Bound to Succeed.
by Allen Chapman.
CHAPTER I
WAKING UP
"Mother, I must do something, and that right quickly."
It was Frank Newton who was talking. His voice was composed, but determined. His face was calm, but there was a resolute look in his eyes. It told that under the surface some unusual emotion was stirring Frank.
"I don"t see how you can do any more than you are doing now," responded his mother with an anxious sigh. "Of course it seems hard to get along with so little when we have been used to having so much. But, oh, Frank, when I think of what was once--you away, I knew not where, and my heart breaking to find out--I am grateful and happy, and so very proud of you, my dear, dear boy."
Frank"s lip quivered at the fervent words spoken. They inspired him with their eloquence. His hand trembled as it rested on his mother"s arm gently and lovingly.
"It"s worth everything to have you talk that way, mother," he said in quite a husky voice, "and kind words and good opinion just makes me the more resolved to better things."
"Don"t be ungrateful or complaining, my boy."
"It"s never that, mother."
"And don"t be too ambitious, or too reckless. We have a roof to shield us and food to eat, thanks to your busy endeavors. The lawyer gives us hopes that we may recover something from the wreck of our lost fortune.
I don"t know of any better outlook for the present, than to wait patiently and see what turns up in the way of an improvement in affairs."
Frank shook his head, and paced up and down the floor of the best room of the cozy little cottage that was their present home.
"It"s no use, mother," he said finally. "The lost fortune is a dream, a bubble. We may just as well get down to that. Mr. Beach, the lawyer, gives us hopes, but they are not based on much. At the same time, he takes his fees. We can"t stand that any longer. I told him so, yesterday. I don"t believe there is the least show in the world for our claim. I am sure that Mr. Beach shares my opinion now. No," continued Frank definitely, "what future there is for us must be worked out by our own independent exertions."
"It is a bitter wrong then," spoke his mother. "When your father, Mr.
Newton, died, he left me his town property here. When I married a second time, and Mr. Ismond became your stepfather, I had implicit confidence in him at first. He got me to sign the property over to him. Then I saw my mistake. When his tyrannical ways drove you away from home I lost all regard for him."
"He certainly was very cruel and unjust to me," murmured Frank, recalling many dark days of his young life.
"When he died," resumed Frank"s mother, "I was amazed to find that all my rights to the estate were forfeited. It looked very much as though Mr. Ismond had been planning to rob us of everything when death overtook him. A man named Purnell, Gideon Purnell, held the t.i.tle to our property under mortgage and sale. He sold it to Abner Dorsett, who now holds it.
The law says Dorsett was an innocent purchaser, and therefore cannot be disturbed."
"Innocent!" flashed out Frank. "Oh, what a shame! Why, we know better than that, mother. We are sure that Purnell was his tool and partner.
Anyhow, we cannot hold Dorsett to make any rest.i.tution. I hope some day, though, to run across this Purnell. If I ever do, I"ll not lose sight of him till I know the truth of the wicked plot that made us paupers. He, and he only, holds the key to the situation."
"Mr. Dorsett is a bad man," said the widow. "His actions show he is not just. Else, why does he care to put obstacles in your way when you seek work? I wish we could leave Greenville, Frank. That man terrifies me.
He may get you into some trouble. I have seen him prowling around here often. Then, the other day, our poor, faithful dog, Christmas, disappeared. That same night I saw Dorsett crouching under the window yonder. It looks as if he fears something we may know or do, and is lurking around eavesdropping to find out what it is."
"He will find a trap set for him the next time he comes nosing around here," declared Frank with a grim-set lip. "Mother, don"t worry your mind any further, I am determined to get steady work and earn more money. I wish, too, we could leave Greenville. If it was any use I would stay and fight Dorsett to the last ditch. It"s no use, and I know it.
Let us get out of the sight and memory of the old life. I"m going to strike out new."
"But how, what at?" inquired Mrs. Ismond doubtfully.
"I don"t know yet, I will before another sun rises, though," a.s.serted Frank, staunchly. "That is, if good hard thinking can suggest the right way to go about it."
Frank took up his cap and walked from the house. He paused to place a silver fifty cent piece on the kitchen dresser. He had earned it before breakfast, cutting a lawn and tr.i.m.m.i.n.g hedges up at Judge Bascom"s place.
Frank had been doing such odd jobs about town for the past four months.
