After all, he was glad Cousin Mayo was not at home and he had not yielded to the impulse to tell the tale which would have involved the telling of his own secret. He would watch the mine himself and find out if Mr. Smith and the two negroes were trying to get its treasure.
At the mill Dick saw the mail hack coming from Redville and ran to get a ride. Jim Walthall, the driver, had news to tell.
“Three of them drafted niggers from Charleburg County run away from Camp Lee; deserted, by jinks!—Bill and Martin Toole from the lower end of the county and Cæsar Gabe. They traced them to a freight train, and folks think maybe they come back here. I’ve got printed descriptions of them, to put up at the post office. The sheriff’s on the search for them.�
“Oh! I hope he’ll find them,� said Dick.
“He won’t,� declared Jim. “Those fellows wouldn’t think of coming back here where everybody knows them; why, they’d be caught right away. No, they’ve gone to Richmond or New York, a city somewhere.�
When Dick got home Anne and Patsy were sitting in the swing in the yard.
“There’s Dick! He’s been ‘secreting’ again,� laughed Anne.
“I’ve just come from Larkland,� Dick said shortly. “And at the mill I met——�
They stopped swinging, and interrupted him before he could tell his news about the deserter.
“Did you see him?� Patsy asked excitedly.