FIFTEEN CENT ECMANGES. WILL "W ^r*F*3L.ESS THE FREAKS ASD F03:U5ES OF A NEWSBOY. ORNUM & CO., Polishers, New York. L. A. BARTH r INDIANAPOLIS, IND. WILL WAFFLES; OR, THE FREAKS AND FORTUNES OF A NEWSBOY. BY JOHN F. COWAN, AUTHOR OF " THE MYSTERIES OE THE NIGHT," " FATRIOT SPY 0* BRAtfDYWINE," ETC., ETC. NEW YORK, ORNUM & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, Beekman Street WILL WAFFLES: OB THE FSEAE3 A3TI> FORTUNES OF A NEWSBOY, By John F. Cowan. CHAPTER L QUICK SALES — A SPECIAL ENGAGEMENT. A wild sloggy evening had closed over the Empire City. A fierce wind whirled through the thoroughfares in so irregular a manner, that it would have puzzled a conjuror to tell which of the four corners of the earth (if the earth has corners), it hailed from, or which of the points of the compass should by right stand god- father for it And truly the godfather, by responsibility of keep- ing such a restless rover in bounds, training him up in the way he should go, and performing all the other little duties set forth in the prayer book, would have anything but a light undertaking. Rushing along streets, clattering shutters and creaking signboards, moaning down basements — turning the iron grating of the areas into mouth-organs on which to whistle its weird tunes, exploring alleys, investigating hallways, and howling horrors down chimneys to the weather bound inmates of the houses — on, on it rushed, bearing the black night on its rapid wings in fierce pursuit of the flying day. The snow was deep on the streets, but it had lost all semblance of snow, and was transformed into muddy slush, through which man and beast plowed in angry recklessness. The great multitude of workers were hurrying miserably home- ward. The great flying, screaming crowd of epitomizers. The actual disseminators of knowledge, The immediate enlighteners of mankind, " The abstract and brief chronicles of the time," 4 Ui i 8 WILL WAFFLES. The aiarm clocks that wake up the drowsy world, The ravens that croak of disaster, The bearers of glad tidings, The trumpeters of grim visaged War, The heralds of white robed Peace — The Newsboys — "Were abroad in full force, rushing from the offices of the even- ing papers with the latest edition, " as bees biz out wi' angry fyke," bawling like mad, and scattering away, each to his peculiar quarter. One of the frequent deadlocks of trucks and street cars was in Ml blast in Park Row, cartmen and conductors cursing each other fervently, passengers growling and policemen ordering and threat- ening. Through this Babylonian confusion, regardless alike of horses' hoofs and officers' rattans, a burly man, with heavily bearded lace and slouched hat, pushed his way toward the City Hall Park. A rough, forbidding looking personage he was — dressed in very coarse clothes, albeit the wet sleet gave them a gloss not properly their own. As he gained the opposite curb, one of the loudest voiced of the newsboys rushed up to him, uttering a flying list of the events of the day, with the constantly recurring burden : " Daily Noo-is — five 'clock edition ! Daily Noose, sir ? "Here, boy," said the man addressed, drawing close to the bill- covered fence that surrounds the New Post office building ; " I want to t speak to }'ou." "Can't see it! Business hours," cried the youngster; "No conversation with the man at the wheel ! D'ye want the paper?" "Yes," said the man, with his hand in his pocket/and the boy stopped to pull one from the bundle of papers sheltered from the rain beneath his rather long coat. " I'll buy all you have." "Oh, come, let up — let up!" drawled the boy knowingly, as he held out his hand for the cent. " That's too thin !" /What's your stock worth?" " 'Bout fifty cents retail ; can't 'ford to sell 'em at office price, and lose my turn, you know. You know how it is yourself." " Here you are, fifty cents." " Honest Injun ? Fair shake ?" " Fair." "No go back?" " No go back." " There ye are, mister, but I guess you'll make deuced little off of that raffle. Goin' inter bizness?"< " No, I don't want them. Throw them away ;" said the man, impatiently. will' wjlfplis. t " Throw 'em away ?" cried the boy in amazement u Not much, if I know myself!" " I want you to go a message for me." " How will it pay ? What is it ?" " It'll pay you ten times what the selling of papers would. Come with me, and I'll tell you what it is." "NufF said; I'm a passenger," cried the boy, decidedly. "But say, mister, there aint no use o' wastin' this here stock ; mayn't I set up Patsy with them ? He's short to-night. Run all his stamps on policy and got nary gig." " Do what you like with them, but be quick. "All right, boss. Hi-i-i-i, Patsy !" screamed the boy through his hands, in a tone so shrill that it sounded above all the tumult of the street. Almost before the sound had ceased, a diminutive representative of the circulatory fraternity darted across the street — dodging through the horses' legs like a rabbit, and stood before the sum- moner demanding the reason of the summons. " Sold clean out, Patsy, money in pocket and stock on hand. Hows that fbr high?" Patsy duly expressed his astonishment at so mysterious a busi- ness transaction and gently intimated his firm belief that his friend had forsaken the plain paths of truth to indulge in the exaggera- tions of romance. " Hush !" cried the friend behind his hand, glancing to where the man had strayed on and was waiting. " You can have the papers. " I'm a goin' with him. He doesn't know me, and thinks that I don't know that he's Walt Punkley. Mebbe not. He's got lots o'stamps and I'm jest a goin' for 'em red hot, you bet. That's how the old thing works I" Next moment Patsy's shrill voice was heard re -selling the stock, and the other boy joining the man, they went rapidly up the side of the Park toward the Hall. "Wait here," said the man turning into the park and staring sharply about him in the darkness. The boy stood still for a few seconds, and then, dodging into the darkness, he took a quick circle, so as to get beyond his employer. "Knowledge is power, they say," he said to himself; "and I'm blowed if I arn't goin' to be powerful if I can. There's the game, I guess." He paused behind a tree near where the statue of Washington used to stand, before the entrance of the building, and saw by the uncertain, wafting light of the lamps a man descend the high stone steps to the square in front, look up at the illuminated clock in the tower, and then, with impatient mutterings, re- ascend and shelter I 10\ WILL W1FTL1S. himself from the storm in one of the arches, with his back against the closed iron railing. He heard the heavy plash of footsteps in the slush, and saw the man he had called Punkley approach the steps and pause. "With a rapid and noiseless movement the boy flitted over to the further end of the steps and crept stealthily up into the shadow of one of the arches. "Hist! Doc! Hadley! Is that you?" came the short, rapid whisper of Punkley. " Yes, I'm inclined to think so," answered the individual at the top. " Are you alone ?" " Lonely as a walrus on an iceberg, but not so comfortable by half." " Who were you talking to," asked Punkley, ascending. " Only having a little chat with grim Death, for I'm nigh about frozen. What the deuce kept you?" " Business — business ! It's getting brisk again. I've a lay to- night that you can help me in and make a handsome little stake for yourself — enough to make you have a soul above corn cures and transparent soap for the remainder of your days." "What is it? Nothing very much out of the way, I hope," said Hadley, nervously. "Oh, no, not much, Doc," said the other. "Only a little game to change money from the hands of a rich old feller that's got too much and don't let it roll, to the hands of a young feller that has'nt any objections to throwing a little to his friends." "Look here, Punkley," exclaimed the man addressed as Doc; " I don't half like this kind of business. I aint up to it, and I didn't think, after my being so nearly caught last time, that you'd have asked me to try it again. If I had known 'twas for that you wanted me, I'll be hanged if I'd have frozen here so long to-night." " What do you mean ?" 1 "I mean to try and get along on the square, if it does half kill me," said Hadle} r , in a very weak manner. " I want to get some- thing honest — " He was interrupted by a little sneering laugh from his compan- ion, who, seizing him by the ragged sleeve, whirled him around so that the flickering lamp shone on his storm splashed face — a pale face with a thin, light-colored beard, large eyes and a wistful, hun- gry expression. "Honesty, you idiot!" exclaimed Punkley, scornfully. *' v -Vro a pretty looking scarecrow to talk of honest}' ! Ain't the honor?t frost nipping the soles of your stockingless, almost shoeless feet? Ain't the honest wind blowing like icicles through your ragged clothes and rumbling in your supperless stomach? Honesty! WtLt WAFFLll. Til' Pah ! What will Honesty do for you but chuck you into a mul£ hole when your soul gets disgusted with your neshless bones ? "What epitaph will Honesty give you ? None, but the bitter, si- lent one that the obscurity of your final resting place proclaims — » 1 Outcast ! vagrant 1 pauper 1' Honesty will call you by aay name but her own !" i "Peace, peace! for Heaven's sake, peace, Punkley," said the man in a tremulous tone. " There is a high old school teacher for you I" soliloquized the boy in the next arch. " Honesty !" continued the scoffer, not heeding the one and not hearing the other. " Try it on, and see if it will keep you living during the winter. That * remittance from England,' never comes. You are played out at all the lodging houses, and you're so rag- ged that not a bunk-cellar in the city would give you head room on the strength of your coat. If you dare to show your nose in the police stations, they'll send you to the island as a vagabond. There is no more paving going on in the park, and no pitch fires for you to huddle before from the cold air. You miserable devil, what have you to do with honesty ?" The wretched object of this tirade shrank before the rapid, en- ergetic flow of language, and uttered some expostulation which was inaudible to the boy. "You have knowledge," continued Punkley; "and knowledge is money. I'm giving you a chance to turn it into hard cash. Can you live on your knowledge of plants and minerals unused? Can you make decent garments out of your useless diplomas? Bah ! man, your sides are clapping together with hunger, you are shivering with cold ! Come, we will get something to warm you. Come, honesty — ha! ha! ha!" Laughing thus, the tempter caught the unresisting man by the arm, and nearly dragged him from the steps, and towards Chatham street. " That's how the old thing works !" exclaimed the boy, as he deserted his hiding place and took a rapid circuit to reach the street before them. " If Walt Punkley ain't a mighty tall imita- tion of the devil, you may call me a haythen Chinee." He gained the street and was dancing to keep himself warm when the men came up. " Come, boy ?" said Punkley, leading the way over into Frank- fort street, and dodging into a dimly lighted saloon, he called for liquor and pushed the bottle toward Hadley, who poured out a large drink with trembling hand and swallowed it eagerly. Hadley was a man not yet of middle age. He was pale, wasted, and wretchedly clad, with long, luxuriant hair falling, uncared for, (o his shoulders, His movements were graceful, but not easy, for, WILL WAFFLE*. in speech, action and look, there seemed to be a nervous hesitancy, too evidently born of his hopeless struggle with fortune— a crush- ing consciousness of the depth of his degradation, for all his rag- gedness and wretchedness could not hide the evidence of better days. The boy was one of the brightest of the strong-willed, self-reliant little men that form his class. Not particularly well fitted ^in the matter of clothes, not very regardful of personal appearance, but with a light, active form, well-shaped features, a prominent) fore- head, and eyes as bright and quick as those of a hawk. "I think I must have seen you before, my boy," said Punkley, eyeing him by the bar light. " Altogether likely, boss," answered the boy with easy confi- dence; "'specially if you've been much around these here dig- gins, or the lower end of York generally. I'm a native borrf 'n these parts." " You seem to be a smart boy." " You jest bet yer pile I've cut my eye-teeth, sir. Else there wouldn't be no use of me trying to travel with our crowd. Might make myself mighty few jest as soon's I liked. Muffins nor flats not admitted under no pretences whatever. Jest as might be with a gang of yer own you know. You know how the old thing works." He concluded this speech in a significant, confidential manner, pointing the slang phrase with a most knowing wink. The man bent his piercing black eyes on the youthful face for a few seconds without speaking, and seemed satisfied, for he read there only the precocious smartness and conceited forwardness of the street boy, nothing more. And the boy stood scrutinizing the fifty cent stamp, he had received for his stock, as if utterly unconscious of the pres- ence of the person to whom he had lately spoken. "Are you acquainted with the upper part of the city?" asked Punkley. ' " I believe you, my boy. Not much of it'll come crooked to me." " I will write a note that I want you to take. It needs care in the delivery. If you bring me back a favorable answer, I'll give you five times as much as that," pointing to the stamp that the boy was wrapping around his finger. " You don't say !" cried the youngster, looking up to catch the hungry looking eyes of Hadley fastened greedily on the money. " All right, boss, git yer note, I'm on deck." Punkley got writing materials from the bar-tender, and retired into a small room at the back of the saloon, first leaving orders that Hadley should have more liquor. Of this privilege the tremb- ing man gladly availed himself, and was putting the shaking turn- ▼ ILL WAFFLES. 13 bier to his lips, when the boy sidled up to him, and said in a low tone: u I say, young feller, do you know that you're making a dog- gonnd fool of yourself? Don't you drink that red-eve, mind I tell you ; if you do, you're a caved community — that's what's the mat- ter!" " What do you mean?" asked Hadley, half angrily. " Why, are you such a blamed flat as not to know what his game is ? He's putting up a job for you, and when he gets you safe in- to it, he'll slide and let the cops scoop you in. They must give some one up once in a while, else there'd be no more use for offi- cers and prisons. That's why he's a fillin' you full o' rectified thunderbolts and givin' you nothin' to eat." " Who are you ! You are one of his associates," said the man suspiciously. " Not for Joe — not if I know myself," cried the youngster ; " I'm on the make — I am, and I don't deny it ; and I'm bound to have his twenty shillin'. We're all on the make, more or less, every blessed one of us. But, speakin' newsboyishly, I hope I may be stuck bad if I ain't broadside down on all such full-rigged scoun- drels as Walt Punkley, and I hate to see a feller with a good core, if his bark is rough, have to give up the ship on account of hunger." There was a stir in the inner room, and he tried hastily to slip the fifty cent stamp into Hadley's hand, but the man, as if hurt by the patronizing manner of one so much younger than himself, drew back, and looked down at the small form of his would-be bencfac' tor, who was now offended in his turn. " I suppose," said the boy, ironically, "that you're a free-born Englishman, waitin' for a remittance from Europe, you're above takin' anything from an America*: bo} r . But, let me tell you, mis- ter, that's 'arned honest — and that's a whole hop, step and jump more than anything you get from him'll be, or I'm a Chaynerman." " You are a kind-hearted lad," said Hadley, with a tremor in his voice and a tear glistening in his eye. " No better nor I should be," said the boy, softened by these signs of emotion. " I've seen ups and downs myself, and I know how to feel for others. I know you're hungry and that he means to keep you so. Oh ! he's top-sawyer in the devil's sawpit, if he ain't call me Rudolf. Here, take it, you're welcome to it. You need it — I don't. It'll help you to hold out agin him till you're able to scare up some more*" 4 What is your name, my boy, and where can I find you, to thank and repay you at some future day ?" asked the man with emotion, as the boy crushed the money into his emanciated hanu. "Lord, don't mention that," said the youthful humanitarian. " When you get your wealth and have a mansion as big as Stew- art's, I'll invite myself to eat the fifty cents out some day when yon have no other company. But if you do ever want to see me, all you've got to do is to come within a half a mile of the City Hall and ax the first feller you see bawlin' papers, where Will Waffles is, and he'll steer your bark to this 'ere one's He." " I shall see you again." " All right. Cheese it. Here comes Beelzebub, Junior. Look out for him," said Will Waffles, adding behind his hand as Punkley advanced, "You can git grandiferous cakes and coffee, and asplen- dangerous plate, either hot or cold, at pocket-saving prices, at Hitchcock's right round the corner on Chatham Street, first dive above French's. Tell Jerry that Will Waffles sent you, and he'll slap you up somethin' gallus. Well-known there, reg'lar cus- tomer.'' Punkley took the boy to one side and gave him minute directions