CHAPTER XX
DICK IS ILL
When Dick saw that he had been fooled by Bulldog and was in the power of the bully, his first thought was one of fear. For Dick was not a very strong lad and was unused to physical violence. So, when the big lad shook his fist in his face and appeared ready to strike him Dick shrank back.
"Aw, I t'ought I'd skeer youse," remarked Bulldog in surly tones. "Now youse had better tell me a straight story."
"What do you mean?" asked Dick.
"Aw, youse know what I means. Youse has run away from home an' ye're only chuckin' a bluff about bein' a newsboy. Now I want t' know where youse lives, so's I kin take youse home an' git der reward."
"If I knew where I lived and who my folks were, I would only be too glad to tell you," answered Dick earnestly. "I would go home myself, without waiting for any one to take me."
"None of dat. Dat's too thin!" exclaimed Bulldog. "Youse has got t' tell me or I'll punch yer head."
"I can't tell you."
"Well, den here goes fer a punch," and again the big boy raised his big fist.
"I'll call a policeman," said Dick, who knew he was no match for the bully.
"Go ahead. We lick cops down dis way. No perliceman ever comes in here when he hears a row. He knows it ain't healthy fer him, 'less he's got a patrol wagon full of cops wid him. Now, once ag'in, are youse goin' t' tell me what I want t' know?"
"I can't!" exclaimed Dick, wishing he had Jimmy there to help him. "I would, really I would, if I could, but I can't remember anything, except that I got hit on the head and then I woke up in the box with Jimmy."
"Yes, dat's de story youse tells, but I t'ink it's a fake. What I want is de real t'ing."
"I am telling you the truth."
"Well, I don't believe youse are."
"You can ask the police at headquarters. I have been there and told them my story."
"Yes; when youse catches me around police headquarters it'll be colder dan it is now."
Bulldog grasped Dick by an arm and pulled him closer to him, while his heavy fist was ready to deal a cruel blow. Dick tried to shrink away, but he was held fast. He looked about the room for some way of escape or some weapon he might use on his captor.
The apartment, as far as he could see in the dim light of a smoking oil lamp, was deserted. There was only one door, that by which they had entered, and Bulldog had locked that. Nor was there anything in the room, save a table and a few chairs.
"Oh, youse can't git away from me," said Bulldog, guessing of what Dick was thinking. "Now, den, take dat!" and he dealt Dick a hard blow in the face. Instinctively the boy raised his arm to protect his head.
"Oh, youse wants t' fight, eh?" inquired the bully, with a sneer, at the same time taking the attitude in which pugilists are usually depicted. "Well, I kin give youse all of dat yer wants; see!"
Nothing was further from Dick's thought than to engage in a fight with the bully, but Bulldog interpreted matters his own way. All Dick cared about was to escape.
Once more the coward hit him, and then Dick's natural courage arose. He would not submit tamely to being beaten, and, with a wild desire in his heart to hit back, his fist shot out.
It would be hard to say who was the more surprised, Dick or the bully, at the effect of the blow. It caught Bulldog on the cheek and forced him back slightly. But it had the effect of further enraging him, and the bully advanced to the attack with an angry look in his eyes.
Suddenly Bulldog's fist shot out, and the blow taking Dick squarely on the chest, sent him reeling and stumbling back. An instant later he fell to the floor. Then the bully sprang forward, all his meaner fighting instincts aroused, determined to cruelly punish the lad, who, he believed, was trying to deceive him.
But at this juncture there was a sound in the hallway outside the door. It was a hurried rush of feet, and some one turned the handle of the door.
"Hey, Bulldog! If you're in there let me in before I bust in the door!" exclaimed a voice.
The bully paused, much surprised.
"Git on away from dere!" he cried.
"Let me in!" insisted the voice.
"Yah! Let us in or ve comes in anyvays," added another.
"It's Dutchy!" said Bulldog, in a whisper.
There came a kick on the rickety old door that made it shake.
"Come on! Open this door. I know you've got Dick in there!" was the demand.
