"I didn't see the man nor the horse," explained Felix; "but I saw a light, and heard a horse stepping about; and then I saw the light vanish, and heard the man fasten a door. I don't think I had been asleep long then, for I felt pretty wet and a little cold; and I pulled some more straw up over me."
"Go on, Johnny," said Mr. Le Bras.
"When I awoke in the morning, I was pretty well surprised to find we were in our own barn. I woke Felix up, and we had a good laugh. Then we went out, and found that the reason we couldn't find the road was because we had come to where it turned into another road running down towards the cottages, and the stone wall had ended there. We had left our bicycles in a kind of marshy place, by the side of the road, full of tall reeds: we could hardly find them, they were so covered up with the reeds."
"That is the reason we did not see them, Pierre," remarked Mr. Le Bras.
"We rolled our bicycles back to the barn, and put them up, and then came into the house. Mary and Kate had just come down to get breakfast; and Mary said father and Pierre were afraid we were lost, and Oliver had gone to look us up, but we needn't say any thing to mother and Sue, as they didn't know any thing about it. I told Mary and Kate to let father and Pierre know we had come home; and then Felix and I went to our rooms to change our clothes. They were all dry, but they looked pretty well tumbled and muddy; and we needed a good washing ourselves. Before we were ready, Oliver came up, and said my father and Pierre were in a great fright, and had gone down to the cottages to inquire for us. We told him to hurry off, and let them know we were all right. After he had been gone a little while, the breakfast-bell rang, and we came down."
"Oliver missed your father and Pierre," said Kate; "for he went down on the back road, while they were coming up on the shell road. And he and Mary are in a great state to hear how it all happened; so, now I know, I'll go to the kitchen and tell them."
By this time, breakfast was finished; and Mrs. Le Bras was still anxious, for fear the boys would take cold from their exposure.
"Go to your rooms, boys, and go to bed," said Mr. Le Bras, "and let Mrs. Le Bras roast and dose you, and rub you down with alcohol, to her heart's content. That will be a salutary as well as a sanitary punishment, to begin with. Since Johnny don't seem to have been much to blame, except in yielding his judgment that a place situated on the right could not, in the nature of things, be found by taking a road which turned to the left, I think a morning's imprisonment in bed will suffice for him. But as for you, Felix, since you were somewhat unfair, and considerably reckless, you will have to pay another penalty, I think. Young people under my care and instruction have to pay penalties for any serious fault of demeanor or judgment. But we will have that talk together this afternoon, and adjust the matter."
The boys laughingly protested against being sent to bed, but neither Mr. nor Mrs. Le Bras would let them off. They went up to their rooms still laughing and protesting, Johnny mildly, and Felix quite vociferously, holding his sides with laughter; while Mrs. Le Bras went to the kitchen to prepare the hot drinks. As for Sue, as soon as she was released from the table, she had run over to tell the whole story to Julia.
Mr. Le Bras went out, and sat down in the veranda, accompanied by Pierre.