CHAPTER XXIII.
“Doctor! are you there?” called a voice through Dr. Thorndyke’s speaking-tube, in the dead of night.
“Yes,” was the answer; “what’s wanted?”
“Come down right away, can’t you? It’s Aleck. Uncle Ralph isn’t all right, I think.”
“Wait three minutes for me,” and they were scarcely past when the front-door opened and the doctor was ready.
“What do you say, Aleck? What’s wrong?”
“I can’t tell, indeed,” said Aleck as they hurried on; “some sound I heard led me to fear that he was in trouble, and I went to his room. He seems to be sleeping, but he looks strangely, and I can’t rouse him.”
Neither could the doctor. He knew that as soon as he got one look in the face, but he did not say so; he stepped quietly to the bed and shook him gently by the shoulder, then lifted an eyelid, listened to the heavy breathing, and looked Aleck slowly in the face.
“Stimulants?” asked Aleck, eagerly.
The doctor shook his head.
“No use, my boy; we will try, if you like, but the work is done, I’m afraid.”
Aleck brought something, but only to find, as the doctor said, it was of no use.
“Oh, what is it?” he cried; “what is the matter? Why cannot we do something?”
“Because there is nothing to be done, Aleck, nothing but to wait and watch by him, that he may not be alone at the last.”
“Oh, why would not he listen to me!” groaned Aleck. “It has seemed as if he were beside himself of late, arranging his business. I could not see why he need hurry things so, but I have found him busy over his papers every night when I came home, and left him busy when I went to bed. I was sure he was doing too much, but I never thought of this!”
“That is the secret of it,” said the doctor, “but not the whole secret. He has not been well; he has felt some symptoms probably that urged him to it; either weight alone he might have borne.”
“And there is no hope? He is going to leave us? Oh, do let me call Nelly!”
“Not quite yet,” said the doctor, detaining him gently; “let us watch him awhile. A little nearer morning would be better for Nelly.”
So they watched and waited, and just as morning dawned and Nelly came, Uncle Ralph was gone, not even knowing that any one stood by his side to say good-by.
Gone! Aleck had almost forgotten all the word meant, it was so many years now since he and Nelly were first left alone together, and he had not realized how nearly his father’s place had been filled since his uncle came to make his home at the cottage. And now it was all over again! The world looked dark enough as he opened the front-door to step out into it again the next morning, but it was as real as ever, and making more demands upon him than ever before. There were a thousand things to be done and thought of, and after a day or two Aleck found himself, though still bewildered with all that had happened, called upon on every hand—everything referred to him at the store, and he knew there must be affairs to be attended to beyond what the books could show.
The first thing was to send for his uncle’s lawyer. He came at once, but the usual form of condolence was rather shortened, and he looked in Aleck’s face with a smile.
“And now, sir, you must allow me to present my congratulations to yourself.”
“To me!” exclaimed Aleck, between surprise and anger; what could he mean?
“Yes, sir, to you, as sole heir of your uncle’s estate, which has been supposed for some years to be large, but the amount disposed of in the will may even surprise yourself.”
“The will! I did not suppose a will existed, and indeed I know it did not a while ago.”
“Very possibly,” said the lawyer; “but there is one deposited in my safe at present bearing, I think, the same date with your admission into partnership, and with the exception of a handsome legacy to your sister and to the young man associated with you here—Thorndyke, I think his name is—you will find yourself the recipient of the whole; and I must beg once more to congratulate you on a fortune and a business establishment such as fall to the lot of few young men.”
Aleck stood bewildered, but when Thorndyke heard the news, the “all but me” was forgotten in his smile for once. “O Aleck, it’s glorious! The Prince Royal has given it to you, I know he has, and it’s only the small beginning of what you deserve, and what He’ll find for you some day.”
“What I deserve?” said Aleck, putting his hands on Thorndyke’s shoulders and looking earnestly in his face. “I do not deserve anything from Him.”
Thorndyke shook his head.
“What did He say about a cup of cold water to one of the least? I should have died of thirst if it had not been for the doctor and you; you know that very well.”
“And don’t you think I would rather have had Uncle Ralph than all the fortunes in the world?”
“Yes, I know you would, and I have lost him too; but, O Aleck, you can’t help my being glad for what has happened to you.”
“And something has happened to you, too, young man, if the story is true at all.”
“Oh, I hope not,” said Thorndyke; “that wouldn’t be right. What have I ever done, and I owe him everything! No, Aleck, I want you to take everything, and just let me stay and help you always; that is more than I deserve.”
“Tut,” said Aleck, “we’ll see, my boy; but if you shouldn’t stay by, the old ship would go down on very short notice; you know well enough, I was never anything more than the tail of the comet, since I undertook this business.”
“The story,” as Aleck called it, was quite true, and thanks to all the toil Uncle Ralph had expended upon his affairs, those last few weeks, Aleck stepped into his new dignities with very little perplexity or trouble.
Some people shook their heads and said they were a young set of hands left at Halliday’s, to steer such a craft as that. But they soon found that higher authorities did not think so; the physicians’ patronage came in just the same, so the rest of the world concluded to give up their doubts, and popular as Aleck and Thorndyke had always been, it was more than ever the thing to go to Halliday’s.
So all went on smoothly and well, only they missed Uncle Ralph more than they could tell. But as time wore on, Thorndyke, who was always watching Aleck, thought he saw more of a shadow in his face than even his loss could account for; it was not natural for Aleck to look as if his thoughts were busy with something outside, while people and things close by were forgotten, or only attended to as if they disturbed him. But once or twice when Thorndyke tried to sound him, or even ventured to ask what he was thinking about, he got for answer a sudden lighting up of Aleck’s face, and the old gay laugh that had been music to Thorndyke so many times.
“Thinking about you, old fellow!” he would say, and put his hands on Thorndyke’s shoulders a moment, and for a little while seemed to have come back again. But not for long. He had told the truth, as he always did, and he was thinking about Thorndyke; but that was not all, and the thinking went on, until at last the problem was worked out, questions were settled, and Aleck came back to stay. This time Thorndyke asked no questions; only a quick look and a smile passed between him and Aleck, and they understood each other perfectly. But Aleck had something to say, if Thorndyke did not ask, only not quite yet.
“Not yet,” he said to himself. “I must wait for his birthday; and after waiting all these years, a few months wont count for much.”