Dan The Newsboy 44

Dan The Newsboy 44

"You forget that I am not a boy any longer, mother," said Dan, smiling.

"I think I can defend myself, even if Mr. Davis is a wicked and

designing person."

 

Nevertheless Mrs. Mordaunt saw Dan depart with anxiety. To her he was

still a boy, though in the eyes of others an athletic young man.

 

On inquiring for Mr. Davis at the hotel, Dan was ushered into a room on

the third floor. Seated in an arm-chair was an elderly man, weak and

wasted, apparently in the last stages of consumption. He eyed Dan

eagerly.

 

"You are Daniel Mordaunt?" he asked.

 

"Yes, sir."

 

"Son of Lawrence Mordaunt?"

 

"Yes. Did you know my father?"

 

The old man sighed.

 

"It would have been well if he had not known me, for I did him a great

wrong."

 

"You!--John Davis!" said Dan, trying to connect the name with his

father.

 

"That is not my real name. You see before you Robert Hunting, once your

father's book-keeper."

 

Dan's handsome face darkened, and he said, bitterly:

 

"You killed my father!"

 

"Heaven help me, I fear I did!" sighed Davis--to call him by his later

name.

 

"The money of which you robbed him caused him to fail, and failure led

to his death."

 

"I have accused myself of this crime oftentimes," moaned Davis. "Don't

think that the money brought happiness, for it did not."

 

"Where have you been all these years?"

 

"First, I went to Europe. There I remained a year. From Europe I went to

Brazil, and engaged in business in Rio Janeiro. A year since I found my

health failing, and have come back to New York to die. But before I die

I want to make what reparation I can."

 

"You cannot call my father back to me," said Dan, sadly.

 

"No; but I can restore the money that I stole. That is the right

word--stole. I hope you and your mother have not suffered?"

 

"We saw some hard times, but for years we have lived in comfort."

 

"I am glad of that. Will you bring a lawyer to me to-morrow evening? I

want to make restitution. Then I shall die easier."

 

"You might keep every dollar if you would bring my father back."

 

"Would that I could! I must do what I can."

 

The next evening Davis transferred to Dan and his mother property

amounting to fifty thousand dollars, in payment of what he had taken,

with interest, and in less than a month later he died, Dan taking upon

himself the charge of the funeral. His trip to Europe was deferred, and

having now capital to contribute, he was taken as junior partner into

the firm where he had once filled the position of office-boy.

 

Tom Carver is down in the world. His father had failed disastrously, and

Tom is glad to accept a minor clerkship from the boy at whom he once

sneered.

 

Julia Rogers has never lost her preference for Dan. It is whispered that

they are engaged, or likely soon to be, and Dan's assiduous attentions

to the young lady make the report a plausible one.

 

John Hartley was sentenced to a term of years in prison. Harriet Vernon

dreaded the day of his release, being well convinced that he would seize

the earliest opportunity to renew his persecutions. She had about made

up her mind to buy him off, when she received intelligence that he was

carried off by fever, barely a month before the end of his term. It was

a sad end of a bad life, but she could not regret him. Althea was saved

the knowledge of her father's worthlessness. She was led to believe that

he had died when she was a little girl.

 

And now the curtain must fall. Dan, the young detective, has entered

upon a career of influence and prosperity. The hardships of his earlier

years contributed to strengthen his character, and give him that

self-reliance of which the sons of rich men so often stand in need. A

similar experience might have benefited Tom Carver, whose lofty

anticipations have been succeeded by a very humble reality. Let those

boys who are now passing through the discipline of poverty and

privation, take courage and emulate the example of "Dan, the Detective."

 

 

THE END.

 

 

 

 

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