The Boy Broker Part 39

CHAPTER x.x.xI.

THE BOY BROKER.

While young Randolph was away from his business during the few days of the death and burial of his friend, the proprietor of a house from whom Herbert bought a great many stamps complained to his bookkeeper about the large supply on hand.

"But we cannot get rid of them if no one calls for them," replied the latter.

"Hasn't Littlewood been in for any?"

"No, he has not been here for ten days."

"Ten days," repeated the merchant thoughtfully. "What has become of the boy broker? I have not seen him here lately."

"The boy broker," said the bookkeeper, taking Herbert's card from a drawer to find his address. "He is at 111 Na.s.sau Street. Shall I send for him?"

"Yes, do so," said the proprietor as he walked away.

"The boy broker," repeated the bookkeeper to himself, catching at his employer's words. "That has a good ring to it and would sound well on young Randolph's cards."

Having a pen in his hand he dipped it in red ink and printed diagonally across Herbert's card the words THE BOY BROKER. "That looks well," said he to himself, holding it off and eying it critically. "It is catchy. I will suggest to young Randolph that he adds it to his cards and prints it in red ink as I have done. There's nothing like advertising," he went on, talking to himself. "It pays, and this will pay Randolph--I know it will."

The suggestion was accordingly made to Herbert and he adopted it, having his cards printed precisely as the one the bookkeeper had shown him.

And this is the way he became known as THE BOY BROKER. The name proved "catchy," as the bookkeeper had predicted, and after adopting it Herbert found his business growing more rapidly than ever. But just now a most unexpected bit of good luck came to the young Vermonter and at a time too when he felt sorely the need of money. The cause brought by Mr.

Goldwin's lawyer against Christopher Gunwagner for false imprisonment of Herbert Randolph had come up for trial. Herbert and Bob were summoned to court to testify against the old fence.

The trial was ably conducted on both sides, but the fact that young Randolph had been restrained from his liberty by one Christopher Gunwagner, a notorious fence, was quickly established. It only remained then for the jury to find the damages.

Herbert had sued for one thousand dollars, and his lawyer made an able argument to recover the full amount.

He dwelt at length upon our hero's sufferings in that damp, musty cellar, infested as it was by rats to such a degree as to threaten his reason; all of which was only too true. Graphically did the lawyer picture this scene, so graphically that the hearts of the jurymen were noticeably touched.

Then the lawyer argued that outside and beyond the actual injury suffered, there should be an exemplary damage awarded. The worst traits of the old fence were shown up, and contrasted with the spotless character of Herbert Randolph.

The judge in his charge sustained the idea of exemplary damage, and then the case went to the jury.

They had remained out about three quarters of an hour, when they came in and announced a verdict in favor of Herbert Randolph of _five hundred and seventy five dollars_!

Young Randolph was never more surprised in his life, or only once; and that was when he found Bob Hunter at old Gunwagner's on the night of his escape.

"Five hundred and seventy five dollars!" said he to himself, unable to realize that he had been awarded such a sum of money.

Bob Hunter congratulated him, his lawyer congratulated him, and the court even did likewise.

But none were more hearty and genuine in their congratulations than Mr.

Goldwin and his pretty daughter Ray.

"I owe it all to you, Mr. Goldwin," said Herbert, gratefully. "I should never have thought to commence action against old Gunwagner but for your advice."

The odd seventy five dollars paid the lawyer and all the court expenses.

This left a clear five hundred dollars for young Randolph--what a lot of money, five hundred dollars in new, crisp bank notes!

"And it shall all go into our business, Bob," said he, proudly, "and as you are now an equal partner with me half of the money will be yours."

"Oh, no, Herbert, that would not be right," protested Bob.

"Yes, I am sure it would," replied The Boy Broker. "My being imprisoned was due to no effort of my own, but rather to my simplicity, my lack of keenness. My release, on the other hand, was due to your brave efforts to rescue me. I walked into the trap unconsciously, you walked into it with your eyes open, risking your very life to save me. To you therefore the greater reward is due--you earned your portion, I helplessly endured the misery that has brought me mine."

"But I did not suffer any and you did," returned Bob, feeling keenly his helplessness when in an argument with young Randolph.

