The Corner House Girls on a Houseboat Read online

  CHAPTER III

  THE ELEVATOR

  "Just a minute now, Neale," said Ruth, in the quiet voice she sometimeshad to use when Tess and Dot, either or both, were engaged in one oftheir many startling feats. "Quiet down a bit, please, before you tellus."

  The boy had reached the porch, panting from his run, and he had beenabout to burst out with the news, which he could hardly contain, whenRuth addressed him.

  "What's the matter? Don't you want to hear it?" he asked, fanninghimself vigorously with his hat.

  "Oh, yes, it isn't that," said Agnes, with a smile, which caused Neale'slips to part in an answering one, showing his white teeth that made acontrast to his tanned face. "But we have just passed through rather astrenuous time, Neale, and if you have anything more startling to tellus about Tess and Dot--"

  "Oh, it isn't about them!" laughed Neale O'Neil. "They're all right. Ijust saw them going down the street."

  "Thank goodness!" murmured Ruth. "I thought they had got into moremischief. Well, go on, Neale, and tell us the news. Is it good?"

  "The best ever," he answered, sobering down a little. "The only troubleis that there isn't very much of it. Only a sort of rumor, so to speak."

  "Sit down," said Agnes, and she herself suited her action to the words."Uncle Rufus has the spilled trash cleaned up now."

  "Yes'm, it's done all cleaned up now," murmured the old colored servantas he departed, having made the side porch presentable again. "But Isuah does wish dat trash man'd come 'roun' yeah befo' dem two chillunscome back. Dey's gwine to upsot dat barrel ag'in, if dey gets a chanst;dey suah is!" and he departed, shaking his head woefully enough.

  "What happened?" asked Neale. "An accident?"

  "You might call it that," assented Ruth, sitting down beside her sister."It was a combination of Tess, Dot, Alice-doll and Almira all rolledinto one."

  "That's enough!" laughed the boy, to whom readers of the previousvolumes of the series need no introduction.

  Neale O'Neil had once been in a circus. He was known as "Master Jakeway"and was the son of James O'Neil. Neale's uncle, William Sorber, was theringmaster and lion tamer in the show billed as "Twomley & Sorber'sHerculean Circus and Menagerie." Some time before the opening of thepresent story, Neale had left the circus and had come to Milton to live,making his home with Con Murphy, the town cobbler.

  "Well, go on with your news, Neale," said Ruth gently, as she gazedsolicitously at the boy. She was beginning to have more and moresomething of a feeling of responsibility toward him. This was due to thefact that Ruth was growing older, as has been evidenced, and also to thefact that Neale was also, and at times, she thought, he showed the lackof the care of a loving mother.

  "Yes, I want to hear it," interposed Agnes. "And then we simply must getthe house in shape, if the girls aren't to find us with smudges of duston our noses."

  "Is there anything I can do?" asked Neale eagerly. "Are you going tohave a party?"

  "Some of Ruth's young ladies are coming to lunch," explained Agnes. "Idon't suppose I may be classed with them," and she looked shyly at hersister.

  "I don't see why not," came the retort from the oldest Kenway girl. "I'dlike to have you come to the meeting, Agnes."

  "No, thank you, civics are not much in my line. I hated 'em in school.Though maybe I'll come to the eats. But let's hear Neale's news. It mayspoil from being kept."

  "Not much danger of that," said the boy, with another bright smile. "Butare you sure there isn't anything I can do to help?"

  "Perfectly sure, Neale," answered Ruth. "The two irrepressibles broughtme the flowers I wanted to decorate with, and it only remains to putthem in vases. But now I'm sure we have chattered enough aboutourselves. Let us hear about you."

  "It isn't so much about me; it's about--father," and Neale's voice sankwhen he said that. He spoke in almost a reverent tone. And then his facelighted up again as he exclaimed:

  "I have some news about him! That's why I ran to tell you. I knew you'dbe glad."

