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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43301 ***
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER I.--THE BOY MESSENGER.
+  CHAPTER II.--AN OATH TO WIN, A VOW TO AVENGE.
+  CHAPTER III.--TRACKED TO HIS LAIR.
+  CHAPTER IV.--THE MEETING.
+  CHAPTER V.--THE BOY PROTECTOR.
+  CHAPTER VI.--THE REWARD FOR A CONVICT.
+  CHAPTER VII.--THE LOST GOLD PIECE.
+  CHAPTER VIII.--THE DASHING DRAGOON.
+  CHAPTER IX.--PHANTOMS OF THE PAST.
+  CHAPTER X.--DESERTED.
+  CHAPTER XI.--A REBUFF.
+  CHAPTER XII.--THE BOY CAPTIVE.
+  CHAPTER XIII.--PUT TO THE TEST.
+  CHAPTER XIV.--WILL PLAYS HIS LITTLE GAME.
+  CHAPTER XV.--THE BOY GUIDE.
+  CHAPTER XVI.--THE RAID.
+  CHAPTER XVII.--ON SECRET SERVICE.
+  CHAPTER XVIII.--HEADED OFF.
+  CHAPTER XIX.--UNKNOWN KINDRED TIES.
+  CHAPTER XX.--THE GRAVE ON THE PRAIRIE.
+  CHAPTER XXI.--RETRIBUTION AT LAST.
+  CHAPTER XXII.--INSNARED BY A WATCH.
+  CHAPTER XXIII.--WIZARD WILL'S LUCK.
+  CHAPTER XXIV.--CONCLUSION.
+
+
+
+
+  THE ALDINE "TIP-TOP TALES."
+
+  WIZARD WILL
+  THE WONDER WORKER
+
+  No. 77.]
+
+  [Illustration: "I wish to see Jerry, the Night Hawk," Will promptly
+  answered.]
+
+  [1d.
+
+  ALDINE PUBLISHING CO., 9, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street, London.
+
+
+
+
+THE
+
+"O'ER LAND & SEA" LIBRARY.
+
+PRICE TWOPENCE EACH.
+
+FREE BY POST 2-1/2d.
+
+This is the largest (containing more good reading), the Cheapest and
+BEST TWOPENNY LIBRARY IN THE WORLD.
+
+Each carefully written volume is guaranteed to be a work of absorbing
+interest and of the highest Literary Merit.
+
+
+VOLUMES NOW READY.
+
+=1. Buffalo Bill.= His Life and Adventures in the Wild West
+
+=2. The Comrade Scout of Buffalo Bill=
+
+=3. The Cabin-Boy of the "Polly Ann"=; or, the Gardens of Paradise
+
+=4. Mexican Joe.= His wonderful Life, Exploits, and Adventures
+
+=5. The Sailor Castaways=; or, the Buried Treasure of Phantom Island
+
+=6. The Death's Head Cuirassiers=; or, Brave of all Braves
+
+=7. The Boy Wonder=; or, the Star of the Circus
+
+=8. Joe Phoenix, the Police Spy=
+
+=9. Billy Boots, the Jockey, and Colonel Plunger=
+
+=10. The Mystery of the Satin-wood Box=
+
+=11. The Armourer's Apprentice.= A Story of "The Battle and the Breeze."
+
+=12. The Red Rajah=; or, the Scourge of the Indies
+
+=13. The Whitest Man in the Mines, and Charley Jones, the "Angel" of
+Dogtown=
+
+=14. The Mad Hussars=; or, the O's and the Macs. A Story of Four Irish
+Soldiers of Fortune
+
+=15. "One Eye," the Cannoneer=; or, Marshal Ney's Last Legacy
+
+=16. The "Deep One;"= or, the Puzzled Detective
+
+=17. Larry Locke=; or, A Fight for Fortune
+
+=18. "Parson Jim," King of the Cowboys=
+
+=19. Little Charlie and Pug Billy.= A Mystery of the Thames
+
+=20. The Skipper of the Seagull=; or, the Fog Fiend of Newfoundland
+
+=21. Life and Adventures of Barnum, the Emperor of Showmen=
+
+=22. Joe Phoenix's Great Man Hunt=; or, the Captain of the Wolves
+
+=23. The Irish Captain.= A Tale of the Fight at Fontenoy
+
+=24. Nemo, King of the Tramps=; or, a Romany Girl's Vengeance
+
+=25. The Saucy Jane, Privateer=
+
+=26. Journeyman John, the Champion=
+
+=27. The Maverick Hunters=; or, the Night Riders of Satanta County
+
+=28. The Man in Red=; or, the Ghost of the Old Guard
+
+=29. Top Notch Tom, the Cowboy Outlaw=
+
+=30. The Marshal of Satanstown=; or, the League of the Cattle-lifters.
+
+=31. Lance and Lasso=; or, Adventures on the Pampas
+
+=32. The Three Frigates, and the Peerless Privateer=
+
+=33. The Russian Spy=; or, the Brothers of the Starry Cross
+
+=34. The Demon Duellist=; or, the League of Steel
+
+=35. The Wild Ranger=; or, the Crack Shot of the West
+
+=36. The Mutineer.= A Romance of Sunny Lands and Blue Waters
+
+=37. Captain "Freelance," the Buccaneer=
+
+=38. Montezuma the Merciless=; or, the Eagle and Serpent
+
+=39. Overland Kit=; or, the Idyl of White Pine
+
+_Continued on page 2 of cover._
+
+
+
+
+WIZARD WILL
+
+THE WONDER WORKER.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.--THE BOY MESSENGER.
+
+
+"Ho, my boy! do you wish to make a dollar?"
+
+"I do, sir--indeed I do."
+
+"What is your name?"
+
+"Will, sir."
+
+"Well, Will, can you keep your mouth shut?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Can you be blind, if need be?"
+
+"You mean not to see anything that is not intended for me to see, sir?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I understand, sir."
+
+"Well, it is important that this letter reaches a friend of mine, as I
+cannot go myself, so you take it to the number; can you read?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, take it to the number on the envelope, and ring the bell sharply
+_three_ times; then ask for Jerry, the Night Hawk; will you remember the
+name?"
+
+"Yes, sir--Jerry, the Night Hawk."
+
+"Yes, that's it; and you must give him the letter in person."
+
+"Suppose he is not there, sir?"
+
+"Then find out when he will be, and keep the letter for him; and see, I
+write on the back here for him to give you a couple of dollars, after
+which go your way, and forget all about what you have done."
+
+"Yes, sir;" and the boy took the note and turned to depart to the
+address on the envelope, when he was called back, while the man stood in
+silent thought.
+
+He was a gentlemanly looking person, with a face, however stamped with
+dissipation.
+
+In the neighbourhood where he had met the boy, he appeared to be out of
+place.
+
+For half a moment he stood, gazing at the face of the youngster, and
+then he said:
+
+"My boy, do you remember to have seen me before?"
+
+"No, sir; and yet it seems as if I had."
+
+"It so seems to me, and your face comes to me like a dream of the past
+which I cannot recall; but--never mind; go and do as I have told you,
+and you will get your pay," and the man walked on down the street; but
+before he had gone far he sprang into a hack, which had evidently been
+waiting for him, and was driven away.
+
+The boy thus intrusted with what was evidently an important note, was an
+urchin of twelve; but he looked older, and there was that in his bright,
+handsome face which denoted both courage of a high order and
+intelligence beyond his years.
+
+He was poorly, very poorly clad, but his clothing was clean, and he
+evidently took pride in appearing at his best.
+
+The locality he was in was a hard one, one of the worst localities in
+the city of New York, and rude, rough characters--men, women and
+children--were in the streets.
+
+But the lad went on his way without noticing any one, and, as though
+acquainted with his surroundings, turned into a wretched street that was
+little more than an alleyway.
+
+He stopped at a certain number and seized the bell knob, which appeared
+to belong to a bygone age, and in fact the house was a quaint old
+structure that had long been the abode of poverty.
+
+His three sharp rings, as he had been directed to give, were answered by
+the door opening, seemingly without human agency, while a gruff voice
+demanded:
+
+"Well, step inside and tell me what you want?"
+
+The messenger stepped into a small hallway, and saw before him, a few
+feet distant, another door, while, through an open panel in it peered a
+man's face.
+
+"I wish to see Jerry, the Night Hawk," explained the youngster.
+
+"What do you want with him?"
+
+"I have a letter for him."
+
+"Give it to me."
+
+"No, sir, for I have orders from my boss to give it only to Jerry."
+
+"All right, you can go up and see him, top floor, right hand side front
+room," was the reply, and as the man spoke the other door closed behind
+the boy, the one in his front opened, and he found he was in a hallway,
+into which no doors opened, except the one through which he had passed,
+and in the rear was only a pair of stairs occupying the entire width of
+the narrow passageway.
+
+A dim light came from above somewhere, and the messenger ascended the
+stairs to the second floor, where he saw doors upon either side.
+
+Ascending to the third floor, he sought the door to which he had been
+directed, and knocked.
+
+No answer came, and he waited a while and again knocked.
+
+Still no answer, and then his eyes fell upon a small knob, which he
+pulled and found to be a bell.
+
+Still no response, and the thought came to him to ring it three times,
+as he had the bell below stairs.
+
+This he did, and instantly he heard a voice behind him.
+
+"Well, youngster, what is it you are after?"
+
+He was startled, and turning saw a man's face at a panel in the door.
+
+"I wish to see Jerry, the Night Hawk," answered Will, promptly.
+
+"Who sent you?"
+
+"That I will tell him," was the cool reply.
+
+"Well, I'm Jerry, the Night Hawk."
+
+The boy looked incredulous, and the man opened the door, and called to
+him to enter.
+
+This he did, and found himself in a hallway that was perfectly square,
+and the light came into it from above through a skylight.
+
+There was no door in this hall, except the one by which he had entered,
+but the man said:
+
+"Is there an answer?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said the boy, when he had meant to say 'no,' but he did not
+correct himself, and instantly the man tapped three times upon the
+wooden wall of the hallway.
+
+To the new surprise of the boy one side of it was at once run upward,
+revealing a small room, and into this the two stepped, the man telling
+the youngster to follow.
+
+In the room was a cot-bed, a table, and a rough-looking individual stood
+in one corner, holding a rope in his hand, and which he now let go, the
+wooden partition, under which they had passed, immediately sliding back
+into place again.
+
+"Now, lad, the letter," said the man who had entered the room with him.
+
+"Are you Jerry, the Night Hawk?" and the boy looked the man straight in
+the eyes.
+
+"Yes."
+
+The boy took out the letter and handed it to him, and glancing at the
+address he broke open the envelope.
+
+What was written within was to the point, and very short, for the man at
+once said:
+
+"Yes, you are just the boy we want, as the captain says," and he gazed
+into the handsome, fearless young face before him.
+
+"What do you want me for?" asked the lad.
+
+"That you shall soon know, and if you serve us well, you will be well
+treated; but if not, then you will have to die, that is all," was the
+ominous reply of the man, as he seized the boy by the shoulder and
+dragged him through a door into a large room where were a dozen men,
+whose scowling faces were turned upon the lad with a look that was
+wicked and threatening. As he recalled the words of Jerry, the Night
+Hawk, and beheld the wild, evil looking men about him, the heart of the
+brave boy shrank with fear, for it needed no words to tell him that he
+had been led into some trap from which there seemed little chance of
+escape.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.--AN OATH TO WIN, A VOW TO AVENGE.
+
+
+The scene of my story shifts from the city to the country. A young man,
+evidently city bred, was standing beneath the shelter of a woodman's
+shanty, while the rain poured in torrents, and sent little brooks
+surging like miniature rivers adown the hillsides.
+
+It was in one of the most beautiful localities of the State of Maryland,
+where forest, stream, woodland and vale stretched away in picturesque
+attractiveness for miles, and where the broad fields of well-to-do
+farmers were filled with the golden grain.
+
+The young man was clad in sporting garb, carried a gun, which he
+shielded from the dampness, and at his feet crouched a dog, while the
+game-bag hanging on a limb near-by proved the sportsman's skill.
+
+It was approaching sunset time, and the storm had been raging for a
+couple of hours, the rain-fall being so heavy as to deluge the country,
+and make foaming torrents of mere rivulets.
+
+"It is clearing now, and I will venture, for I would not like to be
+caught in the wood by darkness, as I would have to remain all night,"
+and the sportsman gazed up anxiously at the clouds, breaking away in the
+westward.
+
+He was a man of twenty-six perhaps, and his erect form, elegant manners
+and handsome face had won many a girl's heart.
+
+A Philadelphian, and the ideal of society, he had run away from
+dissipation and comrades for a few days shooting in Maryland, and his
+first day of sport had been checked by the storm.
+
+As the rain ceased falling he threw his game bag over his shoulder and
+started out upon his return to the little Cross-Roads Inn where he was
+stopping.
+
+He had to pick his way carefully, and often, as it was, he went into
+water nearly up to the top of his boots.
+
+At last he came to a rustic bridge, across a brook; but the brook was
+now surging beyond its banks, and driving furiously along.
+
+"Ho, don't cross there!" cried a voice from the other side.
+
+But the hunter heeded not the warning and sprang upon the bridge.
+
+It was tottering, for its foundations had become undermined; but he
+hastened on; it trembled, swerved, rocked, and he sprang quickly toward
+the other shore, but too late, as before and behind him the spans were
+torn away, and the centre one, upon which he stood must go next.
+
+"Ah! I cannot swim, and am lost!" he cried, in a tone of horror.
+
+"I will save you," shouted the same voice from the shore.
+
+Then followed the words: "Throw your gun and game-bag away, and spring
+clear of the wreck when I call to you."
+
+The hunter tossed his fine gun and game-bag from him and nerved himself
+for the ordeal.
+
+He saw the one who had called to him--a tall, fearless-faced young
+man--throw aside his coat and hat and plunge into the whirling waters,
+some distance above the bridge.
+
+As he came sweeping down the bold swimmer called out:
+
+"Now _jump_!"
+
+The hunter obeyed, and sank beneath the foaming current; but, as he
+arose, his arm was seized by the swimmer, and at the same instant the
+tottering centre of the bridge gave way, and was swept after them.
+
+"Don't be alarmed, but keep cool, and I'll work toward the bank with
+you."
+
+"There, put your hands on my shoulders! That's right, and you are as
+serene as a May morn; so all will be well;" and the swimmer struck out
+for the bank, and at last caught the bough of an overhanging tree.
+
+It blistered his hands to hold on; but he did so, and the hunter, who
+was perfectly self-possessed, also grasped the tree, and both clambered
+up the bank.
+
+"I owe you my life, my man, and you have but to name your price," said
+the sportsman.
+
+"Thank you, stranger, but I am not a professional life-saver, and money
+would not have tempted me to have gone to the aid of one who could not
+swim."
+
+"But come, I was on my way to Miller Raymond's, and I can make bold to
+take you there, as I'm about one of the family, I may say, for I soon
+will be."
+
+"The miller will send you over to the inn in his spring waggon, for I
+guess you're the city gentleman I heard was stopping there."
+
+The sportsman saw that his bold rescuer, evidently a farmer, was one who
+had pride, and merited the treatment of a gentleman.
+
+"I beg pardon for offering you money, but it could never repay the
+service, so we'll be friends.
+
+"My name is Schuyler Cluett, and that I appreciate your saving my life
+you must know."
+
+The young farmer, for such he was, grasped the outstretched hand, and
+said:
+
+"My name is Kent Lomax, and I'm glad you begged my pardon, for it proves
+you to be the man I thought you when I saw your pluck in the water. You
+were as cool as an icicle. But let us move on, for we'll get cold
+staying here."
+
+So on they went along the road bordering the stream, and just at dark,
+came in view of an old mill standing upon the bank, the water-wheel
+turning furiously, while up on the hillside was a handsome country
+house, that had the look of being the abode of one who enjoyed living.
+
+"Well, Kent, you and your friend have been caught in the storm, that's
+certain," said an honest-faced old man, meeting them at the door.
+
+"We've been caught in the creek, Miller Raymond; and this is Mr.
+Schuyler Cluett, a city gentleman, stopping at the Cross-Roads Inn, for
+a few days shooting, and I told him you would send him over."
+
+"I am glad to meet you, sir; but I guess you'd better stay with us
+to-night, for we can rig you out, as well as Kent, and I've got a little
+apple brandy that will do you both good."
+
+"I thank you, sir;" and then Schuyler Cluett added: "But let me say that
+my modest friend here failed to tell you that he saved my life, as the
+bridge went in with me, and I cannot swim a stroke."
+
+"Ah! that is just like Kent; but here is my daughter, and he saved her
+life years ago in this same stream, when they were children together.
+Ruby, this is Mr. Cluett, whose life Kent has just saved; but hasten to
+lay out some of my clothes in the spare rooms, and tell your mother that
+we have guests to supper.
+
+"Come, Mr. Cluett, you and Kent need a little internal warming up after
+your ducking," and the two young men dashed off a glass of apple brandy
+of the miller's own making, and then sought their respective rooms to
+change their clothes, for, after his eyes had fallen upon Ruby Raymond,
+the young sportsman had decided to remain all night at the miller's.
+
+He felt that he did not look his best, in a corduroy suit of the
+miller's and a broad shirt collar; but he had to make the best of it,
+and so descended to the parlour.
+
+Kent was already there, as was Miller Raymond, his wife, and Ruby, and
+the young sportsman was introduced, and again told the story of his
+rescue by Kent.
+
+Then supper was served, and such a supper Schuyler Cluett had never sat
+down to before, he said, and with truth, for Mistress Raymond was noted
+for her housekeeping the country over.
+
+During the evening Ruby sang, in a sweet soprano voice, played the piano
+with a skill that surprised the city-bred gentleman, and he found her to
+be lovely in face and form, with large, dark-blue eyes, golden hair, and
+a smile of the most fascinating sweetness, while her refinement of
+manner was as much a surprise to him as were her accomplishments.
+
+Mr. Schuyler Cluett also learned a secret from the miller, and that was
+the fact of Ruby's engagement to Kent Lomax.
+
+"Kent is a fine fellow, Mr. Cluett," volunteered the miller, "and we
+have known him from boyhood.
+
+"His father married a crossed-grained woman after his first wife's
+death, and she made it so warm for the boy he ran away and went to sea.
+
+"He was gone six years, and returned one day to find his step-mother
+dead, so he remained at home, took care of his father until his death,
+and now owns the farm, a mile from here, and a good one it is.
+
+"He and Ruby have loved each other always, and they are to be married,
+come Christmas."
+
+Schuyler Cluett went to his room that night, pondering over all he had
+heard, and at last he said half aloud:
+
+"That beautiful girl marry that common fellow? _Never_! she shall be
+mine, and _I swear it_!"
+
+And Schuyler Cluett kept his treacherous oath against the man who had
+saved his life, for the very eve of her wedding-day with Kent Lomax,
+Ruby Raymond stole out of her pleasant room, unlocked the front door,
+and glided across the lawn to the foot of the hill, where in a buggy,
+with a pair of spirited horses, sat a young man awaiting her.
+
+"Come, hasten, Ruby," he said in a low tone.
+
+"Oh, Schuyler, I have given up all for you, my parents, my happy home,
+and poor Kent.
+
+"It will break his heart; but then it would have broken my heart to
+become his wife loving you as I do."
+
+And away sped the fleet horses, while the night wore on, the dawn came,
+Christmas morn, and Mrs. Raymond hastened to her daughter's room, to
+wish her only child a happy Christmas, a happy wedding day.
+
+A shriek that broke from her lips, followed by a heavy fall, brought the
+miller to the room.
+
+His wife lay unconscious on the floor, an open letter in her hand.
+
+He read it, and his heart grew cold at the words:
+
+     "Forgive me, mother, father, forgive me; but I could not marry
+     Kent, as I do not love him, my heart being another's.
+
+     "Finding out the secret of my heart, I would not perjure myself by
+     marrying Kent Lomax, and so I fly to-night with the one whose wife
+     I am to be.
+
+     "Some day, when you feel more kindly toward me, I will come back
+     and plead for your forgiveness.
+
+     "Now good-bye, and Heaven bless you and poor Kent, whom my heart
+     bleeds for in the sorrow I know he will feel.
+
+                              "Your ever loving daughter,
+
+                                                           "RUBY."
+
+
+Loud and stern rang the miller's voice, calling for aid, and one servant
+was dispatched for the village doctor, for Mrs. Raymond still lay in a
+swoon, and another for Kent Lomax.
+
+They arrived together, and Kent Lomax looked like a corpse as the miller
+read his daughter's letter, for the eyes of the deserted lover were
+blinded with grief and all seemed blurred before him.
+
+"Miller Raymond," said the doctor softly, as he bent over the form of
+the mother.
+
+"Well."
+
+"Nerve yourself for another bitter blow."
+
+"Oh Heaven! another?"
+
+"_Your wife is dead_," was the low response, and the miller groaned, as
+he sank upon his knees by the body of his wife and grasping her hand
+buried his face in the pillow by the side of the one who had for twenty
+years borne his name, the mother of his child who had struck the
+death-blow.
+
+"_Dead! dead!_" shouted Kent Lomax with wild eyes and writhing face.
+
+"That man did this deed, for he fascinated poor Ruby, won her from me,
+from home, from all, and by the eternal Heaven I will track him to the
+death for this!
+
+"I saved his life once, but now I will take away that life; _I vow it,
+so help me Heaven!_"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.--TRACKED TO HIS LAIR.
+
+
+There was no handsomer bachelor rooms in the city of Philadelphia, than
+were those of Schuyler Cluett, the handsome young gallant and "man about
+town."