about the delivery of a note which he gave him and the return of the answer, and Will Waffles started toward the door, whispering to Hadley while Punkley was paying the score : " Mind your eye, be wide-awake. Don't take any more rot-gut ; part company and sling in a good lunch — that's what'll set you up Old Nicodemus always fishes for empty stomachs. So take care of yourself old feller, and Will Waffles is yours diabolically — as the devil said to the tailor. " Hallo ! youngster !" cried Punkley. " Ain't you away yet ?" f* " All right, Cap !" cried the boy, buttoning his coat to the neck, " Signal to cut stick — all aboard — streamers waving in the wind. One moment, and I'm off like a fire-cracker." And with hat cocked sportinglyon one side of his head, and hands thrown forward driving an imaginary Dexter, this patronizing young adventurer dashed jubilantly away out into the storm. "Now we can have a talk on business," said Punkley. Hadley shrank back as if he would have left the place, but the other burst into a derisive laugh, and seizing him by the arm, said : "What, what, Doc, you ain't over your colic yet ! These qualms will be the death of you. Come, something hot is what you want." The small spark of manliness and resistance which had been awakened by Will Waffles glimmered and died, and the spirit- broken man fell once more under the influence of his evil genius — Walt Punkley. WILL WAFFLES. CHAPTER (IX JOHN CHUNK'S MISSION — THE BLOODY LETTER — A GLEAM OF FORTUNE. Will Waffles was a true metropolitan Arab, as far as the restlessness of disposition, the spurning of restraint, and the utter contempt of straight-laced conventionalities went ; but truth for- bids that I should ascribe to him that spirit of wholesale spiteful- ness supposed to be characteristic of the descendants of Ishmael. In the matter of descent 'tis true there was a mystery about Will Waffles, His origin was as beclouded as that of the Onondaga giant. Like the wild boy of the scriptures he had been cast upon the desert of life, to perish. No soft-handed — fond-hearted Hagar strove to shield him from the elements or moistened his feeble lips : — but the angel of mercy appeared in the form and substance of some two hundred and odd pounds of human flesh, encasing a heart of magnificent proportions, inclosed in female attire, engaged in the fruit and cake business and entitled Mag Lees. In compliment to her jovial nature, the boy humourists who " most do congregate" about the- City Hall Park had extended this name into Meg Merry Lees, in the same manner as they had christened the hero of this story after the most popular commodity in which the old lady dealt. Well, briefly, Meg Lees, returning to her home one night, came upon a crowd of people standing around a door step on which a deserted infant was waiting pitifully. The discoverers and passers- by, evidently fearing trouble and responsibility, stared idly at the child, indulged largely in mouth-sympathy, talked Charities and Corrections, (beautiful combination,) but never offered to lift the little outcast from the cold stones. Meg Lees heard the plaintive appeal of the litttle sufferer, and it smote her heart like a cry from the grave. She saw the white, dimpled face, and the tearful picture of a small, snowy-robed form with closed eyes and folded hands arose before her, and, for the sake of the cherished dead, she took the sobbing waif to her capacious bosom and bore it homeward. She bestowed the name of her buried favorite upon the adopted child, and through the long years of struggles and hardship, had been a good mother to him, until at last his own enterprise and independent spirit started him out in the humble oureuit of for- tune, 4i ^ax 41*1.4!* j n tf 16 WILL WAFFLI8, And who was better adapted for the strife than Will Waffles ? Never a stouter heart beat beneath a red shirt ; never a better tem- per smiled at reverses, or a more hopeful spirit looked into the future : never a more willing hand sounded the depths of a light pocket for the relief of a friend. There are events and moments which exert a great after-influence upon all human lives : and such a moment was Will Waffles' exit from the bar-room to him : for, in bolting out suddenly, with his head lowered to catch the first burst of the storm, he planted it, in tie manner of a battering ram. in the waistcoat of a dripping little man, who was surveying the interior of the saloon through a rent in the curtain. The consequence was that the little man's hat new into the air, and its proprietor took an involuntary seat on a pile of frozen dirt at the curb. " Domino ! How's that for low?" exclaimed the boy with a crow like a rooster. " Curse you !" cried the man angrily, endeavoring t» regain his feet. "Don't mention it, I beg! Keep on your hat — no need to apolo- gize — you're quiet excuseable," said Will magnanimously, about to hurry away. But the injured man did not seem to fall in with this view of the case, for he scrambeled up and threw himself in the boy's path, hat in hand. " Stop !" he said, " I want to speak to you." " Sorry, very sorry, to see any one in want, replied Will, " but 'tain't a talking night, and biz before pleasure, you know." He was passing when the man laid his hand heavily on his shoul- der and detained him forcibly. " Paws off, old duffer ! or I'll put a Mansard roof on y«« r ex- claimed the boy, wrenching himself free, and striking a defensive attitude. " Name your game and tell us your fightin' weight. How could I help upsettin' yer apple cart ? What d'ye go a gluing yer eye to the window for? Did yer take it for a show ?" " Never mind that — never mind that," said the man in an eager ierky manner." " Accidents will happen. Life is like a railroad, collisions and bust-ups at every curve and crossing. " I'm used to em. You're a messenger." " Well, what if I am ? What d'ye want to make of it ? How does that affect gold ?" L " I'll put gold in your pocket." " Oh, let up, give's a rest?" said the boy impatiently, "Who d'y© think I am ? Do you take me for a flat ?" " You are prudent to doubt Life is full of deceptions 1" said the little man, solemnly, life is like a quick sand M Oh blow you and life 1 Dry up !" cried the boy. WILL WAFFLES. IT " There is no trick or deception in this," said the man, more rapidly, I mean for your good. I have been looking for you." " No you don't — that's too thin ! I must cherry, aud that's what's the matter with Hannah !" " Stay a moment. You are known as Will "Waffles! " " Yes, that's about the size of it. What then ?" said the boy interestedly. "That is not your name, you do not know yout name. Life is full of mysteries. You are a foundling !" The boy started and stared into the strange face, on which the melting snow glistened in the flickering light of the red lamp over the saloon door, every drop looking like a large, inflamed pim- ple. •'Look a here, old feller!" said "Will, 11 1 dont know who may 'a posted you on my affair, but, by Jimminy, you've nailed it. I'm jest what yon say, and though I don't know as the difference of a feller's cognum is either heae or there, still if you happen to know anything particular about my auntysedunts, you'll greatly oblige the subscriber by — " " Let's get out of the wet," said the little man. We took Will by the arm, and leading him down the street they dodged into one of the lager bier saloons. Once inside the man shook himself like a Newfoundland dog, and turned to face the boy. A very strange looking little fellow he was, Will Waffles thought as he looked at him. He was very low in stature and very squat in figure, and the style of his dress increased this effect- His hat was the lowest crowned and broadest brimmed tarpalius, his over- coat a box sack of the monkey jacket order, made of cloth a half inch thick, more or less, as they say in acurate legal documents, a very short broad face, weather beaten and wrinkled, sat snug down to the shoulders, for there seemed to be no neck to speak of. There was a stolid expression of gravity and thoughtfulness on tho features, but it was rendered ludicrous by the quick moving, cunning expres- sion of the eyes, hat, form and face, taken altogether, gave a striking outline resemblance to a trained bullfrog standing erect ' You are known as Will Waffles," he said. " Guilty, my lord !" answered the boy. " I'm John Chunk !" he said grandly. " Proud to know you, sir !" bowed Will, as if deeply impressed by the greatness of the occasion. " Life is a strange thing !" said Mr. Chunk, philosophically. ''Life's a blarsted sell," agreed Mr. Waffles. " It is all a dream !" sighed Mr. Chunk. " A regilar cod !" indi rsed Mr. Waffles. " But say, old man, I'm n a hurry, and here we are a holdin' camp-meetin', while Old Dun der-und-blitzen there a measuring us for lager. Say, you Haunce IS WILL WAFFLES. wring us zwei peers ! Now Mr. Chunk, rattle it lively, let us neaf the latest by cable. If its a square shake — I'm in : If there's any gay about it — count me nix." Mr. Chunk fastened his eyes upon his glass of beer, as if searching in its amber depths for some fresh truth in regard to life's vicissi- tudes. " Ah, my young friend," he said mournfully, " Life is " " Oh, bother life !" exclaimed his young friend, impatiently ! Life's a prize conundrum, and I give it up. Why you talk like a cart-wheel without grease — the same screek every turn round. We come here to talk biz. How d'ye know me, and what d'ye want with me ?" " That's what I would tell, "said Mr. Chunk,in a deliberate manner, " Bellevue Hospital is a grand institution — a wonderful place ! Life is there seen in its hardest phases — I go there to study life." " Oh ! for heaven's sake make one act of it!" hastily interrupted the boy. " Cut it short, or I'll have to git." Mr. Chunk looked at him reproachfully, and resumed in a quicker manner. " Passing through one of the wards where life is displayed in its hardest phases " " Talks like a war correspondent !'"muttered Will. " I heard a voice, rough but low, addressing me," continued Mr. Chunk, pausing to sip his beer. " Yes, yes, Mr. Chunk, voice rough, but low, addressing you !" (prompted Will. "I approached tli e bed from which it proceeded," went on Mr. Chunk, in a mysterious manner. " Ye-s-s-s ! — Ye-s-s ! Moon turned on full, music low and tremu- lous!" said Will Waffles, his curiosity and his love of fun struggling for the mastery. "My boy," said Mr. Chunk reprovingly, "Life is no laughing matter." " Not much, cully, the way you dish it up. Let the play pro- ceed." " The sight I saw, I shall never forget" " Reporter agin !" " At any time life is " " A-w-w-h ! Give's a rest, and go on with your yarn/' " A wild face — haggard and pale — a bandaged head with a blood mark oozing thro' the cloths, and a wounded hand lying upon the counterpane was what I saw" said John Chunk, impressively. " What I heard was that he liked my looks— that he had been pretty badly cut up in a bar-room fight, that he felt himself sinking fast, that he had a message to send to a boy to be found in or near Printing House Square, and that the worldly cognomen of that boy was William Waffles. Is that direct enough ?" WLLL TAFFLEfl, 1*va — God bless vou mv children ! — blue light and the curtain falls." John Chunk stared at him with his grave expression for a mo- ment and then laughed, and the eccentric youth lifted the letter and joined in the merriment. " That's what knocks me, you know," he said, as if he were reading Chunk's thoughts. " I hain't got no strawberry marks, and I hain't made no arrangements with any other feminine child to be God blessed along with me. That's what takes the starch out of it. I wonder if its true, and what kind of a bloke the writer of this 'ere was, and who was my father anyhow, and if my mother's alive, and why she throwed me away when I was a papoose." This latter part was spoken in a serious pathetic tone, notwith- standing the words in which it was couched, for slang was the bey's usual mode of expression, and the habit had grown upon him so that he unconsciously used the same odd phrases to convey all gnujes °f fooling) and all shades of meaning. 20 WILL WiPfLES. "Lord, if it should be true, though !" he said in a more gleeful manner. " Wouldn't I make Meg Merry Lees stare? Eh, John Chunk ? Wouldn't I fix her up gay ? Wouldn't I pitch into Stewart's stock of black silk lively ? (Meg's hefty on black silk.) Mebbe not — oh, no ! Eh, old man ? Wouldn't we have a high old time? All the hacks in Central Park — all the gondolas on the lakes ! Wouldn't we pic-nic and excursion it ? Wouldn't we clam-bake and chowder it? Eh! John Chunk?" And, under the influence of these brilliant imaginations, the young dreamer seized the astonished John Chunk and whirled him helplessly around and around the sanded floor in a reckless demon dance, so rapid in movement that the ribbon ends of the little man's tarpaulin fluttered and cracked, and hig own long coat- tails streamed gracefully on the breeze. " Hold, hold!" gasped the purple-faced John Chunk, puffing like a grampus, " A little exercise is good, my boy, but, at the very best, Life is "Just so, John Chunk — nevei mind the rest — I'll take your word for it If this here thing goes ihrough all hunkey and I make a big stake, I'll fit you up in business so you can abuse life up to the handle, even to susan-cide if you're a mind to. Won't I give the boys a reg'lar blow-out-though ? ' The Will Waffles Chowder Club" — The Lady Washington and a dead block in Fulton street — long horns and cow-bells — eh ! Cully, how's that for flush ?" " Not too fast, my boy," said John Chunk, sagely, "Counted chickens never hatch. Life's a lottery, and " M The sooner we see the drawings the sooner we'll know our luck," concluded Will, rapidly, sticking the crumpled letter into his pocket along with Punkley's ; " Come, John Chunk, we've got a Jiorse on fortune and let us see what its worth. I'm in a streak of luck to-night — letter-carrier general to his screamin' majesty, the King of the Cannibal Islands. Shoo you fly ! Don't you go bodder mit me ! What's the use of a new post office when I'm 1 on hand' — like Johnny Thompson. Come, let's git." " Can't go," said Mr. Chunk, "sorry can't, but can't Shop to be shuttered and old woman waiting." " Nuff, said John Chunk, don't distress the Chunkess, or the little Chunkesses, but jest let me know where you swing yer hammock, and I'll whack up. You can count on Will Waffles." "John Chunk's your friend," said the little man shaking the ex- tended hand. " There's my card — East Houston street, near the bell-tower. If we should ever meet again — but I doubt it, for life is " A grand fraud — a fearful flam ! Just so !" exclaimed the dis- appearing boy, " Good bye, J ohn Chunk 1" WILL WAFFLES. 21 " A strange boy,"solilopuized Mr Chunk, gazing at the closing door — "Very odd — but very true ! Life is " " Der is den zent, for de do* drinks,' said the Teutonic presiding genius of the place. u Life is a grand fraud — a fearful flam !" said John (Shunk, as he paid it and and rolled himself ill-temperedly out of the door. CHAPTER LTL THE GLEAM OF FORTUNE CLOUDED — ON THE BOOFS — A PERILOUS POSITION. About half an hour afterwards Wil! Waffles descended the area steps of a gloomy house in Fourteenth Street, and knocked at the basement door. It was opened by an elderly colored woman, sha- ding a small kerosene lamp with her fat hand. " Well, honey, what's ye want ?" she asked. u Does Mister Oscar Mifflin hang out in this crib ?" "Yes, Mis'sar Mifflin libs hear." " Is he in ? I want to see him." "'He's in. But who be you?" asked the woman offended by his free manner. " Tell him that William Waffles, Esquire, has the condescension to wait upon him," said Will, slapping his wet cap against the door jamb." "He doesn't see many folks,now-a-days,' she said, "What's your business." "Business I" exclaimed Waffles, drawing himself up pompously. " I'm outside partner of the American News Company, and gen- eral agent of the daily press, so ax me into the stove, and don t be makin' mouths about it, tor I'm as wet as a musk-rat and as cold as charity." Without waiting or asking for permission he pushed in, and spread himself out before the hall heater. After some question- ing and grunibhng, the servant disappeared up the stairs, and shortly returned followed by a sallow complexioned yovug man with long black hair, sharp features, and deep-sunken, evil looking eyes. He had on a lavender-colored, red-braided smoking Jacket and cap, and his small feet were encased in richly embroidered slippers 22 WILL WAFFLES. There was no light in the hall but that of the feeble lamp which the servant had set on a small bracket fastened to the wall, and the man approached in such a manner that the boy's face, being turned toward him, was full in the light " Well, boy, what do you want?" he said. " An answer to that," said Will, pulling the epistle from his pocket and handing it to him. "This should have been here two hours ago," said the man ap- proaching the lamp. He held the paper in his hand, up to the light, but, with a sudden start and exclamation, he glanced toward the boy and then tore the letter open. Strange was the light that gleamed in his sinister eyes and the expression that flitted across his sallow face. " Who gave you this ?" he asked, suddenly turning on the boy. " None o' my bizness," answered the messenger warily, for he had noticed the man's motion. " Him what sent it said you'd know — hain't he signed hisself ?" " Yes, yes, but come up stairs," said Mr. Mifflin shortly, as his eyes fell upon the attentive