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Page 87
"And we won!" cried Grace. "Oh, father! How glad I am to have you
back!"
"How glad I am to get back!" replied Mr. Potter.
Larry sat beside the German reporter, who took his place at the
steering wheel. The other car was left where the men had abandoned
it. They had disappeared into the woods on either side of the road,
and never troubled Mr. Potter again.
"Why did you disappear, Mr. Potter?" asked Larry, who had to have
some facts to telephone in, as it was near first edition-time.
"It's a long story to tell, young man," replied the millionaire,
"and quite complicated. Briefly, I had to disappear in order to save
a number of widows and orphans from losing what little money they
depended on for a living. As you have probably guessed, I am
interested in many financial matters. One was the building of an
extension of the subway. Hundreds of widows, and guardians of
orphans, had bought stock in this enterprise, as it was sold by
popular subscription.
"While abroad I learned there was a scheme on foot to involve me in
certain legal difficulties, and it might even cause my arrest in
order to get me to do certain things that would force the price of
the subway stock down, and so bankrupt many innocent persons. To
prevent this I determined to disappear, without even the knowledge
of my family. How I managed it I will tell you later. Matters were
going along all right until Retto, whose real name, you might as
well know, is Simonson, suddenly disappeared. I did not know what to
do, nor how matters, with which I had entrusted him, were
progressing. But it wasn't his fault. I wonder what happened to
him?"
Larry explained about Mr. Simonson's accident, of which Mr. Potter
was ignorant.
"When these men, my enemies, unexpectedly appeared to-day at the
house where I had been hiding ever since I disappeared, asked me to
appear in a New Jersey court, I had to go with them," went on Mr.
Potter. "It was in the nature of an arrest, and I did not dare
disobey. They wanted to take me before a Supreme Court Justice in
his home on the mountain and make me sign certain papers.
"But you came along in the nick of time. When you gave me that
message to the effect that the money was all right, I knew that the
affairs of the subway had been so arranged that the stock would not
go down and the widows and orphans would not suffer. I was willing
then to appear in court, as the schemes of the scoundrels, who had
practically kidnapped me, could amount to nothing. But it seems
they didn't wait to see what the outcome would be. I'm much obliged
to you, Larry."
"So am I," added Grace, with a smile.
"I'd do it all over again for the sake of getting such a good
story--and--er--of course, finding you and helping your daughter,"
Larry finished. "Now to telephone this in."
Mr. Emberg could hardly believe the news that Larry fairly shouted
over the wire.
"Found him, you say! Good for you, Larry. It'll be a great beat!
Wait a minute! I'll let Harvey take the story. Talk fast. Give us
enough for the first edition, and then, for the second, get the
whole story from Mr. Potter. This is a corker!"
What a scene there was in the _Leader_ office then! Mr. Newton
grabbed up paper and pencil and rushed to the telephone booth to
which Larry's wire had been switched so that the story could be
taken with fewer interruptions. Page after page of notes did Mr.
Newton scribble down, as Larry dictated the dramatic finding of the
missing millionaire during the automobile chase.
"That'll do, Larry!" cried Mr. Newton, when he had the first half of
the story. "I'll get one of the other boys to take the rest while I
grind this out on the machine."
So the young reporter dictated the remainder of the account to
another person in the _Leader_ office, while Mr. Newton was
pounding away on the typewriter at his section.
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