Chapter 9 ANOTHER OF JACK'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS

The two boys went up the hill to the Academy with the bag which one of them had found in the creek and had an interview with Dr. Wise.

The doctor looked his name in some respects and in others he did not.

He was a tall, spare man, dressing habitually in solemn black and a huge white choker, his face being clean shaven and showing the firmness of his chin and his square, well-set jaws.

He was very bald, however, and the big round spectacles which he always wore gave an owlish aspect to his face, the glasses being set in a heavy black frame which made his eyes look even deeper than they naturally were.

However, the doctor was of a most kindly nature and all the boys under his charge, with a few notable exceptions, were greatly attached to him and treated him with admiration as well as respect.

He listened attentively to Jack's story of falling down the ravine and finding the rubber bag and then examined the latter, saying:

"H'm, ha! yes, this is a most important discovery. I am not privileged to examine it closely, that will be the duty of the agent at the station and the officers of the bank, but I am very glad that the bag has been recovered. This packet doubtless contains registered letters for me. I was expecting them and their loss would have caused us all some trouble. One thing, however. Has no one told you of the danger of wandering through our woods, especially at night?"

Dick Percival was about to say something which Jack did not want him to say at the moment and he quickly interposed:

"Yes, sir, they have, and I will admit that I was careless. However, I will take better precautions in future."

"Do so. I should be very sorry if anything happened to you and I do not like to restrict the enjoyment of the young gentlemen under my care. They enjoy walking through the woods but all of them know the danger and I need not restrict them as long as they know where to go."

"Then these things had better be taken to the station and to the bank at Riverton?" asked Jack.

"Yes. To-morrow you and Percival may attend to it. Meanwhile, I will wire the bank officers that some of their property has been found. There will doubtless be a reward given for its recovery and I am very glad that this is so, for your sake."

"My finding it was quite accidental, however, Doctor."

"Even so, the reward has been offered and belongs to you. It is immaterial how the property was found as long as it was found. You must have had a thrilling adventure but I am glad that only your wearing apparel and not you suffered injury."

The bag was left with the doctor and the boys left him, Jack to get whole garments out of his meagre store and Dick to house his car.

Outside they came upon Herring, who turned pale when he saw Jack and muttered, half under his breath:

"Then you were not killed? I was afraid that--"

"No, he was not," said Dick, "little thanks, however, to--" but Jack gave him a sudden look and he stopped short.

Herring hurried away to join some of his companions at a little distance and Dick said:

"I was too much in a hurry, I see, and now it will be harder to discover the truth. Herring will be on his guard."

"And we don't know that he had anything to do with it."

"It lies between him and Merritt, I am certain, but I will keep still after this until I am certain."

Those of the boys who had heard of the accident to Jack were quick to assure him of their satisfaction that he was not seriously hurt and there the matter rested.

The next day Dick and Jack went in the runabout to the bank where they delivered the cash box and other things which evidently belonged to it, leaving the package of registered letters and the postage stamps at the station at the foot of the hill.

"I am authorized by the bank to pay you a reward of one hundred dollars for the recovery of this property," said the president, after he had thoroughly examined the contents of the bag. "Shall I pay it to you or put it to your credit in the bank? I will have a book made out if you prefer the latter."

"I think that will be satisfactory," the boy replied. "Then if I desire to draw against it or add to it I can do so."

"Very good, my dear sir. You show the proper spirit. Many young men would wish to spend the amount at once."

"I believe I have learned the value of money, sir," said Jack, quietly, while Dick laughed and said.

"H'm! I am afraid I would have done just what the president hints at. Perhaps I have not learned the value of money from having so much of it."

The money was left to the boy's credit and he was supplied with a bank book and blank checks, feeling quite proud at having so much money as it would give him an opportunity to help his mother as well as to pay his bills at the Academy.

"You did not expect to get this, did you, Jack?" asked Dick.

"No, but I am glad to get it just the same. It means a good deal to me, Dick, although I suppose you regard it as a mere trifle."

"Well, not so much after all," laughed Dick, "but, come on. I want to stop at the office of the Riverton News. I furnish them with school items now and then and this is the day before publication. You might tell the editor of your experience yesterday. I have no doubt that he will regard it as a bit of valuable news. He does not get much."

"I would like to see him at any rate," Jack returned. "I always did like to go into a newspaper office."

The newspaper office was down the street a short distance and on the opposite side from the bank and in a decidedly less pretentious building, being in a little two-story wooden affair which looked fully a hundred years old and as if it might fall down at any moment.