negress, standing at a short distance like an ebony statue. "All right, heave ahead I'm there," said Will, swaggering after him. They went along the carpeted hall, and past a room door, lying ajar through w T hich Will Waffles saw a fairy-like girl with bright golden ringlets, thrumming on a piano, and his fervid imagination leaped at once to the possession of just such a gorgeous room, just such an immense piano, and just such a sylph-like player — when he got his wealth. Ah, Will, Will, remember the boy that chased the rainbow — there's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip. Up two more long, winding flights, and Mr. Mifflin tells the boy to wait on the landing a minute and enters a room, returning in a moment with a hand lamp, and leading the way up another staircase, narrow and uncarpeted. A sort of vague misgiving flashed into the boys' mind, and he paused at the foot. " Come on I" said Mifflin, from above, " What are you afraid of?" " Nothing," said Will, ascending, " I was only a wonderin' whether it was an observatory or a shot tower you kept up there." The man did not answer but opened a door from which a damp gust of air came, fluttering the lamp, and sighing through the pas- sages. u Guess we're about at the head of the beanstalk, mister/' said WILL WAFFLES, 23 the boy, as they stood within a lumbered, disused -looking room. Mifflin closed the door and laid the lamp on a ricketty table. "Now," he said to Will Waffles, "where did you get this from ?" " From him I told you of." " Do you know what's in it ?" " No." Can you read writing ?" " A little. Not much." " Who are you ? What's your name ?" "William Lees — They call me Will Waffles for a nick-name." The man caught him by the arm and whirled him to the light to examine his face, and several rapidly muttered exclamations escap- ed him as he did so. " Say, look here, mister," cried the boy, wincing from the pain of the man's grasp. " Guess you'd best let up on that, or blow me if I don' t bust you in the snoot!" Mifflin released him, and assuming a re-assuring manner said : . " I was mistaken, I thought I had seen you before. I must think over the answer to this. You wait here awhile." " Not if I know myself, and I think I do," starting for the door at the same time that the man did. " Why, you little fool, what are you afraid of? No harm'U happen to you." said Mifflin holding him back with one hand while he opened the door with the other. Let me go, you !" cried the boy, struggling with his captor. " Let me go, I tell you, or it'll be worse for you !" But the man held him in an iron grip and said, in a whispering tone : "Be quiet, you young fool! No one will harm you. You must wait here for a few moments until I get the answer ready." " No, you don't That's too thin, " cried Will, making a desper- ate effort to rush past ; but Mifflin flung him back and shut the door, and as the young prisoner laid his hand upon the knob, he heard the key turn in the lock. The old suspicions of the evil character or Walt Punkley, and the doubtfullness of this business came upon him, and he kicked the panels of the door violently, and bellowed threats and impreca- tions through the key -hole. " Look a here, old Joskin !" he cried, " I 'spose ye think ye've got a soft thing on me, but you'll git sick of it — see if you don't — that's aH. 24 WILL W1FFLI3. He listened but there was no answer. " Mind you, I got the lamp," and, by the lord Harry, I'll set fire to the crib and give you a house warming ! ' he yelled with in- creasing anger through the key-hole. The closing and fastening of another door was all the sound that met his ear, and, uttering a string of words, more forcible than elegant, he sprang to seize the lamp. But he paused as his eyes fell upon a crumpled, stained paper that lay upon the ricketty table. Will Waffles was but poorly gifted in the reading or writing of letters, and it was only by the blood stains upon the paper that he recognized the outer sheet of the clumsy missive conveyed to him by John Chunk. With an exclamation he snatched it up, and producing Punkleys letter from his pocket, stared from one to other in angry bewilder- ment. 44 Sold, by jingo ! Changed off and all my fortin' gone up salt creek ! Reg'lary up in abaloon!" he cried, " I might a knowed it. Its jest my luck. That's what come o' boastin' about blowouts and black silks, and eatin' yer clams afore they're baked. Blow the luck, its too rough ! This feller is a pal o' Punkley's and there'll be rough times for me 'atween 'em if the story about the letter is fair and square, and I believe John Chunk." Then it struck him that, between these two desperate gamester- ers for wealth, there would be little chance left for a life that would balk them, and this thought placing his immediate danger before him, he did not resume his vain endeavors at the door, but lifted the lamp and commenced to survey the apartment for some other means of escape. It was escape only that filled his mind now, lie gave up the idea of present resistance, because he lelt that it was hope- less and might prove fatal. The apartment in which he was locked was a garret room, filled with the wrecks of age-worn furniture and other dust-colored lumber. The ceiling slanted low to one side, and was perforated by a large dormer window. At one wall there was a small wretched looking fire-place, down which the big drops of snowy-rain splashed on the hearthstone, and the winter wind moaned its doleful song, rising and falling in wild, sorrowful tones like the wail of the houseless wan- derers who shivered before its breath, or the moans of the half-frozen children who were huddled together in the fireless habitations of the poor. "The chimley ain't no use," said the boy putting away the letter and envelope, " I s'pose the window's the only dodge." He pulled aside a very old and dingy curtain, and tried to look through the storm splashed glass, but, between the dust on the in- side and the sleet on the outside, it was not transparent WILL WAFFLES. 25 With some exertion he opened the sash and a great gust of the storm burst in, nearly depriving him of breath and extinguishing his lamp with a splutter, thus leaving him in total darkness. With the first shock of the gloom, and the first hollow sound of the wind in the dismal room, his cool courage deserted him, and a wild desire to fly from the place came over him. The city lights flickered dull and fitfully down in the darkness, and away, away until the blackness of the storm shut them out. The rumble of carriages and omnibusesses, and the long roll of the street cars accompanied by the jingling of bells, came up in irregu- lar swells, whilst the never-ceasing splash and patter of fhe drifting rain told him that this window opened on the top of the building, and he knew by the pitch of the ceiling that the roof was steep. A desperate venture to go out in the darkness, he knew n ot whither — to perish of exposure, or be dashed to piece by sliding off the snow covered slates. The boy paused for a moment in doubt, but was suddenly decided in his choice by hearing, or thinking he heard, a sound behind him as of some one stealthily approaching the door. With a quick, silent action, and a dread idea of being murdered in the dark, he straddled the window-sill and feeling outward with one hand and foot, was rejoiced to find that he was right down at the eave-trough, and that a low panelled parapet ran along its edge, thus promising security against his falling off into the street. En- couraged b} r this, he pulled his cap tighter on his head and com- menced to creep along his dangerous track with trembling move- ments — for he was drenched to the skin — the clinging sleet chilled him — and at every moment he expected the fierce wind to whirl him off the slippery roof and dash him to pieces on the pavement below. He passed several dormer windows, but those he tried were fas- tened and dark, and the nervousness and cold were taking such ef- fect upon him that he was almost sorry he undertook so desperate a venture. He paused in his progress from sheer exhaustion, and gazed with a sort of agonized wistfulness at the brightly lighted windows of the houses on the opposite side of the street. If he could only make the inhabitants, or the policemen in the street hear his voice, they might come to his assistance and save him from the death that threatened him, for he was getting faint and weak. He called aloud, but his words were drowned in the rush of the wind. He had leaned rather heavily upon the panelling of the eave, to enable him to direct his voice downward, when, suddenly, he felt it move beneath his grasp. With a wild cry of horror he threw himself back flat on the wel 26 / WILL WAFFLES, roof and desperately clutched the cap of a brick cut-fire that separa- ed two of the buildings. The next instant the wind seized the loosened wood-work — tore it fiercely from its half rotten stays, and whirled it to the flags below with a crash that echoed through the street like the discharge of a ship's broadside. Will Waffles, terrified by the thought of how narrow his escapo had been, lay in his uncomfortable position, listening to the opening windows and the hurrying feet, and the calling of frightened voices, for all these sounds came wildly up to him. Then, with a glimmer of hope, he sat up and tried once more to attract attention by wild cries; but, as before, the whirling wind whistled his endeavors to scorn, and at last the sounds below ceased, the windows were closed and the people dispersed — with remarks that it was a dreadful Btorm. Then a desperate courage came to the boy, and he endeavored by a strong exertion of will to shake off the numbness and fatal drowsi- ness caused by the cold. " It'll never do to give it up so," he chattered, gatherin himself up again, " This is too much for high, I must try again, P'raphs may strike it this trip." Another while of tedious and painful scrambling and his perse verance is rewarded by his seeing a glimmer of light from a dormer window, shining on the wet roof and flying sleet. In a minute the boy was rapping at the glass, but there was no answer to his ap- peal — no signs of life within. It was no time for hesitation or delicacy, and Will Waffles hoist- ed the window and surveyed the interior. CHAPTER IV IN PARADISE. The reader remembers the astonishment and delight of Aladdin when his gaze first fell upon the wondrous flowers and gem-bearing trees of the Geni's Cave. Therefore he will be the better able to ap- preciate the bewilderment of Will Waffles, when, on ( raising the attic window, his storm-beaten eyes rested on a scene*of such bril- liancy, so light, so splendid, so dazzling, that, contrasted with the late gloominess, it soemed to him like a glimpse of the regions 0/ the blest. \ w'i'll wAi-Fur. 27 ;'P9tf0p9iliO8On S)t : A/** .TTT .Ino-w^J fi^oi rrcrfi oyfiiM The walls of the apartment were draped with the most gorgeous- ly colored fabrics. Hung at intervals were robes of exquisite rich- ness, bedizzened with spangles of gold and silver. Interspersed with these were displayed girdles and crowns of different designs, made of burnished metal and sparkling with many colored gems. Alternately with these were different highly ornamented musical in- struments, the Grecian lyre, the Irish harp, with its angel's head, the old fashioned English gittern, the Spanish bandore, the Italian guitar, and lastly the Ethiopian banjo. Here and there were suspended trophies of arms consisting of jew- el -hilted swords, war-axes, spears and daggers, with shields so highly polished that they reflected the light like mirrors. On the chairs, and even scattered on the floor, were other pieces of bright head costume, and fantastic ornaments. A coal fire glowed in the little grate, and beside this was a small round table with a snowy cloth and a tray containing a neat little tea-set and eatables, with a cosy arm-chair drawn up, as if wait- ing impatiently for a hungry occupant. The whole of this strange scene was shown to the dripping "Will "Waffles by the light of a large glass lamp, which sat, slightly turned down, on the mantel-piece. The boy gazed for a short time in utter astonishment at the bright display, but the un impressible winter wind soon brought him back to the unpleasant reality of his position, and lessened his awe of the armor sufficiently to enable him to call out : " Who lives here ? Is there anybody in ?" There was no answer, but the storm gave him a very urgent hint from without, and the fire seemed to wink him a very pleasant wel- come from within ; so all his scruples vanished, and, swinging him- self over the window-sill, he let the window fall with a crash be- hind him, and stood still for a minute or two, almost expecting to see some pantomimic demon spring from the walls to brain him with one of the war-clubs. But no such bloody-thirsty personage appearing, Will took courage to approach the fire, justifying his intrusion, however, by a loudly spoken speech, to the following effect : " Can't be helped, you know. Circumstances over which your obedient servant had no control. Will Waffles is duced cold, and cold Waffles is more disgustin' than mud cakes. I really hope I don't intrude, but I must have a warm, and I*m a goin' to have it — you bet." With the last words he threw himself into the arm-chair, stuck his wet, benumbed feet up, with his heels upon the top bar of the grate, and began a more minute survey of the surroundings. " Well, TO be danged if this 'ere isn't a lively go. Rather a WILL WAFFLES. change from roofing it like atom-cat Eh, cully ?" hesoliloquized ; . Wonder who the mischief hangs out in this crib ? Almost looks as if I was expected. Supper for one — very tempting. Wonder dare I partake? Wonder what's in that other room. Wonder what's in the bottle ! Booh ! but I'm wet and cold ! S'pose I was to uncork the bottle and sample it. But I guess I'd better sample that room first." He arose and threw epen a door that stood slightly ajar. Be- yond it was a bed-chamber plainly but neatly furnished. The bed waa tossed, as if some one had lately arisen from it^ but no human form was visible. "If I ain't grand sachem of the wigwam, I'm a flounder!" said Will with all his old, easy impudence coming back. He swaggered back to the fire, and, after giving himself a couple of cold shakes, lifted a bottle from the tray and poured out a wine glass fall of its contents. " It would be a flyin' in the face of Providence," he said, " to let my chances slip. So here's ago ! Here's to my mothers son Will, That's me. Ha ! by Jimminy kings ! that's slap up ! That's what'll start the phosphorus in a feller's system, eh, Guv'ner ?" The question was addressed to a su;t of fight, shining armor that was placed erect against the wall, and presented the nearest resem- blance to the human form divine on which the boy's eyes fell. With the happy freedom of his nature, Mr. Waffles immediately struck up an acquaintance with this silent individual, installing it in an off hand manner in the governorship of the establishment. With the returning feeling of comfortableness, and beneath the stimulating effects of the bottle, all the Wafflesonian facetitiousness and dash returned, and ere long he had not only demolished the eatables on the table, gravely thanking the armored effigy for its pressing atten- tions, but had sadly diminished the contents of the bottle by con- tinual pledges of everlasting friendship and fealty to what he called his " newly-found, iron-bound friend." ■You see, Guv'ner," he said, "throwing his legs over the arm of the chair, and winking confidentially at the visioned helmet that represented the head of the 'guv'ner.' I'm one o' them fellers that likes to meet with a polished gentleman and I really believe you to be a man of metal. You don't care about taking anythying ? No ! Don't mention it. It's all right I know how it is myself. Hate to press a man. Not polite. Good health." With a laugh at his own l'acetiousne6S, he swallowed another glass. The fumes of the wine were rising rapidly to his head, and the heat of the fire was causing the heavy vapor to rise from his wet clothes. "By Jimminy kings 1 this will never work I " he exclaimed ris- WILL WA.FFLES- 29 Shg and steadying himself by the mantle-piece, " Lots o' splendifer- ous togs a lyin' round for the takin' and me a takin' my death o* rheumatiz ! Oh, no, not for Joe." First assuring himself that the door was fastened, he peeled off his wet clothes, and after much choosing and self-communing, and consultation with his "iron-bound friend," he had'soon arrayed him- self in the most flaring suit of Oriental costume that the room con- tained, and cocking the biggest and gaudiest of the crowns upon one side of his is head, he swaggered up and down the floor, as proud as the Emperor of Morocco. "I say, Guv'ner. how's this for high?" he exclaimed, poking the suit of armor in the ribs with the scimitar he had appropriated. " Aint I galluss ? Oh no ! Mebbe not ! Look for all the world like Fanny Herring in the French Spy. Hi-i-i-i ! Terrific sword com- bat! Up and down. Round play. Thrust and parry. ^ Die Vil- lain. Go it ye cripples and make the sparks fly !" Suiting the action to the word, the warlike young gentleman en- tered heroically into a tremendous hand to hand fight with several invisible moors, and at last, exhausted by his herculean exertions, threw himself into the arm-chair ©nee more, poured out a glass of wine, and elevated his feet, now encased in red silk hose and yellow sandals, on the low mantel-shelf. " Ef this 'ere aint a high old go, I'm a lobster — boil me ! Won- der what the Waffles Sociables would say if they only saw me thus- ly : settin' here a sippin' my lush like Queen Victoria or the boss of the Americus Club. Titavated like a pompey at a cigar store. Wouldn't the fellers stare if I w^nt out a holloring papers to-morrow morning in this rig-out? Don't think they'd ever tumble to it Most likely take me lor some lively moke of a Haythen Chinee and go for me like wild cats. Ha ! ha ! What a solid sell that would be ! Here's your health once more, guv'ner. Sorry you don't feel at liberty to join us. Very sorry, indeed I" He emphasized his expression of sorrow with a double imbiba- tion. All idea of intrusion or danger had disappeared with the rap- idly increasing effects of the liquor, and at last drowsiness began to creep over him, his soliloquies, became more broken and incoherent and at last sank into mere mutterings of recovered fortunes and dis- covered parents and morning papers. Visions floated around him of slouched-hatted villains, and blubber-faced, pig-eyed Asiatics, and clumsily-shaped Chinese junks sailed by clumsy-shaped, sailor- like John Chunks — and what not, until the stupor closed down on him suddenly like night-fall in Africa, his head dropped on his breast the jewelled crown fell ludicrously over one eye, and, with a snore like a flourish of trumpets, the soul of Waffles soared to dreamland so CHAPTER V.' ANOTHER TRANSFORMATION AND SOME PLOTTING. Walt. Punkley and his timid protegee, Hadley, waited long and anxiously in the saloon for the return of Will Waffles with, the an- swer. There is a limit to the patience of all men, and at length Walt Punkley's gave way in a torrent of curses that completely upset the nerves of his companion. " Come," he said, " If this gent won't come to us we must go to him. He has got to do his share of this business, and will have a fine game to play if he dodges me. Come !" Hadley, with the fifty cents given to him by Will Waffles, clasped tight in his hand, and his hands shoved very deep into his pants pock- et, said in a weak manner that he had an appointment to keep— that he couldn't go. " Curse you ! What's the matter with you V* exclaimed Punkley. 