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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of Two Boys and a Fortune, by Matthew White, Jr.
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: Two Boys and a Fortune
+       Or, The Tyler Will
+
+Author: Matthew White, Jr.
+
+Release Date: April 7, 2002 [eBook #4997]
+[Most recently updated: September 8, 2021]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: Jim Weiler, xooqi.com
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO BOYS AND A FORTUNE ***
+
+
+
+
+Two Boys and a Fortune
+
+Or, The Tyler Will
+
+by Matthew White, Jr.
+
+1907
+
+
+Contents
+
+ PREFACE
+ CHAPTER I. THE MAN ON THE BRIDGE
+ CHAPTER II. IN THE MISER’S HOME
+ CHAPTER III. MR. TYLER’S WILL
+ CHAPTER IV. THE TWIN BROTHERS
+ CHAPTER V. BREAKING THE NEWS
+ CHAPTER VI. REX GOES TO TOWN
+ CHAPTER VII. REGINAND’S HUMILIATION
+ CHAPTER VIII. IN SYDNEY’S OFFICE
+ CHAPTER IX. THE MYSTERY ABOUT SYDNEY
+ CHAPTER X. ROY MAKES A NEW ACQUAINTANCE
+ CHAPTER XI. MR. CHARLES KEELER
+ CHAPTER XII. AN ALARMING DISCOVERY
+ CHAPTER XIII. DISCUSSION OF WAYS AND MEANS
+ CHAPTER XIV. WHAT HAPPENED AT MIDNIGHT
+ CHAPTER XV. DUDLEY HARRINGTON
+ CHAPTER XVI. REX DETERMINES TO TAKE MATTERS INTO HIS OWN HANDS
+ CHAPTER XVII. REX ARRIVES IN NEW YORK
+ CHAPTER XVIII. REX SEES A HORRIBLE SPECTACLE
+ CHAPTER XIX. A MEMORABLE NIGHT
+ CHAPTER XX. THE CRISIS
+ CHAPTER XXI. MILES HARDING
+ CHAPTER XXII. SEARCHING FOR REX
+ CHAPTER XXIII. A TELEGRAM
+ CHAPTER XXIV. FOUND AT LAST
+ CHAPTER XXV. MILES HARDING’S STORY
+ CHAPTER XXVI. IN WINTER DAYS
+ CHAPTER XXVII. SYDNEY GOES ON A MYSTERIOUS EXPEDITION
+ CHAPTER XXVIII. THE STRANGE CONDUCT OF MRS. FOX
+ CHAPTER XXIX. A MIDNIGHT VISIT
+ CHAPTER XXX. SYDNEY FREES HIS MIND
+ CHAPTER XXXI. THE CONFESSION TO THE BOYS
+ CHAPTER XXXII. A HARD DAY FOR THE TWINS
+ CHAPTER XXXIII. A QUEER FISH POND PARTY
+ CHAPTER XXXIV. REX RISES TO THE OCCASION
+ CHAPTER XXXV. A FISTIC ENCOUNTER
+ CHAPTER XXXVI. MILES BREAKS THE NEWS
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Among all my books, this one will always occupy a particularly warm
+spot in my heart; for listen, reader, and I will let you into a little
+secret. Riddle Creek is really Ridley, and is a true-enough stream,
+flowing through one of the most charming regions in Delaware County,
+Pennsylvania. The railroad trestle which plays such an important part
+in the first chapter forms a picturesque feature of the landscape, in
+full view of a home where I was wont to spend many a joyous
+holiday-time and which I had in mind whenever I mentioned the Pellery.
+
+Again, the odd little house on Seventh Street, Philadelphia, described
+in Chapter XXVII, actually existed until pulled down some years since
+to make room for a big manufacturing plant. I used to visit there every
+time I went to the Quaker City, and all the furnishings mentioned stand
+out vividly in my recollection to this day, even to the guitar off in
+one corner. I never played Fish Pond there, but I have eaten some of
+the best dinners I ever tasted in that famous kitchen below stairs,
+which had to serve for dining room as well. That kitchen and the great
+cat, who used to sun himself in the shop window, loom large in my
+memories of boyhood.
+
+Matthew White, Jr.
+
+
+_New York City._
+
+_Jan. 5, 1907._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+THE MAN ON THE BRIDGE
+
+
+“Look there! I believe that man is actually going to try to cross the
+trestle.”
+
+Roy Pell pulled his sister Eva quickly toward him as he spoke, so that
+she could look up between the trees to the Burdock side of the railway
+bridge almost directly above their heads.
+
+“Why, it’s Mr. Tyler!” exclaimed Jess, who had a better view from where
+she sat on the log that spanned Riddle Creek. “Oh, Roy, something’s
+sure to happen to him! He’s awfully feeble.”
+
+“And there’s a train almost due,” added Eva. “What can he be thinking
+of to attempt such a thing?”
+
+“Oh!” and Jess gave a shrill scream. “He’s fallen!”
+
+Roy said never a word. He quickly passed his fishing-line to Eva, ran
+nimbly across the tree trunk to the Burdock side of the creek, and then
+started to climb the steep bank. The girls sat there and watched him
+breathlessly, now and then darting a look higher up at the spot on the
+trestle where the figure that had dropped still lay across the ties, as
+if too badly hurt to rise.
+
+The two Pell girls and their twin brothers, Rex and Roy, had gone down
+to sit on the log in search of coolness on this blazing hot July
+afternoon. Rex had been giving vent to his disgust because he wasn’t
+able to accept the invitation to join a jolly party of friends for a
+trip to Lake George and down the St. Lawrence. Cause why? Lack of
+funds.
+
+“You ought to have known you couldn’t go when Scott asked you, Rex,”
+Roy had told him. “You would need at least fifty dollars for the
+outing. And that sum will clothe you for almost a year. And clothes
+with you, Rex, ought to be of sufficient importance to be considered.”
+
+“I suppose I might as well go and tell Scott about it and have it over
+with,” Rex had replied, creasing his handsome forehead into a frown. “I
+dare say he’ll be calling me ‘Can’t Have It Pell’ pretty soon. It was
+only two months ago I asked for a bicycle and didn’t get it, and there
+was the new pair of skates I wanted last winter.”
+
+“Don’t be late for tea,” Eva called out after him as he made his way to
+the shore.
+
+She kept her eyes on the trim figure till it was hidden by the trees
+which grew thick along the road that led up to town.
+
+“Well, if anybody in this world ought to have money it is that good
+looking brother of ours,” remarked Jess with a sigh. “He’d appreciate
+it so thoroughly. I don’t wonder he’s crabbed this afternoon. Just
+think of the chance for a good time he’s had to let slip just for lack
+of a little money.”
+
+“Fifty dollars isn’t a little money, Jess,” returned Roy, casting his
+line.
+
+“I know it isn’t to us, but it is to most of the people we know, Scott
+Bowman for instance. Do you suppose we shall _ever_ be rich, Roy?”
+
+“We are rich now; at least you and Eva are, in my opinion.”
+
+“We rich?” Eva nearly slipped from her position on the log at the
+statement.
+
+“Why, yes; haven’t you both contented dispositions, and isn’t that
+worth a small fortune?”
+
+“But why have you left yourself out, Roy?” Eva wanted to know. “Surely
+you who never grumble, are satisfied with things.”
+
+“No, I’m not.” A flash came into the boy’s eyes that made him really
+handsome for the moment. “I’m chafing inwardly all the while at having
+to be idle this way when it seems there ought to be so much I could do
+to help along.”
+
+“But you are getting ready to do it as soon as you finish school,”
+rejoined his sister. “And you must have a vacation, you know. Besides,
+think how much you do to help Sydney.”
+
+“Oh, I only do a little copying for him now and then.”
+
+He was going to add more, but at this point he caught that glimpse of
+the man on the trestle which brought about the interruption in the talk
+already described.
+
+Roy soon emerged from the line of shade in his climb up the embankment
+and the scorching afternoon sun beat down on him mercilessly. But he
+did not cease his exertions to reach the top as quickly as possible. He
+knew that a train for the city would be along very soon now; he
+remembered the curve just beyond the bridge; the engineer could not see
+whether there was an obstruction in the way, until he should be too
+close on it to stop.
+
+Then he thought of Mr. Tyler, and of how nobody liked him, with all his
+money, which he hoarded like a miser. He was probably crossing the
+bridge now to take the train for the city from Marley, and save the
+additional five cents he might have to pay if he boarded it at Burdock,
+which was much nearer his home.
+
+But he was human, he was an old man; he was helpless now, doubtless
+overcome by the heat. And there was nobody about but Roy to prevent
+what might be a tragedy.
+
+On he toiled. The loose dirt slid out from under his feet and rattled
+down the hillside behind him. The perspiration poured from his face in
+streams. What a contrast this was, he thought, to sitting there over
+the creek placidly fishing!
+
+He had gained the top now and, scarcely pausing to take a long breath,
+he ran out over the ties till he reached Mr. Tyler’s prostrate form. He
+had fallen fortunately not very far from the beginning of the trestle,
+but he was quite unconscious and could not help himself. Roy must carry
+him away from his dangerous position.
+
+He bent to his task, which was not such an arduous one as might be
+supposed. Mr. Tyler was little more than a bag of bones, weighing not
+as much as did Roy himself. The latter picked him up as carefully as he
+could, not daring to look down lest he should grow dizzy. Then he began
+to bear his burden back to _terra firma._
+
+He had almost reached the ground when the old man stirred and opened
+his eyes. He started to struggle, but Roy looked down at him and spoke
+sternly.
+
+“Keep quiet, Mr. Tyler,” he said, “or you will have us both over the
+trestle.”
+
+The miser shuddered, but he made no reply and kept perfectly still till
+Roy placed him on the grass in the shade of a horse chestnut tree. The
+boy threw himself down beside him, and began to fan himself with his
+straw hat. The next minute, with a shrill whistle, the train rushed by
+them.
+
+“You saved my life, Roy Pell,” said Mr. Tyler after the skurrying dust
+raised from the ballast had settled into place. “You are a brave boy.”
+
+Roy made no reply. He was still very hot and he was thinking that his
+whole adventure was very much like a scene in a book.
+
+“I ought to say ‘Oh, it is nothing,’ I suppose,” he reflected with a
+half smile. “But then that wouldn’t be the truth. From the way I feel
+now it was a good deal.”
+
+“I’ve missed that train, I suppose,” Mr. Tyler went on.
+
+At this Roy wanted to laugh. It sounded so ridiculous. And yet it was
+quite characteristic of this singular old man. But young Pell mopped
+his face vigorously with his handkerchief to hide his mirth and then
+said, rising to his feet:
+
+“Do you feel all right, Mr. Tyler?”
+
+“Oh, I guess so,” was the reply, and the old man started to get up too.
+
+But he immediately fell back again and a frightened look came into his
+face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+IN THE MISER’S HOME
+
+
+“Have you hurt yourself, Mr. Tyler?” asked Roy anxiously. “You didn’t
+break a limb when you fell, did you?”
+
+“No, no, it is here,” and the old man put his hand up to his head.
+
+“The sun was too hot for you,” went on Roy. “You haven’t got over it
+yet.”
+
+“I am afraid I shall never get over it, Roy Pell.” The miser looked at
+him in a steady way that would have frightened some boys. “And I don’t
+want to die yet, not till I have made my will. I must have a lawyer.
+Where is Sydney Pell, that brother of yours.”
+
+“He isn’t my brother. He’s a boy that father adopted when he was very
+young, but he’s better than a good many brothers. And he’s a good
+lawyer, too. Would you like to see him. He’ll be back on the
+five-thirty train.”
+
+“Yes, I should like to see him if it won’t be too late. What time is it
+now? You haven’t got a watch, have you? Look at mine and tell me.”
+
+“Quarter past five, and now you ought to be taken home right away, and
+have a doctor.”
+
+“You think I am very bad then?” Again the frightened look came into the
+old man’s face.
+
+“No, of course not. Lots of people have to call the doctor when they’re
+not going to die.”
+
+“Don’t speak of dying. I’m afraid to die. See, I don’t mind telling you
+so. And I ought to be. I haven’t done very much good in the world.
+There isn’t anybody I can think of will be sorry to have me go. That
+isn’t the way to live, Roy Pell. You ought to be happy, so happy,
+because you are young, and have your life before you to make it the way
+it should be made.”
+
+“You have life before you, too, Mr. Tyler. You are not so very old.
+You’re not much more than seventy.”
+
+“I’m seventy-two. But come, let me see if I can get up with your help.
+I want you to take me home, so you can go for Sydney. He’s a good boy,
+you say, one I can trust?” The old man looked in Roy’s face closely as
+the latter bent over him.
+
+“Sydney is the best fellow that ever lived,” replied Roy soberly. “He’s
+been a staff to my mother ever since father died, and has almost taken
+his place to us children.”
+
+“Yes, yes. I’ve heard that what your father did for him years ago was
+like bread cast upon the waters that’s coming back after many days. Let
+me see, how old are you?”
+
+“Fifteen. I tell you what, Mr. Tyler. The girls are down under the
+bridge. Wait a minute till I call down to them to send Syd over as soon
+as he comes. Then I’ll go home with you and needn’t leave you.”
+
+“All right. You’re very good to me, Roy Pell.” The miser sank back on
+the grass, while Roy hurried to the edge of the bluff and making a
+trumpet of his hands, called down:
+
+“Eva! Jess!”
+
+“Yes, are you all right, Roy?” came back the answer in Eva’s tones.
+
+“All O. K., but Mr. Tyler’s a little done up. I’m going home with him.
+And he wants you to send Syd over as soon as he gets back. It’s some
+business matter, quite important, and we may both be late for tea.
+Don’t wait. Do you understand?”
+
+“Yes, all right. We’ll go to meet Syd now. Shall we send the doctor,
+too?”
+
+Roy thought a minute.
+
+“Yes. I think you’d better,” he called down.
+
+“I told them to send the doctor to your house,” he reported to Mr.
+Tyler. He half expected the latter to raise a protest, but he didn’t.
+
+“All right,” he said feebly. “He’ll do for one of the witnesses. Now.”
+
+Roy bent down so that the old man might lean on his shoulder. He put
+one arm about his back to steady him, and thus supported he was able to
+move slowly along the cinder path beside the track.
+
+“What did you attempt to walk across the trestle for, Mr. Tyler?” asked
+Roy.
+
+“I made up my mind suddenly to go to town,” was the answer. “There
+wasn’t time to go around by the turnpike. I thought I could get across
+before the train came. I’ve seen boys go over it.”
+
+“But you’re not a boy,” rejoined Roy, with a smile.
+
+“No. I’m not a boy,” and Roy could feel a shudder pass through the arm
+that was resting on his shoulder.
+
+Mr. Tyler lived in a house not far from the Burdock station. An old
+woman did the cooking for him and went home at night. For the rest he
+dwelt almost like a hermit, and so far as any one knew he had not a
+relative in the world. But the report had gone out as it always does in
+such cases, that he was very rich, and now his desire to see a lawyer
+and make a will convinced Roy that for once rumor must be right.
+
+“I wonder how much he’s got and to whom he’ll leave it?” he asked
+himself, but now they were within sight of the little house and the old
+man leaned so heavily upon him, that all his attention was centered on
+getting him safely to the end of their journey.
+
+By the time this was accomplished Mr. Tyler was so completely exhausted
+that he dropped down on the first chair they reached.
+
+“After you are rested a bit,” said Roy, “I’ll help you to get to bed.”
+
+“No, no,” protested the old man; “so many people die in their beds. Go
+and tell Ann to get a little more for dinner to-night. You and Sydney
+must stay and eat it with me. It will take quite a time to have my will
+drawn up. You’ll find her in the kitchen.”
+
+The woman was not much surprised when Roy told her of the condition in
+which her master had come home.
+
+“It’s what I’ve been expecting every day,” she said. “He doesn’t eat
+enough to keep a bird alive. I’m amazed to think he should ask you to
+stop to dinner. It’s little enough you’ll get, Master Roy, but I’ll do
+my best.”
+
+The house was a bare looking place, furnished only with the merest
+necessities. No pictures were on the walls, no books on the tables; Roy
+wondered what the old man did to pass the time here by himself. There
+was not even a sofa for him to lie upon. He asked about this when he
+returned to the front room.
+
+“Then you’d better come in and lie on the outside of your bed if you
+won’t get in it,” he suggested.
+
+To this the older man acceded and allowed Roy to assist him to the
+adjoining apartment where he slept.
+
+“No,” he murmured, “I haven’t wasted much on myself, you see. That will
+leave still more for those who come after me. What would you do with
+$500,000 if you had it, Roy Pell?”
+
+The question came so suddenly and in such contrasted tones to the
+mumble in which the miser had heretofore been speaking that for the
+moment Roy was too startled to make reply.
+
+“No, I’m not raving, Roy Pell,” went on the old man. “There’s a
+possibility—” he checked himself quickly—“what would you do with all
+that money if you had it?”
+
+“I’d give it to my mother,” answered Roy.
+
+“Good boy, of course. I didn’t think of that. You’re a minor, and
+you’re not selfish. You’d rather she would have it, eh, than that it
+should be held by her in trust for you? But if you got it, you’d
+promise to see that it was spent, and not hoarded as I have hoarded
+mine? You’d promise that wouldn’t you?”
+
+Roy by this time began to think that the partial sunstroke had
+completely unhinged Mr. Tyler’s brain, already a little out of plumb.
+
+“Oh, yes,” he laughed. “There’s no danger of our hoarding money. There
+are too many things to spend it on for that.”
+
+“Then you’re squeezed a little down at your place, eh?”
+
+“Oh, we can get along,” returned Roy hastily; “but we can’t do much
+branching out. My mother has only the income from father’s insurance,
+and then there’s the place which we own, with the taxes to pay.”
+
+The old man now relapsed into silence. He seemed to be thinking,
+deeply. Suddenly he started up and exclaimed:
+
+“It must be nearly time for Sydney to be here. Won’t you go outside and
+watch for him?”
+
+Roy was very glad to leave the miser. He realized that perhaps it was
+wrong for him to feel that way, but then, believing him to be a little
+unbalanced, it was but natural that he should be sensible of some
+constraint in his presence.
+
+“I wonder if he has got $500,000 put away somewhere?” he asked himself
+when he reached the little portico. “He talked exactly as if he was
+going to give it to me. I suppose for what I did for him on the bridge.
+That would be just like a story episode, so much like one that there’s
+no chance of its coming true. But what would Rex say if it did? Ah,
+here comes Syd.”
+
+Roy left the porch and hurried out to the gate to meet the fellow who
+had been nearer and dearer to him than a brother as far back as he
+could remember.
+
+“Poor old chap,” he said as they met and he turned around, slipping his
+arm within that of the tall young lawyer, “it was a shame to make you
+walk all that distance in the hot sun when you must be tired out from
+your day in town. But there’s a job at the end of the walk.”
+
+“And a cheerful brother, too,” added the other. “Poor Rex! I saw him
+over at the station. He takes it terribly to heart that he cannot go
+off with the Bowmans. I wish I were rich, if only for you boys’ sakes.
+But what’s this heroic deed I hear of your doing for old Mr. Tyler?
+Positively, Roy, I’m proud of you.”
+
+“Oh, the train didn’t come along for a good five minutes after I’d got
+him off the trestle. You see that takes a good deal of the ‘heroic
+rescue’ business out of the thing. But come on inside. He’s been quite
+anxious to see you. I’ve made him lie down, for I think he’s in a very
+bad way.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+MR. TYLER’S WILL
+
+
+“Is that you, Sydney Pell?” called out Mr. Tyler as soon as he heard
+footsteps in the hallway.
+
+“Yes, Mr. Tyler, What can I do for you?” and Sydney followed Roy into
+the bedroom.
+
+“You can make my will,” replied the old man promptly. “That doesn’t
+mean that I am going to die right away,” he added hastily, “but I’ve
+had a warning. Why, I may have time to make two or three wills before I
+give up the ship.”
+
+He laughed hoarsely and started to get up. But he was weaker than he
+supposed, and fell back on the bed with a little gasp just as he had
+done out by the trestle.
+
+“Don’t exert yourself too much, Mr. Tyler,” said Sydney. “I can fix the
+thing up for you while you are lying right here. I think I saw a bottle
+of ink and some paper in the other room. Roy can help me bring in that
+table that stands there, and then I can take down whatever you wish and
+you can sign it. But you will want witnesses.”
+
+“There’s Ann, she can be one,” responded the old man.
+
+“And I told the girls to send a doctor up here. He can be another,” put
+in Roy. Then he added, when all was arranged: “I suppose I had better
+go out.”
+
+“Yes, you can go out and watch for the doctor,” said Sydney. “Now
+then,” he went on, turning to Mr. Tyler when they were alone, and after
+he had written out the regulation formal preamble, “I am ready.”
+
+The miser said nothing in reply for a minute or two. He kept
+interlocking his wasted fingers with one another, glancing now and then
+out of the window, where he could see Roy pacing back and forth in
+front of the cottage. Finally he murmured so low that Sydney was
+obliged to bend forward to catch the words:
+
+“Would you be surprised to hear that I had a vast amount of money in
+the deposit companies in Philadelphia?”
+
+“No, Mr. Tyler,” replied Sydney. “It has always been supposed that you
+were a man of wealth.”
+
+“I am, I am,” muttered the miser. “I have something like half a
+million. And yet what good has it done me? I have hoarded it just for
+the sake of hoarding. It began to come to me when I was quite young. I
+was surprised. Some property was wanted by the city. They paid me well
+for it. I invested what I got and doubled it, I kept on making money
+till I loved it for itself alone and could not bear to part with it
+even on the chance of making more. So I left it all to draw interest
+except what little it takes to support me in the poor way in which I
+live.”
+
+He paused and Sydney adjudged it proper to inquire.
+
+“Then you have no relatives, no one dependent on you?”
+
+“I have outlived them all,” was the reply. “There was a boy, though,
+who was once in my employ and whom I came to think a good deal of. But
+he grew up and went into stocks and tried to bear the market against
+me. I never forgave Maurice Darley for that. And yet I loved him once.
+I brought him up, out of the gutter, as it were, and there was a time
+when he loved me. There is another brother in your family whom I see
+sometimes and who reminds me of him.”
+
+“Reginald—Rex, as we call him—you mean?”
+
+“Yes, but perhaps he would not have done for me what Roy did this
+afternoon. You have heard of it. He risked his life for mine. He will
+make a good man. I am sure of it. And he is unselfish. To make him
+happy you must make others happy around him. Yes, I will do it. Quick,
+write down that I leave all my fortune unreservedly, to—what is his
+full name?”
+
+“Whose full name?” Sydney had dropped his pen and sat staring at Mr.
+Tyler as if in a daze.
+
+“Why your brother—Roy Pell’s.”
+
+“Royal Fillmore Pell,” Sydney repeated the name mechanically, still too
+amazed at the inference he must draw from the question to be really
+conscious of what he was saying.
+
+“Thank you. A fine name it is, and fitted to a splendid boy. Then
+write—but no. I had determined not to leave it to him. What is his
+mother’s name? She must have it all outright. Then it can be used at
+once in the way to please Roy best. Now Mrs. Pell’s full name?”
+
+“Jessica Fillmore Pell. I suppose, as a lawyer, I ought not to express
+any surprise at what you are doing, but you can see how close home it
+comes to me, Mr. Tyler. You know the relation in which I stand to this
+family, with whom I am connected by no ties of blood, but who have been
+so good to me.”
+
+“And you have deserved it, young man. I am not leaving money to a
+family of whom I know nothing. Have you got that: all my fortune
+unreservedly to Jessica Fillmore Pell?”
+
+“Yes, Mr. Tyler.”
+
+“Roy knows something of this, and if people think it strange or hint
+that I am out of my head to leave my money in this way, you can tell
+them what he did for me this afternoon. That ought to satisfy them. Now
+I want to tell you where my money is invested so that you can get at it
+easily, for I want you, Sydney, to be one of my executors, and I will
+take Dr. Martin for the other. Here he comes now. We will continue this
+business presently.”
+
+Roy came in with the doctor; a cheery man, whom everybody in the
+neighborhood liked.
+
+“Doctor,” began Mr. Tyler, before the physician could say anything, “I
+want you to witness my will. Roy, run out to the kitchen and get Ann to
+come in here.”
+
+“Ann,” said Roy, appearing in the rear regions, “Mr. Tyler wants you to
+come out and witness his will.”
+
+“Is the poor man dying then?” exclaimed the woman, looking frightened.
+
+“Oh, no, he only—”
+
+“Never mind bothering Ann about that now,” said the doctor presenting
+himself at this moment Roy returned to the bedroom with the physician,
+where he found that Mr. Tyler had decided he would have Sydney for a
+witness in place of Ann.
+
+“I’d rather have a man,” he explained. “I forgot that he could do it
+just as well as not.”
+
+Then the instrument was duly signed and witnessed.
+
+“I am perfectly sane, you can declare, can’t you, Dr. Martin?” asked
+the miser when the thing was done. “I don’t want any mistake to be made
+about it.”
+
+“You need have no fear on that score,”
+
+“Dinner’s ready, Mr. Tyler,” announced Ann, making her appearance at
+this point.
+
+“All right, you boys go out and eat it,” said the old man. “The doctor
+wants to see me I suppose. Ann can bring me a little broth in here
+afterwards. And about signing that, Sydney, I want to add a clause
+leaving something to Ann. I forgot about her.”
+
+Silently the two Pells went out into the dining room, and in almost
+silence they ate the broth which the housekeeper placed before them.
+Then when she had gone out Sydney said:
+
+“You know how much Mr. Tyler is worth, Roy, do you?”
+
+“He told me something like $500,000. I didn’t know whether to believe
+it or not That’s a great sum of money, Sydney. I feel awfully queer
+about the whole thing. Does it seem all right to you that he should
+leave it all to mother just because of the little thing I did for him
+this afternoon? I don’t want to seem to feel that she oughtn’t to have
+it. But the whole thing seems so odd.”
+
+“Not nearly so queer as a great many wills that are made every day,”
+rejoined Sydney. “But don’t worry over it, Roy,” he added with a laugh.
+“You look as if you had been convicted of some crime. Remember you
+haven’t got the money yet, and may not have it for a great many years
+to come.”
+
+“It isn’t my money, Syd. It’s to be left to mother.”
+
+“Well, if it hadn’t been for you she wouldn’t have it. But by the way,
+you had better get home as soon as you can. I think mother is inclined
+to worry about you from what Jess said. I can stay with the old man as
+long as it is necessary.”
+
+“And I shan’t say anything about that will, Syd. I’d rather you
+wouldn’t either, just yet.”
+
+“No, it is best to keep it as quiet as we can. It seems strange that
+the old man should have talked so freely about it as he did.”
+
+The meal was soon finished, and the two starting to enter the bedroom,
+met the doctor in the doorway.
+
+“He’s in a bad way,” he whispered to Sydney. “I shall come back again
+this evening. Come, Roy, are you going down? I’ll take you along with
+me in the carriage.”
+
+“Yes, you’d better go, Roy,” urged Sydney. “You look worn out. Tell
+mother I’ll stay here as long as I’m wanted.”
+
+“Good-by, Mr. Tyler,” said Roy, stepping into the bedroom and extending
+his hand to the old man.
+
+“Good-by, Roy Pell. You have made me think better of my kind to-day. In
+fact I think you have made a changed man of me. Would you—would you
+mind coming up to see me to-morrow?”
+
+“No, of course I wouldn’t mind. I’ll come. I hope you’ll be better in
+the morning. Good-night,” and Roy went off with the doctor.
+
+“Well, Roy,” said the latter, as they drove away, “you are to be
+congratulated. You have brought your family into a nice little
+inheritance if all our miserly old friend says is true.”
+
+“Perhaps it isn’t,” returned Roy, “so please don’t congratulate me or
+say anything about it just yet.”
+
+Roy was so tired when he got home that he did not give very spirited
+answers to the questions his family showered upon him. He went to bed
+very shortly and was asleep before Rex came to take his place beside
+him.
+
+All in the household were locked in slumber when Sydney let himself in
+with his key about eleven. He did not retire. He went into the library,
+got out some law books, and sitting down at the table, appeared as if
+about to do some work. But he did not pick up the pen. He sat there,
+his head sunk on his chest, with a look of misery on his face that was
+pitiable to see.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+THE TWIN BROTHERS
+
+
+The Pells breakfasted early so that Sydney might catch the 7:30 express
+for the city. On the morning following the events narrated in the
+preceding chapter the entire family were gathered at the table with the
+exception of Rex, who was invariably late, and Sydney himself.
+
+“It’s very strange,” remarked Mrs. Pell “He is always on time. He can
+barely catch his train now. I wish you, Roy, would run up to his room
+and see what is the matter. He may be ill.”
+
+Roy soon ascended the two flights of stairs to the apartment with the
+dormer window that had always been Syd’s. The door was open and the
+room was empty. The bed had been slept in, but the suit Syd had worn
+the day before was not about. He had evidently dressed and gone.
+
+“I wonder if he can be up at Mr. Tyler’s?” thought Roy.
+
+He returned to the dining room with his report.
+
+“It is very odd,” remarked Mrs. Pell. “It is not like Sydney to go off
+in that way, but he will explain when he comes home to-night. He may
+have been obliged to go to town at seven on business for Mr. Tyler.”
+
+“That’s so; what did the old gentleman want with Syd,” asked Jessie,
+turning to Roy. “You were so sleepy when you came home last night that
+you didn’t half satisfy our curiosity.”
+
+“He wanted him to make his will,” answered Roy.
+
+“And did he?” went on Jess.
+
+“Yes. I say, mother, hadn’t I better go and stir up Rex? I’m afraid
+he’s gone off to sleep again.”
+
+“There, he’s coming now. I hear his step on the stairs, so you just sit
+still and answer my questions. I’m not half through yet,” and Jess
+checked off on her fingers the two queries to which she had already had
+responses. “Now then, is he as rich as we all thought him?”
+
+“Richer. Good afternoon to you, Rex. Better late than never. I’m going
+to keep you company, by taking a second cup of coffee. Mother, may I,
+please?”
+
+“Royal Pell, what is the matter with you?” exclaimed Jess. “You haven’t
+been like the same fellow since you climbed up to that trestle
+yesterday afternoon. You seem to be trying to keep something back.
+Don’t you notice it, mother?”
+
+“I have,” put in Rex, before Mrs. Pell could speak. “I couldn’t get a
+word out of him before he went to sleep last night. One would think
+he’d had a trouble like mine to bear,” and Rex sighed with the air of a
+martyr.
+
+Roy glanced over at him quickly. What would this luxury loving brother
+of his say if he only knew! But Roy did not dare tell yet. Mr. Tyler
+might live for years, and have ample opportunity to change his mind
+about his will. Yes, it was better to keep the matter to himself as
+long as he could.
+
+“What’s queer about me?” he said now.
+
+“Why, you’re giving such short answers to our questions about the old
+miser,” returned Jess promptly. “As a rule you’d tell us all we wanted
+to know without our having to draw it out as if we were pulling teeth.”
+
+“Well, what is it you want to know?”
+
+“Oh, all about your experience over at Mr. Tyler’s. The people up in
+the town will hear about your being there and will expect us to know
+all the details. It is quite an event for a queer old character like
+the Burdock miser to make a will.”
+
+“But people when they make their wills don’t usually tell everybody in
+the house what they put into them. It’s a sort of confidential matter,
+don’t you understand?”
+
+“I’ll wager you know all about it, Roy,” broke in Rex suddenly,
+dropping the biscuit he was buttering and staring at his brother
+fixedly for a moment “I shouldn’t be surprised if the old fellow had
+made you his heir for what you did for him.”
+
+“Well, if he did,” answered Roy with a smile, “it wouldn’t enable you
+to take that trip to Canada, as he isn’t dead yet and may live to be
+ninety.”
+
+“He’s just the kind that do hang on,” remarked Jess. “People that
+nobody seems to care about generally do.”
+
+“That reminds me, mother,” added Rex, “if I don’t go on this trip
+there’ll be a lot of money saved. Can’t I have some of it spent for a
+new tennis suit? I need one badly.”
+
+Mrs. Pell smiled, a little sadly though.
+
+“My dear boy,” she rejoined, “there is your patent method of
+manufacturing money again. You conceive a desire for something very
+expensive, then when you give that up and select something much
+cheaper, you imagine that you have saved more than enough to pay for
+it.”
+
+“It’s a thundering grind to be decently poor any way.” Rex pushed back
+his chair suddenly, his brow clouded with a frown as it had been the
+afternoon before down on the log.
+
+“‘Decently poor!’ What do you mean by that, Rex?” asked Eva.
+
+“Oh, to have the taste and wish for nice things and the privilege of
+going with nice people who own them, and yet not be able to have them
+yourself. I sometimes wish I was like black Pete. He doesn’t know any
+better than to be contented if he makes a dollar or two a week.”
+
+“Oh, Reggie, Reggie!” murmured Mrs. Pell sadly.
+
+This one of her boys caused her more anxiety than all the other
+children combined. He was so proud, so aspiring, and yet he had not
+half the ability of Roy, who was rather overshadowed by the other’s
+dashing, winning manner. For Rex could be charming when he so minded.
+
+He went out on the side piazza now and began to shy strawberries at two
+of the puppies. The berries had just been picked and left by the cook
+on the window sill for the girls to hull.
+
+“Rex,” exclaimed Roy severely, coming out upon him suddenly. “Aren’t
+you ashamed to use those berries in that way?”
+
+Roy hated waste above all things.
+
+Rex checked the toss he was about to make, and transferred the berry to
+his mouth instead.
+
+“Has your majesty any objections to that disposition of the fruit?” he
+asked with an assumption of the courtliness that became him so well.
+
+“Well, it’s a legitimate disposition at any rate,” returned Roy. Then
+he went out to the barn to feed the chickens and look after the cow,
+for the Pells kept no hired man. The boys attended to the kitchen
+garden—at least Roy did most of it, and there had been no horses kept
+by the family since shortly after Mr. Pell’s death.
+
+This was another of Rex’s trials.
+
+“Think of living in the country without a horse!” he would exclaim.
+“And then to have the stable on the place into the bargain! It’s enough
+to make the horse we haven’t got laugh.”
+
+To be sure he had plenty of rides. The Bowmans who came down to Marley
+for the summer, were very fond of him, and nearly every day during the
+summer Scott took him out in his cart.
+
+But Rex sighed to return this hospitality. All of his friends were glad
+to come down to the Pellery, as Rex called it, for Mrs. Pell was a
+great favorite and the young people were lively and bright. Rex
+fretted, however, because he had no “attractions” to offer them.
+
+He was feeling particularly gloomy this morning. Having exhausted
+himself in regretting the good time he would lose in not being able to
+go with the Bowmans, he had taken to lamenting his condition here in
+Marley during vacation with Scott away. He was not so fond of reading
+as was Roy, and without plenty of congenial society, he was apt to find
+that time hung heavy on his hands.
+
+Scott had gone to Philadelphia this morning to make some purchases for
+his journey. He would not be back till afternoon. Rex had not yet
+planned what to do with himself in the meantime.
+
+“Where are you going?” he called out presently, when he saw Roy walking
+down toward the gate.
+
+“Over to Mr. Tyler’s to see how he is. Want to come?”
