Once in the Brandon grounds, it was easy enough for them to find the very spot where, on that never-to-be-forgotten Hallowe’en night, the prank-loving crowd had slipped through a gap in the dividing fence.
“You see it’s never been mended,” whispered Dick exultantly. “Of course, the old deacon knows this break is here, but he wouldn’t allow it to be closed for a good deal, because that would stop Billy’s daily visits.”
Creeping through the opening, they began to make a little detour. The object of this move was plain to Leslie, for he understood that if the stern old man chanced to be watching eagerly for the coming of his new little acquaintance, his eyes would be searching the path leading from the break in the fence.
Dick had all this “laid out to a fraction,” as Leslie would have said; and in a short time they could discover a moving figure under the trees.
“Told you so,” whispered Dick, under his breath, as he gave his companion a nudge in the ribs, and carefully pointed ahead.
Just as Dick had figured it was old Deacon Nocker who was walking to and fro in his usual nervous fashion. Every now and then he would stop, shade his eyes with one hand, and gaze long and earnestly beyond.
He was evidently wondering whether anything could have happened to the child, for, as a rule, Billy trotted over to visit him long before this time of the afternoon. And really the storekeeper must have left his place of business early in order to enjoy this, to him, novel treat.
Led by Dick, who knew how to creep along after the manner of an Indian, Leslie presently found himself close enough to the impatient deacon to hear him muttering discontentedly to himself. It thrilled them both to catch the disjointed sentences, for by this they knew that already the chubby little Billy had managed to worm himself into a corner of the sour old man’s long closed heart.
Another nudge from Dick’s elbow caused Leslie to catch his breath, for he knew that it meant the child was coming. No danger of Mr. Nocker discovering the pair of eavesdroppers in the bushes close by, for all his attention was taken up with straining his eyes in the opposite quarter.
The boys could see a sturdy little figure brushing through the bushes. Billy was hurrying to keep his appointment, for evidently he had come to rather enjoy meeting the elderly gentleman, who always had some little present for him.