The Coming Wave; Or, The Hidden Treasure of High Rock by Oliver Optic (books to improve english txt) 📖

[Pg 305]"No, you won't! not a cent," said, Leopold, decidedly. "I should feel as though I had been paid for being honest."

"I hope he won't take any part of the money which your father earned, and kept sacredly for his family," interposed Mr. Hamilton. "I grant that he deserves it."

"Not a cent," repeated Leopold.

"I never should have got a dollar of it, if it hadn't been for him," Stumpy argued.

"No matter for that," said Leopold.

"I know now!" exclaimed Stumpy, as if a new thought had taken possession of him. "Just subtract seven hundred from twenty-four hundred and ninety-six, Le."

"Seventeen hundred and ninety-six," replied Leopold.

"That's just the amount I don't want. Of course when I say 'I,' my folks is meant. Now, Le, your father wants money just as badly as my mother does; and we will lend the seventeen hundred and ninety-six dollars to him, taking his note on interest, just as Mr. Hamilton would[Pg 306] give it. But I would rather give you five hundred of the money."

"You can't give me a dollar; but if you will lend some of the money to my father, I should like it first rate."

"I will—the whole of it," protested Stumpy.

"This is quite a sensible arrangement, my boys," said the merchant; "and I have so much confidence in Mr. Bennington's integrity, that I will indorse his note. But it strikes me that you are going rather too fast, Stumpy."

"Why, sir?"

"Perhaps I have led you too rapidly over the ground. Whatever property your father left—this money included—belongs to his family. I suppose an administrator ought to be appointed."

"Creation! That would be Squire Moses!" exclaimed Stumpy, aghast.

"No; your mother may be appointed."

"My mother! Well, now I think of it, I believe she was appointed. I didn't know much about such things at the time."

"Be that as it may, before you lend the money to Mr. Bennington, or give any to Leopold, you had better see your mother. I will[Pg 307] go to the house with you, for I am really quite interested in this matter."

"Thank you, sir; you are very kind, and I am ever so much obliged to you," answered Stumpy. "But I shouldn't feel right—administrator or not—if Le's father wasn't helped out of trouble."

"I was not aware that Mr. Bennington was in difficulty."

"He is—up to his eyes; and I know very well that my grandfather—that's Squire Moses—means to get the Sea Cliff House away from him, if he can, and let Ethan Wormbury have it. This money must save him. He's been a good friend to me, and I should be a hog if I didn't help him out. Mother will do it, too, I know; for if it hadn't been for Le, we shouldn't have seen this money."

"We will talk with your mother about it," replied Mr. Hamilton, as he put the gold back into the shot-bag, and asked the watch-maker to keep it in the safe till the next day, when he intended to dispose of it in Rockland.

Stumpy placed the twelve hundred dollars in bills in his wallet, and put it in his pocket;[Pg 308] but he did not remove his hand from it till he reached his mother's house. If the widow's son was almost crazy in the whirl of remarkable events which so suddenly altered the fortunes of the family, it was hardly to be wondered at; and doubtless the ardor and fury with which he rushed into the house, with his hand still clutching the wallet in his pocket, would have startled his mother, if she had not been sadly occupied with an affair of her own. Squire Moses, Ethan, and the village lawyer were with her, and were about to give the legal notice of the foreclosure of the mortgage. The old man was afraid that he should be cheated out of his prey if he waited any longer. Stumpy rushed into the house, followed by Mr. Hamilton and Leopold.

"O, my son," exclaimed Mrs. Wormbury, "the house is to be taken from us!"

"Not now," interposed Squire Moses. "I told you that you might stay here till the first of August. I'm not a hard man, to turn you out without any notice. I always mean to do what is just right."

"Of course. I have been expecting it, after what you said; but it comes very hard to be[Pg 309] turned out of house and home," sobbed Mrs. Wormbury.

"You shall not be turned out, mother," cried Stumpy, blubbered himself, when he saw the tears in his mother's eyes; "neither now nor on the first of August."

"Why Stumpfield, what do you mean?"

"Perhaps the boy means to pay the note of seven hundred dollars," sneered Squire Moses. "But I don't want any nonsense about this business."

"That's just what I'm going to do, grandpa," shouted Stumpy, drawing the wallet from his pocket, and taking from it the roll of bills.

Squire Moses turned round, amazed at the announcement of his grandson, and for the first time discovered the presence of Mr. Hamilton.

"I'm glad to see you, Mr. Hamilton," said he, extending his withered hand to the merchant. "This is disagreeable business."

"I should think it was—to turn your son's widow out of house and home," replied the ex-congressman, dryly.

"The mortgage note has been due for years," pleaded the squire. "Of course the widow can't pay it, and—"[Pg 310]

"Yes, she can!" yelled Stumpy. "She never did get any favors from you, and she don't ask for any now. Here's the seven hundred dollars. My mother wants the note, and a release of the mortgage."

Squire Moses actually turned pale, as much from anger as from the failure of a profitable operation for the future.

