Clarence was not injured in the least by the fall, but he was pretty well shaken, and so nearly blinded by the dust that it was a minute or two before he could collect his scattered senses, and clear his eyes so that he could take note of what was going on around him. The first thing he saw was the pony’s white tail disappearing around the turn in the road, and the next was Godfrey Evans, who arose from a thicket of bushes, and hurrying up laid hold of the boy’s collar. “I’m pretty badly shaken up, but I don’t need any help,” said Clarence, who was already on his feet. “Hallo! what’s the matter with you?” Clarence had by this time cleared the dust from his eyes so that he could take a good look at his companion. There was an expression on his face that he had never seen there before, and he did not know what to make of it. “Why don’t you let go my collar?” demanded Clarence. “Kase I want them twenty dollars ye’ve got in yer pocket--that’s why,” replied Godfrey, savagely. Clarence was too amazed to speak. CHAPTER XVI. CONCLUSION. “Hand ’em out here, I say,” repeated Godfrey, “an’ don’t waste no time in thinkin’ about it, nuther!” “You’ve turned highwayman, have you?” said the boy, recovering his power of speech by an effort. “Well, you shan’t have the money. I have use for it myself, and I could easily use more if I had it.” “So can I use it,” said Godfrey, “an’ I’m going to have it, too. Yer mighty good to yerself, ain’t ye? Yer going off to yer home, fifteen hundred miles away, an’ leave me to bear the brunt of this business as best I can. But I ain’t agoin’ to stay nuther. I’m goin’ away, too. Hand ’em out here!” “And what shall I do?” asked Clarence, who began to grow alarmed when he saw how determined Godfrey was. “How shall I get home without any money to pay my way?” “Hand ’em out here, I say, an’ be quick about it,” answered Godfrey, making an effort to put his hand into the boy’s pocket. “I don’t care how ye get hum. Ye got me into this scrape an’ ye must pay my way outen it; that’s how the thing stands.” “I’ll not go home at all,” exclaimed Clarence, doubling himself up and resisting to the utmost all Godfrey’s efforts to force his hand into his pocket. “I’ll stay and see this thing out on purpose to have you arrested.” “I shall be miles back in the swamp in less’n an hour,” replied Godfrey, becoming enraged at the boy’s opposition and throwing him flat on his back in the road. “I’ve got my rifle with me, an’ the fust man that follows me will come to his death!”