When Julian recovered his coat after his fight with the hound, he had thrown it over his shoulders and secured it by a single button at the throat. The button had given away under Jack’s hold, leaving the boy at liberty to take himself off, which he did with a promptness and celerity that struck Bowles and his sons motionless with astonishment. By the time they had recovered themselves sufficiently to think of pursuit Julian was out of hearing.
“Hurrah for me!” soliloquized the fugitive, hugging his beloved box close to his breast and stealing along through the woods as noiselessly as a spirit. “I’ve got everything except my horse. As soon as Jack and his boys have gone to bed I’ll catch him and bid good-by to Missouri. I am all right now.”
At no time during the next half-hour was Julian out of sight of the ruins of his store-house, or out of hearing of the voices of Jack Bowles and his boys. He sat on a log so near them that had it been daylight he would certainly have been discovered, watching their movements and listening attentively to every word they said. He heard Jake relate the history of the box containing the $80, and learned for the first time that he and his brother had followed him when he went out to examine his traps, and thus discovered his secret.
As Jack and his boys believed that Julian would make the best of his way up the river now that he had recovered his money, they did not attempt any vigorous pursuit. They ran a short distance through the woods in the direction in which the fugitive had disappeared, and then Jack, utterly discouraged and almost boiling over with fury, ordered his sons to follow him toward home.
“A’most a hundred dollars!” he repeated for the twentieth time. “Don’t it beat all the world how that boy could make more money than the hul of us put together? An’ ye say that he’s got a bundle of mink skins as big as ye can shoulder that he stole outen the crib whar ye had hid ’em? They’ll bring him forty or fifty dollars more, consarn it all. Why didn’t ye tell me about the money an’ the furs the fust thing when ye brought ’em home, like ye had oughter done? I’m goin’ to foller him to-morrow on hossback. If I don’t ketch him I shall owe ye two lickins, an’ if they ain’t sich as ye’ll remember the longest day ye live, I’m a Dutchman.”
Jack and his boys walked slowly along the path that led from the store-house to the clearing, and as soon as they were out of sight in the darkness, Julian arose from his log and followed after them. He kept within hearing of their voices all the while, and when they reached the clearing he stood at the fence which inclosed the stable-yard, and saw them enter the house.
As soon as they had disappeared, he ran back to the place where he had left his rifle and furs, which, as he had taken particular pains to mark the locality, he was not long in finding. The rifle he slung over his shoulder, and the furs, together with the box containing his money, he concealed in a hollow log.
This being done, he once more bent his steps toward the clearing, resolved to make another attempt to secure his horse. The animal, which was still running restlessly about the yard with the saddle and bridle on, positively refused to permit himself to be captured, and Julian finally went toward one of the cribs, intending to try the persuasive effects of an ear of corn. As he drew near the door he stopped, almost certain that he saw the figure of a man standing in the shadow of the crib. A moment later he knew that his eyes had not deceived him, for the man, finding himself discovered, came out in plain sight and walked rapidly toward him. It was Mr. Mortimer.
“I knew you would never go away and leave your horse,” said he, in a tone of triumph. “I have been watching for you for the last half-hour. I have a legal right to control your actions, my boy, and you will save yourself some trouble by—Julian, stop! What do you mean?”
The stranger lost his commanding, threatening air in an instant, and coming to a sudden halt, raised both his hands before his face, and turned away his head as if he had seen something frightful. The change was brought about by an action on the part of Julian who, believing that the man was near enough to him to prevent any attempt at escape, cocked his rifle and leveled it full at Mr. Mortimer’s breast. He acted on his first impulse. Had he taken a second thought he would probably have made no move of this kind, for he knew that the weapon was empty. But Mr. Mortimer did not, and he stopped and backed away from the boy with much greater haste than he had used in approaching him.