Golden Days for Boys and Girls Part 23

"Of course they did, and that was another thing that frightened them.

They saw very plainly that their hiding-place was broken up, and were making preparations to leave it when Silas and Dan put in their appearance. The robbers saw and heard them long before they got to the camp, and the one who found the letter recognized them at once. It was at his suggestion that that ghost was rigged up."

"But they must have known that they could not scare everybody with that dummy," observed Tom.

"To-be-sure they did, and they were in a great hurry to get away from there; but they needed provisions, and by stopping to get them they fell into trouble. They took Joe Morgan's house for a wood-chopper's cabin, and while we were robbing them, they were foraging on Joe. I tell you, Tom, it's a lucky thing for us that we got out of that gorge when we did. They were mad enough to shoot us on sight."

"I don't wonder at it," replied Tom. "It would make most anybody mad to lose a hundred and fifty thousand dollars in money and securities, no matter how he came by them. Where did they catch you? Did they treat you well?"

"They treated me well enough," was Bob's reply; "but I believe that if they had not stood in fear of immediate capture, I should have a different story to tell, if, indeed, I were able to tell any. I told you nothing but the truth in the postscript I added to their note."

"I knew they made you write it, and that you did not express your honest sentiments when you told us to be in a hurry about giving back that valise."

"I was sure you would understand it: but what could a fellow do with a c.o.c.ked revolver flourished before his eyes by a man who was in just the right humor to use it on him?"

"He would do as he is told, of course," answered Tom. "But do you suppose they thought they could get that valise back by threatening you?"

"I don't know what they thought, for they acted as if they were crazy.

They caught me in less than half an hour after I left you, and it was through my own fault. I ran on to them before I knew it; and do you imagine I thought 'robbers' once? As true as you live, I didn't. I took them for poachers, and told them, very politely, that these grounds were posted and they couldn't be allowed to shoot there, when all on a sudden it popped into my head what I was doing. They saw the start I gave, and in a second more they had me covered. If I could have got away without letting them see that I suspected them, they wouldn't have said a word to me."

"Well, they covered you with their revolvers; then what?"

"Beyond a doubt, they made a prisoner of me before they thought what they were doing, and when they came to look at it, they found that they had got an elephant on their hands. Then they would have been glad to get rid of me; but they did not see just how they could do it with safety to themselves, so they made up their minds to use me.

"At first they thought they would wait and see if anything would come of the notice they left on the door of the cabin, and then they thought they wouldn't--that they would hunt up another hiding-place as soon as possible; so they ordered me to take them where n.o.body would ever think of looking for them. And I could do nothing but obey."

"Were you acting as their guide when they released you?"

Bob replied that he was.

"Why didn't you veer around a bit, and lead them toward the railroad?"

"If I had, I shouldn't be here now," answered Bob, significantly. "They warned me to be careful about that, and they were so well acquainted with the hills that I was afraid to attempt any tricks. We camped over on Dungeon Brook last night, and set out again at an early hour this morning; but before we had been in motion an hour, we found ourselves cut off from the upper end of the hills, and that was the time they made up their minds to let me go. They didn't say so, but still I had an idea that they didn't want me around for fear I would make too much noise to suit them."

"I know they were afraid of it," said Tom. "The robber that Brierly's squad captured said so."

"Is one of them taken?" exclaimed Bob, who hadn't heard of it before.

"That's good news. Where's the other?"

"Don't know. They separated after they let you go, and Brierly captured one of them. Perhaps we shall hear something about the other one now,"

added Tom, directing his companion's attention to a large party of men who were at that moment discovered approaching the cabin. "We went out in squads of four, and there are a dozen men in that crowd."

"But I don't see any prisoner among them," said Bob. "They have all got guns on their shoulders, and that proves that they have not seen anything of robber number two."

As the party came nearer, the boys saw that it was made up of citizens of Bellville and Hammondsport, who had abandoned the search for the day, and were now on their way home.

They were surprised to see Bob Emerson there, safe and sound, and forthwith desired a full history of the letter which had been the means of bringing about so remarkable a series of events.

Bob protested that he was too hungry to talk, but when he saw the generous supply of bread and meat which one of the men drew from his haversack, he sat down on a log in front of the cabin and told his story.

His auditors declared that the way things had turned out was little short of wonderful, adding, as they arose to go, that they were coming out again, bright and early the next morning, to resume the search for robber number two. They were not going to remain idle at home, they said, as long as there were twenty-five hundred dollars running around loose in the woods.

