# Bound to be an Electrician/Chapter 24

CHAPTER XXIV.
A SURPRISING STATEMENT.
As Hank Bitters uttered his threat, he strode towards Franklin, his face full of fury.
But the youth did not retreat. Instead he picked up a whip that lay handy.
"I don't think you will touch me. Bitters," he said. "Come a step closer, and you shall feel this. I am not to be trifled with."
Bitters was a coward at heart, especially so when not in liquor, which was now the case. As the young electrician advanced, he retreated until Franklin had driven him back to the doorway.
"If yon didn't have that whip, I would show you," remarked Bitters, feeling that somehow he wasn't accomplishing what he had set out to accomplish.
"I am very glad I have the whip," replied Franklin, simply. "Now clear out and leave me alone."
"Say," exclaimed the truckman, suddenly changing his tactics. "Give me a dollar and we'll call it square all around, and I won't hurt you."
​"I am not afraid of being hurt."
"Well, give me the dollar, anyway, will you? I am a poor man, and being out of work comes hard."
"If you'll promise not to drink the money up I'll let you have the amount," said Franklin, who thought this a cheap way of avoiding trouble in the future.
"All right. I'll promise."
Upon this the young electrician produced a dollar bill, and handed it over. Hank Bitters snatched it eagerly, and then without another word left the premises and hurried up the street.
"It was a cheap way of getting clear of him," thought Franklin, as he watched the man out of sight. "Poor fellow, in one way I feel sorry for him!"
Franklin was soon on his way to the factory where he loaded up under the direction of the shipping clerk. The work was hard, but Franklin was strong for his age, and accomplished all that he was called upon to do. He made three trips to different freight depots, and kept careful tally of what both he and Macklin took out.
This work continued for two days longer. During the time Frankhn was in and out of the factory constantly, and without appearing to do so he took an account of the number of batteries on hand and learned the number that were ​being turned out daily. These facts and figures were all sent to Belden Brice nightly, for the young electrician never failed to write a letter to the speculator before retiring.
In the meantime Frankhn became better acquainted with Walter Robinson, and learned a few more facts concerning Wilbur Bliss and his inventions. He wondered if the inventor was still alive, and if Cora was really his daughter.
"Perhaps he died and Belden Brice adopted her out of the goodness of his heart," he speculated. "It would be just like him to care for the child of the man whose patent had helped to make him rich."
Robinson had, on one or two occasions, asked Franklin about himself, and the young electrician had told his newly found friend as much as he dared of his affairs. Perhaps Robinson thought it queer that he did not tell more, but if so the young man was too well bred to mention it.
On the fourth day after he had arrived in Chicago, Franklin received his first letter from Belden Brice. After praising the young electrician for what he had thus far done the speculator went on:
   "I am very much interested in that consignment which was taken on board of the freight-boat, Sunfiower. I have an idea that those goods are shipped to Milwaukee, or some point further north, and then sent to Canada (perhaps smuggled), without the Smith Co. making any statement to ​me, or paying the royalty due. If you can possibly do so, leave your work for a week and try to trace the boat to where the goods are discharged, or, if you cannot get away, and think it advisable to remain at the works on the watch, hire some first-class man to watch the next consignment sent off."
Franklin read this letter with much interest. He had thought of the smuggling, and began to imagine that such was the correct solution of the mystery. The goods would thus leave the country, and it would be next to impossible for Belden Brice to trace the fraud that had been practiced upon him.
"I wouldn't mind leaving the works, and taking a trip on the freight-boat," he thought. "It would be a change, and when I get back I believe I could easily trace up the goods that have been sent out during my absence."
But to work matters around so that he might make the desired shift, was not so easy. Franklin thought of many different schemes, but gave up each in turn as being awkward, and likely to arouse suspicion.
The week slipped by, and on Saturday afternoon, Franklin was handed his pay, with the remark that his services would be no longer required as a truckman.
The young electrician was surprised at this, as he had been given no intimation that he was to be discharged. He asked if there was any place va​cant in the factory, and was told no. He walked away, considerably worried, thinking that his actions had been noticed, and that Montague Smith suspected him, and his mission.
"Maybe they have been watching me, just as I have been watching them," thought Franklin. "In that case, I had better be careful how I proceed."
The young electrician at once wrote to Belden Brice of what had occurred, and asked what he should do next. Then, on the following Monday morning, he walked down to the dock, to see if the freight-boat had returned.
The Sunflower was tied up in the same spot she had before occupied. No one was visible either, on deck or around the cabin. Evidently, the captain and most of the crew were ashore.
Sitting down on the dock, behind a pile of boxes and barrels, Franklin gave himself over to many reflections.
"I suppose I could go aboard, and become a stowaway," he thought, as his eyes roamed over the freight-boat. "If I did that I wonder how Captain Cosgrove would treat me when I exposed myself? I wouldn't dare to offer pay for my passage, as that would make him suspicious, and, like as not, he'd be suspicious, anyway, if he remembered me as one of the truck-drivers on his last trip. I wonder if I could stow myself away, and keep hidden until we reached our destination?"
​While Franklin was speculating in this strain he heard two men walk down the dock towards the Sunflower. He looked out from his resting place, and saw that the pair were Captain Cosgrove and Montague Smith. Instantly, he drew out of sight, to let the two men pass him.
"So you think you'll take a trip to Milwaukee, Smith," remarked the master of the Sunflower. "For what? We are taking care of matters all right?"
"I know you are, captain, so far as the freight is concerned," returned Montague Smith. "But there is other business I have up there that must be looked after."
"Oh!" Captain Cosgrove gave a short laugh. "Is Wilbur Bliss's sister kicking up a fuss again?"
"Hush!" cried Montague Smith, in quick alarm. "I wish you would not mention her name when talking to me. Somebody might grow suspicious."
"Suspicious of what? You treated her fairly enough, didn't you?"
"Certainly I did, returned the part owner of the battery works. "But then you know how folks talk, and it won't do for me to have any one blacken my character around here."
"Might reach Belden Brice's ears, eh? He's a shrewd one."
​"Why do you mention so many names, captain?" said Montague Smith, angrily. "It's not at all necessary."
And then the two passed onto the freight-boat, and out of Franklin's hearing.