Читать книгу Two Boys of the Battleship: or, For the Honor of Uncle Sam - Webster Frank V. - Страница 3

Mr. Arden ceased his pacing up and down the library, and taking up a bundle of papers from a table – papers that seemed fairly to bristle with red seals – he sat down in an easy chair. But he was anything but at ease himself.

“Boys,” he began, while Ned and Frank wondered what was in store for them, “there is no need of going into too many details, or in saying I am sorry for what has happened. I am more sorry than I can ever tell you, for it looks as though I had betrayed the trust my dead brother left to me – the trust of bringing up you boys as he would have done himself had he lived.” As he spoke tears came into Mr. Arden’s eyes.

“Don’t worry,” said Ned, warmly. “Whatever you have done, Uncle Phil, we know it was done with the best intentions.”

“That’s right!” chimed in Frank.

“Well, it’s good to hear you say that, for others might judge me more harshly,” went on the importer. “And I really acted from the best motives and for your interests. I may have made a mistake – I don’t claim to be infallible – but I intended no wrong.

“And now, boys, for the worst of it. It may happen that at any moment your fortunes, as well as mine, will be wiped out – lost.”

“Lost!” echoed Frank.

“All our money?” added Ned.

“Yes. There is no use concealing anything,” their uncle said. “All our fortunes are in jeopardy and may be swept away if the political situation in Uridio does not clear up.”

“Uridio! Where is that?” asked Frank.

“It is a small South American republic,” was the answer. “There was trouble some years ago in one of the many states that go to make up Brazil. Some of the inhabitants set up a sort of independent government under a new political leader. Then another man had ambitions to become president of the same little republic, and he organized an army and took control.

“The republic is really too small for Brazil to worry about, and that is why the affair never created much of a stir, at least up in this part of the world.”

“But how are you – or we – interested in Uridio?” asked Frank.

“Because your money and mine is tied up there in certain concessions,” said Mr. Arden.

“But I thought our fortunes were invested in father’s importing business,” said Frank.

“They were. But the importing business has changed greatly of late years. There is not so much money in it as there used to be. I saw that situation arising, and gradually I curtailed the business. Then I became interested in this South American republic of Uridio. It has great natural resources and varied products, and, best of all, it touches the sea coast, so we can ship direct, though the harbor is a miserable one, and unsafe in stormy weather. But still it was profitable to do business there. At least until recently.”

“And what happened recently?” asked Ned.

“Well, it seems there was another change of government down there. Another man wanted to be king, or president, or whatever they call themselves, so he started a revolt, and there was a small revolution.”

“Say, that sounds like a story from a book!” exclaimed Ned, his eyes sparkling. He did not seem to think of his lost fortune.

“I wish it were just a story in a book,” went on his uncle ruefully. “The trouble is it is all too true. Now to resume: When this revolution came my interests happened to be partly with the losing side. I had many concessions and rights to trade and do business from the man who lost out.

“Mind you!” said Mr. Arden, earnestly, “I have nothing to do with the politics down there. I’d never risk your money or my own in a political game. It was straight business with me, buying and selling. But the trouble was I had to do business with one side or the other, and luck has turned against me. I am with the losing party.”

“But maybe fortune will turn,” said Frank. “And if you do lose our money – and yours – why it might have happened in the importing trade.”

“Yes,” admitted his uncle, smiling a little at the lad’s optimism. At nineteen several fortunes may be won and lost, at least so a strong, healthy lad may think. “Yes,” went on Mr. Arden, “I might have lost all our money in some other venture, but I didn’t. I chose to take chances in this South American republic, and I suppose I should not have done so.”

“But where does the arrest come in?” asked Ned. “I can’t see that losing your money, or ours for that matter, is any reason why you should be arrested. It’s our own affair. Of course, it isn’t going to be any fun to lose money. I don’t think that for a minute. But we have our health.”

“And our motor boat,” added Frank. “They wouldn’t take that, I suppose?” he added, a bit apprehensively.

“No, I don’t suppose they’d take that,” his uncle replied, “though you may not have money enough to buy gasoline.”

“We can take out fishing and excursion parties, and make money that way,” laughed Ned. Really it did not seem so bad as it had at first.

“I guess you won’t have to do that right away,” said Mr. Arden. “Though if the money goes, all will be wiped out and we’ll lose everything – including this house.”

