Almost involuntarily Matt uttered the last words aloud, and of course his boys heard them and desired an explanation. Sam looked frightened; but Jake’s face was so badly wounded that no one could tell what its expression was. Matt looked surprised, then thoughtful, and finally replied:
“Yes, sir; that’s it. That Bigden boy done sent us up here on a wild goose chase jest to draw suspicion from himself. He is the one that’s got the money, and he’s had it all the time.”
“You’ve hit center, pap, sure’s you’re a foot high,” exclaimed Sam. “I wondered why that Bigden boy was so ready to tell us where the money was, an’ now I know. Will we go home now, pap?”
“We’ll start at onct, an’ by this time to-morrer we’ll have the money an’ the Bigden boy too. If he don’t tell us what he’s done with it, we’ll tie him to a tree like we done with Joe Wayring. He ain’t got Joe’s pluck, Tom ain’t, sassy as he lets on to be, an’ when he sees a hickory whistlin’ before his eyes he’ll tell us all we want to know. I didn’t think Tom would have the cheek to fool me that a-way when he knows well enough that I’ve got the upper hand of him.”
The squatter said this as if he was in earnest, and as if he really thought he had got upon the track of the money at last; but while he talked he kept close watch of Sam’s face, and saw enough there to satisfy him that his own boy, and not Tom Bigden, was the one who could tell him right where to look to find the lost treasure.
“Well, what be we waitin’ here for?” repeated Sam, who was impatient to be off.
“I kinder thought that mebbe them fellers would make a rush on us soon’s they turned Joe Wayring loose,” answered Matt, “an’ I wanted to be ready for ’em. But I don’t reckon they’re comin’, so we’ll go along. Jakey, I didn’t lick you ’cause we didn’t find the money in Joe’s camp, but to pay you for not turnin’ it over to me when you found it.”
“Be you goin’ to look in Tom Bigden’s camp for it?” inquired Jake.
“I be,” replied Matt, who had already determined upon a very different course of action.
“Well, you remember that Tom took away his blankets an’ every thing else when we was there, don’t you?” continued Jake. “That looked to me as though he was goin’ somewheres else to camp, or goin’ home. If you don’t find him nor the money nuther, then who you goin’ to lick?”