Jouncer was beginning to dry off by this time, and, having tied him to a tree, Philip walked up the main street. He first went to the store where his uncle generally bought groceries and other supplies, and going up to Mr. McNeal,—one of the partners, with whom he was acquainted,—he asked him if he had heard that anybody had been hurt by a runaway horse a short time before.
Mr. McNeal had not heard of any accident of the kind, and rather guessed if anything of that sort had occurred he would have known of it, for people had been coming to the store pretty steadily all the morning.
Philip then told him about the runaway and the man who had tumbled down, and concluded by asking him if he might leave that hat there to be called for.
“Very well,” said Mr. McNeal, taking the hat. “I’ll hang it up in a safe place; but it strikes me that the owner of this had better buy a new one.”
“It isn’t hurt much,” said Phil. “I looked at it carefully. The top of the crown can easily be sewed on, and it is pretty fine straw, you see.”
“Yes,” said the other, “it has been a good hat, but I don’t think I ever saw another like it, though I’ve sold a good many hats myself. After all, if the man who wore it likes this kind of hat, I guess he’ll want this one back again, for he’s not apt to get another like it—at least, in this town. It must belong to a stranger, for nobody here wears such a thing.”
The hat was then put away, and Philip, having borrowed half a sheet of paper, wrote thereon a notice to the effect that any one having lost a black straw hat might get it by applying at the store of Henderson & McNeal, and describing the article.
He then went round to the post-office, near by, and stuck up this notice by the side of the main door, in company with a great many other notices of cows and horses for sale, articles lost, and matters of that nature. After this he went to see Mr. Welford.
The banker was a quiet, middle-aged man, who knew Philip very well, the boy having frequently visited his office to attend to business for his uncle. He read Mr. Godfrey Berkeley’s note.
“It is very strange,” he remarked,—“very strange! Didn’t he tell you when he was coming back?”