It was not until he had been folded in the arms of his new-found father
that Little Hickory could realize the truth of what had been spoken.
They had reached the floor now, and his mother stood close beside them,
while the others stood apart, silent but appreciative spectators.
“I am so glad,” murmured Mrs. Bayne. “Your father did come yesterday,
though I had not the opportunity to tell you. It seems strange but
natural that he should have come here. Then the officers came, and
knowing he was again a hunted man, he concealed himself in the opening
made in the old chimney for that very purpose by his eccentric uncle,
Timothy Bayne.”
“What your mother says is true, my son,” said the father. “At last I
am free from the law, and no longer a fugitive. I sought for you and
your mother in the big city till I was forced to give up. Then I came
here simply because Uncle Tim lived here when I was a boy, and I was
naturally attracted hither. I reached the village in the night to see
these miscreants here just as they left the store on their depredation.
It proved that I was wretched, and, instead of hunting for the real
culprits, I was again made a fugitive. But I did not know this until I
had reached here.
“You may judge of my surprise and pleasure at finding your mother here.”
The others were deeply moved by the simple story of a man who had been
more wronged than guilty. He was a man still in the prime of life, with
a stalwart form and clear, fearless manner.
“Now that I have found you,” he resumed, “I mean to stay by you, unless
you drive me away, or the law does. At any rate, I shall consider
myself a fugitive no longer.”
“Neither are you,” spoke up Dr. Menter. “If I mistake not, these men in
captivity here have a story to tell which will lift much of the cloud
that hangs over you. At any rate, I am not going to let Rob remain any
longer the victim of a man who has persecuted him out of a matter of a
little spite against another.”
“You are very kind,” replied Rob.
“Not half as kind, nor one-hundredth part as brave as you were when you
staked your life to save my dear boy and girl.”
“This is a happy moment,” said Aunt Vinnie, “and if my boys were only
here I could enjoy it with the rest of you.”
“And my Mary,” said Mrs. Little.
“Mary will be with us again before another night,” spoke up Larry.
“Only this evening I learned of a strange thing, and I was coming
to tell you of it. Lucy Howlitt was up to Deacon Cornhill’s this
afternoon, and Mrs. Cornhill told how Mary, as she thought, had been
taking things, and it wasn’t half an hour after that before Lucy caught
a tame crow belonging there carrying off a silver spoon in its bill.
She called Mrs. Cornhill, and they watched the crow go straight to a
place where he had hidden all the things that had been lost. Then Mrs.
Cornhill knew that the crow, and not Mary, had stolen what she had
missed, and she cried, she felt so bad over it.”
“That will set Mary free, and Mrs. Cornhill is willing to do anything
she can to be forgiven.”
“I am so glad,” murmured the mother. “I knew my daughter could not be
guilty of such a thing as stealing.”
“It looks as if we were coming out all right,” said Rob.
“So you are, my boy,” said the doctor. “Right always triumphs in the
end. I had rather be in your place than ’Squire Hardy’s, by a big
difference. Now listen, Aunt Vinnie, for I have a bit of news that will
give you joy as well as the others.
“The boy who was out on a night’s lark with Phil Hardy has confessed
that he and Phil were at the sawmill the night it burned, and that
young Hardy set it on fire. Of course Phil denies it, but it is a
crushing blow for the Hardys, and it will save your boy from jail.”
“Hurrah!” cried Aunt Vinnie, shaking her apron in the air. “This is
the happiest moment in my life, or will be when I clasp my boys once
more in my arms. I did not never see anything like this,” getting her
language somewhat twisted, but her heart was all right, and the others
felt as joyous as she did.
Leaving the inmates of the old red house to enjoy their new peace of
mind, and to anticipate the happiness of the coming day, Dr. Menter
looked to the safety of their prisoners.
When he had seen that they were still secure, he called Rob to one
side, saying:
“While our friends here stand guard over the captives, how would it do
for you and I to do a little investigating on our own hook?”
Little Hickory and his father willingly assented, when the three
returned to the cellar.
“I thought it might be as well to keep our business to ourselves in
part,” said the doctor, as soon as they were alone. “I have reason to
think that we are about to make important discoveries.
“I do not think it good policy to say so now to every one, but I am
ready to say to you that one of these precious fellows upstairs is the
murderer of Timothy Bayne. They have said enough to let us know that
they were here after a buried treasure. Do you know anything about
this, Mr. Bayne?”
