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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 '• Whkn he heachkd thk lamp, he placed the boy on the cross- 
 bar, TELLING HIM TO HANG ON FOR DEAR LIFE." — Paffe 18.
 
 THE 
 
 ELECTRICAL BOY 
 
 OR THE CAREER OF 
 
 GREATMAN AND GREATTHINGS 
 
 BV 
 
 JOHN TROWBRIDGE 
 
 PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS, HARV'ARD UNIVERSITY 
 
 [ttJ) Ellustratwins 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
 
 1900
 
 Copyright^ ISdl, 
 By Roberts Brothers. 
 
 JHmbersttp |3rfss: 
 
 John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A.
 
 7 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter. Page 
 
 I. In which Greatman attempts to 
 CLIMB TO Heaven on Electric 
 
 Wires n 
 
 II. Greatman comes to Earth, and finds 
 
 A Home 27 
 
 III. Greatman begins his Education in 
 
 Electricity 39 
 
 IV. Greatman is thrown on the World 
 
 AGAIN 49 
 
 V. Greatman's Friend, and Electri- 
 city AND Carrier Pigeons. ... 63 
 VI. Greatman is left alone at one End 
 
 OF THE Line 83 
 
 VII. Greatman finds new Friends and 
 
 MEETS GrEATTHINGS TOO 
 
 VIII. "Walk into my Parlor," said the 
 
 Electrical Spider to the Fly. . 117 
 IX. Greatthings flees from his Past , 132 
 X. Electricity in a Dime Museum . . 143 
 XI. A wise Philosopher and Electri- 
 cian appears upon the Scene . . 160 
 
 878819
 
 iv Contents. 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 XII. Greatman is educated by Great- 
 things 173 
 
 XIII. Greatman and Greatthings set free 
 
 A Giant 185 
 
 XIV. Electricity acts the Part of an - 
 
 Evil Spirit 201 
 
 XV. The Rescue of Greatman and Great- 
 
 things 220 
 
 XVI. A new Life for Greatman and 
 
 Greatthings 241 
 
 XVII. Greatthings is offered a high Posi- 
 tion 256 
 
 XVIII. A Discovery by Means of Elec- 
 tricity 275 
 
 XIX. Greatthings's Enemy goes West, and 
 
 employs Magnetism 289 
 
 XX. A Danger impending 303 
 
 XXI. The Giant appears again .... 313 
 
 XXII. The Passing of the Giant .... 334 
 
 XXIII. A Burial by Electricity .... 350 
 
 XXIV. Defending a Mining Camp by Elec- 
 
 tricity 365 
 
 XXV. The Newsboy finds his Pocket full 
 
 of Silver 384
 
 THE ELECTRICAL BOY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 IN WHICH GREATMAN ATTEMPTS TO CLIMB 
 TO HEAVEN ON ELECTRIC WIRES. 
 
 R 
 
 ICHARD GREATMAN, the hero 
 of this book, made his first ac- 
 quaintance with this world in a dingy 
 room, which he surveyed from a bed 
 on the floor. There was no indistinct 
 sound of happy voices, awakening him 
 to mysterious delights ; no sound of 
 sincrino- birds. In place of such music 
 could be heard the fierce cries of quar- 
 relsome persons who fought together in 
 the narrow lane outside the dingy win- 
 dow. There were no toys, no cradle, no
 
 12 The Electrical Boy. ' 
 
 curtains ; and there was always a longing 
 for something, which in time came to be 
 recognized as a desire for food. 
 
 Richard's wretched daily existence in 
 the foul tenement dulled his memory of 
 those nebulous early days of childhood 
 which at the best are hazy and indistinct. 
 In after years he remembered a sweet 
 voice, and arms full of tenderness which 
 kept him warm, and a white face that bent 
 over his as he awoke to a consciousness 
 of dark days. He remembered gazing at 
 the great electric lights on lofty masts 
 which could be seen from the tenement 
 room, and seeing a man climbing to the 
 lights, and hearing the tender, white-faced 
 woman tell him that she was going to 
 the far-off stars, and that he must be a 
 good boy and climb up some day to meet 
 her. There were angels in heaven with 
 sweet voices and kind ways. There was 
 no fighting, no drinking. Every one was
 
 The Electrical Boy. ^3 
 
 good, good. How often she uttered that 
 word ! and she seemed to go to sleep re- 
 peating, "No swearing — no fighting — 
 no drinking ; good — good." He must 
 climb up to meet her there some day. 
 The night came, and the woman was not 
 there to fold the boy in her warm arms. 
 He wandered through the thickly peopled 
 rooms of the tenement, down among the 
 brawlers who were drinking in the base- 
 ment, crying bitterly, and asking for one 
 whom he called " Mammy." The fierce 
 old woman who kept the house threw a 
 beer mug at him and told him to " get to 
 his room." The child mounted the steps 
 to the dark and desolate chamber, — one 
 step at a time, for his little limbs would 
 not enable him to do more, — and looked 
 out at the electric lights, and wondered if 
 she were climbing up to the stars. 
 
 The mother never came back, — she 
 had indeed ascended the stairway to the
 
 14 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 stars, and all she could leave her little boy 
 were the words we have repeated. Did 
 she realize what strange power those 
 words were destined to have on the future 
 of the child she was compelled to leave 
 in the midst of a wicked world ? 
 
 We have said that each day brought its 
 hard usage, its blows, and the childish 
 endeavors to extract amusement from the 
 life in the dark alleyways about the tene- 
 ment. Richard must have had a poetic 
 soul, for the words of his mother continu- 
 ally stirred within him ; and he stole to 
 the window at night to look at the stars 
 and at the electric lights, and wondered 
 how long it would be before he could 
 climb a stairway to the stars and see the 
 angels. 
 
 Let those who strive to drive the ideas 
 of angels with their immaterial bodies and 
 their long wings from children's thoughts 
 reflect upon a child's imagination, and ask
 
 The Electrical Boy. 15 
 
 themselves if it is not possible that poor 
 little waifs like Richard Greatman may 
 catch a heavenward aspiration from the 
 thought of an angel. The mother's pic- 
 ture of something tender and sweet and 
 pure, with wings, caught the boy's fancy ; 
 and when she left him, the thought of 
 angels hovering over him worked silently 
 in the recesses of his expanding brain. 
 
 One night in a driving storm he awoke, 
 hearinor a stranQ^e whirrinor of win2:s. He 
 stumbled over the bodies of four sleepers 
 in the tenement room, and crept to the 
 window. Around the electric light he 
 saw a great flock of angels with wide 
 stretching wangs circle around the light 
 and float away into the darkness. The 
 boy's angels were great birds that were 
 attracted by the light. The child had 
 never seen a bird, and they were angels 
 to him. He wondered if they went up 
 the wires to heaven, where his mother had
 
 t6 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 gone. He crept shivering back to his 
 hard corner, sobbing with the feehng of 
 utter desolation that only a child can feel. 
 The tender voice, the caressing hands, 
 would never return. His litlle mind 
 worked with all its might to devise some 
 method of joining his mother; and he 
 decided that he would crawl up the great 
 standard on the top of the tenement which 
 supported the wires running to the electric 
 lights, and slide up to heaven on the wires. 
 This was undoubtedly the way his mother 
 had gone, and this was the way those an- 
 gels which hovered about the lights had 
 taken. 
 
 Imao^ine a little child who had never 
 seen a tree, a plot of grass, or a bed of 
 flowers ; whose impressions of the world 
 were gathered from contemplation of 
 squalid alleys between lofty tenements, 
 or from crowded streets where the small 
 boys early learned lessons of self-preserva-
 
 The Electrical Boy. 17 
 
 tlon. The earliest recollections of Richard, 
 besides those of his mother, were of a 
 fierce woman who used to shake him in 
 one hand and a little puppy-dog in the 
 other, and occasionally throw them to- 
 gether down the stairway. The child and 
 the dog had a good cry together ; but they 
 were both young, and could forget every- 
 thing in long sleeps, cuddled together on 
 the bare floor. The day had its pleasures; 
 for Richard and the dog could play in the 
 dark alley, and make the acquaintance of 
 the other wretched little children, when 
 the fierce old woman was not looking. 
 The child's imagination began at an early 
 age to supply his world with something 
 besides the sordid actualities about him. 
 The bright stars above the dingy build- 
 ings seemed to him like far-off electric 
 lights, such as he saw on the city streets. 
 There must be ladders reaching up to 
 streets among those lights, and he peered
 
 1 8 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 about in the dark alleyways, trying to find 
 one of these ladders. Landed, he knew 
 not how, in a strange world where every- 
 thing was to be feared, — the loud voices 
 and blows of the men who drank in the 
 basement, the passion of the old hag, the 
 strange hurry and uproar of the street, 
 which had its fascination even in the midst 
 of its perils, — everything to be feared 
 except the little puppy-dog, — he felt a 
 strange longing to go to those mild twink- 
 ling lights, the stars, to meet his mother. 
 He saw the lineman who replaced the 
 carbons in the electric light ascend the 
 tall pole by the numerous cross-bars which 
 were let into the mast. This man's feat 
 had the greatest fascination for the child. 
 The man came down ; but Richard re- 
 solved that if he ever got up to the light 
 to go farther up on the wires to find his 
 mother. One day the lineman saw the 
 boy watching him, and asked him if he
 
 The Electrical Boy. 19 
 
 wanted to go up the pole. To the man's 
 astonishment, the child leaped up and 
 down with delight. The boy's ecstasy 
 amused the man, and he resolved to play 
 a joke on the old wom.an who kept the 
 tenement, and who generally greeted him 
 with fierce words. 
 
 " Can you hold on, boy ? " said he, in a 
 grim whisper. 
 
 The little child eagerly whispered, " Yes," 
 in the shaggy ear which was bent down to 
 him. 
 
 The lineman tucked the boy under his 
 arm and ascended the pole. When he 
 reached the lamp, he placed the boy on 
 the cross-bar, telling him to hang on for 
 dear life, and proceeded to replace the 
 carbons in the lamp. Richard felt some- 
 what dizzy, but his thin little hands 
 grasped the cross-tree, and with his great 
 hungry eyes he watched the man's work. 
 Further progress on the wires, which
 
 20 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 stretched over the houses of the tenements 
 to a far-off, misty distance, seemed difficult, 
 unless the man could slide with him. 
 This his companion did not seem inclined 
 to do. He threw out the old carbons of 
 the lamp, took new ones from a sort of 
 quiver which he bore on his back, inserted 
 them in the lamp, brushed out the glass 
 globe, and telling Richard to hang to the 
 cross-bar for a moment until he came 
 back, descended to the ground. 
 
 Richard was left sitting on a cross-bar, 
 and holding to the post with both arms. 
 
 The shaggy lineman was in front of the 
 tenement, shouting out, — 
 
 " Well, I never ! Look at that rum 
 chap up my pole. He '11 stay there ; 
 I '11 not take him down. It '11 be a 
 lesson for the neighborhood." 
 
 The old woman came to the door, and 
 the man pointed out the small boy to her, 
 and asked her how he got up there. He
 
 The Electrical Boy. ^^ 
 
 would complain of the mischievous bo3'S 
 of the neighborhood, who probably helped 
 the little chap up the pole. They had 
 troubled the lights many times, and now 
 they might get the child down, — he would 
 not. Thus saying, he sturdily marched 
 away. The old hag shook her fist at 
 Richard with a queer look of terror and 
 anger on her face, and scuttled off to get 
 some men to take the boy down. 
 
 The small boys in the neighborhood, 
 who never dared to venture so far into 
 the alleyway from fear of the old woman, 
 now thronged round her, and offered 
 various suggestions. 
 
 " Are ye goin' up for him, marm } " 
 " We don't think he '11 hansr there Ions:." 
 
 O CD 
 
 " How did he get there ? " 
 
 " Flew up, of course,' was the answer 
 from another boy. 
 
 " Arrh ! " growled the virago, stamping 
 her foot ; and the boys rushed away, tum-
 
 22 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 bling over one another, and shouting with 
 laughter. 
 
 " Hang out a blanket, and shake the 
 pole, old woman," cried one of the boys, 
 pausing on the outskirts of the retreating 
 crowd. 
 
 " If you don't get the child down, 
 Bridget," said Katherine Mulligan, who 
 kept the tenement opposite Bridget's, 
 " there '11 be a corpse in the alley." 
 
 " Stand there, and talk ; it 's all ye 're 
 good for," replied Bridget. Thus saying, 
 she tucked up her skirts and proceeded to 
 mount the mast by the cross-bars, disre- 
 garding the offers from the crowd of boys 
 to hold her bonnet. . 
 
 Richard saw her coming, and had the 
 choice of fallinof to the grround or encoun- 
 tering this fierce woman, whom he knew 
 would punish him severely. The instinct 
 for the preservation of life restrained him 
 from throwing himself from his dizzy
 
 The Electrical Boy. 23 
 
 helo-ht. Presently the woman reached 
 him ; and telling him to cHng to her neck, 
 she slowly descended with him, while the 
 crowd of boys set up a shout. 
 
 " She 's got him, and oh, won't she 
 wallop him." 
 
 This Bridget was about to do when 
 she reached the ground with her charge. 
 There was a strange look in the boy's 
 great, hungry eyes which restrained her. 
 It was the look of the dying mother, when 
 she said, " Be kind to my boy." 
 
 Katherine Mulligan, across the way, had 
 seized a broom, and was proposing to join 
 in a fray, — espousing the cause of the 
 boy would be a good excuse for settling 
 some outstanding quarrels. 
 
 Bridget, however, merely shook Richard 
 once or twice, and told him to take himself 
 off. She would have nothing more to do 
 with him. A great fear came over the 
 small boy, and he clung to the woman's
 
 24 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 skirts. With a rough blow she freed 
 herself, and taking up a broomstick, 
 threatened to use it if he did not run 
 away and join the boys, who stood like a 
 pack of wolves at the end of the alley. 
 Richard watched the fierce woman, striv- 
 ing to understand her meaning. 
 
 " Can I take Sammy [the puppy-dog] 
 with me } " he whined in terror. 
 
 " Be off with ye," shrieked the old hag, 
 shaking her broom ; and Richard fled, 
 knowing: well its weiGfht. Wliat did it all 
 mean? Could he not crawl back into his 
 little corner when the darkness came t 
 Should he not carry the beer mugs from 
 the room where the men fought to the one 
 where the women drank } He fled down 
 the alley as he saw the old woman about 
 to follow him. The ragamuffins in the 
 neighborhood saw him running, and 
 amused themselves by adding to his 
 fright by howling like young savages,
 
 The Electrical Boy. 25 
 
 and tripping him up. One boy at length, 
 filled with pity, rescued Richard from his 
 tormentors, shouting out to them, — 
 
 " Take a chap of your size. This chap 
 haint no size. — Why don't you grow.'*" 
 said he to Richard. 
 
 The small boy whimpered that he was 
 going to to-morrow. It was getting dark, 
 and there did n't seem much chance left 
 for growth that day. His protector, hav- 
 ing rescued him, told him " to scuttle 
 home." The full desolation of the small 
 boy's lot suddenly came over him, and he 
 set up a loud wail. The tall boy, who was 
 called Bill, — he seemed tall to Richard, 
 but he was really a small boy, — took 
 Richard by the hand and led him back 
 toward Bridget's tenement. The woman 
 saw them coming, and rushed forth with 
 her broom; and Richard's defender fled, 
 followed by Richard. Bill decided that 
 the alley was a dangerous place, and that
 
 26 The^Electrical Boy. 
 
 Richard had been really thrust out into 
 the world to shift for himself. This lot 
 had happened to Bill, and it seemed a part 
 of the scheme of the world to the small 
 boy. The thing to do was to shake off 
 this little chap who clung to him with 
 such tenacity of grip. This was not so 
 easy, for Richard held Bill's hand tightly 
 clasped, and occasionally pressed his lips 
 to it. This unusual caress touched Bills 
 rouo^h heart with a thrill it had never 
 known before. He resolved to stand by 
 the small boy until he could shift for him- 
 self, as Bill himself had done.
 
 The Electrical Boy, 2-] 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 GREATMAN COMES TO EARTH, AND FINDS 
 A HOME. 
 
 TT was already dark, and it had be- 
 gun to rain. Bill dragged Richard 
 after him through the dirty streets of the 
 low quarter, and finally emerged upon a 
 brilliantly lighted avenue. He stopped be- 
 fore what seemed to Richard to be a 
 palace, took off his tattered hat, and as- 
 suming a whining tone, asked gentlemen 
 who were passing to give a penny for 
 his little brother, and a mother at home 
 with six starving children like Richard. 
 Both boys were bare-footed, their clothes 
 were in tatters, and they were a pitiable 
 spectacle in the rain. Soon a few pennies 
 fell into Bill's hat. The boy waited until
 
 28 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 there was no prospect of his fund being m< 
 creased, and then went into a cake store 
 and invested in some buns. He told 
 Richard that it was time for them to seek 
 the hotel for the night. Bill's hotel was a 
 recess in the wall behind a manufacturing 
 establishment. The exhaust steam from 
 an engine came out of an opening near 
 this recess, and made the pavement warm. 
 Bill had discovered this place one cold 
 night, and had been delighted with it. It 
 was much better than the coal hole in 
 which many other boys — waifs of the 
 street — were accustomed to spend the 
 nio-ht. The recess in the wall was cer- 
 
 o 
 
 tainly a warm place. Bill curled himself 
 up in one corner, and arranged Richard in 
 the opposite one ; and both bo3^s were 
 speedily asleep. 
 
 The owner of the establishment peered 
 around a dark corner to make sure that 
 the boys were there. He then retired to
 
 The Electrical Boy. 29 
 
 consult with his superintendent. Between 
 them they had resolved to make the tramps 
 and boys afraid of the place, and had ac- 
 cordingly arranged some fine wires along 
 the pavement and against the wall. These 
 wires were connected with an electrical 
 apparatus driven by the machinery of the 
 establishment. When all was ready they 
 turned on the electrical machine, and Bill 
 and Richard were suddenly awakened from 
 their sweet sleep. The older boy thought 
 that a policeman was shaking him, and 
 Richard imagined himself in the clutches 
 of the fierce old woman. Richard threw 
 himself for protection into the arms of his 
 companion; then there came a more pain- 
 ful shock. The boys hopped up and down, 
 shrieking with fright. The proprietor and 
 his assistant bent double with laughter at 
 the success of their experiment, for the 
 pattering of the feet of the little boys as 
 they took hasty flight could be heard re-
 
 3^ The Electrical Boy, 
 
 sounding through the archway. Both men 
 had little boys at home, and were really 
 kind-hearted ; but like so many of us, 
 they had no imagination to enable them 
 to realize the condition of the poor and 
 helpless. 
 
 Bill stopped when he reached the bril- 
 liantly lighted street, and tried to think 
 what had happened. It must have been 
 some strange animal creeping along the 
 brick wall that had stung him. 
 
 " I 'd go for it with a stick, if it was 
 light," said he, valiantly. 
 
 The remembrance of the mysterious 
 shock, however, prevented him from re- 
 turning to the warm nook that night. 
 It was raining in torrents, and the boys 
 trotted along among the theatre-goers, 
 who were returning after the play. 
 
 Bill saw a young man putting a little 
 girl into a carriage, and thinking it was 
 a good chance to obtain some pennies,
 
 The Electrical Boy. 31 
 
 called the young man's attention to the 
 wretched condition of his young brother, 
 pointing to Richard. The little girl, who 
 was about Richards age, stretched out 
 her hands to him and said, " Poor little 
 brother!" And the young man gave her 
 a penny to drop into Richard's hand. 
 Then the coachman whirled them away. 
 Little did Richard know that this young 
 man and the little girl were to play an 
 important part in his future. 
 
 The two boys soon left the thronged 
 street and passed through narrow alleys. 
 Bill knew of another nook where they 
 might keep warm for the night. 
 
 In walking through a dark lane they 
 came upon what seemed to be an old 
 junk shop. Large heaps of copper were 
 spread upon the rough barn-like floor of 
 a shed. An electric light flickered among 
 the rude rafters of the establishment, and 
 there were great vats in the recesses of the
 
 32 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 room. It might have been that Richard's 
 companion had the intention of pocketing 
 some of the valuable copper. The old 
 man who was tending the vats apparently 
 thought so, for he watched the boys 
 narrowly as they stood, — two wretched, 
 dripping figures in the doorway. The 
 vats which the old man tended were for 
 the purpose of depositing copper by elec- 
 tricity. A current of electricity was 
 carried through the vats, and the articles 
 which w^ere to be covered with copper 
 were immersed in a solution of copper in 
 the vats the old man was tending. When 
 Bill drew nearer the heap of copper, the 
 old man lighted a match and applied it to 
 the great bubbles of oxygen and hydrogen 
 which arose from the batteries. A loud 
 explosion resulted, and the two boys in- 
 continently fled. 
 
 The place that Richard's companion 
 had selected for their second resting-place
 
 The Electrical Boy. 2)'h 
 
 for the night was in a coal-hole which 
 afforded access to coal-bins below the side- 
 walk. Bill lifted the cover of this hole, 
 and dragging Richard after him, de- 
 scended the shute in the darkness. It 
 was evident that there were other boys in 
 the place where the two landed, for there 
 was considerable commotion and much 
 talking. When Bill had given a pass- 
 word, every one became quiet, and Rich- 
 ard knew no more. The excitement of 
 the day had completely worn him out, and 
 he fell fast asleep. He was aroused in the 
 gray dawn by the escape of the inmates 
 of the coal-bin, and he was dragged out 
 also by his companion. When they ar- 
 rived at the surface of the sidewalk they 
 were confronted by a policeman, who 
 seized Richard's companion as if he had 
 been long on the watch for him. Richard 
 set up a wail, and clung to the legs of the 
 policeman as he marched away with Bill.
 
 34 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 The plot in Richard's life certainly 
 seemed to be increasing in complexity. 
 In twenty-four hours he had tried to as- 
 cend to heaven, had been forced to earth, 
 had been thrust into the great world, had 
 found a protector, and had lost him. 
 
 The policeman inquired of Bill whose 
 kid that was ? referring to Richard. Bill, 
 from great experience, had found it best 
 to say little to policemen. He knew 
 that Brido^et did not entertain a hish 
 opinion of him, and had threatened him 
 with the law many times. He merely 
 answered that Richard was the captain of 
 their gang. The policeman looked down 
 at the wee boy and shouted with laughter, 
 and his hold relaxed on Bill to such an 
 extent that the boy quickly released him- 
 self and set off with the greatest speed. 
 The policeman was a large fat man, and 
 he saw that it was no use to pursue the 
 boy, and he gazed at Richard with a look
 
 The Electrical Boy. 35 
 
 of mingled perplexity and amusement. 
 While the policeman was endeavoring 
 to make up his mind what disposition 
 to make of his charge, an old man 
 peered out of a dingy shop-window. On 
 seeing the policeman In the alleyway he 
 had hastily put away various articles in 
 his shop, and had concealed certain wires. 
 Presently he appeared at his door, and 
 asked the policeman what he was going to 
 do with the child. 
 
 " I 'd like to know," answered the 
 policeman. " This is not the boy I 'm 
 after. The other one has turned leg-bail 
 and left me with this baby. I s'pose I 
 must turn the child over to some society 
 or home. I can't find out where he 
 lives." . 
 
 Richard's description of his home was 
 certainly very indefinite. He did not 
 know the name of the street or its 
 direction.
 
 36 The Electrical Boy, 
 
 " I 've been looking for a small boy to 
 adopt," said the old man. " I rather like 
 the looks of the little chap. S'pose you 
 leave him with me." 
 
 The policeman was only too ready to 
 cast off the burden of looking after the 
 child, and disappeared on his beat. The 
 old man took Richard into his shop, and 
 treated him to some small cakes, and 
 showed him some white mice he kept in 
 the corner of his shop. While he turned 
 to his work he endeavored to extract more 
 information from Richard in reoard to his 
 former home. The small boy grew sud- 
 denly communicative on seeing the mice, 
 and he made up his mind that the old 
 man was kind, and the shop was a very 
 interesting place. He sat on a high stool, 
 and watched the old man work at strange 
 machines with queer wheels which ran in 
 the most mysterious manner. When night 
 came the old man showed him a bed in a
 
 The Electrical Boy, 37 
 
 recess of tlie shop. It had warm cover- 
 ings and a soft pillow, and was full of 
 enchantment to a little chap who had 
 slept in his tattered rags on the bare, 
 cold floor of the tenement 
 
 In the morning he was awakened by the 
 chattering of a canary bird and the whirl 
 of the old man's lathe, and he smelt a 
 savory odor from the breakfast that was 
 cooking on the queer cylinder stove which 
 occupied the middle of the shop. The 
 boy fingered with wonder the blanket 
 which had covered him during the niHit. 
 It was old and worn ; but he had never 
 seen anything so soft and warm. There 
 was a delicious feeling in lying tucked 
 away in a snug corner with an outlook 
 upon strange pieces of mechanism, and 
 with the certainty of getting something 
 to eat. Richard's entire state was so 
 ecstatic that he could not help laughing 
 outright.
 
 38 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 The old man peered over his spectacles, 
 and said, " Get up, young un ; breakfast is 
 ready, and then we '11 see whether you 
 are going to suit." 
 
 Richard tumbled out of his bunk, and 
 voraciously ate the breakfast which the 
 old man prepared. After this meal the 
 old man set Richard to work winding 
 wire upon a spool. The little child did 
 the work with a certain natural deftness 
 which speedily attracted the attention of 
 the proprietor of the shop. He set the 
 small boy to work sorting various bits of 
 wire and screws. The canary bird sang 
 blithely and loud; a ray of warm sunshine 
 came through the shop window. The 
 wheels of the various machines went 
 merrily round, and Richard felt that he 
 was in a scene of enchantment.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 39 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 GREATMAN BEGINS HIS EDUCATION IN 
 ELECTRICITY. 
 
 " I ^HERE was little in the first day to 
 dispel the illusion, or in the next. 
 The boy learned the lessons which were 
 set very fast, and he seemed to have ex- 
 traordinary facility in the use of his fingers. 
 The old man was a wonderful teacher, and 
 while he worked at his lathe, taught the 
 child to read. Richard learned also how 
 to connect wires to batteries, how to set 
 up batteries, and how to manipulate elec- 
 trical kevs in order to make electromaq;- 
 nets set dolls and animals in motion. 
 The old man was a magician who em- 
 ployed electricity as the men of the 
 East did the genii in the tales of the
 
 40 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 Arabian Nights, — to perform wonderful 
 feats. 
 
 Amono- the stransfe thinsfs tausfht Rich- 
 ard was to connect two wires with two 
 other wires which ran through a dark 
 room beneath the shop. In order to do 
 this, Richard was lowered by the old man 
 through a trap door in a sling made from 
 rope, with a bull's-eye lantern attached to 
 his breast. The light from this enabled 
 him to see how to attacli the two wires 
 he carried to the two others which ran 
 through the darkness of the room. It 
 took many lessons to teach the boy to do 
 this properly. The old man cautioned 
 ^l-te child not to touch the wires to which 
 .iC attached those he carried. He was 
 merely to afifix the latter by means of a 
 peculiar clasp. 
 
 In time Richard got to do this mys- 
 terious service completely to his teacher's 
 satisfaction. He was then taught to re-
 
 The Electrical Boy. 41 
 
 move the covering from the wires, and to 
 bring the copper of the wire he carried 
 into contact with the copper of the con- 
 ductors in the room below. All this had 
 to be done while the boy was suspended 
 through a trap door by means of a rope. 
 Richard took great pleasure in obeying 
 his master and in practising the strange 
 things he taught him. The quick natural 
 intelligence of the child strangely resem- 
 bled the electrical influence which was 
 also at the beck and call of the old man. 
 When Richard could affix the wires he 
 carried to those in the cellar with cer- 
 tainty and to the complete satisfaction of 
 the teacher, he was shown two great 
 wires which ran alons^ the side of the 
 building in which the shop was situ- 
 ated, some distance below the window. 
 The old man said that when niorht came 
 he would lower Richard down to those 
 wires and let him repeat the lesson he
 
 42 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 had been taught in the dark room 
 beneath the shop. Accordingly, when 
 night came, the boy was lowered from a 
 window with great care by the old man, 
 and the child removed the coating from 
 the wires by scraping w'ith a sharp knife, 
 and af^xed the wires he carried by means 
 of a peculiar clasp, one wire to each of 
 the two which ran along the side of the 
 building at a dizzy height above the alley- 
 way below. 
 
 This operation the small boy learned to 
 do with certainty, observing all the pre- 
 cautions which had been taught him. He 
 was never to touch the bare copper with 
 his hands, for the old man said a snake 
 would bite him if he did. 
 
 It was only on dark and stormy nights 
 that Richard was lowered out of the win- 
 dow to affix the wires. After he had done 
 this, he went to bed, knowing that he 
 would be aroused in a few hours to
 
 The Electrical Boy. 43 
 
 be lowered again from the window to 
 unclasp the wires which led into the win- 
 dows of the old man's shop from the great 
 wires below the window. 
 
 The boy's intelligence grew very fast, 
 and he fell to watching the strange opera- 
 tions of his master instead of going to 
 sleep as he was bidden. From his bed 
 he could see the old man bring the ends 
 of the wires that led to the wires outside 
 the window to litde glass globes which 
 lighted up brilliantly the moment they 
 were touched to these wires. Some- 
 times the old man led the wires to strange 
 machines, and their wheels began to move 
 and to whirl. 
 
 Occasionally another queer looking man 
 — queerer looking than Richard's master 
 even — visited the shop, and the two men 
 worked together late into the night. On 
 one occasion Richard saw them lead the 
 wires he had brought into the window to
 
 44 T^^ Electrical Boy. 
 
 what seemed a great bird, attached to a 
 toy balloon. To Richard's astonishment, 
 the bird and balloon began to fly around 
 the room with the wires trailing from it. 
 He heard the men laus^h with delisfht. 
 
 The visitor said, " We can run an over- 
 head wire from Boston to New York, 
 attach a trolley wire to it, and our flying- 
 machine can soar over the houses and 
 trees. If we only had some money we 
 could prove this to every one's satisfac- 
 tion." The man suddenly checked him- 
 self, and looked toward Richard's bunk. 
 " Is your boy asleep } " he whispered to 
 Richard's master. 
 
 The old man nodded, and taking a 
 candle held it full in Richard's face. The 
 boy feigned to be asleep, and stood the 
 test, breathing soundly. The two men 
 then turned again to the flying-machine, 
 and tried all manner of experiments with 
 it. The little electrical motor which set it
 
 "To PaCHARD'S ASTONISHMENT, THE BIRD AND THE BALLOON 
 BEGAN TO ELY AROUND THE ROOM." — Pdjje -i4.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 45 
 
 in motion was changed to another larger 
 one ; the balloon portion was modified in 
 shape, and different sized wings or vanes 
 were added to it. These changes required 
 patient labor, and Richard insensibly fell 
 asleep, to dream of floating over land and 
 sea on the wings of electricity. He was 
 aroused before dawn to be lowered out of 
 the window to disconnect the wires. And 
 so night after night was passed during 
 many months. One evening the flying- 
 machines were tried again, and Richard's 
 master was in long consultation with the 
 same man who so frequently visited the 
 shop. The two men were evidently angry 
 with each other, for they disputed hotly over 
 the mechanism. In the midst of their 
 wrangling a bell sounded in the shop. 
 
 " Some one is entering below," whis- 
 pered the old man, hoarsely. " I arranged 
 an electrical circuit which would be made 
 on the entrance of any one."
 
 4^ The Electrical Boy. 
 
 Thus saying, he and his companion 
 hurriedly took the parts of the flying- 
 machine and certain other inventions, and 
 stood in an eager, listening attitude at the 
 head of the stairs. Presently they rushed 
 back into the room. The old man hustled 
 Richard out of bed ; the lights were ex- 
 tinguished ; the two wires were thrown out 
 of the window, and the men and the boy 
 stumbled in the darkness down a back 
 stairway. They were hotly pursued ; for 
 they had hardly gained the street before 
 footsteps could be heard on the stairway. 
 The men quickly separated, the old man 
 taking Richard with him. In a few mo- 
 ments he suddenly changed his plans, and 
 telling Richard that he must shift for 
 himself, he disappeared in the labyrinth 
 of streets. Richard stood irresolute for a 
 moment. Was he to be thrust again with- 
 out friends or money upon the strange 
 world ? He resolved to return to the shop
 
 The Electrical Boy. 47 
 
 and see what had happened. Accordingly 
 he sought the entrance to the place which 
 had sheltered him during the past months, 
 and for which he felt a strono; affection. 
 He found the shop full of men who were 
 accompanied by policemen. Richard stood 
 in the doorway of what had been the only 
 pleasant home he had known, and saw 
 it filled with strange men who ransacked 
 every nook. 
 
 One of the men said to the others, 
 " How the old fellow connected those 
 wires to the line wires, and stole our 
 electricity, I don't see." 
 
 The other men went to the windows 
 and looked out. Richard felt that he had 
 a personal interest in the matter, and ac- 
 cordingly stood behind the door and 
 peered through the crack. 
 
 " No one can tell how long the man 
 stole our electricity," continued the first 
 speaker. " In the middle of the night the
 
 48 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 electric lights on our circuit often went 
 out, and in the morning our men, ex- 
 amining the line, would find it all right. 
 No one could see that the insulation had 
 been scratched off the wires beneath this 
 window. In fact it is impossible to reach 
 the wires, apparently, from this window or 
 from the street. Here are the wires con- 
 nected, however, and the thief has fled." 
 
 " Let us place a man here in hiding," 
 said another speaker. " The old fellow 
 will come back after a time to his haunt, 
 and we shall catch him."
 
 The Electrical Boy. 49 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 GREATMAN IS THROWN ON THE WORLD 
 AGAIN. 
 
 p ICHARD crept slowly and stealthily 
 down the dark stairway. He seemed 
 to have suddenly grown older under the 
 tension of feeling to which he had been 
 subjected. He must find the old man who 
 had been so kind to him, and warn him o: 
 the man who lay in wait for him. Was it 
 possible that his benefactor was doing 
 wrong .f* What was right, and what was 
 wrons:.'* He knew that drinkins: and fio-ht- 
 ing were wrong, for his mother had told him 
 so. When the boy reached the street, he 
 stood irresolute, not knowing where to go. 
 He must warn the old man ; yet where 
 should he find him ? Perhaps the best plan 
 4
 
 50 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 would be to bide near tbe door. Tbis 
 tbe boy proceeded to do. He bad not 
 calculated, bowever, upon tbe pangs of 
 bunger. Toward tbe middle of tbe fol- 
 lowing day be left bis biding-place, and 
 proceeded into tbe crowded streets. He 
 remembered tbat Bill bad obtained some 
 pennies by begging, wbicb bad been con- 
 verted into buns. Ricbard accordingly 
 stood near a building into wbicb people 
 were streaming, took off bis bat, and beld 
 out bis band. He did not reflect tbat 
 tbe old man bad fitted bim out in a fairly 
 respectable suit of clotbes. It is true tbat 
 tbe boy wore an old man's bat and an old 
 man's pair of sboes ; but be looked well 
 cared for. He was not tbe tattered little 
 specimen of bumanity wbo figured as 
 Bill's brotber on tbe nigbt tbey botb 
 stood in front of tbe tbeatre. Tbe boy s 
 appearance evoked laugbter ratber tban 
 pity ; and a number of newsboys set upon
 
 The Electrical Boy. 51 
 
 him, tore off his old hat, and used it as 
 a football. Others caught hold of his 
 lono^ coat-tail, and twirled him about. In 
 the scrimmage the big shoes came off, and 
 they were soon flying overhead, aimed 
 at the hat, which was thrown up in the 
 air. Richard stood at length with his 
 back to the wall, his face deathly white, 
 warding off the attacks of his tormenters 
 with elbow in front of his face. 
 
 At length, to his delight, he saw Bill, 
 who had rescued him before, and he cried 
 out, " Bill, Bill, help me ! " 
 
 " Well, I declare ! " exclaimed Bill, push- 
 ing aside the other newsboys. " Here 's 
 an old friend of mine. Come, you stop 
 now," — to a boy who was tormenting Rich- 
 ard. The boy not minding Bill's words, 
 the latter coolly knocked him down, and 
 remarked to the other tormenters that he 
 stood ready to treat the rest in the same 
 way. This was his friend ; it would be
 
 52 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 well to bring back the hat and shoes, If 
 they knew what was good for them. Two 
 boys accordingly brought up one of the 
 big shoes, bending heavily and grotesquely, 
 as if it were a great burden sufHcient to 
 nearly break their backs. Bill gave them 
 a twist this way and that, and said, " Come, 
 stop your fooling ; no more of it, if you 
 know what is good for you." 
 
 The boys brought up the other shoe 
 and the hat, making low bows to Richard. 
 Then with a sudden shout they cried, 
 " Times ! Herald ! Sun ! " and rushed off, 
 filling the street with their clamor. Bill 
 looked at his bundle of newspapers, and 
 apparently wished to be off too ; but a 
 certain interest and curiosity in his little 
 friend detained him. He would like to 
 know what the policeman had done to 
 him, and where he had obtained those 
 queer clothes. 
 
 " Look here, young chap," said he ;
 
 The Electrical Boy. 53 
 
 " take some of these papers, and see if 
 you can sell em. I 'U give you a com- 
 mission on what you sell." Richard had 
 not the slightest notion of the nature of 
 a commission ; but he took the papers, 
 and followed Bill into the thick of the 
 crowd, imitating his cry of "Herald! 
 Tribune! terrible murder!" He felt faint 
 with hunger; but excitement buoyed him 
 up. Finally Bill sat down on the granite 
 steps of the post-ofifice building, and made 
 a count of the papers. Richard had re- 
 ceived more money than the papers he 
 had sold amounted to ; for many persons 
 had been amused by his nondescript little 
 fif^ure, and had rushed away without wait- 
 ing for change. 
 
 Bill o-ave a lono: whistle as he counted 
 the change, and remarked, — 
 
 " I guess you '11 be a good partner for 
 me. Come, let 's get something to eat." 
 Thus saying he arose, and took Richard
 
 54 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 into a bakery, where he bought the most 
 indigestible and highest colored articles 
 that were obtainable for a few pennies. 
 The two boys then retired to a seat in a 
 public park, and Richard told Bill what 
 had happened during the months they had 
 been separated. Bill heard the account 
 of the old man, and his queer flying birds 
 held by wires, with great scepticism. 
 "Wires couldn't make a bird fly. Guess 
 the wires were only to hold the bird, just 
 as a toy balloon is held." He did not see 
 why the old man wanted to lower Rich- 
 ard out of the window to attach the wires 
 to the electric-light wires. 
 
 " The men said that electricity came in 
 on the wires," replied Richard. " What 
 is electricity } " 
 
 Bill answered, out of the abundance of 
 his knowledsfe, — 
 
 "Why, electricity is all round us. It's 
 in those electric lights yonder. It *
 
 The Elect7'ical Boy. 55 
 
 makes the tickers in the telegraph-office 
 work." 
 
 " Well, it made the bird fly," continued 
 Richard ; " and the old man said we should 
 all go flying over the tops of the houses in 
 the machine with a trolley wire running 
 along an overhead wire. That is just 
 what they said. I wish I could find the 
 old man, for he was kind to me, and I 
 want to tell him there 's a man waiting 
 to catch him." 
 
 " I guess he 's skipped," remarked Bill. 
 " He knows too much to venture back. 
 You are the completest daisy I 've met, — 
 but you seem to know how to make 
 money." 
 
