GETTING READY FOR WORK.
"I know just what you are going to do," repeated Casper, as he ran
down the stairs--"you are going to steal the box, and leave me out on
the prairie to get back the best way I can. For two cents I would not
have anything to do with it."
But in spite of this resolution, Casper, as soon as he reached the
street, turned his gaze in every direction in the hope of finding
Julian and Jack; but the boys had disappeared. He walked along the
streets looking everywhere for them, and finally came to a standstill
opposite Julian's room.
"They will have to come here some time, and I will just take my stand
here in this door and watch for them," said Casper. "They will not
take that box with them, anyhow; it is much too valuable to lug about
in a valise. They will send it by express."
This was something that had occurred to Casper on the spur of the
moment, and he thought seriously of going back to Claus with it; but,
on the whole, he decided to keep still about it. He was getting thirty
cents a day for doing nothing, and he did not want to bring that to an
end too speedily. Claus had plenty of money. Casper had seen the
inside of his pocketbook when he took it out to pay him his money, and
he might as well have thirty cents of it as not.
At the end of three hours Casper saw the carriage coming up the
street. He was certain that he was right in his suspicions, because
carriages of that description were not often seen in that by-street;
and, more than that, there was a trunk perched in front of the driver.
He drew up in front of Julian's room, and a moment afterward the boys
got out. Casper saw the driver catch up the trunk and carry it
upstairs, and presently he came down again, mounted to his box, and
disappeared up the street.
"They are gentlemen now, and of course they could not carry that trunk
upstairs," sneered Casper, coming out of his concealment. "Now, I
wish I knew when they are going to start. If things were all right
between Julian and myself I would go upstairs and find out; but as it
is, I guess I had better keep away; he would not tell me, anyhow. I
stole that box from him once, and that was where I missed it. I ought
to have gone to Denver at once."
After some time spent in rapid walking, Casper once more found himself
in the pool-room, and saw Claus busy with his game. Claus drew off on
one side, while Casper whispered the result of his investigations to
him.
"That is all right," said he, and a smile overspread his face. "You
are much better at watching than I thought you were. Wait until I get
through here and I will give you a cigar."
"But, Claus, though they had a valise apiece in their hands, they have
no idea of carrying the box in them," said Casper; "it is too
valuable."
"That's the very reason they will take it with them," whispered
Claus. "They will not trust it out of their sight."
"I'll bet you that they will send it by express," answered Casper;
"that is what I should do with it."
"But all persons are not as careful as you are," said Claus; and he
turned to take his shot at the game.
"You need not think you can soft-sawder me in that style," thought
Casper, as he backed toward a chair and took his seat to see how the
game was coming out. "You have some other little trick that you want
me to play. Well, if it is not too dangerous I'll do it; if it is, I
won't."
"There is nothing more that we can do to-night, but I shall expect to
see you bright and early to-morrow morning," resumed Claus, as he
finished his game and hung the cue up in its proper place. "Here is a
dollar. You may get yourself all the cigars you want."
"Thank you for nothing," said Casper to himself, as he turned to leave
the room. "The last game I played with you you got an even five
dollars out of me. This does not make me straight with you by a long
way."
Casper did not rise bright and early the next morning, because he did
not think there was any need of it. He spent a quarter of Claus's
dollar for breakfast, smoked a cigar, and strolled leisurely down to
the telegraph office. He was just in time to see Julian and Jack
coming out. The face of the former wore a very sad expression, and
there was a suspicious redness about his eyes, which looked as though
he had been crying.
"By gracious! I don't think I would shed tears if I were in your
place," said Casper, in disgust. "And you are going away with a
hundred thousand dollars in your pocket! It beats me, how many people
go to make up a world! Julian has been bidding them good-bye in there,
and so he must be getting ready to go off very soon. Now I will go and
see Claus."
Casper found his companion in guilt at the very place he said he would
be; and, for a wonder, he was sitting there alone, in one corner of
the room. He told what he had seen, adding that Julian could not keep
back his tears when he came out.
"We'll give him something to cry for when he goes out of that car,"
said Claus, with a wink; "he will be just a fortune out of pocket."
Casper had several times been on the point of asking Claus how he was
going to work in order to secure to himself the full possession of all
that property. He thought there would have to be some legal steps
taken before the agent, or whoever had charge of those blocks of
buildings, would be willing for Claus to call them all his own.
Suppose the agent should write to some of the many friends he was
presumed to have in Chicago, and should get no answer from them; what
would Claus do then? All the friends he had were in St. Louis; he did
not know anybody in Chicago, and consequently he would receive a check
at the very start. If the German thought of this, he did not say
anything about it. He wanted first to get the box, and then he could
settle these things afterward.
"Well, there is only one thing for you to do now," said Claus, after
thinking the matter over; "you must stay around Julian's room, and
wait for them to go to the depot. You will find me right here."
"I shall want a cigar to smoke in the meantime," said Casper.
It was right on the end of Claus's tongue to make a flat refusal, but
there was something in Casper's eye, which he turned full upon him,
that made him hesitate. He growled out something about not being made
of money, but finally put his hand into his pocket and produced
another dollar.
"You need not mutter so lustily every time I ask you for money," said
Casper to himself as he left the pool-room. "I will have to give up
this business before long, and I am going to make all I can."
