“I am glad to say that I am now doing fairly well. I tried several positions and am now a traveling salesman for a large carpet house. I get fifteen dollars per week, all my expenses, and a commission on sales, so I consider myself lucky.
“When I look back on what I once was, Dick, I can scarcely realize what a change has come. But I feel happier than I ever was, and I am in hopes that I shall live to make a man of myself yet. I am trying to give up all my bad habits, and I haven’t smoked, or drank a glass of liquor, since I left you in the south.”
“That’s the kind of a letter I like to get,” said Dick, as he let his brothers peruse the communication. “It does a fellow’s heart good, doesn’t it?”
“I am glad we let him have that hundred dollars,” said Sam. “Do you think he’ll pay it back?”
“Here is a postscript in which he says he will send a money order next week.”
“He certainly means to pull himself together,” said Tom. “Well, now he has turned over a new leaf, I wish him the best of luck.”
Almost before they knew it, it was time to leave the farm and journey to Putnam Hall. Everybody was sorry to see them go.
“I can’t abide yo’ boys being away nohow!” wailed Aleck Pop. “It jess don’t seem natural to have yo’ gone, dat’s wot it don’t!”
“Oh, we’ll be back some day, Aleck,” answered Dick. “And if we go off on some trip later, maybe we’ll take you along.”
“I most wish I was a waiter ag’in at de Hall,” sighed the colored man.
“They can’t spare you from here,” said Sam.
“Oh, I know dat, Sam.”
The boys’ trunks had been packed and sent on ahead, so all they carried with them were their dress-suit cases. Their father drove them to the railroad station at Oak Run, and their aunt and uncle and the others around the farm came out on the piazza to see them off.
“Now be good boys,” admonished their Aunt Martha. “And take care and don’t get sick.”
“And be sure and study all you can,” said their Uncle Randolph. “Remember nothing is quite so grand as learning in this world.”
“Yo’ keep out ob mischief!” cried Aleck Pop, shaking a warning finger at Tom, who grinned broadly.
And then the carriage started off, and the journey to Putnam Hall was begun.
CHAPTER IX
AT THE WILD WEST SHOW
As my old readers know, Putnam Hall was located not far from the village of Cedarville on Cayuga Lake. To get to the school the boys had to take a train to Ithaca and then board a little lake steamer stopping at Cedarville and various other points along the shore.
“It seems a long time since we were at the Hall,” observed Dick, as they settled down in the train.
“And what a lot of things have happened since then!” exclaimed Sam. “I can tell you what, we’ll have a story to tell to the others, won’t we?”
“I guess Songbird, Fred, and Hans Mueller have already told everything,” returned Tom. “More than likely Songbird has concocted some verses about it.”
The run to Ithaca took several hours, and they lunched at noon in the dining car. It was a beautiful day, and the boys enjoyed the scenery as much as if they had never seen it before.
“I hope we can make a good connection for Cedarville,” said Sam as they left the train and started for the dock from which the Golden Star made her trips on the lake. But they were doomed to disappointment, the steamboat had had a break-down and would be delayed two hours or more.
As there was nothing to do but to wait, the boys checked their dress-suit cases and then started for a stroll through the city. They soon learned that a wild west show was giving an exhibition there and consequently the place was crowded with folks from the surrounding districts.
“I shouldn’t mind going to the wild west show,” observed Tom. “Do you think we have time?”
“We could spend an hour there anyway,” answered Sam.
“It depends on where the show is to be held,” came from Dick.
They soon ascertained that the show grounds were not far off, and made their way thither. The exhibition had already started, and they got inside the big tent-like enclosure as speedily as possible.
The show was a fairly good one, and the boys thoroughly enjoyed the trick riding by cowboys, and the fancy rifle shooting. Then came some wild riding by real Indians.
“Almost makes a fellow feel as if he’d like to be on a horse himself,” said Tom. He liked horseback riding very well.
“Say, I want you to look over there,” said Sam, pointing to the seats some distance away. “Do you see that man sitting near the bottom—right beside that boy with the basket of peanuts?”
Tom and Dick looked in the direction pointed out, and the eldest Rover gave a start.
“Sam, do you think it is the fellow called Merrick?” he exclaimed.
“Doesn’t he look like it?”
“He certainly does—now you speak of it,” came from Tom. “And, by the way, don’t you remember about that envelope picked up in the log cabin? It was postmarked Ithaca.”
“So it was! Perhaps this Merrick lives here.”
“Let us go over and get a closer look at him,” said Dick, and left his seat, followed by the others.
There was a large crowd, so they had some difficulty in making their way to where the man was located. In his haste, Dick bumped against a waiter selling lemonade and spilled the contents of two glasses on the ground.
“Excuse me,” he said.
“Hi! you’ve got to pay for the lemonade,” roared the waiter, angrily. “You pay up, you clumsy clown!”
“See here, my man, I’ll pay you, but I want you to understand you can’t call me a clown,” said Dick, angrily.
“Ah! go on wid yer! Pay up, see?”
“Here’s your money,” and Dick held out ten cents. “Now, am I a clown or not?”
