“Of course I’ll go,” said he, so delighted with the idea that he hardly knew what he was about; “but Bob shan’t! We don’t want him, and so I’ll say nothing to him about this letter. I shan’t say anything to father either, for he would be sure to tell me to stay at home.”
Gus had found a way out of his troubles at last. He wrote a reply to Ned’s letter that very night, and was as impatient to hear from him again as Ned was to hear from Gus. He made no effort to raise money to pay his debts, and indeed he did not intend to pay them at all. He went to see all his creditors, as soon as he could find time, just to keep them from calling upon him at the store, and by making them some very fair promises, he succeeded in quieting them for a while. When that was done, he breathed easier, and the only thing he had to worry over and feel anxious about was the expected letter from Ned, which he hoped would bring a check for the money he needed, and contain instructions as to the route he was to travel, in order to reach Palos.
“And when I get there I’ll stay,” Gus often told himself. “I shall never come back. I’ve had enough of this miserable life. What will I do and where shall I go after I have finished my visit? I am sure I don’t know. That is a matter I will decide when the time comes. I do hope Ned will have no trouble in raising the money.”
Gus was not disappointed in his hopes. Ned was so anxious to have him there that he did not delay writing, and in due time the looked-for letter arrived. Gus could hardly control his exultation from those around him. He wrote to his friend at once, saying that he would start in a week, and that Ned must make his own calculations as to the time his visitor would reach Palos, as he (Gus) had not she slightest idea how long it would take him to make the journey, and Ned had forgotten to enlighten him on this point.
Gus wanted to wait a week longer in order that he might draw the twenty dollars and more that would then be due him from the store. It was the longest week he had ever lived through, and the hardest too; but it came to an end at last, and pay-day arrived. Gus drew his money when Bob did, and as soon as he had put it into his pocket, he slipped out the back door into an alley that ran behind the store, and started for home. He made his way to the room in which he and Bob slept, opened his trunk with a key he took from his pocket, deposited his money therein and took out the check which he had kept locked up in the trunk ever since it arrived.
“It is time to get this cashed now,” said he. “I put it off until the last moment because I didn’t want to give anybody a chance to talk about it. I don’t know what the cashier will think when I present it at the bank, and I don’t care either, if he will only give me the money. I hope Sam will have a good time getting what I owe him. He was waiting at the office door to catch me when I came out, and that was the reason I slipped into the alley.”
Gus locked his trunk, put the key and check carefully away in his pocket and hurriedly left the house. Time was precious (he had less than half an hour left in which to eat his dinner and return to the store) and he made all the haste he could. He was particularly anxious to get through with his business at the bank, for he had been dreading it all the week. What would the folks in there think when he approached the cashier’s desk and presented a check for a hundred dollars? He ran up the steps while he was thinking about it, and almost into the arms of the very person he most wished to avoid just then—the one who had waited to dun him when he came out of his father’s office. Sam had drawn his month’s wages and came to the bank to deposit them.
“Hallo!” exclaimed Sam. “Where did you go in such a hurry after you drew your money? I didn’t see you come out of the office.”
“But I did come out, you see; for if I had stayed in, I couldn’t be here, could I?”
“Hold on,” said Sam, as Gus tried to push him aside so that he could enter the door. “This is a good time to settle up.”