Читать книгу The Rushton Boys at Treasure Cove: or, The Missing Chest of Gold - Davenport Spencer - Страница 6

If the other boys noticed the involuntary movement, they made no comment, and Ross went on:

“You fellows may think I’m foolish to go on hunting for the gold when I’ve got so little evidence to go on. It seems almost like hunting for a needle in a haystack. But there’s such a lot at stake that I can’t give it up.”

“I don’t think you’re foolish,” maintained Teddy stoutly. “It’s just what I’d do, if I were in your place.”

“So would I,” agreed Fred. “Of course you may never find it. But if you didn’t try for it, you’d feel restless and uneasy all the rest of your life.”

“It’s better to have tried and failed, than never to have tried at all,” declared Bill.

“You’re young enough yet to spare a year or two more at it anyway,” said Lester. “If nothing comes of it, you can settle down at something else.”

“Yes,” replied Ross, “it isn’t a matter of life and death anyway. Mother is still keeping the old place up in Canada and looking after the property that father left there. The income is small, but it is enough to keep us going, and if I finally have to give up looking for the gold, I can go back there and do pretty well. But it would take me a long time to get enough together to pay father’s debts, and perhaps I could never do it. That’s the real reason why I’m so anxious to find the chest. It isn’t so much for what it would give me, though of course I’d be glad to have it. But I know how father felt, and I feel that I owe it to his memory to carry out his wishes, if I possibly can.”

“Do the debts mount up to a very large amount?” Bill ventured to ask.

“Larger than I care to think of,” answered Ross. “I should say that it would take about twenty thousand dollars if they were settled now. And, of course, there’s the interest creeping up with every day that passes.”

“I guess the creditors would be so glad to get back the principal, that they wouldn’t worry much about the interest,” remarked Lester.

“I suppose they would,” answered Ross. “But they ought to get both, and I shall never feel that I’m clear with the world until they do.”

It was clear that the son had inherited to the full his father’s independence of spirit, and the boys’ liking for him deepened.

“Most of the debts are for small amounts,” Ross continued, again taking the little red memorandum book from his pocket, “that is, comparatively small. There’s one big one that is more than all the rest put together. The others are for a few hundred dollars each, though one or two of them run into the thousands.”

He turned over the pages.

“Father was very methodical and precise,” he went on, showing the pages. “You see, he has all the names arranged in alphabetical order. There’s Allen, three hundred and twenty-seven dollars; Carey, one hundred and ninety-two; Linson, eighty-five; Masters, six hundred and eighteen. And here we come to the big one, Rushton, twelve thousand four hundred and–”

“What was that?” broke in Teddy excitedly. “Why that’s my name and Fred’s.”

“Is that so?” asked Ross in surprise, for so far he had heard the boys speak to each other only by their first names, and there had been no formal introduction. “It isn’t such a common name, either. Perhaps it’s your father. What’s his first name?”

“Mansfield,” came simultaneously from both of the boys.

“Oh, then he isn’t the one,” said Ross, consulting his book. “This is–let me see,” as his finger sought the place, “Aaron–Aaron Rushton.”

“We have an Uncle Aaron, my father’s brother,” stated Fred.

“Can it possibly be Uncle Aaron?” asked Teddy, his pulses quickened by the possibility.

“I shouldn’t be a bit surprised,” rejoined Ross. “There can’t be so many Aaron Rushtons in this part of the country. This man lived, at that time in Medford, not far from Boston.”

“That’s just where Uncle Aaron used to live!” broke in Fred. “He has some property there yet, although lately he spends a good deal of the time with us in Oldtown.”

“Would you know his handwriting, if you saw it?” asked Ross, feeling in his pocket.

“Sure we would!” answered Fred. “We’ve seen it a hundred times.”

“Take a look at that then,” said Ross, taking a wrinkled sheet of paper from a collection wrapped in oiled silk and held together by a rubber band, “and see if it’s your uncle’s writing.”

Fred unfolded the paper with hands that trembled with excitement, while Teddy looked over his shoulder.

It was a brief note, dated fifteen years before, acknowledging the receipt of three hundred and sixty dollars, being the semi-annual interest on notes given by Mr. Montgomery. It had been written from Medford, and it bore the stiff precise signature of Aaron Rushton.

“That’s Uncle Aaron’s writing!” exclaimed Fred. “I can’t be mistaken.”

“It sure is,” echoed Teddy. “I’d know it among a thousand.”

“Well, what do you think of that?” chimed in Bill, as he and Lester crowded around to look.

