BEN IS MISSED.
Meanwhile M. Bourdon slept the sleep of the just--or the unjust--not
dreaming of the loss his establishment had sustained. He did not
open his eyes till five o'clock.
Usually at that hour Francois was stirring, as he had morning duties
to perform. But M. Bourdon did not hear him bustling around as
usual. At first this did not strike him, but after awhile he began
to wonder why.
"The lazy dog!" he said to himself. "He is indulging himself this
morning, and his work will suffer."
He went to the door of his chamber and called "Francois!"
Francois slept in an upper room, but still the asylum was not a
lofty building, and he should have heard.
"He must be fast asleep, as usual," grumbled M. Bourdon. "I must go
up and rouse him. It would be well if I had a horsewhip."
Slipping on a part of his clothing, the doctor crept up stairs.
He knocked at the door of his dilatory servant.
"Francois! Francois, I say. Are you dead?"
There was no answer.
"I suppose he has locked his door," muttered the doctor, as he tried
the latch.
But no! the door opened, and, to his dismay, the room was empty. The
bed had not been disturbed.
The doctor's face was dark with anger.
"The ingrate has left me, after all. He has gone to his child, who
is not sick at all, I dare say. Well, he will repent it. I will not
take him back."
Here the doctor paused. It would be exceedingly inconvenient to lose
Francois, who, besides being a capable man, accepted very small pay.
"At any rate I will lower his wages!" he said. "He shall regret the
way he has served me."
It was a temporary inconvenience. Still there was an outside man
whom he could impress into the service as a substitute, and in a day
or two Francois would be glad to return. It was not, perhaps, so
serious a matter, after all.
But M. Bourdon changed his mind when he found the front door
unlocked.
"Who had escaped, if any?"
This was the question he asked himself. In great haste he went from
one room to another, but all seemed to be occupied. It was only when
he opened Ben's room that he ascertained that the one whom he would
most regret to lose had decamped. Ben's bed, too, was but little
disturbed. He had slept on the outside, if he had slept at all, but
not within the bed, as was but too evident.
"Has any one seen the boy?" demanded M. Bourdon of an outdoor
servant who slept outside, but was already on duty.
"Not I, _Monsieur le Docteur_."
"Then he must have escaped with Francois! Put my horse in the
carriage at once."
Ten minutes later M. Bourdon was on his way to the cottage of
Francois.
Fifteen minutes before he arrived Francois had aroused our young
hero.
"It is time to get up, little monsieur," he said. "In half an hour
the cars will start."
Refreshed by his sound sleep, Ben sprang up at once--he did not need
to dress--and was ready for the adventures of the day.
"Where is the station, Francois?" he said.
"I will go with monsieur."
"No; if the doctor should come, delay him so that he cannot overtake
me."
"Perhaps it is best."
Ben followed the directions of his humble friend, and soon brought
up at the station. He purchased a third-class ticket for a place
fifty miles away, and waited till it was time for the train to start.
Meanwhile M. Bourdon had driven up to the cottage of Francois.
The door was opened to him by Francois himself.
"Where is that boy? Did he come away with you?" he asked, abruptly.
"What boy?" asked Francois, vacantly.
"The one who came a few days since. You know who I mean."
Francois shrugged his shoulders.
"Is he gone?" he asked.
"Of course he is, fool."
Just then the wife of Francois came to the door. Unfortunately her
husband had not warned her, nor did she know that Ben had been an
inmate of the asylum.
"Where is the boy who came here last night with your husband?" asked
M. Bourdon, abruptly.
"Gone to the station," answered the woman, unsuspiciously.
The doctor jumped into his carriage, and drove with speed to the
station.