THE BOYS TAKE A PARTNER
The boys got back to Tom’s house still full of the new venture, and Mr.
Benton, just up from his Sunday afternoon nap, was taken into their
confidence. When Tom had finished telling about it, “What do you think,
sir?” he asked.
Mr. Benton considered a minute. “It sounds all right, son,” he answered
at last. “It all comes to this. If you need more money to enlarge your
business you’ve got to pay for it. Brennan will want a third of the
business, as I understand it. Now the question is whether that’s paying
too much for the sum of seven hundred dollars.”
“But we’re getting more than the money, sir,” said Willard. “We’re
getting Jimmy. He knows all about automobiles, can run them and repair
them, and is just about the best fellow we could get to go in with us.
Don’t you think so, Tom?”
“Yes, I do. What father means is that if we’re satisfied to go on the
way we are, why, that’s one thing; if we want to――to expand, that’s
another. In that case we’ve got to have money and help. So, then, could
we get hold of seven hundred dollars without taking Jimmy in with us
and giving up a third interest in the company?”
“We might save that much in the course of time,” said Willard
doubtfully. “But what I’m afraid of is that by the time we’d scraped up
that much money someone else might have stepped in and be doing what we
want to do.”
“That’s so,” Mr. Benton agreed. “In fact――――” he hesitated. “What is to
keep Jimmy from doing it, boys?”
“Doing――――”
“Going into the business by himself, I mean.”
“Why――why, he wouldn’t do that!” exclaimed Willard. “He wouldn’t be
mean enough!”
Mr. Benton smiled. “He’d have a perfect right to, I guess. It’s only
what you did, isn’t it? You didn’t hesitate to run in opposition to Mr.
Connors, did you?”
“That’s so,” said Tom thoughtfully. “I don’t see why Jimmy shouldn’t
start in business for himself if he wants to.”
Willard frowned and moved uneasily in his chair. “Then――then let’s get
him before he thinks of it!”
“He’s probably thought of it long ago,” Mr. Benton laughed. “And I
don’t say that he would start an opposition to you; I only say he
might――and could without doing anything out of the way. Probably he
wouldn’t. Someone else might, though. I guess if you really want to
enlarge and want to risk it, now is the time, boys.”
“Then you think we’d better go ahead?” asked Tom.
“I hardly like to advise you, Tom. I don’t know much about automobiles
or garages. If there’s really as much money to be made as Jimmy Brennan
says there is, it sounds like a good thing. You’d better talk it over
with your father, Will. See what he thinks.”
Tom went over to Willard’s after supper. Mr. Morris was at church when
he arrived, but returned half an hour later, and the three sat out on
the porch and discussed the matter thoroughly. Mr. Morris had had money
and lost it and so had learned caution. But he favored the boys’ plan
from the first.
“I’d say, take him up. I know Jimmy Brennan pretty well. He’s honest
and he’s a hard worker and he’s smart. Of course there’s some risk.
Maybe things won’t pan out quite as you think. But, after all, you’re
not standing to lose very much. Just see that you don’t get too deeply
in debt. Don’t borrow more than you can pay. If you decide to go into
it have a lawyer draw up the partnership agreement and have everything
set down in black and white, so there’ll be no misunderstanding about
anything.”
Half an hour later Willard was for hurrying down to Jimmy’s
boarding-house and telling him that they had decided to take him into
partnership, but Tom demurred. “Let’s sleep on it first,” he said.
“To-morrow will be time enough.”
It rained pitchforks the next morning, but it would have taken more
than a rain to dampen their spirits as Tom and Willard ran down to
the machine shop after they had disposed of passengers from the first
train. Willard, who had his license at last, drove the car, which,
even with the top up, was not the dryest place in the world. They
found Jimmy at his bench, very smudgy about the face and very black as
to hands, and acquainted him with their decision. Jimmy was plainly
pleased, and insisted on shaking hands to seal the bargain. After which
he led them to the sink and laughed at their efforts to wash off the
grease and carbon. It was agreed that they should call for him at the
shop in the afternoon and take him to see the car barn, which both boys
declared was just the place for the garage.
And, when he saw it, Jimmy agreed with them. It was a small one-storied
brick building built some ten years before to house the four cars
which at that time comprised the rolling stock of the Audelsville
Street Railway, later absorbed by the larger company which ran through
from Providence to Graywich. The tracks outside had long since been
removed. There were two big doors on the front and many windows on
each side which admitted plenty of light. They could not get in at the
doors, which were fastened, but as many of the window-panes had been
broken it was an easy matter to reach in and throw back one of the
catches. After that they scrambled through and dropped to the floor.
