A SHORT AND DECISIVE CONFLICT

Dory Dornwood appeared to be in no hurry to get home after his discharge.  The steamer stopped at Burlington after his fate had been decided, and the steward expected him to take his things on shore.  The ex-waiter evidently had other views, for he kept out of sight until after the boat had left the wharf.

When the steamer reached Plattsburg, Dory Dornwood went on shore.  He visited all the hotels in the place, and endeavored to obtain a situation as a waiter, or as any thing else-he did not care what-by which he could earn some money to help support the family.  He could obtain no situation, though he heard of a place a few miles out in the country where a boy was wanted.  Dory had no money,-not a penny; for his father collected his wages.  He decided to visit the place at once, so as to be the first to apply for the position.

After he had walked a couple of miles, and had one more to go, he came to a piece of woods through which the road extended.  He began to feel very tired, for he had done a day’s work before he landed from the steamer.  It was now nearly eight o’clock in the evening.  He had eaten no supper, and not much dinner; for the events in the cabin had taken off his appetite.  With no money and no friends, he was not very clear as to where his supper was to come from.  The question of a lodging was involved in quite as much doubt.

The weather was warm; and, if he was compelled to lodge in the woods, it would not be the first time he had slept in the open air.  Though he had rather more than his fair share of pride, any farmer would give him a meal of victuals for the asking.  But just now he was tired, and he wanted rest.  He walked a short distance from the road, and seated himself on a rock.  It was not comfortable; and he stretched his body upon the ground, which was covered with a clean carpet of fine needles.

Of course he could not help thinking of the great event of the day; and, while he was considering it, he fell asleep.  Possibly his slumber continued an hour; and it might have continued another hour, or even all night, if he had not been disturbed by footsteps near him.  The nails in the heel of a heavy boot grated upon a flat rock, and this was the noise that awakened the tired sleeper.

Dory half rose from his reclining posture, and discovered a man moving stealthily towards the road.  He was creeping with the utmost care:  and probably the scraping of his boot against the rock had admonished him to be more careful; at any rate he acted as though such were the case.

The seeker for a situation was wide awake as soon as he was awake at all.  He sat on the ground watching the stranger as he crawled towards the road.  It was quite dark, but the opening made by the highway admitted some light from the stars.  Dory thought the stranger had something in his hand.  If the man had walked right along, the boy would have thought nothing of the fact that he was in the woods after dark; but he was creeping like a cat, and Dory’s curiosity was aroused.

He got upon his feet, and walked after the mysterious stranger.  He did not care to show himself, and he kept one of the big trees between himself and the man all the time.  Near the road a fringe of bushes had sprung up, and in their foliage the man concealed himself.  Dory had obtained a better view of what the stranger had in his hand; and, though he was not sure of it, he thought it was a gun.  Was the man out hunting in the dark?  There were no deer so near the town, and it was hardly likely that the person was gunning in the darkness.

Dory continued to creep from tree to tree until he could not have been more than a couple of rods from the concealed night wanderer.  If he had not believed the man had a gun in his hand, he would have left his concealment and gone about his business; for he had come to the conclusion that the affair, whatever it was, did not concern him.  But he felt a little bashful about leaving, lest the gun might go off, and the shot accidentally strike him.

The next minute he was confident that he heard footsteps in the road.  Before he had time to satisfy himself fully on this point, the gun in the hand of the stranger went off; and its going-off proved to Dory that it was a gun, as he had supposed, and even believed.

“Help! help!” shouted some one in the road; and the voice proved that there was some one there.

Scarcely had the word been uttered before the man in the bushes broke from his place of concealment, and rushed towards the road.  Dory was too much interested in the affair to remain at a distance any longer.  It was none of his business; but it was plain enough that the mysterious stranger had fired his gun at the person who shouted for assistance from the road.  Dory reasoned, that, as he had fired the gun once, he could not fire it again without reloading it; and he had not had time to do this.

But there was some sort of wickedness in progress, and Dory ran with all his might to the road; and, even if he had not run with all his might, it would not have taken him a great while to accomplish two rods.  When he came to the opening, he saw one man spring upon another.  The former dropped the gun he carried in his hand, and it was plain that he had fired the shot.

