It was a strange, uncanny form which stood for a moment in the heavy
shadows beside the door ere, with slow and shuffling footsteps, it
advanced toward them. Some dark covering fell straight from head to
feet, and of the face nothing was visible save the eyes which seemed to
gleam balefully from the depths of a hood. At the throat the dancing
light fell upon the fingers of one hand which clasped the edges of the
garment together.
Nelson and Bob found themselves on their feet behind the anvil, although
they afterwards had no recollection of having risen. Nelson edged slowly
toward the forge, one hand unconsciously reaching backward for a section
of the soap box. Bob held his ground and tried to find his voice, but
his mouth opened twice before any words issued. And all the while the
mysterious, fearsome figure in the dark drapery moved slowly, inexorably
toward them across the floor, its shadow gigantically grotesque and
horrible, dancing behind it against the farther wall.
"Wh-wh-who--wh-wh-what--?" stammered Bob nervously.
The figure paused, the eyes glittering menacingly in the light from the
leaping flames.
"I come," said a deep voice, "I come----!"
Nelson seized the stick of wood and held it above his head.
"You come any nearer and you'll get this in the head!" he cried. The
dark-robed figure seemed to pause, and Bob found his courage.
"Who in thunder are you?" he asked angrily. "What do you want here?"
"I come," began the deep voice again, "I come in three-pound,
five-pound, and ten-pound packages; also in glass jars. A rubber band----"
"_Tommy!_" cried Nelson.
"_Tommy!_" growled Bob.
The robe, which suddenly turned out to be a much-bedraggled gray
blanket, dropped to the floor and Tom's grinning face confronted them.
"Hello, you fellows," said Tom. "What you scared of?"
"You, you little knock-kneed, bandy-legged, cross-eyed runt!" answered
Bob angrily. "And for two cents I'd----!"
"Hold up, Bob," interposed Nelson. "It's only Tommy, and he isn't
accountable for what he does, you know. Where the dickens have you been,
Tommy, and what are you doing here? How did you happen to find us?"
"I'll tell you all about it in a minute," answered Tom. "But I've got to
get warm first. I'm wet through and beastly cold. If you think Bob isn't
dangerous I'd like to get to that fire."
"Oh, Bob won't eat you," answered Nelson. "Come on and get dry. Great
Scott, Tommy, I should say you were wet! Give me that blanket and I'll
hang it up here over the bellows. You'd better take those shoes off,
too; if they are shoes, that is; they look like gobs of mud."
Tom backed up to the fire and beamed humorously at Bob.
"You're an awful little ass, Tommy," said Bob finally, suppressing a
smile. "Where have you been?"
"Wait a bit," Nelson interrupted. "Here's my oilskin, Tommy. Take off
your coat and trousers and slip this on. You'll get dry a heap quicker."
Tom followed instructions and then, with his back to the fire, which
Nelson replenished with the remains of the soap box, and his hands in
the pockets of the oilskin coat, he explained.
"I'll tell you the story of my wanderings," began Tom. "When I woke up
on the beach--Say, where's Dan?" he interrupted himself to ask
wonderingly. Nelson told him of that youth's sudden resolution and
departure and Tom continued. "Well, I suppose it was Dan that thought up
that joke on me. It was awfully smart--I don't think!"
"I was afraid you wouldn't appreciate it," said Bob regretfully.
"You wait till I get him!" threatened Tom. "Well, when I woke up the
launch was gone and the fog was so thick I could kick holes in it. I
thought you fellows had gone around the point and so I started after
you. But I got into the woods and lost my way; fooled around there
pretty near half an hour, I guess. Finally I found my way out and
trailed across a turnip patch, or cauliflower grove, or something, and
came to a golf course. I had a lovely time there. Strolled all over it,
I guess, and saw all the sights--which weren't very many, after all, on
account of the fog. And I got very soppy and beastly hungry. If I'd met
a caddy it would have been all up with him then and there; I'd have
picked his little bones quite clean. But I didn't meet a soul--except the
flag at the fourteenth hole, and that was made of tin and couldn't be
eaten. After a while, I don't know how long, I heard music. Thought
first I'd died and got to heaven; but I hadn't. I'd only got to the
Seamont Inn."