  "Oh, Neale, that's fine!" cried Agnes, clasping him by the arm. "Afterall these years, really to have news of him! I'm so glad!"

  "Is he really found?" asked Ruth, who was of a less excitable type thanher sister, though she could get sufficiently worked up when there wasneed for it.

  "No, he isn't exactly found," went on Neale. "I only wish he were. But Ijust heard, in a roundabout way, that he may not be so very far fromhere."

  "That is good news," declared Ruth. "How did you hear it?"

  "Well, you know my father was what is called a rover," went on the boy."I presume I don't need to tell you that. He wouldn't have been in thecircus business with Uncle Bill, and he wouldn't have had me in thecircus--along with the trick mules--unless he had loved to travel aboutand see the country."

  "That's a safe conclusion," remarked Agnes. To her sister and herselfNeale's circus experiences were an old story. He had often told themhow, when a small boy, he had performed in the sawdust ring.

  "Yes, father was a rover," went on Neale. "At least that's theconclusion I've come to of late. I really didn't know him very well. Heleft the circus when I was still small and told Uncle Bill to look afterme. Well, Uncle Bill did, I'll say that for him. He was as kind as anyboy's uncle could be."

  "Anyhow, as you know, father left the circus, gave me in charge of UncleBill, and went off to seek his fortune. I suppose he realized that Iwould be better off out of a circus, but he knew he had to live, andmoney is needed for that. So that's why he quit the ring, I imagine.He's been seeking his fortune for quite a while now, and--"

  "Neale, do you mean to say he has come back?" cried Agnes.

  "Not exactly," was the answer. "At least if he has come back I haven'tseen him. But I just met a man--a sort of tramp he is, to tell you thetruth--and he says he knew a man who saw my father in the AlaskanKlondike, where father had a mine. And this man--this tramp--says myfather started back to the States some time ago."

  "With a lot of gold?" asked Ruth, her eyes gleaming with hope for Neale.

  "This the man didn't know. All he knew was that there was a rumor thatmy father had struck it fairly rich and had started back towardcivilization. But even that news makes me feel good. I'm going to see ifI can find him. I always had an idea, and so did Uncle Bill, that it wasto Alaska father had gone, and this proves it."

  "But who is this man who gave you the news, and why doesn't he knowwhere your father can be found?" asked Ruth. "Also is there anything wecan do to help you, Neale?"

  "What a lot of questions!" exclaimed Agnes.

  "I think I can answer them," Neale said. He was calmer now, but his facestill shone and his eyes sparkled under the stress of the happyexcitement. "The man, as I said, is a tramp. He asked me for some money.He was driving a team of mules on the canal towpath, and I happened tolook at one of the animals. It reminded me of one we had in thecircus--a trick mule--but it took only a look to show me it wasn't thesame sort of kicker. I got to talking to the man, and he said he wasbroke--only had just taken the job and the boss wouldn't advance him acent until the end of the week. I gave him a quarter, and we got totalking. Then he told me he knew men who had been in the Klondike, and,naturally, I asked him if he had ever heard of a man named O'Neil. Hesaid he had, and then the story came out."

  "But how can you be sure it was your father?" asked Ruth, wisely notwanting false hopes to be raised.

  "That was easily proved when I mentioned circus," said Neale. "Thistramp, Hank Dayton, he said his name was, remembered the men speaking ofmy father talking about circuses, and saying that he had left me inone."

  "That does seem to establish an identity," Ruth conceded. "Where is thisman Dayton now, Neale?"

  "He had to go on with the canal boat. But I learned from him all Icould. It seems sure that my father is either back here, after someyears spent in Alaska, or that he will come here soon. He must have beenwriting to Uncle Bill, and so have learned that I came here to live.Uncle Bill knows where I am, but I don't kno
w where he is at thismoment, though I could get in touch with him. But I'll be glad to see myfather again. Oh, if I could only find him!"