"Git away from dere. Dere's nobody here but me, an' I'll punch yer head if youse don't stop bodderin' me," threatened the bully.
"Jimmy! Jimmy! Here I am! I'm in here!" shouted Dick, rising to his feet and running toward the door.
"Git back dere!" ordered Bulldog, making a grab for Dick as the boy passed him.
But before Dick could reach the door it was burst open from outside, and, tumbling into the room, came Jimmy and Sam, all out of breath from running. Bulldog started back and doubled up his fists. Jimmy made straight for Dick.
"Are you all right? Are you hurt?" he asked anxiously.
"Not—not much. I'm all right."
"He hit you!" exclaimed Jimmy, as he saw a red mark on Dick's face.
"Yes, twice."
"The brute! I'll make him pay for that!"
Jimmy was mad enough now to tackle Bulldog single-handed. But there was no need for this. Sam Schmidt's fighting blood was up. He regarded Jimmy and Dick as his best friends, and the thought that one of them had suffered at the hands of Bulldog made him angry. Sam was a big lad—taller, stronger, and heavier than the bully—but he had no training in fist-fights.
Still he did not hesitate. Straight at Bulldog he leaped, clasping him in his big arms before the bully could strike out, and an instant later the two went down, Bulldog underneath, while Sam rained blow after blow on him.
"So! Dot's de vay I do him," he explained between the thumps. "Next times you vos took somebodies yer own sizes, maybe so. Eh? Dere, dot's fer goot luck," and, with a parting blow, he allowed Bulldog to get up. The bully lost no time in beating a hasty retreat.
Then, for fear he might get some of his cronies and renew the fight, Jimmy advised that they leave, which they did, soon arriving at the lodging-house.
Dick told his story, how he had been enticed away by the untruth about Jimmy being hurt, and the latter related his part in the affair.
"We're well out of it," remarked Dick.
"We ought to tell the police," declared Jimmy.
"Vait. I lick Mike Conroy de next times I sees him, alretty," declared Sam. "Dot vos fun, how I did up der Bulldog! I don't guess dey bodders you two any more."
"I guess not either," added Jimmy.
The story of how Jimmy and Sam had "done up" Bulldog, was soon circulated among the newsboys, and it lost nothing in the telling. When Jimmy and Dick went on the street the next day the former was greeted on all sides as "Champion."
"Sam Schmidt did the most," he said, modestly.
"Dat's all right," answered some of his acquaintances. "Youse is de foist one t' stand out agin Bulldog, an' we're glad of it. Maybe he'll let us alone now." For Bulldog was a terror to the smaller boys.
"I done it for me—I mean my partner," explained Jimmy, with a fond look at Dick. "Anybody what picks on him has to answer to me."
"Dot's right, und I helps, too," added Sam. "Me und Jimmy ve fights togedder, don't ve alretty yet, Jimmy?"
"Sure," replied the hero of the occasion.
It was hot that day, so hot, in fact, that it was hard work to tramp about the streets to sell papers.
"It's me for a dip down at the Battery swimmin' pool when we get through here," remarked Jimmy, as he met his partner at one of the delivery wagons.
"That would be a good idea," said Dick. "I'll go with you."
"I uster go in the fountain basin at City Hall Park," went on Jimmy. "A dip there'd cool a feller off."
"Why don't you now?"
"Cops watches it too close. Some of the fellers goes in, though, but they're likely to lose their clothes. Cops grabs 'em every chance they gits."
The partners separated, Dick to go down to the Wall Street district, and Jimmy to his regular corner. During the afternoon, when Dick sold out, and was about to go for more papers, he was called into a hallway by a broker, who was one of his customers.
"Are you very busy?" the man asked Dick.
"Not so very, sir, just now. I've just sold out, and I need more papers. Why?"
