"My gracious!" he exclaimed, as he and Frank hurried out, and bent their steps toward the school-house; "I had no idea that I owned so much cash."
"Six hundred dollars is a nice little amount of money," answered Frank, "and you must have a tidy sum there for interest. I tell you, Leon, that will set us up in good shape. It will buy us a splendid outfit, and keep us in provisions until we can capture furs enough to get more. We have taken two dangerous steps, and there are only two left."
"What are they?" asked Leon.
"Stealing your gun out of that bookcase is one, and leaving the house with our baggage is the other. If we can take those two steps without being caught, we can breathe easy, for we shall have nothing but plain sailing before us."
It turned out that Frank was anything but a good prophet. Circumstances rendered it comparatively easy for them to secure the gun and leave the house, but they did not afterward have plain sailing.
It was but a short time after that that the trouble began.
CHAPTER XXI. THE RUNAWAYS.
During the afternoon Leon was so nervous and uneasy that he could scarcely keep his seat.