Frank V. Webster

“ Boise,” suggested Tom. “He can tell you what to do. I may say to you, Dr. Spidderkins, that your estate is in danger.”
“In danger? From whom?”
“I am not sure that Mr. Boise would want me to tell you, but I will risk saying that he suspects Mr. and Mrs. Sandow.”
“What? Those two whom I have trusted in everything?”
“Mr. Boise suspects them, and also suspects a young lawyer in his office.”
“Oh, dear!” exclaimed the doctor. “I know nothing about business. All I know about is books. Do you suppose they have got everything I possess? I used to be a rich man.” ”

“ I understand from Mr. Boise that you want to study law. There is no better profession in the world. Now [Pg 202] I am going to send you to college and then to a law school. I expect you to graduate with honors, and then you can look after my legal business for me, for I am getting to have such a bad memory that I need a guardian. Will you go, Tom?”
Tom was silent a moment. The offer was so unexpected that it nearly took his breath away. He had never dreamed of such advancement.
“Well,” asked Dr. Spidderkins, inquiringly, “I hope you don’t prefer being a telephone boy to becoming a lawyer?” ”

“ Cutler’s visitor was none other than Barton Sandow. Dr. Spidderkins’ brother-in-law uttered an exclamation, as he caught sight of Tom, and then the lawyer hastily closed the door, from behind which came the murmur of voices in eager, earnest conversation.
“He’ll never suspect anything,” he heard Mr. Cutler say.
“Hush!” cautioned Mr. Sandow. “He’s altogether too smart!”
“I hope I can prove too smart for you,” thought Tom, as he laid the papers on Mr. Keen’s desk. “There’s some funny business going on in this office and I think it has to do with the doctor. I’ll keep my eyes open.” ”

“ Cutler. “How can she remember a person’s voice?”
“You may ask her yourself,” said Mr. Boise, as he turned to the pretty girl. “Allow me to introduce to you Miss Minnie Renfield, who is the young lady in charge of the trunk lines from our office. Miss Renfield, just tell Mr. Cutler and Tom, here, what you told me.”
“I have been a central operator for a number of years,” said Miss Renfield, with an engaging smile. “I have a very good memory for voices. After I hear a voice over the telephone once or twice, I never forget it. Several of my friends can do the same thing. ”

“ The experience Tom had once had, as a clerk in a grocery store, where he took orders over the telephone, had made him fairly expert in the use of the instrument. He soon got the aged doctor’s house on the wire, and was inquiring of Mrs. Barton Sandow (which the physician gave as his sister-in-law’s name) whether the pocketbook had been left there.
“Yes, it’s here,” answered Mrs. Sandow shortly. “He forgot it, as usual. Tell him he left it on the breakfast-table. Why, is he in trouble?”
“No; only he wants to buy some books, and he hasn’t the money with him,” answered Tom politely. ”

“ Sandow that everything was discovered. Then came this sentence ‘Meet me at Park—’; but what park is there around here?”
“None where they would be likely to meet,” replied Tom, who knew that part of Boston pretty well by this time. “I have it!” he exclaimed. “It isn’t a park. It’s Parker House. I saw Sandow there one night!”
“That’s it! Why didn’t I think of that!” exclaimed Mr. Boise. “Tom, you’ll be a better lawyer than I am, if you keep on.”
“Come on then!” said Dr. Spidderkins. “We must go to the Parker House and arrest them! They shan’t get away with my money if I can help it!” ”

“ Kittridge, the lawyer who has the other side of the Kendall case, doesn’t know my voice, and he doesn’t know Tom in the least. I’ll pretend I’m the office boy, and that I have a grudge against the firm, because they won’t raise my wages. All Kittridge needs is a tip about the dam, and he can win the case. Kendall will lose it, and then I’ll casually suggest to Boise that there must have been a leak somewhere. There’ll be an inquiry, and Tom will be discharged. Then we can proceed without having him sneaking in on us, at every chance he gets. ”

“ I know two or three who make more money than I do.”
“Is it hard to learn?”
“Well, it isn’t so very easy, and if you’re in a busy office like mine it keeps you on the jump. It’s no fun to have all three members of the firm trying to get connections at once, and half a dozen parties on the outside wanting to talk to the partners to give orders to sell or buy stocks. I couldn’t do it at first, and I got all mixed up, but I can work it all right now.”
“I’d like to have a place like that,” said Tom. “I used to take orders over the telephone in the grocery store.” ”

“ Tom went downstairs, and was soon rattling away at the dishes in the cupboard.
“Look at that!” exclaimed his aunt, as she pointed to a patch of snow and mud left by Tom’s shoes in the middle of the sewing room. “Isn’t that awful! Oh, boys are such terrible creatures!”
“I’m glad I have one,” declared Mrs. Baldwin fondly, as she wiped up the mud with an old rag. “There are worse things than muddy shoes, Sallie.” ”

