The squad broke up here, Mr. Warren and two companions turning into the cow-path that led down the mountain by the shortest route, and Joe and Dan striking for home, where a most astonishing discovery awaited them.
CHAPTER XXXI. SILAS IN LUCK AT LAST.
Dan Morgan did not have as much to say on the way home as he did while he and his brother were passing over that same road in the morning.
Another one of his air-castles had fallen about his ears, and a portion of the money he had hoped to earn would go into Brierly's pocket.
One of the robbers had been captured, but the other had taken himself safely off, and that was the end of all his dreams. Did anybody ever hear of such luck? It made him very angry to see how light-hearted Joe seemed to be.
"I reckon you're glad 'cause I ain't got a cent to bless myself with, ain't you?" said he, savagely. "Then, what do you keep up such a whistling for? You can afford to be happy, when you know that you can have a pile of money by asking for it; but I ain't a going to be treated this here way no longer."
The young game-warden did not pay the least attention to his brother's ravings, because he had something of more importance to think about—his future.
He was sadly in need of such training as he could get at the Bellville academy, and he had sense enough to know it; and the point he was trying to decide was: Should he ask his employer to release him from his contract, so that he could go to school during the winter? or would it be better to make sure of the hundred and twenty dollars he could earn during the next eight months, and look to Tom and Bob to help him along with his studies?