Mark Mason's Victory: The Trials and Triumphs of a Telegraph Boy

"Shall I call you father?"

"No; perhaps it will be more suitable to call me brother Mark. Did you stop over in Nevada, Mr. Dempsey?"

"Yes; I went to the mine."

"What did you learn?"

"That a New York syndicate is trying to purchase the mine, and this has carried up the price of stock to two hundred and fifty dollars."

Mark's eyes sparkled.

"Why that would make mother's share worth fifty thousand dollars," he said.

"I advise you to take measures to secure your mother's rights as soon as you reach home. There is danger in delay."

"I certainly will follow your advice, Mr. Dempsey. Shall you hold on to your shares?"

"No. I think I will sell out. I have an offer from a man in Virginia City which I think I shall accept. The stock may go higher, but again it may go lower. My shares will bring twenty-five thousand dollars, and that will make a man like me rich."

"I wish I had control of mother's stock now," said Mark. "I could realize a price which would make her comfortable for life."

The sudden rise in the value of the Golden Hope shares was already known in New York. Mr. Talbot on receiving the intelligence called on his brokers, Crane & Lawton.

"Would you advise me to sell now, Mr. Crane?" he asked.

"Wait a week, Mr. Talbot, and you may realize a few more points. Then you had better unload."

"I will be guided by your advice. I am sure it is for the best."

There was still, however, a feeling of uneasiness in the mind of Mr. Talbot, who knew very well that Mrs. Mason was the rightful owner of half the stock which he controlled. He decided to call on his sister in-law once more, and urge her to sign a paper releasing him from further liability as executor of her father's estate.

"I wonder whether Mark has got back," he said to himself. "If not, probably Ellen is very short of money. I will offer, if necessary, five hundred dollars for her signature. I don't think she can resist that."

Mrs. Mason had just finished washing her breakfast dishes when there was a knock at the door. Opening it, she saw the familiar face of Tom Trotter, dressed in the uniform of a Western Uniform telegraph boy.

"What, Tom!" she exclaimed in surprise. "Have you changed your business?"

"Yes, Mrs. Mason," answered Tom complacently. "I've give up blackin' boots, and now I'm a messenger boy like Mark."

"You look very nice in your uniform, Tom. There's another improvement I see."

"What is that, Mrs. Mason?"

"Your hands and face are both clean."

"I've got to keep clean now," said Tom soberly. "It seems kind of strange, but I guess I'll get used do it. When I look in the glass I don't hardly know myself."

"Don't you like it better?"

"Well, I guess I shall when I get used to it. But I forgot, I've got a message for you," and Tom drew out an official envelope.

"It must be from Mark," said Mrs. Mason in excitement, and she tore open the dispatch and read as follows:

Omaha, Sept. 17.

Shall be home on Friday. Mark.

"Mark will be home on Friday, Tom!" said the happy mother. "How glad I shall be!"

"Hurray!" exclaimed Tom. "That's good news."

"Come round and take dinner with us Sunday, Tom. We'll have a little feast in honor of Mark's return."

"I'll see, Mrs. Mason. I was engaged to take dinner with Jay Gould, but I'll telegraph him I can't come."

"I am afraid we can't give you as good a dinner as Jay Gould."

"You'll have Mark here and that's better than the best dinner Jay can give me. Shall I wear my swallow tail?"

"No; your uniform will do."

Tom Trotter had hardly gone out when there was another knock at the door. On opening it Mrs. Mason was somewhat surprised to see her brother-in-law. Solon Talbot's manner was very gracious and patronizing.

"I hope you are well, Ellen," he said extending his hand.

"Thank you, I am quite well," replied Mrs. Mason.

"And Edith too?"

Mr. Talbot seldom took any notice of Edith, but he had an object to gain now.

"Yes, Edith is well. She has just gone to school."

"I think I heard that Mark was absent from the city."

"Yes, he is away."

"He has been gone some time?"

"Yes."

"I should think you would miss him."

"So I do. I miss him constantly."

"You must find it hard to get along without him – financially I mean."

"He left some money behind. I am not in want."

"Ellen, I am really sorry to see you living in such a poor way. These humble rooms are not suitable for you."

Mrs. Mason was rather astonished to hear these words from her brother-in-law. She did not understand that he was preparing the way for another offer.

