“And that is all?” he asked.
“No.” The dwarf drew his little legs under him more tightly and laid his large strong-fingered hands upon his knees. “You know after you lose a thing, you sometimes find it again. So thinking of that I waited around in the dark, near the stone wall where you heard Master Dimisdale and Master Royce talk on the night that we rode below the ferry. But the boy didn’t show himself, and as there was a lighted window at one side of the house—the side where I knew Master Chew’s office to be, I worked my way over to it without any noise. The window was pretty high for me, but there was a rain barrel almost under it, and I climbed up that until I stood upon the chime.”
“But,” questioned Nat, “what did you expect to see?”
“I don’t know,” said the Porcupine. “The light was in the window, and it was late at night. That wasn’t usual, so I thought I’d better not miss anything.”
“Well,” said Nat, and once more the cold feeling of dread crept over him, “what did you see?”
“I saw,” replied the Porcupine, calmly, “Master Chew, with the bandage about his head which he’s been wearing since the night you struck him with the butt of his own pistol. I also saw Master Dimisdale, a pair of glasses perched upon his nose, going over some papers. Both sat at one side of the big table in the center of the office. And across from them, as cool as you please, and chatting bravely away with Master Chew, was the lad I’d been following!”
CHAPTER XI
SHOWS HOW NAT BREWSTER SPOKE TO HIS UNCLE
AND WHAT THEIR RESOLUTIONS WERE
As Nat Brewster heard the Porcupine’s statement, he was surprised and astonished to find that quick words of denial sprang to his lips. The truth was that the merry laugh and honest face of Ezra Prentiss, which had impressed the cobbler of the ferry road, had also impressed Nat. And, not only that, Nat had seen Ezra’s eyes, full of frankness and friendliness, something that the worthy mechanic had missed; and in spite of his suspicions the young mountaineer felt drawn toward the boy from New England.
“It’s impossible!” were his first words. “It simply can’t be! You were mistaken!”
“Don’t forget what I told you at the beginning,” said the dwarf. “I said it would be hard to believe; I even said I wouldn’t believe it myself just on somebody’s say-so.”