"Not I. He'd know better than to ask me to do a job of that sort, Moses."
Mr. Barton waited to hear no more, but hastily clambered over the hedge, and sprang into the road close to the speakers, one of whom was the Naraton blacksmith, and the other, as it afterwards transpired, his brother, Moses Stanley.
"Mr. Barton!" cried Seth. "Is it you, sir?"
"Yes, it is I. I judge from your conversation that you have seen my little son."
"He's safe enough, sir," was the reassuring answer. "My brother found him with his hand caught in a fox-gin, and took him to his caravan, where he is at this moment, not ten minutes' walk from this spot."
"Thank God!" Mr. Barton exclaimed fervently. "His stepbrother left him, and went for assistance. Fortunately, Fry and I met him before he had gone very far; but on reaching here, we found Theodore had disappeared. You can imagine what my feelings have been!"
"Ah, that I can!" the blacksmith said, with a world of sympathy in his voice. "But where is Jack?"
"We took him back to the farm, hoping to find news of Theodore on our return."
"I've been miles and miles myself looking for the young gentleman, and was going home in despair when I chanced upon the Fairies' Glen and my brother's caravan. Chanced! No! there was no chance about it, I reckon! 'Twas the hand of Providence which guided my steps! In the Fairies' Glen I found Miriam—she's Moses' wife, sir—and the young ones. Then as I was talking with them, hearing where they'd been since I saw them last, home comes Moses carrying Master Theodore in his arms. 'Hulloa, Moses,' said I, 'what have you got there?' ''Tis a youngster as my dog found in a fox-gin,' said Moses, 'and he's a bit faint. Miriam must see to him.' I declare you could have knocked me down with a feather!"
"Yes, yes!" cried Mr. Barton eagerly, failing to see the absurdity of the blacksmith's last remark, as he would have done on any ordinary occasion.