The Go Ahead Boys and the Mysterious Old House Part 32

The tramp looked into the face of Mr. Sanders a moment before he said, "And you suspect, do you, that I took your car and left the horn here?"

"Do you know where our car is?" inquired Mr. Sanders abruptly. "I told my son to give you ten dollars for returning the old car. Here is the money," Mr. Sanders added, as he held forth a bill.

"Thank you, sir," said the tramp, as he took the money and thrust it into his pocket. "I told the boys that I could be persuaded to accept the reward; but about your other car, all I can say is that I don't know where it is now."

"Do you know who took it?"

"I do not."

"Do you know how the fire started in the old house last night?"

"No, sir. I don't."

"But you had some flash-light powder and you set it off here. The house may have caught fire from it."

"I don't think it could possibly have got on fire that way. You see we used that powder in pans and we set it off in two or three rooms at the same time, just as we used to answer one another's cries or groan together. The fire couldn't spread. The powder just flashed up and then the fire was all out in a minute. Besides, the old house was no good anyway. No one could live in it and my friends and I thought that if we slept there occasionally no one would be any the worse for it. Of course if there had been any objections made we should have been glad to pay attention to them."

"I wish you would come back to the car with me, I want to speak to you alone."

"All right, sir, just as you say," responded the tramp, quickly advancing and accompanying Mr. Sanders as he led the way across the fields after he had bidden the boys remain where they then were.

CHAPTER XXVI-CONCLUSION

Mr. Sanders and the tramp remained in the car a long time. Indeed, as the minutes pa.s.sed the boys became somewhat impatient. Frequently they glanced toward the scene in the road in which Mr. Sanders and his strange companion were evidently holding a very interesting conversation.

When an hour had elapsed the desire of the boys to depart became more p.r.o.nounced. A few of the country people meanwhile had come to view the ruins of the famous old house, but they had little to say to the boys and after they had inspected the ruins the most of them slowly departed.

At last Fred said impatiently, "Look yonder! Mr. Sanders is taking that man away in the car."

"I wonder where he is going?" said George, as he glanced at the departing automobile.

"Probably taking him to the lock-up," suggested Fred.

"If he's taking the man to the lock-up I know some more that he ought not to forget," said George soberly.

"So do I," spoke up Fred, "and some of them aren't more than a thousand miles from here either."

However, after the departure of Mr. Sanders in the car, the boys became more thoughtful. They had not received any word to remain where they were, but George decided that it would not be wise for them to depart until they had received some further instructions. Doubtless, he explained, his father would return for them in a little while.

Another hour had elapsed before Mr. Sanders came back. As soon as he was discovered approaching, all the Go Ahead boys ran quickly across the field and when they were informed, in response to their inquiries, that Mr. Sanders was ready to take them home they all quickly climbed into the automobile.

"What did you do with the tramp?" inquired George as soon as the car started.

"I took him to the railroad station."

"Is he going to leave?"

"He says he is."

"You seemed to have had a mighty interesting conversation. Did he tell you all the sad, sweet story of his life?"

"I knew much of it."

"You did?" demanded George in astonishment. "You did! Who is he? What is he? How did you know him? Where did he come from? What is his name?"

"Hold on," interrupted Mr. Sanders with a laugh. "I can answer your questions one at a time, but I cannot find any answer that might fit them all alike. Let me tell you first of all that he didn't explain everything as fully as I wish he had, but he did tell me a few things."

"What were they?" demanded George impatiently.

"Let me tell you first a little about himself," said Mr. Sanders, smiling at the interest of his young companions. "That tramp is the younger brother of a great friend of mine. Indeed, his brother and I were together almost all the time when we were boys. If I was not in his house then he was in mine, or we were fis.h.i.+ng in these brooks or nutting in the woods or coasting on the hills. We very seldom were separated.

This younger brother-"

"What is his name?" interrupted George.

"I shan't tell you his name now. Perhaps I will some other time, but he was one of the most attractive boys I ever knew. He was very quiet in his manner, and had the greatest faculty of making friends I ever knew any one to have. His mother almost idolized him and she never held him up to any task. If he got into mischief it was always the fault of the other boys, she said. If he was kept after school or had any trouble with the teachers she always told him that it was the teacher's fault.

Whatever he did, to her was right. You boys want to be thankful that you have mothers that hold you up to some things instead of upholding you in everything you do.

"Well, this man when he was a boy was too lazy to have any share in the family life. Pleasant, good-natured, popular with the boys and girls, he never did anything for any one else. If his mother wanted a pail of water drawn from the old well behind the farmhouse-and they lived right straight across the field in that house over yonder," explained Mr.

Sanders, pointing as he spoke to a house that could be seen in the distance, "he always had some excuse. If his mother had simply told him to bring in a pail of water instead of trying to smooth the way for him and said that he was too tired or not strong enough, if she had done that and some other things like it I don't believe this man to-day would be tramping around the country. He has been a complete failure. He has never learned to do anything well. He used to be the best baseball player we had in all this part of the country. There wasn't a fellow that could catch him when we were in swimming in the old pond. He could make a boat and sail a boat, but he just simply drifted on. By the way, boys, did any of you ever stop to think of the fact that a boat never drifts but in one direction?"

"What's that?" inquired John.

"Why, down the stream," replied Mr. Sanders quietly. "This boy grew up to be a man and drifted into all kinds of bad ways. You see he had never learned to work and besides there are two words in the English language that he never could p.r.o.nounce. One word has three letters in it and the other has two, but little words though they are, he never seemed to be able to p.r.o.nounce them."

"I can't think what the words are," said George.

"I know what they are," broke in John. "They are 'yes' and 'no.'"

"That's right," replied Mr. Sanders with a smile. "They are the hardest words in the language for a good many people to use. When they say 'yes'

they don't say it in a way that means much, and when they say 'no' it doesn't mean much more.

"His mother died years ago and I have always thought that this son was the cause of her death. At one time, as I told you, he was just as straight and attractive a boy as any of you."

"I guess the trouble with him was that he wasn't a Go Ahead boy,"

suggested Fred.

"That was one trouble," replied Mr. Sanders with a smile, "and another was that after he began to drift he couldn't stop. You see if he hadn't begun he never could have come to the end to which he has. That's a strange thing to me that more people do not realize that if they don't begin, they never will come to the end."

"Did he explain to you," inquired Fred, "why he shut me in the cellar of the old Meeker House?"

"No," replied Mr. Sanders, "I didn't know that you were shut in there."

"Well, I was. He caught me in the cellar and bolted the door on me. I must have been in there an hour and a half."