Although Silas Morgan had received the most convincing proof that he had nothing more to fear from the "hant" which had so long occupied all his waking thoughts and disturbed his dreams at night, he would not have taken one step toward Mr. Warren's house before morning, had he not been urged on by the hope that the sheriff would be ready to pay over his money as soon as the robber was given up to him. The desire to handle the reward to which he was entitled was stronger than his fear of the dark. "And what shall I do with them twenty-five hundred after I get 'em, Joey?" said he. "That's what's a bothering of me now." And it was the very thing that was bothering Joe, also. His father had always been in "I'll tell you what I wouldn't do with it," said Joe, after a little hesitation. "I wouldn't give Hobson any of it." "You're right I won't!" exclaimed Silas. "He's got more'n his share already. What be you going to do with yours, when you get it?" "I think now that I shall put it in the bank at Hammondsport," answered Joe. "It will be safe there, and if I am careful of it, it will last me until I get through going to school. You don't want to go to school, but you might go into business and increase your capital." "That's it—that's it, Joey!" exclaimed Silas, who grew enthusiastic at once. "I never thought of that. But what sort of business? It must be something easy, 'cause I've worked hard enough already." "Mr. Warren says that there is no easy way of making a living," began Joe; but his "What does old man Warren know about it?" he demanded. "He never had to do a hand's turn in his life." "But he don't know what it is to be idle, and he is busy at something every day," said Joe. "I'll tell you what I have often thought I would do if I had a little money, and I may do it yet, if you don't decide to go into it. The new road that is coming through here is bound to bring a good many people to the Beach, sooner or later. As the trout are nearly all gone, the guests will have to devote their attention to the bass in the lake, and consequently there will be a big demand for boats." "So there will!" exclaimed Silas, who saw at once what Joe was trying to get at. "That's the business I've been looking for, Joey, and it's an easy one, too. Of course, I can let all my boats at so much an hour, and I won't have nothing to do but sit on the beach and take in my money." "And what'll I be doing?" inquired Dan, who had not spoken before. "You!" cried Silas, who seemed to have forgotten that Dan was one of the party. "You will keep on chopping cord wood, to pay you for the mean trick you played on me this morning. You see what you made by it, don't you? I reckon you wish you'd stayed by me now, don't you? How much will them boats cost me, Joey?" "I should think that ten or a dozen skiffs would be enough to begin with," answered Joe, "and they will cost you between three and four hundred dollars; but you would have enough left to rent a piece of ground of Mr. Warren and put up a snug little house on it." "Then I'll be a gentlemen like the rest of 'em, won't I?" exclaimed Silas, gleefully. "No, you won't," said Dan, to himself. "That bridge ain't been built yet, and I don't reckon Hobson means to have it there. He is going to bust it up some way or 'nother, and I'm just the man to help him, if he'll pay me for it. Everybody is getting rich 'cepting me, and I ain't going to be treated this way no longer!" Silas was so completely carried away by Joe's plan for making money without work that he could think of nothing else. He forgot how determined and vindictive Dan was, and how easy it would be for him to place a multitude of obstacles in his way, but Joe didn't. The latter knew well enough that Dan intended to make trouble if he were left out in the cold, but what could be done for so lazy and unreliable a fellow as he was? That was the question. While Joe was turning it over in his mind, he led the way through Mr. Warren's gate and up to the porch, where he found his employer sitting in company with the sheriff and both Uncle Hallet's game wardens. The deputy was in an upper room, keeping guard over the other prisoner. Of course, Tom and Bob, who were greatly surprised as well as delighted to see Joe and his party, wanted to know just how the capture of robber number two had been brought about, and while Joe was telling the story, the sheriff marched the captive into the house and turned him over to his deputy. Then he came back and sat down; but he did not put his hand into his pocket and pull out the reward as Silas hoped he would. "This has been a good day's work all around," said Tom, who was in high spirits. "The next time there is any detective work to be done in this county, Bob and I will volunteer to do it. We can catch more criminals by sitting still and writing letters than the officers can by bringing all their skill into play." The sheriff laughed, and said that was the way the thing looked from where he sat. "The fun is all over now," continued Tom, "and to-morrow we will go to work in earnest. You will be on hand, of course?" Joe replied that he would. "By-the-way," chimed in Bob, "did this robber of yours have a gun of any description in his hands when he was captured?" "No." "Then, Joe, you and I are just that much out of pocket. The guns are gone