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

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."

CHAPTER XXXVII
SOLON TALBOT'S PLANS

Solon Talbot was much elated by the great rise in the stock of the Golden Hope Mine. At two hundred and fifty dollars each, the four hundred shares held by his father-in-law's estate would bring one hundred thousand dollars. While only half of this rightfully belonged to him, he felt that he was safe in appropriating the whole, as he imagined that Mark and his mother had no clew to its real ownership.

He had an offer from Crane & Lawton of a hundred thousand for the stock, and this he could obtain at any time. He had not thus far been able to obtain Mrs. Mason's signature to a release, but this he reflected was only a matter of form and need not be regarded.

Mr. Talbot lived in a flat, but desired to own a house. With the capital at his command when the mining stock was disposed of, he felt sure that he could realize a large income in Wall Street by dealings in the stock market. Somehow he seemed to think that the great rise in Golden Hope stock reflected credit on his sagacity.

He went to the office of a prominent real estate broker and examined his list of houses for sale. One especially pleased him – a house on West Forty-Seventh street in excellent condition, which he could buy for forty-five thousand dollars.

"You can pay twenty thousand dollars down," said the broker, "and the balance can stand on mortgage at five per cent."

"I shall probably pay cash down for the whole," responded Mr. Talbot, with the air of a capitalist.

"Very well Mr. Talbot," said the broker respectfully, "that will of course be satisfactory. So would the other arrangement."

"I will decide in a day or two and let you know," added Talbot.

When he went home he could not help boasting a little of his proposed purchased.

"Mary," he said, "what should you say if I bought a house?"

"In Brooklyn?"

"No I must live here in New York. My business will be here."

"I thought New York property came high, Mr. Talbot."

"So it does but I propose to go high."

"I suppose you will have to pay as much as twenty thousand dollars for a desirable house."

"Twenty thousand dollars! what are you thinking of?"

"Why, our house in Syracuse was sold for ten thousand dollars, and I thought you might have to pay twice as much here."

"I should say so, Mrs. Talbot. I am in treaty for a house costing forty-five thousand dollars."

Mrs. Talbot was astonished.

"I had no idea you could afford to pay so much for a house, Solon," she said.

"My dear, I am afraid you underrate my business abilities. I haven't said anything to you about my business success, but I have been making money lately. Yes, I feel that I can afford to pay forty-five thousand dollars for a house."

"Where is the house situated?"

"In West Forty-Seventh Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. That's a fine block – a good many fashionable people live there."

"I don't know whether I shall feel at home among them."

"I mean, Mrs. Talbot, that you shall take a high place in New York society. As my wife you will be entitled to such."

"I am not ambitious in that way. I should rather be able to see Ellen often than to receive fashionable people."

"Ahem, Mrs. T. You must remember that Ellen lives in a very poor way, and it would do you harm to have it known that she is your sister."

"You would not have me repudiate my own sister?" said Mrs. Talbot, half indignantly.

"Well, no, not exactly repudiate her, but you can receive her early in the morning when no one is likely to be here. You must remember also that Mark, her son, has been, and perhaps still is, a common telegraph boy, whom we couldn't have coming freely to the house and claiming relationship with Edgar."

"I think Mark is a pretty good fellow," said Edgar unexpectedly.

It was only the previous evening that Mark had got him out of trouble.

"This is a little surprising in you, Edgar," said Solon Talbot, arching his brow. "I thought you looked down upon him."

"I did, but I have changed my opinion of him."

"He is a poor working boy."

"He may be a working boy but he has more money than I. He always seems to have plenty of it."

"Probably somebody has paid him some money, and he carries it all around with him. Have you seen him since he returned from his journey?"

"Yes, father."

"Has he gone back to the telegraph office?"

"No, he says he shan't go back."

"Has he any position?"

"No he is not working just now."

"He is a foolish boy. He will spend the little money he has, and then, when he wants to go back to the telegraph office, they won't receive him."

"I am glad you are on better terms with Mark, Edgar," said Mrs. Talbot regarding her son with unusual favor.

"Don't be influenced too much by what your mother says, Edgar," said his father, "social distinctions must be observed."

For once Edgar was not influenced by what his father said. He was not wholly bad, and Mark's friendly service in rescuing him from the clutches of Hamilton Schuyler had quite changed his feelings towards his cousin. Then the timely loan of five dollars had also its effect.

This was the day for the meeting of the two sisters at Arnold & Constable's. Mrs. Talbot informed her sister of her husband's plan.

"I think Mr. Talbot must be getting along very well," she said. "He told me this morning that he is negotiating for a fine brown stone house on West Forty-Seventh Street. He is to pay forty-five thousand dollars for it."

"That is a large sum."

"Yes; I had no idea when we lived in Syracuse that Solon was so rich. He says that I underrated his business abilities."

"Do you know if he has met with any recent business success?"

"No; he never tells me particulars."

Mrs. Mason thought she could guess where the forty-five thousand dollars were coming from, and on her return she told Mark what she had heard.

"He must be going to sell the stock," said Mark.

"Can we stop him?"

"No, as executor he would have the right to do this, but we must arrange to share the proceeds. I will see our lawyer, and ask him what is best to be done."

At this moment there was a knock at the door. Mark opened it, and there stood Tom Trotter in his new uniform. "I've got a message for you, Mark," he said.

"Who is it from?"

"From Mr. Rockwell."

"Let me see it."

The message was brief.

"Come round to my office, I want to see you.

"Luther Rockwell."

"How did you happen to bring this message, Tom?"

"I know Mr. Rockwell. I've often blacked his boots. I guess he's seen us together, for when he saw me this morning he asked if I could tell him your address which he had lost."

"I'll go right around there," said Mark.

"Perhaps he's going to take you into partnership, Mark."

"If he does, Tom, I'll find a good place in the office for you."

When Mark entered the banker's office he was at once introduced into Mr. Rockwell's presence.

"You sent for me, sir."

"Yes. I am thinking of purchasing a block of mining stock, and as you have recently been to the Pacific coast I thought you might have heard something about it."

"What's the name of the mine, sir?"

"The Golden Hope Mine."

Mark's eyes lighted up.

"Yes, sir," he answered; "I can tell you a good deal about it. From whom do you expect to purchase?"

"From Crane & Lawton. It is a block of four hundred shares, at two hundred and sixty a share."

"Held by Solon Talbot."

"How do you know?"

"Because he is my uncle, and half of the shares belong to my mother."