“Would you?” asked Julian, throwing his rifle into the hollow of his arm and resting his thumb on the hammer; “then have the goodness to leave here at once. I am suspicious of every stranger who calls me by name.”
“An’ well you may be,” replied the man, earnestly, “‘cause most of ’em are enemies to you. But I hain’t. I’m a friend, an’ I can prove it. Do you know that Dick Mortimer an’ Jack Bowles are huntin’ the country over to find you?”
“Yes; but I wasn’t aware Mr. Mortimer’s name is Dick.”
“Wal, it is. The flatboat’s come, an’ when they ketch you they’re goin’ to take you to Orleans an’ lock you up fur a crazy boy.”
“Why, they said last night that they were going to push me overboard and drown me,” said Julian, as soon as he could speak.
“Mebbe they be. I don’t know what they are goin’ to do—I’m only tellin’ you what I heerd ’em say.”
“Who are you, any how; and how does it come that you know my name?”
“Why, boy, I’ve knowed you ever since you was knee high to a duck, an’ your father afore you.”
“You have?” cried Julian, greatly amazed.
“In course. An’ your mother an’ your brother, too. They live out in the mountains, an’ I come to take you to ’em. They’ll be monstrous glad to see you, an’ they’re waitin’ fur you.”
“I remember my father,” said Julian, gazing thoughtfully at the ground, “and it seems to me that I have some recollection of my brother; but I never knew anything about my mother. What brought you here?”
“I come to your camp to tell you that Bowles and Mortimer are comin’ arter you on hossback, an’ that if you want to save yourself you had better dig out. An’ I come to Missouri ’cause your friends sent me here arter you. I know the hul lot of ’em, I tell you, an’ if you will trust yourself to me I will take you to ’em safe an’ sound.”
Julian, astounded and bewildered by this proposition, dropped the butt of his rifle to the ground, and looked sharply at the man, as if he meant to read his very thoughts. Was he really the friend he professed to be? Of one thing the boy was certain—and that was that he was not an ally of Mr. Mortimer. If he had been he would not have warned him that another attempt was about to be made to capture him.
How gladly would he have given himself up to the man’s guidance if he had only been sure that he was trustworthy! He would have followed him all over the world, and braved all imaginable dangers, if he knew that by so doing he would be restored to his home once more. _Home!_ How the word thrilled him!