CHAPTER XXVII
LATE VISITORS
The little express office was dark and lonely-looking when Bart againreached it.
Bart unlocked the office door, shot the inside bolt carefully after him,lighted the lantern, placed it on the desk, and opened the safe.
As he selected the big brown envelope marked "Martin & Company," andbearing the express company's shining green seals, his fingers tingled.The immensity of the sum intrusted to his charge perturbed him a trifle.
Bart relocked the safe, stowed the envelope in an inner pocket, andopened the drawer of a little stand leaning against the safe.
He took out a revolver. Mr. Leslie himself had advised him to alwayshave one handy in the express office. Bart had never touched the weaponbefore. It had been loaned him by Mr. Haven, and Darry had brought itto the office. Bart slipped it now into a side pocket.
He noticed in detail the entry on the messenger's slip. The prepaidcharges on the Martin & Company consignment were seven dollars andseventy-five cents, or five cents for every hundred dollars or fractionof it over the first fifty dollars, which was charged for at regulartariff rates, twenty-five cents.
"It is fifteen thousand dollars, right enough!" mused Bart. "Now, tomake sure of the form of receipt."
He filled out a special receipt that acknowledged besides the usualdelivery, a verification of the amount of the inclosure, its acceptanceas correct, and left a blank for the names of two witnesses.
Bart was now ready to sally forth on his peculiar errand, and had fullydecided in his mind the persons he would get to act as his witnesses.
"What is that!" he questioned, suddenly and sharply.
He could hear a springy vehicle bound over the near tracks, and then itswheels cut the loose cindered road leading up to the express office.
It halted. He could catch the quick, labored breathing of two horses, acarriage door creaked! some low voices made a brief hum ofconversation, and the vehicle seemed to depart.
Bart stood stock-still, wondering and guessing. Footsteps sounded on theplatform. There came a thundering thump as of a heavy cane on the officedoor.
"Who is there?" demanded Bart.
"Colonel Harrington. I've got to see you."
"Come in," Bart said, unbolting the door.
Colonel Harrington was red of face and fussy of manner. He threw thedoor shut with his foot, and sank to a bench, breathing heavily.
"Was there something you wanted to say to me, Colonel Harrington?"inquired Bart.
"Yes there was!" snapped out the rich man of Pleasantville. "Anxious tosee you! Just drove up to your house. They told me you were here. I onceoffered you a hundred dollars."
Bart nodded, with a faint smile.
"It wasn't enough," stumbled on the colonel. "I am now going to make ita thousand."
"Why, what for, Colonel Harrington?" demanded Bart in surprise.
"Because you can earn it."
"How?"
"Shall I be blunt and plain?"
"It is always the best way."
"Very well, then," resumed the colonel desperately. "A certainunclaimed express package was sold here to-day, marked A.A. Adams.You've got it."
"How do you know that?"
"Oh, you know it and I want it. Hand it over, and here"--the colonelmade a dive for his pocketbook--"here's your thousand dollars."
Bart made a signal of remonstrance with his hand, his face grave anddecided.
"Stop right there, Colonel Harrington," he said forcibly. "Are you awarethat you are offering a bribe to a bonded representative of the expresscompany?"
"Rot take your express company!" growled the colonel angrily. "I am oneof its stock-holders. I could buy the whole concern out, if I wantedto!"
"Until you do, I obey official instructions," announced Bart. "Please donot degrade yourself and embarrass me, Colonel Harrington, by sayinganything further on this score. I will not sell my honor, nor swerve ahair's breadth from a line of duty plain and clear. The package yourefer to was legally purchased by the highest bidder, I hold ittemporarily in trust for him. It is as safe and sacred with me as if itwas the property of the First National Bank of Pleasantville."
Colonel Harrington squirmed, got red and pale by turns, gripped his canefiercely, and then, relaxed with a groan.
"It's my property!" he declared. "I can prove it's my property."
"Then I suggest that you persuade the person who bought it of thatfact," said Bart.
"Say!" shot out the colonel eagerly, his eye brightening, "if I bring anorder from that same person, will you give up the package?"
Bart hesitated.
"You know where he is, then?" he inquired suspiciously.
"I--I might find him," stammered the military man.
"I do not think I would," said Bart. "Bring him here personally, and Iwill hand it over to him--in your presence, if he says so."
The colonel groaned again. It was plainly to be seen that he was in anintense inward frenzy.
"Stirling, you've got to give me that package!" he cried, springing tohis feet and lifting his cane threateningly.
"Have I?" said Bart, facing him watchingly.
"Be careful, Colonel Harrington! you are pretty near committing acriminal offense."
"You're in the plot--you know all about it! Give up that package,or--or--"
"Colonel Harrington," said Bart calmly, but every word ringing out asclear as the tone of a bell, "I am no ruffian, and I hate violence, butif you lift that cane to me again--I'll shoot."
Bart showed the gleaming top of the weapon in his pocket, backing to thedoor.
Just then the door behind him was forcibly thrust open, its edge hittinghim violently. Then someone pounced upon him.
The attack was sudden and effective. A piece of rope was looped deftlyabout Bart's arms, holding him helpless, secured behind, and as he waspushed roughly against the desk. Lem Wacker's evil face leered down uponhim.
"Don't you holler!" ordered Lem.
As he spoke, he leaned over the railing. The waste box held a mass ofcotton that had packed some of the parcels disposed of at the sale thatafternoon. Lem grabbed up a handful, and forcibly stuffed it into Bart'smouth.
"Wacker! Wacker!" gasped Colonel Harrington in affright, "don't--don'thurt him. This is dreadful--"
"Shut up!" ordered Lem Wacker recklessly, "you want something and don'tknow how to get it. I do--and will."
He snatched at Bart's tightly-buttoned coat and tore it loose, gropedinside and drew out a package.
"I've got it," he announced. "No!--he ripped off the end of theparcel--here's a haul."
Bart writhed, choked on the loose strangling filaments of cotton, butcould not utter a word.
"Give me that package!" cried the colonel. "Stop! where are you going?"
Lem Wacker had bolted. The colonel stared in marveling astonishment ashis cohort sprang through the open doorway. Bart had managed to wad thecotton in his mouth into a compact wet mass, enabling him to speak.
"Colonel Harrington!" he cried, "that man has not got the package youwere after. He has instead stolen a money envelope for Martin & Companycontaining fifteen thousand dollars in currency, and is making off withit. Cut this rope instantly that I may pursue him, or I give you my wordthat, as a partner in his crime, rich as you are, and influential as youare, you shall go to the State penitentiary."
Bart Stirling's Road to Success; Or, The Young Express Agent Page 27