It gave the boys a queer thrill to think of all that had been pressed into the years between the time that note was written and the present. It seemed like a link between the living and the dead. The man who had received it was in his grave, and the one who had sent it had long since given up all hope of hearing of the matter again. And now chance had brought together the son of one and the nephews of the other on this stormy night on the seacoast, and they sat tracing out the faded lines by the flickering light of the brush fire.

Fred sat back and drew a long breath.

“Do you remember what Dave Parloe said–that it was a small world after all?” he asked Bill. “I know now that he was right.”

“To think that it was you who saved my life this afternoon, and that it was your uncle who helped my father when he was in business trouble!” exclaimed Ross. “I feel that I owe you more than ever now. You see, Mr. Aaron Rushton lent part of the twelve thousand dollars to father when he started into business in Canada.”

“Just think of Uncle Aaron’s doing a thing like that!” exclaimed Teddy.

“You don’t owe me anything,” affirmed Fred, “and as for what you owe Uncle Aaron, he’s stopped worrying over that long ago.”

“But won’t he be surprised when we write and tell him all about this?” demanded Teddy.

“If we could only pitch in and help Ross find the gold, we’d square ourselves with Uncle Aaron for the rest of our lives,” remarked Fred.

“Why, has he anything against you now?” asked Ross, in surprise.

Teddy’s eyes twinkled as he looked at Fred.

“Oh, no,” he explained, “not especially. Down in his heart I think he’s rather fond of us. But he’s a bachelor, and he hasn’t much use for boys. I got in bad with him last year when I sent a baseball against the horse of a coach he was riding in and made the team run away. He jumped just as they got to a bridge and went head first into the river. Do you remember how he looked, Fred, when he came up dripping?”

“Will I ever forget it?” chuckled Fred, as the picture of his uncle, with his hair plastered over his face and the water streaming from his bony frame, came up before him.

“He was furious,” explained Teddy, “and he was worse yet when he found that he’d spoiled his watch and lost some valuable papers. We got those back for him, though, and that made things better, though I don’t think he approves of us yet. But if we could get this money for him, he’d sure give us a clean bill of health.”

“Uncle Aaron likes money, all right,” added Fred, “though I will say that when he does spend, he does it royally. He certainly fixed us up in style when he bought the tickets for us to go out to Bill’s ranch. He’s got a hair-trigger temper, but take him all in all, he’s a good old chap.”

“I think he must be, from what mother has told me,” said Ross. “He might have seized what property we’ve got in payment of the debt, but when he learned that father had died and that mother had just enough to get along on, he did not trouble us. And that’s one thing that makes me all the more eager to pay what father owed him.”

“I tell you what we fellows ought to do!” exclaimed Fred. “We ought to spend the rest of our vacation here helping Ross look for the gold. There’ll be lots of fun and excitement in it anyway, even if we never lay eyes on it.”

“And think what it would mean if we did really find it,” gloated Teddy. “Think what Uncle Aaron would say, and how proud father and mother would be if we had a hand in it.”

“To say nothing of how Ross would feel, if we got back his father’s money,” added Bill.

“The idea looks good to me,” declared Lester. “I have the Ariel, and if we can get the motor boat back for Ross, there won’t be a spot on the coast within fifty miles that we can’t explore. Between us, we may run across some clue, and even if we don’t, we’ll get lots of fun out of the hunt.”

“Like the old darky with his lottery ticket,” laughed Bill. “His boss reproved him for spending money on a mere chance. ‘Oh, I dunno, boss,’ the old fellow answered. ‘T’ree dollars ain’t much to spend fur a whole year’s hopin’.’”

“It’s mighty good of you fellows to help me out this way,” said Ross gratefully, when the laugh had subsided. “Of course, if you do find it, there’ll be a great big reward in it for you. I know that isn’t what you are looking for, but you’ll get it just the same.”

“We’ll leave that all to you,” answered Lester. “We’ve got to find it first.”

“Like the old English recipe for cooking rabbit that begins: ‘First catch the hare,’” chuckled Fred.

The lads sat about the fire for another hour, too excited by all that had happened to think of sleep. Then Lester gave the signal.

“Come, boys,” he said, “we’ll have plenty of time to talk this over, but now we must get some rest. I want to get an early start in the morning, if the storm has blown over. It’s me for the downy couch now and the early bird stunt in the morning.”

The “downy couch” resolved itself into beds hollowed out in the sand with the boys’ coats rolled up for pillows. But no king in his bed of state ever enjoyed a sounder sleep than that into which the tired boys fell at once, while the fire died down and the surf beat on the rocks outside.