for the moment tom was so surprised that he did not move. he lay there, looking at the curiously pasted-together document, so strangely restored to him. flack was on his way out of the room. then tom realized he must know more about the matter.
“i say, flack—wait a moment!” he called after the janitor.
“yes, sir.”
“just a minute. come here. where did you get this?”
flack did not answer at once. he approached the bed, looked carefully around to see that no one was within hearing, and leaning over, whispered:
“i got it out of his waste-paper basket.”
“whose?” asked tom, though he knew well enough.
“the man that run you down, mr. taylor, sir. i got it out of captain hawkesbury’s waste-paper basket.”
[pg 165]
“oh,” said tom. he hoped the matter was straightforwardly done—sneaking tactics were not tolerated at west point. still the document was tom’s own. but after his interview with the old army officer he had been so discouraged about the matter that he had not cared what had become of the trust deed. now it had come back to him.
“i clean up around captain hawkesbury’s quarters, mr. taylor, sir,” went on flack. “when i was emptying his basket some time back i saw this torn paper drop out. i didn’t pay much attention to it until i saw the name charles taylor. i thought of you, though that isn’t your name; is it—i mean your first name?”
“it’s my father’s,” tom answered, as he saw where mr. taylor’s name appeared in the paper.
“ah, that accounts for it then,” the janitor said. “well, when i saw the name taylor i looked further and got all the pieces. then i pasted ’em together. i was going to bring it to you, thinking maybe you had lost it, though i couldn’t figure how it got in his basket.”
tom did not think it wise to illuminate the janitor on that point. flack went on.
“i was going to give it to you before, but i got laid up with the rheumatics, and i didn’t want to trust it to any one else. then you got laid up yourself, mr. taylor, sir.”
[pg 166]
“yes,” tom assented with a smile, “i’m laid up all right.”
“so i brought it as soon as they’d let me see you,” concluded the old soldier, “and i hope it’ll be of value to you.”
“thank you, very much,” tom answered. “i have no doubt but that it will. i’m obliged to you.”
“don’t mention it,” flack said. “sure you did me enough favors. it’s time i paid some of ’em back. he was quite anxious to get it himself,” and he jerked his head in the direction of the officers’ quarters.
“who was anxious to get it?” tom wanted to know.
“captain hawkesbury, sir. he come to me the day after i’d taken the basket from his room, and asked to have all his litter brought back. he said he’d mislaid some valuable documents. i didn’t let on anything, but i gave him a bag of papers where i had emptied his basket. that wasn’t among ’em, though,” and he pointed to the pasted deed on tom’s bed.
“i’d taken that out beforehand,” flack said, with a very human wink. “and as it had your name on it before it had captain hawkesbury’s, i thought you had the best right to it.”
“i have,” tom said. “thank you very much.”
he was fired with new energy now. if the document[pg 167] was valuable enough to cause the old army officer to make such an effort to get it back, tom was glad he himself had it again.
“the captain was quite put out when he brought back the papers he’d looked over,” went on flack. “he asked me if i was sure there weren’t any more. i gave him all the refuse i had in the cellar, for i only burn the papers once a week. he went over it all, and pretty dusty and dirty he got, too. but he didn’t find it. i took good care of that.”
“i’m glad you did,” tom replied. “it’s quite a complicated matter,” he went on. “captain hawkesbury is mistaken in thinking this paper is his. it belongs to me.”
the young cadet did not want captain hawkesbury to stand in too bad a light before the janitor, and that was why he made the qualifying statement he did. there was time enough yet to prove certain points.
flack went out, leaving tom in a rather bewildered state of mind. one fact stood out clearly. the document must have suddenly assumed new importance to justify captain hawkesbury’s making such an effort to regain possession of it. he had torn it up in a fit of anger and thrown it in the basket.
“evidently he was going to let it stay there,” tom reasoned. “then something came up that[pg 168] made him want to get it back. now what could that have been? and why is this paper of any value?”
tom looked at it carefully. he knew pretty well the contents of it. the trust deed was of the usual character. the location of the land, on which stood one end of the big railroad bridge, was given in feet, chains, links, and by degrees—in the manner in which all descriptions of property are made, “beginning at a point,” and so on.
but, somehow now, the dull details took on a new interest for tom. the draft of the deed recited how the land was not to be in the possession of captain hawkesbury and mr. doolittle, but was to be in their hands to insure a better settlement from the railroad. the proceeds were to be turned over to mr. taylor, or his heirs and assigns. at that time, of course, tom’s father was in perfect health, but all deeds and such instruments recite that the property goes to a certain person, and his heirs and assigns.
