CHAPTER XXII.JIM BELL OF THE WEST.
CHAPTER XXII.
JIM BELL OF THE WEST.
Some days after the events described in the last chapter, and following the receipt by Roy of a pink check for $5,000.00, a strange visitor arrived at the Prescott home—their very own home now, for the mortgage had been paid off, much to Mr. Harding’s disgust.
The stranger was a bronzed man and wore a broad-brimmed sombrero which would have marked him anywhere as a Westerner. Of Miss Prescott, who, in a new lavender silk dress, came to the door, he inquired if he could see Mr. Roy Prescott.
Miss Prescott smiled at this ceremonial way of mentioning her young nephew, but directed the stranger with the breezy Western manner to the workshop at the rear of the house, whereRoy and Peggy were “fussing,” as Jess called it, with their beloved Golden Butterfly.
“Good morning,” he said, doffing his sombrero with a sweep and a flourish; “can I have a word with you?”
“Certainly. Two or three if you want them,” rejoined Roy, while Peggy gazed in some surprise at the queer-mannered newcomer.
“The fact is,” went on the stranger, “that I’m in the market for aeroplanes such as yours. I happened to be on the train some nights ago when you came flying through the air with two belated young passengers. Well, sir, thinks I, if such a machine can make a train on schedule time it ought to be good for other purposes. I took the liberty of making some inquiries about you from your two young friends after the train had started, but asked them not to mention the matter to you yet awhile.
“In New York I looked up my partner and we discussed the plan and he agreed with me that it was a good one. Now, I’m down here thismorning to offer you $10,000 outright for the use of half a dozen of your aeroplanes, and a salary of $5,000 as instructor to the aviators I shall have to have to run them. How does the offer strike you?”
“I—er—well, I hardly know what to say,” responded Roy; “you see, it’s a bit sudden. It rather takes my breath away.”
“Well, that’s a way we have in the West,” was the response, “but maybe I’d better tell you a little more about myself. My name is Jim Bell. I’m worth a couple of million or thereabouts. You can verify that by referring to the First National Bank of ’Frisco, or the East Coast Bank of New York City. I’ve got interests in cattle, wool and mines, but the very best mining proposition I ever struck I ran across out on the Nevada alkali desert in a range of barren hills. We were prospecting there when I was told about it. After untold hardships I found the spot and staked it out. But there arose the difficulty oftransportation. There was the gold all right, but how was I to get it out?”
“I came East to see if I couldn’t get some sort of automobile built that would travel the desert, but when I saw that aeroplane of yours droop down at that jerkwater junction, I realized I had found what I wanted. Now, are you on?”
“You’ll have to give us a little time to think, sir,” rejoined Roy; “it’s a very flattering offer and I’d like to accept it, but I’ll have to think it over.”
“Quite right, quite right,” rejoined the other, “nothing like thinking it over. If every one did that fewer accidents and mishaps would occur in life. Take my own life, for instance. I’ve often thought I’d go back to see the old folks, but in that case I thought it over too long, for when I went to the old home the other day it was all gone. Not a stick or stone remained. My parents were dead and my only brother was no-one-knew-where.”
Jim Bell’s voice shook strangely. He blinked his eyes once or twice and then resumed briskly: “You see, I left home in a mighty queer way. I was out in a boat with my brother when it got overturned. He was drowned, I guess, but anyway I found myself drifting about on the Sound. I managed to seize hold of a bit of floating driftwood and in that way kept my head above water till a ship came along and picked me up.
“She was a big vessel bound for China and her captain was a brute. On our arrival in the Far East he bound me out as a sort of apprentice to a rich Chinaman living in the interior. I was with him for ten years before I escaped. I worked my way to the coast, got another ship and headed for California.
“On the way across there was a mutiny and I saved the life of a wealthy passenger, who turned out to be a mining man and who, when he died two years later, left me most of his property. That gave me my start in life, and now I’m a millionaire. But I’d give it all if I couldget some news of poor brother Peter and find out if he is dead or alive.”
“Maybe we can help you,” cried Peggy, her eyes shining and her white hands clasped excitedly.
While the rugged Westerner had been talking the story of the old hermit came back to her.
“What do you mean?” asked the other; “do you know where my brother is?”
“I’m not certain,” cried Peggy, “but the old hermit, Peter Bell, is he almost beyond a doubt.”
“My brother a hermit!” cried the wealthy mining man.
“If it is your brother,” put in Roy, “I hope for your sake it is. But his story tallies absolutely with yours. He told us that after he had missed you in the water he thought that you were drowned. Returning home he was shunned on every side, for the villagers accused him of having deserted you to save his own life.”
“My poor Peter,” breathed the miner.
“Miserable and made morose by the contempthe met with on every side he became a hermit and now lives in a hut near the town of Acatonick.”
“How long does it take to get there? I must lose no time in finding out,” exclaimed Jim Bell.
“You can get there in two or three hours from here if you can catch a train,” said Roy. “If you like I’ll phone for you and find out.”
“Say, boy, that would be mighty white of you. I tell you it hurts to think of poor Peter living all alone like that in poverty while I’ve been rich all these years. But it wasn’t for lack of trying to locate him, for I’ve advertised and had detectives searching every likely place.”
Roy found that there would be a train to Acatonick in about half an hour, and their new found friend hastened off, after warm farewells, to catch it. He promised to be back within a few days and let them know of his success, and also inform them of any further arrangements he might be prepared to make about his offer.
“Well,” said Roy, after he had gone, “the skies are beginning to clear, sis.”
Peggy sighed.
“Yes, but there is still one thing to be cleared up, Roy,” she said.
“I know—the disappearance of those jewels,” rejoined Roy. “Oh, if only we had something more to go upon than mere suspicions.”
“Perhaps we will have before long,” said Peggy, musingly.