A Millionaire at Sixteen

A Millionaire at Sixteen by Oliver Optic

Louis Belgrave, a sixteen-year-old New Jersey millionaire, opens the novel bantering with his stout trustee, Squire Moses Scarburn ("Uncle Moses"), about how to spend his seventy-thousand-dollar annual income, settling on the purchase of a modest yacht rather than an ostentatious one. Louis's fortune stems from his grandfather Peter Belgrave, who converted his real-estate wealth into gold during the Civil War and hid it in a secret brick vault, dying before revealing its location; Louis's father searched fruitlessly for the "missing million" until his own death. Louis's mother, the gentle but previously timid Mrs. Belgrave, remarried a smooth English jockey and pool-manager, Wade Farrongate — in reality a deserter named John Scoble — who courted her chiefly to get at the family fortune and the rumored buried treasure. When Scoble's embezzlement and plan to spirit Louis and his mother off to England were exposed, Louis exposed and thwarted him, recovering stolen betting money, and Mrs. Belgrave repudiated the fraudulent marriage. Louis subsequently located the missing million himself, becoming the "millionaire at sixteen" of the title, with Uncle Moses as trustee and Captain Ringgold, a retired shipmaster, as a family friend. The main action begins when a plausible English stranger, "Frinks Fobbington," befriends Louis at the Von Blonk Park hotel, spinning an elaborate story about a yacht called the Oxford that he wishes to sell cheaply. Louis, his mother, Captain Ringgold, and Louis's loyal Irish friend Felix McGavonty travel to Southfield to inspect the vessel. Once aboard, the schooner gets underway without warning; Captain Ringgold and Felix are lured below and shut under the hatches, and Louis discovers his mother trapped by seasickness in the cabin — where he finds Scoble himself in command. "Fobbington" reveals his true name, Frinks, and admits he is Scoble's hired mate; the ship is actually the repainted Maud, bound for England so Scoble can reclaim his repudiated wife and, through her, any future claim on the Belgrave fortune, of which he still believes the million is undiscovered. Louis keeps his composure, secretly frees Ringgold and Felix from the hold, arms himself and his mother's chief defenders with pistols taken from the officers' quarters, and endures a battle of wits with Scoble at the cabin table, sparring over names, hams, and coffee while Mrs. Belgrave, drawing on unexpected reserves of courage, flatly and repeatedly denies that her sham marriage was ever valid and refuses Scoble's renewed proposals — even when he dangles knowledge of the "missing million" (not realizing it has already been found) as a bribe for reconciliation. When Scoble threatens violence and mutiny charges, Louis and Ringgold overpower him, clap him in his own handcuffs, and lock him in a stateroom, while the cook, Bickling, proves timid but sympathetic to the captives. Sailing back toward shore in a strengthening gale, Ringgold takes command of the schooner with Frinks's outward cooperation. To land Mrs. Belgrave safely, Ringgold, Louis, and Bickling row ashore with Frinks — who promptly abandons them on the marshy shore and rows back to the Maud, having covertly freed Scoble. Bickling reveals he overheard Frinks and Scoble plotting to make for Bermuda while pretending to bind for Southampton. Stranded, Louis and Ringgold trek to the nearby town, rouse Captain Alcorn and Mr. Boulong of the yacht Blanche (owned by Louis's friend Mr. Woolridge), and set out in pursuit at dawn, reasoning that Scoble, expecting pursuit, will likely hide along the coast rather than run openly for Bermuda. Meanwhile aboard the Maud, Felix, left as Mrs. Belgrave's sole guard, discovers Scoble freed from his irons and overhears Frinks demand payment for his services, including a threat to evict Mrs. Belgrave from her cabin. Felix bravely faces down the mate with his own revolver to protect her, and comforts the frightened but resolute lady, who takes heart from the knowledge that Louis himself escaped the trap. The Maud anchors in a secluded inlet south of Sandy Hook as dawn breaks, with Scoble and Frinks still quarreling over money and next steps, while the Blanche gives chase somewhere out on the open water — setting up the pursuit and rescue that occupies the remainder of the novel. Throughout, Optic contrasts Louis's steady, resourceful "knight-errantry," Felix's comic devotion, Captain Ringgold's seasoned competence, and Mrs. Belgrave's hard-won moral firmness against Scoble's oily villainy and Frinks's cynical, talkative opportunism, framing the story as both a nautical adventure and a study of a young man's character tested by sudden wealth and family peril.

By Oliver Optic · First published 1892 · Genre: Adventure Fiction, Maritime/Nautical Fiction, Coming-of-Age · 37 chapters · 93,470 words

First lines

"Buy a yacht! " exclaimed Squire Moses Scarburn, a gentleman whose avoirdupois exceeded two hundred pounds, honest weight, as he shook his fat sides with wholesome laughter. "Why not buy an elephant?"

"I am not in want of an elephant just now," replied Louis Belgrave, of whose worldly goods and chattels the stout gentleman was the trustee.

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A Millionaire at Sixteen is listed on Textopian as a novel by Oliver Optic, dated 1892 CE.

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Genres

Tags

juvenile fiction · adventure · maritime adventure · coming-of-age · wealth · inheritance · family relationships · friendship · sea voyage · yachting · travel · mystery

Contents

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