"I now know by his words here to-night that he has been looking for me, and thus found out that I had left the city. His presence here indicates also that he has been discharged for some reason from Mr. Johnson's employ, and is allied with a gang of burglars. This only strengthens my belief that he is guilty of the crimes for which my father is now in prison.
"As to my tramp, it was a long and severe one. I reached Providence finally without money and no prospect of work. Every effort there to secure a job failed, and I continued my tramp. In the village over here I heard of Benton, and that he wanted a lad about my age. It was cold, a storm threatened, I was hungry, and had nowhere to lay my head. His offer I was at the time thankful to accept, and began my work for him."
"Does your father know where you are?" asked Judd, as his partner finished and bowed his head upon the table to conceal the emotions the narrating of his story had awakened.
"I went to see him before I paid Mr. Johnson," Budd replied without raising his head, "and had his approval of my course. After I hired out to Mr. Benton I sent a brief line to him explaining that I had found work. I did not give my address, for I was afraid if I got a letter from the prison my story might come out, and I should have to seek a home in some other place. I tell you, Judd, it's a heavy burden I carry--one that will blight my whole life, and that has already, as you see, changed my whole future."
"Yes, Budd, I know it," replied his companion; "and yet you know, and your father knows, he is innocent, while I know my father is everything that the people of this community may care to call him. Your mother was confident of your father's innocence, and died before she knew of his imprisonment, while my mother all her married life had the burden of knowing she was married to a brute. Surely there is much yet for you to be thankful for, and perhaps Bagsley's presence here means that you are yet to prove his guilt and set your father free. Some light has been thrown on the matter by this incident of to-night."
"You are right, Judd, and I will take heart at your words. The darkest hour seems to have passed, and light has begun to come. I am pleasantly situated, and can soon send Mr. Johnson a payment on the last five hundred dollars. In some way, too, Bagsley may be led to confess the part he has played, and then father can go free, and here I'll have a home to which he can come until we plan for the future. But whatever comes, and whatever plans are made, there will always be a place for you. Brief as the time has been since I knew you, I love you like a brother."
"We will be brothers," Judd declared. "Through thick and thin we'll stand by each other;" and with a hearty shake of the hands the lads went to bed, and were soon asleep.
And neither one for a single moment supposed that before the coming week was over a darker cloud and a heavier burden would fall upon Budd's heart, and that Judd's declaration would have a severe test.
[CHAPTER XI.--AN UNFORTUNATE PREDICAMENT.]
The young partners on the following day talked over the adventure they had had with the burglars, and decided to say nothing about the affair to any one else for the present.