Alger Horatio Jr.
Chester Rand; or, The New Path to Fortune
CHAPTER XXVI.
A STRANGER IN NEW YORK
It was not often that Silas Tripp went to New York. The expense was a consideration, and again he found it difficult to leave his business. But he had received a circular from an investment company in Wall Street, offering ten per cent. interest for any money he might have to invest. High interest always attracts men who love money, and it so happened that Silas had five hundred dollars invested. The difference between six and ten per cent. interest on this sum would make twenty dollars annually, besides a contingent share in extra profits promised in the circular, and on the whole he thought it would pay him to make the journey.
He went at once to the office of Messrs. Gripp & Co., on his arrival in the city. He found the financial agents occupying handsome offices, well furnished and covered with a thick Turkey carpet. Everything betokened prosperity, and Mr. Tripp was dazzled. The result was that he made the investment and laid away in his old-fashioned wallet five new bonds, assuring a dividend of ten per cent.
"I calc'late it's safe," he said to Mr. Gripp, a stout man with a florid face, expensively dressed and sporting a large and showy diamond ring.
"Assuredly, my dear sir," said Gripp, with suavity. "I congratulate you, Mr. Tripp, on making an unusually profitable investment. I venture to say that within the year, besides the regular dividend, there will be an extra dividend of five per cent., making fifteen per cent. in all. It is a pity you had not more invested."
"Mebby I'll bring you in some more bimeby," said Mr. Tripp, cautiously.
"I trust you will, for your own sake. To us it is not important, as we have plenty of capital offered. Indeed, we have had to limit investments to five thousand dollars for each person. Why, a millionaire, whose name would be very familiar to you if I could venture to mention it, came here last week and wanted to invest fifty thousand dollars in our bonds, but I firmly refused to take more than five thousand."
"I don't see why you should," said Silas, puzzled.
"I will tell you why. We wish to give a chance to smaller investors, like yourself, for instance. Rich men have plenty of ways in which to invest their money to advantage, while you probably don't know where to get over six per cent."
"No; I never got more'n that."
"I dare say you have considerable invested at that small interest."
"Well, mebbe."
"Think how much it would be for your advantage to get four per cent. more."
"To be sure, sartin! Well, I'll think of it, Mr. Gripp. Mebbe I'll come and see you ag'in soon."
Mr. Gripp smiled to himself. He saw that the bait was likely to prove effective.
"Well, good-by, Mr. Gripp. You'll send me any information about the bonds?"
"Yes, Mr. Tripp, with pleasure. Whenever you are in the city, even if you have no business with us, make our office your home. Whenever you have any letters to write, we will furnish you a desk and all facilities."
"Thank you, Mr. Gripp; you're very obleeging."
So the old man went out, feeling very complacent over his new investment, and much pleased with the handsome way he was treated by Mr. Gripp.
"Lemme see," he reflected. "I've got five thousand dollars invested. At ten per cent. it would amount to five hundred dollars, and with an extra dividend of two hundred and fifty dollars more. I'll have to think it over. All seems safe and square, and Mr. Gripp is a real gentleman."
Silas Tripp looked at his watch. It was only half-past ten. How should he occupy his spare time?
"I guess I'll go and see Chester Rand," he said. "His mother told me where he was working. Perhaps he'll know of some cheap place where I can get dinner. The last time I was in the city it cost me forty cents. That's a terrible price."
Mr. Tripp knew the location of Mr. Fairchild's office, and after some inquiry he found his way there. He felt so much like a stranger in the big city that he anticipated with pleasure seeing a familiar face. Perhaps Chester would invite him out to lunch, and Mr. Tripp, in his frugality, would not have declined the offer even of an office boy, as long as it would save him expense.
Felix Gordon was just leaving the office on an errand.
"Is that Mr. Fairchild's office?" inquired Silas.
"Yes," answered Felix, with rather a disdainful glance at Silas Tripp's rusty garments.
"Much obleeged to ye," said Silas.
He entered the office and glanced about, expecting to see Chester.
David Mullins came forward, and with some show of civility greeted the old country merchant. Though he was not naturally polite, he knew that the size of a man's purse could not always be judged from the cut or quality of his garments, and he was just as ready to make money out of Silas as out of any fashionably dressed customer.
"Is Mr. Fairchild in?" asked Silas.
"No; Mr. Fairchild is out West. I am Mr. Mullins, his bookkeeper, and represent him."
"Just so! Have you a boy workin' for you named Chester—Chester Rand?"
