“That's so,” assented the Captain, “but 'twas better to know it then than to be sorry for it afterwards.”
Both seemed to be thinking, and neither spoke again until they came to the grocery store, where Hazeltine stopped, saying that he must do an errand for Mr. Langley. They said good-night, and the Captain turned away, but came quickly back and said:
“Mr. Hazeltine, if it ain't too much trouble, would you mind steppin' up to the schoolhouse when you've done your errand? I've left somethin' there with Josiah, and I'd like to have you git it. Will you?”
“Certainly,” was the reply, and it was not until the Captain had gone that Ralph remembered he did not know what he was to get.
When he reached the school he climbed the stairs and opened the door, expecting to find Josiah alone. Instead, there was no one there but Elsie, who was sitting at the desk. She sprang up as he entered. Both were somewhat confused.
“Pardon me, Miss Preston,” he said. “Captain Eri sent me here. He said he left something with Josiah, and wished me to call for it.”
“Why, I'm sure I don't know what it can be,” replied Elsie. “Josiah has been gone for some time, and he said nothing to me about it.”
“Perhaps it is in his desk,” suggested Ralph. “Suppose we look.”
So they looked, but found nothing more than the usual assortment contained in the desk of a healthy schoolboy. The raised lid shut off the light from the window, and the desk's interior was rather dark. They had to grope in the corners, and occasionally their hands touched. Every time this happened Ralph thought of the decision that he must make so soon.
He thought of it still more when, after the search was abandoned, Elsie suggested that he help her with some problems that she was preparing for the next day's labors of the first class in arithmetic. In fact, as he sat beside her, pretending to figure, but really watching her dainty profile as it moved back and forth before his eyes, his own particular problem received far more attention than did those of the class. Suddenly he spoke: