CHAPTER XXII.
RALPH'S NEW SITUATION.
After the squire had vanished Ralph closed the front door and locked it. He returned to the sitting-room to find his mother pale and trembling. Unable to stand, the poor woman had sunk back on the lounge.
"Oh, Ralph!" was all she could say just then.
"Don't look so scared, mother," he replied, soothingly. "He has gone now."
"Oh, my boy, how could you?" she went on, half in reproach, and yet secretly admiring his courage.
"I wouldn't have done it had he not cast a slur on your fair name, mother. I might have stood what he said against me, but I'll never allow any one to say one word against you, never."
And the look he gave her out of his honest eyes showed that he meant what he said.
"But the squire! What will he do now?"
"I don't care what he does. We haven't done wrong, so what can he do?"
"He is influential."
"So is Mr. Carrington, and Bart Haycock, and a half-dozen others that are our friends."
"He evidently feels certain that you had something to with the post office robbery."
"He is down on us, mother, just as I told him. I wish I knew why," and Ralph grew more calm and more thoughtful as he spoke.
"He was not that way when your father was alive. Your father and he were quite friendly."
"I guess that was only because father did lots of work for him and always accepted the squire's price. He is very miserly, you know, outside of the allowance he makes Percy."
"I cannot imagine what brought him here to-night. I fancied the post office matter was past, so far as you were concerned."
"So did I. I'll tell you what keeps it in the squire's mind," went on Ralph, suddenly. "He lost a valuable registered letter that was in the mail. I heard Henry Bott speak of it."
"One that was coming to him?"
"No, one that he had sent out. It was to go in the morning mail. Henry Bott said the squire wouldn't have lost the letter for a small mint of money."
"What did it contain?"
"He said the squire wouldn't say. It was addressed to some party in New York, I believe."
"It is strange the squire wouldn't mention the contents of the letter. The authorities ought to know if they are to trace it."
"So I should think. But Squire Paget said it was strictly private."
"Maybe he imagines you have his letter," mused Mrs. Nelson. "I suppose I am foolish for thinking so, but I fancied he had something on his mind when he first began to speak of the robbery."
"You may be right, mother. That would explain why he was so persistent in getting after me."
"You have not seen Percy?"
"No. I understood from Dan Pickley that he had gone to Chambersburgh for a few days on a visit."
"Then the squire cannot be influenced by what his son can say."
"No; this is solely his own doings," returned Ralph.
They talked the matter over at some length, but could arrive at no satisfactory conclusion regarding Squire Paget's bitter enmity. Time must solve the mystery for them.
Ralph had been out distributing circulars for Mr. Dunham. On the following morning he went across the lake to put in his last day at the work.
He had thought the matter over, and finding the sporting goods dealer at leisure, asked him if there was any opening in the store.
"I am sorry to say there is not, Ralph," said Mr. Dunham.
"I am willing to do anything, both in the place and out, if you can only employ me steadily."
"I know that, Ralph. But the truth of the matter is, my brother has asked me to take his son in, just for his board and clothing, and I have consented. I couldn't do less."
"I suppose not, sir."
"If there is an opening, I will let you know. I like you, and I am well satisfied with the way in which you are putting out the hand-bills."
"You do not know of anybody that needs help?"
The storekeeper thought a moment.
"I do not," he said.
Ralph then told him of the offer he had had to sell novelties on the road to stationery dealers.
"I would not advise you to go into that, Ralph. It is only those who have had considerable experience in the line that make even a fair living by it. The likelihood is that you would make little or nothing for a month or two, perhaps the first year. Get a regular job if you can, at certain wages."
"That is my idea, sir. I must do something."
"I am sorry I cannot help you at present."
In a few minutes more Ralph was on his way to Glen Arbor, as a fishing resort a mile above Eastport was called. He was to put in half a day there, and the balance of the time around Eastport itself. That done, the entire territory for five miles about Mr. Dunham's store would be billed.
Ralph set out in a very thoughtful frame of mind. He was wondering what the following week would bring forth. Would he strike other work, or be forced to remain idle?
Ralph knew a number of fishermen at Glen Arbor, who let out boats to the summer tourists, and while he was among them he met one, Bill Franchard, who gave him some information that was a delightful surprise.
"Hallo, Ralph Nelson," sang out Franchard, on seeing him. "What brings you here?"
"I'm distributing circulars, Bill," returned the boy. "How is the boating season?"
"Very good just now; better than I expected."
"You haven't got an opening for me?" asked Ralph, quickly.
"Why, ain't you working?"
"This job ends to-day."
"Well, I dunno." Franchard scratched his head. "I do need somebody most every day for the Minnie. I take out the Ariel, and Bob the Washington, and very often I can't let the Minnie go out—not when they want a skipper for the sloop."
"I would like the job," replied Ralph, promptly.
"Tell you what I'll do, Ralph. I'll give you a dollar and a half a day for your services every day I can use you, and that will be at least four or five days a week, even if it ain't the whole six."
"I'll take the job, and thank you," said the boy, reflecting that even four days' work would bring in six dollars, as much as he had before earned, while a full week's work would mean nine dollars.
"All right. I know I can trust you with the sloop, even if she is kind of mulish at times."
"She needs constant watching, that's all. When can I come on?"
"Most likely Monday morning. There was a man coming to see me about her this morning. If he—here he comes now."
Franchard referred to a well dressed gentleman who was walking toward the dock, accompanied by a young gentleman and a young lady.
The gentleman, whose name was Larkins, entered into conversation with Franchard, and then turned to Ralph.
"Do you think you can sail that sloop all right, my lad?"
"I know that I can, sir," returned Ralph, confidently.
"He knows small boats as well as I do, sir," put in Franchard. "His father was a boatman before him, and he used to row when he was only five years old."
"Then I will take the Minnie for Monday and Tuesday, sure, and possibly for Wednesday, too," said Mr. Larkins, and the bargain was settled on the spot.
"What time do you wish me on hand?" asked Ralph.
"We will be ready to go out about ten o'clock," was the reply, after the young lady and the young gentleman had been consulted.
"Now you see I couldn't have made that bargain if you hadn't turned up," said Franchard to Ralph, after the party had gone. "I'll be in pocket and so will you."
"And that will be a job that will suit me," laughed Ralph. "For once I am in luck."
He spent a few more minutes with Franchard, in completing arrangements, and then hurried off to make up the time he had lost in the distribution of the circulars.