CHAPTER XV
A GLEAM OF LIGHT
WHEN Billy rang at Tuk-wil-la the next morning Mr. Smith was waiting for him; and safely in the den Billy told his story. At the close he was astonished to hear Mr. Smith chuckle softly.
“Look at that curiosity.” He handed the boy a smudged and rumpled letter.
It was a threat common enough to men of large concerns, ill-spelled, blotted, and signed with a black hand. It demanded ten thousand dollars, to be delivered by Mr. Smith in person and alone, the next night at a certain designated hour and place; and failure to comply meant certain death to one of his family.
“Sounds creepy, doesn’t it, Billy?”
“What will you do?”
“What they tell me to do,—with a difference.”
“You—surely you won’t go, Mr. Smith!”
“Surely I will. But three or four good men will be hidden out there in the bushes.”
“Gee! I’d like to be one; I can shoot.”