Part 27 (1/2)

You're as green as--as--a gooseberry!”

Harry pitied him, but was unable to offer any adequate consolation.

”Will you give me your name and address?” he said. ”And, if I can hear anything of your coupons, or the man that swindled you, I'll write and let you know.”

”Will you? I'm obleeged to you,” said the farmer, who had formed quite a high idea of our hero's sagacity from his declining the trap into which he himself had fallen. ”My name is Simon Jones, of Crabtree Hollow, Connecticut.”

Harry entered it in a little memorandum book which he carried.

At length the great city was reached, and the crowd of pa.s.sengers dispersed in different directions.

It was over a year since Harry had been in the city, and he was not very familiar with it, but he had a modest confidence in his ability to get along.

”s.h.i.+ne yer boots, guv'nor?” asked a ragged bootblack.

”How much?” Harry asked. ”Seein' it's you, I'll only ask ten cents,”

returned the street boy.

”Thank you. I blacked my own boots before I left home.”

”Do you call that a s.h.i.+ne?” said the boy, contemptuously, as his glance rested on Harry's shoes, which certainly did not vie in polish with those operated upon by city bootblacks.

”It'll do for me,” answered Harry, good-naturedly.

”Mornin' papers--_Herald, Times, Tribune, World!”_ called a newsboy.

”Give me a _Herald,”_ said Harry, who suddenly bethought himself of the tin box, and was anxious to find out whether any allusion was made to the theft in the morning papers.

He opened the paper, and his eyes ran hastily over the crowded columns.

CHAPTER XXI

A REWARD OFFERED

Harry looked over the news columns in vain for an account of the robbery, or some allusion to the tin box which he had seen concealed in the wood.

”There may have been something about it in yesterday's paper,” he said to himself. ”I must go to the office of publication and buy a copy.”

It occurred to him, however, that there might be an advertis.e.m.e.nt offering a reward for its recovery, and he began to search, with this object in view.

Presently his eye lighted on the following:

”Two Hundred and Fifty Dollars Reward.

”On the fifteenth instant, a Tin Box, containing a considerable sum in Five-Twenty Government and Union Pacific Bonds, was stolen from the office of the subscriber. The above sum will be paid for the discovery of the thief, or for information leading to the recovery of all, or the larger part, of the bonds. JAMES P. WHEELER,

”No. 265 Broadway, Room 10.”

I do not claim to have given the correct number, for obvious reasons. Of course, the address given in the advertis.e.m.e.nt was accurate.