CHAPTER XIX
PIETRO’S PURSUIT
The distance from New York to Newark is but ten miles. Phil had been there once before with an older boy. He was at no loss, therefore, as to the proper place to get out. He stepped from the cars and found himself in a large depot. He went out of a side door, and began to wander about the streets of Newark. Now, for the first time, he felt that he was working for himself, and the feeling was an agreeable one. True, he did not yet feel wholly secure. Pietro might possibly follow in the next train. He inquired at the station when the next train would arrive.
“In an hour,” was the reply.
It would be an hour, therefore, before Pietro could reach Newark.
He decided to walk on without stopping till he reached the outskirts of the city, and not venture back till nightfall, when there would be little or no danger.
Accordingly he plodded on for an hour and a half, till he came where the houses were few and scattered at intervals. In a business point of view this was not good policy, but safety was to be consulted first of all. He halted at length before a grocery store, in front of which he saw a small group of men standing. His music was listened to with attention, but when he came to pass his cap round afterward the result was small. In fact, to be precise, the collection amounted to but eight cents.
“How’s business, boy?” asked a young man who stood at the door in his shirt-sleeves, and was evidently employed in the grocery.
“That is all I have taken,” said Phil, showing the eight cents.
“Did you come from New York this morning?”
“Yes.”
“Then you haven’t got enough to pay for your ticket yet?”
Phil shrugged his shoulders.
“I don’t believe you’ll make your fortune out here.”
Phil was of precisely the same opinion, but kept silent.
“You would have done better to stay in New York.”
To this also Phil mentally assented, but there were imperative reasons, as we know, for leaving the great city.
It was already half-past twelve, and Phil began, after his walk, to feel the cravings of appetite. He accordingly went into the grocery and bought some crackers and cheese, which he sat down by the stove and ate.
“Are you going farther?” asked the same young man who had questioned him before.
“I shall go back to Newark to-night,” said Phil.
“Let me try your violin.”
“Can you play?” asked Phil, doubtfully, for he feared that an unpracticed player might injure the instrument.
“Yes, I can play. I’ve got a fiddle at home myself.”
Our hero surrendered his fiddle to the young man, who played passably.
“You’ve got a pretty good fiddle,” he said. “I think it’s better than mine. Can you play any dancing tunes?”
Phil knew one or two, and played them.
“If you were not going back to Newark, I should like to have you play with me this evening. I don’t have anybody to practice with.”
“I would not know where to sleep,” said Phil, hesitatingly.
“Oh, we’ve got beds enough in our house. Will you stay?”
Phil reflected that he had no place to sleep in Newark except such as he might hire, and decided to accept the offer of his new friend.
“This is my night off from the store,” he said. “I haven’t got to come back after supper. Just stay around here till six o’clock. Then I’ll take you home and give you some supper, and then we’ll play this evening.”
Phil had no objection to this arrangement. In fact, it promised to be an agreeable one for him. As he was sure of a supper, a bed and breakfast, there was no particular necessity for him to earn anything more that day. However, he went out for an hour or two, and succeeded in collecting twenty-five cents. He realized, however, that it was not so easy to pick up pennies in the country as in the city—partly because population is sparser and partly because, though there is less privation in the country, there is also less money.
A little before six Phil’s new friend, whose name he ascertained was Edwin Grover, washed his hands, and, putting on his coat, said “Come along, Phil.”
Phil, who had been sitting near the stove, prepared to accompany him.
“We haven’t got far to go,” said Edwin, who was eighteen. “I am glad of that, for the sooner I get to the supper table the better.”
After five minutes’ walk they stopped at a comfortable two-story house near the roadside.
“That’s where I put up,” said Edwin.
He opened the door and entered, followed by Phil, who felt a little bashful, knowing that he was not expected.
“Have you got an extra plate, mother?” asked Edwin. “This is a professor of the violin, who is going to help me make some music this evening.”
“He is welcome,” said Mrs. Grover, cheerfully, “We can make room for him. He is an Italian, I suppose. What is your name?”
“Filippo.”
