“Hasn’t she beaten the Lightning Express-train twice to-day?”
“If she did, it was in fair and honorable competition. You discharged me, and you are responsible for the consequences, not I.”
“What’s the use of talking to an ingrate, like you!” exclaimed the major impatiently. “I give you fair warning that I intend to clean you out of the place, the whole kit of you, Tom Walton included.”
“All right! It is your next move, Tommy. I hope you won’t burn your fingers in the scrape, as you have done several times before.”
“Do you threaten me?”
“No, by no means. I only wish to tell you that those who act unjustly must bear the burden of their own injustice. When you attempted to have me put out of the car, it cost you a broken leg, though that was by no act of mine. I shall try to keep the peace, but if attacked, I shall defend myself. For all the good you and your father have done to me and mine, I shall remember you kindly. I shall forgive and forget all the injury. I stood by you and your father as long as you would let me. I refused the very situation which I have now accepted when in your employ, for no money could tempt me to forsake my friends. I hope you will not try to get up a quarrel with me, Tommy, for I have no ill-will towards you, and would rather serve you now than injure you.”
“Do you mean that?”
“Upon my word I do!” I answered earnestly; and if I know my own heart, I spoke the simple truth.
“Perhaps we will give you a chance to prove what you say,” said Tommy, with an incredulous shake of the head. “Attention—battalion! Forward—march!”
As abruptly as he had come upon me, he left me. Evidently my words had suggested some plan to him, and I had a right to expect some proposition from him. To sum up Tommy’s threats, he intended to drive me out of the town—not by force or by legal measures, but by making “the place too hot to hold me;” which, being interpreted, meant that he and his friends would vex and annoy our family until we should be glad to seek a new home elsewhere. Of course a man so influential as Major Toppleton, senior, had the power to make Middleport very disagreeable to us.