k in
secret and under cover of the darkness, and now when it was too late, he
wished he had adopted that method at the outset. If he had he wouldn't
have lost his reputation. There were two men in the neighborhood he was
quite sure he would not trouble again unless he had a strong force at
his back, for they had threatened to shoot, and Bud believed they were
just reckless enough to do it. When he reached this point in his
meditations he chanced to look up and saw old Uncle Toby emerge from the
thicket on one side of the road, take a few long, rapid steps, and
disappear among the bushes on the other side. He held something tightly
clasped under his coat, and seemed so anxious to avoid observation that
Bud's suspicions were aroused at once.

CHAPTER IX.

THE COMMITTEE AT WORK.

Elder Bowen's negro boy Sam, who was working among the flower-beds with
his master, sought safety in flight when Bud Goble's coming was
announced, and, standing concealed behind an evergreen in the garden,
saw and heard all that passed between the minister and the man who had
come there to browbeat him. When Bud was ejected from the grounds Sam
came out from his hiding-place grinning broadly.

"Marse Joe," said he, as soon as he could make himself understood, "dat
beats all de sermons you ever preached all holler. It does so. But,
Marse Joe, I 'fraid Marse Gobble gwine make ole Toby trouble all along
of dat babolition paper. De nex' time he go dar he ax Uncle Toby whar he
got dat money of his'n stowed away. Dat's what I 'fraid of, sah.'

"I didn't think of that, and perhaps it would be well for you to run
over and put Toby on his guard," replied Mr. Bowen. "Neighbor Goble is
on the war-path sure enough, and he would just as soon rob that old
negro as to rob a white man. Tell Toby to give the money into his
master's keeping."

Sam obeyed instructions, but we have seen that the suspicious old Toby
was not willing to listen to advice. He was terribly alarmed when Sam
told him what Bud had been about that morning, and taking advantage of
his master's absence, and of his own position as helper about the
stables, he dug up his money which he had buried before daylight, and
posted off to the academy to have a talk with one of the Gray boys. He
kept to the fields and gave the roads a wide berth; but he was obliged
to cross one highway during his journey, and that was the time Bud Goble
saw