When Kid awoke it was to the feeling that he was not alone. But a
sleepy glance around the room failed to discover anyone and it was only
when his eyes reached the door and he saw the portal slowly closing
that he was certain his senses had not deceived him. He sat up and
said, “Hi, there!” and the door reopened, revealing Mrs. Merton and Nan.
“I’m afraid we woke you, James,” said the Doctor’s wife. “I’m so sorry!”
“I guess I’ve slept enough, ma’am,” said Kid.
“Nan wanted to pay you a visit and I thought I’d just look in myself
and see that you were all right. You are better, aren’t you, much
better? You have a very good color now. Perhaps you’ll be hungry enough
to eat some supper after a while.”
“Yes’m, I’m awfully hungry now. Is it almost supper time?”
“Not for an hour. What would you like? Was the chicken broth good?”
“Yes’m, but I think I’d rather have some meat and potatoes and a cup
of cocoa and some toast and preserves and a piece of cake.” Kid paused.
Then, “or two,” he added.
Mrs. Merton smiled. “I’m afraid you can’t have all those things,”
she replied, “but perhaps a chop and a baked potato――just a small
one――won’t hurt you if you’re so hungry. And you seem to be!”
“Yes’m, I guess it was the walk――――” Kid almost bit his tongue trying
to stop.
“Walk?” echoed Mrs. Merton with a laugh. “I guess you’ve been dreaming,
James.”
“Yes’m, I think I have,” responded Kid with gusto. “I――I dreamed I was
walking on the railroad and a train came along――” But he stopped again.
Maybe he had better not overdo it. “And――and that’s all I remember,” he
added.
Mrs. Merton and Nan laughed.
“Well, I’ll see that your supper is hearty enough to satisfy that
hunger, James. Shall I leave Nan here a few minutes? Or would you
rather sleep again?”
“No’m, I’d like her to stay, please.”
So Mrs. Merton departed and Nan drew a chair to the side of the bed.
“You are better, aren’t you, Kid?” she asked anxiously.
Kid nodded. “I’m all right,” he assured her. “I could eat the roof off
the house, I’m so hungry.”
“That’s nice! I wanted to come and see you before, but mama thought I’d
better wait until now. Did you like the book I sent?”
“I――I haven’t read much of it yet,” replied Kid. “You see, I slept a
good deal.”
Nan nodded. “You will like it when you do read it,” she said. “You’ll
be perfectly crazy about it! How far have you got?”
“Not very far,” answered Kid, avoiding her eyes. “Say, Nan, want to do
me a favor?”
“Of course!”
“Then you sneak downstairs and look in the Encyclopedia Britannica and
get a story-paper I left in it, will you? It’s called ‘Hairbreadth
Harry, the Gentleman Scout,’ and if anyone finds it I’ll get thunder.
Will you? I think it’s in the fifth volume, but you try them all. If
you want to, I’ll let you read it when I’m through.”
Nan’s nose went up in disdain. “One of those horrid detective stories,”
she said. “Thank you, but I don’t care for such literature, Kid!”
“Detective story nothing! It’s an Indian story; I should think you
could tell that by the name! And, anyhow, it’s a heap more interesting
than a story all filled with girls and dolls and――and Christmas
presents!”
“For those that like it,” replied Nan in a superior manner. “You know
you’re not allowed to have dime novels, Kid, and papa said――――”
“It isn’t a dime novel; it’s a half-dime novel, Miss Smarty!”
“Well, if you get caught reading it――――”
“I’ll tell them you lent it to me,” declared Kid with a wicked grin.
“So you’d better go down and get it for me.”
“If I do you must promise that you won’t read any more of them in
school, Kid.” Nan was very earnest, and Kid reflected a moment. After
all, he could afford to make the promise for it would soon be warm
enough to read outdoors, and that wouldn’t be reading “in school.”
So he said, “All right,” and Nan stole downstairs for “Hairbreadth
Harry.” Kid crawled out of bed then and found the note he had written
to Stanley. His first impulse was to save it, for it had cost him much
effort and it was barely possible that he might decide to carry out his
running away project later. But a hasty perusal of it showed him that
the note wouldn’t answer at all for another occasion and so he tore it
into little pieces and dropped them behind the radiator where they
wouldn’t be found for a very long time. Then he scuttled back into bed
just in time, for Nan knocked a second later and entered empty-handed.
“I couldn’t get it,” she announced. “There are lots of boys down there
and as soon as I took one of the books out Steve Lovell came over and
wanted to know what I was looking up, and I couldn’t think of anything
and so I said ‘Nothing, thanks,’ and came away. I’m sorry, Kid.”
Kid nodded. “All right. I guess I can get it in the morning.”
Nan sat down again and in doing so kicked one of Kid’s shoes which he
had placed under the bed. Being an orderly young lady, Nan reached
down to put the shoe in its place again. Then there was an exclamation
of surprise, and she was holding one wet shoe up and staring at it
bewilderedly.
“Why, Kid, look at your shoe!” she cried.
Kid looked. “Wh-what’s the matter with it?” he asked innocently.
