Then the doctor drove up, and as soon as he entered the house heard Fred's amazing story. He was quite concerned about it.
"Of course I'll go out there the first thing after lunch, and bring them both through, if I can," he declared, just as Fred had expected would be the case. "Those tramps ought to be followed up, and caged; they're getting bolder every day. I expect that some fine morning we'll find our bank broken open, or else somebody kidnapped, and held for a ransom."
"And I'm going along with you, daddy," said Miss Temple, with an air that announced the fact that she usually had her own way with her parent.
"Did you know this Arnold Masterson, sir; and is he a nephew of the Squire?" asked the boy.
"Yes, to both of your questions, Fred," replied the doctor. "Years back there was a quarrel between them, and a lawsuit that went against Arnold, who disappeared soon afterward. I did not know he still lived within five miles of Riverport, because he is never seen on the streets here. But he was an honest man, which is more than some people think can be said of his rich uncle."
That was all Fred wanted to know, and he took his departure, well satisfied with the way fortune had treated him that morning.
Later on he heard that the people of Riverport had carried enough supplies out to the Masterson farm to last until Christmas. And Doctor Temple reported that not only would Sarah escape any ill results from her experience in the cold waters of the well, but the sick man was going to come around, in time, all right.