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The Grammar School Boys of Gridley, a fiction by H. Irving Hancock |
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Chapter 21. Ab. Dexter Makes A New Move |
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_ CHAPTER XXI. AB. DEXTER MAKES A NEW MOVE "Did you hear the latest from Ab. Dexter?" asked Dave, as he met Dick one Saturday afternoon in November. "No; nothing very good, was it?" "That's hardly to be expected," laughed Dave, as the two chums came to a halt on a street corner. "Did you happen to remember that Dexter and Driggs were due to come up for trial in court this afternoon?" "No; I had forgotten the date." "Well, this was the day. Justice Lee, if you remember, bound them over to answer at court." "Yes; I remember that." "Well, neither of them showed up, and so the court declared forfeited the cash bail that Dexter put up for the pair." "The money ought to be worth more to the county than both men put together," laughed Dick. "I guess that's the way the court looked at it." "I hope Dexter and Driggs are both a mighty long way from Gridley, and that they will stay. Mrs. Dexter isn't having any bother at all, these days, is she?" "You ought to be the one to know that," teased Dave. "You're the one she sends for whenever she takes it into her head that she wants to reward us for some jolly good fun that we had in helping her." "I had a note from Mrs. Dexter a few days ago," Dick went on. "Maybe I forgot to tell you about it. She wanted me to call on her, and I wrote back that I was awfully sorry but that my evenings just then had to be put in getting ready for the monthly exams. I haven't heard a word from her since then." "She's a fine woman," nodded Dave, "but she certainly has the reward habit in bad shape." "Feels some like snow, doesn't it?" inquired Dick, looking up at a lead-colored sky. "It'll rain," predicted Dave. "It isn't yet cold enough for snow." "I'll be mighty glad when the snow comes." "Maybe I won't," uttered Darrin. "That's the best time of the year--winter." "Unless you call summer the finest time." "Of course in summer we have the long vacation and plenty of time to have fun." "Better duck," advised Dick suddenly. "Here comes Mrs. Dexter now." "Looks as though she'd been crying, too," murmured Dave, scanning the approaching woman. "Then we won't scoot," advised Dick, changing front instantly. "It doesn't look very fine to run away from any one who's in trouble." Strangely enough Mrs. Dexter didn't appear, at first, to want to talk with the boys. She nodded, smiled wanly and said: "Good afternoon, boys! Are things dull to-day?" "Just quiet, Mrs. Dexter," Dick answered. Then Dave, with some of his usual impulsiveness, put in, earnestly: "You look as though you had heard bad news, Mrs. Dexter." The woman had started to go on her way. Then she turned about again. "Perhaps I have heard bad news," she smiled wearily. "It isn't anything that we could help you about, is it?" asked Dick. He felt that he was taking a liberty in putting the question, yet he could not hold his inquiry back. "I--I am afraid not, this time," she answered slowly. "Besides, I don't want to see any of you get into any more trouble on my account." "Then it's--it's Mr. Dexter?" hazarded Dave. The woman swallowed hard, seemed to be trying to choke back something, and then replied: "Yes." "Has he dared to get troublesome again?" flashed Dick. "N-n-n-o matter. Please don't ask me. You can't help me any this time." Once more Mrs. Dexter looked as though she would follow her way, but some other instinct prompted her to add: "Don't think I don't appreciate my excellent young friends. But you can't help me this time. No one can. Mr. Dexter is too dangerous a man, and when he threatens disaster, and says he'll wait patiently a year to bring it about, he means every word that he says." "Whew! So he has threatened that, has he?" Dick inquired. "Yes. I guess I may as well tell you the rest of it. Well, this morning I received a letter from Mr. Dexter. He wanted more money before. Now he puts his demand at thirty thousand dollars. He says that, if I don't arrange to meet him and turn over the cash, he'll wait patiently for a year or more, if necessary, but that he'll watch and find his chance to burn my home down and destroy Myra and me in it." "Dexter threatened