Mr. Chadwick

“ I had a flash of the number of the car. It was 4206 Mass. It's a red car and a powerful one, with three men in it."
"What do you want to do?" asked Mr. Chadwick.
"Can't you 'phone to the Nestorville police, telling them what has happened and have those fellows stopped. I'm not vindictive, but they ought to be brought to book for running down a man and then speeding off and leaving him like that."
"I agree with you," replied Mr. Chadwick. "I'll do so at once. Good-by."
"Good-by," said Jack and "rang off."
"That was a great idea of yours, Jack, old boy," approved Tom. ”

“ Chadwick; 'nothing of the sort. No such idea ever entered Sir Nugent Uffington's head. He has fixed his fancy on some one else; and he is very likely to have his way.'
'Indeed!' said Mr. Chadwick, who, when the question of Eleanor was thus disposed of, had no farther interest in Sir Nugent Uffington's matrimonial project; 'indeed!'
'Yes,' said Mrs. Chadwick; 'and the chance has come about in this way. Sir Nugent has come down to say that Lord Forestfield is very ill indeed--almost dying, I believe--and that he wishes to be reconciled to his wife before his death. ”

“ Chadwick, somewhat grimly, “they’re no fun, I can tell you. But, seriously speaking, I think your suggestion a good one, Jack. We could live on board the White Shark in case of serious fighting ashore, and such a craft would afford a far swifter means of reaching Cuba than any steamer.”
It was half an hour later that two excited boys and a graver, more thoughtful senior, were discussing the proposal with Mr. Dancer. Mr. Chadwick’s liberal offer for the use of the White Shark for his proposed trip had almost literally taken Mr. Dancer off his feet. ”

“ The chair was pretty well bunged up, but we think a lot of it, and we wouldn't have it lost for a good deal. Can you give us a clew?"
"Well, Mr. Parsons, I didn't see any one take it, but there was a second-hand dealer around the college to-day. He comes every once in a while, to buy up the things the students don't want any more. He was here, and he took away a wagonload of stuff."
"He did!" cried Tom. "Why didn't you say so before? Was our chair on the wagon?" ”

“ Besides, Mr. Tyler is coming up to-morrow and I know your mother will want the place in some sort of decent shape, Madge. We must stay and help.”
“Indeed, yes,” echoed Helen Newton.
“Too bad!” declared Phil.
“Besides, it’s all you boys’ fault that it is so upset,” went on Ruth.
“How do you make that out?” demanded Tom.
“Why you’re always coming along, begging us to go out with you, and you’re always in such a hurry that we can’t wait to pick up things. So there!”
“Any reason, even if it’s a poor one,” remarked Frank, drily.
They glided along for some time, and then the motor suddenly stopped. ”

“ This income enabled him to maintain a handsome residence in Fairfax-gardens; to entertain company constantly, and with more than ordinary hospitality; to allow his wife to commit any extravagances she pleased at the milliner's and the jeweller's, and to have all the carriages and horses she chose. It gave him a villa on the Thames, and a shooting-box in Aberdeenshire; and if it did not make him happy, there were plenty of people who said it ought to have done so, and who passed their lives in envying him and wishing to be in his place.
On the whole, however, Mr. Chadwick is a happy man. ”

“ Dancer said he’d like to take.”
“I wonder if he would charter the White Shark for such a voyage,” said Mr. Chadwick thoughtfully.
“I’m sure he would,” rushed on Jack eagerly.127 “I know he hasn’t got much money. The building of the White Shark has made him a poor man.”
“I could offer him a good figure. Such a voyage would be worth it,” continued Mr. Chadwick. “Besides, I would like to help out a brother inventor in difficulties.” ”

“ For a moment there was silence—portentous, momentous silence, while "Pitchfork" gazed at the astonished lads, and as they returned his stare.
"Well," remarked the Latin professor, as he advanced farther into the room, and looked about at the confusion on every side, "I see that Mr. Zane is not here."
"N—no—no, sir," answered Dutch, for Mr. Tines was looking directly at him, and seemed to expect him to reply. "He—he has gone out."
"Which is evidently the reason you are here, committing these acts of vandalism!" said the professor, bitterly. "I am ashamed of you! To think that Dr. ”

