ANOTHER OF JACK'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS
The two boys went up the hill to the Academy with the bag which one of
them had found in the creek and had an interview with Dr. Wise.
The doctor looked his name in some respects and in others he did not.
He was a tall, spare man, dressing habitually in solemn black and a huge
white choker, his face being clean shaven and showing the firmness of
his chin and his square, well-set jaws.
He was very bald, however, and the big round spectacles which he always
wore gave an owlish aspect to his face, the glasses being set in a heavy
black frame which made his eyes look even deeper than they naturally
were.
However, the doctor was of a most kindly nature and all the boys under
his charge, with a few notable exceptions, were greatly attached to him
and treated him with admiration as well as respect.
He listened attentively to Jack's story of falling down the ravine and
finding the rubber bag and then examined the latter, saying:
"H'm, ha! yes, this is a most important discovery. I am not privileged
to examine it closely, that will be the duty of the agent at the station
and the officers of the bank, but I am very glad that the bag has been
recovered. This packet doubtless contains registered letters for me. I
was expecting them and their loss would have caused us all some trouble.
One thing, however. Has no one told you of the danger of wandering
through our woods, especially at night?"
Dick Percival was about to say something which Jack did not want him to
say at the moment and he quickly interposed:
"Yes, sir, they have, and I will admit that I was careless. However, I
will take better precautions in future."
"Do so. I should be very sorry if anything happened to you and I do not
like to restrict the enjoyment of the young gentlemen under my care.
They enjoy walking through the woods but all of them know the danger and
I need not restrict them as long as they know where to go."
"Then these things had better be taken to the station and to the bank at
Riverton?" asked Jack.
"Yes. To-morrow you and Percival may attend to it. Meanwhile, I will
wire the bank officers that some of their property has been found. There
will doubtless be a reward given for its recovery and I am very glad
that this is so, for your sake."
"My finding it was quite accidental, however, Doctor."
"Even so, the reward has been offered and belongs to you. It is
immaterial how the property was found as long as it was found. You must
have had a thrilling adventure but I am glad that only your wearing
apparel and not you suffered injury."
The bag was left with the doctor and the boys left him, Jack to get
whole garments out of his meagre store and Dick to house his car.
Outside they came upon Herring, who turned pale when he saw Jack and
muttered, half under his breath:
"Then you were not killed? I was afraid that----"
"No, he was not," said Dick, "little thanks, however, to----" but Jack
gave him a sudden look and he stopped short.
Herring hurried away to join some of his companions at a little distance
and Dick said:
"I was too much in a hurry, I see, and now it will be harder to discover
the truth. Herring will be on his guard."
"And we don't know that he had anything to do with it."
"It lies between him and Merritt, I am certain, but I will keep still
after this until I am certain."
Those of the boys who had heard of the accident to Jack were quick to
assure him of their satisfaction that he was not seriously hurt and
there the matter rested.
The next day Dick and Jack went in the runabout to the bank where they
delivered the cash box and other things which evidently belonged to it,
leaving the package of registered letters and the postage stamps at the
station at the foot of the hill.
"I am authorized by the bank to pay you a reward of one hundred dollars
for the recovery of this property," said the president, after he had
thoroughly examined the contents of the bag. "Shall I pay it to you or
put it to your credit in the bank? I will have a book made out if you
prefer the latter."
"I think that will be satisfactory," the boy replied. "Then if I desire
to draw against it or add to it I can do so."
"Very good, my dear sir. You show the proper spirit. Many young men
would wish to spend the amount at once."
"I believe I have learned the value of money, sir," said Jack, quietly,
while Dick laughed and said.
"H'm! I am afraid I would have done just what the president hints at.
Perhaps I have not learned the value of money from having so much of
it."
The money was left to the boy's credit and he was supplied with a bank
book and blank checks, feeling quite proud at having so much money as it
would give him an opportunity to help his mother as well as to pay his
bills at the Academy.
"You did not expect to get this, did you, Jack?" asked Dick.
"No, but I am glad to get it just the same. It means a good deal to me,
Dick, although I suppose you regard it as a mere trifle."
"Well, not so much after all," laughed Dick, "but, come on. I want to
stop at the office of the Riverton News. I furnish them with school
items now and then and this is the day before publication. You might
tell the editor of your experience yesterday. I have no doubt that he
will regard it as a bit of valuable news. He does not get much."
"I would like to see him at any rate," Jack returned. "I always did like
to go into a newspaper office."
The newspaper office was down the street a short distance and on the
opposite side from the bank and in a decidedly less pretentious
building, being in a little two-story wooden affair which looked fully a
hundred years old and as if it might fall down at any moment.
