“WE SHA’N’T miss him much, Tom,” said Brush, as Percy Burnett—as he called himself—disappeared from view.

Tom breathed a sigh of relief.

“I never want to see him again,” he said.

“Nor I, unless I see him in the prisoner’s dock. He’s a regular rascal and no mistake. It’s lucky I came up just as I did, Tom.”

“If you hadn’t I would have had to lie here all night, bound hand and foot.”

“I am not sure but we ought to have served him as he wanted to serve you,” said Mr. Brush. “It isn’t too late yet—we can overtake him.”

“Let him go, Mr. Brush. I don’t care to be revenged upon him. He tried to rob me, but he has been defeated, thanks to you. And that reminds me—how did you happen to get here just in the nick of time? We left you this morning in St. Joe.”

“Just so, my lad. It is lucky, as you say, or as you mean, anyway. Well, when I saw you last night, and found you so pleasant and social like, I took a great fancy to you. Thinks I to myself—‘That boy’s the right sort!’”

154

“Thank you for your favorable opinion, Mr. Brush.”

“You needn’t thank me, for I couldn’t help feeling the way I did. As I was goin’ the same journey, I thought I’d like to hitch to you and Dobson, though I didn’t much like him; but he seemed offish, and I saw he didn’t want me. I didn’t know why then, but I know now.”

“I was very much disappointed when Mr. Burnett hurried me away from St. Joe without seeing you.”

“So was I. I’d only gone out for half an hour to do a little shopping, thinkin’ I’d find you when I came back. Well, when I got back to the hotel, I looked round for you, and couldn’t find you. I thought maybe you’d gone out to take a walk. To make sure, I asked the stable-boy if he’d seen anything of a man and boy. He told me that you’d started off in the stage only twenty minutes ago. That took me quite aback, and I didn’t know what to do. I knew well enough what that rascal did it for. He wanted to get me off the track. Now, Tom, I’m a determined sort of man—kinder stubborn, I expect—and when I found how much he wanted to separate us, I was bound to defeat his plans, if it cost me a hundred dollars, partic’larly after a little discovery I made.”

“What was that, Mr. Brush?” asked Tom.

“I’ll tell you. A gentleman who was standin’ by, and heard what I asked the stable-boy, said:

“‘Do you know them parties you are askin’ about?’

“‘No, I only met ’em last evenin’.’

“‘Well, the man’s a first-class rascal and swindler.’

155 “‘You don’t say!’ I answered. ‘Who is he, and what do you know about him?’

“‘It’s Jim Dobson, the famous confidence man and forger. He’s served more than one term in the State prison. He isn’t a very good companion for that boy that’s traveling with him.’

“I was struck all of a heap when I heard that, Tom. I knew what you told me, that this man had hired you for a secretary, or somethin’ of that kind. Of course I knew that was all a sham. What should a jail-bird like him want of a secretary. It didn’t take me long to make up my mind what his game was. I knew you had some money, for you had told me so last night, and I concluded that that was what Dobson was after. I saw that you would be robbed unless some friend interfered. I determined to be that friend.”

Tom took the hard, toil-hardened hand of his new friend, and gratefully pressed it.

“You were a friend when I most needed a friend,” he said.

“Oh, don’t mention it,” said Brush, hurriedly, for it always made him feel awkward to be thanked. “I’m paid for all I’ve done by knowin’ that I’ve come up with that pesky rascal.”

“But I don’t see how you managed to overtake us,” said Tom. “That is what puzzles me.”

“Easy now, Tom, I’m comin’ t............