“Take your old rifle!” palpitated Don, thrusting the weapon at Leon. “I wouldn’t shoot at another one for fifty dollars!”
“Why, it’s sport!” laughed Leon. “That’s what we came over here for.”
“It’s not sport for me, and I didn’t come here for anything of the kind. I’m going back to the dam.”
“Not now? Why, we’re going to hunt through the woods for partridges.”
“You may go where you like,” said Don, turning away. “When you get ready to go home, you’ll find me down by the dam.”
His thin lips curling, Leon stared after Don, who talked swiftly away. Bentley scornfully muttered:
“He’s got a soft spot about him, after all, or he’d not act that way over a common squirrel.”
Alone by the dam, Don lingered in the sunshine, listening to the plashing water and the rustling whispers of the wind amid the trees. His face, that had been hard and angry, was sad and shaded with sincere regret.
CHAPTER XVI.
TEMPTER AND TEMPTED.
“What kind of an excuse are you going to make for being absent from school?” asked Leon, as they were pulling homeward across the harbor late that afternoon.