by Kirk Munroe
CHAPTER III
ROB TO THE RESCUE
Rob Hinckley had gone out early on that eventful morning for the familymilk that he fetched every day from a small farm at the lower end ofthe village. His mind was full of the strange, new companion who hadcome into his life the evening before; and, as he went whistling downthe street, he was planning how he should introduce him to the boys ofHatton. He also wondered on what terms they would receive the youngforeigner, who was in every way so different from any other they everhad met.
"Of course, they'll treat him all right, though," reflected Rob. "Theymay think him funny and laugh at him a little, to begin with; but when Itell 'em who he is in his own country, they'll be proud enough to havehim in the school. I'll have to keep him out of sight of the muckers,though, at any rate till he gets some civilized clothes and learns howto wear 'em."
Here Rob stared with a decidedly unfriendly scowl at the group of younggamblers on the village common, across which he was walking. "Wouldn'tit just be pie for them to get hold of him, blue dress, pig-tail, andall?" he reflected; "and wouldn't he think he'd run up against a warparty of American Indians, ready to scalp him? They won't have a chanceat him, though, not if I know it."
Here Rob straightened himself, clinched his unoccupied hand, and heldhis head higher than ever, for there is nothing that so increases one'ssense of importance as to have a weaker person dependent upon him.
There was much bitterness of feeling existing between two classes ofHatton boys, one of which was more or less connected with the factory,while the other attended the academy for which the village was famous.The latter called their enemies "muckers," and these retorted with theterm "saphead." Members of these opposed factions always exchangedsneers and taunts upon meeting, and sometimes these led to blows thatresulted in fierce conflicts. None of these fights had taken place onthe common, however, for the village constable had declared it to beneutral ground, and threatened with dire punishment any boy who shouldbreak the public peace within its limits. As the constable generally wassomewhere in the vicinity of the common, ready to enforce his ruling, ithad been obeyed thus far, and both the boyish factions had used the openspace as a playground in apparent harmony. So Rob Hinckley only scowledat the muckers, who occupied one corner of the common as he crossed itthat morning, while they, in turn, pretended ignorance of his presence.
On his return, however, affairs had assumed a very different aspect,and as Rob drew near the common he pricked up his ears at the soundsthat came to him from that ordinarily peaceful enclosure. "What couldthey mean? Were the muckers fighting among themselves?" Rob believedthey were, and chuckled at thought of what Constable Jones would do whenhe discovered them. This belief was strengthened as he came within sightof the fracas, for at first he could only see a lot of yelling muckers,apparently engaged in a furious struggle. Then he uttered an exclamationof dismay, and the hot blood flew to his face. In the very centre of thesurging crowd he saw a slender, blue-clad figure, taller than any ofthose swarming about it, and realized that the very thing he most haddreaded in connection with his newly made friend from China had come topass. Chinese Jo, whom he had thought to be peacefully and safely asleepin the parsonage, evidently had left it unnoticed, and at once hadfallen into the hands of the most merciless of American savages.
With a hoarse yell of rage, and careless of what might happen tohimself, Rob sprang forward, swinging the milk-can above his head as heran. So busy were the tormentors of the Chinese lad with their sportthat the coming of a would-be rescuer was unnoticed until he was closeupon them. As poor Jo lost his footing and fell, Rob dashed into themelee, dealing telling blows with his milk-can, and scattering the hordeof young toughs as though he had been a charge of cavalry. The stopperflew out of the can, and its contents were flung to right and left,impartially drenching friend and foe. Thus, for a minute, the tide ofbattle flowed with the righteously wrathful Rob and against the cowardlyand unrighteous muckers. Then one of the latter, who had not yet beenreached by the deadly milk-can, and so could view the proceedings morecalmly than could his companions, shouted:
"AS POOR JO LOST HIS FOOTING AND FELL, ROB DASHED INTOTHE MELEE"]
"There ain't but one saphead, fellers! Go for him! Kill him! He ain't nogood!"
The cry was heard and obeyed. In spite of the demoralizing effectsof the milk-can, the muckers rallied, and in another moment affairswould have gone very badly with both our lads. But providentiallysent peace-makers were at hand, and, ere the enemy could rally to anattack, they were put to ignominious flight by overwhelming forces thatsimultaneously appeared upon the field of battle from two sides. ParsonHinckley and Constable Jones had arrived in the nick of time.
"What is the meaning of this disgraceful exhibition, Robert?" demandedthe former, sternly, as the flight of the enemy revealed his nephew,flushed, breathless, hatless, swinging a badly battered tin can in onehand, and with milk streaming from every part of his figure.
"Yes," chimed in Constable Jones, wrathfully, "what does it mean? Youcan't say that you didn't know my orders again' scrimmaging on thecommon; and yet here you be, caught red-handed in the very act."