They found the editor in his office, sitting at his typewriter in his shirt sleeves and busy preparing an article for the paper, this being the eve of publication day.

He was a fat little man; the top of his head being very bald and shiny with a fringe of black hair all around it and two big tufts at his ears, his eyebrows being thick and shaggy and standing straight out from twin caverns.

He held his shoulders high and put his head forward and down, pecking savagely at the keys of the typewriter with the first fingers of both hands very much as a hen pecks at the worms or grain of corn in a dunghill and making the machine rattle at every stroke.

"Busy, Mr. Brooke?" asked Dick. "Want some items?"

"Yes, of course," said the other, never stopping at his savage attack on the typewriter. "I am doing something about the robbery. Nothing new, I suppose?"

"Why, yes, I think there is," laughed Dick. "Have you heard--"

"What?" asked the editor sharply, looking up at the two boys. "I've heard lots of things and it's hard to tell just what's true and what isn't. What have you got, Percival?"

"Why don't you use all your fingers on your machine?" asked Jack, before Dick could answer.

"What's that?" snapped the editor quickly, fixing his eyes on the questioner. "Why don't I use all my fingers? Because it's quicker to use two, that's why."

"Oh, no it is not," with a quiet smile. "Let me show you. What is this? Something about the robbery? Let me add a few lines. It is news."

Jack spoke with a quiet air that evidently had its effect on the nervous little man pecking away at the machine with two fat fingers and he moved his chair to one side a little so as to make room, but apparently unwilling to believe that he could be taught anything.

Jack shifted the paper a line or two and then, standing over the machine, set to work, operating rapidly and writing as he thought.

He not only used all his fingers but did the spacing with his thumbs and wrote so rapidly that Dick thought he was copying and not writing off-hand.

What he wrote was a brief account of the finding of the rubber bag containing the missing cash box near the bridge at the upper station, not mentioning himself by name, however, nor even saying that the property had been found by one of the Hilltop boys.

When he had finished the editor looked at the paper and muttered:

"H'm! not an error! Well, you are certainly an expert operator and have taught me something but I could never write like that. Force of habit, I suppose."

"Where did you ever learn to use a typewriter, Jack?" asked Dick in admiration. "Why, you show me some new accomplishment every day."

"Oh, I have used one for some time. I have done work for the lawyers in our town. I have made a good deal of money that way."

"He gets along faster with all his fingers than you do, playing a sort of crazy jig with your two first fingers, Mr. Brooke," laughed Dick, uproariously. "I have seen other fellows play the machine like that and thought it was the only way, but now I see that it is not."

"You have put it very concisely," said the editor. "By the way, who was the person who found the money?"

"That was Jack himself," said Dick. "I was there just afterward and took the thing up to the Academy in my car. Jack is a modest fellow and you could not get him to say anything about himself."

"Very well put," said the editor. "What do you think about the political situation? I want a leader on it but hardly feel equal to it."

"Write him an editorial, Jack," laughed Dick. "How much do you pay for good articles, Mr. Brooke?"

"H'm! the News is not equipped for paying very much for anything," replied the other, pecking at the machine, "but if I could get a really good article on the situation at present or anything, the farming outlook, for instance, I would be willing to pay something for it."

"I can tell you what I think," said Jack, quietly, "and furnish you with articles on different subjects. I would like to earn all the money I can as I am paying for my education out of my own pocket."

"H'm! very commendable spirit," snapped the other. "Is that your case, Mr. Percival?"

"No, I cannot say that it is. However, I am anxious to see how Jack makes out as a writer of editorials. Let Mr. John Sheldon have your desk for a few minutes, Mr. Brooke."

"It won't be long," said Jack, blushing. "Only a few sentences but it is just what I think."

He sat at the typewriter and wrote rapidly for a few minutes, during which time both Percival and Mr. Brooke remained perfectly quiet.

When he had finished, Jack took the paper from the machine and handed it to the editor, saying:

"There, that is my opinion of the situation. You may not agree with it but that is how I think."

The editor read over the article carefully and then said with more spirit than he had yet betrayed:

"It is the thing in a nutshell. It is tersely put and carries conviction with every sentence. If it had been any longer or any shorter it would have failed of its purpose. I could not express myself any better if I wrote a column. It will go in just as it is and whenever I want an editorial written I shall call upon you."

"May I read it?" asked Percival.

The editor passed the sheet over to the boy who read it most carefully and then said:

"Great, my boy! We have long wanted a good editor for our Academy paper and the position is yours. If I say so every boy in Hilltop will agree with me, so it is settled."

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