When the bread and meat were all gone, and the boys were once more alone, Tom wrote the notice which Joe Morgan found pinned to the door of the cabin, and then he and Bob set out for Uncle Hallet's.

CHAPTER x.x.xIII.

Although Silas Morgan had received the most convincing proof that he had nothing more to fear from the "hant" which had so long occupied all his waking thoughts and disturbed his dreams at night, he would not have taken one step toward Mr. Warren's house before morning, had he not been urged on by the hope that the sheriff would be ready to pay over his money as soon as the robber was given up to him. The desire to handle the reward to which he was ent.i.tled was stronger than his fear of the dark.

"And what shall I do with them twenty-five hundred after I get 'em, Joey?" said he. "That's what's a-bothering of me now."

And it was the very thing that was bothering Joe, also. His father had always been in the habit of spending his money as fast as he got it, and the boy fully expected to see this large sum slip through his fingers without doing the least good to him or anybody else.

"I'll tell you what I _wouldn't_ do with it," said Joe, after a little hesitation. "I wouldn't give Hobson any of it."

"You're right I won't!" exclaimed Silas. "He's got more'n his share already. What be you going to do with yours, when you get it?"

"I think now that I shall put it in the bank at Hammondsport," answered Joe. "It will be safe there, and if I am careful of it, it will last me until I get through going to school. You don't want to go to school, but you might go into business and increase your capital."

"That's it--that's it, Joey!" exclaimed Silas, who grew enthusiastic at once. "I never thought of that. But what sort of business? It must be something easy, 'cause I've worked hard enough already."

"Mr. Warren says that there is no easy way of making a living," began Joe; but his father interrupted him with an exclamation of impatience.

"What does old man Warren know about it?" he demanded. "He never had to do a hand's turn in his life."

"But he don't know what it is to be idle, and he is busy at something every day," said Joe. "I'll tell you what I have often thought I would do if I had a little money, and I may do it yet, if you don't decide to go into it. The new road that is coming through here is bound to bring a good many people to the Beach, sooner or later. As the trout are nearly all gone, the guests will have to devote their attention to the ba.s.s in the lake, and consequently there will be a big demand for boats."

"So there will!" exclaimed Silas, who saw at once what Joe was trying to get at. "That's the business I've been looking for, Joey, and it's an easy one, too. Of course, I can let all my boats at so much an hour, and I won't have nothing to do but sit on the beach and take in my money."

"And what'll I be doing?" inquired Dan, who had not spoken before.

"You!" cried Silas, who seemed to have forgotten that Dan was one of the party. "You will keep on chopping cord wood, to pay you for the mean trick you played on me this morning. You see what you made by it, don't you? I reckon you wish you'd stayed by me now, don't you? How much will them boats cost me, Joey?"

"I should think that ten or a dozen skiffs would be enough to begin with," answered Joe, "and they will cost you between three and four hundred dollars; but you would have enough left to rent a piece of ground of Mr. Warren and put up a snug little house on it."

"Then I'll be a gentleman like the rest of 'em, won't I?" exclaimed Silas, gleefully.

"No, you won't," said Dan, to himself. "That bridge ain't been built yet, and I don't reckon Hobson means to have it there. He is going to bust it up some way or 'nother, and I'm just the man to help him, if he'll pay me for it. Everybody is getting rich 'cepting me, and I ain't going to be treated this way no longer!"

Silas was so completely carried away by Joe's plan for making money without work that he could think of nothing else. He forgot how determined and vindictive Dan was, and how easy it would be for him to place a mult.i.tude of obstacles in his way, but Joe didn't.

The latter knew well enough that Dan intended to make trouble if he were left out in the cold, but what could be done for so lazy and unreliable a fellow as he was? That was the question.

While Joe was turning it over in his mind, he led the way through Mr.

Warren's gate and up to the porch, where he found his employer sitting in company with the sheriff and both Uncle Hallet's game-wardens. The deputy was in an upper room, keeping guard over the other prisoner.

Of course, Tom and Bob, who were greatly surprised as well as delighted to see Joe and his party, wanted to know just how the capture of robber number two had been brought about, and while Joe was telling the story, the sheriff marched the captive into the house and turned him over to his deputy.

Then he came back and sat down; but he did not put his hand into his pocket and pull out the reward, as Silas hoped he would.