“I suppose the two men didn’t wait to see what happened after they had knocked the lamp over, and the flames shot up?” remarked Allan, thoughtfully; and the farmer was quick to reply.
“They cleared out in a big hurry, because I didn’t see anything more of the pair,” he admitted. “But then they got what they came after, and that satisfied the rascals. And I don’t reckon there’s a single chance in ten I’ll ever recover that fifty dollars, barring twenty cents, that I got for the last two loads of hay I took into town. But then my house is left, and we’ll get some insurance to pay for repairs, so I’m not complaining. There’s only one thing that makes me mad.”
“What was that, Mr. Bailey?” asked Davy, deeply interested.
“That I was so stunned at sight of them fellers robbin’ my desk I forgot I had an old Civil War musket in my hands. I had ought to’ve let fly, and knocked one of the pizen critters silly. I’ll never forgive myself for bein’ so slow to act.”
Thad had his own ideas about that. Had the farmer fired that long-barreled musket at such close range he would possibly have killed one of the men; and whether such a tragedy would have been justified under the circumstances was and must remain an open question. If his life had been threatened of course the farmer would have done right to defend himself to the utmost; but Thad believed that had it been him he would have allowed the men to get some distance away before sending a load of shot at them, his object being to wound and not slay.
It was certainly good, however, to find that Mr. Bailey took things so philosophically all around. Some men would have been bewailing their misfortune, and never once seeing how much they had to be thankful for.
“Do you think you would know either or both of them again if you happened to set eyes on them, sir?” asked the patrol leader, with an object in view.
“I saw them faces as plain as I do yours, my boy,” responded the farmer, soberly, “and I’m dead sartin I’d know ’em again. Why—whatever am I thinkin’ about, to be sure? Say, you boys ought to know that you’ve got nigh as much interest in findin’ them tramps as I feel. You wonder why I say that, do you? I’ll explain it to you in a jiffy. Listen then. One of the thieves had red hair, and he was wearin’ an old faded blue army coat with red lining in it. That’s why!”
It seemed as though every one of those eight scouts drew a deep breath that had the sound of a sigh. They looked at one another, at first with wonder in their faces, and then Giraffe was heard to give vent to what he intended should be a joyous chuckle. The sound was contagious, for immediately broad smiles began to appear here and there, and there was a general hand-shaking as though the news were deemed important enough to make them congratulate each other.
It was a fact calculated to make them feel that the long chase had not been useless, when they thus learned so suddenly that the man they hunted had been almost in their power half an hour before.