QUICK ACTION
A dirty-faced clock on the wall told Betty that it was within twenty
minutes of the time their train was due. However, they were within
sight of the station, so, provided Bob was quickly waited upon, there
was no reason to worry about missing the connection.
Bob came back, balancing the sandwiches and milk precariously, and
they proceeded to make a hearty lunch, their appetites sharpened by
the clear Western air, in a measure compensating for the sawdust
bread and the extreme blueness of the milk.
"What are those men laughing about, I wonder," commented Betty idly,
as a fresh burst of laughter came from the table in the corner of the
room. "What a noise they make! Bob, do I imagine it, or does this
bread taste of oil?"
Bob laughed, and glanced over his shoulder to make sure the
counter-man could not hear.
"Do you know, I thought that very thing," he confessed. "I wasn't
going to mention it, for fear you'd think I was obsessed with the
notion of oil. To tell you the truth, Betsey, I think this bread has
been near the kerosene oil can, not an oil well."
"Well, we can drink the milk," said Betty philosophically. "It's
lucky one sandwich apiece was good. Oh, won't it be fine to get to
Flame City and see Uncle Dick! I want to get where we are going,
Bob!"
"Sure you do," responded Bob sympathetically, frowning with annoyance
as another hoarse burst of laughter came from the corner table. "But
I'm afraid Flame City isn't going to be much of a place after all."
"I don't care what kind of place it is," declared Betty firmly. "All
I want is to see Uncle Dick and be with him. And I want you to find
your aunts. And I'd like to go to school with the Littell girls next
fall. And that's all."
Bob smiled, then grew serious.
"I'd like to go to school myself," he said soberly. "Precious little
schooling I've had, Betty. I've read all I could, but you can't get
anywhere without a good, solid foundation. Well, there'll be time
enough to worry about that when school time comes. Just now it is
vacation."
"Bob!"--Betty spoke swiftly--"look what those men are doing--teasing
that poor Chinaman. How can they be so mean!"
Sure enough, one of the group had slouched forward in his chair, and
over his bent shoulders Bob and Betty could see an unhappy Chinaman,
clutching his knife and fork tightly and looking with a hunted
expression in his slant eyes from one to another of his tormentors.
They were evidently harassing him as he ate, for while they watched
he took a forkful of the macaroni on the plate before him, and
attempted to convey it to his mouth. Instantly one of the men
surrounding him struck his arm sharply, and the food flew into the
air. Then the crowd laughed uproariously.
"Isn't that perfectly disgusting!" scolded Betty. "How any one can
see anything funny in doing that is beyond me. Oh, now look--they've
got his slippers."
The unfortunate Chinaman's loose flat slippers hurtled through the
air, narrowly missing Betty's head.
"Come on, we're going to get out of this," said Bob determinedly,
rising from his seat. "Those chaps once start rough-housing, no
telling where they'll bring up. We want to escape the dishes, and
besides we haven't any too much time to make our train."
He had paid for their food when he ordered it, so there was nothing
to hinder their going out. Bob started for the door, supposing that
Betty was following. But she had seen something that roused her
anger afresh.
The poor Celestial was essaying an ineffectual protest at the
treatment of his slippers, when a man opposite him reached over and
snatched his plate of food.
"China for Chinamen!" he shouted, and with that clapped the plate
down on the unfortunate victim's head with so much force that it
shivered into several pieces.
Betty could never bear to see a person or an animal unfairly
treated, and when, as now, the odds were all against one, she became
a veritable little fury. As Bob had once said in a mixture of
admiration and despair she wasn't old enough to be afraid of anything
or anybody.
"How dare you treat him like that!" she cried, running to the table
where the Chinaman sat in a daze. "You ought to be arrested! If you
must torment some one, why don't you get somebody who can fight
back?"
The men stared at her open-mouthed, bewildered by her unexpected
championship of their bait. Then a great, coarse, blowzy-faced man,
with enormous grease spots on his clothes, winked at the others.
"My eye, we've a visitor," he drawled. "Sit down, my dear, and John
Chinaman shall bring you chop suey for lunch."
