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| committer | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-01-22 04:40:03 -0800 |
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diff --git a/old/67448-h/67448-h.htm b/old/67448-h/67448-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 824af0a..0000000 --- a/old/67448-h/67448-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5792 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - Fame and Fortune Weekly No, 2, Born to Good Luck; or The Boy Who Succeeded, by A Self-Made Man -—A Project Gutenberg eBook - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2,h3,h4 { - text-align: center; - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -.h2sub { text-align: center; } -.h3sub { text-align: center; } - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } - -hr.fulldouble {width: 100%; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 0%; - margin-top: 0.5em; - margin-bottom: 0.5em; - border: none; - border-top-style: double; - border-top-width: 0.25em; -} - -hr.fulldotted {width: 100%; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 0%; - margin-top: 1em; - margin-bottom: 1em; - border-style: none; - border-top-style: dotted; - border-top-width: 2px; -} - -hr.r15 {width: 15%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 42.5%; margin-right: 42.5%;} -hr.r25 {width: 25%; margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0.2em; margin-left: 37.5%; margin-right: 37.5%;} - -ul { - list-style-type: none; /* Remove bullets */ - padding: 0; /* Remove padding */ - margin: 0; /* Remove margins */ -} - -li { - text-indent: -2em; - padding-left: 2em; -} - -div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} -h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} - -table { - margin-left: auto; - margin-right: auto; -} -table.autotable { border-collapse: collapse; } -table.autotable td { padding: 4px; } - -.alignleft { - float: left; -} -.alignright { - float: right; - } - -.tdl {text-align: left;} -.tdlh {text-align: left; - text-indent: -3em; /* hanging */ - padding-left: 3em; -} -.tdr {text-align: right;} -.tdc {text-align: center;} - -.blockquot { - margin-left: 5%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - -.bb {border-bottom: thin solid;} -.bt {border-top: thin solid;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} - -.allsmcap {font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;} - -.gesperrt -{ - letter-spacing: 0.2em; - margin-right: -0.2em; -} - -em.gesperrt -{ - font-style: normal; -} - -/* Images */ - -img { - max-width: 100%; - height: auto; -} - -img.w100 {width: 100%;} - -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; - page-break-inside: avoid; - max-width: 100%; -} - -.sans-serif { - font-family: monospace; -} - -.monospace { - font-family: monospace; -} - -/* Transcriber's notes */ -.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; - color: black; - font-size:smaller; - padding:0.5em; - margin-bottom:5em; - font-family:sans-serif, serif; } - -.illowp100 {width: 100%;} -.x-ebookmaker .illowp100 {width: 100%;} - - </style> - </head> -<body> -<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Fame and Fortune Weekly, No. 2, October 13, 1905, by Self-Made Man</p> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Fame and Fortune Weekly, No. 2, October 13, 1905</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:1em;'>Born to Good Luck; or The Boy Who Succeeded.</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Self-Made Man</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: February 20, 2022 [eBook #67448]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: David Edwards, SF2001, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (Northern Illinois University Digital Library)</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAME AND FORTUNE WEEKLY, NO. 2, OCTOBER 13, 1905 ***</div> - - <div class="figcenter illowp100" id="i_cover" style="max-width: 30em;"> - <img class="w100" src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Cover" /> - </div> - -<h1>Fame and Fortune Weekly</h1> - -<p class="center">STORIES OF BOYS WHO MAKE MONEY</p> - -<p class="center"><i>Issued Weekly—By Subscription $2.50 per year. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1905, in the office of the Librarian -of Congress, Washington, D. C., by Frank Tousey, Publisher, 24 Union Square, New York.</i></p> - -<table class="bt bb" summary="Volume, Location, Price"> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"><b>No. 2</b> </td> -<td class="tdc"> NEW YORK, OCTOBER 13, 1905. </td> -<td class="tdr"> <b>Price 5 Cents</b></td> -</tr> -</table> - -<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="gesperrt">BORN TO GOOD LUCK;</span><br /> -<small>OR</small><br /> -The Boy Who Succeeded.</h2> -<hr class="r15" /> -<p class="center">By A SELF-MADE MAN.</p> -<hr class="r15" /> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="h2sub">THE SCRAP AT COBHAM’S CORNER.</p> - -<p>“See here, Dick Armstrong; when you’ve taken that -water into the house, I want you to clean these. Do you -understand?”</p> - -<p>The speaker, a sallow-complexioned, overgrown boy of -seventeen, threw a pair of mud-bespattered boots at the feet -of a sun-burned, healthy-looking lad about a year his junior, -while a grin of satisfied malice wrinkled his not over-pleasant -features as he thrust his hands into his pockets and -started to walk away.</p> - -<p>“Who are you talking to, Luke Maslin?” answered Dick, -hotly, not relishing the contemptuous manner in which he -had been addressed.</p> - -<p>“Why, you, of course,” replied Luke, with a sneer, pausing -about a yard away. “You’re dad’s boy-of-all-work, -aren’t you?”</p> - -<p>Unfortunately for Dick this remark expressed the exact -truth.</p> - -<p>He was Silas Maslin’s boy-of-all-work, and his lot was -not an enviable one.</p> - -<p>His clothes were bad, his food scarce, his education -neglected, and having arrived at the age of sixteen years -he eagerly longed to cut loose from his uncongenial surroundings -and make his own way in the world.</p> - -<p>If Dick felt obliged to submit to Mr. Maslin’s tyrannical -treatment, that was no reason, he contended, why he should -allow his son Luke to bully him also.</p> - -<p>Although he had never done anything to deserve Luke -Maslin’s ill will and often went out of his way to do him -a good turn, Luke never lost a chance to make life miserable -for Dick.</p> - -<p>In fact, all friendly advances on Armstrong’s part, instead -of winning his favor, seemed rather to impress him -with the idea that Dick was afraid of him, which was far -from the truth.</p> - -<p>On this particular occasion Dick was not in the best of -humor, for Mr. Maslin had just been savagely abusing -him because he had taken a longer time than the old man -had considered necessary to fetch certain supplies for the -store from Slocum, a large town about ten miles distant. -So when Luke flung the last remark at him he angrily -retorted:</p> - -<p>“Well, I’m not yours, at any rate.”</p> - -<p>“What do you mean by that?” demanded Luke, in a -disagreeable tone.</p> - -<p>“Just what I said!” answered Dick, defiantly.</p> - -<p>“Do you mean to say that you don’t intend to do anything -I ask you to do?”</p> - -<p>“That depends.”</p> - -<p>“Depends on what?”</p> - -<p>Luke advanced a step nearer the other, looking decidedly -ugly.</p> - -<p>“How you ask me,” replied Dick, setting down the pail -to relieve his arm.</p> - -<p>“I s’pose you’d like me to take my hat off to you, Dick -Armstrong, and say please, and all that,” Luke returned, -scowling darkly. “It strikes me you’re putting on too -many frills for a charity boy.”</p> - -<p>Charity boy!</p> - -<p>This slur, which Dick felt to be utterly undeserved, -stung him more than anything Luke could have said.</p> - -<p>He turned pale with sudden rage, and his temper burst -forth with a violence all the more terrible because held -so long in check.</p> - -<p>Snatching up the pail of water as though it were a -feather, he dashed its contents over his tormentor, drenching -him from head to foot.</p> - -<p>If the heavens had fallen, Luke Maslin couldn’t have -been more astonished.</p> - -<p>That Dick Armstrong, the despised factotum of the -establishment, would dare to resent any aggression on his -part was something Luke had not dreamed of.</p> - -<p>Heretofore when he chose to bully his father’s drudge -the boy had submitted with the best grace he could.</p> - -<p>Now Dick actually had the temerity not only to resist, -but to assume the offensive.</p> - -<p>After the first sputtering gasp of surprise, Luke recovered -himself and sprang at Dick with a howl of the fury -that fairly blazed from his eyes.</p> - -<p>Realizing that he was in for trouble, Armstrong prepared -to defend himself to the best of his ability.</p> - -<p>Although his opponent had the advantage of him in -height and was furious enough to be dangerous, Dick -was not troubled with any misgivings as to the result of -a clash between them.</p> - -<p>He had every confidence in his own powers, for he was -compactly built, was unusually strong for his years, and -moreover, being very angry, was reckless of the consequences.</p> - -<p>Whether it was that Maslin was naturally clever with -his fists or Dick was awkward or slow in putting himself -into a posture of defence, certain it is Luke’s right arm -went through his opponent’s guard and Dick received a -stinging blow on the side of his head that staggered him -for a moment.</p> - -<p>A second whack, this time on the chest, thoroughly -aroused Dick and, seeing his chance, he struck out with -all the force he was capable of and caught Luke full on -the nose.</p> - -<p>His head went back with a jerk, he slipped on the grass, -and was down in a moment, the blood flowing freely from -his injured organ.</p> - -<p>Contrary to Dick’s expectations, Luke made no effort -to get up and resume the battle.</p> - -<p>It began to look as though that one blow had knocked -all the fight out of him.</p> - -<p>Whatever satisfaction his opponent felt at such a decisive -result was dissipated in a moment by an unexpected -whack on the ear from behind, and turning to confront -this new danger he found himself face to face with Silas -Maslin, who was in a towering rage.</p> - -<p>“You young rascal, how dare you strike my son!” he -exclaimed, furiously.</p> - -<p>“He struck me first,” Dick answered doggedly, rubbing -his ear, for the slap had been no gentle one.</p> - -<p>“What’s that? Didn’t I see you fling that bucket of -water over him, you little villain?”</p> - -<p>“I did that because he insulted me,” replied the boy, with -spirit.</p> - -<p>“Don’t you dare talk back to me in that fashion, or -I’ll flay you within an inch of your life! Go into the -store at once!”</p> - -<p>Silas Maslin raised his foot as though it was his intention -to boot the boy.</p> - -<p>He did not do so, however, and it was well for him that -he did not.</p> - -<p>That was an indignity Dick would not have submitted to -from any person, not even from Silas Maslin, much as -he held him in awe.</p> - -<p>The boy was glad to avail himself of the chance of getting -beyond his tyrant’s reach, and was presently drawing -a quart of molasses for one of the customers of the establishment.</p> - -<p>Mr. Maslin kept a small general store at Cobham’s -Corner, on the outskirts of the village of Walkhill, in the -State of New York.</p> - -<p>The building stood within a few yards of the Erie Canal, -facing the country road, which at this point crossed the -narrow waterway by means of a stout wooden bridge.</p> - -<p>The houses that constituted the village were much scattered, -and owing to the heavy growth of trees not one of -them could be seen from the store; but by standing on the -centre of the bridge the short, stumpy steeple of the small, -wooden church could just be made out looming up through -the topmost branches in the near distance.</p> - -<p>The post-office was located at the store, and the farmers -for miles around came here for their mail and to replenish -their supplies from Mr. Maslin’s stock of goods, which -consisted of about everything needed by the little community, -from a needle to a cultivator.</p> - -<p>Mr. Maslin’s household consisted of his wife, a sour-faced -woman on the shady side of forty; his son Luke; John -Huskins, a hired man, who attended to the main part of -the work in the fields—for Silas Maslin had some forty -acres under cultivation—and Dick Armstrong, who helped -in the store when necessary, did the chores, and assisted -Huskins.</p> - -<p>Between the two boys, Luke had all the advantages of -the situation.</p> - -<p>He went to school as long as school kept, took part -in all the village sports, visited his schoolmates, attended -all the social gatherings he felt disposed to join, and -carried his head pretty high generally.</p> - -<p>But for all that he wasn’t at all popular.</p> - -<p>Dick, on the other hand, came in for the short end of -everything.</p> - -<p>He attended school when Silas Maslin chose to let him -do so, under which circumstances his attendance was decidedly -irregular.</p> - -<p>For the larger part of his time from daylight to dark -he was kept on the hustle, as Mr. Maslin was never at a -loss to find something for him to do.</p> - -<p>Everybody knew Dick Armstrong, of course.</p> - -<p>He was a good-looking boy, naturally bright, was obliging -and polite to everybody with whom he came in contact, -and consequently was well liked by everybody in the district, -and was an especial favorite with the girls, who when -they came to the store for mail or to purchase something -preferred to have him wait upon them.</p> - -<p>As Luke was ambitious to shine with the fair sex himself, -he resented their partiality for Dick, and as he couldn’t -very well get square with the young ladies, he vented his -ill humor and spite on the object of their attention.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="h2sub">ACCUSED OF THEFT.</p> - -<p>As the customer departed with the jug of molasses, a -lad named Joe Fletcher entered the store.</p> - -<p>“Hello, Dick,” said the newcomer, walking toward the -rear of the place.</p> - -<p>“Hello, Joe,” replied Dick, in a pleased voice, for he -and Joe were chums.</p> - -<p>“I didn’t know whether I should find you in here or -not,” said Joe.</p> - -<p>“Want to see me about anything particular?” asked -Dick, in some surprise.</p> - -<p>“Yes. I’ve come to say good-bye.”</p> - -<p>“What!” exclaimed Dick, his face clouding. “You don’t -mean to say you’re going away?”</p> - -<p>“Yes. I left Boggs for good a couple of hours ago. -He’s a hard, cruel, grasping tyrant—that’s what he is. -You know I threatened to cut loose from him weeks -ago, but somehow I didn’t seem to be able to muster up -the backbone to do it. But it’s all over now. He beat me -black and blue with a whip this morning because one of -the cows broke down the corner of the pasture fence and -got into the truck patch. I think he’d have killed me -only I hit him over the head with the handle of a rake. -Then I got my clothes and ran away.”</p> - -<p>For a moment Dick was silent.</p> - -<p>He felt sad at the thought of losing the best friend he -had in the neighborhood.</p> - -<p>It is true he had only known Joe Fletcher five months, -which was about the length of time Joe had been working -for Farmer Boggs, but a natural sympathy had drawn the -two boys together.</p> - -<p>Both early in life had been thrown upon their own -resources, and both were subservient to hard taskmasters, -though if there was any choice in the matter, Silas Maslin -was perhaps a shade better than Nathan Boggs.</p> - -<p>The latter was notorious throughout the county for the -way he treated his hired help, particularly if that help happened -to be a boy.</p> - -<p>Boggs’ method was to hire a stout boy or an able-bodied, -newly arrived foreigner for a period of six months, with -the understanding that if the hand quit work before the -end of the stipulated term of service he was to forfeit all -his pay.</p> - -<p>The farmer then managed to make things so hard for -his help as the weeks went by that they found the place -simply unendurable and were glad to disappear of a sudden -without making any very serious demand for what was -due them.</p> - -<p>Fletcher had managed to weather the ills that clung -about Boggs’ farm for five months, for he was blessed with -a good temper and much patience, and Nathan, fearing -the boy would last the limit and that he would be obliged -to pay him the sum of $60 for which he had contracted, -adopted a specially rigorous line of conduct toward him, -which culminated that morning with a most inhuman -beating, after which Joe gave up the struggle.</p> - -<p>“Where are you going?” asked Dick, at length.</p> - -<p>“I haven’t decided yet but the canal-boat Minnehaha is -taking on a load of shingles at Norton’s Lock, a few miles -above, and Captain Beasley told me he’d take me down to -New York if I wanted to go.”</p> - -<p>“I wish I were going with you, Joe,” said Dick, wistfully.</p> - -<p>“I wish you were.”</p> - -<p>“I’m sick of this place. They treat me like a dog, and -I won’t stand it much longer. Had a run-in with Luke -a little while ago.”</p> - -<p>“I don’t see that it’s doing you any good to hang on -here,” said Joe. “Maslin hasn’t any claim on you, has -he?”</p> - -<p>“Not a bit; it’s all the other way. He hasn’t paid me -a cent all these years I’ve been working for him. All I’ve -ever got has been the clothes he grudgingly gave me—none -of the best, at that—and my board, and I guess you know -what sort of a table they set here.”</p> - -<p>“I’ve heard enough from you to make me believe it isn’t -much of an improvement on Boggs’ bill of fare—and that’s -about the worst ever!”</p> - -<p>“You never told me how you came to live with the -Maslins,” said Joe, curiously.</p> - -<p>“I didn’t know myself till a couple of months ago.”</p> - -<p>“Is that a fact?” said Joe in surprise.</p> - -<p>“I asked Mr. Maslin and his wife a number of times, but -they never would give me any satisfaction. About two -months ago I was up in the garret one rainy Sunday afternoon, -and I found an old diary in which Mr. Maslin kept -a record of important matters in which he was interested -when we lived up in New Hampshire some twelve years -ago. I’ve a faint recollection myself of the farm he owned -in the neighborhood of a place called Franconia. In this -diary I found a long entry relating to myself.”</p> - -<p>“You must have been surprised,” said Fletcher, who was -listening eagerly.</p> - -<p>“Well, I guess I was. Of course I knew I was no relation -of the Maslins, for they had long since taken care to -impress that fact on me. The diary states that a gentleman -named George Armstrong, whom Mr. Maslin wrote -down as being tall and fine-looking, but with a melancholy -face, as though he was in trouble or had lately been subject -to some misfortune, boarded at the farm with his -little son, Richard, at that time aged five years, for several -months. That one day he received a letter which -Mr. Maslin noticed bore the Boston postmark, and that -its contents disturbed him very much. He immediately -started off without mentioning his destination, leaving the -little boy in Mr. Maslin’s care, with a small sum of money -to pay his board for about the time he expected to be away. -He did not return within the time he set, and from subsequent -entries on the same page it would seem that Mr. -Maslin never saw him again.”</p> - -<p>“It’s a good thing you learned that much about yourself. -I suppose something must have happened to your father -or he would have come back after you,” said Joe.</p> - -<p>“I suppose so,” replied Dick, soberly.</p> - -<p>“What did you do with the diary?”</p> - -<p>“I’ve got it in the box where I keep my clothes.”</p> - -<p>“You’d better hold on to it. Might possibly be of value -to you one of these days.”</p> - -<p>“It has a value for me, as it shows to some extent who -I am,” replied Dick. “Luke called me a charity boy, and -that taunt caused the scrap. I’ve worked like a slave for -the Maslins without pay, but I’ve received any amount of -abuse. Some morning Mr. Maslin will get up and find -me missing.”</p> - -<p>“What’s that you say, you young villain?” yelled the -strident tones of the storekeeper, behind them.</p> - -<p>He had entered the store and approached them unobserved.</p> - -<p>“Don’t you let me catch you tryin’ to light out of here -before I give you leave, or I’ll be the death of you. What -do you mean, anyway, by hangin’ over the counter and -idlin’ your time away when there’s a dozen things you -might be doin’? Go into the kitchen now and peel the -taters for Mrs. Maslin; d’ye hear?” And he seized the -boy roughly by the arm and swung him into the middle of -the store.</p> - -<p>“I’ll try and see you later, Dick, before I go,” said Joe, -holding out his hand to his chum.</p> - -<p>“I don’t think you will, young man,” said Silas Maslin, -significantly. “My help hain’t got no time to waste on -visitors.”</p> - -<p>“I guess he’s got a right to say good-bye to a friend,” -retorted Joe, indignantly.</p> - -<p>“Then he’d better say it right now afore you go,” said -the storekeeper, ungraciously.</p> - -<p>“Well, Dick,” said Joe, bottling up his wrath, for he -realized that Mr. Maslin was master of the situation, “good-bye, -if I don’t see you again.”</p> - -<p>“Good-bye, Joe,” and the two boys clasped hands sadly.</p> - -<p>“I’ll write to you and let you know where I am and -what I’m doing,” said Joe.</p> - -<p>“I hope you will. Be sure I sha’n’t forget you.”</p> - -<p>“And I won’t forget you.”</p> - -<p>And thus the two boys parted, for how long they could -not guess.</p> - -<p>As it proved, however, they were shortly to be reunited -in a somewhat startling way.</p> - -<p>Dick went into the kitchen, where Mrs. Maslin handed -him a tub of potatoes and a knife.</p> - -<p>“Take the jackets off ’em, and see you lose no time ’bout -it nuther,” said the lady of the house sharply.</p> - -<p>Dick made no reply, but seated himself on a stool in a -corner and began his work.</p> - -<p>“You ’most ruined Luke’s new suit of clothes this arternoon,” -snapped Mrs. Maslin. “Ef I wuz Silas I’d take -it out’r your hide. It seems to me my boy can’t ask you -to do the simplest thing for him eny more but you must -fly at him.”</p> - -<p>Dick knew it was useless to enter into any explanation -with her.</p> - -<p>Luke had evidently told the story in his own way, and -whatever he might say now wouldn’t count.</p> - -<p>“Don’t you know it’s your place to do whatever he asks -of you?” asked Mrs. Maslin, shrilly.</p> - -<p>“I’ve never refused to do anything for him when he -asked me civilly,” said Dick.</p> - -<p>“Hoighty toighty!” exclaimed the lady, sarcastically. -“Must my boy bow down before you, you young whipper-snapper? -The idea! Who are you enyway? Ef it hadn’t -been for Silas and me, where’d you been now, you ungrateful -cub? We’ve clothed you and fed you and eddicated -you, and now you turn on us.”</p> - -<p>“I think I’ve worked pretty hard for all I’ve received,” -replied Dick, doggedly.</p> - -<p>“What ef you have? It ain’t more’n you ought to do. -You’ve finished the taters, hev you? Put ’em down, then, -and don’t stare at me in that way. Go out and fetch me -a pail of water.”</p> - -<p>Dick obeyed without a word and then, as the mistress -made no further demand on his services for the moment, -went up to his bare little room just over the kitchen.</p> - -<p>He opened the box where he kept his things and, diving -down into a corner, fished up a small buckskin bag in which -he kept the pennies, dimes, quarters, and several half-dollars -he had been slowly accumulating from odd jobs -he had done for various persons during the last three or -four years.</p> - -<p>He counted his little store slowly over.</p> - -<p>“I’ve a great mind to——”</p> - -<p>He never finished that sentence, for suddenly the door -was thrown open with a bang and Silas Maslin rushed -furiously into the room.</p> - -<p>“You thief! Give me back the money you took from -the store-till this afternoon!”</p> - -<p>“This is not your money,” said Dick, dropping the coins -into the bag and holding it behind him.</p> - -<p>“I’ll see whether you’ll give it to me or not!”</p> - -<p>As Silas Maslin sprang at him Dick thrust the bag into -his pocket and proceeded to defend himself as well as he -could.</p> - -<p>This would not have been an easy job, for Mr. Maslin -was strong and wiry; but chance aided the boy.</p> - -<p>The storekeeper’s foot caught on a rent in the rag-carpet, -he pitched forward and struck his forehead against a corner -of Dick’s box with such force as to cause a nasty wound -that stretched him, stunned, on the floor.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="h2sub">LEAVING HIS HOME.</p> - -<p>At that moment Mrs. Maslin appeared in the doorway -and, perceiving her husband stretched motionless on the -floor with the blood streaming down his face and Dick -Armstrong standing over him in an attitude of defence -with his fists half clenched—for the mishap which had -overtaken Silas Maslin had been so sudden that he stood -quite stupefied with surprise—she conceived the idea that -the boy had struck down her lord and master, perhaps -killed him.</p> - -<p>“Help! Help! Murder!” she screamed loudly, dashing -open the window and making the air ring with her -shill cry.