CONCLUSION.
"Benny is old man Willis's son," Tony hastened to explain. "If you was
to shake 'em both up in a hat, it is hard to tell which one of 'em
would come out first for meanness. That's our story, sir. You know what
happened after we got aboard the White Squall."
"What did Willis mean when he called you off on one side saying that he
had an order for you?" inquired Roy. "Did he want me to believe that he
was about to send you to the city for goods?"
"I don't know what he meant you should believe; he jest wanted to give
me a few parting instructions. He said you didn't much like the idee of
going out in that wind, and that if you raised a fuss about it after we
got started, we must quiet you by saying that we dassent turn around
for fear of a capsize. He said, furder, that we mustn't talk to you
more'n we could help, for you'd kick if you found you was going aboard
the White Squall. He said you had the order for the money in your
pocket, and what was writ on the paper he give me was meant to hurry
Cap'n Jack up, so't we could get back to the island before the wind riz
any higher. But t'wasn't no such thing," continued Tony, wrathfully.
"It told Cap'n Jack to take us to sea and say nothing about it."
"And were you stupid enough to believe that our friend Roy was Rowe
Shelly? You stood within arm's-length of him, and it looks to me as
if you ought to have seen at a glance that it wasn't any one you
knew," said Arthur, forgetting that he had once stood within less than
arm's-length of Rowe Shelly, and never suspected that he wasn't Roy
Sheldon until he had come pretty near being thrown on his head.
"We never knew the difference," said Tony, earnestly, "for the reason
that we didn't know there was anything wrong. We knew Rowe had run
away, and as me and Bob supposed that he had been ketched and brung
back, like he was before, we didn't ask no questions. Of course we
thought it was Rowe that we were going to take off to the ship after
that money, and why should we not? How could we tell one from t'other
when the night was so dark, and they were both dressed alike and the
wind blowed so loud that we couldn't re_cog_nize his voice?"
"What did you think when you saw him jump into the harbor?" inquired
Joe.
"Well, sir, we was scared to death, and there isn't no manner of sense
in saying we wasn't. We wouldn't never dared to show our faces in New
London again if I hadn't found this letter, 'cause we'd been afraid
that we might be tooken up for trying to make way with Rowe, though
Lord knows we wouldn't a raised a finger against him. What's writ onto
this here paper will clear us, won't it, sir?"
"I think it will; but if you need any more evidence, drop a line to me.
I will give you my address," said Roy. "What made you back away from me
when I got off my wheel and walked toward you? Did you think I was a
ghost?"
"I ain't quite sure that there is such things as ghosts in the world,"
replied Tony, "though in my time I've talked to more'n one who has seen
'em; but wouldn't you feel kinder oneasy under them circumstances? We
took you aboard the ship a purpose, like we told you, but we didn't do
it to get you used like you was."
"Then you knew that ship was the White Squall, and that she was not
going into the harbor for shelter?" said Joe.
"Course we did, sir. What would any craft want to run from a fair
sailing wind like that for? We knew she was going to sea, and was in
a hurry to get you aboard so't you could get the money we thought you
wanted. We thought it kinder queer 'cause you didn't give the cap'n
the order when I give him the letter, but we didn't mistrust anything
till we seen you go overboard. Of course we knew before that, that we
had all been shanghaied; but what I mean is, that we never mistrusted
till then that mebbe you wasn't Rowe Shelly. We didn't think he'd have
the pluck to jump overboard, for he isn't much of a boy for going a
swimming. When we was running into Plymouth some of them Bethel fellers
flung a lot of papers aboard of us, and me and Bob happened to get hold
of one that told us all about it, only it didn't say anything about
Rowe Shelly. Ain't your name Peter Smith?"
"Not much," replied Roy, with a laugh. "But I am the fellow who jumped
overboard, all the same. Now, what induced you two to tramp back to New
London instead of shipping on some vessel that would take you there?"
"There are two reasons for it," answered Tony. "In the first place,
there wasn't no ship in port that was going where we wanted to go;
and in the next, we've had enough of the water and thought we'd like
to stay on shore for a spell. You see, we ain't by no means as young
as we used to be, and can't stand the hard knocks as well. We never
got a blow after we was drove for'ard that night, 'cause we know what
a sailor man's duty is and we done it; but them was a rough lot of
officers, I tell you. Do you know where Rowe Shelly is now?"