that, did he?" chuckled Dave Darrin, almost merrily. "Why Dexter hasn't the nerve to do such a thing. Excuse me, Mrs. Dexter, but all that fellow is good for is frightening timid women." "I wish I could believe that," sighed the woman nervously. "You have a special policeman still in the house, haven't you, Mrs. Dexter?" "Yes. He's there, now, watching over Myra." "Well, at the worst," pursued Dick, "hire a second man and put him on guard nights outside the house, and you'll never hear from Dexter--except by mail, anyway. But how does the man expect you to send him word about the money? Did he give you any address?" "He told me to put an advertisement, worded in a certain way, in the morning 'Blade.'" "And--pardon me--you've been up and inserted the advertisement?" questioned Dick. "Ye-es." "And have arranged to get the money?" "Yes; I've seen Mr. Dodge at the bank." "When are you to meet Dexter!" "When he sees my advertisement in the 'Blade' to-morrow he'll send me word where to meet him." "You ought to send a detective, instead," blazed Dave Darrin. "If I did, Dexter would wait his time and then destroy my child and myself," answered the woman, her under-lip quivering. "You don't really believe that, do you?" asked Dave. "No; I know it." "You haven't been to see a lawyer, have you?" inquired Prescott. "No; I don't dare that, for a lawyer would advise, as you did, sending a detective to keep the appointment, and then Mr. Dexter would be put in prison. I don't want Myra to grow up with the shame of having a father in prison. I--I am glad that Dexter jumped his bail on the other little charge." "I see just this much about it, Mrs. Dexter," followed Dick. "But--you don't mind my speaking, do you?" "No; I like to hear you, for you boys have already saved me some heartaches." "What I was going to say, Mrs. Dexter, is that, no matter how much money you give that man, he'll always keep bothering you as long as you have any left. A man who won't work can't be very brave, and a man who doesn't work can spend an awful lot of money. If you surrender to Dexter I'm sure you'll have to keep on giving in just as long as you have any money left." "Then you think I ought not to give him the money, and that I ought to hire another good man to guard the house outside?" "Yes; if you 're really afraid. It'll be cheaper to hire another man than to give all your fortune away." "But I've put the advertisement in the 'Blade.'" "There's time enough to take it out." "I--I believe I'll do that," murmured Mrs. Dexter. Talking with the boys had given her a new little rise in courage. "That's what I'd do if it were my case," added Darrin. "Thank you! I'll go right up and take the advertisement out at once." As though afraid that her courage might fail her, if she delayed, Mrs. Dexter turned and walked rapidly back in the direction whence she had just come. "There flies a pot of money out of Dexter's window!" grinned Dave. "I'm far from being sorry," returned Prescott. Though neither boy had paid any heed to the fact a cab had moved slowly down Main Street past them while Mrs. Dexter was talking. The curtains were drawn just enough to make the interior of the vehicle a black shadow. Lolling on the back seat, with one curtain adjusted just so that he could look out sufficiently, sat a man, disguised somewhat, though none the less Abner Dexter. "My wife has been up to the 'Blade' office and has put an advertisement in," muttered Dexter. "Now, she's talking to those two meddlesome boys. About me, I wonder? Blazes! There she is, turning about again. I wonder if she's going back to take that advertisement out?" The cab turned a corner. Then, on directions from inside, the driver moved his horses along at a brisk trot. The same cab was passing near the "Blade" office when Mrs. Dexter went there for a second time. The next morning Ab. Dexter and Driggs unfolded a copy of the "Blade" between them. "I've got a misgiving that we won't find the advertisement," muttered Dexter gloomily. "No, sir. It isn't here, Driggs. Hang the woman, and twenty times hang those meddling youngsters! Driggs, I never shall win while those confounded boys are loose in Gridley!" "We'll take real care of 'em this time," muttered Driggs, with an oath. "We will!" confirmed Dexter. "We'll stop their troubling us!" _ |
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