Pony

The next morning, Silas and Farmer continue tracking the outlaws, but their path doesn’t go through the bog again. This pleases Silas because he will be able to avoid both ghosts and mosquitos. He notices that the mosquitos bite him but not Farmer. Silas doesn’t know what counterfeiting is, so Farmer explains it and lists some of the methods. Now, Silas believes that the outlaws took Pa because he knows how to print pictures on paper using chemicals, which would be useful for counterfeiters.

Silas and Farmer make camp. Farmer tells the story of Mac Boat. Before Silas was born, Mac Boat was in the biggest counterfeiting operation in New York, called “the Orange Street Gang” (111). After several years, police captured or killed the whole gang except one member, Mac Boat, who took $20,000 in gold coins when he escaped. Nobody knows where he went or what he is doing now because he was never caught, and none of the coins he took ever reentered circulation. Farmer would love to catch Mac Boat along with the main outlaw he’s after: Roscoe Ollerenshaw. Hearing this name reminds Silas that Ollerenshaw is the boss of the men who took Pa.