AND SO HAS WILLARD
That ought to have settled the matter; but, although Tom, refusing
comfort from his mother, went to bed telling himself that it was going
to be the paper mill after all, somehow the next morning brought
renewed hope. While he was dressing he tried to think of some way in
which to get hold of that automobile, and, although he hadn’t succeeded
by breakfast time, he nevertheless went downstairs to the morning meal
in high spirits. There’s something about a fresh, dew-sprinkled June
morning that makes a chap believe he can do almost anything if he tries
hard enough!
When Tom started out of the house he was surprised to see Willard
Morris leaning over the gate.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” announced Willard. “If we have time let’s
stop and look at that buzz-wagon you were talking about yesterday. Will
you?”
“Yes; but I guess there isn’t much use, Will. I spoke to father, and he
said he couldn’t afford it. At least, he says he couldn’t afford to pay
a hundred and twenty-five. He might pay fifty, but he’s afraid I might
not make a go of it.”
“What did he say?” asked Willard.
Tom narrated the conversation of the evening before, and Willard nodded
once or twice, as he heard Mr. Benton’s objections.
“Well, maybe he’s right, Tom. There isn’t any sure thing about it, and
that’s so, but he loses sight of the fact that, even if the scheme
didn’t work, you’d still have the automobile, and ought to get as much
for it as you gave; that is, if it’s as good as you say it is. Anyway,
we’ll look it over.”
They did. Mr. Saunders was glad to have them see it, and expatiated on
its merits for ten minutes, while Willard walked around it and viewed
it carefully. “Was you thinking of buying it yourself?” asked Mr.
Saunders.
“Oh, I don’t know,” replied Willard. “Maybe. I’m sort of looking for a
bargain in an automobile.” Tom stared at him in surprise. “But I think
you’re asking a whole lot for this thing. Why, it would cost a hundred
dollars, probably, to put that car in shape!”
“What if it did? That would be only two hundred and fifty, and where
could you get an automobile for that money?”
“Two hundred and fifty?” repeated Willard. “Oh, I see; you’re figuring
on getting a hundred and fifty for it.” He shook his head, and felt
disparagingly of a worn tire. “I wouldn’t give that much. Maybe I’d
offer you a hundred, but I’d want to have someone look over the engine
first.”
Mr. Saunders snorted with disgust. “A hundred! Why, that thing cost me
two hundred in trade! A hundred! Pshaw! I’d sell her to the junkman
first!”
“Maybe that would be better,” said Willard agreeably. “Well, perhaps
I’ll come in again. I’ll think it over. If I were you I’d have someone
wash it so you could see what it was like underneath the dirt.”
Mr. Saunders received the suggestion with a shrug, and the boys hurried
out. “What did you mean by saying you were thinking of buying it?”
asked Tom curiously. Willard shook his head.
“I’ll tell you at noon,” he said. “There isn’t time now. We’ve got only
three minutes to get to school. Wait for me at the east door at recess,
Tom.”
Tom’s lessons didn’t go very well that forenoon. Try as he might,
he couldn’t get that automobile out of his head, and the schemes he
evolved and abandoned to get possession of it were legion. After
morning session he waited for Willard at the front entrance, and the
two boys sought a quiet corner of the stone curbing about the high
school grounds and opened their lunch-boxes. After Willard had taken
the edge off his appetite by the consumption of three sandwiches and a
slice of pie he consented to satisfy Tom’s curiosity.
“My, but I was starved. I didn’t eat much breakfast, because I was
afraid I’d miss you at your house, and I wanted to have a look at that
car with you. You don’t think there’s much chance of your father buying
it?”
“I don’t believe there’s any chance,” replied Tom ruefully.
“Is there any other way you know of that you can get the money?”
“No, I wish there was!”
“Well, all right,” and Willard began to peel and quarter an orange.
“I spoke to my dad about that auto last night, Tom. You see, I got to
thinking about it, after I left you, and it seemed to me like a pretty
good idea. He said it sounded as though it might be a bargain, and he
didn’t see why you couldn’t do pretty well bringing folks up from the
station. We talked it all over, and――well, here’s my idea. See how you
like it. You say you can’t get the money to buy it yourself. I don’t
want to ‘butt in,’ Tom, but I’ve been thinking that perhaps you and I
could go into the thing together, that is, if you don’t mind having
a partner. Wait a minute! Now, suppose we get a man to look that car
all over and tell us how much it would cost to put it in good shape.
