“I never thought of them,” said Don, jumping up and taking his double-barrel down from the antlers on which it rested. “I believe he would be in danger if he should meet one of those fellows in the woods, for he wears a splendid gold watch and chain, and I noticed that the man who was chopping wood when we came here this morning, looked at the chain very frequently. I think it would be a good plan to signal to him.”
“Better let me do it,” said Egan. “He can hear my gun farther than he can yours.”
Accompanied by all the boys Egan went out on the shore of the lake and fired both barrels of his heavy piece in quick succession; but there was no response. Again and again the duck-gun roared, awaking a thousand echoes along the shore, but still the missing boy did not reply. When Egan had fired away all the cartridges he had brought out with him, the boys went back into the cabin and sat down and looked at one another. They began to fear that their friend’s ill-luck had followed him from Bridgeport to Rochdale, and that he had got himself into some kind of a scrape.
CHAPTER XV.
LESTER BRIGHAM MAKES NEW FRIENDS.
We said in the second chapter that after Bob Owens ran away from home to become a hunter, and Godfrey Evans and his son Dan went to work to earn an honest living, and David Evans became mail carrier, and Lester Brigham withdrew himself from the society of the boys in the neighborhood, the inhabitants of Rochdale and the surrounding country settled back into their old ways, and waited for something to happen that would create an excitement. Unfortunately they were not obliged to wait long.
After one has spent years of his life in idleness, he finds it an exceedingly difficult task to turn over a new leaf and make a radical and permanent change in his whole course of conduct, and Godfrey and Dan were no exceptions to this rule. So long as they worked for General Gordon, who took pains to keep a close watch over them, and to encourage them by every means in his power, there was no fault to be found with them. They labored early and late; Godfrey, as we know, saving enough from his hard earnings to refund the money of which he had robbed Clarence Gordon on the highway, the old cabin in which they lived was repaired and refurnished, and everything seemed to be well with them; but when they had cut all the wood the general could use that year, and the latter went away on business leaving them to take care of themselves, the trouble began. They made a few feeble attempts to find more work, and in their efforts to do so they came in contact with the professional loafers about the landing, whose influence over them was anything but beneficial. The majority of them spent their time in watching the steamboats, taking part in shooting-matches and making a pretense of hunting and trapping for a livelihood; while those who had work, and were able to pay for having it done, did not want Godfrey and Dan to do it. Mr. Owens, Bob’s father, was mainly responsible for this state of affairs. He had not yet got over being angry at General Gordon for putting in a bid for the mail-route when he wanted it himself, and he never allowed an opportunity to abuse him to pass unimproved.
“Gordon seems to have taken Godfrey and his family under his protecting wing, and now he can provide for them and welcome,” Mr. Owens often said. “I want some wood cut the worst way, but I’ll see Godfrey and Dan in Jerusalem before they shall have the job. If it hadn’t been for Gordon I might have had my boy at home with me now.”
“Yes, and my boy would not have been obliged to make a hermit of himself,” Mr. Brigham would always remark when he heard Mr. Owens talking in this way. These two men had been rather distant toward each other after Mr. Brigham’s refusal to go on Bob’s bond, but they were firm friends now. They both hated General Gordon, and for nearly the same reason. Mr. Brigham had come to Rochdale with the idea that his money would at once make him the head man of the county; but in this he was most sadly disappointed. He found that the general was worth just as much, if not more than he was; that he was everybody’s friend and adviser, a member of the legislature and a candidate for governor, and that it would be of no use for anybody to try to usurp his place. That was the reason he didn’t want the general to have the contract for carrying the mail; and when he learned that the latter had influence enough to secure it without any of his help, he was greatly enraged, and felt quite as bitter toward his rich neighbor as Bob’s father did.
“Never mind,” said Mr. Owens. “It is a long lane that has no turning, and we shall some day be able to get square with Gordon for that piece of business. Mark my words: David Evans will sooner or later prove himself to be utterly unworthy the confidence that is placed in him. It can’t be otherwise, for he is——”
Mr. Owens was about to add that David was the son of a thief as well as the brother of one; but he didn’t say it, for he recollected in time that his own son was not above reproach—that he had left Rochdale having in his possession more than a hundred and sixty dollars that did not belong to him.