Chapter Seventeen.
My Travelling Companion.
Somehow or another I could not get to that trap all that day, and night came, and still I could not get to it.
I tried, but unless I had wanted to draw people’s attention to the fact that I had something there of great interest, I could not go.
Even at leaving time it was as bad, and I found myself in the position that I must either tell one of my uncles what I had done, or leave the trap to take its chance.
I chose the latter plan, and calling myself weak coward, went home, arguing to myself that no one would go in the spot where I had placed the trap, but some miscreant, and that it would serve him right.
To my utter astonishment, directly after tea Uncle Dick turned to me.
“Cob,” he said; “we have a special letter to send to Canonbury to your father, and a more particular one to bring back in answer, so we have decided that you shall take it up. You can have three or four days’ holiday, and it will be a pleasant change. Your mother and father will be delighted to see you, and, of course, you will be glad to see them.”
“But when should I have to go?” I said.