“i will get even with you for this. bob is not your son, and i will see that you don’t adopt him, either. whenever i see a notice of your death—and you can’t live forever—i will hunt that boy up and make him know what it is to be in want, as i am at this moment.”
i don’t suppose that when clifford henderson shouted this defiance at his brother, on the day he left him, after mr. davenport had refused to take any further steps toward paying his debts, that he really intended to go to texas, or, if he did, he never expected to meet bob there. he wanted to get away by himself and think over his misfortune; for he considered it a misfortune when his brother, who was fairly rolling in wealth, should decline to advance him the small sum when he was so much in need of it. henderson was[199] in sore straits—that is, for him. he had money, but he was anxious to get a little more, in order to go into a speculation in which he was certain to lose all he had; and it was when his brother declined to meet this demand that he went into a rage.
“old bob wants me to go to work,” said he, as he turned and shook his fist at the house. “not if i know it! i have seen him, when he was not any older than i am, looking around for a chance to put his money at interest, and he never would have anything to do with what i suggested to him. never mind; he is ’most dead with consumption, and i will see what will become of bob after that.”
when he got a little further along the street whom should he meet but the man with whom he intended to go into the speculation. it was buying waste land on the outskirts of the city, which might some day be profitable enough, but which would take double the amount that he had to improve it.
“well, clifford, did you try your brother?” he exclaimed, as soon as he got[200] within speaking distance. “i know you have, for a fellow would not look as glum as you do who had met with any success.”
“yes, i have tried him,” said henderson, taking the opportunity to whisper a few choice swear words. “i have tried him, and he can’t see it. he had but a few dollars left, and he wants to invest that for bob. bob! everything is for bob! i wish i could get rid of that boy.”
“you know i told you, when he came back from the mines and brought that boy with him, that your cake was all dough,” said his friend, who was about as disgusted as a man could well be. “why did not you take my advice and put him away long ago?”
“because i was a fool—that’s why! you see i was afraid somebody would get onto it.”
“they won’t if you do as i tell you. but it is none of my funeral. if you can’t go into the speculation i must go and hunt up somebody else. i must have some of those acres up there, for i know there is money in them. before i would be tied down by a little boy![201] good gracious! why don’t you push him overboard?”
“i never have a chance to go fishing with him,” said henderson.
“no matter. you could make chances enough, i dare say. how does the boy feel toward you?”
“friendly enough. i don’t think old bob has mentioned my name to him for a long time.”
“does his tutor go with him everywhere?”
“yes, everywhere. he can’t go out around the block without the tutor sticks close at his heels. if he would only send the boy to school i would have a better show.”
“do you know where the boy sleeps?”
“i bet you i do, but i don’t intend to fool around there,” said henderson, growing alarmed. “he sleeps in a room opening off from the tutor’s, and i tell you i wouldn’t take a hand in it. that tutor is a big man and is a match for both of us.”
“could he get away with a sand-bag?” said the friend, shutting one eye and looking at henderson with the other. “a man has[202] to be wide awake to meet such a thing as that.”
“you may try it if you want to, and i’ll give you half you make,” said henderson. “my brother is going to die in the course of a year or two, and by the end of that time i shall have money enough.”
“you can if he dies without making a will; but how do you intend to get around it if he names the boy as his heir?”
“if he doesn’t adopt him it is all right. i tell you that would make me mad. in that case i should probably wake up and do something, and i should find myself in jail before i was a week older.”
“not if you manage rightly. but i must go on. i must have that land before three o’clock or the fat will all be in the fire.”
the friend walked away and henderson kept on his road down the street. we can see from his conversation that he was not a bad man at heart, but he ought to have been rich, and in that case he would in a very short time have found himself penniless. his expectations ran greatly ahead of his income,[203] which at this time amounted to just nothing at all. all he made aside from his brother’s allowance was what he gained from little speculations, and, furthermore, he was in the hands of men who generally called on him for everything they wanted, and with a fair prospect of getting it. but now that mr. davenport had refused him any more money,—he had told him in plain language that he would have to pay his own debts in future,—their occupation was gone, and they must look elsewhere. he sent for his clothing during the day, and took up his abode at the hotel, where he tried to make up his mind what he ought to do.