"I am sorry to say we don't," replied Arthur. "We hoped to hear from
him before this time, but if he has written us, the letter hasn't
caught up with us. But we can tell you one thing: when you get back to
the island you'll not find matters as they were when you left. My two
friends here saw Rowe, mistook him for me just as Willis and Babcock
mistook me for Rowe, had a long talk with him, and put some ideas into
his head. Colonel Shelly will have to give up Rowe's money and get out
of that--you'll see; and if Captain Shelly is still alive, he will come
to that island and take possession."
Joe Wayring and his friends spent the best part of the afternoon in
Tony's company and Bob's, and did not take leave of them until they
had learned as much of Rowe Shelly's history as the men were able to
tell them. They also asked after Captain Jack; but that worthy and his
mates had disappeared the moment the Sarah West had reached the wharf
at Plymouth, and Tony could not say where they were. No doubt they
had gone to New London on the cars, while the foremast hands, having
no money at their command, had to ship again as soon as they could,
or turn tramps for a season as Tony and Bob had done. Roy gave them
his address, advised them to use all the means in their power to open
communication with Rowe when they reached the city, and stand by to aid
him in getting his rights; and then he and his friends shared their
small stock of money with them, and once more turned their faces toward
Mount Airy.
"Didn't I tell you that you were taken aboard the White Squall on
purpose?" said Joe, as they shot around the first bend in the road and
left the sailors out of sight. "I guess you are willing to believe it
now."
"And I think you are equally willing to believe that I was right when
I said that Tony and Bob were shanghaied the same as I was," retorted
Roy. "That man Willis is a schemer from way back. I shall always think
that the easiest way for him to get out of his difficulty would have
been to send me ashore, as I thought he was going to do. I never would
have made him trouble, for up to the time I was sent aboard that ship I
was treated as well as I wanted to be."
"I think Willis was afraid he would lose his situation if he told the
colonel that he had made a mistake, captured the wrong boy, and given
Rowe a chance to get away," said Arthur.
"I don't see why he should be, for if I understand the situation, his
employer would not dare discharge him," continued Roy. "For some reason
or other Willis made up his mind that the only thing he could do was
to get rid of me; he was afraid to hire Tony and Bob to take me aboard
that ship and leave me there, for that would give them a hold upon him;
so he thought the best way was to get rid of the whole of us in a lump.
I will say this much for Willis: he came pretty near doing it. I felt
tolerable mad at Tony and Bob when you fellows suggested that they had
been hired to have me kidnapped, and here I've gone and divided my last
dollar with them."
"And we felt just as angry at Rowe for getting you into a scrape, and
yet we are ready to stand by him," said Joe. "On the whole, I am
satisfied with what we have done on this trip."
I thought he had reason to be. There was no one along the route who
knew what Joe had done to avert that railroad disaster, but the folks
at home had been posted before this time. On the day they left Plymouth
Arthur and Roy mailed the full details of Joe's "Wild Ride," but the
latter knew nothing of it until a week had passed, and they stopped
for the night at a railway station where they found their trunks and
a package of mail waiting for them. When Joe glanced at his mother's
letter beginning: "My dear boy, how could you do it? I am frightened
every time I think of it," and the first line of Uncle Joe's, which
ran: "I am proud of my brave namesake. You have covered yourself with
glory enough for one summer, and had better come home and relieve
your mother's anxiety," he knew just what had been going on, and
congratulated himself on having escaped return orders until his face
was toward Mount Airy. All he said to his friends was:
"You fellows spread ink a trifle too freely while we were in Plymouth.
If I had suspected it, I would have dropped the pair of you over the
end of the pier like a couple of kittens."
"Perhaps that wouldn't have been so easy, either," replied Arthur.
"More than twenty days' steady wheeling has brought us a tolerable
muscle, I want you to remember. But what's the odds? It was bound to
come out, and Roy and I kept still about it until we were homeward
bound. When you write all you've got to do is to tell Uncle Joe we're
coming."
Joe wrote that very night, and his letter contained a complete history
of Roy's doings in New London harbor, and told how Arthur had come near
getting them into serious trouble by shooting Matt Coyle's watch-dogs.
He omitted nothing, and when he finished, he flattered himself that
he had described the thing in language so graphic that Roy and Arthur
would be invited to expedite their return.
The next time they came up with their letters, they also found papers
containing some surprising as well as gratifying intelligence.