+
+“I believe I do,” answered Rex slowly. “Hold on a minute till I get my
+cap.”
+
+Roy was rather surprised that his brother should wish to go. He
+wondered just how Mr. Tyler would like his bringing him. Then he
+remembered what the miser had said about Rex reminding him somewhat of
+Maurice Darley and thought perhaps he might be glad to see him on this
+account.
+
+It was cooler than it had been the previous day. The country about
+Marley and Burdock was beautiful, extremely rolling and rich in
+vegetation, so the walk was a pleasant one.
+
+“Say, did Mr. Tyler really have Syd make his will last night?” asked
+Rex as they were crossing the covered bridge over the creek.
+
+“Yes,” answered Roy.
+
+“Did he have much to leave?” went on Rex, stooping down as they emerged
+on the road again, to pluck a tall blade of grass which he began to
+munch between his white teeth.
+
+“About half a million.” Roy thought he might as well tell this. He knew
+that if he tried to evade the question his brother would be apt to
+think he was keeping something back.
+
+“What?” Rex stopped stock still in the road to utter the exclamation.
+“That old bag of bones worth half a million dollars! Nonsense.”
+
+“I think it’s more likely he should be worth that amount,” returned
+Roy, “than the Bowmans, for instance, who seem to spend their income
+right up to the handle. You know everybody has always thought Mr. Tyler
+had money.”
+
+“I know they have, but such a sum as that!”
+
+Rex walked on again, knitting his brows in thought. There was silence
+between the boys while they ascended the hill on the opposite side of
+the creek. Then as they reached the top, Rex was about to ask another
+question when Roy clutched his arm suddenly.
+
+“Look there,” he cried. “Isn’t that undertaker Green’s wagon in front
+of the house? Mr. Tyler must be dead!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+BREAKING THE NEWS
+
+
+“Great Cæsar, Roy! What’s come over you?”
+
+Rex was staring in amazement at his brother, who had turned quite white
+at the sight of the undertaker’s wagon standing in front of the miser’s
+home. He had halted and gone off to one side of the road to lean
+against a tree, where he stood now, mopping his face with his
+handkerchief.
+
+“I hadn’t any idea he would die so soon,” he said. “It seems like an
+awful shock, although I do remember that Dr. Martin said he was in a
+pretty bad way. And he asked me to come and see him to-day; I mean Mr.
+Tyler did. I wonder when he died.”
+
+“What luck for his heirs,” remarked Rex.
+
+“Don’t!” cried Roy, starting forward as if to place his hand over his
+brother’s mouth. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”
+
+“Well, I suppose it was a little rough when the old man’s scarcely cold
+perhaps. I say, aren’t you going on? We can find out just when he died,
+you know.”
+
+Mechanically Roy followed his brother, his eyes still fixed on that
+black wagon. He could not realize it yet. Mr. Tyler dead so soon after
+making that will which left Mrs. Pell all his money. No more poverty
+for them. The stable need no longer be empty and—
+
+Roy checked these thoughts with a half suppressed exclamation of
+disgust. It seemed sacrilegious to be speculating in this fashion on
+the gain from the death of the old man who had been so fond of life,
+for all he had made such poor use of it.
+
+They were now close enough to the cottage to see that the doctor’s
+carriage stood there just behind the ominous vehicle belonging to Mr.
+Green. The doctor himself was coming out of the house.
+
+Seeing the boys he halted till they came up with him.
+
+“Oh, doctor, when did it happen?” asked Roy.
+
+“Last night about ten,” was the answer. “Didn’t Sydney tell you?”
+
+“No, I haven’t seen Syd since I left him here yesterday. Is he here
+now?”
+
+“No. He is very busy in town seeing about the arrangements there. You
+know he is one of the executors. Things take queer turns in this world
+of ours, don’t they? You little thought at this time yesterday morning
+that before twenty-four hours had passed you would be the means of
+bringing a great fortune into the family. But good-by. I must hurry off
+to do what I can for the living now.”
+
+“There is nothing that I can do for him, is there?” Roy stepped apart
+from his brother and closer to the doctor to ask the question.
+
+“No, my boy,” was the answer. “Nothing now. You have obeyed his last
+request of you. It is not your fault that you are too late.”
+
+The physician drove off, leaving the two boys standing in the road in
+front of the silent cottage, for the undertaker was carrying on his
+work noiselessly.
+
+“Roy,” said Rex suddenly, placing a hand on each of his brother’s
+shoulders, and looking him squarely in the face, “what did Dr. Martin
+mean by what he said just now about your being the means of bringing a
+fortune into the family?”
+
+“Don’t—don’t ask anything about it just here. Come, let’s hurry off
+toward home. I’ll tell you on the way.”
+
+Roy slipped his arm through his brother’s and led him off down the
+hill.
+
+“Now then,” said Rex impatiently when they had reached the Marley
+turnpike again, “you must tell me. Did Mr. Tyler leave you any money
+for what you did for him yesterday?”
+
+“No,” replied Roy, in a kind of burst, “but he left his whole fortune
+to mother.”
+
+Rex did not stop and throw up his hands as Roy had half expected he
+would do. He came closer to his brother and suddenly passed one arm
+about his neck as they walked on together and drew him close to him.
+
+“Oh, Roy,” he said, “we owe all this to you.”
+
+Then he walked off to the side of the road and dropped down on the
+grass. Roy came over to take his place beside him.
+
+“I didn’t want to say anything about it before,” he explained. “It
+might have been years before we came into the money. And now it may not
+be nearly so much as I said. We only have old Mr. Tyler’s word for it,
+but both Syd and Dr. Martin seemed to think he was telling the truth.”
+
+“Does mother know?” asked Rex in a low voice. He seemed to be quite
+changed since he had heard the wonderful news. His manner had become
+quiet, subdued, more like Roy’s.
+
+“No, nobody knows but you, and Syd and Dr. Martin.”
+
+“But you will tell mother as soon as you get back?”
+
+“Yes, I suppose I had better.”
+
+“I can’t realize it yet, Roy. Half a million! That’s five hundred
+thousand dollars. And now we live on an income of about two thousand!”
+
+Rex brought his eyes down from the sky where he had been allowing them
+to soar, and fixed them on his last summer’s tan shoes. They were whole
+yet, but had lost their freshness. He could have new ones now, he
+reflected, without waiting for these old ones to wear out.
+
+“How did he come to do it, Roy?” he went on, “Hasn’t he any relatives,
+or anybody of his own?”
+
+“I don’t know. Syd can tell you more about it than I can. Come, we had
+better be getting home.”
+
+The boys rose and resumed their walk. Presently Rex remarked:
+
+“When shall we get hold of the money, do you suppose, Roy?”
+
+“I don’t know. Don’t talk about it in that way. It seems awful.”
+
+“Why, Roy, one would think you wished we hadn’t got it. What makes you
+act so queer about the thing?”
+
+“Because the thing itself seems queer, I suppose.”
+
+“You are not sorry about it, are you? You almost act so.”
+
+“Oh, no, I’m not sorry, but I can’t seem to realize it yet.”
+
+“Well, I can, now I’ve had a little chance to get used to it. I can
+realize that it means a new tennis suit for me, unlimited pairs of
+shoes, horses and carriages and perhaps my trip to Canada with the
+Bowmans.”
+
+“Rex, don’t go on in that strain with the man still unburied. If you
+only knew how it sounds.”
+
+Reginald looked a little abashed, and as they reached a fork in the
+road just then, announced that he was going up in the town to see his
+friend Charlie Minturn.
+
+“Don’t tell him about this,” Roy begged.
+
+“What do you take me for?” returned Rex in his most dignified manner.
+He strode on up the hill, his head thrown back, his chin the least bit
+elevated in the air.
+
+“I’m afraid for Reggie,” murmured Roy as he kept on toward the Pellery.
+“Poverty didn’t suit him at all, but it seems to me riches are going to
+suit him too well.”
+
+The girls were hulling the strawberries on the side porch when he
+reached the house.
+
+“Where’s mother?” he asked as he came up and sat down at their feet.
+
+“Gone to market,” replied Eva.
+
+“Where have you and Rex been?” inquired Jess. “I saw you crossing the
+bridge together. I thought the Crawfords were away. There’s nobody else
+you’d be likely to go and see over in Burdock.”
+
+“There’s Mr. Tyler,” replied Roy. “He asked me to go up and see him
+to-day, but I was too late. He’s dead.”
+
+“Dead! Oh, Roy!”
+
+Both girls uttered the exclamation. Death almost always horrifies. They
+had Roy tell them in detail all about the talk he had had with the
+miser the previous afternoon. But he said nothing about the will. He
+thought his mother ought to know first.
+
+“There come mother and Rex now!” exclaimed Jess presently.
+
+“I suppose he’s told her,” thought Roy.
+
+This was the case. There was a flush in Mrs. Pell’s cheeks as she came
+up, and Rex exclaimed as soon as he was within speaking distance:
+“Mother knows. Have you told the girls yet, Roy?”
+
+A look of annoyance crossed Mrs. Pell’s face, but before either she or
+Roy could say anything, Jess sprang to her feet, nearly upsetting the
+bowl of strawberries in the act.
+
+“Told you what? There’s been an air of mystery about you ever since you
+left the creek yesterday afternoon.”
+
+“Of course there has,” exclaimed Rex exuberantly. “And it’s something
+worth being mysterious about, eh, brub? What should you say, sisters
+mine, if I should tell you that the magic wand of fortune has been
+waved over the Pellery, which will transform yonder sober fowls into
+gallant steeds, these homely pups into expensive hounds of the hunt,
+and—”
+
+“Reginald.”
+
+Rex always knew he had gone too far when his mother spoke like that. He
+ceased abruptly and dashed into the house, as if to cut himself off
+from temptation to transgress further. The next moment they heard him
+whistling a comic opera air up in his room.
+
+“Mother, you tell me what all this means, won’t you?” This from Jess in
+almost a desperate tone.
+
+“Yes, you may as well all know now,” said Mrs. Pell, sinking into a
+chair. “I find that half of the town seems to be aware of it already.”
+
+“It! It! Quick, mother. It isn’t something awful, is it?”
+
+“No, not awful for us my dears. It is just this. Your brother Roy
+touched old Mr. Tyler’s heart by what he did for him yesterday, and in
+the will he made last night he left all his fortune, about half a
+million, to me.”
+
+Both girls sat there as if stricken dumb, staring at their mother as
+she told them the wonderful news.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+REX GOES TO TOWN
+
+
+“I’m very sorry, indeed, this came out now. It seems unfeeling to talk
+about it while that poor old man’s body is above ground, and then the
+amount of the fortune he possessed may be grossly exaggerated.”
+
+This was Mrs. Pell’s summary of the matter, delivered several times
+during that afternoon. The girls took the thing very quietly.
+
+“I am so glad on Syd’s account,” Eva said though more than once. “He
+has always worked so hard for us.”
+
+Jess seemed dazed by the possibility of the new order of things, while
+Roy was disinclined to talk about it at all. Rex, however, made up for
+the apparent apathy of the others.
+
+At lunch he wanted to know when they were going to move.
+
+“Of course we don’t want to go on staying in a bandbox of a place like
+this, when mother is a millionaire,” he said.
+
+“Only half a one,” Jess corrected him with a smile.
+
+“Well, no matter about that. I’ve been figuring up on the income that
+we could get without touching the principal, and I make it $25,000 a
+year.”
+
+“Oh, Reggie, Reggie, I am afraid you are incorrigible,” groaned his
+mother.
+
+“Why, I don’t see anything out of the way in doing a little calculating
+here in the privacy of our home. I don’t go up and proclaim it from the
+housetops.”
+
+“But you may be reckoning without your host, my dear brub,” interposed
+Jess. “What if Mr. Tyler had only a thousand in bank instead of five
+hundred thousand?”
+
+“Yes; we can’t know anything certain till Syd comes home to-night,”
+added Roy.
+
+“I can’t wait for that,” muttered Rex, under his breath.
+
+He subsided for the rest of his meal, however, but as soon as he had
+finished went up to his room and proceeded to go through all the
+pockets of his different suits.
+
+“Short by a quarter,” he murmured as he finally sat down on the edge of
+the bed and jingled the small change he had collected, “I’ll have to go
+to mother after all.”
+
+He glanced up at a time-table stuck in the mirror, hurriedly changed
+his knockabout suit for his best one, and then rushed down to the
+dining room where Mrs. Pell was helping Eva shell peas for dinner.
+
+He went straight up to her and put his arm affectionately about her
+neck.
+
+“Moms,” he said in his winning way, “I want to run up to the city for
+this afternoon. I’m a quarter short to buy my ticket. Won’t you please
+let me have it? I can pay you back out of my allowance.”
+
+“What do you want to go to the city for, Rex?”
+
+“Oh, I can’t stay here in uncertainty. I want to see Syd to know for
+sure about things. Besides, it will keep me from shocking you here if I
+go.”
+
+“But Sydney is sure to be very busy. You will bother him by going to
+the office.”
+
+“No, I won’t. He never lets me bother him. Besides, I only want to see
+him for a minute. You know I haven’t been in town since school closed.
+The train goes in twenty minutes, and I’ll come back with Syd. Please,
+moms.”
+
+“All right, Rex, you may go, but remember I trust you not to annoy
+Sydney. You will find my purse in my top bureau drawer, left hand
+corner.”
+
+“You are the best mother a boy ever had.” With a hasty kiss Rex was
+off, secured his quarter, and then with a wave of his hand toward the
+family, struck out across the pasture for the path that led up over the
+hill in a short cut to the station.
+
+There was nobody so easy to get along with as Rex—as long as you
+allowed him to have his own way.
+
+“That is a crazy notion of his, wanting to go in to town just because
+he can’t wait till Syd comes out,” remarked Roy when he heard of it. At
+the same time he felt a sensation of relief to think that his impulsive
+brother was out of Marley and away from the temptation to disquiet the
+family by telling his fellow townsmen what he meant to do with their
+money when they came into it.
+
+Rex meanwhile was enjoying himself hugely. He saw nobody he knew at
+this unusual hour of going to town, but he lay back in his seat while
+the breeze, created by the swift motion of the cars, rushed
+refreshingly past him, and built air castles of the most luxurious
+description.
+
+“It must be so,” he told himself, whenever the doubts suggested by Jess
+arose in his mind to trouble him. “Dr. Martin congratulated Roy.
+Everybody has known that Mr. Tyler had lots of money somewhere.”
+
+When the train reached Philadelphia, Rex hurried off to the law office
+where Syd had his desk. It was some distance from the station, but
+having spent all his money for his excursion ticket, he had none left
+for car fare.
+
+“This will be the last time I’ll be so short,” he mused, a smile which
+he could not repress playing about the corners of his mouth.
+
+Buoyed up by this reflection he did not so much mind the distance, nor
+the heat, which he found much more oppressive here in the city than it
+was in Marley. He reached Syd’s place at last only to find that his
+brother was out and that the boy was not just sure when he would be
+back.
+
+“But he’ll be here before he goes to the train, won’t he?” asked Rex.
+
+“Oh yes, sure,” was the reply. “His satchel is here with the books he
+always takes.”
+
+“I’ll come back again then.” Rex went out, thinking that now there was
+no danger of his ever having to step into the shoes of this office boy.
+Syd had remarked once or twice that he thought he could get him a
+position in a law office when he was through school.
+
+Rex wandered along the street aimlessly for a while. If it hadn’t been
+midsummer he might have gone over to Spruce and Walnut and called on
+some of his friends, but they were either at their summer homes in
+Marley or off traveling.
+
+He was therefore reduced to walking to kill time, choosing the shady
+side and watching for any incident of city life that might divert his
+mind. He came to a bicycle emporium presently and stood for some time
+in front of it, trying to decide which wheel he should select when he
+came to purchase as he hoped to do very shortly now.
+
+“That’s the dandy kind,” remarked a voice over his shoulder. “The
+Wizard motor. You can ride over all sorts of roads with it.”
+
+Rex turned and saw a fellow about a year older than himself. He had a
+red face and wore an outing shirt that was not as fresh as it might
+have been.
+
+Rex, who was rather fastidious as to his friends, simply said “Yes,”
+and moved on.
+
+The fellow noticed the look which accompanied the word.
+
+“The dude!” he muttered. “Thinks he’s too good to talk with the likes
+o’ me. I’ll get even with him.”
+
+He waited an instant and then followed Rex at a distance. Presently
+something that he espied ahead caused him to scan the sidewalk and the
+street next it closely.
+
+Then he stepped out into the roadway and picked up a piece of coal that
+had dropped from a passing cart. He quickened his steps and nearly
+caught up with Rex just as the latter was passing a Chinese laundry.
+
+“Run for your life! Runaway team behind you!” he exclaimed suddenly,
+darting forward and calling out the words almost in Rex’s ear. At the
+same instant he flung the piece of coal he had picked up straight into
+the window of the Chinese laundry.
+
+There was a crash of glass and Rex, connecting the sound with the
+warning he had received, immediately took to his heels.
+
+“There he goes!” called out the red faced youth to the Chinaman who
+promptly appeared in the door of his shop.
+
+The Celestial’s almond eyes caught sight of Rex’s fleeing figure. It
+was enough. He dropped his iron and rushed after Rex, the
+conscienceless hoodlum joining in the chase.
+
+Rex, hearing no further sound to tell him that a dangerous runaway was
+close upon him, had just decided to slacken his pace and turn around to
+investigate, when he felt a hand laid on his shoulder.
+
+“Me got you,” crowed a wheezy voice in his ear. “Now for pleecy man.”
+
+Rex was horrified to find himself in the grasp of a Chinese laundryman.
+
+“Let go of me! What do you want?” he cried, struggling to get free.
+
+“You breakee glass. You go to jailee. Here pleecyman now.”
+
+True enough, among the crowd that had hastily collected, was a
+blue-coated officer.
+
+“Make him let me go,” exclaimed Rex, appealing to the representative of
+the law. “I didn’t do anything to him.”
+
+“Yes, he did,” called out a bystander, whose sympathies had been
+awakened for the much suffering heathen. “I saw him running for all he
+was worth. That’s pretty strong evidence, isn’t it?”
+
+The policeman appeared to think so, for he came up and caught Rex by
+the arm.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+REGINAND’S HUMILIATION
+
+
+Rex never felt so humiliated in his life. Here he was, surrounded by a
+crowd, captured by a policeman and accused by a miserable Chinaman of
+breaking a pane of glass.
+
+“It’s all a mistake, I tell you,” he cried, starting to wrest himself
+loose from the officer’s grasp, and then suddenly remaining passive as
+he reflected that this was undignified.
+
+“What did you run for then!” questioned the policeman.
+
+“Because he told me to—the fellow with the red face,” and Rex looked
+around in the throng to pick out the cause of his misfortune, but that
+individual had discreetly disappeared.
+
+“I don’t see him now,” he went on.
+
+“I guess you don’t,” put in the bystander who had already spoken. “Do
+you run every time anybody tells you to?”
+
+“He said there was a runaway team behind me. Then I heard the glass
+break. He must have thrown the stone himself.”
+
+Rex tried to speak calmly, but he was boiling over with rage at the
+trick which he now realized had been played upon him.
+
+“Me wantee new glass,” the Chinaman insisted. “Play money.”
+
+How fervently Rex wished at that moment that they had come into their
+inheritance. He would have put his hand into his pocket, drawn out a
+five dollar bill with a lordly air and handed it over with the words:
+“Take this. I didn’t break the glass, but I pity the poor heathen’s
+distress.”
+
+As it was, he had not a penny about him. It was difficult to keep up an
+air of bravado under these circumstances.
+
+The crowd was growing bigger each minute. The policeman looked somewhat
+perplexed. He judged from Rex’s appearance that he was not a hoodlum
+who would be likely to throw a stone at a Chinaman’s window, but he
+admitted that he had been running, and here was a man ready to swear
+that he saw him throw the stone.
+
+“What is your name?” he asked.
+
+“Reginald Bemis Pell,” replied Rex promptly. He was proud of his name,
+and brought it out now with a kind of flourish.
+
+“Where do you live?” went on the officer, while the crowd pressed
+closer to hear the replies.
+
+“At Marley.”
+
+“You don’t look like a boy who would break windows for the fun of it.”
+
+“Of course I wouldn’t, and when my brother hears of this outrage he’ll
+raise a big fuss over it. He’s a lawyer and knows how to do it.”
+
+Rex didn’t feel a bit humorous when he made this assertion, but there
+was something in it that struck the crowd as very funny. A good many
+laughed, and the policeman tried to repress a smile.
+
+“Where is this brother of yours?”
+
+“Right here in the city,” and Rex gave the address.
+
+“That’s not far,” said the officer. “We’ll go round there and see if
+you have told us a straight story. Come along, John,” he added to the
+laundryman.
+
+Rex glowed with a sense of triumph for a minute, and then began to
+reflect on what Syd would say at seeing him appear in such company—with
+a police officer and a Chinaman. And there was the crowd that strung on
+behind as the three moved off!
+
+“I wish I’d stayed at home,” groaned poor Rex to himself.
+
+However, he tried to take some comfort from the fact that the
+policeman’s arm was not on his shoulder. People they passed might think
+it was the Chinaman who was under arrest. Then he felt that he ought to
+be glad that it was midsummer, with no chance of his meeting any of his
+friends.
+
+He was trying to decide what he should do in case Syd had not come back
+by the time they reached the office, when just as they turned into
+Chestnut Street a familiar voice cried out:
+
+“Hello, Rex, what under the sun?”
+
+It was Scott Bowman. He had just come out of a trunk store in time to
+confront the sorry procession.
+
+Rex wished the manhole cover over which he was passing would suddenly
+give way and precipitate him under the sidewalk in theatrical trap door
+fashion. Scott was the last person in all the world whom he wished to
+see.
+
+“Don’t you come near me, Scott,” he answered, “if you don’t want to be
+disgraced. I’m under arrest.”
+
+The look of utter and complete amazement on young Bowman’s face at
+hearing this did more to convince the officer he had the wrong person
+in custody than anything else. He allowed Rex to stop and parley with
+his friend.
+
+The situation was explained in few words. Scott was a year older than
+Rex. His father was a city official with a salary of ten thousand a
+year. He was highly indignant when he heard of the outrage.
+
+“This is monstrous,” he said, and announcing who he was, demanded that
+Rex be instantly released.
+
+“But I can’t do that, Mr. Bowman, if that is really your name,”
+responded the officer somewhat nettled. “Because this young gentleman
+happens to be a friend of yours, it doesn’t make it any the less likely
+that he broke that window.”
+
+“‘If that is really my name?’” repeated Scott, highly incensed. “You’ll
+find out whether that is my name or not when I report this affair to my
+father.”
+
+The officer smiled; so did a number in the crowd. Rex felt that his
+former humiliation was nothing compared to that which he was now
+undergoing, having caused his friend to be treated in this insulting
+fashion.
+
+“Come on,” said the policeman, and the line of march to Sydney’s office
+was resumed, Scott valiantly falling into place beside Rex, vowing
+vengeance on the entire force of bluecoats.
+
+“Don’t stay with me, Scott,” Rex implored him. “You’ve borne enough. I
+don’t want to drag you down into the mire too.”
+
+“Do you suppose I’d desert a friend in a time of need like this?”
+returned Scott. “I’m going to take this officer’s number now while I
+think of it.”
+
+Scott fished a pencil out of one pocket and a railroad timetable out of
+the other, and glancing at the shield on the breast of the policeman
+made a record of the figures on it in a very conspicuous manner. But
+the officer did not tremble with apprehension. He simply turned to Rex
+and observed, “This is the place, isn’t it?”
+
+They had reached the building in which Sydney had his office.
+
+“Yes, this is the place,” replied Rex slowly. He was thinking how
+dreadful it would be to present himself before Syd with this crowd at
+his heels.
+
+“I don’t know whether he’s in or not,” he added. “Will you mind going
+up and finding out, Scott?”
+
+“Of course I won’t. I know just where the room is and I’ll bring him
+down in a jiffy.”
+
+The policeman motioned the crowd back and he and Rex and the patient
+Chinaman went into the marble corridor and waited, while the throng
+peered in at them from the doorway and a new one began to gather from
+among those who passed to and fro in the building.
+
+“I’m glad I never knew this was going to happen to me,” reflected Rex.
+“I’d never have known a happy day if I had.”
+
+He had no fear of going to jail. He felt that there was justice enough
+in the world to ward that off.
+
+But the ignominy of his present position was torture enough to a proud
+spirit like his.
+
+Ah, here was one of the elevators coming down, with Scott looking
+eagerly out at him. And Syd was with him.
+
+But was it Syd, this fellow with the pallid cheeks and deep circles
+under the eyes? Yes, it certainly was his brother, for he stepped out
+ahead of Scott and came over at once to pass his arm about Rex in
+gesture of protection.
+
+Reginald gave an almost unconscious sigh of relief. Within that embrace
+he felt that he was safe.
+
+“Now what is all this about?” said Sydney, in his business-like tone,
+addressing the officer. “It seems you have arrested my brother here for
+breaking a Chinaman’s windows. Did you see him throw the stone?”
+
+“No, but a gentleman did,” replied the officer.
+
+“Where’s that gentleman now?”
+
+He was not to be found. He had dropped out of the procession before it
+reached Chestnut Street.
+
+“He was a bystander. He is not here now,” answered the policeman. “I
+didn’t think the boy did it myself, but he admits that he was running
+when the alarm was given.”
+
+“That amounts to nothing. Do you arrest everybody that runs in the
+street? Explain why you were running, Rex.”
+
+Rex did so, as he had already done.
+
+“This fellow who told you that there was a runaway coming for you,”
+went on Sydney; “had you seen him before?”
+
+“Yes; he came up and spoke to me while I was looking in a store window
+at some bicycles.”
+
+“Did you answer him?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Pleasantly?”
+
+Rex hesitated a moment.
+
+“Well, I didn’t exactly like his looks, so I said ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ I
+forget which now, and went on.”
+
+“This seems like a clear case of the wrong man, officer,” summed up
+Sydney. “It was that hoodlum who broke the glass just for the sake of
+getting my brother into trouble. You ought to see that plainly enough.
+You do, don’t you?”
+
+“Yes, now. I didn’t know all the story before. I beg the young
+gentleman’s pardon. Come, John, we’ll have to look elsewhere for your
+tormentor,” and the officer took the Chinaman by the arm and walked out
+with him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+IN SYDNEY’S OFFICE
+
+
+“I’m awfully sorry, Syd,” began Rex, as soon as the three were left
+alone and had stepped into the elevator. “I never felt so disgraced in
+my life.”
+
+“You did nothing wrong,” replied Syd, pressing his hand against his
+forehead for an instant as if it pained him. “But what are you doing in
+town?”
+
+“I came to see you,” answered Rex, and then looked at Scott, who had
+said that as it was so near train time he would wait and go to the
+station with the Pells. “But you are ill,” he went on the next instant,
+his eyes coming back to the other’s face. “What is the matter, Syd?”
+
+“Oh, I’m all right,” responded the young lawyer. He forced a smile to
+his lips, and turning to Scott asked when the Bowmans expected to start
+on their trip.
+
+“Monday,” was the reply. “It’s too bad Rex can’t come with us. I was
+counting on him. We’d have no end of fun.”
+
+“Oh, Syd,” suddenly broke in Rex, “did you know that old Mr. Tyler was
+dead? Or did he die before you came home last night?”
+
+A sort of spasm passed over Sydney’s face, but they were just stepping
+out of the elevator, and neither of the boys noticed it.
+
+“Yes; he died before I left,” he answered, as they entered his rooms,
+which he shared with a fellow member of the bar who was now away. “But
+I’ve got some last things to attend to before I leave. You fellows make
+yourselves comfortable in there and I’ll be ready in five minutes.”
+
+He pointed to the adjoining room, where Rex and Scott at once
+established themselves in the window and looked down on the busy street
+far below them.
+
+“I didn’t know Tyler was dead,” began Scott. “I heard what Roy did for
+him on the bridge, though. By George, that was plucky! But by the way,
+what’s the matter with your brother Sydney? He looks terribly. Didn’t
+you notice it?”
+
+“Of course I did and spoke about it He’s working too hard, I guess. I
+say, Scott, you won’t tell anybody about my adventure this afternoon?”
+
+“Of course I shan’t; only father, to report how insulting that
+policeman was.”
+
+“No, let that go. I wouldn’t like even your father to hear it. I feel
+humiliated enough that you should know about it. Say, Scott!” Rex
+paused suddenly. The recollection of his recent experience stung him
+whenever it came up in his mind. He felt that Scott must be constantly
+thinking of it, too. He wanted to tell him something that would banish
+it from his thoughts.
+
+“Well, my boy, what is it?” rejoined Scott.
+
+“If I tell you something, will you promise to keep it a secret
+till—till everybody knows it, as they will probably in a day or two?”
+
+“Of course I will. It must be something mighty important from your
+mysterious air, old fellow.”
+
+“It is, awfully important.” Rex’s eyes were fixed on Scott’s trowsers.
+He saw that they were a new pair, evidently purchased to be worn on the
+trip. What a thing it was to have money so that you could get extra
+things whenever you wanted them and not be obliged to wait till you
+could afford it! And the Pells would even be richer than the Bowmans.
+
+Rex paused so long while he was thinking over all this that Scott broke
+in with, “Well, what is it? Don’t keep me on the rack so long.”
+
+“Perhaps I shouldn’t tell you,” went on Rex; “but some people know it
+in Marley already, and you are my best friend, you know. Old man Tyler
+left his money to mother and it’s something like half a million!”
+
+“Reginald Pell!” Scott brought out these words with strong emphasis,
+then seized his friend’s hand and wrung it heartily.
+
+“Don’t!” said Rex, seeing that Syd was coming toward them. “It seems
+awful to be congratulated now when the old man isn’t buried yet, and—”
+
+“What’s that you’re saying?” Sydney had hastened forward and laid his
+hand on Rex’s shoulder.
+
+Rex colored. Syd looked so very serious, and now, as he stood there in
+the full glare of daylight, the signs of suffering on his face were
+plainly apparent.
+
+“Syd, you are ill?” exclaimed Rex, forgetting about what he had been
+saying. “You ought to be at home at once.”
+
+“Never mind about me, Reggie. Tell me what you were just telling
+Scott.”
+
+“I didn’t think it was any harm. A good many people in Marley know it
+now. I was telling him about—about Mr. Tyler’s will.”
+
+“What about it?” Sydney’s eyes were looking steadily, unsmilingly down
+into his brother’s as he put the question.
+
+Rex was really frightened now. He had never seen Sydney look just like
+this before.
+
+“I told him about leaving his money to us on account of what Roy had
+done,” he faltered. “I didn’t—”
+
+Sydney’s eyes closed; he started to reel backwards and would have
+fallen had not Scott sprung forward and caught him.
+
+“Help me ease him down in the chair, Rex,” he called out.
+
+Scarcely knowing what he was doing, Reginald took hold of his brother’s
+other arm and between them the two boys got him down gently into a
+chair that stood near the window.
+
+“He isn’t dead, is he?”
+
+Rex’s voice was hardly more than a whisper as he put the awful
+question. Sydney certainly looked almost like a corpse, with his pallid
+face and his head hanging itself lifelessly over on one side.
+
+It was a trying situation for the two boys. Neither of them had had the
+slightest experience with cases of this sort. It was so late in the
+afternoon that the offices around them were all empty.
+
+“No, he is not dead, I’m sure of that,” Scott replied, who, as the
+senior of Rex by some eleven months, felt that it was natural for the
+other to seem to rely upon him. “We ought to have a doctor at once,
+though.”
+
+“But we can’t leave him that way while I go for one. Besides, I don’t
+know where to go.”
+
+“Neither do I. Our doctor is clear at the other end of town and besides
+he’s down at Atlantic City by this time anyway.”
+
+“It’s awful, isn’t it? Oh, what shall we do, Scott?”
+
+“We might ring for an ambulance. That’s the quickest way.”
+
+“Oh, we don’t want to have him taken to the hospital. Come, help me get
+him out of that chair. It’s horrible to see his head hang over like
+that.”
+
+“But where can we put him? There’s no lounge about, is there?”
+
+“No, but we might let him lie on the floor, on that rug yonder. See, we
+can take this cushion out of this chair for a pillow.”
+
+With much difficulty, for they felt that they must go about the work of
+transfer with the greatest care, the unconscious man was removed and
+placed in what both boys considered would be an easier position for
+him. But when he was stretched out at their feet, the spectacle was
+such an ominous one that Rex almost wished that they had left him where
+he was.
+
+“Don’t you think we ought to throw water in his face or fan him or
+something?” he asked helplessly.
+
+“I don’t know what we ought to do, Rex, except I think we ought to have
+a doctor the first thing. I tell you! You stay here with him and I’ll
+go down and find a drug store. They’ll know where I can get a doctor
+there.”
+
+“All right; be as quick as you can.”
+
+Scott was off on the instant and Rex was left alone with the
+unconscious Sydney. His mind was filled with a multitude of thoughts in
+regard to the strange seizure. Was he, Reginald, responsible for it?
+What if he had not come to Philadelphia, would it have happened?
+
+He tried to console himself with the reflection that the thing was
+bound to occur any way, and that it was providential that he and Scott
+were present to give aid.
+
+Then he remembered how the attack had come on at the very moment when
+Sydney learned that he (Rex) had told of their inheritance from the
+miser, and he felt more dismal than ever.
+
+It was very quiet in that great office building at this time of the
+day. The noise of the car bells and traffic that came in through the
+open windows from the street far below only made the stillness within
+more marked. The office boy had taken the mail and gone home just
+before Rex and Scott arrived.
+
+Rex glanced up at the clock. They would not be able to catch the
+express now. How good Scott was to stay with him. He would pay him back
+for it all when they came into their fortune.
+
+But he seemed to be a long while gone. Rex left his position by Sydney
+and went to the window. By leaning very far out he could just see over
+the heavy stone still to the street below. But it was quite impossible
+to recognize any one at that distance.
+
+He wriggled back till his feet touched the floor again, and then
+returned to take up his watch by Sydney once more. He wished that Roy
+was with him. Though they were twins he felt that his brother possessed
+twice the self reliance in emergencies that he did.
+
+“I wonder if I ought to telegraph to mother,” was his next thought.
+
+Then he heard the door of the elevator slide back, and the next instant
+Scott Bowman appeared, accompanied by a short man with side whiskers
+and spectacles.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+THE MYSTERY ABOUT SYDNEY
+
+
+The boys stood by in anxious suspense while the doctor made his
+examination.
+
+“It is utter collapse from severe mental strain,” he said after a
+minute. “He will come around presently.”
+
+He wrote out a prescription and gave it to Scott to take out for him
+and then turned to Rex.
+
+“You are Mr. Pell’s brother, I believe?” he said.
+
+“Yes,” answered Rex, for the fact that there was no blood relation
+between them was one that very seldom recurred to the boys’ minds.
+
+“Then perhaps you will be able to assign some cause for this seizure.
+Was Mr. Pell excited by anything in particular when it took him?”
+
+Rex hesitated. Remembering how Sydney had been affected by learning
+that he had revealed the facts about Mr. Tyler’s will to Scott, he felt
+that he ought not to speak of the matter to any one else.
