The Rival Campers; Or, The Adventures of Henry BurnsSmith, Ruel Perley
General
The Rival Campers; Or, The Adventures of Henry Burns
Smith, Ruel Perley
Boats and boating -- Juvenile fiction; Camping -- Juvenile fiction
“And can you produce him?”
“He is here in this room,” answered Harvey.
And at this moment the crowd parted and allowed to pass a man who walked
doggedly forward, with eyes downcast, hands firmly bound behind his back,
while with him walked the remaining members of Harvey’s crew.
“Is this the man whom you say set the fire?” queried Squire Barker.
“Yes,” said Harvey.
“And how do you know he set the fire?”
“He’s confessed it, because he knew there was no way out of it for him.
Haven’t you?” demanded Harvey, turning to the man.
The other nodded his head sullenly.
The uproar that greeted this acknowledgment was deafening. It was several
moments before order could be restored in the court-room, and then the
news borne rapidly to those outside gave rise to a second tumult, which
again stopped the proceedings of the court.
Then, when order had been finally restored, Harvey narrated the
extraordinary events that had followed the meeting of the man in the
pasture, down to his capture and confession; a confession that included
the admission that he was none other than the man Chambers, and that he
had set fire to the hotel for revenge.
There never was anything like the scene that followed in all the history
of court procedure in the county from time out of mind. It did not take
the court long, however, to declare that the youthful prisoners, whom he
had felt it his solemn duty to hold for trial, were honourably cleared,
and were free to go at liberty. It did not take long, considering the
fact that the prisoner pleaded guilty, to hold him for trial. Nor did it
take long for good-hearted Judge Ellis to descend from the bench and
shake hands with the boys, each and every one of them, and congratulate
them upon their complete exoneration.
Once outside the court-room, however, what a storm and tumult of
congratulation awaited them. The first thing they knew there was a rush
for them, and up on the shoulders of a crowd of excited fishermen they
went, and were borne along, amid cheering. And Harvey, too, though he
struggled against it, was borne aloft, while the news of his brave
capture of the man Chambers was shouted out to all in the town.
In the midst of it all two figures were espied, slinking along toward the
boat-landing, anxious to escape notice. A din of yells and catcalls and
hisses told them they were discovered, and the colonel and the squire,
sorry pictures of dismay and humiliation, quickened their steps and made
their escape, thankful enough to escape unharmed from the indignant
villagers.
“Harvey,” said George Warren, as he stood grasping the other’s hand about
two hours later, as the boys formed a little group on the deck of the
steamer that was heading for Southport, “you have more than evened the
thing up. Tom and Bob saved you from drowning; but you have saved us all
from disgrace, and I’m not sure but what I’d rather drown than go through
a disgraceful ordeal like this again.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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