“i have my choice between two courses of action,” said he, as he lighted a cigar and sat down in his room to think the matter over. “one is, to shut bob up in a lunatic asylum; and the other is, to go fishing with him and shove him overboard. now, if anyone can tell me which of those two is the safest, i will be ready to listen to him. nothing else seems likely to happen to him.”
the worst of it all was, mr. davenport[204] knew that something was about to happen to bob. almost a year before, when mr. davenport had refused to advance money for some of henderson’s schemes, the latter had so far forgotten himself as to make threats against bob. it alarmed his father, who at once took bob out of school and placed him under the protection of a private teacher, a stalwart man, a born athlete, and ready to hold his own against all the men that henderson could bring against him. he slept, too, in a room adjoining bob’s, so that the boy was under his care night and day. and it was all done so quietly that bob never suspected anything. wherever he went his tutor was ready to go with him; he was a man whom he liked, and he supposed that everything was just as it should be.
“that was a bad thing for me,” soliloquized henderson, knocking the ashes from his cigar. “if i had kept still about that i might have got rid of bob, and no one would have been the wiser for it, but now he is lost to me.”
of course his determination to push bob overboard when he went fishing with him was[205] knocked in the head by this arrangement, and so was his desire to steal him away and lock him up. this last, which was the idea of the man he had left but a few minutes ago, held out brighter promises than anything else; and he had even gone so far as to engage the doctor who was to take charge of it, promising him five thousand dollars when the boy was delivered into his hands, and as much more if his object was successful. but there he stopped. henderson didn’t have the pluck to go ahead with it, and there the matter laid for over a year. now it was brought back to him with redoubled force. everything was going to bob; he could see that plainly enough, and it was high time he was doing something. in fact, it had been that way ever since mr. davenport returned from the mines with this little nuisance, picked up none knew where.
“he must go, and that’s all about it,” said henderson, rising from his chair and hurriedly pacing the room. “if he won’t go overboard he must be locked up; my luck and everything else depend upon it. i will[206] go out now and see what scanlan has to say about it, for i am determined that i will not put up with him any longer.”
scanlan was the friend he had left an hour or so before, and when found he didn’t have the money to enable him to go on with that speculation. there were few hendersons in the field for him to call upon, and they were as hard up as he was.
“i guess the land will have to go to somebody else,” said he, as he described his ill luck. “i want just five hundred dollars, and nobody seems to have it.”
“i could get it, if it were not for my brother,” said henderson; and when he spoke the word “brother” he fairly hissed it through his teeth. scanlan looked up in surprise. “have i forgotten to tell you that old bob invariably speaks of that little snipe as my brother?” he continued. “he has been with him now for four years, and he thinks that i can get used to calling him by a relationship that really never existed.”
“how old is the boy, anyhow?”
“seven years old. old bob took him when[207] he was only three. i only wish the indians had come down on them and massacred the last one of the lot. not old bob, of course, for i am indebted to him for a pocketful of rocks, but that young one i wish i had never seen.”
“i don’t see what his pocketful of rocks has got to do with you,” said scanlan.
“neither do i. i do think,” added henderson, as though he was considering the matter for the first time, “that if i would go home and behave myself, and wait until the old man dies, i could really get hold of some of his money, but how much would i get? not twenty thousand, and that isn’t enough to buy an oyster supper.”
“how much is the old man worth?”
“i don’t know. a cool million.”
“whew!” whistled scanlan. “and are you going to stay back and let that boy cheat you out of it? if you do i shall never be sorry for you.”
“that’s is just what i don’t want to do, and i came down here to talk to you about kidnapping him and putting him under lock[208] and key,” continued henderson, looking all around to make sure that no one overheard him. “i say let him be locked up at once.”
