The young master of Hyson Hall

by Frank R. Stockton

“Now,” said Mr. Harrison to Phil, when they went out on the street, “it is quite clear that young Touron did not bring a gun to town with him. Therefore, if your story is correct, the only thing he could have done with it was to throw it away on the road. I am willing to do everything I can to help you prove what you assert, and I will send my clerk on a horse to make search along the road over which Touron passed. He can also ask questions of the people who live on the road. Perhaps some of them have found the gun. You can go with him, if you like, and help him look for the gun, as well as show him how far along the road to go.”

Phil and Mr. Harrison’s clerk soon rode off together, and the road from the town to the place where Phil had waited for Chap was thoroughly searched.

There were not many bushes by the fences, but all these were well looked into, and the people at the houses were questioned, but no gun was found, and no one had seen a gun by the roadside or in the fields.

The afternoon was half gone when Phil rode mournfully home, and the clerk returned to make his report to Mr. Harrison.

When Phil reached Hyson Hall he found Joel. The latter had not been drunk, but had had trouble. He had gone much farther than he had expected, and had been obliged to stay away all night. He had not considered this a matter of much consequence, for he supposed Phil and Chap would be at the house, and that they could attend to the barn affairs for one night at least.

The milking was always done by Jenny and Joel’s mother. But he had not been able to set any hands at all. Disengaged men were very few, and those he saw were not willing to come to a place where they probably would not be paid for their work. Everybody seemed to have heard of the troubles at Hyson Hall, and to know that the house and everything on the place would soon be sold by the sheriff.

He had also tried at several places to buy some oats, for those ordered from Trumbull’s had not come, but nobody would sell him any except for cash.

Phil could not help thinking that Joel ought to have told him some time before that they were so nearly out of oats, but he did not find any fault with the man. He seemed to have managed matters so badly himself that he had not the heart to blame anybody else.

“I guess we will have to turn the horses out to grass,” he said, “until they are sold.” And then he went to the house.

Towards evening Helen Webster came to see her brother and Phil. She had expected to be there sooner, but her mother had wished to come with her, and so the visit was deferred; but there seemed to be no time when there was not something which Mrs. Webster ought to do, and at last Helen had come by herself.