Dad knows of just the chap. His name is Brennan, and he works in the
machine shop down by the railroad. Dad says he’d probably do it for us
for a dollar. Then, if he says the car can be fixed up for――well, say,
fifty dollars, we’ll go ahead. You get your father to put in fifty, and
I’ll put in fifty. That’ll make a hundred. We’ll pay fifty dollars down
to Saunders, and we’ll spend fifty in having it repaired and painted.
We’ll do the painting ourselves. That will leave us in debt about a
hundred dollars. If it’s necessary I’ll put in another fifty, but if it
isn’t we’ll pay off what we owe in installments. As the idea was yours,
and, as you’ll do the work, you’ll get two-thirds of what we make, and
I’ll get one-third. What do you say?”
“Why――but――can you do that?” exclaimed Tom.
“Yes. You know I got some money from my grandmother’s estate last
Fall. I’m to use it for college, but I won’t need it all, and, anyway,
if this thing works out the way we expect it to, it will be a good
investment. Of course, I wouldn’t want to risk more than a hundred,
Tom; I couldn’t afford to. Maybe you think you ought to get more than
two-thirds, but dad thought that was fair, and――――”
“That part’s all right,” said Tom. “Seems to me you ought to have more
than a third of the earnings, Will.”
“No, because, you see, you’ll have to do the work. I’d help when I
could, but I don’t know how to run a car, and I’ll be rather busy this
summer, getting ready for college in the fall.”
“Well, it’s a perfectly corking scheme,” said Tom, “but I’m terribly
afraid that father won’t let me have the money. Perhaps, though, when I
tell him that you’re going in with me, and think it’s all right, he may
change his mind.”
“You keep at him,” laughed Willard. “Of course, there won’t be much in
it for us for a while, because we’ll have to pay Saunders. But we ought
to get our money back, in time, at least. Then, if the thing works
well, we’ll find someone to run the car while you’re in school in the
winter. Why, maybe we’ll get so rich that we’ll be able to buy a real
motor ’bus, Tom!”
“Wouldn’t that be dandy!” said Tom softly. “I――I’m awfully much obliged
to you, Will, and――――”
“Oh, piffle! I’m going into it, as a――a business proposition, Tom. You
don’t need to thank me. If I didn’t think I’d get my money back all
right I wouldn’t think of it. Couldn’t afford to, Tom. You have a talk
with your father as soon as you can, will you?”
“Of course. I’ll stop in and see him at the shop after school.”
“That’s the ticket. I wonder if it would help any if I went along,
Tom?”
“I wish you would. He’d think more of the scheme if you talked it up a
little. Don’t you think so?”
“He might. We’ll try it. I’ll meet you after school and go with you. If
he says yes, we’ll go on down to the machine shop and find this chap
Brennan. We’ve got to know what the thing will cost, first of all.”
“And hadn’t we better stop and see Saunders right away, and get a――get
the refusal of the automobile?” asked Tom uneasily. “Suppose someone
else got ahead of us and bought it?”
“I don’t believe there’s much danger of that,” said Willard; “but maybe
we’d better be on the safe side. So we’ll stop in and see the old
codger first thing.”
“There isn’t time now, is there?” asked Tom, looking anxious.
Willard looked at his silver watch and shook his head. “No, the bell
will ring in four minutes. If we’d thought of it sooner――but I don’t
believe anyone will get ahead of us. By the way, don’t you have to have
a license to run an automobile?”
“I don’t know. Do you?”
“I think so. We’ll have to find out about that. How much do you suppose
a license will cost?”
Tom shook his head. “I don’t know. Where do you suppose we can find
out?”
“I guess dad knows. I’ll ask him this evening. I hope it doesn’t cost
very much. A dog license costs three dollars, but I suppose that hasn’t
anything to do with an automobile license. How long do you think it
will take you to learn to run the thing, Tom?”
“About a week, I guess,” replied Tom vaguely. “Of course, there’s lots
to learn about the engine part of it, but I guess you don’t have to
know all that at first. There’s the bell. I’ll meet you after school,
Will. And――and don’t be late, will you? It would be fierce if we got
there and found Saunders had sold the car!”
But that fear proved vain when, five minutes after dismissal, the two
boys reached the carriage works, rather anxious and quite breathless.
