"I wish you luck, Nat," replied Dave. He could not help but smile when he thought of the hard-fisted money-lender, and what he might say when his son went at the task of making him more kind and benevolent. "And, by the way, Dave, now I am going to turn over a new leaf, I want to tell you about a letter I received some time ago," went on Nat, after a pause, during which the train stopped at a station to take on some passengers. "A letter?" "Yes. You'd never guess who it was from." "Gus Plum?" "No, Link Merwell." "Link Merwell!" exclaimed our hero, in surprise. "What did he write to you about, Nat? Not that diamond robbery?" "Oh, no, he had precious little to say about that, for he must know I knew he and Jasniff were guilty. He wrote about you. It was a long letter--nearly eight pages--and he spoke about what you had done to get him and me into trouble." "I never tried to get you into trouble, Nat." "I know it. But I used to think you were trying to do it. Well, Link wrote about it, and he wanted to know if I would help him in a scheme to pay you back. He said he had a dandy scheme to pay you off." "Oh, he did?" said Dave, with interest. "What was the scheme?" "He didn't say." "What did you answer?" "I didn't answer the letter. I kept it to think about. Then, yesterday, after my last talk with Uncle Tom, I made up my mind to wash my hands of Link Merwell, and I burned the letter up." CHAPTER X DAVE AT HOME "I'm glad you washed your hands of Merwell, Nat," replied Dave, with warmth. "He is not the sort for any respectable fellow to associate with. But about that letter. Have you any idea what he was going to do?" "No. All he said was, 'If you will join with me we can pay Dave Porter off good and get him in the biggest kind of a hole.' I guess you had better keep your eyes open, Dave." "I am doing that already." "I--I made up my mind I'd tell you--when I got to Crumville," faltered the money-lender's son. "I didn't want you to suffer at his hands." "I've got my eyes open already," was Dave's reply. "Let me tell you something, Nat." And then he related the particulars of the affair at Lake Sargola, and told about the burning of the garage. "And to think Job Haskers is with him!" cried Nat. "Say, they'll make a team, won't they!" "Yes, for I'm thinking that Haskers is about as bad as Merwell," answered Dave. After that came a pause, neither youth knowing exactly what to say. Then Nat cleared his throat. "I--I'd like you to do me a favor," he stammered. "All right, Nat. What is it?" returned our hero, promptly. "If you get the chance will you tell Ben Basswood and the other fellows how I'm going to be--er--different after this? And will you tell your sister and Jessie, too? I don't want them to--to--think I'm wanting to do anything more that's mean. I want to be--be, well, friendly--if they'll let me," and Nat's face grew very red as he made the admission.