“Only that uncle was supposed to be very wealthy, but eccentric. He was
killed for his money, as it was supposed, by a man who had been working
for him. I am sure the ruffian upstairs is the man. Whether he got
uncle’s money is more than I know. They were seeking for something of
the kind here to-night.”
“Well, we will do a little digging ourselves.”
Mr. Bayne then took the shovel, and in a few minutes a skeleton of a
man was divulged to their sight. Nothing more.
“It is probably that of Mr. Bayne,” said the doctor. “I do not believe
we had better dig any more, and we will leave the bones just as we
found them.”
“I thought the shovel struck something that was not a rock. Let me take
it,” said Little Hickory.
Beginning to dig a little to one side of the exposed skeleton, he soon
unearthed an iron box of considerable size, and which proved to be of
great weight.
With what feelings the three raised the buried box may be imagined.
“Hold, my son!” said his father. “This treasure, if it shall prove
such, has been found on the property of another man. It is not ours.”
“By as good a right, and better, than any one else’s,” said Dr. Menter.
“This property is now in the hands of Deacon Cornhill, who came into
possession by a collector’s deed, it being sold for taxes some eighteen
or nineteen years ago. A deed of this kind is open to contest for
twenty years. So as the heir to Timothy Bayne, it looks to me as if you
could hold the treasure. But here we are arguing over what may be a
valueless thing. Then, too, the deacon is an honest man, and will not
try to hold what does not belong to him.”
It was decided not to open the box until another day, and further
investigation had been made, so the three returned to those who were
anxiously awaiting in the room above.
It was not told to the outsiders of the discovery that had been made,
but the inmates of the house listened to the description of the find
with unbounded interest.
Never was day waited for more eagerly than by the party here, and as
its first rosy light appeared, the harbinger of a fair and a happy day,
Dr. Menter started for the village, taking one of the men with him.
In a few hours Sheriff Stanyan came, but he brought no terror to the
members of Ragged Rob’s young republic.
He spoke graciously to them, and complimented Rob on his good fortune.
“The ’squire is pretty badly cut up over Phil, and well he should
be, for he is a bad boy. It will take a good slice of the old man’s
property to settle this matter, but I do not think Phil will have to go
to jail.”
With these words the sheriff took away the sullen prisoners from the
red house, leaving the others in easier spirits.
Half an hour later Dr. Menter returned accompanied by Deacon Cornhill,
who greeted his colonists with great affection.
“The light is breaking,” he said, gladly, “and you are coming out all
right, thanks to Rob, here.”
“Not more to me than to our friends,” said Little Hickory.
The deacon had aged in appearance more than ten years since the others
had last seen him, and the hearts of all went out to the kind-hearted
man, who had done so much for them, and had himself suffered so much.
But the moment of darkness was already fleeting, and a new light was
coming into their lives.
The iron-bound box was soon broken into, and the overjoyed spectators
beheld a sight which made them fairly wild with strange visions of joy
and of mystery.
It was a treasure box indeed.
Made up of bank notes, government bonds, gold and silver, it held the
equivalent of over fifty thousand dollars.
Is it a wonder there were dancing and wild exclamations?
The more sober of the party could not realize it as true, while the
others did not try to realize anything but their joy.
At last, when something like rational feelings again held sway, Rob
suggested that it belonged to Deacon Cornhill, but he would not admit
it. But there was a happy compromise.
Little Hickory proposed that a portion go to him, and this, under
consideration of his difficulties, he accepted with tears in his eyes,
and blessings upon his lips.
So the hoardings of Timothy Bayne at last came to do much good. It
cleared Deacon Cornhill from his debts. It placed the members of Rob’s
young republic all in comfortable circumstances, for it was his own
wish and that of his father and mother, that it should be shared among
all alike.
What followed can be imagined.
First of all, Mary Little and Tom and Jerry were restored to home.
The prisoners were given a fair trial, at which it was shown that one
of them was the murderer of Timothy Bayne, and that he had buried the
miser’s body in the cellar. He had afterward got a clew of the treasure
buried in the cellar near where he had made the grave of his victim. He
was induced to accompany his companions to dig for the treasure. The
result is known. He and his pals were the ones who had robbed the store
and post office, also the masked men who had tried to rob our hero on
Flying Jump.
They were sentenced as their crimes demanded, and the public felt safer.
Phil Hardy, as Dr. Menter had said, escaped the jail. It was evident
he had not really intended to set the fire, and the mill owner was
more willing to receive pay for his property than to see the boy go to
prison. It was a good lesson to Phil. Nor was it lost on his father,
who afterward treated Rob and his friends as they deserved.
