“I am going back to Texas, but I am not going home. I wouldn’t be welcome. There are two persons who would be glad if I should never show my face there again.”
“Who are they?” asked Bob.
“That man who wanted you to save him and let me go down is one of them, and his son, my cousin Ned, is the other. You see, my father died about four years ago, leaving all his property in trust to Uncle John, whom he appointed my guardian, and who was to take care of it until I became of age. Then he was to turn it over to me, less a certain sum which was to be paid to him for his services. If anything happened to me, the property was all to go to my cousin, Ned.”
“Well?” said Bob, who now began to exhibit some interest in the narrative.
“Well, they want that property and have tried hard to get it. Uncle John tried to-night. You saw that a good many of the passengers were aroused from their sleep by the confusion that was created when I fell overboard, didn’t you? Uncle John was not one of them.”
“What was the reason?”
“I will tell you what happened, and you can draw your own conclusions. While I was sitting on the boiler-deck railing watching that steamer, I heard a stealthy footstep behind me, and before I could turn around to see who was coming, I felt a pair of hands on my back, and got a push that sent me overboard.”
“Do you mean to say that your uncle pushed you over?” demanded Bob, greatly amazed.
“That is just what I mean. You wondered that he would let me go so far from home! He would furnish me with money enough to take me to Europe, if I asked him for it, and be glad to let me go. You see the more I travel around the more danger I am in.”
“Well, you have one consolation,” said Bob, after thinking a moment. “You’ve got money, and can have all the nice things you want.”