"Oh, it goes some way. I guess I'll begin to save, too."
"I wish you would. Then if you want to leave the circus at the end of
the season we'll go somewhere together, and look for a different kind
of work. We can take a room together in Boston or New York, eat at the
restaurants, and look for something."
"I don't know but I should like going to New York," said Charlie.
By this time they had reached the edge of the woods, and were probably
a mile or more from the town. There was no underbrush, but the trees
rose clear and erect, and presented a cool and pleasant prospect to
the boys, who had become warm with walking. So far as they knew,
they were alone, but in this they were mistaken. Mr. Tarbox had some
wood-land near by, and he had gone out to look at it, when, alike to
his surprise and gratification, his eyes rested on the two boys, whom
he at once recognized as belonging to the circus, having seen them ride
the evening before. He didn't care particularly for Charlie Davis, but
Robert Rudd had been with Anak when he inflicted upon him so mortifying
personal chastisement, and he looked upon the boy as an accomplice of
the man.
"That's the very boy I wanted to see," said Tarbox to himself, with a
cruel smile. "I can't manage that overgrown brute, but I can manage
him. I'll give the boy a lesson, and that'll be better than nothing."
Tarbox was naturally a tyrant and a bully, and, like most men of his
character, was delighted when he could get hold of a person of inferior
strength.
"Oh ho!" he said to himself, "the boy can't escape me now."
"Look here, boy," he said, in an impatient tone.
Robert turned quickly, and saw the frowning face of Tarbox.
CHAPTER X.
TRAPPED.
Robert foresaw that trouble was in store for him, as he had seen enough
of the farmer to understand his disposition. However, the boy was not
easily startled, nor was he of a nervous temperament. He looked calmly
at Tarbox and said: "Very well, sir, what do you want of me?"
"What do I want of you? I shouldn't think you'd need to be told. You
remember me, don't you?"
"Perfectly well," answered Robert.
"Perhaps you can remember where you saw me last?"
"In the circus last evening."
"No, I don't mean that—before that."
"In your own field, trying to whip a poor boy who was going to call the
doctor for his sick mother."
"Look here, boy," said Tarbox, reddening; "none of your impudence!"
"Did I tell the truth?" asked Robert quietly.
"Never mind whether you did or not. I ain't going to stand any of your
impudence. Where's that big brute Enoch?"
"If you mean Anak, I left him in the tent."
"He needn't think he can go round insulting and committing assault and
battery on his betters," said Tarbox.
"You can tell him that if you like, sir; I am not responsible for him."
"No, but you are responsible for trespassin' on my grounds."
"I would do it again if I saw you trying to flog a defenceless boy,"
said Robert, independently.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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