In this case Rudolph would continue to fling gravel stones, and Abner might wake up. He decided to go to the window and announce his determination.
When Rudolph saw him appear at the window, he called out:
“You must!” exclaimed Rudolph, with a terrible oath. “If you dare to refuse I’ll flay you alive.”
“I can’t do it,” said Tony, pale, but resolute. “You have no right to ask it of me.”
Just then Tony was startled by a voice from the bed:
“Is that your father? What does he want?”
“He wants me to open the door and let him into the house,” Tony confessed reluctantly.
“Ho, ho!” said Abner. “Well, we’ll go down and let him in.”
“Call from the window that you will be down directly.”
“You must, or I shall think you are a thief, too.”
Thus constrained, Tony called out that he would come down at once.
“I thought you’d think better of it,” muttered Rudolph. “Hurry down, and waste no time.”
Five minutes later Abner and Tony crept downstairs, the former armed with a tough oak stick.
Unsuspicious of danger, Rudolph took a position on the doorstep. He was incensed with Tony for having given him so much unnecessary trouble, and he was resolved to give the boy a lesson.
It was quite dark in the shadow of the house, and when the door opened, Rudolph, supposing, of course, it was Tony who had opened it, seized the person, whom he saw but dimly, by the arm, exclaiming, venomously, as he tried to shake him:
“I’ll teach you to keep me waiting, you young rascal!”
He was not long in finding out his mistake.
Abner was considerably larger and more muscular than the tramp, and he returned the compliment by shaking off Rudolph’s grasp and seizing him in his own viselike grip.
“You’ll teach me, will you, you villain!” retorted Abner. “I’ll teach you to come here like a thief!”
“Let go!” exclaimed the tramp, as he felt himself shaken roughly.
“Not till I’ve given you a good drubbing,” returned Abner, and he began to use his cudgel with effect on the back and shoulders of the tramp. “You’ve come to the wrong house, you have.”
Rudolph ground his teeth with ineffectual rage. He lamented that he had not a knife or pistol with him, but he had made so sure of easy entrance into the house, and no resistance, that he had not prepared himself. As to brute force, he was no match for Abner.