"Now what in the world is going to happen to me," asked the young game-warden, who told himself that Silas and Dan must have behaved in a most extraordinary manner to frighten and excite his mother in this way. "What is there up there in the hills that's going to hurt me?"
"That I can't tell. I do wish I knew just what happened to your father and Dan. The reality couldn't be any worse than this uncertainty and suspense."
"I wonder if I couldn't induce Dan to give me a hint of it," said Joe, standing his rifle up in one corner of the room. "I believe it will pay to have a shy at him. He can't keep a secret for any length of time to save his life; and if I work it right, I think I can worm this one out of him."
So saying, Joe stepped to the door to take a look at the motionless figures on the river bank. There was only one of them there now. Silas had disappeared and Dan was left alone.
Joe thought that nothing could have suited him better. Dan might be inclined to be reticent with his father sitting in plain sight of him; but now there was nothing to restrain him, and he could talk as freely as he pleased.
Walking leisurely along, as if he had no particular object in view, Joe went down to the bank and seated himself a short distance away from his brother, who sat with his elbows resting on his knees and both hands supporting his head. He never moved when he heard the sound of Joe's footsteps, and neither did he utter a sound; so Joe began the conversation himself, and with no little anxiety, it must be confessed, as to the result. Dan was an awkward boy to manage, and if Joe had entered at once upon the subject that was uppermost in his mind, his brother would have shut himself up like a clam.
"Well, old fellow," said Joe, cheerily, "why didn't you come around and see my new home? I tell you, I've got things nice there; or, rather, I'm going to, as soon as I have time to straighten up a bit. You were up there, because I heard you shoot—you and father. I didn't expect to see you back so soon."
Dan slowly raised a very pale face from his hands, and gazed at his brother with a pair of wild-looking eyes. He did not look like himself at all.
After staring hard at his brother for full half a minute, and running his eyes up and down the bank to make sure that there was no one else in sight, he said, in hollow tones:
"And I didn't look to see you back again so soon, either. I didn't never expect to set eyes on to you no more."