Dick Lionheart Part 11

"Are you little d.i.c.k?" asked the voice feebly. "I was coming to look for you, but I couldn't get any further. I should have died if the little dog hadn't found me. I heard him bark in my sleep and he saved me. But for that I might have died, unknown to anybody."

And Pat, knowing very well that he had done a good deed, barked again in a perfect chorus of joy.

"Let's take him home," said Teddy eagerly, not to be outdone in goodwill. "He used to play with me and I can remember him now."

But the stranger had sunk back exhausted again and d.i.c.k said quickly, "Run back, Teddy, and tell your father, and see if you can find Paddy, and ask them to get a cart or something to carry him home, or, if you will stay here, I will go."

But Teddy preferred action, and went off like an arrow, while d.i.c.k raised his uncle's head and made him as comfortable as he could during the waiting time.

Help was soon forthcoming, and in a very short time the wanderer was lying in a comfortable bed at Mr. Dainton's house and fed and tended with affectionate care.

Presently he revived a little and tried to talk. "I've come back poorer than I went, though I did find a streak of gold. But I fell ill and the thieves stole all I had. I just managed to get down to a ship and I worked my pa.s.sage home, though I felt I was only coming back to die. But I did want to get to the old place again and to see George's boy. He's the very image of what I used to be, and like his father too, only a taller build, I fancy."

"And as good as he is high," said Mrs. Dainton with a smile at her favourite.

But d.i.c.k could not laugh just then, his throat had such a lump in it.

The dream he had cherished so long of finding a "very own relation" had come true, but with such pain and disappointment if his uncle had only come back to die! But Mrs. Dainton's faith refused to listen to thoughts of dying, and her husband seconded all her efforts in the sick room.

And Paddy made a splendid nurse and cheerfully sat up at night in turn, and, as the patient began to mend, his bright talk and Irish yarns made him laugh and forget all the hardship and failures of the past.

But most of all the invalid liked to have d.i.c.k with him.

"You must take warning by me, lad, and stick to hard work. Don't try to get rich by taking short cuts that lead nowhere."

But as he grew stronger and was able to listen while d.i.c.k talked about machinery and showed his own drawings, the older man began to believe that d.i.c.k was well on the way to a Klond.y.k.e at home.

And when Paddy presently set up a happy home of his own, with Mrs.

Garth's youngest daughter at the head of it, d.i.c.k and his uncle lived on at the old place together with Pat as an honoured member of the family. And health and strength came back enough to make wage earning possible again.

Step by step d.i.c.k advanced in the good opinion of masters and men, and before he was out of his time one of his ideas in valves was patented by the firm and he received a handsome present.

Lionhearted against wrong doing and ready to help in every good cause, he won the respect even of those who disliked him, and at each promotion earned the goodwill of the men. To-day he is manager-in-chief, and there is a rumour that backed by the influence of his old friend, Sir Dale Melville, he will rise to a junior partnership at no distant date. And in every department of the works some evidence of his inventive genius may be found. But he does not forget the struggles and sorrows of the early days when he was only a "'c.u.mbrance," and in his own happy life there is always sympathy for the poor and oppressed. Perhaps n.o.body will be surprised to hear that he married pretty Nellie Dainton, his first little friend in Ironboro', and in their home beyond the marshes, all sorts of schemes for the help of friendless children are brought to pa.s.s.

His own small boys and girls are devoted to their great-uncle Richard, but even better than his tales of Klond.y.k.e adventure, they like to hear Paddy tell the story of d.i.c.k Lionheart and his dog Pat.