THE WILY DETECTIVE'S RETURN TO THE HOTEL.
He soon made his appearance, and more resembled a tramp than the polished official of a few moments before. It was plainly evident to me that he had made a desperate attempt to follow my instructions. One-half of the skirt of his Prince Albert coat was entirely missing; no hat, a piece torn from the seat of his pants, only half of his linen collar left to grace his neck, and a single linen cuff to decorate his two wrists; one sleeve of his coat in rags, one of his pant legs fringed out, the perspiration running off him like rain-water, and one eye closed. He came in panting and puffing and roaring like a lion.
"Find me a Justice of the Peace, at once! I'll arrest the whole gang!"
"Arrest what gang? Who are you alluding to?" asked the landlord.
"Why, that gang up north here. I'll arrest the whole mob, and shoot that dog if I get killed for it!"
"Well, I supposed you were looking for Johnston?"
"Well, so I am; but they have him down there stowed away, and a whole regiment of soldiers wouldn't be able to get in, unless that dog is put out of the way. And that pesky old woman looks more like the devil than a human being. I wouldn't venture back there alone for the whole north half of Michigan!"
"But isn't this the man you want?" pointing to me.
"The devil, no. What do I want of the telegraph operator? I want Johnston, but I'd give more for that —— old woman's scalp and that dog's life than I would for a dozen Johnstons and all the horses in the state, and I——"
"But," interrupted the landlord, "this isn't the operator; this is Johnston,—or at least, he's the man who rode the horse here."
"The dickens he is!" shrieked the officer. "This is the man who sent me up there, and—"
"Did you get in?" I asked, insinuatingly.
"Get in? I want you to understand this is no joke, sir!" said he, as he came towards me in a threatening manner. "And if you're Johnston you ought to have your heart cut out. Look at me, look at me, sir: Do you think there is anything funny about this?"
"Well, I thought I'd give you a little sharp detective work to do before capturing my horse, so you would have something wonderful to relate when you arrived home."
"Then you're the man I want, are you?"
"Yes, sir, I suppose I am; but really, my friend, I didn't suppose you were going to lose all your clothes, and get completely knocked out and so thoroughly demoralized. How did it all happen?"
"Oh, you're too —— funny! It's none of your —— business how it all happened. I'll get even with you. I'm sorry I haven't a warrant for your arrest, instead of a writ of replevin for a horse, —— you!"
"See here; don't you —— me, sir, or I'll finish you up right here, in less than one minute!"
He then quieted down, and after serving the writ, took possession of the horse, before leaving for Sturgis. However, he spent nearly an hour in mending his clothes, patching up his nose and face, and dressing the slight flesh-wounds on his hands and arms, after which he borrowed a hat, and as I supposed, returned to Sturgis with the horse.
I remained over night at the hotel, although I was completely stranded, and wondered what I should do to make a raise. I realized fully that I would be obliged to lose several days' valuable time were I to remain there to contest the ownership of the horse, as return day had been set six days ahead. Hence I considered it folly to lose so much time for the value of a horse.
The next morning I arose early, and after breakfast began to search for an opportunity to make a few dollars.
I happened into a drug store and entering into conversation with the proprietor found him a very agreeable gentleman and explained to him that I was a "little short," and inquired if he had any patent medicines, pills, or anything in that line that a good salesman could handle. He replied that the only thing he had was about a gallon of lemon extract which he had made himself from a recipe he had been foolish enough to pay ten dollars for, and had never yet sold ten cents' worth of the stuff.
I asked to see it and on tasting it found an excellent article. I then asked if he would let me take the glass jar and a small graduate to measure it with, and he said: "Certainly."
With the flavoring extract and measure I started for a general canvass, going from house to house and introducing "The finest grade of lemon extract, twenty-five cents per ounce or five ounces for one dollar."
Each purchaser must furnish her own bottle to hold it.
I returned at noon with seven dollars sixty cents, when I took the balance of the dope back to the druggist and asked how much I owed him. He said:
"Well, I'll tell you, I'd like to sell the whole of it out to you. I'll take fifty cents and you own all the flavoring extract there is left, and I'll sell you the jar and graduate cheap if you want them."
"All right sir," handing over the fifty cents, "I'll return after dinner and try it again."
This little experience about convinced me that there was more money in that business than in patent rights.
As I was on my way to the hotel I met a man with a small flour-sifter for the sale of which he was acting as general agent in appointing sub-agents.
I asked his terms.
He said he required each new agent to buy four hundred sifters at twenty-five cents each, which he could retail for fifty cents. Unless a man could buy this number he could not have agency.
After dinner I started out again with the flavoring extract. At the third house I entered, an old gentleman asked if I could get him the agency for it. He said it wasn't necessary for him to do anything of the kind, as he owned a nice home and a small farm and had some money on interest, but he didn't like to spend his time in idleness. I told him that our house had no vacancies, but I could intercede in his behalf in making him an agent for a patent flour-sifter.
He asked what terms he could make. I told him they retailed for fifty cents each, but in order to secure the exclusive sale in his town he would have to pay the regular retail price for the first four hundred, after which he could have all he wanted at half that price.
