Adin Dunham was not a brave man, but the prospect of losing his fortune, for which he had waited so long, made him desperate. He drew out his whip and lashed the horse.
"Get up, Captain!" he shouted.
Then, he hardly knew how it happened, the tramp clambered into the wagon, and pressed a handkerchief to his mouth. He felt his senses going, but before he lost consciousness he saw something that startled him. The tramp opened his mouth, and he caught sight of the long tusk-like teeth.
"Why, it's Squire Bates!" he ejaculated, in horror-struck dismay.
Then he lost all consciousness, and knew not what followed.
"Confusion!" muttered the tramp. "Why did I open my mouth?"
He thrust his hand into Adin Dunham's pocket, after stopping the horse. Then, as it would not be safe to leave the horse under the management of a man in a faint, he took the passive form of the carpenter from the wagon, and laid him down under a tree by the roadside.
"There! It will be supposed that he fell from the wagon in a fit!" he said to himself, as he left the scene.
This was what had happened to Adin Dunham. How long he lay in his senseless condition cannot be told. At length he opened his eyes, and looked about him in a dazed way.
"Where is the horse and wagon?" he asked himself.