"No, sir, I don't want a horse, but I have come to ask you what you will take to board a couple for me—my ponies, you know," said Bob. "It will be some time before Ben can build a barn to keep them in, and I want to know how much you will charge me, say by the month."
"Why, those ponies are not yours!" said the liveryman. "They belong to Gus Layton."
"The codicil says they are mine," said Bob. "Anyway, I shall bring them around here for you to keep."
"Bob," said Mr. Jones, extending his hand again, "I am glad you have got your horses. I saw Gus Layton driving them around, and he didn't look to me like the right fellow behind them. Well, I have always got fifteen dollars a month for boarding horses, but as yours are so much smaller it won't take much to feed them and clean them, and so I will keep them for thirteen dollars; and that includes everything except shoeing."
A bargain was soon struck, and Bob pulled out his hundred dollars and paid the livery-stable keeper twenty-six of them, for which he was promptly given a receipt. After that the boys turned and left the stable. They wanted to get as far toward Uncle Layton's as they could, to meet Mr. Gibbons when coming back with the ponies.
"I don't doubt that Bob's ponies will make just as much trouble as big horses, but somehow I couldn't find it in my heart to charge him full price," said Mr. Jones to one of his men. "I've seen the time when I would charge him fifteen dollars a month and think nothing of it; but now he is short of money. I guess I treated him all right."
In a few minutes Bob and Hank reached the street on which was located the house that Uncle Layton called his own, and just as they arrived within sight of the gate it swung open, and Mr. Gibbons and the ponies came out. He had got everything that belonged to Bob, the dog-cart as well as the top buggy.
"I tell you, Mr. Gibbons is the man to do things!" said Hank. "If he was in your place he would have that money back."
"I don't care about the money," said Bob. "I wish he would bring my father back. I wouldn't ask anything else. But that is something he can't do, although I really think that Mr. Gibbons believes he is alive."
"Halloo! there. You see I've got your ponies for you," exclaimed the lawyer, at the same time wrapping the reins around the whip and getting out of the buggy. "Now you take charge of them."