CHAPTER X.

TOM LEARNS SOMETHING.

“What do you think of my plan, anyhow?” asked Tom. “Isn’t it glorious?”

“I would rather know what _you_ think of it when you have heard my story, which I will begin as soon as you have finished yours,” answered Oscar. “You have not yet given me any idea of your business. Where’s your home?”

“Haven’t got any. Don’t need one.”

“How did you come up from Denver?”

“Walked every step of the way, and my partner’s pony carried the plunder.”

“He didn’t have to overtax his strength, did he?” said Oscar, looking at the battered coffee-pot in the brook, which was the only thing in the shape of “plunder” or luggage that he had seen in the camp, if we except the axe which rested on the other end of the log that served them for a seat. “Where is your rifle?”

“Don’t need that, either, although I confess it would be a nice thing to have at hand in case of trouble. My partner has one, and I was going to depend on him to supply our larder and keep us in bait. I suppose you have firearms?”

“Yes; I have a rifle, revolver, and shot-gun.”

“All right. We are well provided for in that line, but strychnine is what we shall depend on, so don’t forget to lay in a good supply of it when you go back to the village. Before you go I will tell you what else we need, and bright and early to-morrow morning we’ll set out. When we reach a country in which wolves are known to be plenty, we’ll make a camp, and go to work at once. The first thing will be to procure bait, which may be anything in the shape of fresh meat that comes in our way. The skin we shall save, of course; but the meat will be cut up into pieces, sprinkled with strychnine, and scattered about over the snow. The next morning we’ll go out and bring in our dead wolves. The skins will be taken off and cured, and the carcasses will serve as bait for other wolves.”

“You will need warmer clothes than those you have on, if you are going to be exposed to the weather,” said Oscar.

“I know it; and I shall depend on you to buy some for me. I shall soon be able to repay you, for there is money in this business. Everybody says so.”

“I am glad of it, and since you seem determined to go into it, I hope you will be successful. If you are, you can return Mr. Smith’s money with legal interest.”

Oscar watched his brother narrowly as he uttered these words, and was not much surprised at the effect they produced upon him.

Tom jumped to his feet, and doubling up his fists, began flourishing them in the air over his head, preparatory to saying something emphatic. Then, suddenly recollecting himself, he dropped his hands by his side, and took his seat on the log again.

“I can do that, can’t I?” said he, with a great show of earnestness, which, like the enthusiasm he had exhibited a few minutes before, was all “put on” for the occasion. “It would restore me to my old standing in society, wouldn’t it?”

“No, it wouldn’t, although it would go a long way toward it. It is, in fact, the very first step you must take if you want to regain the confidence of the folks in Eaton. There is a stain upon your character, and you must live it down. That’s what I had to do.”

“You! My conduct didn’t affect you in any way.”

“I should say it did, and in more ways than one. Mr. Smith discharged me because he was afraid to trust me, and that is what brought me out here. You remember how much sport you used to make of my taxidermy, don’t you? Well, it is now bringing me in a hundred dollars a month, clear of all expenses. I received enough in advance to make mother comfortable a long time, and a thousand dollars besides with which to pay my bills.”

“Why, what do you mean?” exclaimed Tom, who was quite as much astonished as Oscar expected him to be.

“I mean just what I say. I have a life position, if I succeed in satisfying my employers, with the promise of a big increase in my salary. I may go to Africa after I get through here on the plains.”

“Oh, now, leave off chaffing me!” said Tom impatiently. “I am in no humor for nonsense.”

“It is not nonsense. I will tell you all about it, and when you have heard my story, you are at liberty to think what you please.”

Oscar then went on to describe, in as few words as possible, all the incidents which had operated to make so great a change in his circumstances.

He told the story of his discharge from the store, of the vindication of his character by the discovery of the thief who had been systematically robbing the money-drawer (Oscar did not yet know that his friends, Sam Hynes and Miles Jackson, had anything to do with that affair), and of Mr. Smith’s efforts to induce him to return to his old situation at an increased salary.

He told how he and Sam Hynes had rescued Professor Potter when the latter was capsized off the head of Squaw Island, and wound up his narrative by giving the details of his visit to Yarmouth, and his employment by the committee who controlled the immense fund which was to be expended in adding a museum to the university.

Tom listened in genuine amazement; and, by the time the story was finished, he was so angry that he could scarcely breathe.

He would have been glad, indeed, if he could have disbelieved every word his brother uttered, but his story bore the impress of truth upon the face of it.

We know how he had accounted for Oscar’s presence there on the plains, and he had fairly rejoiced in the belief that his brother was a runaway thief like himself.

Misery loves company, you know, and Tom found great satisfaction in the thought that Oscar, whom everybody in Eaton believed to be strictly honest and truthful, had at last yielded to temptation and sunk to a level as low as that which he himself occupied. But, when the real facts of the case were revealed—when Tom learned that his brother had left home in broad daylight, and with his mother’s full and free consent; that he was backed up by a committee worth a hundred thousand dollars, and provided with letters that would place him on terms of intimacy with the highest officers on the plains, both civil and military; that those officers would give him a good “send-off,” and stand ready at all times to assist him by every means in their power—when Tom thought of all these things, his rage got the better of him, and he jumped to his feet with the wildest kind of a warwhoop.

“Have you got the impudence to come here and tell me that you are growing rich every day, while I am freezing and starving?” he demanded, in a voice which was rendered almost indistinct by intense passion.

“I tell you that I have a steady income, and it is the truth,” replied Oscar.

“And you never stole any of old Smith’s money?”

“Of course not. I never handled a dishonest penny in my life.”

“And do you know that while you were comfortably housed at the fort last night, and having a good time with those officers, who wouldn’t look at me any sooner than they would look at a yellow dog—do you know that while you were enjoying yourself in that way, I was sitting shivering over this camp fire, with nothing but hardtack to eat, and nobody but an ignorant, ragged backwoodsman for company? Do you know it?” yelled Tom, who hardly realized what he said in the excess of his fury. “What do you mean by it? and what amends are you going to make for treating me so?”

“I don’t know that I can make you any amends,” said Oscar, who was greatly astonished. “You surely can’t expect me to come out here and shiver over a miserable camp fire, and take a ragged backwoodsman for a companion, just because you choose to do so!”

“You know well enough that I didn’t mean that!” Tom almost shrieked. “Why didn’t you do something for me?”

“I didn’t know you were here.”

“And it would have made no difference if you had known it. But that’s always the way. Those who are lucky don’t care a straw for those that are unlucky. The harder a fellow tries to better his condition in life the worse he is off. There is no one who has planned and schemed more than I have to make money, and now look at me! You, on the contrary, took matters easily, and Fortune has showered favors on you by the bucketful. You will go off to the hills with a guide, provisions, and clothing in abundance, and everything else that will enable you to live in camp as comfortably as you would at home, while I——”

Tom was too angry to say more just then. He walked back and forth in front of his brother, shaking his fists in the air and swearing at the top of his voice.