the next day mr. lawrence, leaving his nephew still with henry, went to the town of which he had spoken. here insanity had taken hold of him, and here he expected to unravel his mysteries.
the two boys laid their heads together, and arrived at the conclusion that the world is not hollow, after all; and that if they were not heroes yet, a few years would make them so.
“the stuff is in us, will; all we have to do is to work it up.”
“yes, henry; and when you come to see me, the people in our neighborhood had better be prepared. there are no captives for us to rescue, but i guess you can hit on something good.”
“why, will,” said henry, smiling his delight, “you are almost getting to be like any other boy! you—you talk sensibly. what has come over you?”
“well, when i saw that good came from our journey to the cave, and that we rescued my uncle, i concluded that i had been wrong and you right. i guess it’s safe to play tricks with you, anyway; and——”
“‘tricks!’” echoed henry, scowling horribly.
“no, no!” will hastily declared. “i—i—mean—henry—don’t be vexed, henry; i meant stratagems!”
the affronted patient softened. “yes, that is the word you meant, will,” he said, “but you always ought to say what you mean. i always do; and so i never have to stumble, and correct myself, and appear as though i don’t know what i’m talking about.”
will’s eyes expressed a mild rebuke.
henry was not fluent in making apologies; on this occasion he simply said, with a look of pain that spoke volumes in his behalf: “it’s in my left knee, will; hand me that bottle, please.”
“next time i venture on any more stratagems,—if i ever do venture on any more,—i’ll warn all the sailors[205] and teamsters in the settlement, so that i can be rescued just in the nick of time,” will said good humoredly.
“yes, as long as they didn’t follow too close at your heels, and spoil the fun. well, will, i knew i could cure you if you stayed with me long enough; but i didn’t expect to do it so soon.”
when the patient was easy will read to him. the books that pleased them most were about mustached heroes who cruised in polynesia, discovering “sea-girt isles” which captain cook and later navigators had missed, and which almost invariably held captive some ragged individual, who, after divers adventures with pirates and chinamen, had finally succeeded in nailing $795,143 up in a mahogany coffin, only to be shipwrecked with it.
in after years will looked back on those days spent with henry as the pleasantest in his boyhood. he had no haunting dreams; got into no disgrace; and, except when he thought of poor stephen, felt no reproaches of conscience.
one day the mother of the girl who had given henry a glass ink-bottle came in to inquire personally after his health.
“i heard you were getting better, henry, but i thought i should like to come and see for myself,” she said pleasantly.
“i wonder now if she didn’t hint to her mother to do this!” henry thought to himself. “i believe she did; but i wish i knew. why can’t folks tell the truth, anyway, and say right out how it is! how am i to find out! i know when she had a bad cold, i hinted till my mother went there to ask about her! botheration! i will know!”
“it’s very good of you to take so much interest in me,” he ventured, slightly emphasizing the word you.
“yes, henry, when i saw the doctor call here twice yesterday i thought i must step in and see you.”
the boy was silenced, but not satisfied.
“i’ve brought a book for you, henry, that i think you will like,” she said, taking a handsomely bound volume out of her reticule and laying it on a stand at henry’s elbow.
[206]
he picked it up. “her book!” he thought exultingly. “i know it’s hers, for i’ve heard her speak of it. she sent it to me! of course she did. she sent it!”
once more his heart bounded with ecstasy; once more he was supremely happy. the blood rushed to his face; his lips quivered; his hands trembled.
the visitor remarked this, and turning to mrs. mortimer said sympathetically, “poor boy! how patiently he bears it!”
then, stepping up to the bedside, she laid her hands on his head, kissed his forehead gently and affectionately, and asked softly, “is the pain very bad, henry?”
it seemed to henry that his heart stood still.
“it is her mother,” he thought, “and she has kissed me!”
their eyes met. a woman perceives many things intuitively; henry’s secret was hers from that moment. for all answer she kissed him again. from that day the two were firm and true friends.
when henry found himself alone he examined every leaf of that book carefully.
