“I shall do my best.”
After Andrew Mallison had gone Joe was shown around the hotel and instructed in his various duties. Occasionally he was to do bell- boy duty, but usually he was to be an all-around helper for the office.
“I think you’ll like it here,” said Frank Randolph. It’s the best hotel I’ve ever worked in. Mr. Drew is a perfect gentleman.”
“I am glad to hear it, Frank,” answered our hero.
The room assigned to the two boys was a small one on the top floor of the hotel. But it was clean, contained two nice cots, and Joe felt it would suit him very well. Frank had hung up a few pictures and had a shelf full of books and this made the apartment look quite home-like.
“I’m going to buy some books myself, this winter,” said Joe. “And when I get time I am going to do some studying.”
“I’m studying myself, Joe. I never had much schooling,” returned Frank.
“Are you alone in the world?”
“No, my father is living. But he is rather sickly and lives with an uncle of mine, over in Camden. He can’t work very much, and that is why I have to support myself. Are you alone?”
“Yes. I think my father is living but I can’t locate him.”
The next day and for several days following Joe pitched into work in earnest. Many things were strange to him, but he determined to master them as speedily as possible, and this pleased Arthur Drew.
“That boy is all right,” he said to his cashier. “I am glad that Andrew Mallison brought him to me.”
“Jack Sagger was awfully angry at being discharged,” said the cashier.
“It was his own fault. I cannot afford to have a boy around who is impudent.”
What the cashier said about the discharged lad was true. Jack Sagger was “mad clear through,” and he attributed his discharge solely to Joe.
“I’ll fix dat pill,” he said to one of his chums. “He ain’t going to do me out of my job an’ not suffer fer it.”
“What are you going to do, Jack?” asked the companion.
“I’ll mash him, dat’s wot I’ll do,” answered Jack Sagger.
He was a big, rawboned lad, several inches taller than Joe. His face was freckled, and his lips discolored by cigarette smoking. He was a thoroughly tough boy and it was a wonder that he had ever been allowed to work in the hotel at all. He had a fairly good home, but only went there to sleep and to get his meals.
“Joe, I hear that Jack Sagger is going to make it warm for you,” said Frank, one Monday afternoon.
“I suppose he is angry because I got his position, is that it?”
“Yes.”
“What is he going to do?”
“I don’t know exactly, but he’ll hurt you if he can.”
“If he attacks me I’ll do what I can to take care of myself,” answered our hero.
That afternoon he was sent out by Mr. Drew on an errand that took him to a neighborhood occupied largely by wholesale provision houses. As Joe left the hotel Jack Sagger saw him.
“Dere’s dat country jay now,” said Sagger.
“Now’s your time to git square on him, Jack,” said Nick Sammel, his crony.
“Right you are, Nick. Come on.”
“Going to follow him?”
“Yes, till I git him where I want him.”
“Going to mash him?”
“Sure. When I git through wid him his own mother won’t know him,” went on Jack Sagger, boastfully.
“Maybe he’ll git the cops after you, Jack.”
“I’ll watch out fer dat, Nick, an’ you must watch out too,” answered Jack Sagger.
“Are you sure you kin best him? He looks putty strong.”
“Huh! Can’t I fight? Didn’t I best Sam Nolan, and Jerry Dibble?”
“That’s right, Jack.”
“Just let me git one chanct at him an’ he’ll run away, you see if he don’t. But he shan’t git away until I give him a black eye an’ knock out a couple of his front teeth fer him,” concluded the boaster.
CHAPTER XVIII.
JOE SHOWS HIS MUSCLE.
ALL unconscious that he was being followed, our hero went on his errand to a wholesale provision house that supplied the Grandon Hotel with meats and poultry. He felt in good spirits and so whistled lightly as he walked.