"It would certainly be pleasant for me to live better," she said. "I hope to when Mark gets older."

"You had better not count too much upon that. An office boy's wages seldom amount to much. How much does he earn?"

"He averaged about five dollars a week as a telegraph messenger."

"So I supposed. He may get a dollar or two more in a year or two – but what is that?"

"It isn't much," Mrs. Mason admitted.

"I was talking the matter over with Mary the other day, and it is largely on her account that I came here this morning to make a proposal to you."

"Now it's coming!" thought Mrs. Mason. "Well?" she said.

"And I have made up my mind to offer you five hundred dollars."

"That is very kind," said Mrs. Mason demurely.

"On condition that you sign this paper releasing me from all responsibility as executor of your father's estate."

"This seems important to you, Solon," said Mrs. Mason keenly.

"It is a matter of form. I shall present it at the probate court. But it gives me an excuse for offering you a generous gift."

"I will think it over, Solon."

"Think it over? What thinking over do you need? I am not sure that I can give you time for that, as the gift is entirely voluntary on my part. I have brought the money with me, and in five minutes you can be a comparatively rich woman."

"I have just had a telegram from Mark saying that he will be home on Friday. I will wait till he comes. If you will come round Saturday – "

"I can't promise," said Talbot, deeply disappointed. "You stand very much in your own light."

"I can make no other answer, Solon."

"Confound that young meddler, Mark!" muttered Talbot as he left the house. "But for him I should have no difficulty in obtaining his mother's signature."

CHAPTER XXXV

EDGAR GETS INTO TROUBLE

While Solon Talbot was intent upon making money, his son Edgar was left to spend his time pretty much as he pleased. His father had secured him a place with a firm of brokers in Wall Street, in fact in the office of Crane & Lawton, through whom he intended to dispose of his mining stocks.

Edgar received five dollars a week, and this his father allowed him to keep for himself. But five dollars a week in a city like New York won't go very far when a boy gives up his evenings to playing pool.

One night Edgar made the acquaintance of a showy young man whom he ignorantly supposed belonged to a prominent New York family. It was in fact our old acquaintance, Hamilton Schuyler, with whom Mark had already had some experiences which did not impress him very much in the young man's favor.

Schuyler's attention was drawn to Edgar at a pool-room in the neighborhood of Forty-Second Street, and he made inquiries about him. Ascertaining that Edgar's father was supposed to be rich he cultivated his acquaintance, and flattered him artfully.

"You play a good game of billiards, Mr. Talbot," he said.

"Oh, fair," answered Edgar complacently.

"Do you mind having a game with me?"

"You probably play a good deal better than I do."

"We can try and see. By the way, let me introduce myself," and he handed Edgar his card.

"Schuyler Hamilton!" read Edgar, "that is an old name, is it not?"

"Yes," answered Schuyler carelessly. "I am related to most of the old Knickerbocker families. I am very particular whom I associate with, but I saw at once that you were a gentleman."

Foolish Edgar was very much flattered.

"My father is a capitalist," he said. "We used to live in Syracuse, but he thinks he can make more money in New York."

"Just so. There are plenty of chances of making money here. I made five thousand dollars in Wall Street last week myself."

"You did!" exclaimed Edgar dazzled.

"Yes. Sometimes I have made more. I don't often lose. Which ball will you select. The spot?"

"Yes."

"I suppose it takes considerable money to speculate in Wall Street?"

"Oh no, not on a margin."

"I should like to make a strike myself. I am in the office of Crane & Lawton."

"Are you indeed? I never did any business with them, but I understand that they stand very high."

"I think they are rich."

The game was played, and resulted in the success of Edgar.

"Really, you play a strong game. Suppose – just for the excitement of it – we stake a dollar on the next game. What do you say?"

"All right!"

Edgar had received his week's pay in the afternoon, and was well provided. He flattered himself he could play better than Schuyler, and thought it would be very agreeable to win money in that way. Schuyler managed to let him win.

"Really," he said with pretended annoyance, "I am afraid you are more than a match for me."

"Perhaps I was lucky," said Edgar, elated.

"At any rate I will try again. Let us call it two dollars."

"Very well," assented Edgar.

Somehow this game was won by his opponent by five points. Edgar was annoyed, for this took a dollar from his pocket, and it had been arranged that the loser should pay for the use of the tables.

