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

I know just who stole it too;" and Harvey related all the particulars of the tipsy man's visit to the chamber the night before. "He pretended to be drunk, but I think he knew what he was about all the time, just as well as I did. In my opinion he took that book."

"Why should he take it?" asked Leopold, who thought it was necessary to prove the motive before the deed was charged upon him.

"I don't know but I think he sat at the window of the room over there," continued Harvey, pointing to one in the L of the house, which opened at right angles with his own. "I believe he saw me put the diary in the flue, and then came into my room in the night and took it, while he was blundering about over the[Pg 97] chairs and tables. I am sure that none of the folks who came in to see me in the afternoon could have taken it without my seeing them—not even the newspaper man. You may depend upon it, the tipsy man—if he was tipsy—took it. What he did it for is more than I can tell; but he may have thought it was money, or something else that was valuable. I saw him at that window after I had hid the diary in the flue."

Harvey Bath was entirely satisfied in regard to the guilt of the tipsy man, and had already ascertained that the fellow was a "drummer"—in Europe more politely called a "commercial traveller." He had also obtained the name of the man, and the address of the firm in New York city for which he travelled. With this information he hoped to obtain his treasure again, by shrewd management, when he went to New York. But, in spite of his grief over his loss, Harvey wrote the account of the wreck of the Waldo for the newspaper, in the course of the next day, and sent it off by mail.

After Leopold had done all he could to comfort the invalid,—though he failed, as others[Pg 98] had, to lessen the burden which weighed him down,—he left the room, and walked down to the principal street of the village, on which the Cliff House was located. A few rods from the hotel he came to the smallest store in the place, in the window of which were displayed a few silver watches and a rather meagre assortment of cheap jewelry. On the shelves inside of the shop was a considerable variety of wooden clocks, and, in a glass case on the counter, a quantity of spoons, forks and dishes, some few of which were silver, while the greater part were plated, or of block tin. Over the door was the sign "Leopold Schlager, Watch-maker." The proprietor of this establishment was Leopold's uncle, his mother's only brother, which explains the circumstance of our hero's having a foreign name.

Of course, if Leopold Schlager was a German, Mrs. Bennington was of the same nationality, though any one meeting her about the hotel would hardly have suspected that she was not a full-blooded American. Over thirty years before, she had emigrated with her younger brother, when the times were hard in Germany. Her[Pg 99] father was dead, and her elder brother, Leopold, was not yet out of his time, learning the trade of a watch-maker. The younger brother went to the west, taking her with him, and established himself on a farm. He was not very successful, and his sister, at the age of twelve, went to live with an American family in Chicago, the lady of which had taken a fancy to her. She was brought up to work, though her education was not neglected. Before she was twenty-one her brother in the west died. But by this time she was abundantly able to take care of herself.

When the family in which she was so kindly cared for was broken up by the death of the father, she went to work in the kitchen of a large hotel, where she enlarged her knowledge and experience in the art of cooking, till she was competent to take a situation as the cook of a small public house. In this place she increased the reputation of the establishment by her skill, till the proprietor was willing to pay her any wages she demanded.

Peter Bennington, a native of Maine, was employed in the hotel; and he was so well pleased with the looks of the German cook that he proposed[Pg 100] to her, and was accepted. Katharina Schlager spoke English then as well as a native; and she was not only neat and skillful, but she was a pretty and wholesome-looking woman. Peter married her, and, after a while, bought out the hotel. But he was not successful in the venture; and, with only a few hundred dollars in his pocket, he returned to Rockhaven, his native place, where he soon opened the Cliff House.

Leopold was born in Chicago, and his mother had insisted upon naming him after her brother in Germany.

Mr. Bennington had done very well in the hotel; but he was ambitious to do business on a larger scale, and was revolving in his mind a plan to make the Cliff House into a large establishment, which would attract summer visitors in great numbers. He had bought the present hotel, and paid for it from his profits; and he hoped soon to be able to rebuild it on a larger scale.

His wife was faithful and devoted to him and the children. She had always done the cooking for the Cliff House, which had given it an excellent[Pg 101] reputation. She was not only a good and true woman, but she was an exceedingly useful one to a hotel-keeper. For years she had tenderly thought of her absent brother in Germany. She often wrote to him, and learned that he was doing a good business in a small city. After years of persuasion, she induced him to join her in America. He was met on the wharf in New York, when he landed, by Mr. Bennington and his wife, and conducted to Rockhaven without delay. He could not speak a word of English then; but for six months he devoted himself to the study of it under the tuition of his sister and her children, till he was competent to carry on his business in the town. He was a very skillful workman, and all the watches in Rockhaven and on the island came to him to be cleaned and repaired. Even the rich men of the place found that he could be safely trusted with their valuable gold time-keepers, and he became quite celebrated in his line. He sold a watch occasionally, and had a small trade in clocks and other wares, so that he really made more money than in his native land. He had brought with him a considerable[Pg 102] capital, and was enabled to stock his store without any aid from his sister.