"Are you a friend of his?" asked the bookkeeper.
"Well, yes. I come from Wyncombe, where he lives, and I know his folks. I was told he was workin' here."
"Yes, he was working here," answered Mullins, emphasizing the past tense.
"Isn't he here now?" demanded Silas, with surprise.
"No."
"How's that?"
"It's rather a delicate matter, as you are a friend of his, but some days since I was obliged to discharge him."
"You don't say!" ejaculated Silas, in manifest surprise.
"I am sorry to say it."
"But what was the matter? What did he do?"
"Well, as to that, he did nothing very serious, but he wasted time when he was sent out on an errand, and I felt that it was injurious to the interests of Mr. Fairchild to retain him."
"He used to be spry enough when he worked for me."
"When he worked for you?"
"Yes. I keep a store out in Wyncombe, and he was in my employ most a year. I used to think him quite a lively boy."
"I dare say he would do very well in a country store, but in the city we want boys to be active and wide awake. I don't want to say anything against him. He was perfectly honest, so far as I know."
"Has he got another place?"
"I don't think he has. It is difficult for a boy to get a place in this city—that is, a good place, and he wouldn't be likely to refer any employer to me."
"I'm afraid he'll be put to it to live, for his mother was poor. How much wages did you pay him?"
"Five dollars a week."
"That's pretty high pay."
"So it is, and we expect a first-class boy for that."
"Have you got a better boy in his place?"
"Yes; I have taken in a cousin of mine who knows my ways and satisfies me."
"Was it the boy I saw just after I came in—a dark-complexioned boy with black hair?"
"Yes, that is Felix."
"And you find him better than Chester?"
"Yes."
Silas Tripp did not make any comments, but he had not been very favorably impressed by the little he had seen of Chester's successor.
"Mebbe Chester isn't adapted to the city," Silas said.
"I think you are right. It would be better for him to go back into your store, but country boys fancy they must come to the city and become city business men."
"That's so. Mebbe I wouldn't succeed in the city myself, though I'm doin' a tidy business in Wyncombe. I'd like to see Chester. Can you tell me where he lives?"
"No, I haven't his address."
"I wonder he hasn't gone back home. Mebbe he hasn't got the money."
"I presume you are correct in your conjecture."
"His mother hasn't said anything to me about Chester bein' out of work. I'm surprised at that."
"Perhaps he did not like to tell her."
"Very like, very like! I'm really sorry to hear Chester ain't done no better."
"He isn't quite up to our mark, but I dare say he will do very well in the country or in some small business."
"Are you doin' a large business? You don't seem to have much stock here."
"My dear sir, we can't get brownstone houses and country villas into an office like this."
"Is that what you sell?"
"Yes; I sold a fifty-thousand-dollar house this morning up on Forty-fifth Street, and yesterday I sold a summer hotel for forty thousand dollars. Our commission in each case would be several hundred dollars."
"Sho! Well, you be doin' a good business. Can you tell where I can get a good dinner moderate?"
Felix came in at this moment.
"Felix," said his cousin, "you may keep the office while I go out to lunch. Mr. – You didn't tell me your name."
"Silas Tripp."
"Mr. Tripp, it will give me pleasure if you will go out and take lunch with me."
"Well, I am sure you're very polite," said Silas, pleased to think he would be saved expense; "I'm much obliged."
So the two went out together. Mullins continued to say considerable that was derogatory to Chester, and left Mr. Tripp under the impression that he was a failure so far as New York business was concerned.
CHAPTER XXVII.
MR. TRIPP IS DISAPPOINTED
Silas Tripp returned home full of the news he had heard in New York.
"Just as I thought," he said to himself, "Chester Rand ought never to have left Wyncombe. He ain't calc'lated to succeed in the city. He'd orter have stayed in my store. In two or three years he might have been earnin' four or five dollars a week, and he could have boarded at home. It costs a sight to live in the city. I ain't sure that I could afford it myself."
Mr. Tripp decided to offer Chester his old place at two dollars and a half a week. Abel Wood was again in his employ, but he didn't like him as well as Chester.
The latter he had always found reliable, while Abel was rather apt to forget what Silas told him. Once he had stopped in the street and played ball, losing ten or fifteen minutes in that way. Mr. Tripp was obliged to confess that he never had a more satisfactory boy than Chester.
The store closed at nine, and Silas, instead of going into the house, walked over to Mrs. Rand's cottage.
She was rather surprised when she saw who her visitor was.