</p> - -<p>Huskins, the hired man, was coming into the yard from -the fields.</p> - -<p>He heard Mrs. Maslin’s frenzied cries, saw her violent -gesticulations as she leaned out of the window, and thinking -the house was on fire, he dropped the implements he -was carrying and ran forward.</p> - -<p>In the meantime Dick had raised Silas Maslin to a sitting -posture and was trying to stanch the blood with a -corner of the coverlet which belonged to his bed, when Mrs. -Maslin turned around and saw what he was doing.</p> - -<p>“Don’t you dare touch him again, you young villain!” -she screamed, suddenly attacking the boy with her bony -fists.</p> - -<p>“What’s the matter with you?” objected Dick, trying -to ward off her blows. “Why don’t you get some water -and try to bring him to? What do you mean by pounding -me in that way?”</p> - -<p>“You ruffian! You murderer! I knowed you was born -to be hanged!” yelled the excited woman, thumping the -boy about the head and arms till he had to retreat out -of her reach to save himself, for he had no idea of striking -back at her.</p> - -<p>Then she grabbed her husband in her sinewy arms and -started to drag him from the room just as Huskins appeared -on the scene and stared in astonishment at what -he saw.</p> - -<p>“Don’t let that boy escape, John!” cried Mrs. Maslin. -“He’s made a murderous attack on Silas, and ef he hasn’t -killed him it’ll be a great wonder.”</p> - -<p>“You don’t mean Dick, ma’am?” exclaimed Huskins, in -evident wonder.</p> - -<p>“I don’t mean nobuddy else,” snapped his mistress, -sharply. “Tie him up so he can’t get away, and then -run for the constable. Lands sake! It’s a wonder we -haven’t all been killed in our beds afore this! I never -knowed he was such a desprit boy.”</p> - -<p>Mrs. Maslin then bore Silas into her own chamber in -the front of the house, and set about bringing him to his -senses.</p> - -<p>“What’s up?” asked Huskins of Dick.</p> - -<p>He had always liked the boy and didn’t know what to -make of the situation.</p> - -<p>“Mr. Maslin came up here and accused me of taking -money out of his till in the store, and when I denied -it he started to seize me, when his foot caught in that -hole in the carpet and he pitched forward, striking his -head against the corner of my box and cutting his forehead -open. The shock must have stunned him. Then -Mrs. Maslin appeared, threw up the window and began -yelling like a crazy person. I tried to do something -for Mr. Maslin, but she attacked me furiously, calling me -a ruffian and a murderer, and I don’t remember what else. -I tell you, John, things are getting altogether too hot for -me here. Between Luke and the rest of them I am having -a dog’s life of it. I might as well get out now as at -any other time.”</p> - -<p>“I shouldn’t blame you if you did. I should, if it was -me,” replied Huskins, who knew what a hard time the boy -had of it and really pitied him.</p> - -<p>“I don’t believe Mr. Maslin has lost any money,” said -Dick, indignantly. “I know I didn’t take any. I’m not -a thief.”</p> - -<p>“Maybe Luke took it,” suggested the hired man, with -a peculiar wink.</p> - -<p>“Luke!” exclaimed Dick in surprise. “What makes you -think he did?”</p> - -<p>“Well, he wanted five dollars mighty bad this morning, -for he tried to borrow it of me. I asked him what he -wanted it for; but he wouldn’t tell me. I guess he wants -to send for something he’s seen advertised in the paper.”</p> - -<p>“How do you know he does?”</p> - -<p>“From something he said to me the other day,” said -Huskins, sagely.</p> - -<p>“If Luke took the money, he’ll deny it, all right. His -father will take his word before mine, and his mother -will back him up as she’s done fifty times before. I’ve got a -few dollars saved up, and as Mr. Maslin has discovered -that fact he won’t rest till he’s got it away from me. I -need that to help me out after I leave here. So I guess -I’d better go before Mr. Maslin gets his hands on it.”</p> - -<p>“You’re right there, Dick. The old man’s fingers are -like pot-hooks—they hold on to everything they fasten to. -Once he gets possession of your money, you’ll never see it -again.”</p> - -<p>“You’d better go down and look out for the store, John, -till Mr. Maslin turns up. I’m going to make a bundle of -my things and start off.”</p> - -<p>“Then you’re really determined to go, Dick?”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” replied the boy, resolutely, “I am. Mr. Maslin -has called me a thief, and that’s the limit with me.”</p> - -<p>“Well, I wish you luck. Let me hear from you some -time. I’d like to know how ye get on,” and the hired man -held out his hand.</p> - -<p>“Thank you, John. I sha’n’t forget you.”</p> - -<p>They shook hands, and Huskins went down stairs.</p> - -<p>Dick closed his room-door and pushed the chest of -drawers against it, as he did not want to be interrupted -or taken at a disadvantage.</p> - -<p>Then he put on his best suit, made a compact bundle of -such articles as he deemed indispensable, put Mr. Maslin’s -old diary into an inside pocket of his jacket, and was -ready to leave the house.</p> - -<p>He was about to remove the chest of drawers when he -heard the unmistakable voice of Silas Maslin mingled with -the shriller tones of Mrs. Maslin, on the landing approaching -his door.</p> - -<p>His retreat by the stairway was evidently cut off.</p> - -<p>What was he to do?</p> - -<p>The door of his room was pushed in an inch or two, -as far as the obstruction would permit.</p> - -<p>“Open the door, you young villain!” exclaimed the voice -of Silas Maslin, whose temper had by no means been improved -by the injury he had received.</p> - -<p>“Push the door in, Silas,” said his wife. “There ain’t -no lock to it.”</p> - -<p>“He’s got somethin’ against it,” replied her husband, -impatiently.</p> - -<p>“Mebbe it’s the chest of drawers or the bed.”</p> - -<p>“It ain’t the bed,” said the storekeeper, and he flung -himself suddenly against the panel with a force sufficient -to push the obstruction back a foot at least.</p> - -<p>Through this opening he thrust his head and saw Dick -Armstrong beating a hasty retreat by way of the window.</p> - -<p>“He’s gettin’ out of the winder. You stay here, Maria, -and I’ll try to catch him below.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Maslin, whose head was bound up with a towel, -was a pretty lively man for his sixty odd years, and the -way he got down the stairway and out into the yard would -have put many a younger man to shame.</p> - -<p>But the boy was as active as a young monkey, and guessed -pretty closely what his persecutor’s tactics would be.</p> - -<p>He dropped his bundle into the yard, swung himself out -and alighted nimbly on his feet, and when Mr. Maslin -dashed out to cut him off Dick was passing through the -gate into the road.</p> - -<p>“Come back here, you young rascal, or I’ll skin you -alive!” he shouted angrily.</p> - -<p>But the boy had no intention of returning now that he -had crossed the Rubicon at last.</p> - -<p>“I’ll have you took up and put in the calaboose; do you -hear?”</p> - -<p>Dick heard, but the threat had no effect on him.</p> - -<p>He bounded around the corner of the fence and ran -full tilt into another boy, knocking him head over heels.</p> - -<p>The floored youth proved to be Luke Maslin, who was -returning from the village.</p> - -<p>The storekeeper’s son uttered a yell of pain and terror -as he floundered about on the grass.</p> - -<p>Dick had gone down also, his bundle flying out of his -hand a yard away.</p> - -<p>As he picked himself up, a familiar voice exclaimed:</p> - -<p>“Hello! What’s the trouble? Is that you, Dick?”</p> - -<p>“That you, Joe?”</p> - -<p>“Sure it’s me! I was hanging about for a chance to -see you again if I could. What muss have you got in -now?”</p> - -<p>“Come along with me and I’ll tell you about it,” Dick -said as he picked up his bundle.</p> - -<p>Mr. Maslin now hove in sight a few feet away.</p> - -<p>“Now I’ve got you, you pesky little villain!” and he -made a dash at the boy.</p> - -<p>“Run, Joe!”</p> - -<p>Fletcher took the hint and scampered after his chum, -who was flying along the “heel” path of the canal as fast -as he could go.</p> - -<p>In the gathering dusk the storekeeper failed to recognize -his son and heir as the latter lay sprawling in the -path, and as a consequence he stumbled over Luke’s extended -legs and pitched forward, head first, like a stone -from a catapult.</p> - -<p>The momentum he had acquired in his eagerness to -lay hold of Dick now worked greatly to his disadvantage.</p> - -<p>Striking the path, he rolled over and over, clutching -vainly at the grass to stay his progress.</p> - -<p>As the space between the fence and the canal was narrow -at this point, before he realized his predicament he was -carried over the embankment and fell with a splash into -the water.</p> - -<p>“Help!” he yelled, and then his head went under.</p> - -<p>Huskins had been attracted to the spot by the rumpus -and was in time to fish his employer out of the canal; but -by that time Dick Armstrong and his friend Fletcher were -safe from any immediate pursuit.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="h2sub">ON BOARD THE MINNEHAHA.</p> - -<p>“So you aren’t going back any more, then?” said Joe -Fletcher, after Dick had related to him the exciting experience -through which he had passed since the two lads had -parted, apparently for good, in Mr. Maslin’s store, a little -more than an hour before.</p> - -<p>“No,” replied Dick, firmly, “I’m not. I am done with -Silas Maslin for good and all.”</p> - -<p>The boys were resting on a decayed tree-trunk by the -side of the canal.</p> - -<p>It was now almost dark, and both of them, having had -nothing to eat since noon, were hungry.</p> - -<p>“I guess you’ve done the right thing, Dick,” said his -friend. “You aren’t likely to be any worse off than you’ve -been at the Corner.”</p> - -<p>“I’d have pretty hard luck if I was. I’d never amount -to much as long as I stayed with Mr. Maslin. He took -care that I didn’t get much chance to get up in the world. -I wish now I’d more schooling,” said the boy, regretfully.</p> - -<p>“I’ll bet you know more than Luke Maslin, and he’s -gone regularly to the district school. At his age—he’s a -year older than you—he ought to be at the Slocum High -School. I don’t think he cares a lot to study.”</p> - -<p>“Many boys don’t seem to realize what they let get by -them until it is too late,” said Dick. “You and I, Joe, -have got to cut our own way in life without any help from -anybody. I guess you can hold up your end. As for me, -I don’t intend to let any grass grow under my feet from -this on. If you’ve rested enough, we’ll move on to Norton’s. -Perhaps your friend Cap’n Beasley will give us -something to eat. I haven’t had a mouthful since dinner, -and I feel as if I could clean out a pantry.”</p> - -<p>“Same here. Captain Beasley is all right, and so is his -wife. They wouldn’t see anyone, even a tramp, go hungry -if they could help it,” said Joe as the boys resumed their -march. “They’ve a daughter, too, named Florrie. She’s -as pretty as a picture,” and Joe grinned broadly.</p> - -<p>Dick wasn’t particularly interested in pretty girls at that -moment. He was thinking whether Captain Beasley would -consent to take him down to New York along with Joe on -the canal-boat.</p> - -<p>“I guess he will if I pay him something, and I’m willing -to put up what’s fair,” mused the boy.</p> - -<p>Norton’s Lock was about six miles from Cobham’s Corner.</p> - -<p>Dick and Joe reached there at eight o’clock.</p> - -<p>Captain Beasley’s boat was moored against the eastern -bank of the canal, and a few yards away was a good-sized -liquor store, lit up with kerosene lamps, and, judging from -the crowd within, doing a thriving trade.</p> - -<p>There was also an open shed close by, partially filled -with bundles of shingles brought there for shipment from -the mill a mile or so away.</p> - -<p>Dick followed Joe aboard the canal-boat and was introduced -to Captain Beasley and his wife and daughter.</p> - -<p>As soon as Mrs. Beasley found out that the boys were -hungry, she spread a corner of the table in the little cabin -for them, laid out the remains of a joint of cold mutton, -boiled a pot of coffee, and upon this, flanked by a plentiful -supply of bread and butter, the two lads made a very satisfactory -meal.</p> - -<p>Dick offered to pay his way to New York City, but the -good-natured skipper of the Minnehaha wouldn’t hear of it -for a moment.</p> - -<p>“You and Joe here are both of you welcome to go along -with us, and it sha’n’t cost you a cent. All I ask of you -is to turn your hands to an odd job or two, maybe, till we -hitch on behind the tug that takes us down the river.”</p> - -<p>Dick accepted his generous offer with thanks, as Joe had -already done earlier in the day when he brought his meagre -bundle aboard on the strength of the captain’s former invitation.</p> - -<p>“Neither of you lads seems to be encumbered with much -dunnage,” said the skipper, with a humorous glance at the -two attenuated bundles ranged side by side on a shelf and -which contained all they boasted of in the world.</p> - -<p>“We both lit out in such a hurry that we didn’t have -time to pack our trunks,” grinned Joe. “Boggs skinned -me out of sixty dollars; and as for Dick, I believe there -wasn’t anything coming to him, though he put in many a -year of good hard work down at Cobham’s Corner for Silas -Maslin, who runs the store and the village post-office.”</p> - -<p>“I’ve heard of him,” nodded Captain Beasley, recharging -his pipe, “and I’ve heard of you, too, Master Dick, afore -this,” and the skipper looked at the bright, stalwart, young -runaway. “Silas Maslin, I understand, is a hard man to -work for, though I reckon Nathan Boggs can give him a -few points in that line. Both of ’em have wives that folks -say would skin a flea for its fat. From which I judge that -one’s appetite isn’t pampered at either place.”</p> - -<p>“That’s right,” corroborated Dick. “We’ve both been -through the mill and ought to know. I haven’t had such -a good spread as was set before us to-night right here since -I can remember, and I’ve a pretty good recollection.”</p> - -<p>Mrs. Beasley and her daughter looked at one another in -astonishment.</p> - -<p>“Well,” said the captain’s wife, “you sha’n’t neither of -you want for enough to eat as long as you are with us.”</p> - -<p>“What are you going to do when you reach the city?” -asked the captain curiously. “Got any money at all?”</p> - -<p>“I’ve got about sixteen dollars,” replied Dick, and he -told Captain Beasley by what slow and arduous means he -had amassed it.</p> - -<p>“I haven’t a red cent,” admitted Joe, making such a -comical face that Florence Beasley burst out laughing.</p> - -<p>“It’s possible I may start a bank and take Joe in as -cashier,” grinned Dick.</p> - -<p>“Not a bad idea,” smiled the skipper, “so long as it -isn’t a faro bank or something of that sort.”</p> - -<p>“I wouldn’t mind investing my capital in a sand-bank -if I thought I could sell the sand and make a profit,” put -in Dick.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps you would make a good speculator,” said the -captain, thoughtfully.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps I would; but I’ve never tried my hand at it.”</p> - -<p>“A successful speculator should, first of all, have brains, -and then money,” said Captain Beasley, punctuating each -point in the air with the stem of his briar pipe. “I judge -you have the brains——”</p> - -<p>“So have I,” interrupted Joe, with some animation.</p> - -<p>“It was a rather poor speculation you entered into with -Nathan Boggs, wasn’t it?” and the skipper turned to Joe.</p> - -<p>“I don’t call that a speculation; that was a dead skin,” -cried Fletcher stoutly.</p> - -<p>“Well, you made an agreement with him to forfeit your -wages if you quit work before the end of your term of service; -you put yourself at a great disadvantage with such -a man. It was to his interest to make you quit beforehand -if he could.”</p> - -<p>“If I hadn’t quit I guess I’d been carried away in a box, -so I’d have lost anyway.”</p> - -<p>“Well, you speculated on the chance of holding out, and -came in for the short end of the deal.”</p> - -<p>“That was because I didn’t know what I was up against.”</p> - -<p>“Even so; that is a risk that often confronts the speculator. -That’s where brains count.”</p> - -<p>Captain Beasley looked at the clock, laid down his pipe -and intimated it was time to turn in.</p> - -<p>He led the boys to the forward part of the boat, pointed -to a small open scuttle in the deck, and told them they’d -find a mattress and a couple of blankets down there. Then -wishing them good night, he left them to make the best -of their narrow quarters.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="h2sub">IN WHICH SILAS MASLIN FAILS TO RECOVER HIS RUNAWAY.</p> - -<p>In the morning the boat was hauled across to the other -side of the canal, the side on which the towpath ran; a -tandem mule team in charge of a boy who sported the biggest -and most disreputable straw hat Dick had ever seen, -was hitched on, and the boat began to move slowly down -the canal.</p> - -<p>As they approached the bridge at Cobham’s Corner, Dick -got out of sight of the shore.</p> - -<p>He knew there would be trouble if any member of the -Maslin family caught a glimpse of him on board the Minnehaha.</p> - -<p>So he squatted down inside the limited bit of hold in the -eyes of the canal-boat which he and Joe had used for sleeping -quarters, while his chum sat on the combings of the -hatch with his legs swinging down and his gaze fixed on -Cobham’s Corner.</p> - -<p>“I don’t see anybody about,” reported Joe, as the boat -drew near the bridge which crossed the canal at this point -and connected the two sections of the county road.</p> - -<p>Captain Beasley came forward and called on Fletcher -to help detach the tow-line so that the boat could pass -under the bridge.</p> - -<p>While they were doing this, Luke Maslin appeared at -the door of the store.</p> - -<p>His eyes roamed over the canal-boat from stem to stern -and finally fixed themselves on Fletcher, whom he recognized, -having seen and spoken to him many times when -Joe called at the store to get supplies for Nathan Boggs -or to see Dick.</p> - -<p>Suddenly he ran out on the bridge and took his position -just above where the boat had to pass under.</p> - -<p>“Hello, Fletcher!” he shouted.</p> - -<p>“Hello, yourself,” growled Joe, casting a side glance at -him.</p> - -<p>“What are you doing aboard that boat?”</p> - -<p>“Taking a sail.”</p> - -<p>“What for?”</p> - -<p>“For my health,” snorted Joe, as he pitched the end of -the tow-line ashore.</p> - -<p>“Have you left Nathan Boggs?” continued Luke, with -a grin.</p> - -<p>“Better ask him when you see him,” answered the boy, -squatting down with his back to young Maslin, a pretty -good sign that he wanted no further communication with -his questioner.</p> - -<p>But Luke wouldn’t take the hint.</p> - -<p>“Seen anything of Dick Armstrong?” he persisted. -“He’s run away from here with some of my father’s money. -Constable Smock is hunting for him. Father is going to -have him put in the village lock-up.”</p> - -<p>Joe didn’t answer him.</p> - -<p>“Maybe you’ve got him hid away aboard the boat,” -added Luke, suspiciously. “If you have, you’d better give -him up, or it will be the worse for you.”</p> - -<p>As those words passed his lips the forward end of the -canal-boat passed under the bridge, and Luke ran over to -the other side of the structure to meet it as it floated clear.</p> - -<p>Dick easily overheard his young enemy’s remarks from -the spot where he was screened from Luke’s line of observation.</p> - -<p>He forgot, however, to change his position below as the -boat passed under the bridge, not thinking that Luke, by -crossing the planks to the opposite rail, would be able to -obtain a different focus down into his hiding-place if he -was wideawake enough to keep his eyes well employed.</p> - -<p>As this is exactly what Master Maslin did do, the result -was he discovered Dick’s crouching figure in the narrow -hold as soon as the head of the canal-boat shot out into -sight again.</p> - -<p>“I see you down there, Dick Armstrong!” he cried, of a -sudden, triumphantly.</p> - -<p>Then he rushed off to the store to tell his father.</p> - -<p>“I’m afraid it’s all up with me,” said Dick, as he scrambled -out of his hiding-place.</p> - -<p>“Well, I’d like to see them try to take you off this boat -if you don’t want to go,” said Joe, rolling up his sleeves, -while a look of determination came over his freckled features.</p> - -<p>“It won’t do to resist the constable,” warned Dick. “I -won’t have you get into trouble over me.”</p> - -<p>“But the constable isn’t around here now,” put in Joe.</p> - -<p>“They’ll send him word as to my whereabouts, and he’ll -get a rig and cut me off further along down the canal, don’t -you see?”</p> - -<p>“The only thing for me to do now is to leave the boat -before I’m overhauled,” Dick continued. “For if I wait -until Constable Smock comes along and invites me to go -ashore I’ll be deprived of my savings by Mr. Maslin, even -if he doesn’t follow up his threat to put me in jail.”</p> - -<p>“I dare say you’re right, Dick; but you can’t skip yet -a while, for here comes the old man and Luke across the -bridge. They’ll be down on us in a couple of minutes. -You needn’t be afraid that Captain Beasley’ll make you go -ashore to oblige that old rhinoceros. And if he attempts -to board us, he’ll be trespassing, and a douse in the canal -would be the proper thing to cool him off.”</p> - -<p>Captain Beasley was leaning negligently against the forward -end of his cabin, smoking his favorite briar-root pipe -in the autumn sunshine, when Mr. Maslin came running -down the tow-path and hailed him, his son following along -behind.</p> - -<p>“You’ve got a boy on board your boat I want. He’s -runnin’ away from my place yonder, after stealin’ a five-dollar -bill. I want you to put him on shore,” demanded -Silas Maslin, keeping pace with the canal-boat.</p> - -<p>“I’ve got two boys aboard,” said the captain, in an indifferent -tone. “Which one do you refer to?”</p> - -<p>“The one with the new suit of clothes on,” replied the -storekeeper, pointing to Dick. “His name is Armstrong.”</p> - -<p>“All right,” agreed Captain Beasley. “He came on -board of his own accord, and if he’s willing to go ashore -he can go now.”</p> - -<p>“I want you to make him come on shore whether he’s -willin’ or not,” said Silas Maslin, energetically.</p> - -<p>“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” said the skipper, shaking -his head.</p> - -<p>“Why can’t you? You’re captain of that boat, and I -reckon you can do ’bout as you please on board of her. If -he doesn’t come back with me and hand over the money -he took from me, I’m going to have him arrested and put -in the lock-up.”</p> - -<p>Captain Beasley walked forward to where the two boys -were standing, Mr. Maslin hastening his steps to keep -abreast of him.</p> - -<p>“That’s the man you’ve been living with, ain’t it, Armstrong?” -asked Captain Beasley.</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir,” admitted Dick, respectfully.</p> - -<p>“You’ve heard the charge he made against you and his -demand that you leave this boat and go back with him?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir,” replied the boy, beginning to fear that he -was to be given up.</p> - -<p>“Have you any of his money about you?”</p> - -<p>“No, sir; I never took one cent of his money from the -store,” replied the lad, stoutly.</p> - -<p>“Are you willing to go ashore as he wants you to do?”</p> - -<p>“No, sir; I’d rather you’d throw me overboard,” said -Dick, with flashing eyes.</p> - -<p>“You hear what he says,” said the skipper, turning to -the storekeeper.</p> - -<p>“I reckon I ain’t deaf,” replied Mr. Maslin, in a surly -tone.</p> - -<p>“I’m afraid I can’t do anything for you,” said Captain -Beasley, turning on his heel and walking away.</p> - -<p>“Ain’t you going to make him come on shore?” demanded -the storekeeper, angrily.</p> - -<p>“No, sir; I’ve nothing whatever to do with your quarrel -with the boy.”</p> - -<p>“The boy is a thief, and you’re helpin’ him to get away,” -cried Mr. Maslin. “Don’t you know that’s ag’in the law -and that I can make you sweat for it?”</p> - -<p>“He has denied the charge, and as there is no proof -against him his word is as good as yours,” replied the -skipper, resuming his former station against the cabin wall.</p> - -<p>“I’ll have you up before the justice for this,” shouted -Mr. Maslin, coming to a stop and shaking his fist at the -captain of the Minnehaha. “And what’s more, I’ll have -that boy took up by the constable afore you get many miles -further down the canal.”</p> - -<p>After hurling his threats after the receding boat he and -Luke turned about and hurried back the way they came.</p> - -<p>“I guess the storekeeper means to send the constable -after you with a warrant for your arrest, Armstrong,” said -the captain when the two boys ranged up alongside of -him after Mr. Maslin took his departure, “in which case -you’ll have to go along with the officer. Now, if you will -take my advice, young man, you’ll get ashore at Caspar’s, -a mile below here, and make your way by land to Albany, -where we’ll lay up a week or so, as I’ve got to load up there -for New York after discharging what I’ve brought on from -Buffalo and Syracuse. You can leave your bundle aboard—your -friend will look out for it.”