+
+Society said he was very rich, that he had been left a large fortune by
+an uncle, and many were the young ladies who sought to win favour in his
+eyes.
+
+His rooms consisted of a _suite_ of five, for there was his parlour,
+combined with sitting-room, his bed-chamber, a spare one for a belated
+guest, a snug little kitchen, that was also used as a breakfast-room,
+and a sleeping place for a servant.
+
+All were delightfully furnished, and the young bachelor was wont to take
+his breakfast at ten, his _valet_ getting the meals for him, while his
+dinners and suppers he always took at the fashionable True Blue Club, of
+which he was a popular member.
+
+At a stable near he kept his _coupe_ and riding-horse, with a coachman,
+so that he lived in very great comfort; in fact, it amounted to luxury.
+
+His bills were always promptly paid at the end of the month; he dressed
+with elegance, took the best seat at the opera and theatres, was able to
+take a run around to Long Branch, Cape May, Newport, Saratoga and the
+White Mountains in the summer, and having spare money always with him to
+lend a friend an X or a XX, he was rated a good fellow among the men.
+
+One night, about one, a.m., Schuyler Cluett was preparing to retire, and
+a friend who had accompanied him home had been shown to the spare room,
+which also opened into the parlour, so that the two talked as they
+undressed.
+
+"That deuced valet of mine is always away when I need him most," growled
+the young bachelor.
+
+"Now, here he is off at a ball, and why servants must have balls I
+cannot understand, and both you and I, Rayford, are half drunk, and need
+him to look after our comfort."
+
+"It's too bad!" sang out Rayford from his room.
+
+"I'd discharge him, Schuyler."
+
+"I will, and I do. I discharge him every day, but I hire him over again
+before he gets off, and that spoils him; so I'll discharge him some time
+for a week, and it will teach him a lesson--ah! there he is now, and
+I'll have to go out in the hall and let him in, for he's forgotten his
+night key," and Schuyler Cluett went to the door to answer a ring.
+
+As the door opened, he began to berate his valet, as he supposed it was,
+but was considerably taken aback at beholding a stranger enter the hall.
+
+He failed to recognise him at first, but suddenly beheld him in the full
+light of the parlour, whither the stranger had strode with the remark:
+
+"I wish to see you, Mr. Schuyler Cluett."
+
+"Ho, Lomax, my dear fellow, I did not know you; but you look ill and
+something has surely happened, for you are as haggard as though after a
+long illness," and Schuyler Cluett held out his hand.
+
+"No, Cluett, I do not take the hand of a villain," was the stern reply
+of the young farmer.
+
+"By Heaven! are you drunk? What do you mean?" and the eyes of the young
+aristocrat flashed, while his friend Rayford, half-dressed, peered out
+of his door, startled at the turn affairs had taken.
+
+"I mean, Schuyler Cluett, that you, like a snake that you are,
+fascinated poor little Ruby Raymond, she that was to have been my wife.
+
+"We were happy until _you_ came, and she was all my own; but one unlucky
+day I dragged you away from death, and I took you to her home, and from
+that moment you began to win her from me.
+
+"I saw it all, I felt it all, for she became unhappy, and she told me
+she thought we should be as sister and brother, for she loved me, but
+not as a wife should.
+
+"She saw how it hurt me to hear her say so, and so she said she did not
+mean it; but she deceived me, for she did mean it, and one week ago, on
+the very eve of our wedding-day, you came like a thief in the night and
+stole her from me."
+
+"Good Heaven! Lomax, I am not guilty of this, and you wrong me, indeed
+you do!" cried Schuyler Cluett, his face the picture of amazement.
+
+Kent Lomax seemed astounded, and asked, sternly:
+
+"Do you deny it?"
+
+"I do. Upon my honour, yes!"
+
+"You deny that you ran off with Ruby Raymond from her father's house, at
+twelve o'clock on the night of Christmas Eve?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"_You lie in your false throat, man!_" shouted the farmer, and at his
+words Schuyler Cluett sprang toward him; but quick as a flash, a pistol
+met him, the muzzle in his face, while the young farmer said sternly:
+
+"Back! I did not come here unprepared, and I would kill you, oh! how
+gladly!"
+
+"I tell you I am falsely accused; and being unarmed, and knowing your
+great strength, I am forced to hear you accuse me and submit to your
+insults, Kent Lomax."
+
+"Schuyler Cluett, I know that you are guilty, for I tracked you in your
+villainy."
+
+"Yet you find me here in my bachelor rooms, and there is a friend who is
+with me, and can vouch for my words."
+
+"I can, indeed, sir, for I know that my friend Cluett has been but two
+days absent from the city the week past," and Randal Rayford stepped out
+of his room into the parlour, he having hastily dressed as he saw that a
+tragedy was threatening.
+
+"Ah! he was two days absent, then?
+
+"They are the two days in which he committed the crime of kidnapping and
+murder--"
+
+"Murder? Great Heaven! of what else will you accuse me, Lomax?"
+
+"Yes, of murder; for when poor Mrs. Raymond read the note left by Ruby,
+she fell in a faint, and she never came to herself again, but died, and
+four days ago I went to see her buried over in the village graveyard.
+
+"Then I took your track, Schuyler Cluett, and I found out where you
+hired your team of fast horses, and where you drove to catch the train.
+
+"There you bought two tickets for Baltimore, and I lost trace of you
+after I arrived in that city."
+
+"You have tracked some other man, Lomax, for your sweetheart did not run
+off with me."
+
+"And I say that I saw the man of whom you hired your horses, and he
+described you."
+
+"Other men look like me, Lomax."
+
+"And I saw the station-agent where you took the train for Baltimore, and
+he described you, and Ruby, also."
+
+"An accidental resemblance."
+
+"A man met you at that station, to drive the horses back to the town
+where you hired them."
+
+"That proves nothing."
+
+"Does this?" and Kent Lomax drew from his pocket a handkerchief.
+
+"That is a lady's handkerchief, I believe," was the cool reply.
+
+"It was left by Ruby Raymond in the waiting-room of the railroad
+station, and it _bears her name_."
+
+"That proves that she did run off with someone; but who, Lomax, for I am
+not the guilty one?"
+
+"Does this prove anything?" and the young farmer held up the gold head
+of a walking-stick.
+
+Schuyler Cluett again started forward, as though to grasp it; but the
+pistol's muzzle once more confronted him, while Kent Lomax fairly hissed
+forth the words:
+
+"This I found in the buggy, and there is the stick--see, it fits!" and
+stepping to a corner, he picked up a headless walking-stick of
+snake-root.
+
+"You will not deny your guilt now, for this gold head bears your name,
+and it came off in the buggy, and you doubtless thought you had dropped
+it along the road."
+
+"I say that I am _not_ guilty," was the sullen reply.
+
+"Well, sir, I say that you are, and I came here to kill you; but I will
+not be a coward and shoot down an unarmed man. Yet I will not allow you
+to escape, for I intend to right the wrong I believe you have done poor
+Ruby, and I have vowed, over the dead body of Mrs. Raymond, to avenge
+her death."
+
+"What is your intention, Lomax, for this scene is growing monotonous to
+me?"
+
+"My intention is to demand that you meet me face to face, arms in our
+hands, and as one gentleman should meet another, though I do not
+consider you worthy the name you have dishonoured."
+
+"By the Lord Harry! but this is too much, and I will meet you were you
+the lowest of the low; so name your friend, and Mr. Rayford here will
+arrange with him!" hotly said Schuyler Cluett.
+
+"_I_ have no friend, but that gentleman will do, and he is all we need.
+
+"I will meet you at sunrise, at any place you may state, for I do not
+know this city, and our weapons will be revolvers, the distance ten
+paces, that gentleman to give the word to fire, and to keep it up until
+one or both are killed."
+
+"That will suit me," was the cool reply, and turning to his friend, he
+continued:
+
+"You will act for us, Rayford, in this affair this mad fool has forced
+upon me?"
+
+"Certainly, and there is a pretty spot, on the banks of the Schuylkill
+river we can select, for I know it well, and I will give this gentleman
+written instructions how to reach there.
+
+"At sunrise you say?" and he turned to Kent Lomax.
+
+"Yes, and sooner if it could be so."
+
+"That is soon enough, and here is your directions to reach the spot,"
+and he jotted down a few notes upon a paper.
+
+"Thank you; and Schuyler Cluett if you prove yourself a coward and do
+not come, I will prove merciless and kill you at sight, as I would a
+snake," and Kent Lomax left the rooms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.--THE MEETING.
+
+
+Until the time for him to seek some means of reaching the spot, selected
+for the meeting, that he intended should be fatal to one of them, Kent
+Lomax walked the streets of the city, brooding deeply over his sorrows,
+and his determination to avenge Ruby, whom he looked upon with pity
+rather than anger, and her mother, whose death had been brought on by
+the act of Schuyler Cluett.
+
+At daylight he sought a livery stable, and asked for a horse to ride out
+to the rendezvous.
+
+"You can get a horse, sir, but you are unknown to us, and we must ask a
+deposit of his value," said the man.
+
+"Ah! that is it, you fear I am a horse-thief; well, hitch a carriage for
+me and send a driver, one who knows how to reach this place," and he
+gave the directions where he wished to go.
+
+Soon after he sprang into the vehicle and was driven away at a rapid
+pace, and in an hour's time was set down at a lonely spot on the
+riverbank.
+
+Up the stream some distance he saw another vehicle draw up, and out of
+it sprang Schuyler Cluett and Rayford, and he walked hastily toward
+them.
+
+"I am glad to see that you are not a coward," said Kent Lomax,
+addressing Schuyler Cluett.
+
+"You are all wrong in this, Lomax, much as appearances are against me,"
+said Cluett.
+
+"I know I am right, for I have not had my eyes shut the past two months.
+
+"Are you ready?"
+
+"I am."
+
+"I have brought a pair of weapons belonging to Mr. Cluett, sir, and you
+can take your choice," said Rayford, opened a box in which were a pair
+of handsome revolvers.
+
+"I have a weapon, sir."
+
+"It is best that they be alike."
+
+"Very well, I will take one of these."
+
+"Take your choice."
+
+Kent Lomax selected one without an instant of hesitation, and said:
+
+"This will do."
+
+Rayford took the revolver and carefully loaded it, and then took up the
+other and did likewise.
+
+Then he paced off ten paces, gave the men the choice of positions by
+tossing up a dollar, and Kent Lomax won.
+
+Both took their positions, Schuyler Cluett with a quiet smile of
+confidence upon his face, and Kent Lomax calm, cold, but haggard, stern
+and determined.
+
+The sun was now up, gilding the tree-tops and causing the dew to sparkle
+like diamonds upon the grass.
+
+It was a pretty scene, and yet one that had been selected to be
+desecrated by a tragedy.
+
+Each man took his position, revolver in hand, and standing to one side,
+Rayford said:
+
+"Gentlemen, I am to give the word as follows:
+
+"One, two, three, fire!
+
+"Between the words _three_ and _fire_, you are to pull trigger, and you
+can keep firing until one or the other falls, or you empty your weapons.
+
+"Now, are you ready?"
+
+Both nodded in the affirmative, and then in a loud voice came the fatal
+words:
+
+"_One! two! three--_"
+
+There was no need of uttering the word fire, for the revolver of each
+flashed at three.
+
+And the result?
+
+Schuyler Cluett staggered backward, his hand to his head, while Kent
+Lomax dropped as though a bullet had pierced his brain.
+
+"Shot through the heart," said Rayford coolly, and then turning to his
+friend he added:
+
+"I think that should cancel my indebtedness to you, Schuyler."
+
+"What?"
+
+"I put a ball of putty, wrapped with tin-foil, in his pistol, and even
+with it he left his mark in the dead centre of your forehead, for it is
+bruised; but had it been lead, you would have been a dead man."
+
+"Great Heavens! did you do _that_?" asked Schuyler Cluett.
+
+"I did."
+
+"Rayford, I know not what to say; but as you have saved my life, I will
+call the debt square between us; but see, he is not dead, and I will put
+him in his carriage and send him to a hospital, for we must look to our
+own safety now."
+
+This was done; the body of the wounded, unconscious man was placed in
+the carriage that had brought him out, and the driver ordered to take
+him to a hospital.
+
+Then the two friends entered their own carriage, and were driven, by
+another road, rapidly back to the city.
+
+The next morning the following notice of the affair appeared in the
+morning papers:
+
+     "A MYSTERIOUS DUEL.
+
+     "At dawn yesterday morning a young gentleman evidently from the
+     country, judging from his dress and appearance, went to Nailor's
+     livery stable and sought to hire a saddle-horse for a few hours;
+     but, upon the price of the animal being demanded, as he was an
+     utter stranger to the foreman, he called for a carriage and driver,
+     and ordered the latter to drive him to a spot on the Schuylkill
+     river, between the Laurel Hill Cemetery and the Wissahickon creek,
+     and to lose no time in getting there.
+
+     "Upon reaching the spot he left the vehicle, just as another
+     carriage drove up in the distance, and from it alighted two
+     gentlemen.
+
+     "There the stranger walked on and met them, reports his driver, and
+     the three conversed together for a moment; then two of them threw
+     off their overcoats, while the third paced off a certain distance
+     and, after loading two weapons taken from a case, handed them to
+     the duelists.
+
+     "Word was then given, the driver supposes--for he was too far off
+     to hear--and the pistols flashed together, one man staggering, as
+     though wounded, the other falling as though dead.
+
+     "The driver was then called, and the one who lay prostrate was
+     raised and placed in the vehicle which was ordered to drive with
+     all speed to the Hospital, the others entering the other carriage
+     and driving rapidly off in another direction.
+
+     "Upon being questioned by our reporter, the driver of the stranger
+     said that the other duelist was a young society man about town, but
+     he did not, or pretended not to know his name.
+
+     "He said the stranger's bullet had wounded him in the head, as he
+     wore a handkerchief about it, but there was no blood-stain visible.
+
+     "The comrade of the alleged society-man was also a young gentleman
+     of this city, but whom the driver pretended not to know.
+
+     "Going to the Hospital our reporter discovered that the stranger
+     was there.
+
+     "He had a watch, chain, seal-ring, and sleeve buttons all of good
+     value, and a pocket book containing several hundred dollars in
+     bank-bills, but not a slip of paper, or anything to solve his
+     identity.
+
+     "He was shot just over the heart, and the surgeons feared to probe
+     the wound, which they say will doubtless prove fatal though there
+     is the slightest chance for his recovery, as he possesses a fine
+     physique and the appearance of an iron constitution.
+
+     "Reporters and detectives are busy trying to solve the mystery, and
+     our readers will be informed if aught is discovered regarding this
+     strange affair."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.--THE BOY PROTECTOR.
+
+
+Again to the crowded metropolis my story shifts, and to a part of the
+grand city where dwell those of the humbler walks in life.
+
+Here are no brown-stone fronts, no elegant homes, but the imprint of
+poverty is upon all.
+
+Long years before the place was a fashionable locality; but the rapid
+growth of the city forced the wealthy residents up town, and into their
+homes, not then as now, superb structures, palatial in their fittings,
+the poorer classes moved, to again give place to those of a still lower
+strata of the society that goes to make up the world to be found in
+metropolitan life.
+
+In a tenement-flat, on the fourth floor of a dingy-looking building, a
+woman sat alone, a piece of embroidery in her hands.
+
+The flat consisted of four rooms, one large one in the front, with a
+hall-room adjoining, and the same in the rear.
+
+Those in the front were used as sitting-room and bed-room; those in the
+rear, the larger one for a kitchen and dining-room combined, the smaller
+for a sleeping-chamber, for there was a cot in it.
+
+The furniture was very scant, and cheap-looking, there being nothing
+more than was actually necessary for use.
+
+But an air of cleanliness was upon all, and the woman who sat alone in
+the front room had the appearance of one reared in refinement, one who
+had seen better days ere she had come to feel the pinching of poverty.
+
+She was neatly clad in a black cashmere dress that was a trifle seedy,
+and which appeared to have been often brushed.
+
+Her form was slender, very graceful, and her face was beautiful yet sad,
+while her large eyes were sunken and inflamed as though from weeping.
+
+The work she was engaged upon ill accorded with the rooms and
+surroundings, for she was embroidering a silk scarf of a rare and costly
+pattern, and she kept it folded closely in a clean towel, excepting the
+part upon which her slender, skilful fingers worked.
+
+An easel stood near her with a box of paints and brushes, and a
+half-finished painting was before her, a landscape scene, with a cosy
+country house, an old mill, a brook, and a valley stretching away in the
+distance.
+
+Suddenly her eyes were raised from her work, and rested upon the canvas.
+
+"Dear, dear old Brookside! how I long to see you once again, and yet I
+dare not go, even though I should have to beg my bread.
+
+"Not one word in all these long, weary, wretched years have I heard from
+those whom I love so dearly, and deserted to become the wife of--_a
+scoundrel_!
+
+"Heaven forgive me that rash act; and forgive me for bringing sorrow
+upon my parents and poor Kent; but I was fascinated by that wretch--yes,
+fascinated, as though by a snake, for it was not love I felt, as now I
+hate him--no, no, I should not say that of the dead, of the father of my
+children," and she dropped her face in her hands and burst into tears.
+
+Thirteen years have passed away since the reader last beheld her who
+sits there sobbing like a child, and the once beautiful girl of
+eighteen, pretty Ruby Raymond, the miller's daughter, has sadly changed
+in all that time.
+
+Almost from the moment that she left her lovely, happy home, deserting
+her parents, and flying from the love of honest, brave Kent Lomax, her
+miseries had begun; and, too proud to return to dear old Brookside,
+though deserted by her husband, whom she afterward had heard was dead,
+she struggled on to support herself and her two children.
+
+Not a word had she heard from her parents, and she would not write to
+them, fearing a rebuff.
+
+Not a word had she heard from Kent Lomax, and, after all that she had
+done to break his heart, she would not seek his aid in her distress.
+
+She had sewed, embroidered, and then taken up painting as a means of
+support; but her income was small, and she had to live very humbly.
+
+Her children she sent to the public school, and she clothed them as well
+as she could.
+
+"Oh! if I could only get a little money saved up, that, in disguise, I
+could go down to Brookside and see them all there, though they know me
+not!
+
+"I could leave my children with good hearted Mrs. Lucas, next door, and
+be gone but a few days, for I only wish to see the dear old home, to
+gaze upon the faces of my parents, to see Kent, and then come back to my
+wretchedness and toil; but I feel I could work the better if I could go.
+
+"Still, I cannot, for it would take nearly fifty dollars to go and
+return, and I have but ten saved up, and it would not be right, if I had
+the money to spend it thus, for what if I should be taken sick, what
+would my little ones do?"
+
+Again she buried her face in her hands and wept, to start suddenly,
+hastily drying her eyes, and, as a second knock came at the door, to
+call out:
+
+"Come in!"
+
+The door opened and a man entered.
+
+He was a most unprepossessing looking person, one to dread, for he
+looked like a tramp in dress, and a scoundrel in his face.
+
+The woman arose quickly, and asked as firmly as she could:
+
+"Well, sir, what do you wish here?"
+
+"I've come on business, missus, so don't go to squealin', fer I doesn't
+mean ter harm yer ef yer puts up ther chink as I tells you," was the
+reply in a sullen voice.
+
+The woman saw that she was in the man's power, for to scream would bring
+no aid, as it would scarcely be heard above the din of the city.
+
+Her children were at school, and there was no one to call upon.
+
+The face of the man showed his evil heart, and in dread she said:
+
+"I have but a few dollars in the world, and would you take _that_?"
+
+"I would, you bet! fer I needs money, and I'll git it, ef I has ter make
+trouble, so out with it."
+
+The poor woman stepped to a little half-desk, half-table, the place
+where she kept the few souvenirs of the past, and took therefrom a silk
+purse.
+
+Out of this she took the money, eleven dollars in all.
+
+"Let me keep one dollar," she pleaded, adding:
+
+"I need it so much."
+
+"Not a copper cent, missus, so hand it over."
+
+"Here it is, eleven dollars."
+
+"It is not enough, for I need more."
+
+"It is all I have."
+
+"You've got jewellery."
+
+"I've a little, souvenirs of my girlhood."
+
+"Durn yer girlhood! Yer should forgit it; so hand it over."
+
+"I will _not_!" she said firmly.
+
+"Then I chokes that neck o' yours ontil yer can't preach, and takes
+all."
+
+"Mercy you can have all," and she handed out a small box containing a
+few trinklets of little intrinsic value, but which she prized most
+highly.
+
+"You've got some rings there."
+
+"My wedding ring, and one other."
+
+"They are worth somethin'."
+
+"They are worth a great deal to me, for one tells me of a happy past,
+the other of only sorrow."
+
+"One was given by a lover, I guesses, and t'other by your husband."
+
+"You are right."
+
+"Well, I wants 'em."
+
+"No! no! no! You would not take these."
+
+"Come, I hain't no time to lose, for I'm wanted by the perlice, and to
+pertect mysel', I'll jist tie you up, and put a bandage on that
+music-box o' yourn, so you sha'n't shout when I gets out."
+
+As he spoke he advanced toward her, and with a spring he grasped her
+arm, stifling a cry with his huge right hand.
+
+At the same moment he fell like a log upon the floor, struck down by an
+iron poker held in the hand of a boy of twelve, who unseen by the robber
+or his victim, had glided into the room from the back chamber, closely
+followed by a little girl of ten.
+
+With a bound the woman sprang away from the man as he fell, while she
+cried in a voice of anguish:
+
+"Oh, Will, my son, you have killed him!"