up." "What has become of them?" "They are out in the hills somewhere," While this conversation was going on, Silas Morgan, who stood at the foot of the steps that led to the porch, kept pulling Joe by the coat-sleeve, and whispering to him: "Never mind the guns. Tell the sheriff that I'm powerful anxious to see the color of them twenty-five hundred." Joe paid no sort of attention to him, and finally Silas became so very much in earnest in his endeavors to attract the boy's notice, that the officer saw it; and when there was a little pause in the conversation, he said carelessly: "Oh, about the reward, Silas—" "That's the idee," replied the ferryman, "I?" exclaimed the sheriff. "I haven't got it. I have never had a cent of it in my possession." "Then who's going to give it to me?" demanded Silas, who wondered if the officer was going to cheat him out of his money. "Well, you see, Silas," said the sheriff, "the reward is conditioned upon the arrest and conviction of the burglars. They have been arrested, and their conviction is only a matter of time; but you can't get your money until they are sentenced." "And how long will that be?" "The court will sit again in about six weeks. As some of the money was offered by the county, and the rest by the men who lost the jewelry and things that were found in that valise, you will get your reward from different parties, unless they hand it over to me to be paid to you in a lump." "That's the way I want it," said Silas, who was very much disappointed. "I'm going into business." "What sort of business?" inquired Mr. Warren. "I am going to keep a boat-house down to the Beach." "Well now, Silas, that's the most sensible thing I have heard from you in a long time," said Mr. Warren. "I'll rent you a piece of ground big enough for a garden, and you can set yourself up in business in good shape, build a nice house, and have money left in the bank. If you manage the thing rightly, you and Dan ought to make a good living of it." "Who said anything about Dan?" exclaimed Silas. "I did. Of course, you can't ignore him, because you are wealthy. He wants a chance to earn an honest living, and he needs it, too. He's a strong boy, a first-rate hand with a boat, knows all the best fishing-grounds on the lake, and would be just the fellow to send out with a party who wanted a guide and "Well, I won't do it," said Silas, promptly. "He's a lazy, good-for-nothing scamp, Dan is, and I won't take him into business along with me." "But you will hire him, and give him a chance to quit breaking the game-law, and make an honest living," said the sheriff. "By-the-way, Silas, I guess you had better bring up those setters, and save me the trouble of going after them." "What setters?" exclaimed Silas, who acted as if he were on the point of taking to his heels. "I ain't got none. I took 'em down to the hotel and give 'em up." "I am glad to hear it, because it will save me some trouble," replied the officer, "I have had my eyes on those dogs ever since you got hold of them, and I should have been after them long ago, if I had known where to find the owner. Don't do that again, Silas. Honesty is the best policy, every day in the week." "If you will leave your business in my hands I will attend to it for you, and you will And Joe was glad to hear him say it, because it showed him that the gentleman did not intend that his father should squander all his money, if he could help it. "It is too late in the season for you to do anything with your boats this year, but I will give you and Dan a steady job at chopping wood, and if you take care of the money you earn, instead of spending it at Hobson's bar, you can live well during the winter. If the reward is not paid over to you by the time spring opens, I will advance you enough to start you in business and build your house. Then I think you had better give Dan a chance." "So do I," whispered Tom to his friend Bob. "Dan has lived by his wits long enough, and if Silas doesn't begin to take some interest in him, the sheriff will have a word or two to say about those setters. I can see plainly enough that he intends to hold that affair over Silas as a whip to make him behave himself." "Do you think Silas will ever have the reward paid him in a lump?" asked Bob. "No, I don't, because he doesn't know enough to take care of so much money. Joe can get his any time he wants it, for Mr. Warren knows that he will make every cent of it count." Then, aloud, Tom said: "Well, Bob, seeing that we've got to get up in the morning, we had better be going home. Come over bright and early, Joe, and we will take your things back to your cabin." "And I will send up another supply of provisions," said Mr. Warren. Joe thanked his employer, bade him good-night, and led the way out of the yard. For a time he and his party walked along in silence, and then Silas, who began to have a vague idea that he had been imposed upon in some way, broke out fiercely: "What did old man Warren mean by saying that if I didn't get all my money by the time spring comes, he would advance enough to set me up in business?" Silas almost shouted. "Looks to me like he'd 'p'inted Joe thought so, too, and he was glad of it. If that was Mr. Warren's intention, Joe's mother would be likely to reap some benefit from the reward; otherwise, she would not. |