“Oh, no—­no, far from that!  I love them both; but I thought it might be pleasanter for you, if we had our home to ourselves again.”

Horace looked at his sister intently.

“Are you keeping something back from me, Ann?” he demanded.

“Scarcely keeping anything from you, Dear; but I want you to be happy and not to—­” Horace rose in agitation, and quick tears blurred Ann’s sight.

“Is there anything I can do for you, Dearest?” she concluded.

“No!”

Reluctantly she left him, troubled and perplexed.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Lem Crabbe had cunningly planned to keep Scraggy under his eye and follow her to the hiding place of their son.  He realized that the lad was a man now; but so much the better.  He would obtain money from him, or he would bring him back to the scow and make him a partner in his trade.  In spite of his wickedness, Lem had a strong longing for a sight of his child.  Many times he had meditated upon the days Scraggy had lived in the barge, and, although he had no remorse for his cruelty to her, he had regretted the death of his boy.  To be with him, he would have to tolerate the presence of Scraggy for awhile.  He felt sure that Flea had gone from him forever, and the loneliness of his home made him shiver as he entered it a few nights after his conversation with Scraggy.

He had been in the boat but a few moments when he heard Lon’s whistle and called the squatter in.

“I thought we’d make them plans for Tarrytown,” Cronk said presently.  “We might as well get to work as to be lazin’ about.  Don’t ye think so?”

“Well, I were a thinkin’ of stayin’ here for awhile,” stuttered Lem.

“What for?”

“Nothin’ perticular.”

“Ye know where that rich duffer’s house be what ye heard Middy Burnes speak about?”

“Yep.  It ain’t far from the graveyard.  I thought as how we could crawl in there while we was waitin’ for night.”

A strange look passed across Lon’s face.

“Ye mean to hide in the cemetray?” he asked.

“Yep.  Be ye afeared?”

“I ain’t got no likin’ for dead folks,” muttered Cronk.

He added nothing to this statement; but said after a moment’s silence: 

“Scraggy ought to go dead herself some of these days, ’cause she’s allers a runnin’ about in the storms.  I see her ag’in tonight a startin’ out for another ja’nt.  She had her bundle and her cat and was makin’ a bee line for Ithaca.”

Lem glanced up quickly.

“I’ve changed my mind, Lon,” he grunted.  “I’ll go to Tarrytown any day yer ready.”

Accordingly, they took a week to prepare their burglar’s kit, which they had not used for sometime, and ten days after the slipping away of Screech Owl, Lon Cronk and Lem Crabbe left the squatter settlement and made their way to Tarrytown.