"Not all of it. I didn't have time, on account of that hant, who rattled the bushes behind me. When I heared that, I just shoved the letter into my pocket and skipped out," replied Dan, who could not for the life of him tell a thing just as it happened. "But it bangs me where that letter is now, 'cause I ain't got it."
Dan expected that his father would go into an awful rage when he heard this, and held himself in readiness to take to his heels at the very first sign of a hostile demonstration; consequently he was very much surprised to hear Silas say, without the least show of anger:
"It don't much matter, 'cause I had a chance to read all that was into the letter, and take a good look at the map that come with it. I know right where to look for that robbers' cave, but I shan't go down that there rope, I bet you, for I don't want to dump myself into the presence of that hant before I have a look at him. We'll go in at the mouth of the gulf, and work our way up till we come to the hiding-place of the money."
"We?" echoed Dan.
"Yes, me and you."
"Not much we won't," declared Dan, throwing all the emphasis he could into his words.
"What for?" demanded Silas.
"'Cause why. It's enough for me, to hear hants a chasing of me. I ain't got no call to go where they be, so't I can see 'em. I wouldn't go up to that there cave if I knowed there was a thousand dollars into it."
"A thousand dollars!" repeated Silas. "Didn't you read in the letter about the grip-sack with a false bottom to it?"