"Oh, it goes some way. I guess I'll begin to save, too."
"I wish you would. Then if you want to leave the circus at the end of the season we'll go somewhere together, and look for a different kind of work. We can take a room together in Boston or New York, eat at the restaurants, and look for something."
"I don't know but I should like going to New York," said Charlie.
By this time they had reached the edge of the woods, and were probably a mile or more from the town. There was no underbrush, but the trees rose clear and erect, and presented a cool and pleasant prospect to the boys, who had become warm with walking. So far as they knew, they were alone, but in this they were mistaken. Mr. Tarbox had some wood-land near by, and he had gone out to look at it, when, alike to his surprise and gratification, his eyes rested on the two boys, whom he at once recognized as belonging to the circus, having seen them ride the evening before. He didn't care particularly for Charlie Davis, but Robert Rudd had been with Anak when he inflicted upon him so mortifying personal chastisement, and he looked upon the boy as an accomplice of the man.
"That's the very boy I wanted to see," said Tarbox to himself, with a cruel smile. "I can't manage that overgrown brute, but I can manage him. I'll give the boy a lesson, and that'll be better than nothing."
Tarbox was naturally a tyrant and a bully, and, like most men of his character, was delighted when he could get hold of a person of inferior strength.
"Oh ho!" he said to himself, "the boy can't escape me now."
"Look here, boy," he said, in an impatient tone.
Robert turned quickly, and saw the frowning face of Tarbox.
Robert foresaw that trouble was in store for him, as he had seen enough of the farmer to understand his disposition. However, the boy was not easily startled, nor was he of a nervous temperament. He looked calmly at Tarbox and said: "Very well, sir, what do you want of me?"
"What do I want of you? I shouldn't think you'd need to be told. You remember me, don't you?"
"Perhaps you can remember where you saw me last?"
"In your own field, trying to whip a poor boy who was going to call the doctor for his sick mother."
"Look here, boy," said Tarbox, reddening; "none of your impudence!"