christmas, and all's well!"

It was Frank Savage who made this remark, as with eight other scouts he trudged along, after having left the house of the scout-master, Paul Morrison. Frank had been the lucky one to be counted among those who were going on the midwinter tour, his parents having been coaxed into giving their consent.

"And on Monday morning we make the start, wind and weather permitting," observed Bobolink, with an eagerness he did not attempt to conceal.

"So far as we know everything is in complete readiness," said Bluff Shipley.

"Five iceboats are tugging at their halters, anxious to be off,"

laughed Jack. "And there'll be a lot of restless sleepers in certain Stanhope homes I happen to know."

"Huh! there always are just before Christmas," chuckled Tom Betts.

"But this year we have a double reason for lying awake and counting the dragging minutes. Course you committee of two looked after the grub supplies as you were directed?"

"We certainly did!" affirmed Bobolink, "and came near getting into a row with old Briggs at his store. He wanted to ask us top-notch prices for everything, and when we kicked he acted so ugly we packed out."

"Just like the old curmudgeon," declared Phil Towns. "The last time I was in his place he kept following me around as if he thought I meant to steal him out of house and home. I just up and told my folks I never wanted to trade with Mr. Briggs again, and so they changed to the other store."

"Oh, well, he's getting old and peevish," said Jack. "You see he lives a lonely life, and has a narrow vision. Besides, some boys have given him a lot of trouble, and he doesn't know the difference between decent fellows and scamps. We'd better let him alone, and talk of something else."

"I suppose all of you notice that it's grown cloudy late to-day,"

suggested Spider s.e.xton.

"Oh! I hope that doesn't mean a heavy snowfall before we get started,"

exclaimed Bluff. "If a foot of snow comes down on us, good-bye to our using the iceboats as we've been planning."

"The weather reports at the post office say fair and cold ahead for this section," announced Jack Stormways, at which there arose many faint cheers.

"Good boy, Jack!" cried Bobolink, patting the other's back. "It was just like the thoughtful fellow you are to go down and read the prospect the weather sharps in Washington hold out for us."

"You must thank Paul for that, then," admitted the other, "for he told me about it. I rather expect Paul had the laugh on the rest of us to-night, boys."

"Now you're referring to that Jud Mabley business, Jack," said Phil Towne.

"Well, when Paul let him off so easy every one of us believed he was wrong, and that the chances were ten to one Paul would have to fork over the dollar to pay for having that window pane put in," continued Jack. "But you heard what happened?"

"Yes, seems that the age of miracles hasn't pa.s.sed yet," admitted Bobolink. "I thought I was dreaming when Paul told me that Jud's little brother came this morning with an envelope addressed to him, and handed it in without a word."

"And when Paul opened it," continued Jack, taking up the story in his turn, "he found a nice, new dollar bill enclosed, with a sc.r.a.p of paper on which Jud had scrawled these words: 'Never would have paid only I couldn't let _you_ stand for my accident, and after you treated me so white, too. But this wipes it all out, remember. I'm no crawler!'"

"It tickled Paul a whole lot, let me remark," Jud Elderkin explained.

"I do half believe he thinks he can see a rift in the cloud, and that some of these days hopes to get a chance to drag Jud Mabley out of that ugly crowd."

"It would be just like Paul to lay plans that way," acknowledged Jack.

"I know him like a book, and believe me, he gets more pleasure out of making his enemies feel cheap than the rest of us would if we gave them a good licking."

"Paul's a sure-enough trump!" admitted Bluff. "Do you know what he said when he was showing that scrawl to us fellows? I was close enough to get part of it, and I'm dead sure the words 'entering wedge' formed the backbone of his remark."

"Do we go, snow or sunshine, then?" asked Bluff, as they came to a halt on a corner where several of the boys had to leave the rest, as their homes lay in different directions.

"That's for Paul to decide," Jack told him. "But we know our leader well enough to feel sure it's got to be a fierce storm to make him call a trip off, once all preparations have been made."

"Oh! don't borrow trouble," sang out Bobolink. "Everything is lovely, and the goose hangs high. Just keep on remembering that to-morrow will be Christmas, and all of us expect to find something in our stockings, so to speak."

"There's one word of warning I ought to speak before we separate,"

said Jack, pretending to look solemn as they stood under a corner street lamp.

"Now the chances are you're referring to that Lawson crowd again, Jack," suggested Bobolink.

"This time it comes nearer home than the Lawsons," said Jack, seriously.