“Well, Joshua,” she said, “can you find something to do for a couple of hours?”
“Yes’m—I guess so.”
“Madge must get at her lessons right away, and—”
“Oh, Ma! Couldn’t I put ’em off just for to-day?” interposed her daughter.
“I think not,” said her mother. “Joshua can find something to interest him about camp, I suspect. In two hours you’ll be through.”
This seemed final, for Madge raised no further protest. Nor did she pout or look downcast. It seemed to Joshua that Elizabeth Mundy possessed some gentle, secret control over the rough-necked Bloodmop and their pretty daughter which would always get her what she wished.
CHAPTER VI
THE WRECK OF THE GOOD SHIP “ARGO”
SHORTLY before Madge’s two hours of study were over Bloodmop Mundy returned to camp in the buckboard. Joshua was out on the grade watching the tramp laborers as they handled the teams. Mrs. Mundy left her tent and followed the vehicle to the stable tent, where she entered into conversation with her husband as he unhitched the small bay ponies.
“Well, George, what did you find out about him?” she asked.
“They didn’t know much about ’im at the skatin’ rink,” he replied. “But they told me where I might get onto somethin’, and I follied it up. I saw the fella they sent me to, who don’t figger at all. But he sent me to a nigger that used to work for the Coles, and he told me a lot.