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      Fame and Fortune Weekly No, 2, Born to Good Luck; or The Boy Who Succeeded, by A Self-Made Man
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<h1>Fame and Fortune Weekly</h1>

<p class="center">STORIES OF BOYS WHO MAKE MONEY</p>

<p class="center"><i>Issued Weekly&mdash;By Subscription $2.50 per year. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1905, in the office of the Librarian
of Congress, Washington, D. C., by Frank Tousey, Publisher, 24 Union Square, New York.</i></p>

<table class="bt bb" summary="Volume, Location, Price">
<tr>
<td class="tdl"><b>No. 2</b>&emsp;</td>
<td class="tdc">&emsp;NEW YORK, OCTOBER 13, 1905.&emsp;</td>
<td class="tdr">&emsp;<b>Price 5 Cents</b></td>
</tr>
</table>

<h2 class="nobreak"><span class="gesperrt">BORN TO GOOD LUCK;</span><br />
<small>OR</small><br />
The Boy Who Succeeded.</h2>
<hr class="r15" />
<p class="center">By A SELF-MADE MAN.</p>
<hr class="r15" />

<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />

<div class="chapter">
<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</h2>
</div>

<p class="h2sub">THE SCRAP AT COBHAM’S CORNER.</p>

<p>“See here, Dick Armstrong; when you’ve taken that
water into the house, I want you to clean these. Do you
understand?”</p>

<p>The speaker, a sallow-complexioned, overgrown boy of
seventeen, threw a pair of mud-bespattered boots at the feet
of a sun-burned, healthy-looking lad about a year his junior,
while a grin of satisfied malice wrinkled his not over-pleasant
features as he thrust his hands into his pockets and
started to walk away.</p>

<p>“Who are you talking to, Luke Maslin?” answered Dick,
hotly, not relishing the contemptuous manner in which he
had been addressed.</p>

<p>“Why, you, of course,” replied Luke, with a sneer, pausing
about a yard away. “You’re dad’s boy-of-all-work,
aren’t you?”</p>

<p>Unfortunately for Dick this remark expressed the exact
truth.</p>

<p>He was Silas Maslin’s boy-of-all-work, and his lot was
not an enviable one.</p>

<p>His clothes were bad, his food scarce, his education
neglected, and having arrived at the age of sixteen years
he eagerly longed to cut loose from his uncongenial surroundings
and make his own way in the world.</p>

<p>If Dick felt obliged to submit to Mr. Maslin’s tyrannical
treatment, that was no reason, he contended, why he should
allow his son Luke to bully him also.</p>

<p>Although he had never done anything to deserve Luke
Maslin’s ill will and often went out of his way to do him
a good turn, Luke never lost a chance to make life miserable
for Dick.</p>

<p>In fact, all friendly advances on Armstrong’s part, instead
of winning his favor, seemed rather to impress him
with the idea that Dick was afraid of him, which was far
from the truth.</p>

<p>On this particular occasion Dick was not in the best of
humor, for Mr. Maslin had just been savagely abusing
him because he had taken a longer time than the old man
had considered necessary to fetch certain supplies for the
store from Slocum, a large town about ten miles distant.
So when Luke flung the last remark at him he angrily
retorted:</p>

<p>“Well, I’m not yours, at any rate.”</p>

<p>“What do you mean by that?” demanded Luke, in a
disagreeable tone.</p>

<p>“Just what I said!” answered Dick, defiantly.</p>

<p>“Do you mean to say that you don’t intend to do anything
I ask you to do?”</p>

<p>“That depends.”</p>

<p>“Depends on what?”</p>

<p>Luke advanced a step nearer the other, looking decidedly
ugly.</p>

<p>“How you ask me,” replied Dick, setting down the pail
to relieve his arm.</p>

<p>“I s’pose you’d like me to take my hat off to you, Dick
Armstrong, and say please, and all that,” Luke returned,
scowling darkly. “It strikes me you’re putting on too
many frills for a charity boy.”</p>

<p>Charity boy!</p>

<p>This slur, which Dick felt to be utterly undeserved,
stung him more than anything Luke could have said.</p>

<p>He turned pale with sudden rage, and his temper burst
forth with a violence all the more terrible because held
so long in check.</p>

<p>Snatching up the pail of water as though it were a
feather, he dashed its contents over his tormentor, drenching
him from head to foot.</p>

<p>If the heavens had fallen, Luke Maslin couldn’t have
been more astonished.</p>

<p>That Dick Armstrong, the despised factotum of the
establishment, would dare to resent any aggression on his
part was something Luke had not dreamed of.</p>

<p>Heretofore when he chose to bully his father’s drudge
the boy had submitted with the best grace he could.</p>

<p>Now Dick actually had the temerity not only to resist,
but to assume the offensive.</p>

<p>After the first sputtering gasp of surprise, Luke recovered
himself and sprang at Dick with a howl of the fury
that fairly blazed from his eyes.</p>

<p>Realizing that he was in for trouble, Armstrong prepared
to defend himself to the best of his ability.</p>

<p>Although his opponent had the advantage of him in
height and was furious enough to be dangerous, Dick
was not troubled with any misgivings as to the result of
a clash between them.</p>

<p>He had every confidence in his own powers, for he was
compactly built, was unusually strong for his years, and
moreover, being very angry, was reckless of the consequences.</p>

<p>Whether it was that Maslin was naturally clever with
his fists or Dick was awkward or slow in putting himself
into a posture of defence, certain it is Luke’s right arm
went through his opponent’s guard and Dick received a
stinging blow on the side of his head that staggered him
for a moment.</p>

<p>A second whack, this time on the chest, thoroughly
aroused Dick and, seeing his chance, he struck out with
all the force he was capable of and caught Luke full on
the nose.</p>

<p>His head went back with a jerk, he slipped on the grass,
and was down in a moment, the blood flowing freely from
his injured organ.</p>

<p>Contrary to Dick’s expectations, Luke made no effort
to get up and resume the battle.</p>

<p>It began to look as though that one blow had knocked
all the fight out of him.</p>

<p>Whatever satisfaction his opponent felt at such a decisive
result was dissipated in a moment by an unexpected
whack on the ear from behind, and turning to confront
this new danger he found himself face to face with Silas
Maslin, who was in a towering rage.</p>

<p>“You young rascal, how dare you strike my son!” he
exclaimed, furiously.</p>

<p>“He struck me first,” Dick answered doggedly, rubbing
his ear, for the slap had been no gentle one.</p>

<p>“What’s that? Didn’t I see you fling that bucket of
water over him, you little villain?”</p>

<p>“I did that because he insulted me,” replied the boy, with
spirit.</p>

<p>“Don’t you dare talk back to me in that fashion, or
I’ll flay you within an inch of your life! Go into the
store at once!”</p>

<p>Silas Maslin raised his foot as though it was his intention
to boot the boy.</p>

<p>He did not do so, however, and it was well for him that
he did not.</p>

<p>That was an indignity Dick would not have submitted to
from any person, not even from Silas Maslin, much as
he held him in awe.</p>

<p>The boy was glad to avail himself of the chance of getting
beyond his tyrant’s reach, and was presently drawing
a quart of molasses for one of the customers of the establishment.</p>

<p>Mr. Maslin kept a small general store at Cobham’s
Corner, on the outskirts of the village of Walkhill, in the
State of New York.</p>

<p>The building stood within a few yards of the Erie Canal,
facing the country road, which at this point crossed the
narrow waterway by means of a stout wooden bridge.</p>

<p>The houses that constituted the village were much scattered,
and owing to the heavy growth of trees not one of
them could be seen from the store; but by standing on the
centre of the bridge the short, stumpy steeple of the small,
wooden church could just be made out looming up through
the topmost branches in the near distance.</p>

<p>The post-office was located at the store, and the farmers
for miles around came here for their mail and to replenish
their supplies from Mr. Maslin’s stock of goods, which
consisted of about everything needed by the little community,
from a needle to a cultivator.</p>

<p>Mr. Maslin’s household consisted of his wife, a sour-faced
woman on the shady side of forty; his son Luke; John
Huskins, a hired man, who attended to the main part of
the work in the fields&mdash;for Silas Maslin had some forty
acres under cultivation&mdash;and Dick Armstrong, who helped
in the store when necessary, did the chores, and assisted
Huskins.</p>

<p>Between the two boys, Luke had all the advantages of
the situation.</p>

<p>He went to school as long as school kept, took part
in all the village sports, visited his schoolmates, attended
all the social gatherings he felt disposed to join, and
carried his head pretty high generally.</p>

<p>But for all that he wasn’t at all popular.</p>

<p>Dick, on the other hand, came in for the short end of
everything.</p>

<p>He attended school when Silas Maslin chose to let him
do so, under which circumstances his attendance was decidedly
irregular.</p>

<p>For the larger part of his time from daylight to dark
he was kept on the hustle, as Mr. Maslin was never at a
loss to find something for him to do.</p>

<p>Everybody knew Dick Armstrong, of course.</p>

<p>He was a good-looking boy, naturally bright, was obliging
and polite to everybody with whom he came in contact,
and consequently was well liked by everybody in the district,
and was an especial favorite with the girls, who when
they came to the store for mail or to purchase something
preferred to have him wait upon them.</p>

<p>As Luke was ambitious to shine with the fair sex himself,
he resented their partiality for Dick, and as he couldn’t
very well get square with the young ladies, he vented his
ill humor and spite on the object of their attention.</p>

<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />

<div class="chapter">
<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</h2>
</div>

<p class="h2sub">ACCUSED OF THEFT.</p>

<p>As the customer departed with the jug of molasses, a
lad named Joe Fletcher entered the store.</p>

<p>“Hello, Dick,” said the newcomer, walking toward the
rear of the place.</p>

<p>“Hello, Joe,” replied Dick, in a pleased voice, for he
and Joe were chums.</p>

<p>“I didn’t know whether I should find you in here or
not,” said Joe.</p>

<p>“Want to see me about anything particular?” asked
Dick, in some surprise.</p>

<p>“Yes. I’ve come to say good-bye.”</p>

<p>“What!” exclaimed Dick, his face clouding. “You don’t
mean to say you’re going away?”</p>

<p>“Yes. I left Boggs for good a couple of hours ago.
He’s a hard, cruel, grasping tyrant&mdash;that’s what he is.
You know I threatened to cut loose from him weeks
ago, but somehow I didn’t seem to be able to muster up
the backbone to do it. But it’s all over now. He beat me
black and blue with a whip this morning because one of
the cows broke down the corner of the pasture fence and
got into the truck patch. I think he’d have killed me
only I hit him over the head with the handle of a rake.
Then I got my clothes and ran away.”</p>

<p>For a moment Dick was silent.</p>

<p>He felt sad at the thought of losing the best friend he
had in the neighborhood.</p>

<p>It is true he had only known Joe Fletcher five months,
which was about the length of time Joe had been working
for Farmer Boggs, but a natural sympathy had drawn the
two boys together.</p>

<p>Both early in life had been thrown upon their own
resources, and both were subservient to hard taskmasters,
though if there was any choice in the matter, Silas Maslin
was perhaps a shade better than Nathan Boggs.</p>

<p>The latter was notorious throughout the county for the
way he treated his hired help, particularly if that help happened
to be a boy.</p>

<p>Boggs’ method was to hire a stout boy or an able-bodied,
newly arrived foreigner for a period of six months, with
the understanding that if the hand quit work before the
end of the stipulated term of service he was to forfeit all
his pay.</p>

<p>The farmer then managed to make things so hard for
his help as the weeks went by that they found the place
simply unendurable and were glad to disappear of a sudden
without making any very serious demand for what was
due them.</p>

<p>Fletcher had managed to weather the ills that clung
about Boggs’ farm for five months, for he was blessed with
a good temper and much patience, and Nathan, fearing
the boy would last the limit and that he would be obliged
to pay him the sum of $60 for which he had contracted,
adopted a specially rigorous line of conduct toward him,
which culminated that morning with a most inhuman
beating, after which Joe gave up the struggle.</p>

<p>“Where are you going?” asked Dick, at length.</p>

<p>“I haven’t decided yet but the canal-boat Minnehaha is
taking on a load of shingles at Norton’s Lock, a few miles
above, and Captain Beasley told me he’d take me down to
New York if I wanted to go.”</p>

<p>“I wish I were going with you, Joe,” said Dick, wistfully.</p>

<p>“I wish you were.”</p>

<p>“I’m sick of this place. They treat me like a dog, and
I won’t stand it much longer. Had a run-in with Luke
a little while ago.”</p>

<p>“I don’t see that it’s doing you any good to hang on
here,” said Joe. “Maslin hasn’t any claim on you, has
he?”</p>

<p>“Not a bit; it’s all the other way. He hasn’t paid me
a cent all these years I’ve been working for him. All I’ve
ever got has been the clothes he grudgingly gave me&mdash;none
of the best, at that&mdash;and my board, and I guess you know
what sort of a table they set here.”</p>

<p>“I’ve heard enough from you to make me believe it isn’t
much of an improvement on Boggs’ bill of fare&mdash;and that’s
about the worst ever!”</p>

<p>“You never told me how you came to live with the
Maslins,” said Joe, curiously.</p>

<p>“I didn’t know myself till a couple of months ago.”</p>

<p>“Is that a fact?” said Joe in surprise.</p>

<p>“I asked Mr. Maslin and his wife a number of times, but
they never would give me any satisfaction. About two
months ago I was up in the garret one rainy Sunday afternoon,
and I found an old diary in which Mr. Maslin kept
a record of important matters in which he was interested
when we lived up in New Hampshire some twelve years
ago. I’ve a faint recollection myself of the farm he owned
in the neighborhood of a place called Franconia. In this
diary I found a long entry relating to myself.”</p>

<p>“You must have been surprised,” said Fletcher, who was
listening eagerly.</p>

<p>“Well, I guess I was. Of course I knew I was no relation
of the Maslins, for they had long since taken care to
impress that fact on me. The diary states that a gentleman
named George Armstrong, whom Mr. Maslin wrote
down as being tall and fine-looking, but with a melancholy
face, as though he was in trouble or had lately been subject
to some misfortune, boarded at the farm with his
little son, Richard, at that time aged five years, for several
months. That one day he received a letter which
Mr. Maslin noticed bore the Boston postmark, and that
its contents disturbed him very much. He immediately
started off without mentioning his destination, leaving the
little boy in Mr. Maslin’s care, with a small sum of money
to pay his board for about the time he expected to be away.
He did not return within the time he set, and from subsequent
entries on the same page it would seem that Mr.
Maslin never saw him again.”</p>

<p>“It’s a good thing you learned that much about yourself.
I suppose something must have happened to your father
or he would have come back after you,” said Joe.</p>

<p>“I suppose so,” replied Dick, soberly.</p>

<p>“What did you do with the diary?”</p>

<p>“I’ve got it in the box where I keep my clothes.”</p>

<p>“You’d better hold on to it. Might possibly be of value
to you one of these days.”</p>

<p>“It has a value for me, as it shows to some extent who
I am,” replied Dick. “Luke called me a charity boy, and
that taunt caused the scrap. I’ve worked like a slave for
the Maslins without pay, but I’ve received any amount of
abuse. Some morning Mr. Maslin will get up and find
me missing.”</p>

<p>“What’s that you say, you young villain?” yelled the
strident tones of the storekeeper, behind them.</p>

<p>He had entered the store and approached them unobserved.</p>

<p>“Don’t you let me catch you tryin’ to light out of here
before I give you leave, or I’ll be the death of you. What
do you mean, anyway, by hangin’ over the counter and
idlin’ your time away when there’s a dozen things you
might be doin’? Go into the kitchen now and peel the
taters for Mrs. Maslin; d’ye hear?” And he seized the
boy roughly by the arm and swung him into the middle of
the store.</p>

<p>“I’ll try and see you later, Dick, before I go,” said Joe,
holding out his hand to his chum.</p>

<p>“I don’t think you will, young man,” said Silas Maslin,
significantly. “My help hain’t got no time to waste on
visitors.”</p>

<p>“I guess he’s got a right to say good-bye to a friend,”
retorted Joe, indignantly.</p>

<p>“Then he’d better say it right now afore you go,” said
the storekeeper, ungraciously.</p>

<p>“Well, Dick,” said Joe, bottling up his wrath, for he
realized that Mr. Maslin was master of the situation, “good-bye,
if I don’t see you again.”</p>

<p>“Good-bye, Joe,” and the two boys clasped hands sadly.</p>

<p>“I’ll write to you and let you know where I am and
what I’m doing,” said Joe.</p>

<p>“I hope you will. Be sure I sha’n’t forget you.”</p>

<p>“And I won’t forget you.”</p>

<p>And thus the two boys parted, for how long they could
not guess.</p>

<p>As it proved, however, they were shortly to be reunited
in a somewhat startling way.</p>

<p>Dick went into the kitchen, where Mrs. Maslin handed
him a tub of potatoes and a knife.</p>

<p>“Take the jackets off ’em, and see you lose no time ’bout
it nuther,” said the lady of the house sharply.</p>

<p>Dick made no reply, but seated himself on a stool in a
corner and began his work.</p>

<p>“You ’most ruined Luke’s new suit of clothes this arternoon,”
snapped Mrs. Maslin. “Ef I wuz Silas I’d take
it out’r your hide. It seems to me my boy can’t ask you
to do the simplest thing for him eny more but you must
fly at him.”</p>

<p>Dick knew it was useless to enter into any explanation
with her.</p>

<p>Luke had evidently told the story in his own way, and
whatever he might say now wouldn’t count.</p>

<p>“Don’t you know it’s your place to do whatever he asks
of you?” asked Mrs. Maslin, shrilly.</p>

<p>“I’ve never refused to do anything for him when he
asked me civilly,” said Dick.</p>

<p>“Hoighty toighty!” exclaimed the lady, sarcastically.
“Must my boy bow down before you, you young whipper-snapper?
The idea! Who are you enyway? Ef it hadn’t
been for Silas and me, where’d you been now, you ungrateful
cub? We’ve clothed you and fed you and eddicated
you, and now you turn on us.”</p>

<p>“I think I’ve worked pretty hard for all I’ve received,”
replied Dick, doggedly.</p>

<p>“What ef you have? It ain’t more’n you ought to do.
You’ve finished the taters, hev you? Put ’em down, then,
and don’t stare at me in that way. Go out and fetch me
a pail of water.”</p>

<p>Dick obeyed without a word and then, as the mistress
made no further demand on his services for the moment,
went up to his bare little room just over the kitchen.</p>

<p>He opened the box where he kept his things and, diving
down into a corner, fished up a small buckskin bag in which
he kept the pennies, dimes, quarters, and several half-dollars
he had been slowly accumulating from odd jobs
he had done for various persons during the last three or
four years.</p>

<p>He counted his little store slowly over.</p>

<p>“I’ve a great mind to&mdash;&mdash;”</p>

<p>He never finished that sentence, for suddenly the door
was thrown open with a bang and Silas Maslin rushed
furiously into the room.</p>

<p>“You thief! Give me back the money you took from
the store-till this afternoon!”</p>

<p>“This is not your money,” said Dick, dropping the coins
into the bag and holding it behind him.</p>

<p>“I’ll see whether you’ll give it to me or not!”</p>

<p>As Silas Maslin sprang at him Dick thrust the bag into
his pocket and proceeded to defend himself as well as he
could.</p>

<p>This would not have been an easy job, for Mr. Maslin
was strong and wiry; but chance aided the boy.</p>

<p>The storekeeper’s foot caught on a rent in the rag-carpet,
he pitched forward and struck his forehead against a corner
of Dick’s box with such force as to cause a nasty wound
that stretched him, stunned, on the floor.</p>

<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />

<div class="chapter">
<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</h2>
</div>

<p class="h2sub">LEAVING HIS HOME.</p>

<p>At that moment Mrs. Maslin appeared in the doorway
and, perceiving her husband stretched motionless on the
floor with the blood streaming down his face and Dick
Armstrong standing over him in an attitude of defence
with his fists half clenched&mdash;for the mishap which had
overtaken Silas Maslin had been so sudden that he stood
quite stupefied with surprise&mdash;she conceived the idea that
the boy had struck down her lord and master, perhaps
killed him.</p>

<p>“Help! Help! Murder!” she screamed loudly, dashing
open the window and making the air ring with her
shill cry.</p>

<p>Huskins, the hired man, was coming into the yard from
the fields.</p>

<p>He heard Mrs. Maslin’s frenzied cries, saw her violent
gesticulations as she leaned out of the window, and thinking
the house was on fire, he dropped the implements he
was carrying and ran forward.</p>

<p>In the meantime Dick had raised Silas Maslin to a sitting
posture and was trying to stanch the blood with a
corner of the coverlet which belonged to his bed, when Mrs.
Maslin turned around and saw what he was doing.</p>

<p>“Don’t you dare touch him again, you young villain!”
she screamed, suddenly attacking the boy with her bony
fists.</p>

<p>“What’s the matter with you?” objected Dick, trying
to ward off her blows. “Why don’t you get some water
and try to bring him to? What do you mean by pounding
me in that way?”</p>

<p>“You ruffian! You murderer! I knowed you was born
to be hanged!” yelled the excited woman, thumping the
boy about the head and arms till he had to retreat out
of her reach to save himself, for he had no idea of striking
back at her.</p>

<p>Then she grabbed her husband in her sinewy arms and
started to drag him from the room just as Huskins appeared
on the scene and stared in astonishment at what
he saw.</p>

<p>“Don’t let that boy escape, John!” cried Mrs. Maslin.
“He’s made a murderous attack on Silas, and ef he hasn’t
killed him it’ll be a great wonder.”</p>

<p>“You don’t mean Dick, ma’am?” exclaimed Huskins, in
evident wonder.</p>

<p>“I don’t mean nobuddy else,” snapped his mistress,
sharply. “Tie him up so he can’t get away, and then
run for the constable. Lands sake! It’s a wonder we
haven’t all been killed in our beds afore this! I never
knowed he was such a desprit boy.”</p>

<p>Mrs. Maslin then bore Silas into her own chamber in
the front of the house, and set about bringing him to his
senses.</p>

<p>“What’s up?” asked Huskins of Dick.</p>

<p>He had always liked the boy and didn’t know what to
make of the situation.</p>

<p>“Mr. Maslin came up here and accused me of taking
money out of his till in the store, and when I denied
it he started to seize me, when his foot caught in that
hole in the carpet and he pitched forward, striking his
head against the corner of my box and cutting his forehead
open. The shock must have stunned him. Then
Mrs. Maslin appeared, threw up the window and began
yelling like a crazy person. I tried to do something
for Mr. Maslin, but she attacked me furiously, calling me
a ruffian and a murderer, and I don’t remember what else.
I tell you, John, things are getting altogether too hot for
me here. Between Luke and the rest of them I am having
a dog’s life of it. I might as well get out now as at
any other time.”</p>

<p>“I shouldn’t blame you if you did. I should, if it was
me,” replied Huskins, who knew what a hard time the boy
had of it and really pitied him.</p>

<p>“I don’t believe Mr. Maslin has lost any money,” said
Dick, indignantly. “I know I didn’t take any. I’m not
a thief.”</p>

<p>“Maybe Luke took it,” suggested the hired man, with
a peculiar wink.</p>

<p>“Luke!” exclaimed Dick in surprise. “What makes you
think he did?”</p>

<p>“Well, he wanted five dollars mighty bad this morning,
for he tried to borrow it of me. I asked him what he
wanted it for; but he wouldn’t tell me. I guess he wants
to send for something he’s seen advertised in the paper.”</p>