“Why, it’s soaking wet, just _soaking_! And inside, too! Kid, you
_have_ been out!”
“Out! Me?” Kid laughed disdainfully.
“Then how did your shoes get wet?”
Kid thought hard. “I suppose,” he observed, “that I wore them in my
dream. I remember it was very sloppy on the railroad track――――”
“The idea! You don’t expect me to believe that, do you?”
“Why not?” asked Kid stoutly. “I did dream that I was walk――――”
“You’ve been outdoors, Kid, and you know it; and I know it too, and so
there’s no use fibbing about it. You might have caught your death, and
I’ve a good mind to tell mama――――”
“I don’t see any use in making such a fuss about it,” he protested.
“A fellow can’t stay cooped up here all day when there’s nothing the
matter with him; he needs fresh air; every doctor says you need fresh
air!”
“Every doctor doesn’t say you need wet feet,” replied Nan severely.
“Where did you go?”
“Who go?”
“You.”
“Me? Where’d I go? Oh, just――just around.” Kid waved an arm vaguely
toward the north and east. “Just for a walk. Perhaps――perhaps you’d
better put them over by the radiator.”
“And have everyone see that they’re wet! Very well, if you want to get
into trouble I will.”
“I guess you’d better not,” said Kid.
“Humph!” Nan placed the shoes carefully on their sides and as far under
the bed as she could reach and there was silence. Finally, “Of course,
if you don’t want to tell me, all right,” she observed.
“I will tell you some time,” said Kid. “I can’t now; it――it’s a secret.”
“I won’t breathe a word of it to anyone,” said Nan eagerly.
But Kid, looking important, shook his head. “I’d like to, Nan, honest,
but――but I mustn’t now. Some day――――”
“You’ll forget all about it,” she charged.
“No, I won’t. Not likely!” Kid sighed. “A fellow doesn’t forget――such
things!”
“What things?”
“Er――like that.”
Nan studied him a moment and Kid stood the ordeal rather well. But Nan
wasn’t satisfied. “You just don’t want to tell me,” she said at last.
“You could if you wanted to. And I think you might, Kid.”
“Haven’t I told you it’s a secret?” he asked testily. “You don’t expect
a fellow to――to go back on his word, do you?”
Nan was silenced for a moment. Then, “Well, is it――is it anything about
money?” she questioned.
“Money? What money?” asked Kid evasively.
“The money you owe the boys.”
“Who says I owe them any money?”
“They say so. They say you made them think you needed it because your
folks had lost all their money, and then you went down to the village
and spent it all on candy and sweets. That Morgan boy says you could
be――be persecuted for false pretenses.”
“I never said my folks had lost their money,” denied Kid indignantly.
“They――they just thought that themselves. And, anyhow, the tablets were
all right and worth the money they paid for them. I can show you heaps
of testimonials.”
“Well, they say you ought to take the tablets back and return their
money, Kid.”
“I’m willing,” replied Kid instantly, looking quite noble. “Any fellow
who has a full box left can come and get his money any time, and you
may tell them so from me.”
“But you know very well none of them has a full box, Kid; they’ve all
tried them.”
“That’s not my fault. You can’t expect me to――to take back damaged
goods, Nan. No one ever does that.”
“I think you ought to,” said Nan sadly.
“And lose money myself?” he asked. “That would be fine, wouldn’t it?
Any fellow with a full box――――”
“Oh!”
“What?” asked Kid suspiciously.
Nan smiled. “I――I just thought of something.”
“What is it?” he asked uneasily.
“Why, one of us can donate a box of tablets to the others. There are
fifty tablets in each box and no one has eaten more than one of them.
That leaves forty-nine――――”
“Oh, if you want to cheat!” said Kid indignantly.
“And those forty-nine would fill all the other boxes, don’t you see?”
Kid saw, but didn’t seem appreciative. “That’s dishonest,” he declared
warmly. “And no one but a girl would think of such a――a low, sneaky
thing!”
“It’s not nearly so sneaky as getting money to help your family and
then spending it on candy!” Nan retorted.
“I didn’t ask for their old money to help my family. I never said there
was anything wrong with my family!”
“You must have, Kid. Everyone believed it. Why, papa was talking about
it and saying what a fine boy you were to――to try to earn money.
And mama was so sorry for your poor mother. And I thought you were
a regular hero, like you read of in books. And now you’ve gone and
spoiled it all!”
“I never!” muttered Kid. “And, anyhow, if they get their money back
again I don’t see what they’ve got to be sore about!”
“You know you can’t pay them back now, Kid; you’ve spent all the money,
I guess.”
“I have, have I? That’s all you know about it! I’ve got plenty of money
to pay everyone back――if I want to.”
“Where’d you get it, Kid?”
“That’s my affair,” he replied haughtily. “I’ve got it.”
“Is it――is it honest?” she asked anxiously.
“Of course it’s honest! You make me tired, Nan. A girl never knows
anything about――about finance, anyway.”
“And you’ll really pay the boys back, Kid?”
“Every one of them. You may tell them so.”