44 Don't you beuin a riling me, too, or you'll get the worst of it, mind if you don't. I'm riled enough already. So come along." Seizing him as an angry school-master might a rebellious boy, he dragged him from the place, and into a street car at the corner. Little did the other passengers who turned to look at the great, burly, bearded man, and his emaciated companion, think of the fearful influence for evil being thus daringly exerted before the very eyes of the public — or how hopelessly this poor fellow had been placed in the power of a ruffian by destitution and strangeness in the city. A very short time brought them to the house to which Will Waffles had borne the letter that caused such a change in his plans. Punkley told his companion to wait at the foot of the high stone steps while he ascended. • First the servant appeared black and grim, and then Mr. Mifflin, white and angry. After a few sharp whispers on either side, Punkley called to Hadley, who reluctantly ascended, and Mifflin hurried them along the passage and up the stairs to a room on another floor " Now," he said, sharply, as he closed the door behind him. " What, in the name of all the fiends, brings you here?" 44 Why the devil didn't you come to where I told you ?" cried Punk- ley, in a savage tcne. ** To where yon told me P* said Mifflin, in unfeigned astonishment, * ¥©u*wd ino bov k*d been kcre." ^ \. WILL WAFFLES/ 31 I , ' - < m i ■■ I *' " He was." " And did he not bring a note asking you to meet me V* " No, he brought this." Pimkley snatched the paper from the man's hand, and held it to the light. "Where did he get this?" he cried, gazing suspiciously at Mifflin. "How should I know ? he said it was from you." * It was a lie. Where is he now ?" . i " Gone." < " Gone !" cried Bunkley, furiously. " Death and furies, why did you let him go, and you knowing the contents of this ?" " What could I do ?" said Mifflin. " Would you have me raise a riot here, and expose all our plans? Besides, the boy didn't know what that was about." A change came over Punkley's dark face, and after a moment's re- flection he said, quietly: " You are right, Oscar, you are right. He could not have known. 'Twas safer to keep quiet — I can hunt him up again — but who the devil would have thought it ? I must seek him out." A strange look— a sort of sinister half smile, flitted across the thin white lips ©f Mifflin, as he heard the last words, but he suppressed it, and resumed, shortly : " Seeing that you are pleased to approve of my c aution in that case why are you so reckless as to come here against my wishes, and bring him here?" As he said these words, Mifflin cast one contemptuous look from head to foot of the miserably clad Hadley, who stood just within the door, twirling his dripping hat in his bony hands, and glancing in a furtive manner from one to the other of these mysteriously spoken men. " If you had come to me I shouldn't have come to you," said Punk- ley. " This is the medical gentleman that I promised to procure from Philadelphia to attend the old man. You might be a little more polite than to turn up your nose at his rig. This is his travelling costume. He had to leave his professional labors so suddenly to attend to your pleasure, that he had not time to think either of change or portman- teau." " Oh, this is Mr. " " Doctor Hadley, of Philadelphia, the only man in the world who can cure the old man, Oscar," said Punkley. " What about the tog- gery. You've got plenty, and you're about a size. Don't fret about your trunk, Hadley, he'll fix you up all right." Hadley's pale face had flushed crimson under Mifflin's scrutiny, and the sneering raillery of Punkley, but as the former advanced toward 32 tfILL WAFFLES, ¥ him with smiling face and extended hand, his weak nature seemed compelled to yield, and accept the proffered friendship. 41 1 am happy to make the acquaintance of so skilled a gentleman as Professor Hadley," said Mifflin. " I am very sorry, for your own con- venience, that you were forced to come on without your baggage, but I hope that you will do me the honor to accept a change from me un- til your own clothes arrive." Hadley's blood tingled at the tone of irony that ran through this 6peech. The mock respect of it offended him, and he withdrew his cold hand. " Just step into this room, and you will find everything needful," said Mifflin, apparently not noticing his displeasure. Hadley did not move or answer. " Go, when you are asked !" said Walt Punkley, roughly. " What do you make such a blasted fool of yourself for ?" Strange to say, the person that stickled at the polite request obeyed the coarse order without a word, and followed the inviter inio the next room. Mifflin returned a couple of moments afterward. " That's the way to draw him, Oscar," said Punkley. " Strike him on the vanity— break down his pride through his love of style, and you can make a lap-dog of him. These softies are all heavy on gratitude and if you feed and clothe them, they'll stick to you like cats or mon- keys." Mifflin motioned the other to be cautious, and they sunk their con- versation to a whisper, and continued to talk in this manner for some minutes, when the door of the room opened, and Hadley appeared, so perfectly changed that even the men that looked at him could scarcely recognize him. The outfit furnished by Mifflin had not been partial. From boots to hat the change was complete. The crumpled and rain-stained shirt had been replaced by snowy linen ; the coat, vest and pants were of fine black, apparently new, and fitted him as if they had been cut expressly for him ; his boots were neat and polished ; his delicate neck was encir- cled in a black satin necktie, and broad, turn-down collar, and his light hair, combed back from his white forehead and finely-featured face, gave him so genteel and intellectual an appearance that it drew an ex- clamation of wonder from Walt Punkley and his companion. " Well, m:iy I be blowed ! If here ain't a change," said Punkley, with a laugh. " Why, Hadley, what a swell you are, your own mother wouldn't know you. Who'd ever have thought yon were so good looking 1" A smile of pleasure passed over the weak features of the man, but it was quickly succeeded by a look of pain and grief, and the lips seemed WILL WAFFLES, 33 to form themselves into the word " mother,** but no sound escaped them. 41 Blow me, Miff, if I don't have to get you to fit myself up natly^ since you're so good in the dry goods and ready-made clothing lines," said Punkley, in his coarse, bantering way. Hadley turned toward him evidently struggling between his fear and anger, but the former seemed to gain the day, for he addressed the two men in a mild and submissive manner. " Why have I been brought here?" he said, " or how am I to repay this very acceptable and unexpected bounty ?" " Explain — elucidate !" said Punkley, lighting a cigar, and leaving the field entirely to Mifflin, though that worthy drew instructions from his eyes during the remainder of the interview. " Be seated, Doctor Hadley," said Mifllin, indicating a chair. " The reason why I have sought this interview with you, through the medium of our mutual friend, is briefly this : My uncle is one of the wealthiest men in the United States, but of late years has been afflicted with dis- ease, or rather a multitude of diseases, for he imagines himself torment- ed by all the ills that flesh is heir to." u Caused by dyspepsia — hypochondria," said Hadley. u Exactly," went on Mifflin. " But, my dear sir, the worst humors of this hypochondria are insane ideas of ignoring my existence and my claims upon him, and leaving all his weilth to some unknown woman and her child, both of whom must be in kingdom come these dozen years. In case they do not turn up in a given time, all goes to several public institutions that have as much need of it as I have for wings." " And how am I to serve you in this ?" asited Hadley, doubtfully. " By curing him of his hypochondria." " You must have great confidence in my skill," smiled Hadley, with a little touch of his vanity. Mifflin looked at.Punkley as if for instructions. Punkley poked his finger through a ring of smoke that he had blown, and gave a slow de- cided nod, but spoke not. 44 I have," said Mifflin, significantly, answering Hadley's remark. "In the present case, where there's a will there's skill." Hadley started at the tone, and glanced from the speaker to Punkley # That gentleman sat on a tilted chair, watching the curling smoke of his cigar with a grim smile. " Mifflins' improved Proverbs !" he said, with a chuckle. " I do not understand you, sir," said Hadley. "The man may be in- curable— he may refuse to accept my services." " 1 he man must be cured, and he will accept your services," growled Wa't Punkley, from behind his pillar of cloud. Mifllin noticed the bad effect tl>3 interruption had on Hadley, and hastened to cover it up by a rapid explanation, that, among his other 34 WILL WAFFLES. Wild fancies, the sick man had become possessed of the idea that no one could cure him of his many ailments but an English physician, "whose name had been revealed to him in a dream. So strongly was he impressed with this phantasy, that he had written letters to England, offering the imaginary man of medicine his own terms, however exorbitant, to come to America and endeavor his cure. " Hearing this," continued Mifflin, " and well aware that these letters •would get into the, hands of more than one blood-sucking quack who would impose upon the old man's lunacy and rob him, I intercepted them. Doctor Stonely is the dream-revealed name of this healer of all ills " " And you wish me to " " Exactly I |You become Doctor Stonely.^ You give the benefit of your sterling knowledge to a man who is only too willing [to be duped by pretending fools." i " I do not like the deception " commenced Hadley, doubtfully. ■ He was interrupted by an impatient exclamation from Mifflin, and an angry burst from Punkley. " Hang it, man !" cried the latter with a much stronger phrase than I care to use. " What are you dreaming about ? Where is the decep- tion ? Is it not for good ? Do you want to live in raggedness all your life, and die in the alms-house? Here is a chance that will never strike you in the shins again. No ' city reference ' required — and you know how cursedly that want has kept you and hundreds of others back — when the mouthers about honesty drive their fellowmen to dis- honesty by their own selfish fears." Hadley wilted before the sardonic smile which accompanied these words. For Punkley 's scorching speeches, false as the ideas were in most cases, had great weight on the weaker mind of the man. Well, the effect was that Mr. Hadley was furnished with the inter- cepted letters as credentials and money sufficient to enable him to in- troduce himself in proper style to Jonas Coincraft. " Coincraft !" gasped the man in astonishment, as the name fell from the lips of his employer and instructor. The letters fell from his trembling hands, and were scattered on the carpet. " Yes, Coincraft 1" said Mifflin, wondering what new phase of ner- vous weakness was about to be displayed. 44 Do you know him ? But nonsense, you must have heard of him. Everybody in the Union Las heard of old Coincraft. Do you know him per&onally r" 44 No— yes — that is long, long ago— I mean 1 have heard the name. Of course, ha ! ha ! how could I help. A9 you say, sir, everybody has heard of Old Coincraft Why shouldn't I ? Why?" WILL WAFFLES. 35 Both men gazed at him in astonishment These disjointed phrases Were jerked out spasmodically, his face flushed and paled alternately, and, as he stooped to gather up the letters he had dropped, his confu- sion was painful to witness, and the broken, forced laugh fell hollow and sickly on their ears. Mifflin looked[at Punkley in doubt " There is something strange and wrong here," he said, in a low voice. "He is unfit for this business, his nervousness will betray him." Hadley sprang up from his stooping posture, with glittering eyes and firm, braced form. " No !" he said, in a firmer and more energetic manner than he had yet spoken in. " No fear — no fear of that I will go. I will person- ate this doctor. Ha ! ha ! Why should my knowledge of Jonas Coin- craft render me less fit to be his physician ? I take the trust." Punkley looked at the man's glittering eyes and compressed lips, and slapping him heavily on the back, said: " Well said, my bird of pluck, I see there's mettle in you. The old un's good for a perfect cure ! Mifflin," he said aside to his colleague. u let the miserable devil keep his little secret, it dosent matter to us what it is, so long as it works into our hands. That man will do any- thing, from knife work to poisoning. So the three parted. ** Now to see my prisoner and invent a means of getting rid of him !" soliloquized Mifflin after shutting the hall door on the other two. " Punkley never suspected this boys importance. Who the mischief would. I must get him away in some manner — no matter what 1" f Now to find this boy," muttered Punkley as he descended the steps into the wet street " Who the devil would have ever imagined such a thing ? Mifflin thinks he's smart. I'll get tne youngster in my clutches and play him off against my Oscar." Honor among thieves. Waffles in great demand. But would either be successful in the search ! Mifflin ffoundjhis prison room empty, and Punkley knew no place to look for the object of interest— at least until the next day. t a fuj to gofooKI !e*r.rm»; . » u 4 ;'- • '■: hMpt but ffi<2ft t»W> I>j |i lof*> ► lift «..' i* U * 'J t U P ■ if '»» 38 WILL WAFYLE8 CHAPTER YL CHANGES — IN THE MIMIC WORLD — " THE DARING YOUNG~MAN OW THE FLYING TRAPEZE." ' Will Waffles, in all the glory of self -adorned, unconcious dignity performed double bass to the doleful musie of the night wind in the chimney, and to all appearance, might have continued doing so to in- finity. But that the royal circlet that crowned his noble brow rolled off in one of his nods and fell plump into the fire before him. Thereupon the immense glass gems of the diadem showed a sudden resentment of the indignity by sp itting in pieces at the first touch of the fire, and sprinkling the sleeping youth with their heated frag- ments. " Holy smoke !" he yelled springing from his chair and striking into a spirited walk-around. " Where do you buy your fireworks V Then, in the first whirl of confusion caused by the forgotten strange- ness of these surroundings, his eyes fell upon the rigid suit of armor which he had dubbed the "guv'ner." 44 Look here, you old bloke !" he cried, " D'ye suppose I'm a Johnny Raw, that you can play off on even ye are boss of the ranche. There scratch yer doggerotype — take that !" , He struck the armor with the sword he had snapped up. It fell to the floor with a fearful clangor, and immediately there was a commo- tion below and the sound of many feet coming np the stairs. 44 Good bye, John » Now I've did it 1" he cried, doubtful what way to go. I must get time to hook it !" He jumped to the window and opened it, but drew back from the gush of the storm. 