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Updated: May 22, 2025
"I want " said this elfin voice, "I want Bill Hammersley!" The shabby phaeton which had passed my cousin's house was drawing up to the curb near Beasley's gate. Evidently the old negro saw it. "Hi dar!" he exclaimed. "Look at dat! Hain' Bill a comin' yonnah des edzacly on de dot an' to de vey spot an' instink when you 'quiah fo' 'im, honey?
"Fish 'em out, an' set your big weights on 'em. Ther' ain't goin' to be no chat nor drink till you weighed in. Then I guess the drink'll be right up to you." Beasley's mood changed like lightning. He swung over behind his bar and dropped to the floor on the other side, his eyes alight, and every faculty alert for trade. "Wot's it?" he demanded.
John essayed no reply, and his brothers all had that quiet, suppressed look of knowledge under restraint. "Listen to what I come to tell you, then you'll talk," went on Dale. And hurriedly he told of Beasley's plot to abduct Al Auchincloss's niece and claim the dying man's property. When Dale ended, rather breathlessly, the Mormon boys sat without any show of surprise or feeling.
Thus, my thoughts were a great deal more occupied with Beasley's chances than with the holiday spirit that now, with furs and bells and wreathing mists of snow, breathed good cheer over the town.
Little boys and girls fighting like savages for a bare existence. The chums were silent the rest of the way to the old brick house just a "slice" out of a three-story-and-basement row of such houses, which Inez announced to be "Mother Beasley's." "Sometimes she's got her beds all full and you hafter wait for lodgin's. Mebbe she'll let you camp in her room, or in one of the halls up-stairs."
Beasley hung in the center of the broadest wall space, and was not the ugliest thing in the apartment. Having said this, further description is unnecessary particularly to those who remember Mr. Beasley's personal appearance. "What you so interested in the Thayers for?" inquired Debby. "One of the heirs, be you? They didn't leave nothin'." No, the schoolmistress was not an heir.
I can find my way around now, for I have studied a map of Chicago and I can go by the most direct route to Mother Beasley's." "And find that cunning little Inez, too?" asked Grace. "Yes. If I want to. But to-day I want to go to see if Sallie and Celia went back to Mrs. Beasley's. I heard from Sallie's mother by this morning's post, and the poor woman is dreadfully worked up about the runaways.
The Hunchbergs had lately moved to Wainwright from Constantinople, I learned; they had decided not to live in town, however, having purchased a fine farm out in the country, and, on account of the distance, were able to call at Beasley's only about eight times a day, and seldom more than twice in the evening.
"Say, fellers," he went on, "I'm takin' this gal wher' she belongs down to the farm. I'm goin' to hand her over to the old woman there. An' if I hear another filthy suggestion from this durned skunk Beasley, what I said goes. It's not a threat. It's a promise, sure, an' I don't ever forgit my promises." Beasley's face was livid, and he drew a sharp breath.
"Thet's your smoke, shore enough," replied John, thoughtfully. "Now, I jest wonder who's campin' there. No water near or grass for hosses." "John, that point's been used for smoke signals many a time." "Was jest thinkin' of thet same. Shall we ride around there an' take a peek?" "No. But we'll remember that. If Beasley's got his deep scheme goin', he'll have Snake Anson's gang somewhere close."
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