[Illustration: WHEN WADE SAW HE COULD NOT ESCAPE, HE LEAPED UPON THE
RAIL, AND THEN JUMPED OVERBOARD.--Page 220.]
JUST HIS LUCK
BY
OLIVER OPTIC
BOSTON
LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.
COPYRIGHT, 1877, BY
LEE AND SHEPARD
COPYRIGHT, 1905, BY
ALICE ADAMS RUSSELL
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
JUST HIS LUCK
CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER I.
PEACHES AND A HORSEWHIP 7
CHAPTER II.
SUPPERLESS TO BED 15
CHAPTER III.
WHAT HAPPENED IN THE NIGHT 23
CHAPTER IV.
LODGINGS AFLOAT 31
CHAPTER V.
HOW IT WAS DONE 39
CHAPTER VI.
DOWN THE RIVER 47
CHAPTER VII.
A STRIKE FOR INDEPENDENCE 55
CHAPTER VIII.
THE BATTLE IN THE BOAT 63
CHAPTER IX.
CAUGHT IN THE ACT 71
CHAPTER X.
A STRAIGHTFORWARD STATEMENT 79
CHAPTER XI.
A HUNGRY SKIPPER 87
CHAPTER XII.
WADE BROOKS MAKES A TRADE 95
CHAPTER XIII.
TWO WRONGS DON’T MAKE A RIGHT 103
CHAPTER XIV.
WADE BROOKS’S FRIEND 110
CHAPTER XV.
A NEW YORK SAINT 118
CHAPTER XVI.
AN UNEXPECTED MEETING 126
CHAPTER XVII.
AT THE LODGING-HOUSE 133
CHAPTER XVIII.
A NIGHT ADVENTURE 141
CHAPTER XIX.
AN EARLY BREAKFAST FOR TWO 149
CHAPTER XX.
A LATE DINNER 157
CHAPTER XXI.
THE GHOST OF THE STATE-ROOM 165
CHAPTER XXII.
CAPT. BENDIG’S PROMISE 173
CHAPTER XXIII.
IMMENSE RICHES 181
CHAPTER XXIV.
UNWELCOME PASSENGERS 189
CHAPTER XXV.
BOUND TO A SICKLY CLIMATE 197
CHAPTER XXVI.
ANOTHER UNEXPECTED MEETING 205
CHAPTER XXVII.
ESCAPED OVERBOARD 213
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE LORDS OF THE SEA 221
CHAPTER XXIX.
CAPT. BENDIG’S BLUNDER 229
CHAPTER XXX.
THE SEARCH AND THE ARREST 237
CHAPTER XXXI.
A FULL CONFESSION 245
CHAPTER XXXII.
EVEN-HANDED JUSTICE 253
CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE WAY OF THE TRANSGRESSOR 261
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 269
CHAPTER XXXV.
THE BENEVOLENT BROKER 277
CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE NEW CASHIER 285
CHAPTER XXXVII.
JUST HIS LUCK AGAIN! 293
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
HOLDING THE FORTRESS 301
CHAPTER XXXIX.
HOW IT WAS IN THE MORNING 309
CHAPTER XL.
GATHERING UP THE SWINDLERS 318
CHAPTER XLI.
THE TURNING OF THE TIDE 327
JUST HIS LUCK.
CHAPTER I.
PEACHES AND A HORSEWHIP.
“There are some peaches worth eating,” said Lon Trustleton to his two
companions, as they passed an orchard of this delicious fruit on the
river road, as it was called.
“Them’s tip-top,” added Matthew Swikes: “I go for havin’ some on ’em.”
“So I say,” replied Lon; and he leaped over the fence, followed by
Matt. “Come along, Wade.”
“No: I’m not going to steal anybody’s peaches,” answered Wade Brooks.
“Oh, come along!” called Lon, the son of the rich Captain Trustleton,
who lived on the hill near the village of Midhampton.
“No: I won’t have any thing to do with the scrape. Besides, I have to
go on an errand to the village,” said Wade.
“See here, Wade Brooks, if you don’t come over here, I’ll break your
skull,” continued Lon Trustleton, shaking his head to emphasize his
words.