<p>“How do you know he does?”</p>

<p>“From something he said to me the other day,” said
Huskins, sagely.</p>

<p>“If Luke took the money, he’ll deny it, all right. His
father will take his word before mine, and his mother
will back him up as she’s done fifty times before. I’ve got a
few dollars saved up, and as Mr. Maslin has discovered
that fact he won’t rest till he’s got it away from me. I
need that to help me out after I leave here. So I guess
I’d better go before Mr. Maslin gets his hands on it.”</p>

<p>“You’re right there, Dick. The old man’s fingers are
like pot-hooks&mdash;they hold on to everything they fasten to.
Once he gets possession of your money, you’ll never see it
again.”</p>

<p>“You’d better go down and look out for the store, John,
till Mr. Maslin turns up. I’m going to make a bundle of
my things and start off.”</p>

<p>“Then you’re really determined to go, Dick?”</p>

<p>“Yes,” replied the boy, resolutely, “I am. Mr. Maslin
has called me a thief, and that’s the limit with me.”</p>

<p>“Well, I wish you luck. Let me hear from you some
time. I’d like to know how ye get on,” and the hired man
held out his hand.</p>

<p>“Thank you, John. I sha’n’t forget you.”</p>

<p>They shook hands, and Huskins went down stairs.</p>

<p>Dick closed his room-door and pushed the chest of
drawers against it, as he did not want to be interrupted
or taken at a disadvantage.</p>

<p>Then he put on his best suit, made a compact bundle of
such articles as he deemed indispensable, put Mr. Maslin’s
old diary into an inside pocket of his jacket, and was
ready to leave the house.</p>

<p>He was about to remove the chest of drawers when he
heard the unmistakable voice of Silas Maslin mingled with
the shriller tones of Mrs. Maslin, on the landing approaching
his door.</p>

<p>His retreat by the stairway was evidently cut off.</p>

<p>What was he to do?</p>

<p>The door of his room was pushed in an inch or two,
as far as the obstruction would permit.</p>

<p>“Open the door, you young villain!” exclaimed the voice
of Silas Maslin, whose temper had by no means been improved
by the injury he had received.</p>

<p>“Push the door in, Silas,” said his wife. “There ain’t
no lock to it.”</p>

<p>“He’s got somethin’ against it,” replied her husband,
impatiently.</p>

<p>“Mebbe it’s the chest of drawers or the bed.”</p>

<p>“It ain’t the bed,” said the storekeeper, and he flung
himself suddenly against the panel with a force sufficient
to push the obstruction back a foot at least.</p>

<p>Through this opening he thrust his head and saw Dick
Armstrong beating a hasty retreat by way of the window.</p>

<p>“He’s gettin’ out of the winder. You stay here, Maria,
and I’ll try to catch him below.”</p>

<p>Mr. Maslin, whose head was bound up with a towel,
was a pretty lively man for his sixty odd years, and the
way he got down the stairway and out into the yard would
have put many a younger man to shame.</p>

<p>But the boy was as active as a young monkey, and guessed
pretty closely what his persecutor’s tactics would be.</p>

<p>He dropped his bundle into the yard, swung himself out
and alighted nimbly on his feet, and when Mr. Maslin
dashed out to cut him off Dick was passing through the
gate into the road.</p>

<p>“Come back here, you young rascal, or I’ll skin you
alive!” he shouted angrily.</p>

<p>But the boy had no intention of returning now that he
had crossed the Rubicon at last.</p>

<p>“I’ll have you took up and put in the calaboose; do you
hear?”</p>

<p>Dick heard, but the threat had no effect on him.</p>

<p>He bounded around the corner of the fence and ran
full tilt into another boy, knocking him head over heels.</p>

<p>The floored youth proved to be Luke Maslin, who was
returning from the village.</p>

<p>The storekeeper’s son uttered a yell of pain and terror
as he floundered about on the grass.</p>

<p>Dick had gone down also, his bundle flying out of his
hand a yard away.</p>

<p>As he picked himself up, a familiar voice exclaimed:</p>

<p>“Hello! What’s the trouble? Is that you, Dick?”</p>

<p>“That you, Joe?”</p>

<p>“Sure it’s me! I was hanging about for a chance to
see you again if I could. What muss have you got in
now?”</p>

<p>“Come along with me and I’ll tell you about it,” Dick
said as he picked up his bundle.</p>

<p>Mr. Maslin now hove in sight a few feet away.</p>

<p>“Now I’ve got you, you pesky little villain!” and he
made a dash at the boy.</p>

<p>“Run, Joe!”</p>

<p>Fletcher took the hint and scampered after his chum,
who was flying along the “heel” path of the canal as fast
as he could go.</p>

<p>In the gathering dusk the storekeeper failed to recognize
his son and heir as the latter lay sprawling in the
path, and as a consequence he stumbled over Luke’s extended
legs and pitched forward, head first, like a stone
from a catapult.</p>

<p>The momentum he had acquired in his eagerness to
lay hold of Dick now worked greatly to his disadvantage.</p>

<p>Striking the path, he rolled over and over, clutching
vainly at the grass to stay his progress.</p>

<p>As the space between the fence and the canal was narrow
at this point, before he realized his predicament he was
carried over the embankment and fell with a splash into
the water.</p>

<p>“Help!” he yelled, and then his head went under.</p>

<p>Huskins had been attracted to the spot by the rumpus
and was in time to fish his employer out of the canal; but
by that time Dick Armstrong and his friend Fletcher were
safe from any immediate pursuit.</p>

<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />

<div class="chapter">
<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</h2>
</div>

<p class="h2sub">ON BOARD THE MINNEHAHA.</p>

<p>“So you aren’t going back any more, then?” said Joe
Fletcher, after Dick had related to him the exciting experience
through which he had passed since the two lads had
parted, apparently for good, in Mr. Maslin’s store, a little
more than an hour before.</p>

<p>“No,” replied Dick, firmly, “I’m not. I am done with
Silas Maslin for good and all.”</p>

<p>The boys were resting on a decayed tree-trunk by the
side of the canal.</p>

<p>It was now almost dark, and both of them, having had
nothing to eat since noon, were hungry.</p>

<p>“I guess you’ve done the right thing, Dick,” said his
friend. “You aren’t likely to be any worse off than you’ve
been at the Corner.”</p>

<p>“I’d have pretty hard luck if I was. I’d never amount
to much as long as I stayed with Mr. Maslin. He took
care that I didn’t get much chance to get up in the world.
I wish now I’d more schooling,” said the boy, regretfully.</p>

<p>“I’ll bet you know more than Luke Maslin, and he’s
gone regularly to the district school. At his age&mdash;he’s a
year older than you&mdash;he ought to be at the Slocum High
School. I don’t think he cares a lot to study.”</p>

<p>“Many boys don’t seem to realize what they let get by
them until it is too late,” said Dick. “You and I, Joe,
have got to cut our own way in life without any help from
anybody. I guess you can hold up your end. As for me,
I don’t intend to let any grass grow under my feet from
this on. If you’ve rested enough, we’ll move on to Norton’s.
Perhaps your friend Cap’n Beasley will give us
something to eat. I haven’t had a mouthful since dinner,
and I feel as if I could clean out a pantry.”</p>

<p>“Same here. Captain Beasley is all right, and so is his
wife. They wouldn’t see anyone, even a tramp, go hungry
if they could help it,” said Joe as the boys resumed their
march. “They’ve a daughter, too, named Florrie. She’s
as pretty as a picture,” and Joe grinned broadly.</p>

<p>Dick wasn’t particularly interested in pretty girls at that
moment. He was thinking whether Captain Beasley would
consent to take him down to New York along with Joe on
the canal-boat.</p>

<p>“I guess he will if I pay him something, and I’m willing
to put up what’s fair,” mused the boy.</p>

<p>Norton’s Lock was about six miles from Cobham’s Corner.</p>

<p>Dick and Joe reached there at eight o’clock.</p>

<p>Captain Beasley’s boat was moored against the eastern
bank of the canal, and a few yards away was a good-sized
liquor store, lit up with kerosene lamps, and, judging from
the crowd within, doing a thriving trade.</p>

<p>There was also an open shed close by, partially filled
with bundles of shingles brought there for shipment from
the mill a mile or so away.</p>

<p>Dick followed Joe aboard the canal-boat and was introduced
to Captain Beasley and his wife and daughter.</p>

<p>As soon as Mrs. Beasley found out that the boys were
hungry, she spread a corner of the table in the little cabin
for them, laid out the remains of a joint of cold mutton,
boiled a pot of coffee, and upon this, flanked by a plentiful
supply of bread and butter, the two lads made a very satisfactory
meal.</p>

<p>Dick offered to pay his way to New York City, but the
good-natured skipper of the Minnehaha wouldn’t hear of it
for a moment.</p>

<p>“You and Joe here are both of you welcome to go along
with us, and it sha’n’t cost you a cent. All I ask of you
is to turn your hands to an odd job or two, maybe, till we
hitch on behind the tug that takes us down the river.”</p>

<p>Dick accepted his generous offer with thanks, as Joe had
already done earlier in the day when he brought his meagre
bundle aboard on the strength of the captain’s former invitation.</p>

<p>“Neither of you lads seems to be encumbered with much
dunnage,” said the skipper, with a humorous glance at the
two attenuated bundles ranged side by side on a shelf and
which contained all they boasted of in the world.</p>

<p>“We both lit out in such a hurry that we didn’t have
time to pack our trunks,” grinned Joe. “Boggs skinned
me out of sixty dollars; and as for Dick, I believe there
wasn’t anything coming to him, though he put in many a
year of good hard work down at Cobham’s Corner for Silas
Maslin, who runs the store and the village post-office.”</p>

<p>“I’ve heard of him,” nodded Captain Beasley, recharging
his pipe, “and I’ve heard of you, too, Master Dick, afore
this,” and the skipper looked at the bright, stalwart, young
runaway. “Silas Maslin, I understand, is a hard man to
work for, though I reckon Nathan Boggs can give him a
few points in that line. Both of ’em have wives that folks
say would skin a flea for its fat. From which I judge that
one’s appetite isn’t pampered at either place.”</p>

<p>“That’s right,” corroborated Dick. “We’ve both been
through the mill and ought to know. I haven’t had such
a good spread as was set before us to-night right here since
I can remember, and I’ve a pretty good recollection.”</p>

<p>Mrs. Beasley and her daughter looked at one another in
astonishment.</p>

<p>“Well,” said the captain’s wife, “you sha’n’t neither of
you want for enough to eat as long as you are with us.”</p>

<p>“What are you going to do when you reach the city?”
asked the captain curiously. “Got any money at all?”</p>

<p>“I’ve got about sixteen dollars,” replied Dick, and he
told Captain Beasley by what slow and arduous means he
had amassed it.</p>

<p>“I haven’t a red cent,” admitted Joe, making such a
comical face that Florence Beasley burst out laughing.</p>

<p>“It’s possible I may start a bank and take Joe in as
cashier,” grinned Dick.</p>

<p>“Not a bad idea,” smiled the skipper, “so long as it
isn’t a faro bank or something of that sort.”</p>

<p>“I wouldn’t mind investing my capital in a sand-bank
if I thought I could sell the sand and make a profit,” put
in Dick.</p>

<p>“Perhaps you would make a good speculator,” said the
captain, thoughtfully.</p>

<p>“Perhaps I would; but I’ve never tried my hand at it.”</p>

<p>“A successful speculator should, first of all, have brains,
and then money,” said Captain Beasley, punctuating each
point in the air with the stem of his briar pipe. “I judge
you have the brains&mdash;&mdash;”</p>

<p>“So have I,” interrupted Joe, with some animation.</p>

<p>“It was a rather poor speculation you entered into with
Nathan Boggs, wasn’t it?” and the skipper turned to Joe.</p>

<p>“I don’t call that a speculation; that was a dead skin,”
cried Fletcher stoutly.</p>

<p>“Well, you made an agreement with him to forfeit your
wages if you quit work before the end of your term of service;
you put yourself at a great disadvantage with such
a man. It was to his interest to make you quit beforehand
if he could.”</p>

<p>“If I hadn’t quit I guess I’d been carried away in a box,
so I’d have lost anyway.”</p>

<p>“Well, you speculated on the chance of holding out, and
came in for the short end of the deal.”</p>

<p>“That was because I didn’t know what I was up against.”</p>

<p>“Even so; that is a risk that often confronts the speculator.
That’s where brains count.”</p>

<p>Captain Beasley looked at the clock, laid down his pipe
and intimated it was time to turn in.</p>

<p>He led the boys to the forward part of the boat, pointed
to a small open scuttle in the deck, and told them they’d
find a mattress and a couple of blankets down there. Then
wishing them good night, he left them to make the best
of their narrow quarters.</p>

<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />

<div class="chapter">
<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</h2>
</div>

<p class="h2sub">IN WHICH SILAS MASLIN FAILS TO RECOVER HIS RUNAWAY.</p>

<p>In the morning the boat was hauled across to the other
side of the canal, the side on which the towpath ran; a
tandem mule team in charge of a boy who sported the biggest
and most disreputable straw hat Dick had ever seen,
was hitched on, and the boat began to move slowly down
the canal.</p>

<p>As they approached the bridge at Cobham’s Corner, Dick
got out of sight of the shore.</p>

<p>He knew there would be trouble if any member of the
Maslin family caught a glimpse of him on board the Minnehaha.</p>

<p>So he squatted down inside the limited bit of hold in the
eyes of the canal-boat which he and Joe had used for sleeping
quarters, while his chum sat on the combings of the
hatch with his legs swinging down and his gaze fixed on
Cobham’s Corner.</p>

<p>“I don’t see anybody about,” reported Joe, as the boat
drew near the bridge which crossed the canal at this point
and connected the two sections of the county road.</p>

<p>Captain Beasley came forward and called on Fletcher
to help detach the tow-line so that the boat could pass
under the bridge.</p>

<p>While they were doing this, Luke Maslin appeared at
the door of the store.</p>

<p>His eyes roamed over the canal-boat from stem to stern
and finally fixed themselves on Fletcher, whom he recognized,
having seen and spoken to him many times when
Joe called at the store to get supplies for Nathan Boggs
or to see Dick.</p>

<p>Suddenly he ran out on the bridge and took his position
just above where the boat had to pass under.</p>

<p>“Hello, Fletcher!” he shouted.</p>

<p>“Hello, yourself,” growled Joe, casting a side glance at
him.</p>

<p>“What are you doing aboard that boat?”</p>

<p>“Taking a sail.”</p>

<p>“What for?”</p>

<p>“For my health,” snorted Joe, as he pitched the end of
the tow-line ashore.</p>

<p>“Have you left Nathan Boggs?” continued Luke, with
a grin.</p>

<p>“Better ask him when you see him,” answered the boy,
squatting down with his back to young Maslin, a pretty
good sign that he wanted no further communication with
his questioner.</p>

<p>But Luke wouldn’t take the hint.</p>

<p>“Seen anything of Dick Armstrong?” he persisted.
“He’s run away from here with some of my father’s money.
Constable Smock is hunting for him. Father is going to
have him put in the village lock-up.”</p>

<p>Joe didn’t answer him.</p>

<p>“Maybe you’ve got him hid away aboard the boat,”
added Luke, suspiciously. “If you have, you’d better give
him up, or it will be the worse for you.”</p>

<p>As those words passed his lips the forward end of the
canal-boat passed under the bridge, and Luke ran over to
the other side of the structure to meet it as it floated clear.</p>

<p>Dick easily overheard his young enemy’s remarks from
the spot where he was screened from Luke’s line of observation.</p>

<p>He forgot, however, to change his position below as the
boat passed under the bridge, not thinking that Luke, by
crossing the planks to the opposite rail, would be able to
obtain a different focus down into his hiding-place if he
was wideawake enough to keep his eyes well employed.</p>

<p>As this is exactly what Master Maslin did do, the result
was he discovered Dick’s crouching figure in the narrow
hold as soon as the head of the canal-boat shot out into
sight again.</p>

<p>“I see you down there, Dick Armstrong!” he cried, of a
sudden, triumphantly.</p>

<p>Then he rushed off to the store to tell his father.</p>

<p>“I’m afraid it’s all up with me,” said Dick, as he scrambled
out of his hiding-place.</p>

<p>“Well, I’d like to see them try to take you off this boat
if you don’t want to go,” said Joe, rolling up his sleeves,
while a look of determination came over his freckled features.</p>

<p>“It won’t do to resist the constable,” warned Dick. “I
won’t have you get into trouble over me.”</p>

<p>“But the constable isn’t around here now,” put in Joe.</p>

<p>“They’ll send him word as to my whereabouts, and he’ll
get a rig and cut me off further along down the canal, don’t
you see?”</p>

<p>“The only thing for me to do now is to leave the boat
before I’m overhauled,” Dick continued. “For if I wait
until Constable Smock comes along and invites me to go
ashore I’ll be deprived of my savings by Mr. Maslin, even
if he doesn’t follow up his threat to put me in jail.”</p>

<p>“I dare say you’re right, Dick; but you can’t skip yet
a while, for here comes the old man and Luke across the
bridge. They’ll be down on us in a couple of minutes.
You needn’t be afraid that Captain Beasley’ll make you go
ashore to oblige that old rhinoceros. And if he attempts
to board us, he’ll be trespassing, and a douse in the canal
would be the proper thing to cool him off.”</p>

<p>Captain Beasley was leaning negligently against the forward
end of his cabin, smoking his favorite briar-root pipe
in the autumn sunshine, when Mr. Maslin came running
down the tow-path and hailed him, his son following along
behind.</p>

<p>“You’ve got a boy on board your boat I want. He’s
runnin’ away from my place yonder, after stealin’ a five-dollar
bill. I want you to put him on shore,” demanded
Silas Maslin, keeping pace with the canal-boat.</p>

<p>“I’ve got two boys aboard,” said the captain, in an indifferent
tone. “Which one do you refer to?”</p>

<p>“The one with the new suit of clothes on,” replied the
storekeeper, pointing to Dick. “His name is Armstrong.”</p>

<p>“All right,” agreed Captain Beasley. “He came on
board of his own accord, and if he’s willing to go ashore
he can go now.”</p>

<p>“I want you to make him come on shore whether he’s
willin’ or not,” said Silas Maslin, energetically.</p>

<p>“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” said the skipper, shaking
his head.</p>

<p>“Why can’t you? You’re captain of that boat, and I
reckon you can do ’bout as you please on board of her. If
he doesn’t come back with me and hand over the money
he took from me, I’m going to have him arrested and put
in the lock-up.”</p>

<p>Captain Beasley walked forward to where the two boys
were standing, Mr. Maslin hastening his steps to keep
abreast of him.</p>

<p>“That’s the man you’ve been living with, ain’t it, Armstrong?”
asked Captain Beasley.</p>

<p>“Yes, sir,” admitted Dick, respectfully.</p>

<p>“You’ve heard the charge he made against you and his
demand that you leave this boat and go back with him?”</p>

<p>“Yes, sir,” replied the boy, beginning to fear that he
was to be given up.</p>

<p>“Have you any of his money about you?”</p>

<p>“No, sir; I never took one cent of his money from the
store,” replied the lad, stoutly.</p>

<p>“Are you willing to go ashore as he wants you to do?”</p>

<p>“No, sir; I’d rather you’d throw me overboard,” said
Dick, with flashing eyes.</p>

<p>“You hear what he says,” said the skipper, turning to
the storekeeper.</p>

<p>“I reckon I ain’t deaf,” replied Mr. Maslin, in a surly
tone.</p>

<p>“I’m afraid I can’t do anything for you,” said Captain
Beasley, turning on his heel and walking away.</p>

<p>“Ain’t you going to make him come on shore?” demanded
the storekeeper, angrily.</p>

<p>“No, sir; I’ve nothing whatever to do with your quarrel
with the boy.”</p>

<p>“The boy is a thief, and you’re helpin’ him to get away,”
cried Mr. Maslin. “Don’t you know that’s ag’in the law
and that I can make you sweat for it?”</p>

<p>“He has denied the charge, and as there is no proof
against him his word is as good as yours,” replied the
skipper, resuming his former station against the cabin wall.</p>

<p>“I’ll have you up before the justice for this,” shouted
Mr. Maslin, coming to a stop and shaking his fist at the
captain of the Minnehaha. “And what’s more, I’ll have
that boy took up by the constable afore you get many miles
further down the canal.”</p>

<p>After hurling his threats after the receding boat he and
Luke turned about and hurried back the way they came.</p>

<p>“I guess the storekeeper means to send the constable
after you with a warrant for your arrest, Armstrong,” said
the captain when the two boys ranged up alongside of
him after Mr. Maslin took his departure, “in which case
you’ll have to go along with the officer. Now, if you will
take my advice, young man, you’ll get ashore at Caspar’s,
a mile below here, and make your way by land to Albany,
where we’ll lay up a week or so, as I’ve got to load up there
for New York after discharging what I’ve brought on from
Buffalo and Syracuse. You can leave your bundle aboard&mdash;your
friend will look out for it.”</p>

<p>As the captain’s advice was good, Dick determined to act
on it.</p>

<p>After receiving explicit directions where to rejoin the
boat at Albany, Dick bade all hands good-bye for the time
being and left the boat at Caspar’s.</p>

<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />

<div class="chapter">
<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</h2>
</div>

<p class="h2sub">HOW DICK RUNS ACROSS A DESERTED FARMHOUSE, AND
WHAT HE FINDS THERE.</p>

<p>Caspar’s was simply a small roadhouse, situated near a
bridge.</p>

<p>Dick Armstrong crossed the bridge and struck out across
the country, following the country road.</p>

<p>He had general directions how to proceed, but expected
to depend on people he might meet along the road to keep
him from going astray.</p>

<p>The morning was young when he set out, and as he was
in good spirits and accustomed to plenty of exercise, he
walked along at a swinging gait.</p>

<p>About eleven o’clock he was overtaken by a farm wagon,
the owner of which not only gave him a lift for several
miles on his way, but his dinner also at a neat farmhouse
a short distance back from the turnpike.</p>

<p>Although the farmer refused payment, Dick insisted on
helping him for an hour about the barn, and when he
finally left to continue his journey the farmer’s wife handed
him a substantial package of eatables which included a
pint bottle of milk.</p>

<p>About dark Dick reached a junction of two roads.</p>

<p>It was a lonesome neighborhood, and as nobody was in
sight to direct him which was the better one to take, he
turned into the road leading off to the right.</p>

<p>He was glancing around for a large stone or a tree-stump
for a seat on which to rest while he ate his supper, when
he spied a light dimly shining through a window a little
distance back from the road.</p>

<p>“I’ve walked enough for to-day,” he mused. “I’ll see
if I can’t get a bed or a chance to sleep on the hay in
the barn, perhaps, up yonder.”</p>

<p>The gate opening on the lane leading to the house was
wide open and hanging by one hinge only.</p>

<p>As Dick approached the dwelling he was impressed by
the air of neglect and desolation which hung about the
place.</p>

<p>But for the solitary gleam of light which penetrated the
gloom he would have believed the premises to be deserted.</p>

<p>The boy knocked several times on the weather-seamed
door, but no one answered his summons.</p>

<p>Finally he decided to turn the handle of the door.</p>

<p>It yielded to his touch, and he entered a large room that
was quite bare and cheerless from floor to ceiling.</p>

<p>The dim light from a candle stuck in the neck of a
bottle standing on a dusty mantel shelf showed him the
motionless figure of a man crouching over an old stove, in
which was a fire, at one side of the room.</p>

<p>“Hello!” Dick exclaimed, by way of introduction.</p>

<p>Slowly the figure turned its head and presented a face
almost ghostly from its whiteness.</p>

<p>“What’s the trouble with you?” asked Dick, for he easily
made out that something ailed the man.</p>

