No.135 NEW 9 oCents

TIP-TOP

WEEKLY

FEBRUARY 27,1915

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FRANK MERRIWELL JUNIOR AND THE PRINCE
or The Crooked Trail of Bully Carson

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An Ideal Publication For The American Youth

  
  
  
 

 

 

Issued Weekly. Entered as Second-class Matter at the New York Post Office, according to an act of Congress, March 3,1879. Published by

STREET & SMITH, 79-89 Seventh Ave,, New York. Copyright, 1915, by STREET & SMITH.

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No. 135. NEW YORK, ‘February 27, 1915. Price Five Cents.

 

Frank Merriwell, Junior, and the Prince;
Or, THE, CROOKED TRAIL OF BULLY CARSON.

CHAPTER I.
FATHER AND SON.

The cupidity of Bully Carson was highly excited by the

story of Simeon Lee and his diamonds, a story that had
» tun through Fardale with the speed of fire flashing over

‘dry grass, and had spread almost as quickly through
all the surrounding towns and villages. — .

- Bully was staying, in Fardale more than half the time
now, though his recognized. home was still with his father,

~~ in Carsonville.

Having called up Dickey’s place, in Fardale, and got

from Dickey as many of the details as he knew at the
moment, Bully had hung up the telephone receiver.

After having dressed carefully, he came out into the
sitting room, where Colonel Carson was baking his: shins,

and smoking, before a genial fire in the grate.

Colonel Carson looked up, and surveyed his scoun-
drelly son with a critical lack of sympathy, as he ob-
petved that Bully was wearing his most radiant “glad
rags.”

When Bully wanted to “throw a front,” and that was
nearly always when he went up to Fardale, he became
a human rainbow. Bully’s tastes were atrocious. Wide
stripes and plaids of high colors, a flaming-red neck-
tie, a huge, glittering watch chain suggesting a ship’s
cable, a stickpin holding a flashing, paste diamond as big
as a hazelnut, big seal rings on his fingers—such was
Bully’s get-up. Add to this a coarse, heavy face and
coarse, heavy manners, and one gets a fair idea of the

“appearance sof Colonel Carson’s hopeful son.

“Going out ag’in?” Colonel Carson growled, pulling

at his yellow-gray goatee. “Y’ain’t more’n got home,
Bully.”

_“The’s a matter I want to look into, dad,” Bully be-

 

By BURT L. STANDISH.

gan blandly. “I had word of it early this mornin’, and
I’ve just been getting the particulars from Dickey.”

“That rascally Fardale booze seller! I want you to
keep. away from him! He’s running a booze shop and
gambling joint, under cover of his cigar store. I’ve told.
you before this to have nothing to do with him,”

“T was just getting the news from him, dad. All the
news can be learned at his place quicker than any other.
That’s why I called him up.”

“What's it all about?” said the colonel, looking Bully
reprovingly in the eye. “Some other gambling scheme
that you’re wanting money for? Better keep out of
’em. That last time, when you bucked up against Chip
Merriwell’s ‘crowd, you got in bad. I like a little sport
myself,” he added, his eyes twinkling, “but I like to be
pretty sure I’ll win before I risk my good money.”

Bully frowned at the unpleasant recollection.

“T’d like some money,” he confessed, “but it’s for
nothing like that. -There’s been the biggest diamond
robbery and smuggling case up there on record.”

“Diamonds at Fardale? Nothing in it, son. Baseball
diamonds are the,only kind they ever heard about, or
card diamonds.”

“It started several days ago,” said Bully, and went
right on;> “queerest case you ever heard of. Suddenly
there comes to Fardale Academy. two people loaded with
diamonds. One was a littlé boy—little bit o’ feller—and
he had ’em sewed onto his clothes for buttons. T’other
was a man, who said his name was Simeon Lee; and he
had his diamonds hid ins\de of a little wooden figure -
dressed and blacked like a nigger minstrel; he was givin’
ventriloquist exhibitions, and used the thing for that,
and it was called the talkin’ head.

. “Well, it turned out, finally, that this Simeon Lee
was a diamond thief and smuggler, who had stole them
diamonds down in Mexico City, and had tried to git

 

    
  
  

turned back at the outbreak o’ the war.

“Now, here comes the mix-up; and the way the thing
became known. The Spanish instructor at Fardale, a
Mexican-lookin’ feller named Alvord, had been in Mexico,
in the revolution, when Lee was down there and stole the
diamonds; and he had follered Lee, trying to git a chance
to pinch the gems. Bein’ broke, after the steamship came
back, he had got that job at the academy, and had lost
sight of Lee and the diamonds; when here along comes

Lee, and the fight for the diamonds was on again, hot
and heavy.
“Well, they was both exposed, and both skipped; but

when they dropped out into the night, Alvord was the
one who had the diamonds.”

“Well, what do you want money about that for?” de-
manded Colonel Carson, refusing to grow excited.

“To dip into that diamond hunt with. Them men are
close round Fardale; for they couldn’t get away, as mes-
sages were "sent everywhere right off, and every road

, and tailway station was watched close. There are re-
wards: out for them. But”’—Bully gave his father a pe-
culiar look—“I’d rather put my fingers on the diamonds
than on all the rewards. Somebody’s goin’ to do it, too.
I got to have some money to live onj’ he added, “while
I’m investigatin’.”

Colonel Carson puckered his wet in a frown.

“Remantic story,” he said, as if unconvinced. “What
became of the kid?” .

“Oh, he’s there at the academy. He’s the little nephew
o that’ friend o’ mine, I’ve told you about—Anselm
Basil, that they call the Duke. The kid’s name is Cyril,
yand they call him the Prince.”

ee

/ "Princes and dukes and diamonds! Huh! Sounds

‘like England.”

“The Duke talks a good deal about England and his
English ancestry. He’s been over there more than once.
As for diamonds, he don’t need to worry none; if he
wants to wear sparklers, he’s got a dad that’s rich as
cream, and: ready to come across with the money when-
ever the Duke wants it. I never saw ‘a young feller
have so much spendin’ money. It makes me think you
ought to be a little more lib’ral with me. You've got
money. Cough up some.”

“No money to waste,”
monds are clear’ beyond me.
lot on you during the past year.
me, Bully.”

“Aw, cut it out! You got plenty er money.
over! I want fifty dollar's.”

“You can’t have it.”

“You ain’t goin’ to make me go out and steal it?”

“If you do, and git in jail, Bully, you can stay there
this time ; I’m not going to hire lawyers to pull you out
again,”

“Then gimme some money, It’s a big chance, dad.
There ain’t anybody knows Fardale and the country
round it better than I do. Alvord is hidin’ round there,
somewhere, and he’s got them diamonds. Just think what
it’d mean, if I could get my hands on ’em!”

“You'd steal ’em?”

“Steal em, no; why, they don’t belong to Alvord! I'd
just take ’em. It’s said they belong to a woman in the
city of Mexico. But nobody knows her name, or who

said Carson; “dukes and dia-
And I’ve had to spend a
You are going to ruin

Fork

    

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to Europe with ‘em on that German steamer which was.

 

  
  

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Pedy.
she iss.and maybe’ she igydead.
on down there.” ——

“So your idea is that the diamonds belongs to who-
ever gets em?” BiN)
‘Well, they’d sure belong to me, if I got ’em. Dickey 9%
says it’s reported they're worth more’n a hundred thous 4
sand dollars. Just think of .that! A hundred thousand 939
dollars !” |
Colonel Carson slowly

There’s been a war goin’

    
     
     
       
       
  
  
  
   
   
  
  
  
   
   
     
    
 
   
   
  
      
   
   
   
    
  
   
  
  
    
   
   
 
   
 
   

 

and thoughtfully relighted the
cigar he had allowed to go out. 3 ee

“So, you see, dad!” said Bully, regarding him earnestly. 4
“I’m goin’ to sweep that whole country as clean as they, |
sweep the lake there when they pull off a skating or ‘ice- ar
yacht race. I may need to hire a bit of help, and then 3
there’s the legitimate expenses. Y’can’t do anything now- | i
adays without money. So I come to you first.” a

Carson swung round. i

“What d’ye mean by that?” he asked. “4

Bully waved .a-flippant. hand.

“Well, there’s' others, dad! I could go to the Duke.
But_I got money out of him only last week, and I don’t
like to strike: him ag’in too soon. And there’s Dickey.
Besides,” he explained, “the Duke is some sore over his
failure to win in them ice-yacht races, when he thought
he had things cinched. So I'd prefer to strike him
later.”

  
 
  
  
  
   
 
   
  
  

“If you got holt o’ them ‘diamonds, Bully, they wouldn’t ”
be yourn; the law’d take *em away from ye, I. think:
They'd be held for that owner down in Mexico.”

“Oh, they would—not!” said Bully, with an unpleasant,
look of cunning.’ “See me sayin’ anything about it, if
got my flippers on ’em; just see me!”

“But you couldn’t sell diamonds like them.”

“Sure I could—through Dickey. Dickey knows mel
in the city. He’d have his rake-off, of course; but Dickey
could dispose of ’em. Dickey is the smartest man in®
this county. Nobody ever ketches him, yet ever snot
knows what he is and what he does.”

“The pitcher that goes to the well too often gets
broke at last,” said the colonel oracularly.

Bully’s unpleasant laugh sounded.

“You've got Dickey on the wrong end of the battery,» :
dad. He’s the catcher—catches everything that comes, his.
way! And he never goes to any old well. He drinks,
only the best stuff that comes out of his own bottles.
He'll never get broke. He’s too smart.”

‘Colonel Carson sat smoking and staring into the grate. .
His hopeful son, more mercurial, twisted his heels and
waited. te
“T ain’t in favor of this—not the way you line*it out, ae
Bully,” said the colonel. “I’d urge you not to go any “|
farther than claimin’ a reward, if you should happen ©
to be lucky enotigh to connéct in any way with ‘them
diamonds. There will be a big reward, if they’re any-
ways as valuable as yout heard. There’d be no-risk in

that.”

He turned and looked at Bully.

“Till call it a sportin’ proposition, if you'll go at it in
that way.”

“How’s that?” said Bully.

“Try to find where the diamond thief is hiding, and
try to connect with the diamonds. If you locate him, you
can have him arrested. That would be the thing to do,
and enough. Then you could claim the reward. Mshog. i
do ye say?” (ie

      
    

 

      
     
     
       
       
     
       
     
       
     
       
 

  
       
 

 

 

  
  
   
   
   
    
  
 
   
 

 

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“Tt might do.”""Bully wanted the colonel’s money.

“Tt’s the only safe way, Bully. I'll regard that as a
sportin’ proposition, and advance you fifty dollars.. I ad-
vance it, you see; that makes me a partner and sharer,
same as grubstaking a prospector. You get the idea?
But you’ve got to be careful, Bully.”

“Oh, I ain’t going to catch any bullets, if I can help
ater

“Careful about the law, I mean. Youw’re getting a
bad name. I’m sorry to know it, Bully. There are
sporting propositions, and good ways of making money,
without taking Jong chances and accumulating a criminal
‘record. If you get a criminal record, Bully, whatever
you do will be painted black, no matter how white you
may think it. Don’t make any slips. That’s what I
mean,”

Leaving the room, Colonel Carson returned in a few
minutes, with fifty dollars that he had taken from his
safe, and put it in the hands of his son.

“I'm riskin’ this,” he said; “if you fail, it’s my loss.
I’m hoping luck will fall your way. But don’t take any
clmances against the law, Bully; always keep inside the
law! There is just as rich pickin’s inside as outside
that safe line. You got to remember that.”

Sully wadded the bills together with immense satis-
faction and stuffed them in his pocket.

“Now I’m goin’,” he declared. “I got to thank you for
this, dad. You may not hear from me for three or four
days. If I’ve got anything to report, I’ll phone you from
Dickey’s.”

“Be careful to keep on the safe side o’ the law, Bully,”
the colonel warned, as he saw Bully departing.

It was the rule by which the colonel tried to guide
his life.

CHAPTER II.
THE FARDALE SENSATION.

. Bully Carson was not the only one who was excited
by the big diamond sensation at Fardale. In varying de-
grees, it had stirred nearly every person in the old
town.

Colonel Gunn, head of the Fardale school, was thunder-
Struck by the revelation that Alvord, the instructor in
Spanish, was not what he had seemed. It was like a
slap in the face to the worthy man, who prided himself
on his ability to read character and judge of people
psychologically. The only balm in Gilead for Gunn came
in the reflection that Alvord had not been the regular
instructor, but was merely filling temporarily a position
made vacant by illness.

Yet the humiliation and shock of seeing Fardale
Academy featured in newspaper headlines as having an
instructor who had been disclosed as a criminal was al-
most enough to give Gunn a turn of illness.

“Horrible—shocking—unbelievable—a-haw, a-hum!” he
said, over and over. “A-hum—a-haw! Fardale is dis-
graced! Who could have thought it—who, er, could have
believed it? A-hum—a-haw!”

His bands shook, as well as his voice. He was over-
whelmed.

At Mrs. Winfield’s boarding house the excitement had
been to intense. Mrs. Winfield announced, and
prided herself in the-fact, that she kept only “select
boarders.” Yet she had unwittingly harbored the dia-

q
less

mond ‘thief and smuggler, Simeon. Lee In her house
there had been a violent fight between Lee and Alvord;
and Alvord’s attempt to burn the place had nearly turned
her select boarding house into a crematory.

Mrs. Winfield did not like to talk about it—it seemed
to suggest that she and her house had lost caste; yet
she found herself talking about it all the time, to people
who came personally to ask curious questions, and to
others who made their inquiries by telephone. And her
boarders, when they sat down at her tables, talked of
nothing else.

Yet perhaps the wildest man on the subject in Fardale
was the queer old constable, Zenas Gale, who had been
in the thick of things from the first, and had fallen
down utterly in his efforts to arrest Lee and Alvord.

However, it was Gale who had taken such prompt
measures to keep the men from getting out of the coun-
try, by telephoning and telegraphing the news every-
where, with warnings to all officers and trainmen to be
on the watch for them.

Not satisfied with that, he had set the printing press
to work, and had sent out printed descriptions of the
two men, so that the walls everywhere round held notices
and offers of rewards. :

In addition to this, the constable was conducting almost
a house-to-house search for the fugitives, for he did not
see how they could have got away, and believed they
were hiding in Fardale or its environs.

The students at Fardale academy were taking the lives
liest interest in the subject. They not only talked it, on
the ice, in the gym, @nd even in the lecture rooms and
in their own rooms, but they had organized searching
parties, and had sallied forth valiantly, without know-
ing where to go, or what to do.

Chip Merriwell had taken possession of the so-called ~
talking head, and still had it, in the room which he ©
occupied with Clancy; and Chip was having a great deal —

of fun with it, jin entertaining his friends.
At the close of each day “Alonzo” sat very stiff and
Straight on the little desk in the room, and discoursed,
giving harsh opinions of Mr. Lee, who had brought him
to Fardale and then had deserted him, and suggesting
various places in which Lee and Alvord might be hiding.

“You-alls ain’t looked unner de ice on de lake, has ye?”

Alonzo asked, at the end of the second day. “I disremems-
behs dat I has hea’d any o’ you gemmans say dat you
has.”

“No,” said Chip, answering the black-faced’ wooden
head that he had made say this, “we never thought of that
before, Alonzo.”

“Anotheh place what I suggests to you-alls is de top o’
de flagstaff out in de campus. Ain’t dem de only two
places what I ain’t already suggest?”

“I think, Alonzo, you haven’t said anything about the
ash pots under the big steam boilers in the academy
basement.”

“Yah, yah! How you-alls does cyarry on, doan’ you?”

“Vhen I shudt mein eyes und don’t seen dot vooden
headt,” observed Villum Kess, “I seem to haf as mooch
sense as idt has, ain’dt it? Und vhen idt sbeak mit’ my
big moudth—no! Vot do I mean? 1 mean, idt seems
as insensiple as I am.”

“Yah, yah! Misteh Kess, de way dat you’ tangles up
yo’ figgehs o’ speech makes’ my wooden haid feel des lack
a churn full ter de brim o’ buttermilk. When you says

   

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what yo" means, why in der name 0’ common sense don’t

“you say hit diff’ent?”

The door of the room swung inward, and into the room

"came the pattering little feet of the Prince. Each evening

_ the Prince had to come there to hear Alonzo spread his
black mouth and talk -his nonsense.

“Heah’s de Prince!” cried Alonzo, bobbing his black
head. “How is yo’ royal highness dis evenin’, suh?”

It was hard for the little fellow to feel that the wooden
head, which opened its black mouth, and seemed to say
those words, did not really say them, so he did not try
to feel it, but gave himself unreservedly to the illusion
that the talking head thought and talked, and cracked
jokes and. sang.

“I’m very well this evening, thank you,” said the Prince
gravely, staring at the minstrellike little figure on the
desk; “I heard you talking, and so I made the Duke bring
me in. You're going to talk some more?”

The Duke, as Basil was universally called by friends
and foes, stood in the doorway, looking in, having pushed

the Prince in ahead of him. The Duke’s room was on the
“4 same floor, and not far off; and the Prince was staying
there with him temporarily.” |

“Come on in, Duke,” Chip invited.
say “Vas, suh! Dat’s right,’ Alonzo chimed in, bobbing

| his head. again. “Evehbody what follers in de wake er

| de Prince is suttinly welcome in dis room. De Prince

he is some boy, ain’t her”
/> » “I’m not very large,” said the Prince, tiptoeing to make
-. himself taller.

“Yah, yah! But de bes’ things comes in de smallest
packages. Dat’s what I mean. I’m li’? mahsef, doan’t
you see? Yah, yah! Ef I eveh gits as big as Chip Mer-
riwell, I won't have no mo’ sense dan he has. Yah, yah!
Huccotne you ain’t wahin’ yo’ silk-an’-velvet jacket dis
“evenin’, Prince?”

“It’s been, sent out to have some more buttons put on
‘it, because the diamond ones were all cut off,” the Prince
- explained seriously.

“Dat sho” was a shame! De man what would rob a

chile lack what you is needs a cat-o’-ninestails.”

“4 im! cat hasn’t but one tail, though,” said the Prince.

, yah! Heah ‘im talk!”

A din had come up by the door, outside, behind the
- Duke—a man dark of face and heavily bearded. He
stopped there an instant, while he glanced into the room.
Then he went on, hurrying.

Chip Metriwell withdrew his hand, to hurry to the door
for a look;'and, unsupported, Alonzo flopped over on his
nose, on the desk, bringing a cry from the child.

Chip saw only the man’s back, for he had quickly reached
the end of the corridor, and there had gone on hurriedly
sand disappeared.

“Who was it?” said Clancy.

* “Tt’s Alonzo, tipped over on his face,
wailing.

Chip scurried along the corridor without answering.

In a minute he was back.

“T don’t know where that man went,” he reported;
probably he went downstairs.”

“Who was it?” said Clan.

Chip shrugged his shoulders,

“At the first glance I thought it was Alvord, disguised,
but it couldn’t have been!”

“Nerves!” said the Duke, a bit scornfully.

 
 

  

  

the Prince was

”?

“but

 

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ito turned upon him. ~

“You tell me, will you, how a man like that could get -

in Here at this time of the evening?”
“Well, here comes the cadet guard;
The guard came up hurriedly.
“Did you see a black-bearded man pass along here?” he
asked.
“Ves. ‘He went down the corridor, and
first floor,” said Chip. “Who was he?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t know how he got into the
barracks.”
The guard hastened on in pursuit.

ask him.”

probably to the

He returned in a short time, while they were still talking:

about it.

“T guess that’s all right,” he said;. ‘I understand that
there is a detective from Boston here, and that he was
given permission to look through the barracks. He went
out -by the front door, and I suppose he has gone into
the village.”
neglected, on the desk a number ‘of minutes,
while they discussed this. The guard did not know who
had sent the detective down, but he said he understood
it was either the State, or the steamship company.

“Alonzo is going to smother, if you don’t set him up
straight,” the Prince protested.

Alonzo fay,

When they paid no heed to this,.he righted Alonzo him- f
self, and asked the black face a number of questions, §

all of which went unanswered.

“Dot tedectif,” said Kess, his round face pink with ex- 7 ©

citement, “meppyso idt iss somepody?”

“Who?” asked Clancy.

“Mr. Alvordt, vearing vhiskers on der face uff me.
I am nodt righdt, who: iss?”

Uff

“Just the thought that struck me,” Chip Merriwell de-
clared seriously. “And he stopped and looked in at the
door exactly as Alvord
ing head here in the room.
invaded the room, and tried to steal the head.”

“But the talking head was the place of concealment,
then, for the diamonds,” the Duke objected.

“Say, look in der sdomach uff dot nigger some more
dimes,” Kess suggested.

“Oh, there’s nothing there now,” Chip urged.

Yet .he twisted Alonzo’s head off—unscrewed it from
the body—while the Prince howled his disapproval, and
made an examination of the cloth-and-wooden interior,
pushing a pencil far down in, and twisting it round like
a corkscrew.

CHAPTER ITI.
ALONZO’'S. SECRET.

“There is something in there,” Chip announced, his voice
sharp with sudden excitement.

“What !”

Clancy jumped to his side.

Even the Duke came up, with Kess, and looked into
the interior of the effigy, and listened, when Chip twisted
the point of the pencil about.

“Paper,” said Chip.

“Probably swallowed the five-dollar bill I’ lost yester- ~~

day,” remarked Clancy, in his joking way. “Who’s got a
corkscrew? Duke, bring in the diamond utensil that you
open your champagne bottles with.”

The Duke brought a corkscrew, but it wasn’t diamond-’

on od
.
]

did that first night I had the talk- |
Later in the night, Alvord ~

   
      
      

  

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terior of Alonzo.

4 “Writing,” said Chip, spreading it out on the desk and
/. smoothing down the wrinkles made by tight folding.

3 An amazed cry broke from the lips of the Duke.

* “Our house!” he gasped.

The paper held the well-drawn penciled outline of a
thouse of fashionable design, together with plans of the
floors and basement, showing the location of all the
fooms.

Over it was written: ‘

“Basil’s, Commonwealth Avenue,” with the number.

In the plans of the rooms, a number of the squares
; that indicated rooms had names or words written in them.

In. one square was written the word Duke; in another
i stood the word Prince; still others were marked nursery,
play room, master’s, music room, library et cetera. One
4 was marked treasure room; and a boxlike drawing of an
4+. object in it was plainly meant for a safe. This was
_inarked, diamonds, money, jewelry, plate.

The paper was an astonishing find.

But what did it mean?

