a splendid fellow, but I don't know if the pay is
sufficient," continued Hector, gravely.

"I am willing to take less pay than I get here," said the usher, "for
the sake of getting away."

"How much do you receive here?"

"Twenty dollar a month and board. I might, perhaps, get along on a
little less," he added doubtfully.

"You won't have to, Mr. Crabb. You are offered sixty dollars a month and
a home."

"You are not in earnest, Roscoe?" asked the usher, who could not believe
in his good fortune.

"I will read you the letter, Mr. Crabb."

When it was read the usher looked radiant. "Roscoe," he said, "you come
to me like an angel from heaven. Just now I was sad and depressed; now
it seems to me that the whole future is radiant. Sixty dollars a month!
Why, it will make me a rich man."

"Mr. Crabb," said Hector, with a lurking spirit of fun, "can you really
make up your mind to leave Smith Institute, and its kind and benevolent
principal?"

"I don't think any prisoner ever welcomed his release with deeper
thankfulness," said the usher. "To be in the employ of a man whom you
despise, yet to feel yourself a helpless and hopeless dependent on him
is, I assure you, Roscoe, a position by no means to be envied. For two
years that has been my lot."

"But it will soon be over."

"Yes, thanks to you. Why can't you accompany me, Hector? I ought not,
perhaps, to draw you away, but--"

"But listen to the letter I have received from my kind and considerate
guardian, as he styles himself," said Hector.

He read Allan Roscoe's letter to the usher.

"He seems in a great hurry to condemn you," said Mr. Crabb.

"Yes, and to get me off his hands," said Hector, proudly. "Well, he
shall be gratified in the last. I shall accept Walter's invitation, and
we will go up to New York together."

"That will, indeed, please me. Of course, you will undeceive your
guardian."

"Yes. I will get Wilkins and Platt to prepare a statement of the facts
in the case, and accompany it by a note releasing Mr. Roscoe from any
further care or expense for me."

"But, Hector, can you afford to do this?"

"I cannot afford to do otherwise, Mr. Crabb. I shall find friends, and I
am willing to work for my living, if need be."

At this point one of the boys came to Mr. Crabb with a message from
Socrates, desiring the usher to wait upon him at once.

CHAPTER XXIII. ANOTHER CHANCE FOR THE USHER.

Mr. Smith had been thinking it over. He