The boys rather gasped at that. It was the only home they had ever known.

“But you haven’t yet told us why they can take you away,” insisted Frank.

“I’ll tell you directly. It seems that the political party in power in Uridio has accused me of having furnished arms and munitions of war to their enemies, the revolutionists. It is a political trick, but I am not, at present, able to prove my innocence.”

“Did you help take part in a real revolution?” asked Ned. “If you did – say – cracky! Why didn’t you tell us?” His eyes sparkled.

“No, I had no part in the revolution, either actually or in furnishing money or arms,” said his uncle. “I was simply doing business with the revolutionary party – buying and selling goods and trying to make an honest living. But for some reasons of their own, the political tricksters down there are making trouble for me.

“It seems that the property of some United States citizens was damaged in some recent fighting, and they have demanded money satisfaction. Our government has taken up their claims, and they look to me to settle the loss.”

“Why to you?” asked Frank.

“Because it is falsely asserted that I financed the revolution. It is all pretty complicated, and I don’t expect you boys to understand it all. But the pith of the matter is right here. The United States citizens who have suffered losses in Uridio are trying to make me pay. To do so would take all your money and mine that is invested down in the South American republic, and we would be ruined.”

“And if you fight the claim?” asked Ned.

“I have fought the claim, but witnesses were suborned and I cannot prove that I was in no way responsible.”

Frank whistled.

“It looks serious,” he said.

“It is serious!” declared his uncle. “I have been served with legal notices, and the time limit is almost up. I must either settle or go to jail.”

“Jail?” cried Frank, stung by the word.

“Well, that’s what many persons would call it,” said his uncle, with a grim smile. “Really, it will be a federal prison, for it is the United States federal authorities who are acting against me. I won’t actually be locked up in a cell, I suppose, nor set to breaking stone, and I may not have to wear stripes. You see it is a sort of political business accusation against me.”

“But why do you have to go to jail, or to a federal prison, at all?” asked Ned. “Can’t you be bailed?”

“Too late for that after conviction. What I need now is money to continue the fight.”

“Use your own money – or ours!” cried Frank, eagerly. Both lads loved their uncle almost as a father.

“The trouble is that your money and mine will be attached – held in escrow, I believe they call it – to settle for these damages in case I can not prove my innocence of having financed a revolution,” Mr. Arden declared. “So with our money tied up that way, none will be available, and I’ll have to be – well, let us call it detained – for years,” and once more he smiled grimly.

Ned and Frank did not know what to think. They asked their uncle many questions, and he answered them as best he could; but they did not understand all the details.

“As near as I can figure out,” said Frank, when he and his brother went up to their rooms just before supper, “Uncle Phil is accused of starting a revolution, which he didn’t. And in the revolution some damage was done that must be paid for, and they’re looking to him to put up the money. If he doesn’t they’ll lock him up, and put his money in their own strong boxes, where he can’t use it to fight the case further.”

“That’s about the way it sizes up,” agreed Ned.

“Well, what’s the next move?” asked his brother.

“Hanged if I know,” said Ned. “I can’t think of anything. And I haven’t got any too much cash on hand,” he added, as he went over to a box on his bureau, where he kept his money.

“It sure is a queer situation,” conceded Frank. “If we were only on a battleship now, we could go down to that little measly one-horse South American republic, unlimber our big guns and tell ’em to fork over our money, and dig up evidence to clear Uncle Phil, or we’d shoot!”

“Yes,” sighed Ned, “we might do that. But the chances of our getting on a battleship are about a thousand to one.”

If he had only known what was coming!

After supper the boys had another talk with their uncle, and he showed them some of the legal papers that had been served on him that day just before they came in out of the rain.

“How long before you may be confined?” asked Frank.

“Three days,” was the answer. “But I’m going to try and stave it off.”

It was a vain attempt, however. Three days later, when the storm had cleared, the boys came in from a fishing trip and found Mrs. Brun weeping, and the servants very much upset.

“What has happened?” demanded Frank of the housekeeper.

“Your dear – uncle – they came and took him away,” she sobbed.

“Took him away! Who?”

“I don’t know. But he told me to tell you he was under arrest, and that you would understand.”

“Under arrest!” exclaimed Frank, and as Ned echoed the words the brothers looked apprehensively at each other.