“Shan’t sleep a wink to-night!”
prophesied Leslie.
“I was afraid of that!” exclaimed Douglas.
“There may be a message there for you that will
be a comfort.”
“So there may be! Let’s hurry!”
urged the girl.
There was. They found a brief, pencilled note.
DEAR LESLIE:
After to-day, it was due you to send a word.
You tried so hard dear, and you gave me real joy for
an hour. Then James carried out his threat.
He did all to me he intended, and more than he can
ever know. I have agreed to him taking full possession
of the boys, and going into a home such as he thinks
suitable. They will be far better off, and since
they scarcely know me, they can’t miss me.
Before you receive this, I shall have left the city.
I can’t state just now where I am going or what
I shall do. You can realize a little of my condition.
If ever you are tired of home life and faintly tempted
to neglect it for society, use me for your horrible
example. Good-bye,
NELLIE MINTURN.
Leslie read this aloud.
“It’s a relief to know that much,”
she said with a deep breath. “I can’t
imagine myself ever being ’faintly tempted,”
but if I am, surely she is right about the ‘horrible
example.’ Douglas, whatever did James Minturn
have in that box?”
“I could tell you what I surmise, but so long
as I don’t know I’d better not,”
he answered.
“As our mutual friend Mickey would say, ‘Nix
on the Swell Dames,’ for me!” said Leslie
determinedly.
“Thank God with all my heart!” cried Douglas
Bruce.
Big Brother
“I’ve no time to talk,” said Douglas
Bruce, as Mickey appeared the following day; “my
work seems too much for one man. Can you help
me?”
“Sure!” said Mickey, wadding his cap into
his back pocket. Then he rolled his sleeves a
turn higher, lifted his chin a trifle and stepped forward.
“Say what!”
It caught Douglas so suddenly there was no time for
concealment. He laughed heartily.
“That’s good!” he cried. Mickey
grinned in comradeship. “First, these letters
to the box in the hall.”
“Next?” Mickey queried as he came through
the door.
“This package to the room of the Clerk in the
City Hall, and bring back a receipt bearing his signature.”
Mickey saluted, laid the note inside the cover of
a book, put it in the middle of the package, and a
second later his gay whistle receded down the hall.
“’Train up a child in the way he should
go, and when he is old he will not depart from it,’”
Douglas quoted. “Mickey has been trained
until he would make a good trainer himself.”
In one-half the time the trip had taken the messenger
boys Douglas was accustomed to employing, Mickey was
back like the Gulf in the Forum, demanding “more.”
“See what you can do for these rooms, until
the next errand is ready,” suggested Douglas.