All knew that Commonwealth Avenue was the wealthy
and fashionably exclusive street in the Back Bay district

of Boston, the home of the Boston blue bloods and new

+ rich. It was enviously said ‘to be called Commonwealth
nme» Avenue because there wealth was so common.

7 © In addition, the young fellows who stared in amaze-
a ment at the paper knew that these drawings were intended
oe 6 represent the home of the Basils.

)'. “Fan me with a brickbat, ere I faint!” Chip Merriwell
|” gurgled.

_ “Budt,” cried Kess, “how dit dot gedt insite uff me, iss
~ yot I vant to know?”

“Chip, this isn’t a joke, is it?” protested Clancy. “You
didn’t put this in there just to sensate a creation?”

“Sure, I didn’t,” said Chip; “1 didn’t know it was there
before.”

Duke Basil’s slender fingers, which, nevertheless, had
such wirelike strength, were fluttering over the pockets of

his coat, His face was white, and his blue eyes looked
i startled. He was breathing heavily, as he made his hur-
aa ried search.

{

!

| “handled, and, with it, the paper was fished out of the in-

a 6

  
 

Soon, while the others were chattering, he drew out an
envelope, and took from it a letter. It was from Boston,
and bore the postmark;of the Back Bay district.

Unfolding the letter, he spread it out on the desk beside
the drawings.

14 “Take a look,” he said, his voice shaking; “what do
@ you make of this?”
i They read the exposed letter first:

“My Dear Mr. Ansetm: I am not to blame that the

Prince ran away, and I have been worried to death about

him. Your father is not here. The governess and I have

®. had a row. She says I am to blame, I don’t know where
74
i

.

‘8 ©» ssh is, and I don’t care. But your telegram was sure
iH va relief to me, for it told me that the Prince is safe with
‘pyou. I shall be in Fardale to-morrow or next day, to

Bie, ree ‘
ry Bet him, Respectfully yours, LucILE PATTERSON.” .
oP :

>. RS
‘

 

TR That letter is from the nurse,” the Duke explained.

a re Lt “T ait’t going back with her!” said the Prince, kicking
“4 § Yadeg of the desk, *“T don’t like her, and she whips me,
Vand that’s why I runned away.”

>» “What do you make of it?” the Duke demanded,

 

PE oy
N80,

tvs R oo

TOP WEEKLY. 5

“Tt looks like the same handwriting as that on the draw-
ings of your house,” said Chip, though loath to believe it.

“It is the same handwriting,” declared Clancy.

“Sure I am,” Kess added. .

They stood up straight, looking at each other. Then
all looked at Duke Basil.

“What does it prove?” he asked, his blue eyes hot and
his face red.

“T don’t know what it proves,” said Chip, “but it sure
seems to indicate that the Prince’s nurse, or whoever
wrote that letter, made those drawings and sent them to
Simeon Lee, and that he kept them concealed in this talk-
ing head.”

“Lee was on his way to Boston, when he struck this
hamlet, too,” said Clancy; “and once, while here, he made
the Hub of the universe a flying visit, you remember.”

“And, according to Alvord,” the Duke added, “Lee was a
thief and confidence man, and this seems to: show that
he was a burglar, too. And Miss Lucile Patterson, the
nurse,” his voice snapped harshly, “furnished him. with
these drawings, so that he could rob our house! Doesn't
it look it?”

Again they compared the drawing with the letter, more
carefully. The handwriting was identical.

“Though I never liked Miss Patterson,” said the Duke, -
“T never dreamed of a thing like this. Ill take both of
these, if you don’t mind, and send them to father. No,
on second thought, I’ll confront her with them, when she
gets here.”

“It might be a better plan to keep her in ignorance of
this, and watch her while she is here,” Chip suggested.
“If she is an accomplice of Simeon Lee, and he is in
hiding here, she may know where he is, and try to see
him.”

, The Duke looked the drawings over again, as he turned
this suggestion in his mind. Even now he did not like
to accept even a good suggestion from Chip Merriwell, ~
for their enmity and opposition were only slumbering, not
extinguished.

“Il wonder what Miss Patterson meant by marking my
room and that of the Prince?” he said.

“So that Lee could locate you, of course, if you were
there. And I suppose,” Chip added, “that’s because you
usually go floating round with a cartload of gems and
money on you. Since learning that Lee is a thief, I’ve.
wondered why he didn’t strip the diamond buttons off
the Prince, when he appeared here with him. But prob-
ably he hoped to do it later, with less risk. Then Alvord
got after him, and he lost his chance, and Alvord got. the
Prince’s diamonds.”

“But why don’t you make Alonzo talk?” wailed the
Prince, growing tired of this discussion, which held no in-
terest for him, “I want to hear Alonzo talk.”

Chip righted Alonzo, on the desk, and screwed his
head on.

“Yah, yah! Thank ye, suh; yas, suh! I cain’t talk layin’
down on mah face, wif mah haid on de ur side o’ de
desk,” Alonzo explained, to the extreme delight of the
Prince. “What I sagaciates fum dis situation is sho’
peculiar: Dat secret letteh was dis-trusted to me by Misteh
Lee, who made me swaller it; when I had mah mouf open,
laughin’. But I couldn’t digest it, so I didn’t git de real
meanin’. Yah, yah! But ef fo’sight was des de same as
de wisdom of hindsight, I could tell you-alls what is
gwine happen fum it des as easy! So all I can do is to

 

 
ae siiggest. And I suggests dat when dat Miss Lutile Pat-
~ terson done comes heah, you-alls choke de truf outer her,
“ef.you has to kill her.”
“And don’t let her take me back,” piped the Prince.
“No, suh! We sho’ ain’t gwine tuh do dat! We-alls
will tell her dat you has now entered Fardale Academy,
and dat yo’ has to stay heah, and cain’t go back no
mo’.”
“And if she tries to take me back, she'll be arrested!”
“Dat’s what! Ki-yi! Soon’s she gits heah, we'll ’rest
her. I’m mad at her, anyhow; ’cause dat secrit letteh was
layin’ so long on my stomick dat hit gimme de innergestion.
Yah, yah!”

CHAPTER IV.
THE BLACK-WHISKERED MAN.

After some discussion of the whole matter, the Duke
left Cyril in care of Bronson Avery, his roommate and
intimate friend, and set off for the telegraph office, where
he sent messages to Boston.

They were warnings against an attempt to burglarize
the Commonwealth Avenue house, and an inquiry about
Lucile Patterson, the nurse, who had written to him that
she would arrive in Fardale that day, or the next. The
‘telegraph was carefully worded, and could give the nurse
no inkling of his discovery.

Chip Merriwell and his friends had accompanied the
Duke, and were still with him when he left the telegraph
office. ,

The hour was early, but they were turning back toward
the barracks, to which the Duke had ordered the answers
to his telegrams to be sent, when they encountered Zenas
Gale, who just then blew along the street as gustily as if
his name typified his nature. The worthy constable had
been running, which was a bad thing for a man of his
years, but stopped when he ‘beheld the Fardale boys.”

“Oh, it’s you!” he said, breathing heavily, as he stood
with them under the street light. “Waal, did ye see a
black-whiskered feller kite along here right now? I think
he went down this street what leads toward Jenkins’. If
I’m right, he'll go straight to that house. Ye didn’t see
him?”

“We saw a man hurrying along here,” said Chip, re-
calling now the black-whiskered man who had_ prowled
through the barracks; “but we didn’t notice him closely.”

“Oh, ye didn’t? Fine critters, you be! That’s what
they learn ye at the ’cademy—never to notice!”

The Duke returned to the telegraph office, recalled by a
messenger.

Gale started to move on.

“There was a black-whiskered man looking through the
barracks this evening,” said Chip, “and this may be the
same man. It was. reported that he was a Boston detec-
tive, sent down here to look into this diamond case, but
I don’t know what he was doing in the barracks.”

“Potter along with me, and tell me about that as we
go,” Gale invited. “Black-whiskered critter, said to be a
Boston detective! Same man I’m after, I bet ye!”

Hastening along the street with him, they told-him all
they knew of the man, which was little enough.

Zenas Gale flung a look round, as if to make sure that
no other people were near to hear him.

“Waal, sense you fellers has been with me in this
matter frum the start, I don’t mind sayin’ that in follerin’

Mr. Pedro Alvord.
0’ whiskers that would. put a black billy goat to shame. Ty

the scoundrel that I’m now trailin’,
If it’s him, he’s disguised with a: set.

know that critter ain’t got out o’ this town, ‘cause he
couldn’t, the way ever’thing is watched and gyarded.”

“Und he has der tiamondts yedth" Kess exclaimed.

“I dunno whether he has ’em yet, but he had ‘em.
Wuth a hunderd thousan’ dollars, I’ve heard tell, we
Think o’ that! And he went right down this street.”

The way that recollection of the diamonds ait
the constable’s steps, suggested the quickening pace of

mule with a bundle of straw held temptingly before it$)

nose. Already walking as fast as he could, he now besa
to run again. x

The point for which he was making, some distance down!
the street, was the home of Mr. Thomas Jenkins, recently
the boarding place of Pedro Alvord, which he had’ left
so suddenly and unexpectedly that he had smashed’ the
window of his room and went out into the darkness,
in a second-story drop that landed him in a bed of snow
at the side of the wall. The occasion of this precipitate
departure being the presence of the constable, who had
come to arrest him.

“I’m figgerin’,’ Gale explained, as is panted tieavily
along, ‘wasting his breath with words, “that. he’s been
hidin’ somewhere, and now has crep’ out, disguised, and
maybe intends to visit his old room at Jenkins’, to git
suthin he left there in his hurry.” ae

Soon they came to the house. a

“If my guess is a liner off the bat, then you'll have

chance to try to stop him; fer I’m goin’ in, and goin’ = a

to his old room, and——’

He was stopped by a cry and a scramble, in the house.

“Killin’ somebody,” said Gale, arid, drawing his club, he
started for the front door.

As he came up before it, the door flew open, and the |

black-whiskered man popped out, apparently pursued by
Jenkins.

“Here, you!” Gale yelled,
running man.

The latter eluded him, leaping off the side of the steps,
and dashed into the path that led to the gate and the
sidewalk.

and made a grab at the

Gale ‘whirled in pursuit,
through the doorway.
“Hil Stop him!” the constable was yelling.

, | Be
I think I’m follerin’

and Jenkins came tumbling

a

r?
oF,
4
i.

Chip Merriwell, Owen Clancy, and Villum Kess were *) 4

on the sidewalk beyond the gate, but as the constable ~
yelled, and the black-whiskered man dashed out through »

the gate, they moved upon him together.

“Stop him!” Gale yelled again.
I command ye to stop him!”

Chip Merriwell “stopped him” with a football dive that
brought them to the ground together.

Released by Chip, as the constable came hurriedly ‘on,
the man stood up in the snéw and looked round, at: first
with a startled air, then scornfully.

“Be so good as to explain,” he said, in a hoarse,
trembling voice.

“In th’ name o’ th’ law, I arrest ye, Mr. Pedro Alvoi
diamond thief, incendiary, and what not,” said Gal

_ pompously, waving his club as if he meant to crack

prisoner’s skull. “I been follerin’ ye, and I know ye.

up yer hands and surrender!”

“Tn the name o” th’ law,

 
 

NEW TIP. TOP WEEKLY.
a PPE ky aa

The man put up one hand—and tore. off the disguising
black beard.

“Pedro Alvord, am I?” he sneered, his voice still hoarse
! and trembling. “Take a look.”

Gale’s club dropped, and he fell back.

“T could arrest you—all of you, for interfering with me,
in the performance of my duty,” said the man.

‘He flung open his coat, and displayed a shining star
that held the words: “Boston Detective Agency.”

“Now stand out of my way!” he/commanded.

“Jeru——”

“A pretty fool you are, Mr. Constable,” he grumbled,
“for attempting to arrest a Boston detective for Alvord,
the diamond thief. Now, stand out of my way.”

Jenkins had been delayed near the door, but was now
hurrying along the walk to the gate.

“What's that?” he demanded sharply.

“I say that I’m a Boston detective,” the man flared
at him, and flung open again his coat, displaying his star.

“That's what you claimed when you entered my house,

and then I caught you trying t6 take something out of

room.”

- Alvord’s
“lL had my reasons, for I’m down here on the trail of
Alvord.”
“And when I remonstrated,” Jenkins went on,
struck at me, and we had it on the stairs.”

“cc

you

“And Til shoot you now,
Said the man.
again, ;
He had stuffed the black whiskers into a pocket of his
coat. He had, as well as could be made out there, a thin,
dark face. Now, with his hands in the pockets of his
coat, as if in his harfls he nursed threatening revolvers,
‘he walked off up the street, leaving the constable gasping.

“The Boston detective! I want to know! I swan to
man!. Waal, ‘who'd ’a’ thought it?”

Not: until the man was some distance away did Chip
venture to express the thought that had struck him:

“Can we be sure that that isn’t Alvord?” he asked.

“Alvord!” said Clancy. “He had a mustache, and his
face was fuller!”

“A mustache can be easily shaved off, and a little
make-up paint would do the trick for the rest of it. As
for detective-agency stars, any one can buy a quart of them
for a dollar.”

if you interfere with me,”
“Stand out of my way!” he commanded

The expression of the thought seemed to crystallize
it inte a conclusion in Chip’s mind, and set his feet mov-
ing along the sidewalk.

A minute after, or less, not only Chip Merriwell, but
his friends and the constable and Jenkins were hurrying
along that street, in pursuit of the man they had let slip
‘$0 easily through their fingers.

However, he had been permitted too great a start.

Not until they got well up toward the telegraph office,
and met the Duke, who had been standing some time in
the street, did they know that the wanted man had not
come up there at all, and this proved that he had, at some
‘point, turned inte a side street.

“Would he have done that if he had been the Boston
detective he claims to be?” Chip asked.

o “Sure he wouldn't,” said Clancy; “we've got to round
tim up, and have Mr, Gale put him through the third
Eprsree. -

That was easier said than done,

They had not accomplished it, when they had to return

to the barracks for the night.

CHAPTER V.

MISS LUCILE PATTERSON.

When Miss Lucile Patterson came for the Prince, which
she did the next day, the Duke had definitely made up
his mind not to surrender the boy to her, and told her
so, with a straight-from-the-shoulder attitude, when: she
made her demand.

The Prince was crouching by the wall, to which he kad
run when she invaded the Duke’s room, and was in white-
faced terror.

“Don’t make me go with her!” he wailed.

“I think I won’t, Prince,” the Dnke assured him. “I
had no idea things were this way. She has been punishing
you?”

“She whips my hands with a ruler, and she itt my
hair! She says yellow hair ain’t nice for boys. And
she

“Cyril!” Miss Patterson admonished. “Cyril!”

“Well, you do—you do!” the boy wailed.

“Those stories are just figments of a boy’s imagina-
tion,” said the nurse, though she was much taken aback;
“you can’t believe them, Mr. Anselm.”

“Since father is away, and there’s no one to direct in
the matter, I shall refuse to let you take the Prince back
to Boston with you,” the Duke declared, with his curious
air of finality. “He shows that he dislikes you, donchu-
know! And that’s enough. Besides——”

With a rudeness, unusual for the Duke, he had let the
woman stand; and now he began to search in his hand
bag.

“I’ve a scrap of paper right here that I wish you to
look at, donchuknow,” he said, and brought out the draw-
ing and plans of the Commonwealth Avenue house.

These he did not place in her hands, but held them
up so that she could see them. As he did so, he watched
her dark face and bright dark eyes, and saw her face
turn white to the lips.and a hunted, scared’ look come into
her eyes.

“IT see what you are holding up,”
hesitating.

“You drew these plans and racle the drawing of our
house in Boston?”

“I never saw the things before, and why you should
say that, I don’t understand,” she urged.

From his pocket he took out the letter she had written
to him, announcing that she was coming to Fardale to get
the runaway boy.

“You will note,” he said coolly, “that the writing on the
plans is identical with yours? One person wrote all these
things.”

“I wrote the letter,” she said.

“And you wrote those words in the squares. I’m not
a handwriting expert, but I could swear to that.”

she said, her voice

Her confusion gave place to anger, and that chased out !

the pallor and made her face flame.

“Of course, you’re making yourself ridiculous,” she de-
clared. “But—what if I had done what you so seriously
charge?”

“Just this!” he said, and folded the plans together,
stowing them in his pocket with the letter. “That drawing

/

A

 
 
       
  

plans: of the-house were wr

        
      
  
  
 
   
     
           
     
  

. thesdiamond thief and smuggler, Simeon Lee; they were
seat'the very bottom of the receptacle, and above them were
stolen diamonds, that were worth a fortune. Now, [ll
ask you to explain, how your plans got into the hands of
Simeon Lee?”

    
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
   
  
 
  
  
   
  
  
   
  
   
  
   
  
   
  
   
    
    
   
  
  
  
  
 
 
 

Miss Patterson was pale again, but now with a certain
air of defiance.

“Your statements, as I said, are ridiculous. You're ac-
cusing me, I suppose, with being an accomplice of this
diamond thief.” :

“I'm only asking you to explain. Some fellows here
who know about this say that whoever made those draw-
ings sent them to Lee so that he could readily burglarize
the house, and you made them!”

The nurse forced a mirthless laugh.

“You silly boy!” she cried.

“I sent a wire to Boston last night, to a friend, asking
him to see that the house was properly watched and
guarded in father’s absence. Also, at the same time, I
sent a wire to you. I got an answer from my friend, but
none from you.”

“T didn’t get your telegram.”

“So I supposed. But I think the house can’t hag bur-
glarized by Lee, now.”

“Let’s drop this nonsense,” she said, frowning and tap-
ping her foot impatiently. “I came for Cyril, and——”

“I won’t go with you; I won’t—won’t!” screeched the
Prince.

“For the present,” said the Duke, “Cyril stays here with
me. I was astonished when he came, donchuknow! But
now I’ve made arrangemets for him, and can take care
of him for a while readily enough. So, he stays with
me. ”

“T shall fehort this to your father!”

“T hope you do. When you do, I shall expec: him
to demand of you an explanation of these drawings, which
I intend to send. to him, with your letter, so that he can
compare them, or have a handwriting expert pass on
them.”

“You refuse to let me take Cyril?”
“T’ve. already told you that, donchuknow.”
_ — “Pm not going with her!” yelled the boy.
The nurse flashed him a wicked look.

“T think I can do no more here, then,” she said to
the Duke, “and I shall return at once to Boston, and re-
port this to your father as soon as he returns.”

“Where is the governess?” the Duke demanded.

“T haven’t the least idea, and I don’t care.”

She tossed her head, and abruptly left the room.

A singular proof of Chip Merriwell’s natural leadership
was given, when the Duke took Cyril by the hand and went

' with him to Chip’s room; for, having been at swords’
points over athletic and other matters, the present partial
intimacy between Chip and the Duke was a truce and not
a friendship; and a truce, too, that could not last long,
as already a snowshoe rivalry was on. The Duke was not
thinking of that, but only of the fact that it was Chip
who had found the drawings of the house in the secret
receptacle of the talking head, the evening before.

Chip and Clancy were in their rooms, entertaining Vil-
lum: Kess, who spent more of his allowable hours there

than he did) in his own room.
; /

hat ia call thé talking head, which was Brcitaia here by

“which ve vosn't #

¥ ‘Sheaking” uff anchels,”. said Kes,

“You were speaking of me?” queried the Duke; red-
déning.

“No, I saidt ve vosn’t; ve vos yoost dalking.”

“And the angel walked in, in the person of the Prince,”
Chip commented. “Take seats, all. We were discussing
the compaartive merits of snowshoes and skis, and your
name came in incidentally. No harm done.”

“IT am saying dot Chip Merriwell can oudt snowshoe you +
or any odder veller by der academy in,” Kess explained.
“Dot iss how idt igs. No offensiveness iss extendted.” _

“You mean intended,” Chip corrected.

“Sure. Dot iss vot I saidt.” c
The Prince ran over to the talking head, that lay on |
the little desk; and the Duke took a chair by the door, e
and began to. fumble in his pockets. In a moment, pro*
ducing the plans and the nurse’s letter, he was telling Chip”
about Miss Patterson’s call and demand, and what he had

said to her.

“I was no doubt a fool, donchuknow!” he admitted.
“For, of course, if she knows where Lee is, she will tell
him; but, anyway, it will stop any attempt at burglarizing
our house. And I was really afraid to go so far as to
try to have her-arrested. I’m going to mail these things’
to father, and let him do as he likes with them—with your
consent. You found the drawings, and they’re yours.”

“Do whatever you want to with them,” said Chip. ~ 7 |

A moment later he added: €

“I wish I could have seen her, while you were tallctang
with her; I’d have liked to watch her face, I mean.” ;

“Did I do the right thing? It’s troubling me, dorichus - op
know! Perhaps I ought to have kept-still about it, and 7
sent the things to father first. Now, when he confronts =
her with them, she will have had time tc be prepared. ©
Still, I don’t see that he can do any more than discharge ©
her, and he will do that anyway, I.think, for I’m gomg
to write him a full report. She has been abusing the
Prince outrageously, donchuknow.”

Chip did the best he could, in trying to give him ad-
vice. He was in a friendly mood, and the Duke went
away at last, feeling that what he had done was the best a R
that could have been done, under the circumstances. a

CHAPTER VI. ie
WITH THE FISHERMEN. 4

Chip Merriwell and his friends did not see the Boston _
detective again for about three days. They assumed that
he had gone back to the city of the bean eaters, and/let
it go at that. They had other things with which to fill
their minds. bi

There had been a heavy fall of snow a few ayes Beit, ¥
fore, which still lay in loose drifts, furnishing the est
of snowshoeing, and all their spare time they were out”
on their snowshoes. The ice of the lake was buried under © 5 3
the snow. But it was treacherous ice, for, before the —
snow came, there had been heavy, warm rains, which had
weakened the ice, and stopped all skating.

Nevertheless, as the weather had turned colder, snow=
shoers ventured out on the margin of the lake, and, find- ve
ing that the ice was becoming firmer, they ventured out
still farther and farther. |

   
     
     
     
     
     
  

 

 

       
       
       
   

6 a OE ee

bed

ws See

~

 

 

‘whole country was open to snowshoeing, but their ex-
cursions on snowshoes led them generally to the sea and.
to the many salt- water inlets. Here there were miniature
plains of salt- water marshes, now covered with ice and
snow, furnishing the finest ground for snowshoeing
imaginable.

The tides rushing through these inlets and out again
twice in each twenty-four hours kept them open, usually,
even in the coldest weather, where they were near the
sea; thpugh farther inland they, too, were frozen over.

One thing which drew the Fardale boys snowshoeing
to the marshes and the salt-water inlets was the curious
and interesting colony of local fishermen always to be
found there now.

