CHAPTER XXV--GOOD-BY TO AIRSHIP ANDY
"A visitor for yo', Marse Andy," announced Scipio.
"It's only me," said Mr. Chase, stepping into the sitting room of theaerodrome at the Parks' camp.
"Well, no one is more welcome, Mr. Chase," declared Andy heartily. "Comein, sit down, and make yourself at home."
"Not till I ask a certain question," dissented the grizzledlockup-keeper of Princeville.
"Fire away," smiled Andy. "What's the question?"
"Can you get me a job?"
"Right off, and a good one," responded Andy promptly. "My employer, Mr.Parks, is going into the airship line as a regular professional, and Idon't know a better all-round handy man I would recommend sooner thanyou."
"All right," said Chase, with a sigh of relief, dropping into a chairand placing a bulging, ancient carpet bag on the floor. "I'm done withlockups."
"Is that so, Mr. Chase?"
"It is, and with that conscienceless old grafter, Talbot. You know Itold you I was waiting for something when I last saw you."
"Yes," nodded Andy.
"It was Wandering Dick."
"So you told me."
"I sent that tramp after him. He found him. I got from Dick what Iwanted, paid for it, resigned my position, and now I am here."
"Quick work."
"And here's what I got from Wandering Dick."
Chase extended to Andy a neatly folded paper.
"And what is this, Mr. Chase?" asked Andy.
"A confession and affidavit."
"How does that interest me?"
"Read and see."
Andy's face grew interested and then startled as he perused the sheet ofpaper. It was a legal document attested to by Wandering Dick before aregular justice of the peace at Princeville.
In his affidavit the tramp stated that on the night that the barn ofFarmer Jones burned down, he was in its hay mow. He saw distinctly thetwo boys who set the fire--Gus Talbot and Dale Billings. He got out ofthe way for fear of being charged with the crime, sought later shelterat the jail, and told Chase about it.
The latter was so dependent upon Talbot and in dread of the garagekeeper, who held his position at his mercy, that he made no move toright Andy with the public until the latter was arrested.
"You have done nobly, Mr. Chase," said Andy with deep gratitude, "andwhere is your bill of expenses to settle?"
"Settle nothing!" flared out Chase stormily. "You ever mention it againand I'll get out of here bag and baggage, double quick."
"Well, well," answered Andy, "we'll try to find some way to make it upto you."
Two days later Andy learned that the attention of Seth Talbot had beencalled to the affidavit. Runaway Gus Talbot and Dale Billings hadreturned to Princeville. In some way the garage keeper settled withFarmer Jones, hushed up the matter, and sent his graceless son on a seavoyage. The charge against Andy was, of course, dismissed.
Andy went to visit Duske in the town hospital. His accomplice, Tyrrell,had been driven out of the aviation camp and threatened with a coat oftar and feathers if he ever returned. The rest of Duske's partydisappeared, and creditors seized what little property he had.
Duske would never drive a balloon or airship again. One arm and one footwere broken, and he had sustained other severe injuries. Andy found hima dispirited, wretched man.
He had an object in visiting the crippled aeronaut. He began by tellingDuske that deeply as he tried to wrong Parks, the latter had ordered andpaid for the best care during his stay in the hospital.
"I am circulating a subscription paper among the aviators," added Andy."We expect to raise a thousand dollars for you to go to some quiet townand buy some small business that will give you a living."
No person could resist the kindliness of Andy under the circumstances.Duske broke down completely. He was as sincere and penitent as a man ofhis rough mould of mind could be.
"I don't deserve it, I've been a bad man," he declared, with tears inhis eyes. "What can I do for you for all your kindness to me?"
"You can do something, Mr. Duske," said Andy. "There is a man namedMorse. Do you know him?"
"Why, yes, I do," replied Duske, with a great start. "Do you?"
"I happen to."
"What has he got to do with you and me?"
"Just this," said Andy, "you have treated him badly. He is my friend.You had a hold on him. What was it?"
"A forgery he never committed."
"Are you willing to prove that, and clear him?"
"Yes, indeed. I've done enough wickedness in the world."
"Then clear his name of an unjust charge, so he can stand before thepublic the good, noble man he is."
"I will," declared Duske earnestly, and he did.
One week after the airship race Mr. Webb, to whom Andy had sent the oldleather pocketbook by registered mail the day he recovered it, came downto the Parks camp.
"I have been too busy to come before," he explained to Andy. "Thatdocument in the old leather pocketbook took up my time. I tell you,Nelson, it has brought brightness and comfort to two orphan children ina grand way."
"I am very glad," said Andy.
"I got back the two hundred dollars you left at the bank inPrinceville," continued Mr. Webb. "I have added something to it, and myattorneys have directed me to pay you what they intended to give thefinder of the pocketbook--five hundred dollars."
Andy made some demur at the largeness of the amount, but Mr. Webb waspersistent, declared he was simply acting as agent for the lawyers, andAndy had to take the money.
"As to myself," observed the gentleman, "I want to say what you mustalready know, Nelson--I am greatly interested in you. I wish you couldsuggest some way in which my means can benefit you."
"So do I," broke in John Parks. "The lad is a genius in the aviationline, and I want him to keep on at it."
"Don't I intend to?" challenged Andy.
"Not when you say you are going to leave me next month," declared theaeronaut.
"Yes, but why?" said Andy. "I'll leave it to Mr. Webb here if I have notdecided in a sensible, practical way."
"What is it, Nelson?" inquired Mr. Webb.
"Why, I have over two thousand five hundred dollars in the bank. I wantto put one thousand of it aside for my half brother, when he turns up.He was good and kind to me in the old days, and I must not forget it.Then I want to go through college and learn something so I may be ofsome use in the world."
"An excellent idea," commended Mr. Webb.
"Yes," growled Parks, but playfully, "and spoil a good aviator!"
"Not at all," declared Andy quickly. "I love the airship business, Mr.Parks, but I want to learn every branch of the science that covers it.It looks as if airships are to be the coming vehicles of travel, yousay, Mr. Parks. If that is so, everybody will be flying in time, and theprofessional aviator will be just a common, everyday person."
"Well, I suppose that's so," admitted Parks.
"Then, the wise man will be the one who knows how to build the airship.Why, I'll go through college, come out with my head chock full of newideas, and Mr. Webb and you and I will get up the World's AirshipConstruction Co."
"That's a pretty grand scheme, Nelson," said Mr. Webb.
"Mayn't it become a true one?"
"Yes, it may," said John Parks, "but I'll always think most of you justas you are--Airship Andy."
THE END
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