Anton,
too, lay awake. Angry and burning were his revengeful thoughts. He
was more determined than ever to find the purse, not to let his
victims escape him. As to Toby, he would kill him if he could. There
seemed little doubt now that the children had not the purse with
them. Still Anton remembered Joe's confused manner when he had
sounded him on the subject of money. Anton felt sure that Joe knew
where the purse was. How could he force his secret from the lad? How
could he make him declare where the gold was hidden? A specious,
plausible man, Anton had, as I before said, made friends with Joe.
Joe in a moment of ill-advised confidence had told to Anton his own
sad history. Anton pondering over it now in the darkness, for there
was no moon shining into _his_ bedroom, felt that he could
secure a very strong hold over the lad.
Joe had been apprenticed to a Frenchman, who taught him to dance and
play the fiddle. Anton wondered what the law bound these apprentices
to. He had a hazy idea that, if they ran away, the punishment was
severe. He hoped that Joe had broken the law. Anton resolved to learn
more about these apprentice laws. For this purpose he rose very early
in the morning and went out. He was absent for about two hours. When
he returned he had learned enough to make up a bad and frightening
tale. Truly his old plans had been defeated in the night. But in the
morning he had made even worse than these. He came in to find the
children awakening from the effects of their long slumber, and Joe
audibly lamenting that they were not already on their way.
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