True to his word, Jimmy arrived at Number 27 Upton shortly after supper. Stick, to whom Russell had imparted the proposed solution of the problem, was not present. Stick had succinctly declared that Russell was crazy and that he refused to listen to any more of his ravings. He had not, however, refused to keep store in the afternoon in return for having his mornings free, and that was the principal thing.

Jimmy declared that he had feared Russell might change his mind about employing him and so leave him jobless in the face of a long and cruel winter, and consequently he had hurried right up so soon as he had satisfied the inner man. He had brought his schedule and when Russell had produced his they leaned over the two cards and, as Jimmy phrased it, doped out a course of action. On the whole, Russell’s hours and Jimmy’s seldom interfered, and there were but two mornings when for more than sixty minutes the store would have to be left to Mr. J. Warren Pulsifer’s care.

“Corking!” declared Jimmy. “I’ll go down Monday morning with you and you can show me where things are and all that. Something tells me, Emerson, that I was born to be a merchant, and Heaven help any poor guy that steps his foot inside that store while I’m there. He will either have to buy something or fight me!”

“Better try peaceful means first,” suggested Russell, smiling.

“Oh, yes, I shan’t insist on trouble. By the way, are there any punching-bags in stock? It might be well for me to keep in trim. Let’s see, how do you do it?” Jimmy rubbed his hands and bowed to Russell. “Good morning, sir. Nice weather we’re having, are they not? Tennis balls? Certainly. Right this way, please, to the tennis department. Here you are, sir, the finest ball on the market. Used exclusively by the Prince of Wales, Lloyd George and all the best players. Covered with the most expensive Peruvian broadcloth. Every ball filled with two thousand atmospheres of balloon gas, making it the lightest and liveliest ball on the market. As I might say, sir, it’s bound to bound. We are making a special price on them this year, eighty cents apiece or five dollars a half-dozen. If you take six dozen we include a high-grade racket. With a gross we give you, absolutely without charge, a receipt for making indelible ink. Half a dozen? Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Shall I wrap them up or will you take them with you?”

“Aren’t you mixed on your prices a little?” laughed Russell.

“Possibly.” Jimmy waved carelessly. “I never was good at arithmetic. By the way, you haven’t a cash register, have you? No? That’s good. I’d never be a success as a salesman where there was one of those things to keep tabs on me!”

“Austen,” asked Russell, sobering, “what are you doing this for?”

“This? Oh, you mean this. We-ell – ” Jimmy blinked. “I don’t know, Russell. I thought it was because I liked your – your pep and wanted to help you out. But I’m not sure that it isn’t really because I want a lark!”

“Well, it’s mighty decent of you, anyway,” replied Russell. “It gets me out of a hole. You see, I like football, Austen, even if I’m not very much good at it, and it was sort of hard not to play this fall. Still, I wouldn’t have thought of doing it if Gaston hadn’t got after me. Now I’m wondering whether I’m going to play because I think it’s my duty to or just because I really want to!”

“Jove,” said Jimmy, “you’ve got a regular Puritan conscience, Emerson! What’s it matter? The main thing is that you’re going to. Now sit down and tell me about things at the store. You give a discount to our chaps, don’t you? Well, how about high school students?”

“Just the same,” said Russell. “I thought we’d better. They might get sore if we didn’t.”

“I see. Still, I don’t believe Crocker does.”

“All the more reason why we should, then, Austen.”

“Yes, but – Say, cut out that ‘Austen’ stuff, won’t you? My name’s Jimmy.”

“And mine’s Russell,” replied the other, smiling. “More often just Rus.”

“I get you! Though, of course,” Jimmy added, “when I am on duty I shall call you Mr. Emerson!”

Half an hour later Jimmy paused at the door to say: “Oh, by the way, about to-morrow night.”

“That’s all right,” replied Russell quickly. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Eh? What doesn’t matter?” asked Jimmy, puzzled.

“Why, I mean,” floundered Russell, “if it isn’t convenient – ”

“Rot! What I was about to say was that I think it’ll be best not to be too raw, if you see what I mean. We’ll use tact and diplomacy, old son. You just happen in and we’ll have a social little talk, the lot of us, and after awhile I’ll accidentally bring up the subject of the store. You leave it to me. Better not let those guys suspect that we’re putting up a game on ’em, eh? Well, so long, Rus. Drop in about seven-thirty or a quarter to eight.”