“I will call you Philip. I suppose that is the English name. Will you lay down your violin and draw up to the fire?”
“I am not cold,” said Phil.
“He is not cold, he is hungry, as Ollendorf says,” said Edwin, who had written a few French exercises according to Ollendorf’s system. “Is supper almost ready?”
“It will be ready at once. There is your father coming in at the front gate, and Henry with him.”
Mr. Grover entered, and Phil made the acquaintance of the rest of the family. He soon came to feel that he was a welcome guest, and shared in the family supper, which was well cooked and palatable. Then Edwin brought out his fiddle, and the two played various tunes. Phil caught one or two new dancing tunes from his new friend, and in return taught him an Italian air. Three or four people from a neighboring family came in, and a little impromptu dance was got up. So the evening passed pleasantly, and at half-past ten they went to bed, Phil sleeping in a little room adjoining that in which the brothers Edwin and Harry slept.
After breakfast the next morning Phil left the house, with a cordial invitation to call again when he happened to be passing.
Before proceeding with his adventures, we must go back to Pietro.
He, as we know, failed to elicit any information from Paul likely to guide him in his pursuit of Phil. He was disappointed. Still, he reflected that Phil had but a quarter of an hour’s start of him—scarcely that, indeed—and if he stopped to play anywhere, he would doubtless easily find him. There was danger, of course, that he would turn off somewhere, and Pietro judged it best to inquire whether such a boy had passed.
Seeing two boys playing in the street, he inquired: “Have you seen anything of my little brother?”
“What does he look like?” inquired one.
“He is not quite so large as you. He had a fiddle with him.”
“No, I haven’t seen him. Have you, Dick?”
“Yes,” said the other, “there was a boy went along with a fiddle.”
This was true, but, as we know, it was not Phil.
“Did you see where he went?” demanded Pietro, eagerly.
“Straight ahead,” was the reply.
Lured by the delusive hope these words awakened, Pietro went on. He did not stop to play on his organ. He was too intent on finding Phil. At length, at a little distance before him, he saw a figure about the size of Phil, playing on the violin. He hurried forward elated, but when within a few yards he discovered to his disappointment that it was not Phil, but a little fiddler of about his size. He was in the employ of a different padrone. He was doubtless the one the boy had seen.
Disappointed, Pietro now turned back, and bent his steps to the ferry. But he saw nothing of Phil on the way.
“I would like to beat him, the little wretch!” he said to himself, angrily. “If I had not been too late for the boat, I would have easily caught him.”
It never occurred to Pietro that Phil might have taken the cars for a more distant point, as he actually did. The only thing he could think of, for he was not willing to give up the pursuit, was to go back. He remained in Jersey City all day, wandering about the streets, peering here and there; but he did not find Phil, for a very good reason.
The padrone awaited his report at night with some impatience. Phil was one of the smartest boys he had, and he had no mind to lose him.
“Did you find him, Pietro?” he asked as soon as his nephew entered his presence.
“I saw him,” said Pietro.
“Then why did you not bring him back?”
Pietro explained the reason. His uncle listened attentively.
“Pietro, you are a fool,” he said, at length.
“Why am I a fool?” asked Pietro, sullenly.
“Because you sought Filippo where he is not.”
“Where is he?”
“He did not stop in Jersey City. He went farther. He knew that you were on his track. Did you ask at the station if such a boy bought a ticket?”
“I did not think of it.”
“Then you were a fool.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“To-morrow you must go to Newark. That is the first large town. I must have Filippo back.”
“I will go,” said Pietro, briefly.
He was mortified at the name applied to him by his uncle, as well as by the fact of Phil’s having thus far outwitted him. He secretly determined that when he did get him into his power he would revenge himself for all the trouble to which he had been put, and there was little doubt that he would keep his word.
CHAPTER XX
PIETRO’S DISAPPOINTMENT
Though Phil had not taken in much money during the first day of independence, he had more than paid his expenses. He started on the second day with a good breakfast, and good spirits. He determined to walk back to Newark, where he might expect to collect more money than in the suburbs. If he should meet Pietro he determined not to yield without a struggle. But he felt better now than at first, and less afraid of the padrone.
