CHAPTER X.

A STRAIGHTFORWARD STATEMENT.

When Capt. Trustleton reached his elegant abode, after his call at the house of Obed Swikes, he found, as he had supposed, that Alonzo was not in his room. Then he examined his desk in the library, where he had a small sum of money; but it had not been disturbed. The captain was a man of action; and he lost no time in beginning the search for his wayward boy. He called his two hired men, and procured the services of half a dozen others; but he did not call for any officers, for he wanted to settle the case himself.

He was confident that the two boys had not come to the village after setting the fire; for they would have met the people on their way to it. He came to the conclusion that they had taken to the woods for the night, and that they would depart by the first train in the morning; for the loss of Swikes’s money indicated they were well supplied with funds. He set the men to searching the country between the river and the road; and, about one o’clock, they came to the creek. One of the men occasionally used the boat, and he missed it. Looking down the river, he saw the sail of the “Mud-turtle,” which had not been under way more than half an hour. The man did not see the captain till two hours after he made this discovery; for he was following the river road in his buggy for several miles, thinking it was possible that the runaways might have walked to the next town. When he learned that the boat was gone, he gave up the search for that night; but early in the morning he was at the house of Obed Swikes, and they had taken the first train for the south, which had arrived just as the boat came to Rivermouth, the village where the railroad crossed the river.

The pursuers had not deemed it wise to show themselves, lest the boys should attempt to escape. They watched the boat, intending to follow it as soon as they could learn where it was going. When Wade put her about, and stood up the river, they had followed on the railroad. As soon as it was made fast to the shore, they were ready to take possession of the boat and its crew. Capt. Trustleton was not a little alarmed when he saw the fierce battle that was in progress in the standing-room. Neither he nor Swikes had expected to find Wade Brooks with the fugitives, for they were not on good terms the day before; and certainly their relations did not appear to be any more friendly than then.

“What are you choking my boy for, you villain?” demanded Capt. Trustleton, springing into the boat, catching Wade Brooks by the collar, and shaking him up very thoroughly.

Wade thought he could handle the son, but he did not care to contend with the father. When the captain had shaken him to his heart’s content, he pitched him over into one corner of the standing-room. Wade picked himself up, and, stepping upon the forward deck, placed a respectful distance between himself and the angry father.

“What on airth are you a-doin’ here, Wade Brooks?” added Swikes,--“fightin’ too?”

“Do you want to kill my boy?” demanded Capt. Trustleton.

“He begun it; and that was the second time he pitched into me to-day,” pleaded Wade. “I won’t stand it to have him hammer me whenever he takes a notion to do so.”

“He pounded me almost to death with a club this morning,” whined Lon, when he had picked himself up.

“What did you pitch into him for?” asked his father, who seemed to have some faith in Wade’s report.

“He’s always interfering with me,” answered Lon, who was not disposed to give the true reason for his attack.

“He interfered with your stealing peaches yesterday, didn’t he?” demanded the father sternly.

Lon hung his head; for he saw that his father knew all about the events of the day before.

“Now, Wade Brooks, what did you do with the money you stole from the closet over the mantletry-piece?” said Swikes, coming to the question that was nearest to his heart.

“I didn’t steal it,” replied Wade; and he began to wish the wallet was not in his pocket under the present circumstances: it was just his luck.

“Who did steal it, then? You was gone from the garret before the fire broke out; and I knowed you had it when I found you was gone.”

“Matt took it, and I saw him do it,” replied Wade; but he had no hope of making the farmer believe what he said.

“I took it!” exclaimed Matt, with a violent show of indignation. “It’s an awful lie!”

“I can’t believe you would take all that money from your own father,” added Swikes. “It don’t look reasonable to me.”

“I didn’t do it, father: I wouldn’t do such a thing!” protested Matt, taking the cue his father gave him. “I didn’t know that you had lost any money. If anybody took it, Wade Brooks must have done it.”

“There, Capt. Trustleton! I told you so!” exclaimed Swikes triumphantly. “I told you my boy wouldn’t do such a thing. He did not even know that the money was gone.”

“Perhaps he didn’t know it; but boys who can set a barn on fire out of spite are not generally too good to tell lies; and, for the present, I am not inclined to believe what either of them may say,” replied Capt. Trustleton coldly.

“Set a barn on fire, father!” exclaimed Lon, apparently as much astonished as Matt had been. “Who did such a thing, sir?”

