“What?” inquired Wilson.
“It’s very ungentlemanly, not to say sneaking!”
“What do you mean?”
“Why, stealing out of the house without saying good-bye to anybody. Bayard’s father and mother have treated us very kindly since we have been here, and it would be rude in us to go off without taking leave of them.”
“I know that; but I don’t see how we are going to do it without telling them we had a falling out with Bayard, and, of course, we can’t do that. We’ll let him give his own version of the affair when he comes home, and I know it will be anything but flattering to us. What shall we say to them?”
“Leave it to me,” replied Chase. “I’ll fix it all right.”
The boys being ready for the start picked up their luggage, descended the stairs, and in a few minutes more were standing in the library taking leave of Mr. and Mrs. Bell. Chase did all the talking, and succeeded in taking himself and companion through the interview in a perfectly satisfactory manner. Without alluding in any way to what had passed between them and Bayard, he gave their host to understand that certain circumstances had happened which rendered it necessary for them to start for home that very night; which, by the way, was the truth.
“That’s over,” said Chase, mounting his horse—which looked enough like the one Walter rode to have been his brother—and leading the way at a rapid gallop toward the gate; “and now comes another unpleasant piece of business, which is to call upon the President of the Sportsman’s Club. After that, a forty-mile ride over the muddiest road in the United States.”
When the boys arrived within sight of the chimneys of Mr. Gaylord’s dwelling, they became cautious in their movements, and if a stranger had seen them loitering about on the edge of the woods, and peeping through the bushes at the house, he would have looked at them rather suspiciously. He would not have supposed from their actions that they had come there on a friendly mission, but would have thought rather that they were a couple of burglars, who were taking notes of the mansion and its surroundings, and waiting for the darkness to hide their movements in order that they might make a descent upon the silver. They repeatedly declared that it “looked sneaking,” but they lacked the courage to ride into the yard and face Walter Gaylord in broad daylight; although if he had come out into the woods where they were, they would have met him gladly. They watched the house closely, and Wilson kept his lips puckered up in readiness for a whistle to attract the attention of the Club if they came out; but Eugene was fast asleep on the sofa in his uncle’s cabin, Walter and Featherweight were busy with their books, Perk and Bab were deeply interested in their games of backgammon, and not one of them showed himself.
The afternoon wore slowly away; darkness came on apace, and Chase and Wilson, hungry and shivering with the cold, began walking their horses up and down the road, the former, who was to act as spokesman, repeating, for the twentieth time, what he intended to say to Walter when he came to the door. They passed the gate several times without possessing the courage to enter it, and each time they did so two men, who were closely watching all their movements, drew back into the bushes and concealed themselves.