“You haven’t anything that would suit me better,” said Mack, with refreshing candor. “I am a city boy.”
“Oh, ah! Well, you shall have all the milk you can drink.”
When Captain Mack and his men had satisfied their appetites and listened to the grateful words of the farmer, who thanked them for their prompt response to his wife’s appeals for assistance, they put on their overcoats, which one of the boys had brought in from the road during their absence, and set out for the station with their prisoner. The latter’s face began to show the effect of Don’s blow, but the tramp did not seem to mind it. He ate the cold bread and meat which the farmer’s wife gave him just as he was about to leave the house with his captors, and even joined in their conversation.
When the students reached the depot they were met by the agent, who laughed all over when he saw the tramp, and drew Captain Mack off on one side.
“You got him, didn’t you?” said he. “Some of you must have given him a good pounding, judging by his countenance. Now, if you are at all sharp, you can capture the other.”
“Who? Huggins?”
“Yes. He went out to the mill and got a job there at hauling wood. He was in here not ten minutes ago, and I had a long talk with him. He saw some of you looking out of the window when the accommodation came in, and that was the reason he took himself off in such a hurry. I told him that you had gone on toward Oxford. He’ll be back here with another load in less than an hour, and then you can catch him.”
“I am much obliged to you,” said Captain Mack. “Now will you see if you can ascertain where the professor and the rest of the boys are?”
The agent said he would; but his efforts to find them met with no success. The operators of whom he made inquiries had all seen them, but couldn’t tell where they were.
“They haven’t left the train yet,” said he. “The accommodation will be at Munson in a quarter of an hour, and then I will try again.”