“An’ he won’t never see ’em agin, nuther,” said Sam, gleefully. “They’re mine now, an’ so is the money that’s into ’em.”
During the long hours he had spent in dogging his brother’s steps, Sam Coyle had not been so highly excited as he was at this moment. When Jake disappeared, apparently holding a direct course for Rube’s cabin, Sam did not move. Impatient as he was to see the color of that money, he was too wary to imperil his chances by doing any thing hasty.
“I can stay right yer till I get so hungry I can’t stay no longer,” was his mental reflection; “but Jake’s got to show up purty soon, ’cause if he don’t, him an’ pap’ll have a furse. He told Jake, pap did, that he wanted him to stay where he could get his hands onto him; an’ when pap talks that-a-way, he means business. So I reckon Jake will go a lumberin’ towards hum till he meets pap, an’ then he’ll pertend that he’s been a-lookin for him.”
When this thought passed through Sam’s mind it occurred to him that he had better not remain too long inactive, for this might be the last opportunity he would ever have to remove the money from Jake’s hiding-place to another of his own selection; so, after half an hour’s waiting, Sam set himself in motion. He did not get upon his feet, nor did he go directly toward the fallen poplar. He crawled along on his stomach and made a wide detour, so as to approach the cavity on the side opposite to that on which Jake had entered and left it. Of course this took him a long time, but he made up for it by the readiness with which he found the money when he arrived at the end of his toilsome journey. A little prodding among the leaves at the foot of the poplar brought the valises to light, and in ten minutes more they were hidden in another place where Jake, when he discovered his loss, would never think of looking for them. They were not shoved into a hollow log nor covered up in the leaves. They were placed high among the thick branches of an evergreen and tied fast there, so that the wind would not shake them out.
“There,” said Sam, after he had made a circuit of the tree and viewed it from all sides. “Nobody can’t find ’em now. They are mine, sure. I reckon I’d best go to the cove an’ set down, ’cause pap’ll be along directly.”
Sam had barely time to reach the cove and compose himself when Matt put in an appearance. His first words explained why he had been so long in getting there, and quieted the fear that suddenly sprang up in Sam’s mind, that his father had been following him as he himself had followed Jake.
“Haven’t I said all along that Rube wasn’t by no means the friend to us that he pertends to be?” said the squatter, fiercely. “I didn’t run as fur into the bresh as you boys an’ the ole woman did, but got behind a log where I could see every thing that was done at the shanty. I seen the sheriff’s men when they come outen the woods an’ surrounded the house, an’ purty quick along come Swan, watchin’ over the two robbers an’ carryin’ a pistol in one hand an’ Jake’s canvas canoe in the other. They waked Rube up, an’ he stood in the door an’ talked to ’em as friendly as you please. He showed ’em where we hid the two skiffs we stole from Swan’s party on the day they burned our camp at this here cove; an’ then one of the robbers an’ sheriff an’ five or six guides an’ constables got into ’em an’ pulled up to that snag opposite Haskinses’ landin’, in the hope of findin’ them six thousand dollars. But they had their trouble for their pains. Jakey brought ’em up with your mam’s clothes-line last night, an’ hid ’em somewheres around here. Seen any thing of Jake since you been here?”
“Nary thing,” replied Sam. “I was a wonderin’ why he didn’t come. You told him to stay where you could get your hands onto him.”
“So I did, an’ this is the way he minds his pap, the ongrateful scamp. I wanted him to meet me here an’ show me where that money is. He needn’t think he’s goin’ to keep it all, even if he did capsize them robbers. I’m the one who oughter have the care of it, bein’ as I’m the head man of the house. Ain’t that so, Sammy?”
“Course it is. If I’d found it, I would have gone halvers with you. How do you know Jake brung it up here an’ hid it?”