"Offended! No, no, my boy; but I think you are making a mistake." "The end will show, sir." "Yes, yes, the end will show. Well, I can't help feeling an interest in you, not only because you rescued my child, but because you seem to me to be a rather unusual lad. Do you mind answering me a few questions? Believe me, I shall not ask them out of mere idle curiosity." "Ask as many as you like, sir." "Do you live in Boomville?" "A little way out of the town, sir." "Are your parents living?" "Only my mother." "And your father--has he been dead long?" "He died before I was born, sir." "Can it be that your father was John Allston?" "That was his name, sir." "Why, good gracious!" exclaimed the mayor, with a new interest, "I knew him. It was years ago, and we were never intimate, but I had a speaking acquaintance with him. Let me see, was there not something peculiar about the manner of his death? I remember hearing something said about it at the time, but it was so long ago that I cannot remember just what it was." "People said, sir," replied Al, "and I guess they were right, that my father died of a broken heart." "I remember now!" interrupted Mr. Anderson. "His child, your sister, was stolen. Her loss was such a blow to him that he only survived the shock a few months." "Yes, sir; that is true." "It is a sad story. Was your sister never found?" "No, sir." "Nor any clew to the mystery gained?" "Nothing of any importance, sir. It was suspected that her nurse had something to do with the affair, and she was shadowed for a long time. But nothing was ever learned." "I can sympathize with your poor father and mother, my boy," said the mayor, with more emotion than Al had seen him manifest before. "I can understand his feelings. But the depth of a mother's love is something we of the grosser sex cannot ever quite comprehend. I suppose your mother has never entirely recovered from the blow." "She never has, Mr. Anderson; and it is in the hope that I may help her to do so that I have taken this engagement with Mr. Wattles' company." CHAPTER XI. IN PERIL. The mayor stared at Al. "You have taken this engagement for your mother's sake?" he said. "I don't understand." "I didn't say that," the boy replied. "I took it because I believed the work was just the sort I could do well. At any rate, it was just the sort I wanted to do. But I also thought that it might give me a good chance to look for my sister. What can I ever do if I stay here in Boomville? Nothing. I will go out into the world; and who knows----" He paused, perhaps a little offended, for the mayor was smiling. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, my boy," Mr. Anderson said, straightening out his features, "but your hopefulness reminds me of my own when I started out in life. Alas! those dreams!" "But you succeeded, sir."