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Page 40
"I intend to," said Bart. "I will get Darry Haven to come down here. He
knows the office routine. In the meantime, we had better not say much
about the burglary."
"Are you going on a hunt for Lem Wacker?"
"I am."
Bart went first to the Haven home. He found Darry Haven chopping wood,
told him of the burglary, and asked him to get down to the express
office as soon as he could.
"If you don't come back by nine o'clock, I will arrange to stay all
day," promised Darry.
Then Bart went to the house where Lem Wacker lived. It was
characteristic of its proprietor--ricketty, disorderly, the yard unkept
and grown over with weeds.
Smoke was coming out of the chimney. Someone was evidently astir
within, but the shades were down, and Bart stole around to the rear.
The shed doors were open, and the wagon gone and the horse's stall
vacant.
Bart went to the back door of the house and knocked, and in a few
minutes it was opened by a thin-faced, slatternly-looking woman.
Bart knew who she was, and she apparently knew him, though they had
never spoken together before. The woman's face looked interested, and
then worried.
"Good morning, Mrs. Wacker," said Bart, courteously lifting his cap.
"Could I see Mr. Wacker for a moment?"
"He isn't at home."
"Oh! went away early? I suppose, though, he will be back soon."
"No, he hasn't been home all night," responded the woman in a dreary,
listless tone. "You work at the railroad, don't you? Have they sent for
Lem? He said he was expecting a job there--we need it bad enough!"
She glanced dejectedly about the wretched kitchen as she spoke, and Bart
felt truly sorry for her.
"I have no word of any work," announced Bart, "but I wish to see Mr.
Wacker very much on private business." When did he leave home?
"Last night at ten o'clock."
"With his horse and wagon?"
"Why, yes," admitted the woman, with a sudden, wondering glance at Bart.
"How did you know that?"
"I noticed the wagon wasn't in the shed."
"Oh, he sold it--and the horse."
"When, Mrs. Wacker?"
"Last night some men came here, two of them, about nine o'clock. They
talked a long time in the sitting room, and then Lem went out and
hitched up. He came into the kitchen before he went away, and told me he
had a chance to sell the rig, and was going to do it, and had to go down
to the Sharp Corner to treat the men and close the bargain."
"I see," murmured Bart. "Who were the men, Mrs. Wacker?"
"I don't know. One of them was here with Lem about two weeks ago, but I
don't know his name, or where he lives. He don't belong in
Pleasantville. Oh, dear!" she concluded, with a sigh of deep depression,
"I wish Lem would get back on the road in a steady job, instead of
scheming at this thing and that. He'll land us all in the poorhouse
yet, for he spends all he gets down at the Corner."
Bart backed down the steps, feeling secretly that Lem Wacker would have
a hard time disproving a connection with the burglary.
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