“Is that you, Peleg?” he exclaimed, as the boy threw down one of the bars and crawled through it “Where’s the money?”
“Oh, pap!” was all that Peleg could say in reply.
Mr. Graves began to look uneasy. Like all ignorant men he was very superstitious, and he straightway believed that Peleg had seen something that he could not understand.
“Say, Peleg,” he added in a lower tone, stepping off the porch and taking the boy by the arm. “What did you see up there in the woods? You have not been to Manchester and back, have you?”
“Yes, I have, too; and if you want to go down there and search for that money, you can go; but I am going to stay here. I wish you would give me a bite to eat and a drink of water. I am just about dead.”
Peleg had by this time reached the porch, and he threw himself down upon it as if he had lost all strength, and rested his head upon his hands. Mr. Graves began to believe that Peleg had seen something that was rather more than his nerves could stand, and went around the house after a drink of water, while his mother, who had been aroused by this time, came to the door. She saw Peleg sitting there with his head buried in his hands, and of course her mother’s heart went out to him.
“Oh, Peleg, what is the matter?” she exclaimed.
“Oh, mother, you just ought to hear the words that Nat uses to find out whether or not he is on the trail of those papers,” said Peleg, lifting a very haggard face and looking at her.
At that moment Mr. Graves came around the corner of the house with a gourd full of drinking water. Peleg seized it as though he had not had any for a month, and never let the gourd go until he had drunk the whole of it.
“That makes me feel some better,” said he.