  Neale seemed to gaze afar off, over the fields and woods, as if hevisualized his long-lost father coming toward him. His eyes had a dreamylook.

  "Can't we do something to help you?" asked Ruth.

  "That's what I came over about as soon as I had learned all the muledriver could tell me," went on the boy. "I thought maybe we could askMr. Howbridge, your guardian, how to go about finding lost persons.There are ways of advertising for people who have disappeared."

  "There is," said Agnes. "I've often seen in the paper advertisements formissing persons who are wanted to enable an estate to be cleared up, andthe last time I was in Mr. Howbridge's office I heard him telling one ofthe clerks to have such an advertisement prepared."

  "Then that's what I've got to have done!" declared Neale. "I've got somemoney, and I can get more from Uncle Bill if I can get in touch withhim. I'm going to see Mr. Howbridge and start something!"

  He was about to leave the porch, to hasten away, when Ruth interposed.

  "Mr. Howbridge is coming here this afternoon," said the girl. "You mightstay and see him, if you like, Neale."

  "What, with a whole Civic Betterment Club of girls coming to the CornerHouse! No, thank you," he laughed. "I'll see him afterward. But I havemore hope now than I ever had before."

  "I'm very glad," murmured Ruth. "Mr. Howbridge will give you any helppossible, I'm sure. Shall I speak to him about it when he comes toadvise us how to form our Civic Betterment Club?"

  "Oh, I think not, thank you," answered Neale. "He'll have enough to dothis afternoon without taking on my affair. I can tell him later. But Icouldn't wait to tell you."

  "Of course you couldn't!" said Agnes. "That would have been a fine wayto treat me!" Neale, who was Agnes' special chum, in a way seemed likeone of the family--at least as much so as Mrs. MacCall, the housekeeper,Uncle Rufus, or Sammy Pinkney, the little fellow who lived across WillowStreet, on the opposite side from the Corner House.

  "Well, I feel almost like another fellow now," went on Neale, as hestarted down the walk. "Not knowing whether your father is alive or notisn't much fun."

  "I should say not!" agreed Agnes. "I wish I could ask you to stay tolunch, Neale, but--"

  "Oh, gee, Aggie!" The boy laughed, and off down the street he hastened,his step light and his cheery whistle ringing out.

  "Isn't it wonderful!" exclaimed Agnes, as she followed her sister intothe house.

  "Yes, if only it proves true," returned the older girl, more soberly.

  From the kitchen came the clatter of pans and dishes as Linda disposedof the clutter incidental to making cakes and dainties for a bevy ofgirls. Mrs. MacCall could be heard humming a Scotch song, and as Tessand Dot returned from the store she raised her voice in the refrain:

  "Thou art a gay an' bonnie lass, But thou hast a waukrife minnie."

  "What in the world is a waukrife minnie?" demanded Agnes again, pausingin her task.

  "It's 'wakeful mother,'" answered Ruth. "I remember now. It's in Burns'poem of that name. But do hurry, please, Aggie, or the girls will behere before we can change our dresses!"

  "The fates forbid!" cried her sister, and she hastened to goodadvantage.

  The lunch was over and the "Civic Betterment League" was in process ofembryo formation, under the advice of Mr. Howbridge, and Ruth wasearnestly presiding over the session of her girl friends in the libraryof the Corner House, when, from the ample yard in the rear of the oldmansion, came a series of startled cries.

  There was but one meaning to attach to them. The cries came from Dot andTess, and mingled with them were the unmistakable yells of SammyPinkney.

  At the same time Mrs. MacCall added her remonstrances to something thatwas going on, while Uncle Rufus, tottering his way along the hall,tapped at the door of the library and said:

  "'Scuse me, Miss Ruth, but de chiluns done got cotched in de elevator!"

  "The _elevator_!" Agnes screamed. "What in the world do you mean?"

  "Yas'um, dat's whut it is," said the old colored man. "Tess an' Dot donegot cotched in de elevator!"