“That’s your lookout and not mine,” said Tom, shrugging his shoulders. “Go off somewhere. Find a strange place where you are not known, and then you can go and come without fear of being tracked down.”
So saying Tom tossed the blankets into his canoe, stepped in himself and shoved away from the beach, leaving three astonished, alarmed, and angry persons behind. If Sam Coyle had been alone there would have been strange scenes enacted in the grove, for Sam was pretty near frantic. Like his father, he believed the story that Tom Bigden had cooked up on the spur of the moment, and from that time forward he was one of Joe Wayring’s most implacable foes. As for Matt, he was utterly bewildered—stunned. Once again he told himself that there was something wrong somewhere. Cunning as he had showed himself to be in outwitting the guides and officers of the law, he never parted with Tom Bigden without feeling that the boy had got the better of him in some way. Jake Coyle was the frightened one of the party. His father had promised him a terrible beating, which, upon reflection, he had decided to postpone until he could learn whether or not the six thousand dollars were concealed in Tom Bigden’s camp. Would the whipping be forthcoming now that the money had not been found? Having had a good night’s sleep and something nourishing to eat, Jake was stronger and more courageous than he had been the day before, and he made up his mind that he wouldn’t be whipped at all. He had outrun his clumsy father more than once, and was sure he could do it again. Matt must have been thinking about this very thing, for he said, as he spread the blanket upon the ground and began tossing the provisions into it—
“If I done a pap’s dooty by you, Jakey, I’d larrup you good fashion to pay you for hidin’ that there money where Joe Wayring an’ his friends could find it; but I’ll let you off agin for a little while. We’ll put as straight for No-Man’s Pond as we can go, an’ if I find that Joe’s got the money I won’t do nothin’ to you; me an’ you will be friends like we’ve always been. But if he ain’t got it, or if he’s hid it where we can’t find it, then there’ll be such a row betwixt me an’ you that the folks up to Injun Lake will think there’s a harrycane got loose in the woods.”
Jake drew a long breath of relief, but Sam wanted to yell. The latter was strongly opposed to going to No-Man’s Pond. His great desire was to return to camp, separate himself from the rest of the family as soon as he could, and look into the tree in which he had concealed the money. Somehow he could not bring himself to believe that it had been found and carried off.
“Say, pap, I wouldn’t go acrost the lake if I was you,” Sam ventured to say. “So long’s we stay over yer we’re safe, ’cause the guides can’t get to us without our bein’ knowin’ to it; but if we go to trampin’ through woods that we are liable to get lost in they may jump down on us afore we can wink twice.”
“No they won’t,” said Matt, confidently. “I’m too ole a coon to be ketched that a-way. Leastwise I ain’t a-goin’ to let them six thousand go without makin’ the best kind of a fight for ’em.”
“But somebody oughter go to camp an’ tell mam where we’re goin’,” Sam insisted. “She’ll be scared if we don’t show up by the time it comes dark. I’d jest as soon go as not, and I’ll jine you agin at the outlet.”
“Sam, what’s the matter of you?” exclaimed Matt. “You always was sich a coward you would go hungry before you would sneak out of nights an’ steal grub for us to eat; but you’ve got to stand up to the rack this time, I bet you. I need your help; an’ if I see you makin’ the least sign of holdin’ back I’ll give you the twin brother to the lickin’ I promised Jake.”
That was what Sam was afraid of, and it was the only thing that kept him from running off and making the best of his way to the tree in which he had hidden the money. Until he had satisfied himself that it was safe he could neither eat nor sleep.
Having tied the provisions up in as small a compass as possible, Matt raised the bundle to his shoulder, picked up his rifle, and set out at a rapid pace for the outlet, Jake and Sam following close behind. They were ferried across by one of the vagabonds who had given the superintendent of the hatchery so much trouble, and who expressed the greatest surprise and pleasure at meeting them. But Matt was not deceived by his friendly speech. He knew that the man would have made a prisoner of him in a minute if he had possessed the power.