David turned red. It was unexpected friendliness for Harry Sears to suggest coming for a walk with him. Harry usually never noticed David at all, except to order him about at every possible opportunity.
But David was resolute. He particularly needed to be alone on this afternoon. Besides his usual occupation, he must make up his mind how he could go about restoring to the Prestons and Miss Taylor their stolen property.
"I'm off on personal business, Mr. Sears," he returned politely. "I can't let any one else come along."
"Well, you are a nice, sociable person, Brewster," sneered Harry. "Sorry to have intruded. I might have known better."
David swung out of the yard without answering. It never occurred to him to glance back to see what Sears and Bolling were doing.
"Let's go after the fellow, Bolling," proposed Harry. "We have nothing else to do this afternoon. It would be rather good fun to find out what knavery the chap is up to and to show him off before the girls. I actually believe that Madge Morton and Phyllis Alden like the common fellow. Maybe they think Brewster is a kind of hero; he is so silent, dark and sullen, like the hero chap in a weepy sort of play."
Jack Bolling hesitated. "I don't think it is square of us to spy on Brewster, no matter what he is doing," he argued.
"I do," returned Harry briefly. "If he isn't up to something he has no business doing, what harm is there in our chancing to run across him—quite by accident, of course? If he is up to some deviltry, it is our business to find it out."
David had turned a corner in the road and had jumped over a low stone fence into a field when the other two young men started after him.
Harry soon espied David, and he and Jack tramped after him cautiously, always keeping at a safe distance.