“What sort of a boy is he—sharp, like yourself, I suppose?”
“Well, he done some good work helpin’ me,” replied Bob, evading the question as to Tom’s keenness.
The fact is that young Flannery was not wonderfully sharp; but Bob liked him for his honest, good natured self, and, therefore, would only speak in praise of him.
The banker drew Bob out, and learned of the fire act that Tom performed so satisfactorily. But his keen sense detected the truth of the matter, and he was satisfied as to where the real merit lay.
“Bob,” said he, “your modesty and your efforts to throw much of the credit on Tom Flannery are certainly becoming to you. I like you for the spirit you show in the matter. But, nevertheless, I recognize in you the chief of the undertaking—the one who planned and carried out the entire scheme. Now, here is a little present for you; I want you to take it and buy you a good suit of clothes, so that you will be as well dressed as Herbert. I believe you room together?”
“Yes, we do,” said Bob. “But I don’t want no present. I can earn some money to buy clothes with.”
“But I want you to take it,” replied Mr. Goldwin. “You have done a great act of kindness to Herbert, and to me as well, for sooner or later we would doubtless have suffered a loss by Felix Mortimer.”
Bob took the crisp new bills reluctantly—four of them, five dollars each—twenty dollars—he had never held so much money in his hands at any one time before, and this was all his own.
He felt bewildered. After a moment’s pause, however, he said, “Mayn’t I give some of this to Tom Flannery?”
“I expected you would say that,” replied the banker, enjoying Bob’s surprise, “so I retained a five dollar bill for Tom. Here it is; give it to him with my regards. He, too, did us a service in aiding you as he did.”