At that the old man bent hastily down and drew Billy into his arms. The watching boys saw him kiss the little chap several times.
“Here is a present for you, Billy,” said the deacon, “but don’t open the package until you are back with your good mother. Tell her that before long I hope to call on her myself.”
Together they walked toward the gap in the division fence. Dick and Leslie changed their position, thinking to make a safe retreat presently. They stopped only long enough to see the stern deacon standing at the fence blowing kisses after little Billy.
CHAPTER XII
THE MAN WHO DID NOT KNOW BOYS
“Shake hands on it, Dick,” said Leslie; “you’ve got the old curmudgeon to swallow the bait all right, and he’s hooked as fast as anything. All you need to do now is to pull the line in and land him.”
“Do you think so, Leslie?” mused the other. “Well, I’m glad for the sake of little Billy and his mother, for she has a mighty small amount of money to live on, and the deacon is a rich man, you know.”
“What do you reckon he’s thinking about while he stands there with his arms on the fence, and his head bowed on them?” asked Leslie, as they were making their way silently toward the street, intending to clamber over the front fence at a point where they could not be seen.
“I don’t know for sure,” replied the other, “but I should think it might be about his own boy, Amos. Mebbe he looked a little like Billy does now, when he was small. And how can we tell but what memory has got busy in that scheming old brain of the deacon’s?”
“Well,” observed Leslie, as they reached the street safely, after vaulting the fence boy-style, “I could see him looking into the face of the youngster now and then, and rubbing his own forehead as if he might be puzzled to know where he ever could have seen Billy before.”
“That’s right,” assented Dick, quickly; “you remember he asked Billy once if he had ever lived in Cliffwood before, and the boy said not that he knew of. Well, it seems to be working finely, and I guess after all little Mrs. Nocker won’t have to work to keep the wolf from the door.”