Only a Farm Boy by Frank V. Webster - HTML preview

CHAPTER XXV
 CATCHING THE BURGLARS—CONCLUSION

“THAT’S a great piece of news,” commented Dan, when Mr. Savage had driven off down the road.

“Indeed it is. We must act quickly. I wish Mr. Roscoe was here now. But he’ll be here to-night, and we can send him right over to Denville to make the arrest.”

“Maybe it would be a good thing for us to do it ourselves.”

“No, I think not. As soon as Galt saw you he would flee, and might escape. He wouldn’t know Mr. Roscoe. Besides I think it likely he is planning a robbery in Denville, and he will stay there until he has done the job.”

Mr. Harrison and Dan transacted their business and returned to Hayden. Then they had an anxious wait until evening, when the detective was expected back.

“I never knew such a long afternoon,” remarked Dan, about four o’clock.

They were at supper when Mr. Roscoe came in.

“No good news,” was the detective’s first remark, given in despondent tones. “He’s a slippery, customer, that Galt.”

Mr. Harrison quickly related what the farmer had told him.

“Then we’ll start at once for Denville,” decided the detective. “Come on. I may need help.”

The house was locked up and the three started off.

“Shall we hire a carriage at the livery stable?” asked Mr. Harrison. “Mine is rather small.”

“It will be better to take yours, even if we are a little crowded, than to go to a public place, and cause comment. We shall manage. Can your horse travel fast?” asked the detective.

“Fairly so. It is only five miles to Denville.”

They were soon on their way through the gathering darkness, for it was now fall, and the sun went down early.

“I only hope he stays at the hotel until we arrive,” murmured Mr. Roscoe. “I never was after such a slippery fellow as he is. Every time I thought I had him he was somewhere else.”

The last mile seemed the longest of all, and Dan thought some one must have pulled up the marking stone, and set it down about twice as far ahead as it ought to be. But at last they came in sight of the village of Denville, and a little later they arrived at the hotel.

“You had better let me go ahead,” suggested the detective. “I am used to this part of the game. If he saw you he might make a bolt to escape before I could prevent him.”

Accordingly, after leaving the horse and carriage under the hotel shed, Dan and Mr. Harrison remained in the shadow on the hotel porch, while Mr. Roscoe went inside. He came out in a few moments.

“Galt is in the barroom, playing cards,” he announced. “I am going in and arrest him. You had better stay at the front door, Mr. Harrison, and make a grab if he comes out that way. Dan, you go around back, and get one of the stablemen to help you, if he makes a bolt out that way. I will wait three minutes for you to get there, and place yourself.”

Dan hurried around to the rear, and enlisted the services of a stout Irish groom, briefly explaining what was about to take place.

Mr. Roscoe entered the barroom. At a table was Galt, dealing cards to a number of men. Among them was a rather poorly dressed individual, somewhat the worse for liquor.

No one paid any attention to the detective. Mr. Roscoe walked quietly up to the table and, looking at Galt said:

“I want you to come with me.”

“Well, I like your impudence!” exclaimed the man. “Who are you? And why should I go with you?”

“I would have explained privately if you had taken my hint,” said the officer suggestively. “I am a detective, and I place you under arrest for the robbery of the house of Dr. Maxwell, and the store of Hank Lee.”

Galt jumped to his feet. Before he could make a move the detective had snapped a pair of handcuffs on his wrists.

“Now, I want you also,” he added, turning to the shabbily dressed man.

“Wan’ me? Wha’ fer?” was the stupid inquiry.

“As the accomplice in these robberies,” and the partly intoxicated man was also handcuffed.

As might be expected the arrest created intense excitement. Men crowded around the detective and his prisoners, but Mr. Harrison who had been watching through the glass door, entered quickly and took charge of the semi-intoxicated person, while Mr. Roscoe managed Galt.

