CHAPTER IX.

GOOD FOR EVIL.

JULIAN, almost exhausted by his violent exertions, was in no condition to continue his fight. He simply ran to the opposite side of the poplar, in front of which the fight had taken place, and threw himself flat between the roots, where he lay trembling with fear, and hardly daring to breathe lest Jack should discover him. But that worthy was too angry to see anything except his prostrate hound. He bent over the animal for a moment, and then rushed frantically off in the direction he supposed Julian had gone, stamping through the bushes like a mad man and stopping now and then to listen for the sound of the fugitive’s footsteps. He made a wide circuit through the woods, searching everywhere for the object of his vengeance, and finally came back to his favorite again.

He seemed to be unable to bring himself to believe that he had seen Nero alive for the last time. He placed him upon his feet, called him by name, and even shook him to make him show some signs of life; and when at last he had satisfied himself that the dog was really dead, he jumped up and spurned him with his heavy boot.

“Only think!” he exclaimed aloud; “a hound that could pull down a four-pronged buck as easy as he could a chicken, that could stretch a two-year-ole bar while ye was a thinkin’ about it, an’ chaw up a full-grown wildcat every mornin’ afore breakfast, has met his match at last in that leetle pale-face Julian, who doesn’t look as if he had pluck enough to face a mouse. Nero, I am teetotally ashamed of ye. Whar is that Julian? If I don’t ketch him I shall lose the money I was goin’ to make by that trip to Orleans. But I’ll make more outen Mr. Mortimer. I’ll have that watch an’ that ring, an’ everything he’s got in his pockets afore daylight. I hain’t a goin’ to be swindled on all sides, I bet ye.”

When Jack had finished his soliloquy—every word of which Julian had overheard—he once more began his search for the fugitive. The boy remained quiet in his concealment until the sound of his footsteps had died away, and then with a long breath of relief arose to his feet and went to recover his coat. He found it where Jack had thrown it after freeing it from the teeth of the hound. It had never been a very valuable piece of property since it came into his possession, and now it was in a worse condition than ever; but Julian, knowing that he was destined for months to come to live entirely in the open air, could not think of leaving it behind. He threw the garment over his shoulder, and taking a last look at the hound, and shuddering as he recalled the incidents of the fight, bent his steps through the woods toward his store-house. He wanted to see what Tom and Jake had done to it. Perhaps they had left something there worth saving. He was very cautious in his movements, stealing along with a step that would not have awakened a cricket and pausing every few feet to listen. But he heard no suspicious sounds, and when he reached the cliff in which his store-house was located he was satisfied that he had seen the last of his enemies for that night at least.

He found the ruins of his store-house lying all along the side of the bluff, for the young robbers, not content with taking possession of Julian’s valuables, had pulled out the saplings of which the house was built and scattered them far and wide. As Julian stood looking at the ruins of the cabin, thinking how hard he had worked to build it, and wondering how Jake and Tom had ever discovered it, he heard a slight rustling in the bushes by his side, and before he could turn to see what occasioned it, he found himself lying flat on his back with a heavy weight on his breast holding him down. At the same instant he felt a strap passed around his wrist.

Had his assailant conducted his operations in silence, Julian, who believed that he had fallen into the clutches of Jack Bowles, and that it would be folly to resist, would have suffered himself to be bound without even a word of remonstrance, but his antagonist, having a confederate close by, and believing that he was likely to have more on his hands than he could well attend to, shouted lustily for help.

“Here he is, Jake,” he yelled. “Hurry up. I’ll hold him an’ ye can tie him. The $20 are our’n.”

“Tom Bowles!” cried Julian.

“Sartin; an’ ye’ll find it out as soon as we get ye fast. Don’t go to bein’ sassy now, ’cause we won’t b’ar it. Tie that ar strap around his arms, Jake.”

“Perhaps Jake isn’t man enough to do it,” replied our hero; and the sequel proved that he was not.

Julian arose to his feet as easily and quickly as though there had been no one there to prevent him, and seizing Tom by the collar, gave him a trip and a push that sent him heels over head down the cliff.

Without waiting to see what had become of him, Julian turned upon Jake, and then began another fight, which, although by no means of so serious a character as the one Julian had had a few minutes before, was quite as furious and determined. Jake was older and larger and stronger than Julian, but by no means as active. He was fighting for the $10 his father’s guest had promised him if our hero was brought back to the cabin a prisoner, and to retain possession of the $80 he carried in his pocket.

