Andy"s face grew interested and then startled as he perused the sheet of paper. It was a legal doc.u.ment attested to by Wandering d.i.c.k before a regular justice of the peace at Princeville.
In his affidavit the tramp stated that on the night that the barn of Farmer Jones burned down, he was in its hay mow. He saw distinctly the two boys who set the fire-Gus Talbot and Dale Billings. He got out of the way for fear of being charged with the crime, sought later shelter at the jail, and told Chase about it.
The latter was so dependent upon Talbot and in dread of the garage keeper, who held his position at his mercy, that he made no move to right Andy with the public until the latter was arrested.
"You have done n.o.bly, Mr. Chase," said Andy with deep grat.i.tude, "and where is your bill of expenses to settle?"
"Settle nothing!" flared out Chase stormily. "You ever mention it again and I"ll get out of here bag and baggage, double quick."
"Well, well," answered Andy, "we"ll try to find some way to make it up to you."
Two days later Andy learned that the attention of Seth Talbot had been called to the affidavit. Runaway Gus Talbot and Dale Billings had returned to Princeville. In some way the garage keeper settled with Farmer Jones, hushed up the matter, and sent his graceless son on a sea voyage. The charge against Andy was, of course, dismissed.
Andy went to visit Duske in the town hospital. His accomplice, Tyrrell, had been driven out of the aviation camp and threatened with a coat of tar and feathers if he ever returned. The rest of Duske"s party disappeared, and creditors seized what little property he had.
Duske would never drive a balloon or airship again. One arm and one foot were broken, and he had sustained other severe injuries. Andy found him a dispirited, wretched man.
He had an object in visiting the crippled aeronaut. He began by telling Duske that deeply as he tried to wrong Parks, the latter had ordered and paid for the best care during his stay in the hospital.
"I am circulating a subscription paper among the aviators," added Andy.
"We expect to raise a thousand dollars for you to go to some quiet town and buy some small business that will give you a living."
No person could resist the kindliness of Andy under the circ.u.mstances.
Duske broke down completely. He was as sincere and penitent as a man of his rough mould of mind could be.
"I don"t deserve it, I"ve been a bad man," he declared, with tears in his eyes. "What can I do for you for all your kindness to me?"
"You can do something, Mr. Duske," said Andy. "There is a man named Morse. Do you know him?"
"Why, yes, I do," replied Duske, with a great start. "Do you?"
"I happen to."
"What has he got to do with you and me?"
"Just this," said Andy, "you have treated him badly. He is my friend.
You had a hold on him. What was it?"
"A forgery he never committed."
"Are you willing to prove that, and clear him?"
"Yes, indeed. I"ve done enough wickedness in the world."
"Then clear his name of an unjust charge, so he can stand before the public the good, n.o.ble man he is."
"I will," declared Duske earnestly, and he did.
One week after the airship race Mr. Webb, to whom Andy had sent the old leather pocketbook by registered mail the day he recovered it, came down to the Parks camp.
"I have been too busy to come before," he explained to Andy. "That doc.u.ment in the old leather pocketbook took up my time. I tell you, Nelson, it has brought brightness and comfort to two orphan children in a grand way."
"I am very glad," said Andy.
"I got back the two hundred dollars you left at the bank in Princeville," continued Mr. Webb. "I have added something to it, and my attorneys have directed me to pay you what they intended to give the finder of the pocketbook-five hundred dollars."
Andy made some demur at the largeness of the amount, but Mr. Webb was persistent, declared he was simply acting as agent for the lawyers, and Andy had to take the money.
"As to myself," observed the gentleman, "I want to say what you must already know, Nelson-I am greatly interested in you. I wish you could suggest some way in which my means can benefit you."
"So do I," broke in John Parks. "The lad is a genius in the aviation line, and I want him to keep on at it."
"Don"t I intend to?" challenged Andy.
"Not when you say you are going to leave me next month," declared the aeronaut.
"Yes, but why?" said Andy. "I"ll leave it to Mr. Webb here if I have not decided in a sensible, practical way."
"What is it, Nelson?" inquired Mr. Webb.
"Why, I have over two thousand five hundred dollars in the bank. I want to put one thousand of it aside for my half brother, when he turns up.
He was good and kind to me in the old days, and I must not forget it.
Then I want to go through college and learn something so I may be of some use in the world."
"An excellent idea," commended Mr. Webb.
"Yes," growled Parks, but playfully, "and spoil a good aviator!"
"Not at all," declared Andy quickly. "I love the airship business, Mr.
Parks, but I want to learn every branch of the science that covers it.
It looks as if airships are to be the coming vehicles of travel, you say, Mr. Parks. If that is so, everybody will be flying in time, and the professional aviator will be just a common, everyday person."
"Well, I suppose that"s so," admitted Parks.
"Then, the wise man will be the one who knows how to build the airship.
Why, I"ll go through college, come out with my head chock full of new ideas, and Mr. Webb and you and I will get up the World"s Airship Construction Co."
"That"s a pretty grand scheme, Nelson," said Mr. Webb.
"Mayn"t it become a true one?"
"Yes, it may," said John Parks, "but I"ll always think most of you just as you are-Airship Andy."
THE END