Even then I was afraid it might jump the fence.
"He won't jump much with seven buckshot and a ball in him!" said Tom.
We left the empty sleigh there for three nights in succession; and every
morning Tom came over to tell me that the lamb had been taken.
"The plan works just as old Hughy told me it would," he said; "but I've
got only one lamb more, so we'll have to watch to-night. Don't tell
anybody, but about bedtime you come over." Tom was full of eagerness.
I was in a feverish state of mind all day, especially as night drew on.
If I had not been ashamed to fail Tom, I think I should have backed out.
At eight o'clock I pretended to start for bed; then, stealing out at the
back door, I hurried across the fields to the Edwards place. A new moon
was shining faintly over the woods in the west.
Tom was in the wood-house, loading the gun, an old army rifle, bored out
for shot. "I've got in six fingers of powder," he whispered.
We took a buffalo skin and a horse blanket from the stable, and armed
with the gun, and an axe besides, proceeded cautiously out to the
sleigh. Tom had laid the dead lamb on the knoll.
Climbing over the fence, we ensconced ourselves in the old sleigh.
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