Along the shores, and on the salt-water ice, wherever
it was strong enough, were little tents just large enough
to shelter a man or two, and right in front of each tent a

“hole was chopped through the ice. In these holes the men

© fished with bagging hoop-nets.

But not all the fishermen had tents to protect them.

ing. bears.

> This form of fishing is much practiced in New England,
along the frozen coast, in winter; and farmers, having
“mot much to do at that season, contrive by this means to
add many a dollar to their annual incomes.

» Sea bass and perch and other fish ‘ascend into these
“inlets with the tides, in search of food. A net set in a
*big hoop at the end of a pole is lowered into the ‘stream,

")yand the moving tide pulls the net out into a great pouch.

7; - Into it the unwary fish drive.

Si through the ice hole.
py net, the end of the pole is whisked or moved, and the

~The man, crouching on the ice, of within the shelter
Of a tent, watches the upper end of the pole protruding
When the fish strike within the

fisherman then jumps for it, and begins to draw up his
* net.

It is cold, freezing work, but it has its exciting mo-
ments, and sometimes very generous rewards, for there
are often good hauls, The fish, always salable, are shipped,
frozen, to the city markets.

Now and then the fisherman, if the fish are not running
well, may try his hand at “eeling.” In these salt-water
streams there are many eels, and in the coast cities eels
sell as well as fish, and dften better. When winter comes,
eels sink into the mud at the bottom of the salt-water
stream, where they lie throughout the winter, twisted to-

* gether in great balls, with life apparently suspended.

With a barbed eel spear, the fisherman pokes through
the open places in the ice and carefully explores the mud
beds at the bottom of the stream. He knows by experience
when his eel spear touches a ball of eels and when it
touches only mud. Finding a bed of eels, he drives the
spear into them, and hauls up the knotted mass.

Another source of income for many people, carried
on at times by the same men who do the ice fishing, is
winter clamming, although clam fishing is carried on as
well at other seasons.

When the tide recedes on the seashore it exposes the
clam flats at the mouths of the tidal streams, and men
y and boys are then busy digging out the clams.

= >

Tr
-

_ Now and then, along the inlets, a fisherman or two may

:

OA

=

e.
y
~

NEW TIP TOR! WEEKLY | 8

,

oecupy “small huts, where they remain during the fishing
season, having stoves and beds in the huts.

Not only were the Fardale boys attracted by the win-
ter-fishing colonies of farmers and other folk, but some
of them engaged in this fishing themselves, whenever the
fish were “running strong.” There were numbers of young
fellows at Fardale who, like Jake Jelliby, were working

their way through the school, and took ahy honorable ~

means to earn the necessary money. Often, in their spare
hours, when the fishing was as its best, they found it a
money-maker. And this need’ cause no wonder, for ice
fishermen have been known to pull in more than fiity dol-
lars’ worth of fish in a week, or less.

While the ice-fishing season was on, Chip Merriwell
and his friends, and many other Fardale students, snow-
shoed out to the inlets and tidal streams, and watched the
fishing.

Sometimes they helped to land a good catch, when they
found a fisherman struggling with a bigger netful than he
could readily manage. Always they were welcome.

In going out to the inlets, and in returning, there were
often snowshoe races, adding the stir and tang of, healthy
rivalry.

Chip and his friends—the friends in this instance being
Clancy and Kess—had snowshoed out to the nearest inlet,
finishing the trip out in a stirring race, that brought them
up. to the ice and the little tents and the bearlike fisher-
men, with Chipeand Clancy running neck and neck and
Kess a poor third.

There were some things Villum Kess could do better
than fast snowshoe racing, one of them being his ability
to take heavy tumbles in the snow and get up without even
being jarred by the fall, for when Kess’ round body fell,
it was like the falling of a rubber ball.

Clancy was beginning a conversation with one of the
fishermen, when Chip plucked him by the arm.

“Sh! Take a look at that man walking away,” yep
whispered.

Clancy gave a jerk of surprise, as he looked.

“The Boston detective,” he said.

“Alias Pedro Alvord—mebbyso ?”

“Perhaps we can get a closer look at him.”

Chip’s eyes brightened.

“Hey, Clan—Kess!” he shouted.
hut off there, and beat you blind!”

They were away instantly on their snowshoes—a queer
form of running; for, in snowshoeing there is a shuffling,
sliding movement that does not lift the snowshoe entirely
out of the snow. And though, at first glance, snowshoeing
seems an awkward and cumbersome method of progres-
sion, an experienced and hardened snowshoer can cover
the miles faster than he could at ordinary walking.

Chip and Clancy, leading, with Kess close at their heels,

“T’ll race you ‘to thap

came up to’ the hut in a fine burst of speed, beatirigyto chat ee

point, the man who was again wearing the disguising black
beard. They stopped, with a whirl, at the corner of the

hut, facing round as if they meant to race back to the

starting point.

They were laughing hilariously, in'a make-believe, to
deceive the man. Kéess, his moon face overspread with
smiles by the mere force of example and contagion, had
not yet caught on to the cause and occasion of this
race.

Looking straight at the man, as they turned there at
the hut} they saw that he looked sharply at them. Their

f

  

    
       
      
 
  
  
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
  
   
   
  
  
  
   
  
   
     
       
         
     
       
 
   

  
  
   
  
  
   
  
  
  
   
   
  
  
  
   
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
 
    
    
    
    
 

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doubts were dissolved. He was, without question, the man
“who had been at Alvord’s former boarding house, and had
escaped the constable by flashing his detective’s star and
then making off hurriedly.

The black-whiskered man entered the hut, passing within
a yard of them, but he did not speak.

“Now to the starting point,’ called .Chip.

It was a hot race back, for they continued their make-
believe. They turned again at the tent, stopping there be-
side the fisherman with whom Clancy had started a talk.

“Good racin’, that was,” said the fisherman, bobbing his
head, and for a moment forgetting to watch the end of his
net pole, which protruded through the ice hole before him.
“But when I was loggin’, daown in Maine, I’ve seen
better.”

“Who was that. black-whiskered man?” Chip asked.

“He’s a stranger to me, but is occypyin’ that shack part
0’ the time. Seems to come an’ go, ye may say. Fust
I seen of him was when he came daown heer two or three
days ago, with Bully Carson.”

“Is Bully Carson fishing here?” Chip asked, his voice
rising.
 “Fishin’ is work, youn man!” came as a reproof. “Jever
know Bully Carson to do-any work? I never did. But
he’s here; and at that shack now and ag’in; and I think
he’s in there naow. He was a while ago, but he may’ve
gone, for I ain’t been watchin’.”

. “Bully Carson!’ Chip breathed, looking at Clancy.

“Yaw, I seen idt, too,” said Kess, winking owlishly.
“Vhy iss vhich? Und uff idt ton’dt. mean dot, vot iss
idt?”

Chip moved on along the rotten sea ice that filled the
inlet, and was followed by Clancy and Kess.

“Fellows, what do you think of it?” he asked.
“We've treed the Boston detective,” Clancy answered ;
_ *but—who is the Boston detective? Alvord?”

' 1 “Und vhy iss he sdill vearing vhiskers on his face?”
“Because he can’t wear them on his feet,” was Clan’s
light- comment.

“1 wish I could pull them off, and get a look at his face
in daylight,” Chip declared. ‘“He’s about the size and
| build of Alvord, I think: Alvord was slight and dark—
typical Mexican, or Spaniard.”

; 3 “J wish that old Zenas Gale was here. If he was, he’d
‘raid that shack on the jump. We can’t do anything
ourselves.”

' “We might go over there and ask for a talk with
Bully,” Chip suggested, with a humorous twist of his lips.
“We could ask him about the fishing, and inquire for the
health of his whiskered friend?”

“Whee! That would make Bully so hot that it would
melt the ice.”

(*Kiess, don’t stare at that shack, with your mouth open,”
Ship ‘advised. “They will suspect that we’re talking about
them.”  ‘“f -
gi ' Kess closed his mouth, but continued to stare at the
“shack.
-. “Kess!” Chip protested.
Kess began to move his fingers, as if trying to talk in
the Indian sign language, and Chip yanked him round,
“Vale!” Kess exploded, then. “Uff you ton’dt bermit
me to oben my moudth, how can I sbeak idt? I vos dry-
ing to exblanadion to you mit mein fingers dot yoost
dhen Pully Carson he iss looking oudt by der vinder in.
Und looking oudt by his ear, behindt him, iss der Boston

  
 

 
 

fOP WEEKLY.

‘at present, or I should not have troubled you.”

 
    

tedective. How can I seen idt, uff I ain’dt: lookin’

   
    
     
 
   
  
   
  
   
  
   
   
   
  
 
 
     
 
   
 
  
  
  
  
  
   
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
   
  
  
   
 

  
   
 
 
 
  
  
  
  
  
 
 
   
  
    

s und
how. can I rebort idt, uff I ain’t sbeakin’? You ar-re
oxbecting der possible from me !?’ u j
Clancy gurgled a laugh. =
“Send Kess into the shack,” he said. “He'll blunder into i
the -truth, somehow.” LS
“Budt I haf no exblanadion for a oxcuses,”’ Kess pro- ~ id
tested. a ae
“Tell them you dreamed last night that your grand-) af
mother was hiding there, and you came to see ifit'was "77 )”
so. Tell them any old thing.” °

Yet, in the end, all they did was to start off for Far-
dale in a snowshoe race, to carry the news to Zenas
Gale.

The constable sleighed out to the shack in a great hurry
when he got the news, and—found nothing.

The shack was empty. .

“Where did Bully Carson and the black-whiskered ‘erit=
ter that was with him go, when they left that shack ?”
Gale demanded of the farmer-fisherman. :

“Law—suz! Don’t a&Sk me,” the man _ protested.
didn’t even know’t they'd gone, I been so busy pul tiag 5
in fish. Sea bass aire runnin’ strong.”

In a shining heap they lay beside him, freezing on the
ice. ‘
“Waal, I'll git it out o’ Bully Carson!” Gale snorteds
But he could not locate Bully Carson.

oe

CHAPTER VIL.
WILY MISS PATTERSON.

It was early in the evening, and Colonel Gunn, ota
his desk to rights, was preparing to go home, when Misse
Lucile Patterson appeared before him, invading his same#
tum unheralded. wi

Miss Patterson had expressive dark eyes and the ability
to make her manner impressive. Moreover, she was neatly rs
dressed and ladylike. And the worthy colonel was suge |
ceptible to feminine flattery.

If the invader of the colonel’s study had been a mere ~~
man, Jove’s thundercloud would have come to the colonel’s
brow. As it was, the colonel smiled.

“Ts there something I can do for you—er——”

“T am Miss Patterson,” she said, and produced a neat
card; “my home is with the Basils, of Commonwealth 7
Avenue, Boston. Mr. Anselm Basil is one of the students
here at Fardale. He is not in his room in the barracks

“No trouble at all—a-hum!” expostulated the colonel
gallantly. “I—ah—recall Mr. Basil as one of our——a-hum
—students, Miss’——he looked at the card—‘‘Miss Patter-
son. Will you not be seated, please? This—ah—a-hum—
this armchair you will find very comfortable.”

as only wished permission to visit Mr. Basil’s room a
moment,” she explained blandly; “I am the nurse of the
child, Cyril, who is at present in Mr. Basil’s room; a very
pretty little child, and very sweet and intelligent, but with
somewhat naughty ways at times. Holding your position,
you must know how trying «young sida can be at
times.”

“Ah, indeed, Miss Patterson,” said the colonel, consult-
ing the card again, to make sure he was getting the name
right; “I find some of them very, very trying.”

Yet there was a subtle change in the colonel’s manner,;

      
      
        
   
 

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dormitories.

NEW TIP TOP ©

though she hailed from Commonwealth Avenue, and was
acquainted with the Basils, she was but a nurse.

“Ah, indeed!” he repeated, however, and still continued
to beam.

“Little Cyril ran away from home the other day, and
came down here—a very remarkable exploit for so young
a child; and now I have been sent here to get him and
take him back home with me. He should be at home, in-
stead of at this place; for, though your dormitories are
better than I-have ever seen at a school of this kind, they
are hardly a proper home for a small child.”

“Words of wisdom—words of wisdom!” said the colonel,
rocking back on his heels. “I have known the boy was
here, and have been expecting that some one would come
for him. And you are, ah, very complimentary about our
I appreciate it, I do assure you.”

“Then you are willing that I shall see the boy in the

_barracks—I mean the dormitories? So kind of you, Colo-

nel Gunn! I shall wish to take the child with me in the
morning. But there are some preliminary needs. Very
likely he will require some changes of clothing. I thank
you very much, I have heard flattering things about you—

fas your treatment of every one who comes near you, and I

‘ ve
i ee,
oe
we

» to enter.

me.

know now that they are true. If you will give me a writ-

ten word or two, which I may present to the cadet guard,

So kind of you, Colonel Gunn.”
The colonel’s head was swimming with the intoxication

- of her flattery as he penned the few words asked for to

the cadet guard.

Taking them, the nurse fluttered away, murmuring thanks
and compliments.

Colonel Gunn closed his desk and prepared to go
home.

The nurse presented Gunn’s note to the guard, ‘and
ascended to the room of the Duke and ‘very, where she

~ found Avery-and the Prince.

“T 4m Miss Patterson, the nurse,” after she
had boldly invaded the room.

Avery, surprised, rose to offer her a chats and stood
hesitating, when he saw the Prince shrink from her toward
the other ‘side of the room.

“You are Mr.\Avery, Mr. Anselm’s friend?” she asked.

When he had acknowledged it, she added:

“T wish to speak with him a few minutes here in his
room, and I was told that he is now at Mrs. Winfield’s, just
across the campus, on the corner. It would be a favor, if
you would ask him to step into the room, here, to see,

”

she said,

Avery flushed and paled, and still hesitated. He was
the Duke’s most intimate friend, and knew how much the
Duke distrusted this woman. Yet Avery was not a fellow
who could stand alone; all his ideas and all his actions
came’ to him at secondhand. When the Duke braced him,
he was strong, and could even be desperate, but without
the Duke he was the merest weakling,

He was trying to think what he ought to do, as he looked
at the nurse, and he wished he had the Duke there to tell
him. d

Yet it seemed to him that, with the Duke no farther
away than Mrs. Winfield’s, it ought to be perfectly safe
to go that far to summon him, and with him here, the
Duke could guide and determine the proper form in which
the nurse should now be treated.

She.did not seem very formidable—she had accepted a

chair, and. was smiling at him, and only the very evident »
terror of the Prince indicated that ‘something might be ~
wrong in the situation.

“T’ll be right back with him,” said Avery, at last, catch-
ing up his cap, stopping not even long enough to don his
overcoat. “I’ll have him here as quickly as he can come,
donchuknow.”

“You are so kind,” murmured Miss Patterson, as she
had a few minutes before murmured to Colonel Gunn.

Avery sprang into the corridor and darted off.

Miss Patterson closed the door behind her, and turned
to the terrified child.

“Tll—I’'ll not—go with you!” the Prince chattered, in his
fright.

“Cyril,” she said, advancing and towering over him, “do
you want me to ruler your hands again?”

“J—I——” He scrambled back.

Catching him by his yellow curls,
her with a violent jerk.

“Cyril! Cyril! I shall punish you—I shall pki you
severely, if you make a sound! You know what I did
to you the last time! I'll take the skin off your back this
time, if you make a sound!”

Her old power to frighten and terrorize him prevailed,
and he fell limp and shivering against her knees, stifling
his cries.

“Now, you are going with me, Cyril. Mr. Anselm is
at Mrs. Winfield’s, and I’ll take you there, and then you~
are going back home with me. Where is your coat and
hat ?” ya

She pushed him into the chair, slipped the bolt that was
on the door, and searched about for the required articles,
finding them tfeadily.

Then she forced Cyril to put on the coat and hat.

“Now we’re going down, and over -to Mrs. Winfield’s. ~
I shall carry you in my arms, for we want to get there
in a hurry, and—if you say a word to any one, on the .
way, I shall whip you within an inch of your life as soon
as we get home!” 2

He was speechless and white with fear, when she caught ~
him up and left the room with him.

So rapidly had she moved that Bronson Avery Was |
little more than out of the barracks, before she was fol+
lowing him along the halls and down the stairway.

Encountering the cadet guard, she gave him a smile. .
But already she had disarmed him, with the colonel’s or-
der, and the smile with which she had presented it.

“I am the boy’s nurse, you know,” she explained, in a
tone which indicated that this was a matter needing no
explanation.

The Prince was lying limp in her arms, chilled by fear
into silence.

So she passed out with him, and along the path across
the campus, toward the street lights that had blossomed
there like stars of the night.

,

she drew him to

Avery, having hurried and reached Mrs. Winfield’s, was
having trouble in finding the Duke, for the good and suf-
ficient reason that he was not there, and had not been —
there.

“Was he here a minute ago?” said Mrs. Winfield, who
had answered the bell. “I didn’t know it, but perhaps
he was. He must have gone on into 'the village, if you
didn’t meet him on the way across the campus.”

Avery stood in trembling uncertainty, until it occurred
to him that the thing to do was to find the Duke, and find

 
   

he

vw oe oe
“hehie at once. 86 He started:'off, Siangiag in ial ward

the street leading toward the thicker clusters of houses.

But as he turned thus away from Mrs. Winfield’s, he
Was stopped by a scream, out in the road beyond}; and he
saw there 4 woman running, screaming and wringing
her hands, and a man leaping across the road and spring-
ing into the field beyond. Nearer at hand, on the corner,
stood a sleigh, with aman in the seat.

The street light disclosing that the running and scteam-
ing woman was Miss Patterson, the nurse, Avery turned
toward her, his hair almost lifting with the thought that
something terrible must have happened.

She tecognized him, as he came up in his scrambling
run.

“Cyril!” she wailed. “Some man attacked me out there
and took Cyril! Oh, dear—-oh, dear!”

Cyril!

Avety’s heart seemed to stop.

Oh, if the Duke were only here! was his thought.

He saw the sleigh again, and ran toward it, filled with
a sudden inspiration; and he began to yell to the occupant
of the sleigh.

“A reward for overtaking that man in the field there,”
hé etied; “big reward, from the Duke, if you do it! That

| mati there; he’s carrying off the Duke’s nephew!”

Thus stirred, the man sprang out of the sleigh and be-
gan a lumbering pursuit that took him across the road and

into the field beyond, where, in the gathering darkens,
_ the Kidnaper had disappeared.

Avery stopped by the sleigh, hesitating again, bewildered

by the mere fact that the Duke was not there to guide

i, vie

fie

ae fey don’t you follow;

 
  
 

   
  
  
  
      
 
   
   
  
   
  
  
   
   
 
  
  
   
   
    
    
  
   
   
  
  
   
  
  
   
   
  
    
    
   
  
      
  
  

take part in the pursuit?”

bone think I’d better get the Duke, * he said} “he has
“probably gore toward the village. I—I——”

in the

(a “Go on and find Anselm,” she said, “and don’t stop to
. ty sk questions, and demand explanations.”
Avery moved his legs obediently, and shot down the
"street and away. |

having her cries, some of the people had come ‘ott into
the yard, at the boarding house. Seeing them, she turned
to them, trying.

‘What in the world is the matter?” Mrs. Winfield

demanded.
“Cyril, Mr. Basit’s tittle nephew--—- Oh, I fear I can’t
Ze tell it. I’m so faint. Cy—Cyril——”

‘She almost fell into Mrs. Winfield’s arms, atid was
~~ fielped into the house. Then Mrs. Winfield got her, smell-
/-* ing salts, and some of the wometi began to use fans, while
others drenched Miss Patterson’s hair with diluted aleohol

and camphor.

“T—I am Miss Patterson, Cyril’s nurse,” Miss Patterson
managed to stammer, in explanation. “He ran away frotn
out home, on Commonwealth Avenue, you know; and I
came down here to get hitn, and take him back. I was
bringing him from Mr. Anselm’s room to this houseI
was on the way here—— I meant to have a talk here
with Mr. Anselin, who I understood was here; and then
and then——”

 

TOP WEEKLY.

admitted.

  

 
  

The smelling Balls arid the diluted alcohol and the fans
got busy, for she seemed about fainting. ee

“And“and right ott there-right out there,” Sie Said; wl
when she was revived a little, “a man rushed on Me, out An
of the darkness, and, snatchitig Cyril out of my afms, a
carried him away. He went over into that field beyond the
light; and the man who was—who was in the sleigh is a
ch—chasing him; atid Mr. Avery has—Mr. Avefy has 4
gone to notify Mr. Anselm.” a

Some of the people who heard this fluttered out into "|
the yard again, afd on into the street; and looked through af
the darkness, without seeing anything; then came back, i
to report that they could see nothing, and to condole with
the unhappy nurse.

CHAPTER VIII. 4,

FACING BULLY CARSON. y a

   
 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  
  

The abduction of the Prince was a startling and stir’ 77
ring thing, and the news of it spread like wildfire,

It reached the Duke down by the lake, whither he had
gone snowshoeing. On his way back, he encountered
Avery, who had been searching for him despairingly. »

In his anger and fear, the Duke loaded Avery with
reproaches. i

“But you weren’t there, to tell me what to do, aonetil
know!” Avery protested. “And I didn’t suppose for
minute that she meant to leave the barracks.’

“You're a bally, blawsted idiot, and you ought to have
a hole corkscrewed into your head, to let a little sense
get in,’ the Duke snapped.

He stormed on, swinging along on his snowshoes.
Avery, trotting behind him in the snow, had hard work
to keep up.

They found Miss Patterson at Mrs. Wintifield’s, ¢ol-
lapsed and erying, on Mrs. Winfield’s best lounge, in the ~
sitting room, surrounded by sympathetic and re
women,

In spite of her attitude and appearance,
spoke sharply, in questiotiing her. He demanded to iow
by what right she had taken the Prince out of thé bar- 7 .
racks.

