When Eager came in at last, tired with a long round among outlying parishioners, he was surprised to find the boy there and still more surprised to learn why he had come.
"Jim's a jimsa! He's always getting himself lost," was Gracie's contribution to the discussion, but it did not help much.
"Where can he have got to, Jack?" asked Eager, with a touch of anxiety. "When did you see him last?"
"I was reading in the kitchen, and when I looked up he'd gone. I looked in all the places I could think of, and then I came here." And that did not help much, either.
"Well, I must have a bite. I'm famished. And then we'll have another look. Maybe he's at home by this time. He wouldn't be likely to go to Knoyle, would he?"
Jack shook his head very decidedly.
"He wouldn't go alone."
"Seth Rimmer's?"
"I d'n know. He might."
"We'll call at Carne and then go along to Rimmer's. Oh-ho! hot buttered crumpets and coffee! And the crumpets made by a master-hand, unless I'm very much mistaken!" For Gracie had dumped them down before him herself with an air of triumphant achievement, and now stood waiting his first bite with visible anxiety.