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 theclose board fence, and through a crack was moving a thin splinter ofwood up and down to indicate his exact location. Ralph came up to thespot.
"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 speakerwas the dirty-faced little fellow who had looked at him so longinglywhen 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. "Thegang 'd kill me if they knew I was giving 'em away, but I'm just aboutstarving. Because I'm little they make me do all kinds of work, andwhen there's anything to eat they forget I'm around. They stole somemelons 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 withthese fellows. Wish I was back! I'd go, only they'd punish me and lockme up. You give me the quarter, and I'll meet you later and show youwhere 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 thecrack in the fence. "Remember, now. I trust you, and I'll give you asmuch 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 dependedon the reliability of the urchin. Ralph went back to the roundhouse andtold the foreman he could do nothing further toward locating Ike Slumpuntil 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 hismother that he had something to attend to for the foreman, and not toworry 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 onto-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 Ifound a quarter, and they made me play craps with the change--twentycents."
"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 shouldhappen 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 ayard with a barn at the back. The building in front was a dilapidatedtwo-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, ifyou'll come down to the roundhouse to-morrow, I'll give you a gooddinner. I want to have a talk with you."
"Well, I'll see," said the urchin, palming the coin with a chuckle anddisappearing at once.
Ralph looked the place over. Finally, from his knowledge of the streetbeyond, he located it properly in his mind. The building, was in themiddle 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 namedCohen, who also did something in the pawnbroker line.
Ralph had often noticed the dilapidated place, and knew that itsdenizens had a shady reputation. He realized that Cohen was just aboutthe man to encourage boys to hang around and steal, and doubtlesscontrolled the rooms upstairs.
Ralph entered the dark rear hallway after some deliberation. When hereached the top of the stairs he paused and listened.
Under the crack of the door some gleams of light showed. The front roomof the upper story lay beyond, Ralph theorized. He could catch a lowhum of voices, the click of dominoes, and there was a tobacco taint inthe atmosphere. He ran his hand over the door, but it had no knob. thekeyhole was plugged up, and he could not see into the room.
Ralph judged from the appearance of things that Ike Slump came to theplace by the front way, so there was no use waiting for him at the rearstairs. He reasoned, too, that if he went around to the front he wouldbe seen by some of Ike's cohorts, and the latter would be warned andkept out of the way.
"I wish I could get a chance into that front room," mused Ralph. "OnceI come in range of Ike, I think I can at least say enough to get him tolisten to me."
There was one other room on the second floor and one other door. Ralphfound a knob here. But the door was locked. It had, unlike the otherdoor, a transom. The sash of this was gone, and the space stopped upwith a loose sheet of manilla paper.
Ralph lightly lifted himself to the knob on one foot. He pushed at thepaper, 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 anddrop to the floor on the other side.
With some satisfaction he noticed that this room connected with thefront apartment, the light coming in over its transom reflecting intothe rear room so that he could make out its contents plainly.
At one side stood a big hogshead nearly full of loose excelsior, usedfor packing. Near it were as many as twenty flat boxes. Ralph touchedone with his foot. He could not budge it, and then, drawing closer, helooked into a box with its cover off, and saw that it was nearly full ofbrass fittings.
"They're here, there's a lot of them," breathed Ralph quickly, "packedup for shipment. This is a find! What had I better do?"
The discovery modified all Ralph's prearranged plans. He knew quitewell that if found in this room his presence would show a _prima facie_evidence that he knew the storage place of the stolen plunder. Ralphdecided to get out as quickly as he had got in, and try to come upon Ikefrom 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 theconnecting room. The knob was broken off on the inside of the door overwhich he had just clambered. To reach the transom and get sufficientpurchase to let himself over through the aperture he would have to havea box or chair to stand on.
There was no time to select either. The door leading to the front roomcame briskly open. Ralph looked for a hiding place. None presented,for the boxes lay flat on the floor, and the hogshead was away from theside wall.
Ralph thought quick and acted on an impulse. He thrust his arm downinto 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 fib
er over it, and snuggled inside thehogshead, out of view.
Ralph of the Roundhouse; Or, Bound to Become a Railroad Man Page 20