Dory a.s.sented, though he had set his teeth against taking any thing that looked like charity. He followed Mr. Hawlinshed up-stairs, where it appeared that he had a room. It contained a trunk, a valise, and other baggage.
"Dory, you have rendered me a service that you cannot understand; and I am glad you cannot. I should feel mean to the end of my life if I did not attempt to make some slight return for it," said Mr. Hawlinshed, as he seated himself at a table. "I don"t think you saved my life, for I don"t believe my life was in danger for a moment."
"I don"t think I saved your life, but I think your life has been in danger. Why, the fellow might have hit you by accident, even if he didn"t mean to," replied Dory. "But the villain went at you as though he meant to tear you in pieces after he had fired the gun."
"It is hardly worth while to argue the question. I am very confident of what I say. My life has not been in danger, but my money was in great peril. I had forty-seven hundred and fifty dollars in my pocket when that person attacked me," continued Mr. Hawlinshed.
"Jerusalem!" exclaimed Dory, who did not remember that he had ever before been near so much money in all his life.
"I should have lost that money if you had not saved it, Dory. This was the point I was coming to. Don"t ask me any questions, for I don"t want to answer them."
"I won"t ask any, if you don"t want me to," added Dory, who was very much mystified by the occurrences of the evening.
"So far as I know and believe, you are the only person who saw the affair in the woods. The three who took part in the affray are the only persons on earth who know any thing about it," added Mr. Hawlinshed.
"I did not see or hear anybody around while I was in the woods," replied Dory. "I don"t believe anybody else knows about it."
"That is very lucky, and I am only sorry that you happened to witness the sad affair. Now, Dory, I don"t want any other person to know any thing about it."
"n.o.body shall find out any thing about it from me," protested the boy.
"You used me very handsomely, and got a good supper for me when I should have had to feed on wind if I hadn"t come across you."
Mr. Hawlinshed looked the boy in the face; for he suspected that Dory was making game of him when he weighed so insignificant a thing as a supper against the help he had given him in the woods. He took out a large pocket-book, which appeared to be filled with bank-bills. From them he selected several bills, and tendered them to Dory.
"What"s that?" asked the boy, as he looked suspiciously at the bills. "I don"t want any money for any thing I have done."
"Here is one hundred and five dollars," continued Mr. Hawlinshed. "The five dollars is to pay any expenses you may incur in getting home, so that you may have the hundred when you get there."
Dory looked at the money, and the temptation to take it was very great.
He could not bring himself to accept money for doing a kind act to a person who needed his a.s.sistance. On this ground he stoutly refused to touch the bills.
"Not for saving my life or preventing me from being hurt, Dory, but for saving my money. I shall be very unhappy, and feel mean, if you don"t take the money. If I were rich, I should insist upon your taking thousands. This is a very small sum for the service you have rendered, for saving me from a loss which would have defeated the business enterprise I have in view. Take it, Dory, for my sake, if not for your own. It will be a great help to your mother," persisted Mr. Hawlinshed.
It looked easier to Dory than at first. He had saved his companion"s money, and prevented him from losing forty-seven hundred and fifty dollars. But it took another half an hour of argument to satisfy Dory that he was not doing a mean thing in taking the bills. He took them at last, and his companion seemed to be happy in the fact that he had done so.
Dory felt rich enough to buy out the New York Central Railroad, or to become the proprietor of half the land that bordered on Lake Champlain.
He had an idea of buying out the steamer on which Major Billcord had caused his discharge. At any rate, he must buy out something that would float on the lake, for he was about half boy and half boat.
He put the money into the old wallet he carried; and he doubted if all the money it had ever contained, even before it came into his possession, would equal the amount he had just deposited in one of its compartments. He had scarcely returned the treasure to his pocket, before he thought of the use to which he would apply the whole or a part of the money. It was a brilliant scheme. He had nursed it in his imagination as an unattainable enterprise, but now the money in his pocket rendered it possible.
"I feel better now, Dory," said Mr. Hawlinshed. "I have given you a feather"s weight where I owe you a ton, but I hope the time will come when I can do better. I am going to write a letter now, and I want you to deliver it for me to-morrow. Will you do so?"
"To be sure I will," replied Dory warmly.
"I shall leave by the boat going south in the morning; and I want this letter delivered after I am gone," added Mr. Hawlinshed, as he began to write on a sheet of paper on the table.
Dory considered his brilliant scheme.
CHAPTER IV.
IN THE CABIN OF THE GOLDWING.
"Here is the letter, Dory," said Mr. Hawlinshed when he had sealed and directed the envelope. "You will have to go about a mile beyond the place where we met last night. Mr. Pearl Hawlinshed," he added, reading the address upon the letter.
"Pearl!" repeated Dory, as he took the letter and read the name for himself.
"That is the name; and the person to whom it is addressed is my son,"
replied the writer of the missive.
"Your son!" exclaimed Dory, looking intently into the face of his new friend.
"Yes: is there any thing very strange about that? He is my only son, my only child; and his mother has been dead many years."
"Your son!" repeated Dory, as though he was unable to comprehend the relation.
"Pearl Hawlinshed; and he is my son. Is there any thing very strange about it?" asked the father, looking anxiously at Dory.
"But he is the man who fired the gun at you, and then pitched into you,"
added Dory.
Mr. Hawlinshed manifested a great deal of emotion. He dropped into his chair, from which he had risen when he finished his letter. He appeared to be greatly astonished that his companion had discovered the relationship between himself and the person to whom the letter was addressed.
"How do you know all that, Dory?" asked Mr. Hawlinshed, trying to calm himself.
"I heard you call him "Pearl" before I took a hand in the affair,"
replied Dory candidly. "I don"t know that I should ever have thought of the name again if you hadn"t given me this letter."
"Then it is very unfortunate that I gave you the letter; but I wished to be sure that it reached him," said Mr. Hawlinshed, very much perplexed at the situation. "You know more than I supposed, and I am very sorry for it. The terrible truth is no longer a secret between my son and myself."
"I ought not to have let on that I knew his name," added Dory, who felt that he had made a mistake.
"Since you knew the fact, I am glad that you spoke. You know that it was my son that attacked me, and who attempted to take the money from me,"
continued the poor father bitterly.
"But it shall be all the same as though I did not know any thing about it," protested Dory. "After one year or ten you will find that I can keep a secret."
"I am willing to trust you, Dory; and I should be willing, even if I could help myself, and were not entirely in your power," added the unhappy father. "Now you will want to know something about the reason why he attacked me, and tried to get my money from me."
"No, sir: I will not ask any thing about the difficulty. I suppose you and your son could not agree, and I know another case just like it. It is your family affair, and it is none of my business."
"It would take me hours to tell the whole story, and it is too painful to dwell upon. You will keep the secret, Dory?"
"I will never hint that I ever heard your name. I will leave you now, so that no one shall know that I ever saw you, or at least that I ever had any thing to do with you."
"But, Dory, when you tell your mother about the money you have, you will have to explain where you got it. I don"t want you to tell any lies about it."