"Oh, well, if you put it that way, of course I have money that I can pay you. You stay here a minute and I will go in and get it. You mean to have every cent that is due you—don't you?" muttered Barlow, as he opened the side door and disappeared in the saloon. "You want to watch out, or some day I will ship you off to sea."
Barlow was gone not more than five minutes, and when he returned he held a package of bills in his hand, which he gave to Joe. Joe ran his eyes over them to make sure that they were all right, and when he straightened up and put them into his pocket he felt he was almost, if not quite, a millionaire. It was a long time since he had so large a sum of money before. Did he want to buy anything for the house? He wanted them in his pocket, so that he could feel them and congratulate himself on his success, for it was a long time since anybody had got away with old Ben single-handed; and, since Barlow would not praise him for it, he felt more like applauding himself.
"I know that they all feared that man, and here I went and captured him alone," said Joe, as he retraced his steps to the boat. "So he punched Samson, yesterday! Well, he didn't punch me!"
As Joe drew near the wharf to which the boat belonged he became uneasy again for fear that Bob had already come back from the lawyer's; but Bob was waiting on the street for his ponies, intending to take a ride, if Mr. Gibbons succeeded in his object. He reached the staple to which the boat was confined, fastened it just as it was before, placed the oars where they belonged, and buttoned down the tarpaulin just as Ben had left it. Then he walked along the wooden pier until he came to the bushes, into which he plunged, and never came out until he was opposite his own house.
CHAPTER XIV.
JOE SUCCESSFUL AGAIN.
"Well, Hank, I made it. I am to have my ponies and boat, and Uncle Layton can't take them away from me, no matter how much he dislikes to see me have them."
It was Bob Nellis who spoke. He had come down the stairs and looked all around for Hank, and finally found him standing in front of a store, waiting for him.
"There he goes now," continued Bob, gazing toward the opposite side of the street, where Mr. Gibbons was moving along with his swinging stride. "In a few minutes he will be coming back this way with the ponies. Now, I will go up to Jones's livery-stable and see what they are going to charge me a week for keeping the two horses. Of course Watson will have to fix a place for the barn before we can build it. The schooner is mine, too."
Hank was highly delighted to know that his friend had got all he asked for, and told himself that he wished he was as well off in the world. With a span of ponies and a fine sailing boat and a hundred dollars a month he was certain that he would be pretty well contented. He walked with Bob until they reached the livery-stable, and there they found the proprietor, who smiled all over when he saw Bob.
"Want a horse?" said he, shaking hands with Bob. "I have just the nicest little—"