“Hurrah!” shrieked Charley; and together the man and the horse rushed forward at a terrific pace upon the enemy.
[CHAPTER VI.]
MIDNIGHT DEVILTRY.
In order to properly connect the various parts of our story in proper places, we are forced to turn backward to the night first preceding the day on which occurred the events narrated in the preceding chapter.
We wish to conduct the reader to a large and handsome house situated on the outskirts of Clarkville, the town where Charley Gorse belonged.
This house, the most pretentious in that prosperous town, belonged to a gentleman named Radcliffe, a retired merchant.
Here Mr. Radcliffe resided with his only son Ralph, a boy of fifteen.
Mr. Radcliffe was a perfect invalid, and was not expected to live long.
Many said that he sorrowed for the wife he had buried two years before.
Radcliffe was reputed to be a man of great wealth, and as he lived in first-class style for that locality, there seemed grounds for belief in his riches.