"What's that?" asked Nelson.
"Shut up and I'll tell you. It's a dandy big old summer hotel with about
three hundred swells stopping at it. And palms and orchestra chaps in
red pyjamas and all sorts of frills. Well, I butted in out of the fog
with my blanket nicely folded over my arm and my feet wringing wet and
no cap nor anything and strolled up to the desk. All the old gentlemen
around the fireplace were staring at me just as though I was President
Roosevelt."
"I can fancy the resemblance," said Bob dryly.
"Well, I asked as big as life for the manager and they sent for him. He
was a nice-looking young chap and I told him who I was and all about it.
He seemed to think it awfully funny and asked me into his private office
and made me tell him all over again about it. Then he wanted to know
what I was after. I told him I was after something to eat, principally.
So he sent me down to what they called the 'ordinary,' which is a young
dining room where the nurses and kids eat, and pretty soon I was
wallowing in coffee and rolls and beefsteak and Spanish omelet and----"
"Oh, hush!" begged Nelson.
"--and some sort of griddle cakes. It was fine. Afterwards I went back to
the manager chap and thanked him. 'And now what are you going to do?' he
asked. Well, I didn't know. I didn't feel like setting out to hunt you
fellows again and I told him so. But, of course, I didn't have any money
with me, not a red cent, and I told him that, too. So he said I could
stay there if I wanted until the next day. But he sort of suggested that
I'd better keep out of sight, seeing as I wasn't exactly dressed for a
party. There was an eight-course dinner at one o'clock, although they
called it luncheon, and I did pretty well, considering that I'd had my
breakfast about two hours before. At the table there was a young fellow
about my age and we got to talking. He was the head bell boy; 'Captain'
he called himself; and he went to school at St. Something-or-other's in
Connecticut. We had a long chin and I found that the bell boys were all
schoolfellows, and after luncheon I went up with him and met some of
them. They were dandy fellows and I said I wouldn't mind a job there
myself. So the Captain--his name was Roberts--said if I meant it he'd take
me on, because they had lost two boys and hadn't found any new ones yet.
So I said 'Me for the ice-water pitchers!'"
"Well, if you're not the craziest dub, Tommy!" laughed Nelson.
"Roberts handed me out a nice little plum-colored uniform; long
trousers, a monkey jacket with four thousand little round brass buttons
down the front and a funny little round cap with a line of gilt braid
chasing over the top of it. And a fellow named McCarthy lent me a pair
of shoes, because mine weren't fit to be seen. So I was fixed. But the
sad part of it was that as soon as I got to be a bell boy I didn't eat
in the ordinary. And we didn't get any of the frills. But there was
enough of it; you could have all you wanted, you know. I went on duty at
six o'clock. There were seven of us and I tell you we were busy! Along
about nine o'clock everything began to happen at once; ice water, find
the chambermaid, bring sea water in a bucket, find out why the electric
light didn't work, get a plate of oatmeal crackers, find lost kids
and--oh, everything! And the bell in the office was thumping holes in
itself. But it was pretty good fun. And when you got to the fourth floor
you could slide nearly three flights on the banister rail--if no one saw
you. But along about twelve or half-past I thought my legs were coming
off. They wouldn't let us ride on the elevator unless we were showing
some one to his room and the stairs were fierce. They let me off at one
o'clock and I couldn't wait to get my clothes off. I guess I've lost ten
pounds."
Nelson hooted.
"Where did you sleep?" asked Bob.
"In the Servants' Hall, as they called it; a building back of the hotel
with a lot of little rooms with iron beds in them. I could have slept on
the office floor or on top of the elevator cage that night! To-day I
didn't have to go to work until twelve o'clock, and I was glad of it, I
tell you, for my legs were stiff as anything! They're stiff yet," added
Tom, stretching them carefully as though he was afraid they might break
off, "but not so bad; they've got limbered up now."
"Did they let you off early?" asked Nelson.
Tom shook his head smilingly.
