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Will Somers,

THE BOY DETECTIVE.

BY CHARLES MORRIS.

CHAPTER I.
LOOKING FOR WORK.

Table of Contents

“Got any opening in these diggin’s for a feller of my size and good looks?”

The speaker was a boy of some sixteen years of age, a well-built, athletic lad, the sinewy development of his limbs showing through more than one rent in his well-worn clothes.

His claim to good looks was indisputable. A bright black eye gave character to a face of classical outline, straggling curls of dark hair hanging low over his olive-hued cheeks and brow, while his nose and mouth had all the fine curves of the Grecian type.

“What do you want?” asked the gentleman addressed, in a curt tone.

“Well, I ain’t partik’lar,” drawled the boy. “I want a job. Most anything will do. Say cashier, or head clerk.”

The merchant twisted himself around in his chair and looked at the speaker. The latter bore his sharp look unabashed, standing in an erect, easy attitude.

“Suppose I don’t want a cashier?”

“Maybe then you’d give me a job to make fires and run errands.”

“Who told you I wanted a boy?”

“A counter-jumper outside there. I axed him if there was room in this row for a smart young man, and he said he guessed you wanted a partner. So I jest stepped back to see if I wouldn’t suit.”

A frown came upon the merchant’s brow as he heard of this impudent action of one of his clerks.

“Who told you this?” he sharply asked.

“Now look ye here, mister,” said the boy, impressively; “that’s not my lay. I don’t tell tales out of school. I wouldn’t blow on a cat if I caught her stealing a mouse in another man’s kitchen.”

“Get out of here then. I am busy and don’t want to be bothered.”

“See here now,” said the boy, leisurely seating himself in a chair. “You’re not sayin’ nothing about that job. You’ve got a dozen men out there in the store, and I don’t see a boy in the shanty. Now you can’t run a place like this without a wide-awake boy, and I’m jest the feller you want.”

“You have impudence enough to run it yourself,” said the merchant, looking more closely at his importunate visitor.

“Wouldn’t be afeard to try,” said the boy, saucily, putting to his lips a half-smoked cigar which he had all this time held in his hand, and taking a long whiff. “I’ve a notion I could make dry-goods spin amazing. Jest hand me the reins and I bet I put her through at two-forty.”

The merchant laid aside the papers which he had been examining. He pushed back his chair from the table and faced his visitor.

He was a hale, handsome man of some fifty years of age, somewhat imperious in manner, but with a strong sense of humor in his face. He seemed to think that he had met an original character.

“What is your name?” asked the merchant.

“Will Somers.”

“Where do you live?”

“In this here big town of Philadelphia, but in a little street that I s’pose you never heered the name of. I make myself at home anywhere, though.”

“So it seems,” said the merchant, glancing at the handsome appointments of his private office, and then at the ragged dress of the boy.

“It’s only my coat and pants that’s torn,” said the latter, with an air of pride. “I’m all right inside, I bet there’s not a coon in these diggin’s can jump further, run faster, or lift more than me. And I never seen the day yet I was afeard of work! Now how about that job, mister?”

“Leonard,” said the merchant.

“Mr. Leonard, I mean. I’ve been a-waiting to get holt of the north end of your name.”

The merchant looked closely at his precocious visitor, who, to the age of a boy, added the self-assertion and experience of a grown man. The latter leaned back with easy assurance in his chair, and seemed indeed “at home.”

“What have you been used to doing?” asked Mr. Leonard.

“What ain’t I been used to would be a bit more like it,” said Will, resting his two elbows on the table. “Blackin’ boots, and sellin’ papers, and holdin’ hosses has been my big holts, but I’ve dipped into ’most everything else ’cept preaching.”

“You have been a little vagabond, I suppose, all your life, and know as much of the world as men ought to at twenty-five.”

“If there’s a feller inside of ten miles of here that says I ever done anything mean, I can lick that feller; that’s me!” cried Will, indignantly.

“Do you know Philadelphia well?”

“Does a cat know milk? Bet I do. Could navigate it with my eyes shet.”

“Are your parents living?”

“Dunno ’bout my dad,” said Will. “’Spect I’m an orphan. Me and sis was drapped in this here town when we was like young kittens. A big white house, t’other side the Schuylkill, was our head-quarters. Dad sloped. Never heered of him since.”

“The poor-house, eh?” said Mr. Leonard. “You have a sister?”

