The Chums of Scranton High out for the Pennant Part 11

"Just what I'm up to, for a fact," a.s.serted Thad, with his jaws shutting in an energetic fashion. "You ought to know that I never give over, once I'm worked up like that business got me. Day and night I've been trying to plan a way of ridding poor deluded Matilda and her sick husband from that sleek rascal who's fastened on them for keeps."

"Well, what's new in the game, Thad?" continued Hugh, picking up his cap, and in this way proclaiming his intention of joining his chum.

"Several things have happened," admitted Thad, "though honest to goodness I can't say that they have advanced the cause a whit.

First of all Mom has capitulated, which word means she couldn't stand the strain any longer, worrying so about Matilda going hungry for lack of sewing to do to earn food for the three of them. So she and some of the other ladies sent out a bundle, and I've got another down at the door right now, to carry over to the Hosmer cottage."

"I must say I honor your mother, Thad, for being so tender-hearted,"

said Hugh, warmly.

"Of course you do, Hugh," sighed the other boy, "but it's too bad they had to give in before that big eater was starved out, and took to the road again, where he could always make sure of begging a full meal at back doors. Now he'll just decide to squat down and stick through the summer, yes and winter in the bargain, acting as if he might be almost dying every little while, and then recovering his appet.i.te _wonderfully_ soon again. Oh! it makes me furious, that's what it does."

"Well, as you've asked me to go along, Thad, I'll accommodate you; but have you any little scheme on foot today?" continued Hugh, leading the way toward the back door, since he under stood that his chum had left his bundle there before hunting him out.

"I wish I did, Hugh," replied the other, eagerly, "but try as I may, it seems to me I just can't think up anything worth while. After that grand scheme of ours fell so flat it took all the wind out of my sails. I'm trusting mostly to luck to have something come up that we can grab hold of, so as to give him a boost."

They were soon on their way. Thad talked almost incessantly, and begged his companion to try his hardest to conceive some promising plan that might turn out a shade better than the one connected with that imaginary marshal from Texas.

So they presently arrived at the Hosmer cottage. Thad did the knocking.

He had decided to go in at the slightest invitation, in hopes of meeting Brother Lu again, and ascertaining what the prospects were for his departing to the other world.

To the surprise of both boys, when they were admitted by Matilda they discovered the object of their thoughts seated in a chair, with a thick shawl across his shoulders. He looked as though he might be a trifle ill, too. At the sight of them one of his accustomed grins came over his face, now rough again with a three days' growth of gray beard.

"h.e.l.lo, boys!" the reformed tramp called out, as though really pleased to see them again; "you find me under the weather this time for keeps.

Had one of my little bad attacks, and just beginning to feel a shade better. Perhaps I'll go off in one of these spells some fine day, sooner or later. Matilda she's been a good nurse to me, and I'm beginning to believe I did the wisest thing ever when I decided to hunt my last remaining blood relative up, and stay with her till the end came."

Matilda looked pained to hear him speak in that way, but Thad was not in the least impressed. According to his mind the other had only caught a little summer cold, and which had caused him considerable distress, with its accompanying sneezing discomforts. He did not believe it was anything serious.

Determined, however, to stay a short while and study the man, in hopes of discovering some loophole through which he might be reached and made to give up his soft berth in the Hosmer home, Thad took a chair, and settled himself for a visit.

Hugh asked the man a number of questions concerning his illness, and took note of the fact that every time Brother Lu had occasion to glance toward his sister a wonderfully tender gleam would come into his blue eyes. Apparently he had learned what everybody in Scranton always knew, that Matilda Hosmer was the kindest and softest-hearted creature alive. Hugh wondered whether this knowledge might not in time cause the man to feel ashamed of imposing upon her strength and generosity, so that of his own free will he would take his departure for other scenes.

"Matilda is going to have a birthday in a few days," he confided to the boys, at a time his sister chanced to be in the kitchen, "and me'n Brother-in-law Andrew, we've made up our minds to surprise her with a little present. 'Course it can't be anything much, because we haven't a superabundance of ready cash; but Matilda, she's stood by her poor old wandering brother so handsomely I'd be glad to give her a whole hundred dollars, if only I possessed that sum."

Thad looked surprised, indeed he may have begun to suspect that after all the grizzled old hobo might not be quite so heartless as appearances would indicate. This unexampled spirit of self-sacrifice shown by Matilda was beginning to have its influence on his hard nature. As for Hugh, he listened with considerable interest, listened and sat there, watching the play of emotions across the face of Brother Lu, and forming certain opinions of his own at the same time.

While they sat there a heavy knock came at the door. Upon Matilda venturing to open the same a big man pushed his way inside, and started talking roughly in a loud, almost abusive tone.

Thad recognized him as a certain well-to-do farmer and dairyman who had an unenviable reputation as a cruel taskmaster with his hired help. He was also known to be exceedingly harsh in his treatment of any with whom he had dealings, who chanced to be unable to meet their obligations to the minute. Because he had been able to acc.u.mulate his "pile," Mr. Abel Bernard seemed to believe everyone should be capable of doing the same. If they could not afford a thing they ought to do without it. He never took excuses from anyone. It was all business with Abel---pay up or quit, was his daily motto.

Hugh, listening, quickly determined that a little more fresh trouble had dropped down upon the poor head of Matilda. She had been taking a quart of milk a day from Farmer Bernard, and the bill had run two months and more now. He shoved an account at her in a most savage manner, Thad thought, and the boy felt as if he could have kicked the grim dairyman with rare good pleasure to settle the account.

