CHAPTER VIII
MR. CHESTER YOUNG
The Adams Building News Stand prospered from the first. There was never a doubtful moment. On Thursday business started off with a rush and when, just before half-past eight, Joe and Jack had to hurry unwillingly away to school, even Joe, now the more pessimistic of the two, had to acknowledge that success seemed assured. After school they flew back again to discover that the stand was well-nigh exhausted of aught save magazines and that even those were half gone! They had placed what they supposed to be a sufficient supply of cigars, cigarettes, and tobacco on top of the case, but one cigar-box was utterly empty, another held but three cigars, all but two packages of cigarettes had disappeared, and the candy was down to the final layer of boxes! The morning papers had been pretty nearly sold out before they had left, and so the sight of the empty counter to the left of the showcase produced no surprise. But the inroad made on the rest of their stock brought gasps of astonishment. An awful fear assailed the partners and with one accord they grabbed at the cash-box. But its weight and the pleasant clinking sound it gave out reassured them, and when, after they had taken account of stock and had reckoned up the contents of the box, they discovered that not only had every purchase been honestly paid for, but that someone had dropped in five cents too much, they viewed each other triumphantly.
“Eight dollars and fifty-five cents!” exclaimed Jack awedly. “What do you know about that? And it’s not four o’clock yet!”
“What’s troubling me,” replied Joe happily, “is how we are to stock up again by morning! We can get the cigars, all right, but we’ve got to have more candy and it takes a day or two to get that. And the magazines are more than half gone, too.”
“Couldn’t we telegraph to Cincinnati for the candy?”
“Yes, but I guess we’d better buy some here meanwhile.”
“But there won’t be any profit on it!” wailed Jack.
“No, but we can’t help that. We’ve got to keep the stock up. We’ll telegraph the Cincinnati folks to send fifty pounds this time.”
“Fifty!” exclaimed Jack doubtfully. “Isn’t that a lot?”