 Bill told Richard that he had risen in 
 the world since last they met. He had 
 several boys working for him selling 
 papers, and he proposed to enlarge his 
 business. The worst of it was that old 
 Smiles, where he slept for the night, in-
 
 56 The Elcch'ical Boy. 
 
 sisted upon taking a large part of his 
 earnings and those of the other boys for 
 nights' lodgings. Bill said that he would 
 take Richard home with him, and Smiles 
 would orive him a corner. Before turnino: 
 in, however, for the night, the last edition 
 of newspapers must be hawked about the 
 streets. 
 
 Thus saying. Bill arose, and accompa- 
 nied closely by Richard, repaired to the 
 offices where the newspapers were ob- 
 tained. On getting his bundle, he dis- 
 tributed them to several boys who were 
 apparently under him ; and he gave a 
 portion also to Richard, and instructed 
 him to cry the papers in front of several 
 theatres and hotels, and he would join 
 him and take him to Smiles's when the 
 newspapers were sold. Accordingly, Rich- 
 ard took the papers, and proceeded through 
 the crowded streets, crying out the names 
 of the papers lustily.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 57 
 
 Richard as a business venture for Bill 
 proved very successful ; for the queer look- 
 ing little boy in his old man's hat and 
 his large shoes, with his shrill but musical 
 young voice, attracted the attention of the 
 merry theatre-goers and the young gentle- 
 men who were passing in and out of their 
 great club-houses. After a while, how- 
 ever, every one had bought his evening 
 paper, and Richard received no more 
 pennies. The night was growing cold, 
 and the little boy felt afraid that his com- 
 panion might not find him. There was 
 a pathetic tone in his newspaper cry which 
 touched the heart of a young man who 
 was hurrying with a friend to the theatre. 
 He stopped, and felt in his pocket for a 
 piece of money to give the boy; but his 
 companion hurried him on, saying, " That 
 whine is all put on, old fellow; don't 
 throw your money away," and he pro- 
 ceeded to tell of young imposters whom
 
 58 TJie Electrical Boy. 
 
 he had seen in the streets of New York. 
 Richard ran after the two young men, in 
 the hopes of selling another paper, and on 
 being repulsed, sat down on the steps of 
 a closed store to rest himself. Presently 
 he curled himself up and fell fast asleep. 
 While he was in this position the young 
 gentleman and young girl who had given 
 the boy some pennies on the rainy night, 
 months ago, passed by. The little girl 
 drew her brother's attention to the sleep- 
 ing boy, and both bent over him. A 
 great feeling of compassion was in their 
 hearts as they saw the pinched face rest- 
 ing upon the bundle of newspapers. The 
 little girl wished to take the boy home, 
 and give him a good suit of clothes and 
 something to eat. Her brother smiled, 
 and said this was impossible. They would 
 put a quarter of a dollar in his hand. So 
 Mabel Gresham took the quarter from her 
 brother and closed the little boy's hand
 
 The Electrical Boy, 59 
 
 upon it. Richard awoke suddenly from 
 his sound sleep, and cried out quickly, 
 " Herald, Times, Sun — terrible murder ! " 
 Then his large eyes rested upon the two 
 persons who stood before him long enough 
 to store up in his boyish mind a picture 
 which was destined to influence his life. 
 
 Mabel Gresham followed her brother, 
 looking back with a face of such pity 
 and interest that it made the little chap 
 draw sobbing breaths — he knew not 
 why. 
 
 The failure of Bill to reappear, and 
 the sense of utter loneliness, began to 
 have their effect, and he set off on a 
 trot, wailing in an undertone. He had 
 not proceeded far when he met Bill. 
 
 The joy of Richard at seeing his pro- 
 tector was so great that it fairly over- 
 whelmed Bill, who was disposed at first 
 to take a matter-of fact view of the situa- 
 tion. He let Richard caress his hand,
 
 6o The Electrical Boy. 
 
 feeling glad that there were none of the 
 other boys round to see ; and counted 
 the number of Richard's pennies. He 
 was astonished at the success of his young 
 lieutenant, and said that he would hire 
 Richard to sell papers for him. 
 
 On the way to old Smiles's tenement, 
 Bill informed Richard that there were all 
 sorts of chaps in the tenement, and he 
 did not like the things some of the boys 
 did. As for himself, he had determined 
 to stop larking, and to make money. He 
 was going to ride in his carriage some 
 day, and have a splendid house. Richard 
 hoped to be remembered when this for- 
 tune came, and Bill promised not to forget 
 him. 
 
 Certainly the boys' quarters for the night 
 did not seem to be on the road to fortune. 
 Old Smiles kept a junk store in the base- 
 ment of his tenement, and let the rooms 
 above to many poor families. The garret
 
 The Electrical Boy. 6i 
 
 was the place of refuge of street Arabs 
 who could give five cents for a night's 
 lod2:ing:. The larQ-e bare room under 
 the rafters was fitted with shelves against 
 the walls, and these shelves were let to the 
 boys for beds. 
 
 When Bill arrived with his charge, he 
 was greeted by shouts from ten or fifteen 
 newsboys, who had already secured their 
 shelves for the night. Richard's protec- 
 tor was evidently a man of authority, for 
 he speedily quelled the turbulent crowd, 
 and proceeded to ask the boys for an ac- 
 count of their sales of newspapers. Rich- 
 ard saw pennies deposited upon the floor, 
 and heard Bill exact an account from 
 each boy of the sales. Then Bill pre- 
 sented Richard to the boys, and showed 
 them how successful the small boy had 
 been. One boy remarked that he could 
 make twice the amount with Richard's 
 hat and shoes. The levity of this boy
 
 62 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 was quickly crushed by Bill, and he then 
 told the boys that he proposed to take 
 them into the country on the morrow. 
 Various suggestions were quickly made 
 in regard to desirable directions ; but Bill 
 Lark settled the question by saying de- 
 cidedly that he proposed to conduct the 
 party. Richard went to sleep with a 
 happy anticipation of something pleasur- 
 able to come. Bill had put a bundle of 
 old newspapers under the little boy's head, 
 and had thrown an old ragged coat over 
 him.
 
 The Electrical Boy, 63 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Greatman's Friend, and Electricity 
 AND Carrier Pigeons. 
 
 Tj^ARLY in the morning the boys set 
 out under the lead of Bill Lark, took 
 a horse-car into the suburbs of the city, 
 and then struck for the open country. 
 The boys were like puppy-dogs released 
 from their kennels, and bounded over the 
 fields and rolled in the grass, which was 
 full of white daisies. Richard had never 
 seen green fields studded with daisies 
 before, and he grasped at all he could as 
 he bounded along with the rest. There 
 was a strange joy in his heart as he heard 
 the birds sing and the sound of the brook 
 over the stones. The great distant city 
 with its loathsome dens was forgotten.
 
 64 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 Bill Lark had once been taken into the 
 country by a benevolent association, to- 
 gether with a hundred other little waifs, 
 and had been kept under such strict sur- 
 veillance by sharp-voiced people who were 
 continually issuing restrictive orders not 
 to touch anything, that he had resolved 
 some day to be master himself and con- 
 duct some boys into the country, and show 
 them how to have a good time. It re- 
 quired, however, all his generalship to 
 keep the wild things within bounds. They 
 climbed trees, broke off branches, slashed 
 one another with them, got to fighting, 
 went in swimmins: and came near drown- 
 ing, stole into gardens and brought away 
 early vegetables. Bill's voice became 
 hoarse from issuing orders, and when he 
 got his crowd of stragglers together in a 
 clover field, he made them sit down to 
 hear an address from him which was sin- 
 gularly like that given by the disagreeable
 
 The Electrical Boy. 65 
 
 man who conducted the party on which 
 Bill had gotten his idea for a personally 
 conducted expedition. 
 
 While Bill was speaking a boy appeared, 
 accompanied by a fierce bull-dog. This 
 young gentleman, seeing some ragamuffins 
 in his father's clover-field, instantly set the 
 fierce dog on them. The dog sprang at 
 Richard. Bill immediately grasped the 
 animal by the throat. The dog turned 
 upon the larger boy ; and Richard, terrified 
 at the attack of the savage beast upon his 
 friend, seized hold of its hind leg, and 
 strove with all his might to save Bill, 
 while the other boys fled in various direc- 
 tions. Bill kept his hands upon the throat 
 of the animal and tried to keep its teeth 
 from biting. The boy felt that the strug- 
 gle was desperate. If he released his hold 
 there was no hope for him ; he therefore 
 exerted all his strength, and with set teeth 
 and mouth which foamed with the effort, 
 s
 
 66 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 with eyes which made Richard scream 
 from apprehension of great evil to come, 
 tightened his grasp on the bull-dog's 
 throat. The animal choked and foamed ; 
 the blood-shot eyes protruded from its 
 head. Bill's grasp was a death-grasp, and 
 was Hke steel. In a moment the boy 
 forced the dog to the ground, pressed 
 his knees against its panting body, and 
 then the dog became quiet and still. Bill 
 looked up at Richard with a blanched face 
 and white lips, and said, " I Ve killed him; 
 I 've strangled him. Where 's the boy } " 
 
 The owner of the dog was nowhere to 
 be seen. 
 
 *' He 's gone back to the house for some 
 men to arrest us," said Bill. " I 've killed 
 his dog; we must make ourselves scarce." 
 Thus saying, with one look at the pros- 
 trate animal, he fled, followed closely by 
 Richard. The two boys scampered 
 through the lanes where they had been so
 
 The Electrical Boy. 67 
 
 happy, doubled through copses of hazel 
 where they had heard the birds sing, and 
 after a long run came to the low hovels of 
 one of the suburbs of the city. Strange 
 to think that the beautiful pure country 
 with its clover fields, its brooks, and its 
 birds, was an unsafe place for them, and 
 that their only safety was in the crowded, 
 impure haunts of the great city, where 
 not a green thing or a flower was to be 
 seen ! 
 
 When Bill reached the neighborhood of 
 the newspaper offices he seemed to feel 
 that his foot was again upon his native 
 heath. He was joined at length by the 
 other boys who had accompanied him into 
 the country ; and while they waited for the 
 next edition of the newspapers, Bill told 
 the story of his adventures a hundred times, 
 and exhibited the muscle of his arms to an 
 admiring throng. When the papers ap- 
 peared, he distributed them to his adher-
 
 68 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 ents, giving them specific orders, and then 
 ran off, hatless, with his curly locks 
 blown back by the wind, crying, " Herald ! 
 Tribune ! Terrible fight atween a boy 
 and a bull-dog! " 
 
 The good feeling between Bill and 
 Richard deepened with their knowledge of 
 each other. " He 's a plucky little chap," 
 said Bill to his acquaintances. " He 
 caught right hold of that bull-dog and 
 yanked like a good one." The boy said 
 to himself, " Richard Greatman is very 
 fond of me, and I like to have somebody 
 like me." 
 
 The lesson of distrust Is learned very 
 early. The owner of the bull-dog might 
 have tried the interesting experiment of 
 inviting the newsboys to his house and 
 giving them a lunch. He might have 
 taken them into the park to see the swans 
 and the deer, and have dismissed them 
 with their pockets laden with the fruit that
 
 The Electrical Boy. 69 
 
 was rotting on the ground, and with their 
 hands full of the roses that would be too 
 full blown if they were not picked. It 
 would have been an interesting experi- 
 ment, we repeat, and one well worth try- 
 ing. The owner of the dog tried an 
 experiment, the origin of which is lost 
 in the dark ages, and which has never 
 been successful. He did his part to edu- 
 cate a class whose hands would be asfainst 
 the recognized order of society. He could 
 be called an excellent teacher of distrust. 
 You and I, however, do not want our 
 fields overrun by riotous boys, the limbs 
 of our trees broken down, and our birds 
 stoned. This is what happens now; and 
 the times seem to be ripe for trying an 
 experiment such as we have suggested to 
 the owner of the dosf. 
 
 O 
 
 The lesson in distrust which the world 
 was teaching Bill Lark and Richard was 
 often repeated. One afternoon the boys
 
 70 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 saw the doors of a church open, and cau- 
 tiously entered the edifice. They were 
 standing awe-struck before the altar, won- 
 dering at the inscriptions on the wall, 
 some of which seemed to be addressed 
 to them, when a portly sexton with a loud 
 " St ! " and a stamp of the foot drove them 
 out of the church. They hung about the 
 door, however, for people had begun to 
 enter, and they remarked the obsequious- 
 ness of the sexton to the well-dressed. 
 We understand how to develop a dry 
 plate. There must not be rough hand- 
 ling, rude jostling of the silver molecules. 
 The treatment must be careful and sys- 
 tematic. The first impression rules all 
 the subsequent treatment ; and the human 
 brain is not unlike a dry plate. 
 
 Bill Lark's career had been greatly in- 
 fluenced by a chance remark of Henry 
 Gresham. The boy had come to the 
 window of the club in obedience to a
 
 The Electrical Boy. 71 
 
 summons from the young man. Having 
 bought a newspaper, the young man asked 
 him if he would take a message to a 
 neighboring hotel for ten cents. The 
 boy signified his willingness, and the 
 young man told him he w^ould pay him 
 on his bringing the answer to his mes- 
 sage. Bill ran round the corner, and 
 hired another boy to do the errand for 
 two cents, and employed his time in 
 selling newspapers meanwhile. Henry 
 Gresham was informed by his club friends 
 that the boy he hired to run his errand 
 was selling newspapers in front of the 
 club. The young man, in high indigna- 
 tion, beckoned to the boy. At that in- 
 stant Bill's messenger came back, and Bill 
 delivered the message to Gresham, ex- 
 plaining the transaction with, " You see, 
 sir, I could hire a pair of legs, and keep 
 the sale of the newspapers." 
 
 " You will succeed in the world, my
 
 72 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 little fellow," exclaimed Gresham, patting 
 him on the back. " You will be governor 
 of the State yet." 
 
 " The little chap was not honorable," 
 said a friend of Gresham, " in undertak- 
 ing your errand, without intending to 
 carry it out himself." 
 
 " That is too fine a point of honor for 
 a street Arab," replied Gresham. "Doubt- 
 less he should have told me that he in- 
 tended to hire some one to work for him ; 
 but this is expecting too much from a boy 
 that has probably never had a father or 
 
 mother who could teach him what honor 
 • >) 
 
 IS. 
 
 An old gentleman, who overheard the 
 conversation of the young men, remarked, 
 " The sense of honor develops as one 
 grows older. A child does not realize 
 what injustice and wrong is often done by 
 his not understanding what his obligations 
 to society are."
 
 The Electrical Boy. 73 
 
 Henry Gresham thought that this might 
 be true ; he resolved to help the boy, for 
 there was the germ of something that 
 might be a powerful agent for good or 
 for evil. The resolve to help Bill Lark 
 slumbered in the young man's brain. 
 Whenever he saw the boy actively moving 
 on the street and marshalling his adher- 
 ents, distributing papers to one boy and 
 directing another, the resolve came near 
 being executed. A luxurious life, how- 
 ever, and the pursuit of his own pleasures, 
 prevented the poor boy from receiving 
 the fruit of the young man's sympathy. 
 Bill Lark was out in all v/eathers, in 
 shoes from which the toes protruded, 
 and in thin clothes which had to an- 
 swer for both summer and winter. The 
 habit of putting his little fists in his 
 ragged pockets gave a bent look to a 
 figure which was naturally straight and 
 alert.
 
 74 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 A word properly timed can have great 
 influence on us all. The boys capacity 
 for making others work for him had 
 been recognized by the most popular 
 young man of the club, and the boy's 
 ready mind dwelt upon enlarged plans of 
 action. He was a born leader, and he 
 speedily had a force of small boys work- 
 ing for him, among whom was Richard 
 Greatman. 
 
 As the days and months sped on, Bill 
 Lark and Richard became very intimate. 
 The older boy found that Richard could 
 telegraph, and read the messages outside 
 the telegraph offices, and he strove hard 
 to learn the art ; but he made little 
 progress. The smaller boy had an instinct 
 for electrical apparatus. The instruction 
 in the old man's shop had been his 
 only education, and he had profited 
 much from it. He remembered how the 
 old man made batteries from broken bot-
 
 The Electrical Boy. 75 
 
 ties by half filling these broken bottles 
 with a solution of sulphate of copper, 
 and placing little porous flower-pots, with 
 corks in the holes at the bottom, in the 
 solution of sulphate of copper, and fill- 
 ing the flow^er-pots with salt and water. 
 When a piece of copper was placed in the 
 sulphate of copper and a piece of zinc 
 in the salt and water, on connecting the 
 copper and the zinc by a wire a current of 
 electricity was obtained, which was suf^- 
 cient, if several cells were made, to work 
 a little electro-magnet and to ring bells. 
 Richard strove to imitate what he had 
 helped the old man to do ; and the other 
 boys in the garret looked on when they 
 were not too sleepy to keep awake. 
 
 Bill's strong points did not include the 
 use of his fingers ; but he could use his 
 head to Q-et others to w'ork for him. He 
 had one recreation, however, which also in- 
 terested Richard greatly. This was flying
 
 76 TJie Electrical Boy. 
 
 carrier pigeons. Bill had built a dove-cot 
 in a window of the attic with his own 
 hands, and had raised a little colony of 
 these swift birds. Each carrier pigeon 
 had a brass ring slipped upon its leg 
 when it was young. As it grew older, 
 the brass ring could not pass over the 
 cla.ws, and could not therefore be lost. 
 On this brass ring was inscribed Bill's 
 name and address. Bill had an elderly 
 acquaintance, an engineer on the fast 
 express to Chicago, who was also inter- 
 ested in carrier pigeons. This friend 
 often took a pigeon in a basket on his 
 engine, and when he got two or three 
 hundred miles from New York he re- 
 leased the pigeon ; and the little bird 
 would flutter around in the air for a 
 while, rising higher and higher, and finally 
 from a great height would strike out 
 through the vast space for its New York 
 home. Its arrival in New York was care-
 
 The Electrical Boy. 77 
 
 fully recorded by whoever happened to 
 be near the dove-cot. The small boys 
 knew that Bill's friend, the engineer, 
 bet money on the time of arrival of the 
 birds; and desirous of being like men, 
 they also bet their pennies on the birds. 
 Bill could not see how betting could be 
 interesting. He was desirous of seeing 
 how far the birds could be carried, and 
 yet find their way back. fie delighted 
 in receiving news of birds which had been 
 found, and had been given up for lost, and 
 he was desirous of owning birds which 
 had broken previous records. These re- 
 cords were carefully given in a daily 
 paper. 
 
 The intimacy between the engineer and 
 the small boys did not extend beyond the 
 carrier pigeons. Bill often looked long- 
 ingly at the great engine of the fast ex- 
 press as it panted in the station ready to 
 take its flying trip. The shining brass,
 
 jS The Electrical Boy. 
 
 the great levers, and the multitude of me- 
 chanical curiosities filled him with a great 
 desire to know more oi them. The enei- 
 neer might have taken the little boy with 
 him and gained a love that was reaching 
 out eagerly for some human recognition. 
 The engineer had his own little boys at 
 home. It was sufficient, however, to him 
 to know that they went to school regu- 
 larly and had food to eat. He never ex- 
 plained anything to his own boys, — that 
 was a teacher's business. Why should he 
 show any interest in a street Arab, out- 
 side the matter of the pigeons } Children 
 were a nuisance, anyway. A cigar in the 
 engine-house after a quick run to Chicago, 
 and the excitement of betting on the car- 
 rier pigeons' swift homeward flight, were 
 far more to him than human love, w»hich 
 he spent his whole life in repulsing. Was 
 there not something higher and nobler in 
 the thrill and throbs of the pigeon's heart
 
 The Electrical Boy. 79 
 
 as it drooped its wings after a flight of 
 three hundred miles over cities, rivers, 
 and forests, and crept into a dove-cot to 
 find its mates, than in this dull, unrespon- 
 sive human heart ? 
 
 Bill Lark concluded after a time to 
 enter the employment of a telegraph com- 
 pany as a messenger boy. He retained 
 his command of the newspaper boys, and 
 succeeded in obtaining a place also for 
 Richard as a telegraph messenger. 
 
 It is probable that the interest in caring 
 for the birds and in managing their flights 
 saved the boys from many perils. Their 
 time was fully taken up after they re- 
 turned from their daily work in feeding 
 their birds, in building slight additions to 
 the dove-cot, or in entering an account of 
 the flights in a little diary which they kept 
 as one of their choicest possessions. 
 
 Richard discovered one day that an un- 
 used telegraph wire was strung over the
 
 8o The Electrical Boy. 
 
 roof of Siniles's house. The telegraph 
 men at the office said that it had better 
 remain up, for some time it might be 
 wanted again. Richard traced its course, 
 and discovered that it led to a distant 
 part of the city, and crossed the engine- 
 house into which Bills acquaintance, the 
 engineer, ran the engine after bringing in 
 the fast express. This wire was what is 
 called a " dead " wire ; it was inactive, and 
 not connected with a battery or source 
 of electricity. Richard conceived the plan 
 of telegraphing to Bill's friend, the en- 
 gineer, the arrival of the birds. He ac- 
 cordingly repaired some old instruments 
 which he had begged at the telegraph 
 office, and placed them on the line. He 
 made a battery out of pieces of iron and 
 bits of electric-light carbons which he 
 found under the arc lamps in the streets, 
 and filled it with salt and water. He 
 connected the dead wire by means of a
 
 The Electrical Boy 
 
 8i 
 
 piece of copper wire with the iron pole 
 of this battery. The carbon pole he con- 
 nected with the water pipe in the attic. 
 The dead wire was thus in circuit with the 
 
 f^m^ 
 
 ground. At the engine-house the dead wire 
 
 was also connected by means of a copper 
 
 wire with the electro-magnet or sounder, 
 
 and the wire from the electro-magnet ran 
 
 to the earth. Whenever Richard touched 
 
 his key the line was connected with the 
 6
 
 82 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 battery, and a current of electricity passed 
 over the wire, which was no longer dead. 
 The current flowed through the coil of 
 the electro-magnet. An electro-magnet 
 is simply a number of turns of copper wire 
 on a spool, — like a spool of thread, with 
 a nail thrust through the hole in its 
 middle. The electro-magnet became an 
 attracting magnet, and drew a little piece 
 of soft* iron to itself with a loud click. 
 When Richard took his finsfers from his 
 key the bit of iron sprang back, since it 
 was connected with a spring. A certain 
 number of taps separated by suitable 
 intervals of time made up an alphabet, by 
 means of which the arrival of the birds 
 was announced.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 83 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 GREATMAN IS LEFT ALONE AT ONE END 
 OF THE LINE. 
 
 npHE guardian angels of the little boys 
 set their fingers to work in making 
 telegraph keys with which they could 
 break and make the circuit of their salt 
 battery, in rewinding the coils of the old 
 telegraphic sounders, and in connecting 
 them properly to the dead telegraph wire 
 which ran across the great city, and 
 making it no longer dead, but capable 
 of responding to the touch of humanity. 
 They were wise guardian angels, for they 
 employed the restless fingers to quiet the 
 restless brains of the small boys. There 
 was something, too, in Bill's and Richard's 
 natures which kept them from the vicious
 
 84 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 habits of many of the other boys. While 
 boys with kind parents were at pleasant 
 schools, carefully tended, nourished, and 
 protected from the contact with evil asso- 
 ciates, Richard Greatman and Bill Lark 
 were thrown upon the world without a 
 protector, and were submitted to the se- 
 verest temptations. The little attic in old 
 Smiles's house was a stage alternately for 
 comedy and tragedy. 
 
 Richard was approached on one occa- 
 sion by the worst boy in the colony to 
 see if he could be induced to join in the 
 robbery of a house. Richards indignant 
 refusal was apparently enjoyed by the boy. 
 The endeavor to enlist Richard was treated 
 as a great joke. Late one night, how- 
 ever, two policemen entered the attic, 
 and roused four of the boys from heavy 
 sleep. Richard shivered in his bunk as 
 he saw the terrified, guilty faces of his 
 companions. When they were borne
 
 The Electrical Boy. 85 
 
 away by the policemen, Richard left his 
 wretched bed and crept into the one in 
 which Bill slept. 
 
 " Did they do it ?" whispered Richard. 
 
 " I am afraid they did," replied Bill. 
 " I heard them whispering over some- 
 thing, and showing some jewelry to each 
 other." 
 
 Richard trembled, and his little hand 
 crept into Bill's. The next day he stood 
 in the rain with the crowd by the court- 
 house, and saw the four boys put into a 
 police van with hardened criminals, and 
 driven away. Could he ever forget the 
 look of shame on the faces of the boys 
 as the door of the van closed on them } 
 
 Other boys took the beds of those who 
 were arrested, and the dismal life in the 
 attic went on. There were no tender 
 hands to repair torn garments, to place 
 toilet articles on the rude tables, or to 
 give the atmosphere of a home.
 
 86 The Electrical Boy, 
 
 One night on his return from the day's 
 work, Richard found Bill very sick. He 
 had a high fever, and the noise made by 
 the other boys distressed him extremely. 
 Richard entreated the boys to be quiet, 
 and succeeded finally in his attempt. 
 Then he ran for a doctor, to whom he 
 had often carried telegraphic messages. 
 The serv^ant, seeing the livery of a tele- 
 graph boy, asked for the message in order 
 that he might carry it to his master. 
 Richard said that he desired to speak 
 with the doctor. He was told that he 
 must take his chance after several who 
 were already waiting. The small boy sat 
 in the luxurious office, wondering at the 
 pictures on the wall, at the comfortable 
 chairs, and the soft carpet beneath his 
 feet. A little child daintily dressed came 
 into the room while the telegraph boy sat 
 there, to seek for a book. Then the 
 mother followed the child. Neither saw
 
 The Electrical Boy. 87 
 
 the unkempt telegraph boy. The child 
 reached her arms up to the mother's neck, 
 and the beautiful woman bent down to 
 the child and kissed it, and the two passed 
 out like a vision. Richard's ears were 
 full of the moans of his little friend; he 
 must make haste to get the doctor, and it 
 seemed an age before the servant came 
 again to say that he was mistaken, and 
 that the doctor was not at home. Richard 
 hurried out. Where should he go ? He 
 bethought himself of a friendly apothecary 
 who had given him a glass of soda-water 
 once in payment for bringing him a tele- 
 graphic message. He would go to him. 
 
 The kind-hearted apothecary accompa- 
 nied Richard to Smiles's attic, and after 
 looking at the sick boy, went away, saying 
 that he would send a physician. Richard 
 sat in the dim light of a lamp beside Bill, 
 and thought how dreadful it would be to 
 lose his friend. They had had many con-
 
 8S The Electrical Boy. 
 
 versations together. Bill had given the 
 little boy a peep into a world of love and 
 sympathy. He had once put his arm 
 around Richard's neck. If Bill should be 
 taken away the attic would seem indeed 
 dreary. 
 
 The physician finally came and exam- 
 ined the sick boy, and left some medicine, 
 which was to be administered at regular 
 inter\^als. Richard sat watching through 
 the weary night. He did not go to the 
 telegraph ofhce on the following day. 
 There was no one else who would tend 
 the sick boy. The physician did not re- 
 turn as he had promised to do. 
 
 Mr. Augustus Swamm, a gentleman who 
 took an interest in Richard, looked in at 
 the central office and inquired for the 
 smart little telegraph boy. No one had 
 seen him that day. One of the messenger 
 boys who boarded at Smiles's said that 
 Richard was tending a sick boy. Mr.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 89 
 
 Swamm concluded to employ another boy. 
 He would like to see Richard when he 
 came again to his daily work. Mean- 
 while Richard never left his sick friend. 
 A carrier pigeon came in from its long 
 flight, and crept exhausted into its home, 
 while Richard watched. The bird's re- 
 turn was unnoticed. 
 
 The engineer sat in the engine-house, 
 smoking with his friends, expecting every 
 moment to hear the clicking of the electro- 
 magnet announce the return of a pigeon 
 which would break the fastest record, and 
 would win him a pretty sum of money on 
 a bet he had made. 
 
 " Do you remember," said Bill Lark, in 
 a moment s intermission of pain, " the 
 church we strolled into one afternoon, 
 where the sexton drove us out ? " 
 
 Richard had a very live recollection 
 of it. 
 
 " I am sort of afraid now when it grows
 
 90 The Electrical Boy 
 
 dark and I feel faint. I never used to be 
 afraid of the dark. The pictures of the 
 angels in the church and of that bright 
 place they were flying to is heaven, is n't 
 it.? And the church tells us how to get 
 there." 
 
 Richard believed that this was so. 
 
 " People must be sure that there is a 
 heaven, for there are lots of churches in 
 New York," murmured the boy, catching 
 his breath at a sudden accession of pain. 
 
 When Bill's mind cleared again, he 
 spoke of what he had intended to be when 
 he grew to be a man. He would have all 
 the poor boys work for him, and he would 
 give them warm shoes, and overcoats, and 
 plenty to eat. He would have a place in 
 the country with horses and dogs, and 
 allow the boys to roam over the fields, 
 and pick as many flowers as they wished. 
 
 " You are not having a good chance, 
 Richard," said the sick boy, " and I felt
 
 The Electrical Boy. 91 
 
 that I could give you a better. Oh, dear, 
 my mind is full of the way they carry poor 
 people away in pine boxes, — stumbling 
 down the stairs and out into the street, 
 and away no one knows where. I wish I 
 could see the pictures in the lighted 
 church and hear the sweet music, and 
 know that I shall be alive again." 
 
 In the depth of the night Richard had 
 fallen into a heavy sleep. He was awak- 
 ened by the touch of a hand which was 
 stretched in the darkness to him. He 
 held the hand to his breast and went to 
 sleep again, overcome by fatigue. He 
 dreamed that one of Bill's carrier pigeons 
 had made a flight which exceeded all pre- 
 vious records. It had flown throuofh 
 storms and blizzards, and stopping only 
 a moment to announce its coming, it 
 had mounted by successive spiral move- 
 ments until it had been lost in the blue 
 sky.
 
 92 Tlie Electrical Boy. 
 
 When the physician came again he 
 folded Bill's hands upon his breast. Rich- 
 ard shuddered, for he knew that his friend 
 was dead. He had seen the same look 
 upon the faces of children who had been 
 killed in the streets. 
 
 The grief of Richard for his friend dis- 
 turbed even the cold equanimity of old 
 Smiles, who had made hasty preparations 
 for ridding the house of Bill's body. The 
 other boys looked sober and terrified, and 
 scattered away out of the garret into the 
 busy glittering streets to forget in the 
 struggle of their young lives the death in 
 the garret. Richard would not leave the 
 form of his friend until he was rudely 
 pushed aside by men who had come with 
 a pine box, in which they placed Bill. 
 Richard stood in a kind of trance, and 
 watched the operation. When Bill's curly 
 head was shut from his sight he entreated 
 the men to wait till afternoon, until he
 
 The Electrical Boy. 93 
 
 could get some flowers to put on the 
 coffin. The rude undertakers looked at 
 each other at this singular request, and 
 shook their heads like automatons. Such 
 a thino: had never been heard of. The 
 cart was ready, and they must be off. 
 Richard flung himself on the coffin, and 
 said they should not take his friend away. 
 The men tried force, and finally, moved by 
 pity, one of the men told the boy they 
 would leave the body until three in the 
 afternoon. Then the boy fled past them 
 and out into the street. He made his 
 way to the horse-cars, taking the same 
 route which Bill had chosen on the day he 
 led the boys into the country. The boy 
 did not know that it was autumn, and that 
 daisies blossom only in the spring. On 
 reaching the fields, he looked in vain 
 for the flowers he remembered. The 
 birds, too, no lonoer sang^. Richard 
 roamed wildlv hither and thither, and was
 
 94 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 forced to gather some green leaves and 
 grasses. 
 
 Finally he passed a garden where the 
 flowers hung in great profusion over the 
 wall. He timidly plucked a few. The act 
 was perceived by a servant, who set out to 
 capture the depredator. Richard fled like 
 the wind. Why he should run he never 
 asked himself. The flowers grew over 
 the wall, and seemed to invite the passer- 
 by to gather them. The pursuer, who 
 was a strong man-servant, followed the 
 boy, determined to capture him. The two 
 ran up the hill and down the level 
 stretch toward the city. The boy was 
 light, but night watching and poor food 
 handicapped him severely. The servant 
 felt sure of ultimately overtaking the boy. 
 He was well kept and in excellent con- 
 dition, and the result was only a question 
 of time. How pitiless the whole world 
 seemed to the fleeing boy. If he should
 
 The Electrical Boy. 95 
 
 meet a man or a boy they would join 
 in the pursuit of him. Do not wild 
 animals turn with one accord upon the 
 unfortunate one in the flock ? Shortly 
 before the boy reached the devious streets 
 of the suburb, where he hoped to double 
 and wind in and out, and so throw his 
 pursuer off the track, a boy larger than 
 Richard rushed out, and succeeded in 
 holdinor him until the servant-man came 
 up. 
 
 Richard was taken to a lock-up, ac- 
 cused of being one of a band which had 
 committed various depredations in the 
 neighborhood. Richard protested his in- 
 nocence, and told the story of his search 
 for flowers. The policemen laughed, and 
 remarked that he had a pretty imagina- 
 tion, and had gotten up a story well calcu- 
 lated to catch soft hearts. Richard went 
 to each man at the ofhce of the superin- 
 tendent, and entreated to be believed.
 
 g6 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 The quick thought came to him that Bill 
 would be borne away, and no one would 
 tell Richard where. In imagination he 
 saw the rude men bearing the pine coffin 
 down the tenement stairs, with that dull 
 stamping of heavy feet which, alas ! he 
 had heard too often. As the reality of 
 the situation came over him, he thought 
 that his heart would break. The strong, 
 eager eyes lost their fire of pleading, and 
 began to fill with tears. 
 
 Richards story about his dead friend, 
 and his endeavor to get some flowers to 
 put on the coffin, was scouted. It required 
 more imagination than the average police- 
 man possessed to conceive that a street 
 Arab should have such sentiment. The 
 officers thought Richard's story a very 
 good joke. There was that judicious 
 touching of the pathetic memories in all 
 men's hearts, and the incongruous use of 
 them to shield one from the consequences
 
 The Elect i'ical Boy. 97 
 
 of stealing watermelons, that appealed to a 
 dry sense of humor. Richard heard his 
 story passed from assistant to assistant, 
 and heard himself referred to as a "deep 
 little chap." 
 
 Could the tears on the swollen eye- 
 lids, and the trembling tender lips be 
 false .f* Could the eloquent words which 
 he addressed to the officers in turn come 
 from a lying heart t Well, the boy must 
 be held till the court sat on the following 
 morning. The boy would have some sub- 
 stantial food and a bed to sleep in. But 
 the funeral and the flowers } Oh, that 
 was probably a made-up story. Even if it 
 were true, let the funeral ^o on without 
 the flowers, — they were not essential. 
 What could save that delicate sense of 
 sentiment in a street Arab's heart when 
 he saw it thus scouted? What could save 
 him from becoming hardened and blind to 
 the most beautiful side of this strange
 
 98 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 human life? The treasure that the child 
 brought with him into this world of proba- 
 tion was torn from him and thrown upon 
 an ash-heap and pronounced of no value. 
 
 Richard's little heart fluttered tumultu- 
 ously as he sat on the bunk behind the 
 iron bars in the lock-up. By the exertion 
 of powerful control he restrained himself 
 from screaming aloud and dashing himself 
 <igainst those bars. When night came, 
 the watchman saw the small boy sleeping 
 with his hands clasped tightly together. 
 He could not know that in Richard's 
 dreams Bill Lark's hand was between 
 those little palms. 
 
 In the morning Richard was taken 
 before the justice, and confronted with 
 an old gentleman whose fruit-garden had 
 been frequently despoiled by wild boys. 
 The old gentleman was sure that he had 
 caught a glimpse of Richard in his melon 
 patch, and he produced a tattered shoe
 
 The Electrical Boy. 99 
 
 which he had found in the garden after 
 the boys had taken liight. The court re- 
 quested Richard to put on the shoe, and 
 then dissolved into laughter, for the boy s 
 little feet were lost in the shoe. A lawyer 
 who was present told Richard to put both 
 his feet into the shoe, and when this was 
 successfully accomplished the justice dis- 
 missed the complaint against Richard, 
 and he was told that he was free to 2:0. 
 Richard set out on a trot to the city, 
 groaning as he hastened. No tears rested 
 on his eyelids ; but the pathetic whining 
 noise he made seemed to help him. They 
 must have carried Bill Lark away. Why 
 should he run } On and on he went, 
 without stopping for cold reasoning. He 
 reached old Smiles's tenement, hastened 
 up the narrow, dark staircase, reached the 
 attic, and saw nothing but Bill's tattered 
 hat resting on the bed. With a wild cry 
 he fell prostrate beside it.
 
 lOO The Electrical Boy. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 GREATMAN FINDS NEW FRIENDS AND MEETS 
 GREATTHINGS. 
 
 TTENRY GRESHAM noticed the ab- 
 sence of the curly-headed newsboy 
 whose ability in marshalling other boys 
 and making them do his behests had at- 
 tracted his attention. A generous impulse 
 made him jump up one day from a luxuri- 
 ous lunch, with the resolve to make in- 
 quiries about the boy. He was diverted 
 from his plan, however, by an invitation 
 to the races. After a day spent in a bril- 
 liant company, with his horse the favorite, 
 and a seat beside the celebrated beauty of 
 the season, he returned to the city on 
 the top of a drag, the nearest approach to 
 flying which our incomplete knowledge of
 
 The Electrical Boy. ■ loi 
 
 electricity at present permitted him. The 
 sight of a little shivering boy selling news- 
 papers suddenly attracted his attention, as 
 the drag neared the club. Wlien the gay 
 company had separated, he set out in 
 earnest to learn something of Bill Lark. 
 Scout the idea as we may at times, most 
 of us believe in a guardian angel, whose 
 gentle touch awakens something noble and 
 godlike within us. Just at the turning of 
 the ways it often meets us ; and when we 
 take the wrong path, the memory of its 
 sorrowful eyes is like that of the mother's 
 face at the window. 
 
 Gresham invoked the aid of a police- 
 man, and following the bits of information 
 which he obtained, finally reached old 
 Smiles's alley. Two men bearing a 
 burden came down the narrow staircase. 
 Gresham and the policeman stood close to 
 the wall to let them pass. They bore a 
 small pine coffin.
 
 I02 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 After the death of his friend, Richard 
 lost heart for a time. He seemed to be 
 as one in a dream. The other boys, 
 unrestrained by the dominating power of 
 Bill Lark, ran wild. Some disappeared 
 forever from old Smiles's tenement. Some 
 had been convicted of stealing, and had 
 been sentenced to houses of reform, and 
 others had been sent to the great West by 
 benevolent societies in the hope of re- 
 claiming them, by placing them in new 
 associations far from the temptations of a 
 great city. The boys that remained tried 
 to induce Richard to join in their amuse- 
 ments, but with little success. He seemed 
 to them strangely wanting in spirit. They 
 were quickly undeceived, however, when 
 they undertook to interfere with the 
 carrier pigeons which Bill Lark had com- 
 mitted to the young boy's care. 
 
 One boy boldly proclaimed that he in- 
 tended to carry one of the pigeons away
 
 The Electrical Boy. 103 
 
 and sell It. He proceeded to the dove- 
 cot, and was about to seize the bird, when 
 Richard stepped in front of him, and took 
 hold of the hands that held the pigeon. 
 
 " That is my bird," said he, with a face 
 quivering with feeling. " Bill Lark told 
 me, before he died, to take care of them. 
 He grave them to me." 
 
