“If you’d only made the thief give up the gold it would have been some satisfaction,” Beth said.
“Yes, that’s so. But this is only a scratch, anyway.”
“You’ll have to be careful, the doctor says.”
“I mean to be; but it frets me so to stay in bed that it does more harm than good. I want to see Mr. Hale.”
“Yes; and you want to find the robber.”
“Of course, if I can,” Ben wearily agreed. “But I sha’n’t waste much time on him.”
Ben had plenty of time for reflection during his enforced stay in bed. Ever since the day of the injunction, when Mundon had mentioned the name of the owner of the land, he had been haunted by the thought that he had known or heard something of the man before, but it was not until the second day after the robbery that it suddenly flashed upon him that he was the man of whom the mysterious Chinaman had spoken.
“Fish!” he exclaimed, and little Jim, who was hovering about his bed, was for getting him some at once.