"The difficulty in preserving them lies right here," said Mr. Warren. "Our native birds are protected by law during certain months in the year, but the law doesn't say a word about imported game. If I catch a man shooting over my grounds in the close season, I can have him arrested and fined; but he could shoot these English birds before my face, and I could not help myself. We hope some day to induce the Legislature to pass a law protecting imported as well as native game; but until we can do that, we must protect it ourselves to the best of our ability. We have men at work now posting our land, and hereafter any one who sets a foot over my fence or Hallet's will be liable for trespass.
"I reckon you'll have to catch him before you can prove anything agin him, won't you?" soliloquized Dan. "But why don't he tell that Joe of our'n what he wants of him?"
"Of course, Mr. Hallet and myself have enough to do without spending valuable time in watching these birds," added the visitor, "and so we have decided to employ game-wardens to do it for us. There will be two wardens, one for each place, and we shall pay them out of our own pockets. I have selected you because I believe you to be honest and faithful, and I know that you are ambitious to better your condition. I am always on the lookout for such boys, and when I find one I like to give him a helping hand."
"Then it's mighty strange that you never diskivered me," said Dan, to himself. "If there's anybody in the world who wants awful bad to be something better'n the ragged vagabone he is, I am that feller. Dog-gone such luck as I do have, any way! Why didn't he offer that soft job to me, instead of giving it to that Joe of our'n? I am older'n he is, and it would be the properest thing for me to have the first chance."
"It is worth something to live up there in the woods alone for eight months—from the first of September to the last of April—but your surroundings will be as pleasant as they can be made under the circumstances. In the first place, there is a tight log-house, with a carpet on the floor, and a lean-to behind it to serve as a wood-shed. You know that the fierce winter winds drive the snow into pretty deep drifts up there in the mountains, and if you are as provident as I think you are, you will keep that shed full. You don't want to turn out of a stormy morning, when the mercury is below zero, to cut fire-wood, when you ought to be scattering grain around for the birds to eat. There is plenty of furniture in the cabin, and all the dishes you will be likely to need. I have spent a good many months in camp, first and last, and being posted, I don't think I have forgotten anything. Your pay, which you can have as often as you want it, will be fifteen dollars a month," said Mr. Warren in conclusion. "That is as much as farm-hands command hereabout, and you will be much better off than a woodchopper, because you will be earning money all the while, no matter how bad the weather may be. What do you say?"
Dan listened with all his ears to catch his brother's reply, but, to his great surprise, Joe did not make any reply.
"What's the fool studying about, do you reckon?" was the inquiry which Dan propounded to himself. "Why don't he speak up and say he'll take it? If he does, me and pap will have easy times with them birds, 'cause of course Joe wouldn't be mean enough to pester us. But if he don't take it, and old man Warren gets somebody else for game-warden, then the case will be different, and me and pap will have to watch out."
"You don't say anything, Joe," continued Mr. Warren, seeing that the boy hesitated and hung his head. "If you must work during the coming winter instead of going to school, I don't think you can find any employment that will be more to your liking."
"I know I couldn't, sir," replied Joe, quickly; "but that isn't what I am thinking about. The fact is—you see—"
The boy paused and looked down at the ground again. He knew that his own father was more to blame than any one else for the loss of the birds that had been "turned down" in Mr. Warren's wood-lot two years before, and it was not quite clear to Joe how his wealthy visitor could have so much confidence in him. Why should he wish to employ the son of the man who had robbed him, to keep trespassers off his grounds, and exercise supervision over the new supply of game he had just purchased?