“Yes. She’s slipped, too. Was took out when I was a baby. Never see’d her since. Hope the girl’s sound. Know I’ve had mighty hard hoein’.”

There was a touch of feeling in Will’s voice which he sought to hide by greater recklessness of manner. Evidently he had a secret yearning for his lost sister.

Mr. Leonard was silent for several minutes before again speaking. He seemed to be debating something within himself.

“So you want to learn something of business?” he at length said.

“You’ve hit that nail square on the head,” said Will, with energy. “I’m gettin’ too big to shove the brush, or handle the extras. What’s more, I’m not goin’ to be a poor critter all my life. I want a bizz that’s got money in it. I’ve sot my eye on a brown-stone shanty up Broad street. If it’s for sale ten years from now I’m in the market.”

Mr. Leonard laughed slightly at the boy’s tone of confidence.

“Fortunes ain’t made as quickly as you fancy, my lad,” he said.

“If I don’t hang my hat up in that shanty, you can count me out,” said Will.

“The saucy young rascal has the making of a business man in him,” said Mr. Leonard, to himself. “I would much rather have a boy that aimed high than one that aimed low. He is a handsome lad, too, and if better dressed would be quite presentable. I have half a notion to try him, with all his impudence. He is a perfect specimen of the street Arab, but he seems quick and intelligent.”

“How about that job?” asked Will, impatiently. “I’m bound to strike one, somewhere, afore night. I’ve give you the refusal. The man that gets me makes a ten-strike, and no braggin’.”

“If I should give you employment could I depend on you to do what you were told?”

“What I was told?” said Will, rising impulsively to his feet. “I wouldn’t give a smashed cent for the feller who couldn’t do more than he was told.”

“That would never do,” replied Mr. Leonard. “I want a boy to do just as he is told.”

“And what chance is there for genius, then, if a feller can’t spread a little?” asked Will, earnestly. “The boy that only does what he’s told won’t never get to Congress.”

“And they who act beyond their instructions sometimes get to the State’s prison, my boy. If I give you a position you must learn to never take a step without orders.”

“I can try,” said Will, with a comical leer, “but it’ll go mighty ag’in’ the grain.”

Their conversation was interrupted at this point by the entrance of a person into the office.

He seemed to be one of Mr. Leonard’s employes, and was a tall, well built man, but dressed with a foppish vanity that at once attracted the boy’s attention.

He looked with surprise at the merchant’s strange visitor, a look of disdain coming upon his face, as he drew somewhat back, as if in fear of contamination. Will glanced at him from head to foot, with a steady, impudent stare.

“The Everhart is in,” he said. “The Danton shipment of silks on board. I have just received notice.”

“That is good news, Wilson,” replied Mr. Leonard. “The market is just ready for them. See to the custom-house charges at once. We must have them in store as soon as possible.”

“I will attend to it,” he said with a somewhat pompous air.

With another look of supercilious wonder at Will he left the room.

“Who’s that cove?” asked the latter.

“That is Mr. Augustus Wilson, my principal bookkeeper.”

“He is a hoss, he is,” said Will, with a contemptuous puff. “A man of his size dressed like a peacock, and biting off his words like a school-girl. I bet he’s a dose.”

“If I should give you employment, Will, you must learn to curb your tongue, and not be so insolent to the men in the store. They would not stand impudence from a boy.”

“I’ll get along with them. Don’t you be afeard,” said Will, with a look of confidence on his handsome face. “I’ve got along with folks all my life, and never been kicked yet. But I’m doubtful if I won’t be callin’ that cove Gus. He’s a gay feller to Mister, he is.”

“You will not stay here long, my lad, if you do. I warn you of that. He is my principal employe, and must be treated with respect. Understand me. Impudence will not serve.”

“All right, Mr. Leonard. But I know I’ll have a fight every time I go to say Mister. Gus will be coming up. When am I to take hold?”

“Come round this hour to-morrow and I will let you know my decision,” said Mr. Leonard, turning again to his papers.

“That won’t gee,” said Will, positively. “If you want me you’d best say so and be done with it. I’m bound to fetch work to-day.”

“Very well,” said the merchant, impatiently. “I will give you a trial. Now don’t bother me any further.”

“If you’d said that half an hour ago I wouldn’t bothered you so long,” said Will, saucily, as he strode out of the room.