"No, and if I did I shouldn't tell."
"That's all right. I don't ask you to go back on Hank, for he is too good a boy; but you can tell him for me that he needn't go shooting any more. Do you want to sell this?"
"Of course I do. It is of no use to me."
"I will give you two hundred dollars, cash money, for it. Mind, I do not say that is all it's worth. I shall have to send this to New York, and if they pay me any more for it I will give him half what I get."
"That is very kind of you, Mr. Vollar," said Bob. "If you will give me the money I will take it and give it to Hank. I wish you could go with me. You will see an astonished fellow when I give him the proceeds."
"I'd like to, but I can't leave just now, for I am very busy. You bring him here, and I'll see how he acts."
"I will. I'll bring him here to thank you. He didn't think that pearl of his was worth more than fifteen dollars. But two hundred dollars! I believe it will take his breath away."
The jeweller was busy with his safe, during which he counted out the money, which he handed over to Bob. The latter took it, and left the store with a much lighter heart than when he had gone into it. He felt rich, for Hank was a particular friend of his, and he was interested in everything he did.
"Now the next question is, how am I going to keep his father from knowing anything about it?" said Bob, as he hurried along. "Of course he has the right to take every cent Hank earns, but I don't mean that he shall know he has earned this much. He would go to that stream and gather every pearl there was to be found, and then what would Hank do? If the old man is at home I will pull Hank off on one side."
It was quite a long walk to Hank's house, and when he reached it Bob could not help saying to himself what a nice place it could have been made if Hank's father had been possessed of a little more energy; for Mr. Lufkin had been better off in the world, but the war left him penniless, and he was too lazy to go to work and earn more. If it had not been for his wife he would have gone supperless to bed many a night. She washed clothes and did mending for neighbors who were better off; and some days, when she got home with her money in her pocket, it all went to buy that ragamuffin a pair of new trousers or a new shirt. Hank never asked for any. He made what he earned by the hardest of knocks; and more than once, when he told his mother that he had supper, he hadn't had a bite since morning. While he was thinking of all these things Bob arrived at Mr. Lufkin's gate. Hank was sitting there on the porch with his father, and his face was as long as your arm. He brightened up when he saw Bob approaching, and straight-way came down to the gate to meet him.