"Good-evening, Mr. Tripp," she said, politely. "Won't you come in?"
"Thank you, widder. It's rather late to call, but I thought you might like to hear about York, seein' Chester is there."
"Have you been to New York to-day?"
"Yes; I went up on a little business."
"Did you see Chester?"
"No, I didn't see him," answered Silas, significantly.
"Did you hear anything of him?" Mrs. Rand naturally asked.
Mr. Tripp coughed.
"Well, yes, I heered somethin' about him."
"Is he—sick?" asked the mother, anxiously, made apprehensive by his tone.
"Not that I know of. Hain't he writ anything special to you?"
"I had a letter yesterday, but there was nothing special in it."
"I suppose he didn't say nothin' about his place?"
"Yes; he likes it very much."
"I don't like to say it, widder, but he's deceivin' you. I saw his employer myself, and he said that he had to discharge Chester."
Somehow Mrs. Rand did not seem so much disturbed by this intelligence as the storekeeper thought she would be.
"Oh, you mean the real estate office," she said.
"Yes; I was treated quite handsome by Mr. Mullins, the bookkeeper, who is runnin' the business while Mr. Fairchild is away. He says Chester wasn't spry enough, that he wasn't wide awake enough to work in the city."
Mrs. Rand actually smiled.
"So that is what he said," she returned. "I can tell you why Chester was discharged. Mr. Mullins wanted to give the place to his nephew."
"Mebbe so," answered Silas, dubiously. "Anyhow, it's unfortunate for Chester to lose his place. I feel for you, Mrs. Rand, as I always liked Chester myself, and I came here to-night to say that I'm ready to take him back into the store, and give him two dollars and a half a week. He suits me."
Mr. Tripp leaned back in the rocking-chair and looked as if he had made a very handsome proposal.
"I see, Mr. Tripp," said Mrs. Rand, smiling, "that you think Chester is out of a position."
"So he is. Wasn't he discharged? I know from what Mr. Mullins said he won't take him back."
"Chester would not be willing to go back. He has a new and better place."
"You don't say!" ejaculated Mr. Tripp, surprised and, it must be confessed, disappointed. "What sort of a place is it?"
"He is working for a New York paper or magazine."
"Sho! Does he get as much pay as he did at the other place?"
"Considerably more," Mrs. Rand answered, with satisfaction.
"More'n five dollars a week?"
"Yes; he offers to send me five dollars a week, but I can get along without assistance, since Miss Dolby pays me so liberally."
"Well, I am surprised. Chester is very lucky. Mebbe it won't last," he continued, hopefully.
"It seems likely to be permanent."
"Well, I guess I must be goin'. If he should lose his place, tell him I will take him back any time."
"I don't think he would be satisfied to come back to Wyncombe after working in New York."
Silas Tripp returned to his house rather disappointed. He had felt so sure of securing Chester's services, and now his old boy seemed to be quite out of his reach.
"Offered to send his mother five dollars a week!" he soliloquized. "Then he must be makin' as much as ten in his new place. Mr. Mullins didn't seem to know about it. I wonder what he can be doin' to get such a high salary."
CHAPTER XXVIII.
PROF. NUGENT
Chester still went three times a week to the house of Prof. Hazlitt. He was getting on fast with the professor's work.
"I think I shall go to press with my book before the end of the year," said the professor, one evening, as Chester was taking his leave. "In my preface I shall mention your name, Chester, as my artistic collaborator."
"Couldn't you mention my name, too, Uncle Edgar?" asked Arthur Burks.
"In what way?" inquired the professor smiling.
"You can say that I supervised the illustrations," answered Arthur, demurely.
"I am afraid you will have to wait till you are better entitled to credit."
"Now, that's mean, Uncle Edgar. I know how I'll get even with you."
"How?"
"I will write a rival book, and get Chester to illustrate it better than yours."
"It would need better illustrations, since there would be nothing else in the work worthy of attention."
"Your uncle has got you there," said Chester.
"You'll illustrate my book, won't you?"
"Certainly; that is, if I can depend on prompt payment."
Chester and Arthur Burks were fast friends. Arthur did not shine in scholarship, but he was fond of fun, and was a warm-hearted and pleasant companion, and a true friend.
One afternoon he called on Chester at his room.
"I bring you an invitation to dinner," he said. "Uncle has a friend from Oregon visiting him, and as he is an interesting talker, you will enjoy meeting him. I believe he is a professor in Williamette University."
"Thank you, Arthur; I shall be very glad to come."