<p>“I’m sick,” was the half moaned reply.</p>

<p>“Sick,” repeated the boy, looking at him attentively.
“Gee! You do look bad, for a fact. What can I do for
you?”</p>

<p>“If you would do me a favor, go out to the barn back
of the building. You’ll find my team there. There’s a
couple of blankets in the wagon and a number of gunny-sacks.
Bring them in here so I can make a bed and lie
down,” said the man, slowly and with much difficulty.</p>

<p>Dick put his bundle of food on the floor and hastened
to do as the stranger had requested.</p>

<p>He found the team&mdash;a pair of stout horses hitched to a
large, covered wagon&mdash;just as it had been led into the deserted
and mildewed barn and left standing there.</p>

<p>With the aid of a match or two, a supply of which Dick
from habit always carried about with him, he climbed into
the wagon and found the things the man wanted.</p>

<p>The only other articles the boy noticed in the vehicle were
a couple of empty bushel baskets, a sack half filled with
oats, a horse bucket, a long whip and a small wicker hamper.</p>

<p>Dick carried the bags and blankets into the house and
spread them out so as to form a bed.</p>

<p>“There,” he said, in his cheery tones, “you can lie down
now. If there’s anything else I can do for you, let me
know.”</p>

<p>“You’re very kind, my lad,” gratefully replied the man,
who seemed to be about fifty years of age. “You might
get a few sticks for the fire; the night is cold, and I’ll
be glad if you could find me a drink of water anywhere
near by&mdash;you’ll find a cup in the hamper in the wagon.
And then, if you’d not feel it was too much trouble to give
those animals a mess of oats which you will find in a bag
in the wagon, you will do all that I would ask of you.”</p>

<p>“All right,” said Dick, and he cheerfully proceeded to
do what the sick man asked of him.</p>

<p>He found a tin cup in the hamper, which also contained
a neat sandwich, half of an apple pie, a piece of gingerbread
and two pieces of candle wrapped in a bit of newspaper.</p>

<p>Dick fortunately turning his steps in the right direction,
found a spring at the back of the barn, and fetched a cupful
of the cold water to the stricken stranger, which he
drank with evident relish.</p>

<p>The boy then replenished the fire in the stove and returned
to the barn.</p>

<p>Lighting one of the bits of candle, he took the bucket
and watered the horses.</p>

<p>Then he released them from their traces, led them into
two of the dusty stalls, and dumping a liberal quantity of
oats into the bins, left them to themselves.</p>

<p>“Have a drink of milk?” said Dick to the sick man as
he untied his bundle preparatory to eating his supper.</p>

<p>The stranger thankfully accepted his offer, then turned
on his side and apparently went to sleep.</p>

<p>Dick had brought in a horse blanket which he had found
folded on the wagon seat, and after he had eaten all he
wanted and put more wood in the grate, curled himself
up near the stove and was presently oblivious to his surroundings.</p>

<p>He was up before sunrise, as he was accustomed to being
routed out of bed at five o’clock at that season of the year
by Mr. Maslin.</p>

<p>The morning was chilly, so he started a fire in the stove
for the benefit of the stranger, who seemed to be sleeping
easily.</p>

<p>After that Dick went to the barn and fed the horses.</p>

<p>Then, as the sun was beginning to peep above the horizon,
he thought he would take a look around the place,
which seemed to be going to rack and ruin.</p>

<p>His investigations did not extend very far, for just beyond
the line of broken fence which marked the boundary of
what had probably been the truck patch Dick found an
apple orchard.</p>

<p>A large number of the trees were not only loaded with
this fruit, but the boy’s experienced eye told him that many
of the trees were of a superior variety.</p>

<p>The apples on these trees were large, solid, and rosy.</p>

<p>Dick gathered an armful and carried them to the house.
The strange man was awake, but very weak and not in condition
to get up.</p>

<p>“You’d better drink the rest of this milk,” said Dick,
offering the tin cup.</p>

<p>“Thank you, lad. What is your name?” he asked after
drinking it.</p>

<p>“Dick Armstrong.”</p>

<p>“Mine is Hiram Bond. You’ve been very kind to me.
I don’t know what I should have done if you hadn’t turned
up. Where do you live?”</p>

<p>“I don’t live anywhere just at present,” answered the boy,
frankly.</p>

<p>“How is that?” asked Bond, with some surprise.</p>

<p>Dick gave him a brief outline of his life, and more particularly
of his recent experiences.</p>

<p>“You’ve had a hard time of it,” said the man, feebly,
“and I don’t wonder you cut loose from that storekeeper.
I live in Albany, and make a living&mdash;not a very good one&mdash;with
my team, carrying loads of stuff around the country.
I just moved a family from the city suburbs to Wayback,
some fifteen miles from here, and was on my return when
I was took bad. I’m subject to spells of heart trouble, and
I’m afraid I sha’n’t last long. I don’t feel at all good this
morning. Perhaps I’ll feel better by and by. If you don’t
mind staying with me till the afternoon, I may feel able
to sit up in the wagon, and you can drive me back to the
city. It’ll save you a walk of thirty odd miles.”</p>

<p>Dick immediately agreed to this proposition, and then
his eyes resting on the pile of rosy apples he had brought
in, an idea struck him.</p>

<p>“There’s an orchard back of the barn that’s full of this
kind of apples,” he said, showing a couple to Bond. “If
you don’t mind, I could load the wagon with them, and
we could sell them at a good profit in Albany. They’re
only going to waste here, and as your wagon is empty, it’s
a chance for both of us to make a stake.”</p>

<p>“Do so, my lad, if you think there’s anything in it for
you. I won’t touch a cent of what you may get. I’ll give
you the use of the team for what you’ve done for me
already.”</p>

<p>Dick was delighted and thanked him heartily.</p>

<p>“Can you eat anything at all this morning?” he asked
Bond.</p>

<p>The man shook his head, said he felt tired, turned over,
and tried to go to sleep again.</p>

<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />

<div class="chapter">
<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</h2>
</div>

<p class="h2sub">DICK’S FIRST SPECULATION.</p>

<p>Dick spent the entire morning gathering apples, making
selection of the best that he shook down or knocked from
the limbs.</p>

<p>“It’s like picking up money,” he mused as he gathered
them into one of the bushel baskets and then carried them
to the wagon, which he had drawn out into the yard, and
dumped them inside.</p>

<p>“I wonder how many bushels I can get away with,” he
figured, after a careful estimate of the load he had already
secured. “I believe this wagon will hold close on to forty
bushels, but it’ll be an all-day job to gather that many.
I’m afraid I’ll have to be satisfied with twenty, if we’re
going to leave here early this afternoon. That ought to
give me fifty dollars out of the spec. Gee! That’s better
than working like a slave for Silas Maslin at nothing a
week and skimpy board.”</p>

<p>Dick looked in on Hiram Bond every little while, but
the man appeared to be sleeping right along.</p>

<p>Noon came, and the boy began to feel decidedly hungry.</p>

<p>“I guess I might as well clean up Mr. Bond’s basket,”
he argued. “It isn’t likely he’ll care for any solid food
to-day. I’ll get him some milk at the first house I see
along the road.”</p>

<p>So Dick ate the sandwich, the piece of gingerbread, and
the remains of the apple pie, topping off with a big drink
of spring water.</p>

<p>After that he felt very much better and resumed his work
with fresh energy.</p>

<p>At two o’clock he found Hiram Bond awake, but as
weak as a cat, to use his own expression.</p>

<p>Clearly the man was in no condition to leave the place
that day.</p>

<p>“I fear this will finish me,” said Bond, in a weak voice.</p>

<p>“I’ll take one of the horses and start on down the road
for help,” said Dick, regarding the man with an anxious
eye. “You’ll die at this rate, for you haven’t had any
nourishment but that small cup of milk all day.”</p>

<p>“Perhaps you had better do so,” acquiesced Bond, feebly.
“I think there’s a farmhouse about five or six miles below
here.”</p>

<p>“Then I’m off,” said Dick. “I’ll get them to send a
vehicle to remove you from this place&mdash;you can’t stay here
another night.”</p>

<p>Dick mounted one of the animals and started off down
the road, the horse being accustomed to nothing faster than
a gentle trot.</p>

<p>It was something over an hour before the boy reached a
house.</p>

<p>Here he told his story, which aroused the practical sympathy
of the farmer, who hitched up a light wagon, collected
such things, including a bag of feed for the horses,
as the occasion seemed to demand, and in company with
Dick started for the deserted homestead.</p>

<p>The farmer, after talking to Hiram Bond, decided to
convey him to his house.</p>

<p>Wrapping him up in the blankets, he and Dick started
him to the wagon and made him as comfortable as possible
for the ride.</p>

<p>“I’ll bring the team on later,” said the boy.</p>

<p>Farmer Haywood nodded and then drove off, Dick returning
to the work of gathering more apples.</p>

<p>By dark he had turned into the wagon thirty bushels by
actual count.</p>

<p>“I can carry another ten bushels just as well as not,”
he said to himself. “I will stay here all night and finish
the job in the morning. I’ll be twenty-five dollars more
to the good by hanging on. I guess I can stand a diet of
apples and water for a few hours, at that rate. It won’t be
the first time I’ve gone to sleep or to work half fed. If
a fellow expects to get along in the world he’s got to take
things as they come, and say nothing.”</p>

<p>Next morning about eleven o’clock Dick walked his
team, with his load of some forty bushels of harvest apples,
into Farmer Haywood’s yard.</p>

<p>“How is Mr. Bond?” was his first question of Mrs.
Haywood, who greeted him at the door.</p>

<p>“Very poorly, indeed. We had to send for a doctor.
I’m afraid he isn’t going to recover.”</p>

<p>Dick was very sorry to learn this news.</p>

<p>After he had hauled the wagon into a corner of the yard,
and put the horses into the barn, the lad had something
to eat and was then taken up to see Hiram Bond, who had
been accommodated with a spare room and was the object
of considerate attention.</p>

<p>“I’m glad to see you again, my lad,” said Mr. Bond, in
a very weak voice, regarding Dick with an earnest expression.
“I should like you to stay with me while I last;
I will make it all right with you.”</p>

<p>“I shall be glad to stay with you till I can get you back
to your home in Albany,” replied Dick, cheerfully. “I’m
sure you’ll be all right in a day or two.”</p>

<p>Hiram Bond shook his head.</p>

<p>“I shall never be all right again. This isn’t the first
attack of heart failure I’ve had, but I feel it will be the
last. I’ve lost all my strength. My insides seem to have
collapsed entirely. It is a strange, indescribable sensation
that warns me to prepare for my last journey. Boy, it is
useless to disguise the truth&mdash;I am going to die. The
doctor didn’t say so, but I read the fact in his face. He
saw that he could do nothing for me. Well, it matters little
whether I die now or a little later on. I have no kith or
kin to whom my death would be a blow. I am entirely
alone in the world. At one time it was different, and I
was well off; but now my team and the few dollars in my
pocket-book represent all my earthly possessions. My boy,
I have been thinking of you while I have been stretched on
my back. You are beginning life quite as friendless, I
might say, as I am leaving it. But you appear to have
energy and the capacity for hard work. I have little doubt
but you will succeed. You have been kind to me and I
wish I was in a position to return the favor substantially.
What little I can do for you to help you along I will do.
You shall have my team to use or dispose of as you may
think best. The money I possess will scarcely more than
recompense Farmer Haywood for his trouble and pay the
expenses of my funeral. I should like to be buried in
some quiet spot&mdash;the nearest village burying-ground. If
you will see that this is done, it is all I ask of you.”</p>

<p>Dick was exceedingly shocked as he listened to the words
of the dying man&mdash;for that Hiram Bond really was passing
away, slowly but surely, there didn’t seem to be any doubt.</p>

<p>When he finished, he asked the boy to fetch Farmer Haywood.</p>

<p>He requested the farmer to execute a bill of sale, which
he signed with difficulty, transferring his wagon and team
of horses to Dick.</p>

<p>After that was done he seemed to feel better.</p>

<p>There was little change in his condition until after midnight,
when he gradually grew weaker and weaker, and
finally died just before daylight.</p>

<p>Although Dick had met him so strangely only a couple of
days before, his death affected the boy greatly for the time
being.</p>

<p>He felt as though he had lost a good friend that he had
known for many years.</p>

<p>A simple funeral from Farmer Haywood’s to the nearby
churchyard wound up the life history of Hiram Bond, and
the day following Dick Armstrong drove his suddenly acquired
property into the streets of Albany.</p>

<p>He had an idea that by visiting the various hotels in the
city he might dispose of his apples to good advantage and
with more profit than if he did business with a commission
merchant.</p>

<p>His plan was successful, largely because the stewards of
the places he visited happened to be running out of the
fruit and because his apples were uncommonly fine and
quite scarce in the market.</p>

<p>As a consequence he obtained an average of about $2.60
a bushel for them, and when he put his team up at the place
where Hiram Bond had been accustomed to keep it he was
in possession of bills and silver to the amount of $120,
which included the money he had brought away from his
former home at Cobham’s Corner.</p>

<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />

<div class="chapter">
<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
</div>

<p class="h2sub">IN WHICH DICK TAKES A PARTNER, AND THE FIRM WINDS
UP THE APPLE SPECULATION.</p>

<p>Late that afternoon Dick Armstrong, feeling all the importance
of a small capitalist, started out to locate the
canal-boat Minnehaha.</p>

<p>He found the rendezvous of those craft without much
difficulty, but to pick out the particular boat of which he
was in search was not quite such a simple matter.</p>

<p>At length he found her, hauled up against the wharf,
discharging the last of her cargo.</p>

<p>Joe Fletcher was working like a good fellow, helping
Captain Beasley’s regular deckhand, when he caught sight
of his chum.</p>

<p>“Dick, old man, I’m just tickled to death to see you
again,” he exclaimed, grabbing Dick’s hand and shaking it
as though he would pull it off. “We expected to see you
yesterday, according to my calculations. How have you
fared since you went ashore at Caspar’s?”</p>

<p>“First class. I’ve news that’ll surprise you,” replied
Dick, with sparkling eyes.</p>

<p>“You don’t say.”</p>

<p>“By the way, how about Constable Smock? Did he show
up?”</p>

<p>“Did he? I guess yes. He came up with us about eight
miles below Caspar’s. Wouldn’t take our word that you
had gone ashore, but insisted on searching the boat. Of
course, Captain Beasley let him have full swing. After
he had gone into every nook and corner that might have
concealed you, he gave the job up and left, the maddest
man I’ve seen for many a day. I was afraid he might get
wind of you at Caspar’s and run you down; but it appears
he didn’t. I’ll bet Silas Maslin and Luke ain’t feeling any
too good over the constable’s failure to fetch you back,” and
Joe snapped his rough, brown fingers and laughed gleefully.</p>

<p>“You don’t think that Silas Maslin would come on to
Albany on the chance of picking me up, do you?” asked
Dick, with a shade of apprehension in his voice.</p>

<p>“You ought to be better able to judge of that than me,
Dick. You know what he is and what his feelings probably
are on the subject. If I was you, I’d keep my eye
skinned and not let him catch me, if he should come.”</p>

<p>In a few minutes they knocked off work for the day, and
while Joe was washing up, Captain Beasley came on board
and greeted Dick in his usual breezy manner.</p>

<p>He accepted the skipper’s invitation to supper, and when
he made his appearance in the cabin was warmly welcomed
by Mrs. Beasley and Florrie.</p>

<p>Joe and the others were curious to learn the particulars
of his journey from Caspar’s, though they had no idea
that he had met with any particular adventure by the way.</p>

<p>What he had to tell was therefore received with much
surprise.</p>

<p>“Gee!” exclaimed Joe, when Dick had finished his recital.
“If that doesn’t read like a story-book! So the
man actually gave you the wagon and the pair of horses?”</p>

<p>“That’s what he did. The outfit is housed at McGee’s
stables at this moment.”</p>

<p>“What are you going to do with them? Sell them, I
s’pose, ’cause you can’t take them with you on this boat.”</p>

<p>“I haven’t decided what I’ll do yet,” said the boy, with
a thoughtful expression.</p>

<p>“And what about the load of apples?” asked Joe, interestedly.</p>

<p>“I brought on forty bushels and sold them to half a
dozen of the hotels just as soon as I struck town.”</p>

<p>“Good for you! How much did you realize?”</p>

<p>“One hundred and four dollars.”</p>

<p>“No!” exclaimed Joe, in surprise.</p>

<p>“That’s right,” nodded Dick, while his face lighted up
with satisfaction. “That wasn’t a bad speculation, was it,
Captain Beasley?”</p>

<p>“I should say it was a very good one,” replied the skipper
of the Minnehaha.</p>

<p>“And I’ve got another one in my eye now that ought
to pan out even better.”</p>

<p>“What is it?” asked Joe, eagerly.</p>

<p>“There’s a fine grove of walnuts and hickory nuts on
that deserted farm, and they’ll be ready for picking just
as soon as the frost sets in good and hard. They’ll fetch
over two dollars a bushel in this town at wholesale. If
there’s one bushel, I’ll bet there’s a hundred and fifty to
be got.”</p>

<p>“Great Scott!” almost shouted Fletcher in his excitement.
“Let me in on this, will you, Dick? I’ll help you
pick them at twenty-five cents a bushel, just for the fun of
the thing.”</p>

<p>“I was about to propose something of that kind, as I
wouldn’t care to go out there all alone. You don’t know
what a spooky place it is. I’ll take you in as a partner,
Joe, and give you one-third of the profits. I’d make it
even up, only the team costs something, and it’s only fair
I should have a percentage for its use.”</p>

<p>“A third is too much,” objected Joe. “It’s your discovery
and your scheme. I’ll be perfectly satisfied with
one quarter.”</p>

<p>“No, Joe; it must be one third, or I’ll call the whole
thing off and sell the team,” said Dick, resolutely.</p>

<p>“All right, Dick; but I call it uncommonly liberal.”</p>

<p>“Pooh! We’re chums, aren’t we?”</p>

<p>“Sure we are.”</p>

<p>“Then stop your kicking.”</p>

<p>Captain Beasley, who had been an amused listener to the
foregoing debate, now ventured a word.</p>

<p>“You forget, Master Armstrong, that it’ll be some two
or three weeks yet before you can gather those nuts. What
are you going to do in the meantime, for of course, if you’ve
determined on this plan, you’re not going down to New
York on this boat.”</p>

<p>“Oh, I’ve got an idea to cover that time,” said the boy,
with sparkling eyes.</p>

<p>“Another speculation, eh?” smiled the captain.</p>

<p>“Yes, I dare say it is. Any risk that a person takes
for the sake of expected profit is a speculation, I suppose.”</p>

<p>“That’s about the size of it,” nodded the skipper.</p>

<p>“But, first of all, I’d like to take a run out to that
farm to-morrow and gather the rest of those harvest apples.
There’s fully another load to be got, and if I don’t take
them they’ll rot on the ground.”</p>

<p>“I’m in this, too, am I, Dick?” asked Joe, anxiously.</p>

<p>“Why not, if you’re willing?”</p>

<p>“You can bet your suspenders I’m willing to go, all
right.”</p>

<p>“Then that’s settled. Do you mind if I bunk aboard
here to-night, Captain Beasley?” asked Dick.</p>

<p>“You’re welcome to sleep, and eat for that matter, aboard
the Minnehaha as long as she’s here, young man. I admire
enterprise in a fellow of your years, and you seem to be
loaded to the hatches with it. If you aren’t a millionaire
one of these days, it’ll be because the trusts we read about
and the plutocrats have gobbled up all the wealth that’s
lying around loose.”</p>

<p>Soon after that, the two boys retired to the forward compartment
of the hold and turned in, but they had so much
to talk over and plan for the future that it was nearly
midnight before they fell asleep.</p>

<p>They were on deck at sunrise.</p>

<p>Dick found lots to interest him before breakfast, in the
panorama of the city’s water front, at least that section
of it where the fleet of canal-boats was moored close inshore.</p>

<p>After breakfast the lads bade Captain Beasley and his
family good-bye, promising to look them up at the Water
Street moorage when they reached New York.</p>

<p>Dick then led the way to McGee’s stables, where he and
Joe hitched up the wagon and started out.</p>

<p>Having provided themselves with provisions and feed
for the animals, they took the road back to the deserted
farm, at which they arrived, without any adventure, late
in the afternoon.</p>

<p>They passed the whole of the next day in getting together
a load.</p>

<p>Thirty-five bushels about cleaned up all the good apples
left.</p>

<p>They passed a second night at the old rookery, as Joe
called it, and on the following morning started early for
Albany.</p>

<p>Dick sold the entire load to a commission house for $95,
but he and Joe had to procure the necessary number of
barrels to hold the fruit in shape for shipment to New
York.</p>

<p>After paying to Joe his share of the profits, Dick found,
expenses deducted, that his cash capital had increased
to $175.</p>

<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />

<div class="chapter">
<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</h2>
</div>

<p class="h2sub">A TRANSACTION IN NUTS.</p>

<p>“Gee! I never was so rich in my life!” exclaimed Joe
Fletcher as he counted over the $30 he had received from
Dick and contemplated the bills with a childish sort of
delight.</p>

<p>“If Nathan Boggs had paid you what he owes you for
your five months’ service on his farm, you’d have ninety
dollars easy enough now,” remarked his young partner
and chum, tucking away his own “boodle” in a safe place.</p>

<p>“Yep, I ’spect so,” grinned Joe, who was not lamenting
the loss of that $60 just at present.</p>

<p>“Boggs ought to be prosecuted and made to shell out.”</p>

<p>“And the screws ought to be put to Silas Maslin, too,”
said Joe. “He treated you worse, on the whole, than Boggs
had the chance to do to me.”</p>

<p>“I don’t say he didn’t; but I’m satisfied if I never run
across him again. I can make my own way in the world,
and I’m going to do it.”</p>

<p>“I’ll bet you will. You’re smart enough, all right,”
answered Joe, admiringly.</p>

<p>The boys had arranged with the stable keeper so they
could sleep in the building in the little room in the hayloft
formerly occupied by Hiram Bond.</p>

<p>On their return from the restaurant where they had had
supper they found a man waiting to see Dick.</p>

<p>“My name is Gibson,” said the stranger, introducing
himself. “I’m from Wayback, where I keep a general
store. I’ve got a load of stuff I want hauled out to my
place. Hiram Bond used to do my carting, but as he
is dead and I’m told you have his outfit, I thought probably
we could strike a bargain between us. What’ll you
charge me?”</p>

<p>“How far is Wayback from here?” asked Dick, who was
ready to accept the job if there was anything in it.</p>

<p>“Nigh on to forty-five miles.”</p>

<p>The boy pondered a moment and then named a figure.</p>

<p>Gibson started to dicker for a lower sum, but Dick cut
him short.</p>

<p>“I wouldn’t do it for a cent lower, Mr. Gibson. I don’t
know what Hiram Bond was accustomed to charge you,
but the price I’ve set is a reasonable one. I had something
else in view, but I’ll haul your goods out to Wayback on
the terms I’ve mentioned. Is it a bargain or not?”</p>

<p>Dick’s manner was thoroughly business-like, and he appeared
to be indifferent whether he got the job or not.</p>

<p>“But you’re only a boy,” persisted the Wayback storekeeper.
“You ought to do it cheaper than a man.”</p>

<p>“Think so?” retorted the lad, looking him in the eye.
“Well, that isn’t the way I do business. I expect to deliver
your stuff in as good shape as Hiram Bond would have
done, so the fact that I am a boy can’t make any difference.”</p>

<p>Mr. Gibson finally agreed to the charge and told Dick
to be on hand at a certain wholesale store in the morning,
where he would meet him.</p>

<p>“All right. Good night, sir.”</p>

<p>Mr. Gibson had a free ride along with his goods, and
the team reached Wayback about nine o’clock next evening.</p>

