There was no doubt about his earnestness, and the captain looked disappointed. He settled back in his chair and nodded at Shelby, and that was a bad thing for him to do. It told Marcy as plainly as words what their object was in coming there to call upon him and his mother.
"Even if you were not on board the Hattie when she made those successful trips, you belonged to her, and have a right to demand pay according to contract," said the colonel.
"And while I belonged to her I took pay according to contract," said
Marcy quickly. "I was paid by the run and not by the month."
"I have never heard that the pay of an enlisted man ceases the moment he is injured," added the colonel.
"Nor I either; but I am not an enlisted man, and what's more, I do not intend to be."
"Well, if you won't take the money, you will acknowledge that I tried to do the fair thing by you? 'said Beardsley.
"I am willing to say that you offered me some money and that I declined to take it," answered the boy, who knew very well that Beardsley was not trying to do the fair thing by him. "As it is nobody's business, I never expect to be questioned about it."
The captain took little share in the conversation that followed. He put the canvas bag into his pocket, folded his arms and went into the dumps, where he remained until the name of the missing overseer was mentioned, and then he brightened up to say:
"That there was a little the strangest thing I ever heard tell of.
What's went with Hanson, do you reckon?"
"I haven't the least idea where he is," was Marcy's answer.