Harry Castlemon - The Haunted Mine

"Why, the box is your own, ain't it?" asked Claus. "You can do what you please with it."

"Not now, we can't. We have told Mr. Wiggins that we wanted him to watch over it for us, and he will have to be present when you read the papers."

"Then you can't get it for me?"

"No, I don't believe I could, Mr. Claus. You don't need anybody to give you a recommend. Go to some of your friends here – "

"Claus! Claus! That is not my name. My name is Haberstro."

Julian grinned broadly, and even Jack did not appear to be above merriment.

"What do you mean by applying that name to me?" exclaimed Claus. "There is my card."

"I don't want to see it. I have one already. Your name is Claus, you live in a billiard saloon, and you got a full history of this box from Casper Nevins."

"Young man, I will have you arrested before you are an hour older!" said Claus, getting upon his feet. "I come here and ask a civil question of you, and you insult me!"

"Do so, and we will have Casper arrested for burglary and you for trying to obtain money under false pretenses. The sooner you get about it the better it will suit us."

"Very well – I will have a policeman here in less than ten minutes!"

Mr. Claus went out, and this time he did not bow himself through the door as he had done the night before. The boys heard him going downstairs, and then turned and looked at each other.

"Somebody has been posting those fellows," said Claus, as he hurried away toward Casper's room. "I wonder if there was a detective in there while I was at the office? Two attempts have failed, but the third is always successful."

Claus was almost beside himself with fury, but he retained his wits sufficiently to guide him on the road to Casper's room. He found the boy in, seated in a chair, with his elbows on his knees, trying his best to make up his mind what he was going to do, now that he had been discharged from the telegraph office. He had sat that way ever since eleven o'clock in the forenoon, and had not been able to determine upon anything. The first intimation he had that anybody was coming was when the door was thrown open and Claus came in, muttering something under his breath that sounded a good deal like oaths.

"There is no need that you should say anything," said Casper. "You have failed."

"Yes, sir, I have; failed utterly and plump," said Claus.

"And I have been discharged."

"Whew!" whistled Claus. "You are in a fix, aren't you?"

"Yes, and I don't know what I shall do now. Tell me your story, and I will tell you mine."

"Have you a cigar handy?"

"No; and I have no money."

"How long before you will be paid?"

"Oh, it will be two weeks yet."

"Then I will have to go down and get some cigars myself. I can think more clearly while my jaws are puffing than I can without."

"You got your last cigar out of me, old fellow," said Casper to himself, when Claus had left the room. "I have but little money, and I am going to keep it."

"Well, sir, what do you think of that?" said Julian, when he was certain that Claus had gone down the stairs and out on the street. "He had better try some other way of getting that box."

"He has failed," said Jack, putting a frying-pan filled with bacon on the stove. "Casper Nevins is at the bottom of that. I tell you, that money is safe yet."

"Do you know that I looked upon it as gone when he first came here and handed out his card?" said Julian. "I thought he was Haberstro, sure enough."

"I confess that I thought so, too. Now let us go on and get supper. The next time we save that money, somebody else will have a hand in it."

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