It was an accident, however, and he kept on. At the close of the evening he was without a cent.

"I have been unlucky," he said, trying to hide his mortification. "I have lost all the money I had with me."

"That is too bad. Here, give me a memorandum for two dollars, and I will hand you back that amount. Some time when you are in funds you can pay me."

"Thank you!" said Edgar in a tone of relief.

"You are really a better player than I am," went on Schuyler, "but the balls happened to run in my favor. Another evening I shall be the loser."

This was the first of Edgar's acquaintance with Schuyler Hamilton, but it was by no means the last. They got into the way of meeting nearly every night and Edgar ran more and more into Schuyler's debt. However, Hamilton was very easy with him. He accepted memorandums of indebtedness, which somehow seemed a very easy way of paying debts. Edgar did not reflect that a day of reckoning must come at last.

At last Hamilton Schuyler thought it time to bring matters to a crisis.

"Do you know how much you are owing me, Edgar?" he said one evening.

"No," answered Edgar uneasily.

"Seventy-five dollars!"

"It can't be!" exclaimed Edgar, incredulous.

"These things increase faster than you think for," said Schuyler carelessly.

"I suppose you'll let it run," remarked Edgar with a troubled look.

"I should be glad to do so, my dear boy, but I need the money. I was hit rather hard at the races yesterday, and the long and short of it is, that you will have to pay me."

"I can't pay you," said Edgar doggedly.

Schuyler frowned.

"What do you mean by that?" he demanded sternly.

"I mean exactly what I say. I haven't got any money. I only get five dollars a week, and I can't spare any of that."

"You've got to get the money. You had no business to bet if you couldn't pay."

"I never did bet till I got acquainted with you."

"Enough of this, boy!" said Hamilton, waving his hand in a dignified manner. "I shall have to lay the matter before your father."

"No, don't do that! He wouldn't let me keep my wages."

"That is your affair, not mine. Can't you tell him you want to pay a tailor's bill, and get the money that way?"

"No; I get my clothes charged at his tailor's."

"Oh, well, I don't care how you get it as long as you do get it. Doesn't your father leave any money lying about in his desk or in his bureau drawers?"

"No. Besides, you don't want me to steal, do you?"

"Not if you can get the money any other way."

"Look here, Mr. Schuyler, I thought you were rich. How do you happen to be in want of seventy-five dollars?"

"Anybody might be short of money. One day when I was traveling in the Adirondacks, I met a rich man – a millionaire – who was in trouble. 'I say, Schuyler,' he said to me, 'can you loan me a hundred dollars. I give you my word I am almost penniless, and no one knows me here.' Now I happened to have three hundred dollars in my pocketbook, and I at once produced it and lent him the money. You see even a millionaire can get into a money scrape."

"Who was the millionaire?" asked Edgar, who was not quite so credulous a believer of Schuyler's pictures as formerly.

"I don't feel at liberty to tell. It would not be honorable. But to come back to our own business! You must make some arrangement to pay me."

"Tell me how," said Edgar sulkily.

"Don't you deposit for your firm in the Park Bank?"

"Yes."

"Always checks?"

"Sometimes there are bank bills."

Schuyler bent over and whispered in Edgar's ear. Edgar flushed and then looked nervous and agitated.

"You ask me to do that," he said.

"Yes, there is no danger. Say you lost the bills in the street."

Edgar was not a conscientious boy or a boy of high principle, but this suggestion shocked him.

"Would you ruin me?" he asked.

"I would have you pay me what you owe me. If you don't there will be a fuss."

"I wish I had never met you, Mr. Schuyler," said poor Edgar bitterly.

"I have been disappointed in you," said Schuyler coldly. "I thought you were the son of a gentleman and a gentleman yourself."

"Who says I am not?"

"I don't. I expect you to behave like one. Good night."

This interview took place on Fifth Avenue not far from Delmonico's café. When the two parted another boy, who had been following at a little distance, moved rapidly forward and placed his hand on Edgar's shoulder.

"Cousin Edgar," he said.

Edgar turned.

"Mark!" he said, not with his old hauteur, for trouble had humbled his pride.

"Yes. Who was that you were walking with?" asked Mark.

"No one you know. He is Mr. Schuyler, from one of the best New York families."

Mark smiled.

"I hope you have no business with him," he said.

