Terry's Trials and Triumphs Part 15

"Come now, Master Ahearn, you're a bright-looking lad, and no doubt you think a good deal. Have you been thinking much about this wonderful black bag?"

Terry started, and the colour deepened on his already flushed cheeks.

Had he been thinking about it? What else indeed had occupied his thoughts since first he heard of the robbery?

His keen eye observing the boy's confusion, Mr. Morton, who as a matter of fact had intended simply to play with him for a few minutes while he collected his own thoughts, for the case seemed going hard against his client, began to suspect that possibly the extent of Terry's knowledge had not yet appeared; so, changing his manner from one of good-humoured raillery to penetrating scrutiny, he put the question straight to him,--

"See here, Master Ahearn, don't you know more about this matter than you have yet told us?" Then raising his voice to a tone of command, he pointed his long finger at him like the barrel of a revolver, as he cried, "Out with it now. Tell the court everything you know, or--" He did not finish the sentence, believing it would be more effective to leave the consequences to be imagined.

The supreme crisis in Terry's life had come, and he had only an instant in which to make his decision. On the one side was duty to the truth and to the accused man; on the other, fear for his father and for himself, for he did not know but what his concealment of his father having the gold would bring down punishment on his own shoulders.

To get out of the difficulty he had only to disclaim any further knowledge, and who could gainsay him? Glancing up for a moment at the magistrate, his eyes went past him to Mr. Drummond, who sat at his left. There was a look of deep concern on the merchant's face that touched Terry to the heart, and instantly his decision was made. In a voice scarcely audible he murmured,--

"Yes, sir, I do know something more."

Mr. Morton's face suddenly brightened. Here perchance was something that might help his client.

"Ah! ha!" he exclaimed, "I thought you did. Come, then, let us have it. We're all waiting upon you."

In trembling tones and with many interruptions, Terry, helped out by the lawyer's questions, related all that transpired the night his father brought home the gold. His story produced a profound sensation.

Although Black Mike had been placed under surveillance, it was without result; but now, through his son's evidence, his complicity in the crime seemed on the verge of being established.

A distinct air of relief pervaded the court-room. Mr. Morton, looking quite cheerful again, held a whispered consultation with Connors. Mr.

Drummond and his partner did the same with the magistrate, while the other spectators buzzed to one another about the new turn the case had taken.

Feeling as though a fearful load had been taken off him, Terry, now seeming very pale and tired, stood in the box awaiting further questioning. But to his great relief this was not required of him, as, after some discussion, Mr. Morton asked for an adjournment until the following morning, to enable Black Mike to be brought into court. His request was granted, and officers were sent out to find Black Mike.

When the proceedings were resumed the next day, not only Black Mike was present, but also Tom Morley, and there were excited whispers current of yet more surprising developments than Terry's evidence had foreshadowed. Before the day closed the whole mystery was unravelled, and a strange story it made for, as it turned out, neither John Connors nor Black Mike, in spite of the circ.u.mstantial evidence against them, had any part whatever in the robbery, or share in its proceeds. The entire guilt lay upon Tom Morley, and to the cleverest detective in the force was due the credit of bringing it home to him.

It seemed that Morley was in the warehouse above the office when the officers brought in the black bag, and, peeping through a pipe hole in the floor, he had witnessed its being thrust into the desk. Then came to him the thought of taking it, for he was sorely in need of money to pay gambling debts. He remained in the warehouse until long after dark, broke open the desk, and carried off the bag, effecting his escape through the window.

By chance Detective Power had learned of Morley being remarkably flush with money, and while the other officers were following up clues which led to the storeman being arrested, he devoted himself to tracking the real criminal, with the result of running him down, and obtaining a full confession from him, together with the greater portion of the money.

As to the grounds of suspicion against John Connors and Black Mike, they proved to be easily explained away. The black bag found in the former's possession turned out to be another one altogether; and with regard to the gold the latter had brought home, it belonged to an officer of the _Colonel Lamb_, with whom he had been carousing, and who, fearing he might be robbed, had handed it over to Black Mike for safe keeping.

There was great rejoicing throughout the establishment of Drummond and Brown over the complete clearing up of the robbery, and Terry was warmly commended for his fidelity to the truth. Mr. Drummond was particularly pleased with him, for when he understood the whole matter he realized how trying had been the boy's situation.

It was not long after this that Terry was once more called in to Mr.

Drummond's office, for his employer had something important to say to him.

"I have been thinking about you, my boy," said he, "and have decided to give you the opportunity of making up for lost time in the way of education; so I am going to send you off to a first-cla.s.s commercial academy, where you can stay two or three years if you will, and then come back here qualified to make a valuable clerk. How would you like that?"

Now, not so many months before, Mr. Drummond had made Terry a somewhat similar offer, and it had met with no encouragement. But the boy saw things with different eyes now. He had been made to realize his deficiencies so keenly that the great desire of his heart was to have the opportunity of repairing them, and he was all ready to spring at the chance offered him.

"Faith, sir," he replied with a happy smile, "there's nothing I'd like better, if I may say so; and if you're pleased to send me, I'll do my very best to learn all they'll teach me."

"I fully believe you will, my boy," said Mr. Drummond, smiling back at him; "I'll have arrangements made without delay."

For two full years Terry toiled hard at the academy, overcoming one by one many difficulties and temptations that beset his path, and making such rapid improvement from every point of view that, when he returned to his desk, the keenest eye could hardly have recognized in the good-looking youth with so easy a bearing the ragged wharf boy of a little while before.

During his absence Black Mike died in hospital, and kind-hearted Mr.

Drummond placed Mrs. Ahearn in a comfortable cottage far away from Blind Alley. Here Terry joined her, and the good woman had the happiness of living to see her son become one of the most trusted and highly-paid employes of Drummond and Brown.

Terry never forgot his own past. His heart was always warm in sympathy towards the boys that played about the wharves, and he lost no opportunity of saying a kind word or doing a kind deed on their behalf; and they had no better friend in Halifax than Mr. Terrence Ahearn, who, in rising from their ranks to a position of honour and emolument, showed no foolish pride, nor sought to conceal whence he had come.

THE END.