“I’m willing to go to bed,” said Tony. “I’ve walked a good deal to-day, and I’m tired.”
They went into the house. There was a heap of rags in the corner of the room when they entered.
That’s my bed,” said old Ben; “it’s all I have.”
“I can sleep on the floor,” said Tony.
He took off his jacket, rolled it up for a pillow, and stretched himself out on the bare floor. He had often slept so before.
CHAPTER VIII
TONY HIRES OUT
Tony was not slow in going to sleep. Neither his hard bed nor his strange bedchamber troubled him.
Generally he slept all night without awakening, but to-night, for some unknown reason, he awoke about two o’clock. It was unusually light for that hour, and so he was enabled to see what at first startled him. The old man had raised a plank forming a part of the flooring, and had lifted from beneath it a canvas bag full of gold pieces. He was taking them out and counting them, apparently quite unconscious of Tony’s presence.
Tony raised himself on his elbow, and looked at him. It occurred to him that for a man so suspicious it was strange that he should expose his hoard before a stranger. Something, however, in the old man’s look led him to think that he was in a sleep-walking fit.