Page:Harry Castlemon - The Steel Horse.djvu/235

 make out a column some way or other, and if you don't help me out, I shall always think you ought to."

"I don't know a thing," replied the clerk. "Go into the reading-room and pump that fellow with the bunged-up eye. He's a wheelman from Mount Airy. Came in yesterday with two others, and got into trouble before he had fairly eaten his supper. That's his name right there," added the clerk, as the sharp-looking man, who was a newspaper reporter, pulled a note-book from his pocket and wrote something in it in short-hand. "He just as good as told me that he was mistaken for Rowe Shelly, kidnapped and taken over to the island, and barely escaped being carried to sea."

"On what vessel?" exclaimed the reporter, showing some excitement and no little interest.

"Don't know. Didn't think to ask him, for he was in a great hurry to go to his room."

"So Rowe Shelly has skipped again, has he?" said the reporter. "That won't do me any good, for Shelly owns some of our stock and we can't dip into his private affairs.