at
the weapon impeded his flight, and so he threw it away. Whereabouts he
was in the hills when he got rid of it, he can't tell. No doubt your gun
was thrown away also, and the chances are not one in a thousand that we
shall ever find them again."

While this conversation was going on, Silas Morgan, who stood at the
foot of the steps that led to the porch, kept pulling Joe by the
coat-sleeve, and whispering to him:

"Never mind the guns. Tell the sheriff that I'm powerful anxious to see
the color of them twenty-five hundred."

Joe paid no sort of attention to him, and finally Silas became so very
much in earnest in his endeavors to attract the boy's notice, that the
officer saw it; and when there was a little pause in the conversation,
he said, carelessly:

"Oh, about the reward, Silas--"

"That's the idee," replied the ferry-man, who thought sure that he was
going to get it now. "That's what I'm here for. You have got the
bugglars in your own hands now, and I don't reckon you would mind
passing it over, would you?"

"I?" exclaimed the sheriff. "I haven't got it. I have never had a cent
of it in my possession."

"Then who's going to give it to me?" demanded Silas, who wondered if the
officer was going to cheat him out of his money.

"Well, you see, Silas," said the sheriff, "the reward is conditioned
upon the arrest and conviction of the burglars. They have been arrested,
and their conviction is only a matter of time; but you can't get your
money until they are sentenced."

"And how long will that be?"

"The court will sit again in about six weeks. As some of the money was
offered by the county, and the rest by the men who lost the jewelry and
things that were found in that valise, you will get your reward from
different parties, unless they hand it over to me to be paid to you in a
lump."

"That's the way I want it," said Silas, who was very much disappointed.
"I'm going into business."

"What sort of business?" inquired Mr. Warren.

"I am going to keep a boat-house down to the Beach."

"Well now, Silas, that's the most sensible thing I have heard from you
in a long time," said Mr. Warren. "I'll rent you a piece of ground big
enough for a garden, and you can set yourself up in business in good
shape, build a nice house, and have money left in the bank. If you
manage the thing rightly, you and Dan ought to make a good living
of it."

"Who said anything about Dan?" exclaimed Silas.

"I did. Of cour