Caleb stood and thought about it. He could not go to the fence corner where the old man was while Nat was in plain sight, and he must think up some way of getting him away from there. It is true that he might have waited until darkness came to conceal his movements, but Caleb was a boy who did not believe in doing business that way. He wanted to find out what was in that fence corner, and he must find it out now. He could not afford to wait until night came.
“You must come away from there, Mister Nat,” said he, as he crouched down behind the bushes and made his way toward the house. “You must come away in five minutes, for I am not going to run any risk of your slipping up and hiding that thing, whatever it is, that the old man has found.”
In a few minutes he reached the house and went directly to the water-pail in order to quench his thirst; but there was no water there.
“Mother, send Nat down to the branch after some water,” said he.
“Suppose you go yourself,” was the reply. “Nat is busy digging potatoes.”
“I can’t go. I am busy getting that corn ready for pap to take to mill tomorrow. I am so thirsty I can’t speak the truth. Nat can go as well as not.”
“Bessie, go out and call Nat to get some water,” said Mrs. Keeler. “I suppose he will have to go.”
Bessie went, and as soon as she was clear of the house Caleb bent his steps toward the barn and from the barn to the bushes, where he arrived just in time to see Mr. Nickerson come out of the fence corner, biting a plug of tobacco as he came.
“That’s all the tobacco you will get out of that pile,” chuckled Caleb, as he rubbed his hands together. “I will take it all and give it to pap.”
Presently Bessie was heard calling Nat. The latter threw his hoe spitefully down and went to obey the order, and as soon as he was out of sight Caleb arose from the bushes and ran for the fence corner. He had taken particular pains to mark the corner, and in fact there was little need of it, for the old man’s marks were plainly visible there. He found the leaves raked to one side, a little hollow exposed but there was nothing in it. Caleb threw himself on his knees and made the cavity larger, but there was not a thing that rewarded his search.