Every man in the Buster band, including Matt Coyle and his gang of
train-wreckers, had been arrested and put under lock and key. Acting
upon the advice given him by the young wheelmen, Mr. Holmes had gone to
New London and identified his property; that is, the implements that
had been used to force that big rock from its bed and roll it upon the
track. It was by his suggestion (which in the first place came from one
of our three friends, as you will remember) that a couple of officers,
disguised as tramp hunters, came to Glen's Falls and proceeded to
"spot" every man they wanted. More strange tramps came in at intervals,
and when the officers, for that was what they really were, were nearly
equal in number to the law-breakers, they "corralled the whole business
and ran them in." To quote from Roy Sheldon, who was so highly excited
that he wanted to yell, it was a "pretty slick scheme," and by the time
Matt was through serving the sentence that would surely be passed upon
him, they would no longer stand in any fear of him, for they would be
big enough to punch his head if he didn't let them alone.
"But I am really afraid our friend Bigden will see fun now," said Roy,
in conclusion. "If Matt gets half a chance he will tell all he knows."
"I don't believe the things he did in the Indian Lake country will be
brought against him," said Joe. "He'll come in for trying to wreck the
train; and by the time he has been punished for that, he won't want to
get into any more scrapes."
"And where will we come in? Look here, Bub," exclaimed Roy, shaking his
finger at Joe. "When you took that unworthy revenge upon Art and me,
and told your mother what we have done and suffered since we have been
on the road, you told her that we laid in the bushes and heard all Matt
and his fellow rascals had to say, didn't you? I thought as much. Well,
_that_ will be sure to come out, with all the rest of the things, and
the last one of us will be _subpoenaed_. If any one of us spread ink
too freely, you are the man."
"I didn't see Matt that night," protested Joe, "for it was so dark I
couldn't see anybody."
"No matter, you heard his voice. You will be called upon to tell how
you knew it was his voice, and all that, and the first thing you know
there'll be something wormed out of you that you don't mean to tell."
Joe Wayring did not like to think about that, but still he did not eat
or sleep any the less for fear of it. He enjoyed the homeward run and
so did his friends, for they had done what they set out to do, and more
too. They stopped for one night at the Lafayette House, and spent the
evening at the Academy of Music; but there was no detective waiting
to take one of them by the arm when they came out, and neither did
they meet any one who could give them any information concerning Rowe
Shelly. They sent a despatch to their parents, telling where they were,
and when they would be home, and the result was that about three miles
out of Mount Airy they found a delegation of wheelmen waiting for them.
Of course the drug-store crowd was not represented, but Tom Bigden and
his cousins were there. Joe thought he knew what Tom had come for, and
was made sure of it when Tom ranged alongside of him, after a short
halt had been made and the hand-shaking was over, and in a roundabout
way began making inquiries concerning Matt Coyle. Joe was sorry he
couldn't tell much about him, but he said enough to set Tom's fears at
rest. He declared--not as if he thought Tom had the least interest in
the matter, but merely as an item of news--that he would not prosecute
Matt for stealing his canoe or tying him to a tree, because he would
have enough to answer for when he was brought up for putting that rock
on the railroad track. Joe was not revengeful, but he did want to see
the squatter punished for that.
It is hardly necessary to add that Tom Bigden breathed easier after his
talk with Joe, and when he left the latter at his gate and told him he
was glad he and his friends had had an enjoyable run and come safely
home, in spite of everybody and everything that had tried to hinder
them, the words came from his heart. Tom had been on nettles ever since
he read in the papers that Matt was still alive, and in a fair way to
be brought to justice, and although he felt relieved, he knew he would
not sleep soundly until Matt's trial was over and prison doors had
closed upon him.
"Six hundred and forty-two miles in thirty-five days," said Joe, when
he had kissed his mother and shaken hands with every one who was on
the back porch. "A little over eighteen miles a day. That wouldn't be
anything to brag of if the roads had been good all the way; but when
you take the mountains and long patches of sand into consideration--"
"And Matt Coyle and the train-wreckers," added Uncle Joe.
"They didn't delay us any to speak of," replied the young wheelman,
"but that Roy Sheldon, with his black eyes and lame arm, did. Well, I'm
glad to get back, and why don't you say you are glad to see me?"
Every one of them had said so more than once, for I had heard them,
and besides, they showed it very plainly by their actions. Everybody
in town was glad to see him, and he had so much visiting to do that
for a time I was entirely neglected. One morning I had a chance to
say "hello!" to the Canvas Canoe and Fly-rod as they were carried
across the porch and down the path that led to the lake, and when they
returned at dark I exchanged a few words with them before they were
taken up-stairs. In as few words as possible I told them where I had
been and what I had seen during my long absence, and in return Fly-rod
told me that he had that day seen two old acquaintances; or as he
expressed it, "the whole of one and a part of the other."
