"I wonder what the matter is with him?" Fred asked, when, at a late hour, the partners were alone. "Do you suppose he thinks we don't want to see him just because we have been fortunate?"
"If he does it's the biggest mistake of his life. I like the little rascal, although he did play us a bad trick, an' if he don't show up before noon to-morrow, I'll hunt him out," Joe said, laughingly.
But Skip did not put in an appearance before the time set, and, true to his word, Joe went in search of him.
The information he brought back to his partners was mystifying.
Skip had not been at home since the day on which Sam was liberated, and his father fancied he was absent on some work for the firm.
This singular disappearance troubled Fred greatly, and during the remainder of the day he spoke more often of the boy than regarding the mine.
"He'll turn up before long," Joe said, after all had tried in vain to conjecture where he might be; but Fred fancied that the miner did not speak very confidently.
Nothing was heard personally from Mr. Wright; but it was common gossip about town that he had visited the newly-discovered vein several times, and spent one entire day at Blacktown.
Another twenty-four hours passed, and Skip had not returned home. His parents were now beginning to feel alarmed; but the majority of the townspeople, not trusting in the sincerity of his repentance, intimated that he had joined Gus, preferring to run away rather than lead an industrious life.
"I won't believe anything of the kind," Fred replied, hotly, when Donovan reported the general feeling regarding the disappearance. "He never would have done so much to help us, unless meaning exactly what he said."