All this Frank witnessed with great amazement, not understanding
what influence Dick could have obtained over the swindler sufficient
to compel restitution.
"How did you do it?" he asked eagerly.
"I told him I'd exert my influence with the president to have him
tried by _habeas corpus_," said Dick.
"And of course that frightened him. But tell me, without joking, how
you managed."
Dick gave a truthful account of what occurred, and then said, "Now
we'll go back and carry the money."
"Suppose we don't find the poor countryman?"
"Then the p'lice will take care of it."
They remained on board the boat, and in five minutes were again in
New York. Going up Wall Street, they met the countryman a little
distance from the Custom House. His face was marked with the traces
of deep anguish; but in his case even grief could not subdue the
cravings of appetite. He had purchased some cakes of one of the old
women who spread out for the benefit of passers-by an array of
apples and seed-cakes, and was munching them with melancholy
satisfaction.
"Hilloa!" said Dick. "Have you found your money?"
"No," ejaculated the young man, with a convulsive gasp. "I shan't
ever see it again. The mean skunk's cheated me out of it. Consarn
his picter! It took me most six months to save it up. I was workin'
for Deacon Pinkham in our place. Oh, I wish I'd never come to New
York! The deacon, he told me he'd keep it for me; but I wanted to
put it in the bank, and now it's all gone, boo hoo!"
And the miserable youth, having despatched his cakes, was so
overcome by the thought of his loss that he burst into tears.
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