 The boy said that he did n't care for 
 Bill Lark living or dead. The bird should 
 be his, and it would be worse for Richard 
 if he did not release his hold. There- 
 upon Richard knocked the boy down, 
 and the pigeon fluttered around the attic 
 room. 
 
 The other boys immediately formed a 
 ring about Richard and the boy who had 
 attempted to take possession of the pigeon. 
 This fellow arose, doubled up his fists, and 
 rushed at Richard with great impetuosity. 
 He was much larger than the latter, and 
 there did n't seem to be much hope for
 
 I04 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 the little fellow. The dove fluttered 
 around the heads of the fighters as if 
 ready to perch upon the shoulder of the 
 victor. Richard's pent-up nature seemed 
 suddenly to burst forth in a vehemence 
 which made his attack upon his assailant 
 irresistible. He drove him back into the 
 ring, and showed such a savage rage that 
 the boys, who had begun to laugh and 
 jeer, suddenly turned and fled from the 
 attack. Old Smiles, hearing the uproar, 
 appeared upon the scene with a broom- 
 handle. He saw a little figure with a torn 
 shirt-firont standing in the middle of the 
 room, with hands clenched and the marks 
 of blood upon his lips. 
 
 " If they touch my pigeons again," said 
 Richard, hoarsely, " I shall treat them as 
 Bill did the bull-dog." 
 
 Old Smiles threatened and stormed, and 
 would have no disturbances. He would 
 let them know that. He believed that he
 
 The Electrical Boy. 105 
 
 would take the pigeons himself. This re- 
 mark suddenly made Richard form a new 
 resolve. He would earn more money, and 
 seek another abode, taking the pigeons 
 with him. For the present, at least, he 
 was master. The bo3^s did not dare to 
 provoke another exhibition of temper such 
 as had been displayed. 
 
 Richard Greatman's name was a source 
 of ereat mortification to him, for he ^vas 
 a very small boy for his age, and the 
 telegraph boys in the of^ce made no end 
 of fun of it. If one wished a telegram 
 carried swiftly, however, Richard was al- 
 ways selected. He flew like an arrow. 
 They called him at the office the electrical 
 boy. This quickness of bodily action was 
 accompanied by keen mental activity. 
 While the other boys were sitting about, 
 waiting for telegrams, chaffing each other, 
 or matching coppers, Richard's ears were 
 trying to interpret the clicking of the
 
 io6 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 Morse sounder under the quick fingers of 
 the operator. He heard the clerk repeat 
 the message to the one handing it to him, 
 to make sure that it was properly under- 
 stood, and then Richard listened as it was 
 sent. The operator saw the great glisten- 
 ing eyes of the small boy fixed upon him, 
 and discovered that Richard could tele- 
 graph nearly as quickly as himself. The 
 quickness of Richard attracted the atten- 
 tion of Henry Gresham, who came to the 
 telegraph office frequently, and he asked 
 the clerk why Richard was not given some 
 higher position. The clerk replied that 
 the Greatman was still a small boy. 
 
 Henry Gresham did not laugh, as the 
 clerk evidently expected, and thereby 
 gained Richard's heart immediately. A 
 present he made Richard of a five-dollar 
 bill completed the conquest of the small 
 boy. Richard watched the fine manly 
 figure of Gresham mount his dogcart
 
 The Electrical Boy. 107 
 
 and take the reins of his spirited horse 
 from his footman with intense pride, for 
 the other telegraph boys pointed Gresham 
 out as Greatman s friend. 
 
 Greatman had another friend, — Mr. 
 Augustus Swamm, who had made frequent 
 inquiries for him when Bill Lark was 
 sick. He wore a large diamond stud in 
 his shirt bosom, and had very easy and 
 affable manners. He too seemed to be a 
 rich man, and asked the clerk to show 
 Richard about the batteries and the wires 
 in the office and to explain it all to him. 
 This the clerk did, for Mr. Augustus 
 Swamm gave him a sum of money, say- 
 ing that he was a friend of the boy and 
 desired to help him. Richard felt grate- 
 ful to Mr. Swamm, and regarded him with 
 much respect, for every one said he was 
 an influential man. He was not Henry 
 Gresham, however. Most boys have their 
 idols. Gresham typified all that was great
 
 io8 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 and noble to the little stunted and starved 
 boy. 
 
 When Greatman crawled into his bunk 
 in old Smiles's house, he dreamed of Gres- 
 ham's smiling nod ; and he seemed to hear 
 his hearty, manly voice, saying, *' You did 
 well, Dick" — Dick and not Greatman! 
 These dreams were only interrupted by a 
 rough poke from old Smiles, in the raw 
 mornings, who bade him turn out and be 
 off to the office. Alas ! at this rate it 
 would not take long to educate Richard's 
 heart to callousness. 
 
 There were wet and dismal days when 
 many telegraphic messages were to be 
 carried, regardless of the pelting showers 
 which wet the boy to the skin. Drying 
 one's back against a steam radiator in a 
 room crowded with smoking men who are 
 too busy to notice a miserable, draggling 
 mite of a boy, is a poor substitute for a
 
 The Electrical Boy. 109 
 
 cheerful wood fire, a dry suit of clothes, 
 a mother's and sister's kind words and 
 presence, and a story book. Richard felt 
 the need of something besides dry clothes. 
 He tried cigarettes ; but they made him 
 sick, and did n't alleviate the want in his 
 heart. He stole off to the theatre with 
 other boys, and forgot himself in the pic- 
 tures presented on the stage. He listened 
 in a sort of daze when a mother's love was 
 mentioned. All references of this sort 
 merely gave his heart a troubled feeling 
 which he did not stop to analyze. When, 
 however, a rich, manly young fellow who 
 even remotely resembled Henry Gresham 
 appeared behind the footlights, then Rich- 
 ard's heart beat fast. 
 
 It was strange that the careless, pleasure- 
 loving, rich fellow should have gained such 
 a hold upon the boy's heart, for he did not 
 interest himself in Richard so much as 
 Mr. Augustus Swamm did. The latter
 
 no The Electrical Boy. 
 
 asked the boy particularly about his home, 
 about his pay, and about his prospects. 
 
 " You don't seem to have any home, you 
 have precious little pay, and absolutely no 
 prospects," said Swamm, after one of these 
 conversations. 
 
 Richard went to the place he called 
 home one evening earlier than usual, and 
 thought he saw Mr. Swamm's back disap- 
 pearing rapidly down the alleyway. It 
 must have been some one else, for old 
 Smiles did not mention that Mr. Augustus 
 Swamm had called on him. 
 
 It mio^ht have been a week after Rich- 
 ard thought he caught a glimpse of 
 Swamm in Smiles's alley, when that 
 gentleman, after receiving a telegram 
 which Richard brought him, told Rich- 
 ard to be seated in his office, and asked 
 him if he would not like to enter his em- 
 ploy at twice the pay he was receiving as 
 messenger boy.
 
 The Electrical Boy. in 
 
 " You will be obliged to leave your 
 present lodgings and the delightful com- 
 pany of Mr. Smiles," said Mr. Swamm, 
 with a genial look. " We can give you a 
 clean room instead of your cabin bunk, 
 and we can promise you the best of food. 
 You will not have to go out in the rain, 
 for the work will be mostly in-doors. It 
 will be with electrical instruments, and 
 will be interestinor." 
 
 Richard thought he would like to en- 
 gage with r^Ir. Swamm, for he had always 
 been interested in electricity. He be- 
 thought himself, however, of his carrier 
 pigeons. 
 
 Swamm listened to the boy's account of 
 his pigeons with an air of great interest, 
 which made Richard's heart warm to him 
 immediately. 
 
 "We can have the pigeons put in old 
 George's quarters," said Swamm. " I '11 
 make it all right with your friend the
 
 112 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 engineer. It will do the birds good to 
 have a complete rest for a fortnight. 
 Birds, you know, can have nervous pros- 
 tration as well as people. It does n't do 
 to fly 'em all the time. Just think how 
 hard you have treated those pigeons ; 
 they have n't had time to get acquainted 
 with their families. I believe your friend 
 the engineer wishes to make the pigeons' 
 life just like his own, — he is always on 
 the road too. I don't believe he could 
 pick his boys out of a crowd in the street. 
 You want your pigeons to have a heart, 
 and to be jolly pigeons, don't you } " 
 
 Richard thought it would be desirable. 
 
 " My man George will teach you in a 
 day more than you would learn in a 
 month in a telegraph office," said Swamm. 
 " Come with me now and I '11 introduce 
 you to him, and he will show you some of 
 his wonderful contrivances." 
 
 Richard followed Mr. Swamm through
 
 The Electrical Boy. 1 1 3 
 
 a number of passages, up and down stairs, 
 through magnificently furnished rooms, 
 and then into a curious workshop filled 
 with wires and batteries. Their coming 
 had been heralded by an electrical bell in 
 some mysterious manner, for George, a 
 curious looking, unkempt old man, with a 
 pair of spectacles, did not seem surprised 
 at their advent. 
 
 " George, here is the young man I spoke 
 of," said Mr. Augustus Swamm, " who has 
 come to learn all about electricity." 
 
 The old man looked at the diminutive 
 specimen before him. 
 
 " Pretty small battery," said he, with a 
 grunt. " Big electro-motive force, I s'pose." 
 
 " Now there 's nothing to prevent you 
 two going to work together," said Swamm. 
 " I will see the telegraph people, Richard, 
 and make all the arrangements. You and 
 George can go to work immediately." 
 
 George gave Richard a battery to set up,
 
 114 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 and Mr. Augustus Swamm, after a private 
 conversation with George, disappeared. 
 
 " Your name is Greatman, I hear," said 
 George, after a period of silence. 
 
 " Yes," replied Richard, with a feeling 
 of repulsion for the grisly old fellow 
 with the strange weird eyes which peered 
 from behind the spectacles. " Greatman 
 and Greatthings — curious, isn't it? My 
 name is Greatthings, George Greatthings. 
 Thrown on the great world without a 
 father or mother, — a sort of foot-ball for 
 men like Swamm." 
 
 The old man spoke with bitterness ; 
 there was something in the tones of his 
 voice which made Richard touch the 
 hand which was arranging the wire to a 
 battery. 
 
 Richard suddenly recognized in Great- 
 things the old man who had given him 
 shelter and had taught him all that he 
 knew of electricity. The man's un-
 
 The Electrical Boy. 1 1 5 
 
 kempt beard had completely disguised him 
 until now. Greatthings did not seem 
 pleased to be recognized, and he answered 
 the small boy's enthusiastic inquiries about 
 his flying-machine with atone of bitterness 
 born of unsuccess. He shook off the 
 little hand that touched his ; but his voice 
 seemed to grow softer as he directed 
 Richard in his work. 
 
 When evening came, Swamm appeared, 
 and said that he had seen old Smiles and 
 had arranged that Richard should sleep 
 and take his meals in the house where he 
 now was. The experiments he was en- 
 gaged upon were very important, and he 
 wished to keep them secret until they 
 were perfected. The great space on the 
 roof of the house would afford a good 
 place for breathing the fresh air and ob- 
 tainins: exercise. In two weeks' time there 
 would be no necessity for concealment, for 
 the invention would then probably be 
 perfected.
 
 1 1 6 The Electrical Boy, 
 
 " I don't doubt your honor, Richard," 
 said Swamm ; " but awkward questions 
 might be asked you, and I should prefer 
 that you should remain away from people 
 for a little while."
 
 The Electrical Boy. 117 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 " WALK INTO MY PARLOR," SAID THE ELEC- 
 TRICAL SPIDER TO THE FLY. 
 
 QO Richard was a prisoner, all uncon- 
 scious to himself. Swamm had sent 
 for the carrier pigeons, and a dove-cot was 
 built for them on a far ampler pattern than 
 the old one, and the birds apparently en- 
 joyed their vacation. Richard as he 
 worked could hear them cooing with an 
 air of great enjoyment. There was a 
 strange similarity in the lot of the birds 
 and Richard's. Both had been trans- 
 ported from a life of carrying messages 
 with swiftness to a life of circumscribed 
 limits. The birds were confined, however, 
 to a dove-cot, with simple and innocent 
 companions; Richard was in a mysteri-
 
 1 1 8 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 ous workshop, with curious engines about 
 him. He was so much interested, how- 
 ever, in all the electrical devices in the 
 laboratory in which he found himself that 
 he did not miss his freedom. 
 
 The first work that was given him was 
 to assist George in running two wires, 
 which were carefully covered with gutta- 
 percha to insulate them, from the labora- 
 tory down into the splendid room below it. 
 These wires were led under the flooring, 
 and they came up beneath a beautiful table 
 in the centre of this room, where the ends 
 of the wire, which terminated in sharp 
 points, were carefully concealed. 
 
 George, after placing the points, sat 
 down in one of the richly-carved chairs, 
 placed his leg against the points, and 
 rested his elbows on the table, apparently 
 in deep thought. 
 
 " If a stroke of lightning would only 
 take it into its head to come this way," he
 
 The Electrical Boy. 119 
 
 grumbled to himself; " but I s'pose it 
 won t. 
 
 After the wires were placed, George ar- 
 ranged a battery, connecting the zinc pole 
 to one of the wires and the carbon pole to 
 the other, and asked Richard to break and 
 make the electrical circuit while he put 
 a telegraph sounder between the points 
 under the table. Richard could hear the 
 taps of the sounder responding to the 
 signals made by his key. The line there- 
 fore was all ri^ht. 
 
 *' Swamm don't want the noise of the 
 sounder," said George, returning to the 
 laboratory ; " and so we must arrange a 
 shocker instead of it." 
 
 The shocker, as George termed it, con- 
 sisted of a coil of very fine wire, the ends 
 of which were connected with the line 
 they had led to the room below. In the 
 centre of this coil of fine wire was inserted 
 a coil of thicker wire, the ends of which
 
 I20 
 
 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 were led to a battery consisting of a 
 zinc rod and a carbon rod, immersed in 
 a dark yellow liquid, which George called 
 bi-chromate. George placed a bundle of 
 small iron rods in the centre of the coil of 
 thicker wire, and arranged one end of this 
 
 coil so that it could be touched to the zinc 
 rod of the battery or removed from it. He 
 then bade Richard to make and break the 
 circuit, or to touch the zinc rod and re- 
 move the wire as if he were telegraphing, 
 George then went into the room below, 
 and pressed his knee against the sharp 
 points of the wire beneath the table. On 
 his return he told Richard to go below
 
 The Electrical Boy. 121 
 
 and try the same experiment. On doing 
 so Richard felt a shght shock in his knee, 
 and he soon perceived that George was 
 telegraphing to him. The shocks took 
 the place of the taps of the Morse sounder, 
 with which his experience in the telegraph 
 office had made him so familiar. 
 
 " Do you feel me } " telegraphed George. 
 " Is it all riorht } " 
 
 Richard ran back to the room over- 
 head, and replied in person to these 
 interrosratories. 
 
 O 
 
 While they were trying these experi- 
 ments one evening, Swamm entered, 
 accompanied by a friend. Both men ex- 
 amined the arrangement of wires and the 
 apparatus with searching eyes. Swamm 
 lighted the chandelier in the room below, 
 and took a seat with his knees pressing 
 against the sharp points, and got Richard 
 to telegraph to him. He then returned to 
 the laboratory, and rolled a table which
 
 122 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 stood in the centre of the laboratory away 
 from its position, disclosing an opening, 
 through which a view could be obtained of 
 the room below. The heavy ornamenta- 
 tion of the base of the chandelier, consist- 
 ing of a magnificent design in acanthus 
 leaves, concealed this opening from view 
 below. From the laboratory one looked 
 through the leaves and saw the shining 
 rosewood table beneath. Swamm di- 
 rected Richard to recline upon the floor, 
 and to telegraph to him, as he took his 
 seat with his knees resting against the 
 sharp points beneath the rosewood table, 
 what his friend, who sat on the opposite 
 side of the table, held in his hand. Rich- 
 ard did as he was directed, and telegraphed 
 as follows : — 
 
 " He holds cards. He has the ace of 
 diamonds and the king of spades." 
 
 Richard heard a triumphant laugh from 
 Swamm in the room below as the man
 
 The Electrical Boy. 123 
 
 opposite him threw down the ace of dia- 
 monds and the king of spades. 
 
 Richard thought he heard George, who 
 was cleaning some batteries, mutter, " The 
 devils ; " but on turning quickly, saw merely 
 the patient bent back of the old man as he 
 examined the work before him. 
 
 Swamm returned to the laboratory, and 
 told Richard that he was 2:oinor to have 
 some friends come in the evening to play 
 cards ; and he proposed to amuse himself 
 with them, and wished Richard to tele- 
 graph him what cards they held. 
 
 " It 's going to be a very good joke," he 
 said. " George, you see that everything is 
 right. Richard, here 's a gold dollar. 
 You are getting on splendidly.'* 
 
 Richard took the money, and the men 
 departed. 
 
 " Won't you take half of it," said he to 
 George, somewhat timidly, for the latter 
 appeared to be in great mental agitation.
 
 124 ^/^"^ Electrical Boy. 
 
 George shook his head, and seemed to 
 avoid Richard. 
 
 That evening there was a party of gen- 
 tlemen in the great room below. Richard 
 at a given signal took his place and tele- 
 graphed the names of the cards which 
 were held by the player opposite Swamm. 
 The party seemed hilarious and good- 
 natured ; and after the game, Richard 
 heard Swamm invite the company to a 
 supper in an adjoining room. 
 
 On the whole, it was a pleasant sight 
 to see the well dressed men with their 
 easy manners, and to hear their sallies 
 of wit; and it was interesting to see how 
 quickly the names of the cards could be 
 telegraphed to Swamm. If it was a joke, 
 it seemed to be continued from evening to 
 evening. Richard consulted George in 
 regard to the curious performance, but 
 could get no information from him. 
 
 Swamm and George had, however, an
 
 The Electrical Boy. 125 
 
 animated conversation together in regard 
 to Richard. 
 
 " I am an old fellow," said Greatthings to 
 Swamm, " and no more harm can come to 
 me. The world has done its worst to me, 
 and I have n't been any use to the world ; 
 but this little chap has lots of stuff in him, 
 and ought to be brought up among honest 
 folk." 
 
 "Don't you call yourself honest, George, 
 hey.^" replied Swamm, with a sneer. 
 
 " I have not been," said the old man, 
 with a groan, " and you can hold it over 
 me, I s'pose, till I am under ground.' 
 You 've got me in your power." 
 
 " I reckon I have, George," said Swamm ; 
 " but I 'm your best friend, after all." 
 
 The old man shook his head, held up 
 his wrinkled hand, and gazed at it as if he 
 wished to hold all his past in it and throw 
 it from him. 
 
 One evening the play below was going
 
 126 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 on as usual, when Richard, with a start, 
 recognized Henry Gresham among the 
 gentlemen. Old George inquired the 
 reason of the boy's exclamation. 
 
 " One of your friends, hey ? That 's 
 bad." 
 
 " Why is it bad .? " asked Richard, 
 impulsively. 
 
 " Did I say bad ? " replied the old man, 
 wrinoinsf his hands. 
 
 " You did," said Richard. 
 
 " Then I repeat it. If you telegraph 
 the numbers of the cards your friend holds 
 he is a lost man. Swamm will bleed him 
 of his last cent. Boy, don't you see that 
 'hey are gamblers.'^ " The old man hissed 
 this into Richard's ear. 
 
 " What shall I do } " exclaimed Richard, 
 hearino: the siijnal for him to take his 
 place, and perceiving Henry Gresham 
 opposite Swamm, both fingering their 
 cards.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 127 
 
 " We are slaves," replied Greatthings, 
 
 " I am not ! " exclaimed Richard, rising, 
 and rushing to the door. 
 
 "What are you going to do?" said 
 Greatthings, hurrying to the door and 
 barring the way. 
 
 " I am going to warn my friend," re- 
 plied Richard, struggling with the old 
 man. 
 
 " If you do, I am lost," cried Great- 
 things; "I have no way to earn a living 
 except through Swamm. If I expose him, 
 he can send me to prison. Your friend is 
 a rich young fellow; he can afford to 
 lose. 
 
 " I am truly sorry to injure you, George ; 
 but I must help my friend," replied Rich- 
 ard, striving to open the door, as he heard 
 Swamms signal sound again. 
 
 All at once a great commotion was 
 heard below. Richard rushed back to his 
 seat, and gazed through the peep-hole.
 
 128 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 " What is it ? " said Greatthings, doubly 
 locking the door, and coming to Richard s 
 side. 
 
 " The room is full of policemen," replied 
 Richard. 
 
 Quick as a flash the old man took the 
 electric-lisfht wires which led to an arc 
 lamp in the laboratory, and connected 
 them again to the wire which led around 
 the room. This thick wure had been cut 
 at several places and connected afterward 
 by pieces of fine iron wire, and the latter 
 placed in inflammable material. In an 
 instant the room was in a blaze of fire. 
 Greatthings caught Richard by the arm, 
 and dragged him to a fire-escape. 
 
 " The time has come to conceal our 
 shop. Mind that you say nothing." 
 
 Richard, half blinded by the volume of 
 smoke which rolled through the room, 
 quickly followed the old man to the 
 window. Greatthings preceded him down
 
 The Electrical Boy. 129 
 
 the ladder. Stifling clouds of smoke 
 issued from the window of the magnifi- 
 cent room in which the gamblers had 
 been playing. 
 
 "I must help Henry Gresham ! " ex- 
 claimed Richard, pausing irresolutely on 
 the ladder. 
 
 " I am blinded ! " exclaimed the old man, 
 as he clambered down the fire-escape past 
 a window from which the flames were 
 leaping. 
 
 Richard steadied the swaying form of 
 the man, and moved his hands to succes- 
 sive rounds of the ladder. When they 
 reached the end of the fire-escape both 
 dropped to the ground. 
 
 " Don't leave me," groaned the old 
 man, pressing his hands to his face. 
 
 Richard heard the firemen running 
 
 down the alleyway behind the building, 
 
 and he dragged Greatthings into a dark 
 
 corner, for the thought flashed through 
 
 9
 
 130 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 the mind of the boy that they both might 
 be suspected of being the cause of the 
 fire. He remembered the old man's fear 
 of being pursued for something which he 
 had done in the past, — perhaps it was 
 stealing the electricity in those days when 
 the old man had given Richard the first 
 comfortable home he had ever known. 
 
 " I will not leave you," exclaimed Rich- 
 ard, pressing the man's hand. " Come this 
 way; we must not meet the firemen and 
 the policemen." 
 
 Thus saying, he led his friend down 
 a deep archway, and hurried along in 
 the shadow, avoiding the observation of 
 the inrushing crowd. Once out into the 
 broad street the two were merged in the 
 mass of humanity that was rushing to 
 the conflagration. 
 
 What the two were to do Richard 
 could not tell. He knew how hard the 
 struorale for food and lod^in^ was, and the
 
 The Elecii'-ical Boy. 131 
 
 blinded old man could not help in this 
 struGfo'le. 
 
 " Do you know where to go, boy? " said 
 George, groaning as he spoke. 
 
 " No," replied Richard, with a tremor in 
 his voice, which he did his best to repress. 
 
 The old man stood irresolute, as if think- 
 ing deeply. 
 
 " I had a friend who used to work at 
 the central light station," at length said 
 George. " I don't think he would be 
 afraid of harboring me until my eyes are 
 better." 
 
 The old man then directed his com- 
 panion by describing the streets as they 
 hurried along.
 
 132 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 GREATTHINGS FLEES FROM HIS PAST. 
 
 'T^HE two were soon beyond the centre 
 of disturbance of the fire, and their 
 path led away from the more crowded 
 streets toward a portion of the great city 
 devoted to manufacturing. Presently they 
 reached a building which in the darkness 
 seemed to be on fire ; for volumes of 
 smoke issued from its chimneys, and 
 clouds of steam whirled about its doors. 
 It was not on fire, however ; the smoke 
 and the steam came from the great en- 
 gines which were driving the whizzing 
 dynamo electric machines of a central 
 station. Richard opened the door and 
 led George into a space filled with revolv- 
 ing pulleys and great belts.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 133 
 
 " Ask for Fred Vintner," said George, 
 feeling his way. 
 
 Richard kept his companion from con- 
 tact with the machinery, and made in- 
 quiries of a man who came hurriedly 
 forward, evidently with the intention of 
 turning out the intruders. 
 
 The workman looked at the two for a 
 moment, and then called out for Fred 
 Vintner. 
 
 Richard saw a man somewhat younger 
 than George peer from behind a great 
 steam engine. It seemed to Richard that 
 the man's face turned white as he saw 
 George. This might, however, have been 
 the effect of the flickering of a sreat 
 arc lamp which was suspended over the 
 nook where he was seated. Before ad- 
 vancing, Vintner despatched the fireman, 
 who was the person whom Richard had 
 addressed, to attend to the boilers, and 
 then advanced to the old man, and asked
 
 134 ^'^^ Electrical Boy. 
 
 him rouglily why he had come to bother 
 him again. 
 
 '' Vintner/' said the old man, hoarsely, 
 " God knows I would never have sought 
 you out again if dire necessity had not 
 compelled me. I want you to help me 
 to-nioht. You will never resfret it. I 
 have met with an accident, and fear I am 
 blinded. This bo}^ has led me to you, and 
 I want you to give us a night's lodgings, 
 and get a doctor to look at my eyes, 
 which are fearfully burned." 
 
 Vintner's hands worked convulsively 
 upon the iron rods which guarded the 
 space about the great panting engine. 
 
 " If you are found here I shall be ar- 
 rested with you," he whispered hoarsely. 
 
 " You can stow us away somewhere," 
 replied the old man. " Give us something 
 to eat, and get a bandage for my eyes. 
 We shall be off in the morning — where 
 to, God only knows ; but I promise you I
 
 The Electrical Boy. 135 
 
 will leave you in the morning if you help 
 us to-night." 
 
 Vintner hurried his visitors into a 
 closet-like room where he apparently slept, 
 and brought a cold bandage for the old 
 man's eyes. He told Richard to take the 
 bandage and to apply the water, while he 
 went to his ens:ines. After a time he 
 returned with some food, and asked the 
 old man a question in regard to the run- 
 ning of the electrical machinery, which 
 seemed to be in strange disorder. 
 
 George told him that there was a great 
 fire down town, and the electric wires had 
 probably been cut. 
 
 Vintner, hearing this, rushed out to his 
 engines. Richard saw him move various 
 switches and a long row of glow lamps, 
 and the rafters of the dingy engine-house 
 suddenly flamed with light. To Richard's 
 earnest question George replied that the 
 electricity had been diverted from the
 
 136 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 down-town wires into the lamps at the 
 central station for the purpose of testing 
 the working of the machines. 
 
 The old man's surmise was correct, for 
 a messenger came running to the power 
 station to tell the engineer to stop the dyna- 
 mos, for the fire was spreading, and it had 
 been necessary to cut the electric wires. 
 
 Richard left George in the closet, and 
 accompanied Vintner as the latter rushed 
 to the eno-ines. He saw the man throw 
 the belts upon the loose pulleys, and the 
 dynamos begin to lose their speed. Then 
 they came to a standstill ; and the myste- 
 rious force which they had been trans- 
 mitting for the lights of the city died out. 
 The boy looked at the revolving coils of 
 wire, and wondered how the motion of the 
 steam-eno'ine could be chano-ed into elec- 
 tricity by merely revolving these coils be- 
 tween the great horseshoe-shaped pieces of 
 iron which were wrapped with wire.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 137 
 
 Vintner looked askance at the small 
 boy, and led him out of sight of George, by 
 pointing out a peculiar electrical engine 
 which was revolving large ventilating fans. 
 
 " Where have you two been ? " asked 
 the man. 
 
 Richard was on his guard, and an- 
 swered in a general manner that they had 
 been engaged in a shop on electrical in- 
 ventions, and had been to the fire. The 
 old man had received a sheet of flame 
 in his face. 
 
 " Your shop was burnt out, hey } " 
 
 " Yes," replied Richard, looking under 
 and around the electrical contrivance. 
 He pointed out to Vintner a defective ar- 
 rangement in the wires of the motor. 
 The man looked at the boy with surprise, 
 and immediately changed the wires ac- 
 cording to the boy's suggestion. He 
 again attempted to learn from Richard 
 more about George ; but the boy became
 
 138 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 uncommunicative, and asked many ques- 
 tions in return about the electrical con- 
 trivances in the power house. Vintner 
 finally said, — 
 
 " Boy, I '11 hire you to work for me ; 
 you seem to know a good deal about elec- 
 tricity. I '11 teach you more. You can 
 be right handy about this place." 
 
 " Will you hire Mr. Greatthings, too .? " 
 asked Richard. 
 
 " No," said the man. " I want a fellow 
 of about your size." 
 
 " I cannot leave Mr. Greatthings," re- 
 plied Richard. " When his eyes get 
 better and when he does n't need me, I 
 will come to you, perhaps." 
 
 " What are you two going to do } " asked 
 Vintner, gazing with surprise at the de- 
 voted boy. 
 
 Richard confessed that he did n't know. 
 He felt that he must not desert the old 
 man.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 1 39 
 
 Vinter pushed his hat on one side of 
 his head and slowly strolled back to 
 George. He must get rid of him in 
 some way. 
 
 Richard heard the two men talk in an ex- 
 cited manner together, and as they talked, 
 a light dawned upon him. He recognized 
 in Vintner the man who came to Great- 
 things s shop to talk over the flying- 
 machine in the nights long ago when he 
 lay in the bunk and congratulated himself 
 upon the cosey home he had found. 
 
 The old man's face now was savage in 
 its intensity ; while on the face of Vintner 
 there was a dogged look, partly made up 
 of fear and partly of a determination to out- 
 wit and get rid of his troublesome visitor. 
 
 " I want my model of my flying-machine 
 which you have had so long," said the old 
 man. 
 
 " Bless me ! that has gone to pieces 
 months ago," replied Vintner. " The
 
 140 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 thing would n't work ; there was nothing 
 in it." 
 
 " I want the model," said George ; " you 
 have got it." 
 
 Vintner strode back and forth, looking 
 savagely upon the ground. 
 
 " Give me my model and I will leave 
 you," continued the old man, in an excited 
 manner, " Remember that if I am ar- 
 rested, you will be too ; if I go to jail, I 
 swear you must go too." 
 
 Vintner clenched his hands and glared 
 at the half-blinded old man, who was 
 peering at him with blood-shot eyes. 
 The engineer presently walked away, and 
 after a moment returned with the small 
 machine which Richard well remembered 
 to have seen flying through the air in the 
 shop. The vanes and the balloon-attach- 
 ment were not on it, but the revolving 
 portions and the magnets were in position. 
 
 " There," said Vintner, thrusting the ma-
 
 The Electrical Boy. 141 
 
 chine into the old man's hands ; " take the 
 thing, and be off with you." 
 
 *' Give me and the boy some food first," 
 repHed George. 
 
 Vintner grasped a stick ; but dropped 
 it as he looked at the determined man. 
 He disappeared again, and returned after 
 a while with some food, which he set be- 
 fore George and Richard. 
 
 " Eat enough, boy," said the old man, 
 pressing his hands upon his painful eye- 
 balls. " I don't know when or where we 
 shall get some more." 
 
 " You must get out of this place before 
 the inspector comes in," said Vintner. 
 
 " If this boy were not with me, I would 
 sit here and tell all to 30ur inspector," said 
 George, savagely, " I am about tired of 
 struggling with the world. One's meals 
 are regular at least in prison, and one is 
 looked after; but I want to do something 
 for this little chap and save him from the
 
 142 The Electrical Boy, 
 
 streets, and start him, if possible, on an 
 honest career. If I had had a friend when 
 I was of his age I should not be a fugi- 
 tive in my old age." 
 
 Presently George put his model under 
 his arm, and Richard guided him through 
 the machinery of the power house to the 
 outer door. Vintner accompanied them 
 a little distance. When the old man 
 reached the door, he turned and looked 
 intently at Vintner, and lifted his finger, 
 and then disappeared with Richard in the 
 outer darkness.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 143 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ELECTRICITY IN A DIME MUSEUM. 
 
 'T^HE old man told Richard that he 
 had a plan for finding employment 
 for both, which he hoped would be suc- 
 cessful for a time at least. He knew 
 formerly the proprietor of a dime museum 
 in the lower part of the city, who used 
 to exhibit various electrical manifestations 
 and phenomena. He had once asked the 
 old man to take charge of his electrical 
 apparatus, and there was a possibility of 
 getting employment with him. Accord- 
 ingly the two walked on and on through 
 the dimly lighted streets of the poor 
 quarter, Richard aiding the dim sight of 
 his companion, until they arrived at 
 Moses' Dime Museum.
 
 144 '^^^ Electrical Boy. 
 
 When Richard's companion saw the 
 great painted signs and heard the sound 
 of rude music within he said, — 
 
 " This is the place. I hope we shall 
 find a refuge ; for I know what it is to 
 wander without money through the streets. 
 You know what it is, boy, also." 
 
 The old man started back as he saw an 
 immense policeman, with baton in hand, 
 standing near the ticket-office. 
 
 Richard whispered, " It is a painted 
 man. It 's made of wax." 
 
 The old man chuckled a little to him- 
 self, and said, " It's one of Moses' tricks." 
 
 The great effigy of a policeman stared 
 into the street with his violet-blue eyes 
 and particularly ruddy cheeks, and the two 
 fugitives passed by it to the ticket-office, 
 where George asked for the proprietor. 
 It was late, and the young man who took 
 the dimes in the box called the ticket- 
 office had been napping. He yawned
 
 The Electrical Boy. 145 
 
 angrily at being awakened, and put out his 
 hand for the money of admission. When 
 he ascertained that the proprietor was 
 asked for, he was incHned to think the 
 old man and Richard belonged to the 
 numerous class of cranks who endeavored 
 to gain admission without paying their 
 dimes. 
 
 The old man's manner, however, was so 
 decided, and his apparent knowledge of 
 Mr. Moses so intimate, that the young 
 man concluded to take the risk of ad- 
 mitting him and the boy. 
 
 When Richard stood within and saw 
 the stuffed animals ; a queen reclining on 
 a throne and playing with a snake ; strange 
 black men with crowns of feathers dancing: 
 in a circle and brandishing spears and 
 bows and arrows, he held his breath with 
 ecstacy. Could there be a greater scene 
 of enchantment ? Loud sounds of music 
 filled the air. The place was brilliantly 
 10
 
 146 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 lighted, and groups of people walked 
 about, laughing and talking and gazing 
 at the various shows. While Richard was 
 fully absorbed opposite the monkey cage, 
 the old man was conversing with Mr. 
 Moses. The latter had the face of a bird, 
 and also the habit of some birds of looking 
 this way and that. This gesture was made 
 more impressive by Mr. Moses' habit of 
 bringing the tips of his fingers in contact 
 while he gazed. 
 
 The old man talked earnestly, and ex- 
 hibited his model of the flying-machine, 
 and said that he had several other electri- 
 cal devices which might serve to attract 
 people to the museum. The boy with him 
 also had a remarkable faculty for working 
 with electrical apparatus. Between them 
 both they could make a very taking show, 
 — a flying-machine, an electrical mouse, 
 an electrical crown, a magnetic doll. The 
 old man spoke earnestly, trying to make an
 
 The Electrical Boy. 147 
 
 attractive electrical exhibition. Mr. Moses 
 listened with an incredulous air, with up- 
 lifted eyebrows. At heart, however, he was 
 much interested in the old man's scheme. 
 A former partner had seceded from the 
 Moses Dime Museum, and had opened a 
 five-cent show on the opposite side of the 
 street, where the smallest man on earth 
 was to be seen, together with an electrical 
 eel, and an electrical machine that would 
 give a bolt of lightning three feet long, — 
 sufficient to tear holes in the strono^est 
 
 O 
 
 plate of glass. Mr. Moses was ver}' in- 
 dignant with his unfaithful partner, — un- 
 faithful because he had promised for a 
 compensation not to open a dime mu- 
 seum in the quarter of the cit}^ preoccu- 
 pied by the Moses museum. The partner 
 had kept to his agreement. He had not 
 opened a dime museum ; he had estab- 
 lished a five-cent museum, where greater 
 curiosities could be seen for half price than
 
 148 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 in the Moses Museum or in any other 
 museum in the world. Mr. Moses at 
 first tried his rights in the courts ; but 
 finding no redress, and perceiving that the 
 earnings obtained by the exhibition of the 
 two-headed calf and his case of snakes 
 were being absorbed by due processes of 
 law, abandoned legal proceedings, and set 
 his wits to work to collect greater attrac- 
 tions than could be offered by means of 
 the more limited receipts of the five-cent 
 museum. He had steadily increased his 
 show. The smallest man on earth was 
 offset by a giant from Montana ; and he 
 offered in business language a greater line 
 of monkeys than could be seen outside the 
 largest European zoological gardens, not 
 excepting that at Amsterdam. Now he 
 had the opportunity to offset the elec- 
 trical eel and the bolt of lightning by 
 an electrical flying-machine, an electrical 
 mouse, and a magnetic doll. Even while
 
 The Electrical Boy. 149 
 
 he talked with Greatthings, he framed in 
 his mind a startHng sign, fully illustrated, 
 which should set forth these attractions to 
 enable the public to obtain a just idea of 
 what was within their reach. He did not, 
 however, relax his doubting attitude before 
 the old man, and he made a point of 
 setting Richard Greatman adrift. The 
 boy did not seem an essential part of the 
 electrical attractions. Greatthings, how- 
 ever, was firm ; the boy was necessary 
 for the success of the plan, and must be 
 included in any arrangement he should 
 make. 
 
 Mr. Moses finally concluded to take the 
 old man and the boy into his employment, 
 and the two fugitives were housed for the 
 ni<^ht in a loft of the museum. Georgre 
 Greatthings's eyes were cared for by Mr. 
 Moses, who had a certain number of reme- 
 dies in which he had great faith, and 
 which he applied both to his animals and
 
 150 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 his men. In truth, Mr. Moses was some- 
 thing of a philosopher, and always main- 
 tained that men and animals differed only 
 in degree, but not in kind. 
 
 Quarters having been arranged for the 
 night, Greatthings bought a paper and 
 scanned it eagerly to find an account of 
 the fire. Richard listened to the account 
 with bated breath. He hoped that Mr. 
 Gresham had escaped without injury. 
 The newspaper stated that the bodies of 
 two men had been found in the ruins, 
 and were unidentified. Greatthings's face 
 had a look of strange joy, which was 
 quickly followed by one of uncertainty. 
 Richard's heart seemed to stand still 
 for a moment. What if one of those 
 charred bodies should be that of Henry 
 Gresham } 
 
 Early on the morning following his en- 
 trance into the dime museum, Richard set 
 off for the club where he had often seen
 
 The Electrical Boy. 151 
 
 Henry Gresham. He entered the fine 
 building just as if he were carrying news- 
 papers. In response to his inquiries, one 
 of the attendants told him that Mr. Gres- 
 ham had been at the club that morning. 
 Richard ran back to the museum with a 
 light heart. 
 
 Greatthings had moments of great ela- 
 tion of spirits. If he only knew that 
 Swamm could no longer follow him and 
 threaten him with the past, the spirits of 
 youth would return. 
 
 Richard went to sleep that night with 
 his mind full of the strange curiosities in 
 the world, — wild black men with crowns 
 of feathers who executed war-dances; 
 queens covered with diamonds who sat on 
 thrones of gold; a giant who rested his 
 arms on men's heads, and who told stories 
 of strangling bears, just as Bill had 
 stranded the bull-dog. While the boy 
 slept the wild black men had put on or-
 
 152 
 
 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 dinary clothes, and were waiters in a 
 neighboring restaurant ; the queen had de- 
 scended from her throne and was sweeping 
 out the estabhshment The only real 
 things in the show were the monkeys and 
 the giant. 
 
