The Firebug

by Roy J. Snell

  CHAPTER XV BEN ZOOK'S DIAMONDS

  In the earlier days of Johnny's experiences on the Chicago river, he hadmade many strange friends. Among them was an old man who owned a boat, aclumsy but quite seaworthy craft in which he was accustomed to paddleabout the river and at times even on the lake. This boat had been kept ina small brick structure close to the base of a wharf. The old man hadonce shown Johnny where he kept the key and had told him to help himselfto the boat whenever he needed it for a short trip. He had not seen thisold man since his return to the city.

  "Wonder if he's still alive, and if his boat and the key are stillthere?" he said to himself as he neared the river. "If it is, that's thesurest way to get out to Ben Zook's island."

  A few moments' walk brought him to the spot. The key was there in its oldplace and, once the door was open, Johnny found the boat in its place andin good repair. The grips of the oars were worn smooth from recent use. Awarm feeling swept over Johnny at this discovery. In this ever changingworld it is good to discover that an old time friend is still in the landof the living.

  "Just take you out for a little exercise," he whispered to the boat as hesent her gliding into the water.

  It was a glorious night for a row. A low-hanging, golden moon, a lakethat was ripply but not too rough, and balmy night air--who could ask formore? Johnny's splendid muscles relaxed and expanded, expanded andrelaxed with the harmony of a well directed orchestra.

  "Fine!" he breathed, "I'll soon be there."

  He was, too; almost sooner than he wished. He regretted the necessity ofbringing this grand little trip to an end, but the hour was late.

  Just as he turned to leave the boat a faint delicious odor smote hisnostrils.

  "Hot dog!" he exclaimed as he went racing over the rubbish heaps that laybetween the shore and Ben's cabin.

  In his eagerness he forgot that Ben Zook was not expecting him.

  The look of alarm which appeared on the little old man's face as hesprang to his feet at sound of footsteps sent a stab of self-reproach tothe boy's heart.

  "It's only me, Ben, only Johnny Thompson!" he shouted reassuringly.

  The next moment he was shaking the island hermit's hand and sniffingdelightedly.

  "Hot dog!" he said again.

  "Yep, Johnny, you diagnosed the case. Old man eatin' hot dog this time ofnight. Ought to die of indigestion. Draw up a chair and help yourself.

  "Don't fall over my heatin' plant," he warned as Johnny, taking a stepbackward, struck something that gave forth a hollow sound.

  "What is it?" he asked.

  "My heatin' plant; goin' to be when I get her installed. Goin' to begood'n cold out here this winter. House is too small for a stove. Goin'to be stylish, I am; have a outside hot water plant. That old tank isgood as new. There's old pipe enough round the dumps to make my coils andradiation. I'll borrow tools some day and put her together.

  "Johnny," the old man exclaimed as he helped him to a piping hotfrankfurter on a stick, then settled back in a huge arm chair, "you'd besurprised at the things that get brought out here. This chair now; prettynifty, eh?"

  "Looks all right."

  "Found her out here. There's about everything you want out here; bricks,coal, wood, milk bottles, cookin' utensils, three or four baby buggiesan' everything else.

  "And, Johnny," his voice dropped almost to a whisper, "the other day Ifound something that looks real valuable. Mebby you'll take it over townan' see. Mebby you would, Johnny. They wouldn't think nothin' of it ifyou had it, but if I took it over an' it was the real thing, they'd takeme by the neck an' say: 'Ben, you been stealin'.'"

  Going back into the back corner of his house, he loosened a brick in thefloor and drew out a small black velvet case.

  "There't is, Johnny. Saw it stickin' out from the end of a heap of ashes.Wind'd been blowin' middlin' stiff an' had blowed a lot o' fine stuffaway so it showed. Open her up."

  Johnny started as the lid was lifted. A flash of light that made thefirelight seem dim had struck his eye.

  "Diamonds," he breathed.

  "I dunno, Johnny. I thought it might be so."

  Reaching up, Johnny took a small mirror from the wall. Then, taking adiamond set in a pin from the case, he drew it across the glass. Therefollowed a scratching sound. As he lifted the diamond away he saw adistinct white line on the glass.

  "Looks like the real thing," he said in a low tone. "Can't be quite sure.And what a lot of 'em! This one, a brooch with six; a lavalliere withfour; two ear-rings with one each; and four loose ones. If they're real,they're a fortune. Been stolen, I suppose?"

