“Excuse me, Mr. Monk,” said Uncle Dick; “but my story would seem prosaic, exceedingly prosaic, after yours. Good day.”
And he and Henry brutally strode out of the hut, leaving the ex-villain “tortured” with curiosity.
Thus those two villains, Hiram Monk and Jim Horniss, pass out of this tale.
If the reader thinks it worth while, he can turn back to the twenty-second chapter, and compare the story which Mr. Lawrence told Mr. Mortimer with the story narrated by Monk in this chapter. But seriously, gentle reader, it is hardly worth while to compare the two. Time is too precious to be fooled away in trying to comprehend the plots and mysteries put forth in certain romances.
Mr. Lawrence and Henry hurried on in the direction taken by their fellow-hunters an hour before.
“Mr. Lawrence,” said Henry, “I think I shall never go hunting again; I consider it a wicked waste of gunpowder and shoe-leather.”
“Yes, for a company of heedless innocents, who know little or nothing about fire-arms, and still less about the habits of animals, it is all a piece of foolishness;” Mr. Lawrence replied. “For those who are prudent enough to keep out of danger, who can understand and enjoy hunting and trapping, and go about it systematically, it is all very well.”
Parents and guardians, accept this as a warning—not that your sons, or wards, will clear up any appalling mystery by going hunting, but that they will be far more likely to destroy themselves than to return burdened with game.