Ralph of the Roundhouse/Chapter 20
CHAPTER XX
THE HIDE-OUT
"Where are you?" Ralph inquired, somewhat mystified.
"Here I am—the wiggling stick. I'm behind it."
"Oh! I see!" said Ralph—"and who are you?"
"Me? Oh, nobody in particular."
Ralph now discovered that his challenger was on the other side of the close board fence, and through a crack was moving a thin splinter of wood up and down to indicate his exact location. Ralph came up to the spot.
"What do you want?" he inquired.
"That quarter, mister—you know, back there with the gang, I heard you. Well, here I am. Pass through the coin, will you?"
Ralph got a dim focus through the crack, and surmised that the speaker was the dirty-faced little fellow who had looked at him so longingly when he offered the money.
"You know where Ike Slump is?" asked Ralph.
"No, I don't, mister."
"Well, then?"
"But I can put you on."
"On to what?"
"Where he goes every night—where you're sure to find him after dark."
"Well, tell me."
"See here, mister," piped the little fellow in an uncertain voice. "The gang 'd kill me if they knew I was giving 'em away, but I'm just about starving. Because I'm little they make me do all kinds of work, and when there's anything to eat they forget I'm around. They stole some melons out of the cars last night. All I got was the rind."
"Who are you, anyway?" asked Ralph.
"Oh, I'm nobody. I was at the county farm, but run away and got in with these fellows. Wish I was back! I'd go, only they'd punish me and lock me up. You give me the quarter, and I'll meet you later and show you where Ike Slump hangs out nights."
"You'll keep your promise?"
"Honor bright!"
"Where will you be?"
"Right here, only outside the fence."
"What time?"
"Just at dark."
"I'll do it," said Ralph, slipping a twenty-five cent piece through the crack in the fence. "Remember, now. I trust you, and I'll give you as much more to-night if you don't play me any tricks."
"Crackey! that's fine; only you keep mum on my showing you?"
"I certainly will," assured Ralph.
He did not feel certain that he had accomplished much. It all depended on the reliability of the urchin. Ralph went back to the roundhouse and told the foreman he could do nothing further toward locating Ike Slump until nightfall, and put in the afternoon at his regular duties, although Forgan told him he need not do so.
Ralph went home at quitting-time, got his supper, explained to his mother that he had something, to attend to for the foreman, and not to worry if he was not back early.
He reached the rendezvous agreed on at dusk, and after a few minutes' waiting saw the little fellow of the morning coming down the tracks.
"I'm here," announced the new arrival.
"So am I, as you see," answered Ralph. "How did you get on to-day—let's see, what is your name?"
"Teddy."
"All right, Teddy. Did you get something to eat?"
"Not a great deal. The fellow saw me buying some grub. I told 'em I found a quarter, and they made me play craps with the change—twenty cents."
"Of course you lost."
"Oh, sure—knew that before I began. They always win, them fellows. Say, mister, please, I'll go ahead alone, because if any of them should happen to see me with you it would be all-day for Teddy!"
"Go ahead," directed Ralph.
The boy went down the tracks. At the end of the fence he turned into a yard with a barn at the back. The building in front was a dilapidated two-story frame structure. The windows at the rear were fastened up, but the one doorway visible was open, and led into a dark hallway.
Teddy had paused near a wagon, and looked anxious to get away.
"That's the place," he said. "You go in that door and up some stairs. There's a big room in front where the crowd meet nights, and play cards, and drink and smoke. Ike Slump spends all his evenings here."
"All right," said Ralph. "There's another quarter. See here, Teddy, if you'll come down to the roundhouse to-morrow, I'll give you a good dinner. I want to have a talk with you."
"Well, I'll see," said the urchin, palming the coin with a chuckle and disappearing at once.
Ralph looked the place over. Finally, from his knowledge of the street beyond, he located it properly in his mind. The building, was in the middle of what was known as Rotten Row. It was a double store front, one half of which was occupied by a cheap barber shop. The other half, Ralph remembered, was a second-hand clothing store run by a man named Cohen, who also did something in the pawnbroker line.
Ralph had often noticed the dilapidated place, and knew that its denizens had a shady reputation. He realized that Cohen was just about the man to encourage boys to hang around and steal, and doubtless controlled the rooms upstairs.
Ralph entered the dark rear hallway after some deliberation. When he reached the top of the stairs he paused and listened.
Under the crack of the door some gleams of light showed. The front room of the upper story lay beyond, Ralph theorized. He could catch a low hum of voices, the click of dominoes, and there was a tobacco taint in the atmosphere. He ran his hand over the door, but it had no knob, the keyhole was plugged up, and he could not see into the room.
Ralph judged from the appearance of things that Ike Slump came to the place by the front way, so there was no use waiting for him at the rear stairs. He reasoned, too, that if he went around to the front he would be seen by some of Ike's cohorts, and the latter would be warned and kept out of the way.
"I wish I could get a chance into that front room," mused Ralph. "Once I come in range of Ike, I think I can at least say enough to get him to listen to me."
There was one other room on the second floor and one other door. Ralph found a knob here. But the door was locked. It had, unlike the other door, a transom. The sash of this was gone, and the space stopped up with a loose sheet of manilla paper.
Ralph lightly lifted himself to the knob on one foot. He pushed at the paper, and it moved out free except at two corners where it was tacked. It was no trick at all for Ralph to lift himself through the transom and drop to the floor on the other side.
With some satisfaction he noticed that this room connected with the front apartment, the light coming in over its transom reflecting into the rear room so that he could make out its contents plainly.
At one side stood a big hogshead nearly full of loose excelsior, used for packing. Near it were as many as twenty flat boxes. Ralph touched one with his foot. He could not budge it, and then, drawing closer, he looked into a box with its cover off, and saw that it was nearly full of brass fittings.
"They're here, there's a lot of them," breathed Ralph quickly, "packed up for shipment. This is a find! What had I better do?"
The discovery modified all Ralph's prearranged plans. He knew quite well that if found in this room his presence would show a prima facie evidence that he knew the storage place of the stolen plunder. Ralph decided to get out as quickly as he had got in, and try to come upon Ike from some other point of the compass, without giving the alarm to Cohen, or whoever really controlled the stolen goods.
Before he could make a move, however, a key grated in the lock of the connecting room. The knob was broken off on the inside of the door over which he had just clambered. To reach the transom and get sufficient purchase to let himself over through the aperture he would have to have a box or chair to stand on.
There was no time to select either. The door leading to the front room came briskly open. Ralph looked for a hiding place. None presented, for the boxes lay flat on the floor, and the hogshead was away from the side wall.
Ralph thought quick and acted on an impulse. He thrust his arm down into the hogshead. Its light contents gave way to the touch.
Leaping its rim, Ralph sank as in a snowbank, ducked down his head, pulled the stringy wooden fiber over it, and snuggled inside the hogshead, out of view.