Part 11 (2/2)
That evening found Dave and Roger back in Crumville, where, of course, they had to relate the details of what had happened.
”Oh, Dave, you must be more careful!” cried Jessie, after he had told of the encounter in the woods. ”That wicked fellow might kill you!”
and she shuddered.
”Yes indeed, you ought to be careful,” said Laura. ”Why, he seems to be almost as bad as Merwell and Jasniff were!”
”So he is, Laura. And if I ever get the chance I'll put him where they are--in prison,” answered the brother grimly.
As was to be expected, Dave was quite worked up over what had occurred, and that night he did not sleep very well. Both his father and his sister insisted that he go to a physician and have his ear examined.
”No damage done, so far as I can see,” said the doctor. ”But you had better bathe it with witch-hazel and keep it warm for a day or two.”
The next day Dave settled down to his studies as well as he was able.
He hoped that word might come in that Ward Porton had been captured, but in this he was disappointed.
”I think he'll steer clear of this neighborhood, for a while at least,” was Mr. Porter's comment.
”That's just my idea,” added Dave's Uncle Dunston. ”He must know that a great many swindled storekeepers and other people are on the watch for him.”
Dave had not seen Ben Ba.s.swood for several days. On the following evening the son of the real estate dealer came hurrying over to the Wadsworth mansion.
”We've got news about that Mr. Enos's estate!” cried Ben, as soon as he met Dave and Roger. ”It's the queerest thing you ever heard of.
Mother doesn't know what to make of it, and I don't know what to make of it, either.”
”Well, I hope it's a valuable estate if it is coming to your father,”
said the senator's son.
”I don't know whether it is valuable or not, and neither does father.
He says in his telegram it is certainly worth several thousand dollars, and he doesn't know but that it may be worth a hundred thousand dollars or more.”
”A hundred thousand dollars!” cried Laura, who had come in to hear what Ben had to tell. ”Oh, Ben, that certainly is a fortune!”
”Well, what does it consist of?” queried Dave. ”If it may be worth all the way from two or three thousand dollars to a hundred thousand or more, it must be mining stocks or something like that.”
”No, it isn't in stocks or bonds or anything like that.”
”Then what in the world does the estate consist of?” questioned our hero.
”Miniatures,” answered Ben Ba.s.swood, simply.
CHAPTER IX
SOMETHING ABOUT MINIATURES
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