+
+"I have but protected you, mother," was the reply of the brave boy, who
+stood over the prostrate form, the iron, which he had used as a weapon,
+still grasped in his hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.--THE REWARD FOR A CONVICT.
+
+
+The boy who had entered the room and dealt what appeared a death-blow to
+the robber, was a handsome little fellow of twelve, well-grown for his
+age, with an agile, athletic form, and a face that would win attention
+anywhere.
+
+He was poorly clad, yet his clothes were neat, and he had the look of
+one who had been reared in refinement, in spite of his humble and
+poverty-stamped surroundings.
+
+Behind him, holding in her little hands her own and her brother's books,
+for the two had just come from school, was a little, fairy-like form of
+ten years.
+
+Her face was bright, sparkling and lovely, with a look of wisdom and
+feeling above her years, while her attire was neat, fashionably-made,
+though of very cheap material, and there was a certain style about her
+that many a millionaire's daughter on Fifth Avenue would give much to
+possess.
+
+"My son, you have killed him," repeated the mother, in a tone of horror.
+
+"No--no, mother, for I did not hit him that hard; I don't think I did,
+at least, though I was very angry at seeing him spring at you, and I am
+so glad we came.
+
+"We got a half-holiday this afternoon, and came in the back door to
+surprise you, when we heard that man talking, and I picked up the
+kitchen poker and--"
+
+"But, Will, something must be done, and--"
+
+The words ended in a startled cry, for the man suddenly rose up to a
+sitting posture.
+
+But Will was equal to the situation, and raising his poker he cried out
+sternly:
+
+"Lie down, sir! quick, or I will kill you!"
+
+The half-dazed wretch saw that the boy held him at his mercy, and he
+dropped back again in a recumbent position.
+
+"Run, Pearl, and get a policeman to come!" cried Will, and the young
+girl darted away, while the robber started to rise, with the remark:
+
+"No perlice for me, boy--Oh!"
+
+Back he fell, as the poker descended upon his head with a force that
+again stunned him.
+
+"Oh, Will!" groaned the poor woman.
+
+"I had to do it, mother, or he would have killed us both to get away,
+for he's a desperate fellow."
+
+And the fearless boy stood over his prisoner with the air of one who
+meant to stand no trifling, and knew very well that he was master of the
+situation.
+
+The man soon revived again, but a motion of the poker held over him, and
+a stern order, kept him on his back, for he had twice felt the weight of
+the boy's blow, and, bleeding from two scalp-wounds and with aching
+head, he concluded to remain quiet.
+
+It seemed an age to the mother and son that Pearl was gone; but she had
+fairly flown to the nearest police station, and came dashing into the
+room breathlessly, crying:
+
+"They are coming!"
+
+Again the man moved uneasily, but the boy said sternly:
+
+"Don't make me hit you again; but I will if you don't keep quiet."
+
+"I'll even up on yer some day, boy, if I go to prison for ten years!"
+growled the man; and as he spoke, there came steps upon the stairs
+without, and a sergeant and two policemen entered, as Pearl threw open
+the door.
+
+The sergeant bowed politely, for the appearance of the lady commanded
+respect, and he said:
+
+"Well done, my little man--ha! it is you is it, Black Brick?" and he
+turned his attention to the prisoner, who already was in irons, as the
+two officers had lost no time in getting the handcuffs upon him and
+placing him upon his feet.
+
+"Yes, it's me, Sergeant Daly, and you put a cool thousand in your pocket
+by my capture," was the sullen reply, and then he added:
+
+"I s'pose you won't share it with me fer givin' myself up?"
+
+"My boy, this fellow you have caught is an escaped convict, and there's
+a thousand dollars' reward offered for his capture, which you can get by
+making an application for it."
+
+"Thank you, sir, but neither my son or myself would accept money thus
+earned, poor as we are," said the lady quickly.
+
+"You know best, madam," said the surprised sergeant, while the two
+officers also looked amazed.
+
+"What is your name, my lad?" asked Sergeant Daly, taking out a
+note-book.
+
+"Will Raymond, sir."
+
+"And your name, madam, in full, please?" and the sergeant turned to the
+mother.
+
+She choked up at the question, her face flashed and then paled; but
+after an effort at self-control she responded:
+
+"My name was Ruby Raymond, and since my husband's death I retain the
+name for my children.
+
+"Is it necessary that I should give another?"
+
+"No madam, the name of Raymond will do; but you will not surely refuse
+the reward allowed for the capture of that rascal there!"
+
+"I cannot allow my son to accept it, sir."
+
+"Pardon me if I say I believe you need the money."
+
+"I need it, sir, true; but not blood money, for I could not look upon it
+in any other way."
+
+The sergeant bowed, gave a hasty glance about the rooms, and said to
+Will:
+
+"Come and see me, my boy, and should you need a friend at any time call
+on me," and the sergeant followed his men and their prisoner, after
+bowing politely to Mrs. Raymond.
+
+As the door closed behind the officer, Mrs. Raymond sprang toward her
+son, and throwing her arms about him, she cried earnestly:
+
+"Oh, Willie, my noble boy, you have saved me more than you can ever
+know, for poor as I am I would not take a fortune for this ring," and
+she held up a solid gold band before his eyes; _but it was not her
+wedding ring_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.--THE LOST GOLD PIECE.
+
+
+Several months have passed away since the daring attempt of the escaped
+convict to rob Mrs. Raymond in her humble home, and a change has come
+that has brought gloom upon the mother and her two children.
+
+It may have been the shock she had, when threatened by the intruder,
+that caused her to break down and take to her bed ill; but certain it is
+that she was forced to give up her work, she said for a day or two, and
+keep her children home from school.
+
+Little Pearl was a good cook, however, and Will made the fires and did
+what little marketing there was, so that their mother did not suffer for
+want of attention.
+
+Still she fretted, and a fever followed, and Will went after a doctor on
+his own responsibility, and placed his mother in his care.
+
+The man of medicine made three visits, and his pay took two-thirds of
+the little money the poor woman had, and she determined to get up and go
+to work to earn more.
+
+But she could do but little, and, weak and wretched, she gained strength
+very slowly.
+
+Then Will went out to see what he could get to do, and each night he
+came in with a few pence, earned by blacking boots, running errands or
+selling papers, and this helped to eke out a subsistence for all three.
+
+Mrs. Raymond did not seem to suffer pain, she had no fever, but her
+ailment appeared to be heart trouble, and night after night she lay
+awake brooding over her sorrows.
+
+Surprised, as the days passed, that Will seemed to be bringing in more
+money each day, she wondered at it, and questioned him, but he merely
+said that he picked it up in odd jobs.
+
+"But, Will, you are looking pale and haggard, and you are working too
+hard," seeing that he did look wan and white.
+
+"No, mother, I'm all right," he answered, and so the conversation ended.
+
+But that night Mrs. Raymond could not sleep, and growing strangely
+nervous, she went to wake her son to talk to her for awhile.
+
+To her surprise he was not in his little rear room adjoining the
+kitchen, and the bed had not been slept in.
+
+She awakened Pearl and asked her about her brother.
+
+"Oh, mamma, don't scold him, for he is at work," said Pearl anxiously.
+
+"Your brother at work, and at night?"
+
+"Yes, mamma, for he has a place as night messenger in a telegraph
+office; he goes on at ten o'clock and gets off at six," explained
+Pearl.
+
+"My poor boy! and this accounts for his being so hard to wake up every
+morning.
+
+"Yes, mamma; but he sleeps in the daytime when he can, and you know he
+goes to bed early, but I always wake him up at half-past nine o'clock;
+and, oh, mamma! Will gets six dollars a week, only think of that."
+
+"And he's killing himself, he don't get half the sleep he should have.
+
+"He must give it up, Pearl, for I will not allow him to ruin his health
+and slave his young life away as he is doing."
+
+"But, mamma, you are sick, and Will makes so much, and you ought not to
+work."
+
+But Mrs. Raymond was firm in her resolve, and when Will came creeping
+into his little room in the early morning, he was astonished at finding
+his mother lying in his bed, awaiting him.
+
+In vain he argued; she would not hear of his continuing his night-work,
+and so Will Raymond left his place and looked for something else to do.
+
+But nothing came in his way; times were hard, and but a few pennies a
+day were all the mother and her children had to live on.
+
+Will seldom ate at home, saying that he got plenty at the lunch-counters
+during the day, and he left the scanty food for his mother and sister;
+but this his mother soon began to disbelieve, as the boy looked really
+ill and was growing thin.
+
+"To-day is Thanksgiving Day, Will, so we must have a good dinner," said
+Mrs. Raymond, with a forced smile, one morning, after a most meagre
+breakfast.
+
+"Oh, mamma!" said Will, and his heart was too full to say more.
+
+"My son, I have a gold-piece--a three-dollar piece given me years ago,
+and which I have held on to until now, never counting it in thinking of
+my finances; but I wish you to take it and go to some good market and
+invest a dollar at least in a good dinner;" and the poor mother turned
+away to hide her tears, for the faces of her children told her plainly
+that they were hungry--yes, very hungry, as she was herself.
+
+Will took the piece of gold, when his mother had taken it from its
+hiding-place, and placed it carefully in his pocket.
+
+Then he started out upon his errand.
+
+He was anxious to make his money go as far as possible, and yet secure
+the best, so he wended his way to a market, which had often attracted
+his attention.
+
+Arriving at the market he feasted his eyes upon bunches of crisp, white
+celery, selected some fine sweet-potatoes, picked out a fine chicken,
+and then felt in his pocket for his money.
+
+The marketman saw him turn pale as death, and then say, in a whisper,
+which he knew was not feigned:
+
+"_My gold-piece is gone!_"
+
+"Have you lost your money, my little man?" he asked, in a kindly way.
+
+"Yes, sir; and it is all we have in the world.
+
+"Ah! here is a hole in my pocket, and it has rolled out, for it was a
+three-dollar gold-piece.
+
+"But maybe I can find it, sir," and the tears were in the boy's eyes.
+
+"If you do not come back, I will trust you for your Thanksgiving dinner,
+for I know you will pay me when you can."
+
+"Oh, thank you, sir! You are so kind!" and Will bounded away to look for
+his gold-piece.
+
+But then he remembered that if he went at a rapid pace it might escape
+his eye; he walked slowly, searching the ground at every step of the
+way.
+
+Presently he walked bolt up against a gentleman who had been watching
+his approach for half a block.
+
+"Oh, pardon me, sir!" he said.
+
+"Certainly, my boy; but you appear to be searching for something that
+you have lost?"
+
+The face of the man was full of kindness, though stern, and his voice
+had a sympathetic tone in it that touched the boy, who told his
+misfortune to the stranger, adding:
+
+"It was all we had, sir, and poor mother's heart will break, I know."
+
+The man looked like one who had seen the world, and he dressed as one
+who had a plethoric pocket-book.
+
+He was a reader of human nature, and saw that it was no begging for
+sympathy that the boy told his story for.
+
+A man of fifty, perhaps, he was well preserved, and yet there was that
+in his face that seemed to indicate that his life had not been all made
+up of sunshine.
+
+"My boy, I found your gold-piece, and--"
+
+"Oh, sir!" cried Will, in delight.
+
+"Yes, and I took it as an omen of good luck, this Thanksgiving day, and
+I meant to devote many times its amount to charity, of which I might not
+have thought but for my finding this gold-piece.
+
+"No, I cannot give you my 'luck-piece,' as I must keep it; but I will
+give you more than its value, so let us go to the market and get the
+things you ordered, and then, if you will ask me home with you, I will
+go, for somehow I look upon you as a lucky find, my boy.
+
+"Come, now, to the market."
+
+"But, sir, our home is a flat on the top floor of a tenement-house, and
+it is so humble, and we are so poor, you would not like to go there."
+
+"I will go, unless you refuse to take me, my boy."
+
+"No, sir, I could not refuse one who is so kind to me," was the answer,
+and Will led the way back to the market.
+
+"Did you find your money, my lad?" asked the man.
+
+"Yes, sir, or rather this gentleman found it for me."
+
+"Yes, sir, and I wish you to put up your best turkey, and other things
+that I will order, and send at once to the address that my young friend
+here will give you."
+
+Will stood aghast, as he heard the orders, for flour, tea, coffee,
+sugar, hams and other things were on the list until he seemed to feel
+that his kind friend was going to provision the flat for a year to
+come.
+
+"Now, Will, we must take a carriage, for I am a trifle lame, from the
+effects of an old wound when I was a soldier in the Mexican war," and a
+passing hack was called, and the two entered it.
+
+Arriving at the tenement-house the gentleman bade the driver wait, and
+then he followed Will up the dingy flights of stairs to the top floor.
+
+Opening the door of the sitting-room, Will ushered his guest in, and
+Mrs. Raymond arose from her easy-chair at sight of a stranger.
+
+She looked pale and thin, but very beautiful, and her face slightly
+flushed as she saw her son with the visitor.
+
+"This is my mother, Mr. Ivey, and this, my little sister Pearl.
+
+"Mother, this gentleman has been most kind to me," and Will introduced
+his visitor with the ease of one double his years.
+
+The visitor seemed amazed at the lovely woman he beheld before him, and
+instinctively he knew that he was in the presence of a lady.
+
+He bowed low, and advancing held out his hand, while he said:
+
+"You must pardon my intrusion, Mrs. Raymond; but I was so fortunate this
+morning as to find a three-dollar gold-piece.
+
+"It caught my eye, as it glittered upon the pavement, and picking it up
+I saw that it had a hole in it, so attached it to my watch-chain.
+
+"A moment after I beheld one I recognized as the owner coming in search
+of it, and thus I made the acquaintance of your noble boy, and hence
+took the occasion to also meet you and his sister."
+
+Mrs. Raymond was touched by the words of the visitor, and there was that
+in his face that seemed to impress her, and she said:
+
+"You are very welcome, sir, though ours is but a poor home for visitors,
+and I have been an invalid for some little time; but may I ask, as my
+son introduced you as Mr. Ivey, if you are not Colonel Richard Ivey, who
+was known as Dashing Dick Ivey of the Dragoons in the Mexican war?"
+
+"Why yes, madam, that was my name, when years ago I was a cavalry
+officer; but have we met before that you recognize me?"
+
+"No, sir, but when a girl I kept a scrap-book, and yours was among the
+pictures that I took from a paper and put in it, and often have I looked
+over the book and your face has but little changed, so I recalled it
+upon hearing your name."
+
+"You are very kind, my dear madam, and this is another link of
+friendship between us that you should remember me as a soldier, and I
+hope you will look upon me from this day as an old friend, one who knows
+your sufferings and your needs, for I have heard all from Will, and I
+intend to do for you just what I would have done for a sister of mine
+were she in distress," and into the hearts of the mother and her
+children came a joy that they had not known for many a long day, and all
+through Will Raymond's losing his three-dollar gold-piece on
+Thanksgiving Day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.--THE DASHING DRAGOON.
+
+
+Colonel Dick Ivey was a bachelor and a man of vast wealth.
+
+He had been an only son, and the idol of his boyhood life had been his
+sister, two years his junior.
+
+Their parents had been wealthy, and they dated their ancestry back for
+many generations, and the father of the young Richard had been anxious
+to have his son become a soldier, and so got for him a cadetship at West
+Point.
+
+A handsome, dashing youth, generous to a fault, Dick Ivey had won the
+hearts of professors and comrades alike, and none of the latter had
+envied him the first honours of his class when he had graduated, while
+the instructors had said they were well won and deserved.
+
+There were four persons present at the graduating exercises that Dick
+was most desirous of pleasing, and these were his parents, his sister,
+and her best friend, the young cadet's lady-love.
+
+But, in spite of his honours won, the fickle young lady-love had flirted
+with the honoured cadet, refused his proffered love, and became
+infatuated, as it were, with a brother cadet of her old lover.
+
+It cut Dick Ivey to the heart, but he nursed his sorrow in silence,
+uttered no complaint, and went to the border with his regiment, to soon
+win distinction as a daring officer.
+
+The fickle maiden meanwhile married the successful rival, and two years
+after died, it was said, of a broken heart.
+
+The news came to Dick Ivey that his sister was to marry, and when he
+heard whom it was that was to be her husband, he obtained a furlough and
+started for his home to warn her against the man who had broken the
+heart of his old lady-love.
+
+But, wounded on the way, in a fight with Indians, he was laid up for
+weeks, and arrived too late, for his sister had married the man whom he
+now hated with all his soul.
+
+Soon after the Mexican war broke out, and as the American army crossed
+the Rio Grande, Dick Ivey met his old rival, and learned of his sister's
+death.
+
+Soon after a letter came to him, written by his sister, and given to
+some faithful servant to mail.
+
+It told of her sorrows, her sufferings, the cruelties of the man she had
+loved, and that she too was dying of a broken heart.
+
+At once did Dick Ivey seek the man who had wrecked the lives of two whom
+he had so dearly loved, and what he said was terse, to the point, and in
+deadly earnest. It was:
+
+"You know my cause of quarrel with you, sir, and that now is no time to
+settle it, for we belong to our country.
+
+"But, the day this war ends, if you and I are alive, you shall meet me
+on the field of honour, and but one of us shall ever leave it alive."
+
+And all through the war did Dick Ivey win fame, and he became a hero in
+the eyes of his gallant comrades.
+
+At last the war ended, the City of Mexico was in the hands of General
+Scott, and the Daring Dragoons, commanded by Colonel Ivey, were ordered
+home.
+
+Instantly, he sought his rival, and reminded him of his words at the
+breaking out of hostilities, and the two met in personal combat upon the
+duelling field.
+
+It was a duel with swords, and each man meant that it should be to the
+death, that no mercy should be shown, and it could end in but one
+way--the death of one, or both.
+
+It was fought through to the bitter end, and Dick Ivey left his hated
+enemy dead upon the field.
+
+Resigning his commission, he returned to his home in the State of
+Mississippi, and yet he remained there but a short while, for the spirit
+of unrest was upon him, and the papers teeming with stories of his
+career, he sailed for foreign lands and remained abroad for years.
+
+Again, he returned to America and settled in an elegant bachelor-home
+upon a fashionable avenue in New York city, a man of noble impulses, yet
+one upon whose life a shadow had fallen, and who carried in his heart a
+skeleton of bitter memories.
+
+Such was the man who had found Will Raymond's lost gold-piece, and his
+career, from a cadet at West Point, to his living a luxurious bachelor
+life in New York, Mrs. Raymond read to her children that Thanksgiving
+night after he had left; for the distinguished soldier had begged an
+invitation to eat his Thanksgiving turkey that day in the humble home of
+the woman he had so strangely met, and who, by some strange accident,
+had pasted in her scrap-book his picture, as a young soldier, and the
+scraps of his life history as she had then read them, never dreaming
+that she would meet the hero with the dark, handsome face, dressed in
+his gorgeous Dragoon uniform.
+
+To her children then, that Thanksgiving night, after he had departed,
+Mrs. Raymond read the history of the Dashing Dragoon, and he became to
+Will and Pearl a hero also in their eyes, and warm was the welcome that
+he received when he came the next day to tell Mrs. Raymond that he had
+adopted all of them as _protegées_, and meant to take them to a pleasant
+home and send the children to school.
+
+This promise he kept, for he would not be said nay, and Mrs. Raymond,
+grown almost happy-faced with the change, moved to a pleasant little
+home in the upper part of the city, and Will and Pearl daily attended
+the most fashionable schools in the metropolis.
+
+Months thus passed away, Colonel Ivey taking his Sunday dinner with the
+mother and her children at first, and then calling oftener and oftener,
+until one night he called Will and Pearl to him and told them that he
+had asked their mother to become his wife, and that she had said that
+she would.
+
+It made them happy, for they were glad to see joy in the face of their
+dearly loved mother, and soon after Mrs. Ruby Raymond became Mrs.
+Richard Ivey.
+
+It was a quiet wedding in the cosey home, and then into the grand
+mansion of Colonel Ivey the mother and her children moved, and sunshine
+seemed to brighten all their pathway through life; but alas! who can see
+into the future, who can tell how far beyond the sunshine lie the
+shadows that must fall upon our lives, shutting out all brightness,
+encircling them with gloom as black as the grave, and far more cruel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.--PHANTOMS OF THE PAST.
+
+
+It was a pleasant night and Mrs. Richard Ivey sat alone in the handsome
+library of her elegant country house on the sea-shore, for it was the
+summer time.
+
+Her face had lost its look of haunting care, and her cheeks glowed with
+health, and she appeared to be happy once more.
+
+Still there were phantoms of the past that would rise before her and
+they would not go down at her bidding.
+
+She recalled her first love, noble-hearted, honest Kent Lomax, from whom
+she had fled to become the wife of a man who had proved himself a
+wretch, a villain.
+
+She recalled her happy home, her loving parents, and wondered if they
+had ever forgiven her, for she had not heard one word from them since
+her flight, and she knew not the scene that had followed, when Kent
+Lomax had met Schuyler Cluett upon the field of honour, and had fallen
+before the bullet of the man she had married.
+
+She had told Colonel Ivey all before she had married him, and he had but
+loved her the more for her confession and the sorrows she had known.
+
+He had told her, too, that in the pleasant fall of the year, they would
+all go down to Maryland on a visit, and see the old home and her
+parents, and ask that she might be forgiven.
+
+As she sat alone in her home she was pondering over the past.
+
+Her husband had gone off on a business trip to the far West, Will was
+away upon a yachting cruise, for he had become a skilful and devoted
+yachtsman, his step-father having presented him with a beautiful craft,
+and Pearl was spending the night with a little playmate who lived near.
