EDGAR GETS INTO TROUBLE.
WHILE Solon Talbot was intent upon making money, his son Edgar was left
to spend his time pretty much as he pleased. His father had secured him
a place with a firm of brokers in Wall Street, in fact in the office of
Crane & Lawton, through whom he intended to dispose of his mining
stocks.
Edgar received five dollars a week, and this his father allowed him to
keep for himself. But five dollars a week in a city like New York won't
go very far when a boy gives up his evenings to playing pool.
One night Edgar made the acquaintance of a showy young man whom he
ignorantly supposed belonged to a prominent New York family. It was in
fact our old acquaintance, Hamilton Schuyler, with whom Mark had already
had some experiences which did not impress him very much in the young
man's favor.
Schuyler's attention was drawn to Edgar at a pool-room in the
neighborhood of Forty-Second Street, and he made inquiries about him.
Ascertaining that Edgar's father was supposed to be rich he cultivated
his acquaintance, and flattered him artfully.
"You play a good game of billiards, Mr. Talbot," he said.
"Oh, fair," answered Edgar complacently.
"Do you mind having a game with me?"
"You probably play a good deal better than I do."
"We can try and see. By the way, let me introduce myself," and he handed
Edgar his card.
"Schuyler Hamilton!" read Edgar, "that is an old name, is it not?"
"Yes," answered Schuyler carelessly. "I am related to most of the old
Knickerbocker families. I am very particular whom I associate with, but
I saw at once that you were a gentleman."
Foolish Edgar was very much flattered.
"My father is a capitalist," he said. "We used to live in Syracuse, but
he thinks he can make more money in New York."
"Just so. There are plenty of chances of making money here. I made five
thousand dollars in Wall Street last week myself."
"You did!" exclaimed Edgar dazzled.
"Yes. Sometimes I have made more. I don't often lose. Which ball will
you select. The spot?"
"Yes."
"I suppose it takes considerable money to speculate in Wall Street?"
"Oh no, not on a margin."
"I should like to make a strike myself. I am in the office of Crane &
Lawton."
"Are you indeed? I never did any business with them, but I understand
that they stand very high."
"I think they are rich."
The game was played, and resulted in the success of Edgar.
"Really, you play a strong game. Suppose--just for the excitement of
it--we stake a dollar on the next game. What do you say?"
"All right!"
Edgar had received his week's pay in the afternoon, and was well
provided. He flattered himself he could play better than Schuyler, and
thought it would be very agreeable to win money in that way. Schuyler
managed to let him win.
"Really," he said with pretended annoyance, "I am afraid you are more
than a match for me."
"Perhaps I was lucky," said Edgar, elated.
"At any rate I will try again. Let us call it two dollars."
"Very well," assented Edgar.
Somehow this game was won by his opponent by five points. Edgar was
annoyed, for this took a dollar from his pocket, and it had been
arranged that the loser should pay for the use of the tables.
It was an accident, however, and he kept on. At the close of the evening
he was without a cent.
"I have been unlucky," he said, trying to hide his mortification. "I
have lost all the money I had with me."
"That is too bad. Here, give me a memorandum for two dollars, and I will
hand you back that amount. Some time when you are in funds you can pay
me."
"Thank you!" said Edgar in a tone of relief.
"You are really a better player than I am," went on Schuyler, "but the
balls happened to run in my favor. Another evening I shall be the
loser."
This was the first of Edgar's acquaintance with Schuyler Hamilton, but
it was by no means the last. They got into the way of meeting nearly
every night and Edgar ran more and more into Schuyler's debt. However,
Hamilton was very easy with him. He accepted memorandums of
indebtedness, which somehow seemed a very easy way of paying debts.
Edgar did not reflect that a day of reckoning must come at last.
At last Hamilton Schuyler thought it time to bring matters to a crisis.
"Do you know how much you are owing me, Edgar?" he said one evening.
"No," answered Edgar uneasily.
"Seventy-five dollars!"