Nine o’clock found him again in Newark. He soon came to a halt, and began to play. A few paused to listen, but their interest in music did not extend so far as to affect their pockets. Phil passed around his hat in vain. He found himself likely to go unrewarded for his labors. But just then he noticed a carriage with open door, waiting in front of a fashionable dry-goods store. Two ladies had just come out and taken their seats preparatory to driving off, when Phil stepped up bareheaded and held his cap. He was an unusually attractive boy, and as he smiled one of the ladies, who was particularly fond of children, noticed him.
“What a handsome boy!” she said to her companion.
“Some pennies for music,” said Phil.
“How old are you?” asked the lady.
“Twelve years.”
“Just the age of my Johnny. If I give you some money what will you do with it?”
“I will buy dinner,” said Phil.
“I never give to vagrants,” said the second lady, a spinster of uncertain age, who did not share her niece’s partiality for children.
“It isn’t his fault if he is a vagrant, Aunt Maria,” said the younger lady.
“I have no doubt he is a thief,” continued Aunt Maria, with acerbity.
“I am not a thief,” said Phil, indignantly, for he understood very well the imputation, and he replaced his cap on his head.
“I don’t believe you are,” said the first lady; “here, take this,” and she put in his hand twenty-five cents.
“Thank you, signora,” said Phil, with a grateful smile.
“That money is thrown away,” said the elderly lady; “you are very indiscriminate in your charity, Eleanor.”
“It is better to give too much than too little, Aunt Maria, isn’t it?”
“You shouldn’t give to unworthy objects.”
“How do you know this boy is an unworthy object?”
“He is a young vagrant.”
“Can he help it? It is the way he makes his living.”
The discussion continued, but Phil did not stop to hear it. He had received more than he expected, and now felt ready to continue his business. One thing was fortunate, and relieved him from the anxiety which he had formerly labored under. He was not obliged to obtain a certain sum in order to escape a beating at night. He had no master to account to. He was his own employer, as long as he kept out of the clutches of the padrone.
Phil continued to roam about the streets very much after the old fashion, playing here and there as he thought it expedient. By noon he had picked up seventy-five cents, and felt very well satisfied with his success. But if, as we are told, the hour that is darkest is just before day, it also happens sometimes that danger lies in wait for prosperity, and danger menaced our young hero, though he did not know it. To explain this, we must go back a little.
When Pietro prepared to leave the lodging-house in the morning, the padrone called loudly to him.
“Pietro,” said he, “you must find Filippo today.”
“Where shall I go?” asked Pietro.
“Go to Newark. Filippo went there, no doubt, while you, stupid that you are, went looking for him in Jersey City. You have been in Newark before?”
“Yes, signore padrone.”
“Very good; then you need no directions.”
“If I do not find him in Newark, where shall I go?”
“He is in Newark,” said the padrone, confidently. “He will not leave it.”
He judged that Phil would consider himself safe there, and would prefer to remain in a city rather than go into the country.
“I will do my best,” said Pietro.
“I expect you to bring him back to-night.”
“I should like to do so,” said Pietro, and he spoke the truth. Apart from his natural tendency to play the tyrant over smaller boys, he felt a personal grudge against Phil for eluding him the day before, and so subjecting him to the trouble of another day’s pursuit, besides the mortification of incurring a reprimand from his uncle. Never did agent accept a commission more readily than Pietro accepted that of catching and bringing Filippo to the padrone.
Leaving the lodging-house he walked down to the ferry at the foot of Cortlandt Street, and took the first train for Newark. It was ten o’clock before he reached the city. He had nothing in particular to guide him, but made up his mind to wander about all day, inquiring from time to time if anyone had seen his little brother, describing Phil. After a while his inquiries were answered in the affirmative, and he gradually got on the track of our hero.