The car was still there, looking, if anything, a trifle more
dilapidated than before. Mr. Saunders had to be summoned from somewhere
on the floor above, and, while they awaited him, they again looked over
the car. It wasn’t a very commodious car. The rear seat was quite wide
enough to take three passengers comfortably, but there was precious
little leg room for them.
“Not much room for bags,” commented Willard.
“We could put them in front,” said Tom. “It wouldn’t be very often we’d
get more than three passengers at a load. I wonder what kind of a car
it is.”
“Gasoline,” suggested Willard, with a laugh.
“I mean what make. There ought to be a name on it somewhere.”
But search failed to reveal any until Willard found some almost
illegible lettering on a brass plate running along the edge of the
front flooring. They finally deciphered it. “Treffry Motor Co.” was the
legend.
“Ever hear of a Treffry car?” asked Willard.
“Yes, I think so. I wonder how old it is. Saunders says three years,
but I’ll wager――――”
He didn’t have time to state what he was willing to wager, however, for
at that moment Mr. Saunders appeared on the scene. Willard acted as
spokesman.
“Back again, Mr. Saunders,” he announced carelessly.
“So I see.” The carriage man didn’t seem overly glad to find him there,
Tom thought.
“Yes, I got to thinking it over, and I dropped in to make you an offer.”
“All right; let’s hear it. I’m sort of busy this afternoon.”
“Well, I want to have a man come up here and look the car over. If
he says it can be repaired reasonably, I’ll pay you a hundred and
twenty-five dollars for it, fifty dollars cash and the balance at the
rate of twenty dollars a month.”
“My terms was a hundred and fifty cash,” said Mr. Saunders.
“Yes, but like as not you were expecting to pay ten or fifteen dollars’
commission to someone,” responded Willard cheerfully. “You won’t have
to pay any commission, and that will save something.”
“H-m; and what about interest?”
“Interest?”
“Sure; interest on the balance of seventy-five dollars you’d be owing
me. It would be four months before I’d get the last of it.”
“Oh, I see.” Willard looked doubtfully at Tom. “Well, I suppose
interest at three per cent.――――”
“Three per cent.! Jumpin’ Jupiter! The legal rate is five!”
“Is it? On automobiles?”
“On anything. I guess you don’t know a whole lot, after all, son. You
want a fellow to come here and take the car to pieces?”
“Well, look it over, you know.”
“Yes, and leave it spread all over the place, like as not, so I’ll
never be able to get it together again! Who you going to send here?”
“A man named Brennan, who works――――”
“Jimmy Brennan at the machine shop? I know him. Well, all right, but
he’s got to put things together the way he finds ’em. You tell him
that.”
“I will, Mr. Saunders. Now will you give me a refusal of the car until
I hear what Mr. Brennan says about it?”
“I don’t know about that. I might miss a sale. How soon is he comin’,
and when will you know whether you want to buy her or not?”
“I’m going to try and get him to come to-morrow. Then just as soon as I
hear what he says――――”
“I’ll give you an option until this time to-morrow, and that’s the best
I can do,” said Mr. Saunders with finality. “Take it, or leave it. A
hundred and twenty-five isn’t enough, anyway, for an automobile like
that. Why, that car cost, new, ’most fifteen hundred dollars, I guess!”
“That isn’t very long,” said Willard, “but if it’s the best you’ll do,
all right. Only I’m afraid Mr. Brennan is so busy――――”
“Tell him to come this evening. I’ll give him the key if he will stop
at my house. He knows where I live.”
“Thanks. I’ll ask him to, then. Much obliged.” As they started out Mr.
Saunders called Tom back.
“Look here,” he whispered, “I agreed to give you ten dollars, son, but
that was for selling her for a hundred and fifty. This fellow’s only
going to pay a hundred and twenty-five, and not all cash, either. So I
can’t give you more’n five dollars; understand?”
“I don’t want any commission at all, thank you, Mr. Saunders,” replied
Tom.
“Oh!” Mr. Saunders looked relieved. “Well, that’s all right, then. Can
this fellow pay the money? Who is he?”
“He can pay, all right, Mr. Saunders. His name is Willard Morris. His
father――――”
“I know. All right.”
“But why didn’t you take the five?” asked Willard, when Tom repeated
the conversation outside. “Every dollar helps, you know.”
“Yes, but it didn’t seem quite fair, when I was sort of half buying it
myself.”
“No, that’s so. Now you’d better talk to your father first, and then
I’ll say my piece.”