"I don't understand this," said he.

"Here's your money, when you give my mother the papers," replied Stumpy. "That's easy enough to understand—isn't it?"

"Where did you get the money, Stumpy?" demanded the squire.

"That don't make any difference," added Stumpy, shaking his head.

"I don't think it does," interposed Mr. Hamilton. "The young man's position appears to be quite correct."

Squire Moses looked at the merchant, and immediately concluded that this rich New Yorker had advanced the money. He bit his lips till they bled, but finally went off with Ethan and the lawyer, to procure the necessary papers to discharge the mortgage.[Pg 311]

"I don't understand it any better than Squire Moses," said Mrs. Wormbury, when the hard creditor had gone.

"You will pay off the note, mother, with money earned by father's own hands," replied Stumpy, gently.

"What do you mean, my son?" asked the widow, trembling with emotion.

Stumpy explained what he meant. Mrs. Wormbury listened, and wept when she realized that her husband had perished in the waves, not on the Georges, but within sight of his own home. The story was hardly finished before Squire Moses returned alone, with the note and release. Mr. Hamilton carefully examined the latter document, and declared that it was correct.

"So it seems Joel was the passenger in the Waldo, who buried this money," said the squire, as he put the bills in his pocket; for the discovery made in the parlor of the Sea Cliff House was now following the story of the hidden treasure up the main street.

"That's so," replied Stumpy; "and mother will always have the satisfaction of knowing that this house was all paid for with his earnings."[Pg 312]

Squire Moses soon left, with the feeling that he had lost at least a thousand dollars by the finding of the hidden treasure.

[Pg 313]

"Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" shouted Stumpy, as soon as the door had closed upon his amiable grandfather.

He threw up his hat to the ceiling, and demonstrated in the most extravagant manner, to the great amusement of Mr. Hamilton and Leopold. Mrs. Wormbury cried with joy, and was not less happy than her son.

"Come, Stumpfield, don't go crazy," said she.

"The house is paid for, mother, and you don't owe a single dollar in the whole world to any man, woman or child—except Leopold," shouted Stumpy, checking himself at the end of his enthusiastic discourse. "We ought to give him five hundred dollars of this money."

"Not a cent of it to me!" protested the skipper of the Rosabel; "but you may do it in the other way if you like."[Pg 314]

"I will, and I know mother will.—Mother," continued Stumpy with energy, "we owe all this to Leopold. He was honest, clear up to the hub; if he hadn't been, we shouldn't have got a cent of this money which father earned. We should have been turned out of the house on the first of August, and had to grub our way worse than ever. Now the house is paid for, and we have nearly eighteen hundred dollars in cash. That will give us over a hundred dollars interest money, which will make it a soft thing for us. No interest money to pay, either; so that we shall be a hundred and fifty dollars better off than we were before; and all because Leopold was honest, and did the right thing."

"I am sure I am very grateful to him, for my own and my children's sake," added Mrs. Wormbury.

"That don't pay any bills, mother," protested Stumpy. "Leopold's father is in trouble. My beloved grandad will come down upon him like a thousand of bricks, on the first of July, if he don't pay the interest on his note; and Le says his father can't do it."

"I'm very sorry," sighed Mrs. Wormbury.[Pg 315]

"That don't pay any bills, mother; and we must do something more than being sorry. I want to lend this money—this eighteen hundred dollars—to Mr. Bennington right off. He will be able to pay us after this season."

"I think you can safely do this, Mrs. Wormbury," added the merchant. "I will indorse the landlord's note, and thus guarantee its payment."

"I'm sure I shall be very glad to do so," said the widow, with a cheerful smile, which proved that she meant all she said.

"I shall be very much obliged to you, and consider myself more than paid for anything I have done in this business," replied Leopold.

"I am sure you can depend upon Mr. Bennington," said Mr. Hamilton. "Was any administrator appointed for the estate of your husband, Mrs. Wormbury?"

"I was appointed administratrix."

"As your husband was not dead at the time, perhaps the appointment does not hold good at present. You had better procure a reappointment. But in the mean time I will be responsible for all your acts, and you may take the[Pg 316] landlord's note. I would assist Mr. Bennington myself if it were not for depriving Stumpy of the pleasure of doing so."

The business was finished, and Mr. Hamilton and Leopold returned to the hotel. The widow and her son had a long talk over their sudden accession of fortune; but both of them were painfully perplexed by the revelations of Harvey Barth's diary. The husband and father had lived more than two years after they believed he was dead; but the events of this period seemed to be forever sealed to them. In what manner he had been saved, and how he came to be in Cuba, made a sad mystery to them; but in due time the veil was lifted, and they heard the whole story.

The landlord of the Sea Cliff House was in the office when his son returned. All the guests had gone to walk on the cliffs, and the house was nearly empty. Mr. Bennington, as usual of late, was sad, perplexed, and worried. His debts troubled him, and the dreaded first of July was rapidly approaching. Jones had already told him he must have the three hundred dollars due him before that time. Others were[Pg