“Will you! Won’t you let him have it? nor take it yourselves?”
“What should we take it fer? We’ve no claim on ’t, anyhow,” said Hank, who might, however, have thought and acted differently if he had believed the coin genuine. “Put, now! If I’m alive, the basket shall stay till you come back.”
“Besides, you can leave your dog,” said Cub. “He’ll watch your interest, while the squire’ll watch hisn. Be quick, for we can’t stay much longer ’n it’ll take to finish our melons.”
Notwithstanding his anxious doubts, Jack was persuaded that the best thing he could do was to run in all haste for the deacon, leaving Lion, Peternot, and the Huswick boys to watch each other and take care of the treasure in his absence.
“We’ll keep our word about the basket,” said Hank, with a droll look, as Jack disappeared over the fence; “but about the stuff that’s in ’t, this is the judgment of the court,—we allow ’t the squire’s claim is just, an’ give him the money, pervided he’ll say nothin’ ’bout the melons, but pay us a dollar apiece for helpin’ him carry it hum.”
“But we’ve engaged ’t the basket shall stay till he comes back,” Cub objected.
“An’ whatever else we do, we’re fellers that keeps our word,” added Dock, over his melon.
“Then how’s the coin to go?” demanded the exasperated squire, thinking the boys meant to dally with him until Mr. Chatford’s arrival.
“You don’ know nothin’ ’bout war,—you never see a one-hoss wagon!” said Dock, contemptuously. “Hod, off with yer breeches!”
Hod naturally objected, on strong personal grounds, to this part of the arrangement. He started to run, but Tug headed him off, and Cub seized him; when, finding that, with or without his consent, he was destined to part with the required garment for a season, the lamb of the flock yielded, and kicked off that portion of his fleece.