In his lonely hut he knew nothing of the developments in the last robbery—whether any reward had been offered as yet. This was necessarily left in the hands of Vernon, while he remained to guard the hidden treasure.
A state of suspense is all the harder to bear when a man has nothing else to divert his thoughts, and this was the case with Temple.
“What if the box should be discovered?” was the thought that haunted him.
Finally, though he had once before visited the hiding-place of the tin box, he decided to go again, and started at such a time that he arrived about an hour after Harry and the detectives had unearthed and removed it.
Meanwhile, it becomes necessary to state that Philip Ross, whose curiosity was excited by the continued absence of Harry, made up his mind once more to visit the wood to see if he could discover any traces of his victim.
“He’s hiding in the wood so as to make an excitement,” thought Philip. “He’ll make a great fuss about what we did to him.”
In fact, Philip was getting a little anxious about the results of his high-handed treatment of Harry. He was not sure but Harry might have him arrested, and this excited his fears. He admitted to himself, reluctantly, that tying a boy hand and foot, and leaving him all night in the forest, was rather more than a joke.
He called at the hotel for Congreve, but was told that he had gone to ride.
After a little hesitation, he decided to go to the wood alone, carrying with him, by way of precaution, a stout cane which belonged to his father, to defend himself with in case Harry should be lying in wait and make an attack upon him.
On his way he had occasion to pass by the locality of the hidden treasure, though, of course, he knew nothing about this.