CHAPTER X.

AT THE OFFICE.

Long before eight o’clock that morning Nick Collins was at the office of James Vail, the broker.

He had bought a collar and tie, a handkerchief, and a neat, cheap hat, and looked quite presentable as he left the boys at the old house.

The money affair had unsettled Frank, but Nick resolutely insisted that it was an outside issue that could have but one result--its restoration to its rightful owner, and he advised the boys to follow out the program of the day previous regarding a quest of work.

The Vail offices were in charge of the janitor when Nick arrived, and the latter, not knowing him, refused to admit him.

Mr. Loucks was there soon after Nick arrived, however, and greeted him with his usual smirk of calmness.

“Ah! early, my boy! That’s right. Come in--come in, and I’ll tell you what you have to do.”

He made Nick sit down when they reached the private office.

“Well, ready for work, eh?” he asked briskly.

“Yes, sir.”

“And willing? That’s right. Let’s see, Nick is your name?”

“Yes, sir--Nick Collins.”

“Yes--yes,” and Loucks regarded Nick keenly. “Your parents living?”

“They are both dead, sir.”

“Father a farmer, I suppose?”

As Loucks said this his crafty eyes belied the sincerity of the question.

“No, sir--a sailor.”

“Ah, yes--a sailor. Merchant service?”

“I believe so, sir. He died when I was quite young, and I don’t remember much about him.”

This information seemed to please Loucks, for he changed the subject at once and began to inform Nick of his duties as messenger.

“See how snug and cozy we make you,” he said, as he led Nick to a closet between the countingroom and the private office. “You see, it’s a sort of sentry box. When you’re not busy you can look out of the window. You see two ground-glass slides here. Do you know what they are for?”

“No, sir.”

“Tap! That is the bell for the countingroom, and you open the slide on that side, thus,” and Loucks briskly manipulated the sash. “Then the caller nods for you to come to him, or calls his orders to you. Same way on other side, only tap! tap! is our signal.”

“Yours and Mr. Vail’s, sir?”

“Yes, ours. We are the same as partners,” remarked Loucks, with an effort at conscious dignity and pride; “that is--hem!--I am a kind of confidential partner, but of course I tell you this in confidence.”

“Yes, sir.”

The clerks began to arrive soon afterward, and later still Mr. Vail himself appeared.

He took no notice of Nick until he called him to take a letter to a bank near by, and his face wore a preoccupied look whenever Nick glanced at him.

Nick was kept quite busy during the morning, running errands and helping carry the enormous ledgers and other blank books for the clerks to and from the vault.

In the afternoon, however, he was comparatively idle. After two o’clock he sat in the closet to which he had been apportioned, and had no orders until the clerks began to leave for the day.

Then Loucks came to him.

“Stay till five o’clock, Nick,” he said. “I may want to send you on a special errand.”

“Very well, sir.”

Nick soon tired of watching the court from the closet. Whoever had preceded him in the office as messenger evidently had experienced the same weariness, for the windows on both sides had been scraped bare of the white paint in patches, and Nick could see perfectly both into the countingroom and Mr. Vail’s private office.

More than that, as the hubbub of daily toil in the first-named apartment subsided, he found that sounds from the office occupied by the broker and Loucks were perfectly audible in his little waiting room.

A small, broken piece of glass in one corner of the sash, evidently pried out by his curious predecessor, aided his effect.

As Nick sat there he could both see and hear all that transpired in the private office.

He did not suppose that the dry details of business would interest him, but almost unconsciously he found himself listening to the monotonous humdrum tones of Loucks’ voice.

The latter seemed to be reading to his employer a statement of the business of the office. As he concluded, Mr. Vail made a startling remark.

“Well, Loucks,” he said, “that’s the balance--that’s the outlook, is it?”

“Yes, Mr. Vail.”

“Then it’s ruin!”

Nick started in surprise.

“Ruin it is at those figures, sir.”

“Is there no way out of it?”

“There is.”

“What?”

Nick, glancing through the window, saw the snaky Loucks move nearer to Vail.

“You must leave all to me, sir.”

“What do you mean, Loucks?”

“I mean crash, ruin, protested notes, bankruptcy! The business has been running at a loss for a year. If we can tide over another year, I know one or two schemes that we can set in motion, work, terminate, and go out of business rich men.”

“You do?”

“Yes.”

“What are they?”

“Rather risky, but sure.”

“Well?”

“The Speedwell estate.”

“What about it?”

“Negotiate the securities lying in the vault, and secure a temporary loan to tide over present difficulties.”

If ever there was a tempter’s face shown, it was Loucks’ just then. The broker turned pale.

“No! no!” he cried. “Are you mad, Loucks? That would be fraud.”

Loucks smiled calmly.

“And what, then, sir, may I ask?”

“Arrest--disgrace.”

“If found out--yes; but trust me that no one can ever find us out. No, sir. Use the securities, borrow a sum adequate to tide us over, and rely on me to bring things about all right.”

James Vail seemed to be in mental misery at the words of Loucks.

“How can you do that?” he asked.

“Never mind how, but I can give you one hint. You know the _Vista_?”

“Our old ship in the West Indies trade?”

“Exactly, sir.”

“What of it?”

“She’s past her best, you know.”

“Yes.”

“Cost thirty thousand dollars and worth ten thousand dollars.”

“Well?”

“Insure her for her full cost. Suppose she should burn some night?”

The broker was startled; so was Nick at the crime involved in Loucks’ suggestion. Plainly Loucks was a scoundrel--his employer a weak, wavering man.

At that moment there came an interruption.

Tap! tap!

“Some one is at the office door, Loucks,” said Vail.

Loucks glided to the door and opened it.

The janitor stood there, a man behind him.

“Some one to see Mr. Vail, sir,” he said.

“It is past business hours----” began Loucks.

“I must see him!” declared the visitor, pushing his way past the janitor.

“Mr. Vail is engaged, I tell you,” said Loucks.

“He will see me.”

“What is your business, sir?”

“That I can tell to him only.”

“And your name?”

“Admiral Semmes.”

To this rapid talk Nick had listened intently. As that name was spoken he could not repress a start of wonder, doubt, and joy. He had not yet seen the face of the newcomer. Loucks also looked startled.

Vail, at the desk, arose quickly to his feet.

“Show him in--show the admiral in,” he said quickly.

The stranger strode across the floor with rapid, nervous tread.

“Mr. Vail, do you remember me?” he asked, extending his hand to the broker.

“Perfectly. Close the door, Loucks.”

Nick Collins recoiled, with a faint cry.

He had caught a fine glimpse of the face of the man who announced himself as Admiral Semmes.

He might well be amazed, for the visitor was no other than the man who, the night before, had so mysteriously given him the package containing the five thousand dollars!