Produced by Alan Johns and Andrew Sly
[Illustration: Dave meets Lester Brigham.]
Boy Trapper Series
THE
BOY TRAPPER.
By HARRY CASTLEMON,
AUTHOR OF "THE FRANK NELSON SERIES," "THE SPORTSMAN'S CLUB SERIES,"
"GUNBOAT SERIES," &C.
PHILADELPHIA
HENRY T. COATES & CO.
FAMOUS CASTLEMON BOOKS.
Gunboat Series. By Harry Castlemon. 6 vols. 12mo.
Frank the Young Naturalist.
Frank on a Gunboat.
Frank in the Woods.
Frank before Vicksburg.
Frank on the Lower Mississippi.
Frank on the Prairie.
Rocky Mountain Series. By Harry Castlemon. 3 vols. 12mo. Cloth.
Frank among the Rancheros.
Frank at Don Carlos' Ranch.
Frank in the Mountains.
Sportsman's Club Series. By Harry Castlemon. 3 vols. 12mo. Cloth.
The Sportsman's Club in the Saddle.
The Sportsman's Club Afloat.
The Sportsman's Club among the Trappers.
Frank Nelson Series. By Harry Castlemon. 3 vols. 12mo. Cloth.
Snowed Up.
Frank in the Forecastle.
The Boy Traders.
Boy Trapper Series. By Harry Castlemon. 3 vols. 12mo. Cloth.
The Buried Treasure.
The Boy Trapper.
The Mail-Carrier.
Roughing It Series. By Harry Castlemon. 3 vols. 12mo. Cloth.
George in Camp.
George at the Wheel.
George at the Fort.
Rod and Gun Series. By Harry Castlemon. 3 vols. 12mo. Cloth.
Don Gordon's Shooting Box.
Rod and Gun Club.
The Young Wild Fowlers.
Go-Ahead Series. By Harry Castlemon. 3 vols. 12mo. Cloth.
Tom Newcombe.
Go-Ahead.
No Moss.
Forest and Stream Series. By Harry Castlemon. 3 vols. 12mo. Cloth.
Joe Wayring.
Snagged and Sunk.
Steel Horse.
War Series. By Harry Castlemon. 5 vols. 12mo. Cloth.
True to his Colors.
Rodney the Partisan.
Rodney the Overseer.
Marcy the Blockade-Runner.
Marcy the Refugee.
Other Volumes in Preparation.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by PORTER &
COATES, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
CONTENTS
I. A GLANCE AT THE PAST
II. DAVID'S VISITORS
III. AN OFFER OF PARTNERSHIP
IV. MORE BAD NEWS
V. DAN IS ASTONISHED
VI. BRUIN'S ISLAND
VII. WHAT HAPPENED THERE
VIII. DOGS IN THE MANGER
IX. NATURAL HISTORY
X. A BEAR HUNT
XI. TRAPPING QUAILS
XII. WHERE THE POINTER WAS
XIII. TEN DOLLARS REWARD
XIV. SOME DISCOVERIES
XV. BOB'S ASPIRATIONS
XVI. DON'S HOUNDS TREE SOMETHING
XVII. CONCLUSION
CHAPTER I.
A GLANCE AT THE PAST.
"Don't worry about it, mother. It is nothing we can help."
"It seems to me that I might have helped it. If I had gone to General
Gordon when your father first spoke about that barrel with the eighty
thousand dollars in it, and told him the whole story, things might
have turned out differently. But in spite of all he said, I did not
suppose that he was in earnest."
"Neither did I. That any man in his sober senses should think of such
a thing! Why, mother, if there had been so much money buried in that
potato-patch, the General would have known it, and don't you suppose
he would have found it if he'd had to plough the field up ten feet
deep? Of course he would."
"But just think of the disgrace that has been brought upon us."
"Father is the only one who has done anything to be ashamed of, and
he made matters worse by running away. If he would come home and
attend to his business, no one would say a word to him. The General
told me so this morning."
"I am afraid you couldn't make your father believe it."
"Perhaps not, but if I knew where to find him I should try."
It was David Evans who spoke last. He and his mother were talking
over the strange incidents that had happened in the settlement during
the last few days, and which we have attempted to describe in the
preceding volume of this series. The events were brought about by a
very foolish notion which Godfrey Evans, David's father, suddenly got
into his head.