+
+“Yes, he was excited by a—a family affair,” he replied, hoping this was
+all he need say on the matter.
+
+“Humph!” muttered the physician, and he not only took another critical
+look at Sydney’s face, but favored Rex with a long stare, too.
+
+“Will he be well enough to go down to Marley to-night?” asked the
+latter.
+
+“You live out of town then?” returned the doctor. “There’s no place
+where you could take him here in the city?”
+
+“None, but a hotel,” rejoined Rex. “And I’m sure my mother would rather
+have him home.”
+
+At this point Sydney stirred and opened his eyes. He looked first at
+the doctor, frowned deeply, and then as Rex came forward within his
+range of vision, he beckoned the boy to him.
+
+Rex hurried over and knelt by his side.
+
+“Who is that?” asked Sydney.
+
+“It’s a doctor. You fainted or something and Scott went out to get him.
+How do you feel?”
+
+“Pretty weak, but ask him to step into the next room a minute. I want
+to speak to you.”
+
+“Doctor, will you mind waiting in the next room a minute? My brother
+wants to see me about something.”
+
+Rex was afraid the physician might feel offended or else object to
+leaving his patient, but he said, “Why, certainly,” and then came over
+to take a close look at the young lawyer before leaving him.
+
+As soon as he had gone Sydney put out one arm and passing it around
+Rex’s neck, drew the boy’s ear close to his mouth.
+
+“Did I say anything while I was unconscious?” he whispered.
+
+“No,” replied Rex, mystified. “Nothing at all. But what does all this
+mean, Syd? What is worrying you so terribly?”
+
+“Don’t let it worry you and then it will worry me less. What time is
+it?”
+
+“Half past five.”
+
+“Then we ought to catch the six o’clock train.”
+
+“But you’re not strong enough to go now,” objected Rex. “You’re as pale
+as a ghost.”
+
+“Am I?” A wan smile lit up Sydney’s face for an instant “Well, then,
+exercise will perhaps bring some of the color back. You can call the
+doctor in now and we’ll see what he says.”
+
+Scott arrived with the filled prescription just as Rex brought the
+physician back into the room. Sydney objected to lying on the floor any
+longer and they helped him to a chair.
+
+“Yes, you can go home if you don’t do any walking,” said the doctor
+after another examination.
+
+“All right, I can go down in the elevator, get a carriage from the
+hotel across the street and ride right up to the station. You rush down
+and engage one, Rex. Scott will stay here and help the doctor down with
+me. Then he can go along with us. Don’t lose any time, Reggie.”
+
+With an immensely relieved mind Rex hurried off to execute the
+commission. He had really feared at one time that Sydney was going to
+die.
+
+He was rallying rapidly now. When he entered the coach he took out his
+pocketbook and paid the doctor for his services.
+
+“We owe you something, Scott,” he added after they had started, “for
+what you got at the drug store.”
+
+Scott protested, but was in the end obliged to take what he had paid
+out.
+
+“It’s been an exciting afternoon for you fellows,” remarked Sydney, and
+Rex could not help but notice that while his tone was light, his face
+was still pale and that he did not look at them while he was speaking.
+
+“I want you to promise me one thing, though. That you will not speak of
+my fainting spell at home, or you either, Scott. I have a particular
+reason for asking that favor.”
+
+Both boys promised to respect his wishes, and then Sydney quickly
+changed the subject to the Bowmans’ trip, asking at what hotels they
+were going to stop, and so on until the carriage reached the station.
+He seemed so much better by this time that when he met a friend on the
+train and took a seat with him, Rex and Scott almost forgot that he had
+been ill.
+
+They found places together near by, but neither said much during the
+short ride. Rex felt that Scott must be thinking of how Sydney had
+broken in upon his revelation of their inheritance, and wondering what
+it could mean. He couldn’t explain it, so he thought best not to broach
+the subject.
+
+And as this filled so large a part of his thoughts there was nothing
+else he cared to talk about. After all his trip to Philadelphia had not
+been productive of any results. He knew no more now than when he
+started about the extent of Mr. Tyler’s fortune.
+
+When they reached Marley, Sydney took a hack that always waited at the
+station, and he and Rex rode down to the Pellery, Scott living close to
+the station in the other direction.
+
+“Do you feel all right, Syd?” asked Rex during the ride.
+
+Sydney nodded without making any reply, and soon they reached home. Rex
+was unusually silent during dinner. He looked up in surprised fashion
+when he learned that Sydney had gone off without his breakfast that
+morning. Sydney explained that it was due to urgent business in town.
+Rex wondered what the family would think if they knew about the scene
+at the office that afternoon.
+
+Nobody said anything about Mr. Tyler after Sydney had admitted that he
+died before he left him the previous night. Rex was the one most likely
+to discourse on the subject, but now he had his reasons for not
+broaching it.
+
+The next morning Sydney did not go to the city. He devoted himself to
+making arrangements for Mr. Tyler’s burial. The death was published in
+all the Philadelphia papers, and the Pells expected that some one might
+come down, claiming to be a relative.
+
+But no one appeared, and on Saturday the funeral was held in the little
+house in Burdock. All the Pells were present, and a great number of
+people from Marley.
+
+The news that the miser was very wealthy and had left all his money,
+except a small legacy to his servant, to Mrs. Pell, spread rapidly and
+created a great sensation.
+
+Everybody connected it with Roy’s act of rescue on the trestle, and so
+many spoke to him about it that he was almost afraid to show himself in
+public.
+
+“What do you care?” said Jess, when he complained to her about it. “It
+certainly isn’t a thing you are ashamed of.”
+
+“But I don’t know what to say,” he returned. “It sounds silly to tell
+them it wasn’t anything, and I can’t say, yes, I think it was a very
+brave act. So there I am.”
+
+“You poor boy. What do you do, usually?”
+
+“Try to get around it by telling them that I’m not the heir but mother.
+I suppose that’s kind of mean, too, for I know she hates to be spoken
+to about it as much as I do.”
+
+The Pells were the observed of all observers at the funeral. Eva had
+declared at first that she thought they ought not to go.
+
+“We’ll just make a show of ourselves,” she said. “It was very
+unfortunate all this got out before Mr. Tyler was buried.”
+
+But Mrs. Pell announced that respect for the dead demanded their
+presence, so they went. Every one remarked on the pallor of Sydney. His
+mother had worried over it considerably.
+
+“You must be the first to take advantage of our altered circumstances,
+my dear boy,” she had told him. “I want you to give up work for a while
+and go away for a good long rest.”
+
+“Oh, no, no!” he cried out in such terror that the poor woman was
+startled.
+
+He noticed it and tried to smile as he went on:
+
+“Of course all this business about the Tyler will has been an extra
+strain on me, but that will soon be off now. It is you and the children
+who must benefit by the money that has come so unexpectedly. You will
+make me, oh, so much happier, if you will not count me in on it. You
+will not need my help now, and my income will be abundant for my own
+wants.”
+
+Seeing that he felt so strongly on the matter, Mrs. Pell said no more
+at the time, but she often thought of that talk later and shivered as
+she recalled it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+ROY MAKES A NEW ACQUAINTANCE
+
+
+It was just a month after our story opened that July afternoon. Roy was
+fishing from the tree trunk over the creek again, but he was alone this
+time and the expression on his face was almost as discontented as
+Reginald’s had been on that former occasion.
+
+His float bobbed under two or three times, but he paid no attention to
+the fact. He was too deeply absorbed in thought. Now and then he would
+glance up at the trestle far above him, and something very like a sigh
+would pass his lips.
+
+There was a snapping of twigs on the Marley end of the log and Roy
+turned his head quickly to find a young man regarding him attentively.
+He might have been anywhere from twenty-five to thirty. He had a small
+brown mustache and rather a dark complexion.
+
+He held a small oblong box in both his hands. Roy at once recognized it
+as a camera and realized at the same instant that it was pointed at
+him.
+
+As their eyes met, the stranger flushed slightly, but said in a
+pleasant voice:
+
+“I hope you don’t mind being taken?”
+
+Roy did mind. He was in a mood just now to object to everything, but
+the other’s voice was such an agreeable one, the glance of his eye so
+kindly that the boy’s real self came to the surface through his
+temporarily baser one, and he replied:
+
+“Oh, I s’pose not, but I haven’t got the pleasant look the
+photographers tell you to put on. Aren’t you afraid I’ll break your
+camera?”
+
+The answer was a quick snap and then the young man slung the camera
+over his shoulder and stepping out on the tree trunk slipped down to a
+seat beside Roy.
+
+“You have a very cozy retreat here,” he remarked, “how’s the fishing?”
+
+“I don’t know. To tell the truth I wasn’t thinking of my line at all
+and I’m almost sorry I let you take that picture. I don’t see what you
+wanted it for any way, I hope you won’t show it around much. You don’t
+live in Marley, do you?”
+
+“No.”
+
+“I’m glad of that”
+
+“Why?” with a smile.
+
+“Because nobody I know will be apt to see the picture.”
+
+“You’re quite a modest young man.”
+
+“Oh, it isn’t that, but I must have looked so disagreeable at that
+particular moment. At least I must have done so if my looks were
+anything like my feelings.”
+
+“No, if I remember rightly you were smiling at the instant I pressed
+the button. You know you were saying something about fearing you would
+break the camera, and a smile usually goes with that remark.”
+
+Roy looked up quickly. The stranger was an odd one. He had a queer way
+of putting things. Roy began to be interested.
+
+“Have you taken many pictures around here?”
+
+“Quite a number. It’s a very pretty place.”
+
+“Isn’t it?”
+
+“That bridge quite adds to the attractiveness of the landscape. In fact
+that is the reason I am here. I was coming through on the train and as
+we crossed, the prospect of this little valley was so tempting that I
+decided to stop off and explore. I am very glad I did now, for it gave
+me the added pleasure of meeting you.”
+
+“That sounds as though you were talking to a girl,” said Roy.
+
+“Does it? Well, as I am particularly fond of boys I suppose I may be
+allowed to say the same sort of things to them.”
+
+“You’re fond of boys? That’s queer. I didn’t know any one liked boys
+except their mothers and now and then a girl or two.”
+
+Roy laughed a little as he added this last, and the stranger joined in
+heartily.
+
+“You’re very frank,” he remarked; “but that’s what boys usually are,
+and it’s one of the reasons I like them. They generally say right out
+just what they think.”
+
+“What’s another reason?”
+
+The man with the camera hesitated an instant before replying. Then he
+said:
+
+“Well, I’m going to be frank, too. Another reason I like boys is
+because I find them useful to me.”
+
+“Useful to you?” repeated Roy, perplexed.
+
+“Yes, as a matter of study. You see, I write about them sometimes.”
+
+“Why, are you an author?”
+
+Roy turned full around on the log as he put the question, his face all
+aglow with animation.
+
+“I suppose that’s what I must call myself even if I’m not a
+particularly famous one.”
+
+“Please tell me the names of some of your books. Perhaps I’ve read
+them.”
+
+The young man smiled at his companion’s eagerness and mentioned a story
+which had been Roy’s Christmas present two years before.
+
+“Did you write that?” he exclaimed. “Why, then you are Mr. Charles
+Keeler!”
+
+“Yes, I am Mr. Keeler. I suppose you are disappointed in me. Most
+people are when they see the people who write books they have read.”
+
+“That was a splendid story,” Roy drew in a long breath before he made
+this reply. He was still looking at Mr. Keeler as if he could not yet
+quite comprehend the thing. “I’m awfully glad to meet you and I’d like
+to shake hands.”
+
+“With the greatest of pleasure. I’m very glad you liked my book; I know
+you wouldn’t say so if you didn’t. That’s where boys are superior to
+grown people. They are almost always sincere in the expression of their
+opinions.”
+
+“Do you know I’ve never seen an author before?” went on Roy, who had
+wound up his line and had given himself over to a full enjoyment of
+this unexpected opportunity. “I don’t see how you do it. I hate to
+write compositions at school. Nearly every boy I know does. Did you?”
+
+“Yes, when I had to write on subjects that were assigned by the teacher
+I used to count the lines then just the same as the rest of the
+fellows. But when they let me write a story I didn’t mind.”
+
+“I don’t see how you can. I should think you’d never know what to say
+next.”
+
+Mr. Keeler smiled, showing his white teeth which contrasted so strongly
+with the deep tan on his complexion.
+
+“Oh, that all comes when you have your scheme arranged,” he said. “But
+of course you have to possess a natural taste for the work. You can’t
+suddenly decide that you would like to be an author and then study for
+it as you might learn to be a carpenter or a mason.”
+
+“Oh, it’s like poets, then, who are ‘born, not made,’” returned Roy.
+
+“Precisely, and that being the case it comes natural to write, although
+there is a great deal of hard work about it.”
+
+“You said you studied boys. How do you mean?”
+
+“Well, take yourself for example. When I saw you sitting here fishing I
+wanted your picture so I could look at it some day and perhaps make up
+a story about you.”
+
+“A story about me!” exclaimed Roy. Then he added in a sober tone, “I
+don’t believe you could make up a more wonderful story than something
+that has really happened to me.”
+
+“Is that so? I remember now you said you were very much disturbed over
+something that you thought would make you look disagreeable.”
+
+“Yes, I came down here because I was at odds with myself and everybody
+else, I wonder what you’d do with a hero who was just in my position.
+I’ve half a mind to tell you all about it. You don’t know who I am, so
+it won’t matter. Do you live in Philadelphia?”
+
+“No, in New York just at present.”
+
+“Good, then I believe I’ll tell you, but you must promise you won’t use
+it in a book unless I tell you you can.”
+
+“Here’s my hand on it,” and once more hands were clasped over the tree
+trunk.
+
+“And you must promise, too, to believe everything I tell you. Some of
+it will seem pretty steep.”
+
+“Oh, well, you know, that fact is stranger than fiction, so don’t worry
+about that.”
+
+“I won’t tell you everything,” began Roy, with a quick glance up at the
+trestle, “but first I’ll have to go back a little and say that almost
+as far back as I can remember we’ve lived in that house you can see
+down yonder with the peaked roof. We had only about enough money to
+keep us comfortable, for father died when I was a little fellow, and
+there were five of us children. But we had good times and I was looking
+forward to the future when I would be a man and Rex and I—that’s my
+twin brother—could give mother some of the luxuries with what we should
+earn, for I expected that by that time Sydney would be married and have
+a home of his own. You’re not bored listening to all this, are you?
+There’s a more exciting part coming?”
+
+“I never was so absorbed in a story in my life, my dear fellow. Go on,
+please.”
+
+“Well, over yonder, not far from the end of the trestle, lived an old
+man—but never mind the name. At any rate he was sort of a miser, or
+rather he had lots of money which he never spent and when he died he
+left it all to my mother.”
+
+“You’ve left something out I think,” interrupted Mr. Keeler, and there
+was a smile about the corners of his mouth that caused Roy to flush
+deeply.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+MR. CHARLES KEELER
+
+
+“Well, why don’t you go on?” asked Mr. Keeler, as Roy paused.
+
+“You’ve heard something about the affair. I can see you have by the way
+you look. Please tell me what it was.”
+
+“Only a very little,” was the reply. “As I was crossing the trestle in
+the train a while ago I heard a lady behind me telling a gentleman who
+was with her that this was the place where Roy Pell rescued the old
+miser. So now you see I know who you are, but I hope that won’t make
+any difference about your telling the story. You left off in the most
+interesting place. It would be worse than the serials in the weekly
+papers, for I couldn’t look forward to getting the continuation next
+Saturday.”
+
+Roy smiled and then said “All right, you’ve promised not to use it
+unless I give you leave, you know. But I don’t want you to think of me
+as a regular hero because I lugged that old man off the bridge. There
+would have been plenty of time for me to have run down to Burdock and
+stopped the train and got help there, but I really didn’t think of it.”
+
+“Oh, no, that isn’t the part I’m interested in at all. What I want to
+know is the reason you seemed so glum over having come into a fortune.
+Was it much, may I inquire?”
+
+“About half a million, but I haven’t been one mite happier since we’ve
+had it. In the first place my oldest brother has been sick ever since.
+We don’t know what’s the matter with him and he won’t give up his law
+business and go away for rest as mother wants him to. He says he has
+got too much to do looking after the investing of her money. Then
+there’s Rex, he wants so many things that he can’t settle on any one.
+He got a bicycle almost the first thing, and now he’s tired of it and
+wants a horse, and Jess says there’s no good of getting that because we
+ought to go to Europe and take Syd with us.”
+
+“And Eva, she wants to go to Vassar, and mother doesn’t want to give
+her up, and the worst of it all is we’ve sold the place and we are
+going to move into the city next month, and I hate to leave Marley,
+although the rest all want to go. So we’re all pulling different ways,
+and nobody a bit happy, for if he’s got what he wanted he has to
+remember that it’s what the rest didn’t want. I had a fling out about
+the whole thing just before I left the house and I came down to grumble
+to the creek. Why, that’s funny!”
+
+“What’s funny?” inquired Mr. Keeler, as Roy looked up with a half
+smile.
+
+“Why, it’s just a month ago to-day since Rex came down here to mope
+because we didn’t have money enough to let him go on a trip to Canada,
+and now I’ve come here to do the same thing because we’re come into a
+fortune.”
+
+“Then you don’t care for the money?” remarked the author.
+
+“Not if it’s going to break up a family the way it has ours. Jess used
+to be awfully lively and full of fun, and now she’s all the time
+talking about new clothes and the places she wants to go, and how she’s
+going to have her room decorated in the new house.”
+
+“But I thought you said she wanted to go to Europe.”
+
+“So I did. That’s one of the troubles. She don’t know what she wants.
+It’s one thing one minute and another the next.”
+
+“But your mother? Doesn’t she have something to say about it?”
+
+“Yes, but she’s so fond of us all, she wants to do what will give us
+the most pleasure. And of course when we all want different things
+that’s pretty hard to do.”
+
+“And the ‘different thing’ that I want is to stay right here in Marley.
+I’d graduate at the academy here next June, and then all my friends are
+here, and I like the country. Now if your hero in a story was in a fix
+like this what would you do with him?”
+
+“It depends on the sort of story I was writing. If it was one with a
+motive, a moral, so to speak, I’d have him give up his own desire and
+say he’d be perfectly willing to do what the rest wanted to do.”
+
+“But if the rest wanted to do different things? Here’s Rex wanting to
+live in Philadelphia, and Eva thinking it would be ever so much nicer
+to live in Boston, and Jess divided half of the time between New York
+and Europe, and Sydney looking as if he’d drop into the grave right off
+if we didn’t do something quick—what then?”
+
+Roy spoke very earnestly, and Mr. Keeler did not smile this time. He
+began to pick at the bark on the tree trunk and did not reply for some
+little time after Roy had paused.
+
+“I think,” he said finally, “that in that case I should have had my
+hero try to make himself contented with whichever decision was arrived
+at. Half a million ought to atone for a great many drawbacks.”
+
+“Oh, I know a lot of people envy us,” broke in Roy. “Charley Minturn
+says I ought to be the happiest fellow going. But I’m not. That’s
+because I’m going—to leave Marley. I s’pose you think it’s queer for me
+to tell all this to a stranger. But it’s just because you are a
+stranger that I feel that I can do it. You can understand how that can
+be, can’t you, Mr. Keeler?”
+
+“Yes, perfectly. But I think you attach too much importance to your
+feeling for Marley. Of course you think now that you will not be
+contented elsewhere because you do not yet know the attractions of
+other places. I remember when I was in my teens, living abroad, I
+thought I could not be happy anywhere but in Paris. I had been there
+all winter, and when spring came and we were to go to Germany I felt
+just as you do over leaving Marley. But when we were settled in our
+German home I grew to like it just as I had Paris. That is the way it
+is sure to be with you.”
+
+“Why, you’ve done me lots of good,” exclaimed Roy. “I should never have
+thought of looking at things that way. So you’ve lived in Europe? Rex
+only wants to travel there.”
+
+“He’s your twin brother, you say? Does he look like you?”
+
+“No; only the least bit. He is the good looking member of the family.
+There he goes now on his wheel. Would you like to meet him?”
+
+“Indeed I should,” replied Mr. Keeler heartily. “It would seem exactly
+like a character out of a story.”
+
+Roy put his fingers between his lips and gave a peculiar whistle,
+composed of three distinct notes. Rex, who was just passing under the
+trestle, turned around in his saddle, and when he saw some one beside
+his brother on the tree trunk, he made a half circle in the road and
+came scudding back on his machine.
+
+He ran this in a little distance among the trees, left it leaning
+against one of them and then came on foot to the edge of the creek. His
+bicycle suit was very becoming to him. Roy watched Mr. Keeler’s face
+and saw that he was favorably impressed at once.
+
+He accomplished the introduction, mentioning the book both boys had
+read. Rex seemed immensely pleased at meeting the author, and put on
+his most charming manner.
+
+“Won’t you come over to the house, Mr. Keeler?” he said. “We can give
+you some lemonade and I’d like you to see the view of the trestle from
+our piazza.”
+
+“You are very kind,” returned the young man, looking at his watch, “but
+I am afraid I shall not have time. I had planned to take the next train
+in to town. I have only about twenty minutes in which to catch it now.”
+
+“Stay to tea then and go up some time this evening,” went on Rex. “I am
+sure our mother would be delighted to meet you, and so would the girls.
+Wouldn’t they, Roy?”
+
+“Yes, indeed, please stay, Mr. Keeler.”
+
+Roy would not have dared to make this request if he had been left to
+himself. That was the difference in character of the two brothers. One
+was impulsive, ready to do anything on the spur of the moment: the
+other cautious, shrinking sometimes. He was just as anxious as Rex to
+extend the hospitality of the Pellery to their new acquaintance, but
+felt that he had not known the other long enough to warrant him in
+doing so.
+
+Mr. Keeler hesitated. He was in his element now in the society of two
+boys of such contrasted temperaments, making admirable studies.
+
+“I was going back to New York to-night,” he said. “But I suppose I
+could put it off till morning.”
+
+“Do; then you can stay to tea at the Pellery,” exclaimed Rex. “That’s
+what we call our house. It makes it seem like a nest, you know. If you
+don’t mind I’ll mount my wheel and run on ahead to tell them you are
+coming, so that we can receive you in proper state.”
+
+There was no opportunity given Mr. Keeler to decline. Rex rushed ahead,
+mounted his wheel and was off before he could answer.
+
+“You will stay, won’t you?” asked Roy.
+
+“With pleasure if you think it will not inconvenience your mother. That
+is decidedly important. You do not know but I may be some moonshiner
+from the Cumberland, or a bandit from Italy. My complexion certainly
+answers to the latter description. You see, you have only my word for
+who I really am.”
+
+“I guess that’s good enough,” laughed Roy, “How do you like Rex?”
+
+“Immensely.”
+
+“Everybody does. I suppose we ought to be very proud of him, and we
+are, but then we are afraid for him at the same time. What a boy he is!
+See, he’s hunted up our big flag and hung it from Syd’s window in honor
+of your coming. You’ll have to make a speech now.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+AN ALARMING DISCOVERY
+
+
+Rex come down to the gate to meet them.
+
+“I’m sorry that mother isn’t home,” he said. “She’s just had a telegram
+from Syd that takes her to town and will keep her there with him all
+night Some business connected with the new house,” he added with a
+glance at Roy.
+
+“But the girls are home and will be delighted to receive you with
+fitting honors,” he went on. He did not say that he had had quite a
+time to induce them to appear at all. He had rushed into the house in
+his impetuous way announcing that Roy was coming along with a young man
+they had met down at the creek who was a famous author and was so nice,
+and whom they had invited to tea.
+
+“But we don’t know him, Rex,” Eva had exclaimed in considerable dismay.
+“You oughtn’t to bring strange people to the house in that way.”
+
+“Oh, but it’s just the same thing as if we did know him,” and Rex went
+on to explain about the story he had written, which they had all read
+and admired.
+
+“But is he nice and respectable himself?” Jess inquired. “You know some
+of these writers are horribly poor and go about with threadbare
+clothes. He might not be the right sort of man for us to know at all.”
+
+“Jess!” Eva exclaimed severely. “The idea of your thinking that because
+people are poor they can’t be respectable! We shall be very glad to
+meet your friend, Rex,” and Jess felt that she was in such disgrace
+that when Mr. Keeler was presented she tried to redeem herself by being
+excessively friendly.
+
+And this was not difficult for her to do. He was certainly very
+different from what she had expected. He had neither long hair like the
+traditional poet, nor trousers fringed around the bottom like the
+literary hireling of Grub Street.
+
+Indeed, she found him quite handsome; he dressed almost as well as Rex
+did, and he was a most interesting talker. And all the while she was
+sensible of having seen his face somewhere before.
+
+She thought at first it might have been in a portrait painted as a
+frontispiece to his book. At the first opportunity she slipped off to
+the boys’ room and looked it up. But there was no portrait there.
+
+Finally she decided that she must have passed him in the street in the
+city some time and resolved to think no more about it.
+
+Eva was pleased with the visitor too. They had a very merry supper
+party. The clash of opinions about what to do with their money was
+stilled for the time while they all listened to the very entertaining
+stones told by their guest.
+
+He was, it seemed, on his way home from the oil regions of Pennsylvania
+whither he had gone to secure the local color for a new story. In fact
+he had traveled very extensively in his short life, for he was not yet
+thirty.
+
+At one time he had lived among a tribe of blacks in Africa; at another
+been a member of a party of exiled Russians, on tramp to the mines of
+Siberia. He was telling of an exciting adventure he had had among the
+Arabs when the twinkling lights in a train crossed the trestle caused
+him to come to a sudden pause.
+
+“I must be thinking of the time,” he said taking out his watch, and
+trying to see the figures on its face by the moonlight. “I don’t want
+to miss the last train in to town.”
+
+“Oh, do, please,” pleaded Rex. “You can stay here just as well as not.
+Syd won’t be home and you can have his room. The last train goes in
+half an hour; you won’t nearly have exhausted your stock of stories by
+then. Please stay.”
+
+“We should be very glad to have you do so, Mr. Keeler,” said Eva.
+
+“But this is trespassing altogether too much on your hospitality,” he
+returned. “Besides, you scarcely know me and I didn’t come prepared. I
+left Philadelphia this morning, meaning to be back there by night.”
+
+“Oh, we’ll fix you out,” said Rex with an air of finality, “so go on
+with your Arab story.”
+
+It was most comfortable on that porch with its southern exposure, the
+fireflies dancing to the chirp of the crickets, the span of the
+railroad trestle looking like a fairy bridge against the background of
+the sky. Mr. Keeler decided to stay.
+
+Roy wondered what the others would think if they knew that their guest
+was aware of what had recently befallen the family. He should most
+decidedly not have told all he had if he had foreseen what was coming.
+
+At ten o’clock Eva suggested that Mr. Keeler was probably tired from
+his journey, so the boys went up stairs with him.
+
+“I’ll come down and lock up,” Roy called back to his sisters.
+
+When he returned in a few minutes, leaving Rex talking bicycle with
+their guest, he found the girls standing in the library, over a large
+book which they had open on the table before them.
+
+“Look there!” exclaimed Jess, almost in a tragic tone, just as he
+entered.
+
+She was pointing at something in the upper left hand corner of the
+page. Eva started as she looked at it and then turned a frightened face
+toward Roy.
+
+“Roy, come here,” she said.
+
+“Why, what’s the matter with you girls?” he exclaimed. “You look as if
+you’d each seen a ghost.”
+
+“It’s worse than that!” answered Jess in a sepulchral tone. “Look
+here.”
+
+She pointed to the spot on which Eva’s gaze had been riveted.
+
+“Why, it’s Mr. Keeler’s picture!” exclaimed Roy.
+
+“Read what it says underneath,” went on Jess in the same tone.
+
+Roy let his eyes drop to the printed lines beneath the portrait, which
+was one of six which adorned the page. This is what he read:
+
+Martin Blakesley,
+
+
+_Alias “Gentleman George,” “Lancelot Marker” etc., Confidence Man._
+
+
+“What book is this?” asked Roy.
+
+His voice was hard. He hardly recognized it himself when he heard it.
+
+“‘Noted Criminals of the United States,’” replied Jess. “Syd brought it
+home last week to look up something or other he wanted to use in a
+case. I was glancing through it this morning and saw this picture then.
+I knew I’d seen Mr. Keeler somewhere before as soon as I laid eyes on
+him this afternoon.”
+
+“Perhaps it’s only somebody that looks like him,” said Eva faintly. “He
+has a larger mustache than that now.”
+
+“It’s had plenty of time to grow,” rejoined Jess significantly. “This
+book was published two or three years ago. See, here is his history.
+No. 131,” and she began to look over the pages till she came to the
+paragraphs of description accompanying the portrait.
+
+The three heads bent over the page eagerly, while Roy, in a low voice,
+read the facts about No. 131. He had been in jail twice, it seemed, his
+last term having expired, as Roy figured, some four months previous. He
+was noted for his suave manners and the facility with which he imposed
+on strangers.
+
+“That’s the man,” murmured Jess. “What are we going to do?”
+
+Eva stepped back to the sofa and sank down upon it as if every bit of
+strength had gone away from her.
+
+“It doesn’t seem possible,” was all Roy could say for the moment.
+
+Then he turned back to the picture and studied it long and intently.
+Meanwhile the steady murmur of voices could be heard from above. Rex
+was showing Mr. Keeler the treasures in their room.
+
+“I had better go up and ask him to leave,” then said Roy suddenly.
+
+“Oh, no, no, that will precipitate a quarrel,” exclaimed Jess. “He may
+murder us all.”
+
+“What do you want me to do then?” asked Roy.
+
+“I don’t see that you can do anything except sit up with Eva and me
+down here till morning. I’m sure I should never sleep a wink if I went
+to bed.”
+
+“I’m hoping yet there’ll be some way to prove we are mistaken in
+thinking him the same person,” put in Eva.
+
+“You might take this book up, Roy, and show it to him, then if he
+didn’t flush when he saw this picture we’d know it was all right.”
+
+“And if it wasn’t, poor Roy might be stabbed where he stood,” added
+Jess cheerfully. “I tell you! we might cry fire and scare him out that
+way.”
+
+“Don’t be silly, Jess,” Roy admonished her, and then he returned once
+more to the study of the face of the criminal.
+
+There was a sudden crash up stairs. Jess uttered a half stifled scream.
+
+“Oh, Roy,” she cried, “do go and see! He may have killed poor Rex!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+DISCUSSION OF WAYS AND MEANS
+
+
+Roy bounded up the stairway two steps at a time. He was conscious that
+both his sisters had walked to the foot of it and were looking after
+him fearfully. Then he heard Rex’s voice. Evidently his brother was not
+hurt.
+
+“Oh, it didn’t matter in the least,” Rex was saying. “It was an old
+thing, we shouldn’t have taken it with us to the new house.”
+
+He and Mr. Keeler were bending over a heap of fragments on the floor.
+Roy stepped into the room and saw that they had once been the clock
+that stood on a bracket near the foot of the bed.
+
+“I was reaching up to get that wasp’s nest we stuck behind it,” Rex
+explained. “My coat sleeve caught on the clock and pulled the whole
+thing over.”
+
+Roy gave a sigh of relief and then almost smiled as he recalled what
+he and his sisters had thought for a minute had really happened. He
+bent down and helped the others to pick up the pieces.
+
+“I think this should be a warning to me to go to bed at once,” said Mr.
+Keeler with a laugh. “Good-night, boys, I shall be on hand for eight
+o’clock breakfast.”
+
+He went out into the hall and up the stairs to the third floor, where
+Roy had already lighted the lamp for him in Syd’s room.
+
+“An awfully nice fellow, isn’t he, Roy?” remarked Rex, rolling the
+fragments of the clock up in an old newspaper.
+
+Roy did not make any reply. He had sat down on a chair by the bureau,
+on which he was resting his elbow. His eyes were fixed thoughtfully on
+the book rack opposite in which stood the volume of which Mr. Keeler
+was the author.
+
+“Rex,” he said suddenly, “come on downstairs.”
+
+“I’ve got to go down any way with this rubbish. But what’s come over
+you, Roy? You look as sober as a judge in a criminal case.”
+
+“I’ll show you in the library,” was all Roy’s reply, then recollecting
+that the girls would be anxious to hear his report, he hurried out and
+down the stairs.
+
+Eva and Jess were still standing by the newel post.
+
+“Well?” they asked in a breath.
+
+“It was only the old clock Rex knocked down. Mr. Keeler has gone up to
+bed.”
+
+“Did you tell Rex?”
+
+“No, not yet. Here he comes now.”
+
+Eva went out and showed her brother where to deposit the contents of
+the newspaper. Then she brought him back into the library and pointed
+out the portrait of Martin Blakesley.
+
+Rex understood at once what it meant, for he had been looking at the
+book.
+
+“Whew!” he brought out this low whistle and then glanced from one to
+the other of his companions.
+
+“You think it is the same man then?” said Roy.
+
+“It looks exactly like him, and I suppose it would be as easy for him
+to take the name Keeler as any other alias.”
+
+“But there is a Charles Keeler,” went on Roy, “I didn’t know these men
+would dare masquerade around the country as such famous people. They
+would be sure to be found out.”
+
+“What are you going to do about it?” asked Rex.
+
+It was characteristic of him that, though he had himself invited Keeler
+to the house, he was now putting all the responsibility on his brother.
+
+“Let’s sit down and talk it over calmly,” replied Roy. “I’ve been
+thinking the thing over and I can’t see what harm it can do to let Mr.
+Keeler stay.”
+
+“What, a confidence man!” exclaimed Rex and Jess in a breath.
+
+“He may have reformed,” continued Roy. “He didn’t plan deliberately to
+come to this house, nothing he has said or done since he has been here
+has made us suspect him of being anything else than what he claimed to
+be.”
+
+“But if he has reformed what would he be going around pretending to be
+what he wasn’t for?” interrupted Jess, “You don’t suppose that Martin
+Blakesley and Charles Keeler, the author, are one and the same person,
+do you?”
+
+Roy did not answer for a minute. He had plainly not thought of this
+side of the matter.
+
+“Ugh! it makes me creep,” went on Jess, “to feel that a man who has
+been in state’s prison twice is in this very house and going to stay
+here all night. I’m going to stay up until morning. I think I’ll sit
+down here and read the lives of these criminals. It will be an
+appropriate occupation.”
+
+“You girls needn’t stay up at all,” said Rex. “Roy and I will stand
+guard.”
+
+“Oh, I couldn’t sleep if I went to bed,” declared Jess. “I don’t know
+as I can ever sleep again so long as we are in this house. Think how he
+must know all the ins and outs of it by this time!”
+
+“How silly you talk, Jess,” interposed Eva. “One would think to hear
+you that Mr. Keeler was a common burglar. As Roy says, he didn’t plan
+to come here, and like as not he’ll go away in the morning without
+having disturbed us in the least.”
+
+“You’re standing up for him, are you, Eva? Well, I thought his good
+looks were making an impression on you.”
+
+“Jessie, you have no right to talk in that way. I’m not standing up for
+him at all. I’m only trying to get you to look at the facts of the case
+in a sensible way.”
+
+“But there’s nothing sensible in inviting a jail bird to the house, and
+having him stay all night. It isn’t the sort of thing you can prepare
+yourself to bear up under in dignified fashion.”