“ Chadwick; “come, Tom, think up one.”
“I have already thought of one,” was the reply.
“The Mister T. Jesson, I suppose,” scoffed Jack.
“No, not that, nor the J. Chadwick, either,” retorted Tom;68 “my name was White Shark, Jr.”
“Very good, indeed,” said Mr. Chadwick with a laugh, “the White Shark, Jr., it shall be.”
“Let’s hope it proves a good example to its parent,” chimed in Jack.
“Well, the child is father to the man, as they say in the copy books,” smiled Mr. Dancer, “so let’s hope that the rule will work out in the case of a submarine.”
“Oughtn’t we to christen it?” asked Tom. ”

“ But Mrs Openshaw turned round on Mr Chadwick, with a sudden fierceness no one ever saw in her before.
'You don't know Norah, uncle! She is gone because she is deeply hurt at being suspected. Oh, I wish I had seen her—that I had spoken to her myself. She would have told me anything.' Alice wrung her hands.
'I must confess,' continued Mr Chadwick to his nephew, in a lower voice, 'I can't make you out. You used to be a word and a blow, and oftenest the blow first; and now, when there is every cause for suspicion, you just do nought. Your missus is a very good woman, I grant ”

“ Chadwick, “but there are other things to be considered,—Indians, for instance.”
“Vee vouldt nodt vant to go vere human beings existed,” said the professor. “Der Megatherium, if he exists, vill be foundt far from any place vere peoples of any kindt lif.”
Mr. Chadwick interposed one or two more objections and then was silent for a minute. Finally he turned to the boys.
“Well,” he said, “what do you lads think of it?”
“I think that we could make the trip, sir,” rejoined Jack.188 “We are well armed. ”

“ No wonder that Mr Musgrave was annoyed; that he looked upon Mrs Chadwick as highly objectionable, and resented her presence in his house.
“You are a very daring woman,” commented Mrs Sommers. “Although I have grown up with John I would never have ventured to say such a thing as that.”
“Possibly,” returned Mrs Chadwick calmly, “if I had been brought up with John I would not have adventured either. Familiarity with a person’s prejudices makes one diffident. I am not laying myself out to please Mr Musgrave, but to modernise him, as you suggested. ”

“ In fact, we have buoyancy to spare. On paper——”
“Paper and practice are different things, my boy.”
“I know, sir, but——”
“You see, there are human lives at stake out there. It’s worth risking,” broke in Tom, unable to keep silence any longer. “Can’t we go?”
Mr. Chadwick considered an instant.
“Let me take a look at your ‘Wondership,’ as you call it,” he said.
With what rapidity Jack exhibited the craft and showed off her good points may be imagined. While they were thus engaged there came the34 sound of another gun. Then Mr. Chadwick spoke. ”

“ Just row along then, and don’t make any allusion to a race,” advised Mr. Lighton. “If they want to pick up and come in, let them. Only—don’t let them win!” he added, significantly. “Even if it is only a friendly brush.”
“Let them win! I should say not!” declared Frank. “Be ready to pick me up quick now, fellows, when Jerry gives the word to spurt.”
“Aye, aye, sir!” echoed Bricktop Molloy, from his position behind the stroke oar.
“And say, we don’t want to let those fellows do us, either,” went on Percy Pineford, coxswain of the second eight. “Let’s beat the varsity and Boxer Hall, too.” ”

“ On came the Boxer Hall eight. They were rowing down the stream, as were our friends, but the rival college shell was in the rear, having gone up stream earlier in the day, being now on the return trip.
"Don't try to race them when they pass us," cautioned Mr. Lighton, who had not even turned his head to see the approaching shell behind him. "It will be a temptation, I know, but we are not ready for a spurt yet."
"Are we going to let them pass us?" demanded the rich lad, almost forgetting to row. ”

“ You young gentlemen will be given two holidays from your lectures and studies, but I request that none of you leave the vicinity of the college in that time. Mr. Zane will be in charge. I believe that is all," and the president bowed to the students.
"Wow! Think of it! Two days off!" whispered Dutch.
"You'll practice football as you never did before," declared Kindlings with energy. "It isn't going to be all cakes and ginger ale for you, Dutch, my lad!" ”

“ In a voice that proclaimed him a dyed-in-the-wool Britisher, he hailed them:
“‘Oo in the bloomin’ world may you be?” cried the astonished tar.
“Simply a party of experimenters,” rejoined Mr. Chadwick. “As you see, this is a submarine.”
“Ho yuss,” came in a voice of intense sarcasm, “h’and does yer call h’it h’experimentin’ ter carry away my bloomin’ anchor cable? I comes to anchor here to wait for a pilot an’ you h’ups and cuts my rope. ‘Oo’s goin’ ter pay fer h’it? That’s what h’I want ter know.”
“I guess we can come to an amicable arrangement on that,” declared Mr. Chadwick ”

