CHAPTER XI

READJUSTING THEIR FINANCES

"Police! Police!" yelled a voice on the outer edge of the circle.

"Police!" echoed the crowd, running in all directions, for these foreigners held the officers of the law in wholesome awe. They had had experience with the uniformed police on other occasions.

Kalinski did not run, for the very good reason that he could not. Bob was following him up too closely. Neither did Steve Rush nor Ignatz Brodsky attempt to run away. It had been Ignatz's voice that had called out the warning. There were no police in sight, but the boy, with quick wit, had cried out in order to save Steve from the wrath of the mob.

Rush, as he shot a keen glance at the grinning face of Ignatz, quickly comprehended.

"That's enough, Bob. Let him go. You are even with him. Come on now--stop it!"

"All right, in a min--minute----" thump!

"That's for the boy Ignatz, and"--thump--"that for Rush, and"----Bob uttered a grunt as he launched a terrific blow at his adversary, "that's for me!"

The blow lifted Kalinski off his feet, laying him flat on his back in the gutter.

"Back off!" commanded Steve, in a voice of authority. "You have done your duty as you saw it, and I guess a little more."

"Liar! Liar!" shrieked the Polish boy, hopping about the fallen man, waving his arms, almost beside himself with unholy joy.

"Take this boy away!" commanded Rush, as he bent over and assisted Kalinski to his feet. "I'm sorry, Kalinski, but I guess you got what you deserved. Bob, how did this thing start?"

"In the first place Kalinski was fighting with Ignatz----"

"He--he started it, the----" interrupted Kalinski.

"Don't say anything you will be sorry for," interjected Steve.

"After he had knocked Brodsky down he began kicking the boy, and with the entire approval of the crowd," added Jarvis. "Wouldn't you have sailed into him if you had been in my place?"

"I should have been a coward if I had not. And now, Kalinski, I have a few words to say to you. You have used us about as shabbily as one person could use another. We are even now; you have got what you deserve, but hereafter keep away from us. Don't you dare speak to either of us. Try any tricks and it will be the worse for you. Now get out of here!"

Steve gave the Pole a shove, Kalinski hurrying away as fast as his weakened legs would carry him, the fellow uttering threats and shaking his fists as he went.

"We will go home now," announced Steve. "You come with us, Ignatz," he added, taking an arm of the Polish boy. "I am sorry this thing happened, for I had hoped we should be able to keep out of further trouble. We will get a bad name if we don't stop having so many rows."

"But how are we going to help it?" protested Bob. "I can't stand around and see a boy abused by a big brute like Kalinski, without taking a hand."

"You did right, but I am sorry it occurred; that's all."

Reaching their boarding place, Rush took Bob and Ignatz to his room. He looked Jarvis over from head to feet. The bandage about the latter's head was now stained a dark red, where the fists of the pit boss had pummeled him, while the burns on the lad's hands, that had been healed over, were now raw and painful. Rush quickly bathed and redressed his companion's wounds, then turned his attention to Brodsky. The latter had received some pretty hard knocks, and was also in need of treatment, which Steve gave him at once.

None of them had any thought for supper, which, in fact, had long since been finished in the dining room of the boarding house. Rush looked over the Pole with keen eyes.

"You have been fighting before to-night. What for?" he demanded.

"Kalinski, he liar; Foley liar--all liars!"

"Yes, I know that. Is that why you were fighting Kalinski?"

Ignatz nodded.

"You have been fighting him to avenge Bob and myself, have you?"

"Yes; I fight him."

"And you thought you could whip that big brute?"

"I lick him yet."

"No; you let him alone. He has been properly punished to-night. After this keep away from him, or I will take you in hand myself. What will your mother say when she hears of this?"

"You tell her?"

"Certainly not, but she will hear of it, and I'll wager that she will give you a worse trouncing than did Kalinski. I got a job for us to-day, Bob."

"What's that?"

"I got a job."

"What is it?"

