Rather than ask aunt Dorcas to support three boys, as well as a child, he would go his way alone, after telling her exactly the truth of the matter. "I'll loaf 'round here till 'long towards night, an' then I'll start up to the house through the lane," Dan said, believing Joe did not dare oppose him. "That'll give you a chance to tell her what hard luck I'm in; an' lay it on as thick as you know how, so's she'll be willin' to take me. Plum says this is about the softest snap he ever struck, an' I want my share of it." Joe remained silent while one might have counted ten, trying to restrain his anger, and then he said, quietly, but firmly: "Aunt Dorcas is too good a woman for us to beat in such a way as that, an' I promise, Dan Fernald, that if you show your head on the lane to-night, or try to come into the house, I'll first tell her the whole thing, an' then go straight to the city. I ain't givin' you any fairy story; I mean every word. There's no need of your starvin' 'round here, 'cause you can go back to town. The folks there don't think you're sich an awful big detective that they're goin' to keep their eyes on you all the time. I'll bet there ain't a single soul, except some of our crowd, that know you've ever talked with us 'bout this." Dan looked at his friend in mute astonishment. It seemed to him the height of ingratitude that Joe Potter should thus threaten, when he had made so many sacrifices to aid him in escaping from the officers of the law. More than all this was he hurt by the insinuation that his detective ability was not of a high order, and in a very short time his astonishment gave way to anger. "You can put on as many airs as you want to, Joe Potter, an' we'll see whether I'm a detective or not. I went 'round among the fellers borrowin' money, didn't make any account of my own time, an' walked 'way out here, jest to help you. Now I'm goin' to do as much the other way, an' we'll see what'll happen between now an' to-morrow night! You'll be in jail, that's where you'll be, an' Plums with you!" "Here comes aunt Dorcas," Master Plummer whispered, hoarsely, and instead of stalking away in a dignified fashion, as he had intended, the amateur detective ran hurriedly around the corner of the barn to screen himself from view of the little woman. "We're in an awful mess now," Plums whispered to Joe. "It's a good deal worse than it was before, 'cause Dan will do everything he's threatened, an' we can count on seein' as many as a dozen perlicemen here before to-morrer night." Joe did not dare reply, for, by this time, aunt Dorcas was so near that his words would have been overheard; but he appeared quite as disturbed as did Master Plummer. CHAPTER X. THE JOURNEY. Aunt Dorcas was so intent on the plans for the future which had just been formed, that she failed to observe the constraint which had been put upon the boys by her coming.