Walter Sherwood's Probation by Jr. Horatio Alger (good romance books to read txt) 📕

Had Walter lost his position two months earlier it would have been a serious matter to him, but now, with a capital of nearly a thousand dollars, he could afford to be independent. As he expressed it, he could afford to be idle for a few weeks. Still, he didn't wish to remain unemployed for a long time. He felt happier when at work, but wished to secure some employment that would be congenial.

“Mr. Snodgrass,” said the professor, “I think you are making a mistake in not employing Walter Sherwood.”

Nahum Snodgrass shrugged his shoulders.

“I don't mean to pay away all my profits to an assistant,” he said.

“But you can't get along alone very well.”

“I will try, unless I can find some one that will take what I am willing to pay.”

He finally succeeded in doing this. A young man of eighteen, employed in a drug-store in town, who was on the point of being discharged, agreed to take the position, and stepped into Walter's place. To anticipate a little, he disappeared two weeks later, carrying with him fifty dollars belonging to his employer.

Walter stayed two days longer at the hotel, and then, sending his valise ahead to Burnton, twenty miles farther on, started to walk the distance. He was in a mountainous country, and the scenery was wild and attractive, so that he felt that this arrangement would prove agreeable to him. He provided himself with a stout staff and started at good speed. He had accomplished about eight miles, when he was overtaken by a shabbily dressed traveler riding on the back of a fine horse. The horseman slackened his pace when he reached Walter.

“Good morning, stranger!” he said.

“Good morning!” responded Walter, turning his head.

“I am glad to have company. It's a lonesome stretch of road here.”

“Yes,” answered Walter, carelessly. “But there isn't any danger, is there?”

“Well, there might be. A friend of mine was stabbed and robbed here three months since.”

“Indeed!”

“Yes; and though I haven't much money with me, I shouldn't like to be robbed of what I have.”

“It would be inconvenient.”

“Do you carry much money with you?” asked the other, in a careless tone.

Walter was not disposed to take a stranger into his confidence.

“Not much!” he responded.

“You are prudent. Are you armed?”

Walter drew out Dick Ranney's revolver, which he still carried. The stranger eyed him respectfully.

“That's a mighty handsome weapon,” he said. “Just let me look at it.”

Walter began to think he had fallen in with a highwayman again.