“If you think the money is in that particular part of the woods, why don’t you go there and stay till you find it? Or else make Jake show you where it is.”
“But Jakey won’t do it. He ain’t that sort of a boy.”
“Why, expose him; tell on him. I’ll bet you he will be quite willing to reveal the hiding-place of those valises when he feels an officer’s grip on his collar.”
“But what good will that do me? The constable who takes Jakey up will get the reward that’s been offered, an’ I shan’t see none of it. Whoop!” shouted Matt, going off into another paroxysm of rage. “Every thing an’ every body seems to be goin’ agin me this mornin’.”
“Well, then,” said Tom, who had the strongest of reasons for hoping that the squatter might never fall into the clutches of the law, “if I were in your place, I would have a serious talk with Jake. I’d tell him that he is sure to be arrested, sooner or later, that it is preposterous for him to think he can keep the money, and urge him to give it up and claim a portion of the reward. Some of it will have to go to the officers who found the robbers, you know. If you will do that, I will promise that Joe Wayring will not prosecute you for stealing his canoe.”
“’Taint no ways likely that Joe would do a favor for you,” said Matt, in a discouraged tone, “’cause you an’ him don’t hitch.”
“I know we don’t like each other any too well, but I can say a word for you, all the same. I don’t know that I can do any good here, so I will go back to camp. I came down according to agreement, but I knew I shouldn’t make any thing by it. You held fast to those guns too long. They have been found, and your hundred dollars are up stump.”
“If you knowed it, why did you pester me that-a-way for?” demanded the squatter, growing angry again.
“Why did you tell me you had the guns hidden a little way back in the woods when you hadn’t?” asked Tom, in reply. “I saw through your game at once. Your object was to get me ashore and rob me. You would have committed a State’s prison offense; but I shall not say any thing about it unless you wag your tongue too freely about me. If you do that, look out for yourself.”
So saying, Tom turned his canoe about and started for camp, well satisfied with the result of his interview with the squatter. He had kept his temper in spite of strong provocation, and made Matt believe that he was in no way responsible for the loss of the guns. More than that, he had given him good honest advice, and kept up a show of friendship by making a promise he did not mean to fulfill.