“I—I think Mr. Harrison is right,” said Squire Perkfell, nervously rubbing his hands together.
“Humph! I’ll git even with him, an’ Dan too,” growled the farmer as he left the office of the Justice. He had decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and he was not sure but that he had acted unlawfully, as indeed he had, in keeping Dan’s books.
“Well, it’s all settled,” said the blacksmith to Dan, when he came back home. “Now you can rest easy.”
“No, not exactly,” answered Dan. “I have still to find the rascals who robbed the doctor’s house.”
“Perhaps we may in time. Don’t worry.”
But Dan did, though it did no good. The weeks passed, and there was no clue to those who had burglarized the doctor’s house. Of course Dan had, with the aid of Mr. Harrison, made a search in the woods, where he had seen the mysterious men, but nothing was found. Either it was well hidden, or the robbers, if such they were, had taken their booty away again.
The summer began to wane. Mr. Harrison had not yet found a purchaser for his smithy, and he continued to work there, as the machine shop he had started to build was not ready for operations. It might seem queer for a man with ten thousand dollars to be working at the forge, like a common blacksmith, but Mr. Harrison liked the exercise, and he knew if he stopped, the people in the neighborhood would have to go a long distance to get any work of that nature done. Besides he had some special machinery to put in his new shop, and part of it he could build better himself than he could hire done.
So he and Dan continued to live together, working in the smithy from day to day. The boy was acquiring valuable information, and he had plenty of time to study.
One day, Dan and his friend were working on a large iron frame that needed welding. It was so large that Mr. Harrison had to stand inside it, while it rested on the anvil. Dan stood in front to steady it.
It had just been taken from the fire, where one part was heated white hot, for welding, and Mr. Harrison was raining blows on it with a small sledge hammer when Dan, looking up, uttered an exclamation of fear.