“now you are talking,” said scanlan. “if you had decided on that several years ago you would have had no trouble; but now i tell you it is going to be uphill work. we’ve got the tutor to overcome, and that is going to be all that we two can do. now, what do you propose?”
a long conversation followed, and the substance was that the matter was left entirely in the hands of his friend scanlan. henderson had never been in the habit of defying the police by engaging in any kidnapping schemes, and he did not propose to begin now. he wanted the boy got rid of, when and how he didn’t care, so long as no effort was made against his life. that was too dangerous. and there, we may add, the thing rested for a whole year, until one day henderson heard something in a few moments’ talk with the tutor, who had waited outside while his pupil was in a store making some purchases, that set him post haste after scanlan.
[209]
“the dog is dead now,” said he, drawing scanlan into a doorway where they could talk without being overheard, “and i don’t know whether to be glad or sorry over it. my brother is going to texas!”
“to texas?” exclaimed scanlan. “what in the world should take him into that far-off region?”
“he had a relative down there engaged in the cattle business, and he has died leaving his property to old bob. don’t it beat the world how some fellows can get along without lifting their hands? now, if he had left those cattle to me who stand so much in need of them——”
“if that boy goes to texas he’ll be out of reach of you,” interrupted scanlan.
“yes; but see what danger he’ll be in.”
“i don’t know that he will be in any danger—more than he is here,” said scanlan. “remember that if he stays there long enough to get acquainted he will have any number of rifles to back him up.”
“what do you mean by that?”
“why, supposing his father dies and[210] leaves no will. it would put you to some trouble to prove that you are next of kin. you see your names are different. if they made up their minds that he was the heir, it would be good-by to you.”
“and you believe it would be best to kidnap him very soon?” asked henderson, his courage all leaving him.
“certainly i do! if he goes down there you are a poor man for your lifetime. now is the chance. i tell you i would not miss it for anything!”
this brought the matter squarely home to henderson, and he decided that he would take that night to sleep upon it. he rolled and tossed on his bed without ever closing his eyes in slumber, and when morning came he had made up his mind to do something.
“scanlan will have to do it all,” said he, and his compressed lips showed that he had looked at the matter in all its bearings. “i will keep just behind him and show him the room where the boy sleeps, and he can throw the quilt over him and secure him without any help from me. then if that old tutor of[211] his jumps in on us, why i will get out of the way. but i must leave my way of escape clear.”
henderson carried out his programme by going to the bank, drawing out his money, and depositing it somewhere about his person. then he packed his trunk as if for a long journey, and then told scanlan that he was ready for business.
“i knew that was the decision you would come to, so i got the carriage and made it all right with the driver,” said scanlan. “i have got an extension bit, which is about the only thing we need, to enable us to get in through the basement door. now, cliff, how much am i going to get for this? i do all the work and you stand by and look on. i ought to have a considerable sum for that.”
“why, i guess what i am to give the doctor——” began henderson.
“not much,” said scanlan, with a laugh. “what you will give the doctor won’t faze me. say a tenth of what you make.”
“oh, my goodness!” stammered henderson.
[212]
“i have got the paper here, it is all drawn up, and i guess it is all right,” continued scanlan, drawing a folded document from his inside pocket. “just run your eye over that.”
“a hundred thousand!” gasped henderson.
“that isn’t a drop in the bucket to what you will have if you succeed,” said scanlan coolly. “you will see that the paper says ‘if successful.’ if you don’t succeed in the job, why that is my lookout. if you do, i shall want the money. if the arrangement doesn’t suit you, get somebody else to try his hand.”
that was just what henderson was afraid of, and things had gone too far for him to back out. he felt as though he was signing his death warrant when he was affixing his signature to the document, but when it was done the writing did not look much like his bold penmanship.
“so far so good,” said scanlan, coolly surveying the signature. “but you are a little nervous, cliff. now you keep that tutor off[213] me and i will get the boy. you meet me here at ten o’clock, and when morning comes that fellow will be under lock and key.”