<p>The boys carried the merchandise into the store, and as
the storekeeper had a barn large enough to accommodate
the horses and wagon, Dick arranged with him to put up
his team there, they to sleep in the wagon themselves.</p>

<p>While Dick and Joe were hitching up next morning a
farmer came up in company with Gibson and inquired
what it would cost him to get a load of potatoes to Albany.</p>

<p>“How much do you expect to get for them?” asked Dick.</p>

<p>The farmer, with some shrewdness, named a lower price
than he actually expected to receive, thinking thereby to
cheapen the cartage.</p>

<p>“All right,” said Dick, promptly. “I’ll buy the lot from
you for so much”&mdash;naming a lower figure&mdash;“and I’ll pay
you cash down for them.”</p>

<p>The farmer saw he had made a mistake and started to
hedge, but Dick said those were the only terms on which
he would take the potatoes.</p>

<p>“But they’ll fetch more’n that in town,” objected the
farmer.</p>

<p>“I expect to make a profit, or I shouldn’t have made
you the offer,” said Dick.</p>

<p>“But I made a mistake in putting the price too low. I
can get more’n that at a commission store in the city,” persisted
the agriculturalist.</p>

<p>“I offer you spot cash,” and Dick yanked out his roll
of bills, which he displayed before the owner of the potatoes.
“Take me up, and you’re relieved of all further
bother.”</p>

<p>The farmer needed the money, and the sight of the
cash smothered his scruples about selling at a reduced price,
so the deal was closed on the spot.</p>

<p>Dick drove around to his farm and examined his stock of
potatoes.</p>

<p>He found them to be in all respects as they had been
represented, so he paid over the money and loaded them
into the wagon.</p>

<p>“That was a good trade,” said Joe as they drove down
the road.</p>

<p>“Yes; I expect to make at least twenty-five dollars out
of them,” replied his chum.</p>

<p>As a matter of fact he cleared $32, for the price had
gone up a little within the two days he had been away from
the city.</p>

<p>Next day Dick picked up another cartage job as far as
Newtown Junction on the railroad.</p>

<p>Just before reaching his destination he noticed the section
men replacing a lot of old sleepers with new ones.</p>

<p>The old ones were tossed aside for the present, and he
saw a group of small boys carrying several of them off.</p>

<p>This put an idea into his head.</p>

<p>On his return he singled out the section boss and asked
him if he could have a few.</p>

<p>“Sure; take as many as you want,” replied the man,
good-naturedly.</p>

<p>As Dick intended to take up the offer literally, he handed
the boss a dollar-bill.</p>

<p>The man grinned in a friendly way and turned away.</p>

<p>Then the two boys gradually filled up the wagon with
the old ties as they proceeded on their way.</p>

<p>Dick stopped at a large woodyard in Albany and sold
the wood at a very handsome profit, a third of which went
to Joe.</p>

<p>“The firm of Armstrong &amp; Fletcher seems to be doing
pretty well, all things considered,” remarked Joe as he
added a few additional bills to his small wad.</p>

<p>“That’s what we’re in business for,” was Dick’s reply.</p>

<p>Two weeks slipped by, and Dick managed to keep his
team employed at various odd jobs of hauling between the
business section and the suburbs of Albany.</p>

<p>His cash capital, after deducting all expenses to date,
had increased to $200.</p>

<p>He decided it was now time to look up his contemplated
venture in nuts.</p>

<p>Accordingly he purchased the necessary supplies for a
possible week’s stay at the deserted farm, and they made
an early start for the scene of operations.</p>

<p>The nights were now cold and frosty, and the boys found
it necessary for comfort to keep up a good fire in the old,
rusty stove, the only article left behind by the former occupants
when they moved away.</p>

<p>Just why this farm had been abandoned was not clearly
understood, even by Farmer Haywood, the nearest neighbor.</p>

<p>It had been vacant for more than a year, and a mildewed
sign planted near the fence gave the passerby notice
that the place was for sale and that information could be
obtained from somebody whose name and address were no
longer decipherable.</p>

<p>Early on the morning succeeding their arrival Dick and
Joe walked out to the grove of nut trees and found the
ground literally covered with nuts.</p>

<p>It was fully a mile back of the house.</p>

<p>They brought the wagon to the edge of the wood and
spent the whole day loading up.</p>

<p>By keeping a careful count they found they had accumulated
forty bushels.</p>

<p>“This is first-class,” said Dick when they got back to
the shelter of the house. “I was afraid we might have
to hang around here several days before we could get busy.
Now I guess we’ll be able to clean up this place in a
week, including, of course, the time spent in carting the
nuts to the city.”</p>

<p>Dick was not far out of the way in his calculation as
to the time it would take them to gather the plentiful supply
of nuts to be found in the grove.</p>

<p>“This will be our last load,” he said as they were driving
back to the abandoned farm eight days later, after having
delivered and sold 150 bushels of nuts in Albany for $2.10
a bushel in bulk.</p>

<p>“Yes; there aren’t many more left,” said Joe, regretfully,
for having pocketed so far a matter of $100 as his
share of the speculation, he could not help wishing such a
good thing would keep up indefinitely. “What are we
going to do next?” he added.</p>

<p>“The firm of Armstrong &amp; Fletcher will probably dissolve,
for the time being, at any rate, as I expect to sell
the team and start for New York.”</p>

<p>“I’m sorry for that,” replied Joe, with a long face.</p>

<p>“I don’t know that you need be. There’s more money
to be made in New York,” said Dick, encouragingly.</p>

<p>“But you’ve got to know how to make it,” retorted Joe,
who had lived many years in the great metropolis himself
and had found money-getting a serious proposition there.</p>

<p>“You’ve got to know how to make it anywhere, for that
matter,” said Dick. “I’ve heard several people say that
if you can’t make money in New York you can’t make it
anywhere.”</p>

<p>“The papers say there are a hundred thousand men out
of work there all the time.”</p>

<p>“That may be; but the same men are not out of work
all the time.”</p>

<p>“Albany is the biggest town you’ve ever seen in all your
life. Wait till you strike New York, and you’ll be lost.”</p>

<p>“I think not, Joe, with you at my elbow to show me the
ropes. I’ve cut my eye-teeth in a pretty hard school, and
even if I’m only sixteen, I feel sure I can hold my own
against the world. I’ve made nearly four hundred dollars
since I cut loose from Mr. Maslin, four weeks ago, and I
think that’s a pretty fair showing for a beginner.”</p>

<p>It was now quite dark, and a turn in the road brought
them in sight of the house.</p>

<p>“Hello!” exclaimed Joe, clutching Dick suddenly by the
arm. “Someone is before us this time.”</p>

<p>And he pointed to a light which shone from an end
window of the kitchen.</p>

<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />

<div class="chapter">
<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</h2>
</div>

<p class="h2sub">IN WHICH DICK FINDS LUKE MASLIN IN BAD COMPANY AND
OVERHEARS A SHADY SCHEME.</p>

<p>“Tramps!” ejaculated Dick, in some dismay. Then he
added, in a perplexed tone: “What are we going to do?
They’ve got possession of the only decent room in the
house.”</p>

<p>“Maybe there’s only one of them,” suggested Joe, hopefully.</p>

<p>“Even so; he has as much right there as we have, if it
came to an argument.”</p>

<p>Joe scratched his head and admitted the fact.</p>

<p>“We’ve simply been trespassers on the property ourselves
from the start,” said Dick.</p>

<p>“Well, what are we going to do about it?” asked Fletcher
as Dick pulled up under the trees by the side of the road
a short distance from the gate.</p>

<p>“Wait here till I come back,” and the young driver
handed the reins to his chum and descended from his perch.</p>

<p>Vaulting the rail fence, he approached the old building
by a flank movement across the weed-encumbered yard.</p>

<p>He picked up a large, flat stone and placed it beneath
the window.</p>

<p>Stepping on it, he peered through the dirt-begrimed window
into the room.</p>

<p>A fire was burning in the grate, and gathered about the
stove were three figures, two of whom were boys.</p>

<p>They were not tramps.</p>

<p>The man, who had at that moment a bottle glued to his
lips, was bearded and wore a coarse fur cap.</p>

<p>As the man dropped the flask into a pocket of his jacket
he made some remark and lifted the stove-lid with a stout
twig.</p>

<p>The end boy reached for some broken branches, rose and
began to stuff these into the grate.</p>

<p>The glare of the blaze shone full in his face, and Dick
gave a gasp of astonishment.</p>

<p>He recognized the freckled features of Luke Maslin.</p>

<p>“Gee whiz! What’s he doing here?” muttered the boy
outside.</p>

<p>Naturally his curiosity was greatly excited.</p>

<p>It was a strange place and strange company for the son
of Silas Maslin to be found mixed up with.</p>

<p>What did it all mean?</p>

<p>“I never knew Luke to be away from home before, and
here he is thirty miles from Cobham’s Corner,” murmured
Dick. “There’s something queer about it.”</p>

<p>The cold night wind whisking about the building soon
made the young watcher’s position one of discomfort.</p>

<p>“They act as if they intended to stay a while,” he said
to himself. “I’d like to discover what their intentions are.”</p>

<p>Dick thought a moment; then he went round to a door
which he knew opened on an entry that communicated with
the kitchen.</p>

<p>He removed his shoes and cautiously entered the house.</p>

<p>The door at the end of the entry leading into the kitchen
was partly open, and through this door the boy plainly
heard the sound of conversation.</p>

<p>He tiptoed his way to the door, and through the crack
between the upper and lower hinges he got a good view of
the intruders.</p>

<p>As the trio spoke in their ordinary tones, Dick heard
every word they said.</p>

<p>“I didn’t agree to go into any such thing as this when
I left home,” said Luke, in a tone of plain remonstrance.</p>

<p>“It ain’t what you agreed to do; it’s what you got to
do, now you’re with us,” spoke up the whiskered man, with
a fierce glance at the storekeeper’s son, evidently bent on
intimidating him.</p>

<p>“What you kickin’ about, Luke,” interjected the other
youth, whom Dick thought he identified as a certain bad
boy of Walkhill village named Tim Bunker. “A feller
that’ll steal five dollars off his old man ain’t got no reason
to grumble when he’s showed how he kin make twenty times
that much without any risk to mention.”</p>

<p>The speaker leaned forward and squirted a stream of
tobacco juice into the fire, while the bearded man nodded
his approval.</p>

<p>“I didn’t steal five dollars,” said Luke, doggedly. “I
borrowed it from the till because I needed it, and I was
going to put it back when I got it again.”</p>

<p>“Ho, ho! That ain’t the way you give it to me first.
You told me how slick you got away with it, ’cause you
wanted it to buy a gun you saw advertised in a Syracuse
paper, and your old man wouldn’t give you the price. Then
you said the old man found out he was a fiver to the bad
and charged Dick Armstrong with stealing it. He skipped
out ’cause he couldn’t prove he didn’t take it and didn’t
wanter go to jail for what he didn’t do. And you ain’t
heard nothin’ from him since, have you?”</p>

<p>“No, we haven’t,” growled Luke.</p>

<p>“After doin’ all that damage, now you want to preach
us a sermon ag’inst helpin’ ourselves to a nice little bunch
of dough that’s just waitin’ to be put in circulation after
lyin’ in old Miser Fairclough’s strong-box these forty years.
He’s a peach, ain’t he, Mudgett?” appealing to the man
beside him, who at that moment was taking another drink
from his flask.</p>

<p>“A born chump,” admitted Mudgett, wiping his lips with
the cuff of his jacket. “I’m disappointed in him, Tim.”</p>

<p>“So’m I. Thought he had more backbone. And it’s
such an easy snap, too. Just like pickin’ up money, ain’t
it?” grinned the Bunker boy.</p>

<p>“That’s what it is,” replied Mudgett, complacently. “It
was a clever idea of mine to send that old miser a letter
telling him his brother, who lives in Walkhill, was dead
and had left him the bulk of his money.”</p>

<p>“That’s right,” grinned Bunker. “Fairclough has been
waitin’ for his brother to die for twenty years or more.
It’s the only thing that could have got him away from his
house.”</p>

<p>“And now all we’ve got to do is to walk in and help ourselves,”
said Mudgett.</p>

<p>“That’s all,” winked Tim Bunker. “It’s almost a shame
it’s so easy.”</p>

<p>The young rascal chuckled and thumped Luke on the back.</p>

<p>“Brace up,” he cried to Mr. Maslin’s graceless son.
“You’re one of us now in this scheme, and Mudgett won’t
hear of you backin’ out at the last minit.”</p>

<p>“But I don’t want nothing to do with it,” protested Luke.</p>

<p>“That doesn’t make no matter of difference whether you
want to or not,” said Mudgett, in a threatening voice.
“You’re in this thing right up to your neck, for you
delivered that letter to Fairclough himself, and he won’t
forget that when he comes back and finds out what happened
while he was away. You can’t go back to Cobham’s
without the certainty of being arrested on sight.”</p>

<p>The bearded man stated the case with such brutal frankness
that Luke turned white and began to whimper.</p>

<p>“Shut up, will you!” thundered Mudgett, reaching over
and grabbing Luke by the collar. “Stop your snivelling,
or I’ll break every bone in your body.”</p>

<p>The storekeeper’s son was frightened into silence.</p>

<p>“When do we start, Mudgett?” asked Bunker, fishing
a cigarette from his pocket and lighting it.</p>

<p>“We’ll start now, I guess. It must be close on to nine
o’clock. There isn’t much danger of anyone seeing us on
the road after that hour.”</p>

<p>Dick, who had been an amazed listener of the foregoing
conversation, concluded it was time to withdraw.</p>

<p>When he got outside he found the light had been extinguished
in the kitchen, and he took that as a sign that
the trio were on the move.</p>

<p>Fearing his presence might be detected in the yard if
he attempted to recross it to the fence, he crept under a
corner of the porch and waited.</p>

<p>Mudgett and the two boys appeared almost immediately
and walked out to the road.</p>

<p>Dick was in a sweat lest they might discover the team
where it had been waiting a good half-hour for him to
return.</p>

<p>But they turned up the road without looking in the other
direction, and when Dick reached the gate he could just
make out their figures disappearing in the distance.</p>

<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />

<div class="chapter">
<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</h2>
</div>

<p class="h2sub">DICK AND JOE ON THE TRAIL OF MUDGETT, TIM BUNKER AND
THEIR DUPE.</p>

<p>“You’ve been a mighty long time investigating matters,”
grumbled Joe Fletcher, poking his head over the seat when
he heard his chum’s voice, for he had retired to the interior
of the wagon to keep warm.</p>

<p>“Perhaps I have,” replied Dick, as he climbed up to his
perch and started the team. “But I guess I’ll surprise you
when I tell you what I’ve seen and heard.”</p>

<p>“Well, I’m ready to hear the story,” said Joe, with mingled
impatience and curiosity.</p>

<p>“Of course you’ve heard of William Fairclough, who
keeps a stock farm at Walkhill,” began Dick.</p>

<p>“Sure I have.”</p>

<p>“And you’ve also heard he has a brother named Adam,
who lives on the outskirts of Jayville, which is six miles
from here.”</p>

<p>“Yes, the folks in Walkhill call him Miser Fairclough.”</p>

<p>“You’ve got it right. He occupies an old mansion, built
some time before the Revolutionary War. He bought the
place for a song, I heard, about forty years ago. Well,
there’s a scheme on foot to rob old Fairclough to-night,
and it’s up to us to head it off.”</p>

<p>“Rob the miser!” exclaimed Joe, in astonishment.</p>

<p>“Exactly. He has been decoyed away to Walkhill by a
bogus letter, which informed him that his brother William
is dead.”</p>

<p>“Gee! You don’t mean it!”</p>

<p>“I overheard a large part of the scheme by listening just
outside of the kitchen door that opens on the entry.”</p>

<p>“Then it was a gang of robbers you found at the house?”
said Joe, in open-mouthed wonder.</p>

<p>“I found a man and two boys,” answered Dick. “But
before I say anything more we’ll unharness the team and
make them comfortable for the night.”</p>

<p>The two boys lost no time getting the horses into the
barn and putting before them a plentiful supply of oats.</p>

<p>“Did you ever run across a fellow named Tim Bunker
in Walkhill?” asked Dick, taking up the thread of his
story again, as he dived into their provision hamper and
fished up a couple of egg sandwiches, one of which he
handed to his chum, with the remark that time was precious
and that was all he might expect to eat for some
hours.</p>

<p>“I’ve heard of Tim Bunker,” said Joe, with a nod, as
they walked toward the road. “He’s a hard nut. What
about him?”</p>

<p>“He’s mixed up in this affair.”</p>

<p>“Is that so? Can’t say I’m much surprised.”</p>

<p>“And who do you imagine the other boy to be?”</p>

<p>“I couldn’t guess.”</p>

<p>“No, I don’t think you could. Don’t fall down, now,
when I tell you. It is Luke Maslin.”</p>

<p>“Luke Maslin!” exclaimed Joe, stopping stock still in
the middle of the road.</p>

<p>“Yes, Luke Maslin,” repeated Dick, enjoying his friend’s
astonishment. “He’s in pretty bad company.”</p>

<p>“Why, what’s he doing ’way down here, thirty miles from
the Corner?”</p>

<p>“That’s what surprised me at first, but from what Tim
Bunker said in the kitchen while I was taking it all in
from behind the door, I’ve got a pretty clear idea of the
way Luke has got himself into this pickle. It seems he
did take that five dollars out of his father’s money-drawer
that I was accused of stealing.”</p>

<p>“I guessed he was the thief,” nodded Joe, conclusively.</p>

<p>“Then he foolishly boasted of it to Tim Bunker, thinking
he had done a clever thing. Now it looks as if Tim
took advantage of this knowledge to force Luke to join him
and the man Mudgett in the enterprise they have in hand
without letting him know exactly what they intended to
do.”</p>

<p>“What makes you think he didn’t know?”</p>

<p>“Because it looked to me as if they’d just been explaining
the real situation to him before I came on the scene, for
he was kicking against it like a mule.”</p>

<p>“He was, eh?”</p>

<p>“Yes. Mudgett and Tim Bunker were sharp enough to
put Luke in a tight box before they took him into their
confidence.”</p>

<p>“How?”</p>

<p>“They had him deliver the decoy note to Adam Fairclough.
It was a mean trick, for it implicates Luke in the
job, as they intended it should. That puts him completely
in their power, don’t you see?”</p>

<p>“I wouldn’t be in his shoes for a mint,” said Joe as
they turned into the road leading to Jayville. “But it
serves him right for stealing that money from his father,
and then when it come out letting you shoulder all the
blame. He wouldn’t have opened his mouth to clear you
if you’d been arrested for the theft and put in the village
lock-up,” he added indignantly.</p>

<p>“I guess you’re right,” admitted his chum.</p>

<p>“Of course I’m right. Didn’t he give you away to his
father the moment he spied you hid down in the hold of
the canal-boat?”</p>

<p>“He certainly did, and I think I could have thrashed
him for it if I’d had the chance. I felt like doing it.”</p>

<p>“And my fists just tingled to get a rap at him, too,”
blurted Joe.</p>

<p>“He’s in a pretty bad hole now, all right. If we can
prevent this burglary to-night, it is possible we can save
him from some of the consequences of his foolishness.”</p>

<p>“I shouldn’t think you’d care to waste much consideration
on a fellow who for years treated you as mean as Luke
has done,” said Joe, in some surprise.</p>

<p>“I don’t say he deserves anything of me, but still I’m
willing to do what I can to save him from going to prison,”
said Dick, generously.</p>

<p>“Well, I don’t know what you expect to do. You’re the
captain and I’m going it blind after you. But if you’ve
a scheme for catching these fellows, and we do catch them,
I suppose Luke could turn State’s evidence and escape the
penalty.”</p>

<p>“Very likely.”</p>

<p>“I’m sorry you are getting mixed up in this matter,”
said Joe, gloomily.</p>

<p>“Why so?” said Dick, looking at his companion in surprise.
“You wouldn’t stand off and allow that old man
to be robbed when you might be able to prevent it, would
you?”</p>

<p>“I don’t mean that; but you forget that we are liable
to be detained as witnesses if a capture is made, and that
will give Silas Maslin a chance to get hold of you again.”</p>

<p>Dick stopped short and regarded his chum for a moment
in silence.</p>

<p>He had not thought of that unpleasant contingency.</p>

<p>“This will make a slight change in my plans,” he said,
suddenly. “I intended to get help to tackle these fellows,
but I think now it will do as well if we succeed in scaring
them off. I’m satisfied if we can put a spoke in their
wheel, and it will do away with the difficulty you mentioned.”</p>

<p>To this plan Joe agreed with alacrity.</p>

<p>The sky, which had been overcast up to this point, now
began to show through here and there in patches.</p>

<p>And ere long the imprisoned moon sailed into these
spaces, and her light occasionally illuminated the landscape.</p>

<p>One of these spells of moonshine showed the boys the distant
spire of the Jayville Methodist Church and the roofs
of many of the houses.</p>

<p>“The Fairclough mansion is over yonder,” said Dick,
pointing in the direction. “I remember Mr. Maslin pointing
it out to me a year ago, when we drove down here one
day on business. We’ll cut across this meadow and save
at least two miles by the road.”</p>

<p>On the other side of the field was a clump of trees.</p>

<p>Dick pointed out a couple of branches that would make
stout cudgels, and he and Joe were presently in possession
of a pair of serviceable weapons.</p>

<p>As they cautiously drew near the Revolutionary relic
they made out three indistinct figures hovering about the
building.</p>

<p>Suddenly the figures clustered about a rear window that
was high above their reach, and Dick and Joe saw one of
them mount on the shoulders of the other two and commence
operations by splintering the glass with a blow of
some implement.</p>

<p>At that interesting juncture the boys’ ears caught the
sound of approaching wheels, and before they realized what
was about to happen a miserable-looking buggy, drawn by
a thin, bony mare, dashed into the unkempt driveway and
rattled up to the porch.</p>

<p>The occupant of the ramshackle vehicle showed up in
the moonlight to be an old man of at least eighty years,
wrapped in a faded green overcoat, with a comforter of
some indescribable color tucked about his throat, the ends
floating in the night air.</p>

<p>His approach had been discovered by the would-be burglars,
and the two who had formed the base of the pyramid
that had just boosted the third through the fractured window,
rushed around to the front of the house and attacked
the old man from two sides.</p>

<p>“That must be Adam Fairclough,” explained Dick, he
and Joe springing to their feet. “He must have met somebody
on the road who told him that his brother wasn’t
dead, and thus aroused his suspicions that something was
wrong at this end of the business, and so he came right
back. Those rascals may kill him if we don’t interfere,
Joe. So, come on. Let’s take them by surprise.”</p>

<p>Thereupon both boys leaped the fence and, flourishing
their cudgels, rushed to the rescue.</p>

<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />

<div class="chapter">
<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</h2>
</div>

<p class="h2sub">DICK AND JOE BLOCK MUDGETT AND TIM BUNKER’S SHADY
ENTERPRISE.</p>

<p>Mudgett had seized the old miser by the arm and was
dragging him out of the buggy when Dick Armstrong
sprang upon him like a young tiger and bore him to the
ground. At the same instant Joe Fletcher ran around the
vehicle and hit Tim Bunker such a whack over the head
with his cudgel that the Walkhill youth saw unnumbered
stars and hastened to make his escape over the back of the
buggy.</p>

<p>But Joe cut him off, and the two boys were soon mixing
it up pretty lively, with all the advantage in Joe’s favor.</p>

<p>In the meantime Dick found Mudgett a tough proposition
to get away with, while the bearded man discovered
in the strong and active boy a hard nut to crack.</p>