</p> - -<p>As the captain’s advice was good, Dick determined to act -on it.</p> - -<p>After receiving explicit directions where to rejoin the -boat at Albany, Dick bade all hands good-bye for the time -being and left the boat at Caspar’s.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="h2sub">HOW DICK RUNS ACROSS A DESERTED FARMHOUSE, AND -WHAT HE FINDS THERE.</p> - -<p>Caspar’s was simply a small roadhouse, situated near a -bridge.</p> - -<p>Dick Armstrong crossed the bridge and struck out across -the country, following the country road.</p> - -<p>He had general directions how to proceed, but expected -to depend on people he might meet along the road to keep -him from going astray.</p> - -<p>The morning was young when he set out, and as he was -in good spirits and accustomed to plenty of exercise, he -walked along at a swinging gait.</p> - -<p>About eleven o’clock he was overtaken by a farm wagon, -the owner of which not only gave him a lift for several -miles on his way, but his dinner also at a neat farmhouse -a short distance back from the turnpike.</p> - -<p>Although the farmer refused payment, Dick insisted on -helping him for an hour about the barn, and when he -finally left to continue his journey the farmer’s wife handed -him a substantial package of eatables which included a -pint bottle of milk.</p> - -<p>About dark Dick reached a junction of two roads.</p> - -<p>It was a lonesome neighborhood, and as nobody was in -sight to direct him which was the better one to take, he -turned into the road leading off to the right.</p> - -<p>He was glancing around for a large stone or a tree-stump -for a seat on which to rest while he ate his supper, when -he spied a light dimly shining through a window a little -distance back from the road.</p> - -<p>“I’ve walked enough for to-day,” he mused. “I’ll see -if I can’t get a bed or a chance to sleep on the hay in -the barn, perhaps, up yonder.”</p> - -<p>The gate opening on the lane leading to the house was -wide open and hanging by one hinge only.</p> - -<p>As Dick approached the dwelling he was impressed by -the air of neglect and desolation which hung about the -place.</p> - -<p>But for the solitary gleam of light which penetrated the -gloom he would have believed the premises to be deserted.</p> - -<p>The boy knocked several times on the weather-seamed -door, but no one answered his summons.</p> - -<p>Finally he decided to turn the handle of the door.</p> - -<p>It yielded to his touch, and he entered a large room that -was quite bare and cheerless from floor to ceiling.</p> - -<p>The dim light from a candle stuck in the neck of a -bottle standing on a dusty mantel shelf showed him the -motionless figure of a man crouching over an old stove, in -which was a fire, at one side of the room.</p> - -<p>“Hello!” Dick exclaimed, by way of introduction.</p> - -<p>Slowly the figure turned its head and presented a face -almost ghostly from its whiteness.</p> - -<p>“What’s the trouble with you?” asked Dick, for he easily -made out that something ailed the man.</p> - -<p>“I’m sick,” was the half moaned reply.</p> - -<p>“Sick,” repeated the boy, looking at him attentively. -“Gee! You do look bad, for a fact. What can I do for -you?”</p> - -<p>“If you would do me a favor, go out to the barn back -of the building. You’ll find my team there. There’s a -couple of blankets in the wagon and a number of gunny-sacks. -Bring them in here so I can make a bed and lie -down,” said the man, slowly and with much difficulty.</p> - -<p>Dick put his bundle of food on the floor and hastened -to do as the stranger had requested.</p> - -<p>He found the team—a pair of stout horses hitched to a -large, covered wagon—just as it had been led into the deserted -and mildewed barn and left standing there.</p> - -<p>With the aid of a match or two, a supply of which Dick -from habit always carried about with him, he climbed into -the wagon and found the things the man wanted.</p> - -<p>The only other articles the boy noticed in the vehicle were -a couple of empty bushel baskets, a sack half filled with -oats, a horse bucket, a long whip and a small wicker hamper.</p> - -<p>Dick carried the bags and blankets into the house and -spread them out so as to form a bed.</p> - -<p>“There,” he said, in his cheery tones, “you can lie down -now. If there’s anything else I can do for you, let me -know.”</p> - -<p>“You’re very kind, my lad,” gratefully replied the man, -who seemed to be about fifty years of age. “You might -get a few sticks for the fire; the night is cold, and I’ll -be glad if you could find me a drink of water anywhere -near by—you’ll find a cup in the hamper in the wagon. -And then, if you’d not feel it was too much trouble to give -those animals a mess of oats which you will find in a bag -in the wagon, you will do all that I would ask of you.”</p> - -<p>“All right,” said Dick, and he cheerfully proceeded to -do what the sick man asked of him.</p> - -<p>He found a tin cup in the hamper, which also contained -a neat sandwich, half of an apple pie, a piece of gingerbread -and two pieces of candle wrapped in a bit of newspaper.</p> - -<p>Dick fortunately turning his steps in the right direction, -found a spring at the back of the barn, and fetched a cupful -of the cold water to the stricken stranger, which he -drank with evident relish.</p> - -<p>The boy then replenished the fire in the stove and returned -to the barn.</p> - -<p>Lighting one of the bits of candle, he took the bucket -and watered the horses.</p> - -<p>Then he released them from their traces, led them into -two of the dusty stalls, and dumping a liberal quantity of -oats into the bins, left them to themselves.</p> - -<p>“Have a drink of milk?” said Dick to the sick man as -he untied his bundle preparatory to eating his supper.</p> - -<p>The stranger thankfully accepted his offer, then turned -on his side and apparently went to sleep.</p> - -<p>Dick had brought in a horse blanket which he had found -folded on the wagon seat, and after he had eaten all he -wanted and put more wood in the grate, curled himself -up near the stove and was presently oblivious to his surroundings.</p> - -<p>He was up before sunrise, as he was accustomed to being -routed out of bed at five o’clock at that season of the year -by Mr. Maslin.</p> - -<p>The morning was chilly, so he started a fire in the stove -for the benefit of the stranger, who seemed to be sleeping -easily.</p> - -<p>After that Dick went to the barn and fed the horses.</p> - -<p>Then, as the sun was beginning to peep above the horizon, -he thought he would take a look around the place, -which seemed to be going to rack and ruin.</p> - -<p>His investigations did not extend very far, for just beyond -the line of broken fence which marked the boundary of -what had probably been the truck patch Dick found an -apple orchard.</p> - -<p>A large number of the trees were not only loaded with -this fruit, but the boy’s experienced eye told him that many -of the trees were of a superior variety.</p> - -<p>The apples on these trees were large, solid, and rosy.</p> - -<p>Dick gathered an armful and carried them to the house. -The strange man was awake, but very weak and not in condition -to get up.</p> - -<p>“You’d better drink the rest of this milk,” said Dick, -offering the tin cup.</p> - -<p>“Thank you, lad. What is your name?” he asked after -drinking it.</p> - -<p>“Dick Armstrong.”</p> - -<p>“Mine is Hiram Bond. You’ve been very kind to me. -I don’t know what I should have done if you hadn’t turned -up. Where do you live?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t live anywhere just at present,” answered the boy, -frankly.</p> - -<p>“How is that?” asked Bond, with some surprise.</p> - -<p>Dick gave him a brief outline of his life, and more particularly -of his recent experiences.</p> - -<p>“You’ve had a hard time of it,” said the man, feebly, -“and I don’t wonder you cut loose from that storekeeper. -I live in Albany, and make a living—not a very good one—with -my team, carrying loads of stuff around the country. -I just moved a family from the city suburbs to Wayback, -some fifteen miles from here, and was on my return when -I was took bad. I’m subject to spells of heart trouble, and -I’m afraid I sha’n’t last long. I don’t feel at all good this -morning. Perhaps I’ll feel better by and by. If you don’t -mind staying with me till the afternoon, I may feel able -to sit up in the wagon, and you can drive me back to the -city. It’ll save you a walk of thirty odd miles.”</p> - -<p>Dick immediately agreed to this proposition, and then -his eyes resting on the pile of rosy apples he had brought -in, an idea struck him.</p> - -<p>“There’s an orchard back of the barn that’s full of this -kind of apples,” he said, showing a couple to Bond. “If -you don’t mind, I could load the wagon with them, and -we could sell them at a good profit in Albany. They’re -only going to waste here, and as your wagon is empty, it’s -a chance for both of us to make a stake.”</p> - -<p>“Do so, my lad, if you think there’s anything in it for -you. I won’t touch a cent of what you may get. I’ll give -you the use of the team for what you’ve done for me -already.”</p> - -<p>Dick was delighted and thanked him heartily.</p> - -<p>“Can you eat anything at all this morning?” he asked -Bond.</p> - -<p>The man shook his head, said he felt tired, turned over, -and tried to go to sleep again.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="h2sub">DICK’S FIRST SPECULATION.</p> - -<p>Dick spent the entire morning gathering apples, making -selection of the best that he shook down or knocked from -the limbs.</p> - -<p>“It’s like picking up money,” he mused as he gathered -them into one of the bushel baskets and then carried them -to the wagon, which he had drawn out into the yard, and -dumped them inside.</p> - -<p>“I wonder how many bushels I can get away with,” he -figured, after a careful estimate of the load he had already -secured. “I believe this wagon will hold close on to forty -bushels, but it’ll be an all-day job to gather that many. -I’m afraid I’ll have to be satisfied with twenty, if we’re -going to leave here early this afternoon. That ought to -give me fifty dollars out of the spec. Gee! That’s better -than working like a slave for Silas Maslin at nothing a -week and skimpy board.”</p> - -<p>Dick looked in on Hiram Bond every little while, but -the man appeared to be sleeping right along.</p> - -<p>Noon came, and the boy began to feel decidedly hungry.</p> - -<p>“I guess I might as well clean up Mr. Bond’s basket,” -he argued. “It isn’t likely he’ll care for any solid food -to-day. I’ll get him some milk at the first house I see -along the road.”</p> - -<p>So Dick ate the sandwich, the piece of gingerbread, and -the remains of the apple pie, topping off with a big drink -of spring water.</p> - -<p>After that he felt very much better and resumed his work -with fresh energy.</p> - -<p>At two o’clock he found Hiram Bond awake, but as -weak as a cat, to use his own expression.</p> - -<p>Clearly the man was in no condition to leave the place -that day.</p> - -<p>“I fear this will finish me,” said Bond, in a weak voice.</p> - -<p>“I’ll take one of the horses and start on down the road -for help,” said Dick, regarding the man with an anxious -eye. “You’ll die at this rate, for you haven’t had any -nourishment but that small cup of milk all day.”</p> - -<p>“Perhaps you had better do so,” acquiesced Bond, feebly. -“I think there’s a farmhouse about five or six miles below -here.”</p> - -<p>“Then I’m off,” said Dick. “I’ll get them to send a -vehicle to remove you from this place—you can’t stay here -another night.”</p> - -<p>Dick mounted one of the animals and started off down -the road, the horse being accustomed to nothing faster than -a gentle trot.</p> - -<p>It was something over an hour before the boy reached a -house.</p> - -<p>Here he told his story, which aroused the practical sympathy -of the farmer, who hitched up a light wagon, collected -such things, including a bag of feed for the horses, -as the occasion seemed to demand, and in company with -Dick started for the deserted homestead.</p> - -<p>The farmer, after talking to Hiram Bond, decided to -convey him to his house.</p> - -<p>Wrapping him up in the blankets, he and Dick started -him to the wagon and made him as comfortable as possible -for the ride.</p> - -<p>“I’ll bring the team on later,” said the boy.</p> - -<p>Farmer Haywood nodded and then drove off, Dick returning -to the work of gathering more apples.</p> - -<p>By dark he had turned into the wagon thirty bushels by -actual count.</p> - -<p>“I can carry another ten bushels just as well as not,” -he said to himself. “I will stay here all night and finish -the job in the morning. I’ll be twenty-five dollars more -to the good by hanging on. I guess I can stand a diet of -apples and water for a few hours, at that rate. It won’t be -the first time I’ve gone to sleep or to work half fed. If -a fellow expects to get along in the world he’s got to take -things as they come, and say nothing.”</p> - -<p>Next morning about eleven o’clock Dick walked his -team, with his load of some forty bushels of harvest apples, -into Farmer Haywood’s yard.</p> - -<p>“How is Mr. Bond?” was his first question of Mrs. -Haywood, who greeted him at the door.</p> - -<p>“Very poorly, indeed. We had to send for a doctor. -I’m afraid he isn’t going to recover.”</p> - -<p>Dick was very sorry to learn this news.</p> - -<p>After he had hauled the wagon into a corner of the yard, -and put the horses into the barn, the lad had something -to eat and was then taken up to see Hiram Bond, who had -been accommodated with a spare room and was the object -of considerate attention.</p> - -<p>“I’m glad to see you again, my lad,” said Mr. Bond, in -a very weak voice, regarding Dick with an earnest expression. -“I should like you to stay with me while I last; -I will make it all right with you.”</p> - -<p>“I shall be glad to stay with you till I can get you back -to your home in Albany,” replied Dick, cheerfully. “I’m -sure you’ll be all right in a day or two.”</p> - -<p>Hiram Bond shook his head.</p> - -<p>“I shall never be all right again. This isn’t the first -attack of heart failure I’ve had, but I feel it will be the -last. I’ve lost all my strength. My insides seem to have -collapsed entirely. It is a strange, indescribable sensation -that warns me to prepare for my last journey. Boy, it is -useless to disguise the truth—I am going to die. The -doctor didn’t say so, but I read the fact in his face. He -saw that he could do nothing for me. Well, it matters little -whether I die now or a little later on. I have no kith or -kin to whom my death would be a blow. I am entirely -alone in the world. At one time it was different, and I -was well off; but now my team and the few dollars in my -pocket-book represent all my earthly possessions. My boy, -I have been thinking of you while I have been stretched on -my back. You are beginning life quite as friendless, I -might say, as I am leaving it. But you appear to have -energy and the capacity for hard work. I have little doubt -but you will succeed. You have been kind to me and I -wish I was in a position to return the favor substantially. -What little I can do for you to help you along I will do. -You shall have my team to use or dispose of as you may -think best. The money I possess will scarcely more than -recompense Farmer Haywood for his trouble and pay the -expenses of my funeral. I should like to be buried in -some quiet spot—the nearest village burying-ground. If -you will see that this is done, it is all I ask of you.”</p> - -<p>Dick was exceedingly shocked as he listened to the words -of the dying man—for that Hiram Bond really was passing -away, slowly but surely, there didn’t seem to be any doubt.</p> - -<p>When he finished, he asked the boy to fetch Farmer Haywood.</p> - -<p>He requested the farmer to execute a bill of sale, which -he signed with difficulty, transferring his wagon and team -of horses to Dick.</p> - -<p>After that was done he seemed to feel better.</p> - -<p>There was little change in his condition until after midnight, -when he gradually grew weaker and weaker, and -finally died just before daylight.</p> - -<p>Although Dick had met him so strangely only a couple of -days before, his death affected the boy greatly for the time -being.</p> - -<p>He felt as though he had lost a good friend that he had -known for many years.</p> - -<p>A simple funeral from Farmer Haywood’s to the nearby -churchyard wound up the life history of Hiram Bond, and -the day following Dick Armstrong drove his suddenly acquired -property into the streets of Albany.</p> - -<p>He had an idea that by visiting the various hotels in the -city he might dispose of his apples to good advantage and -with more profit than if he did business with a commission -merchant.</p> - -<p>His plan was successful, largely because the stewards of -the places he visited happened to be running out of the -fruit and because his apples were uncommonly fine and -quite scarce in the market.</p> - -<p>As a consequence he obtained an average of about $2.60 -a bushel for them, and when he put his team up at the place -where Hiram Bond had been accustomed to keep it he was -in possession of bills and silver to the amount of $120, -which included the money he had brought away from his -former home at Cobham’s Corner.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="h2sub">IN WHICH DICK TAKES A PARTNER, AND THE FIRM WINDS -UP THE APPLE SPECULATION.</p> - -<p>Late that afternoon Dick Armstrong, feeling all the importance -of a small capitalist, started out to locate the -canal-boat Minnehaha.</p> - -<p>He found the rendezvous of those craft without much -difficulty, but to pick out the particular boat of which he -was in search was not quite such a simple matter.</p> - -<p>At length he found her, hauled up against the wharf, -discharging the last of her cargo.</p> - -<p>Joe Fletcher was working like a good fellow, helping -Captain Beasley’s regular deckhand, when he caught sight -of his chum.</p> - -<p>“Dick, old man, I’m just tickled to death to see you -again,” he exclaimed, grabbing Dick’s hand and shaking it -as though he would pull it off. “We expected to see you -yesterday, according to my calculations. How have you -fared since you went ashore at Caspar’s?”</p> - -<p>“First class. I’ve news that’ll surprise you,” replied -Dick, with sparkling eyes.</p> - -<p>“You don’t say.”</p> - -<p>“By the way, how about Constable Smock? Did he show -up?”</p> - -<p>“Did he? I guess yes. He came up with us about eight -miles below Caspar’s. Wouldn’t take our word that you -had gone ashore, but insisted on searching the boat. Of -course, Captain Beasley let him have full swing. After -he had gone into every nook and corner that might have -concealed you, he gave the job up and left, the maddest -man I’ve seen for many a day. I was afraid he might get -wind of you at Caspar’s and run you down; but it appears -he didn’t. I’ll bet Silas Maslin and Luke ain’t feeling any -too good over the constable’s failure to fetch you back,” and -Joe snapped his rough, brown fingers and laughed gleefully.</p> - -<p>“You don’t think that Silas Maslin would come on to -Albany on the chance of picking me up, do you?” asked -Dick, with a shade of apprehension in his voice.</p> - -<p>“You ought to be better able to judge of that than me, -Dick. You know what he is and what his feelings probably -are on the subject. If I was you, I’d keep my eye -skinned and not let him catch me, if he should come.”</p> - -<p>In a few minutes they knocked off work for the day, and -while Joe was washing up, Captain Beasley came on board -and greeted Dick in his usual breezy manner.</p> - -<p>He accepted the skipper’s invitation to supper, and when -he made his appearance in the cabin was warmly welcomed -by Mrs. Beasley and Florrie.</p> - -<p>Joe and the others were curious to learn the particulars -of his journey from Caspar’s, though they had no idea -that he had met with any particular adventure by the way.</p> - -<p>What he had to tell was therefore received with much -surprise.</p> - -<p>“Gee!” exclaimed Joe, when Dick had finished his recital. -“If that doesn’t read like a story-book! So the -man actually gave you the wagon and the pair of horses?”</p> - -<p>“That’s what he did. The outfit is housed at McGee’s -stables at this moment.”</p> - -<p>“What are you going to do with them? Sell them, I -s’pose, ’cause you can’t take them with you on this boat.”</p> - -<p>“I haven’t decided what I’ll do yet,” said the boy, with -a thoughtful expression.</p> - -<p>“And what about the load of apples?” asked Joe, interestedly.</p> - -<p>“I brought on forty bushels and sold them to half a -dozen of the hotels just as soon as I struck town.”</p> - -<p>“Good for you! How much did you realize?”</p> - -<p>“One hundred and four dollars.”</p> - -<p>“No!” exclaimed Joe, in surprise.</p> - -<p>“That’s right,” nodded Dick, while his face lighted up -with satisfaction. “That wasn’t a bad speculation, was it, -Captain Beasley?”</p> - -<p>“I should say it was a very good one,” replied the skipper -of the Minnehaha.</p> - -<p>“And I’ve got another one in my eye now that ought -to pan out even better.”</p> - -<p>“What is it?” asked Joe, eagerly.</p> - -<p>“There’s a fine grove of walnuts and hickory nuts on -that deserted farm, and they’ll be ready for picking just -as soon as the frost sets in good and hard. They’ll fetch -over two dollars a bushel in this town at wholesale. If -there’s one bushel, I’ll bet there’s a hundred and fifty to -be got.”</p> - -<p>“Great Scott!” almost shouted Fletcher in his excitement. -“Let me in on this, will you, Dick? I’ll help you -pick them at twenty-five cents a bushel, just for the fun of -the thing.”</p> - -<p>“I was about to propose something of that kind, as I -wouldn’t care to go out there all alone. You don’t know -what a spooky place it is. I’ll take you in as a partner, -Joe, and give you one-third of the profits. I’d make it -even up, only the team costs something, and it’s only fair -I should have a percentage for its use.”</p> - -<p>“A third is too much,” objected Joe. “It’s your discovery -and your scheme. I’ll be perfectly satisfied with -one quarter.”</p> - -<p>“No, Joe; it must be one third, or I’ll call the whole -thing off and sell the team,” said Dick, resolutely.</p> - -<p>“All right, Dick; but I call it uncommonly liberal.”</p> - -<p>“Pooh! We’re chums, aren’t we?”</p> - -<p>“Sure we are.”</p> - -<p>“Then stop your kicking.”</p> - -<p>Captain Beasley, who had been an amused listener to the -foregoing debate, now ventured a word.</p> - -<p>“You forget, Master Armstrong, that it’ll be some two -or three weeks yet before you can gather those nuts. What -are you going to do in the meantime, for of course, if you’ve -determined on this plan, you’re not going down to New -York on this boat.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I’ve got an idea to cover that time,” said the boy, -with sparkling eyes.</p> - -<p>“Another speculation, eh?” smiled the captain.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I dare say it is. Any risk that a person takes -for the sake of expected profit is a speculation, I suppose.”</p> - -<p>“That’s about the size of it,” nodded the skipper.</p> - -<p>“But, first of all, I’d like to take a run out to that -farm to-morrow and gather the rest of those harvest apples. -There’s fully another load to be got, and if I don’t take -them they’ll rot on the ground.”</p> - -<p>“I’m in this, too, am I, Dick?” asked Joe, anxiously.</p> - -<p>“Why not, if you’re willing?”</p> - -<p>“You can bet your suspenders I’m willing to go, all -right.”</p> - -<p>“Then that’s settled. Do you mind if I bunk aboard -here to-night, Captain Beasley?” asked Dick.</p> - -<p>“You’re welcome to sleep, and eat for that matter, aboard -the Minnehaha as long as she’s here, young man. I admire -enterprise in a fellow of your years, and you seem to be -loaded to the hatches with it. If you aren’t a millionaire -one of these days, it’ll be because the trusts we read about -and the plutocrats have gobbled up all the wealth that’s -lying around loose.”</p> - -<p>Soon after that, the two boys retired to the forward compartment -of the hold and turned in, but they had so much -to talk over and plan for the future that it was nearly -midnight before they fell asleep.</p> - -<p>They were on deck at sunrise.</p> - -<p>Dick found lots to interest him before breakfast, in the -panorama of the city’s water front, at least that section -of it where the fleet of canal-boats was moored close inshore.</p> - -<p>After breakfast the lads bade Captain Beasley and his -family good-bye, promising to look them up at the Water -Street moorage when they reached New York.</p> - -<p>Dick then led the way to McGee’s stables, where he and -Joe hitched up the wagon and started out.</p> - -<p>Having provided themselves with provisions and feed -for the animals, they took the road back to the deserted -farm, at which they arrived, without any adventure, late -in the afternoon.</p> - -<p>They passed the whole of the next day in getting together -a load.</p> - -<p>Thirty-five bushels about cleaned up all the good apples -left.</p> - -<p>They passed a second night at the old rookery, as Joe -called it, and on the following morning started early for -Albany.