Page:The Rover Boys in Southern Waters.djvu/262

244 Dan Baxter took the pocketbook and opened it.

"Why, it's full of bills!" he gasped.

"Yes, a thousand dollars, Dan. We want you to make a good start while you are at it," explained Dick.

The face of the former bully became a study. His eyes grew moist and his lips quivered. He had to turn away for a moment, for he could not control himself.

"You're the best fellows in the world—the very best," he murmured, presently. "A thousand dollars! And you were going to give it to me—not loan it to me! I'll never forget that, never, if I live to be a hundred. But I am not going to take all that money—it's too much of a temptation. Let me have a hundred as a loan, and that's all."

This he stuck to, and in the end the hundred dollars was counted out and Baxter placed it in his pocket.

"This will take me to Philadelphia," he said. "There I can get hold of some money that is rightfully mine, and then I'll return the loan. After that—well, after that I am going far away, to try to make a man of myself."

"We wish you luck, Dan," answered Dick, gravely.

"Indeed we do," added Sam and Tom.

There was an awkward silence. Then Dan