 

The answer to this harsh demand was a sob that gained
the sympathy of the excited women. "
“But she had said that she would remain in our room ©
at the barracks until Avery could bring me there,” the ~
Duke flared at the women; “and she didn’t do it! Ine
stead, she must have come right on out with Cyril) Why) =
didn’t she wait there? That’s what I want to know.” — * 7
“Tt’s a shame!” one of the women exclaimed, and dabbed
her red eyes with her handkerchief. “It’s a shame, to
speak to her in that way!” Ri.
“But—I want to know!” shouted the Duke. ne
“Instead of questioning her, and adding to het distress, 1. a
why don’t you go out and make a search?” was flashed # ta
him. “You shouldn’t speak to a woman in that manner.” © y
The Duke left the house, furious and beaten, followed —
by Avery. i’
Outside they found Chip Merriwell, with Clan and * 4
Kess. They had heard the dire news, and had come to 9
learn what they could, and see what could be done. a
Hurriedly, the Duke and Avery gave them the facts with se ’
which they were acquainted. ;
“Miss Patterson seems all broken up about it,” the bathe
“But it couldn’t have happened if she had not —

Se ning ° ee a ae 5
: Se

eae

anlee

eet 3
Se een
dl

      
     
     
       
   

 
NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY. Pea

Avery says a sleigh was
it almost

been trying to sneak Cyril away.
right out there, in’ waiting, and that makes
certain she intended to take the Prince in the sleigh down
to the station, and get aboard the train for Boston with
him. She loses her peepee for this, all right, no matter
what happens,”

Returning into Mrs. Winfield’ s, at Chip’s suggestion, the
telephone was used, to warn the station agent, so that the
kidnaper might be stopped if he appeared there with the
child.

Other warnings were sent out, and old Zenas Gale, the
constable, was summoned.

He soon appeared at Mrs. Winfield’s, bustling with ex-
citement and importance.

“Alvord, I bet ye!” he said, his beady eyes shining like
a weasel’s. “Thinkin’ it all over, I know that black-whis-
kkered critter is Alvord. Any reg’lar detective would ’a’
come to consult with me, ye see. I got to git holt o’ Bully
Carson. Wherever there’s crooked work goin’ on, you're
*’most sure to find Bully in th’ thick of it.”

Having made generous use of the telephone himself,
Gale stamped away in the snow.

Chip and his friends, with the Duke and Avery, took
lanterns, and, crossing into the field, they tried to follow
there the tracks of the kidnaper through the snow, dis-
covering, in the end, that he had half circled back to the
road, where his tracks were lost.

After that they made a hurried snowshoe trip out to
the fishing tents and huts, where fires and lights were now
flaring, for, at each high tide, the fishing was carried on,
whether the time was day or night.

So far as they could learn, no one had appeared there
after dark, except fishermen, and the hut in which Car-
son and the black-whiskered man had been was empty
and dark.

They returned to the barracks late, and, somewhat de-
spondent, yet busy with plans for continuing the search
in the morning. They meant to get permission from
Colonel Gunn for a day off, that they might give themselves
up to the search without reserve.

Colonel Gunn was a distressed and much astonished
man when the situation was placed before him, the next
. morning, but, even then, he did not see that he was
culpable himself.

“A -hum—shocking—incredible!” he puffed. “That
charmitig Miss—er—Miss Patterson must be prostrated.
And the little boy! Dear me—dear me! And now the
papers will be filled with it! To have the yellow jour-
fials headlining Fardale, as they have beeti doing re-
cefitly, is distressirig—most distressing! , A-hum—a-haw!
Yes, you have my permission to make a thorough search.
But avoid sensationalism—avoid sensationalism. Dear me
dear me! A-haw—hum!”

With the entire day at their disposal, it seemed that
something might be done, so far as Fardale and its en-
virons could be covered, and Chip and his friends, with
the Duke and Avery, began to work, and they called to
their aid as many others as could get permission to
leave.

Chip and Clan, with Kess, wert again to the inlets, to
talk again with the fishermen, and look into the ‘little
tents and the few shacks that were there.

Luck seemed to favor them.

They féund Bully Carson, in the shack, smoking ciga-
rettes, before a comfortable fire, and with a, pack of

cards on the table, with which he had been amusing him-
self, while, apparently, he waited for’someée One to appear.

Bully stood up, when they invaded the’ shack, »vety
much as,if he wished to display his rainbow clothing. — |

“Ah, there!” he said, and waved a big hand) 4Lohgit®”
for cigarettes and eats? Well, I got a few. I’m tryin’
to be comfortable down here. Seen you lookin’ this way
yisterday, and didn’t know but you'd call, then, but you
didn’t.”

It was a good bluff, yet it did not quite ‘Casitas his
nervousness atid his sudden pallor.

“I suppose you’ve heard the news?” said Chip.

“I'll know if I have, when you tell me what news you
mean. Been a lot goin’ on round here lately.” '

“You haven’t heard that the Duke’s little nephew,
Cyril, was kidnaped last evening?”

“That so? Naw, hadn’t heard of it.” He looked ‘at
Chip wickedly. “Hope you don’t think that I’ve got him
in my pocket. It’s like you, to charge up everything that
happens against me! Cut it out.”

“We're not charging you with anything,’ said Chip
smoothly. “What we came in here for, was to imquire
about that black-whiskered man we saw enter this shack”
yesterday.’ You were in here then.”

“Suppose I was in here?” said Carson, humping his”
back like an angry cat. “Is that.any your bigness? 71
got a right to be in here, ain’t I—if I want to be ae

“Who was the man?” Chip persisted.

Bully Carson, flushed and angry, lifted the lid of at
stove and threw his cigarette into it, taking this eee,
to give himself time to think.

“T dunno, only ‘what he told me,” he said, facing round ee
“but he’s a Boston detective, and his naiié is a rs

“And his black beard is false?” ie

“Ts it? Well, if you know so much——

“Where is he now?”

“I don’t know. I wouldn’t tell you,

“What's he down here for?” ae

“Yah!” Bully snorted, losing control of his temper. -
“What next, you question box? But Til tell ye He's.
down here because the’s a big reward offered fot the
arrest of that feller Alvord and Simeon Lee. He'd like.
to connect with them rewards, I reckon. So would you
—so would anybody. If you want to know more, go and
talk to him.”

“We would, if we could find him. As you know where
he is, tell us, and we'll go to see him.”

“Yah! Git out o’ here! I don’t know nothin’.
him up. I don’t know where he is.”

‘Yet you've been stopping in this shack with him!”

“Who says so?”

“T do—we do. Yott were in here with him yesterday.
We think he isn’t a detective. Yot’te too afraid of dé
tectives and law officers to get any closer to one than
you'd have to. That makes us know he is nof a detec-
tive. , And we think he had something to do with that
kidnaping.”

“Yah!” yelled Bully, trembling, and hardly able to con-
trol himself.

Then Chip struck the verbal blow he had held in
waiting.

“And we think that you know about it, too!”

With a mad-bull bellow on his lips, Bully Carson
made for Chip, his hamlike fist lifted to strike him
down,

?

if 1) did”

Hunt

 
   
   
     
    
  
 
    
  

, tripping’ oyert it, fell sprawling to the floor.

-. Raging in his humiliation, Bully Carson got to his feet
‘/gandgbaeked tothe wall, putting his hand to his hip pocket,
it as if he meant to draw and use a weapon.

This threatening flourish the young fellows before him
greeted with jeering laughter.

“Clear out o’ here!” Bully commanded, glowering
» “This is my shack.” .

’ “That’s the first information we’ve got out of you,”
‘said Clancy; “and we’re thankful for that much. So
this is your shack! Then, as owner and proprietor, you’ve
bs © been harboring Mr. Pedro Alvord here?”

“Naw! What’s eatin’ ye?”

3% ‘“Alyord, given shelter by you, and needing money, kid-
pe ' naped the Prince, and is to hold him for ransom?” sug-
> gested Chip. “And you’re to divvy with him, for the
‘help. you're giving.”

ei Naw! yelled Bully, . :

~) “Then, if it isn’t Pedro Alvord,” said Clancy, “it must
i » bd Mr. Simeon Lee! He was here, and the constable
“Sy Says he is round here yet; couldn’t get out of the net
(pea ythat has been drawn. Whit do you say to that?”

> “Tsay 1 don’t know anything about it, and it’s a lie,
».* Sanyhow. You fellers clear out o’ here. You're goin’ to

\ “git hurt, if you don’t.”
\ But they did not go until they felt ready.

     
   
  
 
  
   
   
 
   
 
  
  
  
 
   
  
   
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
  
   
  
  
  
 

bee

    

 

CHAPTER IX.
? BULLY CARSON, GO-BETWEEN.

ore evening came. Bully Carson seemed to have ex-
eda change of heart, though he claimed that it
S merely acquired information that he was bubbling
Raia
1On his way to the barracks to see the Duke, Chip and
ney encounter ed him, near the front entrance. He
Aes stopped and drew back, and showed his teeth like a snarl+
Ving dog that expects a fight.
~ “Why, hello!” said Chip, in as pleasant a tone as he
' could command at tle moment. “Did you want to see
eee seg
“Naw! I reckon you’re always thinkin’ people are
wantin’ to see you, when they hadn’t even thought o’’ye!
_ How dye git into this bungalow, anyway?”

“There’s the door, and it’s early; so walk right in.” »
pina was. wantin’ to see the Duke. Wonder if he’s in
there?” |

“I’m sure I don’t know whether he is in or not,” said
Chip; “but I can tell you how to find his room.”

F -\ He was saved from this, by the appearance of the Duke
f~¥ sin the path, coming from town.
«= “Here he comes now,” said Clancy.
His manner surly, Bully Carson stood waiting until the
_ Duke came up.
, “A word with you,” he said; “I-got a bit of. informa-
» tion that I reckon will interest ye.”
|, The Duke gave him a sharp look. Only a few days
_ before it had been said of the Duke and Carson that
they were “thicker than fleas.” That was when Carson
was doing his best to help the Duke down Merriwell
and his crowd. Apparently that intimacy had passed, if
‘one might judge by the look which Carson now bent on

him
: But, theny Chip and Clancy had been telling the Duke,

 

a hoe

TA : - NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY. ,
‘ oe But Clancy’s foot was pushed out cleverly, and Bully, that day, of their interview with Carson at the fisher-

man’s shack.

“T’d like to see ye in yer room,” said Carson.

“All right. Come along, Chip and Clan.”

Carson muttered and stared.

“The wind’s changin’,” he growled. “What I got to
say, I reckon that I can say here. ’Twon’t take many
words, and if others aire to hear it, they might’s well hear
it here. It’s about that kidnapin’,”

The Duke was pale, and his blue eyes were hot and
restless. He was worried beyond measure. All night
and all day he had been making a hunt for the Prince
and his abductor.

“You've got news. of the Prince?” he asked sharply.

“None that I’m knowin’ to myself,’ said Carson.
“Say,” he fling a glance round, “I reckon we'd better go
up to yer room, and talk this over there; too many ears
floatin’ round down here! There comes a lot o’ fellers
now.”

The Duke turned to the door. Carson followed him,
and Chip and Clancy, without further invitation, brought
up the rear.

When they were in the Duke’s room, Carson produced
a letter. But before presenting it, he made a prefacing
statement : .

“Merriwell and Clancy was accusin’ me ugly, down at
my fishin’ shack to-day, sayin’ that the feller who has
been stoppin’ there more or less for a day or two was
either Alvord or that other man, Lee. I told ’em he was
a detective. down from Boston. I didn’t haf to answer
all the questions they pitched at me, or say more’n I
wanted to. ’Twasn’t none o’ their business. And that’s
what I say right now, before ’em.

“Well, that Boston detective, that I thought, then, had
left, came back to the shack this afternoon, and he give
me this note, which he asked me to take to you. Be-
fore he wrote it and give it to me, le asked me all about
you, and [I told him as much as I knowed. I told him that
you had plentyee’ money, and was a free spender, and that
your father was one of the big, rich men of Boston.

“After I’d told him all that, he writ out this letter and
told me to hand it to you.”

He passed it over, and the Duke read it:

“Mr. Bast: I was approached this morning by a man
who says he knows where your nephew is held. This
man told me that he was Simeon Lee, and that he was
in desperate circumstances, and needing money. He
said that you and your father had barrels of it. And
he said for me to get word to you, to this effect: Place
five thousand dollars in paper money in a cigar box or
the like, in the unoccupied fishing hut that stands nearly
a mile above the fishing colony, on the inlet. You may
do this to-night. or to-morrow night, if you haven’t the
money now. I'll give you time enough to get it. But
if it is not done this week, then it will be too late. If

you set:a guard,.or try to trap or trick me, you will

gain nothing, but will bring about the death of the little
boy called the Prince. If the money is placed there, as
I direct, and no attempt is made to trouble me, I will put
the boy in the hands of one of the fishermen, and have
him taken to Fardale.

“This man, who told me this, and said his name was
Lee, held me at bay with a revolver, when I told him
I felt it was my duty as a detective to arrest him. He
said he would not be taken. He said he had kidnaped

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she | NEW TIP. TOP WEEKLY.

f the boy solely to get money, so. that he could.get out of
the country. I am satisfied that he spoke the truth, and
that he has the boy, and will kill him if you do not do
as he said. I am sorry I had not men with me to take
him, but if I had tried it alone, he would have shot me.
“Hoping that the boy is recovered, I now do what he
instructed me to do, as I see no way of doing anything
else. ANTHONY SprouULE, Private Detective.”

Having read this with varying emotions, the Duke
[ passed it to Chip and Clancy, and began to ask Carson
4 questions.

oe

“I'd be willing to try to get that amount of money,
large as it is,” he said, “if I thought it would bring
the release of the Prince; but I don’t want to be fooled
and swindled by a villain.”

ee

ay

o _ He looked so straight at Carson, that the latter flushed
hotly and squirmed in his chair.
“Well, all I know about it,” said Carson, “is what’s in
that letter, and what that Boston detective told me.”
“Just how did you happen to get acquainted with this
man who calls himself Sproule?” the Duke demanded.
Jest a chance,” said Carson. “I was down in that
** shack, and met him on the shore, and got to talkin’ with
him. He had somethin’ good to drink, ye know, and I
Sampled it. You know how ’tis! Then he began to ask
me What I knowed about Simeon Lee and Pedro Alvord,
and all that. I told him what I knew, which. was only
/awhat I’d heard. And he told me, then, that he was a
" % Boston detective, lookin’ into them, cases, having been
> "attracted by the rewards offered, and he said that if I
could help him land them men, or either of ’em, he'd be
Willin’ to whack up out of the reward money.”
©. “So you and-this detective lived there in that shack?”
Sure not! IJ got a hang-out down by the station.
ho Where he was stoppin’, I didn’t ask. We met at the
Shack, and talked the thing over, and the like.
_ And you knew that he was wearing false whiskers?”
» “1 didn’t ketch on to that at first,” Bully declared.
“When I did, he said he used a good many different
Kinds,’ disguises in his work.”

gener ie eoemeenmenityodingmns

  
  

 

ip a The Duke was still looking at him in that alert, accus-
ge ». ing manner.

re “And you didn’t know that this pretended Boston de-
f  ,teetive is Alvord himself?”

@ /~ “Naw!” snarled Carson. “That's rot, ye knot!”
' “You saw him, when he hadn’t that false beard on?”
“Naw! He didn’t take it off while I was with him.”
fe “Carson, we’ve been friends, donchuknow,” said the
i » Duke, changing his tone, “and I’ve paid you some good
“ money.”
“And I worked to earn it,” said Carson, in a tone of
"resentment, at the same time looking at Chip and Clancy.
“All I meant to’ say along that line,” added the Duke,
“is that in the future you may want a dollar or two out
of mé again, donchuknow. So it’s up to you now to play

 

 

fair.”
Wie Ain't 1?”
0 9) “That’s what I’m trying to find out.”

“Well, I am.”

“You don’t know any more about this matter than is in
that létter, and what you've told me; you don’t know, your-
self, where Cyril is held?”
“Maw, 1 don’t know anything about that.”

 

 
 

   

  

4

“Straight goods,” declared Carson, bobbing his head for
emphasis.

“All right, then. I just want to know.”

The Duke turned to his desk, and began to scribble.

When he turned round, he held in his hand the note he
had written.

“You couldn't,” he asked, “tell me where I could find
this detective, so that I could interview him person-
ally ?”

“I don’t know where he hangs out,” said Carson.

“How are you going to get my answer to him, then?”

“’m to meet him at that shack in the mornin’, I’m
to go there, and then, if I’m not watched, or follered, he’s
to come there, and get the answer. That’s the way he
planned it.”

“You could capture him, then! Or some of the fisher-
men, who will be close at hand, could capture him.”

“What good would that do?” Carson objected. “He
don’t: know where the kid is.”

“How is he going to get word to Simeon Lee?”

“T don’t know. That’s his job.”

“Tt smells as fishy as a bass net, Carson. But here’s

what I have written, and you can give it to your Boston
detective.”
He read it:

“Mr. ANTHONY SpROULE: Say to Simeon Lee that the
money he demands will be left at the place he appoints,
and in the manner set forth in his letter.. If he then sends
Cyril into Fardale; as he promises, that wili end it, so far
as I am concerned. But if he fails, and this proves to be
only a trick to get the money, I will have him hounded
to the ends of the earth, if it is mecessary to go that far
to capture him. (Signed) Ansetm Bast.”

Carson looked it over, readingg it carefully, as if he
feared that there might be a trap in it; then he folded it
and put it in his pocket.

“Duke,” he said, “you’re maybe thinkin’ I ain’t acti’
square in this, and that maybe I’ve put it up as a “job
myself, but you’re off, if it strikes you that way. It’s jest
as I’ve told you. This detective said he’d pay me some-
thing for acting as the go-between, and that’s all the in- ~
terest I’ve got in it, except that interest I have of seein’
you get the kid back here with you.”

“That sounds true, anyway,” the Duke admitted.

“You're goin’ to find it’s true, in’the end,” said Carson. 97]

Then he went out, and hurried away. Be ‘K

“Well, what do you think of it?’ asked the Duke,
nervous and anxious. “He’s a scoundrel, but that Tast
sounded straight.” ae

“As they say out West,” remarked Chip, “I wouldn't gv J
trust Bully Carson as far as I could throw a steer by the +
tail.” “ae 4

CHAPTER X. ag
‘CHIP MERRIWELL’S DETECTIVE WORK. F

A bit of detective work which Chip and Clancy under-
took that same night was the watching of Mrs. Winfield’s
boarding house.

Miss Lucile Patterson was still there, they understood,
suffering from tMe great shock to her nerves; and had
gained the sympathy. of Mrs. Winfield and the women
boarders.

No doubt Chip and his friends were unduly suspicious

 
NEW. TIP TOP WEEKLY.

® abotit many things. At any rate, they had not accepted

Miss Patterson’s statements at their face value. That
was because she had lied to Bronson Avery. She had
assured Avery that she would remain in the Duke’s room,
and had left it almost as soon as Avery himself. The
only proof needed to show this was that she had been
attacked, and the Prince had been kidnaped, while Avery
was still.within a yard or two of Mrs. Winfield’s. He
had gone straight there, and had not tarried, and she
had arrived in the street near by at almost the same
time.

But though Chip and Clancy were in and out at Mrs.
Winfield’s all the evening, going in to speak with some
guest, and under various other pretexts, and they patrolled
the street there,-and, the vicinity, their close, surveillance
of the place was unrewarded.

A number of people came and went, some departing in
sleighs, but, so far as they could determine, Miss Patter-
son was not one of them; and Mrs. Winfield reported that
the nurse had remained in her room, and complained of a
headache and prostration.

“T think she ought to have a doctor,”
field, in making this’ report.

Baffled in this, at a late hour Chip and Clan snowshoed
out to the inlets, gliding over the snowfields by the light
of a good moon.

But that was equally barren of result. No one was
at the fishing shack. And the fishermen, whose ac-

_ quaintance they had made, and whom they questioned, had

seen neither Bully Carson nor the stranger with the- black

beard.

Going farther up the inlet, by the road. which wound

there, they surveyed the other fishing shack, in which
‘» Simeon Lee had ordered that the money should be placed.
That, too, was dark, 4 they expected it to be, and there
was no sign of human life.

It was midnight when they got back to Fardale, and
they did not go to the barracks, but sought a room
at Mrs. Winfield’s. .

Colonel Gunn had said they might take the day, and
they were taking the night, too. And they meant to
» ask him for another day off, to prosecute. their search
_¢ for the Prince.

| They were as successful as they hoped to be, in get-

ting Gunn’s permission. The reason being, that Colonel
© Gunn was beginning to feel that he was, in a sense, re-

Sponsible for what had happened, and the thought was

said Mrs. Win-

space to the story of the kidnaping, sandwiching

th it a rehash of the other startling things which

ately occurred at Fardale. The colonel was reading

apers and groaning in spirit, when Chip and Clan

ne to him with their request for an extension of the
ot granted time.

4 “A-hum—this ae me-troubles me,” said the per-
plexed and anguished colonel; “it troubles me sorely |
These yellow reporters seem to be throwing the blame for

_ everything upon Fardale Academy. Here is all that about
Mr. Jelliby and his hunt for a mythical ancestral fortune
in England; all about Mr. Merriwell’s rescue of Simeon

7 Lee from the fire in Mrs. Winfield’s boarding hause, and

4 at about the fight between Lee and Alvord for the pos-

“session of those stolen diamonds, and their escape. And

Alvord was an instructor here! Dear me—dear me! I

fear I shall go insane: Yes, yes—take as much—ah—as
much time as you need. This must be cleared up. A-hum!
—a-haw! It is dreadful—perfectly dreadful. And it is™
going to injure Fardale Academy.” »

Chip and Clan hastened away, glad to have struck") ™
the colonel while he was in that mood, and anxious to ~
get beyond his reach before he changed it. "i

Although Duke Basil did not know where his cathe
was, so could not wire him, the elder Basil received the ©
news through the Associated Press dispatches} and, at ~~
about nine o’clock that morning a long telegram came from
him to the Duke:

‘“T have wired my. bankers in Boston to furnish you
all the money that may be required, and they are to
send a messenger down to Fardale to-day to see you. He
will make arrangements with the local bank, so that you
can get the money. I have also wired detective agencies’
in Boston, and the head of the State police department, —
and they will send men to Fardale, ‘to act in conjunction
with you.’ Iam coming by first train, and will be ae
to-morrow morning. Spare no efforts.”

It was a message to stir the Duke to his best, if a
had been needed.

Whatever of enmity the Duke may have felt for
Merriwell and his Stee was shelved, at least fo
time.
with him ae Sue

There was fighting fire in the Duke, as he had he
on more than one occasion, and. would prove again.
while he was ready to pay over the money demanded &
Simeon Lee, at the same F pinne he was resolved to do al

claimed to be a Boston ducal the Duke did not kn
Lacking that knowledge, he went right ahead, doing 1
best he could. ;,

The plant which he devised, with the aid of Chip M
riwell and Owen Clancy, required the codperation of.
number of the Fardale students. The money demande
was to be placed in the shack designated,.and on th
snowy road that wound past it, along the riverlike inlet,»
sleighs wére to be kept moving.

A hastily improvised dance was got up, at a farmer’s
house, well beyond the shack, and the students, in sleighs, BS, tee
were to be going out to the dance, and returning, so that
they could watch the shack and the road.