<p>Old Adam Fairclough, thus relieved of his assailants,
stood helplessly aloof, and watched the struggle that was
going on about him.</p>

<p>He seemed to be utterly bewildered by the condition of
affairs that had faced him on his return home.</p>

<p>And while this lively scrimmage was going on in the
front of the house, Luke Maslin in the rear took advantage
of the opportunity to scramble out of the window
through which he had been forced to effect an entrance,
and, reaching the ground, he took to his heels and made
off into the line of woods beyond the fence as fast as his
heels would carry him.</p>

<p>“Let me up, you young imp!” exclaimed Mudgett, panting
for breath after several ineffectual efforts on his part
to dislodge Dick from an advantageous position on his
chest.</p>

<p>“Do you give in?” asked the almost equally breathless
boy, refusing to budge an inch from his perch.</p>

<p>“No, hang you for a meddlesome little monkey! But if
you don’t let me up, I’ll break your head!”</p>

<p>“I don’t think you will, Mr. Mudgett,” answered Dick,
stoutly.</p>

<p>“You know my name, eh? Who the dickens are you,
anyway?” said the rascal in a tone that showed his surprise.</p>

<p>“Never mind who I am,” returned the lad. “I’ve got
you dead to rights now, so you might just as well throw
up your hands at once.”</p>

<p>“Not on your life!” gritted Mudgett, renewing the struggle.</p>

<p>But he might just as well have saved his strength, for
Joe having mastered Tim Bunker and bound his arms
behind his back with the whip-lash belonging to the buggy,
now came to his chum’s assistance, and Mudgett, with a
villainous scowl, gave up the fight and suffered himself to
be secured with one of the traces which Joe took off the
horse.</p>

<p>“I’m afraid these men meant to kill me, thinking I had
money,” said old Adam Fairclough to Dick, in trembling
tones, when the lad stepped up to assure him that he no
longer was in danger of molestation. “But I’m a poor
old man. Poor&mdash;very poor.”</p>

<p>“They were in the act of breaking into your house to rob
you when we turned up, intending to prevent them carrying
out their plan, which I fortunately overheard.”</p>

<p>“Why should they want to rob me when I’m only a poor
old man?” cried the miser, in a pathetic voice.</p>

<p>“They think you have lots of money hidden in your
house,” replied Dick.</p>

<p>“Not a cent&mdash;not a single cent!” wailed the old man,
beating the air with his arms in a sort of abject denial.</p>

<p>Dick of course believed Adam Fairclough was not telling
the truth.</p>

<p>He had always heard people say the man was worth thousands
of dollars.</p>

<p>That he owned half a dozen good farms which he rented
out to thrifty tenants.</p>

<p>That he held mortgages on a dozen more.</p>

<p>That he had a strong-box filled with family plate that
had not been used for fifty years, and a second one stuffed
with gold and banknotes he had taken out of circulation
in order to hoard up for the mere pleasure of accumulation.</p>

<p>Probably the old man’s wealth was greatly exaggerated,
but there seemed little doubt that he was tolerably rich.</p>

<p>Dick led him around to the back of the house and showed
him the broken window.</p>

<p>“They sent you a letter saying your brother William
in Walkhill was dead; isn’t that so?” asked the boy.</p>

<p>“Yes, yes; but it was false&mdash;my brother is not dead at
all.”</p>

<p>“That was a trick to get you away from here so they
might search the house during your absence.”</p>

<p>Then Dick told him the whole story of what he had
learned at the old deserted farmhouse.</p>

<p>“You are a good boy&mdash;a brave boy,” said the poor old
miser, shaking the lad by the hand in a pitiful way, for
he appeared to have but little strength after the shock he
had sustained. “If I wasn’t so very, very poor, I’d reward
you.”</p>

<p>“Don’t worry about that,” replied Dick, with a cheerfulness
that put the old man more at his ease. “If you’ll let
us stay here for the rest of the night, it’s all we want.”</p>

<p>“You shall stay&mdash;yes, yes, you shall stay; but there isn’t
anything I could give you to eat. I’m so poor I can’t buy
much.”</p>

<p>From the appearance of both his horse as well as himself
it was evident the miser didn’t squander much of his
money on food of any kind.</p>

<p>They were both shrivelled and dried up like a pair of
animated mummies.</p>

<p>Indeed, when Dick led the animal off to its stable he
almost fancied he could hear its bones rattle with each
step it took.</p>

<p>“Poor old beast!” he murmured sympathetically. “How
I’d like to give you one good, square meal! But I fear
the shock of it would lay you out.”</p>

<p>And the mare, as if it understood him, looked at him
with her saucer-like eyes in hopeless resignation.</p>

<p>Such a thing as a square meal to her was a dream, never
to be realized.</p>

<p>The old man wouldn’t have the prisoners taken into the
mansion.</p>

<p>He was afraid of them, and so Joe tied them securely
to posts in the stable.</p>

<p>Inside the house there were bolts and bars without number.</p>

<p>Every room appeared to be completely furnished, but the
old-fashioned mahogany pieces, that must have been valuable
in their day long ago, were now given over to the
ravages of dust and neglect.</p>

<p>Adam Fairclough ate and slept in one little room at
the top of the building, of which the boys caught only
a momentary glimpse as the old man led them past to another
room in which were a bed, some chairs, and other
articles in a fair state of preservation.</p>

<p>There the miser left them after assuring Dick once more
that he was miserably poor and sorry he couldn’t do better
by them.</p>

<p>“Gee!” grinned Joe when they were alone, “what a liar
the old fellow is!”</p>

<p>“Never mind, old man,” replied his chum. “It’s none
of our business. We’ve done our duty, and I can sleep like
a top on the strength of it. There’s one thing I’m glad
about&mdash;Luke Maslin has skipped.”</p>

<p>Next morning old Fairclough produced some weak boiled
coffee and a plate of hard bread and cheese, which he offered
to them for breakfast with every evidence of earnest hospitality,
repeating his refrain of abject poverty.</p>

<p>He wrote down the boys’ names in a big, leather-bound
book, making a large cross opposite Dick’s name.</p>

<p>When they went out to the stable to look after Mudgett
and Tim Bunker they were surprised to find that the rascals
had managed to liberate themselves somehow and had taken
French leave.</p>

<p>The boys didn’t know whether to be glad or sorry, but,
on the whole, they were pleased to find they would not
have to appear against the housebreakers.</p>

<p>Then they bade the old man good-bye, advising him to
be very careful against any future attempts of a like
nature.</p>

<p>They reached the deserted farm about nine o’clock, looked
after the horses, made their stomachs happy with a substantial
meal, and then hied themselves to the nutting-ground,
where they spent most of the day gathering up
the remainder of the crop.</p>

<p>Not knowing but they might possibly be surprised by the
fugitives, Mudgett and Tim Bunker, if they passed the
night in the house, they left the place before dark and put
up at Farmer Haywood’s for supper and a bed.</p>

<p>Next day they arrived back in Albany and disposed of
their final load of nuts, the whole speculation netting them
the sum of $375.</p>

<p>That same afternoon Dick sold the team for nearly $400.</p>

<p>“I think we can afford to take the train for New York,”
he said after figuring up his cash capital, which he found
amounted to $850.</p>

<p>And Joe readily agreed with him, for he had $155 tucked
snugly away in an inside pocket.</p>

<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />

<div class="chapter">
<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
</div>

<p class="h2sub">WRECK AND RESCUE.</p>

<p>“Gee! She’s a beaut, isn’t she, Dick?”</p>

<p>The Buffalo Express, on board of which Dick Armstrong
and his friend, Joe Fletcher, were traveling to New York,
had just stopped at Poughkeepsie, and the exclamation was
drawn from Joe by the appearance in the car of a lovely
young girl of apparently fifteen years of age, accompanied
by a fine-looking gentleman of perhaps forty, who seemed
to be her father.</p>

<p>“She is pretty, for a fact,” admitted Dick, casting a look
of admiration at the young lady.</p>

<p>She had light hair, blue eyes, and dimpled cheeks, and
her smile was an entrancing one as she turned to say something
to the gentleman when he seated himself by her side.</p>

<p>The train soon started on again and was presently speeding
down the bank of the Hudson River at a fifty-mile clip.</p>

<p>It was a dull afternoon early in November, and the landscape
looked brown and unpicturesque.</p>

<p>The great river flowed sluggishly along, and as they
passed a string of canal-boats preceded by a snorting tug,
the boys thought of Captain Beasley and the Minnehaha.</p>

<p>During the next hour a large portion of Dick’s attention
was centred on the pretty girl who had boarded the train
at Poughkeepsie.</p>

<p>“Ever hear of Spuyten Duyvil?” asked Joe.</p>

<p>“Yes,” answered Dick.</p>

<p>“It’s not far above Manhattan Island, and we’ll pass
there soon. Guess I’ll have another drink.”</p>

<p>Joe went to the end of the car where the tank was, but
whether his numerous drinks since leaving Albany had
used up all the water, or because there was something the
matter with the cock, certain it is Joe had to go into the
next car to get what he wanted.</p>

<p>He had probably been gone a couple of minutes and
Dick was watching the pretty stranger for perhaps the
hundredth time, when something startling occurred which
changed the whole aspect of affairs in the twinkling of an
eye.</p>

<p>A tremendous shock stopped the train’s momentum and
piled the cars on top of each other, hurling a couple down
the embankment into the river, almost every car becoming
a shapeless wreck, and human beings, full of life and hope
a moment before, were suddenly ushered into eternity or
maimed and mangled for life.</p>

<p>It was a rear-end collision.</p>

<p>A terrible scene was presented to Dick’s gaze when he
recovered his scattered senses.</p>

<p>He was stunned by the shock and made giddy by the
wild vaulting of the car as it leaped the rails, swung around
and buried its rear end in the Hudson.</p>

<p>He was bruised and badly shaken up, but he was not
seriously injured.</p>

<p>Fortunately Dick was endowed a remarkable degree
of self-possession.</p>

<p>Finding he was not hurt, he struggled out from beneath
the wreckage which had overwhelmed him.</p>

<p>His first thought was for Joe, but the boy was not in
sight, which, under the circumstances, was hardly to be
wondered at.</p>

<p>Then the groans and screams of the mangled passengers
pinned under the wreck confused him and distracted his
attention from his chum.</p>

<p>Perhaps it is not strange that the fair young girl who
had occupied the opposite seat in the car came to his
mind, for his eyes and thoughts had been upon her at the
moment of the catastrophe.</p>

<p>He did not see her among the men and women who
were disengaging themselves from the shapeless debris.</p>

<p>“Is she dead?” he almost groaned, as he thought of that
golden head and lithe figure smashed beyond recognition.</p>

<p>Then he wondered if her father had escaped, for, like
Joe, he had a short time before the accident gone forward
into the smoking-car, and the boy saw as through a mist
the locomotive, express-baggage, and smoking cars back
slowly down on the wreck, a crowd of wild and excited passengers
tumbling off the rear platform of the latter.</p>

<p>It was impossible for anyone to say just what had caused
the trouble, but it might have been a broken axle or a suddenly
loosened rail that had snapped the connection between
the cars.</p>

<p>A portion of the top of the car Dick had just wriggled
from under lay near him, and seeing a woman’s foot exposed
beneath, he exerted his strength and raised one end
a bit.</p>

<p>It rested heavily upon the form of the fair passenger
from Poughkeepsie.</p>

<p>The sight aroused all his energies.</p>

<p>With desperate eagerness he put his shoulder to the
heavy fragment that was crushing out the girl’s life, and
shifted it aside.</p>

<p>Then he bent down and lifted her in his arms.</p>

<p>“Great Scott!” he exclaimed, anxiously, “I believe she is
dead.”</p>

<p>She looked the picture of death, for her eyes were closed
and her pallid cheek was stained with blood.</p>

<p>Dick, hardly knowing what to do, bore her down to the
river edge and splashed the water into her face, eagerly
watching for some sign of returning animation.</p>

<p>He rubbed her temples and chafed her hands, but the
task seemed hopeless.</p>

<p>He was about to abandon his efforts in despair, when
an almost imperceptible sigh gladdened his heart and caused
him to renew his exertions.</p>

<p>With his handkerchief he washed away the bloodstains,
and found that she was only slightly cut just above the ear.</p>

<p>In a few moments she recovered consciousness and cast
a bewildered glance around her.</p>

<p>She tried to raise herself, but with a little cry of pain
she sank back in Dick’s arms and lay there staring up into
his face and scarcely comprehending what he was doing for
her.</p>

<p>Suddenly the fearful nature of the catastrophe dawned
upon her mind, and clutching at the lad’s arm with one
little hand, her other arm lying limp and helpless at her
side, she raised up again.</p>

<p>“My father!” she cried with pathetic earnestness.
“Where is he?”</p>

<p>“I saw him leave you and go into the next car before
the crash came,” said Dick.</p>

<p>“He went to the smoking-car,” she moaned. “Perhaps&mdash;oh,
perhaps he was&mdash;&mdash;”</p>

<p>“If he reached the smoking-car, he is safe,” said Dick,
encouragingly. “That car was not damaged. I can see
it from here,” and the boy nodded his head in the direction
where it stood on the track. “And I see your father
now!” he exclaimed suddenly. “He is running this way.
What is your name?”</p>

<p>“Jennie Nesbitt,” she replied faintly.</p>

<p>“Hi, hi! Mr. Nesbitt!” cried Dick, motioning to the
girl’s father.</p>

<p>The gentleman started and paused when he heard his
name pronounced.</p>

<p>Looking wildly about he saw Dick signaling to him, and
he easily guessed that the recumbent figure in the boy’s
arms was his daughter, and he rushed down to the spot.</p>

<p>“Don’t say she is dead!” he exclaimed frantically, the
tears streaming down his cheeks. “Jennie, darling, speak
to your father!” and he knelt down and seized her nerveless
hand.</p>

<p>A cry of pain broke from the girl.</p>

<p>“Are you much hurt, my darling?” asked Mr. Nesbitt,
anxiously, taking her in his arms and kissing her tenderly.</p>

<p>“I don’t know, father,” she answered faintly, putting
her uninjured arm around his neck. “My left arm is very
numb.”</p>

<p>“I should be obliged to you if you would assist me in
carrying my daughter up this bank,” said the gentleman
to Dick.</p>

<p>Between them they carried her across the tracks and
laid her on the faded grass under the trees, where a score
or more of the injured had already been placed to await the
attention of the physicians that had been telegraphed for.</p>

<p>“Can I be of any further use?” asked Dick, wistfully,
after he had explained how he discovered the young lady
under the section of the car-roof and removed her to the
waterside in the hope of bringing her to. “I should like
to hunt up my chum, who was traveling with me.”</p>

<p>“I will not detain you,” said Mr. Nesbitt, grasping him
by the hand. “You have been very good to my daughter.
She probably owes her life to you. I can never sufficiently
thank you for the service you have this day rendered to
me,” he said with grateful earnestness.</p>

<p>“I am glad I was able to do something for your daughter,”
replied Dick, simply.</p>

<p>“Be sure we shall not forget you. I think you said your
name was Richard Armstrong?”</p>

<p>“Yes, sir.”</p>

<p>“You will not forget that, Jennie. Here is my business
card, Mr. Armstrong. You must call at my office, for we
want to know you better.”</p>

<p>“Thank you; I will do so at the first chance,” replied
the boy, noticing that the address was a New York City one.</p>

<p>“Perhaps I shall see you again before you leave here.”</p>

<p>“We shall be glad if you come back as soon as you find
some trace of your friend, who, I think, probably has escaped,
since, like myself, you say he went forward before
the accident occurred.”</p>

<p>The wounded and the dead were now being rapidly taken
from the pile of ruins by those who were uninjured.</p>

<p>Dick, gazing upon the work of the rescuers, saw Joe
helping like a good fellow to clear away a part of the
splintered car in which he and his chum had been riding.</p>

<p>With a shout of joy Dick ran up and seized him by the
arm.</p>

<p>“Thank goodness, you’re safe!” he said, delightedly.</p>

<p>“Gee wilikens!” cried Joe, throwing his arms about him
in a spasm of pleasure. “I was almost certain you were a
goner. How did you manage to get out of this ruin without
a scratch? Why, it’s a perfect miracle! Half the car
is smashed into toothpicks.”</p>

<p>For an hour Dick and Joe worked hard to help the unfortunates
who had suffered from the wreck.</p>

<p>By that time the force of doctors sent from New York
had arrived and were helping the half-dozen local practitioners
who had previously been brought to the scene of
the disaster.</p>

<p>There being nothing for Dick and his chum to do, the
former thought he would like to know how the young lady
he had assisted was getting on.</p>

<p>He found Mr. Nesbitt and his daughter in the same
spot, and presented Joe to them.</p>

<p>They were glad to learn that Dick had found his friend
uninjured.</p>

<p>A surgeon had set Miss Jennie’s broken arm, which was
beginning to pain her a good deal.</p>

<p>One of the train hands now came up and said they had
better board one of the cars of the relief train which was
about to start for the metropolis.</p>

<p>Miss Nesbitt said she thought she could walk as far as
the car if Dick and her father supported her.</p>

<p>She was made as comfortable on one of the seats as circumstances
permitted, and in a few minutes the train
started with its melancholy load of maimed, dead, and
dying.</p>

<p>At the Grand Central Station a carriage was obtained
by Dick to take the injured young miss and her father
home.</p>

<p>The girl bade the lad a grateful good-bye and exacted
a promise that he would call and see her at her home very
soon.</p>

<p>“And don’t forget I shall expect to see you at my office
in a day or two,” said Mr. Nesbitt as the vehicle drove off.</p>

<p>“Gee!” said Joe as they watched the carriage disappear
around the corner. “You may have done a big thing for
yourself for all you know, Dick, old boy. You’ve made
yourself solid in that quarter, all right. And a good friend
goes a long way in this city sometimes. Come along, now.
I’ll pilot you down to my old boarding-place.”</p>

<p>Whereupon they walked to Third Avenue and took a
southbound car.</p>

<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />

<div class="chapter">
<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
</div>

<p class="h2sub">DICK BUYS AN INVENTION THAT PROVES TO BE A WINNER.</p>

<p>Although Dick Armstrong had lived in the country all
his life, and Albany was the biggest town he had heretofore
seen, still the great city of New York did not overwhelm
him by its immensity.</p>

<p>He was a level-headed boy and believed in taking things
as they came.</p>

<p>Of course he found lots to interest and astonish him,
but that was only what he had expected.</p>

<p>He and Joe spent three days taking in the sights of the
city, which of course were quite familiar to the latter, and
then Dick decided to call on Mr. Nesbitt.</p>

<p>That gentleman was a well-known lawyer, and his office
was in a big skyscraper on lower Broadway.</p>

<p>It rather took Dick’s breath away when he was whisked
up to the sixteenth story in an express elevator, yet nobody
would have judged from his manner but that he was accustomed
to the trip.</p>

<p>“Second corridor to your left,” said the elevator man
to Dick, and the boy, following this direction, had no trouble
in finding the offices of “George Nesbitt, Attorney and
Counsellor-at-Law,” who occupied a suite of handsomely
furnished rooms, from the windows of which a splendid
view of the bay and the two rivers was to be had.</p>

<p>The lawyer extended a warm greeting to his young visitor.</p>

<p>“My daughter is doing very nicely, everything considered,”
he said. “You must not delay calling on us; she
will be very glad to see you again.”</p>

<p>“I shall be happy to do so,” answered Dick.</p>

<p>“Then why not come to-morrow evening? You have our
address.”</p>

<p>This suited the boy, and the matter was so arranged.</p>

<p>Then Mr. Nesbitt asked Dick about his prospects.</p>

<p>The lad gave him a brief outline of his past life at Cobham’s
Corner and what he had done since he broke away
from Silas Maslin.</p>

<p>The lawyer was impressed with the boy’s earnestness and
business sagacity and determined to help him on the road
to success.</p>

<p>“How would you like employment in my office?” he said.
“I do not mean as a clerk. I think I can use you in a
way that will develop your natural business talents. I
have control of several extensive estates. A young man of
your ability can be made useful to me in many ways, and
the experience will be of great value to yourself. You are
young. The world is before you. The obligations under
which you have placed me by your attention to my only
child under the most trying of circumstances make me
desirous of interesting myself in your future career. Will
you give me the opportunity of doing so?”</p>

<p>Dick was both surprised and pleased at the proposition,
and he accepted it at once.</p>

<p>Mr. Nesbitt seemed gratified by the lad’s acquiescence,
and he explained to Dick what his immediate duties would
be.</p>

<p>“I should be glad if you will start in to-morrow,” he
said, finally, and the boy was told to be at the office at half-past
nine on the following morning.</p>

<p>That evening he and Joe went down on Water Street and
had supper with Captain Beasley and his family on board
the Minnehaha.</p>

<p>“So far as obtaining employment is concerned,” remarked
the skipper as he took down, filled and lit his briar-root
pipe, “you two lads seem to have started on even terms, both
of you having got a job to-day; it now remains to be seen
which will pull out ahead.”</p>

<p>“Oh, there isn’t any doubt about that,” replied Joe,
heartily. “I take my hat off to my friend Dick first, last,
and always.”</p>

<p>“Come, Joe, you’re laying it on thick, aren’t you?”
laughed his chum.</p>

<p>“Not on your life. I’ll leave it to Captain Beasley. Five
weeks ago you left the Corner with a measly sixteen dollars
in your pocket; to-night you could count out eight hundred
and fifty made by your business smartness, and I have one
hundred and fifty acquired through my connection with
you. We are not in the same class, old chappie. I haven’t
got your head. If I had, I’d back myself to win a million
in a year or two.”</p>

<p>Dick spent his first day in Mr. Nesbitt’s office learning
many of the details connected with real estate management,
and that evening he visited the lawyer’s family, on West
Seventy-second Street, where he received a warm welcome
from Jennie and Mrs. Nesbitt, who was an invalid.</p>

<p>After that he became a regular visitor, and Miss Jennie
introduced him into her own particular set in which his
winning manners and good looks soon established him a
first favorite.</p>

<p>One of the estates Mr. Nesbitt had charge of was situated
about thirty miles out on Long Island, and Dick went
there once a week to attend to business matters in connection
with its management.</p>

<p>He was returning one afternoon on a Long Island Railroad
train when a young man boarded the car at a way
station and took the only vacant seat, which was alongside
Dick.</p>

<p>He looked to be a bright fellow, with a frank, ingenuous
countenance that naturally inspired confidence; but he
looked pale and weak as though recovering from a long
illness.</p>

<p>Dick got into conversation with him, and soon found out
he was an Englishman, who had come to America more than
a year before after having been thrown on his own resources
by the death of his only relative.</p>

<p>He had not been successful in securing steady employment,
and subsequent illness had brought him down to
bed-rock.</p>

<p>How he was going to get on, he hadn’t a very clear idea.</p>

<p>“If I only had a few dollars,” he said sadly as he gazed
through the car window at the bleak, wintry prospect, “I
feel sure I could get on my feet.”</p>

<p>“Then you’re broke, are you?” asked Dick, sympathetically.</p>

<p>“Flat,” admitted the young Englishman, in a dejected
voice.</p>

<p>“That’s tough.”</p>

<p>“Yes, it is. It is strange how hard luck follows a fellow.
I’ll show you something I invented just before I was
taken down with the gastric fever. It’s a good idea, and
since I got out of the hospital I’ve been trying to sell a
half-interest for a hundred dollars so I can get it patented.
But nobody seems to see any money in it.”</p>

<p>The young stranger put his hand in his pocket and drew
out a well-worn pocket-book.</p>

<p>From this he produced a descriptive drawing of a new
idea in water-coolers.</p>