"It can't be!" exclaimed Edgar, incredulous.
"These things increase faster than you think for," said Schuyler
carelessly.
"I suppose you'll let it run," remarked Edgar with a troubled look.
"I should be glad to do so, my dear boy, but I need the money. I was hit
rather hard at the races yesterday, and the long and short of it is,
that you will have to pay me."
"I can't pay you," said Edgar doggedly.
Schuyler frowned.
"What do you mean by that?" he demanded sternly.
"I mean exactly what I say. I haven't got any money. I only get five
dollars a week, and I can't spare any of that."
"You've got to get the money. You had no business to bet if you couldn't
pay."
"I never did bet till I got acquainted with you."
"Enough of this, boy!" said Hamilton, waving his hand in a dignified
manner. "I shall have to lay the matter before your father."
"No, don't do that! He wouldn't let me keep my wages."
"That is your affair, not mine. Can't you tell him you want to pay a
tailor's bill, and get the money that way?"
"No; I get my clothes charged at his tailor's."
"Oh, well, I don't care how you get it as long as you do get it. Doesn't
your father leave any money lying about in his desk or in his bureau
drawers?"
"No. Besides, you don't want me to steal, do you?"
"Not if you can get the money any other way."
"Look here, Mr. Schuyler, I thought you were rich. How do you happen to
be in want of seventy-five dollars?"
"Anybody might be short of money. One day when I was traveling in the
Adirondacks, I met a rich man--a millionaire--who was in trouble. 'I
say, Schuyler,' he said to me, 'can you loan me a hundred dollars. I
give you my word I am almost penniless, and no one knows me here.' Now I
happened to have three hundred dollars in my pocketbook, and I at once
produced it and lent him the money. You see even a millionaire can get
into a money scrape."
"Who was the millionaire?" asked Edgar, who was not quite so credulous
a believer of Schuyler's pictures as formerly.
"I don't feel at liberty to tell. It would not be honorable. But to come
back to our own business! You must make some arrangement to pay me."
"Tell me how," said Edgar sulkily.
"Don't you deposit for your firm in the Park Bank?"
"Yes."
"Always checks?"
"Sometimes there are bank bills."
Schuyler bent over and whispered in Edgar's ear. Edgar flushed and then
looked nervous and agitated.
"You ask me to do that," he said.
"Yes, there is no danger. Say you lost the bills in the street."
Edgar was not a conscientious boy or a boy of high principle, but this
suggestion shocked him.
"Would you ruin me?" he asked.
"I would have you pay me what you owe me. If you don't there will be a
fuss."
"I wish I had never met you, Mr. Schuyler," said poor Edgar bitterly.
"I have been disappointed in you," said Schuyler coldly. "I thought you
were the son of a gentleman and a gentleman yourself."
"Who says I am not?"
"I don't. I expect you to behave like one. Good night."
This interview took place on Fifth Avenue not far from Delmonico's café.
When the two parted another boy, who had been following at a little
distance, moved rapidly forward and placed his hand on Edgar's shoulder.
"Cousin Edgar," he said.
Edgar turned.
"Mark!" he said, not with his old hauteur, for trouble had humbled his
pride.
"Yes. Who was that you were walking with?" asked Mark.
"No one you know. He is Mr. Schuyler, from one of the best New York
families."
Mark smiled.
"I hope you have no business with him," he said.
"I owe him seventy-five dollars, and I don't know how on earth I am
going to pay him."
"What do you owe him that for?"
"For bets on games of billiards."
"This Hamilton Schuyler, as he calls himself, is an adventurer, a
swindler, and a thief. His family is not as good as yours or mine."
"Is this true?" asked Edgar stupefied.
"Yes. Don't trouble yourself about what you owe him. Appoint a meeting
for him to-morrow evening at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. I will go there and
meet him with you. I'll get you out of your scrape."
"Do that, Mark, and I'll be your friend for life. I'll never treat you
meanly again."