At twelve o’clock Phil went into a restaurant, and invested thirty cents in a dinner. As the prices were low, he obtained for this sum all he desired. Ten minutes afterward, as he was walking leisurely along with that feeling of tranquil enjoyment which a full stomach is apt to give, Pietro turned the corner behind him. No sooner did the organ-grinder catch sight of his prey, than a fierce joy lighted up his eyes, and he quickened his pace.
“Ah, scelerato, I have you now,” he exclaimed to himself. “To-night you shall feel the stick.”
But opportunely for himself Phil looked behind him. When he saw Pietro at but a few rods’ distance his heart stood still with sudden fright, and for an instant his feet were rooted to the ground. Then the thought of escape came to him, and he began to run, not too soon.
“Stop!” called out Pietro. “Stop, or I will kill you!”
But Phil did not comprehend the advantage of surrendering himself to Pietro. He understood too well how he would be treated, if he returned a prisoner. Instead of obeying the call, he only sped on the faster. Now between the pursuer and the pursued there was a difference of six years, Pietro being eighteen, while Phil was but twelve. This, of course, was in Pietro’s favor. On the other hand, the pursuer was encumbered by a hand-organ, which retarded his progress, while Phil had only a violin, which did not delay him at all. This made their speed about equal, and gave Phil a chance to escape, unless he should meet with some interruption.
“Stop!” called Pietro, furiously, beginning to realize that the victory was not yet won.
Phil looked over his shoulder, and, seeing that Pietro was no nearer, took fresh courage. He darted round a corner, with his pursuer half a dozen rods behind him. They were not in the most frequented parts of the city, but in a quarter occupied by two-story wooden houses. Seeing a front door open, Phil, with a sudden impulse, ran hastily in, closing the door behind him.
A woman with her sleeves rolled up, who appeared to have taken her arms from the tub, hearing his step, came out from the back room.
“What do ye want?” she demanded, suspiciously.
“Save me!” cried Phil, out of breath. “Someone is chasing me. He is bad. He will beat me.”
The woman’s sympathies were quickly enlisted. She had a warm heart, and was always ready to give aid to the oppressed.
“Whist, darlint, run upstairs, and hide under the bed. I’ll send him off wid a flea in his ear, whoever he is.”
Phil was quick to take the hint. He ran upstairs, and concealed himself as directed. While he was doing it, the lower door, which he had shut, was opened by Pietro. He was about to rush into the house, but the muscular form of Phil’s friend stood in his way.
“Out wid ye!” said she, flourishing a broom, which she had snatched up. “Is that the way you inter a dacint woman’s house, ye spalpeen!”
“I want my brother,” said Pietro, drawing back a little before the amazon who disputed his passage.
“Go and find him, thin!” said Bridget McGuire, “and kape out of my house.”
“But he is here,” said Pietro, angrily; “I saw him come in.”
“Then, one of the family is enough,” said Bridget. “I don’t want another. Lave here wid you!”
“Give me my brother, then!” said Pietro, provoked.
“I don’t know anything of your brother. If he looks like you, he’s a beauty, sure,” returned Mrs. McGuire.
“Will you let me look for him?”
“Faith and I won’t. You may call him if you plase.”
Pietro knew that this would do very little good, but there seemed nothing else to do.
“Filippo!” he called; “come here. The padrone has sent for you.”
“What was ye sayin’?” demanded Bridget not comprehending the Italian.
“I told my brother to come.”
“Then you can go out and wait for him,” said she. “I don’t want you in the house.”
Pietro was very angry. He suspected that Phil was in the rear room, and was anxious to search for him. But Bridget McGuire was in the way—no light, delicate woman, but at least forty pounds heavier than Pietro. Moreover, she was armed with a broom, and seemed quite ready to use it. Phil was fortunate in obtaining so able a protector. Pietro looked at her, and had a vague thought of running by her, and dragging Phil out if he found him. But Bridget was planted so squarely in his path that this course did not seem very practicable.
“Will you give me my brother?” demanded Pietro, forced to use words where he would willingly have used blows.
“I haven’t got your brother.”
“He is in this house.”
“Thin he may stay here, but you shan’t,” said Bridget, and she made a sudden demonstration with the broom, of so threatening a character that Pietro hastily backed out of the house, and the door was instantly bolted in his face.