In fact, the families of Break o’ Day were now looked upon as the
equals of any others in town. Rob knew this came about largely from the
fact that they were among the richest now, but he did not mind that,
having resolved to merit the good bestowed upon him.
Three new houses were built that fall on Break o’ Day, so it was a busy
season. They had decided to live there, though the village people had
hoped they would come into town.
Then followed plans for the future. As ours is a story of to-day, these
cannot be followed to any great extent. Mr. Bayne and his happy wife
live in a comfortable home, eagerly waiting to welcome their son home
from college, while Mrs. Willet, quite recovered from former illness,
lives with them, waiting, too, for a daughter to graduate, when the two
young people expect to join their fortunes in married life.
There will be another marriage at the same time, when Larry Little will
wed sweet Lucy Howlitt, and go to her home to live. Larry is destined
to be a prominent citizen of Basinburg, and the coming Fourth he is to
deliver the oration of Gainsboro, without having to borrow anything
from that consummate snob and worthless fellow, Pluto Snyder.
The other boys and girls of Break o’ Day are also finishing their
education, for they believe in acquiring such knowledge as they can to
help them in after life. I do not know what their plans are, but I do
know that Rob intends to begin the study of medicine with Dr. Menter,
and when next I go to Basinburg I expect to find him the regular
physician there.
Deacon Cornhill has fully recovered his old-time spirits, and happy in
the good work that he was instrumental in bringing about. He is honored
and respected in Basinburg, and everywhere he is known, while he never
tires of telling the story of his visit to “the big, wicked city, where
houses are built edgewise, and men live under the streets.”
I do not think I have left anything unsaid which cannot be readily
understood. Of course the strange sounds heard at the old house were
not of a supernatural origin, unless the branch of a tree moved by the
wind so as to scrape on the roof of the dwelling could be called such.
It has been nearly twenty years since I last visited Break o’ Day, but
I remember distinctly the old red house where I stopped overnight,
listening that evening to the thrilling story of the murder and mystery
of “Old Tim Bayne.” I remember with equal vividness the dreary camps
of the coal burners, then falling into decay, and but one of them
occupied. I also remember the picture of utter loneliness the dismal
scene presented, as the setting sun sank behind the distant forest. But
all this has changed, and where then existed darkness and desolation
are now to be found life and activity, comfort and happiness, peace
and prosperity, for here, on the site of that thriving village known
by the happier title of Mount Delight, was founded, under such adverse
circumstances as must have discouraged a less courageous heart, Ragged
Rob’s young republic.
THE END.
* * * * *
FRANK MERRIWELL’S _Book of_ Physical Development
_By BURT L. STANDISH_
This book, written by the author of the famous Tip-Top Weekly, is
the most complete work of its kind. It contains directions for a
thorough and systematic course of athletic training, which, if followed
faithfully, cannot fail but aid all young men of the present day to
acquire what they are striving for--physical perfection.
It is printed on good paper and is illustrated with full-page half-tone
cuts.
_FOR SALE BY ALL NEWSDEALERS_
If sent by mail, add FOUR CENTS for postage
STREET & SMITH, NEW YORK
* * * * *
THE BOYS’ FAVORITE
_THE WORKS OF Horatio Alger, Jr._
This author’s books are perhaps better known than those of any other
author of his class. He had the happy faculty of depicting boy-life
as it really is, and his stories are full of incident, adventure and
interest.
Buy one and you will want them all. Published in the MEDAL LIBRARY.
42. The Young Acrobat.
50. Dean Dunham.
51. Tom Tracy.
52. From Farm Boy to Senator.
53. The Adventures of a N. Y. Telegraph Boy.
61. The Erie Train Boy.
78. Both Sides of the Continent.
87. The Five Hundred Dollar Check.
93. A New York Boy.
118. Ned Newton, or, The Fortunes of a N. Y. Bootblack.
122. Tom Brace.
130. From Canal Boy to President.
138. Striving for Fortune.
154. Paul, the Peddler.
159. Phil, the Fiddler.
163. Slow and Sure.
166. Try and Trust.
170. Strong and Steady.
These books are for sale by all booksellers or sent postpaid, by the
publishers, upon receipt of price and 4 cents additional to cover
postage.
_Street & Smith, Publishers
238 WILLIAM STREET NEW YORK_
* * * * *
GREAT BOOKS FOR BOYS
BY OLIVER OPTIC.
The Boat Club Series
Every boy knows how interesting the works of this author are. We have
published six of his best in the MEDAL LIBRARY.
