SOMETHING OF THE PAST
"The horses are running away!"
"Oh, we'll be killed!"
Such were the cries from the two girls as the mettlesome grays tore
along the country highway at a speed that seemed marvelous.
"Dave, can I help you?" asked Ben, anxiously.
"I don't think so," answered the young driver between his set teeth.
"I guess I can bring them down. Anyway, I can try."
"What shall we do?" wailed Jessie.
"Don't do anything--sit still," ordered Dave. He was afraid that
Jessie in her excitement might fling herself from the flying sleigh.
On and on bounded the frightened team. Each of the grays now had his
bit in his teeth, and it looked as if it would be impossible for Dave
to obtain control of the pair. And, worst of all, they were now
approaching a turn, with the hill on one side of the roadway and a
gully on the other.
"Better keep them as far as possible away from the gully," suggested
Ben.
"That is what I'm trying to do," returned Dave, setting his teeth
grimly.
Dave Porter was a resolute youth, always doing his best to accomplish
whatever he set out to do. Had it been otherwise, it is not likely
that he would have occupied the position in which we found him at the
opening of our story.
When a very small youth Dave had been found wandering along the
railroad tracks near Crumville. He could tell little about himself or
how he had come in that position; and kind people had taken him in and
later on had placed him in the local poorhouse. From that institution
he had been taken by an old college professor, named Caspar Potts, who
at that time had been farming for his health.
In Crumville, the main industry was the Wadsworth jewelry works, owned
by Mr. Oliver Wadsworth, who resided, with his wife and his daughter
Jessie, in the finest mansion of that district. One day the Wadsworth
automobile caught fire, and Jessie was in danger of being burned to
death, when Dave came to her rescue. This led Mr. Wadsworth to ask
about the boy and about Mr. Potts. And when it was learned that the
latter was one of the jewelry manufacturer's former college
professors, Mr. Wadsworth insisted upon it that Caspar Potts come and
live with him, and bring Dave along.
"That boy deserves a good education," had been Oliver Wadsworth's
comment, after several interviews with Dave, and as a consequence the
youth had been sent off to a first-class boarding-school, as related
in the first volume of this series, entitled "Dave Porter at Oak
Hall."
At the school Dave had made a host of friends, including Roger Morr,
the son of a United States senator, and Phil Lawrence, the son of a
rich shipowner.
Ben Basswood, the son of a Crumville real estate dealer and a lad who
had been friendly with Dave for several years, also went to Oak Hall,
and thus he and Dave became closer chums than ever.
The great thing that troubled Dave in those days was the question of
his parentage. Some of the mean boys in the school occasionally
referred to him as "that poorhouse nobody," and this brought on
several severe quarrels and even a fist fight or two.
"I'm not going to be a nobody," said the youth to himself; and when he
received certain information from an old sailor he eagerly went on a
quest after his father, as told of in "Dave Porter in the South Seas."
There he managed to locate his uncle, Dunston Porter, and learned much
concerning his father, David Breslow Porter, and also his sister
Laura.
Coming back from the South Seas, Dave returned to school, and then
took a trip to the Far North, whither his father had gone before him.
There he had many adventures, as already related in another volume.
Glad to know that he had found, not only so many kind friends, but
also several rich relatives, Dave went back again to Oak Hall. His
classmates were more than glad to see him, but others were jealous of
his success in life, and several of his enemies, including a certain
Link Merwell, did all they could to annoy him. The annoyances went
from bad to worse, and in the end one boy named Jasniff ran away from
school, and the other, Merwell, was expelled.
Dave's sister Laura had a friend, Belle Endicott, who lived in the Far
West, and through this young lady Dave and his chums and also Laura
and Jessie received an invitation to spend some time at the Endicott
place, known as Star Ranch. While in the West Dave once more fell in
with Link Merwell, and this young man, as before, tried to make
trouble, but was exposed.
"I hope I have seen the last of Merwell," said Dave to himself, on
returning once again to Oak Hall. But this was not to be, for Merwell
became a student at a rival academy, and once more he and some others
did all they could to make life miserable for our hero.
When the Christmas holidays came around Dave went back to Crumville,
where he and his folks resided with the Wadsworths, who had taken such
a liking to the youth that they did not wish to have him live
elsewhere. Directly after Christmas came a thrilling robbery of the
jewelry works, and Dave and his chums discovered that the crime had
been committed by Merwell and his crony, Jasniff. After a long sea
voyage to Cave Island, one of the evil-doers was captured, but the
other, Link Merwell, managed to make his escape.
