The boy who was afraid to camp all night in the woods without a fire, even though he knew that there was nothing there that could harm him, was brave enough to face a party of robbers, who would doubtless fight to the death rather than allow themselves to be captured.
Having felt their way down the ladder, the two boys went to the door and looked cautiously out of it. A single glance was enough to satisfy Dick that his companion had not been dreaming. There were three dark forms standing in the shadow of the wood-shed.
They had made good progress with their work, for just as Dick thrust his head out at the door, the shutters that protected the window swung noiselessly open, and a minute later the window itself was heard to slide back from its place.
“They are robbers, sure enough,” whispered Dick, excitedly. “What shall we do now? Rush out there and try to take them?”
“By no means!” replied Bob, who, judging the marauders by the desperadoes that were so common in his own country, considered that the attempt would be foolhardy in the extreme. “They are armed, of course, and they would shoot us on sight. Let’s drive them away. That’s all we can do.”
There was no time to discuss this proposition, for while Bob was speaking one of the robbers clambered through the window. The others were about to follow, when they were frightened almost out of their senses by the roar of a fowling-piece behind them, accompanied by a shower of bird-shot, which rattled harmlessly among the chips at their feet.
They stood silent and motionless for a moment, and then another report and a second charge of shot completed their discomfiture.
The two who were on the outside of the wood-shed took to their heels in short order. The one on the inside came out of the window with such haste that he missed his footing, and measured his length on the ground, and soon all three of the robbers darted around the corner of the house and disappeared.
“There!” said Bob, with a sigh of satisfaction. “We have done one good deed if we never do another as long as we live. We have saved the old man’s money, but I don’t suppose we shall get ‘Thank you!’ for it. Let’s go and shut that window.”
It was a fortunate thing for the two boys that Bob thought of this, and they found it out presently.