If Herr Schlager missed his "sauer kraut" and "bier," he enjoyed the company of his sister and her children. Leopold was his favorite, perhaps because he bore the watch-maker's name. They were fast friends; and in the undertaking which Leopold was laboring to accomplish, he had made his uncle his confidant.

When the young man entered the store, he bestowed his first glance upon a small iron safe behind the counter, in which the watch-maker kept his watches, silver ware, and other valuables at night. Leopold was interested in that strong box, for the reason that it contained his own savings. For six months he had been hoarding up every penny he earned for a purpose, and he had placed his money in the hands of his uncle for safe keeping. Perhaps Herr Schlager's iron safe was as much the occasion of his confidence in his uncle as the fact of their relationship. Leopold's present visit was made in order to dispose of the proceeds of his morning's work, before he lost it or was tempted to spend any portion of it.[Pg 103]

"Ah, mine poy! you have come mit more money. I see him in your head," said Herr Schlager, as, with a cheerful smile, he left his work-table.

"Yes uncle, I have more money," replied Leopold; and his success had covered his face with smiles. "Ich habe viel geld diesen morgen."

"Sehr gut!" laughed the watch-maker, who was delighted to hear his nephew use the little German he had taught him. "Wie viel geld haben sie?"

"Mehr als vier-und-dreisig thaler," replied Leopold, who had been preparing himself, during his walk from the hotel to the store, to speak what German he had thus far uttered.

"Viel geld!" cried the watch-maker.

"How much have I now?" asked Leopold, in plain English, forgetting for the time all the rest of the German he knew.

"Sprechen Deutsch!" exclaimed the watch-maker.

"I don't remember any more German," laughed the young man. "How much money have I now?"

Herr Schlager opened the iron safe and placed[Pg 104] in one of its draws the sum just given him by his nephew, and took therefrom a slip of paper. Leopold added the sums he had deposited, and made the amount eighty-seven dollars and some cents.

"Das is nicht enough, Leopold—eh?" asked the uncle.

"No, not yet."

"How many more you want of dollars?"

"I don't know exactly. They ask two hundred; but, as it is rather late in the season, I think they will take one hundred and fifty," replied Leopold, thoughtfully.

"You shall buy him now."

"Not this year, Uncle Leopold; and next spring they will put the price up again. I haven't even a hundred and fifty dollars."

"I shall let you haf de rest of das geld."

This proposition produced an argument; but the nephew finally consented to borrow the balance of the sum required, if one hundred and fifty dollars would answer the purpose. Leopold left the shop with an anxious heart; but in a couple of hours he returned for his own money and the loan.

[Pg 105]

CHAPTER VI. MISS SARAH LIVERAGE.

For several months the landlord's son had had his eye on a new keel-boat, built during the preceding winter, which the owner did not feel able to keep for his own use. With a sort of desperate determination, Leopold had been saving every cent he earned about the hotel, or in his boat, in order to purchase this new craft, or one like it if she should be sold before his accumulations enabled him to buy her. The owner asked two hundred dollars for her; but as the season advanced, Leopold hoped to buy her for less. The matter had looked very hopeless to him until his first lucky catch of mackerel; and the second fortunate trip inspired him with confidence. His uncle had been his only confidant, and they had often discussed the project together. But now Herr Schlager[Pg 106] had advanced the sum he needed to make the purchase, and the boat was bought. For two hours the young man had haggled with the owner about the price; but one hundred and fifty dollars, cash down, was a temptation which the builder could not resist in the end, when he thought of his unpaid grocery and provision bills.

No name had yet been given to the new boat, which was now the property of Leopold, for when the owner decided to sell her, he thought it was better to let the purchaser christen her to suit himself. The new craft was a sloop twenty-two feet long, with quite a spacious cuddy forward. She was a fast sailer, and her late owner declared that she was the stiffest sea-boat on the coast. Of course Leopold was as happy as a lord, and he wanted to hug Herr Schlager for his considerate loan of sixty-two dollars; but his uncle was quite as happy, and after the custom of his own country, he did actually hug and kiss his nephew, though the young man was rather confounded by the demonstration, especially as the passers-by in the street halted to observe the spectacle.[Pg 107]

As soon as the business of the purchase was finished, Leopold hastened to the cottage of Mrs. Wormbury, where he found Stumpy digging the early potatoes in the garden. He informed his friend of the great event of the day, and invited him to take a sail in the sloop. On their way to the boat they stopped at the hotel, where Leopold told his father of the purchase. He did so with some misgivings, and took care to explain the uses to which he intended to put the boat, before his father had time to express an opinion. Mr. Bennington,