</p> - -<p>Dick sold the entire load to a commission house for $95, -but he and Joe had to procure the necessary number of -barrels to hold the fruit in shape for shipment to New -York.</p> - -<p>After paying to Joe his share of the profits, Dick found, -expenses deducted, that his cash capital had increased -to $175.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="h2sub">A TRANSACTION IN NUTS.</p> - -<p>“Gee! I never was so rich in my life!” exclaimed Joe -Fletcher as he counted over the $30 he had received from -Dick and contemplated the bills with a childish sort of -delight.</p> - -<p>“If Nathan Boggs had paid you what he owes you for -your five months’ service on his farm, you’d have ninety -dollars easy enough now,” remarked his young partner -and chum, tucking away his own “boodle” in a safe place.</p> - -<p>“Yep, I ’spect so,” grinned Joe, who was not lamenting -the loss of that $60 just at present.</p> - -<p>“Boggs ought to be prosecuted and made to shell out.”</p> - -<p>“And the screws ought to be put to Silas Maslin, too,” -said Joe. “He treated you worse, on the whole, than Boggs -had the chance to do to me.”</p> - -<p>“I don’t say he didn’t; but I’m satisfied if I never run -across him again. I can make my own way in the world, -and I’m going to do it.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll bet you will. You’re smart enough, all right,” -answered Joe, admiringly.</p> - -<p>The boys had arranged with the stable keeper so they -could sleep in the building in the little room in the hayloft -formerly occupied by Hiram Bond.</p> - -<p>On their return from the restaurant where they had had -supper they found a man waiting to see Dick.</p> - -<p>“My name is Gibson,” said the stranger, introducing -himself. “I’m from Wayback, where I keep a general -store. I’ve got a load of stuff I want hauled out to my -place. Hiram Bond used to do my carting, but as he -is dead and I’m told you have his outfit, I thought probably -we could strike a bargain between us. What’ll you -charge me?”</p> - -<p>“How far is Wayback from here?” asked Dick, who was -ready to accept the job if there was anything in it.</p> - -<p>“Nigh on to forty-five miles.”</p> - -<p>The boy pondered a moment and then named a figure.</p> - -<p>Gibson started to dicker for a lower sum, but Dick cut -him short.</p> - -<p>“I wouldn’t do it for a cent lower, Mr. Gibson. I don’t -know what Hiram Bond was accustomed to charge you, -but the price I’ve set is a reasonable one. I had something -else in view, but I’ll haul your goods out to Wayback on -the terms I’ve mentioned. Is it a bargain or not?”</p> - -<p>Dick’s manner was thoroughly business-like, and he appeared -to be indifferent whether he got the job or not.</p> - -<p>“But you’re only a boy,” persisted the Wayback storekeeper. -“You ought to do it cheaper than a man.”</p> - -<p>“Think so?” retorted the lad, looking him in the eye. -“Well, that isn’t the way I do business. I expect to deliver -your stuff in as good shape as Hiram Bond would have -done, so the fact that I am a boy can’t make any difference.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Gibson finally agreed to the charge and told Dick -to be on hand at a certain wholesale store in the morning, -where he would meet him.</p> - -<p>“All right. Good night, sir.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Gibson had a free ride along with his goods, and -the team reached Wayback about nine o’clock next evening.</p> - -<p>The boys carried the merchandise into the store, and as -the storekeeper had a barn large enough to accommodate -the horses and wagon, Dick arranged with him to put up -his team there, they to sleep in the wagon themselves.</p> - -<p>While Dick and Joe were hitching up next morning a -farmer came up in company with Gibson and inquired -what it would cost him to get a load of potatoes to Albany.</p> - -<p>“How much do you expect to get for them?” asked Dick.</p> - -<p>The farmer, with some shrewdness, named a lower price -than he actually expected to receive, thinking thereby to -cheapen the cartage.</p> - -<p>“All right,” said Dick, promptly. “I’ll buy the lot from -you for so much”—naming a lower figure—“and I’ll pay -you cash down for them.”</p> - -<p>The farmer saw he had made a mistake and started to -hedge, but Dick said those were the only terms on which -he would take the potatoes.</p> - -<p>“But they’ll fetch more’n that in town,” objected the -farmer.</p> - -<p>“I expect to make a profit, or I shouldn’t have made -you the offer,” said Dick.</p> - -<p>“But I made a mistake in putting the price too low. I -can get more’n that at a commission store in the city,” persisted -the agriculturalist.</p> - -<p>“I offer you spot cash,” and Dick yanked out his roll -of bills, which he displayed before the owner of the potatoes. -“Take me up, and you’re relieved of all further -bother.”</p> - -<p>The farmer needed the money, and the sight of the -cash smothered his scruples about selling at a reduced price, -so the deal was closed on the spot.</p> - -<p>Dick drove around to his farm and examined his stock of -potatoes.</p> - -<p>He found them to be in all respects as they had been -represented, so he paid over the money and loaded them -into the wagon.</p> - -<p>“That was a good trade,” said Joe as they drove down -the road.</p> - -<p>“Yes; I expect to make at least twenty-five dollars out -of them,” replied his chum.</p> - -<p>As a matter of fact he cleared $32, for the price had -gone up a little within the two days he had been away from -the city.</p> - -<p>Next day Dick picked up another cartage job as far as -Newtown Junction on the railroad.</p> - -<p>Just before reaching his destination he noticed the section -men replacing a lot of old sleepers with new ones.</p> - -<p>The old ones were tossed aside for the present, and he -saw a group of small boys carrying several of them off.</p> - -<p>This put an idea into his head.</p> - -<p>On his return he singled out the section boss and asked -him if he could have a few.</p> - -<p>“Sure; take as many as you want,” replied the man, -good-naturedly.</p> - -<p>As Dick intended to take up the offer literally, he handed -the boss a dollar-bill.</p> - -<p>The man grinned in a friendly way and turned away.</p> - -<p>Then the two boys gradually filled up the wagon with -the old ties as they proceeded on their way.</p> - -<p>Dick stopped at a large woodyard in Albany and sold -the wood at a very handsome profit, a third of which went -to Joe.</p> - -<p>“The firm of Armstrong & Fletcher seems to be doing -pretty well, all things considered,” remarked Joe as he -added a few additional bills to his small wad.</p> - -<p>“That’s what we’re in business for,” was Dick’s reply.</p> - -<p>Two weeks slipped by, and Dick managed to keep his -team employed at various odd jobs of hauling between the -business section and the suburbs of Albany.</p> - -<p>His cash capital, after deducting all expenses to date, -had increased to $200.</p> - -<p>He decided it was now time to look up his contemplated -venture in nuts.</p> - -<p>Accordingly he purchased the necessary supplies for a -possible week’s stay at the deserted farm, and they made -an early start for the scene of operations.</p> - -<p>The nights were now cold and frosty, and the boys found -it necessary for comfort to keep up a good fire in the old, -rusty stove, the only article left behind by the former occupants -when they moved away.</p> - -<p>Just why this farm had been abandoned was not clearly -understood, even by Farmer Haywood, the nearest neighbor.</p> - -<p>It had been vacant for more than a year, and a mildewed -sign planted near the fence gave the passerby notice -that the place was for sale and that information could be -obtained from somebody whose name and address were no -longer decipherable.</p> - -<p>Early on the morning succeeding their arrival Dick and -Joe walked out to the grove of nut trees and found the -ground literally covered with nuts.</p> - -<p>It was fully a mile back of the house.</p> - -<p>They brought the wagon to the edge of the wood and -spent the whole day loading up.</p> - -<p>By keeping a careful count they found they had accumulated -forty bushels.</p> - -<p>“This is first-class,” said Dick when they got back to -the shelter of the house. “I was afraid we might have -to hang around here several days before we could get busy. -Now I guess we’ll be able to clean up this place in a -week, including, of course, the time spent in carting the -nuts to the city.”</p> - -<p>Dick was not far out of the way in his calculation as -to the time it would take them to gather the plentiful supply -of nuts to be found in the grove.</p> - -<p>“This will be our last load,” he said as they were driving -back to the abandoned farm eight days later, after having -delivered and sold 150 bushels of nuts in Albany for $2.10 -a bushel in bulk.</p> - -<p>“Yes; there aren’t many more left,” said Joe, regretfully, -for having pocketed so far a matter of $100 as his -share of the speculation, he could not help wishing such a -good thing would keep up indefinitely. “What are we -going to do next?” he added.</p> - -<p>“The firm of Armstrong & Fletcher will probably dissolve, -for the time being, at any rate, as I expect to sell -the team and start for New York.”</p> - -<p>“I’m sorry for that,” replied Joe, with a long face.</p> - -<p>“I don’t know that you need be. There’s more money -to be made in New York,” said Dick, encouragingly.</p> - -<p>“But you’ve got to know how to make it,” retorted Joe, -who had lived many years in the great metropolis himself -and had found money-getting a serious proposition there.</p> - -<p>“You’ve got to know how to make it anywhere, for that -matter,” said Dick. “I’ve heard several people say that -if you can’t make money in New York you can’t make it -anywhere.”</p> - -<p>“The papers say there are a hundred thousand men out -of work there all the time.”</p> - -<p>“That may be; but the same men are not out of work -all the time.”</p> - -<p>“Albany is the biggest town you’ve ever seen in all your -life. Wait till you strike New York, and you’ll be lost.”</p> - -<p>“I think not, Joe, with you at my elbow to show me the -ropes. I’ve cut my eye-teeth in a pretty hard school, and -even if I’m only sixteen, I feel sure I can hold my own -against the world. I’ve made nearly four hundred dollars -since I cut loose from Mr. Maslin, four weeks ago, and I -think that’s a pretty fair showing for a beginner.”</p> - -<p>It was now quite dark, and a turn in the road brought -them in sight of the house.</p> - -<p>“Hello!” exclaimed Joe, clutching Dick suddenly by the -arm. “Someone is before us this time.”</p> - -<p>And he pointed to a light which shone from an end -window of the kitchen.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="h2sub">IN WHICH DICK FINDS LUKE MASLIN IN BAD COMPANY AND -OVERHEARS A SHADY SCHEME.</p> - -<p>“Tramps!” ejaculated Dick, in some dismay. Then he -added, in a perplexed tone: “What are we going to do? -They’ve got possession of the only decent room in the -house.”</p> - -<p>“Maybe there’s only one of them,” suggested Joe, hopefully.</p> - -<p>“Even so; he has as much right there as we have, if it -came to an argument.”</p> - -<p>Joe scratched his head and admitted the fact.</p> - -<p>“We’ve simply been trespassers on the property ourselves -from the start,” said Dick.</p> - -<p>“Well, what are we going to do about it?” asked Fletcher -as Dick pulled up under the trees by the side of the road -a short distance from the gate.</p> - -<p>“Wait here till I come back,” and the young driver -handed the reins to his chum and descended from his perch.</p> - -<p>Vaulting the rail fence, he approached the old building -by a flank movement across the weed-encumbered yard.</p> - -<p>He picked up a large, flat stone and placed it beneath -the window.</p> - -<p>Stepping on it, he peered through the dirt-begrimed window -into the room.</p> - -<p>A fire was burning in the grate, and gathered about the -stove were three figures, two of whom were boys.</p> - -<p>They were not tramps.</p> - -<p>The man, who had at that moment a bottle glued to his -lips, was bearded and wore a coarse fur cap.</p> - -<p>As the man dropped the flask into a pocket of his jacket -he made some remark and lifted the stove-lid with a stout -twig.</p> - -<p>The end boy reached for some broken branches, rose and -began to stuff these into the grate.</p> - -<p>The glare of the blaze shone full in his face, and Dick -gave a gasp of astonishment.</p> - -<p>He recognized the freckled features of Luke Maslin.</p> - -<p>“Gee whiz! What’s he doing here?” muttered the boy -outside.</p> - -<p>Naturally his curiosity was greatly excited.</p> - -<p>It was a strange place and strange company for the son -of Silas Maslin to be found mixed up with.</p> - -<p>What did it all mean?</p> - -<p>“I never knew Luke to be away from home before, and -here he is thirty miles from Cobham’s Corner,” murmured -Dick. “There’s something queer about it.”</p> - -<p>The cold night wind whisking about the building soon -made the young watcher’s position one of discomfort.</p> - -<p>“They act as if they intended to stay a while,” he said -to himself. “I’d like to discover what their intentions are.”</p> - -<p>Dick thought a moment; then he went round to a door -which he knew opened on an entry that communicated with -the kitchen.</p> - -<p>He removed his shoes and cautiously entered the house.</p> - -<p>The door at the end of the entry leading into the kitchen -was partly open, and through this door the boy plainly -heard the sound of conversation.</p> - -<p>He tiptoed his way to the door, and through the crack -between the upper and lower hinges he got a good view of -the intruders.</p> - -<p>As the trio spoke in their ordinary tones, Dick heard -every word they said.</p> - -<p>“I didn’t agree to go into any such thing as this when -I left home,” said Luke, in a tone of plain remonstrance.</p> - -<p>“It ain’t what you agreed to do; it’s what you got to -do, now you’re with us,” spoke up the whiskered man, with -a fierce glance at the storekeeper’s son, evidently bent on -intimidating him.</p> - -<p>“What you kickin’ about, Luke,” interjected the other -youth, whom Dick thought he identified as a certain bad -boy of Walkhill village named Tim Bunker. “A feller -that’ll steal five dollars off his old man ain’t got no reason -to grumble when he’s showed how he kin make twenty times -that much without any risk to mention.”</p> - -<p>The speaker leaned forward and squirted a stream of -tobacco juice into the fire, while the bearded man nodded -his approval.</p> - -<p>“I didn’t steal five dollars,” said Luke, doggedly. “I -borrowed it from the till because I needed it, and I was -going to put it back when I got it again.”</p> - -<p>“Ho, ho! That ain’t the way you give it to me first. -You told me how slick you got away with it, ’cause you -wanted it to buy a gun you saw advertised in a Syracuse -paper, and your old man wouldn’t give you the price. Then -you said the old man found out he was a fiver to the bad -and charged Dick Armstrong with stealing it. He skipped -out ’cause he couldn’t prove he didn’t take it and didn’t -wanter go to jail for what he didn’t do. And you ain’t -heard nothin’ from him since, have you?”</p> - -<p>“No, we haven’t,” growled Luke.</p> - -<p>“After doin’ all that damage, now you want to preach -us a sermon ag’inst helpin’ ourselves to a nice little bunch -of dough that’s just waitin’ to be put in circulation after -lyin’ in old Miser Fairclough’s strong-box these forty years. -He’s a peach, ain’t he, Mudgett?” appealing to the man -beside him, who at that moment was taking another drink -from his flask.</p> - -<p>“A born chump,” admitted Mudgett, wiping his lips with -the cuff of his jacket. “I’m disappointed in him, Tim.”</p> - -<p>“So’m I. Thought he had more backbone. And it’s -such an easy snap, too. Just like pickin’ up money, ain’t -it?” grinned the Bunker boy.</p> - -<p>“That’s what it is,” replied Mudgett, complacently. “It -was a clever idea of mine to send that old miser a letter -telling him his brother, who lives in Walkhill, was dead -and had left him the bulk of his money.”</p> - -<p>“That’s right,” grinned Bunker. “Fairclough has been -waitin’ for his brother to die for twenty years or more. -It’s the only thing that could have got him away from his -house.”</p> - -<p>“And now all we’ve got to do is to walk in and help ourselves,” -said Mudgett.</p> - -<p>“That’s all,” winked Tim Bunker. “It’s almost a shame -it’s so easy.”</p> - -<p>The young rascal chuckled and thumped Luke on the back.</p> - -<p>“Brace up,” he cried to Mr. Maslin’s graceless son. -“You’re one of us now in this scheme, and Mudgett won’t -hear of you backin’ out at the last minit.”</p> - -<p>“But I don’t want nothing to do with it,” protested Luke.</p> - -<p>“That doesn’t make no matter of difference whether you -want to or not,” said Mudgett, in a threatening voice. -“You’re in this thing right up to your neck, for you -delivered that letter to Fairclough himself, and he won’t -forget that when he comes back and finds out what happened -while he was away. You can’t go back to Cobham’s -without the certainty of being arrested on sight.”</p> - -<p>The bearded man stated the case with such brutal frankness -that Luke turned white and began to whimper.</p> - -<p>“Shut up, will you!” thundered Mudgett, reaching over -and grabbing Luke by the collar. “Stop your snivelling, -or I’ll break every bone in your body.”</p> - -<p>The storekeeper’s son was frightened into silence.</p> - -<p>“When do we start, Mudgett?” asked Bunker, fishing -a cigarette from his pocket and lighting it.</p> - -<p>“We’ll start now, I guess. It must be close on to nine -o’clock. There isn’t much danger of anyone seeing us on -the road after that hour.”</p> - -<p>Dick, who had been an amazed listener of the foregoing -conversation, concluded it was time to withdraw.</p> - -<p>When he got outside he found the light had been extinguished -in the kitchen, and he took that as a sign that -the trio were on the move.</p> - -<p>Fearing his presence might be detected in the yard if -he attempted to recross it to the fence, he crept under a -corner of the porch and waited.</p> - -<p>Mudgett and the two boys appeared almost immediately -and walked out to the road.</p> - -<p>Dick was in a sweat lest they might discover the team -where it had been waiting a good half-hour for him to -return.</p> - -<p>But they turned up the road without looking in the other -direction, and when Dick reached the gate he could just -make out their figures disappearing in the distance.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="h2sub">DICK AND JOE ON THE TRAIL OF MUDGETT, TIM BUNKER AND -THEIR DUPE.</p> - -<p>“You’ve been a mighty long time investigating matters,” -grumbled Joe Fletcher, poking his head over the seat when -he heard his chum’s voice, for he had retired to the interior -of the wagon to keep warm.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps I have,” replied Dick, as he climbed up to his -perch and started the team. “But I guess I’ll surprise you -when I tell you what I’ve seen and heard.”</p> - -<p>“Well, I’m ready to hear the story,” said Joe, with mingled -impatience and curiosity.</p> - -<p>“Of course you’ve heard of William Fairclough, who -keeps a stock farm at Walkhill,” began Dick.</p> - -<p>“Sure I have.”</p> - -<p>“And you’ve also heard he has a brother named Adam, -who lives on the outskirts of Jayville, which is six miles -from here.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, the folks in Walkhill call him Miser Fairclough.”</p> - -<p>“You’ve got it right. He occupies an old mansion, built -some time before the Revolutionary War. He bought the -place for a song, I heard, about forty years ago. Well, -there’s a scheme on foot to rob old Fairclough to-night, -and it’s up to us to head it off.”</p> - -<p>“Rob the miser!” exclaimed Joe, in astonishment.</p> - -<p>“Exactly. He has been decoyed away to Walkhill by a -bogus letter, which informed him that his brother William -is dead.”</p> - -<p>“Gee! You don’t mean it!”</p> - -<p>“I overheard a large part of the scheme by listening just -outside of the kitchen door that opens on the entry.”</p> - -<p>“Then it was a gang of robbers you found at the house?” -said Joe, in open-mouthed wonder.</p> - -<p>“I found a man and two boys,” answered Dick. “But -before I say anything more we’ll unharness the team and -make them comfortable for the night.”</p> - -<p>The two boys lost no time getting the horses into the -barn and putting before them a plentiful supply of oats.</p> - -<p>“Did you ever run across a fellow named Tim Bunker -in Walkhill?” asked Dick, taking up the thread of his -story again, as he dived into their provision hamper and -fished up a couple of egg sandwiches, one of which he -handed to his chum, with the remark that time was precious -and that was all he might expect to eat for some -hours.</p> - -<p>“I’ve heard of Tim Bunker,” said Joe, with a nod, as -they walked toward the road. “He’s a hard nut. What -about him?”</p> - -<p>“He’s mixed up in this affair.”</p> - -<p>“Is that so? Can’t say I’m much surprised.”</p> - -<p>“And who do you imagine the other boy to be?”</p> - -<p>“I couldn’t guess.”</p> - -<p>“No, I don’t think you could. Don’t fall down, now, -when I tell you. It is Luke Maslin.”</p> - -<p>“Luke Maslin!” exclaimed Joe, stopping stock still in -the middle of the road.</p> - -<p>“Yes, Luke Maslin,” repeated Dick, enjoying his friend’s -astonishment. “He’s in pretty bad company.”</p> - -<p>“Why, what’s he doing ’way down here, thirty miles from -the Corner?”</p> - -<p>“That’s what surprised me at first, but from what Tim -Bunker said in the kitchen while I was taking it all in -from behind the door, I’ve got a pretty clear idea of the -way Luke has got himself into this pickle. It seems he -did take that five dollars out of his father’s money-drawer -that I was accused of stealing.”</p> - -<p>“I guessed he was the thief,” nodded Joe, conclusively.</p> - -<p>“Then he foolishly boasted of it to Tim Bunker, thinking -he had done a clever thing. Now it looks as if Tim -took advantage of this knowledge to force Luke to join him -and the man Mudgett in the enterprise they have in hand -without letting him know exactly what they intended to -do.”</p> - -<p>“What makes you think he didn’t know?”</p> - -<p>“Because it looked to me as if they’d just been explaining -the real situation to him before I came on the scene, for -he was kicking against it like a mule.”</p> - -<p>“He was, eh?”</p> - -<p>“Yes. Mudgett and Tim Bunker were sharp enough to -put Luke in a tight box before they took him into their -confidence.”</p> - -<p>“How?”</p> - -<p>“They had him deliver the decoy note to Adam Fairclough. -It was a mean trick, for it implicates Luke in the -job, as they intended it should. That puts him completely -in their power, don’t you see?”</p> - -<p>“I wouldn’t be in his shoes for a mint,” said Joe as -they turned into the road leading to Jayville. “But it -serves him right for stealing that money from his father, -and then when it come out letting you shoulder all the -blame. He wouldn’t have opened his mouth to clear you -if you’d been arrested for the theft and put in the village -lock-up,” he added indignantly.</p> - -<p>“I guess you’re right,” admitted his chum.</p> - -<p>“Of course I’m right. Didn’t he give you away to his -father the moment he spied you hid down in the hold of -the canal-boat?”</p> - -<p>“He certainly did, and I think I could have thrashed -him for it if I’d had the chance. I felt like doing it.”</p> - -<p>“And my fists just tingled to get a rap at him, too,” -blurted Joe.</p> - -<p>“He’s in a pretty bad hole now, all right. If we can -prevent this burglary to-night, it is possible we can save -him from some of the consequences of his foolishness.”</p> - -<p>“I shouldn’t think you’d care to waste much consideration -on a fellow who for years treated you as mean as Luke -has done,” said Joe, in some surprise.</p> - -<p>“I don’t say he deserves anything of me, but still I’m -willing to do what I can to save him from going to prison,” -said Dick, generously.</p> - -<p>“Well, I don’t know what you expect to do. You’re the -captain and I’m going it blind after you. But if you’ve -a scheme for catching these fellows, and we do catch them, -I suppose Luke could turn State’s evidence and escape the -penalty.”</p> - -<p>“Very likely.”</p> - -<p>“I’m sorry you are getting mixed up in this matter,” -said Joe, gloomily.</p> - -<p>“Why so?” said Dick, looking at his companion in surprise. -“You wouldn’t stand off and allow that old man -to be robbed when you might be able to prevent it, would -you?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t mean that; but you forget that we are liable -to be detained as witnesses if a capture is made, and that -will give Silas Maslin a chance to get hold of you again.”</p> - -<p>Dick stopped short and regarded his chum for a moment -in silence.</p> - -<p>He had not thought of that unpleasant contingency.</p> - -<p>“This will make a slight change in my plans,” he said, -suddenly. “I intended to get help to tackle these fellows, -but I think now it will do as well if we succeed in scaring -them off. I’m satisfied if we can put a spoke in their -wheel, and it will do away with the difficulty you mentioned.”</p> - -<p>To this plan Joe agreed with alacrity.