"No," he answered. "I severed my connection with the Seamont Inn at
exactly half-past eight. It was this way. I got a call to Room 86. When
I went up there an old codger with a white mustache and a red face
lighted into me for not coming sooner; said he'd been ringing for ten
minutes and I was the slowest boy he'd ever seen and needed to have some
of the fat worked off me. I said I'd bet I could beat him to the end of
the hall and back and he got waxy about it; said he was going to send
for the manager and have me discharged. I told him to go ahead. So I
went downstairs and resigned before the old codger could report me. The
manager chap said he guessed I wasn't cut out for a bell boy. I asked
him if I owed him anything and he said No, I'd worked it off. He was
very decent about it. I told him I'd be glad to pay him, though, if he
thought I owed him anything and he wanted to know how. 'Thought you said
you didn't have any money?' said he. I told him I didn't have any when I
got there, but that I'd made four dollars and seventy-five cents in
tips. He thought that was funny, too; he had a keen sense of humor for a
hotel man. But he said we were square, and so I thanked him and shook
hands with him and changed my clothes. Roberts was sorry I was going;
said they all had trouble with the red-faced old idiot."
"He ought to have spanked you, just the same," said Bob.
Tom grinned.
"He'd have tried it, I guess, if he'd had any clothes on to speak of.
Well, I called up the hotel in New London on the 'phone and asked if you
fellows had been there and they said you had and had left word that I
was to come to the wharf by the ferry slip. So when it stopped raining I
started to walk it; they said it was only three and a half miles. But
about the time I was half way it began to pour like anything. I got
under a tree for a while, but that wasn't any good and so I came on.
When I saw this light I thought it was a house. But while I was trying
to find the doorbell I heard you fellows talking. I heard Bob say 'I
guess I'm like Tommy.' Then I opened the door a bit and peeped in.
That's all."
"And you thought it would be a fine joke to scare the life out of us,
eh?" asked Bob.
Tom nodded.
"Well, you came pretty near to doing it. I never saw a more outlandish
object than you were when you came through the door!"
"Why didn't you go back to the cove yesterday afternoon?" asked Nelson.
"I was bell-boying," answered Tom calmly. "Besides, you fellows were
having your joke and I thought you might as well enjoy it."
"It would have served you jolly well right," replied Bob severely, "if
we'd gone on and left you."
"I wouldn't have cared."
"Oh, no, I suppose not," said Nelson sarcastically. "I'd like to know
what you'd have done."
"Stayed right there until I'd made another dollar or two and gone on to
New York to Dan's house."
"Huh! Dan's father would have thrown you off the doorsteps! Think he'd
have taken in such a looking thing as you were?"
"I'd have risked it," laughed Tom. "When's Dan coming back?"
"To-morrow morning. And as soon as he does we're going to make trades
for New Haven. I'm tired of loafing around here doing nothing but hunt
for idiots," said Nelson.
"Meaning me, dearie?" asked Tom. "Hope you choke. Say, can we get back
to the boat to-night? It's raining harder than ever."
"What time is it?" asked Nelson. "Got your watch on, Bob?"
"Quarter to twelve," answered Bob. "I vote we stay here and be as
comfortable as we can. Is there any more wood?"
"Plenty. There are two or three old gunny sacks around and we can spread
those out, put our oilskins on top and sleep finely. We can spread
Tommy's blanket over us."
So, after building the fire up high, they followed Nelson's plan and,
lying close together for warmth, were soon asleep, with the rain pelting
a lullaby on the leaky roof.
They awoke shivering at seven o'clock and started back to town. The sun
was out bright and a mile of the muddy road warmed them up. They reached
the hotel at half-past eight and went through the entire bill of fare.
But it took time and consequently it was almost ten when they crossed
the railroad tracks at the station and walked down the wharf. They had
left Barry on board the evening before and Bob was calling himself names
for deserting him for so long when Nelson, who was a few yards ahead,
uttered a cry of astonishment and stopped dead in his tracks.
"What's the row?" asked Bob, hurrying to his side.
Nelson looked dazedly at Bob and then at the water below them. And Bob
and Tom, following his eyes with their own, understood. The _Vagabond_
had disappeared.