“I seed you bringin’ the dog an’ I knowed what you was up to,” replied his father.  “But Don don’t get him back fur no dollar, I tell you.  That animile is wuth fifty dollars anyhow, an’ if Don wants him agin he’ll have to plank down five dollars.”

“Whew!” whistled Dan.  “We’re gettin’ rich, ain’t we?  Now, pap, thar’s your shoes an’ stockin’s, an’ thar’s the change Silas give me.  You kin put it with what you’ve got left of your twenty dollars, an’ when——­O, laws!”

Dan jumped to his feet, opened his mouth and eyes and looked at his father in the greatest astonishment.  Something he had said seemed to produce a wonderful effect upon Godfrey.  His pipe dropped from his lips, the color all left his face and after sitting silent and motionless for a moment, he gave utterance to a loud yell, sprang to his feet and strode about the camp as if he were almost beside himself.

“What’s the matter of you, pap?” Dan ventured to inquire, as soon as he could find his tongue.

“I hain’t got no money at all no more!” Godfrey almost shouted.  “That’s what’s the matter of me.  It’s over thar on the island whar them fellers is!”

“No!” gasped Dan.

“But I say, yes, it is too!” exclaimed Godfrey.  “You see,” he added, controlling himself with a great effort, “when I fust seed them fellers comin’ up the bayou the sun was kinder shinin’ on the water, an’ it blinded me so’t I thought it was you.  I was jest goin’ to speak, when I seed thar was three fellers in the boat; an’ afore I could ax myself what that meant, one of the hounds that Don had with him set up a yelp.  I knowed that meant business, an’ it skeared me so’t I didn’t think of nothin’ only how to get off’n that thar island without bein’ diskivered.  I got off all right, but I left my money in that thar holler log, an’ I never thought of it till this blessed minute.”

“Mebbe they won’t find it,” said Dan.

“Wal, that’s a comfortin’ thought,” returned his father, sighing heavily, as he picked up his pipe, “but luck’s agin me.  It allers is.  Other folks can get along smooth an’ easy, but I can toil an’ slave an’ slave an’ toil till—­jest look at me,” added Godfrey, rising to his feet again and turning slowly about, so that Dan could have a fair view of him.  “Ain’t this a purty fix fur a man to be in who owned niggers an’ cotton, by the acre only a little while ago?  That’s jest what makes me ’spise them Gordons.”

“An’ that’s what makes me ’spise that Dave of our’n,” exclaimed Dan.  “He’s gettin’ richer every day.  He’s got ten dollars in greenback money now, an’ I done heard Silas Jones tell him that his credit was good at the store for six months.”