</p> - -<p>The sky, which had been overcast up to this point, now -began to show through here and there in patches.</p> - -<p>And ere long the imprisoned moon sailed into these -spaces, and her light occasionally illuminated the landscape.</p> - -<p>One of these spells of moonshine showed the boys the distant -spire of the Jayville Methodist Church and the roofs -of many of the houses.</p> - -<p>“The Fairclough mansion is over yonder,” said Dick, -pointing in the direction. “I remember Mr. Maslin pointing -it out to me a year ago, when we drove down here one -day on business. We’ll cut across this meadow and save -at least two miles by the road.”</p> - -<p>On the other side of the field was a clump of trees.</p> - -<p>Dick pointed out a couple of branches that would make -stout cudgels, and he and Joe were presently in possession -of a pair of serviceable weapons.</p> - -<p>As they cautiously drew near the Revolutionary relic -they made out three indistinct figures hovering about the -building.</p> - -<p>Suddenly the figures clustered about a rear window that -was high above their reach, and Dick and Joe saw one of -them mount on the shoulders of the other two and commence -operations by splintering the glass with a blow of -some implement.</p> - -<p>At that interesting juncture the boys’ ears caught the -sound of approaching wheels, and before they realized what -was about to happen a miserable-looking buggy, drawn by -a thin, bony mare, dashed into the unkempt driveway and -rattled up to the porch.</p> - -<p>The occupant of the ramshackle vehicle showed up in -the moonlight to be an old man of at least eighty years, -wrapped in a faded green overcoat, with a comforter of -some indescribable color tucked about his throat, the ends -floating in the night air.</p> - -<p>His approach had been discovered by the would-be burglars, -and the two who had formed the base of the pyramid -that had just boosted the third through the fractured window, -rushed around to the front of the house and attacked -the old man from two sides.</p> - -<p>“That must be Adam Fairclough,” explained Dick, he -and Joe springing to their feet. “He must have met somebody -on the road who told him that his brother wasn’t -dead, and thus aroused his suspicions that something was -wrong at this end of the business, and so he came right -back. Those rascals may kill him if we don’t interfere, -Joe. So, come on. Let’s take them by surprise.”</p> - -<p>Thereupon both boys leaped the fence and, flourishing -their cudgels, rushed to the rescue.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="h2sub">DICK AND JOE BLOCK MUDGETT AND TIM BUNKER’S SHADY -ENTERPRISE.</p> - -<p>Mudgett had seized the old miser by the arm and was -dragging him out of the buggy when Dick Armstrong -sprang upon him like a young tiger and bore him to the -ground. At the same instant Joe Fletcher ran around the -vehicle and hit Tim Bunker such a whack over the head -with his cudgel that the Walkhill youth saw unnumbered -stars and hastened to make his escape over the back of the -buggy.</p> - -<p>But Joe cut him off, and the two boys were soon mixing -it up pretty lively, with all the advantage in Joe’s favor.</p> - -<p>In the meantime Dick found Mudgett a tough proposition -to get away with, while the bearded man discovered -in the strong and active boy a hard nut to crack.</p> - -<p>Old Adam Fairclough, thus relieved of his assailants, -stood helplessly aloof, and watched the struggle that was -going on about him.</p> - -<p>He seemed to be utterly bewildered by the condition of -affairs that had faced him on his return home.</p> - -<p>And while this lively scrimmage was going on in the -front of the house, Luke Maslin in the rear took advantage -of the opportunity to scramble out of the window -through which he had been forced to effect an entrance, -and, reaching the ground, he took to his heels and made -off into the line of woods beyond the fence as fast as his -heels would carry him.</p> - -<p>“Let me up, you young imp!” exclaimed Mudgett, panting -for breath after several ineffectual efforts on his part -to dislodge Dick from an advantageous position on his -chest.</p> - -<p>“Do you give in?” asked the almost equally breathless -boy, refusing to budge an inch from his perch.</p> - -<p>“No, hang you for a meddlesome little monkey! But if -you don’t let me up, I’ll break your head!”</p> - -<p>“I don’t think you will, Mr. Mudgett,” answered Dick, -stoutly.</p> - -<p>“You know my name, eh? Who the dickens are you, -anyway?” said the rascal in a tone that showed his surprise.</p> - -<p>“Never mind who I am,” returned the lad. “I’ve got -you dead to rights now, so you might just as well throw -up your hands at once.”</p> - -<p>“Not on your life!” gritted Mudgett, renewing the struggle.</p> - -<p>But he might just as well have saved his strength, for -Joe having mastered Tim Bunker and bound his arms -behind his back with the whip-lash belonging to the buggy, -now came to his chum’s assistance, and Mudgett, with a -villainous scowl, gave up the fight and suffered himself to -be secured with one of the traces which Joe took off the -horse.</p> - -<p>“I’m afraid these men meant to kill me, thinking I had -money,” said old Adam Fairclough to Dick, in trembling -tones, when the lad stepped up to assure him that he no -longer was in danger of molestation. “But I’m a poor -old man. Poor—very poor.”</p> - -<p>“They were in the act of breaking into your house to rob -you when we turned up, intending to prevent them carrying -out their plan, which I fortunately overheard.”</p> - -<p>“Why should they want to rob me when I’m only a poor -old man?” cried the miser, in a pathetic voice.</p> - -<p>“They think you have lots of money hidden in your -house,” replied Dick.</p> - -<p>“Not a cent—not a single cent!” wailed the old man, -beating the air with his arms in a sort of abject denial.</p> - -<p>Dick of course believed Adam Fairclough was not telling -the truth.</p> - -<p>He had always heard people say the man was worth thousands -of dollars.</p> - -<p>That he owned half a dozen good farms which he rented -out to thrifty tenants.</p> - -<p>That he held mortgages on a dozen more.</p> - -<p>That he had a strong-box filled with family plate that -had not been used for fifty years, and a second one stuffed -with gold and banknotes he had taken out of circulation -in order to hoard up for the mere pleasure of accumulation.</p> - -<p>Probably the old man’s wealth was greatly exaggerated, -but there seemed little doubt that he was tolerably rich.</p> - -<p>Dick led him around to the back of the house and showed -him the broken window.</p> - -<p>“They sent you a letter saying your brother William -in Walkhill was dead; isn’t that so?” asked the boy.</p> - -<p>“Yes, yes; but it was false—my brother is not dead at -all.”</p> - -<p>“That was a trick to get you away from here so they -might search the house during your absence.”</p> - -<p>Then Dick told him the whole story of what he had -learned at the old deserted farmhouse.</p> - -<p>“You are a good boy—a brave boy,” said the poor old -miser, shaking the lad by the hand in a pitiful way, for -he appeared to have but little strength after the shock he -had sustained. “If I wasn’t so very, very poor, I’d reward -you.”</p> - -<p>“Don’t worry about that,” replied Dick, with a cheerfulness -that put the old man more at his ease. “If you’ll let -us stay here for the rest of the night, it’s all we want.”</p> - -<p>“You shall stay—yes, yes, you shall stay; but there isn’t -anything I could give you to eat. I’m so poor I can’t buy -much.”</p> - -<p>From the appearance of both his horse as well as himself -it was evident the miser didn’t squander much of his -money on food of any kind.</p> - -<p>They were both shrivelled and dried up like a pair of -animated mummies.</p> - -<p>Indeed, when Dick led the animal off to its stable he -almost fancied he could hear its bones rattle with each -step it took.</p> - -<p>“Poor old beast!” he murmured sympathetically. “How -I’d like to give you one good, square meal! But I fear -the shock of it would lay you out.”</p> - -<p>And the mare, as if it understood him, looked at him -with her saucer-like eyes in hopeless resignation.</p> - -<p>Such a thing as a square meal to her was a dream, never -to be realized.</p> - -<p>The old man wouldn’t have the prisoners taken into the -mansion.</p> - -<p>He was afraid of them, and so Joe tied them securely -to posts in the stable.</p> - -<p>Inside the house there were bolts and bars without number.</p> - -<p>Every room appeared to be completely furnished, but the -old-fashioned mahogany pieces, that must have been valuable -in their day long ago, were now given over to the -ravages of dust and neglect.</p> - -<p>Adam Fairclough ate and slept in one little room at -the top of the building, of which the boys caught only -a momentary glimpse as the old man led them past to another -room in which were a bed, some chairs, and other -articles in a fair state of preservation.</p> - -<p>There the miser left them after assuring Dick once more -that he was miserably poor and sorry he couldn’t do better -by them.</p> - -<p>“Gee!” grinned Joe when they were alone, “what a liar -the old fellow is!”</p> - -<p>“Never mind, old man,” replied his chum. “It’s none -of our business. We’ve done our duty, and I can sleep like -a top on the strength of it. There’s one thing I’m glad -about—Luke Maslin has skipped.”</p> - -<p>Next morning old Fairclough produced some weak boiled -coffee and a plate of hard bread and cheese, which he offered -to them for breakfast with every evidence of earnest hospitality, -repeating his refrain of abject poverty.</p> - -<p>He wrote down the boys’ names in a big, leather-bound -book, making a large cross opposite Dick’s name.</p> - -<p>When they went out to the stable to look after Mudgett -and Tim Bunker they were surprised to find that the rascals -had managed to liberate themselves somehow and had taken -French leave.</p> - -<p>The boys didn’t know whether to be glad or sorry, but, -on the whole, they were pleased to find they would not -have to appear against the housebreakers.</p> - -<p>Then they bade the old man good-bye, advising him to -be very careful against any future attempts of a like -nature.</p> - -<p>They reached the deserted farm about nine o’clock, looked -after the horses, made their stomachs happy with a substantial -meal, and then hied themselves to the nutting-ground, -where they spent most of the day gathering up -the remainder of the crop.</p> - -<p>Not knowing but they might possibly be surprised by the -fugitives, Mudgett and Tim Bunker, if they passed the -night in the house, they left the place before dark and put -up at Farmer Haywood’s for supper and a bed.</p> - -<p>Next day they arrived back in Albany and disposed of -their final load of nuts, the whole speculation netting them -the sum of $375.</p> - -<p>That same afternoon Dick sold the team for nearly $400.</p> - -<p>“I think we can afford to take the train for New York,” -he said after figuring up his cash capital, which he found -amounted to $850.</p> - -<p>And Joe readily agreed with him, for he had $155 tucked -snugly away in an inside pocket.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="h2sub">WRECK AND RESCUE.</p> - -<p>“Gee! She’s a beaut, isn’t she, Dick?”</p> - -<p>The Buffalo Express, on board of which Dick Armstrong -and his friend, Joe Fletcher, were traveling to New York, -had just stopped at Poughkeepsie, and the exclamation was -drawn from Joe by the appearance in the car of a lovely -young girl of apparently fifteen years of age, accompanied -by a fine-looking gentleman of perhaps forty, who seemed -to be her father.</p> - -<p>“She is pretty, for a fact,” admitted Dick, casting a look -of admiration at the young lady.</p> - -<p>She had light hair, blue eyes, and dimpled cheeks, and -her smile was an entrancing one as she turned to say something -to the gentleman when he seated himself by her side.</p> - -<p>The train soon started on again and was presently speeding -down the bank of the Hudson River at a fifty-mile clip.</p> - -<p>It was a dull afternoon early in November, and the landscape -looked brown and unpicturesque.</p> - -<p>The great river flowed sluggishly along, and as they -passed a string of canal-boats preceded by a snorting tug, -the boys thought of Captain Beasley and the Minnehaha.</p> - -<p>During the next hour a large portion of Dick’s attention -was centred on the pretty girl who had boarded the train -at Poughkeepsie.</p> - -<p>“Ever hear of Spuyten Duyvil?” asked Joe.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” answered Dick.</p> - -<p>“It’s not far above Manhattan Island, and we’ll pass -there soon. Guess I’ll have another drink.”</p> - -<p>Joe went to the end of the car where the tank was, but -whether his numerous drinks since leaving Albany had -used up all the water, or because there was something the -matter with the cock, certain it is Joe had to go into the -next car to get what he wanted.</p> - -<p>He had probably been gone a couple of minutes and -Dick was watching the pretty stranger for perhaps the -hundredth time, when something startling occurred which -changed the whole aspect of affairs in the twinkling of an -eye.</p> - -<p>A tremendous shock stopped the train’s momentum and -piled the cars on top of each other, hurling a couple down -the embankment into the river, almost every car becoming -a shapeless wreck, and human beings, full of life and hope -a moment before, were suddenly ushered into eternity or -maimed and mangled for life.</p> - -<p>It was a rear-end collision.</p> - -<p>A terrible scene was presented to Dick’s gaze when he -recovered his scattered senses.</p> - -<p>He was stunned by the shock and made giddy by the -wild vaulting of the car as it leaped the rails, swung around -and buried its rear end in the Hudson.</p> - -<p>He was bruised and badly shaken up, but he was not -seriously injured.</p> - -<p>Fortunately Dick was endowed a remarkable degree -of self-possession.</p> - -<p>Finding he was not hurt, he struggled out from beneath -the wreckage which had overwhelmed him.</p> - -<p>His first thought was for Joe, but the boy was not in -sight, which, under the circumstances, was hardly to be -wondered at.</p> - -<p>Then the groans and screams of the mangled passengers -pinned under the wreck confused him and distracted his -attention from his chum.</p> - -<p>Perhaps it is not strange that the fair young girl who -had occupied the opposite seat in the car came to his -mind, for his eyes and thoughts had been upon her at the -moment of the catastrophe.</p> - -<p>He did not see her among the men and women who -were disengaging themselves from the shapeless debris.</p> - -<p>“Is she dead?” he almost groaned, as he thought of that -golden head and lithe figure smashed beyond recognition.</p> - -<p>Then he wondered if her father had escaped, for, like -Joe, he had a short time before the accident gone forward -into the smoking-car, and the boy saw as through a mist -the locomotive, express-baggage, and smoking cars back -slowly down on the wreck, a crowd of wild and excited passengers -tumbling off the rear platform of the latter.</p> - -<p>It was impossible for anyone to say just what had caused -the trouble, but it might have been a broken axle or a suddenly -loosened rail that had snapped the connection between -the cars.</p> - -<p>A portion of the top of the car Dick had just wriggled -from under lay near him, and seeing a woman’s foot exposed -beneath, he exerted his strength and raised one end -a bit.</p> - -<p>It rested heavily upon the form of the fair passenger -from Poughkeepsie.</p> - -<p>The sight aroused all his energies.</p> - -<p>With desperate eagerness he put his shoulder to the -heavy fragment that was crushing out the girl’s life, and -shifted it aside.</p> - -<p>Then he bent down and lifted her in his arms.</p> - -<p>“Great Scott!” he exclaimed, anxiously, “I believe she is -dead.”</p> - -<p>She looked the picture of death, for her eyes were closed -and her pallid cheek was stained with blood.</p> - -<p>Dick, hardly knowing what to do, bore her down to the -river edge and splashed the water into her face, eagerly -watching for some sign of returning animation.</p> - -<p>He rubbed her temples and chafed her hands, but the -task seemed hopeless.</p> - -<p>He was about to abandon his efforts in despair, when -an almost imperceptible sigh gladdened his heart and caused -him to renew his exertions.</p> - -<p>With his handkerchief he washed away the bloodstains, -and found that she was only slightly cut just above the ear.</p> - -<p>In a few moments she recovered consciousness and cast -a bewildered glance around her.</p> - -<p>She tried to raise herself, but with a little cry of pain -she sank back in Dick’s arms and lay there staring up into -his face and scarcely comprehending what he was doing for -her.</p> - -<p>Suddenly the fearful nature of the catastrophe dawned -upon her mind, and clutching at the lad’s arm with one -little hand, her other arm lying limp and helpless at her -side, she raised up again.</p> - -<p>“My father!” she cried with pathetic earnestness. -“Where is he?”</p> - -<p>“I saw him leave you and go into the next car before -the crash came,” said Dick.</p> - -<p>“He went to the smoking-car,” she moaned. “Perhaps—oh, -perhaps he was——”</p> - -<p>“If he reached the smoking-car, he is safe,” said Dick, -encouragingly. “That car was not damaged. I can see -it from here,” and the boy nodded his head in the direction -where it stood on the track. “And I see your father -now!” he exclaimed suddenly. “He is running this way. -What is your name?”</p> - -<p>“Jennie Nesbitt,” she replied faintly.</p> - -<p>“Hi, hi! Mr. Nesbitt!” cried Dick, motioning to the -girl’s father.</p> - -<p>The gentleman started and paused when he heard his -name pronounced.</p> - -<p>Looking wildly about he saw Dick signaling to him, and -he easily guessed that the recumbent figure in the boy’s -arms was his daughter, and he rushed down to the spot.</p> - -<p>“Don’t say she is dead!” he exclaimed frantically, the -tears streaming down his cheeks. “Jennie, darling, speak -to your father!” and he knelt down and seized her nerveless -hand.</p> - -<p>A cry of pain broke from the girl.</p> - -<p>“Are you much hurt, my darling?” asked Mr. Nesbitt, -anxiously, taking her in his arms and kissing her tenderly.</p> - -<p>“I don’t know, father,” she answered faintly, putting -her uninjured arm around his neck. “My left arm is very -numb.”</p> - -<p>“I should be obliged to you if you would assist me in -carrying my daughter up this bank,” said the gentleman -to Dick.</p> - -<p>Between them they carried her across the tracks and -laid her on the faded grass under the trees, where a score -or more of the injured had already been placed to await the -attention of the physicians that had been telegraphed for.</p> - -<p>“Can I be of any further use?” asked Dick, wistfully, -after he had explained how he discovered the young lady -under the section of the car-roof and removed her to the -waterside in the hope of bringing her to. “I should like -to hunt up my chum, who was traveling with me.”</p> - -<p>“I will not detain you,” said Mr. Nesbitt, grasping him -by the hand. “You have been very good to my daughter. -She probably owes her life to you. I can never sufficiently -thank you for the service you have this day rendered to -me,” he said with grateful earnestness.</p> - -<p>“I am glad I was able to do something for your daughter,” -replied Dick, simply.</p> - -<p>“Be sure we shall not forget you. I think you said your -name was Richard Armstrong?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir.”</p> - -<p>“You will not forget that, Jennie. Here is my business -card, Mr. Armstrong. You must call at my office, for we -want to know you better.”</p> - -<p>“Thank you; I will do so at the first chance,” replied -the boy, noticing that the address was a New York City one.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps I shall see you again before you leave here.”</p> - -<p>“We shall be glad if you come back as soon as you find -some trace of your friend, who, I think, probably has escaped, -since, like myself, you say he went forward before -the accident occurred.”</p> - -<p>The wounded and the dead were now being rapidly taken -from the pile of ruins by those who were uninjured.</p> - -<p>Dick, gazing upon the work of the rescuers, saw Joe -helping like a good fellow to clear away a part of the -splintered car in which he and his chum had been riding.</p> - -<p>With a shout of joy Dick ran up and seized him by the -arm.</p> - -<p>“Thank goodness, you’re safe!” he said, delightedly.</p> - -<p>“Gee wilikens!” cried Joe, throwing his arms about him -in a spasm of pleasure. “I was almost certain you were a -goner. How did you manage to get out of this ruin without -a scratch? Why, it’s a perfect miracle! Half the car -is smashed into toothpicks.”</p> - -<p>For an hour Dick and Joe worked hard to help the unfortunates -who had suffered from the wreck.</p> - -<p>By that time the force of doctors sent from New York -had arrived and were helping the half-dozen local practitioners -who had previously been brought to the scene of -the disaster.</p> - -<p>There being nothing for Dick and his chum to do, the -former thought he would like to know how the young lady -he had assisted was getting on.</p> - -<p>He found Mr. Nesbitt and his daughter in the same -spot, and presented Joe to them.</p> - -<p>They were glad to learn that Dick had found his friend -uninjured.</p> - -<p>A surgeon had set Miss Jennie’s broken arm, which was -beginning to pain her a good deal.</p> - -<p>One of the train hands now came up and said they had -better board one of the cars of the relief train which was -about to start for the metropolis.</p> - -<p>Miss Nesbitt said she thought she could walk as far as -the car if Dick and her father supported her.</p> - -<p>She was made as comfortable on one of the seats as circumstances -permitted, and in a few minutes the train -started with its melancholy load of maimed, dead, and -dying.</p> - -<p>At the Grand Central Station a carriage was obtained -by Dick to take the injured young miss and her father -home.</p> - -<p>The girl bade the lad a grateful good-bye and exacted -a promise that he would call and see her at her home very -soon.</p> - -<p>“And don’t forget I shall expect to see you at my office -in a day or two,” said Mr. Nesbitt as the vehicle drove off.</p> - -<p>“Gee!” said Joe as they watched the carriage disappear -around the corner. “You may have done a big thing for -yourself for all you know, Dick, old boy. You’ve made -yourself solid in that quarter, all right. And a good friend -goes a long way in this city sometimes. Come along, now. -I’ll pilot you down to my old boarding-place.”</p> - -<p>Whereupon they walked to Third Avenue and took a -southbound car.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="h2sub">DICK BUYS AN INVENTION THAT PROVES TO BE A WINNER.</p> - -<p>Although Dick Armstrong had lived in the country all -his life, and Albany was the biggest town he had heretofore -seen, still the great city of New York did not overwhelm -him by its immensity.</p> - -<p>He was a level-headed boy and believed in taking things -as they came.</p> - -<p>Of course he found lots to interest and astonish him, -but that was only what he had expected.</p> - -<p>He and Joe spent three days taking in the sights of the -city, which of course were quite familiar to the latter, and -then Dick decided to call on Mr. Nesbitt.</p> - -<p>That gentleman was a well-known lawyer, and his office -was in a big skyscraper on lower Broadway.</p> - -<p>It rather took Dick’s breath away when he was whisked -up to the sixteenth story in an express elevator, yet nobody -would have judged from his manner but that he was accustomed -to the trip.</p> - -<p>“Second corridor to your left,” said the elevator man -to Dick, and the boy, following this direction, had no trouble -in finding the offices of “George Nesbitt, Attorney and -Counsellor-at-Law,” who occupied a suite of handsomely -furnished rooms, from the windows of which a splendid -view of the bay and the two rivers was to be had.</p> - -<p>The lawyer extended a warm greeting to his young visitor.</p> - -<p>“My daughter is doing very nicely, everything considered,” -he said. “You must not delay calling on us; she -will be very glad to see you again.”</p> - -<p>“I shall be happy to do so,” answered Dick.</p> - -<p>“Then why not come to-morrow evening? You have our -address.”</p> - -<p>This suited the boy, and the matter was so arranged.</p> - -<p>Then Mr. Nesbitt asked Dick about his prospects.</p> - -<p>The lad gave him a brief outline of his past life at Cobham’s -Corner and what he had done since he broke away -from Silas Maslin.</p> - -<p>The lawyer was impressed with the boy’s earnestness and -business sagacity and determined to help him on the road -to success.</p> - -<p>“How would you like employment in my office?” he said. -“I do not mean as a clerk. I think I can use you in a -way that will develop your natural business talents. I -have control of several extensive estates. A young man of -your ability can be made useful to me in many ways, and -the experience will be of great value to yourself. You are -young. The world is before you. The obligations under -which you have placed me by your attention to my only -child under the most trying of circumstances make me -desirous of interesting myself in your future career. Will -you give me the opportunity of doing so?”