+
+Presently a footfall was heard in the hallway, and Mrs. Ivey supposed it
+was the butler, about to close up the house for the night, so that it
+did not disturb her, but she started when the words fell upon her ears:
+
+"_Mrs. Ivey_, I believe?"
+
+"_Oh, Mercy!_"
+
+The cry came like a groan of anguish from the lips of the woman, as she
+turned and beheld the form of a man standing before her.
+
+He had entered the mansion unseen, had walked into the library
+unannounced, and was within a few paces of her.
+
+His appearance was that of a gentleman, and yet one whose life was a
+fast one.
+
+He was well dressed, in fact almost flashily attired, wore a diamond in
+his front shirt, another upon the little finger of his left hand, and a
+heavy watch chain crossed his vest front.
+
+He appeared to be a man of forty, and his face was handsome, his eyes
+piercing, yet a certain cold look, added to recklessness and a cynical
+smile were not prepossessing.
+
+"You did not expect to see me again, Ruby?" he said in a voice that was
+tinged with a sneer.
+
+"I believed you dead," she whispered, for she seemed scarcely able to
+articulate.
+
+"Yes, for so I sent you word."
+
+"_You_ sent me word," she said repeating his words.
+
+"Yes, I got a pal of mine to come and see you, and tell you how I had
+been smashed up in a railway accident.
+
+"The smash-up was true, and I had my leg broken, and lay for weeks in
+agony; but I got well, and here I am."
+
+"Oh why did you do me this cruel wrong?" she groaned.
+
+"To accomplish just what you have done."
+
+"And that is--"
+
+"That, believing me dead you might marry, for I knew your beauty would
+turn the head of some old millionaire fool as it has done."
+
+"And this was your plot?"
+
+"Certainly," and he took a seat near her.
+
+"What is your purpose?" she asked in a voice scarcely audible.
+
+"Not to claim my wife, I assure you."
+
+"I would die before I would again live with you; but it breaks my heart
+to feel that I have committed this crime against the noble man that made
+me, as he supposed, his wife, for we both felt that you were dead."
+
+"And wished me so?" he said with a sneer.
+
+"Indeed I did, though Heaven forgive me for telling the truth."
+
+"Well, you see I am by no means a dead man, and as I have no desire to
+die of starvation I have come to you."
+
+"To me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And why?"
+
+"You are rich."
+
+"I am worth nothing, only such as my husband gives me."
+
+"Well, you'll have to strike him for a loan on my account."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I need money."
+
+"I can't help you."
+
+"You must."
+
+"I will not."
+
+"Listen to me, Ruby, and don't be silly.
+
+"You have broken the laws of the land, in marrying Colonel Ivey when you
+had a husband living."
+
+"I believed you dead."
+
+"That does not excuse you, and besides, I can bring up witnesses to
+swear that you knew me to be alive!"
+
+"Oh, monster!"
+
+"I can do it, and that will prove your guilt, so you see, you are wholly
+in my power."
+
+"What do you wish of me?"
+
+"I wish, as I said, some money, and I will give you a reasonable time to
+get it for me.
+
+"If I get it I will go far away and never appear again to disturb you;
+but, if I do not receive it, I will simply make my presence known to
+your husband and destroy you."
+
+"It will but drive me again into poverty and wretchedness, for I will
+not live a lie to that good man, and shall tell him all."
+
+"You are a fool, Ruby."
+
+"I was a fool when I became your wife.
+
+"I did not love you, though I believed that I did, and I soon found out
+that it was but a fascination, such as a serpent has over a bird.
+
+"I fled from my happy home, I deserted a true, honourable man, and
+became your wife, not to be acknowledged as such, for you hid me away in
+a little village, while you led a life of dissipation in Philadelphia,
+still believed to be a bachelor by your friends.
+
+"In that lonely life I lived, and my children were born, and, with no
+friend near, mine was a wretched existence.
+
+"Deserted by you, with my children, I went to New York to earn my
+living, and thither you followed me, and I had to give you all that I
+had saved up, and you gambled it away.
+
+"Again deserted by you, I sought to hide away where you could not find
+me, and I became prosperous, in a small way, by selling the work of my
+hands; but again you found me, took my little earnings and went West,
+and soon after I heard of your death.
+
+"Believe me, Schuyler Cluett, wicked as it was, I rejoiced that I was
+free, for I believed that I was.
+
+"And now you come again, when I felt that my life was not all shadow,
+and you demand that I rob my husband to help you."
+
+"I am your husband, Ruby, and I need help, and will have it."
+
+"Not from me, sir."
+
+"Yes, from you."
+
+"I say no!--for I will tell all, and defy you."
+
+"I will first see him, tell him who I am, and he will pay me to keep
+quiet, for the man loves you.
+
+"For the sake of yourself, and of your children, you had best decide to
+give me the money, I ask."
+
+She was silent, and lost in deep thought for full a minute, while he
+watched her face narrowly.
+
+At last she said:
+
+"Schuyler Cluett, you know that I would give much to have you never
+cross my path again; but your coming has unnerved me, and I am not
+myself.
+
+"If I give you money, without telling my husband all, it would but be
+robbing him to pay you.
+
+"If I tell him, I believe he would pay you as you demand; but yet, with
+you alive, and he knowing it, I could not remain here as his wife.
+
+"So go from me, and I will decide when I can collect my thoughts."
+
+"I will give you just one week."
+
+"It is long enough, for I will not need so much time; but do not come
+here."
+
+"No, I will give you an address in the city that will reach me, and you
+can appoint a place of meeting when you can give me the money."
+
+"If I decide to do so."
+
+"Oh, no fear about that, for you will decide in my favour, and for your
+children for it would be a big scandal, you know, to come out; that--but
+I'll not remind you, so here is my address, and I'll bid you goodnight,
+Mrs. Ivey," and he left the room as silently as he had entered it, and
+the poor woman was again alone with the phantoms of the past.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.--DESERTED.
+
+
+Colonel Richard Ivey came back to his elegant home, from his trip to the
+West.
+
+He had telegraphed to have the carriage meet him at the railway station,
+but to his surprise it was not there, and so he sprang into a village
+hack and drove homeward.
+
+It was dark ere he reached the mansion and his surprise was greater when
+he saw no lights to greet him.
+
+"Why Ruby must have gone up to the city; but she wrote nothing of
+intending to do so, in her last letter," he said, as he sprang out of
+the vehicle and paid the driver.
+
+Ascending to the piazza he rang the bell, and soon a light flashed
+within the hallway, and the butler opened the door.
+
+"Well, Richard, what is the matter, that I receive such a bleak
+welcome?" he said.
+
+"The madam is away, sir, and has been for some days; but she left a
+letter for you, sir, and it's on your table with the mail.
+
+"I'll have lights, sir, at once."
+
+The mansion was soon lighted up, and supper ordered for the master, who
+went into his library and took up the numerous letters that had arrived
+for him during his absence of several weeks.
+
+All were thrown aside excepting one.
+
+That one bore no stamp or post-mark, and was from his wife.
+
+Hastily he broke the seal, and seeing that it was several pages in
+length, he threw himself into his easy-chair beneath the lamp.
+
+As he read, he uttered a sound very like a moan, and, strong man though
+he was, his hands trembled as he held the letter.
+
+When he had finished he slowly re-read it, and then bending his head
+upon his hands he sat thus, the picture of silent, manly grief.
+
+What he read was as follows:
+
+                                                "SOLDIER'S REST, }
+                                           "September 1st, 18--. }
+
+     "Dare I, in this letter that I now write you, address you as my
+     heart would dictate and call you my own dear Richard?--for such you
+     are to me and ever will be, though a cruel blow causes me to fly
+     from you.
+
+     "The other night I sat alone in your library in your pet chair.
+
+     "Will was away in his yacht, on a cruise for a few days, and Pearl
+     was spending the night with a little girl friend.
+
+     "Suddenly a visitor entered the library.
+
+     "To my horror, it was one I deemed dead, years ago!
+
+     "But no not dead, alas! but alive, cynical, sneering, cold-hearted,
+     cruel he stood before me.
+
+     "Dressed well, wearing diamonds, yet a begger for gold.
+
+     "Need I tell you that it was _my husband_?
+
+     "Need I tell you that he had deceived me in his death, and told me
+     that he had purposely done so, that I might, by my beauty--such
+     were his words--win a rich husband and then he could force from me
+     gold to keep my secret?
+
+     "Such was his mission to me, and he demanded a large sum that he
+     might dissipate it in his luxurious life.
+
+     "He promised to go from me, and never return if I gave him the sum
+     he demanded.
+
+     "If I refused, he said that he would go to you, and you, for
+     honour's sake, to save scandal, would buy him off.
+
+     "Again, he said he would tell you that I knew he was alive and yet
+     married you.
+
+     "So, in my grief, I begged him to give me time for thought, though
+     I then knew what my course would be.
+
+     "He gave me a week to consider, and, confident that I would yield,
+     he left.
+
+     "He judged me by his own guilty heart and felt safe in his threats
+     to divulge the secret of his being still alive.
+
+     "When he was gone I fell into a swoon upon the floor, and there
+     Richards found me when he came to put out the lights.
+
+     "The maid revived me, and I passed a night of bitter agony; but I
+     was decided as to what I should do, and I told the servants that I
+     had heard bad news, and must go away, perhaps to be gone a long
+     time.
+
+     "I did not care to say more, that I would never return, for your
+     sake.
+
+     "Then I began to get ready, and that day Pearl returned home.
+
+     "The next day Will came back from his cruise and I told my children
+     that we must go.
+
+     "I told them that it was no quarrel, no wrong of one of us against
+     the other, only duty forced me away.
+
+     "I had in my purse something over a hundred dollars, which you had
+     given me for charity, you remember, and I devoted it to charity to
+     myself, for we go as poor as we came to you otherwise, and it is
+     because I would not feel right in taking from you one dollar when I
+     know that man lives.
+
+     "To-morrow we leave for New York in the early train, and I shall go
+     to your city mansion and get our old traps there, and place in the
+     Safe Deposit the jewellery and other valuables you have given to
+     us.
+
+     "There is one souvenir I keep, the ring you and I supposed to be
+     _our wedding ring_.
+
+     "That I shall wear, though the lie stares me in the face; but it
+     was placed there in honour in so doing.
+
+     "Where I go you will not know, for I shall not wish you to find me,
+     which your heart, I feel, will tempt you to do.
+
+     "I go my way as before, to earn our bread by my handiwork, and I am
+     strong now and in good health, after the happiness that has come
+     into my life, and I can bear much.
+
+     "Heaven bless you, will be my prayer and the prayer of my children,
+     Richard, for you have been to us all in all, and to give you up is
+     a pang that cuts deep into the hearts of us all.
+
+     "Farewell, Richard, and ever believe in the love, though it be in
+     shackles, of
+
+                                          "Yours unhappily,
+
+                                                    "RUBY CLUETT."
+
+
+Such was the letter that Colonel Dick Ivey read, and it was no wonder
+that he felt deeply the blow that had fallen upon him.
+
+For a long time he remained in silent grief; and then he raised his
+bowed head, and already suffering had made his stern, handsome face
+haggard.
+
+"She is as pure as an angel, and she shall not leave me.
+
+"I will find her, cost what it may, and to-morrow I will go to the city,
+and set the wheels of the Secret Service in motion to find her and her
+children.
+
+"Then she shall get a divorce from this wretch, for, innocent thing that
+she is, she does not know that she can readily do so, under the plea of
+desertion.
+
+"If not, why, I'll have to make a widow of her and then marry her;" and
+the face of the colonel proved that he meant what he said, while, after
+a moment, he added:
+
+"It strikes me that a man who has been such a wretch as this fellow is,
+has done that which would place him behind prison bars, and perhaps
+stretch his neck, so I'll put the detectives upon his track, and see
+what they can discover of his past career;" and with this determination
+Colonel Ivey sought the supper room, now cheered with the thought that
+his separation from those he loved was but temporary.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.--A REBUFF.
+
+
+Schuyler Cluett waited patiently for the time allowed his wife, in which
+to write to him, to pass, and no letter came.
+
+What could it mean? Had she lost his address? Did she intend to defy
+him?
+
+These questions chased each other through his mind over and over again,
+and he could find no answer.
+
+But he waited another day beyond the allotted time, and then determined
+to solve the mystery.
+
+To do this he would go to the house of Colonel Ivey.
+
+He first sought the residence of the colonel in the city, and found it
+closed up.
+
+This proved that the family had not returned to town.
+
+So he started for the country, and in due time reached the station near
+Soldier's Rest, as the home of the colonel was called.
+
+He took a hack and started for the villa, leaving the vehicle at the
+gate, while he advanced on foot, having told the driver to wait for him.
+
+It was a lordly place, a grand mansion, surrounded by spacious,
+ornamental grounds on one side, flower gardens in the rear, a lawn in
+the front, and a park upon the other side.
+
+The grounds sloped down to the walk, and there were pleasure boats to
+invite to a sail or a row.
+
+The view from the piazzas was beautiful in the extreme, and altogether a
+more charming country home could not be found than was Soldier's Rest.
+
+"A place for a gentleman of my taste to live, this," said Schuyler
+Cluett, as he walked up the grand path to the mansion.
+
+"By jove! a bright idea strikes me, and I hope I am not too late to
+carry it out.
+
+"Let me see: if I should keep in the back-ground, that is, out of sight,
+and get rid of this gallant colonel, that is, let him meet with some
+accident to cause his death, why my wife would be his heiress, of
+course.
+
+"Then I could come in, and after half a year's mourning I could force
+her to marry me, for appearances' sake, and I'd have all.
+
+"I was a trifle too fast in appearing as I did, and not thinking of this
+little game before.
+
+"Now it may be too late, she may have told the colonel about me, as she
+has not appeared, and he may simply back her up in getting a divorce
+from me, which she can do.
+
+"Well, here I am, and _there he is_.
+
+"Now I must put a bold face upon the matter and survey the fort to see
+if I can take it."
+
+He had dressed himself up in his best style, and Colonel Ivey, seeing a
+well-dressed stranger approaching, arose to meet him.
+
+The colonel had that noon returned from the city, where he could find no
+clue to the where abouts of Ruby and her children; but he had set the
+best detectives on the track and was hopeful of soon discovering them.
+
+Bowing to the visitor, the colonel advanced to meet him.
+
+Schuyler Cluett bowed politely and asked:
+
+"Is this the home of Colonel Ivey?"
+
+"It is, sir, and I am Richard Ivey, at your service.
+
+"Be seated, pray, or will you enter the house?"
+
+"Thank you, sir; my name is Cluett, sir, and I am an old friend of your
+wife, and have called to see her, being in the neighbourhood."
+
+"Indeed, sir; I am really glad to meet you, Mr. Cluett, so be seated,
+pray, for it is pleasanter here than indoors."
+
+Schuyler Cluett sat down. But he hardly knew what to say.
+
+It seemed evident, from the colonel's manner, he thought, that his wife
+had kept her secret, for he did not appear to be known.
+
+"I hope Mrs. Ivey is well, sir?" he volunteered.
+
+"Well, sir, as to that I cannot just say, as she is not at home; but I
+hope so."
+
+"Indeed! she is absent then?"
+
+"Yes, sir, she has gone far away, she and her children, and, as you are
+an old friend of hers, I do not mind telling you that it is on account
+of a grand scamp whom she once married."
+
+"No!"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Cluett; she was infatuated in her girlhood by some wretch whom
+she ran off with and married, and soon found him out to be a worthless
+vagabond, a gambler and all that was bad.
+
+"He robbed her, deserted her, and sent her word, through a confederate
+in guilt, that he had been killed, and so believing him to be dead, she
+married me.
+
+"But he turned up during my absence West, tried to get her to rob me, to
+pay him off from telling the secret of his still being alive, and she,
+too noble to do so, fled from my home, from me, and has gone far away,
+while I am left alone."
+
+"But you can find her, sir?" eagerly asked Cluett.
+
+"Yes, I hope to do so, for, I'll tell you a secret."
+
+"Yes, Colonel Ivey."
+
+"I have the detectives at work, tracking down this rascally husband, and
+I have found out enough about him already, to give her a divorce, by
+sending him to State's Prison."
+
+"Oh, sir, can you do this?" and Schuyler Cluett turned deadly pale.
+
+"Oh yes, I hope to; and more, for I don't mind telling you, my dear Mr.
+Cluett, as you are my wife's friend, but you must keep the secret, that
+there was a mysterious murder some time ago, for the murderer cannot be
+found.
+
+"But this husband--I do wish I could recall his name--"
+
+"Raymond, sir."
+
+"Yes, Raymond, that's the name, thank you.
+
+"Well, he was in the vicinity when this murder was committed and I think
+men can be bribed to swear that he was guilty, you know and I'll give a
+fortune to buy a jury up, so that he can be hanged, and--but why do you
+rise, sir, for surely you are not going?" and the colonel looked up with
+surprise, as Cluett arose as though to depart.
+
+"Yes, sir, I must go, for I just recall an important case I have to try,
+as I am a lawyer, colonel, and your story of your wife's former husband
+recalled it to my memory."
+
+"But you will remain my guest, sir, for the night at least, and I'll go
+up to the city with you in the morning, as I will have this rascal
+arrested at once, and I think the law will make short work of him."
+
+"It should, sir, it should, and I have no doubt it will; but good-by,
+Colonel Ivey, good-by, sir," and Schuyler Cluett hastened away from the
+mansion, reached his waiting hack, and taking out his watch said:
+
+"Driver you have just twenty minutes to catch the Express up to the
+city, and if you do it I'll give you a ten-dollar bill extra."
+
+"I'll do it, sir," replied the driver, and the horses were sent along
+the highway at a pace that surprised them, as their usual gait was a
+jog.
+
+And looking after the rapidly disappearing vehicle, Colonel Ivey
+muttered to himself, as his face wore a grim smile:
+
+"Well, I think I frightened him so that he'll hunt a hiding-place in the
+far West, and I only wish I did know that he was deserving of the
+penitentiary; but I'll telegraph the detective chief to have men at the
+station to meet him and see just where he goes, and what he does, so as
+to be prepared for him should he remain in New York," and entering his
+library Colonel Ivey wrote a long dispatch to the chief of the detective
+service, telling him to have men on the watch for Schuyler Cluett,
+giving a full description of the man, and by what train to expect him.
+
+This message was then sent post-haste to the station-agent to rush
+through with all dispatch, and Colonel Ivey felt relieved at having, as
+he believed, got rid of Ruby's rascally husband, from whom she could now
+easily get a divorce, under the plea of desertion and non-support for
+years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.--THE BOY CAPTIVE.
+
+
+Let me beg the kind reader, who has followed me through my story thus
+far, to recall an important personage who was left a prisoner in the
+hands of a band of wicked men who were evidently hiding from the
+officers of the law.
+
+In that boy captive the reader has doubtless recognized Will Raymond,
+for his mother had not taught him the name of his father, Schuyler
+Cluett.
+
+When he had been addressed upon the street by a gentleman, and sent on
+an important mission, he had been entrapped, for his face and age just
+suited a purpose that was to be carried out through him.
+
+What that purpose was will soon be made known.
+
+The time of Will's capture was some months after the flight of the
+mother with her children from the elegant country mansion of Colonel
+Richard Ivey.
+
+So well had Mrs. Raymond, as I must now again call her, concealed
+herself, that the police and detectives, put upon her track by Colonel
+Ivey, had been unable to find her where abouts, and it was believed that
+she had left New York for another place.
+
+In an humble home, in a cheaper quarter of the city, the poor woman had
+found an abiding-place, for it could not be called a home.
+
+The rooms were but three in number, and not so pleasant as those where
+she had lived in poverty before; but they were kept scrupulously clean,
+and were not uncomfortable.
+
+As soon as she was fully settled, Mrs. Raymond paid her rent for six
+months in advance; then she laid in a store of provisions, and
+purchasing painting materials, again began to paint little pictures for
+sale, for she had but a small sum left of that which she had brought
+with her, and she must begin to earn more, she knew.
+
+But the shock of her husband's return, as though from the grave, had
+been a severe one, and she felt that she was by no means as well as she
+could wish.
+
+Gradually her nerves failed her, the mainsprings of life, and she became
+almost a confirmed invalid, unable to do but little.
+
+Will and Pearl had again began attending the nearest public school, but,
+as the spring drew near and Mrs. Raymond's health failed her more and
+more, her little daughter had remained at home with her, while her brave
+boy had given up his studies to earn what money he could, and this was
+but little, hardly enough to give them food, and, but for Mrs. Raymond
+having paid the rent, it would not have been sufficient to meet all
+demands, moderate as they were.
+
+It was while Will was skirmishing around in search of a stray penny to
+earn, that he had struck what had appeared to him a "bonanza," in the
+promise of a couple of dollars for delivering a letter and keeping his
+mouth shut, at the same time afflicting himself with loss of memory, as
+the one who paid him for his alleged services had demanded that he
+should.
+
+When, therefore, Will found himself a prisoner, the reader can well
+imagine his feelings.
+
+Brave boy that he was, his first thought was of his sick mother's
+distress at his absence, and his second of himself.
+
+It flashed upon him, from the words of Jerry, the Night Hawk, the secret
+manner of his gaining admission, the letter which had led him into a
+trap, that he was meant for some mysterious purpose of villainy.
+
+The room in which he found himself had but one door, that by which he
+had entered, and the ceiling ran up with the peaked roof, in which were
+skylights for light and air.
+
+It was a large room, occupying one side of the house, excepting where
+the little ante-chamber, or hall-way was taken off, and about the sides
+were baths such as one sees in a steamboat's cabin.
+
+A cupboard was in one end of the room, filled with dishes, and next to
+it was a dumb-waiter that came up from the lower depths somewhere.
