THE ROBBERY
The answer came back promptly.
In addition to the catalogue and pictures of the Hall and grounds, Dr.
Rally wrote a personal letter. It was in a stiff, precise handwriting
that seemed to indicate the character of the man.
He would be very glad to take the Rushton boys under his care. He
thought he was not exaggerating when he said that the standard of
scholarship at Rally Hall was not exceeded by any institution of a
similar kind in the entire state. Their staff of instructors was
adequate, and their appliances were strictly up to date. There was a
good gymnasium, and the physical needs of the boys were looked after
with the same care as their mental and moral requirements.
But what he laid especial stress upon was the discipline. This came
under his own personal supervision, and he thought he could promise Mr.
Rushton that there would be no weakness or compromise in this important
particular.
"That's the stuff!" broke in Uncle Aaron, gleefully rubbing his hands.
"What did I tell you? Hardach Rally is the one to make boys mind."
Fred and Teddy failed to share his enthusiasm, and Mrs. Rushton shivered
slightly.
But, taken as a whole, the letter met the views of Mr. Mansfield
Rushton, and when the family council broke up, it was definitely settled
that the boys should go to Rally Hall.
Old Martha was "dead sot," as she put it, against the whole plan.
"Ain' no good goin' to kum uv it," she grumbled to herself, as she
jammed her hands viciously into the dough. "House'll seem like a
graveyard wen dose po' boys get shunted off ter dat ole bo'din' school.
Like enuf dey won't giv' um half enuf ter eat. An' all on 'count uv dat
ole w'ited sepulker," she wound up disgustedly.
But Uncle Aaron, wholly indifferent to Martha's views even if he had
known them, was in high feather. He had carried his point, and, in the
satisfaction this gave him, he became almost good-natured. He could even
allow himself a wintry smile at times, as he reflected that the
boys--the "pests," as he called them to himself--were to get a taste of
the discipline that their souls needed.
"He'll show them what's what," he chuckled. "He'll either bend 'em or
break 'em. I know Hardach Rally."
As for Fred and Teddy themselves, they hardly knew whether to be glad or
sorry.
They loved their home and their parents, and then, too, they hated to
leave their boy friends with whom they had grown up in the home town.
But, on the other hand, there was the attraction of new sights and
places and all the adventures that might come to them. It was another
world into which they were going, and it was not in boy nature that they
should not be thrilled by the prospect of "fresh fields and pastures
new."
But before the time came for their departure, Oldtown had a sensation
that turned it topsy-turvy.
The village store was robbed!
The first thing the boys knew about it was when they heard a whistle
under their windows that they recognized as that of Jack Youmans. They
stuck sleepy heads out to see what had brought him there at that early
hour.
"Hurry up, fellows!" he cried excitedly. "Get your clothes on and come
down. There's something doing."
"What is it?" they asked in chorus.
"Never you mind," answered Jack, swelling with a sense of his
importance. "You get a move on and come down."
They slipped into their clothes and in less than three minutes were down
beside him. He made them beg a little before he finally gave up his
secret.
"The store was robbed last night," he said importantly.
"The store!" exclaimed the boys. There was no need of specifying, as
there was only one store in Oldtown of any importance.
"How did it happen?" asked Fred.
"Did they get much?" questioned Teddy.
"They don't know yet," replied Jack to both questions. "A fellow came
past our house a little while ago, and he called to my dad, who was
working in the garden, that when Cy Briggs went to open up, he found
that the front door was already open and everything inside was all
scattered about. He can't tell yet just how much was stolen, but the
safe was broken into and everything in it was cleaned out. Cy is awful
excited about it, and they say he's running around like a hen with her
head cut off. Get a wiggle on now, and let's get down there."
The boys could not remember when anything like a robbery had happened
before in the sleepy little town, and they were all afire with
excitement.
The family was not up yet, but the boys did not wait for breakfast in
their eagerness to be on the scene of the robbery.
A hasty raid on Martha's pantry gave each of them enough for a cold
bite, and, eating as they went along, and running most of the way, they
were soon in front of the village store.
The news had traveled fast, and there was an eager crowd already
gathered. All sorts of rumors were about, and in the absence of any real
news as to the robbers, one guess was as good as another.
The only thing about which there was no doubt at all was that the
robbery had occurred. The open safe and tumbled goods were sufficient
proofs of that. Cy Briggs, who had run the store for forty years, and
had never had a robbery or fire or anything to disturb the regular order
of things, was so flustered that he had not yet been able to find out
the extent of his loss.
One or two of the cooler heads were going over the stock with him, while
the others clustered on the broad porch in front and waited for
developments, keeping up a constant buzz of questions and conjectures.
No one had heard any unusual noise the night before. The village
constable, who constituted the entire police force of Oldtown, had made
his usual round about ten o'clock, and, as a matter of form, had tried
the door. But it had been securely fastened as usual, and there had been
nothing to rouse his suspicion. Apart from two or three traveling men
who had come in with Jed Muggs, and were now staying at the one hotel,
nobody had seen any outsiders.
