"What is the matter with me?" he asked, as he wiped the perspiration from his brow. "I suppose it must be because I have so much money with me. I wish I had taken a check." Then he tried to laugh it off, but he could not drive away the feeling of uneasiness. Somehow the thought of robbers would present itself to his mind. "I'd give a five-dollar bill if I was safe at home," he said to himself. He had reached the middle point of the woods, and was beginning to breathe easier. Neither before nor behind was any one in sight. "It's all right!" he thought. "As soon as I get through them woods I shall have nothing to worry about." But just then a noise was heard to the right, and a tramp burst out, his features concealed by a mask, and sprang for the horse's head. "Halt there!" he exclaimed in a hoarse voice. Adin Dunham's tongue refused service, and with pallid cheeks, betokening intense fear, he stared at the apparition. "What do you want?" he managed to ejaculate at last. "Quick! Give me that money," hissed the stranger. "What money?" asked Adin Dunham, aghast, though he knew well enough what money was meant. "No trifling, or it will be the worse for you! Give me the thousand dollars you have in your pocket." "Are you a robber?" asked Dunham, with blanched face. "Never mind what I am! I want that money. It will be as much as your life is worth to refuse." Adin Dunham was not a brave man, but the prospect of losing his fortune, for which he had waited so long, made him desperate. He drew out his whip and lashed the horse. "Get up, Captain!" he shouted. Then, he hardly knew how it happened, the tramp clambered into the wagon, and pressed a handkerchief to his mouth. He felt his senses going, but before he lost consciousness he saw something that startled him. The tramp opened his mouth, and he caught sight of the long tusk-like teeth. "Why, it's Squire Bates!" he ejaculated, in horror-struck dismay. Then he lost all consciousness, and knew not what followed. "Confusion!" muttered the tramp. "Why did I open my mouth?" He thrust his hand into Adin Dunham's pocket, after stopping the horse. Then, as it would not be safe to leave the horse under the management of a man in a faint, he took the passive form of the carpenter from the wagon, and laid him down under a tree by the roadside. "There! It will be supposed that he fell from the wagon in a fit!" he said to himself, as he left the scene. This was what had happened to Adin Dunham. How long he lay in his senseless condition cannot be told. At length he opened his eyes, and looked about him in a dazed way. "Where is the horse and wagon?" he asked himself. The horse and wagon were not to be seen. The Captain had waited patiently, looking round from time to time, and gazing in evident doubt at his driver, whinneying a hint that they had been stopping long enough. Probably he wondered what was the matter with Adin Dunham, who, though not his master, was well known to him.