“Beats the world, an’ I don’t begin to see through it; but how did that Jake of our’n get them six thousand dollars that was stole outen the Irvin’ton bank? He’s got ’em, ’cause pap said so; an’ they’re hid somewheres near the place where our old camp used to be. Wonder if Jakey is goin’ there now? I reckon I’d best keep an eye on him an’ find out. Why didn’t he go halvers with the rest of us, like he’d oughter done? If I can get my hands on that money he won’t never see it agin, I tell you.”
Jake Coyle’s brain was in such a whirl that he never once thought to look behind him as he hurried through the woods toward the head of the outlet; and even if he had he might not have seen Sam, who was a short distance in his rear and keeping him constantly in sight; for Sam took pains to cover himself with every tree and bush that came in his way. Once he came near being caught; for Jake, recalling his angry sire’s parting words, and apprehensive of being followed, suddenly threw himself behind a log and watched the trail over which he had just passed. But, fortunately for Sam, he saw the movement, rapid as it was, and stopped in time to escape detection. A less skillful woodsman would have lost Jake then and there, or else he would have run upon him before he knew it.
After spending a quarter of an hour in patient waiting Jake must have become satisfied that his fears of pursuit were groundless, for he jumped up and again took to his heels. He kept on past the outlet, skirted the shore of the lake until he came within a short distance of the place where Tom Bigden and the squatter held their consultations, and there he took to the woods and struck a straight course for the cove, Sam following close behind.
It was ten miles to the cove by land, and all the way through timber that had never echoed to the woodman’s ax. It was a distance that few city-bred boys could have covered at a trot, but it was nothing to the squatter’s sons, who would have done it any day for a dollar. Twice while on the way did Jake try his “dropping” dodge, but Sam was too sharp to be caught. The last time he tried it was when he was within a stone’s throw of the cove; and then he dived into a thicket, and waited and watched for half an hour before he made a move. Sam, patient and tireless as an Indian, did not move, either, until he saw Jake come out of the thicket and make his way toward the log in which the stolen guns were concealed. He saw him take out the cases, one after the other, and hide them in another log nearer the cove; and while he was wondering what his brother’s object could be in doing that the sound of voices in conversation came from the direction of the creek, whereupon Jake fled with the greatest precipitation, hardly daring to stop long enough to cover the end of the log with a bush which he cut with a knife. He threw himself behind the first fallen tree he came to, and looked cautiously over it to see what was going to happen.
Jake thought, and so did Sam, that the voices belonged to the members of the sheriff’s posse, who were still loitering about in the vicinity of the cove to see what else they could find there; consequently their surprise was great when they saw Ralph Farnsworth step out of the evergreens with his gun on his shoulder. He stopped and looked around when he stumbled over the bush that concealed the end of the log, stooped over for a minute, and when he straightened up again he held in his hands the Victoria case in which reposed the Lefever hammerless. Then it was that Ralph sent up those excited calls to attract the attention of his companions, who presently joined him.
If Jake and Sam had been working in harmony, they never would have remained inactive in their places of concealment and let Tom and his cousins carry off those guns. Jake, especially, was hopping mad. He got upon his knees, exposing so much of his ragged clothing above the log that he certainly would have been seen if Tom and the rest had glanced in his direction, and shook his fists over his head.
“They’re thieves theirselves if they take them guns away,” muttered Jake, between his clenched teeth. “I was goin’ to give ’em to Rube, an’ tell him to buy me some shoes an’ clothes outen my shar’ of the reward; but now I can’t have ’em. I wisht they would go off; for if they tech them grip-sacks—”
Jake finished the sentence by pushing up his sleeves and looking around for a club. The money was hidden but a short distance from that very log, and if Tom and his cousins had found it Jake would have rushed out and fought them single-handed before he would have given up his claim to it. But things did not come to that pass. Ralph had come upon the guns by the merest accident, and he and his friends did not think to search for any other stolen property. They took the guns away with them, and the minute they were out of sight Jake began to bestir himself. He came out on his hands and knees, crawled past the empty log, and disappeared among the bushes on the other side of it. While Sam was trying to decide whether or not it would be quite safe to follow him, Jake glided into view again, holding a valise under each arm.
“There they are! Sure’s you’re born, there they are!” cried Sam, in great excitement; and if he had uttered the words a little louder Jake would have heard him. “Now, all I’ve got to do is to keep my eyes on them things an’ never lose track of ’em agin.”
And Sam didn’t lose track of them, either, although Jake spent nearly an hour in hunting up a safe hiding-place for them. He ran swiftly from point to point, closely scrutinizing every log and thicket he came to and stopping now and then to listen, and Sam followed him wherever he went and saw all he did. At last Jake found a place to suit him. A gigantic poplar had been overturned by the wind, and in falling had pulled up a good portion of the earth in which its far-reaching roots were embedded, thus forming a cavity so deep and wide that Rube Royall’s cabin could have been buried in it, chimney and all. Into this cavity Jake recklessly plunged, and when he came out again fifteen minutes later his arms were empty. He had left the valises behind.