Part 36 (1/2)

”Fifty dollars!” said Marlowe to himself. ”So the young dog got fifty dollars for selling Jack 'n' me? He thinks he's done a good thing.

We'll see! we'll see!”

He instantly conceived the design of getting hold of this fifty dollars. As we know, he was almost penniless, and money he sorely needed to effect his escape from the city, where he was placed in hourly peril. To take it from Julius would give him more pleasure than to obtain it in any other way, for it would be combining revenge with personal profit. Not that this revenge would content him. His resentment was too deep and intense to be satisfied with any such retaliation. He wanted to make the boy suffer. He would hardly have shrunk from taking his life. He was, in fact, a worse man than Jack Morgan, for the latter was not naturally cruel, though, under temptation, he might be led to desperate acts.

”Now tell me what you want to do, Julius,” said Paul.

”I want to go out West.”

”You are rather young to travel alone. Besides, you don't know anything about the West, do you?”

Julius admitted that he did not. His education had been very much neglected. He probably could not have named half a dozen States, and had the vaguest idea of the West. He had heard it spoken of, and some boys whom he used to know about the streets had gone out there. But beyond that he knew nothing.

”How far do you think it is to the West?” asked Paul.

”About a hundred miles.”

”It is all of that,” said Paul, laughing. ”Now I'll tell you what I would do if I were in your place.”

”What?”

”Were you ever in the Newsboys' Lodging House?”

”Lots of times.”

”Then you know Mr. O'Connor, the superintendent?”

”Yes; he's very kind to us boys.”

”Well, suppose we go round and ask him when the next company of boys starts for the West. You could go with them, and he will find you a place out there. What do you say?”

”I would like to do that,” said Julius, with evident satisfaction.

”Then we will go up at once. I guess my business can wait a little longer.”

”You're very kind to me,” said Julius, gratefully. ”You'll lose money goin' round with me so much.”

”No matter for that. It won't ruin me. Besides, you've done me a great service. I ought to be willing to do something for you.”

”That ain't nothin'.”

”I think different. Come along; we'll settle this matter at once.”

The two boys kept on their way till they reached the lodging house.

All was quiet; for in the day-time the boys are scattered about the streets, earning their livelihood in different ways. Only at supper-time they come back, and in the evening the rooms are well filled. Paul had been here before, not as a guest, for he had always had a home of his own; but he had called in the evening at different times. Julius had often pa.s.sed the night there, during the lengthened intervals of Jack's enforced residence in public inst.i.tutions.

They met Mr. O'Connor just coming out.

”How do you do, Paul? I hope you're well, Julius,” said the superintendent, who has a remarkable faculty for remembering the names and faces of the thousands of boys that from time to time frequent the lodging house. ”Do you want to see me?”