- All engaged in carrying’ out this plan were pledged to
the strictest secrecy.

The general belief in the town was that the kidnaper .
had got away with the child to the city, and would soon, a
be heard from there, demanding a reward for the Prince’s ‘ yy
release; and a report was in circulation, that a man and
a small child had got on a Boston-bound train at a 7 |
station down the road.

Miss Lucile Patterson had departed from the tom

when he inquired for Ver, at Mrs. Winfield’s.

Zenas Gale, still conducting his search for the black.
whiskered man, encountered Bully Carson, finally, .
Fardale streets, and made. for him as ee
meant to club him.

Bully, on his part, was now making a point),

alent boldly. But he was not talking about yt ti

 
NEW TIP
Miceosidh mF the kidnaped chile, except casualt
others did.
* “Tgot ye!” said Gale, as he bore down on him.
Carson stopped, and stood very erect, with a confident
Maieer on his heavy face.

"| “What ye got me now fer, constable?” he demanded.
‘ Waal; I allow you’re an accomplice of Alvord! I want
‘to talk with ye. Where is that blaek-whiskered critter 2”
Tt can .be seen that Gale had leaped to-Chip Merriwell’s

hasty conclusion, that the man wlio had escaped so easily
hrough his fingers at the home of Jenkins was Alvord,
fter all, and not a Boston detective.

'*That’s a queer crack out uh the box!” said Bully,
with a good deal of composure. “As fer Alvord, I dunno
Nothin’ about him. The black-whiskered man you're prob’ly
’ thinkin’ of, I’ve seen him, and I br ought a letter from him
for the Duke. I met him jest by chance down at my
fishin’ shack, and he told me he was a Boston detective,
and his name was Sproule. That’s all I know about
him.”

‘The constable’s weasel eyes surveyed Carson distrust-

fully. .
“I can’t trust ye, Bully!”
“But you can’t arrest me, when you haven’t anything
against me! I haven’t done anything.”
“Where is that black-whiskered critter?
~ him,”

I want to see

“Well, I’m not carrying him round with me, you can
see, and I don’t know where he is.”
» “Where was he when ye last seen him?”

» “Down by my fishin’ shack. I give him the Duke's an-
wer there, and then he left. I'll tell you this,” he added:
‘According to Sproule, Simeon Lee is the kidnaper. That
yas what the note said that I took to the Duke. Maybe

the Duke has told you, but, anyway, that’s the way it is.

/S0;,1 reckon, the proper thing is to find Lee. I’ve been

N60kin’ for him~some, myself. The’s a reward out for

j on account of the diamonds; and the Duke would
» well, too, if he is caught. That reward money
iuld come handy, and I’d like to have it. Now, that’s

a know.”

Te said it with a convjpicing air of Leng

eri. yer own coffin nails, and kil yerself with ’em as
juick’s ye kin!” Gale sputtered.

y advice,” said Bully, as if he did not notice this,
would be to watch, down there by my fishin’ shack; for,
if anything happens, it will be down there.”

With his cigarette between his lips, he loafed away.
“That will hold him in the town,”
‘He'll mever go down there now, for he thinks I can’t
4 : ‘speak without lying.”
- “While Zenas Gale confined his efforts to the town, thus
shunted aside by Bully Carson, Chip Merriwell and his

friends, with the Duke and others, prepared to carry out

- their Nigh:
_. The Fardale orchestra went out to the farmer’s, to fur-
‘nish music for the dance, and numbers of Fardale stt-
dents, who knew nothing about, the secret plan, hired
‘sleighs, and went out there also, over the chosen road,
sé that, by the time the dance was in full swing, all the
ae that could be hired in Fardale were being used

a) y

he was thinking, |

nd the air made sical by Liar: Ae ot thei bells.

Chip and Clancy, with Kess and Billy Mac, were among
the earliest to go over the road in a sleigh.

A littfe later they found an excuse to return;
pieces of music desired by the orchestra had been
gotten.”

It may have seemed queer, to those who did not under-
stand, why so many things had been “forgot” and left at
Fardale that night, necessitating trips to bring them.

Of the jolly groups of young people, who, laughing
and singing, drove out over the road from Fardale, only
a comparatively few knew why that dance had been
got up. But those who knew, and held the secret close,
laughed and sang as loudly as the others.

About midnight, when there were few sleighs on the
road, the Duke and Avery drove out to the designated
shack, apparently in great and furious haste. Entering,
they deposited the money demanded in the letter that Car-
son had delivered. Then they drove back to Fardale.

That day the messenger had come from the city banks,
and the Duke had been furnished the money.

As it was so large a sum, it seemed a desperate charice
to place it in.the empty shack, then drive away, back to”
Fardale, leaving it there. For there were thieving fingers
in and round Fardale that would have been only too glad
to clutch it. Among them were Bully Carson, and Bu
knew about it.

It had begun almost to seem that, after all, it was a
trick of Carson’s to have the money hid there, so that He
could slip in and steal it,

some
“for-

ao
To guard that, Chip Merriwell had secur ed the services e
of Catfish Brown; and Brown, earlier in the evening, had © -

attached himself elésely to Bully, and was not to leave wi:
if it could be avoided.
If Bully “shook” Brown,

then Brown was ‘top send
word out by one of the sleighs that’ were arriving

parting every few minutes. A trap would then be dai
Bully, which, it was hoped, would catch him, ‘wit
money in his possession.

But Catfish Brown was able to report, now
that he was finding his job a sinecure. Bully.
into Dickey’s, made himself generously companionable
showed no desire to “shake” him. So that it
seem, as the night wore on, that Bully had, once 4
life, told nothing but the truth.

The dance at the farmer’s continued until ‘i
sma’” hours of the morning, with sleighs coming
going over the road all that time.

Who was in these sleighs, no one could have told,
cept that the light talk and the occasional singing dec
that they were young people; but there were keen
in some of the sleighs, that watched the shack as”
passed, and-watched the snow, in the moonlight, to |
it had been disturbed by any one who had turned in
the road.

It was well along toward morning, and those ville. 4
not understand were returning from the farmer’s, in some

trepidation, dreading the censure of Colonel Gunn, who fi

did not favor late hours; when Chip Merriwell and the,
Duke began to play their last cards.

Up to that time they. were almost sure that no one hod
been to the shack to get the money. Now had come the
critical period, for it could be expected that Simeon Lee,

or whoever was to come there for the money, would make

 
ih,

and. would then attempt to make a ‘successful get-away.
-As, one by one, at some distance apaft, the last sleighs
went back to Fardale, out of each a young fellow dropped
softly, some distance above the shack, where there was
a shelter of pines.
These young fellows were Chip Merriwell, Owen Clancy,
Villum Kess, Billy Mac, the Duke, and Bronson Avery—
six in all. And; as the sleighs went on, they drew off
from the roadside, and gathered together in the screen of
the pines.
Each had a pair of snowshoes, and each carried a
heated stone wrapped in a gunny bag.
Putting. on their snowshoes, they stole through the
pines, until they came to the point nearest the shack.
There they camped down in the snow, still screened by
the pines, prepared to watch and wait.
This was where the need of the heated stones came
in, to keep them from getting chilled, while they waited
the slow coming of dawn, or the appearance of the kid-
naper for the money.
With their. snowshoes they quietly scooped away the
snow, piling it in a ring round them, and, without talking,
began their watch.
They had been there nearly an hour, and were becoming
chilled and cramped, in spite of the heat of the slow-
cooling stones, when a man came walking hurriedly up the
"road, and turned aside, wading through the snow toward
the shack.
The watchers were on the qui vive. Chip Merriwell
could feel the contagion, as the rustling shiver of excite-
ment ran round’ the little circle, But not a word was
spoken.
As he came close ‘up to the shack, they saw clearly that
the man was the wearer of the disguising black whiskers.
He stopped at the entrance, and looked round long and
carefully before he ventured within.
As soon as he was inside the shack, they rose and began
Se “to run toward it on their snowshoes, still voiceless, and
“ag ety as possible.

  
  
  
  
   
    
   
   
   
   
    
  
   
   
   
   
   
 
  
   
   
  
   
  
  

CHAPTER XI.
THE CHASE,

“ySpeedy as they were, they were not quick enough, or
At enough. Very likely the man heard them. He
“Teappeared at the door, and saw them coming.

For a moment he hesitated, then he sprang back into
sathe shack for the money package. He saw the box that
af pals it, in a corner, as he had seen it when he first came
in, but the box was bulky, and he had meant to smash: it
* Open, rather than carry it.

et

Having no time for that now, he caught-up the box and
os sprang with it in his arms for the door. Catching in
he door, as he plunged blindly, it delayed him,

‘When he got out with it and began to run, the boys on
snowshoes were halfway to the shack from the pines,
Throwing the box to the ground, he jumped on_ it,
to break it open; but found the snow acting as a cushion
for it, saving it from much damage.

The boys were beginning to yell.

Frightened, the man caught up the box again, and began
to run toward the road.

Leading the snowshoers,, Chip Merriwell tried to cut off
the angle to the road, in! time to get there as soon as

18 Se ae «NEW, ap oP WEEKLY,

his move after the road. was wecerted of ¢ iaté ieighg

a ii Rs Se a aa She ES be whan ASE al Re

the man did. But the fellow plunged through the snow
at a really marvelous pace, and gained the road well in
advance.

Down the snowy road he now ran, witli the boys in wil
pursuit.

He was a good runner, but the clumsy box still ham-
pered him.

“Drop it!”

“Stop !”

“Halt!”

The yells rose loudly behind him.

It was mutch like a fox hunt, with hounds in full cry,

wd

be

ny

: SS

The noise of it reached the few fishermen who were still 4
on duty in the gray dawn. 1
“Stop him!” Chip bellowed, as the fishing tents were
approached. “Stop, thief! Stop, thief!”
All bellowed the cry, while pursuing hotly on their
snowshoes.
Two of the fishermen ran out, saw the man pursued
in that manner, and, beholding the box he carried, shouted
to him to drop it!
They flew at him when he refused and. tried to run
past them.
For a minute there was a scuffle in the road. The re- i

sult of which being that the box was torn out of his
hands and fell to the ground.

“Stop, thief!” the snowshoers were bellowing.

“You’ve Stole this box from them boys,” said one of the
fishermen, “I allow; and we'll hold ye, to see about it.” Li

In wild desperation the man swung a blow that stretched ~~

fh

1 . ° 4 eh et

the speaker flat on the snow; then he tried to pick up yyy
7 7 eck an

the box. ed
. . s ie 4

But the other fisherman, jumping on the box, swung? "i
t$%e,

at him, and, seeing the danger of capture, the black
whiskered man, with a growl of rage, darted on. ce
Two of the boys dropped out, to take charge of the box,” Des
but Chip and Clancy, with the Duke and Kess, kept fight ™
on, in» hot. pursuit. CR,
Seeing them coming, the man began to run in despera-”
tion toward the shack which was said to be dh
Carson’s. ta fae
Gaining it well in advance, he sprang in, but camé ‘out ‘:
almost instantly, with the Prince in his arms. He held the
boy up, so that they would be sure to see and recognize’
him.
Then, ata desperate pace,
road along the ice of the inlet.

 

  
 

he went on, following the

Another burst of speed took him well beyond the Limits
of the fishing colony at that point, consequently beyond |
all danger, except that from the pursuers on snow- . |
shoes. ‘

The Duke’s face had turned almost as white as» the
snow he was traveling oyer, and that hot, fiery look that
at times came into his blue eyes gleamed there again, as
he spurted in his speed. ji

“The hound!” Chip heard him ery. ie

Then Chip had as much as he could do to keep aneven |
pace with him. The Duke’s burst of speed was something — ;
almost phenoimenal. For, in spite of his many and glar- of
ing defects of character, the Duke was really one of the ~~
finest all-round athletes that had ever come to Fardale. Ae

With difficulty, Chip held the Duke an even race, as they ~~
plunged together over the snow on their snowshoes, with a
rise-and-slide movement, a sort of heel-and-toe motion, ¥ 7 4
to be acquired only by practice, and that quickly tires all”

 

 

 

 
 

 

  

     
 

 

but the hardened and experienced; though, when acquired,
snowsheeing is not a difficult art, and is speedy.
w Chip and the Duke proved it so speedy now that they
were soon gaining, fast on the desperate runner.

Chip was expecting that at any moment the hunted man
would turn and open fire on them. That he did not, was
no proof‘that he was weaponless, but only that he did

of his crimes.

The fear that the man might turn and shoot at them
was not deterring Chip and the Duke. It was one of the
chances, and they were taking it, knowing that other
snowshoers were coming on as fast as they could, and
that, even if they fell, there would still be others for the
man to account with, at the last.

Perhaps, too, the knowledge that there were still others,
was one of the things which deterred the man from shoot-
ing, and made him still trust to running.

“Halt!” the Duke roared, mouthing it hoarsely, in his
great rage.

The man looked back. Then he swung off to the left,
and turned to the rotten sea ice of the salt-water stream,
with the apparent intention of continuing his race on the
harder surface of the ice, or of crossing to the other
side, and seeking the hills that lay beyond the marsh.

The Duke bellowed another command to halt.

The fear that the boy might be carried to his death on
the roften ice endowed the Duke, at this juncture, with
such superhuman energy that he began.to lead Chip, and,
yard by yard, drew ahead, though Chip was throwing all
his skill and strength into it.

Gaining the ice, the man ran straight down it, near
the middle, even though here and there black holes yawned,
which the moving tides had opened and the cold had not
been able to cover.

As the ice began to heave and sway, under him, the
man edged toward the other shore; but he cast another
glance round.

That made him turn again, for the Duke was closer
on him than he had thought, and again he was running
straight down the ice, ignoring its condition in his des-
peration.

Perhaps he hoped to cross over the treacherous and
rotten area, and, with the ice breaking up behind him, re-
tard the movement of the Duke and his other pursuers.
That would have been, if he could have done it, a very
effective measure for stopping and delaying them.

Suddenly the shaky ice heaved and ridged, then broke
asunder, and, with a cry of fear, he plunged into the dark
water, that yawned and crawled under him.

The child was hurled from his arms, as he sought to
clutch at the edges of the ice, but it, too, fell into the
water, and the cry torn from it in fright, was there
smothered.

The Duke, driving forward with all the power he pos-
sessed, being insane with rage at the moment, was scarcely
three snowshoe steps behind. When he saw his danger,
he tried to save himself. Yet he went into the water, for
the ice dipped under him, and his snowshoes shot him
down, as if he were on the slide of a toboggan.

It was all done with the flashing quickness of a rapidly
moving motion picture. So quickly, in fact, that Chip
Merriwell, who was close behind the Duke, came near
going into the yawning gulf on top of him,

NEW TIP TOP WEEKL <4

not care to take the chances of adding murder to the list

Chip saved himself, and flung backward, then. drew up «

his feet, and scrambled to a firm footing.

water; the Duke
was floundering, hampered by his snowshoes, and the
child, having gone under, had risen, and seemed to be sup-
ported largely by a big scarf that had been wound round
its body as a protection from the cold.

Behind him Chip heard the mover ments of snowshoers,
and he knew that Clan and Kess, and perhaps gthers, were
there.

There was not a moment to lose.

Yet he knew that if he leaped, as he was, into the
hole, hampered by his snowshoes, he would probably be
drowned, without a chance of helping any one.

In a flash his knife was out, cutting the snowshoes from
his feet.

Catching them’up, as they dropped into the snow, he
ran to the edge of the ice.

The child seemed to be sinking again. The Duke, try-
ing to reach it, seemed only dragging himself down.

Chip swung but one glance round.

Clancy and Kess were right there, with Billy Mac and
some fishermen not far behind. )

The man’s hat was floating on the

“Use your snowshoes—make a human chain!” he yelled.
y

Running along the bending ice until he was opposite

the child, stripping off his coat as he ran, Chip Merriweil
sprang boldly out into the icy water.

When he came up, he had the child, lifting it wy its, *

Cotes:

 

ing to ike his way to cule ‘ele of the ice, “Cand arrives

with a rush, and dropped down on his face on the ae
Having caught up Chip’s snowshoes as he came, he Be | ;

out as far as he could, extending one of them. %

The ice on which Clan lay had a precipitous descent,
which was sliding him out over the water.

“Human chain!” he yelled to those behind him.

Kess came up and caught Clancy by the heels.

Billy Mac and the fishermen were soon there to brace
them, so that, as they clung to each other, it was much
like the rope by which mountain climbers tie themselves
together to keep any one of them from dropping into a
chasm.

Chip floundered on until he could take hold of the ex-
tended snowshoe, then got himself up to the edge of the
ice, still holding the Prince.

“Can you lift him, Clan?” he parited.

Clancy put out his’ other hand, and, by a great exer-
cise of his strength, drew up the Prince, and slid him
back toward the one behind.

To get Chip out was the next difficulty. It could not
have been readily done if both Chip and Clan, by intermi-

nable exercises and games, had not toughened and hardened |

their muscles until they were like ropes of wire.

Somehow, they accomplished it, and Chip, climbing to the
edge of the ice, slid his body over Clancy’s, and
out to safety.

By this time the Duke had struggled to the edge of the
ice, at another point.

By this time, too, other fishermen had come up. And
another human chain being formed, with plenty of Strong

backs. and strong arms and legs to give it cohesiveness
and power, the Duke, was dragged out, to the security of d

the firm ice beyond.

 
 

so worked |

     
   
 

—-

‘ en

ee,

   
ae -° NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY,

Down in the black water, on the slow-moving tide that

drew it seaward, floated the hat of the black-whiskéred
man.

And that was all.

CHAPTER XII.
BULLY CARSON’S DEFEAT.

Chip Merriwell and the Duke and the bey were hur-
ried as quickly as possible to the fisherman’s hut claimed
by Bully Carson, where they were stripped, chafed, and
rubbed, and bundled into a pile of blankets brought from
the fishermen’s tents, and, a fire having been built in the
stove, they were forced by the fishermen to undergo a

_ toasting before it.

Some of the fishermen had remained at the point where
the accident had occurred, hoping to do something for
the man who had gone down there, but, after a while, they
came in, quiet and dejected.

“The tide took him under the ice, out to sea, I guess.
Even his hat was finally sucked under the ice,” one of

them reported. “Who was he?”

That question had been asked scores of times, without
getting an answer.

No one there knew who he was.

The story of how he had kidnaped the Prince near the
academy, and of the attempt to get him, when he came
» t0 the other cabin for the monéy he had demanded for
the Prince’s release, was told again, but it shed no light

e on ‘the matter.

‘Some thought. the man must have been Alvord.
_ Others were ready to believe that he had been the

efbrr called Sproule, who had not been a detective, or else

was” a grafting one.
yew were ready to believe that he could have been

van
"Simeon Lee.

All were agreed, however, that Bully Carson could tell
who the man was, if he cared to do so.

The question of the man’s identity was no nearer a solu-
tion when the sleigh came that had been summoned to
take Chip and the other Fardale boys, ‘with the Prince,
to the academy.

On the way to the academy, the idea was broached
that the wearer of the black whiskers had been the nurse,
Lucile Patterson, heavily disguised in that manner.

“No, I fink not,” said the Prince; “not the nurse!”

It was a bewildering suggestion to the little fellow that
his kidnaper might have been Miss Patterson,

“If it had been the nurse,” he added convincingly, “she
would have pulled my hair and rulered my hands.”

He looked weak and tired and ill; and his eyes were too
bright. He had evidently suffered mttch. The Duke
was alarmed at his appearance. So not many questions
were asked him, but undisturbed most of the time, he
was permitted to lie back in the seat of the sleigh,
bundled to the eyes in blankets. Chip and thdése who
had been in the water, wore odds and ends of clothing
furnished by the fishermen.

They learned from the Prince that the black-whiskered
man who had kidnaped atid held him had not held him
in the hut which belonged to Bully Carson, but in another,
farther down the inlet, where there were ho fishermen. It
was a hut that bad not been visited. Further, the Prince
declared, whenever the man went away and left him there
alone, the man tied him fast in a chaif.

“The nurse wouldn’t do that, would she? She would
des ruler my hands?” was his argtiment.

Bully Carson had made a “night of /it” with Catfish
Brown, and was still with Brown, the next day, when word
came of the drowning of the black-whiskered kidnaper
and the rescue of the Prince.

The coarse face of the young scoundrel flushed red, then
became a sickly white, while his eyes grew big and scared,

“Drowned!” he gurgled.

“It’s queer about that, too,” comménted Catfish; “for
he wasn’t the man, you know, who was to have gone to
that place and got the moriey, I understood; Simeon Lee
was to have done that.”

They were together in Dickey’s, and Bully had col-
lapsed into a chair.

“Could that fellow have been Lee, after all?” said
Catfish.

“Naw !”

“It looks it! He disguised himself with those heavy
black whiskers, and though Lee didn’t have that kind of
dark complexion, it isn’t much of a trick to darken the
face, if you know how.” :

“Naw!” said Bully, his tongue seeming to stick to the
roof of his mouth. “That feller wasn’t Lee,”

The Duke was telegraphing.to Boston, to learn if the
person drowned could have been Miss Lucile Patterson.
The Duke’s father having arrived in Fardale, the plans of
the Boston house, found in the talking head brought to
Fardale by Simeon Lee, were placed in his hands. Yet,
it will be recalled, the nurse had denied knowledge of
them.

While search was being made for Miss Patterson, in
Boston, a letter came from her, addressed to the Duke:

“Dear ANnseLM: I don’t waht you to think that I had
anything to do with the kidnaping, of Cyril, for I didn’t.
1 got him out of your room, and meant to take him to.
Boston. I had to get him that way, because you wouldn’t
let me have him. I would have treated him right, ‘arid
returned him to his home, for those barracks are no
place for a child, and he had been left in my charge, not
in yours. \I meant to take him, in the sleigh, down to the
station, and take the train, which was then nearly due.
Then that man rushed on me. He was not expecting to
do it, probably, for he was just walking along the street
there when I came up, but the boy wouldn’t keep still, when
I turned there, but began to cry out. That made the man
come up to me. When he saw who the boy was, he
snatched him away from me, and ran across the road,
into the. field. This is the truth, if I ever told it; I hope
I may die if it isn’t!’ You had no right to Seas to let
me have Cyril, and I took him; and that’s all there was
to it. And I'll tell your father that, as soon as I see him,
Pll tell him the whole truth.”

“Well, I can assure you that you'll never be the. Prince’s
nurse again,” said the Duke grimly, as he read this over;
“never again!”

Bully Catson, much shaken, shambled ‘iown to the sta-
tion, and went to his home in Carsonville.

