A Mysterious Theft
Don did not flinch, though the odds were heavily against him. His
fighting blood was up.
He was sincerely sorry for the mishap due to his carelessness, and had
been anxious to do all in his power to make amends. If the fellows had
any sense of decency, they would have accepted his apology and let it go
at that. But in their anger, their native coarseness came to the
surface, and confident in the fact that they were two against one, they
counted on getting even in the only way they knew.
“We’ll teach him to run over us that way, eh, Jake?” growled the man,
as, with a scowl, he advanced on Don.
“You bet we will!” answered the boy. “We’ll knock his head off.”
“You’re not going to knock anybody’s head off,” retorted Don defiantly,
his eyes flashing. “I’m not looking for a fight, but you won’t see me
run. You’re two to one and you may lick me, but you’ll know you’ve been
in a fight.”
He shifted his position a bit so that they could not get behind him,
and, his eyes bent on his adversaries, awaited their onslaught.
And while, with his head and courage high, he faces his foes, it may be
well for the benefit of those who have not read the preceding volumes of
this series to tell who Don Sturdy was and what had been his adventures
up to the time this story opens.
Don had been born and brought up in the town of Hillville, a thriving
place of about 10,000 population, in an Eastern State and about fifty
miles from New York City. He was now about fifteen years old, tall and
muscular, with brown hair and eyes. Courage was a characteristic of his
family, and Don had his full share of it. He never looked for trouble,
but never dodged it when it came.
His father, Richard Sturdy, was a noted explorer who had traveled over
all quarters of the globe. More than a year before we here make Don’s
acquaintance, Mr. Sturdy with his wife, Alice, and his daughter, Ruth,
younger than Don by two years, had gone on an exploring expedition on
the ship _Mercury_. Months passed and no news came from the travelers,
and it began to be feared that the _Mercury_ had gone down somewhere off
Cape Horn.
Don, apparently bereft of parents and sister at one blow, was frantic
with anxiety and grief. He had been left at home under the guardianship
of his Uncle, Captain Frank Sturdy, a noted hunter of big game in all
parts of the world. Another uncle, his mother’s brother, Professor Amos
Regor Bruce, a famous scientist, helped to look after him and supervise
his education.
Partly to get Don’s mind off his troubles, his uncles, both of whom were
bachelors, took him with them on an expedition to the Sahara Desert.
There Don came across an American boy, Teddy Allison, of about the same
age as himself, whom he rescued from an attack by Arabs. They became
firm friends, and the plight of Teddy, whose father had been carried off
into slavery by Sahara bandits, enlisted the sympathy of Don’s uncles,
who organized a party to go to his relief. In autos, especially made for
the conquest of the desert, they set forth, not only to attempt Mr.
Allison’s deliverance, but also to find the City of Brass and the Cave
of Emeralds, reputed to be somewhere in the remote recesses of the
Sahara. The thrilling adventures they met with while on their triple
quest are told of in the first volume of this series, entitled: “Don
Sturdy in the Sahara Desert; or, Autoing in the Land of the Caravans.”
From Mr. Allison, they learned that the _Mercury_ had indeed been
wrecked, but that some of her passengers had been rescued and taken on a
sailing vessel to Brazil. This information revived hope that Don’s
parents and sister might have been among the saved, and, shortly after
their return to America, Don and his uncles started for Brazil. Captain
Sturdy had a contract for the capture of big snakes, and Professor Bruce
had been commissioned to secure some of the rare drugs of that country.
How they followed up the slender clues they had; the exciting fights
they had with alligators and monster snakes and jaguars; how the
professor found a drug that cured Fred Turner, at that time an almost
hopeless cripple; the outcome of their search in Brazil for Don’s family
are narrated in the second volume of this series, entitled: “Don Sturdy
with the Big Snake Hunters; or, Lost in the Jungles of the Amazon.”
Shortly after Don and his uncles’ return home, they received further
news of Don’s parents, who, they learned, were in Egypt. They
immediately set out for the land of the Nile. There was a joyous reunion
of Don and his mother, and an investigation as to Mr. Sturdy’s
whereabouts was immediately started. He was supposed to have started for
the Valley of the Kings to find the Tombs of Gold, the location of which
he had learned from an ancient inscription. The party was reinforced by
an old Egyptian, Zeta Phalos, to whom Don and Teddy had once been of
immense service.
