He walked about for a few minutes, with his eyes fastened thoughtfully on the floor, and then hurried to his room and began to unpack his valise. He had not thought of it before.
“There’s a lot of money in that safe,” said he to himself, “and I must have something to carry it in, for I couldn’t get the tenth part of it into my pockets. I don’t know what the old man will say when he finds that his safe has been emptied; and, in order to keep it from his knowledge as long as I can, I will take the key with me when I go. I wish now that I had told Sam to meet me about midnight. If he comes to the grove this afternoon, I will make new arrangements with him.”
Arthur spent the entire afternoon in the grove, with his thoughts for company; but Sam did not put in an appearance. He knew better.
He had made some threats against Bob in the presence of some of the herdsmen, and the valley was not a safe place for him. He was idling away the time in the seclusion of a deep ravine a short distance away, waiting impatiently for the morrow.
Arthur went to bed as soon as he had eaten his supper, and when his father came into the room, about eleven o’clock, he lay with his face to the wall, apparently fast asleep. The two had but little to say to each other since the interview in the morning.
Uncle Bob tried to be sociable while they were at the table, but Arthur would scarcely listen to him.
“I was the only friend he had on the ranch,” the youth kept saying to himself, “and I want him to see that he has made an enemy of me. If he doesn’t know it now he will find it out very shortly.”
It was long after midnight before Arthur made any move to show that he was awake. Then he turned over very cautiously, and, after listening intently for a few minutes, he made up his mind that the time for action had arrived.
Noiselessly he arose from the bed and moved towards the chair upon which his father had deposited his clothing.
After a little fumbling in the dark, he found the pocket of which he was in search, and his fingers closed tightly on the coveted key.