Stick, when he returned to the room later, was in a much better humor than when he had left. He had, it developed, won two straight games of billiards from another chap over in Haylow. Russell listened with flattering attention to Stick’s dramatic narrative of the contests, thereby increasing the latter’s content. At last, Stick tore himself from the engrossing subject, frowned slightly and asked: “Well, did you and Austen fix it up?”

Russell explained the arrangements. “That’ll give you every morning free except Saturday, Stick. Saturday Austen won’t be able to be there, and I have a nine o’clock and an eleven. In the afternoons, except Tuesdays – Here, this is the schedule. I tend store every afternoon except Tuesday from one to three. You come on at three and stay until six. Or, five-thirty, if you like. I’ll be down every day right after practice and I ought to get there by half-past. How is that?”

“All right, I guess,” replied Stick slowly, looking over the schedule rather as though he suspected that something was being put over on him. “Of course, afternoon’s likely to be the busy part of the day, if things ever get busy, that is!”

“I know, but you won’t have so much to do that it’ll wear you out,” answered Russell.

“It doesn’t look like it,” agreed Stick plaintively. “Say, we’re going to lose our money as sure as shooting, Rus!”

“I don’t think so,” answered the other with more confidence than he felt. “We can’t lose it all, anyhow, Stick. We haven’t signed any lease and we can give up the place at a month’s notice. We can return most of our stock, too.”

“Yes, but we’ll be out two months’ rent at the very least, and we’ve sunk about a hundred in rent and advertising and dolling the place up. Pulsifer won’t allow us anything for the paint and varnish and work we put in there, I suppose.”

“No, we’re bound to lose something, of course, if we have to quit,” acknowledged Russell. “But I don’t believe we’ll have to, Stick. Something tells me that things are going to pick up pretty soon.”

“I wish something would tell me so,” said Stick mournfully. “I don’t mind saying, Rus, that I’m plaguey sorry I went into it!”

“Well, don’t let’s give up the ship yet,” replied the other patiently. “Toss me that Latin book over here, will you?”

“What I don’t see,” went on Stick, complying, “is what this fellow Austen gets out of it. I suppose he’s – well, square, eh?”

“Of course he is,” answered Russell indignantly.

“Well, don’t get waxy. How do I know? What’s he going to tend the store for without pay, then?”

“He’s not. He’s on salary.”

“What?” almost shrieked Stick. “You mean we’re going to pay him money?”

Russell nodded, enjoying Stick’s consternation.

“I won’t do it!” cried the other. “No, sir! Why, hang it, Rus, we can’t afford it!”

“Oh, yes, we can,” answered Russell soothingly. “It’s only ten cents a week!”

“Ten cents! Ten cents a – ” Stick stared blankly. “Is he crazy? What’s he want ten cents for? Why doesn’t he do it for nothing?”

“Well, he told me that he wanted to be a wage-earner,” explained Russell gravely.

Stick viewed him suspiciously. “It’s mighty funny,” he grunted. “The whole business is mighty funny. You and Austen are up to something, I’ll bet. All right, but just let me tell you that I’m not paying out my money to him!”

“You don’t mind five cents a week, do you?” asked Russell, grinning.

“No, I’ll pay five cents, all right, but I won’t pay a penny more. I’ve lost enough already in the fool business!” And Stick pulled a book to him savagely and intimated that he was through with the subject.

Russell found not only the hockey and basket ball captains in Number 4 Lykes Hall the next evening, but Cal Grainger. These, with Stanley, Jimmy and Russell, quite filled the room. Afterwards, Russell learned from Jimmy that Cal’s appearance was unsolicited and unexpected. Jimmy managed to convey the impression that Russell was a frequent caller, and was aided in the mild deception by Stanley, who had been admitted to the conspiracy. Russell was aware of the slightly puzzled inspections of the others, but appeared not to be. Bob Coolidge, the hockey team captain, was a tall, slim-bodied senior with a nice smile and a queer way of stuttering when he got the least bit excited. Sid Greenwood was small in comparison, with sharp black eyes, rebellious dark hair and a quick manner of speech and movement. Russell knew them both by sight, just as he knew Cal Grainger, but had never been introduced to them before to-night. He found a seat on a corner of Stanley’s bed after the introductions had been performed and helped himself to the caramels that Stanley passed. The talk was concerned with the criminality of the Athletic Committee, and Coolidge stuttered amusingly as he thumped the edge of the window-seat.