Then Dan, who heard the commotion, and saw that no escape was being attempted, went in. At Mr. Roscoe’s suggestion the boy telephoned to the police of Denville, a couple of officers arrived, and the two prisoners were soon in the town lock-up.

“We will take them to Hayden in the morning,” said the detective. “Well, I’m glad this job is over.”

“So am I!” exclaimed Dan joyfully. “My innocence can now be proved.”

Amid great excitement the prisoners were brought to Hayden early the following day. The news spread like wildfire that the men who robbed Hank Lee’s store had been captured. A big crowd gathered at the jail.

“So they’ve got th’ rascals, eh?” asked Hank, when some one told him. “I’ll go have a look at ’em. Did they say Dan Hardy was one of their gang?”

“I don’t know,” replied the man who brought the news.

Hank lost no time in going to the jail. The prisoners were just being taken to cells. Hank gave one look at the poorly dressed man, and exclaimed:

“Simon!”

“Oh, is that you?” asked the man. “Hello, Hank! You ain’t goin’ t’ prosecute your own brother, fer takin’ a few cigars, are you?”

“Brother? Are you his brother?” asked Mr. Harrison of the prisoner.

“That’s what I am. I’m his own brother, Simon Lee.”

“My good-for-nothing brother you mean!” exclaimed Hank. “I disown you! You’ve disgraced me! To think of your being a robber,” and he was much chagrined.

“Oh, I didn’t do it all. Galt did the most of it. I only helped.”

“Poor weak fool,” murmured Galt, who seemed cool enough under the circumstances.

We need not further concern ourselves with the burglars except to say that they both confessed to robbing the doctor’s house, and Mr. Lee’s store.

There were three in the gang, but the third member was never caught. It was also learned that the men Dan had seen that night were the burglars, and they were hiding the doctor’s silverware, which they afterward removed.

Simon Lee, it appeared, was a man with a weak nature. He had fallen into criminal ways, been associated with Galt, and then had tried to reform. For a time Galt had lost track of him, and then, learning he had a brother who kept a store in Hayden, he had hunted out the small village, and, on a threat of disclosing a certain crime in which Simon was concerned, had compelled the fellow to join him in other illegal acts. They had planned a robbery in Denville but were arrested before they could accomplish it.

Part of Dr. Maxwell’s silver was recovered, but Hank Lee never got any of his money back. Both burglars were sentenced to long terms in prison and there was never any occasion for putting Dan on trial.

“Well, that turned out well, but I am sorry for those men—sorry for their evil ways,” said the old soldier to Dan, one day, toward the beginning of winter, when they were in their new cottage, near the completed machine shop.

“Yes, I feel as if a load had been lifted from my shoulders,” replied the boy.

“I never had any doubt about the outcome, but I am glad you were so completely and quickly vindicated. It was quite a shock to Hank Lee, to find his own brother had robbed him. But, Dan, I want to talk about something pleasanter now. I have a proposition to make to you. I have been observing you for some time, and I have made up my mind, if you will consent to it, that I will adopt you as my son.”

“Your son?”

“Yes. I am all alone in the world, and so are you. Why should we not always be together?”

“It is too good of you!”

“Nonsense. It will give me something more to live for. Then you agree?”

“Oh yes, and thank you so much!” and Dan’s face showed his pleasure.

“Then I will have the papers drawn up at once. Now another matter,—I have decided to send you to school, and, if you like, to college. There is nothing in this world like education, and the best use I can put some of my money to is to enable you to rise in life.”

“Oh, Mr. Harrison. I never expected this!”

“Nor did I expect my legacy. It is good luck for both of us.”

And so it proved. Dan acquitted himself well at school, and if you should go to Hayden now you would find it quite a thriving town, with a large machine shop, of which Dan Hardy, no longer a farm boy, is the head, having succeeded to all Mr. Harrison’s interests when that good soldier became too old to take an active part. And here we will leave Dan Hardy and his friends, for he has many.

THE END