d also to what our hero had to say.

"I hope Mr. Bartlett gets what is coming to him," said Mr. Thompson.
"And I hope Mr. Shalley brings that Peter Polk to terms also."

The next morning Randy received word to come to the iron works. He went
and there witnessed a stormy meeting between Amos Bangs on one side and
Mr. Bartlett and Mr. Robinson on the other. Randy was called in as a
witness, and what he had to say made Amos Bangs gasp for breath and
sink into a chair.

"You are going to expose me--to ruin me!" gasped Amos Bangs, at last,
addressing the two men who had accused him.

"We shall expose you unless you give up the control here and do as we
think is fair," said Philip Bartlett. "As for ruining you, I think you
have about ruined yourself."

"But my wife, and my son----"

"Mrs. Bangs does not deserve my sympathy after what she has done. As
for your son, he can go to work, as my son has done."

"Bob! What can he do?"

"Work may make a man of him. He will never amount to anything if you
bring him up in idleness."

"It is hard!" groaned Amos Bangs. "I--I shall have to go to work
myself!"

"That is what I was forced to do," answered Philip Bartlett, dryly.
"But you will not be so badly off, Mr. Bangs. Your stock is worth at
least four or five thousand dollars."

"Humph! That is not much. Well, I suppose I am cornered and must do as
you say," and he gave a deep sigh. Secretly, however, he was glad to
escape arrest.

A lawyer was called in, and the best part of the day was spent in
drawing up and signing various legal documents. The iron works were
thereby placed in the control of Mr. Bartlett, Mr. Robinson, and a
stockholder named Wells, and Philip Bartlett was made the general
manager of the company. All of the books and accounts were placed in
charge of an expert accountant, and in the end Amos Bangs had to make
good a deficiency of cash. The former rich man had to give up his
elegant mansion, and soon after he and his family moved to the West
without leaving their new address behind them.

When Randy went back to the steamboat, two days later, a surprise
awaited him. An accountant, assisted by a detective, had gone over
Peter Polk's affairs and discovered that the purser had robbed Andrew
Shalley of between eight and ten thousand dollars. Polk had taken time
by the forelock and fled. He tried to get to Canada, but telegrams were
sent out, and he was caught just as he was trying to cross the
Suspensi