BARTON KEITH'S STORY
"What's this Mary tells me, Tom?" asked Mr. Nestor, as he followed his
daughter back into the room.
"You mean about Dixwell Hardley?"
"Yes. Do you suppose he can be the same man who has so meanly treated
my brother-in-law?"
"I wouldn't want to say, Mr. Nestor, until you describe to me the Mr.
Hardley you know. Then I can better tell. But from what little I have
seen of the man to whom I was introduced by my friend Mr. Damon, I'd
say, off hand, that he was capable of such action."
"Does Mr. Damon know this Mr. Hardley well?" asked Mrs. Nestor, who
accompanied her husband.
"I wouldn't say that he did," Tom replied. "I don't know just how Mr.
Damon met this chap--I think it was in a financial way, though."
"Well, if it's the same Mr. Hardley, I'll say he has some queer
financial ways," said Mr. Nestor. "Now let's see if we can make the two
jibe. Describe him, Tom."
This the young inventor did, and when this description had been
compared with one given of the Mr. Hardley with whom Mr. Keith once was
associated, Mrs. Nestor said:
"It surely is the same man! The Mr. Hardley who wants you to get wealth
from the bottom of the ocean, Tom, is the same fellow who is keeping my
brother out of the oil well property! I'm sure of it!"
"It does seem so," Tom agreed. "Dixwell Hardley is not a usual name;
but we must be careful. In spite of its unusualness there may be two
very different men who have that name. I think the only way to find out
for certain is to see Mr. Keith. He'd know a picture of the Dixwell
Hardley who, he claims, cheated him, wouldn't he?"
"Indeed he would!" exclaimed Mrs. Nestor. "But where could we get a
picture of your Mr. Hardley? I call him that, though I don't suppose
you own him, Tom," and she smiled at her future son-in-law.
"No, I don't own him, and I don't want to," was Tom's answer. "But I
happen to have a picture of him. I made him furnish me with proofs that
he was on the Pandora at the time she foundered in a gale, and among
the documents he gave was his passport. It has his picture on. I have
it here."
Tom drew the paper from his pocket. In one corner was pasted a
photograph of the man who had been introduced to Tom by Mr. Damon.
"It looks like the same man my brother described," said Mrs. Nestor,
"but of course I couldn't be sure."
"There is only one way to be," Tom stated, "and that is to show this
picture to Mr. Keith. Where is he?"
"Ill at his home in Bedford," answered Mrs. Nestor.
"Then we'll go there and see him!" declared Tom.
"But it's a hundred miles from here!" exclaimed Mary. "And you are
leaving on your submarine trip the first thing in the morning, Tom!"
"No, I'm not leaving until I settle this matter," declared the young
inventor. "I'm not going on an undersea voyage with a man who may be a
cheater. I want this matter settled. I'll postpone this trip until I
find out. A day's delay won't matter."
"But it will take longer than that," said Mr. Nestor. "Bedford is a
small place, and there's only one train a day there. You'll lose at
least three days Tom, if you go there."
"Not necessarily," was the quick answer. "I can go by airship, and make
the trip in a little over an hour. I can be back the same day, perhaps
not in time to start our submarine trip, as Mr. Keith may be too ill to
see me. But I won't lose much time in my Air Scout.
"Mary, will you go with me to see your uncle? We'll start the first
thing in the morning and I'll show him this picture. Will you go?"
"I will!" exclaimed the girl.
"Good!" cried Tom. "Then I'll make preparations. I don't want to form
any rash judgment, so we'll make certain; but it wouldn't surprise me a
bit to have it turn out that the Dixwell Hardley who wants me to help
him recover the Pandora treasure is the same one who is trying to cheat
Mr. Keith."
Early the next morning, when Tom arose in his own home, he met Mr.
Damon and Mr. Hardley, both of whom were guests at the Swift house,
pending the beginning of the undersea trip.
"Well, Tom," began the eccentric man, "we have good weather for the
start. Bless my rubber boots! Not that it much matters, though, what
sort of weather we have when we're in the submarine. But I always like
to start in the sunshine."
"So do I," agreed Mr. Hardley. "I suppose we'll get off early this
morning," he added.
"We'll go to the dock in the auto, as usual, shall we not?" he asked.
"We aren't going to start this morning," said Tom, as he sat down to
breakfast.
"Not going to start this morning!" exclaimed Mr. Hardley. "Why--why--"
"Bless my alarm clock!" voiced Mr. Damon, "has anything happened, Tom?
No accident to the M. N. 1 is there? You aren't backing out now, at the
last minute, are you?"
"Oh, no," was the easy answer. "We'll go, as arranged, but not today. I
had some unexpected news last night which necessitates making a trip
this morning. I expect to be back tonight, if all goes well, and we'll
start tomorrow morning instead of this. It's a matter of important
business."
"Well, I don't know that we can find fault with Mr. Swift for attending
to business," said Mr. Hardley, with a short laugh. "Business is what
keeps the world moving. And we are a little ahead of our schedule, as a
matter of fact. May I ask where you are going, Mr. Swift?"
"To Bedford, to call on a Mr. Barton Keith," answered Tom quickly,
looking the adventurer straight in the eyes.
