Captain Hawkesbury did not wait for charges to be preferred against him for his action in keeping from Tom and Mrs. Taylor the money due them. The old army officer had kept secret his part in the transaction a long time, but at last it came out. He resigned as instructor at West Point, and also withdrew from the United States service.
That was the end of Captain Hawkesbury, and his nephew Clarence, too, as far as Tom was concerned. The conspiring captain had made considerable from his association with Mr. Taylor and Mr. Doolittle, and some of his property was legally attached for the benefit of Mrs. Taylor’s claim.
Mr. Doolittle was wealthy, aside from the money he had wrongfully obtained from the Taylor estate. He defied Mr. Royse and Tom for a time, but the threat of a legal suit brought him to terms.
Rather than take a chance in that he agreed to pay back all he had taken, with interest. And this, with what money the railroad company had still held back, put Mrs. Taylor, in very easy circumstances.
“You won’t have to sew any more,” Tom wrote to her, “and you can now afford to come to West Point and see me graduate.”
For Tom’s graduation time was approaching.
It must not be imagined that getting restitution was as easy as it sounds. There was much legal work to do, but Mr. Royse attended well to that. It came out that the railroad company had not been altogether satisfied with the land title Mr. Doolittle and Captain Hawkesbury had given them, so they retained a part of the price agreed upon for the bridge approach, until a certain time when the matter should be adjusted.
When that time came, they began to make inquiries as to why their claim was not satisfied. And it was this inquiry that complicated matters, so that they eventually swung the way of Tom and his mother.
“Well, I’m glad old Hawkesbury isn’t here any more,” said Harry Houston one day as the four chums were strolling about the grounds after drill. “You deserve a vote of thanks, Tom, for getting him out.”
“That’s right!” chimed in Chad Wilson.