"I have no fault to find with you on that score."
"Then why do you discharge me?"
"You know well enough."
"Is it because that boy Robert Rudd has lied about me?"
"Robert Rudd would not lie about anybody. I have perfect confidence in him. As for you, Carden, you may as well make up your mind to leave the town and seek employment elsewhere. As long as I am manager of this circus I will never again employ you in any capacity."
Carden's face grew dark and lowering. He saw that the manager was in earnest, and he said no more, but went away muttering something to himself in a low voice which the manager could not understand.
"That is a bad fellow!" thought Mr. Coleman. "We are well rid of him. He looks as if he could do something worse than steal."
Finding himself foiled in his attempt to regain his old place, Carden felt still more incensed against the boy, whom he considered to be the cause of his dismissal. He felt that it would be a satisfaction to injure him in some way, and so revenge himself. For this purpose he determined to remain in the town until the circus left. He secured board, therefore, in the family of a farmer not far away, and spent his days about the village and his evenings in some low drinking place.
One day as he was sauntering along the street, with a discontented scowl upon his face, he came face to face with a well-dressed man, who appeared to be a stranger in the place.
He would have passed him by without any other notice than a passing glance, had not the stranger accosted him.