THE CRAZY ADMIRAL.
The young adventurers were fortunate in securing a train for the city
almost immediately after leaving the engineer.
Amid the excitement and pleasure of their recent experience life looked
pretty bright, and their enthusiasm lasted all the way to the city.
The money seemed a fortune to them, and they discussed various ways and
means to make it last until they could obtain work.
For that, Nick had insisted, must be their first thought, and even amid
the enjoyable bustle of the train, the novelty of swift travel, and the
rosy promise of the future he found time for serious reflection.
It was dusk when the train rolled into the station at New York--the
giant, teeming metropolis that had been the subject of their fond
dreams for weeks, and which none of them had ever visited before.
At first the stir and din of the streets confused them. The crowds of
hurrying, rushing people in the station, the shouting drivers outside,
the roar from the pavements, the dazzling electric lights, and all the
kaleidoscopic variety of street life bewildered and almost frightened
them.
It was a world of wonders to the country-bred boys. It was some time
before they ventured to leave the vicinity of the station. At last,
however, they plucked up courage and set forth.
“Where are we going to?” asked Will, who clung, half frightened, to
Nick’s arm.
“To look and see what we had better do for a place to sleep,” was the
careless-spoken reply.
Nick did not feel careless, however. Far from it. A great sense of
loneliness and depression dampened for the moment every hope he had
entertained of being able to fight his way in this great, noisy sea of
life.
As they left the railroad terminus, however, the glare and turmoil
decreased. They found quieter streets, and they began to feel less
strange.
“We may as well walk around for an hour or two,” suggested Nick.
“Yes--why not?” said Frank readily. “When we get tired we can find some
place to sleep.”
“There’s another thing, too,” said Nick.
“What’s that?”
“Captain Eccles gave me an address. I’d like to find it.”
“All right.”
Nick referred to the directions the captain had given him concerning
the city residence of Admiral Semmes. He had jotted it down, but he
remembered the street without looking at the written memorandum.
He made an inquiry of a man they passed, and the latter told him that
the street he named was about two miles south and west.
More than once in their efforts to find it the boys went astray. They
were delighted at last to come to a street corner which bore the name
of the thoroughfare they sought.
It was a quiet, retired street, and Nick quickly got the hang of its
ascending scale of numbers and the odd and even sides of the street.
They passed along until they reached the number that Captain Eccles
had given him.
“That’s the house,” said Will eagerly.
He had kept close track of the numbers, and now he pointed to a
house that set far back from the street--one of the few dwellings on
Manhattan Island that still have a long courtyard in front.
“It looks dark and unoccupied,” said Frank.
“And seems to have been so some time,” remarked Nick.
The front fence was broken and the gate lay at one side on the ground.
The walk was in disorder. As the boys approached the veranda, a glance
showed it to be in bad condition, with the steps frail and rickety.
“The windows are broken and the door is open,” said Nick, in surprise.
“What a strange house!”
He felt disappointed as he peered at its dark interior. Plainly the
house was untenanted. Either Captain Eccles had given him the wrong
address, or Admiral Semmes had moved away.
They ventured to enter the dismantled structure. Evidences of
destruction and wanton mischief were revealed on every side. Doors had
been torn from their hinges, blinds broken, and the windows appeared
to have been the target for every mischievous lad’s sling in the
neighborhood.
“This must be the place,” said Nick, “but Admiral Semmes has moved
away. There’s a man passing. I’ll ask him.”
Nick hurried down the steps and spoke to the man.
“Please excuse me, sir,” he said, “but do you live near here?”
“Yes--over there,” and the stranger indicated a house opposite.
“Do you know anything about this house?” asked Nick.
The man smiled oddly.
“Oh, yes, everybody knows about it.”
“Who lives here, sir?” asked Nick eagerly.
“No one now.”
“I mean--you see--who did live here last?” the boy stammered.
“The crazy admiral.”
Nick started. This answer conveyed to the quick-witted lad a feeling
of distrust of Captain Eccles’ strange story. Perhaps all he had told
Nick was a romance, come to him mostly from the distracted mind of a
deluded person.
“The crazy admiral?” repeated Nick.
“Yes. That’s what they called him.”
“Do you mean Admiral Semmes?”
“I believe his name was Semmes. He was a curious old man, who came here
some years ago and shut himself up in that house, and never spoke to
his neighbors.”
“Why did people call him crazy?” asked Nick.
“Oh, he acted so strange. He would lock and bar every window days, and
wander around the garden nights armed with a gun, as if guarding some
treasure. No one ever entered the house but sailors.”
“Sailors, sir?” repeated Nick.
“Yes. When a ship from around the Horn came into New York harbor
you would see the admiral at the docks. He’d invite a whole ship’s
crew here, and give them a great feed and lots of drink for days at
a stretch. Then they would go away, and he would be more solemn and
strange for weeks, when he would repeat the operation.”
“Why did he do that?”
“People said that years ago a ship he owned mysteriously disappeared in
the Pacific Ocean, and he had a hope by questioning sailors from there
to get a clue to it.”
Nick grew more hopeful. There was no insanity in this. Rather,
it verified Captain Eccles’ story, and indicated the systematic
perseverance of a determined man resolute to pursue a shadow till it
gave some semblance of reality to the hope of his life, to learn the
fate of the _Star of Hope_ and the mystery of the hidden treasure of
the far, unknown ocean isle.
The revelations of the man were fascinating to Nick. He listened
eagerly as the former continued:
“Then the admiral would advertise for some letter he had lost.
Altogether he acted very strange, very strange!”
“And when did he leave here, sir?”
“Only a few weeks ago.”
“Do you know where he went?”
“No. One day he rushed to a real-estate man near here. ‘The object of
my life is attained!’ he shouted. ‘I have discovered the lost letter.
Sell my house at once--this day, this very hour, at any sacrifice. I
must have money to perfect my cherished schemes!’ The notary found a
customer who gave $5,000 for the property--less than half its value.
That night the crazy admiral disappeared. We have never seen him since.
The boys have had free range of the building since and have nearly
ruined it, but the man who bought it is going to build stores here. You
seem interested, lad. Do you know the admiral?”
“I wish to see him, sir. He knew my father,” replied Nick.
They talked a little more, then the man passed on.
Nick walked slowly back to the veranda and sat down on the steps,
lost in reflection. There was no fiction in Captain Eccles’ story, no
madness in Admiral Semmes’ strange movements. He believed firmly that
the latter had found the missing letter. How he longed to see him! How
the mysticism and romance of all the events centring around the lost
ship, the _Star of Hope_, thrilled and fascinated him!
He must try and find Admiral Semmes--he must write to Captain Eccles
and tell him of his discoveries and state his own whereabouts.
What more natural than that the admiral should seek out the captain?
And if he did, and an expedition was sent out to search again for the
hidden treasure, how he, Nick Collins, would delight in joining it!
Frank and Will stood watching him curiously and did not disturb his
meditations. He had told them all about his interview with Captain
Eccles, and they discerned that his talk with the man in front of the
house had disturbed him somewhat. Finally Nick broke his reverie and
told them what he had learned.
“It’s getting late, boys,” he said at the conclusion of his interesting
recital. “We must find a place to sleep.”
“Where shall we go?” asked Will.
“We can find a cheap lodging place somewhere.”
“I saw none near here,” said Frank. “Look here, Nick!”
“Well?”
“The weather is fine and no one will disturb us if we stay here.”
“That’s so!” replied Nick.
“Then let us stay here to-night.”
“I’m willing if you are.”
“We are,” said Frank and Will together.
They placed a couple of broken doors on a slant, spread their coats
over them, and were soon in the land of dreams.