Toby, too, had heard everything. He was the possessor of a very tender heart, and as he trotted off at Jack’s side he was making all sorts of queer faces, which the other knew full well were meant to hide the fact that his eyes were swimming in tears, and no boy likes it to be known that he is actually crying.
“Did you ever hear of such a fine thing as that, Jack?” Toby was saying between sniffles. “Why, it just goes away ahead of any story I ever read. Think of that man we believed might be a city sport, bent on bribing Fred to throw the great game, turning out to be his own dad! I reckon he treated his poor wife right mean some years ago, and she’s never been able to think of him except as a bad egg. But say, he certainly has come back in the last inning, and carried the game off with a wonderful home-run hit.”
“And Toby,” remarked the delighted Jack, “we can easily understand now why that man hung around the Badger cottage at the time we discovered him leaning on the picket fence. He was hungering for a sight of his wife’s face, and counting the minutes until Fred could find some way to introduce the subject to his mother.”
“And then about little Barbara, I rather guess he was taken with her pretty face and quaint speech,” continued Toby, reflectively. “Why, at the time he skipped out she could not have been any more than a baby. Well, it’s all been a drama equal to anything I ever saw shown in the movies; and in the end everything has come out well. I feel like shouting all the way home, I’m so tickled over it.”
“Another thing pleases me,” continued Jack. “We needn’t be bothering our heads over Fred turning traitor to his team after this.”
“That’s so!” echoed Steve.
“For one,” added Toby, sagaciously, “I’ve had a hunch, Jack, you never could bring yourself to believe that there was anything about that same affair. In spite of the circumstantial evidence in the case you always kept believing Fred must be innocent. Am I right?”
“Perhaps you are, Toby, but I do confess I was considerably worried. Fred’s actions were all so suspicious; and besides, we knew that he had great need for a certain sum of money at home. If ever I allowed myself to fear the worst, at the same time I understood that the temptation was great, because of his love for his mother.”
“But it’s all going to come out just bully now,” laughed Toby. “You both heard what Fred said about his father having made a fortune honestly in the mines, working ever so hard, just to prove to his wife how he had surely reformed, and wanted to show it by deeds. They’ll have no need to worry over money matters from this time out. And let’s hope the prodigal dad will make everybody so happy that they’ll almost be glad he went bad and had to reform.”
The other boys had to laugh at Toby’s queer way of putting it, but they understood what he meant. The fire was still burning furiously, and despite the efforts of Chester’s valiant fighters it seemed disposed to make a clean sweep of the cottage with its contents, all but the few precious heirlooms Fred had been able to drag out in the beginning.