CHAPTER XIII
AN EXCITING CONFERENCE
Mrs. Rushton gasped with astonishment. It was an unusual thing for AaronRushton to let himself go in this manner.
"Why, what on earth is the matter?" she asked.
"Matter enough!" replied Aaron, beginning to pace the floor. "The bestnews I've heard for years!"
"Has any one left you a legacy?" she queried, not knowing of anythingelse that could cause him such joyous emotion.
"No such luck as that," he replied, "but it may amount to the same thingin the long run."
He sat down again, fixed his glasses on the bridge of his nose and againran over the contents of the letter.
"For goodness' sake, Aaron, don't keep me on tenter-hooks!" cried Mrs.Rushton, no longer able to restrain her curiosity. "What can Teddy haveto say that makes you feel so good?"
"Here," he replied, thrusting the letter into her hand, "read it foryourself."
She took it, while he resumed his pacing, and for the first time inyears he actually hummed a tune.
"A chest of gold!" he muttered to himself. "Twelve thousand dollars!"
Mrs. Rushton hurriedly ran over the first few lines of the letter. Thenshe uttered a frightened exclamation and her cheeks grew pale. She hadreached the part where Teddy told of Fred's daring exploit in divingoverboard to rescue Ross.
"A shark!" she exclaimed. "And my Fred in the water!"
"Bother the shark," cried Aaron impatiently. "It didn't bite him, didit?"
"No, but it might have," returned Fred's mother, in tones that were ablending of pride and terror. "My brave, rash boy!"
"Your 'brave, rash boy' is all right," retorted Aaron. "Get on to thereally important part of the letter."
Mrs. Rushton darted an indignant glance at her brother-in-law, but wenton, her eyes shining and her breath coming fast. When she had finishedshe was almost as excited as Aaron Rushton himself.
They looked at each other in mutual congratulation, he rejoicing in theunexpected windfall, she exulting in the part her boys had played in theaffair.
At that moment Mr. Mansfield Rushton, returning from business, strodeinto the room. He tossed his hat on a chair and greeted his wifeaffectionately.
"You seem to be conducting a correspondence school, judging from theletters on hand," he said gaily.
He seemed to bring a flood of sunshine with him, and it was easy to seewhere Fred and Teddy got their high spirits and joyous outlook on life.
"You'd never guess what's happened, Mansfield!" cried his wife. "We'vejust got letters from the boys and there's the greatest news," she addedproudly.
"Let's see them," he said with quick interest.
"Read this one first," she said, thrusting Teddy's letter into his hand.
"Why!" he said in surprise, as he glanced at the address, "this isdirected to Aaron."
"Yes," Mrs. Rushton replied. She could not forbear the thrust and added:"Aaron thought it was an apology."
Aaron Rushton squirmed in his chair a little uncomfortably.
"Never mind what I thought," he growled. "Go ahead, Mansfield, and thenwe'll talk the matter over."
Mansfield Rushton's quick eye ran rapidly over the lines while theothers watched him.
"Hurrah for Fred and Teddy!" he cried at the end. "They're boys worthhaving, eh, Agnes? What's your opinion, Aaron?" he added slyly.
"They've done very well in this case," his brother was forced to admit,though it cost him a pang. "If this thing really pans out as I hope itwill, I'll see that they get a liberal share of what they turn up."
"Oh, they'll get all the pay they want in the fun of hunting for it,"laughed their father. "I know if I were their age, there'd be nothingthat would suit me better than searching for hidden gold. I'm so much ofa boy even now, that if I were down there I'd go into the thing with thesame zest as the boys themselves."
"I'm going to write to them this very night," said Aaron, "and send thema little money for current expenses. They may run across somebody whocan give them some information, and there's nothing like a little moneyto make people talk."
"Well, I certainly hope you get this, Aaron," said his brother heartily."Twelve thousand dollars is a whole lot of money."
"It certainly is in these hard times," answered Aaron. "I've been hitrather hard in some of my investments lately, and this would do a gooddeal toward helping me out of the hole."
"How is it that you never happened to mention this matter to me?" askedMansfield. "I never heard you speak of Montgomery or of any money thathe owed you."