“I will. They’ll be so glad. And――and I’m sure you’ll feel better about
it, too.”
Perhaps he would, but he didn’t say so. And after she had gone he tried
to figure out in his head how many boxes would be returned and how much
his ill-advised and now regretted promise would cost him.
As it happened the first boy Nan encountered was Lanny. Lanny was
coming upstairs as Nan was going down and Nan told him at once how
willing Kid was to make amends. Lanny hearkened and was struck with a
brilliant thought.
“I wouldn’t say anything to any of the fellows about it to-night,” he
said. “They――they’d just bother poor Kid, you see, and he isn’t well
enough to stand it yet. If I were you, Nan, I’d wait until to-morrow.”
“We-ll,” she hesitated. “All right, Lanny. Don’t you say anything about
it, either, will you?”
“No, indeed,” he answered emphatically. “I won’t say a word!”
And he didn’t. What he did do was go up to his room and count his
money. Including the fifty cents he had promised to the trophy fund,
he possessed exactly ninety-four cents. Luckily for his purpose, it
was mostly in dimes and nickels. He put the money in his pocket and
hurried downstairs again. Sam Perkins was easily persuaded to give up
his box of Tinkham’s Throat-Ease for five cents, but George Waters
held out for ten and the deal fell through for the time. Bert wanted
to sell, but explained that he hadn’t paid for his box yet and thought
he oughtn’t to. Small’s box was short five tablets and he was glad to
take a nickel for what remained. By supper time Lanny was the possessor
of seven boxes of Throat-Ease for which he had expended the trifling
sum of forty cents. (Fearing a rise in the market, he had paid George
Waters the price demanded.) After supper he tried to secure more,
but the rumor had gone around that Lanny was buying Tinkham’s and
the price ascended to ten cents and finally to fifteen. He took over
Sewall Crandall’s holdings at ten, and stopped. By that time the market
was pretty nearly exhausted and Lanny’s only regret was that he had
so foolishly thrown away his own box in a fit of anger. He still had
forty-four cents in capital left and he hoped to be able to acquire a
few more boxes from day pupils in the morning before it became known
that Kid was willing to buy back at the original price. Just to be sure
that he wasn’t wasting his money, Lanny popped his head in Kid’s door
during the evening. Kid was making an effort to study his Latin. It
was something of a come-down from wafting over the sea on the deck of
a merchantman to grinding over Latin in bed, and Kid was not happy. He
scowled at Lanny’s face in the doorway and told him to “beat it.”
“They say you’re going to do the right thing, Kid,” he observed
questioningly, disregarding Kid’s hostility and smiling brightly upon
him.
“What right thing?” growled Kid.
“Why, buy back those tablets you sold us.”
“Well, what if I am? That doesn’t concern you, does it? You threw yours
away.”
“I know I did. But maybe I found ’em again, Kid.”
“Maybe that’s a whopper! I found them myself and sold them to ‘Toots’
Morgan.”
“You hadn’t any business to; they were mine!”
“You threw them away, didn’t you? And I found them, didn’t I? But if
you want a box, Lanny, I’ll sell you one to-morrow for fifteen cents.
The price has gone down.” And Kid smiled engagingly.
Lanny returned the smile. “You bet it has!” he agreed. “Good night,
Kid.”
Kid stared at the door for a full minute after it had closed. “Now what
did he mean by that?” he asked himself crossly. “He always talks that
way when he’s up to some mean trick!”
Of course everyone wanted to know why Lanny was buying up Tinkham’s
Throat-Ease and Lanny’s replies were so far from satisfactory that he
spent a most unpleasant evening. In the morning he was around bright
and early, waiting for the day scholars to appear, but Nan was earlier.
Lanny managed to make only two purchases at five cents a box before the
news got around that Tinkham’s Throat-Ease was quoted at twenty-five
cents. Waters found Lanny and offhandedly offered him twelve cents for
the return of his box.
“I guess I’d better keep them, Lanny,” he said. “I might have a cold
any time, you see. They’re nasty, but I guess they’re good for you.
What do you say? Got my box with you?”
Lanny grinned. “Price has gone up, George, since you sold. They’re
worth twenty-five this morning.”
Waters expressed his opinion of Lanny at some length, but Lanny didn’t
wait to hear it all. He wanted to find Kid. It didn’t seem plausible
to him that Kid had enough money on hand to redeem all the Tinkham’s
that would be offered, and he wanted to get there early. But Kid was
elusive. Sam Perkins didn’t know where Kid was and offered Lanny ten
cents for the box of tablets he had sold the evening before for five.
Lanny expressed his regrets and hurried away. The word that followed
him sounded very much like “Cheat!” Not discovering Kid indoors, Lanny
dashed outside.
“He’s hiding,” he muttered. “He doesn’t want to pay up!”
That, however, was not quite the true explanation of Kid’s absence from
his usual haunts. To be sure, Kid did not want to “pay up,” but he was
not hiding. He was facing Dr. Merton in the latter’s office, whither he
had been summoned a few minutes before. No, Kid wasn’t hiding, but he
wished he were!