Cheer Boys Cheer: The Boys' Journal, No. 62 — page 23: what you’re looking at

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

from book to file again. He com- pared, he puzzled, he made notes. “Extraordinary !’’ he muttered, his troubled face bent low, his fore- finger arrested on a cipher. “ Quite extraordinary! Of course, it should be four.” For a long time he was thus en- gaged, fluttering between the papers and the book, until a clatter of tea- cups in the counting-house reminded him that four o'clock had come. But it had not brought Jules back. Min straightened his. bent shoulders, and, sitting very nearly upright, he stared at the boy’s vacant stool. The empty stool stared back at -him significantly. “Jules has only gone to lunch,” Min muttered. “Do you think he’s coming back?” the stool appeared to answer. “A four? Yes, certainly, it should be a four,’’ said Min. “Jules knows that as well as you do,’’ stared the stool. “Oh, no! It’s only a mistake of his,’’ said Min. “Then why not have a peep in his desk?” the stool suggested. John Min pondered this idea, and yielded to it. With the guilty feel- ing of a spy, he raised the flap of Jules’s desk. And the first thing that his eyes alighted on was a paper devoted to horse-racing, and some memoranda of horses that had been “sure to win’’ and had not. Then he came upon a betting-book, and, studying it, he learned poor Jules’s secret. Min knew at last why £1 appeared in the cash-book where the £4 should have stood, and what Jules had done with the three peunds in default— three pounds that belonged to Messrs. Carboy. : Jules had been gambling. And to pay his debts he had taken the money from the firm. And to hide his theft he had altered the figures in the cash-book. As he shut the desk again the clock struck six, and one by one the clerks came filtering” through the outer office from the counting-house and passed into the street. The head clerk, coming last, tossed the keys to him, as usual, and bade him to lock up as soon as he had finished. “ Good-night,’ he said. * Good-night, sir,’ answered Min. But he made no haste to follow. He -raked his fire together, and putting an audacious little kettle on it he brewed himself a cup of tea. He wanted to consider his discovery. And his reflections were distinctly pleasant. Undoubtedly that mischievous young Jules would scratch no more caricatures of him upon the window- paue; would hide his ruler and his pens no more; would never torment him at his work again. Undoubtedly, when next morning he reported him, Master Jules would he taken before the magistrates at the Mansion House. And serve him right, thought John. Yes, young Jules would go to CHEER BOYS CHEER, gaol, for there was no childish sentiment about his Messrs. Carboy. They would not, like some people, show any mercy to young Jules’s years. Not they! The lad _ has made his own bed, they would declare. So let him lie on it. But Carboys would be_ pleased, John fancied, with their Mr. Min. A little astonished at his cleverness perhaps, but gtaveful—most grate- ful. They might even go so far as to promote him for it. What a day to-morrow was going to be for him! What a day to-morrow was going to be for him—eh? Now, .how were those words so familiar? He drained the last drop in his teapot, and pushed his cup aside. For all at once it seemed that he = SOEs SSS SSS SSCS S <S SES \ SS = So —— 23 “Great deeds, John!” it sneered. **Oh, very great!’ “Eh?” he growled at it. “Remember, John. To-morrow's a new day. No longer you're the slave of yesterday, John Min.” “ Eh?*? Min growled again. “Think, John. Jules is nothing but a boy!’ “Yes, but I detected him,” protested Min. “Pooh! Any idiot could have done that,’ the stool seemed to retort. * Well?” Min ** Well?” ‘“Any idiot could have detected him, John Min. But there’s only one person can save him—only ons in all the world, John Min!” hesitated. SK SSSR Sos S RSE : SORES ASSESS SSE EOS SS — SESE RR SESS John found Jules in the lodging-house by the docks, and the boy started guiltily at sight of him, “What are you doing here?” said Min gently. was in a church again, and listened to a preacher who was swaying in his pulpit. “We are trusted 22 Now, what had that preacher said? “We are trusted to do something in the world which no other but our- selves can do.” Well, could anyone else have dis- covered Master Juless monkey tricks? Now, could they—could they? Joha Min looked proudly round the office, and for the second time his eyes were held by the well-worn vacant stool of the defaulter. He began to frown. The sight of it offended him. On his mood it struck unwelcomely. The stool, he fancied, challenged him to argument. John Min was trembling, and his heart beat fast. “Why,” he murmured—“ why?” ‘Because,’ he thought the stool replied—“ because when Jules doesn’t come to-morrow the firm will find him out. Then, John, he’ll go to gaol. And his mother is a widow.” John rose slowly, frowning at the stool. ‘‘He’s baited me enough,’ he growled. “His mother is a widow, John. And he’s her only son.” “He shouldn’t steal,’ growled John. ‘‘He’s only a boy,’ the stovi seemed to insist—‘‘a child, John. And he was tempted, John.” (Continued om page 34.) 4 Sa 2 ayaa lel ayvayo) KS (e\an) (COMMIC YVOO KS AEA)