A TELEGRAM
Roy saw at a glance that something was being concealed from him.
“How is it you don’t know where Rex went when he left you?” he
inquired.
“Well, I didn’t see which way he went when he left the hotel,” answered
Harrington. “I supposed though, he went home, and am surprised to hear
he isn’t there. Atkins, here, may be able to tell you more than I can.
Mr. Atkins, this is Roy Pell, Reggie’s brother.”
The pleasantest faced fellow in the room came forward and put out his
hand.
“I’m glad to meet you, Pell,” he said, “and wish I could give you some
definite information about your brother. I thought with Harri here that
he was certainly at home.” He glanced over at the other two, who were
softly strumming their banjoes in the window seat. “Come across the
hall into my room,” he added.
“Good day, Mr. Harrington,” called out Roy, and followed Atkins.
He could see that Harrington was relieved to have him go.
“Now I’ll tell you the straight of it, Pell,” began Atkins, when he had
invited his visitor to make himself comfortable in one of the many
lounging chairs with which the apartment abounded. “You see, Harrington
brought your brother to one of the pre-term time jollifications some of
the fellows think they must have before coming up here. I was there. I
didn’t care about going very much, but my room mate would go, and I
went to take care of him more than anything else.
“Well, all the fellows except your brother and myself were more than
half seas over before midnight. He became disgusted and got out. I was
busy with Cheever, and didn’t have time to question him. Naturally
Harrington feels a little sore over the thing. But he hadn’t any idea
your brother hadn’t gone home till he got your telegrams.”
“But Rex—where do you suppose he is all this time?” Roy was terribly
anxious. The whole affair was much worse than he had anticipated.
He was glad of one thing, though; that Rex had been disgusted with the
orgy.
“I wish I could tell you,” answered Atkins. “I managed to get Cheever
over to our house before morning. I don’t know what Harrington said
about young Pell’s disappearance when he came to himself.”
“What did Reggie want to go with such fellows for?” groaned Roy. “But
the wonder to me is why Harrington ever took him up. There must be at
least five years’ difference in their ages.”
“Oh, Harri appeared to be quite fond of him. I guess your brother
flattered him some. Dudley can stand a deal of that.”
“But I must find Rex. I’m sure he hadn’t money enough to keep him all
this while. And I don’t know where to look first.”
“I wish I could help you,” returned Atkins. “I tell you what I’ll do.
I’ll get ready now and go down to New York with you. You can come to
our house and stay over Sunday with me. My father is a lawyer. He may
be able to tell us what to do. What do you say?”
“You’re awfully kind,” returned Roy. “But I don’t like to intrude.”
“It won’t be intruding. The pater likes me to bring fellows with me. I
wasn’t going this week, but that won’t matter. He’ll be glad to see me.
You’ll come, won’t you?”
Roy thanked him again and accepted. He liked the genial hearted fellow
as much as Rex had done.
On the way down Atkins told him of the devices for disposing of the
punch.
“You don’t suppose the glass he drank went to his head so as to do him
any injury, do you?” asked Roy.
Atkins reassured him on this point, and then suggested that they had
better go to the hotel where the jollification had been held to see if
any trace of Rex could be obtained there.
But the clerk informed them that no such person had hired a room.
That evening they discussed the matter with Judge Atkins without
telling the details of the jollification, which doubtless he was astute
enough to guess at. The result was that messages were sent to all the
police precincts, and a detective was put on the case.
Roy sent a telegram to his mother Saturday night making it as hopeful
as he could, but his own heart was growing heavier and heavier.
Atkins did his best to cheer him up, and under other circumstances Roy
would have had a most enjoyable time. But he could not keep his
thoughts from Rex.
He went home on Monday, fearful of the meeting with his mother. He felt
at times as if the worst news, if it might be but definite, would be
better to carry home than those tidings he must take, which would keep
them all in such awful suspense.
Sydney had recovered, but the shock of Roy’s announcement threw him
back into a relapse. And yet he insisted on seeing Roy.
“Mr. Tyler’s money has not made us happy after all, has it, Roy?” he
said, after the sad affair had been talked over.
“I was afraid that it wouldn’t, Syd. Still, this might have happened
just the same. You have not been well though, old fellow, since that
night you came over to Burdock to make the old man’s will.”
“Have you noticed that, Roy?” said Sydney quickly.
“Yes, it seems, as you say, that we must pay up for having the money in
some way. But where can poor Rex be? I wonder if he is ashamed or
afraid to come home?”
Anxiously the reports from the detectives were awaited. But when they
came they were only depressing. Positively no trace of the missing boy
could be found.
Advertisements were inserted in the New York and Philadelphia papers,
but nothing came of them. The family were by this time well nigh
distracted. They had not even the poor satisfaction of mourning the
lost as one dead. They could only wait and hope, but as the days passed
into a week, this last seemed futile.
The time came for school to open, but Roy had little heart to go alone.
Still, he must attend to his education.
The first week of it dragged slowly by. Some of his Marley friends
wanted him to come down there and spend his Saturday.
He had not yet decided Friday night whether he wanted to go, when the
door bell rang, and a messenger appeared with a telegram for Roy Pell.
It was dated at some town in Jersey of which he had never heard, and
was very brief, but the one word signed to it was worth a hundred
lines, for that name was “Rex.”
“All safe. Will write soon.”
That was all, and when he read it to the family, the wild exclamations
of joy were succeeded by perplexed impatience.
“Why didn’t he tell us where to find him?” Eva wanted to know.
“Why didn’t he send word to mother?” added Jess.
“Why does he not explain his long silence?” said Mrs. Fell fearing the
worst.
Sydney was away at Harrisburg, and Roy decided that instead of going to
Marley the following day, he would find out where this New Jersey town
was and hunt up Rex at once.
Mrs. Pell wanted to go with him, but Roy reminded her that he might
have considerable difficulty in tracing Rex, so it was decided that she
wait until she heard from him.
From a railroad time table Roy ascertained where he must go, and by the
first train he could get in the morning he set out.
“Be very gentle with him, Roy,” his mother said at parting. “By his
sending to you he evidently thinks I am greatly displeased with him.”
“Trust me, mother,” Roy assured her with a smile.
He felt very happy this morning, happier than he had, it seemed to him,
since they had come into their fortune. Of such worth is sorrow
sometimes, to make a contrast by which to intensify joy.
On arriving at his destination he went to the man in the ticket office
and put the following inquiry:
“Do you know anybody in the place named Reginald Pell?”
“No,” was the reply. “Has he lived here long?”
“No, he doesn’t really live here. He’s my twin brother, you see, and I
have a telegram from him, but he didn’t say where he was staying. Is
this a very big place?”
The ticket agent smiled. “Well, it isn’t exactly a metropolis,” he
said.
“Thank you,” responded Roy, and he walked out of the rear door toward
the dusty road, thinking he was not going to have such an easy job to
find Rex after all, if he was in the town where he was supposed to be.
The station was built at a little distance from the town proper. Roy
walked on along a board walk until he came to the first house, one of
those white, green shuttered affairs whose number is legion in the
rural districts.
A woman without a hat on was sweeping the leaves from the path that led
down to the gate. The lines about her mouth were rather stern, but Roy
made up his mind to begin with her.