"And Albert ran off," said Aunt 'Liza. "I could not help it. I went a little while on the garret, and when I came back, he was gone. I cannot help it. I—Where are you then going, Daniel?"
Uncle Daniel cast a scornful glance at the two women who could not keep three children, one a mere baby, from running away, and at the fright-stricken Jacob; then, regardless of the hot supper, about which he was usually so particular, he stalked out.
"Put Albert's high chair to the table," he had ordered briefly.
In fifteen minutes he was back. Aunt 'Liza had not learned much tact in all her twenty years of wedded life, or she would not have begun to question him before he was inside the door.
"Where is then Albert?" she asked.
Swartz did not deign to answer. With a heavy frown, he sat down at the table and began to eat.
"Didn't she give him to you?" demanded Aunt Mena, aghast.
"Be still," said Uncle Daniel shortly.
"Did she get after you with the gun?" asked Jacob Kalb. He had just finished giving the women an account of his adventure. He said that he saw the gun-barrel when he looked in the keyhole.