Mr. Hardley was a good actor, or else he was a perfectly innocent man,
for he showed not the least sign of perturbation.
"Oh, Bedford," he remarked. "Don't know that I ever heard of the place."
"Or Mr. Keith, either?" asked Tom, a bit sharply.
"No, certainly not. Why should I?" he asked, boldly.
"I didn't know," Tom replied. "I'm sorry to postpone our trip, but it's
necessary," he added. "I'll be back as soon as I can. Everything is in
readiness, so there will be no delay."
Tom made a hurried meal, and then, giving Ned a hint of what was in the
wind, but cautioning him to say nothing about it, Tom had the small Air
Scout brought out, and in that he flew over to Mary's home.
He found her waiting for him, and, after being duly cautioned by her
mother to "be careful," though whether that was of any value or not is
possibly debatable, the small, speedy craft again took the air.
"You haven't heard anything from your uncle since last night, have
you?" asked Tom, as they flew along.
"Yes," answered Mary, "mother had a letter. He is worse, if anything,
and the doctor says the only thing that will save him is the knowledge
that the oil-well matter has turned out right and that my uncle will
get his share of the wealth."
"That's too bad!" sympathized Tom. "I hope we can make it turn out that
way. If the two Dixwell Hardley chaps are the same it may be that I can
do something for your uncle. If not--we'll have to wait and see."
It was not difficult for Tom and Mary to talk while in the aeroplane,
as it was almost noiseless. In due time, Bedford was reached without
mishap, and Tom and Mary were soon at the home of her uncle.
An explanation to the housekeeper and an inspection on the part of the
nurse, brought forth permission for Tom to see the patient. Though he
had never known Mr. Keith he could see that the man's health was indeed
fast waning.
Wasting little time in preliminaries, the object of the visit was told
and Tom showed the passport photograph of Dixwell Hardley.
"Is that the man who cheated you on the oil-well deal?" asked the young
inventor.
"I won't admit he has yet cheated me, but he is trying to!" exclaimed
Mr. Keith, with something of a return of his former spirit. "If I ever
get off my back I'm going to fight him tooth and nail. But that's the
same scoundrel! He got me to locate the wells, and when they panned out
big--bigger than either of us dreamed--he turned me out cold. He denied
he had ever offered to share with me, and said I was only working for
monthly wages! Why, sometimes I didn't get even that!"
"How did he get the best of you?" asked Tom.
"By making away with or hiding the papers by which I could prove our
partnership and my right to half a share in all the wells," answered
Mary's uncle. "Yes, that's the same man all right. I'd know his face
anywhere, and he has the same name."
"He isn't going under a false name, that's sure," agreed Tom. "He must
be a bold chap."
"He is--bold and unscrupulous! That's what makes him so successful in
his own way!" declared Mr. Keith. "And so you are working with him!
Well, I'm sorry for you."
"I'm not exactly working with him," replied Tom. "As a matter of fact,
I'm sorry I ever agreed to look for this wreck."
He told the details of the pending treasure-trove expedition, and
mentioned it as his belief that Mr. Damon had been mistaken in his
estimate of Mr. Hardley.
"But, so far, Mr. Damon is quite taken with him," Tom went on. "Now,
Mr. Keith, if it isn't too much for you, I should like to hear all the
particulars."
Thereupon Mary's uncle told his story. It was a long one. After many
hardships in life, which Mr. Keith related in some detail to Tom, the
oil-well prospector at last fell in with Dixwell Hardley. Then followed
the combination of interests.
"We are actually partners," declared Mr. Keith. "I agreed to do the
work, and he agreed to furnish the money. I must say this for him, that
he kept to that end of the bargain. He supplied the money to locate and
drill the wells, but I got very little of it personally. And I
fulfilled my end of it. I discovered the wells. Then, when the break
came, and I wanted to be rid of the man--for I caught him in some
crooked transactions--he surprised me by telling me to get out. I asked
for my share of the oil-well stock, and was told I was not entitled to
any.
"I put up a fight, naturally, and took the matter to court. But when it
came to trial Dixwell Hardley did not appear, and, though I won a
technical victory over him, I never got any money."
"Where was he during the trial?" asked Tom.
"At sea, I believe."
"At sea?"
"Yes, he was mixed up in some South American revolution, I heard."
"A South American revolution!" exclaimed Tom, and a great light came to
him.
"Yes," went on Mary's uncle. "He was always that kind--mixing up in
anything he thought would produce money. He didn't make out very well
in the revolution business, so I understood. The revolutionary party
was beaten, or they lost their shipment of arms, or something like
that. At any rate, Dixwell Hardley had a narrow escape with his life
when a ship went down, and from then on I've been trying to get him to
restore my rights to me."
"Did he have the papers that would prove you were entitled to a half
share in the oil wells?" asked Tom.
"He certainly did!" said the sick man, who was obviously being weakened
by this long and exhausting talk. "At first I was not sure of what
happened, but now I am positive he stole the papers and took them to
sea with him. What happened to them after that I don't know. But if I
had Dixwell Hardley here--now--I--I'd--"
Mr. Keith fell back in a faint on the bed, and, in great alarm, Tom
summoned the nurse.