There was a stove in the camp, and the place was furnished after a fashion with chairs and a table fashioned from birch saplings.  The blankets of Wagg’s camp equipment made the bunks comfortable.

Wagg had been the cook as well as the captain of the expedition.  He did better that evening with the wood-burning stove than he had done with the oil stove of his kit.

After supper, before he turned in, Vaniman went out on a spur of Devilbrow and gazed down on the scattered lights of the village of Egypt.  As best he could he determined the location of the Harnden house.  He felt as helplessly aloof as if he were a shade revisiting the scene of his mortal experiences.

CHAPTER XXV

THE FIRST PEEP BEHIND THE CURTAIN

The next day Wagg went out and shot two partridges and contrived a stew which fully occupied his attention in the making and the eating.  He had suggested to Vaniman that he’d better come along on the expedition after the birds.  Vaniman found a bit more than mere suggestion in Wagg’s manner of invitation.  With his shotgun in the hook of his arm he presented his wonted appearance as the guard at the prison.  It was perfectly apparent that Mr. Wagg proposed to keep his eye on the promiser of the fifty-fifty split.  But Wagg did not refer to the matter of the money while they strolled in the woods.

As a matter of fact, days went by without the question coming up.

Wagg had previously praised himself as a patient waiter; the young man confessed in his thoughts that his guardian merited the commendation.  Wagg was plainly having a particularly good time on this outing.  He displayed the contentment of a man who had ceased to worry about the future; he was taking it easy, like a vacationer with plenty of money in the bank.  On one occasion he did mention the money in the course of a bit of philosophizing on the situation: 

“I suppose that, when you look at it straight, it’s stealing, what I’m doing.  I’ve seen a lot of big gents pass through that state prison, serving sentences for stealing.  Embezzlement, forgery, crooked stock dealing—­it’s all stealing.  They were tempted.  I’ve been tempted.  I’ve fell.  I ain’t an angel, any more than those big gents were.  And you know what I told you about mourners chirking up, after the first blow!  I figure it’s the same way in the bank case.  They have given up the idea of getting the money back.  They’re still sad when they think about it, but they keep thinking less and less every day.  They’ve crossed it off, as you might say.”

The two who were bound in that peculiar comradeship were out on the crag where they could look down upon the distant checker board of the village.  Vaniman, in the stress of the circumstances, wondered whether he might be able to come at Wagg on the sentimental side of his nature.

“The little town must have gone completely broke since the bank failure.  Innocent people are suffering.  If that money could be returned—­”