“Chap,” exclaimed Phil, “if that was uncle, we are bound to find him! He must be still in this neighborhood, and we must scour the whole country. I expect he’s going off again on some sporting expedition, and just came back to get the gun.”
“And he didn’t want to be interfered with,” said Chap, “or to have anybody ask to go along.”
“That may be,” said Phil; “but why he didn’t wait till Old Bruden was brought to him I can’t imagine. But we must set out and hunt him up. He’s got a good start of us, but we’ll take the horses, and we shall be sure to catch up with him. I’m pretty certain he is on foot, from what the boy said.”
“All right!” cried Chap, with great animation; “I’m ready!”
“We must both of us go,” said Phil, “because it may be necessary to head him off. When he makes up his mind to do a thing, he is not going to let anybody stop him if he can help it. If he sees us, he’ll be sure to get away if he can.”
“What horses are we going to ride?” asked Chap.
“I’ll take Jouncer, and you can ride Kit. As soon as I have spoken to Susan we will run out to the field and catch him.”
Susan was not altogether pleased when Phil told her what he and Chap were going to do, and asked her to put up a couple of luncheons which they could slip in their pockets, as they might not get back until afternoon.
If Joel had been at home, all this would have made no difference to Susan, but she did not like the idea of being left without a man or boy upon the place. But it was of no use to object, and she was really as anxious as any one else to have Mr. Berkeley found.
It took the boys a good while to catch Kit, for he had been so long in the pasture that he had become wild, but at last they cornered him and brought him up to the barn.