“Stop your bawling, Alfred,” Mr. Pepper commanded, as the breathless sailor released the scamp and placed him upright with no gentle force.
Brandon, who had been well nigh convulsed with laughter at the mode of punishment the clerk had received, had not thought it possible for the jolly Adoniram to ever appear so stern as he did now.
“Weeks,” continued the merchant, the customary smile totally eradicated from his features, “Weeks, I have done my best for you for ten years. I’ve helped you the best I know how. I have shielded you from those who would have given you over to justice more than once, for your petty crimes. Now, sir, I am through with you!
“This offense is unpardonable. You may go down to the other office and draw your salary to the end of the month, and never let me see you again until you have become a respectable member of society, and shown by your actions, not by words, that you are such. Go at once, sir!”
Weeks hesitated an instant as though he contemplated making an appeal to his old employer for mercy; but the look on Mr. Pepper’s face forbade that. The old merchant was an embodiment of justice now; mercy for the rascally clerk had flown.
Picking up his hat, he limped silently to the door, but ere he disappeared he turned and looked at Brandon, who, in spite of himself, was unable to keep his face straight. He glared at the laughing youth an instant, and then the real nature of the fellow flashed out from beneath the veneer of apparently harmless impudence and cunning.
His dark, old looking face flushed deeply red, his narrow eyes flashed with sudden rage, and he shook his clenched fist at Brandon Tarr with insane fury.
“I’ll even things up with you, you young whelp!” he hissed, and in another moment limped out of the place.
“A nice fellow you’ve harbored, there, ’Doniram, just as I told you,” Caleb declared. “He’ll knife you some dark night, if you’re not careful.”
But Adoniram only shook his head sadly and returned to the telephone. After talking to his manager several minutes, he picked up his hat and gloves and led the way out of the office, locking it behind him.