This was meant as a joke, of course, and Tom laughed, but only half-heartedly. He was moving on, when the gipsy called after him: "A pound reward, I think you said, young gentleman?"
"Yes," Tom assented, "and the address is Halcyon Villa."
"I wish I could earn that pound!" exclaimed the man, looking thoughtful.
"I wish you could!" Tom answered, fervently.
He saw no one as he passed Halcyon Villa on his backward journey, which he made as quickly as possible. On his arrival at home Nellie met him at the front door, a flush of excitement on her cheeks: "Oh, Tom, here you are at last!" she cried; "where have you been all the morning? I've been out with Mother, and what do you think? Peter Perry has lost his dog. There are notices in a lot of shop windows saying so, and offering a pound reward to any one who finds him, and— oh, you know all about it."
"I've seen Peter Perry, and he told me," Tom replied, gloomily; "he's awfully cut up."
"Oh, he would be. What do you think can have become of Bounce?"
Tom shook his head. "I've spent the morning in searching for him in the woods," he said; "but I've come across no sign of him."
"But he mayn't have gone to the woods."
"Oh, yes—that is, I feel sure he would. I'm afraid something must have happened to him, or he wouldn't have stayed out all night."