"What can have happened?" asked Mrs. Consett, after a pause. "Have we been deceived in the lad?"
The farmer shook his head. "I can't believe that," he said.
He turned to the door, and called to another stable helper to take the horses he had brought back with him, hung up the riding-whip in its place, and then sat down to think.
"I was to have met him at The Old Bell yard at four o'clock, but it was nearly five before I got there, for I was hindered talking to some of the British officers, and I had to go to the store about your tea; and finding that nobody knew anything of Eric or the horses, I thought Mason and Treve might have fetched them early, and he had gone in search of Sister Martin or the Osprey. But I soon found that the Osprey sailed the day before yesterday, and so I concluded the lad had started for home without waiting for me."
"But he wouldn't do that, if you had told him to wait for you," objected Mrs. Consett.
"What has he done, then? Gone off with the horses like any common thief!" exclaimed the farmer.
"No, I can't believe that of him. Do you think any of those who have led our other lads into mischief sometimes have had a hand in this?" asked Mrs. Consett, after a lengthened pause.
"I might have thought so if the lad had not been used to the ways and manners of a stable-yard in the old country. He told me he knew too much to be played tricks with; and he has been so steady and thoughtful the time he has been with us, that it is not easy to account for this, as it would have been if he was like the others we have had."
"But you don't think he has gone off with the horses to steal them, do you?" exclaimed his wife.
"I don't know what to think. I would rather lose the horses than the lad ten times over. Mary, what shall we do?"