Part 2 (1/2)
”I don't think he intended to hit me; though he fired at me, or he fired his gun. I don't believe he fired it at me,” answered the stranger in a confused manner.
”If he fired at you, of course he meant to hit you. What in the world should he fire at you for if he didn't mean to hit you?” asked Dory, wondering at the reasoning of his companion in the road.
”I am confident I am right; but we won't say any thing more about it just now,” added the stranger, who seemed to be struggling with other emotions than those of fear or indignation.
”That's very queer,” said Dory, puzzled at the strange conduct of the man who had been fired at. ”I think you will get a bullet through your head if you stay here much longer.”
”I am not afraid of a bullet; but I don't think I had better stay here any longer,” replied the stranger. ”Which way are you going, young man?”
”I was going over to a place they call Belzer's.”
”That is a mile from here. Were you going there when that gun was fired?” asked the man eagerly.
”Well, not just at that minute. I was tired out, and I lay down in the woods to rest me. I was going over to Belzer's to see if I could get a place to work. I”--
”You are too late: they hired a boy at Belzer's this afternoon,” added the man.
”That's just my luck,” added Dory, discouraged at this intelligence.
”The luck shall not go against you this time. You have no errand at Belzer's now; and, if you will walk to Plattsburgh with me, I will make it all right with you; and you shall not be sorry that you did not find a place at Belzer's, which is not a proper place for a boy like you.”
”If there is no place there for me, and it is not the place for me, I shall return to Plattsburgh,” answered Dory, as he started with the stranger in the direction from which he had come when he took to the woods.
In a short time they came out into the open country; and there was no longer any danger that the attack from the mysterious a.s.sailant would be renewed.
”Young man, you have done me a great service; and you have done a greater one to another person,” said the stranger.
”Who's that?” asked Dory, puzzled by the strange speech of his companion.
”I mean the one who fired the gun at me,” answered his fellow-traveller.
”That's funny!” exclaimed Dory. ”You and he seem to be fooling with each other. He shot at you, and didn't mean to hit you; and now I have done him a great service. I suppose you don't mean to pay me for the service I did him,” laughed Dory.
”I should be willing to pay you more for what you did for him than for what you did for me.”
Dory was bewildered.
CHAPTER III.
A BRILLIANT SCHEME MADE POSSIBLE.
Dory began to think his companion was a lunatic. Certainly he was a Christian man, for he seemed to have nothing but kindness in his heart towards his late a.s.sailant.
”I don't want any pay for what I did for either,” said Dory Dornwood, as he saw his companion thrust his hand into his pocket, and he feared that his joke had been taken in earnest.
”We will talk about that when we get to Plattsburgh. Will you tell me your name, young man?”
”My name is Theodore Dornwood, though almost everybody calls me Dory.
But I don't care what they call me, if they don't call me too late to supper, or don't call me at all, as n.o.body did to-night,” replied Dory.