CHAPTER XXXVI.
“ON TIME, AT LAST!”
It was two nights later that Frank came home and found little Jack in a fairly frantic condition.
“What?—what is the matter?” asked Merry, stopping in the door and staring at the lame boy in astonishment.
Jack gave a great cry.
“Here!” he screamed, hobbling toward Frank, and holding out a slip of paper. “Read that!”
Frank took it, and read:
“I can forgive all my enemies but one, and that is Frank Merriwell. I have stayed near him as long as I can, but I can’t leave Nellie, so I take her with me.
“Old Joe.”
That was enough to set Frank’s blood on fire.
“Are they gone?” he cried.
“Yes! yes!” sobbed the lame lad, wringing his hands.
“Yes; I went to see if I could not earn some money. Nellie said she was not afraid of him, and I left them together. When I came back they were gone, and that note was here. Oh, Frank, it is terrible! My poor little, blind sister!”
“We will find her,” said Frank, growing calm.
“How?”
“Somehow. Don’t cry, Jack. Trust me. I will bring her back to you!”
“Oh! I believe you will!” cried the lame boy; “but do so as soon as you can. Think how frightened she must be, and how she must suffer. She will be ill again. Can’t I help you search?”
“Come,” said Merry.
Taking the note, he went to police headquarters, and reported what had happened. He was asked many questions, and the officer in charge promised that an immediate search for the abducted girl should be made.
Then Frank and Jack started out to search for the missing girl, asking questions everywhere. Till after midnight they wandered about the streets, but found no clew. The lame boy was ready to drop from exhaustion, and Frank literally carried him home on his back.
“Oh, Frank!” sobbed little Jack; “I’ll never see my sister any more. I know I shall not!”
“Yes, you will,” assured Merry. “She will be found.”
“He has taken her away—away out of the city. I feel sure of that, Frank.”
“I do not think he has.”
“Because he had not the money to do anything of the sort. He used his money as fast as he received it, and I do not believe he had a dollar left to his name five hours after he was discharged from his job on the railroad.”
“But he might put her on a train some way. He might put her into a box car, and carry her off that way.”
“He might,” admitted Frank; “but I do not believe he has. It is likely that by morning the police will have found them both.”
It was difficult to reassure and quiet the boy, and Frank himself feared there might be some truth in Jack’s fancy that old Joe had carried Nellie off in a box car. The old engineer knew the ropes about the railroad so well that he might do such a thing with very little trouble.
Still carrying Jack, Frank mounted the stairs to the rooms they called home.
“Oh, it don’t seem that I can go in there!” moaned the lame boy. “It will be so bare and lonely without her!”
“Hark!” whispered Frank, stopping.
They heard a voice singing softly and sweetly, “Nearer, My God, to Thee!”
Little Jack almost shrieked aloud.
“It’s her—it’s sister!”
Frank bounded up the stairs and flung open the door. Beside the bed sat Nellie. She heard them and turned, with a finger uplifted, still singing.
On the bed lay the old engineer, and there was an ashen grayness to his face. One glance revealed to Frank that the man was facing the last mystery of life—death!
Merry lowered little Jack and gave him his crutch. Then they slowly and softly approached the bed.
“Twenty-three minutes late!” muttered the old engineer. “We’ve got ter make her up somehow. We must be at Roaring Run bridge in an hour and three minutes. More coal, man—more coal!”
“He is making his last run,” whispered Frank. “And the end of the trip is near.”
Little Jack crept up and kissed his sister’s cheek.
“How do you happen to be here now?” he asked.
“He brought me back,” said Nellie. “I begged him to and he did so. Before you came he was asking for Frank.”
“Frank!” exclaimed the dying man, catching the whispered word. “Where is Frank Merriwell? I’ve got to see him.”
“I am here, Mr. Hicks,” said Merry, stepping close to the bed.
“Yes; I hear you, but I can’t see you very well. Bend lower. Yes; it is you. I did hate you, but I was wrong. I ask you to fergive me. Will ye?”
“With all my heart!”
“I am glad. You are a fine young man, and I want to leave them in your care—Nellie and Jack. You will take care of them?”
“I will.”
“I believe it, and they will be safe with you. Oh! she is such an angel! She has put me onto a new trip, and—and I am making the run. The steam is getting low. More coal! more coal!”
He seemed peering ahead, as he had peered out from the window of an engine cab many times.
“This is the straightest strip of road I ever struck,” he muttered. “Not a curve nor a grade as fur as you kin see. It’s wonderful! But the steam is low, and we are behind time. We must be at Roaring Run bridge on time. We must get there somehow. More coal!”
Then, after another period of silence, he began again:
“I’m runnin’ her in the right notch now, and we’re gaining. We will make it. Hear her sing over the rails. Oh, she is humming now! Ah, we are beginning to make up lost time.”
“Sing, Nellie,” whispered Frank.
The girl did so, although her cheeks were wet with tears. For a long time the dying engineer lay still and listened.
“’Sh!” he whispered, now and then. “Somebody is singing. It is such sweet singing! Don’t make a noise, for she may stop.”
Finally he began to peer before him again. All at once he cried:
“It’s getting dark on the track! Light the headlight! We’re gaining—we’re gaining. Only ten minutes late! We—will—make it!”
His hands gripped and relaxed. With his left he reached out, as if feeling for the throttle.
“A little more does it,” he muttered, weakly. “There—that’s it. We’ll be—there—soon. It’s just—just—ahead. Ha! Here we are on time—on time, at last!”
The end of the trip was reached.
And so passed away the principal enemy that Frank Merriwell had. As for Frank himself, he had already won a place and respect on the railroad. He was in a position to help the blind girl and her crippled brother, and there was no one who could hinder him now. He was recognized already as one of the best firemen on the road, and eligible for promotion to the post of engineer at any time. He had taken the first step upward in the struggle through life, and the first step in this struggle is always the hardest one. After this, it would be plainer sailing, and although Frank Merriwell was destined to pass through many more adventures on the railroad, he had overcome the chief difficulties in the way of success, and made a good start. He had started at the foot of the ladder with his first job, but already he had surmounted the lowest rung and was in a fair way to climb, up and up, to ultimate success.
THE END.