“A l-lot of Miss N-N-Nancies,” he declared earnestly. “You’d think we were j-just kids, the way they c-c-coddle us! Gosh! Why, look at Kenly! They g-g-got a twelve-game sc-sc-sc-sc – ”

“Schedule,” prompted Cal kindly.

“ – Hedule,” went on Coolidge, batting his eyes wildly. “And all we c-c-can get is s-seven games, with a p-p-possibility of eight if we c-c-can p-p-persuade Oak Grove to play here! What kind of a sc-sc – ”

“You can’t say it, Bob,” interposed Greenwood. “Don’t try. We know what you mean. Also, son, we agree with you that the committee is a bunch of old women and that Peghorn is the worst of the lot. I hope he gets his bonnet-strings all knotted up! You can’t – ”

“Oh, Peg isn’t to blame,” said Jimmy. “He’s no worse than the rest. What we need here is a student council or something to talk turkey to those antediluvian birds. How many games do you fellows get away, Sid?”

“Four,” replied the basket ball leader scornfully.

“Well, that’s one more than we get,” said Jimmy.

“Sure, but it’s different – ”

“Taking a football team around’s not at all the same,” broke in Cal. “You have to have thirty or more fellows and half a dozen coaches and trainers and nurses – ”

“Quite different,” agreed Coolidge, eagerly. “We take ten or eleven f-f-fellows, and it d-d-doesn’t c-cost us anything to speak of, and we get home early – ”

“Having lost the game,” interpolated Cal, unkindly.

“Sh-sh-shut up! S-s-same with the b-b-basket ball outfit, too. S-s-seven or eight men and n-no expense – ”

Russell lost the rest, for just there, under cover of the conversation, Stanley addressed him. “I hear you’re on the second football team, Emerson,” he said.

“I’m going out to-morrow,” answered Russell.

“Yes, Jimmy was telling me. I guess Steve Gaston’s going to work up a rip-snorting outfit, if what I hear is right. Great fellow, Steve. Hard luck, his not being able to play this year. What’s your position?”

“I played end last year. Gaston wants me to try for it again.”

“How’s the store getting along? Doing pretty well?”

CHAPTER XI
FAIR PROMISES

Russell was spared an answer, for just then Jimmy appealed to him. “That’s right, isn’t it, Rus? If it wasn’t for football these fellows would be prying up asphalt or laying sewer pipes, wouldn’t they? We have to earn money to keep their old hockey teams and basket ball teams going. Yes, and pay for the crew and the baseball nine, too!”

“Not by a long shot,” exclaimed Cal. “Leave the Nine out of it, Jimmy. We’ve paid our own way for many a season, old scout!”

“Pooh! Made expenses, maybe, but you generally have to come a-borrowing from the old sock every spring.”

“Well, we pay it back, son.”

“You fellows have to have too many bats and gloves and fancy fixings,” continued Jimmy. “And you wear too good clothes, too. I’ll bet it costs you a fortune to outfit every spring, and – ”

“Listen to him!” exploded Cal. “Great Guns, what does it cost to run a football team?”

“That’s different,” laughed Jimmy. “A football team’s worth while, Cal. Besides, when it comes to that, those uniforms you fellows wear cost more than a football suit, I’ll bet.”

“Rot!”

“Well, what do they cost? Come on, now. Let’s hear.”

“I don’t know, you idiot. We get ’em by the bunch. Maybe eight dollars, maybe nine.”

“Can you beat that?” Jimmy appealed to the company. “Captain of the Nine and doesn’t know what his uniforms cost him!”

“That’s not my business, you chump. That’s up to the managers. I’ve got enough to look after – ”

“Well, here’s a fellow can tell us.” Jimmy turned to Russell. “What do those uniforms cost, Rus, per uniform? You ought to know.”

Russell smiled and shook his head. “I’m afraid I don’t. You can pay almost any price for a three-piece uniform, from six dollars up to twelve. It depends on how many you buy, of course, and on quality, too.”

“Are you an authority on the subject, Emerson?” asked Greenwood.

Russell shook his head. “No, not at all,” he answered.

“You’re an awful bluffer, Jimmy,” laughed Cal.

“Not a bit,” denied Jimmy stoutly. “Rus sells uniforms and he ought to know the prices of ’em better than we do. It’s his busi – ”

“Oh!” exclaimed Cal. “You’re the Emerson who has the store on West street! Of course! I missed that. Yes, you must know something about baseball togs. Football togs, too, eh? Well, tell us, then, which outfit costs the most, Emerson.”