</p> - -<p>Dick was both surprised and pleased at the proposition, -and he accepted it at once.</p> - -<p>Mr. Nesbitt seemed gratified by the lad’s acquiescence, -and he explained to Dick what his immediate duties would -be.</p> - -<p>“I should be glad if you will start in to-morrow,” he -said, finally, and the boy was told to be at the office at half-past -nine on the following morning.</p> - -<p>That evening he and Joe went down on Water Street and -had supper with Captain Beasley and his family on board -the Minnehaha.</p> - -<p>“So far as obtaining employment is concerned,” remarked -the skipper as he took down, filled and lit his briar-root -pipe, “you two lads seem to have started on even terms, both -of you having got a job to-day; it now remains to be seen -which will pull out ahead.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, there isn’t any doubt about that,” replied Joe, -heartily. “I take my hat off to my friend Dick first, last, -and always.”</p> - -<p>“Come, Joe, you’re laying it on thick, aren’t you?” -laughed his chum.</p> - -<p>“Not on your life. I’ll leave it to Captain Beasley. Five -weeks ago you left the Corner with a measly sixteen dollars -in your pocket; to-night you could count out eight hundred -and fifty made by your business smartness, and I have one -hundred and fifty acquired through my connection with -you. We are not in the same class, old chappie. I haven’t -got your head. If I had, I’d back myself to win a million -in a year or two.”</p> - -<p>Dick spent his first day in Mr. Nesbitt’s office learning -many of the details connected with real estate management, -and that evening he visited the lawyer’s family, on West -Seventy-second Street, where he received a warm welcome -from Jennie and Mrs. Nesbitt, who was an invalid.</p> - -<p>After that he became a regular visitor, and Miss Jennie -introduced him into her own particular set in which his -winning manners and good looks soon established him a -first favorite.</p> - -<p>One of the estates Mr. Nesbitt had charge of was situated -about thirty miles out on Long Island, and Dick went -there once a week to attend to business matters in connection -with its management.</p> - -<p>He was returning one afternoon on a Long Island Railroad -train when a young man boarded the car at a way -station and took the only vacant seat, which was alongside -Dick.</p> - -<p>He looked to be a bright fellow, with a frank, ingenuous -countenance that naturally inspired confidence; but he -looked pale and weak as though recovering from a long -illness.</p> - -<p>Dick got into conversation with him, and soon found out -he was an Englishman, who had come to America more than -a year before after having been thrown on his own resources -by the death of his only relative.</p> - -<p>He had not been successful in securing steady employment, -and subsequent illness had brought him down to -bed-rock.</p> - -<p>How he was going to get on, he hadn’t a very clear idea.</p> - -<p>“If I only had a few dollars,” he said sadly as he gazed -through the car window at the bleak, wintry prospect, “I -feel sure I could get on my feet.”</p> - -<p>“Then you’re broke, are you?” asked Dick, sympathetically.</p> - -<p>“Flat,” admitted the young Englishman, in a dejected -voice.</p> - -<p>“That’s tough.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, it is. It is strange how hard luck follows a fellow. -I’ll show you something I invented just before I was -taken down with the gastric fever. It’s a good idea, and -since I got out of the hospital I’ve been trying to sell a -half-interest for a hundred dollars so I can get it patented. -But nobody seems to see any money in it.”</p> - -<p>The young stranger put his hand in his pocket and drew -out a well-worn pocket-book.</p> - -<p>From this he produced a descriptive drawing of a new -idea in water-coolers.</p> - -<p>“This is entirely different from anything on the market,” -he said, “and if manufactured and properly pushed, I don’t -see why it shouldn’t sell well. You see, the water is kept -entirely separate from the ice, which is chopped up, mixed -with rock salt on the same principle as that used and packed -around an ice-cream can. The ice preparation is put in -here, the space indicated by I, the water in here, which is -simply a galvanized receptacle which can be removed when -the cooler is to be cleaned out and recharged. The advantages -of this scheme are that you can use filtered water or -any special kind of spring water—in fact any kind of fluid—and -keep it cold without direct contact with or contamination -from the ice itself.”</p> - -<p>“The idea isn’t bad,” said Dick thoughtfully, as he -studied the diagram carefully. “You want one hundred -dollars for a half-interest?”</p> - -<p>“I would dispose of a half-interest for that amount in -order to get the money necessary to patent it.”</p> - -<p>“Suppose you let me have this drawing for a few days. -Here is my employer’s business address. That is my name -printed in the corner. If I find there is likely to be any -money in this thing, I’ll give you fifty dollars for a half-interest -and stand the expense of patenting it myself. What -do you say?”</p> - -<p>“I agree to that,” said the Englishman, eagerly. “When -shall I call on you?”</p> - -<p>“Next Saturday about noon.”</p> - -<p>“All right.”</p> - -<p>Dick put the drawing into his pocket.</p> - -<p>“I’ll let you have five dollars on account now, as you -probably need the money,” he said, offering his new acquaintance -a bill of that denomination. “If I don’t take up the -scheme I won’t require you to return me the fiver.”</p> - -<p>“That’s generous of you,” said the other, earnestly. -“Meeting you is the first stroke of luck I’ve had for -months.”</p> - -<p>“Don’t be too sure of that,” replied Dick, cautiously. -“There may be nothing in it, after all.”</p> - -<p>Then they talked of other matters till the train arrived -at the Flatbush Avenue Station, where they parted, Dick -taking an electric car over the bridge for New York.</p> - -<p>That night he showed the drawing to Joe, who roomed -with him, and together they discussed the feasibility of the -scheme proving a paying one.</p> - -<p>Dick had a shrewd idea that a manufacturer of water-coolers -was the best persons to consult on the project, and -next day called on one who happened to be a personal friend -of Mr. Nesbitt.</p> - -<p>The idea struck the manufacturer favorably.</p> - -<p>He called his manager in, and they figured out the cost -of the article on the lines presented by Dick.</p> - -<p>“What will you sell the patent for?” asked the manufacturer.</p> - -<p>“You can have my half-interest, for twenty-five hundred -dollars,” was Dick’s reply, “and I dare say I can arrange -to get you the other half at the same figure.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” said the manufacturer, after -considering the matter. “I’ll build these coolers and place -them on the market, allowing you a royalty of from twenty-five -to fifty cents, according to size, on every one actually -sold.”</p> - -<p>“Will you give me a memorandum, in writing, to that -effect and allow me a few days to consider your offer?”</p> - -<p>“Certainly.” And the gentleman did so and handed the -paper to Dick. “You will accept that as a thirty-day -option on the patent.”</p> - -<p>“Very well,” said the boy, rising and bidding him good -day.</p> - -<p>Dick went at once to Munn & Co. and made application -for a patent covering the specifications set forth by the -young Englishman, entering the same in both their names.</p> - -<p>When the inventor called on Saturday he handed him -$45, taking in return a bill of sale for half the patent rights -on the cooler.</p> - -<p>Then he told the Englishman of the offer he had had -from the manufacturer, and advised that they take up -with it.</p> - -<p>“It is better than I expected to do with it,” replied the -inventor, “but I don’t feel as though I could wait for the -realization of such good luck. I want to get back to England. -I am homesick here. Do you think the whole thing -is worth five hundred dollars to you? Will you take that -much risk on its success after it has been put on the market? -If you will, give me four hundred and fifty more, -and I will make out a new bill of sale giving you the sole -right to the invention.”</p> - -<p>“Wait a moment,” said Dick, and he went inside and had -a consultation with Mr. Nesbitt.</p> - -<p>The result was that Dick bought the invention outright.</p> - -<p>On the following Monday he went to the manufacturer -and made a contract with him on the terms proposed.</p> - -<p>Although the boy did not then dream of the ultimate -results of this deal, we may say now that the coolers were -ready and put on the market in time for the summer trade.</p> - -<p>They were a novelty, took splendidly, and in the end -Dick disposed of the patent rights to the manufacturer for -$5,000 cash.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="h2sub">A NERVY VENTURE AND WHAT CAME OF IT.</p> - -<p>One day toward the end of March, Dick was taking lunch -in a Fulton Street chop-house when two well-dressed men -entered the place and sat down at the opposite side of the -table.</p> - -<p>They were talking about some real estate deal they had -in contemplation, and did not appear to regard the boy’s -presence as a bar to their conversation.</p> - -<p>“We can get a thirty-day option on the property for one -thousand dollars, pending examination of title,” said the -shorter man of the two, after the waiter had taken their -order. “The old man’s bed-rock price for the entire thirty -acres is twelve thousand cash. He wanted fifteen thousand -at first. Allowing for streets, we can get out of it -twelve city lots per acre, or three hundred and sixty lots -altogether. The corner lots will fetch one hundred and -twenty-five to one hundred and fifty dollars each, and the -inside ones, say one hundred, according to location. That -means we should realize about forty thousand dollars in the -gross. You have figured out the expense of cutting -through the streets, the cost of having the title guaranteed, -probable cost of printing and newspaper advertising, commissions -to agents, and so forth. The location of the property -is good; the Long Island main line has a station close -by, and the main street of Sodom can be extended through -the property. Old man Durwood is clearly anxious to sell, -or he wouldn’t let it go at that figure. It is easily worth -sixteen thousand dollars to us as it stands, and I would -give that for it sooner than let it slip through my hands.”</p> - -<p>“It’s a good speculation,” said the tall man, nodding -his head. “Thompson and Davis are in this with us, I -believe.”</p> - -<p>“Thompson is ready to put up a certified check for his -share at any moment. I will see and settle with Davis -this afternoon. To-morrow morning I will go out to Sodom -and get the option and the deed from Durwood.”</p> - -<p>The talk then branched off on the plans of the speculators -for improving the property and putting it in shape -for sale at lot prices.</p> - -<p>Although Dick apparently paid no attention to what the -real estate men were saying, nevertheless he was an interested -listener to their conversation.</p> - -<p>It happened that the Long Island estate to which the -lad made weekly visits was in the neighborhood of the village -of Sodom.</p> - -<p>He had a speaking acquaintance with Jonas Durwood, -the owner of the thirty acres referred to above, and knew -something about the property in question.</p> - -<p>It had been on the market for some time.</p> - -<p>Durwood had been offering it at $15,000, one-third cash, -balance on a five-year mortgage.</p> - -<p>The four real estate men evidently intended purchasing -the property at the reduced figure for spot cash, with the -view of cutting it up into lots and then disposing of them -at a good profit on the whole investment.</p> - -<p>“So,” thought Dick, “they would sooner give sixteen -thousand than let it slip through their fingers. A thirty-day -option on it can be had for a thousand. Well, I’ve got -a thousand lying idle. What’s the matter with my stealing -a march on this syndicate of four, getting the option myself, -and then make them come to terms with me. If they -should refuse to deal with me, it might put me in a hole; -but I guess Mr. Nesbitt would see me through, for that -piece of ground is well worth fifteen thousand at any rate.”</p> - -<p>Dick thought he saw a fine chance to make $3,000 or -$4,000 inside of a month if he took the thing on the fly.</p> - -<p>“Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” he muttered as he -drew near the office. “By the great horn spoon, I’ll do -it! My bank-book is upstairs. I’ll draw the money and -take it down with me to Sodom this afternoon, for fortunately -this is the day I am due there. When that chap -goes down to-morrow he’ll find that someone else has got -ahead of him. Gee! Won’t he be hopping mad? Well, -I guess!”</p> - -<p>It was Dick’s rule not to let the grass grow under his -feet when he embarked in an enterprise.</p> - -<p>Therefore he hustled to get his money, and left on an -early afternoon train for Sodom.</p> - -<p>He hunted up Jonas Durwood right away and made him -a twelve-thousand-dollar cash offer for the thirty acres.</p> - -<p>“What? what? You want to buy that ground, eh? Who -for? Mr. Nesbitt?” said Durwood in some surprise.</p> - -<p>“I want a thirty-day option and I want you to put it -in my name. Here’s a thousand dollars to bind the bargain. -See?”</p> - -<p>Jonas Durwood saw the bills, and the sight of them -melted all further opposition he may have thought of advancing -with a view of a better figure.</p> - -<p>The preliminaries were settled on the spot.</p> - -<p>Dick got the option and the deed to the property, and -Durwood got ten one-hundred-dollar bills.</p> - -<p>Both parties to the contract were satisfied.</p> - -<p>“Now,” said the boy, after the settlement had been -effected, “there was a man down here negotiating with -you for this land. Have you his name and address?”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” replied Durwood. “Do you want it?”</p> - -<p>“I’d like to have it.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Durwood produced a card and handed it to Dick.</p> - -<p>“Now, Mr. Durwood, if this man shows up here to-morrow, -or any time soon, and he asks you who bought -the property, just give him my card, will you?”</p> - -<p>“Certainly,” answered the Sodom resident.</p> - -<p>Dick then left him and went over to the estate to attend -to such business as awaited him there.</p> - -<p>Next afternoon a very much excited individual called -at Mr. Nesbitt’s offices and inquired for Richard Armstrong.</p> - -<p>It was the short, stout man who had done most of the -talking at the restaurant.</p> - -<p>Dick was out, and the man waited till he returned.</p> - -<p>He was vastly surprised to find that the Armstrong he -wanted was a boy.</p> - -<p>“Did you purchase an option on Mr. Durwood’s property -at Sodom yesterday?” he inquired, in a nervous tone.</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir; I did.”</p> - -<p>“For whom, may I ask?”</p> - -<p>“For myself.”</p> - -<p>“What?” exclaimed the visitor, in amazement. “You -secured an option on those thirty acres for yourself?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir.”</p> - -<p>“Do you expect me to believe such a ridiculous story as -that?” demanded the stout man, sarcastically. “Come, -now, tell me who you represent?”</p> - -<p>“I have told you. I represent myself. I bought those -thirty acres because I found out I could get them at a low -price. They’re worth sixteen thousand dollars if they’re -worth a cent.”</p> - -<p>“Nonsense!” exclaimed the man, impatiently.</p> - -<p>“What do you mean by that?” asked Dick, coolly.</p> - -<p>“I mean it is sheer nonsense for you to say that property -is worth sixteen thousand dollars.”</p> - -<p>“Well, what do you think it is worth?”</p> - -<p>“In my opinion, twelve thousand is nearer its value.”</p> - -<p>“We won’t argue the matter. I hold a thirty-day option -on the property. Is that all you wished to see me about?”</p> - -<p>Dick was thoroughly cool and business-like, and the stout -man seemed puzzled as to what he would say next.</p> - -<p>“I’ll tell you what,” he said, presently. “I was looking -at that piece of ground myself and had some idea of buying -it. If you’d like to turn your option over to me, I’ll give -you five hundred dollars bonus.”</p> - -<p>Dick shook his head.</p> - -<p>“No. Couldn’t think of it.”</p> - -<p>“What will you take for the option?”</p> - -<p>“Five thousand dollars cash!”</p> - -<p>“Five thousand furies!” yelled the man, looking at the -boy as though he would liked to have eaten him.</p> - -<p>“No, sir,” said Dick, with a faint grin. “Not furies, but -dollars.”</p> - -<p>“Young man, what do you take me for?”</p> - -<p>Dick smiled pleasantly, but made no answer.</p> - -<p>“I’ll give you just two thousand dollars for that option.”</p> - -<p>“I can do better than that,” replied the boy, politely.</p> - -<p>“How can you?” asked the stout man, incredulously.</p> - -<p>“A syndicate has been formed to buy that property for -speculative purposes.”</p> - -<p>“What?” gasped the real estate man, staring hard at -Dick.</p> - -<p>“That’s right. I don’t mind telling you how I came to -buy the land. My business takes me down to Sodom once -a week. I knew the Durwood property was in the market, -and I have a very clear idea of its value. As soon as I -got the tip that speculators were after it, I made up my -mind to scoop the ground myself if I could get it low -enough. I made Mr. Durwood a cash offer, and we came -to an agreement. Mr. Nesbitt will examine the title in -a few days, and if everything is all right he will close the -deal as trustee for me. That’s all there is to it.”</p> - -<p>“How did you learn about this syndicate and who are -the men that compose it?” asked the stout man, with -ill-disguised eagerness.</p> - -<p>“You will have to excuse me answering those questions, -Mr. Blake,” replied Dick, looking at the man’s card, which -he held in his hand.</p> - -<p>“Then you won’t accept an offer of twenty-five hundred -for your option?” said the visitor.</p> - -<p>“No, sir. Any time within the thirty-day limit after -Mr. Nesbitt has passed on the title, you or the syndicate -or any other person can purchase that option for an advance -of four thousand dollars over what I paid down.”</p> - -<p>“I will consider the matter, Mr. Armstrong. Good day.”</p> - -<p>A few days later Dick received an offer in writing from -Mr. Blake, accepting his figure, contingent on Mr. Nesbitt’s -assurance that Jonas Durwood could furnish a clear title -and that the same would be guaranteed by the Lawyer’s -Title Guarantee and Trust Company.</p> - -<p>Dick closed with him on those terms, and a week before -the option expired the delighted boy received a certified -check for $5,000, and the Blake crowd closed the deal and -came into possession of the property.</p> - -<p>It was not only a red-letter day in Dick’s life, but his -seventeenth birthday.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="h2sub">A NIGHT ATTACK AND A RECOGNITION.</p> - -<p>Dick also celebrated his seventeenth birthday by taking -Jennie Nesbitt to the Empire Theatre to see a famous -actress in a favorite play.</p> - -<p>“She’s just splendid, don’t you think so?” said Jennie -as they came out of the playhouse after the show.</p> - -<p>“Fine,” coincided Dick, enthusiastically. “Do you know, -Miss Jennie, this is the third time in my entire life that -I have attended a theatre?”</p> - -<p>“Is it possible?” she answered in a surprised tone.</p> - -<p>“That’s right. The first week after I came to New -York, Joe took me to the New Amsterdam Theatre. That -was actually the very first time I ever was in a theatre. -On the afternoon of Washington’s Birthday I went over -with Joe to Proctor’s Fifth Avenue house. I’ve lived in -the backwood, as they call it, the greater part of my seventeen -years.”</p> - -<p>“I’m sure no one would think so by your appearance or -your manners,” said his charming companion. “You are -not at all countrified.”</p> - -<p>“Thank you for the compliment. I have tried to adapt -myself to my surroundings. Joe helped to break me in, -and I am sure I am indebted to you for the polish.”</p> - -<p>“It is very nice of you to say that,” she answered, with -a blush. “I am very glad indeed if I have helped you in -any way.”</p> - -<p>“You have generously introduced me into your own -sphere of society, and that is a privilege I might otherwise -have wished for in vain. It gave me a chance to associate -with well-bred and educated young persons of my own age, -who as a rule have treated me very nicely. It was a great -advantage to me to be under your wing, as it were, and I -have improved it as much as possible. I was a pretty awkward -fellow when you first knew me.”</p> - -<p>“Really, I don’t think you ever were what I should call -awkward,” she said, with a smile, “though of course you -were not au fait—that’s French for instructed or expert—in -city ways. But dear me! there isn’t the slightest sign -of hayseed about you now,” and she laughed merrily.</p> - -<p>“The credit then is all yours, Miss Jennie,” said Dick, -gallantly. “I’m afraid I’ll never be able to repay——”</p> - -<p>“Dick Armstrong!” cried the girl, suddenly putting her -gloved hand across his mouth in an imperative sort of way. -“You forget what I owe you—what papa and mamma owe -you!”</p> - -<p>“But think what your father has done—is doing for me -right along, Miss Jennie. It was the assurance that he was -at my back that enabled me to carry this real estate deal -through and put five thousand dollars in my pocket.”</p> - -<p>“But papa did not originate nor engineer the transaction,” -persisted the girl. “Nor did he actually do more -for you than any lawyer would have done, except that he -did not charge you anything for investigating the title.”</p> - -<p>“Had the deal failed to go through, I should have lost -my thousand dollars unless he came to my rescue, which -I felt sure he would have done.”</p> - -<p>“Now, Dick—I’m going to call you Dick after this,” she -said, with a blush, “that is, between ourselves, you know, -and I wish you would call me simply Jennie—you mustn’t -try to make me think you aren’t smart. I know you are. -Papa says so, and whatever papa says I’m accustomed to -believe. He says you are bound to succeed. Now, I think -you have already succeeded pretty well. You’ve never -denied what your friend Mr. Fletcher——”</p> - -<p>“You mean Joe?”</p> - -<p>“Of course I mean him. What he said about you making -eight hundred and fifty dollars in a month out of nothing -just after you left that horrid Mr. Maslin. Then there’s -that water-cooler patent which hasn’t cost you more than -six hundred. Papa says the manufacturer who has taken -it in hand told him it would net you several thousands of -dollars in the long run. Then it wasn’t a month after you -had arranged that matter before you bought the patent -rights to a typewriter improvement and sold it in a week -to a manufacturer at a profit of nearly a thousand dollars. -Oh, dear, no; you’re not smart at all—of course not!”</p> - -<p>What answer Dick might have made to the young lady’s -enthusiastic commendation of his business abilities was -fated to remain unspoken, for at that moment a thrilling -episode occurred that attracted their startled attention and -in the end led up to a most remarkable climax.</p> - -<p>They were walking through Forty-first Street from -Broadway to Sixth Avenue to take the elevated train at -the Forty-second Street station and had nearly reached the -corner when a tall, fine-appearing gentleman turned into -the street from Sixth Avenue and approached them.</p> - -<p>Almost at the identical moment three figures rushed out -of the doorway of the corner building, where they had evidently -hidden, and sprang upon the gentleman.</p> - -<p>The attack was so sudden and unexpected that the intended -victim was thrown to the sidewalk and would have -been overpowered but for Dick, who, notwithstanding the -fact that he had a young lady to protect, could not stand -tamely by and witness such an outrage.</p> - -<p>Confident of his own strength and agility, Dick left Miss -Nesbitt’s side and started for the struggling group.</p> - -<p>He felled the foremost assailant with a stunning blow -under the ear—and the boy could hit out mighty hard.</p> - -<p>Then he sprang at the second, who he saw was a husky-looking -boy with his cap pulled well down about his eyes.</p> - -<p>He had just raised a sand-bag to stun the gentleman, but -was forced to relinquish his cowardly purpose and turn and -endeavor to defend himself.</p> - -<p>But Dick’s movements were quicker than lightning.</p> - -<p>He had taken the attacking party just as much by surprise -as they had taken their victim.</p> - -<p>His hard, weather-tanned fist caught the young rascal -on the point of the chin.</p> - -<p>The fellow went down beside his dazed comrade, and -from that moment he ceased to take any further interest -in the proceedings.</p> - -<p>This left only one more to be accounted for—another boy -whose face was streaked with black as a kind of disguise—and -the gentleman himself soon put him out of business.