“i’ll not shake hands with you, bruce, but i’d like to, and so would all the men at the quarters,” was mr. trask’s greeting as he seated himself beside the bed of the injured boy. “i don’t think that arm of yours will stand much shaking for some weeks to come, but we’re all proud of you nevertheless.” the boy’s face flushed with pleasure, and his eyes grew dim for the chief had never spoken to him in such a strain before, and besides he had fancied for a month or two past that his superior rather looked down upon him as a boy who was good for nothing except to bed down horses and make himself generally useful about the quarters. to be sure he did not quite understand why mr. trask should say that all the men wanted to shake hands with him, for he had but a hazy remembrance of the events of the previous day, and did not know that his name had been published in the papers with an account of his bravery in saving a boy’s life. he did not know what to say, so he simply remarked, “thank you sir.”
187the chief was silent for a moment and then went on, “well i suppose you’ve had enough of the fire department by this time, but when you get well i’ll see to it that you don’t lose anything by what you did yesterday. i had a talk with mr. dewsnap, and he’ll find a good position somewhere in case you don’t want to come back to the quarters again.”
bruce’s lips quivered and an expression of dismay came into his face: “what!” he cried piteously, “leave the department the minute i begin to like it! why, chief, what have i done that you should want to treat me in that way?”
“then you’re not scared of the service by finding yourself laid up in a hospital, are you?” said the chief inquiringly.
“scared out of it?” echoed the boy, “why should i be scared out of it? i don’t remember everything that happened yesterday but i know that fire was the grandest thing i was ever at in my life. why, i wouldn’t take all the money in the world for my experience yesterday.
“i used to hear my father tell about fires, and going into burning buildings and up on the tops of high roofs but i never had any idea of what the service really was until i found myself following the men with that big, cold, 188clammy hose in my hand. please chief trask, let me stay at the quarters. i’ll do anything you want, if you’ll only let me go to fires with the men.”
“that’s right, my boy!” cried the chief heartily. “i like to hear you talk that way. i’ve been thinking for some time past that you were getting tired of the monotony of the thing and were looking out for a chance to better yourself, and then when you got hurt yesterday, i was afraid it had taken all the ambition out of you. but don’t be afraid, you can stay with us as long as you like, and as soon as you’re well again, i’ll see to it that you go out on the truck along with the rest of the men.
“that’s all i ask for, chief,” said bruce, eagerly, trying to raise his head from the pillow as he spoke, and then letting it fall again from sheer weakness. “the work was getting rather tiresome down there and i hated to be left alone when all the men were away at fires. but if you’ll only let me go with them, i won’t ask anything more of you.”
then chief trask went away promising to come again soon, and skinny, who had watched him closely through his small squirrel eyes, now turned and said: “hay boss, dat was de chief of de bat’lion, i’ve seen him lots 189of times.” and it was evident from the boy’s manner that he regarded his friend and preserver with much greater respect than before.
a church clock in the neighborhood had just finished striking eleven, when miss ingraham the day-nurse, came to bruce’s bedside and said, “there’s a young lady down stairs who wishes to see you; do you feel well enough to talk any more?”
a young lady to see him! bruce wondered, who could it possibly be, and then a look came into his face that made the young lady in the white cap and plaid dress smile, for she guessed from it that it was someone in whom he was deeply interested, so she simply said “i’ll send for her to come up,” and three minutes later bruce’s heart gave a great bound and then seemed to stand almost still as he saw laura van kuren pause for a moment in the doorway and then walk directly towards his bed.
“bruce,” she said, as she bent down beside him, “are you very much hurt? oh i was so, so sorry when i read in the paper that you were precarious, and so i came right down to see you.”
of course bruce had not the slightest idea of what she meant by his being precarious, for 190he did not know that his exploit had been mentioned in the papers at all, but then laura often used long words which she found in her favorite books, and he had become accustomed to this peculiarity of hers, and seldom inquired what she meant when the language happened to seem vague and unintelligible.
“no, i’m not badly hurt,” he answered cheerfully, “but i say, though, it was splendid of you to come down and see me and i’m ever so much obliged to you. did you come all alone? where’s harry?”
“i came down here all alone,” replied the young girl solemnly, “and you mustn’t tell harry a word about it, because i’d get into awful trouble if you did. now promise you’ll never say a word about it.”
bruce promised readily enough, and then laura went on: “it would be awful if you had died without finding out the secret of your birth. only think, you might go to heaven and never know your own relations when you saw them there and they might be the very nicest people there too.”
laura visits bruce in the hospital.—page 190.
