CHAPTER XXXVIII. WHAT BOB BROUGHT HOME.
After disposing of his cargo, Bob was puzzled to know what to do with the ferry-boat. Finally he had an offer of one hundred dollars, from a speculative Yankee who had drifted out to St. Louis, and gladly accepted it. This sum paid all expenses, including his and Clip's return fare, and left him with a handsome sum to his credit, viz.:
| 1,400 bushels wheat, at $2.25, | $3,150 |
| Reward, | 1,000 |
| ——— | |
| $4,150 |
This sum, with the exception of one hundred and fifty dollars, by advice of Mr. Pearson, he deposited in a St. Louis bank, and then started for home.
He could not make the whole passage by steamer, but went part way by railroad, and then engaged a carriage to a point four miles from home. Thence he and Clip walked. He wanted to surprise not only his mother, but Wolverton. He knew now that Brown and Minton had only been agents of his more crafty enemy, Brown having made a written confession, not so much out of friendship to Bob as out of spite against Wolverton, whom he held responsible for getting him into this scrape.
With soiled shoes and clothes covered with dust, Bob and Clip entered the village, and purposely walked by Wolverton's office.
The latter, spying them through the window, smiled maliciously, and hurried out to meet them.
"Aha, my young friends," he said, with a pleased glance at their soiled clothes, "so you have returned?"
"Yes, sir," answered Bob, soberly.