Part 1 (1/2)

The Boy Trapper

by Harry Castlemon

CHAPTER I

A GLANCE AT THE PAST

”Don't worry about it,we can help”

”It seeone to General Gordon when your father first spoke about that barrel with the eighty thousand dollars in it, and told hiht 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 ! 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 asha away If he would come home and attend to his business, no one would say a word to hi”

”I am afraid you couldn't make your father believe it”

”Perhaps not, but if I knehere to find him I should try”

It was David Evans who spoke last He and his e incidents that had happened in the settle the last few days, and which we have atte voluht about by a very foolish notion which Godfrey Evans, David's father, suddenly got into his head

During our late war it was the custo 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 becauerillas were near at hand; for these worthies were oftentianized bands of robbers, and the people stood as much in fear of the for the most part of money, jewelry and silverware, were sos in the woods and in barns; but round The work of hiding them was sometimes performed by the planters theenerally 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 the soldiers where the property was concealed, and at others they ran aithout 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 ho 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 knehere 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, likethe 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, ere now living in a rude hut which soroes, who had one; his cattle had been slaughtered by both rebel and Union troops, and his s, which ran loose in the woods, and upon which he relied to furnish his year's supply of bacon, had wandered away and beco but his rifle and his two hands hich 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 abond He spent thethe stea listlessly about the woods, shooting just gah to keep him in powder, lead and tobacco His sole co a chip of the old block, faithfully imitated his father's lazy, useless er son, David, were the only members of the family orked They never lost an opportunity to turn an honest penny, and there were tione supperless to bed if it had not been for these two faithful toilers

Godfrey disliked this aimless, joyless existence as ed for so 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 '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 et thery He hated Don and Bert so heartily that he could never look at theht befall thes, 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 fain the work of unearthing the BURIED TREASURE that very night If they didn't find it the first tiht; 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 ild over the news He and his father spent a fewair-castles, and then Godfrey, who felt as rich as though he already had the , entered the store there and called for a plug of tobacco, which the ive 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 fa-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 , where a shooting-match was to be held that afternoon, Dan stopped at General Gordon's barn, and having borrowed a shovel, hich 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 histo the agreement his brother had made with David, the hly broken for the field, advanced hiot the bill changed for notes of s up his reatly areenbacks in his hand Knowing that Dan was too lazy to work--too entleine where the hten hio straight to Don Gordon and ask for the rest of the ten dollars Godfrey urged and coed 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- of tobacco for which the grocer had refused to credit hi the ust, 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 theho to fall asleep on the bench in front of the cabin, was able to carry out a little stratageested itself to him He knew that Dan was a thrifty lad in spite of his laziness, and that he believed in laying by so 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 hih 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 ca in due tiood 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 soone he went to the hiding-place and put back the a that when Dan returned he would put the three dollars and a half there too Nor was he h 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 nextto wonder at He knehere his property was, and he de 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 thethe day before He was astonished when he learned that it came from Bert Gordon, and set his wits at work to conjure up soht 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, who from the North Godfrey followed theht an intervieith 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 theof 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 as done about it, perhaps we shall see as our story progresses