He knew that Julian was aware that he had the money about his person, for the very first clutch he made was for Jake’s pocket, in which he felt the box. His fingers closed upon it at once with a tenacity fully equal to that with which our hero had clung to his arm.

“Leave go, consarn ye,” yelled Jake, “or I’ll punch ye!”

“Let go yourself,” replied Julian. “I earned it honestly—it is mine, and I am going to have it if I have to fight you here till daylight.”

“Help! Tom, help!” shouted Jake, doubling himself up and twisting about in all sorts of shapes to break Julian’s hold. “Be ye a coward that ye stand down there gapin’ that way?”

Tom did not reply, and neither did he show any inclination to respond to his brother’s appeals for assistance. He stood at the foot of the bluff, holding his hands to his side, which had been pretty severely bruised by his fall, and listening to the footsteps and ejaculations of some one who was approaching through the bushes at a rapid run.

“Ye know that I’ve got a’most a hundred dollars of his’n in my pocket!” yelled Jake, indignant at the conduct of his brother. “Be ye goin’ to stand thar an’ let him take it away from me?”

“A’most a hundred dollars!” cried a familiar voice in tones of great amazement. “Hang on to him, Jake, an’ I’ll say no more about the whoppin’ I promised ye.”

“O, won’t ye ketch it now, Julian!” shouted Tom, almost beside himself with delight. “Pap’s a comin’!”

Both the combatants heard the words, and the fight became desperate indeed. Julian strove with greater determination than ever to force the coveted box from Jake’s pocket, and the latter, encouraged by the hope of speedy and powerful assistance, confidently continued the struggle which he had more than once been on the point of abandoning. But fortune favored the rightful owner of the money. An unlucky step on the part of his antagonist precipitated them both into the excavation in which the store-house had stood, and that ended the contest.

A severe bump took all the courage out of Jake, who, setting up a howl of pain, raised both hands to his head, while Julian, with a shout of triumph, secured the box and sprung out of the cave. A burly form met him on the brink, and strong fingers closed on his coat collar.

“I’ve got ye at last!” exclaimed Jack Bowles, so overjoyed that he could scarcely speak. “Give up them hundred dollars to onct, or I’ll wallop ye till——”

Julian did not hear what else Jack had to say, for he was not there. Mr. Bowles stood holding at arm’s length a tattered coat, to the collar of which he was clinging with all his strength; but the boy who had been in the garment when he took hold of it was bounding swiftly down the bluff.

When Julian recovered his coat after his fight with the hound, he had thrown it over his shoulders and secured it by a single button at the throat. The button had given away under Jack’s hold, leaving the boy at liberty to take himself off, which he did with a promptness and celerity that struck Bowles and his sons motionless with astonishment. By the time they had recovered themselves sufficiently to think of pursuit Julian was out of hearing.

“Hurrah for me!” soliloquized the fugitive, hugging his beloved box close to his breast and stealing along through the woods as noiselessly as a spirit. “I’ve got everything except my horse. As soon as Jack and his boys have gone to bed I’ll catch him and bid good-by to Missouri. I am all right now.”

At no time during the next half-hour was Julian out of sight of the ruins of his store-house, or out of hearing of the voices of Jack Bowles and his boys. He sat on a log so near them that had it been daylight he would certainly have been discovered, watching their movements and listening attentively to every word they said. He heard Jake relate the history of the box containing the $80, and learned for the first time that he and his brother had followed him when he went out to examine his traps, and thus discovered his secret.

As Jack and his boys believed that Julian would make the best of his way up the river now that he had recovered his money, they did not attempt any vigorous pursuit. They ran a short distance through the woods in the direction in which the fugitive had disappeared, and then Jack, utterly discouraged and almost boiling over with fury, ordered his sons to follow him toward home.

“A’most a hundred dollars!” he repeated for the twentieth time. “Don’t it beat all the world how that boy could make more money than the hul of us put together? An’ ye say that he’s got a bundle of mink skins as big as ye can shoulder that he stole outen the crib whar ye had hid ’em? They’ll bring him forty or fifty dollars more, consarn it all. Why didn’t ye tell me about the money an’ the furs the fust thing when ye brought ’em home, like ye had oughter done? I’m goin’ to foller him to-morrow on hossback. If I don’t ketch him I shall owe ye two lickins, an’ if they ain’t sich as ye’ll remember the longest day ye live, I’m a Dutchman.”

Jack and his boys walked slowly along the path that led from the store-house to the clearing, and as soon as they were out of sight in the darkness, Julian arose from his log and followed after them. He kept within hearing of their voices all the while, and when they reached the clearing he stood at the fence which inclosed the stable-yard, and saw them enter the house.

