And so it came about that certain letters were written as mentioned in a
previous chapter, and in the evening of a dripping day early in November
John Lenox found himself, after a nine hours' journey, the only traveler
who alighted upon the platform of the Homeville station, which was near
the end of a small lake and about a mile from the village. As he stood
with his bag and umbrella, at a loss what to do, he was accosted by a
short and stubby individual with very black eyes and hair and a round
face, which would have been smooth except that it had not been shaved
for a day or two. "Goin' t' the village?" he said.
"Yes," said John, "that is my intention, but I don't see any way of
getting there."
"Carry ye over fer ten cents," said the man. "Carryall's right back the
deepo. Got 'ny baggidge?"
"Two trunks," said John.
"That'll make it thirty cents," said the native. "Where's your checks?
All right; you c'n jest step 'round an' git in. Mine's the only rig that
drew over to-night."
It was a long clumsy affair, with windows at each end and a door in the
rear, but open at the sides except for enamel cloth curtains, which
were buttoned to the supports that carried a railed roof extending as
far forward as the dashboard. The driver's seat was on a level with
those inside. John took a seat by one of the front windows, which was
open but protected by the roof.
His luggage having been put on board, they began the journey at a walk,
the first part of the road being rough and swampy in places, and
undergoing at intervals the sort of repairs which often prevails in
rural regions--namely, the deposit of a quantity of broken stone, which
is left to be worn smooth by passing vehicles, and is for the most part
carefully avoided by such whenever the roadway is broad enough to drive
round the improvement. But the worst of the way having been
accomplished, the driver took opportunity, speaking sideways over his
shoulder, to allay the curiosity which burned within him, "Guess I never
seen you before." John was tired and hungry, and generally low in his
mind.
"Very likely not," was his answer. Mr. Robinson instantly arrived at the
determination that the stranger was "stuck up," but was in no degree
cast down thereby.
"I heard Chet Timson tellin' that the' was a feller comin' f'm N'York to
work in Dave Harum's bank. Guess you're him, ain't ye?"
No answer this time: theory confirmed.
"My name's Robinson," imparted that individual. "I run the prince'ple
liv'ry to Homeville."
"Ah!" responded the passenger.
"What d'you say your name was?" asked Mr. Robinson, after he had steered
his team around one of the monuments to public spirit.
"It's Lenox," said John, thinking he might concede something to such
deserving perseverance, "but I don't remember mentioning it."
"Now I think on't, I guess you didn't," admitted Mr. Robinson. "Don't
think I ever knowed anybody of the name," he remarked. "Used to know
some folks name o' Lynch, but they couldn't 'a' ben no relations o'
your'n, I guess." This conjecture elicited no reply.
"Git up, goll darn ye!" he exclaimed, as one of the horses stumbled, and
he gave it a jerk and a cut of the whip. "Bought that hoss of Dave
Harum," he confided to his passenger. "Fact, I bought both on 'em of
him, an' dum well stuck I was, too," he added.
"You know Mr. Harum, then," said John, with a glimmer of interest. "Does
he deal in horses?"
"Wa'al, I guess I make eout to know him," asserted the "prince'ple
liv'ryman," "an' he'll git up 'n the middle o' the night any time to git
the best of a hoss trade. Be you goin' to work fer him?" he asked,
encouraged to press the question. "Goin' to take Timson's place?"
"Really," said John, in a tone which advanced Mr. Robinson's opinion to
a rooted conviction, "I have never heard of Mr. Timson."
"He's the feller that Dave's lettin' go," explained Mr. Robinson. "He's
ben in the bank a matter o' five or six year, but Dave got down on him
fer some little thing or other, an' he's got his walkin' papers. He says
to me, says he, 'If any feller thinks he c'n come up here f'm N'York or
anywheres else, he says, 'an' do Dave Harum's work to suit him, he'll
find he's bit off a dum sight more'n he c'n chaw. He'd better keep his
gripsack packed the hull time,' Chet says."
"I thought I'd sock it to the cuss a little," remarked Mr. Robinson in
recounting the conversation subsequently; and, in truth, it was not
elevating to the spirits of our friend, who found himself speculating
whether or no Timson might not be right.
"Where you goin' to put up?" asked Mr. Robinson after an interval,
having failed to draw out any response to his last effort.
"Is there more than one hotel?" inquired the passenger.
"The's the Eagle, an' the Lake House, an' Smith's Hotel," replied Jehu.
"Which would you recommend?" asked John.
"Wa'al," said Robinson, "I don't gen'ally praise up one more'n another.
You see, I have more or less dealin' with all on 'em."
