STELLA ADOPTS A BROTHER.
Taking up a lantern, Ted entered the room. Beside the overturned table
lay the body of a man. It was not Checkers. There was nothing in the
room except the table, two chairs, a broken lamp, which lay in a pool of
kerosene on the floor, and the body of the murdered man.
Wait, what was this?
Beneath the table was a scrap of green.
It was a bank bill, and, drawing it forth, Ted found it to be a
fifty-dollar note issue'd by the First National Bank of Green River,
Nebraska. A valuable clew, this.
When he had searched the body of the dead man, and found several letters
and a small memorandum book, he left the room and locked it.
"Notify the coroner," said he to the constable, "and give him this key.
If he wants me as a witness in his inquest, he will find me at the
Stratford Hotel, in St. Louis."
The constable promised to carry out Ted's instructions.
"Where is that boy Scrub?" asked Ted.
"Here I am," said the boy, emerging from the crowd.
"Who knows anything about this boy?" Ted asked.
"He's just a loose kid," said the constable. "His father died when he
was young, and his mother left him a few years ago. Since then no one
has claimed him."
"Then I will. Do you want to come with me?" Ted asked the boy. "I will
give you a good home and clothes, teach you something, and make a
useful man of you. Is he a good boy?"
Ted turned to the men about him.
"Yes, Scrub is a good boy, only he never ain't had no chance," seemed to
be the universal verdict.
"Say the word, Scrub. Do you want to come with me?"
"You bet," said Scrub fervently.
"Good! Come along! We'll be getting back to St. Louis."
"But yuh can't get back to-night. The last train has gone."
"Never mind. I'll get there somehow. Some one lend me a lantern for a
few minutes."
Ted was given one, and he went out into the yard and outhouses to search
for the red motor car. He could not find it anywhere.
"Did any of you folks see a red automobile going down the road any time
to-day?" he asked.
"Yes, there's a red machine down in the lane running over to the Rock
Road," said one of the men. "But I reckon it's bust."
"Come on, Scrub, we'll take a look at it," said Ted, Leading off with
the man who had seen the car, and followed by the whole crowd, Ted made
his way to the lane.
Standing in the middle of it was the red car with its No. 118 swaying
from the rear axle in the wind.
Evidently Checkers had started away in it, using it as a swift means of
escape, but it had stopped, and, as he could go no farther in it, he had
abandoned it in the road.
Ted examined the machinery carefully, but could find nothing wrong with
it until he discovered that it had exhausted its supply of gasoline.
But he learned that the grocer at the village, half a mile away, had
gasoline for sale, and two young fellows volunteered to go after some
while Ted overhauled the car.
In half an hour he was ready to start. He made Scrub get into the seat,
and, shaking hands with the constable and shouting a merry good-by to
the others, he started for St. Louis.
It was past midnight when he drew up in front of the Stratford Hotel,
hungry and tired. Scrub was fast asleep, and, taking him in his arms,
Ted entered the hotel.
As he stepped inside, the clerk stared at him as if he had seen a ghost.
"How's everything?" asked Ted of the clerk.
"Great Scott, where did you come from?" asked, the clerk, and added
hastily: "Better hurry upstairs to your room. Everybody is crazy about
your disappearance."
Ted went up in the elevator with the boy still sleeping in his arms.
There was a light in his room and a confused murmur of voices.
Without the formality of a knock he opened the door and entered. As he
appeared in the doorway there was silence for a moment, then such a
bedlam of shouts and laughter burst forth that every one on the floor
was aroused.
"It's Ted! It's Ted!" they shouted, and crowded around him.
The place was full of them. Across the room he saw the shining face of
Stella, smiling a welcome at him. Ben and Kit, Carl, Clay, and all of
them were there, and sitting at the table was the chief of detectives.
"Hello! Holding a post-mortem over me?" asked Ted.
"It comes pretty near that," said Bud. "Dog-gone you, what do you mean
by goin' erway an' hidin' out on us that way? What in ther name o' Sam
Hill an' Billy Patterson hev yer picked up now?" Bud was looking
curiously at the bundle of rags in Ted's arms, for the boy still slept.
"This is a new pard," said Ted. "If it hadn't been for this kid you'd
probably never seen me again."
"Erlucerdate," demanded Bud.
"Not until some one goes out to the nearest restaurant and orders up a
stack of grub for Scrub and me. I haven't had anything to eat or drink
for thirty-six hours, and I'm almost all in, and this kid has been
living on apples and water for a couple of weeks. Now, hustle somebody
and let me put this kid on the bed---my back's nearly broke--or maybe
it's my stomach, they're so close together now I can't tell which it is
that hurts."
While Ted was laying the boy on the bed he woke up, and, finding himself
in a strange place, and a finer room than he had ever been in before,
surrounded by a lot of rather boisterous young men, he leaped to the
floor and started to the door. But Ted caught him by the arm and drew
him back.
"What's the matter with you, you young savage?" said Ted.
"Oh, I'm all right now," said the boy. "When I woke up I got rattled, I
guess, but as long as you're here it's all right."
The food came up now borne by two waiters and piloted by Kit. There were
oysters and steak and potatoes and biscuit and a lot of what Missouri
folk call "fixin's," and a big pot of coffee.
Scrub's eyes stood out like doorknobs as he viewed this wonderful array
of things to eat. The table was cleared, the waiters set out the food,
and the boys stood back to give Ted and the boy "room to swell," as Bud
expressed it. The way they tucked into the good things was a caution.
After their hunger was satisfied and the waiters had restored order to
the table, Ted began the story of his adventures since he had let Bud
out of the automobile. As he talked, Stella wooed the small boy to her
side, and listened to the story with her arm around his shoulder, and
long before it was done Scrub was her worshiper forever.
