Army and Navy Weekly — page 34: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

is NS A YOUNG BREADWIN NER: OR, GUY HAMMERSLEY’S TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS. The Story of a Brave Boy’s Struggle for Fame in the Great Metropolis. By MATTHEW WHITE, Jr. - (Copyrighted, American Publishers’ Corporation. (“A YOUNG BREADWINNER” was commenced last week.) CHAPTER IV. CALLED TO ACCOUNT. For an instant or two, while Mr. Fox was speaking, Guy tried to imagine that he was not himself living through this bitter experience, but was readirg of it in a book. How could he bear it? He, a Hammersley, a name that, as far back as records went, had never been sullied by the least taint of disgrace! And his mother! How could he tell her of this dread- ful charge? ‘‘Well, sir, are you ready to accompany me down to Mr. Inwood’s? Of course, if you can prove to his satisfaction that you did not take the money, well and good,’’ Mr. Fox’s voice broke in on Guy’s meditations, as that gentleman rose and buttoned his coat. ‘¢Yes, sir, in one minute;’’ and Guy stepped back to the dining-room to ask Eliza to telJ his mother that he had gone down-town again. He did not dare trust himself to see her. Then he went out with Mr. Fox. The fresh air seemed to inspire hin; with hope, in some way. ‘“‘Tt can’t be vossible,’’ he told himself, ‘‘that in these days of law and justice an innocent person can be sent to jailk Mr. Inwood must see that I didn’t take the money.’’ : They went directly to the office of the Fireside Fav- orite, Mr, Fox taking a paper out of his pocket and not speaking one word during the journey. And with what different sensations Guy ascended those three flights of dirty stairs from the feelings that had dominated him in the same locality but two short hours ago! Mr. Fox threw open the door labeled, ‘‘ Office of the Fireside Favorite,’’ and poor Guy felt the hot: blood rush in surges to his cheeks as he found the room de- serted when he was there on that ill-fated errand, now filled with girls, who one and all ceased their work as he entered, and stared at him with cruel, relentless steadiness. ; But the stare was not the only thing he had to face. A regular buzz of ‘‘Here he is,’’ went round, and he even heard a skurrying of skirts as girls not so favor- ably placed for seeing hurried forward to get a_ sight of the messenger from Fox & Burdell’s who had stolen thirteen dollars. One remark he heard distinctly: ““Oh, Hattie, isn’t he handsome!’’ one pale-faced worker on wrapping whispered to her seat mate. Mr. Fox glanced neither to the right nor the left, but marched straight ahead to Mr. Inwood’s private sree He took pains, too, that Guy should walk ahead of him. Mr. Inwood saw them the instant they entered the outer room and twirled round in his revolving chair, threw his head back and folded his arms, and thus awaited their arrival with the air of a supreme court judge. He wasa very stout man, with an immense donble chin, but, contrary to the rule that is supposed to hold good with most fat people, he did not look in the least jolly, or as if he ever could be so, Before Guy and his conductor reached his apart- ment, which was cut off from the main store by a glass partition, a little man, very thin, and with an immense amount of jewelry about his person, stepped out of the adjoining room, ranged himself alongside of Mr. Inwood and put a pair of eyeglasses astride of his nose. ‘¢That’s Mr. Tretbar, I suppose, the head of the establishment,’’ Guy reflected, the hopes that had served in a measure to brighten his trip down town deserting him as he noted the sinister looks of the two men in whose hands his tate rested. ‘¢Ah, good afternoon, Mr. Fox,’’ exclaimed the little man, coming forward to shake hands very effusively. ‘‘I’m very glad to see you, er—I mean sorry that it should be brought about by such an inauspicious occa- sion. Take a seat, take a seat. Sothisis the young man. Um!’? Mr. Tretbar drew out the last exclamation to a lengthy guttural murmur, as if Guy had possessed the features and general appearance of a hardened criminal. He did not request him to take a seat, hut as soon as he had entered walked over to the door and, closed it, then stood with his back against it as though to nip in the bud any attempt at escape. : ‘*Yes, this is the young man,’’ responded Mr. Fox, sinking into the seat and wiping out the inside band of his hat with his handkerchief; ‘‘and I 1egret to report that be utterly refuses to acknowledge the crime and restore the stolen property.’ Guy could not stand by silent and listen to this. He took ong step forward, and with his well-shaped head thrown back so that he looked his accusers full in the face, he said: ‘‘Gentlemen, if I had taken that money, I dare say I should have been only too willing to have accepted the offer Mr. Fox made me. But I cannot perjure my- self by confessing to a crime of which I am not guilty. Besides, I could not afford to expend thirteen dollars for such a purpose, even could I stoop to do such a thing. On the other hand, if I had taken the money, would I have been se short-sighted.as to have stayed where hands could easily be laid upon me??? ‘*You did not return to the restaurant,’’ Mr. Fox here interposed; ‘‘and when I saw you at the house you had your overcoat on, so I imagine I got there just in time.”’ ‘‘T explained to you, Mr. Fox,’’ Guy retorted, his face flushing at the unjust imputation, ‘‘why it was I did not at once report to you, and the reason I hap- pened to have my overcoat on was becguse, hoping to get back to the restaurant very soon, I had not taken it off,,”’ CORMICLOOKS (C@