THE BARGAIN IS SEALED

There wasn’t much chance for conversation on the way back, for it lacked only
fifteen minutes of school time and the high school was a good mile and a quarter
distant. Once on River Street they broke into a jog-trot and kept it up until they
turned into Logan Street and the sidewalk began to tilt upward. After that trotting
was out of the question, but, although there was time to talk, neither had enough
breath left. As they entered the school grounds and followed the gravel path that
curved to the west entrance of the big yellow brick building they managed to gasp
out an agreement to meet after morning session. Then the doorway swallowed them and
each hurried away to his room with only the fraction of a minute to spare.

I don’t think that either Willard or Tom showed up very brilliantly that day at
studies. Their minds were much too full of the automobile. At recess they stole
away from the crowd and sat side by side on the[43] granite coping beyond the
library and talked it all over again, and could scarcely wait for school to end so
that they could get the money and seal the bargain with Mr. Saunders. Tom became so
interested that he quite forgot to finish his luncheon, and the bell found him
still possessed of two perfectly good bananas and a piece of chocolate layer cake.
He managed the cake on the way back, however, and consigned the bananas to his
pockets for future reference.

At three-thirty the bargain was completed. Willard’s father, whose cabinet shop was
but two blocks distant, was on hand and he and the carriage man soon had the papers
fixed up. Willard engaged to pay the sum of twenty dollars monthly until the full
amount of one hundred and twenty-five dollars had been paid. The interest was to be
at five per cent., and the title of the car remained with Mr. Saunders until the
final payment had been made. Tom handed over his fifty dollars in cash, Willard and
his father signed the papers and the car, to all intents and purposes, was theirs!

Mr. Saunders had demurred at first at having to include storage of the Bentons’
buggy in his part of the bargain, but Willard had been firm and in the end the
carriage man had consented. Mr. Morris went back to his shop and Tom and Willard
hurried down[44] Main Street and around to the rear of the hotel, to where Connors’
stables stood. There a bargain was soon made. The liveryman was to go to Saunders’
shop with a stout rope and haul the automobile over to the Bentons’ stable. At
first he wanted a dollar and a quarter, but the boys beat him down to seventy-five
cents. From there they hurried around to Tom’s house and Tom found the stable key.
After they had run the buggy out to the yard they looked over the quarters. The
carriage room was not very large, but it would serve the purpose well enough. Tom
pointed out that they could build a bench under the window at the side and after a
while make their own repairs. Fortunately the stable had been wired for electricity
a few years before and Jimmy Brennan would have no difficulty finding plenty of
light for his work. Some boxes and a decrepit wheelbarrow were moved into the box-
stall out of the way and Tom found an old stable broom and swept the floor fairly
clean.

“We’ll have to put up some shelves, I suppose, for oil and grease and things,” said
Tom. “And where can we keep the gasoline if we get a barrel full at a time?”

“Dad says you’ll have to keep it out of doors and away from buildings,” replied
Willard. “Let’s have a look.”

[45]

So they went outside and soon found a place for it some twelve feet from the stable
and a little further from the house. It was rather far from the grass-grown drive
that led from stable to street, but Tom declared that it wouldn’t be any trick to
lug the gasoline in a pail from the barrel to the car. Besides, he pointed out,
there was a pear tree there and the foliage would serve as a roof. To make
assurance doubly sure Tom went into the house and informed Jimmy Brennan by
telephone that the car would be there that evening ready for him to work on. Then
the boys each took a shaft of the buggy and gaily started along Cross Street for
Saunders’ Carriage Works. They had only three blocks to go with it, but it seemed
as though every fellow they knew was encountered in that short journey! Near the
corner of Spruce Street, Jimmy Lippit was leaning over his front gate and hailed
them with delight.

“Get ap!” he shouted. “Where you going with the buggy, Tom?”

“Saunders’,” replied Tom.

“Have you got a new horse?”

“No, I’m taking it over to have it stored.”

“Give me a ride, will you?” Jimmy, who was a slim, freckle-faced boy of fifteen,
emerged from his yard and joined them. “Go on, Tom, let me get in there, will you?”

[46]

“No, sir, you keep out of there. Hi, there! Quit that!”