+
+On the opposite side a door was opened to what appeared to be another
+cupboard, but in which Will saw at a glance a ladder, leading to an open
+skylight above.
+
+In the centre of the room was a large table with chairs about it, and
+seated in various attitudes about it were a dozen men, who scowled
+viciously upon the boy as he was dragged into their presence by Jerry,
+the Night Hawk.
+
+But Will, in spite of his perilous position, kept up a brave manner.
+
+"What did ther kid come here for?" asked a man with a scowling face.
+
+"Captain Cruel sent him, and writes that he'll do for the little job to
+play on the Philadelphia man whose son died on our hands, and thus cut
+us out o' the reward," said Night Hawk Jerry, who seemed to be leader of
+the band of ruffians.
+
+"He looks it sart'in, and I thought it were Billy come ter life ag'in
+when I seen his face; but will he do it?"
+
+"He'll have to, Jack, or--" and the look and action of Night Hawk Jerry
+were most significant, and did not escape the eyes of Will Raymond.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.--PUT TO THE TEST.
+
+
+Before more could be said by any of the band, a bell rang over in the
+dumb-waiter, and two men at once stepped to the cupboard and began to
+place dishes upon the table, preparatory to having supper.
+
+Will was told to sit down on a chair, and the coming meal, rather than
+the boy prisoner, seemed to occupy the thoughts of the rude gathering.
+By the time that the table was set, with a plate, knife, fork, teacup
+and spoon for each, and a dish of butter and large bowl of sugar in the
+centre, a second ring came at the dumb-waiter, and up from the depths
+below appeared the supper.
+
+The two men, whose duty it seemed, put the supper on the table, and it
+was by no means a repast to be refused, for there was hot coffee, milk,
+hot biscuit, steak, potatoes and preserves.
+
+Will was told to "Take a seat youngster, and pitch in, for you don't
+know how soon yer rations will be cut short."
+
+He had eaten but a light breakfast, and nothing since, so he obeyed the
+injunction with a gusto, winning the admiration of the men at his pluck
+in not losing his appetite when his fate hung so in the balance of
+uncertainty.
+
+But Will had made up his mind that though he was in a tight place, he
+would not despair, but find some way to get out, and the means of doing
+so did not worry him until the time came for action.
+
+He had read the papers, and he knew that almost under the eyes of the
+police there were bands of evil men who would rob and kill without mercy
+to gain gold.
+
+That he had fallen into the hands of some such wicked men he did not
+doubt; but he did not despair of working out his own salvation in some
+way, when he was assured just what their game was that they intended to
+win by playing him as a trump card.
+
+So Will ate his supper with apparent relish, and rising, thanked them
+politely and resumed his former seat.
+
+"You've been well raised, boy," said Jerry. "What is your name?"
+
+"Will Raymond, sir," said the boy, returning to his old name, for while
+with the colonel he had taken that of Ivey, at his request.
+
+"What do you do?"
+
+"Anything I can earn money at to support my sick mother and little
+sister."
+
+"Well, how would you like to become a rich man's son?"
+
+"I don't know what you mean."
+
+"The captain sent you here because you resembled somebody, didn't he?"
+
+"He gave me a letter to bring to you, and said you would give me two
+dollars for doing the errand."
+
+"Well, that was a bait to get you here; but if you do as I say, you'll
+do better by far than make two dollars."
+
+"What must I do?"
+
+"Do you see this photograph?" and he held up a picture before Will of a
+small boy, perhaps seven years of age.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"This photograph looks just as you did six years ago, and then your name
+was Willie Rossmore. Your home was in Baltimore, or rather near it, and
+these are photographs of the place, and a handsome one it was.
+
+"You went out in the grounds, just here, running away from your nurse,
+and two men, passing along the highway in a buggy, took you with them.
+
+"They carried you far away, treated you well, and took you to a farm in
+the West, where one day I found you, and you told me your story and I
+immediately recognized you as a boy stolen years ago, and whose
+photograph I had often seen published in the papers.
+
+"Your father, Mr. Rossmore, is a very rich man, and he has offered fifty
+thousand dollars for your return, and I will get it.
+
+"Now, my boy, I wish you to study these photographs of your old home,
+and here is the name of the servants who were at the house then, and
+your nurse was an old coloured woman, Auntie Peggy.
+
+"These are the clothes you had on when you were stolen; they are ragged
+now, for you wore them a long time, and when you got others you kept
+these. You had this ring on your forefinger then, but you can wear it
+now on your left hand little finger--see, it just fits."
+
+"What has become of the real little boy that was stolen?" asked Will,
+quietly.
+
+The men all exchanged peculiar glances with each other, and one said:
+"Tell him, Jerry, so that he'll know we won't stand any nonsense."
+
+"Well, he would not behave as we wished him to, and he would remember
+too much, and so we dared not take him back to get the reward, you see."
+
+"And is he dead?"
+
+"You've hit it, he is, for one day he left our camp, as we were crossing
+the prairie in Nebraska, not very many miles from Fort McPherson, and we
+found him lying under a solitary tree, mighty near dead from starvation;
+and he died, and we buried him there, cutting his name into the tree, as
+a monument, as any emigrant folks would who had lost a young one.
+
+"Poor little fellow, he had better have done as you wished, and so been
+able to get home."
+
+"Boy, you've got wisdom above your years, and you'll play our little
+game for us with a handful of trumps and a card or two up your sleeve, I
+can tell you.
+
+"I guess you've been nipped by hunger, and wish a soft thing of it for
+life, don't you?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And you'll talk our way, won't you?"
+
+"Oh, yes, sir; only it will be very sad for my poor mother and sister to
+lose me."
+
+"No, for you can write them that you had a chance to go West, and I'll
+take the letter and some money to them, and you bet we'll keep them from
+want and send them lots of things, while if you don't like it where you
+go, you can just skip out after you've got together a nice little sum of
+money, for we don't care so long as we get the reward for your return,
+and you shall have five thousand of that, for I'll keep you posted where
+we are, and you can have the money any time you call for it."
+
+"This looks fair, sir; but I hate to leave my mother and little sister,
+though I do want to make money."
+
+"Well, you write your mother a letter, and I'll see that she gets it
+to-morrow, and I'll put a cool fifty in it for her, too.
+
+"Now, write your letter, and then study over those photographs, this
+list of names, and the lesson I have here for you," and Jerry handed
+Will various slips of paper.
+
+"Now, lad," he continued, "if you play this game right, you'll get all I
+say; but if you play us false, you'll be knifed sure, so just bear that
+in mind."
+
+"I don't wish to die, and I'd rather be rich than poor, if I can take
+care of my mother and sister, and they don't find out I am deceiving
+them."
+
+"They'll never know it, lad, and it was a lucky find the captain made in
+you, for you look just what we want, and have got the sense to play the
+game through.
+
+"I tell you, though, we had a time with Willie Rossmore, up to his death
+three years ago, for we had to travel about with him, hide him, watch
+him, and were going to take him to an Indian camp to live for a year or
+so to make him forget, when he ran off and died on the prairie. But you
+look like him exactly, though you are older by a year or so, but that
+don't make any difference. Now there's a pen and ink, and here's your
+lesson to study, while we play a game of cards."
+
+Will sat down at a shelf that served as a desk, and began to "study his
+lesson," as Night Hawk Jerry had called it.
+
+He wrote a letter to his mother, and at last the men began to turn in,
+each one going to his bunk, while the boy was also given one, and
+crawling into the berth, appeared to be sound asleep, while the last man
+retiring put out the lamp, and only the light from the stars, twinkling
+through the skylights, pervaded the large room, and the sonorous
+breathing of the sleepers soon showed that, guilty beings though they
+were, no twinges of conscience kept them awake.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.--WILL PLAYS HIS LITTLE GAME.
+
+
+Lying in his little bunk, which was an upper one, Will Raymond did not
+go to sleep.
+
+He saw the men drop off one by one, from their card playing, he watched
+the last one up draw on the ropes, to raise the skylights and let in
+more air, and, as he came to the one near him, he feared he was going to
+see if he was asleep, so he closed his eyes and breathed hard.
+
+But the man drew on the rope, that raised the skylight, some ten feet
+above Will's head, and then putting out the lamp he went to bed.
+
+Still gazing upward Will saw the stars fade from view, and the skylights
+rattled, showing that the clouds had obscured the sky and a wind was
+springing up.
+
+Until all seemed to be asleep, Will lay quiet as a mouse; then he bent
+over the edge of his bunk and looked about him.
+
+Raising himself then to a kneeling posture, he saw that the ladder,
+before referred to as going up to a skylight, was right by the foot of
+his berth.
+
+Softly he arose, grasped one of the rounds and drew himself up.
+
+Without the slightest sound he ascended the ladder, crept up through the
+skylight and found himself upon the peak of the high roof.
+
+Standing up he glanced about him, and his eye fell upon nothing but
+roofs.
+
+He saw that the building on which he stood ran back some distance from
+the street, was very high, narrow, and ended fifty feet away in a large
+chimney.
+
+On each side of the sharp roof were slats, a foot from the top,
+evidently placed there to serve as foot guards in a walk toward the
+chimney.
+
+The clouds, black as night, were now flying low, and skurrying along
+before an approaching storm. The lightning came in vivid flashes, and it
+was enough to appall the heart of a seaman, there on that high perch,
+where the slightest misstep would hurl him to death, the tremour of a
+nerve would dash him to his doom.
+
+But there was death behind him, sure, and a struggle against death
+before him, with chances of the boy's triumph, so he held on in his
+determination to escape.
+
+He knew that the men had placed those slats along the roof for some
+purpose, and that there was a way to escape from the roof he did not
+doubt, so he determined to find it.
+
+With the bundle at his back, tied with a string about his waist,
+bare-headed, bare-footed, jacketless, the brave boy stood on the
+dangerous perch, to return to the outlaw band certain death, to advance
+a chance for life, while the lightning fairly blinded him, with its
+vividness.
+
+Step by step the boy advanced toward the chimney, for he dared not tarry
+there long, as any moment the storm might awaken the Land Sharks, as
+Will had heard the band speak of themselves, and, if missed, he would be
+pursued and taken.
+
+But he had arranged his bedding so as to look like a form in his berth,
+and placed his jacket, shoes and hat so as to be seen, if he was
+suspected, which he did not believe.
+
+As he took the first step the rain began to descend in torrents, and a
+sound behind him caused him to turn his head quickly.
+
+He saw that the skylights were being lowered by someone in the room and
+he breathed more freely as he felt that he had not been discovered.
+
+But the rain driving into his face, blinded him, as he had no hat to
+shelter his eyes, and the slats and roof being wet, rendered his
+position far more perilous.
+
+But on he went, step by step, until he reached the chimney. It was
+breast high to him, and he noticed that it was very large.
+
+From there down to the ground was a long way, and he saw no means of
+descending.
+
+Perhaps upon the other side there was a ladder, he thought, and again it
+came to his mind that the men might have a rope ladder to bring with
+them.
+
+If this was the case he was doomed, and, the thought in spite of the
+driving cold rain made him break out into a dense perspiration.
+
+Leaping upon the chimney, for his experience as an amateur sailor had
+helped him, and he had often gone on board ships at the wharf and
+ascended to the highest point he could reach, he gazed over the side of
+the brickwork to see if there was aught to aid his descent.
+
+But he saw that the roof was even with the chimney, so no ladder could
+go down it.
+
+"They must hook a rope-ladder into the chimney in some way," he
+muttered, and he ran his hand around inside to find the hook, determined
+to tear his clothing in strips and make a rope, so that he might escape.
+
+"Ah!" he said, as his hand touched a piece of iron.
+
+"_A ladder inside_," he cried, joyously, as he felt rods of iron going
+down as far as he could reach. Instantly he lowered himself into the
+chimney and commenced the descent.
+
+Feeling with his feet he found the rods, two feet apart, and down he
+went into the gloom.
+
+One thing was certain, the chimney was not used as a smoke-conductor,
+for there was no soot in it. Down, down he went into the darkness, only
+a shadowy light showing the opening in the top of the chimney.
+
+He had counted twenty rods, and so knew that he must have descended some
+forty feet.
+
+Then his feet touched bottom, and turning, he saw the glimmer of a light
+through a crack.
+
+Stooping, he gazed through the crack and looked out into a room dimly
+lighted, the gas being turned down low.
+
+He saw that a fire-board hid the open chimney in which he stood, and
+moving it out he beheld the interior of the room distinctly.
+
+There were two windows, one on either side of the fire-place, and he
+heard the wind rattling the sashes furiously, and the rain pattering
+viciously against the panes of glass.
+
+There was a stove before him, but it was evidently there for show, as
+the smoke-stack entered the chimney, yet no soot was in it, which proved
+that a fire could not have been lighted in it.
+
+A table with books on it, some pictures on the walls, a clothes-press,
+and over on one side of a door was a bed, while horrors! _there was a
+man in it!_
+
+The occupant of the bed was asleep, that was certain, his face turned
+toward the wall, as Will could see by the dimly-burning gas-jet over the
+table.
+
+To escape, the boy saw that his only chance was to get out of his
+hiding-place, cross the room, unlock the door, and thus get out; but
+when out of the room would he be free?
+
+This was the startling question he asked himself, as he grasped the
+fireguard to push it one side, determined to at once make the venture,
+for he did not know at what moment he might find a pursuer coming down
+the chimney on his track.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.--THE BOY GUIDE.
+
+
+The reader can fully appreciate the peril of Will when they know what
+was behind him, and that he had a room, unknown to him, and with an
+occupant asleep in it, to cross, before he got out, while he little
+knew where the door would lead him, or whether he would be any nearer
+escape than where he then was.
+
+Cautiously he raised the fireboard from within and began to move it
+outwardly as though it swung on a hinge.
+
+He did this noiselessly, and soon had space enough to get through.
+
+This he did and rose to a standing posture, the little bundle still at
+his back.
+
+Then he put the fireboard back in its place and stepped forward.
+
+The floor creaked and startled him, and he walked quickly to the door.
+
+As he reached it the sleeper started, turned in bed, raised his head,
+and glanced toward the window, while he muttered: "What a deuce of a
+storm is raging."
+
+Then back dropped his head, and he did not see the boy crouching down
+within two feet of him, and who held, grasped firmly and ready for use,
+a boot-jack, that his hand accidently touched.
+
+Had the man attempted to get out of bed, or had he glanced toward the
+boy, he would have felt the weight of the boot-jack, for Will was
+determined to escape at all hazards, even if he had to strike at human
+life, for he did not doubt, coming to this room as he had from the den
+of the Land Sharks, that the occupant was one of the band.
+
+But, fortunately for the man he dropped off to sleep again, and
+fortunately, too, for Will, who might have made a miss blow and then
+been killed or captured.
+
+As soon as the heavy breathing of the man indicated that he was once
+more asleep, Will turned to the door and placed his hand upon the key.
+He turned it slowly in the lock, and yet it creaked loudly to his ears;
+but the noise of the storm without drowned the sound as far as waking
+the sleeper was concerned.
+
+Taking hold of the knob he drew back the latch, and moved the door. It
+creaked loudly, so he shut it to quickly as he saw the man move
+uneasily. He kept still, and the man once more breathed naturally in his
+slumber.
+
+Drawing the key from the door Will then opened it quickly and stepped
+outside, closed it after him, though trembling at the loud creaking
+sound it made.
+
+At the same time he thrust the key in the door and turned it, just as he
+heard the man spring out of bed.
+
+Where he was he did not know, for all was blackness about him, but he at
+once moved away from the door, feeling his way cautiously, while he
+could hear the occupant of the room moving hastily about, and then grasp
+the knob of the door.
+
+A smothered curse followed the words: "The key is gone!"
+
+Then there was a shaking of the door, and Will nearly fell down a flight
+of stairs; but caught himself on the rail.
+
+As he hastily descended there appeared a crescent-shaped light before
+him, and he knew that it was over a door, and a moment after he reached
+it.
+
+It was locked, but the key was on the inside and hastily he turned it,
+and he could hardly restrain a shout of joy as he found himself out in
+the street.
+
+The storm was at its height, the rain was pouring in torrents and the
+narrow street was flooded; but the daring boy cared little for that and
+turning noted the house and number.
+
+Then he darted away, unmindful of the rain.
+
+At the corner he saw the name of the street, and once more pressed on,
+seemingly acquainted with the locality and aiming for a certain point.
+
+Not even a policeman was seen out in that driving rain, so the boy met
+no human being as he ran along up to his ankles in water.
+
+Here and there a light burned dimly, evidently in some sick-room, and
+all else was darkness, excepting the flickering street-lamps at the
+corners. Turning into another street he came in sight of a coloured
+lamp, jutting out from a large brick house.
+
+Toward this he ran and a moment after, dripping wet, bare-headed,
+shoeless and jacketless he darted into a room where sat several officers
+in police uniform, while one wearing the badge of a captain of the force
+sat behind a desk in a small adjoining room.
+
+The boy appeared like an apparition to the officers, but he gave them no
+time for thought, as he said: "Is not that Sergeant Daly?" and he
+pointed to the officer in the other room.
+
+"Yes, it is _Captain_ Daly, for he's been promoted," answered an
+officer.
+
+"Ho, Murphy, any one to see me?" called out the captain.
+
+"Yes, sir, a boy that looks as if he'd just swum across East river," was
+the reply.
+
+"Ah! I know that face, you are Will Raymond, who captured the convict
+for me over a year ago," said Captain Daly coming out.
+
+"Yes, sir, and I've come to tell you a strange story, and guide you to
+the den of a band of outlaws that call themselves Land Sharks for I just
+escaped from them," and Will spoke quickly, though with not a particle
+of excitement in his manner and voice, so well did he control his
+feelings.
+
+The name of Land Sharks caused the police present to gather near at once
+and appear deeply interested, while Captain Daly said: "If you know the
+hiding-place of that gang, my lad, you know more than any policeman or
+detective in New York has been able to find out."
+
+"I do know it, sir, and two ways of getting there; but what you do, you
+must do now, as they will escape, so I'll tell you all I can while you
+get your men ready, and there are over a dozen in the band."
+
+"Murphy, call up twenty men and a sergeant at once."
+
+"Now, Master Will, for you see I have not forgotten your name, let me
+have your story."
+
+In as few words as possible, Will told of his having been stopped by a
+well-dressed stranger and then sent to the den of the Land Sharks, as an
+excuse to get him into their clutches.
+
+His manner of getting there, and his reception he made known, together
+with his acquiescence, as the outlaw supposed, in their plot to get the
+reward offered for Willie Rossmore, the little son of the Baltimore
+millionaire.
+
+His escape, bringing with him in a bundle, the photographs, and
+well-worn clothing the kidnapped boy had on when taken, he also made
+known, and they were displayed before the police captain, who said:
+"These can wait, and will dry by the time we get back; but Will, you are
+a natural born detective, and you shall have work as such, that will
+keep your mother and sister from want; but here are my men, my brave
+boy, and we will start at once--ho! I forgot that you were wet and
+shivering but I'll soon make you comfortable."
+
+An order to an attendant brought from a package room a thick suit and
+india-rubber coat, into which the boy had no difficulty in getting, as
+they were nearly double his size, and a policeman's hat sheltered his
+head.
+
+Then, side by side with Captain Daly, and with a score of policemen
+following, they stepped out into the driving rain to go upon the raid
+against the Land Sharks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.--THE RAID.
+
+
+The first point of destination of the police squad, was to the door out
+of which Will had made his escape, and he led the men directly to it. It
+was unlocked, as he had left it, but four men were left there, and the
+others followed the boy around to another street, where was the number
+at which he had entered the den.
+
+"I've made no mistake in this number, but yet it don't look like the
+place," he said as he stopped before the door.
+
+"I hope you have made no mistake, my lad," anxiously said Captain Daly.
+
+"I know I have not, sir; but then I can't find the bell."
+
+In vain he searched, there was no bell at the side, but instead a large
+old-fashioned knocker.
+
+"This is a white door, sir, as you see, and the other was painted
+brown."
+
+"Then you are certainly mistaken, my lad."
+
+"No, sir, I am not mistaken, for this is the number, but--"
+
+"But what?" asked Captain Daly, as Will paused.
+
+"They have taken out the bell from the side, sir, and _changed the door,
+since I left_."
+
+Several of the policemen laughed, but Captain Daly did not, and said:
+"If you say so, Will, I'll believe you.
+
+"Your dark lantern here, Gibson."
+
+The man addressed handed over his lantern, and Will ran the light up and
+down the door-post.
+
+"Here's where the bell-knob was, sir, and it's been plugged up as you
+see, by something that fits in."
+
+"You are right, Will," and the captain gave the knocker three sharp
+blows.
+
+But no response came, and Will said: "They'll not answer, sir, for
+they've changed this door to fool me, and they know I've escaped from
+that man I locked in his room."
+
+"All right, we'll open the door ourselves.
+
+"In with it, men!"
+
+Half a dozen policemen threw themselves against the door; but it
+withstood their weight, and the locks within only yielded after repeated
+trials. Then the door flew open, and all entered the hallway, closing it
+behind them.
+
+The next door then confronted them, but Will pointed out the panel, and
+a club smashed that in, when Captain Daly put in his hand and drew back
+the bolt.
+
+"This is a secure nest, that is certain; but I fear we'll find it
+deserted," said Captain Daly, and with their lantern-shades raised, they
+hastily followed Will up the stairs.
+
+He went directly to the door by which he had entered, and the panel was
+opened with a club, and the officers dashed in, and throwing themselves
+against the inner door it yielded to their weight with a crash.