+
+“Shall I go up to town and get the constable to come down and arrest
+him?” asked Rex.
+
+“You can’t do that!” returned Roy promptly. “He hasn’t committed any
+crime.”
+
+“But if we wait till he does commit one, it will be like locking the
+stable door after the horse has been stolen.”
+
+“You might go over to the Burtons’, Roy, and get Will to come and stay
+with us,” Eva suggested.
+
+“And rouse them up at this hour of the night? It’s getting on to be
+eleven o’clock. And it would be a pretty reason to give, wouldn’t it:
+‘If you please, Mr. Burton, we invited a convict to spend the night
+with us, and now we’re afraid.’”
+
+Eva couldn’t resist smiling at Roy’s way of putting it.
+
+Rex yawned heavily.
+
+“I’m awfully sleepy,” he said.
+
+“Yes; and you and Rex were the ones who were to stand guard,” Jess
+reminded him promptly.
+
+“Well, I’m beginning to agree with Eva now,” Rex returned. “I haven’t
+an idea that man intends to harm any of us. Perhaps there is some
+mistake after all and he isn’t Martin Blakesley, only somebody that
+looks like him.”
+
+“I don’t go to bed on any such uncertainty as that,” declared Jess.
+
+“What would we do if we stayed up and we heard him coming down stairs
+to burglarize the house?” Rex wanted to know.
+
+“If you and Roy weren’t shaking in your boots too much to take aim you
+might bring him to a halt by pointing Syd’s pistol at his head.”
+
+“I suppose we could ask him to wait first till we ran up to Syd’s
+bureau drawer and got it,” retorted Rex with fine irony.
+
+“Mercy sakes! There he is right in the room with the only weapon we’ve
+got in the house!” and Jess looked really terrified now. “Why didn’t
+one of you think to take it out?”
+
+“Why didn’t you think to tell us who Mr. Keeler was before we asked him
+to stay all night?” Eva retorted. “You said you knew all the time you
+had seen him somewhere before.”
+
+“The boys had no business to pick up a stranger and bring him to the
+house in this way,” Jess replied. “What do you suppose mother will say
+when we tell her?”
+
+“You needn’t tell her,” said Rex.
+
+“Needn’t tell her!” exclaimed Jess. “When she finds half the silver
+gone and Syd’s pistol missing I suppose we can say that the cat carried
+them off.”
+
+“Well, I didn’t pick the fellow up,” affirmed Rex. “It was Roy. He
+called to me to come and meet him.”
+
+“And you invited him to the house,” Roy couldn’t resist adding.
+
+“Come,” interposed Eva, “stop quarreling over what is past and decide
+what we must do in the present. For my part I can’t think we are in any
+personal danger. If the man up stairs is the same one described in the
+book he has evidently reformed.”
+
+“But remember what it says about his smooth ways,” interjected Jess.
+“That is just where he has made his reputation, by his easy way of
+crawling into people’s confidence.”
+
+“I tell you what to do,” said Roy. “You and Rex, Eva, go up to bed.
+Jess and I will stay up all night and stand watch.”
+
+“But what good will that do you if you haven’t any weapons?” Rex wanted
+to know.
+
+“We can run, any way,” answered Jess. “That will be better than lying
+still to be murdered in our beds.”
+
+After some further discussion the matter was settled in this way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+WHAT HAPPENED AT MIDNIGHT
+
+
+When Rex and Eva had gone up stairs, and Jess and Roy were left to
+themselves in the parlor, the brother and sister looked at each other
+rather soberly for the first few minutes.
+
+“Are you very sleepy, Roy?” asked Jess presently.
+
+She sat by the table still, with that book about criminals open before
+her, but she had not looked at it for some time now.
+
+“No, not a bit. Shall I read you something? There’s that book of Mark
+Twain’s we haven’t finished yet.”
+
+“I couldn’t put my mind to listen to anything. I never was so nervous
+in my life. And I’m getting worse.”
+
+“There’s really nothing to be nervous about, Jess. I have no doubt that
+Mr. Keeler is in bed sound asleep by this time, with no thought of
+burglarizing the house.”
+
+“I wish I could think so, but I can’t.”
+
+“Think of something else then. When are we going to leave Marley?”
+
+“The first of September. The new house is a beauty. You haven’t seen it
+yet, have you?”
+
+“No, and I don’t know as I ever want to.”
+
+“Oh come, Roy, it is ridiculous your being so set or staying in Marley.
+We can come out here in the summer perhaps, although I’d prefer to go
+abroad.”
+
+“It must have been nice to live in Europe for a while as Mr. Keeler
+did, you get so well acquainted with the people.”
+
+“I wonder if they got well acquainted with him,” remarked Jess
+significantly.
+
+“Oh, I forgot,” returned Roy, and then he remembered what Mr. Keeler
+had said to him down by the creek about trying to make himself
+contented with whatever was for the good of the greatest number.
+
+It could not be possible that a man who could give such excellent
+advice had a record behind him like Martin Blakesley.
+
+“Then you don’t want me to read to you,” Roy added. “What shall we do
+then? What do you say to a game of Authors?”
+
+“All right. Mr. Keeler isn’t represented, so I guess I can stand it.”
+
+Roy took the cards from the drawer of the bookcase and they began to
+play. But Jess’s thoughts wandered and Roy was obliged to remind her to
+take her turn many times.
+
+Suddenly she held up a finger hushing him to silence.
+
+“Don’t you hear something?” she asked in a tremulous whisper.
+
+“Nothing but the crickets outside and the splash of the water over the
+dam,” he replied.
+
+“No, it’s something in the house up stairs. Hear it now; like the
+creaking of a board.”
+
+Roy did hear it this time plainly.
+
+“It’s Rex or Eva,” he said reassuringly.
+
+“No, it isn’t. See, it’s nearly midnight. They were asleep long ago.
+Oh, Roy, that man may stop on the way down and murder them both.”
+
+Jess had risen and stood there, staring toward the doorway into the
+hall, her eyes filled with terror.
+
+Roy rose, too. He realized that the noise was not likely to be made by
+his brother or sister, and the servant slept in the rear of the house
+and always used the back stairs. He had often wondered whether he would
+be brave in a time of real danger as fellows in the books he read were.
+He did not feel by any means comfortable now. But he was not actually
+terrified.
+
+“I’ll go up and see what it is, Jess,” he said, and started toward the
+door.
+
+But his sister flung herself upon him, the tears starting from her
+eyes.
+
+“Don’t leave me or I shall die,” she moaned.
+
+She drew him back toward a sofa in the far corner of the room, and held
+him tightly by the wrist.
+
+The noise from above drew nearer. They made it out to be the creaking
+of the stairs.
+
+Jess was trembling frightfully. Roy could almost hear her teeth
+chatter. He wished that he could think of something to say to make her
+feel less terrified. He was sure if he had been a boy in a book he
+could have thought of something.
+
+He determined to ask Mr. Keeler in the morning what would be the proper
+thing under the circumstances. Then he laughed out half hysterically as
+he realized that it would hardly be the thing to mention the matter to
+Mr. Keeler.
+
+Jess heard the laugh and it frightened her more than ever. She thought
+Roy was more terrified even than she and was losing control of himself.
+
+Nearer and nearer came the creak of descending footsteps. Roy started
+to go to the door. He felt that he could not remain in suspense an
+instant longer.
+
+But Jess held him back.
+
+“Don’t, Roy,” she whispered. “He will kill you.”
+
+And at that instant a man’s form passed the doorway.
+
+It was Mr. Keeler. He had on his trousers, shirt and shoes, but nothing
+else. His hair was all rumpled and one hand was stretched out in front
+of him as though he had been feeling his way.
+
+He halted for an instant at the foot of the stairs and turned his face
+toward the library. Then Roy saw that his eyes were closed.
+
+“He’s walking in his sleep,” he whispered to Jess. “I must go and wake
+him or he may do himself some damage.”
+
+“Let him alone. He may go out and then we can lock the door against
+him.”
+
+“Jess, would you be as cruel as that?”
+
+“Perhaps he isn’t asleep. He may be only shamming.”
+
+“I’m going to find out at any rate. There, he’s fumbling with the lock.
+You’d better take the opportunity to go up stairs.”
+
+Jess still held on to her brother’s wrist, but now she suffered herself
+to be led across the floor to the hall, reaching which, she let go and
+sped up stairs. Roy turned at once and laid his hand on the shoulder of
+their guest.
+
+Some way his fears and suspicions of the man had all departed.
+
+“Mr. Keeler,” he said, in a firm tone.
+
+The other left off his working with the lock and a tremor ran through
+him.
+
+Roy slipped his hand down till it rested under the other’s elbow.
+
+“Come into the library and sit down a moment,” he said gently.
+
+“Where am I? What have I been doing?”
+
+Roy knew that the man was awake now.
+
+“You have been walking in your sleep,” he replied.
+
+“I beg your pardon. Did you dress and come down after me?”
+
+“Oh, no, I haven’t been to bed yet.”
+
+Roy flushed as he made this answer, and at this moment the clock on the
+mantel chimed out twelve strokes.
+
+“Are you in the habit of sitting up till midnight?” asked Mr. Keeler.
+“I suppose—”
+
+He paused suddenly. His gaze had fallen on that book of criminals Jess
+had left lying open on the table. What appeared to be his own portrait
+stared back at him from the corner of the right hand page.
+
+Roy’s heart almost stood still for a second as he saw that the whole
+thing was out. Mr. Keeler dropped into a chair by the table still
+keeping his eyes fixed on that picture.
+
+Finally he raised them and looked at Roy.
+
+“You have discovered the likeness then?” he said.
+
+There was a depth of misery in his tone that went straight to the boy’s
+heart.
+
+“Yes,” he said. “My oldest brother is a lawyer, you know. He brought
+this book home yesterday.”
+
+“And you thought I was this man?” went on Mr. Keeler.
+
+“We didn’t know what else to think,” answered Roy in a low voice.
+
+“And you were going to sit up all night to make sure that I didn’t run
+off with the silver?”
+
+The smile that accompanied these words was a very sad one. Then the
+face grew suddenly grave again and without waiting for Roy to make a
+response to his awkward question, Mr. Keeler continued:
+
+“I don’t blame you for thinking that brother Martin and I were one and
+the same person. He is only a year younger than I and people could
+never tell us apart when we were boys. I remember we used to help them
+out by wearing sleeve buttons, an M on his and a C on mine.
+
+“We were left orphans when very young, and Mart began to go to the bad
+at once. It commenced with robbing birds’ nests and orchards, and ended
+with the confidence game for which he was last sent to jail. That is
+the reason I use my pen name always. I wonder if you believe what I am
+telling you.”
+
+“Yes, Mr. Keeler, I do,” responded Roy heartily.
+
+“I am sorry I stayed,” went on the author. “I should not have run the
+risk. I had had nobody to vouch for me here, you see. I will go away
+now if you say so.”
+
+“Oh, no, no! I am so sorry it happened. It was only the merest chance
+we found out anything about it. It’s all right now.”
+
+Involuntarily Roy put out his hand. The other took it with a glad light
+in his eyes. Then Roy turned out the lamp and they both went up stairs.
+
+It was many a week before the young people of the Pell family ceased to
+talk among themselves over their singular experience with Mr. Charles
+Keeler. He left on the nine o’clock express the next morning, and
+everybody had been pleasant to him at the breakfast table except Jess,
+who did not come down.
+
+Roy told the true state of the case before he went to bed that night,
+and the explanation was very gladly received by both Rex and Eva.
+
+“It may be so,” Jess replied; “but I’ll take my breakfast after he is
+gone.”
+
+Roy told Sydney about the occurrence, and thought at first, from his
+brother’s looks, that he was going to give him a severe rating for what
+he had done. A sort of convulsive tremor shook his frame, and he
+hastily took out his handkerchief to wipe away the beads of
+perspiration that had gathered on his forehead.
+
+But he uttered no word of reproof; merely said that the boys should be
+careful about the friends they made.
+
+“Don’t you think Mr. Keeler is all right, Syd?” asked Roy.
+
+“Yes, as it turned out, certainly I do,” was the reply. “But it might
+have been otherwise.”
+
+For his part, Roy was very glad of the meeting. Since he had had that
+interview down by the creek he had been much more reconciled to leaving
+Marley.
+
+“What if I had the burden to carry about with me that Mr. Keeler has!”
+he often told himself. “The consciousness that my brother was a
+scoundrel, a jailbird!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+DUDLEY HARRINGTON
+
+
+The family moved into their city home early in September. And a
+beautiful one it was, with enough ground about it to give windows on
+all sides.
+
+Of course a small army of servants was necessary to the running of such
+a dwelling, and Roy, Eva and Jess had many laughable experiences at
+first in accustoming themselves to being waited on. But Rex took to
+luxury as naturally as a duck to water.
+
+He seemed to be growing up terribly fast since a fortune had come into
+the family. He insisted on having a latch key as soon as they moved to
+town, and felt very much aggrieved because his mother would not buy him
+a dog cart.
+
+“But you are too young, my son,” Mrs. Pell said in response to this
+request. “Remember you are not yet sixteen.”
+
+“Well, I shall be next month,” he replied, “and I know perfectly well
+how to manage a horse, I’ve been out with Scott so much.”
+
+He had had Scott and Charlie Minturn to visit him just as soon as they
+were settled and took solid satisfaction in entertaining them in the
+style to which he had been accustomed at their homes. But they did not
+seem to have any better time than they used to do down at “the Pellery”
+at Marley.
+
+In fact they had enjoyed it there because things were different. Now it
+was Rex who was different They could not state in just what the
+difference lay, but they felt it. And when they had gone Rex realized
+that he had not enjoyed their visit as much as he had expected to.
+
+To be sure, the “solid satisfaction” was there at the thought of having
+entertained them as he had long wished to be able to do, but then there
+had seemed a constraint which had not existed before.
+
+The trouble was here: he had relied on externals to please them this
+time, and had not exerted himself personally as he had been wont to do.
+In fact Rex was not at heart as contented as he had expected to be.
+
+To be sure, he had now all the clothes he wanted, shoes galore, and
+more spending money than any boy of fifteen ought to have, but all the
+while he was thinking that he was missing something. And he was not
+exactly sure what this was.
+
+He thought he had discovered one of the things toward the latter part
+of September, when the people who occupied the adjoining house to the
+Pells returned to town. They were evidently a family of great
+wealth—the Harringtons. Rex found what their name was from the
+servants.
+
+There was a young man in the household—Dudley Harrington. He was about
+twenty, and affected the sharpest crease to his trousers, the highest
+puffs to his neckties, carried his cane with the handle down and was
+altogether a dude of the latest type.
+
+To become acquainted with this splendid youth now grew to be Reginald
+Pell’s one absorbing ambition. He had always preferred to associate
+with boys older than himself; to be on terms of intimacy with a young
+man out of his teens, and who sported a mustache that was far advanced
+in the budding stage—that would be a triumph indeed.
+
+But would he be able to accomplish his purpose? Although he was tall
+for his age, Rex could not hope that the object of his admiration would
+look upon him as anything else than a schoolboy. But he did not see him
+go out with many fellows of his own age.
+
+He seemed to be the only child. The parents were elderly people, and
+the son was a good deal by himself.
+
+Rex saw him sometimes in his own room, his feet on the table, a
+cigarette between his lips, the floor around him strewn with
+newspapers.
+
+“I wonder if he doesn’t ride a wheel,” he asked himself one day. “I’ve
+half a mind to ask him to go out with me. We’re neighbors. There can’t
+be anything out of the way in my speaking to him.”
+
+The school which Rex and Roy were to attend did not open till the first
+of October, so the boys had a good deal of time on their hands just at
+present Roy spent much of it at Marley visiting his friends there; Rex
+was thus left to his own devices. On one of these days of Roy’s absence
+Rex was riding his wheel in the Park when he passed Dudley Harrington,
+also mounted on a silent steed.
+
+Instinctively almost Rex half bowed. It seemed natural to do so, when
+this fellow lived right next door and was so frequently in his
+thoughts. He was half alarmed at his temerity, when some one rode up by
+his side and said:
+
+“Fine day for wheeling, isn’t it?”
+
+It was Harrington. He had circled about and caught up with him.
+
+Rex was so overwhelmed that he nearly lost his balance. But he
+recovered himself in an instant, and his natural repose of manner
+asserted itself.
+
+“Yes, indeed,” he answered. “I was wondering if you had a wheel. Most
+fellows have one nowadays.”
+
+“Oh, this isn’t mine. It’s one I hired. I keep mine at New Haven.”
+
+“Oh, you’re a Yale man then,” exclaimed Rex, prouder than ever at
+having formed this acquaintance.
+
+“Yes, go back next week,” was the answer. “And glad enough I’ll be,
+too. It’s fearfully slow here at this time of year. Nobody back in town
+I know. Wouldn’t have been myself, only the governor fell sick and I
+didn’t want the mater to come on alone with him.”
+
+“What are you—senior?” inquired Rex respectfully.
+
+“Oh, bless you no, only sophomore. By the way, you have just moved into
+that house next door, haven’t you?”
+
+“Yes, about three weeks ago.”
+
+“Well, there was a stupid lot enough there before you. A set of old
+maids, most of ’em. You must be sociable and come in to see a fellow.
+We’ve a pool table. You play—look out there!”
+
+Rex was glad a man in a buggy stopped suddenly in front of him just
+then, calling for this diversion in subject. He did not know how to
+play pool and did not care to confess the fact just then.
+
+When they were riding on unhindered again, he begun to talk about Yale
+and led the other on to relate several of his first year experiences.
+By the time they struck the pavements again they were quite well
+acquainted.
+
+“Let me see—your name’s Pell, isn’t it?” said Harrington, as they
+dismounted between the two houses.
+
+“Yes, and I’m Reginald.”
+
+Harrington put out his hand.
+
+“Well, I’m awfully glad to have met you, Pell. I say, come in to-night
+and see a fellow, won’t you? That is if you haven’t anything better to
+do.”
+
+Rex privately thought that he couldn’t possibly have this, but he only
+said, “I’ll be most happy to come.”
+
+The friendship thus begun, progressed very rapidly. Rex speedily
+learned how to play pool, but of this he said nothing at home.
+Harrington seemed to have taken a decided fancy to the fellow who did
+not conceal the fact that he was proud to be acquainted with him.
+
+Rex’s one source of regret was the fact that they were so soon to be
+separated.
+
+“I say, Reggie,” said Harrington suddenly on the day before his
+departure, “suppose you come over to New Haven with me. Just on a
+visit, I mean. I’ll give you no end of a good time. We’ll stop a night
+in New York on the way. Oh, you must come.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+REX DETERMINES TO TAKE MATTERS INTO HIS OWN HANDS
+
+
+Rex’s cup of joy was full when Dudley Harrington asked him to go to New
+Haven with him. It would be pleasure indeed to go anywhere in company
+with that fascinating young gentleman, but to visit a college town in
+his company, to be introduced as his friend—this would be bliss indeed,
+thought Rex.
+
+But on top of this realization of how much he wanted to go, came the
+fear that he could not obtain permission to accept. It was a
+humiliating reminder of his youth, Rex felt, to reflect that he must
+ask his mother before coming to any decision.
+
+“I’d love to go, Harrington,” he said. “I’ll let you know about it in
+the morning. That will be time enough, won’t it?”
+
+“Plenty. I’ll leave on the Limited, at five, I think. Get our dinner on
+board and be ready for fun in New York when we get there. I say, why
+don’t you decide now, Reggie?”
+
+“Oh, I guess I can go,” stammered Rex.
+
+He hated to confess that he must first ask leave.
+
+“When can I get back?” he asked.
+
+“Oh, by Saturday, or you can stay over till Monday with me if you will.
+We never do much the first of the term, and I’ve got plenty of room in
+my quarters.”
+
+The Pells knew that Rex had formed the acquaintance of “the Harrington
+fellow.” They also knew that he was to go to college in a few days, so,
+if Mrs. Pell feared any evil influence over Reginald, she consoled
+herself with the thought that this would be removed in a very short
+time.
+
+Now when Rex came with the request that he be allowed to go to New
+Haven with his new friend, her answer was a prompt and decided “No.”
+
+“But I’ve as good as told him I’d go, mother,” he pleaded.
+
+“You had no right to do that,” rejoined Mrs. Pell. “You wouldn’t be in
+your element at all in the company of his friends, and of course you
+are sure to meet a great many of them.”
+
+“I’m in my element in his company. He’s had me over there every day
+since we got acquainted. Besides, just think, I’ve never been to New
+York in my life since I was a baby, and this will be a splendid chance
+for me to see it. I can pay all my own expenses, so I needn’t be under
+obligations to him. Please, mother; I didn’t go on that trip with the
+Bowmans and now after school commences I shan’t have another chance.”
+
+But Mrs. Pell was firm. She was a woman quick to discern character and
+she had seen enough of Dudley Harrington through the windows to
+conclude that he was not the sort of person to whom she wished to
+intrust an impulsive boy like Rex for two or three days. She chided
+herself now for having permitted the intimacy to go as far as it had.
+
+Rex knew that it was useless to say more, and presently went to his
+room.
+
+Here he threw himself on his sofa and brooded over his troubles. It
+seemed to him that he was the most unlucky fellow that ever lived. He
+never could have what he wanted. Even the money that he imagined was
+going to bring so much happiness failed to keep to the agreement, as he
+looked upon it.
+
+“But just wait till I’m a little older,” he told himself. “I’ll make up
+for lost time then.”
+
+Still, this would not help him out of his present slough of despond. He
+thought of how lonesome he should be after Harrington went away the
+next day. He could have Scott or Charlie Minturn up to see him, to be
+sure, but somehow, since he had known Harrington, these old friends had
+not seemed so entertaining to him as they once had.
+
+“And that trip to New Haven would bridge over the time nicely till
+school opens,” he told himself. “I don’t see why mother won’t let me
+go.”
+
+But he knew perfectly well what the reason was. He realized that
+Harrington had habits which none of his associates had ever had. But
+what of it?
+
+“I needn’t smoke or drink if I don’t want to,” he argued. “I haven’t
+done it yet. Besides, it will do me good to see a little of the world.”
+
+He rose from the sofa, lighted the gas, and just as he had done that
+day when he had heard who was Mr. Tyler’s heir, he collected the money
+from his different pockets and counted it up. His allowance was a
+liberal one, and he had been saving up to buy a birthday present for
+his mother.
+
+“Seven dollars and forty cents,” he repeated to himself. “I wonder how
+much the fare will be.”
+
+He put on his hat and went down stairs.
+
+“Where are you going, Rex?” asked his mother, as he passed the group
+who were sitting on the front porch, for it was a sultry evening.
+
+“Only down the street a little way. I’ll be right up,” he replied.
+
+“I wonder if Harrington’s people ask him where he’s going every step he
+takes,” he muttered to himself as he strode off.
+
+He forgot the five years’ difference in their ages; thought only of the
+surveillance under which he chafed.
+
+He kept on till he reached the hotels, and entering one of them, he
+hunted around till he found a railway guide.
+
+A short consultation of this apprized him of the fact that he had
+enough to pay his fare to New Haven and back, but very little more.
+
+“I suppose I shall have no expense while there,” he mused, “being
+Harrington’s guest. I think I may risk it, and if I get stuck he’ll
+help me out, though I’d hate to ask him.”
+
+For Rex had formed a resolution. He had determined to go on the coveted
+trip without his mother’s consent. He could leave a note explaining
+where he was.
+
+It would not be half as terrible a thing, he argued, as for a fellow to
+run away from home and not mean to come back. There would be a great
+row raised about it, he supposed, but meanwhile he would have had a
+good time and the worst that they would do to him would be to send him
+away to boarding school, and he shouldn’t mind that very much.
+
+He thought all this out on his way back from the hotel. To be sure, he
+would have to use the money he had been saving up for his mother’s
+present, but then he was in no mood to give her anything now.
+
+He felt some twinges as his thoughts touched on this point, but at that
+moment some one took his stand in front of him and exclaimed:
+“Surrender or give the countersign.”
+
+It was Harrington.
+
+“Yale,” answered Rex promptly.
+
+“You’ve decided to go, then,” said Harrington. turning around to walk
+back with him. “That’s right. We’ll have oceans of fun. We’ll meet
+Stout and Cheever in New York, and we can just paint the town, I tell
+you.”
+
+Rex was not certain that he would do any town painting. He would be
+quite content to be in Harrington’s company.
+
+“I can go if it doesn’t cost too much,” he replied, thinking it best to
+be frank on that point on the start. “You see, my allowance isn’t a big
+one as yet, and I don’t dare ask for any more.”
+
+“Oh, ten dollars will squeeze through easy enough.”
+
+Harrington said this as though ten dollars was no harder to get than
+ten cents. Rex’s heart sank. Where was he to obtain the two dollars and
+forty cents he still lacked?
+
+“Won’t you come in?” Harrington asked, as Rex stopped in front of the
+Pells’.
+
+“No; not to-night, I’ll meet you at the station to-morrow at a quarter
+to five.”
+
+“What’s the matter with my calling here for you and our going up
+together?”
+
+“Oh, I’ll have to go down town first and start from there.” Rex felt
+that this was a very lame excuse. He was not accustomed to telling
+untruths.
+
+But Harrington seemed not to notice.
+
+“All right, just as you say,” he replied. “But I’ll see you in the
+morning any way.”
+
+“Good night,” Rex called after him.
+
+He felt that his not going home with Harrington was a good stroke of
+policy. He decided to add another to it by sitting with the family a
+while before he went up to his room.
+
+“Scott wanted to know if you can’t come down and see him to-morrow,
+Rex,” began Roy, as his brother seated himself on the top step and
+began fanning himself with his hat. “He told me to tell you to come
+down on the 5:30 prepared to stay all night.”
+
+Rex’s heart gave a sudden leap. Circumstances seemed to favor his plan.
+If he only had three dollars more now!
+
+“I guess I’ll go” he said. “Are you going, Roy?”
+
+“No, I’m going to that ratification meeting with Syd to-morrow night,
+you know. If you don’t go down to Marley, Rex, you’d better come with
+us. There are to be some fine speeches.”
+
+“Perhaps I will,” responded Rex.
+
+He was turning over in his mind how he was going to get that money. The
+matter of his getting off to the station was simple enough now. He
+could even go with Harrington without exciting suspicion. It would be
+supposed he was bound for Marley.
+
+What a web of deceit he was planning to wind about himself. But he
+forcibly put this thought out of his mind whenever it obtruded itself.
+He would have time enough to repent when he came back.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+REX ARRIVES IN NEW YORK
+
+
+“I say, Roy, can you lend me three dollars?”
+
+Rex had crossed the hall to his brother’s room some time after the
+family had come up stairs.
+
+“Why, where’s all your money gone to, Rex? I thought you were saving up
+to get mother a present.”
+
+“So I was, but—but I’ve bought it and now I haven’t got enough left to
+take me down to Marley to-morrow night. Just let me have three dollars.
+I’ll pay you back when I get my next allowance on Monday,”
+
+“You’ve bought mother’s present!” exclaimed Roy. “What did you get? Let
+me see it,”
+
+“No, I want to keep it a secret till I give it to her,” replied Rex
+quickly. “Now about that three dollars, can you let me have it, old
+fellow?”
+
+“Certainly I can, but be sure to give it back to me Monday, as I
+haven’t enough to get the present I have set my heart on. I’ll—but
+there, if you won’t tell about yours, I shan’t say anything about mine.
+Then we’ll have a grand surprise party all around on the third.”
+
+Roy stepped to his dressing case and took out a two dollar and a one
+dollar bill, which he handed to Rex.
+
+“Thanks, ever so much,” murmured the latter. “Good night,” and he
+hurried back to his own room.
+
+He had never felt so mean in his life. Not only had he just obtained
+money under false pretenses, but he had told two or three falsehoods of
+the most unblushing description.
+
+Roy’s very readiness to oblige him added to his weight of remorse.
+
+He sat down on the edge of the bed and began to tuck the money away in
+his pocket book. Was he really a criminal? he asked himself.
+
+How horrified they had all been when they thought Mr. Charles Keeler
+had been an inmate of jails. Was it any worse to have committed a crime
+and have been punished for it, than to commit the crime and not be
+found out?
+
+For a moment or two he was—shall I call it tempted?—to go back to his
+brother’s room, return the three dollars and confess the whole thing.
+Then he thought of New York, of his induction to a college town, of his
+promise to Harrington to meet him at the station.
+
+“No; I must go now,” he reflected. “I can call it sowing my wild oats,”
+and he undressed as quickly as possible and got into bed, as if fearful
+that his repentant tendencies would conquer in spite of him.
+
+He was very quiet the next day. About ten o’clock Harrington came in to
+see him. It was the first time he had ever been to the house. Rex had
+not asked him, thinking he had no special attractions to offer him.
+
+Mrs. Pell and the girls were out shopping. Roy was down at the office
+with Syd. Rex asked Harrington if he would like to come up in his room.
+
+“Of course I would. A fellow’s generally curious about the inside of a
+house when he’s been looking on the outside of it half the days of his
+life.”
+
+So Rex took him up stairs. He admired the “den,” as he called it,
+immensely.
+
+“Wait till you see mine at Yale,” he added, as he struck a match to
+light his inveterate cigarette. “I don’t do much fixing up at home
+here, I’m here so little. By the way, you don’t mind me smoking, do
+you?”
+
+“Oh, no,” replied Rex faintly.
+
+Nevertheless, he was wondering what his mother would say if the odor
+still lingered when she came. Sydney did not smoke at all, and the
+entire family abominated cigarettes.
+
+Mrs. Pell did come home shortly after Harrington had taken his
+departure. She came up to the third floor to put away some flannels she
+had bought for the boys.
+
+“Reginald,” she said, as soon as she entered the room, “you have been
+smoking.”
+
+Rex was reading by the window, and he turned around in startled
+disquiet.
+
+“No, I haven’t, mother,” he replied quickly.
+
+“Where does that smell of cigarette smoke come from, then?” and Mrs.
+Pell coughed and then came up close to look her son in the eye.
+
+“Dudley Harrington has been here,” he replied. “He was smoking.”
+
+“You are sure you were not smoking with him?” went on Mrs. Pell, adding
+with a sudden bending down over him, “Kiss me.”
+
+Rex complied, glad indeed that this time, at any rate, there was
+nothing he wished to conceal.
+
+“Forgive me for doubting you, Reggie,” said his mother, as she lingered
+an instant to stroke the hair back from his forehead.
+
+Once more Rex weakened in his purpose, if one can be said to weaken
+when he is really stronger for the moment to resist an impulse for
+evil. But then he reflected that now he had the money and the
+opportunity of getting off to the station without being questioned. The
+facts seemed to will that he should go.
+
+And he went, stopping for Harrington at half past four. When they
+reached the station he found that he had to pay a dollar extra for the
+privilege of riding over to New York in the Chicago Limited.
+
+But it was very select to travel on such a train, and the dinner that
+he and Harrington ate en route was one long to be remembered.
+
+In fact there were so many new and novel sensations and impressions
+received from this first stage of his trip, that Rex was surprised he
+did not derive more solid enjoyment from it.
+
+It was impossible for him to keep out of his mind, however, the fact
+that he was now supposed to be at Marley with Scott Bowman. He had come
+away without leaving behind him the note he had at first planned to
+write.
+
+“You must come to Yale sure, Reggie,” Harrington told him. “Can’t you
+get ready to enter next fall? I’ll be a junior then, and can look out
+for you, you know.”
+
+“I wish I could,” returned Rex, rather more soberly than the nature of
+the subject seemed to warrant.
+
+He was thinking that it would be so much pleasanter to go to New Haven
+legitimately than in his present stolen fashion.
+
+When they arrived at New York, Harrington said he would go at once to
+the hotel where he was to meet some of “the boys.” Rex wondered whether
+they were going to stop at this hotel over night, and if to, how much
+it would cost. But he decided he would not ask, but wait and find out.
+
+It was nearly eight when Harrington sent up his card to J. Ashley Stout
+in one of the plainer looking hotels on upper Broadway. Word came back
+that Mr. Stout was in his room on the fifth floor and would be glad to
+have Mr. Harrington come up.
+
+“Come on, Reggie,” said the Philadelphian.
+
+Rex was not sure whether he liked Harrington to call him Reggie.
+Sometimes it seemed to place him on a more familiar footing with the
+collegian, and at other times he had a suspicion that the name was
+employed merely to recall to the younger the fact of the difference in
+their ages.
+
+Mr. Stout proved to be a young man with a red face, a very unpleasant
+complexion, and an abnormally weak voice. He had neither coat, vest nor
+collar on, and his eyes looked as if the bell boy’s knock had awakened
+him from a sound sleep.
+
+“Glad to see you, Harri, old boy,” he said, shaking Harrington
+vigorously by the hand. “Excuse appearances. Was just taking a snooze
+to prepare for the evening.”
+
+“No apologies, Jack. Let me introduce my friend, Reginald Pell. He’s a
+neighbor of mine at home. He’s going up to Yale with me to see if he
+likes it well enough to be one of us next year.”
+
+“Proud to know any friend of Harri’s, I’m sure,” and Mr. Stout gave Rex
+a hand that was so disagreeably clammy that the younger lad could
+scarcely resist the impulse to take out his handkerchief and wipe off
+the touch of it.
+
+From the conversation that ensued he ascertained that Stout came from
+somewhere up in New York State and that for some reason or other he
+appeared to be quite a favorite with his classmates. One or two others
+were expected in the course of the evening, and the hope that they
+might go to the theater was now quenched in Rex’s breast.
+
+Harrington and Stout talked volubly of things in which he was not the
+least interested—other college men. New Haven girls, fraternity
+affairs, and the like. Rex sat there listening, trying to look as if he
+were having a good time, but failing signally. However, this made no
+difference, as neither Harrington nor Stout paid any attention to him.
+
+Presently Stout began to complete his dressing, talking all the while.
+Although he was not angry, he seemed to find it necessary to interlard
+his conversation with some very strong and unpleasant sounding
+expressions, and once or twice Harrington followed his example.
+
+In fact the latter did not appear to be the same fellow here in New
+York that he was at home. Once in a while he looked at Rex and smiled
+as if mutely reminding the latter that he owed the good time he was
+having to him. But Rex found it harder and harder to smile back, and he
+welcomed a knock that by and by came at the door as signalizing a.
+change of some sort.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+REX SEES A HORRIBLE SPECTACLE
+
+
+Three new fellows followed the knock into the room. They were noisily
+greeted by Stout and Harrington. In the confusion it was some time
+before Rex was introduced.
+
+Tom Cheever was a tall youth, continually feeling of his upper lip as
+if to see if his mustache had arrived; Dan Tilford had a narrow face,
+pallid from much cigarette smoking, and an eye that never seemed fixed
+on any object he gazed at; Harry Atkins was a handsome fellow of
+eighteen, who seemed of quieter temperament than the others.
+
+Stout gave an order to the boy who had shown the last callers up, and
+the lad presently appeared staggering under a big bowl of what Stout
+declared was the “rummest punch” New York could brew.
+
+“Help yourselves, fellows!” he cried. “Remember that the last night of
+vacation only comes once a year.”
