ooner or later fortune would
turn the trick for him, and the chance arise whereby he might pay back
the debt he owed the "interloper," as he chose to deem Darry.

CHAPTER XVI

DARRY MEETS WITH A REBUFF

During these weeks Darry had accomplished many little jobs around his
new home, things that had been wanting looking after for a long time;
for Abner's visits were so few and far between that he had little time
to mend broken doors, or put up shelves where they would save the
"missus" steps.

If he went off with Paul Singleton later he would have no chance to look
after these things, and so he made good use of his opportunities.

He had not seen the young gentleman once since, and upon making
inquiries of the storekeeper, learned that he had gone to a very
exclusive club to spend some little time.

Darry wondered whether he had been utterly forgotten.

Perhaps the youth had regretted asking him to keep him company; it may
have been done on the spur of the moment, simply because he chanced to
resemble someone he knew.

Once in the comfortable club, with experienced guides to attend him, and
the very best points for shooting reserved, doubtless Paul Singleton had
forgotten that there was such a boy as Darry in existence.

So he tried to forget about it, and make up his mind that he could find
plenty of congenial work looking after his traps and assisting Abner's
wife during the winter, with occasional trips across the sound, and
possibly a chance to pull an oar in the surfboat, should luck favor him.

All this while he had taken toll of the feathered frequenters of the
marsh, and many a plump fowl graced the table of the Peake family,
thanks to the faithful old gun, and the steady nerves back of it.

Darry soon learned where there were squirrels to be found, and twice he
had brought in a mess of the gray nutcrackers, though not so fond of
hunting them as other game.

And one day he had delighted the good housewife with four nice quail, or
as they were known in this section, "pa'tridge," which he had dropped
out of a bevy that got up before him in the brush close to the woods
where he looked for squirrel.

He knew that something had been troubling Mrs. Peake, but it was a long
time before he could tempt her to speak of it.

It concerned money matters, of course, as is nearly always the case when
trouble visits the poor.

Abner had been incautious enough to put a little mortgage upon his
humble hom