+
+Then they found themselves in the large living room of the band, from
+whence Will had made his escape.
+
+The bunks were there, the table, chairs, dumb-waiter, and much clothing
+and bedding was scattered about, showing a hasty departure; but not a
+soul was present.
+
+"Will you follow down the chimney, sir?" asked Will.
+
+"Yes, I will follow with several of my men, while the remainder break in
+every door of this nest, which is, indeed, a safe retreat.
+
+"Come, men, I want only those who have cool heads on lofty places to go,
+for, from what he told me, it will require all your nerve to follow
+him."
+
+Four of the officers volunteered, and up the ladder went Will, he having
+in the meantime recovered his hat, shoes and jacket from the floor.
+
+Out upon the roof, in the drenching rain, the boy stepped, and made his
+way fearlessly along the dizzy hight, followed by Captain Daly and his
+men, who stepped with the greatest caution, for they realised their
+deadly peril at a glance.
+
+Fearlessly the brave boy led the police captain and his men, the chief
+calling out: "Go slow, Will, for a false step here will send us to
+perdition!"
+
+Reaching the chimney, Will sprang upon the top and disappeared in the
+interior, the others following, and descending the iron ladder in
+silence.
+
+Down to the fire-place went Will, and the instant after Captain Daly
+joined him, and handing the boy his dark-lantern to spring open, the two
+hastily sprang out into the room.
+
+It was deserted, but the door was partly open, for the lock had been
+wrenched off.
+
+The pictures were on the wall, the bed all rumpled up, and the lamp was
+upon the table, while there was every indication of a hasty departure,
+as in the assembly room.
+
+Then the police went on a voyage of discovery through the house.
+
+It was an old-time mansion, two stories, narrow in build, and ran back
+against the one on the other street, to which the false chimney
+belonged, and in it were some half-score of poor, but reputable lodgers,
+who, aroused by the police, were amazed at the raid upon them.
+
+In answer to inquiries, they said that the room on the rear, through
+which the officers had come, was occupied by an artist, they had heard,
+though no one seemed to know much about him except that he had a number
+of visitors.
+
+That there was a secret connected with his living there they had not
+suspected.
+
+Confident that the lodgers of the house told the truth, Captain Daly
+left two of his men on duty there, and started around the block to the
+other house.
+
+He found the party still on guard at the door, and they had not seen or
+heard anything of a suspicious nature.
+
+Going around to the other house Captain Daly found that his men had
+thoroughly searched the place from the cellar to the attic.
+
+They had discovered the door which Will had remembered to have seen in
+front, and as it was still dripping wet it showed that it had been
+removed that night from its place, to throw the boy off his guard, but
+it had, however, failed to do so.
+
+In different rooms of the house was found a quantity of stolen booty,
+the loss of some of which Captain Daly and his men had heard of, and
+there was every indication that it was a nest of burglars of a daring
+and desperate nature.
+
+The Land Sharks had long been known to the police for their bold acts of
+crime, yet they never before could be located, and even the gruffest of
+the policemen praised Will for what he had done.
+
+Dawn was now breaking, and a neighbour, coming out of his house, was
+asked who owned the premises.
+
+He said that his landlord did so, and giving the address, the proprietor
+of the two houses was at once looked up; but he was amazed at what he
+heard, for he let the property to an old woman who said she wished to
+keep boarders, and had regularly paid her rent three months in advance,
+and had built a new chimney and made other improvements which she had
+paid for herself.
+
+The landlord was greatly amazed to find what those improvements were,
+but he could give no clue as to who or what his tenant was, or where she
+could be found.
+
+Having discovered the secret retreat of the Land Sharks, however, was a
+cause of congratulation, and the booty found was considerable, so that
+Will was praised for his good services, and at once told that he was to
+consider himself a member of the Secret Service and to report the
+following day after he had become rested, for the night of peril and
+hardship the good-hearted police-captain could see had told on the brave
+boy.
+
+With a heart bounding with joy, Will had hastened home, and his mother
+and sister greeted him warmly, for they were most anxious regarding his
+long absence, and with wonder they listened to the strange story of his
+adventures, while Pearl cried in glee: "Hurrah for the Boy Detective!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.--ON SECRET SERVICE.
+
+
+The day and night of rest which Will took, he really needed, for his
+capture, escape and hard work, had indeed been a severe strain upon him.
+
+Captain Daly had picked up a roll of bills, in the Land Sharks' rooms
+which some one of them had dropped in their haste to get away, and he
+had insisted upon Will's falling heir to the money, though the boy had
+urged against it.
+
+There were only about twenty dollars, but it was a large sum to Will,
+and he handed it over to his mother, so that when he awoke from his long
+sleep, he found a splendid dinner ready, for Pearl had been to the
+market and spent the five-dollar bill given her with no economical hand.
+The mother and her children greatly enjoyed their dinner, and Will then
+told his mother that Captain Daly had said that his pay would be thirty
+dollars a month to begin with, and all felt cheered at the prospect, and
+retired with lighter hearts than they had had the past few weeks.
+
+Upon reporting at the office of Captain Daly the next morning, Will
+received a warm welcome from all, and was congratulated over and over
+again upon his nerve and the good services he had rendered.
+
+"Now, Will," the captain said, "I find that Mr. Rossmore, a retired
+merchant of Baltimore, lost a son Willie some six years ago, and still
+offers large rewards for his restoration.
+
+"From what you heard from the Land Sharks, you know more than any one
+else about the matter, and the boy is doubtless dead, as they stated,
+and they evidently murdered him.
+
+"Now I wish you to go to Baltimore with these clothes, the photographs
+and the ring, and see Mr. Rossmore, telling him all, and directing him
+to the spot on the prairie, as well as you can, where your friend Night
+Hawk Jerry said the boy was buried.
+
+"Will you go?"
+
+"Certainly, sir, for I am ready to do just what you wish, if you think I
+am able to accomplish it."
+
+"You are able to do a man's work, Will, after what you did to extricate
+yourself from the clutches of those Land Sharks.
+
+"Now I will give you the money for your trip, and you had better get a
+satchel, a suit of clothes and some other things, and get your mother to
+pack them for you.
+
+"Here are twenty-five dollars to fit you out with, and I'll give you the
+money for your trip when you are ready to start.
+
+"And here, my boy, I had almost forgotten to give you your badge of
+office; it is a gold one, and a present to you by the officers of this
+precinct.
+
+"We would make it a public demonstration, only we do not wish it known
+outside that we have made a new departure and enlisted a boy in the
+Secret Service force."
+
+As Captain Daly spoke, he pinned under the boy's coat a handsome gold
+badge, a shield, upon which was engraven:
+
+                           "SPECIAL OFFICER
+                                   of
+                      METROPOLITAN SECRET SERVICE."
+
+"I will prove deserving of all your kindness, Captain Daly," said Will,
+with a choking voice, and he sallied forth to make his purchases.
+
+This done, he took them home, and Mrs. Raymond packed his little
+grip-sack, while Pearl was lost in admiration over the gold badge.
+
+With the shield fastened securely upon his vest, beneath his coat, and
+his satchel in his hand, Will bade his mother good-bye and started for
+the precinct to get his final orders.
+
+These were given him along with a well-filled purse, and Captain Daly
+went with him across the ferry to see him on board the train.
+
+As he took his seat alone in the sleeping car, which the kind-hearted
+captain had provided him with, Will felt his own importance, and his
+heart was full of gratitude that he had, by his own acts, become able to
+earn a support for his mother and sister.
+
+Arriving in Baltimore, he went to the hotel to which Captain Daly had
+directed him, and, after breakfast, with the photographs and clothing of
+the kidnapped boy wrapped up in a bundle, he made inquiries as to where
+the home of Mr. Rossmore was, and set out to go there.
+
+He found it without much difficulty, a superb country seat in the
+outskirts of the city, and he recognized at a glance the scenes of the
+photographs he had with him.
+
+A gardener was at work upon a bed of flowers, and approaching him, Will
+asked if Mr. Rossmore was at home.
+
+"No, young gentleman, they have gone to their farm for a few weeks on
+the eastern shore," was the answer.
+
+At once Will determined to follow them there, and after getting the
+directions, he asked: "Has Mr. Rossmore ever heard of his missing
+child?"
+
+"No, indeed, not a word, and it's my opinion he never will, as I think
+little Willie is dead; but master thinks he'll find him yet; but Lordy!
+you hain't Master Willie, are you, for you do look 'mazing like him."
+
+"My name is Willie, but I am not Mr. Rossmore's son, though others have
+said I look like him."
+
+"You do, for a certainty, sir, and master and his wife will see the
+likeness, I'm sure, if you are going there."
+
+"Yes, I am going there, for it is important that I should see them," and
+bidding the old gardener good-bye, Will returned to the hotel and
+discovered that a boat left the next afternoon for the town nearest the
+Rossmore farm.
+
+So he went down to the wharf and secured his berth, and amused himself
+looking about the city until time to go on board the next day.
+
+He had a pleasant state-room, and, as he made himself at home in it, he
+felt that he was becoming quite a traveller.
+
+Enjoying the run down the Chesapeake, it was late when he retired, and
+he dropped off quickly to sleep, lulled by the motion of the boat.
+
+He was awakened by the hum of voices, and saw a light in his face,
+strangely like the glare of a bull's-eye lantern.
+
+But he had at once saw that it came through a knot-hole in the partition
+between his and the next state-room, and within a few feet of him were
+two men, one lying in the berth, the other seated upon a chair, and they
+were talking in a low tone.
+
+Without stopping up his ears, Will could not help hearing all they said,
+and the voice of one seemed familiar.
+
+Putting his eye near the knot-hole, to his surprise he recognized the
+man in the berth as Night Hawk Jerry.
+
+The face of the other he did not know.
+
+What he heard them say was as follows:
+
+"Well, Nick, we can go and strike old Rossmore for all we can get out of
+the him, after we attend to this farmer on board that I tell you has the
+cash he got for a boat-load of cattle he took up to the city and sold.
+
+"He stopped at the same hotel with me, and when I told him I was going
+down to see Mr. Rossmore, he told me he lived near him, and directed me
+how to get there, while he said he would ask me to ride out with him,
+only he had come to the village where he boarded the boat on horseback.
+Now we can get a rig and drive out ahead of the farmer, lay for him on
+the road, and just take in his pile, which goes up into the thousands, I
+am sure.
+
+"Then we can go to see old Rossmore and see what we can get out of him,
+under promise of bringing him his boy."
+
+"You think he'll put up anything?" asked the man addressed as Nick.
+
+"Yes, he'll put up something, though he's been very freely bled by
+frauds; but, if it had not been for our being taken in by that boy
+Captain Cruel picked up in New York and who was, I admit, just the
+fellow if he had not played us false, we'd have got a clean fifty
+thousand from Rossmore."
+
+"The boy got your crib raided, you told me?"
+
+"Well he did, and but for our pal who slept in the exit room, waking up
+as he did, we'd have all been caught, for the boy led the police upon us
+in an hour after he got away."
+
+"He was a sharp one for a kid."
+
+"Yes Nick he was; but you must go and turn in now, and to-morrow, as
+soon as the boat lands, we'll hurry ashore and get a waggon to head off
+the farmer."
+
+"Good-night, Jerry."
+
+"Good-night, Nick," and the latter personage left the state-room of his
+fellow villain, and sought his own quarters, while Will, scarcely having
+breathed as he overheard what was said, placed a pillow against the
+knot-hole, and tried to go to sleep.
+
+But in vain, for his brain was too full of thoughts, and it was nearly
+dawn when he at last sank into a deep slumber; but he had formed a plot
+in his fertile mind to thwart the two rascals in their bold game of
+double robbery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.--HEADED OFF.
+
+
+After what he had heard, Will was most anxious to remain unseen, for he
+knew that Night Hawk Jerry would recognize him very quickly, and that
+would spoil all.
+
+So he feigned sickness, had his breakfast brought to his state-room the
+next morning, and then, as the boat landed at the town where the two
+conspirators were to leave it, he grasped his gripsack and cautiously
+went forward.
+
+The men leaped ashore, when the gangplank was run out, and Will followed
+them at considerable distance up into the village.
+
+There were quite a number of passengers, so that the boy was unable to
+select the one against whom the robbers had plotted.
+
+But he watched his men, saw them go to a livery stable, and soon after
+ride out of town at a gallop. Instantly he went to that same stable, and
+a few minutes afterward was in a buggy with a driver, going on the road
+which the robbers had taken, for the livery man told him how he had
+directed them.
+
+By fast driving he came in sight of them, and then he told his man to
+draw rein and wait, while he got out and went ahead on foot.
+
+By keeping close in to the woods he kept out of sight of the robber
+pair, and saw them turn into a thickly-wooded point at a bend in the
+road, where the underbrush was very dense.
+
+"That is their ambush," he muttered to himself, and he returned to the
+buggy, getting in just as a horseman appeared coming along the road.
+
+As he drew near, Will saw that he was a fine-looking man, with an
+athletic form, and a kindly yet strangely stern face. He was well
+dressed and appeared to be a well-to-do country gentleman, and the boy
+remembered having seen him on the Chesapeake steamboat.
+
+As he drew near to where the buggy was waiting, he said pleasantly,
+recognizing the negro driver: "Well, Hercules, out for a drive?"
+
+"Yas, Massa Lomax, I is takin' dis young gemman on a leetle drive, sah,"
+answered Hercules, who had gained his name from his great strength.
+
+"Pardon me, sir, but may I have a word with you?" said Will, politely.
+
+"Certainly, young man," replied the farmer.
+
+"You came down the bay on the steamer last night with me, sir."
+
+"I came down on the steamer, but I do not remember to have seen you,
+though your face is strangely, so _strangely_ familiar to me," and the
+farmer gazed fixedly into the face of the boy.
+
+"We have not met, sir; but may I ask if you did not take up to Baltimore
+a cargo of cattle and sell them there?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"Well, sir, I overheard a plot between two men last night to rob you on
+your way home this morning. My state-room adjoined theirs, and a knot in
+the wooden partition had fallen out, or been pushed out, just at my
+head, and I saw the men and heard their plot.
+
+"One of the men is a noted New York crook, and I am anxious to capture
+him, while his companion is doubtless a Baltimore thief."
+
+"You surprise me, young sir, and I thank you most sincerely, for I have
+with me a large sum of money, and taken at disadvantage I might lose
+both it and my life, though I am armed."
+
+"These are desperate men, sir, or at least I know one to be, and I am
+determined to capture him if possible, for I can get him held until a
+requisition from the Governor of New York can be obtained."
+
+The farmer smiled at the words of the youth, and said: "You are a plucky
+fellow, and we had better send for a constable from the village, for
+Hercules will go."
+
+"I am an officer, sir, and I have formed a plan to capture them," and
+Will opened his coat and showed his badge, not only to the farmer's
+surprise, but to Hercules's great awe and admiration.
+
+"Well, my young friend, what is your plan?"
+
+"To tie my handkerchief about my face, and muffle up, laying back in the
+buggy as though I was sick, while I drive by the point of ambush, which
+is at the bend in the road above here.
+
+"When I get by, I will leave the buggy with Hercules, and we can get
+close back to the place of ambush, and you can come along, and as the
+men approach you, we will be close on their tracks."
+
+"A good plan, my lad; but let us know each other, as we are to act
+together.
+
+"My name is Kent Lomax; I am a farmer, and live not far from here."
+
+"My name is Will Raymond, sir."
+
+"Raymond!" and the farmer started.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Where are you from?"
+
+"New York, sir."
+
+"Ah, me! Your name recalls the strange resemblance your face bears to
+one I once knew, and it is strange, indeed, that face and name should be
+so alike," and the farmer spoke in a voice that was full of sadness; but
+in an instant he continued in a different tone: "Well, Master Raymond, I
+am glad to be associated with you in this little affair, and you are the
+captain, so go ahead with your plan."
+
+After a few other arrangements the boy drove on in the buggy with
+Hercules, his face tied up, a scarf about his neck and his hat drawn
+down over his eyes.
+
+But his keen eyes were watching the road as they drove along, and he
+detected in the bushes the two men in ambush.
+
+As agreed upon with Kent Lomax, Hercules dropped his whip and sprang out
+to get it, so that he, watching back down the road, should know just the
+spot where the robbers were.
+
+Then the buggy drove on, and once around the bend they turned into a
+secluded spot and at once sprang out and hitched the horse, while they
+crept up a ravine, which Kent Lomax had told them would lead them almost
+to the bend in the road.
+
+"They could not have chosen a better place for us to surprise them,"
+said Will as he hurried on with the negro.
+
+"No, massa, dat am so, and I awful glad I cum with you, for maybe I git
+suthin' out o' dis scrimmage," returned Hercules.
+
+"You shall, Hercules, and I hope it will be gold rather than lead."
+
+"I don't want no lead, massa," and, Hercules picked up a stick, to serve
+as a club, as they went along.
+
+Soon they came to the end of the ravine, and, creeping up to the top of
+the bank, Will looked over. He quickly drew back his head, for the two
+men were not sixty feet from him, standing behind a clump of bushes on
+the edge of the road.
+
+"You see um, massa?" whispered Hercules.
+
+"Yes; and Mr. Lomax is already coming, and, but a couple of hundred
+yards away;" and Will took from his pocket a small revolver, but of
+large calibre, and glanced at it carefully.
+
+"Now I'll watch, Hercules, and you be ready to run out with me."
+
+"Yas, massa."
+
+In silence then they waited until, suddenly, the words were heard:
+
+"Halt! Your money or your life!"
+
+"Come!" and with the word Will and Hercules bounded from the ravine.
+
+They saw farmer Lomax at a halt in the road, one man grasping the rein
+of his horse, and the other holding a pistol up in his face.
+
+The farmer sat perfectly quiet, and the men each had an handkerchief
+over his face, with holes cut to see through.
+
+"Come, out with your money, and lose no time, if you value your life!"
+sternly ordered Jerry, the Night Hawk.
+
+The farmer thrust his hand into his pocket, drew out his well-filled
+wallet, and tossed it upon the ground, just as clear and sharp came the
+cry: "Hands up, Night Hawk Jerry!"
+
+The two men uttered a cry of alarm and turned, to see the boy and the
+negro almost upon them; and recognizing Will, Night Hawk fired.
+
+The bullet clipped a hole in Will's hat-brim, and at that moment the boy
+pulled trigger, just as the robber fired a second shot.
+
+Down, dropped Night Hawk, a dead man, for Will's bullet had pierced his
+brain, while at the same moment Kent Lomax had hurled himself upon the
+other robber and held him at his mercy.
+
+"I was sorry to have to kill him, but he shot me through the hat, for I
+felt it turn on my head, and his second bullet clipped my arm, but I
+guess did no harm," said Will.
+
+"My boy, you are worth your weight in gold; let me see if you are hurt,"
+and Kent Lomax turned his man over to Hercules, while he drew off the
+boy's jacket and rolled up his shirt sleeve. There was a slight gash on
+the left arm that was not of much consequence, and Kent Lomax quickly
+bound a handkerchief about it, while he said:
+
+"You will need no requisition for your man, Master Raymond, while this
+one we will give into the hands of the village constable.
+
+"Hercules, mount my horse and ride back to the village for the constable
+and the coroner, and I will remain here with this young man."
+
+The negro departed, while Will said: "My errand here, sir, was to see
+Mr. Rossmore upon an important matter, and I am anxious to catch the
+boat back to-night, so that I might drive on to his farm and get back
+here by the time the constable arrives, if you do not mind."
+
+"Certainly not, and Mr. Rossmore lives on the road a mile from here.
+
+"You will come to a bridge crossing a stream with a mill upon it, and
+the Rossmore place is just beyond on the hill in full view."
+
+Thanking the farmer Will sprang into the buggy and drove on.
+
+As he reached the bridge he came to a halt, while he said: "Why, this is
+the very scene that mother painted and gave to Colonel Ivey.
+
+"How strange her painting should be so like a real scene way down here
+on the eastern shore of Maryland," and, wondering at the coincidence,
+Will drove on up to the handsome country home on the hillside.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.--UNKNOWN KINDRED TIES.
+
+
+Little dreaming that he was approaching the home of his mother, her
+birth-place, and that of her mother before her, the home from which she
+had fled that, to her, fatal Christmas eve, Will Raymond drove up to the
+hitching-rock and sprang out of his buggy.
+
+A gentleman sat upon the piazza, smoking a cigar and reading a paper,
+but arose at his approach.
+
+"Good-morning, young gentleman," he said pleasantly, and then his eyes
+became riveted upon Will's face. He was a man of fifty perhaps, with
+noble countenance, tinged with sadness, and a look of anxiety.
+
+"My boy, who are you?" he said, quickly, before Will could speak.
+
+"Is this Mr. Rossmore?" asked Will.
+
+"Yes, my son."
+
+"My name is Will Raymond, sir, and I am a special officer of the New
+York Secret Service, sent to see you upon a matter of interest to you."
+
+"About my lost boy? Quick! tell me if you have any news of him whom I
+must say you most closely resemble, and--"
+
+"I do resemble your son, sir, and so much so that a gang of scoundrels
+were to use me as a foil to make money out of you."
+
+"But you are not my boy? He would be about your age, and look like you,
+I think," and Mr. Rossmore was greatly excited.
+
+"No, Mr. Rossmore, I am not your son; but I have come to tell you all I
+know of him, and I am sorry to say that you must give up all hope of
+ever seeing him alive."
+
+"No! no! no! I cannot, I cannot!" and Mr. Rossmore listened to the whole
+story that Will had to tell, from his meeting with the man who had sent
+him on the errand, to his killing Night Hawk by the roadside.