+
+The room was already filled with cigarette smoke. Two or three of these
+cigarettes had been offered to Rex, but he had declined with a
+vacillating “Not now, thank you.”
+
+When the punch was passed around he took the glass that was handed to
+him, but only pretended to drink. He did not care for liquor; he knew
+that it would give him a headache. He was having a terribly stupid time
+as it was. It was not worth while to aggravate it by the addition of
+physical suffering.
+
+He was appalled at the swiftness with which the others tossed off the
+drink. It seemed scarcely five minutes before Stout was calling out:
+
+“Fill ’em up again, men! Here’s to the coming year. May none of us be
+plucked and ponies be plentiful.”
+
+He took up glass after glass and refilled it. Rex saw what was coming
+and tried to be prepared for it.
+
+“Why, Pell!” exclaimed the hospitable host, “you haven’t drunk a drop.
+What does this mean?”
+
+“I don’t drink, thank you,” stammered Rex, conscious that he ought to
+look the other straight in the eye as he made this response, but
+dropping his handkerchief so that he might have an excuse to stoop down
+and pick it up instead.
+
+“Oh, yes you do, when you are among gentlemen like us, Reggie.”
+Harrington came forward hastily to say this.
+
+The others held their glasses half way to their lips and watched for
+the outcome with interest.
+
+If Rex were the hero of this tale it would doubtless be my pleasant
+duty to record the fact that he lifted the glass from the table, poured
+the contents into the bowl, and said that he could not go back on his
+principles.
+
+But Rex unfortunately is not of the stuff of which heroes are made. He
+felt that he would rather endure a headache than the jeers of those
+five fellows.
+
+“Of course,” he said feebly, and drank off the glassful at one draft.
+
+“And now for another,” said Stout, promptly filling it up again.
+
+Rex had never signed the pledge, but he knew that his mother did not
+want him to touch liquor. And it had been no deprivation for him to
+refrain, as he did not like it. What he had just drunk burnt his throat
+like fire. It seemed as if he could not possibly swallow any more.
+
+His misery showed itself in his face. Atkins, who was standing just
+opposite on the other side of the table on which the punch bowl had
+been placed, saw it.
+
+“I say, Pell,” he called out softly, “come here a minute.”
+
+He stepped over to the open window, which looked out on an airshaft.
+Wondering what he wanted, Rex followed him.
+
+The others were busy with the punch.
+
+“You don’t want that, I know,” whispered Atkins. “I don’t want any more
+either. Look here.”
+
+As he spoke, he dexterously emptied his glass out of the window. Rex
+was quick to follow his example.
+
+“Those fellows don’t know when they’ve had enough,” he said, “and
+somebody ought to keep a level head on his shoulders to look out for
+them.”
+
+Rex’s heart sank within him. And it was for this that he had spent the
+money he had been saving for his mother’s birthday gift! for this he
+had deceived this mother! for this told those falsehoods to Roy!
+
+“Are you fellows ready for another round?” called out Stout, looking
+over at them. “Slip up to the captain’s office and get a settler.”
+
+His voice already began to sound thick.
+
+“We must go and pretend to join them,” Atkins whispered.
+
+So glasses were filled for the third time, and on this occasion Atkins
+retired with Rex to the other side of the room, and watching his
+opportunity, poured his punch into the water pitcher. Rex, in trying to
+do likewise, let slip the glass, and it fell with a crash into the
+basin.
+
+A roar of laughter greeted the incident.
+
+“Good for you, Pell,” cried Tom Cheever. “Trying to infuse a little
+life into the party. That’s right, my boy, that’s right.”
+
+The fellow came over toward Rex, walking a little unsteadily, and with
+such a leer in his eye that Rex shrank back against the wall.
+
+At that moment Harrington came up and put his arm around Rex’s neck.
+
+“I always said that Reggie Pell was a gentleman,” he mumbled. “Now you
+can see it for yourselves.”
+
+“And his clothes fit him,” added Dan Tilford, as a special mark of
+approval.
+
+“Oh, they imagine they’re having no end of sport,” whispered Atkins.
+“Look at Harrington. He’s half seas over, too.”
+
+He was so far over, indeed, that he was very ill for a time. It was a
+fearful scene.
+
+“Here, Pell,” Atkins called to him from the bed where he had gone to
+look after Cheever. “See what you can do for your friend.”
+
+And Rex went over to Harrington and tried to pilot him to a seat. Then
+he held the other’s head and shut his eyes, while he wondered if there
+was ever such a donkey on the face of the earth as he, Reginald Pell,
+to do all that he had done for this.
+
+If it hadn’t been close on to midnight he would have gone home there
+and then. But now Harrington was well nigh helpless, and Rex knew
+nothing about New York. Where was he going to sleep that night?
+Harrington was in no condition to have questions put to him now.
+
+A fixed look came over Rex’s face.
+
+“I must go now,” he said, looking around for his hat and valise.
+
+“What, you’re not going off and leave Harrington, are you?” asked
+Atkins.
+
+“I can’t do anything more for him and I must get out of this place.
+Perhaps I’ll call in the morning to see how he is. Good night. I’m much
+obliged to you.”
+
+“Well, I suppose you are better off out of here, but aren’t you going
+to hire a room in the hotel?”
+
+“No, I want to get as far away from the place as possible.”
+
+Rex noticed that Stout was looking around at him. He shut the door
+quickly and hurried off. He breathed a great sigh of relief when he
+reached the open air.
+
+He turned down a side street to collect his thoughts before deciding
+what to do. He wandered till he reached the middle of the block, then,
+finding his valise heavy, he set it down on the sidewalk to rest a
+minute.
+
+It was after midnight and very quiet. Suddenly he felt something hit
+him in the face, and then for a minute or two all was a blank to him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+A MEMORABLE NIGHT
+
+
+When Rex came to his senses again he found himself leaning against a
+brown stone stoop. His head felt very queer.
+
+“I wonder if it can be the effect of that glass of punch I drank?” he
+asked himself.
+
+Then he glanced down at the sidewalk and saw that his valise—a handsome
+new one—was missing. A terrible fear came to him.
+
+He put his hand to the breast pocket of his coat. Yes, it was true. He
+had been assaulted and robbed in the street.
+
+His money, his return ticket to Philadelphia, were gone, to say nothing
+of his satchel and the clothes that were in it. He looked helplessly up
+and down the street.
+
+All was quiet as it had been before. A man was coming toward him on the
+other side of the way. But that individual could have had nothing to do
+with robbing him.
+
+No, the thief had made his escape long since, and it was hopeless to
+try to overtake him.
+
+Rex had one thing with which to console himself. His watch—a silver one
+Syd had recently given him—had not been taken. He thrust his hands into
+his trousers pockets.
+
+Yes, there was some loose change there. He took it out and anxiously
+counted it under a lamp. There were seventy-three cents all told.
+
+And now the question arose, What was he to do? For one instant the
+expedient of returning to the hotel and throwing himself on the good
+will of those he had left there suggested itself to him. But only for
+an instant.
+
+The recollection of the scene he had quitted came back with all its
+vividness. No, he would not go back there.
+
+He deserved all that had befallen him. He had been a fool ever to take
+up with Harrington. The fellow had only encouraged him because it
+flattered his vanity to be looked up to the way Rex had looked up to
+the collegian.
+
+But he had no time now for self reproaches. He must decide what he
+should do.
+
+He looked at his watch. It was ten minutes to one. He did not remember
+to have been up so late in his life. But he did not feel sleepy. He was
+far too excited for that.
+
+“If I could only get back to Philadelphia,” was his thought.
+
+He knew that the single fare was two dollars and a half. What if he
+bought a ticket to a place as far as his seventy-three cents would
+carry him? He would be that much nearer home at any rate.
+
+But there were no trains at this time of night, What should he do with
+himself in the meantime? To pay for a night’s lodging would only still
+further deplete his scanty stock of cash.
+
+Poor Rex felt as destitute, as desolate as any waif in all that great
+city. He had been cared for all his life, and now that he was suddenly
+thrown upon his own resources, he felt helpless, like a rudderless bark
+on a tossing sea.
+
+For all he was much more ready to express an opinion than Roy, he had
+not half the push and energy of the latter, who, although quieter, was
+nevertheless the more determined character of the two.
+
+Rex walked on now rapidly till he reached the lighted avenue. He had
+had all the experience he wanted of lingering in the side street. He
+halted on the corner and looked up and down in search of an Elevated
+Railroad station. He thought he had better get down to where the train
+started, so that he might be ready to take the first one.
+
+The idea of telegraphing home had already occurred to him, but he
+dismissed it at once.
+
+“No,” he said, “I’ve done enough harm as it is. Some one would have to
+come on for me, and mother would worry. They’ll think now till noon
+to-morrow, and perhaps later, that I’m with Scott. Perhaps I can even
+get back before they know I haven’t been there.”
+
+If he only had his wheel! He had no clear idea of just how far the two
+cities were apart. He only knew that it hadn’t taken him very long to
+come over in the Chicago Limited.
+
+He found the station of the Elevated, and after waiting a long time he
+boarded a train. The people scattered through the cars were nearly all
+asleep. Rex dropped off himself almost as soon as he sank into a seat.
+He was utterly worn out.
+
+The next thing of which he was conscious was that the train was at a
+standstill and that the guard was shaking him, with the words:
+
+“Here, wake up, young man. We’re at the Battery. The train doesn’t go
+any farther.”
+
+Rex rubbed his eyes. It took him an instant or two to realize where he
+was.
+
+The guard was not rough with him.
+
+“Where do you want to go?” he asked.
+
+“To the Pennsylvania station,” answered Rex.
+
+“Then you’ve come too far. You ought to have got off at Cortlandt
+Street.”
+
+“Is it too far to walk back?” asked Rex, mindful of his small supply of
+money.
+
+“About three stations. You can keep along the river. It’ll be nearer
+that way.”
+
+“Thank you,” returned Rex. He wasn’t in a hurry. He might as well walk.
+But he was terribly sleepy, and when he got to the foot of the
+stairway, he became rather confused.
+
+He heard the water washing against the sea wall. He walked on in the
+direction of the sound and found himself standing at the very end of
+Manhattan Island looking toward the bay.
+
+It was very quiet except for the light splash of the waves and the soft
+sound of escaping steam from an engine overhead. Rex was not certain in
+which direction he ought to go to reach the ferry. There seemed to be
+water on both sides of him.
+
+There was nobody around of whom to inquire except a tramp or two asleep
+on one of the benches, and he did not wish to go near them. He turned
+away from the river and walked off through Battery Park till he saw a
+policeman.
+
+The latter directed him how to go, looking at him pretty sharply. Rex
+hurried off, but presently stopped under a lamp post to glance at his
+watch. It was a quarter to two. There was no need to hurry.
+
+But he was afraid to walk slow. It was very quiet along the water front
+at this time of night. He did not want to be “held up” again and lose
+his watch and what little money he had left.
+
+Here was a man coming toward him now. But he was drunk. Rex was not
+afraid of him. He was only filled with a shame that sent the color to
+his cheeks.
+
+Why was Dudley Harrington any better than this reeling sailor? And
+Harrington had been his ideal.
+
+He reached the ferry just as a boat went out. He fell asleep while
+waiting for the next one. He was awakened by one of the attendants. The
+company evidently did not intend to allow the ferry rooms to be turned
+into a free lodging house.
+
+The ticket office was not open on the New York side, so Rex just paid
+his ferriage. On reaching Jersey City he found that there was to be no
+train till 6:20 a. m.
+
+He could not sleep in the waiting room. He walked out in the streets of
+the city a little distance, but was so tired he could scarcely drag one
+foot after the other. He was so sleepy, too, that his eyes kept closing
+every minute.
+
+Then he was afraid of meeting a footpad. He did not know where to go.
+To hire a room at a hotel would take all his money. And yet he could
+not walk the streets all night.
+
+Ah, he was being well punished for all his sins! And where had been the
+“good time” for which he had been willing to commit them?
+
+He thought of Roy asleep in his comfortable bed at home. When should he
+(Rex) ever be able to feel as cosy in mind as this twin brother of his
+must? For even if he did succeed in getting home without something
+terrible befalling him, there remained his confession to make.
+
+For he must tell everything. He had made up his mind to that.
+
+But this was in the future. Meantime the present must be provided for.
+He turned and walked back to the ferry.
+
+If he could only lie down somewhere, he thought.
+
+There was a boat just starting out. He paid his three cents and went
+aboard. He fell asleep almost as soon as he touched the seat. A man
+came through when they reached New York, woke him up and made him get
+off.
+
+But he was reckless now. He walked out to the street, but immediately
+turned about again, paid another ferriage and walked on the boat, where
+he instantly fell asleep once more.
+
+And he kept this up till half-past five, when it began to grow light.
+Then he went ashore to the station in Jersey City and bought some
+fruit, which he ate for his breakfast.
+
+By that time the ticket office was open and he went up to the agent and
+asked how far he could ride for fifty cents.
+
+The man looked at him closely for a minute.
+
+“Which way?” he inquired then.
+
+“I want to go to Philadelphia,” Rex answered frankly. All his pride had
+gone now. “I’ve only got fifty cents to spend on the ride, though. I
+want to get as close to it as I can.”
+
+The agent named a town and passed out a ticket.
+
+When the cars were opened Rex lost no time in settling himself in a
+seat. He put his ticket in his hat and went to sleep at once.
+
+The result was that he was carried past his stopping place, and the
+station at which he was set off was a few miles nearer Philadelphia
+than he had hoped to get. But the brakeman told him that the Quaker
+City was still fifty miles away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+THE CRISIS
+
+
+“Fifty miles!”
+
+Rex repeated these words to himself as he stood on the platform of the
+station and looked after the swiftly vanishing cars.
+
+How soon that train would cover them! It seemed such a simple thing to
+stay on board and be carried there, so cruel to be left behind simply
+for the lack of a little more money.
+
+It was still quite early in the morning. People were coming down to
+take the train to the city. They had all been in their beds and had a
+good night’s sleep doubtless. They were much better fitted for a long
+tramp than was he, who had not been to bed at all.
+
+But he must set off at once. He asked the baggage man to tell him the
+road to Philadelphia.
+
+“Sure, there it is, in front of you,” replied the other, pointing to
+the gleaming steel rails.
+
+“No, no; I mean the carriage road,” returned Rex.
+
+The man looked surprised, but gave him directions how to find it, and
+presently Rex was tramping down its dusty length.
+
+“But I can never get there by to-night, nor by to-morrow night either,”
+he kept saying to himself. “And I shall have to eat, and my money will
+not hold out till then.”
+
+Again he thought of telegraphing—this time to Sydney. But where should
+he stay while he was waiting for the answer? Then he remembered how ill
+Syd still looked, and he recalled the doctor’s inquiry that afternoon
+in the office as to whether he had had a shock.
+
+No; he must leave telegraphing as the very last resort of all.
+
+He trudged on, and presently saw a tramp coming towards him.
+
+“Good morning,” said the fellow, halting where he came up. “What time
+is it, boss?”
+
+Rex had just looked at his watch, so without taking it out he told the
+time.
+
+The man took a step closer to him, but just then a cloud of dust
+appeared in the road, and a buggy came into view. The tramp moved on
+without a word.
+
+This incident did not tend to make Rex any more comfortable in mind.
+And now his body was beginning to rebel.
+
+His stomach felt light, his heart heavy, and his limbs appeared to be
+weighted with lead. Coming to a spot where trees grew by the roadside
+he halted and stretched himself on the grass to rest.
+
+He was no longer sleepy, but so tired. He felt that he was going to be
+ill.
+
+The thought terrified him. Sick out here on the highway, only a few
+cents in his pockets, and not a friend anywhere about!
+
+It was growing hot and he was getting hungry. His breakfast had been a
+very light one. The last regular meal he had eaten was on the Chicago
+Limited. How long ago that seemed now!
+
+He took out his money and counted it over. There was but sixteen cents
+left. He felt that he could eat that much worth for his very next meal.
+
+There seemed to be no way out of it but to telegraph home, and he had
+better do it, he decided, before he was too ill to attend to it.
+
+But there was no place now from which to send a message. He must keep
+on till he came to the next town.
+
+He rose to his feet and had taken but a few steps when some one came up
+from behind and touched him on the shoulder.
+
+He turned quickly, in fear of another tramp. It was a tramp truly, but
+a mere boy, not much older than himself. He was very pale and sickly
+looking, his clothes were torn in two or three places and his shoes
+were worn clear down to the uppers.
+
+He did not speak. He stood there looking at Rex, amazement depicted in
+his gaze.
+
+“I—I made a mistake,” he stammered out at last “I thought you were one
+of us. I saw you lying down there under the tree. Your shoes were all
+dusty. I knew you’d been tramping.”
+
+But Rex did not feel astonished. He felt so ill and faint that his head
+swam, and he began to totter.
+
+“I’ll have to lie down again, I guess,” he said weakly.
+
+He had just time to move aside out of the dust when he fell like a log.
+
+“What’s the matter? Are you sick?”
+
+The shabby looking youth had dropped to one knee beside Rex and was
+looking down at him with pitying eyes.
+
+“Yes,” was all Rex had strength to murmur.
+
+Then he closed his eyes and did not care what became of him. The
+strange lad let his other knee sink to the earth and remained in this
+attitude for several minutes, gazing earnestly at Rex.
+
+“Poor chap,” he muttered. “I can’t make out what he’s doing tramping
+the country this way. He don’t look poor. What’ll I do with him?”
+
+The first thing to be done, evidently, was to get him out of the sun,
+which beat down on the spot where he had fallen with fierce intensity.
+
+The stranger bent over, and exerting all his strength lifted Rex in his
+arms and bore him back along the road to the grassy strip under the
+trees where he had recently been lying.
+
+Rex opened his eyes for an instant when he felt himself raised from the
+ground. Then, when he saw the pity in the plain face looking down into
+his, he closed them again with a little sigh.
+
+And now once more the strange youth sat contemplating the boy, who
+seemed to be a tramper like himself, but who, in every other respect,
+was so vastly different.
+
+He noted the fine, delicately chiseled features, the smallness of his
+feet, the whiteness and smoothness of his hands. He had seen boys like
+this before, but he had never before touched one, never had one of them
+dependent on him, as it were, as this fellow appeared to be now.
+
+Miles Harding did not know just what to do with the responsibility. And
+yet he was happy at having it; he felt glad that he had been able to do
+that little thing of carrying the boy from the sun into the shade.
+
+It was not often that he was able to do anything for anybody. He was
+always in need of having something done for himself.
+
+He tried to think of something else he might do. He noticed that Rex’s
+head did not seem to rest very comfortably.
+
+He took off his coat and started to make a roll of it for a pillow. But
+he stopped when he had it half finished.
+
+“Maybe he wouldn’t like that,” he muttered, looking down at the garment
+as he unrolled it again.
+
+It had been made for a man. There were rents in two places and
+plentiful sprinklings of grease spots.
+
+The day was growing steadily warmer. Even under the tree one felt the
+heat.
+
+“He wouldn’t catch cold without his own,” Miles murmured, and he bent
+over Rex and lifted him gently while he tried to take off his coat.
+
+Rex opened his eyes and looked at him again as if in protest.
+
+“I was going to make a pillow for you out of your coat,” Miles
+explained. “You don’t feel able to walk till we get to a house, do
+you?”
+
+Rex slowly shook his head. He was in that condition which sometimes
+comes to those in seasickness, when he didn’t care whether he lived or
+died.
+
+“Have you got pain?” went on Miles.
+
+“Only when I walk,” answered Rex; then, as if talking, too, hurt him,
+he closed his eyes and sank back upon the pillow the other made for him
+out of his coat.
+
+Meantime clouds had been gathering in the west. Miles had been too much
+occupied with his unexpected charge to notice them. But now he looked
+up and saw the threatening aspect of the heavens with troubled
+countenance.
+
+He rose to his feet and strode out into the middle of the road, looking
+first in one direction, then the other.
+
+His eye brightened as he saw a buggy coming from the westward.
+
+He watched impatiently, till it came up, and then saw that it contained
+two men. He held up his hand as a signal for them to stop. But the
+driver, who had been talking earnestly with his companion, cut the
+horse with his whip, shook his head and drove on.
+
+Miles remained there, standing in the road, a hopeless droop coming
+over his whole figure.
+
+“They think I want to beg of them, I suppose,” he told himself. “What
+shall I do?”
+
+Already the sun had gone under the cloud masses and the air was much
+cooler. The wind rose and began to rustle the leaves.
+
+Quite a distance off down the road, in the direction whence the buggy
+had come, the red tops of two chimneys could be seen peeping above the
+trees.
+
+“He can’t stay here in the rain,” Miles muttered. “I must try to get
+him to that house.”
+
+He turned to Rex again. He took the coat from under his head and made
+him put it on.
+
+“It’s going to storm,” he said, “I’m going to carry you to that house.”
+
+“You can’t,” was all Rex had strength to say.
+
+“I’m going to try,” returned Miles, and he gathered Rex up in his arms
+just as the wind came sweeping down upon them in a gust that was
+ominous of that which was to follow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+MILES HARDING
+
+
+It was physically impossible for Miles Harding to carry Rex very far
+without stopping to rest. The life of a tramp, with insufficient
+nourishment, was not calculated to strengthen the long arms which could
+easily wrap themselves about the other boy, but had little power to
+retain him in their embrace.
+
+But Miles fought to do his best. He only consented to stop and deposit
+his burden on the grass when he felt that, did he not do so, he would
+be compelled to drop it.
+
+Then, after resting a moment or two, he would be off again.
+
+“Don’t; you will strain yourself,” Rex whispered once, protestingly.
+
+But Miles’s only answer was, “I must. You can’t be out here in the
+storm.”
+
+In this way they progressed until they had nearly reached the house.
+Then the rain began to come down in torrents.
+
+Miles made a last desperate effort. Picking Rex up, he ran the
+intervening distance, although it was twice as far as he usually bore
+his burden without stopping.
+
+He dashed in at the gate and then, so exhausted was he that he sank
+down beside Rex when he deposited the latter on the floor of the
+piazza. He lay there breathing hard, while the rain came down in
+sheets.
+
+He had not even strength to turn his head when he heard the screen door
+behind him open and some one come out.
+
+“Who—who are you and what do you want?”
+
+The question was put by a very sweet girlish voice. And the girl who
+put it was herself exceedingly pretty.
+
+She had opened the door that led out from the wide, breezy hall, and
+stepped upon the piazza. She now looked down upon the two boys lying
+there with undisguised astonishment.
+
+Then she came around so that Miles could see her.
+
+“I beg your pardon, miss,” he said, stopping between every three or
+four words to take breath; “I wanted to get—him out of the—rain. This
+was the nearest—house. I hope you don’t mind.”
+
+“Is he ill?” she asked.
+
+Rex’s face was turned partly towards her. It was very pale now, but
+Florence Raynor was thinking also how very handsome it was and in what
+contrast to that of the fellow who had answered her.
+
+“Yes, he’s very sick, I’m afraid,” replied Miles.
+
+“Is he your brother?” went on Florence.
+
+“Oh, no; just—a friend.”
+
+Miles hesitated before he added the last word; then when he had said it
+a look of pride came into his eyes for an instant.
+
+“I’ll call mother,” said the girl, and she hurried off to the kitchen,
+where Mrs. Raynor was making cake.
+
+“Oh, mama,” she exclaimed, “the noise I heard was two tramps who had
+come in on our piazza out of the rain. At least one of them is a tramp,
+and the other is the nicest looking boy, about the age of our Bert.
+He’s sick and just as pale! But he’s dressed very well, and I can’t
+understand how they came to be together. Won’t you come out and see
+them, please?”
+
+Mrs. Raynor scraped the dough from her lingers and followed her
+daughter to the front porch. Miles had gone over to take Rex’s head on
+his knee and was softly stroking the hair back from the damp forehead.
+
+“Oh, yes; the poor fellow is very ill,” Mrs. Raynor exclaimed as soon
+as she saw him.
+
+She scarcely gave a glance at Miles. She stood for one instant as if
+thinking deeply. Then with a resolved tone, she turned to Harding.
+
+“Can you help me get him up stairs and in bed?” she asked.
+
+“I guess so, ma’am,” Miles replied. “I’ve got my breath back now. I
+have to carry him, you know. You’re awfully good to take him in this
+way.”
+
+“One must be terribly hard hearted to turn away one in his condition.
+Come.”
+
+Between them they lifted Rex and bore him into the house and up the
+broad, easy stairs to a little room at the head of them.
+
+“We must get these wet clothes off at once,” said Mrs. Raynor, and
+Miles stayed there to help her.
+
+They put him to bed, and then the good lady declared that they ought to
+have a doctor.
+
+“Let me go for one,” Miles exclaimed. “I want to do something for him.”
+
+Mrs. Raynor, now that Rex no longer absorbed her entire attention,
+turned her gaze on his companion. Miles colored beneath it.
+
+“Perhaps you don’t think I’m fit to go?” he said slowly.
+
+It was Mrs. Raynor’s turn to color now. She saw that this fellow, so
+shabbily dressed, was of very sensitive nature. A happy way of turning
+the thing off occurred to her.
+
+“You are wet, too,” she said. “And it is raining still. I will have the
+man from the barn go.”
+
+She hurried off down stairs to call him. Miles lingered, looking toward
+the bed, where lay the fellow who had attracted him so strongly.
+
+“I s’pose they don’t want me hanging around here any longer,” he mused.
+“They can do everything for him there is to be done. But I don’t want
+to leave him.”
+
+Miles Harding’s nature was a singular one for a boy brought up as he
+had been. Thrown upon his own resources when he was hardly more than
+twelve, he had received some pretty hard knocks from the world. But the
+hardness of these had not cultivated, a like hardness in him whom they
+struck.
+
+His temperament had always been a sympathetic one. He had many times
+received harsh treatment that would never have come to him, by seeking
+to protect some persecuted cat or dog.
+
+Thus far the recipient of his kindly ministrations had always been some
+dumb animal. Now that the opportunity had offered to extend these to a
+human being, Miles was loath to put it aside.
+
+“What a nice fellow he is!” he murmured. “I wonder where he belongs!”
+
+Just then Florence came to the door. The thought instantly flashed into
+Miles’s brain that she had been sent there to see that he did not steal
+anything.
+
+But he was accustomed to being the object of such suspicions. And yet,
+somehow, the idea that he should be, hurt him more than usual on the
+present occasion.
+
+“My mother would like to see you down stairs,” said Florence. “I will
+stay here with him.”
+
+Miles went down and found Mrs. Raynor at the foot of the stairway.
+
+“It has just occurred to me,” she said, “that you may think it best to
+send to the home of this young man. Who is he?”
+
+A troubled look came over Miles’s face. He feared that what he was
+about to say would settle the matter once for all about his being
+allowed to stay with the fellow up stairs. But he had to tell the
+truth.
+
+“I don’t know his name,” he answered. “I fell in with him on the road.
+But I’d so much like to do something for him. You are sure there is
+nothing I can do?”
+
+“You have already done a great deal for him,” returned Mrs. Raynor,
+“if, as I understand, you carried him in here out of the rain. And you
+haven’t any idea where he belongs?”
+
+“No, I saw him lying on the grass as I was walking along the road. I
+was going to Trenton to try and get a job in the potteries there. But
+I’d like to find out how he gets along.”
+
+“You shall. Sit down on the porch here while I take your coat in and
+hang it by the stove to dry. I’ll send Tim for the doctor at once.”
+
+When Mrs. Raynor returned up stairs a little later, Florence met her at
+the door of her brother’s room, where Rex had been carried, Bert being
+away at boarding school.
+
+“He’s very sick, don’t you think, mama?” she asked.
+
+“I’m afraid so, my dear. I want to do all I can for him. I can’t help
+thinking how grateful I should be to have any one do as much for our
+Bert.”
+
+“And see what nice clothes he wears,” went on Florence in the same
+whispering tone. “How do you suppose he ever got into association with
+that fellow down stairs?”
+
+“Hush, dear,” cautioned her mother. “Behind those poor clothes is a
+very warm heart.”
+
+“But is he going to stay, too?” went on Florence.
+
+“He wants to. Perhaps we can find something for him to do about the
+garden.”
+
+“Do you think he’s honest, though?”
+
+“We must run our chances on that. He is certainly very different from
+most fellows of his appearance.”
+
+The doctor arrived inside of an hour. He made an examination and then
+reported that Rex was in for a bad case of intermittent fever.
+
+“He may not be able to be moved for six weeks,” he added.
+
+And Rex knew nothing of it, but began to toss in the delirium of his
+fever, living over again some of the bitter experiences of the past few
+hours.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+SEARCHING FOR REX
+
+
+“What train did Rex say he would be back on, Roy?”
+
+This was the question asked by Mrs. Pell at the breakfast table on the
+morning that Rex was trudging along the dusty road between New York and
+Philadelphia.
+
+“He didn’t say,” replied Roy. “He’ll surely be home by lunch, though.
+Scott is going to West Chester with his mother at noon.”
+
+Lunch hour arrived and still no Reginald. But Mrs. Pell did not worry.
+He had so many friends in Marley that there were plenty of places where
+he might have gone from the Bowmans’.
+
+But when dinner time came and he had not yet appeared, the entire
+family began to speculate on the reasons for it.
+
+“He’s probably at the Minturns,” said Sydney, when informed of the
+facts. “Charlie may have persuaded him to stay over another night with
+him.”
+
+“Rex should have sent us word then,” rejoined his mother.
+
+Another day passed, and by this time Mrs. Pell began to grow seriously
+alarmed.
+
+“You must go down to Marley the first thing in the morning, Roy,” she
+said.
+
+And Roy went, repairing first to the Bowmans’. He found Scott just
+about to take his mother out in his cart.
+
+“What have you done with that brother of mine?” Roy began when
+greetings had been exchanged.
+
+“And I’d like to know why that brother of yours doesn’t permit himself
+to be heard from,” returned Scott promptly. “He didn’t show up
+Wednesday night nor send me any message explaining why he didn’t come.”
+
+“Didn’t come?” echoed Roy. “Do you mean to say that Rex hasn’t been
+here?”
+
+“Of course he hasn’t, and I think it mighty shabby of him.”
+
+“Why, that’s the queerest thing I ever heard of,” said Roy slowly.
+
+“Why is it?”
+
+“Because he started to come down here Wednesday afternoon by the 5:30
+express.”
+
+“He did?”
+
+It was now Scott’s turn to look astonished.
+
+“And you say he never got here?” went on Roy.
+
+“Of course he didn’t. You don’t suppose we have him smuggled away
+somewhere, do you?”
+
+“Haven’t you any idea where your brother is?” here interrupted Mrs.
+Bowman.
+
+“We were sure he was here, somewhere in Marley,” answered Roy. “But he
+can’t be, if he didn’t come to you first.”
+
+“What could have happened to the fellow?” said Scott, beginning to see
+that the matter was more serious than he had at first supposed.
+
+“I can’t imagine. It’s the strangest thing I ever heard of.” Roy looked
+really worried. “I thought he might possibly be at the Minturns’, but
+he wouldn’t have gone there till he had been here.”
+
+“Let down that seat behind, jump in, and I’ll drive you over there,”
+said Scott.
+
+But Charlie had not seen or heard from Rex in ten days, nor was news to
+be obtained of him from any other of his Marley friends. Roy went home
+seriously alarmed.
+
+He hated to bring such a report to his mother, but he knew it would be
+better that she should be informed of all the facts.
+
+She was somewhat stunned at first at the tidings, but quickly rallied.
+
+“We must find him,” she said. “Something has happened to him. Did you
+think to ask Apgar if he remembered seeing Rex on his train Wednesday
+night?”
+
+Apgar was the conductor on the 5:30 express.
+
+“No, I’ll go down to the station and ask him this afternoon before he
+goes out.”
+
+Roy returned with the announcement that Apgar was sure Rex had not been
+on his train.
+
+“Then there is only one other theory.” Mrs. Pell looked very grave as
+she spoke.
+
+“What is that, mother?”
+
+She did not reply at once. Reginald was very dear to her. She hated to
+expose his failings even to his own brother. But it must be done.
+
+“You remember, Roy,” she went on, “how he teased me to let him go to
+New Haven with young Harrington? It is possible he may have gone after
+all. I wish you would go in next door and see if you can find out.”
+
+Roy instantly recalled the three dollars Rex had borrowed from him, but
+he said nothing of it. He went at once to make his call next door.
+
+He asked for Mrs. Harrington, telling the servant that he wished to see
+her on a matter of importance. He sent up his name, Roy Pell.
+
+“You are the young man my son speaks of,” said Mrs. Harrington when she
+appeared in the great drawing room, and put up her lorgnette to survey
+her caller.
+
+“No, that is Reginald, my brother. I called in to find out if he went
+off to New Haven with your son.”
+
+“What! you know nothing of his whereabouts yourselves?”
+
+Mrs. Harrington did not seek to conceal her surprise. Roy felt
+humiliated, but there was nothing for it but to admit the fact.
+
+“We are afraid he may have gone off without my mother’s leave,” he
+said. “He was very anxious to go with your son. He had an invitation to
+go down to Marley the same day. We thought he had gone, but we find now
+that he has not been there.”
+
+“Your mother did not wish him to go with Dudley, you say?”
+
+There was a trace of severity in Mrs. Harrington’s tones.
+
+“She thought he had better not. He is much older than Rex. Do you know
+whether or not they went off together?”
+
+“I heard Dudley say something about having invited young Pell to go to
+New Haven with him. They went to the station together.”
+
+“Then Rex must have gone. I am very sorry to have troubled you, Mrs.
+Harrington.” Roy now made a little bow, and he hurried off.
+
+“Then he wanted that three dollars from me to spend on the trip,” he
+was saying to himself. “But that wouldn’t have been enough. He must
+have used the money he said he was saving up for mother’s present. Ah,
+Reggie, I didn’t think it of you!”
+
+When he told the news at home there was a good deal of discussion
+concerning what ought to be done about it.
+
+“Let him alone,” suggested Jess. “He feels bad enough about it by this
+time.”
+
+“But I don’t know when he will be back,” said Mrs. Pell.
+
+Eva suggested that they write him a letter in care of young Harrington
+and request him to come home at once, but it was Sydney’s idea that was
+acted on.
+
+A telegraphic dispatch was sent to Dudley Harrington, Yale, New Haven.
+
+“Is Reginald Pell with you?” it ran.
+
+The answer came duly, “No, he is not.”
+
+The family looked at one another, consternation depicted in their
+faces. Sydney tried to comfort them by explaining that doubtless
+Harrington was inclined to be very literal under the circumstances and
+that Rex was not with him because he had just started for home.
+
+But Mrs. Pell was not content to rest under this uncertainty. Another
+message was sent to New Haven reading thus:
+
+“Did Reginald Pell start away from Philadelphia with you?”
+
+The response to this was one word, “Yes.”
+
+The Pells were now really alarmed. It was decided that Sydney should
+start the first thing: Saturday morning for New Haven, but Friday night
+he was seized with another of his bad turns, which had been growing
+more and more frequent of late. Roy offered to go in his place, and
+Mrs. Pell consented to the substitution.
+
+So Roy set out and reached New Haven in the course of the afternoon. He
+would have enjoyed the trip if his mind had not been so worried about
+Rex. He found Harrington’s room with little trouble.