"Well, I'd like you to go on a little errand for me. I want you to take this note over to a firm of brokers," and he named one of the most prominent ones in the financial section. Dick wondered why the man selected him, when there were plenty of messengers he could call by touching a button in his office. The man must have seen the unspoken query on Dick's face, for he said:
"I want you to go, because this is a very important matter, involving a stock deal, and if I send a regular messenger from my office, some other dealers will be sure to notice it, and it may make trouble. You can go without being suspected. Here is the note, and here is a dollar for delivering it."
"That's too much," said Dick quickly.
"I think not," replied the broker with a smile. "You are doing me more of a service than you know. Now don't lose any time."
Dick started off, with the note in his hand.
"Hold on!" called the man quickly. "Don't go out with it that way. Some one may have seen me speaking to you, and suspect something. We have to be very particular down here in Wall Street."
Dick had been down in that section long enough to understand that often the winning or losing of a big financial deal depended on a small matter, such as the broker had mentioned.
"Here, this will be a good way," went on the man, pulling a newspaper from his pocket. "Slip the letter in there, and then, if any one sees you, they'll think you are merely going into the office where I am sending you, to deliver a paper."
Dick did as requested, and was soon on his way, hardly able to believe that he had earned a dollar so easily. He hurried to the office, left his message, without being observed, as far as he could tell, and then he decided he would take a walk up to Barclay Street and see Jimmy.
"I promised him I'd meet him down at the bathhouse," said Dick to himself, "but I don't feel like it. Guess I must be a little under the weather. I don't believe it would be good to go swimming in that water. I'll use the bath-tub at the lodging house."
He went through City Hall Park, on his way to see his partner, for he had emerged in front of the World Building. As he crossed the open space, and approached the fountain, he was aware that something was going on. There was a big crowd about the water basin.
"Maybe somebody's hurt," thought Dick, hastening his steps, but, when he managed to wiggle through the throng, and was close to the edge of the basin, he saw that it was merely the sight of some lads in the fountain that had attracted the crowd.
The hot lads, braving the wrath of the police, of whom none were then present, had taken off all the garments they dared, and had plunged into the cooling water. They were splashing about like birds, enjoying a bath.
The crowd, which always assembles when this scene occurs in the park, was looking on with huge enjoyment, staid business men and millionaire merchants gathering to watch the boys at their sport. The lads splashed and ducked each other, at times, in their eagerness, even wetting the by-standers.
Suddenly there was that cry which, above all others, startles the newsboys and bootblacks of New York.
"Cheese it, de cop!"
Some lookout, posted for that very purpose, had spied the approach of the bluecoat, who came up on the run, seeing the crowd, for he knew what it meant—that the boys were disobeying a city ordinance, and bathing in the basin.
Instantly there was a rush on the part of the lads to get out, for to be caught meant to be arrested and fined. The boys sprang over the side of the basin, the crowd, laughing more heartily than ever, opening to let them escape.
As luck would have it, two or three of the larger boys, in their efforts to get away, ran toward the side of the fountain where Dick stood. He tried to get out of their path, that he might not hamper them in their escape, but there was a fat man behind him and Dick stepped on his toes.
"Ouch! My gracious! That's my corn!" cried the man, limping away.
Dick started to apologize, but he had hardly begun it, when he was fairly overwhelmed by the lads leaping from the basin. They did not care where they landed, as long as they got away from the officer, and they toppled on Dick, splashing water on him from the fountain, and from their own dripping forms.
Dick was knocked down, and one of the boys fell on top of him, the glittering drops splashing all about. Dick struggled to his feet, trying to get rid of the water in his eyes that he might see which way to go to run so as to get out of the way. But, just as he turned to go, he felt some one seize him, and a voice exclaimed:
"Now I've got you, anyhow! Come along with me!"
"Where to? What for?" asked Dick, and he looked up to see that a policeman had him by the shoulder.
"Where to? Why, the station house, of course. And what for? I guess you don't have to ask that! I'll catch some more of you chaps for takin' a dip in the basin the first chance I get, too! You got ahead of me to-day."
"I wasn't in the basin," declared Dick.
"You wasn't? Say, what ye givin' me? Didn't I see ye runnin', an' ain't ye all wet?"