“Well, er—”
“Am I or not?” And the eldest Rover boy doubled up his fists. He knew he must “take the bull by the horns” with such an individual as that before him.
“Excuse me,” mumbled the fellow and moved away. “I—er—suppose yer couldn’t help it.”
Sam and Tom had gone ahead and they were now close to the man they took to be Merrick.
“No mistake here!” declared Sam, as he got a good, square look at the fellow’s face.
“He sees us!” exclaimed Tom, a second later. “He is trying to get away.”
The boy was right, Merrick had seen them. He was greatly amazed, for he had not dreamed of their being in that vicinity. He left his seat in a hurry, and, elbowing his way through the crowd, started for the entrance to the big tent-like enclosure.
By this time Dick was coming up and Sam and Tom quickly acquainted him with what was going on. All three of the Rovers pushed through the big crowd after Merrick, but, before they could draw near, the rascal was outside and running between a number of carriages and wagons standing in that vicinity.
“Come on after him!” cried Tom. “We must capture him if we can!”
They set off on a smart run, but Merrick could run also, and fear now lent speed to his flying feet. On and on went the swindler, with the Rover boys less than a square behind him. Then, as they came to a number of tall buildings, Merrick darted around a corner and out of sight.
When the Rover boys reached the corner they looked in every direction for the man. Only a few people were about, the majority of the town folks being at the show.
“Wonder if he went straight on, or took to some side street?” mused Dick.
“I’ll go straight on,” said Sam. “Dick, you can take one side street and Tom can take the other,” and away went the youngest Rover, at a fresh burst of speed.
Sam’s advice was considered good, and soon all of the boys had s
cattered. The street Tom followed was lined with tall tenements and ended in little more than an alleyway.
Coming to another corner, Tom paused and gazed in all directions. As he turned his head he saw a man look out from a tenement doorway. Then the head was drawn back quickly.
“Merrick!” muttered Tom to himself, and turned back to the tenement, which was a building four stories high. On one side was something of an alleyway and beyond were other tenements, and the rear of a big building used for a factory and offices.
Tom found the front door of the tenement wide open and he did not hesitate to go in. Nobody was in sight, but he heard hasty footsteps on the floor above.
“Merrick! you might as well give up!” he called out. “Come down here!”
“Go on about your business, young fellow!” came the reply. “If you try to follow me you’ll get the worst of it.”
Undaunted by this threat, Tom mounted the stairs two steps at a time. As he did so he heard Merrick go up a second flight and then a third.
“Must think he can hide on the roof,” thought Tom. “Well, I’ll corner him if I can.”
As Tom ran through the hallway on the third floor a door opened and an old woman confronted him.
“What do yez want here?” she demanded, in strong Irish accents.
“I am after a thief,” answered Tom.
“A thafe! Sure an’ there’s no thafe in this house.”
“He just ran in here from the street.”
“Bedad, is that true now? Where did he go to?”
“I don’t know. How do you get to the roof?”
“Be the laddher at the back av the hall.”
The old woman pointed in the direction, and Tom sped on. Soon he reached a common wooden ladder leading to a scuttle, which was wide open. As the youth mounted the ladder the scuttle was banged shut, almost hitting him on the top of the head. Then he heard hasty footsteps across the roof.
“Maybe he thinks he can jump to one of the other buildings,” said Tom to himself. “Well, if he can do it, so can I.”
He pushed the scuttle up with difficulty, for it was heavy. Then with caution, for he did not want to receive a kick in the head, he gazed around the roof of the tenement. Nobody was in sight.
With caution Tom stepped out on the roof. A number of chimneys were not far off, and he wondered if Merrick was concealed behind them.
“I wish I had a club or something,” he thought. “I’d have a tough time of it up here, if it came to a hand-to-hand struggle.”
With eyes on the alert, Tom made his way to one chimney and then another. The swindler was not there, nor was he on the adjoining roof. Then the youth got down on his hands and knees and looked over the edge of the tenement, on the alleyway side. Here was an iron fire escape, running from the fourth story to the second. On the fire escape he saw Merrick, descending to the bottom with all possible rapidity.
CHAPTER X
JOLLY OLD SCHOOLMATES
Evidently the swindler had dropped from the roof to the upper landing of the fire escape. He was now almost to the bottom.
“Stop!” cried Tom, but he knew the command was a useless one. At the sound of his voice Merrick looked up and muttered something the boy could not catch. Then he swung himself from the bottom landing of the fire escape and dropped to the ground.
“If he can get down that way, so can I,” thought Tom, and in another moment he was descending the escape in the same fashion as the swindler had done. As he reached the second landing of the escape he saw Merrick turn the corner of the alleyway and disappear on the street beyond.
When Tom came out on the street he almost ran into the arms of two burly men who had come out of the tenement. Both caught him by the arms.
“What does this mean, young fellow?” asked one, savagely. “Doing the sneak-thief act?”
“I am after a thief,” was the answer. “Did you see a man running away?”
“No, and we don’t think there was a man,” answered one of the tenement dwellers.
“Well, there was a man,” said Tom. “Come, if you will help me catch him I will reward you well.”