+
+He heard the notes of the banjo issuing from inside. He had to knock
+hard before he could make himself heard.
+
+There were three fellows there, two of them in the luxuriously
+cushioned window seat. Roy was a little dazzled by the unexpected
+splendor of the room.
+
+He knew Harrington, of course, the fellow in the blue striped blazer.
+He went up to the collegian at once.
+
+“I guess you know me,” he said. “I’m Roy Pell, Rex’s brother. I came up
+to find out what you could tell me about him.”
+
+The three fellows exchanged glances.
+
+“Why, isn’t he home?” answered Harrington.
+
+“No. When did he leave New Haven?”
+
+“He hasn’t been to New Haven,” replied Harrington slowly.
+
+“Not been here!” exclaimed Roy. “Where did you leave him, then?”
+
+“In New York.”
+
+“When?”
+
+“Wednesday night”
+
+“Was he going home?”
+
+“I don’t know,” and Harrington looked confused as he made this
+unsatisfactory answer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+A TELEGRAM
+
+
+Roy saw at a glance that something was being concealed from him.
+
+“How is it you don’t know where Rex went when he left you?” he
+inquired.
+
+“Well, I didn’t see which way he went when he left the hotel,” answered
+Harrington. “I supposed though, he went home, and am surprised to hear
+he isn’t there. Atkins, here, may be able to tell you more than I can.
+Mr. Atkins, this is Roy Pell, Reggie’s brother.”
+
+The pleasantest faced fellow in the room came forward and put out his
+hand.
+
+“I’m glad to meet you, Pell,” he said, “and wish I could give you some
+definite information about your brother. I thought with Harri here that
+he was certainly at home.” He glanced over at the other two, who were
+softly strumming their banjoes in the window seat. “Come across the
+hall into my room,” he added.
+
+“Good day, Mr. Harrington,” called out Roy, and followed Atkins.
+
+He could see that Harrington was relieved to have him go.
+
+“Now I’ll tell you the straight of it, Pell,” began Atkins, when he had
+invited his visitor to make himself comfortable in one of the many
+lounging chairs with which the apartment abounded. “You see, Harrington
+brought your brother to one of the pre-term time jollifications some of
+the fellows think they must have before coming up here. I was there. I
+didn’t care about going very much, but my room mate would go, and I
+went to take care of him more than anything else.
+
+“Well, all the fellows except your brother and myself were more than
+half seas over before midnight. He became disgusted and got out. I was
+busy with Cheever, and didn’t have time to question him. Naturally
+Harrington feels a little sore over the thing. But he hadn’t any idea
+your brother hadn’t gone home till he got your telegrams.”
+
+“But Rex—where do you suppose he is all this time?” Roy was terribly
+anxious. The whole affair was much worse than he had anticipated.
+
+He was glad of one thing, though; that Rex had been disgusted with the
+orgy.
+
+“I wish I could tell you,” answered Atkins. “I managed to get Cheever
+over to our house before morning. I don’t know what Harrington said
+about young Pell’s disappearance when he came to himself.”
+
+“What did Reggie want to go with such fellows for?” groaned Roy. “But
+the wonder to me is why Harrington ever took him up. There must be at
+least five years’ difference in their ages.”
+
+“Oh, Harri appeared to be quite fond of him. I guess your brother
+flattered him some. Dudley can stand a deal of that.”
+
+“But I must find Rex. I’m sure he hadn’t money enough to keep him all
+this while. And I don’t know where to look first.”
+
+“I wish I could help you,” returned Atkins. “I tell you what I’ll do.
+I’ll get ready now and go down to New York with you. You can come to
+our house and stay over Sunday with me. My father is a lawyer. He may
+be able to tell us what to do. What do you say?”
+
+“You’re awfully kind,” returned Roy. “But I don’t like to intrude.”
+
+“It won’t be intruding. The pater likes me to bring fellows with me. I
+wasn’t going this week, but that won’t matter. He’ll be glad to see me.
+You’ll come, won’t you?”
+
+Roy thanked him again and accepted. He liked the genial hearted fellow
+as much as Rex had done.
+
+On the way down Atkins told him of the devices for disposing of the
+punch.
+
+“You don’t suppose the glass he drank went to his head so as to do him
+any injury, do you?” asked Roy.
+
+Atkins reassured him on this point, and then suggested that they had
+better go to the hotel where the jollification had been held to see if
+any trace of Rex could be obtained there.
+
+But the clerk informed them that no such person had hired a room.
+
+That evening they discussed the matter with Judge Atkins without
+telling the details of the jollification, which doubtless he was astute
+enough to guess at. The result was that messages were sent to all the
+police precincts, and a detective was put on the case.
+
+Roy sent a telegram to his mother Saturday night making it as hopeful
+as he could, but his own heart was growing heavier and heavier.
+
+Atkins did his best to cheer him up, and under other circumstances Roy
+would have had a most enjoyable time. But he could not keep his
+thoughts from Rex.
+
+He went home on Monday, fearful of the meeting with his mother. He felt
+at times as if the worst news, if it might be but definite, would be
+better to carry home than those tidings he must take, which would keep
+them all in such awful suspense.
+
+Sydney had recovered, but the shock of Roy’s announcement threw him
+back into a relapse. And yet he insisted on seeing Roy.
+
+“Mr. Tyler’s money has not made us happy after all, has it, Roy?” he
+said, after the sad affair had been talked over.
+
+“I was afraid that it wouldn’t, Syd. Still, this might have happened
+just the same. You have not been well though, old fellow, since that
+night you came over to Burdock to make the old man’s will.”
+
+“Have you noticed that, Roy?” said Sydney quickly.
+
+“Yes, it seems, as you say, that we must pay up for having the money in
+some way. But where can poor Rex be? I wonder if he is ashamed or
+afraid to come home?”
+
+Anxiously the reports from the detectives were awaited. But when they
+came they were only depressing. Positively no trace of the missing boy
+could be found.
+
+Advertisements were inserted in the New York and Philadelphia papers,
+but nothing came of them. The family were by this time well nigh
+distracted. They had not even the poor satisfaction of mourning the
+lost as one dead. They could only wait and hope, but as the days passed
+into a week, this last seemed futile.
+
+The time came for school to open, but Roy had little heart to go alone.
+Still, he must attend to his education.
+
+The first week of it dragged slowly by. Some of his Marley friends
+wanted him to come down there and spend his Saturday.
+
+He had not yet decided Friday night whether he wanted to go, when the
+door bell rang, and a messenger appeared with a telegram for Roy Pell.
+
+It was dated at some town in Jersey of which he had never heard, and
+was very brief, but the one word signed to it was worth a hundred
+lines, for that name was “Rex.”
+
+“All safe. Will write soon.”
+
+That was all, and when he read it to the family, the wild exclamations
+of joy were succeeded by perplexed impatience.
+
+“Why didn’t he tell us where to find him?” Eva wanted to know.
+
+“Why didn’t he send word to mother?” added Jess.
+
+“Why does he not explain his long silence?” said Mrs. Fell fearing the
+worst.
+
+Sydney was away at Harrisburg, and Roy decided that instead of going to
+Marley the following day, he would find out where this New Jersey town
+was and hunt up Rex at once.
+
+Mrs. Pell wanted to go with him, but Roy reminded her that he might
+have considerable difficulty in tracing Rex, so it was decided that she
+wait until she heard from him.
+
+From a railroad time table Roy ascertained where he must go, and by the
+first train he could get in the morning he set out.
+
+“Be very gentle with him, Roy,” his mother said at parting. “By his
+sending to you he evidently thinks I am greatly displeased with him.”
+
+“Trust me, mother,” Roy assured her with a smile.
+
+He felt very happy this morning, happier than he had, it seemed to him,
+since they had come into their fortune. Of such worth is sorrow
+sometimes, to make a contrast by which to intensify joy.
+
+On arriving at his destination he went to the man in the ticket office
+and put the following inquiry:
+
+“Do you know anybody in the place named Reginald Pell?”
+
+“No,” was the reply. “Has he lived here long?”
+
+“No, he doesn’t really live here. He’s my twin brother, you see, and I
+have a telegram from him, but he didn’t say where he was staying. Is
+this a very big place?”
+
+The ticket agent smiled. “Well, it isn’t exactly a metropolis,” he
+said.
+
+“Thank you,” responded Roy, and he walked out of the rear door toward
+the dusty road, thinking he was not going to have such an easy job to
+find Rex after all, if he was in the town where he was supposed to be.
+
+The station was built at a little distance from the town proper. Roy
+walked on along a board walk until he came to the first house, one of
+those white, green shuttered affairs whose number is legion in the
+rural districts.
+
+A woman without a hat on was sweeping the leaves from the path that led
+down to the gate. The lines about her mouth were rather stern, but Roy
+made up his mind to begin with her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+FOUND AT LAST
+
+
+“Excuse me,” began Roy, leaning over the gate and taking off his broad
+brimmed straw hat, “do you know a boy named Rex Pell?”
+
+He had decided that this would be the shortest way of getting at
+things.
+
+The woman looked up quickly, resting her chin on the top of her broom
+handle.
+
+“Do you think I look as if I knew much about boys?” she replied. “Well,
+I don’t and I don’t want to.”
+
+“Excuse me,” said Roy, and he hurried on, glad to get away.
+
+The next house was a larger one. There was a good deal of piazza around
+it and some pretensions were made at keeping the lawn in good
+condition.
+
+Roy’s knock at the door was answered so promptly that he was fain to
+believe that some one must have been peeping through the shutters
+watching his approach.
+
+A tall woman with light hair received him very effusively.
+
+“I’ve been expecting you,” she said, with an expansive smile. “I
+thought you’d come on that train.”
+
+“This must be the place,” thought Roy. “She knows Rex sent the dispatch
+and thought some of us would come on.”
+
+“I suppose you’d like to go straight up stairs?” she continued, when
+she had taken his hat and hung it on the stand in the hall.
+
+“Yes, I would,” and Roy’s heart sank.
+
+Rex must be sick, he decided, and not able to leave his bed. He
+followed the light haired woman to the floor above, where she threw
+open the door of a room with a sort of flourish.
+
+Roy halted on the threshold. There was a double bed inside, but nobody
+on it nor was anybody to be seen in the apartment.
+
+“Where is my brother?” he asked.
+
+“Your brother?” exclaimed the woman. “I did not understand that there
+were two of you. Your father’s letter mentioned only one son. Wait, I
+will get—”
+
+“No, there must be some mistake,” Roy interposed. “I thought my
+brother, Rex Pell, might be here.”
+
+“What, you are not Eric Levens, then?”
+
+“No, indeed, and don’t you know anything about my brother? I am so
+sorry.”
+
+“I thought you were the young gentleman I expected who was to look at
+this room to see whether he liked it well enough to stay while his
+father went to Europe. But why are you sorry that I do not know
+anything about your brother? Have you lost him?”
+
+“In a sort of a way, yes,” and Roy told his story, or as much of it as
+he could, without bringing in the fact of Rex’s having run away from
+home.
+
+“Oh, I guess I can help you,” exclaimed the woman, when he had
+finished. “Maybe he is the young fellow who is staying at the Raynors’.
+I heard about it last Sunday at church.”
+
+“About _it?_ About what?”
+
+Roy’s face grew pale. The woman looked a little uncomfortable.
+
+“Don’t be too anxious,” she replied. “He must be better now if he could
+send a message. But he’s had the intermittent fever. He was found on
+the piazza of the house one rainy evening about ten days ago by
+Florence Raynor. A trampish looking young fellow had carried him in out
+of the wet, and they say he’s been devoted to him ever since.”
+
+“Where do the Raynors live?” asked Roy, already impatient to be off.
+
+“Come here to the window and I can show you the house. It is clear at
+the end of this street beyond all the others. You can just see the
+chimneys above the trees.”
+
+Roy was soon hurrying away in the direction pointed out.
+
+Although he feared that Rex might have been ill, the certainty of it
+made his heart very sore for his brother.
+
+“Sick among strangers!” was his thought. “I wish mother had come with
+me.”
+
+A young girl was reading on the piazza when he opened the gate and
+walked up the path between the box hedges.
+
+“Is my brother Rex here?” he said, pausing at the foot of the steps,
+his hat in his hand.
+
+She had raised her head as the gate latch clicked, and now their eyes
+met. Even in that moment Roy noted how very pretty she was.
+
+“You are the Roy that he sent the telegram to?” she exclaimed. Then
+paused suddenly, and blushed.
+
+“Yes, I’m Roy, and I’ve had a hard time to find him. How is he?”
+
+“He’s better. He was asleep just now. If you will come in I will call
+mother.”
+
+“Rex has certainly fallen into good hands,” thought Roy when he was
+left alone.
+
+Mrs. Raynor came out in a moment and greeted Roy most cordially.
+
+“I’m glad you came,” she said. “It will do your brother good to see
+you,”
+
+“You’ve been very, very kind to him,” answered Roy.
+
+“No; it wasn’t any trouble, because we all took to him so. It was a
+pleasure to do for him.”
+
+“But why didn’t he let us know before where he was?” asked Roy.
+
+“Bless you, he only knew himself yesterday. He’s had a hard tug of it,
+and not a scrap or a card could we find about him, only the letters R.
+B. P. P, on his linen.”
+
+“Then he’s been out of his head?”
+
+“Yes; and you must be prepared to find him greatly changed. But he’ll
+come around again all right, the doctor says. I’ll go up now and see if
+he is awake and call you.”
+
+The summons to ascend came a few minutes later, and presently Roy found
+himself standing by his brother’s bedside. Mrs. Raynor considerately
+withdrew and left the two together, warning them that she should be
+back in ten minutes to prevent her patient from becoming unduly
+excited.
+
+Rex had changed. There was no longer any plumpness in his cheeks, and
+his face was very white. But so were his teeth, and his eyes were as
+lustrous as ever.
+
+“Roy!” He uttered the one word in a weak voice, and held tightly in
+both of his the hands that his brother extended to him.
+
+A moment of the precious ten was lost to silence as the two looked at
+each other, but in that look was that which hours of speech could not
+have expressed. Roy read in it true repentance, a pleading for
+forgiveness, and Rex saw that there was no chiding for him from those
+at home, only love and pity.
+
+“Do you know all, Roy; the very worst?” Rex then whispered.
+
+“Don’t think of that now, Reggie. It is all right. I want to talk about
+yourself—your sickness.”
+
+“But I must think of it. I have been thinking of it ever since I came
+to my senses yesterday. Did you know that I told you lies, that I acted
+them, that I took the money I had been saving up for mother’s present
+to pay the expenses of this wretched trip?”
+
+“But you didn’t go all the way, Reggie. I found that out. You turned
+back. What happened to you then?”
+
+Rex told the terrible tale of the robbery, of the awful night he had
+passed riding back and forth across the river, and had got as far as
+his falling asleep on the train when Mrs. Raynor appeared and smilingly
+announced that time was up.
+
+“Miles will tell you the rest, Roy,” said Rex. “He’s the best fellow. I
+don’t know what would have become of me if it hadn’t been for him. And
+Mrs. Raynor, too. When I get well they must all come to Philadelphia
+and we’ll give them the very best time.”
+
+There was a touch of his old self in the heartiness with which he
+uttered these words. Roy’s coming and comforting words had lifted a
+heavy burden from his heart.
+
+They left him to try to get to sleep again. Roy went down stairs with
+Mrs. Raynor.
+
+“I ought to go home at once and tell my mother about Rex,” he said.
+
+“Why not send a message and stay with him?” suggested the other. “We
+should be very glad to have you. There is plenty of room in the house.
+Or send word for your mother to come on. I know she must be anxious to
+see her son.”
+
+Roy hesitated. He scarcely knew what to do. Then he remembered Sydney’s
+absence and reflected that the girls could not very well be left alone.
+He decided to stay himself till Monday, and to send word that Rex was
+all right now.
+
+He hurried off to the station to write his dispatch and came back as
+quickly to the Raynors’. He recollected that he had not yet seen the
+Miles of whom Rex spoke, the fellow who could tell him the continuation
+of his brother’s adventures.
+
+He asked Florence, whom he found on the lawn, where he could find
+Miles.
+
+“He’s out in the field now,” she replied, “digging potatoes. But it’s
+almost twelve. He’ll be in then for his dinner. He just adores that
+brother of yours.”
+
+“But who is he?” Roy persisted.
+
+“Well, he hasn’t told us his story yet. We took him on trust, and he’s
+turned out all right so far. But there he comes now.”
+
+“Excuse me,” said Roy. “I’ll go and see him.” And he hurried off around
+the corner of the house.
+
+The next minute he stood face to face with the youth who is destined to
+play a highly important part in the remainder of this tale.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+MILES HARDING’S STORY
+
+
+Miles knew Roy at once.
+
+“This is Miles, isn’t it?” said Roy in his pleasant way, and he put out
+his hand.
+
+“Yes, but wait a minute.”
+
+Miles hurried to the pump near the kitchen door. He gave his hands a
+douse of water, dried them quickly on a roller towel in the woodshed,
+and then came back to greet the brother of the boy of whom he was so
+fond.
+
+“You got the telegram all right then?” he said. “Rex was so weak when
+he told me where to send it, I wasn’t sure I’d get it quite right.”
+
+“I want to thank you for all you did for him,” went on Roy. “He’s told
+me about it, except the details. He said you’d do that—about what
+happened to him after he got out of the train. But don’t let me keep
+you from your dinner.”
+
+“I’d rather talk to you than eat,” said Miles frankly.
+
+Mrs. Raynor appeared at this moment and compromised matters by bringing
+Miles’ dinner to him out on the side porch. Roy sat by and listened to
+the recital, most modestly given, of the facts with which the reader is
+already acquainted.
+
+It was time for Miles to return to his work when it was finished, and
+Florence came to summon Roy to their own dinner.
+
+“Isn’t he queer?” she said, referring to Miles. “He seems so quiet and
+talks so well for a man who was—well, a tramp. I don’t know what else
+you could call him. You ought to have seen the clothes he had on when
+he first came. Mamma made him burn them.”
+
+“He looks as if he might have an interesting story to tell,” commented
+Roy.
+
+“We’ll get him to tell it to-night if your brother is well enough,”
+said Mrs. Raynor. “He promised that we should hear it as soon as Rex
+was able to listen too.”
+
+Roy took Rex’s dinner up to him, and the twins had an hour to
+themselves, during which Rex went more into detail concerning his
+experiences with Harrington and his crowd. They compared notes on Harry
+Atkins, and then fell to talking of Miles Harding.
+
+“He’s something more than a common tramp,” Rex insisted. “He can read a
+little and write some. Isn’t it funny how much he thinks of me, when I
+haven’t done a thing for him? Mrs. Raynor lets him come up and sit with
+me every evening when his work is done. Of course I didn’t know this
+till yesterday, when I came to my senses.”
+
+After the doctor’s visit about three, Rex went to sleep and Roy played
+a game of tennis with Florence.
+
+“I don’t want to seem glad that your brother is sick,” she said, “but
+it’s awfully nice to have company. I get so lonely when Bert is away.”
+
+That evening they all assembled in Rex’s room—Mrs. Raynor was a widow,
+so the family at home consisted only of herself and Florence—and Miles,
+seated at the foot of the bed, told the story of his life.
+
+“I don’t know where I was born,” he began. “The first thing I can
+remember is living in a tenement house in New York, where I had to
+sleep three in a bed with the two Morrisey boys. Mr. Morrisey was a
+truckman, and there was five children of them, and I made six. I always
+thought I was a Morrisey, too, till one day Jimmy, he got mad at me,
+and told me I needn’t talk so big because I was only living on charity.
+
+“I went to his mother and asked her about it, and she told me that it
+was true, that I wasn’t really her child, but that she thought as much
+of me as if I was, and that there wasn’t any charity about it. But I
+wanted to know all about myself, and at last she said that I’d been
+given to Mr. Morrisey when I was a wee baby by a friend of his who
+couldn’t afford to keep me and who made him vow that he’d never tell
+where I came from.
+
+“Jimmy only found it out by accident one night, listening to his father
+and mother talking when they thought he was asleep. She said I wasn’t
+to feel bad about it; because they thought everything of me.
+
+“But I did feel bad about it. It seemed too hard when the Morriseys had
+all they could do to get along they should have one more mouth—and that
+not a Morrisey one—to feed.
+
+“I studied as hard as I could at school, so as to try and get through
+sooner and go to work and begin to pay them back, but when I was twelve
+Mr. Morrisey was kicked to death by a horse and the next year Mrs.
+Morrisey married a man who took her and the children out to Dakota to
+live.
+
+“She wanted me to go along, but I knew Mr. Rollings didn’t like me, and
+besides I wanted to stay East where there was some chance of my finding
+out who my parents were. I got a place as cash boy in a Japanese store
+and boarded with some people who lived across the hall from where the
+Morriseys had their rooms.
+
+“But Mr. Benton used to get drunk and when he was that way he’d beat
+me, just for the fun of it, it seemed to me. Then when they cut down
+the number of boys employed in the store and I couldn’t find another
+place right away, he growled so about my not paying my board that I did
+my things up in a bundle one night and hid myself on a canal boat down
+at the East River docks.
+
+“The captain was awful mad when he found me after we had got clear up
+the North River. He gave me a good thrashing and then said he was going
+to drop me overboard. But he didn’t and I stayed on board all that
+season, driving mules and being sworn at and kicked and trounced like
+any other boy on the canal. I sometimes wonder why I didn’t wear out.
+
+“When navigation closed I was set adrift, and had a hard scrub of it to
+get along for a time. I almost starved for a while in Albany, trying to
+pick up odd jobs. Then I came near freezing to death.
+
+“Finally I got a place as errand boy in a grocery store and kept that
+till some money was missing and they said I took it. I never stole in
+my life. Mrs. Morrisey brought me up too well for me to do that. But I
+couldn’t prove I didn’t and I had to go. The man said I ought to
+consider myself lucky I wasn’t sent to jail.
+
+“After that I had a worse time of it than ever. Whenever I applied for
+a position they wanted to know why I had left my last place. And when I
+told them, they wouldn’t have anything to do with me.
+
+“Then came the days when sometimes I thought I might as well steal, I
+was suffering because I was accused of doing it. When I was very hungry
+and saw chances of sneaking apples out of grocery-men’s barrels, it
+seemed as if I had almost a right to do it. But I never did.
+
+“Something always turned up to keep me from starving. Once a woman
+stopped me in the street and gave me a dollar. She said I looked so
+hungry she couldn’t go by me without doing it.
+
+“Another time I was taken sick in one of the parks, something like Rex.
+I fell down in a kind of faint, and when I came to I was in a hospital
+and I stayed there quite a little while.
+
+“After I got out it was spring and I thought I’d try the country. I
+didn’t beg; only asked for work. Sometimes I got it; many more times I
+didn’t.
+
+“Now and then if they didn’t give me work they’d offer me milk or a cup
+of coffee, so I managed to pull through somehow.
+
+“At last I got back to New York. I’d been wanting to get there again
+ever since the thought came to me one day that perhaps some friends of
+Mr. Morrisey’s might know something about the man who had given me to
+him when I was a baby.
+
+“With a good deal of trouble I found one of them. He was a bricklayer,
+and he told me as near as he could remember the man who gave me to Tim
+Morrisey was from Philadelphia, and that’s all he knew.
+
+“Then I wanted to go to Philadelphia.
+
+“‘But what good will that do you, Miles?’ Mr. Beesley asked. ‘You can’t
+find out any more there, nor as much, as you can here.’
+
+“‘No,’ I told him, ‘but if I’m there maybe somebody else’ll find out
+something from passing me in the street.’
+
+“‘That’s an idea, sure enough,’ he said, so I started for Philadelphia,
+and that’s how I came to fall in with Rex.”
+
+Miles finished his story with this word. It almost seemed as if he had
+done it on purpose, planning for it, as it were. He always spoke the
+name with a little pause before it, as if it were something sacred.
+
+Rex had told him to call him by it the day before when he had started
+in to address him as “Mr. Pell.” All of Reginald’s striving after
+premature manhood had been left in that past which preceded his
+experiences in the hotel at New York.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+IN WINTER DAYS
+
+
+Miles’s story had been listened to with the closest attention by all
+the little party.
+
+“It’s just like a chapter out of a book,” Florence whispered to Roy. “I
+wonder if he’ll ever find out who he really is?”
+
+“But how did you come by the name Harding?” Roy inquired. “Weren’t you
+Miles Morrisey once?”
+
+“Yes, but when they went away, and I got to having such hard knocks
+from the world, I didn’t want to drag the name down with me, and so I
+thought Harding would suit me pretty well, and took it.”
+
+Rex seemed inclined to grow excited over the theme, so Mrs. Raynor
+proposed an immediate adjournment.
+
+“To-morrow is Sunday,” she said, “and Miles can have a long day with
+you.”
+
+In the course of this long day, the wanderer told Roy why he had been
+so drawn to Rex.
+
+“I’d seen lots of nice looking fellows like him,” he said, “but they
+always looked down on me and kind of kept off, as if they didn’t want
+me to touch them with my dirty clothes. But I had to touch Rex when he
+fell over, and he didn’t seem to mind it.”
+
+Rex flushed when Roy told him this.
+
+“I’m afraid I didn’t seem to mind because I was too far gone to mind
+anything,” he said. “But I do like Miles and would like to do all I can
+for him.”
+
+Roy returned home Monday morning, and Mrs. Pell went out to Rex that
+night. He improved rapidly, and within a fortnight was able to be moved
+to Philadelphia.
+
+It was pitiable to see the effect of the parting on Miles. The Raynors
+had found him very capable and were anxious to keep him. There was no
+reason why he should not stay, except his desire to be where Rex was,
+and his quixotic notion that he might meet his father or mother should
+he go to Philadelphia.
+
+“Keep a look out for me, Rex,” he said, “and if you hear of any
+position you think I could fill, let me know.”
+
+Rex promised, and after he got home told his mother that when she could
+make up her mind to completely forgive him for all he had done, he
+wished that she would think of something they could do for Miles.
+
+“I have forgiven you already, Reggie,” was the reply. “I know that you
+have suffered enough not to need any other lesson. Now, why not make
+Miles a present of a complete outfit? Wouldn’t he take it all right?
+Then when he is properly fitted out you can invite him on here for
+Thanksgiving day.”
+
+Rex talked over the idea with Roy and then they wrote to Mrs. Raynor
+about it. The end of the matter was that they procured Miles’s measure,
+and sent him the things as a present from Rex.
+
+The invitation for Thanksgiving was in the letter that accompanied
+them.
+
+The young fellow’s gratitude was beyond the power of expression, and
+over and over again he asked Mrs. Raynor if she thought it was right
+for him to accept the invitation.
+
+“Of course it is right,” she told him. “They would not have asked you
+if they had not wanted you.”
+
+His happiness seemed to shine out of every feature of his face when he
+boarded the Philadelphia train Wednesday afternoon. Rex met him at the
+station, and was surprised to see what a good looking fellow he made
+when he was properly rigged out.
+
+“Maybe I’ll make some awful blunders,” Miles confided to him on the way
+to the house. “Remember I’ve never been with swell folks before.”
+
+“We’re not swell,” Rex laughed.
+
+He had half a mind to let him know then and there where they got their
+money, but decided that he wouldn’t. That night he took his guest to
+the theater, and the next day Sydney had a long talk with him.
+
+His manners were much easier among the unaccustomed surroundings than
+Rex had dared to hope they would be. Mrs. Pell was very much attracted
+by him, and both girls declared he was “so interesting.”
+
+In his talk with him Sydney sought to draw out all the facts he could
+about the Morriseys.
+
+“That boy you had the fight with, Miles,” he said—“Jimmy, I think you
+told Rex his name was—did you never ask him any questions about what he
+overheard that night?”
+
+“No. Mr. Morrisey seemed not to want me to talk about it, and besides,
+I never would have asked Jimmy after what had happened.”
+
+“But you’d ask him now, wouldn’t you?” went on Sydney. “You say that
+you heard his mother was dead. He seems to be the only person left from
+whom you can get a clew.”
+
+“Yes, I’d ask him now if I had the chance,” Miles admitted “But I don’t
+know just where he is. You see, I’ve lost track of the Morriseys
+lately.”
+
+“But you could find it again couldn’t you? Write to the place where you
+heard they were last. Where was that?”
+
+“Bismarck.”
+
+“Very good. Do that, and when you have found out all you can from
+Jimmy, let me know.”
+
+Miles promised to attend to this, but since he had fallen in with Rex,
+his desire to hunt up his parents seemed not as strong as it had been.
+He went back to the Raynors enthusiastic over his visit, and talked of
+it for weeks afterward.
+
+Meanwhile Roy and Rex settled down to their school life. The change
+made in Rex by his New York experience was quite noticeable. While
+retaining all his dignity of manner, he was more thoughtful of the
+feelings of others than he had been.
+
+He worried a good deal at first about the opinion Scott Bowman must
+have of him, and truth to tell Scott did feel a little sore over the
+way he had been treated.
+
+The two boys did not write or see each other till they met accidentally
+in the street at Christmas time.
+
+Rex saw Scott coming and grew red in spite of himself. There was a
+chance, he felt, that the other might go by without speaking to him.
+But Scott halted and put out his hand.
+
+“Hello, Rex,” he said, “you _are_ a stranger.”
+
+And at these words a great burden was lifted from Reginald’s mind.
+
+The truth of the matter was, it was very difficult to keep at odds with
+a fellow with the fascinating personality of Rex Pell, and now since
+the recent change in him he was more attractive than ever. He took
+Scott home to lunch with him, and related in detail his adventures on
+his memorable trip.
+
+“Where the fun in being ‘tough’ comes in,” he concluded, “I don’t see.”
+
+At Christmas time Mrs. Pell had Mrs. Raynor and Florence in for a
+visit.
+
+“Has Miles heard from Jimmy Morrisey yet?” Rex inquired.
+
+“No,” Florence replied. “He didn’t write till about three weeks ago.”
+
+“You’ll let him come in and see us New Year’s, won’t you?” Rex went on.
+
+“Yes indeed, if you would like to have him.”
+
+Miles came for New Year’s and brought the information that he had heard
+from Jimmy Morrisey at last. He was a hall boy in a New York hotel, and
+said that as near as he could remember the name he had heard his father
+mention that night in his talk with his mother was Darley.
+
+Rex wrote the name down on a piece of paper and put it away to show to
+Sydney on his return from his Florida trip, for his health had been
+growing steadily poorer and Mrs. Pell had persuaded him finally to go
+South with a friend for a while.
+
+“You know he isn’t really my own brother,” Rex confided to Miles. “But
+he’s a distant relative. His father and mother died when he was very
+little.”
+
+Miles was much interested on hearing this. It served in some way to
+establish another bond between himself and the Pells.
+
+“I’ll let you know what Syd finds out about this as soon as he finds
+out anything,” Rex told Miles at parting.
+
+Miles had begun to attend school. He had not had an opportunity to
+study since leaving the Morriseys. He was naturally quick, and made
+good progress.
+
+“He’ll know too much by spring to be put to garden work again,” Mrs.
+Raynor had said when she was in. “I hardly know what to do with him
+then.”
+
+“Oh, don’t worry about that,” laughed Jess. “By that time he may have
+found his parents and be a millionaire.”
+
+“How you talk, Jess,” interposed her sister. “If he ever does find his
+people, it doesn’t follow that they will be wealthy. Indeed, he’d
+probably never have been given to the Morriseys if his father hadn’t
+been too poor to support him.”
+
+Eva took a deep interest in the case. She was of a literary turn of
+mind, and wove many a romance in her busy brain about the early history
+of this strange youth, who seemed so extraordinarily gentle,
+considering his rough bringing up.
+
+Sydney came home just before the twins’ vacation ended.
+
+“Oh, Syd!” Rex suddenly exclaimed, that first evening as they were all
+seated in the library, listening to Florida experiences. “Miles has
+heard from this Morrisey boy.”
+
+“Well,” replied Sydney, “did he learn anything of importance?”
+
+“Yes, he found out the name his father and mother used when they were
+talking about the man who brought Miles to them.”
+
+“And what was it?”
+
+“Darley.”
+
+Sydney fell back in his chair and grew as white as a ghost.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+SYDNEY GOES ON A MYSTERIOUS EXPEDITION
+
+
+The family were greatly alarmed at Sydney’s collapse. Mrs. Pell had
+fondly hoped that his Southern trip would be of permanent benefit to
+him, and here he was breaking down on the first night of his return.
+
+Not one of them associated his seizure in any way with the subject on
+which they had been talking except Rex. He could not but recall a
+somewhat similar attack, when Sydney had fainted in his office while he
+(Rex) was telling Scott Bowman of their inheritance.
+
+But Miles Harding’s affairs had nothing to do with this. What did it
+all mean? Rex asked himself, as he sped off for the doctor.
+
+When he got back, Sydney had come to, but seemed to be suffering
+severely. And yet when asked if he was in pain, he would shake his head
+and beg so imploringly that they would leave him to himself, that the
+fears of the family were intensified many fold.
+
+The doctor was utterly nonplused. He prescribed a quieting potion, and
+went away, promising to return again in the morning.
+
+“And perhaps you had better humor him in his desire to be left alone,”
+he said to Mrs. Pell. “But of course arrange to be near in case another
+collapse occurs.”
+
+The household separated for bed that night with sober faces.
+
+“Syd hasn’t been like himself since Mr. Tyler died,” remarked Roy,
+lingering at the door of Rex’s room.
+
+Rex did not reply immediately. He stood looking at his brother intently
+for an instant, then he put a hand on Roy’s shoulder, gently pulled him
+into the room and closed the door behind him.
+
+“Sit down a minute, Roy,” he said gravely; “I want to tell you
+something.”
+
+“What is it? What makes you look so solemn, Reggie? Is it anything
+about Syd?”
+
+“Yes, it’s about Syd. Something that happened last summer, and which he
+told me not to tell; but it seems to me that I ought to tell now.”
+
+In a few words then, Rex related what he and Scott Bowman had
+witnessed, adding an account of what Sydney had said to him when he
+asked to have the doctor sent out of the room.
+
+“It’s queer, isn’t it, Roy?” Rex added.
+
+“Yes, but I can’t connect it with the present case.”
+
+“Neither can I. That makes it queerer still. Perhaps you’d better not
+say anything about what I told you.”
+
+“No, I shan’t,” and the boys sat quiet a while longer, discussing the
+mystery of this affair in lowered tones.
+
+Meanwhile Sydney in his room across the hall, was lying in his bed with
+his eyes wide open staring at the ceiling. Now and then he passed his
+hand across his forehead, on which the perspiration kept gathering.
+
+“It is Nemesis,” he murmured over and over. “I have felt that it would
+come, and now at last it has appeared, and through Rex, of all the
+others!”
+
+All through that night he remained thus wakeful. He watched,
+helplessly, the gradual breaking of the dawn, knowing that he had not
+slept a moment and feeling that he must have this physical ill to bear
+in addition to the mental one which already weighed him down to the
+earth.
+
+But he had come to the turning point now. In some way this was a
+relief, even though the prospect immediately ahead of him was such a
+fearsome one.
+
+He wished that he could go up to the office without seeing any of the
+family, as he had done that other morning in Marley.
+
+But he could not do this now. They would worry and send after him. He
+must try and get through the ordeal of facing them as best he could.