Casper went straight to a restaurant and got his dinner, and with a
cigar for company took up his usual hiding-place in the doorway and
waited to see what was going to happen. He stayed there until four
o'clock in the afternoon, and then began to grow interested. He saw
Julian come out and hasten away, and something told him that he had
gone for a carriage. But why was it that Casper got so mad, and threw
his cigar spitefully down upon the pavement? Julian was dressed in a
suit of new clothes, and he looked like a young gentleman in it. The
suit that Casper wore was the only one he had, and when that was gone
he did not know what he should do to get another.
"That fellow must have received a good many tips while he was in the
office," muttered Casper, "or else he saved his money. I wish to
goodness I had saved mine, instead of giving it all to Claus."
Julian soon came back with a carriage, and it became evident that they
were going to take the train for Denver. Julian and the hackman went
upstairs, and when the boys came down again they each wore a
traveling-coat and had a small valise in their hands. They got into
the carriage and were driven away for the depot.
"Now, then, I am going to see if Claus is fooled," thought Casper, as
he hurried off in another direction. "The box is not in those
gripsacks; they are not large enough. Now, you mark what I tell you."
"What's the news?" said Claus, who was loitering at one of the windows
of the pool-room. "Did you see them go?" he asked, in a whisper.
"I did," answered Casper. "We have just time to get down there, and
that is all. You are making a mistake by not taking some baggage
along."
"No, I am not. We shall go as far as the station at which the
passengers take breakfast, and then we will stop and come back. That
is as far as we want to go."
"And come back as empty-handed as we went," said Casper to himself.
"I'll bet there won't be anything worth having in those valises."
It took Claus and Casper a long time to walk to the depot, although
they went with all the speed they could command; but when, at last,
they got there, they found that the ticket office was not open. It was
no trouble at all for them to find the boys whom they were seeking;
they occupied a couple of seats in the gentlemen's waiting-room,
sitting pretty close together, too, and were engaged in earnest
conversation.
"Those are the ones, are they not?" questioned Claus. "They are
dressed up so fine that I would not have known them."
"Yes; they have new clothes on," said Casper. "They are going off as
though they were business men starting out on a vacation."
"That is the way we will travel when we get our money," said Claus,
with a wink.
"And when we do get it you may go your way and I will go mine," said
Casper to himself; "I am not going to stay around where you are all
the while bothering me to play a game with you. I am going to save my
money; that's what I will do."
It was shortly after they reached the depot that the ticket office was
opened, and Julian went to purchase tickets for himself and companion.
Casper watched them until they were safe in the train, and then Claus
bought two tickets for Casper and himself, and they took seats in the
car behind Julian's. In that way they would keep out of sight. They
did not intend to show themselves until the train stopped for
breakfast the next morning, and then they would show themselves to
some purpose.
The night was a long and wearisome one to Casper, who did not once
close his eyes in slumber. He was wondering what was going to be the
result of this new scheme of theirs, and telling himself over and over
again that it would not amount to anything. It did not look reasonable
that the boys should carry their box in a valise, and leave it behind
when they went to breakfast while there was so much in it that needed
their constant care.
"And then, after he gets the valises and finds that there is nothing
in them, that is the time for me to look out," thought Casper. "He
won't get away from me if I have to stay awake for two or three nights
to watch him."
Finally, to Casper's immense relief, day began to dawn and some of the
wakeful passengers to bestir themselves. He arranged his hair with the
aid of a comb which he had in his pocket, and then sat on the seat
and waited impatiently for Claus to wake up. All night long the German
had slumbered heavily, as though he felt at peace with himself and all
the world. That was something that Casper could not understand. Here
he was, fully intending to steal a fortune from a boy who had come
honestly by it, and yet he could sleep peacefully and quietly over it!
"I wonder if I shall be the way he is?" soliloquized Casper. "I will
try this once, and if we don't get the box I will go back and go to
work--that's the best thing I can do."
It was not long before a brakeman came in and told them that they were
approaching the place where they would be allowed fifteen minutes for
breakfast; whereupon Casper leaned over and shook Claus by the
shoulder.
"It was time you were getting up," said he in a whisper; "it is time
to go to work."
"I heard every word that was said," said Claus. "This is the place to
which I bought tickets, and it is as far as we shall go. Go forward,
and see if they are in the car ahead of us."
"But suppose they see me?" said Casper.
"You must not let them see you. Keep out of their sight. If they leave
their valises behind when they go out to breakfast, it is all I want."
Casper went, but he walked slowly, as if he did it under protest. When
he arrived at the end of the car he found he could not see anything
from there, so he opened the door and went out on the platform. He was
gone a good while, but when he came back his face told Claus all he
wished to know.
"They are there," Casper whispered, "and are getting ready to go out.
I saw the valises in the rack over their seats."
"That's all right. Now, when we go out you must keep close behind me.
I will come in at the front end of the car as if I had a perfect right
there, and if I say anything to you, you must just nod your head."
"What must I do that for?" asked Casper.
"Because there may be somebody looking. I want to convince everybody
that I have a right to the valises. Now, you go on ahead, and do as I
tell you."
Casper did not approve of this plan at all. The understanding between
him and the German was that he was to have no hand in stealing the
valises, but this looked as though he was the prime mover in the
affair. Before he could make any further objection the cars stopped,
the gong sounded for breakfast, and the passengers began to move
toward the door.