Chapter 11

NEWS FROM OVER SEA

"Oh Fred, it's come!" exclaimed his younger sister, Kate.

"What, news from Hiram?" demanded the boy, his heart beating rapidly with the sudden excitement.

"That's it; and he says----" began the impulsive girl, when her mother's voice restrained her:

"Wait, and let Fred read the letter for himself, Kate; he will understand it much better, I am sure; for in your present condition I doubt whether you are capable of making anything clear."

Releasing herself from the arms of her smiling husband, she held out a crumpled sheet of paper to the eager Fred. He saw that there were only a few lines of writing on it, and that even this was done unevenly, as though the one who used the pen wrote under unfavorable conditions, perhaps on the edge of his bunk aboard a sailing vessel.

This was just what Fred read:

"On the way home by easy stages, and under an assumed name, so as not to arouse the suspicion of those who have kept me away. Determined to right a great wrong that has been done you. Willing to testify in your behalf. Be sure and keep secret, especially from the one you have to fear.

"You Know Who."

"Where is the envelope this came in, mother?" Fred asked the first thing; for he found nothing about the letter itself to indicate from what part of the world it might have come.

"I was very careful to keep it, Fred," Mrs. Fenton replied; "for I knew you would want to see it."

No sooner had Fred glanced hastily at the postmark than he whistled to indicate his astonishment.

"Why, it was mailed at Hong Kong, and a whole month ago," he cried.

"Yes, away at the other side of the world," his father remarked. "And from the tone of the letter I feel satisfied that our troubles will soon be of the past; for Hiram Masterson is tired of being kept away from his native land, just because he wants to tell the truth; and he is coming soon to testify for us."

"This is great news, mother, father!" declared Fred, tears standing in his eyes as he contemplated the joyous faces of those he loved so well, for the careworn expression had fled from the countenances of his parents; and he thought both of them looked ten years younger, such is the mission of happiness.

"I'll never hear the name of Hong Kong again in school, but what I'll just love it," declared Kate, laughing and crying by turns; "because it sounds so good right now."

"A month ago he wrote this," continued Fred, reflectively. "Why right at this time Hiram must be on the way to America on his vessel, and may show up here any old time. He says he is sailing under another name, so they won't know him. After all, Hiram has turned out to be a good friend of ours, father, even if he does belong to that Lemington family that has given us so much trouble."

"Oh there may be good branches on even the poorest tree," remarked gentle Mrs. Fenton. "So it is with families. There's little Billy, now, Buck's brother; didn't you say he was as nice a youngster as you ever met, Fred?"

"That's so, mother; and I'll try and not forget again. But I suppose we ought to do what Hiram says, and keep quiet about this latest news. Why, I believe that if people only knew we had a letter postmarked Hong Kong, they'd talk about it; and if that suspicious Squire Lemington heard, he'd put things together, so as to make out a true story."

"How that imagination of yours does take wings, son," said Mr. Fenton, with a laugh. "But you're right about one thing; we must tell no one. Remember, Kate, not a single word to your closest chum."

"Oh! don't be afraid I'll tell, father!" declared the girl.

"And I promise that not even Sid shall know," Fred put in; "though I'd trust any secret with him, for he's as close-mouthed as an oyster, Sid is."

"But even Sid might talk in his sleep, or let a hint fall," Kate insisted; "and you know he's got a sister, Mame, who loves to gossip a little--I kind of think all girls do," she added, with a little giggle, and shrug of her shoulders.

"Won't Hiram have a story to tell when he gets back again?" observed Fred, who, boy-like, thought of the adventures the kidnapped miner must have passed through during his long enforced absence.

"I imagine," Mr. Fenton observed, "that the harsh treatment he has endured at the hands of those who are in the pay of the company his uncle controls must have had just the opposite effect upon Hiram to what they intended. He feels very bitter toward them, and is more determined than ever to beat them at their game. I was always told that when evil men fall out honest ones get their due, and I believe it now."

"I don't believe Hiram can be so very wicked," interposed Mrs. Fenton, gently. "When he came down here from Alaska to help his uncle by giving false testimony, he must have been laboring under some wrong notion of how things stood. Since then he has seen a great light, and his better nature has come to the front."

"Then it was what Fred did for him when he first came, that opened his eyes," declared Kate. "You remember, mother, if it hadn't been for our Fred, Mr. Masterson would have found himself in serious trouble."

"Yes, that must have been the entering wedge," Mr. Fenton remarked, nodding his approval of the girl's idea. "It set Hiram to thinking; and once a wavering man does that, the good in him gets a chance. But come, this doesn't look like supper. I didn't think I was one bit hungry; but now I'm fairly ravenous."

"And the splendid news has taken my desire to eat away," Mrs. Fenton said; but she immediately started to get the meal on the table, her face radiant with the new happiness that had come.

At the table Fred was seized with a sudden thought, pursuing which he turned to his sister to ask a few questions.

"Do you remember who gave the letter to you at the office, Kate; was it that red-headed clerk, Sam Smalling?"

"Why, to be sure; he always hands out the mail at the General Delivery window," she replied, without hesitation.

"He's an inquisitive sort of a fellow, I've found," Fred went on; "and I've even seen him reading post cards that pass through. Stop and think, Kate, did he mention the fact to you that you were getting a _foreign_ letter this time?"

"Why, yes, that is just what he did, Fred," Kate answered quickly; "how could you guess such a thing now?"

"Oh! I just remembered hearing him make remarks to several persons when they came for mail, which told me Mr. Sam Smalling kept tabs on about all that went on in Riverport. It must keep his brain working all the time, trying to remember when Susie Green expects a letter from her aunt away up in Basking Ridge; and if Eph Smith has written home to his ma regularly once a month. But joking aside, sis, what did he say to you about it?"

"Why, as near as I can remember, Fred, he only remarked that he noticed our far-away cousin in Hong Kong had finally taken a notion to write to us. I thought he was trying to be smart, you know; and to carry the joke along I laughed, and said it was too mean for anything the way Cousin Jim had treated us for a long time; and that it was about time he wrote."

"Splendid!" exclaimed Fred, laughing. "And what did he say to that, Kate?"

"I didn't wait to hear," she replied; "but when I went out of the door I looked back, and saw Mr. Smalling patting himself, as if he thought he had the greatest mind ever, to be able to just guess everything."

"Well, I reckon you've spiked his guns, then," Fred went on. "You see, he has a younger brother who trains with that crowd of Buck's; and I didn't know but that Sam might make some mention of the mysterious letter we got to-day from the other side of the world. And then, in some way, it might get around to the ears of Buck, who would carry it to his father; because, I guess every little thing about the Fentons is of _some_ interest up there at the big house."

"Fred, if you make up your mind to be a lawyer, I think you have a future ahead of you," declared his father, proudly; "because your reasoning powers are first-class. But the chances of the post office clerk mentioning the fact now are so remote, that we need not give it a thought."

The evening that followed was one of the happiest the Fentons had known for a long time. There was much to talk about, and a spirit of coming joy seemed to pervade the very atmosphere of that humble cottage home, that certainly never brooded over the much more pretentious establishment of Sparks Lemington.

And when, rather later than usual, Fred went up to his small room close under the rafters, where rainy nights he could listen to the patter of the drops on the roof just over his head, he believed that he must be the happiest boy in all Riverport.

And in his new found joy his thoughts turned to the chum who was worrying so much over his troubles; so that Fred resolved on the morrow to try and do something to help poor Bristles Carpenter.