The Dream Merchants Read Online Free PDF Page B

told him. “He sleeps in back of the place and you can get him out.”
    “I have,” the drayman replied, “but there’s no answer.”
    “Wait a minute,” said Peter, reaching under his counter for a key; “I’ll let you in.”
    The drayman followed him into the street. Peter knocked at the door. There was no answer. He looked through the window, but couldn’t see anything. He put the key in the lock and turned it. The door opened and they stepped in. Peter went directly to the back room. The door was closed. Peter knocked at it softly. No reply. He opened the door and looked in. Johnny wasn’t there. He turned to the drayman.
    “I guess you might as well bring it in,” he said; “Johnny’s probably gone out for a while.”
    Peter went out into the street while the drayman unloaded the machine. Curiously he looked at it; it was something he had never seen before. “What is it?” he asked.
    “A moving-picture machine,” the drayman answered. “It throws pictures on a screen and they move.”
    Peter shook his head. “What will they think of next?” he wondered aloud. “Do you think it really works?”
    The drayman grunted. “Yeah, I seen ’em in New York.”
    When the machine was in the shop, Peter signed the receipt for it, locked the door, and promptly forgot about it until half past three, when Doris came home from school.
    “Daddy, why isn’t Uncle Johnny open yet?”
    He looked down at her, puzzled. He had already forgotten about the morning. “I don’t know,” he said slowly. Together they walked out into the street and looked at the penny arcade.
    He peered in the window. There was no sign of movement inside. The crate delivered that morning still lay where the drayman had placed it. He turned to Doris. “Run upstairs and get Mamma to come down and stay in the store for a minute.”
    He stood there in the street waiting until Esther came down. “Johnny hasn’t opened up yet,” he told her. “Stay in the store while I look in his place.”
    After he had opened the door he walked slowly to the back room. This time he entered the room and found the note on the floor. He picked it up and read it. Slowly he went back into his own store and handed the note to Esther.
    She read it and looked at him questioningly. “He’s gone?”
    There was a hurt sort of look in his eyes. He didn’t seem to hear her question. “I feel like it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have let him take the place.”
    She looked at him understandingly. She, too, had grown fond of Johnny. “You couldn’t help it, Peter. You tried to stop him.”
    He took the note back from her and read it again. “The kid didn’t have to run off like that,” he said. “He could have told me.”
    “I guess he was a little ashamed,” Esther said.
    Peter shook his head. “I still can’t understand it. We were his friends.”
    Suddenly Doris, who was standing near them listening solemnly to what they were saying, began to cry. Her parents turned to look at her.
    “Isn’t Uncle Johnny ever coming back?” she wailed.
    Peter picked her up. “Sure he is,” he told her. “He says in the note he’s coming back to take you on all the carnival rides.”
    Doris stopped crying and looked at her father. Her eyes grew big and round. “Honest?”
    “Honest,” Peter answered, looking at his wife over the child’s head.

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    The stranger waited quietly until Peter had finished waiting on the customer before he went over to him. “Is Johnny Edge around?” he asked.
    Peter looked at him curiously. He didn’t look like one of the creditors Johnny had mentioned in his note; Peter knew most of them. “Not at the moment,” he replied. “Maybe I can help. I’m Peter Kessler. I own the building.”
    The stranger held out his hand and smiled. “I’m Joe Turner of Graphic Pictures Company. I came up to show Johnny how to operate the moving-picture machine that was delivered yesterday.”
    Peter took his hand and shook it. “Glad to know