44 That's too thin, and so's my outfit," he said, shaking his bead " Nary a budge. Be a man or a mouse ! Die dog or eat the hatchet What? 4 Shall I play the roamin' fool and die upon the roof?' Not for Josephine ! I'll stand upon my dig' and flight it out on this clothes line, if it takes the hull summer, as gineral Grant said in his great char- acter of Mac-Beat I" His gallant soul fired with the magnanimous resolution, he formed himself iato line of battle, (a rather wavering line to be eure) and awaited the advance of the enemy. The tey was turned in the lock, the door swung open, and with a 1 "WILL WAFFLES. dire clatter of FtRE-arms, (tongs pokers and shovels), the enemy ad- vanced in solid column. Two maid servants and a boy commanded by a veiy gaunt female supported by a very corpulent man. " It's a thief !" chorussed the quintette. " Awh-h-h ! Cheese it ! Draw it siiky !" exclaimed the juvenile intru- der. " Surrender !" exploded the stout gentleman. "Dunno how, 'Taint in my line." " Fellow !" cried the gaunt lady in a very precise style, " You shall be con-qured, you shall be giv-en up to just-ice!" . " Mad-am !" exclaimed Will adopting her style, and pointing to his snow-soaked heap of clothes upon the floor, "I have had j*cst-ioe enough for Joe for one night." " Sieze the housebreaker !" cried the portly man to the girls and boy. " The first one of you tries it sees a HEAD-breaker, you bet !" "You shall answer for this at the Police Court," exclaimed the lady. " Now, madam," said Will eyeing his showy costume. " Don't you think this would be a gallus rig to go courtin' in ? That's so. Golly how the cops and beaks would stare. They'd want to sware a feller in on a box of tea or a bag of dates." "Advance I" cried the portly gentleman. u Seize him! He is a tres- passer and a plunderer 1" " Yer lie !" cried Will, indignantly. " I'm a Waffles and a news- boy !" " You're a burglar !" " You're another ! I never touched yer burgles," yelled Will, going wild at the thought. He threw himself savagely on the allies, and after a desperate strug- gle, routed them with true melo-dramatic bravery, and rushed down the stairs attired as he was, and preceded by the two maid servants screaming at the top of their vices. Words of enquiry sounded from below and he heard the frightened girls telling somebody — " That it was the haythen devil that dressed in the attic, that had run amuck from eatin' opium and was tryin' to kill them all." Upon this hint Will spoke. He thought the terror of the people would certainly aid his escape and he immediately commenced to roar forth the most outlandish jar- gon of sounds he could invent. Hardly, however, had his foot touched the floor of the lower passage ■when he was suddenly seized by a party of men. as oddly dressed and wild-looking as himself, and uttering just as frightful sounds. These persons dragged him from the house, and forcing him into a carriage drove rapidly oft S8 WILL WAFFLES. '"I'm a dead beat," he said, mentally. Gone up the spoufc, sure, for if they dont send me to finish my musical education at the Sing-singing school up the river. I'm good for ninety days diamond cutting on the Island, or p'raps a brace of stretches at Auburn — mush and molasses, close-cropped hair and all that. Bah ! only think o' me bein' nick- named * The boy with the Auburn hair!' This is what a fellor gets by putira' on lugs, and wanting to cut a swell with other folks' fixin's. I wonder, though, where the peelers got their suits, they're jest like mine ; and I wonder where they learned that lingo ? Sounds for all the world like a gang of coopers working on flour barrels. What if they wasn't cops at all, but a lot of real Chaynermen that think they've got a soft thing on me! Fancy they've captured the Tycoon of Tapan, or the Grand Panjandarum of Timbuctoo — Wouldn't that be high though? Ha! ha! ha! His enjoyment of his sublime idea was interrupted by the guttura, remarks of his companions who seemed to be pressing upon him the necessity of keeping quiet. " Shet yer miserable mouts, ye batch o' watchmen's rattles!" he cried pompously. " Have you no depreication of the privileges of a State prisoner? Have you no fear of the cunsekinces of this outrage upon the dignity of the bar-stangled-spanner ? Hal ha! How is that ivr flag-rant ? Eh? old pigtail and chop sticks ?" Further answer or enjoyment was cut short by the carriage stopping beneath a blaze of calcium lights in front of a brilliantly lighted place of amusement. Will Raffles gazed at the place in astonishment, as the door of the vehicle was opened, and he was pulled out and bundled toward the building. It was evidenlty no police station. The front of it was highly decorated by flaring mammoth paintings repre- senting the wonderful equestrian and acrobatic feats of the world- renowned troupe of newly imported Bedouin Arabs ! " Well, trot me dexter--ous if this 'ere aint a rum jink and no let up !" exclaimed the eloquent William. ' So I ain't to be a Chaynerman nor a Jap after all, but a performin' Arab, no less! It's the Circus, this here— and I was to bring Meg Merrilees to-night, and she's likely to come down on me like fury for a disappointing her. Lor' wouldn't 6he laugh if she only saw me a playin' Arab actor ? I've a mind to go through with it if they don't smell a mice and give me the kick-out. I can act just as good as Little Tommy, or Little All right. Why not — I've rid pigs and goats enough, and I've been on the swings at Weehauken and the bars at Guttenburg. Whose afraid ? Hooray P During this he was conducted into the actors' entrance of the pavil- ion, and heard the impatient thundering of the audience, occasioned by the delay of some expected act. As he was hurried along by hit j WILL WAFFLES. 39 Jabbering captors, and heard their angry exclamations and the hurry- ing back and forth of desperate operatives, the courage of the boy in» his whimsical design of playing out the character forced upon him, somewhat wavered, but he had no time for doubt or expostulation. Entering a dim, crowded dressing room, where a clown and the fairy of the afterpiece were eating fried oysters out of a blue pasteboard box, he had to bear a grand attack. A tall man, in black clothes and tarnished gold lace, rushed at him with a heavy whip and a torrent of select English, while a half-dozen wild looking demons, in Asiatic costume, came down upon him with a burst of jargon that might have been produced by as many deserters from the Tower of Babel, Part of his appropriate attire was quickly pulled off, and replaced just as speedy, by some other things still more gaudy. Then, amid the glare of music and the clash of symbals, he was suddenly pushed out into the blaze of lights and the gaze of huudreds of people. He stood upon a temporary platform high above the saw-dust ring. Before him, suspended from the iron roof of the amphitheatre, were several swings, and another platform, similar to that on which he stood, was erected beyond the succession of swings at the other side of the arena. Below the swings ran a row of tressels with boards an I matting on them. A fashionable dressed man stood in the centre and loudly announced that the sight seeking world were about to be favored with the most astonishing flying trapeze acts by a wild young Ismaelitisn gentleman with a most unpronounceable name. As the announcer ceased, great plaudits arose from the audience, and the expostulations of the frightened boy were drowned, the wav- ing of his arms being taken for the Arabian expression of thanks for the reception. " Oh let up I" he cried, " Who in Jericho would know me by such a name as that ? You're a blower —that's what yon are I' The wildest looking Arab in the part} 1- came forward to his side and bellowed in his ear something that he guessed by the energy of ex- pression was a curse or a threat. At the same time the man below threw up one of the swings, and the boy involuntarily caught the bar. M Well, if this ain't steeple-high, I'm a beat !" said Will. U I s'pose I'll have to break my neck afore they'll believe that I'm not the feller with the jaw-breakin' name. I s'pose I must swing for it. If I can only git landed safe on tother side of Jordan there, I'll make a bolt tor the door. So here goes the last of the Waffleses, as the English 40 WILL WAFFLES. lord saitl when he was charged too much at the BcU-and- Cleaver. Who's afraid? Hoop! La!" And away he went with a long sweep ; but just as he left the pillar a small figure dressed very much like himself, and looking very simi- lar, crushed its way through the crowd on the opposite lobby, with wild cries and gestures. Answering cries of astonishment arose from the audience and the attaches of the establishment. " That's my double, my clothier I" gasped Will. As he swung up to^the other platform, the real Simon Pure seized the swing, and, in Will's struggle for a footing, they both rol.ed off andjswung away back again. " Roost high, nigger ! Count for game !" cried the unterrified in- truder with high enjoyment of the excitement. "How's this for Siamese ?* v , But his companion, with an angry growl, sprang to another swing and the next moment the}' met in the centre with such force, that Will was hurst from his hold, and sent whirling through the air into the lap of the big drummer in the orchestra. " Domino ! How's that for high ?" he exclaimed, dashing down the lobby for the street door, with the ushers after him, amid the exolosive laughter of the audience, and cries of : " Stop him ! Let him go ! Stop him ! Leg it, youngster !" " Why, it's not a Chaynerman at all !" cried a stout woman in the audience near the door. " Why, you Will Waffles !" "Ah! Hello, Meg, you here. 'Scuse me, I must away— cannot stay, Pressing business ! Cut stick ! You know how it is yourself !" And he disappeared, dexterously dodging the ticket taker who thought to capture him, and out into the street. CHAPTER VII. A SMALL TEA PARTY MRS. CODDLES SUGGESTION. They found Will Waffles still in his fanciful costume, but with his head surmounted by a blue soldiers cap, roaring out choice bits of high-strung tragedy to the intense delight of a juvenile gathering crowded on the landing and in the room door. " Hoity, toity ! What's to pay here ?" cried Meg, pushing through the excited audience and confronting her adopted hopeful, " What!s to pay her© ?" WILL WAFFLES. 41 M 1 Base is the slave that pays,' " shouted Waffles striking a pom- pons attitude. " What, has the boy lost his wits?" cried the bewildered Meg. " Per-r-rish the a-thought ! Time was when the wits were out the man was a-dead, and ther-r-r-e an end on't, but now they quit their- r-r gr-raves and r-r-ise again with twenty mor-r-tal gashes on ther- r-r a-heads to push us from our-r-r a-stools ! How's that for tragic?" Thereupon, as if to show his versatility the eccentric young gen- tleman stuck his arms a-kimbo and sailed away around the apart- ment in a fantastic pas suel, finishing up by a break-down step on Mrs. Coddles' toes. "Oh, you young brute!" screamed the lady, If I catch you I'll throw you into the fire !" "Ifme no ifs! But catch me if you can/' he cried, eluding her grasp and dancing off again singing : 'Kate Coddle was a milkman's daughter That lived upon the "Weir, And though we know she hadn't oughter She sometimes takes hsr beer." "You are an imperent young rascal !" cried the lady, with an- other attempt to seize him. "Come!" cried Me? to the laughing youngsters in the door, "Get away childer, iha^'s enough of this foolery. Send them awa\ r , Will, that's a good fellow." " Ladies and gentlemen," said Yv^ill pompously addressing the juveniles, " At the request of the management, I beg to state that tjyt o}d thing does Yt work well enough to authorize the continuance of this performanc e. But we shall recommence regularly to-morrow evening, and give a grand family morning peiformance in the after- noon on Saturday. Balcony seats on the stairs at reduced prices. Liberal terms to Societies and Sunday schools. So mote it be, as Ben Butler said when he got a brick in his eye. So stand not upon the order of your going, but go it in the days of your youth ! Now," he said, " turning to the women as the youngsters left the door. " How's this rig for style? Eh, cully? Doesn't this take the shine out o' ready made clothin'. Nothin' shorter, you bet!" " Why, whatever have you been a doin' with yerself ?" " A doin' ! I've been a endeavorin' to suspend the goose in an elevated posiah, to raise mvself a little in the world, I've been im- bibing sherry wine and royal tastes and am as "hungry as a royal tiger, so dish up the hash ! Shell out ! Would you see a felier a dyin' and never say 'turkey?' ? 42 WILL WAFFLES. "Young man," said Meg in humorous reproof, "I think yer put- tin' on air's above yer station." k< Above my station, madam ?" he exclaimed, loftily, " Presump- tuous mortal, you know not what you say. Thou knowest not how the ancient arrangement operates. The blood of princes may wairni the heart of "Waffles !" "I uses charcoal to warm 'em!" said Meg scraping the frying pan, and Kate Coddle, forgot her trampled toes to laugh at Meg's joke. " You're an unbeliever — a female Thomas. Listen, Oh, woman — I have discovered a trace to my paternal pa and maternal ma. That's what's the matter with Hannah I" " You what!" exclaimed Meg, dropping the pan and staring at him with a strangely mingled look of doubt and pain upon her broad face, " You've found them ! What ! What traces." " Dat am de question, I don't know no more'n John Brown, I'vb lost 'em agin !" " You've been smokin' strong cigars and your head's not right," said Meg slapping a couple of slices of bacon into the pan, " That's it, it's strong cigars that did it." " Strong cigars /" cried the boy contemptuously, " You must think I'm a muffin ! Strong cigars — likely I" He threw himself into a chair and was indignantly silent for some minutes, but when the little supper was spread and they had drawn around the table he yielded to the questions of the women and re- lated his adventures of the night, and the glimmer of light that had shone upon the doubtfulness of his birth — and disappeared so sud- denly. Meg was more sorrowed at the prospect of him — upon whom she looked as her own son — being separated from her, rather than over- joyed by the chance of wealth lilting the boy above the hard fate which he had borne with so stout a heart. Still his representations of the lavish style in which she could clothe herself — of the whole cargoes of black silk which he should import expressly for her own use — of the palatial residence which she should occupy when she had washed her lady-like hands of charcoal and turned her back on Waffles — all these'things were as balmy to her wounds and she laughed happily at the prospect of her "white- headed boy " being an estaled gentleman and driving her through the streets, to the admiration and envy Of all the less fortunate members of her present profession who still struggled in the des- semination of apples and cakes. And indeed when Meg Merry Lees turned her beaming eyes from the interested face of her friend Kate to her adopted son, seated like a prince in his gaudy robes bedizzened with spangles and lace, the old fireside tales of fairy wealth rose before her, and if one of th$ WILL WAFFLES. l$~ • r V| boy's news-selling friends had suddenly rushed in with an extra proclaiming Will Waffles Emperor of the United States it would hardly have astonished her or caused her big heart to throb a bit faster. Their hope of recovering the lost clue was not damped by the disappearance of the letter, as the boy knew the house to which he had taken it. He knew where Mr. John Chunk held forth and it was altogether too likely that that gentleman knew the address of the important missive and could explain the contents, as well as bear evidence to Will Waffles' being the person to whom it was sent. Lastly, there was Bellevue Hospital. The patient might not yet be dead, or if so, might have left some further revelation in regard to this secret. It was late now — a rough night too — and it was decided by the triumvirate (for Mrs. Kate Coddle had been appointed " of coun- sel "), that it was the best plan to let things stop as they are until the next day, when the whole available force, (including the Waf- fles' Sociables"), should be placed upon a war-footing for the rend- ing away of this veil of mystery. * And now, Mrs. Coddle," said Will, with his mouth full, "Now, that's all fixed ship-shape, let's talk about you." " About me ?" " Yes. Where have you kept yerself ? 4 Whar d'ye come from ? Whar's ye gvvine to, knock a nigga down ?" " It's often ye desarve knockin' down, and it's enough you ought to get of it though you flighty young scapegrace I" said Mrs. Cod- dle, laughing. "Oh the Arab, you mean !" cried the boy joining in the merri* ment, " Lord, didn't he git up his back sthTer'n gum Arabic, when he seed me scupping on his property ? Didn't he go for me kiting but I retired as gracefully as a Sepoy blown from a gun. Reckon there'll be considerable drum mending, agoin' on there to-morrow, and a new Dutch musicianer wanted. But that ain't the item. Where do you hang yer hoopskirt these days ?" 