Rush told him. Jarvis looked at his companion a moment in silence, then burst out laughing.

"Fifty cents a day? Well, I must say we're getting up in the world. How do you suppose we are going to live?"

"I have been thinking of that. In fact I saw the necessity of readjusting our finances before we lost our jobs in the mills."

"I should say so," agreed Jarvis.

"We have been getting six dollars a week in the mills here, and we are paying five apiece for our board. If we take the new job we shall be getting only three dollars a week and paying out five."

"We'll have to make an assignment then," grinned Bob.

"I know a better way."

"What?"

"Get a new boarding place, where we shall be able to live within our means or thereabouts."

"I'd hate to live in the boarding house that would come within our new means," grumbled Jarvis. "This one is about the limit. It strikes me that the best way to make money for ourselves would be to start a boarding house."

"We are not in that line of business," answered Steve shortly. "Ignatz, do you know of a clean, cheap place where we can get board and room?"

"Clean and cheap," Bob repeated. "They don't make 'em. High-priced and dirty is the rule."

Jarvis laughed loudly.

"Me know place," nodded Brodsky.

"Good, I thought you would. Where is it?"

"You come by my house."

"What's that? Your house?"

Ignatz nodded.

"Why, your mother would not take us. She has a large family, and she would have no time."

"Come by my house. I fix it."

"What do you think of that, Bob?"

"It strikes me, Steve."

"I am afraid your mother will not listen to it, but I am sure it would please us very much if she were to take us."

"Come, I make her."

"No, we won't do that. If she is willing and can make us a price within our means, of course we will go."

Ignatz had risen and was waiting for them to go with him.

"Will you come, Bob?"

"Sure I will. Maybe I'll meet Kalinski on the way," grinned Jarvis.

The three boys started off for the Brodskys. Mrs. Brodsky welcomed them, for she liked these two open-faced young fellows for whom her son held such an affection. He talked of them most of the time when he was at home. Ignatz was full of his subject to the bursting point.

"My friends come live by us, Mother," he said finally.

"What you say?"

"Steve and Bob come live by us."

Mrs. Brodsky opened her eyes.

"So?"

"Yes."

"When?"

"Now, to-morrow."

"It is this way, Mrs. Brodsky; we have to find a new boarding place," Steve explained. "We were asking Ignatz if he knew of a place, and he said he thought you might be willing to take us. We shall not be much trouble to you, as we don't throw things about in our rooms. We can sleep in one bed and we will make that up if you do not have the time to do so."

"So?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Mrs. Brodsky was rather dazed. She never had taken boarders before, and she hardly knew what to say. She looked from the now eager face of Ignatz to the expectant ones of the Iron Boys.

"So?" she murmured.

"Yes, ma'am."

"They come by us to-morrow," urged Ignatz.

"How about it, Mrs. Brodsky?"

She nodded slowly.

"Thank you very much. Now, what will you charge us?"

"How much you give?"

"Whatever you think is right."

After reflection, Mrs. Brodsky said she thought about two dollars a week would be right. If that was too much she would charge them less.

"No; that is too cheap," said Rush. "We will give you two dollars and a half, gladly."

Mrs. Brodsky smiled benignly.

"Fine boys!" she said.

Ignatz was very happy. He began talking joyously, until sternly reproved by his mother. It was arranged that the boys were to move into their new quarters early on the following morning. The room assigned to them was small, but the perfection of neatness. There was a clean, white spread on the bed, a wash stand with a clean towel laid over it, though, as Bob observed, the pitcher and wash bowl had seen better days. There was no carpet on the floor, but this they did not mind. After making final arrangements and paying over one week's board, the Iron Boys took their departure, very well content with what had been accomplished.

"We could just as well have gotten it for two," said Jarvis after they had left the house.

"Yes, but I am not quite so mean as that. That extra fifty cents apiece means a lot to us, and I shall be glad to be there. We shall have a happy day to-morrow, and perhaps we will take that long-deferred picnic trip."