“What for? for not stealing peaches?” added Wade, with a smile at the
absurdity of the idea.
“You want to set up for a goody; and when any thing is said about
hooking peaches, you blow on Matt and me, that’s the way of it; and if
you don’t come over here I’ll go over there--that’s all.”
Matt Swikes was already shaking a tree filled with peaches, which
were even more tempting to Wade than to his companions; for he was a
friendless boy, whom no one fed with nice peaches. As the fruit was
fully ripe, a great quantity came down when Matt shook the tree. He
and Lon filled their pockets, and returned to the road as quickly as
possible; for the consequences of stealing peaches were not always
pleasant, though stolen fruit may be the sweetest.
The first thing that Lon did when he was in the road was to bat Wade
Brooks over the head, as he had promised to do.
“What are you about, Lon?” demanded Wade Brooks, as he dodged the blow.
“I told you I’d do it, and I will,” replied Lon, following up his
victim, who tried to escape from him; but in the end he received
several heavy blows.
“What’s that for, I should like to know?” said the victim, when his
persecutor seemed to be fully satisfied with the punishment he had
inflicted.
“I told you what it was for, while I was in the orchard. Now, if you
ever say a word about this thing, I’ll give you a broken head that will
last you longer than this one will. I don’t want any fellow canting
where I am.”
“I didn’t meddle with you,” replied Wade, who thought it a very hard
case to be pounded for not stealing peaches. “If you want to steal
peaches, that is your affair, and not mine.”
“If you say any thing more about stealing, I’ll give you another dose
now. Can’t a fellow help himself to a few peaches without it’s being
called stealing?” demanded Lon, with a look of injured innocence.
Wade Brooks did not think it was worth while to discuss the matter any
more in just that manner, and he was silent. He walked behind his two
companions, and wished they had been half a mile or more from him. He
was a nobody, and Lon was the son of a rich man, even Matt Swikes,
though only the son of a poor farmer, was a good deal better off than
he was, though they both lived under the same roof.
As the party approached the house of Mr. Garlick, who owned the
peach-orchard they had entered, they found its occupant in the road,
with a horsewhip in his hand. By his side stood his two hired men; and
on the grass near him lay a large dog which had a very bad reputation
and very sharp teeth.
“I think we had better be moving in some other direction,” suggested
Matt Swikes, when he saw the array of force before them.
He halted as he spoke, and Lon did the same. Wade, who was innocent,
continued on his way till he came up with Mr. Garlick, who, without any
ceremony, gave him several hard cuts on the legs, and each one of the
blows seemed to the victim to take the skin off.
“I’ll teach you to steal my peaches,” said the exasperated farmer.
“I did not touch your peaches: I did not get into the field,” pleaded
Wade, who thought it was even harder to be whipped for stealing the
peaches than it had been to be pounded for not stealing them.
The farmer hit him several times more before Wade got out of the way;
or, rather, till the attention of the persecutor was called to the
other two. Lon and Matt were disposed to make their escape by jumping
over the fence, and retreating in another direction.
“Stop, there! if you try to run away, I’ll send my dog after you!”
shouted Mr. Garlick.
The dog was more dangerous than the man: indeed, he was so fierce that
he was kept chained in the daytime, or Lon would not have dared to
enter the orchard. The brute had no discretion in the use of his teeth,
and had never read the law of the State relating to assaults. The
farmer would be careful in the use of the whip; and Lon did not believe
Garlick would dare to strike the son of Captain Trustleton. He put a
bold face on the matter, and continued his walk towards his father’s
house, which was on the same road.
But Lon under-rated the pluck of the farmer; for, as soon as the boy
was within his reach, he hit him the hardest cut he could administer
with the whip; and, not satisfied with this, he gave him half a dozen
more. The two hired men had placed themselves behind the boys in the
road, so that they could not retreat; and the farmer thrashed them to
his heart’s content.
“Let me alone!” yelled Lon, and the whip cut his soul as much as the
skin of his legs.
“I’ll teach you to steal my peaches, you young villains!” roared the
farmer.
[Illustration: “I’LL TEACH YOU TO STEAL MY PEACHES, YOU YOUNG
VILLAINS!”--Page 11.]