CHAPTER XXI
THE SIEGE
When the enemy had fairly been driven out of the house Mrs. McGuire went upstairs in search of Phil. Our hero had come out from his place of concealment, and stood at the window.
“Where is Pietro?” he asked, as his hostess appeared in the chamber.
“I druv him out of the house,” said Bridget, triumphantly.
“Then he won’t come up here?” interrogated Phil.
“It’s I that would like to see him thry it,” said Mrs. McGuire, shaking her head in a very positive manner, “I’d break my broom over his back first.”
Phil breathed freer. He saw that he was rescued from immediate danger.
“Where is he now?”
“He’s outside watching for you. He’ll have to wait till you come out.”
“May I stay here till he goes?”
“Sure, and you may,” said the warm-hearted Irishwoman. “You’re as welcome as flowers in May. Are you hungry?”
“No, thank you,” said Phil. “I have eaten my dinner.”
“Won’t you try a bit of bread and cold mate now?” she asked, hospitably.
“You are very kind,” said Phil, gratefully, “but I am not hungry. I only want to get away from Pietro.”
“Is that the haythen’s name? Sure I niver heard it before.”
“It is Peter in English.”
“And has he got the name of the blessed St. Peter, thin? Sure, St. Peter would be mightily ashamed of him. And is he your brother, do you say?”
“No,” said Phil.
“He said he was; but I thought it was a wicked lie when he said it. He’s too bad, sure, to be a brother of yours. But I must go down to my work. My clothes are in the tub, and the water will get cold.”
“Will you be kind enough to tell me when he goes away?” asked Phil.
“Sure I will. Rest aisy, darlint. He shan’t get hold of you.”
Pietro’s disappointment may be imagined when he found that the victim whom he had already considered in his grasp was snatched from him in the very moment of his triumph. He felt nearly as much incensed at Mrs. McGuire as at Phil, but against the former he had no remedy. Over the stalwart Irishwoman neither he nor the padrone had any jurisdiction, and he was compelled to own himself ignominiously repulsed and baffled. Still all was not lost. Phil must come out of the house some time, and when he did he would capture him. When that happy moment arrived he resolved to inflict a little punishment on our hero on his own account, in anticipation of that which awaited him from his uncle, the padrone. He therefore took his position in front of the house, and maintained a careful watch, that Phil might not escape unobserved.
So half an hour passed. He could hear no noise inside the house, nor did Phil show himself at any of the windows. Pietro was disturbed by a sudden suspicion. What if, while he was watching, Phil had escaped by the back door, and was already at a distance!
This would be quite possible, for as he stood he could only watch the front of the house. The rear was hidden from his view. Made uneasy by this thought, he shifted his ground, and crept stealthily round on the side, in the hope of catching a view of Phil, or perhaps hearing some conversation between him and his Amazonian protector by which he might set at rest his suddenly formed suspicions.
He was wrong, however. Phil was still upstairs. He was disposed to be cautious, and did not mean to leave his present place of security until he should be apprised by his hostess that Pietro had gone.
Bridget McGuire kept on with her washing. She had been once to the front room, and, looking through the blinds, had ascertained that Pietro was still there.
“He’ll have to wait long enough,” she said to herself, “the haythen! It’s hard he’ll find it to get the better of Bridget McGuire.”
She was still at her tub when through the opposite window on the side of the house she caught sight of Pietro creeping stealthily along, as we have described.
“I’ll be even wid him,” said Bridget to herself exultingly. “I’ll tache him to prowl around my house.”
She took from her sink near by a large, long-handled tin dipper, and filled it full of warm suds from the tub. Then stealing to the window, she opened it suddenly, and as Pietro looked up, suddenly launched the contents in his face, calling forth a volley of imprecations, which I would rather not transfer to my page. Being in Italian, Bridget did not exactly understand their meaning, but guessed it.
“Is it there ye are?” she said, in affected surprise.
“Why did you do that?” demanded Pietro, finding enough English to express his indignation.
