When we get to the end of the book for the necessary information about the story - whether Frank turned down any money, or whether he drove the ship into a barn so it was wrecked beyond repair - we learn that Burton, the fellow in the picture, was a crook. Frank helped a detective named Osman Dyke capture him.

As for Burton, he obviously survived the fall, because the fifth-to-the-last sentence in the story reads "Burton died in the electric chair."

Because it's a children's story! They were made of sterner stuff back then.

This story originally ran at the end of the 19th century, but the publication date on this rerelease is May, 1903.

That's the year the problem was solved. But not by Frank's means.