THE "TIMES" CORRESPONDENT.
As this skater approached, they could see that he was a tall young
man, wearing cap and gloves of sealskin, and a fur-trimmed overcoat.
He had skates of the newest patent, and, altogether, seemed to be what
Tug pronounced him under his breath, "a swell."
He slackened his pace as he came up, and then, seeing the boat they
were dragging, and the queer appearance of the whole outfit, stopped
short, raising his hat to Katy.
"What kind of an expedition is this, pray tell?" he said pleasantly,
but with his face full of curiosity.
"I'm 'fraid we ain't any too scrumptious," Tug replied, off-hand, "but
you could hardly expect it, I s'pose, seein' we've been a month or
more on the ice."
"A month on the ice! How? Where?"
So they told him, each one talking a little, but making a short story
of it. He did not interrupt by any "I swannys!" as the old farmer had,
but kept his eyes--Katy thought they were the sharpest eyes she had
ever seen--upon each speaker's face, as if committing every word to
memory.
"That's a mighty good story," he said. "What are you going to do now?"
"We shall go on to my uncle's in Cleveland right away, that is, if we
have money enough to take us there."
"I suppose you wouldn't object to earning a little more money, then?"
the stranger remarked, interrogatively.
"Nothing would suit Tug and me better," Aleck rejoined. "Do you know
how we can do it? My name is Aleck Kincaid, and this promising youth
here is Thucydides, otherwise 'Tug,' Montgomery. This is my sister
Katy, and the youngster is my brother Jim."
"I am Harry Porter," the young man announced, shaking hands with them
all, "and I am glad to get acquainted with you. Now, sit down a
minute, and I'll make you a proposition. I live in New York city, and
am on the staff of _The Times_, but am out here for a few days on a
visit to my father. Your adventures would make a capital story--what
we call a 'sensation'--in that newspaper. Do you think you could write
it out in good shape?"
"I'm afraid not, sir," Aleck said. "I've never felt that I had any
faculty in that direction--but I could make you an automatic brass
valve if you wanted it!"
"Could you? That's more than I could do. Well, now, you see, you have
the facts, but you must make use of my training to put them into
readable shape, so that the story will be worth money to some
newspaper. I can see how two or three very good articles, indeed, can
be made, and what I propose is this: you come to a boarding-house,
kept by a friend of mine, in Port Linton, and stay there as long as is
necessary to tell me everything. Then I can write it all into a
connected story, and we'll divide the profits."
"But supposing _The Times_ shouldn't want to print it?"
"I'll take care of that," Mr. Porter replied.
"But we would have to wait a good while to get the money back,
wouldn't we?" Aleck asked. "And we want it now worse than we ever
shall again, probably."
"Ye--es, that's a difficulty," Mr. Porter admitted, slowly. Then he
thought over it a minute or two in silence. "I'll tell you what I'll
do," he said at last, "and I think I shall be safe. I estimate that
you can give me facts enough for ten or twelve columns--say ten; and
that for this 'special and exclusive' they will pay me twenty dollars,
or more, a column. So if you are willing to take one hundred dollars
for your information, I'll run the risk of getting that back and
another hundred on top of it for the labor of writing."
"I am sure that we shall be very glad to do it if you think you are
not cheating yourself."
"That's _my_ lookout," said the newspaper man. "And, now, Miss
Kincaid, if you will take a seat in the boat, I think we should all
regard it as a pleasure to draw you the rest of the way, for I mean
to bear a hand at dragging."
Katy demurred, but all the boys insisted, so she unstrapped her
skates, nestled warmly into the boat, where Mr. Porter folded his
fur-trimmed coat about her, saying he should be too warm with skating
to wear it, and they set off gayly.
The plan thus made upon the ice was fully carried out, beginning that
very evening, which was Friday; and on Tuesday morning Mr. Porter gave
Tug twenty-five dollars and Aleck seventy-five--the latter "for the
family," as he said. Besides this, they sold their scow for fifteen
dollars, feeling that they had a right to do so, since, if the
fishermen who had left it on the island (the name and position of
which they learned) should ever return for it, they would find left in
its place the _Red Erik_.
The goods that they cared to keep were packed and sent on to Cleveland
by freight. At nine o'clock on Tuesday morning, therefore, the four
adventurers--yes, _five_, for Rex was not forgotten--feeling
themselves already famous in New York, and hence around the whole
world, took the train for Cleveland, and reached their uncle's house
in time for his one-o'clock dinner. All were heartily welcomed, and
told their adventures again and again--in fact, until they became so
thoroughly tired of being "trotted out" that Tug one day declared that
he almost wished he had never left the island.