Bob acknowledged the fact, but said he was afraid they might not be so lucky the next time.  And even if they succeeded in breaking into the cabin without arousing the dogs, how were they to carry away a hundred live quails?  The only thing they could do would be to put them in bags, and it was probable that half of them would die for want of air before they could get them home.  They would be obliged to make two or three trips to the cabin in order to secure them all, and each time they would run the risk of being discovered by the hounds.

While the two friends were talking these matters over, they were walking slowly toward the place where they had left their horses.  Having mounted, they started for home again, and the very first person they saw when they rode out of the woods into the road was David Evans, who had just been up to the shop to restore the pointer to his owner.

“There he is!” said Bob, in a low whisper.  “He is dressed up in his best, too.”

“Best!” sneered Lester.  “Why, I wouldn’t be seen at work in the fields in such clothes as those!”

“Nor in any other, I guess.  They are the best he can afford,” said Bob, who had some soft spots in his heart, if he was a bad boy, “and I don’t believe in making fun of him.”

“You believe in cheating him out of a nice little sum of money though, if you can,” retorted Lester.

“No, I don’t.  I am working to keep him from cheating me out of it.  If he will keep his place among the niggers, where fellows of his stamp belong, I’ll be the last one to say or do anything against him; but when he tries to shove himself up among white folks, and swindle me out of a new shot-gun and get appointed mail carrier over my head, it’s something I won’t stand.  Say, Dave,” he added, drawing rein, as the subject of his remarks approached, “can you spare us just about two minutes for a little private conversation?”

“I reckon,” replied David.  “Have you joined that sportsman’s club, and are you going to prosecute me for being a pot-hunter?”

“Lester has already told you what we are going to do about that, and you may rest assured that we shall do it,” answered Bob, sharply.  “What we say, we always stand to.  What we want to talk to you about now is this:  We know, as well as you do, that your father is hiding out here in the cane, and that he dare not show himself in the settlement for fear he will be arrested.  You wouldn’t like to see him sent to jail, would you?”

“I know what you mean,” replied David.  “My father may have been foolish, but he has done nothing that the law can touch him for.”

When he said this he was thinking of Clarence Gordon and the barrel with the eighty thousand dollars in it.  He did not know that Godfrey was guilty of highway robbery, and he forgot that he had also committed an assault upon Don, and that he had received and cared for stolen property, knowing it to be stolen.