 The following days were busy ones, for 
 the flying-machine had to be adjusted and 
 
 the wires along which its trolley moved 
 were to be strung across the room. The 
 electrical mouse was quickly put in order; 
 a minute electrical motor was placed inside 
 a toy mouse, and fine wires ran to some 
 batteries which were concealed from the
 
 The Electrical Boy. 153 
 
 audience. The magnetic doll bowed, and 
 rolled its eyes, and walked, and lifted an 
 eye-glass. The mechanism of this wonder- 
 ful object had been concealed in George 
 Greatthings's coat pocket; he had spent 
 many hours of secret labor upon it, hoping 
 some day to make a fortune from it. This 
 hope had grown less and less, and now it 
 might serve to provide food for him in his 
 old age. 
 
 In the intermissions of his employment 
 Richard made the acquaintance of the 
 giant from Montana. At first the boy was 
 terrified by the enormous being. The 
 giant's voice was prodigious, and he looked 
 very savage. The attendant who de- 
 scribed the attractions of the giant to the 
 visitors to the museum expatiated upon 
 his great strength and upon his ferocity 
 when provoked. The giant was appar- 
 ently attracted by Richard, and became 
 communicative. The boy soon discovered
 
 154 '^^^^ Electrical Boy. 
 
 that the heart of the great giant was as 
 gentle as a child's. There seemed to be a 
 shrinking, delicate personality housed in 
 an immense shape. 
 
 " People are afraid of me," said the 
 giant. " If they knew how fearful I am of 
 them they would probably cease to look at 
 me. It is a strange lot to appear to be 
 what one is not. I roar and look fero- 
 cious, and people pay to see me. I sup- 
 pose they would despise me if they knew 
 what I tell you, — that I have a shrinking 
 nature and a child's heart." 
 
 The giant, whose real name was Ferdi- 
 nand Leap, told the boy of his mountain 
 home, — of- the free, wild life there ; of the 
 beautiful flowers in the springtime ; (jf the 
 exhilarating air that was so pure that 
 mountains forty miles away seemed within 
 an easy walk. 
 
 " I cannot stand being made a show," 
 said the giant, with a prodigious siglx
 
 The Electrical Boy. i55 
 
 M hate this show; the close air; the 
 people who stare at me. I don't think 
 I shall stay much longer. Money is not 
 everything in this world. There is only 
 one man bigger than I am in the world, 
 and they say if he should die I could get 
 almost any sum 1 wished for exhibiting 
 
 myself." 
 
 Mr. Moses informed George Greatthings 
 that the giant was a bonanza, living or 
 dead. It was of course better to have him 
 alive ; but his skeleton even would pay to 
 
 exhibit. 
 
 Richard pondered upon the giant's de- 
 scriptions of his mountain home in the far 
 west, and he longed to leave the great city 
 and be among those mountains, where the 
 flowers grew and the brooks sounded 
 merrily over their stones. The poetic 
 nature of the child was as much disturbed 
 as the simple nature of the giant with the 
 sordid surroundings in the dime museum.
 
 156 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 A few weeks of constant acquaintance 
 with the shams in the museum made it 
 seem a place to escape from. The boy 
 longed also, with that strange longing of 
 youth, to see Henry Gresham again. He 
 had nothing to love now. The carrier 
 pigeons had been burnt up, probably. He 
 thought of their fate with a deep sigh, and 
 he felt very desolate when he thought of 
 Bill and his lone grave. 
 
 The electrical show was a decided suc- 
 cess, and a crowd of people every evening 
 attempted to penetrate into the mystery 
 of the electrical motor which moved the 
 vanes of the flying-machine, and to solve 
 the riddle of the mechanism of the mag- 
 netic doll. Richard helped George Great- 
 things, whose eyesight had been enfeebled 
 by the accident at the fire, and gained 
 much valuable experience in regard to 
 electrical motors. 
 
 Mr. Moses, who closely watched the
 
 The Electrical Boy. 157 
 
 crowd which gathered about George Great- 
 things and Richard as they exhibited their 
 electrical wonders, resolved to introduce 
 electrical effects upon the little stage, which 
 occupied one side of the great room that 
 constituted the dime museum. Short 
 plays were performed upon this stage be- 
 fore an audience which was gathered from 
 those who were tired with strolling about, 
 looking at the giant and the monkeys. 
 
 In order to fully exhibit the wonders of 
 electricity, a melodrama called " Playing 
 with the Devil " was put upon the stage. 
 When the hero of the play fenced with 
 the devil brilliant sparks coruscated upon 
 the swords ; for both combatants had a 
 suitable connection through their heels 
 with an electric-light wire, and whenever 
 their swords touched, an electrical circuit 
 was formed. Then there were mysterious 
 frames dancing about people's heads, and 
 strange handwritings in fire upon the walls
 
 158 The ElecU'ical Boy. 
 
 of the room. The machinery of all this 
 was managed almost entirely by Richard, 
 for George could do little more than plan 
 the arrangements for the experiments. 
 
 One of the favorite exhibitions in the 
 dime museum was that of the powers of 
 the animal magnetism of a world-renowned 
 animal tamer. This individual, standing 
 a hundred feet from the cage in which the 
 animal was placed, could make it bound 
 and leap and roar by merely extending his 
 little fino:er. All animals seemed to be 
 subject to his influence; even a turkey 
 put in the cage strutted about, lifting its 
 feet to prodigious heights, and flapping its 
 winsfs with the utmost victor whenever the 
 tamer's finorer was extended. A bear went 
 throuQ-h antics which made the crowd ex- 
 plode with laughter. It mopped its brow 
 with its great paws, and danced on its 
 legs, opening its red mouth to its widest 
 extent. Animal magnetism was surely
 
 The Electrical Boy. 159 
 
 proved by the powers of this wonderful 
 tamer. 
 
 Greatthings pointed out to Richard va- 
 rious wires running along the ceiling of 
 the cellar to the ca^je where the animal 
 was placed. It was plain to him that the 
 animal tamer stood on some electrical con- 
 nections, and when he extended his arm 
 the animal in the casre received a shock 
 
 o 
 
 of electricity, and this accounted for its 
 strange antics.
 
 i6o The Electrical Boy. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 A WISE PHILOSOPHER AND ELECTRICIAN 
 APPEARS UPON THE SCENE. 
 
 'T~^HE electrical play proved a great suc- 
 cess, and Mr. Moses finally got his 
 entire show into it, and was constantly 
 adding new attractions. 
 
 One of the most constant attendants at 
 the performances was a venerable old 
 gentleman with a prodigious white beard, 
 which covered his entire bosom. This old 
 gentleman one day approached George 
 Greatthings, and entered into conversa- 
 tion with him in reoard to the electri- 
 cal devices used in the play. Greatthings 
 discovered that the venerable old gentle- 
 man was an electrical and magnetic physi- 
 cian, who had an office in a neighboring
 
 The Electrical Boy. i6i 
 
 street. He had lately moved into the 
 neighborhood of Moses' Museum, and 
 had already acquired a great reputation 
 for skill and wisdom. When Mr. Moses 
 saw him in the audience witnessing his 
 electrical play he felt much complimented, 
 and he told George Greatthings and 
 Richard that there was a friend of his 
 witnessing the play who knew more about 
 electricity than any other man living. The 
 old doctor was certainly the picture of wis- 
 dom as he sat with his great white beard 
 resting upon his folded arms, and a pair 
 of dark blue spectacles upon his hooked 
 nose. His name was Dr. Socrates, and 
 it was said that he was a Greek. 
 
 After the play one evening Dr. Socrates 
 sought George Greatthings and asked vari- 
 ous questions in regard to the electrical 
 devices. He said that his knowleds^e of 
 electricity was confined to its application 
 to the human body, and he knew little
 
 1 62 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 about electrical instruments. He spoke 
 with a decidedly foreign accent, and his 
 manner was extremely affable and ingra- 
 tiating. The old man Greatthings felt 
 flattered by the attention of such a distin- 
 guished old gentleman ; and when Dr. 
 Socrates asked him to put some of the 
 medical electrical apparatus which he used 
 in his practice in order, he readily assented. 
 The old doctor requested him to bring 
 Richard to his office, — he had been highly 
 pleased with the boy's aptitude for the sub- 
 ject of electricity. Flattery is a powerful 
 agent, and Dr. Socrates knew how to use 
 it with great effect. The old man Great- 
 things felt that he had discovered at last a 
 man of science who could appreciate him. 
 Hitherto he had dealt with and had been 
 cheated by practical men ; he determined 
 to seize the first opportunity to repair with 
 Richard to the doctor's office. 
 
 On arriving there one afternoon the
 
 The Electrical Boy. 163 
 
 two found a great crowd waiting for their 
 turn to see the doctor. The patients were 
 in the main poor people. Occasionahy a 
 carriage with footmen in Hvery drove up, 
 and fashionably-dressed ladies entered the 
 waiting-room. It was pitiable to see the 
 look of expectancy on the countenances 
 of the sick as the door of the inner room 
 was opened by an attendant, and the next 
 in order was summoned to see the doctor. 
 One could catch a glimpse of the great 
 man occasionally through the half-opened 
 door as he sat surrounded by strange elec- 
 trical machines. Once a cripple whom 
 every one had seen enter on a pair of 
 crutches came out without them, exclaim- 
 ing that electricity had cured him. A 
 great sigh of excitement pulsated through 
 the waiting crowd, and Richard saw a 
 pale-faced mother brush the locks from 
 the wasted face of a little boy beside her, 
 and look into his haggard eyes with a
 
 164 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 strange, wistful look, laughing and crying 
 hysterically. 
 
 " The old man seems to know how to 
 use electricity to cure people," said George 
 Greatthings, " although his talk with me 
 showed that he did n't know anything 
 about electrical instruments. Electricity 
 is a strange thing; I 've been working 
 with it all my life, and I don't know any- 
 thing about it myself." 
 
 After a while the patients were all 
 treated, and George Greatthings and Rich- 
 ard were ushered into the learned doctor's 
 presence. Dr. Socrates wiped his eyes 
 and uttered a deep sigh as he tottered 
 about the room to provide his visitors 
 with seats. 
 
 " My sympathies are much excited by 
 the ills of suffering humanity," said he ; 
 " and I count it one of my greatest bless- 
 ings that I can relieve in many cases the 
 ills that flesh is heir to by the application
 
 The Electrical Boy. 165 
 
 of that mysterious agent electricity,' which 
 is becoming the great moving force in the 
 worid." 
 
 While he spoke, the attendant entered, 
 and said that a gentleman would like to 
 consult the doctor. Dr. Socrates re- 
 seated himself, and requested the attend- 
 ant to usher in the gentleman, at the 
 same time desirinor Geors:e Greatthino:s 
 and Richard to retire. Dr. Socrates, 
 after listening to the gentleman's account 
 of his complaints, desired him to put a 
 bright silver quarter on his tongue, and 
 to take hold of the north pole of a magnet 
 with his right hand and the south pole 
 with his left hand, and to remain in that 
 position until he felt a creeping sensation 
 at the root of his tongue. He was to do 
 this three times a day before meals, and 
 to report in two da3's. The gentleman 
 said he felt better already, and took down 
 a minute account of the kind of magnet
 
 1 66 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 he must get. As he passed out of the 
 waiting-room he told George Greatthings 
 of the wonderful effect of the magnet. 
 
 The old man and Richard again entered 
 the great man's presence, and spent a pleas- 
 ant half-hour in looking over his electrical 
 appliances. George Greatthings speedily 
 saw that the battery employed by the 
 doctor for giving shocks to his patients 
 needed some more plates and stronger 
 acids. The great glass electrical machine 
 was covered with dust, and the paper in- 
 ductors had fallen off. This machine had 
 been employed by the doctor to give 
 patients electrical baths, which he assured 
 Greatthings had a wonderful effect. The 
 latter could not see how any electricity 
 could flow to the bath, and he began to 
 doubt the doctor's skill. The doctor, as 
 if detecting this doubt in the old man's 
 face, turned the attention of his visitors 
 quickly to the remarkable effect of a silver
 
 The Electrical Boy. 167 
 
 quarter held on the tongue while the hands 
 were connected with a medical shocking- 
 coil. The doctor told Richard to hold the 
 coin on his tongue until the shocks gave 
 him an acid taste. The shocks were so 
 severe that Richard quickly imagined the 
 time had come for the acid taste. George 
 also, on trying the experiment, was willing 
 to grant that an acid taste would appear 
 if the experiment was tried sufficiently 
 long. 
 
 The two visitors retired after their first 
 interview, very much impressed, on the 
 whole, with Dr. Socrates. If his knowl- 
 edge of his electrical appliances did not 
 seem complete, what was wanting in the 
 technical details was undoubtedly made 
 up by his knowledge of the human organ- 
 ization. The smell of ether in the office, 
 the sight of the skeleton which hung on the 
 wall, together with the many vials filled 
 with strange preserved objects, and the
 
 1 68 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 number of learned books, testified suffix 
 ciently to the doctor's medical acumen. 
 
 Temptations began to multiply about 
 Richard. He was solicited by the young 
 boys and girls wlio frequented the show 
 to go with them to larger theatres, or to 
 stroll at night on the brilliantly lighted 
 streets. The boy, who had never known 
 what pleasure is, whose early life had 
 been starved, would have undoubtedly ac- 
 cepted the invitations of these new-found 
 friends, had it not been for Greatthings, 
 who resolved that he would save the boy 
 if possible from the fate that had over- 
 taken himself. He strove to enlighten 
 Richard in regard to the character of the 
 new acquaintances, and pointed out that 
 the handsome girl with the curls had a 
 vulgar voice and a rude temper, and that 
 the young men were idle fellows who had 
 no pursuit save that of low pleasures. 
 Greatthings stimulated the ambition of
 
 Tlie Electrical Boy. 169 
 
 Richard by telling him of the struggles of 
 great men in their youth, and at the same 
 time pursued the practical method of keep- 
 ing the boy's fingers busy with interesting 
 work with electrical motors and batteries. 
 As far as he was able, Greatthina:s tauorht 
 the boy to draw, and stimulated his powers 
 of invention by telling him to think out 
 something new each day. 
 
 Greatthings's heart was stirred by a 
 new emotion. The waif who worked so 
 patiently with him ; who moved as if a part 
 of Greatthings when the latter took him 
 to the wharves and to the picture galleries ; 
 who seemed to know by intuition when 
 his old friend was tired ; who had such a 
 melodious voice and such touching eyes, — 
 had stirred the dormant feeling of love 
 in the man's breast. Love is a strange 
 thing: it can give a light of enchantment 
 to the commonest object ; it can make the 
 roughest man speak gently; and it can
 
 170 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 even make one human being give up his 
 life that another may live. Greatthings 
 felt that he had gone through life blind. 
 He determined that he would do all in his 
 power to put Richard on the right path. 
 It may have been that his lectures to the 
 boy as they worked together over electrical 
 apparatus were somewhat prolix ; but the 
 boy felt that the old man loved him; and 
 he listened half comprehending, for he did 
 not feel impelled to go astray, and there- 
 fore could not understand fully the perils 
 of which Greatthings frequently spoke. 
 
 " Your mind," said the old man, " is 
 probably becoming set upon the subject of 
 electricity. I doubt if you will ever devote 
 yourself to any other subject. I believe 
 that a boy gets a turn for a certain thing 
 earlier than we generally suppose. I be- 
 lieve that it would be a good thing to have 
 large arcades, radiating from a central 
 station, through which we could be trun-
 
 The Electrical Boy. 171 
 
 died when we are beginning to observe 
 thinsfs. These arcades could be covered 
 
 O 
 
 with pictured paper representing the vari- 
 ous arts and the history of the world. A 
 bent could be thus given the boy very 
 early. I remember an old lithograph 
 which hunor on the wall of the wretched 
 room in which I was born ; it represented 
 a flying-machine, and I have been at work 
 all my life on a similar machine. We 
 don't know much about education, I be- 
 lieve. As soon as he is born a man begins 
 to grow old, and you have got to hurry up 
 if you wish to form the man." 
 
 Greatthings thus talked to the little 
 fellow who sat up to the work-bench and 
 aided him in his work. The old man felt 
 that if he had been trundled when a child 
 through a hall filled with pictures of heroic 
 deeds, he would not have had to struggle 
 all his life with a weak moral will. Love 
 for a human being had now come to aid
 
 172 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 him, and he felt every fibre of his nature 
 strengthened. Occasionally, thinking that 
 Mr. Moses got the advantage in dealings 
 with him, Greatthings made erroneous 
 statements of the expense of the work he 
 was engaged upon. Then deep contrition 
 seized him, and he made ample reparation, 
 saying to himself, " Courage, Greatthings ; 
 you will get the better of yourself, — you 
 are improving."
 
 The Electrical Boy. 17; 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 GREATMAN IS EDUCATED BY GREATTHINGS. 
 
 pREATTHINGS had decided views 
 in regard to the education of boys. 
 He would have them know how to use 
 their fingers in the first place, in order, as 
 he expressed it, to draw off the charge in 
 the brain and dissipate it through the 
 fingers. It did not matter much what 
 kind of a charge was put into the brain. 
 The way to make the charge strong was 
 to keep turning a crank of some sort and 
 to put in the same kind of charge. The 
 study of electricit3^ said Greatthings, was 
 a suitable subject for boys. It interested 
 them, kept them from the low pleasures 
 of the street; and the result might in time 
 benefit mankind. Like so many practical
 
 174 ^'^^ Electrical Boy. 
 
 men who have achieved great facility in 
 some one branch of the mechanic arts, 
 Greatthings felt that he could pronounce 
 on the value of a university education, and 
 he accordingly condemned it. It is cer- 
 tain, however, that Richard made rapid 
 progress in intellectual aptitude under the 
 teachinor of Greatthinors. The latter com- 
 pelled him to bring a sketch of some ob- 
 ject, he did not care what, to him every 
 day. He taught him to sit by himself a 
 stated time each day, and to think out 
 some new invention in electricity. The 
 sketches were commented upon, not intel- 
 ligently to be sure, but with great care. 
 The boy soon began to criticise and com- 
 pare his efforts for himself. The old man, 
 however, did not notice that under his 
 interesting tasks the bright-eyed boy grew 
 pale and thin. How could it be other- 
 wise ? The boy took no exercise, and 
 lacked entirely the pleasures of youth.
 
 The Electrical Bay. 175 
 
 Occasionally the two stole away from 
 the dime museum and wandered down to 
 the wharves. Richard was impelled by a 
 longing which tempted him to seek other 
 lands where life might be more joyful, and 
 where the eyes could be feasted with the 
 sights of romance. The old man was cyni- 
 cal about the foreign lands which had such 
 a charm to the young boy, and he pointed 
 out the swarms of foreign immigrants who 
 came from a steamer which had just ar- 
 rived. These poverty-stricken people had 
 probably regarded the country of Richard 
 and Greatthings as the Eldorado of their 
 hopes. Richard, however, was full of the 
 wine of youth ; and the smell of the tar, 
 the creaking of the ropes, and the boat- 
 swain's whistle made his heart leap with 
 almost uncontrollable longing. 
 
 The thoughts of a boy are long, long 
 thoughts, and Richards heart throbbed 
 when he saw the mysterious ships going
 
 176 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 to countries far beyond the distant sea-line. 
 The thousand impressions of foreign lands 
 gained by looking in the windows of pic- 
 ture shops and hearing stories of countries 
 where there were kings and palaces to- 
 gether formed a picture which impelled 
 him to leave the sordid surroundings in 
 which he found himself, and to set out for 
 scenes of enchantment. 
 
 Greatthings listened to the boy's impetu- 
 ous confidences in regard to seeking new 
 lands with a smile of pity. 
 
 " I had dreams like yours when I was a 
 boy," he said. " Perhaps I could have 
 reached some of these lands of luxury and 
 contentment by working hard and striving 
 to educate myself where I was. Instead of 
 doing this, I abandoned all effort at educa- 
 tion, and set sail in a ship as a boy of all 
 work. I found that the palaces and the 
 gardens full of delights were only in my 
 own mind. I was knocked about and
 
 The Electrical Boy. I77 
 
 forced to associate with hardened charac- 
 ters. I found the foreign cities filled with 
 want and misery, and I saw no palaces or 
 gardens which were open to me. Delu- 
 sions, boy, — delusions. The best thing is 
 to work where you are, and get an educa- 
 tion. If I had known this truth when I 
 was of your age, I should not be in my 
 old age a wanderer, without home or 
 
 family." 
 
 The old man's figure drooped, and he 
 suddenly seemed to Richard to grow 
 
 very old. 
 
 " Perhaps we shall fly to those foreign 
 lands in your electrical flying-machine," 
 said Richard, with a desire to say some- 
 thino- that would encourage his companion. 
 
 Greatthings's figure grew suddenly erect ; 
 a fierce light shone in his eyes, and he 
 grasped the little boy's shoulder with a 
 clutch which made Richard wince, saying, 
 "We'll get there, boy, yet."
 
 178 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 On one occasion Greatthings took Rich- 
 ard aboard a steamer which lay in the 
 stream, and they viewed the great engines 
 and saw the dynamos which supplied the 
 ship with light. Greatthings explained 
 how the ship was steered by means of 
 electricity, — an electric current regulated 
 the valves which allowed steam to work 
 the gear connected with the rudder. The 
 engineer said that it formerly took from 
 four to eisfht men to hold the rudder-wheel 
 in a severe storm, and now steam did all 
 the work. The engineer explained the 
 compass, and said the iron hull of the ship 
 affected the indications of the compass. 
 He knew of no way to prevent this. He 
 then proceeded to tell of a voyage he had 
 once made in the southern seas, and how 
 a mutinous crew had tried to alter the in- 
 dications of the ship's compass and drive 
 her out of her course by placing a keg of 
 nails near it. Fortunately their knowledge
 
 The Electrical Boy, 179 
 
 of magnetism was limited, for it was found 
 that the nails were made of copper. 
 
 The engineer of the ship looked at the 
 eager, intelligent face of Richard with in- 
 terest, and took him and Greatthings over 
 every part of the ship, and explained the 
 mechanism by means of which the dyna- 
 mos were run, and how they lighted the 
 ship. He told them that electric lights 
 were not successfully used for the head- 
 lights of the steamship, for they were 
 apt to blind the eyes of the look-outs on 
 the steamships as they were nearing each 
 other. 
 
 " Oil lamps," said the engineer, " have 
 some virtues still which electricity has not 
 superseded." 
 
 Their guide showed them the invention 
 of one of the ofificers, — a long shark-like 
 boat, which he said was to run under water 
 with only the fork of the tail visible above 
 water. This boat was to be directed by
 
 I So The Electrical Boy. 
 
 electricity through wires which trailed in 
 the water behind the tail. It was to carry 
 a torpedo on its snout, and in the case of 
 war it was to be sent out to blow up an 
 enemy's man-of-war. The engineer ex- 
 plained the electrical part of the invention 
 to Greatthings, who was much interested, 
 for this was a special case of his flying- 
 machine, only it was a swimming machine, 
 using water instead of air. The old in- 
 ventor as he listened was evidently ponder- 
 ing whether a spindle-shaped vessel could 
 not be driven under water by electricity, 
 far below the commotions of the storms. 
 The engineer explained to Richard how 
 the attraction of the iron ship on the 
 compass was compensated by magnets 
 placed below the compass on the deck; 
 and he took the boy into the rigging to 
 show him a compass that was removed as 
 far as possible from the disturbing effect 
 of the iron plates of the ship's hull. He
 
 The Electrical Boy. i8i 
 
 told Richard that they often swung the 
 ship after a voyage in order to ascertain 
 the effect of this attraction in saiUng on 
 different courses. This operation con- 
 sisted in reading the compass while the 
 position of the ship was noted by observ- 
 ing definite points on the shore or on 
 buoys. 
 
 When Greatthings and Richard left the 
 ship they expressed their deep thanks for 
 the kindness of their host. Could the 
 engineer have realized the wealth of 
 pleasant recollections which he gave the 
 boy he would have been richly rewarded 
 for the time he spent with his unknown 
 and humble visitors. The engineer once 
 had a boy of about Richard's age, and on 
 steaming into the harbor of his native city, 
 after a year's absence, was informed that 
 his boy was no more. Richard's face 
 touched deep chords within the engineer's 
 breast. That capacity we all have for
 
 1 82 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 helping others sometimes is not known to 
 us until we lose one we love. Its awaken- 
 ing seems like a child teaching a man, and 
 when we see it we believe that those gone 
 before are reaching back their hands to 
 us to lift us up to the heights they h^ve 
 gained. It is pleasant to think that this 
 is so. 
 
 On leaving the ship and returning to 
 the dime museum, Greatthings expressed 
 the firm conviction that some day we 
 should fly to Europe in flying-machines. 
 
 Greatthings explained to Richard that a 
 flying-machine could be constructed if an 
 electrical motor of small weight and of 
 large power could be made. He showed 
 the boy his various attempts to produce a 
 small but efficient motor. The whirring 
 little engines moved by electricity had a 
 great charm for the boy. He took them 
 to pieces and examined all their parts, and
 
 The Electrical Boy. 183 
 
 made new ones. There was no occasion 
 to use the electric current from the street 
 lines by stealth, for the dime museum 
 was lighted by electricity, and Greatthings 
 could have all the current he desired for 
 his experiments. 
 
 " If I could only continue my experi- 
 ments without interruption," said he to 
 Richard, " I believe I could fly in a 
 month." 
 
 Richard had a mental picture of Great- 
 things and himself rising from the roof of 
 the museum and sailing through the se- 
 rene sky far out into the country. 
 
 Richard's days were fully occupied by 
 preparing for the electrical shows in the 
 dime museum, and in helping Greatthings 
 on his various electrical ideas. The old 
 man had a shop in the loft of the museum, 
 and was busily at work again on his flying- 
 machine. He felt that there was a fortune 
 in it, and he induced Mr. Moses to advance
 
 184 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 small sums to aid in its completion. That 
 gentleman felt a little sceptical ; but the 
 old man was proving a valuable acquisi- 
 tion, and he was willing to risk a small 
 sum, especially after papers had passed 
 between them which secured to him the 
 lion's share of the future invention.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 185 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 GREATMAN AND GREATTHINGS SET FPEE 
 A GIANT. 
 
 "P IC HARD'S most intimate friend was 
 the giant. He listened by the hour 
 to accounts of the great West, and with 
 the wild thoughts of a boy, he often longed 
 to be on those mountains, and see the 
 strange animals and the Indians. 
 
 The giant was becoming more and 
 more valuable to Mr. Moses. It was a 
 shame that people would not let Mr. 
 Moses have his giant in peace. The 
 proprietor of a mammoth circus offered 
 the giant double the sum he was getting 
 from Mr. Moses. That gentleman imme- 
 diately outbid the circus proprietor. In 
 a week's time the proprietor of a Wild
 
 1 86 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 West Show made an offer of thousands 
 of dollars to the giant to accompany him 
 to Europe as the Great American Giant. 
 Mr. Moses folded his hands in despair. 
 He felt that he could only rely upon the 
 giant's gratitude for bringing- him into 
 such a blaze of reputation. 
 
 To the astonishment of Mr. Moses, the 
 giant refused the glittering offer of the 
 proprietor of the Wild West Show. Then 
 Mr. Moses felt that the giant was surely ill, 
 and he rushed for Dr. Socrates in the hopes 
 that an electrical bath or a magnetic touch 
 would restore the enormous human ma- 
 chine sufificiently to enable money to be 
 made out of him, — but not sufificiently to 
 enable the sriant to make monev. 
 
 In truth, the giant had come to a sudden 
 resolution ; perhaps in the long talks with 
 the enthusiastic boy about his old western 
 home, the memory of the golden sunsets, 
 the cry of the birds in the morning as
 
 The Electrical Boy. 187 
 
 they circled above the great red cedars, 
 the smell of the fresh earth instead of the 
 foul air of the dime museum, had come 
 back to him with full force. The little 
 child's heart in the great giant felt home- 
 sick. What was money? It gave him 
 nothing. He was sick of exhibiting him- 
 self ; of having rude men feel the muscles 
 of his immense arms ; of standing up be- 
 side dwarfs to be measured ; and hearing 
 an attendant tell lies about his prowess. 
 His poetical nature was continually shocked 
 by the rude music of the dime museum, by 
 the sight of the shams, and the dirty crowd 
 that surged back and forth in front of the 
 throne where he sat for hours. Could 
 money give him better air than he had 
 enjoyed in his mountain home ; or a better 
 appetite, which was satisfied with trout 
 from the mountain streams and the fruit 
 from the lower valleys .? When the giant 
 thought of all this, he rose and stretched
 
 1 88 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 his ereat arms to heaven. The crowd 
 set up a shriek and rushed back, crying 
 that the giant had gone mad. Certainly 
 his face was working with tremendous 
 emotion, and the stamp of his immense 
 foot was terrifying. It was merely a 
 child's longing in the immense creature. 
 
 The giant unburdened his heart to 
 Richard in the night, when the dime mu- 
 seum was closed to the idle seekers after 
 amusement. He said that Americans 
 called the United States a free country, 
 where every one could pursue happiness 
 unmolested. The giant thought that a 
 republic meant a country where there was 
 delicate and just consideration for the 
 rights of every one ; where no one should 
 be the slave of another man or of a band 
 of men. It seemed to him that an auto- 
 crat ruled the country, and that potentate 
 was money. 
 
 " Even when they move about in the
 
 The Electrical Boy. 189 
 
 show, looking at the dancing bear or the 
 Circassian lady," said the giant, " I hear 
 the men talking about their business, — 
 how much tliey have made during the past 
 month, and how much they hope to make 
 during the next." 
 
 The giant evidently had his pessimistic 
 moods, and he sighed like the wailing of 
 the wind in the forest, giving unconscious 
 expression to the lines of the poet, — 
 
 " Oh, for a lodge in some vast wilderness, 
 Some boundless contiguity of shade." 
 
 " Imagine," said the giant, " a life in 
 which there is no privacy. Even when I 
 am asleep some enterprising person is 
 photographing me for an advertisement of 
 the Giant Baking Powder or the Giant 
 Motor. I am interviewed constantly by 
 reporters who wish to know how much I 
 eat and how much I drink, and whether I 
 use tobacco in any form ; young doctors 
 who wish to get before the public measure
 
 IQO The Electrical Boy. 
 
 what they call my reflex actions ; scien- 
 tific professors make accurate measure- 
 ments of my head; and the agent of a 
 religious newspaper was very desirous of 
 knowing what my religious belief is. Al- 
 though I felt very meek, and my heart was 
 sick within me, I lost control of my voice, 
 and rolled forth an exclamation which ap- 
 parently testified to a belief in the place of 
 torments. Since I have become the largest 
 giant in the world, I am robbed of even 
 the few moments of privacy I formerly en- 
 joyed. A reporter awoke me last night at 
 midnight to know if it were true that I 
 had signed a contract for ten thousand 
 dollars a year with the Great Combination 
 Show." 
 
 The giant rested his great head in his 
 hands and repeated, " ' All men are born 
 free and equal, and entitled to the pursuit 
 of liberty and happiness.' Those are high- 
 sounding words ; but are they true, and
 
 The Electrical Boy. 191 
 
 will they ever be true ? I was born a sen- 
 sitive, shrinking spirit, almost like that of 
 a girl, enslaved in a frame that grew 
 to be that of a giant. Men know how 
 to keep me in slavery for their selfish 
 ends. It shall be no longer so; I will 
 be free ! " 
 
 The slant lost control of his voice, and 
 the room quivered at his words. 
 
 " I feel that I am entitled to the pursuit 
 of liberty; but I fear happiness is never 
 for me." 
 
 Richard tried to express his sympathy 
 by putting his hand into the giant's great 
 one. A great shiver went through Leap's 
 frame, and he looked at the boy with that 
 intense yearning gaze which Richard no- 
 ticed whenever he listened while the giant 
 poured forth his confidences. 
 
 " I dreamed the other night," continued 
 the o-iant, " that there was a thunder-storm 
 in the mountains about the hut where I
 
 192 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 lived before I died and went to a dime 
 museum. The thunder rolled ; but strange 
 to say, there was no lightning. The clouds 
 parted, and the sun came out with that 
 beautiful smile on the wet landscape which 
 makes one think that the world is at peace. 
 I smelt the mountain-strawberry blossoms 
 and the delicate odors of the grass flowers. 
 The earth, too, had a delicious smell. I 
 had thrown aside this great cumbrous 
 mass of bones and flesh, and I was a 
 laughing child, running hand in hand with 
 another child down the mountain slopes. 
 Our hearts were full of ecstasy and happi- 
 ness. The horizon was far off, and the 
 pleasures of one day when they were tired 
 beckoned in another set for the morrow. 
 Then the sky darkened again, the thunder- 
 storms came back. A great crash re- 
 sounded through the mountains, then 
 another. Then there was a blinding flash, 
 so vivid that it awoke me, and I found
 
 The Electrical Boy. 193 
 
 that a photographer had been taking me 
 by a flash light." 
 
 The oriant told Richard that he had left 
 his wild mountain home with great reluct- 
 ance ; but he could not escape the impor- 
 tunities of the agents of Mr. Moses, who 
 had, so to speak, insisted upon carrying 
 him away bodily. These agents had not 
 been deterred from venturing into the 
 wilderness by the fear of grizzly bears or 
 hostile tribes of Indians, and gave the 
 giant no peace. They speedily discovered 
 that he had a little child's heart, and by 
 threatening and cajoling they carried him 
 away. A great fortune had been promised 
 him, and every day piles of gold coin were 
 showed him to tempt him away from Mr. 
 Moses, and Mr. Moses showed him gold 
 in return which was his if he would re- 
 main. It was evident that giants were 
 scarce and could get their own price ; 
 but the giant was sick at heart, and longed
 
 194 ^>^^ Electrical Boy. 
 
 for his freedom. He did not know how 
 he could obtain it, for his timid nature 
 made him quickly yield to subjection. He 
 asked Richard if he could help him. 
 There was something pathetic in the 
 great creature asking assistance from a 
 stripling whose head hardly came above 
 the oriant's knees. Richard consulted old 
 Greatthings in regard to the giant's escape, 
 and found that George was enthusiastically 
 interested in the scheme. 
 
 " My own life has been a long endeavor 
 to escape enemies and harpies who have 
 preyed upon me," he muttered ; " I '11 give 
 this great wretch an opportunity to obtain 
 his freedom. He will die if he remains 
 here." 
 
 Greatthings accordingly dispatched Rich- 
 ard to the Central Railway Station one 
 night to make various inquiries about the 
 route which the giant must pursue to reach 
 his far western home. Richard came back
 
 The Electrical Boy. 195 
 
 with the necessary information, and the 
 plans for the escape of the giant were 
 carefully made. 
 
 When the appointed time came Leap 
 shrank from the responsibility. His cour- 
 age seemed to desert him, and he concluded 
 in a helpless way that he was born to be 
 exhibited. 
 
 The giant had brought from the West 
 a prairie dog, which he had made a great 
 pet. The close confinement of the dime 
 museum, however, proved unhealthy for 
 the little animal, and it began to mope 
 and to grow ill. The giant bent over it, 
 trying anxiously to restore it to health. 
 Every one was interested in the giant's 
 trouble ; and he found that the very per- 
 sons who seemed so bent upon money- 
 making had kind hearts, and prescribed 
 freely for the prairie dog. The giant re- 
 ceived so many infallible remedies that, 
 following the advice of Greatthings, he
 
 196 The Electrical Boy, 
 
 entered them as he received them in a 
 note-book ; and when he was asked if he 
 had tried a remedy, he would point to the 
 book and show that there were at least 
 fifty infallible-cure prescriptions which pre- 
 ceded the one in question. 
 
 Nothing, however, could help the little 
 prairie dog. It needed the wild western 
 sky, the freedom of the great prairie, and 
 the smell of the virgin earth. One morn- 
 ing it went west and left its body behind. 
 The grief of Ferdinand Leap was great, 
 and seemed childish, especially so when he 
 particularly requested Mr. Moses to have 
 the prairie dog buried in the country near 
 a run in a verdant spot. Mr. Moses gained 
 the reputation of a wit by repeating this 
 injunction of the giant, and then proceeded 
 to have the dos: stuffed to add to his col- 
 lection of western curiosities. He doubt- 
 less hoped that this act would never come 
 to the attention of the giant, for the stuffed
 
 The Electrical Boy. 197 
 
 animals were in a portion of the show very 
 remote from that occupied by Leap. It 
 may have been that a dire suspicion fell 
 upon the giant, for he left his customary 
 seat one morning, and walked to the por- 
 tion of the museum occupied by the collec- 
 tion of stuffed animals. Here he saw his 
 pet sitting on his haunches just at the 
 entrance to a prairie burrow. Mr. Moses, 
 who had watched the peregrinations of the 
 giant from afar, suddenly retreated behind 
 the stage. 
 
 The vacillations of the giant were at 
 length cured ; he would go west, and give 
 up this degrading exhibition of himself. 
 One dark night he left the dime museum 
 never to return. 
 
 Before Leap left he visited the collection 
 of stuffed animals, and the door resistino- 
 his efforts to open it, broke it down with 
 his great fist, took out the stuffed body 
 of his little pet, and wrapped it up carefully
 
 198 TJie Electrical Boy, 
 
 with his bundle of clothes. In the morn- 
 ing the disappearance of the giant was 
 noticed, and Mr. Moses sent out agents 
 to discover Leap's whereabouts. He sus- 
 pected the proprietor of the Wild West 
 Show and the manager of the mammoth 
 circus of stealing his giant ; but if they 
 had induced him to leave the Moses Mu- 
 seum they had shipped him off by some 
 steamer, for he could not be found in New 
 York. 
 
 Greatthings, in his desire to help the 
 giant, did not reflect upon the effect of his 
 action upon the prosperity of Mr. Moses. 
 That gentleman felt that he had received 
 a sudden commercial blow. The greatest 
 attraction of the museum had disappeared. 
 Mr. Moses had arranged for an extensive 
 European tour with the American giant. 
 The times were extremely favorable for 
 such a venture, since in London everything 
 American was the rage. Mr. Moses saw a
 
 The Electrical Boy. 199 
 
 fortune within his grasp, and in the same 
 breath saw it withdrawn. He had besun 
 to speculate with the gold that was surely 
 to be his, and now he must spend money 
 to send agents again to the West to bring 
 back the giant. Where could he get the 
 money .f* — for he had risked much in his 
 speculations. Misfortunes never come 
 singly. The finest line of monkeys in the 
 world fell sick, and the public gaze had to 
 be shut out from the contemplation of their 
 interesting gambols. 
 
 The public began to lose their interest 
 in the electrical play, and fell to criticising 
 the flying-machine. The American mind 
 worships success, and it could not be said 
 that Greatthings's machine offered any 
 immediate possibility of travelling by elec- 
 tricity through the air. 
 
 One day the entrance to the Moses Mu- 
 seum was closed, and a true policeman was 
 in charge of the premises. He was waiting
 
 200 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 for the return of Mr. Moses, who had de- 
 camped suddenly, no one knew where. 
 The warriors of the upper Congo and 
 Cleopatra sought prosaic employments in 
 the restaurants of the neighborhood, and 
 the monkeys were buried at the public 
 expense.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 201 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 ELECTRICITY ACTS THE PART OF AN EVIL 
 SPIRIT. 
 
 pREATTHINGS and Richard Great- 
 man were thrown again upon the 
 cold world, apparently without resources. 
 Dr. Socrates, however, speedily took them 
 both into his employment ; and Greatthings 
 told Richard, in a tone of exultation, that 
 they had fallen on their feet. There might 
 be some humbug in the doctor's use of 
 electricity ; but there was also a great deal 
 of humbug in the dime museum. In fact, 
 the old man believed that there was a 
 great deal of humbug in the world. We 
 must remember that Greatthings had had 
 a bitter struggle, and that always makes
 
 202 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 one cynical, unless one has had a univer- 
 sity education. 
 