There he appeared before his father.

“What's the matter—sick?” demanded the elder Carson.

Bully sank weakly into a chair, spread his feet out to
the fire, pulled put his cigarette case, and tried to smoke
a cigarette, but soon he threw the half-smoked cigarette
into the fire.

 

 
   

  

 
   
      
     
      
  
   
     
   
    
   
   
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
  
    
 
  
 
  
  
 
 
  
 
   
  
  
    
   
  
  

“~<
ny > you sick?” shouted Colonel Carson.
“Naw !” said Bully. “But this town is due to hear news
soon. Dick Broderick was drowned in the inlet, up at
Fardale, close by my fishing shack. You know Dick?”
"The young rascal that came here recently, that you’vé
been with so much? How’d he get drowned?”
“Oh, I don’t want to talk about it,’ said Bully.
He dug down into his pocket and pulled up a roll of
a and threw them at his father.
“You'll be surprised to have me give ye back mioney,
pat I’ve got to give ye back this; it seems accursed. I
2 t 4 2 in' tised but fifteen dollars of it. I told you all about
Wnas diamond business, and the rewards that was offered.
a Nobody can find otit where Alvord and Lee aire, if they’re
|) Found here. But I put up a scheme with Dick Broderick
By k to pull the leg of the Duke—pull it five thousatid dollars’
>” Worth, and it’s drowned Broderick.”
~*Builly !”
“Don't yap at me, dad! I feel bad enotigh about it, I
s to do the brain-work part, and Broderick the rest. I
Delieve 1 done my part about right.: But it was hard to
eep Broderick from biundering. First thing he had to do
las to go prowlin’ through the barracks up there, jest to
t the black whiskers he had disguised himself with. He
tited to see if anybody there could recognize him. Then
e come purty nigh gittin’ nabbed, by goin’ into Jenkins’,
ere he thought Alvord might have left some valuables.
‘Finally he pulled off the stunt—found’a chance to kid-
that kid that I told you about, the nephew of the
ke, and wrote a note demandiz” five ‘thousand, which I
k to the Duke myself, But they laid for him, when he
mt to get the money, and then he was chased, and in
in’ to the river he went through the ice.”
Bally groaned.
The colonel looked at him, white-faced and scared.
“Bully! 1 told you not to attempt anything criminal!”
l¢ remonstrated.
; “Aw, cut it out! I know ye did. But I thought that
was'safe—safe as money in a bank. And now Broderick’s
eg But they can’t. git me, dad. They can’t git me!
They don’t even know who was drowned. And I was care-

“

}

 
 
    
 
 
 
  
 
  
  
 
 
 
  
 
  
 
 
 
 
  
  
  
 
 
 
   
 
  
   

¥

_ eouldn’t charge me with a thing. See?
’ thitig against me.”

. Bully was right.

 ) They couldn’t.

a THE END.

They can’t lay a

< t=
eh a eee
*

ke The story that you will find in the next issue of this
Wweekly, No. 136, out March 6th, entitled Frank Merri-
well, Junior’s, Detective Work; or, In Peril of His Life,”
‘concludes this particular series of adventures of Chip at

| i f Pardale. /

  

ine

THE DOG HAS NO MECHANICS.

ke

1 ‘In tio well-attested case has a dog shown any sense as
t6 ithe nature of any mechanical contrivance. They will
fhirn which way a door opens, and farely, if ever, do they
2 -tindiscerningly close it when it is slightly ajar when they
Wish to pass through the opening, but we have never been
able to observe or obtain evidence to show that they would
pull! down the latch in the way in which a cat readily
Mearns to do. Much as dogs have had to dorwith gutis, they
isplay no kind of interest in the arms except so far as
hey are tokens of sport to come, They connect the ex-

 
 

  

NEW NP- TOP WEEKLWT ee at

fil t6 be with one of their fellers all night, so that they —

plosion with the capture of the game, and will search for
it in the direction in which the barrél was pointed. We
have not, howevér, been able to find that they know, as
they might readily do, when the weapon was loaded and
when empty. They show no interest in it, such as monkeys
réadily display toward atiy meéchatiical contrivances to
which theit attefition has been directed. All these nega- |
tive features indicate that the mechanical side of the canine
mitid is entirely undeveloped.

 

When Courage Wins;
Or, The Old Farm’s Treasure.
By EDWARD S. ELLIS.

(This interesting story was commenced in N6. 132 of the NEW TIP
TOP WEEKLY. Back ntimbers can be obtained from your news
dealer or the publishers.)

_ CHAPTER X.
t THE PLOT.

Now, I have no wish to magnify trifles or to affect a
mystery which does not exist. I shall, therefore, explain 4 :
the significance of certain’ incidents that have been nar-"
rated, and thus help you to understand those that follow.

I have just said that Scott Yerkes was the son of’ highly wi
respected parents, and had been given every educational
aid in his youth’ His taste for the fascinating art of
pottery led him to devote his time to the industry. The
influence of his father secured him a fine situation in a
leading pottery in Staffordshire, But, as has been said,
“John Barleycorn” brought about the young man’s ruin
and made an outcast of him.

In drifting through the States, the tramp, by the merest
accident, came upOh an amazing bed of kaolin on the little
place owned by Mrs. Martin, the widowed mother of Budd, 7
of whom I have had something to tell you. Having onege
day imbibed from the bottle until helpess, Yerkes pitch
forward on his face in the wood on the shore of Wi
Cat River, and lay sunken in a sodden sleep for severa
hours. It was his thirst which awakened him, and f
first act was to take a big drink. Then, when im ha
command of his senses, he set out to get his bearii
He soon made the discovery that he had been slumberi
upon the most luxurious couch of his dreams. Not
it was any more comfortable than a pallet of straw, |
it was worth thousands of dollars.

' |

   
    
   
    
 
  
     
  

   

 
 
 
 

Staggering to his feet, Yerkes spent several more hours
in investigation. The pure white clay, chiefly deriyed from
the decomposition of common feldspar, and commonly ©
known as porcelain clay, seemed to be all around him.
Examining farther, he found that, beginning at the edge =”
of the stream the tract extended for more than a hiin=-' 7”
dred yards up and down, and reached back indefinitely.
At the least, the deposit included several acres, and it was”
worth a fortune to the owner, provided he should learn
the astonishing fact and turn it to account.

The discovery sobered Scott Yerkes. Seating himself
on the bank of the creek, he strove to decide what was
the best thing to do. Had he been free from his woeful
failing, he knew he could make a fine bargain with who-
ever owned the deposit, but he could not trust himself.

   
    

  
     
     
    
       
   
     
22

After wrestling with the problem for a jong _while, he
reached a foolish decision.

Bowman Rowell was the proprietor of a gilded saloon
in-the city of New York. Already rich and coining money
hand over fist, he was ever reaching out for more.
got a good deal from his pull in politics, but was not
satisfied. Yerkes obtained his free lunch for a longer
period than usual, owing.to a sort of acquaintance he had
scraped with the proprietor. Powell was not in his saloon
much of the time, and the day came when the bartender
took the tramp by his collar and kicked him into, the
streat, ;

It was not a pleasing remembrance, but Yerkes had
swallowed it with his last bite of bread and meat.

Without making any inquiries as to the ownership of
the valuable piece of property, the tramp strolled into
the writing room of the Union Hotel in Overbrook, and
assuming the lordly air that became him, asked the clerk
for a postage stamp. Ignoring the dubious expression
on. the face of the youth behind the desk, Yerkes saun-
tered to the writing room and wrote a letter to Bowman
Powell. The three cents he received in change for the coin
he flung down, made up his whole capital.

In this letter, Yerkes told of his astonishing daca’,

_ and made the proposition that has been outlined. Before
* completing the missive, the vagrant, as sober as he ever
was in his life, questioned an old farmer sitting near,
and, without giving away his own secret, learned that

bike * the property he had in mind belong to the widow of

Oscar *Martin.

In his cofimutiication, Scott Yerkes thought he did a
shrewd thing when he told Powell this fact. At the same
time he gave the impression that she lived a hundrea miles
from the real location of her home.

“When I mention her name and say that it is near

a thriving town, Powell will be less likely to think

~ 1am kidding him. He will bite and I shall get a fee that
will keep me in whisky for months. He don’t fool me,”

‘ chuckled the writer as he reached the bottom of the
1 ie “Sf I tell him to send his reply to Overbrook, he’ll
ae I’m here and come himself. Then the fat will be

He told Powell to ad-

, Pennsylvania, which was a

ng distance away. Uses next invested. one-third of
§ Capital in a postal card, which was addressed to the

) postmaster in the prosperous city of Reading, the same
"b@ing a request for that official to forward all of Scott

srkes’ mail to Overbrook, so far'so good.

* ~An hour after these duties had been attended to, the
tramp set out on his return to the neighborhood of the
unsuspected treasure. It seemed well to linger there, so
as to be on the spot and ready for developments. Then,
too, if he stayed on the ground, that splendid deposit of
kaolin would have hard work to get away from him.

‘He was slouching along the dusty highway in his best

professional style, when he suddenly gasped and leaped
so high, that one of his flapping shoes fell off.

“Thunderation! I’m the champion fool \of seventeen

States!” he exclaimed. Sliding his bare foot into the
temporarily discarded gear, he sagged against the fence
until he could pull himself together.

‘I dated my letter at Reading, and told him to address
is reply to that city, but never thought that my own
envelope is a dead give-away. It has ‘Overbrook’ stamped

He.

‘NEW TIP TOP- WEEKLY.

*

io er
on it, and he will know that’s where I was when I wrote
it.. He will see through my game, and know, that the kaolin
is near this town.”

Not only that, but it would be just like Bowman 1 sight
to come immediately to Overbrook. He was the owner
of a frfie automobile, and it would be a delightful ot
for him at this season.

“I don’t think there’s anything I left out to prove ceyseltt
the biggest idiot ever allowed to go unchained. I men-
tioned the name of Mrs. Martin as the owner of the tract,”
so he will have that to guide him. He'll come!” ‘

And he did. The shrewd saloonkeeper read the decep+ 4 y

tion that had been tried upon him, and grinned. :
“The jackass is at that town of Overbrook, which is of
so small account I never heard of it before; but its

marked on the buzz-wagon map, and I'll find it.” Me

ee

It was best to make no reference to the attempted de- ie

ception by Scott Yerkes, but to accept the knowledge as
if purposely given by the sender. Accordingly, Bowm
after studying his chart until he knew all that was nec

sary, asked his correspondent to meet him on‘a certaimie =

named afternoon, a mile or two'to the east of a villag
marked as The Corners, to settle the business he h
written about. ,
-Yerkes knew when the missive would be due, and called
at the post office in Overbrook, where it was handed f
him. He gnashed his teeth when he read what, wa
written,

$
“The only consolation, ” he reflected, “is that he does
suspect the game I tried to put over on him.”
All the same, Powell had penetrated it as soon asm
read that enlightening letter from Overbrook.

Having told all that was needed to Yerkes, Bowmat

excursion, Powell stayed in Overbrook. There, by brows=
ing through the courthouse and distributing a few tips—
in which he believed, though they were not necessaty it
the present case—he learned that the twenty acres in)
which he was interested were owned by Mrs. Elizabeth?
Martin. Further, the assessed
ing was twenty-five hundred dollars.

by Leonidas Lapp.

The plot now assumed the odd shape that Bowman
Powell and Scott Yerkes were pitted against each other) |
though ostensibly allies. The latter utterly distrusted his
patron, and was certain he would double-cross him, if it
could be done by cunning and treachery. Nothing, it
would seem could prevent Powell from buying the*land ~
with its tempting deposit of kaolin. He could afford to

pay a good deal more than its worth without the ‘unsus- | ,
Having done this, Powell —

pected wealth it contained.
would laugh at Yerkes and tell him to whistle for his fet
Such was the belief of the tramp, and truth compe
me to say his distrust of the man was justified. On. ee
other hand, Powell was in a quandary which he hoped to
clear away in the course of a few days. Trained as he

' was in all manner of graft and thievery, it was impos-

sible for him even to think straight; he would “do? the
miserable hobo if the way could be possibly opened.’” 4).

Now the selling and buying of a small property is so
simple a transaction that it would seem there could be
no difficulty about it. Mrs. Martin and her son Budd had ae

valuation of land and build-
Upon the property
Was a mortgage for two thousand dollars, which- was held

 

 
       
  

 

come fo fhe decision that it was the only course left to
; them, ‘Cétisequently, they would eagerly accept the first
, by "good Offer made, no matter who made it:

x ; 4 >) AIP that Yerkes need do was to go straight: to the
a © woman and tell her the kaolin depositwwas so valuable
"that she could get a much larger price than she was will-

Hing to accept. While-the tramp knew little or nothing
‘of her feelings in the matter, his,common sense told him
that she would sell the property for only a tithe of its
teal worth unless she was warned in time.

Why not then tell her frankly the situation? This would
block Powell’s game, but the rub with Yerkes was that
it would also checkmate him. It would end all hope of
his getting the fee promised. If the sale fell through, he
_ would be left in the cold, and be compelled to take to the
, road again.

And yet, if the purchaser should be some other per-
’» soh--and surely there would be no lack of purchasers—
would not Yerkes be warranted in expecting a fair com-
/)) mission?. Yes, and yet at best it would be only a proba-
) bility, The man’s experience with the selfishness and

robbed him of most of his

    

 

 

 
  
 
  
 
 
  
     
  
   
    
  
  
    
  
   
 
 
   

ishonesty of his fellows
faith in human nature.
The final decision reached by the vagrant was to hold
up the sale, if it was within his power, until Powell paid
hint. his commission. That might seem easy, for, as has
et said, he had only to reveal the truth to the owner
ne property.

suppose Scott Yerkes went to the cottage with his
It would be as a ragged, drinking tramp, whose
Fappearance would repel. The widow would receive
@t he said as the maunderings of an irresponsible
rant, and drive him door. And yet what
er course was open

from her
to him?
As an entering wedge, Yerkes represented to Powell
fat be must make a more thorough examination of the
deposit before reaching a positive decision. That would
delay any decisive action on the part of the intended
Purchaser, and give Yerkes time in which to perfect his
plans.
; “Mistrusting everybody, Bowman Powell could not make
sure of the nature of the game played by the other.
Tt may be all his talk about kaolin is guff; ft would be
| just like liim to try to euchre me out of a hundred dol-
‘ars, and it’s my duty to see he doesn't do it. If that
bs, » white glay he ‘talks about is just ordinary stuff, I wouldn't
re pay half the mortgage. -If I knowed anything about the
th Pottery business I would take a squint myself,’ but I’ve
4 % ) wever seen the inside of a china factory, and wouldn’t
)@ © Bhow the stuff from a pile of paving stones.’ I’ll hold off
| for a day or two as he asked, and keep my ears and eyes
re: a open.” 4 \
}) Meanwhile
‘s} ~~ the: problem,
dreamed.

.
oe

 
 

=

"

a factor, unsuspected by all, entered into
and brought a solution of which no one

CHAPTER XI.

AN INVESTIGATION.

  

me pmello, my young man ! What's your name?”
. “Scipio Shanks—yas, sir.’
“Haye you any work on hand for the next hour or
“two?” :
“TI allers hab work on hand; dey makes me git up in
‘de midjle ob de night to chop wood, milk de cow, and

 
   
  
 

‘tend to de hoss:

“ask that an expert be sent

23
Doan’ yo’ see dey’s workin’ de, flesh
off my bones?”

“T'ean't say fT notice it. Where do you live?’

“Wid Squire Lapp, jes’ down de road a little ways.”

“How would you like to earn a dollar?”

The eyes of the colored boy bulged.

“I airns a good many dollars, ‘but I. doan’ git ’em; so
ef yo’ wants to hire me I’s ready—dat is,” added the cau-
tious Scip, “if de work ain’t too much like work.”

“It is to row a small boat a little way up the river,
over on the other side of the woods. It ought not to
take you more than two hours at the outside. So run
off and ask the squire for a short leave of absence.”

Scipio shook his head.

“Dat won't do, sah.”

“Why not?”

“He'll tell me'I can’t go;
back, and den ask him.
den.”

And the brilliant young Anglo-African grinned.

“You're a wise guy; just the fellow I want; so come
along.”

The more Bowman Powell turned the situation over
in his mind, the more convinced he became that. Scotts
Yerkes was trying to outwit him. Unless the speculator
bestirred himself he would be badly left. = ou.

Powell came to the belief that the tramp expert in pot- ~
tery would open communication with some other capital-
ist and hurry him'into the deal. The request of Yerkes -
for delay seemed to indicate nothing else. He would re-
quire a day or two in which to perfect his plans, and that

best way is to wait till I git
Yo’ see, he can’t help hisself

interval must be utilized to the full by Powell, or the |

plum would drop into some other fellow’s lap.
The man’s first thought had been to telegraph to Tren-—
ton, one of the chief pottery centers of the world, and
at once to Overbrook, whe ere | $
Powell would meet and take him in charge.
ter’s dictum would be quickly given, and it would ds
the question.
But there were serious objections to such @ cutee)
Powell had no acquaintance with any of the operators in ~~
the capital of the State, and his request was not likely

  
  

 

to be granted without preliminary inquiries on their part” ae

This would \cause delay, and the whole thing. would fa

_ through,

The course fixed upon by Powell was a direct one.
He would visit the supposed deposit, secure some of the
material, and express it to the nearest pottery, asking that
judgment be passed upon it. A hint that a good deal of
the stuff could be cheaply obtained, if delay was avoided,
would cause promptness in replying. If the dirt were

worthless, Powell would avoid burning: his fingers. If

it proved genuine kaolin, quick and shrewd work on the
part of the man would put all the trumps in his hand:

With no knowledge of where Scott Yerkes was or what
he was doing, it was important that he should learn noth-
ing of the counter move on the part of Powell. To walk
openly through the fields and woods to the important spot
would be sure to betray him to the suspicious tramp and
inspire him to the sharpest kind of work. Powell must
find a way of getting to the spot secretly. By only one
path could that be done—by water.

His guarded inquiries of Yerkes, and the bits of in-
formation he had picked up in casual conversations at
The Traveler's Rest, he learned that the alleged kaolin

    

     
 

‘

   

  
24
deposit was on the shore of the broad stream which
wound in its course back of Widow’ Martin’s home.
Powell resolved to go thither, using the caution of an
Indian on the trail.

On the morning succeeding the performance of Fielder
Keating and Budd Martin as sentinels at the window of
the latter’s bedroom, Powell left his auto in the garage
in Overbrook and walked eastward, eyes and ears alert.
His plan was to keep to the highway until just beyond
Squire Lapp’s house, and then to meander into the woods
and pick his way with the utmost care to the right spot.
His decision, however, underwent a change when he
caught sight of Scipio Shanks strolling along the road
toward him, as if he had no care in the world upon his
mind, which was the fact. The conversation between
them has been recorded.

While holding the brief confab, the man kept a watch-
ful gye up and down the road. Nothing was seen to cause
misgiving. é

“Over the fence with you, Scip, and strike a bee line
for the woods. If you catch sight of any one, stop at
once and tell me.”

ass Sit.”

“You know the road, and I’m depending on you.”

“Yas, sir; doan’ be scart. I’ll take care ob yo’.”

‘ The distance was not far, and in a brief while the two,
after picking their way among the trees, paused on the
bank of the stream to which reference has been made.

“This is big enough to be called a river,” commented
the man, glancing to right and left. :

“It Gm a riber,” said Scip proudly.

“Good! What’s. its name?”

“De Wild Cat; it am ‘leben thousand miles long. It
starts in de Rocky Mountains and after tumbling ober
Niagry Falls, dives into de Polar Ocean.” 7 |

“Whew! She’s a corker! Is there only the one stream?”
“"Dere am two; de Wild Cat forks a little side ob
Widder Martin’s place.”

. _ EAsd both branches are large?”

“Yas, sir; each one’s bigger dan de oder; which one do
Vw want to take?”

“T want to be rowed past the foot of Widow Martin’s
land, I think you said you had a boat that can be used
on the river.”

* “Dat am. de fac’.”

“Scip alluded to the scow which was the property of
Budd Martin. It so happened that it was lying against
the bank nearer his own home than to that of the owner.
The sail had been carried away, and, as Budd had told his
friends, the homely craft was at the command of any
one who cared to use it.

It was not far, and the man and lad soon reached
the spot.
clumsy structure.

“Ts it strong enough to bear us both?”

“Sure. Last fall I took two dressed hogs to. Over-
brook without spilling ’em, and dey weighed more dan
yo.” |

“Hold hersteady, Scip, for I don’t want to get a duck-

The lad obeyed, and the man stepped gingerly aboard,
sitting down on the cross plank at one end, while Scip
shoved the craft, clqar and took up the pole. He held
the scow close ¢6 the southern shore, that being the side
on which lay Mrs. Martin’s little farm.

Bowman Powell looked doubtfully at the -

“WEEKLY.

>

/; Pek

“Seip rowed steadily, and by and by slid round)a swWeep-_
ing bend and came in sight of the fork of the Wild Cat. |
Powell studied the place with curiosity, but the youth® |
was too familiar with the sight to feel any special interest
in it. He continued sluggishly to ply the pole, keeping ©
just far enough out in the stream to clear the overhang-
ing branches. Both shores were lined with forest, whose -
foliage was now at its best.

“I suppose you have been up that wonderful fiver, ».
Scip?” was the inquiring remark of the passenger.

“Sartinly; I went up it two days ago.”

“Not all alone?”

“T had two fellers wid me—Jim Peters and Field Keat+
in’. Dey ain’t very bright, atween you and me, and I
had to take care of ’em. Ef I didn’t dat would hab
been de last’ of ’em.” .

“Did you run into any danger?”

“Did we? De fust thing we struck was an eléphant;
he swum out in de stream and tried to wrap -his trunk ©
round de boat, but I lambasted him so he was glad to
let go. De next critter was a tiger, but I opened on
him wid de rifle I brung along. Afore he could reach
de boat, he found out he was shot frough de head an
he hauled off.”

“Did you see any Indians?”

“No, but we come purty near it.”

“How. near?”

“We seed de rock where one had sot down to.
hisself. Dat’s as near as I want to go.” ;

Scip seemed to forget in the course of a few m
the trying experience of his recent voyage with
friends. Powell scanned the shores, and was ont
point of asking how much farther they had to go, when
the youth uttered the exclamation:

“Waal, here we am!”

CHAPTER XII.
THE ACID TEST.