</p> - -<p>This brought the affair to a satisfactory conclusion.</p> - -<p>“I want to thank you, my brave lad, for coming to my -assistance,” said the stranger, shaking Dick warmly by the -hand. “But for you I most certainly would have been -knocked out and robbed.”</p> - -<p>“I am glad I was on hand to help you out,” replied the -stalwart boy, wiping specks of blood from his skinned -knuckles.</p> - -<p>“It was fortunate for me you were. You must come with -me to my hotel. I can’t let you off in this shabby manner.”</p> - -<p>“I am afraid you will have to excuse me,” answered the -boy, with a smile, “for I have a young lady yonder waiting -for me to take her home.”</p> - -<p>“Indeed!” exclaimed the gentleman, in surprise.</p> - -<p>“Come, Miss Jennie; the danger is all over,” called -Dick. And taking courage at this, Miss Nesbitt advanced -from the shadow of the buildings a few yards away.</p> - -<p>She regarded the three prostrate forms with a little -shudder and took refuge close to her young escort.</p> - -<p>“This is Miss Nesbitt,” began Dick. “I beg your pardon, -I don’t know your name, sir.”</p> - -<p>“Armstrong,” replied the gentleman, raising his hat -politely to the girl.</p> - -<p>“Why, that’s my name!” cried the boy, in surprise.</p> - -<p>“Is it possible?” exclaimed the stranger, regarding the -boy with a new and, we may add, intense interest.</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir; Richard Armstrong. Let me hand you my -card.”</p> - -<p>The gentleman took it mechanically without removing -his gaze from the lad’s face.</p> - -<p>“Richard Armstrong!” he repeated, showing for the first -time intense emotion.</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir; but I see these rascals are beginning to move. -I think we had better get away before they recover their -senses.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, do come,” urged Jennie Nesbitt, nervously.</p> - -<p>“It’s a pity there isn’t a policeman about to take them -into custody,” said Dick.</p> - -<p>The boy with the blackened face at this point turned -around and looked at Dick.</p> - -<p>He gave a hoarse cry and almost grovelled at the lad’s -feet.</p> - -<p>“Save me, Dick Armstrong! Save me!” he cried with -a frantic eagerness that was really pitiful. “Don’t you -know me? I am Luke Maslin!”</p> - -<p>Dick started as though he had trod on a live coal.</p> - -<p>Then he seized the disguised boy by the shoulder and -peered into his face.</p> - -<p>He saw he was indeed the storekeeper’s son.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</h2> -</div> - -<p class="h2sub">WHAT FINALLY COMES TO THE BOY WHO SUCCEEDED.</p> - -<p>“Great Scott! Luke Maslin! What does this mean? -You an associate of Tenderloin thugs! Is it possible you -have got so low as this?” cried Dick, in indignant amazement.</p> - -<p>“Save me!” almost shrieked Silas Maslin’s son, in abject -terror. “They made me what I am,” and he pointed to -the reviving rascals, who were no other than the man -Mudgett and the Walkhill terror, Tim Bunker. “They -won’t let me go home! They make me do as they want! -Oh, take me away from them!”</p> - -<p>“You know this boy?” asked the gentleman who said -his name was Armstrong, grabbing Dick by the arm in a -state of almost uncontrollable agitation.</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir.”</p> - -<p>“Did he not say his name was Maslin?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir; that is his name. He is the son of the man -with whom I lived almost all my life—Silas Maslin, of -Cobham’s Corner.”</p> - -<p>“Silas Maslin!” exclaimed the gentleman, in great excitement. -“Did he not once live at Franconia, New Hampshire?”</p> - -<p>“That’s right. He did,” replied Dick.</p> - -<p>“And you are the boy who at the age of five was left -in his care and never was called for?”</p> - -<p>“Why—why, how did you know that?” asked Dick, in -astonishment.</p> - -<p>“Because I am the man who left you with Mr. Maslin. -I am your father, George Armstrong, and you are the son -I have searched for for years, but could gain no trace of. -My boy—my dear, dear boy, this is a strange, though none -the less a providential meeting.”</p> - -<p>He held out his arms to Dick, and the lad, though of course -it could not be expected that he had retained any recollection -of his parent, instinctively felt that this man was -indeed the father he had long yearned to know, but hardly -expected to see in this world.</p> - -<p>Needless to say the two embraced right there in the -street, to the silent wonder of Jennie Nesbitt and young -Maslin, neither of whom quite comprehended the meaning -of it all.</p> - -<p>At this interesting juncture Mudgett sat up and stared -around him like one recovering from an ugly dream, while -almost at the same moment, a big policeman came sauntering -around the corner, swinging his club negligently to -and fro as if such a thing as trouble on his beat was very -far from his thoughts.</p> - -<p>Luke saw him at once and started to run, but Mr. Armstrong -blocked his way.</p> - -<p>“Don’t let him arrest me!” he begged, appealing to Dick.</p> - -<p>“Take this card and call upon me to-morrow, and I will -see that you get home to your people,” he replied. “Let -him go—father.”</p> - -<p>It was the first time he had addressed Mr. Armstrong -by that title, and it sounded strange on his lips.</p> - -<p>The gentleman stepped aside, and Luke flew up the street -like a frightened deer.</p> - -<p>This strange proceeding attracted the officer’s attention, -and he got active and alert at once.</p> - -<p>He approached the group at a quick gait.</p> - -<p>“Officer,” said Mr. Armstrong, in a commanding tone, -“arrest these two rascals. They assaulted me with intent -to rob. I am stopping at the Normandie and will appear -against them in the morning. Here is my card.”</p> - -<p>“How about that fellow running up the street?” asked -the policeman, sharply.</p> - -<p>“Never mind him. You couldn’t overtake him now.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll have to ask you to step around with us to the station,” -said the officer as he jerked the reviving Tim Bunker -to his feet with one hand and with the other secured a -strong grasp on Mudgett’s coat collar.</p> - -<p>“Very well,” acquiesced Mr. Armstrong, with no little -reluctance. “Come to the Hotel Normandie, my son, after -you have taken the young lady home.”</p> - -<p>“I will, father.”</p> - -<p>“Why, Dick!” exclaimed Jennie, when they were once -more alone and headed for the elevated station again. -“Please tell me what this means. Is this gentleman really -your father? I thought you told us your father was dead.”</p> - -<p>“So I did, and so I supposed he was,” replied the boy, -whose feelings were a mixture of joy and bewilderment over -this strange and unexpected discovery.</p> - -<p>And on the way to her home, in Seventy-second Street, -he told her what he had learned about his parentage from -the old diary once kept by Silas Maslin, which he had found -in the attic of the storekeeper’s house at Cobham’s Corner.</p> - -<p>“It was but a bare outline of one short week in my young -life’s history,” he said in conclusion, “but it gave me the -key to the mystery which had till that moment surrounded -my parentage—the secret the Maslins never divulged for -reasons of their own. But I shall soon know all. Yes,” -cried the boy, tears of wistful eagerness stealing into his -fine eyes, “to-night before I sleep I shall know who my -mother was—for something tells me she is not alive—that -she died long, long ago, probably about the time my -father carried me to Franconia.”</p> - -<p>Jennie was much affected and treated him with a sympathetic -gentleness that warmed his heart toward her more -than ever.</p> - -<p>“You must bring your father to see us, Dick, very soon. -Remember, we are all interested in you and whatever concerns -you. You will do this, won’t you?” she said, laying -her hand on his arm as they stood at the outside entrance -of her home.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” said the boy, with glistening eyes, “I will. He -will be glad to know those who have been so kind to me. -Do you know,” he cried with impetuous suddenness, “I wish -you were my sister?”</p> - -<p>“Do you?” said Jennie, blushing like a rose and suddenly -looking down.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I do.”</p> - -<p>Perhaps he did, but that was because he didn’t know any -better just then.</p> - -<p>He thought differently later on—but that is another -story.</p> - -<p>However, in the excitement of the moment, and, considering -what he had just passed through he might be well excused, -he did a very audacious thing.</p> - -<p>He actually kissed Jennie Nesbitt then and there.</p> - -<p>Then, realizing the enormity of his offence, he blurted -out a hasty “Good night!” and flew down the stoop, leaving -the lovely little blonde in a state of happy confusion -we will not attempt to describe.</p> - -<p>An hour later Dick was seated with his father in an elegant -room on the third floor of the Hotel Normandie, -listening to the story that father had to tell.</p> - -<p>As Dick had guessed, his mother was dead.</p> - -<p>She had passed away on the eve of a financial panic in -Boston which had wrecked his father’s business and temporarily -clouded his name with a suspicion of unfair commercial -methods.</p> - -<p>Nearly crazed by the loss of his wife, not to mention -his business reverses, Mr. Armstrong in the first days of his -misery fled to the recesses of New Hampshire, taking his -only boy with him.</p> - -<p>“I was shortly summoned back from Franconia by a -committee of my creditors, with whom I succeeded in making -a partial arrangement contingent on the success of -certain mining interests I had in the West,” said Mr. Armstrong. -“I sent Mr. Maslin one hundred dollars to defray -your board for a certain length of time, for I could not -return to you immediately as it was urgently necessary I -should go at once to Colorado. Afterward I sent him other -sums from the West for a like purpose. It was five years -before I found myself able to return East. While not rich, -I had done very well and my prospects were bright, my -business troubles of the past having been entirely wiped out. -When I went to Franconia I found the Maslins had moved -away a short time before, leaving no clue to their new -address, and from that hour to this day I never obtained -a clue, even by the assistance of paid detectives, to their -new home.”</p> - -<p>“And yet, father, all the time they were living at Cobham’s -Corner, on the Erie Canal, and I was living with -them, not as a boy whose board had ever been paid, but as -a friendless slave of never-ending toil,” said Dick, more -indignant than ever at the unfair treatment he had experienced -at the hands of Silas Maslin and his wife.</p> - -<p>“The unfeeling rascal!” exclaimed Mr. Armstrong. -“But he and I will have a reckoning that will not tend to -his advantage.”</p> - -<p>Notwithstanding this new phase of Mr. Maslin’s duplicity, -Dick did not fail to give Luke, his wayward son, the -necessary money to take him home, when that repentant -young man called to see him next morning at Mr. Nesbitt’s -offices.</p> - -<p>Probably the most excited as well as delighted young -fellow in New York next day was Joe Fletcher when his -stanch friend and chum told him the news that he had -actually found his father—now a millionaire mine-owner.</p> - -<p>“I never was so glad at anything in my whole life, Dick, -old boy,” he cried, with a beaming face. And then he -stopped, and his countenance suddenly clouded. “Perhaps -a seven-dollar-a-week produce clerk is hardly a fit companion -for the son of the wealthy Mr. Armstrong. It will -break my heart to lose you, Dick, but at least it will be -a satisfaction to know you’ve reached your proper station.”</p> - -<p>“Don’t you talk nonsense, Joe,” said Dick, grasping his -hand with a feeling that could not be mistaken. “Chums -we’ve been in adversity, and so shall we remain in the days -when prosperity has overtaken one of us at least. Glad as -I am to recover my father, I am proud to say that, without -any help from him and but little in a business sense from -even Mr. Nesbitt, I have succeeded in making my way to -the front, even if I am only seventeen years old.”</p> - -<p>“That’s right,” agreed Joe, fervently.</p> - -<p>And there were others who also coincided with this opinion, -the Nesbitts, for instance, and Jennie more than her -parents, for a few years later she gave her hand where she -had long since given her heart—to Dick Armstrong, the -BOY WHO SUCCEEDED.</p> - -<p class="center">THE END.</p> - -<hr class="r15" /> - -<p>Read “A CORNER IN CORN; OR, HOW A CHICAGO -BOY DID THE TRICK,” which will be the next -number (3) of “Fame and Fortune Weekly.”</p> - -<hr class="r15" /> - -<p>SPECIAL NOTICE: All back numbers of this weekly -are always in print. If you cannot obtain them from any -newsdealer, send the price in money or postage stamps by -mail to FRANK TOUSEY, PUBLISHER, 24 UNION -SQUARE, NEW YORK, and you will receive the copies -you order by return mail.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="WILD_WEST_WEEKLY">WILD WEST WEEKLY<br /> -<small>A Magazine Containing Stories, Sketches, etc., of Western Life.</small></h2> - -<p class="center"><b>BY AN OLD SCOUT.</b></p> -</div> - -<p class="center"> -<b>32 PAGES.</b>   -<b>PRICE 5 CENTS.</b>   -<b>32 PAGES.</b> -</p> - -<p class="center"><b>EACH NUMBER IN A HANDSOME COLORED COVER.</b></p> - -<p>All of these exciting stories are founded on facts. Young Wild West is a hero with whom the author was -acquainted. His daring deeds and thrilling adventures have never been surpassed. They form the base of the -most dashing stories ever published.</p> - -<p>Read the following numbers of this most interesting magazine and be convinced:</p> - -<h3>LATEST ISSUES:</h3> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<ul> -<li>100 Young Wild West and the Double Deuce; or, The Domino Gang of Denver.</li> -<li>101 Young Wild West on the Prairie; or, The Trail that had no End.</li> -<li>102 Young Wild West and “Missouri Mike”; or, The Worst Man in Wyoming.</li> -<li>103 Young Wild West at the Golden Gate; or, A Business Trip to ’Frisco.</li> -<li>104 Young Wild West and the Redskin Raiders; or, Arietta’s Leap for Life.</li> -<li>105 Young Wild West’s Cowboy Circus; or, Fun at the Mining Camps.</li> -<li>106 Young Wild West at Pike’s Peak; or, Arietta’s Strange Disappearance.</li> -<li>107 Young Wild West’s Six Shots, and the Change They Made at Dead Man’s Mark.</li> -<li>108 Young Wild West at the Little Big Horn; or, The Last Stand of the Cavalry.</li> -<li>109 Young Wild West’s Big Bluff; or, Playing a Lone Hand.</li> -<li>110 Young Wild West at Bowie Bend; or, The Ban of the Bandit Band.</li> -<li>111 Young Wild West’s Ton of Gold; or, The Accident to Arietta.</li> -<li>112 Young Wild West’s Green Corn Dance; or, A Lively Time with the Pawnees.</li> -<li>113 Young Wild West and the Cowboy King; or, Taming a Texas Terror.</li> -<li>114 Young Wild West’s Pocket of Gold; or, Arietta’s Great Discovery.</li> -<li>115 Young Wild West and “Shawnee Sam”; or, The Half-Breed’s Treachery.</li> -<li>116 Young Wild West’s Covered Trail; or, Arietta and the Avalanche.</li> -<li>117 Young Wild West and the Diamond Dagger; or, The Mexican Girl’s Revenge.</li> -<li>118 Young Wild West at Silver Shine; or, A Town Run by “Tenderfeet.”</li> -<li>119 Young Wild West Surrounded by Sioux; or, Arietta and the Aeronaut.</li> -<li>120 Young Wild West and the “Puzzle of the Camp”; or, The Girl Who Owned the Gulch.</li> -<li>121 Young Wild West and the Mustangers; or, The Boss of the Broncho Busters.</li> -<li>122 Young Wild West after the Apaches; or, Arietta’s Arizona Adventure.</li> -<li>123 Young Wild West Routing the Robbers; or, Saving Two Million Dollars.</li> -<li>124 Young Wild West at Rattlesnake Run; or, Arietta’s Deal with Death.</li> -<li>125 Young Wild West’s Winning Streak; or, A Straight Trail to Tombstone.</li> -<li>126 Young Wild West’s Lightning Lariat; or, Arietta and the Road Agents.</li> -<li>127 Young Wild West’s Red-Hot Ride; or, Pursued by Comanches.</li> -<li>128 Young Wild West and the Blazed Trail; or, Arietta as a Scout.</li> -<li>129 Young Wild West’s Four of a Kind; or, A Curious Combination.</li> -<li>130 Young Wild West Caught by the Crooks; or, Arietta on Hand.</li> -<li>131 Young Wild West and the Ten Terrors; or, The Doom of Dashing Dan.</li> -<li>132 Young Wild West’s Barrel of “Dust”; or, Arietta’s Chance Shot.</li> -<li>133 Young Wild West’s Triple Claim; or, Simple Sam, the “Sundowner.”</li> -<li>134 Young Wild West’s Curious Compact; or, Arietta as an Avenger.</li> -<li>135 Young Wild West’s Wampum Belt; or, Under the Ban of the Utes.</li> -<li>136 Young Wild West and the Rio Grande Rustlers; or, The Branding at Buckhorn Ranch.</li> -<li>137 Young Wild West and the Line League; or, Arietta Among the Smugglers.</li> -<li>138 Young Wild West’s Silver Spurs; or, Fun at Fairplay Fair.</li> -<li>139 Young Wild West Among the Blackfeet; or, Arietta as a Sorceress.</li> -<li>140 Young Wild West on the Yellowstone; or, The Secret of the Hidden Cave.</li> -<li>141 Young Wild West’s Deadly Aim; or, Arietta’s Greatest Danger.</li> -<li>142 Young Wild West at the “Jumping Off” Place; or, The Worst Camp in the West.</li> -<li>143 Young Wild West and the “Mixed-Up” Mine; or, Arietta a Winner.</li> -<li>144 Young Wild West’s Hundred Mile Race; or, Beating a Big Bunch.</li> -<li>145 Young Wild West Daring the Danites; or, The Search for a Missing Girl.</li> -<li>146 Young Wild West’s Lively Time; or, The Dandy Duck of the Diggings.</li> -<li>147 Young Wild West at Hold-Up Canyon; or, Arietta’s Great Victory.</li> -<li>148 Young Wild West’s Square Deal; or, Making the “Bad” Men Good.</li> -<li>149 Young Wild West Cowing the Cowboys; or, Arietta and the Prairie Fire.</li> -<li>150 Young Wild West and Navajo Ned; or, The Hunt for the Half-Breed Hermit.</li> -<li>151 Young Wild West’s Virgin Vein; or, Arietta and the Cave-in.</li> -<li>152 Young Wild West’s Cowboy Champions; or, The Trip to Kansas City.</li> -<li>153 Young Wild West’s Even Chance; or, Arietta’s Presence of Mind.</li> -<li>154 Young Wild West and the Flattened Bullet; or, The Man Who Would not Drop.</li> -<li>155 Young Wild West’s Gold Game; or, Arietta’s Full Hand.</li> -<li>156 Young Wild West’s Cowboy Scrimmage; or, Cooking a Crowd of Crooks.</li> -</ul> - -</div> - -<p class="center">For sale by all newsdealers, or will be sent to any address on receipt of price, 5 cents per copy, in money or postage stamps, by</p> - -<div> - <p class="alignleft"><b>FRANK TOUSEY, Publisher</b>,</p> - <p class="alignright"><b>24 Union Square, New York</b>.</p> -</div> -<div style="clear: both;"></div> - -<hr class="fulldouble" /> - -<h3>IF YOU WANT ANY BACK NUMBERS</h3> - -<p>of our Libraries and cannot procure them from newsdealers, they can be obtained from this office direct. 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Look over the list as classified and see if you want to know anything about the subjects -mentioned.</p> - -<hr class="r25" /> -<p>THESE BOOKS ARE FOR SALE BY ALL NEWSDEALERS OR WILL BE SENT BY MAIL TO ANY ADDRESS -FROM THIS OFFICE ON RECEIPT OF PRICE, TEN CENTS EACH, OR ANY THREE BOOKS FOR TWENTY-FIVE -CENTS. POSTAGE STAMPS TAKEN THE SAME AS MONEY. Address FRANK TOUSEY, Publisher, 24 Union Square, N.Y.</p> -<hr class="r25" /> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<h3>MESMERISM.</h3> - -<p>No. 81. HOW TO MESMERIZE.—Containing the most approved -methods of mesmerism; also how to cure all kinds of -diseases by animal magnetism, or, magnetic healing. By Prof. Leo -Hugo Koch, A. C. S., author of “How to Hypnotize,” etc.</p> - -<h3>PALMISTRY.</h3> - -<p>No. 82. HOW TO DO PALMISTRY.—Containing the most approved -methods of reading the lines on the hand, together with -a full explanation of their meaning. Also explaining phrenology, -and the key for telling character by the bumps on the head. By -Leo Hugo Koch, A. C. S. Fully illustrated.</p> - -<h3>HYPNOTISM.</h3> - -<p>No. 83. HOW TO HYPNOTIZE.—Containing valuable and instructive -information regarding the science of hypnotism. Also -explaining the most approved methods which are employed by the -leading hypnotists of the world. By Leo Hugo Koch, A. C. S.</p> - -<h3>SPORTING.</h3> - -<p>No. 21. HOW TO HUNT AND FISH.—The most complete -hunting and fishing guide ever published. It contains full instructions -about guns, hunting dogs, traps, trapping and fishing, -together with descriptions of game and fish.</p> - -<p>No. 26. HOW TO ROW, SAIL AND BUILD A BOAT.—Fully -illustrated. Every boy should know how to row and sail a boat. -Full instructions are given in this little book, together with instructions -on swimming and riding, companion sports to boating.</p> - -<p>No. 47. HOW TO BREAK, RIDE AND DRIVE A HORSE.—A -complete treatise on the horse. Describing the most useful horses -for business, the best horses for the road; also valuable recipes for -diseases peculiar to the horse.</p> - -<p>No. 48. HOW TO BUILD AND SAIL CANOES.—A handy -book for boys, containing full directions for constructing canoes -and the most popular manner of sailing them. Fully illustrated. -By C. Stansfield Hicks.</p> - -<h3>FORTUNE TELLING.</h3> - -<p>No. 1. NAPOLEON’S ORACULUM AND DREAM BOOK.—Containing -the great oracle of human destiny; also the true meaning -of almost any kind of dreams, together with charms, ceremonies, -and curious games of cards. A complete book.</p> - -<p>No. 23. HOW TO EXPLAIN DREAMS.—Everybody dreams, -from the little child to the aged man and woman. This little book -gives the explanation to all kinds of dreams, together with lucky -and unlucky days, and “Napoleon’s Oraculum,” the book of fate.</p> - -<p>No. 28. HOW TO TELL FORTUNES.—Everyone is desirous of -knowing what his future life will bring forth, whether happiness or -misery, wealth or poverty. You can tell by a glance at this little -book. Buy one and be convinced. Tell your own fortune. Tell -the fortune of your friends.</p> - -<p>No. 76. HOW TO TELL FORTUNES BY THE HAND.—Containing -rules for telling fortunes by the aid of lines of the hand, -or the secret of palmistry. Also the secret of telling future events -by aid of moles, marks, scars, etc. Illustrated. By A. Anderson.</p> - -<h3>ATHLETIC.</h3> - -<p>No. 6. HOW TO BECOME AN ATHLETE.—Giving full instruction -for the use of dumb bells, Indian clubs, parallel bars, -horizontal bars and various other methods of developing a good, -healthy muscle; containing over sixty illustrations. Every boy can -become strong and healthy by following the instructions contained -in this little book.</p> - -<p>No. 10. HOW TO BOX.—The art of self-defense made easy. -Containing over thirty illustrations of guards, blows, and the different -positions of a good boxer. Every boy should obtain one of -these useful and instructive books, as it will teach you how to box -without an instructor.</p> - -<p>No. 25. HOW TO BECOME A GYMNAST.—Containing full -instructions for all kinds of gymnastic sports and athletic exercises. -Embracing thirty-five illustrations. By Professor W. Macdonald. -A handy and useful book.</p> - -<p>No. 34. HOW TO FENCE.—Containing full instruction for -fencing and the use of the broadsword; also instruction in archery. -Described with twenty-one practical illustrations, giving the best -positions in fencing. A complete book.</p> - -<h3>TRICKS WITH CARDS.</h3> - -<p>No. 51. HOW TO DO TRICKS WITH CARDS.—Containing -explanations of the general principles of sleight-of-hand applicable -to card tricks; of card tricks with ordinary cards, and not requiring -sleight-of-hand; of tricks involving sleight-of-hand, or the use of -specially prepared cards. By Professor Haffner. Illustrated.</p> - -<p>No. 72. HOW TO DO SIXTY TRICKS WITH CARDS.—Embracing -all of the latest and most deceptive card tricks, with illustrations. -By A. Anderson.</p> - -<p>No. 77. HOW TO DO FORTY TRICKS WITH CARDS.—Containing -deceptive Card Tricks as performed by leading conjurors -and magicians. Arranged for home amusement. Fully illustrated.</p> - -<h3>MAGIC.</h3> - -<p>No. 2. HOW TO DO TRICKS.—The great book of magic and -card tricks, containing full instruction on all the leading card tricks -of the day, also the most popular magical illusions as performed by -our leading magicians; every boy should obtain a copy of this book, -as it will both amuse and instruct.</p> - -<p>No. 22. HOW TO DO SECOND SIGHT.—Heller’s second sight -explained by his former assistant, Fred Hunt, Jr. Explaining how -the secret dialogues were carried on between the magician and the -boy on the stage; also giving all the codes and signals. The only -authentic explanation of second sight.</p> - -<p>No. 43. HOW TO BECOME A MAGICIAN.—Containing the -grandest assortment of magical illusions ever placed before the -public. Also tricks with cards, incantations, etc.</p> - -<p>No. 68. HOW TO DO CHEMICAL TRICKS.—Containing over -one hundred highly amusing and instructive tricks with chemicals. -By A. Anderson. Handsomely illustrated.</p> - -<p>No. 69. HOW TO DO SLEIGHT OF HAND.—Containing over -fifty of the latest and best tricks used by magicians. Also containing -the secret of second sight. Fully illustrated. By A. Anderson.</p> - -<p>No. 70. HOW TO MAKE MAGIC TOYS.