"In the show-case in which I stood before Joe Wayring bought me, were
a couple of high-priced lads, a split-bamboo and a double-barrel
shot-gun, who wouldn't say a civil word to me because I was worth only
six dollars and a half," said Fly-rod, with a ring of triumph in his
tones. "The gun was purchased by a dude who went into the woods because
it was fashionable, and the bamboo became the property of one of the
handsomest little girls you ever saw. Well, I saw that rod to-day
lying flat in the mud, while his owner was paddling in the water with
bare feet. He was rusted all over where there was any thing to rust,
and you could see daylight between his ribs where they had been glued
together. He was ashamed to speak to me, for he had boasted that he was
going to Canada to do battle with the lordly salmon. A little while
afterward we heard a booming up the lake and saw a commotion in a
boat whose crew were engaged in shooting wood-ducks. The Canvas Canoe
took us up there in a hurry, and we found that a gun had burst in the
hands of one of the party--the very dude who bought that double-barrel
shot-gun. There wasn't much left of the gun, nothing but the stock and
locks, in fact, but I knew him. The dude wasn't hurt, for a wonder, but
he was mad, and the minute he recovered from the fright into which he
had been thrown, he grabbed the wreck of that gun and sent it as far
as he could into the bushes. Here _I_ am, sound as a dollar, thanks to
the good treatment I have received, supple as ever and ready to catch
another black bass any time I am called upon."
The next thing that interested me was hearing a letter from Rowe Shelly
read on the porch. He hadn't written before for the very good reason
that he had nothing to say; and although he had plenty now, he had no
time to say it, for he was going after his father and mother who were
alive and well, but poor owing to ill health. He went into hiding, as
Joe said he did, and found a lawyer to interest himself in his case;
but although the latter went to work very quietly, Colonel Shelly and
Willis and Benny had taken the alarm and cleared out. His parents had
been advertised for and found, and Rowe was going to them by the first
train. He would have more to tell them in his next letter, and wanted
them, one and all, to get ready to visit him the minute he sent them
word. He owed them everything he had, or was going to have, and they
would see that he wasn't the boy to forget such things.
And neither did Roy Sheldon forget those men on the light-ship. Of
course they did nothing more than their duty when they pulled Roy out
of the water and took care of him, but that did not lessen the boy's
gratitude nor his father's, either. Mr. Sheldon made it his business
to drop into a bank shortly after Roy came home, and when he left it
those old sea dogs had a handsome sum of money to draw on, though they
were advised to let it accumulate so that they would have something to
fall back upon when they became too old to attend to the light-ship.
Before I went into winter quarters I had the satisfaction of knowing
that everything had turned out just as Joe Wayring and his friends
wished. Rowe Shelly found his parents and easily established their
identity, with his lawyer's help, and the rascally guardian, as well
as those who aided him in keeping the boy out of his rights, were
overhauled before they had left the city many miles behind; but they
were not brought to trial. They simply surrendered their ill-gotten
gains, Captain Shelly took quiet possession of his island home, and
that was the end of the matter so far as they were concerned; but the
gossips had something to talk about for weeks afterward. Joe Wayring
and his friends were not needed when Matt Coyle was brought before the
court in Bloomingdale, for those tramp detectives had all the evidence
they wanted to send him and his gang to prison. Then Tom Bigden felt
safe, and I hope he has turned over a new leaf as he has often promised
to do. Although every one in Mount Airy heard of the things that George
Prime threw up to him, there were few who believed them, thanks to the
way Joe and his chums stuck to him through thick and thin.
A few days ago Rowe Shelly wrote that he was ready and waiting for Joe
and the "rest of his crowd," and the sooner they came to see him the
better he would like it. They will accept the invitation for the coming
holidays; and if I am any judge of boys' tastes they will find few
topics of conversation that will be of more interest to them than the
incidents I have attempted to describe in my story, and which happened
during THE RAMBLES OF A BICYCLE.
THE END.
FAMOUS CASTLEMON BOOKS.
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HORATIO ALGER, JR.
The enormous sales of the books of Horatio Alger, Jr., show the
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Mr. Alger became famous with the publication of that undying book,
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young people, and its success was so great that he immediately devoted
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it has been selling steadily, until now it is estimated that about
200,000 copies of the series have been sold.
--_Pleasant Hours for Boys and Girls._