Joe the Hotel Boy; Or, Winning out by Pluck by Pluck by Jr. Horatio Alger (novels to read .txt) 📕
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- Author: Pluck by Jr. Horatio Alger
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“Better not try it on, Malone,” said one officer. “Remember, your picture is in our Rogues' Gallery,” and then the rascal was glad enough to sneak away. The next day he took a train to Baltimore, where, after an hour's hunt, he found Gaff Caven.
“We made a fine mess of things,” he said, bitterly. “A fine mess!”
“What are you talking about, Pat?” asked Caven.
“Do you remember the mining stocks we sold to Maurice Vane?”
“Certainly I do.”
“Well, he has got 'em yet.”
“All right, he can keep them. We have his money too,” and Gaff Caven chuckled.
“I'd rather have the shares.”
“Eh?”
“I said I'd rather have the shares, Gaff. We put our foot into it when we sold 'em.”
“Do you mean to say the shares are valuable?” demanded Gaff Caven.
“That's the size of it.”
“Who told you this?”
“Nobody told me, but I can put two and two together as quick as anybody.”
“Well, explain.”
“I was in Philadelphia when I ran into that hotel boy, Joe Bodley.”
“What of that?”
“He had me arrested. Then they sent for Mr. Maurice Vane, and Vane made me prove that the shares were really ours when we sold them to him. I thought I'd go clear if I could prove that, so I went and did it. Then Vane said he wouldn't prosecute me, for the shares might be valuable after all.”
“But the mine is abandoned.”
“Maybe it is and maybe it isn't. I guess Mr. Maurice Vane knows what he is doing, and we were fools to sell out to him.”
“If that mine is valuable I'm going to have it!” cried Gaff Caven. “He can have his money back!” and the rascal who had overreached himself began to pace the floor.
“Maybe he won't take his money back.”
“Then I'll claim the mine anyway, Pat—and you must help me.”
“What can you do?”
“Go out to Montana, just as soon as the weather is fit, and relocate the mine. If it's any good we can find some fellows to help us hold it somehow. I'm not going to let this slip into Maurice Vane's hands without a struggle.”
“Talk is cheap, but it takes money to pay for railroad tickets,” went on Malone.
“I've got the dust, Pat.”
“Enough to fight Vane off if he should come West?”
“I think so. I met a rich fellow last week and I got a loan of four thousand dollars.”
“Without security?” and Malone winked suggestively.
“Exactly. Oh, he was a rich find,” answered Gaff Caven, and gave a short laugh.
“I'm willing to go anywhere. I'm tired of things here. It's getting too warm for comfort.”
“Then let us start West next week—after I can finish up a little business here.”
“I am willing.”
And so the two rascals arranged to do Maurice Vane out of what had become his lawful property.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE FIRE AT THE HOTEL.
On the day following the scene at the police station Maurice Vane stopped at the Grandon House to interview our hero.
“I must thank you for the interest you have taken in this matter, Joe,” said he. “It is not every lad who would put himself out to such an extent.”
“I wanted to see justice done, Mr. Vane,” answered our hero, modestly.
“Things have taken a sudden change since I saw you last summer,” went on Maurice Vane. “Perhaps it will be as well if I tell my whole story.”
“I'd like first rate to hear it.”
“After I got those shares of stock I felt that I had been swindled, and I was very anxious to get hold of the rascals. But as time went on and I could not locate them I resolved to look into the deal a little more minutely and see if there was any chance of getting my money, or a portion of it, back.”
“I should have done the same.”
“I wrote to a friend out West and he put me in communication with a mining expert who set to work to find out all about the mine. The expert sent me word, late in the fall, that the mine was, in his opinion, located on a vein of gold well worth working.”
“What did you do then?”
“I wanted to go West at once and look into the matter personally, but an aunt died and I had to settle up her estate and see to the care of her two children, and that held me back. Then winter came on, and I knew I'd have to let matters rest until spring.”
“Are you going out there in the spring?”
“Yes,—as early as possible, too.”
“I hope you find the mine a valuable one, Mr. Vane.”
“I place great reliance on what the mining expert said, for he is known as a man who makes no mistakes.”
“Then, if the mine proves of value, you'll have gotten a cheap piece of property after all.”
“Yes, indeed.”
“Won't those swindlers be mad when they hear of this!”
“Most likely, my lad; but they have nobody to blame but themselves. I bought their shares in good faith, while they sold them in bad faith.”
“Is your title perfectly clear now?”
“Absolutely so.”
“Then I hope the mine proves to be worth millions.”
“Thank you, my boy.”
“I'd like to own a mine like that
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