“Mr. Garlick says you and Matthew Swikes did.”

“Why, father! I hope you didn’t believe such a thing!” protested Lon.

“I am sorry to say that I did believe it; and I have not changed my mind much since. What are you doing down here in this boat?”

“We only came down to take a sail,” replied Lon.

“That’s all, sir,” added Matt.

“You selected a strange time to take a sail,” said the captain, looking his son sharp in the eye, so that Lon hung his head. “Where were you going to?”

“Only down to the Sound.”

“And did you invite Wade Brooks to go with you?”

“No, sir: he invited himself. We didn’t know he was in the boat till this morning.”

“After he stole the money, he went down to the boat to sleep in the cuddy,” interposed Matt, who was anxious to convict Wade. “He was asleep in there when we started; and he was as ugly as sin this morning.”

“That’s just the way it was done,” added Swikes.

“I should like to hear the Brooks boy on that subject,” said Capt. Trustleton.

“It don’t make no difference what the Brooks boy says. He don’t tell the truth; and he’s too cunning to tell you that he took the money,” protested Swikes.

“How came you in the boat?” inquired the captain, turning to Wade.

“I’m going to tell the whole truth if I’m killed for it,” replied Wade, as he stepped down into the standing-room, and seated himself opposite Capt. Trustleton.

“Mind you do! and don’t tell me Matthew took the money,” said Swikes.

“I shall tell you he did, for that’s the truth,” replied Wade.

Beginning back at the flogging the female Swikes had given him, he related all that occurred up to the arrival of the two fathers of the runaways. When he came to speak of the money which Matt was counting in the cuddy, Swikes was all attention; for he was thinking whether or not he should ever see it again.

“You saw Matthew put the wallet under the floor, did you?” asked Swikes, greatly excited, as he glanced at the cuddy, hoping soon to be told that it was still there.

“Yes, sir: that’s what I said,” continued Wade.

“It’s all a lie, father!” exclaimed Matt.

“Don’t you say any thing till Brooks has finished,” said Capt. Trustleton sternly. “Go on, Brooks.”

“Matt didn’t know I was in the boat. He was back to me, and I sat on this seat where I am now,” Wade proceeded. “When he had divided the money into two piles, he put them in different pockets of the wallet. Pretty soon he pulled away the hay under where he had been sitting, and took up one of the narrow boards. You see where that one is gone,” and Wade pointed to the opening in the floor. “I looked in the hole on this side, and I saw him put the wallet in there. When he had done it, he lay down, and went to sleep.”

“But where is the wallet now? Is it in that hole?” demanded Swikes impatiently, as he rose from his seat to look for the missing treasure.

“No, sir: it is not there now, for I took it out while both of them were asleep; and here it is,” replied Wade, taking the wallet from his pocket, and giving it to the owner.

“I knew he had it!” incautiously exclaimed Lon.

“Oh! you did?” said Capt. Trustleton. “How did you know he had it?”

“I meant that I knew he stole it,” replied Lon, seeing he had been guilty of a slip of the tongue.

“No, sir: that was not what he meant,” added Wade. “I will tell you what he meant before I get through. When we got to this place, Lon told me they had concluded not to stop here to get any thing to eat; but I said I had concluded to stop. Then they went into the cuddy, and staid there half an hour or longer. I saw them pulling away the hay, and I knew they were looking for the money. As I was bound to stop here, I made up my mind that they went for the money, meaning to take a train to New York, and get rid of me. Then they came out of the cabin, and Lon pitched into me: Matt tried to help him. We were at it when you came, but I had got the best of it.”

“Matt didn’t help me as he agreed to do,” said Lon, putting his foot into it again; for he seemed to believe it was necessary to explain to his father why he had lost the battle.

“Then Matthew agreed to help you?” added the captain. “What did he agree to help you do, my son?”

“To help me lick Wade Brooks before we left the boat.”

“They were not so anxious to lick me as they were to get that wallet,” said Wade. “Lon came at me behind, and tried to pull me down. If he wanted to lick me, he would have taken that stick, and used it as I did.”

“I don’t believe a word of that story!” exclaimed Swikes.

“If that story is not true, Brooks has more talent for lying than your boy or mine,” answered Capt. Trustleton. “It is a straightforward statement.”

Wade Brooks began to have some hope that he might not be utterly condemned.