"Come with me now, if you have got through your day's work. You can have a little scientific conversation before dinner."
"It will be the science of baseball and tennis, I suspect, Arthur."
"No doubt you will find me very instructive."
"You always are, Arthur."
"Thank you. I like to be appreciated by somebody."
At the dinner table Chester was introduced to Prof. Nugent.
"This is Chester Rand, the young artist who is illustrating my ethnological work, brother Nugent," said Prof. Hazlitt.
"What—this boy?" Prof. Nugent exclaimed, in a tone of surprise.
"Yes. Boy as he is, he is a salaried contributor to The Phœnix."
"You surprise me. How old are you, Mr. Rand?"
"Sixteen."
"I suppose you began your art education early?"
Chester smiled.
"No, sir," he answered. "Four months ago I was the boy in a country grocery store."
"This is wonderful. I shall subscribe to The Phœnix before I go back to my Western home."
"I am afraid, sir, it will be too light to suit your taste."
"My dear young friend, don't suppose I am always grave. What says the Latin poet:
"'Dulce est desipere in loco.'
"If you don't understand it, probably Arthur can enlighten you."
"What does it mean, Arthur?"
"It means, 'When all your serious work is done, 'tis best to have a little fun,'" answered Arthur, promptly.
"Bravo, Arthur," said Prof. Nugent, clapping his hands. "So we have a young poet as well as a young artist here."
"Oh, yes," answered Arthur. "I'm pretty smart, but few people find it out."
"You'd better ask the professor about Tacoma," suggested Arthur, during a pause in the conversation.
CHAPTER XXIX.
MR. FAIRCHILD'S TELEGRAM
"Tacoma!" repeated the professor. "Who is interested in Tacoma?"
"I own five lots of land there," answered Chester.
"Then I congratulate you. Lots are rising there, and are destined to go to a still higher point."
"How do you account for that?" asked Prof. Hazlitt.
"In three months the Northern Pacific Railroad will be completed, and that will give a great impetus to the growth of the town. I expect to live to see fifty thousand people there. Let me ask how you became possessed of these lots?"
"They were given to me by a friend now dead."
"What was his name?"
"Walter Bruce."
"Indeed! Why, I own three lots adjoining the Bruce lots. They are among the best located in the town."
"Would you advise me to keep them or sell if I have the chance?"
"To keep them, by all means. I shall keep mine. If, however, you wish to sell, I will myself pay you five hundred dollars each."
"Then I may consider myself worth twenty-five hundred dollars," said Chester, in a tone of satisfaction.
"Yes, and more if you are willing to wait."
"I think Mr. Bruce only gave twenty-five dollars apiece for them."
"Very likely. Mine only cost thirty dollars each."
"I shall begin to look upon you as a rich man, Chester," said Arthur Burks.
"Only a rich boy," corrected Chester, laughing. "I haven't begun to shave yet."
"I think I shall commence next week," remarked Arthur, rubbing his cheek vigorously.
"Since you own property in our neighborhood, Mr. Rand," said Prof. Nugent, "why don't you make us a visit?"
"I hope to some day when I can afford it," replied Chester, "but I didn't know till you told me just now that my lots were worth more than a trifle."
"If ever you do come, don't forget to call on me at the university. It is located in Salem, Oregon. I may be able to take a trip to Tacoma with you."
"Thank you, sir. I should like nothing better."
The next afternoon Chester chanced to enter the Fifth Avenue Hotel. He went through the corridor and into the reading room to buy a paper. What was his surprise to see his recent acquaintance, Paul Perkins, sitting in an armchair, reading a Minneapolis journal.
"Why, Chester!" exclaimed Mr. Perkins, cordially, as he rose and shook Chester's hand vigorously. "It does my heart good to see you. I was intending to call at your office to-morrow."
"You wouldn't have found me, Mr. Perkins."
"How is that?"
"I have been discharged."
"By that rascal, Mullins? It's a shame. I must see if I can't find you another position."
"Thank you, but it is not necessary. I have a place already."
"Good! Is it in the real estate business?"
"No, I am engaged on The Phœnix, a new weekly humorous paper, as one of the regular staff of artists."
"Whew! That is good. Do you get fair pay?"
"Twenty-five dollars a week."
"You don't say so. That is surprising. How much did you get at the other place?"
"Five."
"Then this is five times as good. You ought to give Mr. Mullins a vote of thanks for bouncing you."
"I don't think he meant to benefit me," said Chester, smiling.
