AMBROSE KEAN'S IMPRUDENCE
Luke and his companion were startled by the sudden attempt at suicide,
and for an instant sat motionless in their boat. Luke was the first to
regain his self-possession.
"Quick, let us try to save him," he called to John Hagan.
They plunged their oars into the water, and the boat bounded over the
waves. Fortunately they were but half a dozen rods from the place
where the would-be suicide was now struggling to keep himself up. For,
as frequently happens, when he actually found himself in the water,
the instinct of self-preservation impelled the would-be self-destroyer
to attempt to save himself. He could swim a very little, but the
waters of the lake were in lively motion, his boat had floated away,
and he would inevitably have drowned but for the energetic action of
Luke and John. They swept their boat alongside, and Luke thrust his
oar in the direction of the struggling man.
"Take hold of it," he said, "and we will tow you to your own boat."
Guided and sustained by the oar, the man gripped the side of Luke's
boat, leaving the oar free. His weight nearly overbalanced the craft,
but with considerable difficulty the boys succeeded in reaching the
other boat, and, though considerably exhausted, its late occupant
managed to get in.
As he took his place in the boat he presented a sorry spectacle, for
his clothes were wet through and dripping.
"You will take your death of cold unless you go on shore at once,"
said Luke.
"It wouldn't matter much if I did," said the young man, gloomily.
"We will row to shore also," said Luke to John Hagan. "He may make
another attempt to drown himself. I will see what I can do to reason
him out of it."
They were soon at the pier, and the three landed.
"Where do you live?" asked Luke, taking his position beside the young
man.
The latter named a number on Vine Street. It was at a considerable
distance, and time was precious, for the young man was trembling from
the effects of his immersion.
"There is no time to lose. We must take a carriage," said Luke.
He summoned one, which fortunately had just returned from the pier, to
which it had conveyed a passenger, and the two jumped in.
Luke helped him up to his room, a small one on the third floor, and
remained until he had changed his clothes and was reclining on the
bed.
"You ought to have some hot drink," he said. "Can any be got in the
house?"
"Yes; Mrs. Woods, the landlady, will have some hot water."
Luke went downstairs and succeeded in enlisting the sympathetic
assistance of the kind-hearted woman by representing that her lodger
had been upset in the lake and was in danger of a severe cold.
When the patient had taken down a cup of hot drink, he turned to Luke
and said: "How can I thank you?"
"There is no need to thank me. I am glad I was at hand when you needed
me."
"What is your name?"
"Luke Walton."
"Mine is Ambrose Kean. You must think I am a fool,"
"I think," said Luke, gently, "that you have some cause of
unhappiness."
"You are right there. I have been unfortunate, but I am also an
offender against the law, and it was the fear of exposure and arrest
that made me take the step I did. I thought I was ready to die, but
when I found myself in the water life seemed dearer than it had
before, and I tried to escape. Thanks to you, I am alive, but now I
almost wish that I had succeeded. I don't know how to face what is
before me."
"Would you mind telling me what it is?"
"No; I need someone to confide in, and you deserve my confidence. Let
me tell you, then, that I am employed in an office on Dearborn Street.
My pay is small, twelve dollars a week, but it would be enough to
support me if I had only myself to look out for. But I have a mother
in Milwaukee, and I have been in the habit of sending her four dollars
a week. That left me only eight dollars, which I found it hard to live
on, and there was nothing left for clothes."
"I can easily believe that," said Luke.
"I struggled along, however, as best I might, but last week I received
a letter from my mother saying that she was sick. Of course her
expenses were increased, and she wrote to know if I could send her a
little extra money. I have been living so close up to my income that I
absolutely had less than a dollar in my pocket. Unfortunately,
temptation came at a time when I was least prepared to resist it. One
of our customers from the country came in when I was alone, and paid
me fifty dollars in bills, for which I gave him a receipt. No one saw
the payment made. It flashed upon me that this sum would make my
mother comfortable even if her sickness lasted a considerable time.
Without taking time to think, I went to an express office, and
forwarded to her a package containing the bills. It started yesterday,
and by this time is in my mother's hands. You see the situation I am
placed in. The one who paid the money may come to the office at any
time and reveal my guilt."
"I don't wonder that you were dispirited," returned Luke. "But can
nothing be done? Can you not replace the money in time?"
"How can I? I have told you how small my salary is."
"Have you no friend or friends from whom you could borrow the money?"
"I know of none. I have few friends, and such as they are, are, like
myself, dependent on small pay. I must tell you, by the way, how we
became poor. My mother had a few thousand dollars, which, added to my
earnings, would have made us comparatively independent, but in an evil
hour she invested them in a California mine, on the strength of the
indorsement of a well-known financier of Milwaukee, Mr. Thomas
Browning----"
"Who?" asked Luke, in surprise.
"Thomas Browning. Do you know him?"
"I have seen him. He sometimes comes to Chicago, and stops at the
Sherman House."
"He recommended the stock so highly--in fact, he was the president of
the company that put it on the market--that my poor mother thought it
all right, and invested all she had. The stock was two dollars a
share. Now it would not fetch two cents. This it was that reduced us
to such extreme poverty."
"Do you think Mr. Browning was honest in his recommendation of the
mine?" asked Luke, thoughtfully.
"I don't know. He claimed to be the principal loser himself. But it is
rather remarkable that he is living like a rich man now. Hundreds lost
their money through this mine. As Mr. Browning had himself been in
California----"
"What is that?" asked Luke, in excitement. "You say this Browning was
once in California? Can you tell when?"
"Half a dozen years ago, more or less."
"And he looks like the man to whom my poor father confided ten
thousand dollars for us," thought Luke. "It is very strange.
Everything tallies but the name. The wretch who swindled us was named
Butler."
"Why do you ask when Mr. Browning was in California?" asked the young
man.
"Because my father died in California," answered Luke, evasively, "and
I thought it possible that Mr. Browning might have met him."