Golden Days for Boys and Girls | Page 9

Larry was
silenced. "If he stays more than a day or two, and they want to know
more about it we'll see what can be done. Now hurry along, dear, and
don't worry."
She reached up her lips and kissed him--for he was much the taller--and
then he hurried back to the shop with a heavy heart.
As he entered the yard, he noticed a knot of the workmen near the
entrance, holding what appeared to be a very secret conference.
CHAPTER III.
Larry in a Quandary.
What lent the air of secrecy to the conference of the workmen was the
fact that they suddenly dispersed with significant winks and nods as
Larry approached.
Another suspicious circumstance was the fact that all, or nearly all,
were hands who had been employed in the works only a few months.
Early in the previous spring fifty or sixty of the Tioga Iron Company's
hands had gone out on a strike, and were promptly discharged, and a
new gang that appeared in town rather opportunely, as it seemed, were
hired to take their places.
The most of those who were talking together so secretly were members
of this gang; and quite prominent among them was Steve Croly.
Joe Cuttle was firing up, the red glare from the glowing furnaces
lighting up his homely face.
"What were those men talking about out by the entrance just now?"
Larry asked, as Joe looked up.

"What men, lad?"
And the single eye was expressionless as it met the questioning glance
of the young engineer.
"Steve Croly was one; most of them were the new hands."
"He might be telling of them how he coom oot of here when A toald
him to goo," said the fireman, with his hideous grin.
"Not very likely, Joe," Larry replied, as he passed on into the
engine-room.
The boy was troubled and mystified now from a new cause.
Joe Cuttle was one of the new men, and, although he had been
uniformly faithful, Larry was sure that he was standing in the doorway
of the fire-room when he first came inside the gates, and that Joe must
have seen those who were only a few yards distant conversing so
mysteriously.
If he saw them, why did he try to evade the fact?
It was this more than any other circumstance that made Larry uneasy.
He did not think the difficulty bore any relation to his encounter with
Steve Croly in the morning, for of course Joe would not try to withhold
any knowledge of that affair.
Not until late in the afternoon did the superintendent visit the
engine-room.
He was a short, brisk man, with small, alert eyes that had a faculty of
seeing more in one minute than most men could take in in half an hour.
His face was dark almost to swarthiness and his cheeks and chin were
smoothly shaven.
He popped his head into the engine-room and called out:
"Hi, there, Kendall! What's the word to-day? Eh, so it's the boy! Well,

come here."
Larry came forward promptly; he knew this brisk gentleman liked him,
and, but for the mysterious trouble at home, he would have rather seen
him than not.
"Your father under the weather to-day, Larry?" was his first question,
while his quick eye noted that the polished floor of the engine-room
had been freshly washed and that the engine itself was doing its
ponderous work with its accustomed silence. Even his ear would have
detected a wrong note in the click and whir of the mechanism, though
he would not have known how to repair the difficulty.
"No," said Larry, in his slow manner. "Father was called away this
morning. I don't think he had time to send you any notice."
"So he sent you, which is the next best thing."
"Yes, sir, thank you."
"I didn't know but he was here till I just looked in. So it appears that
you have kept the machinery running. By-the-way," and Mr. Gardner
stepped up the ascent from the boiler-room and closed the door
between, "does that one-eyed Joe stick to his post?"
The superintendent pursed his lips half humorously as he asked the
question, but Larry felt sure that there was a serious purpose behind his
words.
"Yes, sir. He was here before I was this morning."
"And does he mind your orders just the same as he does when your
father is here?"
"He has so far, sir."
"That is right. Only you know some men don't fancy having a boy put
in as boss over them; and he is one of the new hands, and I didn't know
but he was cranky. Some of them are."

Mr. Gardner pursed his smooth-shaven lips again and was gone.
The moment the door closed after him, Larry wished