“Football,” answered Russell, smiling. “There’s more wool. Football togs have to be better because they get harder use.”

“There you are!” exclaimed Cal, in triumph. Russell noted that Coolidge and Greenwood were observing him with new interest.

“I still maintain,” said Jimmy, with great dignity, “that one of the suits you fellows wear costs more than my football outfit. I got my jersey for nothing, from a chap who was leaving school – ”

“It looks it,” breathed Coolidge.

“That’s not the point,” said Cal. “Every one knows you’re such a miser you wouldn’t buy anything. We were discussing new uniforms, and Emerson says himself – ”

“Say, Emerson, what’s a hockey shirt w-w-worth?” asked Bob Coolidge.

“I can’t say. We haven’t stocked any yet. I’ll find out for you, though, if you want me to.”

Coolidge shook his head. “Thanks, no, it doesn’t matter. I just wondered.”

“Bet you Rus can sell you shirts and whole outfits, too, for that matter, less than you paid for them last year,” announced Jimmy. “You fellows always get stuck when you send to New York.”

“It’s not my funeral,” said Greenwood, with a shrug. “Let the manager worry.”

Coolidge, however, seemed impressed. “I don’t know about that, B-B-Bob,” he said earnestly. “We’d ought to get th-th-things as cheap as p-p-p-possible.”

“You ought, but you don’t,” jeered Jimmy. “You pay any price you’re asked, and then go broke before the end of the season and have to dig into the old Ath. Com. stocking. Say, why don’t you give Emerson a chance this year? Let him bid on the stuff. Might as well hand the profit to one of our own crowd as send it on to some guy you don’t know in New York. That applies to you, too, Cal.”

Cal pursed his lips. “Why, we usually buy a goodish lot, Jimmy; new uniforms all through, bats, balls, a raft of stuff; I’m afraid Emerson couldn’t handle our business.”

“Why couldn’t he?” demanded Jimmy. “Of course he could, you chump! Besides, the uniforms would fit a blamed sight better than they did last year if he took the fellows’ measurements. This thing of sending the size of your waist and the number collar you wear and expecting to get a decently fitting suit gets my goat! And as for your bats and all the other lumber you have to have to play your absurd game, why, Emerson could sell you those better and cheaper than the New York folks, I’ll bet. Besides, you could see what you were getting, which is something you don’t do now.”

“Well, I’m not throwing off on Emerson,” replied Cal, throwing a kindly glance toward that youth, “but, unless I’m mistaken, Jimmy, they tried getting their outfits here in town several years ago and it didn’t work. If I were – ”

“Course it didn’t work,” interrupted Jimmy scornfully. “They went to Crocker’s. Every fellow knows that Crocker’s stuff is punk. I mean his sporting goods. Maybe he keeps good nails and – ”

“I bought a fielder’s glove there last spring,” began Stanley eagerly. But Cal groaned and Jimmy threatened his roommate with the empty candy box.

“I oughtn’t to have introduced the subject,” continued Jimmy sadly. “I might have known Stan would try to tell about his old glove – ”

“‘Old’ is right,” muttered Stanley gloomily.

“I th-th-think Jimmy’s right,” declared Coolidge. “No reason why we sh-sh-shouldn’t pat-pat-pat – ”

“Stop talking Irish, Bob,” said Greenwood. “Are you going to have basket ball stuff, Emerson?”

“Yes, we’ll have a pretty complete line by the first of December, or a little before. I’d like to have you come in and let me show you, Greenwood. We’re agent here for the Proctor and Farnham Company, and their basket balls are certainly corkers.”

“Never heard of them,” said Sid Greenwood unenthusiastically. “We’ve always used – ”

“He’s got the other makes, too,” assured Jimmy. “But if those P. and F. folks make as good a basket ball as they do a football, I advise you to tie to them. I’ll bet even you could shoot a basket with one of those balls, Sid!”

Greenwood grinned. “I’d surely like to see one of them,” he said. “I’ll drop around some time, Emerson, and have a talk. Of course, it’s the manager’s place to do the buying, but I dare say I could get him to consider your stuff. There’s no special reason, so far as I can see, for sending to New York for things if we can get them just as good in town.”

