CHAPTER X.
THE STORY.
Frank succeeded in getting George Morris to the hotel, took him to aroom, and put him on the bed.
"Do not leave me!" pleaded the boy. "Apollo will come and carry me offif you do. Stay here with me!"
"I'll stay," assured Frank; "but I must find some of my friends andsend for a physician. You must have a doctor right away."
Bruce, Diamond and Toots had gone out, but he found Harry, and toldhim what was desired. Harry started out to search for a doctor, whileFrank returned to the boy, who was in a state of great agitation whenhe re-entered the room.
"Oh, I thought you would never come!" coughed the unfortunate lad."You were away so long!"
He was thin and pale, with deep-sunken eyes, which, however, werestrangely bright. He was poorly and scantily dressed, and the handthat lay on his bosom seemed so thin that it was almost transparent.One of his eyes had been struck by the fist of the brutish dwarf, andwas turning purple. On one cheek there was a great bruise and a slightcut.
Frank's heart had gone out in sympathy to this unfortunate lad, and hewas filled with rage when he thought how brutally the poor boy hadbeen treated.
Merriwell sat down on the edge of the bed, and took that thin, whitehand. It felt like a little bundle of bones, and was so cold that itgave Frank a shudder.
"You are very ill," declared the boy from Yale. "I believe you havebeen starved."
"That was one way in which he tried to get rid of us," said George.
"You are speaking of Bernard Belmont?"
"Yes."
"He tried to starve you?"
"Yes, and my sister also. Little Milly! You should see her! She issuch a sweet girl, and she is so good! I don't see how he had theheart to torture her."
"This Belmont must be a human brute!" cried Merriwell, in anger. "Hedeserves to be broken on the wheel!"
"He is a brute!" weakly cried the boy. "He killed my mother--my dear,sweet mother! Oh, she was so good, and so beautiful! She loved usso--Milly and me! Listen, my dear friend," and the the boy drew Frankcloser. "I--I think he--poisoned her!"
These words were whispered in a tone of such horror and grief that thesoul of the listening lad was made to quiver like the vibratingstrings of a violin when touched by the bow.
"You mustn't think about that now," said Frank, soothingly. "It willhurt you to think about it."
"But I must, for, do you know, dear friend, I feel sure I shall nothave long to think of it."
"What do you mean?" asked Merry, with a chill.
"Something--something tells me the end is near. Apollo, he hurtme--here."
The boy pressed one hand to his breast and coughed again.
"You are excited--you are frightened," declared Frank. "You will beall right in the morning. The doctor will fix you up all right. Youshall have the very best food you can eat, and I'll see that youreceive the tenderest care."
The eyes of the lad on the bed filled with tears and his lipsquivered, while he gazed at Frank with a look of love.
"You are so good!" he said, weakly, but with deep feeling. "Why areyou so good to me--a stranger?"
"Because I like you, and you are in trouble."
"There are not many like you--not many! I know I can trust you, and Ido wish you would do something for me!"
"I will. Tell me what it is. I promise in advance."
"I don't want you to promise till you know what it is, for I have noright to ask so much of you."
"Very well. Tell me."
"When I am dead, for I know I shall not last long--will you find mysister and tell her everything? Tell her how near I came to reachingher, and let her know that I am gone. She loves me. I am only fifteen,but she is eighteen and very beautiful. She looks like my angelmother. Dear little Milly! Will you do this?"
"I will do it, if the occasion arises; but we'll have you all right ina short time, and you will go to her yourself."
"If I recover, I shall not be able to go to her."
"Why not?"
"Bernard Belmont has followed me, and he will drag me back to the oldprison--I know it."
"He shall not!" exclaimed Frank, with determination.
"The law is with him," said the boy, weakly. "He has the best of it,for he is my legal guardian."
"At that he has no right to abuse you, and he can be deprived ofguardianship over you. It shall be done."
But no light of hope illumined the face of the unfortunate boy.
"It will be no use," George said. "He has starved me and beaten me. Hehas drenched me with water, and left me where it was icy cold, so thatI have been awfully ill. And all the time I had this--this cough."
Frank leaped to his feet and paced the small room like a caged tiger,his soul wrought to an intense fury at the thought of the treatmentthe boy had received. He longed for power to punish the monster whohad perpetrated such dastardly acts.
"Your sister," he finally asked--"did this brute treat her thus?"
"Nearly as bad, but she was older and stronger."
"Tell me, how did your sister get away from him?"
"We planned to run away together, and then I became so ill that Icould not. I--I made her leave me. I told her she must find UncleCarter--must let him know everything. It was our only hope. He mustsave us."
"But how did she reach your uncle?"
"It was this way: We knew where Bernard Belmont kept some money in alittle safe, and I--I knew how to get into that safe. That moneybelonged to us--it was mother's money. Belmont was not worth a dollarwhen he married my mother. It would not be stealing for us to take it.Sometimes he went away and left us to be cared for by Apollo, thedwarf. Such care! Apollo was a monster--a brute! Bernard Belmont hiredhim to torture us. This time, when Belmont went away, Apollo shut usup in a room, leaving some bread and water for us, and we were leftthere, while he visited the wine cellar and got beastly drunk. Hethought we were safe in that room--thought we could not get out. Butwe had been imprisoned there before, and I had made a key of wire. Wegot out. We found the dwarf in a drunken sleep, and we tied him. Thenwe went to the safe and opened it. There was but a trifle over fiftydollars in that safe. It was not enough to take us both to Nevada--toUncle Carter. Then I fainted, and I was too ill to try to run awaywhen my sister restored me. She insisted on staying with me, but Icommanded her to go. I begged her to go. I told her it was the onlyway. If she did not go, we were lost, for Bernard Belmont woulddiscover what we had done, and he would make sure we had noopportunity to repeat the trick. She wanted to stay and care for me. Itold her Belmont would not dare harm me till he had caught her. Itmight be some days before he got back. It was possible she could reachUncle Carter, and then Uncle Carter could come East and save me. Aftera time I convinced her. She took the money, dressed herself for thestreet, and, after kissing me and weeping over me, left me. I havenever seen her since."
"But she escaped--she reached your uncle?"
"Yes."
"He made no effort to save you?"
"No."
"Why was that?"
"I know nothing, except that he is queer. Perhaps he thought I was notworth saving. It was nearly a week before Bernard Belmont returned.All that time I kept Apollo tied fast, and I rejoiced as the days wentby. When Belmont came there was a terrible outburst. I was beatennearly to death. He tried to make me tell where my sister had gone,but I would only say, 'Find out.' When I had become unconscious and hecould not restore me to my senses to question me further, he startedto trace Mildred. He traced her after a time, but she had reachedUncle Carter, and she was safe. He wrote a letter to Uncle Carter, andthe reply he received made him furious. It told him that Milly wasburied so deep that he would never see her again. She was dead to himand to the world. Then Bernard Belmont swore that I would soon be deadin truth. After that--oh, I can't tell it!"
Frank saw it was exhausting the unfortunate boy, and he quickly said:
"Do not tell it; you have told enough. But you escaped."
br /> "After nearly a year. I escaped without a cent of money, and how Iworked my way here I do not know. Several times I dodged detectives,whom I knew were in the employ of Belmont. I got here at last, but Ifound Bernard Belmont and Apollo were waiting for me. I tried toescape, but Apollo found me, and--you know the rest."