  "That's what I figured, Johnny. Stole, then the thief had a hard time tomake a clean getaway. He hides 'em in a ash can, intendin' to come backfor 'em. The ashman comes along and away they go."

  "Might be right," said Johnny.

  "You'll take 'em over and see about 'em, Johnny?"

  "Glad to." He put the case in his pocket.

  "Have another hot dog, Johnny?"

  "Sure will."

  "You got my message? The orange wrapper?"

  Johnny nodded.

  "He's been at it again."

  "Who? At what?"

  "That big stooped man with a limp. He's been out here again, standin' onthe shore close to the city an' shakin' his fists an' cursin' worse'n apirate."

  "He has?" Johnny was surprised. "What did you do?"

  "Well, I tried to get close to him but a stone rolled under my foot an' Iguess he heard me. Anyway, he went lopin' off like a antelope, an' that'sall I saw of him."

  "Queer he'd come back out here," Johnny mused. Then of a sudden a thoughtstruck him. Perhaps this man was not a firebug at all, but a thief.Perhaps this case of diamonds had not been brought out here in a dumpwagon, but by this strange man. Perhaps he had hidden it here. Perhapsthere were other cases hidden on the island. He thought of the diamondmerchant's place on Randolph Street, and of that man Knobs haunting thesame building. What if Knobs and the hooked nose man with the limp werein a partnership of crime? Well, at least it was something to thinkabout.

  "Do you know, Johnny," said Ben Zook, suddenly changing the subject,"I've got to sort of like this island. 'Tain't much account as it is, allbroken bricks and dust, but in time grass would grow on it--tall grassthat waves and sort of sighs in the breeze. I'd like it a lot, then,Johnny." Ben's voice grew earnest "I'd like to own this island; like tohave it always to myself."

  "You don't want this island, Ben," said Johnny quietly. "Let me tell youwhat it's going to be like, and then I'm sure you wouldn't want it all toyourself. Ben, bye-and-bye all this rough ground is going to be smootheddown. The island will be broadened and fine rich dirt will be hauled on.Grass will be sown and pretty soon it will all be green. Trees will beplanted and squirrels will come to live in them."

  "I'd like that, Johnny."

  "There will probably be a gravel walk winding in and out among thetrees," Johnny continued. "Tired women with little children, women fromthose hot cramped flats you know of in the heart of the city, will comehere with their children. They'll sit on the grass and let the cool lakebreeze fan their cheeks while their children go frolicking away after thesquirrels or throw crumbs to pigeons and sparrows.

  "There'll be a lagoon between this island and the shore, a lagoon ofsmooth, deep water. There will be boat houses and nice clean-hearted boyswill bring nice girls out here to take them riding in the boats.

  "And perhaps on a fine Sunday afternoon there will be a band concert andthousands will come out to hear it. But you know, Ben, if you had it allto yourself they couldn't do any of these things. You don't really wantit now, do you, Ben?"

  "No, Johnny, I don't."

  For a time Ben was thoughtful. When at last he spoke his voice soundedfar away.

  "I've tried never to be selfish, Johnny. Guess mebby if I'd held on tothings more, not given so many fellows that was down and out a boost, I'dhave more of my own. That's a fine
dream you got for Ben Zook's island.I'd be mighty proud of it, Johnny. I shore would." Again he was silentfor a long time.

  "Johnny," he said at last, "do you see that path of gold the moon's apaintin' on the lake?"

  "Yes, Ben."

  "Sort of reminds me of a notion I had when I was a boy about the path toHeaven. Foolish notion, I guess; sort of thought when the time come youjust walked right up there.

  "Foolish notion; but Johnny, here's a sort of idea I've worked outsettin' thinkin' here all by myself. It's a heap of fun to live, Johnny.I get a lot out of it; it's just like I'd never grown up, like I was justa boy playin' round.

  "And you know, Johnny, when I was a boy there was a big family of us andwe always had a lot to do. I'd be playin' with the other boys, and thensuddenly my mother'd call:

  "'Ben, come here.'

  "Just like that. And I'd go, Johnny; always went straight off, but beforeI went I'd say:

  "'Well, so long, fellers, I got to go now.' I'd say it just like that.