What wonderful adventures they met with in their hunt; their encounters
with outlaws; the danger they incurred of thirst and starvation; their
startling adventures with a hideous apparition in the subterranean
catacombs; how they discovered a marvelously rich treasure; and the
result of the search for Don’s father may be read in the third volume of
this series: “Don Sturdy in the Tombs of Gold; or, the Old Egyptian’s
Great Secret.”
And now to return to Don, as, standing at bay with his back against the
wall of the gully, he faced the two rough characters who were advancing
to attack him.
The rascals had evidently expected Don to run or to beg for mercy, and
the fact that he did neither and evidently had not the slightest
intention of doing either, somewhat disconcerted them.
They paused and looked uncertainly at each other.
“Aw, go ahead, Jake, and soak him one,” urged the evil-faced man.
Jake hesitated. He did not like the looks of his opponent.
“Perhaps he’s got his gang near by,” Jake suggested, this being the only
explanation he could think of for Don’s coolness.
As though to justify his suspicion, the sound of voices and footsteps
rapidly approaching were heard.
The man took a step or two up the side of the gully and peered over its
edge.
“Right you are, Jake,” he reported, as he stepped back. “There’s a bunch
of hicks coming. I guess we’d better be making ourselves scarce.”
“It’s mighty lucky for you,” growled Jake, bristling again with
pretended courage, now that he saw he would have no occasion to use it.
“If they hadn’t come, I’d have knocked your block off.”
“You’ve got time to do it yet, if you think you can,” replied Don. “I
guess you’re glad you didn’t have to make your bluff good.”
With muttered threats and scowls, the two strangers slouched away. Don
relaxed as he watched them go. He was relieved and, at the same time,
amused.
“A couple of blowhards,” he murmured to himself, as he climbed up the
bank and exchanged salutations with several people of the vicinity, whom
he knew well and who passed on without any suspicion of the part they
had played in averting the struggle that had threatened.
Don picked up Teddy on his way back, and they said good-bye to Fred,
promising to see him again the next day. Then the two boys made their
way to the Sturdy mansion, a substantial stone structure with ample
grounds around it, where Teddy was spending a few days as a guest.
On the way, Don recounted to Brick the tense scene of a few moments
before.
“The bums!” exclaimed Brick indignantly. “Two against one, and over a
little thing like that! It shows what hardboiled toughs they are. At
that, I believed you’d have licked them.”
“Not likely,” returned Don. “Two to one is big odds. The fellow called
Jake would have been a pudding. But the other one was a rough customer,
and ten to one he had a blackjack in his pocket.”
The two boys passed into the gate of the Sturdy place and were passing
the kitchen door when they heard the shrill voice of Jennie Jenks, the
maid of all work, in animated conversation with Mrs. Roscoe, the buxom,
good-natured housekeeper.
“Jennie’s off again,” whispered Don with a grin, as he put his hand on
his friend’s arm.
“She’s better than a circus,” responded Teddy. “Wonder what’s eating her
now. Let’s find out.”
“An’ what I say is, it’s sumthin’ scand’lous the way the cap’n keeps
flyin’ in the face of Providence,” Jennie announced, her eloquence
somewhat impeded by the big wad of gum she was chewing vigorously. “He
ain’t never satisfied to stay at home. Home ain’t nothin’ to him ’cept a
place to hang his hat. It wasn’t enough for him to go out to that there
Sarah Desert an’ fight with banquets in the Hog Platter. It wasn’t
enough to go into those Berzilyun jumboe an’ take chances of bein’ et up
by golcondas an’ cannonballs. It wasn’t enough to go to the land of the
pigamids an’ the spinach an’ get into them Egypt tombs with skellingtons
that didn’t have no heads on ’em. Now he has to git up an’ fly to the
North Pole.”
She paused for breath and shifted her gum.
“The North Pole!” she reiterated. “As if he couldn’t see all the poles
he wanted right in the back yards. Goodness knows, I see too much of ’em
when I’m hangin’ out the clothes.”
