Two Boys and a Fortune Part 11

But no one appeared, and on Sat.u.r.day the funeral was held in the little house in Burdock. All the Pells were present, and a great number of people from Marley.

The news that the miser was very wealthy and had left all his money, except a small legacy to his servant, to Mrs. Pell, spread rapidly and created a great sensation.

Everybody connected it with Roy's act of rescue on the trestle, and so many spoke to him about it that he was almost afraid to show himself in public.

"What do you care?" said Jess, when he complained to her about it. "It certainly isn't a thing you are ashamed of."

"But I don't know what to say," he returned. "It sounds silly to tell them it wasn't anything, and I can't say, yes, I think it was a very brave act. So there I am."

"You poor boy. What do you do, usually?"

"Try to get around it by telling them that I'm not the heir but mother. I suppose that's kind of mean, too, for I know she hates to be spoken to about it as much as I do."

The Pells were the observed of all observers at the funeral. Eva had declared at first that she thought they ought not to go.

"We'll just make a show of ourselves," she said. "It was very unfortunate all this got out before Mr. Tyler was buried."

But Mrs. Pell announced that respect for the dead demanded their presence, so they went. Every one remarked on the pallor of Sydney.

His mother had worried over it considerably.

"You must be the first to take advantage of our altered circ.u.mstances, my dear boy," she had told him. "I want you to give up work for a while and go away for a good long rest."

"Oh, no, no!" he cried out in such terror that the poor woman was startled.

He noticed it and tried to smile as he went on:

"Of course all this business about the Tyler will has been an extra strain on me, but that will soon be off now. It is you and the children who must benefit by the money that has come so unexpectedly.

You will make me, oh, so much happier, if you will not count me in on it. You will not need my help now, and my income will be abundant for my own wants."

Seeing that he felt so strongly on the matter, Mrs. Pell said no more at the time, but she often thought of that talk later and shivered as she recalled it.

CHAPTER X

ROY MAKES A NEW ACQUAINTANCE

It was just a month after our story opened that July afternoon. Roy was fishing from the tree trunk over the creek again, but he was alone this time and the expression on his face was almost as discontented as Reginald's had been on that former occasion.

His float bobbed under two or three times, but he paid no attention to the fact. He was too deeply absorbed in thought. Now and then he would glance up at the trestle far above him, and something very like a sigh would pa.s.s his lips.

There was a snapping of twigs on the Marley end of the log and Roy turned his head quickly to find a young man regarding him attentively.

He might have been anywhere from twenty-five to thirty. He had a small brown mustache and rather a dark complexion.

He held a small oblong box in both his hands. Roy at once recognized it as a camera and realized at the same instant that it was pointed at him.

As their eyes met, the stranger flushed slightly, but said in a pleasant voice:

"I hope you don't mind being taken?"

Roy did mind. He was in a mood just now to object to everything, but the other's voice was such an agreeable one, the glance of his eye so kindly that the boy's real self came to the surface through his temporarily baser one, and he replied:

"Oh, I s'pose not, but I haven't got the pleasant look the photographers tell you to put on. Aren't you afraid I'll break your camera?"

The answer was a quick snap and then the young man slung the camera over his shoulder and stepping out on the tree trunk slipped down to a seat beside Roy.

"You have a very cozy retreat here," he remarked, "how's the fishing?"

"I don't know. To tell the truth I wasn't thinking of my line at all and I'm almost sorry I let you take that picture. I don't see what you wanted it for any way, I hope you won't show it around much. You don't live in Marley, do you?"

"No."

"I'm glad of that"

"Why?" with a smile.

"Because n.o.body I know will be apt to see the picture."

"You're quite a modest young man."

"Oh, it isn't that, but I must have looked so disagreeable at that particular moment. At least I must have done so if my looks were anything like my feelings."

"No, if I remember rightly you were smiling at the instant I pressed the b.u.t.ton. You know you were saying something about fearing you would break the camera, and a smile usually goes with that remark."

Roy looked up quickly. The stranger was an odd one. He had a queer way of putting things. Roy began to be interested.

"Have you taken many pictures around here?"

"Quite a number. It's a very pretty place."

"Isn't it?"

"That bridge quite adds to the attractiveness of the landscape. In fact that is the reason I am here. I was coming through on the train and as we crossed, the prospect of this little valley was so tempting that I decided to stop off and explore. I am very glad I did now, for it gave me the added pleasure of meeting you."

"That sounds as though you were talking to a girl," said Roy.

"Does it? Well, as I am particularly fond of boys I suppose I may be allowed to say the same sort of things to them."

"You're fond of boys? That's queer. I didn't know any one liked boys except their mothers and now and then a girl or two."

Roy laughed a little as he added this last, and the stranger joined in heartily.

"You're very frank," he remarked; "but that's what boys usually are, and it's one of the reasons I like them. They generally say right out just what they think."

"What's another reason?"

The man with the camera hesitated an instant before replying. Then he said:

"Well, I'm going to be frank, too. Another reason I like boys is because I find them useful to me."

"Useful to you?" repeated Roy, perplexed.