CHAPTER XV.
A HASTY TRIP.
We must now bestow some attention upon Mr. Smithers and his family, whom we have left in the background since Tommy took his trip to Liverpool.
When Charley Barker stepped down the gangway, in obedience to the summons of the bell which ordered all on shore, he did not doubt that Tommy was following him.
But when the communication between the steamer and the dock was shut off he began to look curiously around him, for nothing whatever was to be seen of his friend.
The ship slowly left her dock, and Charley Barker became aware of the fact that, for some reason altogether unknown to him, Tommy had not left with the other friends of the passengers.
Satisfied with this conviction, he returned quickly to his father's, and having reported the safe bestowal of the coffin, hurried to Mr. Smithers' house and communicated the facts of the case.
"Silly boy!" cried Mrs. Smithers. "He is always doing something stupid."
"Well, ma'am, all the boys say he's a little soft."
"I am in hopes he will grow out of that," said his mother. "But tell me, Charley, do you think he'll come to any harm?"
"I guess not, ma'am. They'll make him work, that's all, and the American consul at Liverpool is bound to send him back."
Charley Barker now retired, and the unhappy mother tried to comfort herself with the reflection that the boy was on board an English ship, bound to a well-known port, and among officers who would be kind to the poor waif whom an accident had cast among them.
But her troubles were not over for that day.
To her surprise, a few minutes after Charley Barker had taken his departure, Mr. Smithers entered the room, which was a very unusual occurrence for him, as he usually did not make his appearance until business at the store was over.
Throwing himself into a chair, he glanced at his wife, and remarked that there were traces of silent tears in her eyes and on her cheeks.
"Crying again!" he exclaimed, petulantly. "I neversaw such a woman. You're always sniveling at something or another."
"Tommy's gone," she replied, bursting out weeping again.
"A good job, too. Where's he flitted to?"
"He went on board an ocean steamer with Charley Barker, and through his carelessness or stupidity, did not go ashore with the others, and was carried along."
"That boy's little better than a born idiot!" exclaimed Mr. Smithers, unfeelingly.
"I'm sure he isn't that," replied the mother, checking her tears.
"I tell you he's the fool of the family, and I'm glad to be rid of him. He'll fall on his legs—all these half-witted ones do—so dismiss that from your mind, while I tell you a bit of real trouble."
She looked at him strangely. There was that in his bloodshot eyes, his haggard appearance and somewhat disordered dress which induced her to think that something very unusual had happened. Nor was she mistaken.
"Maria," he said, "I'm ruined; don't start or go into hysterics, because there is no time for that. I didn't come home in the middle of the day to lay off. I'm here to arrange for our immediate flight."
"Flight!" she stammered. "Where? how? what do you mean? What have you done?"
"Embezzled my employer's money!"
This reply completely took Mrs. Smithers' breath away, for the communication was totally unexpected. In the shock which this announcement caused her Tommy's disappearance was quite forgotten.
"Maria," continued the wretched man, "I scarcely know how to act. You must help me in this crisis."
"Have you been discovered?" she asked.
"I know not. This morning one of the partners asked me for my books, which he wished to put into an accountant's hands. His suspicions are aroused. My salary was only two thousand dollars a year and I have been spending double. Even now the detectives may be after me."
"It is horrible!" said his wife, covering her face with her hands.
"There is no safety unless we flee," continued Smithers. "I have collected a debt due the firm, on my way home, to have money enough to go to the West. Let us pack up what is really necessary for ourselves and the children. To-night at five there is an express train to Omaha. Will you go?"
"I will," answered Mrs. Smithers.
"That is settled!" he exclaimed, with a sigh of relief, and kissing her affectionately, he added:
"You are ever good to me, Maria."
"I am only returning the love you have always shown me," she rejoined.
"Get everything in readiness," he continued, "and I will be here with a coach as the shades of night are falling. Heaven grant I may not be too late."
Mrs. Smithers watched him depart, and then went about her work like one in a dream, ransacking drawers and hastily packing up those things that she deemed would be of the greatest use to them. While she was thus occupied the children came in, and regarded her with astonishment.
"Mamma!" exclaimed Alice, "what are you doing?"
"My dear children," answered Mrs. Smithers, "circumstances have occurred which render it necessary for your father to leave Jersey City at once."
"Leave!" said Harold. "Where are we going to?"
"West. That is all I can tell you at present. Let it be sufficient for you that a great calamity has befallen us."
She did not explain matters, as she wished to conceal her husband's shame from his children.
"I don't believe it," said Harold, rudely.
"Nor I," replied Alice, in the habitual tone of disrespect which she adopted when speaking to her mother.
"It's some dodge," continued Harold. "Charley Barker has just told us about Tommy's going over to Europe, and I guess you want to steal all you can and follow him."
"Harold! Alice!" she said. "I would have spared you the pain of what I am going to tell you. It's only your wicked and undutiful conduct that forces it from me."
"Oh, yes!" replied Harold, satirically, "you care a great deal for us, we know that."
"A nice life we should have if it hadn't been for papa," chimed in Alice.
"Will you listen to me?" pleaded Mrs. Smithers, who, unaccustomed to exact obedience from the wayward children, did not know how to appease their spite and anger.
"Go on, we're listening," answered Harold.
"Your papa has been stealing the money from his employers. They have asked for his books, which are being examined by an accountant, and we do not know from one hour to another when the police will be here."
The children looked blankly at one another.
This was a revelation which they had been far from expecting, as their belief in their father's high standingand honor was so great that it would have survived anything but such a rude shock as this.
"In about an hour's time," Mrs. Smithers went on, "your father will be here with a coach, and we start for Omaha. Where we shall go from there I can't tell, but if you are wise you will help me to pack and make the best of this misfortune instead of grumbling any more."
Harold and Alice now hung down their heads for shame, and did not utter another remark to their mother, though they conversed together in a low tone.
At five o'clock everything was ready, and when the coach drove up the trunks were put outside and the family occupied the interior.
They proceeded to the railway depot, all being silent and anxious.
Smithers had been obliged to sacrifice his furniture for a small sum to a neighbor whom he could trust, and with all his worldly wealth in his pocket, amounting to about a thousand dollars, he started for that part of the American Continent known as the West.
Omaha was reached without any interference on the part of the telegraph, which seemed to indicate that if his employers had actually discovered his guilt, they either did not intend to prosecute him or could not discover where he had gone.
Three days were spent in Omaha, during which time Smithers made up his mind, according to information he had received, to locate in Silver City, a rising mining town in Nevada.
The distance between Silver City and the nearest railroad station was fifty miles or thereabouts.
When about halfway toward Silver City they met a man on horseback, riding at speed. He had lost his hat, and appeared to be in the utmost haste to leave some person or persons behind.
Seeing the approaching wagon, he drew rein, and Smithers stopped to talk to him, hoping to gain some information as to the state of the road and general condition of the country.
It had been hinted to him in more than one quarter that a band of lawless depredators occupied a valley or pass in the hills known as Dead Snake Canyon.