 Accordingly, the two busied themselves 
 with the electrical appliance of the learned 
 doctor. One of their first employments 
 was to arrange the doctor's galvanometer, 
 which he used to ascertain the location of 
 brain troubles in his patients. This is the 
 way in which he did it. In tlie first place 
 we must describe the manner in which 
 George Greatthings made the galva- 
 nometer. He cut off the neck of a small 
 vial, and suspended a little magnet made 
 from a bit of watch-spring by means of a 
 fibre of silk from the sides of the vial. 
 Having stuck a minute mirror on the 
 magnet, when this vial was placed horizon- 
 tally in a little coil of wire, the magnet 
 pointed north and south, and the coil was 
 moved until the magnet was parallel to the 
 face of the coil. Then the end of the vial 
 was covered with thin glass to keep out
 
 The Electrical- Boy. 203 
 
 currents of air; lamp-light from a small 
 hole in a blackened lamp chimney was al- 
 lowed to fall on the tiny mirror, and the 
 reflection of this light was caught on a 
 ground-glass screen. The slightest cur- 
 rent of electricity in the coil made the 
 little magnet turn, and the spot of light 
 consequently moved. The beam of light 
 thus served as a long pointer, and magni- 
 fied the movements of the magnet. With 
 the ends of the coil were connected lone 
 wires which led to the arrangement with 
 which Dr. Socrates touched his patients. 
 This apparatus was simply an iron wire 
 about a foot long. To each end of this 
 wire were soldered the copper wires which 
 ran to the galvanometer coil. When 
 one junction of the iron and copper was 
 heated by the human skin, a current of 
 electricity made the little magnet move in 
 one direction ; and when the other junc- 
 tion was heated, the magnet moved in the
 
 204 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 opposite direction. It was the heat of the 
 skin that made the current ; and any other 
 source of heat, for instance a warm piece 
 of brass or glass, would have had the same 
 effect. 
 
 Greatthings told the boy that the galva- 
 nometer stood in the same relation to 
 electricity that the microscope stood to the 
 human body. The latter enabled physi- 
 cians to see microbes and bacilli which 
 were the germs of disease, or which at 
 least could affect the whole human ma- 
 chine. The galvanometer could detect 
 minute currents of electricity, which then 
 could be multiplied to any extent by the 
 power of man. He showed the boy how 
 the sensitiveness of the galvanometer could 
 be increased by placing a powerful magnet 
 above and outside the coil of wire. The 
 little mao^net inside the coil of wire was 
 thus under the influence both of the north 
 pole of the earth and of the north pole of
 
 The Electrical Boy. 205 
 
 the magnet above the coil, and was in un- 
 stable equilibrium, ready to move with the 
 slightest current in the coil. Greatthings 
 manifested a real enthusiasm in his dis- 
 pirited eyes when he saw the working of 
 his sensitive galvanometer. He showed 
 Richard that by turning a large coil of 
 wire connecting with the terminals of the 
 coil of the galvanometer, in the air of the 
 room a current of electricity w-as produced 
 which set the little magnet with its tiny 
 mirror to swinging. This effect, he ex- 
 plained to Richard, was due to the influence 
 of the far off pole of the earth, in Baffin's 
 Bay, thousands of miles from where they 
 stood. To Richard's imagination the mag- 
 netic pole seemed like a great giant, whose 
 hands were stretched over the whole earth, 
 playing with tremulous hands upon the 
 electric wires. This giant had a crown of 
 fire, for Greatthings told him the northern 
 lights flashed about the north pole.
 
 2o6 The Electrical Boy, 
 
 The manner in which Dr. Socrates used 
 the galvanometer was as follows : He gave 
 his patients a shock of electricity from his 
 medical battery, carefully noting which 
 part of the body twitched the most vigor- 
 ously. He entered the results of his ob- 
 servation in an immense folio volume, 
 reminding one, as he did this, of a famous 
 etching of Martin Diirer. He then ap- 
 plied one of the junctions of iron and 
 copper to the neck of his patient, inform- 
 ing the latter as he did so that if the spot of 
 light moved to the right the right lobe of 
 the brain was congested, and if it moved 
 to the left there was trouble in the left 
 lobe. Since the galvanometer magnet 
 generally moved either to the right or left, 
 the gloomy state of his patients' minds can 
 be imao^ined. Greatthinsfs had his own 
 views about Dr. Socrates's use of the deli- 
 cate instrument he had enjoyed making ; 
 he kept them, however, to himself. Rich-
 
 The Electrical Boy. 207 
 
 ard noticed that the indications of the in- 
 strument could be made anything that was 
 desired, and when the venerable doctor 
 was away located a particularly congested 
 spot in the right lobe of his own brain. 
 Greatthings advised him to keep at work 
 as if nothing had happened. 
 
 Dr. Socrates had acquired also a great 
 reputation as a seer. He held seances in 
 his back parlor, which was darkened for 
 the purpose. These seances generally 
 took place on Saturday nights, and were 
 very fully attended. 
 
 Greatthings had a strong belief in ghosts 
 and spirits, and was much interested at 
 first in the singular manifestations he saw 
 at these seances. Poor little Richard was 
 immensely terrified by the knocking in the 
 dark and the table-tipping. 
 
 Directly beneath the consulting-room of 
 Dr. Socrates was a workshop where were 
 placed the batteries that set in operation
 
 2o8 TJie Electrical Boy. 
 
 the apparatus for giving shocks which was 
 employed by the physician. Through a 
 secret door one could gain access to this 
 lower room from the office. 
 
 Dr. Socrates appeared one day in the 
 workshop with various peculiar glass tubes 
 which he called Geissler tubes. These 
 were mounted at the end of a wand, in the 
 form of a halo, such as one sees in pictures 
 of saints. He desired Greatthings to con- 
 nect these tubes to the terminals of an 
 electrical machine while he studied the 
 light which appeared in the tubes. His 
 study appeared to satisfy him, and he 
 left the tubes in the workshop, desiring 
 Greatthings to connect them with long 
 fine wires, and to see if, while being con- 
 nected with the electrical machine, they 
 would glow in the office above. The old 
 man and Richard found, after much ex- 
 perimenting, that the mysterious light in 
 the tubes could be faintly seen when the
 
 The Electrical Boy. 209 
 
 room was made very dark. The wires, 
 however, which led to the ends of the 
 glass tubes had to be very carefully covered 
 with gutta-percha, or as Greatthings said, 
 very well insulated, for the electricity es- 
 caped. Greatthings suggested after a while 
 that they should employ the apparatus used 
 for ffivinof medical shocks instead of the 
 electrical machine. The old physician 
 seemed to be surprised at this suggestion ; 
 but he told Greatthings to experiment. 
 The old man tossed his head with con- 
 tempt at the want of knowledge of such a 
 wise man, and showed him that if the glass 
 tubes were connected with the ends of a 
 coil of a great many turns of fine wire, and 
 if a coil of a few turns of thick wire con- 
 taining an iron core were placed near the 
 fine wire coil, and a battery current quickly 
 sent throuo^h this last coil, the tubes con- 
 nected with the fine coil would glow. 
 
 This glow could be carried farther by 
 14
 
 2IO 
 
 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 this use of the medical shocker than by 
 the employment of an electrical machine. 
 Richard perceived that the apparatus used 
 by Greatthings was the same which he 
 had employed to transmit signals to the 
 gamblers. 
 
 " I wonder what the old fellow intends 
 to do with the electrical glow," muttered 
 Greatthings, as he led suitable wires into 
 the physician's office from the room below. 
 *' Cure blindness, perhaps." 
 
 Richard soon ascertained the object of 
 the electrical glow in the 
 mysterious glass tubes. 
 Dr. Socrates instructed 
 him to stretch out the 
 wand containing the 
 halo in certain direc- 
 tions just below the 
 ceilinor of the office. A 
 little electrical key had 
 been placed on the handle of the wand, by
 
 The Electrical Boy. 2 1 1 
 
 means of which the boy could illumine the 
 glass tubes or shut off the glow at pleasure 
 by simply touching the key which com- 
 pleted an electrical circuit. Then the 
 physician darkened his office until not the 
 slightest pinhole of light could be seen, — 
 a greater degree of darkness Richard had 
 never experienced, — and taught the boy 
 to repeat the motions of waving the halo. 
 He told the boy that he wished him to 
 move the wand according to a certain set 
 of signals which were given by slight 
 knocks under a table. Richard did as 
 he was bidden, and succeeded to the 
 physician's satisfaction. 
 
 Dr. Socrates told Richard that a num- 
 ber of ladies and gentlemen w^ould be 
 present on the following day in the room 
 in the darkness, and he wished him to go 
 through the performance of waving the 
 wand and placing it in various positions 
 according to the arranged signals.
 
 212 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 When Richard told Greatthingrs of the 
 
 O 
 
 rehearsal, the old man looked very grave, 
 and shook his head. 
 
 At the appointed hour Richard ascended 
 the secret staircase and noiselessly opened 
 the door. His place had been carefully 
 assigned by Dr. Socrates, and he had been 
 practised in entering the room noiselessly. 
 The boy was conscious by a strange rust- 
 ling and nervous hemming of throats that 
 there were people in the room, although 
 the darkness was impenetrable. He heard 
 Dr. Socrates say that Mrs. Brown's spirit 
 would slowly materialize ; and then Rich- 
 ard heard three raps, and he pressed the 
 electrical key, and the mysterious halo 
 floated over the heads of those present. 
 The imagination of the relatives of Mrs. 
 Brown framed a pale face under the halo, 
 and hysterical cries were heard in the 
 darkness. Another rap, and the halo 
 disappeared.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 213 
 
 Two members of a psychical society 
 were present, and after the performance 
 wrote out a very full account of the phe- 
 nomenon. Following the raps, the lam- 
 bent mysterious flames floated here and 
 there ; rested for a moment on the head of 
 a broker, and then danced to that of a re- 
 porter. Now the latter was an enterpris- 
 ing young man in search of an item, and 
 what could be a more moving story than 
 the tale of a man who had seized a ghost? 
 Accordingly, he grasped in the dark at the 
 flame, and his hands closed on the wand. 
 He received, however, a severe electrical 
 shock from an unseen skeleton arm, and he 
 fell down in a fit In the uproar which 
 succeeded Richard heard the sis^nal for 
 him to withdraw. He ran down the dark 
 staircase in a state of great excitement, 
 and told Greatthins^s of the remarks of 
 Dr. Socrates, and the strange cries and 
 moanings he had heard in the darkness.
 
 214 "^^^^ Electrical Boy. 
 
 One day Dr. Socrates had a long inter- 
 view with Greatthings in regard to pro- 
 ducing an electrical glow about the heads 
 of certain ladies who frequented the 
 seances. He discoursed learnedly in re- 
 gard to what he called the sick sensitive 
 nature of these ladies, and the necessity 
 of affecting their imagination when the 
 true spiritualistic phenomena failed to 
 appear. The old man listened, with his 
 shaggy brows knitted together and his 
 eyes resting upon the ground. He sent 
 Richard, who was repairing the medical 
 shocking-apparatus, out of the room to 
 look after some electrical batteries. When 
 the boy had closed the door the old man 
 turned to the venerable physician and 
 said, — 
 
 " Humbugs cannot hurt me ; I am old 
 in the ways of the world ; but I shall 
 not aid in corrupting that boy. I want 
 him to think that the world is true and
 
 The Electrical Boy. 2 1 5 
 
 honest, — at least that educated and ven- 
 erable men are." 
 
 Dr. Socrates gazed at Greatthings with 
 a singular look behind his dark spectacles. 
 
 " So you refuse to do my bidding," said 
 he, in a strangely altered tone. 
 
 George Greatthings started at the sound 
 of that voice, and a cold perspiration came 
 out. Dr. Socrates had arisen, had torn off 
 his venerable beard, and Augustus Svvamm 
 stood before Greatthings. The wretched 
 old man staggered to the wall of the apart- 
 ment, and gazed helplessly at Swamm. 
 
 " I think you will do as I bid you," 
 remarked Swamm, with his basilisk 
 smile. 
 
 " Shall I never escape you ? " exclaimed 
 the old man, gasping for breath. " Is 
 there no escape for me except in the 
 grave t " 
 
 " No escape, Greatthings," Swamm re- 
 plied, with a diabolical smile, " except a
 
 2i6 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 committal to the four brick walls of a 
 prison." 
 
 " I am ready to go to prison," exclaimed 
 Greatthings. " It is time that my vain 
 struggle with the vvorld should be over. 
 I have tried hard to be an honest man, 
 and to live down my early mistake ; but 
 there is no use in trying longer. I shall 
 not aid you to humbug mankind any 
 longer. Tell all you know. Go out for a 
 policeman." 
 
 " Fudge ! You don't mean what you 
 say, Greatthings. We two shall be rich 
 men yet, — you with your electrical knowl- 
 edge and I with my knowledge of the 
 world. Don't be a fool, Greatthings." 
 
 At that moment the knock of the at- 
 tendant was heard, and Swamm quickly 
 fastened on his beard and raised his finger 
 with a warning gesture. 
 
 Greatthings left the room, groaning in 
 bitterness of spirit. It was useless, he
 
 The Electrical Boy. 2 1 7 
 
 thought, to endeavor to retrieve the great 
 mistake of his Hfe. Why not surrender 
 himself to the authorities, confess all, and 
 be at peace. Four brick walls, and the 
 steady, monotonous labor of a prison, 
 would be better than disreputable work 
 with a man of no principle. Why should 
 he not throw off this old man of the 
 mountain from his shoulders, now and 
 henceforth forever, — forever to be relieved 
 from this haunting care. The thought 
 was like a dream of spring in winter. 
 Then the thought came to him of Richard 
 Greatman. The boy would be in the 
 clutches of Swamm with no one to give 
 him the results of experience. His life 
 would be wrecked, and would be a repeti- 
 tion of that of Greatthings. 
 
 " I must save the boy, for I love him," 
 said the old man. " I know what it is not 
 to have profited by the experience of a 
 father. I '11 be a father to the lad as far
 
 2i8 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 as I 'm able, and when I see him in safe 
 hands I shall give up the struggle with 
 life." 
 
 The old man immediately went into the 
 workshop, where he found Richard busily 
 at work on batteries. 
 
 " Richard," said Greatthings, coming 
 close to the little fellow as he sat on a tall 
 stool, busily engaged with the apparatus 
 before him, " do you remember Mr. Gres- 
 ham, the handsome young man who used 
 to come to Swamm's house ? " 
 
 " I remember him well," exclaimed Rich- 
 ard, looking up with astonishment. At 
 that very moment he was longing to see 
 Gresham again. 
 
 " I wish that you would take a note to 
 him from me," said the old man, speaking 
 with emotion. 
 
 " Now ? " asked Richard, in that melo- 
 dious voice which penetrated to the heart 
 of the old man, who had learned to love
 
 The Electrical Boy. 219 
 
 the boy with the strong love that some- 
 times comes iate into a hard human 
 heart. 
 
 " Yes," repHed Greatthings, hastily writ- 
 ing upon a scrap of paper, which he placed 
 in an envelope, and directed.
 
 2 20 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. . 
 
 THE RESCUE OF GREATMAN AND GREAT- 
 THINGS. 
 
 TTOW the old man knew Gresham's 
 address puzzled Richard for a mo- 
 ment. He took the note, and set off with 
 the high hope of seeing again the man 
 who was his ideal hero. So much of the 
 life of the boy had been spent in close 
 confinement that the great city seemed 
 illimitable. His travels had been limited 
 to a small portion of this city, and he felt 
 like an explorer venturing into new worlds, 
 as he followed Greatthings's directions and 
 turned one corner after another in the 
 dusk of the evening. His way led from 
 the thickly crowded business streets into
 
 The Electrical Boy. 221 
 
 the fashionable avenues which ran along the 
 edges of the park. While he was hurrying 
 on his errand a closed carriage drove rap- 
 idly by him. The horse suddenly fell to 
 the ground a few steps in advance of 
 Richard, and a blue light seemed to dance 
 over its prostrate body. A crowd soon 
 gathered about the carriage. The occu- 
 pants were an elderly lady and a young 
 girl. In the latter Richard immediately 
 recosfnized the child who had o-iven him 
 the money on the evening he had fallen 
 asleep with his newspapers. 
 
 An electric-lio;ht wire had fallen down 
 and the horse had come in contact with it. 
 The crowd stood back in great fear and 
 saw the animal struggle under repeated 
 shocks from the dangling wire. No one 
 dared to release the beast from what 
 seemed to be a deadly serpent striking 
 its fan^s into him. 
 
 Richard immediately wrapped his hand
 
 222 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 in his handkerchief, and seizing the wire, 
 lifted it from the horse. 
 
 " You will be kilt, boy," exclaimed an 
 Irishman ; " drap it, man." 
 
 The other members of the crowd mur- 
 mured with admiration at the boy's 
 courage, and made an effort to lift the 
 horse. The beast slowly opened its eyes, 
 made a convulsive attempt to rise, and 
 then fell back. The Irishman, who knew 
 more about horses than electricity, having 
 had a lifetime's experience with badly 
 treated tip-cart beasts, gave the bridle an 
 energetic jerk and twisted the tail of the 
 horse, applying his boot ; and the horse 
 at length stood on his feet, trembling 
 in every limb. The coachman mounted 
 his box; and the ladies after much trepi- 
 dation concluded to enter the carriaoe. 
 When it was found that the horse could 
 move on, the elderly lady beckoned to 
 Richard and thanked him for his presence
 
 The Electi^ical Boy, 223 
 
 of mind, and requested to know his name. 
 When he gave it she asked him to call at 
 her residence, and handed the boy a card. 
 The young girl thanked Richard also with 
 a sweet smile ; the carriage moved on ; 
 and the wondering crowd were left with 
 the dangling wire, which struck its fangs 
 into the crowd here and there under the 
 experimental kicks of the Irishman, who 
 seemed to regard it as a dangerous rival 
 in the treatment of horses. 
 
 Richard looked at the card, and found 
 that it bore the address of Henry Gres- 
 ham, which Greatthings had given him. 
 The boy hastened on, led quickly by the 
 remembrance of the sweet women's voices, 
 which touched a chord in his heart, and 
 in its vibration stirred a pathetic memory 
 within him. He found the number and 
 mounted the great steps, and after a mo- 
 ment's hesitation rang the bell. When the 
 butler appeared, the boy handed him the
 
 2 24 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 note. Greatthings had told him to wait 
 for an answer. Accordingly the servant 
 ushered the boy into a waiting-room and 
 disappeared with the note. 
 
 Henry Gresham was listening to his 
 mother's and sister's accounts of their acci- 
 dent, when Greatthings 's note was delivered 
 to him. He opened the discolored piece 
 of paper and slowly deciphered the scrawl, 
 which ran as follows : — 
 
 " The boy who will give you this once was 
 known to you as a telegraph boy. You praised 
 him for his quickness and intelligence, and you 
 won his heart. You have always been his 
 idol ; he has worshipped you from a distance. 
 I want you to help to bring him up an honest 
 man. This will be a small matter to you ; but 
 it will result in saving a soul alive. Think of 
 that ! I wish to save the boy from the fate of 
 one who has struggled all his life with the hard 
 world, and finds himself in his old age homeless, 
 and at the mercy of one who proposes to use 
 him for his own purposes, and then doubtless
 
 The Electrical Boy. 225 
 
 to cast him off to shift as best he can. The 
 boy is a bright, affectionate lad with good stuff 
 in him, and you will never regret lending him a 
 helpful hand. He is under bad influences 
 where I am, and I want to save him from my 
 fate. Do not strive to see me, for my employer 
 would ruin me if he knew what I have written." 
 
 " What a singular note ! " said Gresham, 
 turning it over and scanning the exterior. 
 He rang for a servant, and ordered him 
 to send up the boy who was waiting. 
 When Richard appeared, Henry Gres- 
 ham s mother and sister speedily recognized 
 Richard. The young man thanked the 
 boy for rescuing the ladies, and asked 
 him many questions in regard to his life 
 and surroundings. Richard told him of 
 the venerable electrical physician, and of 
 Greatthings and his remarkable inventions. 
 He described the seances held by Dr. 
 Socrates, and his electrical practice. The 
 young man drew his own inferences from
 
 2 26 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 the story of the boy, and resolved to go 
 on the following day to the boy's place 
 of employment under pretence of consult- 
 ing the old physician. Richard refused the 
 sum of money which Gresham offered 
 him, and set off for Dr. Socrates's office 
 with a light heart, carrying with him the 
 consciousness that he was to see more of 
 Gresham, and feeling a delightful glow in 
 his heart at the remembrances of the en- 
 comiums of the ladies whom he had 
 assisted. 
 
 Greatthino^s heard Greatman's account 
 with interest, and putting his hand on 
 the boy's shoulder said, — 
 
 " It 's working well, lad. I hope to see 
 you rising in the world. It can be done, 
 I suppose, although it has never been 
 possible for me." 
 
 Early on the following day, Gresham 
 appeared at Dr. Socrates's office, and took 
 his place among those waiting to be
 
 The Electrical Boy. 227 
 
 treated. There were many before him, 
 and he accordingly asked the attendant 
 where he could find Richard Greatman. 
 The attendant took him into a lower 
 room, and there sat Greatthings and Rich- 
 ard busily occupied in repairing an electri- 
 cal machine which Dr. Socrates employed 
 to stimulate the growth of the hair on 
 the heads of bald persons. 
 
 Richard immediately arose when he saw 
 Gresham, and turning to Greatthings said, 
 " This is the gentleman to whom you 
 sent the note." 
 
 Greatthings looked disturbed as he 
 caught sight of the visitor. Henry 
 Gresham, noticing his embarrassment and 
 trepidation, said, — 
 
 " I have come to consult Dr. Socrates 
 for an ailment which perhaps his electrical 
 treatment can relieve. While I wait my 
 turn, I wish to have a few moments' con- 
 versation with you."
 
 2 28 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 Greatthings looked earnestly at the open 
 face of the young man, and having care- 
 fully closed the door of the room, came 
 close to Gresham and said, speaking 
 quickly, — 
 
 " I am in " — with a jerk of the shaggy 
 head upward — " his power. He can ruin 
 me by a word ; and he is capable of doing 
 it, for he is a wicked man. I want you to 
 save the boy from his clutches. Richard 
 Greatman is a good chap now, and I 
 know that you are an idol to him. You 
 can save a soul alive if you get him out 
 of this man's clutches. Never mind me, 
 I cannot be saved from a mistake I made 
 years ago." 
 
 The old man spoke with great intensity, 
 for he heard the footsteps of the attendant 
 descending the stairs to say that Gresham's 
 turn had come to enter the doctor's office. 
 
 Gresham offered Greatthings his hand, 
 pressed it as if to say, " I shall be discreet,"
 
 The Electrical Boy. 229 
 
 and mounted the stairs. The waltinof- 
 room was still full of patients, and the 
 young man had to almost force his way 
 to the doctor's door. When he entered 
 Dr. Socrates was busily engaged in con- 
 sulting an immense volume. Gresham 
 thought that he had never seen a more 
 venerable man. Was it not possible that 
 the shaggy-headed old man in the work- 
 shop was a demented person ? The young 
 man resolved, however, to be very cautious. 
 Auo:ustus Swamm started when he 
 recognized Gresham. His colored glas- 
 ses and his great beard, however, com- 
 pletely shielded him from observation. 
 Slight things however betray a man's per- 
 sonality to a quick human eye. Swamm, 
 like all dishonest persons, was like the 
 ostrich, which thinks it is concealed when 
 it buries its head in the sands. In asking 
 Gresham questions in regard to the lat- 
 ter's pretended ailment, Swamm used the
 
 230 The Electrical Boy, 
 
 word " that " often, and always pronounced 
 it " thet." Gresham had always noticed 
 this peculiarity. He started when he 
 heard this pronunciation, and his eyes 
 immediately rested on the venerable physi- 
 cian's ears. Now Swamm's ears had a 
 peculiar convolution, and the young man 
 had often studied the ears, for it was his 
 firm belief that this feature afforded a 
 better method of recognizing men than 
 even photographs. The ears of one per- 
 son are never like those of another. The 
 conviction flashed upon Gresham that 
 Augustus Swamm the gambler stood 
 before him. 
 
 " How did this ' nervous prostration ' 
 thet you speak of come on.?" asked Dr. 
 Socrates, preparing to enter the answer of 
 the patient in a book. 
 
 " I noticed it in playing cards," replied 
 Gresham, watching the venerable physi- 
 cian narrowly. " The trouble must have
 
 The Electrical Boy. 231 
 
 been a mental one, for I imagined that my 
 opponents could see the cards in my 
 hands." 
 
 " Nervous prostration," said Dr. Socra- 
 tes, " is often accompanied and even pre- 
 ceded by hallucinations. I wish to see 
 which lobe of your brain has a preponder- 
 ating electrical influence on your nervous 
 organization." Thus saying, he desired 
 Gresham to sit down before the galvanom- 
 eter and watch the spot of light while he 
 passed the little junction about the base of 
 the brain. Gresham did as he was desired, 
 and wondered as he saw the spot of light 
 dance to the left, how much sense and 
 how much nonsense there was in Swamm's 
 proceedings. Dr. Socrates gave the young 
 man a learned discourse upon this ex- 
 tremely scientific method of discovering 
 which lobe of the brain was congested, and 
 the young man smiled to himself as he 
 listened. Truly this was an interesting
 
 232 The Electrical Boy, 
 
 and talented villain. The spot having 
 moved to the left, and the doctor having 
 entered the result with an air of great 
 wisdom in his notebook, Gresham was 
 told to put his hand on a planchette, or 
 delicately balanced board which could 
 move readily over a piece of blackened 
 paper in any direction. The doctor ex- 
 plained to him that he was going to give 
 him a slight shock of electricity and see 
 how his arm and fino^ers moved under the 
 effect of the stimulus; by this experiment 
 he could still further determine the seat 
 of the affection in the brain. Gresham 
 accordingly took his seat as he was di- 
 rected, and after his hand was carefully 
 adjusted, Dr. Socrates turned on the cur- 
 rent. The young man, however, did not 
 feel the slightest effect. Then the doctor 
 turned on more current, and again without 
 result. 
 
 " Perhaps you are remarkably imper-
 
 The Electrical Boy. 233 
 
 vious to electricity," said Dr. Socrates, 
 greatly surprised. " Let me take your seat 
 and examine the connections." Every- 
 thing seemed to be satisfactory, and he di- 
 rected Gresham to make the connection. 
 Greatthings was in the room below, lis- 
 tening to the interview between Gresham 
 and Swamm. He had always wished to 
 get Swamm between the poles of a strong 
 induction coil, and now the opportunity 
 seemed to be presented to him. He had 
 turned off the battery from the primary of 
 the induction coil when he heard Gresham 
 take his seat in the chair. When, how- 
 ever, Swamm took the relinquished seat, 
 he turned on the full force of the current. 
 A heavy fall was heard in the room above, 
 and Greatthings laughed diabolically in 
 the room below. Gresham made haste to 
 pick up the venerable physician, whose 
 limbs seemed to be rejuvenated by elec- 
 tricity. The doctor hobbled to his note
 
 2 34 ^/^^ Electrical Boy. 
 
 book with his beard twitching vigorously, 
 and speaking with effort, made the follow- 
 ing entry : " Remarkable case of non-sen- 
 sitiveness to strong electrical stimuli." 
 
 "Are there any other such cases on 
 record ? " asked Gresham. 
 
 Dr. Socrates went to his book-case 
 and took down an immense volume, and 
 proceeded to read an account of a pro- 
 fessor who could take the discharge from 
 two great Leyden jars charged to their 
 full capacity. 
 
 The doctor also read a note from the 
 projector of a street railway, who amused 
 himself by putting his hands on the poles 
 of a dynamo which ran his electrical cars. 
 
 " Your case, however," said the doctor, 
 " is more remarkable than any on record, 
 for it is accompanied by an abnormal pol- 
 arization of the cuticle." 
 
 Dr. Socrates then gave the young man 
 a magnet which he was to bind upon the
 
 The Electrical Boy. 235 
 
 base of his brain when he went to bed, 
 told him to sleep with his head to the east, 
 and requested him to call on the following 
 day. 
 
 Henry Gresham went out of the doc- 
 tor's consultinsr-room with an increased 
 knowledge of the world and with no cor- 
 responding acquaintance with the laws of 
 electricity. It was certainly very odd that 
 Swamm should have received such a se- 
 vere shock from wires that were apparently 
 uncharo^ed and dead. Could it be that the 
 man was a consummate actor } 
 
 When the young man passed through 
 the corridor he was met by George Great- 
 thines. " Send Richard to me as soon as 
 possible," whispered Gresham, " I know 
 Swamm." 
 
 George's eyes gleamed with triumph, 
 and he disappeared into the shop in the 
 basement. 
 
 Gresham walked home in deep thought,
 
 236 The ElecUdcal Boy. 
 
 thinking of his own unfettered life and of 
 his great opportunities, and contrasting 
 his lot with that of this strange workman 
 and his protege Richard Greatman. He 
 resolved to act quickly this time and lend 
 the boy a helping hand. Too well he re- 
 membered the shock he received when on 
 tracing the energetic bright-faced newsboy 
 to Smiles s old tenement he met his cofifin. 
 By dint of much questioning he learned 
 the particulars of the boy's sickness, and 
 the story of Richard's grief. The wretch- 
 edness of the life of the street Arabs came 
 upon him with full force, and he resolved 
 to better their condition by every means in 
 his power. To this end he became inter- 
 ested in a model newsboys' tenement, and 
 the life that had been formerly devoted 
 chiefly to his own amusement became one 
 of incessant zeal and activity. How hu- 
 miliating the past seemed ! — especially 
 those hours spent in the company of other
 
 The Elcct7'ical Boy. 237 
 
 young men in Swamm's toils. The great 
 fire had disclosed the arrangements of the 
 gambler, for it had spared the walls and 
 flooring along which ran the wires which 
 were employed to convey secret intelli- 
 gence. This small boy, Richard Great- 
 man, could reveal much, and Gresham 
 was glad that his whereabouts had at last 
 been discovered. 
 
 In the evening Richard again presented 
 himself, and Gresham was soon in pos- 
 session of the story of Swamm's machina- 
 tions. The boy told the story of his own 
 life as we have given it to the reader. 
 
 " Are you willing to go to the West with 
 me next week ? " asked Gresham. 
 
 The boy's eyes gleamed. He remem- 
 bered the descriptions of the giant, and 
 he clapped his hands together with delight. 
 Then a cloud came over his expressive 
 face, and he said, — 
 
 " I cannot leave Mr. Greatthings ; he
 
 238 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 has been very kind to me. He is growing 
 old, and will need some one to work for 
 him and support him." 
 
 " By Jove, he shall go with us, Richard," 
 exclaimed Gresham, delighted with the 
 boy's loyalty. " Don't say anything to 
 him ; I shall arrange everything." 
 
 Richard hurried back to Greatthings 
 with a great sense of happiness. The 
 world was beginning to be a very interest- 
 ing place. Was it possible that he should 
 see the scenes that the giant described, — 
 mountains with snow; immense trees; 
 great rivers that ran through stone walls 
 thousands of feet high ; and Indians, — oh, 
 it was too much to believe. 
 
 Henry Gresham told his mother and 
 sister of his adventures, and of his inten- 
 tion to take Richard Greatman and the old 
 man to the West, to aid him in the elec- 
 trical plant he proposed to put into a mine 
 which had been lately bequeathed to him.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 239 
 
 Gresham laid his plans very carefully for 
 the release of Greatthings from the toils of 
 Swamm. Richard was the messenger be- 
 tween the two men ; and Greatthings, filled 
 with a great hope, unburdened the mystery 
 of his past to Gresham, in misspelled notes 
 scrawled evidently under the stress of great 
 emotion. The time had come when the 
 old man felt compelled to take a human 
 beinor into his confidence. If Gresham 
 had not come upon the stage, Greatthings 
 had made up his mind to surrender him- 
 self to the police, and thus escape Swamm 
 
 • 
 
 and his dishonest practices. Nothing had 
 restrained him but the fear of leaving the 
 boy under the influences of the man who 
 had proved an evil genius to one strug- 
 gling life. Gresham thus became the re- 
 cipient of the carefully guarded secret of 
 a man's crime. What should he do } 
 Should he betray the confidence of the 
 broken-down and penitent creature, and
 
 240 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 surrender him to the police to expiate 
 an ofifence committed years ago, — an of- 
 fence which had been committed partly 
 through ignorance and partly through bad 
 influences in the man's youth ? Should he 
 be the means of shutting up in prison 
 those busy hands that had struggled for 
 years to perfect inventions ? No ; he 
 would give the old man another chance, 
 free from all the influences of the past. 
 The devotion of Greatthings to Richard 
 Greatman, and the loyalty of the latter 
 to the old man, decided Gresham.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 241 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 A NEW LIFE FOR GREATMAN AND GREAT- 
 THINGS. 
 
 /^NE night Richard and Greatthings 
 
 ^^^ left the abode of Dr. Socrates and 
 
 hastily made their way to the railroad 
 
 station, where they were joined by Gres- 
 
 ham, and they were soon whirling out of 
 
 the great city on their way to the West. 
 
 Gresham was astonished to see the effect 
 
 of a great hope on his companions. The 
 
 man whom he had regarded as old became 
 
 more erect. The shaggy locks and beard 
 
 had been cut, and the dull look in the eyes 
 
 had given place to a look of courage. 
 
 The man was not old. He had been bent 
 
 like Sinbad the sailor by the load of an 
 
 old man of the mountain. Gresham could 
 16
 
 242 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 hear Greatthings humming a song under 
 his breath, and the young man thought 
 of a description in an Eastern legend, of 
 the burdens falHng from a beggar's back, 
 on his entrance into paradise. 
 
 Richard had never been on a railroad 
 train, and his expressive countenance was 
 a study to Gresham, who gazed at him 
 over the corner of his newspaper as the 
 trio sat in the luxurious Pullman. At 
 every unusual sound the boy looked at 
 Gresham, and seeing his smile, smiled in 
 return, and settled himself for the next 
 new sensation. 
 
 The low suburbs of the great city sped by 
 them. The noisome quarter where Rich- 
 ard had spent his wretched boyhood, and 
 from which he had endeavored to escape 
 on the electric wires to join his mother, 
 was beneath the window, below the great 
 bridge. Could it be that the mother was 
 guiding her boy still into new paths, away
 
 The Electrical Boy. 243 
 
 from the wretchedness and haunts of pov- 
 erty and sin ? Those last words, " no fight- 
 ins;, no drinkino;," had never ceased to stir 
 in the mind of the boy. 
 
 As the great cities flashed by in the 
 night, Richard looked out of the car 
 windows wrapped in thought. A new 
 future seemed to be opening before him, 
 and the miserable past would soon be only 
 a dream, — a dream glorified by one hero, 
 Henry Gresham, and the face of a young 
 girl who gazed at his shabby little figure 
 with an angel-like pity in her beautiful 
 eyes. 
 
 Greatthings had made extensive prepa- 
 rations for his western journey. He had 
 provided himself with a revolver and a 
 large dirk knife ; a felt hat with a partic- 
 ularly large brim ; and a leather belt with 
 various pouches and compartments. 
 
 Before leaving the dime museum he 
 had carefully destroyed his models of his
 
 244 '^^^^ Electrical Boy, 
 
 new flying-macliine. The perfection of this 
 should be left to the future, when ampler 
 means would give him the opportunity to 
 finish it. He, however, took with him a 
 very essential part of the machine. This 
 was a storage battery, which ran the elec- 
 tric motor of the fiying-machine, so light 
 and compact that it could be put in his 
 coat-pocket. He carefully charged it for 
 many hours by means of the electric-light 
 current which was supplied to the mu- 
 seum, for it might be useful in that strange 
 country to which he was going. 
 
 In the poorly lighted trains which car- 
 ried them over vast stretches of country 
 east of the loo"' meridian, Greatthings 
 found his storage battery a great conve- 
 nience. He hooked a little incandescent 
 lamp on his spectacles, and on touching a 
 button lighted up his new^spaper, much to 
 the surprise and consternation of some In- 
 dians on the train who had ventured to
 
 The Electrical Boy. 245 
 
 take a ride. The storage battery, however, 
 was destined to play a more important 
 part in the journey. In crossing a deso- 
 late tract of country in western Texas, 
 two men with masks suddenly appeared, 
 one at each end of the car, and ordered the 
 passengers to throw up their hands, at the 
 same time pointing loaded revolvers at 
 them. A o-ans: of train robbers had boarded 
 tlie train, knowing that there were valuable 
 packages in the express compartment. 
 The train came to a stop, and the passen- 
 gers sat still, for they knew it was useless 
 to make any resistance to the desperate 
 characters in whose power they were. 
 Presently the robbers withdrew, and the 
 passengers, fearing that the engineer of the 
 train had been foully dealt with, proceeded 
 to the engine. They discovered that the 
 express compartment had been broken 
 open and the messenger, who had made a 
 valiant resistance, shot, and the robbers had
 
 246 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 ridden away on the engine. Greattbings 
 immediately suggested that Richard should 
 take his storage battery, climb up a neigh- 
 boring telegraph pole, cut the wire, and 
 connect one end of the cut wire with one 
 pole of the battery, and make and break 
 connections between the remaining cut 
 end of the telegrapli wire and the other 
 pole of the battery, and in this way tele- 
 graph to the station of the important town, 
 some fifty miles away, for another engine. 
 Greatman immediately followed the sug- 
 gestion of Greatthings. It was an easy 
 matter for him to telegraph. The only 
 difficulty he encountered was in the tre- 
 mendous current which Greatthings's stor- 
 age battery gave. The latter, perceiving 
 the boy's difficulty, tossed a bit of wire to 
 him, telling him to place it between the 
 poles of the battery and thus shunt, or 
 divert, a portion of the current into the 
 cell, and allow a smaller current to pro-
 
 The Electrical Boy. 247 
 
 ceed over the line. Richard did as he 
 was directed, and telegraphed for an 
 engine ; and gave also a description of 
 the robbers, which was furnished by the 
 bystanders. 
 
 Then there was nothing to do but wait 
 and see if the mysterious electrical message 
 would bring a response. The night wore 
 on, and toward morning the loud whistle 
 of an approaching engine was heard. The 
 boy's telegram had been receiv^ed, and the 
 Indians looked with greater awe than ever 
 at Greatthings and" his mysterious little 
 package which gave light and also had 
 spoken over the wires. 
 
 The engineer of the engine which soon 
 rolled up to the train informed the passen- 
 gers that a number of suspicious men who 
 entered the town late at night had been 
 arrested, and valuable packages had been 
 found on them. It was discovered that 
 they had abandoned the engine some dis-
 
 248 The Electrical Boy, 
 
 tance from the settlements, and had then 
 proceeded on foot. 
 
 The dangers of railroad travelling shortly 
 gave way to those which might be encoun- 
 tered in proceeding on horseback, over 
 mesas and mountain passes. Fortunately 
 the party escaped all perils, and finally ar- 
 rived at their remote destination in Arizona. 
 