44 Well Willie, the place as I endeavors to do good in, is a fine place and a good, and it was more that than to see half-naked hay- thens tryin' f break their necks, and you as bad as the rest every ha'porth, that brought me out such a night as this." 44 Sling it out> we've 4 lent you our ears ' repayable with interest haven't we Meg ?" ^ 44 The place is Mr. Jonas Coincraft's." " Jonas Coincraft. That's a rum lable, aint it ? But somehow, I think I've heard it afore." V He lives on Fifth Avenue." J By Joe, that*! where my old feller lived Wo 1" ml Waffle* t 44 tf I L L WA F FLS8. "Mr. Coincraft is stunning rich — but he's an un-wallid — u A what ? Unvalued ! Don't he value accordin' to his stamp* " Oh, bother, Let me go on." " Go it Sail and I'll hold yer bonnet!" " Well, Mr. Coincraft ~" 11 Yes, I know the old duffer — old wheezle-throat — hira as does sickness by contract. He s a healthy garlic pill, aint he, though ?" " Just as you say, Willie," edged in Mrs. Coddle, "He does do sickness wonderful, as nateral as a man could wish for. He thinks he's a reg'lar Bellevue, with every disease in the whole blessed con- cern in his blessed body." "Why don't you 'put hkn in his little bed,' and poultice him with sods and coffin -lids? They cure sickness beautiful — sure pop — waranted never to fail. Trade mark ; — 1 1, said the owl — with my spade and shovel, I dug his grave.' W r affles and Coddle, Sole Agents for the U. S., New Jersey, and the Canary Islands. How's that for hickory ?" "Marg'et dear," cried the distressed Mrs. Coddle, " Will you stop that boy ?" " I'm fast," said the boy as Meg raised her goodly hand in warn- ing, "fast as Noah's ark at low tide." Then the voluble youngster went into a fit of deep abstraction. His thoughts seemed to be of a mathematical nature by the way in which he cut the bread and butter on his plate into geometric fig- ures, and the severe manner in which he disposed of these tooth, some demonstrations stomach ward." ''Well — ah — well," said Mrs. Coddle, sagely, "AVeall has our failures — there aint no one of us perfect." " What joke book have you been readin' ?" said Will, sotto toce. " Some has one thing — some another — " went on Mrs. C. " Mr. Coincraft, poor man, ain't no deception to the rule—" " Awh ! Cheese it ! Go for it ! It's name is Gobble !" exploded Will swallowing a rhomboid and a triangle. Mrs. Coddle looked appealingly at her friend and Meg, now entered into a warm protest against the impertinence and impoliteness of Mus- ter Waffles his interruptions. The accused said that he " owned the corn," that he "caved" and that Mrs. Coddle " talked like a hand organ," or he was "a bilk," &c, &c, and Mrs. C. proceeding wordily to the end, it appeared that the mouse that caused all this mountain labor, was the fact that old Mr- Coincraft had made up his mind to establish a boy — a good, smart boy he must be— and hones. His duties were to be a sort of companionship for the invalid, and a general usefulnes in the shape of errand running find the like, WILL WAFFLES- 45 | So Mrs. Coddle explained how she thought that the place would suit Will, for he was smart and sharp, and there was fun in him that would enable to amuse the sick man, and Mrs. Meg Lees thanked Mrs. C. for her consideration, and endorsed the suggestion as it was coming on rough winter and not much to be made of papers. At first Will Waffles rebelled fiercely against the idea of an arrange- ment that wa3 so much opposed to his Arab-like love of uncontrolled Lberty. But at length the united eloquence of the two women wrung from him a promise to go to the wealthy man's house the next day and " see how it was himself." Tiiis decision was principally induced by the skilful representation by Mrs. Coddle, that the young gentleman would have plcniy of chance to indulge in his theatrical tastes for the amusement of the sick man. 41 And sensible, too," said Meg, and not to b<» philandering around the streets like a merry-andrcw, and breaking his neck where he has no right. So the conference broke up. CHAPTER VIIL JONAS COINCRAFT — DOCTOR AND NURSE. The wealthy Jonas Coincraft lived, or rather existed, in a very large aad very sombre house, far up on Fil th Avenue. It bore every ap- pearance of being the residence of a wretched man. The windows, dusty and cobwebbed on the outside, and heavily shuttered within, were very rarely opened. The iron paling in front was deeply encrusted with rust, and falling to pieces, from lack of repairing and painting, while the ornaments that had formerly adorned either side of the steps, had gone, leaving but a vestige to tell that they once existed. The little grass-plot within the railing was withered and grimy-look- ing, as if it had been put into the pound and suffered to die for want of nourishment. Within — the greater portion of the house, for it was very large — was gloomy, dusty, and unused. The particular part with which we have to do, is reached by ascending the wide deserted-lookinsr stair- case. The closed-up -way in which the house is kept, renders the paj»- sages very dark, causing one almost to have to feel his way, but enter- Tf ILL WIFFLIBt ing a close-smelling room at the back. The dull daylight is seen one© more through the dusty windows and thick curtains. I The apartment is small and dingy, and the furniture, which is too plentiful for the size of the room, is old-fashioned, heavy and decayed An enormous curtained bedstead, a very large bureau, a much-used sofa, a ricketty centre-table, and some half-dozen uncomfortable-look- ing chairs formed the principal objects, except that before the wretched fire was a wheeled sick chair, and in this, propped up with pillows, sat' Jonas Coincraf t. He was a little wheezling, wrin kled-faced person, with a restless peevish manner, and a large red night-cap. His feet were wrapped up to fearful dimensions, and propped on cushions. • A pair of crutches stood, one on either side of the fireplace, and a small table at his elbow was actually covered with phials and pill-boxes, of every size, shape and color. On the mantel -piece were solidly arranged hundreds of empty medi- cine bottles, on which the eyes of the old man were steadily fixed, as if he found pleasure and relief in contemplating those ghosts of departed doses. • At the present time he held an open letter in his hand, as if he had just been reading it. " Coddle ! Coddle 1 Coddle 1" he cried, shrilly, his voice rising in pitch at every repetition of the name. There was no answer for the minute, and, with great impatience, he seized a very large dinner bell from the floor beside his chair,and began to ring like a town crier, the peal waking up every echo of the house. A very pretty young girl glided noiselessly into the room and stood beside his chair. "What can I do for you, uncle," she asked. M Do for me ?" he cried peevishly. " You can save my life. You can spare me this — oh clear, my nerves — this exertion that nigh kills me. Why — why — can't some of you stay near me, when you know the way that I'm afflicted. Ugh — ugh! Where do you hide your- selves r " I was in the kitchen stewing the pot of herbs for your night- drink," answered the girl, in a low, meek tone. "Well, well," bellowed the old fellow, clapping his hands to his ears. "You needn't hallo so loud. Have you got no feeling for my nerves ? Ugh 1 Ugh 1 There's that accursed asthma at me again. Can't last much longer. It will soon be over. ' This neglect will kill me. Urn! that pain V\ The wretched looking mo n actually writhed with the imaginary agony and the girl caught his hands and held them firmly, as women do to children in the hooping cough. 1TIL L ¥A FPL E s7 47 'ATy poor uncle, how you do suffer. What can I do to relieve you? n she said. " Bah !" he cried. " What do you care— what do any of you care ? O-o-o-h ! It's all of self, you think, any of you 1" M Oh, uncle," said the girl. "Fiddlesticks. I know you— all of you. Don't you know it is past time for my medicine, and there's that pint bottle of nervine to take, and the other half of the last box of pills — and — where's Coddle ?" " Gone to the druggists for the rest of the medicine. Her basket wasn't big enough to bring it all at once." Some other of his many ailments seemed to seize the old man, for he clasped his head, and howled like a panther. " I must not be alone thii way any more. I will have a medicine •nrrier of my own." " The druggist's boy " commenced the girl but the invalid inter rupted her savagely. " Yes IV he cried. " The druggist's boy, ' and have him joining with the other brats in the streets to tamper with the things. Didn't they fill one of the bottles with ditch water and brick dust, and nearly kill me.' Didn't they put nitrate of silver in my neuralgic liniment, and change one-half of my face as black as a negro's, for three months ? Mightn't they even be induced by interested persons to give me poi- son ? No, no, Rebecca. I'll have a good honest boy of my own — one without any idle pranks or nonsense in him— one of a retiring disposi- tion and modest address— obedient, and imbued with a proper respect for his superiors — such a one must I have, Rebecca and such a one has Mrs. Coddle promised to secure for me." * Yes, uncle." " Has she got him ? She said she had her eyes on one that would just suit me. One of refinement and intelligence. Has he come ?" " Not yet, uncle ; he will be here in the afternoon." " Good, so far good. Now, who brought this letter." " The postman." u Ha ! The heartless wretch that rings the bell with ruffian hand. But I forgive him this time, for the news is good, good, Rebecca good !" I am very glad to hear it." u Yes, girl, it is the long-expected messenger of peace — the herald of glad tidings — it informs me that the great Doctor Stonely, the won- derful man, whose existence was miraculously discovered to me in a vision of the night, is a real man — no myth of my diseased imagina- tion, as the noodles said — but a real man, and a scientific light — that he has answered my summons, and has landed in New York to bring me back to lusty life." 4» WILL WAFFLES. Exhausted with such unusually long speaking, the old man fell back on his pillows in a s trangling fit of coughing, and he was recovered from it by the ringing of the street door-bell. The girl, Rebecca, w< ht to attend the call, and very soon afterwards returned, followed by Mrs. Coddle, as large as life, with a market basket as big, as the law allows, on her arm. 44 Here's the medicine, and here's Poctor Stonely," she announced. " Eh ! God ble>s me ! So soon !" exclaimed the expectant invalid springing from his seat with a strength and agility that augured well for the success of a doctor's attendance, when his simple name was ca- pable of accomplishing so much. He seized his crutches from the tire-place, andjturned to confront his illus'rious visitor. Of course the reader is aware that the pale, gentlemanly person that stood bowing on the threshold, was none other than Charles Hadley. He was very pale, the only addition to the costume, in which I before described him, being a pair of handsome, gold-rimmed spectacles, and some jewelry added to give importance to his appearance. " The very man ! My dream perfect !" exclaimed Coincraft, gazing in awe at the man. " I am most happy to welcome Dr. Stonely to my house." "I am proud to acknowledge the honor you hnve done me by this summons," said Dr. Stonely, bowing over the palsied hand that was fehoved past the crutch to clasp his own. " Pray, be seated, my dear sir, my condition is so lamentably— ugh ! ugh!" bubbled the patient, tumbling in a disorganized way into his pil- lowed chair, which rolled away, sliding him on the carpet in the man- ner of a bale of cotton dumped from a cart. Dr. Stonely and Mrs. Coddle ran to the rescue, while Rebecca caught the chair, and brought it back to position. " You are indeed in a bad condition, my friend," said the physician, at they raised him from the floor, and placed him in his chair. " We must proceed to business at once. Y<-u are a relative madam," he said, as ho caught the earnest gaze of the young girl. 44 Yes, sir," she said, in a retiring manner. b _ 44 1 am the niece of Mr. Joincraft." 41 Why have you allowed this place to be kept so gloomily ?" The tone was severe, and it was very evident that the professional spirit of the speaker was getting the better of any selfish interests or sinister plans to which his circumstances had driven him. There was more manliness and dignity than he had before displayed in the pres- ence of Punkley and Mifflin. Rebecca was not allowed to answer, for both Mr. Coincraft and Mrs. Coddle burst in interruptivcb/. WILL WAFFLES. 49 * What had she to say ?" growled the first. 44 Troth and yer right there. The divil a ha'porth. Who dare med' die with him?" The old man purred self-satisfiedly at this compliment to his power and indisputable will. * No one meddles with me," he said. " I beg you to understand," said the doctor, " that I have full power here if I act at all. You are the housekeeper?" M The nurse, sir, Kate Coddle, sir, at your sarvice." 44 What are all these bottles 1" he said, pointing to the lot which he had been examining. 44 They are his medicines, sir." 44 Take them away !" he cried, with a wave of his hand. Coincraft gave a great start, and the nurse gazed at the new author- ity in horror. 44 TaKe them where, doctor?" 44 Anywhere out of this. Throw them out of the window. Tear down those dusty curtains, and let us have lierht. Raise the sash, and ventillate this mouldy room." Could this be the same wavering, shrinking man that Punkley had 60 brow-beaten ? The patient gazed at the tyrant that he had himself conjured to his side, in such a manner as Frankenstein must have gazed at his self- created demon. But he recovered and entered into a half angry expostulation against the destruction or removal of his long-time companions, the bottles and pill-boxes. The physician was firm in his demand of absolute sway, and there is no saying where the altercation might have ended but for the entrance of Mr. Oscar Mifflin, who had for some moments been standing unnoticed in the room door, listening to the war of words. 44 Good morning, uncle," he said, advancing. The old man twisted his neck around, and looked at nim with a scowl before returning his salutation. No sign of recognition passed between Hadley and Mifflin, and when Coincraft grimly introduced them, their salutations were a* 50 will waffles. cold and distant as though one had just'arrived from £Kova fcembta^ and the other from Alaska. Ere many seconds, however, Mr. Mifflin had drawn Dr. Stonely to one side, and talked to him in a rapid, severe manner. The consequence was that the worst, weak points of the man's character were in the ascendant once more, and the patiens's pets were allowed to remain, with the only provision that he was to cease partaking of their contents, for the present, at least. So Charles Hadley was installed as house physician to the Coin* craft Hospital. As soon as the patient was left by Rebecca and the man, he called Mrs, Coddle to him, as if her presence was a blessing after that of the dream-created physician. " Coddle, that man has shaken me to pieces. Iam worse — much worse ! Oh my ! my head ! Ha ! what a twinge was there ! Send the conceited jackanapes away again, back to the roast beef of Old England," suggested Mrs. Coddle. "No, no, I'm afraid of him. He came in so strange a way. I found out about him so — so mysteriously. There is something In it — ugh 1 ugh ! there is something in it. I'm glad Mifflin came— the first time I ever was glad," croaked the old man, casting a frightened glance over his shoulder. " He took him off me for a while, at least," " Humph !" snorted Mrs. Coddle, " Take him off ye, indeed ! The devil take his impudence for a beef-eatin ? Sassanach, what brings him or the likes of him over here to bully over any person ? Isn't it enough for them to be makin' Fenian martyrs at home, but they must come across the say, to put on their airs and take the bread out of honest people's mouths ?" "Oh ! oh ! oh 1" yelled the invalid slapping his hands to his ears as Kate became more shrill and energetic in her denunciation of Saxon insolence, " Peace — peace'— give us peace 1" " Troth I will give you peace, sir, — a piece of my mind, and that's this " "Death and furies cried the ear-tortured man clutching his crutches and hobbling desperately around the room followed by Kate Coddle, in full harangue, slapping her one big hand into the other with pistol-like reports. fei p WILL WAFFLES.. / 51 ■ Oh you needn't death or furies anything about it, for the divil a death is in you, and your fury '11 do you no sarvice. I'm your nurse, and if I am, your nurse I will be, in spite of any 1 haitch' 'at- mg Hinglishman of them all. Haven't I done my duty by you and earned my wage to the penny ? Haven't I carried ye drugs by the basket load, and corked them for you by the cauldron ? Isn't there enough herbs in the basket there now to fodder a horse for a day if they didn't make him sick ?" The man, flying before her, gave an afifirmatory groan. " When you longed for good quiet company and agree'ble, didn't I put on my things and hunt up Willie Waffles — as is the best 11a- turedest and most smartest young man in the city of New York and I defy ye to find another. A young man that's genteely rared — as quiet and innocent as a sucking dove — and with a temper as smooth as a kid glove — a boy as would be a jewel in the company of a prince !" 14 Awh-h-h ! Dry upl That's too thick for plaster. Let's have a rest I" caniQ a familiar voice f»*ow ths room door. 62 -r X ^ WILL WAFFLEg. }~ .. I • • 'f A - Tipv 'v^.v-. , •. ••• yw >'y, strutting forward with hia hands in his pants pockets, and his cigai still in one side of his mouth. What kind of an old ourang-outang is this to fetch me to ? Can this be the fossil wants me to iiire him ?" u Oh, William, William !" cried Meg, giving him that dignified form of his name for the first time in her life, in deference to the presence, " You know you shouldn't — " "Well, let the old bilk not try to come his jibes on me. What's he take me for?" " Why, you impudent j ackanapes !" cried ths old man, seizing one of his crutches viciously. M Get out, you petrified mummy of a baboon," said Will witheringly, chewing the end of his cigar. " Don't you go to try your hoppity- clinch on me, or there'll be a scarcity of crutches, I can tell you." " Leave my house," screamed the invalid, quivering from head to foot. " Just when my baggage is checked, and not before — If I know it I'd see you good lookin' first, and it'll be some time till that" " Go, leave my house, or I'll have you arrested !" 