"I owe him seventy-five dollars, and I don't know how on earth I am going to pay him."

"What do you owe him that for?"

"For bets on games of billiards."

"This Hamilton Schuyler, as he calls himself, is an adventurer, a swindler, and a thief. His family is not as good as yours or mine."

"Is this true?" asked Edgar stupefied.

"Yes. Don't trouble yourself about what you owe him. Appoint a meeting for him to-morrow evening at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. I will go there and meet him with you. I'll get you out of your scrape."

"Do that, Mark, and I'll be your friend for life. I'll never treat you meanly again."

CHAPTER XXXVI

AT THE FIFTH AVENUE HOTEL

On arriving in New York Mark took his young charge at once to the house of Mr. Gilbert.

It was at the close of the day, and Mr. Gilbert had returned from his office. He received Mark with great cordiality.

"True and faithful, as I expected!" he said. "How did you enjoy your trip?"

"Very much, sir. I hope, some day, to visit California again."

"So you are Philip Lillis, my boy," continued Mr. Gilbert kindly. "Do you think you shall like to live in New York?"

"Yes, sir."

"Were you sorry to leave California?"

"No, sir; Mr. Sprague and Oscar did not treat me well. I would rather live with you."

"Your father was a cousin and dear friend. I will try to make his boy comfortable and happy. Mark, will you stay to supper?"

"I should like to very much, but I have not yet seen my mother."

"That is sufficient excuse. Your first duty is to her. Wait a moment. I must express my acknowledgments to you in a substantial manner."

Mr. Gilbert sat down at his desk and wrote a check, which he inclosed in an envelope.

"Open it when you get home," he said.

"I have a balance of about forty dollars belonging to you, Mr. Gilbert, from my expense money."

"Keep it. I am sure it will be more useful to you than to me."

"How kind you are, Mr. Gilbert!"

"I hope to continue so. Take a few days for rest, and then come round to my counting-room and we will talk of your future prospects."

Mrs. Mason gave Mark a glad welcome.

"I am so glad to see you," she said.

"I hope you did not want for money while I was gone."

"No; I still have half the money you gave me from Mr. Gilbert when you went away. Shall I give it back to you?"

"No, mother; keep it for current expenses. Mr. Gilbert gave me a check just now, but I don't know how much it is."

He opened the envelope and took out the check.

"It is for two hundred dollars!" he exclaimed. "Mother, we are growing rich. With the balance in my hands, which Mr. Gilbert told me to keep, I have two hundred and forty dollars."

"We have much to be thankful for, Mark. Compare our present state with three months since. Shall you go back to the telegraph office?"

"No; Mr. Gilbert will probably give me a place in his counting-room, but I shall wait a few days first. Is there any news?"

"Your uncle has been to see me again. He offered me five hundred dollars if I would sign a release to him as executor."

"You didn't do it?"

"No."

"I am glad. Mother, Uncle Solon is trying to swindle us out of a large sum. I heard about the Golden Hope mine when I was away. The shares are booming, and I shall to-morrow call on my friend the lawyer and request him to communicate with Mr. Talbot."

"I leave the matter in your hands, Mark. Though you are so young, you seem to have a judgment beyond your years."

"Thank you for the compliment, mother. I am afraid Uncle Solon would not agree with you. That reminds me. I have an engagement with Edgar to-morrow evening."

"Indeed! I thought you and Edgar were not friendly."

"He has got into a scrape, and I have promised to help him out."

"Is it anything serious?"

"He owes an adventurer seventy-five dollars, and the latter is trying to frighten him into paying it. I know the man to be a swindler, and shall be able to foil him in his plans."

"If you can be of service to Edgar I hope you will. He has not treated you well, but he is your cousin."

The next evening Edgar Talbot walked into the Fifth Avenue Hotel. He felt nervous, for he did not understand how Mark could help him. It seemed strange to him that he should be indebted to his poor and almost despised cousin for help in his time of trouble.

A minute after Mark entered looking cheerful and happy.

"Good evening, Edgar," he said. "Has our friend Schuyler appeared?"

"Not yet."

"I don't want him to see me at first. I will go into the reading room, and when you get ready invite him in there. First, draw him out and see what he proposes to do."

Mark's confident manner somewhat allayed Edgar's alarm. He was proud and arrogant, but he had little courage.

