“Dunno; mebbe he won’t come back. You see, he’s got some relatives over there, and his cousin Jim said he could git him a job in a machine shop. He ain’t never been much struck on work, but all of a sudden last night he took a notion he’d like to try it, and he wouldn’t let up on me till I give my consent. I guess mebbe ’twill do him good. He got into some kind of a fuss with the perfesser at the academy and was sent home. I cal’late he’s got about eddication enough, anyhow, for he never was no hand to study.”
“Belford,” muttered Grant. “How far is that?”
“Oh, ’bout sixty mile or so. Why, what’s the matter?”
“I would like to see Spotty and have a talk with him.”
“Ho! Well, that would be a master long distance to travel jest for a talk.”
“Spotty was sick yesterday morning when I called. He must have recovered right suddenly.”
“Oh, I guess he wa’n’t very sick; he jest wanted to lay in bed, that was all. I hope he’ll fall into good company in Belford, for the fellers he’s took up with ’round here ain’t done him no good.”
Rod shrugged his shoulders with a wry smile, bade the man good day, and turned away. So Spotty had left town suddenly and unexpectedly; this act seemed to confirm Grant in his suspicions regarding the fellow.
“He stole two dollars of my money,” muttered Rod, as he walked homeward, “and he stole my silk handkerchief also. It was Spotty who shot Barker’s dog, and either he lost the handkerchief afterward or became frightened and left it hanging on a bush in order to turn suspicion from himself. I sure hate to think that last, even of Spotty; but somehow I can’t help it, knowing he would reason it out that the condition of affairs between Barker and myself and the possible finding of the handkerchief would make it seem a sure thing that I did the shooting.”
Neither Barker nor Grant appeared at school that afternoon, Berlin remaining away because of his intense chagrin and shame, and Rod feeling himself too disturbed to study or appear in recitations. The boy from Texas knew his motives might be misconstrued, but he smiled grimly over the thought that any one should fancy that fear had anything to do with them.