44 Go and put your head to soak — " 4 ' Why yon — " 41 Take a drink of small potatoes, to cure you of the gout !" cried the boy, eyeing the bundled up feet with supreme contempt This stinging shot capped the climax, for the old man, forgetful of the gout, sprang up and struck at the boy with his crutch, cry- ing : 41 You— you insolent ragamuffin r 44 Ragamuffin, yerself !" shouted Meg Merry Lees, rushing into the battle with rolled up sleeves. Now ensued aa lively a scene as war ever got up at short notice in a sick chamber. 54 * .WILL WAFFLES. i. mr .... - » Coincraft was laying about him with his crutch like Earl WaTwick at the battle of Barnet, and Will, leizing its mate, entered into the fulJ Bpirit of the scene in true terrific Bowery combat sty le, " Nuff said !" he cried, " Duke's Motto, I'm here ! All *on hand' like Johnny Thompson l M With a promptness worthy of General McClellan,Meg took possession of the table laden with medicine bottles and proceeded to shell the enemy over the Wamesonian head. This dreadful odds must soon have put the Coincraft army to flight, but KateCoddle.seeing the danger in which her employ ei\conscientiously threw her forces on me weaker side, and seizing the bottle pack- ed mantel-piece as a base of operations, unmaskea her batteries and opened a counter-bombardment on the enemies works. The cannonade was terrific. It was an aw-ful moment f as they say in the ten cent novels. Pills and potions and liniments and lotions and plasters and blis- ters filled the war-like air. The Coddle battery was the better served, out the "roaring- Meg," was more effective, for her shells were better filled and though her shots did go a little wide, some of her Greek fire was sure to reach the intended spot. But every war must have an end and the Coincraft infantry was forced to retreat before Wafflesonian valor and retire to Fort Pillow in the chair, just as Doctor Stonely, Rebecca and a servant rushed into the room in alarm. " Stop, stop !" cried the doctor. But the blood of the artillerists was up and the shower of missiles continued. " Stop them ! Let us have peace !" gasped the old man from his pillow. " Let up Meg ! Come down, Kate !" cried "Will, running be- tween the combatants, " Let us have a piece — as General G~ant said when he caught the fellers eatin' the mule I" The women were caught and held, and the glassy shower conse- quently ceased, but the fray continued in the keen encounter of the tongues. Meg Merry Lees politely informed Mrs. Coddle that she was a pretty woman, and Mrs. Coddle modestly declined the com- pliment by remarking that Mrs. Merry Lees was a propagator of falsehood, together with many other little interchanges of courtesy which have not been minutely recorded. "Put them out! Put them all out, Picjor Stonely 1" wheezled Coincraft angrly, " Give that boy to the police !" WILL WAFFLES. 5$ V "Kot any for, Aleck !" cried the boy turning belligerently toward the doctor. The moment he did so a mutual recognition took place, and Will Waffles indulged in a long low whistle of astonishment, while the doctor made a frightened motion of appeal for silence and beckoned the youngster to one side. "For Heavens' sake, be quiet!" he whispered, "do not expose what you know of me. You said you would like to see me get a good chance and I ve got it." " And I'm jolly glad of it, Doc, old boy !" said Waffles warmly. " Why d'ye think I'd let out on you so long as it's a square shake ? No, siree, not by twenty-five row of apples. But don t you lookgal- lus, though — Oh, no ! You must a' struck ile heavy. Where'd you make the stake?" " No matter now — this is no time to talk-," said the doctor in a ner- vous manner. " Don't let the old man notice us, I will make it all up to you again." He was turning away, when the boy caught him by the sleeve and whispered : 41 Say, Dock, there's no cloven hoof in this here, is there ? Nothi ng with Brimstone Punkley at the bottom, is there ?" " No — bo!" said the other, hurritdly, noticing the fishy eyes of Coin- craft fastened on him. " Say, Doctor," said the boy, as a quick idea struck him. " If 1 play into yoir hand, you should do as much for me. I want to git a place nere, and you can smooth over this 'ere bottle-smaskin' shindy with the old buffer, so's he'll take me." '* I'll do my best," said the doctor. 44 Square and level ?" 44 Yes." 44 Honest injun ! No go back !" 44 No." 44 0. K! Oil Korrect," said Will, as the doctor joined his patient and commenced to whisper with him. 44 1 reckon I smell an almightly big mice." soliloquized the young- ster, as he went toward the belligerent ladies, 44 and I'm bound to trap him if I can. Old Cucumber- toes is in danger, and I'm in with him. For, as the old fellow in 4 The Lady of Lyons' says : 4 It's astonishin' how a man likes a man, when a man has fought with a man.' " Space forces me to pass over the progress of tho delicate diplomacy with which Hadlcy, alias Doctor Stonely, softened the natural anger of 56 WILL WAFFLES. Jonas Coincraft against the war-like Waffles, and of the equally diffi- cult task of the boy in pacifying and reconciling the female combatants. It is sufficient to state that, within fifteen minutes, Master Waffles was an accepted retainer of the house of Coincraft, and the valorous ladies were united in the bonds of strong tea in the kitchen. i WILL WAFFLES' ADVENTURE, See Page 26. WILL WAFFLES. 757 CHAPTER XI. JOHN CHUNK — A BRANCH OF PARADISE. THE first action ot Doctor Stonely after having calmed himself and Been his patient, was to despatch Will Waffles to a distant and obscure apothecary shop for some drugs he needed. The names of the articles were written on a piece of paper enclosed in a sealed envelope. Hadley had seen the superstitious regard with which Coincraft viewed him ; and, on the strength of this, had taken command of the house. By his permission, the time allowed the boy for the performance of his errand was not limited. So, as Will had not forgotten the mysteri- ous letter from Bellevue Hospital, delivered to him by John Chunk, or the night adventure during which he lost it, he determined to walk down and pass the scenes of his exploits on Fourteenth Street. Carpenters were busy replacing the wood work which he had knock- ed from the roof of Paradise. He stood watching them for a minute or two, shuddering at the t narrow escape he had from being dashed to pieces. As he turned to go, he saw a door open at a short distance, and a man came out. He imagined he recognized the figure, and immedi- ately the thought of the curious yellow boots he wore flashed on his mind, and how readily he might be identified as the person who had carried off the Arab dress, and spoiled the performance at the circus. But while lie hesitated whether to go back or onward, the man descend- ed the steps and turned toward him and he recognized Oscar Mifflin. " Hello !" he exclaimed to himself, "If it ain't that Warden Mifflin, — the fellar that keeps the Tombs in the garret — him as put me in chucky and treated me to a high roof ramble. Now, had I better run across his bows and hail him, or let him slide for the present ? That's the ques- tion. Let him rip !" He drew into one of the houses and sat down upon the steps - Mifflin passed by, with bent head and deeply thoughtful face, looking neither to the right hand 01 the left. " By jingo !" exclaimed Will, " It was him I saw a comin' out o' old Coincraft's crib ! Now, 1 11 bet that's where the benefit comes off. This Hadley fellar's there play in' Engiish doctor, and Punkley and Hadley 's as thick as tar. Puukley sent me with a letter to Mifflin— Mifflin goes to Coincraft's— Coincraft's rich, and needs a doctor, there ye are, gentlemen of the jury, all as straight forward as the house that Jack built." 58 WILL WAFPLE8. f j .a 1.4*14'* .Mi,, And the young discoverer started along the pavement in a rapid gal- lopade sideways, like a crab, cracking his heels together in the highest etij oyment at his own acuteness. " Then, what I overheard on the City Hall stoop ! Punkley was on a lay where there was money to be transferred fr. m an old 'un that had no use for it, to a young 'un that didn't mind goin' snooks and whack- ing up a slice with a friend. Now Mifflin's the fel.ar that's willin' to go snooks, and Old Gout-an'-asthma is the feller what has no use for it and Hadley's the fellar that's to make use of his knowledge of herbs nnd minerals, and Walt Punkley's the whacker-up and slice- :aker. Straight as a bamboo ! Trots along like the goat that went over the bridge for blackberries." Left shoulder forward — another gallopade. " They're gettin' up a nice little skin-eel game, and Hadley is to be elected, and Mifflin'll git the fortin' and Punkley'li make a haul. Ain't they a pair o' sweet scented sons o' Satan ! Mebbie there won't be a double room red hot for them in Devil-burg ! Go it trouts, the line's long and Will Waffles holds the real. Now for John Chunk's. But blow me if I haven't left his card along with Punkley's note in my other suit of clothes that I left in Paradise ! My other suit o' clothes ! Oh my ! Eh. Cully, how's that for fresh ? Two suits o' clothes — three > by golly, if I count the Arab togs at home. I'll start politician and make a break for Congress ! Blow me if I don't !" With this laudable determination the Great American soliloquizer started toward Houston Street, to hunt for the residence of John Chunk, lie merely knew the street and had but a fai;it idea of the number, yet he skipped and whistled along as gaily as if he had not taken upon him- self the sole responsibility of checkmating a combination of villains, and was on the most careless of rambles, instead of being in pursuit of information to lead him to the wealth that was to provide him with " two-forty" horses, and Meg Merry Lees with " bang-up black silks." Will Waffles was the true city Arab — the ever even-tempered, light- hearted soldier of fortune, ups never spoiled him, and downs could not daunt him. When he had nothing, he lived on hope, and when he was flush, he made up for the past by the double enjoyment of feasting him- self and sharing with his fellows. It was not likely that a young gentleman of his experience and re- sources could long be baffled by the vagueness of his directions, so after but few inquiries, he hauled up before a very small, very much crowded fancy store sporting a sign board as follows : | "JOHN CHUNK, Fancy Articles and Curiosities." | The little low window was resplendant with large pearl shells reflect- WILL WAFFLES. ^ 5® l*t*nl i^grrT^Tidf'-l* rr^btAiXJ »1 rma IcnilAj^ ^ awfrttto! » *•••>* 7 .AH Ing the light in many tints. Smaller shells, of every size and color, ituffed birds of brilliant plumage, foreign gleanings in the shape of pieces ©f gaudy clothing, and weapons of curious form. The varnished mummy of a pickerel was suspended by cords, and flanked by glass globes con- taining gold-fish, while beneath, a stuffed armadillo was contemplating % collection of daggers and yataghans like a war-like pig about to make a choice of weapons. On one side of the doorway stood an immense elephant's tusk, and the other was beautified by a shark's jaws spread wide open, the better to display its tine set of teeth. Within, coral and shells and gold-fish — gold-fish, and shells and coral were arranged in great profusion. Will Waffles was dazzled by the beauty and variety of the stock and stood gazing at it in glorious forgetfulness of his mission. 11 If this 'ere isn't a branch of paradise," he said, " You may fly me for a kite !" What further soliloquy might have been indulged in by the young gentleman was forever hindered by his seeing a girl of very sonsy pro- portions appear at the shop door, shading her eyes from the sunlight With her hand to enable her to scrutinize him. She was of very low stature and very full devclopement. A very handsome face of the heavy order of architecture was framed in a mass of hair of a golden auburn hue, which was plaited into tails and hung far down her back like two rope's ends. Her gaze at Will Waffles was not the ordinary, cold, unseeing glance that we bestow on the thousandsjthat pass us in the hurry-scurry of life. It was not the quiet, furtive look of watchfulness with which shop- keepers eye suspicious-looking young gents who linger long near their display goods. It was a look of deep interest and earnest enquiry, and William Waffles, Esquire, was too good a student of human nature not to have caught the distinction herein set forth. He was possessed of too susceptible a heart not to be flattered by such marked attention from so comely a maiden. He gave his cap a smarter cock, threw his he id to one side, and pre- facing his speech with a crow, a smile, and a wink, said : — " Why, sis, you seem to a' dropped on me. What's up ? D'ye think I haven't paid my infernal revenue tax, or air you try in' to estimate the bricks used in my construction?" The girl did not answer, but looked him first straight in the eyes and then her gaze dropped and rested on the yellow, curiously shaped shoes that adorned his feet. He noticed this and putting one little member daintily forth, said theatrically 60 WILL WAFFLES. ^ ** Ah, I see ! Countess Crystalina ! Lovely maiden of the gingerbread colored locks, thou art a lady of taste ! thou art a lover of the beautiful ! Thou art hefty on the slap-up— and fly on the fashion— and isn't that there shoe Fly, too ? You bet ! Shoo Fly ! G'lang I how's that for uigh^ Jemima Jane ?" Thereupon, the eccentric Waffles, evidently with the intent of dis. playing to better advantage the gaudy shoes that seemed to fascinate the lovely maiden, indulged in a neat little rally of clog-dance, singing a snatch of a popular niedley altered to his own taste. " If yer foot is pretty show it, let Lanigan bawl," he cried with an ending swagger. * So, Miss, you kinda admire these hoof -cases and are strucked with astonishment at the smallness of my mud-organs. Don't mention it, I pray, Lady Crystalina. Impossible to resist it. The ad- miration pays lor the exhibition. Children under age, half price Where's J. Chunk?" But, instead of answering him the girl turned and fled into the shop exclaiming in a frightened manner ; — " Father 1 Mother! Come! Come quick! Here's the yellow boots!" CHAPTER XII. THOSE YELLOW BOOTS. * The yellow boots \ n exclaimed an answering voice inside, in a tone of great surprise. m glow the yellow boot !" cried Will on the threshold, " I'll git them blackened by jingo !" " The very boots !" cried a very large woman advancing hurri edly from an inner room. "Phew!" whistled Will, looking at the objects of interest, "I begin to think that I've kinda put my foot in it— or rather my feet, and I don't know whether to,scoot or fight it out on this line." But his doubt about staying or going was put at rast by the big wo. man rushing on him crying:— " John ! John ! Here's the boots ! Here's the thief ! Quick ! Quick !" Bhe bounced upon the astonished youth and dragged him into the eh'op at the same time that Johu Chunk appeared upon the scene, with Will WaJtlks. the stuffed form of some foreign fish in his hand. "Yellow boots!" he exclaimed. " Yes, John Chunk ! Yellow boots, the great, Arab Chief! That's my style, sounds like a dime novel, don't it, John Chunk?" Mr. Chunk dropped the mummy he held upon the glass-case, and catching the boy by the arm, whirled him around to the light and scru- tinized his face. " Why it's you /" he cried. "I'll go you odds on that, John Chunk !" " What are you doing here ?" " Came to see you." " How did you come by those shoes ?" ** Come, come, and don't be axin' indelicate questions, ain't I got a right to blacken my boots yellow if I want to ? Riddle me that," said Will, shaking himself free from Mr. Chunk's grasp and standing on the defensive. " You riddle me that /" cried Mr. Chunk, pointing his stumpy finger to a small hand-bill, fastened to the edge of one of the shelves. Will Waffles looked and saw the words, " Two Hundred Dollars Re- ward," in large type and underneath a setting-forth of the " daring rob- bery committed at number — Fourteenth Street on the evening of sucfc an instant, by an audacious young man who was evidently a foreigner from the strange language in which he spoke, as the people of the house when interrogating him, could understand nothing, but that his name was pancakes." Here Will burst into an uproarious fit of laughter. "Well, smash my fiddle easel" he said, "if that ain't a good one! A foreigner and a pancake! How's that, John Chunk ?" "Then you acknowledge that this means you?" asked John Chunk £ eve rely. "If you don't believe it, 'smell my boots,'" said Will in true mose style, holding up one of the tell-tale feet to the light. "My boy," said John Chunk, deliberately wiping his forhead with the corner of his wife's apron, " I am very sorry indeed for this, for I had kinda taken a liking to you, you know, even you did leave me to pay for the drinks you called." "Did I though? Well, now, that was smart, wan' t it? Never mind, I'll make it up, we'll take ' monitors' at my expense, (wiess beer glasses' you know, chock full) at the first good crite we get to." " This is no time for joking," said John Chunk seriously, " Listen 1" " Like a cat at a mouse hole. Heave a head !" " The person that owns those shoes and his friends have dealings with me and I have dealings with them," said Mr. Chunk in a precise man- ner. " They sell me the curious products of their country, and I pay them in the curious currency of my country.", 62 WILL " Curious currency !" said Will significantly, " Not queer is it ? M " No, sir 1" snapped John indignantly, " you had better young man to look to your own condition than to be pretending not to understand other people. These foreign men have put all the costume men and curiosity shops on their guard against buying the clothes you stole. Am I understood now ? There, young man, is the reward, and the young man stands here — my prisoner !" With these words John Chunk laid his great heavy hand on_the boy's shoulder and gathered the jacket in his iron grasp. 