“But this is a different kind of a pole,” said Mrs. Roscoe, with a
twinkle in her eye.
“Mebbe a little bigger,” conceded Jennie. “But, after all, one pole is
jest about like another when it comes to that, I don’t care what any one
says.
“I seen a feller climb a greased pole at a county fair once, where I
went with Dan Bixby,” she went on, with the inconsequence which was one
of her chief conversational features. “That is, he tried ter climb it,
but he couldn’t make it an’ came down with a rush. An’ Dan he sez to me,
sez he: ‘Tryin’ to climb that pole hez made a differunt man of him,’ an’
I sez: ‘I don’t see no differunce ’cept he’s got more grease on his
pants,’ an’ Dan sez: ‘Oh, yes, there is,’ he sez, ‘he went up a Pole an’
he came down a Russian,’ an’ I sez: ‘why shouldn’t he come down a
rushin’? I guess you would if you tried to climb it,’ an’ Dan jest
looked at me an’ laffed fit to bust.”
“I don’t wonder he laughed,” said the housekeeper, with a sarcasm which
went clean over the head of its unconscious object. “But suppose you get
busy now and set the table. Dinner’s almost ready.”
The boys moved on, their faces crimson, and it was only when they got
beyond earshot that they gave full vent to their laughter.
“Isn’t she a scream?” exclaimed Brick, as he wiped the tears from his
eyes.
“The only one of her kind, and we’ve got her,” chuckled Don. “She’s too
good for housework. She ought to be on the vaudeville stage. She’d have
them falling out of their seats.”
It was a thoroughly happy party that gathered around the table that
evening. Don’s heart swelled as he looked around and contrasted it with
the times when only he and his uncles formed the company, each with a
subcurrent of pain at the thought of the three empty places that might
never again be filled.
Now they were filled. Don’s father sat at the head of the table,
handsome, genial, his splendid mind fully restored. At the foot sat Mrs.
Sturdy, sweet and smiling, the load of terrible anxiety lifted from her
heart forever. And there was Ruth, blossoming into glorious girlhood, as
gay and merry as of old.
The captain and the professor, who made their home in the old mansion
when they were not absent from the country, Teddy and Don, completed the
party, and Don wondered whether in all the world there was a family
circle so replete with happiness.
“Did you see Thompson and get that matter fixed up?” Captain Sturdy
asked Don, in the course of the conversation.
“Yes,” answered Don. “I have the papers in my pocket. He kept me waiting
a little longer than I expected, and I took a short cut back. Nearly got
into a fight on the way back, too.”
Mrs. Sturdy gave an exclamation, which was echoed by Ruth, and Don’s
father looked at him inquiringly.
“Oh, it didn’t really amount to anything,” Don hastened to assure them,
and then went on to narrate the incident.
“Ever see the fellows before?” asked his father.
“No,” replied Don. “And I don’t care if I never see them again. They
were a couple of hard citizens, if you ask me.”
“They were talking of its being easy to pull off something in this burg,
as they called it,” volunteered Teddy.
“Too many of that kind round here lately,” remarked Mr. Sturdy, with a
thoughtful frown. “I heard at the post-office yesterday that there had
been two or three burglaries recently in the town.”
“I wouldn’t put it past those fellows to do something of the kind, the
older one especially,” said Don. “The young fellow looked more weak than
bad. But the other one looked as though he might be a regular jailbird.”
As he was finishing the meal, a thought occurred to Don.
“I’ll help you with that catalogue you were speaking about, Uncle Amos,
if you like,” he said. “I haven’t anything on to-night, and I can spend
the whole evening at it.”
“Thank you, Don,” replied his uncle. “I’d be glad if you could. The time
is getting short, and the work of classification has taken me longer
than I expected. But Teddy is your guest, and I don’t want to take you
away from him.”
“Oh, that’s all right,” chimed in Teddy. “I’ll be glad to go over there
with Don, if you’re willing. I don’t suppose I can help much, but I’ll
try not to get in the way.”
The professor’s collection was stored in a stone outbuilding on the
grounds that had been constructed especially for the use of Don’s
uncles. There were two floors, the lower being reserved for the use of
Captain Sturdy. Here he kept his skins, heads, antlers and other
trophies of the chase.