He sat down on the sofa at the left hand side of the entrance and in about five minutes Hamilton Schuyler swaggered in. He was carefully dressed and had a rose in his buttonhole.

"I am going to the opera this evening with a fashionable party," he said, "and I shall have to hurry up my business with you."

"I am here on time," said Edgar.

"I see. Well, I suppose you have brought the money with you."

"You mean the seventy-five dollars?"

"Of course I do."

"No, Mr. Schuyler, I have not brought the money."

"And why not, I should like to know?" demanded Schuyler with a dark frown.

"Because I have no means of getting it."

"That isn't my lookout. It is yours. That money I must and will have."

Edgar had been told by Mark what to say, and he replied, "Then, I think, Mr. Schuyler, you will have to sue me."

"Nonsense! I shall adopt quite a different course."

"What is that?"

"I will lay the matter before your father."

Edgar winced, but he was prepared with a reply.

"I don't think it will do you any good. Father won't pay such a bill as that."

"At any rate it will get you into trouble with him."

"Yes it might," said Edgar nervously.

Schuyler saw his advantage. He must play upon the fears of his young dupe.

"Come, Edgar," he said, "suppose we talk over this matter sensibly. You are indebted to me in the sum of seventy-five dollars."

"I never got any value for it."

"It is the result of several fair and honest bets which you lost. As a boy of honor, you must pay me."

"I have told you that I don't know where to get the money."

"And I suggested a plan."

"You suggested that I should appropriate some of the money I was given by my employer to deposit in the Park Bank."

"Hush!" said Schuyler apprehensively. "Don't blurt out secrets."

"Well, you hinted at some such thing."

"I don't care how you get the money. If you know what is best for yourself, you'll get it somehow and somewhere."

"I thought you were wealthy, Mr. Schuyler. I didn't think you would press me like this."

"I am wealthy, but as I told you I have met with some losses recently, or I would have given you more time on this debt."

"Suppose I can't pay you?"

"Then you will have to take the consequences."

"That means that you will go to my father?"

"Not alone that. I will let it be known everywhere that you have refused to pay a debt of honor and that will exclude you from the society of gentlemen."

Edgar was unprepared to go further, and he thought it time to obtain Mark's assistance.

"Let us go into the reading room," he said. "Perhaps we can settle the matter there."

"All right! I want to be easy with you, and I will agree to take off ten dollars if you will pay me the balance."

"I will see what I can do."

Edgar led the way into the reading room at the rear of the office. He saw Mark sitting on a chair at the opposite side of the room, and he led Schuyler up to it.

Schuyler was short-sighted, and did not make out Mark till Edgar said: "Mr. Schuyler, let me introduce you to my cousin, Mark Mason!"

"The telegraph boy!" ejaculated Schuyler, his face changing.

"I see you know me, Mr. Schuyler," said Mark. "My cousin tells me you want him to pay you seventy-five dollars."

"I don't know what you have to do with the matter," said Schuyler stiffly.

"Then I will tell you. You have imposed yourself upon Edgar as a respectable man of good social position while I know you to be an adventurer and a swindler."

"Do you mean to insult me?" demanded Schuyler looking around the room nervously.

"I mean to protect my cousin. Give him the memorandums you have, or tear them up and cease to persecute him, or I will call in a policeman."

Hamilton Schuyler looked furious, but he knew Mark and his resolute spirit, and felt afraid he would do as he threatened.

"You cub!" he hissed. "You are always interfering with me."

He turned upon his heel and left the reading room.

"He won't trouble you any more, Edgar," said Mark.

"How can I thank you, Mark?" said Edgar gratefully. "You have got me out of a bad scrape. That fellow has drained me of every cent. I had to borrow five dollars of a clerk in the office to satisfy him, and if I pay it I shall have nothing to spend for a week."

"Then let me be your banker, Edgar," said Mark as he drew a five-dollar note from his pocket and offered it to his cousin.

"Can you spare this, Mark?" asked Edgar in surprise and relief.

"Yes."

"I don't know when I can repay you."

"Take your own time. Pay a dollar a week if you like."

"Won't you call round at the house?" asked Edgar.

"Thank you, not this evening. I hope the time will come when we can meet each other often."

"Mark is a good fellow," thought Edgar as he walked up Fifth Avenue. "I thought he was poor, but he seems to be better off than I am."