THE NEGLECTED WELL.
Rudolph took care to breakfast in good season the next morning. He felt
that this day was to make his fortune. The deed which would entitle him
to a life support was to be perpetrated on that day. He shuddered a
little when he reflected that in order to compass this a life must be
sacrificed, and that the life of the boy who had been for years under
his guardianship, who had slept at his side, and borne with him the
perils and privations of his adventurous career. He was a reckless man,
but he had never before shed blood, or at any rate taken the life of a
human being. He would have been less than human if the near approach of
such a crime had not made him nervous and uncomfortable.
But against this feeling he fought strenuously.
"What's the odds?" he said to himself. "The boy's got to die some time
or other, and his dying now will make me comfortable for life. No
more hungry tramps for me. I'll settle down and be respectable. Eight
hundred dollars a year will relieve me from all care, and I shall only
need to enjoy myself after this."
Rudolph must have had strange notions of respectability to think it
could be obtained by crime; but in fact his idea was that a man who
could live on his own means was from that very power respectable, and
there are plenty of persons of a higher social grade who share in this
delusion.
At a few minutes after nine Tony set out on his journey. It never
occurred to him that the old Quaker in suit of sober drab, who sat on
the piazza and saw him depart, was a man who cherished sinister designs
upon him. In fact, he had forgotten all about him, and was intent upon
his journey alone. Most boys like to drive, and our friend Tony was no
exception to this general rule. He thought it much better than working
about the stable-yard.
"Take care of yourself, Tony," said James, the hostler, in a friendly
tone.
"Oh, yes, I'll do that," said Tony, little dreaming how necessary the
admonition was likely to prove.
"I may as well be starting too," thought Rudolph, and some ten minutes
afterward he started at a walk along the road which led to Thornton.
"I'll keep on as far as the woods," he thought, "and then I'll form
my plans. The boy must not escape me, for I may never have as good a
chance to dispose of him again."
About two miles on began the woods to which reference has already been
made. The tramp selected this as probably the best part of the road to
accomplish his criminal design.
They extended for nearly a mile on either side of the road, and this
was likely to facilitate his purpose.
"I'll explore a little," thought Rudolph. "I shall have plenty of time
before the boy comes back."
Some forty rods from the road on the right hand side, the tramp
discovered a ruined hut, which had once belonged to a recluse who had
for years lived apart from his kind. This had now fallen into decay,
for the former occupant had been for some time dead, and no one had
been tempted to succeed him.
The general appearance of the building satisfied Rudolph that it was
deserted. Impelled partly by curiosity, he explored the neighborhood of
the house.
A rod to the east there was a well, open to the view, the curb having
decayed, and being in a ruined condition, Rudolph looked down into it,
and judged that it might be about twenty feet deep.
A diabolical suggestion came to him. If he could only lure Tony to this
well and dispose of him forever.
"I'll do it," he muttered to himself, and started to return to the
road, where he hoped to intercept our hero.
Poor Tony! he little dreamed of the danger that menaced him.