"That's very diplomatic of you, I'm sure," remarked John, not at all
diplomatically. "I think I will try the Eagle."
Mr. Robinson, in his account of the conversation, said in
confidence--not wishing to be openly invidious--that "he was dum'd if he
wa'n't almost sorry he hadn't recommended the Lake House."
It may be inferred from the foregoing that the first impression which
our friend made on his arrival was not wholly in his favor, and Mr.
Robinson's conviction that he was "stuck up," and a person bound to get
himself "gen'ally disliked," was elevated to an article of faith by his
retiring to the rear of the vehicle, and quite out of ordinary range.
But they were nearly at their journey's end, and presently the carryall
drew up at the Eagle Hotel.
It was a frame building of three stories, with a covered veranda running
the length of the front, from which two doors gave entrance--one to the
main hall, the other to the office and bar combined. This was rather a
large room, and was also to be entered from the main hall.
John's luggage was deposited, Mr. Robinson was settled with, and took
his departure without the amenities which might have prevailed under
different conditions, and the new arrival made his way into the office.
Behind the bar counter, which faced the street, at one end of which was
a small high desk and at the other a glazed case containing three or
four partly full boxes of forlorn-looking cigars, but with most
ambitious labels, stood the proprietor, manager, clerk, and what not of
the hostelry, embodied in the single person of Mr. Amos Elright, who was
leaning over the counter in conversation with three or four loungers who
sat about the room with their chairs tipped back against the wall.
A sketch of Mr. Elright would have depicted a dull "complected" person
of a tousled baldness, whose dispirited expression of countenance was
enhanced by a chin whisker. His shirt and collar gave unmistakable
evidence that pajamas or other night-gear were regarded as
superfluities, and his most conspicuous garment as he appeared behind
the counter was a cardigan jacket of a frowsiness beyond compare. A
greasy neck scarf was embellished with a gem whose truthfulness was
without pretence. The atmosphere of the room was accounted for by a
remark which was made by one of the loungers as John came in. "Say,
Ame," the fellow drawled, "I guess the' was more skunk cabbidge 'n pie
plant 'n usual 'n that last lot o' cigars o' your'n, wa'n't the'?" to
which insinuation "Ame" was spared the necessity of a rejoinder by our
friend's advent.
"Wa'al, guess we c'n give ye a room. Oh, yes, you c'n register if you
want to. Where is the dum thing? I seen it last week somewhere. Oh,
yes," producing a thin book ruled for accounts from under the counter,
"we don't alwus use it," he remarked--which was obvious, seeing that the
last entry was a month old.
John concluded that it was a useless formality. "I should like something
to eat," he said, "and desire to go to my room while it is being
prepared; and can you send my luggage up now?"
"Wa'al," said Mr. Elright, looking at the clock, which showed the hour
of half-past nine, and rubbing his chin perplexedly, "supper's ben
cleared off some time ago."
"I don't want very much," said John; "just a bit of steak, and some
stewed potatoes, and a couple of boiled eggs, and some coffee." He might
have heard the sound of a slap in the direction of one of the sitters.
"I'm 'fraid I can't 'commodate ye fur's the steak an' things goes,"
confessed the landlord. "We don't do much cookin' after dinner, an' I
reckon the fire's out anyway. P'r'aps," he added doubtfully, "I c'd hunt
ye up a piece o' pie 'n some doughnuts, or somethin' like that."
He took a key, to which was attached a huge brass tag with serrated
edges, from a hook on a board behind the bar--on which were suspended a
number of the like--lighted a small kerosene lamp, carrying a single
wick, and, shuffling out from behind the counter, said, "Say, Bill,
can't you an' Dick carry the gentleman's trunks up to 'thirteen?'" and,
as they assented, he gave the lamp and key to one of them and left the
room. The two men took a trunk at either end and mounted the stairs,
John following, and when the second one came up he put his fingers into
his waistcoat pocket suggestively.
"No," said the one addressed as Dick, "that's all right. We done it to
oblige Ame."
"I'm very much obliged to you, though," said John.
"Oh, that's all right," remarked Dick as they turned away.
John surveyed the apartment. There were two small-paned windows
overlooking the street, curtained with bright "Turkey-red" cotton; near
to one of them a small wood stove and a wood box, containing some odds
and ends of sticks and bits of bark; a small chest of drawers, serving
as a washstand; a malicious little looking-glass; a basin and ewer,
holding about two quarts; an earthenware mug and soap-dish, the latter
containing a thin bit of red translucent soap scented with sassafras; an
ordinary wooden chair and a rocking-chair with rockers of divergent
aims; a yellow wooden bedstead furnished with a mattress of "excelsior"
(calculated to induce early rising), a dingy white spread, a gray
blanket of coarse wool, a pair of cotton sheets which had too obviously
done duty since passing through the hands of the laundress, and a pair
of flabby little pillows in the same state, in respect to their cases,
as the sheets. On the floor was a much used and faded ingrain carpet, in
one place worn through by the edge of a loose board. A narrow strip of
unpainted pine nailed to the wall carried six or seven wooden pegs to
serve as wardrobe. Two diminutive towels with red borders hung on the
rail of the washstand, and a battered tin slop jar, minus a cover,
completed the inventory.
