Struggling Upward: Luke Larkin's Luck

COLEMAN ACTS SUSPICIOUSLY

After dinner, Coleman suggested a game of billiards, but as this was a game with which Luke was not familiar, he declined the invitation, but went into the billiard-room and watched a game between his new acquaintance and a stranger.  Coleman proved to be a very good player, and won the game.  After the first game Coleman called for drinks, and invited Luke to join them.

“Thank you,” answered Luke, “but I never drink.”

“Oh, I forgot; you’re a good boy,” said Coleman.  “Well, I’m no Puritan.  Whisky straight for me.”

Luke was not in the least troubled by the sneer conveyed in Coleman’s words.  He was not altogether entitled to credit for refusing to drink, having not the slightest taste for strong drink of any kind.

About half-past seven Coleman put up his cue, saying:  “That’ll do for me.  Now, Luke, suppose we take a walk.”

Luke was quite ready, not having seen anything of Chicago as yet.  They strolled out, and walked for an hour.  Coleman, to do him justice, proved an excellent guide, and pointed out whatever they passed which was likely to interest his young companion.  But at last he seemed to be tired.

“It’s only half-past eight,” he said, referring to his watch.  “I’ll drop into some theater.  It is the best way to finish up the evening.”

“Then I’ll go back to the hotel,” said Luke.  “I feel tired, and mean to go to bed early.”

“You’d better spend an hour or two in the theater with me.”

“No, I believe not.  I prefer a good night’s rest.”

“Do you mind my leaving you?”

“Not at all.”

“Can you find your way back to the hotel alone?”

“If you’ll direct me, I think I can find it.”

The direction was given, and Coleman was turning off, when, as if it had just occurred to him, he said:  “By the way, can you lend me a five?  I’ve nothing less than a fifty-dollar bill with me, and I don’t want to break that.”

Luke congratulated himself now that he had left the greater part of his money at the hotel.

“I can let you have a dollar,” he said.

Coleman shrugged his shoulders, but answered:  “All right; let me have the one.”

Luke did so, and felt now that he had more than repaid the fifty cents his companion had paid for hack fare.  Though Coleman had professed to have nothing less than fifty, Luke knew that he had changed a five-dollar bill at the hotel in paying for the drinks, and must have over four dollars with him in small bills and change.

“Why, then,” thought he, “did Coleman want to borrow five dollars of me?”

If Luke had known more of the world he would have understood that it was only one of the tricks to which men like Coleman resort to obtain a loan, or rather a gift, from an unsuspecting acquaintance.

“I suppose I shall not see my money back,” thought Luke.  “Well, it will be the last that he will get out of me.”

He was already becoming tired of his companion, and doubted whether he would not find the acquaintance an expensive one.  He was sorry that they were to share the same room.  However, it was for one night only, and to-morrow he was quite resolved to part company.

Shortly after nine o’clock Luke went to bed, and being fatigued with his long journey, was soon asleep.  He was still sleeping at twelve o’clock, when Coleman came home.

Coleman came up to his bed and watched him attentively.

“The kid’s asleep,” he soliloquized.  “He’s one of the good Sunday-school boys.  I can imagine how shocked he would be if he knew that, instead of being a traveler for H. B. Claflin, I have been living by my wits for the last half-dozen years.  He seems to be half asleep.  I think I can venture to explore a little.”

He took Luke’s trousers from the chair on which he had laid them, and thrust his fingers into the pockets, but brought forth only a penknife and a few pennies.

“He keeps his money somewhere else, it seems,” said Coleman.

Next he turned to the vest, and from the inside vest pocket drew out Luke’s modest pocketbook.

“Oh, here we have it,” thought Coleman, with a smile.  “Cunning boy; he thought nobody would think of looking in his vest pocket.  Well, let us see how much he has got.”

He opened the pocketbook, and frowned with disappointment when he discovered only a two-dollar bill.

“What does it mean?  Surely he hasn’t come to Chicago with only this paltry sum!” exclaimed Coleman.  “He must be more cunning than I thought.”

He looked in the coat pockets, the shoes, and even the socks of his young companion, but found nothing, except the silver watch, which Luke had left in one of his vest pockets.

“Confound the boy!  He’s foiled me this time!” muttered Coleman.  “Shall I take the watch?  No; it might expose me, and I could not raise much on it at the pawnbroker’s.  He must have left his money with the clerk downstairs.  He wouldn’t think of it himself, but probably he was advised to do so before he left home.  I’ll get up early, and see if I can’t get in ahead of my young friend.”

Coleman did not venture to take the two-dollar bill, as that would have induced suspicion on the part of Luke, and would have interfered with his intention of securing the much larger sum of money, which, as he concluded rightly, was in the safe in the office.

He undressed and got into bed, but not without observation.  As he was bending over Luke’s clothes, examining them, our hero’s eyes suddenly opened, and he saw what was going on.  It flashed upon him at once what kind of a companion he had fallen in with, but he had the wisdom and self-control to close his eyes again immediately.  He reflected that there was not much that Coleman could take, and if he took the watch he resolved to charge him openly with it.  To make a disturbance there and then might be dangerous, as Coleman, who was much stronger than he, might ill-treat and abuse him, without his being able to offer any effectual resistance.