 The first week in the mining camp was 
 a busy one. Gresham found everything 
 badly conducted. The foreman at the 
 mine spent most of his time in drinking, 
 and the Mexican workmen disappeared 
 now and then with the horses and stores 
 which belonged to the mine. Occasion- 
 ally strolling Indians added to the de- 
 moralization of the camp. Richard Great- 
 man soon learned to ride a mustang and 
 to fire a rifle. He was of great service to 
 Henry Gresham, who often despatched 
 him with important messages to prosjDect- 
 ing parties in the canyons.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 249 
 
 To a boy accustomed to the luxuries 
 of civilization, the sombre mountains bare 
 of trees, the lower stretches of arid plains, 
 with patches of mesquit, the great canyons, 
 the walls of which seemed ready to fall 
 upon the greedy seekers after silver, and 
 only waited their opportunity, would have 
 seemed desolate in the extreme. Richard 
 often walked up and down in the moonlight 
 when the rest of the camp were asleep, and 
 saw the bright stars scale the frowning 
 cliffs, and noted the photographic sharp- 
 ness of the shadows of the cactus fronds 
 against the rocks, heard the howl of a 
 distant wolf answered by the Mexican 
 camp-dogs, and felt a strange sense of 
 exultation. 
 
 Gresham, too, felt a new life rise within 
 him. There was room for all his powers 
 of organization. The mine had great 
 capabilities, but it had been very badly 
 managed. Although there was abundance
 
 250 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 of water-power, no use had been made of it, 
 and all the operations of mining had been 
 carried on by man-power assisted by mules. 
 Gresham speedily saw that by the con- 
 struction of a short piece of electrical rail- 
 way the ore could be carried up steep in- 
 clines and through places inaccessible to 
 men and mules, thus shortening long de- 
 tours through the cliffs. Power could 
 also be transmitted by electricity to ore 
 crushers. He talked over his plans with 
 Richard, who found to his delight that he 
 could set his friend aright in regard to 
 many electrical devices. 
 
 Electrical machinery was ordered from 
 New Orleans, and in two months' time the 
 electrical railway was conveying packages 
 of ore over the cliffs and yawning gorges 
 out of the mine. Richard worked steadily 
 with the men who set up the dynamo 
 machine near the water-power, and fol- 
 lowed every operation of taking the elec-
 
 The Electrical Boy. 251 
 
 tricity from this dynamo which was run by 
 water-power, to the motors in the little 
 cars which carried the ore to the main 
 camp. 
 
 " You will need all that you may learn," 
 said Greatthings to Richard. " I don't 
 believe much in these thieving Mexicans 
 about here. Mr. Gresham will have 
 trouble yet with them. They have con- 
 siderable respect, however, for lightning, 
 and I reckon won't care to meddle with 
 the mysterious wires we are putting up. 
 If I were Mr. Gresham I would manage to 
 give 'em all a small shock to keep a lively 
 sense of suthin's being round." 
 
 Richard remembered the great dynamos 
 of the central station, where he had spent 
 the evening with Greatthings, and from 
 which they were driven into the streets. 
 At the mine he saw a machine set 
 up, which consisted of large horseshoe- 
 shaped masses of iron around which coils
 
 252 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 of wire were wound. The ends of these 
 wires were connected by long wires with 
 copper brushes which rubbed against me- 
 tallic segments on the axle that carried 
 what were called the armature coils. 
 These segments were connected in turn 
 with the coils on the armature, so that 
 the electrical current started by the quick 
 movement of the armature in the neigh- 
 borhood of the iron was sent around this 
 iron and increased its magnetism. Then 
 the armature revolved in the neighbor- 
 hood of stronger magnetic iron, and sent 
 forth stronger electrical currents. 
 
 " It 's like an old man with a lot of 
 sons," said Greatthings. " The old man 
 works hard and gets a little capital and 
 lets it out to his sons, and they make more 
 and give it to the old man, who increases 
 it and sends the boys out with more. 
 Sometimes the boys lose all the old man 
 gets — that 's the case when there 's bad
 
 The Electrical Boy. 253 
 
 insulation in the electrical wires on these 
 masses of iron, and the electricity, like the 
 money, leaks away." 
 
 Durino; the hard labor of the installation 
 of the electrical apparatus for moving the 
 electrical cars the lounging Mexicans and 
 half-breed Indians looked on with lazy 
 interest. 
 
 Greatthings often felt annoyed at the 
 presence of so much idle humanity. " How 
 men can do so much sitting round under 
 red blankets is a mystery," he said. " I 
 wish I could get some electricity into 
 them." 
 
 One tall Indian, who was considered a 
 great shot with the rifle, especially pro- 
 voked Greatthings's animosity, and he 
 determined to "take him down," as he ex- 
 pressed it to Richard. 
 
 One nio;ht Greatthinsfs and Richard led 
 two wires from the electric railway to the 
 top of a crag, connected them at their
 
 2 54 "^^^^ Electrical Boy. 
 
 ends by a bit of fine platinum wire which 
 was coiled about a dynamite cartridge. 
 The wire and the cartridge were carefully 
 buried. 
 
 " Now," said Greatthings, " we will put 
 a bottle over the cartridge, and invite the 
 Indians to fire at it. It is at least a 
 quarter of a mile from camp, and even old 
 Long Tom can't hit it. Then I '11 borrow 
 his rifle, and at the instant I fire, you, Rich- 
 ard, will throw the electric current on ; it 
 will burn the platinum wire and explode 
 the cartridge, and the bottle will fly to 
 pieces. Those Injuns will want to make 
 me their chief after that. Havvkeye Great- 
 things would sound well, would n't it? " 
 
 When the camp was resting during the 
 sultry hours of the day, Greatthings in- 
 vited them to a test of sharp-shooting. 
 At first a mark was placed at four hundred 
 feet. In the contest Long Tom easily 
 came off victor. Then Greatthings pro-
 
 The Electrical Boy. 255 
 
 posed as a mark the bottle placed on the 
 crag a quarter of a mile distant. The 
 Indians grunted forth a dissent, and the 
 Mexicans looked at Greatthings as if he 
 liad lost his mind. Long Toni squatted 
 down and offered his rifle with a lordly 
 gesture to Greatthings, as if to say, " I 
 cannot do it ; perhaps you can." 
 
 Greatthings took the rifle and carefully 
 sighted along the barrel. Then he fired, 
 and the bottle flew into a thousand pieces ; 
 for Richard had connected, at the instant 
 he heard the report, the electrical wires to 
 the dynamo. Long Tom disappeared for 
 a time from the camp, and the other 
 Indians and the Mexicans regarded Great- 
 things with great respect.
 
 256 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 GREATTHINGS IS OFFERED A HIGH POSITION. 
 
 1\/IEAN WHILE Henry Gresham saw 
 an active future opening before him. 
 The former club-life no longer had any 
 attractions ; and in the incessant activity 
 of his western life he asked himself often : 
 " Is it possible that I once said to myself, 
 on risincr in the mornino-, How can I best 
 enjoy myself to-day? How can I most 
 surely kill time? — glorious young time 
 that stood like a knight in resplendent 
 armor between me and a disappointed old 
 age, only too ready to seize in an octopus- 
 like embrace the luxurious and dissipated 
 man of pleasure. Time and I now go 
 forth together to conquer. Instead of 
 desiring to kill time, I love time."
 
 The Electrical Boy. 257 
 
 In his letters to his mother he described 
 Richard's Hfe among the Indians and Mex- 
 icans, — the exuberant life of a starved 
 little boy who had suddenly been given his 
 liberty. He told of the wild ride of the 
 boy to the Mexican village one stormy 
 night to find a valuable packet of letters 
 w^hich Gresham had lost while visiting the 
 town; how he himself had ridden after the 
 boy, and how when they had met, Richard 
 rushed into his outstretched arms with the 
 package. He thus continued : — 
 
 " The mystery of the origin of electricity 
 is great, and its future influence on the 
 world is probably greater than the mind 
 of man can conceive ; but there is a more 
 powerful force always working mysteriously 
 in the world, capable of transforming the 
 whole earth if men would seriously study 
 it, and that force is love. I have seen its 
 wonderful working on the old man Great- 
 things. This man had become hardened 
 17
 
 258 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 and callous through the rude buffeting he 
 had received in the struggle for existence 
 I am afraid he had even become a criminal; 
 but the contact with a generous and pure- 
 hearted boy has acted like the beautiful 
 flower in the prison wall upon the convict. 
 
 " I love the little fellow," concluded 
 Gresham. " He would lay his life down 
 for me." 
 
 Henry Gresham found Richard of de- 
 cided help in the electrical devices of the 
 mine. Greatthings told him that the boy 
 grasped quickly the electrical methods 
 which had been introduced, and that he 
 was fully capable of running the electrical 
 railroad, or superintending the electrical 
 firing of dynamite cartridges, which wer^ 
 used in blasting. 
 
 In the rush and excitement of the west- 
 ern life there was little time for reading 
 or study. Henry Gresham gave Richard 
 some of Cooper's novels to read. He was
 
 The Electrical Boy. 259 
 
 amused to find that the boy preferred a 
 book on electricity which he also gave 
 him. '"- 
 
 Richard, when he heard the various 
 stories of the Indians' outbreaks, could not 
 help drawing a parallel between the edu- 
 cation of the street Arab and that of the 
 Indian in distrust. Both are to a certain 
 extent children of nature, and like shep- 
 herd doQ-s when once beaten or ill-treated 
 become unmanageable. 
 
 " I don't see any heroes among these 
 Indians around the camp," said he one day^ 
 in a slight tone of disappointment. 
 
 Greatthings smiled cynically. " I read 
 Cooper's novels when I was a boy," said he, 
 " and thought that Chingachgook was a 
 real character. Look at these vagabonds 
 sitting under their blankets, for all the 
 world like poisonous lizards. Do you see 
 any Chingachgooks among them 1 I wish 
 I could clear the earth of them."
 
 26o The Electrical Boy. 
 
 " You have thunderbolts at your com- 
 mand," said Gresham, with a laugh. 
 
 " Thunderbolts haaie n't been doing the 
 proper thing up in these mountains," re- 
 plied Greatthings, reaching out his long 
 arms with an emphatic shout as he saw an 
 Indian pushing aside one of his electrical 
 wires. 
 
 " Richard," said Greatthings one even- 
 ing, " we must really clear this camp of 
 these Indians. It must be done, or we 
 can't be called men. The thing to do is 
 to frighten them off by electricity." Great- 
 things then proceeded to lay some wires 
 to different spots in the camp. One of 
 these wires, which was thickly covered with 
 gutta-percha, he laid underground to the 
 neighborhood of a pile of rocks. At the 
 end of the wire he placed a little metallic 
 plate. He then ran a similar wire also 
 underground to the pile of rocks, and 
 brought the end up carefully concealed
 
 The Electrical Boy. 261 
 
 in the debris. Then he nailed a thick 
 piece of copper on one heel of his boot, 
 and connected this by a stout copper wire 
 which ran up the inside of his tall boot 
 into his trouser leg and terminated in a 
 metallic buckle in his leather belt. He 
 connected the wires at one end to the dy- 
 namo machine ; and taking an iron rod he 
 planted his boot on the metal plate in the 
 ground, and resting the end of the iron rod 
 against the metallic buckle extended the 
 rod until it touched the rock where the 
 other end of the wire was resting. In an 
 instant a dazzling light burst forth on the 
 surface of the rock. 
 
 " There s going to be an exodus when 
 they see me do that," remarked Great- 
 things, grimly. " That 's experiment num- 
 ber one.'* 
 
 Greatthings then led two other wires to 
 another pile of rocks, against which a num- 
 ber of Indians usually reclined. He placed
 
 262 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 a number of brioht coils of German silver 
 wire on both ends of the wires and left 
 them dangling against the side of the 
 rock, carefully separated from each other. 
 The other ends of these wires were con- 
 nected with his shocker, which was similar 
 to that used by Swamm, and by means 
 of which Richard sent messages to the 
 gambler. Not satisfied with these prep- 
 arations, Greatthings left similar coils 
 hanging against a tree to which the most 
 mischievous Indian usually hitched his 
 vicious mustang, — an animal that was 
 always letting his heels fly at all near 
 comers. 
 
 " There," said Greatthings, surveying his 
 preparations with satisfaction, " I reckon 
 there 11 be some quick movements any 
 way. If that animal happens to brush 
 up against those coils, as she is very likely 
 to do, she will be more facile than ever 
 with her ofi hind foot.''
 
 The Electrical Boy. 263 
 
 On the next day Greatthings saw the 
 usual group of lazy Indians and Mexicans 
 come into camp. He pretended to haggle 
 with them over the price of some of their 
 mustangs. After a while he seemed to 
 get angry, and told them he was a great 
 chief, and they had better be careful how 
 they dealt with him. With that he ex- 
 tended the rod and touched the rock. The 
 Indians shrank back in terror as they saw 
 the dazzling furious electric light dart from 
 the rock. Then the Indians, who had been 
 surreptitiously endeavoring to steal the 
 bright coils of wire, set up a howl of 
 agony, for the shocker had been thrown 
 on. They rushed with blankets outflying 
 to their mustangs ; all mounted and fled 
 save the mischievous young Indian to 
 whom the vicious mustang belonged. This 
 animal had brushed against the coils as 
 Greatthings hoped it would, and had also 
 received a shock. It kicked furiously first
 
 264 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 to the right and then to the left, and 
 tugged at its lariat. Notwithstanding its 
 motions the Indian succeeded in throwing 
 himself upon its back, and darted after his 
 companions, the mustang every now and 
 then flinging out its heels to the right and 
 then to the left at the memory of the 
 shock. 
 
 " Now we 've got a right smart chance 
 to do some work and take our eyes off our 
 valuables," remarked Greatthings. 
 
 Gresham laughed at the enterprise of 
 Greatthings in clearing the camp of Indi- 
 ans ; but he said he did not fear Indians 
 so much as Mexicans. In truth the coun- 
 try was very unsettled, and there was con- 
 stant danger of the trains of pack-mules 
 which carried the ore from the mines to the 
 despatching station being waylaid and the 
 ore stolen. The men who accompanied 
 the pack-mules were heavily armed, and 
 great precautions were taken against sur
 
 The Ekctj'ical Boy 265 
 
 prises. The mining property owned by 
 Gresham extended for several miles into 
 the mountains. The vein of ore which 
 was being worked ran at the base of 
 some foot-hills, and the stream which af- 
 forded water-power flowed through a deep 
 canyon. 
 
 Gresham resolved to make a thor- 
 ough survey of his property and of the 
 surrounding^ countrv in order to ascertain 
 the extent of the mineral deposits. Occa- 
 sionally Greatthings and Richard set forth 
 on prospecting tours. Greatthings had a 
 natural talent for finding minerals. He 
 remarked in regard to himself that he was 
 a walking conundrum, for he always had a 
 pocket full of rocks and yet was a poor 
 man. Perhaps it was not merely a love for 
 finding gold and silver ore that attracted 
 the workman into the weird, black, and 
 desolate mountains. There was a charm 
 in the sunsets and sunrises, in the fresh
 
 266 The Ekctrical Boy. 
 
 morning air, — an indescribable charm 
 which can be appreciated by all who have 
 climbed mountain-summits. 
 
 On these prospecting tours Greatthings 
 and Richard went fully armed, and never 
 ventured more than a day and night from 
 headquarters. If they were overtaken by 
 night they built a fire and took turns in 
 sleeping and watching. 
 
 Often the trail led through narrow gorges 
 which at night were intensely dark. Great- 
 things, with the intensely practical mind 
 which characterized him, had provided him- 
 self with a pot of phosphorescent paint, 
 and he marked the dark trail with it. In 
 the bright daylight this paint absorbed the 
 blue and violet rays of light, transforming 
 them into molecular vibrations. At night 
 these vibrations made the stones which 
 were painted glow with a mysterious light 
 which easily marked the trail. Occasion- 
 ally Greatthings painted skeletons on the
 
 The Elcch'ical Boy. 267 
 
 walls of rock with thunderbolts darting 
 from their bony hands. These were in- 
 tended, he said, for Indian object-lessons 
 on the kindergarten plan. 
 
 One day they discovered a rich outcrop 
 of ore in a little valley. Night came on 
 before they finished their examination of 
 the locality. They were not far from camp 
 in a straight line; but it was necessary to 
 make a long detour to avoid a deep canyon 
 in order to reach it, and they resolved to 
 spend the night in the valley and to prose- 
 cute their search in the early morning. 
 Richard took the first turn at watching. 
 They built no fire, in order to escape 
 observation from any straggling band of 
 Indians, and spread their blankets in a 
 nook of rocks which was protected from 
 attack behind. Richard sat with his rifle 
 across his lap, and watched the stars rise 
 over the range of cliffs to the east and 
 slowly disappear behind the range to the
 
 268 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 west. He heard mysterious sounds in 
 the hills, and these, too, disappeared like 
 the stars, and were followed by the sound 
 of low moaning winds. There was great 
 confidence in the knowledge that his re- 
 peating rifle carried sixteen cartridges, and 
 that Greatthings's rifle carried the same 
 number. Toward the end of the first 
 watch Richard thought he saw distant 
 figures on the edge of the high cliff which 
 rose against the western sky. The moon 
 had risen, and the stony battlements began 
 to lose their deep sombre hue, and to ap- 
 pear silvery. Richard concluded at length 
 that the figures were illuminated points of 
 rock which lost their prominence when 
 the shadow of the eastern wall sank lower 
 and the moon rose higher. The distant 
 call must have been that of some wild 
 animal in the depths of the mountain. 
 Presently it was Greatthings's turn to 
 watch. Richard had hard work to awaken
 
 The Electrical Boy. 269 
 
 his tired companion. Then the small boy 
 covered himself with a blanket and fell in- 
 stantly to sleep. So they spent the night 
 in alternate watches. 
 
 In the early morning Greatthings and 
 Richard found that all the paths leading 
 from the mountain nook where they had 
 spent the night were guarded by Indians. 
 Lons: Tom, the craunt old Indian who had 
 been defeated in long distance shooting by 
 Greatthings, advanced with great gravity, 
 accompanied by several other Indians, one 
 of whom spoke English. The interpreter 
 told Greatthings that the chief, Long 
 Tom, wished to make a proposition to 
 the dealer in lightning and thunderbolts. 
 Greatthings cast a hasty glance around 
 him, and saw that he was in a trap. He 
 noticed, however, that the Indians stood 
 at a respectful distance. He made a 
 motion as if to touch the rocky cliff, and 
 the Indians shrank together.
 
 270 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 Greatthin2;s soon ascertained throusfb 
 the interpreter that the tribe wished to 
 make him their chief. LonQ- Tom was 
 old and feeble, and wished to abdicate 
 in favor of one who could draw licrhtnino; 
 from the rocks, send messages over the 
 hills without horses, and shoot further than 
 the most powerful rifle. Long Tom, 
 squatting on the ground, told in a strange 
 guttural tone of the past glory of the tribe, 
 of its contests with the Mexicans, of its 
 strong men. Then he spoke of the mere 
 handful of which the tribe now consisted, 
 of its inability to protect itself against the 
 stran2:ers who were comins: in to s:et their 
 gold and to finally drive the tribe farther 
 and farther into the desolate mountains, 
 where nothing but starvation awaited 
 them. The white liojhtnino^ chief could 
 change all this. He could restore the 
 tribe to its former proud position, and regain 
 the rich fields in the valleys now held by
 
 The Electrical Boy. 271 
 
 the Mexicans and ranchmen. In return 
 for this, besides the glory of being chief, 
 the lightning man should have plenty of 
 gold and silver. 
 
 Greatthings's long arms worked up and 
 down, and his face twitched with the 
 humor of the situation. It was well, how- 
 ever, to make getting home sure, and also 
 to ascertain more about that gold and 
 silver. 
 
 The old chief at length ceased to speak, 
 although his lips continued to mutter as if 
 he were repeating records of the former 
 grandeur of the tribe, 
 
 Greatthings, in turn, told him that he 
 felt the honor which they wished to confer 
 on him greatly, and that he hated the 
 Mexicans cordially, and could drive them 
 out with thunderbolts, no doubt. He 
 would like to feel sure, however, that the 
 tribe had gold and silver in return. The 
 old chief waved his hand. Thereupon an
 
 2/2 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 Indian brought forward a magnificent nug- 
 get of gold. Greatthings's eyes sparkled 
 as he saw it. He was sure that there w^as 
 more gold where that was found. 
 
 The old chief said that there was a cav- 
 ern full of it, guarded, however, by evil 
 spirits which breathed forth an air fatal 
 to man and beast. The secret of entering 
 the cavern was known only to the chief 
 of the tribe, and w^ould be imparted only 
 to the next chief. 
 
 Greatthings asked to be shown the en- 
 trance to the cavern. To his surprise the 
 Indian chief did not object, and motioned 
 his followers on. The party winding among 
 the rocks came finally to a desolate nook 
 in the mountains. In front of a small dark 
 opening were strewn bleached skeletons of 
 small animals. The old chief ordered an 
 Indian to bring forward a wretched dog 
 that was in the party. A rope was tied to 
 the dog and he was forced into the hole
 
 TJie Electrical Boy. 273 
 
 in the rocks. A noise was heard, as if 
 of something drowning, and the dog was 
 drawn forth. His skin was dry; he had 
 not been in water; but he was suffocated 
 and dead. 
 
 " No man or beast can enter the cave," 
 said the old chief ; " but there is gold there, 
 and a chief can get it. Behold!" and he 
 caused the nugget to be brought forward 
 asfain. Greatthins^s looked around him. 
 The place was a natural mountain-fastness, 
 and apparently the home of the remnant 
 of the tribe. 
 
 Greatthings told the old chief that he 
 should like to consider the proposition, 
 and if the chief and his councillors would 
 come to the mining-camp on the follow- 
 ing morning he would give a definite 
 answer. The old chief heard him in si- 
 lence, and then grasped his hand, as if 
 trusting himself to the honor of one more 
 powerful than himself. 
 18
 
 2 74 TJic Elccti'ical Boy 
 
 " It 's kinder pathetic," said Greatthings 
 in an undertone to Richard, " but we are 
 f^oinsf to have that gold mine." 
 
 The old chief spoke of impending mis- 
 fortune to the tribe almost in the tones of 
 a prophet. He wished that Richard 
 Greatman should also be enrolled in the 
 tribe as a second lightning-man. 
 
 After a long talk, in which Greatthings 
 endeavored to obtain more definite infor- 
 mation in regard to the curious opening in 
 the rock, whence proceeded the poisonous 
 emanation which protected the treasure 
 inside the mountain, the old chief showed 
 a number of braves, painted hideously and 
 armed to the teeth, and then delegated two 
 Indians to escort Greatthings and Richard 
 back to the camp.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 275 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 A DISCOVERY BY MEANS OF ELECTRICITY. 
 
 1 
 
 ^HE Indians took Richard and Great- 
 things by tortuous paths farther into 
 the mountains. Greatthings soon ascer- 
 tained that having given him a suspi- 
 cion of the wealth concealed in the hills, 
 they did not intend that he and Richard 
 should return to the camp alive, unless as 
 chiefs ready to drive out all interlopers, 
 Gresham included. 
 
 " There 's no help for it," said Great- 
 things in a whisper to Richard ; " I must 
 consent to be their chief. Our only chance 
 is in signalling to the camp." 
 
 When Greatthings indicated that he 
 was ready to be installed as chief, the In-
 
 276 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 dians formed a ring about him and began 
 to chant a long account of the deeds of 
 their ancestors. Greatthings took a torch 
 from the camp-fire, made a command- 
 ing gesture, struck the side of the rock 
 near him with it, and handed it to Richard, 
 whispering, " Make mysterious motions 
 with it as if striking fire from the cliff; 
 manage so that they can see it down in 
 the camp ; it is our only chance." 
 
 The Indians grunted forth an approval 
 of Greatthings's gestures, which doubtless 
 indicated to them the intention on his part 
 to use his electrical powers in behalf of 
 the tribe. Meanwhile Richard signalled 
 in front and behind a rock to the camp far 
 down the gorge. 
 
 He said to himself, " Why should I not 
 telegraph with the light .-^ Some one at the 
 camp may recognize the signals." The In- 
 dians saw Richard apparently confirm 
 Greatthings's intentions by motions with
 
 The Electrical Boy. 277 
 
 the torch, and proceeded with their rites 
 and incantations. 
 
 They danced, shouting and gesticulat- 
 ing, about Greatthings. The Indians who 
 squatted upon the ground encouraged the 
 dancers by wild exclamations, and one by 
 one arose and joined the wild circle of 
 leaping savages. Occasionally one of the 
 dancers would fall in a fit and foam at the 
 mouth; the others seemed to be driven fran- 
 tic by this sight, and the whirl of the dance 
 grew more furious. Greatthings was 
 afraid that he would be torn to pieces in 
 the Indians' frenzy. He had heard of sav- 
 ages working themselves to such a point 
 of excitement that they had fallen upon 
 one another. In truth these emotional 
 religious dances had become so serious 
 that the Government had resolved to sup- 
 press them by force. 
 
 Greatthings was now covered with a coat 
 of paint, and his Id'ng hair cut until only a
 
 278 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 tuft remained. He was given a head-dress 
 of feathers, and compelled to drink a nause- 
 ating draught, which was stirred with the 
 talon of an eagle. Then all the warriors 
 drank from the same bowl. The rites and 
 incantations were then repeated with Rich- 
 ard Greatman. The bowl contained a 
 fiery liquor which seemed to stupefy all, 
 and toward midnight the Indians were 
 nodding around the camp-fire. Great- 
 things looked keenly about him for a 
 chance to escape, but he felt that it 
 would be certain death to attempt to break 
 through the guards, who he was sure 
 were on the watch ; moreover, how could 
 he save Richard Greatman } Greatthings 
 might make a bold rush for liberty, but the 
 boy would be sacrificed. Meanwhile Rich- 
 ard could not communicate the intelli- 
 gence to Greatthings that his signals had 
 been seen and recognized by some one in 
 the mining camp, for they had been sepa-
 
 The Electrical Boy. 279 
 
 rated, and assigned to different portions of 
 the rocky plateau on which was the rude 
 encampment of the tribe. 
 
 Shortly before sunrise a volley of shots 
 was heard. One of the warriors near 
 Greatthinsfs rolled head foremost into the 
 camp-fire. Greatthings seized a rifle. 
 Then came another volley. The Indians 
 ran hither and thither in confusion, and 
 sousfht the fastnesses amons^ the rocks. 
 Richard and Greatthino^s reco2:nized the 
 voices of Gresham and his followers, 
 and turned their rifles also upon the 
 retreating Indians. A few scattering 
 shots came in return. The Indians, how- 
 ever, seemed to melt away, and when 
 Gresham and his men called from their 
 concealment, Greatthings and Richard 
 found no one to oppose them. The res- 
 cuers and the rescued remained in the 
 shelter of the rocks until the gray morn- 
 ing light appeared between the pinnacles
 
 28o The Electrical Boy. 
 
 of rock in the east. They were afraid to 
 venture out to assist the Indian who had 
 been shot, and who groaned at the side of 
 the camp-fire, lest they should be picked 
 off by some Indian sharpshooter. As the 
 morning light increased Gresham and his 
 party cautiously surveyed the ground. 
 There were no Indians to be seen. He ac- 
 cordingly ordered the wounded Indian to 
 be carried by two of his strongest miners, 
 while the rest of the men with their rifles 
 ready for instant use, some in advance 
 and some behind, guarded the party back 
 to the camp. 
 
 The wounded Indian was carefully 
 nursed by one of the miners, who had had 
 experience in caring for gunshot wounds. 
 
 Gresham pondered over the story told 
 by Greatthings of the curious cave with 
 the poisonous air, and the legend of the 
 Indian chief in relation to the treasure of 
 gold. He came to the conclusion that the
 
 The Electrical Boy. 281 
 
 poisonous air was carbonic acid gas, 
 which might be generated among the 
 rocks, for the region had once been 
 volcanic. While he talked one day with 
 Greatthings about the poisonous cave and 
 told him of the nature of carbonic acid 
 gas, — how heavy it was, and how it sank 
 to the bottom of wells and caves, and pre- 
 vented the breathing of man and beast, — • 
 Greatthings remained for a long time in 
 deep meditation. At length he jumped 
 up and exclaimed, " I have it ! I have it ! 
 We will force out the carbonic acid gas 
 with a blower, and explore the cave." 
 
 " How can you get power for a blower 
 in that mountain fastness," exclaimed 
 Gresham. 
 
 " By means of electricity," replied Great- 
 things. 
 
 The electrician then proceeded to explain 
 his plan. He proposed to run two wires 
 from the dynamo at the camp to the mouth
 
 282 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 of the cave. The wires could be raised 
 over the face of the great cliffs, and run in 
 almost a straight line, avoiding the long 
 detours among the rocks. At the mouth 
 of the cave a small dynamo or electrical 
 motor similar to those used on the electri- 
 cal railway might be placed, and the wires 
 connected with this. The currents of 
 electricity from the central dynamo at the 
 camp could turn the dynamo at the mine, 
 and a blower or fan could be made to re- 
 volve in the opening of the cave, and 
 thus draw out the poisonous carbonic 
 acid gas. The plan seemed perfectly 
 feasible to Gresham ; and armed with full 
 permission, Greatthings set about the en- 
 terprise in great glee. He immediately 
 constituted Richard Greatman his chief 
 assistant. 
 
 Before many days the necessary copper 
 wire and the fan arrived from New Or- 
 leans, and Greatthings set to work to place
 
 The Elatrical Boy. 283 
 
 the wire and the machinery. The men 
 were carefully guarded, and the work was 
 pushed forward with the greatest celerity. 
 In order to lift the wire up the faces of the 
 cliffs, a string was attached to the wire 
 and then to an arrow, and the arrow shot 
 upward to the party on the cliffs. Then 
 the end of the wire was drawn up by the 
 string. During the prosecution of the 
 work nothing was seen of the Indian tribe. 
 The dark and bare mountains showed no 
 form of life save now and then a soaring 
 bird or a lizard. Great difficulty was ex- 
 perienced in placing the electrical ma- 
 chinery at the mouth of the pit, for the 
 poisonous gas came forth at times in great 
 volumes and rolled down the little nar- 
 row valley between the crags, which the 
 wounded Indian at the camp told them 
 was called the* vale of death. 
 
 At length the machinery was set in 
 operation, and the fan began to revolve.
 
 284 The ElectiHcal Boy. 
 
 After a while a candle was lowered into 
 the opening of the cave ; it was seen to go 
 out. Gresham said that carbonic acid gas 
 was still there in great quantity. In an 
 hour more the same experiment was tried. 
 The candle no longer went out. The ex- 
 periment was succeeding. Gresham or- 
 dered the fan to run all night. In the 
 morning electric lights were placed be- 
 tween the ends of the wires in place of the 
 dynamo which had been turning the fan. 
 Gresham and Greatthings made their way 
 into the cave, accompanied by Richard 
 Greatman, who held an electric lamp in 
 his hand. 
 
 The opening of the cave was choked 
 with fallen rocks and skeletons of animals. 
 A cry of horror escaped Gresham when he 
 felt a human skull slip under his feet on 
 the floor of the tunnel. The glow of the 
 electric lamp showed many other skulls 
 and crumblinor skeletons. Gresham re-
 
 The Electrical Boy, 285 
 
 membered to have read accounts of dis- 
 coveries of caverns filled with remains of 
 cave-dwellers, who inhabited holes in the 
 mountains long before the times of Alfred 
 the Great or Charlemagne. This was ap- 
 parently one of these caves. ' 
 Greatthings choked in the dust of the 
 cave. He suggested that they had hit on 
 the burial-place of the lost tribes of Israel. 
 Gresham looked around. These skeletons 
 were contorted, as if the beings to whom 
 they once had belonged had died in ago- 
 nies. There were spears and other weapons 
 near the skeletons, and strange breast- 
 plates and ornaments resting on the moul- 
 dering bones. The men pushed their way 
 farther into the cave. Gresham lisfhted a 
 candle in order to be sure that the car- 
 bonic acid gas was not stealthily filling the 
 cavern again. The candle still burned 
 brightly. It was thought best, however, 
 to send Richard back to connect the fan
 
 286 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 to the dynamo in order that the gas might 
 not overpower them in the cave. When 
 Richard returned he found Henry Grcs- 
 ham and Greatthings lost in wonder at 
 the sight which met their eyes. They 
 were in a large central cavern, in one cor- 
 ner of which was a deep pool. From the 
 surface of this, great bubbles of gas con- 
 tinually arose. On a rocky platform near 
 the pool were arranged a number of what 
 appeared to be tombs. Gresham pried 
 open the stony covering of one of these, 
 and saw within a mouldering fabric richly 
 ornamented with gold ; beneath this were 
 traces of bones, beside which were curious 
 vessels, also of gold. 
 
 " We have discovered the burial-place of 
 the early rulers of the country/' said 
 Gresham, with wonder. " Doubtless they 
 selected this cavern in order that the ac- 
 cumulations of poisonous gas should pre- 
 vent the rifling of their tombs."
 
 The Electrical Boy. 287 
 
 " I do n't see how the funeral procession 
 got in here," remarked Richard. 
 
 " The ebullition of the gas may be peri- 
 odical ; possibly the times of safety may 
 have been known to the high priests of 
 the time," said Gresham. 
 
 Gresham continued his investigation, 
 and obtained more proof of tlie truth of 
 his surmise, that this cavern had been a 
 secret burial-place of ancient rulers. The 
 numerous skeletons in the narrow passage 
 were evidently those of would-be robbers, 
 who had perished in the attempt to pene- 
 trate into the cavern. The place had also 
 been used as a receptacle for treasure, for 
 in massive stone vessels were found nuo:- 
 gets of gold, and gold vessels of an antique 
 pattern. What a treasure for an archae- 
 ologist to revel in! Gresham resolved to 
 make an accurate plan of the cavern and 
 to write a description of the articles found 
 with the skeletons.
 
 288 TJic Electrical Boy. 
 
 The prosecution of this work and the 
 conveyance of the treasure to the camp 
 occupied several days. It was evident to 
 Gresham that his operations had been 
 closely watched by Indians. His men had 
 caught an occasional glimpse of a form 
 peering from behind a rock, and there 
 had been mysterious calls echoing in the 
 mountains at night.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 2S9 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 GREATTHINGS'S ENEMY GOES WEST, AND 
 EMPLOYS MAGNETISM. 
 
 CWAMM missed his assistants very 
 early on the day following their de- 
 parture, for the story of the wonderful 
 manifestations seen at his seances had 
 gone abroad, and a large delegation from 
 the psychical society desired to witness 
 the phenomena. 
 
 Swamm found the rooms occupied by 
 Greatthings and Richard deserted. It 
 was evident that they had fled. In the 
 room occupied by Greatthings Swamm 
 picked up a note. It was from Henry 
 Gresham, and ran thus, — 
 
 " Meet me at the railroad station at ten 
 o'clock." 
 
 19
 
 290 The Elect j^cal Boy. 
 
 " So," ejaculated Swamm, " they are in 
 his company, are they ? I can find out 
 their whereabouts whenever I choose. I 
 saw young Gresham eying me very nar- 
 rowly when he consulted me. It is not 
 possible that he could have recognized 
 me. Why should he meet Greatthings 
 and the boy at a railroad station, even if 
 he recognized me } " 
 
 The seances of Dr. Socrates became less 
 attractive, and the strange electrical halos 
 no longer appeared. Madame Zola across 
 the street, a magnetic physician, exhibited 
 more wonderful phenomena than those 
 shown by Dr. Socrates, and the latter was 
 compelled to abandon that branch of his 
 business. Considerable opposition also 
 developed in regard to the doctor's medi- 
 cal use of electricity. The number of 
 those who had received no benefit began 
 to exceed that of the cured. Several 
 sceptical persons declared that the opera-
 
 The Electj'ical Boy. 291 
 
 tion of putting a coin in tlie mouth when 
 the hands were connected with a medical 
 shockino^-coil was in the hio-hest des^ree a 
 humbug, and could not be productive of 
 good. Indeed, such persons maintained 
 that no taste could be perceived in the 
 mouth, and that the supposed effect was 
 the result entirely of the imagination. 
 
 Swamm's patients declined in number; 
 and finally when a rival doctor, who 
 claimed to cure all diseases by massage 
 and a magnetic touch, opened an of^ce 
 up town, Dr. Socrates's practice was re- 
 duced to non-paying patients. This was 
 not to his mind, and he soon found a 
 pliable electrician, who aided him in his 
 seances ; and the halos were again seen in 
 the dark floating over the heads of the 
 audience. 
 
 Swamm, however, had made up his mind 
 that fortunes could be made quicker by 
 mining enterprises in the growing West
 
 292 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 than by his seances. Through an alder- 
 man whom Swamm was able to put in 
 communication with the spirit of a de- 
 parted wife, an appointment as Indian 
 agent was obtained for the venerable 
 doctor, who desired to try the high moun- 
 tain air of Colorado, and incidentally to 
 redress the wrongs of the Indians. 
 
 On his way to the West Dr. Socrates 
 grew younger and younger, and finally 
 before arriving at the field of his future 
 labors, the flowing white beard was thrown 
 away, and the man who reached the out- 
 skirts of civilization was Swamm the 
 dapper gambler. 
 
 On taking a view of the situation, 
 Swamm decided that it was impossible to 
 reclaim the Indian ; but nevertheless some- 
 thing could be made out of him. He 
 proceeded to exemplify this paradoxical 
 opinion by selling the Indians poor blan- 
 kets, and pocketing the difference in price
 
 The Electrical Boy. 293 
 
 between these blankets and those the pa- 
 ternal government at Washington had in- 
 tended for its wards. 
 
 It seemed absurd for the government to 
 supply blankets which were of such good 
 quality that they would outlast the bodies 
 of the Indians. By the doctrine of the 
 survival of the fittest, certain Indian 
 tribes were destined to disappear rapidly. 
 Swamm, therefore, graded the blankets 
 and clothing so that the Indian and his 
 effects should vanish together. 
 
 The enterprise of Swamm was not con- 
 fined to grading the supply of blankets to 
 the Indians. An agriculturist near the 
 agency in boring an artesian well noticed 
 that the steel drills became magnetic, and 
 attracted iron nails and pen-knives very 
 strongly. Swamm immediately bought 
 the well, and proclaimed the magnetic 
 virtues of the water. There was no ill 
 which this water could not cure. Soon
 
 294 "^^^^ Electrical Boy. 
 
 pilgrimages were made from all parts of 
 the country to obtain this wonderful mag- 
 netic water, and Swamm made money by 
 selling it. 
 
 The virtues of the magnetic well re- 
 ceived a great advertisement from a fortu- 
 nate operation by Swamm. Among those 
 who sought to be benefited by the water 
 was a miner who was suffering from a 
 severe affection of the eyes. Swamm in- 
 serted the ends of a powerful magnet 
 under the eyelids of the unfortunate suf- 
 ferer, and then recommended him to bathe 
 his eyes three times a day in the magnetic 
 water. The cure was wonderful, and the 
 miner returned to his work with his sight 
 restored. Swamm had surmised that the 
 man was suffering from iron filings in his 
 eyes. The powerful magnet had removed 
 these, and the magnetic water had merely 
 acted as ordinary water to cleanse the eyes. 
 This successful diasfnosis confirmed all
 
 The Electrical Boy. 295 
 
 believers in the virtue of the water, and 
 converted many unbelievers. 
 