Betty drew back as he put out a huge hand.
"You leave her alone!" Bob had come after Betty and stood glaring at
the greasy individual. "Anybody who'll treat a foreigner as you've
treated that Chinaman isn't fit to speak to a girl!"
A concerted growl greeted this statement.
"If you're looking for a fight," snarled a younger man, "you've
struck the right place. Come on, or eat your words."
Now Bob was no coward, but there were five men arrayed against him
with a probable sixth in the form of the counter-man who was watching
the turn of affairs with great interest from the safe vantage-point
of his high counter. It was too much to expect that any men who had
dealt with a defenceless and handicapped stranger as these had dealt
with the Chinaman would fight fair. Besides, Bob was further hampered
by the terrified Betty who clung tightly to his arm and implored him
not to fight. It seemed to the lad that the better part of valor
would be to take to his heels.
"You cut for the station," he muttered swiftly to Betty. "Get the
bags--train's almost due. I'll run up the street and lose 'em
somewhere on the way. They won't touch you."
He said this hardly moving his lips, and Betty did not catch every
word. But she heard enough to understand what was expected of her
and what Bob planned to do. She loosened her hold on his arm.
Like a shot, Bob made for the door, banged the screen open wide
(Betty heard it hit the side of the building), and fled up the
straggling, uneven street. Instantly the five toughs were in pursuit.
Betty heard the counter-man calling to her, but she ran from the
place and sped toward the station. It was completely deserted, and a
written sign proclaimed that the 1:52 train was ten minutes late.
Betty judged that the ticket agent, with whom they had left their
bags, would return in time to check them out, and she sat down on one
of the dusty seats in the fly-specked waiting-room to wait for the
arrival of Bob.
That young man, as he ran, was racking his brains for a way to elude
his pursuers. There were no telegraph poles to climb, and even if
there had been, he wanted to get to Betty and the station, not be
marooned indefinitely. He glanced back. The hoodlums, for such they
were, were gaining on him. They were out of training, but their
familiarity with the walks gave them a decided advantage. Bob had to
watch out for holes and sidewalk obstructions.
He doubled down a street, and then the solution opened out before
him. There was a grocery store, evidently a large shop, for he had
noticed the front door on the street where the restaurant was
situated. Now he was approaching the rear entrance and a number of
packing cases cluttered the walk, and excelsior was lying about. A
backward glance showed him that the enemy had not yet rounded the
corner. Bob dived into the store.
"Hide me!" he gasped, running plump into a white-haired man in
overalls who was whistling "Ben Bolt" and opening cases of canned
peaches with pleasant dexterity. "Hide me quick. There's a gang after
me--five of 'em!"
"Under the counter, Sonny," said the groceryman, hardly looking at
Bob. "Just lay low, and trust Micah Davis to 'tend to the scamps."
Bob crawled under the nearest counter and in a few minutes he heard
the men at the door.
"'Lo, Davis," said one conciliatingly. "Seen anything of a fresh
kid--freckled, good clothes, right out of the East? He tried to pass
some bad money at Jake Hill's. Seen him?"
Bob nearly denounced this lie, but common sense saved him. Small use
in seeking protection and then refusing it.
"Haven't seen anybody like that," said the groceryman positively.
"Quit bruising those tomatoes, Bud."
"Well, he won't get out of town," stated Bud sourly. "There's a girl
with him, and they're figuring on taking the one-fifty-two. We're
going down and picket the station. If Mr. Smarty gets on that train
at all, his face won't look so pretty."
They tramped off, and Bob came out from his hiding place.
"They're a nice bunch!" he declared bitterly. "I got into a row with
'em because they were teasing a poor Chinaman and Betty Gordon landed
on them for that. Then I tried to get her away from the place, and of
course that started a fight. But I suppose they can dust the station
with me if they're set on it--only I'll register a few protests."
"Now, now, we ain't a-going to have no battle," announced the genial
Mr. Davis. "I knew Bud was lying soon as I looked at him. Why? 'Cause
I never knew him to tell the truth. As for picketing the station,
well, there's more ways than one to skin a cat."