+
+"And, Mr. Rossmore," continued Will, "when I escaped from the den of the
+Land Sharks, I brought with me the clothes, which they said your boy had
+on when stolen, and his ring, and they were to bring them with me, to
+prove that I was your Willie.
+
+"I will get them," and going out to the buggy he returned with his
+satchel, and the clothing and ring were exhibited.
+
+"My poor, poor boy! these are indeed his little suit and ring; how well
+I remember them; but, my noble boy, I must see the grave that they say
+he was buried in on the prairie, before I give up all hope. If it
+contains the remains of a small child, I can but believe, and besides,
+Willie had his left arm broken when a baby, by falling from the lap of
+his nurse, and this will identify the bones as his.
+
+"Oh, may heaven's anger fall on those who murdered my little boy!" and
+Mr. Rossmore bowed his head with grief, just as a lady, whose locks were
+prematurely grey from sorrow and suspense, came out upon the piazza.
+
+"Husband, I have heard all, and I believe at last that our boy, our
+little Willie, is dead," she said, and turning to Will, she greeted him
+most kindly, while she too was struck by the likeness of the young
+detective to her son.
+
+"Have you parents, my boy, and a home, for gladly would I give you one,"
+she said to Will.
+
+"Yes, my noble boy, come to us and be our son," cried Mr. Rossmore.
+
+"I have a mother and sister living in New York, and I am their only
+support, and I must return to them, though I thank you most kindly for
+your good offer to me," said Will, touched by the grief and generosity
+of Mr. Rossmore and his wife.
+
+"Well, my boy, I would not rob your mother of you for worlds, but you
+must let me help you, and if ever you need a friend come to us, for we
+live all alone here, and are strangely restless since the loss of my
+boy.
+
+"We have travelled abroad, but came back soon to our Baltimore home, and
+then we have come here, for this place was the home of my wife's cousin
+and adopted sister, whose fate is a mystery to us, and a sad one, for
+she ran away from home one night, fifteen years ago, leaving behind her
+that noble man, you saved from robbery, Kent Lomax, to whom she was
+engaged.
+
+"She deserted him for a villain, a man whose life Kent Lomax had saved,
+and she fled with the rascal to Philadelphia, and was followed there.
+Kent Lomax tried to avenge the double wrong, for the poor girl's mother
+died from the shock, and the villain shot him, and for months he lay at
+the point of death, and, when he recovered all trace of the man was
+lost.
+
+"Years after her father died, and my wife here now has the estate, which
+will be hers unless her adopted sister returns to claim it, or her
+children do, if she has any; otherwise Mrs. Rossmore is the next heir.
+
+"So you see, wherever we go, we have sad memories to confront us; but
+here both of us are well, and more content than elsewhere, so we often
+come; but I am detaining you with family history, when you are anxious
+to return to the scene of your affray down the road, and I will
+accompany you.
+
+"Wife, please send the carriage after me," and so saying Mr. Rossmore
+got into the buggy with Will and drove back to where Kent Lomax had been
+left with the dead man and the bound prisoner.
+
+On the way Mr. Rossmore asked: "My son, do you think you could find the
+grave of my little Will, from the description you had of it?"
+
+"I think so, sir."
+
+"Will you go West with me and find out?"
+
+"If I can get permission, sir."
+
+"Well, you can telegraph what you have done to your chief, and ask
+permission to go with me, and I will have my family physician accompany
+us, for he set Willie's arm when it was broken, and could tell if it was
+my child in the grave.
+
+"But we will talk more of this, for there is farmer Lomax," and a moment
+after they drove up to the spot where Kent Lomax stood, while coming in
+view at the same time were a number of persons on horseback and in
+buggies.
+
+Hercules and the constable rode in advance, and as they rode up and
+dismounted, Kent Lomax introduced Will to the officer of the law, and
+his story was again told, the coroner standing near with a jury which he
+had selected from the crowd.
+
+All gazed upon Will as a hero; but the boy shrank from observation, and
+remarked to Kent Lomax. "I hate notoriety that comes from taking the
+life of a human being, villain though he was."
+
+"That is the proper spirit, my lad; but the coroner wishes to ask you a
+few questions, and then I would like to have you go home with me as my
+guest, while I also desire to compensate you is some way for your
+services to me."
+
+"Thank you, sir, but I am paid for my duty, and can accept no other
+reward, while I am to go back with Mr. Rossmore."
+
+So it was settled, and as Mr. Rossmore's carriage drove up, Will got
+into it with his host, and drove away, followed by Kent Lomax on
+horseback, while Hercules returned to town with the buggy and two horses
+of the robbers, along with those who had come out to the scene upon
+learning what had occurred.
+
+That Hercules had fared well at the hands of Will, Mr. Rossmore and Kent
+Lomax was evident by the happy look upon his honest face, and the words:
+"I wish dere'd be a robber-killin' ebery day, and Sunday too, and dis
+nigger'd get rich."
+
+At a place where the roads branched off Kent Lomax bade them good-bye,
+grasping Will's hand warmly, and saying: "You know my name and address,
+my boy, and if you ever need a friend don't hesitate to call on me, for
+I have no kindred that are dear to me and I am rich and would be glad to
+serve you--so command me."
+
+Thus they parted, the man who had been engaged to his mother--the man
+whom she deserted to marry the man who had so cruelly treated her.
+
+Neither knew what they were to each other, and yet each seemed drawn
+toward the other. Nor did Will suspect for an instant; an hour
+afterward, that he was eating dinner beneath the roof where his mother
+had been born, and that Mrs. Rossmore was his own aunt.
+
+That night Mr. Rossmore and Will took the boat to Baltimore, and having
+sent from the village a long and explicit dispatch to Captain Daly, an
+answer was found awaiting them upon their arrival at the hotel in the
+city the following day.
+
+The answer read:
+
+                                           "NEW YORK POLICE DEP'T.
+
+     "_Special Officer_, WILL RAYMOND:--
+
+     "Your telegram most satisfactory, and will get requisition for
+     Night Hawk's comrade and have him brought here.
+
+     "You have acted as I knew you would in everything, and the chief
+     joins me in congratulations upon your pluck and detective skill.
+
+     "You have full permission to go West with Mr. Rossmore, and your
+     leave is unlimited. Success to you.
+
+                                                            DALY."
+
+That night the Westward bound through Express on the Baltimore & Ohio
+Railroad carried Mr. Rossmore, his family physician, and Will Raymond,
+the Boy Detective, and their destination was the North Platte river in
+Nebraska.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.--THE GRAVE ON THE PRAIRIE.
+
+
+It was toward sunset, one pleasant afternoon, some ten days after the
+visit of the Boy Detective to the eastern shore of Maryland, that a
+party of horsemen were visible driving over a Nebraska prairie.
+
+The party had left Fort McPherson on the Platte, whose commander had
+kindly sent an officer and soldiers, under a skilful guide, with Mr.
+Rossmore, as an escort.
+
+Will had told the buckskin guide just what he had heard the Land Sharks
+say regarding the spot where they had buried Willie Rossmore, and the
+plainsman had expressed himself as acquainted with the Lone Tree, while
+he also said that there were fully a dozen graves about it.
+
+Soon the tree, standing alone on the prairie, and upon the bank of a
+small stream, loomed up in the distance.
+
+"There's the Lone Tree," said the guide, "and we'll reach thar jist
+about dark."
+
+All eyes were turned upon the distant and solitary cottonwood tree,
+standing like a giant sentinel upon the prairie, and the horses were
+urged on at a more rapid pace.
+
+But the shadows of night fell before the tree was reached, and it was
+decided to go into camp and make a search in the morning.
+
+One of the pack-horses carried some pine-knots, and a fire was soon
+kindled, while another carried some canvas flies which were stretched as
+a shelter.
+
+There were ample provisions with them, with plenty of game shot during
+the day's ride, and soon a most tempting supper was spread out before
+the hungry party.
+
+As for Will Raymond, it was to him a most enjoyable expedition, for he
+had often read of a wild life upon the plains, and with the
+buckskin-clad guide, the soldier escort, and the knowledge that there
+was danger of an attack by Indians, he was charmed.
+
+After the supper was dispatched, sentinels were placed out upon the
+prairie, at some distance, the horses were staked out within the circle
+formed by the four guards, and the rest of the party sought the shelter
+of the tent flies to sleep. No, not all, for Mr. Rossmore was too deeply
+moved by the belief that he was near the grave of his long-lost child,
+and he paced to and fro, beneath the solitary tree, his thoughts busy
+with his grief.
+
+Then there was another that did not care to sleep, and that was Will
+Raymond.
+
+The surroundings, the wildness of the scene, the prairie, the soldiers,
+all impressed him, and he strolled about the camp, while as the moon
+arose he walked out to a sentinel on duty and had a long talk with him.
+
+At last, as midnight came, and the sentinels were relieved by others, he
+went to the shelter, wrapped himself in his blanket, and soon sank to
+sleep.
+
+The sun was rising when he awoke, and Mr. Rossmore, who lay near him,
+had just got up from his blanket couch. The guide already had breakfast
+ready, and when it was over, the search for the grave began.
+
+As the guide had said there were a number of graves in the vicinity of
+the tree for several trails led by it, and many a dear one, dying upon
+the plains had been laid to rest there, where the solitary cottonwood
+would serve as a monument to their memory.
+
+"Now give me the particulars, boy pard, the time he was buried, his age
+when he was put here, and I guess I kin pick out his restin' place,"
+said the guide.
+
+Will gave the full particulars, as he knew them, and the guide set to
+work.
+
+Grave after grave he went to, and left, making some remark at each one.
+
+"This one looks to be about the age you say, boy pard, and it were made
+as though in a hurry, and with a don't care feelin', and not as them
+builds a dirt house over them they loves.
+
+"Sergeant, bring yer utensils and dig earth here," said the guide, and
+he stood over a small grave that indeed did look as though it had been
+hastily dug and filled in, for others, even those smaller, and evidently
+with the remains of children in them, were made as though the heart of
+the diggers had been in the work.
+
+Two soldiers now stepped forward with spades and the work was begun of
+turning the earth from the grave.
+
+It was not a very long task, and soon the end was reached, the moldering
+bones of a body were found. Tenderly they were taken out having been
+wrapped in a blanket, and from a felt hat that had been upon the head, a
+mass of dark-brown curls were taken.
+
+Mr. Rossmore took the hat and its precious burden tenderly, and asked:
+"Doctor, this looks like Willie's hair."
+
+"Yes, exactly the shade," was the reply, and the doctor bent over the
+bones, while all present removed their hats with reverent awe, Will
+Raymond having unconsciously set the example.
+
+In deathlike silence all stood while the doctor placed the bones
+together, and said: "This was the body of a child about Willie's age, at
+the time that our young friend here says they killed him, and it was a
+boy--yes, here is the left arm, and--_it has been broken_!"
+
+"Heaven have mercy! it is the body of my poor boy," groaned Mr.
+Rossmore.
+
+"Yes, Rossmore, it is, and I can swear to it, for here is the broken
+arm, the fracture being just below the elbow, as was Willie's, while you
+remember the tooth I took out for him one day?"
+
+"Yes, he would not go to a dentist, but wished you to take it out, so I
+sent for you."
+
+"He had no other tooth missing, and none here are, you see; but great
+Heaven!" and the doctor arose to his feet, holding the skull in his
+hands.
+
+All pressed about him, while he continued, pointing to the skull: "Do
+you see that fracture?
+
+"_It tells the story that he was murdered!_"
+
+It was too true, the fractured skull showed where a death-blow had been
+given the poor boy, but whether by accident or design, who could tell?
+
+As all crowded about the doctor, gazing at the skull, Will Raymond
+sprang down into the grave and picked up something that had caught his
+eye in the loose dirt.
+
+"See here!" he called out, and he held up a gold watch and upon the
+inside case was engraved the name:
+
+                              "ED ELLIS."
+
+"Mr. Rossmore, that is the name of the man who was with Night Hawk
+Jerry, whom I shot, and he was one of the kidnappers, and here with your
+son, for this watch proves it, and it fell out of his pocket when he was
+burying him," said Will.
+
+"Boy pard, you've got a long head, for the man who laid this boy's
+remains in thet grave, dropped thet watch," remarked the guide.
+
+"Then it will be a fatal evidence against him, and I will leave nothing
+undone to hang him," sternly said Mr. Rossmore.
+
+Then the bones were gathered together, and being placed upon one of the
+pack-animals, the party started on the return to the fort.
+
+Arriving there, the bones were placed in a coffin, and Mr. Rossmore, the
+doctor and Will Raymond started upon their return East, the
+grief-stricken father having given the guide and the soldiers a most
+generous gift as an appreciation of their services.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.--RETRIBUTION AT LAST.
+
+
+It was at Chicago that Will Raymond parted with Mr. Rossmore and the
+doctor, for he was anxious to get back to New York, as he knew his
+mother had not been very well when he left.
+
+In vain did Mr. Rossmore urge him to accept a cheque for a large amount
+for his most valuable services, for the boy was firm in his refusal,
+taking only sufficient for his expenses.
+
+Two boxes, one marked for Mrs. Raymond, the other for Pearl, Mr.
+Rossmore also gave the youth for his mother and sister, and, with the
+feeling that he had done his duty well, and would win the praise of his
+chief, Will set out on his return to New York.
+
+It was just supper-time, after an absence of one month, that he knocked
+at the door of his home, and heard a voice say: "Come in!"
+
+In he walked, and, with a cry of joy, the arms of Mrs. Raymond were
+about her son, while Pearl clung to his hand in warm welcome.
+
+"Oh, brother! how like a man you have grown; but you did not lose your
+gold badge, did you?" cried Pearl.
+
+"No, sis, I have it safe, and more, for this was a present to me," and
+he exhibited his watch and chain to the delight of his mother and
+sister.
+
+"And here is something for you, mother, a present from the same kind
+gentleman," and when Mrs. Raymond untied a packet he gave her, a pair of
+superb diamond earrings were revealed.
+
+"Oh, mother!" cried Pearl.
+
+"And this is for you, sis, from the same source."
+
+Pearl opened her box with trembling hands, and took from a velvet case a
+necklace of pearls.
+
+"Mr. Rossmore was determined to pay me after all," said Will.
+
+"But, my son, tell us about these superb presents," Mrs. Raymond said.
+
+"I will, mother, and it is a long, strange story," and the Boy Detective
+told the story of his travels.
+
+"We cannot give these presents back, can we, Will, for they ill become
+Pearl and I in our poverty," said Mrs. Raymond.
+
+"No, mother, for it would deeply offend good Mr. Rossmore, and he was
+determined to repay me in some way; but I intend to be rich some day,
+and then your presents won't be amiss; but, mother, did you say that you
+knew Mr. Rossmore?"
+
+"I said, Will, that I knew a gentleman once of that name," and the woman
+hastily wiped away a tear.
+
+"But, mother, the strangest of all, and which I forgot to tell you, was
+the story he told me about his home, and how his wife's cousin and
+adopted sister had treated the farmer I saved from the robbers.
+
+"And the view of his home was just like the painting you gave Colonel
+Ivey, and I seemed to recognize it as soon as I saw it, while both the
+farmer, Mr. Kent Lomax--"
+
+"What name did you say, Will?" and Mrs. Raymond sprang to her feet,
+white and trembling.
+
+"The name of the farmer, mother, Kent Lomax," said Will, in amazement at
+his mother's excitement.
+
+"And you have seen that man, Kent Lomax?" again she asked, hoarsely.
+
+"Yes, mother; did you know him?"
+
+Unheeding the question, she said: "Tell me of him."
+
+"Well, mother, he is a tall, handsome man, with a stern face, but a kind
+one, and he is a rich farmer, living near the home of Mr. Rossmore. He
+was very good to me, and I felt sorry for him when Mr. Rossmore told me
+he had been engaged to marry Mrs. Rossmore's sister, a young and
+beautiful girl, whose home had been at the Mill Farm.
+
+"But there had come a wicked city man down there, and though Mr. Lomax
+had saved his life, he had made the young lady love him and had run off
+with her. It was a terrible blow, for the mother of the young lady died
+of a broken heart--"
+
+"Died!" groaned Mrs. Raymond, and then she said in a voice that was
+hoarse and quivering: "Go on! what more did you hear, my son?"
+
+"Mr. Rossmore told me that the farmer, Kent Lomax, followed the runaway
+couple to Philadelphia, and fought a duel with the wicked man who stole
+his sweetheart, and received a wound that nearly cost him his life; but
+since then they have never heard of Mrs. Rossmore's sister, or her
+husband, for he was caught cheating at cards soon after and driven out
+of the city by those who had been his friends. But I felt so sorry for
+Mr. Lomax, mother, for he is such a splendid man."
+
+"And the father of this girl who so wickedly fled from her home?" asked
+Mrs. Raymond in the same hoarse whisper.
+
+"He died some years ago, and was buried in the family burying-ground;
+but, mother, I have something else to show you, and it is this gold
+watch, with a small piece of chain attached, which I found in the grave
+of Willie Rossmore, and it bears the name on it of Ed. Ellis, the man
+now in prison, and who was the comrade of Night Hawk Jerry."
+
+"_Ed. Ellis!_ let me see the watch!" and Mrs. Raymond grasped it from
+Will's hand and glanced at the name.
+
+"Yes, Ed Ellis, _his friend_," she gasped, and as she did so her head
+fell back, and her lips crimsoned with her life-blood.
+
+"Oh, Pearl! mother has a hemorrhage! Quick! run for Doctor Churchill!"
+cried Will, supporting his mother in his arms, while his sister bounded
+away to fetch the physician, whom Mrs. Raymond had been compelled to
+send for on several occasions.
+
+Pearl soon returned, for fortunately she had met the doctor almost at
+the door, and under his care the hemorrhage was stayed and Mrs. Raymond
+was greatly relieved.
+
+"You must keep her very quiet, and watch her carefully, for this has
+been brought on by some sudden shock," said the doctor to Will, as he
+departed, promising to send a faithful nurse to take care of the poor
+invalid.
+
+The nurse came and in the morning Mrs. Raymond appeared much better;
+but she was very pale and weak, and her face had become haggard from
+suffering; but she whispered:
+
+"I must live for you, my children, bitter as life is to me, and I will
+do so, for you are my all in this world."
+
+With a heart too full to speak Will kissed his mother and went out to
+report to Captain Daly, the poor woman saying aloud as he left the room:
+"My punishment is greater than I can bear, for my act, I now know placed
+my poor mother in her grave, and nearly cost Kent Lomax his life. I knew
+not of this duel, for _he_ never told me. But I erred, and I have
+suffered, and now a fearful retribution has come upon me; but, for the
+sake of my children I will cling to life until they are old enough to do
+without me," and closing her eyes, while her lips moved as if in prayer,
+the poor woman sank into a deep slumber.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.--INSNARED BY A WATCH.
+
+
+The entrance of the Boy Detective into the police precinct caused a
+sensation, and his hand was grasped in welcome at every step he took.
+
+Captain Daly heard his name called and advanced to the door of his
+private office to meet him, while he cried: "Welcome back, my Wizard
+Will, for I received your telegram from Chicago, and you have worked
+wonders."
+
+"Bravo for Wizard Will!" cried a tall sergeant; while a policeman said:
+
+"The captain has well named the boy, in calling him Wizard Will."
+
+For two hours was Wizard Will, as I must now call him, closeted with
+Captain Daly, and then the two came out of the private office together.
+
+A carriage was called, and they drove at once to the Tombs. The police
+captain gained ready admission, and he said to the officer in charge,
+after he had introduced his young _protege_: "Wizard Will here wishes a
+private talk with your prisoner from Maryland, who calls himself Ed
+Ellis."
+
+The officer bowed assent, and Will was conducted to the cell of Ed
+Ellis, the man whom he had captured in Maryland, at the time that he had
+shot Night Hawk Jerry.
+
+"Ho, boy, what do you want here?" gruffly said the prisoner as Will
+entered and was locked in with him.
+
+"I am here to have a talk with you, Ellis."
+
+"What have you got to say?"
+
+"I wish you to tell me if Night Hawk Jerry really killed little Willie
+Rossmore, or if he died of exposure and starvation, as he told me was
+the case?"
+
+"I don't know anything about the kid."
+
+"Did you never see him?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Suppose I tell you that I know something of your past?"
+
+"I don't believe it."
+
+"You are from Philadelphia?"
+
+"Who said so?"
+
+"You had a watch presented to you once."
+
+"Yes, I did, and I lost it."
+
+"Suppose I tell you that I know where it is?"
+
+"I'll bet you don't."
+
+"When did you have it last?"
+
+"It was stolen from me in camp, some six years ago."
+
+Will did not show the slightest sign of having seen that the man made a
+slip of the tongue, as he asked:
+
+"In a mining-camp, you say?"
+
+"No, in a camp on the prairies."
+
+"Some six years ago, in Nebraska?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Ah! you have been West, then?"
+
+The man saw his mistake and recoiled, as he said:
+
+"What if I have?"
+
+"Suppose I tell you I know where your watch is?"
+
+"Do you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I'll bet my life Night Hawk Jerry was the thief that stole it from me,
+after all, and you found it on his body after you killed him."
+
+"You have the chain that was attached to it?"
+
+"No, I hain't."
+
+"Well, this chain, taken from you in Maryland when you were captured, is
+it not the same that you had on your watch?" and Will showed a gold
+chain of a peculiar kind of pattern, that had been taken, with other
+things, from the prisoner when he was captured.
+
+"No."
+
+"And you think Night Hawk Jerry stole it from you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"About six years ago?"
+
+"About that."
+
+"Well, tell me how you lost it."