“What did he steal?”
“Some bonds worth ten thousand dollars—they belonged to my uncle,” explained Tom, hastily.
The promise of a reward made the men attentive and they soon agreed to assist Tom as much as possible. Then Dick and Sam came in sight, and had to be told of what had happened.
The two men knew the tenement and factory district well, and they led in a hunt lasting over half an hour, and a policeman was likewise called into service.
“I’ve heard of that bond case,” said the policeman. “I’d like to lay my hands on Merrick.”
But the hunt was a useless one, for Merrick could not be found. For their trouble Tom gave the two men from the tenement a dollar each, with which they had to be satisfied. The policeman promised to report the matter at headquarters, and as there seemed to be nothing else to do, the three Rover boys walked down to the steamboat dock, first, however, sending a telegram to Randolph Rover, relating briefly what had occurred.
“It’s a great pity we didn’t catch this Merrick,” sighed Tom, when they were steaming along the lake shore. “Perhaps we’ll never see or hear of him again.”
“Well, we don’t want Merrick as much as we want Uncle Randolph’s traction company bonds,” answered Dick. “If he has disposed of the bonds it won’t do much good to catch him,—unless, of course, he can get the bonds back.”
“And he may not have had the bonds,” put in Sam. “That fellow Pike may have handled them.”
“That is true, too,—although I somehow think Merrick is the prime mover in this swindle.”
“I think that, too,” said Tom.
The Golden Star was a trim little side-wheeler with a fair-sized deck fore and aft. The boys sat on the forward deck, and as the boat ran along the shore of the lake they pointed out many localities known to them.
“There is where we went on the paper chase,” said Sam.
“Yes, and that is where we went on one of the encampments,” added Tom.
“We came fishing down here once,” put in Dick. “One of the boys went overboard.”
“It was John Fenwick, the fellow we used to call Mumps,” said Tom. “By the way, I wonder what has become of him?”
“Went west, I think,” answered Sam. “One of the boys said he was in the insurance business with some relative.”
“He was a great toady to Dan Baxter.”
“So he was, but he had some good points, too.”
So the talk ran on, until Cedarville was reached. On account of the delay it was dark, and the boys wondered if they would find any conveyance to take them to the Hall.
“Hullo, here is Peleg Snuggers with the carryall!” cried Sam, as the general utility man of the school appeared. “How are you, Peleg?”
“Fust rate,” replied the man, grinning. “Been waiting a long time for you.”
“Sorry, but we couldn’t make the captain hurry the boat,” answered Dick.
“Peleg, you’re a sight for tired optics,” said Tom, giving the man’s hand a squeeze that made him wince. “How’s your grandmother?”
“Why, Master Tom, I ain’t—”
“And your great-granduncle? Is he over the shingles yet?”
“Why, Master Tom, I ain’t got no—”
“And your second cousin by your first wife’s sister? Did she get over the heart failure she had when the canary took a fit?”
“Now, see here, Master Tom, don’t you go for to joking an old man—”
“Joking, Peleg?” returned Tom, solemnly. “Why, you know I never joke.” And he took on an injured look.
“Don’t joke, eh? Well, if you ain’t the greatest joker Putnam Hall ever see then I’ll eat my
hat,” declared Peleg. “Jump in an’ don’t ask me about no grandfathers, or wife’s sisters, nor nuthing. Ain’t you hungry?”
“Hungry? I could eat a brickbat fried in lemon oil.”
“Then, unless you hurry, you won’t get no supper.”
“Oh, Mrs. Green will get something for us, never fear,” said Dick, mentioning the matron of Putnam Hall, who was a warm-hearted and generous woman, even though a little bit “peppery” at times.
“All the other boys here now?” asked Dick, as they drove off in the direction of Putnam Hall.
“I reckon the most of ’em are, Master Dick. So many coming an’ going I can hardly keep track of ’em.”
“Fred Garrison, Songbird Powell and Hans Mueller back?” asked Sam.
“Yes, an’ they told me some wonderful stories of your doings down south.”
“Are Larry Colby and George Granbury here?” questioned Dick.
“Yes.”
“I’ll be glad to meet Larry and George again,” went on Dick. “I suppose they’ll have something to tell of what they did during vacation.”
“Every time I come to the Hall I think of the first time I came,” said Tom. “Do you remember how I set off that giant firecracker?”
“Yes, and how old Josiah Crabtree put you under arrest for it,” added Sam. “Wonder where old Crabtree is now?”
“He is out of prison,” answered Peleg Snuggers. “I got that from a man in Cedarville. The man said as how Crabtree went to Canada.”
“Hope he stays there and never attempts to bother Mrs. Stanhope again,” was Dick’s comment.
About half the distance to the Hall had been covered when there came a shout on the road and Peleg Snuggers had to rein in his team. Then several boys appeared, dressed in cadet uniforms, for Putnam Hall was a military academy.
“Whoop! here they are, fellows! Hurrah for the Rovers!”
“Rovers by name and rovers by nature!”
“Say, Tom, how do you like being adrift on the Gulf of Mexico?”
“Sam, don’t you want to become a regular cowboy?”
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