“You can come down now. Phœnix Poole, the boy who thrashed you the other day, is coming, and he will be in the house in a minute. You can talk to him till Mr. Philip comes back.”
Emile rushed past her without a word. He dashed down-stairs, along the hall, and out of the front door. His horse, which had been fed and watered by Susan and Jenny, was still standing by the post where he had hitched him.
Quickly untying him, Emile jumped into the buggy and drove away. The horse, who for a long time had been impatient to go, trotted gayly, and Emile, who was much more impatient than the horse, whipped him up to make him trot still faster.
When Phil and Chap left the cabin of the negro woman, who had seen a man walking northward along the road which passed her house, they rode for some time before they heard of the man again. Then they met a boy in a wagon, who said he had seen such a man, but he was walking in the field, and he had not taken much notice of him.
There were few houses near the road, but before very long they came to one where a woman was washing clothes in a side-yard. She said she had seen a man pass by, but she wasn’t certain whether he had a bundle or not, and could not just then remember whether it was this morning or yesterday morning that she saw him. She had been washing both mornings, and it might have been the day before that he passed.
There was little encouragement in this, but still the boys pushed on, fully convinced that if they found Mr. Berkeley at all, it would be by using their own eyes, and not those of other people. There was a probability that he had passed along this road, and on this they must act.
A little before noon they stopped in a shady place and ate their luncheon, while their horses made a meal from the grass at the side of the road. Starting again, after the animals had had a sufficient rest, they soon reached a place where the road forked.
Phil knew this part of the country pretty well, having ridden over it with his uncle, and he explained to Chap that the roads, which separated here to go around an extensive piece of woodland, came together again a few miles above. On each branch-road there were several houses where inquiry should be made. He therefore proposed that Chap should take the left-hand road, while he took the one to the right, and whoever reached first the point where the roads joined should wait for the other. This was agreed to, and each boy set out on his separate way.
Chap made several inquiries, without result, and after a time he came to a barn and farm-yard by the roadside. He stopped, and was just about to call out to a boy in the barn, when he suddenly opened his eyes and mouth in amazement.
On a log at the other end of the barn-yard sat the man with the black straw hat. He was talking to a man who was mending a horse-rake.