As for Hugh, if he had chanced to have the money with him just then he would only too gladly have loaned or given it to Matilda, so that she might get rid of the abusive farmer, whose very tone was harsh and rasping.

"It's my rule never to let anybody get away with more than a second month's milk," the big man was saying in that loud, abusive voice of his. "You asked me to let the account go on another spell when I handed you the same before, and now you tell me you haven't got the five dollars it calls for because some old tramp of a brother that you haven't seen for twenty years has dropped down on you, and had to be taken care of. Well, Mrs. Hosmer, I'm not helping to run a hospital, let me tell you; I've got all I can do to look after my own folks. You mustn't expect me to deliver you any more milk till you can pay this; and I hope you'll get the cash soon, too, because I've some accounts of my own I want to settle."

Matilda was near tears, for such a scene as this frightened her.

Poor old Mr. Hosmer tried to bustle forward and enter into the conversation; but the husky dairyman just brushed him aside as though he were no more than a child.

"I'm not talking to you about it, Mr. Hosmer," he went on to say, almost brutally; "it's your wife I do business with. I'll be looking to her to settle my account. And if what I hear honest folks a-sayin'

is near true, the sooner she gets rid of her disreputable brother the better for all concerned."

Matilda's eyes flashed.

"You need not add insult to injury, Mr. Bernard," she flashed, showing a little touch of spirit that Hugh hardly believed she possessed. "He is the only living tie to bind me with my long past childhood. We were once very fond of each other; and now that poor Luther has fallen sick, and fears he has not long to live, I mean to stand by him, no matter how people talk."

Brother Lu looked as though this sort of thing gave him something akin to joy. He even shot a tender glance across at Matilda, and then a triumphant one toward the two boys, as though to say: "Didn't I tell you my sister had a tender heart?"

Then he got on his feet. He really seemed a trifle weak, showing that he had actually been under the weather latterly.

"How much does my sister owe you, man?" he demanded in as stern a voice as he could command.

"Oh! does that interest you at all, Mister Weary Willie?" sneered the irate farmer; "well, if you want to know, my account is an even five dollars. Perhaps, now, you'll put your hand into your jeans pocket and hand out that amount with pleasure."

"I've got that much tied up in my old bandanna handkerchief, it happens," said Brother Lu, to the astonishment of Thad. "It's true me 'nd Brother-in-law Andrew expected to do something different with my little fortune, but then let that pa.s.s. You wait till I get it, you grasping milk raiser."

He started from the room, followed by the admiring gaze of Matilda, who evidently saw in this wonderful offer of her brother a full settlement for all the tender care and affection she had bestowed upon him during the past weeks.

Presently, after a little delay, the reformed hobo came into the room. Sure enough, he was holding a brand-new five-dollar bill in his extended hand, and there was a look of actual pleasure to be seen on his grizzled face.

"There you are, Mister Man," he said as he thrust the money at the farmer; "now you sign that bill in a hurry, and never show your face here again. We'll either find another party to deliver us milk, or go without."

Hugh saw something that gave him an unexpected thrill. It was a simple matter, and no doubt escaped Thad's attention entirely, yet it might mean a great deal. As he looked closely at the fresh and new bank bill of the denomination of five dollars, Hugh saw that it had only three distinct creases marked across its face, as though it might have been taken from some flat receptacle like a bill-book; certainly when Brother Lu declared that he had such a bill tied up in his bandanna handkerchief he prevaricated, for it would under such conditions have been crumpled instead of looking so smooth! Hugh from that moment began to smell a rat!

CHAPTER XV

THE PUZZLE IS FAR FROM BEING SOLVED

When, a little later on, the two chums came away from the Hosmer home, Thad seemed unusually quiet, for him. Hugh, noticing this, and wishing to ascertain whether the other had begun to get on the track of the truth, presently remarked:

"What makes you so glum, Thad? Coming over you rattled away like a blue streak, and now you haven't so much as said ten words since we started back home?"

"Well, to tell you the truth," admitted Thad, shaking his head after the manner of one who is sadly puzzled, "I just don't know what to say, after seeing that little affair."

"Do you mean you feel badly because Matilda was so reduced in finances that she couldn't even meet a small account like her milk bill?" asked Hugh, fishing for a bite.

"Why, yes, partly that," said Thad, slowly; "but it knocked me all in a heap to see that old rascal of a Brother Lu walk out with the last dollar he had in the wide world, and gladly hand it over to liquidate that same account. Say, if we didn't just know he was a bad one, I'd call that a really generous act."

"Oh," chuckled Hugh, "not so very generous, after all, when you come to examine things closer. Don't forget, Thad, that he's been sponging on that poor couple for a good many weeks already; and then, if our calculations are correct, he means to fasten on them for keeps."

"That's so," agreed the other, heaving a sigh as though he felt somewhat relieved in his mind to have his comrade point out a solution to the problem. "Of course, he's imposing on his relatives something shameful, and the least he could do was to toe the scratch when an emergency came along. But he did the thing up brown, I must admit."

"And then again, how do we know that five dollars was every cent he had in the world?" asked Hugh, insinuatingly.

"He said as much," declared Thad, instantly; and then laughed as he hastened to add: "though for that matter what would one little white lie mean to a fellow as case-hardened as an old hobo? There's another thing I'm thinking about, Hugh."