"It was a long time ago, when I lent it to him," returned Aaron. "All offifteen years, I reckon."
"It seems to me that it was a good deal to put into one loan," remarkedMansfield. "What security did he offer?"
"It wasn't a matter of security, so much as it was of friendship andgratitude," was the answer. "James Montgomery was one of the mostupright men I ever met. His word was his bond, and when he borrowedmoney it was his character that was the best collateral.
"He had lent me money when I was struggling to get ahead in the world. Ihad expanded too rapidly in my desire to get ahead, and I was so tied upand so in need of ready cash that I was right on the brink of failure. Icouldn't get a loan from the banks, and I was almost in despair when Iapplied to James Montgomery. He went over my affairs with me, saw that Iwas really solvent, and that the trouble was only that immediate cashwas needed to pull me through.
"He was doing well in business then, and he lent me the money and gaveme all the time I needed to pay it back. It wasn't long before I was onmy feet again, and the first thing I did was to pay him back the fullamount with interest.
"I vowed to myself then, that if the chance ever offered, I'd do thesame by him as he had done by me. And it wasn't a meaningless vow, forI've never felt more warmly toward any one outside my own people beforeor since.
"It was some years, though, before I got my chance. Then I learned thathe was in straits. He had built up a big business, but hard times cameand squeezed him, and a big bank failure put the finishing touch to hisruin.
"I didn't know of his predicament until it was too late to save him. Butafter he had recovered from the illness that followed his failure, Iwent to him and offered him as much money as he needed to start overagain. His wife had a little property on the coast of Canada and withenough money to develop it, it promised to yield big returns. All told,I lent him about twelve thousand dollars.
"He paid the interest promptly every six months, and I never worriedabout the principal. I was sure if he lived that I'd get it back, and ifhe died, I'd charge it up to profit and loss."
"I notice that Teddy says in his letter you refused to take the propertyhe left as payment for your debt," said Mrs. Rushton. "I think that wasfine of you, Aaron."
"I don't prey on widows and orphans," replied Aaron, dismissing thematter with a curt wave of the hand. "Least of all, on the widow andorphan of James Montgomery."
"But didn't you hear of this chest of gold at the time Mrs. Montgomerywrote to you?" asked Mrs. Rushton.
"Only in a vague and jumbled way," answered Aaron. "She was so muchupset and distressed that I couldn't make much of her letter. I gatheredthat he had taken a box containing a large amount of money aboard acoastwise craft, and that he had been found later drifting in an openboat. He had been wounded, and the presumption was, of course, that hehad been assaulted and robbed of the money. But, of course, I concluded,as I suppose every one else did, that the money had been divided andspent. At any rate, I gave it up for gone from that moment."
"Did you follow the matter up in any way?" asked his brother.
"Not to any great extent," was the answer. "I sent a specialist up toCanada to see if he could do anything toward getting back poorMontgomery's reason, and I offered a reward for the discovery and arrestof the thieves. But nothing came of it, and after Montgomery died a yearor so later, I gave the matter up. I haven't thought of it for a longtime, until this letter came
to-day."
"Well, it looks as though there is a chance at least of getting thegold," commented Mansfield Rushton.
"After all these years!" added Mrs. Rushton, whose imagination had beencaptured by the romance and tragedy of the story.
"Of course, it's only a chance," said Aaron, on whom doubts began tocrowd after the first exhilaration. "They're a long way off from findingit yet. They have only the most slender kind of clues."
"I believe they'll do it," said Mansfield, buoyantly. "Those boys seemto have a knack of getting what they go after."
"Yes," chimed in his wife, her face lighting up, "look at the way theyexposed that masquerade of the ghost out on the Garwood ranch thissummer. And think how cleverly they got on the trail of the tramps whostole your watch."
"Ye-es," assented Aaron slowly, as though the concession was wrenchedfrom him. "They do seem to get there one way or the other. I don't knowwhether it's because they're smart or lucky."
"They're both," said Mrs. Rushton proudly.
The Rushton Boys at Treasure Cove; Or, The Missing Chest of Gold Page 13