HILDA GETS HER RIGHTS.
“Can they be real?” gasped Merry, amazed.
“Of course they are!” cried the girl. “And I helped smuggle them into
the United States. Don’t you see through the trick now? I didn’t know
till after it was all over. Before I was a smuggler’s daughter, now I am
a smuggler! Do you wonder that I have been afraid? Do you wonder that I
have hidden myself away?”
“But Jones——”
“When I realized what I had done, what he had led me to do, I lost no
time in packing and hastening from Boston. I took the doll with me, you
may be sure, for I knew, as I know now, that its precious contents were
purchased with my father’s money and really belong to me.”
“Then you are rich!” exclaimed Merriwell, still fascinated by the
glitter of the diamonds.
She wrung her hands.
“No, no!” she cried. “For though these diamonds belong to me, how can I
prove it?”
Frank realized all the difficulties of her position and he was somewhat
bewildered himself, not finding a ready answer.
“I have brought you here to advise me,” she went on. “You must tell me
what to do. I will not give these diamonds up to Jones. Yet I cannot
keep them. If I turn them over to the authorities, it is not likely I’ll
ever see them again, for am I not the daughter of a smuggler? Who will
believe my story?”
Frank sat there in silence for a few moments.
“It is the only thing you can do, Miss Dugan,” he said, at last. “I will
go with you to the custom-house. The question will be solved there. We
cannot solve it ourselves.”
She seemed to hesitate, but he talked to her calmly, and soon convinced
her that it was the only way.
“I will take your advice,” she said, at last. “At least, Jones shall not
have these gems.”
She closed the opening and hid the precious stones from view. The doll
was wrapped in a cloak, and they prepared to leave the house, for Frank
advised immediate action.
As they descended the steps to the sidewalk, a man who had been lurking
near rushed upon Merry. Tossing the bundle to Hilda, Frank turned to
meet the fellow, who cried:
“I have finished one of the devils to-night with his own knife, and now
I’ll finish you before you complete your work of destruction!”
It was Tom Stevens. Frank barely avoided the fellow’s rush, and Stevens
caught his foot somehow, plunging headlong against the stone steps as he
fell. He lay still.
“He’s hurt!” cried Hilda.
“Stunned, probably,” said Frank. “We’ll send an officer to care for him.
Let’s lose no time.”
So, leaving him there, they looked for an officer, whom they soon found
and told him that a man had fallen and injured himself.
Then they went on to the custom-house, carrying their precious burden.
* * * * *
Jack Diamond had fancied Merriwell was with Inza. He was not a little
surprised when Frank appeared and told his story.
The following morning the newspapers told how Hilda Dugan had brought
the doll and its valuable contents to the custom-house, where she had
turned it over to the officers. Her complete story was included, but it
ended with the information that the smuggler, Jones, was dying in the
hospital, having been attacked in front of Shanley’s and stabbed by an
unknown man.
In an obscure corner of the paper was an item about a strange man who
had been picked up on the steps of a house, having a fractured skull.
He, also, was in the hospital, and it was not thought he would recover.
This man was Tom Stevens.
Jones did not last through the day, but before he passed away Hilda
stood beside him, and he confessed that the money with which he had
purchased the diamonds on the other side of the ocean had belonged to
her father and been left for her.
This confession of the dying man was taken down by a stenographer,
written out in full, signed by Jones, and sworn to before witnesses.
At Frank’s advice, Hilda had secured the services of an able lawyer, and
he was present when the confession was made. He congratulated her when
it was over and the paper was in his possession.
“This fixes it very nicely,” he declared. “You will obtain your rights
now, Miss Dugan. Of course, the duty on the diamonds must be paid, but
the Government will be unable to hold them, for you were innocent of any
intent to do wrong, and you set yourself right by turning over the
diamonds to the authorities. I am informed there was over twenty
thousand dollars’ worth of stones, so you are a rich girl.”
“And all because I took the advice of Frank Merriwell,” said she. “If I
had not, it would not have come out so well.”
In the hospital she found Tom Stevens and saw that everything possible
was done for him. He did not know her, but he told her of a beautiful
girl far away in Maine whom he loved, but who cared nothing for him. Her
eyes were red from unshed tears when she left him.
That evening Frank called on Hilda. He brought Jack Diamond along, and
the Virginian was afterward forced to confess that the girl from Maine
was as charming in her manners and conversation as she had appeared when
he first saw her on Twenty-third Street.
“Yes,” Jack told himself, “she is much like Juliet, only she lacks a
certain refinement Juliet possesses.”
At the same time Frank was thinking:
“How much like Inza she is! I don’t think I ever noticed it before; but
she lacks a certain subtle charm that Inza possesses—something that
seems to belong to Inza alone.”
And Hilda was thinking:
“Jack Diamond is handsome, but he cannot compare with Frank Merriwell.
Frank is the handsomest fellow in all the world, and in the future, as
in the past, he’ll always be my hero.”
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