—Containing full -directions for making Magic Toys and devices of many kinds. By -A. Anderson. Fully illustrated.</p> - -<p>No. 73. HOW TO DO TRICKS WITH NUMBERS.—Showing -many curious tricks with figures and the magic of numbers. By A. -Anderson. Fully illustrated.</p> - -<p>No. 75. HOW TO BECOME A CONJUROR.—Containing -tricks with Dominos, Dice, Cups and Balls, Hats, etc. Embracing -thirty-six illustrations. By A. Anderson.</p> - -<p>No. 78. HOW TO DO THE BLACK ART.—Containing a complete -description of the mysteries of Magic and Sleight of Hand, -together with many wonderful experiments. By A. Anderson. -Illustrated.</p> - -<h3>MECHANICAL.</h3> - -<p>No. 29. HOW TO BECOME AN INVENTOR.—Every boy -should know how inventions originated. This book explains them -all, giving examples in electricity, hydraulics, magnetism, optics, -pneumatics, mechanics, etc. The most instructive book published.</p> - -<p>No. 56. HOW TO BECOME AN ENGINEER.—Containing full -instructions how to proceed in order to become a locomotive engineer; -also directions for building a model locomotive; together -with a full description of everything an engineer should know.</p> - -<p>No. 57. HOW TO MAKE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.—Full -directions how to make a Banjo, Violin, Zither, Æolian Harp, Xylophone -and other musical instruments; together with a brief description -of nearly every musical instrument used in ancient or -modern times. Profusely illustrated. By Algernon S. Fitzgerald, -for twenty years bandmaster of the Royal Bengal Marines.</p> - -<p>No. 59. HOW TO MAKE A MAGIC LANTERN.—Containing -a description of the lantern, together with its history and invention. -Also full directions for its use and for painting slides. Handsomely -illustrated. By John Allen.</p> - -<p>No. 71. HOW TO DO MECHANICAL TRICKS.—Containing -complete instructions for performing over sixty Mechanical Tricks. -By A. Anderson. Fully illustrated.</p> - -<h3>LETTER WRITING.</h3> - -<p>No. 11. HOW TO WRITE LOVE-LETTERS.—A most complete -little book, containing full directions for writing love-letters, -and when to use them, giving specimen letters for young and old.</p> - -<p>No. 12. HOW TO WRITE LETTERS TO LADIES.—Giving -complete instructions for writing letters to ladies on all subjects; -also letters of introduction, notes and requests.</p> - -<p>No. 24. HOW TO WRITE LETTERS TO GENTLEMEN.—Containing -full directions for writing to gentlemen on all subjects; -also giving sample letters for instruction.</p> - -<p>No. 53. HOW TO WRITE LETTERS.—A wonderful little -book, telling you how to write to your sweetheart, your father, -mother, sister, brother, employer; and, in fact, everybody and anybody -you wish to write to. Every young man and every young -lady in the land should have this book.</p> - -<p>No. 74. HOW TO WRITE LETTERS CORRECTLY.—Containing -full instructions for writing letters on almost any subject; -also rules for punctuation and composition, with specimen letters.</p> - -<h3>THE STAGE.</h3> - -<p>No. 41. THE BOYS OF NEW YORK END MEN’S JOKE -BOOK.—Containing a great variety of the latest jokes used by the -most famous end men. No amateur minstrel is complete without -this wonderful little book.</p> - -<p>No. 42. THE BOYS OF NEW YORK STUMP SPEAKER.—Containing -a varied assortment of stump speeches, Negro, Dutch -and Irish. Also end men’s jokes. Just the thing for home amusement -and amateur shows.</p> - -<p>No. 45. THE BOYS OF NEW YORK MINSTREL GUIDE -AND JOKE BOOK.—Something new and very instructive. Every -boy should obtain this book, as it contains full instructions for organizing -an amateur minstrel troupe.</p> - -<p>No. 65. MULDOON’S JOKES.—This is one of the most original -joke books ever published, and it is brimful of wit and humor. It -contains a large collection of songs, jokes, conundrums, etc., of -Terrence Muldoon, the great wit, humorist, and practical joker of -the day. Every boy who can enjoy a good substantial joke should -obtain a copy immediately.</p> - -<p>No. 79. HOW TO BECOME AN ACTOR.—Containing complete -instructions how to make up for various characters on the -stage; together with the duties of the Stage Manager, Prompter, -Scenic Artist and Property Man. By a prominent Stage Manager.</p> - -<p>No. 80. GUS WILLIAMS’ JOKE BOOK.—Containing the latest -jokes, anecdotes and funny stories of this world-renowned and -ever popular German comedian. Sixty-four pages; handsome -colored cover containing a half-tone photo of the author.</p> - -<h3>HOUSEKEEPING.</h3> - -<p>No. 16. HOW TO KEEP A WINDOW GARDEN.—Containing -full instructions for constructing a window garden either in town -or country, and the most approved methods for raising beautiful -flowers at home. The most complete book of the kind ever published.</p> - -<p>No. 30. HOW TO COOK.—One of the most instructive books -on cooking ever published. It contains recipes for cooking meats, -fish, game, and oysters; also pies, puddings, cakes and all kinds of -pastry, and a grand collection of recipes by one of our most popular -cooks.</p> - -<p>No. 37. HOW TO KEEP HOUSE.—It contains information for -everybody, boys, girls, men and women; it will teach you how to -make almost anything around the house, such as parlor ornaments, -brackets, cements, Aeolian harps, and bird lime for catching birds.</p> - -<h3>ELECTRICAL.</h3> - -<p>No. 46. HOW TO MAKE AND USE ELECTRICITY.—A description -of the wonderful uses of electricity and electro magnetism; -together with full instructions for making Electric Toys, Batteries, -etc. By George Trebel, A. M., M. D. Containing over fifty illustrations.</p> - -<p>No. 64. HOW TO MAKE ELECTRICAL MACHINES.—Containing -full directions for making electrical machines, induction -coils, dynamos, and many novel toys to be worked by electricity. -By R. A. R. Bennett. Fully illustrated.</p> - -<p>No. 67. HOW TO DO ELECTRICAL TRICKS.—Containing a -large collection of instructive and highly amusing electrical tricks, -together with illustrations. By A. Anderson.</p> - -<h3>ENTERTAINMENT.</h3> - -<p>No. 9. HOW TO BECOME A VENTRILOQUIST.—By Harry -Kennedy. The secret given away. Every intelligent boy reading -this book of instructions, by a practical professor (delighting multitudes -every night with his wonderful imitations), can master the -art, and create any amount of fun for himself and friends. It is the -greatest book ever published, and there’s millions (of fun) in it.</p> - -<p>No. 20. HOW TO ENTERTAIN AN EVENING PARTY.—A -very valuable little book just published. A complete compendium -of games, sports, card diversions, comic recitations, etc., suitable -for parlor or drawing-room entertainment. It contains more for the -money than any book published.</p> - -<p>No. 35. HOW TO PLAY GAMES.—A complete and useful little -book, containing the rules and regulations of billiards, bagatelle, -backgammon, croquet, dominoes, etc.</p> - -<p>No. 36. HOW TO SOLVE CONUNDRUMS.—Containing all -the leading conundrums of the day, amusing riddles, curious catches -and witty sayings.</p> - -<p>No. 52. HOW TO PLAY CARDS.—A complete and handy little -book, giving the rules and full directions for playing Euchre, Cribbage, -Casino, Forty-Five, Rounce, Pedro Sancho, Draw Poker, -Auction Pitch, All Fours, and many other popular games of cards.</p> - -<p>No. 66. HOW TO DO PUZZLES.—Containing over three hundred -interesting puzzles and conundrums, with key to same. A -complete book. Fully illustrated. By A. Anderson.</p> - -<h3>ETIQUETTE.</h3> - -<p>No. 13. HOW TO DO IT; OR, BOOK OF ETIQUETTE.—It -is a great life secret, and one that every young man desires to know -all about. There’s happiness in it.</p> - -<p>No. 33. HOW TO BEHAVE.—Containing the rules and etiquette -of good society and the easiest and most approved methods of appearing -to good advantage at parties, balls, the theatre, church, and -in the drawing-room.</p> - -<h3>DECLAMATION.</h3> - -<p>No. 27. HOW TO RECITE AND BOOK OF RECITATIONS.—Containing -the most popular selections in use, comprising Dutch -dialect, French dialect, Yankee and Irish dialect pieces, together -with many standard readings.</p> - -<p>No. 31. HOW TO BECOME A SPEAKER.—Containing fourteen -illustrations, giving the different positions requisite to become -a good speaker, reader and elocutionist. Also containing gems from -all the popular authors of prose and poetry, arranged in the most -simple and concise manner possible.</p> - -<p>No. 49. HOW TO DEBATE.—Giving rules for conducting debates, -outlines for debates, questions for discussion, and the best -sources for procuring information on the questions given.</p> - -<h3>SOCIETY.</h3> - -<p>No. 3. HOW TO FLIRT.—The arts and wiles of flirtation are -fully explained by this little book. Besides the various methods of -handkerchief, fan, glove, parasol, window and hat flirtation, it contains -a full list of the language and sentiment of flowers, which is -interesting to everybody, both old and young. You cannot be happy -without one.</p> - -<p>No. 4. HOW TO DANCE is the title of a new and handsome -little book just issued by Frank Tousey. It contains full instructions -in the art of dancing, etiquette in the ball-room and at parties, -how to dress, and full directions for calling off in all popular square -dances.</p> - -<p>No. 5. HOW TO MAKE LOVE.—A complete guide to love, -courtship and marriage, giving sensible advice, rules and etiquette -to be observed, with many curious and interesting things not generally -known.</p> - -<p>No. 17. HOW TO DRESS.—Containing full instruction in the -art of dressing and appearing well at home and abroad, giving the -selections of colors, material, and how to have them made up.</p> - -<p>No. 18. HOW TO BECOME BEAUTIFUL.—One of the -brightest and most valuable little books ever given to the world. -Everybody wishes to know how to become beautiful, both male and -female. The secret is simple, and almost costless. Read this book -and be convinced how to become beautiful.</p> - -<h3>BIRDS AND ANIMALS.</h3> - -<p>No. 7. HOW TO KEEP BIRDS.—Handsomely illustrated and -containing full instructions for the management and training of the -canary, mockingbird, bobolink, blackbird, paroquet, parrot, etc.</p> - -<p>No. 39. HOW TO RAISE DOGS, POULTRY, PIGEONS AND -RABBITS.—A useful and instructive book. Handsomely illustrated. -By Ira Drofraw.</p> - -<p>No. 40. HOW TO MAKE AND SET TRAPS.—Including hints -on how to catch moles, weasels, otters, rats, squirrels and birds. -Also how to cure skins. Copiously illustrated. By J. Harrington -Keene.</p> - -<p>No. 50. HOW TO STUFF BIRDS AND ANIMALS.—A -valuable book, giving instructions in collecting, preparing, mounting -and preserving birds, animals and insects.</p> - -<p>No. 54. HOW TO KEEP AND MANAGE PETS.—Giving complete -information as to the manner and method of raising, keeping, -taming, breeding, and managing all kinds of pets; also giving full -instructions for making cages, etc. Fully explained by twenty-eight -illustrations, making it the most complete book of the kind ever -published.</p> - -<h3>MISCELLANEOUS.</h3> - -<p>No. 8. HOW TO BECOME A SCIENTIST.—A useful and instructive -book, giving a complete treatise on chemistry; also experiments -in acoustics, mechanics, mathematics, chemistry, and directions -for making fireworks, colored fires, and gas balloons. This -book cannot be equaled.</p> - -<p>No. 14. HOW TO MAKE CANDY.—A complete hand-book for -making all kinds of candy, ice-cream, syrups, essences, etc., etc.</p> - -<p>No. 34. HOW TO BECOME AN AUTHOR.—Containing full -information regarding choice of subjects, the use of words and the -manner of preparing and submitting manuscript. Also containing -valuable information as to the neatness, legibility and general composition -of manuscript, essential to a successful author. By Prince -Hiland.</p> - -<p>No. 38. HOW TO BECOME YOUR OWN DOCTOR.—A wonderful -book, containing useful and practical information in the -treatment of ordinary diseases and ailments common to every -family. Abounding in useful and effective recipes for general complaints.</p> - -<p>No. 55. HOW TO COLLECT STAMPS AND COINS.—Containing -valuable information regarding the collecting and arranging -of stamps and coins. Handsomely illustrated.</p> - -<p>No. 58. HOW TO BE A DETECTIVE.—By Old King Brady, -the world-known detective. In which he lays down some valuable -and sensible rules for beginners, and also relates some adventures -and experiences of well-known detectives.</p> - -<p>No. 60. HOW TO BECOME A PHOTOGRAPHER.—Containing -useful information regarding the Camera and how to work it; -also how to make Photographic Magic Lantern Slides and other -Transparencies. Handsomely illustrated. By Captain W. De W. -Abney.</p> - -<p>No. 62. HOW TO BECOME A WEST POINT MILITARY -CADET.—Containing full explanations how to gain admittance, -course of Study, Examinations, Duties, Staff of Officers, Post -Guard, Police Regulations, Fire Department, and all a boy should -know to be a Cadet. Compiled and written by Lu Senarens, author -of “How to Become a Naval Cadet.”</p> - -<p>No. 63. HOW TO BECOME A NAVAL CADET.—Complete instructions -of how to gain admission to the Annapolis Naval -Academy. Also containing the course of instruction, description -of grounds and buildings, historical sketch, and everything a boy -should know to become an officer in the United States Navy. Compiled -and written by Lu Senarens, author of “How to Become a -West Point Military Cadet.”</p> -</div> - -<p class="center"><b>PRICE 10 CENTS EACH, OR 3 FOR 25 CENTS.</b></p> - -<p class="center"><b>Address FRANK TOUSEY, Publisher, 24 Union Square, New York.</b></p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="FRANK_MANLEYS_WEEKLY">FRANK MANLEY’S WEEKLY<br /> - -<small>Good Stories of Young Athletes</small></h2> -<p class="h2sub"><b>(Formerly “THE YOUNG ATHLETE’S WEEKLY”)</b><br /> -BY “PHYSICAL DIRECTOR”</p> - -<p class="center"> -<img class="w100" src="images/deco1.jpg" style="max-width: 5em;" alt="Decoration" /> -A 32-PAGE BOOK FOR 5 CENTS -<img class="w100" src="images/deco1.jpg" style="max-width: 5em;" alt="Decoration" /> -</p> - -<p class="center"><b>Issued Every Friday</b> -<img class="w100" src="images/ballchain.jpg" style="max-width: 10em;" alt="Decoration" /> -<b>Handsome Colored Covers</b> -</p> -</div> - -<p>These intensely interesting stories describe the adventures of Frank Manley, a plucky young athlete, who tries to excel -in all kinds of games and pastimes. Each number contains a story of manly sports, replete with lively incidents, -dramatic situations and a sparkle of humor. Every popular game will be featured in the succeeding stories, such as baseball, -skating, wrestling, etc. Not only are these stories the very best, but they teach you how to become strong and -healthy. You can learn to become a trained athlete by reading the valuable information on physical culture they contain. -From time to time the wonderful Japanese methods of self-protection, called Jiu-Jitsu, will be explained. A page is -devoted to advice on healthy exercises, and questions on athletic subjects are cheerfully answered by the author -“PHYSICAL DIRECTOR.”</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<ul> -<li>No. 1 Frank Manley’s Real Fight; or, What the Push-ball Game Brought About.</li> -<li>No. 2 Frank Manley’s Lightning Track; or, Speed’s Part in a Great Crisis.</li> -<li>No. 3 Frank Manley’s Amazing Vault; or, Pole and Brains in Deadly Earnest.</li> -<li>No. 4 Frank Manley’s Gridiron Grill; or, The Try-Out for Football Grit.</li> -<li>No. 5 Frank Manley’s Great Line-Up; or, The Woodstock Eleven on the Jump.</li> -<li>No. 6 Frank Manley’s Prize Tackle; or, The Football Tactics that Won.</li> -<li>No. 7 Frank Manley’s Mad Scrimmage; or, The Trick that Dazed Bradford.</li> -<li>No. 8 Frank Manley’s Lion-Hearted Rush; or, Staking Life on the Outcome.</li> -</ul> -</div> - -<p class="center">For sale by all newsdealers, or will be sent to any address on receipt of price, 5 cents per copy, in money or postage stamps, by</p> -<div> - <p class="alignleft"><b>FRANK TOUSEY, Publisher</b>,</p> - <p class="alignright"><b>24 Union Square, New York</b>.</p> -</div> -<div style="clear: both;"></div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="center"> -<img class="w100" src="images/deco1.jpg" style="max-width: 10em;" alt="Decoration" /> -</p> - -<h3>The Young Athlete’s Weekly</h3> - -<p class="h3sub">By “PHYSICAL DIRECTOR”</p> - -<div> - <p class="alignleft"><b>BE STRONG!</b></p> - <p class="alignright"><b>BE HEALTHY!</b></p> -</div> -<div style="clear: both;"></div> -</div> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<h4>LATEST ISSUES:</h4> - -<ul> -<li> 8 Frank Manley’s Human Ladder; or, The Quickest Climb on Record.</li> -<li> 9 Frank Manley’s Protege; or, Jack Winston, Great Little Athlete.</li> -<li>10 Frank Manley’s Off Day; or, The Greatest Strain in His Career.</li> -<li>11 Frank Manley on Deck; or, At Work at Indoor Baseball.</li> -<li>12 Frank Manley At the Bat; or, “The Up-and-at-’em Boys” on the Diamond.</li> -<li>13 Frank Manley’s Hard Home Hit; or, The Play That Surprised the Bradfords.</li> -<li>14 Frank Manley in the Box; or, The Curve That Rattled Bradford.</li> -<li>15 Frank Manley’s Scratch Hit; or, The Luck of “The Up-and-at-’em Boys.”</li> -<li>16 Frank Manley’s Double Play; or, The Game That Brought Fortune.</li> -<li>17 Frank Manley’s All-around Game; or, Playing All the Nine Positions.</li> -<li>18 Frank Manley’s Eight-Oared Crew; or, Tod Owen’s Decoration Day Regatta.</li> -<li>19 Frank Manley’s Earned Run; or, The Sprint That Won a Cup.</li> -<li>20 Frank Manley’s Triple Play; or, The Only Hope of the Nine.</li> -<li>21 Frank Manley’s Training Table; or, Whipping the Nine into Shape.</li> -<li>22 Frank Manley’s Coaching; or, The Great Game that “Jackets” Pitched.</li> -<li>23 Frank Manley’s First League Game; or, The Fourth of July Battle With Bradford.</li> -<li>24 Frank Manley’s Match with Giants; or, The Great Game With the Alton “Grown-Ups.”</li> -<li>25 Frank Manley’s Training Camp; or, Getting in Trim for the Greatest Ball Game.</li> -<li>26 Frank Manley’s Substitute Nine; or, A Game of Pure Grit.</li> -<li>27 Frank Manley’s Longest Swim; or, Battling with Bradford in the Water.</li> -<li>28 Frank Manley’s Bunch of Hits; or, Breaking the Season’s Batting Record.</li> -<li>29 Frank Manley’s Double Game; or, The Wonderful Four-Team Match.</li> -<li>30 Frank Manley’s Summer Meet; or, “Trying Out” the Bradfords.</li> -<li>31 Frank Manley at His Wits’ End; or, Playing Against a Bribed Umpire.</li> -<li>32 Frank Manley’s Last Ball Game; or, The Season’s Exciting Good-Bye to the Diamond.</li> -</ul> - -<p class="center">For sale by all newsdealers, or will be sent to any address on receipt of price, 5 cents per copy, in money or postage stamps, by</p> -</div> - -<div> - <p class="alignleft"><b>FRANK TOUSEY, Publisher</b>,</p> - <p class="alignright"><b>24 Union Square, New York</b>.</p> -</div> -<div style="clear: both;"></div> - -<hr class="fulldouble" /> - -<h3>IF YOU WANT ANY BACK NUMBERS</h3> - -<p>of our Libraries and cannot procure them from newsdealers, they can be obtained from this office direct. Cut out and fill -in the following Order Blank and send it to us with the price of the books you want and we will send them to you by return -mail.</p> - -<p class="right"><b>POSTAGE STAMPS TAKEN THE SAME AS MONEY.</b> -</p> - -<hr class="fulldotted" /> - -<p class="monospace center"> -FRANK TOUSEY, Publisher, 24 Union Square, New York. ......190<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>—Enclosed find......cents for which please send me:</span><br /> -....copies of WORK AND WIN, Nos........................................<br /> -....copies of FRANK MANLEY’S WEEKLY, Nos...............................<br /> -....copies of WILD WEST WEEKLY, Nos....................................<br /> -....copies of THE LIBERTY BOYS OF ’76, Nos.............................<br /> -....copies of PLUCK AND LUCK, Nos......................................<br /> -....copies of SECRET SERVICE, Nos......................................<br /> -....copies of THE YOUNG ATHLETE’S WEEKLY, Nos..........................<br /> -....copies of Ten-Cent Hand Books, Nos.................................<br /> -Name.................Street and No................Town..........State..<br /> -</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak sans-serif">Fame and Fortune Weekly<br /> -<small><i>STORIES OF BOYS WHO MAKE MONEY</i></small></h2> -<p class="h2sub sans-serif"> -<b><big>By A SELF-MADE MAN</big></b></p> -</div> - -<div class="sans-serif"> - <p class="alignleft"><i><b><big>32 Pages of Reading Matter</big></b></i></p> - <p class="alignright"><i><b><big>Handsome Colored Covers</big></b></i></p> -</div> -<div style="clear: both;"></div> - -<p class="center sans-serif"><big><b>☛ PRICE 5 CENTS A COPY ☚</b></big></p> - -<p class="center sans-serif"><big><b>☛ A New One Issued Every Friday ☚</b></big></p> - -<p>This Weekly contains interesting stories of smart boys, who win fame and fortune by their -ability to take advantage of passing opportunities. Some of these stories are founded on -true incidents in the lives of our most successful self-made men, and show how a boy of -pluck, perseverance and brains can become famous and wealthy. Every one of this series contains -a good moral tone, which makes “Fame and Fortune Weekly” a magazine for the home, -although each number is replete with exciting adventures. The stories are the very best obtainable, -the illustrations are by expert artists, and every effort is constantly being made to -make it the best weekly on the news stands. Tell your friends about it.</p> - -<h3 class="allsmcap">THE FOLLOWING IS A LIST OF THE FIRST EIGHT TITLES AND DATES OF ISSUE</h3> - -<table class="autotable" summary=""> -<tr> -<td class="tdlh">No. 1.—A Lucky Deal; or, The Cutest Boy in Wall Street</td> -<td class="tdl">Issued Oct.</td> -<td class="tdr">6th</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdlh">No. 2.—Born to Good Luck; or, The Boy Who Succeeded</td> -<td class="tdl">Issued Oct.</td> -<td class="tdr">13th</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdlh">No. 3.—A Corner in Corn; or, How a Chicago Boy Did the Trick</td> -<td class="tdl">Issued Oct.</td> -<td class="tdr">20th</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdlh">No. 4.—A Game of Chance; or, The Boy Who Won Out</td> -<td class="tdl">Issued Oct.</td> -<td class="tdr">27th</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdlh">No. 5.—Hard to Beat; or, The Cleverest Boy in Wall Street</td> -<td class="tdl">Issued Nov.</td> -<td class="tdr">3rd</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdlh">No. 6.—Building a Railroad; or, The Young Contractors of Lakeview</td> -<td class="tdl">Issued Nov.</td> -<td class="tdr">10th</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdlh">No. 7.—Winning His Way; or, The Youngest Editor in Green River</td> -<td class="tdl">Issued Nov.</td> -<td class="tdr">17th</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdlh">No. 8.—The Wheel of Fortune; or, The Record of a Self-Made Boy</td> -<td class="tdl">Issued Nov.</td> -<td class="tdr">24th</td> -</tr> -</table> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p class="center"><small>For sale by all newsdealers, or will be sent to any address on receipt of price, 5 cents per copy in money or postage stamps, by</small></p> -</div> - -<p class="center"> -<b>FRANK TOUSEY, Publisher</b> - 🙦 🙦 🙦  -<b>24 Union Square, New York</b> -</p> - -<hr class="fulldouble" /> - -<h3>IF YOU WANT ANY BACK NUMBERS</h3> - -<p>of our Libraries and cannot procure them from newsdealers, they can be obtained from this office direct. Cut out and fill in the following Order Blank and send it -to us with the price of the books you want and we will send them to you by return mail.</p> - -<p class="right"><b>POSTAGE STAMPS TAKEN THE SAME AS MONEY.</b></p> - -<hr class="fulldotted" /> - -<p class="monospace"> -FRANK TOUSEY, Publisher, 24 Union Square, New York. ......190<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>—Enclosed find......cents for which please send me:</span><br /> -....copies of WORK AND WIN, Nos........................................<br /> -....copies of FAME AND FORTUNE WEEKLY, Nos.............................<br /> -....copies of FRANK MANLEY’S WEEKLY, Nos...............................<br /> -....copies of WILD WEST WEEKLY, Nos....................................<br /> -....copies of THE LIBERTY BOYS OF ’76, Nos.............................<br /> -....copies of PLUCK AND LUCK, Nos......................................<br /> -....copies of SECRET SERVICE, Nos......................................<br /> -....copies of YOUNG ATHLETE’S WEEKLY, Nos..............................<br /> -....copies of TEN-CENT HANDBOOKS, Nos..................................<br /> -Name.................Street and No................Town..........State.. -</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> -<div class="chapter transnote"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="Transcribers_Notes"> -Transcriber’s Notes -</h2> - -<p>A number of typographical errors were corrected silently.</p> - -<p>Cover image is in the public domain.</p> - -<p>Dittoes were replaced with the repeated words.</p> - -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAME AND FORTUNE WEEKLY, NO. 2, OCTOBER 13, 1905 ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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