I was a good deal surprised at all this. Mr Gordon had betrayed me; — and after doing me so base and irreparable an injury, what could he mean by these little marks of good will? Mr Gordon was, as I have described him, a good natured fellow. He had not been able to resist the temptation of five hundred ‘dollars, and all the other advantages, which he expected to gain by betraying me; — but for all that, he had not forgotten that I had saved his life. He walked up beside me, and stammering and hesitating, he attempted to enter into conversation.
"That was deuced hard blow you struck me, Archy," he began.
"I am sorry it was not harder," was my answer.
"Come, come now, don't be in such a devilish savage humor. Why, boy, I thought I might as well get the five hundred dollars, as to let it slip through my fingers, and all for nothing too. I knew right well, you were sure to be taken, — and for all you pout so about it, we made better terms for you, than any body else would have done. Come, boy, cheer up, and I'll tell you how it all was. You see, when you left me t'other night, I could not sleep a wink for thinking. Says I to myself, that's a damned foolish project of Archy's. He is sure to be caught; and then it will be coming out as how I helped him, and then there will be the devil and all to pay. He'll be whipped, and I'll be fined and sent to jail, and for any thing I know, ridden on a rail out of the county, as colonel Moore and them others threatened me; and then, — to make a bad matter worse, — somebody else will get the reward. Now that boy Archy, said I, saved my life — there's no denying that, any how, — and if I can save him a whipping, and at the same time, put five hundred dollars into my pocket, it will be a mighty pretty business for both of us.
"So the next morning, I got up early and started off for colonel Moore's; and a mighty fluster I found the colonel in, to be sure, — for he could hear no news of you nowhere. So says I, colonel, says I, I hear as how you've offered five hundred dollars reward to any body that'll catch them "ere runaways of yours. Yes, says the colonel, cash down; — and he looked me in the face, as though he thought I knew where to find you.
