“Joe! who has sent you here?” inquired Mr. Berners.
“No one hasn’t, marser,” answered Joe, dashing the tears from his eyes, and then proceeding to unstrap a large hamper that he carried upon his shoulders.
“No one! Then how came you here?” demanded Mr. Berners, uneasily.
Now, instead of answering his master’s question, Joe sat down upon his hamper, and wept aloud.
“What is the matter with you?” inquired Mr. Berners.
“You axed me how I comed here,” sobbed Joe, “just as if I could keep away when she and you was here in trouble, and a-wanting some one to look arter you.”
“But how did you know we were here?” anxiously questioned Mr. Berners.
“I wa’n’t a listening at key-holes, nor likewise a-eaves-dropping, which I considers beneath a gentleman to do; but I was a-looking to the back shutters, to see as they was all safe arter the fright we got, and I hearn somebody a-talking, which I was sure was more bugglers; so I made free to wait and hear what they said.”
“It was Captain Pendleton and myself, I suppose,” said Mr. Berners, much annoyed.
“Jes so, sir; it wer Capping Pendulum and yourself, which it hurt me to the heart as you should have trusted into Capping Pendulum and not into me—a old and valleyed servant of the family.”