During our late war it was the custom of the people living in the
South to conceal their valuables when they heard of the approach of
the Union army. They were also careful to take the same precautions
to save their property when it became known that the rebel guerillas
were near at hand; for these worthies were oftentimes but little
better than organized bands of robbers, and the people stood as much
in fear of them as they did of the Federals. These valuables,
consisting for the most part of money, jewelry and silverware, were
sometimes hidden in cellars, in hollow logs in the woods and in
barns; but more frequently they were buried in the ground. The work
of hiding them was sometimes performed by the planters themselves, if
they happened to be at home, but it was generally intrusted to old
and faithful servants in whom their owners had every confidence. It
not unfrequently happened that these old and faithful servants proved
themselves utterly unworthy of the trust reposed in them. Sometimes
they told the raiding soldiers where the property was concealed, and
at others they ran away without telling even their masters where the
valuables were hidden. General Gordon's old servant, Jordan, was one
of this stamp. He went off with the Union forces, who raided that
part of Mississippi, and before he went he told a rebel soldier,
Godfrey Evans, who happened to be at home on a furlough, and who was
skulking in the woods to avoid capture, that he had just buried a
barrel containing eighty thousand dollars in gold and silver in his
master's potato-patch, and that none of the family knew where it was.
This Godfrey Evans had been well off in the world at one time. He had
property to the amount of fifteen thousand dollars; but, like many
others, he lost it all during the war, and returned home after the
surrender of General Lee to find himself a poor man. His comfortable
house had been burned over the heads of his wife and children, who
were now living in a rude hut which some kind-hearted neighbors had
hastily erected; his negroes, who had made his money for him, were
all gone; his cattle had been slaughtered by both rebel and Union
troops, and his mules and horses carried off; his fine drove of hogs,
which ran loose in the woods, and upon which he relied to furnish his
year's supply of bacon, had wandered away and become wild; and
Godfrey had nothing but his rifle and his two hands with which to
begin the world anew. But it was hard to go back and begin again
where he had begun forty years ago. The bare thought of it was enough
to discourage Godfrey, who declared that he wouldn't do it, and made
his words good by becoming a roving vagabond. He spent the most of
his time at the landing, watching the steamers as they came in, and
the rest in wandering listlessly about the woods, shooting just game
enough to keep him in powder, lead and tobacco. His sole companion
and friend was his son Daniel, who, being a chip of the old block,
faithfully imitated his father's lazy, useless mode of life. Mrs.
Evans and the younger son, David, were the only members of the family
who worked. They never lost an opportunity to turn an honest penny,
and there were times when Godfrey and Dan would have gone supperless
to bed if it had not been for these two faithful toilers.
Godfrey disliked this aimless, joyless existence as much as he
disliked work, and even Dan at times longed for something better.
They both wanted to be rich. Godfrey wanted to see his fine
plantation, which was now abandoned to briers and cane, cultivated as
it used to be; while it was Dan's ambition to have two or three
painted boats in the lake, to have a pointer following at his heels,
and to do his shooting with a double-barrel gun that "broke in two in
the middle." He wanted to take his morning's exercise on a spotted
pony--a circus horse, he called it; and to wear a broadcloth suit,
a Panama hat and patent leather boots, when he went to church on
Sundays. Don and Bert Gordon had all these aids to happiness, and
they were the jolliest fellows he had ever seen--always laughing,
singing or whistling. Dan thought he would be happy too, if he could
only have so many fine things to call his own, but he could see no
way to get them, and that made him angry. He hated Don and Bert so
heartily that he could never look at them without wishing that some
evil might befall them. He threatened to steal their horses, shoot
their dogs, sink their boats, and do a host of other desperate
things, believing that in this way he could render the two happy
brothers as miserable as he was himself.
Godfrey and Dan lived in a most unenviable frame of mind for a year
or more, and then the former one day happened to think of the barrel
which old Jordan had told him was hidden in the potato-patch. He
spoke of it while the family were at dinner, and announced that he
and Dan would begin the work of unearthing the BURIED TREASURE that
very night. If they didn't find it the first time they tried, they
would go the next night; and they would keep on digging until they
obtained possession of it, if they had to dig up the whole state of
Mississippi. Dan almost went wild over the news. He and his father
spent a few minutes in building air-castles, and then Godfrey, who
felt as rich as though he already had the money in his possession,
hurried down to the landing, entered the store there and called for a
plug of tobacco, which the merchant refused to give him until he
showed that he had twenty-five cents to pay for it.