Scip came to rest at the foot of a natural opening or
clearing in the woods. For the length of more than a
hundred yards not a tree grew, the ground being covered
with lush grass. This reached nearly the same distance -
back from’ the stream, when undergrowth and goodly
sized trunks began to appear. Then came an unbroken ~
stretch of forest which ended at the foot of the meadow ~
leading to the rear of Mrs. Martin’s cottage. ee

It need not be said that Bowman Powell scrutinized’ ‘the bs
outlook with the keenest interest. Beyond what has been
roughly described, there was nothing out of the ordinary,\ ’
except one peculiarity which made his heart beat faster, 7

The soil showed creamy white through the grass, and
close to the water this was more marked because there
was no vegetable growth on the surface.

“That’s kaolin!” he whispered to himself, immediately
adding: “Or it isn’t. I’m bound to find out without de-
pending upon a “aniserablc tramp that would cheat — me
out of my eyes.”

He drew from his pocket a small, oblong wooden box
with a sliding lid. Originally it had contained a gross
of lead pencils.. He had procured it at the stationer’s in
Overbrook for the use to which it was now put. ;

“Scip, go up the bank a little way and fill this° with
dirt. Be careful to get no gravel or grass, but only
clean dirt.”

%),

 

:
a
“NEW. 1p TOP WEERLY.

; e

Clean dirt,”
‘ich a thing?”
: “You understand what I mean,” added the man, hand-
i» ing the box to Scip, who took it gingerly, and stood as if

in deubt.
“What do yo’ want it fur?”
You mustn’t ask questions if you expect to earn the
» dollar I promised. I have a curiosity to take some of

/ that stuff away with me.”

repeated the lad. “Who eber heerd ob

ey. Yas, sir,” acquiesced Scip, who saw he had over-
- stepped the bounds of tact.

i The man watched him. One particularly white patch
% i) acted the attention of hoth, and thither the lad made
- his tway. Powell had brought no tool with which to
£ dig.) This explains why he did not undertake the slight
tagator himself. Scip needed neither spade nor trowel,
80 long as he had the use of his hands. It: was an easy
task to dig up the whitish, powdery substance, and he
filléd the box with all it would hold. Then the lid was
slid back, and it may be said the contents were sealed.
“Well done!” commended the man, as Scip returned to
the boat and handed him the box. “I couldn’t have done
“better myself.”
© “tT doan’ think yo’ could do as well wid dem hands ob
orn,” remarked Scip with a sly chuckle.
You are right. You have earned your dollar.”
’ He reached into his capacious pocket and drew out two
hining halves which he passed to the delighted Scip,
me effusively thanked him. Never in his life had he
sem 0 liberally rewarded for anything.
“Gorrynation! I. wish I had de chance to airn some
Mhore ob dem gold picces.”
sees are not gold, but equally good. I will give you a
p to get two more of them.”
? doan’ say so! How can I do dat?”
*Take me to Overbrook.” 2
*Dat’s easy; it’s all de way downhill, and I kin take a
week or two to work my \way back.”
~*T have no objections; I don’t wish you to pole the boat
clear to town, but to halt a little this side. That will
Save a walk in the hot sun.”
“Jes’ as lief tote yo’ all de way.”
- “You have done so well, Scip, that I wish you to keep
it/up, In the first place, you must do all you can to pre-
vent our being seen. If, we go clear to town, some one
will be sure to notice us.’
*Pshaw! Yo’ needn’t be afeard ob ’em. If any of ’em
its Sassy I’ll knock him into de middle ob next week. I’ve
took lessons in fightin’ ob Field Keatin’, and I can lick

Tt i isn’t that, Scip, Pda I’m obliged all the same. But
T told you this little excursion of ours is to be a secret
Detween ourselves. You won't forget that.”
No, sah; yo’ kin bet on me ebery time.”
; “tf any one asks you questions about this boat ride,
st tell him nothing. That is important.”
» "Yas, sir; that’s what I war thinkin’.”
» ) “All right; let her go, and get back as fast as you can
make this steam yacht travel.” ;
| Seipic earned his extra fee. Again he showed his skill
poling the awkward craft, and made good progress.
ie respect, however, they were less fortunate than in
if ascent of the stream. A little way below’ its fork-
, in rounding the bend of which mention has been

bade they met a
contained a young man 4a woman, the former r
while the girl sat in the stern with her parasol raised.

There was. no avoiding a meeting, and Powell said in
a low voice:

“Keep right ahead, Scip, and pay no attention re them.”

“Yas, sir; dat’s what I was agwine to do, but he mustn’t
git sassy.”

. Powell received a shock when the young man, after
glancing over his shoulder, ceased swinging the paddles
and looked across at them. Not only that, but he waved
his hand in salutation. The miss did the same.

“Is it possible they know me?” thought Powell,

The compliment which might have been intended was
wiped out by the exclamation of Scipio, who stopped pol-
ing, and) with his ‘expansive grin, called back:

“Hello, Sam! Am dat yo’?”

“Who else could it be?” was the natural query. iB

“How am yo’, Miss Schulte?” was the negro’s next ~ “he
query. :

“Very well! no need of asking how you are.
to Overbrook, I suppose?” .

In his eagerness to please his employer, Scipio wal hak a

“No; we’s gwine to de Corners.” aS

“Why, that lies in the other direction, and you can’t §
get there by water.” :

The girl broke into a merry peal of laughter, and Said ©
something to her companion. ~

“Better| keep your mouth shut,” growled Powell, who
had lifted his panama in salutation. “You only —
matters worse.” ie

The escoft resumed his oars, and the¥ soon glided
out of sight. Powell saw the absurdity of fearing an
harm from the chance meeting, especially after Scip >
told him who the couple were. They were brother ™
sister. They lived in Overbrook, and were out !
row on this pleasant summer day. “Not wishing to.
those who might not be strangers, the man told S
put in to shore. This was done, and, handing h
promised reward, Powell stepped out with the par
junction:

“Don’t forget to-tell no one of this little trip @

I will do better than that; wait for a week, am
you may tell whoever you, choose.”

Goins %
>

“Yas, sir,
voyage.

Meanwhile, Bowman, Powell did not let the grass g
under his feet. Scipio had taken him so far down W
Cat River that he had only a short walk to Overbroo
He went as straight as he could go to the express sa
wrapped up his little box in coarse brown paper, and ad
dressed it to a pottery in Trenton, New Jersey, of which
he had learned from the clerk of the hotel, where dram-- a
mers from different establishments stopped ‘on their
travels. ,

His next proceeding was to call up the pottery over the
phone. He explained that a small box of stuff would “
leave Overbrook in a few minutes, and would be due in
Trenton some time in the afternoon. Would the pro-
prietor be good enough to telephone the nature of the
material? The gentleman replied it would give him pleas-
ure to do so, and hung up the receiver.

This left Powell still undecided as to what he shila’
do next. If the reply should be that the clay had no value,
he did not wish to cumber himself with the mortgage,

’ responded Scipio, as he started on nis return

 
  

though from its nature it ought to be worth its face. If
thé deposit was genuine kaolin, he must not. lose an hour
in buying the document from Squire Lapp.

The understanding between Powell and Scott Yerkes
-was that they should meet at the same place, and as nearly
as possible at the same time as on the previous after-
noon. The speculator motored out to The Corners, took
several drinks at The Traveler’s Rest, and had dinner.
When his gorgeous gold watch told him it was near the
appointed hour, he donned his auto coat and goggles—
for he expected to make quite a run—-and buzzed to the
eastward.

He progressed at moderate speed, on the lookout for
his man, and scrutinizing every vehicle he met for sight of
him. In this way he went several miles beyond The Cor-
ners before returning over the same course. When an
hour had passed without bringing the tramp, Powell grew
impatient. He could think of but one reason for his being
late, and that was the sinister one. Another hour slipped
by, and still another. The sun had set and twilight came,
whist was more than could be said of Scott Yerkes.

hi might have known it,’ mattered the enraged Powell.
a: dickering with some one; but,” he added, compress-
ae “ Aug his lips, ‘they've got to rise early in the morning to get

et _ the best of me.”

He brought the auto to high gear and spun through The
Corners and past the homes of Widow. Martin, Squire
Lapp, and others of whom he knew nothing, and reached
the hotel in time for the late evening meal.

He hardly expected to hear from the potter before the
morrow, though it was possible he might resfond sooner.
i Powell lighted one of his big perfectos, and sat down on
the front porch of the hote’ to reflect over the situation,
Which was fast growing in interest. He had hardly ele-
4 vated his patent leathers to the top of the railing when a
-small page bounded briskly out of the door and came up
RD; him.
» “Are you Mr. Powell?”
-* “That's my name.”
There's a call for you on the phone.”
SP gmat ~ Gee! that’s better than I’ expected,” he muttered, as he
tae Pee sprang up and followed the boy inside. He was directed
_ fo ‘the booth, into which he entered and drew the door
y bi ‘shut after him.
> | “Hello!
“)*. The response was faint but clear.
~*~ “Is this Mr. Powell?” :
' “Yes; who are you?”
ty nseohs Moore. J received a box of clay from you a
; “short time ago, and you asked me to tell you its character.”

“If you will be kind enough to do so.”

“Where was the stuff obtained?”

Powell was on his guard. He did not mean to give away

the “snap,” if such it should prove. He lied promptly:

“It was shown to me by a farmer. who lives some fifty
.miles distant. I am ignorant of the pottery industry, but
.thought it might possibly have same value.”

“Is there much of a deposit?” .

“T should say it covers several acres. I should like to
ty consult you regarding it. \From your questions, I suspect
By. it is not worthless.”

““Not worthless !’” repeated the other. “There is no
purer kaolin in existence. The owner of that stuff has a
gold mine.”

Hello!” he called into the instrument.

d

NEW TIP TOP WEEKLY.

    
  

“Thank you very much. When can I see you at your

     
    
   
  
 
  
  
    
   
   
  
   
  
   
  
  
    
   
 
   
   
  
  
 
    
  
  
 
   
 
 
   
  
  
 

 

 

factory?” es
“On any week day, or on Sunday if you prefer.” tf
“All right. Make it next Sunday in the afternoon. You i
may expect me then.” a
“And,” chuckled Bowman Powell, as he hung up the e
receiver and came out, “you may keep on expecting.”
TO BE CONTINUED.
A YOUNG PHILOSOPHER. .
Mrs. Murray was reading a story to her son Justin, : i
aged five years. 4 k.
Mrs. Murray: “Now, Justin, if your father wére™to b
die, would you work to help mamma?” “. 1
Justin: “Why, mamma, what for? Haven’t we gota re
nice house to live in?” se
Mrs. Murray: “Yes, Justin, but we can’t eat the house, a
you know.” ; a
Justin: “Well, mamma, haven’t we got a whole lot of Obie
good things in the pantry?” I
Mrs. Murray: “Certainly, pet; but we would soon eat if
them up, and then what would we do?” oe
Justin: “Well, mamma, isn’t there enough to last until I

you could get another husband?”

 

HOW HE EARNED PROMOTION.

One of the clerks of a French merchant recently re
ceived an invitation to a masked ball at his employer's, and
was the envy of his comrades. Resolved to do all he, could
to make the occasion a success, he spent a good deal of
time in devising and making his masquerade costume,
which, after long deliberation, he resolved should be that
of a monkey.

Then he spent a week learning a number of tricks—
grinning, clambering on the chimney piece, springing on

 

the bed, and balancing himself on the back of a chair, | i: z ;
The evening came. He rang the bell, gave his overcoat’ “J : yo
into the servant’s arms, and with a grin and chatter turned 1 . I
a somersault under the chandelier. Le ‘ru
The gentlemen stood stupefied, the ladies screamed. His eY f

mask prevented him from seeing much, but the noise en- aS ]
couraged him to bound over a sofa and throw down a Pe
cabinet of old china. At this moment a hand seized him,
tore off his mask, and the voice of his employer asked him
what, he meant by his idiotic conduct. {ye

Before he could explain, he was hustled out of the ~ j9%
house, learning by one glimpse that the rest of the com- |
pany were in evening dress. The next day he was sent ; Ba
for, and entered the office with trembling knees. _ a

“T had the pleasure of a visit from you last evening,”* +4
said the gentleman. ‘

“Yes, sir; that is—I

“No excuses,” said the other, “no excuses. I have dou-
bled your salary. I noticed that you were overlooked for 9)"
promotion last year. Good morning. Shut the door after
you.”

.“Well, Pll be blessed!” said the clerk, going out.

His employer had made an early investigation into the
matter, and found that the other clerks had “put up a
job” on the young man by sending him a bogus invitation.
His employer made things even by promoting him’over ~
their heads. ‘Z

 
         
     
         
     
     
     
         
 

”

 

    
     
       
     
     
     
       
   
   
     
 

   
Fat in Advance.

Dear Eprror: I have been intending to write for some

time to let you know what I think of your weekly. I |
have read Trp Top for years, and I consider it far in

advance of other weeklies. I liked the Owen Clancy
_ Stories, but they are not in it with,the stories about the
Merriwells. I like athletic stories best.
I would like to have a catalogue and a set of post cards
_ if you have any left. With best wishes to Tir Top, I
remain, yours truly, FRANK KovALsKE.
Broughton, Pa.

Auto Tite of Horsehair.

Patents for an auto tire of compressed horsehair have

» been taken out by a Frenchman of mucli ingenuity. The

horsehair is made into sheets or bands and wound about
7. which may be of either solid or hollow metal, and

"> he whole covered with canvas. The purpose of the in-

--Yention is to provide give and resiliency without the aid
Of a rubber air tube.

Has no Favotites.

Dear Eprtor: I have read Tre Tor for about a year,
and-I like it very much. I have no favorites.

Will you please send me a set of post cards?
you for them in advance.

I close with three cheers for Tre Top. I remain, your
true friend, CLEMENCE ZwICk.

Cleveland, Ohio.

P. S.—My father has read Tip Top ever since it was
published.
a

I thank

/

Must be More Careful.

“Oh, you-baby in the fur coat, come sit on my lap,””

’ Said Charles McGuire, of Emerald Avenue, to. Miss Pearl
Ross, a pretty Chicago girl, in a Fifty-ninth Street car.

Mm} “Once I fell from a car and hurt my head, and last

‘night I fell from the water wagon,” said McGuire in
Police court next morning.
“Five dollars and costs, and $200 more if you fall

again,” said Judge Flanagan.

Likes it Fine.

| Dear Eprror: I have been a reader of the Tir Top
_ Weerxty only a short time, and I like it fine.
_ Devol, Okla. Ep. Tatum.

Queer Result of Measles,

2 Madison Watson,
Strangely afflicted.
his eyes for over

a farmer of Big Laurel, Va., is
He has never been able to close
forty years. When he was ten

years old he contracted the measles, and when he
recovered he was unable to close his eyes. The boy’s
parents spent several hundred dollars in doctor bills in
vain attempt to have the boy cured. Five operations were
performed but each one left him with wide-open eyes.

Watson is a well-to-do farmer and works each day
on his well-kept tract, but at night he is forced to wear
a shield over his face while he sleeps.

Praise from Maryland.

Dear Eprror: I have read some of the Mer-iwell stories .
in Trp Top and I liked them very much. I think Mr.

Standish a very good author and Street & Smith are: 2
all right, too. I am, sincerely yours, :¥

Emory ee Karser. ¥
Woodlawn Station, Baltimore County, Md. * Ae we

“Saved i Sena Ghost.” .

has just reached Paris from Russia.

The field adcabal
was peacefully deer stalking on Prince von Donners- ~~

marck appeared before him anit caen him that Gener
von Mackensen’s/army corps was in imminent danger”

,annihilation south of Lodz and in urgent: need of | r

enforcements.

This’ extraordinary version is communicated to a Pa
friend by a Russian officer in Warsaw, who asserts i
commonly accepted throughout Poland. Nothing but
miracle, they say, could have robbed Grand Duke Nicho- 2
las of a crushing victory.

One of the Old Guard.

Dear Epitor: Although I am a veteran reader of the
Merriwell stories, I have never written to you, but will
do so now to let you know how I appreciate them.

They are the best stories for boys I haye ever read,
and I have read a great many. Perhaps the fact that
I have been reading Tie Top for over ten years: may

‘be a more sufficient tribute to the merits of the weekly

than any words of praise I may write. The Merriwells
seem to me as friends I could not do without—they |
seem so real.
Frank was always my favorite, for it was of Frank
that I first read as soon as I was old enough to read.
Then came Dick, and although he seemed more like the
average boy, I still liked Frank best. For some reason
the stories of Frank, junior, do not hold my interest quite
so well as the stories in the old Trp Top, although they

 
|

“NEW. TIP TOP WEEKLY.

are very good. The Clancy stories were fine, for a
change.

I am glad so many of the old characters are back:
Hans, Ephraim, Barney, Diamond, Browning, et cetera.
But I will not be satisfied unless I hear more of Spark-
fair, Hal Darrell, and Doris Templeton.

If any one doubts whether the letters are genuine, I
wish they would write to me. 1 would also be glad
to correspond with any readers.

With best wishes for the editor, the publishers, and
Burt L. Standish. Ray C. Dovte.

Thurman, Iowa.

Best Writer.

Dear Epitor: I am writing to tell you how I like Tip
Tor. I think the Merriwells are the best characters.
When are we going to hear of Jack Diamond again?
I think Mr. B. L. Standish is the best boys’ writer I
know of. I remain, Cuauncey Lecce.
212 E. Preston Street, Baltimore, Mr.

Yes, you will hear more of Jack.

Won't Self Horses for War.

No horses for sale at any price for war purposes, is
the declaration of Jefferson County, Neb., farmers, who
were met at Fairbury by a buyer from Kansas who said
he was willing to pay top figures for animals suited for
cavalry and artillery purposes in the European war. The
‘farmers admitted they had some horses for sale, but said
they were»too much attached to the animals to have

them sent to a far-off country, probably to be killed on
the battlefields.

!

Clean and Interesting.

DEAR Epitor: I have been a constant reader of Tip
‘Tow Weexkty for three years, and I think it is the best

weekly on the market for boys who like clean and in-

teresting stories. I have read many stories of the New
Medal Library, too. 1 like Frank Merriwell, junior,
and his chum, Owen Clancy, the best of all the characters.
’ Please give me my correct measurements.
. years old; weigh 120 pounds, and am § feet 8 inches in
height.

Please send me a catalogue.

Pledse tell me how to increase my weight.

Awaiting your answer and hoping to see this in -print,
‘I remain, as ever, a loyal Tip Topper, Francis DasuH.

417 New ‘Street, Peoria, Ill. .

Your correct measurements should be: Weight, 145.4
pounds; neck, 14.4 inches; chest, contracted, 35 inches;
chest, expanded, 38.3 inches; forearms, 10.8 inches; waist,

. 30.4 inches; upper arm, down, 11.1 inches; upper arm,
up, 12.5 inches; thighs, 20.8 inches; calves, 14.2 inches.

You are tall for your age. Your strength might have
gone to making you grow up. Use common sense about
your eating, and be, sure not to overexert when you exer-
cise, Drink lots of water, but before meals only. Drink-
ing water with meals is bad.

Saves His Seven Children.

Running ‘upstairs, despite smoke and flames that
threatened his life, Arthur Sheldon, farm tenant, forced
his way into rooms where his seven children were sleep-
ing and threw them out of windows to his wife, who
caught them as they fell.

Fire, which started from a defective flue, destroyed their

:
7

old Bart Hodge.

1am 14 °°

home on the William Johnson farm north of Wooster,
Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon slept downstairs. They
awakened and learned of the fire after the stairway was
ablaze and the roof was threatening to fall at any
moment,

Tells Friends About “Tip Top.”

Dear Eprtor: I have been a reader of the Tir Top
for some time, and as I see in the Compass that boys
have sent for a catalogue and a set of cards, I would ap-
preciate it very much if you send same to me.

As for Trp Top, it is a’fine weekly. It is about the best
I have read. Just keep up these nice stories, and you
will have me for a steady buyer for years. I have recom-
mended Trp Tor to many friends of mine. Yours truly,

69 Broadway, Taunton, Mass. JosrpH Botway.

Biggest Silo in the World.

So far as known, the silo which John Edwards, of
Englewood, Kan., is building, will be the biggest in the
world. It will be fifty feet across, fifty-five feet high, and
fifteen feet in the ground. It is estimated that it will
hold 2,500 tones of ensilage. Edwards owns 10,000 head
of cattle.

Kind Words of Appreciation.

Dear Epitor: I am taking the privilege of an old
Tip Tor reader of writing to the Compass and thanking
you for your new policy of giving the old readers some
stories of Frank, senior, and the old bunch. I was par-
ticularly pleased with the last number, as it brought back

‘

I would like him to stay, for next to”

Frank he is the best known, and, also, to me, the finest’ ~

character Mr. Standish ever turned out, and that is say
ing a great deal. I think that at least a majority of the
old readers think so, too. Was also glad to see Jack Dia-
mond, Hans, Barney, Greg Carker, and others get back.
The stories of Chip are also good.

Trusting to hear lots about Frank and Bart, I am,
yours for success, An Otp Reaper:

Brazil, Ind.

Sleigh Bells Bring Death.

A Pennsylvania work train crushed out the life of John
Sprang, farmer, fifty, who lived near Lakeville, Ohio.

Sprang was riding in a sleigh, and the ringing of the
bells drowned the sound of the approaching train. The
sleigh was wrecked and the horse 'so severely’ injured
it had to be shot.

Don’t Miss This One!

Dear Epitor: Your paper is the finest one that’s pub
lished on the earth; and though you buy it just for fun,
you get your nickel’s worth. The sporting stories all are
fine, the others are the same. It’s fun to read about
Dick’s nine, and see them win the game. I love to read
of college days and of the comic tri¢ks. I follow all
the dduble plays of Clancy’s and of Dick’s. That friend
of Owen’s, Villum Kess, is sure a jolly boy; and all
the tricks he plays, I guess, turn sorrow into joy. Dick
got the old professor’s goat—but always gave it back;
I want to read of Chip afloat, and on the cinder track
The boys have done some worthy deeds, and played some
comic pranks; a fellow’s happy when he reads the doings’
of our Franks.