<p>“This is entirely different from anything on the market,”
he said, “and if manufactured and properly pushed, I don’t
see why it shouldn’t sell well. You see, the water is kept
entirely separate from the ice, which is chopped up, mixed
with rock salt on the same principle as that used and packed
around an ice-cream can. The ice preparation is put in
here, the space indicated by I, the water in here, which is
simply a galvanized receptacle which can be removed when
the cooler is to be cleaned out and recharged. The advantages
of this scheme are that you can use filtered water or
any special kind of spring water&mdash;in fact any kind of fluid&mdash;and
keep it cold without direct contact with or contamination
from the ice itself.”</p>

<p>“The idea isn’t bad,” said Dick thoughtfully, as he
studied the diagram carefully. “You want one hundred
dollars for a half-interest?”</p>

<p>“I would dispose of a half-interest for that amount in
order to get the money necessary to patent it.”</p>

<p>“Suppose you let me have this drawing for a few days.
Here is my employer’s business address. That is my name
printed in the corner. If I find there is likely to be any
money in this thing, I’ll give you fifty dollars for a half-interest
and stand the expense of patenting it myself. What
do you say?”</p>

<p>“I agree to that,” said the Englishman, eagerly. “When
shall I call on you?”</p>

<p>“Next Saturday about noon.”</p>

<p>“All right.”</p>

<p>Dick put the drawing into his pocket.</p>

<p>“I’ll let you have five dollars on account now, as you
probably need the money,” he said, offering his new acquaintance
a bill of that denomination. “If I don’t take up the
scheme I won’t require you to return me the fiver.”</p>

<p>“That’s generous of you,” said the other, earnestly.
“Meeting you is the first stroke of luck I’ve had for
months.”</p>

<p>“Don’t be too sure of that,” replied Dick, cautiously.
“There may be nothing in it, after all.”</p>

<p>Then they talked of other matters till the train arrived
at the Flatbush Avenue Station, where they parted, Dick
taking an electric car over the bridge for New York.</p>

<p>That night he showed the drawing to Joe, who roomed
with him, and together they discussed the feasibility of the
scheme proving a paying one.</p>

<p>Dick had a shrewd idea that a manufacturer of water-coolers
was the best persons to consult on the project, and
next day called on one who happened to be a personal friend
of Mr. Nesbitt.</p>

<p>The idea struck the manufacturer favorably.</p>

<p>He called his manager in, and they figured out the cost
of the article on the lines presented by Dick.</p>

<p>“What will you sell the patent for?” asked the manufacturer.</p>

<p>“You can have my half-interest, for twenty-five hundred
dollars,” was Dick’s reply, “and I dare say I can arrange
to get you the other half at the same figure.”</p>

<p>“I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” said the manufacturer, after
considering the matter. “I’ll build these coolers and place
them on the market, allowing you a royalty of from twenty-five
to fifty cents, according to size, on every one actually
sold.”</p>

<p>“Will you give me a memorandum, in writing, to that
effect and allow me a few days to consider your offer?”</p>

<p>“Certainly.” And the gentleman did so and handed the
paper to Dick. “You will accept that as a thirty-day
option on the patent.”</p>

<p>“Very well,” said the boy, rising and bidding him good
day.</p>

<p>Dick went at once to Munn &amp; Co. and made application
for a patent covering the specifications set forth by the
young Englishman, entering the same in both their names.</p>

<p>When the inventor called on Saturday he handed him
$45, taking in return a bill of sale for half the patent rights
on the cooler.</p>

<p>Then he told the Englishman of the offer he had had
from the manufacturer, and advised that they take up
with it.</p>

<p>“It is better than I expected to do with it,” replied the
inventor, “but I don’t feel as though I could wait for the
realization of such good luck. I want to get back to England.
I am homesick here. Do you think the whole thing
is worth five hundred dollars to you? Will you take that
much risk on its success after it has been put on the market?
If you will, give me four hundred and fifty more,
and I will make out a new bill of sale giving you the sole
right to the invention.”</p>

<p>“Wait a moment,” said Dick, and he went inside and had
a consultation with Mr. Nesbitt.</p>

<p>The result was that Dick bought the invention outright.</p>

<p>On the following Monday he went to the manufacturer
and made a contract with him on the terms proposed.</p>

<p>Although the boy did not then dream of the ultimate
results of this deal, we may say now that the coolers were
ready and put on the market in time for the summer trade.</p>

<p>They were a novelty, took splendidly, and in the end
Dick disposed of the patent rights to the manufacturer for
$5,000 cash.</p>

<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />

<div class="chapter">
<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</h2>
</div>

<p class="h2sub">A NERVY VENTURE AND WHAT CAME OF IT.</p>

<p>One day toward the end of March, Dick was taking lunch
in a Fulton Street chop-house when two well-dressed men
entered the place and sat down at the opposite side of the
table.</p>

<p>They were talking about some real estate deal they had
in contemplation, and did not appear to regard the boy’s
presence as a bar to their conversation.</p>

<p>“We can get a thirty-day option on the property for one
thousand dollars, pending examination of title,” said the
shorter man of the two, after the waiter had taken their
order. “The old man’s bed-rock price for the entire thirty
acres is twelve thousand cash. He wanted fifteen thousand
at first. Allowing for streets, we can get out of it
twelve city lots per acre, or three hundred and sixty lots
altogether. The corner lots will fetch one hundred and
twenty-five to one hundred and fifty dollars each, and the
inside ones, say one hundred, according to location. That
means we should realize about forty thousand dollars in the
gross. You have figured out the expense of cutting
through the streets, the cost of having the title guaranteed,
probable cost of printing and newspaper advertising, commissions
to agents, and so forth. The location of the property
is good; the Long Island main line has a station close
by, and the main street of Sodom can be extended through
the property. Old man Durwood is clearly anxious to sell,
or he wouldn’t let it go at that figure. It is easily worth
sixteen thousand dollars to us as it stands, and I would
give that for it sooner than let it slip through my hands.”</p>

<p>“It’s a good speculation,” said the tall man, nodding
his head. “Thompson and Davis are in this with us, I
believe.”</p>

<p>“Thompson is ready to put up a certified check for his
share at any moment. I will see and settle with Davis
this afternoon. To-morrow morning I will go out to Sodom
and get the option and the deed from Durwood.”</p>

<p>The talk then branched off on the plans of the speculators
for improving the property and putting it in shape
for sale at lot prices.</p>

<p>Although Dick apparently paid no attention to what the
real estate men were saying, nevertheless he was an interested
listener to their conversation.</p>

<p>It happened that the Long Island estate to which the
lad made weekly visits was in the neighborhood of the village
of Sodom.</p>

<p>He had a speaking acquaintance with Jonas Durwood,
the owner of the thirty acres referred to above, and knew
something about the property in question.</p>

<p>It had been on the market for some time.</p>

<p>Durwood had been offering it at $15,000, one-third cash,
balance on a five-year mortgage.</p>

<p>The four real estate men evidently intended purchasing
the property at the reduced figure for spot cash, with the
view of cutting it up into lots and then disposing of them
at a good profit on the whole investment.</p>

<p>“So,” thought Dick, “they would sooner give sixteen
thousand than let it slip through their fingers. A thirty-day
option on it can be had for a thousand. Well, I’ve got
a thousand lying idle. What’s the matter with my stealing
a march on this syndicate of four, getting the option myself,
and then make them come to terms with me. If they
should refuse to deal with me, it might put me in a hole;
but I guess Mr. Nesbitt would see me through, for that
piece of ground is well worth fifteen thousand at any rate.”</p>

<p>Dick thought he saw a fine chance to make $3,000 or
$4,000 inside of a month if he took the thing on the fly.</p>

<p>“Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” he muttered as he
drew near the office. “By the great horn spoon, I’ll do
it! My bank-book is upstairs. I’ll draw the money and
take it down with me to Sodom this afternoon, for fortunately
this is the day I am due there. When that chap
goes down to-morrow he’ll find that someone else has got
ahead of him. Gee! Won’t he be hopping mad? Well,
I guess!”</p>

<p>It was Dick’s rule not to let the grass grow under his
feet when he embarked in an enterprise.</p>

<p>Therefore he hustled to get his money, and left on an
early afternoon train for Sodom.</p>

<p>He hunted up Jonas Durwood right away and made him
a twelve-thousand-dollar cash offer for the thirty acres.</p>

<p>“What? what? You want to buy that ground, eh? Who
for? Mr. Nesbitt?” said Durwood in some surprise.</p>

<p>“I want a thirty-day option and I want you to put it
in my name. Here’s a thousand dollars to bind the bargain.
See?”</p>

<p>Jonas Durwood saw the bills, and the sight of them
melted all further opposition he may have thought of advancing
with a view of a better figure.</p>

<p>The preliminaries were settled on the spot.</p>

<p>Dick got the option and the deed to the property, and
Durwood got ten one-hundred-dollar bills.</p>

<p>Both parties to the contract were satisfied.</p>

<p>“Now,” said the boy, after the settlement had been
effected, “there was a man down here negotiating with
you for this land. Have you his name and address?”</p>

<p>“Yes,” replied Durwood. “Do you want it?”</p>

<p>“I’d like to have it.”</p>

<p>Mr. Durwood produced a card and handed it to Dick.</p>

<p>“Now, Mr. Durwood, if this man shows up here to-morrow,
or any time soon, and he asks you who bought
the property, just give him my card, will you?”</p>

<p>“Certainly,” answered the Sodom resident.</p>

<p>Dick then left him and went over to the estate to attend
to such business as awaited him there.</p>

<p>Next afternoon a very much excited individual called
at Mr. Nesbitt’s offices and inquired for Richard Armstrong.</p>

<p>It was the short, stout man who had done most of the
talking at the restaurant.</p>

<p>Dick was out, and the man waited till he returned.</p>

<p>He was vastly surprised to find that the Armstrong he
wanted was a boy.</p>

<p>“Did you purchase an option on Mr. Durwood’s property
at Sodom yesterday?” he inquired, in a nervous tone.</p>

<p>“Yes, sir; I did.”</p>

<p>“For whom, may I ask?”</p>

<p>“For myself.”</p>

<p>“What?” exclaimed the visitor, in amazement. “You
secured an option on those thirty acres for yourself?”</p>

<p>“Yes, sir.”</p>

<p>“Do you expect me to believe such a ridiculous story as
that?” demanded the stout man, sarcastically. “Come,
now, tell me who you represent?”</p>

<p>“I have told you. I represent myself. I bought those
thirty acres because I found out I could get them at a low
price. They’re worth sixteen thousand dollars if they’re
worth a cent.”</p>

<p>“Nonsense!” exclaimed the man, impatiently.</p>

<p>“What do you mean by that?” asked Dick, coolly.</p>

<p>“I mean it is sheer nonsense for you to say that property
is worth sixteen thousand dollars.”</p>

<p>“Well, what do you think it is worth?”</p>

<p>“In my opinion, twelve thousand is nearer its value.”</p>

<p>“We won’t argue the matter. I hold a thirty-day option
on the property. Is that all you wished to see me about?”</p>

<p>Dick was thoroughly cool and business-like, and the stout
man seemed puzzled as to what he would say next.</p>

<p>“I’ll tell you what,” he said, presently. “I was looking
at that piece of ground myself and had some idea of buying
it. If you’d like to turn your option over to me, I’ll give
you five hundred dollars bonus.”</p>

<p>Dick shook his head.</p>

<p>“No. Couldn’t think of it.”</p>

<p>“What will you take for the option?”</p>

<p>“Five thousand dollars cash!”</p>

<p>“Five thousand furies!” yelled the man, looking at the
boy as though he would liked to have eaten him.</p>

<p>“No, sir,” said Dick, with a faint grin. “Not furies, but
dollars.”</p>

<p>“Young man, what do you take me for?”</p>

<p>Dick smiled pleasantly, but made no answer.</p>

<p>“I’ll give you just two thousand dollars for that option.”</p>

<p>“I can do better than that,” replied the boy, politely.</p>

<p>“How can you?” asked the stout man, incredulously.</p>

<p>“A syndicate has been formed to buy that property for
speculative purposes.”</p>

<p>“What?” gasped the real estate man, staring hard at
Dick.</p>

<p>“That’s right. I don’t mind telling you how I came to
buy the land. My business takes me down to Sodom once
a week. I knew the Durwood property was in the market,
and I have a very clear idea of its value. As soon as I
got the tip that speculators were after it, I made up my
mind to scoop the ground myself if I could get it low
enough. I made Mr. Durwood a cash offer, and we came
to an agreement. Mr. Nesbitt will examine the title in
a few days, and if everything is all right he will close the
deal as trustee for me. That’s all there is to it.”</p>

<p>“How did you learn about this syndicate and who are
the men that compose it?” asked the stout man, with
ill-disguised eagerness.</p>

<p>“You will have to excuse me answering those questions,
Mr. Blake,” replied Dick, looking at the man’s card, which
he held in his hand.</p>

<p>“Then you won’t accept an offer of twenty-five hundred
for your option?” said the visitor.</p>

<p>“No, sir. Any time within the thirty-day limit after
Mr. Nesbitt has passed on the title, you or the syndicate
or any other person can purchase that option for an advance
of four thousand dollars over what I paid down.”</p>

<p>“I will consider the matter, Mr. Armstrong. Good day.”</p>

<p>A few days later Dick received an offer in writing from
Mr. Blake, accepting his figure, contingent on Mr. Nesbitt’s
assurance that Jonas Durwood could furnish a clear title
and that the same would be guaranteed by the Lawyer’s
Title Guarantee and Trust Company.</p>

<p>Dick closed with him on those terms, and a week before
the option expired the delighted boy received a certified
check for $5,000, and the Blake crowd closed the deal and
came into possession of the property.</p>

<p>It was not only a red-letter day in Dick’s life, but his
seventeenth birthday.</p>

<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />

<div class="chapter">
<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
</div>

<p class="h2sub">A NIGHT ATTACK AND A RECOGNITION.</p>

<p>Dick also celebrated his seventeenth birthday by taking
Jennie Nesbitt to the Empire Theatre to see a famous
actress in a favorite play.</p>

<p>“She’s just splendid, don’t you think so?” said Jennie
as they came out of the playhouse after the show.</p>

<p>“Fine,” coincided Dick, enthusiastically. “Do you know,
Miss Jennie, this is the third time in my entire life that
I have attended a theatre?”</p>

<p>“Is it possible?” she answered in a surprised tone.</p>

<p>“That’s right. The first week after I came to New
York, Joe took me to the New Amsterdam Theatre. That
was actually the very first time I ever was in a theatre.
On the afternoon of Washington’s Birthday I went over
with Joe to Proctor’s Fifth Avenue house. I’ve lived in
the backwood, as they call it, the greater part of my seventeen
years.”</p>

<p>“I’m sure no one would think so by your appearance or
your manners,” said his charming companion. “You are
not at all countrified.”</p>

<p>“Thank you for the compliment. I have tried to adapt
myself to my surroundings. Joe helped to break me in,
and I am sure I am indebted to you for the polish.”</p>

<p>“It is very nice of you to say that,” she answered, with
a blush. “I am very glad indeed if I have helped you in
any way.”</p>

<p>“You have generously introduced me into your own
sphere of society, and that is a privilege I might otherwise
have wished for in vain. It gave me a chance to associate
with well-bred and educated young persons of my own age,
who as a rule have treated me very nicely. It was a great
advantage to me to be under your wing, as it were, and I
have improved it as much as possible. I was a pretty awkward
fellow when you first knew me.”</p>

<p>“Really, I don’t think you ever were what I should call
awkward,” she said, with a smile, “though of course you
were not au fait&mdash;that’s French for instructed or expert&mdash;in
city ways. But dear me! there isn’t the slightest sign
of hayseed about you now,” and she laughed merrily.</p>

<p>“The credit then is all yours, Miss Jennie,” said Dick,
gallantly. “I’m afraid I’ll never be able to repay&mdash;&mdash;”</p>

<p>“Dick Armstrong!” cried the girl, suddenly putting her
gloved hand across his mouth in an imperative sort of way.
“You forget what I owe you&mdash;what papa and mamma owe
you!”</p>

<p>“But think what your father has done&mdash;is doing for me
right along, Miss Jennie. It was the assurance that he was
at my back that enabled me to carry this real estate deal
through and put five thousand dollars in my pocket.”</p>

<p>“But papa did not originate nor engineer the transaction,”
persisted the girl. “Nor did he actually do more
for you than any lawyer would have done, except that he
did not charge you anything for investigating the title.”</p>

<p>“Had the deal failed to go through, I should have lost
my thousand dollars unless he came to my rescue, which
I felt sure he would have done.”</p>

<p>“Now, Dick&mdash;I’m going to call you Dick after this,” she
said, with a blush, “that is, between ourselves, you know,
and I wish you would call me simply Jennie&mdash;you mustn’t
try to make me think you aren’t smart. I know you are.
Papa says so, and whatever papa says I’m accustomed to
believe. He says you are bound to succeed. Now, I think
you have already succeeded pretty well. You’ve never
denied what your friend Mr. Fletcher&mdash;&mdash;”</p>

<p>“You mean Joe?”</p>

<p>“Of course I mean him. What he said about you making
eight hundred and fifty dollars in a month out of nothing
just after you left that horrid Mr. Maslin. Then there’s
that water-cooler patent which hasn’t cost you more than
six hundred. Papa says the manufacturer who has taken
it in hand told him it would net you several thousands of
dollars in the long run. Then it wasn’t a month after you
had arranged that matter before you bought the patent
rights to a typewriter improvement and sold it in a week
to a manufacturer at a profit of nearly a thousand dollars.
Oh, dear, no; you’re not smart at all&mdash;of course not!”</p>

<p>What answer Dick might have made to the young lady’s
enthusiastic commendation of his business abilities was
fated to remain unspoken, for at that moment a thrilling
episode occurred that attracted their startled attention and
in the end led up to a most remarkable climax.</p>

<p>They were walking through Forty-first Street from
Broadway to Sixth Avenue to take the elevated train at
the Forty-second Street station and had nearly reached the
corner when a tall, fine-appearing gentleman turned into
the street from Sixth Avenue and approached them.</p>

<p>Almost at the identical moment three figures rushed out
of the doorway of the corner building, where they had evidently
hidden, and sprang upon the gentleman.</p>

<p>The attack was so sudden and unexpected that the intended
victim was thrown to the sidewalk and would have
been overpowered but for Dick, who, notwithstanding the
fact that he had a young lady to protect, could not stand
tamely by and witness such an outrage.</p>

<p>Confident of his own strength and agility, Dick left Miss
Nesbitt’s side and started for the struggling group.</p>

<p>He felled the foremost assailant with a stunning blow
under the ear&mdash;and the boy could hit out mighty hard.</p>

<p>Then he sprang at the second, who he saw was a husky-looking
boy with his cap pulled well down about his eyes.</p>

<p>He had just raised a sand-bag to stun the gentleman, but
was forced to relinquish his cowardly purpose and turn and
endeavor to defend himself.</p>

<p>But Dick’s movements were quicker than lightning.</p>

<p>He had taken the attacking party just as much by surprise
as they had taken their victim.</p>

<p>His hard, weather-tanned fist caught the young rascal
on the point of the chin.</p>

<p>The fellow went down beside his dazed comrade, and
from that moment he ceased to take any further interest
in the proceedings.</p>

<p>This left only one more to be accounted for&mdash;another boy
whose face was streaked with black as a kind of disguise&mdash;and
the gentleman himself soon put him out of business.</p>

<p>This brought the affair to a satisfactory conclusion.</p>

<p>“I want to thank you, my brave lad, for coming to my
assistance,” said the stranger, shaking Dick warmly by the
hand. “But for you I most certainly would have been
knocked out and robbed.”</p>

<p>“I am glad I was on hand to help you out,” replied the
stalwart boy, wiping specks of blood from his skinned
knuckles.</p>

<p>“It was fortunate for me you were. You must come with
me to my hotel. I can’t let you off in this shabby manner.”</p>

<p>“I am afraid you will have to excuse me,” answered the
boy, with a smile, “for I have a young lady yonder waiting
for me to take her home.”</p>

<p>“Indeed!” exclaimed the gentleman, in surprise.</p>

<p>“Come, Miss Jennie; the danger is all over,” called
Dick. And taking courage at this, Miss Nesbitt advanced
from the shadow of the buildings a few yards away.</p>

<p>She regarded the three prostrate forms with a little
shudder and took refuge close to her young escort.</p>

<p>“This is Miss Nesbitt,” began Dick. “I beg your pardon,
I don’t know your name, sir.”</p>

<p>“Armstrong,” replied the gentleman, raising his hat
politely to the girl.</p>

<p>“Why, that’s my name!” cried the boy, in surprise.</p>

<p>“Is it possible?” exclaimed the stranger, regarding the
boy with a new and, we may add, intense interest.</p>

<p>“Yes, sir; Richard Armstrong. Let me hand you my
card.”</p>

<p>The gentleman took it mechanically without removing
his gaze from the lad’s face.</p>

<p>“Richard Armstrong!” he repeated, showing for the first
time intense emotion.</p>

<p>“Yes, sir; but I see these rascals are beginning to move.
I think we had better get away before they recover their
senses.”</p>

<p>“Yes, do come,” urged Jennie Nesbitt, nervously.</p>

<p>“It’s a pity there isn’t a policeman about to take them
into custody,” said Dick.</p>

<p>The boy with the blackened face at this point turned
around and looked at Dick.</p>

<p>He gave a hoarse cry and almost grovelled at the lad’s
feet.</p>

<p>“Save me, Dick Armstrong! Save me!” he cried with
a frantic eagerness that was really pitiful. “Don’t you
know me? I am Luke Maslin!”</p>

<p>Dick started as though he had trod on a live coal.</p>

<p>Then he seized the disguised boy by the shoulder and
peered into his face.</p>

<p>He saw he was indeed the storekeeper’s son.</p>

<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />

<div class="chapter">
<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
</div>

<p class="h2sub">WHAT FINALLY COMES TO THE BOY WHO SUCCEEDED.</p>

<p>“Great Scott! Luke Maslin! What does this mean?
You an associate of Tenderloin thugs! Is it possible you
have got so low as this?” cried Dick, in indignant amazement.</p>

<p>“Save me!” almost shrieked Silas Maslin’s son, in abject
terror. “They made me what I am,” and he pointed to
the reviving rascals, who were no other than the man
Mudgett and the Walkhill terror, Tim Bunker. “They
won’t let me go home! They make me do as they want!
Oh, take me away from them!”</p>

<p>“You know this boy?” asked the gentleman who said
his name was Armstrong, grabbing Dick by the arm in a
state of almost uncontrollable agitation.</p>

<p>“Yes, sir.”</p>

<p>“Did he not say his name was Maslin?”</p>

<p>“Yes, sir; that is his name. He is the son of the man
with whom I lived almost all my life&mdash;Silas Maslin, of
Cobham’s Corner.”</p>

<p>“Silas Maslin!” exclaimed the gentleman, in great excitement.
“Did he not once live at Franconia, New Hampshire?”</p>

<p>“That’s right. He did,” replied Dick.</p>

<p>“And you are the boy who at the age of five was left
in his care and never was called for?”</p>

<p>“Why&mdash;why, how did you know that?” asked Dick, in
astonishment.</p>

<p>“Because I am the man who left you with Mr. Maslin.
I am your father, George Armstrong, and you are the son
I have searched for for years, but could gain no trace of.
My boy&mdash;my dear, dear boy, this is a strange, though none
the less a providential meeting.”</p>

<p>He held out his arms to Dick, and the lad, though of course
it could not be expected that he had retained any recollection
of his parent, instinctively felt that this man was
indeed the father he had long yearned to know, but hardly
expected to see in this world.</p>

