CHAPTER IX
ADJUSTER TOMMY
"I'm Salsette born!" trilled Tommy Tucker soulfully.
"And Salsette bred!" chimed in his brother
"And when I die--" caroled Tommy.
"I'll be Salsette dead!" they finished together.
Then, highly satisfied with this intelligible ditty, they burst into thecar where the others were waiting for them.
The boys had appropriated the seats at the forward end of the car, andunfortunately their selection included a seat in which an elderly, or soshe seemed to them, woman sat. She fidgeted incessantly, folding andunfolding her long traveling coat, opening and closing a fitted lunchbasket, and arranging and re-arranging several small unwieldy parcels andheavy books that slid persistently to the floor with the jarring of thetrain. When the conductor came through for tickets, she discovered thatshe had mislaid hers and it was necessary to flutter the pages of everybook before the missing bit of pasteboard finally dropped from betweenthe leaves of the last one opened.
Bob, with instinctive courtesy, had offered to help her search, but shehad rebuffed him sharply.
"I don't want any boy pawing over my belongings," she informed himtartly.
Bob flushed a little, it was impossible not to help it, but he saidnothing. Meeting Betty's indignant eyes, he smiled good-humoredly.
"Sweet pickles!" ejaculated Tommy Tucker indignantly. "Here, you Timothy,hand me that suitcase at your feet--it belongs to the little dark girl."
Libbie, "the little dark girl," smiled dreamily as Timothy passed hersuitcase to Tommy. She and Timothy Derby, ignoring the jeers of theirfriends, were deep in two white and gold volumes of poetry. Timothy,Libbie had discovered, had a leaning toward the romantic in fiction,though he preferred his served in rhyme.
The wicked Tommy had a motive in asking for Libbie's suitcase. It wasmuch smaller and lighter than any of the others, and he swung it deftlyinto the rack over the vinegary lady's unsuspecting head. With adeftness, born it must be confessed of previous practice, he balancedthe case on the rim so that the first lurch of the train catapulted thething down squarely on the woman's hat, snapping a shiny, hard blackquill in two.
"I must say!" she sputtered, rising angrily. "Who put that up there? Ifanything goes in that rack, it will be some of my things. I paid forthis seat."
She set the suitcase out into the aisle with a decided bang, and liftedup the wicker lunch basket. To the glee of the watching young people, asshe lifted it to the rack, two china cups, several teaspoons and a silvercream jug sifted down. The cups broke on the floor and the other articlesrolled under the seats.
"Get 'em, quick!" cried the owner. "My two best cups broken, and Ithought I had them packed so well! Pick up those teaspoons, some ofyou--they're solid silver!"
"If you don't mind boys pawing them--" began Teddy Tucker, but Bettyintervened.
"Oh, don't!" she protested softly. "Don't be so mean. Pick them up,please do."
So down on their hands and knees went the six lads, and if, in theirearnestness, they bumped into the elderly woman's hat box, and knockeddown her books, that really should not be held against them.
"Now for mercy's sake, don't let me hear from you again," was herspeech of thanks to them when the teaspoons had been recovered andrestored to her.
She might have been severely left alone after this, if Sydney Cooke hadnot discovered a remarkable peculiarity she possessed. Sydney was a greatlover of games, and he had brought his pocket checkerboard and men withhim. He persuaded Winifred Marion Brown to play a game with him, and therest of the party crowded around to watch.
"I'll trouble you to let me pass," said the owner of the teaspoons, whenSydney had just made his first play.
The group parted to let her through, closed in again, and opened againfor her when she came back. No one paid any attention to this until shehad made the request four times.
"What ails that woman?" demanded Sydney irritably.
Each time she had passed him she had brushed his elbow, scattering hischeckers about. Ordinarily sweet-tempered, Sydney was beginning to wearyof this performance.
"What do you think?" snickered Bobby Littell. "She takes a white tabletevery five minutes. Honest! I've been watching her. She sits there withher watch in her hand, and exactly five minutes apart--I've timedher--she starts for the water cooler. She puts something on her tongue,swallows a glass of water, and comes back."
