"Where be they?" he demanded.
"They have been gone almost three hours," was the meek response.
"And you let 'em go without saying a word to me?" roared the angry and disappointed man.
"Why, father, you told me last night that you didn't intend to go," said his wife.
"And you didn't have any better sense than to believe it!" shouted Silas. "Did they go off together? Well, old woman, you have cooked your goose this time—you have for a fact. I wanted to go with Joe myself, and leave Dan to home, 'cause he ain't no account when there's any shooting and such going on. He's too much of a coward to stand fire, Dan is. I had kind o' made it up in my mind that me and Joe would captur' one, and mebbe both, of them bugglars, and I kalkerlated to give you the most of my share of the money; but now you won't get none, and it serves you just right for letting me sleep when you oughter called me up. But I'll tell you one thing for a fact—the three thousand that Joe has made already, and the hundred and twenty he's going to earn this winter, is mine; likewise all the reward him and Dan get to-day, if they get any."
So saying, Silas shouldered his double-barrel and left the cabin, paying no sort of attention to his wife's entreaties that before he set out for the mountain he would take a cup of coffee and a bite of the breakfast she had kept warm for him.
CHAPTER XXX. BRIERLY'S SQUAD CAPTURES A ROBBER.
When Morgan arose from his "shake-down" on the morning of this particular day, he was promptly joined by his brother Dan, whose actions told him as plainly as words that he had reasons of his own for not wishing to disturb his father's slumbers.