He was courteous, accommodating and energetic. Everybody he worked for liked him, and he never shirked an honest task.
He made out fairly well as a general utility boy about the village. The worst of it was, however, that his good luck came in streaks. One very busy week Frank made over ten dollars. Then the next week all he could get to do was chopping wood at fifty cents a day.
"There is something better in me than that," Frank resolved. "I"ve got the problem to solve what it is, and I feel that it is up to me to figure it out right now."
Frank"s face clouded slightly as he crossed the yard and his eye fell on an empty dog house. It made Frank feel lonesome and worried to realize that its former tenant, the dog, Christmas, was missing.
The faithful animal, a veritable chum to Frank, had disappeared one night. Frank had spent two days looking for him with no results.
Christmas was a connecting link between the present and a very vivid section of the past in Frank Newton"s experience. The thought of this instantly sent Frank"s mind drifting among the vital and exciting incidents in that career.
Frank was a peculiar boy. He had great st.u.r.diness of character, what some people call "nerve," and up to two years before our story begins had led a happy, joyous existence. He had been an active spirit, and always a leader in boyish sports and fun.
It had been a black day for Frank when his mother had married Ismond.
Too late Mrs. Newton had learned that she had wedded a fortune-hunter.
Too soon Frank discovered that the miserable schemer planned to drive him away from home, so he might more easily rob the lad"s mother of her fortune.
Frank stood Ismond"s abuse just as long as he could. Then he ran away from home.
At first he followed a circus, tired of it, and got a job tending a lemonade stand at an ocean resort. He made all sorts of acquaintances, good and bad. The latter did not demoralize him, but they did harden him. He grew to be a cynical, unhappy boy.
In his wanderings Frank brought up at a town called Pleasantville. This was the home of Bart Stirling, the hero of another volume of this series, "Bart Stirling"s Road to Success," and of Darry and Bob Haven, whose stirring careers my former readers have followed in the volume ent.i.tled, "Working Hard to Win."
Frank arrived at Pleasantville in the company of two men, who had devised a great fraud upon the meanest but richest man in the place, Colonel Harrington. In disgust of their swindling ways, Frank destroyed the papers they hoped to impose upon the colonel. In escaping from them he was severely crippled and laid up for several weeks.
Soon his money gave out. He was turned away from the village hotel for not paying his board.
He proved a boy of ready resources, however. Bob Haven formed his acquaintance in the midst of one of his original and daring schemes for raising money quickly.
Frank paid up his debts and hung around Pleasantville, living upon his surplus. He was at a stage of his career where he was sick of change and adventures. He longed for home. In the friendship of the Haven boys and Bart Stirling, he began slowly to feel his way back to a natural boyhood plane.
One night a terrible fire burned down the Pleasantville Hotel. It needed just such an incident to rouse up in Frank the latent chivalry and courage of his fine soul. At the risk of his life he saved fourteen inmates penned up in the burning attic of the hotel, by helping them across a plank leading into an adjoining building. He braved death again by going back into the roaring flames to save a little sleeping child.
Frank rescued the child, but at fearful cost. He was dreadfully burned, almost blinded. For weeks he lay at the town hospital, hovering betwixt life and death. When he finally recovered, it was to learn that the town had gone wild over his heroism. In the paper they owned called the _Pleasantville Weekly Herald_, the Haven boys had given him "a write up"
that had thrilled the community.
More than that, Frank"s friends had learned that the name they had known him by, Percy St. Clair, was an a.s.sumed one. They accidentally discovered his real name, sent word to his native town, and when the injured hero awoke to health again it was to find his devoted mother at his side, nursing him.
Frank now learned that he was some good in the world, after all. The ovation of the grateful and enthusiastic town folks, the loyal, hearty friendship of such comrades as Bart Stirling and Darry and Bob Haven warmed his heart to some of its old-time cheer and courage. The day he left Pleasantville with his mother for their home at Greenville, Frank Newton stepped over the threshold of a new life.
An episode of Frank"s departure was the acquisition of Christmas. This faithful canine Bart Stirling had adopted when he was homeless. Haven Brothers had later employed him to run the pony press in their amateur job printing office. Frank loved dogs, and Christmas had taken a great fancy to him.
The animal whined and ran after Frank when he set out for the train.
Frank drove Christmas back, but it was only to find the loyal dog hidden under the car seat, twenty miles on the homeward trip.