"Oh, yes, I will," Bob answered. "I don't know what I should have done this last two months without you three!" he cried in a sudden burst of confidence. "You can't imagine how unhappy I was when I first came to Westhill; and I am sure when I saw you, Nellie, and you, Rupert, staring at me that day I arrived, I never guessed we should be friends. Why, here's old Jeffry coming across the yard. How excited he looks! Well, Jeffry," he said, as the old man came up, "what has happened?"
"The thieves have been caught, Master Bob," was the unexpected response, "leastways two men have been arrested, who, it seems probable, are the ones that meant to rob Westhill last night. They were caught at Halwick by the police, in the small hours of the morning, breaking into a house. By this time, they're safe under lock and key."
Halwick was the nearest town. Jeffry hastened to explain that he had learnt the news from the village constable, who, as soon as he had heard of the attempted burglary, had concluded the captured thieves must be the men whose plans Lilian had frustrated, and had gone to the farm with the story of their arrest. Whilst the old man was telling all this, Mr. and Mrs. Coker and the farmer and his wife joined the little group, and Jeffry, swelling with importance, had to recount his story again.
"I am satisfied now the rogues are caught," the old man declared. "But to think of their breaking into a house—real burglars they must be! Ah, Miss Lilian, what would have become of me, but for you!"
"If Lilian had not been so concerned for another's happiness, she would not have been in the way of hearing the plans of those desperate men," Mrs. Coker said, with an affectionate glance at her elder daughter. "I think Providence guided her footsteps last night."
"I am sure of it," Mrs. Wills replied earnestly. "We shall be able to rest in our beds in peace, now we know the thieves have been caught. I confess I did not sleep for thinking of them last night, though we kept Wolf in the house, and my common sense told me there was nothing to fear."
Goad-byes were now exchanged between the two families; and the Cokers proceeded on their way homewards, Bob shouting after them that he would join them during the afternoon.
"You almost live at Haldon Hall," Mrs. Wills remarked to her nephew with a smile. "I'm very glad you're friendly with the Squire's young folk. I don't think you find Master Rupert such a prig as you fancied him at first, do you?"
"No, he's all right now we've got to know each other better," Bob responded with a laugh. "By the way, he's going to the Vicarage next term to be taught by the Vicar, and he wants me to go with him." He looked at his uncle as he spoke.
"Mr. Coker has been speaking to me about it, and I think it would be a very good plan, if the Vicar agrees to it, and I believe he will," put in the farmer; "but that's a matter to be discussed later on. It's fully dinner time now, and we mustn't let the turkey be spoilt."