“Why did I do it?” repeated Bridget. “How would I know that you were crapin’ under my windy? It serves ye right, anyhow. I don’t want you here.”
“Send out my brother, then,” said Pietro.
“There’s no brother of yours inside,” said Mrs. McGuire.
“It’s a lie!” said Pietro, angrily stamping his foot.
“Do you want it ag’in?” asked Bridget, filling her dipper once more from the tub, causing Pietro to withdraw hastily to a greater distance. “Don’t you tell Bridget McGuire that she lies.”
“My brother is in the house,” reiterated Pietro, doggedly.
“He is no brother of yours—he says so.”
“He lies,” said Pietro.
“Shure and it’s somebody else lies, I’m thinkin’,” said Bridget.
“Is he in the house?” demanded Pietro, finding it difficult to argue with Phil’s protector.
“I don’t see him,” said Bridget, shrewdly, turning and glancing round the room.
“I’ll call the police,” said Pietro, trying to intimidate his adversary.
“I wish you would,” she answered, promptly. “It would save me the trouble. I’ll make a charge against you for thryin’ to break into my house; maybe you want to stale something.”
Pietro was getting disgusted. Mrs. McGuire proved more unmanageable than he anticipated. It was tantalizing to think that Phil was so near him, and yet out of his reach. He anathematized Phil’s protector in his heart, and I am afraid it would have gone hard with her if he could have had his wishes fulfilled. He was not troubled to think what next to say, for Bridget suddenly terminated the interview by shutting down the window with the remark: “Go away from here! I don’t want you lookin’ in at my windy.”
Pietro did not, however, go away immediately. He moved a little further to the rear, having a suspicion that Phil might escape from the door at the back. While he was watching here, he suddenly heard the front door open, and shut with a loud sound. He ran to the front, thinking that Phil might be taking flight from the street door, but it was only a ruse of Mrs. McGuire, who rather enjoyed tantalizing Pietro. He looked carefully up and down the street, but, seeing nothing of Phil, he concluded he must still be inside. He therefore resumed his watch, but in some perplexity as to where he ought to stand, in order to watch both front and rear. Phil occasionally looked guardedly from the window in the second story, and saw his enemy, but knew that as long as he remained indoors he was safe. It was not very agreeable remaining in the chamber alone, but it was a great deal better than falling into the clutches of Pietro, and he felt fortunate to have found so secure a place of refuge.
Pietro finally posted himself at the side of the house, where he could command a view of both front and rear, and there maintained his stand nearly underneath the window at which his intended prisoner was standing.
As Phil was watching him, suddenly he heard steps, and Bridget McGuire entered the chamber. She bore in her hand the same tin dipper before noticed, filled with steaming hot water. Phil regarded her with some surprise.
“Would you like to see some fun now?” she asked, her face covered by a broad smile.
“Yes,” said Phil.
“Open the windy, aisy, so he won’t hear.”
Phil obeyed directions, and managed not to attract the attention of his besieger below, who chanced at the moment to be looking toward the door in the rear.
“Now,” said Bridget, “take this dipper and give him the binifit of it.”
“Don’t let him see you do it,” cautioned his protector.
Phil took the idea and the dipper at once.
Phil, holding the dipper carefully, discharged the contents with such good aim that they drenched the watching Pietro. The water being pretty hot, a howl of pain and rage rose from below, and Pietro danced about frantically. Looking up, he saw no one, for Phil had followed directions and drawn his head in immediately. But Mrs. McGuire, less cautious, looked out directly afterward.
“Will ye go now, or will ye stand jist where I throw the hot water?”
In reply, Pietro indulged in some rather emphatic language, but being in the Italian language, in which he was more fluent, it fell unregarded upon the ears of Mrs. McGuire.
“I told you to go,” she said. “I’ve got some more wather inside.”
Pietro stepped back in alarm. He had no disposition to take another warm shower bath, and he had found out to his cost that Bridget McGuire was not a timid woman, or easily frightened.
But he had not yet abandoned the siege. He shifted his ground to the front of the house, and took a position commanding a view of the front door.