No wonder the Captain raved and stormed! no wonder Esther and the elder girls looked pale and horrified, and Pip disgusted beyond words! He was guilty—there was no doubt of it in their minds. The fact of his running away was sufficient proof of it; and they all remembered his strange behaviour [75] ]yesterday. It was in vain poor little Poppet protested again and again and again that “he didn’t do it—oh, indeed he didn’t do it. Yes, he had broken the glass; and yes, he had told a lie; but oh, indeed he had not stolen.”
“How do you know, miss?” her father said sharply; “what proof have you that he didn’t?”
“He told me he didn’t,” said the poor little mite. “Oh, he said he didn’t,—oh, why won’t you believe it? Meg, I tell you he said he didn’t.”
But even Meg could not believe, so lightly was Bunty’s word held amongst them.
For the first day the Captain was too angry even to attempt to find traces of his son. He declared he would never own him again, never have him inside his doors.
But afterwards, of course, he saw this was impossible, and he put the matter in the hands of the police, gave them a full description of the lad’s personal appearance, and offered a reward for finding him.
To the head master of the school he sent a curt note stating the boy had run away, so he could make no inquiries, and enclosing a cheque for five pounds to make up for what was lost. Of course the cheque was a tacit acknowledgment of his guilt.
[76]
]A week slipped away without any clue being found. Then a detective brought news.
A boy answering to the written description had gone on board a vessel to San Francisco as cabin boy the very day in question. There seemed no doubt as to his identity. The Captain said it was the best thing that could have happened. It was a rough ship, and the boy would have exceedingly hard work and discipline—it might be the making of him. He sent a cable to reach the captain in America, when the boat arrived, to ask him to see the lad was brought safely back in the same capacity.
And then everything at Misrule resumed its ordinary course. Bunty was safe, though they could not hear of him or see him for four or five months; it was no use being unsettled any longer.