Although Dan and his father had great expectations, which they
believed would very soon be realized, they did not neglect to pay
attention to small matters, and to pick up any stray dollars that
chanced to fall in their way. David was a famous dog-breaker, and Don
Gordon had offered him ten dollars to train a pointer for him. The
offer was made in the presence of Dan and his father, and the former
at once laid his plans to obtain possession of a portion of the
money. While the two were on their way to the landing, where a
shooting-match was to be held that afternoon, Dan stopped at General
Gordon's barn, and having borrowed a shovel, with which to dig up the
buried treasure, he went to the house, where he found Bert reading a
book. He told him that David had sent him there after five dollars,
as he wished to buy a new dress for his mother, and Bert, although
he was well aware that, according to the agreement his brother had
made with David, the money was not to be paid until the pointer
was thoroughly broken for the field, advanced him the amount he
requested. Arriving at the landing, Dan got the bill changed for
notes of smaller denomination, and, while he was picking up his
money, was surprised by his father, who was greatly amazed to see his
son with such a roll of greenbacks in his hand. Knowing that Dan
was too lazy to work--too much of a gentleman was the way Godfrey
expressed it--he could not imagine where the money came from, and Dan
refused to enlighten him on this point, fearing that if he did his
father would go straight to Don Gordon and ask for the rest of the
ten dollars. Godfrey urged and commanded to no purpose, and was
obliged to be satisfied with the loan of a dollar, which he promised
to return with heavy interest as soon as the barrel was found. He
paid seventy-five cents of it for the privilege of entering as one
of the contestants in the shooting-match, and the rest he used in
purchasing the plug of tobacco for which the grocer had refused
to credit him. He won nothing during the match, while Dan, to his
father's great disgust, came in for one of the first prizes--a fine
quarter of beef.
When the shooting-match was over, the father and son returned to the
little hovel they called home. Dan at once put the mule into the cart
and started back to the landing to bring home his quarter of beef;
while Godfrey, by pretending to fall asleep on the bench in front of
the cabin, was able to carry out a little stratagem that suddenly
suggested itself to him. He knew that Dan was a thrifty lad in spite
of his laziness, and that he believed in laying by something for
a rainy day. He was never out of ammunition for his rifle, but he
always took care to keep his little stock hidden away, so that his
father could not find it. By watching him on this particular day,
Godfrey was lucky enough to find out where the boy's hiding-place
was. He went to it as soon as Dan drove away in the cart, and found
there a goodly supply of powder, lead and caps, and also three
dollars and twenty-five cents in money; all of which he put into his
pocket.
Dan came back from the landing in due time, and his father, who had
been calculating on having a good supper that night, was astonished
to find that the beef had been sold. He was enraged at first, but
when he learned that Dan had received three dollars and a half for
it, he was quieted at once, and a happy thought came into his mind.
He sent Dan into the woods to shoot some squirrels for supper, and
while the boy was gone he went to the hiding-place and put back the
ammunition and money just as he found them, believing that when Dan
returned he would put the three dollars and a half there too. Nor was
he mistaken. The boy presently came back with squirrels enough for
supper, and as soon as he thought he could do so without being seen
by any one, he went to his storehouse, and having made sure that the
property he had already hidden there was safe, he added to it the sum
he had received for the quarter of beef, and went away happy. His
father was happy too for he had seen the whole operation.
Godfrey was too tired to dig for the buried treasure that night, so
Dan went to bed as soon as it was fairly dark. His father waited
until he was soundly asleep, and then went to the storehouse and took
out all it contained. Dan's rage when he discovered his loss the next
morning was something to wonder at. He knew where his property was,
and he demanded its immediate return, threatening in case of refusal,
to tell General Gordon about the barrel in the potato-field. This
frightened Godfrey, who gave up the contents of his pockets, but not
until he had forced Dan to tell him where he obtained the money he
had seen in his hands at the landing the day before. He was
astonished when he learned that it came from Bert Gordon, and set his
wits at work to conjure up some plan, by which he might obtain
possession of the rest. He went over to the General's at once, and
there learned that Don and Bert had gone down to the landing with
their father, where they were awaiting the arrival of two cousins,
whom they were expecting from the North. Godfrey followed them there
with all haste, sought an interview with Don, and by telling him some
plausible story, induced him to advance the other five dollars.
