Clarence had not thought much of this at the time, but he thought of it now, and by connecting it with the words that had just been uttered in his hearing, he arrived at a tolerably fair solution of what would otherwise have been a deep mystery to him. His aunt had not said so in so many words, but he inferred that she had lost valuable property in the way she had explained. Clarence was sure of it now, and he was almost overwhelmed by the discovery he had made.
“Eighty thousand dollars!” said he, to himself. “It must be in money, and in gold and silver, too, for my aunt says that all the wealthy rebels took the precaution to exchange their bank-notes for specie at the first beginning of the trouble between the North and South. I hope to goodness they will find it. If they do, they can rest assured that they’ll not get away with it all.”
The few seconds that Clarence passed in meditating and soliloquizing in this way, were employed by Dan in getting ready for work, and by Godfrey in picking out a comfortable place to sit down, and in filling and lighting his pipe. Having discarded his coat and hat, Dan threw out two or three shovelfuls of earth; but it was heavy work, and Dan, who got tired very easily, could not help asking himself how many such shovelfuls he would have to throw out before the coveted barrel could be brought to light. He told his father that ten acres was a great deal of ground, and Godfrey, to encourage him, reminded him that there were eighty thousand dollars in gold and silver buried somewhere about there, and that they must have it if they were obliged to dig up the whole state of Mississippi.
It was while Dan was looking all about the field to see how large it was, that he discovered the lighted end of Clarence Gordon’s cigar shining through the darkness. Clarence was leaning half way over the fence in his eagerness to hear all that was said, and smoking furiously, too much interested and excited to remember that the little coal of fire on the end of his Havana, which glowed brightly for a moment and then faded almost entirely away, as he drew in and puffed out the smoke, could be seen by the parties he was watching, should either of them chance to look that way. We know that they did look that way, both of them, and that half a minute later the field was deserted, and Clarence was standing alone beside the fence.
The boy was utterly amazed at the haste with which Godfrey and his son took themselves out of sight, and all unconscious of the fact that he was the cause of their alarm, he drew himself quickly down beside a tree that stood in the fence corner, put his cigar behind him and looked all around, expecting to see some member of his uncle’s family or one of his servants approaching. But there was no one in sight, and after listening and watching for a few minutes, Clarence climbed over into the field to see what progress the two prowlers had made with their work.
The hope that they might have uncovered the barrel was very short-lived, for he found that Dan had made just no headway at all. The hole he had dug could have been covered up with a hat.
“I wonder what in the world it was that frightened them away,” said Clarence, in deep perplexity. “They were frightened, of course, or they would not have run as they did after holding that whispered consultation. I can’t see or hear anything alarming, and I do wish they had stayed long enough to dig up the barrel. Eighty thousand dollars! If it is to be found I must have some of it. If I knew where I could find a shovel, I’d dig awhile myself. But no matter. They will probably come back again; if not to-night then some other night, and I shall be on hand when the barrel is found, no matter if I don’t get a wink of sleep for the next six months. Hello! what’s this?” he added, as his fingers came in contact with the pipe Godfrey had dropped.
He held it up between him and the sky, and when he saw what it was, was about to throw it away, when he thought of something. He held the pipe suspended in the air a moment, then put it into his pocket and walked back to his hiding-place again. He waited and watched there for nearly an hour, hoping that Godfrey and his son would return, but being satisfied at last that they had no intention of coming back that night, and fearing that if he remained away from the house any longer, somebody would be out to see what had become of him, he pitched the stump of his cigar into the bushes and walked away from the fence.
“Now, this is just what I am going to do,” said Clarence, who had already thought the matter over and determined upon his course of action. “I’m going to find out who those fellows are, if there is any possible way for me to do it, and I am going to say to them: ‘Look here, boys; havers!’ If they say ‘Yes,’ well and good. If they say ‘No,’ I’d like to see them get a cent out of those eighty thousand dollars. I wish it was morning. I shan’t sleep a wink to-night.”
The first person he met as he entered the hall was his aunt, who seemed to be waiting for him. She asked him where he had been passing the evening, and detecting the smell of tobacco smoke, told him what he had been doing. Clarence pleaded guilty, but said that he was homesick and had the blues; and when he got that way, nothing did him so much good as a lonely walk and a cigar. But he would give up the cigar now. He would not smoke any more.