“ But if our hero imagined that working a telephone switchboard in the office of a big law firm was going to be as easy as it was to practice with his chum, Tom was grievously disappointed. Soon after he took his seat in front of the board, with its maze of cords, plugs, holes, cams and push buttons, he had a call for one of the partners. There were three members of the firm, which was known officially as Boise, Keen & Cutler. Mr. Boise was the senior member and Elias Cutler the junior. ”

“ I’m an old man, but when I get roused up I’m as good as a young one!”
To look at him one would not doubt this, for the doctor seemed to have grown several years younger. He had been carrying a book but now he thrust it into his pocket as if it was of no value. He was thoroughly in earnest.
“Come on,” he said, to Tom and Mr. Boise. “We’ll go and see if we can’t end their plots! I’ll have something to say to Mr. and Mrs. Sandow that they won’t like.”
[Pg 189] “That’s the way to talk!” exclaimed Mr. Boise admiringly. “You’ve been too much engrossed in your books heretofore, Dr. Spidderkins.” ”

“ They know I never hire a boy. They do it for a joke, and several lads, in need of work, have been fooled by it.”
“I don’t think that’s a very good joke,” remarked Tom.
“Neither do I,” agreed the proprietor. “No, I don’t want a boy, but I’m glad there’s no foolish [Pg 66] sign out in front. How did you come to ask in here?”
“Well, I used to be in Townsend’s store, and as I need work, and every place seems to be one where experience is needed, I thought I’d try a book store.”
“I’m sorry,” went on the man more kindly. “I can’t afford to keep a helper. ”

“ How do you mean?”
“Well, I’ve got an idea,” went on Tom’s chum, “that Sandow would like to get control of part of Dr. Spidderkins’ money. He’s got slathers of it, as I said, and I don’t believe he knows where it all is. He’s as careless about cash as he is about other things, dad says. Forgets what he does with his rocks.”
“How do you know Sandow would like to get hold of it,” asked Tom.
“Well, Sandow does some business through our firm. Not much, though. He’s a ‘piker.’”
“What’s a ‘piker’?”
“That’s what we call a chap that buys a few shares of stock at a time. Small business, you know. ”

“ But Tom had little more time for thought that morning, as the switchboard kept him almost constantly engaged. The firm had several important cases to attend to, and inquiries and messages concerning them were constantly coming in.
“Whew! My ear aches!” exclaimed Tom to himself, after an hour during which he had been engaged in putting plugs in, taking them out, shifting cams and pressing buttons. “This sort of life is lively enough, at times, to suit almost any one. But I guess I’ll have a chance now to look at my law book.” ”

“ Lemuel Spidderkins.”
“Does he practise medicine?”
“He used to, but he is retired now, and about all he does is to collect books. Hardly a day passes but what he buys two or three here, or in other book stores. He spends a lot of money that way. You see he’s so forgetful he dare not risk practising his profession.”
“He certainly is queer,” remarked Tom, and he told the clerk his experience with the doctor.
“That’s nothing,” was the answer. “He often comes in here, and walks off with three or four books without paying for them. If we see him we always politely call his attention to them. ”

“ Cutler, and he made the connection. He recognized the voice. It was that of the man who had often spoken before to the junior partner, and this unseen man, Tom decided, was Barton Sandow.
The message was a brief one, and, under the circumstances Tom felt justified in listening to it.
“I will call you up there to-night,” said the person whom the telephone boy believed was the rascally brother-in-law of Dr. Spidderkins.
“I’ll be here,” replied Mr. Cutler. “Make it about midnight, and we’ll not be disturbed, and no fresh central girl will listen to our talk. ”

“ Baldwin could have sold the house, and lived for a time on what she got for it, but she preferred to keep it. She had been a good seamstress in her younger days, and she determined to try to earn her living by dressmaking.
But she soon found that dressmaking, as she had seen it conducted when she was a girl in the country, and the way it is done now-a-days, was quite different. She could barely get enough to do to make a living for herself and Tom, who was too young to go to work, and who attended a public school. ”

“ Tom found the book-store proprietor and told him of Dr. Spidderkins’ desires.
“Tell him to take the book, and welcome,” was the reply Mr. Townsend sent back. “He can take all the books he wants. He is good for them.”
The doctor left, after insisting that a messenger must be sent to his house that evening for the ten dollars, in case he did not send it sooner.
“I guess you’d better stop up and see the doctor, Tom,” said Mr. Townsend, when it came closing time. “He hasn’t sent the money, and, while I know he’ll pay it, he always likes to have things done just as he requests. ”

“ That is the cry that sometimes thrills us, ringing out during the day or in the silent hours of the night. And who is it whose heart does not jump within him when he sees the devouring flames leaping skyward, and sees the engines, hose-carts and long hook-and-ladder trucks dashing through the streets to put out the conflagration? ”

