"In what?"
"In sending Bob and Ben off to sea."
"Why, I don't understand you."
"Didn't you know that those two men had gone to sea? Well, they have. They went last night, and never said good-night to anybody. They have had Barlow down to the 'squire's, examining him, but I'll bet they didn't get at the truth of the story. You are all right now, ain't you?"
Gus was thunderstruck at first, but as he listened to the story—some meagre outlines were all the boy could tell him—he felt like yelling and dancing a hornpipe; but knowing that that wouldn't do, he held his peace and gazed down at the ground very solemnly. He said he was sorry, for Bob was not cut out for a sailor, expressed himself as being glad that his father and mother were gone, so that they couldn't hear of it, and then got his mail and turned his steps homeward.
"And this will be my home, now, forever," said Gus, hardly able to control himself. "Bob and Ben are gone, and there will be no one to interfere with me. I guess I had better go and get those ponies the first thing I do. He probably left them at the livery-stable, and they won't want to take care of them, now that there is no one to pay for them. Hoop-pe! I am in luck."
He kept up a slow and dignified tread, and walked with his head down as long as he remained on the street, for fear that somebody was watching him; but the moment the gate closed behind him, and the bushes shut him off from all pedestrians on the road, he broke into a run, made his way up the steps and into the hall. Giving his hat a fling at the hat-rack, he went into the library, the door of which he closed and fastened.
"Why, Augustus, have you taken leave of your senses?" asked his father.
"I have got the best news you have had for many a day," whispered Gus, drawing a chair up beside his father. "No more hard work for either of us. Bob Nellis and old Ben Watson were kidnapped last night and sent to sea."
Mr. Layton, who had been in the act of unfolding a paper, dropped it into his lap and turned paler than usual. He gazed at Gus, but had nothing to say.