“ When Lord Chadwick absented himself he explained his enforced absence from the table; and Agnes noticed that while Lord Chadwick addressed her mother openly as Olive, Mr. Moulton did so surreptitiously, in a whisper, or when none but their intimate friends were present. They rarely assembled less than six or seven to lunch; after lunch they went to the drawing-room, and the eternal discussion on the relations of the sexes was only interrupted by the piano. St. Clare played better than Lord Chadwick, but Mrs. Lahens preferred Lord Chadwick to accompany her. ”

“ It’s been perfectly lovely of Madge to keep us this long——”
“Indeed you’re not going so soon!” declared the hostess. “Why, you haven’t been here any time at all yet, and when you do go I’ll be so lonesome——”
“So will we!” chorused the lads. “Don’t go,” and the girls laughingly promised to stay as long as possible.
True to their determination, the lads went out in the four-oared shell the next day, with Mr. Pierson in the launch to coach them. He put them through some stiff practice, and increased the stroke to a number where the boys were almost on the point of protesting. ”

“ They are at this moment in the Flying Road Racer’s locker, in charge of Tom and Ned,” was the reply.
As Jack spoke they all, by mutual consent, rose and made for the door.
“I shall be glad to get to the air,” remarked Professor Chadwick.
“Yes; it is insufferably hot in here,” agreed Mr. Jesson. “I had not noticed the heat so much while Jack was talking; but now,—phew! It’s like a furnace.”
As he spoke. Jack flung the door open. The next instant he staggered back, the hot blood in his veins frozen with horror. ”

“ Jabez, Jabez, do try!”
“I will,” said he, hoarsely.
Had he not often declared in his secret heart that he would give his life to serve her?—and should he be ungenerous enough to shrink now?
“It is folly to attempt. I forbid it!” exclaimed Mrs. Ashton, laying her hand on his arm. And Ellen Chadwick, pale as Augusta, tried to stop him with—“You must not! you must not! You will perish!”
208
Even strangers from the crowd warned him back. But he was gone ere Mrs. Chadwick softly recalled her daughter to herself. “Hush! Ellen. This is not seemly. Mr. Clegg will attempt nothing impossible.” ”

“ We might have been confined in our narrow quarters for an hour, or it might have been longer, when we heard the door of the adjoining stateroom unlocked, and presently voices came to us through the grating. It was easy to recognize Herrera’s tones as he cross-examined Professor Chadwick. One of the Mexican sailors had noticed that when the professor came on board he had slipped a silver chest—the treasure box—under his coat. The fellow had informed Herrera, and now that arch-scoundrel was demanding that Professor Chadwick and Mr. Jesson submit to being searched. ”

“ It is really very wonderful. I congratulate you both. I must call the captain and tell him about it."
When the second mate came on deck the 'old man' went below. As soon as he grasped the situation he turned to Susan with a grin.
"You brought him to his bearings pretty quick, ma'am, and I congratulate you. But then a pretty woman like you ain't the sort to go long a-beggin'. I knew you'd fetch him! When I described you to him, me bein' a judge of female beauty, I saw how it would be. Who's goin' to do the new hitching?"
Mr. Chadwick said he was going to do it. ”

“ Chadwick and I were just talking about your ward's case. He has lived and worked in many parts of the world, and exercised common sense on plenty of problems which would stump a young country doctor like myself."
Chadwick cut my eulogy with an ephithet of mock contempt, and turned inquiringly to Orne.
"Well, what I came for is this. Eliza went up to bed about nine, while my wife and I sat in the kitchen listening to the radio. Just after Eliza went upstairs the radio began to static badly, so I turned it off. I went on reading the newspaper, but noticed that everything was real quiet ”

“ I was giving you an imitation of how close I could come to it and miss it.”
“Those imitations don’t do on this circuit,” added the tall Kindlings. “It’s mighty risky in a game.”
“Oh, yes, in a game,” admitted Holly with a laugh.
Tom gave one man a chance to walk and the next popped out a fly that Dutch Housenlager neatly gathered in. The game ended with no runs for the ’varsity in the last inning and they had beaten the scrub by only two runs.
“It might be worse,” said Mr. Lighton grimly as the teams filed off the diamond. “It might be worse, Woodhouse, but I don’t like it.” ”