Chief Desmond listened with close attention, and when Ted finished and
exhibited the bill of the Green River Bank, which he examined carefully,
he said:
"Mr. Strong, you've beaten us all to it. I will go out to-morrow--I mean
to-day, for it's one o'clock now--and view the body myself. If it is, as
seems almost certain to be, Dude Wilcox, one of the most dangerous men
in the West is gone, but he has left behind for us to fight, and you to
find, the man Checkers. This bill is your clew to the gang, but it is a
counterfeit. As I have the thing figured out, the gang knew that forty
thousand dollars was going to be shipped, but for some reason or other
they dared not hold up the train out there, and telegraphed the gang in
St. Louis to get it. Dude was at the head of the bunch here, and as it
was a one-man game so near to St. Louis, Dude was elected to pull it
off, which he did to the queen's taste. Perhaps the bill you have is the
only counterfeit in the lot. Perhaps not. That is for you to work out."
"But how he managed to get away with the swag I haven't managed to
figure out yet," said Ted.
"Of course, I don't know either, but deducing facts from what I know of
the gang's methods, and from long experience with gentlemen of the road,
I would say that the members of the gang who were killed in their
rendezvous in Pine Street by my unfortunate men were awaiting the
arrival of Dude with the swag. Checkers had secret knowledge that you
had been put on their trail, and when he saw you pick up that red car
in East St. Louis he was sure that you knew about the robbery and that
you were on to Dude."
"That's likely," said Ted. "I hadn't thought of that."
"Well, he got into communication with Dude, and warned him against
coming to the Pine Street place. You see, they had another rendezvous
out in the country, a haunted house, the reputation of which would keep
prying country boys away from it."
"Best sort of a place for a criminal hangout," said Ted.
"You're right, and now that you have discovered it, I'll take pains to
see that it's never used for such again. But, as I was going to say,
Dude's intention was to get out of town, return, go to the Pine Street
room, divide the swag, and skip. He probably left the train at Somerset,
or some other little town down the line, hid in the cornfields until
dusk, stole a horse and buggy, and drove across the country to the
haunted house, and later was joined by Checkers, who had been trailing
you, and later succeeded in getting you. Had it not been for the quarrel
between Dude and Checkers, it is more than likely that you would have
been murdered by Checkers. But one murder was enough for his nerve, and,
forgetting you, he vamosed."
The detective arose to take his departure, again congratulating Ted on
the outcome of his adventure.
"Keep your eye peeled for Checkers, and if you do run across him, have
your gun at half cock," he said, and, bidding good night to all, went
away.
"And now, good fellows, all to bed," said Ted. "To-morrow we start for
the West, and the capture of the head men of the train-robber syndicate,
and the extermination of the business."
In the morning, before the others were up, Ted made Scrub take a bath,
and then they sallied forth to a clothing store. When they came out,
instead of the ragged and dirty little boy, there walked proudly by
Ted's side a fine, clean, fresh-looking lad in a well-fitting serge
suit, and other appointments that transformed him completely.
When they arrived at the hotel the boys professed not to know Scrub.
"Hello, picked up another kid?" asked Bud. "I swow, yer allers goin'
round pickin' up mavericks. I reckon yer aim ter brand this one as well
ez ther one yer brought in last night."
"Why, here's another kid," said Ben, looking over Scrub's new outfit
with interest. "He don't look much like the one you brought in last
night. I reckon that one has run away, I don't see him anywhere."
Poor Scrub was standing first on one foot and then on the other, fairly
squirming with embarrassment.
Ted gave the boys the nod to cease teasing the boy.
"Don't mind those fellows, they're only joshing," said Ted.
"Oh, I don't mind it if they can get any fun out of it," said Scrub,
with a smile. "Maybe, some day I can get back at them, when I know them
better."
Stella came down in the elevator at that moment, and, catching sight of
Scrub, gave a little scream of astonishment at his altered appearance.
"Goodness, what a fine-looking addition to the family!" she said,
shaking hands with the boy, who blushed and looked pleased. "I don't
like the name Scrub a bit. I'm going to change his name."
"This isn't leap year, Stella," said Ben.
"You hush! What name would you rather have than Scrub? That's no name
for a broncho boy," she said to the boy.
"I don't know," answered the boy. "What name do you like?"
"I think she likes Ben better than any," said Ben, posing in a very
handsome manner.
"Don't listen to him, he's always teasing. You want something short and
easy to say."
"What's the matter with 'Say'?" said Ben. "That's always easy to
remember. I notice that when a man wants to call another on the street
he just hollers 'Say,' and half a dozen fellows turn around."
"Then that makes it too common," decided Stella. "What name would you
suggest, Ted? He's got to have two names."
"Let us get one of the newspapers to start a voting contest on it."
"Ben, if you don't stop your foolishness, I won't play," said Stella.
"You name him, Stella," said Ted. "Anything you say goes."
"Then we'll call him Dick, after my father," said Stella. "He never had
a boy, and always wanted one. I'm going to adopt this boy as a brother.
His name shall be Dick Fosdick. That sounds funny, doesn't it, but I
didn't do it on purpose."
There was a tear in her eye at the thought of her father, and the boys
looked rather solemn, for while they hoped for the best, they didn't as
yet know the lad, and perhaps they had saddled themselves with a future
regret, but Stella trusted and believed in the little chap, who was very
proud that at last he had thrown off and buried forever the name of
Scrub.
That evening they took the train for the West, their destination being
Green River.
The automobile Ted sent on by express that he might have it not only for
use, for he was becoming attached to it, but as a clew to the detection
of the express robbers.