“At once. I will go in and get my gun and be with you in a moment.”
“Unexpected things seem to happen to me pretty often,” thought Harry. “I never expected we should have an uncle of Mrs. Ross as a boarder, and here is Philip’s intimate friend hiring me as a guide. Somehow, my destiny seems to be closely connected with Philip’s, though we are about as far from being friends as any two boys can be.”
“Is any one going with you?” asked Harry when Congreve came out of the hotel with his gun.
“No one except you.”
“I don’t know where Philip is this afternoon,” said Congreve carelessly.
Harry rather wondered whether Philip and his companion had had a quarrel. It would not have surprised him very much, for Philip was quite in the habit of quarreling with his associates.
“How far is it to the edge of the woods?” asked Congreve.
“About a mile and a half.”
“Quite a good distance. However, it’s early, and we shall have time enough.”
Part of their course lay through the fields and meadows.