Godfrey hoped in this way to get the start of Dan and enjoy his
ill-gotten gains all by himself, but Dan was there and saw it all,
and his father, alarmed by the look he saw on his face, divided the
money with him. Of course David knew nothing of this. He was saving
those ten dollars for his mother. He did not expect to spend a cent
of it on himself; and how he first learned of his loss and what was
done about it, perhaps we shall see as our story progresses.
The two young gentlemen, Clarence and Marshall Gordon, for whom Don
and Bert were waiting, and who landed from the steamer, Emma Deane,
that morning, had been sent away from the city by their father, in
order that they might be out of the way of temptation; but, as it
happened, one of them ran directly into it. Clarence, the older, was
anything but a model boy. He was much addicted to ale and cigars, and
thought of nothing in the world so much as money. He was a
spendthrift, and, like Godfrey Evans, had a great desire to be rich,
but he never thought of working and saving in order to gain the
wished-for end. This good old-fashioned and safe way was too long and
tedious for him, and he was constantly on the lookout for a short
road to wealth and consequent happiness. Before he had been
twenty-four hours under his uncle's roof, he thought he had
discovered it, and this was the way it came about:
Clarence and his brother arrived at the General's house in the
forenoon, and before night came, the former wished most heartily that
he had stayed at home. He was lonely and utterly disgusted with the
quiet of the country, and the old-fashioned, prosy way his two
cousins had of enjoying themselves. Music, horseback-riding, hunting,
fishing and visiting made up the round of their amusements, and
Clarence could see no fun in such things. As soon as it grew dark he
slipped out of the house, and leaning over a fence that ran between
the barnyard and a potato-patch, lighted a cigar and settled into a
comfortable position to enjoy it. He had not been there many minutes,
before he was startled by the stealthy approach of two persons, a man
and a boy, who stopped a short distance from him and began digging
with a shovel. Clarence listened to the words which the man uttered
for the encouragement of the boy, who was doing the work, and was
amazed to learn that there was a fortune hidden in that field, and
that these two had come there to dig it up. In his eagerness and
excitement Clarence leaned half way over the fence, puffing
vigorously at his cigar all the while. The little round ball of fire
glowing through the darkness caught the eye of the boy, who showed it
to his companion, and the two, frightened almost out of their senses,
took to their heels, leaving the eavesdropper lost in wonder.
Clarence was almost overwhelmed by the discovery he had just made. It
was an opportunity too good to be lost, and he at once resolved that
if there were eighty thousand dollars buried in that field, he must
have a share of the money when it was brought to light. In order to
bring this about, he must find out who this man and boy were. He had
a very slight cue to guide him, but he followed it up so skillfully
that by noon of the next day he knew as much about the eighty
thousand dollars as Godfrey did, and had formed a partnership with
that worthy, Dan being dropped as a useless encumbrance. They met,
according to agreement, as soon as it grew dark. It happened that
there was one who witnessed their interview, and heard all that
passed between them, and that was Don Gordon, who had just returned
from the landing, whither he had been to mail a letter to his cousin.
Not finding the hostler about when he came back, Don attended to his
pony himself, and was about to shut up the barn for the night, when
he discovered what he supposed to be a thief prowling about. The
lighted end of a cigar glowed through the darkness a moment later,
and then Don saw that the prowler was his cousin Clarence. Greatly
amused at his mistake, he was about to make his presence known, when
it occurred to him that since Clarence had taken so much pains to get
out of sight of the family, in order that he might enjoy his cigar,
perhaps he would not like it if Don caught him in the act; so Don
remained in his place of concealment, heard every word that was said
when Godfrey came up, saw both of them get over the fence in the
potato-patch, and followed and watched them while they were digging
for the barrel.
Now, Don was one of the most inveterate practical jokers in the
world, and the most accomplished one we ever saw. Godfrey had
received more than one proof of his skill. He had been tripped up
when there was no one near him; his hat had been knocked off his head
by invisible hands, and he had seen horrid great things with eyes of
fire staring at him from fence-corners, until he had become fully
satisfied that the General's lane was haunted, and he would go a mile
around through the fields before he would pass through it after
nightfall. Here was another opportunity to frighten him, and Don knew
just how to do it. Before he went to sleep that night, he had thought
of something that beat all the other tricks he had heard of far out
of sight.