They found the editor in his office, sitting at his typewriter in his
shirt sleeves and busy preparing an article for the paper, this being
the eve of publication day.
He was a fat little man; the top of his head being very bald and shiny
with a fringe of black hair all around it and two big tufts at his ears,
his eyebrows being thick and shaggy and standing straight out from twin
caverns.
He held his shoulders high and put his head forward and down, pecking
savagely at the keys of the typewriter with the first fingers of both
hands very much as a hen pecks at the worms or grain of corn in a
dunghill and making the machine rattle at every stroke.
"Busy, Mr. Brooke?" asked Dick. "Want some items?"
"Yes, of course," said the other, never stopping at his savage attack on
the typewriter. "I am doing something about the robbery. Nothing new, I
suppose?"
"Why, yes, I think there is," laughed Dick. "Have you heard----"
"What?" asked the editor sharply, looking up at the two boys. "I've
heard lots of things and it's hard to tell just what's true and what
isn't. What have you got, Percival?"
"Why don't you use all your fingers on your machine?" asked Jack, before
Dick could answer.
"What's that?" snapped the editor quickly, fixing his eyes on the
questioner. "Why don't I use all my fingers? Because it's quicker to use
two, that's why."
"Oh, no it is not," with a quiet smile. "Let me show you. What is this?
Something about the robbery? Let me add a few lines. It is news."
Jack spoke with a quiet air that evidently had its effect on the nervous
little man pecking away at the machine with two fat fingers and he moved
his chair to one side a little so as to make room, but apparently
unwilling to believe that he could be taught anything.
Jack shifted the paper a line or two and then, standing over the
machine, set to work, operating rapidly and writing as he thought.
He not only used all his fingers but did the spacing with his thumbs and
wrote so rapidly that Dick thought he was copying and not writing
off-hand.
What he wrote was a brief account of the finding of the rubber bag
containing the missing cash box near the bridge at the upper station,
not mentioning himself by name, however, nor even saying that the
property had been found by one of the Hilltop boys.
When he had finished the editor looked at the paper and muttered:
"H'm! not an error! Well, you are certainly an expert operator and have
taught me something but I could never write like that. Force of habit, I
suppose."
"Where did you ever learn to use a typewriter, Jack?" asked Dick in
admiration. "Why, you show me some new accomplishment every day."
"Oh, I have used one for some time. I have done work for the lawyers in
our town. I have made a good deal of money that way."
"He gets along faster with all his fingers than you do, playing a sort
of crazy jig with your two first fingers, Mr. Brooke," laughed Dick,
uproariously. "I have seen other fellows play the machine like that and
thought it was the only way, but now I see that it is not."
"You have put it very concisely," said the editor. "By the way, who was
the person who found the money?"
"That was Jack himself," said Dick. "I was there just afterward and took
the thing up to the Academy in my car. Jack is a modest fellow and you
could not get him to say anything about himself."
"Very well put," said the editor. "What do you think about the political
situation? I want a leader on it but hardly feel equal to it."
"Write him an editorial, Jack," laughed Dick. "How much do you pay for
good articles, Mr. Brooke?"
"H'm! the News is not equipped for paying very much for anything,"
replied the other, pecking at the machine, "but if I could get a really
good article on the situation at present or anything, the farming
outlook, for instance, I would be willing to pay something for it."
"I can tell you what I think," said Jack, quietly, "and furnish you with
articles on different subjects. I would like to earn all the money I can
as I am paying for my education out of my own pocket."
"H'm! very commendable spirit," snapped the other. "Is that your case,
Mr. Percival?"
"No, I cannot say that it is. However, I am anxious to see how Jack
makes out as a writer of editorials. Let Mr. John Sheldon have your desk
for a few minutes, Mr. Brooke."
"It won't be long," said Jack, blushing. "Only a few sentences but it is
just what I think."
He sat at the typewriter and wrote rapidly for a few minutes, during
which time both Percival and Mr. Brooke remained perfectly quiet.
When he had finished, Jack took the paper from the machine and handed it
to the editor, saying:
"There, that is my opinion of the situation. You may not agree with it
but that is how I think."
The editor read over the article carefully and then said with more
spirit than he had yet betrayed:
"It is the thing in a nutshell. It is tersely put and carries conviction
with every sentence. If it had been any longer or any shorter it would
have failed of its purpose. I could not express myself any better if I
wrote a column. It will go in just as it is and whenever I want an
editorial written I shall call upon you."
"May I read it?" asked Percival.
The editor passed the sheet over to the boy who read it most carefully
and then said:
"Great, my boy! We have long wanted a good editor for our Academy paper
and the position is yours. If I say so every boy in Hilltop will agree
with me, so it is settled."