“Thar, dog-gone ye!” whispered Dan, trembling all over with excitement and apprehension. “Ye wouldn’t give me my ninety dollars, but tried to cheat me outen ’em, sayin’ ye was a goin’ to take keer on ’em fur me. I’ll take keer on the hul on it now, an’ not a dollar of it do ye see again. Didn’t I say that ye’d find out afore mornin’ that ye didn’t know me?”
So saying Dan shook his fist at the unconscious Godfrey, and crossing over to the other side of the fire with noiseless footsteps, picked up his rifle and crept away into the woods.
CHAPTER VI
BOB IS ASTONISHED.
“NOW Dave,” said Don, kindly, “brace up and be a man. Don’t take it so much to heart.”
“It is easy enough to say ‘brace up,’” sobbed David, “but how would you feel if you were in my place?”
“I don’t know, for you have not yet told me just what is the matter. Now let us hear the whole story from the beginning,” said Don, seating himself on the wharf beside the weeping boy.
David wiped away his tears, choked down his sobs by an effort, and proceeded to give a very disconnected account of the incidents that had happened at the cabin the night before. Don’s cheek flushed while he listened. If David had asked him now how he would feel if he were in the same situation, he would have received a prompt and decided reply. Don felt as if he would like to break Godfrey’s head and Dan’s, too.
“Mother and I never slept a wink last night,” continued David. “We did not even go to bed. We could only talk and cry. Mother says we can’t do anything about it, for father has the right to take all my earnings.”
“Whew!” whistled Don. “That’s a fact.” He had not thought of it, however, until that moment. He had been telling himself that if there were officers enough in the county to find Godfrey, he should be arrested at once; but now he saw that there were difficulties in the way.