Dan was almost ready to jump from the ground when he heard this, and it was all he could do to refrain from giving audible expression to his delight.
CHAPTER VI. THE YOUNG GAME-WARDEN.
"Whoop-pee!" was Dan's mental exclamation. "I've struck a banana. Me and pap I'll get rich the first thing you know. But what makes old man Warren come here to tell us about it?"
"I certainly hope you will be able to preserve them this time," said Joe, who could not see what these expensive birds had to do with the comfortable home, the unlimited supply of books, and the good living, of which his visitor had spoken. "It would be a great pity to lose them after going to so much trouble and paying out so much money for them."
"That's what I think, and it is what Mr. Hallet thinks, also. You know his wood-lot adjoins mine—there is no fence between them—and he has turned down the same number."
The eavesdropper fairly gasped for breath when he heard this; but quickly recovering from his amazement, he raised his hands before his face, with all the fingers spread out, and began a little problem in arithmetic.
"That makes—makes—le' me see! By Moses it makes twelve—twelve hundred dollars' worth of birds. I'm going to sell that old muzzle-loader of mine the first good chance I get, and buy a breech-loader, and one of them j'inted fish-poles, and some of them fine hunting clothes, and—whoop-pee! I've struck two bananas; and I'll look as spick and span as the best of them city sportsmen by this time next year. But look a-here, a minute, Dan," he added, to himself, confidentially, "Don't you say a word to pap about them birds that's been turned loose on Hallet's place. Them's your'n, and you don't go halvers with no living person."