He said he wouldn't care to invest more than one hundred dollars anyhow, and expressed a desire to see one of them.
"Well," said I, "I am always glad to do a man a favor, and I will run down town and bring one up to you."
I went immediately to where the gentleman was unpacking his sifters, and asked if he would be willing to sell two hundred and give the exclusive sale.
He refused to do so, and I saw there was little use in trying to persuade him, when I explained the nature of my case.
He said it wouldn't pay him to sell so few.
"Then I'll tell you what I'll do," said I. "You see if I was to sell two hundred at the price I have quoted, I'd make fifty dollars. Now if you will let me make the sale I'll give you half of my profits."
He agreed, and I returned to my victim and put the deal through in less than an hour, and pocketed twenty-five dollars—my share of the profits. I then returned at once to my flavoring extract and sold over three dollars' worth that afternoon, making a clear profit of thirty-five dollars for my day's work.
I then joined Frank at Sturgis, and after settling up our affairs there, he left for Ohio with the understanding that I would meet him at Elmore three days later.
CHAPTER XVI.
ARRIVING AT ELMORE, OHIO, STRANDED—RECEIVING EIGHT DOLLARS ON A PATENT-RIGHT SALE—DUNNED IN ADVANCE BY THE LANDLORD—CHANGING HOTELS—MY VISIT TO FREMONT—MEETING MR. KEEFER AND BORROWING MONEY—OUR VISIT TO FINDLAY—A BIG DEAL—LOSING MONEY IN WHEAT—FOLLOWED BY OFFICERS WITH A WRIT OF REPLEVIN—OUTWITTING THEM—A FOUR-MILE CHASE—HIDING OUR RIG IN A CELLAR.
I stopped at Bronson, where my wife and boy were visiting her people and in a couple of days we all started for Elmore, where we arrived bag and baggage without a cent.
My wife said she couldn't see why I should want her to accompany me when I was meeting with such poor success. I explained that it would possibly come very handy to have her Saratoga trunk along occasionally to help satisfy the landlords of our responsibility.
"O, I see you want to sort of pawn us, occasionally for hotel bills, don't you?"
"Well, yes," I answered, "it might be convenient to do so should we get cornered."
She said she didn't think she cared to be detained for hotel bills.
"Well, you wouldn't see a fellow starve would you?"
"No," she replied, "but if ever we are pawned I want you to try and redeem us as soon as possible."
We took quarters at one of the best hotels, and the next day after our arrival a young man came there selling ornamental stove-pipe hole covers made of plaster of paris.
I made his acquaintance at once and learned that he was from Battle Creek, Mich., where his father resided and owned a good property.
I asked his reason for engaging in that business. He said his father suggested it so that he would gain experience.
"Oh, I see, you are looking for experience."
"Yes, that's what I want."
"Well sir," I said, "you are in a poor business to get experience. You ought to get into the business I am in if you want experience."
"What is your business?" he asked. I then introduced my model and explained its merits.
He said he would like Calhoun County, Mich., and asked the price. I looked the map over and set the price at one hundred and fifty dollars. He said he would like it, but hadn't money enough.
I asked how much he had.
After counting what he had he said eight dollars was all he could spare.
"Well, I will take the eight dollars and your note for one hundred and forty-two dollars, payable three months after date."
He agreed, and I made out the papers, receiving the cash and note.
This amount of money, though small, came just in the nick of time, because of the Saratoga-trunk scheme not proving a success. In less than one hour after I had made the deal, the landlord asked me to pay in advance. I immediately flew into a rage and demanded him to make out my bill for what we had had and receipt it in full, which he did, and I paid it with a flourish and with the air of a millionaire!
There was another hotel just across the street, and when our landlord happened to step out in front of his house and I noticed the landlord of the opposite house also standing outside of his door I at once took advantage of the situation and began to abuse my landlord at a terrible rate for his impertinence and cussed meanness and gave him to distinctly understand that he would lose boarders by the means.
I then called on the other landlord and explained how his competitor had shown his narrow ideas of running a hotel and how quickly he secured his pay after demanding it and then asked if he could give us accommodations. He said he could, and we moved at once.
The new proprietor proved to be our kind of a landlord. The next day Frank, who had stopped off at Toledo, came on and joined us.
We left my family there and went over to Fremont, where by accident we met Mr. Keefer and my mother.
They asked how we were progressing.
I explained everything and "just how it all happened."
My mother said she thought we had done splendidly. Mr. Keefer said: "It did beat the d——l."
I then called him one side and began negotiations for a hundred-dollar loan.
He explained that he was absolutely hard up, but would be glad to help me if he could.
I then reminded him that his signature at the bank would be all that was needed.
"Well," said he, "I believe you will come out all right some day, and I guess I'll sign with you if you think you can meet it."
We stepped into the bank and procured the money.
The next day Frank and I went over to Findlay where we met a man selling a patent washing machine. We there succeeded in effecting a trade in our patent, and also found a customer for a large sale on the washing machine, for which the agent paid us liberally.