 It was pathetic to see poor suffering 
 humanity at the well. Swamm had built 
 large baths of concrete in which patients 
 could be totally immersed when they had 
 taken large draughts of the magnetic 
 water. In some cases he recommended 
 the patients, after drinking as much as 
 possible of the magnetic water, to stand 
 between the poles of a powerful electro- 
 magnet which was excited by the dynamo 
 that pumped the water from the well. 
 His reasons for this treatment seemed 
 scientific to those who did not know that 
 science rarely proceeds by leaps, and that 
 a scientific method is generally based 
 upon a series of well studied phenomena. 
 In a new country a cure which proves that 
 scientific men are ignorant is always pop- 
 ular among a certain class, for it leads to 
 the belief in short cuts to knowledsfe.
 
 296 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 Perhaps Swamm believed in the efficacy 
 of the magnetic water and of his treat- 
 ment. He proclaimed loudly that if any 
 one could tell him what magnetism is, he 
 would tell them why his magnetic treat- 
 ment effected such wonderful cures. With 
 this bold proclamation he completely si- 
 lenced the efforts of the professor in a 
 western college to undeceiv^e the public. 
 
 If Swamm's heart had not been long 
 before steeled against human suffering, the 
 daily sights at the magnetic cure must 
 have wrung it. There were old men with 
 crutches seeking the fountain of youth ; 
 blind men hoping for a restoration of 
 sight; little children with pinched faces 
 borne in the arms of anxious mothers. 
 Swamm's heart gave him a twinge once. 
 A woman came from a great distance with 
 her sick dauQ-hter to be treated at the well. 
 The girl was strangely like a maiden 
 whom Swamm had loved when he was a
 
 The Electrical Boy. 297 
 
 young man, and who had died when the 
 world was young to him and his heart had 
 not grown hardened. He saw the girl go 
 between the poles of the magnet with an 
 accusing feeling in his heart, and he gave 
 the poor mother a sum of money to convey 
 her and her daughter back to their home. 
 Such temporary lapses of feeling w^ere 
 rare. The gentler affections die like the 
 wind-flowers if they are not assiduously 
 watered and tended. 
 
 Like all great discoverers, Swamm was 
 destined to suffer from detraction and 
 from competition. Certain enterprising 
 Yankees immediately bored for magnetic 
 wells and discovered no end of them, — 
 for all iron and steel tools in borinsr 
 through rocks containing iron ores are apt 
 to become magnetic, and the commonness 
 of the phenomenon threw doubt upon the 
 alleged virtues of the magnetic water. 
 
 While occupied with the duties of his
 
 298 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 position Swamm encountered one day Mr. 
 Moses, who had struggled to the West in 
 the hopes of hearing from the giant. Mr. 
 Moses' aim in life was a Wild W^est Show ; 
 but where were the means t Mr. Moses 
 spread out his hands like the short legs of 
 a frog, and looked the picture of despair. 
 Swamm was very impatient with Mr. 
 Moses, for he had a certain contempt for 
 unsuccessful men. According to his views 
 a living could always be made, and for- 
 tunes were always possible. It might be 
 well, he thought, to have several enter- 
 prises on foot. He felt the expansive 
 spirit of the West, and accordingly aided 
 Mr. Moses in the collection of material for 
 a Wild West Show, reserving prospectively 
 the largest share of profits. A number of 
 Indians were willing to join the Show. A 
 real American buffalo, one of the few re- 
 maining on the continent, was obtained, 
 and Mr. Moses' countenance began to
 
 The Electrical Boy. 299 
 
 smile. Swamm was very successful in 
 getting curiosities for the Show, and the 
 more he thought over the Wild West Show 
 the more promising the enterprise seemed. 
 A syndicate could be formed which would 
 control all the Wild West Shows, and 
 when the business arrangements were fully 
 perfected, Mr. Moses could be dispensed 
 with. Meanwhile they were excellent 
 friends. 
 
 It was desirable that instruction as well 
 as amusement should be provided by the 
 Show. ArchcEology and history were pro- 
 vided for by a collection of pottery, — jars 
 dug from the mounds, ornamented with 
 uncouth figures of animals judiciously in- 
 terspersed with bowls of a more modern 
 make. In a glass case by itself was to be 
 placed a minute carved image of a pleio- 
 cene man, which Swamm maintained had 
 been brought up from a depth of three 
 hundred feet in boring the magnetic well.
 
 300 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 The student of textile fabrics could also 
 trace the progress of that industry among 
 the aborigines by a carefully scheduled 
 collection of blankets. The process of 
 weaving the famous Navajoe blankets was 
 to be shown. A Navajoe brave and his 
 squaw were to accompany the Show, and 
 while the squaw wove, the lord and husband 
 in his paint and feathers would look on 
 with phlegmatic equanimity, affording the 
 lecturer, who was to explain the Show, an 
 opportunity for a suitable moral digression. 
 Then there was to be a bear hunt con- 
 ducted by the Indians. A bear being an 
 intractable animal, it was proposed to 
 relieve him of his skin and place it on a 
 great St. Bernard dog, which could be suit- 
 ably trained. There must be, however, 
 real Indians for the hunters, for in mo- 
 ments of excitement any disguise would 
 be sure to be revealed by Hibernian or 
 Mongolian exclamations.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 301 
 
 One of the o-reat features of the Show 
 was to be a descent of the Grand Canyon 
 illustrated by the stereopticon. The exhi- 
 bition of great panoramic views was to be 
 interspersed with attacks and repulses of 
 Indians, with the customary proportion of 
 twelve white men to one Indian. 
 
 Mr. INIoses was in ecstasy as he listened 
 to the fertile plans of Swamm, and he saw 
 extra trains running into cities to see the 
 Show, carrying those who wished to be ed- 
 ucated as well as amused. Swamm smiled 
 to himself when he heard Mr. Moses as- 
 sume the position of the popular lecturer. 
 A more mas^netic man must be found for 
 this position, — one whose exaggerations 
 should be disguised with tact, and one 
 who should apparently have the power of 
 conveying a large amount of scientific 
 information by properly concealing the 
 difficulties of the subject. Mr. Moses' 
 nose, too, revealed too much. With that
 
 302 The Electrical Boy, 
 
 indirect method which was so characteris- 
 tic of Swamm, the latter asked Mr. Moses 
 to pronounce the names of the Indian 
 tribes whom he hoped to have repre- 
 sented in the great Show, — the Sho- 
 shones, the Gosi-Utes, the Pah-vants, the 
 Chemehuevis, the Hualapais, the Mesca- 
 leros, the Coyotero-Apaches, the Uintah 
 Utes, the Uncompahgre Utes, and the 
 Weenemuche. Mr. Moses left Swamm's 
 oflfice feeling that perhaps the financial 
 management of the Show might be his 
 best field. Let me observe here that Mr. 
 Moses was another example of a man's 
 belief that his customary pursuit was not 
 his strongest bent. Goethe thought his 
 work on color the greatest effort of his 
 genius, and never could be made to realize, 
 poor man, that it was all wrong.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 303 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 A DANGER IMPENDING. 
 
 T jNFORTUNATELY one of Swamm's 
 enterprises interfered with the other. 
 The Indians who had received cheap blan- 
 kets and poor suppHes, instead of meekly 
 assenting: to the doctrine of the survival 
 of the fittest, and regarding themselves as 
 the unclassified residuum which must go to 
 the wall, suddenly seized their rifles and 
 took to the war-path. The Wild West 
 Show lost its band of yelling savages, and 
 the cow-boys fled up country to protect 
 the ranches from the Indian outbreak. 
 
 News came to the agency that a mes- 
 siah had appeared among the Indians, who 
 would enable them to subdue the whites
 
 304 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 and regain the country of their fathers. 
 Fugitives flocking to the agency described 
 the strange rites practised by the Indians. 
 One of the strangest was a wild dance in 
 which their passions and hopes were 
 worked to a fearful pitch and they became 
 like madmen. No one had seen the Mes- 
 siah, but he was said to be an Indian of 
 great size. This Indian outbreak, looked 
 at from a business point of view, would ad- 
 vertise the Show perhaps better than any 
 other means, and if this giant prophet 
 could be obtained after the outbreak, liv- 
 ing or dead, a strange episode in Ameri- 
 can history could be illustrated. 
 
 It was evident to Swamm that history 
 was making with great rapidity. If the 
 Indians should be driven off from the agen- 
 cy and exterminated, there would be no fur- 
 ther need of the agent. On the other hand 
 the Indians might capture the agent. In 
 any event the business of the Indian
 
 The Electrical Boy. 305 
 
 asfent was destined to Q-row more re- 
 stricted ; the large profits must be made 
 now before it was too late. The old con- 
 demned United States firearms which 
 Swamm had bought at a public sale, and 
 had distributed at various points among 
 his agents for sale to the Indians, were 
 quickly disposed of at advanced prices, 
 in many cases valuable curiosities being 
 received in payment, — such as elaborately 
 woven Indian blankets, the sale of which 
 condemned shivering squaws to hold little 
 children tightly in their arms, to protect 
 them from the piercing winds, while the 
 braves sought to protect their homes. 
 
 Occasionally nuggets of gold and silver 
 were obtained. It is possible that the In- 
 dians employed these nuggets just as a 
 fisherman uses the glittering spoon bait 
 for pickerel, there being nothing behind the 
 spoon. Men of Swamm's and Moses' types, 
 
 however, will always leap for glittering 
 20
 
 o 
 
 06 T/ie Electrical Boy. 
 
 gold or silver as long as the world endures. 
 The Indians found it impossible to live on 
 the government bounty as it was dis- 
 pensed by its agents, and broke up into 
 predatory bands; and the Government 
 was compelled to send force to aid Swamm 
 and Moses. 
 
 The Indians spoke in short and jerky 
 sentences, leaving much to the imagina- 
 tion, while Swamm was the embodiment 
 of fluency. Most people have not the im- 
 agination to fill in the more or less dis- 
 jointed skeleton of an Indian's speech ; but 
 they can understand statements so diluted 
 with words that one fact can move some 
 distance in the medium without hitting an- 
 other. Swamm did not intend to spend 
 his life in cheating the Indians. He had 
 more extended views in his mind, and 
 these views embraced getting control of 
 great tracts of valuable mineral land which 
 were in the reservations occupied by the
 
 The Electrical Boy. 307 
 
 Indians. The readiest way to get this 
 control was by driving out the Indians ; 
 and this could be accomplished by incit- 
 ing an Indian war, which might lead to 
 their reservations being thrown open to 
 the American citizen, like Swamm. 
 
 In extending his inquiries, Swamm 
 learned of the mining enterprise of 
 Gresham, and he was soon in possession 
 of a description of every man in Gresham's 
 camp. Swamm and Moses, we have 
 said, came to know each other inti- 
 mately in a business way, and had long 
 consultations together in regard to ob- 
 taining some of the wealth which rumor 
 said would soon be Gresham's, for .large 
 amounts of silver were coming out of the 
 mine of the latter. Swamm wondered if 
 he could not prove that Gresham was in 
 collusion with the criminal Greatthings, 
 protecting him from justice. If he could, 
 why should not the force of his country,
 
 3o8 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 which employed him to see justice done to 
 the poor Indian, also employ him to bring 
 a man to justice who had long evaded the 
 laws ? If Gresham were driven away from 
 the mine, and a disturbance suitably fo- 
 mented among the Mexicans and Indians, 
 he might be induced to part with his min- 
 ing property on low terms. Swamm and 
 Moses stood ready to be the capitalists 
 who would take the risk of working the 
 mine. 
 
 This method of Swamm is something 
 like that of a man we once heard of, who 
 desired to acquire a valuable property by 
 frightening the owner away by a ghost 
 which appeared on certain occasions, pre- 
 ferably on very dark nights, and generally 
 at midnight, in the owner's room. The 
 owner, however, shot the ghost, and so the 
 plan failed. We shall see in due time how 
 Swamm's plan to dispossess Henry Gres- 
 ham worked.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 309 
 
 It was not long before Gresham received 
 a note from Swamm, stating that he was 
 on a prospecting tour through Mexico and 
 Sonora, and felt that he could be of ser- 
 vice to Gresham in introducing the lat- 
 ter's mine to capitalists. The young man 
 smiled sarcastically as he read the note, 
 and was about to send back a contemptu- 
 ous answer. On second thought, he re- 
 solved to see Swamm, for it might be 
 dangerous to write a letter even to such a 
 man. Spoken words could leave no im- 
 press save in the villain's soul. He ac- 
 cordingly told the messenger that he 
 would see Swamm whenever he chose to 
 visit the mine. 
 
 One afternoon Henry Gresham saw 
 Swamm approaching the mining camp 
 mounted on a burro, as the asses were 
 called by the Mexicans. He was accom- 
 panied by several Mexican friends who 
 hoped to ascertain for themselves the
 
 3IO The Electrical Boy. 
 
 truth of the stories of the extraordinary- 
 richness of Gresham's mine. Swamm 
 greeted Gresham with great effusiveness. 
 
 Henry Gresham withdrew his hands 
 coldly from the double grasp of Swamm, 
 and motioned him to a seat. 
 
 " I am delighted to see you, my dear 
 fellow," said Swamm, looking keenly about 
 him while he spoke. He proceeded to 
 unfold his plans for entering into co-opera- 
 tion with Gresham for the introduction of 
 the mine to the attention of capitalists, 
 when his eye fell upon Richard Greatman, 
 who came forward to consult Henry Gres- 
 ham. The latter took the hand of Rich- 
 ard, drew him forward, and let his arm 
 rest upon the shoulder of the boy. 
 
 " Mr. Swamm," said Gresham, " I owe 
 to this little boy my knowledge of your 
 evil practices. I do not think that this 
 interview need last any longer." Thus 
 saying, he arose.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 3 1 1 
 
 Svvamm also arose with a cool look of 
 assurance, and cast a contemptuous glance 
 at Richard. 
 
 " You may yet find that my knowledge 
 of men and the world may be of advantage 
 to you," said he, turning to Gresham. " In 
 mining operations you will need just the 
 knowledge which I have acquired through 
 long years. Don't, I pray you, listen to 
 the story of a designing boy." 
 
 Gresham indignantly waved his hand, 
 and bade the servants bring up the mules 
 of Swamm's party. 
 
 Svvamm mounted, and rode away in 
 silence. His companions drew near to 
 him when they were out of view of the 
 mining camp, and entered into an ani- 
 mated conversation with him. Even in 
 their short stay they had gained informa- 
 tion which led them to believe that the 
 stories of the great richness of the mine 
 had not been exaggerated. Swamm's cu-
 
 312 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 pidity was greatly excited. He determined 
 to get possession of some of this wealth 
 which was apparently about to become 
 Henry Gresham's. The party rode back 
 to the Mexican village, and spent the night 
 in playing cards, drinking ptilque, and lay- 
 ing plans for outwitting Gresham.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 3 1 3 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE GIANT APPEARS AGAIN. 
 
 T7RO]\I time to time Gresham heard 
 wonderful stories of the strange coun- 
 try that extended from the mine far into 
 the West, and a strong desire came over 
 him to explore it. The affairs of the 
 mine, however, kept him closely confined 
 to its neighborhood. In the long eve- 
 ninsfs Gresham with Richard studied 
 Prescott's " Conquest of Mexico," and the 
 numerous treatises which Gresham's 
 mother and sister sent from New York. 
 The young man had a theory that he 
 could stimulate a boy's interest in history 
 better by taking a special subject and 
 branching out from this subject rather than
 
 314 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 by pursuing a course of general reading 
 beginning with the creation of the world. 
 He therefore studied with Richard the 
 accounts of the early inhabitants of Mex- 
 ico, the Aztecs, and traced the limits of 
 their civilization, their contact with the 
 Spaniards, and the history of the various 
 expeditions into the mysterious country 
 which extended along the Colorado River. 
 They read together the accounts of Cabe^a 
 de Vaca, a straggler from the expedition 
 of Narvaez, in 1528, of the ancient 
 Pueblos, and a narrative of the descent 
 of the Colorado River, in the year 1540, 
 by Diaz, one of Vasquez de Coronado's 
 exploring expedition. The strange relics 
 and remains found in the carbonic acid 
 cave stimulated the interest of both to a 
 great degree, and they formed a plan to 
 go to Spain and examine the early Spanish 
 narratives in the Spanish archives. Mean- 
 while they studied Spanish together.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 3i5 
 
 Gresham's experiment in education 
 seemed to be a successful one, for Rich- 
 ard became possessed with an insatiable 
 love for historical investigation ; while in 
 turn, Gresham, entering the subject of 
 science by means of electricity, was ex- 
 tending his knowledge to the subjects of 
 
 heat and light. 
 
 The loneliness of Gresham's life led 
 him to make a confidant of Richard. 
 He read long portions of his mother's 
 and sister's letters to the boy, and n> 
 sensibly Richard's sayings and doings be- 
 came a part of the correspondence between 
 the dwellers in the height of civilization 
 and the two isolated men in a mining 
 
 canip. 
 
 Mabel Gresham pictured to herself a 
 youncr hero defending her brother from 
 the attacks of savages, and riding through 
 strange storms of the desert to convey his 
 n,es=^ao-es. She studied the same books,
 
 31 6 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 and longed to take one of those exhilarat- 
 ing rides which her brother described, — 
 over the great plateaus with the snow- 
 crowned mountains in full view. Richard 
 dreamed of a beautiful girl with lustrous 
 eyes filled with pity, and he resolved to be- 
 come distinguished so that — well, so that 
 those lustrous eyes might read what he 
 had written. 
 
 An old Indian, whom a scouting party 
 brought into the camp, fell sick shortly 
 after his arrival, and was carefully tended 
 by Gresham and Richard. In response to 
 their inquiries concerning the early records 
 of his tribe, he told them many legends of 
 a wonderful people who formerly lived in 
 a country far to the south, who made ex- 
 peditions into the country north of Gres- 
 ham's mine, to bury their kings in concealed 
 caverns. Certain medicine-men of his 
 tribe were irk possession of memorials of 
 the kings, written in strange characters.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 317 
 
 The sick Indian told his story between his 
 periods of pain, relapsing occasionally in- 
 to a speech which no one in the camp 
 could understand. As if to reward 
 the care which Gresham bestowed upon 
 him, he grasped the latter's hands, drew 
 him down to his strangely scarred face, 
 and strove to tell him a great secret. The 
 Indian's face grew distorted with pain and 
 the effort, so that the young man involun- 
 tarily drew back. The hands relaxed their 
 grasp, and the secret which was on the 
 point of being divulged died with the 
 Indian. 
 
 Gresham had heard the words partly in 
 Mexican and partly in Indian dialect, 
 " Cave — thirty miles — near a park — " 
 and he resolved to venture a short distance 
 into the valley which extended toward the 
 mountains. 
 
 Leaving a foreman in charge of the 
 camp, Gresham and his party, including
 
 3i8 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 Richard, proceeded on their exploring 
 tour. After many weeks of varied experi- 
 ences among the foot-hills, encountering 
 parties of hostile Indians now and then, 
 who however gave them little trouble, for 
 the expedition was well armed, Gresham 
 discovered indications of valuable deposits 
 of silver, and pitched his camp on the 
 shores of a small Alpine lake which was 
 surrounded by tall cedars. Leaving his 
 party in camp, Gresham set out with 
 Richard one day to explore a mountain 
 valley. Both were mounted on sure- 
 footed Mexican ponies, and they rode side 
 by side, commenting upon the strange 
 scenery about them. Finally the valley 
 extended into a great mountain table-land, 
 bare of trees and vegetation. Gresham 
 had relapsed into silence as they rode 
 along, for he was thinking of the strange 
 contrast this life he was pursuing presented 
 to that of the past in New York. He was
 
 The Electrical Boy. 319 
 
 aroused by a sudden exclamation from 
 Richard. The latter pointed to small 
 whirling clouds that seemed to be advanc- 
 ing toward them over the plain. Gresham 
 knew too well that one of those strange 
 dust-storms common in Colorado and Ari- 
 zona was about to envelop them. He told 
 Richard that they must ride quickly for 
 shelter, and he turned his horse up the 
 valley. They had not galloped far before 
 the storm, which had swelled to great di- 
 mensions, reached them. Richard felt the 
 particles of sand sting him, and the gale 
 was so powerful that he was compelled to 
 clasp his arms about the neck of his 
 galloping pony. It grew dark, and the 
 air was full of whirling sand. The two 
 could hardly distinguish each other, al- 
 thoucjh the flanks of their horses touched. 
 Then the sand storm changed to one of 
 drivinq; snow. Gresham reached out his 
 arm, seized the bridle of Richard's pony,
 
 320 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 and urored both horses to the utmost 
 speed. They must gain the shelter 
 of tlie woods or they would perish on 
 the plains. Wandering they knew not 
 whither, they were compelled to trust to 
 the instinct of their horses, for it was so 
 dark they could not be guided. Once 
 Richard's pony stumbled and came near 
 falling; Gresham pulled him up, and they 
 flew on and on. 
 
 Presently a light appeared in front of 
 them ; then dark masses of trees were 
 seen, and looming cliffs. They had evi- 
 dently reached the limit of the great 
 plateau. To whom did the light belong .? 
 Gresham urged the panting and trembling 
 horses toward it, and leaped from his horse 
 just in time to prevent falling under it as 
 it stumbled on its knees, completely ex- 
 hausted, at the door of a hut. The light 
 had disappeared. Gresham called out, in 
 English and Mexican ; but there was no
 
 The Electrical Boy. 321 
 
 response. The young man tried the en- 
 trance into the abode; but it was firmly 
 closed. 
 
 " We must gain admission to a shelter, 
 or we shall freeze in this storm," said 
 Gresham. 
 
 " We certainly saw a light in this very 
 spot," replied Richard, feeling about the 
 singular structure. 
 
 As Richard said this, he heard a voice 
 within. It was that of Ferdinand Leap, 
 the giant. The boy instantly recognized 
 it, and he cried out, — 
 
 " Mr. Leap, let us in ; we are perishing 
 in the cold. Mr. Leap, you remember me ? 
 I 'm Richard Greatman." 
 
 Gresham was utterly astonished at the 
 words of the boy, and felt afraid that the 
 exposure and the severe ride had deprived 
 Richard of his reason. He heard a tre- 
 mendous voice reply from within, " Wait! " 
 
 and then a noise as if a great ox was 
 21
 
 32 2 TJie Electrical Boy. 
 
 moving in his stall. Presently the door 
 was unbarricaded, and Gresham saw an 
 immense man with a torch. The face of 
 the giant seemed a picture of brutality, 
 and the young man felt for his pistols. 
 
 Richard, however, was overjoyed at 
 meeting the giant, and introduced Gres- 
 ham, telling him of his former acquaint- 
 ance with the great creature in the dime 
 museum in New York. 
 
 The giant looked somewhat suspiciously 
 at Gresham ; but he was reassured by 
 Richard, who quickly told of their camp 
 in the mountains, and of their being over- 
 taken by the storm. 
 
 Gresham looked around the hut with 
 great interest. It was almost a tower, and 
 was built of rude masses of stone, appar- 
 ently by the giant, for no ordinary man 
 could have lifted the stones to the height 
 they were placed. One side of the hut 
 was against the wall of a cliff, and the
 
 The Electrical Boy. 323 
 
 smouldering fire threw a great shadow of 
 the giant on the rock. Leap busied him- 
 self hi replenishing the fire and in repress- 
 ing the cries of two savage dogs, that kept 
 up" a continual baying at the sound of the 
 stamping of the horses outside. Gresham 
 was anxious to find shelter for the tired 
 
 animals. 
 
 Leap showed him a grove where the 
 animals could be tied. The snow had 
 already turned to rain, and the thick 
 branches of the cedars afforded the beasts 
 good shelter. On returning to the hut, 
 Leap ofi"ered his visitors some trout and 
 pifion nuts, and gave Richard a full ac 
 count of his journey. It had taken weeks 
 and months, and he had had to fight his 
 way to freedom. Even boys strive hard 
 to capture a strange moth, and most men 
 have an overpowering desire to collect 
 something, -coins, old books, or auto- 
 graphs. Unfortunately the giant met at
 
 324 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 every step the mercenary collector, who 
 desired to make money out of him. The 
 railway porter in the train suggested that 
 they should star it together. What es- 
 pecial star the porter would represent, 
 Leap could not tell. The giant became 
 much exhausted by his extended railroad 
 journey, for he was too long to lie down 
 in the car. He had been captured 
 twice, — once by the proprietor of a beer 
 garden, and once by the manager of a 
 travelling theatrical company. 
 
 Ferdinand Leap had finally succeeded 
 in getting rid of those who wished to 
 make money out of his size, and he 
 had slowly made his way to the wilds 
 in which he had grown to manhood. He 
 found that his mother had died and 
 that his father had disappeared on a 
 mining expedition. It was unsafe for the 
 giant to remain within easy reach of the 
 seekers for commercial curiosities, and he
 
 The Electrical Boy. 325 
 
 had braved the hostile tribes of Indians, 
 putting them between him and civiHzation. 
 He feared, however, that some Indian 
 agent would enlist the Indians in an at- 
 tempt to capture him, and would find it 
 safe to venture into the mountain fast- 
 nesses and bear Leap back to civilization 
 and to dime museums. 
 
 " I terrify the Indians," laughed the 
 giant, with a strange snorting noise. " A 
 big chief has been expected for hundreds 
 of years, and they are beginning to think 
 that I am the man to lead them against 
 the agents and the settlers who have en- 
 croached upon their lands." 
 
 After the frugal supper of trout, Leap 
 showed them his retreat in case of danger. 
 The hut, we have said, was built against 
 the wall of a cliff. Leap explained that a 
 huge rock concealed the entrance to a 
 cave under the mountain. He told them 
 that no one but a very tall man could de-
 
 326 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 scend into this cave ; for in the descent it 
 was necessary to use a greater length of 
 arm than an ordinary man has. Tlie 
 cave ran a great distance under a peak 
 of the mountain behind them, expand- 
 ing into beautiful rooms, a hundred feet 
 high, the walls of which were covered 
 with crystals. After running about half 
 a mile under the mountain, the cave 
 opened upon a deep canyon by a passage 
 which was known only to Leap. 
 
 While they sat around the fire, on which 
 the giant broiled the trout and roasted the 
 piiion nuts for the exhausted wanderers, 
 Gresham watched the great creature's face 
 with interest. Whenever Leap's eyes 
 turned to Richard's face a tender light 
 appeared in his singular eyes. The young 
 man's thoughts recalled the tale in Leigh 
 Hunt's " Indicator," of the maiden trans- 
 formed to a hideous reptile on the en- 
 chanted island of Cos.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 2)~7 
 
 The old story runs that the daughter of 
 Hippocrates was condemned for a sHght 
 offered to the worship of Diana to be im- 
 prisoned in the shape of a hideous ser- 
 pent on the island of Cos. She was to 
 renew her youth at the end of each period 
 of one hundred years, until some man, 
 filled with love and sympathy, should be 
 bold enough to kiss the loathsome ser- 
 pent between the eyes. Gualtier, a young 
 sailor, was left on the enchanted island, 
 and overcome with fear, met the serpent. 
 Hearing the mournful tale of the maiden, 
 he shut his eyes and reached out to kiss 
 the scaly head, which darted hither and 
 thither while the forked tongue ran in and 
 out between the red fangs. The story 
 says that the kind sailor felt rose-bud lips 
 meet his, and he opened his eyes upon a 
 beautiful vision of youth. 
 
 Richard had had no such encounter as 
 this with the giant. The fastidious boy,
 
 o 
 
 28 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 however, had shrunk from the strange, 
 misshapen being, and had been terrified by 
 his rough voice. The sweet spirit of con- 
 fidence and dependence on human love 
 and sympathy was dying, imprisoned in 
 Leap, and could only be saved by some 
 manifestation of the unselfish interest of a 
 human being. How the giant overcame 
 the boy's repugnance neither knew. Per- 
 haps the tenderness with which Leap cared 
 for a squirrel, which slept in his great 
 pocket and crept over his immense frame 
 as it mio-ht over the bole of a California 
 red cedar, awakened the boy to a con- 
 sciousness of the tender heart imprisoned 
 in a hideous shape. 
 
 The little boy had found a way, however, 
 to kindle those strange eyes with a tender 
 love-light which was at strange variance 
 with the misshapen and hideous frame of 
 the man. Leap's great hand felt the wet 
 shoulders of Richard, and he brought out
 
 The Electrical Boy. 329 
 
 the skin of a bear and wrapped it around 
 the boy, and pressed him to eat. While 
 doine so he turned to Gresham and 
 said, — 
 
 " This boy is the only being in the world 
 I have known, except my dogs, who has 
 not desired to make money out of me." 
 
 Gresham pressed the strange creature to 
 tell the story of his wanderings. The giant 
 folded his immense hands upon his knees 
 and reclined against the stony side of the 
 cliff, looking like one of those great monu- 
 ments dug out of the sands in Egypt. 
 
 " My relatives," said he, " were very angry 
 when I returned without the great fortune 
 they had expected. One had been specu- 
 lating in mininsf stocks on the expectation 
 of receiving large sums from the exhibition 
 of me. Another had built a great house 
 with a cupola, and another had sent his 
 son to college. When I struggled back 
 they were all very angry, and would have
 
 330 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 forced me to return to make a show of my- 
 self. I could not do this, for the hideous 
 life of the dime museum or of the travel- 
 ling shows would have killed me. Oh, 
 how I hated that exhibition of myself ! " 
 The giant groaned as he spoke, and his 
 great hands moved convulsively over each 
 other. 
 
 Richard put out his hand and touched 
 Leap's knee. Gresham saw the great 
 creature extend his arms as if he longed 
 to take the boy to his heart, and then with 
 an abashed look he rose and replenished 
 the fire. 
 
 " I wandered away," continued the giant, 
 " into the foot-hills. Parties were sent 
 out for me. I could not have escaped 
 them had it not been for the hostile In- 
 dians. The Tontos and the Mescaleros 
 were on the war-path, and my relatives 
 did not dare to follow me farther into the 
 mountains."
 
 The Electrical Boy. 331 
 
 " Did not the Indians trouble you ? " 
 asked Richard, eagerly. 
 
 " No," replied the giant ; " they were 
 afraid of me. They took me for a big 
 chief whom they had been expecting for 
 many years. I was mortally afraid of 
 them ; but I tried not to show it. They 
 brought their sick children to me to heal, 
 and 1 washed them, and made a tea of 
 roots and gave it to them. It did me 
 good to hold the little things in my arms, 
 for there has always been a strange ache 
 in my heart for something that did not 
 desire to make money out of me. The 
 Indians went off on some mysterious ex- 
 pedition to the north, and I struggled 
 farther into this wild country, striving to 
 find a fertile park where I could obtain 
 food and a place to enjoy the free air of 
 heaven and the beautiful mountain-peaks." 
 
 The giant gave expression to his re- 
 membrance of the close air of a menagerie
 
 2);^2 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 and dime museum by a sudden roar which 
 was at strange variance with the impression 
 Gresham had obtained of a child-like na- 
 ture imprisoned in this behemoth. 
 
 " Finally I found this park," continued 
 Leap. " You will see how beautiful it is 
 in the morning, after the snow has melted. 
 The cave also, which is entered here" 
 (the giant put his hand on the rock in 
 a corner of the hut), " has been of great 
 assistance to me in making the Indians 
 believe that I am a big chief, for no ordi- 
 nary man can descend into it. My limbs 
 are so long that I can reach a lower 
 projecting shelf which is over a boiling 
 torrent, and then there is a fine floor of 
 hard sand extending through great cham- 
 bers under the mountain. The egress is 
 at the upper end of the park, and is of the 
 same nature as the hole by which I enter 
 the cave here. I thus appear and disap- 
 pear at opposite ends of the park, and the
 
 The Electrical Boy. 333 
 
 Indians think I go to the centre of the 
 earth to consult with mysterious spirits. 
 Heigh ho ! You see I cannot escape being 
 a show to somebody wherever I go. I 
 cannot be myself. No one ever recog- 
 nized the nature within me except this 
 boy." 
 
 Again the giant made an elephantine 
 gesture of affection, and restrained himself 
 as if he feared the hug would be fatal. 
 
 " I suppose it is dangerous to love 
 people," remarked Leap, half to himself; 
 " I always killed kittens when I was a boy 
 by hugging them too hard." 
 
 After a moment of deep pondering the 
 giant arose, — it seemed to Gresham as if 
 he never would cease rising, — and said, 
 " I will show you my cave." 
 
 Thus saying he lighted a torch and led 
 the way to the dark entrance in the cliff.
 
 334 "^^^^ Electrical Boy, 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE PASSING OF THE GIANT. 
 
 T EAP descended first, and then he 
 stretched his arms upward to Henry 
 Gresham, who held a torch over the open- 
 ing. The young man seemed like a boy 
 in the giant's hands, and felt himself sus- 
 pended over the boiling chasm a moment 
 in Leap's arms. Then he was deposited 
 on a ledge upon which the giant stood, 
 and Richard was lifted down in a similar 
 manner. Leap then took the torch and 
 led the way through tortuous passages 
 into the cave. They passed through 
 vaulted passage-ways, the walls of which 
 glistened with crystals ; then the narrow 
 way widened into great chambers, the
 
 The Electrical Boy. 335 
 
 roofs of which were far above them in the 
 gloom. From many of the great rooms 
 passages led to the right and left into the 
 darkness. Leap seemed to appreciate the 
 companionship of Gresham and Richard. 
 
 " I have wandered often through this 
 underground palace alone," murmured he, 
 — the giant's murmur was like a strong 
 man's voice, — " and I have shivered with 
 terror ; but here I could escape observa- 
 tion and be alone." 
 
 Gresham wondered at the strange com- 
 bination of the shrinkino: child-nature and 
 the great frame as he followed Leap 
 through room after rooni; until, after 
 walking half a mile, they came to the 
 brink of a roaring torrent, and the giant 
 pointed upward. Gresham could perceive 
 the stars through an opening in the roof. 
 The storm had passed, and they were at 
 the upper end of the great cavern. The 
 party slowly retraced their steps, and
 
 336 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 emerged at the lower hut. The giant 
 assisted Gresham and Richard out as he 
 stood on the ledge below. 
 
 When Leap had lifted out his friends 
 he replenished the fire and sat down again, 
 with his hands folded upon his knees. 
 Overcome by their struggles with the 
 storm and by the heat of the fire, Gres- 
 ham and Richard soon fell asleep, and 
 dreamed of storms and giants. Leap 
 watched while his two visitors slept, and 
 wondered what this interruption of his 
 hermit life portended. 
 
 The park which the giant had found 
 was one of those which are characteris- 
 tic of the great tract of country west of 
 the lOo"" meridian. Nature, as if tired 
 of her gloomy mood of alkaline plains 
 where nothing but the sage-bush grows, 
 and nothing diversifies the desolate ex- 
 panse reaching to distant mountains save 
 here and there a whitened skeleton, it
 
 The Electrical Boy. 337 
 
 may be that of a horse, or perhaps of a 
 human being, suddenly has a mirthful 
 mood, and smiles in verdant fields set 
 round with groves of trees which extend 
 up the slopes of the mountains ; and the 
 mountains look down upon the scene of 
 peaceful beauty and see their summits 
 reflected in a placid lake, around which 
 stretch the green fields. 
 
 Ferdinand Leap was very tired when 
 he reached this peaceful spot. He had 
 accomplished his miles of journey en- 
 tirely on foot, for no horse could carry 
 him. Here at last there seemed to be 
 peace for him. If he could live and die 
 in this quiet valley with the companion- 
 ship of the faithful dogs which had been 
 his constant attendants, he would be 
 happy. One thought still haunted him ; 
 if he should die, and his body should be 
 found, people would exhibit his skeleton. 
 He determined if he should fall sick to
 
 ^-7 8 The Electrical Boy, 
 
 j)j 
 
 crawl Into some hidden nook where man 
 could never find him. 
 
 Those first spring days in the park were 
 full of delight: he crawled up the slopes 
 of the hills and sat against the eternal 
 rocks, and looked over the emerald 
 spot below him, out through the great 
 gateway made by the mountains, into the 
 dim hazy distance. As he sat against 
 the rocks with his immense knees drawn 
 up to his chin, with the dogs resting their 
 faithful heads upon the great feet, and 
 sazins: into their master's face, he seemed 
 an unearthly thing, a part of the great 
 savage cliff suddenly endowed with a hu- 
 man form. It was not strange, therefore, 
 that two lurking Indians, who had watched 
 the great creature for days, should stand 
 awestruck behind a projecting crag in the 
 belief that the medicine-man was having 
 converse with the Great Spirit. Leap 
 would occasionally .stretch his great arm
 
 The Electrical Boy, 
 
 00^ 
 
 Into the air with an ejaculation which ex- 
 pressed his delight with the balmy air 
 and the sweet smell of the earth. To the 
 Indians this roaring exclamation seemed 
 directed toward the proper conduct of a 
 thundercloud that was Qratherinor. If a 
 forked bolt of lightning should come from 
 the great hand, it would be in complete 
 consonance with the Indians' conceptions 
 of the giant's attributes. The Indians 
 stole away and left Leap to his medita- 
 tions, — only to return on the following 
 day and continue their secret observations. 
 At times the tribes withdrew on their 
 mysterious wanderings to regions farther 
 to the north, and then the giant was truly 
 alone. The days when he felt that he was 
 the only living human being in his sylvan 
 solitude were delightful ; but those days 
 were short, for one day he perceived two 
 sharp eyes watching him through a cranny 
 in the rocks, and the timid heart within
 
 340 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 him grew sick with terror. The eyes 
 were those of an Indian warrior, and he 
 could see the high cheek-bones and the 
 scarred, dark face of an Apache. Leap 
 rose and walked to the entrance to his 
 cave, lowered himself, and groped his 
 way into the heart of the mountain. He 
 was on exhibition still. 
 
 In the morning it was discovered that 
 one of the horses, overcome by the strug- 
 gle with the storm, had died. The poor 
 creatures had been carefully tended by 
 the giant through the night ; but he had 
 little to give them. He had fed them 
 from his scanty store of pinon-nuts, 
 and with such grass and dried herbage 
 as he could gather in the darkness 
 from crevices in the rocks. The Mexican 
 pony belonging to Richard touched the 
 giant's great hand with its hot nose, 
 looked up into the strange human face 
 with a pleading look in its bloodshot eyes,
 
 The Elcciricat Boy. 341 
 
 and then fell upon its knees, never to 
 bear another rider. Leap bent over the 
 animal, gazing at it in the light of the 
 flaring torch with great pity in his eyes. 
 
 Gresham resolved to leave Richard with 
 Leap, and to return to the camp as soon 
 as possible, to relieve the anxieties of his 
 men. 
 
 Gresham as he rode away from the 
 park found himself on the arid plain 
 over which the sand and snow storm had 
 swept on the preceding night. How 
 should he find the camping-place of his 
 men ? He could recognize no familiar 
 point among the foot-hills. The thought 
 occurred to him that the Indians might 
 have surprised the camp and have slain 
 all. He looked carefully at his rifle and 
 revolvers, and hastened the pace of his 
 horse, riding toward the point where the 
 mountains showed that there was a pass. 
 After several hours' ridinsf he heard the
 
 342 The Ekcirical Boy. 
 
 report of rifles, and saw puffs of smoke 
 among the low trees which skirted the 
 foot-hills. Then a band of Indians burst 
 forth upon the plain, urging their ponies 
 to a gallop, and discharging their rifles 
 behind them as they came toward Gres- 
 ham. The latter whipped his horse to a 
 gallop, and made a wide detour to escape 
 the fleeing savages. Presently reining up 
 his horse, he perceived Greatthings and 
 the Mexicans following the Indians, firing 
 as they rode. When they saw Gresham 
 the party halted, and the Indians dis- 
 appeared in a cloud of dust. 
 
 Gresham learned that the camp had 
 been suddenly attacked by a band of 
 Apaches just as it was breaking up and 
 settinfj out to find him. He made im- 
 mediate preparations for returning to 
 Richard. 
 
