“Who would recognize me?” asked the other with a laugh, whisking off his beard and restoring it again in a flash but revealing for a brief moment a large white mustache. “Besides, no one would suppose that I would stay in this neighborhood.”
“Why do you?”
“To get what I left behind,” with a laugh. “They say lightning does not strike twice in the same place but I do and with profit. You know the bank, don’t you? Give me a little idea of the location of things. I am a little hazy on some points. Of course I could fix that but time is an item with me. Where is the——”
“I shall tell you nothing!” said Jack, firmly, “and it is useless to prolong this interview.”
“Ain’t I your father, Mr. John Shelden, alias——”
“No, you are not!” said Jack, fiercely.
He was retreating when the man said with a laugh and a sneer:
“You won’t get people to believe that. Help me and I will keep quiet; refuse and I will see that your term here is a very short one. Ha! I still use the old word. Familiar, of course.”
“I care nothing for your threats,” said Jack, hurrying away and looking around sharply, the sound he had before heard coming again to his ears.
“The fellow has some confederate hidden in the woods,” he thought, and made his way as rapidly as possible to the road and then went on up the hill toward the Academy.