When Bernard noticed the disappearance of the bureau he understood at
once the alarming significance of the step which Professor Puffer had
taken, for he felt sure that it was at his instigation that this article
of furniture had been removed. It might have been carried into the
professor’s own chamber through the connecting door, but this was of
minor importance. Enough that he, Bernard, no longer had anything to
serve as a barrier and prevent the unauthorized intrusion of his
traveling companion into his room.
Bernard sat down on the bed and began to consider thoughtfully what he
should do. Did the professor mean to do him harm? This was what he asked
himself. Evidently he intended to come into the room. Bernard did not
care to run the risk of his presence. He decided to sleep elsewhere.
He opened the door into the hall noiselessly, and proceeding to the room
of the Boston drummer, he knocked.
The door was opened by Mr. Sturgis in person.
“Well?” he said inquiringly.
Bernard told him of the discovery he had made.
“I don’t dare to sleep in the room to-night,” he concluded, “for I am
sure the professor would make me a visit.”
“You are no doubt right. The case seems very mysterious. I don’t see on
what pretext he could have induced the landlord to remove the bureau.
English people (and landlords are no exception) are very averse to
changes, even of trifling character.”
“At any rate the change has been made,” said Bernard. “Perhaps he has
not consulted the landlord at all, but simply removed the bureau into
his own chamber.”
“Perhaps so, but we must take things as they are. It is clear that it
won’t do to sleep in the room. I am glad to be able to offer you a bed.
There are two in this room, as you see.”.
“Thank you, Mr. Sturgis. I will accept your kind offer.”
“Then, as it is late, we had better go to bed at once, so as to get a
good night’s rest. I should like to see the face of the professor when
he opens the door and finds that the bird has flown.”
Bernard laughed.
“I should like to see it myself,” he said.
We will now go back to Mr. Puffer.
He retired rather earlier than Bernard, and as he lay down he said to
himself, with a peculiar smile, “The boy won’t be able to keep me out
to-night He may think himself smart, but he is not smart enough to
baffle the plans of Ezra Puffer.”
Professor Puffer had the faculty of sleeping for as short or long a time
as he chose. He set himself for a two hours’ nap, and in five minutes he
was sound asleep.
About twelve o’clock he awoke.
He was at first bewildered, but quickly recalled to mind what he had
arranged to do.
He rose and lit the candle which stood upon a small table in the center
of the room. Then, in his stocking feet, he noiselessly approached the
door.
He turned the key in the lock and opened the door leading into Bernard’s
room raising the candle he drew near the bed and looked to see the
recumbent figure of his young traveling companion. To his intense
surprise the bed was unoccupied.
“What does it mean?” he asked himself in bewilderment. “Where can be the
boy be?”
His expression of perplexity was fast succeeded by one of rage as he
came to the conclusion that Bernard, on discovering the absence of the
bureau, had deliberately resolved to abandon the room.
“He is the most impudent and audacious boy I ever met,” reflected the
professor. “I don’t wonder Mr. McCracken calls him ‘a bad lot.’”
Of course there was nothing to do but return to his own chamber. But his
exit was not to be a peaceful one. He had scarcely started for the door
when there was a rushing sound, and a huge dog sprang forward and
fastened his teeth in the professor’s leg. Such an attack under the
circumstances would have startled even a brave man, and Professor Puffer
was not a brave man.
In the indistinct light he could not at once distinguish the figure of
his assailant and what it was that had attacked him. He had a suspicion
that it was some contrivance of Bernard.
“Let go, or I will kill you!” he yelled.
But his threat produced no effect upon the huge, shaggy dog who had been
lying under the bed, and had been aroused by the entrance of Professor
Puffer, whom he evidently felt to be an unauthorized intruder and a
suspicious character.
As the reader may be as much puzzled as was the professor himself, I
will explain that when Bernard opened the door to leave his chamber, the
dog, who had been walking through the entry, made his way into it
without the notice of the boy. He had stretched himself out under the
four poster, and was sleeping the sleep of a thoroughly tired dog when
he was aroused by the stealthy entrance of the professor.
