Harry Castlemon

“ Airy fellers who burned us outen house an' home, so't we've got to stay around the settlements whether we want to or not."
The mention of Joe Wayring's name seemed to set Matt Coyle beside himself with rage. He jumped to his feet and strode back and forth in front of his log, flourishing his arms in the air and uttering threats that were enough to make even a canvas canoe tremble with apprehension. Why Matt should feel so spiteful against my master I could not understand. Joe had no hand in driving him out of Mount Airy, neither did he lend the least assistance in destroying Matt's property. ”

“ Rube knew well enough that the food Matt's wife served up to him three times a day had never been paid for. The first words he uttered when he presented himself at the breakfast table the next morning proved as much.
"Beats the world how you folks keep yourselves in grub so easy," said he, as he drew one of the stools up to the well-filled board. "I never see you do no work, an' yet you never go hungry. Well, I don't know's it's any of my business; but I'd like mighty well to make it my business to 'rest them two robbers that's prowlin' about in these woods."
"What robbers?" inquired Matt ”

“ I'm going to get ashore and strike out through the woods the best I know how. I don't care where I bring up, so long as I put a safe distance between myself and the guides who will be on our trail at daylight. They'll track a fellow down as a hound would. ”

“ Say," added Matt, giving Sam a poke in the ribs with his finger. "Six hundred dollars is nothin' alongside of six thousand, is it? Them fellers will have to camp somewhere, if they stay in the woods, won't they? An' is there a man in the Injun Lake country that's better'n I be at findin' camps an' sneakin' up on 'em? Jakey, go into the shanty an' bring out that canvas canoe of your'n. Go easy, 'cause Rube wants to sleep after bein' up all night. ”

“ They couldn't track the robbers no furder'n the suller; but they're bound to come up with 'em, sooner or later. Townies ain't as good at hidin' in the woods as you be, Matt."
The squatter grinned his appreciation of the complaint, and Rube proceeded to unfold his paper. When he found the dispatch of which he was in search, he read it in a low monotone, without any rising or falling inflection or the least regard for pauses. It ran as follows:
BANK THIEVES GET $6,000. ”

“ But they couldn't foller 'em no furder, an' that proves that the robbers must have crossed the lake right there."
"I don't reckon they did, pap," replied Jake, whose uneasiness and anxiety were so apparent that it was a wonder his father's suspicions were not aroused. "'Cause where did they get a boat to take 'em over? Haskins don't own but one, an' he's got that up to Injun Lake."
"I don't know nothin' about that," answered Matt, doggedly. "Them robbers got across the lake somehow, an' I am sure of it. Leastwise it won't do any harm to slip up there, easy like, an' look around a bit. ”