“I’ll tell you what I would advise,” said Jack. “You come to camp with us, Bert. You can sleep with me. In the morning we’ll lay this whole matter before Captain Putnam and ask his advice. I am sure he will tell you what is best to do.”
“I ought to have Jabez Trask arrested.”
“Perhaps. But it will be punishment enough for that miser if he has to let go his hold on the property.”
Bert agreed to follow the advice of the young major, and before long they reached the camp, and Jack took the strange lad to his tent with him, and gave him the use of a vacant cot.
It was certainly a meeting of importance that occurred in Captain Putnam’s headquarters the next morning, after breakfast and drill. Bert told his story in full, and the cadets had their say, and then the will and the other documents were brought forth and looked over with care.
“What you need is a good lawyer,” said the master of the school to Bert. “This Jabez Trask is undoubtedly a scheming rascal who will do all in his power to keep you out of your own. If you wish I’ll take you to Rochester and introduce you to a legal gentleman who will take care of all your interests and have the courts mete out to Trask the punishment he deserves.”
This suited Bert, and the journey to Rochester was taken the next day, Jack and Pepper accompanying the captain and the Robertson heir. A long conference with a first-class lawyer was held, and immediate steps were taken to place Bert in possession of his own.
When efforts to locate Jabez Trask were made there was a surprise. The miser had closed up his mansion and fled. Nor could the two men, Vidder and Jepson, be found.
“It is evidence of their guilt,” said the lawyer to Bert. “I do not think you will have any difficulty in establishing your claim to the fortune.” And the legal gentleman was right. Bert obtained the fortune with but little trouble, and he was correspondingly happy. The courts appointed a well-known business man of Ithaca as his guardian, and this guardian told Bert the best thing he could do would be to go to some first-class school and finish his education.
“That is just what I want to do,” said Bert. “And the school I want to go to is Putnam Hall.”