The young master of Hyson Hall

by Frank R. Stockton

He grew very angry and a good deal frightened. He had never imagined that the woman would serve him such a trick. He tried to break the lock or force the door, but this was all in vain. The doors at Hyson Hall were very heavy, and the locks massive.

Then he ran out on the roof and shouted, hoping to attract the attention of some one below. But no answer came to him except the jangling of the bells. For a long, long time Emile stayed up there, sometimes running down into the loft, to see if the door had been opened, and then returning to the freer air of the roof.

Susan paid no attention to his shouts or noise, most of which she plainly heard. She supposed he might be hungry, but she also knew he was very angry, and she would not have dared to open the door while she and Jenny were by themselves in the house.

After a while, Emile became tired of shouting and kicking, and sat down on the parapet, gazing around in the hope of seeing some one approaching.

Looking towards the river, a strange object caught his eye. It was the remains of the Thomas Wistar, on Spatterdock Point.

Instantly the idea struck him that this was the wreck he had discovered under water, and which, in some way, had been raised. He did not notice that this was the hull of a steamboat, for it lay at quite a distance from the house, and there were trees intervening, and he did not imagine that there could be two wrecks on the same property.

It is true that Spatterdock Point was some distance from the place to which he had gone with the other boys to look for the sunken treasure-ship; but Emile was not familiar with the river-front, and did not notice this.

He had heard of the steamboat on fire at Boontown, but, being very busy with his lawyer at the time, had not gone to see it, and had not known of its floating down the river.

“Those vile boys,” he thought, as he sprang to his feet, and stood with clinched hands gazing at the unfortunate Wistar. “They’ve got that ship out of the water, and have carried away the treasure. That is the reason they went to town, armed to the teeth. They have stolen my money! That gold was mine! Everything on this place belongs to me.”

It may be remarked that Emile always seemed to consider that when the mortgage was foreclosed the estate would belong to him, and not to his father. This was owing to his egotistical way of thinking about things in which he was in any way concerned.