_The Storekeeper Speaks_.
Very different were Nat Wood’s feelings as he walked slowly toward the
place he called home. He was certain that during the last hour of his
life he had made a bad mistake in that he yielded to his first impulse
and took Peleg into his confidence. But the thing had been done, Peleg
knew that the money was there, or somewhere about Manchester, and now
he had to watch his corners very closely in order to succeed at all.
“There is one thing about it,” said Nat, as he went up behind the
bushes which stood between the potato patch and the house. “I will keep
a close watch of Peleg, and if I have any reason to suppose that he is
working for himself, I will lead him off the track and go somewhere
else. Peleg is a pretty sharp boy, but I don’t believe he can get ahead
of me.”
While Nat was thinking this matter over he drew up behind the bushes
and took a long and earnest survey of the house. There was no one
stirring around it. Having made sure that no one was watching him Nat
hurried to a fence corner, not the one that Mr. Nickerson went to in
order to get his plug of tobacco, but another one that lay further off,
and after a few minutes’ search arose to his feet with two articles
in his hand which he hastily crammed into his pocket. One was a roll
of money--he did not look it over for he knew how much there was in
it--and the other was the two leaves of “Baxters’ Saints’ Rest,” still
pasted together, which told him where the money was concealed. The
money was what he had left from the sum Mr. Nickerson had last given
him for the purchase of tobacco.
“I don’t see what is the need of my taking these two leaves with me,”
said Nat, as he pushed the remnants of the twigs and bushes back to the
place which they had occupied before. “Peleg might find it and then
know as much about the money as I do. I reckon I had best get that in
my head and then destroy the leaves.”
To think with Nat was to act. He produced the two leaves from his
pocket, seated himself upon the ground and tore them open. The stray
leaf, the one on which the diagram that showed where the money was
concealed, fell out; and although it was pretty dark so that he could
barely trace the lines, they were made with a heavy lead pencil, and
furthermore there were but two lines on the page. The first led from
a pile of rubbish--Nat did not know what else to call it; it probably
intended to represent the ruins of Mr. Nickerson’s house--to a second
pile of rubbish, which was doubtless intended to show the pile of
briers. The second line ran across a little wavering stream which was
intended to stand for the brook, up to another pile, and there it
stopped. If Nat could only find that pile, his fortune was secure.
It did not take Nat long to make himself master of this diagram, and
hastily putting the leaves back again, he buried them in the hole from
which he had taken them out, smoothing over the leaves so that no one
would suspect that anybody had been there.
“So far so good,” said Nat, with a long-drawn sigh of relief. “I don’t
believe that either Jonas or Caleb will find them there. Now the next
thing is something else.”
It was to separate ten dollars from his roll of bills so that he could
show them to Peleg when he came to pay for the various things at
Manchester. If he showed more than that amount something would be added
to Peleg’s suspicions, and no doubt it would lead to an open rupture.
The rest of the bills he stowed away in his hat, pressing them down
tightly between the outside and the lining, and holding them there by
means of a pin which he took from his sleeve. His work was all done
now, and he was ready to meet Peleg as soon as he put in an appearance.
But in order to make sure that he had not been watched Nat drew along
the fence corner into the bushes, until he came within sight of the
house again. There was no one there, and no one in the barn, either;
so he concluded that he had done this part of his work without being
seen.
“If I can get through with the rest without having some one to see me,
I shall be glad of it,” said Nat, going past the house and out to the
bars. “Good-by, old home, for it is the only home I have had since I
can remember. I hope some day to have a place that I can call my own.”
His soliloquy was interrupted by the appearance of a person on the
road who moved and acted in a way that showed him that the time for
operations had come. It was Peleg. He carried his single barrel over
his shoulder, supporting an old-fashioned valise which contained his
change of underwear.
“Well, I am all ready,” said Peleg, in a whisper.
“So am I,” said Nat.
“Why, you have not taken a thing with you,” said Peleg, when he looked
around to see Nat pick up something. “Are you going to come back here
after your clothes?”
“All the clothes I have in the world I have got upon my back,” said
Nat, holding up both hands and turning slowly around so that his
companion could see him. “I am ready to go if you are.”
“You must have a clean shirt if nothing more. What will you do when the
one you have on now is all soiled?”
“I will take it off and wash it.”
“_You_ will?” exclaimed Peleg, in unbounded astonishment. “Don’t you
have no women to do that sort of work? My mother always washes my
clothes.”
“Well, you are lucky to have a mother. I have had none since I can
remember. I have to do all such little things myself.”
