THE CLOSE OF THE STORY.
WE do not propose to accompany Walter to the mines; it is sufficient to
say that on arriving there he found a complete confirmation of the story
to which he had been a listener. The Great Metropolitan Mine was a
success! It promised to be one of the most profitable in the entire
mining region. There were considerable signs of activity, and as soon as
General Wall and his clique obtained the entire control they were going
to work in earnest. So much Walter picked up on the ground. Of course,
he did not reveal his real name, but still figured as Gilbert Howard.
Walter remained three days, during which he gathered all the information
he desired; then he took the cars for Portville. Less than a fortnight
from the time of his departure he was set down by the stage at the door
of the Portville Hotel.
“Back again, Mr. Howard?” said the landlord. “Your vacation is not over
yet, is it?”
“Business called me back,” said Walter.
“This is indeed a delightful surprise, Mr. Howard,” said Miss Melinda
Jones. “We did not expect you for a fortnight yet.”
“I couldn’t remain so long away from you, Miss Jones,” said Walter,
roguishly.
“Oh, you wicked flatterer!” exclaimed Melinda, shaking her ringlets with
delight, for she had faith in the power of her own attractions, and was
half inclined to believe this statement true. “I have missed you ever so
much.”
“Now it is you who are the flatterer.”
“It’s true; isn’t it, Ichabod?”
“Melinda had no appetite when you were gone, Mr. Howard,” said the
brother. “She was all the time writin’ poetry.”
“Won’t you come to my bower this evening, Mr. Howard? We will commune
with the muses.”
“I am sorry, Miss Jones, but I must call on General Wall this evening.”
“Then let it be to-morrow evening.”
“I won’t promise, but if I can, I will come.”
General Wall was sitting at his desk, making a calculation of the
profits that would accrue to him from the Great Metropolitan Mining
Company. His calculation appeared to be a satisfactory one, judging from
his complacent look. He was interrupted by the entrance of the servant
ushering in Walter. Not having heard of our hero’s return, he was
surprised to see him.
“Good-evening, Mr. Howard,” he said. “I had not heard of your return.
When did you get back?”
“This evening.”
“You expected to be absent longer, did you not?”
“Yes, sir; but I accomplished the object of my journey, and had no
inducement to remain longer.”
“As it’s over a fortnight before school begins, if you choose to give
John private lessons, I shall be glad to have you do so,” said the
general. “I will pay you five dollars a week.”
General Wall looked as if he expected his offer to be accepted with
thanks. Surely it must be an object for an ill-paid school teacher like
Walter to earn five dollars a week during his vacation.
“Will John be willing to study in vacation?” asked Walter.
“No doubt. I will see that he makes no objections.”
General Wall intended to obtain his son’s consent by the offer of a
handsome present, knowing that the desire of improvement would not alone
be sufficient. What was his surprise when Walter answered, “I shall be
obliged to decline your proposal, General Wall!”
“You don’t care about working in vacation, perhaps, Mr. Howard? Or are
you going off again on another journey?”
“I have a different reason, sir--a reason which will also oblige me to
disappoint you about the school. I shall not be able to teach next term,
but must ask you to find another teacher.”
“Really, Mr. Howard, I hope you are not in earnest,” said the general,
surprised and disappointed. “Have you secured another position?”
“No, sir. I do not intend to teach again--at any rate, for some years.”
“Are you going to leave Portville?”
“Yes, sir; but before I go I have some business which I should like to
settle with you.”
“Business--to settle with me!” repeated General Wall, in surprise.
“Yes, sir; to begin with, I have a confession to make.”
General Wall looked suspicious. What was it that Walter was intending to
confess? Was he a thief, or had he violated the laws any way? He was
completely mystified.
“Proceed, Mr. Howard,” he said. “I can’t say that I apprehend your
meaning.”
“In the first place, then, I have no claim to the name by which you
called me.”
“Is not your name Howard?”
“No, sir.”
“What then?”
“I am Walter Conrad.”
“Conrad!” exclaimed General Wall, starting and looking disturbed.
“Surely you are not----” and he came to a pause.
“I am the son of Mr. Conrad, whom you induced to buy a thousand shares
in the Great Metropolitan Mining Company.”
“Ah, indeed!” said General Wall, a little nervously. “That was indeed a
disastrous speculation. I lost by it heavily.”
“It was the cause of my poor father’s death,” said Walter, faltering for
a moment.
“A most unfortunate affair,” muttered the general; “but”--here he
rallied--“I am glad to say, my young friend, that it will not prove a
total loss. I and a few others are going to see if we can’t revive it
and make it pay something. I have already written to Mr. Clement
Shaw--your guardian, is he not?--offering three thousand dollars for
your shares. We may lose by it, but the money will go into good hands. I
hope you are empowered to accept the offer.”
“General Wall,” said Walter, firmly, “don’t you consider the shares
worth more?”
“I am hardly justified in offering so much.”
“Then I will keep the shares.”
