Mary Louise in the Country

by L. Frank Baum

  CHAPTER XIIIBLUFF AND REBUFF

  The door was locked. Immediately Josie pounded upon it with herknuckles and a voice demanded:

  "Who is there?"

  Instead of replying, Josie knocked again, and suddenly the door wasopened and Old Swallowtail stood before her.

  "I--I beg your pardon," said she diffidently; "are you the real estateman?"

  "Yes," he replied, standing quietly in the doorway.

  "Then you're the man I want to see," she asserted and took a stepforward. But he did not move an inch from his position and his eyeswere fixed steadfastly on her face.

  "I have nothing to sell, at present," he remarked.

  "But I want to give you something to sell," she retorted impatiently,summoning her wits to meet the occasion. "Let me in, please. Or do youtransact all your business in the hallway?"

  Somewhat to her surprise he stepped back and held the door for her toenter. Josie promptly walked in and sat down near a round table, onecomprehensive glance fixing in her mind the entire contents of thesmall room.

  There was one window, dim and unwashed, facing the street. It had athick shade, now raised. Originally the room had been square, andrather crudely plastered and wallpapered, but a wooden partition hadafterward been erected to cut the room into two, so that the portionshe had entered was long and narrow. Its sole furniture consisted ofthe round table, quite bare, two or three wooden-bottomed chairs, andagainst one wall a rack filled with books. During the interview shenoted that these books were mostly directories of the inhabitants ofvarious prominent cities in the United States, and such a collectionastonished her and aroused her curiosity.

  Just at present, however, the partition proved the most interestingthing she observed, for beyond it must be another room which wasdoubtless the particular sanctum of Old Swallowtail and to which shescarcely expected to gain admittance. The door was closed. It was stoutand solid and was fitted with both an ordinary door-lock and a hasp andpadlock, the latter now hanging on a nail beside the door.

  This much Josie's sharp eyes saw in her first glance, but immediatelyher attention was demanded by Mr. Cragg, who took a seat opposite herand said in a quiet, well modulated voice: "Now, my girl, state yourbusiness." She had planned to tell him how she had come to town to sewfor Mary Louise Burrows, how she had now finished her work but was socharmed with Cragg's Crossing that she did not care to leave it duringthe hot weather to return to the stuffy city. Therefore, she intendedto add, if he would let her make some new dresses for Ingua, she wouldwork for half her regular wages. Her dress as a sewing-girl would carryout this deception and the bait of small wages ought to interest theold man. But this clever plan had suddenly gone glimmering, for inorder to gain admittance to the office and secure an interview with OldSwallowtail she had inadvertently stated that she had some real estateto dispose of. So sudden a change of base required the girl to thinkquickly in order to formulate a new argument that would hold hisattention.

  To gain time she said, slowly:

  "My name is Josie Jessup. I'm a sewing-girl by profession."

  "Yes, I know," he replied.

  "I've been here ten days or so, working for Miss Burrows."

  "I have seen you here," said Mr. Cragg.

  She wondered how he knew so much, as he had never seemed to favor herwith even a glance when by chance they met in the street. But perhapsIngua had told him.

  "I like Cragg's Crossing," continued Josie, assuming a confidentialtone, "and I've made up my mind I'd like to live here. There ought tobe plenty of work sewing for the farmers' wives, outside of what MissHuckins does, and it don't cost much to live in a small town. In thecity I own a little house and lot left to me by my uncle on my mother'sside, and I've decided to trade it for some place here. Don't you know,sir, of someone who'd like to move to the city, and will be glad tomake the exchange?"

  "I know of no such person," he replied coldly.

  "But you will make inquiries?"

  "It would be useless. I am very busy to-day, so if you will excuseme--"

  He rose and bowed.

  Josie was disappointed. She decided to revert to her first proposition.

  "Doesn't your granddaughter need some sewing done, sir?" she asked,with a frank look from her innocent blue eyes.

  He stood still, silently studying her face. With one hand he rubbed hischin gently, as if in thought. Then he said:

  "We cannot afford to hire our sewing done, but I thank you for theoffer. Good morning, Miss--Jessup."

  Walking to the door he held it open and bowed gravely as she walkedout. Next moment she heard the key click as it turned in the lock.