“i have done it,” said henderson, going out on the street and wending his way toward his brother’s house. “i have gone too far to back out. here i have gone and signed a paper and placed it in the hands of that man scanlan, and he can use it on me at a moment’s warning. he’s a desperate fellow. i wish i felt as certain of success as he does.”
somebody has said that when a man is going to the bad he finds everything greased for the occasion; that is, he finds it easy enough to go down hill; but almost impossible for him to get back. i am not well enough posted in literature to know who it was that said it, but perhaps some of you boys who are fresh from your books may be able to name the person. henderson found it so, and it all dated from the moment he signed that paper. he was afraid to back out now, and so he must go on. he walked by his brother’s house once or twice, and then went back to his hotel. he didn’t eat any supper, and he[214] didn’t want any; but when it came near time for him to meet scanlan he stepped into a store and bought a heavy oak stick, which he thought would be strong enough to floor the tutor or anybody else that took a hand in rescuing the boy, and pronounced himself ready for the business. there were still three hours for them to pass in some way, for scanlan did not think it safe to make a move before one o’clock, and the time seemed to slip away before they knew it. they found the carriage right where scanlan said they would, and in a few minutes were set down within a few doors of mr. davenport’s house. when they got out the hack-driver thought it time to speak about his money.
“look here!” said he; “which one of you gentlemen is a-going to pay me a hundred dollars for this trip? kidnapping a sane person and taking him off to a lunatic asylum——”
“my dear sir, kidnapping is something we don’t have any hand in at all,” said scanlan. “we are going to take this fellow out of the house with the full consent of[215] his father, but we don’t want his aunts to know anything about it. the hundred dollars are all right. this man is a detective, and will pay you when we get the passenger to the asylum. are you satisfied?”
the hack-driver had nothing further to say. all he wanted to know was who would give him his money when the trip was over. he mounted to his box, being instructed to keep himself within hailing distance, and the two kept on toward mr. davenport’s residence. all was dark and silent within, except the light that was kept burning in the tutor’s room.
“we have got to keep out of that,” said henderson, pointing toward the window. “if we allow ourselves to come within reach of it i shall be recognized; then good-by to me.”
“well, we must look out for that,” said scanlan, who did not feel any more fear than if he was sitting down to his supper. “keep close beside me, and be ready to knock the tutor down if he takes a hand in the rumpus. that’s all you have to do.”
[216]
in a few minutes they reached the basement door, where they were free from interruption, and scanlan, producing his extension bit, went to work in earnest. he first cut out a circular opening in the door above the bolt, then thrust his hand in and cautiously removed the fastenings, and the door swung open. they entered and scanlan closed the door behind him.
“i think you had better leave it open,” said henderson, who trembled as if he was seized with a sudden attack of the ague. “we might be discovered.”
“in that case we’ll have something to light us out,” said scanlan. “but be sure you kick over the blaze before you go out.”
with the words scanlan took from his pocket a small piece of candle, which he lighted and stood upon the table, embedded in some of its own grease. then he stopped and looked around him. the house was silent as if it had been deserted, and having satisfied himself on this point, scanlan motioned for henderson to lead the way up the stairs.[217] the steps were carpeted, and moreover, being shod with rubbers, the men gave out no sound as they ascended to the first floor, the leader easily finding and opening all doors that barred his progress. that one lock passed at the basement door had opened the way for them.
at length they came to the front hall, and here some more strategy was made use of. henderson carefully unlocked the door and placed the key on the outside, and then cautiously led the way up the second stairs to the floor above. he stopped every once in a while to listen, but he heard nothing suspicious, and presently pushed open a door that gave entrance into the room in which the little boy was sleeping. with a motion of his hand, henderson pointed him out, and then moved through the room to take a look at the tutor. he lay upon his back with his arms extended over his head, revealing muscles that made henderson tremble. something, i don’t know what it was, went through the tutor all of a sudden, and he started up in alarm to find a strange face in his door[218] he gazed at it a moment, and then thrust his hand under his pillow. when it came out it had a revolver in its grasp. henderson took one look at it and turned and took to his heels.
