“Yes, sir, but I didn’t care for them. I seen the tigers and the elephants and the boy-constructors and all them things; and I seen that there mu-el throw that there nigger——”
Here Don went off into another paroxysm of laughter. The old gentleman laughed too and passed on, marveling greatly at the boy’s innocence, and wondering where in the world he came from.
After taking time to cool off a little and to recover his breath, Don got upon his feet and walked away. All the fun was over now so far as the show was concerned. His disguise being known, it would be dangerous for him to stay about the village, and the only thing he could do was to go back to the home of Asa Peters, where he hoped to find his friend Egan.
“I hope he wasn’t captured,” thought Don, “for I should find it very lonely roaming about the woods all by myself. Besides, I don’t know where those trout-streams are that he said would afford us so much sport. There’s one thing about it: I am out, and I shall not go back until I get ready.”
Don would doubtless have been very much surprised if any one had told him that when he got ready to go back to camp he would not be allowed to do so; but such was the case, as he found when he made the attempt.
Just before dark Don came within sight of Asa’s home. As he was hurrying along the road, not dreaming of danger, he heard a familiar voice calling to him; and looking in the direction from which it came, he saw his missing friend Egan snugly hidden away among the bushes in a fence-corner. When he saw that he had attracted Don’s attention he broke out into a hearty peal of laughter.
“You’re a good one, Gordon,” said he, “and I would give something to know how Corporal Mack feels over his failure to make a prisoner of you. I never knew a boy to get away before when once Mack got a good grip on his collar, and neither did I ever see No. 10 cowhide boots climb over the ground so rapidly. You have done something worth boasting of.”
“What are you doing there?” asked Don.
“Waiting for you. Come over here. I struck out for this place as soon as I could get out of the tent,” said the sergeant, as Don climbed the fence, “hoping to secure possession of our uniforms before the corporal could get here; but he and his men hired a wagon and a span of horses and got ahead of me.”
“Do you mean to say that they are guarding the house now?” exclaimed Don.