+
+He rose at the usual time, but before he had finished dressing there
+was a knock at the door and Roy’s voice wanting to know how he was.
+
+“All right,” he replied, and then, as his brother asked if he might
+come in, he opened the door.
+
+“All right!” exclaimed Roy, after one look at his face, “Oh, Syd!”
+
+“It’s only because I haven’t slept,” Sydney hastened to assure him.
+
+“Then what are you getting up for?” Roy went on.
+
+“I must go down town. I have that to do which will ease my mind, and
+_make me all right again, I trust.”_
+
+The last words were added in so low a tone as to be scarcely audible.
+
+“Oh, Syd, what is it? What is worrying you? Can’t I help you in any
+way?”
+
+“No, Roy, you cannot now. Perhaps—later—I will need—need your pity.”
+
+“Pity! Oh, Syd, you do not know what you say.”
+
+“Don’t, Roy. I have a hard task to perform; do not, I beg of you, make
+it harder.”
+
+Roy said no more; he would not after this. He went back to his own room
+and went over in his mind all that had befallen them since they had
+been what the world called wealthy.
+
+“Not one bit happier, though; no, not as happy,” he added for himself.
+
+At the breakfast table Sydney insisted that he felt plenty well enough
+to go to the office.
+
+“Can’t you see, mother,” he said at last, “that it is a matter of the
+mind and not of the body. Let me have the opportunity of easing that,
+and—you will see the result.”
+
+But when he left the house he did not go at once to his office. He
+stopped at the first drug store he passed, and walked up to the little
+stand on which the city directory was kept.
+
+He turned the pages to D, and then looked up Darley.
+
+There were several of the name, and a frown contracted his brow. But he
+took out his pencil and memorandum book, and made a note of the various
+addresses. Then he went on, but soon turned into a street that would
+not take him to the office. He boarded a car and rode off in the
+direction of South street. In the course of twenty minutes he was
+waiting for his ring to be answered at the door of a very modest little
+house near the Baltimore tracks.
+
+But after he had been admitted, he did not remain long inside.
+
+“I must try another,” he muttered, consulting his memorandum.
+
+He tried several others, but with equal ill success. The quest seemed
+hopeless.
+
+“There may be nothing in it after all,” he murmured. “But that does not
+lighten my load here;” and he pressed his hand over his heart.
+
+All that day he kept up his hunt, scarcely stopping to get a little
+lunch at noon. Toward nightfall he called at an address on Seventh
+Street next to the last on his list.
+
+It was an odd looking house—apparently a store, for there was a regular
+shop window, but there was nothing in it but curtains that screened off
+the interior, and no sign, and the door when he tried it, was locked.
+But there was a bell handle close beside it, and this he pulled.
+
+The door was opened after quite an interval, to a mere crack, and the
+voice of an aged woman wanted to know who was there.
+
+“A gentleman to see Mr. David Darley,” Sydney answered.
+
+“You can’t see him,” came back the reply, “He’s been dead these five
+months.”
+
+“Well, then,” went on Sydney, pushing against the door to prevent any
+possibility of its being shut in his face, “I want to see some of his
+relations—his wife, or daughter, or somebody.”
+
+“There ain’t any of them either,” was the reply. “There’s only me.”
+
+“Well, then, I’d like to see you,” Sydney rejoined, feeling that this,
+too, was to be a wild goose chase, but determined, nevertheless, to
+leave no stone unturned.
+
+“What do you want to see me about?” went on the old lady. “I don’t know
+you.”
+
+“I just want to ask you some questions about Mr. Darley. Are you any
+relation of his?”
+
+“I’m his mother-in-law,” and the door was slowly opened, but only wide
+enough to admit Sydney, when it was closed behind him with great
+rapidity.
+
+He looked with some curiosity at the person who admitted him. She was
+very small, not much above his waist in height, and quite old, with
+snow white hair and a very peaceful expression of face that contrasted
+markedly with her evident fear of strangers.
+
+She did not ask Sydney to be seated, and remained standing herself,
+taking up her station in the doorway that led into the room beyond, as
+if seeking to bar out any intrusion there.
+
+The apartment in which Sydney found himself was a very pleasant one,
+well lighted from the large window, whose upper portion was undraped.
+There were some pictures on the walls, a piano stood at one side, and a
+guitar could be seen off in one corner.
+
+But Sydney was not in the mood to take many notes of his surroundings.
+He proceeded at once with the business in hand.
+
+“Was Mr. David Darley any relation to Maurice Darley?” he inquired.
+
+“Will it hurt David if I answer?” replied the old lady cautiously.
+
+“How can it, since you say he is dead?” Sydney responded with the
+flicker of a smile.
+
+“Well, then,” answered the other, heaving a little sigh, “I don’t see
+as it can do any harm for me to say that David was his brother.”
+
+“At last,” burst forth Sydney with something between a shout and a
+groan. He put his hand against the wall as if to steady himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+THE STRANGE CONDUCT OF MRS. FOX
+
+
+All the suspicions of the little white haired old lady seemed to be
+revived by Sydney’s manner of receiving the intelligence she gave him.
+
+“Maybe I’ve made a mistake about it,” she said, pinching nervously at
+the edges of a white apron she wore. “It may be another man of the same
+name.”
+
+“Is this Maurice Darley dead?” asked Sydney, paying no attention to her
+disturbed equanimity.
+
+“I don’t know. Maybe he is,” was the reply.
+
+“When did you see him last?” went on Sydney.
+
+“How do you know I ever saw him?” asked the old lady quickly.
+
+Sydney began to lose his patience.
+
+“You seem to think I mean you some harm,” he said. “You are quite wrong
+there. It is a matter of money, of a fortune that belongs to Mr.
+Maurice Parley, if I can find him.”
+
+The old lady looked at him keenly.
+
+“That’s what caused all his trouble,” she said slowly. “Fortunes. He
+was always thinking of them.”
+
+“Can’t you tell me where he is now?” Sydney went on in a coaxing tone.
+“You appear to know a good deal about him.”
+
+“Oh, Mr.—I? Do I show it?” A terrified look came into the old lady’s
+eyes. Her fingers clutched tightly at each side of the doorway over
+which she had mounted guard.
+
+Sydney was by this time convinced that there was some mystery about
+Maurice Darley, which the woman before him was seeking to conceal.
+
+“What if he is dead?”
+
+The old lady brought this out with a sort of triumphant tone.
+
+“But he isn’t dead,” Sydney returned, with almost the same manner. “If
+he was you would have said so long ago. You see I can understand some
+things. But why are you so secret about him? Tell me, did you ever hear
+him speak of a Mr. Tyler?”
+
+“Hush, hush!” The old lady put her fingers over her lips and advanced
+to Sydney as if to thrust him out of the door. “Not now. Not here,” she
+added in an imploring tone.
+
+Sydney was compelled to back out of the door into the street, but he
+held it open partially to say:
+
+“I must find out about Maurice Darley. It is for his good, not mine.
+Where can I see you about him? Will you come to my office on Chestnut
+Street?”
+
+“No, no. I can’t go away,” the old lady replied.
+
+She was glancing backward over her shoulder every instant or two.
+
+“Will you give me your name, then, so I can write to you?” Sydney went
+on. “Or if I write to Mr. Darley here will you give it to him?”
+
+“No, only write to me, Mrs. Hannah Fox,” and with that the door was
+closed in his face.
+
+Sydney lingered in front of it a second. He had a blind impulse to ring
+the bell and compel her to open it again. But he knew that it would be
+useless, so he turned his steps slowly toward Chestnut street and went
+to his office.
+
+He found that his absence all day had been productive of not a little
+harm.
+
+“But this is a part of the expiation,” he murmured to himself.
+
+He put aside the letters waiting to be answered, and set himself to the
+task of composing the one to Mrs. Fox. It took him a long while to
+write it. He tore up several completed ones.
+
+The usual hour for closing the office arrived. The boy hovered about
+his desk, seeming to hope that his presence would remind his employer
+that it was time to go home.
+
+Sydney looked up at last.
+
+“You may go, John,” he said. “I will mail this.”
+
+But when the boy had gone he read over what he had written, then tore
+it into very small pieces and dropped them in the waste paper basket.
+Then he took a fresh sheet and began again.
+
+He was half way down the first page when the door opened and Rex came
+in.
+
+“Syd,” he exclaimed, “aren’t you coming home to dinner? We waited till
+seven o’clock, then mother grew so worried that I came down to see if
+anything had happened.”
+
+“How good you are to me, Reggie,” said the other. “And how little I
+deserve it.”
+
+His head went down on his two arms upon the desk. His frame shook as if
+with sobbing.
+
+“Syd, you dear old fellow, don’t talk that way. What is troubling you?”
+Rex had put his arm about his brother’s neck; his forehead pressed
+close against the bowed head.
+
+“Don’t, Reggie. If you only knew you would not want to touch me.”
+
+Sydney lifted his head suddenly, but his arms were still crossed over
+the half written letter.
+
+“Syd, what do you mean?”
+
+Rex looked at his brother in deep perplexity, his handsome brow
+wrinkled with the anxiety Sydney’s appearance and demeanor were causing
+him.
+
+“You will know soon enough, Reggie, and then promise me that you will
+try to think of me as friendly as you can; not give away utterly to
+your contempt. It was partly for y—. No, I will not say that. No, go
+home, Rex. Tell mother I am all right, and will be back some time
+to-night, and not to worry.”
+
+“But you ought not to stay here and work, Syd,” Rex persisted. “You are
+not fit to do it.”
+
+“I must do what I’ve set out to do.” Sydney’s voice was almost stern as
+he made this reply.
+
+Rex saw that it was useless to linger, and went sadly home. Something
+dreadful had evidently come over Sydney. What it was he did not pretend
+to know. But he made up his mind not to tell the family all that Sydney
+had said.
+
+It was nearly nine that night before the young lawyer finished the
+letter to Mrs. Fox to suit him. He dropped it in the corner letter box
+on his way home, and then stepped in at a restaurant to at least go
+through the form of eating something.
+
+“When shall I tell them at home about it?” was his one thought, and the
+ever recurring echo to it was, “Not yet! not yet!”
+
+Almost his greatest trial of the day was forcing himself to remain in
+the library a half hour after he reached the house, and trying to
+appear himself. He was conscious that Rex was watching him closely.
+
+But it was natural for him to plead fatigue after a hard day’s work. He
+locked himself in his room after he reached it. With hands tightly
+pressed against his forehead, he sank into a chair.
+
+“I foresaw all this,” he muttered. “I knew that I must always suffer.
+That what I did was done for others is no excuse; and now they must
+suffer, too.”
+
+He slept this night from sheer exhaustion, but the sleep was much
+disturbed by dreams, in all of which a white haired old lady with the
+face of a fox seemed to be trying to do him some bodily injury.
+
+The next day he seemed to exist for nothing but the arrival of the
+mails. But night came, and no response to his letter to Mrs. Fox.
+
+The following morning he tried to get up, but his head was so dizzy
+that he was forced to drop back on the pillow again. Fortunately he had
+not locked his door this time, so that when they came to inquire about
+him, they were able to get in.
+
+It was Roy who came first.
+
+“My mail from the office,” was all Sydney had strength to say when he
+saw him.
+
+“Yes, I will bring it for you,” replied Roy, and he decided to give up
+school for the day.
+
+The doctor was summoned again, and prescribed perfect quiet, but after
+he had gone, Sydney asked so persistently if Roy had come with his
+letters, that when he did arrive, Mrs. Pell thought that the quickest
+way to quiet the patient was to let him come in with them.
+
+“I only want to see one of them,” Sydney whispered quickly, as Rex took
+a seat by the bedside, some dozen letters in his lap.
+
+“Which one, Syd?” asked Roy, gently.
+
+“It is from an old lady—a Mrs. Fox. It will probably be in a plain
+envelope.”
+
+“Perhaps this is it, then. Shall I open it and see?”
+
+“No, no. Give it to me,” replied Sydney quickly.
+
+He took the envelope and the knife Roy handed to him, but his fingers
+trembled so that he could do nothing.
+
+“I shall have to let you open it after all, Roy,” he said, and handed
+them both back.
+
+Roy slit the end of the envelope in a second, and once more put it into
+his brother’s hands. With dilated eyes and breath coming in brief
+gasps, Sydney drew out the inclosure.
+
+He unfolded it and looked eagerly at the signature.
+
+“I can’t see quite clearly, Rex,” he said after an instant. “Is that
+Fox signed to this?”
+
+“Yes. Hannah M. Fox.”
+
+“Thank you.” Sydney turned to the front page and began to read.
+Suddenly he gave a little cry.
+
+“I can’t see the words, Roy,” he said. “Something is the matter with my
+sight. You will have to read it to me. Never mind if some of the things
+it says sound strange to you. I will explain them by and by. Here.”
+
+Roy took the letter, and read as follows:
+
+Mr. Sydney F. Pell.
+
+
+Dear Sir:—Come tomorrow night at midnight. Don’t ring. Knock lightly on
+the door. Yours truly,
+
+
+Hannah M. Fox.
+
+
+“And that is to-night,” murmured Sydney. “How can I go?”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+A MIDNIGHT VISIT
+
+
+“Do you want me to write a note for you saying you can’t come?” said
+Roy.
+
+“No, no. I must go,” replied Sydney.
+
+“But you can’t,” Roy was about to answer. Then he checked himself, and
+said instead: “Well, perhaps you will be well enough to go to-night. Is
+it far?” for there was no address given in the letter.
+
+“No, not very. It is right in the city here. But you can’t write for
+me. The old lady mustn’t know that you’ve seen her letter. She’d notice
+the difference in the handwriting. But midnight! What a queer time to
+appoint. It’s just like her, though. Now I will try and get some sleep
+so as to help prepare myself for to-night.”
+
+The receipt of the letter appeared to have eased Sydney’s mind
+somewhat, for he slept until well on in the afternoon, and then he woke
+feeling somewhat better.
+
+“I can go to-night, Roy, after all,” he said to his brother cheerfully.
+
+But Roy did not see how he could go. Still he thought it was best not
+to say anything till the time came.
+
+Just before night, Sydney called Roy to the bedside.
+
+“Order a coupé for me to be here at half past eleven to-night,” he
+said.
+
+“But you are not fit to go, Syd,” the other could not help but respond.
+
+“I will be when the time comes,” was the reply. “You will see. Say
+nothing to the others about it.”
+
+“Then let me go with you,” suggested Roy.
+
+“Well, perhaps you may, but you will sit in the carriage. Now go out
+and order it, please.”
+
+Roy felt somewhat burdened with a secret to keep from the family. But
+he trusted Sydney fully, so he felt that it was all right The patient
+grew a little better in the evening.
+
+At half past eight he called Roy to him and whispered: “You had better
+lie down and get some rest now. Take my alarm clock and put it at
+quarter past eleven.”
+
+But Roy knew it was no use to take the clock. He was sure he could not
+sleep. He was far too anxious and excited for that. He lay down on the
+sofa in his own room and tried to read. But he did not see a word on
+the page. He was thinking of Sydney.
+
+Presently Rex came in. He flung himself down on the bed, exclaiming:
+“Roy, I feel exactly as if something was going to happen. I can’t get
+to sleep, so there’s no use in my going to bed. I’m worried about Syd.
+There is something mighty queer about him.”
+
+“Oh, he’s much better to-night,” Roy responded encouragingly.
+
+“Yes, I know; but it’s his actions all through this thing that I’m
+worried about. Do you know that I sometimes think, Roy—” here Rex sat
+up on the bed and lowered his voice impressively—“I sometimes think
+that perhaps there was a touch of insanity in Syd’s family. You know we
+are always forgetting that he isn’t one of us.”
+
+“Is it anything in particular makes you think that, Reggie?” said Roy,
+wondering what Rex would say if he knew about that night’s expedition.
+
+“Well, yes, one thing taken with a lot of other things,” and he
+proceeded to tell of what Sydney had said to him at the office when he
+went down there the previous night.
+
+“He seems to have the idea that he has committed some crime,” Rex went
+on. “I really think that we ought to watch him carefully.”
+
+“It doesn’t seem to me to be as serious as that,” responded Roy. “But
+as you say, we ought to watch him carefully.”
+
+Rex lay quiet for a time. Roy’s thoughts were disturbing ones.
+Reginald, too, was worrying over Sydney’s condition. But that note from
+Hannah Fox was something tangible. There was no chimera of the
+imagination about that.
+
+Perhaps it was a real anxiety that was preying on Syd’s mind. Very
+likely something connected with his parentage.
+
+Roy had not thought of this before. He was about to suggest it to
+relieve his brother’s mind when he looked up and saw that Rex was
+asleep.
+
+Then he glanced at the clock on the bureau and saw that it pointed to
+five minutes to eleven.
+
+“I’ll let him sleep on now,” he decided, “or he’ll be sure to be around
+when we go, and I’m sure Syd doesn’t want him to know.”
+
+Roy went across the hall to his elder brother’s room.
+
+He found him sitting on the side of the bed, looking very pale.
+
+“I guess you’ll have to help me dress, Roy,” he said with a sorry sort
+of smile.
+
+“Perhaps you’d better send a telegram,” Roy rejoined. “There won’t be
+any handwriting to recognize on that.”
+
+“No, no, I must go myself. You will understand some day, very soon, why
+I feel this way, and then, Roy, you may pity me and forgive me if you
+can.”
+
+Roy thought of his brother’s theory. Sydney’s talk was very strange,
+but not stranger than this midnight proceeding. Well, he would wait
+until he had seen this last through before deciding whether or not he
+ought to report to his mother.
+
+He helped Sydney on with his clothes, then went to the window to see if
+the carriage was there. He saw it standing in the glare of a street
+lamp. It was just half past eleven. He started to his own room to get
+his coat.
+
+“Be careful to make no noise, Roy,” Sydney cautioned him.
+
+But when Roy entered his own apartment, there was Rex sitting up on the
+bed, rubbing his eyes.
+
+Roy hoped he would go at once to his room, but he began to talk about
+the strangeness of his having fallen asleep in that way, and then when
+he saw what time it was, wanted to know why Roy hadn’t gone to bed.
+
+“How could I when you were in the way?” Roy answered smilingly, and
+just then Sydney called to him softly from down the hall, “Roy, aren’t
+you coming?”
+
+There was no help for it. Roy went to the closet and took down his
+overcoat.
+
+“Why, where are you going this time of night, Roy Pell?” demanded Rex.
+
+“Just out for a little while; good night, old fellow. You’d better go
+straight to bed.”
+
+“But look here, Roy.” Rex was following him out into the hall. “This is
+mighty queer, your going off this way. Does mother know about it?”
+
+Rex ceased abruptly. He had come face to face with Sydney, all dressed
+for the street.
+
+“Reggie, what are you doing up?” Sydney asked, and to Rex his voice
+sounded cold and stern.
+
+“I fell asleep on Roy’s bed. But where are you two going? You’re not
+fit to be out of bed, Syd,” as the latter reeled and made a quick
+clutch at the bannisters.
+
+“Rex, help me down stairs with him and don’t make any noise.” Roy spoke
+in an authoritative tone, and Rex meekly obeyed.
+
+“Perhaps Rex had better come along, too. I ordered a coach, so that you
+could put your feet up. There’ll be plenty of room.”
+
+Roy whispered this in Sydney’s ear as they went slowly down the stairs.
+
+“All right; just as you say. I suppose it won’t make much difference
+how soon you all know now.”
+
+“Rex, you may come along if you like,” said Roy, when they reached the
+lower hall, and Sydney was sitting on the settee. “Run up quickly and
+get your coat.”
+
+Rex eagerly seized the opportunity, and in five minutes they were all
+in the carriage, and the driver had started for Seventh Street.
+
+Sydney was considerably exhausted by the effort he had already made. He
+lay back in the seat breathing heavily.
+
+“Do you know where we are going and what for?” Rex leaned forward to
+whisper in Roy’s ear.
+
+“It’s a mystery to me, too, but we want to watch out carefully that no
+harm comes to Syd,” Roy whispered back.
+
+When the carriage halted before the little dwelling where Mrs. Fox
+lived Roy started to get out, but Sydney drew him back.
+
+“No, I must be alone,” he said. “Have the carriage wait here till I
+come out.”
+
+But he had scarcely taken a step from the carriage when his weakness
+overpowered him. He tottered, and would have fallen had not Rex sprung
+out and caught him. Roy was at his other side in an instant, and
+together the two boys supported him.
+
+“You will have to help me up to the door, I guess,” he whispered
+faintly; “but don’t ring; knock lightly.”
+
+There was no one passing at the moment, nor did any light shine from
+the interior of the place, Roy knocked against the glass in the door,
+and the latter was opened on the merest crack.
+
+“Who’s there?” came the demand in a quivering old woman’s voice.
+
+“Sydney Pell. I am ill, but I was bound to come. My two brothers are
+with me. Can’t they help me in to a seat? They will then go away
+again.”
+
+“No, no; they can’t come in,” was the quick response. “There must be no
+noise. It’s a risk to have you here.”
+
+“Then can you open the door wide enough to help me in?” returned
+Sydney.
+
+The answer was the swinging back of the door and the reaching out of
+the old lady’s arm.
+
+“Go back to the carriage, boys, and wait,” said Sydney, and the next
+instant he had disappeared within the mysterious dwelling.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+SYDNEY FREES HIS MIND
+
+
+“You’re pretty weak, aren’t you?” This was Mrs. Fox’s remark as she
+eased Sydney down into a rocking chair in the little parlor. It was
+quite dark, save for the faint light that came in from the street lamp
+over the curtain pole in the window.
+
+“I suppose I was too weak to venture to come,” Sydney answered, “but I
+felt that I must. Did you understand all that I meant to say in my
+note?”
+
+“I understand that you know of a great sum of money that is coming to
+Maurice Darley. It’s strange, very strange.”
+
+“Why is it? Did you know anything about it? Did you expect it?”
+
+There was a note of alarm in Sydney’s tones.
+
+“No, not that in particular. But you must tell me all the details
+before I dare to tell any more.”
+
+The old lady seated herself on a low chair close to Sydney’s side. It
+was extremely weird, this confidential talk in the darkness.
+
+“What details do you want?” Sydney asked.
+
+“Why, proofs that there is really something to this fortune. Maurice
+has talked too much about others that have nothing to them.”
+
+“You see him often, then,” exclaimed Sydney eagerly. “He’s here,
+perhaps.”
+
+“S’h!” commanded the old Lady in a stern whisper. “Yes, he is here. He
+is in the back room yonder. I am so afraid he will hear us. That is why
+I had you come at midnight, when he would be sound asleep.”
+
+“But why can I not see him?”
+
+“Because he is weak—weak in his mind. He is all the while fancying that
+he is rich. A talk about money would excite him so that I fear the
+consequences.”
+
+“And you say he knew Mr. Tyler?” Sydney remembered and spoke this name
+very softly.
+
+“Yes, he talks of him continually now.”
+
+“Was he in his office once?”
+
+“Yes, I believe so.”
+
+“One more question. Has this Mr. Darley any children?”
+
+“He had one once—a boy. But it must have died when a baby, soon after
+Mrs. Darley did. And now do you know why I do not want you to come here
+with stories of riches for Maurice Darley? He’s daft on the subject
+already. I do not want him to go so far that they will take him away
+from me.”
+
+“You are fond of him, then?” asked Sydney.
+
+“He is all I have. If he goes I must live alone. It is my delight to
+care for him. The little money David left me is enough for my simple
+wants, Maurice lives like a lord in his fancies. Why do you want to
+come and disturb us in our content?”
+
+“Because I must,” Sydney broke out, as passionately as he could in
+restrained tones. “Don’t you understand that the money which belongs to
+Maurice Darley I have been diverting to other uses? It was left to him
+by Mr. Tyler, but I tore up the will. He made it about three hours
+after another one, in which he had left everything to the woman who had
+acted as a mother to me for twenty years.
+
+“He was a vacillating old man. I felt that he might change his mind
+back again if he should live three hours longer, so when he was dead I
+tore up the last will. I alone knew what it contained, and I have been
+a miserable man ever since.”
+
+Sydney bowed his head on his hands, and there was silence in the little
+room for a moment or two.
+
+“You—you are a criminal, then?” said the old lady presently.
+
+Sydney winced at the term, but at the same time he felt a sense of
+relief, as one does after taking a plunge into cold water. At any rate
+the shock of the first contact was over.
+
+“Yes, I suppose I am,” he answered. “And I am ready to suffer the
+penalty. The only excuse I have to offer is the fact that what I did, I
+did not for myself, but for those I love, who have done so much for me.
+And now it is not joy, but misery, I shall bring them.”
+
+“You are repentant, though,” murmured the old lady softly. “It is not
+as if you were hardened and only gave up when some one else found it
+out and forced you to. There is hope for you in that. But how much
+money is there?”
+
+“Nearly half a million. But some of it has been used, put into a house,
+which of course will be given up to Mr. Darley.”
+
+“Then you will take him away from me?” It was almost a wail with which
+the old lady said this.
+
+“No, you can come with him, of course.”
+
+“No. It will be his taking care of me then, and that will be so
+different. Oh, why did you come to disturb us?” She seemed quite
+forgetful for the time of the presence of any one else in the room, of
+her own caution to Sydney to speak quietly. Suddenly she appeared to
+recollect this latter necessity.
+
+She ceased the half moaning she had begun and clutched Sydney’s arm
+tightly.
+
+“I suppose,” she whispered, “that it would not be right to ask you to
+keep this money?”
+
+“I can’t keep it,” Sydney replied. “I have suffered enough from it
+already.”
+
+“But how can you give it to a man who is not in his right mind? He
+thinks he is a wealthy man. I have given him a quantity of gilt paper
+to play with. He is like a child, you know. The possession of real
+money will not make him any happier.”
+
+“But there is the son,” suggested Sydney.
+
+“I told you he was dead.”
+
+“I am not so sure of that. I think I have seen him. Would he not be
+about seventeen now?”
+
+“Yes, and you have seen him?”
+
+It was with difficulty the old lady kept her tones within bounds.
+
+“But you cannot be sure it is the same,” she went on.
+
+“No. I cannot be certain, but I am pretty sure.”
+
+“Perhaps he looks like his father. Wait, I think I can find a picture
+of him in the dark.”
+
+“But I cannot see it in the dark.”
+
+“By holding it close to the window you can get the ray from the lamp on
+it There! here it is, I think.”
+
+Mrs. Fox took the portrait to the front of the room, and parting the
+curtains a little, held it for Sydney to look at.
+
+“Yes, it is very like,” he said. “This picture must have been taken
+when Mr. Darley was quite young.”
+
+“He sat for it before he was married. But where is this boy?”
+
+“Living at a little town out in New Jersey. He wants to find his
+father.”
+
+“How comes it he isn’t dead?” the old lady wanted to know.
+
+Sydney told the story of Miles Harding as he had heard it from Rex.
+
+“Do you know why he was compelled to give up the child?” he added.
+
+“Poverty, I suppose. You know he was very sick once, and he lost
+everything. That was what unsettled his reason. But to think he should
+have given out that the child was dead!”
+
+“Did you ever hear him speak of the Morriseys?”
+
+“No, I never heard the name before. But I should like to see this boy.
+Does he know that his father is living?”
+
+“No, not yet; you see I did not hear of it until tonight. But I must
+not stay longer. My brothers are waiting for me in the carriage. We
+must arrange what we are going to do.”
+
+“I don’t know what to say. The boy ought to have his rights. Can’t we
+fix it all quietly some way? I don’t think you meant to do wrong.”
+
+“Yes, I did. I did everything with my eyes open. I ought to suffer for
+it. The only trouble is that those I love will suffer with me. But
+don’t you think the restoration of fortune will bring back Mr. Darley’s
+mind?”
+
+“I don’t know. I can’t tell about that. He is very queer.”
+
+“Do you have a doctor for him?”
+
+“Oh, no. I’d be afraid they’d want to take him away. I expect I’m
+selfish about it. But bring the boy here. He is old enough. We can talk
+it over with him, and maybe his father will recognize him.”
+
+“I can come any time, then?” said Sydney.
+
+“Yes, now I know who you are.”
+
+“Good night, then. I shall see you soon again. I feel better than when
+I came.”
+
+Sydney rose and walked to the door without assistance. As soon as the
+boys saw him they hurried out to help him into the carriage. Within
+three minutes they were driving towards home and a church clock near by
+chimed one—for half past twelve.
+
+“Boys,” began Sydney, “I have something to tell you. I was not glad
+before that I was not your own brother. I am glad of it now, because—I
+am a criminal.”
+
+There was a pause. No one spoke. There was no sound but the rattle of
+the wheels. It was too dark to see the expression on the faces of the
+twins. Rex was leaning partly forward, one hand gripping Roy’s knee. He
+could think of nothing save the night Mr. Keeler had spent with them
+and the horror they had had of him before they found out that it was
+his brother whose picture was in that book.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+THE CONFESSION TO THE BOYS
+
+
+The carriage had gone two squares before the silence in it was broken.
+Then Roy spoke.
+
+“What is it, Syd?” he said. “I am sure you are worrying yourself
+needlessly over something—are magnifying it from a molehill into a
+mountain.”
+
+“Needlessly? Oh, boys, would that I were! But as soon as I tell you,
+you will understand it all. And I shall tell you now—in a minute. But
+just give me your hand, each of you, that I may feel the warm pressure
+of your confidence before—before you know the worst of me.”
+
+Roy and Rex instantly put out their hands. Syd took one in each of his
+and held them tight for an instant. Then he dropped them quickly and
+began to speak rapidly.
+
+“Do you remember, Roy, the night last July you went home in Dr.
+Martin’s carriage and left me alone with Mr. Tyler? The will that left
+all his money to mother had been signed and witnessed; you know what it
+contained. I felt so rejoiced for you all, although I had no idea then
+that there was a chance of your so soon coming into possession.
+
+“I sat talking to the old man for an hour or so, about his investments
+and the various savings banks in which his money was deposited. Finally
+he appeared to grow restless.
+
+“‘Have you got that will I made, Sydney?’ he asked.
+
+“I pointed it out to him where it lay on the table.
+
+“‘I can make another one, can’t I?’ he went on.
+
+“‘As many as you please,’ I told him.
+
+“‘Then write out this one and I’ll sign it,’ he said, and he dictated a
+document that left every penny of his fortune, except the five thousand
+to Ann and a thousand he left to you, Roy, to Maurice Darley, if
+living, or his heirs if dead.
+
+“‘You and Ann can witness it,’ he told me, and I called her in, and she
+wrote her name under mine.
+
+“He named myself and Dr. Martin as executors just as before, and said
+that I could probably find Maurice Darley without much trouble. He
+turned over in bed then and I asked him where Darley was when he last
+heard from him, but he did not answer. I went over to the bed and
+looked at him, and found that he was dead.
+
+“Then the temptation flashed into my mind.
+
+“‘What a shame,’ I thought, ‘that owing to the caprice of a foolish old
+man these people who have been so good to me should be deprived of the
+fortune which had just been left to them. This Darley is undoubtedly
+rich. He has behaved contemptibly to the man who did so much for him.
+Why should he get the money?’
+
+“Then I recollected that you had gone into the kitchen, Roy, earlier in
+the evening, to get Ann to sign the first will, and then the doctor had
+told you that it was not necessary. I reasoned that she would
+undoubtedly suppose that the will she did sign was the only one that
+had been made, because I was sure she had not read it.
+
+“All these things flashed into my mind within a few seconds of time as
+I stood by the bedside of the dead man. My determination was quickly
+taken. I knew that Ann had gone home, that there was no one near to see
+the deed.
+
+“I took the new will and held it in the flame of the candle till it was
+entirely consumed. Then I blew the cinders, so that they scattered
+about the room and would not attract attention.”
+
+“Oh, Syd!” This in a kind of gasp from Roy.
+
+Rex said nothing. He was sitting upright now, still seeming to see
+before him the face of “No. 131,” Mr. Keeler’s criminal brother.
+
+“Yes, I knew you would all shrink from me when you knew,” went on
+Sydney. He spoke in a voice that was almost hard now. It was as if it
+had become so from the spurring that was necessary to enable him to
+make his confession. “I shrank from myself as soon as the last piece of
+tinder had vanished from the candlestick. I could not bear to stay in
+the house. I hurried off to the undertaker’s, and then stopped at Dr.
+Martin’s to tell him that the miser was dead.
+
+“He said something about the good fortune that had come to us so
+quickly. I shuddered and hurried home. But I could not sleep. I seemed
+to have become an old man in that one instant while I held that sheet
+of paper in the flame of the candle.”
+
+“That’s the reason we did not see you at breakfast the next morning?”
+said Roy softly.
+
+“Yes, I felt that I could not face you all just yet.”
+
+“And that is why you looked so terrible and fainted away when I told
+Scott Bowman about our inheritance at your office?” added Rex.
+
+“Yes; I was planning all sorts of ways to fix things, so we needn’t
+take the money. Then I saw it was too late. Now you know what has been
+on my mind all these months. I knew that my health was being undermined
+by the strain. But I did not care for that. I even hoped at times that
+I might die, because then I felt that you need never know.”
+
+“And—and was it anything in particular that made you tell us to-night?”
+asked Rex.
+
+“Yes. It seems very strange how things come about, but then it often
+happens so. Do you remember, Reggi—Rex, telling me the name of the man
+who left your friend Miles with the Morriseys’?”
+
+“Yes, and it was Darley, the same name you mentioned just now. And you
+fainted then, just as you did that time at the office. You don’t mean
+that Miles—”
+
+“Yes, I am almost certain that Miles Morrisey is really a Darley, the
+son of Maurice Darley, to whom all this money belongs. When I suspected
+this I knew that the end had come—that I must trace the thing down and
+confess.”
+
+At this point the carriage halted before the door of the house. Rex
+sprang out, then Roy, and both boys waited to help Sydney. But he made
+no movement to follow them.
+
+“Aren’t you going to get out, Syd?” asked Roy.
+
+“No; I have no right to live among you any more. Now that you know, it
+will seem like having a convict in the house. I can go to some hotel.
+You can send my things to me and I will stay there till—till this is
+settled up and they put me away.”
+
+Roy stepped into the carriage and put his face so close to Sydney’s
+that the latter felt the smooth flesh against his day’s growth of
+beard.
+
+“Dear old fellow,” whispered Roy, “you must come. We haven’t cast you
+off. And—and besides, we want you with us to help us decide what to
+do.”
+
+“Don’t be so good to me, Roy. I can’t bear it.”
+
+But as he spoke, Sydney got out, and the three went up the steps.
+
+Nothing was said as they ascended the stairs. There was danger of
+disturbing the household.
+
+“Good night, Syd,” said Roy, when they reached the top.
+
+He put out his hand, but Sydney did not see it in the darkness.
+
+“Good night, Roy,” he responded.
+
+Rex said nothing, but when Sydney’s door closed behind him, he drew Roy
+into his room with him.
+
+“You must stay with me to-night, Roy,” he said, and he began taking off
+his coat.
+
+“Why didn’t you speak to Syd before we came in, Reggie?”
+
+“I couldn’t, Roy. I feel awfully sorry for him. But he’s committed a
+crime, and I can’t help but think all the while of Mr. Keeler’s
+brother.”
