“Have they bought the farm?” demanded the boy excitedly. “Did they get my aunts to sign anything for them?”
“I’m your new landlord, Bob,” announced Mr. Gordon, patting himself on the chest. “Don’t think you can put me off when the rent comes due.”
“So that’s all right,” said Bob, with manifest relief. “As for those two scamps, who nearly choked me, well, let me get at them once.”
Whirling his club he charged upon the pair who squealed in terror and tore past Mr. Gordon, down the hall and out into the yard, Bob in pursuit. Miss Hope and Miss Charity ran to the windows, and Betty and her uncle watched from the porch (Betty was going to follow Bob as a matter of course, but Mr. Gordon held her back) as the boy continued the chase. Fluss and Blosser presented a ludicrous sight as they ran heavily, their coats flapping in the wind and their hats jammed low over their eyes. Bob did not try to catch up with them, but contented himself with shouting loudly and swishing his heavy club through the air, while he kept just close enough to their heels to warn them that it was not safe to slacken speed. In a few minutes the watchers saw him coming back, walking, a broad grin on his face.
“Good little Marathon, wasn’t it?” he called from the road. “Did you hear me yelling like an Indian? I chased them as far as the boundary line, and when I saw them they were still running. Gee, Mr. Gordon, I mean Uncle Dick, you got back from the oil fields just in time.”
He came up on the steps and shook hands with Mr. Gordon, and submitted to a hug from each aunt.
“Have you really bought the farm?” he asked curiously. “Or was that just a blind?”
Miss Hope and Miss Charity looked anxiously at Mr. Gordon. They had planned exactly what to do with that twenty thousand dollars.
“We haven’t signed an agreement,” admitted the successful bidder, “but the farm is sold, all right. I’ll give this check to Miss Hope now—” he hastily filled out a blank slip from his book—“as an evidence of good faith. Then I want to hear Bob’s tale, and then I must do a bit of telephoning. And to-morrow morning, good people, I promise you the surprise of your lives.”
Miss Hope glanced at the check he gave her, gasped, and opened her mouth to speak.