"Heavens, what a hole!" exclaimed John, and as he performed his
ablutions (not with the sassafras soap) he promised himself a speedy
flitting. There came a knock at the door, and his host appeared to
announce that his "tea" was ready, and to conduct him to the
dining-room--a good-sized apartment, but narrow, with a long table
running near the center lengthwise, covered with a cloth which bore the
marks of many a fray. Another table of like dimensions, but bare, was
shoved up against the wall. Mr. Elright's ravagement of the larder had
resulted in a triangle of cadaverous apple pie, three doughnuts, some
chunks of soft white cheese, and a plate of what are known as oyster
crackers.
"I couldn't git ye no tea," he said. "The hired girls both gone out, an'
my wife's gone to bed, an' the' wa'n't no fire anyway."
"I suppose I could have some beer," suggested John, looking dubiously at
the banquet.
"We don't keep no ale," said the proprietor of the Eagle, "an' I guess
we're out o' lawger. I ben intendin' to git some more," he added.
"A glass of milk?" proposed the guest, but without confidence.
"Milkman didn't come to-night," said Mr. Elright, shuffling off in his
carpet slippers, worn out in spirit with the importunities of the
stranger. There was water on the table, for it had been left there from
supper time. John managed to consume a doughnut and some crackers and
cheese, and then went to his room, carrying the water pitcher with him,
and, after a cigarette or two and a small potation from his flask, to
bed. Before retiring, however, he stripped the bed with the intention of
turning the sheets, but upon inspection thought better of it, and
concluded to leave them as they were. So passed his first night in
Homeville, and, as he fondly promised himself, his last at the Eagle
Hotel.
When Bill and Dick returned to the office after "obligin' Ame," they
stepped with one accord to the counter and looked at the register. "Why,
darn it," exclaimed Bill, "he didn't sign his name, after all."
"No," said Dick, "but I c'n give a putty near guess who he is, all the
same."
"Some drummer?" suggested Bill.
"Naw," said Richard scornfully. "What 'd a drummer be doin' here this
time o' year? That's the feller that's ousted Chet Timson, an' I'll bet
ye the drinks on't. Name's Linx or Lenx, or somethin' like that. Dave
told me."
"So that's the feller, is it?" said Bill. "I guess he won't stay 'round
here long. I guess you'll find he's a little too toney fer these parts,
an' in pertic'ler fer Dave Harum. Dave'll make him feel 'bout as
comf'table as a rooster in a pond. Lord," he exclaimed, slapping his leg
with a guffaw, "'d you notice Ame's face when he said he didn't want
much fer supper, only beefsteak, an' eggs, an' tea, an' coffee, an' a
few little things like that? I thought I'd split."
"Yes," said Dick, laughing, "I guess the' ain't nothin' the matter with
Ame's heart, or he'd 'a' fell down dead.--Hullo, Ame!" he said when the
gentleman in question came back after ministering to his guest, "got the
Prince o' Wales fixed up all right? Did ye cut that pickled el'phant
that come last week?"
"Huh!" grunted Amos, whose sensibilities had been wounded by the events
of the evening, "I didn't cut no el'phant ner no cow, ner rob no hen
roost neither, but I guess he won't starve 'fore mornin'," and with that
he proceeded to fill up the stove and shut the dampers.
"That means 'git,' I reckon," remarked Bill as he watched the operation.
"Wa'al," said Mr. Elright, "if you fellers think you've spent enough
time droolin' 'round here swapping lies, I think _I'll_ go to bed,"
which inhospitable and injurious remark was by no means taken in bad
part, for Dick said, with a laugh:
"Well, Ame, if you'll let me run my face for 'em, Bill 'n I'll take a
little somethin' for the good o' the house before we shed the partin'
tear." This proposition was not declined by Mr. Elright, but he felt
bound on business principles not to yield with too great a show of
readiness.
"Wa'al, I don't mind for this once," he said, going behind the bar and
setting out a bottle and glasses, "but I've gen'ally noticed that it's a
damn sight easier to git somethin' _into_ you fellers 'n 't is to git
anythin' _out_ of ye."