The bullet took effect, for the boys found blood on the ground beneath the window next morning; but the robber dashed around a corner out of range at such speed that there was no opportunity to fire a second time.
A pounding on the door told the youthful travelers that the house had been aroused, and they lost no time in admitting the landlord, accompanied by the greatly excited peddler.
“What’s all the row about?” demanded the tavern-keeper, holding a lighted candle over his shoulder.
“I want to investigate before I say what it is all about,” Ree answered, emphasizing the “all.”
“A pretty sort of a place, this is!” put in John indignantly. “We might have been murdered in our beds!”
“How can I help it, boy? Just you keep your breeches on!”
“I’ll have to put them on first,” John ejaculated, and forthwith proceeded to do so.
Ree took the landlord’s candle and turned back the bed clothing. He found the leather wallet containing their money, undisturbed, but as he picked it up, he noticed a hole in the sheets and tick of the bed.
“Look, here,” he exclaimed, “here is where the row you complain of, began. The man who has just gone out of the window, evidently crawled under the bed and having cut a hole through the tick, reached for our wallet. His cold hand on my bare skin waked me up. The question is, how did he know where the money was?”
“The skunk!” exclaimed the peddler, eyeing the tavern-keeper sharply.