With a dog’s instinct he fastened his teeth in the unprotected calf of
the intruder, and inflicted a wound decidedly painful.
When Professor Puffer, lowering the candle, saw his foe, he was
frightened more, than ever.
“This is a trick of that rascally boy!” he concluded. “Get out, you
brute!”
With this exclamation he drew his leg away from the dog’s grip, and gave
him a vicious kick.
But the dog’s fighting spirit was aroused. He took a new hold, and
growled in a manner that sent terror to the heart of the unhappy
professor. Drops of perspiration came out upon his forehead, and his
heart was sick with fear. He felt helpless in the powerful jaws of the
dog.
“What shall I do? What can I do?” he moaned. “If I only had a revolver.”
The more he struggled, the more the dog felt that he had done right in
attacking him.
The professor could stand it no longer. He gave utterance to a
succession of piercing shrieks, which aroused the house. He did not
succeed in terrifying the dog, however, who hung on with remorseless
tenacity.
The cries of the professor roused the house. The guests poured out of
their rooms, among them Nelson Sturgis and Bernard. Last, but not least,
the stout, rubicund landlord, a typical Englishman, made his appearance.
As all were attired in their night clothes, the effect was picturesque,
to say the least, “What is the matter?” asked the landlord.
“Call off the dog! Don’t you see he is tearing me to pieces?” roared
Puffer.
“Bless my soul!” ejaculated the landlord, in bewilderment. “Where did he
come from?”
“Take off the dog!” roared the professor again. Nelson Sturgis was the
only one present who appeared to have his wits about him.
He approached, and seizing the animal by his collar, he forcibly pulled
him away from his victim. The professor, whose leg had been badly torn,
bent over and clasped his hands about the wounded place.
“Where did the dog come from, and how did he happen to attack you?”
asked Sturgis.
“He was lying in wait here,” said the professor. “Won’t somebody kill
him?”
“But how did you happen to be here?” asked Sturgis pointedly. “Is this
your room?”
“No, it is the boy’s room.”
“Then how did you happen to be here?” persisted Sturgis.
“I heard a noise,” answered Puffer with some hesitation, “and thought
the boy might be sick. I suppose it must have been the dog.”
Then he turned to Bernard.
“Why didn’t you sleep in the room?” he asked severely.
“Mr. Sturgis asked me to occupy his room. He has two beds.”
“Why didn’t you mention the matter to me, and ask my permission? Don’t
you know that I am your guardian for the time being?”
“I had my reasons for not caring to sleep in this room,” said Bernard
significantly. “Do you want to know what they are?”
“No,” answered Puffer, who feared that those reasons might compromise
him. “Why did you admit the dog into the room?”
“I had no idea he was here. He must have slipped into the room when I
left it.”
“That sounds very plausible,” sneered Puffer, “but I believe you called
the dog into the room purposely.”
“What could have been my object in doing it?” asked Bernard quietly.
“To make an attack upon me.”
“But how could I know that you intended to enter the room?”
This was a question which Puffer found it difficult to answer.
The landlord had entered the room, and for the first time noticed the
disappearance of the bureau.
“Young man, where is the bureau?” he inquired, addressing his inquiry to
Bernard.
“I don’t know, sir.”
“Do you know, sir?” asked Boniface, turning to Puffer.
“I moved it into my room,” answered the professor in some confusion.
“Then, sir, you took a great liberty,” said the innkeeper in an irate
tone. “It must be moved back.”
“I will attend to it to-morrow.”
The company prepared to disperse.
“Bernard,” said the professor, “I expect you to finish the night in your
own room.”
“Excuse me, Professor Puffer,” replied Bernard firmly, “but I would
rather not.”
Professor Puffer muttered something, but did not dare to press the
demand.
And so the night wore on, and Professor Puffer was obliged to
acknowledge that his cunning stratagem had failed.