"You, however, took the chances of suffering, and those who take great chances in business, in war and in dangerous enterprises, of whatever character, if successful are well rewarded for the part they have borne.

No, Bob, I would not think of keeping all this money," continued Herbert, impressively. "We are partners in business together. Let us start with equal interest, then we should feel no jealousy toward each other. This five hundred dollars will enable us to do five times the business we are now doing, and if we save the profits we make we can still further increase it month by month."

"Do you remember, Herbert," said Bob, with grateful expression, "that when Mr. Goldwin failed and you were thrown out of work I urged you to take some money--only eight dollars--and you refused it?"

"Yes, I remember it well, Bob," replied young Randolph.

"And now you ask me to take two hundred and fifty dollars from you. Why should I not refuse your offer as you refused mine?"

"Bob," said Herbert, taking him by the hand, "that eight dollars was a reserve fund, it was all that stood between you and me and starvation or what is almost as bad--public charity. I appreciated as you little knew your generous offer, and it cut me to see how hurt you felt at my refusal to take the money. But I thought of the possibility of sickness or accident, and realized how much help those few dollars would prove in such a time. Again I felt that the money would do me no good. I know now that it would not have, for I should simply have used it up and would then have been no nearer, if so near, solving the problem that pressed me for an answer--namely, how to earn sufficient means with which to buy bread and procure a shelter for myself."

"I think you were right, Herbert," replied Bob, thoughtfully. "I couldn't think so then, however, but it is plain to me now."

"I know I was right. It was the suffering I went through in those dreary winter months and the miserable drudgery I was forced to perform that at last gave me a knowledge of this business. It was an education to me, Bob, of a most practical character, and now that it is all over I can only feel glad that I was forced out of my comfortable clerks.h.i.+p into the cold wintry street that had so sunny an ending."

CHAPTER x.x.xII.

THE CONSPIRATORS' FATE.

A few weeks after the trial of Gunwagner for false imprisonment he was again brought before the bar of justice to answer with Felix Mortimer to the charge of conspiring to kidnap Herbert Randolph. Able counsel were employed by the old villain, and a hard fight was made for liberty. But the charges were so well sustained by the evidence of Herbert and Bob, and that of the small boy who aided the latter in gaining admittance to the fence's den, that the jury brought in a verdict of guilty.

Gunwagner was, accordingly, sentenced to serve a long term of imprisonment at Sing Sing as a penalty for his villainous acts. He had acc.u.mulated much money by crooked means, and now towards the end of his life his own freedom was the price paid for the gold which now was valueless to him.

Then came Felix Mortimer's turn. But for him Herbert Randolph would never have fallen into the trouble that seemed to await him on his arrival in New York. Young Mortimer, however, overreached himself. He was not a match for Herbert Randolph and Bob Hunter together--neither he nor all of his disreputable cronies.

His plans miscarried wofully, and now, after many long weary days of confinement in the Tombs, he found himself sentenced to the House of Correction for nearly four years, or until he reached the age of his majority.

Felix Mortimer was splendidly endowed by nature for a brilliant man. He had great ability, and was unusually bright and prepossessing. But unfortunately for him, and for the community in which he lived, he commenced life in the wrong way. He failed to recognize the fact that no true success can be attained except by operating on the solid principles of truth and honesty. His envy of Herbert Randolph had at last brought him disgrace and humiliation, while the young Vermonter now had a well paying and fast growing business of his own. How bitterly he must have regretted his own foolish and evil acts, when he realized fully to what they had brought him!

[Ill.u.s.tration: GUNWAGNER IN PRISON.]

He could look now upon Herbert Randolph and say to himself, truthfully, "I had the ability to succeed as well as you have and to be as much respected as you now are. My advantages, too, were superior to yours, and yet here am I a prisoner in the House of Correction, deprived of my liberty and in disgrace, while you have already entered upon a splendid business career. And all this difference comes from my having made a wrong start."

Alas! how many human wrecks scattered all along the pathway of life could say the same thing, as they compare their present wretched condition with that of the prosperous and honored citizens--the solid men of the community--who were once their schoolfellows, and whose early career was perhaps less promising than their own. And all this difference, or nearly all, has grown naturally out of the right or wrong start they took in life.