“I suppose Ring got the box out of the man’s inside pocket, then buttoned his coat up again,” he laughed.
It was so unusual for Ree to take a gloomy view of any circumstance or discovery, that, realizing there was not much probability, after all, that their dog had secured the box from the body of some unfortunate hunter or explorer, as he had suggested, he was quite bored by John’s fun. But he did not show it; that would have been more unlike him still.
It is rather strange that, notwithstanding that they had been talking of Ichabod Nesbit just a minute or two before the strange box was found by their dog, neither of the boys thought of the outlaw in connection with the odd discovery, in all their conversation about the matter during the evening. The box they rubbed and polished and made certain it was silver, but no name or sign of whose property it might have been did they discover, except the torn piece of paper, the writing on which it was too dark to read.
The night passed without incident, and by dividing the long hours of watching over the camp and wounded stranger, both Ree and John obtained some sleep and rest—enough that with the coming of daylight each felt more spry and fresh than at any time since the discovery of the unconscious form of Theodore Hatch had resulted in the breaking of their slumbers.
John watered the horses at the brook in the valley hard by and harnessed Neb while Ree broiled some venison and toasted some corn bread, brought from Pittsburg, for their breakfast. As they sat on a small log within their camp, eating and talking, the conversation turned at once to the silver snuff box and its written contents.
“And now read the letter, Ree; don’t keep a fellow waiting any longer,” John demanded.
Kingdom secured the box from a small chest in the cart, where it had been safely deposited over night, and as John ate away, a piece of bread in one hand, a piece of venison in the other, watching with much interest all that his friend did, the latter removed the lid and took out the yellow-stained paper.
“Why, it is not all here! The letter has been torn in two right through the middle!” he exclaimed. “We didn’t notice that last night.”
“Well, land o’ Goshen! Read what you can! I’ve been waiting all night to find out what the writing is, and now you behave as though we had no interest in the thing!” John cried with an impatient laugh.
“You read it! Look here! Now what can be made out of this?”