“ Every place I go they want experienced help, but how’s a fellow ever to get any experience if he never has a chance to learn?”
“That’s so. Maybe I could teach you something about it. Our office closes early, and there’d be plenty of chances to learn.”
“I wish you would.”
“I’ll speak to the boss about it to-morrow, and let you know. I stand in pretty good with him.”
The next evening Charley left word at Tom’s house (for our hero was absent, delivering some books for the second-hand dealer) that the broker had consented to allow Tom to learn how to operate a small private exchange switchboard. ”

“ I saved the money for car fare, as I didn’t know how far I’d have to go before I struck a job. Then, when I got this one in the book store, I thought I might as well come home and get a [Pg 6] bite as to go to a restaurant, so I’ve got the quarter left.”
“But, Tom, you must take care of your health,” said his mother. “Going without your dinner, to save money, is poor economy. You can’t afford to get sick, with two women to look after,” and she smiled fondly at her son. ”

“ VINDICATION OF TOM
The two lawyers and the telephone boy looked curiously at Miss Renfield.
“I am going out to some telephone,” she said. “I will then call up the office, and each of you, in turn, may speak to me over the wire. I am sure I can tell exactly who is talking, though I am not very familiar with this gentleman’s voice,” and she looked at Mr. Cutler.
“That is the junior member of our firm,” explained Mr. Boise. “I think that will be a fair experiment.”
“I hope it will convince Mr. Cutler that I can recognize voices over the wire,” went on the central operator. ”

“ Baldwin. “This is the best place you’ve had yet.”
“And so refined,” added Miss Ramsey. “I always wanted a lawyer in the family, and now Tom has a chance to be one.”
“I’m afraid it will be a good many years before I can learn law over the switchboard, Aunt Sallie.”
“Oh, but you will have opportunities. I think it is better to be a lawyer than a bookseller.”
“Especially as I haven’t any chance to become a bookseller,” added Tom with a laugh. “Well, mother, is there anything I can do for you?”
“Yes, Tom; I have just finished some sewing for Mrs. Crawford Leeth. ”

“ About a book.”
“No; from your lawyer, Mr. Boise.”
“Oh, yes, yes. You are in a law office. I remember now.”
[Pg 173] “It’s very important,” went on Tom, in a low voice, approaching close to the aged physician. “Perhaps I had better shut the door.”
“No, no,” said the doctor. “Leave it open. If it’s closed, she’ll sneak up, and listen at the key hole. She’s—she’s a—a Tartar!” he exclaimed softly. “She makes life miserable for me. I don’t wonder my poor brother died. Come, we’ll go into an inner room. Then she can’t hear us.” ”

“ Tom was on hand so early at the book store the next morning that he found the Emporium had not yet opened. He had to stand out in the street, until the porter came along to unlock the door.
“You’re early; ain’t you?” the man asked.
“Yes; I didn’t know exactly what time I had to begin, so I thought I’d get here as soon as I could. Where will I find a broom? I have to sweep out the place.”
“I’ll get you one. You want to sprinkle damp sawdust on the floor, and cover up all the books on the tables, so they won’t get dusty. Mr. Townsend is a very particular man.” ”

“ Everything is new and strange to him and he makes some queer mistakes which make very funny reading. He falls into the hands of a sharper who has been cheating Mr. Bradner out of the income of some valuable property. The sharper and his tools try to get the ranch boy out of the way. But—well, Roy turns the tables, and makes things mighty warm for the fellows.
A splendid volume, bound in cloth, and well illustrated. Published by the Cupples & Leon Company, at thirty-five cents. Sent postpaid if you can not get it from your bookseller. ”

“ Boise. “Of course Mrs. Sandow may become suspicious over what happened while Tom was there, and she may inform her husband. But they can do little now.”
“Can we get back what they have already taken?” inquired the physician. “I am not overly fond of money, in fact all I use it for is to buy books, but I do not like to be robbed and cheated, especially by those whom I have befriended. When my brother died I told his widow she could live with me as my housekeeper. Then, when she got married again, I still allowed her and her husband to live in my house. ”

“ Sandow hastened to assure his fellow-schemer. “I’ll do just as I promised.”
“You’d better,” announced Cutler grimly, “or I could have you held for fraudulently obtaining the deeds and mortgages.”
“What about yourself?”
“Oh, a lawyer knows enough to look out for himself. But everything will be all right.”
[Pg 167] “I hope that meddlesome boy doesn’t interfere again,” Tom heard Sandow say. “Did you get him discharged?”
“No; my plan didn’t work. Boise brought in a central girl, and she said it wasn’t Tom’s voice that gave the secret away. I believe the little witch suspected me. ”

“ In accordance with the plan, made the night before, the senior partner of the law firm came to his office very early the next morning. Tom was there waiting for him, and none of the clerks, nor the other two partners, had arrived.
“Well, Tom?” asked Mr. Boise anxiously, and our hero told all that he had heard.
“Too bad! Too bad!” murmured Mr. Boise. “Cutler is a bright young man. I am sorry to see him going wrong. Well, there is no help for it; I must expose him. You say Sandow is to send some papers to him this morning?” ”