191bruce could not help laughing at the young girl’s serious manner of talking about what she persisted in calling the mystery of his birth. his mind was full of the fire department just then, and of the bright prospects which chief trask had opened to him by promising to allow him to go to all the fires just as if he were a regular member of the company. so he told laura that at that moment he had no opportunity to pursue the investigations in which she seemed to take so much interest, but he assured her that the moment he found himself well enough to leave the hospital he would continue his search for the tall dark man with the scar across his face whom they both agreed was in some way identified with his early life.
at the end of fifteen minutes laura went away promising to write him a letter as soon as possible, and leaving him with the cheering assurance that harry would be down as soon as he had either learned his lessons or escaped from his tutor. indeed during the whole of her visit she was haunted by an awful fear that her brother had clambered down the wisteria vine and might enter the door at any moment.
harry did not appear until an hour or more after his sister had gone. mr. reed was with him, and they had stopped to buy a basket of fruit as a present for the injured boy. harry was overflowing with sympathy, and mr. reed was very much more cordial than he had ever been before.
192“i suppose,” said the tutor as he and his pupil were taking their leave, “that you have not many friends in town to come to visit.”
“oh, i’ve had two callers already this morning before you came,” replied bruce; “chief trask came first and then—”
the boy stopped short, colored, hesitated, and then went on, “and there was another friend of mine who came. she just went away a little while ago.”
both his visitors noticed his hesitation and harry wondered if it could be possible that his sister had been down there ahead of him, but he said nothing to mr. reed of his suspicions. he resolved however to get at the truth of the matter so that he might have something fresh to taunt his sister with the next time they quarrelled.
it is doubtful if the whole city of new york contained a happier boy than the one who was lying, sorely wounded and with his eyes inflamed and almost blinded, in a narrow white cot in a common hospital ward. the sun was shining brightly through the tall windows, and the distant hum and roar of the great city sounded faintly in his ears. he knew that it would be many weeks, perhaps months, before he could hope to resume the career which had 193been interrupted so suddenly the day before, and to a boy who had never known a day’s illness in his life the prospect of a long, irksome confinement was anything but pleasant. nevertheless, bruce decker felt that he had a great deal to make him happy just then.
first of all he realized that he had done his duty in facing danger the first time that he was called upon, and chief trask’s encouraging words had sounded more agreeably in his ears than anything that he had ever heard before. moreover, the fact that not only the chief but harry and laura van kuren had come at once to his bedside was another reason for his contented state of mind. but beside all this the memory of the exciting events of the day before filled his mind. there had come over him while he stood with a hose in his hand amid the smoke and blaze of the burning building an overwhelming sense of the importance and dignity of his calling, and it had seemed to him at that moment that he was no longer a mere boy, tolerated at the quarters because he could run errands and take care of horses, but a fireman in the truest sense of the word—one whose duty it was to go without fear wherever his chief led him, and to be ready, if necessary, to sacrifice his life (as his father had done before him) to 194save another’s. and now as he rested quietly in his bed the soldierly feeling had full possession of his soul. if he had ever cherished any serious thought of leaving the department and seeking employment in some other walk of life, that feeling was now entirely submerged by one of loyal devotion to the department which he had served, and to which he would return as soon as he could leave his bed, with a steadfast purpose far deeper than the enthusiasm which had influenced him before.
taking all these things into consideration, it is not to be wondered at that a right-minded, brave young lad like bruce decker should have been positively happy in spite of his hurts as he lay there, one of twenty-four patients in the casualty ward. but although he did not know it, he had another reason for thankfulness, for he had attached to himself a new friend—a friend who was bound to prove of infinite service to him in untangling some of the threads which had caused him so much anxious thought of late. that new friend was lying in the cot next to him, silently watching him through a pair of sharp blue eyes.
skinny the swiper was a child of the new york streets, one of those boys who could not remember having had any home or kindred, 195and who, from his earliest recollection, had been living as best he could by selling papers, blacking boots, or doing anything that he could turn his hand to. his wits, naturally sharp, had been developed to a remarkable degree of precocity by his rough contact with the world until they had made him more than a match for any of the lads with whom he consorted. he had known very little kindness in his dozen years of life, and possibly it was for that reason that his heart went out in gratitude to the boy who had saved him, but skinny was a lad of few words, and although he looked searchingly at the other and probably thought a great deal, it was not until late in the afternoon that he ventured to speak of what was uppermost in his thoughts. then he raised himself slightly on his elbow and said: “hay, boss, i seen dat young lady before, onct.”
bruce did not like the idea of discussing such a superior being as laura van kuren with a grimy little boy of the streets, and besides he did not believe that skinny had ever seen her, so he answered rather curtly, “no, i guess you’re mistaken; that young lady doesn’t live in the same street with you.”