“she sent it,” he muttered, “and perhaps there is something written in it. she may have written, ‘i hope you will like this book, henry;’ or, ‘this is the story we spoke of, henry;’ or, ‘when will you be able to start to school again, henry?’”
the observing reader will perceive that in each of those sentences the hero’s own name occurs. henry was capable of strong feelings; in some respects he was a boy; in others, a man.
at last, at the top of a useless fly-leaf, he came upon two initial letters. they were not hers; they were not his. the writing was very bad; he could not recognize it. he did not consider that a book-seller often scrawls a cipher or two on the fly-leaves of his books. he was mystified.
jealousy, however, soon suggested an explanation; jealousy pointed out that those characters were written by her, and that they stood for “j. j.”
once more he was miserable.
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he saw johnny jones in his true colors; saw all his defects, all his emptiness, all his insignificance, all his baseness. and yet he was jealous!
the lover very often feels his rival to be the most despicable person on the face of the earth; and yet, at the same instant, he fears that rival, despicable as he is, will steal away the heart of his beloved.
to a man whose thoughts never rise above the earth on which he walks, this may seem preposterous; but it is true, and may easily be explained—so easily, in fact, that the writer leaves it for some one who can do so more ably and clearly than himself.
it has been said that henry was fated never to explore the demon’s cave. he never did.
the city fathers, fearing, in their wisdom, that the cave might become the haunt of evil characters or the lair of some wild beast, convoked a council, and drew up a document which began and ended thus:
“whereas, ...
“resolved, that said cave be forthwith demolished.”
then five men and two hundred and seventy-three or seventy-four boys fell to work upon it, and executed this command to the letter. the demon’s cave had served its purpose: it was no more.
the view from the opposite bank was marred; but the city fathers knew that they had done their duty, and their conscience was easy.
after an absence of a week uncle dick returned to mr. mortimer’s. he had visited the little city; solved his mysteries; and been to see his brother.
he made himself comfortable in an easy chair, and while those interested in him listened attentively, he romanced as follows:—
“several years ago, when i was still a young man, by prudent and lawful speculations i amassed a fortune. but i was not satisfied; i still wished for more; and one day when a stranger came to me with wonderful stories about making colossal fortunes in a far-off part of the world, i listened eagerly, and secretly resolved to settle my affairs and hasten away with him. i should need[208] every dollar i possessed to embark in this scheme, the stranger told me; and the sooner i could get away, the sooner i should return to my native country a rich man.
“i kept my purpose hidden from my nearest friends, and got together all my money as secretly as possible. i was not to deposit this money in a bank, and draw it as i needed it; oh, no! i must pack it up snugly in a strong trunk, and take it all with me. this man, black, advised me to ‘keep my own counsel to the very last;’ and i also knew that my people would oppose my taking up with an entire stranger, and embarking in such a wild-goose chase. consequently he, and i, and the trunk of funds, stole away like criminals, leaving only a short note of farewell and explanation behind us. by the way, mr. mortimer, my brother tells me that he received no such note, and i must infer that black found means to destroy it.
“i knew that i was acting dishonorably, but i excused my conduct to myself by thinking i should soon return in triumph, worth millions. at that date, enormous wealth was the summit of my ambitions; and it must come suddenly and easily; petty speculation had become tiresome to me, and i wished to wake up some morning and find myself a nabob.
“in a certain city—the place to which i went after leaving you—we halted, ‘to complete our arrangements,’ as my betrayer put it, if i remember rightly. having entered a small and out-of-the-way building, which he called his own, probably correctly, i was assaulted by him and another villain who was unknown to me. i remember distinctly black’s saying to this man, ‘now, bill, a heavy blow on his head, and he is dead. then his trunk of money is ours!’ i started to my feet, but at that instant a furious blow was struck at my head, and i, poor fool, knew no more.
“my object in going to that city last week was to see whether i could learn what had happened to me from the time of that attempted murder till i appeared here as the ‘demon of the cave,’ in this i succeeded very well. it seems that the police were on these men’s track, and that they broke into the building just after i had been knocked[209] down. the villains, black and his accomplice, doubtless thought me dead, or else meant to deal another blow, but had not time. their crime was bootless; for they were thrown into prison, tried in due time, and sent into penal servitude, where they are still.
“then i was taken to an hospital; but as i had scarcely anything with me, except my clothes and my chest of money, no clue could be found to inform my friends of my whereabouts. so they kept me on there, within a few hundred miles of my home, and took the greatest care of me. the cruel blow on my head had taken away my reason, and all the doctors of the hospital could not restore it.
