“Yes. I tied ’em fast among the branches so’t the wind wouldn’t shake ’em out. Go round on t’other side, stick your head into the tree an’ you’ll find ’em.”
Trembling in every limb with excitement, the squatter dropped the rope, placed his rifle and Sam’s carefully against a neighboring tree, and disappeared behind the evergreen. The instant he was out of sight Sam brought his wrists close together, and the rope with which he was confined fell to the ground.
“I’ll show pap whether or not I am goin’ to stay here an’ take sich a lickin’ as he give Jakey,” thought Sam, as he wheeled about and reached for his rifle. “I wish I dast p’int this we’pon at his head an’ make him go halvers with me if he finds it. But shucks! What’s the use? He’d steal it from me the first good chance he got, an’ then I wouldn’t have none an’ he would have it all. I’ll do wusser’n that for him,” muttered Sam, as he moved away from the evergreen with long, noiseless strides. “I’ll hunt up old man Swan an’ tell him that if he’ll go snucks with me on the reward I’ll show him where pap is. There, sir! I do think in my soul he’s found it.”
These words were called forth by a dismal noise, something between a howl and a wail, that arose behind him. Sam had often heard it and he knew the meaning of it. Sure enough his father had found one of the valises. He seized it with eager hands, tore it loose from its fastenings, and dropped it to the ground. It was broken open by the fall, and gold and silver pieces were scattered over the leaves in great profusion. For a moment Matt gazed as if he were fascinated; then he fell upon his knees among them and began throwing them back into the valise, at the same time setting up a yelp that could have been heard a mile away.
“Luck has come my way at last,” said he, gleefully. “Sam, I won’t lick you, but I must do a pap’s dooty by you an’ punish you in some way for not bringin’ it to me the minute you got hold of it, so I’ll keep it all an’ you shan’t have none of it. Sam, why don’t you come around here an’ listen to your pap?”
But Matt didn’t care much whether Sam showed himself or not, he was so deeply interested in the contents of the valise. After carefully picking up every coin that had fallen out of it, he gathered the shining pieces up by handfuls and let them run back, all the while gloating over them as a miser gloats over his hoard. When he had somewhat recovered himself he jumped to his feet and dived into the tree after the other valise. He found it after a short search, and placed it on the ground beside its fellow.
“Whew!” panted Matt, pulling off his hat and wiping his dripping forehead with his shirt-sleeve. “It’s mine at last, an’ I’m as rich as Adam was (I disremember his other name), but I have heard that he had the whole ’arth an’ all the money an’ watches an’ good clothes an’ every thing else in it for his own. I ain’t got that much, but I’ve got enough so’t I won’t have to work so hard nor go ragged no more. Say, Sam, come around an’ take a peep at it an’ see what you might have had if you’d only been a good an’ dutiful son. Sam! Where’s that Sam of our’n gone, I wonder.”
And Matt’s wonder increased when he walked around the tree and found that the boy was nowhere in sight. There lay the cord with which his arms had been bound, but Sam was missing and so was his rifle. That made the whole thing clear to Matt’s comprehension.
“The ongrateful an’ ondutiful scamp!” cried the squatter, angrily. “This is another thing that I owe him a lickin’ for—runnin’ away from his pap. He’ll get it good an’ strong when he comes home, I bet you, an’ so will Jakey. Whoop! I’m boss of this house, an’ I don’t want none on you to disremember it. Now, what shall I do with my money so’t I can keep it safe? I reckon I’d best hunt up the ole woman an’ ask her what she thinks about it.”
So saying the squatter took his rifle under his arm, seized a valise in each hand, and set out for the cove.