“Give me your hand on that, my boy,” said Brown. “I knew you were true blue, or I shouldn’t have stuck to you as long as I have.”
Brown, having, as he imagined, extorted a promise from his companion that he would remain with him as long as his money held out, relapsed into silence, and the boy was allowed leisure to follow out some plans that had suggested themselves to him. In the first place, he wanted to make sure that he was not mistaken in regard to the money; so he watched his opportunity, and presently he and Brown bumped their shoulders together with some violence, as people will sometimes do who walk together without keeping step. The result was positive proof that Brown had not lost his money, for Chase heard the gold pieces jingle as plainly as he could hear the sound of his own footsteps. Brown heard it, too, and glanced quickly into Chase’s face; but seeing nothing there to excite his suspicions, he said nothing, but simply moved farther away so that the experiment could not be repeated.
“The money is tied up in his handkerchief, just as I supposed it was,” soliloquized Chase. “I think I begin to see into the matter a little. We have just fifty-five dollars between us—I have fifteen and he owns the balance,—and that must last us during a tramp of nearly four hundred miles. He thinks that forty dollars will furnish food for one man longer than fifty-five will for two. He intends to live off my money without touching his own, and when I am strapped, he is going to run away from me; and he’ll have his forty dollars left to support him during the rest of his journey. It is enough for one, but I am a good deal of his opinion that it is not enough for two. Now, fifteen dollars will keep me alone in food longer than it will both of us, so if you please, Mr. Brown, I’ll do the running away myself. If I must travel on my own hook, I’ll do it while I have money in my pocket.”
Chase had hit the nail squarely on the head. He had told Brown’s plans in detail as well as Brown could have told them himself. The truth of the matter was, that the man was too homesick to be either honest or truthful. He was determined to work his way back to Indiana by some means, no matter who might suffer by it.
“I have half a mind to tell him that I know what he is about,” thought Chase. “The coward, to want to desert me when I offered to give him half the money I expected to receive from father! I say, Brown!”
When the boy had said this much, prudence stepped in, and he paused. If he excited Brown’s anger, the latter might take his money away from him by force, and then he would be in a predicament indeed.
“Well, what is it?” asked Brown. “Bad business, ain’t it?”
“Yes, it is,” replied Chase. “How long do you suppose my fifteen dollars will last us?”
“We must make it hold out as long as we possibly can, even if we eat but one full meal a day. But there is no use in looking so down-hearted over it. We’ll work through somehow.”