"Do you have to work hard? What are your hours?"
"I have none. I work at home and select my own hours."
"Are you through work for the day?"
"Yes."
"Then you must stay and dine with me. It is four o'clock. We can chat for an hour, and then go to dinner."
"Thank you. I will accept with pleasure. Did you have a pleasant journey?"
"Yes; but I should have enjoyed it better if you had been with me. I called at the White House and shook hands with the President."
"Did you tell him you wanted an office?"
"No office for me. I would rather have my own business and be my own master. Washington's a fine city, but give me Minneapolis."
"I may call on you in Minneapolis sometime, Mr. Perkins."
"I hope you will. You'll find it worth visiting. It's a right smart place, if I do say it."
"I have seen a professor from a university in Oregon, and he has given me good news of my lots in Tacoma. I have five, as I think I told you. He offered me five hundred dollars apiece cash down."
"Don't you take it! They're going a good deal higher, now that the railroad is nearly completed."
"So he told me."
"I congratulate you on your good luck, Chester. I am sure you deserve it. But you haven't told me why you were 'bounced.'"
"Mr. Mullins said I wasted time in going his errands. It wasn't true, but it was only an excuse to get rid of me. He took his cousin Felix in my place."
The two friends went to dinner about six o'clock. At seven they came downstairs and sat in the lobby on a sofa near the door.
Through the portal there was a constant ingress and egress of men—a motley crowd—business men, politicians, professionals and men perhaps of shady character, for a great hotel cannot discriminate, and hundreds pass in and out who are not guests and have no connection with the house.
"It is a wonderful place, Chester," said Mr. Perkins. "Everybody seems at home here. I suppose everybody—everybody, at least, who is presentable—in New York comes here sometime during the year."
Just then Chester uttered a little exclamation of surprise. As if to emphasize Mr. Perkins' remark, two persons came in who were very well known to the young artist. They were David Mullins and Dick Ralston.
Mullins heard the slight exclamation and turned his head in the direction of the sofa on which Chester and his friend were sitting. So did Ralston.
"Why, it's your old boy!" he said.
Mullins smiled a little maliciously. He had not heard that Chester had a place.
"I suppose you are boarding here," he said, with a little sarcasm.
"No, Mr. Mullins, but I have just dined here—with my friend, Mr. Perkins."
Mullins inclined his head slightly.
"Has he adopted you?" he asked, in a tone bordering on impertinence.
"No, sir," answered Mr. Perkins; "but if Chester ever wants me to, I will. At present he is prosperous, and requires no help or adoption."
"Oh! Have you got a place?" asked Mullins, turning to Chester.
"Yes."
"In the same business?"
"No; I am in the office of a weekly paper."
"Oh!" said the bookkeeper, disdainfully. "They pay beggarly salaries at such places."
"Then I am favored. I receive more than twice as much as I did in your office."
Chester did not care to just state how much he received.
"That can't be possible!"
"It is a fact, however. Has Mr. Fairchild returned?"
"No. Why do you want to know?"
"I have no wish to go back, Mr. Mullins. Don't be apprehensive of that. I don't wish to disturb Felix."
Dick Ralston listened with some interest to the conversation.
"It strikes me the kid has come to no harm from being discharged," he said.
"I believe this is Mr. Perkins, of Minneapolis?"
"Yes, sir," answered the Westerner, eying the gambler with a penetrating glance.
"I shall be glad to be your guide if you wish to see something of New York. Will you join us this evening?"
"You are very polite, but I have an engagement with Chester."
"A mere boy! He knows nothing about the city."
"Still I am satisfied with him."
The two passed on and went into the bar-room, where they sat down at a table and ordered some liquid refreshment.
"Well, Mullins," said the gambler, "I am getting impatient. The days are slipping by, and you have done nothing."
"You know what I am waiting for. Yesterday a check for a thousand dollars was paid in at the office, and deposited in the bank to-day."
"Good! And then?"
"I will send Felix to the bank and draw out sixteen hundred. Will that satisfy you?"
"I see, and, according to our arrangement, Felix will hand it to me on his way back to the office, and then swear that it was taken from him by some unknown party. You have coached him, have you?"
"Yes. Of course, I had to let him into the secret partially, promising him twenty-five dollars for himself."
"Ten would have been sufficient."
"He would not have been satisfied. We can spare that."
"How soon do you expect Fairchild back?"
"In three days."
But on the morrow Mullins was disconcerted by receiving the following telegram:
"Expect me back sometime to-day. Fairchild."