“This beats me. What did you say to Jonas?”
“Not a thing. I have not seen him since I saw you.”
“Have you got your papers?” said Peleg, who was particularly anxious
on that score. “You had better give them to me; because when Jonas
overhauls us he will search all your clothes.”
“Let him search,” said Nat, turning upon Peleg and looking at him as
closely as he could in the dark. “I have got my papers, but they are
right in here,” he added, touching his forehead with his right hand.
“He won’t get them out of there.”
“_Well!_” said Peleg, looking down at the ground they were so rapidly
leaving behind. “That’s a pretty way to do business. You have got me to
help you in looking for that money, and you had ought to let me into
the whole of it.”
“In other words, I must tell you my secret, must I?” demanded Nat,
stopping in his headlong gait. “I did not agree to do that. You may go
back on me the first thing.”
“No, I won’t; I pledge you my word that I will stay by you. Now if you
don’t tell me all of it I won’t go.”
These were very pleasant words to Nat Wood. He had been wondering
all the time how he was to be rid of Peleg, and now he was going
to accomplish his object without half trying. Peleg stopped when he
uttered this threat, but Nat kept on as fast as ever.
“I tell you I won’t go if you don’t tell me just what you are going to
do and all about it,” said Peleg, taking his bundle off his shoulders.
“All right. Then stay where you are. I can get along without you.”
“You forget Jonas and Caleb,” said Peleg, raising his voice as to
reach the ears of Nat who was rapidly widening the distance between
them. “Who is going to watch them while you are doing the digging? The
little fule,” muttered Peleg, raising his bundle to his shoulder again
and hurrying after Nat. “What has come over him to make him so mighty
independent all at once? A little while ago he was just begging me to
go with him; but now he wants to shake me off altogether. Hold up, Nat.”
But Nat was past holding up for Peleg or anybody else. He kept on his
way without changing his pace, and when at last Peleg overtook him he
had passed a half a mile down the road.
“What’s the use of you being in such a hurry, Nat?” panted Peleg. “I
can’t keep up with you if you go so fast.”
“I’ve got to hurry in order to get to my camping grounds before
daylight,” replied Nat. “If you want to go with me, come on; if you
don’t, stay back.”
“But, Nat, it ain’t right for you to do all the work by yourself,” said
Peleg.
“I don’t intend to do it all. You must do some of it, if you go with
me. I won’t pay you a dollar a day for doing nothing.”
“Of course. I expect to do some of it; but how can I know what to work
at unless you tell me something.”
“I will tell you what I want as soon as we come to our camping ground,
and that ought to satisfy you,” said Nat, who plainly saw that he was
not going to get rid of Peleg so easily. “I may want you to watch for
Jonas while I work.”
“Well, if you do that, it will be right into my hand,” said Peleg, to
himself. “Only I would rather watch for pap. If I see him, I won’t let
you know a thing about it.”
Seeing that Nat was neither to be frightened nor coaxed into revealing
his secret, Peleg finally gave up the attempt in disgust, and hurried
along by Nat’s side toward Manchester. Nat had but little to say to him
for he was thinking over what was to be done when they once reached
their camping grounds. He must be rid of Peleg in some way, and the
more he thought about it the more he saw that his success depended
entirely upon his finding the money alone and unaided.
“If ever a boy deserves kicking I am the one,” Nat kept saying to
himself. “Why didn’t I leave Peleg alone husking his corn? He would
have been safe there, but now he has got onto my back and I can’t shake
him off. Can I get him to go back to the store after some provisions,
while I look for the money? That’s a plan worth thinking of.”
The way to Manchester seemed wonderfully long, it is always long if
one is anxious to reach a place, and it was after daylight when they
came within sight of it. Fortunately the stores were open and the boys
had no difficulty in buying what they wanted. The first thing was the
ammunition for Peleg’s shotgun; and when that had been purchased and
stowed away in the boy’s valise, the provisions came next, and they
found that they had more than they could carry.
“There are other things to come,” said Nat, pulling out his ten dollars
at which Peleg glanced with envious eyes. “I must get a spade and
pick-ax before I go any further.”
“Why, what do you want to do with them?” asked Peleg, in surprise.
“How am I going to do any digging without them?” asked Nat in reply.
“There is no telling how deep the money is in the ground.”
Peleg was obliged to be content with this explanation although he
was not satisfied with it. He could not bear to see any of Nat’s
money go for such useless things as a spade and pick-ax, because he
calculated at some future time to handle all that money himself. And
when they were purchased there was another thing that filled him with
astonishment.