And if you’re looking for a change, you shift the scené’—

 

“l Conc

gor
to |

Cr:
throu

| §rand

00 p
 
         

  
     
  
   
 
  
  
      
   
  
    
     
   
   
   
  
   
  
   
  
 
  
  
  
    
   
   
   
    
  
     
 
   
  
   
   
  
  
   
   
     
   
 

read about the prairie maid
and breathe the open air; so realistic it’s portrayed, you
think that you are there. A desperado hunt gets me
>> a-going like the band; the Merry Comp’ny’s goin’ to be
1  the-finest in the land. I like to read about the Swede they
call Olaf the Viking; and to the boy they call Mulloy
IV’ve taken quite a liking.
The Owen Clancy yarns were fine, in spite of what

the praities bound. We

 

    
   
     
    
    
 

 

 

 

 

: JA) they say; but still—the Merry boys for mine forever and
ie for aye! Some people think Tip Top is great, while others,
‘ = comma, doubt it; and if they do, why, at that rhte, they
‘ b » simply do without it.. I think that now [ll have to quit,
Tm taking up your time; this writing game is sure a
j snit, e’en though it’s done in rhyme, Mark Mason.
. { park, you're all right. Come again.
A French Gitl’s Sacrifice.
rf ; Imitating the women of Carthage, who cut off their
1e \ hair to make rigging for the war galleys, Mlle. Yvonne
id re Pusel, a poor country girl from a small village in the
‘it Vosges, has sacrificed her magnificent tresses in order
id te contribute to the fund for the soldiers at the front.
All Good Stories.
id “Dear Epitor: 1 have read the Tip Top Weexty for
1g ae bre years, and find it a very good magazine. I like Dick
ie 7 and. Frank Merriwell the best.
em % WI like the stories about football games ‘very well, but
ck 4 are all good stories. Yours very truly, R. Grapy.
to: i204 Virginia Avenue, Johnstown, Pa.
ast! -
y- Whisky Provokes Crime.
he Ending the life of his fifteen-year-old wife with a
ia- : bullet through her head, John Newton stretched himself
ck. mon the floor beside her body, placed her hand on_ his
Pbreast) and sent a bullet through his own brain. He died
m, “instantly.
» The killing occurred at the home of the Newtons, in
oe "Lambert’s Point, Va. They have been married five months
and were thought to be happy.

‘ Newton was drinking in the morning and flourished
ae a tevolver among his friends. He told them he was
wis y going to kill his wife and himself, and invited them up
The to his house to see him commit the deed.

i ty , Sleepwalker Frozen,
e : i Beéause he walked in his sleep, John W. Dolan, sixty,
1. is dying in the county hospital, at Denver, Col., of
abd Wh exposure.
ban, ai nae. x Clad only in his underwear and one shoe, he was found
di t a ‘unconscious in a vacant lot near his home, his legs frozen
aie from the hips down. eee
re He has been subject to somnambulism, and it is believed
all } he rose from his bed during one of these spells and
pi walked into the icy outside air, falling from exhaustion
a |" after wandering about.
Me Uses Crutch on Coffin.
ack; Crazed, it is supposed, by drink, Elmer McCabe dashed
ome through the altar gates in the Church of the Immaculate
ings Conception, at Newport, Ky., during the funeral of. his
William Coughlin, knocked the candles off

- grandfather,
the coffin with his crutch, and caused a panic among the
200 persons attending the funeral.

  

    

NEW. TIP ee WEEKLY.

The sisters Of the academy, adjoining the ¢hurch, and
two-thirds of the mourners rushed to the street in fright
while *McCate created a sensation before the altar,

Three patrolmen were forced to use their clubs freely
on McCabe before he could be subdued. He was taken
before City Judge Buten, fined $100 and costs, and given
fifty days in jail.

War Tragedy Fatal to Girl.

The European war claimed an innocent victim at Hast-
ings, Neb., when Miss Emily Vercrope, a Belgian girl,
died at the State Hospital for the Insane. She had be-
come mentally deranged as the result of the death of her
parents and the destruction of their home when the Ger-
man troops forced their way across Belgium.

Miss Vercrope and her sister came to America last
February, hoping to earn means to bring their parents
here, but the war Shattered their plans.

Nutse Saves Boy’s Life.

Clay Roberts, fourteen years old, who was dying frém |

less of blood, following an operation, after he had been
injured in a coasting accident, was saved when Miss. Mer-
rill, a trained nurse in the Abingdon, Va., hospital, volun-
teered to sacrifice of her blood. The transfusion process,
conducted by one of the hospital surgeons, was sugcess=
ful, and the lad soon regained consciousness.

Gets Case After Ten Yeats.
After ten years of waiting, Justice of the Péate Me
Kay, of, Russell Creek, Wash., is to, hear his fitst) case,

Each election time McKay is one of the first to pay his)

filing fee, and he has always been elected. The Office

is dependent on fees, and as there have been no cases,
before the court, and hence no fees, he is out the ipa

of his filing each time.
M. F. Turner, arrested on a charge of practicing nee
cine without a license, objected to Justice McKinney hear

ing the case, on the plea of prejudice, and the case was

transferred to McKay.

Saws Bars; But Can’t Get Out. A

Sawing two bars from the window of his celk Albert
W. Johnson, twenty-four years old, who was awaiting
grand-jury action on a charge of house breaking, escaped
from his cell in the county jail, at Worcester, Mass.,

and beat .Curtis W. Sassett, a prison guard, insensible.
Finding that none of the keys in the guard’s possession

would open the outside door, Johnson replaced the cut
bars with paper imitations and went to sleep while the
jail officials searched for Sassett’s assailant. It was not
until eight officers had gone over the cells four. times
that the counterfeit bars in Johnson’s cell were discovered.

Heroic Mother Saves Baby.

Mrs. Albert:Bears, who resides on a homestead four-
teen miles north of Eddysville station on the Corvallis
& Eastern Railroad, performed an act of heroism the past
week which saved the life of. her four-month-old babe.

Mrs. Bears observed that her baby was seriously ill
and walked with it to her father’s ranch, six miles away.
Next day she walked eight miles over rough trails with
her baby in her arms and reached the railroad, a mile
from the station, just in time to see the train approach.

   
Sy hae
>

ae *

Mrs. Bears removed her red sweater and flagged the train.
Members of the train crew were angry until they dis-
‘covered the cause of Mrs. Bears’ action, when all’ assist-
ance was then rendered. Medical aid was obtained at
Newport, and the baby recovered.

Opie Read’s Wisdom.

Opie Read thinks this would be a dreary old world if
everybody in it had a million dollars.

“Think of it; just think of it,” he said, in an address
the other night. “If everybody was worth $1,000,000
and a man asked another to do some work, he would
just put on a high-up air and tell him to change climates.

“There was never a falser belicf than that money and -

ignorance can make a man happy. I would like to im-
press this on the young man who hasn’t got a dollar.
“Poverty doesn’t*mean virtue, any more than ignorance
means righteousness
“The world isn’t ‘nual? so bad as most of the ‘God-
help-us-we’re-going-to-picces’ Chautauqua lecturers would
have us believe.

"When we're, beginning to hear about evils, they are
5 y ¢

more likely to be going than coming. In pessimism there
can be nothing bit stagnation and death.”

- Old “Oregon” Leads the Way.

Twenty-one modern battleships, flying the Stars and
‘Stripes, will follow the Oregon, the old bulldog of the
navy, through the Panama Canal when the Atlantic -fleet
goes to participate in the opening ceremonies of the
Panama-Pacific Exposition.

"No decision has been reached as to whether a flotilla
of déstroyers, also, should make the trip; but the battle
-eraft and their requisite colliers, repair and supply ships
will, make an imposing naval parade.

The Atlantic flect left New York about January 5th

; for winter maneuvers: at Guantanamo, Cuba. Ships in
* Southern’ waters will join the fleet there.

Make Eyelid from Skin.

Harry Kilkirk, of Shbron, Pa., could not sleep because
his right eye, injured in an explosion, would not close.
He had surgeons make him a new eyelid from skin from
his right leg. The experiment was successful.

Chicken and Turkey Picker.

Edwin Gibson, of Leedy, Okla., is thought to be the
champion chicken and turkey picker of Oklahoma and
Kansas. He is twenty years of age. He recently cleared
up 150 turkeys in nine hours, and in the same time
next day picked 291 chickens. He has killed 550 turkeys
in nine hours. As he received four cents ‘apiece for
killing turkeys, his day’s earnings was twenty-four dollars.

All but One Killed in German Battery, '

That an entire Bavarian battery, save one man, was
killed in battle, is related in a letter just received in St.
- Louis, Mo., from Mrs. Bertha yon Walshauser, of Gross-
kolnbach, Bavaria. Mrs. von Walshauser wrote that her
son John was the-only member of the battery to survive.
The letter continues:

“John has fought in sixteen battles since August sth.
He still is in the best of health. He has had good luck,
but we never know what will happen. After his com-

eet
oy

30 NEW TIP. TOP’ WEEKLY.

pany was annihilated, he was made an officer of another
battery on the field of battle. He fought with his new
soldiers until help arrived. He was then carried from

the field, exhausted. After the third day he was back

at the front, and is now in the Argonne regior! of
France.

“The soldiers who are fighting so gloriously for their
fatherland are suffering terrible hardships. Already we
have many wounded to care for. Many of the parents
of the boys who have left here and are at the front
have died of grief.

“Where possible the soldiers have been sent home for
burial. There are few such cases, however. But when
the news of death comes, church services are held in the
village church. Cards are given away, containing pic-
tures of the dead soldiers, and on all cards is the inserip-
tion: ‘Better dead than to see our fatherland ruined.’”

Prison for Loss of Warship.
According to the Haniburg Echo, a court martial has

‘been held at Wilhelmshaven, Germany, to try the captain

and commander of the German cruiser Yorck, which was
sunk by a mine in Jade Bay, in November. Three -hun-
dred members of the crew were lost.

The officers were charged with disobedienc2, negligence,
and manslaughter, and were found guilty, according to the

Echo. Captain Vieper was sentenced to two years’ ime=

prisonment, as was the commander.

Russia Buying from Japan.

Russia is sending large orders to Japan for chemicals. “ea :
and drugs which the empire formerly got from Germany, 5

England, and the United States.

100th Birthday, Fox Trots.

On her one-hundredth birthday, which she celebrated ~

recently, Mrs. Hugh Simms, of New Orleans, gave a darice

and danced. the fox trot herself at the home of her

daughter, Mrs. Eiias Vreeland. “I guess I’m still’a live

one,” she is said to have remarked as she concluded her

dance. :
Would Marry Princess.

While distributing gifts at Camenz, Germany, the crown
princess was approached by a soldier of the Landsturm
battalion who, unaware of her identity, said: “You're a
mighty nice girl. When I get back from the war I'm
going to marry you.”

~

How to Dodge Automobiles,

‘State Motor. Vehicle Commissioner Lippincott wants
the children of New Jersey instructed how to dodge auto-
mobiles. He has written to this effect to State Commis-
sioner of Education Kendall. It is Commissioner Lip-
pincott’s idea that the schools should impart instryction
to the pupils regarding the proper and safe use of streets
to the end that the number of school children killed
or injured by motor vehicles in 1914 will be décreased.

Estate Cleared by Ancient Bible.

Title to an estate now valued at $30,000,000 is believed

to be contained in an old family Bible just discovered by
Joseph A. Luria, of Montclair, N. J. The volume is al-
legéed to contain a record of the Hoffman+Poznanski fam-
ily, bearing directly upon the disposal of the huge for-

 

 

- han. we a rr Se eee eee
 

tune left by George Hoffman, adventurer, at his death “in
South Africa in 1844.
Hoffman is believed to have amassed a
) $30,000,000 in the smuggling trade in South Africa.
SThrough enmity toward his family he stipulated that his
"estate should not be divided for fifty years. Evidence
“ substantiating the claim of his heirs to this vast fortune
ts alleged to be contained on the yellow flyleaf of the
Lauria Bible.
»* Heirs of the Hoffman and Poznanski
‘been searching every corner of#the earth to perfect the
t; title to the estate. Luria was at the head of the com-
“mittee of investigation.

families have

Bad Year for Demon Rum,

Twenty years ago, sixteen million persons were living
in “dry” territory in the United States. State-wide pro-
hibition was in effect in three States. Elsewhere it was
regarded as a doubtful experiment. Nation-wide prohibi-
tion was unthought of then.

To-day, seventy-five per cent of the square miles of
area of the United States is “dry.” More than forty-
nine million persons are living in “dry” territory. State-
wide prohibition has been established in fourteen of our
forty-eight States. Elsewhere the people of many towns,
townships, and counties have decided to dispense with
_ the traffic in alcoholic beverages, under local option. The
‘movement for nation-wide prohibition "has attained such

“strength that it is recognized as one of the greatest issues

_ before the country.’ For the first time in history the

. question has been voted on in Congress, a majority of

members of the House going on record in favor of the

now-famous Hobson resolution, for an amendment to the

. Federal Constitution, prohibiting the manufacture, importa-
on, and sale cf all intoxicating beverages.

Such,-in brief, is the story of the bloodless revolu-

n which has been going on in the United States—the

mderful chatige in public opinion which will eventually

ke the entire country dry. It is not the result of any
hereased moral wave. The power which is working
for the total abolition of thé alcohol traffic does not rest
im the hands of dreamers, fanatics, or cranks. The foes
) tf alcohol who are delivering the most effective blows are
no long-haired, goggle-eyed reformers such as used to be
" picttired in the comic sheets. The men and women who
: make the nation are back of this movement—big em-
“ployers, manufacturers, professional men, farmers, store-
5 “keepers, mechanics, laborers, railroad men-—all thinking
men and women in every walk of life, who know that the
drinking of intoxicants destroys energy, shortens life, and
isa burden upon American citizenship, filling poorhouses,
~ prisons, hospitals, and insane asylums. There is.no preju-
’ dice about it. There are good men who use intoxicants.
The fight is not against them but agaiust the interests
‘which make it possible for them to get the poison and
which exploit them, taking advantage of human nature
and capitalizing unnatural appetite.
* Stock in brewery and distillery companies can hardly be
given away since the national House of Representatives
Some of
the most prominent concerns are going out of business,
“having seen the handwriting on the wall. ‘
’ Things have changed in Congress. For a long time the
‘liquor interests did not feel that it was necessary to
maintain lobbyists in Washington. No attention was paid

fortune of

‘side of Amiens.

#0 the first resolution gor nalton-wide or@hibition when Fe

it was introduced some years ago. While efforts were
made from time to time to compel interests on the part
of the lawmakers, the resolutions always went back to
the pigeonhole. But the nation-wide steadily
gained force until there was no escaping it. The ma-
jority which was obtained in the House test last week,
197 to 18 votes, exceeded even the expectations of the
antisaloon forces, though as a two-thirds vote was nec-
essary for passage, it will not be possible to submit the —
question to the States this year. It will come up again
at the next session, and within a few years the amend-
ment to the Constitution is certain to be adopted by the
States. Delay cannot help the selfish interests concerned,
for every year increases the popular opposition to the
traffic.

movement

He’s a Semipto Ty Cobb.

Kansas City is perhaps the only city in the United
States that can boast of a semipro Ty Cobb. Now, be- |
fore we go any further, Iet it be known that this is not.a™ —
pipe dream with hopes of landing this lad a job with ”

some ball club, but real facts, for this Tyrus has tu

down more offers to play in minor and major tea,
than Frank Chance was offered jobs after he drew”
can from the New York Americans.

Gus Wolff is. this peerless Se name, and he haw x
led the semipros of this hilly burg in batting for thé@ast ©
seven years. In that length of time he has not once hit
under .330. In the ro14 season his clouting percentagi
was an even .500.
from 1908: .410, .385, .330, .386, .460, .462, and .500. Fils *
grand batting average for the several years is .420. ed

Wolff is an outfielder. He is twenty-seven years old, ©
weighs 184 pounds,.and is five feet eight inches tall. He
bats and throws. left-handed. It matters not to Wolff
whether the opposing pitcher is a right-hander or a “wrong-
side” worker.

Wolff’s services are. continually in Nenalat: by teams in
near-by towns, but he always plays. with a home ¢lub./
In the spring of 1912 Wolff worked out with the fol
club of the American Association, and impressed Man-~
ager Charley Carr so that he wanted to give him a job,
but, as usual he turned it down. Several clubs are after
his services for next season, but it is better thamjan even-
money bet that he will turn them all down, The reason —
for Wolff’s preference to play ball only on “Sunday —
afternoons is the fact that he has a grocery store that‘is\
doing a good business, and he is just as popular amon
his customers as he is with the fans on a baseb
diamond.

War’s Human Wrecks in Asylums..

Mental wrecks of the war are filling the insane asy
of France. As the strain of the fighting in the aa

5

lengthens, the number of lunatics increases. Some §
cured, and go back, but most of them remain, ravin
fighting phantoms.

There are eighty insane asylums in France. One
the most important is the Dury Asylum, two niiles o
These grounds are surrounded by <
high brick wall, which should make escape singularly dif=
ficult. A correspondent went out there to see if it was
true, as he had been told, that.a large number of officers —

 

The following are his batting averages |
 
  

“We Rave*about forty. men under treatment here said

the director, Doctor Rene Charon. “But this is not the only

asylum in France, and these days they are all well supplied

with patients. Ours are mostly overstrained territorial

soldiers, who were unable to stand the terrible life in

the trenches or who happened to be in some particularly
violent artillery battle.

“Almost all are fathers of families, and worry over
their wives and children is one of the chief causes of their
, madness. The best proof of this is that. in their lucid
moments they are continually asking for news of their
families.”

“We crossed the bare gardens toward a rectangular
brick building over which floated the flag of the red
cross,” the correspondent writes.

“*T am going to show you,’ said Doctor Charbn, ‘a ser-
geant who is now well; for some of them can be cyred
by rest and medical care. One gray, foggy morning this
sergeant was in a trench with his men, who were dozing.

~ Suddenly he saw silhouetted against the horizon a rank
of giants wearing huge pointed helmets, and marching
slowly. Germans! His hallucination grew more definite.
His eyes shone, he shook his men and seized his gun.
4 ‘Fire! I command you to fire! Don’t ye see they
fate boches!’ he cried, and the sleepy soldiers fired into
the mist a volley which brought down four French sen-
tinels who were on patrol duty a hundred yards off.

“As the sergeant’s case developed, he saw Germans
-éverywhere. They had great difficulty in getting control
of him.

“By this time we were before a closed door. We rang,
» and an assistant led us into a great gray hospital room,

where some twenty men were lying.

“*There,’ remarked my conductor, ‘we keep those who
are both insane and physically overstrained. They rest
in their beds.’

“Wei spoke to several di them. Their eyes were sad,

expressionless, fixed, or else wandered lifelessly here and
there with foolish restlessness.

“There was also a fine blond young fellow, nineteen
years old, a law student up to the time of the war.

This,’ said the doctor, smiling at him, ‘is a volunteer.
‘Are you not, my friend?’

“*Ah, no, monsieur the major.
plained that to you.’

“His voice was soft, almost feminine. He was a volun-
teer right enough, but so great was his terror that he

now told every one he had been taken by force, and that
_.» they had tried to kill him.

pam ‘You believe me, monsicur, don’t you?’ he exclaimed.
ee “From now .on,’ said the doctor, ‘we may look for
merous cases, Come back here in another month,
. d if the buildings were twice as large, they would
% be sufficient for all our patients.

There are not only soldiers; the civil population is
twill be more and more affected. We have already
a  Rumerous cases in this district of women who have apne
‘mad on learning of the deaths of husbands or sons.”

  

 

You know I have ex-

% Lot .  Chloroforming Deer New Sport.

‘ ;Chloroforming deer is the latest sport in Arizona. The
Gey person, yet successful in capturing a deer alive by

if the use of chloroform is Michael Diskin, a cattleman of
(~~ the Jerome district. Diskin had ridden over to the Black
Mesa, near Jerome, to doctor some afflicted cattle. He

 

Fhorw

NEW? TP TOP WEEKLY.

 

a

 

  

    
   
  
  
   
  
  
    
   
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
 
   
  
  
  
 
  
 
 
 
   
 
   
     
  
  
  
   
 
  
  
   
  

Bie cl

i a ee e

fused it by yelling, and finally drove it into an abandoned
cabin.

With the door safely barred, Diskin stood at a winded?
and threw in old tow sacks saturated with the chloro-
form that he always carries. The deer. tossed the sacks
around with its horns until it was overcome by the
fumes. -

Diskin says that had his supply of chloroform not been
exhausted, he would have loaded the animal on his horse
and carried it home alive. As soon as it exhibited signs
of reviving, however, he dispatched it by striking it on
the head with a rock:

“\

esi ns

sighted a fine buck deer, which reminded him that he |
had left home without a rifle. More for sport than for a
anything else, he circled the deer on his fleet pony, con- |
;

|

‘

4

a

PSR SP SR

Comforts in the Caves. .

Artillerymen are better off, as regards comfort, than
are the infantry. Placed farther to the rear, safe from
all projectiles save the enemy’s shells, they have time
and opportunity to improvise magnificent quarters for
themselves. Here is an extract from a letter of one
cheerful artillerist :

“Behold me, a cave man, wilder than ever. In fact,
the day after I wrote you that I would like to be called
to the firing line I received orders to go there. I started
out in a pelting rain, and when J reached the second line
of treriches I had the pleasure of finding that the roof
of the habitation had half fallen in and its occupants
were engaged in repairing it. By nighttime, however, we
were under shelter.’ I would like to give you a summary
description of our apartment.

“In the first place, it is difficult to enter, the door
leading to it compelling one to curve one’s spine. The
inside is a sort of gallery, along the sides of which are
benches of earth—these are our seats. On one of these”
is placed our stove—a large, cylindrical tin, with a ue ¥
above it, that is all. :

“The far end of the gallery is noniewlins broader be
forms one of the bedrooms. There is straw on fhe a
ground and our cloaks are our bed covering. On the ~~
wall pieces of wood planted in the earth serve as hangers. 4
We are quite comfortable. We are warm and very }
happy.” tae

No Man’s Land Gets Owner. : , y

City engineers, replotting Atlantic City, N. J., have dis-
covered a strip of, land two and one-half feet wide and
extending 590 feet back from high-water mark, running

se ;
|
4
|

4

 

 

 

between the Marlborough-Blenheim and _ the Dennis a
Hotels, which no one claims. -
This strip, which fronts on the famous Boardwalk a i

little less than two and one-half feet, is valued at about
$12,000, and in the absence of claimants to ownership has”
been awarded to James Leeds, a descendant of Jeremiah
Leeds, the original owner of Absecon Island, upon which
the city now stands.

GREENBACKS!

Pack of $1,000 Stage Bills, 10¢;3 packs 25c. Send
for a pack and show the boyswhat a WADyou
carry. C. A. NICHOLS, Jr., BOX 59, CHILI, N. Y.,

CACHOO! MAKE the whole family and all your

friends “iust sneeze their heads off”
without knowing why,with CACHOO, the
new long distance harmless snuff.
Cc A. NICHOLS, Jr., Box S59,

 

 

 

 

 

     

Sent anywhere for 10c,. 3 for 25e,
CHILI, N. Y.

     
 
 

BA a by ryt
~

 

 

 

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