PHIL AND CHAP START ON AN EXPEDITION.
When Phil left the house, after receiving the note from his uncle, he
ran down past the barn, climbed two fences, and hurried over the fields
to a little stream, which ran through the Hyson Hall property and then
crossed the public road.
There was a bridge here, which was a favorite resting-place for
foot-travellers in summer-time. The spot was shaded by a large tree,
and there were some grassy banks, which were very pleasant to sit upon.
Here it was that the person who sent the note to Hyson Hall was to wait
for Old Bruden to be brought to him; but when Philip reached the spot
he could see no one. He looked on both sides of the bridge and even
under it; he looked up the road, he looked down the road; he stood up
on the fence, and gazed far over the fields in every direction, but no
person could he see. He shouted at the top of his voice, calling out
his uncle’s name, uttering whoops and yells that could be heard for a
considerable distance. He ran down the road for a quarter of a mile,
then climbed a fence again, but not a human being was in sight. In
about half an hour he hastily returned.
“Chap,” said he, “is that boy gone?”
“Yes,” answered Chap. “I let him go after I had given you plenty of
time to get to the bridge. He said he came from town, and was in an
awful hurry to get back. I made him go by the path along the river,
so that I’d be sure he wouldn’t interfere with you. Did you see your
uncle?”
“No,” replied Phil. “Did the boy say anything about the person who sent
him with the note,--what kind of man he was?”
“No,” said Chap, “he didn’t say anything about him.”
“I’m sorry for that. I thought you’d ask him a lot of questions, and
find out if it really was uncle who sent him.”
“It’s a pity,” said Chap, “but I never thought of it. I was giving the
boy a lecture about the folly of being in a hurry when he ought to keep
quiet, and getting himself into a stew when there was no occasion for
it.”
“Chap,” exclaimed Phil, “if that was uncle, we are bound to find him!
He must be still in this neighborhood, and we must scour the whole
country. I expect he’s going off again on some sporting expedition, and
just came back to get the gun.”
“And he didn’t want to be interfered with,” said Chap, “or to have
anybody ask to go along.”
“That may be,” said Phil; “but why he didn’t wait till Old Bruden was
brought to him I can’t imagine. But we must set out and hunt him up.
He’s got a good start of us, but we’ll take the horses, and we shall be
sure to catch up with him. I’m pretty certain he is on foot, from what
the boy said.”
“All right!” cried Chap, with great animation; “I’m ready!”
“We must both of us go,” said Phil, “because it may be necessary to
head him off. When he makes up his mind to do a thing, he is not going
to let anybody stop him if he can help it. If he sees us, he’ll be sure
to get away if he can.”
“What horses are we going to ride?” asked Chap.
“I’ll take Jouncer, and you can ride Kit. As soon as I have spoken to
Susan we will run out to the field and catch him.”
Susan was not altogether pleased when Phil told her what he and Chap
were going to do, and asked her to put up a couple of luncheons which
they could slip in their pockets, as they might not get back until
afternoon.
If Joel had been at home, all this would have made no difference to
Susan, but she did not like the idea of being left without a man or boy
upon the place. But it was of no use to object, and she was really as
anxious as any one else to have Mr. Berkeley found.
It took the boys a good while to catch Kit, for he had been so long in
the pasture that he had become wild, but at last they cornered him and
brought him up to the barn.
Jouncer and he were quickly saddled and bridled, and then Phil ran back
to the house. He soon returned, bringing the packages of luncheon, and
carrying Old Bruden, with a shot-pouch and powder-flask.
“I brought the gun,” he said, “for if uncle sent for it I suppose he
ought to have it, though I know he won’t need it. But he likes to have
his orders obeyed.”
“That ought to be done,” said Chap, as they rode away, “especially in
war-times like these. It might have been better to let the boy take the
gun, and then scoot after him.”
“Very likely,” said Phil; “but there’s no use talking about that now.”
“No,” added Chap, “the milk has soaked into the ground out of sight.”
“Susan did not like being left alone,” said Phil, “but I told her we’d
stop at the Poole place and ask Phœnix if he couldn’t go over as soon
as he got through with his day’s work. Joel is away, and we may not be
back till dark, you know.”
“That’s so,” said Chap, straightening himself up; “we are not coming
back without Mr. Berkeley, dead or alive.”
Phœnix was not at home, having been sent to town early in the morning
with the spring-wagon. The boys rode on to Boontown, and soon found him
busily attending to various commissions.
Phœnix was much surprised at the appearance of his friends, especially
when he saw them both mounted and Phil carrying a gun. When he heard
what was on hand, he readily agreed to go to Hyson Hall as soon as he
got his work done.
“I wish I wasn’t so tremendously busy,” he said, “for I’d like nothing
better than to go along with you; but all I can do is to be over at
your place when you get back and hear the news.”
Phil then went to nearly every place in town where he was acquainted,
and asked if Mr. Berkeley had been recently seen there.
He did not go to Mr. Welford’s office, not having heard of Helen’s
visit to that gentleman; but Chap went there and made inquiries of the
clerk. But no one had seen or heard of Mr. Godfrey Berkeley.
The agent at the railroad station, who knew Mr. Berkeley very well,
assured Phil that he had not arrived there by any train, nor had he
been there at all. The only thing they heard that seemed anything like
a clue to Mr. Berkeley’s whereabouts was from a colored woman, whom
Phil knew, who lived on the outskirts of the town.
She had seen a man, that morning, cross over the fields near her
shanty, and get over a fence into a road which ran northward from the
town, and in an almost opposite direction from Hyson Hall.
This man had something on his back which might have been either a
bundle or a knapsack, but she did not take any particular notice of
him, and had not the slightest idea that it might be Mr. Godfrey
Berkeley. If she had thought such a thing as that, she would have sent
one of her boys after him to carry his bundle.
“I shouldn’t wonder at all if that was uncle,” said Phil to Chap. “At
any rate, we can’t do better than to ride along this road. We can
surely find out something more about the man before long.”
Emile Touron was boarding at a small tavern on the main street of
Boontown, but not near the centre of business. It was a pleasant, shady
place, and not far from the office of Mr. Markle, who had the Hyson
Hall mortgage business in hand, and with whom young Touron consulted a
great deal more than that gentleman thought necessary.
After breakfast, that morning, Emile had been sitting in an arm-chair
in front of the tavern, when he saw, at some distance, a stout boy
driving a spring-wagon into town. He immediately went up-stairs, and
seated himself at his bedroom window, where, sitting a little back with
the curtains partly drawn, he could have a good view of the street. He
thought he would prefer to sit there and see Phœnix as he drove into
town. Then when Phœnix had passed, Emile thought it would be a good
thing to stay in his room and get another look at him as he went out of
town; but before this latter event occurred, Emile was very much amazed
to see Chap and Phil come clattering by, and ride up into the town.
“Oho!” he thought,--but it must be remembered he thought in
French,--“it was a good thing for me to come up here. And so they are
all in town, eh? They must be going off on some expedition, with their
guns and ammunition. This will be a good time for me to go down to that
place and see how things are going on.”
Emile now quickly prepared to make a visit to Hyson Hall, but he did
not go this time in the rickety carriage from the livery-stable. He had
become better acquainted with the resources of the town, and had found
out that a grocer, a few doors from the tavern, had a very good horse
and buggy, which he occasionally hired out. This Emile procured, and
was speedily driving towards Hyson Hall.
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