“I wish you would set these implements away somewhere, together with
the provisions that we shall not be able to take with us, until Peleg
comes after them,” said Nat to the storekeeper. “He will be after them
bright and early to-morrow morning.”
“All right,” said the storekeeper. “I will set the whole thing right
here in this corner, and if my partner is in here you will know them
when you see them. Any thing else that I can show you?”
“Nothing else, thank you,” replied Nat “I have every thing I need.”
“What are you boys going to do up there in the woods?” asked the
storekeeper. “You are not going after rabbits with nothing but a single
barrel shotgun. You won’t get enough to pay you for your ammunition.”
“Oh, no; we are going up there to see about some timber that belongs to
us.”
“Well, don’t let the ghosts catch you,” said the man, with a laugh.
“Ghosts!” replied Peleg; and he let the butt of his single barrel
heavily down upon the floor.
“Yes; there is lots of them up there.”
“Why--why--whereabouts?” inquired Peleg; and it was all he could do to
pronounce the words so that the storekeeper could understand him.
“Well, I don’t know that they have any particular place, but the heft
of them appears up about old man Nickerson’s farm,” said the man; and
he drew a little on his imagination because he saw that Peleg was
frightened. “If anybody goes on that place he wants to look out. You
see,” here the storekeeper leaned his elbows on the counter and sank
his voice almost to a whisper. “They used to tell here before the war
that the old man was worth a power of money, and the rebels came here
to gobble it up.”
“Did they get any?” asked Peleg.
“Naw they didn’t. I was in that party and I know just what they got.
It was all in gold, too, but the old fellow had it hidden so that we
could not find it. We took him off and put him in the army, but he was
too old to be of any use there, and so we turned him loose. There’s
been a power of men up there looking for it, but they stay just one
night.”
“They see the ghosts, do they?” said Nat
“That’s what they do,” said the storekeeper, looking all around the
room as if he expected to see something advancing upon him. “And I tell
you they don’t wait until daylight comes. I have seen as many as two
or three on my porch waiting for me to open the store, and the tales
they told were just awful. They say--Whew! I’ll bet you don’t get me up
there for no five thousand dollars.”
“What do they say?” asked Nat. “Is old man Nickerson among the ghosts?”
“Yes, he is there, and he is the worst one in the lot; but the worst
of it is, he has been somewhere and got ten or a dozen other ghosts
to help him along, and the screeching they keep up is enough to drive
one crazy. But I reckon you boys ain’t going up as far as old man
Nickerson’s.”
“That is the place where we are going,” said Nat. “We shall not stop
until we get there.”
“Among all them ghosts?” exclaimed the storekeeper, and he staggered
back from the counter as if Nat had aimed a blow at him. “Well,
good-by. I shall never see you again,” added the man, as he
straightened up and thrust his hand out toward Nat. “You need not think
to be free of them for they come to see everybody that goes there.”
“But the others came back in safety and so can I,” said Nat.
“Yes; but the last time they appeared to a person they told him that
the next one who came there he would leave his bones for the vultures
to pick over,” said the man, and he tried to shiver when he uttered the
words. “I would not go up there, if I was you.”
“I want to see what a ghost looks like. Come on, Peleg. We have wasted
too much time already. You will have those things ready for Peleg
tomorrow?”
“Yes, provided he is able to come after them. And say, Peleg. I want
you to take particular notice of the way the ghosts look and what they
say and what they do, and all that--”
“You had better get somebody else to go up there, if that is what you
want to find out,” said Peleg. “If I see one of them, or hear him
coming through the bushes, I will start a running till you can’t see me
for the dust. If Nat isn’t afraid of the ghosts, I am.”
Nat had by this time taken as many of the provisions as he could carry
and had left the store, and Peleg, after some hesitation, prepared to
follow him. Nat did not believe in ghosts; and even if ghosts were
there and Mr. Nickerson was among them, he would not let the rest of
the spirits trouble him, for he had given him the money before his
death, and had told him just where it was concealed. But his nerves now
were not as firm as they were before he went into that store. He did
not know what he had to contend with up there in the woods, and the
woods were so far away from everybody that it was useless for him to
call for help in case he needed it.
“But I am going after that money,” said he, firmly, as he walked along
as if there were no such things as ghosts in the world. “It is up
there, there was not any ghosts around when it was hidden and I don’t
believe there are any ghosts now. At least I must see them before I
will give it up.”
At this moment Peleg overtook him. One glance at his face was enough to
show him what he thought about it.