On the top floor, which was spacious and well-lighted, Professor Bruce
had his laboratory and storeroom. Here were gathered together many rare
specimens of minerals and antiquities that he had collected during his
many journeys in out-of-the-way corners of the world.
At the present time, the professor was busy making a catalogue of
specimens of minerals that were peculiarly valuable. The work was being
done for a museum, and the professor had agreed to have the catalogue
ready at a specified time, so that the collection could be placed on
view in a special room of the museum that had just been completed for
that purpose.
He had been busily engaged at the task for several weeks, and Don had
been of great service to him. During their trips together, the boy’s
uncle had taught him a great deal about the specimens gathered, and he
found this information, in conjunction with the lad’s quick and alert
mind, of great value just when it was needed.
Brick went over with his chum that evening, and found plenty of things
to attract his attention and interest him while Don was busy with the
professor.
“I suppose that collection is worth an awful lot of money,” Teddy
remarked to Don, as they strolled back to the house after the evening’s
work was over.
“A good many thousands of dollars,” replied Don. “These minerals
represent years of labor and an awful lot of expense in getting them
together. They’re worth so much, in fact, that Uncle Amos is getting
rather nervous over being responsible for them, and is anxious to get
them off his hands.”
Several days passed pleasantly, with Fred, Don, and Teddy getting
together as often as possible for swimming and fishing and long hikes
into the surrounding country. At the house there was a good deal of
bustle and excitement, caused by the preparations of the captain for his
forthcoming trip.
Don had occasion several times to attend to commissions in town for his
busy uncle, and as he was coming back on foot one day he saw ahead of
him a man whom he noticed for his peculiar shuffling gait. He knew it
was a walk he had seen somewhere before, and he was trying to remember
where when the man turned around and Don saw that it was the evil-faced
companion of the boy who had been called Jake.
That the man had recognized him also was evident from the scowl that
came over his face. Don wondered for a moment whether another encounter
was in store for him. But he did not for a moment relax the rapid pace
with which he approached the fellow.
The man hesitated for a moment, then turned, and quickening his gait,
passed down a side road near at hand and was soon out of sight.
The incident made no special impression on Don, and by the time he
reached home other things had driven it from his mind.
Teddy had gone over that night to take dinner with Fred and Emily
Turner, and Don spent the evening with his Uncle Amos, who was now
nearing the completion of his task.
About half past nine the telephone bell rang, and the professor answered
it. There was a hurried interchange, and Don’s uncle turned to him with
a troubled face.
“It’s from Mrs. Thomas,” he said. “Her husband has been taken suddenly
ill and wants to see me at once. He’s one of my oldest friends, you
know, and I’ll have to go. I’ll leave you to lock up. You’ll be careful
to see that everything’s all right, won’t you?”
“Sure, I will,” replied Don. “I’m sorry to hear Mr. Thomas is ill. You
go right ahead. I’ll tend to everything.”
Professor Bruce hurried away, and Don, after finishing what he was
working at, turned out the lights, locked the door of the storeroom
carefully and went to the house.
The next morning at the breakfast table, Don inquired about Mr. Thomas.
“He’s better, I’m glad to say,” replied his uncle. “It was a sudden
heart attack, and for a time it looked as though it might be fatal. But
the doctor got it under control, and I guess he’ll pull through all
right.”
After his long vigil of the previous night, the professor’s appetite was
light that morning, and he finished before the rest, excused himself and
hurried over to his laboratory.
In less than five minutes he was back. He burst into the dining room,
his face the color of chalk.
The others looked up in surprise at the way in which he rushed in, so
much at variance with his usual placid manner. Then the surprise changed
to alarm as they noted his excitement.
He sank into a chair, too agitated for a moment to speak, while the
others sprang to their feet in consternation.
“What is it, Amos?” demanded Mr. Sturdy. “What has happened?”
“I’ve been robbed!” the professor gasped, waving his arms wildly above
his head.
“Robbed?” came in a chorus.
“Robbed!” reiterated the professor. “My collection of minerals! Stolen!
Gone!”
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