“Better think it over, my young friend. It is not by any means certain
that the shares are worth anything.”
“I will take the risk,” said Walter, coolly. “I have just returned from
visiting the mines.”
General Wall listened to this statement with dismay. He found the
negotiations more difficult than he had anticipated.
“Well,” said he, after a pause, “have you any offer to make?”
“I will sell the shares for sixty thousand dollars.”
“You must be crazy,” said the general, in excitement.
“I have no fears on that subject.” said our hero, coolly, “But I may as
well tell you, General Wall, that I am entirely acquainted with your
plan for obtaining complete control of the stock. I know you have
succeeded in buying up most of it at little or nothing, and that you
will probably realize a fortune out of it. But my eyes are open. They
were opened three weeks since, when I overheard, at the Portville House,
a conversation between the landlord and an agent of yours, who gave full
details of the conspiracy into which you had entered to defraud the
original owners of stock. I learned that you had succeeded with all
except myself. The result of this revelation was that I determined to
visit the mines, and see for myself. I spent three days there, and I
have returned to tell you that you may have the stock for sixty thousand
dollars, or I will keep it. I know it is worth more than I ask, but I
live in the East, and I prefer to have my money invested there.”
General Wall had risen, and was pacing the room in some agitation.
“The revelation you have made has taken me by surprise, Mr.--Conrad. I
will think over what you have said, and call upon you at the hotel
to-morrow.”
“Very well, sir. You won’t forget about looking up a new teacher?”
“Oh, ah--yes--I had nearly forgotten that.”
Negotiation was protracted for some days. At length General Wall acceded
to Walter’s terms, and agreed to purchase the stock at the price
named--sixty thousand dollars--ten thousand down, and the balance
payable monthly. Walter instantly telegraphed the good news to Mr. Shaw,
his faithful friend, and received his heartiest congratulations. The
report got about that Walter had inherited a fortune, and Miss Jones was
more devoted than ever. But she shook her ringlets to no purpose. Walter
was not to be fascinated.
When the business was completed, our hero started for the East. He had
striven under difficult circumstances, and he had succeeded. He felt
proud and happy, and grateful to God for having so ordered events as to
lead to this fortune.
He stopped over one day in Chicago. Stepping into the bowling-alley
connected with the hotel, what was his surprise when, in the boy who set
up the pins, shabby and ill clad, he recognized Joshua Drummond!
“Joshua!” he exclaimed, in amazement. “What brings you here?”
Joshua turned scarlet with shame and mortification.
Walter, whom he had once looked down upon, was handsomely dressed, a
gentleman in appearance, while he looked like a beggar.
“I have been very unlucky,” he whined.
“Surely, you don’t like this business?”
“I have to like it. I should starve if I didn’t.”
“Are you so reduced?”
“I have no money, except what I earn here.”
“Would you go home if you could?”
“My father would not receive me. He is angry on account of the money I
took. But it didn’t do me any good. I was swindled out of it.”
“I am going to take you home,” said Walter, resolutely. “It isn’t fit
that you should be in such a business. I will undertake to reconcile
your father.”
“I haven’t money to pay my fare.”
“I have plenty. I have succeeded in getting back a good share of my
property, and am going back to the Essex Classical Institute to finish
preparing for college. If you would like it, I will pay your expenses
there one year. You won’t be the worse off for another year’s
schooling.”
“You are a good fellow, Cousin Walter,” said Joshua, stirred at last to
gratitude. “I should like it much better than going back to Stapleton.”
Walter bought Joshua some new clothes, and together they returned to the
East. Mr. Drummond at first refused to receive his son, but when Walter
revealed his own good fortune, and offered to support his cousin at
school for a year, his sternness relaxed, and reconciliation took place,
much to the delight of Mrs. Drummond, who, bad as Joshua had behaved,
could not forget her only son. I am glad to say that Joshua was improved
by his trials. He acquitted himself fairly at school, and is now
employed in his father’s store, Mr. Drummond, at Walter’s solicitation,
paying him ten dollars a week for his services, besides, of course,
board. Let us hope he will continue to do well.
--------------
A few words in conclusion. Walter is now in college, and stands very
near the head of the senior class. It is his purpose to study law, and
though his fortune is already made, we have reason to believe that he
will work hard and acquire distinction. He knows what it is to Strive
and Succeed. General Wall made a good deal of money out of the Great
Metropolitan Mining Company; but, unluckily for himself, he invested it
in other mines of less worth, and lost all. He is to-day a poor man, and
his son John will have to make his own way in the world. Peter Groot is
learning the carpenter’s trade, and seems likely to become a
respectable, if not brilliant, member of society. Alfred Clinton has
just entered a Western college. His old teacher, our hero, has kindly
offered to defray the expenses of his collegiate education, and Alfred
is longing for the time when he can relieve his mother from work and
surround her old age with comfort. It is an honorable ambition, and
likely to be gratified.
The next volume in this series will be
TRY AND TRUST;
OR,
THE STORY OF A BOUND BOY.
THE END.