+
+“It’s terrible—awful.” Roy’s face was pale; he looked almost as Sydney
+had looked at one time.
+
+“What are we going to do?” Rex sat down on the edge of the bed, a
+despairing droop to the shoulders that he usually carried so squarely.
+
+“We must give up everything to the rightful heir.”
+
+“But where shall we go then? We’ve sold our house in Marley and spent
+the money we got for it. We’ll be worse off than we were before, Roy.
+Oh, dear, why did you ever look up at that trestle and see that old man
+crawl out on it?”
+
+“I’ve wished I hadn’t before now,” replied Roy gravely.
+
+“The money hasn’t made us happy as you expected it would, and now see
+what misery it has brought. But I suppose it’s wrong for me to regret
+doing what I did. And don’t think so hard of Syd, Reggie. Remember that
+he did what he did, not for himself, but for us.”
+
+“I’ll try my best, but I don’t feel now as if I could ever touch him
+again. And think what he has brought us to! Poverty, after just giving
+us the taste of wealth.” The twins did not sleep much that night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+A HARD DAY FOR THE TWINS
+
+
+Roy and Rex slept far into the morning, which was Saturday. They were
+awakened finally by a persistent knocking on the door and Jess’s voice:
+
+“Are you boys going to sleep all day? Have you forgotten we were all
+going to Marley at eleven o’clock? And here’s a note Syd left for you,
+Rex. He’s much better and gone to the office. Get up now or we shan’t
+save breakfast”
+
+“All right,” responded Roy, and he shook his brother and told him about
+Syd’s note.
+
+“I wonder what it’s about,” murmured Rex.
+
+Then he saw it on the carpet, where Jess had poked it under the door.
+He snatched it up eagerly and read:
+
+“I am going to telegraph for Miles to come in and stay over Sunday. He
+must be told while he is here. He will get to the house in time for
+dinner.”
+
+“I wonder if he expects me to tell him?” muttered Rex. “Great Scott,
+it’ll be mighty queer to entertain a fellow in a house that really
+belongs to him!”
+
+“And I wonder when mother and the girls are to be told,” added Roy. “Do
+you suppose Syd could have told mother already?”
+
+But there was no sign that Mrs. Pell knew from her demeanor when she
+poured the coffee for them.
+
+“I must go down and see Syd about it,” said Roy as they went out into
+the hall together. “You’ll have to go to Marley without me.”
+
+“And I’m sure I don’t want to go,” added Rex.
+
+Their decision carried dismay to the hearts of the girls.
+
+“You must go, boys,” said Eva. “The Minturns have invited us to lunch,
+we have accepted, and it would be very impolite for you not to go now.
+Besides, Jess and I can’t come home after dark alone.”
+
+“If you knew what I do you wouldn’t feel like going either,” returned
+Rex, not heeding the warning glance cast at him by his brother.
+
+“What do you know, Rex?” asked Jess, looking from one twin to the other
+with a keen gaze. “There is something between those two,” she added,
+turning to her sister. “You take Roy, Eva, and I’ll take Rex, and we’ll
+make them up and confess.”
+
+The method of “making” employed was to tickle the boys, who were each
+very susceptible to this form of torture. This was terrible. To have
+the thing turned into a joke when it was so fearfully serious. Roy
+spoke up quickly:
+
+“We’ll tell you in a little while now, girls,” he said. “But seriously,
+I think you had better give up this trip to Marley.”
+
+“But what excuse will we send the Minturns?”
+
+Roy hesitated. This was a poser.
+
+“Can’t you put it off?” he said finally, as a makeshift.
+
+“Of course we can’t, without giving a reason for it,” returned Jess. “I
+think you boys are just as mean as you can be. Because you’ve got up
+some scheme between you that you’d rather do than go with us, you just
+won’t go.”
+
+“Ah, Jess, it isn’t that. It’s—but I can’t tell you now. Come, Rex,
+we’d better go after all. One day won’t make any difference.”
+
+Rex objected a little longer, but was at last won over.
+
+“I don’t suppose we could tell them without Syd’s consent,” he said
+when he and Roy had gone up stairs to get their coats. “But it’ll seem
+exactly like dancing on our own graves.”
+
+“Oh, not so bad as that, Reggie,” returned Roy.
+
+The day was a terribly hard one to both boys. All sorts of plans were
+discussed and adopted for future good times.
+
+Charlie and Ethel Minturn were invited up for a week from that day to
+take lunch and go to a matinee.
+
+“They’ll never be able to take them,” Rex found opportunity to whisper
+to his brother. “I wish we’d told the girls about it this morning.”
+
+“So do I, but I didn’t like to till Syd said he was ready.”
+
+The Minturns could not fail to notice that the twins had something on
+their minds. Ethel spoke of it.
+
+“Oh, it’s some piece of boys’ mischief, I’ll be bound,” exclaimed Jess,
+whereupon Roy and Rex exchanged glances and their hearts sank lower
+still.
+
+On the way home in the train Rex announced that Miles Morrisey was
+coming that evening to spend Sunday with them.
+
+“But I thought you and Roy were going to a meeting of your school
+society,” returned Jess. “If it hadn’t been for that we could have
+stayed to dinner at the Minturns’.”
+
+“Great Scott, I forgot all about the Stylus!” exclaimed Rex. “Well, it
+don’t matter; we’ll have to give it up any way.”
+
+The coming of night seemed to bring with it to Reginald a realizing
+sense of all that the new order of things would mean. He relapsed into
+thoughtfulness, in the midst of which he half sprang from his seat with
+an inarticulate exclamation.
+
+“What’s the matter, Rex?” inquired Eva. “Oh, nothing,” he responded.
+But the color deepened slightly in his cheek, and he looked furtively
+at Roy.
+
+The cause of his start was the remembrance of what Sydney had said
+about the name Darley having caused him to determine to confess.
+
+“If I had not gone off with Harrington that time,” was Rex’s inference,
+“Miles would not have come into my life, and we would not now be facing
+poverty.”
+
+But the blush was the shame at the idea that he would be willing to
+enjoy the fruits of Sydney’s crime provided he did not know about it.
+
+“I always feel sorry for Miles when he comes to see us,” remarked Eva.
+
+“Why?” asked Rex quickly.
+
+“Because he seems to feel embarrassed, as though he were out of place.
+He isn’t in the least. He has very nice manners, and I’m sure is a
+perfect gentleman. But what he needs is a little more self assurance.”
+
+“Oh, he’ll get that fast enough now,” said Rex, and then looked fixedly
+away from the scandalized glance he knew Roy was directing at him.
+
+“I’ll go home with the girls if you’ll wait at the station for Miles,
+Rex,” and Reginald was glad to be left alone for a few minutes.
+
+“It doesn’t seem as if it could be so,” he mused, as he walked up and
+down the pavement opposite the Public Buildings. “Miles and I to change
+places!”
+
+People hurrying to catch outgoing trains jostled him; the clang of the
+cable car bells sounded every few seconds; the noises of the city life
+he loved were all about him.
+
+“Where shall I be a year from now?” he asked himself.
+
+But it was nearly time for Miles’s train. Rex turned and went up the
+stairway to the left of the station building. As he did so, he passed a
+familiar face coming down. It was the boy who got him into trouble with
+the Chinaman that July afternoon six months before.
+
+But Rex felt no resentment now.
+
+“If that was the only trouble I had to think about!” he told himself
+enviously.
+
+Of such power is comparison.
+
+Miles’s train was on time. Rex saw Miles standing on the step of the
+forward car, ready to spring off at the first opportunity. His face
+lighted up to a still greater radiance at sight of Rex waiting for him.
+
+“I didn’t think you’d come to meet me,” he said, as he shook hands. “It
+is awfully good of you. I’m so glad to see you.”
+
+There was no doubt of this. One could read it at once in the way he
+looked at his companion.
+
+“I suppose you were surprised to get Syd’s telegram,” remarked Rex.
+“What did he say in it?”
+
+“Come and spend Sunday with Rex,” answered the other. “I was here only
+a little while ago, but I was glad enough to come again. It is ever so
+kind in you to send for me.”
+
+“Didn’t you think there might be any other reason for our sending for
+you?” asked Rex, after an instant’s pause.
+
+A troubled look crossed Miles’s face.
+
+“No; what do you mean, Rex?”
+
+“Don’t you remember what you found out a little while ago—about the man
+who left you with the Morriseys?”
+
+“Oh, my father. Has your brother heard anything about him? Is that what
+you want me for?”
+
+“It’s about that; yes. I’m not sure whether your father has been found,
+but something else has been found that belongs to you.”
+
+“And what is that?” asked Miles eagerly.
+
+“A fortune.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+A QUEER FISH POND PARTY
+
+
+Miles stared at Rex as though he did not comprehend the meaning of the
+word.
+
+“A fortune?” he repeated. “What fortune?”
+
+“Why, your fortune, to be sure,” returned Rex.
+
+“But I don’t understand,” went on Miles. “How can I have a fortune?”
+
+“Easy enough, since your father has one. Syd knows all about it. You’re
+a lucky fellow, Miles. It’s somewhere about half a million.”
+
+Miles looked very grave for half a minute, then a smile broke out over
+his face.
+
+“Come, Rex,” he said, “I see through your joke, so you might as well
+drop it. You oughtn’t to have made the sum so high if you expected me
+to believe it.”
+
+“It’s true, all the same, Miles.”
+
+But Miles still shook his head and declared he should wait to believe
+till Mr. Sydney told him all about it.
+
+“I wonder if Syd will tell him the whole thing tonight?” Rex asked
+himself, but Sydney was not home to dinner.
+
+There was a note from him to Rex, however, asking that he and Roy and
+Miles should meet him at the Continental Hotel that night at eight.
+This threw Rex into a great state of excitement. He knew that the
+crisis was at hand.
+
+Roy took things more quietly, but inwardly he was none the less
+excited.
+
+“Syd wants us to meet him down town,” he said as they rose from the
+table.
+
+He had been waiting for Rex to tell Miles, but the other had not yet
+brought himself to do it.
+
+“Where are you going?” Jess wanted to know. “To the theater?”
+
+“No, indeed,” responded Rex. Then he folded up his napkin quickly and
+left the dining room.
+
+“Has this visit got anything to do with my father?” Miles whispered to
+Roy, as they went out into the hall together.
+
+“I think it has, Miles, but I don’t know much more about it than you
+do.”
+
+There was not much said by the three boys on their way down town. Rex
+was in one of his silent moods, and made no effort to get out of it.
+
+Roy tried to talk, but there was such a weight on his mind that he made
+but poor success of the attempt.
+
+Miles was far too excited, however, to notice the difference in manner
+of the twins compared with their usual cordiality.
+
+They found Sydney waiting for them in the corridor of the hotel. He was
+looking very haggard, but he seemed very glad to see Miles.
+
+“I have good news for you, my boy,” he said; “good and bad, too. I have
+found your father, but he is not quite himself.”
+
+“What do you mean?” exclaimed Miles, while Roy and Rex looked their
+interest.
+
+“His mind is affected,” Sydney went on. “We hope the sight of you may
+have a favorable effect, but be careful not to be excited yourself when
+you see him. Take it quite as a matter of course.”
+
+Miles drew in a long breath. It was going to be rather a difficult
+matter for him to take easily a meeting with the father he had thought
+never to see.
+
+“Where is he?” he asked in a faint tone.
+
+“Not far from here. Come, we will go there at once.”
+
+On the way to Mrs. Fox’s Sydney explained that he and the old lady had
+arranged that she should give a sort of boys’ party at which Mr. Darley
+should be present. He would then have an opportunity to study Miles
+quietly, while the latter was engaged in playing games.
+
+“You look so much like him,” Sydney added, “that we hope he may
+recognize you.”
+
+Miles appeared to be somewhat astonished when they halted before the
+odd little home in Seventh Street. But he said nothing, and the next
+moment they were all being warmly welcomed by Mrs. Fox.
+
+The old lady was so excited that both her hands and voice trembled. She
+came near crying when she first saw Miles, but she greeted him exactly
+as she had the twins. There was a game of Fish Pond on the center
+table.
+
+“Now, boys,” she said, “try your luck.”
+
+They all drew up to the table, Sydney taking a rod, too. The old lady
+stood looking on behind Miles’s chair. Presently she went out into the
+back room and in a few minutes returned, accompanied by a gentleman who
+did not look to be over thirty-seven. He was dressed very handsomely
+and his resemblance to Miles was striking.
+
+“Mr. Darley, boys,” said Mrs. Fox, as the two came up to the table. “Go
+right on with your fishing; we will watch you.”
+
+She had taken up her stand this time behind Rex, who was sitting just
+opposite Miles.
+
+“Glad to meet you, boys,” remarked Mr. Darley, in a pleasant voice.
+“How is the market?”
+
+Rex, with an effort, collected himself sufficiently to answer, “Oh,
+pretty fair, sir.”
+
+“Only pretty fair, eh?” went on the other. “Keep at it, though. You’re
+bound to win some time, as I have. Look here.”
+
+He put his hand in the side pocket of his coat and drew forth a great
+mass of chips, all covered with gilt paper.
+
+A look of agony was on Miles’s face. It was almost worse than finding
+no father at all, to find such a one as this.
+
+“Don’t you want to take my rod and fish a while, sir?” he said, feeling
+that it would be impossible for him to longer sit still.
+
+“Thank you; you are very kind. I might take a single flyer.”
+
+Mr. Darley stepped around to take Miles’s seat, but as the other rose
+they were face to face, and very close to each other for an instant.
+Mr. Darley put out both hands and grasped the boy by the shoulders.
+
+“What is your name?” he said in a tone that was quite different from
+the one in which he had hitherto spoken. It was much more decided, and
+firmer.
+
+“Miles,” answered the other, trying his best to keep his excitement
+down.
+
+He could see Mrs. Fox standing just behind his father, her hands
+clasped together in an agony of suspense.
+
+“Miles, eh! Well, you look as if your name ought to be Maurice. Great
+Cæsar! doesn’t he look like me, Mrs. Fox?”
+
+He wheeled around so suddenly that the poor old lady was taken quite
+unawares. She dropped her hands quickly to her sides and had not a word
+to say.
+
+“Don’t he look like me?” Mr. Darley now appealed to Sydney, who managed
+to stammer out: “I certainly see a strong resemblance, sir.”
+
+“What is your last name, young man?” went on the other.
+
+Miles hesitated an instant. He was about to say Darley, but some happy
+instinct prompted him to substitute “Morrisey.”
+
+Mr. Darley started.
+
+“Morrisey, you say?” he exclaimed.
+
+A swift change passed over his features. He had dropped his hand from
+Miles’s shoulders, but now reached forth and caught him by the arm.
+
+“Come with me,” he said quietly, and led him into the back room.
+
+The others looked at one another without speaking. No one thought of
+the game. The fish lines, tangled up, were lying in the pasteboard
+pond.
+
+Mrs. Fox had sunk down on the sofa, her head covered with her apron.
+From the inner room came the subdued sound of voices.
+
+“Do you suppose he has recognized him?” It was Rex who at length broke
+the silence, and he spoke in an awed whisper.
+
+Nobody made any reply, for footsteps were heard approaching from the
+rear. It was Miles. His face was handsomer than Rex had ever seen it.
+It was lighted up with joy.
+
+He came straight to Rex and put a hand on his shoulder, while he leaned
+over till his chin rested on the other’s head.
+
+“I want to tell you first, Rex,” he said, “who have been the means of
+bringing me to this happiness. He knows me. His mind has come back to
+him. He called me Maurice, and he remembers giving me to the Morriseys
+to take care of for a while. Then his brain went back on him, and he
+thought I was dead.”
+
+“Where is he?” asked Rex.
+
+“Lying down on the bed. He is utterly exhausted. I must go back to him
+now,” and Miles hurried off again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+REX RISES TO THE OCCASION
+
+
+“It’s wonderful. I never heard anything like it.” This was Mrs. Fox’s
+exclamation when the four were left alone in the front room again.
+
+“All the credit belongs to you, Mr. Pell,” she went on, turning to
+Sydney. “It was you thought of this way of doing things.”
+
+“Oh, he might have recognized him any other way just as quickly,”
+returned Sydney. “And now some one must tell him about Mr. Tyler’s
+legacy,” he added. “I want to get that off my mind.”
+
+“I guess he can’t stand that to-night, Mr. Pell,” returned the old
+lady. “You’d better leave it till tomorrow. I’ll keep Miles here with
+him to-night—there’s room—and then they can both go to see you
+to-morrow.”
+
+“Yes, that will be the best way,” Sydney agreed. “But I had hoped to
+get it off my mind by this time. Come, boys.”
+
+“I trust I shall see you both again,” said Mrs. Fox, as she shook hands
+with the twins.
+
+Then the three Pells went out and homeward. It was only nine o’clock.
+
+“Mother ought to know, don’t you think so, Syd?” said Roy.
+
+“Yes, she must know to-night. But I don’t see how I can tell her. I
+don’t see how I can. She trusts me so fully.”
+
+“Then let me tell her,” suggested Roy.
+
+“No, no. I must confess myself. I shall do it now as soon as we get
+home. Then I can be ready to put myself in Mr. Darley’s hands
+to-morrow.”
+
+“Do you think he will—will—” Rex began and came to a sudden stop.
+
+“Send me to jail?” Syd finished for him. “He may. He has a right to do
+it. I deserve to go. Oh, boys, I wonder how you can bear to be with
+me.”
+
+“You did it for our sakes, Syd,” responded Roy.
+
+But Rex said nothing.
+
+When they reached the house they found Eva and Jess in the parlor,
+entertaining company.
+
+“Come in, boys,” Eva called as they passed the door.
+
+Roy and Rex obeyed the summons, leaving Sydney to go up to Mrs. Pell in
+the library.
+
+They found Mr. Keeler to be the caller. Rex started when he saw who it
+was.
+
+“Why, where is Miles?” asked Jess.
+
+“He stayed with his father,” replied Rex.
+
+“His father!” echoed both girls. “Why, has he found him?”
+
+“Yes,” answered Roy, “Syd found him. There’s a story for you, Mr.
+Keeler, a regular romance.”
+
+Rex began to look nervous. He feared that his escapade with Harrington
+was about to be related. But Roy skillfully told the main points in
+Miles’s career without encroaching on this.
+
+Mr. Keeler stayed until ten o’clock, and while they were talking and
+laughing in the parlor, the twins were thinking of what was going on in
+the room above.
+
+When they went to kiss their mother good night they saw that she knew.
+The girls exclaimed at once at sight of her face.
+
+“You are ill,” cried Eva.
+
+“No, Eva,” rejoined Mrs. Pell, “it is worse than illness.”
+
+The tears welled up in her eyes. She could say no more.
+
+Sydney was not with her, neither was he in his room. The girls were
+clamorous to know what was the matter.
+
+“Tell them, Roy, I can’t,” Mrs. Pell at last found voice to say.
+
+Rex could not stay to hear. And Roy never suffered as he did in the few
+moments it took him to relate his foster brother’s crime. It seemed as
+though it were as cruel as to drive nails into the fair flesh of the
+young girls. And yet they must know.
+
+“How could he do it, how could he?” Eva murmured again and again.
+
+“Perhaps he didn’t,” Jess suddenly exclaimed. “He’s nothing to show for
+it—the second will, I mean. Perhaps there’s something wrong with his
+brain, and he only imagines there was one and he destroyed it.”
+
+But Roy shook his head. There was Ann to prove, if necessary, that she
+had signed the other document.
+
+For a long while they sat there. It seemed as if black despair had
+settled upon them and there was no way out.
+
+For years Mrs. Pell had leaned upon Sydney. In an emergency like the
+present, he would be just the one to whom she would go for counsel. And
+now—he had failed her utterly.
+
+“What did you say to him, mother?” asked Roy after a while. “Were—were
+you kind to him?”
+
+“I tried to be. I tried to remember that he had done all for our sakes,
+but I feel like a ship without a rudder.”
+
+Roy left his seat near Eva and slipped into a chair next his mother,
+who had bowed her head on the desk in front of her.
+
+She had been writing a note to a charitable society of which she was a
+member. The check she was to send them lay all signed, ready to be
+inclosed.
+
+“Moms,” whispered Roy, using the pet name Rex had invented and pressing
+one of his mother’s hands tightly in his, “you have us. We are growing
+fast. I am sure we shall get along.”
+
+“Bless you, my boy.” His mother kissed him on the forehead, then lifted
+her eyes reverently, as she added: “Yes, and I must not forget that
+there is One who is always a friend to the needy. And now, children, we
+must go to bed. To-morrow we will decide what to do.”
+
+Roy stopped at Rex’s door, went in and found his brother tossing in
+bed.
+
+“Have you told the girls?” he asked.
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“How did they take it?”
+
+“Better than I expected they would.”
+
+“But what are we going to do, Roy?” Rex went on. “We can’t stay here.”
+
+“No, of course not.”
+
+“But what will people say? Won’t there be a terrible scandal?”
+
+“You mustn’t talk that way, Rex. Remember that you and I are the ones
+mother must depend on now. If she sees us looking on the dark side
+it’ll make it so much the harder for her.”
+
+“That’s it,” returned Rex. “Life is something you must go ahead with.
+You can’t lay it down when you get tired. All right; I’ll remember what
+you say, Roy, but it’s an awful come down.”
+
+Rex, however, “came up to the scratch,” as he himself would have
+expressed it, nobly the next day.
+
+Nobody went to church, and about half past eleven the door bell rang
+and “Mr. Darley and son” were announced.
+
+Miles, as we shall continue to call him, sent up word to know if he
+could come up to Rex’s room.
+
+“Do you know?” asked Reginald, as he met him in the doorway.
+
+“Yes; Mr. Sydney came around to us this morning. I can’t understand it.
+But I don’t want you to feel—”
+
+Miles hesitated. It was very embarrassing for him to express just what
+he wanted to say. Rex helped him out.
+
+“I’m awfully glad for you, old fellow,” he said heartily. “And I don’t
+want you to worry about us. We’ll get along some way.”
+
+“But that won’t do,” Miles persisted. “If it hadn’t been for you I
+might have been a common tramp now and never found my father.”
+
+“And if it hadn’t been for you I would probably have been dead long
+ago,” Rex retorted. “So you see we’re quits.”
+
+“No, we’re not, and I don’t want that we should, till I give you what I
+think you ought to have. Father says I may and—”
+
+“Miles Harding—Darley, I mean, if you do that I’ll—I’ll never speak to
+you again. There, take your choice—quits or my friendship.”
+
+Rex’s pride conquered. Miles was still his slave.
+
+“I’ll never say another word about it, Rex,” he replied meekly, and for
+the first time Reginald felt that he could face poverty bravely.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+A FISTIC ENCOUNTER
+
+
+It is summer again, but in Batemans the town in which we now find our
+friends, the Pells, this banner season of the year, does not deck
+itself with all the attractions that caused it to be eagerly looked
+forward to in Marley.
+
+There are no creek, no hills, no trees, nothing but board walks, board
+houses, board fences, and the “boarders we take,” as Rex would conclude
+the sentence. And these are the same in summer as they are in winter,
+except that they are all hotter and more unpleasant than ordinary.
+
+Batemans is a far Western town. A friend of Mrs. Pell’s was putting up
+a hotel there at the time of her trouble. He had appealed to her for
+some woman to run it.
+
+“I don’t want a man,” he wrote. “There are too many men out here now. I
+want somebody who will give home comforts which I want to make a
+speciality of, in place of a bar.”
+
+Mrs. Pell considered it a providential opportunity. She replied stating
+that she would take it herself if she could have her children to help
+her. And they had gone out there in February.
+
+Mr. Darley had been kindness itself. He not only refused to prosecute
+Sydney, but wanted to settle a portion of his fortune on the Pells.
+
+“You are fully entitled to this,” he said. “It is through you that my
+boy has been restored to me.”
+
+But Mrs. Pell was firm as Rex had been firm.
+
+“It is enough that you allow us the time in which to make our plans,”
+she returned.
+
+Rex never murmured at the prospect of Batemans. Not even when the
+dreary aspect of the place, with mud two feet deep in its streets,
+first dawned upon him. He felt that he ought to rejoice rather that his
+new lot was to be cast so far away from all his old friends.
+
+There were no educational facilities in Batemans; at least none of
+which the twins could avail themselves. Then they found plenty to do in
+helping their mother.
+
+Rex acted as clerk, made out the bills and received the guests; Roy saw
+to the purchasing of supplies, and aided his brother in keeping
+objectionable characters out of the house.
+
+There were no amusements and no society except that which they
+furnished themselves in the family circle, Roy often thought if he had
+had this life to look forward to, his whole previous existence would
+have been embittered. But now that he was living it, strength seemed
+given him in some way to bear the burden.
+
+Sydney had gone to England. They asked him to write and let them know
+how he was getting along, but he would not promise.
+
+Miles wrote regularly to Rex, even when the latter did not reply. He
+and his father had moved into the handsome home next the Harringtons’,
+with Mrs. Fox as housekeeper.
+
+“I wonder what people think of the thing,” Rex said once to Roy.
+
+There had been no publicity about the transfer. Only a few people knew
+of it and the cause.
+
+On this July day on which we are writing, it was unusually hot. The
+heat seemed to be frying in the air. It was a day of all others on
+which to keep quiet and calm.
+
+But this was the day on which the waiters of the Homestead House had
+chosen to go out on strike for an increase of wages which Mrs. Pell was
+not empowered to give them. They threw down their aprons just before
+the dinner hour at one o’clock.
+
+“Never mind, mother,” said Roy. “Rex and I will pitch in and help.”
+
+And they did, they and Eva and Jess. Rex was just carrying a tray of
+dishes into the pantry when he heard a louder voice than usual coming
+from one of the tables.
+
+He looked around. He saw Jess, flushed to her hair, standing behind a
+young man who had come in with one of the regular guests, and whom he
+had not noticed before.
+
+“Come now, I’ll give you a nice tip if you’ll do it for me,” Rex heard
+the fellow say.
+
+He thought he recognized the voice. He put his tray down and hurried to
+his sister’s side.
+
+She had started to walk away, but the man had caught her by the dress
+and held her fast.
+
+“He wants me to go to the saloon across the street and bring him a
+bottle of beer,” said Jess.
+
+Rex stooped quickly and disengaged the fellow’s hand with no gentle
+touch. In doing so he looked him straight in the face. It was Ashby
+Stout.
+
+“Great Scott, it’s little Pell,” exclaimed Stout. Then he added
+quickly: “Look here, youngster, what right have you to send that girl
+away from here?”
+
+“A brother’s right,” replied Rex promptly.
+
+“Whew!” whistled Stout under his breath, and he turned to Driscoll, the
+friend with whom he had come in. “Say, Sammy,” he whispered, “what
+position does this chap hold in the place?”
+
+“He’s the manager’s son,” was the reply.
+
+Having accomplished his purpose Rex went on, took up his tray and
+carried it into the pantry. His eyes still flashed from anger.
+
+“Jess,” he said, going up to his sister, “you must not go into that
+dining room again.”
+
+“But I’ll have to,” she replied, “I’ve got lots of orders to fill.”
+
+“Never mind. I’ll attend to yours and mine, too. I’m not going to have
+that ruffian ogling you, I know who he is.”
+
+“You do? Who is he?”
+
+“Never mind. It is enough that I know everything bad about him and
+nothing good. Give me your orders.”
+
+And Jess complied. Of course this compelled Rex to wait on Stout. But
+he gritted his teeth and went through with the process in dignified
+silence, taking no notice of the attempt Stout made to draw him into
+conversation.
+
+When dinner was over and Rex was back in his place behind the desk,
+making up accounts, Stout strolled in, a cigarette between his lips.
+
+He affected to be examining the register for a little while, then
+suddenly looked up to remark: “I say, Pell, that’s a deuced pretty
+sister of yours.”
+
+I won’t say that Rex did right, I can’t say that he did wrong, but on
+the instant and without a word he leaned forward and hit J. Ashby Stout
+a blow on the chin that sent him staggering backward over a chair that
+stood just behind him.
+
+There happened to be no one else in the office just at that moment. So
+Mr. Stout was obliged to pick himself up, which he did, muttering
+wrathfully under his breath, while Rex, very white, went on with his
+work.
+
+“If you’re not a coward, sir, you’ll come out here and give me
+satisfaction for that insult, sir.”
+
+So spoke Mr. Stout. Rex closed his books and came out in front of the
+desk.
+
+“I allow no one to speak of my sister in that tone,” he said.
+
+“And I allow no one to strike me,” blustered Mr. Stout, launching out a
+blow directly at Rex’s face.
+
+Rex dodged and planted another blow on Mr. Stout’s chin. Then they both
+went at it. Sometimes one was struck, sometimes the other. I am aware
+that this is contrary to all precedents in story writing. Following out
+these, J. Ashby Stout should have gone down under the first blow, and
+then been glad to slink off without risking another encounter with the
+redoubtable hero.
+
+But then as I think I have remarked once before, Rex is not the hero of
+this story. He is a boy of very impulsive nature, as often wrong as
+right in his motives. Perhaps he might have taken a wiser method of
+standing up for his sister on the present occasion. Be this as it may,
+he did not regret the black eye he went up to his room to bathe a
+little while later.
+
+And while the battle did not result in a decisive victory for either
+side, it was noticeable that Mr. J. Ashby Stout did not again accompany
+Driscoll to the Homestead. But some one else appeared the next day to
+whom Rex found it necessary to explain how he came by his battered
+visage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+MILES BREAKS THE NEWS
+
+
+A compromise had been effected with the striking waiters, and the heat
+had lessened a little in its intensity. The two things, together with
+the nonappearance of Ashby Stout were blessings for which Rex had to be
+grateful.
+
+But when the stage came in and he recognized among the passengers Miles
+Darley and the latter’s father, he did not know whether he was glad or
+not. They were links connecting him with that past life which he was
+trying his best to forget. Now it seemed to him that only by forgetting
+it and thus doing away with the power of contrast, could he be happy in
+the present.
+
+“You dear old fellow!” Miles rushed forward with this exclamation and
+fairly took Rex in his arms.
+
+He had grown much in the past few months and the clothes he wore set
+off his figure to great advantage.
+
+“I won’t say where on earth did you come from,” said Rex, “but where in
+the world are you going to, that you should take in this forsaken
+place?”
+
+“Well, that’s polite, I’m sure,” laughed Miles, “Can’t you imagine that
+Batemans may be our objective point?”
+
+“No, because I’m certain you can’t be interested in saw mills, and
+that’s the only thing that brings people here.”
+
+“But I can be interested in you, can’t I, Rex? I’ve missed you
+terribly. That great house seems so lonely with only three of us in
+it.”
+
+“But you needn’t have stayed there in the summer. There’s the White
+Mountains or the sea coast—lots of places you could have gone to.”
+
+“If we choose to come here instead, it’s all right, isn’t it, Rex?”
+
+“Of course it is, old fellow, and now I see that the best way in which
+I can entertain you is to tell you right off how I came by this black
+eye,” which Rex proceeded at once to do.
+
+“Good for you, my little game cock!” exclaimed Miles, when he had heard
+the story. “Speaking of Stout, your friend Harrington has tried to
+scrape acquaintance with me, but he hasn’t got beyond the scraping
+stage yet. I wonder what Stout was doing out here.”
+
+“His father’s in the lumber business, I believe. But I’m afraid you’ll
+find it pretty hot, Miles.”
+
+“Well, I’ve had so many cold days in my time I guess I can stand a
+little heat.”
+
+Rex was not the only one of the Pells who was astonished by the advent
+of the Darleys. Their coming was a complete surprise to the entire
+family. And a still greater cause of astonishment was the prolongation
+of their stay.
+
+They rented two of the best rooms in the house, had awnings put up at
+the windows and wicker furniture sent on from Denver. Mr. Darley took
+frequent trips to neighboring towns. It was understood by the gossips
+at Batemans that he was a large Eastern capitalist, looking about for
+profitable mining investments.
+
+July, August and half of September passed, and still the Darleys
+remained. Miles was supremely content, for he was with Rex, for whom
+his admiration appeared to increase with each day’s added intimacy.
+Miles had brought his books, and they studied together some. And in
+spite of the forlornness of the place, the five young people managed to
+have a pretty good time.
+
+One afternoon Roy and Rex were washing the omnibus out at the stable.
+The driver, hearing of a big strike that had been made at a mine some
+sixty miles away, threw up his position at once and started off to try
+to get rich at a hand stroke. And the boys were forced to throw
+themselves into the breach until another man could be obtained in his
+place.
+
+This is the sort of thing they had trained themselves to expect since
+coming to Batemans.
+
+“Where’s Miles?” asked Roy, as he brought a fresh pail of water and set
+it down beside his brother.
+
+“He was coming out but his father called him into his room.”
+
+“We’ll miss them when they go, won’t we, Reggie? It has been jolly good
+fun to have Miles with us all summer. You ought to feel quite proud to
+think you are a strong enough magnet to keep him here.”
+
+“I can’t understand it at all, why they should have stayed,” returned
+Rex.
+
+He did not speak very cheerfully. The Darleys were to leave the very
+next week. It was impossible but that Rex should realize vividly to
+what they were returning. He did not tell Roy so, but he wished they
+had not come.
+
+There was only one wheel of the omnibus to finish when Miles came
+hurrying toward them. There was an expression on his face which neither
+of the twins could comprehend. It was a blending of fear, joy and
+stupefaction.
+
+“Here, let me help,” he said, as he came up. “I want you fellows to
+hurry and get through. I’ve something to tell you.”
+
+But they had so nearly finished that there was nothing left for him to
+undertake.
+
+“What have you got to tell us?” asked Rex, throwing his sponge back
+into the bucket.
+
+“I wish I knew how you fellows would take it,” returned Miles, a flush
+creeping over his face.
+
+“Try us and find out,” rejoined Roy with a smile.
+
+“I’m simply delighted myself,” went on the other. “I wonder how I can
+keep my two feet on the ground. It seems too good to be true.”
+
+“Then why are you in doubt how we’ll take it,” said Rex. “What pleases
+you ought certainly to please us.”
+
+“But perhaps this won’t. It’s so—so, unexpected and altogether jolly.”
+
+“Well, Miles Darley, you are certainly the most incomprehensible fellow
+this afternoon,” exclaimed Roy. “What’s it about?”
+
+“Well, it’s about the Pells and the Darleys,” explained Miles, the
+color still surging in his cheeks. “In union there is strength, you
+know, and—haven’t you guessed it yet?”
+
+“No, indeed, we haven’t and just you tell us right out what it is
+without any more fooling,” and Rex made a playful dab at his friend
+with the big sponge.
+
+“All right, here goes then,” and Miles drew in his breath. “Your mother
+has told my father that she will be Mrs. Darley, and that makes us
+brothers, Rex, don’t you see, and we’re all going back to Philadelphia
+together—well, don’t you like it?”
+
+Miles checked himself suddenly, for Roy and Rex stood staring at him as
+if struck dumb, too amazed to allow any expression to appear on their
+faces.
+
+But it was all true; they were to have another test of fortune, and
+though its bringing about seemed in some sense to deprive the boys of
+their mother, they knew that not only was this not so, but that they
+were to gain a father thereby. “And a brother, too, don’t forget that,”
+Miles adds at my side.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
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