“If I have a home and friends I must look further to find them, that is plain enough to be seen,” soliloquized Julian, closing the shutter and creeping back into the room. “But before I go I should like to know what object this man has in view in bringing me here and claiming me for his nephew. When I meet him in the morning I will call him Uncle Reginald, and act as though I believed—— What are you doing here?”
When Julian stepped down from the window-seat into the room he had just left, he found that it had an occupant who had no business there. It was not a spirit, either, for spirits do not need lanterns to guide their footsteps, and revolvers to defend themselves, and this intruder had both. One was held in his left hand by his side, and with the muzzle of the other he was covering Julian’s head. It was the emigrant, clean shaven and close cropped, as he was when the boy first saw him with the wagon train.
“What do you want here, Dick Mortimer?” cried Julian, recoiling before the muzzle of the revolver. “Clear out!”
“So you know me, do you?” inquired the man, with some surprise. “That villain, Sanders, has been posting you. He has deserted me and gone over to my cousin; but, fortunately, I shall have no further occasion for his services. Put on your jacket and come with me; and mind you, no noise!”
“By what authority do you order me out of my own house?” demanded Julian, scarcely knowing what he said. “I am master here, if you please.”
“Ah! Reginald has been posting you, too, has he?” exclaimed the emigrant angrily. “You have learned more than I ever intended you should know; but it can’t be helped now. This is my authority,” he added, raising his revolver to a level with the boy’s head and placing his finger on the trigger; “and you will do well to respect it. What else did Reginald say to you? Did he tell you who you are, or give you any information concerning your father?”
“No; but I know that he is alive and well.”
“Then Silas has been posting you. Do you know where he is?”
“That’s my business. Have you a man with you waiting to earn that $1,000, or do you intend to do the work yourself?”