"Well, somebody carry her a gallon jug," muttered Sydney impatiently. "Ican't get anywhere if she is going to parade up and down the aisleincessantly."
"Don't worry," said Tommy Tucker soothingly. "I'll adjust this littlematter for you."
If Sydney had been less interested in his game, he might have feltslightly apprehensive. The Tucker twins were famous for their"adjustments."
Tommy went down the aisle and slipped into the seat directly back of thewoman who did not approve of boys. She turned and regarded him hostilely,but he gazed out at the flying landscape. The moment she turned around,he ducked to the floor.
"What do you suppose he is doing?" whispered Bobby to Betty. "Tommy canthink up tricks faster than any boy I ever knew."
Whatever Tommy was doing, he finished in a very few moments and saunteredback to the checker game, his eyes dancing.
Sydney and Winifred were absorbed in their game, and the others, with theexception of Bobby and Betty, had not noticed Tommy's brief absence.
"Oh, look!" Betty clutched Bobby's arm excitedly. "What hashappened to her?"
The woman, who had sat with her watch in her hand, snapped it shut,prepared to make another journey to the water cooler. She half rose, analarmed expression flitted over her face, and she sank into her seatagain. Tommy's eyes were studiously on the checkerboard.
With one convulsive effort, the woman struggled to her feet, grasped thebell-cord and jerked it twice, then dropped into her seat and began toweep hysterically.
The brakes jarred down, and the train came to a sudden stop that sentmany of the passengers m a mad scramble forward.
In a few moments the conductor flung open the car door angrily. Behindhim two anxious young brakesmen peered curiously.
"Anybody in here jerk that bellcord?" demanded the conductor, scowling.
"Certainly. It was I," said the elderly woman loftily.
"Oh, you did, eh?" he bristled, apparently unworried by her opinion."What did you do that for? Here you've stopped a whole train."
"I considered it necessary," was the icy reply. "Perhaps you will be goodenough to call a doctor?"
"Are you ill?" the conductor's voice changed perceptibly. "I doubt ifthere is a doctor on the train, but I'll see."
"Tell him to hurry," said the woman commandingly. "I think I'mparalyzed."
"Paralyzed!" Tommy Tucker gave a loud snort and fell over backward intothe arms of his twin.
The conductor shot a suspicious glance toward him. He had traveled onschool trains before.
"You seem to be all right, Madam," he said to the stricken onecourteously. "There's a doctor at the Junction, I'm sure. What makes youthink you're paralyzed?"
"My good man," said the woman majestically, "when a person in good healthand accustomed to normal activity suddenly loses the power to useher--er--feet, isn't that an indication of some physical trouble?"
Her unfortunate and un-American phrase, "my good man," had nettled theconductor, and besides his train was losing time.
"We'll miss connections at the Junction if we fool away much more time,"he said testily. "I wonder--Why look here! No wonder you can't useyour feet!"
To the elderly woman's horror he had swooped down and laid a notungentle hand on her ankle in its neat and smart-looking shoe. Now hetook out his knife, slashed twice, and held up the pieces of a stoutlength of twine.
"You were tied to the seat-base by the heels of your shoes," he informedthe patient grimly. "One foot tied to the other, too. Well, Jim, take inyour signals--guess we can mosey along."
"An
d who would have expected her to wear high-heeled boots!" exclaimedBobby, with real amazement showing in voice and look.
The few passengers in the car, aside from the school contingent, wereopenly laughing. The victim of this practical joke turned a dull red andthe glare she turned on the back of the luckless Tommy's head was proofenough that she knew exactly where to lay the blame.
However, she said nothing, nor did she make another trip down the aisleand as Tommy philosophically whispered, this was worth all he had daredand suffered. Sydney and Winifred finished their game before the Junctionwas reached and that brought a wild charge to get on the train that wouldcarry them to Shadyside station.
To their relief, there was no sign of the elderly woman in the new car,and as they were all a bit tired from the journey and excitement thehour's ride to Shadyside from the Junction was comparatively quiet.
Betty looked eagerly from the window as the brakesman shouted,"Shadyside! Shadyside!"