Teddy Thurston had stolen up behind and was pushing heroically, and Tom and Willard
had to dig their heels in the dirt to keep from being run down. Willard chased
Teddy to the sidewalk, but in the meantime Jimmy had crawled into the buggy. It
took several minutes to dislodge him and by the time he was pulled out four or five
other fellows had congregated. Tom and Willard were vastly outnumbered and the
buggy completed its journey most spectacularly. Jimmy Lippit and a boy named
Converse occupied the seat, two small boys sat in the box behind and the rest
helped pull. The buggy crossed Washington Street in defiance of all speed
regulations—if there were any in Audelsville—and to the accompaniment of much
laughter and shouting. Jimmy held an imaginary pair of reins and cracked an
imaginary whip, while Converse clutched him in simulated terror as the vehicle
bounded over the car rails.

“Git ap!” shouted Jimmy.

“Save me! Save me!” shrieked Converse. “They’re running away!”

“Faster, you old plugs!” commanded Jimmy, slashing the imaginary whip. “Faster, or
I’ll sell the lot of you!”

Down Walnut Street they galloped, the buggy[47] creaking and protesting in every
spring and rivet, and drew up with a final flourish in front of the carriage works.

“Whoa!” shouted Jimmy. “Whoa, you ponies! Say, I guess I’m some driver, fellows!
Did you see me pull ’em back on their haunches? Mr. Saunders, please unharness my
steeds.”

Mr. Saunders, who had emerged from the shop in response to the hubbub, grinned as
he directed Tom to take the buggy further along and run it on to the elevator. “You
tell your father that if he wants to sell this he’s to let me know. I might find a
customer for it. When you going to fetch that automobile away?”

“Connors said he’d send right over for it,” answered Tom.

“He’s coming now, I think,” said Willard, as a team drawn by a pair of dancing,
half-broken colts came around the corner.

If the trip with the buggy had been exciting the journey home with the automobile
was more so. Tom and Willard refused to answer questions, but that didn’t keep the
others from piling into the automobile as soon as it was under way. Jimmy secured
the driver’s seat and performed wonderfully on the wheezy horn all the way to the
stable. Tom and Willard chose to accompany the car on foot, but the rest of[48] the
fellows all managed to get into or onto it, and the new owners feared for the
springs. No accidents happened, however, although when the young horses were
confronted by a trolley car on Washington Street it looked for a minute as though
there would be a runaway with a second-hand automobile doing a snap-the-whip
through town. Tom and Willard had to laugh to see how quickly the boys tumbled out
of the car when the horses began to plunge! Finally, however, the car was safely
deposited in the yard and helping hands rolled it into the stable, or, as Tom had
begun to call it now, the garage.

It was no longer possible to avoid an explanation and so the two boys acknowledged
that they had bought the car.

“What you going to do with it?” demanded Teddy Thurston, kicking a tattered tire
contemptuously.

“Oh, just—just run it,” answered Willard.

Jimmy laughed loudly. “I’d like to see either of you fellows run an auto! Besides,
if it will run why didn’t you run it around here instead of having it hauled?”

“It isn’t in running order now,” replied Tom with dignity. “We’re going to have it
all fixed up.”

“Bet you it will take some fixing,” observed another youth. “Looks to me like it
was ready to fall[49] apart. Did you have to buy it or did he give it to you?”

“He traded it for the buggy,” said Jimmy, “and gave him something to boot. You
can’t beat old Saunders on a trade!”

“That’s all right,” replied Willard smilingly. “You fellows will be standing around
begging for a ride in a week or two.”

“Yes, we will!” jeered Teddy. “I wouldn’t trust myself in that thing with you for a
thousand dollars, Will!”

“All right; remember that,” said Willard. “Hustle along now; we’re going to lock
up!”

“Lock up!” exclaimed Jimmy with a wicked grin. “Great shakes! You don’t think
anyone’s going to steal it, do you?”

The visitors thought of a great many other gibes before they finally dispersed,
leaving Tom and Willard in sole possession of the front steps. Long after he was
out of sight under the trees that lined the street they could hear Jimmy Lippit
imitating the wheezy horn on which he had performed so busily.

The two boys said nothing for a space. Then Willard broke the silence.

“Well, we got it, Tom,” he said.

Tom nodded. “It—it didn’t look quite so bunged-up when it was in Saunders’, did
it?”
[50]

“No.” Willard pulled a twig from the honeysuckle vine and sniffed it thoughtfully.
“I say, Tom.”

“Yep?”

“We—we’re putting an awful lot of money into this. Suppose we didn’t make it go!”

“But Brennan says it’ll go——”

“I mean suppose the scheme didn’t go, Tom. Think of the money we’d lose!”

“I know.” Tom nodded. “I don’t like to think of it, Will. We—we’ve just got to make
it go! That’s all there is to it! We’ve just got to, Will!”