But, like every one else concerned in this scheme, he himself was a sufferer.
The boys were relieved. No more haunting fears of being sent to penitentiary; no more ingenious speculations as to how they should occupy themselves there. Better than all else, they had news of Marmaduke.
When Marmaduke discovered the imposition, and fled, he was almost beside himself with grief, horror, and anger. It seemed to him that boys who could deliberately contrive and execute so base a scheme must be exceedingly depraved—cruel, and lost to all sense of honor. It seemed to him, in short, that they were worse than they were. After having been duped so completely by them, he could not endure the thought of ever seeing them again, and so resolved to abandon his country.
Poor Marmaduke! He was of a sensitive temperament, and believed that his heartless school-fellows would ridicule him for evermore.
He wandered on till he came to a large and empty barn, and then it occurred to him that it would be proper for him, as an exile, to take up his quarters in it for a short time. He reasoned, also, that if he should be looked for, it would be well to keep hidden till the search was over, when he could continue his flight towards the sea-coast, or any other place, in peace and safety.
“I am resolved that they shall not take me,” he said in himself, “for I could not survive another attack from those boys. No, I shall wander off to some happy land, where my merit will be appreciated. Then I shall set to work, become rich and famous, and after long years have passed I shall return for a few days to my insulting countrymen, a great man! Then people that think it is hardly worth while to say ‘good-day’ to me now, will be glad to catch a glimpse of me from behind a window-curtain; and that horrible old woman that says I look a little like her son, the carter, will discover that the Governor of the State looks just like me! Then those boys—they will be men then—will remember that I used to be Marmaduke, that they used to sit in the same seat with me, and that they used to study out of my books sometimes; and they will come around me, humble and cringing, and try to get me to recognize them. But I won’t recognize them—by even a look or a turn!”
Full of his future triumph and of his most original manner of slighting his persecutors, Marmaduke effected an entry into the old barn in a very burglarious way, not at all compatible with his dignity. To speak plainly, he picked the lock with a pair of tweezers, which he had used a few hours previous for a different, a very different purpose.
Here he spent the night, dozing, fuming against his school-fellows, and speculating on his future glory; while his nearly distracted parent was dragging ponds, snappishly replying to the impertinent questions of curious old women, sending little boys and big men hither and thither on a fool’s errand, and goading sleepy knights of the telegraph almost to frenzy.
Next morning as Mr. Stolz was passing the old barn, he fancied he heard strange sounds within. He slid off his horse, warily drew near, and looking through a knot-hole, discovered the missing boy lying on the floor, holding quiet converse with himself, as he matured his plans for the future.
Stolz hurried back to his horse, almost beside himself with laughter, and thinking that the boys’ plot was most sublimely ridiculous.