44 Easy, guv'ner, eas} r ! Don't be goin' gettin' your bowels in an up- roar 1" said Will quite coolly, " We'll fix things all square in about a brace of jiffies. Don't get mad, John Chunk." 44 Call an officer !" John Chunk waved his hand to the girl and she steped toward the door. 44 Stay ! Jemima Jane !" exclaimed Will Waffles, and the fair fat crea- ture paused 44 Now, John Chunk, afore ye go a gettin' up a shind)', jest tell us how it is." With much repetition and emphasis and many broken reflections on life, Mr. Chunk went over the charge of house breaking and robbery, the reward and his duty to society and so forth. Will Waffles, in defense, went over all his adventures from the time he left John Chunk in the saloon until his grand performance in tb« circus. Mrs. Chunk and the ladies listened attentively to his story, told as it was in his peculiarly figurative and glowing style. The young girl seemed especially interested, and strained to eaten each word as Desdemona might while listening to the glowing tales of Othello. 41 Look here, youngster," said John Chunk, in his short, bluff manner 44 Go it, oldster, I'm all ears, like a corn-field." 44 1 took a liking to you at first and I'm inclined to believe you.'* 44 Waffles is good stock, don't be afraid of investin' heavy," said Will 44 This is rather a strange arrangement." 44 Wonderful as photographing." 44 But strange things will happen. These clothes must be returned, ] for these foreign chaps are as quick and revengeful as panther*. I had plenty of chance to find that out when I was a sailin' in the east You must give back the things." 44 Nuff said ! Git my duds, and they can have theirs. There was my whoie suit with to'ther letter 1 told you of— that from Walt Punkley you know— let thorn deliver unto sneezer and so forth, and I'll fork over lihr togs." V . ' ' 1 ' WILL WAFF L E 3 1 63 Mr. Chunk promised to forgo arrest and reward and arrange this matter and Will entered upon the business that caused his visit. " There's that letter that you gave me, you know. The one with the blood on the cover, that was to take me to the old seed that was to give me money enough to make everybody rich." Yes, yes," said Chunk, " It is a pity, you should have held on tc that." " Well, well, there's no use o' makin' mouths at a lost kite. Thing' is, do you know this here address? That's what's the matter with Han nah 1" " No, somewhere on Fifth Avenue, that is all I know," said John Chunk. " Then my chances of spondulix and Meg's chances of black silk look almightily slim, all gone up the spout as they say at Simpson's." After awhile's conversation in which Mrs. Chunk and her daughter joined, it was determined that the best plan would bo for Mr. Cl.un't and Mr. Waffles to visit the hospital and endeavor to see the man who had sent the note and get from his own lips the secret so unnecessarily enveloped in mystery. But first Mr. Waffles had to take off the conspicuous yellow shoes that so much endangered his personal freedom and a pair of gaiters be- longing to the Countess Crystalina replaced them. "How's that for patent?" cried the youngster with a break-down step, u I guess, Jemima Jane, our cockroach killers were built about on the same last, Eh ! Countess Crystal ?" " I'm not Countess Crystal," pouted the girl, " and my name is not iJemima Jane." "Ah jest so ! No matter, same thing. A rose by any other name, and all that sort of thing, my chunk of loveliness." On reaching the hospital they found that the wounded man had been removed by friends, but no trace of his whereabouts could be discover- ed, so they were forced to give up the affair in dispair. As they left the institution, they met Walt Punkley, just entering the gate. Owing, probably, to the change of garments, he did not recognize the boy, but passed by, knocking him from the walk by striking against him. " What in thunder can U be up to here ?" said Will Waffles to John Chunk, " that's the feller, Punkley, that was to have given me twenty shillin' for goin' with that letter I lost on my Arabian jamboree, I'll have more'n twenty shillins' worth out o' him afore I get through with him, or I'm a lizard, you see if I don't, that's all !" " What about the other thing ?" " I'm a-fear'd that it's a mighty slinky show, boss, to catch that trail, as they say in the injun stories, but I'm agoin' to give it a square shake, 64 WILL WAFFLES. and see how it turns out I'll git some of the boys— the Will "Waffles Sociables — to assist me in spotting this feller and his pal. We'll keep them iD sight until we git all down fine, and then go for them like black-and-tans." " The Will Waffles' Sociables ?" said Mr. Chunk enquiringly, « That's your own name !" " You bet, the best I got. The Sociables is called for me. A gay lot now mind I tell ye, up to any kind o' game, my boys, from penny anty to electioneering. You ought to come to one of our meetings once, there's where you'd hear some speechin' that would make Ben Butler wink with both peepers and drive Wendell Phillips mad. Congress ain't a patch on it!" " Indeed I M " Pozzy fact ! no jibe about it, mister, you'd better come to our meet- ing once." i f I would like it well, would they let me in ?" asked John Chunk. 4< Oh, yes, on my invite," said Will, consequentially, " I can interdoooe you as an honorary member." " An honorary member ?" " Yes, that is, you know, you'll have the honor of treatin' the crowd to lager and cigars, and providin' a silver-plated ice-pitcher or cruet for our next target excursion." Mr. Chunk promised to fulfill the requirements of honorary member- ship to the " Will Waffles' Sociables " whenever called upon so to do, and having, as he had before stated, taken quite a liking to the boy, he accompanied him dowm town to endeavor to recover trace of the man who had sent him the mysterious letter. CHAPTER XILL THE SICK CHAMBER — THE SHADOWS OF REMORSE. The imagination- .ortured Jonas Coincraft dozed in his chair, starting fitfully and muttering at intervals. His niece, Rebecca, sat with a book on her lap, gazing dreamily into the low fire whose light cast a warm glow on her lovely features. The evening shadows had closed in, and she was unable to read any more; so memories of the past and dreams of the future conjured up fantastic images in the fire. We have all, at some time, indulged in the same pensive amusement. WILL "WAFFLES. 65 Rebecca Coincraf t was the daughter of a brother of the invalid beside whom she watched. She was an orphan. Her mother had long ago oeen carried to her long sleep in Greenwood, and recently her father had been placed beside the sharer of his trials and troubles, for with tho strange freaks that nature and fortune so lrcquently play, David Coin- craft was as poor as his brother was rich, and as generous as he was grasp ng. The difference of character and wealth separated the brothers, for Jonas, gauging every one and everything, by the grand standard of the almighty do lar, looked upon the generosity of David as foolish extrav- agance, and his misfortunes as self-earned, and consequently turned a cold shoulder toward him and withheld the assistance that he was so well able to bestow. David Coincraft was too proud to ask assistance from so grudging a relative, so he struggled along in his humble way until, after busiuess undertakings had repeatedly failed, and the buoyancy of his spirit had departed, he was stricken with the sickness that left his child a penni- less orphan. Then, on his death-bed, with the black future of his child torturing him with dreams of penury and hardship, he sent to his wealthy bro- ther, praying pathetically that he wouli take the girl to his house and protect her from the buffets of fortune. So it was that Rebecca had become the attendant of the fretful owner of the Coincraft mansion, and in truth it was not a very pleasnnt task, for, in aggravation of the chronic peevishness of the man, every oppor- tunity was seized by him to make her feel the bitterness of dependency by references to the misfortunes and poverty of her buried father. Her reverie was broken by a soft tapping at the door, but before she could nse, it was opened, and Iladley, alias Dr. Stonely, entered with a noiseless step. The girl's faco flushed slightly as she saw him, for the handsome features of the man of medicine had made an impression ©n her young heart. M I should have lighted the gas, Doctor," she said, " but I feared to dis- turb uncle, he is in such bad temper this evening." " There is no need of more light at present," he said, standing beside her in the glare of the fire, " It must be very trying on one so young to attend so testy a patient.'* " Oh, no," she said, smiling wearily, 41 1 am not so much a martyr as you think, Mrs. Coddle bears the burden for me, and now, he says, he is going to have the boy to occupy this room with him." "The boy:" *' Yes, sir. He is afraid to stay alone. He has strange fancies that he has ghastly visitors that come to threaten and torture him. Some- times he startles us in the night with screams of terror, and gasps of an- 66 WILL WAFFLES. paritions, and robbers and murderers, who seize his wealth and threaten his life." The face of the man became even paler than its wont, and he turned his back to the fire, to hide this effect from the girl. " These are strange fancies, a portion of his morbid disease," he said " Is there anything in the past, madam,— can you think of any event that would be likely to leave bitter memories — to create remorse?" The patient gave a restive movement and the girl paused with opened lips until his heavy breathing told that he slept. " Yes, doctor," she said, in a whisper, so low that he was forced to lower his head near her's to hear it. " I have heard my father speak of it. His daughtt r— my cousin— I don't remember her, but they say that she was very beautiful. — she was very young at the time I speak of, and f eU in love with one of his clerks — he was in business then — an English- man as young and handsome as herself." "Yes— yes!" said Hadley, in a strangely agitated manner, I have heard—" "You !" said Rebecca, in astonishment, " I thought you had just ar- rived from England." " Yes, madam, yes, I would have said that I have heard of something similar that makes your story interest me much. Pray proceed. But tell me first, did not this lady— your cousin — that is — I mean do you not hear a great resemblance to her ?" The girl, surprised by his confused, stammering manner, drew back to scrutinize his face, and was startlad by its yearning, careworn ex- pression. "They say I am very like her," she said, " but I am astonished that you should know of it." " There is a portrait in the room allotted to me — " he commenced. " Yes, it is her's !" interrupted Rebecca, " that was her room. It has never been occupied since she left it until now, by yourself." " She left it?" he said questioningly. "They were both very — very — young," she resumed, " they did not think of difference in station — they did not dream that wealth was of more estimation in the eyes of the world than hearts and happiness. They made know their passion to her father and he spurned the appeal- ing lover from him. He cast him out from his employ and forbade him ever to see or speak to his daughter more." Rebecca fancied that the doctor's breath came shorter and quicker and that she heard his teeth grate behind his light moustache. " Yes, yes I" he said impatiently, and involuntarily, she went on at the word. "Love was stronger than prudence or prejudice," she said, "and the young couple were privately married. But their secret was soon re- WILL WAFFLES. sealed to uncle, and in his fury at the discovery, he drove his daughter from his house. They had hard struggling, the young man's employment was precarious: uncle was relentless in his persecution and his wealth and influence 10 enabled him to have the young husband discharged from every situation he obtained." The gin paused as she heard a muttered imprecation and saw the sud- den clenching of the doctor's hand, and the vindictive glance that he cast at his patient. He knew that he was observed— and, with a strong effort, recovered the appearauce of composure. " I listen, madam ; pray proceed," he said, drawning a chair and seat- ing himself by her side. 14 At last, through actual need," continued Rebecca, " my cousin's hus- band was forced 10 accept thj^osition of surgeon's assistant on an East India bound vessel, and leavirfg his wife the money advanced to him, he parted with her, never to see her again. A short time afterward newi came that the vessel had been wrecked on the coral reefs and all on board her perished. Even in the height of her distraction at this heart-rending news, her child disappeared, stolen from its cradle in her wretched room She blamed this on her father, and rushed frantically to him to beg for the return of her in-antboy. He disclaimed all knowledge of it and offered, now that her dispised husband was gone, to take her back to his house. But she refused to listen to him, and left his presence, cry- ing frantically for her child. Next day, her body, was found floating in the East River, and it was only when her father recognized her in the morgue that the full extent of his cruelty struck home to his hard heart, and he endeavored vainly to atone for the past by instituting a dilligent search for the missing child." As the young girl finished this recital her gaze fell upon the features of her iistener. The big tears stood glistening in his eyes, but the brows were lowered and contracted and the teeth clenched tightly, while the | breath came and went, short, hot and gaspy. " You are agitated," she said. He started from his abstraction and clenched his hand as he hissed through his teeth :— "Yes, Why not? Who could help it? Why should such men live? Curse their flinty hearts? why should they live?" The girl started from her s*at in surprise and he caught her by the hand. M Stay, madam— Miss Coincraf t," he said in a low, rapid tone, " I beg of you to excuse my— my thoughtlessness, I am peculiarly sensi* tive to tales of human suffering, especially where the demon— * Avarice — is set up as the golden calf to be worshipped by man. Your story has had a strange effect on mo, I seem to have known the poor, unfortunate WILL WAFFLES. lady, and can imagine I see her when I look at you. No wonder thig man has horrid fancies, no wonder that remorse gnaws at his heart — that the cold, wet face of the suicide should haunt his dreams, and the wail of the orphan, should break his rest. It is retribution — it is the ven- geance of Heaven !" Before the frightened girl, could speak in answer to the impassioned speech, they were startled by the sick man suddenly springing erect in his seat with a wild, inarticulate cry, and his eyes fastened on the va- cancy before him. •'Vengeance!" he cried, "Who speaks of vengeance? Take her away I What brings her there ? The grave is her place. Throw the pall over the face ! Close the coffin-lid — /cannot look at it." "Uncle ! uncle 1 What is the matter?" cried the girl running to him 44 Rebecca !" he said, in a wild manner, 44 Rebeeca, I have seen it I" "Who! What?" 44 Her — I have seen her. By Heaven, I have seen her !" he said in a hoarse whisper that rattled horrible in his throat. 44 Be calm, uncle, be calm," said the girl, " you have only dreamed this." 44 Dreamed, you idiot, dreamed," he cried, 44 a likely thing, am I ever dreaming of this horrid sight, away, away 1" he cried, pushing her sav- agely back from him, *f You are too like her, you bring the past before me, Away, Away." As these words rattled from his skinny throat he bent toward her with clenched hands and she drew back from him in fear. On account of the room being only illuminated by the dull glare of the fire, Hadley had remained unnoticed, but now as he advanced into the light, the old man gave a startling cry and falling back into his pil- lows, lay staring at his pale face. 44 Miss Coincraft," said the doctor, 44 1 beg you to retire. This is one of his fantasies, I will give him a sleeping draught and put him to bed. Send the nurse with lights." Rebecca obeyed, but turned at the door to look back. The doctor stood ereet, regarding his patient with an intent gaze, in which she thought she could trace the malignity which had marred his handsome features a few minutes before, Jonas Coincraft sat in the same rigid position, regarding Hadley with a fascinated gaze, like a person und^r the i A fl uent* c\ v mw\xv«t\»\\\ MILL WAFFLES, 69 CHAPTER XIV. TEARS AND IMAGINATIONS. Closing the d