As soon as the sun had warmed the air a little, Dan shouldered his rifle and set out.  He did not follow the road, as he did before, for that would take him past the General’s barn, and Don and Bert were at home now.  He went around through the fields; and it was while he was sitting on a log near General Gordon’s fence, watching the only squirrel he had seen since leaving home, that he accidentally learned what it was that took David over to Don’s house so regularly every morning, and kept him there all day.  He first heard the creaking of wheels and the sound of voices, and they came from the General’s field, which was not more than twenty feet distant, and which was concealed from his view by the thick bushes that lined the fence.  Dan recognised the voices, and his first impulse was to jump up and take to his heels.  His next was to stay where he was until the wagon passed by, and this he did; for he was in an excellent hiding-place and no one could have found him without taking pains to look for him.

The wagon came nearer, the voices grew louder, and presently Dan heard the shrill notes of a quail directly in front of him and just on the other side of the fence.  He paid no attention to the sound until the wagon was brought to a stand-still in front of the thicket, and somebody, after working his way into the bushes, called out in a cheery voice: 

“Here’s the first instalment of your hundred and fifty dollars, David!”

These words made Dan so excited that he almost betrayed his presence by letting his rifle fall out of his hands.  He cautiously raised himself to a standing position on the log, and looking through the tops of the bushes, listened intently to catch every word that was said.

CHAPTER XIII.

TEN DOLLARS REWARD.

When the quails had been taken out of the trap and put into the coop, the wagon drove on, and Dan sat down on his log to think about what he had just heard, and to wait until the coast was clear, so that he could resume his walk toward the landing.  He had learned two things.  One was that his brother had not given up the idea of trapping the quails, as he had supposed, and the other was that there was somebody besides himself whom David had reason to fear.

“Looks now as though you were goin’ to ’arn your money in spite of Dan and Lester,” thought the listener, recalling the last words he had heard Don utter.  “That must be that Brigham boy up to that big white house.  What’s he got to say ’bout it, I’d like to know?  I’ll jest keep an eye on him.  He don’t want to let me ketch him foolin’ round them traps, ’kase I’ll make him think war times has come back sure enough.  Now that I’ve got another chance to ’arn a share in them hundred and fifty dollars, nobody shan’t take it away from me.”

Dan was as good as his word.  He kept a sharp watch over David’s interests, and perhaps we shall see that he was the means of defeating a certain plan, which, if it had been carried into execution, would have worked a great injury to the boy trapper.