196“who said she did?” demanded the boy. “but i seen her all de same. besides i don’t live in no street at all.”
“well, where did you see her then?”
“i seen her way up near de harlem. her folks has got a big house dere, an’ one day when i was walkin’ by i stopped ter look troo de railin’ and she come up and gimme some grapes. she’s a jim dandy, dat young lady is.”
“but how came you away up there?” inquired bruce, in some amazement.
“i went up dere fer a man wot useter git me to run errands onct in a while, and dat’s de way i seen her,” replied skinny.
“what sort of errands did you have to do up there? i should think that would be pretty far out of your beat,” continued bruce, with an idle curiosity to learn something of his new friend.
“oh! i went up dere lots o’ times on most partick’ler business,” responded skinny. “dere was a bloke useter send me ter carry letters to a big house dat had evergreens in front of it and a porch over de door. deres was an’ old gent lived dere, but now he’s gone ter yurrup or africky or some place or nudder.”
197and now it was bruce’s turn to be interested. “was there a side door to the house, with vines hanging over it?” he asked.
“cert,” replied skinny, “an’ an old gent dat giv me a quarter two or tree times. an’ twict he sent me in de kitchen an’ de lady wot cooked dere gimme a steak an’ pertaters an’ coffee. dey never watched me needer, an’ i mighter swiped some spoons on’y dey used me so white.”
bruce’s head, which had been lifted slightly from the pillow during this conversation, now fell back from sheer weariness, and for a few moments the boy remained absolutely quiet, wondering if it could be possible that he had found in this street arab someone who could enlighten him in regard to the mystery which had puzzled him so much and awakened such a deep interest in the heart of laura van kuren.
“who was the man who used to send you up there on errands?” inquired bruce, after a brief silence.
“i never knowed his name. he was a bloke dat useter hang out at a place in eldridge street, and he seen me around dere an’ gimme a job now an’ den. we useter call him scar-faced charley.”
198“well, what sort of a looking man was he?” persisted bruce, trying not to betray the deep interest that he felt.
“he was a tall feller, an’ had a black beard an’ a scar acrost his face,” said skinny.
bruce asked no more questions, and the young newsboy soon after fell into a doze, leaving the other free to pursue his thought. it seemed to him now that he had at last found a clue to the identity of the man who had known his father, and whom he never doubted for a moment was the same one who had sent skinny on errands to mr. dexter’s house. the more he thought of it the more excited he became, and in his weak condition the excitement soon made itself manifest in his face, so that miss ingraham, pausing for a moment beside his cot, noticed the condition of her patient, felt of his pulse, and then called the doctor to see if any change for the worse had taken place. the boy seemed to be on the verge of a fever, so the doctor gave him a quieting draught and bade him compose his mind, if possible, and go to sleep.
the next day bruce awoke feeling calmer and refreshed. the fever of the day before had left him, and when miss ingraham made her morning rounds she found him looking so 199much better that she smiled encouragingly upon him, and told him that he was on the high road to recovery.
“is there anything you would like me to do for you?” said the nurse, kindly.
“yes,” replied the boy timidly, “if it is not too much trouble for you, i would like to have you write me a letter. i can’t use my hands yet and there’s a friend of mine to whom i wish to write.”
the nurse, who was accustomed to requests of this sort, brought pen and paper to his bedside, sat down and said: “well, what shall i write?”
“you may begin with dear miss laura,” said bruce and miss ingraham smiled to herself as she wrote it. the letter, which was concocted between them, read as follows:
“dear miss laura:
something happened just after you went away yesterday that i thought would interest you. in the bed next to mine is a small boy whom i pulled out of the building that was on fire. as soon as you had gone he told me that he had seen you before, but i did not believe him. i asked him where and he said up near the harlem river where you live. then i asked him how he came to be up there, and he said that a man used to send him on errands to a house which i am sure from his description is mr. dexter’s. i asked him who the man was but he did not 200know. all he could tell me was that he was a tall, dark man with a black beard and a scar across his face. what do you think of that? it looks to me as if i could run him down with the help of skinny, the boy who told me that, and as soon as i get well again i will start after him.
thanking you for your great kindness in coming to see me, i am,
yours very respectfully,
bruce decker.”
then, having cautioned miss ingraham not to reveal to anybody the contents of his letter, he begged her to stamp and mail it to the address which he gave her, and this she readily promised to do.