+
+"I don't know exactly, for I had it one afternoon, and when I went to
+wind it up that night it was gone."
+
+"This was in Nebraska?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And Jerry was with you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Who else?"
+
+"We were with an emigrant train, and going out West to homestead land."
+
+"You had your own waggon and horses?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And joined the train on the march?"
+
+"Yes, but we didn't stay long in company with it, as it wasn't going our
+way."
+
+"Did you remain long in Nebraska?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because we didn't like it there."
+
+"And you returned East?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And you became a Baltimore crook?"
+
+"You seem to know."
+
+"And Jerry became a New York crook?"
+
+"As he's dead and not on trial, I may as well say that is about the size
+of it."
+
+"Yet you said awhile ago you had not known Jerry more than a year?"
+
+"I had forgotten."
+
+"Well, Ellis, I have got your watch!"
+
+"The deuce you have!"
+
+"Yes; and I'll tell you where I found it."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"It had a piece of chain to it, a link of the very chain I hold here of
+yours."
+
+"Yes, I remember now; I had the old chain fixed over."
+
+"And, Ellis, I found your watch in _the grave of the little boy you
+murdered_!"
+
+The man gave a cry in spite of himself, and became livid, while Wizard
+Will held up the watch, all covered with dirt as it was, and said:
+
+"Here is the watch, and I took out of the grave of Willie Rossmore; and
+in burying him, it rolled out of your pocket and fell there.
+
+"And more, the boy's skull was crushed in by a blow you gave him--"
+
+"No--no! Jerry gave him that blow," cried the man in quivering tones.
+
+"Jerry is not here to deny it, and you have confessed to having been
+there with him, while this watch tells the story that you at least
+buried him, and you and Night Hawk were the ones who kidnapped him; so I
+tell you, Ellis, you are the murderer of Willie Rossmore."
+
+"If I've got to swing, boy, you'll not be there to see me die!" was the
+savage threat of the man, and he sprang like a tiger at Wizard Will.
+
+But the boy stooped quickly and avoided him, while the door was thrown
+open and Captain Daly sprang in and seized him, followed by the officer
+in charge of the prisoner.
+
+"No, my man, you can commit no more murders in the short time you have
+to live, for a jury will soon send you to the gallows," said Captain
+Daly, and with Wizard Will he left the cell, while the officer of the
+prison remarked:
+
+"We heard all he said, Wizard Will, and a stenographer took it down, so
+he is doomed; and the watch insnared him, for without it he could not
+have been tried for anything but highway robbery; now it will be for
+murder, as well."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.--WIZARD WILL'S LUCK.
+
+
+As soon as he left the cell of Ellis, the kidnapper of Willie Rossmore,
+Wizard Will went directly home, for he was anxious about his mother.
+
+But he was delighted to find her much better, though weak, and the iron
+will of the unfortunate woman was doing much to build her up again,
+after her determination not to give up and leave her children alone in
+the world.
+
+"Mother, Captain Daly has increased my pay to fifty dollars a month, so
+we will move to a pleasant little cottage out on Long Island, which
+belongs to him, and there is no rent to pay, and it is furnished, and
+has five acres of land, with a fine garden, a cow, and a horse and
+buggy.
+
+"Then there are plenty of flowers, and chickens, and though the cottage
+has but five rooms in it, it must be a lovely place, for the captain's
+brother lived there until a few days ago, when he went West, and left it
+to him," and Will's enthusiastic description of the little home got Mrs.
+Raymond quite excited over it, while Pearl was wild with joy.
+
+"And you say there is no rent to pay, Will?" asked his mother.
+
+"The captain said he was just going to arrange with a man living near
+there, to give him the use of the horse, cow and garden, to take care of
+the place, while he'll give it to us if we go there to live, and he can
+get me a pass on the railroad, so that will cost nothing, and it is not
+half an hour's run to the station where our home is, so you must cheer
+up, mother, for life is getting brighter for us."
+
+"But are there any schools, my son?"
+
+"Yes, mother! one only a hundred yards away, where Pearl can go; and the
+captain is good enough to say I can have two hours each day to study
+here in town, while he'll not put me on night work if it can be avoided,
+and only on special detective service then."
+
+"That is most kind of him, Will, and I must see him and thank him."
+
+"And mother," proceeded Will, whose enthusiasm increased as he continued
+to enumerate, "Captain Daly says I'll have a chance to earn special fees
+if I am successful in my work, so that we need not stint ourselves in
+living, and I suggested an idea to him that he was delighted with, and
+said I might carry it out."
+
+"What was that, my son?"
+
+"Well, you know that I am pretty well acquainted with New York, and I
+said I would like to form a league of 'Boy Detectives,' for I feel that
+I could do a great deal of good with them, and he said he thought so
+too, and I should be captain."
+
+"Ah! my son, I fear you are taking a very heavy weight upon your young
+shoulders."
+
+"I can stand it, mother."
+
+"You've always said, mother, that brother had an old head on young
+shoulders; but he's got broad shoulders, too, and can stand it," Pearl
+remarked in her quaint way, for she would wager her life upon her
+brother being able to do anything that a man could accomplish.
+
+"Well, Will, you are the bread-winner of our home now, and the head,
+young as you are, and I will not be the one to put a straw in your way
+against success, for you seem to have a real talent for detective work."
+
+"Thank you, mother, and they have dubbed me, on the force, Wizard Will,
+as they say I have done wonders as a Boy Detective."
+
+"You have, indeed, my son, and in a few days I'll be able to move out to
+the cottage, and you can then devote yourself wholly to your new
+career;" and, with the firm resolve to bury her bitter past at once, and
+forgetting self, to live wholly for her children, the noble, though
+sorrow-haunted woman, improved steadily each day, and one pleasant
+morning Captain Ryan Daly, the good-hearted officer, called for the trio
+in a carriage and drove them out to the cottage, which he playfully
+called Wizard Hall.
+
+It was a charming little cottage, with large trees upon one side, a lawn
+sloping down to an inlet of the Long Island Sound, a vegetable garden, a
+stable, a meadow lot, in which an Alderney cow was grazing, a henery,
+with a large number of choice fowls, and beds of flowers that at once
+caught the eye of Pearl.
+
+The place was in perfect condition, the garden flourishing, the house
+well and completely furnished, and the store-room and cellar well
+stocked, while the coal-bin and wood-shed were filled, the captain
+remarking that his brother had been a most liberal provider, and telling
+the story without a flush on his honest face, for he had placed all
+there himself.
+
+"I shall soon get well here, Captain Daly, and I know not how to thank
+you for all your kindness," said Mrs. Raymond, the tears coming into her
+beautiful eyes.
+
+"It is a kindness for me, madam, to have the place occupied by good
+tenants, and I must tell you that in yonder little cabin on the hill
+lives an old negro and his wife, who will do odds and ends for you when
+you need them for very small pay."
+
+"Now, Wizard Will, I shall give you a week's leave to get settled in
+your new home, and then you can set to work raising your League of Boy
+Detectives, whom I shall put great faith in," and, promising to come out
+and dine some Sunday with them, the noble-hearted police captain--whose
+daily intercourse was with criminals, who was hourly amid desperate and
+tragic scenes, whose will was iron, whose nature knew no fear, but who
+had the heart of a woman for deeds of kindness--took his leave and
+returned to the city, leaving the mother and her children to make
+themselves perfectly at home in Wizard Hall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.--CONCLUSION.
+
+
+After a happy week spent at his little home on the Sound, Wizard Will
+returned to his duties in town. He had made friends with the old negro
+and negress in the cabin on the hill near the cottage, and had found
+them most willing to do all in their power to help his mother, and had
+secretly made an arrangement with them to look after matters in his
+absence, the old man to look after the horse, and his wife to milk the
+cow.
+
+He had also ingeniously attached a wire from the cottage to the cabin,
+with a bell at the latter, so that his mother could call for aid if she
+needed it.
+
+With country air, pretty scenery, pleasant quarters, fresh milk and
+vegetables, and no worry about their daily bread, Mrs. Raymond rapidly
+improved in health, and life became worth the living for her, as she
+strove hard to shut out the past.
+
+Pearl started to school and made friends, and some kind-hearted
+neighbours called upon the new-comers, so that the mother and daughter
+were not wholly alone, while Wizard Will, when at home, gave them many a
+pleasant drive about the country, and row or sail upon the Sound.
+
+But Will did not neglect his work in the city, and, setting to work with
+energy and skill, he formed his League of Boy Detectives, and it was but
+a very short while before the police force recognized their ability and
+acknowledged it, treating their young captain with as much respect as
+they did their own commanders.
+
+In due time Ed Ellis the kidnapper and murderer was tried, found guilty
+upon the testimony of Wizard Will and executed.
+
+Mr. Rossmore came on to the trial, and urged Wizard Will once more to
+become his adopted son, but Mrs. Raymond would not hear of it, and also
+declined positively to allow her son to bring the kind-hearted gentleman
+out to see her, as he wished to do.
+
+Will felt hurt at this, especially as his mother gave no other reason
+for her strange conduct than that she would not see any strangers.
+
+With deep regret at Will's refusal to go with him Mr. Rossmore returned
+to his home in Maryland, and the boy settled himself to hard work to win
+greater fame in the career which he had drifted into by accident.
+
+Though he had several times seen Colonel Ivey in the street he had
+avoided him, as his mother had earnestly requested him to do, and the
+gallant soldier little dreamed that the name his eyes fell upon now and
+then in the papers as Wizard Will, was the one whose three-dollar
+gold-piece he had found on Thanksgiving morning, and still wore as a
+charm upon his watch-chain, while he deeply mourned for the woman he had
+learned to love, and the children who had crept into his heart as though
+they were his own flesh and blood.
+
+One of the first duties that the brave young officer set for himself to
+accomplish with his juvenile band of Secret Service scouts was the
+running to earth of the "Land Sharks," and how he accomplished the giant
+task is written in the Police History of New York City, wherein no name
+stands out in bolder relief than that of Wizard Will, the Boy Ferret of
+New York.
+
+Those who wish to know how he accomplished his task, must read "WIZARD
+WILL'S STREET SCOUTS," the next number of the Tip Top Tales.
+
+                                THE END.
+
+
+
+
+THE "O'ER LAND & SEA" LIBRARY.--_Continued._
+
+=40. Rocky Mountain Rob, the Roadagent=; or, the Vigilantes of Humbug
+Bar
+
+=41. Kentuck the Sport=; or, Dick Talbot at the Mines
+
+=42. Injun Dick, the Death Shot of Shasta=
+
+=43. Velvet Hand=; or, the Iron Grip of Injun Dick
+
+=44. Gold Dan=; or, the White Savage of the Great Salt Lake
+
+=45. Captain Dick Talbot=; or, the Black Hoods of Shasta
+
+=46. The Pirate Chief=; or, the Queen of the Isle
+
+=47. The "Spotter" Detective=; or, the Girls of New York
+
+=48. The City Sharp=; or, the Flash of Lightning
+
+=49. The Cretan Rover=; or, the Secret Signet Ring
+
+=50. Always on Hand=; or, the Sportive Sports of the Foot-Hills
+
+=51. The Human Sleuth-Hound=; or, Who Holds the Winning Hand?
+
+=52. The Prairie Mazeppa=; or, the Madman of the Plains
+
+=53. The Wolf Demon=; or, the Red Arrow of the Far West
+
+=54. The Gunmaker of Moscow=; or, Vladimir, the Black Monk
+
+=55. Death Trailer, the Chief or Scouts=; or, Life and Love in a
+Frontier Fort
+
+=56. The Pilgrim Sharp=; or, the Soldier's Sweetheart
+
+=57. The Wild Riders of the Staked Plain=; or, Jack, the Hero of Texas
+
+=58. Seth Slocum, Railroad Surveyor=; or, the Secret of Sitting Bull
+
+=59. Wild Bill, the Whirlwind of the West=
+
+=60. White Beaver, the Exile of the Platte=; or, a Wronged Man's Red
+Trail
+
+=61. The Wizard Brothers=; or, White Beaver's Red Trail
+
+=62. The One-Arm Pard=; or, Red Retribution in Borderland
+
+=63. Gold Spur, the Gentleman from Texas=; or, the Child of the Regiment
+
+=64. Red Renard=; or, the Gold Buzzards of Colorado
+
+=65. The Corsair Queen=; or, the Gipsies of the Sea
+
+=66. Black Plume, the Demon of the Sea=
+
+=67. The Sea Cadet=; or, the Rover of the Ricoletts
+
+=68. Double Death=; or, the Spy Queen of Wyoming.
+
+=69. Gold Bullet Sport=; or, the Knights of the Overland
+
+=70. The Vigilante Captain=; or, the Haunted Ranche
+
+=71. The Black Pirate=; or, the Mystery of the Golden Fetters
+
+=72. The Dead Shot Nine=; or, My Pards of the Plains
+
+=73. Tiger Dick, the Faro King=; or, the Cashier's Crime
+
+=74. Fire Feather, the Buccaneer King=
+
+=75. Iron Wrist, the Swordmaster=
+
+=76. Old Benzine=; or, Joe Bowers' Racket at Ricaree City
+
+=77. Personal Reminiscences of Buffalo Bill=
+
+=78. The League of Three=; or, Buffalo Bill's Pledge
+
+=79. Buffalo Bill's Grip=; or, Oath-Bound to Custer
+
+=80. Buffalo Bill's Secret Service Trail=; or, the Mysterious Foe
+
+=81. Darkie Dan, the Coloured Detective=; or, the Mississippi Mystery.
+
+=82. Shadowed by a Showman=; or, the Mad Magician
+
+=83. Milo Romer, the Animal King=
+
+=84. Fighting Tom, the Terror of the Toughs=
+
+=85. Phil Hardy, the Boss Boy=; or, the Mystery of the Strongbow
+
+=86. The True-Heart Pards=; or, the Gentleman Vagabond
+
+=87. Detective Dick=; or, the Hero in Rags
+
+=88. Konrad, the Swordmaker=; or, the Masked Emperor
+
+=89. The Lost Captain=; or, Skipper Jabez Coffin's Cruise on the Open
+Polar Seas
+
+=90. Buffalo Bill, the Buckskin King=; or, the Amazon of the West
+
+=91. Buffalo Bill's Swoop=; or the King of the Mines
+
+=92. Buckskin Sam=
+
+=93. The Tiger Tamer=; or, the League of the Jungle
+
+=94. Yellowstone Jack=; or, Trappers of the Enchanted Ground
+
+=95. The Mad Mariner=; or, Dishonoured and Disowned
+
+=96. The Kid-Glove Miner=; or, the Magic Doctor of Golden Gulch
+
+=97. Red Lightning the Man of Chance=; or, Flush Times in Golden Gulch
+
+_Continued on page 3 of cover._
+
+=98. Queen Helen, the Amazon of the Overland=
+
+=99. Buck Taylor, the Saddle King=; or, Buffalo Bill's Chief of Cowboys
+
+=100. The Winning Oar=; or, the Innkeeper's Daughter
+
+=101. Tracked from the Rockies=; or, Injun Dick, Detective
+
+=102. The Fresh of Frisco=; or the Heiress of Buenaventura
+
+=103. Bronze Jack, the Californian Thoroughbred=; or, the Lost City of
+the Basaltic Buttes
+
+=104. Cloven Hoof, the Demon Buffalo=; or, the Border Vultures
+
+=105. Seth, the Dumb Spy of Iowa=; or, the Demon of Des Moines
+
+=106. The Pirate Priest=; or the Planter-Gambler's Daughter.
+
+=107. Cutlass and Cross=; or, the Ghouls of the Sea
+
+=108. The Sea Owl=; or, the Lady Captain of the Gulf
+
+=109. The Lasso King's League=; or, the Tigers of Texas
+
+=110. Captain Ebony=; or, Bound by the Golden Fetters
+
+=111. The Cowboy Clan=; or, the Tigress of Texas
+
+=112. The Swordsman of Warsaw=; or, Ralpho the Mysterious
+
+=113. Don Diablo, the Planter-Corsair=; or, the Rivals of the Sea
+
+=114. The Scarlet Schooner=; or, the Nemesis of the Sea
+
+=115. The Texas Tramp=; or, Solid Sam, the Yankee Hercules
+
+=116. Alligator Ike=; or, the Secret of the Everglade
+
+=117. Buffalo Bill on the War-path=; or, Silk Lasso Sam
+
+=118. Old Pop Hicks, Showman=; or, Lion Charley's Luck
+
+=119. The Chevalier Corsair=; or, the Heritage of Hatred
+
+=120. El Rubio Bravo, King of Swordsmen=; or, the Terrible Brothers of
+Tabasco
+
+=121. Buffalo Bill's Blind Trail.= A Story of the Wild West
+
+=122. Fire-eye, the Sea Hyena=; or, the Bride of a Buccaneer
+
+=123. The Czar's Spy=; or, the Nihilist League
+
+=124. Buffalo Bill's Buckskin Brotherhood=; or, Opening Up a Lost Trail
+
+=125. Buffalo Bill's Body Guard=; or, the Still Hunt of the Hills
+
+=126. Dark Dashwood, the Desperate=; or, the Child of the Sun
+
+=127. Mourad, the Mameluke=; or, the Three Swordmasters
+
+=128. The Swordsmen Hunters=; or, the Land of the Elephant Riders
+
+=129. Buffalo Bill's Scout Shadowers=; or, a Romance of the Forts and
+Mountain Trails
+
+=130. Dashing Dandy, the Hotspur of the Hills=; or, Pony Prince's
+Strange Pard
+
+=131. Buffalo Bill Baffled=; or, the Deserter Desperado's Defiance
+
+=132. Keen Billy, the Sport=; or, the Circus at White Gopher
+
+=133. Buffalo Bill's First Trail=; or, Will Cody, the Pony Express Rider
+
+=134. Red Rapier=; or, the Sea Rover's Bride
+
+=135. Revello=; or, the Rival Rovers
+
+=136. Buffalo Bill's Bonanza=; or, the Knights of the Silver Circle
+
+=137. Corporal Cannon, the Man of Forty Duels=
+
+=138. Joe Phoenix's Shadow=; or, the Great Detective's Mysterious
+Monitor
+
+=139. Montebello, the Magnificent=; or, the Gold King
+
+=140. Death-Notch, the Young Scalp Hunter=
+
+
+OTHERS IN ACTIVE PREPARATION.
+
+
+ALDINE PUBLISHING CO., 9, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street, LONDON.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+
+This book was originally published as _Beadle's Half-Dime Library_ #450:
+_Wizard Will, the Wonder-Worker; or, The Boy Ferret of New York. A
+Romance of Mysteries in Metropolitan Life._ This electronic edition is
+derived from the later reprint in Aldine's _Tip-Top Tales_ series, which
+omits credit to the author, Prentiss Ingraham.
+
+Underscores are used to represent _italics_; equals signs are used for
+=bold=.
+
+Changed oe ligature to oe for text edition; ligatures retained in HTML
+version.
+
+Added table of contents.
+
+Normalized some inconsistent punctuation in chapter headings.
+
+Some inconsistent punctuation retained (e.g. gripsack vs. grip-sack, Ed.
+Ellis vs. Ed Ellis).
+
+Page 2, changed "as the reply" to "was the reply."
+
+Page 3, changed ? to , after "I wish to see Jerry, the Night Hawk."
+
+Page 4, changed "sportman's" to "sportsman's" for consistency.
+
+Page 5, changed "miller Raymond's" to "Miller Raymond's" for
+consistency.
+
+Page 6, changed "Mr Cluett" to "Mr. Cluett."
+
+Page 7, changed "Mrs," to "Mrs." and added missing comma after "lay in a
+swoon."
+
+Page 8, changed "and and" to "and."
+
+Page 9, changed "villany" to "villainy" for consistency.
+
+Page 13, changed "Reportres" to "Reporters" and "of of" to "of."
+
+Page 14, changed "and kept she it" to "and she kept it."
+
+Page 17, changed "a agile" to "an agile."
+
+Page 19, changed punctuation to question mark in "Your brother at work,
+and at night?"
+
+Page 21, changed "address of my young friend here will give you" to
+"address that my young friend here will give you."
+
+Page 22, changed "on old friend" to "an old friend." Added missing
+"they" to "joy that they had not known."
+
+Page 24, changed "hostilites" to "hostilities."
+
+Page 25, changed "yatchsman" to "yachtsman."
+
+Page 26, changed question mark to period in "To accomplish just what you
+have done."
+
+Page 28, changed "than had arrived" to "that had arrived."
+
+Page 30, changed "surrounding" to "surrounded" in "surrounding by
+spacious."
+
+Page 31, changed "Mr Cluett" to "Mr. Cluett."
+
+Page 32, added missing close quote after "make short work of him."
+
+Page 43, changed "voyrge" to "voyage."
+
+Page 44, changed "had had" to "had."
+
+Page 47, changed comma to period after "he got away."
+
+Page 48, changed "Hurcules" to "Hercules."
+
+Page 51, changed "Chistmas" to "Christmas" and removed stray quote after
+"returned Hercules."
+
+Page 52, changed commas to periods at ends of two paragraphs.
+
+Page 55, changed "attack Indians" to "attack by Indians" and "Rosmore"
+to "Rossmore." Added missing comma after "went to the shelter."
+
+Page 59, changed colon to semi-colon after "suffering."
+
+Page 61, changed "anthing" to "anything" and added missing "gave" to
+"Jerry gave him that blow."
+
+Page 63, removed unnecessary comma after "tears."
+
+Page 64, changed "living her" to "living for her."
+
+Back cover, fixed "Magnificent" typo in #139.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Wizard Will, by Prentiss Ingraham
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43301 ***