“My father will give it to you for this!” cried Lon, smarting under the
pain.
Then Mr. Garlick rested Lon by giving it to Matt.
“Let me alone,” groaned Matt, writhing under the torture. “I did not
touch your peaches. It was the fellow that has gone ahead.”
That was the sort of a fellow Matt Swikes was; and a little more of the
whip would do him no harm.
“I tell you it was the fellow that has gone ahead,” repeated Lon, when
Garlick spelled Matt by turning his attention to the rich man’s son.
“It was Wade Brooks that stole the peaches.”
“I saw two of them in the orchard; but I don’t know which they were,”
said one of the hired men.
“They have got peaches in their pockets now,” said the other hired man.
“Take hold of them, and empty their pockets,” said Mr. Garlick angrily.
The hired men were stout fellows, and they rather enjoyed the job. They
took the peaches from the pockets of the culprits, and laid them on the
grass as carefully as though they had been little babies; for the fruit
was of the choicest kind on the farm of the owner.
“That proves that you did steal peaches; and my man saw you take them,”
said Mr. Garlick, out of breath with excitement. “Here, Jacob, run
after that other fellow, and see if he has got any in his pockets.”
The man obeyed the order. Wade Brooks had not gone far; for he had
halted at a safe distance from the scene to witness, if not to enjoy,
the castigation of his tyrants. He was near enough to hear what was
said, for the farmer spoke as though all the listeners were as deaf as
posts.
“Come, youngster, give up your peaches,” said Jacob, when he came to
the place where Wade had halted.
“I haven’t any peaches: I haven’t touched a peach this year,” pleaded
Wade. “You will not find any about me; and I did not go into the
orchard, and Lon Trustleton licked me because I wouldn’t.”
“I must see for myself,” answered Jacob; and he did see for himself
that the boy spoke the truth.
“No peaches here; but you had better come up here, and tell the old man
about it yourself. You do not look like one of the boys I saw in the
peach-orchard.”
“I was not one of them: I wouldn’t steal peaches,” pleaded Wade; and
he felt as though his legs would not have smarted any more if he
had stolen them; and being honest was very poor consolation at this
time. As he approached the place where farmer Garlick was meeting
out justice, he saw the judge give Lon and Matt another dose of the
horsewhip; and he came to the conclusion that he had got off easy,
compared with his more guilty companions.
Jacob reported that he had found no peaches in the pockets of Wade
Brooks, and that he thought he was not one of the boys he had seen in
the peach-orchard.
“He is the only one of us that did go into the orchard,” said Lon,
uttering another abominable lie.
The words were hardly out of his mouth when the farmer gave him half a
dozen cuts with the whip. Lon was so mad, that he swore like a young
pirate: his father used profane language, and why shouldn’t he?
“Don’t tell me any more lies, you villain!” roared farmer Garlick.
“Don’t tell me that this boy stole all the peaches, when I find he has
none in his pockets, and yours are full of them.”
“He asked us to keep them for him,” answered Matt, wishing to back
up his friend; but the farmer gave him another dose for the lie he
invented.
“My boy, I am sorry I struck you with the whip; for I believe you did
not go into the orchard,” said the farmer, turning to Wade.--“Give him
three of the handsomest peaches of the lot.”
“Lon Trustleton licked him because he would not go into the orchard,”
said Jacob, as he gave Wade the fruit.
“And he’ll do it again as soon as he gets a chance,” said Wade.
“That’s so,” added Lon; and the remark cost him half a dozen cuts on
the legs.
“Now, Wade Brooks, you go along, and I will keep these fellows here
till you are out of sight,” said the farmer.
Wade went his way; and, when he was out of sight, Garlick told the
thieves he had done with them till they stole some more of his fruit.
It was no use for him to go to law to save his property, and he should
look out for it himself.
“You have not heard the last of this,” growled Lon, shaking his head in
his wrath. “I will get even with you in some way. This will cost you
more than all the peaches you will raise this year.”
“It has given me some satisfaction, at any rate, whatever it may cost
me. I want you to understand that a rich man’s son can’t rob me of my
property without something being done.”
The culprits departed as fast as their smarting legs would permit.