The Boy Broker Part 22

"It's 'bout time for him now," replied Bob, in answer to Tom's question.

"I wish he would come," said Tom, looking hungrier than usual.

"He is probably making up sleep," said the young detective.

"How much sleep has he got to make up, Bob?" asked Tom, seriously.

"I don't know exactly, but I guess pretty near a whole night."

"A whole night!" exclaimed Tom, dubiously. "He ain't goin' to make it all up this morning, is he, Bob?"

Tom's hand rested suggestively upon his stomach again.

"Shucks! Tom Flannery, if you ain't a idiot, I never saw one! To think Herbert Randolph would sleep all day! Didn't I tell you he would be right down?"

"So you did, Bob. I forgot that; but you see I wanted to be sure, cause I haven't had nothin' to eat yet today."

Bob looked at his companion with an air of disdain, and made no reply.

Tom, however, was not over sensitive, so he kept on talking about Bob's adventure at the fence. In the course of half an hour he got the whole story from the young detective. Bob not only told him his own adventures, but gave him all of Herbert's experience, which he had himself learned from our hero.

It was now about a quarter to nine. Tom looked suggestively at the big hands on the City Hall clock, but said nothing about young Randolph's non-appearance.

"I don't see what keeps him," said Bob, knowing full well what Tom was thinking about.

"Nor I don't either, Bob. I guess he won't be down very early."

"Well, there wasn't nothin' to bring him down early."

"But you expected him, didn't you, Bob?"

"Of course I did, Tom Flannery. Didn't I ask you to eat breakfast with me and him?"

"Yes, you did, Bob, and that was what I was thinking about."

"Well, what did you think about it?"

"I was wonderin' if you meant this mornin', or some other mornin'."

Tom had hardly finished this remark, when Herbert Randolph approached from the Broadway entrance and spoke to Bob.

"This is Tom Flannery, what helped me do the detective act," said the latter, by way of introduction. "You know I told you about him."

"Oh, yes, I remember, and I am glad to meet you, Tom Flannery," replied young Randolph, extending his hand to Tom.

"So am I glad to see you," said young Flannery; "me and Bob here have been waitin' for you more'n two hours."

"Oh, Tom Flannery!" exclaimed Bob. "What are you talkin' that way for?

'Tain't a quarter so much that we've been waitin', and you know it."

"Seems like 'twas a half a day to me, any way," protested Tom, with his hand again moving towards the seat of his digestion.

"The trouble is with Tom Flannery that he is always starvin'. I never see such a hungry boy," explained the young detective.

"I can't help it," answered Tom; "I like to eat."

Bob explained to Herbert that they had been waiting for him to join them for breakfast.

"I am sorry," said young Randolph, "but I ate my breakfast on the way down."

Tom Flannery was disheartened.

"Never mind, Tom," said Bob; "we will have the breakfast some other mornin'--you and me and Vermont."

When it was time for Mr. Goldwin to get down to business, our hero and the young detective started for the banking house.

A surprise awaited Felix Mortimer.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE RIVALS AT THE BANK.

"Do you s'pose we will find that Mortimer feller at the bank?" asked Bob, as he and young Randolph pa.s.sed down Broadway towards Wall Street.

"Very likely we shall," responded our hero, absentmindedly.

"If he has heard of old Gunwagner's arrest, you bet he won't be there."

"The papers contained nothing about the arrest, did they?"

"No, not as I seen."

"Then the chances are that he is there."

"So I think. But what will you do, Vermont, if he is?"

"I don't know yet."

"You won't lick him, will you?"

"Oh, no, that wouldn't be a wise policy to pursue."

"But he deserves it."

"So he does, but I can't afford to lower myself by fighting."