Uncle Amasa was busy at the shipyard, however, and as fear helped on the rapid setting of the broken leg, the stranger was able to hobble about on rude crutches within ten days.
Jimmy made a trip over to Marietta for him, and bought two horses, not without inward trepidation, for it was no light thing that he was venturing, even to find a father whom he had supposed dead.
“I’ve got my gun,” he reflected. “Nothing can happen. As long as he’s crippled he’s my captive, I’m not his.” But even as he said it he knew that he was really captive to the man’s helplessness and dependence on him.
His hand shook as he wrote in charcoal on the rough log of the mantelpiece,
“I hev gon after my fathur.
“J. C.”
CHAPTER V
UNCLE AMASA’S NEWS
Brush College was having its long deferred holiday. The candy and raisins had come from Marietta, and all the young people of the settlement, as well as most of the older ones, had gathered to see the ark off, and celebrate its departure with unusual festivities.