“Yes,” thought Clarence, while he listened, “it is all very fine, no doubt; but if you think you are going to use up my time in that way, you have reckoned without your host. Amusement indeed! What pleasure would I see in riding about the country calling on these natives? What do I care for your deer or turkeys or your shooting-box? I can’t go, at least not to-day, for I have business of my own to attend to.”
And he didn’t go either; and, what was more, he gave such reasons for declining that his cousins, although somewhat surprised, readily let him off. He was much too homesick to be any company during a ride, he said, and all he wanted was to go off somewhere and be alone. He would be himself in a day or two, and when he felt more like mingling with people, he would be quite at the service of his cousins, Don and Bert. The latter expressed their regrets, but readily accepted his excuses, and Clarence, after making some inquiries of Don, calculated to draw out information on a few points on which he wished to be posted, went up to his room to prepare himself for his interview with Godfrey Evans. When he came down again he wore a neat hunting-suit, and carried a light Ballard rifle on his shoulder. Don, who met him in the hall, opened his eyes in surprise, and went into ecstacies over the handsome little breech-loader which Clarence presented for his inspection.
“I didn’t know that you city fellows ever had an opportunity to use such things as this,” said Don, bringing the weapon to his shoulder, and glancing along the clean, brown barrel.
“O, yes, we do,” said Clarence. “Rifle-shooting is becoming quite fashionable now-a-days, and I used to spend an hour or two every evening at the gallery. I can make forty-five out of a possible fifty almost any time.”
This was Greek to Don, who, however, did not ask any questions, for Clarence had so pompous a way of giving information and looked so surprised when any one asked him to explain his meaning, that Don did not like to show his ignorance. He handed the rifle back to his cousin and saw him walk out of the house, pass through the gate, and turn down the road that led to Godfrey Evans’s cabin.
We have already told what sort of a reception he met at Godfrey’s hands, and have also described what he did to bring himself to the notice of that gentleman. He knew Godfrey as soon as he put his eyes on him. He studied the man’s face closely, and being satisfied with the opinion he formed, easily induced him to accompany him into the woods. He wanted to talk freely with him without running any risk of being overheard, but he hardly knew how to begin the conversation. He wanted to make a friend of his new acquaintance and gain his confidence, and in order to do that, he must be careful how he went to work. The pipe Godfrey had lost the night before, and which Clarence had brought with him in his game-bag, served him a good turn. In attempting to produce the cigars, he accidentally pulled out the pipe also. Godfrey recognised it, and so amazed was he to see his property, which he imagined he had lost beyond recovery, in the possession of an entire stranger, that he betrayed himself at once. After that it was no trouble for Clarence to open conversation with him about the buried treasure, and neither did he experience any difficulty in persuading Godfrey to accept him as an assistant in the place of Dan. Clarence learned to his great surprise and amusement that he had been the innocent cause of Godfrey’s hasty stampede on the previous night, and it was all he could do to refrain from laughing outright at the man’s description of the “haunt” he had seen. We have also told what arrangements the worthy pair made in regard to prosecuting the search and dividing the spoils after the barrel was found, and we know that when the interview was ended Clarence went home happy in the belief that he would soon be a rich man, and that no one under his uncle’s roof, not even his brother Marshall, would be the wiser for it. No one was the wiser for it then, but there was one who found out all about it a few hours later, and who interfered with his project in a manner so unexpected and effectual, that he not only put a stop to all efforts to find the money, but also came very near driving all the negroes off the plantation, and causing General Gordon the greatest trouble and inconvenience.
CHAPTER XIV.
DON’S EXPERIMENT.
WHEN Clarence reached home after his interview with Godfrey Evans, he found the house deserted by all the family save his aunt Mary. His brother, his uncle and all his cousins had gone off in the carriage to spend the day in riding about the country, and Clarence was left to amuse himself in any way he thought proper. He knew the time would not hang heavily on his hands, for he had much to think about. He wanted to make up his mind just what he would do when he came into possession of his share of the eighty thousand dollars. The thought that possibly he might never get a cent of it—that perhaps there was no barrel hidden in the potato-patch—did not once enter his head. The hope that it might be there, and that he might be fortunate enough to find it, was so strong that it became belief, and Clarence already considered himself as good as rich.