Down the Slope

"Of course not," Skip replied quickly, "but we've had such a good time that a feller can't help feelin' sorry you've got to go."

This explanation did not appear to be entirely satisfactory.

The boy alternately gazed at one and then the other for several moments in silence, and finally said in a threatening tone:

"A good many fellers have tried to get the best of me, but I allers made 'em sick before the job was finished."

"Now what are you drivin' at?" Skip asked, in well simulated surprise.

"If you don't know I won't waste time talking," was the reply, as Gus walked hurriedly away, and the boys saw him join his friend a short distance off.

"He's tumbled to our game," Skip said sadly, "an' I'd like to knock the head off the feller what put him up to it."

"That shows he knows something about the money."

"He may think we're on another racket; but there's no use loafin' 'round here. I'll go to the depot an' you find Bill."

Fred had no difficulty in following this last suggestion. The miner was already at the rendezvous, and when the details of the apparent failure had been given, he exclaimed angrily:

"It's all my fault, an' instead of helpin' Sam I've done him a power of harm."

"What do you mean?"

"I was in too much of a hurry, and thought myself mighty smart, so told the lawyer what we suspicioned. He ain't much less of a fool than I am, for he sent out to find a friend of Gus', and asked him all kinds of questions. Now we've driven 'em away, an' may as well go ourselves."

"Are we to give up working?"

"There's no use in stayin' here any longer, an' we'll strike across the mountain. Come on, so's it'll be possible to get home before dark."

CHAPTER XXII

UNEXPECTED NEWS

Fred was opposed to leaving Blacktown without seeing Sam; but Bill, smarting under the sense of having brought about his own defeat, insisted upon an immediate departure.

"It ain't likely we could get into the jail now the day is so far spent, an' if we did, what would be the use? There's nothing that could be said to cheer the boy."

"I promised."

"You can keep it the next time we come," and Bill put an end to the discussion by starting toward the mountain.

Fred followed with a heavy heart, and the two trudged on in silence until they were within a short distance of the newly-discovered coal vein, when Bill exclaimed in surprise:

"I'm blest if there isn't Joe! What's up now, I wonder?"

This question was soon answered. The approaching miner cried while yet some distance away:

"What are you comin' back so soon for?"

"There was no reason why we should stay longer," and without sparing himself in the slightest, Bill explained what a blunder had been committed.

"Well, you'd better go to Blacktown agin, or else take the train for New York."

"Why?"

"The cashier has been swearin' out a warrant for Fred's arrest, an' it'll be served the minute he gets back."

"A warrant for me?" Fred cried in alarm. "What have I done?"

"The fool thinks you know where the money is, an' that you made the arrangements with Sam, before he left, to get away with it."

"Mr. Wright won't allow such a thing."

"The letter he wrote seems to have made the cashier's neck stiffer than it was yesterday, an' I don't reckon it would do much good to depend on any officer of the company."

"I'll give that feller a piece of my mind," Bill cried angrily, and Joe replied:

"Don't do it yet a while. He told Donovan this noon that you'd gone with Fred to put the cash in a safe place, so it may be that the constable would like to see you by this time."

"Why, where does he think it was?"

"Buried on the mountain somewhere, an' if he sends men out to see if any diggin' has been done lately, the vein will surely be found."

"I'll go back any way!" Bill cried after a short pause. "Such as him shan't call me a thief."

"Now, look here, matey, what will be the good of gettin' yourself in jail? I've told Fred's mother jest how the matter stands, an' she believes as I do, that it'll be better to hang off a while in the hope something will turn up."

"An' have the constables chasin' us all over the country."

"It ain't certain they'll do that."

"But it may never be known positively who took the money," Fred added.

"If you're both so anxious to go to jail, wait till it is proved Sam is a thief, an' then show up to the constable. Things can't be worse for holdin' on a few days."

"'Cordin' to your own figgerin' there's a chance the coal will be found."

"I'll take care of that business while you an' Fred keep out of sight. With what I had, an' what could be borrowed, I've got two hundred an' twenty dollars. You shall take the odd money, an' the balance I'll plank down as a first payment on the land."

"Do you know who owns it?"

"A farmer who lived five or six miles the other side of Blacktown."

"That's correct, an' the sooner you see him the better."

"Will you agree to keep away from Farley's?"

"Yes," Bill said slowly, as if angry with himself for making the promise. "Fred an' me'll sneak 'round 'till the trade's made for this side the mountain, an' then figger up what it's best to do."