“Take care what you say, Tony. Do you take me for a fool?”
“He is a man I used to know. When I was coming home he was waiting for me in the woods, only I didn’t know who he really was. He told me there was a man who had fallen into a well in the woods, and he wanted my help to get him out. So I tied the horse and went with him. I wouldn’t have left him but for that story of the man in the well.”
“Go on,” said the landlord. “I warn you I don’t believe a word of this wonderful story of yours.”
“I can’t help it,” said Tony, desperately. “It’s true.”
“Go on, and I’ll give you my opinion of it afterward.”
“Just before we got to the well, a branch took off his hat and wig, and I saw that he was no Quaker, but my enemy, Rudolph Rugg.”
“Rudolph Rugg! A very good name for a romance.”
“Then I tried to get away, but it was too late. The man seized me and threw me down the well. But first he told me that he knew who I was, and that I was heir to a large fortune.”
“Indeed! How happens it that you are not at the bottom of the well still?”
“I climbed up by the stones till I reached the rope, and then I found it easy. I hurried to where I had left the horse, but he was gone. I supposed that the Quaker had taken him, but James tells me Sam Payson found him and brought him back.”
“Look here, boy,” said the landlord, sternly, “do you expect me to believe this romance of yours?”
“I don’t know whether you will or not, sir. All I can say is that it is the exact truth.”
“I cannot keep you in my employ any longer. I have been deceived in you, and should no longer trust you. You certainly have mistaken your vocation. You are not fit to be a stableboy.”
“I should like to know what I am fit for?” said Tony, despondently.
“I will tell you, then. Judging from the story you have told me, I should think you might succeed very well in writing dime novels. I don’t know whether it pays, but you can try it.”
“Sometime you will find out that I have told the truth,” said Tony.
“You can stay till to-morrow morning. Wait a minute. Here is a five-dollar bill. That is a fair price for the time you have been with me.”
As Tony was going out he came near having a collision with Sam Payson.
“Yes,” said Tony. “It was your fault. What made you take that horse?”