<p>Needless to say the two embraced right there in the
street, to the silent wonder of Jennie Nesbitt and young
Maslin, neither of whom quite comprehended the meaning
of it all.</p>

<p>At this interesting juncture Mudgett sat up and stared
around him like one recovering from an ugly dream, while
almost at the same moment, a big policeman came sauntering
around the corner, swinging his club negligently to
and fro as if such a thing as trouble on his beat was very
far from his thoughts.</p>

<p>Luke saw him at once and started to run, but Mr. Armstrong
blocked his way.</p>

<p>“Don’t let him arrest me!” he begged, appealing to Dick.</p>

<p>“Take this card and call upon me to-morrow, and I will
see that you get home to your people,” he replied. “Let
him go&mdash;father.”</p>

<p>It was the first time he had addressed Mr. Armstrong
by that title, and it sounded strange on his lips.</p>

<p>The gentleman stepped aside, and Luke flew up the street
like a frightened deer.</p>

<p>This strange proceeding attracted the officer’s attention,
and he got active and alert at once.</p>

<p>He approached the group at a quick gait.</p>

<p>“Officer,” said Mr. Armstrong, in a commanding tone,
“arrest these two rascals. They assaulted me with intent
to rob. I am stopping at the Normandie and will appear
against them in the morning. Here is my card.”</p>

<p>“How about that fellow running up the street?” asked
the policeman, sharply.</p>

<p>“Never mind him. You couldn’t overtake him now.”</p>

<p>“I’ll have to ask you to step around with us to the station,”
said the officer as he jerked the reviving Tim Bunker
to his feet with one hand and with the other secured a
strong grasp on Mudgett’s coat collar.</p>

<p>“Very well,” acquiesced Mr. Armstrong, with no little
reluctance. “Come to the Hotel Normandie, my son, after
you have taken the young lady home.”</p>

<p>“I will, father.”</p>

<p>“Why, Dick!” exclaimed Jennie, when they were once
more alone and headed for the elevated station again.
“Please tell me what this means. Is this gentleman really
your father? I thought you told us your father was dead.”</p>

<p>“So I did, and so I supposed he was,” replied the boy,
whose feelings were a mixture of joy and bewilderment over
this strange and unexpected discovery.</p>

<p>And on the way to her home, in Seventy-second Street,
he told her what he had learned about his parentage from
the old diary once kept by Silas Maslin, which he had found
in the attic of the storekeeper’s house at Cobham’s Corner.</p>

<p>“It was but a bare outline of one short week in my young
life’s history,” he said in conclusion, “but it gave me the
key to the mystery which had till that moment surrounded
my parentage&mdash;the secret the Maslins never divulged for
reasons of their own. But I shall soon know all. Yes,”
cried the boy, tears of wistful eagerness stealing into his
fine eyes, “to-night before I sleep I shall know who my
mother was&mdash;for something tells me she is not alive&mdash;that
she died long, long ago, probably about the time my
father carried me to Franconia.”</p>

<p>Jennie was much affected and treated him with a sympathetic
gentleness that warmed his heart toward her more
than ever.</p>

<p>“You must bring your father to see us, Dick, very soon.
Remember, we are all interested in you and whatever concerns
you. You will do this, won’t you?” she said, laying
her hand on his arm as they stood at the outside entrance
of her home.</p>

<p>“Yes,” said the boy, with glistening eyes, “I will. He
will be glad to know those who have been so kind to me.
Do you know,” he cried with impetuous suddenness, “I wish
you were my sister?”</p>

<p>“Do you?” said Jennie, blushing like a rose and suddenly
looking down.</p>

<p>“Yes, I do.”</p>

<p>Perhaps he did, but that was because he didn’t know any
better just then.</p>

<p>He thought differently later on&mdash;but that is another
story.</p>

<p>However, in the excitement of the moment, and, considering
what he had just passed through he might be well excused,
he did a very audacious thing.</p>

<p>He actually kissed Jennie Nesbitt then and there.</p>

<p>Then, realizing the enormity of his offence, he blurted
out a hasty “Good night!” and flew down the stoop, leaving
the lovely little blonde in a state of happy confusion
we will not attempt to describe.</p>

<p>An hour later Dick was seated with his father in an elegant
room on the third floor of the Hotel Normandie,
listening to the story that father had to tell.</p>

<p>As Dick had guessed, his mother was dead.</p>

<p>She had passed away on the eve of a financial panic in
Boston which had wrecked his father’s business and temporarily
clouded his name with a suspicion of unfair commercial
methods.</p>

<p>Nearly crazed by the loss of his wife, not to mention
his business reverses, Mr. Armstrong in the first days of his
misery fled to the recesses of New Hampshire, taking his
only boy with him.</p>

<p>“I was shortly summoned back from Franconia by a
committee of my creditors, with whom I succeeded in making
a partial arrangement contingent on the success of
certain mining interests I had in the West,” said Mr. Armstrong.
“I sent Mr. Maslin one hundred dollars to defray
your board for a certain length of time, for I could not
return to you immediately as it was urgently necessary I
should go at once to Colorado. Afterward I sent him other
sums from the West for a like purpose. It was five years
before I found myself able to return East. While not rich,
I had done very well and my prospects were bright, my
business troubles of the past having been entirely wiped out.
When I went to Franconia I found the Maslins had moved
away a short time before, leaving no clue to their new
address, and from that hour to this day I never obtained
a clue, even by the assistance of paid detectives, to their
new home.”</p>

<p>“And yet, father, all the time they were living at Cobham’s
Corner, on the Erie Canal, and I was living with
them, not as a boy whose board had ever been paid, but as
a friendless slave of never-ending toil,” said Dick, more
indignant than ever at the unfair treatment he had experienced
at the hands of Silas Maslin and his wife.</p>

<p>“The unfeeling rascal!” exclaimed Mr. Armstrong.
“But he and I will have a reckoning that will not tend to
his advantage.”</p>

<p>Notwithstanding this new phase of Mr. Maslin’s duplicity,
Dick did not fail to give Luke, his wayward son, the
necessary money to take him home, when that repentant
young man called to see him next morning at Mr. Nesbitt’s
offices.</p>

<p>Probably the most excited as well as delighted young
fellow in New York next day was Joe Fletcher when his
stanch friend and chum told him the news that he had
actually found his father&mdash;now a millionaire mine-owner.</p>

<p>“I never was so glad at anything in my whole life, Dick,
old boy,” he cried, with a beaming face. And then he
stopped, and his countenance suddenly clouded. “Perhaps
a seven-dollar-a-week produce clerk is hardly a fit companion
for the son of the wealthy Mr. Armstrong. It will
break my heart to lose you, Dick, but at least it will be
a satisfaction to know you’ve reached your proper station.”</p>

<p>“Don’t you talk nonsense, Joe,” said Dick, grasping his
hand with a feeling that could not be mistaken. “Chums
we’ve been in adversity, and so shall we remain in the days
when prosperity has overtaken one of us at least. Glad as
I am to recover my father, I am proud to say that, without
any help from him and but little in a business sense from
even Mr. Nesbitt, I have succeeded in making my way to
the front, even if I am only seventeen years old.”</p>

<p>“That’s right,” agreed Joe, fervently.</p>

<p>And there were others who also coincided with this opinion,
the Nesbitts, for instance, and Jennie more than her
parents, for a few years later she gave her hand where she
had long since given her heart&mdash;to Dick Armstrong, the
BOY WHO SUCCEEDED.</p>

<p class="center">THE END.</p>

<hr class="r15" />

<p>Read “A CORNER IN CORN; OR, HOW A CHICAGO
BOY DID THE TRICK,” which will be the next
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<hr class="r15" />

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<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />

<div class="chapter">
<h2 class="nobreak" id="WILD_WEST_WEEKLY">WILD WEST WEEKLY<br />
<small>A Magazine Containing Stories, Sketches, etc., of Western Life.</small></h2>

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<ul>
<li>100 Young Wild West and the Double Deuce; or, The Domino Gang of Denver.</li>
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<li>102 Young Wild West and “Missouri Mike”; or, The Worst Man in Wyoming.</li>
<li>103 Young Wild West at the Golden Gate; or, A Business Trip to ’Frisco.</li>
<li>104 Young Wild West and the Redskin Raiders; or, Arietta’s Leap for Life.</li>
<li>105 Young Wild West’s Cowboy Circus; or, Fun at the Mining Camps.</li>
<li>106 Young Wild West at Pike’s Peak; or, Arietta’s Strange Disappearance.</li>
<li>107 Young Wild West’s Six Shots, and the Change They Made at Dead Man’s Mark.</li>
<li>108 Young Wild West at the Little Big Horn; or, The Last Stand of the Cavalry.</li>
<li>109 Young Wild West’s Big Bluff; or, Playing a Lone Hand.</li>
<li>110 Young Wild West at Bowie Bend; or, The Ban of the Bandit Band.</li>
<li>111 Young Wild West’s Ton of Gold; or, The Accident to Arietta.</li>
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<li>113 Young Wild West and the Cowboy King; or, Taming a Texas Terror.</li>
<li>114 Young Wild West’s Pocket of Gold; or, Arietta’s Great Discovery.</li>
<li>115 Young Wild West and “Shawnee Sam”; or, The Half-Breed’s Treachery.</li>
<li>116 Young Wild West’s Covered Trail; or, Arietta and the Avalanche.</li>
<li>117 Young Wild West and the Diamond Dagger; or, The Mexican Girl’s Revenge.</li>
<li>118 Young Wild West at Silver Shine; or, A Town Run by “Tenderfeet.”</li>
<li>119 Young Wild West Surrounded by Sioux; or, Arietta and the Aeronaut.</li>
<li>120 Young Wild West and the “Puzzle of the Camp”; or, The Girl Who Owned the Gulch.</li>
<li>121 Young Wild West and the Mustangers; or, The Boss of the Broncho Busters.</li>
<li>122 Young Wild West after the Apaches; or, Arietta’s Arizona Adventure.</li>
<li>123 Young Wild West Routing the Robbers; or, Saving Two Million Dollars.</li>
<li>124 Young Wild West at Rattlesnake Run; or, Arietta’s Deal with Death.</li>
<li>125 Young Wild West’s Winning Streak; or, A Straight Trail to Tombstone.</li>
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<li>128 Young Wild West and the Blazed Trail; or, Arietta as a Scout.</li>
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<li>131 Young Wild West and the Ten Terrors; or, The Doom of Dashing Dan.</li>
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<li>135 Young Wild West’s Wampum Belt; or, Under the Ban of the Utes.</li>
<li>136 Young Wild West and the Rio Grande Rustlers; or, The Branding at Buckhorn Ranch.</li>
<li>137 Young Wild West and the Line League; or, Arietta Among the Smugglers.</li>
<li>138 Young Wild West’s Silver Spurs; or, Fun at Fairplay Fair.</li>
<li>139 Young Wild West Among the Blackfeet; or, Arietta as a Sorceress.</li>
<li>140 Young Wild West on the Yellowstone; or, The Secret of the Hidden Cave.</li>
<li>141 Young Wild West’s Deadly Aim; or, Arietta’s Greatest Danger.</li>
<li>142 Young Wild West at the “Jumping Off” Place; or, The Worst Camp in the West.</li>
<li>143 Young Wild West and the “Mixed-Up” Mine; or, Arietta a Winner.</li>
<li>144 Young Wild West’s Hundred Mile Race; or, Beating a Big Bunch.</li>
<li>145 Young Wild West Daring the Danites; or, The Search for a Missing Girl.</li>
<li>146 Young Wild West’s Lively Time; or, The Dandy Duck of the Diggings.</li>
<li>147 Young Wild West at Hold-Up Canyon; or, Arietta’s Great Victory.</li>
<li>148 Young Wild West’s Square Deal; or, Making the “Bad” Men Good.</li>
<li>149 Young Wild West Cowing the Cowboys; or, Arietta and the Prairie Fire.</li>
<li>150 Young Wild West and Navajo Ned; or, The Hunt for the Half-Breed Hermit.</li>
<li>151 Young Wild West’s Virgin Vein; or, Arietta and the Cave-in.</li>
<li>152 Young Wild West’s Cowboy Champions; or, The Trip to Kansas City.</li>
<li>153 Young Wild West’s Even Chance; or, Arietta’s Presence of Mind.</li>
<li>154 Young Wild West and the Flattened Bullet; or, The Man Who Would not Drop.</li>
<li>155 Young Wild West’s Gold Game; or, Arietta’s Full Hand.</li>
<li>156 Young Wild West’s Cowboy Scrimmage; or, Cooking a Crowd of Crooks.</li>
</ul>

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mail.</p>

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</p>

<hr class="fulldotted" />

<p class="monospace center">
FRANK TOUSEY, Publisher, 24 Union Square, New York.      ......190<br />
<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>&mdash;Enclosed find......cents for which please send me:</span><br />
....copies of WORK AND WIN, Nos........................................<br />
....copies of WILD WEST WEEKLY, Nos....................................<br />
....copies of THE LIBERTY BOYS OF ’76, Nos.............................<br />
....copies of PLUCK AND LUCK, Nos......................................<br />
....copies of SECRET SERVICE, Nos......................................<br />
....copies of THE YOUNG ATHLETE’S WEEKLY, Nos..........................<br />
....copies of Ten-Cent Hand Books, Nos.................................<br />
Name.................Street and No................Town..........State..<br />
</p>
<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />

<div class="chapter">
<h2 class="nobreak">These Books Tell You Everything!</h2>

<p class="h2sub">A COMPLETE SET IS A REGULAR ENCYCLOPEDIA!</p>
</div>

<p>Each book consists of sixty-four pages, printed on good paper, in clear type and neatly bound in an attractive, illustrated cover.
Most of the books are also profusely illustrated, and all of the subjects treated upon are explained in such a simple manner that any
child can thoroughly understand them. Look over the list as classified and see if you want to know anything about the subjects
mentioned.</p>

<hr class="r25" />
<p>THESE BOOKS ARE FOR SALE BY ALL NEWSDEALERS OR WILL BE SENT BY MAIL TO ANY ADDRESS
FROM THIS OFFICE ON RECEIPT OF PRICE, TEN CENTS EACH, OR ANY THREE BOOKS FOR TWENTY-FIVE
CENTS. POSTAGE STAMPS TAKEN THE SAME AS MONEY. Address FRANK TOUSEY, Publisher, 24 Union Square, N.Y.</p>
<hr class="r25" />

<div class="blockquot">

<h3>MESMERISM.</h3>

<p>No. 81. HOW TO MESMERIZE.&mdash;Containing the most approved
methods of mesmerism; also how to cure all kinds of
diseases by animal magnetism, or, magnetic healing. By Prof. Leo
Hugo Koch, A. C. S., author of “How to Hypnotize,” etc.</p>

<h3>PALMISTRY.</h3>

<p>No. 82. HOW TO DO PALMISTRY.&mdash;Containing the most approved
methods of reading the lines on the hand, together with
a full explanation of their meaning. Also explaining phrenology,
and the key for telling character by the bumps on the head. By
Leo Hugo Koch, A. C. S. Fully illustrated.</p>

<h3>HYPNOTISM.</h3>

<p>No. 83. HOW TO HYPNOTIZE.&mdash;Containing valuable and instructive
information regarding the science of hypnotism. Also
explaining the most approved methods which are employed by the
leading hypnotists of the world. By Leo Hugo Koch, A. C. S.</p>

<h3>SPORTING.</h3>

<p>No. 21. HOW TO HUNT AND FISH.&mdash;The most complete
hunting and fishing guide ever published. It contains full instructions
about guns, hunting dogs, traps, trapping and fishing,
together with descriptions of game and fish.</p>

<p>No. 26. HOW TO ROW, SAIL AND BUILD A BOAT.&mdash;Fully
illustrated. Every boy should know how to row and sail a boat.
Full instructions are given in this little book, together with instructions
on swimming and riding, companion sports to boating.</p>

<p>No. 47. HOW TO BREAK, RIDE AND DRIVE A HORSE.&mdash;A
complete treatise on the horse. Describing the most useful horses
for business, the best horses for the road; also valuable recipes for
diseases peculiar to the horse.</p>

<p>No. 48. HOW TO BUILD AND SAIL CANOES.&mdash;A handy
book for boys, containing full directions for constructing canoes
and the most popular manner of sailing them. Fully illustrated.
By C. Stansfield Hicks.</p>

<h3>FORTUNE TELLING.</h3>

<p>No. 1. NAPOLEON’S ORACULUM AND DREAM BOOK.&mdash;Containing
the great oracle of human destiny; also the true meaning
of almost any kind of dreams, together with charms, ceremonies,
and curious games of cards. A complete book.</p>

<p>No. 23. HOW TO EXPLAIN DREAMS.&mdash;Everybody dreams,
from the little child to the aged man and woman. This little book
gives the explanation to all kinds of dreams, together with lucky
and unlucky days, and “Napoleon’s Oraculum,” the book of fate.</p>

<p>No. 28. HOW TO TELL FORTUNES.&mdash;Everyone is desirous of
knowing what his future life will bring forth, whether happiness or
misery, wealth or poverty. You can tell by a glance at this little
book. Buy one and be convinced. Tell your own fortune. Tell
the fortune of your friends.</p>

<p>No. 76. HOW TO TELL FORTUNES BY THE HAND.&mdash;Containing
rules for telling fortunes by the aid of lines of the hand,
or the secret of palmistry. Also the secret of telling future events
by aid of moles, marks, scars, etc. Illustrated. By A. Anderson.</p>

<h3>ATHLETIC.</h3>

<p>No. 6. HOW TO BECOME AN ATHLETE.&mdash;Giving full instruction
for the use of dumb bells, Indian clubs, parallel bars,
horizontal bars and various other methods of developing a good,
healthy muscle; containing over sixty illustrations. Every boy can
become strong and healthy by following the instructions contained
in this little book.</p>

<p>No. 10. HOW TO BOX.&mdash;The art of self-defense made easy.
Containing over thirty illustrations of guards, blows, and the different
positions of a good boxer. Every boy should obtain one of
these useful and instructive books, as it will teach you how to box
without an instructor.</p>

<p>No. 25. HOW TO BECOME A GYMNAST.&mdash;Containing full
instructions for all kinds of gymnastic sports and athletic exercises.
Embracing thirty-five illustrations. By Professor W. Macdonald.
A handy and useful book.</p>

<p>No. 34. HOW TO FENCE.&mdash;Containing full instruction for
fencing and the use of the broadsword; also instruction in archery.
Described with twenty-one practical illustrations, giving the best
positions in fencing. A complete book.</p>

<h3>TRICKS WITH CARDS.</h3>

<p>No. 51. HOW TO DO TRICKS WITH CARDS.&mdash;Containing
explanations of the general principles of sleight-of-hand applicable
to card tricks; of card tricks with ordinary cards, and not requiring
sleight-of-hand; of tricks involving sleight-of-hand, or the use of
specially prepared cards. By Professor Haffner. Illustrated.</p>

<p>No. 72. HOW TO DO SIXTY TRICKS WITH CARDS.&mdash;Embracing
all of the latest and most deceptive card tricks, with illustrations.
By A. Anderson.</p>

<p>No. 77. HOW TO DO FORTY TRICKS WITH CARDS.&mdash;Containing
deceptive Card Tricks as performed by leading conjurors
and magicians. Arranged for home amusement. Fully illustrated.</p>

<h3>MAGIC.</h3>

<p>No. 2. HOW TO DO TRICKS.&mdash;The great book of magic and
card tricks, containing full instruction on all the leading card tricks
of the day, also the most popular magical illusions as performed by
our leading magicians; every boy should obtain a copy of this book,
as it will both amuse and instruct.</p>

<p>No. 22. HOW TO DO SECOND SIGHT.&mdash;Heller’s second sight
explained by his former assistant, Fred Hunt, Jr. Explaining how
the secret dialogues were carried on between the magician and the
boy on the stage; also giving all the codes and signals. The only
authentic explanation of second sight.</p>

<p>No. 43. HOW TO BECOME A MAGICIAN.&mdash;Containing the
grandest assortment of magical illusions ever placed before the
public. Also tricks with cards, incantations, etc.</p>

<p>No. 68. HOW TO DO CHEMICAL TRICKS.&mdash;Containing over
one hundred highly amusing and instructive tricks with chemicals.
By A. Anderson. Handsomely illustrated.</p>

<p>No. 69. HOW TO DO SLEIGHT OF HAND.&mdash;Containing over
fifty of the latest and best tricks used by magicians. Also containing
the secret of second sight. Fully illustrated. By A. Anderson.</p>

<p>No. 70. HOW TO MAKE MAGIC TOYS.&mdash;Containing full
directions for making Magic Toys and devices of many kinds. By
A. Anderson. Fully illustrated.</p>

<p>No. 73. HOW TO DO TRICKS WITH NUMBERS.&mdash;Showing
many curious tricks with figures and the magic of numbers. By A.
Anderson. Fully illustrated.</p>

<p>No. 75. HOW TO BECOME A CONJUROR.&mdash;Containing
tricks with Dominos, Dice, Cups and Balls, Hats, etc. Embracing
thirty-six illustrations. By A. Anderson.</p>

<p>No. 78. HOW TO DO THE BLACK ART.&mdash;Containing a complete
description of the mysteries of Magic and Sleight of Hand,
together with many wonderful experiments. By A. Anderson.
Illustrated.</p>

<h3>MECHANICAL.</h3>

<p>No. 29. HOW TO BECOME AN INVENTOR.&mdash;Every boy
should know how inventions originated. This book explains them
all, giving examples in electricity, hydraulics, magnetism, optics,
pneumatics, mechanics, etc. The most instructive book published.</p>

<p>No. 56. HOW TO BECOME AN ENGINEER.&mdash;Containing full
instructions how to proceed in order to become a locomotive engineer;
also directions for building a model locomotive; together
with a full description of everything an engineer should know.</p>

<p>No. 57. HOW TO MAKE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.&mdash;Full
directions how to make a Banjo, Violin, Zither, Æolian Harp, Xylophone
and other musical instruments; together with a brief description
of nearly every musical instrument used in ancient or
modern times. Profusely illustrated. By Algernon S. Fitzgerald,
for twenty years bandmaster of the Royal Bengal Marines.</p>

<p>No. 59. HOW TO MAKE A MAGIC LANTERN.&mdash;Containing
a description of the lantern, together with its history and invention.
Also full directions for its use and for painting slides. Handsomely
illustrated. By John Allen.</p>

<p>No. 71. HOW TO DO MECHANICAL TRICKS.&mdash;Containing
complete instructions for performing over sixty Mechanical Tricks.
By A. Anderson. Fully illustrated.</p>

<h3>LETTER WRITING.</h3>

<p>No. 11. HOW TO WRITE LOVE-LETTERS.&mdash;A most complete
little book, containing full directions for writing love-letters,
and when to use them, giving specimen letters for young and old.</p>

<p>No. 12. HOW TO WRITE LETTERS TO LADIES.&mdash;Giving
complete instructions for writing letters to ladies on all subjects;
also letters of introduction, notes and requests.</p>

<p>No. 24. HOW TO WRITE LETTERS TO GENTLEMEN.&mdash;Containing
full directions for writing to gentlemen on all subjects;
also giving sample letters for instruction.</p>

<p>No. 53. HOW TO WRITE LETTERS.&mdash;A wonderful little
book, telling you how to write to your sweetheart, your father,
mother, sister, brother, employer; and, in fact, everybody and anybody
you wish to write to. Every young man and every young
lady in the land should have this book.</p>

<p>No. 74. HOW TO WRITE LETTERS CORRECTLY.&mdash;Containing
full instructions for writing letters on almost any subject;
also rules for punctuation and composition, with specimen letters.</p>