“now what gets me,” tom mused as he lay there in bed, “is why the captain wanted this paper so badly after he threw it away. i feel sure he thought as i did, at the time i had the talk with him. he felt that it wasn’t worth bothering with and i did also. but i feel differently now.”
tom folded the document and put it under his[pg 169] pillow. he felt better than at any time since having been brought to the hospital.
“i want to get up and do something!” tom told himself. and that feeling did more toward hastening his recovery than all the doctor’s medicine.
“my! this is an improvement!” exclaimed the medical man, when tom was found sitting up on the occasion of the first visit after flack’s call. “you look a whole lot better!”
“and i feel a whole lot better!” tom said, eagerly. “when may i get out of bed, doctor?”
“pretty soon now. i guess we’ve eliminated any possibility of an internal injury. you can get up and walk as soon as it doesn’t hurt you too much to move. i expect, though, that you’re going to be lame and stiff for some time yet.”
tom was. it was agony to get out of bed for the first time, but he persisted, knowing that the sooner he began to use his muscles and joints the more quickly would they limber up, and lose their soreness and stiffness.
the time came when tom could leave the hospital and walk about. his chums rejoiced with him. he was not wholly discharged, however, and still kept his hospital bed as his sleeping place.
“but i’ll be with you inside of a week,” he told
[pg 170]
“that’s what i want to hear!” his chum exclaimed.
tom was rather apprehensive about the first meeting with captain hawkesbury. he wondered how the old army officer would behave toward him, and if he would make any mention of the missing deed.
it was on the day when the physician first said tom could leave the hospital for good, and return to his own quarters, that our hero met the captain.
it was while on his way to his own room that tom saw, coming toward him, the man with whom he had collided. and at the sight of our hero, walking with just the least suspicion of a limp, the face of the old army officer took on a deeper tint of red.
tom saluted as he passed, but was a little diffident about speaking first.
“oh, so you’re out of the hospital, eh?” the captain said, and there was no kindness, but a sneer in his voice. “the next time you ride try and keep your horse under better control” he said, sharply. “we might have both been seriously hurt. luckily i know how to take a fall.”
he seemed to think only of himself, as if he were the only person concerned. he did not take into consideration the fact that tom had been hurt. there were no chances in his case.
[pg 171]
“i could not help it, captain hawkesbury,” tom said, firmly. “it was not my fault—altogether,” he added, significantly.
“it was rank carelessness!” was the snapped-out retort.
then, turning on his heel, the captain marched away, not answering tom’s parting salute. the old army officer was very insulting in tone and manner, but tom was not going to let that annoy him.
“welcome home!” exclaimed sam, as his chum came in. “it’s good to see you back again!”
“it’s good to be back,” tom replied, with a smile, as they shook hands. “you’re all decorated in honor of my return,” he went on whimsically, as he glanced at the bare walls of the room.
“good joke!” laughed sam. “oh, i’d have decorated all right, if ‘tac’ would stand for it. but you know how it is here.”
“i sure do!” agreed tom.
for tom, matters soon resumed their normal sway at west point. he had to make up what he had lost in his lessons, but he managed to do this, and soon he was back in the saddle again, literally as well as figuratively, for he was riding once more, though a different steed from the one that had figured in the accident.
all the while tom was trying to plan how to[pg 172] find out more about his father’s property. he had drawn up a letter to be sent to mr. blasdell, the lawyer, but the young cadet was not quite satisfied with his epistle, and was going to rewrite it.
he was on his way to call on young blasdell, to get a few points in this matter, when, as tom passed the room of captain hawkesbury, he saw, standing near the open window of the quarters of the old army officer, sam leland. the latter seemed to be looking at a scrap of paper that he had picked up from the ground.
“hello, tom!” he exclaimed. “this just came fluttering by, and i picked it up. it’s part of a telegram, but the address is torn off, and i don’t know to whom it belongs. it’s been thrown away, evidently. take a look.”
“a telegram?”
“it looks like it to me. take a squint at it yourself,” added sam, after a pause.
he passed it to tom, who saw, in a flash, these words:
“too bad he knows about draft—sorry you lost track of it. better come to garrison at once and consult with me. will wait for you at same hotel i always stop at.”
tom could not comprehend for a moment,[pg 173] but when he saw signed to the torn telegram the name aaron doolittle, it all came to him in a flash.
“i believe this is the clue i need!” tom said aloud.