The place smelt damp and musty, but Jimmy declared that after it had
been opened up a while it would be all right. The floor, of two-inch
planks, was in good condition, and the only problem confronting them
was the boarding over of the pit which ran across the building and the
removal of the four tracks. The pit held a truck on which the cars
had been run and so moved from one track to another. The truck was as
good as ever and slid easily away on its two rails when Jimmy gave it
a shove with his foot, but they couldn’t see that it would be of any
value to them. In one corner a small room was partitioned off which, as
Willard pointed out, would serve admirably as an office. At the back
of the building, against the brick wall, was piled an accumulation of
old ties, while, nearby, a long bench, surmounted by many shelves,
indicated that that corner of the barn had been sacred to the painter.
“It might be a bit bigger,” mused Jimmy. “Still you could get eight or
ten cars in here by crowding. We could move that bench to this side by
the windows and do our repairs there. What’s at the back of this?”
Willard, leaning out the window by which they had entered, reported
that there was nothing at the back except a fifteen or twenty-foot
space of weeds.
“Then, some time, we could build out further if we wanted to,” said
Jimmy. “Know what the rent is, Tom?”
“No, but I guess it isn’t much. The thing’s been empty as long as I can
remember, pretty nearly. I guess we could get it cheap.”
“Perhaps they’d sell it,” suggested Willard.
“We couldn’t buy it if they would,” answered Tom.
“We might later. Would it cost much to put a floor over that pit,
Jimmy?”
“No, I shouldn’t think so. I know where there’s a lot of second-hand
lumber we could get. What do you fellows think about the place?”
“I think it’s just the thing,” said Tom, with a suggestion of pride for
having discovered it. “It’s only about a hundred feet from Main Street
and just a few blocks from the center of the town. And――and it’s
fairly fire-proof, I suppose.”
“Yes,” agreed Jimmy, “there isn’t much to burn here. We’d have to have
insurance, though. What’s your idea of it, Will?”
“I think it’s dandy! Why, we couldn’t build a place much better! Just
floor over that hole there, put some glass in the windows and there you
are!”
“Seems as if it would do pretty well,” agreed Jimmy. “But we’d better
look around a little before we decide. No harm in finding out how much
rent they want, though. Who has the letting of it?”
“Collins, in the City Bank Building,” said Tom. “Let’s go and see him
now.”
Outside again, Jimmy studied the situation. On each side there was a
vacant space, a matter of twenty-five feet or so toward Main Street and
four times that distance on the other side. At the rear the nearest
building, a dwelling house, was a good sixty feet away. “That’s a good
thing, too,” Jimmy explained, “because folks won’t kick about noise
and smell. And here’s something else that suits us, fellows. We’ve got
plenty of room between the sidewalk and the building to stand three or
four cars in. I don’t see why they set the barn back so far, but they
did, and it helps us if we take it. I guess there’s no need of us all
going to see the agent. Suppose I attend to it? Maybe I could beat him
down better than you fellows.”
That was agreed to and they piled into The Ark again and went back
on Main Street to the building in which the real estate man had his
office. There Jimmy got out and Tom and Willard waited impatiently. He
was gone some time, but when he came out again he winked solemnly as he
climbed into the car.
“It’s a cinch,” he said. “He wanted twenty a month, but I told him we’d
take a three-year lease of it at fifteen if he’d fix the floor for us
and patch up the windows. He said he’d confer with the owners and let
me know to-morrow. Wanted to know what I was going to use it for and
looked as though he thought I was crazy when I told him. Maybe the
railway company won’t agree to fix it up for us, but I’ll bet we can
get it for fifteen a month; and that’s dirt-cheap!”
“I should say so!” exclaimed Willard. “That’s fine!”
“Bully!” agreed Tom.
“If they won’t fix it up for us,” continued Jimmy, “I’ll make him knock
off a month’s rent toward the cost of doing it ourselves. He will do
it, too; I could see he was tickled to death at the chance of renting
it. You see, there aren’t many things you could use that building for.
It might do for a stable or a small factory; or a garage; and that’s
about all. And he knows it. If we’ve got time, fellows, let’s run
around a little and see if there’s anything that looks better.”
There wasn’t, however. A stable at the other end of the town interested
them for a while, but investigation showed that it would need too
many repairs. And so when, the next afternoon, Jimmy met them with
the tidings that they could have the car-barn at their own terms, the
matter was settled then and there.
“I told him I’d be around in the morning to close it up,” said Jimmy.
“I guess there won’t be any one else after it, but it doesn’t pay
to take chances. Our rent won’t begin until the first of the month
and we’ll have nearly a couple of weeks to fix it up. Sort of looks,
doesn’t it, as though luck was with us?”
And the others agreed that it did.