  "And you know, Johnny, I've been playin' round most of my life an' havin'a lot of fun, even if other folks do call it workin', so when that lastcall comes from somewhere way up above I sort of have a feelin' thatit'll come from someone a lot bigger an' wiser than me, just like mymother was when I was a boy. An' I hope I'll be brave enough to say, justas I used to say then:

  "'Well, good-bye fellers, I got to go now.' Don't you hope so, Johnny?"

  "I hope so, Ben," Johnny's voice had grown husky.

  "An', Johnny, when my mother called me it wasn't ever because she feltcontrary and wanted to spoil my fun; it was always because she hadsomething useful she wanted me to do for the bunch. I'm sort of hopin',Johnny, when that last call comes it'll be for the same reason, becausethe one that's a lot bigger an' wiser than me had got somethin' useful hewants me to do for the bunch of us. Do you think it'll be that way,Johnny?"

  "I--I'm sure it will, Ben. But Ben, you're not very old. That time's along way off."

  "I hope so, Johnny. It's a grand privilege to live. But you can't tell,Johnny; you can't, can you now?"

  For a long time after that they sat there in silence. Johnny was slowlybeginning to realize that he liked this strange little Ben Zook with hisheart of gold.

  "Look, Johnny!" Ben exclaimed. "A fire!"

  "What! Another?" cried Johnny.

  "Down there by the water front."

  Johnny followed his gaze to the south where there was a great blazeagainst the sky.

  "It's queer," he said after ten seconds of watching. "It doesn't reallyseem to be on the shore. Looks as if it were on the far end of thisisland."

  "The island, Johnny? What could burn like that out here? Look at her leaptoward the sky!"

  "All the same, it is. Come on, Ben. We may learn something. Arm yourself,Ben. It may mean a fight."

  As he said this Johnny picked up a scrap of gas pipe two feet long. "I'venot forgotten what you said about striking first and arguing after," hechuckled.

  "I'll take the hand grenades," said Ben, loading an arm with half bricks.

  Thus armed, they hurried away over a rough path that ran the length ofthe island.

  They had not covered half the distance to the end when the flare of lightbegan to die down. It vanished with surprising rapidity. Scarcely hadthey gone a dozen paces, after it began to wane, when the place where ithad been, for lack of that brilliant illumination, appeared darker thanthe rest of the island.

  "What about that?" Ben Zook stopped short in his tracks.

  "Come on! Come fast!" exclaimed Johnny, determined to arrive at the sceneof this strange spectacle before the last glowing spark had blinked out.

  As he rushed along pell-mell, stumbling over a brick here, leaping amound of clay there, quite heedless of any danger that might surroundhim, he might have proven a fair target for a shot from ambush.

  No shot came, and in time he came to a comparatively level spot of sandin the center of which there glowed a few coals.

  After bending over these for an instant he scraped away the lastremaining sparks with his bit of gas pipe, then stood there silentlywaiting for the thing to cool.

  "What was it?" Ben asked as he came up.

  "Don't know."

  Johnny drew a flashlight from his pocket and threw its circle of light onthe spot.

  "Listen!" whispered Ben, pulling at Johnny's coat sleeve and pointingtoward the lagoon. Faintly, yet quite distinctly, Johnny heard the creakof oar locks.

  "A boat," he whispered back.

  "Yes, Johnny, they was somebody out here. And I bet you it was--thatman!"

  "The limping man?"

  "Yes."

  "Well, what do you suppose was the reason for the bonfire?" Johnny bentover to pick up a fragment of black cardboard heavily coated with blackpaint. This was curved about, forming the segment of a circle. The insideof the circle was black and charred like the inside of a giantfirecracker that has been exploded.

  Immediately Johnny's mind was rife with solutions for this fresh mystery.The men were thieves. They had come to this deserted spot at night todivide their loot and to burn any damaging evidence, such as papers,wrappers and whatever else might be connected with it. They weresmugglers. The flare of light was a signal to some craft lying far out onthe lake, telling them that all was clear and that they might run in.Other possible solutions came to him, but not one of them seemed at allcertain. So, in the end, having pocketed the one bit of evidence, hewalked back with Ben to his shack. There he promised Ben to return soonto sit out a watch with him on the island; then going down to his boat,he pushed her off.

  An hour later he was in his own bed fast asleep, with Ben Zook's diamondssafe under his pillows.

  His last waking thought had been that if those were real diamonds therewould be a reward for their return, and that the reward should go to BenZook. It would at least be a start toward the purchase of hislong-dreamed-of poultry ranch in the country.