"The water was splashed on me," asserted Dick. "I was just watching them, and some of the boys jumped on me."
"Think I'll believe such a fishy yarn as that?" asked the officer, incredulously. "I seen ye in swimmin', an' ye'll have t' come with me."
"But I wasn't in," insisted Dick, wishing Jimmy was now at hand to aid him.
"Ain't I got eyes in my head?" asked the officer in contempt. "You can't lie out of it that way. Why, you're drippin' wet. You must have gone in with all yer clothes on."
"I didn't go in at all."
"Aw, cut that out an' come along."
Dick did not know what to do. He looked around at the faces of the crowd that had gathered, hoping to see some one to whom he could appeal. But he saw no one. The officer was about to lead him away. All at once a man stepped forth from the throng. He was limping slightly.
"What's he done, officer?" he asked.
The man looked like an influential citizen, and the policeman decided it would be the best policy to answer him.
"Swimmin' in the basin," he said. "Against the law."
"I wasn't in," declared Dick, with tears of mortification in his eyes. "They splashed the water on me. Why, I was standing near you," he went on, for he recognized the man as the fat person, on whose toes he had accidentally stepped.
"Why, bless my soul, so you were!" exclaimed the fleshy gentleman. "Officer, you are making a mistake."
"I guess I know my business," replied the bluecoat shortly. "Move on here. Let me pass or I'll run some of ye in."
"I tell you that you are making a mistake, officer," insisted the fat man, firmly. "This boy stood right in front of me when I was watching the lads in bathing. He was not in the water at all. Why, you can see that for yourself. His shoes are not wet."
Sure enough, though Dick was pretty well soaked all over, his feet had escaped the drenching.
"How do you know he stood in front of you?" inquired the policeman, not accepting the more apparent evidence of the shoes.
"How do I know? The very best reason in the world. He stepped back to get out of the way of the rushing lads, and he came down on my favorite corn. I'm limping yet."
"I'm very sorry," began Dick, who had not had time to finish his apology.
"That's all right," answered the fat man, good-naturedly. "I'll forgive you, and do you a favor in the bargain. No, officer," he went on, "you are mistaken. This boy was not in bathing. I will testify in his favor. Here is my card, if you insist on making an arrest."
He passed a bit of pasteboard over to the policeman, who, when he had read it, took on a different attitude.
"Oh, very well, Alderman Casey," he said, "I beg your pardon. I didn't know he was a friend of yours, or I wouldn't have bothered him. Of course I must have made a mistake. He can go."
"I don't know whether he's a friend of mine or not," continued the alderman with a smile. "I'm inclined to think, by the way my corn hurts, that he isn't. But I want to see justice done. There, my lad, run along now, before you get any wetter, or step on any more fat men's toes," and the alderman, satisfied at having done a good act, and at demonstrating his influence over the police before a crowd, laughed heartily.
Dick lost no time in making his escape, fearing the officer might change his mind. He found Jimmy and related what had occurred.
"Crimps! Say, you has luck!" exclaimed Dick's partner. "Alderman Casey is one of the big-bugs! What, didn't you know him when he was speakin' to youse—I mean you?"
"No."
"Well, of course it takes time to know all the main gazabos of this town," spoke Jimmy, with an air of lofty wisdom. "But I'm sorry you don't feel well. Come an' have a soda."
"No, I don't think I care for any. I don't believe it would be good for me. But you go get one."
"All right, I will. Then you won't come swimmin' to-night, Dick?"
"No, I've had enough of it for one day. I guess I'll be better in the morning."
Dick did not feel very well that night when he went to bed. The excitement had a bad effect on his nerves, and when he awoke in the morning, he had quite a fever. His face was flushed and his breathing rapid. He tried to get up to go out with his papers, but found himself too dizzy to stand.
"I—I guess I'm sick, Jimmy," he said. "But I'll be all right in a little while. You go ahead out, so as not to lose the morning trade."
"What? And leave you here all alone, and sick? I guess not much! Wait, I'll call Mr. Snowden. He knows somethin' about medicine."