He had received notice that a wagon containing bars of silver would leave Silver City on a certain day, and he intended to attack it as it passed through the canyon.
With this amount of valuable property he thought he could do well as a farmer, and live a life of peace and contentment, but he forgot that ill-gained wealth rarely if ever does its possessor any good.
It was early one morning when a shot was heard in the valley.
Tommy sprang to his feet, he having been engaged in conversation with his mother.
"What is that?" he cried.
"Oh," replied his mother, with a heavy sigh, "it's an attack on some poor traveler. I wish all this work was over."
"So do I," said Tommy. "Why do you stay here, mother, when you could go away so easily?"
"I don't know what to do, my dear," replied she, in her usual weak-minded and undecided way. "Thompson is your father and legally my husband. I am afraid he would kill me if I thwarted him. As for Smithers, I despise him for his pride and his trickery. I wish I had never married."
"Don't say that, mamma, for my sake," exclaimed Tommy.
She pressed her lips to his face and kissed him tenderly.