During Dave's next term at school there was much trouble with one of
the teachers, who was harsh and unsympathetic, and as a result some of
the boys ran away. It was Dave who went after them and who, in spite
of a fearful flood, managed to bring them back and make them face the
music. Then came the graduation exercises at Oak Hall, Dave receiving
high honors.
Our hero had promised Roger Morr that he would pay the senator's son a
visit. During this time Dave heard of a gold mine belonging to Mrs.
Morr which had been lost because of a landslide. All the boys went out
West in an endeavor to relocate this claim. Their adventures were both
numerous and hazardous, and once more Dave fell in with Link Merwell.
But all went well with our young friends, and they had a glorious
time visiting Yellowstone Park and other points of interest.
"Now you fellows have got to come on a little trip with me," Phil
Lawrence had said after he, Dave and Roger, with the others, had
returned again to the East. There was a small steamer belonging to Mr.
Lawrence that was tied up at Philadelphia getting ready for a trip to
Portland, Maine. The voyage up the Atlantic coast had been productive
of several unlooked-for results. On the way those on the boat had
discovered another vessel in flames. This was a craft being used by a
company of moving-picture actors, and some of the latter in their
panic had leaped overboard. Our young friends, as well as some of the
sailors on their ship, had gone to the rescue; and among others had
picked up a young man, Ward Porton by name. Much to the surprise of
Roger Morr and Phil Lawrence, Ward Porton had looked a good deal like
Dave. Not only that, but many of his manners, outwardly, were similar
to those of our hero.
Following the trip up the coast, it had been decided by the Wadsworths
and the Basswoods to spend part of the summer in the Adirondacks, at a
spot known as Mirror Lake. Thither all of the young people and some of
the older ones went to enjoy themselves greatly and to meet with a
number of strange happenings, all of which have been related in
detail in the volume preceding this, entitled "Dave Porter at Bear
Camp."
The boys fell in with a wild sort of creature whom they at first
supposed to be a crazy uncle of Nat Poole, the son of a miserly money
lender of Crumville. Later, however, the man was found to be a missing
uncle of Phil Lawrence, for whom the Lawrence family had been seeking
for a long time.
Although Dave Porter did not know it at the time, the moving-picture
company to which Ward Porton belonged had also numbered among its
members Dave's former school enemy, Link Merwell. From Link, Ward
Porton, who was the good-for-nothing nephew of a Burlington lumber
dealer, had learned the particulars concerning Dave's childhood and
how he had been placed in the Crumville poorhouse and listed as of
unknown parentage.
This had caused Porton to concoct a clever scheme, and to Mr. Porter
he announced himself as the real Dave Porter, stating that our hero
was really and truly the nobody that years before everybody had
thought him.
This announcement had come like a thunderbolt to poor Dave, and for
the time being he knew not what to do or say. The others, too,
especially his sister Laura and his dear friend, Jessie, were almost
equally affected. But they clung to him, refusing to believe the
story that Ward Porton was circulating.
"You take it from me--this is some scheme gotten up by Link Merwell
and this other fellow," declared one of Dave's chums. And on the
strength of this declaration the youth took it upon himself to do some
clever investigating. From one of the moving-picture actresses Dave
learned much concerning Ward Porton's past, and then, in company with
some of his chums, he journeyed to Burlington, where he met Mr.
Obadiah Jones, the uncle of Porton, and asked the lumber dealer if
Ward were his real nephew or not.
"Yes, he is my real nephew--the son of my youngest sister, who married
a good-for-nothing army man," replied Obadiah Jones; and then gave
many particulars. He stated that his sister's name had been Clarice
Jones Porton, and that years before she had married a certain
Lieutenant Porton of the United States Army, an officer who had been
discharged because of irregularities in his accounts. He further
stated that the mother of the young man was dead, and what had become
of the worthless father he did not know further than that it had been
stated he had joined some revolutionists in Mexico.
Dave had gotten Mr. Jones to sign a paper stating the exact truth
concerning Ward Porton, and with this duly witnessed had returned to
Bear Camp. All present were glad to know that the cloud hanging over
his name had been cleared away. His sister Laura and her friend Jessie
hugged him over and over again in their delight.
Then came news that Link Merwell had been captured, and later on this
misguided young man was sent to prison for his share in the crime at
the jewelry works. A hunt was instituted for Ward Porton, but he had
taken time by the forelock and disappeared.
"I don't believe Ward Porton will ever bother you again, Dave," said
Roger one day. But the surmise of the senator's son proved incorrect,
as we shall see. Ward Porton was to show himself and make more trouble
than he had ever made before.