<h3>THE STAGE.</h3>

<p>No. 41. THE BOYS OF NEW YORK END MEN’S JOKE
BOOK.&mdash;Containing a great variety of the latest jokes used by the
most famous end men. No amateur minstrel is complete without
this wonderful little book.</p>

<p>No. 42. THE BOYS OF NEW YORK STUMP SPEAKER.&mdash;Containing
a varied assortment of stump speeches, Negro, Dutch
and Irish. Also end men’s jokes. Just the thing for home amusement
and amateur shows.</p>

<p>No. 45. THE BOYS OF NEW YORK MINSTREL GUIDE
AND JOKE BOOK.&mdash;Something new and very instructive. Every
boy should obtain this book, as it contains full instructions for organizing
an amateur minstrel troupe.</p>

<p>No. 65. MULDOON’S JOKES.&mdash;This is one of the most original
joke books ever published, and it is brimful of wit and humor. It
contains a large collection of songs, jokes, conundrums, etc., of
Terrence Muldoon, the great wit, humorist, and practical joker of
the day. Every boy who can enjoy a good substantial joke should
obtain a copy immediately.</p>

<p>No. 79. HOW TO BECOME AN ACTOR.&mdash;Containing complete
instructions how to make up for various characters on the
stage; together with the duties of the Stage Manager, Prompter,
Scenic Artist and Property Man. By a prominent Stage Manager.</p>

<p>No. 80. GUS WILLIAMS’ JOKE BOOK.&mdash;Containing the latest
jokes, anecdotes and funny stories of this world-renowned and
ever popular German comedian. Sixty-four pages; handsome
colored cover containing a half-tone photo of the author.</p>

<h3>HOUSEKEEPING.</h3>

<p>No. 16. HOW TO KEEP A WINDOW GARDEN.&mdash;Containing
full instructions for constructing a window garden either in town
or country, and the most approved methods for raising beautiful
flowers at home. The most complete book of the kind ever published.</p>

<p>No. 30. HOW TO COOK.&mdash;One of the most instructive books
on cooking ever published. It contains recipes for cooking meats,
fish, game, and oysters; also pies, puddings, cakes and all kinds of
pastry, and a grand collection of recipes by one of our most popular
cooks.</p>

<p>No. 37. HOW TO KEEP HOUSE.&mdash;It contains information for
everybody, boys, girls, men and women; it will teach you how to
make almost anything around the house, such as parlor ornaments,
brackets, cements, Aeolian harps, and bird lime for catching birds.</p>

<h3>ELECTRICAL.</h3>

<p>No. 46. HOW TO MAKE AND USE ELECTRICITY.&mdash;A description
of the wonderful uses of electricity and electro magnetism;
together with full instructions for making Electric Toys, Batteries,
etc. By George Trebel, A. M., M. D. Containing over fifty illustrations.</p>

<p>No. 64. HOW TO MAKE ELECTRICAL MACHINES.&mdash;Containing
full directions for making electrical machines, induction
coils, dynamos, and many novel toys to be worked by electricity.
By R. A. R. Bennett. Fully illustrated.</p>

<p>No. 67. HOW TO DO ELECTRICAL TRICKS.&mdash;Containing a
large collection of instructive and highly amusing electrical tricks,
together with illustrations. By A. Anderson.</p>

<h3>ENTERTAINMENT.</h3>

<p>No. 9. HOW TO BECOME A VENTRILOQUIST.&mdash;By Harry
Kennedy. The secret given away. Every intelligent boy reading
this book of instructions, by a practical professor (delighting multitudes
every night with his wonderful imitations), can master the
art, and create any amount of fun for himself and friends. It is the
greatest book ever published, and there’s millions (of fun) in it.</p>

<p>No. 20. HOW TO ENTERTAIN AN EVENING PARTY.&mdash;A
very valuable little book just published. A complete compendium
of games, sports, card diversions, comic recitations, etc., suitable
for parlor or drawing-room entertainment. It contains more for the
money than any book published.</p>

<p>No. 35. HOW TO PLAY GAMES.&mdash;A complete and useful little
book, containing the rules and regulations of billiards, bagatelle,
backgammon, croquet, dominoes, etc.</p>

<p>No. 36. HOW TO SOLVE CONUNDRUMS.&mdash;Containing all
the leading conundrums of the day, amusing riddles, curious catches
and witty sayings.</p>

<p>No. 52. HOW TO PLAY CARDS.&mdash;A complete and handy little
book, giving the rules and full directions for playing Euchre, Cribbage,
Casino, Forty-Five, Rounce, Pedro Sancho, Draw Poker,
Auction Pitch, All Fours, and many other popular games of cards.</p>

<p>No. 66. HOW TO DO PUZZLES.&mdash;Containing over three hundred
interesting puzzles and conundrums, with key to same. A
complete book. Fully illustrated. By A. Anderson.</p>

<h3>ETIQUETTE.</h3>

<p>No. 13. HOW TO DO IT; OR, BOOK OF ETIQUETTE.&mdash;It
is a great life secret, and one that every young man desires to know
all about. There’s happiness in it.</p>

<p>No. 33. HOW TO BEHAVE.&mdash;Containing the rules and etiquette
of good society and the easiest and most approved methods of appearing
to good advantage at parties, balls, the theatre, church, and
in the drawing-room.</p>

<h3>DECLAMATION.</h3>

<p>No. 27. HOW TO RECITE AND BOOK OF RECITATIONS.&mdash;Containing
the most popular selections in use, comprising Dutch
dialect, French dialect, Yankee and Irish dialect pieces, together
with many standard readings.</p>

<p>No. 31. HOW TO BECOME A SPEAKER.&mdash;Containing fourteen
illustrations, giving the different positions requisite to become
a good speaker, reader and elocutionist. Also containing gems from
all the popular authors of prose and poetry, arranged in the most
simple and concise manner possible.</p>

<p>No. 49. HOW TO DEBATE.&mdash;Giving rules for conducting debates,
outlines for debates, questions for discussion, and the best
sources for procuring information on the questions given.</p>

<h3>SOCIETY.</h3>

<p>No. 3. HOW TO FLIRT.&mdash;The arts and wiles of flirtation are
fully explained by this little book. Besides the various methods of
handkerchief, fan, glove, parasol, window and hat flirtation, it contains
a full list of the language and sentiment of flowers, which is
interesting to everybody, both old and young. You cannot be happy
without one.</p>

<p>No. 4. HOW TO DANCE is the title of a new and handsome
little book just issued by Frank Tousey. It contains full instructions
in the art of dancing, etiquette in the ball-room and at parties,
how to dress, and full directions for calling off in all popular square
dances.</p>

<p>No. 5. HOW TO MAKE LOVE.&mdash;A complete guide to love,
courtship and marriage, giving sensible advice, rules and etiquette
to be observed, with many curious and interesting things not generally
known.</p>

<p>No. 17. HOW TO DRESS.&mdash;Containing full instruction in the
art of dressing and appearing well at home and abroad, giving the
selections of colors, material, and how to have them made up.</p>

<p>No. 18. HOW TO BECOME BEAUTIFUL.&mdash;One of the
brightest and most valuable little books ever given to the world.
Everybody wishes to know how to become beautiful, both male and
female. The secret is simple, and almost costless. Read this book
and be convinced how to become beautiful.</p>

<h3>BIRDS AND ANIMALS.</h3>

<p>No. 7. HOW TO KEEP BIRDS.&mdash;Handsomely illustrated and
containing full instructions for the management and training of the
canary, mockingbird, bobolink, blackbird, paroquet, parrot, etc.</p>

<p>No. 39. HOW TO RAISE DOGS, POULTRY, PIGEONS AND
RABBITS.&mdash;A useful and instructive book. Handsomely illustrated.
By Ira Drofraw.</p>

<p>No. 40. HOW TO MAKE AND SET TRAPS.&mdash;Including hints
on how to catch moles, weasels, otters, rats, squirrels and birds.
Also how to cure skins. Copiously illustrated. By J. Harrington
Keene.</p>

<p>No. 50. HOW TO STUFF BIRDS AND ANIMALS.&mdash;A
valuable book, giving instructions in collecting, preparing, mounting
and preserving birds, animals and insects.</p>

<p>No. 54. HOW TO KEEP AND MANAGE PETS.&mdash;Giving complete
information as to the manner and method of raising, keeping,
taming, breeding, and managing all kinds of pets; also giving full
instructions for making cages, etc. Fully explained by twenty-eight
illustrations, making it the most complete book of the kind ever
published.</p>

<h3>MISCELLANEOUS.</h3>

<p>No. 8. HOW TO BECOME A SCIENTIST.&mdash;A useful and instructive
book, giving a complete treatise on chemistry; also experiments
in acoustics, mechanics, mathematics, chemistry, and directions
for making fireworks, colored fires, and gas balloons. This
book cannot be equaled.</p>

<p>No. 14. HOW TO MAKE CANDY.&mdash;A complete hand-book for
making all kinds of candy, ice-cream, syrups, essences, etc., etc.</p>

<p>No. 34. HOW TO BECOME AN AUTHOR.&mdash;Containing full
information regarding choice of subjects, the use of words and the
manner of preparing and submitting manuscript. Also containing
valuable information as to the neatness, legibility and general composition
of manuscript, essential to a successful author. By Prince
Hiland.</p>

<p>No. 38. HOW TO BECOME YOUR OWN DOCTOR.&mdash;A wonderful
book, containing useful and practical information in the
treatment of ordinary diseases and ailments common to every
family. Abounding in useful and effective recipes for general complaints.</p>

<p>No. 55. HOW TO COLLECT STAMPS AND COINS.&mdash;Containing
valuable information regarding the collecting and arranging
of stamps and coins. Handsomely illustrated.</p>

<p>No. 58. HOW TO BE A DETECTIVE.&mdash;By Old King Brady,
the world-known detective. In which he lays down some valuable
and sensible rules for beginners, and also relates some adventures
and experiences of well-known detectives.</p>

<p>No. 60. HOW TO BECOME A PHOTOGRAPHER.&mdash;Containing
useful information regarding the Camera and how to work it;
also how to make Photographic Magic Lantern Slides and other
Transparencies. Handsomely illustrated. By Captain W. De W.
Abney.</p>

<p>No. 62. HOW TO BECOME A WEST POINT MILITARY
CADET.&mdash;Containing full explanations how to gain admittance,
course of Study, Examinations, Duties, Staff of Officers, Post
Guard, Police Regulations, Fire Department, and all a boy should
know to be a Cadet. Compiled and written by Lu Senarens, author
of “How to Become a Naval Cadet.”</p>

<p>No. 63. HOW TO BECOME A NAVAL CADET.&mdash;Complete instructions
of how to gain admission to the Annapolis Naval
Academy. Also containing the course of instruction, description
of grounds and buildings, historical sketch, and everything a boy
should know to become an officer in the United States Navy. Compiled
and written by Lu Senarens, author of “How to Become a
West Point Military Cadet.”</p>
</div>

<p class="center"><b>PRICE 10 CENTS EACH, OR 3 FOR 25 CENTS.</b></p>

<p class="center"><b>Address FRANK TOUSEY, Publisher, 24 Union Square, New York.</b></p>

<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />

<div class="chapter">

<h2 class="nobreak" id="FRANK_MANLEYS_WEEKLY">FRANK MANLEY’S WEEKLY<br />

<small>Good Stories of Young Athletes</small></h2>
<p class="h2sub"><b>(Formerly “THE YOUNG ATHLETE’S WEEKLY”)</b><br />
BY “PHYSICAL DIRECTOR”</p>

<p class="center">
<img class="w100" src="images/deco1.jpg" style="max-width: 5em;" alt="Decoration" />
A 32-PAGE BOOK FOR 5 CENTS
<img class="w100" src="images/deco1.jpg" style="max-width: 5em;" alt="Decoration" />
</p>

<p class="center"><b>Issued Every Friday</b>
<img class="w100" src="images/ballchain.jpg" style="max-width: 10em;" alt="Decoration" />
<b>Handsome Colored Covers</b>
</p>
</div>

<p>These intensely interesting stories describe the adventures of Frank Manley, a plucky young athlete, who tries to excel
in all kinds of games and pastimes. Each number contains a story of manly sports, replete with lively incidents,
dramatic situations and a sparkle of humor. Every popular game will be featured in the succeeding stories, such as baseball,
skating, wrestling, etc. Not only are these stories the very best, but they teach you how to become strong and
healthy. You can learn to become a trained athlete by reading the valuable information on physical culture they contain.
From time to time the wonderful Japanese methods of self-protection, called Jiu-Jitsu, will be explained. A page is
devoted to advice on healthy exercises, and questions on athletic subjects are cheerfully answered by the author
“PHYSICAL DIRECTOR.”</p>

<div class="blockquot">
<ul>
<li>No. 1 Frank Manley’s Real Fight; or, What the Push-ball Game Brought About.</li>
<li>No. 2 Frank Manley’s Lightning Track; or, Speed’s Part in a Great Crisis.</li>
<li>No. 3 Frank Manley’s Amazing Vault; or, Pole and Brains in Deadly Earnest.</li>
<li>No. 4 Frank Manley’s Gridiron Grill; or, The Try-Out for Football Grit.</li>
<li>No. 5 Frank Manley’s Great Line-Up; or, The Woodstock Eleven on the Jump.</li>
<li>No. 6 Frank Manley’s Prize Tackle; or, The Football Tactics that Won.</li>
<li>No. 7 Frank Manley’s Mad Scrimmage; or, The Trick that Dazed Bradford.</li>
<li>No. 8 Frank Manley’s Lion-Hearted Rush; or, Staking Life on the Outcome.</li>
</ul>
</div>

<p class="center">For sale by all newsdealers, or will be sent to any address on receipt of price, 5 cents per copy, in money or postage stamps, by</p>
<div>
  <p class="alignleft"><b>FRANK TOUSEY, Publisher</b>,</p>
  <p class="alignright"><b>24 Union Square, New York</b>.</p>
</div>
<div style="clear: both;"></div>

<div class="chapter">
<p class="center">
<img class="w100" src="images/deco1.jpg" style="max-width: 10em;" alt="Decoration" />
</p>

<h3>The Young Athlete’s Weekly</h3>

<p class="h3sub">By “PHYSICAL DIRECTOR”</p>

<div>
  <p class="alignleft"><b>BE STRONG!</b></p>
  <p class="alignright"><b>BE HEALTHY!</b></p>
</div>
<div style="clear: both;"></div>
</div>

<div class="blockquot">
<h4>LATEST ISSUES:</h4>

<ul>
<li>&ensp;8  Frank Manley’s Human Ladder; or, The Quickest Climb on Record.</li>
<li>&ensp;9  Frank Manley’s Protege; or, Jack Winston, Great Little Athlete.</li>
<li>10  Frank Manley’s Off Day; or, The Greatest Strain in His Career.</li>
<li>11  Frank Manley on Deck; or, At Work at Indoor Baseball.</li>
<li>12  Frank Manley At the Bat; or, “The Up-and-at-’em Boys” on the Diamond.</li>
<li>13  Frank Manley’s Hard Home Hit; or, The Play That Surprised the Bradfords.</li>
<li>14  Frank Manley in the Box; or, The Curve That Rattled Bradford.</li>
<li>15  Frank Manley’s Scratch Hit; or, The Luck of “The Up-and-at-’em Boys.”</li>
<li>16  Frank Manley’s Double Play; or, The Game That Brought Fortune.</li>
<li>17  Frank Manley’s All-around Game; or, Playing All the Nine Positions.</li>
<li>18  Frank Manley’s Eight-Oared Crew; or, Tod Owen’s Decoration Day Regatta.</li>
<li>19  Frank Manley’s Earned Run; or, The Sprint That Won a Cup.</li>
<li>20  Frank Manley’s Triple Play; or, The Only Hope of the Nine.</li>
<li>21  Frank Manley’s Training Table; or, Whipping the Nine into Shape.</li>
<li>22  Frank Manley’s Coaching; or, The Great Game that “Jackets” Pitched.</li>
<li>23  Frank Manley’s First League Game; or, The Fourth of July Battle With Bradford.</li>
<li>24  Frank Manley’s Match with Giants; or, The Great Game With the Alton “Grown-Ups.”</li>
<li>25  Frank Manley’s Training Camp; or, Getting in Trim for the Greatest Ball Game.</li>
<li>26  Frank Manley’s Substitute Nine; or, A Game of Pure Grit.</li>
<li>27  Frank Manley’s Longest Swim; or, Battling with Bradford in the Water.</li>
<li>28  Frank Manley’s Bunch of Hits; or, Breaking the Season’s Batting Record.</li>
<li>29  Frank Manley’s Double Game; or, The Wonderful Four-Team Match.</li>
<li>30  Frank Manley’s Summer Meet; or, “Trying Out” the Bradfords.</li>
<li>31  Frank Manley at His Wits’ End; or, Playing Against a Bribed Umpire.</li>
<li>32  Frank Manley’s Last Ball Game; or, The Season’s Exciting Good-Bye to the Diamond.</li>
</ul>

<p class="center">For sale by all newsdealers, or will be sent to any address on receipt of price, 5 cents per copy, in money or postage stamps, by</p>
</div>

<div>
  <p class="alignleft"><b>FRANK TOUSEY, Publisher</b>,</p>
  <p class="alignright"><b>24 Union Square, New York</b>.</p>
</div>
<div style="clear: both;"></div>

<hr class="fulldouble" />

<h3>IF YOU WANT ANY BACK NUMBERS</h3>

<p>of our Libraries and cannot procure them from newsdealers, they can be obtained from this office direct. Cut out and fill
in the following Order Blank and send it to us with the price of the books you want and we will send them to you by return
mail.</p>

<p class="right"><b>POSTAGE STAMPS TAKEN THE SAME AS MONEY.</b>
</p>

<hr class="fulldotted" />

<p class="monospace center">
FRANK TOUSEY, Publisher, 24 Union Square, New York.      ......190<br />
<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>&mdash;Enclosed find......cents for which please send me:</span><br />
....copies of WORK AND WIN, Nos........................................<br />
....copies of FRANK MANLEY’S WEEKLY, Nos...............................<br />
....copies of WILD WEST WEEKLY, Nos....................................<br />
....copies of THE LIBERTY BOYS OF ’76, Nos.............................<br />
....copies of PLUCK AND LUCK, Nos......................................<br />
....copies of SECRET SERVICE, Nos......................................<br />
....copies of THE YOUNG ATHLETE’S WEEKLY, Nos..........................<br />
....copies of Ten-Cent Hand Books, Nos.................................<br />
Name.................Street and No................Town..........State..<br />
</p>

<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />

<div class="chapter">
<h2 class="nobreak sans-serif">Fame and Fortune Weekly<br />
<small><i>STORIES OF BOYS WHO MAKE MONEY</i></small></h2>
<p class="h2sub sans-serif">
<b><big>By A SELF-MADE MAN</big></b></p>
</div>

<div class="sans-serif">
  <p class="alignleft"><i><b><big>32 Pages of Reading Matter</big></b></i></p>
  <p class="alignright"><i><b><big>Handsome Colored Covers</big></b></i></p>
</div>
<div style="clear: both;"></div>

<p class="center sans-serif"><big><b>☛ PRICE 5 CENTS A COPY ☚</b></big></p>

<p class="center sans-serif"><big><b>☛ A New One Issued Every Friday ☚</b></big></p>

<p>This Weekly contains interesting stories of smart boys, who win fame and fortune by their
ability to take advantage of passing opportunities. Some of these stories are founded on
true incidents in the lives of our most successful self-made men, and show how a boy of
pluck, perseverance and brains can become famous and wealthy. Every one of this series contains
a good moral tone, which makes “Fame and Fortune Weekly” a magazine for the home,
although each number is replete with exciting adventures. The stories are the very best obtainable,
the illustrations are by expert artists, and every effort is constantly being made to
make it the best weekly on the news stands. Tell your friends about it.</p>

<h3 class="allsmcap">THE FOLLOWING IS A LIST OF THE FIRST EIGHT TITLES AND DATES OF ISSUE</h3>

<table class="autotable" summary="">
<tr>
<td class="tdlh">No. 1.&mdash;A Lucky Deal; or, The Cutest Boy in Wall Street</td>
<td class="tdl">Issued&nbsp;Oct.</td>
<td class="tdr">6th</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdlh">No. 2.&mdash;Born to Good Luck; or, The Boy Who Succeeded</td>
<td class="tdl">Issued&nbsp;Oct.</td>
<td class="tdr">13th</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdlh">No. 3.&mdash;A Corner in Corn; or, How a Chicago Boy Did the Trick</td>
<td class="tdl">Issued&nbsp;Oct.</td>
<td class="tdr">20th</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdlh">No. 4.&mdash;A Game of Chance; or, The Boy Who Won Out</td>
<td class="tdl">Issued&nbsp;Oct.</td>
<td class="tdr">27th</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdlh">No. 5.&mdash;Hard to Beat; or, The Cleverest Boy in Wall Street</td>
<td class="tdl">Issued&nbsp;Nov.</td>
<td class="tdr">3rd</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdlh">No. 6.&mdash;Building a Railroad; or, The Young Contractors of Lakeview</td>
<td class="tdl">Issued&nbsp;Nov.</td>
<td class="tdr">10th</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdlh">No. 7.&mdash;Winning His Way; or, The Youngest Editor in Green River</td>
<td class="tdl">Issued&nbsp;Nov.</td>
<td class="tdr">17th</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdlh">No. 8.&mdash;The Wheel of Fortune; or, The Record of a Self-Made Boy</td>
<td class="tdl">Issued&nbsp;Nov.</td>
<td class="tdr">24th</td>
</tr>
</table>

<div class="blockquot">
<p class="center"><small>For sale by all newsdealers, or will be sent to any address on receipt of price, 5 cents per copy in money or postage stamps, by</small></p>
</div>

<p class="center">
<b>FRANK TOUSEY, Publisher</b>
&emsp;&#x1F666;&emsp;&#x1F666;&emsp;&#x1F666;&emsp;
<b>24 Union Square, New York</b>
</p>

<hr class="fulldouble" />

<h3>IF YOU WANT ANY BACK NUMBERS</h3>

<p>of our Libraries and cannot procure them from newsdealers, they can be obtained from this office direct. Cut out and fill in the following Order Blank and send it
to us with the price of the books you want and we will send them to you by return mail.</p>

<p class="right"><b>POSTAGE STAMPS TAKEN THE SAME AS MONEY.</b></p>

<hr class="fulldotted" />

<p class="monospace">
FRANK TOUSEY, Publisher, 24 Union Square, New York.      ......190<br />
<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>&mdash;Enclosed find......cents for which please send me:</span><br />
....copies of WORK AND WIN, Nos........................................<br />
....copies of FAME AND FORTUNE WEEKLY, Nos.............................<br />
....copies of FRANK MANLEY’S WEEKLY, Nos...............................<br />
....copies of WILD WEST WEEKLY, Nos....................................<br />
....copies of THE LIBERTY BOYS OF ’76, Nos.............................<br />
....copies of PLUCK AND LUCK, Nos......................................<br />
....copies of SECRET SERVICE, Nos......................................<br />
....copies of YOUNG ATHLETE’S WEEKLY, Nos..............................<br />
....copies of TEN-CENT HANDBOOKS, Nos..................................<br />
Name.................Street and No................Town..........State..
</p>

<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
<div class="chapter transnote">
<h2 class="nobreak" id="Transcribers_Notes">
Transcriber’s Notes
</h2>

<p>A number of typographical errors were corrected silently.</p>

<p>Cover image is in the public domain.</p>

<p>Dittoes were replaced with the repeated words.</p>

</div>

<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 67448 ***</div>
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