"I'd call it 'white-handed,'" replied Rob, with a grin, at the same timeholding out a grimy, milk-dripping paw.
"I don't want no sass, young feller, but a plain statement of facts,"retorted the constable, sharply.
"Well," replied Rob, "all I know is this: That gang of muckers werekilling my friend, just because he happens to be a Chinese, and I gothere just in time to save him."
"Chinee, is he?" queried the constable, gazing curiously at the lad whomMr. Hinckley was assisting to his feet. "Looks like he'd been doing somekilling on his own hook," he added, quickly, as he caught sight of thesmall mucker who had become involved in Jo's fall, and who still laymotionless on the ground. He had been knocked breathless, but, as theconstable knelt beside him and lifted his head, the boy gasped. Then heopened his eyes.
"I'm kilt, and de Chink done it," he murmured, indistinctly.
"It looks like rather a serious case, parson," said the constable,solemnly; "more especial as there's a heathen Chinee mixed into it. Ibelieve it's my duty to arrest all parties concerned, and hold 'em forexamination by Square Burtis."
"You needn't arrest these two," replied Mr. Hinckley, indicating Jo andhis nephew, "for I am just as anxious for an investigation into thisaffair as you can be. It is my belief that a most wanton outrage hasbeen perpetrated, for which the guilty parties should be punished, andI give you my word that both these lads shall appear with me beforeJustice Burtis whenever summoned to do so."
By this time curious spectators were beginning to gather. The dispersedmuckers, reinforced by others of their kind, were shouting taunts andderisive epithets from a safe distance, and, rather than invite furthertrouble, the constable hastily agreed to the minister's proposition. Sohe departed in one direction, taking with him the small tough, and thusdiverting to himself the unpleasant attention of that element among therapidly increasing spectators.
A number of those who remained walked towards the parsonage with Mr.Hinckley and his companions, plying them with questions and gazingcuriously at the tattered young Chinese, who, frightened and unhappy,walked silently between his friends. Realizing that this was neither thetime nor place for explanations, Rob's uncle did not demand any, but,cautioning the boys not to talk, replied to all questions that the wholeaffair would shortly be investigated in court.
When they reached the parsonage, and Mrs. Hinckley, in the back of thehouse, heard their voices, she called out:
"Is that you, Rob? I'm glad, for I want some milk, right away."
"Here it is, Aunt Alice," answered the boy, presenting himself with hisbattered tin can, a little ruefully, but at the same time with a twinklein his eyes, at the kitchen door.
"Good gracious, Rob! What has happened?" cried the astonished woman.
"Only a little scrap, Aunt Alice, that I couldn't help getting into onJo's account."
"But it wasn't his fault, Aunt Alice; I'm sure of that," asserted Rob,earnestly. "He was being shamefully abused by the muckers, who camemighty near killing him."
The next half-hour, with breakfast entirely forgotten, was devoted toexplanations, and, by the end of that time, the whole affair was prettythoroughly understood. Jo's sufferings at the hands of his tormentorshad the one good effect of transforming Mrs. Hinckley's mistrust of himinto a warm sympathy that afterwards developed into a real liking forthe gentle fellow.
A little later, while they were at breakfast, came the expected summonsfor Mr. Hinckley, his nephew Robert Hinckley, and a Chinese lad knownto be an inmate of the parsonage, to appear at ten o'clock that verymorning in Justice Burtis's court-room for examination in connectionwith the recent fracas on Hatton common.
While Mr. Hinckley went to see the justice and prefer charges againstseveral of the young muckers, whose names had been given him by Rob, forassaulting his ward, Joseph Lee, the two lads changed their clothingand prepared to make a respectable appearance in court. While theywere thus engaged, Rob, to the delight of both of them, found his earlyknowledge of Chinese returning to him so rapidly that he was able tounderstand much of what Jo said.
Acting on Mr. Hinckley's advice, the latter arrayed himself in hisvery richest robes, and Mrs. Hinckley's sympathy so far overcame herprejudice that, when she discovered him making a sorry attempt to do uphis queue, she offered to braid it for him.
"To think that I ever should do such a thing!" she exclaimed. "But, Rob,what do you suppose he wants all this white stuff worked into it for?"she added. "I'm sure his pig-tail is long enough without it."
The white stuff thus referred to was some strands of silk braid and asilken tassel, and, after asking Jo concerning it, Rob explained to hisaunt that, as white is the Chinese color for mourning, their young guestwore it in memory of his mother, who had died less than a year before.
"Poor fellow!" said Mrs. Hinckley. "But what a very curious custom!"
At length both lads were pronounced presentable, each according to thefashion of his own country, and, Mr. Hinckley having returned, the wholefamily set forth towards the little building in which Justice of thePeace Burtis held court.
"It is not of my first day the manner I had expected to spend it," Joconfided to Rob, as they walked down the street.
"I should say not!" replied the latter.