Halsey Co. | Page 9

telegram the boy was sent out with. Bob came hurrying down too.
"This is too bad," said Tracey. "I am sorry. He is a good messenger.

Janitor! Janitor!"
The janitor came and by that time the boy had recovered consciousness.
He groaned in agony. The physician, whose office was in the building,
examined him.
"Left arm and leg broken," he said.
"Lord, but I am sorry. Doctor, take charge of him, see him through and
send your bill to me. Tom, my boy, your pay shall go on just the same.
See if anything is wanted, janitor, and get it for him. Where is the
telegram, Tom?"
"In my pocket, sir," said Tom, white as a sheet.
It was found and given to the broker, who turned to Bob and said:
"Please send that off for me, Bob, and if you know of a boy who can
make a good messenger send him to me in the morning."
"Hello, Fred! This is the place for you!" and Bob grabbed Fred by the
arm and forced him around in front of Tracey. "Here's the one you want,
sir--Fred Halsey."
"All right; come here to-morrow morning."
So the next morning Fred went to Tracey's office and was engaged as
messenger. During the day B. & H. went to 87 and Fred as soon as he
was sent on an errand stopped in at the bank and bad his shares sold for
Halsey & Co.
Bob was getting $6 a week as messenger for Tracey and it pleased his
aunt greatly. The next day Tabor gave Bob a statement for Halsey &
Co., showing a net profit of over $1,200, which he placed to their credit.
Fred and Bob were standing under the gallery of the Stock Exchange in
the place allotted to messengers, when Broker Keeley gave a howl and
sprang at the throat of Broker Gaines. They fell to the floor. The old
man turned his eyes toward Fred. They seemed to pop out of his head

for the maniac was choking him.
"I can't stand that!" cried Fred, and the next moment both his hands
were in Broker Keeley's hair. He let go the old man's throat, and a
dozen brokers ran in to separate them and quell the row.
Next day Fred said to Bob: "I met Gaines's typewriter just now and she
said Mr. Gaines had not been to the office since his row with Broker
Keeley. The clerk who is running the office insulted her and she wants
to leave."
"By George!" answered Bob, "Bryant's girl has just asked me to find a
place for her. What did you tell Callie?"
"I told her I would look out for her, and I will."
During the day Fred got a place for Callie with Broker Tabor, and Bob
secured a temporary place for Bertie Clayton in old Broker Bowles's
office.
The day after the two boys met the girls in a restaurant, and Callie told
Fred of a tip she had come across. It was Pacific Mail, and it was going
to be cornered.
CHAPTER V.
--The Typewriter Girl's Tip.
Fred and Bob came away from the restaurant with the two girls, going
toward Wall Street. Fred asked Callie several questions about the deal
she had mentioned.
"I'll make a note of what I can find out," she said to him, "and let you
know after 3 o'clock."
"But be careful and let no one else know it," he replied.
"Oh, I can keep a secret even if I am a girl," and she left him on the

corner of Nassau and Wall to go to the bank.
Fred clutched Bob's arm when the two girls were gone, and said:
"Callie says a big corner in Pacific Mail is being made up in Barron's
office."
"By George! Is it straight, do you think?"
"Yes. She says she'll make notes and give 'em to me. She let it out by
saying if she had any money laid up she could make a pile out of
Pacific Mail. I soon got the whole thing out of her."
"When will you see her again?"
"After three o'clock."
It was a little after three o'clock when Fred saw her come out of the
bank. He went to meet her, and she said to him:
"Bryant is going to do the buying--begins to-morrow. You won't tell
any one that I told you?"
"No; that would never do."
She lived over on the west side, and had a widowed mother and little
brother to support. He walked nearly all the way home with her. Bob
went uptown with Gertie Clayton, and did not see Fred again till the
next morning.
"I am going to buy Pacific Mail, Bob," Fred said to him.
"Go ahead then--for Halsey &