“Say,” said Stanley, after a long silence, “why not start a Home Consumption League, if that’s what they’re called? We fellows represent four of the school sports, and here’s Emerson and his pal trying to make a little coin out of a store in the village that sells just the stuff we buy. Let’s see if we can’t – can’t head some trade his way. What do you say? It took pluck to start that store, I guess, and we all like pluck. Seems to me he deserves to win out. And he can’t fail to if he gets the school trade. Of course, there wouldn’t be any favoritism about it. He’d have to make as good prices as New York, and sell as good stuff, but I dare say he could do it, eh, Emerson?”

Thus appealed to, Russell nodded, smiling rather seriously. “I’m quite sure we can supply just as good stuff, including uniforms, as can be bought in New York, and I think we can sell a little cheaper. How much cheaper I don’t know now, but enough to be worth considering, I’d say. Besides that, there’d be no express to pay, for I’d deliver the goods right to you.”

“S-s-sounds reasonable,” declared Coolidge.

“And,” continued Russell, “I don’t need to tell you fellows that if we had the job of outfitting some of the teams we’d be certain of making a go of that business. We don’t ask any favors, or expect any, but I guess we can prove that we can sell just as high quality goods and just as cheaply as any New York house can. We’d be mighty glad of a chance, anyway.”

“F-f-fair enough,” exclaimed Coolidge. “Far as I’m c-c-concerned – ”

“Look here, Jimmy,” said Cal, prodding that youth to attention with his shoe, “did you get us here to – to work this scheme for Emerson?”

“Get you here!” replied Jimmy indignantly. “Why, you poor fish, who asked you around, anyway?”

“Well, Bob and Sid, then. I know you didn’t say anything to me about it. But I suspect – ”

“Go on and suspect,” said Jimmy, virtuously. “I had no idea that you were coming here this evening. If you don’t believe that – ”

“You asked me, though,” said Greenwood, grinning.

“M-m-me, too,” said Coolidge. “Not that I m-m-mind, because – ”

“Oh, well, I don’t mind fessing up,” Jimmy broke in, “now that you fellows have taken the bait. I did ask Sid and Bob – Rus, too, of course with the notion of getting something started. Your arrival, Cal, was as unforeseen as – er – pleasing. There’s nothing to apologize for. Rus is a good sort and needs to make a success of that store over there. We can help him. So let’s do it. Any objections?”

“Of course not,” said Cal, laughing. “I’ll do what I can to steer some business to him. I don’t make any promises, for our management have been buying in New York for some time and aren’t likely to make a change. Still, I’ll do my best.”

“We don’t buy much new stuff,” said Sid Greenwood, “but I guess I can promise Emerson that he shall have what trade there is.”

“Thanks,” murmured Russell. He was finding the situation just a bit embarrassing in spite of the evident good-will of the fellows.

“And that g-g-goes for me, too,” announced Coolidge earnestly. “I’ll see Nagle to-morrow and b-b-bully him into g-g-giving you a ch-ch-ch – ”

“Spoken like a man, Bob!” said Jimmy warmly. “Your speech is halting, but the spirit that prompts your words – ”

“Go to th-th-thunder!” grunted Coolidge.

“The Home Market Club is organized,” announced Stanley, yawning.

“It was a Home Consumption League awhile back,” objected Greenwood. “But never mind. The motto is: Patronize Home Industries! Emerson, I hope your place will do well and make you a rich man; as rich as Jimmy!”

“And m-m-more generous,” supplemented Coolidge. “A f-f-fellow who offers one box of c-c-caramels to a mob like this is a p-p-p – ”

“Introducing Mr. Robert Coolidge, gentlemen, with his famous imitation of a flivver working on one cylinder. Gentlemen, Mr. Coolidge!” And Jimmy clapped loudly.

“ – p-p-p-piker!” ended Coolidge triumphantly.

Whereupon the assemblage broke up, greatly aided by a tussle between Jimmy and the hockey captain. Russell left with the others, parting with Cal at the stairs and with the others outside, since both Greenwood and Coolidge lived in Haylow. “Glad to have met you, Emerson,” said the basket ball leader affably. “I’m coming into your place some day soon and see what you’ve got there. Good night.”

A somewhat unintelligible utterance from Coolidge followed and Russell went his way. Of course, reason told him, nothing might come of those fair promises, but he couldn’t help feeling elated and encouraged, and even when, reaching Number 27 Upton, he unfolded the tale of the astounding success of the evening to Stick and was met with gloomy pessimism his elation was not much subdued. Stick was like that, he reflected, and climbed into bed to lie awake a long while in the darkness and vision rosy dreams. His last conscious reflection ere he finally fell asleep was that Jimmy Austen was certainly a corking chap!