Every intelligent boy should read them....
=No. 1--The Boat Club.=
=No. 3--All Aboard.=
=No. 5--Now or Never.=
=No. 9--Try Again.=
=No. 46--Poor and Proud.=
=No. 160--Little by Little.=
For sale at all newsdealers or sent postpaid by the publishers upon
receipt of price and 4c. additional to cover postage.
_Street & Smith, Publishers
238 WILLIAM STREET, NEW YORK_
* * * * *
_G. A. HENTY_
This author’s famous books have been read with breathless interest by
the youth of every country. His stories are extremely interesting,
being crowded full of exciting sport and adventure.
The following are published in our Medal Library. Every boy should read
them.
14. The Young Colonists.
19. Jack Archer.
23. The Dragon and the Raven.
25. Through the Fray.
29. True to the Old Flag.
32. The Curse of Carne’s Hold.
35. In the Reign of Terror.
85. Facing Death.
90. Out on the Pampas.
95. By Sheer Pluck.
100. Maori and Settler.
106. The Boy Knight.
113. The Bravest of the Brave.
119. The Final Reckoning.
124. St. George for England.
128. For Name and Fame.
134. Orange and Green.
140. The Young Buglers.
145. Friends Though Divided.
149. With Wolfe in Canada.
153. Bonnie Prince Charlie.
158. With Lee in Virginia.
164. The Cornet of Horse.
168. Among Malay Pirates.
172. The Young Midshipman.
For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid, by the publishers, upon
receipt of price and 4 cents additional for postage.
_Street & Smith, Publishers
238 WILLIAM STREET NEW YORK_
* * * * *
_DID YOU EVER READ ABOUT_
Don Kirk The Boy Cattle King
By GILBERT PATTEN
_Author of the Rockspur Athletic Series_
No? Well you have missed something, boys. The two books in this series
are among the best we have ever had the pleasure of offering you. Don
Kirk is a poor boy with plenty of grit, who by dint of his skill and
business head becomes a rich man in spite of the machinations of his
enemies.
=No. 10--Don Kirk, The Boy Cattle King=
=No. 12--Don Kirk’s Mine=
These two books are copyrighted and to be found only in our Medal
Library.
Also (by the same author),
=No. 24--The Boy From the West=
=No. 28--The Boy Boomers=
=No. 33--Jud and Joe, Printers and Publishers=
Postpaid from the publishers at the same price.
STREET & SMITH,
238 WILLIAM STREET
NEW YORK
* * * * *
_Here is a good one, boys!_
The Cruise _of_ The Restless
OR
_On Inland Waterways_
By JAMES OTIS
Is one of the most captivating stories of the season. Read it and
you will tell your friends to read it. This book can be had in Medal
Library, No. 99, and is for sale by all booksellers and newsdealers.
STREET & SMITH
238 William St., New York City
* * * * *
The Frank Merriwell Stories
[Illustration]
No modern series of tales for boys and youth has met with anything like
the cordial reception and popularity accorded to the Frank Merriwell
Stories, published exclusively in Street & Smith’s Tip Top Weekly,
a publication which has today a circulation larger than that of all
similar publications combined.
There must be a reason for this, and there is. Frank Merriwell, as
portrayed by the author, is a jolly, whole-souled, honest, courageous
American lad, who appeals to the hearts of the boys.
He has no bad habits, and his manliness inculcates the idea that it is
not necessary for a boy to indulge in petty vices to be a hero. Frank
Merriwell’s example is a shining light for every ambitious lad to
follow.
There is sometimes, with parents, a prejudice against all forms of
boys’ literature in novel style.
We earnestly ask all parents to examine the Tip Top, confident that
they will commend it to their boys as suitable and profitable to be
read.
Issued Weekly. Sold by all newsdealers.
5 Cents a copy
STREET & SMITH, Publishers, New York
* * * * *
BOUND TO WIN LIBRARY
A weekly publication devoted to high-class literature for boys. Feb.
28, 1903.
NO. 4
Public records will show that there have been more women restored to
health and strength, and more lives saved by
Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound
than by any other medicine in the world.
It therefore _must_ be the best medicine in the world for woman’s
special ills.
NOTE.--If you are ill why don’t you write to Mrs. Pinkham at Lynn,
Mass., and get the advice which has restored more than a million women
to health? It will cost you nothing, and may save your life.
* * * * *
Transcriber’s Notes:
Punctuation has been made consistent.
Variations in spelling and hyphenation were retained as they appear in
the original publication, except that obvious typographical errors have
been corrected.