 Richard and the giant explored the 
 beautiful park together. Richard was
 
 The Electrical Boy. 343 
 
 filled with wonder at the great orange- 
 red pinnacles of rocks which stood like 
 sentinels at the entrance to the emerald 
 park. Above and beyond were snow- 
 capped mountains, and over all the in- 
 tense blue sky. The giant extended his 
 arms and breathed loudly, as if to express 
 his delight with the beautiful scene, and 
 led the way to his favorite resting-place 
 on the cliff, where an extended view of 
 the paradise around could be obtained. 
 
 " I believe," said the giant, after a long 
 account to Richard of his boyhood and of 
 its unfulfilled aspirations, " that I am suf- 
 fering from nervous prostration engen- 
 dered by that life in the dime museum 
 At times I hear the clink of the nickel 
 pieces as they dropped into the pay-boxes ; 
 and the whole world seems to me to be 
 made of money. The clink sounds for- 
 ever in my ears, and not even this peaceful 
 solitude can drive it out. Promise me
 
 344 ^'^^ Electrical Boy. 
 
 if I should die, that you will conceal my 
 grave so that no one can ever make an 
 exhibition of my skeleton." The giant 
 spoke with tremendous fervor, and almost 
 crushed Richard's hand, which he seized 
 and held to his great breast. 
 
 Richard promised that he would do his 
 best ; he endeavored to assure the giant 
 of an ultimate recovery, and told him of 
 the comfortable life at the mining camp, — 
 of the nights devoted to charming study ; 
 of the days engaged in interesting in- 
 vestigations of electricity, — and he hoped 
 that the giant would become one of their 
 party. Leap mournfully shook his head. 
 " People would plan to make a show of 
 me," he said. " They would want to make 
 money out of me. Not you and Mr, 
 Gresham ! but every one else. I feel too 
 that I shall not live long, and on my 
 release I have your promise that you will 
 conceal my grave."
 
 The Electrical Boy. 345 
 
 Richard assured him again that they 
 would protect him both living and dead. 
 They sat on the projecting crag until the 
 setting sun raised a dark battlement of 
 shadow on the opposite cliffs ; and then 
 they descended together into the valley, 
 which had begun to darken. 
 
 The giant moved heavily, and groaned 
 as he made his way down the valley. 
 Richard was alarmed at the groans, and 
 asked tenderly if he felt very sick. 
 
 " My groans," said the giant, " are com- 
 mon folks' sighs." He confessed that he 
 felt very weak, and should be glad to get 
 to the cave where he could rest. Richard 
 involuntarily reached out his hand to 
 steady the giant ; but at the first surging 
 of the latter's great frame the boy fell to 
 the ground. 
 
 " Don't let me step on you in the gloom," 
 said Leap, anxiousl}^ 
 
 Richard felt that it was not safe to walk
 
 346 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 very close to him, and accordingly jumped 
 along on the top of bowlders beside the 
 giant, occasionally reaching out his hand 
 to touch his great friend, saying, " This 
 way, Mr. Leap. Do be careful, for the 
 way is particularly stony just here ! " 
 
 " I could die hearing that sweet voice," 
 groaned the giant. 
 
 Presently they reached the entrance to 
 the cave, and the giant sank down before 
 the embers of the fire. Richard hastily 
 built up the fire, and proceeded to cook 
 some fish. The giant with sudden energy 
 rose and staggered to the dark opening in 
 the rock. " Are you going below } " asked 
 Richard, with trepidation in his voice, 
 seizing a torch in order to follow, for the 
 giant s face was deathly white. " Remem- 
 ber your promise," said Leap, with a deep 
 sigh which seemed like the wind whistling 
 in winter. 
 
 Richard ran to the opening and held
 
 The Electrical Boy. 347 
 
 the torch as far clown as he could reach. 
 The eiant was nowhere to be seen, and the 
 boy ]iad no means of following. Richard 
 returned to the fire and built it up, and sat 
 down with a heavy heart. Nothing had 
 been heard from Gresham, and he feared 
 that he had been waylaid by Indians. 
 The giant was sick, and had disappeared in 
 the bowels of the earth. While the boy 
 sat over the fire holding his rifle over 
 his knees — for he expected to see at 
 any moment the face of an Indian appear 
 at the narrow opening of the cave — he 
 heard a deep rumbling sound as if of 
 something groaning underground. At first 
 he thought it was the groans of the giant. 
 Presently there was a vivid flash, and a 
 thunderstorm broke upon the valley. 
 Never had the boy heard such peals of 
 thunder. It rumbled and roared ; it crack- 
 led, and there was a noise like the rushing 
 of meteors through the sky ; and then the
 
 348 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 deepest tones of a cathedral organ sound- 
 ing masses for the dead were heard roll- 
 ing in the cavern underneath. Above the 
 deep sound of the thunder could be 
 heard the wailing of the wind in the firs 
 and pines, and the fall of bowlders which 
 had been dislodged from the steep crags by 
 the bolts of lightning. Richard went to the 
 opening of the cave and looked out upon 
 the tempest. The rocks in his neighbor- 
 hood hissed like serpents with electricity, 
 which streamed from their points, and the 
 lightning seemed to open great rents in 
 the bosom of the immense masses of 
 storm-clouds. Could it be the passing 
 of the giant ? 
 
 In a moment, with the strange transi- 
 tions so characteristic of this mysterious 
 country, the storm had spent its force, 
 and all was quiet, save the sound of the 
 brooks, which ran in all directions over 
 the rocks.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 349 
 
 After long hours of watching, Richard, 
 hearing Gresham's familiar whistle, rushed 
 out and flung his arms around his friend's 
 neck, who had returned by a forced 
 march.
 
 350 ' The Electrical Boy. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 A BURIAL BY ELECTRICITY. 
 
 A LADDER was immediately impro- 
 vised, and Gresham was the first to 
 descend into the cavern. He directed 
 Richard how to join him, and the other 
 men, descending one by one, handed on 
 torches as they came. No trace of the 
 giant could be perceived ; and the file of 
 men picked their way through the myste- 
 rious opening in the heart of the moun- 
 tain, the light of the torches throwing 
 strange shadows upon the grim rock 
 forms, many of which resembled the 
 sphinx-like figures which guard the en- 
 trance to Egyptian tombs. Could the 
 giant have crawled into some of the many 
 openings in the hope of concealing him-
 
 The Electrical Boy. 351 
 
 self forever ? The exploring party halted 
 in the great central chamber to consider 
 in regard to their further search. They 
 listened intently ; but no sound disturbed 
 the stillness save the distant roaring of the 
 underground river. 
 
 While the main party rested, Gresham 
 and Richard resolved to explore a fissure 
 which led out of the chamber. They had 
 not proceeded far before Richard uttered 
 an exclamation. Gresham lifted his torch, 
 and beheld the prostrate form of the giant. 
 The poor creature had dragged himself as 
 far as possible into the heart of the 
 mountain. 
 
 Gresham and Richard and Greatthin^s 
 had a longr consultation in regard to fulfill- 
 ing the last wishes of the giant. How 
 could they conceal his grave if it should 
 be dug in the valley } There might 
 be eyes watching the interment from 
 some point in the surrounding hills.
 
 352 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 They could not deposit his body with 
 greater safety in a nook among the moun- 
 tains, for every crag might shelter those 
 who would take the body to conjure spirits 
 with or to make money out of it. If the 
 simple funeral cortege should wend its 
 way through the valley and out upon the 
 alkaline deserts, they might proceed until 
 nightfall, and in the darkness commit the 
 giant to a resting-place in the vast plain ; 
 but how could the vestiges of the mournful 
 work be concealed ? The freshly upturned 
 earth and the bruised vegetation, scanty 
 though it might be, would betray the 
 grave to Indians, who were accustomed to 
 read the face of the ground as scholars 
 read books. The friends of the giant 
 thought long and deeply. In the course of 
 their deliberations, Greatthings remarked 
 that the stress of their meditation upon 
 this subject ought to have a remarkable 
 equivalent in some way, for he had noticed
 
 The Electrical Boy. 353 
 
 that long and intense thought on any 
 subject was sure to be followed by a spir- 
 itual or practical effect. 
 
 At one time Gresham thought that the 
 body might be placed in the river in the 
 cave, which could transport it to some 
 nook beneath the mountain, where it 
 might forever remain. Who knew, how- 
 ever, the course of the hidden river? 
 The giant's body might be brought to the 
 surface in some distant canyon, where it 
 would be found. Greatthingrs thousrht of a 
 funeral pyre, but none of the party had 
 had any experience in cremation, and they 
 shrank from experimenting with such a 
 monstrous creature. 
 
 Richard thought deeply over the prob- 
 lem, and finally presented the following 
 plan. In the central chamber of the cave 
 was a deep niche in the wall of rock. The 
 body of the giant could be placed in this 
 natural sarcophagus, and its opening
 
 354 '^^^^ Electrical Boy. 
 
 could be walled in. Gresham and Great- 
 things made their way to the spot indicated 
 by Richard. The niche was admirably 
 adapted for the purpose if it could be 
 closed by a wall of masonry. 
 
 " Some arch^ologist would discover the 
 work of human hands," said Gresham, 
 " and the skeleton of Leap would be ex- 
 hibited as a type of a race which long 
 since has disappeared.'' 
 
 Richard pointed to the great overhang- 
 ing curtain of rock, and said that if it 
 were dislodged it might fall and entirely 
 cover the entrance to the niche. It 
 weighed tons, and no one could remove it 
 if it should fall across the opening of the 
 grave. A blast might be put in a proper 
 position in the wall of rock ; a fuse might 
 be exploded by electricity, and the entrance 
 to the tomb be blocked by masses of rock 
 of such immense size that no man could 
 remove them.
 
 The Elect7Hcal Boy. 355 
 
 Gresham surveyed the peculiar forma- 
 tion spoken of by Richard, and became 
 convinced that the boy's plan was the best 
 that had been suggested. The rock if 
 properly loosened would undoubtedly in 
 its fall cover the entrance to the niche. It 
 was therefore decided to bury the giant 
 in the niche, and Richard and Greatthino:s 
 made plans for inserting fuses into the 
 rock and igniting these by electricity. 
 
 The funeral of the giant was a very 
 quiet one. After great labor Gresham and 
 Greatthings, with two trusted Mexicans, 
 succeeded in raising Leap to the platform 
 of the niche, and deposited the body in 
 its final resting-place. 
 
 In order to explode the charge of dyna- 
 mite which would have to be employed to 
 dislodge the curtain of stone, a current of 
 electricity would be necessary. This cur- 
 rent in passing through a very fine wire in 
 a fuse would melt this wire, and thus set off
 
 2^5 The Electrical Boy, 
 
 the charge of dynamite. Gresham pon- 
 dered over the question of getting a cur- 
 rent of electricity into the cave. If the 
 cavern were nearer the mine, wires could 
 be easily led from the dynamos. It would 
 be well nigh impossible however to carry 
 a current thirty miles over and through 
 the canyons. 
 
 " It will be very difficult to get a current 
 of electricity into this cave, Richard," said 
 the young man at length. 
 
 -We could bring one or two cells of a 
 storage battery," replied Richard. 
 
 The look of doubt left Gresham's face 
 instantly. The storage cells should be 
 sent from the mine. On his return to 
 the mining camp he and Greatthmgs 
 would consider the matter; and Richard 
 should be constituted the engineer to 
 take charge of the mournful task of for- 
 ever shutting out the giant's grave from 
 the 2aze of mankind.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 357 
 
 Gresham left a party of men keeping 
 guard in the cave, and returned with 
 Richard and Greatthings on the follow- 
 ing day to the mine ; he then consulted 
 Greatthings in regard to Richard's plan of 
 the storage cells. The latter nodded his 
 head slowly as if expressing his affirma- 
 tion ; and together with Richard proceeded 
 immediately to prepare the storage cells, — 
 for the light cell w-hich he had brought 
 from New York in his coat-pocket, and 
 which had been of such service in inter- 
 cepting the train-robbers, had ceased to 
 work, apparently having concluded that its 
 career had been sufficiently brilliant. 
 
 The new storage cells were prepared as 
 follows: A piece of board about a foot 
 square was ruled into small squares like a 
 chess-board. Into the corners of these 
 squares large nails were driven so far that 
 they protruded from the board. Around 
 the mass of sharpened nail-points w^re
 
 358 
 
 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 fixed cleats of board. Melted lead was 
 then poured into the space studded with 
 nail-points. When the lead was cold it 
 was shaken out of the box. In this way 
 
 
 lead plates were formed, the surface of 
 which were indented with holes. The 
 holes of one plate were filled with a paste 
 made of red oxide of lead and sulphuric 
 acid, and the holes of another plate were
 
 The Electrical Boy. 359 
 
 filled with a white oxide of lead. These 
 two lead plates were then placed oppo- 
 site to each other, only one quarter of 
 an inch apart, in some wooden boxes 
 which had been boiled in oil in order to 
 make them water-tight. Each box con- 
 tained two of the prepared lead plates, and 
 the boxes were filled up with sulphuric acid 
 and water. The cells were then ready to 
 be charged with electricity. Greatthings 
 led a wire from a dynamo to the first of 
 the lead plates, having placed the boxes in 
 a row. He then connected the second 
 lead plate of the first box with the first 
 lead plate of the second box, and the 
 second lead plate of the second box with 
 the first lead plate of the third box ; and 
 led the current out of the third box by 
 connecting the second plate of this box 
 with the dynamo. A current thus tra- 
 versed the liquid layers in each box and 
 charged the lead plates by decomposing
 
 360 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 the sulphuric acid and water. Greatthings 
 looked satisfied when the lead plates were 
 in position, and the great dynamo began 
 to revolve and the process of charging 
 began. The preparations for the funeral 
 rites of a great Egyptian king could not 
 have been more imposing than those for 
 the giant. For six long hours the great 
 dynamo must run in order to store up the 
 mysterious force which would close the 
 massive stone portals of the tomb. Gres- 
 ham watched the operation of charging the 
 cells ; and he told Greatthings and Richard 
 the story of the fisherman and the genii in 
 the Arabian Nights' entertainment, — how 
 a giant was imprisoned in a bottle and how 
 he became free. 
 
 " You are now bottling up a genii," said 
 Gresham. 
 
 Richard heard the story with rapt atten- 
 tion, and his boyish mind pictured elec- 
 tricity as a nebulous giant rising from the
 
 The Electrical Boy. 361 
 
 storage cells, but held there. Greatthings' 
 severely practical experience with the 
 world had made him doubt the existence 
 of angels and genii. He had however a 
 belief in demons who never by any chance 
 aided mankind. Augustus Swamm was a 
 demon in the flesh ; and there were also 
 demons who tore carefully constructed 
 pieces of apparatus to pieces and pre- 
 vented experiments from succeeding. 
 These demons he was in the habit of 
 calling physical devils. They generally 
 represented his own moods of im- 
 patience with wrongly contrived in- 
 struments. Still they had an outside 
 existence to him. 
 
 " There seems to be a devil at work with 
 these cells," he said, examining an instru- 
 ment which measured the amount of 
 electricity running into the battery. 
 Greatthings explained to Gresham that the 
 giant spirit they were trying to put into
 
 362 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 the 'cells seemed to rebel and to wrestle 
 with the dynamo. After some hours of 
 charging, Gresham on returning to the 
 place where the cells were being prepared 
 found Greatthings and Richard much per- 
 plexed. The dynamo was groaning, and 
 at times reversed its direction of revolution. 
 The leather belt which connected it with 
 the driving pulley creaked and shrieked. 
 Greatthings said that the cells acted 
 strangely ; they seemed to get the better 
 of the dynamo which was charging them. 
 Gresham saw Greatthings and Richard ex- 
 amine all the connections of the cells and 
 the dynamo to ascertain the trouble ; and 
 he thought that the spirit of the genii was 
 making a last effort to be free ; but it 
 could only be set free by closing the door 
 of a tomb upon Ferdinand Leap. Richard 
 finally pointed out to Greatthings that the 
 brushes on the shaft of the dynamo, which 
 collected the electricity, became mysteri-
 
 £ CO 
 goo 
 
 S t) 
 
 3 &
 
 The EIcctri:al Boy. 363 
 
 oLisly loose at times, and the electricity in 
 the cells ran back and compelled the dyn- 
 amo to do its behests. Greatthings trium- 
 phantly seized a wrench, tightened the 
 brushes, and the genii was firmly impris- 
 oned. Then all the arrangements for 
 exploding the fuse by a current of elec- 
 tricity were made. A storage cell and its 
 poles were connected by a long wire which 
 led to the fuse. In the fuse was a fine 
 wire which would become red hot when the 
 current of electricity was turned on, and 
 consequently the fuse would explode the 
 charge of powder in which it was placed. 
 
 When all was ready the party returned 
 to the cave. After taking a last look at 
 the great creature, who seemed like one 
 of Michael Angelo's conceptions as he 
 lay stretched in the niche in the wall of 
 the mountain, they retired to a distance. 
 
 Finally Gresham gave the word of com- 
 mand. Richard touched the two wires to-
 
 364 TJie Electrical Boy. 
 
 gether which connected the poles of the 
 battery with the fuse. A tremendous 
 noise sounded in the cave and reverberated 
 to and fro through its hidden recesses. 
 The great curtain of stone sHd from the 
 place where the convulsions of Nature had 
 placed it centuries ago, and fell against the 
 opening of the natural sarcophagus in 
 which reclined the great form of the giant, 
 completely closing the opening with its 
 immense mass. When Gresham and Rich- 
 ard came to the scene of the explosion 
 they lifted their torches high above the 
 closed tomb and the flaring light showed a 
 wonderful sight. In the face of the rock 
 which had been hidden by the great cur- 
 tain of stone glittered a very rich vein of 
 silver ore. It seemed as if the giant had 
 pointed out a treasure for the one human 
 being whom he had loved, and who had 
 succeeded in concealing those great 
 wretched bones forever from idle gazers.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 O^D 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 DEFENDING A MINING CAMP BY 
 ELECTRICITY. 
 
 ONE day Swamm was suddenly re« 
 lieved of his position as Indian agent. 
 Could it have been the work of enemies ; 
 or could the Government have ascertained 
 that he carried on an illicit traffic with 
 the Indians ? What influences were at 
 work he could not tell ; the fact was cer- 
 tain, — he was thrown on the world again 
 to live by his wits. The Wild West Show 
 must now be started in earnest, and he 
 called on Mr. Moses to arrange for their 
 common enterprise. He was surprised to 
 perceive a marked change in the latter's 
 manner. This change was accounted for 
 by Mr. Moses informing Swamm that the
 
 366 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 Government had appointed a new Indian 
 agent; and that agent was Mr. Moses. 
 Was it possible that this smooth-faced, 
 cringing man, this showman, could have 
 been plotting against one who hoped in 
 his turn to set Mr. Moses adrift, when the 
 syndicate was fully established.'* 
 
 It was useless to quarrel with Mr. Mo- 
 ses, and it was humiliating to let him see 
 that he had been successful in outwittino: 
 his late partner. Swamm turned his back 
 on Mr. Moses with feelings of revenge 
 boiling beneath his suave face. He took 
 up his old trade of gambling, and extend- 
 ing his peregrinations to Mexico spent 
 the proceeds in mining speculations. 
 
 The stories that were current of great 
 treasures concealed in the mountains filled 
 Swamm's thoughts night and day. He 
 ascertained that the number of pack-mules 
 sent out from Gresham's mine increased 
 from week to week. The Mexican con-
 
 The Electrical Boy. 367 
 
 spirators, who were hand and glove with 
 Swamm, told tales also of a great treasure 
 having been found by Gresham. No one 
 knew how the stories started. Swamm in- 
 formed himself of the number of men in 
 camp with Gresham, and also of the latter's 
 method of disposing of the product of his 
 mine. A plan was soon laid to incite the 
 Indians to waylay the train of pack-mules. 
 If no treasure was found, the attacks would 
 serve to frighten Gresham and lead him 
 to abandon the attempt to work the mine. 
 The task that Gresham had before hini 
 was indeed a perplexing one. How could 
 he transport the treasure to a place of 
 safety } It was plain to him that the 
 number of hostile Indians increased daily 
 about him ; and he feared that the Indian 
 troubles would compel hini to abandon the 
 working of his mine. In order to ship 
 the ore to a market, it was necessary to 
 send it out of the mountains under a
 
 o 
 
 6S The Electrical Boy. 
 
 strong guard of armed men. This would 
 weaken the force left in the mine so that 
 they might be easily overcome by a sudden 
 attack. 
 
 The consultations in regard to the 
 situation took place in the hearing of 
 Richard Greatman. At first the boy 
 wished to be one of those to guard the 
 train of pack-mules. To ride a mustang, 
 with a repeating rifle slung over his back 
 and a pair of revolvers in his belt, would be 
 happiness indeed. When Gresham said 
 that he felt it his duty to remain in the 
 mine with the scanty few who must be 
 left, Richard thought that he must re- 
 main also. He would never desert the 
 side of Henry Gresham. While he heard 
 Gresham speak of the division of the 
 party, of the necessity of a strong guard 
 for the pack-train, and the difficulty of 
 keeping enough men to defend the camp 
 against a possible attack, a thought
 
 The Electrical Boy. 369 
 
 entered his mind. Why would it not 
 be possible to defend the camp by 
 electricity ? He took an old board and 
 drew a plan of the approach to the camp 
 with a blackened stick, while Gresham and 
 Greatthings were in deep consultation. It 
 would certainly be possible to place 
 dynamite cartridges along that narrow 
 rocky way, which could be exploded by 
 electricity. These cartridges could take 
 the place of a battery of many cannon. 
 Why not t The boy's nerves tingled with 
 excitement. Moreover wires could be so 
 stretched that the approaching assailants 
 would discharge the cartridges upon their 
 own advancing forces, thus leaving the 
 three or four men in camp free from the 
 anxiety and uncertainty of watching. 
 When he had carefully thought out his 
 plan, he looked up and saw Gresham and 
 Greatthings sitting in silence, thinking 
 gravely over the situation. Richard ex- 
 
 24
 
 370 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 plained his plan to them. Greatthings 
 burst forth into a joyous laugh, and said 
 that he would engage to keep the camp 
 alone with electricity as a helper. 
 
 On looking into Richard's plan Gresham 
 concluded to adopt it. The narrow defiles 
 which led to the camp were studded with 
 powerful dynamite cartridges which were 
 connected with wires leading to the dyna- 
 mo machine. In each cartridge there was 
 a fine platinum wire, which would ignite 
 when the current of electricity passed 
 through it, and thus set off the cartridge. 
 The peculiarity of Richard s plan, however, 
 was in a device by means of which any 
 assailing party at night would set off the 
 cartridges upon their own heads. It would 
 have been possible of course to post senti- 
 nels in the defile who could have warned 
 those left to guard the mine of the approach 
 of a foe. There were not enough men 
 however for such a duty; and moreover
 
 T/ie Elcctj'ical Boy. 371 
 
 confidence was not felt in the Mexican 
 workmen. The sentinels might prove 
 traitors. " Electricity would be sure to be 
 honest and straightforward in its action," 
 remarked Greatthings. The device was 
 of this description : after nightfall it was 
 proposed to stretch fine wires across the 
 defile about the height of a man's waist. 
 These wires were so arranged that a 
 strain upon them would allow metallic 
 connections at their ends to be joined, and 
 thus permit the current of electricity pass- 
 ins: alono: the leadinor wires from the 
 dynamo to pass into a cartridge. If the 
 party escaped the first cartridge, another 
 wire would impede the passage and another 
 cartridge would be exploded. 
 
 " The camp will be as well protected as 
 if it had a battery of a hundred cannon," 
 remarked Greatthings. 
 
 Gresham satisfied himself of the com- 
 pleteness of the plan, and felt that Richard
 
 372 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 Greatman and Greatthings could readily 
 defend the camp during its owner's 
 absence. 
 
 While those at the camp were making 
 their preparations Swamm had not been 
 idle. A force of straggling Indians had 
 been gathered together and carefully in- 
 structed in regard to their tactics. After 
 the pack-train had been overwhelmed, 
 Swamm with his Mexican desperadoes 
 proposed to make an onslaught on the 
 camp. This onslaught depended, how- 
 ever, upon the number of men who should 
 be left to guard the camp. 
 
 A period of intense heat had fallen upon 
 the country. It was unsafe for man or 
 beast to travel in the day-time. Gresham 
 accordingly delayed the departure of his 
 pack-train until the cool of a beautiful 
 clear summer evening. The moon rose 
 early, and the night promised to be a fine 
 one. All the miners were heavily armed
 
 The Electrical Boy. 373 
 
 and well mounted. Richard lonsred to eo 
 with Gresham, but he was consoled by a 
 look of confidence which the latter gave 
 liim as he leaned from his saddle, took 
 Richard's hand in both of his, and said, " I 
 depend upon you, Richard." 
 
 Richard's heart rose to his throat as he 
 saw Henry Gresham ride off and thought 
 that he might never see him again. What 
 a strange turn of fortune ! Here he was 
 again with the old man George Great- 
 things in an electrical laboratory. Thank 
 God, however, Swamm was now an object 
 to be assailed and not aided. 
 
 The moon rose higher and higher, and 
 threw a flood of light upon the mysterious 
 mountains. George and Richard watched 
 the train of mules and the horsemen wind 
 along in the distance, and then disappear 
 from view behind an intervening crae. 
 
 Immediately on the departure of the 
 train Greatthings and Richard hurriedly
 
 374 ^/^^ Electrical Boy. 
 
 put the wires in position, and then Rich- 
 ard proposed that they should ascend a 
 little eminence to catch another view of 
 the train, for it must emerge into sight 
 again after having rounded the crag. 
 Both felt assured of the completeness of 
 their electrical preparations for the pro- 
 tection of the camp. No one could ap- 
 proach it without causing a tremendous 
 discharge. Neither Richard nor his com- 
 panion felt that there was any immediate 
 danger. The night air was pleasant, and 
 they continued their walk farther than 
 they had at first intended. A pet cat 
 which had made its home among the miners 
 accompanied them, running along by their 
 side like a little dog and occasionally rub- 
 bins: against their Icq-s. All at once the cat 
 sprang upon Richard's shoulder. The boy 
 was accustomed to this trick of the cat, 
 and passed his hand over its fur in a caress- 
 ing manner. To his surprise he felt the
 
 The Electrical Boy. 375 
 
 cat trembling with great excitement ; every 
 muscle was tense. Its head was out- 
 stretched, and its eyes were intently fixed 
 on something before them. Richard put 
 out his hand and arrested his companion, 
 who was plodding by his side. Both looked 
 in the direction indicated by the cat. Be- 
 yond a bunch of cactus Richard saw a fig- 
 ure creeping. Nothing was to be seen of 
 the pack-train, which ought now to be m 
 sight. Richard and Greatthings hastily 
 crossed the road to seek a path which 
 would conduct them more quickly back to 
 the camp. In doing so Richard stumbled 
 over something that lay extended across 
 the path. He put out his hand and it 
 touched the dead body of one of the 
 miners who had accompanied the pack- 
 train. No sound of the report of rifles 
 had been heard. Richard and Greatthings 
 quickly crept along the shorter path. At 
 one place it was closely overshadowed by
 
 376 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 a dense growth of cactus. Richard ex- 
 pected every moment to feel an Indian's 
 knife driven into him. He walked like 
 one in a nightmare. He could hear the 
 nervous breathing of Greatthings, who 
 shrank close to the boy and clutched his 
 hand as they crept through the bushes. In 
 a moment they were out of the dark copse 
 and creeping under the wires which de- 
 fended the path where it opened between 
 the rocks. They rushed into the nearest 
 cabin and seized rifles. The cat came 
 rushing in after them with its tail twice 
 its usual size. Richard felt a terrible 
 fear that the pack-train had been sur- 
 prised, and that the guards had been mur- 
 dered. How could they be surprised in 
 such a silent manner.? Neither he nor 
 Greatthings had heard any discharge of 
 firearms. 
 
 They listened and watched. Not a 
 sound could be heard save the distant
 
 The Electrical Boy. 377 
 
 rumble of the dynamo, and the rippling of 
 the mountain stream through the mountain 
 gorge. Suddenly there came a deafening 
 explosion, the noise of which echoed re- 
 peatedly through the mountains. Then 
 came another from a different direction. 
 Greatthings pressed Richard's hands and 
 whispered hoarsely, " Some one has gone 
 to answer for his sins." Richard, followed 
 by the old man, crept out of the cabin, 
 and with his rifle ready for use cautiously 
 approached the place of the first explosion. 
 He thought he heard groans of persons 
 in great anguish, and muttered oaths. 
 The moonlight did not penetrate the deep 
 defile. They could perceive, however, that 
 great fragments of rock had been torn off 
 from the overhanging crags, for the rocky 
 outline had been changed in contour. 
 
 Richard and Greatthings returned to 
 their cabin. Every moment they expected 
 to hear another explosion. It did not
 
 378 The Electrical Boy, 
 
 come. The only noise was the steady 
 rumble of the dynamo, and now and then 
 the cry of a wolf. The wild landscape 
 stood out in the moonlight like a stereo- 
 scopic view. To an excited imagination 
 a moonlight night is fuller of terrors than 
 a dark unillumined one. Every sharp 
 shadow seems instinct with life. The 
 shadows of the rocks are crouching forms, 
 and seem to move under one's intent 
 gaze. It is said that engineers on express 
 trains feel a greater tension of the nerves 
 on moonlight nights. Shadows of trees 
 thrown across the track become possible 
 obstructions. Old George Greatthings 
 said that his hair was already gray, but he 
 expected to see it several shades whiter by 
 morning. Richard's nerves were severely 
 taxed, but he did not feel the least fear. 
 He felt, however, the weight of a great 
 suspense. If he could only know that 
 Henry Gresham was safe !
 
 The Electrical Boy. 379 
 
 After leaving the camp the pack-train 
 had slowly wound through the defiles. A 
 guard of Mexicans heavily armed preceded 
 the laden mules. To each mule was 
 assigned a driver. Gresham with his 
 most trusted men brought up the rear. 
 In passing through a dark gorge one of the 
 Mexican drivers suddenly threw up his 
 arms with a shriek of pain, and fell from 
 his horse. A weapon from some unseen 
 hand had penetrated to his heart. The 
 train was cast into great confusion. The 
 horsemen in advance dashed headlong 
 down the rocky way. Gresham and his 
 overseer endeavored in vain to recall them. 
 Both men collected the few adherents who 
 remained and took up a position with their 
 backs to the cliffs and their rifles cocked. 
 The long train of mules, alarmed by the 
 clattering of the hoofs of the escaping 
 guard, were stampeded, and ran with 
 wild speed down the mountain-pass.
 
 380 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 Gresham felt sure that his men would be 
 picked off by the hidden foes if they should 
 attempt to pursue the flying train. He 
 determined to protect the lives of those 
 with him before endeavoring to save his 
 property. In their present position they 
 could only be attacked in front. Crouch- 
 ing behind the rocks, they watched anx- 
 iously for the mysterious foe. 
 
 While Swamm's Indian band had thus 
 succeeded in setting the Mexican miners 
 to flight, Swamm himself with other adher- 
 ents crept stealthily along through another 
 defile in order to surprise the camp. The 
 gambler knew that the force in the camp 
 must be greatly weakened, for Indian 
 scouts had brought to him an account of 
 the number in the escort to the train of 
 mules. The Indian scouts reported to 
 Swamm and his followers the dispersal of 
 the pack-train. The Mexicans had hoped 
 that the Indians would annihilate the party.
 
 The Elcctj'ical Boy. 381 
 
 In feeling their way along the defiles 
 fine wires were encountered. The fore- 
 most man pushed on, lifting the wire above 
 his head. In an instant there was a terri- 
 fic explosion, and not a man in the stealthy 
 file creeping along the narrow path es-' 
 caped death. Some were buried in the 
 rocky debris ; others were thrown up in the 
 air, and their limbs scattered on the side 
 of the cliff. 
 
 When Gresham heard the explosions he 
 called to his men to follow him ; and the 
 party made their way back to the camp. 
 Gresham shot off his rifle, and made a 
 call which he knew would be recognized 
 by Richard Greatman. He heard a joy- 
 ful shout, and a youthful voice cried out, 
 "Be careful of the wires, ]\Ir. Gresham!" 
 The men halted in the shadow of a rock. 
 The path in front had become impassable 
 from the force of the explosion. In the 
 bright light Gresham recognized a white
 
 2,S2 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 face, upturned to the moon. It was that 
 of Swamm. Richard Greatman clam- 
 bered over the debris and rushed to 
 Henry Gresham. 
 
 " I never expected to see you again, 
 and I should have died of grief," he said, 
 with a look of devotion which Gresham 
 never forgot. When the morning dawned, 
 the extent of the terrible explosion was 
 seen ; rocks were piled on rocks, with 
 mangled human forms between. The In- 
 dians had seen the devastation caused by 
 the blasts, and had attributed them to the 
 mysterious powers of the man whom they 
 had wished to make their chief. 
 
 Greatthings stood over the prostrate 
 form of one who had been the embodi- 
 ment of a haunting crime. The old man 
 trembled like an aspen leaf as he gazed. 
 Richard drew near, anxious to comfort him 
 in the mental stress under which he seemed 
 to labor, yet not knowing what to say.
 
 The Electrical Boy. 38 3 
 
 Greatthings seized the boy's hand and 
 said hoarsely : " When the temptation to 
 do wrong comes, — I hope it may never 
 come ; I do not believe it will come to 
 you, — but oh, if it ever does, remember 
 my life. I did wrong once, and it has 
 haunted me all my life. The springtime 
 went, and the world turned to an abode 
 of fiends, of which the chief was this man. 
 As he lies there, he seems to be my crime 
 in human shape. It is dead — dead ! But 
 where is my youth } Gone — gone! " 
 
 " \Mien we go back to the great city 
 you can walk anywhere in the broad day- 
 light now," said Richard, striving to com- 
 fort Greatthings. "You will return a rich 
 man, and can help others."
 
 ^84 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 THE NEWSBOY FINDS HIS POCKET FULL 
 OF SILVER. 
 
 n^HEY called the vein of silver revealed 
 by the burial of the giant the Giant's 
 Vein ; and people in general suppose that 
 it is called so from its great size and ex- 
 traordinary richness. The true secret of 
 the name, however, is known only to Gres- 
 ham and Richard and Greatthings and a 
 few trusty workmen, and to you, gentle 
 reader. 
 
 Let us hope that the delicate and 
 shrinking nature which was so long im- 
 prisoned in the colossal and misshapen 
 frame of Ferdinand Leap is joyous in 
 its release. Richard often heard a spring 
 bird singing at the opening of the cave as
 
 The Electrical Boy. 385 
 
 if its throat would burst with ecstasy; and 
 its song seemed to be intended especially 
 for him, for when others came near the 
 bird shrank away into the thicket. 
 
 Gresham and Richard resolved to aid 
 the street Arabs of New York by means 
 of the great wealth which had suddenly 
 become theirs. Together they visited the 
 haunts in which Richard had spent his 
 youth. How strange those alleys looked, 
 and the small, poorly lighted rooms in 
 which humanity still herded ! Richard 
 stood at the very window where his 
 mother had pointed to the stars. There 
 was the electric lio^ht and the wires which 
 led into the distance. Did his mother 
 foresee that he was to be uplifted from that 
 den to a nobler life and a world rich in 
 good men and women by means of elec- 
 tricity .? He reverently removed his hat 
 while he stood at the dingy window, and 
 vowed that he would devote his life to
 
 386 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 saving other poor boys from a life of sin 
 and i2:norance. 
 
 In the process of studying the life 
 of children in the tenements, Richard 
 re-visited the attic where Bill Lark and 
 he had lived and where they had kept the 
 carrier-pigeons. Old Smiles had disap- 
 peared, and another man equally brutal 
 and unsympathetic had taken his place. 
 Richard walked to the very spot where 
 the dove-cot had been, and saw the marks 
 of the nails which had confined the boards 
 of their rude habitation ; and the trials 
 of his early youth came back with full 
 force. Poor Bill Lark ! he might be living 
 at this moment, exerting those powers for 
 ruling men which he had shown. Richard 
 thought of the grave in the potter's field 
 where the curly-headed boy with the 
 spirited eyes had probably been buried, 
 and his eyes filled with tears. He took 
 the boat to the potter's field, and standing
 
 The Electrical Boy. 387 
 
 on the spot where the poor are laid away, 
 tried to find Bill's grave. It was useless 
 however ; Bill's life seemed to have been 
 like a bubble which had risen from a dark 
 well to reflect the sun's rays brilliantly for 
 a moment, only to burst and leave no 
 trace. 
 
 Richard's remembrance of Bill's strug- 
 gles, how^ever, was destined to benefit 
 other boys like Bill. The kind act that 
 the newsboy did in protecting Richard 
 when he was thrust out of his home — 
 home ! how strange that word seemed as 
 he recalled the den in w^iich he first be- 
 came conscious of the world — was des- 
 tined to bring forth fruit. There was no 
 possibility of marking Bill Lark's grave — 
 except by a tablet in a human heart. Is 
 not that where we all wish our tablet to 
 be.? 
 
 Richard Greatman and Gresham and 
 Mabel talked over various plans for th$>
 
 388 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 amelioration of the condition of poor 
 children in the great cities ; but the solu- 
 tion of the problem was not an easy one. 
 Gresham pointed out that if comfortable 
 quarters were provided for waifs, more 
 people would struggle to the great cities, 
 leaving the health-giving country for the 
 strange excitements of a metropolis. 
 
 Mabel, with the impetuosity of a girl, 
 denounced this cool reasoning, and was 
 in favor of opening comfortable quarters 
 immediately for those who were in present 
 need. Richard remembered how the 
 shackles fell from him when he reached 
 the free and open plains of the West, and 
 was in favor of organizing an exodus of 
 children from the great cities to the 
 western farms. No inducement should 
 be offered for poor people to fiock to the 
 cities, but every inducement to spread 
 out into a new country. The details of 
 this philanthropic scheme, like those of
 
 The Electrical Boy. 389 
 
 all humanitarian projects, were difficult ; 
 but we feel they can be left with confi- 
 dence to one who had known extreme 
 poverty in his youth, and who was filled 
 with an overflowing sense of gratitude for 
 the great fortune that had been vouch- 
 safed to him in his early manhood. Not 
 the least part of this fortune was the 
 possession of the love and esteem of the 
 Greshams. 
 
 One winter night Richard Greatman, 
 hurrying uptown to keep an engagement 
 to dine, saw a little newsboy sound asleep 
 in a doorway with his head upon a pile of 
 newspapers. Richard stopped and asked 
 himself if he should not lift this little waif 
 out of his want and drearv existence into 
 that paradise in which he found himself. It 
 was on this very spot that he had opened 
 his eyes, and had seen the tender eyes of a 
 beautiful girl gazing with pity upon him. 
 His wildest imagination could not have
 
 390 The Electrical Boy. 
 
 conceived that he should in twelve years 
 be hurrying to a beautiful house, such 
 as he had often peered into with famine- 
 pinched face, to be received as an hon- 
 ored guest ; and that the beautiful girl 
 should be waiting and longing for his 
 coming. 
 
 The little newsboy awoke with a start, 
 for he had been dreaming, and shouted 
 quickly, " Herald — World — full account 
 of a great accident! " Little did he know 
 that a human being full of pity and hope 
 of alleviating the poor newsboy's lot had 
 stood over him like a guardian angel. 
 When the newsboy put his hand into his 
 pockets he found them full of silver. 
 
 THE END.
 
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