Harry Castlemon

“ The collar stood the strain, Matt's finger was too strong to be straightened out, and Sam was a prisoner.
"Aha!" said the squatter, looking into the boy's astonished face with grim good-humor. "You didn't look for your old pap to be so cute, did you? Didn't I give you fair warnin' that a man who had spent the best years of his life in dodgin' guides an' constables wasn't to be beat by his own boys? You've been mighty cunnin', you an' Jakey have, but I'm to the top of the heap now. ”

“ That Bigden boy done sent us up here on a wild goose chase jest to draw suspicion from himself. He is the one that's got the money, and he's had it all the time."
"You've hit center, pap, sure's you're a foot high," exclaimed Sam. "I wondered why that Bigden boy was so ready to tell us where the money was, an' now I know. Will we go home now, pap?"
"We'll start at onct, an' by this time to-morrer we'll have the money an' the Bigden boy too. If he don't tell us what he's done with it, we'll tie him to a tree like we done with Joe Wayring. ”

“ And Matt's wonder increased when he walked around the tree and found that the boy was nowhere in sight. There lay the cord with which his arms had been bound, but Sam was missing and so was his rifle. That made the whole thing clear to Matt's comprehension.
"The ongrateful an' ondutiful scamp!" cried the squatter, angrily. "This is another thing that I owe him a lickin' for—runnin' away from his pap. He'll get it good an' strong when he comes home, I bet you, an' so will Jakey. Whoop! I'm boss of this house, an' I don't want none on you to disremember it. ”