“what puzzles me is that my friends did not find me in process of time, as the whole affair was published in the newspapers. well, i suppose they thought of me as being far away and that i could not possibly be the madman in k. hospital. i never saw the account in the newspapers, and the description of the madman may not have tallied with the uncle dick of the country village.
“and now comes the most extraordinary part of my story. i was ill in the hospital for several weeks, and meanwhile the authorities took charge of my chest. it seems that i was aware my money was in it, and with all a maniac’s cunning i kept watch over it. one day, when my bodily health and strength were quite restored, both i and my chest of treasure were missing!
“so the story runs; but there i am bothered; there is mystery. from that day all is dark to me; all is a blank; and i can only speculate. i am left to suppose, then, that i made off with my chest of money; roamed over the country in search of a home; came upon the cave in this neighborhood; and established myself in it!
“now, that is contrary to reason—in fact, it would require a powerful imagination to put any faith in such a cock-and-bull story.
“i have a notion that a great deal of my money was taken either by dishonest servants while in the hospital, or else by thieves after i left it; and i think even that i was robbed of the whole amount, and came upon some[210] money in the cave. how could a lunatic make his way through the country with a chest of money, and not be molested? it is impossible. in fact, mr. mortimer, from the moment i left the hospital till i took up my abode in the cave, it is all a muddle to me. it may be explained some day; but it is all a muddle to me now.
“from inquiries i made in this place, i found that a dealer brought me supplies while i lived in the cave, and that i paid him for them. i hunted him out, and he told me he made my acquaintance through another man, when i first came here. he is a simple, honest, old man, incapable of cheating even a madman; and i am satisfied that he acted fairly with me, and had no hand in my coming to the cave.
“but who is the other? i believe the whole question hinges on that; and if we could meet with him, i would force the secret from him. the dealer affirms that he knows nothing about this man; he saw him only once; and then he told him (the dealer) to send supplies to an eccentric man who intended to live for a short time in what was then called simply, ‘the cave.’ but, alas! it continued through ten years!
“while living in the cave, i am told that i was continually on the watch against robbers; which proves conclusively, i think, that people of that calling preyed upon me either before or after i left the hospital.
“mr. mortimer, as far as i can make it out, this is my story. it is not much, but i have made the best of it.” the next day mr. lawrence and his nephew set out for home. the long-lost man had, at length, after an absence of ten years, returned.
he lived with his brother, and for a few weeks, did nothing. ten years in a cave had undermined his health, but as soon as his constitution regained its natural vigor, he went into business on his own account. at forty he found himself penniless, and obliged to begin life anew; ten years were as though they had not been, and he had summarily got rid of a fortune.
he was of a cheerful and hopeful disposition, and did not grieve about this; still, he could not help thinking[211] what misery would have been spared if he had not trusted himself implicitly to a villain.
for the present uncle dick must sink into oblivion. he will be resuscitated, however, at the proper time.
will was received by his parents with open arms. he had behaved nobly; he was a little hero. all the praise must be given to him, of course. had he not rescued his uncle, alone and unaided? had he not done all in his power to help that uncle when he lay helpless in his cave? had he not stayed by him and tended him? had he not explored the horrible place known as the demons cave? he had; he had done all this; and yet come off without a scratch!
of course, henry meant well, but he had no hand in rescuing uncle dick—he had not even entered the cave. henry was a good, a manly little fellow, but in that affair he had been only a figure-head.
will found that stephen was recovering fast. his school-fellows crowded round him and listened eagerly while he dilated on his cousin’s and his own exploits. now that the affair was happily over, he delighted in telling them about his “adventures” in the cave, and marmaduke, especially, delighted in hearing them. to him, henry was a mighty hero.
the affair with stephen sobered the others for a time, and when the poor boy again appeared among them, nothing they could do for him was left undone. he was a martyr in their eyes, and they willingly left off their own sports to talk to him. under these kind attentions, what wonder is it that the boy soon recovered his health, strength, and spirits?
the whole tribe of heroes kept clear of tricks and misdeeds till the following summer; but will, of course, committed his diverting little blunders daily. but it would be foolish to chronicle them.
as for henry, he recovered rapidly, and when will and his uncle left he was a great deal better. he missed will very much, but he did not suffer a relapse. he put his remaining pistol carefully away, vowing to load it himself, if he should be tempted to use it again. as for the[212] one which will discharged, it was lost the night of the expedition to the cave.