The two men clutched each other, though one of them tried to say something to the other.  Dory had lots of blood in his veins, and it began to boil as though it was over a hot fire.  All his sympathies were with the man who had been attacked.  The other had crept upon him like a thief in the night, had fired at him, and then had followed up the attack with a hand-to-hand onslaught.

“Don’t, Pearl!” pleaded the man who had been attacked.  “Consider what you are doing!  You will ruin yourself!  You are sure to be discovered, even if you kill me!”

Dory did not wait to hear any more.  He had a strong impulse to take a hand in the affair, though it was none of his business.  The stranger who had wakened him from his slumbers was back to him, and the boy thought his opportunity at the present instant was too good to be lost.

The supperless wanderer flung himself upon the shoulders of the assailant, and grappled him around the throat with all his strength.  He was well aware, that, if he failed at the first dash, his chance would not only be gone, but he would be in danger of being entirely wiped out by his intended victim.

Dory was not a very heavy boy, but he was remarkably active.  He dug his knees into the back of the man, and in a moment he brought him to the ground.  The stranger then turned his attention to his assailant, and he made short work of him.  He seemed only to shake himself, and Dory went half way across the road.

The ex-waiter was on his feet again in an instant.  He looked at the assailant, and saw that he had a sort of cloth mask on his face.  As the boy sprang to his feet, the stranger was in the act of picking up his gun.  He snatched it from the ground, and then fled into the woods.  The conflict appeared to be ended.

Dory puffed like a fish out of water.  He had been laboring under tremendous excitement, which is not at all strange; for it would have stirred the blood of any one to see another attacked with a deadly weapon.

Dory watched the woods, and rather expected that a bullet would soon be travelling from that direction towards him and the person who had been attacked.  But his companion in the road did not seem to be at all alarmed:  at least he did not make any haste to seek a safer position.

“It is dangerous being safe just here,” said Dory, when he had collected his scattered thoughts, and realized that it was time something was done.  “I think we had better move on, or that gun will go off again.”

“I don’t think it will go off again,” replied the man in the road, in a very sad, rather than an alarmed or indignant tone.

“Didn’t that man fire at you?  Won’t he do it again?” demanded Dory.

“I don’t think he intended to hit me; though he fired at me, or he fired his gun.  I don’t believe he fired it at me,” answered the stranger in a confused manner.

“If he fired at you, of course he meant to hit you.  What in the world should he fire at you for if he didn’t mean to hit you?” asked Dory, wondering at the reasoning of his companion in the road.

“I am confident I am right; but we won’t say any thing more about it just now,” added the stranger, who seemed to be struggling with other emotions than those of fear or indignation.

“That’s very queer,” said Dory, puzzled at the strange conduct of the man who had been fired at.  “I think you will get a bullet through your head if you stay here much longer.”

“I am not afraid of a bullet; but I don’t think I had better stay here any longer,” replied the stranger.  “Which way are you going, young man?”

“I was going over to a place they call Belzer’s.”

“That is a mile from here.  Were you going there when that gun was fired?” asked the man eagerly.

“Well, not just at that minute.  I was tired out, and I lay down in the woods to rest me.  I was going over to Belzer’s to see if I could get a place to work.  I”-

“You are too late:  they hired a boy at Belzer’s this afternoon,” added the man.

“That’s just my luck,” added Dory, discouraged at this intelligence.

“The luck shall not go against you this time.  You have no errand at Belzer’s now; and, if you will walk to Plattsburgh with me, I will make it all right with you; and you shall not be sorry that you did not find a place at Belzer’s, which is not a proper place for a boy like you.”

“If there is no place there for me, and it is not the place for me, I shall return to Plattsburgh,” answered Dory, as he started with the stranger in the direction from which he had come when he took to the woods.

In a short time they came out into the open country; and there was no longer any danger that the attack from the mysterious assailant would be renewed.

“Young man, you have done me a great service; and you have done a greater one to another person,” said the stranger.

“Who’s that?” asked Dory, puzzled by the strange speech of his companion.

“I mean the one who fired the gun at me,” answered his fellow-traveller.

“That’s funny!” exclaimed Dory.  “You and he seem to be fooling with each other.  He shot at you, and didn’t mean to hit you; and now I have done him a great service.  I suppose you don’t mean to pay me for the service I did him,” laughed Dory.

“I should be willing to pay you more for what you did for him than for what you did for me.”

Dory was bewildered.