The whole thing was a mystery, and this was increased by the discovery
that while the door had been found open, showing that the thieves had
come out that way, they must have found some other means of entrance.
The door had been fastened by a bolt, which Cy had pushed into the
socket the last thing before leaving. This had not been broken, as it
would have been, if the robbers had forced their way in from the front.
Cy himself had gone out of a back door, which he had locked, carrying
the key away with him, and this door was found still locked when he came
that morning to open up.
"Well, Cy, how about it?" was the question from a dozen voices, as the
old storekeeper, grizzled and flushed, came out on the porch. "How much
did you lose?"
"Don't know yet," Cy answered, wiping his forehead with a huge bandana
handkerchief, "but I reckon it'll figger up to close on three or four
hundred dollars' wuth."
A hum of excitement rose from the crowd. To the boys especially, this
seemed an enormous amount of money.
"That's a right smart sum, Cy," remarked a sympathetic listener. "What
was it they got away with?"
"Money, mostly," mourned Cy. "The goods in the store wasn't bothered
much. Reckon they was lookin' only for cash. Then, too, they've cleaned
out a co'sid'able of jewelry and watches. Some of 'em I was gettin'
ready to send away to the city to be repaired, and others had come back
mended, but the customers hadn't called for 'em yet."
Catching sight at that moment of Fred in the crowd, he added: "One of
them watches was your Uncle Aaron's. It was a vallyble one and I feel
wuss over that than almost anything else. I know he set a heap of store
by it."
"Uncle Aaron's watch!" gasped the boys.
It was a knock-down blow for them, especially for Teddy. Was he never to
get away from that miserable runaway? If it had not been for that, the
watch would not have been injured, and at this very moment it might have
been reposing in his uncle's capacious pocket. Now the "fat was in the
fire" again. The chances were that the watch would never be seen again
by the rightful owner.
"I'm the hoodoo kid, all right!" he groaned.
"It sure is hard luck," sympathized Jack.
"Brace up, Teddy," urged Jim. "They may catch the fellows yet."
"Swell chance!" retorted Teddy to their well-meant sympathy. "Even if
they do, they won't get the watch back. Those fellows will make a
beeline to the nearest pawnshop, and that'll be the end of it."
"I wish we could have caught them at it," said Fred savagely. "If they'd
only been working when we came past last night."
"What time last night?" asked Cy, pricking up his ears.
"About eleven o'clock, I guess," answered Fred. "Teddy and I had been
over to Tom Barrett's house. He's just got a new phonograph, and we went
over to hear him try it out. He had a lot of records, and it was pretty
late when we came away."
"And yer didn't see anything out of the way when you come past?" went on
Cy.
"Not a thing. We didn't meet a soul on the way home."
Just then there was a stir inside the store, and the constable, Hi
Vickers, came to the door.
"Come here a minute, Cy," he said. "I bet I've found out how those
fellers got into the store."
As many as could crowded in after him as he led the way to a little side
window.
"They got in here," he said triumphantly.
"But that's locked," said Cy.
"Sure it is," explained Hi, "but they could have locked it again after
they got in, couldn't they? One thing certain, they've unlocked it first
from the outside. See here," and the constable showed where the blade of
a heavy knife had left marks on the frame. It had evidently been thrust
between the two halves of the window to push back the fastening.
"There you are," he said. "You see, they clum that apple tree right
alongside the winder and----"
"Say!" broke in Fred, as a thought came to him like a flash of
lightning, "I bet I know who the robbers were."
All eyes were turned on him in surprise.
"It was two tramps that I saw round here a few days ago," continued
Fred. "A lot of us fellows were in Sam Perkins' barn, and we heard the
tramps talking. They didn't see us, but we saw them. We couldn't hear
all they said, but I did hear them say something about an 'apple tree'
and 'side window' and something being 'dead easy.' I'd forgotten all
about it till just now. But there's the apple tree and the side window,
and that must have been what they were talking about."
"By gum, it wuz!" assented Hi. "Tell us what the fellers looked like."
"One of them was a good deal taller than the other," said Fred, trying
to recall their appearance. "They were both ragged and dirty. And, oh,
yes! the tall one had a scar up near his temple, as if he had been
stabbed there some time."
"Well," commented Hi, "that may help a lot. We know now what we've got
to look for. I'll telephone all along the line to the other towns to be
on the lookout for them, and some of us will hitch up and drive along
the different roads. They can't have got very far, and we may get 'em
yet."
Later on, as the boys were on their way home, Jim chuckled.
"What are you laughing about, Jim?" asked Bob.
"I was just thinking," Jim replied, "that it was mighty lucky they
didn't ask Fred how he happened to be in Sam Perkins' barn."