The Project Gutenberg eBook, Wanderlust, by Robert R. (Robert Rice) Reynolds

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Title: Wanderlust

Author: Robert R. (Robert Rice) Reynolds

Release Date: December 23, 2014 [eBook #47750]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WANDERLUST***

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WANDERLUST

CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER III.

CHAPTER IV.

CHAPTER V.

"With one Grand Plunge I Grabbed the Rail of the Baggage Car."
(Wanderlust)

WANDERLUST

BY
ROBERT R. REYNOLDS

"BROADWAY PUBLISHING CO.
835 Broadway, New York
1913

Copyright, 1913,
BY
BROADWAY PUBLISHING CO.

TO

Hon. O. MAX GARDNER

AND

BERNARD M. CONLON,

THE COMRADES IN MANY OF THE ADVENTURES

RECITED HEREIN.

WANDERLUST

CHAPTER I.

Well I remember my first escapade, and as I sit here to-night writing these memoirs, most vividly do I recall some thrilling experiences which occurred in the pine fields and on the sand hills of Florida. I was then about fourteen years old and had just returned to the preparatory college after a most enjoyable vacation. While at home I began to love the open life and to long for the grassy sarannaks, the orange groves and the pine belts of the southland.

I had been thinking of running away for some time, being of a roving disposition and adventurous spirit, which, at this particular time, was fostered by the reading of dime novels and tales of adventure.

One bitterly cold night in January I sat by the fire and read of Jesse James and his desperate gang of outlaws until midnight. Eighteen months' confinement in college with the check rein taut was more than the embryo hero could possibly stand.

The clock struck twelve as I closed my book, and, reaching over, I stirred up the fading embers. I sat there and thought of the desperadoes of whom I had been reading, how heroic it would be to fight them, to have so many exciting adventures and hair-breadth escapes. The embers were dead when I finally decided on my plan of action. Sitting down at the little writing table I wrote the following note:

I folded the note, addressed it, and left it lying on the table; then I arose, opened the door, and stole silently along the hallway and down the stairs out into the darkness and cold. My shoes I carried in my hand, but before stepping off the porch I sat down and laced them on again. It was two miles and a half to the nearest railroad. I hastened along the deserted highway and reached the station, just in time to purchase my ticket and board the train.

Two days later I stood on the wharf of the Clyde Line Steamship Company at Charleston, S. C., thinking of home, and the dear ones I had left behind. There I was, three hundred miles away from friends and acquaintances, and not one cent with which to purchase my next meal. The day before I had arrived at Charleston with just ten cents in my pocket, and a dollar Ingersoll watch. I had not been there more than two hours before I succeeded in selling my watch to a negro. It was my first watch, too, and boylike, I had been inordinately proud of it, but the adventurer must be fed and lodged, and so the valued timepiece was sacrificed.

Candidly, I longed to be back in college, for, no outlaw appearing in my immediate neighborhood, it seemed as though I had reached the end of my tether. After standing there on the wharf for some time, worrying over the situation and gazing over the blue waters of the Atlantic, new courage seized me.

I boarded a ship which was anchored by, and inquired for the second officer. Being told that I would find him on the upper deck, I proceeded thither and found the said individual giving orders to a greasy squad of sailors. Stepping up to him, I inquired if he would allow me to work my way to Jacksonville, Florida. He asked me if I had ever been to sea, and I replied in the affirmative.

"Well," said he, "be aboard by five o'clock this afternoon, and I will put you to work cleaning brasses."

We sailed at the set time, and in the afternoon of the second day out, while polishing brass on the railing of the upper deck, a man approached me and introduced himself as Captain Hastings. After a short conversation, he told me that he was in need of a young man on his farm, which was in Florida, and he concluded by asking if I would take a position with him. I asked him what kind of work I would have to do, what salary he would pay and where his farm was located. He replied that he would want me to carry the mail on horseback Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays from the railroad station to his farm, a distance of thirty