“Look here, young man,” he cried, clapping Chap on the shoulder, “you needn’t trouble yourself about not finding any money. If you have really blown that old wreck out of the channel, we’ll have a town here, and I’ll give you a corner lot. I never thought the thing could be done so easily.”
“Where is the scow?” said Phil. “If we could get a grapnel we might fish up something.”
The boys looked up and down the beach, but saw no scow. And then Chap pulled a long face.
“I forgot the scow was moored here,” he said. “I guess she’s blown to flinders. But I’ll pay you for it, sir.”
“Not a bit of it,” cried Mr. Berkeley. “The old tub is not worth considering. Judging from the timber lying around here, there can’t be much of the wreck left. You didn’t think, young lady,” said he, addressing Helen, “that when you touched that button you were starting a town?”
“No, indeed, sir!” said Helen, with brightening eyes.
“But such was the fact,” said Mr. Berkeley; “and if we ever have the town it shall be called Helena.”
When the bed of the river was afterwards examined, it was found that there remained no obstructions to navigation which had not been so shattered and loosened by the explosion that they could easily be removed, and there was no reason why a wharf at that point could not be used by river steamboats.
It was not long before Mr. Muller received a letter from Mr. Berkeley assuring him of his hearty co-operation in the matter of the town of Helena, which town ultimately proved a success, and became a source of so much profit to Mr. Berkeley that the incumbrances upon Hyson Hall were removed long before he had made out his titles to his Western lands.
The first time the man with the black straw hat met Chap, he warmly shook him by the hand.