The two trades netted us thirteen hundred dollars in cash and a fine horse, harness and carriage.
We then drove over to Elmore, where I had left my wife and boy. After leaving her money enough to convince her that she would not be pawned that week we started the next day eastward, stopping at Fremont for supper about six o'clock.
We had traded the State of Illinois in our patent to a gentleman in the lightning-rod business, and that night while walking up street we noticed a large crowd of men standing on the corner talking.
We stepped across the street to see what the excitement was.
On looking over the shoulders of the men we saw our customer, the lightning-rod man, standing there holding his pitchfork in one hand and valise in the other. We were about to crowd in when we heard him say:
"Well, if I can find them I shall have them arrested and replevin the horse."
Frank and I then held a short consultation. Our first idea was to go to him and ascertain what he meant by saying he would arrest us. We felt certain we had violated no law, or at least had no intention of doing so. But after reconsidering the matter we concluded that he was simply a "squealer," and as we had made a square, fair trade with him we decided to let him find us instead of our looking for him.
Our experience of a few days before with the writ of replevin had been a very good lesson. We didn't consider it worth while to deliberately turn our stock over to "squealers," when they were taking so much pains to hunt us up, and especially when we stopped to realize that in dealing with a lightning-rod man it was simply a case of "diamond cut diamond." We therefore started East that evening, arriving at Cleveland a few days later.
On reading the late daily papers which we always made a practice of doing, we found several long articles about two men visiting Findlay with a patent right and how they had taken a handsome horse and carriage and several thousand dollars in cash for which they gave worthless deeds.
We also read a full description of ourselves and the horse and buggy and that a liberal reward would be paid for our capture and return to Findlay.
We were at a loss to understand the meaning of all this, and called on one of the best lawyers in Cleveland and paid him ten dollars to examine our Power of Attorney.
He pronounced it perfect, and said we had complied with the law in having it recorded, in our method of deeding, and in every other respect; and said that the patentee was powerless to annul the Power of Attorney, except by giving me thirty days' notice.
We then concluded to give them a good chase, before giving up the horse and carriage; for though they had spent considerable money in trying to capture us, we realized that the horse and buggy were all we had to look out for, so far as concerned any loss.
We stopped at a first-class hotel, and enjoyed life hugely.
While there, we met an acquaintance who had been speculating in wheat, and had made a lot of money in a very short time.
He assured us that if we would let him invest a portion of our cash the same as he was intending to invest his own, we would leave Cleveland with a barrel of money. Of course we hadn't thought of scooping it in by the barrel, and the idea rather caught us.
Neither Frank nor myself had the slightest conception of the method of speculating in that way. And to this day, I am still as ignorant as then regarding it, and have no desire to learn it.
Well, we let our friend invest five hundred dollars, and in less than three days he called on us for three hundred more, saying he must have it to tide us over. Two days later he announced to us the crushing fact that all was lost! His cash as well as ours.
He then began urging us to try it once more. Anxious to get back what we had lost, we needed but little persuasion; and in less than one week found ourselves about cleaned out. We had speculated all we cared to; and after settling up with the landlord, started west again with the horse and buggy, to continue our patent-right business.
Wherever we stopped, we imagined every time we saw a person approaching us, that it was an officer with papers for our arrest, or a writ of replevin for the horse and carriage. We cared more for the writ than we did for the arrest, as we had by this time posted ourselves as to the trouble and annoyance it would cause us to allow them to get possession of the rig. Besides, it had already become a question whether we would out-general them or they us.
We realized that their reasons, whatever they were, for demanding our arrest, were groundless. So our only desire was to sell the whole outfit at a good figure.
It would have paid us better in every way to have turned it over to the men we had traded with, and to have come to an understanding with them; but we were too anxious to win, in the race we had begun.
We had a great scare and narrow escape, at a small inland town where we stopped just at dusk, intending to remain over night.
While sitting in front of the hotel, about nine o'clock that evening, several gentlemen scrutinized us very sharply as they passed by. Among them happened to be an old friend whom we had known at Clyde. He asked what we had been doing that the authorities had a right to arrest us, adding that two men were at that very moment looking up an officer for that purpose.
We gave immediate orders for our horse to be hitched up, and hastily informed our friend of the facts. He said there must be some reason for the Findlay authorities wanting us, as they had offered a reward of a hundred dollars for us, and twenty-five for the horse and buggy.
We started west at a rapid gait.
It was a beautiful moonlight night, and we had not traveled far till we saw coming after us two men on horseback, riding rapidly. We drove but a few rods farther when we came to a steep hill, at the bottom of which was a cross-road extending in both directions through the woods, and a large bridge crossing a river just west of the road-crossing. We drove down the embankment and under the bridge into the river, and there awaited the coming of the two men. They stopped on the bridge, and there held a consultation We heard one of them say:
"I wonder which way the devils went, anyhow?"
"Well," the other remarked, "they are traveling west, and it's quite likely they have crossed the bridge."
Just as they were about to start again our horse pawed in the water, and at once attracted their attention.
