The young master of Hyson Hall

by Frank R. Stockton

Phil then went to nearly every place in town where he was acquainted, and asked if Mr. Berkeley had been recently seen there.

He did not go to Mr. Welford’s office, not having heard of Helen’s visit to that gentleman; but Chap went there and made inquiries of the clerk. But no one had seen or heard of Mr. Godfrey Berkeley.

The agent at the railroad station, who knew Mr. Berkeley very well, assured Phil that he had not arrived there by any train, nor had he been there at all. The only thing they heard that seemed anything like a clue to Mr. Berkeley’s whereabouts was from a colored woman, whom Phil knew, who lived on the outskirts of the town.

She had seen a man, that morning, cross over the fields near her shanty, and get over a fence into a road which ran northward from the town, and in an almost opposite direction from Hyson Hall.

This man had something on his back which might have been either a bundle or a knapsack, but she did not take any particular notice of him, and had not the slightest idea that it might be Mr. Godfrey Berkeley. If she had thought such a thing as that, she would have sent one of her boys after him to carry his bundle.

“I shouldn’t wonder at all if that was uncle,” said Phil to Chap. “At any rate, we can’t do better than to ride along this road. We can surely find out something more about the man before long.”

Emile Touron was boarding at a small tavern on the main street of Boontown, but not near the centre of business. It was a pleasant, shady place, and not far from the office of Mr. Markle, who had the Hyson Hall mortgage business in hand, and with whom young Touron consulted a great deal more than that gentleman thought necessary.

After breakfast, that morning, Emile had been sitting in an arm-chair in front of the tavern, when he saw, at some distance, a stout boy driving a spring-wagon into town. He immediately went up-stairs, and seated himself at his bedroom window, where, sitting a little back with the curtains partly drawn, he could have a good view of the street. He thought he would prefer to sit there and see Phœnix as he drove into town. Then when Phœnix had passed, Emile thought it would be a good thing to stay in his room and get another look at him as he went out of town; but before this latter event occurred, Emile was very much amazed to see Chap and Phil come clattering by, and ride up into the town.

“Oho!” he thought,—but it must be remembered he thought in French,—“it was a good thing for me to come up here. And so they are all in town, eh? They must be going off on some expedition, with their guns and ammunition. This will be a good time for me to go down to that place and see how things are going on.”

Emile now quickly prepared to make a visit to Hyson Hall, but he did not go this time in the rickety carriage from the livery-stable. He had become better acquainted with the resources of the town, and had found out that a grocer, a few doors from the tavern, had a very good horse and buggy, which he occasionally hired out. This Emile procured, and was speedily driving towards Hyson Hall.