As soon as they had disappeared, he ran back to the place where he had left his rifle and furs, which, as he had taken particular pains to mark the locality, he was not long in finding. The rifle he slung over his shoulder, and the furs, together with the box containing his money, he concealed in a hollow log.

This being done, he once more bent his steps toward the clearing, resolved to make another attempt to secure his horse. The animal, which was still running restlessly about the yard with the saddle and bridle on, positively refused to permit himself to be captured, and Julian finally went toward one of the cribs, intending to try the persuasive effects of an ear of corn. As he drew near the door he stopped, almost certain that he saw the figure of a man standing in the shadow of the crib. A moment later he knew that his eyes had not deceived him, for the man, finding himself discovered, came out in plain sight and walked rapidly toward him. It was Mr. Mortimer.

“I knew you would never go away and leave your horse,” said he, in a tone of triumph. “I have been watching for you for the last half-hour. I have a legal right to control your actions, my boy, and you will save yourself some trouble by—Julian, stop! What do you mean?”

The stranger lost his commanding, threatening air in an instant, and coming to a sudden halt, raised both his hands before his face, and turned away his head as if he had seen something frightful. The change was brought about by an action on the part of Julian who, believing that the man was near enough to him to prevent any attempt at escape, cocked his rifle and leveled it full at Mr. Mortimer’s breast. He acted on his first impulse. Had he taken a second thought he would probably have made no move of this kind, for he knew that the weapon was empty. But Mr. Mortimer did not, and he stopped and backed away from the boy with much greater haste than he had used in approaching him.

“What do you mean, you young outlaw?” repeated the man, his voice trembling in spite of all his efforts to control it.

“I mean that I am not going to allow myself to be taken on board a flatboat and pushed overboard,” replied Julian, calmly; and seeing that the empty rifle proved so valuable an assistant, he resolutely kept it pointed toward the stranger’s breast.

“Turn that weapon away!” cried Mr. Mortimer, after shifting his position a dozen times to get out of range of the deadly muzzle. “I will have you arrested the first thing in the morning.”

“Very good,” answered Julian. “Then perhaps you will be called upon to show by what authority you took me away from my home and brought me here, and why you want me drowned in the river.”

“I am your guardian, I tell you.”

“I suppose I am at liberty to do as I please about believing that, am I not? But admitting that you are, it does not give you the right to abuse me, does it? Who made you my guardian?”

Before Mr. Mortimer could answer this question the door of the cabin opened, and Jack Bowles appeared on the threshold, and stood looking out into the darkness. Julian’s guardian, if such he was, was about to call out to him, but checked the words that arose to his lips when he saw the muzzle of the rifle looking straight into his face.

“Don’t speak above your breath,” said the boy, in low, earnest tones. “I have just one more word to say to you, and then I am off. I suppose you think I am the only one about here who has enemies, do you not? Well, you are mistaken. Your life is in danger, if you only knew it.”

“My life!” repeated Mr. Mortimer, as soon as he could speak. “From whom?”

“Jack Bowles. He is bound to have money, and he don’t care how he gets it. As he and his boys have failed in their attempts to rob me, and since he is likely to lose what you offered to pay him if he would accompany you to New Orleans, he has determined to rob you to-night. I heard him say so. If you go to sleep you will never see the sun rise again. This is one act of kindness I have been able to do you in return for the evil you have done me. Good night.”

“Mr. Mortimer, be that you a standin’ out thar by the corn-crib?” shouted Jack Bowles.

The gentleman heard the question, but he was thinking too busily about something else to reply. He stood motionless, watching Julian as he sped swiftly through the stable-yard, and when he leaped the fence and ran along the path that led toward the woods, Mr. Mortimer slowly and reluctantly returned to the cabin.

“Wasn’t thar nobody out thar with ye?” demanded Jack.

“Yes,” was the scarcely audible reply; “Julian was there, but I could not detain him, for he had a loaded rifle in his hands.”

“Why didn’t ye holler?” asked Jack fiercely. “I’ve got a rifle, I reckon.”

“Would you call for help if you saw a weapon pointed straight at your breast?”

Jack made no answer. He stepped aside to allow his guest to pass, and Mr. Mortimer entered and took his seat on one of the nail-kegs. He glanced at his host, and saw that there was something about his person that he had not before noticed. It was a broad leather belt, from which protruded the buck-horn handle of a bowie-knife. Mr. Mortimer shuddered as he looked at it, and wished himself away in the woods with Julian.