"You mustn"t think about that now," said Frank, soothingly. "It will hurt you to think about it."
"But I must, for, do you know, dear friend, I feel sure I shall not have long to think of it."
"What do you mean?" asked Merry, with a chill.
"Something--something tells me the end is near. Apollo, he hurt me--here."
The boy pressed one hand to his breast and coughed again.
"You are excited--you are frightened," declared Frank. "You will be all right in the morning. The doctor will fix you up all right. You shall have the very best food you can eat, and I"ll see that you receive the tenderest care."
The eyes of the lad on the bed filled with tears and his lips quivered, while he gazed at Frank with a look of love.
"You are so good!" he said, weakly, but with deep feeling. "Why are you so good to me--a stranger?"
"Because I like you, and you are in trouble."
"There are not many like you--not many! I know I can trust you, and I do wish you would do something for me!"
"I will. Tell me what it is. I promise in advance."
"I don"t want you to promise till you know what it is, for I have no right to ask so much of you."
"Very well. Tell me."
"When I am dead, for I know I shall not last long--will you find my sister and tell her everything? Tell her how near I came to reaching her, and let her know that I am gone. She loves me. I am only fifteen, but she is eighteen and very beautiful. She looks like my angel mother. Dear little Milly! Will you do this?"
"I will do it, if the occasion arises; but we"ll have you all right in a short time, and you will go to her yourself."
"If I recover, I shall not be able to go to her."
"Why not?"
"Bernard Belmont has followed me, and he will drag me back to the old prison--I know it."
"He shall not!" exclaimed Frank, with determination.
"The law is with him," said the boy, weakly. "He has the best of it, for he is my legal guardian."
"At that he has no right to abuse you, and he can be deprived of guardianship over you. It shall be done."
But no light of hope illumined the face of the unfortunate boy.
"It will be no use," George said. "He has starved me and beaten me. He has drenched me with water, and left me where it was icy cold, so that I have been awfully ill. And all the time I had this--this cough."
Frank leaped to his feet and paced the small room like a caged tiger, his soul wrought to an intense fury at the thought of the treatment the boy had received. He longed for power to punish the monster who had perpetrated such dastardly acts.
"Your sister," he finally asked--"did this brute treat her thus?"
"Nearly as bad, but she was older and stronger."
"Tell me, how did your sister get away from him?"
"We planned to run away together, and then I became so ill that I could not. I--I made her leave me. I told her she must find Uncle Carter--must let him know everything. It was our only hope. He must save us."
"But how did she reach your uncle?"
"It was this way: We knew where Bernard Belmont kept some money in a little safe, and I--I knew how to get into that safe. That money belonged to us--it was mother"s money. Belmont was not worth a dollar when he married my mother. It would not be stealing for us to take it.
Sometimes he went away and left us to be cared for by Apollo, the dwarf. Such care! Apollo was a monster--a brute! Bernard Belmont hired him to torture us. This time, when Belmont went away, Apollo shut us up in a room, leaving some bread and water for us, and we were left there, while he visited the wine cellar and got beastly drunk. He thought we were safe in that room--thought we could not get out. But we had been imprisoned there before, and I had made a key of wire. We got out. We found the dwarf in a drunken sleep, and we tied him. Then we went to the safe and opened it. There was but a trifle over fifty dollars in that safe. It was not enough to take us both to Nevada--to Uncle Carter. Then I fainted, and I was too ill to try to run away when my sister restored me. She insisted on staying with me, but I commanded her to go. I begged her to go. I told her it was the only way. If she did not go, we were lost, for Bernard Belmont would discover what we had done, and he would make sure we had no opportunity to repeat the trick. She wanted to stay and care for me. I told her Belmont would not dare harm me till he had caught her. It might be some days before he got back. It was possible she could reach Uncle Carter, and then Uncle Carter could come East and save me. After a time I convinced her. She took the money, dressed herself for the street, and, after kissing me and weeping over me, left me. I have never seen her since."
"But she escaped--she reached your uncle?"
"Yes."
"He made no effort to save you?"
"No."
"Why was that?"
"I know nothing, except that he is queer. Perhaps he thought I was not worth saving. It was nearly a week before Bernard Belmont returned.
All that time I kept Apollo tied fast, and I rejoiced as the days went by. When Belmont came there was a terrible outburst. I was beaten nearly to death. He tried to make me tell where my sister had gone, but I would only say, "Find out." When I had become unconscious and he could not restore me to my senses to question me further, he started to trace Mildred. He traced her after a time, but she had reached Uncle Carter, and she was safe. He wrote a letter to Uncle Carter, and the reply he received made him furious. It told him that Milly was buried so deep that he would never see her again. She was dead to him and to the world. Then Bernard Belmont swore that I would soon be dead in truth. After that--oh, I can"t tell it!"
Frank saw it was exhausting the unfortunate boy, and he quickly said:
"Do not tell it; you have told enough. But you escaped."
"After nearly a year. I escaped without a cent of money, and how I worked my way here I do not know. Several times I dodged detectives, whom I knew were in the employ of Belmont. I got here at last, but I found Bernard Belmont and Apollo were waiting for me. I tried to escape, but Apollo found me, and--you know the rest."
CHAPTER XI.
ANOTHER ESCAPE.
The poor boy relapsed into silence, closing his eyes and breathing with no small difficulty. A great flood of pity welled up in the heart of Frank Merriwell as he looked at that thin, bruised face, and he felt like becoming the boy"s champion and avenger.
Again Frank pressed the thin hand that looked so weak and helpless. He held it in both his own warm, strong hands, and he earnestly said:
"My poor fellow! you have been wretchedly treated, and it is certain that Bernard Belmont shall suffer for what he has done. Retribution is something he cannot escape."
"Oh, I don"t know!" weakly whispered George. "I used to think so--I used to think that the wicked people all were punished, but I"m beginning to believe it isn"t so."
"You must not believe it isn"t so," anxiously declared Frank. "Of course you believe there is an All-wise Being who witnesses even the sparrow"s fall?"
"Yes."