him. The old negro's actions excited Bud's interest as well as his
suspicions, and having nothing else to do, he rose from his log and
followed him.

And right here it is necessary to make a short explanation in order that
you may understand what happened afterward. Rodney and Marcy Gray had
been studying at the academy for almost four years, and although they
were popular among all classes in and around Barrington, there were
some, whites as well as blacks, who invariably got them mixed up, and
never could tell one from the other unless they chanced to meet them in
company. It was Rodney, the rebel, who helped Bud Goble when his family
were all prostrated with the ague, and offered him a reward for finding
that underground railroad, but it was Marcy, the Union boy, who picked
the banjo with superior skill, danced and sung his way into the
affections of the plantation darkies, and saved old Toby's melon-patch
from being devastated by the students. These two had eaten a good many
of old Toby's melons, and more than one Thanksgiving turkey which graced
his table had been bought with their money. Believing from what Sam told
him that his hard-earned wealth was not safe as long as he knew where it
was, Toby decided that one of these two boys, the one he happened to
find first, should be its custodian. Dick Graham, who was on duty at the
front gate, told him where Marcy was, and the old man lost no time in
making his way through the woods to his friend's beat. But Marcy
declined to accept the responsibility, as we have seen, and so Toby took
the money back and hid it in the ground whence he had taken it. He would
have been better off--almost two hundred dollars better off--if he had
done as Mr. Bowen and Marcy advised him to do; for Bud Goble dogged his
footsteps every rod of the way, and Toby never once suspected it. Bud
did not hear what passed between Toby and the sentry--he dared not go
close enough for that; but he saw the stocking that went back and forth
between the iron pickets of the fence, and he was in plain sight of the
negro when he returned it to its hiding-place.

Here again Toby made a great mistake. If he had concealed the money
under his cabin, within hearing and scenting distance of the coon dogs
that were so numerous in the quarter, it would have been comparatively
safe; but he was so very much averse to having it around him that he
took it behind his garden-patch, rolled a decayed log from its bed and