  Josie, feeling a sense of failure, slowly went down the stairs, enteredthe store and perched herself upon the sugar-barrel. Old Sol waswaiting on a farmer's wife and only gave the girl a glance.

  Josie reflected on her interview with Mr. Cragg while it was fresh inher mind. He was no crude, uneducated country bumpkin, despite his oddways and peculiar dress. Indeed, the man had astonished her by hiscourtesy, his correct method of speech, his perfect self-assurance. Hervisit was calculated to annoy him and to arouse his impatience. AfterIngua's report of him she expected he would become scornful orsarcastic or even exhibit violent anger; yet there had been nothingobjectionable in his manner or words. Still, he had dismissed her asabruptly as possible and was not eager to grasp an opportunity toexchange real estate.

  "That isn't his business at all," she told herself. "It's merely ablind, although he actually did rent the Kenton Place to ColonelHathaway...I wonder what he does in that office all day. In the innerroom, of course. That is his real workshop...He's quite gentlemanly. Hehas a certain amount of breeding, which Ingua wholly lacks....He mustrealize what a crude and uncultured little thing his granddaughter is.Then why hasn't he tried to train her differently?...Really, he quiteawed me with his stately, composed manner. No one would expect thatsort of man to be a murderer. But--there! haven't I been warned thatthe educated gentleman is the worst type of criminal, and the mostdifficult to detect?"

  Sol's customer went away and the old man approached the barrel.

  "Well," he said, "wanter buy anything to-day?"

  "No," said Josie pleasantly, "this is only a social call. I've justcome from Old Swallow-tail's office and thought a word with you wouldcheer me up."

  "You! You be'n to Ol' Swallertail's office! Sakes alive, gal, Iwouldn't dare do that myself."

  "Why not?"

  "He goes crazy when he gits mad."

  "Are you sure of that?"

  "Ev'rybody here knows it, from the three-year-olds up. What did ye goto him for?"

  "A little matter of business."

  "An' he slammed the door in yer face?"

  "No, indeed."

  "That's funny," said old Sol, rubbing his forehead in a perplexed way.

  "He was very decent to me," continued Josie. "Acted like a gentleman.Talked as if he'd been to school, you know."

  "School? Well, I should say he had!" exclaimed the storekeeper. "Ol'Swallertail's the most eddicated man in these 'ere parts, I guess. Ol'Nick Cragg, his daddy, wanted for him to be a preacher--or a priest,most likely--an' when he was a boy his ol' man paid good money to hevhim eddicated at a the--at a theo--at a collidge. But Hezekiah wa'n'tover-religious, an' 'lowed he didn't hev no call to preach; so that'sall the good the eddication ever done him."

  "_You've_ never felt the need of an education, have you?" asked thegirl, artlessly.

  "Me? Well, I ain't sayin' as I got no eddication, though I don't classmyself in book-l'arnin' with Ol' Swallertail. Three winters I went toschool, an' once I helped whip the school-teacher. Tain't ev'ry one hasgot _that_ record. But eddication means more'n books; it means keepin'yer eyes open an' gitt'n' onter the tricks o' yer trade. Ev'ry time Igit swindled, I've l'arned somethin', an' if I'd started this store inNew York instid o' Cragg's Crossin', they might be runnin' me ferpresident by this time."

  "But what could Cragg's Crossing have done wi
thout you?" inquiredJosie. "It seems to me you're needed here."

  "Well, that's worth thinkin' on," admitted the storekeeper. "And as forOld Swallowtail, he may have learned some tricks of his trade too. ButI don't know what his trade is."

  "Nobody knows that. I don't b'lieve that business o' his'n is a tradeat all; I'll bet it's a steal, whatever its other name happens to be."

  "But he doesn't prosper."

  "No; he ain't got much t' show fer all these years. Folks used to thinkhe'd got money saved from the sale of his land, till Ned Joselyn comehere an' dallied with Ol' Swallertail's savin's an' then took to thewoods. It's gener'ly b'lieved that what Cragg had once Ned's got now;but it don't matter much. Cragg hain't got long ter live an' his feeddon't cost him an' his little gal much more'n it costs to feed my cat."

  There was no further information to be gleaned from Sol Jerrems, soJosie walked home.